Happy Easter, Happy Spring....

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter.  We did.  Our church sanctuary was decorated with flowers all around the altar making it a lovelier-than-normal place to worship. 

We always decorate a bare cross with flowers making something ugly into something beautiful.  After the service, we take it outside to the lawn where all passing by can see its beauty.  It was a very moving day for us!

Today I want to share two "men's" cards with you.  The first uses the herringbone technique (which I've shown you before). I used the Well Worn designer paper for this one.  My previous herringbone had a flower on it, but since this one was for a man, I decided to use the leaves from the Gently Falling set.  And it was a "thank you" card, so I used the sentiment from Day of Gratitude.  The strips for the herringbone are cut 3/8" wide. Believe me, this is a fun technique to make and you can use ANY colors for your card!

     I had a lot of strips of designer paper left over, so I made this small card for another male friend to whom I wanted to send get well wishes.  The card itself is made from Not Quite Navy (like the one above), with the front layered onto Cajun Craze.  I cut the card 5.5" x 6" and folded it to 5.5" x 3".  This is a great size and still fits into our #2 envelopes.  Rather than using a herringbone layout, I just layered strips of designer paper across the card, diagonally, alternating the four patterns.  I left the bottom the plain Soft Suede.  I stamped the sentiment from Sincere Salutations onto vanilla cardstock cut with the Wide Oval Punch.  I backed that with Cajun cut with the Decorative Label Punch and put Not Quite Navy punched with the Curvy Label punch behind that.  This is a quick card to make and yet it will please the man who receives it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  Have a wonderful week and come back soon.  Smiles, Laura

Ornament Acorn....

I made this card recently with a birthday sentiment and liked it so much I revised one of my October classes to include it.  Isnt' he a cute fellow. France Martin showed how to make him on her blog and wanted to try it myself.  The acorn is made using Crumb Cake punched with the Ornament Punch.  The cap and stem are  made using the large oval punch punched from Soft Suede.  I ran the cap through the Square Lattice embossing folder to give it some interest.  I used the small oval punch and Early Espresso CS for his mouth.  And I cut the little fellow some bangs from Soft Suede.

The card itself is Soft Suede and layered with Crumb Cake that I've run through the Square Lattice embossing folder.  The sentiment is from Seasonal Sentiments set in the Holiday Mini. 

I stamped the leaves behind the acorn in Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight using a leaf in the Day of Gratitude set (also in the Holiday mini).  I colored his cheeks with a finger dauber using Regal Rose ink and put a white dot in each using the White Gel Pen.  His eyes are black brads and his nose is a GLimmer brad in Old Olive.  I would never have purchased these cute glimmer brads but Stampin' Up! gave each attendee at Regional a pack of them.  Isn't SU the nicest!  I used them on this acorn fellow and today ordered the Glimmer Brads in all the colors they come in.  I LOVE them!!

I hope he's inspired you!! Thanks for stopping by today.  Smiles, Laura

Columbia, SC Regional...

Friday I went to the Stampin' Up! Regional seminar in Columbia, SC.  It was a beautiful day to drive down and I totally enjoyed it!  SU has three of their employees there to talk to us, cheer us on, and generally share tips and ideas with us.  And in advance SU invites local demonstrators to share "wow!" samples and ideas with us so four girls presented their cards and tips to us.  On top of all that, we get to make some "make and takes" and it's fun to make cards someone else designed.  Here are two of my make and takes from that event.

I added the Cajun Craze behind the sentiment label by punching out another Decorative Tag , cutting it in half and gluing it behind the sentiment label.

 We received the stamp set Day of Gratitude from the Holiday Mini as a part of our registration, so the M&Ts used that set. 

For this one (below), I colored the sentiment with three different color makers so that the words could "pop" out at you.  I also colored two of the image stamps with markers to get different colors on one stamp.

 I think both of these turned out neat.  We also made a little box to put a bag of "goodies" like M&Ms inside.  And we made a note card that could be attached to a package.

They also gave us supplies to make a scrapbook page, but I didn't get it made at the event.  When I got home, I decided I'd rather make a couple of cards rather than a scrapbook page.  Here (below) are those two cards.

For this first one, I inked the stamp with River Rock and then used my Old Olive and Cajun Craze markers to add some color to it in a few places.  I like how this one stamped off.

 This is a close up of the tag on the card (below).  Can you tell the wording tag and leaves are popped up with dimensionals?  For the tag, I first stamped it in River Rock and then overstamped in Cajun Craze, so it looks like the words have a shadow behind them.  Neat, huh?

 For the second card, I again stamped the image with River Rock and again added color with the Old Olive and Cajun Craze markers.  I just added MORE color to the image.
                                         
 I cut three 1/4"strips of Cajun Craze  and River Rock, to put at the bottom of this one to put the sentiment over.  Again, I punched an additional Decorative Label (from River Rock this time), cut it in half and mounted it behind the vanilla label. 

Thanks for stopping in today.  Sorry I was away a week; we visited my son and daughter-in-law near Myrtle Beach, SC.   Smiles, Laura