In Deepest Sympathy

It's with a heavy heart that I made this card.  Started on Friday and just couldn't concentrate.  Had a few stops and starts and finally finished today.  As I worked I just couldn't help but think of the tragedy this family is having to endure.

While deployed in Afghanistan, a co-worker has received the most horrible news that his 20 year old son has passed away here in Kingston.  I can't even begin to get my head around what he and his family must be going through right now.  I made this card for our entire office to sign & give him.  I'll need to add many pages on the inside because I know the support for him will be enormous.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Darren.

Walzingmouse Stamps 100th Sketch Challenge

I honestly can't remember if I've ever tried a sketch challenge before, but I was eager to play along with this one for Walzingmouse Stamps.  The problem I had was I didn't own any WM stamps... so I downloaded a freebie and went from there.    (I've quickly rectified the fact that I didn't own any by the way... lol... my little package from Ireland is on the way).

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card based on the sketch:
 

 
I used my 2 favorite papers - Jilly Bean & MME Miss Caroline.  And as usual, I used a mixture of dies: Spellbinders Labels 20, Memory Box Madera Corner, Lil' Inker Designs bow die and MFT scallop ribbon border die.  Sentiment is from Just Rite, impage coloured with copics.  And of course the image is from Walzingmount Stamps - and it's a freebie!!  (The beautiful turquoise ribbon came on a birthday present I received!!)
 
Thanks for stopping by!!  Until next time...
Carla.

Pearls in My Hair

I just loved this digi image when I stumbled on it here.  Had to buy it right away!  This image is called Pearls in My Hair so I tried pearls, rhinestones & liquid pearls....

I like the pearls the best.  So fun! 

Having an awesome week off work.  Surprisingly enough it hasn't all been card-making... apparently there are other things in life??  Who knew!  Actually I had every intention of spring-cleaning... but it dawned on me that it's really"summer", not spring... and who ever heard of summer-cleaning?  I mean, that's not even a thing.  So I opted for the next best thing... going for some walks, a bit of shopping and of course a pedicure.... 

Well I'm off to take my Copics for another spin tonight.  Going to get a walk in first and then it's the craft room for me.

Hope you are having a great week as well!
Till next time,
Carla.  

Faith

Saw this sentiment in my Facebook feed this afternoon and immediately thought it would look nice in a card... so I just printed it on some SU Whisper White.  I made the white layer by using the small fleur de lis from the older fleur de lis spellbinder set... and just placed 4 of them in a square formation.  I used the new cross collection for the brown cross and placed the sentiment on top.  The beautiful lace at the bottom I bought from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Ribbon Store... and of course I'm hoarding it.  LOL

The inside I kept simple and stamped a little image from a Verve set called Because of You.

Well I'm actually on holidays this week and unfortunately feeling under the weather.  Figures, eh?!  Oh well, I'm going to have "Faith" that this won't last and I'll be up and at 'em in no time.

Until next time,

Carla.

A Lifetime of Happiness

I love making wedding cards.  In fact my craft room is a little heavy on roses, lace, silk, pearls, hearts & flowers.  Can't help it... I gravitate towards the stuff.  Whenever I get a chance to make a wedding card; I jump at it.  I was recently asked to make one and the only stipulation was that it had to be black, white... and purple. 

I'm not a fan of purple.

I fussed, hummed and hawed... pulled out the 2 pieces of purple paper I own  (probably bought by accident)... twirled my hair... made a coffee, put in a laundry and when I ran out of things to procraste with... I began.  Basically it did not come together easily, but in the end I was happy with the outcome.

Not sure why I let it cause me so much grief... so when I learned that the bride & groom loved the card; I was absolutely THRILLED.  I just love that.

Here's a nice picture the bride's family took... looks all soft & dreamy.

I'm just basically a point & shoot girl.  (... camera that is).

I did stumble across a neat idea with the pin... perhaps you might already do it but I had recently bought a pair of earrings and the tiny plastic backing on them was perfect to cap the pointed end of the pin.  I do hate leaving the end exposed and usually try burying it somehow... always afraid a child will pick it up... and... well I dunno.  But I'm so tickled pink that these little plastic ends that come on new earrings just fit beautifully and give me peace of mind. lol

Well it's Mother's Day weekend... I've already posted 6 Mother's Day cards and with ONE Mom, that's not at all bad.  8)

Hope all you Mom's out there have a lovely well deserved weekend and that your kids spoil you rotten.

Till next time,
Carla.

Because of You

I thought this would make a nice Mother's Day card - I like the simple message but I held back from stamping the traditional Happy Mother's Day on the inside because it may have other uses.

I saw a blog post recently of a beautiful card of a dress form with sheer polka dot ribbon ... so it gave me the idea to try this with the satin ribbon and I used the MFT dress form die.  The sentiment (inside & out) are from the same Verve set.  All dies are from Spellbinder & MFT and the white scallop edge is a Martha Stewart punch.  Of course I had to get my flourishes in there.........  ;)

Thanks for stopping by for a peek!!  'Till next time.......

Carefree

Love this carefree image by Mo Manning.  Put it together on a Sunday afternoon while I was feeling pretty carefree myself.   8)

I added glitter to the flowers & liquid pearls to the centers.  Wish I was stronger with the Copics now that I see the photo... I think it could use more shading.  The little white flowers I found in the wedding section at Michael's and the pink centers are from Stamping Bella.  Here's the inside:

Hope you all had a wonderful "carefree" weekend too!

Baptismal Card

I was asked by my sister in law to make her a Baptismal card. After much fussing (and even trying to channel Elly - lol)... I came up with this:

Can't believe I didn't use any ribbon - seriously must be a first for me... but it just wouldn't fit - LOL.  I kept the inside pretty simple:

The large border is a Martha Stewart punch - love it!  Picked it up at Michael's on my way home last night.  The sentiment on the front was just typed on my computer and printed, but the cross & sentiment on the inside are from Verve.

Well I'm off to give this punch another go.  Happy Weekend all!!

Mother's Day Cards in my Etsy Store...

Actually made 5 Mother's Day cards this weekend and just added all of them to my Etsy Store.  Here's the first one:

Now I need to do one for my Mom................

Our PERFECT Companions

I don't know about you but I love animals... all kinds... but the loveable household dog or cat would rank pretty high on my list.  I didn't realize how many stamps I have that are actually animals...

This sweet dog is an image from Eat Cake Graphics.  Coloured with Copics.

Paper is (once again...) MME Dilly Dally combined with a small bit of BG Max & Whiskers (yellow).  Sentiment is from an MFT set... as are all of the dies, except the Spellbinder oval.  Butterflies were made with a Martha Stewart Punch.... and I couldn't resist placing the smallest butterfly right on the tip of this guys nose.

Happy April everyone.  Hope you survived all the April Fools jokes from yesterday.........

To a Beautiful Friend

HELLO WEEKEND!!  I've missed you. 

After work I raced to get all of my nasty have-to-stuff done and over the past couple of hours I've been piddling away in my craft room to some great music and having a blast.

This PSX stamp is about a ga-zillion years old but I've been going through a lot of my old stamps lately and selling them locally.  Thought I'd use it one more time before someone bought it!!

Sentiment is from a beautiful MFT friendship set.  The paper is also a bit of a dinasaur... I've had it for years and was thrilled when I came across it in my scrap drawer.  Love the roses and the aged look.

Coloured with Copics, used my Romantic Rectangles Spellbinder die, MFT flourish die, Martha Stewart butterfly punch & another Spellbinder border die.  Ribbon, sewing, mini brads and a little distressing... all the while I was de-stressing.  lol.

Well that's it for now!  Hope you all have great weekends planned!

Nothing

"Nothing is impossible to a willing heart."

Love this quote - picked up the free digi from Create with TLC.  Paper is MME Dilly Dally and the cool fence border was made using Becca Feeken's tutorial for linear punches. 

Love this paper... going to be a few more cards coming with this... he,he.

Well I've got a banana bread in the oven, laundry in the wash and supper on the stove.  Off to see my nieces in a couple of hours... wish the weather was nicer; they love the park.

Toodles........

Blessed by Your Friendship

Hey Bloggers!  Tonight I've been experimenting a little with my new Classic Decorative Inserts from Spellbinders.  The leaf die is also Spellbinder.  The flourish is a Sizzix & the rose centers are MFT.

Paper is a Jillibean Soup (that I've been hoarding... love it).  Both sentiments (inside & out) are from an MFT set.  Little pink flowers were sent by a dear friend... they sparkle.

Well for someone who didn't manage a card all weekend, I surprised myself considering it's Monday!  

Breathe Deep

Love this pretty quote (digi) from Create with TLC.  This card was a chance to use my new Romantic Rectangles from Spellbinders and also the new Edgeabilities "Classic Decorative Inserts One". 

Image is stamped an MFT set, "Spring" and the flourish die cut is also from My Favorite Things.  I finished the inside and stamped the bird with Close to Cocoa, stamping first on scrap to get rid of the excess ink and then again on the white cardstock.

With today off to make a long weekend, you'd think I would have made more cards then just this one... but I've been on an organizing-spring-clean in my condo and today with the beautiful weather it was so nice to have all the windows open and the sun shining in... even gave me more energy!

Sweet Sarah Turns Five

My little niece Sarah turns 5 today and she is in full birthday mode.  Birthday breakfast with presents, then birthday fun at the Mall, followed by The Lorax (Dr. Suess) at the movies... then birthday cake and more presents after supper.  Then a nap... for me, not Sarah...lol.

I thought this sweet image by Mo Manning went well the the Verve sentiment "Big Wish" that I placed on the inside:

DP is all American Crafts.  Die cuts are from Spellbinders & MFT.  Love that #5 from MFT !!  She's extremely proud of her age today - so fun to see.  The pink sparkle flourish I found at the Dollar Store.

Gotta Run........... can't be late for Dr. Seuss! 

Keeping it Simple

Isn't there a lot of truth to this? 

Found this quote on TLC Creations (freebie) and added some blue/green highlights with my Copics. 

I used the MME Dilly Dally DP and my Spellbinder Fleur de Lis die to layer.  A little stitching, some sparkle, pearls & ribbon... and it's done.

Kept the inside simple:

Back soon... I feel a "card weekend" coming on.........  8)

Sentiment?

I searched through my sentiments for something that would go with this image.  I was looking for something like, 'keep on trying' or 'here's a leg up' or something equally corny... lol.  Anyway, I couldn't find anything.  I think I'll just put this one in my Etsy store as a blank card and it can be used for whatever someone chooses.  If you think of something - let me know!!

Inside:

Paper is a mixture of MME Dilly Dally & Pebbles Floral Lane.  I used my new MFT Notebook Edge die - love this one - you can use both sides of what you cut... easy peasy.  The rolled flower is also from MFT.  The image of course is Mo Manning and I used my Copics to colour it up.

So if you think of a good sentiment or caption, let me know, k?! 

Sunshine

This little Lily of the Valley stamp just steals my heart!  Isn't she adoreable?!  She's coloured up with Copics and I've cut her out with my circle SB just slightly to the left so I could add the Verve sentiment under the flowers.

I was finally able to get my hands on this new MME "Dilly Dally" - love it!  My local stamp store got a portion of their order in, so I wasn't able to get it all (yet).  Love the wood grain.  The rolled flowers were made from an MFT die, leaves were made with a MS punch. 

Off to do my nieces birthday card - she's going to be 5 and she's beyond adoreable... so I'm going to have to UP the cuteness level on that one.  lol

Fluttering By...

Love this adoreable silloutte stamp from Stamping Bella (Jane Girl... by Jane Davenport).  I paired her off with this beautiful Prima paper (Flights of Fancy Collection) I had... then proceeded to cover it all up.  lol

I used Spellbinder & MFT dies with Martha Stewart punches.  I embellished with piped nylon ribbon & velvet ribbon with adhesive pearls... and the sentiment on the inside is once again from Create with TLC (yes, another freebie!).

Well I'm about to flutter out to the television because Batchelor is about to start and I'm secretly hoping that Courtney has got her bags packed.... lol

Night all.

Bonjour

MFT is in da house!!  Picked up my order on Friday from the post office... in a snow storm no less.  So I've been playing a little this weekend with the "Who's That Parisian Girl" set. 

I used two of my new MFT border dies, notebook edge and monarch - gotta try all the new stuff out right away! lol

DP is Basic Grey... I was searching through my stash to find something with a small enough print to paper piece.  Reminds me of doing those cut-out dolls when I was a kid.  8)

Inside not done (yet) ... gotta sleep sometime!  lol