I've moved my blog

Hi everyone.  I wanted to do some different things with my blog, so I decided to bite the bullet and make a new one altogether.  I won't be doing any more updates here so if you want to keep following me, you'll need to move over!  Hopefully that won't be too much of a hassle!

Check out my new blog.  Watch for more postings!

http://creatingingodsimage.blogspot.com/

cards for soldiers

Yesterday I had 3 women over to make hand made cards for soldiers. Cindy and Robin had never made cards before but Karen and I are both long time addicts. I had 4 card designs that I pre-cut. The cards came out really nice and I think the soldiers will like them. combined with the cards I had before I am sending a packet of 25. I work with a group out of NH 'cards for soldiers.' They have a sponsor who supplies free envelopes and they support 3 troops overseas. The cards go over in bulk. They are blank on the inside so the soldiers can use them to send to their family members back home. I think it's a really sweet gesture and I've heard the soldiers really like these when they arrive. If you are interested in participating you can either send cards to me to be included in my shipment up there or go to her website by doing a google search on cards for soldiers and send them directly there. The next deadline is end of March for Mother's Day cards. Maybe I'll have another card making party for those!

Bloggers Challenge - Valentine

Okay, this is my last valentine for 2010. Just like Christmas by the time the holiday actually arrives, I'm ready to be done with card making with the color scheme. I can't wait to move on to pastels for Easter and Spring. But today we are still in reds & pinks! This card will go to my son. He was the only one I didn't have a card for already. This card uses two stamps from Poppy Stamp. I heard that Poppy Stamp is a division of memory box and the stamps are designed by Dave's kids. I just love dogs and thought these two were adorable. I also used the stampin up sale-a-bration house and teeny tiny wishes. The card stock is very vanilla and the valentines DSP on a real red card. I used colored pencils for the doggies and blended it with a paper stump (roll) and Sansador. Of course there are at least three shades of brown with darker spots on the edges to give the dogs life and dimension. Both Sansador and paper are inexpensive at A.C. Moore or other craft store. They sell them in the fine arts section. The Sansador is basically a low oder paint thinner. The paper stump is like a q-tip, cut in half and with the non-cotton end sharpened. Once you color the image with the pencils, you dip the paper stump in the Sansador and them rub it on the image to blend in and smooth out the color. It's a very easy and inexpensive way to bring a lot of different colors to your images. The ribbon is just a super cute red I found at a craft store at christmas time (and didn't use) and I just cut the snowbanks/hills and used dimensionals to have the top layer of the hill stick up and out. Thanks for looking. Oh and if you were on my blog yesterday, we are all very happy that Joey dog is back to normal - although on a bland diet just in case!

Memory Box - Birds in Tree's

Good morning everyone. The sun is shining, it's cold and I'm exhausted. I had a dog with a tummy ache last night and nobody slept. The sick dog had to sleep in the crate in my room and the healthy dog wanted to sleep on the bed. What a bed hog he was. Woke up to the sound of panting sick dog and luckily was able to get him outside in time. Poor baby. He is miserable. My neighbor and I wondered if that was an acceptable reason to not go to work and we both agreed, it wasn't. But anyway, on to my fun card. Last Saturday I went to a great stampin store in Acton MA - Ink about it. I got this fun new stamp from memory box and had fun playing with it this week. I attached a list of supplies I used. I see other bloggers do that and I find it helpful. So this card was done with Momento ink and copic markers. The momento ink works great with the markers and I got this cute little 'spot' for about $2.50. It's a nice way to get other colors (besides black) without a huge investment. I did the color scheme in green and brown (old olive and close to cocoa.) You can't really see it in the picture but on the owls face, I added some glue so the faces are shiny with a raised surface. The sentiment is one I found at another stamping store and it simply says 'blessings to you' making this a very versatile card. I can add a thank you sentiment, birthday - whatever - when it's time to mail it out. The trees have quite a bit of shading with all the different greens. It's time consuming but enjoyable. The technique is to start with the lightest color first and then add the darkest color and blend, blend, blend. I probably went over this image 3-4 times to get the color saturated and even.
Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sympathy Card

Well today I went to the wake of a woman I used to know. It was so sad. I made a very special sympathy card for her daughter Kimberly (16) but forgot to take a picture of it. So instead, I'll attach a picture of Renee. She was such a beautiful woman and I'm so sad that she is gone. I met her at church several years ago. I remember when she first came in. She confessed to me that she was really nervous to be in a church and I assured her that she belonged. She made friends quickly and easily and I remember what a beautiful day it was when she and her daughter were baptized together. Kimberly was probably a young teenager at the time. Renee and I would chat at church and catch up at different women's events. One time, I drove her down to Providence RI to see Beth Moore speak. I remember how moved she was by the message of hope and forgiveness that Beth so elegantly presented. My prayers are with Kimberly now. She seemed so heartbroken at the wake. It must be so hard for her. I know Kimberly has been living with her Dad in Florida since the start of the school year, but I was sad to see that her Dad didn't come with her to MA for the services. Kimberly said her dad couldn't afford for all of them to come so he sent just her and her step mom. Below is an excerpt from her obituary. I will miss her.

Renee' (Rotondo) Silva, 48, of Worcester, died unexpectedly Monday, February 1, 2010. She leaves her daughter, Kimberly Silva of West Palm Beach, FL; two brothers: John Rotondo of Summerville and Jimmy Shaprio Jr. of Florida; three sisters: Mary Rotondo of Dedham, Audrey Rotondo of Dedham and Melina Shaprio of Milford; her companion, Rick Lapierre of Worcester; many nieces, nephews and countless friends. She also leaves her dog, Maggie. Her mother, Ethel (Rotondo) Lavey predeceased her. Renee' enlisted in the United States Army to serve her country during the 1982 Lebanon War.

Renee' was born on August 16, 1961 in Boston and graduated from Dedham High School. She attended Stonehill College, and received her certification in Holistic and Therapeutic Massage from the Spatech Institute. Renee' owned and operated Vivere Massage in Northborough. Renee' enjoyed going out on the boat, being outdoors and watching movies. Renee' was very involved in her church, and was proud to love her God. She helped others with fundraisers and had a heart of gold, always putting others before herself.

Not quite a thank you card - but close

So today's post is a card that started out as a thank you card, but then eventually changed to a 'you are great card.' My husband asked innocently last week 'do you have any thank you cards around?' He should know better. Of course I have some thank you cards, but more importantly is this an ocassion where I can custom make a card for someone? So he described the situation. Rick Mansfield was our caring connector at our church for several years. He's a great guy and is now moving on to a new job. Bob worked with Rick most often in the 'moving men' ministry. Rick would coordinate a bunch of guys to assist either a single women or elderly family with a local move. Bob has spent many a Saturday with Rick and some other guys in church moving people from one place to another. So when Rick was moving on, a thank you card didn't see appropriate - but an acknowledgement card was more in order. So Voila! My 'impressed, amazed, inspired' sentiment was perfect. I had just gone to Ink about it - a stamping store in MA that morning and was itchy to try out my new memory box stamp. The greens were so fun to work with in the dull-grey winter. I love the bright green of the papertrey 'everyday blessing' paper. The ribbon is from amuse. The white card stock is papertrey, the green cardstock is stampin up and the sentiment ink is kiwi kiss (stampin up retired color.) The trees are colored in with copic markers. The lightest and brightest of the colors is YG23 - a really fun - yellow - green that almost glows. It's not very masculine, but it's not awfully feminine either. I hope he likes it.

Bloggers Challenge - Red/White/Black - wild aobut you card

This card is for Lisa's bloggers challenge. I had a bunch of heart valentines, but I got inspired to pull out an old retired set 'wild about you' that is a favorite for this one.
This card uses the stampin up valentines DSP, real red card stock, real red ink and the sale-a-bration punch. I also added a red stamped off heart from 'you and moi' and a thin black velvet ribbon from a retired ribbon pack from stampin up. The giraffe has white pearls for his spots and the lion has his mane cut out and glued on with dimensions. Enjoy and thanks for looking!

Golf Cards - Back Nine

So, I have a lot of golfers in my life right now. And they all have occassions that require cards! So I just had to get the retired stampin up set 'back nine.' I saw this in the catalog years ago but always figured I'd get it with my next order. Well it retired and it didn't make it on my last order, so off to ebay I went. For the last 6 months I've looked for it but it's always been over $25.00. Too expensive for me, but then just after christmas (when I was the only one on ebay) I bid on it and won it for $12.00. Good deal. So I made a retirement card and a young man's birthday card with it. The baja breeze worked well with it and I used some retired DSP as well. The other color is Sahara Sand. The image was a pain to work with since it was so big and the sahara sand color was a little light. But after several attempts and a lot of inking, I finally got a few images I could use. Note: The one card has the focus on the man golfer and the other image has the focus on the female golfer. Isn't that neat how versatile this stamp set is???

Valentine cards for cookie sunday

My church does a really sweet thing each year. They send a shoebox full of homemade cookies and goodies to all the college students and military serving overseas who are part of the church congregation. Every year I bake a few dozen cookies and lately I've also been including a home made valentine for each person. They have over 60 names. I have my work cut out for me. This is more cards than I make for Christmas!!!

I used stampin up hugs and when I ran out of those I just cut some cards and added a little scallop edge to one side. I have glassine envelopes for them. I think they will be cute. The kids can either re-gift them or enjoy them.

I made a few designs, but everyone in my family loved the oval cut out of 'love you much' the best. I whipped up the love you much bird without much thought and it's already had over 100 hits on split coast stampers. Funny how you can sometimes get your best cards when you run out of materials for the original!!! Which is your favorite?

Caroline's valentine card

Don't you just love getting a handmade card in the mail??!! I do! My cousin Caroline just started stamping and she sent me this card last week. Isn't it cute! I love the inside. It's hard to see in the photo, but she made punch out hearts attached to clear strips that are adhered to the center. They are like heart fingers all wiggling around when you open it. Great Card. Love it.