Welcoming a New Baby

My cousin's daughter, Taryn, is expecting her first child.  I whipped up this card for the baby shower last weekend and I'm just getting to posting.  I'm off today to work for Heartfelt Creations at the Phoenix CK convention.  I'm a little giddy that little 'ole me gets to work for them.  Here's the details:

• The patterned paper flags were made from MME's The Sweetest Thing- Tangerine papers.  
• The sentiment was stamped in black Archival Ink and is stamped with a Crafter's Companion Beatrix Potter Female Sentiments stamp.
• The image is stamped onton watercolor paper using black Archival Ink using my Crafter's Companion Two Bad Mice stamp.  
• I colored the image with my Distress Markers using the watercoloring technique- Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, and Worn Lipstick. 
•  The scalloped circle was cut from a coordinating piece of patterned paper using my Spellbinders Lacey Circles. 
• The background is a piece of embossed, textured cardstock from the stash.
• The ribbon is a small scrap leftover from a old project.

The soon-to-be mama was pleased.  This will be the fourth or fifth great-great grandchild for my grandma.  I'm feeling particularly nostalgic.  My son graduates high school next May and I find myself praying to God that we might celebrate that special occasion with both my grandparents.   May God make it so.  In the meantime, I'm going to try to sell some Heartfelt Creations product over the next two days.  If you are in the area, stop by and say hi!

A Thank You Tag

We recently hosted a comment party to give away a few pieces of blog candy.  One winner has yet to contact me-

CREATE OUT LOUD


My hope is that this lovely lady will email me at viralscrapa AT gmail DOT com and provide me with mailing information so that I can get the prize out to her.  Thank you to everyone who commented to win.  Your encouragement and participation is greatly appreciated. 

Which leads me to today's post- a thank you tag to include with our second winner, Diane Loughrey.  Diane won the Spring Distress set of ink pads and stains.  I couldn't resist thanking her for participating. 










Here's the tag details:

• The patterned papers are Stampin' Up's Attic Boutique.  
• The flower was stamped and cut from colored cardstock with  my Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms set.  The flower has some Glass Shards Glitter applied with my Crystal Accents to create the dimensional glint on the flower.  The center is made using my Good Earth- Earth Elements.
• The sentiment was stamped with a Simon Says Stamp sentiment stamp in brown archival ink.  The frame is cut using my Stampin' Up Apothecary Accents Framelit die.
• All papers are edged with some Vintage Photo Distress ink.
• The floral die cut is from my Spellbinders Floral Flourish cut from green cardstock. 

Diane has emailed to say she received her package last week.  I'm watching to see what she creates with her new supplies!

A Musical Thank You

Whew, what a week.  I've felt overwhelmed with the end of the school year activities, the beginning of the next band season (that starts in May, y'all) and multiple family commitments that just happen to have coincided with all the other fun.  In the midst of all that activity, I needed a thank you card for two faithful volunteers who dedicated many hours to my daughter's marching band.  I wanted to make something special that would let them know how grateful we were for their contribution.  This lovely is the result.  Here's the details:

• The patterned paper comes from the stash.  So, very old that I created this card back in 2011 with a separate piece of the same paper.  At that time, the source of the paper was indistinguishable because of it's age.  Time flies when you own a Scrapbox.  Should we talk about the patterned paper stash?  ...ummm... nope.
• The floral pieces are a grouping of my Our Daily Bread Designs Fancy Foliage and a new Simon Says Stamp Leaf Column die. 
• The flowers are stamped with black Archival Ink and cut with my Heartfelt Creations Vintage Floret dies. 
• The treble clef and notes were cut from my Cricut Quarter Note cart from black cardstock. 
• I created the sentiment using text boxes in Word and then die cut the printout using my Spellbinders Labels 18 die.

My fellow volunteers cannot know how very valuable they have been to the program.  A handmade card travels some of that distance.  Here's hoping the holiday weekend allows me to catch up on my posts!

Ladies and Gentlemen- We have TWO Winners!

I am so grateful for the blogging community.  I have a small little niche in this big 'ole world and I'm grateful for any and all encouragement that comes from sharing my craft and getting the privilege to share in your crafting as well.  It binds us together in ways we're not sure would normally happen.

This week, the binding was such a blessing to me.  I had the inspiration a while back to make and send a card to a blog friend, Jessica Arrant who blogs over at Errant Scraps.  At that time (mid-March) I didn't know that her life was going to be very busy and that her posting would soon stall for almost the full next month.  This is normal in life- things happen, we get busy.  However, she emailed with a kind word telling me how very much she appreciated my card- it arrived on just a day for needing a pick-me-up.

Fast forward to Monday.  Tough day.  My husband had an encounter at work which ended in his voluntarily ending his employment.  We work at the same business.  This was an emotional, stress filled, awkward day.  I came home wrung out... to find a card in my mailbox.

Jessica had sent a little note, explaining her busy life and telling me how much it meant that I reached out, thanking me.  She cannot know- the distance is too great- how very much that meant to me.  Except maybe she can because my card did the same.  She said it gave her "a promise of hope".  Yeah... that!

So, it is time to announce the winners of our comment party posted at the first of the month.  Everyone was so very kind.  I *sad face* had to eliminate two comments because they are from outside the US.  Both from Canada and one a very faithful commenter *Hi, Karon!*.  So, without further yammering on at the mouth:

Winner #1

 CREATE OUT LOUD April 30, 2014 at 3:05 AM

Who said  "do you have any work from your 101 clqs [sic] like you do for your 102 class? if it wasnt for this blog I wouldnt be buying the 102 class-so now Im wondering if I should buy the 101 class-- any work from it on your blog?"  

Of course, I did reply so that Ms. Create would know that most of the posts for my Creative Chemistry 101 can be found it in the months of March and April 2012. I actually found the 101 class to be a better value for the money.  There was more video instruction and it is longer (2 weeks). 

 Ms. Create wins this lovely prize:

 Winner #2

Diane Loughrey May 2, 2014 at 4:27 AM

Who said "I love your photo. I am a big picture taker any where I go - it's all about taking memories home to look at for years to come. How generous are you to give some of your prize away. Thanks for the chance to win."

Diane wins our reward #2:

My hope is that these lovely ladies will email me at viralscrapa AT gmail DOT com and provide me with mailing information so that I can get these prizes out to you quickly.  Thank you to everyone who commented to win.  Your encouragement and participation is what is best about this thing called blogging.  I am very grateful to all who stop by whether a kind word is left behind or you just enjoy the craft like I do.

THANK YOU!

Our Beautiful World- Clouds

I regularly read from Kirsty Vittetoe's blog, Handmade Little Things.  She is so creative.  She also posts over at Our Beautiful World.  Sometimes I join in the photo prompt.  This week was one of those weeks.

The challenge word was clouds.  I had been reading through some old posts and read about our very unusual weather last February.  Phoenix, Arizona is known for the dry heat and wonderfully cool, but not cold Februarys.  Last year though, we had an unusual storm blow through and leave behind graupel.  This snow-like substance was stunning to see and we snapped a few pictures on the drive home.  I told the whole story in this post.  Here's my photos:

The sun was actually shinning most of the drive home.  It was a head-shakingly awesome sight.  In light of the winter the North has had this year, these photos might seem like a taunt.  However, this was truly wacky Phoenix winter weather.

Come join the fun or just see the cool photography over at:

Brandy's Back with One Fabulous Encouraging Card!

It's been a while since I have had the pleasure to share a creation by my bestie, Brandy.  She's the reason this blog started-we were going to blog together.  Then life got in the way and I blogged her projects for her.  Then life happened and the flow of pictures from her finished work went dry.  Well, she forwarded this picture to me a couple of weeks ago.  I thought I would share it with you because Brandy once again hit it out of the park!

Brandy used her Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms dies to cut out many different flowers.  The dress form is a diecut, not sure what she did to alter it.  I see some of Heartfelt Creations Classic Leaf die cuts and Spellbinders Floral Flourish.  I think that the sentiment frame is cut with Spellbinders Labels 19 square dies. 

What do you think?  Fabulous, yes!?  I'm so glad to have gotten this picture to share with you.  I hope it inspires you!

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: Spring Flowers.   Come on over to see the beautiful spring flowers and enjoy the fun.

I Thought of You Today Card

Time has been very precious lately.  End of the school year rush to complete homework, schedule SAT and ACT testing, prom tuxedo renting... I go on not because my increasingly independent children need anyone to help them through these activities but because I can feel time slipping away where I won't be able to claim busyness created by children.  When did that happen!!!???!!

Since the work trip, I've not fully gotten my mojo back.  This card might have been just what I was looking for in the mojo-infusion department.  Here's the details:

• The background is created using a light blue cardstock embossed with a Darice embossing folder.
• The card base and the matting are from the same piece of textured brown cardstock.  
• The patterned paper comes from the Stampin' Up Attic Boutique collection that was sitting on my craft table.  I've a few brown ink fingerprints on that patterned paper, did you see them?  I'll call them charming and unexpected.  I distressed the edge with my Tim Holtz Distress Tool.
• The border was created with a new die from Memory Box.
• The flower was first stamped with my Tattered Blossom stamps and then cut with the coordinating dies.  Wow, does that stamp and die make a fabulous flower?  I then dropped some Crystal Accents on the flower and sprinkled Krystallos Shard Glass.  This stuff creates a really sparkly result in person.  Just the right finishing touch.
•  The butterflies came from my Purple Cow CraftGeek Pin It tool.  This tool works like a stapler, but with small shaped embellishments.  It seems to work, though I'm still figuring out how to use them to best effect.

The inside of the card needed a little treatment because one can't write on brown cardstock.  I used a piece of coordinating patterned paper from the Stampin' Up Attic Boutique collection and a piece of cream cardstock.  The small flower was made with the same cardstock as the one on the front of the card.

All in all, I'm pleased with the result.  This card will go into the stash, waiting for that perfect moment to send a word of encouragement to someone.

Don't forget that I've posted a comment party for some blog candy.  Please click through the link, read about my great fortune that, in the end, I am hoping will result in a small fortunate event for you.  All you have to do is follow my blog and comment to win!

Hope your day is special, I thought of you today!

A Very Special Couple of Cards

I decided to break out my Distress Stain and watercolor paper and play around with the stamp set my blog friend, Loly, sent me.  This Simon Says Stamp set, Very Special, has a nice assortment of shapes and sentiment stamps, the primary one is this sentiment and swirl.

I first applied a liberal amount of water onto the paper with a spray bottle.  I then swiped a light amount of stain directly from the bottle.    I moved from left to right, spritzing water from the spray bottle and lifting color off with a paper towel until I got just the right amount of color.  This first card was made with Shaded Lilac, Evergreen Bough, and Wild Honey stains.  I used a small piece of tissue tape to hold the paper in place on the card when I mounted it to the cardstock base.  A few crystal accents are placed to create some movement in the design.

This second card was made just the same way only with Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Weathered Wood stains.  A couple of very special all occasion cards for the stash.

I decided to enter the first card into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Not So Mellow Yellow challenge.  Once again, my yellow is a bit mellow, I think that it qualifies as yellow and wanted to join in the fun.  Come on over to see all the yellow-y inspiration.

Don't forget that I've posted a comment party for some blog candy.  Please click through the link, read about my great fortune that, in the end, I am hoping will result in a small fortunate event for you.  All you have to do is follow my blog and comment to win!