Love makes the world go 'round.....

Good morning! Here is a card that I made quite awhile ago, but never posted. Just a colorful fun little card with whirly-gigs (is that what they still call them?). The cling stamp set is by Stampendous. I popped off the center one to give it some dimension. Not an award-winner, but cute, eh?

How about this: "Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love makes the ride worthwhile." That is by F. P. James.

An additional note to yesterday's post regarding "make it & mail it". I said that we all have cards we've made that we never mail. I wanted to be sure you know about a program called Operation Write Home. It provides hand-made cards to our troops so that they have something special to send to their families. I send a big batch of cards to them every year - some are cards I have made and just never sent, plus I make a batch of cards specifically for this program. It is so great. While I do not support the war(s), I do support the troops and this is a nice way to share the love and appreciation. Check it out and support them; it is a lovely cause. After all, there are no Hallmark stores in Afghanistan.

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend. We will be in the Napa wine country.....fun!

Masculine Make It & Mail It

When I saw dear Lisa Spangler's challenge on her blog I had to play along. She is so right; how many of our masterpieces never get mailed to share a smile? Too many! So, I kept this nice and flat so it could be easily mailed.

My uncle loves hippos (remember this one?), so I made this for him using Hero Arts CL155 and some guy-friendly papers. I also submitted this to Hero Arts monthly challenge for masculine cards.

This will make Uncle Norman smile for sure!

Photographer Card

Photographer Card, a photo by mkmermaid (Maureen) on Flickr.

We have a photographer in the family who had a birthday, so I decided to make this vintage-style card with an antique camera cut-out from my stash. The inside says "bring on the cake", Hero Arts CL371. Several layers and lots of Distress Inks. The label is cut with Nestibilities, the buttons and twine are from my stash.

Smile for the camera and have a great day!

Crepe Bouquet - Another Tuesday Trigger!

I haven't done a Tuesday Trigger in several weeks. Cath, over at Moxie Fab World, puts together the most amazing photos as inspiration for our paper crafting and calls it the Tuesday Trigger. This week she used this pretty photo from Martha Stewart (those of you who know me know that I am not a big fan of hers) called Crepe Bouquet. doesn't it just scream SPRING? These are not colors that I normally use, so this was a real challenge for me.

Have you ever seen dried hydrangeas? They look very much like crepe paper. So, I broke out my brand new Hero Arts Hydrangea stamp (I bought this with my recent Hero Arts blog comment winnings - thanks, Hero Arts!) and went to town. As you may see, I stamped the flower twice and cut out portions from one and added them, with dimensionals, to give the flower some extra pop.

For this card I used the following Hero Arts supplies: Hero Hues note card and envelope, PS611 envelope liner template, Cling Dots CG139, Hydrangea K5376 and Good Things Message C2826. Also used my Copics, Color Box Ink in Stucco, Memento Ink in Rich Cocoa, Antique Linen Distress Ink, Dotted Swiss embossing folder and Spellbinders Labels in my Cuttlebug, and the ribbon and the pin are from my stash.

Thanks to Cath and to Hero Arts! Have a wonderful weekend and a lovely Easter!
 

One Final Easter Card & Wishes for a Glorious Day

A quick post today, as Easter preps - and Peeps! - are happenin'! A simple layered card with yet another (smaller) chocolate bunny. How I wish I could tell you the manufacturer of this clear stamp set - I didn't write it down and it is at my alternate craft studio in Calistoga. Sorry; it is an older set probably not available any more.

This is some great Spring paper by K & Company. I love this plaid ribbon.

Looks like we will have good weather her for the weekend. Gary and I are so happy that our Aunt and Uncle will be joining us for Easter. Wish the whole family could come, but we will have them in our hearts.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Happy Easter!

Chocolate Bunny

The countdown to Easter continues! We are so excited that our Aunt and Uncle are coming for Easter - Yipee!!

This multi-layered card is made with one of my all-time favorite Stampin' Up stamps. Isn't the detail wonderful? And, because I am dieting, this is as close to a chocolate bunny as I am going to get this year. I have actually seen this stamped with a bite taken off the ear. Funny.

This sentiment set, called "Well-Scripted", is so elegant and gracious, isn't it. I love it; but I do not own it. Darn.

Have a great day and thanks for checking in here.

Easter Tags

Easter Tags, a photo by mkmermaid (Maureen) on Flickr.

A friend gave me some handmade paper and I just had to play with it! I love the texture - perfect for bunnies! I cut these tags in my Cuttlebug with Nestibilities. The stamps are all Hero Arts (K5358, A5015, CL498 and CG211), the flower, chick and ribbon are all from my stash. Lots of Easter fun!

And, thanks to a lovely comment by my ever-so-challenging blogger pal, Cath, I will enter these in one of the current challenges she has going on over at Moxie Fab World! She has a challenge going on over there for gift wrap items. I haven't entered anything over there in several weeks, but love that site. So, I will give it a shot, thanks!

Such a Glorious Weekend!

I had a feeling it was going to be good, but our weekend was wonderful. It started with a fantastic concert by my very favorite, Arlo Guthrie, at the historic (built in 1879) Napa Opera House. It is a very intimate venue and we had great seats. What a performance! When he sang "This land is your land", which was written by his father Woody, the place rocked!

The Napa Valley was so beautiful! As the morning fog lifted from the lush green hills, I was doing my water aerobics in the 92-degree mineral water pool. Unbelievable! The grape vines are just starting to send out leaves and the weather was perfect. We went on a bike ride (I delivered my Easter cards to our neighbors) and had the best fun. Gary got his garden in - tomatoes, crookneck squash, lemon cucumbers and basil. Can't wait for harvest!




Today's card is another Easter gem made with Stampin' Up supplies, all color-coordinated. I love this little Easter girl. I am sorry that I don't know the name of this set because I made this with my friend Antoinette and I didn't note it.

Hope you all have a wonderful week as we all prepare for a blessed Easter. As always, thanks for checking in here!

Springing into Spring!

Here is a fresh and springy card to share this morning. Lots of layers, a unique color combo and some cute Stampin' Up stamps. I always like to make a few cards that celebrate Spring, rather than Easter, for my friends who don't celebrate Easter.

Keeping it short this morning, as I plan to work at trying to get back onto my flickr account - I miss my Hero Arts gang there!

Have a great weekend! I sure will. There is warm weather promised, so I plan hours in the pool and maybe a bike ride. Tonight I get to see my all-time favorite, Arlo  Guthrie, at the cool historic Napa Opera House! Do you remember how I went to his "Alice's church" in Massachusetts last fall and made this Christmas card with one of our photos? Can't wait!!!

Basket of Happiness

I think that this is the final card from last year that I will share with you, then on to the new stuff! It is fun for me to look at older cards that I have made - my skills have improved so much in just one year. This is a card that we made in our class at the former Scrapin' Depot, taught by great pals Carina and Julie. They rock!

The basket is cut from an electronic die-cutting system and the sentiment is a vinyl sticker. The fun part is the eggs. The eggs were stamped (Paisley Spring by Stampendous)and colored on "Shrinky Dinks". These are fun plastic sheets on which you can stamp and color, cut the shapes out and apply heat (a heat gun, an oven, etc.) and the images shrink to about 1/3 of its original size. It is magic! If you haven't tried this stuff, you should. It is great for kids, too.

 Some real Easter grass was added to the basket and some ribbon from my stash.

I am still not back on flickr, but still working on it! Have a wonderful day!

Funny Chick

Here is another Easter card made using Stampin Up materials. I do love how their supplies are all so color-coordinated. It makes the card look so much more "rich".

The egg shell is paper pieced and the chick is mounted with several layers. A silly little sentiment!

For those of you who are my pals on the flickr group, my account has somehow been compromised and I am not able to sign in. I am trying to work it out, but it has me worried that I may lose all my contacts, card pictures and favorites. That would be very upsetting to me. We'll see.


Have a good day - I am off to my volunteer job today.

Sock Bunny

Sock Bunny, a photo by mkmermaid (Maureen) on Flickr.

Here is another Easter card that I made last year. Boy, have my skills ever improved! But this is so silly and cute; it still makes me smile.

This is a Stampin' Up set that my crafty pal Antoinette has - she is so good about sharing! We have such fun making cards together. Thanks, friend! I love that egg designer paper, but I have no clue about from which company it came.

By the way, this is really my Monday post, but I am going to be busy practicing for my monthly ukulele jam and sing along tomorrow, so I'm post this tonight. Have a great week everyone!

Luc-Key!

Good morning!

This is a Hero Arts stamp called "Antique Keys". I like it, especially for a man. I have used it for this card I made for my Dad (inside says "to have you for my Dad") and for the Hero Arts challenge this month for a masculine card.

There are several layers here - they add interest and weight, adding to the masculine "feel". One layer was embossed with the Cuttlebug and sanded to enhance the texture. For the keys, I mixed black and gold embossing powder together to resemble rust. What do you think?

The label is from my new Spellbinders Labels 21 which are shaped like cigar labels; again, perfect for a man! The ribbon, brown button and key are from my stash.

Love you, Dad!

Finally Easter Time!

I have been waiting patiently to share some Easter cards and the time is NOW! This is a card that I made last year, but since I wasn't blogging at the time I am sharing it today. The stamp is from Stampin' Up, which always has some very sweet Easter images. I had just started using Copics when I made this card so the coloring is a little rough. Ha!

I found this perfect background paper in my stash and used some "sheen" ribbon from Michaels. I used my Spellbinders dies for the circle shape and a Bow-Easy for the bow.

There will be more Easter cards this month - I love them! Thanks for looking and have a great day.

layered - finally got it!

layered - finally got it!, a photo by mkmermaid (Maureen) on Flickr.

This is the first card with which I am really happy where I used Shari's layered technique on watercolor paper. This one makes my heart happy. I used lost of Hero Arts stamps: CG245, CL488, CL427, CG119, S1832. Whew! Lots of Distress Inks! I don't know if you can see it, but I used the Classic Fabric Design stamp on the left panel and then I used it again on the envelope liner.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

one-of-a-kind

one-of-a-kind, a photo by mkmermaid (Maureen) on Flickr.

This flower card has lots of texture and distressing. Maybe too much? Anyway, it was fun! I made the tag with Spellbinders and I added some Stickles. The Hero Arts stamps used are CL495 and Cl139. Colored with Copic pens. Buttons, embroidery floss and leaves from my stash.

Have a great week - I hear that Spring is on the way!