Sympathy Cards

I have been making quite a few sympathy cards lately. We have had a death in my husband's family. We are mourning a young Dad, married with 5 kids. I didn't have any cards made ahead of time and sympathy cards can be the toughest to make. I managed to get a photo of a couple of them before they go to loved ones. Times like these make me thankful that our family has faith and an eternal hope as we will see our loved ones again in heaven.
These are very simple cards but I wanted the sentiment to be the focus.

Mass Production

Yes, I am at it again. Card shops are in need of sympathy cards (my least favorite kind to create). I was with a friend last night and pounded off 36 cards to keep the shops stocked for a while. I only brought along a few supplies to her house so these are the layouts I came up with for this assembly line.
All the products are Papertrey with the exception of the primas and buttons.

I'll be back later today, after I get a chance to go a play a little more.

Happy Stamping!

Be Still

My uncle used to always say, "Be Still" instead of "Be quiet", he said that phrase encompassed what he wanted. He would say this to me in the boat when we were fishing, saying "be still" got me to close my mouth as well as stop shaking the boat.....very effective. I often think of this when I think of being STILL before the Lord, not only quieting my mouth but my body and mind as well.
I was looking for a graphic impact card for this easter set. There is nothing more graphic in my mind than picturing those three crosses on a hill. I outlined the center one with white gel pen for focus.
This sentiment and set are wonderful, they are the newest release from Papertrey. I decided to use her newest color as well....aqua mist. I sponged and brayered that color on the card and then used the cardstock to mat it. This shows exactly how "perfect" of a match they are!
I sponged the flower to match.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Happy Stamping!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Don't you just love "toy story", that phrase will forever be in my head when I use this stamp! The sentiment is from Papertrey (out on a limb). This is for today's sketch challenge over on SCS. I had a dear friend over today and she brought some CHF stamps with her. I saw that stars and thought....wow! Perfect for today's challenge! I am not sure what CHF set this is from ( I forgot to look before she left).
I also LOVE the new colors by Papertrey, this aqua is just the greeny-blue I was looking for.
I was also caught up in the visiting with my friend so this was the ONLY thing I accomplished this afternoon (card wise). It was way too much fun catching up with her instead (smiles).

Happy Stamping!

Beautiful Cross

I could not resist Nichole's most recent release. This is a beautiful religious set and she has used some of the most heartfelt verses from the Bible in it! This will be wonderful for encouragement, sympathy and inspirational cards. You can find this Papertrey set following THIS link.
I also adore her new line of paper. The bottom half of this card is her dp and the top half is the new spring moss color stamped and embossed in white, leaving space for my Bible verse stamped in black.

I did get a little creative with the cross. I used Papertrey's "out on a limb" set for the tiny flowers and the grass. I used my copic black liner pen (0.3) to create the vine that the flowers attach to. I also colored in my cross with my YG91 (putty) copic marker which is a fairly close color match to this spring moss. I did some careful stitching and topped off with some satin ribbon.

A side note....I bought an ATG gun for adhesive today, I don't know what took me so long! What a nice strong hold it has!

Happy Stamping!

Cherry Blossoms Coming!

It feels like spring today! I look forward to the cherry blossoms each year, they are so pretty (but messy). This was for today's inspiration challenge on SCS. The colors just spoke to me so I had to play! I used Papertrey's "out on a limb" set. I stamped the vine and the flowers them embossed with clear detail embossing powder. I brayered over it all with aqua adirondack ink.

Hint: If I would have just stamped on blue paper, the pink in the blossoms would not look baby pink. So in order to keep the trueness of the colors I needed to emboss my image then add the blue color over top and the image would resist the blue color and stick everywhere else. Make sense?

For the final touches, the Martha Stewart border punch added a nice "feel" and I stitched around my sentiment and added a flower.
This is very simple in design but I love the final results!

Have a great weekend!

A card and some CHA fun!

I'm here is sunny CA, and just drinking up the sunshine before I head home tomorrow. It has been so fun here at CHA and there has been plenty of inspiring eye candy! This card I made just before leaving for CA and you know me and birds....we flock together (groan). I made the branches and blooms using papertrey's new set. The bird is acrylic, I can't remember the brand and I'm not at home to look. I used my ranger glossy product to glue the 2scoops BG paper to the back and then set this oversized bird on the branches. I loved the difference in scale, I thought it highlighted the bird so well. The little sentiment is also by papertrey (mixed messages set).
Some fun photos from CHA. I was saying to the girls the other night that it just amazes me how much everyone is just like they seem on their blogs....truly delightful! Here is a spontaneous picture that happened on of the aisles of the show. Lots of faces I'm sure you recognize. I do notice that I am usually in the back of all the photos....gotta love being tall!
Some of the eye candy I was talking about. These are flowers made of grunge board. They are so beautiful IRL!
I was so excited to see one of my favorite fabrics come to paper life! Heather Bailey has her "fresh cuts" now in paper form. Looking forward to ordering some of this!
I'm out the door and back to the show. I am looking forward to going home and hugging my family....I miss them tons!

Fruit to go

I tend to make up little gift packages with sweets, but it is now January and everyone is on a diet. How about something healthy? Fruit to go snacks anyone? I thought this strawberry flavored snack had packaging that matched some magenta patterned paper that I have. I love the close tones of the red and orange, nice and colorful for this time of year.

This little gift pocket was done up for today's "try a new technique" over on SCS. It is always fun to try something new.

The stamps are a combo of two papertrey sets. Green Thumb and their cake set. I sewed the pocket together just to be sure it wouldn't fall apart.

Make sure you come back tomorrow, I have some fun news to share with you!

Happy Stamping!

A Card and A Winner!

This card was done for yesterday's color challenge on SCS. We were to use sage shadow, rose red and apricot. Now that is a color combo!
I really enjoyed the papertrey release party the other night... more details on that further down. I had papertrey in my head so I pulled out a few sets and combined them. This is Green Thumb, Beautiful blooms and the cake set combined. I first stamped my leaves in the sage color and used clear embossing powder and set them. I then stamped my red flowers and the frame for my sentiment and embossed them with clear. I then brayered over the entire thing with apricot chalk ink, making sure to have my darkest color to the edges and have the sentiment area the lightest (to draw your eye). Topped off with some ribbon from the discount bin at Michael's and the sentiment stamped in black chalk ink (colorbox) and I was done! I think it has a neat mod look.

OK, now the cool thing about the papertrey party. There was a lot of chit chat, but I seemed to be swept up in the conversation regarding Beth Moore. Now, I had never heard of her, but the girls on SCS were RAVING about her bible studies and video series. I was really interested and asked my hubby if he had heard of her that evening and he just shook his head no. Wouldn't you know it, as I was making coffee for the women's bible study group (that is my role, I am the coffee lady), I took a look at the books on the table for the classes being offered this term and wouldn't you know it......A Beth Moore study book was staring me in the face. I just knew in my heart it was meant for me. This is the first Beth Moore study our church has offered.
To make a long wonderful story short, I left my first class yesterday feeling very loved and pursued by God. I am looking forward to digging into this study. So thankyou to the SCS girls that mentioned Beth Moore! I believe your comments were meant for me! You can find Beth Moore studies and such HERE. Love it when my worlds collide (my stamping and my Jesus).

Ok, last thing, the blog candy! Thanks for all your kind comments, looks like the majority of you want to see more coloring tutorials, so I will get working on that!
The winner of the candy is:
Chris scrappin and stampin in texas!
She commented:
Hi Sherrie! Congrats on your hits! I love your blog. I love any tutorials. Sometimes it is better to see if it is a lengthy tutorial. SC does help a lot, but if it involves lots of folding..a video is nic. But I LOVE any tutorials. Getting one of your cards would be tops though!! Love your work. Chris

So drop me an e-mail Chris with your addy and I'll get this prize out to you!
Have a wonderful day everyone,
Happy Stamping!

Brown paper packages.....

tied up with string.....these are a few of my favorite things. Did I put a tune in your head, it was ringing in mine while I created the wrapping for these packages. They are going to my nephews but my sisters check my blog so.....I can't divulge the contents.
It was tough to get a good photo as these packages didn't fit in my white photo shoot box. Oh well.

This is my last post before Christmas, as my kids and hubby are now officially on holidays and I have been looking forward to spending some time with them. We have been playing a lot of "tag team" during this season, running from one event to another.

A little about these tags. I stamped the letters in alpine mist brilliance ink and the snowflakes in white chalk ink. Then I embossed them in detail ep. I then took my versamark pen and added some "snow" outline to my letters and embossed again. I then took my beige brilliance pad (for Jude) and my coffee bean pad (for Josh) and rubbed it over the entire surface. I then took a cloth and rubbed off the extra ink on the resist areas. Looks really pretty IRL.
My nephews are 4 and 1 so I don't think they will appreciate these but I think their mom's will.
I used Papertrey's "snowflake serenade" and A Muse "letter alphabet" to stamp these tags.
I want to say a HUGE MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers, some of you e-mail me and I have been blessed with many "blogger" friends this past year.
My wish for you is that you can join me in slowing down a little and enjoy Jesus, the reason for this season.
God's Blessings to you all!

Christmas card orders

More Christmas cards! Seems like in the beginning of the season I can't wait to do them and by the end of the season I'm ready for a change. I think I'm nearing the end.... My Christmas cards were made easy with this Papertrey stamp set called "snowflake serenade". I paired it up with cosmo cricket dp so these went very quickly to assemble. I used colorbox (merlot), creamy caramel, and chocolate chip inks for my images and sentiment. A little bit of stickles for the center and easy peasy I'm done!
Here I zoomed in on a single card. The ribbon accent actually goes through the card so you can see it on the inside. I cut a slit with my exacto blade in the binding to string it through.
Gotta get more like these done and off to the shops!

Happy Stamping!

Getting Stitchy...with some sewing hints

I am filling a Christmas order today. Love how these turned out and today's "ways to use it challenge" was just the extra push I needed to do them this morning. It was a sewing challenge and those of you who are here frequently know how I love to sew on cards! Good, cheap, strong and pretty adhesive! I used my new Papertrey snowflake set and stamped in Palette (water lily green) and Colorbox (merlot). The wonderful DP is by Cosmo Cricket, which gave me my color inspiration.

Some of you have asked for sewing machine tips:
When you come to a corner make sure your needle is DOWN in your project then lift the presser foot and pivot. If it is not quite in the right place to do your next edge then lift your needle JUST out of your project, lift your presser foot and make the slight adjustment before sewing your next line. I know many of you do this already but for those dusting off your sewing skills, this is what has worked for me. I make my stitch quite short in stitch length when I am zig zagging, this way more thread appears on my project for larger impact. When straight stitching, I lengthen the stitch length, so once again, you see more of the thread.

Here is a close up of a single card. You can see the stitching a little better. I used a nice caramel colored thread. The bow is glued on and there is a small jewel in the center of the snowflake for accent. I distressed the white a little with Antique Linen Distress Ink.
I then pasted it to a white cs base to hide the stitching, nice clean look on the inside.
Thanks for coming to look, and Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans today, wish I could join you for turkey....Yum!

The masses

Ahhh, yes, the sweet smell of productivity! In between designing I need to keep my local shops happily stocked up on cards. This is probably good for me, it reminds me that what is simple can be very good. This first set is SUPER SIMPLE. I went with the chocolate or sweet theme and scrounged through my stamps and found quite a few. The stamps are MFT, A Muse, Papertrey. The wonderful chocolate ribbon I buy in 100yd. mega rolls.....love the stuff! Colored with my copics.
These were even easier! No coloring, let my ink do the work! This is the "build a bouquet set" by MFT. The sympathy sentiment is MFT and the "get well" is SU. New Hey Sugar paper by Cosmo Cricket. Yes, the white ribbon, I buy in 100yd. rolls too! Just gotta package em' up and distribute. Whew! That should hold them for about a week....lol!

Happy Stamping!

Pocket Invites

My daughter's birthday is coming up and I thought it would be fun to create some pretty invites for the sleepover she is having. I used today's try a new technique challenge on SCS to make these invites. I used two Papertrey sets. The cake stamp set as well as the beautiful blooms set that had the "birthday girl" sentiment in it. I stitched the edges to be sure they will not fall apart and dressed it up with Amy Butler DP. She loves Amy Butler fabric so I thought this would be a fun choice. The velvet flowers are Maya road and the brad Heidi swap.


If you click on these images you can see a close up of the single card and the velum detail. I love the softness the velum layer brought. I stamped the cake and flowers on the bottom white layer and then stamped the frame and sentiment on the velum itself. You can see the detail of the frame all the way around , even on the dark parts of the cake.

I think the girls will be tickled pink with these and I can't wait to show them to my daughter today!

Happy Stamping!

A lesson learned....

I just want to cringe when I look at this card. I had an idea in my head, which I liked, but took a bad turn somewhere in the middle of creating. I wanted to show you because I really like it when I can recognize a mistake and learn something from it. I have learned this principle a few times but this time is stared me in the face.....lesson I learned.........
Less Is More!!! I had so many things going on in the first card my eye didn't know what to look at! My color inspiration came from the new figgy pudding basic grey dp, so I felt I needed to use it, hence the ugly have circles at the sides.....and I don't know WHAT possessed me to put a ribbon through the middle of it!

Oh well, not to dwell on the negative, I LOVE my second try of this. I came back a couple hours later and created what my mind's eye had originally intended. The house of mouse character is Mudpie, I wanted to make a Christmas card so I stamped the SU tree behind him and used the Papertrey sentiment to top it off. The stitching is definitely tricky around the corners, so I just had to take my time. Colored with copics and embellished with three drops of liquid pearls.

Thanks for indulging me in my little "ah ha" moment!

Wishing you Joy!

This is my card for today's color challenge on SCS! Love the cool color palette of gray,soft sky, and pomegranite. I just picked up this "figgy pudding" paper yesterday and was so excited that it matched today's challenge! Score! I started with a little gift box idea on my card (the snowmen) and tied with a ribbon and hung a gift tag. I received my Restoration Hardware catalogue yesterday and fell in love with all the quilted bedding they are showing. Hence the quilted sewing pattern. I drew lines in pencil first and then just followed with my machine and soft blue thread.

I love to play with new toys....who doesn't? So my new Papertrey set was calling me. Perfect feeling for this card and the snowflakes fit right in. I added a few pearls to my sentiment and scuffed up the edges of the card and Voila! Love these colors together!

Here is a close shot of my little tag. I did a 2-step stamping technique with the 2 smallest sizes of snowflakes in this set. Topped off with a K&Co pearl, I thought it made a sweet little tag for my gift box.

Happy Stamping!

Beautiful Friend

Today's post is a couple of challenges rolled into one. The first is the layout, this is done according to Julee's Mojo monday sketch challenge. The second is the color challenge today on SCS. We were to use More Mustard, Old Olive and Bashful Blue. What a combo. It felt quite flowery to me. A couple of things of interest. The sewing is done with thread that is multicolored, it is hard to see in the photo but is a stunning accent IRL. I love this ribbon that a friend and I found at Essential Packaging. There is even texture on this vine's leaves. Instead of just stamping the image with solid color, I decided to watercolor my flowers with reinkers and an aquapen. I did outline the flowers with my C-1 copic. Lots of glitter accent too.

Remember Thursday is the beginning to the new MFT reveals! You are gonna love em'! I can't wait to show you what I have been up to.
5 sets ready for October 1st!


Happy Stamping!

Note of Thanks

This was all white card stock in the beginning.....oh my fingers are full of ink! I started with my Martha Stewart leaf stamp, then masked, then stamped papertrey leaves around it. I aquapainted my main leaf using Cranberry crisp and More Mustard reinkers. The little felt leaves are cut out from my felt ribbon. Black brads and grey ribbon were in my stash. A little sewing (you know me) and some accenting with my glaze pen. Now that I am warmed up....off to do some design work (MFT)! Can't wait to show you all 5 sets being released OCT 1st!

Thanks for all you congrats yesterday with my "honorable mention" post, you know how to make a girl feel good!
Happy Stamping!

Honorable Mention!

Whoo hoo! Just had to jump up and down a little as my card seen HERE was chosen for honorable mention on Nichole's blog! Wow, what an honor! She gushed some very kind words my way so if you want to see that and the other fantastic entries click here! She made my day!

Papertrey Looks

These are truly "beautiful blooms"! I wanted to create a rainfall of flowers and create a flow around my sentiment. I was able to use my cuttlebug and cut just a portion of the flower to draw the attention to the edge of my tag. I used Palette's seascape, and nude. The darkest color is Creamy Caramel by SU. I love sewing on cards and I find it gives a wonderful edge to everything. BTW ...... Do you like my new photos, I set up a little "studio" in my basement and OTT light, wow , it is so nice to have a truer picture of the color!

Here is another Christmas look that I could achieve with the papertrey blossoms! See my little colored pearls on my stickpin. These colors I think are definitely coming down the pipe for fall and winter. I am seeing A LOT of gray! I enjoyed making a fun border with the set of dots and they also doubled for the holly on my vine. Lots of creative fun with a friend today!

I love it when I can create completely different looks with the same stamps! Thanks Papertrey!