Be Strong - from Watercolor for Card Makers

I'm taking a fun class, Watercolor for Card Makers, at onlinecardclasses.com.  The first day I was so inspired by the videos, I have watercolor card backgrounds all over my craft room.  Class is on hold for me for a couple of days while my evenings are filled with WHL finals (go Hawks!), but in between periods last night, I used one of those backgrounds to put together a quick card for a friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. 

That's two people in the last year in my office alone and we are a small office!  I hate that this ribbon4cure set from the Stamps of Life and the matching dies are getting this much use.  This is one set I would like to say I bought but never found a reason to use. 

Alas, I broke it out again to stamp the little ribbon, heat emboss the sentiment on vellum and add a few sequins to finish off the outside.  I stamped the "fight like a girl" sentiment on the inside for a quick card, courtesy of one of the watercolor backgrounds I had made based upon a Kristina Werner video (so love her work) from the class.  It was super fun and easy using the Lotus background stamp from Hero Arts that I bought on sale a while back but had yet to break out (at least I couldn't remember using it previously). 

Sigh, I think the next class I have to take though is one on photography (or maybe I need to adjust my schedule so that I'm taking my pictures during the day, rather than the dark night), because this picture just doesn't do the card justice.  The background is really quite a pretty swirl of yellow, orange and pink.

Rain or Shine card

As you probably know, I follow quite a few blogs and I particularly love some of the challenge blogs, such as the Paper Players.  I fell in love with Jaydee's card from challenge #141.  It was so sweet and, best yet, used an umbrella so I could use my new Umbrella4You set from the Stamps of Life and the matching die.  I used a heart from a different stamp set from them called Sympathy4You to emboss my "rain."  I used some StazOn ink for the umbrella and was really pleased with how well it stamped.  I used a Color Box pad for the sentiment.  I was a little concerned about how well it would stamp because it's quite old, but I was really impressed at how well it stamped even after all these years.   I wish now I had added a little blue to the ink or to the embossing powder heart "rain" to make it stand out more, but that's the beauty of making cards, every time is an opportunity to learn.

A Great Day Layout

Here's the first of the insert pages for Week 15.  I found inspiration for the page from this layout from Sketch Savvy using the March sketch challenge at Scraptastic club.  It was truly the perfect layout for these pictures of birthday celebrations this last week.  In order to make these pages fit in with my Project Life, I used the Fact 6x6 paper pad to coordinate.  The title was made from stamps from The Stamps of Life stamps4life set.  The combination was perfect!  I used the Jenni Bowlin Studios Time Book stamps to create my own journalling card.  When I found these stamps on Scrapbook.com a few weeks back, I knew they would be perfect for journalling cards and I was right.  I've used them a couple of times already and I can see lots of potential for future uses.   

Here's how it looks in the book:

 

Birthday Wishes...

Wow there are a lot of birthdays this week.  For instance, my boss celebrates a milestone tomorrow.  So tonight I looked for a great card for him and loved the inspiration I found in this card pinned from somewhere on the Paper Crafts Connection blog.  It was a fun way to use some washi tape from my growing collection, a favorite Diamonds and Dots embossing folder from Quick Kutz, my new StazOn ink in Timber Brown and whole host of random stamps including the "today" stamp from Heidi Swapp's Memory File, the "celebrate" stamp from TPC Studio's Graduation set, a "is" and "about" built from the Ginger alphabet set from American Crafts and the "you" from the "Hugs to you" stamp in the Sympathy4U set from The Stamps of Life.  Lots of different products came together into one colorful birthday card.

Another Get Well Soon Card

In my quest for get well soon cards, I was inspired by this card from the gallery by Chillsgal. I made a few changes to it, like using my new Darice clouds embossing folder and adding a cloud from the Clouds2Cut set from The Stamps of Life.  The only thing I'm really unhappy with is my ink.  I've tried Stampin' Up ink and it doesn't work well with the clear stamps.  I tried some Quick Quotes chalk ink and I'm not too happy with it either.  I'm going to try another brand on my next card and see if I can't find one that I like.    I guess it's all about trial and error.

Get Well Soon Card...

I've been sick since the middle of last week, so when I learned that a family member had gone into the hospital, I really didn't have the energy to make a card and used the one and only one from my stash.  So then when I found out that two more relatives were under the weather, well, I had to make a few cards really fast.  Fortunately I had just got a stamp set and matching die at the recent CKC convention that I really wanted to use and was perfect for the convention.  I used the umbrella4you set from The Stamps of life and a card sample from the gallery to make this quick and easy card.  I used a base from the DCWV Neutrals box of cards.  The card came together quite quickly but was a reminder of why I don't use my old Stampin' Up ink with clear stamps:  the images just don't stamp really well on clear stamps.  I think I'll see how the Quick Quotes ink does next time.