Thank You Gift Cards

I mentioned a while back that my Mother-in-Law passed away and we had three most wonderful caregivers one could ask for...each was different and equally loved and appreciated.  They spent 5 weeks with my MIL to help her move and get around, to prepare some food for her (very little as it turned out), and mostly to assist the rest of the family through this process of dying.  We also had a fabulous bath aid that Hospice provided...it ended up being someone that my younger daughter went to high school with...how amazing is that?  And she was so nice, and so gentle with my MIL...we are having a Celebration of her Life on Sunday, and I wanted to do a little extra for each of them...so I made a gift card that I saw on Jennifer McGuire's blog ...they came together really fast...a little bit of stitching, a little fancy flourishes and a die heart stamped with background text.  I am going to buy some Starbucks Gift Cards for each of them...I saw them daily come to the house with their Starbucks cup...I know this little token will be appreciated for the next time they spend 36 or 48 hours at someone's home.

That's it...I am in between making the mashed potatoes and the dressing for our Thanksgiving dinner... a smaller group than normal...not so hectic and less to prepare...

Make It Monday #42: Layered Background with Sentiment Stamps

I have another card for this MIM go check out the great video by Betsy Veldman at Nichole's blog,  It is awesome...she used the Nativity Silhouette & Additions stamp set...superb!

So this time I used the In the Meadow stamp sets and I also used the fillable frames #1

I used some of the same sentiments from that stamp set, but I also used the Fancy Flourishes for the background.  The fillable frames were cut using aqua mist paper and edged with Fresh Snow.

Make It Monday #42 - Layered Background with Sentiment stamp

This week, Betsy is demonstrating the layered background look using sentiment stamps. You can go here to see the video.  I used the Mat Stack #1 die and then because I do not have the layerz mats or the mega mats, I had to trace and cut because I wanted to frame the mat stack.  I stamped O Christmas tree with black ink, but stamping it off one time first.  The tree is from Merry and Bright.  The dp is Basic Grey Nordic Holiday.

Another Fun Easy Christmas card

I used Peaceful Poinsettia and stamped with Raspberry Fizz and Ripe Avocado for the leaves...simple, easy to mass produce.

Holiday Card Boot Camp...no way to catch up...

I will forever have access to this online class...boy am I grateful for that!  These last two weeks have been very stressful..in one of my card postings several days ago, I mentioned my MIL being near death.  Well, she quietly slipped away to her eternal peace this last Monday...we could not have asked for a better ending.  We were all  by her side, we showered her with our love and dear thoughts and then she stopped breathing for maybe two minutes, then she would take three deep breaths, repeat this a total of three times and then finally no more breaths...so calm, no pain, so easy...Our Lord is indeed merciful!

So even though I will not be able to catch up with the card class and post pictures for critiquing or for entering into their contest, I can at least use their instructions to make some very fun cards.  The first card I want to show you is one that Jennifer McGuire demonstrated...and as usual she uses Distress Inks.  Now I did not have the colors she was using, but that is okay, go with what you have and I like how it turned out...I kind of skipped a step because I did not like how it looked when I did follow her instructions...so let's take a look at the card first:

First I took a piece of white card stock and I stamped the Christmas tree (Hero Arts) with versamark and then embossed with white powder...I took some eclipse paper and tore a piece off and laid it below the tree.  using the Ink Blending tool, I inked up both the dusty concord and broken china distress ink for a very pretty sky...then I spritzed it with Perfect Pearls.  I mounted the picture on white cardstock and then using a technique that Jennifer showed, I took another piece of white paper and inked up the edges with the dusty concord so that I could compliment the picture with one of the same colors I used to blend in the sky for background paper.  The card itself is a tri-fold card...paper cut at 5.5 x 8.5, scored at 2.25 along each end...
I used a blue cardstock for the card itself and stamped a Text Background on it...here is the inside of the card:

This was a very fun technique...Jennifer took it a couple more steps, she used the eclipse paper and placed it at the exact spot, but covering the top portion of the card, then she inked up peeled paint and little bit of the purple and blended it into the bottom portion of the card. I liked how it looked with just the white...reminded me of snow on the ground, and since the tree was all white with snow, I decided to just leave it as is...

Freshly Made Sketches #11

Here are the directions for joining in the fun at Freshly Made Sketches # 11.  This is my take on the sketch:

 I am still making Christmas cards and I just love this Itty Bitty Unity stamp Roly Poly Winter Joy...he is such a cute little Roly Poly Snowman and I do have fun coloring him with copics.  The snowflake background paper was made with water color paper embossed with the Provo Craft Snowflake folder and then inked up with two Distress Ink...broken chine and bundled sage and then of course spritzed with some Perfect Pearls to give it a little shine and sparkle.  The Snowflake was cut using a PTI die and then embossed with white powder.  I then used the same distress inks to color in the snowflake a bit.  I added a little button with some twine and call it good...  thanks so much for taking a look...

Make It Monday #40: Reverse Applique Card # 4

Okay, this is a little crazy card...I couldn't resist thinking outside the box..or should I say outside the "jar"...the summer jar to be specific...a summer jar once filled with ripe luscious strawberries...one that you would take to the lake or river and eat with your fingers and then run to the water to wash off your hands because you are probably eating some sand along with the strawberries...but then you get sidetracked with building a sand castle and pretty soon a whole colony of ants have discovered the last strawberry in the jar...yummm...they are going to town with that sweet little berry half eaten...and it looks like some bees are trying to get into the action to take some sweetness back to their hive...Okay, enough of the story...here is what I came up with for this reverse applique card:

thanks for taking a look...Crazy card, huh?  I stitched around the jar, but then I used a paper piercer to make the ant and bee tracks...Party Time...Oh yeah!!

Holiday Card Boot Camp - Day 5 card #2

Along the same order as the previous card, I embossed the snowflake folder with water color paper, this time I used seedless preserves and spun sugar for the two colors...the snowflake is colored with the "seedless preserves distress ink...a very pretty color...I die cut the button from PTI's Buttoned up die and colored it with the spun sugar distress ink... I added some embroidery floss to the button; the sentiment is again from Stylish Sentiments:  Holiday.

Holiday Card Boot Camp - Day 5

I think I will be jumping around...doing what I can with the products that I have and the time I have to do it.  My MIL is nearing the end of life and we are at their house every day...sometimes for all day and into the night.  My FIL really appreciates our presence even though we have care givers...so I am just doing what I can. 

Day 5 with Jennifer seemed like a quick and easy card to make...I used the cuttlebug snowflake folder and embossed it using water color paper.  I then used Distress Inks:  faded jeans and peeled paint with the ink blending tool.  After I inked it up, I spritzed it with Perfect Pearls and let it dry...I die cut a Sizzix snowflake..twice for some depth, and I blended in a little bit of blue on the flake and then I added "Icicle" stickles...just smeared it around with my finger...oh it looks so shiny and sparkly!  When it was dry, I adhered the two together and placed it on the card.  I die cut a button and inked it up also...I want to be able to send these in the mail without having to add extra postage...The sentiment is from the Stylish Sentiments:  Holiday.

 

Do you see the sparkle form the stickles?  

Freshly Made Sketches # 10

 

Here is the sketch for this week.  I turned it on its side and decided to do another Christmas Card...I am really working on getting a good stash of these cards made.  I pulled out my Papertrey Ink Stamp "Believe".  I paper pieced the Santa using some paper from the PTI Fall Prints & Patterns Package...the paper on each side of the Santa is also from that same set.  I love this Santa...He is just so country to me...and I do "Believe"!

Would you like to join in the fun at Freshly Made Sketches?  Go here to check out the cards made by the design team and you may find yourself a "Perfect Princess" for a week...I can give you first hand experience that I am getting a LOT of attention from the DH... I was a Perfect Princess last week (what a surprise for me!) and he keeps making comments about taking care of the "princess"...come on ladies, give it a try...I am shooting for the Queen spot...can't imagine how he will react if I were to ever win that honor!!  Of course his comment was:  "Do these ladies know what they are doing to all the husbands who have to live with these "Perfect Princess's or the Queen"...Ha ha...I think it is fabulous!!