Christmas Stocking Thank You

A Xmas card in May!!?? Yup.  It's actually a Thank you for a lovely woman who helped complete a Xmas stocking for my "little Theo." 

Challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use Dies or Punches
  
• Crafty Hazelnut Patterned Paper Challenge - Option of Candy Canes
• NBUS - everything on this card is NBUS!  
  
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes
  
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
  
• Time Out Challenge - Items from your home.  The Xmas stockings are from inside my son's home this past Xmas.  

Backstory: My mom knit gorgeous Xmas stockings for her 3 children. Then she knit for our husbands, and her grandchildren. She knit each person's name onto the top of their stocking. As she was getting older she realized her family might outgrow her ability to continue knitting stockings.  So she made a "stash" of stockings for future family members.  As the oldest I am the "keeper of the stash".  Happily, mom's forecast came true.  Her family grew.  Eventually she was no longer able to knit the names on the stockings, and then she passed in 2019.  Along comes Theo (her 3rd great grandchild). 

My sister-in-law found a lady who was able to knit names onto the stockings.  This thank you is for her. 

Mom knitting a stocking ~2005

Theo's stocking with his Mom's & Dad's

Supplies: 

• diecuts: Thank-you (Simon Says Stamps); stocking (Concord & 9th)
• pattern paper: assorted (HoneyBee & DCWV & My Mind's Eye)

These stockings bring a smile to my heart. The tradition continues. Here's a peek at the inside:

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying a lovely spring day. 

What will the Babee Bee?

I don't know if I've told you . . . My daughter-in-law is expecting our first grandchild.  Her sisters recently held a small shower for her - the theme was "What will Baby Bee?".  It was amazing -- the weather cooperated spectacularly for socially distancing. The decorations, food, company were over the top. It was fantastic.  

So I made this card (x many) for her sisters and mom, and for my very dear friend who made bee-themed masks), and for my sister and nieces who gave me Grandma-to-be gifts.  

Here's a peek at the inside:

I'm putting this into the following challenges: 

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge This is where I started my card -- I usually look for sketches, then colors.  This sketch was perfect.  

Papercraft Challenge     Challenge # 62 - Black + White + one additional Colour - When you add yellow to black and white you get a combo Perfect for Bees.  I did use a bit of blue for the wings and pink for the face.  

I'm also putting the card into the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenge #181 Anything Goes

NBUS - the pattern paper is an old unused pack from DCWV - the stamp "bees knees" is from an old sentiment set by Pink by Design - never been used. 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Animal Antics - Bees are in the Animal Kingdom. 

Products:

• Stamps: Honey Bee - the front image and inside sentiment; MFT the inside images
• Paper: DCWV 

And here are the grandparents to be:  

This week we said Good Bye to summer.  Here is a photo of the last summer sunset taken from Patchogue dock.  Doesn't this just look a card waiting to be made? 

As always, thanks for taking a peek.  Stay safe

A Pocketful of Thanks

My best friend made and sewed some pockets for my 90 year old mother-in-law's day dresses.  And I wanted to make a thank you card for her.  Thanks, Virginia!!

Thanks to the challenge at Double Trouble I found a recipe for today's card:

From Thing 1 - Trouble Maker

Ingredients:  3 - Colors 

                       2 - Embellishments   

                       1 - Seasoned Stamped Sentiment  (clear or rubber stamp more than one year old)

and from Thing 3 - Twisted Sister  use the Sketch from  Retro Rubber 
"Let's get straight to the point. From my point of view, I see a sketch with sharp angles so here's MY angle: Using the sketch, create a project using at least one angular shape without round corners, i.e., triangles, quadrilaterals such as square, rectangle, parallelogram, rhombus, etc.  That's my angle and I'm sticking to it!"  

The pocket is a pentagon -- no rounded corners. 

and from THING 2:  Double Dare  - The stamp set from W+ 9 (pocket and sentiment) is very old -- I think it dates back to 2012.

So I'm also putting this into Retro Rubber

And also into 

• The colors are from CAS Colours & Sketches
• CAS on Friday - where the theme is Sunshine
• Happy LIttle Stampers
  

Supplies:

• patterned paper: Scenic Route
• pocket stamps & die: W Plus 9 - A Pocketful (2012) 
• sun die: Lawn Fawn
• embellishments: 2 brads on the pocket corners

As always, thanks for taking a look.  Stay safe and stay well. 

Sunflower Corner

I needed several Thank You cards, and I wanted to do so quickly.  So this idea came to me.

I used a stencil by The Crafter's Workshop (You are my Sunshine).

• I colored it with distress inks and blender brushes
• then went over it with Gel Gloss embossing paste to give it a raised surface
• added a black border with a thin sharpie
• embossed the sentiment (I'm not sure what company)

I was able to make several within minutes - not including the time needed for the embossing paste to dry.

I'm putting this into the following challenges:

1.   AAA CAS Game #146 - Made in Minutes . It was definitely made in minutes and has a summery image.

2.  The Flower Challenge - Use your favorite flower.  check 

3.  And Elliebelle's Corner - where This Month's Theme is Sunshine, Sunflowers or Add Something Yellow

4. And the Mod Squad Challenge  Layer Me Not – "The challenge this week is to use no layers on your card front!  This is pretty much self explanatory. Your card front must have no layers, but only the card base. You MUST have NO layers.

Since this is a one-layer card, it qualifies for this too.  

That's all for now.  Thanks for visiting!  I hope you are having a good week.  

Poinsettia Thank You

I wanted to create a special Xmas thank you card for a friend.  This is for her.

The stamps are old "Outlines" - that I watercolored with Mica watercolors, and cut out.  The paper is NEW from a holiday set made by DCWV that I got on clearance the other day. I was really bummed that the water color of the bottom layer of flowers smudged as I adhered it onto the green base .  Ugh -- but I wasn't going to do it again.

I am putting this into the Just Us Girls Word Week Challenge.

I am also entering this into the Fusion Card Challenge I am just using the photo for inspiration.  The paper pack was marketed as a snow flake color pack.  But the back sides of many of the pages had this great wood grain pattern -- I just loved that!

Well that's all for now.  Back to work tomorrow -- I really enjoyed the time off.  I guess I won't get to do much creating for a while - :( 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Have a great New Year!

Computer tech Thank you

The tech guy where I work is always helping me out with my computer issues -- He makes it look so easy.  Of course he is in his 20's, while I am in my  --- well, let's just say, not my 20's.    And I am pretty tech-savvy.  But every now and then, there is something I cannot figure out.  And he comes to my rescue.  

Inkspirational Challenge - Grunge - since this was for the IT (tech) guy at my job, I tried to make it more masculine -- It was kinda fun using techniques I hadn't used in a while - tearing, distressing with inks.   

I used the sketch from Fab Friday -

The stamp is from Inky Antics - colored with color pencils.  The paper is from ? ? 

As always, thanks for looking.  Have an inky day.

Xmas Thank You - CAS(E) this Sketch

I need several thank you cards to use for Xmas gifts -- I probably should have made them sooner  . . . oh well.  This sketch from Cas(E) this Sketch is truly Clean and Simple.  It was a snap to put this together. It could easily have been a One-Layer card, but I do love my layers.  I was able to create quite a few in one afternoon. 

 

 

The holly stamp is from Inkadinkadoo.  I am not sure about the other stamps.  I used Hero Arts Shadow inks. A bit of glue bead for the berries and done. 

 

Thanks for looking.

Leafy Thank You

This card combines challenges from my three of my favorite sites to frequent:   Less is More, Paper Trey Ink blog, and Simplicity .

Over at Simplicity, Susan is hosting a One Layer Inspiration Challenge to use something from her Pinterest board.  I found this leaf hanging which I love (I wanted to capture the picture for you, but this one wouldn't let me).

I, once again, used this sketch challenge  from Less is More.

And I tried the technique from Paper Trey's Make It Monday.  This week is called "double time bleaching" .  Now I have never done bleaching with stamps.  So this was a learning experience for me.  And since this is a one layer card, I needed to be sure that the bleach did not "bleed" outside the main image panel.  Here is my solution: 

I used the removable tape to tape down the cling wrap to the areas that would not get the bleach. 

After I was done stamping with the bleach and color, I thought the panel needed a bit more "umph".  So I spritzed it with some Perfect Pearl Mist (in Sunflower Sparkle).  Here is a close-up of that effect:

Supplies used:

Paper - Paper Trey Ink (terracotta)

Stamps - leaves: Stampin Up Gently Falling; sentiment: PTI

other: scallop embossing folder: sizzix (?), pearls, Perfect Pearls Mist, score board

Thanks for looking.