My Friend Betty

I won't be posting anything new this week as I am busy making a swap for the Calgary Regionals on Saturday. Carole'Anne and I are taking a road trip.  Pay attention Highway 2, 2 French girls will be driving south. Oh My!! The design I chose has turned out to be quite time consuming to produce "en masse".  I'll be posting my top 3 swap picks when I get back.

I thought I would share a card I made for my friend Betty awhile back.  She's been there through thick and thin and lights up a room.  Just look at that smile!!

Betty and I worked together for almost a year. I miss seeing her 5 days a week and hearing "mail call" at 1:00pm when she would arrive in my department to work the afternoon. The laughs we shared and the chaos we caused (well, that was mainly me) will always be remembered. The laughs continue as we get together once a month to make cards.  My little Frankii can hardly wait for her arrival.

This is what he does when I say "Your Betty's coming". He waits patiently by the window and as soon as he sees her car on the road he high tails it to the door and I just can't get there fast enough to open it.  That boy can fly off the front step!  From there, he is all over her.  He even lays his head on her lap when she making a card.  I love the special bond that they have.

A la prochaine!

10 Minute Challenge for February 26

If you haven't been following the blooming love story between Mr. Nasty and Madame Vilaine you're missing out on a real "tick tock time" J Head on over to the blogs by Carole'Anne and Sandi and see what's been happening. While you're there why not join in on the weekly 10 minute challenge.  This week it's a sketch: 

I decided on Rose Red for the base of the card, Taken with Teal and Black Cardstock for the squares and the Fresh Cuts set for the images. 

Punched out 3 - 1 3/8" squares in Black and 3 - 1 1/4" squares in Taken With Teal. Got out some gold embossing and stamped 2 of the images from Fresh Cuts.  Using one of the same images I grabbed some scraps of Rose Red and ramdomly stamped it with Taken With Teal. Headed to the Big Shot counter and ran the Wings Embosslit twice for the butterfly.  Applied the butterflies with Tomboy to 2 round clear buttons. A challenge for me is what to do with ribbon. I layed a piece of Black Satin Ribbon using Sticky Strip. Beforehand I folded the ends together and gave them a snip. Then folded a small piece with Sticky Strip horizontally and another vertically around it. Used the Crop-A-Dile to make a hole in the center and inserted a brad from the Circle Ice Rhinestone Brad collection. And there you have it, fait accompli.

A la prochaine!

LNS Challenge 59 - Soft Subtles

This week's challenge is to create using Soft Subtles, NO Neutrals.  I went with Bashful Blue, Lavendar Lace, Pretty In Pink and Perfect Plum.  Started with Lavendar Lace as the base, stamped Très Chic in Lavendar Lace Craft Ink and added Clear Embossing Powder on Bashful Blue.  I was a little shocked at the result, it came out a dark blue.  Liked it though so kept going. 

Made a tag using the Lots of Tags Sizzlit in Pretty In Pink and stamped the sentiment from Whimsical Words in Lavendar Lace Classic Ink. Threaded Pretty In Pink Satin Ribbon after using the Horizontal Slot Punch on the tag. It looked a little bare to me so I sprayed a piece of Perfect Plum with Champagne Shimmer Mist that I keep handy punched using the Scallop Trim Border Punch. I'm not thrilled with the result so I may go back to the drawing board and enter another one by the deadline, Sunday night. Any feedback would be much appreciated!

A la prochaine.

10 Minutes or Less with Sandi and Carole'Anne

This week's 10 Minutes or Less Challenge with Sandi and Carole'Anne is to use these colors:

What to do, what to do.......

I started with Soft Suede as the base and added three Kraft panels.  Rolled the Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel on Bermuda Bay Cardstock with Crushed Curry Classic Ink, and Crushed Curry Cardstock with Bermuda Bay Classic Ink.  Then I headed to the Big Shot counter (yes, it has its own spot) and grabbed a few Sizzlits and cranked away.  Went back to the table and assembled a flower and butterfly.  Glued that on then made a sentiment using both tag punches, made a reinforcement using circle punches and tied a bit of twine to it. 

Not so sure I got it done in 10 minutes because I don't have a Mr. Nasty or Madame Vilaine and these two keeping me busy in between.

Can you guess which one is younger....

A La Prochaine!!

LNS Challenge 58 - Get Punchy

This week's LNS Demo Only challenge (Feb 15-21) is GET PUNCHY.  I used Old Olive for the base, stamped the background stamp Bella Toile in Olive Green Craft Ink followed by embossing in clear powder.  I also stamped the Bella Toile background on tissue paper in Elegant Eggplant Classic Ink.  Folded the tissue in half, added a piece of Elegant Eggplant Cardstock behind that and punched it all using the 5-Petal Flower Punch.

Keeping the pieces all together I poked a hole in the middle, added a Build A Brad that I made using a piece from the tissue paper. Before I inserted the brad all the way through I fanned out the petals to make the flower look fuller. Adhered the flower to the card using a glue dot.  For the sentiment I punched a piece of Elegant Eggplant with the Wide Oval Punch, added a punch of Olive Green Cardstock using the Designer Label Punch that was stamped in Elegant Eggplant with a sentiment from the Whimsical Words set.

Next I'm going to make a card for the 10 minute challenge featured on the blogs by Carole'Anne and Sandi so please come back in a few hours and see what I've come up with!

Your comments are always welcomed!!! Please be kind :)

A Valentine for My Valentine

With a combination of last year's and this year's Valentine paper, I created this little box filled with chocolate and a card.  The hearts were punched out with the Heart to Heart Punch, popped them up on dimensionals and hand drew the strings with the Stampin' Up Black marker.

It was a very hectic morning so this little treat was very well received.

A la prochaine...

All Things Vintage Challenge No. 55

The Challenge this week is All Vintage. I choose to use Ruby Red and Apricot Appeal. Embossed in Gold a stamp from the Baroque Motif set on Apricot Appeal and sponged some Ruby Red all over it. Made a layer with Ruby Red and Apricot Appeal, embossed in gold the letters from the Lovely Letters Alphabet and sponged some Ruby Red on that also. Curled that up several times and then layed it flat to give it a bit of an aged look. Then I took some of the flowers from the Pretties Kit, sponged with Ruby Red, sprayed those with some Champagne Mist that I keep handy in a spray bottle.  Made circles with Apricot Appeal using the 1/4 Circle Punch and attached some gold brads.

I actually made 2 for this challenge.  This was my first attempt.

The colors of the cardstock are Soft Suede, Basic Black and Very Vanilla. On the Very Vanilla I ran it through the Big Shot using a Texturz Plate, sponged that ever so lightly with Soft Suede and using a paint brush lightly added some Champagne Shimmer straight from the bottle. Made some oval cut outs which were distressed. On the Vanilla one, after it was distressed I rubbed the edges directly into the Soft Suede Ink Pad.  Using a hat pin from the Pretties Kit added pearls and some of the crystals. This was applied to the card using a bit of Sticky Strip. The ribbon is Soft Suede with half pearls in the Vanilla color adhered with TomBow.

Thanks for dropping in! A la prochaine...