Friday, April 29, 2011

Happy Birthday, Mister!


Good Morning Friends!

Yay! The weekend is here! After a terrible weather week here in our area, I am looking forward to some calm Spring weather this weekend! Beautiful today with sunshine and a cool breeze! Even the animals seem calmer and happier!

I had been asked to create some masculine birthday cards. Today I would like to share one of them with you. I tend to keep masculine cards simpler but with an extra touch or two.

This project started with a My Mind's Eye card base. This particular base put me in the mind of a man's vest. Keeping it simple, I rounded the outside corners and sponged the outside edge with Really Rust craft ink. The pocket watch is stamped in the same ink and outlined with gold metallic pen. The "hands" on the watch are tool brads. I used a Hero Arts stamp for the greeting and used the Cuttlebug and Labels Four die to cut it out. I also used the gold pen around this layer. The sentiment inside was computer generated. I thought about adding more embellishments but decided I liked the clean look for an older gentleman's card.

I hope your week has gone well! Are you ready for a new month and Mother's Day? I sure am! April has been hectic to say the least! Spring really came in like a lion for us this year! Now I am ready for some "lamb" days!

Thank you for stopping by today! Your visits always bring a smile and leave me with a happy heart! Please come back again soon!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Monday, April 25, 2011

Blog Blessing from Susan


Hello Friends!

I am feeling pretty spiffy right now! A new friend and now blogging buddy, has blessed me with a blog award! Thank you, Susan! Be sure to check out Susan's blog, Cricut and Grasshopper! She has wonderful cards, layouts, tips and projects on her blog!

There are a few goodies that come along with this award.
The rules for the Stylish Blogger Award are:
1. Thank the person who gave the award, and link back to their blog.
2. Share 8 things about yourself.
3. Pass this award to 8 individuals.
4. Leave a comment so they can pass on the recognition

I have no problem with #1, 3, and 4. It's that #2 that gives me pause. Oh, I can share 8 things; but, I am afraid they aren't anything news worthy...lol! So, in the spirit of the award....

1. I am Southern born and love it! If I can't remember someone's name, it's ok! You are all "Honey" and "Sweetie" to us anyway!
2. When I am not in the craft room, I am in the kitchen. Cooking is my passion!
3. My pet peeve is lack of manners! It takes so little to be respectful and nice to people.
4. I am one of seven generations to live in "the ol' home place". Yep, I live in a house that's over a hundred years old! The windows rattle, the floors all slope (in different directions) and some of the window sills are a foot deep where the windows were cut out of the logs!
5. I have worked in many and varied fields, but my favorite is "professional volunteer"!
6. I would love to own and operate my own tea room!
7. I am a tool junkie!
8. God is most important in my life! Only with His love and grace can I do all other things!

Now, to pass this along to eight other friends! It's hard to narrow down the list. So many of my blogging friends qualify for this award!

1. Mary Griffiths - http://mystampinhide-away.blogspot.com/
2. Peggy Marsh -http://thewiredangel.blogspot.com/
3. Maria Matter-http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/
4. Karen Howe Murray-http://www.papercraftmemories.com/
5. Gina Flowers Lindsay-http://ginasmakingsandmusings.blogspot.com
6. Carrie Clovis Lipovich-http://stampsscrapsandscissors.blogspot.com/
7. Chris Dickinson-http://www.chrissyd723.blogspot.com/
8. Sue Walsh-http://a-consuming-passion.blogspot.com/

These ladies all have awesome blogs and amazing talent! Now, Ladies, don't hate me for sending you this award! You deserve it and I am looking forward to reading about you!! And, yes, I understand payback is the dickens...lol!

I want to thank Susan again for including me in this award! She sure knows how to make a girl feel special!

Thanks to all of you for stopping by! Always a treat to have company! Hope everyone has a great week filled with many blessings!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Design DIVAS OBG Blog Hop



Hello and Welcome to the Facebook Design DIVAS OBG Blog Hop!

The DIVAS are an eclectic group of ladies who love to fellowship and craft. We have this blog hop the third Wednesday of each month. We hope you will join us today and come back in the future to share in our fun and inspiration!

The theme for the hop is Oldies but Goodies! Our challenge is to use materials that are at least six months old and, more than likely, sadly neglected over time.

This is your first stop on the hop today and my card meets the criteria for the challenge from start to finish! I know sympathy cards are not ones we like to make necessarily, but they are needed for those we want to share our love and sympathy with.

I started with a white card base and layered patterned paper on the front. This paper has a beautiful floral pattern and I used a gold pen to outline and raise the flowers. I used a scalloped edge punch for the sides and distressed all the edges. The sentiment is stamped on parchment paper and cut with the Spellbinders long rectangle die. I added the birds in flight as an extra touch. This card is a little more subtle than I usually make, but I thought this paper was perfect for a sympathy card.

Your next stop on the hop is Melissa Cash. Please be sure to stop by and leave her some love!

Thanks so much for your visit today and we look forward to hearing from you!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Design DIVAS OBG Blog Hop

Hello Friends!

Welcome to the March Design DIVAS OBG (Oldie But Goodie) Blog Hop! So glad you could join us!

If you came here from Brenda Turner's blog, you are in the right place! If you would like to start from the beginning of the hop, you can start with Melissa Cash's blog!

The idea for our blog hop is to use items in our craft stash that have not been used for at least six months! I think my project today more than meets that criteria!

The birthday card I am sharing today started with a half fold white cardstock base. My next layer on the card is my OBG, wallpaper! I have had this piece in my stash for over a year and was thrilled to see it go to good use! It is a beautiful heavily textured and embossed piece. I can't imagine it on a wall. but I love it for this card! I used a vellum overlay on the card to soften the image. I then stamped the sentiment on the vellum and embossed with white powder. The inside greeting was computer generated! I finished the card with a ruffled pink ribbon. I had quite a bit of difficulty photographing this card due to its size and texture. This is definitely one of those cards that the picture does not do it justice!

I hope you are enjoying your visit here and have found some inspiration along the way! This group of crafters are amazingly talented and such a wonderful group to share ideas with. We are becoming quite close and are enjoying our journey together!

Your next stop on the hop will be Shelly Schmidt! Shelly always has unique projects with a great eye for color and detail! Be sure to join us next month for our OBG Blog Hop! You never know what these ladies may pull out of their stashes to share with you!

Hope you are having a terrific week and I leave you with...

Blessings to you,
Vicki




Monday, March 14, 2011

Heartfelt Thank You

Hello Friends!

I hope you have been having a great weekend! We were blessed with much warmer temperatures and sunny skies! Just beautiful!

I have a very simple card to share with you today. It is part of a set I put together for a friend. I started with a cardstock base made from the K&Company Life's Journey stack. Beautiful design on both sides. I added a piece of ribbon from my bridal floral stash. The sentiment is stamped with Mellow Moss on white cardstock, embossed with clear embossing powder, and cut with Spellbinders Labels Nine die. I like the little heart at the end of the flourish on this stamp. This layer is adhered with dimensionals. I sponged the edges of the sentiment and the card with Mellow Moss. I finished the card with a computer generated greeting inside. I love the elegance this cardstock gives to the card! I must have been born in the wrong generation! I can't seem to get too far away from vintage type cards!

I have a busy week ahead, but hope to get a chance to visit some blogs and leave some love! We may be on longer daylight hours, but the hours still seem too short for me to get everything in a day I would like to! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today! It feels so good when we can share time together!

Love and blessings to you~
Vicki
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dog Food Die Cuts

Hello Friends!

Hope you are having an awesome weekend!

Today's post may seem a little strange when you read the title! No, I didn't die cut dog food! (Not yet anyway!) But I did think "outside the bag" for this project! Let me give you some background info so you won't think I have totally lost it! ( No comment from those who know me well, please)

My BFF Mary and her hubby have asked me on occasion to babysit my dogniece and dognephew, Susie and Max, for them. This time, their anniversary fell during there time away.

You have to understand, with my three dogs and their two, it is a cute circus at times in my house! Thankfully, they all get along well! More thankfully, they all eat the same dog food! This is a real plus when you have five eating at the same time! NOW, Mary's favorite colors are pastel blue and pink! One night while I was feeding the dogs, I looked at the bag, and guess what?!?! Those colors were on the bag!! Well, me being me, the concept for their card was established!! Perfect sense, right???

I got the animals fed, out to potty and settled in for the night. Then I began to cut apart their dog food bag! They were a little confused, but full, so they left me alone with the bag! I cut panels from the bag to fit my Cricut mat. I used the Daisy from the Walk In My Garden cartridge to start cutting flowers from the bag! Well, the bag had a coating, kind of like freezer paper on it. My cuts were sliding all over the place and I was almost crushed that I would not be able to use my awesome (to me) idea for their card. Then I was blessed with an AHA moment! I have the spray for renewing your mats! I sprayed the panels before putting them on the mat and it worked beautifully!! I was so tickled, I woke the dogs when I uttered a very loud, "YES!!" Once again, they looked up, gave me the "she's lost it again" look and resumed their naps.

After cutting out various sizes of the flower, I layered them to resemble Mary's favorite flower, the Dahlia. I think I got pretty close! I punched the centers of the layers and bound them with a large gem topped brad. Whew! It worked! Now, what to do next?!?!

I decided to go with a craft colored base. I had to get something in there for hubby! I used some DCWV Spring paper for the background, cut the sides with a border punch and edged it with a Versamark pen, and embossed the edge with copper powder. I stamped the sentiment with Versamark on some coordinating paper from the same stack. I then embossed that with the copper powder also. I used a Spellbinders Fancy Tags die to cut out the greeting. I also embossed the ends and edges of the tag. Now it was time to put it all together on the base. I used some leaves from my floral stash to accent the flower, which is attached with glue dots. The sentiment is mounted on dimensionals. I added a computer generated greeting inside, rounded the corners, and called it "done"! I wanted to dress up the envelope a little so I stamped the flying bird with Versamark and embossed it in the copper also. The bird represents them being away and going to Florida as "snowbirds" to get away from the cold! I know, I'm awful!

I hope I didn't bore you with my journey through this project. I just felt I might need to explain myself a little. Who am I kidding? If you follow my blog, you know this is typical of me, right?!?!
I know Mary will get a big kick out of it and that is what I was after! She and Don have been wonderful to me and are always there to give me rides, fix my broken house, or just give me a boost when I need it! I love them dearly!

If this post starts your week off with a chuckle or a sigh (sympathy for my friends...lol), then I am happy! It makes my heart sing when friends drop by and check out my latest craziness! Thanks so much and come back again soon, won't you?

Love and hugs to you all.. and .....

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Welcome to the Design D.I.V.A.S. Oldies but Goodies Blog Hop



Hello and Welcome! Design D.I.V.A.S. on Facebook is a private group of crafters who love to share fun and inspiration! Our Oldies but Goodies Blog Hop was created for us to share some of our "back of the drawer or cabinet goodies" with everyone! We are to use craft items that have not seen the light for six months or more.

If you have arrived here from Sharri Seffens blog, you are in the right place! This stop is the last one on the hop! If you would like to go to the beginning of the hop, please start with Brenda
Turner's blog!

I didn't have to dig too deep to find items that meet the criteria for this hop! I went "back in the day" with some tools and stamps that have sadly been neglected for more than several months.

I started with a cranberry cardstock base. I then added borders cut with the Cuttlebug Floral Borders die. The tiny blossom accents were also cut with this die. Next came the inside corner accents cut with the CB Vintage die. I distressed all the edges of the card, rounded the outside corners and sponged them with Color Box Chalk Warm Violet ink. The sentiment layer was stamped and then cut with Spellbinders Label One die. I sponged the edges here, too. The panel was then adhered with dimensionals. Next, I added the multicolored butterfly, cut with the Sizzlits Butterfly Tag die and mounted it with glue dots. As a final accent, I edged the sentiment panel and the butterfly with DecoArt Twinkles Glitter Paint. I also added the glitter paint to the flower blossoms.

This is just a fun card to send to a good friend recovering from surgery. She is a very dainty lady and I thought the borders and bling would be perfect for her.

I hope you have enjoyed your stop here today! I am the last blog to visit on this month's hop. If you have not visited all the members in the hop, please start with Brenda's blog and soak in all the wonderful talent and inspiration these ladies offer! We will be doing this hop again the third Wednesday of each month so be sure to join us!

You are always welcome to drop by here whenever you can! You may start out as a newcomer to my blog, but I hope you will feel like a friend when you leave! For those of you who visit often, you bless me with the gift of your time and friendship!

Hope everyone has an awesome day and, as always, I send...

Blessings to you,
Vicki