One seed can start a garden, one candle can light a room, one step can begin a journey, one conversation can start a friendship, one smile from a handmade card can lift one's SPIRIT!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Seize the Birthday ~ Black & White

The topping for Seize the Birthday Challenge is Black and White!
  I hope you are inspired by all the fabulous cards by the design team.
 
Black and White!!

 
 
 
You all know the drill, you can always make "Anything Goes" birthday card! 
But if you want to be brave and try a black and white, we would love to see your creations!
Thanks for taking a look!
Heart Hugs


Monday, August 25, 2014

Life goes on...now that SAF is over!

Four years ago Linda and I went to  Medjugorje, Croatia
with a group of pilgrims, many from my parish.
So every summer when she is down here, we host a luncheon and renew our friendships and catch up.
We have always given a way a little token gift that we make of course!
Last year, after doing the SAF we had plenty of Shrinky Dinks left over, so we die cut some crosses, colored them with copics and then watched them shrink up!
We made bookmarks with a bible verse and added the cross to it,
the ladies loved it!
 
This year when we were brainstorming what to make for them,
we came up with the idea to use an MIM project from earlier this year.  We went to a Dollar store and found notepads for $1.
 
We went to town and each designed a new cover for our notepads:
You can guess that Linda made hers with butterflies!!
I love the "Friends Forever" stamp from SSS!
I think when you travel to a foreign country with like minded people, experiencing the mystery and
awesomeness of people who love the Lord and our Blessed Mary it binds you for a lifetime.
That experience was definitely one that will always be the trip of a lifetime for me and it enriched my relationship with Our Lord.
I chose to use the Beautiful Brushstrokes from PTI.
And because the sentiment reminds me of the bible verse:
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4
and to remember who gave us this day we used this one from the same stamp set!
I think the ladies will love keeping this on their desk and using it every single day!
 
Heart Hugs!
 

SAF 1980

The 1980's
 
Cute little sunglasses in the kit...a two step so you can color the frames and then the shades!
I was thinking of a couple of grandkids who really shine, so I thought of having to put on sunglasses because they are just glowing!!  LOL!
 
This is the first card for the last era....I am not sure I will get more made, but I have now completed the SAF 2014!!
 
Thank you again to Nichole and all the Design Team for their hours of work putting this together for us...we always have a fantastic time!
 
Heart Hugs,
Colleen

Sunday, August 24, 2014

SAF 1960 still at it folks!!

I have a grandson who will be turning 15 in a couple of weeks, I thought he would get a kick out of this card!
 
Lots of inspiration, Erin, thanks for the great video...a little out of my comfort zone...but that is good to push oneself to try something new!  Thank YOU!

Farewell SAF 2014!

Thank you Nichole and all the ladies from Papertrey!
Linda and I look forward to seeing what you have up your sleeve for us next year...
Our first love is stamping and techniques with die cuts...so bring it on ladies!
 
Heart Hugs,
Colleen

Back to ancient Rome and Painting Fresco Style

Going back to the beginning where it all started...
Ancient Rome and doing some painting Fresco Style!
This is one of the first flowers in the Botanical Blocks...the sweet rose!
We spread embossing paste all over the page and waited for it to dry, then painted it with watercolors.  Okay, so if you read my last post, you read about my "misplaced" mosaic pieces and how we laughed till our tummies hurt (or had tears running down our legs!!)!  Now I have to tell you about one of Linda's funny stories...So yesterday she spread the embossing paste all over her paper...set it aside to dry.  She started painting it and finished the whole thing....when she was getting ready to adhere it to a card, she thought the back was sure rough....can you guess?  She painted the smooth side of the card, NOT the pastey side at all!  What a doofus!
Okay, now we both have funny memories to recall ... if we remember them that is!!
LOL!!
 
This is the peony from the Botanical Blocks II
The pattern paper on both cards is from the Ancient Rome Kit.
 
Linda and I still need to do the 1960's and the 1980's....so much to do so little time to do it!!
 
Heart Hugs

SAF back to Ancient Rome and a little Mosiac picture

I had to have DH perform repair work on my xyron
before I could use it...we finally got it working today.
Can you see all the butterflies?
This was a little intense because almost all my little mosaic pieces came out of the backing, so I was putting together a puzzle before I could complete my work...then I was totally missing 6 pieces...so into the garbage can I was digging...pulling out every little piece of paper.  I found 4!
OH NO!  I was just getting ready to use my outer piece as a template and stamp and cut so I could get 2 more pieces to fit into my picture...when for some reason I picked up my arm and found this:
Linda nearly split a gut laughing and I nearly had tears running down my leg!!
 
LOL!!
 
Heart Hugs! 


SAF the day after...another 1940 Card

Lot's to be learned from layering stamped images onto cardstock.  Of course Betsy is a master at making a scene.  And I need more practice!
I pulled out Scent- imentals and used the peach.
 
Moving on to make more cards...

Saturday, August 23, 2014

SAF 1940 Betsy Veldman inspired!

Betsy was all about layering on her card.
I decided to use one of the pattern pieces in the pack and use that as my background.  I die cut the flowers and leaves with cardstock and layered them on.  I fussy cut the banner "just".
 
Still trying to play catch up and then going back and doing more!

SAF 1920's

I think of the "Roaring 20's" when I think of the 1920's!
And definitely lots of bling, gems, furcoats (ha ha!)
The image was stamped on white and placed on a fine linen card base.  I added the gems from the 1920 kit.
I put my own spin on it using a 2014 trend which is separating the image from the sentiment!
I think this would make a beautiful wedding card!
 
Moving onto Betsy's 1940's!

Time After Time...the BEFORE and AFTER

Side by Side
 
 
All I can say is "What was I thinking?
I 'think' this may have been a MIM...but I am not counting on my memory for much these days!
 
 
Okay, now the really funny thing is that I used that old time crimper that many of the design ladies were showing us...you know the ones that have never been used, and put away in some box or maybe a drawer that was buried?  Well, NOT me, I used mine!!  Ha Ha!  And now I think, what was I thinking?
I used the same stamp sets:  Daydreamer and Turning a New Leaf,
I did change up the sentiment just a bit...still says 'hello' though!
wow, this is only one of many that I could and should redo!!
Maybe I ought to pull out some more...although it is kind of embarrassing!
 
Well, this completes our long but totally fun day with Papertrey and the 2014 Stamp-A-Faire!
Thank you kindly for all the work you all put into this day for us!
We appreciate all you do!
My friend, Linda and I are NOT done by a long shot, so you will see more of us tomorrow and probably even on Monday!
 
Thank you for a fabulous and inspirational time! 
Heart Hugs,
Colleen
 


SAF Regency Era with Melissa Phillips

Moving right along to the Regency Era,
Melissa Phillips has a couple of videos using the stamps and dies from that era, which seems to be softer colors and a lot of cross stitching.
Beautiful cards you showed us Melissa!
I am a little more CAS, but I had a lot of fun with this one,
I love the wreath and can see using that in the future on cards!
I also loved the softer shades of the pattern paper!
 
Now we are onto the 1920's with Heather!
 
Heart Hugs!

SAF Renaissance Period with Nichole

Now we are moving to the Renaissance Period with Nichole..
I used a pieced of velvet and heated it over the stamp to impress the image.
The fancy die cuts came with the kit.
Heat embossed with gold the sentiment.
I made a second card embossing the image with gold onto pure poppy paper.
The rim is made with the gold shimmer paper.
You can see I had a little bit of trouble with glue!!
 
This was a pattern paper given in the kit, I stamped the 'A' with delicate gold as well as the birthday greeting.  Pretty simple and easy to put together because Nichole took all the work out for us by giving us that wonderful background paper!
 
Linda and I are a bit behind...it is nearly 2 pm here and we are just going to watch the Regency video with Melissa when I am done posting these cards...thank you for giving us two extra days!  Sure appreciate the extra time!
 
 


SAF Exploring Ancient Rome with Lizzie Jones

Visiting Ancient Rome
Lots of texture with Mosaic
 
Made a stencil with the mosaic die and embossing paste

Made a stamp with the mosaic die and then embossed with versamark and clear embossing paste, then sponged it with aqua mist ink.
 
More to go....

20 Minute Time Traveler

We are up and rolling...not at 4 AM...but closer to 6:30...
so we set the timer for 20 minutes and away we went.
I made this with 36 seconds to go and managed to get the inside done also!
 
 
The Colors I used:
SAF-Color-Inspiration-5
The sketch I used:
SAF-Sketch-Inspiration-1
 
Stamps:  Be Happy, Bigger Blooms (inside:  Think Big # 2)
 
Off to visit Ancient Rome!!

Friday, August 22, 2014

STAMP-A-FAIRE 2014 Meet & Greet

Yeah!  The Stamp-A-Faire my BFF and I have been
waiting for all year is finally here!!
Here I am in my craft room and we are excited to get his show on the road...although I don't think we will be up at 4 AM PNW time!!  *wink
 
My BFF is finally here:
Linda and I have been friends since I was 7 years old living in Seattle just down the road from her!
Now 57 years later we are still best friends even though I live in Oregon!
And the one of many things we have in common is our love of stamping and making cards!
So we have already had 5 days of playing in the craft room and look forward to a full day tomorrow with all the PTI designers!
 
Thanks PTI for putting on such an awesome day for us!
Heart Hugs!
SAF-2014-logo
 


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

CAS-ology #109 Java

JAVA is the cue word for the new
 Can you believe I am NOT a coffee drinker?
Tea, yes, Coffee, no!
This cup of "java" is from PTI's Scent-imentals stamp set.
I made it into a shaker card!
The pattern paper is a new pack I bought today,
Echo Park "Summer Bliss"
I finally had success with the shaker card because I used fun foam that was sticky on only the back side...therefore, my little sprinkles inside do NOT stick to the sides as it gets shaken!
Thanks for taking a look friends!
Heart Hugs!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Merry Monday # 122

Gold, Silver and Black
those are the colors for the new
 
I used some DCWV Glitzy Glitter paper...silver and gold!
I gold embossed the bow from PTI Bells & Boughs.
The die and sentiment are from Rustic Wreath.
Heart Hugs!
 
 


Baby Girl card this time!

Still playing along with Make it Monday
and
had to make a girl baby card this time!
My BFF brought down the quatrefoil cover plate, so I took advantage of having that!
The elephant is from Tremendous Treats:  Birthday
and the sentiment is a SSS stamp:  Handwritten Borders.
Laurie Willison made her first PTI MIM video and she did fabulous!
Thank you Laurie for the great tutorial, I love the tone on tone, adds a lot of dimension without a lot of color keeping it very CAS!
Heart Hugs!
 
 
 

MIM & CAS on Sunday!! Baby and Cover Plate Negatives

using Cover Plate Negatives
and
Rock a Bye Baby
I have ONE cover plate and it is the Happy Hexagon!
I pulled out Baby Button Bits and now I can enter it in the CAS on Sunday as they want a baby card!
 
Happy week for me, my BFF is here for the week!
We are getting our fingers inky getting ready for SAF!
Can hardly wait!!
 
Heart Hugs!
 


Saturday, August 16, 2014

Tag You're It!

Tag You're It! Challenge is up!
I used PTI Tag Sale # 11, a little washi tape, and a rose from the Year of Flower Collection.
The sentiments and little flowers in the corner are from a Stamp A-Faire Collection, it said just what I needed it to say, so I used it!  Next Saturday is the BIG Papertrey Stamp-A-Faire day!
The first year they held this, my BFF and I flew to Chicago and then drove with other PTI addicts to Cincinnati!  What fun that was!  We got to play with Betsy, Michele, Dawn, Lisa Johnson, Heather and of course Nichole!
Linda with Nichole 2011
Since that year, Lin has been coming down to Oregon and staying a week or more with me and we spend almost the entire time playing in the craft room!  We do take meal breaks, a daily walk and even trips to the coast...we have been BFF's for 57 Years.
She is coming down on Monday...so we will be getting ready for the BIG day...we look forward to this every year!  We have so much fun...we laugh and laugh and talk and talk and make cards like crazy!! 
Have a good weekend!
Heart Hugs!


 
 


Merry Monday ~ Pinecones and plaid ribbon

is all about pinecones, green and plaid ribbon.
I used PTI Peaceful Pinecones and a sentiment from a Stampin' Up set.
I used water color paper and distress inks,
and I used the Wink of Stella all over the pinecones, too bad it doesn't show on the picture!
Heart Hugs!
 

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Seize the Birthday ~ NO topping

Welcome friends to another Seize the Birthday Challenge
Where it is "ANYTHING GOES"...NO TOPPING!!
I have LOVED playing with this Beautiful Brushstrokes Kit designed by Betsy Veldman over at PTI.
The black strip at the top and bottom of the card was made with a stamps from PTI Be Happy set.
 
I hope you will be inspired by the other team members to make a birthday card and enter it in this challenge...you have two weeks to make the card.  The challenge will end on Tuesday August 26.
Heart Hugs!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

MIM # 176 ~ Backgrounds with Embossing Paste

Laura Bassen is debuting her first video on
She shows how to make a background using embossing paste, it is fabulous, of course!
I realized I do not have many of the cover plates, I happened to have a couple of the hearts die cut from a friend, so that is what I used.  I followed her lead by putting a small amount of the paste on my craft sheet, then added a drop of reinkers...I started with sweet blush, and worked my way up with hibiscus burst, raspberry fizz and then finally pure poppy reinkers.
The "love" is die cut from Wet Paint I as is the rest of the sentiment.
I added a little black thread behind the heart (Limitless Layers:  Hearts)
 
Thanks for taking a look!
Heart Hugs!
 
Today we took my dad to the Clackamas County Fair...he is almost 93 years old!
 
We are missing one great grandson, and one granddaughter was being shy and one of the girls was a friend.  My older daughter was taking the picture!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Challenge ~ by Lesley

I haven't played along with
The Challenge in quite awhile...
I loved the bright cheery colors:
 
and thought this would be perfect to cheer someone up who is a bit under the weather.
Now you can use either the sketch or the colors or both...I am not sure mine qualifies for the sketch, maybe, but for sure the colors!!
ink:  Papertrey Hawaiian shoreds aqua mist, orange zest, harvest gold
stamp:  PTI Notched flowers
 
Heart Hugs

Monday, August 11, 2014

One more for Less is More!

One more card for the
where the theme is anything foliage...
and it must be a one-layer card!
This time I pulled out PTI's Leave it Be and inked it up. 
I embossed the Think Big sentiment with chestnut zing powder.
 
Heart Hugs
 
 
 

Less is More ~ Foliage

is all about Foliage!
and it is a one-layer card!
I pulled out MFT Fall Foliage and MFT Textile Backgrounds and went to work on my one layer card.
Pretty simple, but I do love all the white space.
I always look for ways to let my aunts know that I think of them all the time and pray for them too.
This can be one of those cards!
I noticed a few trees turning colors the other day, my husband thinks it is because they have not gotten enough water.
We are still expected to be in the 90's again today.
Ellie going for the ball...playing quads.
Yesterday we were at the Oregon Coast...Seaside specifically for beach volleyball!!
Addie and Jalen played in the ocean!  Brave souls!
It was the most gorgeous day; clear, sunny, bright and warm...82 degrees!!
Lily going for the ball in the center of the court
Thanks for taking a look,
Heart Hugs