A Sympathy Card

Impression Obsession has a very nice saying stamp for sympathy cards and I used that stamp as the starting point for my card that I recently had to make for a fellow parishioner who lost her young husband. 

I made a frame with the Spellbinders Labels Two and stamped the saying inside of it.  I layered it on card stock that I embossed with the new embossing folder from Crafts-Too and then decorated around the frame with flowers and leaves.  The last touch was the Cheery Lynn butterfly and of course a bit of stickles strategically placed.  Oh yes, I also used Viva Decor pearl pens to make pearls for the centers of the flowers and the body of the butterfly.

You may be surprised that this is a sympathy card, but not all sympathy cards have to be of a dark color palette.  Dark colors sometimes make the card look a bit too sad and most of the time I try to stay away from them.  Hope this gives you some inspiration for these sometimes difficult cards to make.

Thanks for stopping by,
            and
Have a wonderful day
         ~Anna

New "Anja" Card Stand

I got the new Anja card stand die in and went straight to my Big Shot to try it out.  It is so pretty with the lattice work and then I layered it onto the "Angel Wing".  I really like this Anja die for all the detail.  Cheery Lynn has a card stand die, but it is very plain; just a solid background.  In addition, in order to use the Cheery Lynn die, you must first fold your card stock in half and then place the die on it and run it through your machine.  The Marianne Anja card stand is a set of two FULL dies.

To me they looked at bit small but I was VERY pleasantly surprised that they held all size cards!!!

As you can see, they help make a beautiful display of your cards!  These card stands are especially wonderful for "round" cards, as they are unable to stand on their own.

You can see that this card stand holds up different size round cards very well.  Also you can visualize the size of the card stand by seeing it next to the square, 6X6 card.

Lastly, here is a picture of the stand holding the large, 6X6 card!

These stands fit perfectly in the envelope with the card.  This is a fabulous way of sending a stand with the card, especially with those special cards that you know the recipient would love to display;  ie, Wedding and Anniversary cards, special birthday cards, odd shaped cards that can not stand on their own, etc!  And don't forget, you can customize it and coordinate the stand colors to the card!

Let me know if you would like to get this die and I can set it aside for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by
               and
Looking forward to seeing you!
            ~Anna

A Pair of His and Her Cards

I have been wanting to use this pretty Hero Arts/Sizzix medallion embossing folder.  Last week I dreamt of elements of this card; probably because I was on Pinterest late at night.  When I woke up, I knew that I wanted to use my Cheery Lynn butterfly die and sand the Hero Arts card stock.  (This card stock has a white core and when you sand it, the white comes through.)

I then challenged myself.  I wanted to use the same embossing folder and card stock and create a masculine version of this card.

Butterflies and cursive font tend to be more feminine, so I used the Hero Arts Alphabet die set and cut out the word "happy".  I then found a bold font for birthday (a Hero Arts stamp) and stamped and embossed it in white.  I used a Nellie Snellen set of star dies and attached it to the card.

                                                  Here are the two cards side by side. 

Now, this brings me to another class - His and Her Cards!  You will create 3 sets of cards, one female version and male version, using either the same supplies, or same sketch, etc.  This will be a fun class with lots of tips for you to stretch your supplies and think outside the box.  We always have a harder time creating a card for our male friends and this class will get you out of that rut!  Join us on Thurs, May 30 at 1PM or on Saturday, June 22 at 11AM.  Call and pre-register for the class and save $3.

Looking forward to seeing you in class!
                        ~Anna

A Fun Birthday Card

Now, when I saw this Impression Obsession stamp, chicken in overalls, I thought, OK, it's cute but what can you make with it?  Well, don't worry, Soni Larson knew what to make!

She created a fun birthday card for Cecilia Prange!  Isn't it just fabulous!  Great coloring with Copics and the layout and colors of the background papers are just perfect.  The window is framed nicely and the sayings are all FUN! (They were computer generated.)  Thanks Soni for this wonderful idea!

 Who would have thought.  And the ladies who saw it on Saturday, all now want this stamp! LOL!

This is the inside of the card:

And it's all in good fun!

Hope this puts a smile on your face today!

            ~Anna

To Distress or Not - That is the Question!

This past Saturday we had our Make and Take Day and everyone loved making the following Cameo Card.  The ladies really liked the old fashion and feminine look of the cameo.

Barbara Thomas joined us and she too created a card for her Mom, but Barbara had to change it up a bit of course with her favorite Tim Holtz distress inks!  And here is her creation:

I just love it!  And so did everyone else!  

Of course I have distress inks and never think of distressing my work; and Barbara, ALWAYS distresses hers!  I guess we just get comfortable in our own way. 

Awhile back, Barbara and I teamed up and offered a fun class class, called "To Distress or Not" and we decided to do it again!  This time we'll use more dies and some new stamps!!!  You'll create 6 cards; 3 "clean" cards designed by me and 3 other cards designed by Barbara using distress inks!  Both sets of cards will use the SAME stamps, dies and supplies, but you will get TWO different looks!

This great class is scheduled for Saturday, June 8 at 11AM!  Join the fun and learn how to stretch your supplies and get two different styles!  Call or email to reserve your seat today.......this class was very popular last time and filled up quickly!

Oh yes, if you take the class, you will be able to buy the stamps and dies used for the cards at a 10% discount!  

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!
            ~Anna

May Flowers

It's May, it's May, the merry month of May!  And I always think of flowers and Camelot!  Remember the fun song with all the maidens dancing?  It always puts a smile on my face.

I just love Julie Andrews' voice, but when I think of Camelot,  I also reminisce of my daughter's high school production of it.  I was at awe when I saw it; Rachel Waldren was wonderful as Guenevere, JJ Hansen was King Arthur and Greg Biccum was Sir Lancelot.  Their voices were awesome!  The WHOLE production was just FANTASTIC; you couldn't believe that it was a high school production!  I know that Maria must be smiling while reading this! (Or at least I hope so.)  I also can't believe  that it was more than 10 years ago!  Which reminds me, I better send out the video tape to have it digitized!  Well, enough of reminiscing, and let me tell you about today's card.

I went through my large envelope of stamped images that I have already colored or partially colored.  It was time to put a card together!  And since the weather has been so nice, I pulled out this pretty image from Impression Obsession.  I was drawn to the pretty umbrella and the old fashioned flower cart.  I used Copics to color the image and I paper pieced the umbrella.  I added two layers of foam tape to the center of the umbrella and then adhered the ends straight to the card.  This gave the umbrella a realistic curved look.  Since the image is so large, I just layered it onto a pretty Spellbinders rectangle and added some die cut flowers, flourishes, and butterfly for some depth and interest.

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me and I hope it gave you some inspiration to create some "flower" cards!

Looking forward to seeing you and your creations!
                     ~Anna