I have a dear friend who has gotten some good news and this card is for her. I just love it when I get to make a card like that…don’t you??!! This week’s challenge over at Diva Coffee Break Design is a color challenge.
Hmm…pretty, pretty spring colors! Love them! Then I went over to see what Makeesha came up with for her challenge this week. Yea…a great layout posted on her blog, Inkspirations. I love how much you can do with this one!
I went back to my Tea Party paper for this one…still just loving the fresh look of it for spring. I cut out some of the flowers that fit the bill for the color challenge. Maybe that is why I love this paper so much. There is so much you can do with it! I added the beautiful word from Well Scripted and tied on some Celery satin ribbon with a Button Latte button to finish. I hope this brings a smile to my friend’s face!!
Click on the picture to enlarge if you want to see it closer. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!
Stamp: Well Scripted; Paper: Tea Party DSP, Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White; Ink: Close to Cocoa; Accessories: Celery Satin Ribbon, Button Latte, Thread, Dimensionals
I was quite a slacker last week when it comes to posting. Sorry about that! I was madly finishing cards for a Thank You card swap with Stampin’ Addicts. I’ll post that a little later so that I don’t release too much of a spoiler. In my last post I was ready to head out to the garden and that is what I did. My peas and sugar snap peas are planted, along with spinach and some early flowers. Can’t tell you how happy I am about that! Now I am prowling about the garden looking for little green sprouts (that aren’t weeds…ugh!). Such fun! My boys helped me plant some Italian parsley and basil inside so, of course, they are on sprout patrol too. I love this time of year!
My garden lilies are starting to show signs of life and they were part of the inspiration for this card. I used the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge for the week and turned it. I also wanted to do another Easter card for the Our Creative Corner challenge to create an Easter/spring card. I have been really using this Lovely Flowers (hostess) paper a lot lately. The Rich Razzleberry really is a great Easter purple!! This uses the Fifth Avenue Floral set which will be 20% off in April as part of the Two-Step into Spring promotion.
I watercolored these lilies with Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo and Crushed Curry on the watercolor paper. Don’t forget that you can see the picture larger by clicking on it. Thanks so much for dropping by!!
The rain has ended and the plants are showing signs of spring! I’m ready to start planting the early seeds in my vegetable garden tomorrow! Can’t tell you how happy those things make me!! I have a hostess club meeting next week and I am absolutely sure they are feeling just like me so I needed to make a spring card. Of course, the puffy flower is all the rage these days so what better to use?? I just got this Tea Party DSP and I can see that I’ll be using it up fast. Such pretty colors! I know I have professed my adoration of ribbon before, but this SU satin ribbon is really fantastic. I just got the Celery (HAD to, it goes so well with the Tea Party paper…LOL). When I saw the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge for this week, it was perfect for what I needed.
I love that it is a basic layout where you can really emphasize one focal point! I cut the DSP in half and used both sides of the same sheet. They were sponged with Certainly Celery ink to mimic the sponged look of the DSP. I punched five layers out of various papers from the pack to give some character to the flower. This flower is a little less puffy than some but I like that you can see the button! After I crinkled the paper for the flower, I sponges those edges too. The little “tag” is a slight change on the sketch but it worked better for me.
These little flowers really are fun. I have another card with a full flower so the club can see both. It is still cloudy here so the colors seem a little washed out on the card. The sun is coming soon though and I’ll be out digging in the garden! Have a great week!! Thanks for stopping by!
My thanks to the OCC Stampers for choosing me as their Featured Designer! Thanks for visiting!
“We shall not forget the accomplishments of our women fliers and their contributions to the fulfillment of our mission. And we shall always keep and remember
the brave heritage of the women who gave their lives.
It is the heritage of faith in victory and faith in the ultimate freedom of humanity.” General Barton Yount, Commanding General, Training Command, Army Air Force, 1944
Yep, in 1944 they were told that their contributions would not be forgotton. But forgotten they were. Now, over 65 years after the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were disbanded, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal!! Finally! It is not because they looked for glory but because they answered their country’s call. They paid their way to training and, after selfless service, paid their own way home when they were done. They passed around a hat when one of their sisters died to ensure a proper burial. They were (and are) proud, brave pioneers that paved the way for many who have followed in their footsteps.
On March 10th, my son and I were there at Emancipation Hall in the Visitors Center of the Capitol Building. The crowd was standing room only and the pride in the Hall was touchable. Our country’s Congressional leadership stood up and told the story of service, professionalism and heroism. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson talked about this being one of the final steps of recognition, likening the WASP to the Tuskegee Airmen and the Code Talkers. Others talked about this being long overdue. Almost too long overdue since only about 300 of the 1,074 are still alive. But the day was not about regret. Instead it was a day of thanks and tribute…beautifully done. I was privileged to be there. The medal itself is fantastic and I am so proud of my Aunt Frances for earning it!!
Frances Rohrer Sargent was in WASP class 43-W-4. After training, she was assigned to Camp Davis Army Air Field, Holly Ridge, NC. She mostly flew tow target missions. An enlisted man would reel out a long sock of muslin on a cable as a target for antiaircraft gunnery practice. She was checked out in 10 different kinds of aircraft. She also did searchlight practice missions which were very disorienting for the pilots. More on this is available in the book Women in the Wild Blue in her own words. This is her WASP graduation photo. Records are kept on the WASP, including oral histories, by Texas Woman’s University.
I owe at great deal of thanks to my cousins for helping my son and I attend. Here is one of the cards I made for them. I started with the Pals Paper Arts challenge 33 using the colors Garden Green, Certainly Celery and Kraft. Using these colors means that it also meets the Stampin’ Royalty “Green” challenge criteria. I used the OCC Weekly Sketch number 6. This uses some retired items but I still love the set Branch Out and it will stay with me as a favorite for a long time! We have a cloudy day so the colors are not quite true. The leaves are Celery and Garden Green.
Now for some pictures from the ceremony…
First, the medal itself.
Next, my son and I with my cousin and the medal!
I hope you can, in some way, share in my excitement over this great event. Thanks for stopping by!!
“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric time, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.” Wilbur Wright
This card is for a very special woman, my Aunt Frances. Tomorrow, March 10th, is a proud day for the United States. We are finally honoring a group of women who answered their country’s call during WWII. They are called the WASP, Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, and my aunt is one of them!! Tomorrow, one of my sons and I have the priviledge of going to Washington, DC to see these women get a Congressional Medal of Honor, one of the two highest honors that can be given a civilian. I know you came to see the card but please stay for the history of these great women. I’ll give you the card first.
I used the phrase from Inspired by Nature because it sums up my aunt. The sketch is from Makeesha over at Inkspirations. I knew it would be perfect with the butterflies and flying is, after all, the theme! The colors came from a color challenge at Splitcoast, CC261, and are Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue. These were hard colors for me but they are such a happy combination! Of course with the butterflies and these colors, it feels like spring and meets the Spring Theme from Pals Paper Arts this week (hopefully I meet their deadline). I used some Celery DSP from a hostess pack (I love that it had a butterfly, too). The butterflies from my Big Shot embosslit, Beautiful Wings, are the star of the show. I added a Celery button from the Sherbet set and the new Celery satin ribbon to finish it off.
The WASP were formed around 1943 (there were precursors that were joined together) in order to train women to fly military aircraft. This would allow the men to be moved into combat duties while the women would do ferry flights, target and spotlight training and other “behind the lines” jobs. When applications opened, over 25,000 women applied for the job and only 1,830 were chosen. Of those, 1,074 earned their WASP wings. Most of the training was done in Sweetwater, TX at Avenger field. After getting their wings, these women flew almost everything in the inventory at the time! While they took the military oath, they were not given military privileges. In fact, when a WASP was killed in duty, she was not allowed even a flag on her coffin. After the WASP were disbanded, the files about them were sealed and classified…almost as if their flying had never happened. It was only when the US was about to start training women to fly in 1977 that these files were unsealed and the WASP were given veteran status. Tomorrow, our country will finally thank them properly for serving their country in a time of war. It is only because of these ground breakers, and other early women pilots, that I had all the opportunities to fly in my career.
Thanks for staying for “the rest of the story”! I appreciate any comments, as always!
That is what I used today to make a card for the daughter of a dear friend! I started with Marie McClellan’s Inspiration Challenge #5 over at From Combat Boots to Rubber Stamps. Check out the cool color choices in this picture:
I was also thrilled to see that the Pals Paper Arts Challenge this week was a theme challenge. Spring!!! Yep, my last few posts have been borderline obsessive about spring so it is nice to know some others are celebrating it too! The birthday girl is turning three so I went back to the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #58 with the three little squares. My first card with this sketch made me so happy that I wanted to try another. The end result doesn’t look too much like a card for a 3 yo, I’m afraid, but I know her mom will appreciate it (she is one of my loyal group of stampers!). I turned to the Lovely Flowers stamp and DSP again since Marie’s picture had the colors from that paper. And yes, I have made two Rich Razzleberry cards in a row. My color palette must have officially switched to spring!
For some reason, the watercoloring looks washed out in the picture but I can’t seem to get better lighting today. Thanks for dropping by…hope you have a great day!
Stamp: Lovely Flowers
Paper: Lovely Flowers DSP, Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Today I had the time to sit down and make a card “just because”. No intended recipient, no class, just because I felt like it! Yea! Of course, I’m sure I will use something from it since I am starting to plan for a watercoloring class in April. I went to the Splitcoast sketch challenge for today, SC270, and it was really interesting. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the panels having the asymmetry. Once I started with it, though, I found it easy to work with! I had some scraps from my Lovely Flowers DSP (hostess) that were crying out to be used…another bonus of this layout!! Now, I must confess that the reason I had scraps of the Razzleberry paper was because I had used the fun dots on the other side. Razzleberry hasn’t been my most used In Color this year. But, seeing that I seem to have Seasonal Stamper’s Disorder (SSD)*, the purple was suddenly really appealing to me. Purple this time of year does seem to demand an Easter card so here we are!! I stamped the flower from Lovely Flowers in Stazon on Watercolor Paper and then used my blender pen to color it with Crushed Curry and Rich Razzleberry. On the strip with the DSP, I originally only had the DSP on the Chocolate Chip. As I looked at the card, it just seemed a bit dark. I put in the Very Vanilla layer, used the SAB border punch and that seemed to do the trick!! I also divided up the panels with small strips of Chocolate Chip card stock to give them definition. The entire card still seemed to be missing something so I naturally turned to ribbon!! Unbelievably (because for me, ribbon usually fixes everything!), it just didn’t provide the balance I was looking for so I dug out my paper piercing tool and my mat pack and voila!
Of course, I wanted the inside of this card to be special, too. I had just the perfect word set!! The retired SU set, Glorious Gift, has been well used every Easter since I got it. Easter truly is a glorious gift from God! I set the words off with a few more watercolored flowers and I feel like the card is as special as the holiday. I hope you think so, too! Thanks for stopping by!
* Seasonal Stamper’s Disorder – The tendency to change color favorites with the seasons!!
Card details:
Stamps: Lovely Flowers (hostess), Glorious Gift (ret), Well Scripted (Occasions mini)
Paper: Lovely Flowers DSP, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Watercolor
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, Stazon
Accessories: Blender pen, Mat pack, Paper Piercing tool, Dimensionals, Scallop Trim Border punch
At least, meteorological spring and that is good enough for me!! I said it before, every spring my pastels make a comeback after languishing in the bottom of my stamp drawer. Today I saw Karen’s sketch over at The Sweetest Thing, her Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #58, and immediately saw these little flowers. Of course, the Poppin’ Pastels technique was just the thing! There isn’t too much to explain about the card and it came together pretty quickly. This is one of the design ideas I have been batting around for my Hostess Club this month. I may already have a winner! Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!
Stamps: Of the Earth (Hostess), Boho Backgrounds (word)
Paper: Sweet Pea DSP, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
As promised, today I’m going to do a tutorial on one of the bows I use a lot and a corner treatment. The theme of today’s tying lesson is non-square knots! As you know, square knots (left over right, then right over left or vice versa) lead to such pretty cards. Today, however, we will make ugly knots! They have a purpose, though, and the ugly part get covered up. So grab some ribbon and let’s get started!!
Single or double bow
First decide the size of your bow. Wind the ribbon back and forth: three times for a single bow, five time for a double.
The first picture shows the single, the second shows the double. Click on any picture to see it larger (sorry they are a bit blurry…still learning how to take good tutorial pics). Cut your ribbon and set aside (you’ll have to fold it again in a minute). Cut a second length a bit longer than the paper layer you want the bow to tie around. Put the second layer down flat on your work surface, refold the “bow” and place it face down on your straight piece (the bottom becomes the front of the bow).
Now, start tying your knot except it will NOT be square. In my case I tied it left over right then left over right again. You’ll see that the knot is not pretty to look at.
The reason you do this is to get the tying section to run parallel to the bow. If you do a square knot, it will be perpendicular (that can have its uses, too). If it doesn’t lay just like you want, you can turn one of the long pieces over to see if that helps.
Now flip the ribbon over and you have your bow. Use your bone folder to “fluff” up the bow as desired and put it on your card!!
Of course, now that I have this bow I had to make a card for it!! I used the Mojo Monday sketch challenge 127 again to make this fun little card. I really do love this layout!! Since the ribbon is Old Olive, the rest of the colors were inspired by the Color Throwdown challenge CTD81. They chose Olive, Brown and Pink/White this week. So pretty together!
Corner Treatment
This one is even easier. First, cut a generous piece of ribbon for your corner.
Cut a second, larger piece (mine was about 9 inches). Using the larger piece to tie, make another “ugly” knot. Both ends will easily go one direction (see the next pictures).
Just flip the ribbon over and the other side is pretty!! Yea!!
Using Mini Glue Dots, attach the knot to where you want it to be on your card, then tuck the ends under and secure with additional Mini Glue Dots. You may have to pull and adjust the ribbon a bit to get it just like you want it (this is true with the bow, as well). Once it is on your card, trim the ends. Easy peasy!!!
If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll try to clarify them! Thanks for dropping by to visit!! Oh, and don’t forget to let me know if you try it. I’d love to see your cards!
Card 1 Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, Short & Sweet; Paper: Sweet Pea DSP (Occasions Mini), Old Olive, Pink Pirouette (ret), Chocolate Chip; Ink: Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron; Accessories: Olive Taffeta ribbon (Holiday mini, ret), Blender Pen
You found at least a little breath of it here!!! With the forecast of more sn#@ (it has become a bad word), I had to pull out all the stops for a spring card!! I realized that I am sadly short of pretty pastel paper (soon to be fixed, I can assure you) and had to go searching for some retired items. Well, it was one of my resolutions to actually USE some of the beautiful things I have… Plus, I really wanted to use my new set, A Flower for All Seasons, that I got FREE with Sale-a-bration benefits. Yes, SAB is still going on and you, too, can get lovely free things from Stampin’ Up!! I have to admit that I am not much of a pink kind of girl, but with Bordering Blue and Saffron I love it!! Besides, who doesn’t love pink tulips??!! Don’t forget, you can click on the card to see it larger.
I used the sketch layout for this week from Splitcoaststampers, SC269. I love the triangle cut and how it lets you add more color to your card! I used my Stampin’ Pastels and a blender pen to watercolor the design. It seems like every spring, when my tastes turn to pastels, my chalks are the first thing that comes out. Hmm, sort of like the first robins of spring….yes, I digress into wishing for spring again! At least with my Stampin’ Pastels I am guarenteed to have all of the 48 SU colors right at my disposal!! The phrase from God’s Beauty (a retired hostess set) seemed just right for how I feel. The onlything left was ribbon. I did change the sketch a little and skipped the horizontal band across. The little corner knot finished the card up nicely.
Well, I have had a request to do a tutorial on tying the bow like in the post below, so come back Friday and I’ll have a post on that one and the corner knot! As always, thanks for dropping by!
Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, God’s Beauty; Paper: Bella Birds DSP (ret), So Saffron, Bordering Blue; Ink: Bordering Blue, Basic Gray; Accessories: Saffron wide grosgrain (SAB ’09, ret), Stampin’ Pastels, Watercolor Blender Pen, Dimensionals
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