No cards to share today but I wanted to post on the meaning of Memorial Day for me this year.
I spoke last week about the field trip that I took with my oldest son’s class. Going to the Vietnam Memorial with children really changes the experience a bit. When I watched how Jacob looked at the names on the wall and was inspired to thank veterans that were there, I was reminded about what it means to serve. When I signed up for the Air Force, I think it was more about adventure and seeing the world….and flying cool planes, of course. It took a while to really understand the rest. I was lucky enough not to serve during years and years of war. I went to regional conflicts (like Bosnia) but these weren’t the quite the same. It isn’t that we didn’t have some risk, but at least as an AF pilot, I wasn’t entrenched in war for years.
When Jacob and I looked at the names on the Wall, we discussed that these were members of someone’s family. A brother, a son, a husband…who didn’t return. I wasn’t sure he could process that but when I look at the pictures he took, I feel like maybe he did.
A reflection of us in the wall
He is particularly proud of the picture that shows all the names with the Washington Monument in the background. I like the one where he captured us in the reflection of the wall. He told me it was because we were supposed to see ourselves in the names. Hmmm. I think he gets it.
I’ll be back tomorrow with another Artisan card. Until then, I hope your day is safe and wonderful.
I know you are as happy to see this sketch at Freshly Made Sketches as I was! Because it is awesome….just like Jen Mitchell who designed it! It lends itself to so many interpretations either super clean or with a bit of embellishment.
I opted for super clean and pulled out some brand new stuff from the upcoming Stampin’ Up catalog (launching Jun 2nd). First of all I used the cool dots from the stamp set called Dotty Angles. Yep….you will want this one right away!! I combined it with one of the cards from the Project Life by Stampin’ Up (PLxSU) set Everyday Adventure. These are just as cute on cards as they are on scrapbook pages. I tied on the new Crushed Curry Baker’s Twine with a Crushed Curry button to finish. Super fast, super fun and really cute (at least I hope you think so).
I was off on this wonderful field trip yesterday with my oldest son’s class. We went to downtown DC and visited both the National Gallery of Art and the Vietnam Memorial. I’m back to the stamp room today but it sure was great getting to see the kids’ impressions of those amazing places. The docent at the gallery really showed the children how to find a story in pieces of art. I could not believe how insightful they proved to be. And “the Wall” is such a powerful memorial. The magnitude of sacrifice was not lost on the kids. I teared up when my son spontaneously went up to some veterans there to thank them for their service. The gentlemen shook his hand and even took pictures with him. The group we saw had traveled from Wisconsin and I hope my son’s voice helped to provide closure for the times when they were not given due respect. It was a proud mom moment, I must say.
Ok…back to stamping! I hope to be able to see YOUR story in the art you create with stamping this week. I know the DT has lots to show you! Thanks so much for dropping in today. I’ll see you again soon!
Click HERE to purchase wonderful Stampin’ Up products!
Welcome to our “Facebook Friday” edition of the May Artisan Wednesday Wow hop. Boy do we have some fun for you this month!! This week, we are showing off even more fun from the new catalog. Did you see the projects posted in the Artisan Showcase on the Stampin’ Up Facebook page? Now is the time to get all the details. If you just came over from the amazing Jeanna, welcome to the next stop. If you are starting here, just continue around using the next buttons until you get back to me.
I’m back this week to showing you something made with the Project Life® by Stampin’ Up® line of products (abbreviation PLxSU). They Everyday Adventure collection is such fun! Of course it is great for scrapbooking but I wanted to see how it is for making cards. Yep, it is great! Each of the cards in the PLxSU collection are different so this is not for mass production. It is, however, perfect for fun and fast one of a kind cards. I chose the striped card and cut it down to the right size then let the rest of the products to the work. The Bermuda Bay chevron is made using the Washi Tape from the Everyday Adventure Accessories Collection, the multicolored chevron is one of the stickers and the flair button is from the accessories too. I took a second card that had a coordinating grid in Strawberry Slush and stamped on the sentiment from Four You. The color in this collection are perfect for anyone so sit down and make a stack of cards to have ready when you need them!
Okay, off to go visit the awesome Mercedes Weber. I can’t wait for you to see what she has created! Make sure you hop around the whole loop to take a look at beautiful creations by the whole team…you’ll be happy you did!
Click HERE to purchase any of these wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
Stamp: Four You; Ink: Bermuda Bay; Paper: Strawberry Slush, Whisper White; Accessories: Everyday Adventure Project Life Accessory Pack, Everyday Adventure Project Life Card Collection
Look at this!!!! Amy O’Neill has created the most awesome sketch for this week’s Freshly Made Sketches! Don’t you just love it!!! Yeah, me too! I thought it would be a great way to show you some new things coming your way in the upcoming catalog from Stampin’ Up and highlight a few that are staying around.
I started by pulling out this new DSP stack called the Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack. It is fantastic! Love the colors (even the Curry) and the designs. It was perfect for this sketch and fun to be able to show off some of the patterns. I embossed the Crushed Curry panel using the Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder with continues into the new catty and added the word bubble from Just Sayin’. The stamp and the framelits both made the new catty too. The baker’s twine is new and it is in Crushed Curry. Totally great! And that is that. Nothing too fancy but I really like it. Amazing how happy some new paper can make me!
You’ll love what the design team has done with the sketch and I can’t wait to see your take on it. Hope you’ll join us this week!
Ok, so the craziness is dying down a bit and I’m starting to catch up from two weekends of family First Communions. My youngest was so handsome on his big day and the family party was wonderful! I got a few days to breathe and back to work tomorrow for United. I also have some major stamping coming up!! I am going to be a display stamper for this year’s Convention and am expecting my box of goodies any time. I’ll be busily working away here in my stamp room but won’t be able to share until July. I hope you’ll be patient with me on that. Once I can share, I’ll be posting all my work of course. And I will still be with you every week with my Artisan Wednesday Wow hops and Freshly Made Sketches, of course. Worky, worky, busy bee!!!!
I hope your week is going along well. Until next post, happy stamping!
Click HERE to purchase wonderful products from Stampin’ Up!
Stamp: Just Sayin’; Paper: Moonlight DSP Stack, Crushed Curry, Whisper White; Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry; Accessories: Big Shot, Word Bubbles Framelits, Brights Buttons, Crushed Curry Baker’s Twine
Welcome to our next edition of the May Artisan Wednesday Wow hop. Boy do we have some fun for you this month!! Last week the whole team showcased the new Project Life® by Stampin’ Up® line of products. This week, we are showing off even more fun from the new catalog. If you just came over from the amazing Jeanna, welcome to the next stop. If you are starting here, just continue around using the next buttons until you get back to me.
I know Mother’s Day has already passed but I could not resist showing you this card. The stamp sets are Peaceful Petals from the Occasions Catalog and Papillon Potpourri that continues into the new catalog. They are perfect together!! I stamped the flowers with the new Memento Black Ink and then stamped the leaves with a mask to protect the flowers. Those vibrant colors are courtesy of the new Blendabilities Alcohol Markers and wow are they fun! The depth of color is so extraordinary!! I used the Cherry Cobbler set on the flowers, Old Olive on the leaves and then a combination of Daffodil Delight and Coastal Cabana on the butterfly. And about those gems. They are not new to the catalog. They are the ever so fabulous staple Basic Rhinestones, except colored with the Daffodil Delight Blendabilities (medium color). Makes all the difference, doesn’t it?! Oh, and you can color the Vintage Faceted Buttons too (I colored the back side only with the same marker as the rhinestones). The ink stays put and you can coordinate with your image. Swoon!! I’m officially in love! I used the Hardwood stamp to create the background. Early Espresso stamped on Crumb Cake Card Stock to start. Then I cut the image apart and sponged each piece. They are attached back to a Crumb Cake base and they look almost real….even next to my real wood background. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and you could sub out almost any little sentiment in its place. This card was for my mom and for once she actually saw it before it went on my blog. Hope your day was great mom!!
Okay, off to go visit the awesome Mercedes Weber. I can’t wait for you to see what she has created! Make sure you hop around the whole loop to take a look at beautiful creations by the whole team…you’ll be happy you did!
Click HERE to purchase any of these wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
So I’m apparently hitting that crazy time of the school year where there is too much to do and no time to do it. Do you have that happen?? Please tell me it isn’t only me!! Thank goodness Freshly Made Sketches and the amazing Narelle Farrugia had the solution for one item on my list. I needed a card for a family First Communion. And fast!
I pulled out a few retired/retiring items and threw in a few current to create this card. Crosses of Hope is my go-to set for these events and it didn’t let me down here. I used my Large Oval Punch and embossed an oval (cut with a retired die). I thought the polka dots from Watercolor Wonder DSP set the right tone for a 2nd grade boy and tried to keep the card not too serious. I Embosses the Smoky Slate panel with Decorative Dots (it carries over into the new catalog) and then added on some Chevron Ribbon. I hope he liked the card!!
Next up, my own youngest son’s First Communion is this weekend so it is going to be busy, busy, busy around here. I need to get a special card made for him too! Hmmmm, I need more hours!! Well, I hope your week is fantastic and full of fun things. Make sure you hop right over and see what the design team has created for you this week. As always….fabulous!! Until I can get back to some more posting, have a great rest of your week!
Click HERE to purchase wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
Welcome to the first edition of the May Artisan Wednesday Wow hop. Boy do we have some fun for you this month!! Did you hear the big news at Stampin’ Up? Ok….there is lots of big news. So did you hear the news about Project Life® by Stampin’ Up®?? Well the Artisan Design Team has all the available products and we are showing them off this week! If you just came over from the amazing Jeanna, welcome to the next stop. If you are starting here, just continue around using the next buttons until you get back to me.
True confession time. I am not much of a scrapbooker. Yes, I make scrapbook pages but that is not the same thing. Creating a whole book somehow seems overwhelming to me. When I heard about Project Life® by Stampin’ Up®, I wasn’t sure what to think. So let me tell you how my process for this page went. Came home from dropping off kids from school. Turned on computer and scanned for pictures. Pondered pictures, almost panicked, chose pictures. Edited pictures and threw them into MDS for easy printing. Added little banner onto one picture in MDS. Went to printer, fought with printer, printed out pictures. Took pictures to “Mom Cave” (my stamp room). Breathed sigh of relief when I realized the new Project Life® Cards & Labels Framelits would cut pictures to perfect size. Cut them out with Big Shot. Laid pictures on Photo Pocket Page, figured out which sections still needed to be filled. Went through Project Life® Everyday Adventure Card Collection and Accessory Pack and picked cards and doodads that match pictures. Yes…there are official names I’m sure but the doodads are more fun to say. Rounded corners of cards with new Project Life® Corner Punch. Pulled out new Day to Day stamp and stamped date onto card. Figured out that Starburst Sayings stamp would be good in circle. Stamped and cut with Starburst Framelits. Grabbed Basic Metal Buttons, added where needed. Panicked slightly over terrible handwriting. Wrote accurate assessment of taking pictures with children (not the Facebook version where everything is perfect, lol). DONE!!!! Total time fussing with pictures: 1 hour. Total time to make scrapbook page: 45 minutes. Hmmm….might need to get some pictures organized and printed!!!
More truth (if you can stand it). I thought that maybe this wasn’t Artisan-y enough. After all, you have all come to expect great things from the hops. But while I was tempted to pull out the sewing machine and all kinds of extras, that isn’t really the point of this way of scrapping. This is supposed to document real life in a really manageable way. Which means actually makable by busy people in spare minutes. So here it is. My first step in becoming a real live scrapbooker.
I know the team has all kinds of cool stuff planned for you today! I hope you enjoy our introduction of this fabulous new collaboration!
Okay, off to go visit the awesome Mercedes Weber. I can’t wait for you to see what she has created! Make sure you hop around the whole loop to take a look at beautiful creations by the whole team…you’ll be happy you did!
Click HERE to purchase any of these wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
Stamps: Day to Day, Point & Click, Starburst Sayings; Ink: Bermuda Bay, Basic Gray, Pear Pizzazz; Accessories: Project Life® by Stampin’ Up® Everyday Adventures Card Collection and Accessory Pack, Project Life® Photo Pocket Pages, Project Life® Corner Punch, Project Life® Journaling Pens, Basic Metal Buttons, White Baker’s Twine, Paper Clip, Stapler, Dimensionals, MDS, Starburst Framelits
Oh my, it is a rainy day here in Virginia!!! You know what that means, right?? The perfect day for stamping!! And we have the perfect sketch to get you going over at Freshly Made Sketches this week. Karren Johnson is the sketch hostess this week and she has created a great one!
My card might be subtitled “An Ode to Midnight Muse”. This may, in fact, be the perfect blue. Good thing I got to see a peek of the new In Colors on Monday. That helped to ease the pain a bit. *smile* Ok. This is a really quick and simple card. If you want to see ‘not quick and simple’ make sure you check out the rest of the DT’s samples. Because they are awesome. But I was pressed for time on Monday when I made this because I had visions of a new catty dancing in my head and could not concentrate. Surely you have had this happen!
So, I pulled out the first circle stamp I saw and layered the Daydream Medallions images to make it look more like one image. I added on a sentiment from Four You and flagged the ends of that panel using my Hexagon Punch. It was a little too plain so I added on a few Basic Rhinestones. Those add a bit more in person, I must say. And that was that. Off to the premier I went. If you want to see a peek of a new stamp make sure you check out my last post. Because the stamp we got is super fun!
I hope your week is going well! I’m heading off to stamp some projects for next month and maybe, just maybe, get a little more time to take in all the great stuff in the new catalog! Thanks so much for stopping in!
Click HERE to purchase wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
This is our bonus week in May for the Artisan Wednesday Wow hop and we are all announcing our giveaway winners. If you just came over from the amazing Jeanna, welcome to the next stop. If you are starting here, just continue around using the next buttons until you get back to me.
So without further delay…the winner of the Burlap and Blooms Simply Created Wreath Kit and Tea Lace Doilies is:
JODI CASTEEL – from your Pinterest Pin
Please contact me and I’ll get your information for Stampin’ Up to send out your prize! I need it by May 5th or I’ll have to choose another name.
I mentioned that I was going to Stampin’ Up’s New Catalog Premier last night and oh what a fun event it was!! Nothing like the excitement of lots of stampers seeing lots of new products to motivate you! I got a new stamp set called Work of Art and of course I had to make something with it right away. With no other project to share, today is the perfect day to let you in on the sneak peek!
The set includes the three watermark stamps you see plus the sentiment. The splotches are from Gorgeous Grunge which has carried over into the new catalog. To create this I inked each stamp and stamped off once to give it a bit more of a watercolor look. I just grabbed ink pads from the Brights color family and started playing. There are so many ways to make a variation of this! After I got a combination I liked, I stamped the words in Basic Black and heat embossed with Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. I have seen cards like this made with stencils and watercolor markers lately but it is fun to be able to create this look with the simplicity of stamping. Hopefully this gives you an idea of how awesome the new catalog is. I can safely say the the month of May will be awesomely fun for the whole Artisan Design Team!!
Okay, off to go visit the awesome Mercedes Weber. I can’t wait for you to see what she has created! Make sure you hop around the whole loop to take a look at beautiful creations by the whole team…you’ll be happy you did!
Click HERE to purchase any of these wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
Stamps: Work of Art, Gorgeous Grunge; Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay, Basic Black; Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Heat Tool
Happy Monday to you!! First thing…if you have not entered the giveaway from the Artisan Design Team, today is the last day. Don’t miss out on the chance that the whole team is offering to win products from Stampin’ Up!
Now, happy Monday to you! I am back with my last week of being a guest with the Merry Monday team. Wow, this month flew by! Kristie has a fun challenge today and you are sure to have fun with it!
So you know what I found when I started searching for gingerbread men in my stamps? Nothing, nada, zilch. Not really sure how that happened but I went right back to My Digital Studio (MDS) for the solution. I know so many people think of scrapbooking and full digital projects with MDS but it can also just be used for individual pieces of an otherwise traditional project. I chose the gingerbread man from Jolly Bingo Bits and expanded him to the size I wanted. Then started to decorate him. The buttons are from Christmas Jingle, the little dots are from Meant to Be and I put color fills behind some of the open areas of the stamp. This is all so quick and easy to do. I printed him out on Whisper White Card Stock and cut him out by hand.
Once he was done, I just needed the rest of the card. Jolly Holiday DSP was an old favorite of mine and I am trying to use up some DSP (to make way for the new catalog!!). These prints seemed perfect to back up my little man. I created a tag with the Angled Tag Topper Punch. The sentiment banner was made using a Merry Christmas stamp from Bright Hopes (ret). I stamped the word and cut it apart. It is attached to the Linen Thread with rolled up Glue Dots. I distressed and sponged the edges of all the layers with Crumb Cake ink and I’m pretty happy with the result.
So no excuses not to play along with the challenge this week! MDS will help you along if you don’t have just the right stamp! The Merry Monday DT has created some wonderful examples so make sure you go check them out!
Back tomorrow with the winner from my giveaway and a bonus project for the month from the Artisan Design Team. Can’t wait to see you then!
As a side note, I get to go to the reveal of Stampin’ Up’s new catalog tonight. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Hope to be able to share a few details with you tomorrow!! Until then, have a great day!
Click HERE to purchase wonderful Stampin’ Up products.
Digital Stamp: Jolly Bingo Bits, Christmas Jingle, Meant to Be; Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Jolly Holiday DSP, Whisper White, Very Vanilla; Accessories: MDS, Linen Thread, Angled Tag Topper Punch, Stampin’ Distress Tool
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