A Birthday Card....

that has no coloring.  Whaaat?  Yep, you heard right-I have made a card that has no coloring on it whatsoever.  And, I actually had fun making it!  I love to coloring but with the house in redecorating uproar recently, I had to leave the making of my daughter's birthday card to the day of her birthday.  Not a good plan, I know.  Especially when I had a full bday meal to make!  So, no coloring but in the end I made a card I ended up really, really liking and was so excited to give her.  Clarice will be living in an apt. next year at college rather than a dorm and the card incorporates the colors of her bedding as well as the colors that she wants to accent her room with.  Her brother went to Costa Rica this summer and brought back each of his sisters a large, almost beach towel sized shawl that they each are going to display in their respective rooms.  Clarice's has deep, saturated jewel tones in her shawl and I thought this little card could be put on a night stand or dresser so she could see what I think of her each day.  I used Spellbinder's Label One, Splendid Circles and Circles for my dies and some lovely crocheted flowers that I picked up cheapcheapcheap at Hobby Lobby.  I cut a Hero Art's sentiment apart so I could create the "you are fabulous" phrase which is really more my style than the "you are so special" sentiment that it was.  This is my first time EVER cutting a stamp apart and it was only slightly painful ;-D  Inside the card I used Hero Art's again with the Happy Birthday sentiment, embossed.   Here is my card:

 I enjoyed tremendously the tiny amount of time that I had to make this card and it reminded how much I love that little lift that crafting gives me.  MUST MAKE TIME TO CRAFT!  I also popped over to the Hero Art's flickr site and saw the different comments regarding the upcoming Scrapfest in Minn.  I finally am able to make it there this year. Each year in the past there has been at least one of my kid's with a school meet happening that weekend or my husband would be out of town traveling.  But this year all the moons align and I am able to go.  I am really excited, first of all to be attending Scrapfest and taking part in the different classes but also to meet so many of the HA flickr friends in person!  I believe the number going is around 10 now!  Thank you so much for stopping by - I appreciate your time!

Be well,
Sheila

Hey Folks....

sorry to be MIA for so long.  It has been a crazy busy but wonderful summer.  Joe and I recently redecorated our bedroom and bath and that has really thrown the order of my days off kilter.  Mainly because I have had all the bedroom furniture stored in the office/crafting area...which is where the computer is. I have been visiting blogs but not much commenting I'm afraid.  I tend to mistype everything when I am on my ipad!  I hope to be up and crafting next week for sure but might be able to squeeze in a little bit of time tomorrow.  My Susan G Komen training has been going well even with all this incredible heat. I walk nearly every day and put in 2-3 hours and have found this "training" to be a gift in disguise.   A gift of solitude and reflection for me, myself and I!  I can't tell you how great that has been!  So, I do need to run off here as it is my middle daughter's birthday and I want to get a few supplies at the store for her dinner. So-off again but I will be back!

Be well,
Sheila

Which bow....

I made this card and felt it needed a bow....(really, don't most cards need a bow? hehehe) I had recently picked up a "bow easy" template and finally had a bit of time to sit down and watch a tutorial on how to use it. By the by, I love the bow easy! So I first made this card and topped it with a red bow and thought...."eh...maybe too much red."  Then I re-did the bow in white and I think I like the white much better.  Thoughts?  And, the stamp in a lovely block stamp by Stampendous.  Colored with copies and then mounted on a SPB die. So here is the red:

And here is the white:

I think I like the white better.  Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope you are having a wonderful day.....it is lovely here in Wisconsin.  Sunny and low 80's..perfect walking weather ;-D

Be well,
Sheila

Am bummed...

out as we got home from a family reunion and my lovely computer was down. As in down and out. It is a large screen IMac and over the weekend it's LED light went out so I am trying to blog through my ipad. I hope it works! My son is teaching me to upload the pics through my ipad and then blog it all out..... I colored this card awhile ago but haven't had the chance to assemble it till yesterday and I really am SO pleased with how it turned out. Don't you love it when that happens? You just finish a card, sit back in your chair and then give a little satisfied nod. That's what happened with this card.

Ugh and double ugh....I could NOT make the iPad blogging work....so, here we try again.  I am now trying to use a pretty old computer and with some great help from my son Corm I think I have a way to upload and blog until my good computer is fixed.  Can't wait till I have it back.  It has been a while since I have blogged...with the 4th, a family reunion and a death my time has been pretty short.  I do have a card today though and hope to be able to schedule some "me" time in the next few days.  It is funny how much I miss putzing with papers and ink....and how much I miss my daily walks when something "larger" in my life takes over. With this card I used some Spellbinder's grand dies.  I love this die for a card shape!  I also picked up some great Spellbinder's dies from Micheals .....they had a great "buy one get one 50% off" deal going on and yes, I totally took advantage of that!  I used one of my favorite Northwoods Rubber Stamps and voila!  Here is my card!

Thank you for stopping by.  Now that we have this old computer up and running I plan on blogging stopping by you all.  

Be well,

Sheila

Thank You

cards.  Today I wanted to share with you some Thank You cards that I made up for the lady that I am a "Chemo Angel" to. I thought that it might be nice for her to have on hand some extra thank you cards that she can whip up and send or give at a moments notice.  Being  cardmakers ourselves we kind forget that other people actually have to venture out to get cards and so for a person who is going through chemo (really any illness) it is nice to have a stash on hand.  For that reason I like to give out card sets that aren't really sets but happen to be a collection of cards that cover a very broad spectrum of events.  Today, however, I stuck with thank you's and tried to go with pinks...the "official" color of breast cancer.  Here is a sampling of the cards that I sent out....I believe that I will make more and they will be used as my thank you's to the people who have been sending me support for my Susan G Komen walk.

I made up about a dozen or so....and with different patterned backgrounds.  Thank you for stopping by.  I hope your day is fab!

Be well,
Sheila

HOT! HOT! HOT!

Here in Plymouth we have a heat index approaching 105....I cannot even begin to tell you how unusual that is for us!  So today I decided to stay indoors.  Lately my daughter and I have been watching Downton Abbey and so each night when we watch an episode I pull out my images and copics and color while we watch.  So, today was more of an assembly day as I put colored images into cards.  The cards today both use the same image and I really enjoyed coloring it.  In the first card it is sorta difficult to see a real difference between the sunflower's colors and the butterfly's colors but in real life the two are very different....with the butterfly being deeper and much more intense.  Much more orange and red.  I think it was the glare of the outside lighting that made it all meld together. Anyways, on both cards the butterflies are accented with stickles.  I also have begun dying my ribbon with my copics and I love how it has been turning out.  Usually I always left my ribbon white but I think that the "custom" color really looks great!  I may never buy colored ribbon again!

Both cards are a bit over 5" square and that is a great size to work with for me.  Tomorrow I hope to have some (hopefully a set) of cards made up for the person that I am a ChemoAngel to.  I found some breast cancer ribbon and want to play around with a simple but nice design that I have in my head for Thank You notes.  If I get them done I will certainly post!  Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

Be well,

Sheila

Having a breakdown....

Yep!  I finally broke down and bought myself a Spellbinder's Grand Caliber and I LOVE IT!!!!!  Wow- so easy to use.  I have always loved Spellbinder dies....they were first given to me by my husband and kids several years ago for my birthday.  And I have used the Wizard for years with them.....and it now is pretty difficult to use.  I do have a big shot but have been coveting those HUGE Grand Nesties......I think they are the coolest thing ever for scrapbooking but have really held off on getting them due to the fact that I haven't had a  die cutter that was big enough to accommodate them.  But since I really like how they look when I am trolling scrapbook sites  yesterday I took the plunge at Hobby Lobby with  my 40% off coupon!  And have been playing ever since.  I love how I am able to cut and then emboss many dies at once.  I can literally cut out each section of a card, all at once, in one or two pass throughs.  That for me is a huge improvement especially as I love to layer up my cards.  Before, I had to cut and then emboss each single layer.....and if I had a card with, say, 5 layers, that meant 10 pass throughs for cutting and embossing.  Now it is down to two as I load up the big plate with several dies at once.  So, I just thought that between yesterday's post about the AMAZING rulers I found and today's post about my the Grand Caliber and grand dies I would pass on how much I like these new tools and how much easier they make some of my crafting!  As for yesterday's post....I know that rulers don't seem like a tool that would be so "exciting" but really, seriously....go to the site I have linked up and watch the videos.....I find they are really great for cards and sooooo great for scrapping.  Really. Every mount is perfect.  Ha!  Done with my exciting testimonials!  Today's card features a shaped card that is basically me  trying out my Grand Caliber and one of my new grand nesties.  I am pretty happy with how this turned out and will def play around with these larger dies more. A lot more.  The stamp is a Northwoods Rubber Stamp Company beauty that I actually fussy cut out from it's background and reset.

Thank you for stopping by and for those of you who have sent me private emails on how my training is going for my 60 mile walk I will tell you it is going GREAT!  I am putting in app 75 miles a week and am loving it!

Be well,
Sheila