A Shower of Blessings Card

I was recently invited to the bridal shower for my nephew's fiancee (I couldn't find the little mark that should be added to the e!).  Of course, I had to make a card!  Here's the details:

• The patterned paper came from Hobby Lobby.  The inspiration was that lovely patterned glitter number that is cut as a circle.  Everything else was selected from there including card design.
• The floral and doves, etc. come from a Jolee's set I picked up at the same time.  It has been a very long time since I used one of these on a card, but doesn't it work perfectly?

• I die cut those tiny flowers with my IO Spiral Flowers dies.  Boy howdy- did they work here or what?  There's a combination of colored cardstock and vellum flowers with tiny pearl accents in the centers.
• The sentiment was printed out from the computer and then die cut with my Spellbinders Labels 18 dies.  A coordinating gold cardstock was also used.

What do you think?  This is one of my favorite cards in a while.  One where my vision was ultimately played out the way I saw it in my mind.  That doesn't usually happen folks!  I've plans to make a wedding celebration card as well.  Stay tuned!

Sweet Little Angel Card

I apologize for the tilt on this photo.  Don't know what I was thinking- probably rushing the photo taking process.  The card turned out lovely enough that I just had to share it even though the photo is less than stunning!

Here's the details-

• The patterned paper is from the stash- I think these were actually scraps from the heap.  It's a different color combo for a baby girl card but that's why I picked it.  
• The sentiments were stamped in black Archival Ink using the Heartfelt Creations Sweet Lullaby stamp set and then die cut with the Once Upon a Time die.  I colored the flower with a Worn Lipstick Distress Marker.  
• The focal image is stamped onto 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, and Worn Lipstick. The image was then die cut with my Our Daily Bread Designs Elegant Ovals.  A coordinating piece of cardstock was also cut with a larger die.
• A small piece of organza ribbon was then tied in a bow and adhered with Crystal Accents.

This card I do have a purpose for.  I need to get it off in the mail.  Headed there now.

Baby Bundle of Joy Card

I had picked up Heartfelt Creations Sweet Lullaby stamp set and thought I should give it a whirl, though I don't immediately have a need for a baby card.  Thus, this creation was born.  Here's the details:

• The patterned paper is from the stash- an old paper pack from Hobby Lobby.  I was drawn to the contrast between the browns and light blue.  
• The sentiments were stamped in black Archival Ink and then die cut with the Once Upon a Time die.  
• A second run through the Grand Calibur with coordinating light blue cardstock with the die produced the stunning background to the Bundle of Joy sentiment.  I added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to soften the edges and blend the blues.  

On the inside, it was some more of the coordinating patterned paper from the paper pad and one last sentiment.  I really liked how this turned out and am now looking for a wee little one to send it off in honor of their arrival.

Being Knighted and Earning It

Since knew my grandmother and grandfather would have a fair bit of gratitude from our very eventful weekend, I decided to use some of that paper from the stash and make a set of thank you cards.  These are simply made, but that doesn't diminish the feelings from the heart.  Here's the details:

• The sentiment comes from a Close to My Heart stamp set from the stash and is stamped using their Moonstruck ink.

• The frame is cut using my Spellbinders Labels 18 die. 
• The inside is stamped with a Fiskars stamp set in both the CTMH Moonstruck and Buttercup inks.

How could you not feel an immense gratitude.  I can barely begin to count:

1. Grandparents
2. Family
3. Service
4. Recognition
5. Love

I could go on and on.  There's really no way to take it all in, just live it and give it out. I thought I'd share one last picture.  My grandfather's honor bestowed French "knighthood" on him.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Sir Robert and Lady Burrows:

Honoring Those Who Served

I apologize for the not so crafty post, but my grandfather's birthday and subsequent honoring by the country of France was a momentous event in our family.  This post is dedicated to all those who served in World War II and their sacrifices, great and small.  

My grandfather and five other men were honored for their service to the French people during World War II.  They were honored with the Chevalier dans l'Ordre national de la Legion d'Honneur at a presentation ceremony in Denver during our recent trip there.  My grandfather was very moved by this honor, thinking he had not earned it because he didn't have hand to hand combat during his time in France.  However, he was a part of the support staff and the army would be glad to correct him- they needed all personnel, support and those on the front lines, to win the war.  My grandfather, like many other veterans, has experienced  survivor's guilt even though it has been more than 60 years ago.

Honorable Jeffery Richards, Esq., Bob Burrows and Col. Wesley West, USAF (ret)

Photos of the program- each honoree was graced with a summary of their service in the war and a special recounting of their effort and sacrifices.  Col. Wesley West was the master of ceremonies and the Honorary Consul General of France, Jeffery Richards bestowed the medal on each recipient.    The men were very humble about receiving the honor- mostly considering themselves nothing special.  Those of us in attendance who knew each man well disagreed and were very pleased to be able to attend the ceremony.  My grandfather was featured in a local news story about the event and you can watch that short video here.  I share this with you more as a memorial for me and my family, but hope that you, too, are pleased that we as a people have not forgotten those who served so long ago.
 
Thanks for looking through our family memories.  It is good to not forget- both in the long past, the recent past and these present events where we can see how very precious family connections are.

A 90th Birthday Party

I promised to get this post together and so here I am trying to get it done.  Remember that I told you I had a stack of that plaid patterned paper in the stash.  Here's one way to burn through about ten of them... flags for the table centerpieces.  Here's the details :

• The nine and the zero were once again cut with my Quickutz Sophie dies, this time out of blue cardstock.
• The frames were cut using my Spellbinders Labels 18 dies.  There is a solid cardstock on the back of each of these to add stability.
• The sentiment was stamped with Close to My Heart Moonstruck ink.
• The sticks are simply wooden skewers.  I placed a bit of hot glue on the stick and the cardstock and used foam squares to glue the patterned paper on. 

Here's what the table looked like:




I ended up printing photos of my grandpa throughout the years and die cutting them.  I glued them to the blue cardstock side and left the back plain patterned paper.  Three in a mason jar with some cellophane shred made a nice, small centerpiece so partygoers could talk over them. 

We sprinkled some confetti and peppermints around the table for additional effect. 












A few were also placed at the cake table and the buffet.  It was a good time had by all and I must say, simple enough to execute despite working full-time and from a long distance.  I purchased the jars on site the day before and had all the paper products shipped on site.  Easy, peasy.





This is my family that came.  My brother, his wife and two children are missing from this picture as they weren't able to make the trip.  My nephew, Jake, is standing in front of (left to right) my mom Sue, grandma Mabel, grandpa Bob, dad Roger, and sister Angela.  My family is in back with son Timothy, myself, husband Dan and daughter Katie  May God bless us with many more happy years together.

Celebrating 90 Rich Years

I had previously mentioned that we took a trip up to Colorado to celebrate by grandfather, Bob's, 90th birthday.  It is such a rare and special thing to be in your mid-forties and still have active, engaged and independent grandparents.  My grandparents still live on their own, though there are some of us who wish they would allow more help with the daily maintenence in their lives.  Not going to complain though because my kids still have an active relationship with their great-grandparents.  Precious!

I made this card as invitations to the big shindig.  It needed to be simple because I had to make 30 of them.  Here's the details:

• The patterned paper is from the stash.  I'm going to admit to having that stack of paper for more than a decade.  Long story short- a local manufacture went out of business and had a garage sale.  All you could stuff into one bag for a low price.  I stuffed shrinkwrapped stacks of 25 pieces of paper into that bag- I probably have the majority of it in the stash to this day.  What was I thinking?!!!?  More importantly, why keep it this long? 'Course there's a big part of me that says- just for such an occassion. I know, right?!  It's a sickness.
• The cardstock is a mish-mash of scraps and cardstock from the stash.  Here's a tip- those scraps went further than I thought they would.  Other than the glue tape to put it all together, I made 30 cards for the cost of the pre-made card/envelope set (with a coupon $6).  Everything else came from the stash...  Not all yellows were the same card to card, etc.  But no one knows the difference because each person only gets one invitation.
• The nine and zero were cut using one of my ancient Quickutz Sophie dies.
• The sentiment was printed out on the computer and die cut with my Spellbinders Labels 17 dies.  I cut the dark blue carstock fram by die cutting the Labels 17 of the same size as the yellow cardstock and triming the last 1/2 inch.  

The inside was a Word file printout to provide the attendees the majority of the information needed to attend.  My grandmother was very pleased with the invitations.  It was truly my pleasure to make these and send them out.

I also made table decorations and I have pictures from the party to share. I need to upload and edit those photos and I'll make a post to show all the details.  I'm trying to get them together and a special post about my grandfather.  Hoping that happens this weekend... thanks for sticking with me.

Sixty-Five Years of Marriage

Friends of ours recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.  What a stunning tribute to marriage!  They celebrated with their local church and invited a few of us family friends to join them.  It was very inspiring and encouraging.  I made this simple card to show them our love and tucked a gift card to a nice restaurant inside.  This way they could enjoy a night out together sometime.  Here's the details:

• I used an embossing folder with white cardstock to create the piece on the top, applied with foam squares to raise it off the card front for some dimension.
• The board die was used to cut the same white cardstock making the eyelet piece applied under a piece of green ribbon from the stash.
• The flower is a Heartfelt Vintage Floret cut from kraft glassine paper.  I just love how this looks when shaped- all crinkley with such dimension!  The flower is finished with a pearl accent for the center and a couple of pearl ended hat pins as accents.
• The sentiment is stamped in black archival ink using Simon Says Stamp's Friendship Messages. 

What joy to celebrate such committment.  I pray that Dan and I might enjoy as many long years together!

Our Beautiful World - Autumn

Kirsty over at Handmade Little Things has once again inspired as she follows Our Beautiful World and the word prompts each week.  I decided to join in the fun.  We recently took a trip to Colorado to celebrate my grandfather's 90th Birthday and I just had to share some pictures from the trip.  More on that later.

The word prompt this week is Autumn.  While we were in Colorado, there were several Autumn inspired events.  First, was a drive up through the foothills into the mountains to see the snow that had fallen the night before our arrival.

Next was a trip to the pumpkin patch, also required.  My grandma, Mabel, had to get out and walk in the rows of dried pumpkin vines because this is an annual photo opportunity for her and her great-grandchildren.  Here she is with my daughter Katie who skipped another fun day in the mountains for just such a moment.  That large pumpkin was left on my grandparents front porch- no room in the suitcase!

So much fun to be able to spend this kind of time in an environment different than our own.  Arizona has a much shorter and less colorful Autumn.  The nights are cooler, but our daytime is still quite warm.  Our time in Colorado included true cool days and colder nights with colors everywhere- gold, red and orange sprinkled in the still-green.

Autumn is always special as our kids have year round school and, thus, we typically vacation for the first two weeks of October.  This year was extra special and I'm so glad Roz chose the word Autumn for the word prompt. It gives me the excuse to post these pictures to share with you and wax nostalgic about our trip.  Come join the fun over at Our Beautiful World and share what autumn looks like in your part of the world.

If nothing else, stop by and take a peak into the pictures shared by others.  They never disappoint and it just might inspire you too!

A Floral Birthday Greeting

This is another card created using the pre-cut Heartfelt Creations flowers I received as a parting gift from working the May scrapbook convention for Heartfelt Creations.  I really enjoyed being able to spread the love for Heartfelt products and, months later, get to enjoy the flowers in my cardmaking.  Here's the details:

• The patterened paper comes from a few pieces of KaiserCraft's Miss Empire I picked up several months ago.  The colors are unusual for me and so I tried to follow those. 
• The floral pieces come from a variety of dies cut from coordinating (back side) patterned paper.  It's hard to detect in these photos, but there are bits of brown on those floral pieces.  I shaped them by pressing my  stylus into the molding mat in the fat part of each leaf.  
• The flowers are Heartfelt's Majestic Blooms that I colored with rose stamp paint.  I shaped the flowers and added some multi-colored prills.  They add such a nice touch to the center.
• The sentiment was stamped using black Archival ink onto a piece of the coordinating patterned paper.  Both the sentiment and the matching orange patterned paper were cut using Our Daily Bread Designs Elegant Ovals.  A little Vintage Photo Distress Ink was applied ot the edges.

Pretty cute card and I used up some more items from the stash.  I can keep working at it!

Just Because I Wanted To

I have recently purchased a couple of border dies.  I haven't quite got the trick to using across the entire page, but practice makes perfect so I tried this card.  Here's the details:

• All the patterned papers are from MME's The Sweetest Thing Lavendar paper pad.
• I can't remember where I picked up the border die, but it really worked here with the dark pink cardstock oposing those patterned papers.
• I used the embossing folder on half of the cardstock card.
• The sentiment comes from my Our Daily Bread Designs Ornate Border Sentiments and the frame from the Ornate Borders and Flowers dies and stamps.  

It turned out to be a cute little card that I can use for any occassion.  A fun experiment that inspires me to play some more.  I'm still catching up on the cards made during my hiatus.  I'll keep them coming.