Welcome to the family.....

Well I just had to brag!  Isn't she just darling!  On June 13th my oldest daughter had to put down her 15 year old pug, Maggie.  She was devastated and if you have ever put an animal down, you know how hard it is.  That dog was her whole life.  Quite unexpectedly on Tuesday, an opportunity presented itself to go and look at a litter of puppies and this little girl wormed her way right into our hearts.  Her name is Sophie and she loves her bed, her toys, her food but not the housebreaking.  She is training her to a pad and so far she doesn't get it.  But it's only been three days so we have to be patient.  Don't you just love that face!  Just had to share.....

Sweety Girls

Prima has done it again!  Julie Nutting designed more paper dolls for us to play with.  As if the first ones weren't fun, she has outdone herself again.  This time, they have a set of wings to use with any one of the dolls.  For this one, I took the Prima tags that are made just for the dolls and ran it through my machine with the TH Brick embossing folder.  I swiped my TH Shabby Shutters pad across it.  I added part of a small paper doily, then popped up the doll on top.  She was colored with Copic markers and I used paper piecing for her outfit.  Added some bling (I'll have you know I made the swirls!!!) and a little sentiment from Wendy Vecchi.  Oh and her wings were also run through with an embossing folder from SU and then swiped with a pad.  These take some time but are soooo much fun.  Right click for an up close and personal.  Enjoy!

Pop! Pop! Pop!

I just got the Zig Zag pop up for my basic Pop It Up cards.  I love this because it really displays pop up elements to a card and they MOVE!  This was old SU paper and I used stamps from Papertrey--Garden Variety and Year of Flowers Mini.  You can see the front of the card and then the inside.  This is a  5 x 7 card.  I stamped mostly in SU Soft Suede with Dried Marigold accents and Paprika Stickles.  Enjoy on this beautiful summer day!

A Perfect Fit

Awhile back, JoAnns had a 50% stamp sale on their website.  An enabling friend ( Diane at Nellie's Nest) put me on to it!  This corset stamp by Stampendous was one that I bought.  I just LOVE this image!  It was so much fun to color.  The sentiment was from Papertrey Ink.  I used a Sizzix die for the polka dotted background (Romantic Rectangles) and the sentiment is stamped on Fancy Tags.  The small flourish under the rose is a from Diane  and at the moment I can't remember the company.  I colored the image with Copics and used Viva Décor pens for the trim on the lace and the buttons the corset is laced with.  Paper is SU.  This was a fun card (5 x 7) and I hope you'll give this stamp a try.   Make sure to double click to see it up close and personal.   Have a good evening!

Susan's Peony Card

Here's a great friendship card I made with Susan Cockburn's peony die, seen in my last post. This is 5 x 7 which gives you more real estate to play with.  Now I'm off to make an envelope to match.

Beautiful Flowers

 

                                                        Susan Tierney Cockburn is a specialist at making paper flowers.  She has two books on the subject to her credit and now has teamed up with Sizzix to produce dies to maker her lovely flowers.  I have to say they are really life like. I purchased the peony die from Cut at Home using my monthly coupon there. I will tell you straight out, I probably picked the hardest one to try first.  They take time and patience.  I wouldn't even show you my first attempt.  Looked like a flower after a heavy rain!  Anyway, I was more successful with the second which is shown below. I added a few extra petals to make it more full and I spritzed the finished flower with Mister Huey's Color Mist-Shine.  It gives a really pearlized look.  All the parts needed including the leaves are included in the die.  You do need some basic tools and a rubber mat to shape the flowers on.  There are quite a few videos on You Tube of Susan making her different flowers.  Worth checking out if you're interested. 

Don

Pop n Cuts

I decided to give the relatively new Pop n Cuts system a try.  These are the brainchild of Karen Burniston who as a designer for Sizzix and a former engineer thought up these pop up cards that have a lot of possibilities.  I always like something better if I can get a lot of mileage out of it.  Helps to justify the expense!  I have showed you the two fronts of the cards (turned around that postage stamp on the one!) and then a view of the inside of each card.  They can be very simple or as elaborate as you like.  My good friend, Diane Hover, over at Nellie's Nest, suggested using the Cricut to make cut outs to use on the pop up portion.  I thought that was a great idea!  Well, have a great weekend and stay out of trouble.  We're waiting for Andrea to hit here on the east coast and our area is under a flood watch until 10 this evening.  Be safe!