Marvelous Possibilities

Working on another card for Mothers Day, but decided to leave this one a little more generic so it could be used for other occasions, too.  I gave this card lots of "love" and attention with a bouquet hand-stamped from Stippled Blossoms, and hand-cut before I arranged them on the oval frame.  The embossed brocade background, along with the roses reminded me of the wallpaper in the house I lived in as a child.  We rented the house for about 10 years, and my mother hated the pink roses in the wallpaper that she could not change.  She could paint all around them, but she was still stuck with those big pink roses.  The layout I found from CAS - Colour and Sketch Challenge  #22, and the colors are from Color Throwdown #239 , the Addicted to CAS challenge #11  was to use "flowers", and the SUO challenge #69  was for "anything Sizzix", and I used my Big Shot for embossing and cutting the ovals.  I can hardly wait to head for the flower market and get

 Last weekend we had our Spring Fling Event, and I was assigned to make the name tags for everyone.  I wanted to use one of the flags from the banner that we made at the event for my inspiration.  It had a butterfly and a doily at the top, and that's where the idea sprouted from.  I used a stamp from Days of Gratitude that is one of my favorite stamps.  I am very sorry to see that it is being retired.  I stamped it off the edge to mimic the doily folded on top of our banner.  The butterflies were cut on the Big Shot, and then embossed with the Brocade EF.  I added a saying from Trust God stamp set that says "Each one of us is God's special work of art."  I stamped the curly frame from Four Frames stamp set on white paper which I had printed up the guest list on, carefully framing and punching out each one.  I attached the nametags with glue dots, so they could remove the name tag and reuse the little banner for a scrapbook or card embellishment.  I was so tickl

Spring is finally here, and my cards I made the past few days have really reflected it, with all the flowers and bright spring colors.  I have a craft sale coming up next weekend, and I wanted to make some Mothers Day cards.  I came up with this one late last night, and I am really pleased with how nice it turned out.  I used the Mixed Bunch stamp set, with the matching blossom punch, which is so quick and easy.  The paper comes from Berry Blossoms DSP (retired), and then I crimped a piece of Lucky Limeade CS down the side.    I love the mix of textures with the dotted embossed background. The "mother" comes from Amazing Family stamp set. I got the idea for the layout from Fab Friday's Challenge  17, and the idea for crimping came from Little Red Wagon Challenge  #182 to "Crimp My Style" this week.  The Pink Elephant Challenge  196 was to "Lift It", and I got my inspiration from a card made by Yvette Ashe (I was unable to find the original p

I had a little time during naptime today to get in the craft room and make a card.  I could not wait to get my new stamp set, Clockworks, inked up and ready to create.  I used the Layout from Stampin' Celebration and the colors from Create with Connie and Mary's Challenge to use Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, and Summer Starfruit.  I had to dig into my Be Of Good Cheer DSP to find the right green paper, and these polka dots are so manly looking. :D CAS-ual Friday is having a Birthday Bash so I will share my card there.  I came up with the time to do another card for them.  How come when you buy a new stamp set you never have the right size punches to go with it?  I have so many circle punches, but not quite the right size for all the circles in this set.  I should have known! Hope you have time to do some creating yourself today. Mary Alice  

Spring Fling that we held last Saturday was a super success, and everybody is still talking about it.  Kay Kalthoff was the super-duper organizer, and we can't give her enough applause for the wonderful work she did on this event.  She put in so much work herself with the preparation for this big event, with 47 people in attendance.  This is the first time she has done a large event like this, and obviously she had help and encouragement from her wonderful, helpful committee, and all of the demonstrators in in downline and adopted downline group.  She has already set a date for the Fall Flair event, October 5, 2013, so mark your calendars, and plan to attend.  Now that we have done one large event, we will know how to make the next one even better (if it can possibly be any better).  I wanted to share a couple photos that I got from Kay's blog so that you could see Kay and I stringing up the banner that we made for the event, the great space that we had for the event, and al

I am still looking for signs of spring around here, but it just does not seem like I will ever find it.  We have more snow in the forecast tomorrow.   We had a lovely day yesterday, with the sun out most of the time, and mild temperature, it almost felt spring like.  We had our Spring Fling stamping and scrapbooking event, that went off without a hitch.  I rushed through getting as many projects done as I could in the morning before I had to leave for my niece's wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding, and we all had such a fun day.  I wish Lizzie and Patrick all the best, and many years to be happy.  Liz and Pat met on a hurling team That brings me to my card today.  This is a card that I made for our demonstrator's swap last month, and did not get a chance to share with you.  Isn't it adorable.  I used my blossom punch, and punched out the centers.  I embossed the flowers, then stamped the bees from Collage Curios on the center pieces and punched them with my small

 With just a little time left to work on cards this week, I just had to do one more.  A new shipment arrived at my door today with a new stamp set, Clockworks.  I really thought this would be fun to use for making some masculine cards.  I really thought that it could be used for many occasions, but I realize now that I don't have any of the right salutations for the front of my card for those occasions.  I kept thinking of things like I'd use this for an anniversary, for a "long time friend", graduation or retirement.  I have no stamps for those occasions.  This is the time that I wish I had MDS, so I could print up some of the things like that.  Well, I can always print it on my computer, but that just does not seem right, when  you're stamping a card.  I played around with the colors from the Nacho Average Challenge #42 to use Midnight Muse, Old Olive, and Soft Suede.  Just right for this card.  I used the layout from the Techno Stampers Challenge 259 ,

Today is our big Spring Fling event, and this is a project that we will be making there today.  My SU upline, Kay Kalthoff, asked me if I could make a banner for the Spring Fling that was something like the one that Shelli Gardner made at Leadership Conference.  I went looking for photos online, and found them, so that I could see the original.  Kay loaned me some of the stamps that she had, and I used some things that I had, too, and I came up with this creation.  I passed it along to Kay, and she tweaked it so that it would be a do-able creation for our event today. So, this is her version that we will be making.  We used lots of fun products and stamps and techniques, and I hope that everyone enjoys making one for themselves.  You can hang it where you enjoy working on your crafts, or in your office, or wherever you choose to be creative in your life.  One of the demonstrators in our group suggested that the banner pieces would make great embellishments in a scrapbook, so there

      This may be a first for me, I used just one color for my card, Midnight Muse.  Does it count if I used Very Vanilla for the card, and Whisper White for the stamped area, because they are my neutrals?  The SUO Challenge 68 was to "stick to one color", and for me that was a challenge.  I do think the simplicity of the Lovely as a Tree stamp set is the simple images, but I always want to elaborate with a colored sky or ground, or something.  I used a new stamp set called Amazing Family for the greeting inside and out.   I really LOVE how this turned out, and I cannot wait to make some more.  I really hope to add another card to the challenge with a one color theme.  Stop back later, and see if I can do it.  It's kind of like a Lay's potato chip, nobody can eat just one.  I don't know if I can stick to one color again.  Mary Alice

I really wish that spring would arrive here in Minnesota.  We have rain, mixed with snow, and Tornado warnings today.  Is that crazy or what?  I just keep looking out the window, and wondering if my lilacs will bloom this year.  Last year we got a freeze just as they were blossoming, and all the buds and blossoms died on all the trees.  I have seen ice on the branches so many times this week, I just don't know if the buds will survive again this year.  I always have looked forward to the lilacs blooming for my birthday in mid-May.  Oh, well, I least I have plenty of blossoms in my stamp room.  I have been so busy making cards this week for my display board.  We are having a big event this weekend, our Spring Fling, with our upline, Kay Kalthoff, and the demonstrators in our group, along with their customers.  This is the first big stamp camp we have had, and we will have 47 people in attendance.  We have card making and scrapbooking projects that are to die for.  I can't

I have to g ive with a big shout-out to Unscripted Sketches Challenge  #206 Blog, because it's their 4th Blog-iversary, and they had a very unusual challenge this week.  They wanted birthday cards, and to use the number 4 on the card.  I knew first of all that I had the cute little birthday salutation from Bring on the Cake stamp set with all these numbers in a cluster, and I love coloring in the number for the age of the birthday boy or girl.  I decided that I wanted to use the idea from a card I cased with the stack of four elephants, bringing in a group of four also.  This cute little elephant is from a stamp set called Patterned Occasions from this spring's SaleA bration sets.  All the little elephants remind me of an old song called Baby Elephant Walk  (click to see it here), which was an instrumental by Henry Mancini, and it was from the score for a movie called Hatari, starring John Wayne. (We had the soundtrack album with the music, which we enjoyed so much.)   I

I am back again with another card from Blooming with Kindness stamps.  I just had to make another one of the bold blossoms.  I combined it with some Comfort Café DSP, and used Cherry Cobbler for the blossom, and came out with a card that reminds me of my kitchen back in the 70's.  This time I kept the birthday greetings inside the card, because I thought I had a bit much going on for the front of the card.  I had seen the layout for the challenge at Friday Mashup , and they called for a birthday card for the "mashup", and I think this hits both.  It was a simple card to do, but makes a bold statement.  Hope you all like it. Mary Alice

  I was so excited to see the sun today, melting away some of the snow.  Actually, it's most of the snow.  I kept worrying about all those cold little robins outside in my yard.  So, in celebration, I made a card for the robins.  I used the color inspiration from Stampin' Celebration !m and the layout from Create with Connie and Mary sketch challenge #247 .  I used Betsy's Blossoms stamp set, and a greeting from Friendly Phrases.  It was a quick and easy card, and I hope you all like it.    Mary Alice  

I love this stamp set Blooming with Kindness, and I just have not had the opportunity to play with it much.  I have all kinds of ideas, but never seem to get around to making them.  I wanted to make a card for somebody that needs a little hope in their life, and today just seemed like that kind of day.  After the bombing in Boston yesterday, I really seemed to dwell on the fact that what was supposed to be an exciting, fun, joyful day for so many people in Boston to run the marathon, or to cheer on the runners, and it took such a terrible turn.  It is so sad, and my heart goes out to all of the people in Boston, and those who were there for vacations that took such a sad turn.    So, my card today is a card of Hope.  One with bright spring colors to cheer somebody up.  It's peaceful, yet vibrant, and it made me feel good just to make it.  I used the beautiful color palette suggested by the Play Date Cafe's inspirational photos.  I used the layout from the Paper Craft