Flower Soft Tree...

Hi again!

If you click to see this tree card on Cindy Lawrence's Creative Closet blog, I think you will understand my desire to make one for myself. Isn't it gorgeous? Because I'm not a "tree" person, I didn't have any stamps that had tree images, so I used the next best thing...a digital image! I found a nice looking tree on my Darcie CD called Fall Flurries and Winter Winks and printed it onto cardstock. I colored it fairly quickly using my Koh-I-Noor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I used my circle and scallop circle Nestabilities and some pattern paper from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie 6x6 paper set along with a bit of CTMH's Topiary cardstock. I bit of Dollar Tree white ribbon and the card is done. I added the Summer Flower Soft in smallish sections until it looked finished.

Oh....do you want to see the card I've just blathered about? You do? Silly me! Here you go...

Kim...I thought of you the whole time I was making this card because I know how much you like trees...hope you enjoy this one. *Ü*

Thanks again for stopping by!
Jeanne

Flower Soft Butterfly Card

Happy Earth Day! Hope it's been a good one. The girls' school celebrated during the day today with activities/stations organized by my good friend Susi (Hattie's mom). I couldn't really help out during the morning as I had Jessica, but we went to school a little early so we could check out all the stations, which were all held outside. At one, the city trash truck was there and the kids got to toss empty milk cartons into the "scooper" after they heard about trash pick-up. At another they planted a tree (so cool) and a city employee was telling the group about trees. At yet another, the kids got to plant seeds in a little peat pot. There were a couple of other stations, but by then, I had to get Jessica over to her room to start her school day. Jessica's class wasn't left out...they got to plant geraniums in wine barrels to decorate a patio area at the school. All of this was organized by Susi and I'm SO impressed! She has worked really, really hard volunteering her time to start a recycling program at the school and now this awesome Earth Day event! Actually, the recycling program has been so successful that the district has sent representatives to the school so Susi could share with them how it all works. They are thinking of implementing a similar program district wide! THAT is awesome! Yea, Susi (who won't ever read this, but who cares, she truly deserves a shout out)!

I decided not to run around during my limited kid free time today (early release day) so I was able to make a card. Actually I worked on two, but the other one isn't quite finished, plus I'm not real happy with how it is coming along. But I do like the one I am sharing today...

I used the Summer Flower Soft today...similar to the Sweet Pea, but a little more bold in the color palette don't you think? AT one of the demos for this at the show I went to, the gal wrote an initial in glue and sprinkled the Flower Soft onto the line of glue. That got me to thinking how I could use it in a similar way. This is what I came up with. I ran my butterfly die through the Cuttlebug (thanks for the enabling Ms. Kathi...I could no longer resist the lure of the butterfly) and then ran it through again using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. (I personally like the wider spacing of the dots for this particular use-the die comes with a dotted embossing folder, too). I didn't buy any Flower Soft glue because the gal told me it was pretty much just like Aleene's Tacky Glue. I was told I could use any kind that would dry clear. So, I used my Scotch Tacky Glue because it does set really well and dries clear.

As you can see, the card itself is very simple as I hoped it would allow the butterfly to be the focus. The paper is from Making Memories' Flower Patch paper. The green cardstock is CTMH's Clover Meadow. The silver flower is a bead cap flattened with a glittery green Paper Studio brad. The sentiment is stamped in Clover Meadow and is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Message set. Oh and I added a couple of rhinestones on the antennae.

That's it for now...thanks so much for stopping by. I hope I am not boring people with my posts. I've been getting unsubscribe notices the past few weeks. Ah well...that's the way it goes, I guess. I'll just keep plugging along even if I do end up chatting with myself...

Jeanne

Finished Rose and Flower Soft Card

The sun is out in all its glory today and the past two cold, rainy/snowy days is but a memory. It's warm enough to be in short sleeves and most of the snow has melted. It definitely feels like spring again!

I worked on completing the two cards I started yesterday. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, although I don't think I will be able to send either one out in the regular mail. Guess they will have to be hand delivered or tucked in a box with a gift.

I used the Cricut cartridge called Wild Card to make the card base for the rose. I thought it looked reminiscent of a trellis. The rose is made with a pear shaped punch and the two leaves are a birch leaf punch. I think the rose came okay, given it's my very first attempt at creating one!

Sorry for the sun glare in the first photo. I'm too lazy to take the shot again. The swirly part is cut out by the Cricut. To offset the white and hopefully make the rose pop a little more, I also cut a liner piece out (well, the machine did) of Baby Pink cardstock (CTMH). The rose is a thin red cardstock I picked up at Walmart and the leaves are punched out of Topiary cardstock (CTMH). The rose is adhered with strategically placed mini glue dots. LOL

Now for the card using the Flower Soft bouquet I made yesterday...

I was completely inspired by this post on a blog I've recently found out about called All The Things I Love Cards by Bev. No, I don't have that stamp, but I had the papers! Well, all except the striped one...I apparently used that one all up already. And look, I even decorated the inside! I just love all the details Bev puts into her cards! I found out about it from this blog...Inspirational Craft Blogs. This team of ladies find some really great blogs, and I've only had it in my Reader for a week or so!

The papers are from DCVW Nana's Nursery for Girls. I also used CTMH's Blush cardstock to mat things. You can see I used that lovely Martha Stewart border punch. To make the corners I used an EK Success Corner punch for the main corner and a QuikKutz die for the inner corner (I got the die at either Archiver's or Hobby Lobby).

You can see I changed the ribbon around the bouquet because the pink I had was too bright for this card. This green sort of goes with the green in the paper. Why is it that I have TONS of ribbon, yet, not the color I want??? Sigh. The darker pink ribbon is Berry Sorbet from Papertrey Ink and the lighter pink is a velvet ribbon I found today at Michaels. (I think the roll was a dollar-there's great sale that started today and is going on this week). Finally, I added some pink rhinestones for bling. You can't really tell, but because of that velvet ribbon, I adhered the matted oval (used my Nestabilities to make) with pop dots.

Looking at the photo of the card, now I'm wondering if it needs something in the upper right corner? It sort of looks bare and Bev filled her card up with pretty flowers. Because of the Flower Soft, I chose not to do that, but maybe I should put one or two there? What do you think?

I put a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner tonight and it's making the house smell really yummy! I'd best go and get the oven heated for biscuits and the table set...

Thanks ever so much for stopping by. You will have to let me know if the finished product lived up to the teaser I posted yesterday....

Jeanne