Just A Note

Hi everyone!  Hope all is well with you.  We just got back from celebrating one of my husband's brother's birthday.  It is always nice to get together with the family.  However, I think I ate a bit too much!  lol

I needed a card that was not for a specific occasion, so I came up with this one.  The papers are Teresa Collins.  The orange trim is from Webster's Pages.  The journal card was attached with foam dots for dimension after inking the edges a bit with Distress Ink in tea dye.  The flowers are all from Recollections.  The one aqua resin flower was layered onto a wooden Prima flower button tied with yellow hemp.  Isn't that bird and cage the sweetest thing?  It is from Jolee's and I've had it in my stash for quite awhile.  To finish the card, the fronds were made with a Martha Stewart punch.  The stamped sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

I think I will make a supply of just because cards.  My niece recently remarked how she would love to get some snail mail since no one seems to send it anymore.  I totally feel the same way.  I know the social medias give us instant access and definitely keeps us connected to more people than before, but nothing replaces receiving actual happy snail mail to me.  I treasure it!  So, if you don't already do it, send someone a just because type of card.  It will make their day!

Have a fantastic week and thanks for stopping by and leaving your sweet comments.  I do appreciate them!

Happy Father's Day 2013

Just a quick post today.  I've been a bit under the weather but do have two Father's Day cards to share using mainly Tim Holtz and a few Recollections items.

The first card features papers, word sticker and gears from Tim Holtz.  The papers were inked with Distress Ink in tea dye.  The tag was cut from one of the papers.  I simply punched a hole in the top and used a Tim Holtz reinforcer around it, applied a wooden tag from Recollections, and attached it to the card with foam dots.  A couple of Recollections burlap leaves were placed under the tag.

The next card used the same papers.  I just changed it up with a piece of burlap and an image from Recollections.  I inked a piece of orange hemp in tea dye, wrapped it around the card, and attached a little bird charm from Recollections.  I cut a banner from the Tim Holtz paper and stamped the sentiment on to it.

Wishing a Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!  We're having my parents over for dinner to celebrate the day.  Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for stopping by!

100 Posts and a First

It will be two years next month that I started this blog.  I just noticed in my stats that this post will be number 100.  Blogging has been so rewarding.  My posts are not noteworthy, but what I treasure is the friends I've made through this media.  I cannot tell you how much enjoyment I've found in visiting each of your blogs and the many things I have been learning along the way.  So thank you for all you bring with your blogs and thank you for continuing to visit mine.

Now, on to a first for me--ATCs.  As you know, I've mentioned before how much I love tags.  A close second are ATCs, so I thought I would finally give this a whirl.  Reading through many blogs and books, I figured I knew what to do.  Well, we learn by our mistakes!  It started with a manila ATC.  I was the lucky winner of a giveaway from Kasha Gray (Mandy Zimmerman).  She sent me a sheet of vintage slides which I decoupaged one onto the card.  (I never decoupaged before).  The card and slide were inked in several shades of Distress Inks from forest moss to tea dye.  I wanted to try a crackle finish (again, a first for me), so I coated the card with picket fence crackle.  Little did I realize that it gave a whitewashed coat to the paper hence making it difficult to see the slide.  I tried to bring it back a bit by stamping it with some music paper and text stamps from 7 Gypsies.  Really did not make much difference.  Then began the layering of embellishments to try to save this ATC.  Here it is.

 

A piece of trim from Mandy was inked and placed down the middle of the card.  The large fabric flower is also from Mandy and the burlap leaves are from Recollections.  I really love this flower.  A metal corner bracket from my stash was placed in the upper left side.  A flocked Prima butterfly rub-on was placed on the lower left and accented with a Recollections pearl.  The clockpiece is also Recollections.  Not enough, I said.  The two wooden butterflies from Recollections were given many shades of Distress Ink along with a coat of  crackle paint in Shabby Shutters from Mandy.  I tried to paint a design on them but was not happy with how it looked, so I placed two vintage buttons on their centers and gave them a coat of Glossy Accents.  In my jar of buttons, I found the zipper pull.  What a mess I made there with various shades of alcohol inks.  It took me two solid days to get the purple/green/blue color off two of my fingers and nailbeds!  The little word pieces are from Tim Holtz.  I just cut a notch on the side of each to make them into a banner.  Finally, I finished it with a touch of purple Liquid Pearls on the trim.

A bit warped but it is flattening out some.  I think it may have looked better if I hadn't added the leaves and not used the picket fence crackle paint.  I need to get some clear crackle paint.  Live and learn!  I see the benefit of taking classes.  What will I do with this?  I have no idea.  I don't know that anyone would want it.  lol  But, I will continue to try to improve.  I so love the small size of tags and ATCs.

There it is, post 100.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Dotted Birthday Wishes

It's been awhile since I've done a post.  The past two weeks have been busy and a bit stressful.  We just finished painting the outside of our house when we found out we needed to replace our air conditioning system and also our furnace and water heater.  The air conditioning is a must do, the water heater is a need to do soon, and the furnace gave us a package deal although not needed yet.  Of course, this happens in the midst of our first 90 degree heat wave of the summer.  I get very nervous when spending a large amount of money.  Hopefully, nothing else will go wrong.  It could always be worse, though.

To distract myself, I made this sweet little set for my co-worker and friend Theresa's upcoming birthday.  The paper is from 7 Dots Studio and and the pink envelope with tag is Melissa Frances.  Everything else is from Recollections except for the lace, twill and buttons.  You can click on the images for a better view.

I decorated the envelope with a piece of Tim Holtz washi tape and a couple of butterflies made with a Martha Stewart punch.

I kept the tag simple since it had to fit in the envelope.  The dotted butterflies and sentiment are from Papertrey Ink.  I used VersaFine Vintage Sepia for it.  It was intended but I love that the dotted butterflies tie into the dotted paper on the card and box.  A bit of Martha Stewart glitter was added to the little wooden bird at the top of the tag.

I love how this little box turned out.  All the buttons were from two large jars of vintage buttons given to me by Theresa.  I gave them a healthy coating of glitter!  This box was the perfect size to tuck in a crystal suncatcher.

Well, that's it for me today.  Thank you so much for stopping by and all the sweet comments you leave.  Wishing you all a wonderful week!