The Kindness You Share...

"The Kindness You Share is a Blessing".  Isn't it true that the kindness that others show us blesses our lives?  We are also blessed when we show kindness to others.  I know that when I've been having a hard time and someone shows me kindness whether it be a meal brought in, prayers offered on mine and my family's behalf or even just a smile... it really lightens my mood.  So many people were so very kind to us when my daughter was so sick and after she passed away.  I am forever thankful to those people who showed us such kindness.  So...  when I saw this Justrite set, Kindness, I knew that I HAD to have it. I will be using this set a lot!

I stamped the frame in light blue and cut it out with Spellbinders dies.  The sentiment, "The Kindness you share is a blessing" is stamped onto a doily that I made out of SU Kraft paper.

As you can see the frame is propped up with pop dots to give it dimension and opens in the center to show the sentiment.  I love how the frame was made to fit perfectly with the Spellbinders.  I almost forgot to mention that I colored the pearls on the frame with my copic marker to match the ribbon.  They are the same pearls that are all around the doily.

I LOVE butterflies so I added one in the right-hand corner.  I added some shiny bling to add motion to the butterfly which I had glued in the center and formed the wings to add dimension.

I added a bow made from hand-dyed seam binding.  One of these days I'm going to try dying my own but for now I have some on hand that I purchased online and at my local scrapbook store.

For this card I used sketch #116 from Cardpatterns:

I also am entering the following challenges:

Really Reasonable Ribbon: anything goes and use ribbon

JustRite Friday Challenge 055: Color:  Light-Medium Blue & Ivory, Kraft or Tan

StampTV Free for all Friday: "Let's be Krafty =  use Kraft" doily is made of Kraft paper

CES Challenges:  Embellish it! = pearls all around the doily, copic colored pearls around sentiment, hand-made butterfly with bling and a big bow

Truly Scrumptious: anything goes & DT call!

What's Cooking?

Here is a card that I made for 2 challenges. Unfortunately though I didn't get it finished in time for one of the challenges which was to do a kitchen theme. The second challenge I made this card for was StampTV's Tuesday Sketch Challenge.
(as always, click on any image to enlarge)



Here's my take on it:


I LOVE this fun paper by Cosmo Cricket called Garden Variety. The lady is colored with copics and is from Sew Pretty by Asela Hopkins. I paper pieced the apron from one of the Garden Variety papers too. They are so fun! The flower was cut out of felt with Papertry Ink's Beautiful Blooms II dies.

On the inside of the card I used Papertry Ink's Background basics: tin types and Fillable Frames #5 for the frame. The sentiment and hot pot holders are from the Sew Pretty stamp set.

I've been trying to figure out how best to take photos of my cards. I am usually crafting late at night since my daughter (who is chronically ill) keeps me pretty busy the rest of the day. Below is a photo of a shelving unit that my husband made for me which is above my desk. I have a small (cheap) light that I shine over the card. As you can see, the light it shines is quite yellow. I always have all the lights on in the room when I take a photo to get as much light as I can. When possible, I try to take the photo during the day and then I also open the blinds to let in all the natural light. I usually take several pictures and upload them to my Creative Memories: Memory Manager where I can edit the photo by cropping, adjusting lighting and colors and even changing the size and other fun stuff. I bought it when I was a CM consultant and I really like it. If you have any other ideas on how to take good photos of the cards, I'm open to your suggestions! I'd also like to see how YOU take photos of your cards!



Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I hope you have a great day!

In God We Trust

Life has been so hectic lately that I didn't get a chance to post this card in time for the 4th of July. I finished the card on that day and am now using it at my profile photo on facebook. :)

I made this card for Stamp TV's inspiration challenge last week.


I first stamped the flag image which is from Flourishe's stamps. I water-colored the flag. After it dried I masked it and then sponged the background. I stamped the children's parade with Versamark and then embossed with detail black embossing powder. For the flag decorations below that I also stamped and water-colored them, cut them out and adhered them to the card.

I love Theresa Momber's beautiful sponging. She writes tutorials on each of her projects. I followed one of her tutorials and used similar ink colors (I used a different brand of ink) but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I practiced on some scrap paper before sponging on the real deal.

Thank you for stopping by! Crafting is my "therapy" and it brings joy to my life. I'm glad to be able to share it wit all of you. Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment!

Once Upon a time

I had a little time to do some stamping and so I made a cute card for two challenges. The first challenge is on StampTV and you can find it here. The second was in celebration of Color Throwdown's 100th challenge!

I love the Magnolia stamps and Tilda is my favorite. Here she is as a Fairy God-Mother.



I used shimmerz to make her dress shiny. The red cardstock was spritzed with Pink Bubblegum Glimmer Mist and Stampin' Up's vanilla spritz. I used copics to color her and the designer paper is from Memory box.


Thank you for visiting! It means to much to me to have you stop by and leave a comment.

I'm still working on images I stamped before Christmas. hehe...

I used Jennie's sketch challenge on Stamp TV to make this card. I had fun using this little candy cane girl (whiff of joy - I think) as the focal image of the card. I used copics for coloring, nesties and Martha Stewart punch, SU's poinsettia embossing folder, some stickles, lace, shiny brades, shiny paper and viola'! Lots of fun. LOL


Here's the inside view of the card.

The sentiment stamp is from Melanie Muenchinger's Festive Frames set. The punching was done using Martha Stewart's fun new punch set eyelet lace punch around the page... purchased at Michael's with a 50% off coupon! *yay!*


Thanks for stopping by!