A Rose is a Rose

A Rose by any other name would not smell as sweet. Hello friends, I love roses, any style and any color. I love to grow them in my garden, and share their beauty with family and friends.  When I saw this stamp in the Classy Cards 'n Such Online Store , I knew I had to purchase it for using on tags and cards.

It is being featured today on the Classy Cards 'n Such Blog. If you would like to see the step-by-step instructions, click on the link above and check it out!

I also wanted to draw your attention to all of the New Items in the Classy Cards Online store, and to remind you of the 10% discount you can receive every time you shop there.  By typing the code: MINDY-10 in the coupon box, you can get the discount on each and every purchase.

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon.
Mindy

Summer On the Water

Happy Summer Friends!  I hope you are all having a wonderful time with friends and family.  I have returned from a very short vacation, and now have to try and catch up with my card- making duties.

This is a card that I thought gave the feeling of the seashore in summer. The background was cut from a die-cut frame titled "French Lattice Small" from Cheery Lynn Designs. I cut it from a scrap from the  Graphic 45 By The Sea paper pad and attached it to the A2 size card base with clear glue.  I then used the Prima Marketing Seashore cling stamp set to stamp the lighthouse, sea plant, and ships wheel on a scrap of XPress blending stock with black Memento ink, and colored the items with copic markers and chalk.  I added a bow tied from dotted swiss grosgrain ribbon, and three tiny baby pearls to give the card a little bling.

I was so busy before vacation making sure I had my cards complete for my first Design Team duties with Classy Cards 'N Such, that I didn't get many others made. I think I finally have gotten into the swing of things and will be able to post more cards between my design team duties. I hope you will visit with me again soon, I really enjoy hearing from and sharing new things with you all!  Stay cool and safe this summer!

Mindy

Taylor Made Tag . . . . . Take Time!

I'm still playing with my New Julie Nutting Doll Stamps by Prima. Today's tag/card uses the doll named "Taylor". I started by making a card from two tags, using the Julie Nutting Tag Pad. I adhered the tags together at the top of the tag, and then started to decorate them.  I adhered printed scrap book paper to the front, and then stamped flowers and clock faces over the front of the tag using Ranger Archival ink in Sepia. While the papers were drying, I stamped Taylor on the Julie Nutting "Buff" paper pad and colored in her clothes and hair with Copic markers.  After fussy cutting around the doll, I adhered her to the left side of the tag using foam tape for dimension.

On the right hand side of the tag I die cut some leaf shapes  from a Tim Holtz Alterations die, and shaded them with my Copic markers. I combined them with flowers and leaves from the Prima Cartographer Collection and some covered wire springs.  The flowers have a little glitter on them, so I added a piece of sparkly gold trim across the bottom of the tag, some Maya Road Ginger Twine tied around the tag, and a crinkly rust bow tied at the top of the tag/card.

To complete the tag, I stamped a few open circles from the Scenery: Big Bang Confetti clear stamp set from Winnie & Walter set, to fill in between elements.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and come to visit with me again soon.

Easter Greetings

Hello Friends!  I just purchased some of those "action wobble springs" that you can use on cards and paper crafts, and decided to make an Easter card with a "wobbly" bunny!

Just give him a nudge, and away he wobbles!  So cute, and it folds flat for mailing, too! I got the card made, and then couldn't find an appropriate sentiment that had to do with Easter. So, I had to get out the alphabet stamps and stamp out the word Easter.

This card was made from a sheet of the Botanical Tea Collection from Graphic 45. I cut the card to an A2 size card, and then using a Martha Stewart punch, "Iron Fence" I punched down the front flap of the card with the punch.  Now you can see the back of the double sided paper in between the fenced design. I then used an extra strip of the paper and a length of green printed grosgrain ribbon lengthwise on the card front before attaching the wobble spring with the bunny design attached.   The bunny is a stamp I have had for many years, and I don't remember where it came from. (no label) I stamped it with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored in the design with Copics. To finish off the card, I attached a sheer and satin bow to the top left corner.

I have been so busy with my Online Art Journal class, that Easter has crept up on me and left me scrambling for ideas for cards. Also, our big city-wide celebration, Fiesta 2014, begins tomorrow April 10, 2014.  Weeks full of celebrating with parades, pageants, foods from all over the world, and any excuse to eat and partaay!!!!!!! We really know how to party here in San Antonio!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week, and an enjoyable and safe Fiesta! I will be back soon with more cards and projects to show you. Stay tuned. . . . . .
Mindy

It's A Blowout!

Happy April, and Happy Birthday to my dear friends who celebrate birthday's this month. The card for today, is "A Blowout"!

The stamp I used is "Balloon Trio" by Stampendous, and is from my favorite line- The House-Mouse Designs.  You can just see how hard they are trying to blow up these balloons for the birthday party. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink on the specialty paper for Copic markers.  I colored the images with my copics, and then mounted it to the front of my card base with foam tape for dimension. The card looked rather plain, so I punched two borders with a Martha Stewart punch from a sheet of Neenah White Gold Metallic paper. I adhered the border strips with double stick tape, and added three dots of Hydrangea Liquid Pearls by Ranger.  To top it off, I tied a simple shoe-string bow from some Gypsy Hand Dyed Ribbon from Paper Wings Productions.  Paper Wings has some really beautiful hand dyed ribbons in their online store,www.paperwingsproductions.com.

The many antics of these tiny mice always leaves me smiling. I hope you have a wonderful day, just don't "Blow It"! (tee-hee)

Celebrate Mardi Gras!

It's Fat Tuesday!  Do you celebrate Mardi Gras?  It's Party Time in New Orleans, or anywhere else you happen to celebrate. Here in Texas, we party anytime we can find an occasion. Mardi Gras is as good a time as any! We have parades, wear masks and beads, eat King's Cake and party just like they do in  Louisiana.  

I started this card by cutting two background papers from the Color Me Collections carried at Paper Wishes/Hot Off the Press. Color Me pages are scrapbook sized pages that have designs pre-embossed on them in various colors of embossing powders. You can then color the images or backgrounds using various mediums and coloring agents, including ink pads, chalks, markers, mists, or watercolors.  I used different shades of Gelatos from Faber Castell to color my backgrounds. I scribbled the Gelatos on the paper, and then used a moistened baby wipe to distribute and blend the various colors. By using the baby wipes, the moisture in them removes the Gelatos color from the raised embossed image.

I then stamped my "Skulls About Town"stamp from Impression Obsession, using black Memento Ink on Neenah white card stock. I colored in sections of the images with Copic markers and metallic markers,  and attached my sentiment "Celebrate" colored with my red Le Plume pigmented marker. The images were fussy cut around and mounted to the card front with foam tape, to give it depth and dimension.

I hope you all have a festive week, and if you can't find some occasion to celebrate, party with the hearty in New Orleans, and Celebrate Mardi Gras!

Loads of Love

I have a Special Delivery of Hugs for you today from Stampendous and House Mouse Stamps. One of my favorite New stamps from Stampendous Stamps is this stamp called "Gifts Galore". I have a special kind of love for the little House Mouse stamps, and usually add one or more to my collection every year. I purchased this one before Christmas, but didn't get around to using it until after the holidays. I thought it would make a wonderful Valentine's Day stamp in beautiful pinks and reds. 

I started off by stamping it on a white card stock base with tuxedo black Memento Ink. I then colored it in with Copic markers, and some Smooch Inks. The Smooch inks are pearlized, and give a soft and shiny look to the boxes and bows.  I also punched out several red card stock hearts with my Fiskars small heart punch, and then highlighted them with my clear Wink of Stella glitter marker.  The sentiment, "Special Delivery" comes from one of the Pure Innocence stamp sets from My Favorite Things.

A very quick and simple card to stamp, color,  and send, if you need a quick card for someone you love. And as I always say, "Keep On Stampin"!  Until we visit again,

Mindy

JOY Today

The day after Thanksgiving, "Black Friday", the biggest shopping day of the year for Christmas gift giving!  For those of you in the USA, Black Friday is a day of Joy, and happiness, because 73% of the population will be cramming the malls and shops, pushing, shoving,  and grabbing everything in stock, trying to get the greatest bargains of the century!  After 27 years in retail, I don't go anywhere near a store on the day after Thanksgiving. NO MATTER WHAT!

Instead, I stay home and work on my arts and crafts, and sit down with a warm cup of tea to watch one of my favorite performers of all time, Garth Brooks, who is doing a concert on TV tonight "Live from Las Vegas".  Just Garth and his guitar, alone on stage, recreating the music that HE grew up with. I am in heaven!

I did get a few cards made today. One is the Joy Today card pictured above.  For this card, I die cut the white background card from the largest label die from the Spellbinders Twenty Six set, and then cut another label die from a Christmas Stripe print paper.  I then cut a black label from the Ornate Squares Spellbinders Set, and attached it to the stripe background paper. I stamped the Cameo Brooch Stamp from Deep Red Clingstamps in Memento Tuxedo black ink on white card stock. I used my Copic markers to color in the Cameo Brooch, fussy cut the brooch, and then used foam tape to pop it up on top of the black label. Using a small red pre-cut label, I used my white Posca marker to write the word "Joy" on it, then attached it to the card front along with a few white half pearls and two burgandy tiny brads attaching the black label to the card front. 

I am having so much fun making these 4" square gift cards, and will probably package a bunch of them together and send them to a friend for Christmas. Well, I guess I will close for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and maybe even get a little time to create something beautiful.  I also hope you will take a moment, and drop me a line leaving your comments. I really enjoy hearing from you, and your comments, and would love to come and check out your blogs if you have one.  See you again soon!

Peace Grows . . . . . .

Hello  fellow card makers! Today's card is a stamp from Flourishes, called Garden Delight.  The saying in this stamp set, "Peace grows in the beauty of a garden" is one of my favorites. I started with a green grid background paper edged in burnt sienna ColorBox Chalk inkpad. I then die cut the Spellbinders Lattice die in pale pink card stock and then layered with foam tape to give dimension to the card.  I then stamped out the Flourishes stamp of the orchid with book on white card stock with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and the saying in the same.

I colored the orchid image with Copic markers and glued it on top of the lattice work with liquid adhesive. After adding metallic green ribbon and ecru lace below the image, I adhered the saying to the card to the left of the image, using foam tape and adhesive to layer it on top of the image and ribbons.  A single loop bow made from the lace was then adhered to the top of the lattice work frame, and entire section adhered to the front of an A2 card front.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and have time to create something beautiful from your artistic endeavors.  See you again soon.

Don't Forget the Garlic

This Halloween season, "Don't forget the garlic" you may hear these House Mouse critters say!  You need the garlic to keep the vampires away!  Don't these little guys just make you smile?  I love the House Mouse line of stamps, and have many for different times of the year. I also purchased a new one for Christmas this year, which will be my Christmas card that I will be mailing out. I will share the Christmas Mouse soon.

The coloring of this card is very soft and soothing for this time of the year. I used a very soft palette of the traditional Halloween colors, green, orange, purple, black and white, to color the mice with Copic markers, and patterned papers.  I started with a background paper from the Memory Box, and edged it with a bracket edged paper from the DCWV Ledger line. Along this edge, I also added a length of black sparkly rick-rack.  I then colored my House Mouse stamp, stamped with Memento black ink, with copic markers and then fussy cut them out leaving a tiny white border around the image.  This helps the colored image to stand out from the printed paper. I also used some foam tape to pop it up from the card base.

The using a tiny clear Halloween stamp set, I stamped a label with Trick or Treat, a bat, and then bordered it with a piece of pearlized card stock I had in my scrap bin.  I also used the rest of the printed strip inside my card for decoration. Then to finish off the front of the card, I stamped a tiny black spider with a single line web, dropping over the front edge of the card, as if to say, "Hi there!"  I just added a bit of sparkle to the stamped images with my Wink of Stella markers.

This card is for a special friend, and I must rush to get it in the mail so it will get to her before the holiday. I hope you are ready for a fun-filled weekend.  Have a good one, and enjoy stamping if you will. See you again soon.

Mindy

Sugar Skull Template

Happy October friends!  It is the first of October, the beginning of a season of holidays, cool weather, and lots of falling leaves.

I found this awesome Sugar Skull 6 X6 Template, and added it to my New Mini Art Journal from Ranger. I have been having so much fun painting, printing, and technique testing in my larger Ranger journal, that when the smaller size ones came out, I knew I had to have one of those to carry with me when attending classes, and spending the day relaxing and refreshing outdoors. 

The Crafters Workshop carries this stencil in both the 6 X 6 and the 12 X 12" sizes. I have always wanted to build a shrine to loved ones gone before me, for Dias de Los Muertos celebrated the first of November.  I have a month to experiment on what I want to include in my shrine, so stay tuned here, to see what I come up with.  I like things that are different, and unique, and if they are made-by-hand, that is even better. My family always appreciated hand made arts and crafts, so I'm sure my shrine will contain mainly hand made items in it.

I have many projects planned for the coming month, so check back with me, and be sure to leave me comments on the projects I will be sharing. I really appreciate your comments, and hope to keep in touch with you. Enjoy Fall,  and create something yourself. Hand-made is always better!

Mindy

Birds of a Feather Journal Pages

Greetings, fellow artista's! Thank you for joining me today for this double page art journal entry, where I used two of my Paint System palettes from Tattered Angels. I have been working on backgrounds lately, and ordered these Paint System sets to learn more about mixing colors and mediums successfully. The first system I used today was the Soiree Paint Collection that coordinates with the Soiree Paper craft collection from PinkPaislee. (I love these happy colors!)

The Soiree System consists of:  1.  Glimmer Mist- Marigold, a watercolor mist with a touch of glimmer.  2.  Glimmer Mist- Party Pink, a watercolor mist with a touch of glimmer.  3.  Glimmer Glam- Chandelier, a paint with a fine glimmer, plus glitter.  4.  Glimmer Glaze- Waterfall, a paint with a fine glimmery sparkle.   I first sprayed the bird stencil/template with a coating of Deep Denim Glimmer Mist from the Daily Junque System. (this color is very dark) I then turned it over on to the page and gently pressed the template down onto the page and left in place for a few moments while the glimmer mist soaked in. With the template still in place, I applied the Waterfall blue glimmer glaze and Chandelier Glimmer Glam onto the image over the bird and on the background.  I then  removed the template  of the bird, and sprayed on the Party Pink Glimmer Mist.

Let the entire page dry.  When dry I stamped a Damask Background stamp across the top of the page with a permanent Archival Black ink.  I also highlighted around the edge of the page with Victorian Velvet Distress Stain from Tim Holtz.

On the right side/ facing page I used the same bird template from Tattered Angels, the Daily Junque Paint Collection that coordinates with the Daily Junque Paper collection, also from PinkPaislee. The Daily Junque Paint System consists of the following Mists/Mediums:

1.  Glimmer Mist- Aquamarine, a watercolor mist with a touch of glimmer.  2.  Glimmer Mist-  Dark Denim, a watercolor mist with a touch of glimmer.  3.  Glimmer Glam-  Organic Garden, a paint with a fine glimmer, plus glitter.  4.  Glimmer Glaze- Pewter, a paint with a fine glimmery sparkle.

I again sprayed the bird template with Dark Denim Glimmer Mist and turned it over onto the blank page, paint side down. (Remember to flip your template before spraying so you get the reverse image.)  Again, press down on template so paint will begin to soak into the paper.  Apply the Organic Green Glimmer Glam over the template and across the page, leaving white space in the background. Let set for a few moments, then remove the template and apply Aquamarine spritz over the entire page.  Let entire page dry completely.

I again stamped a row of the damask background stamp across the top of the page with black Archival Ink,  and highlighted the entire page with Old Paper Distress Stain from Tim Holtz.


I then added my saying, "Birds of a Feather flock Together. . ." using my black Posca paint marker, and then highlighted the black marker with the white marker.  To add a little more interest to the pages, I adhered a row of fuzzy ribbon down the center of the page.  This also covered where the two pages (and paint) overlapped.  I also had to fill in some of the Dark Denim glimmer mist with a paintbrush on the birds, where the mist didn't print. I highlighted the openings of the template with the white Posca paint marker and dots, to add more texture.

I hope you have decided to pick up one or two of these wonderful paint systems.  They have helped me learn about combining colors immeasurably, over the last few weeks.  I have a few more color systems
 to play with over the weekend. Hopefully I will have a sampling to show you next week. Take care, and have a wonderful  Fall weekend!
Mindy

Tattered Angels Sprays - Witches Brew

Hello Everyone! This is the first post of my Paint System Spray Tutorials from Tattered Angels. The featured spray pack today is "Witches Brew"!

The Paint System Sets contain four distinctive mediums that perfectly compliment each other. I have used a large Manila tag as the base for this project.

Witch's Brew consists of:

1.  Glimmer Mist Chalkboard Spray- Grape Ape

      (a chalk-matte finish with a fine glimmer)

2.  Glimmer Mist Spray - Pumpkin Spice

      (a watercolor mist with a touch of glimmer)

3.  Glimmer Glam - Stiletto

      ( a brush-on paint with a fine glimmer, plus glitter)

4.  Glimmer Glaze- Wicked

       (a brush-on paint with a fine glimmery sparkle)

To start, I applied a layer of Glimmer Glaze - Wicked around the edges of the tag. The glaze is shiny/glossy when dry and acts as a resist for the other sprays. When dry, I then sprayed on some of the Chalkboard Spray and some of the Glimmer Mist, to add the bright pumpkin and grape colors to the tag. Let the colors blend together, so don't be afraid to add lots of spray.  If needed, you can blot a little of the spray with a paper towel in places. Again, let the sprays dry before preceding to the stamping. I then stamped my Impression Obsession stamp "Skulls About Town" with tuxedo black Memento Ink twice on the tag. Using some of the  NEW Wink of Stella Brush Sparkle Pens in Yellow, Lt. Green, Dark Pink, Orange and Brown, I colored in the skull staffs. These new paint pens by Kuretake are very sparkly and add lots of shimmer with no mess!  I then took a fan brush, and added some of the Stiletto Glimmer Glam paint to the top and bottom of my tag in streaks that look like old moss hanging on the walls of a cave.  To add dimension, I stamped two bats from my Martha Stewart Halloween Icon Stamp Set and colored them in with the Wink of Stella dk, pink and clear glimmer pens to add sparkle. I used foam squares to adhere them to the tag.  I also added a Prima Doll stamped on a Prima Tag,  dressed in her "Batty Costume"to the bottom of the tag.  To complete the tag, I added a swatch of twinkly red tulle ribbon tied in a bow at the top!

  I hope you enjoyed the process of decorating this tag. The combination of colors with the Paint System were so helpful when decorating the background for this tag. Periodically I have problems deciding which colors to use together, so with this system I can learn more about combining complimentary colors. I hope you will try some also, if you  have regrets of colors you choose.  If you have any questions about the products I have used, feel free to write me, and I will try to help in any way possible.

Thanks for joining me today.

I Love You, Prima Dolls -

By now you have probably seen where I am participating in a Prima doll Blog Hop starting August 6, 2013. It is going to be so much FUN, I can hardly wait! I have never really loved a special set of stamps like these Prima Doll Stamps from Julie Nutting's designs, and it all goes back to my love of dolls and paper dolls when I was younger.  My dolls were my playmates, and I loved making clothes for them and my paper dolls.

For this tag, I started by covering the Prima Doll Tag with patterned paper from the Botanical Paper Collection from Paper Wishes. The colors in this print are so rich and jewel-like I knew that it would be gorgeous with the Doll in the strapless dress. I stamped the doll on white card stock and colored her with my Copic Markers. After fussy cutting,  I adhered the image to the front of the tag and added a 3-D bow at her waist. I used a rub-on for the message "I love you" on the top right hand corner, and added two strips of printed ribbon across the bottom 2/3 of the card. I also added some "bling" using tiny acrylic stones to the top of the tag, and as accents at her neck and ankles. Next, I stamped a flower using a waterbased marker to ink my stamp then stamped it on watercolor paper.  I used my waterbrush to blend the colors of the flower, cut it out, and added it to my tag between the layers of ribbon. To complete the tag, I added Mermaid Glitz Stickles to the center of the flower, and a strip of ruffled ribbon to the bottom of the tag.

Before I close today, I just wanted to let you know that there will be more information coming on the Prima Doll Blog Hop in the weeks ahead. Be sure to tell your friends about the hop, and invite them to check out the posts, especially if they enjoy dolls, stamping, and paper arts. See you again soon.

Mindy

I LOVE IT!

I Love It, I do! I am busy playing with my New Julie Nutting Doll Stamps from Prima, and I really love this recent release.  This card uses "Phoebe", and I have her set in a botanical setting with flowers from the Botanical Cartridge from Cricut.

I love stamping the doll stamps on the Tag Pad, also from Prima and Julie Nutting. This gives them an antique beige coloring with a lightly printed word background. Of course, I color the skin with my earthtone Copic Markers, in various shades of skintones, and either color in the clothing or paper piece it, to give the design more interest. On this card I stamped the skirt on a scrap of printed paper, and the blouse on white cardstock so I could color it in to match the green colors in my sentiment block and the twine.

I cut the daisies from the Botanicals cartridge with my Cricut machine, from ivory cardstock and glued it to the background paper from the Engraver 6 X 6 paper pad by Prima. I glued all of the elements to the cardbase with my Tombow Multi Mono liquid glue, and then used foam squares to adhere the skirt and blouse to Phoebe. To finish off the card, I added teensy half-pearls to the buttons on her blouse, and gold paint marker to the centers of the daisies, then tied a loopy bow from Limeade lawn clippings twine from Lawn Fawn and glued it to the stems of the daisies.

This card could be used for many occassions. I hope you have enjoyed this card.
I am entering it in the DL Art- Thankful Thursday June Linky Challenge- "Anything Goes". Stop by to see more wonderful card ideas submitted this month. Until next time,
Mindy

A Nice Day for A Wedding

 The sun is shining bright, not a cloud in the sky. The temperature is suitable and everyone looks their best.

What a Lovely Day for A Wedding!

This is a really special card, and I am so pleased to be sharing it with you today.  I just received the new set of Julie Nutting Doll Stamps from Prima, and this is the newest and largest one yet!  Everyone meet Lorenna!  When I saw this stamp, I immediately thought of a beautiful bride, walking down the aisle. 

 It also happened that Little Scrap Pieces- Fun Friday Challenge was A Nice Day for a White Wedding. So, I knew I had to make this card and submit it for the challenge. I also submitted it to the DL Art Thankful Thursday-June Linky Party Challenge "Anything Goes."

I started out by stamping Lorenna's image out on a piece of plain white card stock, twice. I then stamped her upper body on one of the tags from Prima's Large Tag Pad, also designed by Julie Nutting. Each tag has an antique look to it, with antique text lightly printed on each tag. I used this for her head, shoulders, and arms. Then just a light touch of Copic markers on her skin, and hair, and I was ready to design the dress.  I ran both stamped dresses through my Cuttlebug with the Damask Embossing folder from Sizzix. I then fussy cut one dress into strips, following the folds of the skirt. I popped every other one up on the thickest sticky Zots I could find, and glued the top of the fold down at the waist. I then went over the outlines with my white Posca paint marker. The folds are still slightly visible, giving the gown depth and dimension. To add a little bling, I added a small bouquet of Prima pink roses in her hand, and added a flowing bow to her hair containing three small rosebuds.

The card itself is a half-fold card  made from The Luxury Stack, pearlized and metallic card stock from Die Cuts With a View. The attached squares were cut from a sheet of handmade embossed paper from Creative Papers, and the sentiment was stamped on plain white card stock with Memento's Tuxedo Black ink.

I think it turned out well, and I hope you have enjoyed it also. Don't  forget to click on the link above from Little Scrap Pieces to check out more ideas and cards, celebrating A Nice Day for a White Wedding.

Mindy

You're the Best - #1 Dad

Today is a terrific Tuesday, and I hope everyone is having a great day!  Today's card is a masculine card that I am using for a masculine birthday, or it could also be used for Father's Day. (I know that was this past Sunday!) Anyway, this card is very masculine with lots of layers and texture, and here is how I made it.

First of all, I had this wonderful image stamp from B Line Designs, Button Card duo.  I stamped it out on Neenah white card stock in Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I then inked around the outside edges with Sepia Archival ink and shaded his shirt with a little lightest blue PanPastel chalk. (it's hard to see in the picture, sorry)  I then hit my button stash, and adhered some mother-of-pearl shirt buttons to the card. While this was drying, I started to build the layers of the card.

Using a base card of kraft colored stock, I cut an A2 size card  5 1/2" X 8 1/2", and scored it down the middle for a side opening card. I then found some Skeleton dried leaves in both rust and ivory, and picked out one of each that would fit on my card. I then picked an antique writing paper strip from the Engraver Collection of papers from Prima. I started layering first a background sheet of brown card stock, and then glued the ivory skeleton leaf to the left of the card using my Tombow Mono liquid glue. Next came the layer of patterned paper attached to the right side with double sided adhesive. The I attached the button card on top, and slightly to the left, overlapping the patterned paper and leaf.  Using the Mono glue again, I attached the other rust colored skeleton leaf on the top of the button card and to the right. 

For the messages, I stamped the #1 Dad stamp from Fiskars on white stock in the Sepia ink, and cut a remaining strip of the brown stock in a straight banner length and used rub-on letters, (style: "all mixed up" by Doodlebug Designs) to apply the phrase "You're the Best!"  I used a BoBunny Bodacious Brad to attach the banner to the front of the card.

 I will be entering this card in the DL Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #111 for Father's Day.

And there you have it! One masculine card, for one super-terrific guy! I hope you all have a great week. See you again soon.

Mindy

Butterfly Happy Birthday!

Good Wednesday morning to my fellow cardmakers!  I had to get busy today and make a birthday card for my birthday buddie, Lisa Knight, who lives in Knox, PA. I have to get the card in the mail pretty soon, because it needs to get there by June 11. Here's what I did to get started!

First I took a sheet of Blu Raspberry card stock from My Favorite Things, and cut the front panel for an A2 size card. I then punched a 3" circle from Banana Split stock from MFT and got out my background stamp "Flowers, Lines, & Dots from Hero Arts Stamps, and inked it up with Cottage Ivy green Memento ink.  I centered my circle of yellow in the middle of the inked stamp then pressed down to transfer the design to the circle.  I then reinked the background stamp and stamped it on the blu raspberry stock. By doing so seperately, I could then position the circle right in the middle of the blu raspberry piece, matching the designs of both to look as if they were stamped at the same time. I then colored in some of the flowers in the design with my White Distressed Marker from Tim Holtz.

In the meantime, I cut two delicate butterfly designs from Rosemary & Thyme 6 X 6 paper pad from Paper Wishes.I used the Sm. Faerie Queen Butterfly Die to cut two butterflies and two background wings from coordinating prints. I then used my Mono Adhesive to glue the layers together, and put them aside to dry. I also punched a single butterfly out of dotted paper, and a banner stamped from the Banneriffic Clear set from Lawn Fawn.  The greeting, "Happy Birthday" was from the Birthday Elephant clear set from Inky Antics.  While all my parts were drying, I was gently placing them on the card base to see where exactly I wanted them.  As I arranged, and rearranged things, I decided that it needed something white amidst all that Blu Raspberry color.  I then decided to cut a border of white from my Nestabilites A2 Distressed Card Creator from Spellbinders. That gave it just the pop of white I needed to break the monotony of the blue.

Now it was time to adhere all the elements. Of course, the yellow circle was centered, so I used double stick tape to attach the white border around the circle. I then glued the butterflies down, just along their bodies with the Mono adhesive.  I then attached the birthday banner across the middle of the circle with foam dots, and added a few acrylic stones to the butterflies and to the background to give it all a little bling!  I left the wings of the butterflies unglued, so they would be able to stand up when the card was removed from the envelope. I then attached the whole unit to a white card base, and it was ready for me to write a personal message to my friend.

I'm glad you stopped by today, to view my most recently made card. I hope you enjoyed the process of how it was done, and was inspired to try some of the elements on a card you will make. Have a wonderful Wednesday, and I will see you again soon.

Mindy

A Special THANK YOU!



 A special "Thank You" goes out to all our servicemen and women who have fought and who are still actively fighting for the freedom of our country, on this Memorial Day 2013.

Of course, this Thank You card isn't very patriotic, it is a special thank you for a good friend who participated and won my First Annual Blog-aversary Give-Away, Joan Cornell. I enclosed this special card in her package that I sent out.  I had just received this new stamp set from Lawn Fawn, "Critters at the Dog Park", and I fell in love with all the little critters! I wanted to make sure she got the card before I shared it on my blog. So, today is a good time to share it with you all.

I started out by stamping the little "Weiner dog" on white card stock, and coloring in with my Copic Markers. I also stamped the tiny dog bone, that comes with the set.  The green striped scrapbook paper was already decorated with the stamped chair and bird, orange lace strip and No. 05 tag. I mounted the paper on a sheet of white card stock and tied a white satin ribbon into a bow and stretched it across the printed paper and white matting. I attached the ribbon edges securely to the back before attaching the whole unit to the orange card stock base card.
I then stamped the greeting, "thank you" on a scrap of  yellow polka dot paper, and punched a 1" circle out around the words. I then tied it to the bow with a piece of hemp twine.  To finish off the card, I attached the little pup with foam tape to the bottom of the card to give it more dimension, and glued the little dog bone in his mouth.  Can't you just imagine him running around the house with his new bone, saying "thank you, thank you"?

I hope you enjoy this card, and also your Memorial Day holiday. I hope you have a great day getting together with your family and friends, celebrating the memory of what makes this day so special!  See you soon.

Mindy

USA Memorial Day 2013

Happy Memorial Day 2013!  This is Memorial Day weekend, a good time to honor those who fought for our country, and those that still do so.  It's time to remember the Red, White, & Blue, and celebrate the flag we hold so dear.

Today's card is my take on celebrating the Red, White, and Blue with Stars and Flourishes from the Liberty Clear Stamp from Bo Bunny Stamps. I took a white pearlized card base and tried several ink types to stamp on the pearlized side of the card.  First I stamped the star design with the Love Letters Red Memento dye ink. The stamp slid on the slick surface of the card, and smeared. Next I tried inking the stamp with  Majestic Blue Versacolor pigment ink. I knew the pigment ink would take longer to dry on the slick surface of the card, so I was very careful when stamping not to smear the image.  It worked well, but before I got the heat gun to it to dry the ink, I laid my hand in it and smeared the design anyway!  We all have problems now and again.

Luckily, I had another piece of the pearlized stock from the 12 X 12 sheet, so after trimming it down to A2 card size, I folded it inside out, which put the pearlized side inside the card. I then used my two inks mentioned above, to stamp the star and flourishes on the card.  After the ink dried, I took my die cut Star Stax from My Favorite Things, and matched the star size die that matched the star on my stamp. Next, I ran the front of the card through my Cuttlebug machine with my all over Star embossing folder.  I then cut out the inside of the stamped star with the die, and adhered a printed paper with writing behind each opening.  I took the piece I cut out with the die, and cut the next smaller size star from it and switching the colors, put the red cut-out inside the blue star opening, and the blue cut-out inside the red star opening. This gave a little more dimension to the stamped stars on the card front. Using the flourish stamp that accompanied the star with flourish stamp, I stamped it along the lengthwise sides of the card, and then die cut tiny blue stars with the smallest die in the set, and poped them up with foam tape bits to give still more dimension to the front of the card..

After I got all my stamps, dies, and pop-ups positioned on the front of the card like I wanted them, I covered the inside of the card front with a rectangle of red card stock. From the photo you can barely see the print and pearlized finish on the inside of the card. I'm not sure whether I will be able to find some type of permanent marker to write inside the card with or if I will have to write on the red side with a white pen or marker for my greeting.

To finish off the card, I wrapped some peppermint twine from Lawn Fawn, twice around the fold of the card and knotted it on the outside.
I had two white star die cuts left in my scrap pile, so I wrote the letters "USA" on one, and glued it back-to-back around one end of the twine for a dangle embellishment.  I would have loved to add some bling to the card, but there was so much going on with the front of this card, I dared not add more bling.

I am entering this card in the Little Scrap Pieces-Fun Friday Challenge:" Let's hear it for the Red, White & Blue"

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, stay safe, and cherish this time with your family. If you have a little extra time, create something crafty!  See you soon.

Mindy