Well Hello Dolie!

This card combined two elegant features...the fancie large dolie stamp and a hand made 3D flower...it's a beautiful thing! The flower is stamped in white to add another layer of dimension and distinction.

Making the flower takes a little patience...and practice. Just look at the results~~the effort is worth the ooh's and ahh's.

There are a few trade tricks which make all the difference.

Start with 3 to 5 stamped & punched flowers. I had 5 on hand. Have your tools ready to progress through the next few steps with all the punched flowers.

Now turn the flowers upside down, LIGHTLY misting the unstamped side, and then running thru the FISCARS corrugator.
Lay the flower on a hard surface and "press" out the ridges with a straight edge tool, such as the Stampin' Up edger. This makes the paper more pliable.

The flowers need to be cut to the center. One flower is cut with no sections removed, one has one section removed and so on till there are 5 pieces.

The sections are now ready to assemble. I use medium glue dots to fasten the petals, and a small crochet needle to "roll" the edges.

                                                      

Start with the large petal. Overlap two petals so there are 4 petals and glue in place. Press the center point of the flower on a hard service to "flatten" the point. This will help the sections fit together and reduce the height of the flower.                                                                    

Continue the same process with each section. The last two sections are pretty small.  I used the crochet needle to roll the edges first on the two small sections, then rolled the pedals into shape working them with my fingers. Once I liked the look a glue dot held them in place.

Use the crochet needle to roll the edges on the larger sections. I cut the back center points off the smaller sections and pressed to "flatten" the center. A glue dot holds the cut area closed once flattened. Now the flower is ready to put together. Place a glue dot on the back flattened center of the 3 petal section and position into the largest section. Continue till all are fitted together.

Use the two uncut extra flowers for the base.
HINT: punch the center out of one of the extra flowers, and attach sticky backed foam before placing onto the other flat flower. This gives a little room for the center of the 3D flower to fit into. And the extra petals give the flower a nice full look.

*Use a rhinestone or other embellishment for the center if you like. This flower didn't seem to need it.





Accessories: Stampin'Up Triple Flower stamp & matching punch, Stampin"Up Dolie stamp, matching card stock and ink, ribbon, sticky backed foam, Friskars corrugator, various tag shapes.

For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  
John 3:16
                                                                                                                                                          


 Ah..the love bestowed by our heavenly Father restores the soul, makes the heart glad, gives light to our paths and makes His glory known. In celebration of His Love, these simple cards are offered.

I've had this LOVE stamp for over 13 years...an oldie goldie to be sure. The Victorian style.with it's  fancy font is perfect for the occasion.

Using red glitter embossing powder is the perfect highlight for it, in my humble opinion anyway.

 I've also maintained a box of DOT heart stamps for a while, and use them every year. I love-love them!
This is my favorite of all, but the others speak the same language. Cutting out the embossed heart made it stand out over the tag layers.

All this fancy smancy lovely work needed an equally fancy background...I choose the ever so elegant embossing folder called YOU. How fitting is that! It fits nicely with the Victorian LOVE stamp and hearts....making the message even more endearing.  One last detail,,,inside the card I slipped a little tag....can't miss the meaning of this card!

May the LOVE from above reach your hearts and restore your souls!

Accessories: YOU embossing folder, Heart & LOVE stamps, red & white card stock, and red ribbon.

Barky Von Schnauzer...woof!
We LOVE our two little 4-legged love-bugs. And when I came across a DOG punch (McGill), well my heart melted & the punch ended up in my shopping bag! Here are two versions using the same colors and embellishments...grrrreat job!

There is a little trick to making the "3D" effect. Punch two of each color card stock to allow for opposites, such as the ears.I used dotted white paper and light brown dotted paper for the dog.

This punch makes 11 cuts...from eyes to tail! So with two cuts of each color, there will be quite an assortment of parts to keep straight.

I assembled the dogs first, deciding the angle of the head, eyes and infamous BONE! Gotta have the bone!
Coincidentally there just happened to be dogie stamps on sale too...a perfect match for a theme card. And great for the pocket book too.

The large and small bones add the perfect finishing touch ...don't ya think!

Place all the card features over an embossed brown card. This one was done in Tiny Mosaic.




Build a tag with several layers and a little dogie talk...Woof!

Don't have the perfect size tag punch? I cut two red punches from the same size as the top white tag. Then I overlapped them to stretch the red tag out, adding another layer of tag to this spiffy little tag.



Accessories: Dogs punch, tag punches, Tiny Mosiac embosser folder, sheer brown ribbon, Cloud 9 Simple Thoughts-Dog.

Bloom'n Blue and Sparkle too!

A lotta bling makes this bloom'n blue flower power greeting card extra special. I combined a few specific tools of the trade to get things started. Start with a combo from Stampin' Up to make the flowers with Triple Treat Flower stamp and right sized punch.
The punch makes the sparkle paper flowers, and the stamp does a nice job on the inner flower. Cut off the outer edge of the stamped flower to show off the sparkles.

Once the flowers are assembled the background is ready to make. For this card I used Spellbinders Flowers emboss/stencil for a letter-press effect. A matching blue ink pad pressed onto the stencil over white card stock created a beautiful background. Be careful when lifting the stencil...the ink smears easily.

These cuties are packed with style and glitz. The inner flower was defined using a dark blue pen on the dots. And, the silver brad matched the silver sparkle in the outer flower. Touch up the flourish with ribbon and a multi-layered tag.  I recently acquired the different sized tag punches which really make it easy.



I had a lot of fun creating this bloom'n blue card...and ya know, it turned out nice!

Accessories: Spellbinders Flower stencil, Stampin' Up Triple Treat Flower stamp & punch, Tag punches, ribbon & brads.

Calender Project...gone crazy!

I can't live without a calendar to keep me on track. So when I came across this little project at Simple Pleasures, it seemed a perfect answer and easy too...well, once I got the hang of it!

Stick on clear monthly calenders came with the instructions. And the cool thing is this calender lies flat for mailing, or sliding in an envelope, but is made to stand up. PLUS each month easily tears off, since the paper is perforated! How cool is all that!

The perforated calendar pages are attached with brads. In this style, the 2012 tag is glued over the brads. Nice trick!
The calender pages are attached to the back page, and the flower at the bottom keeps the whole calender from sliding flat. Another nifty trick.

This side view shows the stand up format. The supporting back is one cut of black card stock 11 " x  4.5" and scored to allow folding. I loved how it all came together.

Here is the bottom of the supporting card stock with embellishment...a cute flower & brad attached over a piece of matching print card stock. This keeps the calender for sliding south!
And I have a desk calender to keep me on track, or between the ditches, or somewhere in-between!





Accessories: Clear calender sticky transfers, 12X12 print card stock, black card stock, brads, punch flowers with matching card stock, and foam glue squares.

Christmas with loved ones...a true gift from our Father.
We were all awake by 7AM and gathered into the front room on the Avenues...right smack dab near the capitol building. Stockings were stuffed,  and "mugs" of pistachio's overflowing and special gifts for all.

Mom and brother arrived to join the breakfast feast. The table was decorated beautifully...thanks to the kids! Thanks! 

We all dug in with glad hearts and left with full stomachs........then dashed off to get ready for church. Garrett played his bag-pipes and Wendy joined the choir. The essence of Christmas...Jesus. There is only One Lord, and One Savior...only One we bow to. He is the Reason for The Season.


My husband and I were given an unexpected treat...which is an understatement. Our BIL took us out to his hanger to enjoy our first adventure-ride above the city in his 2 seater plane. Bright red, humming like a bird and packed with thrills! Can you believe it...there we were taking off and soaring with the big boys...well, up in the air but far from the bigger commercial birds. That's OK, it's safer!

Can you imagine how hard our hearts were beating at this moment...while the pilot brother in law is very qualified, it was his calm and sure handling of his plane and controls that soothed over my "what if's" and gave way to pure bliss!

Mom's house was full of gifts and good company. We were all blessed ! My husband & I could only say with humble hearts "Thank you, Father" and bow our hearts to Him.

There are so many memories we hold in our hearts to re-warm the soul that longs to hug and hold on to our family.

For now, we give thanks for the time, the love and the pictures that live on in the video's of our minds.

The Weixler's have been making excellent hand crafted custom furniture for...well, for all their lives. Tables were covered with white linen, decorated and a room full of Divine food arrayed to bless us with. Here Ken and his nephew Devon start a game of checkers on a uniquely beautiful coffee table.

The shop was used again for their annual family production of the night Jesus was born. How excellent to gather and hear from Luke the recounted timeless message of our Savior's birth, sing his praises, most in German (not me, but I loved them), and see the little ones dressed and caring out the story on cue.

By the end of our wonderful Christmas stay we wanted more...with so much fun around the family it was hard to say good buy ...again for now.

Paper Blossoms

Every time I get to visit with my VERY talented SIL Wendy Weixler, she teaches me a fun trick...she is full of talent. There are several die cuts & punches which cut the paper for blossoms. But the real fun is making your own, even out of felt. The possibilities are endless.

The process has several steps. Breakdown the stiffness of the card stock by misting with water...lightly! Run it thru a Fiskars corrugator, then press out with a straight-edged tool.

The crochet hook works nicely to help "bend backwards" the petals for a realistic effect...try it on other flowers you make too!

I made up my own spring time flower version to practice with. The flowers have several layers of varying sizes, and colors. Cut to the center of a flower, and fold one petal over the petal next to it & secure with a glue dot. Each layer was made this way and glued on top of the previous layer. Sprinkle extra small centers around the larger petals.

Aren't these just to pretty for words! The cards were given extra pizazz with the butterflies...more on that in a minute.

I really like this easy method, my big fingers are able to manipulate one overlapping petal which gave me a sense of you-can-do-it!

This pink version was my best work so far on making 3D blossoms. The printed paper and varied-sized flowers with alternating card stock all came together.

Now for the fluttering butterflies. I used a punch, and a die cut. I also made two of each cut for a symmetrical effect. How nice is that! Doesn't it just make your little heart flutter...or not...it does mine!

Accessories: Sizzix die Butterflies & Tropical Paisley embosser 656796, Mc Gall Butterfly punch, Martha Stewart edgers, boarder punches, ribbon & various colored card stock, Stampin' Up Fabulous Phrases stamps.