Sympathy Cards

It's a sad fact of life that now and then you need a sympathy card. I always like to use a butterfly, to sympbolize transformation and rebirth.
Memory Box has a great line of butterfly stamps (and paper). I colored this butterfly with twinkling H2O's.

GC129: Starry Night

This December, Gingersnap Creations is celebrating Holiday Lights and we will be focusing on candles, votive holders and all things wax.

For today's project I'm focusing on a luminary for a votive or tea light. It's a quick project with lots of possibilities. Different shaped windows, embossed vellum windows, different die-cut edges - the list goes on and on! The tutorial is on SplitCoast Stampers.

I started with a 12x12 piece of silver glitter paper. I cut the piece a bit longer than 5.5" called for in the tutorial because I wanted to die-cut the top edge.


To cut the window, I drew a pencil line inside and then positioned the nestie with washi tape. I folded the box in half to cut the top. The polar bear is a Memory box stamp. And I die cut stars and covered them with blue glitter embossing powder. If I could have found a tea light or votive I would have fired it up for you. Sadly all the little candles are in a "very safe place" right now.

These are the Copics I used. The warm greys are great for shadows.

I hope to have a second post today inspired by Tim's Day#7 tag...stay tuned!

A Murder of Ravens Class Cards

WOW! What a great weekend I had at ONE LITTLE SPARK teaching (and taking classes)!

Here are the classes cards from a Murder of Ravens.
THE RAVEN - we used the same photo transfer technique I did a tutorial on a while back. Stamps by Hero Arts & Stampers Anonymous.

THE SENTINELS - The tag background was done with Paint Dabbers - Lemonade, Butterscotch, and Mushroom. Stamps by Memory Box.

THE NIGHTWATCH - I love this one...so FAST! The background is a tag covered with Peeled Paint & Wild Honey Distress Stains. The image is a Mrs. Grossman's laser-cut sticker.

THE RAVEN - This is a good old Tim "Spray and Smoosh" background. Stamps Memory Box & Stampers Anonymous.

Tomorrow DR PAINE'S APOTHECARY!

Rogue Redhead: A Goodbye to Summer

It's my Rogue Thursday! Here's a card with one last look at summer.

It' all started with a Memory Box paper. It had all these need spaces calling out for stamps. The little boy from Rogue Redhead Designs BEACH BABES fit perfectly. Then it was just a little embellishment to finish. The little boy was colored with colored pencils and the softened with a little gamsol.

Stamps: Rogue Redhead BEACH BABES and BITS 'N PIECES
Ink: Archival sepia
Paper: Memory Box
Accessories: wood swirl, paper flower, button, glitter, gold beads, leaf punch

Rogue Redhead: Beach Babes & Sketch

I love card sketches! When I'm tired and I need some inspiration I look for a card sketch to get me going. I can always find a paper, or color, or stamp set to use. It's the layout that stumps me when I'm tired.

This week, I looked to SplitCoast Stampers Wednesday card sketch (SC349).

I started with a kraft card and stamped the background of the Beach Babes set in blue. Then I picked two designer papers from Memory Box's VALISE collection and backed them in blue. The image is stamped on kraft and lightly water colored. The final touch was my white souffle pen to give the shirt some definition.

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

Sympathy Card

Every now and then you need a sympathy card. I always like to use butterflies for those cards.

Just using a pretty paper (Memory Box) to cover the entire card background and then a solid image over it works best for a quick card. I did stamp the butterfly group on the patterned paper for a little more interest. The main image is a Memory Box stamp. Sponged with Broken China and Peeled Paint - and a little Vintage Photo to age all the papers. The butterfly was colored with Copics and glitter pens. Cut out and the wings left free to float.

The Stamper's Samper Catch-up Issue

I only stop for the mail every couple of days - I'm lazy and I don't get much mail so why bother?


'Cos there might be a complimentary copy of the next STAMPER'S SAMPLER CATCH-UP ISSUE in the box!!! Yep..published again.
I just flipped thru and only saw this card - a romantic card using Graphic 45 papers and Memory Box stamps.

Happy Birthday Missy!

For my niece Missy...she turned 22 on Monday!

Just a little Asian influenced card.

For the kimono I stamped these Stampin Up two-step flowers and used a Hero Arts background stamp. I have to rave about the new Amuse Studio pigment inks! They have great coverage.

I used the stamp positioner to line up the kimono stamp image. Then cut out the image and collaged the card. The green polka dot paper was stamped with VersaMark and glitter embossing powder.

Stamps: Memory Box, Stampin Up FAST & FABULOUS, Hero Arts, Amuse sentiment
Paper: Amuse Studio (A|S) Grass polka dot & Bermuda
Ink: Amuse Studio (A|S) Buttercup & Lemon Whip; VersaMark; Archival Black
Accessories: Glitter embossing powder, Prima flowers, skeleton leaves, dragonfly charm, pearls

My 50th Birthday Travel Album

I finally finished it!! Last September my mom and I took a "family heritage" trip to the Madison Wisconsin area. On and off over the last 15 years, I've spent a great deal of time doing family genealogy research. My mom's family is "easy" because they all came from Norway between 1840 and 1850 - and settled in two counties (Dane and Green) Wisconsin. Thru Ancestry.com I've meet cousins 5 and 6 generations removed. Some still live very near the original homestead of the ancestors I've researched the most.

My greatest 50th birthday wish was to have my picture take at the grave of our common "mother", Birgit Halverson. She died on my birthday (83 years earlier). Despite 6-8 months of research, contacting EVERYBODY I could think of, sending my newly met cousins out to area cemeteries - we still haven't found Birgit's grave. But in the end I cherish meeting those cousins and sharing a common background! In addition, I wanted to visit the Wisconsin State Historical Society to gather records I could find online, but cost $15 a copy to get.

So here is my travel/birthday album from that trip. I started with a Graphic 45 Kraft envelope album. Covered a great deal of it in Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutant paper and added some additional mini envelopes for additional storage. Other supplies used: Primas, Glimmer Mist, rhinestones, Slice, washi tape, Memory Box stamps, and some Tim Holtz stuff.

Closed it's a pretty small album.
Just under flap is a picture (a bad one) of the birthday girl - ME!

Each "page" is an envelope. Inside I put a journal card and a photo for that day.
The small envelopes also have journal cards and hold "ephemera". In this case my pass to the UW library.






On my birthday I used this numbered paper and "highlighted" my age!



I decorated some of the inside flaps.

Happy Birthday Joanna!!

Happy Birthday to my friend, Joanna!! She's one of my local stampin buds and we often get together for a fun night at Archiver's!
This is very simple card. Memory Box paper covering the entire card base. The circle is a new Memory Box circle script stamp and over-stamped with the butterfly collage. I used two Stampin Up colors: River Rock and Pacific Point. It fits perfectly in one of the Nestability circles. A swirl of rhinestones (of course). And the "B" and butterfly are both stickers. I brushed a little talcum powder on the back of the butterfly sticker to get it to "stand up".

Fast, simple, elegant! Happy Birthday Joanna!!

Calendar Pages

For stocking stuffers this year, I gave my family members a desk calender. The past several years, A Muse has produced a calendar set (in several sizes) and the proceeds go to charity. This year's charity was CHARLEY'S FUND.

The calendar comes as a PDF file that you print on your choice of paper. My friend, Heather, printed hers on colored paper and used chalk inks. I decided to go white (Neenah Solar White). I also wanted to stay away from "holiday" themes. My original idea was to do each season with one set of stamps and use different colors for each month. I only made it thru WINTER (Dec, Jan, Feb) with the same stamp. LOL...so much for a plan!

WINTER - Snowflakes


Stamps: Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous

SPRING - Florals
Hero Arts
Memory Box
A Muse

SUMMER - Here the theme fell apart but I started with the idea of "bugs" - as in butterfiles, ladybugs, etc.

Memory Box
PaperTrey Ink
A Muse & Hero Arts

FALL - HARVEST
Hero Arts
Inkadinkado
A Muse

All the pages were dotted with Stickles for BLING. And finally the 4x6 sets were put in these "CD" cases.