Congratulations on Engagement Card

Another very hot and humid day today so another day staying indoors as much as possible. I ventured out last night long enough to water the garden but that was all. Too hot to bike or even go for a long walk. Thank goodness I have indoor hobbies to keep me busy.

Today I'm posting a card I made for my granddaughter and her fiancee. Much to young to be getting married and they are not planning this soon but he wanted her to know that he was in this relationship for the long haul. Nice to know. Getting the university diploma comes before marriage! He is a very nice young man and good to her so that's what counts in this Grandma's eyes.
Here's the card I made for them.

The card base came from Hot off the Press (Paper Wishes). I bought a couple of packages of them when they were on sale. First thing I did was add a paper doily. The little bird stamp is just one of those .99 stamps that I coloured in with Tombow markers and then added some gems. I think the little hearts came with the birds. I used a heart template to cut the three different sizes and glued them together and then stitched around one. Sadly, I don't have a heart die! The leaves were die cut with a Sizzix die and the fern is Martha Stewart's. Then I added some little flowers from the dollar store and added a pearl in the centre. The beaded eye pins were made from some beads and pearls from my bead stash. Yup, I have a bead stash too. I think she will like it and she will know her Grandma and Grampa are happy she has found a good man to love.

Joven's Congratulatons Tag

My 12 year old grandson, Joven, won first prize at school for his science fair project on archery & fletching and then won for the Grade 7 Engineering & Design category, and is now going on to Regionals. So proud of him..especially because he has dyslexia so the reading and writing are a bit of a challenge - good job he's smart as a whip to overcome it though!  I decided to make him a congratulations card but then decided to do a tag instead so he could use it as a bookmark and then I combined them both.

The tag was inked with various Distress inks and then walnut ink was sponged along the edges. The edges were distressed with my distressing tool and then inked with dark walnut Distress ink. I then stamped the words, stars, etc with Stazon black ink and added a brown ribbon at the top. The tag was then stuck to the front of this card base with repositionable tape so he can take it off and use it as a bookmark...not that he loves to read but that is likely because of his dyslexia. I wrote a nice note on the inside for him.

This is the back of his tag.

I used Tim Holtz repositionable Alphabet masks to spell his name and then spritzed on some spray ink. It looks dark around the edges in the picture but it actually purple. Some of it leaked under the masks - I guess I didn't adhere them strongly enough, but thats OK, it gives it a distressed look.

Pink and green congratulations

What a beautiful day today was. Perfect June weather. Warm but not humid. We had nice long coffee breaks out in the backyard while watching all the birds at our various feeders. Hubby laughs when I call them coffee breaks but that’s what they are….a much needed interruption from doing what ever it is we are doing – which is not much at all most of the time.

However, I decided I couldn't just sit outside and do nothing all day so I actually forced myself to sew some quilt blocks for another quilt I’m making and almost got them all done. Tonight I headed down to the “lower studio” (aka the basement) to make some greeting cards.  Here is one card I finished last week.

A friend of mine gave me this stamp along with some others as she decided stamping and card making were not her thing after all. I thanked her with a gift certificate to Tim Horton’s in return. Love this stamp! Not sure who the maker is as it is not marked anywhere on it. I coloured it with my Prismacolor makers and added some Stickles to some of the flowers. The “congratulations” was just a small stamp that came in a package of various small stamps which I believe I picked up at one of the dollar stores. The blue is about 3 different colours of chalk. Some small jewels were added to the lower flowers and then I added two silk butterflies. I found a whole package of these butterflies at Dollarama one day and they have really come in handy. I mounted the stamped image on a piece of green scrap paper and then to the pink background paper. The green and pink ribbon was from my stash. I really liked how this card turned out.

Bellarific Friday entry June 17

Busy day today in spite of having my brain disorders attack me again last night – thunderstorms will do it every time. However, this time I have much less pain but my speech is slurred. I refuse to drive when I’m like this even to go to the Y for Aqua Fit because a) people who don’t know me well enough to know that I’m a total abstainer from alcohol will think I’m drunk and b) if I ever get pulled over by the police for anything they will automatically think I’m under the influence and have me walk toe-to-toe down the white line. I can’t do that on a good day!...and I’ve been practicing that from time to time since my brain surgery but it never improves. I’m also severely claustrophobic and if they ever put me in a jail cell I would go berserk – so I take no chances. But we did manage to run some errands, (hubby always drives when we go together) get groceries, take some bags of yard waste that was too big for my composter (mostly peonies and rose stems) and then an hour’s walk around Mud Creek Trail. Nice day actually!

Now on to the card. This week Stampin Bella’s challenge was to make a card in a “summer” theme.  Here is my card.

I first used a piece of “Color Me” paper from Paper Wishes. It comes pre-embossed. I sprayed it with a mixture I created using Perfect Pearls and water and sprayed it with my Ranger mister and then wiped off the excess. I found a piece of paper in my stash that complimented it and used it for the bottom part. A similar colour ribbon and bow covered the seam. After colouring the stamped image with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol I cut it out with a Spellbinder die and then added a slim border. Then cut out the Spellbinder Scallop die in the same green as the bottom piece. A Spellbinder label die was used in plain white with the die left in and the centre coloured in with chalk. The “congratulations” sentiment was then stamped on. I decided then to use some of my flower soft so I added them to the purple flowers on the long stems and the small blue balls. It's much nicer in person of course.

Brutal day but got another card done!

Yesterday was a brutal day - BRUTAL! My brain disorders decided to attack on Tuesday night and boy did they attack. No idea what set it off as I was sitting watching TV so not doing anything that would cause it...I have a huge list of things that will set them off but this time I guess it was the pending thunderstorms. Low atmospheric pressure and thunderstorms in particular are usually pretty severe attacks.

I managed to do a few errands in the morning - hubby does all the driving when we are together so that was good and we got groceries in the afternoon. Then he decided we should get our annuals so I could plant them today. Didn't want to go but decided maybe he was right so off we went. I've been saving my points from the SuperStore so we went there - closed because of the weather! Hmmm. Didn't really think of that one happening. Would he go home, nope, drove to another nursery at the other end of town. By the time I got there I was in so much pain I just wanted to lay down but I put on a brave face and threw some plants on the cart - and then the rain came in torments so we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally it let up enough we made a run for it. By this time he had clued in on how bad my pain was and felt bad that he insisted on getting the flowers. Not sure what was with him - he doesn't pick out the flowers, pay for the flowers, plant the flowers, water the flowers or fertilize the flowers - but he does like looking at them I guess!

Didn't get much sleep last night and just played in my studio this morning but by lunch time I decided to plant just the pots around the house...I think there are about 14 of them! Did that and then planted some of the annuals in and around the spring flowering bulbs that are still in my way. Did more then I thought I would but it started to rain again about 3:00 so I called it quits. I hate giving in to pain and I feel better (usually) when I work thru it....and no, I don't take pain pills! I would have to take narcotics to touch the pain and I won't take them at all. No sir, not me!

After the wet trip to the nursery yesterday and a quick supper I went to the lower studio and finished a couple of cards. I made one I call "Have a great day" and it could be a birthday, graduation or anniversary card. I may leave it blank so people can decide which they want. Then I finished, well almost finished, my card for the Bellarific challenge this week at Stampin' Bella.I finished it off this morning. I'll post that one tomorrow. Here is the "have a great day" card.

A friend of mine decided she didn't really take to stamping and card making so she gave me her stamps - good to have friends. I surprised her with a gift certificate from Tim Horton's as a thank you! Anyway, this was one of the stamps. It's coloured with my Tombow markers this time and then I added some glitter - gotta have a little glitter! The blue around the flowers is chalk. It had a border around it but I didn't care for the way the colouring turned out so I just cut it off, and cut around the leaves, and then added my own borders. The tag is a Spellbinder tag and I then glued it on to the grape coloured paper and cut around it mimicking the tag a bit. The green background was just green c/s that I ran thru a Cuttlebug folder.