Cubist Template

The Hen House got a whole bunch of 6 x 6 TCW Templates last month.  I have become a big fan of them.  I used Mini Cubist with Distress ink pads for these two cards.  I also used My Favorite Things "squiggle" die.  The sentiments are Paper Smooches, of course.

One of these will be in my August class.

Baby Shower Invite

My dear friend from work, Michelle, is having her third child very soon.  She asked me to make the invites for her baby shower.  The baby is going to be a boy and the room colors are grey and blue.  Here is the card that I designed.

I had grand plans for coloring or paper piecing until I found out she needed 50 invitations...so clip art to the rescue!

"Spray" of flowers

For my August classes, I will be highlighting color sprays from Ranger.  One line is called "Dylusions" and they are known for their vibrancy.  This first card uses three of the colors from that line and a 6 x 6 template from The Crafters Workshop.  It was so easy to make!  Add some Dew Drops and a sentiment from Paper Smooches and Wa!La!  instant happiness on a card!

Make your own Washi tape

I have fallen in love with Washi tape.  It is so much fun to use on my cards and easy to reposition if my old eyes fail me on positioning.  In my July class, my students will be learning how to make their own Washi tape.  It is surprisingly simple and a bit addictive.  :-)

Here is the card that they will be doing.  The three tapes on the right of the card led me to make the thicker coordinating tape at the bottom of the card.  Notice how translucent the tapes are.  That's another washi property that I find fun to use.

Another Wednesday night of fun

Last Wednesday, I had another wonderful night of card making with the Wednesday Women.  Here are the awesome cards that we made.

 Debbie designed this fun card using her Cricket.  Can you see that we used the gel pen to make the paint look wet?

 Denita made this fun card using some CTMH stamps.  I just love this tree stamp!

 Heather used a Memory Box die and Martha Stewart punch to design her card.  We also used some of that flower fluff stuff.

 Marie designed this card using punches to build the burger.  Too much fun!

 Marti's first card was the super adorable "prego" card.  I am definitely going to use it for the next baby shower that I attend.

 Here is Marti's second card.  We stamped the background paper.  The dress form was from her Cricket of course. Love!  Love!  Love!

Here is the card that I designed.  We stamped on pattern paper and colored the flowers with PrismaColor pencils.

Background too beautiful to stay in the background

Sometimes a background stamp is so beautiful that it becomes the focal point.  That's what happened when I started playing with this Japanese lantern background stamp from Hero Arts.  After stamping it on a "leftover" from my background class a couple of months ago, I started to play with colored pencils, Stickles and washi tape from MME.  When I tried to layer other images or paper on top, I just couldn't.  Finally it dawned on me that the background could stand on its own.  So I got some vellum and stamped a great sentiment from Paper Smooches and layered it on top.  I added some wsshi tape and decided that this would be fun card for my July class.

Here is the version that I will be using in the class.  I used the Tim Holtz Spring Collection of Distress Inks to make the background.  I like both cards but I think the lanterns seem to "glow" more in the second card.  What do you think?

"Left over" cow?

Here is another card made by using a "leftover" from a previous class.  The cow was used the the May glitter and glimmer class.  He was too cute to throw away and I am so glad that I kept him.

In Memory of Silver

A week ago, my dog Silver got an infection that she could not fight off.  She was 16.  We adopted her from the pound the day before she was supposed to be put to sleep.  Her previous owner abandoned her because she no longer produced tears, so her eyes had to be cleaned twice a day.  As a result, she was blind.  She was such a sweet dog with a few quirks.  She was terrified of loud noises and had a way of finding every trash can in the house (even empty ones) and tipping them over.  When she panicked, she would tear apart any thing near her...my father-in-law's golf bag was an early victim.  But most of the time, she just loved to lay next to you and get her tummy rubbed.

Here is a sympathy card that my friend Jennifer made for us.  It really made me smile...

Thanks, Jen for the thoughtful card.

Another "leftover" card

I combined two "left-over" pieces from previous classes to make this card...

The piece at the top was from by alcohol ink class while the piece on the bottom was from my background class.  Fun combo, don't you think.

More birthday cards

Here are some more gorgeous cards that I received for my birthday.  Sorry it has taken me so long to post.  This card was made by one of my favorite Hen House students, Sally.  Can you believe that she just recently starting making cards?!  Love the layout and all the coloring!

The card below was made by my dear friend, Donna.  She is an amazing card maker.  The attention to detail is impressive.  She really know how to get the most out of her die cuts.

One of the things I love most about teaching classes is seeing how the class participants take what they learned and make it better.  Did you notice that Donna's card was a new and improved version of my slider gift card holder?  Super cool!

This last card was made by long-time friend, Michael (should have a squiggly line above the "ae" and is pronounced Michelle but I don't know how to get to the special characters on my Mac) who lives in Montana.  I'm dying to know how she got the color behind the raised embossed image.

Memory Box trees are the bomb

Lots of time when I am preparing for a class, I go through many versions of the same card until I get it just right.  In the process, there are usually some fun left-overs.  The stamped image below was one such left-over from my background class a few months ago.

I matted it on some scrap blue paper and then cut out a coordinating tree using a Memory Box die.  The stamped image is also from Memory Box.    I had some blue pearls from a long time ago.   All in all, I think these left overs combined perfectly.