Boys and their Toys

Talk about a day late and a dollar short....here is the Father's Day card I made for hubby, but never got around to posting.  I was cracking up the entire time I worked on it - I just love the expression on this guy's face.  He is from Crafty Secrets' Favorite Fellas stamp set. 

The car is an actual photograph of the Porsche 911 that Tim and his brother bought to use for Driver's Education events at race tracks.  These are events where they get to drive on the track, in a 'spirited' fashion, but not in a racing atmosphere.  I re-sized the photo of the car to get it to work with this stamp, and then I had to do a little surgery and cut the roof off the car.  It's not a technically correct representation of the car, but what the heck - call it artistic license!

I used some patterned paper that was a vintage map of the U.S. and then placed a Tim Holtz compass rose mask on top and sponged around it.  The sentiment is from the same set and is so true of my hubby - he is the king of boy's toys!  The Happy Motoring paper is from Graphic 45's Transatlantique collection.

For the inside, I cut a strip of text paper that has some applicable quotes such as, "We do not remember days; we remember moments." and "a happy memory never wears out." and I highlighted them using Copic markers.  I used a checkerboard border punch on some white card stock and then layered on black card stock to replicate a checkered flag.

On a  personal note, we found out recently that Tim has Cubital Tunnel Syndrome which will require surgery.  The surgery will re-route the ulnar nerve so that instead of running under the funny bone, it will be moved so it's on top.  He will end up with a 7 inch incision on the inside of his right arm.  The surgery will only prevent further nerve damage (he currently has numbness and very little strength in his right arm), but it will not reverse the nerve damage that has already occurred.  So we are a little bummed about that at the moment.  But, on a positive note, his retirement countdown clock is reading 331 days today!!

Thanks for stopping by!

FS154 Valentine Nurse

This week's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast Stampers was my fellow Belli Challenge girl, Anne Harmon. I've never played along in the FS challenge before, but since Anne has been so good to me, I wanted to give it a shot and honor her. I selected this card from her gallery and used the same stamp and the same overall layout, but I changed the background paper from stripes to polka dots, changed the color scheme and changed the ribbon color. I also changed it from a get well card to a Valentine's Day card.

One of the things I like best about Anne is her wonderful, slightly wicked, sense of humor, as evidenced by this Valentine's Day card she posted this week. So, in keeping with her slightly naughty Valentine's Day sentiment, I added one of my own for this card. I've always thought this little nurse had a mischievous look in her eye!

The polka dot paper is from BoBunny, the journaling card is from Cosmo Cricket's Hey Sugar collection and the nurse stamp is from Crafty Secrets Feeling Yucky set. I paper pieced all of the nurse's outfit except her socks. That was a bit tedious, but it helps to qualify this card for this week's Ways to Use it Challenge, which is Cut It Out!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! Thanks for looking!

Crafty Secrets Get Well

TGIF! It's been a long, busy week. We are expecting house guests next weekend, so I have been in a cleaning and straightening up frenzy when I haven't been working. As my mother always likes to say, there's nothing better for a house than a good company scare....so true!

Earlier this month I posted a card folder that I had made for my mother for her birthday. The folder contained four get well cards. The first two cards I posted were both made using Papertrey Ink stamps. Today I am showing the other two cards, which were made using Crafty Secrets' Feeling Yucky set. I love the whimsical, vintage feel of this set. This first card has the little nurse with her ginormous hypodermic needle. I think she has a sinister little look in her eye! She sort of reminds me of the nurse who gave me my flu shot this week...my arm is still sore ;-)

The background paper is from Graphic 45's Renaissance Faire collection and is called Romantique. The little nurse and her scary needle were colored with Copic markers and I added Glossy Accents to the syringe. The background of the stamped panel was airbrushed while it was still in the die.

For the inside of the card, I added a matted strip of the patterned paper and a sentiment from the Feeling Yucky set.

This second card has the weepy little duck from the set, along with some patterned paper containing a similar little tweety bird. It's actually Easter paper, but what the heck! The duck was also colored with Copic markers and Glossy Accents was applied to his tears.

The band across the middle of the card is a strip of the same paper I used for the butterfly birthday card I posted last Sunday, mounted on a scalloped-edge strip of coordinating card stock. The triple-looped bow was made with May Arts' silk ribbon, using the Bow Easy tool.

For the inside of this card, I added a small strip of the patterned paper, making sure to include one of the little chicks, matted on several layers of card stock, including one that was cut using the Martha Stewart Checkerboard border punch. The sentiment is from the Feeling Yucky set.

That's about it for me. Hope you've had a good week. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!

WCMD Challenges

I had high hopes for spending all day Saturday in my stamp room playing along with the World Card Making Day challenges over at Splitcoast Stampers. There was a new challenge posted every hour from 10:00am to 11:00pm. It was a bit overwhelming and I learned that I am a very SLOW card maker! Some people made a card for each challenge during the hour the challenge was posted - how do they do that?? I barely figure out the stamps, papers and layout I'm going to use in an hour...sigh... I only managed to finish two cards for the challenges, plus a third card using a new toy I received on Friday, which I'll post another day.

This first card was made for the Crafty Secrets challenge, which was to make the card pop, using the image or an embellishment. I used a couple of images from the Feely Yucky set. I paper pieced the little nurse's uniform and popped up her arm with dimensional tape. The needle in her hand has Glossy Accents on it to give it a little pop, and I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the row of faux stitching on the red border strip. The background paper is from Jillibean Soup's Alphabet Soup collection and I thought it was perfect with the little nurse image since it reminds me of an eye chart.

The second card is for the Magnolia-licious Challenge, which was to make a Holiday Ornament - either an ornament to hang on the tree or a card with an ornament on it. I had this paper from BasicGrey's Eskimo Kisses collection so I used the ornament paper for part of the background and created an ornament as my focal point using a stamp from GinaK Designs Got Snow set. I cut the image out using a circle Nestabilities die and added a small square of silver paper, topped with a section of a scalloped circle to make the top of my ornament.

The image was colored with Copic markers and I masked it off and airbrushed the sky. I added some Polar White Flower Soft for the snow man and the ground, then added some Stickles for his buttons, nose, eyes and mouth. The sketch is from Jen del Muro's Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT) from Saturday.

That's it for this year's WCMD challenges for me - hopefully I'll do better next time! Thanks for looking and enjoy your week - we're getting off to a dreary, rainy start here.

Sending Well Wishes!

Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend! Ours was very productive, but unfortunately my productivity was not in my craft room.

All of the supplies for this card came from our last Krafty Kat kit. The flower image is from the Flowers Cotton Scraps from Crafty Secrets. The patterned paper is from the Chatterbox Botanico collection and the sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms' Script Essential Expressions set.

These Cotton Scraps are great for making quick cards - just cut the fabric image from the sheet, fray the edges a bit, adhere it and you're done! I used my Stampin' UP! eyelet border punch for the bottom edge of my mat and then layered the sentiment on top and affixed it with a couple of silver brads.

Sending you well wishes for a great week! Thanks for stopping by!