HOPE - Ribbon of Courage

I made this card for one of the gals in my bowling group this week.  She has cancer and is just starting chemo.  She is such a sweet gal and is really suffering from this terrible disease.  I CASE'd this card from Pinterest and made a few changes.  Hope you get inspiration from the card.

Front of card

Close up of one of the panels.

I used Ribbon of Courage with Fresh Fig, Berry Burst and Sweet Sugarplum card stock.  The flowers are from a retired stamp thinlit (Botanical Blooms.)  The letters are also stamped from a retired letter set that I have but if you have the Letter Thinlits, they would work great!  (I don't!)  I stamped the letters with Sweet Sugarplum, then pressed my VersaMark pad on top and used Heat and Stick powder and glitter.

Card Swapping

I have been working on making cards to swap at Stampin' Up's On Stage event in April.  Marianne and I are driving to Richmond, Virginia for the event.  Unfortunately, it coincides with my anniversary but Sonny and I will celebrate before or after April 7!  In preparation for the announcement of the retired stamp sets, I am trying to make a card using each of my stamp sets (that are current.)  Not sure if I will finish this task before On Stage.  So far I am only to the C's and I have 58 stamp sets to work through!  But I have skipped around a tad bit.

Here are a few I did this week:

This card uses Botanical Blooms - well, to be truthful, it uses the thinlits that coordinate with the stamp set mostly.  The sentiment comes from Garden in Bloom.  I used the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer paper for the first time.  It's so pretty!!  The flower is Sweet Sugarplum and the leaves are Mint Macaron and Wild Wasabi.  

This card is from Cake Crazy - stamp set found in the Occasions catalog that I have my fingers crossed that it will be in the annual catalog in June!  I love this color combo of Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy and Crumb Cake - don't you?  I alos used the Bermuda Bay sequin trim (for the first time also!)

This card is my favorite though!  Guess what the pink swirly's are cut from!!???

Well, did you make a few guesses?  It's not Stampin' Up's cardstock .... it is paint chips!  I have a whole container of paint chips that I picked up a couple of years ago.  I thought they would be great for the flower to get various shades of pinks that coordinate.  I took this picture on an angle so you could see the dimension of the flowers.  Each one is 3 layers that are glued together.  I thought about doing a 5th flower but I was done!!!  Actually, this card doesn't even use a stamp set!   How will I ever get through all my stamps if I keep this up??  The flower and leaves are from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits that coordinate with Swirly Bird stamp set.  "Hello" is cut from Hello You thinlits.  

I made mention of my husband having surgery in my last blog posting.  Well, it is a long story but the short version was that we went to the hospital last Tuesday.  He was prepped for surgery with an IV, etc.  When the doc came in, we discovered the surgery was NOT going to be laproscopic.  That was a deal breaker for Sonny.  He had the nurses remove the IV and we were outta' there!   He wants the shorter recovery time that is allowed by doing the surgery laproscopic.  From everything we have read and heard, he should be able to have it done that way with a 3 week recovery verses a 6 week recovery for cutting him.  So he is going to get the name of another surgeon that does the surgery laproscopic.  More than likely, he is going to wait until the fall to get it done now.

Pretty Packaging

I just realized I didn't share my gift packaging for Mother's Day.  Who wants plain jane wrapping??? Not me!

I bought my mom a couple of shorts outfits.  They fit into one of my Paper Pumpkin boxes and I wrapped it with kraft paper.

Next came the decorating.  I made a belly band from some DSP that I had in my stash (retired).  Next I die cut flowers and leaves using the Botanicals Framelets and glued them to the package.  I fed a piece of twine through and voila! a pretty package.

Of course, my mom wanted to save the arrangement so we had to carefully get if off the package!

Sympathy

Thought you'd enjoy this picture of Ashley and I at a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio.  Fun!

 This next picture was taken on Mother's Day.  I don't have many pictures of us 3 girls with mom.  Of course, I always tower over all of them!

 

I needed a sympathy card for a friend of Ashley's who lost her grandmother last week.  I love this white on white!  I used Botanical Blooms thinlets for the flower and leaves and added a bit of Marina Mist as a mat for the card.



 

 

This is the inside of the card.  I typed the sentiment and glued it inside.  I love the message.  When my dad died in 2001, Marianne sent me a card (we had different dads) with this message and I read it over and over.  It really helped me in that trying time.  Feel free to use it in your own sympathy cards.

 

April Club Cards

I haven't had time to share my Stamp Club cards for this month.  We met last week and made these cards.  I had designed the cards before the Retiring List came out and I was trying to predict which stamps were retiring.  I guessed correctly on some of them.

This first one uses Blooms for You which is retiring.  It is a single stamp.  Other stamp sets used were:  Hardwood Background Stamp; Tin of Cards; Papillion Potpourri; and Something to Say (retiring).  I used Early Espresso on everything except the middle of the flower which is Soft Sky.

The only things retiring on this card is the DSP - both the Botanical and the Color Me Irresistible which is a resist paper that I sponged with Mint Macaron.  Thank goodness this stamp and die set will carry over.

I will be sad to see The Open Sea leave.  It was such a great set for masculine cards.  I did my first - successful - Reflection Technique on this card.  I stamped the water on the bottom with Pool Party using one of the stamps from Timeless Textures.  Don't overlook this stamp set - it is a good one for lots of different backgrounds.  Next I stamped the ship in Early Espresso on the card AND on a piece of acrylic transparency.  I turned the transparency over, line it up with the ship and rubbed the ink onto the card.  Easy, peasy!!  The sun is from Kinda Eclectic stamped and embossed in white.  I sponged Soft Sky on the top.

This card was a fun one to make.  I stamped the flower from Watercolor Words with Versamark and used Clear powder to heat emboss them.  Next I spritzed the card with water or you can just use your Aqua Brush to brush on clear water.  Make sure you are using either Watercolor Paper OR Shimmery White Paper.  I used the Shimmery White.  After the paper is damp, brush on three different colors from top to bottom letting each one blend into the next.  I used:  Calypso Coral, Pink Pirouette and Rich Razzleberry on the pink one and Bermuda Bay, Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise for the blue one.  I am sad to see the Corner Punch leaving us but that is the only retiring item on these cards (oh - also the thick twine.)

My postings may be a little sporadic for the next week (aren't they always???)  I am "leaving on a jet plane" tomorrow for Texas - my final trip for a few years.  I am taking my Mom to spend a little time with Ashley before she moves to Hawaii.  I have been doing really good on Weight Watchers but don't think I will be counting points next week as I enjoy Mexican, BBQ, and steaks at Josephines!!

Pink Botanical Blooms

Thought I'd share another pretty card that Margaret made when she was visiting.   See ... we really do work when she's here!!

This card uses the beautiful Botanical Blooms.  Margaret was really stuck on these flowers and made several cards with them.  This one is actually a gift holder when it is opened.

I love the pinks!  I have not use these flowers in these colors yet .... but on my list.

Botanical Blooms

Last week when my friend, Margaret, was here visiting, she looked through my stash of cards that I have either made or received from various swaps.  She found one that my sister, Marianne, had made for a Shoebox Swap in January and decided she wanted to make it using the Botanical Blooms DSP and stamp set.  Doesn't it look great?

I so love this paper but unfortunately, it will not be in the next catalog.  So .... if you love it too, now is the time to purchase it!  You can bundle it with the stamp set and framelets and save 15%.  The stamps and framelets will be carrying over so no worries there.

Also - don't forget about the retiring In Colors.

NC Demos Blog Hop featuring Occasions Catty AND In Colors

Welcome to the second NC Demos Blog Hop.  You should have just come from Tracie Langley's blog.  I loved her two projects!!   Hope you are enjoying the projects this month from the Occasions Catalog and using Stampin' Up's In Colors and are getting a lot of ideas for your own projects.

Each year when the new annual catalog comes out (June 1), there will be 5 NEW In Colors introduced.  The sad news is that means 5 colors will RETIRE.  The retiring colors this year are shown below:

The ink pads, cardstock packs, ink refills and accessories will only be available while supplies last. They usually sell out quickly!!  So I would suggest if you love these colors, you order them now before they are gone AND also so that you can take advantage of the FREE gifts offered during Sale-a-Bration!

OK - on to my project.  This was a fun card to make!  It measures 5.5" x 5.5" so a special envelope was made for it using the Envelope Punch Board  The card folds flat for mailing but when the recipient receives it, he/or she can open each section like an easel card.  Wouldn't this look nice sitting on a desk for all to see?!

The In Colors I used are Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow.  I also used Cajun Craze and Mint Macaron which are the matching colors for the Botanical Gardens DSP.

This is the card flat - well sorta flat!  It kept popping up as I was trying to photograph it.  I needed a couple of extra hands to hold it shut but when you put it in an envelope, it will be flat.

This sentiment is from Flower Patch.  I used the Decorative Label Punch to punch it out and sponged the edges with Hello Honey ink.

Each top square (Hello Honey) measures 2.5" x 2.5".  They are attached to the bottom rectangles (measuring 2.5" x 5" and scored at 1.25" x 2.5".

The stamp set, Botanical Blooms, framelits AND DSP can be purchased as a bundle saving you 15%. It is a great set!!  If you would like to place an order online, please use my Hostess Code found at the top of my blog posts.  By purchasing this Bundle, you would qualify for a FREE item from Sale-a-Bration!  Who doesn't like free???!!

Hope you are enjoying the Blog Hop! Check out what my other NC pals have to show you!! Laura Meier is next on the Hop so make sure you click on her name.

Shavron Borders
Regina Campbell
Tamra Davis
Kitty Helton
Jo Anne Hewins
Amy Ingram
Michelle Irinyi
Melissa Kernan
Tracie Langley
Sharon Maranich (ME)
Laura Meier
Mary Robinette
Susan Root
Pam Staples
Lisa Tedder
Frances Wagner

Final Stamp Club cards for Feb.

These are the last two cards that we made at Stamp Club last week.

This one uses the Botanical Blooms bundle - DSP, stamp set and framelets - a pretty good deal I think.  The card on the left is one I received at Quarterly but sorry to say, don't know whose card it is. I made the card on the right switching out the flower center to Cajun Craze and using a sentiment from Trust God.  I love the sentiment!!

This next card proved to be a bit tricky - only because of the math involved!!  I had mistakenly put the wrong measurements in the directions for cutting white panels so we had to do some "figuring!" The correct measurement is 1 3/8" x 3".  The "For You" is from a Paper Pumpkin set.  I had hoped to put all the flowers on a large block and stamp them all at the same time but I could not get them close enough since they are the rubber backed stamps and not photopolymer.  So we just passed the stamps around the table.  I really like the Sale-a-bration stamp set.

Occasions Catalog Swaps

I still have loads of samples to share with you.  These are some of the swaps I received at Quarterly. I tried to group them together so you can get an idea of the different variations you can make with each stamp set.

A Nice Cuppa (pg 35) comes with framelets, DSP Stack, embellishments as well as the stamp set.

These are from two different balloon sets - Balloon Celebration and Balloon Builders.  There is also a Balloon Bouquet Punch that punches large and small balloons.  (pgs 12-14)

Beautiful Ride (pg 15)is a great set for several different occasions.  

Birthday Blooms (pg 9) is a beautiful set - ideal for watercoloring or just using markers or Copics.

This is one of my favorites!  Botanical Blooms (pg 26-27) comes bundled with the gorgeous DSP and the Framelits Dies.  I just got this set late last week and haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet.

Don't miss this week's Weekly Deals.  There are some good things offered up at good prices.  The Mini Treat Bog Die is a great deal as is the Crazy About You stamp set!

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