Galaxy Background

I recently needed to make a galaxy background for a group I'm in.  I love making these backgrounds, so I made a few extra. I'm glad I did...this is the cute card I made using the Half Pint Heroes stamp set illustrated by Claire Brennan and sold by Gina K. Designs.

The inside of the card says, "love you to the moon and back."

This card went in the bag of cards that went to Ronald McDonald House of Central Florida - Nemours.

With Sympathy...

Good morning, friends. Still waiting for cooler weather.

Nobody likes to have to send sympathy cards, but occasionally it's necessary.  I found myself in that position this week.  A friend from a card swapping group I'm in lost her husband, and so I found myself having to make a sympathy card.  Since this card is going overseas, I didn't want a lot of bulk.

I grabbed some spray inks and spritzed white cardstock.  Then, when dry, I ran it through an embossing folder.  I liked the texture it gave.  I added some silver pen highlights to some of the embossed flower centers.

Next I got out some Stampin Up!™ flower stamps (Flower Shop #130942 and Petite Petals - retired) and stamped them in a light blue on white cardstock, punched them out and adhered together.  Added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in the center. 

I needed some leaves, so I got out my Gina K. Designs Stitched Leaves stamps, and die cut and stamped the leaved. 

The With Sympathy stamp is also Gina K. Designs, but I can't find the name of it, so it may be discontinued.  There is a beautiful sentiment for the inside that goes along with it.

Happy with the results, but sad for the circumstances.

Inky hugs,

Love from Ronald McDonald House

I received the nicest note from the director at Ronald McDonald House at Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando.

They won't have long to wait....I have over 100 cards I have made to send them the end of October when my granddaughter goes for a checkup.  

Another Orange, Rust and Gold Card

Love these fall colors.  Here's another one.

This one uses a stamp from the Stitched Leaves mini kit by Gina K. Designs, along with the "you" die.  The "did it" is from an unknown stamp. Lots of gold shimmer on the leaf and die.

Orange, Rust and Gold...

Orange, Rust, and gold are the colors of fall, but not in Florida.

However, I made an autumn card using those colors.

The daisy stamp is from Stampin Up and the sentiment is unknown.

This is the first time posting from my phone, so I apologize if it doesn't turn out right.

Becky

Half Pint Heroes and Heroines

Hello, and welcome to my blog.  Lots happening since last I posted, so I'll get right to it.

Last time I posted we were waiting on Hurricane Irma.  She was supposed to be a Category 5 hurricane when she hit the east coast of Florida.  We prepared (mostly I prepared, hubby is incapacitated), and decided since we have cats and chickens that we would ride out the storm at home.  I could probably find a hotel that took cats, but I don't think they would like my chickens (I only have 2). Irma lost a little steam and moved a little further to the west before she came roaring up through the state.  We were very lucky. Very lucky.  For the very first time during a hurricane we didn't lose power, during or after, and had little yard waste to pick up.  No damage to our house, so we got off very easy, unlike a lot of folks, who had major damage.  I can't remember a hurricane covering as large an area as Irma did. She impacted all but 3 counties of Florida, and they were in the Panhandle.  Some people in our county still don't have power.

Took hubby to an orthopedic doctor this morning, and his ankle has a fracture, so he's wearing a boot. I wish the insurance company would have sent him to this doctor in the first place, instead of letting him walk around with a fractured ankle for a month.  The kind of fracture he has didn't show up on an x-ray, but it showed on the MRI.  He has to go for a CT scan to see if the fracture is healing, and then physical therapy for the sprained ankle.

And Emilie, my granddaughter, seems to be on the road to recovery with her platelet count.  They are now over 100,000, so we are all pleased.

And now we come to the reason for my post.  When Emilie was at Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, FL, her parents stayed at Ronald McDonald House.  They were so impressed with the staff there, and so I wanted to do something for them.  Since I love to make cards, I figured that would be a great solution, and I called the Ronald McDonald House there and asked if it would be okay for me to do that.  They said "Yes!"  It would be great for their guests to have handmade greeting cards to use.  So I got busy and whipped up some Thinking of You, Thank You, Birthday Cards, etc.  But I didn't have many children stamps.  Time to go shopping.

I looked at many stamp sets, and decided on the Half Pint Heroes and Half Pint Heroines, designed by Claire Brennan and sold by Gina K Designs.  These stamps fit the bill exactly.  The 2 sets are interchangeable, so I get more bang for my buck.  And they are adorable.

You can use either the girl heads or the boy heads for the car, which is in the heroes set.

Again, you could have the boy riding the elephant.

The fish and turtle are from a Stampendous set, and the sea grass, shells and coral are dies.

Love this elephant.

This is the only stamp in the set that isn't interchangeable.

I die cut a circle and sponged gray ink in spots to recreate the moon.

So far I sent 25 cards the first time, and my daughter will be delivering 35 more cards to them on October 8th.  I have had so much fun using these stamps, and for such a good cause.  I plan on adding to that total before the 8th.  These cards are mostly encouragement for the kids.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I have created. They are simple, with simple coloring, but I think the kids will enjoy them.

See you again soon.  Unless Hurricane Maria comes to town.  :-)

Beachy Little Christmas

Where has the time gone?  I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month.  However, it has been a busy time for me, so that's the excuse I will use.

The new Stampin' Up!™ Holiday Catalog is here.  And one of my favorite stamp sets is the Beachy Little Christmas set.  This set comes with wood blocks OR photopolymer.  It's an adorable set, and living in Florida, very appropriate.  Here are a few cards I made with this set.

First up is this cute beach hut with surfboard.  I like the little wreath.  

Next up is the Christmas tree with seashell ornaments in a polkadot bucket.  The pink and kraft look great together for a non-traditional colored Christmas card.

And last, but certainly not least, the palm tree with Christmas lights.  I had a slight booboo, but fixed it by stamping Merry (from a different set) over it.  Now you can't even tell.  :-)

The insides say "Who needs snowflakes when you have seashells?", and "Have yourself a beachy little Christmas".

You could pair the palm tree with the beach hut, also.  A fun set, for sure.  The background paper was some I've had in my stash for awhile, but it works.

Why have I been busy, you might ask?

My hubby hurt his foot at work and tried to keep working, which made the injury worse, so I have had to be his feet while he's been laid up.  I keep telling him that when he's better I'm sitting down for 2 weeks and not getting up.

Also, my youngest granddaughter, who just started high school, had a rash that appeared her 4th day of school. When my daughter looked at it, she decided to take her to the Emergency Room. They did some blood work and determined that she had 0 platelets (a normal person has between 140,000 and 450,000 platelets per microliter of circulating blood. She had zero. Zip. Zilch.  Nada.   So they put her in an ambulance and took her about 150 miles away to Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, where she spent a week trying to get some platelets.  Her diagnosis, after ruling out leukemia, cancer, lupus, and other nasties, is ITP - Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.  They sent her home with 105,000 platelets, but after a week home she was down to 65,000.

And now....drumroll, please....we are waiting for Hurricane Irma.  She's not going to be nice.  If you could say a little prayer for us Floridians, we surely would appreciate it.

Hope to see you again soon.....

Stamp-N-Storage Private Sale

Don't forget to take advantage of this fantastic sale.  I have their inkpad storage and love it!  My inkpads fit beautifully, and I can see at a glance what I have.  Stamp-N-Storage is not advertising this sale, so you won't find it on their website.

You will need the Coupon Code to receive your 15% off.  But hurry!  Sale only lasts until July 31, 2017.

Cards for Little Hearts Card Drive

Although I was unable to participate in the Blog Hop due to other obligations, I still want to share information about this wonderful event.

The purpose of Cards for Little Hearts is to collect handmade cards for the Heart Center staff at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to distribute to children with congenital heart disease and to help lift their spirits while they are hospitalized and need major heart surgery or are having a particularly tough time.

The current 2017 card drive runs from July 1st - August 25th with Winter Wishes or Holiday Wishes cards collection.  And there are sponsors and prizes.

You can find all the information you need about the the guidelines and packaging your cards on Christina's blog at http://www.christinahordesigns.com.

You can contact Christina at info@christinahordesigns.com for any questions you may have regarding the card drive.

Here are the cards I made for the drive:

Dearie Dolls digital image

Dearie Dolls digital image

Dearie Dolls digital image

Dearie Dolls digital image

Stamps from Gina K Designs

I used the Stampin' Up owl punch to make these cute penguins.

Sparkle N Sprinkle stamp and die cut trees

Gina K Designs stamps

Some used digital images and some were stamped, but all were handmade with love. I will be mailing these to Christina at   CHRISTINA HOR, P.O. Box 517, Dublin, Ohio 43017  U.S.A.

Won't you make some cards to share?

Candy from Paris

Good morning!  Hope ya'll are good.  It's hot as blazes here in Florida.  I can't wait for winter! Hahaha.  Jokes on me...winter doesn't get here until probably October, when the weather cools down a tad.  These hot, hot days just drain the energy right out of me.

Recently my niece and her husband went to Paris to visit.  While she was there, she brought me a cute little notebook from the Louvre, and also some chocolate.  Some from Paris and some from Ireland. I hoarded that chocolate and ate it a tiny square at a time.  And honestly, I couldn't tell you which was better.  One was milk chocolate and the other dark chocolate, but both were scrumptious.

The wrapper on the Parisienne chocolate was so pretty that I couldn't bear to throw it away. So I made her a thank you card with it.

My phone didn't do the picture justice. There are little bits of glitter on the wrapper.  Where the "weight" of the chocolate was, I cut a tiny piece of cardstock and stenciled in the year.

You can see the sparkly bits a little better in this photo.  There was a tiny butterfly on the back of the wrapper, so I cut it out and popped it up for added dimension.

Here is a closer picture of the year that I put over the weight area.  For the inside, I used the gold wrapper that the chocolate was actually wrapped in, die cut the "thank you" sentiment several times and glued them together to make it raised.  I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the card before I gave it to her.  Sorry.

She loved the card and will keep it with her other mementos of her trip.

Another colorful card.

Here is another colorful card I made for the Mod Squad Challenge.  I hope you like it.

This card uses Stampin' Up! set Blooms and Wishes (#141784) and multiple colors of  colorful dye inks.  I forgot to write down the colors I used, but any bright, colorful inks would do.  It's so bright and cheerful and it makes me happy.  :-)

Thanks for looking,

Life Is A Beautiful Thing.

I wanted to make a colorful card so I could join the Mod Squad Challenge this week.  I think I've succeeded, what do you think?

Here is the card I made:

The background paper is some DSP from Stampin' Up, which I colored with Spectrum Noir markers. I added a little glossy accents to the bees wings (he's peeking out from under the butterfly).  I stamped the sentiment, also from Stampin' Up, onto vellum with black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The butterfly is a Cheery Lynn Designs die, which has been cut and then glittered.  A few sequins and I was done. And happy.

Thanks for looking,

Edited:  6/28/17 - I won the Mod Squad Challenge with this card!  So excited!

Free Copy of Rubber Stamp Madness

My favorite stamping magazine is Rubber Stamp Madness.  If you hurry, you can get a free copy of the current issue.  Here's how:

To receive a free copy of RubberStampMadness's Summer issue, send an email to rsm@rsmadness.com and mention this blogsite. The first 100 responders will receive a copy. 

Here's information about the issue: ATCs are the main focus, with six-pages inside, an ATC-filled cover. Down on the Farm stamp art incorporates cows, chickens, barns and over-sized potatoes in pastoral scenes. Judy and Bobby Duke of B & J's Art Stamps share the story of their home-grown business and samples of Judy's fabulous artwork. A how-to feature explains steps for making Simple "Step Cards," perfect for sharing through the mail. Three terrific tags are showcased in The Tag Shoppe. An album of "Not-Feeling-So-Blue" artwork and more are in this issue. 

Be back soon with a card to share.

Get Well Card Using Transfer Gel

Good afternoon!

We finally got some rain. Yay! We have really needed it, and so I'm happy that it finally rained here.  Now we should have a nice weekend ahead of us.

I wanted to share a card with you today that I made for a friend.  She had surgery, and is on the mend, so I made her this little card to cheer her up.

First I used a Tim Holtz stencil on a piece of 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 white cardstock, and applied green ink. After I removed the stencil, I sponged Lemon Lime Twist (Stampin' Up new In Color color) all over the cardstock.  Then I reapplied the stencil over where I had sponged the original green and applied a thin coat of ThermoWeb Transfer Gel.  I let it almost dry and then sprinkled some Gina K Prismatic glitter over it.  The gel grabs the glitter and keeps it firmly attached to the card.  But it needs a little bit to dry, so I went on to making the flowers.  I think a nice variegated purple would look nice with the green vines.

To start off, I used some Distress Oxide Inks on another sheet of white cardstock in a variety of colors to get a variegated look.  I applied them to an acrylic block, spritzed them with water, and smooched them onto the cardstock.  I let them dry between colors.  When I was happy with the results, I stamped little flowers (Petite Petals Stampin' Up # 133155) and punched them out (Stampin' Up #133322).  I pushed down on the flower centers with my pencil to give them a little texture.  I adhered them to my background panel.  Now they need centers, so I used Nuvo Crystal drops to give them a center, and let dry.  By the way, the Petite Petals and the Punch are both on the retiring list, so if you like them and want them, you need to order by May 31st.  You can order at www.beckypartan.stampinup.net.

I adhered the background panel to a dark green cardstock, stamped "Get Well Soon" on the inside and it's done.

By letting the transfer gel amost dry before applying the glitter, it didn't get overwhelmed by the glitter.  You can see from the picture that it's got some glittery shine, but not a lot.  I could have left the glitter off, and when the transfer gel dried it would have just been shiny, but not glittery.

Anyway, I'm happy with the card, and I'm pretty sure my friend will like it, too.

Inky hugs,

Hero Arts Koi Fish

Good afternoon!  Summertime is already in full swing here in Florida, and it's HOT - HOT - HOT. Just time for a quickie post, so, today I want to share with you the Hero Arts Koi Fish stamp set.

 I started off with a watercolored background.  I ran it through a Hexagons Dynamic Embossing Folder by Stampin' Up!  Look at the texture in this background.

I stamped the fish from Hero Arts (it's 3 step stamping and very cool) and the lily pads and flowers and cut them out. You can see the variations of inks on the koi below.  Adhered them to the background with a liquid adhesive.

And below is the completed card.  I love the textures and colors.

I loved working with this set from Hero Arts.  I also have their 3-step poppy stamps and love them also.

Hope you have enjoyed.  Have a great weekend.