Can you guess my town's school colors?

Hi!  Just a very quick post...more graduation party's to attend today!  I have just finished several cards of this style.....

                                                  


I really love these "noteblocks" from Purple Onion.....ordered several of them and just know that they will be a "go to" stamp for me!  I also had some other grad cards that I did post to my flickr acct but I guess I never put them onto a post here.....so, I am just going to add them  to this post.  There isn't tooooo  much one can do with school colors.....ugh!  Oh well, the grad season is almost done!

The stamps that I used for these last three cards is from Hero Arts.  It is from a clear, Happy Graduation set that I purchased a few years ago and have used over and over and over and.....so, I have totally gotten my moneys' worth out of this set!

Thanks for stopping by,

Be well,

Sheila 

Glitter-Glitter Baby!

I am not really a "diamond" type of girl but man-o-man......don't take my glamour dust glitter away from me!  LoveloveLOVE the sparkle of glitter on cards....really just a 3 year old at heart.  I suppose this is why I show up at my husband's business functions with small irridescent sparkles stuck to my face......

Oh well, here is my card.  I love it!  Why you ask? Because, I love mixing earthy colors, like those you can achieve with Distress Inks and then popping them out with a little "granulated bling"....and sometimes, it works.  Like this time.

I used the Penny Black pin striped flower...GREAT IMAGE!  I am totally doing it up red, white and yellow sparkles for Christmas cards!  I also used a fav-o-mine background stamp=the envelope pattern from Hero Arts.  Love that stamp....here I stamped it many times in many different directions....I find it looks all rustic-burlapy-cool when I multi stamp it.  Nice huh?  I framed out the sentiment (lawn fawn) with   a Spellbinders circle die and popped the green part of the frame up on dots....which my less than great photography doesn't show very well...and the glitter doesn't show as AMAZING-LY BEAUTIFUL as it is either....does anyone know how to photograph glitter to perfection?  If so, let me know your secret!

                                                  

So, thanks for stopping by and leaving comments.....I really get a charge out of reading comments....It's like getting happy mail :-D.

Be well,

Sheila

A Happy Card.....

For my daughter Bessie's 21 birthday I made her this card here.  When I colored the flower I also colored two more just like it....and they have been sitting around my house for over a month while I figured out what to do with them.  And then I saw this post on Elizabeth Allan's Art Studio and was completely blown away by here beautiful collage card.  I was really taken with how she embossed the inked panels and, I'm ashamed to say....that had never and I mean never-ever occurred to me....to versa mark and emboss a whole area to create a uniform "shine".  Wow.....so cool looking...liking rocking the "bling" factor without actually adding any bling.  So, I then had an idea for my two flowers....which I versa marked all up and then completely embossed.  I then cut various petals out and then layered the two....

Ta-daa!

Actually, ta-daa sounds kinda silly, kinda juvenile but that's how I feel about this card!  I wanted it to look completely different from the other card I made using the same stamp and the same coloring but still keep the fun-young vibe going.  Here is a close up of the gorgeous flower!  I just love it!

I also used some of my favorite Hero Arts stamps to create the background....dots and canvas stripes.  Thanks sooo much for stopping by and sharing some time with me.

Be well,

Sheila

Inspiration is a funny thing...

Inspiration is a funny thing.  I just never know when it will hit or how hard it will hit.  But WOW!--when it does hit it is a wonderful thing for jumpstarting my mojo!  I have been away from cardmaking for so long it feels like forever.  First there was the illness and surgery of my husband that took my complete attention.  And while he is still "on the mend" he is doing much better and  I find that I now have time for some crafting.  I just don't have the mojo.....Then my middle child was graduating from high school.....well, that is just big doings around my town!  There are events, banquets grad parties and on and on and on.  So in between my husband getting home and now there has been numerous soccer games, track meets, Clarice's grad party at our house and her actual graduation....and grad card after grad card.  Grad cards are fun but creative?  Not so much for me ;-D  So, after all was said and done, all the events were finished....I sat down to create and....nothin'.....I went on the different challenge sites that I like and....nothin'.  Finally I had some time and all I could bring to the table was a big, fat zero in the creativity department.   I had to face the unpleasant fact that my mojo was gone. Kaput. Left...in a big way!

Until today.  Today I visited the Penny Black Blog to check out the calorie free PB & J Mondays with Jill Foster of Inspired By... and watched her tutorial for the day and YOWZA!  I not only LOVED HER CARD here but dropped everything (and by everything I mean my housework that really needed to be done....) and sat down to try her technique.  And I followed her tutorial step by step.  Even down to using the same stamp, colors etc..... The funny thing is that I had pulled out that very same stamp late Friday night when I couldn't sleep and just messed around with it....but really, didn't like anything I was coming up with (could have been the fact that it was after midnight and I was dead tired...) but when I saw Jill's card it was a "light bulb" (well in the card creating sense) moment for me.

I basically completely copied her beautiful card....I just made a few changes to accommodate the larger card size that I used.  I stayed with her color combo ....well, just because it is so durn fabulous! And I added a tag.  And some bling.  And, I'm happy to have done somthing.  And, really, isn't that what tutorials are for?  I mean....I followed Jill's steps almost verbatim....just added a little somethin'somethin' of my own.  But my next card will be more "mine"....more me....and the card after that even more so....and that is the beauty of a good tutorial.  It provides the blue print for baby steps when we have lost our groove....it provides the starting point. It is up to us/me where I take this tutorial five, six seven cards from now....so here is my jumping off point...based on Jill's card.

Here is my next step....as I also had time then to create another card.  This  one is for my daughter's friends who also graduated and is leaving tomorrow for the National Guard....we won't see her again till Christmas time and we are all sad to see her go.  She has an absolutely infectious giggle and she has been a wonderful friend to Clarice.  I love this kid to pieces and wanted to give her another little "goodbye" for her to tuck into her bag and read on the plane.

So, I'm pretty happy with how these turned out...and I am more than happy that I had fun, and got a little bit of creative juices flowing. So.....Thank You Jill Foster out in blogland for getting ME inspired again!

Be well,

Sheila

 

Clarice's Graduation Card....

Just a real quick post today.....as today was Clarice's graduation from high school.  Wow! Hard to believe that she now has high school behind her and college ahead of her!  I'm happy for her.  I will admit that I am feeling many things at the moment....I think I need to sort, review, reflect, process.....

Anyways, here is the card that I made for Clarice.  I used a new Penny Black set that I had never tried before and I think that I will use it LOTS!  What fun to color!  I also used a Tim Holtz die that  I seem to be turning to more and more often....just love its shape.  The butterfly and flowers are "glittered" but have never figured out the right way to capture how pretty the glitter sparkles....you'll just have to take my word!  Lastly, I used Hero Arts "bling" as well as their cling Flourish stamp.......but it is very hard to see....I stamped it lightly over the distress ink for a little extra "somethin' somethin'" ;-D

Thank you so much for stopping by....and I love to hear your comments!

Be well,

Sheila

Today I crafted.....(and WOW! have I missed it!)

Today, (and I won't lie, a little of yesterday) I had some time to get to my crafting table.  I can't begin to tell you how much fun - no, make that "satisfying" it was to sit down, by myself, and just play.  Play with papers, inks, pencils.....sigh....so relaxing.  My middle child is graduating from high school this weekend and so I have begun to make some grad cards for some of the parties we/she has been invited to.  I have grad parties all the way to August! ... but plan to have time to make more cards  in the next day or two.  I am so glad that the Hero Arts June challenge includes congratulatory cards.....I might actually be able to make some challenge entries this month! So, without further ado......here is what I have so far!

This cards uses a  LaBlanche floral image that I have colored with pencils and a Hero Arts background image as well as HA sentiments.  The HA background is an old one that I can't find on their site anymore but it is a big woodblock with all sorts of script going all different directions.

These next two cards also use LaBlanche florals and Hero Arts backgrounds....one is the same HA background stamp described above and the other is the ledger cling....love that stamp!  I just edged it with an EK punch.

I love how the punch makes the ledger stamp look like school paper.

This next card uses a Tim Holtz background and is stamped multiple times with a Hero Arts floral cling. I love how the HA stamp frames the die cut!

Finally, my last card is one that I am sending to a lady who is ill and going through recovery...I know dogwoods aren't blue but this particular Hero Arts stamp I use over and over and just love to change up the flower colors.  Sentiment is also Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by....I know that this post is a long one.  Please be patient while I get my "blogging groove" back ;-D

Be well,

Sheila

Long Time, No Post....

Hello!  It has been quite a loooong time since I have posted and I'm sorry to say that I have, unfortunately, had a very good reason to be absent.  My husband took very ill on a recent trip overseas and subsequently had a very extended (10 days!) hospital stay as well as surgery.  He is doing better now and we look forward to, most hopefully, a full recovery.  But, I won't lie, it has been very hard and very scary.  I really expected alot out of my three children during the time that I stayed with their dad in the hospital and I am so grateful that they all rose to the challenge.  My husband will have been released from the hospital two weeks the day after tomorrow and each day we see a tiny bit more routine creep back into our lives.  Who knew that "routine" and her friends "boring and mundane" would be such welcome guests in life?  Anyways, I hope to begin posting/blogging/sharing again....and really, most of all, and simply-selfishly for my own sanity....I hope to get back to crafting again.  I am anxious to get back to my messy table and work on scrapbook pages and cards.  It is precisely that quiet and alone time that helps me catch my breath in life.  Funny how scraps of paper and little bits of color can be so soothing and restorative to one's soul.  It is like the assemblage of a crafty project, whatever it is you choose to craft with, tends to work as an artful "attitude adjustment".  Well, whatever, I wax philosophic here.....I did want to share with you a few little cards I made over the last week....except for one...my lovely daughter's birthday card.

This card was made for my daughter Bessie's birthday.  She turned 21.  She finished her college finals on the same day that she turned 21 and this all occurred on May 5th...which just happens to be Cinco de Mayo!  When Bess was really little she thought that Cinco de Mayo was totally for HER birthday....I just love that.  Anyways, my husband was hospitalized on  the 3rd and on the way to what we thought was just a doc  appt we stopped and mailed out her card.  I love this card....so pretty, so soft but bold, fun and fabulous.....just like Bess.
          

This next card I made for a person who is undergoing some real health concerns.  I try to send her a card a week...oftentimes with a little "somethin'somethin" in it.  I like the overall design of this card but am somewhat displeased with how "bold" the flower looks when photographed....it is actually softer looking in person and more light reflective...I think though, as a rule,  my oranges usually tend to get too blaring and bright.  Have to work on toning them down I believe.

                                        

This last card makes me sad.  I made it for an older friend of mine whose daughter died very suddenly.  I wanted to send it to her but now think I will bring it over in person.  We had a nice talk on the phone and I think in a week or so, it will be nice for her to know that people out there still have her in their thoughts.

And, that's my post. Hopefully, (and I  am keeping my fingers crossed), I'm back :-D !