At the beach

I made this card for my husband's brother who has recently been moved to a Home for Veterans. He is in his 80's and his health is failing. He is half way across the country from us, so we don't get to see him often. Hope this card cheers him up a bit when he receives it.

The image is Impression Obsession Boat & Lighthouse. This is my favorite of all the lighthouse image stamps I own. I return to it over and over again for masculine cards. It's stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black on Gina K Pure Luxury cardstock, and colored with Copic Markers.

I simply cut it out and rounded the corners with a corner punch. The background mat is a piece of 12x12 from my scraps-but no idea what brand. It's double sided with white core. I embossed the piece with Darice Beach Waves embossing folder and distressed with a sanding block to bring out the waves. The sentiment is cut with Impression Obsession Greetings dies and the anchor is a Memory Box die. I popped the image up with foam dimensionals.

Will enter this in the following challenges:
Cards In Envy - When Nature Calls! -cards featuring things found in "nature" either living or inanimate objects.
Crafty Cardmakers and more- Make your own background-no designer papers
Papertake Weekly challenge Anything Goes-optional is No designer papers
Creative Knockouts-#88 Distressing
Just Us Girls Trend Week #292-Embossing

Get well for Try Stampin' on Tuesday Challenge

I have a cousin who has not been feeling well. I made this little card for her, sure hope she feels better soon. Been tough for her the last couple years.

I used the sketch from 'Try Stamping on Tuesday' #217.   This is a 5" x 5" card.

The image is a digi image from Bug-a-boo stamps called 'Tulips & Bugs'. I colored it with Copic markers and cut it out with Spellbinders hexagon dies. I cut a mat for it from green and then white cut with SB scalloped hexagons. I ran a purple marker around the edge of the scalloped layer to make it stand out. Polka-dot paper is from a 6x6 Recollections Bright & Basics pad. The flowered base layer is from an old DCWV 8x8 pad from a longgggggg time ago. Seems like this might have been one of the first papers I bought when I started this mad venture in papercrafting. Two purple solid matting cardstocks are from Bazzil.

I added some star dust and lavender stickles to the image. Stamped the sentiment (from Our Daily Bread Designs Mini Tags) with Momento Lux Tuxedo Black and embossed with black embossing powder. Colored a couple SU rhinestones with purple Copic and added for a little more sparkle. Cause, face it, you can never  have too much sparkle!!

I just went out in the kitchen to open the dishwasher so the dishes could air dry and there was a great BIG hanging basket on the counter, Multi-colored mini petunias (caleobrachea [sp.]) from my husband for Mother's Day. Too bad it is too cold out today(40) to hang it out for the poor hummingbirds. Hard to believe it was 84 day before yesterday!! We did need the rain, but it could be a bit warmer.

Will also enter this in the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create: Anything Goes but this weeks optional twist is: Create Something Feminine
Addicted to Stamps #103: Flowers
Tuesday Throwdown #243: Flowers for her
Fab N Funky Challenge #258: May Flowers
Coffee, Chocolate & Cards #90 ~ Spring has sprung!
The Paper Plunge #33 May Flowers

Robot Birthday

I do believe Spring has arrived. Most of snow is gone except in the woods-even the huge pile that was in our front yard. I need to get my hummingbird and oriole feeders out today.

I recently attended a weekend craft retreat and my goal was to work on cards for Operation Write Home. This is one of the cards I made. I will enter it in the following challenges: Cute Card Thursday #371 - Use a sentiment; Operation Write Home-Our Daily Bread May challenge - Embossing; Addicted to Stamps - #142 Make Your Mark (color image); Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes; and Cheery Lynn #182- Anything Goes.

I love this Robot image from Close to My Heart set 'Robot Family'. He is so cute! Makes a great kids birthday card. He is stamped on Gina K Pure Luxury White cardstock with Momento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic Markers. I cut him out with Spellbinders Deckled Long Rectangles, as is the mat. The gears are from Cheery Lynn and cut out of some funky paper my friend gave me-it's sort of thick and very textured. Make great gears. The background mat is embossed with Sizzix Tim Holtz Riveted Metal embossing folder. Words are from Tattered Lace 'Everyday Words' dies. I attached the gears with red brads (probably from Michael's).