Hello from the Heart!

Today's card is not exactly a Valentine, but I did use a Hero Arts word stamp that includes the "heart" word and there is one strip of pattern paper with hearts ...so, it could be for Valentine's Day. I did this card today for another purpose! For a while now, I have been thinking of joining one of the online sketch challenges. That is where on various sites they post a sketch in gray tones and you create a card with that particular layout. Every Monday, a new weekly sketch gets posted from http://www.mojomonday.blogspot.com/. I decided to just jump in and take the challenge! So, today's card will get submitted to their site! I like my card. I always hope you like my card. Now I hope they do! Here it is...

A little about the card... The paper is by My Minds Eye and it is called Be Loved. It really isn't the colors I usually pick out when looking at papers but I love papers that coordinate with each other in the same color theme and these papers had stripes, swirls, and hearts. It just dosen't get any better than that! My main image is Flowahbella. who before today had never been inked! She is too fun not to get stamped! In my paper flower collection at home, I have mostly bright colors, which makes sense, since I tend to use bright colors alot. But in this case, I needed flowers that were more muted. The two layered flowers are actually stickers from Martha Stewart's line. Stickers are something I rarely use, but I love the added effect this gives the whole card! The baubles are light green pearls from Hero Arts.

That is it for today. Happy Stamping! Tina

Toadily Happy In Love!

For today's Valentine card, I used a clear set from Penny Black. I love the little frog fishing for "love"! The scrapbook paper used is a 12 x 12 from Bo Bunny. The lime green hearts were on one side and the pink design on the other side. This card layout was a simple one. Under the horizontal strip, I repeatedly stamped the word love. This was a mini border stamp from one of the $1 Studio G clear stamp sets. O.k., now let me tell you about my "happy mistake"! I intended to put down in the far right corner a trio of baubles. In trying to decide which ones might go the best, I layed a 1/2" round one down and then decided oh oh I don't like that. The problem is it got stuck and brought the green paper up with it when I tried to remove it! So, I either I had to totally redo the card or find someway to fix it. Do you see the small red heart in the corner ... it is covering my boo boo! In trying to find the fix, I decided to add the Stampendous corner stickers. Wow, that just made the whole card pop! Hence my "happy mistake"! Love the result ... don't you?

Happy Stamping! Tina

Love Grows!

Today's card is all about rinestones! Last year, when I still had the store, I ordered this blooming heart stamp for Outlines. It is from their Jewel It line where the images have small open circles where each rinestone is supposed to be placed. There are so many circles on this one image! But I guess it is a selling tactic for them because they sell the rinestones too and the more you need the more you'll have to buy! You could just put color in the circles but I decided to go for the full effect and see how it looks. It definitely has major bling! The white panel sticking out from behind is the Spellbinders Labels 8. I also used my Cuttlebug hearts folder on the panel. The Love Grows sentiment is a stamp from American Art Stamp. First let me show you what the stamp looks like stamped without any embellishments.

And now for the finished card ...
It is a little hard to tell but there are 18 rinestones in just the stems and leaves not counting the 50 in the hearts!

Happy Stamping! Tina

Valentine Skunk!

February is here so I have decided from now until Valentine's Day, I will be making valentine cards for you! (and me!) Today's card is using a clear set from The Cat's Pajamas. The layout combines a couple of ideas I have seen on the blogs. I love the idea of laying the heart nestibillites sideways to house the central image. In this case, the skunk. The blog I saw this on had made a square card and used the larger heart dies, but I would rather make the A-2 size cards, if possible. I had fun looking through my stamps trying to figure out what would "sit" in the open heart space. I think the skunk is perfect, especially since it came with the words " Just sitting here stinking!" "About You!" I stamped out a small Hero Arts heart and cut it out for my skunk to hold. Oh, one more thing ... do you see how I was able to stamp my sentiment to just fit the shape of the heart? I was able to do that because these stamps were from a clear polymer set. So, I shaped the words on the acrylic block before I stamped them. Cool! I hope you enjoy my first Valentine card for you....

See ya tommorow with another Valentine! Happy Stamping!

Tina

P.S. In last Thursday's post, I told you that I would be moving my mom to a new nursing home ... I just wanted to let you know the move went good. And she seems to be adjusting well. Thanks for all your prayers.

It Is All In The Look!

I got to thinking about all the nestibillities I own and how cards I make get a totally different look just by using a different shape. So, I decided to come up with one card and change out the die shapes to show you what I mean. Before I do, I should tell you a little about the card itself. This layout was new to me. It kinda got created because I saw this bright ribbon I wanted to use and designed the colors of the card around it. The stamps are from a clear set by Hero Arts. I hope you don't get bored seeing the same card over and over ... just focus on the nestibiliites shapes behind the round central image. That is where the changes of the LOOK will be!

Look #1 Basic Classic Scallop

Look #2 Labels 3

Look #3 Labels 9 (Horizontal)

Look #4 Labels 9 (Vertical)

Look #5 Peony

Look #6 Dahlia

Look #7 Blossom

Look #8 Blossom (One Size Smaller)

That concludes my experiment of "it is all in the LOOK!" I hope it was helpful!

Do you realize that I have posted every day for the last week? Wow ... I am really proud of me. But, I don't want to get too overwhelmed with every day posts. So, at this time I will be taking the weekends off. So look for a new post on Monday! See ya then! Happy Stamping!

Tina

Pretty in Purple!

Today is a big day because I am moving my mom from the nursing home she has been in for 3 years to a nursing home down here by where my hubby & I moved to last August. My mom has dementia and is 94. So, moving her could be bad or it might be o.k. But instead of her being 2 hours away, she will be 10 minutes. Yea! A couple of days ago, I decided that I should make a thank you card and leave it with the nurses and the aides of the nursing home she is moving from. Today's card is the result. I saw a similar layout on one of the blogs. With their layout, the card was supposed to open horizontally, which is what I intended when I first started working on it. But, somewhere along the way, I decided to turn it. And, I love the result. As you will see, I used two different cuttlebug folders, my labels 8, two sizes of circle nestibillities and a Martha Stewart border punch. The flowers are from a clear set from Hero Arts. This set is one of my favorites! The thank you sentiment is from Stampin Up. (which set, I have no idea because all the word stamps I put with all the other company word stamps). Before I even started the card, I had decided on the purple and yellow colors. I think it is odd, because even though I like purples, I tend to pick pinks instead. But, I am glad I went with these colors and I love how it came out! Enjoy!

Tiny clear rinestones are added to the centers of the flowers for accent. And two larger purple rinestones are in the top two corners.

Happy Stamping! Tina

Rainy Day Mimi!

In yesterday's post, I said to look for another card soon using DeNami's stamps with their Mimi images. Well, here it is! This particular Mimi stamp is pretty tall, making it difficult to fit all the elements into an A-2 size card. So, I decided to go a little bigger. I had in my mind to use the layout that I showed you in my January 10th post. (the card with the owl) But, I changed it up a little because I decided that on the circle behind the Mimi panel, I wanted to have room to stamp out some clouds. The cloud stamps are from a clear set from The Cats Pajamas. I stamped the clouds in a light blue from Marvy. And colored them in with white colored pencils. Actually, Mimi is also colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. This is my favorite coloring method, the way almost all my cards are colored. A friend suggested I add lacquer (Glossy Accents) to her boots, which I do like. She also thought I should add some rain puddles. Well, they are there, but I can't say I like them that much. But I decided I should just go with it because it seemed like too much trouble to redo the whole Mimi panel.

Before I share my card, I have to tell you how I happened to put Mimi with what I think is the perfect word greeting for her. As said before, I found Mimi at the DeNami booth at the convention. She was in my basket to buy but I decided to put her back and not get her. Because all I could think of is her as a get well card and frankly, I do not make many of them. Much later in the day, actually not too long before the convention was to close for the day, I was in the Endless Creations booth with a friend and I came across this wonderful stamp that says "When life give you clouds and rain, watch for the rainbows". I instantly thought of Mimi with the umbrella! I rushed over to get her from the DeNami booth! They are perfect together! The coolest part is that I am finally seeing how all my stamps can work together. I know you are probably thinking, duh ... but you have to realize with having the store, I tend to see stamps within their particular companies! It's a breakthrough! Woo Hoo!

Now on to my card ...Leave comments... please!!

This blogger girl is on a roll - 5 days in a row. I will have another post for you tommorrow - so see ya then! Happy Stamping! Tina