Have a BEARY Merry Christmas!

Hi, everyone.

The card below was inspired by Operation Write Home's Polar Bear Tutorial and photos of adorable baby polar bears in ice caves. I have to say I am THRILLED with the way this little guy turned out.   :)

Distress Ink core paper; cardstock: Bazzill black, AC white
Cuttlebug embossing folder
punches: EK hole, Paper Shaper circle, Recollection snowflake
Creative Memories oval cutting system
pens: Uniball white, Micron black; tool: Staedtler bendable ruler
techniques: paper piecing and fussy cutting

While this digital picture is one of my better efforts, there are a few details that don't show up. The red core paper around the borders was embossed, and lightly sanded, using a Swiss dot embossing folder. Also, the outlines of the bear cub and the Santa hat were lightly inked using blue and black shades of Distress Ink, respectively.

Speaking of the Santa hat, Microsoft clip art images were used to make the hat and candy cane. After images were printed, they were cut out to use as templates.

If you haven't seen a Staedtler bendable ruler, you might want to check them out. A good friend gave me one a while ago, and I it comes in handy at the most unexpected times. For this card, I used it to outline the "cave" opening so I didn't get too tear-crazy.

Parting Thoughts

I'm hoping that this little cub brings a big smile to the face of one of our troop's little ones.

And, I'm thinking this could be a popular card at this season's craft fairs. Just need to find a way to keep the cuteness -- and attention to detail, while streamlining the process. Trust me, this little guy was pretty labor intensive... but definitely worth the effort! I couldn't be happier with this little bear cub.   :)

Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

God Bless You for Serving

Hi, everyone.

Happy Easter. Hope you have enjoyed a blessed Easter celebration with family and friends. Hubby and I went to church with hubby's dad. Then the three of us met up with my dad for an early dinner.

Today's card, which was inspired by today's OWH sketch, seemed a fitting tribute for one of our heroes on Easter Sunday.

Bo Bunny Liberty, Bazzill Admiral and Watermelon, stash brown cardstock
Stamper's Best sentiment stamped in Adirondack espresso
Fiskars and the Paper Studio star punches adhered with 3D glue dots, garage sale brads

Other than moving one of my "circles" to the bottom right corner, I stuck to the sketch. (Maybe there's hope for me yet!)  And, I'm still loving that new Stampin' Up! trimmer.  :)

Parting Thoughts

A huge thank you to everyone who left such kind comments about "The Sky's the Limit" bubble wrap card and "Feeling Blue?" ombre card. An extra special thanks to Nancy for featuring the bubble wrap technique in this week's Tuesday Tutorial.

It's really great to be back online. I was out of town -- and offline -- last week. But, I did have a few card-making supplies with me. Had a chance to make a few dad cards. Hope to share a couple of those in the next few days or weeks. :)

Thanks for stopping and have a great week! Happy scrappin'!

OWH Midweek Throwdown

Hi everyone,

Hope the week is going well.

I have two cards to share. [Well, maybe 1.5 cards would be more accurate. :( ]

A Masculine Card: All Buttoned Up

The first card is for this week's OWH Midweek Throwdown. This week's challenge is to make a masculine card.

Kaiser Up, Up and Away; ek border punch, Martha Stewart button punch; ribbon, DMC floss

I've been making quite a few pocket cards based on a sketch from that wonderful Leisure Arts book. I added dimension to the buttons using several different inks. Wish I remembered which ones I grabbed when finishing this card. :)

An Unfinished Card: Not Ready for Prime Time

This little card was inspired by a cute patriotic door plaque I found at a flea market.

Core paper; hand-drawn stitching

 My two concerns:

• It feels like it still needs something -- I just don't know what. Maybe some Baker's twine?
• The top third is taped down, with the fold in the middle tan section. The problem with this is that there is not nearly as much space to write as I thought there would be.

Is it worth sending to OWH? If yes, any suggestions, ideas for making it better?

Parting Thoughts

Loved yesterday's OWH tutorial on 6 by 6 pads!  If you haven't yet seen it, it's definitely worth checking out.

Really excited about this weekend's VCMP!

Until then, happy scrappin'!

Tuesday Tutorial

Hi everyone,

If you've come from OWH's Tuesday Tutorial, welcome!

Nancy's Weekly Tutorials 

A couple of weeks ago, Nancy contacted me about featuring a couple of my cards on OWH's weekly tutorial. Frankly, I was stunned. Week after week, Nancy's tutorials feature great techniques, like this tutorial on Kathryn's adorable Santa card, that produce fabulous cards. My little technique seems to pale by comparison. 

The Featured Cards

Nonetheless, I was really pleased by the way these two cards turned out. If you're interested in details about the making of these cards, please click here to view the cards' original post. As mentioned in the earlier post, both cards were inspired by one of OWH's weekly sketches.

It turns out that Close to My Heart calls the technique used "first, second, and third generation stamping". That sounds so much more official than my "ghost images" reference!

Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks for stopping by. And thanks, Nancy, for the invitation to feature these cards on the Stars and Stamp blog.

Happy scrappin' to all!