Three Little Words

I did my FIRST ever color challenge for StampTV!!! I used the FREE digital paper download, Floral Elegance, that Gina is offering (she's so generous) and used it as my background. I'm not sure if I'm happy with how it printed on MY printer, it seems everyone elses is a richer color from the cards I'm seeing, but, I'll try it again at home and see if it makes a difference. Either way, I am so excited about this paper. I love that it offers a pink, green AND pumpkin color all in one pack! I will definitely try more challenges in the future. I'm not happy with how this scanned at all. Something about those brads, etc. that make it pop up and therefore things look crooked in the pic. Oh well... guess it's time to get my lazy butt up and charge that battery for my camera, huh?

Ready for Spring??

Boy, this winter seems to drag on and on and on and on! I was in Iowa City over the weekend (father-in-law is in hospital there) and yet ANOTHER blizzard, snow storm... whatever you want to call it passed thru! I'm soooooooo sick of snow! I think the wind was the worse of it all, of course... making things feel even colder. But... being stuck in a hotel and hospital is depressing enough when you haven't "made" plans to be there and then ADD SNOW!!! UGH!! So this morning... back comfortable and warm in my quiet office, I decided to bring on some Spring!!! I love how this card turned out. A "Z" fold, if you will. When opened, the part with the flower stamped on it hides the sentiment. I've seen this fold used in so many different stamps and honestly, the one I saw had the "flower part" more horizontal than vertical. But... like I said, it can be done with so many different stamps, etc. Have fun playing with the layout and enjoy!

Soft Sympathy

Last night I wanted to make a sympathy card for an online "friend" who's father just passed away. Actually, it's for her mother as she is most concerned about her, obviously. I didn't want to make the card using the "typical" images you see in sympathy cards so I remembered something she shared with us about how the funeral director explained her father's passing to her mother. Simply stating he was now a beautiful butterfly. Though my card doesn't concentrate on the actual butterfly, I wanted a soft reminder of him so I used the smallest butterfly I could find. Also, I decided I didn't want doom and gloom colors so I went with a very pretty, very soft pink with a kraft card background. I know she will be getting literally hundreds of cards from all the online paper crafters and this is but one that I hope will do nothing more than be another "hug" from the crowd. I must say, in real life this pink is so very pretty. I think the scanner doesn't do well with these dimensional pearls and (of course) my battery on my camera was dead. You get the idea though and basically I just hope it helps to inspire you to think outside of the "traditional" colors and designs for sympathy cards.