Heartfelt Sympathy and a Celebration of a Gifted Photographer

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I attended both a memorial celebration and wedding on the same day (and, thankfully, in that order).  I was just going to pull a sympathy card from my stash, but yesterday  morning I woke up early and because I had an idea about the cornucopia stamp from Lawn Fawn's Harvest Season that was percolating. So I had to wander down to my craft room to develop the idea. I stamped in Memento Onyx Black ink and used my colored pencils for it.  I don't have many and they are just a cheap set I picked up from Michaels a while ago, but they have been good enough to some simple coloring and blend okay with gamsol.  I know I could do better if I had better quality pencils so the other day I did order a huge set of colored pencils that should be here later this week.  Yes, I know, it's crazy that I ordered colored pencils when I'm taking the copic class at onlinecardclasses.com later this month and I'm sure I will be order markers I need to fill in the gaps of what I have.  But I've wanted this set of pencils for over year now and haven't ordered them.  After a bit of a rough couple of days, I thought some retail therapy might help.  So I expect you'll see a lot of coloring in my future both in pencil and in copics.  Good thing I find coloring therapeutic too!

Anyhow, back to this card, after I finished coloring the cornucopia, I added a sentiment from the new Simply Sentimental set from Newton's Nook Designs (love the script on this one) and added random leaves using the leaves from the Harvest Season set and three colors of Simon Says Stamp ink (Leaf Green, Burnt Orange and the new Goldenlocks).  I finished off the card by cutting the panel out with the Simon Says Stamp Frame Die, cutting a second one in black and then cutting the whole background using the stitched frame from my new dies from My Favorite Things, Blueprints #13. 

The memorial was for my intern who passed away suddenly a couple weeks ago at only age 44!  Way too young, especially when I saw his teenage sons at the service and intensely realized what a huge gap it would be leaving in their lives.  It was actually quite a beautiful memorial service and they showcased many of his pictures, as he was a gifted photographer.  During his interview, his photography hobby came up and he shared with me this picture he took for a designer.  I found it on Google and am sharing it here (at the service, his friend encouraged us to share his pictures):

It's such an amazing shot.  I assumed he used a lot of Photoshop on it, but his friend explained that Jeff came to him asking how to use Photoshop and the friend was amazed that the photos hadn't already been through Photoshop (that's how gifted Jeff was at capturing the shot). 

I remember one day shortly before the state fair, Jeff showed me four photos on his phone asking me which one he should enter.  There were four amazing shots and it was so hard to choose between them (the fourth was one similar to the first picture below, but there was a man and his dog in the shot - I looked all over for it because it was one of my favorites, but I couldn't find it):
 

This next one is the one I actually choose, maybe because I love tulips so much.  He entered it and won (the same weekend he died):

 

At the memorial service, they showed many other shots that were equally stunning.  I encourage you to go check them out.  You can find them here:  http://500px.com/Masterlender.  But I'll leave you today with some that were a few of my favorite examples of the beauty that is this great world of ours that Jeff eye's was able to capture to share with the world:

 

 

 



Trick or Treat?

Today's card was inspired from my childhood when Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man were popular.  When I saw the adorable ghost on the Lawn Fawn Monster Mash set, I knew I had to do a Pac-man card.  I colored the ghosts in the pac-man colors and made my own pac-man by tracing around a nickel (because I can't draw to save my life) and then used a straight edge to make the mouth.  I then fussy cut the two I had cut and colored out.  For the inside of the card, I flipped the switch on the ghosts and made them on the run just like when pac-man gets a power pill (is that what they were called?). 

You Are the Apple of My Eye Take Two

I had another apple floating around on my craft table and I had this idea to make my own background paper so I thought "why not use that apple.  So I pulled out my Simon Says Stamp Apple Green ink and the apple image from the Stampendous Fresh Fruit set and started making my own background.  I stamped rows of apples, added in some seeds using another stamp from the set and some Espresso Truffle Memento ink.  I added a stems to the apples and then added my colored apple to the free space I left in stamping. I finished it off with a stem. I then realized I didn't really have any place for my sentiment that would work other than on top of the apple.  It worked out perfectly and placed it on top of a red card base from my stash, but it still needed something.  So I added some Glossy Accents and called that good.

 

Oh, and this came was what I was working on when I let this sneak peek go out on Instagram:



You Are the Apple of My Eye

Since I managed to catch up Project Life over the weekend (love doing one month at a time), I had a little time last night to play in my craft room after cleaning it up (because why should it stay clean?). I decided I wanted to use up some stamp sets that I've bought but not really used.  I have them sitting in box near my craft desk for just this opportunity.  I pulled out one called Fresh Fruit from Stampendous and just started stamping images out in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I loved this apple image and the card practically made itself.  After I had stamped, colored and fussy cut the image, I pulled out my Paper Wishes Basic Notebook die and found the cutest quilt type paper in my Jillibean Soup Homemade Six Bean Soup 6x6 paper pad for the background.  I cut it down just smaller than a red A2 card base I had in my stash.  I then layered the die cut and added my sentiment.  I popped on my apple with pop dots, added a bit too much shadow under it, then topped the apple with some clear Wink of Stella and a lot of Glossy Accent.  I found some Peppermint Lawn Trimmings to tie on the top of the note paper and set it aside to dry. 

Thank You Inspired by Jennifer McGuire

I was completely enthralled watching Jennifer McGuire use Distress Inks with embossing folders.  You can see her beautiful work and check out her video here.   I immediately knew I had to give it a try. 

For this background, I spread several colors of Distress Ink on the QuicKutz Zig Zag embossing folder, spritzed it with water and then ran it through my Big Kick.  While it dried, I stamped the banner from Lawn Fawn's Bannerific with some Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy ink then cut it out with the matching die.  I stamped the two cute little birdies from the set with some Grey Flannel Memento ink and colored them with my copic markers.  I had to fussy cut those but they are so cute on the card as if they are holding the banner.  I love how they look with some pop dots behind them.  I added a little Wink of Stella to the banner and some simple coloring to shade the banner.  I finished it off with some clear sequins because lately it seems like everything needs sequins. 

I Love You to the Stars and Back

I've had this idea percolating in my head since Sunday and I finally had some time to get my fingers inky.  I used two Lawn Fawn stamps sets:  Happy Trails and Lucky Stars.  I inked the sentiment and stars using Versamark and heat embossed them with clear power.  Then it was time for some inky fingers.  I used Scattered Straw, Seedless Preserves, a little bit of Dusty Concord and a whole lot of Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink to make my night sky.  I really need to get those round blending tools, but I made the rectangle ones and some Tsukineko dabbers work.  After stamping out my trees, car and trailer in Momento ink, I colored them pretty simply with my copic markers.  Then I cut them out with the matching dies.  I decided they needed some grass, so I cut out some green card stock with my Lawn Fawn grassy border die and added a little Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to the edges.  Then it was just a matter of building the background with some tape and pop dots.