THANKSGIVING WISHES

 

Although this card was what I sent to others last year, my wishes for all of you are sent today...........I wish all of you a very special Thanksgiving with family and friends.  It is a day where we all reflect on the many blessings we have in our lives.  May you all have safe travels!!!

STILL WORKING ON PHOTOS

Since I haven't made any cards in the last couple of weeks that I can post, I chose a card that I had posted on October 8, 2009 and I thought maybe some of you hadn't ever seen it.  It seemed appropriate for the time of year.

BUTTERFLY FAVORITE

Back in July I made several cards using this Memory Box die cut.  I cut it with various margins and in different colors.  They make a really CAS card.  The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations.

 

Thank you for coming by today!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

 

A few days ago I posted a birthday card that I accidentally sent to a friend of mine who was actually going to be celebrating their anniversary.  This is the anniversary card that I sent when I found out what I had done.  The card had actually been posted on July 8 of this year so if you would like any further details, you can go back to that post.

 

I'm still working on the HUGE project of scanning all the pictures so I've not made any cards lately.  I will try to at least post some "repeats" of my favorite cards for someone who may not have been here before.



 

Hope you are all staying warm.  So much of the U.S.A. is really cold right now!!!  Thanks for stopping by here!

TWO MORE GRUNGE

Yesterday was a busy day with a dentist appointment (YUCK) and running errands.  When I got home, I took a few minutes to  relax and then had to get ready to go out for a wondeful evening meal at a supper club near us.  (Great way to end the day!!!)

 

I hadn't scheduled anything to post so today I am showing you two more cards I made using the SU Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.

 

 

 

This card used the same design, but I chose to use pink instead of yellow and I also very lightly sponged the pink over the rest of the card front.  I also added the sentiment to the front.

 

As I was going through my supply of butterflies, I also found these cute little bee stickers so I made this card using the yellow again and I found this sentiment on a stamp that had a bee on it.  I just inked up the words bee-cause it fit so well with the design.

 

I'l try to get something posted again for tomorrow.  However, I am really focusing on getting old photos scanned and on thumb drives so I may not have something new every day.

 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

INFORMATION

Thank you to one of my loyal followers for telling me that she was glad to see me posting "again".    Her message made me aware that those of you who signed up to receive daily notices of my blog posts probably were not receiving them.  Due to the number of emails I receive each day and my busy schedule I had not noticed that I was no longer receiving the notice of my own blog or notices from other blogs I had signed up for. 

 

There must have been a glitch somewhere along the line because all of a sudden I started receiving them again.  And here I had just thought some of these other crafters were no longer posting.  So if you thought I was no longer posting and you are now getting this post through an email, you can click on the "HEARTWARMERS FROM VICKI" that appears just above the word "INFORMATION" and it will take you to my blog page.  Then you can scroll back through posts that you may have missed.

Two ways to see my blog:  1) signing up for the message when a post is made to my blog and/or  2) mark my blog as a "favorite place" on your computer so you can visit whenever you like.

 

 

OUTSIDE THE BOX

I wanted to make something completely different from my usual for the Yahoo Group's November Artist's Choice Swap.  I've seen "grunge" type cards but they aren't what I normally do.  I wanted to keep it fairly simple so I turned to Pinterest for some ideas.  I used the color combination I saw on Pinterest but changed the type of butterfly on mine.

 

The yellow honeycomb design was the first step.  I have a die that I purchased before Stampin' Up! came out with one.  I cut one out and then used it as a stencil to sponge SU Yo Yo Yellow through the openings.  The two black stamped designs are from the SU Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.

 

Remember, if there is ever anything you would like to order from Stampin' Up!, I can submit the order for you and it will come directly to you.

 

The weather has turned much colder this week but we are fortunate that we will not be getting all that snow that Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are supposed to receive.  I'm really not ready for winter quite yet!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

This card has a story.  November 9th is my friend Lynette's wedding anniversary and I was in such a hurry to send a card to them that I mistakenly sent her a birthday card!!!  Sad to say, but I think I did the same thing last year.  I couldn't let that be what they received, so I sent a real anniversary card as well which I will post later if it hasn't already been posted on the blog.

 

A few days before I made this card, I had used SU markers to color in an acrylic block, spritzed it and then pressed it onto white card stock.  Before wiping off the block I pressed it a second time onto a second piece of card stock.  I like the affect for a background.

 

Sorry this is getting posted so late in the day.  I've been busy the last few days going through three boxes of old photos that were never put into albums.  I really want to know that they are preserved so I've been scanning, labeling and categorizing them.......not a small job since they go back to 1985!!! What was I thinking???

 

Thanks for visiting!

VERY SIMPLE GUY CARD

So many of us have difficult making cards for the guys.  This is one I put together rather quickly after getting the basic idea from Pinterest.  I simplified mine even more because I needed it so fast.  I used Stampin' Up! designer papers for the banners:  Night of Navy and I think Close to Cocoa but not sure on that one.  The sentiment was stamped and then cut with a Spellbinders label die.  I sponged the edges with the Night of Navy ink.  Very quick and very easy.

Maybe this idea will help you when you're in a pinch.  Thank you for stopping by today!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, TERRI!

 

Terri is one of the members of our Yahoo group and yesterday was her Anniversary.  (As you can see I made the card well in advance.)  The sticker is from a Penny Black sheet.  I matted it on Stampin' Up! So Saffron and Melon Mambo card stock which seemed to match colors in the design.  There were two small stickers of the flower blossom, so I attached one to the lower corner of the main sticker and added the second one to the lower corner of the inside.  

 

Thank you for stopping by today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUSBAND

Today is my husband's birthday.  When my mother asked me to make a special card for him,  this year I knew exactly what I was going to try to create.

 

 

Gary has built several ways to feed the squirrels but he makes them work for it.  We have several that stop by and they are quite the "gymnasts".  They also climb the pole for the bird feeders and partake of the sunflower seeds that I put out.  We are able to watch them from our living room window and they can be quite entertaining. 

When our Yahoo group gathers in Des Moines each summer, we go to Outstamping Designs in Valley Junction.  I purchased this stamp of a squirrel either two or three summers ago but had never used it.  Once I had it I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to come up with something to really show it off.  Fortunately I had taken a picture of the sample they had made up and I pulled it up as a guide for the coloring.

 

I wasn't sure what ink I would use to stamp the image and experimented with three different browns.  Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip was the one I chose.  The coloring I wanted needed to be soft so I pulled out my chalks which I hadn't used in a very long time.  I shaded with two colors of brown and a touch of gold.  Then I used my finger to blend the colors.

 

The background seemed to be too bright.  I had saved the extra stamp offs of the squirrel so I cut one out as a mask and then used my SU Spritzer and the Chocolate Chip marker to add a bit of speckled background.  The card base was embossed with a Darice folder.  The dp strip is an SU Cajun Craze dp which matched the one layer of the mat that I chose.

 

Gary will know that this card was definitely made just for him.  I hope you enjoy it too!  Thanks for stopping by today!

ELECTION DAY

As I prepare this post it is November 3.  By the time this actually posts on November 4, I will have been up and ready for the day.  I will be getting up about 5:00 AM so I can be at the Voting Precinct here in town to get things set up.  Five of us will be manning the polls from 7:00 AM until 9:00 PM.  Then there will be another hour after that preparing everything to submit to the County.

 

It seems that every year there are people who are under the impression that there is another "shift of workers" that will come in to relieve us at some point.  NOT!  We are there for the duration and are not allowed to leave the building.....so it is a very long day.  However, if I didn't enjoy doing it I wouldn't do it.

Of course we can't leave during the day to get something to eat.  I have worked with these same people several times and in June the three of us who were working brought foods to share.  This election day there will be five of us and we will be sharing loose meat sandwiches, potato salad, potato chips, cookies and pumpkin pie.  Sure beats taking cold meat sandwiches or soup like I used to do. 

 

For those of you who are from the USA and visit my blog, I hope you consider using your very special Right to Vote today.  It is a priviledge that many citizens in other countries do not have.

 

Please come back tomorrow to see the special birthday card I made for my mother to send my husband.

SU BEAUTY OF THE SEASON

 

 

When the new Holiday sets were made available to me as a demonstrator, I ordered this  stamp set "Beauty of the Season".  Cardinals are such a beautiful bird and we have some that stop by our bird feeders.

 

I saw this idea on a website using a different stamp and decided to give it a try.  The image was stamped two times on white card stock measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  The Cardinal was colored with Cherry Blossom Blendabilites markers and a couple of shades of Copics for the branch on the first image.  After dotting the berries with the red, I added tiny dots of white with a gel pen to highlight them.

 

The second image was cut out and used as a mask so I could do the background.   The background was created by using post-its and sponging  a little Going Gray ink along the edge of the post-it.......moving it to different positions to give the appearance of a landscape.  The card I used as an idea used that same color all over the background but I sponged the upper area with Bashful Blue for a sky. 

 

The example I followed also had the design "floating" in the middle of this background.  I trimmed my colored image down so it could be matted and then with a black pen extended the branch out so it would appear to be coming out of the edge of that layer.

 

If you like this stamp set, I'd be very happy to order it for you.  Thank you for coming by!