wavy sewing fun

Here is a quick post before I head for work. I am sharing another card that benefited from my sewing machine sitting out. I literally just stuck the paper in an free-sewed wavy lines (free sewed is kinda like free-hand drawing ;) ) The flowers are on shimmery paper, adding just a touch of sparkle.

stamps: Pollen Dust (Fancy Pants) Petal Prints (Stampin' Up!)

paper: So Saffron, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery

ink: So Saffron, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery

other: brads, ticket corner punch

technique: sewing

Can't get enough Pollen Dust

I have these 2 cards to share today. Problem is I can't remember all the details for them. I think that both of these layouts are from challenges (Not sure if they were splitcoast challenges, blog challenges or what). I made them over a month ago and I didn't have a chance to take pictures and post them at the time. So please forgive me for my lack of details.

Both of these cards use Pollen Dust by Fancy Pants (the sentiment is not from that set.) Fancy Pants has two relatively new 12 x 12 sets that you have to check out if you haven't seen them yet. They are called "In my words" and "From the Garden"

Crayon Resist

This card is a CASE of one that my friend Taylor made a while back for one of her classes. See her version here--Taylor's crayon resist.

1. I started off by stamping the flowers (Fancy Pants) in Staz-On black ink on glossy paper.

2. I used a yellow crayon to highlight parts of each flower.

3. Then I used a sponge to ink the glossy cardstock with Regal Rose (I applied the ink and then gently smeared/smushed the color around with my sponge to give the glossy cardstock a smooth look.)

4. The last step was to use a tissue to wipe the yellow crayon off of the glossy cardstock. What is left is white where the crayon was.

I made 2 of the bigger flowers on another piece of glossy cardstock and cut them out and layered them on the strip of black cardstock with the sentiment on it.

Celebrate

I realized recently that I need to send out more cards. I know how much I love receiving cards--it makes my day when I get one in the mail. I need to start making other people's days a lot more. I seem to make cards, but more often than not I find excuses for not sending them out. Such as--well if I send a card to that one friend I have to send one to the whole group. Or another excuse is that I often forget birthdays and I don't want to start sending cards only to forget for a different person in their family and hurt feelings. Sometimes I am ashamed to say I don't send a card because I have sent many cards to that person and they never send me one--how selfish is that??? So anyways I sat down today, stopped making excuses, thought of a few people and wrote out cards for them. Sitting on a table next to my door are cards for my Grandma V. (just a hello), my parents (anniversary coming up), my SIL (birthday coming up), my best friend (just got a new job), and 2 other friends (thank yous). So if you are one of those people expect a card to reach your doorstep very soon...and if you aren't, well don't lose hope you might be receiving a card sometime in the near future because I plan on sending out a lot more!

So this card I am showing today is the card for my best friend who just got a new job. I can show it because I am pretty sure she won't read my blog before she gets it ;)

Here are a few notes about the card:

*The patterned paper is from my 6 x 6 Phoebe pack by Basic Grey. There is a piece of plain green (actually called Golden Gate Bridge Park) over the lined/decorated piece (called Ashbury Street).

*The flowers are stamped with white staz-on on a piece of clear acetate. The acetate is attached in the top left and bottom right corners with white DMC floss that I stitched on.

*The "Celebrate" is from the retired SU! set Lexicon of Love. I got the set from a friend and she had cut the words out of the stamps (getting rid of the rest) and left them unmounted. I love having it that way because that is the part I would want and I would have had to use a marker each time to just try to get that part of the stamp.

Thank you from my heart

This card was very simple to make, but I love the clean look of it. The patterned paper is two different pieces from the Phoebe line by Basic Grey. In case you didn't know yet, Basic Grey has added scaled down versions their newer patterns to make 6 x 6 sheets perfect for card making! I bought the Phoebe 6 x 6 pad from Eclectic Paperie a while back and I have made a lot of cards with it...so worth it! The stamp is another one from Pollen Dust by Fancy Pants--I know I have used the set a lot lately...I just can't help it, the set is so versatile!!! I stamped right on the green patterned paper with Chocolate Chip ink. Now I just need to figure out who to send this card to. I am way behind on thanking people!

"Dutch Girl"

When I first saw the Dutch Girl paper line from Cosmo Cricket I knew that I had to have it! Not only do I love the colors and style of the line, but being a "Dutch girl" myself I had to represent. ;) To start, I cut a square out of the Sofie Dutch Girl paper. On top of the sqare I cut out a circle from the same piece of paper. I stamped a large flower in red, a smaller flower in blue (both stamps from Pollen Dust). I cut them out, put a black brad in the center and layered them on top of the "doily". The doily pattern worked perfectly for the large flower! Finished card 5 x 5.

Give Thanks

"In everything give thanks." It is easy to give thanks when things in life are going well. It is a lot harder to give thanks when you feel things in life are going rotten. When life is rotten it is so much easier to give a list of the things that have gone wrong. A couple of years ago I was miserable where I worked, but I had given a one year commitment to the place. I was so sick of complaining and crying about all the ways I hated the place so I came up with a list of things about the job that I was thankful for (#1 it paid my rent!). Each day I would try to come up with one thing that I was thankful for--it actually made my job just a little more bearable until I could quit.

I once heard a story (I tried to look it up, but I can't find it anywhere) about a girl that was in a concentration camp during WW II and in those awful circumstances found things to be thankful for. One example was that she was thankful for the gnats/fleas/lice that were all over them and their barracks (making life even more miserable) because they were so bad that the guards wouldn't go in the barracks; therefore, the guards didn't find the Bible she had and didn't know she was reading the Bible to the other ladies. Can you imagine being thankful for fleas and lice???
Giving thanks to God takes the focus off of us and gives it back. If we take the time to think about it God has given us so much. And most importantly He sent his son to die for our sins!
So what in life are you thankful for today?

Edited: Thanks to my SIL who let me know it was Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie that this story was about.__________________________________________________

stamps: Fancy Pants set "Pollen Dust." Verse is from Happy Harmony (Stampin' Up)
paper: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Basic Black
ink: Black, markers: Bashful Blue, Real Red, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
other: brad-SU!

True Beauty

I help lead the high school youth group at my church. It breaks my heart when high school girls receive the message that they aren't good enough, aren't pretty enough, aren't smart enough. Our society makes girls feel like they need to be gorgeously beautiful, wear the perfect clothes, have lots of friends, and have a "hot" boyfriend or there is something wrong with them. These are impossible goals to achieve and while girls might want these things, these things are NOT what is most important in life. Striving for only these things will leave a girl feeling empty--she will never feel beautiful enough or popular enough or smart enough.

This card is about beauty--and I am not talking about the kind of beauty that you can change by wearing makeup, getting your hair styled, having your eyebrows waxed, or even with plastic surgery...it is about inner beauty. The kind of beauty that shines through character traits such as kindness, gentleness, and patience.

So this card is dedicated to those high school girls in my group that are truly beautiful both inside and out--even though they don't always believe that.

Okay sorry to go off on my soapbox...here are card details...The stamps are from Pollen Dust (Fancy Pants) The swirl in the background is the huge swirl from the set. I love how it looks and can't wait to try it out in different ways on cards. The inks are VersaMagic chalk inks. I also used Chocolate Chip ink (Stampin' Up) to sponge on the edges of the Marigold paper. All Cardstock is by Stampin' Up (Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Morning Marigold). The half circle is from the SU! 1 3/8" circle punch.

Pretty Pollen Dust

It has been a long time since I have been in my stampin' groove, but this past weekend was SoCal Stamp Mania and hanging out with all of those talented ladies (there were over 100 of us!) put me in the creative stamping mood! Of course it didn't hurt that I got a new order from Eclectic Paperie and had to try out my new supplies. I had been eyeing the new Pollen Dust stamp set by Fancy Pants for a long time, well ever since I first saw it at CHA. I decided to take the plunge and get it--boy, I am not disappointed at all! Here is the first card I made with the set and a few of my other new supplies (versamagic chalk ink, stickles...) Keep in mind that I made this at 11:00 at night after I got home from a full day of stamping, giggling, eating, and chatting at Stamp Mania...



Stamps: Pollen Dust by Fancy Pants

Ink: Sea Breeze--Versa Magic

Paper: Cool Caribbean, Basic Black

other: stickles

Coming later this week:
1. Pics from Stamp Mania
2. My shoebox swap from Stamp Mania
3. More cards using Pollen Dust
4. And who knows what else...I am on top of blogging this week so stay tuned ;)