Almost forgot..........

Almost left out these important guys....Oliver on the left and Sampson on the right, enjoying the sun on the back deck. Brothers, seven weeks apart. Same father, different mothers. They love this nice weather. They aren't the only ones!!!

Early Spring in the Garden

Here are a few shots from the garden. Mostly of my three pink dogwoods against the neighbor's fence. Under them, among other things, is a ground cover called ajuga. It has tall purple spikes and variegated green leaves. Also there are the sedums which don't get tall but have a mounding habit. In summer they start out with creamy white flowers which turn pink and then rust as fall comes on. There's one of an azalea against our fence ready to bloom but the setting was off on that one. Any questions, be sure to email. Enjoy!

Mother's Day card

I cased this card from http://stampingalatte.blogspot.com/2009/01/bloomin-for-you.html.. She cased it from someone else and so on. Apparently it's a popular card. No wonder. Isn't it beautiful? Except for the sentiment which I managed to get crooked in spite of using my Stampamajig! Grrrr! Well it's for my MIL who is in a nursing home since having a stroke in January and another stroke since. She won't even know it's Mother's Day but I hate when details aren't just so. I used Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, and watercolor paper. The flowers were painted direct from the Pink Pirouette and Red Riding Hood Red pad with an aquapainter. Leaves are Old Olive. I have never tried a card with the elements "outside the box" so to speak and I think it's pretty cool. Inside the card just says Happy Mother's Day from the All Holidays set.

A Friend in Need

A regular reader of my blog, Renee in Michigan had a fire at her home recently. She's an SU demo and I bet she could use some cards or even stamped images of current SU stamps to tide her over and keep her business going until they can get back in their home. Her email if you would like to contribute is ibecakes@airadvantage.net. Email her for her address and send her a few stamped things or die cuts. Wouldn't you be thrilled if someone did that for you under the same circumstances? Just tell her primitiveseasons sent you!

The Color Purple

This is all SU products except the DCWV metallic cardstock background. I used watercolor paper to stamp the floral image from Bloomin Beautiful in Basic Grey ink. Colored it with ink from the pads with a blender pen. Layered with the Nestabilities long scalloped rectangles which is one of my favorite sets in Pale Plum and Perfect Plum and used some Elegant Eggplant ribbon. The sentiment is stamped in Elegant Eggplant ink on the same paper. It's from the Oval All set and the oval punch was used then it was layered on a Nesties scalloped oval. I used my white pen to highlight the flower just a little. Hope you are having a great weekend and working outside wherever you are. Will be posting some pics of the garden soon!

I'm still here.............

I just love the idea of this card! I can't take credit. Claire Brennan at http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.com/ thought of it and it's such a genius idea. Remember all those little brass and metal stencils we bought eons ago and haven't used in ages??? Well, drag them out and put them to use. Claire's idea which she explains very well on her blog is this: moisten your card stock and I found watercolor paper worked very well, run in through your die cut or embossing machine. Then ink the raised portion with a pad. I used Tim Holtz Antique Linen. I cased Claire's first card somewhat. She shows several ways to color your embossing. So cool! Thanks Claire!

Check Out the Wonderful Blog Candy

http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/

From the Desk Of....

Have you heard of Lauren Meader's Timeless Templates? If you haven't head on over to Paper Trey Ink and check them out. or go to Lauren's blog and be entertained and delightedhttp://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com. I have several of the templates and I got a new one yesterday and you see the result here. I had a problem however, and Lauren was as patient and kind as she could be until we figured it out. It was my printer. You see Lauren's Timeless Templates are printed right on your cardstock or designer paper and my printer just wouldn't take the thicker paper. But there is a work-around for that and she helped me with it. This is called From The Desk Of and has so many possibilities beyond stationery. A gift box for baby items, scrapbooking or cardmaking supplies, food or snack items. I thought of doing a gardening box with seed packets, garden gloves, etc. And this box is easy to put together and very sturdy. I used all Stampin' Up! supplies including our new designer paper which is extra heavy and the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set and made eight cards, two of each card. The DP is To The Nines. This paper is extra heavy and perfect for a project like this. I think this is the sturdiest box I ever made and I'm loving it!

Thanks again for your help Lauren and much continued success with your business and family.

Spring Has Sprung!!!

Here's my annual picture of my purple plum in the back yard. It's actually past its prime of blooming but still beautiful. And with it a little card that says "SPRING" all over it. Garden Green background with Tea Party designer paper and a sentiment from the Oval All set stamped in the background color. Focal image is just a flower cut from the dp and mounted on the green color, cut out again and punched up with dimensionals. Have a great weekend! Get outside and make your little corner of the world beautiful!

New Tool....Cool Effects!!!

For those Score Pal fans out there (that's all of us, right?) there's a new tool available to use with your Score Pal....the Score Pal Bug Embosser. The little card to the right shows the two different looks you can get with this tool. On the Kraft CS on the card the embossing looks like little dashes. On the top and bottom of the Really Rust CS it looks more like piercing and the reverse side looks even more like that! Both effects can be achieved with the little bug tool shown here. Just roll it over your cs on any line on your Score Pal to get the easy and simple embossed look. You can have the "teeth" open or closed. I love it and I think it's only $6.95. The colors here are Really Rust, Always Artichoke, Naturals Ivory and Kraft. See the same color combos on Page 117 in the SU catalog. I love those colors and that page was my inspiration. Have fun.....that's what it's all about!

Spring Cleaning Woes

I've been spring cleaning....yuck! Normally, it's not a big deal. Just do it and get through it! However, I am in a cam walker, a sort of air cast on my leg due to a bad bone spur on the heel of my left foot. Not fun and makes the whole cleaning gig a real pain. Not much card making going on but I did want to share with you a few things I made lately that were fun. The first picture is a rosette made with the scalloped octagon Nestabilities. Credit for this goes to the fabulous Becca over at Amazing Paper Grace. You can make them any size. The other little flower is from Grunge PAPER. This is wonderful stuff my friends. You can ink it, stamp on it, curl it, crush it and it won't tear. Kind of like Tyvek! Anyway, I used the Dahlia Nestability die to cut it out, colored it with Tim Holtz distress inks and then stamped on it with regular black ink. The leaves are also a Sizzix die. Give some of these new products a try. I think you'll like them. Well, back to cleaning......

Happy Easter!

Hi everyone! I know you are probably all busy getting ready for the big day tomorrow. As we speak I am doing laundry and watching a turkey in the oven. But I had a few minutes in between to make this sweet little card. I used Elegant Eggplant CS with a few scrap pieces of DP from an older hostess pack. The image is the morning glory from Morning Soft. I stamped it on 140 lb. watercolor paper and colored it direct from the pad with a waterbrush in colors of Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum, Certainly Celery and Old Olive. The fence border is Martha's and the ribbon I have had since the beginning of time but it was perfect for this card. Have a wonderful and blessed holiday tomorrow with your friends and family! Don't eat too many chocolate rabbits!

Memories of a wonderful brother......

Don't forget to click on the pictures to see an enlarged view.

I finished this little album in my brother's memory. I hope no one is offended by the personal nature of these pictures but I was so proud of him and miss him so terribly, it was a little way I could share who he was with the world and have a little book for myself. The pictures speak for themselves. Thank you for letting me share this with you.

Flower Pot Card

I never do challenges....don't know why....but I was so taken with the flower pot challenge currently on SCS that I had to give it a try. The card stock colors are Really RUst, Whisper White, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Mellow Moss and Garden Green. All the flowers and leaves were sponged on the edges . The flowers came from the Daisies 2 Sizzix die, and two of them are SU cut and emboss flowers from the current catalog. I used the scalloped border, a hole punch, and a cuttlebug folder on the pot. I used brads and pearls to highlight the centers of some of the flowers, some sheer ribbon for a bow around the pot which actually holds the card together. It's a pocket card, you see. Second photo shows the card out of the pocket and the last photo is a picture of the back which I even tried to make nice! This was a fun card to do but took forever. It's windy here and chilly but my purple plum is in bloom as well as the daffodils and hyacinths. Spring really is here folks! God bless.

It's Almost Here!

This is probably the last Easter card...but who knows? Whisper White and Regal Rose designer paper from the Hostess Pack and the images and sentiment are from Beans and Bunnies and Peeps Oh My! Such a cute set! I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and a Tombow marker for the grey shadow. Have a great week everyone!

Vintage is too easy....

These vintage images almost make a card "too" easy. You print them out, stick them on, embellish with a little something and bang, you're done! This was just some Taken with Teal and Certainly Celery cardstock under the image and a little So Saffron ribbon. No distressing on this one. I just realized....no stamp, no ink!

Vintage Easter

Today I played. I got a pad of the new Versamark Dazzle in Champagne. I stamped it on this Mellow Moss cardstock, added Clear EP and heat embossed it. Then I rubbed Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the whole thing. I hope you can see a little of it in the background. Where it's embossed it leaves a slightly metallic effect. Tsunikeo who makes Versamark products says the Champagne is better on light colors of CS and the Pearl is better on black and dark colors. And this does not have to be glossy paper either! Anywho, then I mounted this photocopied vintage image on Choc Chip and added the sentiment from Papertrey's Green Thumb set. I also edged the image with a little sponged Choc Chip ink. I love how it turned out and this Dazzle is yummalicious!