School Days!!

One of the things that I do love about cardmaking is the ability to match the card to the recipient...or, in this case, the school colors.

This first card is a CASE of myself with this card but I changed it up so that my son had thank you cards in his school colors for each of his teachers.


It was particularly important for him to give our thank yous this year as his teachers have been truly amazing.  My poor guy had some bad experiences in his first few year at the local public high school, enough so that we brought him home to home school.  But he still wanted to have a school experience so he enrolled for a few classes at Lutheran High School.  It has been wonderful for him - in fact, he plans to attend full-time next year so he can graduate from that school.  The school makes sure that the teachers have time to care about the students.  One of the teachers mailed a personal card to my son congratulating him on his growth throughout the year - you just don't see personal cards from teachers very often.
My second card is a quick graduation card in the school colors of red, blue and gold.  (I have just realized how dull the picture is, but it's already off in the mail!)Thank You Teacher

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Teacher's Apple, Paper Smooches pencil
• Paper: Stampin' Up Perfect Plum, silver
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Linen Impression Plate and Spiral Notebook die (cut down), misc gems and twine

Congrats Grad

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Blue Ribbon
• Paper: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Fancy Fan Embossing folder, scalloped circle punch, gold cord (retired)

Paramedics and Graduation???

Recently, I was browsing As You Wish Designs digi stamp (and Silhouette Cutting file) store.  I found a great sentiment set - I used one here - and I also purchased an ATC set.  I don't do ATC's but the bright colors drew me in - and THEN...I saw this image that I HAD to use for a friend's son's graduation. Isn't this perfect for just about any 18-year old boy???



I used this week's sketch from retrosketches - it perfectly shows off the image!!  And the little squigglies on top of the main panel of the sketch, gave me the idea for the notebook edge on the strip - thanks retrosketch ladies!

I definitely have some other As You Wish images bookmarked to play with!  And, if I had a Silhouette Cameo, I would be doing some cutting...hint..hint...(Yes, my husband sometimes reads my blog!)

• Stamps: As You Wish Designs digi, Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags sentiment
• Paper: Stampin' Up Natural Composition and black, Papertrey Ink Blueberry Sky and Soft Stone
• Ink: black
• Accessories: My Favorite Things Notebook Edge die, Stampin' Up Jewelry Tag punch, star brad and twine

iSpy Graduation Cards

Now that I am through confirmation cards for the church, I am moving on to graduation cards for our graduating youth.  As usual, I didn't plan ahead - so I have a large number of cards to make in a very short period of time (translation: (1) nothing fancy or complex on the card and (2) components that can be parceled out to my 12-yr old, my 16-yr old and my 53-yr old...although I have a lot of bribing to do as they are still tired of cutting and gluing and addressing confirmation cards last week!)

I used this week's sketch from iSpy Sketches as I thought the various panels could be used with papers to add interest.

We had a phenomenal fund-raising concert at our church this weekend.  (I had a flyer a few days ago on this blog).  It was for an amazing family whose very young daughter is going through her fourth round of chemotherapy.  The bell choir was one of eight groups that performed.  We decided that, even though we are mainly a group of middle-aged Lutheran ladies (and a few Methodist men pinch-hitting on the giant bells) we were doing....LADY GAGA...to appeal to the sweet, but very sick, young lady.

{My husband just wandered over, read over my shoulder, and said "Ha!  Middle-age??!!  Only if you live to be a hundred!"}

I'm in the brightly-colored boa under "Christ is Risen"??!!  Check out the director...she's got moves!!  Then check out the gentlemen whose head you see right in front of her that never, ever moves...that's her husband!  

I posted this on Facebook and a wonderful (but potentially former) friend commented "So that's where the missing communion wine went!"

I hope we made you smile!
THE CARD DEETS:

• Stamps: Our Daily Bread As You Graduate
• Paper: dsp is from Flair Designs (I've had it forEVer) and CS to match is Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel and Peach Parfair, Papertrey Winter Wisteria
• Ink: Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel and Versamark
• Accessories: Seafoam White embossing powder, Cuttlebug border embossing folder, EK Success postage border punch

Simple Graduation Cards

Last week, when I was frantically trying to come up with graduation cards for our group to make at church cardmaking, I put together these very simple cards...



I love the look of a rainbow of sentiments. Paper Smooches sentiments are so fun - they work perfectly for the rainbow! 

 Here's the masculine version...

   

The next card has nothing particularly unique or fun about it...except the sentiment. I want to give that sentiment a little more attention in the future because it's beautiful - but for now I just plopped it on a basic black and white grad card.

 

The sentiment is actually from Verve Breast Cancer set - but I think it works perfectly for graduation cards!

I need to get a few more grad cards up to the church card racks soon - but at least there's something there!!

Splitcoast CAS118: Banners

This just isn't something you see very often...

More on this later!

First, I have my card(s) for today's Splitcoast Clean and Simple challenge: Banners.  I thought I was done with graduation cards for our church card ministry, but the idea of a CAS card with banners got me thinking that I could do a group of cards based on each local high school's school colors.  So I finished those three and realized there were two private schools.  I probably should have done some of the schools from the suburbs north and west of us, but I never obsess over things like that! (That thud you heard was the sound of all of my cardmaking buddies falling out of their chairs laughing hysterically over the fact that I stated I don't obsess!)

• Stamps: Studio G sentiment (the cheap stamps at Michaels), Taylored Expression banner
• Ink and Paper: a variety to match school colors
• Accessories: Taylored Expressions banner die, Cuttlebug folder, misc brads.

So what's up with the penguins??

This weekend our church held our second annual day of service.  We had 15 different projects- some in the church, many out in the community.  I was in the church working with a group making Magic Cards - they are great cards for kids as they image is black and white until you pull up a tab and it magically becomes colored (tutorial here).  We are giving them to Lutheran Family Services who will use them as birthday cards for their clients.  Since I was in the church, my pictures are some of the inhouse projects - but the people outside did such things as feed our local firefighters, build a handicap ramp, clean up the yard of a WWII vet, garden at Girls/Boys Hope homes, work at our local food bank and others.

This is a small portion of the group stuffing the penguins
to give to Ronald McDonald house.  They carefully
placed a heart in each penguin and then
decorate "birth certificates".

Here's part of the group making birthday cards.

This group is decorating brown paper bags for
Project Angel Heart.  That group delivers meals
to people dealing with life-threatening illness.
The meals are necessary, but the bags are treasured!

Here's my boys!  After they went to one of our
shut-ins home to install their air-conditioning units,
they worked to fill bags with toiletries to donate
to The Gathering Place - a safe daytime refuge for
women and children experiencing homelessness
and poverty.

I have to credit my husband for the success of the birthday card project.  I was so totally overwhelmed last week with our regular church cardmaking gathering, the service day (I also did all of the organizing/communicating) and a big bell choir finale with a full orchestra - that it fell to my husband to get all the parts and pieces of the birthday cards together.  He cut and scored for three days - and he will proudly show you his paper cuts!

Classic Graduation

I have hardly posted lately - it's definitely not lack of desire on my part - just a total lack of time!  Being a church musician and an active church volunteer near Easter can be very, very time-consuming!

I did have time today to finish up some Graduation cards that I wanted to get up to our church card rack.  I have done a number already (see Type: Graduation in the left column) - but none of them are traditional.  I definitely needed some classic black and white cards.

When I saw that this week's Less Is More Challenge was "off-centre" - I visualized this tassel hanging in the corner.  I used gold leafing to add the border.

The next card is based on the Techno Stamper Sketch Challenge.  (Techno Stamper is the challenge that allows me to link all of the other participants to my blog, so check out the bottom of this post to see the other players.)

And finally, I tried to use the CardPatterns sketch to showcase this wonderful sentiment.

The sentiment is from Heartfelt Creations and says:

God bless you and be with you

on your graduation day,

May He guide you and protect you

as you journey on life's way...

May He give you hope and courage

and faith that's strong and true

With the wisdom to achieve success

in everything you do.

 

I am now going to disappear from my blog for a few more days.  After church services tomorrow and lunch with my brother and family, I get the gift of a few days to myself in our mountain place.   My family has decided they can manage without me until Tuesday.  It's cold and snowy in the mountains and I am going to curl up by the fireplace with a number of library books that are almost overdue. 

"Off-Centre" Tassel

• Stamps: Tassel is DRS Designs, sentiment is a Stampin' Up single
• Ink: black
• Paper: black and white
• Accessories: scor-tape, gold leafing, gold brad

ConGRADulations:

• Stamps: Graduate is Stamp of Excellence, sentiment is DRS Designs
• Ink: black
• Paper: SU Black, Basic Gray, Going Gray, white
• Accessories: Taylored Expressions star impression plate, EK Success border punch (from their American Girl line)

A Prayer for the Graduate:

• Stamps: Heartfelt Creations (note: I cut up the stamp so that the I could use them in a different order)
• Ink: black
• Paper: black, white, metallic silver
• Accessories: Cuttlebug dots embossing folder, silver cord, SU Large Designer Label Punch (just peeking out the top)



-------------------------------------

Here are the other participants in the Techno Stamper Sketch Challenge:

More Fun with Shimmer Paints

One of the first posts that I did on this blog was a focus on Shimmer Paints - ten things that you can do with Stampin' Ups Shimmer Paints.  Well...I missed one!!  While I was enjoying my blog reading this morning - I found a video tutorial on Faux Mother of Pearl.  I can't believe that I didn't come up with this on the original Shimmer paint post because I had done if often in the past using Lumiere paint - it's a beautiful technique!

Basically it is as simple as using a ball of Saran Wrap to sponge on Stampin' Up's Frost White Shimmer Paint (made by Tsukineko).  When it dries you sponge the whole thing with any color ink to get the subtle pearlized look.  Dawn's video on this post walks you through the whole process and her sample card is gorgeous!

The colors on my card come from The Paper Players Color Challenge.

• Stamps: American Art Stamp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze, copics to match Poppy Parade and a green
• Paper: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Whisper White, Black
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Frost White Shimmer Paint, Sizzix embossing folder, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, SU pearls, satin ribbon to match Poppy Parade

Ways To Use Body "Parts"

Today's Splitcoast Ways To Use It challenge is to use people OR parts of people.  Since I am in the midst of graduation cards and I have these graduation feet - I chose to use "parts"!

I'm not feeling entirely right about how the banner looks across the top - I'm not sure why I'm unhappy - I just am.  But, the banner stamp and die just came in the mail yesterday so I HAD to include it.  The stamp and die actually have cute little bows at each end - but they just didn't fit across my card.

Edited to Add: I really do need to start listening to my gut - because I truly do not like the banner - so here's a simpler attempt with another new toy that I got from Taylored Expressions - the star impression plate.  I like it MUCH better.

Card #1:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Go Graduation (from My Digital Studio so sized to fit), Taylored Expressions Pennant A la Carte
• Ink: Stampin' Up markers in Poppy, Marina, Summer Sun, Lilac, copics for gray robes
• Paper: Stampin' Up black, real red
• Accessories: Taylored Expressions Pennant Border Die, Stampin' Up b/w gingham and lattice embossing folder

Card #2 uses Poppy Parade and the Taylored Expressions Stars Impression Plate

SCS Sketch and Graduation

I am a little late posting this morning as it took longer than usual getting my youngest son ready for school!

He's extra handsome today and
he KNOWS it!

These are his "girlfriends" helping
him smile!  This actually happened before
the first picture, thus explaining the
very red cheeks!

A few more of his classmates all dressed up!

Erik and his class are spending the day at the 27th National Space Symposium at the very luxurious Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.  Erik's teacher is an exceptionally good and very dedicated teacher who took the time to submit an application for a grant to teach about space exploration.  A "real-live astronaut" (but Erik couldn't remember a name) called the classroom yesterday to tell them that they had won!  Today they get to rub elbows with astronauts and major generals and government officials! 

Now...the real reason you are here...

My church cardmaking group met last week and we got all of our Mother's Day cards ready, but we did not get an Graduation or Confirmation cards done - so guess what you will be seeing on my blog for the next week or so!

BOTH of today's cards are based on the Splitcoast Sketch Challenge.

Wherever You Go:

• Stamps: Paperbag Studios "Wherever You Go", Stampin' Up Itty Bitty Backgrounds (sprinkles)
• Ink: black and "sprinkles" in Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel and Real Razzleberry
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Real Razzleberry, Black and Vanilla, First Edition dsp
• Accessories: Metal Stickers Nailheads, SU Razzleberry Button, Southwest Corner punch, twine

Graduation Girl:

• Stamps: Stampin' Bella graduation girl, Hero Arts sentiment
• Ink: Memento black, copics
• Paper: Stampin' Up Old Olive, Eggplant Envy (old), Bo Bunny dsp
• Accessories: EK Success corner punch, SU Olive ribbon, gems and scalloped border punch, Stardust Stickles