Long time no posts

Just realized how long it had been since I posted, shame on me. I will try and do better.
Life has been a series of ups and downs, mostly down this year and I'm really ready for 2010 to be over.
The biggest up has been Sara and Rob's wedding. It was wonderful and we are so blessed by our great kids, grandkids, family and friends.
I am retired now and will try and commit myself to posting some creative stuff at least once a week. I've got some really nice cards done just have to remember how to post them here.
For now I'll close and start getting things together for a creative session.

Congratulations to Sara and Rob

We are so happy that Sara and Rob have announced their engagement. Plans for a Fall 2010 wedding are being made. We couldn't be happier and wish them all the love and happiness of a lifetime.

Fall Leaves

Falling leaves, swirling in the wind is what this card reminds me of. Stamped the leaves from Autumn Splendor stamp set in Autumn Terracotta then colored them with watercolor pencils, stamped over the colored leaves with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder to protect the colored leaves. With our wonderful clear stamps you are able to stamp over an image easily by looking thru the clear block and stamp to line up the images. Then using direct to paper technique just smeared on brown bag, a little desert sand and a touch of cocoa in the corners. Stamped Playful Flourishes in brown bag randomly over the background for that swirly effect and a hint of cocoa flourishes in corner. Mounted on olive then on Goldrush to complete the card. Want to learn some cool techniques give me a call. Free instructions are always provided.

Happy Fall

I love the Fall best of all. The cool temperatures the beautiful colors and the tastes of apple cider and pumpkin pie. This first card was done with a brayered background of Honey, Autumn Terracotta, and Chocolate Inks on a white background. I had stamped the words Happy Fall in Versamark, then embossed with clear embossing powder to protect the white words. Stamped the trees in black over my brayered background, sponged black in the corners and wipped off the white words. Mounted on layers of olive cardstock then Honey card. Hope you enjoy it, fun, fast and so so Fall.

Merry Pursuits

Yep, I'm already working on Christmas cards. I know it's early, but
I have so many terrific ideas that if I don't start now I won't get them
done. This one combines my love of Cuttlebug embossing folders,
Nestabitlies and stamping. This little guy and 3 of his friends make
Merry Pursuits B1313 a wonderful stamp set for young and old. Get your little ones involved in your cards this year and stamp up the images and let them do the coloring, then together you can assemble the cards and make it truly a family card. Whether you color these with crayon, colored pencils or markers like my elf, it's fun and easy.

As always to order any of the great Close To My Heart products that you see, just click on the link to be taken to my consultant website. While you are there, take a look around, you will be able to view all the current catalogs with the click of your mouse at the Products tab, view other artwork I've done at My Art, check out specials in the center section, view the current Stamp of the Month and additional artwork for these special stamps by clicking on the box for Stamp of the Month on the right side. In addition you will be able to watch webisodes of stamping techniques at the CTMH TV link and order all your favorite products at Shop Online. Scrapbookers and cardmakers should check out the Workshops on the Go link to view layouts using the Level 2 My Reflections papers with directions on how to create the featured artwork. There is something for everyone and I'd love to hear from you to let me know what you found helpful. I've been having some problems updating My calendar, but check back often as I will be posting upcoming workshops for Christmas cards and techniques.

Happiness Cards

Two very different cards, both using unique techniques, with the Happiness stamp set C 1310. The circle card was made top opening and cut using a coluzzle circle, placing the template just below the top of a top fold card and cutting both front and back at the same time, leaving the hinge area intack. Again one of the favorite colors purple pansy is used, this time dry embossed and lightly sanded for the embossed lines to stand out. The flower is pop dotted for dimension.

A copy of probably my favorite of all swap cards I have received. I received the original card from Nancy Brown, a very talented CTMH consultant, at the Orlando Convention in 2008. Duplicate as nearly as possible, I couldn't find a thing I didn't just love about it. Lots of techniques, including using a cuttlebug embossing template Swiss Dots, sanding the dry embossed lines, random stamping the background, embossing the center images in white daisy on Ocean cardstock then cutting them out. Her very clever way of arranging the cardstocks and you'll want to click on the image to enlarge it so you can see the faux brads, which are actually just small hole punches that are filled with liquid glass. How cool is that? This was one of the cards my ladies learned to make at my last Hostess Club meeting along with 2 of Treasures cards below. If you want to learn how you too can join my Hostess Club just give me a call. Maybe you know a few friends that would like to learn great new techniques every month, I would love to start a new hostess club just for you.

Treasures

Treasures the September Stamp of the Month was so much fun. Here are some ways that we used this stamp set for cards. I don't know anyone who sees a fluff and doesn't want to just blow it to the winds. Enjoy, I hope these make you smile like I did when I created them.

Dark cardstock in this case Purple Pansy embossed with White Daisy embossing powder makes this fluff just jump off the paper and the little fluffs seem to fly across the card. Then a spritz of homemade (call me for the recipe, you won't believe how easy this is and cheap) glimmery misty spray in white sparkles in the background. I don't know if this will show up in the photo, but the mist really does glimmer. The purple pansy panel was then adhered to a standard white daisy card with just a touch of purple pansy ink distressing the edges. Inside (not pictured) little purple pansy 2nd generation stamped fluffs are randomed stamped to give the inside some extra punch.

Two more fun cards, showing some of the other great images on this stamp set. The yellow You are my Sunshine card also uses Nestabilities for the shapes and Liquid Applique for the puffed dimension on the fluff.