Mother's Day Monday

Good Morning Peoples!  Another Monday is upon us and that means another Monday that puts up closer to the end of this school year.

I hope that those of you who are mothers had a nice day celebrating YOU.  Personally, my day just reaffirmed that I am a mother!!  Saturday was spent all day at the beach reserving a spot for the Oldest Kiddo's class to have an end of the year party.  We took down a total of 7 teenagers with us, then the rest of the group joined later in the afternoon.  We got home very late and I had NO energy left to deal with all the sand, laundry and cleaning out of ice coolers last night, so Sunday was spent cleaning.  And feeding a few extra boys that ended up camping out on my family room floor.

And you know what?!  That is how it should be!! I am very blessed that the Kiddos and their friends like hanging out in our home. I would much rather deal with the mess of having a house full of teenage boys (so far, we haven't had girls join in the "hanging out") then having them run around who knows where!

 I was pleasantly surprised by a new lens for my camera from the Toad and the Kiddos.  They got me a 50mm lens for taking pictures of my projects and other close up photography.  I used it to take the pictures of the card I made for my mother in law.

I obviously need to play around with it more, but I think I'm really going to like it!!

Since I hadn't cleaned up the mess from making the Tea Time gift for youngest Kiddo's teacher (ahem!),  I stayed with using the same paper pack and colors for this card.  

Basic details:  Card base is 5 1/2"  square cut from Gina K's Pure Luxury Ivory.  All the design paper is from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found line Sunshine. I used Spellbinder's Label Eleven to cut the print layer.  To make the small black edge, I cut out a smaller of the Label Eleven dies and traced around the outside and cut by hand.  The large flower was cut and embossed using Spellbinder's/Donna Salazar's Carnation Creations  from SU's More Mustard card stock.  Sponging was done with Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge.  I then misted the flower layers with Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist in Pearl. 

The little blue flowers were punched with an SU flower punch (this punch has three different little flowers on it) from more of the Sunshine line.  The leaves were cut using Sizzix's Branch w/Leaves  from SU's Certainly Celery.  I then swiped Distress Ink in Peeled Paint directly onto the leaves.  The sentiment is stamped on vellum with Archival Jet Black ink with the Mother's Day sentiment from SU's All Holidays set.  

I'm really trying to use more of my stash for my projects versus buying all the newest goodies out there.  While I LOVE the new stuff, I think it is such a waste that I haven't even used what I already own.  Sooo, expect to see more projects with those blasts from the past that we used to love!!

Enjoy the rest of your Monday.  I have work, but am really hoping to get home at a decent time so that I can start to clean up this current mess so I can make a NEW mess!!  'Till then.......enjoy some creativity!!

And God Created Mothers

Happy Friday Peoples!!  It's time for another Just for Fun® Friday color challenge and today Sherry challenged us to use the following colors as inspired by Graphic45's Proper Gentlemen

Now here is where I'm going to let you on a little secret.  The Just For Fun® Design team gets to have a "sneak" of what the upcoming color challenges are going to be.  It would seem that yours truely had a major brain freeze for this week (yes, yes, I know.  TOTALLY out of character for me!! hehe).  I picked out my paper, the image I thought I wanted to use and was getting everything ready to go.   Divine intervention had me double checking the challenge colors this morning and LOW AND BEHOLD!! I was on the WRONG week!! GRRRRRR!!  Let's just say that I looked rather like a deer in the headlights for about 30 minutes or so trying to reverse gears and come up with something else!!  But!!  I think I did pretty good, all things considered! LOL!!

I started with the DP from Colorbok's Fresh Meadow pack and cut it slightly smaller than my textured Very Vanilla base of 6x6".  I rounded the corners with my corner rounder and sponged the edges with Distress Fired Brick and set these layers behind.  I then pulled out distress ink in Antique Linen and swiped it on my craft sheet and misted with water on a scrap piece of the textured vanilla cardstock.  After getting the depth of color that I liked, I spritzed the layer with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Antique Lace and Pearl.   I stamped my sentiment .....He Created Mothers from Just for Fun Stamps® with Distress ink in Fired brick.  I cut out/embossed that layer and the Cranberry Crisp layer with Spellbinders Labels 11.  Then came the really fun part! I used Tim Holt'z Tattered Florals sizzix die with some very vanilla cardstock and used the smaller 6 petal flower to make my roses (one of many tutorials can be found here).  After cutting my dies (I layered 3 pieces of paper at one time and ran them through my Big Shot) I sponged the edges and back with Distress Worn Lipstick and then just the edges again with Fired Brick.  I then assembled the roses using Art Glitter glue.  I die cut the leaves (Sizzix Branch with Leaves) from some scrap Very Vanilla and spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Meadow Green and Old Olive.  The roses were adhered over the layers with some dimensionals and a touch of glue. 

I hope you'll join the Just For Fun Friday color challenge!!  If you are in need of some more inspiration, check out the other DT members and see what they came up with!!

Sandy Sandrus

Terre Fry

Sherry Cheever

Margarita Ybarra (NEW to the team!! YEAH!!)

Kat Tucker

and

Broni Holcombe

Don't forget, you can use ANY stamps to play along with us!! Just add your name to Mr. Linky on the

Just For Fun® Blog so we can see your creations!

That's it for today!!  I am going to the Pasadena Design House with my mother in law this weekend and I always find so much inspiration from all the over the top designing!!  (cross your fingers I find some inspiration for Teacher Appreciation....some how May 4 snuck up on me and once again~~I'm about 2 steps behind!! Any suggestions would be welcome!! )

Thanks for dropping by again today!! I hope you are able to have a creative weekend!!

Framed on Mother's Day

DH requested a card for his mother that was CAS (clean and simple). He also wanted a card that mimicked some framed photos that my mother-in-law has on her wall behind her couch. There are nine b/w (actually, they kind of lean towards sepia) photos of leaves, flowers, tree branches artsy type photos framed in black. My MIL changes the matting with the seasons. For spring/summer she uses a sage green color.

I had a general idea of what I wanted to do. Then, while cruising blogs, I came upon this wonderful creation by Tracy. Which led me to this wonderful creation by Linda. Using the recessed window was just what I needed for my take on this technique.

I think that my inside framing corners are pulled apart some because I taped down my frame to make it look as though it was on the "sage" wall. This card has a 5x 5 sage base that uses the DTP (direct to paper) technique with the sage ink pad to give it some "texture". I made my frame using the directions from SCS TLC206. The outside frame corners were scored so that I could fold them up in order to tape the edges to the base. I used the leaf stamp from Rubbernecker's Floral Silhouette and stamped it first in the middle, masked the top portion and stamped it again further down in the corner to extend my leaf (yes, I misjudged a hair and have my "new" leaves a tad too far apart from the original). Using my stampamajig, I figured out my placement for the other "stamped" off leaves. Supplies: Stamps: Rubbernecker Floral Silhouette, Inside stamp: SU's All Holiday's Happy Mother's Day. Paper: SU's sage shadow, basic black, whisper white. Ink: Ranger archival jet black. Accessories: Stampamajig, craft knife.

Best part of this card? DH said "It's perfect. I REALLY like it!"

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope all of you have a wonderful Mother's day!

I've Finally Cracked!!

I found a weekend sketch challenge on Jenn Balcer's blog and thought it would be a good one for a Mother's Day card. This card is a 5x5 square card. I decided to pull out some DP from Me and My Big Ideas that I've had staring at me for a while. This came from a cardstock "book" and all the papers have some special embellishment (on this particular sheet, the light "grey" in the background is flocked!! I just keep touching it! After finally getting the courage to cut it (YIKES!! What if I was to ruin it?!!) I thought that I would use one of my favorite sets and pulled out Garden Silhouettes from SU. Used my Bravo Burgaundy and Old Olive markers and stamped the image on Whisper White. I then used a small stencil brush with Barely Banana (I would have used a sponge dauber, but that would have required me to move my lazy rear and get it from across the room, whereas the stencil brush just happened to be on my desk! hehe) and worked it along the sides. I then scraped the edges along the Burgandy stamp pad.

I then thought I would pull out an old technique and do the cracked glass. Uggghhhh!!! First time I "cracked" it, I got a little over zealous and actually cracked a piece of the glaze off. So, I re-heated the glaze and cracked again. But the spot that came out wouldn't hold the glaze. Got the VersaMarker out and finally got some glaze to stick. Cracked again. But then the edges got a little thick. But it is what it is!! I was not in the mood to start all over!

I cut a thin strip of the DP and made my strip across the bottom. I used the mother's day stamp from SU's All Holiday's to stamp the sentiment. It looks a little faded over the flocking, but I was pleased that I was able to stamp over that portion without too much trouble. I got out my much neglected Pretties kit and colored one of the flowers using a copic ciao marker. Layered everything and put the sentiment strip on dimensionals. Wah-Lah!! One down!! Supplies: Stamps: SU's Garden Silhouettes, All Holiday's. Paper: Whisper white, Bravo Burgundy, Designer paper from Me and My Big Ideas. Inks: Bravo Burgundy and Old Olive marker, Barely Banana, Archival Jet Black. Accessories: Stampamajig, Glassy Glaze Enamel, heat gun, stencil brush, Pretties kit, copic ciao marker, dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a crazy week coming up as I have to work 4 of the 5 weekdays!! That is going to make my day "off" a MUST stamp day!! I still need a couple of more cards for this coming week! Cross your fingers that my mojo will decide to stick around!!