NEW BABY CARD

A nephew and his wife recently had their first baby.....a baby boy.  They shared a picture of him in his first outfit and the outfit had an owl pattern all over it.  Some time ago I had purchased a template to make this little overall but had never used it so that picture I saw inspired me to get it out.  (There is a second piece that can be used with it so it looks more like a little girl's outfit.

The paper is a double sided dp, so I made a cut a small white piece to put inside for a small greeting.  The card is smaller than an A2 size so it doesn't leave a lot of room for a message, but the pattern seemed so appropriate to use for them.

Lasting Impressions buttons were a little too light so I colored them with a Copic marker to match the blue in the paper a little better.

So what do you think?  Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. If you are interested in seeing the latest Hero Arts items, I have posted pictures of them here:  Hero Arts

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

In honor of all the military men and women serving our country, I am bringing back two of the patriotic cards that I posted in the past.  The stamps are both from SU.

Please take some time to remember all of those in the past who have so faithfully fought to preserve our freedom and pray for those who are still serving in the military today.

CLEARANCE ITEMS

Rather than post a lot of pictures on my regular clearance blog page, I have opened a Picasa Album for greater ease in viewing these items.  Some items are used  and some are new but being offered at reduced prices to clear out inventory.    You will notice that some items have already been sold due to a stamp sale I had.

Click HERE.

If you see something you would like to purchase, just email me at vboddicker@aol.com or leave a comment including your email address.

SPRINGTIME ROBIN

I seldom get to Hobby Lobby but recently I stopped there for something other than stamps...........but the stamp aisle was right next to what I was going to buy.  So I just "had to look" and stamps happened to be 40% off.  This is one of the ones (yes I bought more than one) that I purchased.  The design was colored with Copic CIAO markers.  I think the bird design can actually be colored to represent different birds as well. 

To finish off the card, I thought the Cuttlebug border embossing folder added a nice touch.

If you are interested in Copic CIAO or Sketch markers, you can purchase them from me at a discounted price. 

Thanks for stopping by..............comments are always welcomed and appreciated.  :)

WELCOME BABY

A few weeks ago Taylored Expressions had a contest for blog visitors to guess whether she is going to have a baby girl or a baby boy.  The winner was chosen at random from those who guessed that she is going to have a girl.   I was the very lucky winner and received several stamp sets from Taylored Expressions. 

One of the sets "Bringing Home Baby" has 23 stamps and is perfect for making a room card.  I've never made one before so this is my first attempt.  I'm still debating whether to add a sentiment below the rocking chair or write something to include with the card.

The set came at a perfect time because we have a newphew and his wife who just had their first child - a baby boy.  I seriously doubt they see my blog page so I decided to go ahead and post this.  I was excited to have completed my first room card.  I'd like to make two more and if I can find the right papers, I'd like to do some of it by paper piecing. 

So what do you think?  Thank you for stopping by my blog!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ALLAN AND PAM

My high school friend, Pam, and I have stayed in touch all these years (I won't admit to how many).  When we graduated she married two days later and about a year later moved to Texas.  I was so sad to know she would be so many miles away.  My mother told me that high school friendships don't usually last -- BUT THIS ONE HAS!  In fact, we vacationed together last Fall.

On Sunday, May 29th they will be celebrating their 46th anniversary (Ooops.....there I said how long we've stayed in touch) and going on an Alaskan cruise.  As luck would have it they are even sailing on the same ship that we did in 2008 and I don't believe they even knew which one we had gone on.  Pam spends so much time on the computer at work for a big airline and doesn't do Facebook or other Internet surfing -- in fact she has made me her personal shopper on the Internet.  :)  I know she won't see this before she gets the card.  I'm just hoping the card reaches her before they leave.

The paper used on this card is from KaiserCraft English Rose paper pad.  The papers are beautiful!  The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations.  I was disappointed that the ink didn't stamp a little more evenly.  Photo Corner dies are from Quickutz/Lifestyle Crafts.  Butterfly was made with a Martha Stewart punch.

I always enjoy your comments!  Thanks for stopping by!

ALPINE FORGET-ME-NOT

In 2008 my husband and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary with an absolutely wonderful month long trip which included a 7-day cruise to Alaska and a 6-day land trip there. One of my card-making friends told me about a stamp store in Juneau. Naturally that was all it took for me to look it up. And when we got to Fairbanks I found another stamp store. I haven't used those stamps either but I really bought them more as a souvenir. Who knows.......maybe one of these days you'll see something made with them.

The stamp I used on this card came from that stamp store in Juneau. The design is Alaska's State Flower - the Alpine Forget-Me-Not. I'm sorry to say that this was the first time I finally used it. I looked up the flower on the Internet to see how to color it with Copic CIAO markers. For the flower layer I used a Martha Stewart punch for the edges. To do this you can see a video by Becca here: Tutorials » Amazing Paper Grace. The sentiment was stamped and then cut and embossed with a Floral Doily Accent die from Spellbinders.
Becca has another great tutorial if you have trouble using the All Around the Page punch sets: Becca Bit: Punching Frames » Becca Bits » Amazing Paper Grace

Well, in about half an hour we're off to the first pre-season softball tournaments for one of our granddaughters. Thank you for stopping by!

BLUE AND CREAM CARD SWAP

One of the  May card swaps our group has this month is a color swap using Navy and Cream.   I used one of the Cuttlebug folders and cut it into equal sections.  Those pieces were mounted onto a navy background and gave kind of an illusion of being a window.  The butterfly has a little bit of pink on it so I strayed just a tad from the challenge.   The sentiment was stamped on to the card stock and then cut and embossed with a Spellbinders label.

School will be out in a few more days and then the fun for this Grandpa and Grandma begins.  With six grandchildren, they keep us running for events during the school year too.  We have four grandchildren participating in summer sports.  Two who live 10 minutes away just finished soccer games and will be playing T-Ball and Softball.  The other two live an hour away and will be involved in T-Ball and Softball.  My husband also will be kept busy with a concession stand at local events nearly every night - preparing the items to sell and also working many of the nights.  It's fun to watch them all participate and before we know it the month of June will have our heads spinning trying to remember when we are supposed to be where.  :)

Thank you for stopping by!

HERE ARE THE PICTURES THAT HAVE BEEN MISSING....

FINALLY!!!!  Up until now I have been organizing my blog pages through AOL.  I don't know why it took me so long to try doing it through Internet Explorer, but IT WORKED!!!!  I thought I would post all of the pictures here for those of  you who may have come to the page but not followed the link. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HANGING IN THERE WITH ME!!!!

NEW PENNY BLACK STAMP

Cardstock and embossing folder from Stampin' Up.  Sticker was mounted onto white cardstock and then adhered to the card base. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EVAN

Today is my niece's son's birthday and he is 1 year old!  The stamps used for this card are from a Recollections stamp set "Zoo-Licious".  I arranged the branch, lion, zoo sign and giraffe on my card stock and then placed the acrylic block on them.  It makes stamping the designs where you want them a lot easier.  After stamping those images, I stamped the individual monkey stamp.  The figures were colored with CIAO markers and even with PTI card stock the ink did show through the back.  To cover that, I added a piece of light weight card stock on the inside of the card.

I'm sorry the picture thing still seems to be a problem so here is a link to the birthday card:  Happy Birthday Evan

THINKING OF YOU

Tuesday night I was able to get several cards made.  All to often recently we have needed Sympathy or Thinking of You cards.  Recently I purchased a KaiserCraft 6 x 6 paper pad called "English Rose".  The papers are gorgeous!  All the papers used on this card came from that paper pad. 

The bottom dp was edged with a Martha Stewart punch.  And yes, I'm into butterflies so I punched one with the beautiful Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch!

KaiserCraft paper pads have a variety of coordinating die cuts in the back of the pads.  Although I don't usually use many of them, I liked this one and it worked out nicely for the Thinking of You sentiment which I stamped with VersaColor Ash Rose. 

Here is a link to the card:  THINKING OF YOU.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

SYMPATHY CARD

We needed to send a sympathy card so I made today's card using Basic Grey papers from the 6 x 6 Wisteria paper pad.  My friend, Harriet - Alley Cat Cards had made a card using similar papers to these.  I ran across it when I was trying to come up with some ideas for this one and I thought the colors and design were so calming.

For my card, I changed the layout, added two butterflies with pearls and used a sympathy sentiment on it.

Here's a link to today's card: Sympathy Card.   Thanks for stopping by..............

2nd GRADUATION CARD

Today's card is  much like the one I posted yesterday, but the stamped layer was made with JustRite Stamps.

Here is a link to today's card:  2nd Graduation Card

GRADUATION CARD

Last year after I had finished cards for Graduation, I was in a local craft store.  I couldn't believe they actually had special scrapbook papers with the names of local schools and the mascot name.  

The card base was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  A piece of the scrapbook dp was added and a strip of plain blue cardstock down the center.   The shapes are cut using Quickutz/Lifestyle dies which can be purchased here:  Creating Everlasting Memories.

Yesterday we had beautiful weather and celebrated a really great Mother's Day.  Hope all of you who are mothers had a wonderful day, too.  Thanks for stopping by.

Link to the card:  GRADUATION CARD

TIME WITH GRANDCHILDREN

Last Thursday I went to pick up two of our grandchildren - Taryn 3 and Tucker 5.  On Friday they played outside almost all day.  When it was time for my husband do drive the school bus route that afternoon they wanted to ride with him.  We found out a quick way to get them a nap.  They were so exhausted that they slept 11 hours that night too.

Link to picture of Tucker and Taryn