Easter Blessings and the Last Two Cards

These will be the last two Easter Cards.

 

For this Easter card I went for the more traditional colours of purple and yellow……again from the stash. This was the quickest card I’ve ever made. The designer paper was glued to the card base and the purple was an already-cut-and-never-used tag from a Sizzix die that was in with the purple stash paper. I just stamped my one-and-only Easter sentiment on the tag in purple ink; added that phony bow; glued a piece of fun foam to the back and glued it to the card. For large surfaces like the tag, I prefer to cut a piece of fun foam to keep it very solid rather than just dimensional tape. I call this a phony bow because that is what it is. I’ve seen the tutorial of how to do this on Pinterest but forgot about it until our local Stampin’ Up dealer, The Pampered Stamper, did a video on it yesterday. Here is the link to the original one I saw. http://stampinantics.blogspot.ca/2010/09/bow-tutorial-1.html

The only trick to doing this is using the right side round object to tie the ribbon around – slender one like a stylus for skinny ribbon; larger containers for wider ribbon. It’s a great way to make a bow for a card.

I just had another lady added to my visiting list. These ladies are members or former members of our Church and I’m just given a list of whom to visit. So, I had to make another quick card and this one really went together quickly – and yet I like it.

 

The card base was covered with the designer paper and then I added the pinkish strip – it looks very pink in the photo but it actually has a purple tint to it that didn’t show up in the photo…..I took it late at night and the lighting was poor. I found that glittered flower in my stash – I think I cut it from an old greeting card – and glued it on with dimensional tape sticking in some ferns from a Martha Stewart punch. I like to punch these out from bits of green that are too small to keep even in the stash. Punching out the ferns is a good way to always having a nice variety on hand. The butterfly is from a Stampin’ Up die.

That’s all for a cool Good Friday, March-25-16. Easter blessings to all.

Cheers

Violet

 

 

Two More Cards

The cable company is coming today to hook up the sister’s TV, Internet and phone and they call about half-an-hour before they come to make sure someone is home. However, in this case, she has no phone so guess who is on stand-by to take the call???.... and then go to the apartment to make sure she is there and has not forgotten about them. While I’m waiting I thought I may as well post some cards.

Two more Easter cards to post.  Once again though, if you need a card in a hurry any of these would work and just change the sentiment. Sometimes less is more.

 

 

I really love this colour of paper! Such a pretty green. Anyway, for this one I once again taped two pieces of paper together and trimmed it to fit the card base. As I was looking through the stash I found this matching fancy square already cut out......lucky find! Stamped the sentiment and glued it on. These were quick cards to make but I like them. I don’t always have time to make the cards that require an hour of colouring of each image. Besides, the ladies in the nursing home are just happy to have a card, homemade or not.

Here’s another Easter card.

This card got changed a few times while being made. I started out just taping two pieces of paper together. The bottom piece was already lightly embossed but it just needed something else so I ran the taped pieces through the embossing folder and that looked nice but……there is so often a but……the top embossed part did not show at all so I ran a green ink pad over the top, just catching some of the embossing. Well then I noticed that the one little piece on the bottom did not like being double embossed and some of the white core was showing. Easy fix – I just grabbed my sanding block (suppose to be for fingernails but it works great as a craft tool) and sanded the embossed bits – but just here and there. I really liked it so much better so I’m glad that boo-boo made me do this.

The ribbon is hand-died piece of seam binding. I die an entire package at a time and just put them in the ribbon stash. It still needed something else so glued that strip along the left side after the ribbon was on. The bow was tied with my home-made bow maker. That fancy label was also in the stash (why it was in with the green paper is a mystery though) so I stamped the sentiment on it and added it with a piece of dimensional tape. I coloured some of the flowers with a bit of yellow just for a change.

That’s all for cold, windy Thursday. We had a lot of rain fall last night and now they are predicting a thunderstorm and more rain for this afternoon. We are getting off lucky though as some areas just east of us are having freezing rain and power outages.  

Cheers

Violet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Cards Three and Four

Well the sister got moved today and I helped her unpack until 4:00 this afternoon. We didn’t even put a dent into it. She now knows why I was pushing her so hard to purge and she says she will purge even more as she unpacks – maybe, maybe not! It’s hard for a packrat to purge but at least she is there.

Although these are all Easter cards that I’m posting this week they could be used for any occasion just by changing the sentiment.

 

The background on this one is the only I cheated on. I cut it before I remembered no new pieces. Oh well! The banners were the pieces left over from one of the double fold cards I made plus one extra piece from the stash that was from the same paper pack. I needed one more banner and luckily that one was in the stash. I just hand cut them. I don’t have any banner dies. For the top piece I die cut that fancy top with two Spellbinders curved dies – the fancy one only cuts out the middle, the edger cuts it off.  I used my stamp positioner to get the stamp in the right place.

I have eight ladies in the nursing home that I visit right now so I’m doubling up posting the cards to get them all posted before Easter.

 

For this card I simply taped two piece of paper together at the back and trimmed it to fit the card base. The sentiment (the only Easter one I have) was stamped on the plain green piece of cardstock and then glued over the seam. White peel-off strips were added to the top and bottom of the strip.

 That’s all for a cool Wednesday,

Cheers

Violet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for today.

 

Cheers

Violet

 

Easter Card Number Two

The sun is shining brightly today but the wind has quite a nip to it and it’s a lot colder outside than we thought it was. Joe decided he needed to get out of the house for awhile so we did a few errands and got groceries but the proposed walk was cancelled by mutual consent……he still has a bit of a cold and didn’t need to be out walking in that cold wind….and I don’t like cold wind so no walk today.

This is another Easter card for one of the ladies at the nursing home.

 

For this card I taped two pieces of left over paper together at the back and trimmed them to fit the card base. Then the row of Easter eggs was stamped along a piece of plain green and glued in place. The butterfly was die cut with a Memory Box die – the base from the same plain green as the strip; the filigree top from the bottom paper – but it didn’t show up well. I wish I had reversed them but ‘oh well’; it is what it is.

That’s all for a cold windy Tuesday,

Cheers

Violet

 

Easter Card Number One

Easter is next weekend. I always think of Easter as being in April because my youngest daughter was born April 6 and it happened to be Easter weekend. So, yesterday afternoon I thought I better take the time to make Easter cards for the ladies in the nursing home that I visit every month. All the cards were made from paper in my stash – it was a challenge I gave myself. Here’s the first one I made.

 

For this card, the background paper was cut for another project and this piece was left over. I trimmed it to the size of the card and glued it to a card base. The light pink in the centre is a piece of very wide ribbon which is held in place with double sided tape – my preferred method of adhering ribbon.  It has a beautiful embossed design on it but hard to see in the photo. The two other strips were left over from one of the double fold cards I made and they were each cut about ½” and also added with double sided tape. Then gold peel-off strips were added along the seams.

Every card is different so stay tuned for more ideas. That’s all for a cool, windy Monday, March-21-16.

Cheers

Violet

 

A Spring Day at Last

 Now today was more like a spring day! Finally!.....and what a change from yesterday! And tomorrow it could get as high as 17C (62F) by the afternoon – but it comes at a price – thunderstorms and rain! We decided to take advantage of the nice day to go visit Joe’s widowed aunt-in-law who lives almost an hour and a half from us. She is 84 and recently moved into a nursing home and loves it there. She has a wicked sense of humour we just adore her….although her short term memory is starting to be a problem now and again. After we left her we stopped for a Chinese supper at a buffet we’ve been at before and enjoyed. Nice day!!!

So, this is the last of the Easter cards I made this year…and made with another new Penny Black stamp.

All the cards I’ve posted this week are experiment cards using various techniques….some I like more than others…..some need work! However these were all going to some ladies from our church that are in a nursing home and they are not all that fussy and I knew they would enjoy them. This one is one of my favourites of the new stamps. I do believe that this one was inked with various Distress inks. You get a different look with each kind of medium you use. Once again I splattered some red and green ink over it. Distress Ink Tumbled Glass was sponged on for the sky and Peeled Paint for the grass.

That’s all for a Wednesday,

Cheers

Violet

Cruel Mother Nature

Mother Nature is cruel or is going through some very serious personal issues and taking it out on us…. because this is what we woke up today........

 

Yes, Snow! Lots of it….well at least an inch or two! See the clumps on the clothesline – that means it was also freezing rain before the snow came. Just yesterday Joe said, “Finally! All the snow is melted even where it was piled up from the driveway!” Now its back! Its 2:30 in the afternoon and I just came back from visiting and dropping off the cards for the residents at the nursing home and the snow is still on the lawns so it’s not melting as fast as I would.

 

Okay, enough complaining about the weather. Here are the next two Easter cards I made with one of my new Penny Black stamps.

 

 The top card was first inked with Versamark ink  and stamped on plain white cardstock and then I ran chalk over the image and the chalk stuck to the Versamark ink. It’s a very soft look for sure. Then I splattered it with drops of red and green ink. That’s some very shiny silk thread wrapped around it. I found it in my drawer from when I used to make string art cards and thought it would work nicely on this card too. You may be seeing more of that kind of thread now that I've rediscovered it.

 

The bottom card was inked up with Tombow markers, misted and stamped on plain white cardstock. The birds are very vivid doing it this way. It would have blended better if I had stamped it on hot press water colour paper but I didn’t have any….but its okay. The recipient loved it so that’s what counts.  More splatters of ink and wrapping of the silk thread and it was done.

I’ve had fun playing with my new stamps although there were some failures for sure….but that’s all part of the learning curve. I have one more new stamp to showcase tomorrow.

That’s all for a snowy Tuesday

 

Cheers

Violet

 

 

 

New Stamps!!!!

Another cold windy weekend and unfortunately my brain disorders did not like the weather and were still acting up. Yesterday my speech was so bad it was absolutely hilarious. Joe was having trouble understanding me and he’s usually pretty good at deciphering what I’m saying….he has had 15 years of doing so though. I think the best way to describe my speech was a drunken Southerner with a very bad speech impediment plus the last word in a sentence came out with about 30 extra syllables….even a 3 word sentence. So weird. I had just a bit too much pain as well to be able to sew again so I’m glad I have other quiet hobbies to do on these days.

 It’s been so cold it’s more like fall days instead of spring days (although a little warmer today and we actually got out for a walk) and I didn’t leave the house over the weekend except for Saturday when I made a quick trip to The Paper Pickle and the library…which is a block away from the Pickle. It was a very quick trip but while I was waiting to get a butterfly die they had ordered in for me, I started walking around the store…..bad idea, very bad. I knew they had just got a huge supply of new Penny Black stamps and as I was in a “treat yourself” mood I happened to pick up 3 new stamps. These are the new solid stamps and I seldom use them…because I don’t own many…and I decided I was in the mood to experiment so home with me they came.

I decided to make the ladies from our church that I visit at a nearby nursing home Easter cards using the new stamps. Here’s the first two.

This is a very large stamp. I did one lighter than the other just to see which one I like the best…I’m not sure which one wins as I don’t’ mind either one of them….but I think in this case, maybe the dark one by just a bit. Both were stamped first with Distress Ink but for the darker one I added extra colour with a Tombow marker. They were misted lightly and then stamped. The lighter one was very light so I rubbed some Distress Ink Mustard seed in the inside for a little variation. Both were splattered with both Stampin’ Up Raspberry Ink and some green ink. These were just stamped on plain white cardstock. I need to get some new hot press water colour paper. I only have cold press and I do use it but you can’t get a very sharp transfer with a stamp on it. 

 That’s all for another cool Monday

Cheers

Violet

Last of the Easter Cards

Sunny with a cool wind blowing for this Good Friday. Blessings to all who are celebrating Easter. Pretty quiet around this house because Joe still has a cold and doesn’t really feel like doing much. I had a nice Skype visit with one daughter and grandson so that was nice. I had made his father a birthday card with a motorcycle on it and he wants a card with motorcycles and he wants to stamp motorcycles too so I will look for another motorcycle stamp for him. This little guy loves drawing, painting and creating crafts. His daycare worker is always doing crafts with the kids and they love it.

 Here are the last two Easter cards I made. These are for the two older grandchildren, 14 and 22.

The older the boys get the harder it is to make cards for them. So I just printed off Happy Easter and coloured it and die cut with the Spellbinders’ Deckle Edge die. I cut the designer paper with scissors and glued it to the blue card base I made and then the sentiment. 14 year boys probably don’t really care about cards anyway but I don’t like to leave him out.

 

His sister’s card was also very quick to make. This photograph is one I took of my garden and the flowers are Lupins which are one of Joe’s favourite spring flower. I mounted it on the purple and then on to a piece of pastel striped paper I found in the stash. The little sentiment was stamped on to Provo Craft cut die and added with mauve flower brads. I liked these small butterflies and had a partial strip in the stash so I cut them apart and added them to the left side. I think she will like it.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend everyone.

Cheers

Violet

 

Easter Bunny Card

It is a bright and sunny day here but the wind is pretty strong and downright cold! I was going to go out for a walk but hubby seems to be catching his cold back so he’s staying put and I sort of lost interest in it too. I’ve been down cleaning up and reorganizing some of my crafting supplies and finished up a few cards. Even though I slept well last night I’m feeling a little lazy and unmotivated today. Good job I’m retired so I can take a day off any time I want!

Time for another Easter card. This one is for the youngest grandson.

This time I coloured the rabbit with Prismacolor pencils. The rectangles were die cut with the Spellbinder’s Deckled edge dies. The yellow rectangle with the words started out as off-white but I wanted it yellow so I sponged Distress Ink Mustard Seed over it. The blue strip was run through a Provo Craft single embossing folder and then I added a silk flower. I think he will like it.

That’s all for a Thursday.

Cheers

Violet

 

Another Easter Card

Nothing much to report today. No snow, no thunderstorms, no high winds to worry about so I’ll get right to the posting today. This is another Easter card for one of the grandsons.

 

This image was painted with water colour paints but it was printed on cardstock not water colour paper so I couldn’t blend much but it still turned out okay. The designer paper is from a .99 pack from Michaels and the green paper is from the stash.

Our monthly quilt guild meeting is tonight so that’s where I will be.

Take care all

Cheers

Violet

 

 

What! Snowing again!

Yes! Believe it or not we woke up to find the yard covered with snow again. Unbelievable! On Sunday it was close to 70F so Joe set out the lawn furniture on the front porch and put out all his solar lighthouses. This is what they looked like this morning.

 

 

I made this lighthouse by stacking large clay flower pots together and painted them.

 



Hubby hates snow and is just a wee bit down in the dumps today. The only good thing is because we've just had 3 days of temperatures hovering around 70F the roads and sidewalks were warm and the snow melted there so no shoveling required. I got the old eye roll when I pointed this out to him. Oh well, I tried.

 

It is now 3:30 pm and we are still having a few snow flurries but not much. I missed the eclipse last night because I was actually sleeping through the night – for a change! However, seeing as we had snow this morning I think it is safe to say it was overcast and we would not have seen anything anyway so I’m glad I didn’t set the alarm for 2:00 am. I remember when Hale’s comet was passing over our city about 11:00 one night – and it was the only time in our lifetime that it would be doing so – I went upstairs to my then teenager’s bedroom and got her out of bed to come see it. She was still awake but was not impressed nor a happy camper at being forced (her words not mine) out of bed to see it – Kids! She said it looked like a slow moving shooting star and went back to bed. 

I’ve been back to working on the purse I started a couple of weeks ago and it will soon be done. I haven’t felt like sewing or quilting for the last couple of weeks so I’ve been down in the lower studio making cards and scrapbooking instead. Here is one of the Easter cards I made for the grandchildren.

This one if for the Blogger Challenge Easter.

This image was coloured with water colour paint – just for a change! The designer paper is from an old paper pack and the blue is from my stash. I ran the blue strip through the Provo craft single embossing folder to give it a wee bit of texture. Dies are Spellbinders.

Back to the sewing room now!

Cheers

Violet

 

 

CPS Sketch 45

I gave myself quite a challenge – two challenges really. Here’s how it went down. The CPS blog provides card sketches and request that we make a card based on that sketch and link it to their blog. There were 15 for this challenge. Because my computer was down for most of January I thought I was not going to be able to participate. However, I decided to go for it! I finally got the last few cards finished last night and I am posting them on my blog, linking them to this one:

http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com.  If you struggle coming up with ideas for cards, by all means check out their blog and download the sketches. I’ve never been a sketch user before but I found out that it is much quicker with a sketch to follow. The second part of my challenge was to use as much of my “stash” as I could. No taking the quick way and grabbing a new piece of paper or cardstock. This slowed me down a bit but I did use a lot of the stash and only had to cut a new piece when absolutely necessary. I will be posting all 15 cards on their own posting to keep it simple.

Violet

Sketch 45

I happened to have this bunny coloured in but had not used it so I decided this sketch was perfect for it. Again, all paper from my stash. The flower is an artificial one from the dollar store. I just bought a mixed bouquet and pulled them apart and added a flower brad in the centre where the plastic one was. The strip that says "with love" was made with a Cuttlebug skinny folder.

Easter Cards 2011 part three - last one

Before I show you the cards I made for the 3 middle grandsons, I need to share a funny story about today. I had to go in for another acupuncture treatment this morning and while waiting for my turn I was right beside the receptionist's desk so I couldn't help but overhear the receptionist as she talked to someone who called.
I could only hear one side of the conversation of course but it was pretty obvious the caller was not very knowledgeable about acupuncture. Here is a gist of the conversation after she explained the cost of each visit.

 - "Some people only have to come for three treatments and some longer. It depends on their condition"
 - "Of course you can go to work while having treatments"
 - "No, it won't matter that he may have to treat your feet"
 - "Why do you think you won't be able to work just because he is treating your feet?"
 - "No, he doesn't leave the needles in your feet when you leave!"
 - "No, honestly, the needles are not left in when you leave."
 - "Yes, the needles are very small."
 - "It doesn't matter that he is treating your feet. He never leaves the needles in anyone when they leave."
 - "You will be able to work while having treatment. He does not leave the needles in!"

...the caller and receptionist ends the call and as soon she hangs up she looks at me and we both burst out laughing. I asked her if that was a new one or had she heard it before and she confirmed it was a first! She's still not sure the caller believes that the needles are not left in. Too funny!

OK, on with the show!

Here are the cards I made for the 3 and 6 year old grandsons....similar but different enough they can tell who's is whose.

I found this card in a very old card book that I bought at the book sale last year. I was flipping thru my card idea books and stumbled across this one. The boys love cars so I figured they would get a kick out of the carrot car. Buttons were used for tires. I realized after I downloaded the cards that the bunnies don't have a very pronounced nose- just a little bump there - so I am adding a pink nose to each one. the tags were cut from a set from Provo Craft for the Cuttlebug and I printed out the Easter Wishes from the computer. Pearl halves were glued on instead of a brad.

The oldest grandson is 11. So hard to come up with ideas for an 11 year old boy - and yes, I know, boys don't give a hoot about cards - my hubby keeps telling me that but then again, if Grandma doesn't send a card he may feel left out so I'm not taking any chances.  Here's his very simple Easter card.

So simple to make! I just cut three eggs from patterned cardstock (except the striped paper on the right was just paper, not cardstock so I glued a piece from an old card on the back before cutting it out), I cut the grass from some crinkly paper (same paper I used for the carrot top on the other cards) I had and glued it on top. I used the same tags as the ones for the younger boys. 

Easter Cards 2011 part two

Wow, I'm almost too tired to even type right now. Today we had a quilting bee workshop to make more comfort quilts for kids suffering traumas from fire, accidents, etc. We had 18 sewers and about 6 of us helpers. They sewed, we did all the pressing and cutting and boy did they keep us hopping! Glad it ended at 3:00 so I could come home and rest a bit before I return for the evening regular quilt guild meeting. It was a fun day but tiring.

So, back to the cards. I finally decided on cards for the grandchildren. For the baby I used a cute bunny stamp. Purple is Finn's mother's favorite colour so that's why I used purple paper. Here is Finn's card.

Coloured with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Oval and scallop cut by using Spellbinder dies. The paper ribbon is just from my stash.

My oldest grandchild is my only granddaughter. I did something a little different for her this year. She is really not a girly, girly girl but I decided to make a girly card anyway. Here is Kadri's card.

The fancy squares were cut out using a die from Provo Craft made for the Cuttlebug. It came in a package with 4 different dies and I like this one the best. The flowers are just little paper flowers and I added the flower brads in the centre. I printed out the wording on paper and then cut them out using the smallest scallop rectangle die and left the die in while I sponged on blue chalk.

I'll post the boys cards tomorrow.

Easter Cards 2011 part one

Wow, what a long afternoon. I now have 9 people to visit at the nursing home. I was only able to see 8 today as one fellow was sound asleep so I'll pop in another day to see him. The ladies I visited were so pleased with the Easter cards I made them which really made glad I had gone ahead and did them. Here is a sample of one of them. The rest were similar but slightly different. No two were alike. I used the same stamp on all of them and next year I'll use a different stamp....not that they will remember, but I will.

I inked the background with various Distress Inks. I used Broken China, Dusty Concord, Spiced Marmalade and a Hot Pink from another company. I then stamped the image with black ink and used my Tom-bow markers to colour in the odd flower and butterfly just to make them pop. I cut the image out with my square Spellbinders die and then the scallop die. Some were done in purple, some pink some blue with a variety of background paper.