A Star is Born

I originally came up with this card design when I was making a card for one of my nephews. I don't have very many stamps that are for boys, so I have to improvise. When I make this card for a girl I add glitter to the stars and Crystal Lacquer to the balloons.
For this boy version I only added Stickles to the candles to make them look like they were glowing.

Supplies:

Stamps: Happy Birthday - JRL Designs (The company that is now CTMH)

Papers: Sizzix Little Sizzles

Inks: Black StazON ink pad, Tombow markers

Accessories: Crystal Stickles, Sizzix Primitive Stars Die

Blessings

• A beautiful day to take the dogs outside to play for awhile. Sunny and breezy with a deep blue sky.
• All the rain we had this summer. Everything looks so healthy and green and has grown so much.
• Birds and butterflies. Both were there for me to enjoy when I was outside today.

Have a marvelous day!

Inky hugs!

Shelly

Christmas is Coming!!!

I don't get too into making my Christmas cards until about November - usually well into November. :) But I have managed to make a few here and there. I love this Layered Star stamp from My Paper Moon. It's so versatile. It can be used to form many different designs and layers and is great for so many occasions. It even makes a pretty 4th of July card if you use appropriate paper. You can view it at here at the My Paper Moon site and see four samples of other ways to use the stamp. Scroll down to the last stamp. Here's a close up view to show you the detail in the star. I only used three layers on this star, but sometimes use 5 or more. I used the micca card stocks to help showcase my super sparkly silver embossing powder on the star. I also used my Scor Pal to add a few details. I finished the center of the star off with a small gemstone.

Supplies:

Stamps: Layered Star, Peace - both from My Paper Moon
Accessories: Silver Tinsel Embossing Powder, Stamp Cabana Silver Detail Embossing Powder, Scor Pal, Gem Sone

Blessings

• A nice phone visit with my dad for his birthday today. :)
• Happy Mail!
• My daughter's tender heart. She does such sweet things for us.

Have a terrific day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

Born Free

It's wonderful to be back! The jury is still out on whether or not my neck surgery was a success. I'm still in quite a bit of pain. We're giving it time to see if it needs to heal more or if they will need to go back and tweak things a bit. Meanwhile I'm very limited with what I can do with stamping. I've managed to color a total of 8 images since my surgery on August 20th. Just call me speedy. :)



This is a card that I made before my surgery. The beautiful horse image makes me think of the song "Born Free". The background is done using the Crinkled Chalk technique. You can find the instructions here. I used dye inks, which don't give quite as vivid of a background, but they're what I had in the colors I needed. The stitching at the bottom is faux stitching.



Supplies:

Stamps: Three Graces - Coronado Island Stamps
Paper: Handmade paper - Provo Craft
Ink: Archival Ink Sepia; Adirondack Caramel and Butterscotch; gel pen
Accessories: Eyelets

Blessings

• The outpouring of love and caring from my family and friends since my surgery.
• Our friend, Lloyd, was able to go home on Friday!!! It was one week short of 3 months after his accident. Please continue to pray for him as he continues to attend out patient physical, occupational and speech therapies.
• Mark purchased $106 worth of groceries for $2!!! He is amazing with his ability to find good deals.
• Mark's faithfulness in caring for me and showing me such true love through all of the physical problems I've had.

Have a fabulous day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

I'll be back

I'll be away for awhile, but I will be back as soon as I can. I'm having surgery tomorrow. I'm not sure how soon I'll feel up to creating cards and blogging.  I'm not very creative when I'm feeling bad. :)

This was an easy card to make, but I liked how it turned out. It has a much prettier shimmer to it in person. I ran a piece of blue card stock through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder & trimmed around the embossed piece. Then I used a sponge to highlight the card stock with blue Brilliance ink. Next I add some green Brilliance ink. I added several layers and used my SU Ticket Corner Punch on the last layer. The finishing touch was some Bella Baubles in the four corners.
Maybe this close up view will show the shimmer better if you enlarge it.

It has been simply ages since I have remembered to show you my monthly calendar pages made by my friend, Martha. So this month I'm showing you August and..............

July! The July page has glitter in the stars that doesn't show well in the picture. There is a sheet for each month that fits in a magnetic acrylic frame that is approx. 3 1/2" x 5 1/2". I just love this calendar. It's fun to look forward to the surprise of a new handmade page every month.
Martha is so creative. She comes up with all sorts of wonderful themes.

Blessings

• Simple joys like my monthly calendar I showed today.
• Our friend, Lloyd, is walking on the parallel bars!!!
• Caring family and friends at times like this when I face a medical problem.

Have a marvelous day!!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

A Well Used Card

I'm definitely getting my mileage out of today's card. I made it for Flutterby Challenge #70 at Danni's Dreams, a Spread Your Wings Challenge on a Yahoo group I belong to and a Winged Swap on another group.

I'm hoping that in this close up view you can see the shimmer around the edges of the butterflies' wings where I used my clear Stardust pen. The card stocks are both shimmery too. I ran the lavender layer through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. I colored the images with Prismacolor pencils and oms. The spatter is made with thinned down silver acrylic paint and a toothbrush. I added tiny crystals to the butterfly bodies and crystal brads in the card corners for finishing touches. I don't know who the makes the stamp. I received it in a trade.

Blessings

• Mark brought me the 1st & so far only Black Eyed Susan from his wild flower bed, because he knows I love them. :)
• Lloyd is doing very well at rehab. He's improving each day.
• Lydia has alot of dog sitting work lately.

Have a wonderful day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Tea Anyone?

I wish I owned the stamp of this darling cat offering a cup of morning tea. It is so sweet. I received the image from a friend, so I don't even know who makes the stamp. I colored the image with my faithful old Tombow markers. I highlighted the "steam" from the tea with a clear Stardust pen and I put a few touches of glitter on the flowers.
Blessings

• A long phone visit with my mom :)
• Beautiful butterflies by the elephant ear plants every day when I open the blinds
• Lydia is doing very well with her college courses
  

Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Pretty in Pink

This is another card that I made with a stamp that I won in blog candy from Danni's Dreams. I also won the Bella Baubles in the blog candy. The stamp is Cathrine with Butterfly from the Anki's Sweetheart's Series 1. This is an exclusive line designed for Susana's Custom Art & Card Design.



Isn't Cathrine a pretty image? I used Prismacolor pencils to color the image. The background is made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.
Blessings
Safety in a bad storm

Happy Mail

God's word to guide my life
Please continue to pray for our friend, Lloyd. He had to be moved from the nursing home back to the hospital. They believe he has pneumonia. They're running tests to be sure.

Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly