Dear Hearts

The House Mouse Challenge of the week is to design an Anniversary or Wedding Card -- what could be more fun and gratifying? -- to celebrate both new and ongoing commitments of the heart. Check out the House Mouse design team's amazing postings here. My son's evaluation of this card is "...hmmm, a little busy." Ahh, but his girlfriend on the other hand, thought it was perfect. She is in the know that wedding anniversaries should be commemorated with lace, roses, ribbons, hearts, and flourishes! This house mouse image was holding jelly beans in his hands and one wrapped in his tail before I got a hold of him with an Exacto knife. The double hearts are Sizzix die cuts with the inner heart embossed with Cuttlebug. The Happy Anniversary is an unmounted stamp (origin unknown) and the roses are compliments of Inkadinkado. Married Dear Hearts everywhere -- Happy Anniversary!

Red Sails in the Sunset

A Penny Black Challenge: I found this one to be pretty smooth sailing -- a great sketch that I will enjoy using again. When I began this card, I recalled a favorite song of my mother's "Red Sails in the Sunset -- way out on the sea, please carry my loved one home safely to me...." Hence, we have the red sails glistening with crystal lacquer with just a sprinkle of glitter set against a chalked sunset. The perfect phrase "We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust our sails" is Penny Black, Sail boat, Stampscapes, birds are sizzlets. Blue background paper affixed to a glossy black 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 card face. The challenge is to use the great sketch you see below and to employ at least one Penny Black phrase or image. For more details and to view some awesome DT cards go visit.

Birthday Candles

Thank you House Mouse Design Team for continuing to give us beautiful work for inspiration on the weekly challenges. Go look for yourself and join in. This week's challenge is easy -- make a Birthday themed card. I used just part of a stamp (Jalapeno Peppers) to create my birthday card with an extra stamping of the tail and candle at the mouse's feet cut out and applied to the top layer -- a red panel raised with foam mounts. Crystal lacquer makes the candles shine on the birthday person with birthday wishes from Stampendous. Background "tapestry" is stamped with an All Night Media stamp and Memories Brown ink pad all atop a shiney black 51/2 x 5 1/2 card face. My son will be disappointed that I've not been able to come up with something corny for this posting but when I do, I am sure it won't hold a candle to what he will think. Thanks for stopping by, please tell me what you think.

Just Bee Yourself

Still cleaning my studio, a resurfacing of this card reminded me of when I was just beginning to experiment with speciality cards. This is one of the first shaker cards I designed. The bee (again with a story) was purchased from Stamp Francisco when I was working in that city and the bee was one of my very first stamps. Because I had so few stamps, I stamped this bee over and over, and colored and cut, and layered enough bees to make several hives full. I was so proud of my Bee creations that I sent one of my bee card designs into a magazine for publication. As time passed and I heard nothing, I was not surprised as I realized that I was but a novice in the card making world and why should I be published? A year or two later, I was puzzled when I received a copy of a magazine that I was not subscribed to. But as I began to leaf through the pages, I was struck by a very familiar card. It was mine!

The frame border for the shaker, is an aspen leaf I think from PSX. Inside are loose cut out bees, beads, and sequins that shake about. The handwriting is mine. Just remember, above all things -- "Just Bee Yourself!"

The Karma Award

No wonderful award goes unpublished! ScrapperJulia sent me a surprise last month and she probably wonders if I picked it up. But indeed, I was overjoyed to see that I made it on her list of eight to receive The Karma Award. I'm just a little slow in passing it on. If you want "adventure" go visit “Indiana Julia and her Temple of Crafting”

And now to the award:

"The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These
kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested
in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these
prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give
more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight
bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written
text into the body of their award."

Here's my pick of eight:

1. Sandra
2. Sue

3. Desire

4. Mama Monkey
5. Sue

6. Teresa

7. Liesbeth
8. Toniann, aka "TA"

Go visit their blogs and say hello! Everyone appreciates a friendly visit and a word of encouragement -- it lifts the spirit and reactivates mojo. I know it sure does for me. Thanks to all who come my way!

Go Fish

Living in the western part of the United States makes it very easy to think about western style cards. The background for this card was created with Colorbox pigment ink pads direct to paper. It reminds me of an Arizona Sunset and it is a perfect setting for the "ancient" fish image. All was dusted with clear embossing powder and heat set and affixed to a black panel with notched corners and red card face. Go fish is going to a person who likes to do just that "go fish." But before it gets sent off, it is appearing here so I can fish for comments. Please tell me what you think while I go fish for another card to add to my blog. (I know my son will faint when he sees this entry -- you all know how he feels about plays on words and puns!)

An Apple a Day...

Another great saying. But where did it originate? It is reported that the earliest published version of this little axiom was in Wales in the February 1866 edition of Notes and Queries magazine:

"A Pembrokeshire proverb. Eat an apple on going to bed, And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread."

This apple doesn't require a bite be taken out of it to receive a benefit. It is being sent to my husband's Aunt Edith to convey our good wishes for her in celebrating her 85th birthday. My son finds it humorous that most of my cards have "stories." And this card is no exception. It was created while I was working in Seatttle and I occupied myself in the evenings sitting in my hotel room with a baggie full of strips cut from Christmas cards to design cards. This apple is one of my favorites. A lot of my stamps have stories too: while driving through Kent, Washington, I found the stamp of a bowl of apples which I used as an accompaniment image for the envelope. (Lockhart Stamp Company). Happy Birthday, Aunt Edith.

Life in a Shoe

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. Memories of "The Old Woman who lived in a shoe..." was the inspiration for this card. I designed this dimensional piece so that it can stand just like a shoe -- is laced and has a tongue but can't really be opened. The open windows have paper doily lace curtains and show the pattern paper wallpaper within the "shoe house." The doors open to reveal "secret messages." This orginal design was made for a friend's birthday so you can see the greeting tag is "Happy Birthday". The one I made for a very special mother was mailed out the first of the week. The shoe "leather" is direct stamp pad application to a brown grocery bag wrinkled and crinkled and applied to the card base. The children, their clothing, and the butterflies are all from my favorite tools -- Sizzix! As to the Old Woman who lived in a shoe who had so many children she didn't know what to do, I cannot relate. I have four wonderful children and I know exactly what to do. Love them all!

Benefits of Cleaning Your Studio

Sympathy cards, for me are among the hardest to produce and definitely the hardest ones to write in and send off. My friend, Diane, just lost her mother and I have been trying to find the right materials to use for her card and, while shifting things around in my studio, I found 6 of these cards chucked in a plastic envelope and stowed away for safekeeping. I had forgotten that I had made them for future use. Today it was meant for me to find them as this is a perfect card for Diane.

The stamp is missing from my drawer but I believe the image is from Hero Arts. It was heat embossed with black onto a brown cardstock panel. Bleach applied to the image lightens it to nearly the base card color. The image panel is raised for dimension atop the other panels and finished off with eyelets. The finished card is 5 1/2 x 7 though the scan hardly shows the cream color card base. My studio is surely full of lots more surprises -- I think I'll continue cleaning -- maybe I'll even find that missing Hero Arts stamp.

Post Script: My son asked if he could buy a card from me for a young man in his class who had been called up to go to Afghanistan. I was delighted that I had several of this card design so that he could "buy" one for all the students to sign and send off. Another good use for this card!

Make A Big Splash

"Make a Big Splash" -- that is what I inscribed on the inside of this card for my cousin, Anne, who just turned 60 (Aunt Dot's daughter). This delightful frog is from Penny Black with his puddle enhanced with crystal lacquer. The other components are a narrow underlining of corrugated card stock, and another band punched with a frog punch. It would have been fun to put the froggie punch outs on the inside of the card, but I frogot to do that. This brings me to another use for this card -- yup! A belated, "I frogot it was your birthday." All of you being prolific card artists there is probably never a problem with frogetting to send a card. And, those receiving one of your cards surely "jump" for joy. (Thank goodness my son hasn't seen this post as you know how he feels about my corny sayings.) Well, I'll be frogging along until next time.

Aunt Dot's Flower Pot

My Aunt Dot is having a birthday. And what a birthday! She will be 90 years old this week and her children are hosting an open house in her honor this Saturday.

My family moved away from our home state while I was still in school, but one of my favorite early memories of Aunt Dot is when we visited her and were preparing to leave, she would ask us to wait while she quickly cut flowers from her garden for us to take along. I have always remembered this as a very special gesture which not only was her way of saying thanks for our visit, but was also a display of generosity and her good wishes for us to leave on a happy note.

This memory of Aunt Dot's flowers was the inspiration for this flower pot card. I created it from a standard size piece of card stock folded to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 and then cut out in the shape of the pot and bouquet. I had so much fun "cutting the flowers" to create the bouquet, that this became quite a dimensional piece. Happily, though, I have traveled to attend this celebration so that I will be able to hand deliver the card and will enjoy visiting with Aunt Dot and other relatives I have not seen in over ten years.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Dot!

Say Cheez

I was chosen randomly to receive a lovely pack of papers from K L Stampin N Scrappin for participation in the House Mouse challenge #29  -- I am just so excited! There are lots of reasons to participate in these challenges -- and not just for a chance at a prize -- it is just such fun to visit blogs with challenge cards on display. The talent around the world is just amazing. Go no further than the House Mouse challenge -- this will take you on a wonderful journey in card making. This week's challenge is bags and boxes - decorate and cover and I had just emptied a round cheese box (Laughing Cow). Look who's laughing now -- it is my favorite House Mouse guy exuberant over the coming of spring. I won't bore you with the details of this project because if I were to do it again -- there's got to be an easier way! And, because it is the wee hours of the morning, I don't have any jelly beans or M&Ms to fill the box with -- which I thought would be cute. The mouse is suspended inside the box and I am anxious to see how he likes chocolate! Check back -- maybe I won't eat all of the chocolate and save a little for the mouse in the box.