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Happy Cards

I love happy cards that make me smile and this one does.  It seems I am not the only one enjoying our break in the temps, the birds, bees and butterflies are a jumble of activity in my garden, yard and neighborhood.  Windows open this morning to blue skies and gentle Delta Breezes.  All elements are mine, I had a drawing fest last week and played with my much neglected Copics, the background is a gelli pull and the photocorners are by EKSuccess.   Hope your week is moving gently along, hugs

Surrender Dorothy

Good Morning all, Surrender Dorothy?  LOL, one of the things that happens when I am working with a new medium or process, right now for me it is the tabletop chalkboards, it stimulates my inspiration and all I want to do is draw, I will usually stifel the urge unless I have a lot of time or it suits my purpose.  Surrender Dorothy is my muse calling me to the drawing board.  I wanted a butterfly and a dragonfly for my tabletop chalkboards and I wanted them to be my creation, so I spent 2 or 3 days coming up with something I could attach to one of the corners, after doing my line drawing I printed them out in black and white, cut them with the Cameo and then worked with the magic Copics.  These are the butterflies, the background on the card is one of my Gelli pulls printed out on tissue paper and added to a block for the card blank.  I did two sizes, the smaller one being the blue and the larger one in greens and rusts. The tag was a bonus as I was doodling.  Sometime getting so caught up in the mechanics of getting a project done, I forget what a release drawing and the working with color are, sort of cleans the pallet so you can get on with things.

this is the larger one.

and the dragonfly, so now I have jewelry for my tabletop chalkboards and my muse is sated for a while. Have a great week, hugs

May your day be filled

Monday, Monday, hope your day and week are filled with smiles!  This is another tabletop chalkboard, yesterdays post featured a 4X6 and todays is a 5X7.  This also has a little different look, it was done with chalk and with Marvey "Bistro" chalk markers, wow love these markers, they are fun with paper too. Another butterfly for the corner.  The Bistro marker will not wipe off as the chalk will, the board must be cleaned with a damp cloth.

Table Top Blackboards

I was invited to participate in a craft boutique in Southern CA the first week in Nov. and I accepted.  I had a couple of project ideas patiently waiting for me to execute.  One on the top of the list was a tabletop chalkboard, pretty direct and to the point - NOT, lol.  As I got into it I realized there were a lot of variables in products, means of application, etc., etc.  Also there were not a lot of details on product or really on the internet either, well not all in one place.  Finally after much research, trail and error with primer and paint I came up with a workable project.  The thing that scrambled the info was that I wanted to do these on glass, not the traditional board.  One funny thing that happened, I was consulting with a Lowes worker and he suggested a primer, he is reading the instructions, dry time and says "that the primer had to cure 7-10days before use, excuse me? 7-10 days cure time is just not going to work and that product was deemed unacceptable immediately.  When I got in my car, this idea popped into my head, "Michael Angelo would have jumped up and down with glee at a 7-10 day cure time.", I laughed out loud.  The above tabletop is one I am using in my kitchen, dh gets frustrated and cannot figure out if dishes are clean or dirty, so this sits on the counter over dishwasher when there are clean dishes that have not been put up yet.  I keep thinking of so many uses for these little treasures.  I will be doing 2 sizes 4X6 and 5X7.  Then the other night as I was looking at it, it looked a little undimensional, so I sketched a butterfly, colored with Copics, scanned in and created an element for my silhouette Cameo to cut, I adhere two together and then coat with a UVA gloss top coat, then a tiny adhesive dot and it will attached to one of the corners.  Yep, I am lovin the table top blackboards.  Have a great Sunday and good upcoming week, you know where I will be, I am still working on my Christmas card designs too, hugs

Happy Birthday Miss Carole

My Dear Friend Carole celebrates a birthday tomorrow, well that is a little mis-leading as Carole celebrates for weeks and has already had a couple of pre-birthday celebrations, lol.  But I cannot think of anyone who deserves weeks of celebrations more.  This card was done with just her in mind, the mesa and cactus, that blazing sun are her territories.  I had a card underway, when I saw this kit "Grande" by Sherwood over at Scrapbook Grapics, and switched mid-stream cause this was perfect for that Arizona Girl.
So, Happy Birthday Miss Carole, love ya bunches, hugs

Not So Tradition Christmas Colors

A Christmas card this morning, using non-traditional colors with the Tim Holtz deer (love them).  The background is one of my gelli pulls, I have also done it in red and white and love it.  The stencil was cut using a Silhouette library mask.  Merry Christmas was computer generated and the tim holtz deer were cut from Italian wrapping paper.  Have a great Thursday, hugs

Stay Cool

It sure would be nice to have a break from this heat, sometimes I feel like I am part of one of those slooooow motion clips from a movie, where you can see each movement and a minute lasts forever, lol.  The cats want to be outside, they stretch out on their backs and slow down their breathing, it is so shallow you cannot see a movement, have to reach down and pat them to make sure they did not die from a heat stroke.  Enough of my moaning over the heat on to the card.  The background is a printed gelli pull on tissue.  The thumbs up is an element I did for a card kit created for a friends birthday, she loves the thumbs up symbol.  Tag with a little doodling and the therm. from "Bits of Ivory".  Just a reminder to stay cool, hugs

By The Sea = A Birthday Card

A birthday card today, I have had a lot of birthdays over the last month or so, isn't it funny how they jumble up in certain months?  This was for a young woman, a professional photographer.  She loves the ocean and water.  The background paper is from "Paradise Discovered" by et designs at Scrapbook Graphics and the bottle is from NLD "Sea Whistle" also SG.  The camera is "Echo Park" for Silhouette Library.

I applied a BasicGrey rub-on to the bottle and wrote the 2013.  Hope your weekend yields rest and relaxation, hugs

A Collaboration of hearts

I am blessed with some of the best neighbors anyone could possibly imagine on both sides, across and up and down the street.  They are diverse, talented and loving people.  One of my next door neighbors are pretty new but only to the house, they lived down the street prior to becoming my next door neighbor and lived across the street from a dear friend.  A mom and her two daughters, all three beautiful, vivacious, fun and talented.  Today we are going to talk about Jessica though, her favorite symbol "a happy face", and "hearts" her favorite word "yes".  Jessica is 26 and will be 27 later this month, she was born with some challenges, Trisomy 13 being the hardest one, 80% do not survive past 3 years. Jessica graduated from high school with her class and now works for Pride Industries in Roseville. Jessica loves to make cards.
One of the blogs I follow "Funky Cards" is hosted by Madison, a recent high school graduate, who began "I Feel the Love Project" a number of years ago and has blessed so many people with her call for cards, prayers and help.  When I saw her July project I knew what I wanted to do and I wanted it to be a collaboration with my friend Jessica.  The call was for "Thank You" cards for the mom of the sweetest child "Mariyah", please visit Madisons blog for the full story on Mariyah.  I went next door and asked Jessica if she would like to work on the cards with me, she said "YES", no hesitation, just YES.  I took over 12 blanks for her to work her heart magic on, I gave her no guidance, suggestions or input it was up to her.  Here is part of the magic in all of this, despite a tooth extraction and a pretty traumatic seizure, they got done.  My part was to add the vinyl heart and inside cloud with "Thank You".

I love her rhythm of the hearts, some closed, some open, some with a side pocket. I think all hearts should have a side pocket, LOL.

I know this is a pretty long post and if you have traveled the distance, I thank you!  Hope you got some inspiration and pleasure from our collaboration.  Have a great rest of the week, hugs