You Are My Hero

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog! Today's card was created for the latest Watercooler Wednesday card challenge and is in honor of my son's retirement from 15 years of active-duty service in the U.S. Army. This young man has had quite a remarkable career and I could not be more proud of him! He started his military journey doing OSUT (one station unit training) for 8 months at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA where he did Infantry, Advanced Infantry, Airborne, and Ranger training. He then got stationed with B Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion at Ft. Lewis in Tacoma, WA. He did 2 combat tours with them to Iraq and Afghanistan and then changed his MOS to 97 Bravo where he trained for interrogation at Ft. Huachuca in Sierra Vista, AZ. He did another tour to Iraq with the head of the Multi National Forces. When he returned back to the states he applied for and was accepted to flight school at Ft. Rucker in Enterprise, AL. After 2 very grueling years of school, training, and SERE he received his flight wings and graduated as a Warrant Officer flying UH-60 Black Hawks! He was stationed at Ft. Campbell on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. I liked him being stationed there because it was a quick drive from where I live. He did another combat tour to Afghanistan with his new unit and came home to get stationed to yet another base. His final destination with the U.S. Army was Ft. Hood in Killeen, TX where he was promoted to Chief Warrant Officer II and made lead pilot of his air navigation team! My son started out at Ft. Benning as an E-1 Private and in 15 years became an officer and a pilot! I could not be more proud of him and all he's accomplished! He's going to be a dad for the first time next month and finds himself having to write a resume for the first time in 15 years. He's now enrolled at TCU in Ft. Worth, TX and will be starting an MBA program this fall. I can't wait to see what he does with the next chapter of his life! But in honor of all he's accomplished to date this card is in honor of him!

To create my card I started by layering some real red cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base. I then layered some patterned paper from the Authentique Pride 6x6 paper pad onto top. I then stamped the dog tags and sentiment from the Unity Stamp Company's Dog Tags & Thanks stamp set onto some Copic-friendly cardstock. I die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs and popped it up off of the card using some inexpensive fun foam I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I colored the dog tags using my alcohol markers and then added a few bright red sequins to the panel to finish it off.  Thank you for visiting and be sure to leave a comment if you like my card!

Thank You

Hello and thank you for popping over to my blog! Today's card was created for the latest AAA Cards challenge. I picked up the My Favorite Things Out On A Limb die and stamp set several months ago from a friend's destash but have never used it. As soon as I saw this challenge I knew I had to crack it out and use it. To create my card I started by layering a piece of early espresso cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base that I die cut with a stitched rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I then die cut another smaller stitched edge rectangle using the same die set and some white cardstock from Staples. I die cut the tree base from the MFT set using the same brown cardstock as the larger rectangle base and glued it directly to the smaller focal panel. I die cut the leaves using patterned paper from the Authentique Remembrance 6x6 paper pad and glued those down to the panel. Using more patterned paper from the same paper pad I die cut the sentiment using a die that I picked up on sale at Blitsy. I glued that down to the card and called this one done. I don't think I've ever created a card that had no stamping on it at all but this turned out nicely. I will have to challenge myself to make more die only cards in the future. Thank you for stopping by today!

Life Happens Coffee Helps...Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello and happy Sunday! Deb and I have another Coffee And Cards collaboration. This month we chose to highlight our favorite stamps. I will admit that I don't have a particular favorite stamp per say, but I do have a favorite stamp company that I tend to grab for over and over again and that is Unity Stamp Company. I'm particularly fond of the Angie Girl collection and they are almost always my go to stamps. I love alcohol coloring and, while I'm still trying to hone my skills, I think I'm getting much better at shading and adding highlights to my colored images. So, here I am using yet another Unity Stamp Angie girl...LOL. This card is actually a collection of many different stamps but I had so much fun putting it together and love how beautifully it turned out. To create my card I started by layering some patterned papers from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan 6x6 paper pad onto my white card base. I then took a small white doily that I picked up at my local Hobby Lobby in the cake decorating aisle and glued it to my card base. I then stamped the sentiment from the Honey Bee Stamps Blah Blah Blah stamp set directly onto the doily using Versafine onyx black ink for a crisp look. I then stamped the bookshelf image from the SugarPea Read Between The Lines stamp set, the coffee cups from the Unity Stamp Company's Coffee Side By Side stamp set, and the beautiful Unity Stamp Company's Planner Glad Don't Be Perfect girl onto some Copic-friendly cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink. I colored each of the images in using my alcohol markers to match the patterned papers. I fussy cut the images out and popped them up off of the card using Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. And then as I was assembling the card I managed to smudge a bit of ink on the neck of the girl (grrrrrr!) and didn't want to re-stamp and re-color it so I hand drew a necklace using a black gelly roll pen and added a small clear rhinestone from Recollections over the smudge. To finish my card off I added some gorgeous shimmer to her shirt, the flowers, and the coffee images using my Spectrum Noir shimmer pen. I plan on entering this card into the latest Addicted To Stamps And More card challenge. 

For my coffee choice this month I opted for a nice, warm, foamy cup of Dunkaccino from Dunkin Donuts. It's still cold and rainy here in SE Missouri and it was perfect after my morning run! Thank you for visiting my blog today. If you're not already a subscriber be sure to hit the subscribe button on the upper right corner. If you're already a follower I appreciate you and all of your wonderful comments! Now be sure to pop over to Deb's site and see what fun she has in store for you!

Happy Birthday To You

Hello and happy Monday! To create this fun birthday card I started by layering some kraft cardstock from Hobby Lobby onto my white card base. I then stamped the Unity Stamp Company's Maggie Girl onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock. I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp company onto the panel and colored the image using my alcohol markers. For some additional interest I added some doodled lines to her hair, shirt, skirt, and boots using my Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker so it wouldn't bleed with the Copic marker coloring. I die cut the panel using a Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle die and popped the panel up off of the card using some fun foam. I added some pretty red sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, some Stickles in sparkly red and snow white to the floral detail on her skirt, and some pretty shimmer all over the image using my Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen. I hope you like my card and thank you for visiting my blog!

Dude, You Rock!

Today I'm honored to be guest designing with the great team of ladies at Send A Smile 4 Kids. Thank you for having me this month ladies! The current challenge is to create a card appropriate for a teenager, so I immediately got out my A Creative Journey's I Just Love You stamp set and started playing with it. I have a tendency to always gravitate towards Copic coloring and I wanted to break out of my comfort zone on this one. So, I stamped the image repeatedly onto some kraft cardstock I picked up at Hobby Lobby using Versafine onyx black ink. I colored the images using my Prisma colored pencils and then die cut the panel using a stitched edge rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I layered some real red cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base, popped the focal panel up off of the card using some inexpensive fun foam from Hobby Lobby, and then added a small strip of the same red cardstock for some visual interest. The sentiments are from the Paper Smooches Slang Gang and Sentiment Sampler stamp sets and the dots below the sentiment are from the same A Creative Journey stamp set. I stamped them using Versafine onyx black ink and then die cut them using an MFT oval die. I punched the tiny red heart using the Stampin' UP build an owl punch and added some fun black stitched lines around the card, the inner strip, and the sentiment panel. I hope you like it and thank you for visiting my blog today!

If Kisses Were Snowflakes

Hello fellow crafters! It's February and we at W2CB have a new word challenge..."if kisses were snowflakes, I'd send you a blizzard." Those who know me know that I love my Unity Stamp Company Angie girl stamps and I love winter, so this challenge was a blast for me! To create my card I started by layering a piece of black snowflake patterned paper from the Heidi Swapp Noel 6x6 paper pad onto my white card base. I then stamped the sentiment from the Darcie's Heart & Home Snowflake Kisses stamp set onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock. I then stamped the beautiful Unity Stamp Company's Joy Girl onto the panel. I colored her using my Copic markers in nice neutral colors. I die cut the panel using a stitched edge rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I popped the panel up off of the card using some inexpensive fun foam from Hobby Lobby. To finish my card off I added some beautiful shimmer with my Spectrum Noir shimmer pen and some gorgeous clear sequins in 6mm and 4mm from Pretty Pink Posh. I can't wait to see what all of you create! 

Valentine Zombies

I am a huge The Walking Dead fan and love all things zombies. So, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to create a love themed card using a zombie them. I know...I have a sick sense of humor! To create my fun love-themed card I started by layering on some pretty ombre chevron striped patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye's Filled With Love 6x6 patterned paper pad onto my white card base. I die cut a heart using paper from the same paper pad and the largest die from the Essentials By Ellen Folk Heart die set and layered it directly onto my card. I then stamped the zombies from the SugarPea Designs Undying Love stamp set onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock. I colored them using my Copic markers in colors to coordinate with the patterned paper. I fussy cut the images out, edged them using my Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker and popped them up off of the card using Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. To finish my card I stamped the sentiment from the Technique Tuesday You Aren't Normal sentiment stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink and added some black dashed lines around the outer edges of the card and the heart. I absolutely love this card!!! I will be entering this card into the latest Paper Players 

 and AAA Cards card challenges. Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Confetti

Today's card was created for the latest Tuesday Throwdown card challenge. I created this card by layering some basic black cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base. I then layered a piece of graphic patterned paper from the 7 Gypsies Postale 8x8 paper pad on top. I took a piece of 110 lb white cardstock and heat embossed the sentiment from Unity Stamp Company's Confetti Kindness using Versamark ink and Recollection embossing powder in snow. I inked the entire panel using Tim Holtz distress ink in picked raspberry. To finish this fun and simple card off I popped the panel up off of the card using a piece of fun foam and added some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins in the 6mm and 4mm sizes. So fun, right? 

Hop Hop Hop

I got up and ran 4 miles with some friends today and it's still quite chilly and windy here, so making springtime cards seems strange to me. But I love sending cards to kids in hospitals. It brightens my day thinking about one of them smiling when they get a handmade card. So, that being said today's card was created for the latest Send A Smile 4 Kids card challenge. This week the challenge is to create a card celebrating Easter. I just picked up the latest Stampendous Spring Short Stack stamp set at my local Hobby Lobby during a sale and knew it would be the perfect stamp set to create a sweet and simple spring card for the kids. I started by stamping the rabbits onto some Copic-friendly white cardstock, coloring with my alcohol markers, and then fussy cutting them out. I die cut another piece of white card stock using the stitched rectangle dies from Gina Marie Designs and then stamped the sentiment from the Alley Way Stamps Spring Has Sprung stamp set onto the panel. I hand drew and colored some grass onto the panel and the popped my adorable little bunny images up off of the panel using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I then cut down some patterned papers from the We R Memory Keepers Simply Spring 6x6 paper pad and adhered them to my card base. I finished the card off by adding some black dashed lines around the outer edge of the cardstock and some clear Wink of Stella to the bunnies outfits and ears. I hope you like my card and thank you for visiting today!

Warm Thoughts

Today's card was created for the latest Watercooler Wednesday card challenge. I am addicted to Unity Stamp Company's stamps and probably have way more of them then I should. I bought the Planner Gal Stay Cozy stamp set after the holidays and have only inked her up once since. I thought she would be nice to use for this challenge. I stamped the image on some Copic-friendly cardstock and colored her using my alcohol markers. I die cut the image using a pretty stitched and scalloped rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I added some layers on my white card base using patterned papers from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan 6x6 paper pad and popped my focal panel up off of the card using some inexpensive fun foam. To finish the card off I added some Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen to the image and added some black dashed lines around the outer edge of the card and the center strip. I plan on sending this to a crafty friend who is hospitalized right now. I hope you like my card and thank you for visiting my blog today!

The Unkown Always Passes For The Marvelous

Today's clean and simple card was created for the latest Addicted To CAS card challenge. Those who know me know that I struggle with CAS cards. I love layers and patterned papers and dies so I really have to reign it in to do these cards. But the Unity Stamp Company's Other Side Of Fear stamp set really lends itself to a clean and simple card. The images are so striking and so beautiful that they really don't need much else. So, when I saw this latest challenge I knew I had to break that stamp set out and get it inky. I colored it using my Copic markers and die cut the image down using a stitched rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I popped it up off of the card using 3M foam tape and this card was done! I hope you like it!