Heavensent For You

Hi again ... Bear with me ... I haven't put alot up since New Years. While I've made some, I've been feeling pretty lousy last few days, but since I'm feeling a little better, here goes.

I was wandering the SCS threads the other day and got into some blogs and got lost, lol ... Okay, I'm fairly computer savvy, but all these people making all these different cards from all these different companies from all these different challenges ... can you see where I'm going? Anyway ... I ended up finding a color challenge (VSLFL1) to combine Riding Hood Red, Kraft and pink pirouette ... what a pretty combination ... somewhere NEAR that challenge, I saw a sketch that I really liked, so I followed it, too ... I need to make sure there's a pad of paper near the computer at all times, cuz you think I could find that again? Not, lol.
This card is actually 3x6. I like the different sized cards as long as they're not too funky or costly to send out (Costly?!, I crack myself UP! - They should just have a stamp at the P.O. made especially for card stampers! Instead of guessing "how much do these brads cost to mail ... is this ribbon too thick?" They should just round it off to a number for all of 'em.)

This next card was for SCS's Technique lovers ... Not sure if you know it or not, but Glitter is the bane of my existence. I made this card a few days ago and I'm STILL finding pieces of that stuff all over the place. I used tacky strips and angled them onto the cardstock. In the jar, the glitters looked white and the other was pink. Not so different on the card, in fact, from the pic, looks a little yellowy, but, that's how it goes. I DO like the way it turned out ... but NO, I won't be searching for any more ways to use glitter just yet, lol.

These two cards followed the color combination of Brilliant blue, Pumpkin and Garden Green. I'm pretty close to using up the very last of this original SU DP (blue swirl behind Oakley). I immedately thought of it when I saw the bubbles in his bath. I'm fast becoming a huge fan of the Whiff of Joy/Elisabeth Bell's images as well as the Sugar Nellies. They remind me of the Precious Moments figurines that I have in my curio cabinet, only grown up.

This next card was a sketch challenge at SCS (210). I very nearly ran out of room ... was going to try it again in a 5x7 version, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I used the Close as a Memory set - image on the left and their sentiment on the right. One of the first times I've done the butterflies, but I think it turned out by punching them from the same DP (Basic Grey- one of my favorite prints).

This actually started off being just some blue cardstock to stiffen my 4x6 postits ... well .. we can't EVER do anything simple, can we? I ended up adding a couple of layers with some designer paper ... Oh, and we can't leave it without an image, right? ... And you can't put an image up without SOME kind of embellishment, right? Ribbons, Stickles later, this is the result. Keep in mind, this is for the post its that I write notes on when I send out birthday cards to all of the wonderful stampers in Splitcoast's BRAK and Wish Rak birthday clubs, so they needed a special house til they 'left the building'.

I'm not thrilled with this little lady's colors, but I started off wrong. I had 2 Copics in lavender shades, so colored her in ... Couldn't find cardstock or designer paper to go with the flow, so I came close with the Parisian dp from SU ... I didn't sent my last secret sister a Christmas card (okay, who's kidding who - VERY few people got cards this season) ... so I wanted to send her a Valentine's card ... She's got 2 boys, so short on the girly stuff, so I wanted to make it a little fru-fru for her.

New Years Eve Wish RAK challenges:

These were the cards I made for the New Years Eve Wish Rak 'party' where all cards are made from WRAK (wishes sent to you) items and then are sent to the troops so they can send home to their loved ones ... Funny thing, there's no Hallmark's over in Iraq, go figure.

First up was to case SCS's Cork1035's gallery, found here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=447. I picked her Tableau of Terror because I loved the circle sunset she used in the back of her images. I had a tough time figuring out which wrak to use, but when I saw this ship, it called out to me ...

Second up was a Thinking of you card ... I love this image - this is where I want to retire if that ever happens:

Third was a Happy Birthday card suitable to send to anyone ...

Next, a birthday card for a boy from age 1 to 21 ... I love these Magnolia's ... can't believe I haven't seen them around until recently. I received this image from my Secret Santa, saxontoy, and absolutely have to get the background bench stamp, too ... I'm starting to get a little brave with the couple of Copics and Prisma markers - the Bic Markits are okay, but they're just not quite the same. Adds a little more when I fine tune them with the prisma colored pencils and gamsol, too. Just wait, I'll get me some more Copics, lol.

Next was to make an Easter card to send home to the kids, so I picked this cute bunny.

I had just received this image for the next challenge: a Spouse's anniversary card. I confess - I used a computer generated sentiment. I always forget to get the stamps w/words on them.

Next was a Birthday card for the wife. Stacy (SCS's jbgreendawn) sent me this image via the PIF thread, but I figured, it's just as good, right? I absolute love her collection of vintage stamps, to die for! The one on the left is the one I submitted. I liked it so much, I made a second one with different colors. The one on the left has a stamped sentiment. The one on the right is actually a clear rub-on, on top of vanilla card stock.

The next card we were given carte blanche - but we had to describe the technique we used (Faux Silk in my case). I stamped the Penny Black Fantasy Tree on a soft watercolored looking designer paper in black Stazon. I then crumpled up a piece of white tissue paper and then smoothed it out a bit. After applying glue stick to the entire top of the designer paper, I patted the tissue paper over the image (so as not to smooth it out too much - you want the wrinkles to show in the faux silk technique to make it look real). This just makes the cards look stunning, in my opinion.

Next challenge was a general Miss You or Thinking About You card. I used Matthew Lying Down from Whiff of Joy's collection.

Happy Birthday to Mom came next ... I've had this bunny I received in a collection a few months ago, but just now used. (I have since purchased the stamp when HL had their 50% sale - it's perfect for anyone.)

Love and Romance came next ... trick was we had to use a Heart in the card, as well as any Green, Pink and Brown color combo. This was a Unity heart stamped in coral, which is close to pink, so I went that route. A different color combo, I'll grant you ... but it seems to work. I cut out the heart image and sewed it onto garden green layer then cut that out freehand before matting on the coral that I ran through CB's swiss dots folder. Didn't have any designer paper to go with the green, so I made my own with one of the itty bitty's from SU with hearts in it.

The next challenge was pretty cool - to make a Patriotic Thank You card, but we were given the flags of the different countries - told to pick a sketch and a color combo we liked. I kept going back to the red and white flags from Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland - but I liked the Swiss layout ... kind of like a cross laid sideways. This cutie was also sent to me from my Secret Santa, saxontoy from SCS. I tried to keep it simple as the layout is fairly straightforward ... Not a lot of heavy matting, but I think it works.

Okay ... now this next one was to be a humorous card for a guy ... I don't really have a lot of funny stamps, so I had to go back to my Henrietta and her chicken butt, lol.