Congrats on your new nest!

We've had two neighbor's move into our 'hood the past month, so I thought I'd drop off a 'Welcome' card in their mailboxes.  Both families have dogs! Yah!

I reached for my Darcie's set for the card:

I really like the two Darcie sets I have but the one thing about this set is that I have to use my markers to ink up the branch with brown and green and it's so time consuming for me :(    Then......I decided to make a blue sky with my Distress Inks and ended up smudging the branches a little.  DUH.

Despite that complaining.......I'm pleased with the result.  I used some LONG STASHED fiber too!!


Thanks for your visit!

LCS -Day Four - Congratulations!

Yes! It's day four of Lucy's Card Sketches and I was in need of a Congratulations card!!!  So, based on the sketch - here's the card I came up with:

I just really LOVE how this card came out!  I wish you could see the lovely Stickles representing the diamond.  After embossing the Studio G ring stamp in silver, I knew I had to bling out the diamond and Stickles came to the rescue!

You still have time to play along!!!  Here's the sketch!

Thanks for your visit!

Mojo 212 - Congratulations!

Happy Wednesday to you!!!  Hope you're able to get through 'hump day' today!  I've got an early 6:30am boot camp class which is sure to kick my butt, back home to walk around the neighborhood with my neighbors & dogs and then Cindy and I are going on a little road trip!  So, it will be a busy day!

Today's card is a Congratulations card using PTI's "Love Birds" set along with Mojo Monday's Sketch # 212.

It's quite cheerful for this time of year but you know I had to reach for my DCWV "Citrus" paper pack one more time!!!   Oh - and that "ribbon" I used........lol......it held together my newly purchased Lawn Fawn stamps......it matched pretty well......so I repurposed it on my card!!!

Here's the sketch if you want to join the fun:

Hope you have a great day!!!!!!!



Thanks for your visit!

Bring out the bubbly!

Is everyone surviving the heat??  It got to 101 in CT yesterday!  Thankfully, I did spend the majority of the day indoors.  

I was the lucky recipient of some Amuse cardstock and stamp set by Meg (more on that below)....and I finally inked up one of the coral stamps for this card.  I inked it up about a week ago and then the card sat.....and sat........and I did other projects.......and it stared at me......and I had no idea where I was going  with it, until, I looked on my stamp shelf and saw my Impression Obsession fish stamp.  So I decided to stamp the fishy twice and make him swim with the coral!  You can't tell from the angle, but I cut out his fins and popped them up a bit.

I colored him with my prisma pencils, but no gamsol. I used my blender pencil instead.  I added some 'bubbles' and then....was stuck on a sentiment.  Until I found a sentiment from my There She Goes laundry set, which I thought worked pretty well.  I guess this could be a "congratulations' card!


So, here's the what I received from Meg at Corgi Creations!  Lucky gal I am!  If you have never visited Meg's blog........YOU MUST!!!!!  She is incredible!! She's also in the Top 10 for the Paper Crafts Magazine Gallery Idol and she's rockin' it out!!!!

Enjoy your Saturday. Going to walk dogs and visit Pinky at the shelter.  I have to say, I was a little sad not having her in the house....but it was also nice not to worry about her too!!!


Thanks for your visit!

Papertrey Birdcage Fun

Last week I had the chance to ink up my new Love Birds set from Papertrey Ink.  So, I played around and made these CAS cards.

The sentiments are from PTI's Signature Greetings set.  

Thanks for your visit!

Congratulations

Yes - another congratulations card! Yippee - so much good stuff going around!  I actually made this card the night before I left for vacation - I made TWO of them for the same occasion for two different people.

I have TWO friends being inducted into the CT Softball Hall of Fame this coming Sunday!!!

First is Carol Frattaroli.  Carol and I became friends when we played on the same slowpitch softball team after I graduated college.  Carol was an OUTSTANDING high school and college (UMASS) player. What an awesome shortstop and hitter.  I never saw her play fastpitch, but I can just imagine what she was like, seeing that I was next to her at 3rd base during our slowpitch games.

The other inductee is Vicki White.  Vicki was a terrific high school pitcher, but I know Vicki from college (SHU).  The year I graduated, she came in as a freshman pitcher and really guided the team for four years. Vicki became the pitching coach at Sacred Heart University after graduation and is still there.

So congratulations to my two friends Carol and Vicki for this well deserved recognition!!!

Thanks for your visit!

SSS97 - Congratulations!

My neighbor Tracy just received a promotion to Assistant Vice President! I'm so happy for her! She works so hard at her company - always putting in extra hours - so I'm pleased her company recognized her hard work!!

For that reason - I made her this card:

I used that DCWV Citrus pack again (yup) and then did the stamping layers again (yup) using an MFT sentiment and a Studio G stamp.  I also used a thumbs-up paper clip that Kathy and Lucky sent me :)

The card layout is from The Sweet Stop Sketch 97:

(If you missed my post from last Friday - I am away until the 13th - so I'll get to my blog visits when I return)

Thanks for your visit!

Hero Arts - Congrats

My friend Gisela asked me to make her a Congratulations card for her co-worker who got a promotion.  She sent me some parameters she wanted on the card and that resulted me having to go to the stamp store to get a new stamp (aww shucks).  

I bought this Hero Arts typewriter stamp and a Memory Box background stamp.  I printed out a "Congrats" from my computer and cut a slit in the typewriter so the paper looks as if it's coming out of it.  It is popped up, but you can't tell from the angle I took the picture.

I was really pleased with how this card came out! Gisela said she liked it too! Yah!!!
Thanks for your visit!

Bellarific Friday - Congratulations

It is the first Bellarific Challenge of 2011 and I'm going to 'try' and participate throughout the year. Please concentrate on the word "TRY".  I have collected a TON of Stamping Bella stamps and this will be a great challenge to use the ones who haven't gotten inky yet!

This first challenge was a sketch by Kim Teasdale.  I looked through my stash and found Bessie Lulu and reached for my prisma pencils.  I pulled some American Crafts paper out and kept with that color scheme.

I colored in the flowers, but decided I wanted a little more punch! So I dabbed the center of each with glossy accents and poured Martha Stewart beads over them.  I'm happy with the result.

Then I added some glue to each of the dots on her dress and gave her some sparkly glitter!  That's about it!!

Hope you have a great day and a wonderful weekend!!!


Thanks for your visit!

Lucy's Cards - Sketch Week-Day#3

Hello again!
I had skipped over Day #3 of Lucy's Card Sketch Week, so on Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM before heading up to the Humane Society for my morning doggy walks, I quickly made this card.  YES - if you can believe it - this took me UNDER 10 minutes. A miracle happened on 1-11-11 for me (lol)

Well, now you can see WHY it took me less than 10 minutes!!  Not a lot went into the card, but still - a 10 minutes card for me is amazing :)

Here's the sketch I followed:

As I'm typing this post up on Tuesday afternoon - we are expected to get ANOTHER 10" - 18" of snow tonight into tomorrow - so I'm hoping to get A LOT of cards made tomorrow!!!  Yah!

Thanks for your visit!

Bat Mitzvah Congrats

My friend Gisela asked me to make her a card for a Bat  Mitzvah she is attending.  She wanted it to be similar to the invitation.

Here's the invitation:

And here's the card I made:

It's 'kind of" similar. I wish I was able to get the brown on the background more, but everything I tried just wasn't working.

I did take a PTI impression plate and then stamped the flowers in the center and the dots in the middle of the impressions.  I used a Sizzix label and cut out my other two layers around it. Added some brown ribbon and stamped out PTI's all about you sentiment.  I'm happy with the result, but still wish I could of gotten the brown in there. Gisela seemed happy with it - hopefully she is :)

So, this post is set up for Sunday (I'm writing it on Friday) because last night (Saturday) we hosted 150 people at our house for a party/friendraiser for "Soldier Socks" - a charity my neighbor started to help provide some necessities to our soldiers.  I'm sure I'll be resting since it will be a late night....I'll be posting some pictures from the party during the week!!
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Maria

Hugs to you

Here's a Penny Black image that I colored up with prisma pencils and gamsol for the gal that took over for me at work. Last Friday, one of her cats got really sick and she had to put him down. I wanted to let her know I was thinking of her during this tough time.  But what started off as a sympathy card - also turned into a congratulations card.

She went to the CT Humane Society where Cindy and I volunteer and adopted a kitten later that day! She told me on Saturday - so I had the opportunity to change my sentiments on the inside before giving her the card on Monday.  I know she's still sad for the cat she lost, but now her new kitty, Abbey, will help her get through it.

Hope you're having a great week! Thanks for visiting.
Maria

CP72 - Chairs to you

What a great sketch challenge to use up your scraps! I had a ton of this Making Memories paper - so I ended up making four of these cards for the Card Patterns Sketch #72.

For the all the cards - I used the Papertrey Ink set "Chair-ished", but I used a few different sentiments. First up is one of the PTI sentiments that goes with the set.

Then I used two MFT Sentiments for the 2nd and 3rd card:

(Card # 4 was a repeat of card #3)  I used some twine and buttons I found in Michael's dollar bin.  I also used my Nesties around the stamped image and did some paper piecing on the chair.

I'm still struggling with getting better pictures of my card. I have a terrific light box my hubby got me a few years ago - just playing with my lighting and my camera settings.......it will come.........hopefully soon!
Have a great day! Thanks for visiting our blog :)

Maria

FTL 94 - Congratulations

Quick post today! Here's the card I made following the Clean&Simple FTL94 sketch! I used patterned paper from Stemma, a Studio G stamp colored with prisma pencils and then I used the impression plate from PTI on top of the scallop square punch.
I finished it off with a MFT sentiment! Sorry - on the run for this quick quick post!
Maria :)

Stamping Bella Wedding Congrats!

OK, here is the first card I put together from the class we took with Paula in Toronto. I have to be honest and say that this image is the least favorite of all the images we colored, but it still was an opportunity to learn a lot about coloring!!! We learned how to color faces and also learned that French Grey 90% is the go-to color for shadows/shading!
With the class, Paula provides the cards and the paper - so I can't tell you who makes them, but I added the beige ribbon and the PTI sentiment! I also added glitter to her dress and veil.

I'm psyched because my NEW ATG gun arrived!! Yah!!!!! I've been putting off this purchase for quite a long time but because of my exciting news........I HAD to have it!!!

And that news is................a high school acquaintance of mine owns a FABULOUS store in Greenwich, CT. It's called "SPLURGE" and you do just that when you go there. She tries to use local artists for all her products and after some urging and encouragement from friends - I got the nerve up to ask her if she'd like to carry some of my cards and she said "YES"!!!!

So, it was a necessity to upgrade my adhesive and ATG is the one!!

If you are local to Greenwich, CT - I STRONGLY suggest you go visit Sonia's store at: 19A East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830. She really has beautiful things there and I haven't left the store empty-handed there yet!!!


Thanks for visiting today and hope you are having a great week!!

Maria

FTL 90 - Congrats Grad

Ooops, I had pressed "enter" and the post went out with nothing in it! Sorry to those on the automatic feed!

Well, here's a quick card I made yesterday using the Clean&Simple FTL90 Sketch. I needed a graduation card for my neighbor who graduated from UCONN last Sunday! Congrats Em!
I was fortunate to have a bunch of Studio G graduation stamps and this made for quick cardmaking on a day when I didn't have a lot of time!

Short post today! Have a great Saturday :)

Maria