As Long as You Live

A lovely young lady just got engaged.  She is fun, spunky, and always on trend...all of which is captured in this week's Color My Heart challenge.

I used Altenew's "Vintage Roses" in Thistle and leaves in Lagoon over Pear. The background was made with sponge daubers using Crystal Blue, Lagoon, and Pear.  To really make the sentiment from CTMH's "Wavy Blooms" pop, I used my MISTI tool and stamped it four times in Lagoon.

I ran my background panel through MFT's stitched dies and backed it with Thistle cardstock. Coordinating Thistle Thick Twine finished it off.

Since it's always important to play nice in blogland, here's the card I used as my inspiration for this one.

Love how this turned out.  Love the sentiment for an engaged couple. Love celebrating such a happy moment.

Until next time,
Becca

Goodbye, Henry

A dear friend just lost her boxer. This dog was epic.  So epic, she wrote a book about him...and then a sequel. Surviving Henry and Still Surviving Henry: the Untold Stories will make you laugh until your sides hurt.

Henry went lethargic the other day, and if you've read these stories, you know how odd that is. They took him to the vet and were told Henry had a massive tumor on his spleen and was bleeding internally. Surgery wasn't an option. And, so, they faced the most difficult decision a loving dog owner can.

I wanted to send a card to acknowledge their loss.

I used a combination of old and current CTMH stamps and accessories and colored with Copics.  I hated coloring the inside of the dog house in empty gray!  The card layout is Mojo Monday #449. I'm also linking to Simon Says: Anything Goes.

Goodbye, Henry. You will live forever in our hearts!

Until next time,
Becca

Stick it in a Pocket

This month, Blog Hops with Heart is all about pockets.  Here's my contribution:

There's a great story behind this card.  My writing partner and I just signed a three-book (plus three, promotional novella) contract with Kensington Publishing.  We received a hand-signed welcome letter from the president and CEO.  It was such a classy touch, I decided to send him a thank you note. 

The card base is 4.25x4.25" which left room in a standard A2 envelope to allow the pen and pencil to hang over the top edge.  The pen is from Hero Arts and the pencil is from Verve.  The pocket and glasses were cut from the Artistry CTMH Cricut cartridge.  The pocket is 2" W x 2.25" H, and the glasses are 2.59" W x .72" H (turned 90 degrees to hang over the pocket).  I trimmed off one end piece (the part that goes over the ear) leaving just enough to stuff into the pocket to give the impression the rest of it was still there.

I finished the pocket by stitching with my sewing machine then adhering the edges to the card base but using a piece of foam tape under the pen and pencil.  It gives just a touch of dimension.

Like always, this month's hop is circular.  You should have come from Kelly's blog and now you're off to Shelly's blog.  If you get lost, you can always go to Amie Kiger's blog for a full list of all the participants this month.

I can easily see this as a Father's Day card...except I might have to find a way to put a grease stain on it for my dad.  Ha!

Until next time,
Becca

2016 Graduate

I got a lovely graduation announcement in the mail the other day, except it didn't show the school colors (which is what I usually use for the color scheme of my congratulatory cards). It's for a girl. Can't go wrong with roses, right?

I used La Vie en Rose paper from CTMH, cut "2016" with my Cricut from white cardstock, mounted it with foam tape, and then created a frame by nesting two double-sided stitched dies from My Favorite Things.  The scroll stamp is an old one from CTMH colored with Copic markers.

Simple and striking. Gotta love it!

Until next time,
Becca

Vintage Flowers

One of the sets I purchased to treat myself for the big writing contract was "Vintage Flowers" from Altenew. Love, love, LOVE this set!!  Here, I combined it with overlay Cricut cuts from "Edge to Edge" which are free on Design Space right now.

For the card on the left, I selected the Cricut cut, used the "Hide Contour" feature to get rid of the outside cut, and used a piece of cardstock larger than I needed for the cut.  After it was cut out, I trimmed the panel and backed it with a piece of lightweight vellum. I mounted it to the card base with foam tape and added the flowers on top.

The card on the right is a different design and left the outside cut.

The flowers are stamped with CTMH inks in Baby Pink, Cotton Candy, Tulip, Flaxen, Fern, and New England Ivy.  (Baby Pink and Tulip are retired.)

Both sentiments come from Verve's "Take Note" and are stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black.  My new MISTI stamp tool came in quite handy, both for the flowers and for stamping the sentiments right were I wanted them.  I actually made a set of eight of the "Hello" cards, and using the MISTI made it a breeze!  I hand-cut the flowers because I budgeted my treat money and wanted more stamps rather than the coordinating dies from Altenew.

Now back to cutting more of these beautiful overlays before they're no longer free!

Until next time,
Becca

Special Delivery

Just when I think my life is crazy, someone else comes along with a story that makes mine insignificant by comparison.  Such is the case with a fellow chaplain's spouse who is getting ready to move from Alaska to South Carolina this summer.  Somewhere in between the sorting, packing, selling, and buying an RV for their soon-to-be family of five, they are supposed to go to China to pick up number five...except they don't know when.  The dates range from the next four to twelve weeks.

Yep...makes my overburdened writing schedule feel tame.

We are having an "Adoption Shower" for her on Monday, so I thought I'd break out the dimensional stuff since I don't have to mail this card.

Everything is CTMH, but a few of them are retired (R).  Here's the supply list:

• Paper: Georgie
• Ink: Whisper, Juniper, Canary,
• Stamps: In the Background (R)
• Accessories: Resin flower center from Balloon Ride Accents (R), pearl accents (R), Create a Shade paint (R)
• Die Cuts: Artiste Cricut cartridge

I started by searching for a 3-D pinwheel.  Since I only had flat ones, I decided to do something a little different and use the large, background one from Artiste then fold over the spokes.  It looks more like a flower, but I'm okay with that.  I wanted to put this on a lollipop stick but couldn't find one.  (I have them...I know I do...somewhere.)  Next best thing was to pull the decoration off a cupcake topper that had Hawaiian flip flop sandals on it. I taped the wooden stick to the pinwheel flower and put foam tape along either side.

The clouds could have easily been cut with Georgie paper instead of stamped, but I wasn't sure I was going to like the pattern so I experimented with the stamps.  By the time I was done experimenting, I liked it well enough to use it.  The Whisper stripe cloud was a little to dark which is why I painted over it.  I "spounced" my paint brush for extra texture. 

I also ran a marker along the edge of my Canary cloud for definition.

After the "too dark" cloud, I decided to use a second generation stamping for "Special" on the sentiment.  It's darker in real life than it looks in the picture.

My paper choice and card layout were chosen to enter Color My Heart and Retro Sketches.

Until next time,
Becca

Altenew Painted Flowers for Mother's Day

For such a straight-forward card, this one uses a wide variety of companies' products.

Here's the supply list:

• Stamps: Altenew Painted Flowers, CTMH Perfect Fit - Mom (retired)
• Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
• Watercolor: Tim Holtz cardstock, Holbein Water Color Paints
• Accessories: MFT Frame Stitched Die, CTMH Artiste Cricut cut, silver rivets, Embroidery twine

I started by watercoloring blue over almost all of the 4.25 x 5.5" panel.  I concentrated the color along the top and right side.  Then I added splotches of orange and green.  When it was dry, I stamped the flowers so the leaves were generally where the green was.  I then angled the stitched frame die where I wanted it and ran it through my cuttlebug. I cut the black panel 1/8" larger than the floral panel and glued them together.

The sentiment label was cut from Artiste at 1.5" tall.  After I stamped the sentiment, I punched rivets through the ends and threaded thick embroidery floss through.  I added foam tape on the back, attached it to the floral panel, and taped the floss on the back.  More foam tape adhered the floral panel to the card base.

A few more Mother's Day cards to make this year and not a lot of time left to do them.

Until next time,
Becca