FMS46 - From this day forward

Happy Monday!  Did you have a fun weekend?  Hope so!  On Friday I came across the Freshly Made Sketches blog and decided to join their Sketch#46 challenge and the Recipe Swap all white challenge.

I also was inspired to make an ALL WHITE card, since I haven't made one of them in a LONG LONG time!  I'm quite pleased with the result:

I used a PTI impression plate for the card base, then a few Cuttlebug embossing folders for layers and then one Memory Box die and a PTI die for the flowers.  I used a long held onto rub ons for the sentiment.  Perfect for a wedding card!

I think I'm going to have to make a few more white on white cards. This was fun!

Have a great day!

Thanks for your visit!

Now and Forever

Happy Monday to you!!!  Hope you had a great weekend.  We sure did (more on that at the bottom of the post!)

Here's a wedding card I made last week - pretty CAS - but ooooh, I love how it came out!

I started inking a Hero Arts background stamp with three different Distress Inks.  Then I spritzed it with water and perfect pearls and stamped onto watercolor paper.  The shimmer is so nice!

I heat embossed a Studio G stamp with white powder and then smooshed that circle in some puddles of Distress Inks.  I used a paint brush to really color in the "&".  Then I found some matching ribbon and the card was complete.

Here's an closer picture of the sentiment circle since the lettering is quite delicate.

On Saturday night - we had a small gathering at our house.  When my friend Nick texted me at 7:00am and said he just finished squeezing 6 ruby red grapefruits, I knew it was going to be a good night.  You see..........he squeezes the grapefruits........then he makes basil simple syrup.......then Jim 'muddles' some basil, adds some vodka and we're ready to PARTY!!!  The grapefruit basil martini's were just YUMMY!

Then, after dinner....we did some night swimming and out of nowhere, the Cafe Patron came out! Oh Boy...about 6 shots later were a happy bunch!!!  Lots of laughs were had.  Good times :)

Thanks for your visit!

Wedding Cards

Quick post today because I didn't really craft too much the last few days.  I'm THRILLED to report I ran my 5k yesterday in my fastest time EVER!!  24 minutes and 50 seconds!! Yahoo!!!  It was a gorgeous day and I'm sure they raised so much money for the Bennett Cancer Center! Yah!

These are some wedding cards I made a few months back for a friend who has to attend EIGHT weddings this year!! OMG!!   They are similar to ones I made before - so if they look familiar - that's why.  Inside they are all personalized with the couple's names.

Thanks for your visit!

Congrats to you!

As most of you regular blog readers know, I volunteer quite a bit of time at the Connecticut Humane Society.    We have a small contingent of dog-volunteers who try to go above and beyond the call of 'walking dogs'.  We've renamed ourselves the C.S.L's (Crazy Shelter Ladies).  We've held tag sales to raise funds to get dogs in danger into sanctuaries, we've donated money to dogs for surgeries, vaccinations, etc.  I'm also selling my cards to fund our little 'fund'.

Our newly appointed shelter Manager (was formerly Assistant Manager) is getting married tomorrow. So, the CSL's and a few other volunteers took a collection to get her a gift card and a gift.  I volunteered to make the card and here's what I came up with:

I used this fun Stamping Bella image and some Papertrey Ink paper and stamps.  The image is colored with prisma pencils and wow - look at all those layers!

Here's the inside of the card, where the gift card went:

I used my Lawn Fawn alphabet for the inside sentiment and some pawprint brads.  We gave Mindy her gift last Sunday, so I'm safe posting this prior to her wedding!  This was a fun (and THICK) card to make!

Wishing Mindy and Rob a lifetime of joy together!!!


Thanks for your visit!

Camo Wedding

TGIF everyone!!!  Are you ready for the weekend??  This card is not your 'normal' wedding card!!  My neighbor's asked me if I could make a wedding card with camouflage for their nephew who's getting married.  He's in the military and I guess they like camouflage 'stuff'.  They even bought a camouflage shower curtain.  LOL

So, I borrowed this Stamping Bella stamp from Cindy and did A LOT of paper piecing.  I thought it would be fun to have the camo car and the camo top hat.  (I didn't want to go as far as the camo veil though!)

I paper pieced the taillights, the bells, the license plates, the mirrors and the bumper.  To accent the lights and mirrors, I added glossy accents.  I also popped up the license plate on dimensionals.

Here's a tight shot of the image.  I 'think' you can make out the glitter on her veil.

They said they loved the card!  I hope the bride and groom do too!!!

Have a great weekend :)

Thanks for your visit!

Now and Forever

I wanted to make a few wedding cards for our upcoming craft show so I re-created a card I made two years ago - which was a card I "CASE'd" from someone on SCS.

Punch, punch, punch....that's what I did........punched a bunch of flowers and some stems. I made four of these cards (although Lily - pictured in my blog header apparently didn't like the look of one...or REALLY liked one...because she ate it!)  Why won't I learn to close my craft room door EVERYtime??

Anyways, I punched a hole on the front of the card and put the Studio G sentiment on the inside.  I ended up dotting the flowers because they needed just a little bit 'more'.

Hope you're having a great day!!

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!

Lucy's Cards - Sketch Week Day#7!!!!

We've made it!! The final Sketch!!! Can you believe it! Thanks for sticking with me through these :)
Here's my card for Lucy's Cards Sketch Week Day 7:

I once again started with Papertrey Ink cardstock base and paper.  Once I saw the sketch, I knew I'd reach for my Autumn Leaves "Talking in Circle" set.  Sonia, the gal who sells my cards, asked for wedding cards, so I picked the "Happily Ever After" one.  I stamped it twice with chalk ink and then popped up the center sentiment.

A little ribbon weave and the wedding card (and Lucy's sketch week) is now complete!!

Here's a look at the sketch!

Well, I enjoyed these sketches! Thanks Lucy!!!

Thanks for your visit!

So Happy For You!

Tonight (Saturday) we are going out to dinner with our long-lost friend Beth and her new hubby!!! I'm so excited!  Beth and I played ice hockey together along with our other friend Jill. She only lives 25 minutes North of us, but sometimes that can seem like it's half way across the globe. But, finally........we're going out.  I'm excited to meet her hubby and talk about her new pit bull puppy!

So, because of her recent nuptials, I wanted to bring her a card and a few gifts. Here's the card I made and I finally made some rolled paper flowers too!  I need a bit more practice, but not TOO bad for my first time :)

I forget which sketch layout this was for, but I used Papertrey Ink paper and cardstock.  My Nesties and a PTI sentiment.

Not too much more to discuss, but you will be saying deja vu in a few days because I used the exact layout and paper on another card, but I have to wait for the recipient to receive it before I can post it!!

Have a great Sunday :)

Maria

Wedding Card - day two

Today I'm posting the wedding card I made for John and Julie. But, before I show you the card, I have to show you the inspiration.  Did you see Kim Kesti's card on the cover of the September/October Paper Crafts magazine? 

When I saw her card, I knew I wanted to CAS it for the wedding card. I thought I could simulate the beach sunrise and although it took a while.............this is how my card came out:

First I pulled all my colors for the card and then punched and punched and punched out EK Success scallops. When it came to the actual sunrise, I didn't like how the sun was popping out from behind the scallops, so I decided to cut off three of the scallops to make the horizon.

I used yellow/gold MS glitter for the sun and then used the PTI sea grass stamps we used for the actual invite.
I was quite pleased with the result, but what I wasn't happy with was the fact that I was making the card the NIGHT BEFORE our flight was leaving! I hardly procrastinate THAT bad.......but luckily, the glitter glue dried!!!

One last shot from the weekend...........my hubby and I!

Thanks for your visit! Hope you are having a great day!!!
Maria

Wedding Card

While Cindy is away, I'm taking liberty to post the wedding card she made for John and Julie!!  She sent me a picture of it from her phone, so I'm using that picture to post here:

Cindy made a step card for John and Julie. She used the Stamping Bella wedding couple image we colored back in May when we took classes from Paula in Toronto!  Not sure if you can see it on the picture, but she added some sandpaper at the bride and groom's feet.  On the second step, she added a sunrise along with glittery stickers for the "10-10-10" date.

And on the first step, she used one of the Martha Stewart seashell border punch outs we had left over.  Some bling here and there and her beautiful card was complete!!!

Here are a few more shots from our weekend:

John and Julie had 'wedding tattoos' made up for the guests.  Here's an upclose one (NOT the rainbow/palm tree one - that one is a real tattoo)



Here are a few of us modeling them:

This is Pat, Carol, Steve, myself and Cindy posing for our 'hair sculptress'.
She 'sculpts' our hair and wanted a picture of the 5 of us together!!

And just a few more sunrise shots from the morning after the wedding before we left for home:

Thanks for stopping in today!

Maria (for Cindy)

Wedding Bliss on 10-10-10

This post has been a LONG time coming!!!! Our friend's John and Julie got married on Hilton Head Island, SC this Sunday on 10-10-10. (That's why the blog was on sabbatical!!).  It was a great wedding, beautiful weather, fun friends and family sharing in the joy of their marriage!!

But the story starts a few months before!!!  After John and Julie got engaged and started planning their wedding, they asked Cindy and I to make their wedding invitations. Holy Cow! We had never done invitations like that before, but we were up for the task and honored to be asked.

Since J&J were planning a sunrise wedding, they wanted the sunrise to be the theme of the invite. Cindy and I scoured pictures of sunrises and came up with a color scheme that we liked. We created an invite and after a few changes here and there, J&J approved the invite design.

So, this summer Cindy and I made the invites.   Here they are:

Here is what was under the vellum:

Since we haven't 'yet' learned to use the brayer - Cindy and I worked with dye ink and sponges on glossy cardstock. The first thing we did was to emboss the sea grass (PTI stamps). After that, we used post-it notes to make a horizon and started sponging yellow ink.  We then cut a post-it in half to make the sunrise out of the horizon and continued to sponge yellows and oranges. Towards the top we added light blue.

Then we turned to post-its around and started working upward from the beach to the ocean. We dragged across the bottom two distress ink pads to make the dry & wet sand look. Then sponged some light blue into deeper blue to make the water. 

John asked why we wanted to use the vellum over the sunrise and our answer was two-fold. It was the only way for us to put the actual wedding wording ON the invite front and...............to hide any mistakes/blemishes :)    Let me tell you.......I love vellum!!!!! ( ha ha ha )

If you turned the invite over - we made a pocket and typed up the weekend events and how to RSVP.  We used a Martha Stewart seashell punch for the bottom border. 

I'm so happy I have a nice relationship with one of the employees at my local stamp store, because when I went to buy the punch, they had sold out. She kindly lent me HER personal punch to punch out what we needed for the invites. How sweet!

Here are a few pictures of the "actual' sunrise from the morning of the wedding:

The bride and groom:

And here is the beautiful couple up close :)

So, congrats to John and Julie and wishes for a wonderful, happy love-filled marriage together! Thanks for allowing Cindy and I to be a part of the wedding and for hosting all of us down in SC!!!  It was a blast and we are so happy we got to share in the celebration!!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!!

Maria and Cindy