Happy Retirement

It's Saturday already! The last week of school is always crammed full of special activities. We had a kindergarten celebration, 5th grade graduation, playday, meeting next year's teachers, and parties. I have a few days off before Summer School begins, so hopefully I'll have more playtime.

Fortunately, I did find time to make a card with my newest purchase from Altenew for a retiring colleague. This card was made using the Painted Flowers set and their brand new inks. I used Green Fields and Red Cosmos to stamp my flowers. I purchased all three of their new mini inks packs. Each pack contains four ink pads in graduating shades of color with 1 neutral color pad. I love how crisp the images stamp with these inks.

After stamping these artsy looking flowers, I die cut the panel with - you guessed it - SSS Stitched Rectangles. I adhered fun foam between the panel and the card base and added my favorite embellishment, Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear sequins. 

I'm adding this into The Friday Mashup #215 - It's All About 3! challenge. Following the rule of 3s, I've used 3 flowers and 3 sequins on my card. I chose not to follow the sketch to create a mashup. 

Now I have to run. My son just called while I was typing this to say he gave his girlfriend an engagement ring. I am over the moon excited! Have a great weekend. Enjoy!

                                                                          Pam

Sharing Paper Arts Club Cards

Hi! Today I'm sharing some cards I made for my Club meeting tomorrow night. As I've mentioned before, we are so very lucky to have a local Paper Arts Club. Lyn Bernatovich, the very talented designer of Lyn's Paper Petunia has been running the club here for several years. We meet once a month to make cards and other paper arts projects, learn techniques, swap cards, have challenges and just have a fabulous evening.

Our swap card this month was to use patriotic colors to create a card of any theme. I went with a masculine birthday card using Authentique Genuine paper and  DCWV Foil CS. The stars were die cut with My Favorite Things Star Stax. I used Mama Elephant Landscape Dies on the pp and the sentiment is from Sweet 'n Sassy Keep in Touch, Too stamp set.

Our Paper Arts Club donates a Christmas tree to our local art museum to auction every year that is decorated with our handmade cards. This month we needed to make a get well card. I watercolored one of my Bird Crazy birds with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and popped it up onto my card base. The sentiment is from Verve and the sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh.

This month our challenge was one we haven't done in a long time - a spotlight card. I stamped The Artful Stamper Flower Bunch twice, once to create my card panel and once on a snippet of scrap CS. SSS Stitched Circles dies were used to die cut the small black and white circles that create the spotlight. I colored the white circle with markers, added Clear Wink of Stella to the flowers and adhered to the stamped panel with foam. The panel was cut with SSS Stitched Rectangles and added to my card base with fun foam.

 I'm popping these cards into some challenges.

Card #1 - Sweet Sunday Sketch

                Seize the Birthday, no topping for me

                Uniko Studio Challenge #22: optional twist - masculine

Card #2 - Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - use your favorite technique and/or product. I'm loving watercoloring, those crazy birds, my stitched dies and PPP sequins!

Card #3 - Pixie's Snippets Playground

Wow - if you're still with me, thanks for hanging in! Have a great week. Enjoy!

                                                                          Pam

So Long

Today I have a card to share that I made for a co-worker's daughter to give to her teacher. Her teacher loves giraffes, so that's what went on her thank you card.

This very cute giraffe is an image from the Your Next Stamp Fred and Ginger set. She's stamped in black and colored with Zig Clean Clear Color Brush Markers. The sentiment is a combination of Lawn Fawn Smitty's ABCs and a 'thank you' of unknown origin. (Yes, even though I made this card yesterday, I don't remember which set I used. Sad.) Of course the stamped panel was die cut with SSS Stitched Rectangles and added to the card  base with fun foam. I just had to add Glossy Accents to her beautiful eyes.

I would like to add this to these challenges:

     Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge # 149 - Clean & Simple (& it's their 3rd birthday!)

     Inkspirational Challenge #85 - Word Prompt:  Wild

Only 3 half days of school left for the kiddos. They are so ready for summer vacation. So are we! Have a great week. Enjoy!

                                                                          Pam

Graduation Cards Catch Up

Hi. I've been spending most of today finishing cards I've been commissioned to make. I'm sharing two more graduation cards. The first is one I've made with another one of the Tim Holtz Bird Crazy stamps.

Isn't that bird the cutest? I just love these.I used my new Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to watercolor my bird on Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper. Love these brush markers! The bird was fussy cut  and adhered with foam dots over a stamped image on white CS that had been die cut with SSS Stitched Rectangles. The stitched panel was then adhered to a card base.I added a cap and diploma from Impression Obsession Mortorboard & Scroll dies. The sentiment is Verve Happy Graduation.  

I would like to include this in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which is "use your favorite technique/product" this week. Right now I am loving water coloring, Tim's crazy birds and my new Zig markers.

I also finished a graduation card requested by a colleague for her son. He wants to study architecture in college. I found the perfect paper in my stash.

Unfortunately, I do not know the brand of the paper. It was in my stash of travel papers and is a collage of many buildings in Europe. I paper and ink distressed the edges of the pp and the blue mat, and adhered to a 5x7 card base. The sentiment is a combination of sets and matted in both the blue and brown papers. I added the pp to the inside, along with a piece of cream CS that was ink distressed. A graduation cap was stamped in the corner. My co-worker wants to write her own message inside the card, so I left the rest blank.

Tomorrow begins the last week of the 2014-2015 school year. In retrospect, it is amazing how quickly it has gone by. Have a wonderful week, Enjoy!

                                                                      Pam

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all dads. I lost mine 16 years ago and still miss him so much. I was thinking of my dad when I made this card. He was a roofer his entire life and always had a hammer with him.

This stamp was purchased from the Our Daily Bread booth at the recent stamp show I attended and is appropriately named Father's Day Tools. After stamping some kraft CS, I colored the images with markers and cut the panel with SSS Stitched Rectangle dies. I adhered it to a brown mat and added a tool brad. A piece of  kraft CS was embossed with a woodgrain EF. I then added brown ink over the raised areas of the embossed piece. Fun foam is adhered between the embossed card base and the tool panel. 

I am adding this to the Crazy 4 Challenges: C4C290 which is to make a masculine card.

I hope you all have a wonderful day with your dads, if you are fortunate enough to still have them with you. Enjoy!

                                                                    Pam

Way to Go!

I wanted to quickly post a box card I made in our school colors. Have you ever made one? I've made several and they are so fun. It was snapped up in a hurry by a colleague and I have several orders for more. Guess what I'm doing today?

The box card measures 5 3/4" x 5 3/4" and was made from white CS. I added orange panels to the inside and blue on the outside. Sorry, but this photo doesn't show the blue on the outside. The graduation dies are from  Impression Obsession: Grads Tossing, Grads Walking and Congratulations. The number balloons were die cut using  Avery Elle Numbered Balloons Elle-Ments and the Way to Go is from the Avery Elle Circle It stamp set.

Let me know what you think of my box card. This is a pretty simple one. You can make them as elaborate or as simple as you like. Maybe I'll try one with the balloons popping up from one of the inner cross panels. Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy! 

                                                   Pam

Muse Challenge #122

Hello. Can you believe our local high school graduations are next weekend? It seems like we just started the school year. I made a graduation card inspired by the latest Muse challenge that was created by super talented Marion Vagg. Sadly, this is Marion's last DT post as a Muse.

Here's my card -

This is Marion's fabulous card -

It's easy to see I was inspired by the balloons. My balloons were die cut with Avery Elle Number Balloons dies and DCWV Foil cardstock. I used our school colors of orange and blue to make the number balloons. The grad cap and diploma are dies from Impression Obsession. Twine from my stash was used to tie the balloons together and they are anchored by the diploma. The sentiment is from SSS Inside and Outside Greetings.

That's all for now. Have a great week. Enjoy!

                                                                              Pam