Belated birthday wishes

My sister-in-law's birthday fell only a week after the death my friend, Amy, so I was a little late in getting her birthday card made.  I chose to have fun with the belated theme though. 

 

I used my Papertrey Ink Movers and Shakers Sentiments stamp set to stamp the "Wishing You" sentiment and the hidden sentiment under the zipper [which reads "a wonderful birthday, just a bit late!"].  The focal images are from the Happiness in Bloom stamp set.  I used a mixture of Memento Dew Drops and PTI Premium Dye Inks.  I also used Archival Ink Jet Black for the "pull here".  Papers used are from Papertrey Ink and My Mind's Eye.  

For some reason, my colors didn't photograph as well as usual.  I think a setting may have accidentally been changed on my camera.  I thought the card looked a little unbalanced so I added a trio of pearls at the top for balance.  It was so tempting to pull the zipper, but that would have ruined it for my SIL.  :)  Maybe I'll make myself a card and mail it to me just so I can pull the zipper!  LOL

Farewell friend...

Sadly, my co-worker and friend, Amy, lost her battle with colon cancer on November 1st.  She was the 2nd grade teacher at the school I work for, and we've worked together since the spring of 2007.  She was first diagnosed in May of 2012.  At that time, the doctors estimated that she had 2-3 months to live, and they recommended hospice for Amy.  She chose to try chemo therapy instead, which turned her 2-3 months into 17 months.  17 months to spend with her teenage daughter....17 months to teach 2nd graders....17 months to enjoy life before it was too late to do so.

She made the most of it clear up to the end.  I ran into Amy and her daughter at the craft store the weekend before she passed.  She was even at work on Halloween.  Unfortunately, she suffered a fall that day, which caused a broken shoulder.  It's possible that the injury may have caused a blood clot, because Amy died suddenly the next day.  Maybe, with the advanced stage of her cancer, the injury was just too much.

All I know, is that Amy is in a better place now.  A place where she feels no pain.  Where she can watch over her daughter and her loved ones until it is their time to join her.  I'm thankful for that.

This is a card I made for her daughter.  She and her family will continue to be in my prayers.  I pray that anyone who reads this will remember to be thankful for each and every day.  Be thankful for the time you have with those you love, and don't take a single minute for granted.

 

Stamp set used:  Calla Lilies from Flourishes

Papers:  Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, patterned paper from My Mind's Eye, Copic Blending Card

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black and Archival Ink Jet Black

Colored with Copic Markers

Paint Chips

This is just a fun fall card I made for my boss.  I used kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink for the card base.  I stamped it with a wood grain stamp from Hero Arts for a simple background. 

I cut the leaves from paint chips I picked up at the hardware store, using the maple leaf die from this set from Impression Obsession.  My boss' father was a painter by trade, and my boss helped with the family business when he was younger; so I thought using paint chips would be very appropriate.  They also add some shine to the card without being too feminine. 

Turn your face to the sun....

This is a card I made for a friend and co-worker who has been fighting colon cancer.  I just wanted to send her a little bit of sunshine and inspiration, because she has been a huge inspiration to me!  She has continued to come to work every day that she could, to be there for the children she teaches in 2nd grade, and to fight back against the disease.

The stamps I used are from Flourishes, and I colored the flower with Copics.  I added Glossy Accents to the lady bug to make it pop.  I used  Papertrey Ink paper for the card and the yellow mat.  The other papers are random scraps from my scrap box.

Bundle of Joy

A friend and co-worker of mine recently had a precious new baby boy, and this is the card I made for her.

The stamps and paper I used are from Papertrey Ink.  I was very pleased with how the card turned out.  I spent more time trying to pick out the perfect buttons than I care to admit, but was very happy with the end result. 

The highlight of my Halloween!

The school I work for still celebrates Halloween each year with a costume parade and contest.  It's always the highlight of my year, and this year was no exception. 

 There were lots of great costume ideas throughout the entire school, but the 8th grade class were the icing on the cake!  All 24 of our 8th graders worked really hard TOGETHER! to put on this flash mob display for the entire school of 200 students and at least as many parent spectators.  Their hard work and cooperation made us all extremely proud! 

The video doesn't do justice to the incredible job these kids did with their costumes.  Every single student went the whole nine yards to create their own homemade zombie costume.  Torn and bloody clothes, fantastic zombie make-up, crazy teased up hair-dos, they looked GREAT!  

 Everyone got together in the evenings to practice, worked extremely hard, and best of all, kept it a total secret from the entire school.  Can you imagine 24 kids, 12 and 13-years-old, keeping a secret for two whole months while this was in the makings!  That in itself is amazing!  And so are these kids.

Way to go!

 

A Steampunk Father's Day

It's been a crazy, busy week, and I don't have time to go into detail on this card, but it's for my hubby for Father's Day.  I'm super happy with how it came out, but it took DAYS to finish it! 

I'm entering it into these two challenge contests:

 June CARDS Blog Challenge                              Lawnscaping Challenge

So, here it is!

For the background panel, I used the emboss resist technique with clear embossing powder, distress inks, and Tattered Angels spray.

 

 You can see a little bit of the shine from the glimmer mists here.

 The focal image is a digi-stamp from Make It Crafty, and I colored it with Copic Markers.

The little gears are from Tim Holtz.

And I created the sentiment myself in a word processing program.  That awesome font is called Carmencita and came from DaFont.com.

That's all I have time for today! 

Sunny Side Up

Here is a card that I created tonight for a friend who is having a rough time of things right now.  I wanted to make something bright and cheerful to let her know I'm thinking of her.  I'm also submitting this card into the Lawn Fawn Lawnscaping Challenge: Clean & Simple,

 and the Lil' Inker Designs Sunny Days Challenge.

I was inspired by the beautiful images of the sky in this photo, and the bright, cheery yellow color pops.  :)  With that said, here's the card I created:

I just bought this new paper pack called FEELIN' groovy from We R Memory Keepers, and I thought the bright cheery papers were perfect for this project.  I die cut and stamped my balloons with the Up, Up & Away dies & stamps from Papertrey Ink and paper pieced them using kraft cardstock for the baskets.

For the background paper, I used Glimmer Mists in Sea Glass and Rip Tide to create my sky by spritzing them onto watercolor paper. I really wish that the sparkle of the Glimmer Mist was visible in my pictures; I haven't figured out how to photograph it.

My clouds and sun are die cut using the Lil' Inker Designs Sunshine and Clouds dies.  What I love best about these dies is how they die cut the stitched line into the paper; I think it just adds so much more character to the project!  I think the sun looks awesome with that paper from the FEELIN' groovy pack!

The sentiment is from the LID Sun Sentiments stamp set, and is stamped with VersaMark and then embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail embossing powder.  I think this is the first time that I used that embossing powder, and I'm really pleased with it.  The sentiment came out just as crisp and clear as it does with ink alone!

I also used two different thicknesses of pop dots to create some depth of field for the focal images, which you can hopefully see here:

And last, but not least, I created a coordinating envelope to mail it in:

I used the rock-&-roll technique to get a two toned look to my balloon using PTI inks in Orange Zest and Summer Sunrise; just to add some more sunshine and cheer to the project.  :)

Overall, I'm thrilled with the turnout of this card!  It was one of those projects that turned out exactly as I had envisioned it in my mind.

I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I do!

Clean & Simple

I made this card for my husband for our 6th anniversary.  The picture I used is from our engagement photos.  I scrap-lifted the idea from this blog post. 

I loved the idea of printing the photo on canvas, and I knew I just HAD to try it!  I LOVE how this card turned out!  And the best part is how quickly and easily it came together.  :) 

[I just noticed that even though I turned the card for this picture, it still looks like we are looking right at you!  Weird!]

I'm submitting this card to the Lawn Fawn Lawnscaping Challenge #58.  The theme is Clean & Simple. 

View the Challenge Blog here

Thanks for reading!

Today I am playing along with the May Blog Hop Challenge over at Papertrey Ink. 

The challenge is to create a project using floral stamps and one of the Bouquet Builder color schemes.  I chose this color scheme for my card, but I chose to add a little bit of Aqua Mist as well.

I'm using the PTI anniversary stamps set, Birds and Blooms, for this project.  I ADORE this stamp set!  I think it is definitely my new favorite set!  It is so much fun to play with! 

 I also have the matching dies, which I used to cut out the bird and the nest.  I scrap-lifted the design from here.  I also created a matching envelope. 

All of my paper and stamps are from PTI, and I used mostly PTI Ink [but also some Memento brown].

I hope you enjoyed this post!  Thanks for reading!

Just a Note

Just a quick post today:

I recently bought the PTI Happiness in Bloom stamp set and had a chance to play with it a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have time to blog about it. 

I really enjoyed playing with this stamp set!  Each layer of the flowers is a separate stamp piece, so you can just stamp right over the top of the previous layer.  I can see me reaching for this set again and again!

Here is the card I created:

I pretty much scrap-lifted the whole card from here.

I also decided to make a matching envelope to mail it in.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I look forward to using this set again!

All of the paper came from https://www.papertreyink.com/.  The floral stamps are from PTI and the sentiment is from this set from My Thoughts Exactly.  I used mostly PTI ink but also some Memento Dew Drops, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flower Show with Waltzingmouse: Part 2

I'm sharing another card I made for the  Flower Show CASEing contest from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

I CASEd this card from JJ Bolton at Ribbon Girls:

Isn't it gorgeous?

I needed to make a sympathy card for a friend who lost a loved one a few days back, and I thought the black and gold color scheme was perfect for such an occasion.

Here is the card I created....

I don't have time to go into too much detail, but I stamped all my images with VersaMark on black card stock and embossed them with Ranger Gold Detail embossing powder.  The stamps I used were from Flourishes [Calla Lilies] and Hero Arts [Lattice Background].  I'm not sure where I got the little studs that I added at the bottom.

Here is another angle that shows off the shine a little better:

That's it for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

~Amber

Flower Show with Waltzingmouse: Part 1

Today I am playing along with Waltzingmouse Stamps for the Flower Show CASEing contest.

I hopped through all the inspiration blogs, and I have decided to CASE this gorgeous card....

 ...that was created by Debbie Olson on the Thinking Inking blog.  I was inspired by the layout that Debbie came up with, and love how her background paper reminds me of water coloring!

So here is my creation!

I started by stamping my Koi fish on watercolor paper with Archival black ink.  Then I stamped my water ripples with Broken China Distress Ink.  I used a water brush to paint my paper with Broken China Distress Stain and Tumbled Glass re-inker, but I just wasn't satisfied with how it was looking.  So I spritzed my paper with turquoise and sea glass Glimmer Mists from this kit.  It doesn't show in the picture very well, but it has a nice shimmer to it.

Next, I painted my Koi using Perfect Pearls [Copper and Gold] mixed with water and applied with a water brush.  When the Perfect Pearls dried it was slightly opaque and covered up some of the stamped image, so I stamped my fish again with Archival ink, right over the top of the original.  The Perfect Pearls adds even more shine!

The waterlilies were stamped on X-Press It Blending Card with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Then I colored them with Copic Markers [V000, V12, V15, V17].  I painted the center of the big flower with more Perfect Pearls, and I added the white dots with an Opaque White Glaze pen. 

The center of the small waterlily is colored with a Copic Marker [Y15].  I stamped the lily pad with Archival ink on a scrap of patterned card stock.  The tag was cut from PTI Vintage Cream card stock using a Spellbinders die.  I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark and embossed with Zing! purple metallic embossing powder.

To finish things off, I mounted my water colored panel on some Plum Pudding card stock from PTI and added some Winter Wisteria ribbon.  I popped up the sentiment panel and flowers using pop dots from Stampin' Up and attached the whole thing on a Vintage Cream card base.

I don't have any Waltzingmouse Stamps yet, so I used two sets from Flourishes [Waterlilies and Life Lines].

So that's it for this CASE!  Stay tuned for another CASE card tomorrow!

A Word of Thanks...

I want to thank all of you for your encouraging comments on my blog posts so far!  I didn't even realize anyone had sent me comments; I guess I need to update my notification settings.....ooops!  I really appreciate the feed back, and it's exciting to know that someone out there has taken the time to visit my blog.

Thanks again!

~Amber

The Daily Marker Blog

I'm attempting to win the prize from this post at The Daily Marker.  Love this blog! 

Here is a look at the prize:

 





I adore the cards she made for the Simon Says Stamp blog!

Wish me luck!