Yes, I know.....

Yes, I know, long time, no see....  Sorry!! It's been a busy month and I was amazed when I logged on to my blog and realized I had not posted to you for a MONTH!!  I guess it's no excuse to say I've been busy, because we all are busy.  But honest, I've had alot going on.  Just some random reporting:  I made this new banner for my church's gathering space for Pentecost Sunday.

I made these fabric streamers to go on the walls in the sanctuary:

I made two of  these to hang on two sides of the sanctuary (ours is a square sanctuary).

They are to go with this banner I made several years ago.  This hangs in the center, up high over the organ.

Here are some ribbon streamers I made to go beside the altar.  I used some metal "tiki torch"-type stands for them.

Here is the altar the altar team I'm a part of designed for Pentecost Sunday:

Everyone seemed to enjoy the whole sanctuary so it was worth our time!

My sister-in-law Mary Ann (yes, you've heard me talk about her before) came and spent a week with me for Mothers Day.  She helped me on the ribbon streamers.  Our church is recognizing 20 graduates from our sponsor school for graduation with cards and money, so Mary Ann and I made these graduation cards for them:

We used retired blue card stock and orange and white, to go with their school colors.  Since I could not find any little tassels that were the right size for our cards, we made these ourselves using embroidery floss. 

Here is the inside:

 I hope the graduates like them!

OK, that's some of the church work I've been working on.  I am designing a spiritual gifts banner and will share that when it is completed.  I love doing this sort of thing for my church---in addition to the paperwork  and committee work I do there.  It's wonderful to have a place share creative talents.

Of course during May we had Mothers Day in there.  I made cards for my sisters and daughters-in-law so here is one of those cards I made:

This card uses the oval die collection from Stampin' Up! for the cut out front.  Here is another card we made in class with this same cut out:

 This one is a birthday card (as you can see).  Both these cards use the new hostess set, Simply Sketched. This will be one of my "go to" sets for the coming year.  I LOVE it!!  The sentiment is from the new Label Love set that you will be able to purchase starting tomorrow.  I used the Artisan Label punch for the backing.

Here is the inside:

The bird oval shows through the front opening, but is actually on the inside of the card.  This inside sentiment is from the new hostess set, Express Yourself. 

I can't wait until tomorrow to start purchasing all the new "goodies" from the Stampin' Up! catalog.  Look out, credit card!!!

One more shot to share today.  Here are two beautiful lady slippers that are blooming out in the woods near our house.  Aren't they something!!!

OK, that's enough sharing for today, for you to know I'm still here!!  Thanks for visiting!!  Come back soon and see some other cards I've been making!!
Smiles, Laura

Lever Card

Last Wednesday I was honored to be the guest tutorial author on Split Coast Stampers (SCS).  I was so thrilled when Beate said she wanted to feature my tutorial for making a Lever Card. It was my first time EVER and gee, how exciting!

 I've seen a good many of these cards on Pinterest and various blogs, but it seems almost all of them are cut using a program on their Silhouette machine.  Since I don't have that machine, I wanted to figure out how to make a lever card without the program, just cutting it myself.  I did find one blog that gave a pattern to use, but again, I wanted to figure out the "math" of it.  My stamping friends kid me about this (**Hi, Janet**) because I'm not into "patterns" for cards, but "the math" of measuring them myself.  If you want the complete tutorial, you can go HERE to see the complete tutorial on SCS.  Today I'll just share the pictures of the cards I've made using the Lever tutorial.

This first one is the one I showed in my tutorial.  I chose it because of its brightly-colored card stock and designer paper. 

Front:

 Opened:

                                     

This card uses the stamp set Storybook Friends and Happy Hour.  Love this one!!

 Opened:

 This one uses the Oh, Whale! set and well, you've seen how much I use that set and these colors and this designer paper.  LOVE it!!

Opened:

 This sample uses the Need for Speed and Daring Adventure sets.  I'm SOOOO going to miss Need for Speed when it retires at the end of the month.  I love this set for making cards for my husband!

 Opened:

The car is supposed to look like it's zooming to the front of the card.  Hubby says it looks like a Nascar race, so the cars should be different colors.  Whatever....

OK, sometimes I don't post too often, but today you got 4 cards in one post, so I hope this makes up for absent days.  I just wanted to show them all to you at once.  And be sure to log into SCS to get the tutorial for this level card.  It takes a bit of precision in cutting to get the lever to work properly through the card front's window, but you can do it!!  Have fun and email me your samples or upload them to SCS's gallery.

Thanks for coming by today.

Smiles, Laura

Masculine cards...

I have two masculine cards to share with you today.    Both cards use Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit card stock.  I also used designer paper from the Print Poetry Stack on both cards.

For this first one, I used Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla card stock.  I punches out the cupcake from both Crumb Cake and Summer Starfruit card stock.  I ran the crumb cupcake bottom through my crimper to make it actually LOOK like the bottom of a cupcake.  

The sentiment is stamped from the Make a Wish stamp set, using Midnight Muse ink.

For this second one, used the single stamp Basic Label from the Assortment 3 group.  I cut that using a die from the Apothecary Accents Framelit.  Inside I stamped sentiment from the Make a Wish set.  I finished it off with two brads.

Neither of these cards is complicated, nor time consuming.  They are respectable cards suitable to send to a man for his birthday.  Sometimes that's just what you need!
Smiles, Laura

I'm on a roll with the Swallowtail......

Yes, I'm still having fun with the Swallowtail a la Carte stamp!!  I decided this time I wanted to color it.  I stamped it onto Pool Party card stock using the Midnight Muse ink.  I layered the Pool Party onto a Muse mat and put it on a Lucky Limeade card.  

Here is a bit of a close-up of the butterfly.  I colored it using my aqua painter using Limeade, Marina Mist, Pool Party, and Midnight Muse inks.  Finally I added a bit of white stripes using my white gel pen.

The sentiment of this card is from the SAB Vintage Verses stamp set.

Don't worry; I have more cards made with this stamp and will be sharing those in the future.  Love it!!
Thanks for visiting today!
Smiles, Laura

Another Swallowtail card....

I've told you before how much I love the Swallowtail a la Carte stamp.  It's so versatile to use in many ways.  I have several cards I've made to show you.  Today I want to show you a card I made which I think would be appropriate to send to a man.  It's not so colorful as some others you see.

This card is made using Midnight Muse card stock.  I layered it with white cardstock and then topped that with Crumb Cake.

The butterfly was stamped using Midnight Muse ink.

 I used a sponge dauber with Crumb Cake to rub a bit of color on the darker parts of the butterfly.

 I stamped the sentiment using the Essentials stamp set from the Spring Mini onto Crumb Cake card stock. I cut it into a flag or ribbon shape.  I layered 3 ribbons under it and used a glimmer brad to attach it to the card.

So while there is ribbon and a glimmer brad on this one, I still this because it's a rather neutral card, it would be appropriate for a man.  Hope you like it!
Smiles, Laura

Yes, Father's Day!

It's hard to believe that it isn't that long until Father's Day.  Well, OK, about 2 months from now, but if you want to start on your Father's Day cards, today's post is for you.  Some of my customers do not send Fathers Day cards because their fathers are deceased and they say their husband isn't their father.  Well, how about our sons and sons-in-law who are fathers to our grandchildren?  I always send a Fathers Day card to my son thanking him for being a great dad to my grandchildren.  I also send cards to my brothers-in-laws thanking them for being good fathers to my nieces and nephews.  We all have someone who could LOVE to receive a Happy Father's Day card!

This card was made using a color challenge I saw online, the Color Throwdown color challenge #230. It uses the colors you will see below.  One change I made was to use Whisper White, rather than Very Vanilla.  

My card itself is made using the Marina Mist card stock.  I ran the front of the card through the Big Shot using the Lattice Squares folder and sponged a little Soft Suede around the edges.  I cut a rectangle of Lucky Limeade to go on that.  The "ribbon look" down the side is Cajun Craze, run through the Big Shot using the Chevron folder and sponged with suede ink.  

                                         
Here is a close-up of the watch.

I stamped the watch three times in 3 different colors.  I stamped it first on this 2-1/2" circle using Suede ink.  I stamped it again in Cajun Craze on a scrap and cut out just the band of the watch and glued those onto the original suede watch.  Then the third time I stamped it with Marina Mist and used the 1" circle punch to cut out the face of the watch.  I used dimensionals to pop up the face onto the watch.

And below I added the stamped sentiment from the  Best Dad Ever stamp set.  I LOVE this set because it has several great sizes and different fonts used for the words in the set.  It's one of my "go to" sets.

Finally, I added three blue brads at the bottom of the card, to give it some more texture and dimension.

My brothers-in-laws will be getting this one in June.  I hope it has inspired you to get started on your Fathers Day cards--and to think of men who would love to receive one!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Smiles, Laura

A card for Judy...

My niece-in-law's mom has had surgery recently for breast cancer. We all are praying for Judy and her doctors that her surgery was successful and that she will have no more cancer.  I made her this card the other day to send her, to let her know she's in my thoughts.  Of course any breast cancer card must have a pink ribbon.

This card opens in the middle (you will see that below) so I put this "diamond-shaped" front on it.  I had to use the silver shimmery cardstock, since it's shaped like a diamond.

 Here is a picture of the card opened up.

I hope Judy feels our prayers and knows we are all pulling for her!

Smiles, Laura