New Cards

I spent the day in classes taught by Michael Strong today.  I've missed his classes for a couple of months now and it was so great to be able to once again bask in his creativity.  The first class focused on one of his new stamps, a hexagon that can be used in different ways just by making a few cuts here and there.  For one of the designs, we cut away all but the center of the stamped image and made 8 cards of all the same design but in 8 different colors.  We then applied dots with either a glitter writer or a pearl pen.  These cards are meant to be a set and I can either leave them as is or stamp some sort of sentiment in the blank spot under the image.  I'm posting just 2 of the cards just so you can see the design in different colors.  The card base on each is white.

Another card made with the hexagon used the image stamped a couple of times on yellow card stock and then heat embossed in gold.  The images were cut up to leave one center intact and 2 bowl shapes plus some diamond shapes.  We brushed orange ink on parts of the cut images and then placed them on our cards.  The bowl shapes were arranged with flowers punched from different plain and inked colored card stock.  I just realized that I haven't yet added the liquid pearls or glitter writer embellishments to my card so will post it again for you to see the "after" effect.

This next card used almost all of the parts of the hexagon image that was stamped twice on purple card stock.  The images were cut up and rearranged; the portions with hearts and one of the centers weren't used at all.  That Michael Strong is tricky......often times he'll use his images in different ways so it's impossible to know which stamps he used unless you see him in action or take his classes and learn his techniques.  I love it!

These last 3 cards were really fun to make.  We learned how to cut aluminum beverage cans (Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist are my choices) and dry emboss them with embossing folders and a Cuttle Bug.  Wow,  so easy and what a great effect!  We then applied alcohol inks to the embossed aluminum and, yep, embellished with glitter writers and pearl pens as desired.  So far, I've only embellished the embossed fleur de lis image, with gold dots of pearl pen.  I may or may not embellish the other two and I have others I need to finish and will share them another time.

Michael said that the card embossed with numerals is a birthday card because, after all, age is just a number.  Ha!

With any luck, I'll post again before the end of the month.   Besides additonal cards from Michael's classes today, I have cards I've made recently for Operation Write Home.  Wouldn't that be something, 4 posts in a month?  Progress.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment and let me know you were here.

Retirement Card

I didn't want to include this card in my post about cards for Operation Write Home.  I made a retirement card for a friend who is currently with the same public school district from which I retired a couple of  years ago.  5 of us are taking her to dinner and I volunteered to make a card for all of us to sign.  I made the card large enough to fit into a 6" x 9" envelope so it's nearly twice the size of cards I usually make.

I used papers and chipboard stickers from Bo Bunny; designs that I fell in love with when they first arrived at my local scrapbooking store.  The card base and one of the layers is from that Bo Bunny line.  I used coordinating card stock and natural (color name) seam binding for ribbon.  I laid down Scor Tape, some wonderful double-sided tape that holds forever, to fasten the seam binding as I pleated it.  Sandie's name consists of stickers as does the swirl design.  The sentiment is the top part of a large clear sticker made to be a card sentiment; the other part of the sentiment was placed inside the card.  The entire sentiment reads: "Retirment is a celebration of old memories and new beginnings.  A time to be grateful for the years behind you.  A time to welcome the years ahead.  Retirement is a wonderful feeling filled with the gift of knowing that all you've accomplished has made a lasting difference...and all that lies ahead will become a lasting treasure."  The quote is attributed to Kimberly Rinehart; I think I've seen her name in the past on some pre-printed cards in the stores.  I thought it was perfect for this card.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog.  I appreciate your visit and hope you will leave a comment to let me know you were here.

Thank you, miss you, thinking of you

I've begun filling a box with cards to send to Operation Write Home this month.  Designs that I've completed so far are shown below.  During June, I will be working on cards that were inspired by the Memorial Weekend Blog Hop that was hosted by OWH.  The requested theme was using one of the sketches that is found at the OWH site here.  I've never worked from a sketch before and it will be fun to use pre-made layouts and see what I come up with.  If you're interested in seeing the designs submitted by those who participated in the hop, go here.  I didn't participate in the hop this time but I hope to the next time.  Perhaps it will be for Veterans Day.

While I looked at the blog submissions, I found many cardmakers whose interpretations of the designs I really, really admired.  Such talent is out there, such inspiration!  It's an honor to be among folks who care about and appreciate our service people and want to do their part in letting them know that.  I bought a stamp set recently that includes a sentiment "Freedom isn't free."  Doesn't that just say it all?

Okay, now my cards:

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all comments and hope you will leave one so I'll know you were here and what you think of my cards.