The Little Things

Love this sentiment!

For most of us, regardless of what life gives us, there are many little things (and some big things) to enjoy and for which we can be grateful. Among the little things I'm enjoying at the moment is the sun shining into my craft room, and some strawberries and home made angel food cake waiting for me!

The sentiment (and the berries) are part of Altenew's Beautiful You set. The sentiment has had a border that I didn't like, so I trimmed off the border.

Stamped with Memento black ink and colored with Altenew alcohol markers.

MOOD WHEN DONE:  Happy! Hope your day is filled with lots of good things.

Quick Card

A quick card for a sweet friend.

Altenew Botanical Garden stamped in Memento and colored lightly with Altenew Alcohol markers. Stentiment from Technique Tuesday. Added some paint splatters and it was done.

MOOD WHEN DONE: Happy! 

3 Recommendations - Two Crafty, One Cookbook

I've got a different kind of post today. I'm recommending a class, instagram, and a cookbook.

1. Big Picture Class -- On Trend, by Taheerah Atchia.  I'm a huge fan of Taheerah's cards. If she makes it, I love it. When I see her cards, my first reaction is usually "why didn't I think of that?" Plus, I've had the pleasure of meeting Taheerah twice. Once when she visited DC, and once when I was in London. She's a fun and nice and takes cardmaking seriously!

So when I saw that Taheerah was teaching a class I jumped on it. Big Picture Classes charges $9.99 a month and there are a ton of classes you can take during the month. They offer a free try it option -- sign up, give your credit card, and you can cancel within 2 weeks and will not be charged.

I took the class over the past couple of days and loved it. Taheerah explains trends -- something I've always found mystifying -- and translates them beautifully into the papercrafting arena. All the classes, except for one, include a video. The videos are great and the cards included are stunning. Taheerah walks through her thought process and gives a ton of great tips. I could listen to, and watch, Taheerah all day.

The class has given me a few new ideas for spotting trends and translating them into cardmaking and a few other cardmaking and design tips. Two thumbs up!

2. Instagram!  I know a lot of my readers shy away from social media or understandably do not want to devote more time on the internet. But, instagram is a great place to see a ton of paper crafting. You have to get the app on your smart phone.  You can use a fake name for your account, and you don't ever have to post a thing. You can just look! There are a ton of giveaways and sneak peeks, and it's a great community of crafters.  It's also a much faster way to look at a ton of cards without reading blogs (except mine, of course...), and you can provide feedback much more quickly than posting a comment on a blog. If you decide to join, I'm there as "Dear Paperlicious".

3. Finally, I'm recommending an awesome cookbook -- Love and Lemons by Jeanine Donofrio. My son gave it to me for Christmas and it's a hit. There are lots of "healthy, seasonal, whole food" recipes with no meat that taste fantastic and aren't crazy complicated or difficult.

I used to like to cook, but for the past few years I've been in a cooking rut. Even Mike, who will eat anything I make, wondered if maybe we should put a few new dishes into the rotation. Plus, recently, I've started to need to limit sodium so I've been looking around for new ideas. (The cookbook is not low sodium -- I just adjust the recipes.)  A few weeks ago, I got out the cookbook, and started to chop and dice.

So far, I love everything I've made. In particular the Roasted Cauliflower Tacos with Chipolte Cream (greek yogurt) were fantastic. If you are looking to branch out and eat healthy, but don't want to buy the cookbook, or just want to test some of her ideas, the author has a blog that includes a ton of recipes. Let me know if you try any of them and what you think of them.

That's it! Hope you are having a good week. It's cold and gray here in DC. What happened to spring?

Grid Background: National Craft Month with Right at Home

I'm a big admirer of Right at Home and its owner, Nicole. She's an uber talented college student who also runs a fantastic stamp company. Not sure how Nicole does it all, but she does, and she does it very, very well. Even the banner (above) she designed for today's post is gorgeous!

So, I'm delighted to be collaborating today with Nicole as part of Right at Home's National Craft Month series of challenges (there are prizes!). You can get the details here. (Her card for today's challenge is fantastic.)

The challenge was to use a background stamp. I have one Right at Home background stamp, so my choice was easy!!  (I've got a few other RAH background stamps on my wish list. The Watercolor Background is at the top of that list.)

Stamped the Grid Background Stamp in Versamark ink onto white linen cardstock and embossed with white powder. Die cut with a Penny Black die. After masking, I blended Distress Oxide inks over the flowers and the leaves and adhered it to 3 more die cuts. I love how the grid design pops up and adds interest to the flowers and leaves.

Notice that black frame?  It is hard to see in the photo, but it has a great woodgrain pattern. It's from a cool set called Letterboard Love. The sentiment is from Tiny Sentiments.

And just for fun, here's a second card I made with the Grid Background. This also uses the popular Script Greetings set.

If you haven't checked out RAH and its products, I hope you do so. Nicole has a gallery set up with inspiration for each set and it's full of great ideas.

Disclosure:  RAH sent me the Tiny Sentiment set last year. I paid full price for all other products.

MOOD WHEN DONE:  It's National Craft Month. Everyone get in a good mood!

Rebel in 6th Grade

Bold can be a compliment.

"Oh, I love that rug. It's so bold and bright." It can also be an insult. "Look at that rug. It's so bold and bright. Ugh."

I suspect that folks looking at this card are going to fall into one those two camps.

However, Bold was always bad when hurled by your 6th grade nun/teacher.

The Beatles had arrived, and wearing long hair and bangs was IN. While I knew I would never be part of the cool kids clique, I, didn't want to be mocked for having short bangs, particularly since my mother cut my hair and did so with no skill, but utmost confidence.

So I took a risk and let my bangs grow out beyond the top of my eyebrows, which was the line we couldn't cross. The rest of the country was on fire protesting civil rights. I was protesting bangs. Sure enough, Mother St. Joseph** called me to the front of the class. "You are being bold. Go home and cut those bangs or don't come back."

From that moment on, I kept my bangs at exactly the line of demarcation even if they were crooked at times. I'd see Mother St. Joseph checking out my bangs and I would sit up a little straighter and almost dare her to challenge them.

I still love bold colors and design.

For this card, I used various images from Texture Two by Flora and Fauna and Distress Oxide inks to make a bold background. The Distress Oxide inks have great coverage, but dry chalky and matte. I may stamp this with a true dye ink and compare the results.

The original version of this card had a fair amount of white and it was distracting and hard to focus (kind of like when your bangs are to long...) on the sentiment. So I used a pale pink (Worn Lipstick) ink and filled in some of the white spaces after the die was already adhered, and that helped focus the eye on the sentiment. The thanks die is from Memory Box. 


MOOD WHEN DONE: I'm good! Hope you have a good week.

** Our nuns were called "Mother Saint .. " rather than "Sister .. ." 

Didn't See This Coming

Just when you think your life is on an even keel, life throws you a curveball.

You get through the finale of This is Us, survive heart surgery, endure a pulmonary embolism, accept that your retired husband is going to clear the kitchen counter 17 times a day (where's that spoon I just put down?), and then - BAM! - you learn the devastating news that Ranger discontinued its line of Distress Stains.** Of course, Ranger still sells Distress ink pads, paints, crayons, grit-paste (??), markers, glaze, sprays, sprayers, and cole slaw, etc., but no stains.

Do you know why they discontinued the stains?

Me either.

Despite this setback, I managed to use a tiny bit of my now to-be-hoarded Twisted Citron Distress Stain to make this card.

Embossed the beautiful image from Reverse Confetti's Something Wonderful onto white linen cardstock and then just ran that dauber over the image. No paintbrush, no water, no mess because of the STAIN THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.  5 seconds and done. But soon those days will be over.



MOOD WHEN DONE:

irisparr.com

Still in shock...

** The stains are still being sold in some places. Buy now or else.

Reverse Confetti & MISTI Hop

Welcome! If you are following this blog hop, you should have come from the talented Kelly Lunceford's blog here.  If you are new to my blog, I post easy-to-make cards and life stories. If you are not new, a thousand thanks for coming back!

I'm all Reverse Confetti lately, particularly since this post is part of a blog hop/collaboration between Reverse Confetti and MISTI and because Reverse Confetti keeps making stamps I love. 

I've made several cards using products from both companies, but I'm only posting 2 of them today. You can see the others here, here, here, and here. 

Prizes!

Two lucky commenters from the hop will win one of two prizes: a $60 shopping spree at My Sweet Petunia and a $60 shopping spree at Reverse Confetti. To be eligible, comment no later than Sunday, March 25, 11:59 pm central time. The winners will be announced on March 27th on the Reverse Confetti and My Sweet Petunia blogs.  (Hey, I just won a pretty big prize from a blogger, so go for it!) 

1. Stamping a Background

I'm terrible at putting together individual stamps to make a nice bouquet, so when I saw the gorgeous Banner in Bloom set I was all over it. 

Stamped a simple pattern with the cluster of flowers from Banner in Bloom** and colored with alcohol markers. And by "colored" I mean I stayed in the lines. (The beauty of small images is that that is pretty much all you have to do.) Using the MISTI meant that I could carefully place the image exactly where I wanted it and could restamp if the image didn't come out clean the first time.

When I was finished with the card, I sat back and said "I need more Reverse Confetti stamps," and promptly placed an order for the Tall Blooms stamp and die set** I used in the next card.

2. B&W With a Pop of Color

Painted watered down Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide ink onto a white linen card, using as little water as possible. 

Stamped the sentiment from Tall Blooms. Die cut and stamped this pretty sprig from that set using the MISTI. I die cut a few more and glued 4 dies cuts together, tied some twine around them, and adhered to the card. Fast, simple, easy to mail. 

Blog Hop

Cannot wait to see what this talented group has made.

Amy Tsuruta

Ilina Crouse

Lisa Henke

Jeanne Streiff

Susan Liles

My Sweet Petunia

Tricia Barber

Kia Gibson-Clapper

Deanne Kuntz

Ceal Pritchett

Melissa Phillips

Giovana Smith

Audrey Tokach

Chris Dayton

Kathy Schweinfurth

Stephanie Severin

Laurie Schmidlin

Janine Tinklenberg

Amy Rohl

Dina Kowal

Heather Hoffman

Jana Millen

Reverse Confetti

Jennifer Timko

Kelly Lunceford

Joan Bardee -->  me

Olga Moss

Judy Rozema

Jeanne Jachna

Susan Wymer

Lydia Fiedler --> thank you for inviting me to the hop!

**Disclosure Reverse Confetti sent me the Banner in Bloom stamp and coordinating dies. I purchased at full price the Tall Blooms stamp and coordinating dies.

MOOD WHEN DONE: I stamped; therefore I am happy!!

Stencil Embossing

Put a Hero Arts Bold Floral stencil through my Big Shot with an embossing mat and dry embossed. Came out great, so -- of course -- now I want more $tencil$. 

Blended Distress Oxide inks onto the card (Wild Honey and Abandoned Coral). Using softer colors and a different sentiment and this could make a nice sympathy card.

Stamped a sweet sentiment from Reverse Confetti Posted Notes (which does not appear to be available any more), and added a few black Nuvo drops. Trimmed and popped up on a white card.

MOOD WHEN DONE: Been spending a lot of time crafting, which is always a good thing. My husband is running around organizing and decluttering our house but he's banned from my craft room so, so far, we remain married!

Used Math to Make This Card

People, I had to use MATH to make this card!! And if you know me, you'd know that is problematic! It's a miracle I got through learning long division without a calculator. Actually, in my last job I had to use math. I pretty much just had to multiply, add, divide, etc. using a calculator, and would still get it wrong. Darn decimal points. Good thing there were smart people around me.

Trimmed out the XOX from the Reverse Confetti Big Notes set. Yes, I cut a stamp. Then I cut 5 strips of cardstock to exactly 3.75" x just a tiny bit more than 1". Using the seriously incredible MISTI, stamped XOX 5 times in Versamark and embossed in white. I'm about 3 years late to the ombre trend, but I still like it.

Adhered to a piece of 3.75" x 5" cardstock and then popped up the panel on an A2 card.

And then I said to myself, "now who is worthy of this card?"

MOOD WHEN DONE: I'm stamping like a crazy woman and ignoring the piles of crap accumulating in my stamp room and the dirt in the rest of the house. In other words, things are great.

Green on Gray

I found a piece of pale gray textured paper in my stash (no memory of getting it!) and decided to pair it with dark green and white.

The Altenew Evergreen ink came out almost black when stamped on gray, but I love the look with the white Nuvo accents.  The leaf image and the sentiment are from The Stamp Market's Succulent stamp set. 

MOOD WHEN DONE:  Happy! I sent out a bunch of cards last Monday and over the course of the week I heard from the recipients. Such good feelings all around.

Totally Graphic

A friend of mine, a doctor, was explaining to me how hard doctoring is nowadays. She hates sitting in front of the her computer checking boxes and not looking at her patients. She hates arguing with insurance companies and hates being pressured to see more and more patients. She's tired.

She told me that she rarely gets a thank you card from a patient, but loves when she does.  So, I said to myself, hey cardmaker, how about making and sending a thank you card to your doc?

Whenever I'm sending a card to someone who isn't crafty, or doesn't already tolerate my crafty cards, I want something homemade, but not too crafty. I hope this makes sense.

So I did what I always do when I'm stuck, and stole an idea from someone else.

In this case, I stole this great card from Almost Makes Perfect.  I didn't want to just print it out, so I used Altenew's Invisible Alphabet Set to make my own. After I made the black and white one, I used various Distress Oxide inks to make a rainbow colored version.

If you want to create something like this, plan it out on a stamp positioner or block, and stamp a sample on scrap or copy paper to make sure you like where each letter is placed. Otherwise, super simple.

MOOD WHEN DONE:  Fantastic. Having a good week and looking forward to a simple weekend. Hope yours rocks.

Hello There, Friend (and an Update)

Haven't been blogging much, so I thought I'd share this card and a little of what's going on in life.

I love this typographic Reverse Confetti set, Big Notes. This is a one layer card that took about 10 minutes.

1. Stamped in Versamark and embossed in white (preheating the heat gun for a good 20 seconds really does help eliminate warping).
2. Masked off the lines of the sentiment (using 3M Post-it Adhesive tape) and blended Distress Oxide inks (as shown in pic) over each line.
3. Turns out that the embellishments included in an Altenew card kit matched the ink colors perfectly, so I added a few enamel dots.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Delighted!
____

The past few weeks have been a bit of an adventure. After Mike retired we spent a week in Florida, soaking up some lovely warm sunny weather and eating out all week. When we returned, I noticed my heart rate started slowly going down. Over a period of 3 weeks, it dropped 20 points. Google convinced me I needed a pacemaker. Then I started getting really short of breath going up the stairs, my ankle got a little swollen, and I gained 6 pounds. My clothes were so tight. I chalked up the weight gain to vacation.

Finally, Mike suggested I notify my doc and I was surprised to learn that I had retained so much fluid it was affecting my heart and lungs. Could I be a bigger dope?  My mom went through congestive heart failure episodes dozens of times, and if you read my blog back then, you know that I was there in the ER with her every time. I just didn't put the pieces together for myself.

Taking a diuretic for a few days did the trick and I felt so much better. My heart rate went back to normal, I lost the 6 pounds and I could walk up the stairs with no issues. Yeah!

But, I was upset. There's a blood test (BNP) for heart failure and I knew that my numbers got progressively worse over the past year.  So I had a meltdown over the weekend, convinced I was really sick and thinking about how soon Mike was going to need to find a new wife. Because, you know, google makes me crazy.

I had another BNP test yesterday and was thrilled to learn that my numbers had improved dramatically! Turns out that the surgery improved the heart failure, but the trip to Florida and the 7 days of eating out just added too much sodium to my diet (restaurant food is crazy high in salt). 

So the drama is over (hopefully for a long time) and I'm swearing off google. 

For now. 

Anniversary Card

This gorgeous stamp and die is from Neat & Tangled's Floral Heart. It's worth the $$ to get the coordinating die. Would love to see a Christmas wreath version of this set.

Colored with Altenew Alcohol Markers and some Wink of Stella (on the flowers).

The floral wreath is popped up on 5 layers and sits on Ranger white woodgrain paper. Happy to see that I could get a clean image for the sentiment on paper with that much texture.


MOOD WHEN DONE:  This was my anniversary card for Mike. I lucked out on that unseasonably warm and sunny day in March so many years ago. We were married in St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington DC -- a tiny wedding in a huge church, but so beautiful.

And now I'm off to get on the treadmill!

Happy!

Someone I know could use a bit of happiness in the mailbox and these bright colors should help.

Masked off parts of some Neenah Solar White cardstock and blended in some Distress Oxide inks. They blend so easily! Ranger just came out with more colors and I am coveting them, but so far I am resisting. Stamped the sentiment from one of my favorite sets, Essentials by Ellen Up the Happy.  The card still needed something, so I added some pink and black dots. Trimmed the panel and popped up on an A2 card.

MOOD WHEN DONE: Well, happy!  Thanks so much for the comments on my last post. I tried to respond to each of them, but for some reason I wasn't able to respond to all of them. I'll try again later.