You're In My Thoughts / NAC 117

Pin It

Hey y'all. Happy Tuesday. I hope you had a good weekend and are getting ready for a fabulous Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I needed another sympathy card this weekend. This one is for a friend's daughter. Her grandmother was recently diagnosed with cancer and I wanted her to have something pretty and to let her know she was in my thoughts and prayers. I was so excited with how this turned out. The Nachos have a sketch challenge for you this week. Here's what I came up with-

Here's this week's sketch-

Here's a side view of the butterflies. The solid ones were colored in with my Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie Blendabilities. The floral one was colored in with my Stampin' Write Markers. I used my Butterfly Punch after coloring them to punch them out. All 3 were popped up on dimensionals and the wings were curled slightly to give them extra dimension. I also added a few  rhinestones to the floral one for an added bit of pretty.

I took my color combination from the pretty floral DSP and used
Night of Navy, Blushing Bride, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie.

Here's a look at the inside. The butterfly was a second stamping from the one used on the front. I simply huffed on the stamp to re-moisten it. Although I don't have a picture of the envelope, I used the 3rd stamping for it.

sorry it's a little crooked :0

That's all I have for you today. I'm happy to say my friends daughter really liked her card and I hope you liked it as well. I sure hope you're going play along with us this week. I can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the universe. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe-

Shan

Pin It

Thinking of You / NAC 115

Pin It
Hey y'all. Happy Tuesday! I hope you're having a good week so far. :) I'm headed back to work after a little stay-cation. My mom came up to visit and we had a great time. Just a quick entry for you today. It's time for another challenge and this week we have a color challenge for you. When I saw this week's colors I had a feeling where most people's thoughts would lean, but I wanted to do something a little unexpected. I have a friend who's been having a rough time lately and I thought I'd make a card for her. Here's what I came up with-

Here's this week's color combo-

Such a fabulous color combination. It's definitely great for the upcoming holiday season, but I wanted to try something a little different and I' so excited with how it turned out! What do you think? I used my Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities for the 2 larger flowers and just the stamp pad for the 3 smaller ones. I thought it would be a great way to use the color but get more than just "the color".

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked it and I'm so excited to see what you create.

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the universe. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

Pin It

Sympathy Color Challenge / NAC #50

Pin It

Hey y'all. Happy Saturday! I hope you're having a great weekend. I spent the afternoon stamping with my stamping bestie, April. We were working on our Convention swaps. I'm so excited about them and can't wait to get them completed and ready for my first SU Convention.

Know what else I'm excited about? Getting my card made for this week's entry in the Nacho Average Challenge. It's the small things in life that make you happy and I have to say that every time I get my card done for the NAC challenges, I'm a happy girl. Last week I crashed on the couch and slept past time to get my entry in. :( Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post though to see what I created. Here's this week's entry-

Unfortunately, my co-worker lost a family member this week, so I was in need of a sympathy card. These are always so hard for me to do. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I think I will end up adding some small pearls to the flowers but I didn't have time to do that and get this post done in time. Here's a surprise fact for those of you that know me. I didn't use my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig when I did the sentiment.  Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! Once again, it's the small things in life. 

Here's what I was working with for the challenge-

Most of you know that I'm not a fan of color challenges but all things considered, I think I did ok with this one. I'm sure I will use this combination again later in the year come fall. In fact, I already have some ideas in mind.

Like I said earlier, I had a MAJOR FAIL and didn't get to enter last week's challenge. That really bummed me out because as soon as I saw the sketch, I knew what I wanted to do. That rarely happens for me. Hopefully my fabulous friends over at NAC will still be reading and will see what they inspired even though it's late. Here's the sketch-

And here's what I did with it-

My daughter's a HUGE Dr. Who fan and she even got me hooked. She turned 21 this week and I wanted to make her something special to commemorate the big day. I'll post more about this card later but let me just say she was ecstatic when she saw it (even though there's only 1 sun instead of 2).

Well that's all I have for you today. I hope you like them and I hope the fabulous ladies at NAC like them too! If you liked today's projects or have questions about them, I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a comment below. I love hearing from you and read all of your kind comments. They really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin them, I've put those buttons on my page for you. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

Go Ahead & Cry / NAC #20 ? My Challenge #47

Pin It
Hey y'all. Happy Wednesday! Boy, here I was thinking I was doing good because it was only Tuesday and then I realized I'm a day behind because of the Holiday. Oh well, at least I'm getting to post. I hope you're having a great week so far. I'm almost situated in my new job, so hopefully things will be getting a little more back to normal. For those that have followed me for a while now, I'm finally out of my boot, hopefully for good and trying to get back to exercising. I started at a new gym tonight and managed a 30 minute walk run 15/15 and am still able to walk so I'm thinking that's a good thing. :) Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and well wishes you sent my way!

I'm so excited about today's card! You know I love those fabulous ladies over at Nacho Average Challenge and I make sure to get their challenge in every week. (Some times earlier than later, lol) They've got a color challenge this week and you know how I feel about them, but I'm very happy with how my card turned out. I love when people give measurements for their cards especially ones with lots of layers so guess what?  I have them for you and will put them at the end of the post. Why? Because that's just the kind of friend I am. :) It took me 2 hours to make this card and the bulk of that was trying to figure out the layer measurements. :( Here's what I came up with-

Sympathy Card featuring Lean On Me Stamp Set

Here are the colors I had to work with-

 

Summer Starfruit is still not one of my favorite colors, but I have to say it's growing on me. I think it works best with strong, really saturated colors and Midnight Muse is one of my favorites to pair it with! I started with a base of Midnight Muse. To that I added a layer of Summer Starfruit that I ran through my Big Shot in my new Argyle  Embossing Folder. Love all that fabulous texture! One of the nice things about that folder is how nice it really looks on either sid, embossed or de-bossed. Next came a layer of Baja Breeze that was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots Folder. These three layers were all Tombowed together.

My next layer is Midnight Muse and I used one of my scalloped border punches to add detail to the one end. I stamped my image on Naturals White with Black Staz-On and used my Blender Pens and Classic Ink Pads to color it in. I love all the color variations you can get with that technique! Here's a close-up view-

 I wrapped my Midnight Muse Striped Ribbon around the Naturals White layer and secured it with SNAIL. I then secured this to the Midnight Muse layer with Tombow. This panel was adhered with Dimensionals and the front of my card was done. Yea! :)

Here's the inside-

Inside of Sympathy Card with Everything Eleanor and Teeny Tiny Wishes

I used Teeny Tiny Wishes for my sentiment and stamped it in Midnight Muse. Here's a close-up of my pretty little flower because you know I think the inside should be pretty too!

I stamped this in Midnight Muse as well and then colored it in with some Baja Breeze. A little love from Tink finished it off.

Before I forget, Here's the card measurements-
The base is a standard  base of 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 scored and folded at 4 1/4.
Summer Starfruit- 4 1/2 x 3 1/4
Baja Breeze- 4 1/2 x 2 1/4
Midnight Muse- 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 and then cut with punch
Naturals White- 3 x 2
Hope this helps! :)

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked it and I hope the fabulous ladies over at NAC like it too! If you liked today's card or have questions about it, I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a comment below. If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card I've put those buttons here for you. Friends and Followers are always welcome too!

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to visit my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! I hope you make it by again soon. Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan

Pin It

Everything Eleanor Sympathy Card

Pin It
Hey y'all. Happy Humpday! I hope you're having a great day, and week too. :) Just two more days until the weekend. Yea!

I don't know about you, but one of the hardest cards for me to make, even harder than the dreaded "Masculine" card is a sympathy card. There's really such a fine line when designing this type of card. You want something beautiful but not flashy and something sincere but not overdone.. you get the idea. They're just hard for me and I think for many of you as well. Unfortunately, this is not a card I have a ready supply of. I may have to do something about that. Well, Monday morning at work, my co-worker told me she was taking off the last few days of this week because her Best Friend had died last Friday. Awwww! I can't even conceive of that happening to me. Well, of course we know what I felt a need to do, right? Yep! Create a little bit of hand-crafted love for her. Isn't it great that SU has such beautiful sets to  help us with this difficult task? Isn't it awful that somehow those sets keep getting pushed back on my order form in favor of newer sets that I just have to have RightNow! That's right. No sympathy sets at home for me. So I had to figure out a new idea. Well, I went to have dinner with my Stamping BFF, April, isn't it nice that she offered to feed me? We were going to stamp too but got a little caught up in the Olympics. To be honest, I'm surprised I've gotten any stamping done this week! After a relaxing evening with friends I made it home around 9:30 and still needed to come up with a card. Why, Oh Why, is it that I don't already have these things prepared in advance!?!

Here's what I came up with-

Sympathy Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs

This is a CASE of a card I made in Robin Merriman's Stampin at the Firehouse class. I changed a few small things, but the basic layout and focal image is hers. I thought it was a pretty card and would work well for what I needed. What do you think? I wanted the colors to be elegant but subdued. I think Night of Navy, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla fit that bill nicely, don't you? This was the first time I used my Everything Eleanor stamp set. I got it for Free during SAB. I love how SU takes care of us!!! Anyways, I used Night of Navy as my base and topped it with a piece of Crumb Cake that I ran through my Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper E.F. This layer was sponged with Crumb Cake Classic Ink to make the embossing stand out more and then adhered to the base with Tombow. I stamped my images on a piece of Very Vanilla and mounted it to a piece of Night of Navy c/s. The original card didn't have a sentiment on the front and I tried double mounting the sentiments and stamping them on the inside, sometimes that works out, but it just didn't look right for this. So I started looking for punches to use and came up with the Oval and Scalloped Oval punches. They were just the right size and I think the scalloped edge ties in well with all the rounded edges on the embossed layer. A little C.C. sponging to soften these two layers and I adhered it to my center panel with two Dimensionals. I tried a few different ribbons and settled on the Very vanilla Seam Binding. The Victorian Lace was pretty with this too, you could see the colors through the lace...what a pretty effect, but a little too much with the punched layer. I simply wrapped it around my layer and tied it in a small bow. This completed panel was then adhered with Dimensionals.

Here's a look at the inside-

Inside of Sympathy Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs.

I simply inked my images up and stamped off once before stamping them on this inside layer.

Ok, I said simply. I lie. O.K. I don't really lie, but it wasn't quite that easy. In fact what should have taken me about 30 minutes to do ended up taking over an hour. I don't know if I was tired or if I was worried about making "the Perfect card" for my friend, but it just wasn't happening. Does that ever happen to you? First off, it took me a few different takes to decide if I was stamping the front full strength or half strength, then to sentiment or not to sentiment, then what to use. During this time I inadvertently inked up my stamps in the wrong color, managed to ink up the edge of my fingers in Night of Navy and that was just on the front. Once I got to the inside I inked up my background image not once but twice in the wrong color! *Headdesk!* Finally it came time to stamp the sentiment. I had it mounted and inked up, had done a practice stamp and made sure I was lined up where I wanted to be, you know all level and everything and what happens? The stamp falls off the block. Augh! Well, luckily it fell on my grid paper. Other than the fact that my heart stopped, no harm no foul. I re-mounted it, re-inked it  went to stamp it and it fell off again and bounced, leaving Night of Navy ink on my inside and not where & how I wanted it. Let's just say AUGH! is not the word/words/phrases I was uttering in a loud voice. Ok, so it was my fault. This is a set I had mounted a while back and I didn't adhere the backing flat. It was a little tight and the stamp curved inward. So I peeled it off a little at a time, and trimmed around the edges so the sticky part would adhere to the block and decided to try again. It's a good thing I don't adhere my inner layers until I'm done stamping! I stamped the sentiment again, and got it right the first time and then making sure my Night of Navy pad was closed, inked up & stamped my background image  and then my floral image. Whew was I glad to be done!!!

Oh snap! I still had to do the envelope. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I mounted and un-mounted those 2 stamps thinking I was done each time. One more time each and finally I really was done, over an hour after I first started.  *SMH* I think the time and effort were worth it though, especially after seeing the look on my friends face. Don't you just love it when they ask, somewhat incredulously, "Did you make this?" She loved it and couldn't believe I had not only made it but made it for her.

Here's the card and envelope together-

Sympathy Card and Envelope featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs

That's all I have for you today. I hope you liked today's card and I hope it inspires you to make some sympathy cards to have on hand so you don't have to scramble at the last moment like I did. :) 

For those of you, like me, that are measurement challenged I have today's measurements for you. I've been trying to remember to put these on my posts, in fact I've been putting them in my B.B. for that reason, but often forget to post them. If I forget and you 'd like the measurements, leave me a comment and I'll get them for you.

Night of Navy Base- 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored and folded at 4 1/4

Crumb Cake layer- 5 1/4 x 4

Night of Navy panel- 4 1/4 x 3 1/4

Very Vanilla- 4 x 3

I love hearing from you so if you liked today's card or have questions about it, and have a moment to leave me a comment, you'd make my day. I read all of my comments. If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons on my post for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are appreciated! I hope to see you back soon. I'll have this week's End of the Week Technique for you tomorrow. Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

Pin It

MDS Monday- Sympathy Card

Pin It
Hey y'all. Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for an amazing week. Just four more days until the long weekend. Woo-Hoo!!! :)

I don't know about you but I always find Sympathy cards difficult. It just seems like such a hard line to toe, pretty but not frou-frou and finding just the right words to say is so hard. I sold one of my sympathy cards recently and the purchaser commented to me that she loved the fact that unlike most commercial cards the sentiment was short and sweet. *Whew* :) That made me really appreciate the sentiments SU has.

I was trying to figure out what kind of card/project to make for today's MDS Monday and decided to use a sketch as a jumping-off point. I found one over at Sunny Challenges and Creations  that I thought looked do-able. Then I looked through my handy-dandy notebook of all my current downloads and found one I thought I could incorporate into the sketch.

Here's today's card-

MDS Sympathy Card - All Original Downloads

I love our My Digital Studio program. Although I have downloaded some new items (mostly punches and a few kits) I have been able to create most of my MDS projects with items that came with my original purchase of the full program. I'm so excited about the New MDS 2 coming out later this year, especially the ability to color stamps with multiple colors. How exciting is that!?!

For this card I started with a base of Night of Navy. I layered Brocade Blue and Night of Navy Textile DSP on top and added a Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon and knot. For the focal point I added two medium oval punches that I enlarged a little. I love having the ability to change the size of the punches to make them just what you want and need. Such a cool feature. I like to use MDS to get ideas and try sketches and cards before actually using cardstock to create. Although it may take a little time to do two cards, I don't end up wasting c/s trying to get my measurements just right. I know exactly what sizes to cut because the card sizes match up perfectly. :) My favorite feature however, and I use it almost every time I do a project is the Opacity feature. I love being able to change the depth of color just like stamping off in real life. I used this feature to lighten the floral element in the center. It's actually Night of Navy lightened to about 60%.

Here's the inside-

MDS Sympathy Card- Inside

Although I wanted to keep the inside elegant and simple, you know it was killing me to think of a "plain" inside. What to do.... carry over the image from the front, enlarge it (love that you can change the size of stamps too!) and lighten it just this side of a "watermark". I think it makes a nice addition without detracting from the sentiment. What do you think?

It's the first time I've played along with Sunny Challenges and Creations and didn't realize until I pulled up the site to link it here that their challenge was also using current In-Colors. I hope they won't mind too very much that I submitted even though this only meets half their challenge. Ooops.

That's all I have for you today. What do you think? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and although I don't have that particular DSP, I'm sure I could use one from one of the Color-Stacks and make an equally beautiful card.

If you liked today's card, feel free to leave a comment. I love hearing from you! Also if you liked it and wanted to +1 or Pin it, I've placed the buttons on my sidebar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too. :)

I hope you'll come back soon, and see what I've got for you. I've even already got not just a Clean & Simple card but a one-layer C&S one at that ready to go.

Wishing you an Amazing Day!

Till next time-

Remember- Life is often  more about the storms, than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storm to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be safe,
Shan







Pin It

MDS Monday - Sympathy Cards

Pin It
Hey y'all! Well, 2012 is finally here. I hope 2011 ended on a good note for you and 2012 is starting on an even better one! This is going to be a quick post as I am working with a small migraine. I put this off till the afternoon hoping it would go away, but no luck. I also know it's Tuesday, but I took the day off yesterday to do some "Spring cleaning around the house and to play in the studio, so as it's a "Monday-Tuesday" kind of week I figured I could get away with posting my MDS Monday post today.

I don't know about you but sympathy cards are not the easiest to for me to do. I always think masculine ones are hard, but sympathy ones are even harder. You want to hit just the right note. You want to be pretty without being over the top. I like this stamp set, Thoughts and Prayers, and it's one I've been wanting to get for a while and have been passing over in favor of occasional items and was so glad that it came standard in my MDS suite.

Here's the card I made-

I used Soft Suede, Always Artichoke, and Very Vanilla for the colors and I really liked how it came out.

In fact, I liked I so  much I just changed the words to make it card for a friend of mine who is going through a rough patch right now.

And here's the inside-

And here is one of my favorite songs for her and for anyone who is going through a tough time in their life-

Enjoy-

Now, for a really personal moment- As I was finishing this post I got a call from the doctor's office. I'm sure everything will be fine, but the mammogram I did last week had an abnormality on it and I'll be going back in next Friday ( Augh, Friday the 13th!) for another exam. So, if you believe in prayer or even just positive thoughts and energy, I'd really appreciate it if you could send them my way. Thanks.

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you liked my card and I hope you'll stop back in real soon to see what else I have in store for you. I've been playing around with my new supplies and can't wait to show you.
 If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :) 


Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It