Tulip Spray Birthday

This is another birthday card using Basic Grey Sweet Pea/Alyssa scraps from my table. The tulips are from The Angel Company's Floral Trio and the sentiment is Stamping Sensations' Thoughts Just for You #2. The tulips are colored with Copic markers RV32, RV34, G21, G24 and the ribbon is YR23.

Another Vintage Birthday Card

I seem to have accumulated a lot of scraps on my craft table, so I'm trying to use some of them up. This card is made from scraps of the Basic Grey Sweetpea Alyssa paper that I used on the CBL's Vintage Birthday card post last month.



The sentiment is from Stamping Sensations, Thoughts Just for You #1 stamped in Black Momento ink, over a swirl from a clear stamping set that I got somewhere. I don't know the company name, but the name of the set appears to be Monarch. The swirl is in Sage Green Versa Magic ink. The pointed flower at the corner are stamped from a Heartfelt Creations set meant to be used with the Blossoms 2 Nestabilities and the rounded ones come from a punch. I gave them a little umph by coloring part of them with the RV95 Copic marker and adding Cinnamon Stickles to the centers. The smaller ones are edged in Jumbo Java Versa Magic ink. The ribbon is from Michael's Christmas ribbon sale bin.

Pretty Lillies

This is a card I made a few months ago, when I just felt like coloring. The stamps are Stamping Sensations Botanical Collection #1. I used Copic markers to color the image, but I didn't write down the numbers this time. The ribbon is from The Angel Company's Mimi collection, and has been accented with some Gold Stickles.



My mom saw the card right after I made it and wanted it for a friend, so it was put to good use even before this post.

LOVE these Perfect Pearls!

I've always been a fan of Perfect Pearls. A few years ago, I took a class with Julia Andrus and learned all sorts of neat things you can do with them. I've been hooked ever since.

For the past few Expos, I've been demonstrating Perfect Pearls, and people say "I've had those in my drawer and have no idea how to use them". What??? That's so tragic! Perfect Pearls, mica powders that have built in binders and resins (not to be confused with Pearl Ex which are also mica powders but DON'T have the binders)are super versatile, and leave such a nice shimmer on cards. One of my favorite things to do with them is put a little scoop of Perfect Pearls in a Ranger Mini Mister, add a few drops of re-inker (usually used to re-ink my ink pads) and a bit of water. Then I spray the concoction on my paper, sometimes blocking out a portion of the card with a Tim Holtz Mini Mask like you saw in my "Father's Day Inkspiration" post a few months ago.

This time, I played with a Spellbinders Impressabilities template (the Flourish) that I picked up at the St. Charles Scrapbook show. I ran the paper and Flourish template through my Big Shot. Then I left the template on the paper, and sprayed my Perfect Pearls mixture over it. The lighter background on this card is the sprayed template. The bottom is from a pack of K & Company paper. My sentiment came from Stamping Sensations and the silver butterflies are from some punches I picked up when visiting my friend Rita in Ohio.



Next weekend, September 12th and 13th I will be demoing Perfect Pearls (among other things) at the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo in Tinley Park. If you're in the area, come on out to the Tinley Park Expo Center on 183rd Street, just East of Harlem. You can shop, see my demo and create various make and take projects. Our make and take on Saturday will be web books, so you can remember your username and password on all the websites you visit, and Sunday we will be decorating candy tins. Look for previews of both the make and takes and cards using Perfect Pearls here during the week.

Beagle Welcome Cupcake Challenge

My desk neighbor at work, Angela, is helping her local shelter by fostering two beagle puppies, starting this weekend. Unfortunately, the economy is hitting our area hard enough that people are giving up their pets because they are unable to feed them. Angela's friend works at the shelter and told her that pets are coming in so fast that they are running out of room to keep them, which means that if someone doesn't adopt them, or offer to foster them, they will be "destroyed" at a faster pace.

Destroyed....what a horrible word to use with respect to helpless animals that have lead their lives at the mercy of humans, and served them well with friendship and loyalty. Although I understand the position the shelter is in, and the position of those families that are forced to give up their pets because times are so tight, it's so sad to me that it has come to this. I would consider it myself, but we fostered one dog a few years ago, and ultimately had to give him up because of complaints from our neighbors that we were violating the condo association rules. That, and we don't currently have a work schedule that would allow us to give a dog the kind of attention it would need.

Since Angela is taking on a few extra puppies, which in her heart she knows will not be fostered and returned, but will ultimately become part of her household, I decided to make her this card to welcome them, and I used Taylor's Cupcake Challenge as the template. The inside of the card says "Acquiring a dog may be the only chance a human ever has to choose a relative". The beagle and sentiment stamps are by Stamping Sensations. The dog prints are a stamp that I've had for so long, I no longer know who made it, and the darker brown background is made from brown paper with a tan core, that I put paw prints on using a Fiskars texture template and then sanded so that the tan showed through. The friends ribbon came from Target's dollar section last month. The card will accompany a matching jar of puppy treats that isn't quite finished.

I'm sure Angela will be tickled, and I'm happy to do something nice for the puppies too.