Heartfelt Creations- Encouraging Card

Brandy has been at it again, my friends.  Don't you just love the richness of her creations?  This little gem was created for a coworker who is moving on to bigger and better things.

Each flower was first stamped onto colored papers.  Because Brandy wasn't feeling well (that darn back!) she chose to hand-cut each flower before shaping and layering the flowers to create the lifelike look.  I'm sure you, like those who gasped out loud when first viewing this lovely card, are wondering how she was able to get that sheen on the flowers.  Me too!  That is a thin layer of Glimmer Glaze applied to the finished flower.  The finished look is really stunning and the picture doesn't do it justice at all.  There's so much detail in this creation that it's very difficult for me to identify everything.  A small list of supplies is found below.  I believe that Brandy's inspiration is this beauty from the Heartfelt Creations website. 

Great job, Brandy.  This is one for the portfolio if I ever saw it.  The colors, the richness of the design, the tattered "vintageness"... wow.  This card has me making up words...

Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms
Heartfelt Creations Vintage Floret
Heartfelt Creations Butterfly Medley 

Happy Birthday for My Man

I needed to make a birthday card for my hubby whose birthday is next month.  An extra day off is a perfect opportunity to let the creative juices flow.  I've even uploaded photos of cards from the scrapbook convention (my how time has flown).  I'm hoping to get to the blogging of those soon.  Additionally, Brandy forwarded a picture of a beautiful creation she made this weekend as well.  I'm telling you, creative juices baby!

This little card was inspired by the latest Mojo Monday sketch 295.  Given that round is just more feminine, I decided to go with the square look.  Additionally, since square envelopes are rare, I decided to alter the design and go rectangle.

I also decided to reach into the scrap pile and use up some of those scraps available to me.  This strip is quite old and there is little left, just the right fit for my card.


 I found a bunch of coordinating solids to fit the design.  Again, to make it a little more masculine I decided to forgo the flower and leaf motive.  Ms. Jessica over at Errant Scraps inspired the embellishment I finally decided on.  Her layout was just right and the rosette eye catcher fit perfectly- not to girly, not too plain and just the right depth for my design.  The pictures don't really capture the distressing done with my Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  The sentiment comes from my Titled Banners Sentiments stamp set.  The medallion is a 25 cent special in the bin at Michaels and the bird is from a Fiskars set, long stored in the Scrapbox.

I think I hit just the right note.  It will be a few weeks, but this one's ready and no rush will be needed.  He doesn't follow the blog, so it will still be a surprise.

Andie

A Crafty Softball Party

I am afraid that this might just be my last post of softball craftiness.  My youngest daughter moves onto high school next year and the commitments for high school activities are likely to make her too busy for participation in recreational softball any longer.  She's completed 13 seasons with her dad over the course of 7 years.  Twice a year for 6-8 weeks we were a dedicated mom and seasoned dad/coach that focused our energies on eleven (or thirteen) lovely young ladies and development of their talents/skills.  My contribution was mainly the picture taking during the games and then this type of craftiness for our end of the season party.  Without further ado (read: ending the bemoaning of the fact that my children are growing up)...

Each season the girls sign a frame for the team photo.  This is the thank you gift for the coaches.  We've always had multiple coaches helping.  This is a great support system to ensure that no matter what delays in a coach getting to practice there would always be enough help on hand. It makes for a better team and the girls love having dad help out.

I once again collected photos of each girl and created a photo album with their specific shots. 

Each book contained kid specific, team and friend photos.  This season was marked by quite a few funny faces, embarrassing/weird positions and an abundance of tongues hanging out of mouths.  I wisely edited the photos to pick those where the girls might be *shyly* proud of themselves on print. 

This season was marked by growth and frustratingly close losses.   Yet, it was a satisfying season and if it ends up being the finale of my husband Dan's softball coaching career, I think he'll be quite proud. 

I decided to skip the usual picture cake and get some pre-made Angry Birds (the team mascot/name) cupcakes topping them with these rosettes framing the player's photos.  I used the same technique as that recorded in last years post- Softball- Its almost over.  Instead of using the Cricut to cut the image out, I used my ancient but functional Creative Memories Circle Cutters.  I think the final result a little bit neater. 

Dan talked to the girls about transitions and how next year's high school activities move them on to new and exciting opportunities.  He encouraged them to pursue the opportunities whether they involve softball, band, or social growth with friends.  He also encouraged them to remember these times playing recreational softball with their friends and look for the lessons learned to apply them to their lives.  There's a tiny part (read:BIG) in me that deeply regrets passages- especially those which clearly point out that my children are growing up.    However, the enthusiasm and maturity evidenced by these young women make me excited to see what they turn into and how they change the world.  Truthfully, they've already changed my world...

Andie

Happy Father's Day- Early Peak

My grandparents were in town for a wedding celebration.  This is just one big excuse to celebrate Mother's Day (*late*) and Father's Day (*early*).  The way I look at it, celebrating at 43 years old with your grandparents is a good thing, no matter whether you've marked the right Hallmark day on the calendar or not!

This card was created using all scraps and the Mojo Monday Sketch- 293.  The striped patterned paper was a lonely 5 x 12 inch scrap that became the inspiration for the card.  I needed to make two versions (one for my dad and one for my grandpa) of the card, so I didn't have enough paper for any kind of layering.  The Mojo Monday sketch afforded the perfect use for small scraps.  Then it was a trip through the other paper scraps to find coordinating pieces of cardstock to embellish the remaining parts of the card.

The bow was a forgone conclusion- omit, omit, omit!  However, I'm very pleased with the final design, simple enough that my boys didn't immediately toss it away and nice enough to post on the blog- winner!  

The sentiment was printed on my printer and the circle distressed a little with some black Archival Ink.  I stamped the "enjoy" from one of my Fiskars cling stamp sets onto the paper that I embossed using my Scor-Pal.  I can't decide whether the "enjoy" is crooked or not.  Just when I've decided it is uniform I realize the stamp is probably crooked on purpose.  At least that's my story!

Even though I didn't get this post written (we've been celebrating, remember?!!), I did post the card over at Mojo Monday for their challenge.  For the design-challenged amongst us, check them out.  Their sketches are easy to follow and allow you enough input to make simple and/or complex cards with their designs.  Hey, if I can follow them then you can too!

Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary

Today is my mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary.  What an astounding accomplishment?!  I thought I might celebrate this ruby anniversary with a card.  Knowing that this anniversary is very special, I've been trying to design a card all week and had many near misses, nothing seemed to work with my vision.  This morning I thought I would try it with some scraps of red cardstock.  This simple result worked for me.


The flowers are made using my Heartfelt Creations Posy stamps and dies.  It's hard to tell in these photos, but I stamped the flowers with Versamark ink creating a watermark look and then cut them using the dies.  After shaping the flowers, I individually applied glitter to the edges of the flowers and then glued them together in layers.  This allowed me to be able to place glitter only on the edges of the flower.  The flourish comes from the Spellbinders Floral Flourishes.  The trick here was selecting the right green so that this didn't look like a Christmas card!  The sentiment was printed on the white cardstock using my printer.  Once again, I used text boxes to selectively place each word to create the sentiment.

The inside sentiment was also printed using my printer.  Everything came together and I now have just the right card to give.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Andie

I've entered this card into the Simon Says Stamp: Flower Power challenge.  Come join the fun!