My Rubber Therapy Blog

Thinking of you

Hi Friends,

You will start thinking I love my flowers if you have held on to thinking it thus far.  Yes I love flowers, the real ones as well as the ones I can make myself with paper.  There are more kinds to come, right now I have a fetish about daisies and stamped flowers as well as you will notice below.

I was at my first make and take session ever since we were in California so that is dating as far as WOW 5 years ago.  It was an impromptu thing as I got in and was offered to partake in a Make and Take for free.  Wonderful memories came back to me reminding me on how special the classes I was taking in California with my lady friends from time to time and I dearly miss them so as well as the fun shopping moments we had on Wednesday's after our weekly luncheon.  Waving at you now!

The Make and take was about Penny Black's recent flower stamp sets. It was fun taught by Charlene the Store owner (wonderful lady).  It entertained me for a good 45 minutes and was able to get some sets with me to take home and play.  So this card is my using one of the flowers on this set to make this card.

This card will be received shortly

This card has a special meaning and was sent to a very special friend

CS is from SU two pinks and whisper white.  The Spellbinder used is rectangle inside the Timeless Rectangle S5-158.  The leaves are from Sizzix Susan Thierney Cockburn die cut set of leaves, the larger pink flowers are from Penny Black's stamp set called ALLEGRO set of 6 flowers (ideal to use with watercolor techniques)

Ribbon from stash, Thinking of you Sentiment from extensive peel off stash, the lattice back is from Cheery Lynn Designs and the rest of the flowers and leaves on the card are from paper punches I have in my collection.  I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder for the first layer.

I want to point out the little lady bug on the right hand side leaf.  Yes that one!

I made this with red Liquid Pearl.  I put a tiny bit on wax paper to form a bubble.  Waited for it to dry and with white Liquid Pearl I added the tiniest of bead of black to form its little head, left it to dry some more.  After all was dry, I took a Micron extra fine pen and added the black dots and colored the white head black.  Once dry I used my craft knife to remove it from wax paper to apply it gently to where it is sitting on the card now.  Fun experience.  Try it.  I will get myself some black Liquid pearl as soon as I can get my hand on one. It's all in the details!

I hope you enjoyed this newest card of mine.  Thanks for looking!

Happy day!

Daisies and more daisies!

Hi Friends,

As promised here is a Birthday card I made for a friend.  She reported that my card not only made it without being crushed, but seeing the flowers on it, she knew it had to have been a time consuming card which I don't mind making.  I will show you soon how I send my flower cards so if you have to ship some, you wil have an additional option to send your flower cards.

So here is the card:

All on white textured or non CS

 

Focal image I used Spellbinder Labels Twenty, with matching stamps from Just Rite Stampers called Fleur de Lis with blue ink.  Sentiment old SU Stamp.  The lace stamp is also from Just Rite Stampers in the background.  Spellbinders edging die cut and an embossing folder (didn't keep the name of it sorry).  Ribbon from stash

 

 

Flowers:  Cheery Lynn Designs daisies (4 on die cut) different sizes.  I used a stylus and molding pad to form the daisy petals and used some Liquid pearl for the center of daisies.

I hope you enjoyed this card enough to give it a try of your own rendition of daisies.  Sometimes the time consuming cards are the most rewarding because it is challenging you from the moment you start it to the end, when you say this is enough and it looks elegant enough to stop.

The following roses are from my garden...

I hope you enjoyed them!

TIP:  If you love flowers and you want to try making a piece of your own, why not start on a scrap piece of white CS putting flowers together in a satisfying way to you, it could be a swag, a wreath, a window sill, a door you will affix this onto later, so make sure you stay between the acceptable size of the card you will make with this beautiful flower arrangement.  Once you see it will work, glue on the flowers going from the center working your way to each side keeping things balanced.  If not sure, leave work there, walk away and come back later, you will know what's missing and so on.  Don't let your old paper punches collect dust, use them, that includes die cuts.

Thank you for looking and you are so very wonderful to leave your complimentary comments before you leave, I do appreciate them all at all times.  If you have questions please don't hesitate to ask.  Unless I mention it on the recipe, if I don't have a name for something I call it from my stash or didn't keep the name of the item but if you know you can comment and leave the name with you for others to know if they wonder about it.  Thank you.

Tips and ideas are always welcome too!

Happy creativity!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect Blend

Hi Friends,

I hope everyone is enjoying their Summer thus far, and Winter for some of you in Australia.  Here it has gotten hot again our usual Summer heat is back after giving us about 5 days of relief last week.  When New York was having the heat, while we were enjoying the 70-80F they usually enjoy.  But today and possibly for the rest of the week we are supposed to get some thunderstorms (Cheering).  It would be so welcomed.  So we will let it play out the way it is wanting to,  let us have some beautiful rain and let you know later if we were served generously or not.

We are supposed to be in the middle of Monsoon season which means torrential rain when it comes it comes by full buckets at once.  But we only got one really good rain like that since the end of June.  So, we are hoping with a smile on.

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My card today makes me want to have a Perfect blend when the weather is sad so here it is with how I made it and materials needed:

My perfect blend card!

Paper and CS need:  SU Close to cocoa (not sure if retired color or not) that's the card base.  From my stash I found papers that were going well with my top layer.  Corrugated paper from my stash.  My top layer is made from a white CS distressed with Tim Holtz Distress ink pads (Tea dye, Thumbled Glass, and Old Paper) Black Memento Tuxedo Black and Crystal Effect for coffee beans, 2 hues of brown colored pencils to color the coffee beans.

Stamps I used:  Perfect Blend SU, Gorgeous Grunge SU and finally Coffee beans from an old SU set.  Note:  I have dismantled all the SU sets I own and put into 3" binders by categories so I can't say what set some stamps are from unless they are recent ones I just purchased.

 

Step one

 Stamp the coffee cups first.  You will need to stamp 4 of them.  The cover is an additional dimension along with the corrugated paper.

Once stamped images are on white paper, I distressed them with the ink mentionned above.  Tea dye and Old paper.  Old paper was used mostly on the cover.  My next step was to make my top layer where the coffee cups will go after being cut out and put together.  When I decided that my top layer was the way I wanted it, I added with a sponge dauber, a few Thumble Glass spots so I could add the blue layer on my card and the other written looking distressed paper.  All papers are matted with Close to cocoa CS.

Coffee beans:  Easy peasy, colored the beans, cut around them secured them to a paper before adding some crystal effect to all of them, left aside until dry.  Glues on to card lastly.  Hemp bow was also added to corrugated layer last.

I hope that helped you wanting to make one of your own, and thanks for dropping in, it must have been a shock to see that this card was made without flowers, gotcha!

Next card is another pride and joy card made with daisies for a dear friend.  I can post it since she received it and opened it before her Birthday.

Have a Happy Day! 

Do you like poppy flowers?

Hi Friends,

Since I have the Memory Box Poppy die cut I had to make a card to make it look spectacular.  Outside of roses that are my favorites of all flowers, poppies are close second.  So this card is simple to make and requires very few supplies.

Very simple to make

Took this one when the sun was setting therefore darker.

What you need for this card....CS in white for base and mat with embossing folder Cuttlebug called Charles (I love it).  It comes with its small red mini embossing which I used on this card as well.  Best wishes from my peel off in gold from stash including the mini dots on 2 corners.  Pink satin ribbon from stash, an additional strip of black CS and one Poppy die cut by Memory Box plus a few colored pencils pink (2 hues) and green (2 hues) so 4 colors total.  The OMS coloring technique is in use on this card.

How to proceed:

Card base is left aside until the very end.  Measure the size of your black mat I chose mine to be 1/8th of an inch wider than the pink that comes on the next layer.  The space on the pink later will be a little wider so I measure my white CS to fit for the next layer and run it through the Ebosser and applied it on the debossed side in this case.  Those 3 layers are now together.....next....cut a fine strip of black CS about 3/4 inch thick and 4.25 inch wide. 

With another piece of white CS run through the Ebosser machine the smaller strip of embossing folder by the same name (Charles) once it is done, keeping in mind the strip will be adhered onto the embossed side for this piece, but cut around the dots like seen on the photos up above.  Keep corners square if you can.  Set aside.

Poppy die cut, place on work area and select the 4 colors, 2 tones of pink and 2 tones of green is needed.  Get your baby oil or Odorless mineral spirit ready along with your paper stumps to color your flowers.  The bottom cup of the flower is colored darker and the top is subtle (mix colors with stump in circular motions.  Apply darker and subtle until you are satisfied with the colors.  Do the same with the stems.  Once finished, use some foam adhesive under the flowers to adhere to the card leave the stem loose.  You are now ready to finish the rest of the card.

Now adhere the black strip of CS first (but always double check that all items left to adhere on the card will have an approx 1 1/2 inch clearance from the bottom of the card.  Test it first.  Once the black strip is on add the rick rack embossed piece on top of it   I used the top of the black strip as measurement to keep it straight.  Then I applied the one strip of ribbon going around the 3 layers of CS as well as the 2 smaller strips of CS, center the ribbon based on the middle part of the embossed strip as per seen on the card up above.  I made a double bow with my homemade bow maker, then added the Best Wishes and small tiny dots on the top right and bottom left.

Thank you for looking and giving me a line in the comment box.  Truly appreciated, always!

Have a lovely crafty day!

Cute flower stamps (Easy card)

Hi Friends,

Being a crafter, I always welcome the easier cards as well as I have days when I just want to sit down and come up with different ideas for flower making and so on.  Today's card was one that I had been wanting to keep simple for the simple card mood days.  So if you have a few flower stamps in your modest collection, look for the smaller ones,  you can stamp a trio and create a small cluster like this, it doesn't have to be the same stamped flowers on my card.   Flower stamps can be used plus or minus adjustments for your own idea.

So this is the card for today:

Shimmer pink CS, white CS, Cheery Lynne Designs oval die cut, Spellbinder Labels eighteen, Heartfelt Creations flower stamps, ink, leaves die cut, Sentiment from own stash.  EMbossing folder Swiss Dots by Cuttlebug.  Pink ink and glitter.

It is still a card that mails out without extra fees

 

I wanted to show the shimmer paper in the photos so the glare is wanted.  Any CS could be used for this card I just happened to have some lovely pink shimmer CS near me when I made this card.  

The flowers were stamped onto white CS in red/pink ink cut out the flowers by hand, then I formed all flowers on a pad and stylus to give the petals a curved shape for a more realistic effect.  I did cut some leaves and formed them as well on a pad.  If you have no flower forming pad, a mouse pad can be used but if you can find something thicker it would be even better.  But get a feel with a mouse pad first if you have just that to practice with.

 Have a fantastic day everyone.  Thanks for looking and commenting, you always see me smiling for it.

 

 

A quickie card to make

Hi Friends,

Today's card is an easy one and equally as quick to make card.  We all love those easy card days when we need a quick one in our collection.  So this one is one to have set aside for the JIC days.

 

 

This card is made with SU CS and stamps by Just Rite Stampers, ribbon from stash

The background lace layer was created with the Just Rite lace stamp which I inked up with VersaMark then stamped onto the CS following with a coat of white (opaque) embossing powder to then heat up with heat gun until the stamped image shows whiter and powder traces are gone.

The sentiment part was also done in the same principle.  The rest of the card is straight forward when you see it you can tell how it was put together so I will leave this up to you.  Come up with your own rendition of this quick and easy card, it is amazing the stamps you haven't used in a long time that could come in handy for this type of card.  Our stamps no matter how long we have had them for are always something to use.  Don't let ads on new stamps fall into the wanting to get them bit, we already have so much to keep us busy.  I ask you to go in your work area and find an older stamp hidden between so many other goodies and make a card.  Re-use that stamp and remember why you had gotten it in the first place.

Thank you for dropping in to look at my latest cards.  I do so appreciate all of your comments and especially tips on what you see from my cards if you have another suggestion to use in place of something you may not have on hand are appreciated.  I love the moments when I say "Why didn't I think of that first?" Moments, don't you?

See you later!

"flowers in a vase" card.....

Hi friends,

Welcome back!  Today I am excited to share this next card with you.  It is another one I started without having a specific plan for it, I was playing while letting my imagination take me to this result.  Hubby had a really big smile when he saw this one too!  He always asks how long did that take you to make?  I always answer a long time, but it was so much fun and that is why I love letting my fingers build something from scratch to see the mysterious end product.

So here it is:

I took many pictures hoping you would see all the details from side to side

 

I don't miss the ribbon I was going to add to this.  Simplicity is often all that is needed.

 

Up close and personal hee hee

 

This card was made with care.  Products used were the Spellbinder Majestic Elements S5-161 Radiant Rectangles which is fast becoming my favorite of the moment.  Easy to cut and elegant looking.  Hand drawn vase which I ran through part of an embossing folder and later added some glitter to the embossed design on the vase.

Ferns and leaves from different brand names, IO, punches, MS and some liquid pearl was also used with some Stickles.  The embossing folder I used is from Cuttlebug by Anna Griffin, called Roses.  Gorgeous embossing folder as it is not too deep and doesn't break the CS which is my kind of expected result.

I hope it was a fun card to look at and thanks for dropping in to see my work.  I really appreciate all the comments for my work, it is encouraging me for more cards to show you in the hope I can inspire you and give you ideas on perhaps some die cuts you already have and haven't used all that much yet.  Show appreciation to your dies, don't just collect them hee hee

Have a great day!

Sharing another flower card

Hi Friends,

I had started this card last week and set it aside until I decided on how to finish it.  Now that it is all together I can post it.  I will not elaborate on how I made this card or I would take too long but will sum it up for you quickly.

Window sill flowers.  Graphic 45 paper inside the window.  White CS, Gold mat, Spellbinder Window two S2-016 part of the D-lites collection, mini roses from Impression Obsession dies Die042-1, Sizzix Tim Holtz Brick wall embossing folder.  Various die cuts for leaves, fern and mini flowers.

 

I made roses like you see for a whole day.  White, red, pink.... it was fun while watching some TV shows I had taped for a while.

The lilac behind the card is not part of the card.  I was taking pictures on a flat surface this CS was close to me do I used it to hide my work mat.  From a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the hardest for this card I would call it a 5 (and time consuming) Not sure if I will send this card.  This is the reason why I have no Sentiment on it.  I am still learning on how to make better flowers.  Work in progress, I hope you enjoyed looking at it.

To end today on a funny note here is what I found the other day, she was trying to sit still with the decor hoping I would not see her....Can you find her?

From time to time I see her coming out to feed she is my courtyard frog.  The bull frog one is staying in the backyard in the other pond.  They never meet.  Who knows she probably thought that the bigger decorative frog is her silent friend....

Have a fun day!

Thanks for dropping in, come back soon, you may like the next card in a few days too!

 

 

My pride and joy card for this week

Hi Friends,

My pride and joy for this week is the following card.  As I mentionned on the last post I made quite a selection of small flowers for a few days in a row.  Now I can sart making cards with those flowers on different backgrounds, sometimes using windows, sometimes doors.  I try to change the scenery whenever possible.

Here is the pride and joy of my cardmaking this week

Many die cuts were used for this card. 

 

Recipe

I used some Avalanche Bazzill CS for this one.  I positionned the die cuts on top first and bottom second so it would cut the card front and leave me with such a beautiful canvas to play with.  What a pleasure it was to play with this one.

I had prepared my daisy flowers ahead of time with Cheery Lynne Designs daisy die cut.  Formed them on a mat to desired shape, trying to ressemble to the natural daisies.  Once it was shaped I added some white glue into the middle then added some yellow flowersoft with a tool I was slowly patting it down on the edge first and then tapped on the middle so all the Flowersoft was no longer loose.  Let them dry before using them.

Memory Box die cut Twigs were used under the daisies.  Marianne Designs die cuts, Cheery Lynne Designs,  Sizzix Susan Thierney Cockburn's daisy leaves were used, etc...

For the Marianne die cuts which are the ones on top and bottom of the card.....After cutting and embossing each one,  I took a stylus to the appropriate size and pressed again in each grooves where there is embossing to be had.  It made the embossing work stand out even more.  I now started to do this on all my die cuts that has embossing work on.  Stunning results by the way.

That sums it up for this card.  I hope you enjoyed viewing my latest card as it was for me to share with you.  Have a lovely day.  Thanks for stopping by and leaving some nice comments, a blogger's fun part to read comments by the way.

Happy Crafting!

 

Another weather Dud

Hi Friends

When the weather forecast was way off.  I am giggling here because what they had not predicted, we had. A few days before that we had an impressive rainfall for our area.  We had a gatghering of black clouds over our small town at once.  But the mega storm never happened.  Instead we got some awesome cooler temperatures in the 70's which is my all time favorite.  The sky was covered for about 3 days with hardly any sun, another favorite of mine especially when it is mid-Summer.  We woke up to a beautiful mountain scene on Monday norning though.  The mountain had a small blanket of dark clouds covering it.  It was as if the clouds were hugging the mountain.  Awwwwww!

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I must say I have been playing in my studio for the passed several days.  What was I doing?  Rolling a lot of small flowers for the purpose of cardmaking.  Different colors and sizes to put in my compartmented storage bins.  So when I need them quickly, it is made and ready to use.  If you already have made flower cards, you know how intense it is to make all the flowers you need for a small area and having them ready at will is awesome, so I have done that and happy about cleaning my desktop for other things to make.

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Today's card is one I made with some Spellbinder squares "going back to basics" as I wanted to use squares for the background, then using ink to accentuate the look of embossed die cuts in the background.  This is made by simply removing the cutting sandwich in my case with the Ebosser, I had to remove my "E" plate before running through the die cut placed in the back of the cardstock.  Have a look at the card and you will totally understand how it is made. 

Imagine what else can be done quickly with this technique.

Used two stamps, one is F9023 Impression Obsession twig stamp and the With Sympathy stamp from SU.  Memento Black Tuxedo ink was used as well as textured paper for the top layer of the card.  White base card.

3 embossed squares.  Starting with square on the right, middle and lastly the lowest one are the order I embossed them.  I used a sponge dauber with some Memento Summer Sky ink pad sponging the exterior going in each square.

Martha Stewart Hydrangia punch the 2 smallest punch.  I punched out 6 smallest and 1 medium size hydrangia, in the center of the flowers I used some Blue Liquid Pearl to accent the flowers.  Flowers were glued with some Aleene's Tacky glue that dries transparent.

Before applying the flowers to the card, make sure you stamp your Sentiment to the card first.

How easy was that?

Have a fantastic day!

Thanks for stopping by

 

Pink and black!

Hi Friends,

Well I am in and out but I am slow at bringing new cards for you but I am trying to speed up sometimes speeding up things is not always good so I pace myself when I can.  Anyhow, today's card was inspired by Stamp TV new release video yesterday.  I had to push everything I had in the works to make this card.  I thought it was fresh and so pleasing to the eye.  Nothing to compare to the previous card is it?  But not all cards should be in the same category.  I like the intricate ones for the flower making but I also like the cards I can make in a jiff and cost a regular postage stamp to send.  We all love to save on postage when we can right?  Well, this one is for you, my own version of the card that inspired me.

This pink and black card was really fun to make and took me approx 30 minutes to make.

Recipe

As easy as 1-2-3

You will need pink and black cardstock.  Pink is your card base and a layer over the black.  2 Spellbinder die sets, one is the regular circle dies and the other one is the lacy circle.  Dimentional foam tape, ribbon, a rubberstamp of your choosing and a sentiment of your choosing as well.  Memento Black Tuxedo ink pad. Copic R02 and YG61, glitter pen for the inside of the flower

Prepare your base card then prepare the black layer that is next on the card do not adhere to card yet.  Set aside for now. When time to put card together, then 1/8th of an inch in add the next pink layer on top of the black layer once you are done the stamping.

TIP:  I always prepare all mu pieces first before permanently adheering the whole card.  I give it my final check before I go on with putting it together.  Chances are I will want to change something on the card. 95% of the time I do!

Take your chosen stamp and layer in someway (refer to picture) that is pleasing to you.  Next step is to highlight the edges of the flowers with the Copic R02 follow the shading lines, nothing hard to do which is the nice part about this card.  Simple and great looking.  Then do the same with the Copic YG61 for the leaves.  For the middle of the flower I used a white opaque pen to make it white and then once dry I added some glitter pen to it for a great effect.

Moving on to your other focal piece the circle,  Cut a piece of each Spellbinder circle and lacy circle in pink and black, before adhering both pieces make sure you stamp it with the sentiment of your choosing.  Then put in place. 

Adhere the stamped pink to the black layer and run the ribbon across like so on picture.  Then you can prepare a bow to adhere with a glue dot or not.  Now it is time to finish the card and lastly add your circle where you think it will look most pleasing to you.  DONE!

I hope you enjoyed this easy card.  I was happy to see how fast I could make something that is yet simple and so beautiful in the flesh.  Try it!

Have a fantastic day crafting!

Keep on smiling! 

We are in the middle of our called Monsoon season, pouring buckets of rain season LOL.  We had a good one yesterday enough that I was fearing that the water would get too close to all the doors....we are forecasted a really big one for the beginning of next week 2 fronts meeting and one of them is from the Gulf of Mexico, if this one happens as predcted I will have some mopping to do.  But we need RAIN! So I sit here and smile....

One card for today

Hi Friends,

Ah ah I bet you were wondering when I would be able to past a card, surprise!

This card has taken quite a bit of time to make but it was for a very special person and time wasn't an object, so I wanted to make something intricate and that was answering the call perfectly. 

Recipe

Be prepared for a few hours of time set aside for this.

White card stock for card base.  Loads of patience.

I picked a green colored CS for the OVAL BACK (coordinating with your leaves among your flowers).  I traced around the outside of the Spellbinder and cut by hand to get this extra layer for the rest of my work.  The next layer on top was made with a smaller size oval in white.  With the Spellbinder labels 20 (which is absolutely love) ran through the cutting machine (E-Bosser) for a Labels 20 shape into the while oval.  I also used the smaller lattice die cut from Cheery Lynn Designs it is a strip wide enough for this background.  Thus far all the pieces you have made set it aside.

Now time to work on the flower part.

I have some Memory Box die cuts that are small leave clusters in 3.  So I took the leaves of 3 on a stem and cut out so many in red making sure I would have enough to play with and cover the oval frame with them.  The same can be done with the leaves but in the green.

I took each cluster and with a flower making mat I cupped all of the flowers and with my stylus pushed down on the mat the middle of the flower that I would then use a small paint brush with some black acrylic paint to add some black to the middle of each of them, set aside to dry.  All the leaves I used a needle took to run a crease in the middle of each leaf.  Set aside.

LOL I said time consuming.....continuing....

Now you have all your pieces.  Hoping, enough to get you through the whole oval frame.  But if you are not this laborious quantity wise, you can just make a flower branch either on top or the bottom of the oval frame.  It will look just a beautiful.

I start by building my card, add my white layer on top of the white CS card base.  Then I move on to the green oval, place it on my card, I centered as much as I could.  Next...I adhered the white lattice strip to the back of my white oval with the labels 20 opening.  Place it the best you can and secure it so you have one piece.  Then use some foam adhesive for dimension to attach to the green oval.

The label you will use for the Sentiment can be cut later on but make sure you leave some space over the lattice part to tuck in your label.  Just measure the length and cut a little longer than needed so you can give a curve to the paper like I did.

Now comes the fun part...

If you want to make sure you have enough little flowers place them around without glueing them in place yet.  You will know if you are getting the desired look before it's too late.  You can then decide to just do a branch instead of the whole oval like mine.

All of your flowers will now go on the oval (see picture for reference) I added the leaves later after all the flowers were permanently in place I then just tucked in under the flowers where green was needed. 

For the Sentiment I used my foiling machine for the foiled look on the tag.

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I hope you enjoyed and could decide if it is something you could enjoy doing one of these days.  I could do them all the time I am passionnate about flower making.  Providing I have time I can play for hours on the same card.

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If you have followed me for a while you have learned that I love to play with inks, flower dies/punches, embossing folders of all sorts.  I love to mix watercolor effect in my cards as well so I can say I am loving to try everything under the sun for techniques. 

TIP OF THE DAY:  Mixing old techniques with the newest, I am loving the results I am getting with experimenting so much.  If you have ink pads and rarely use any of them, make a point in finding a card example you like in my arsenal and dare try to see how great it will turn out for you.  But the key ingredient to every card and technique I try, if I fail the first time, I try again and again to obtain the desired effect.  By doing so, you will never get bored making your own greeting cards. 

Experimenting also made me discover newer techniques of my own to end up with stunning cards I had no idea I would ever make.  So try and the worst that can possibly happen is to run out of ideas...

There are days when I am relaxed and feel like sitting there to start a few focus images to put on cards especially the cards that I have to run quickly into my studio and make to send the same day type of projects.  So I try this and that, stamp and color, leave aside.  Then another day I come back and look at these things I have made and will have a continuation of ideas with the started projects.  To end up with something really nice for a hurry up card to come. 

Have fun, high levels of creativity are attained by creating over and over again...Stress free and healthy

 

Fun story until I can post a card

Hi Friends,

Well, if you followed me for a while now, you know I have multiple sections of gardens around our home.  Loads of work but OH so rewarding.

My story is a cute and short one.  I had taken pictures of a few of our natural residents last year so you know we have big frogs around the two ponds. (Same photos attached for reference). So this year, while preparing the gardens I ran across the one from the back garden and have kept an eye on it, sort to see where it stays and what the pattern is just out of curiosity, right? 

So jumping to my point here, a few mornings early June, I would do my routine watering starting at the back moving on to the front of the house on a daily basis, I walked by the pond and saw the frog jumping up and down in the water frightening all of the fish in there.  So I observed it for a few minutes before deciding to do the following:

To me, it seemed like it was trying to tell me "I can't get out", which the water level was somewhat lower than usual, as I fill up the missing water once a week and that day was the day for a refill.  So I looked around for something to help her out of the pond so I found a dust pan on a long stick perfect to accommodate my fishing her out of the water.  I saw it going around the dust pan and she came back for the front of it and sat nicely in the middle of it, which when I saw the look of it, I couldn't help laughing out loud at her participating in her rescue this way.  So I pulled her gently out of the water and slowly deposited the dust pan near my honeysuckle bush.  She stayed there for a good hour before making a disappearing act for the rest of the day.  That was so funny to me. (see below photos shared in June 2012)

In Conclusion:

The next morning I got out and sure enough she (it) was going around the pond like a crazy frog trying to get my attention once again.  LOL so you know the rest of the story, yes, I have been a sucker and continued to pick her out of the pond each day she is there for an early morning swim LOL  She sometimes gets out without our assistance as well.  I am happy she is not totally dependant on our picking her out on a daily basis.

Very soon there is a card share...I feel rusted in my Typepad world, it feels as if I have been away for 6 months.  I am sure I will pick it back up like I have posted every day of my life hee hee.

 

Happy Canada Day and FIRE TALK

Hi Friends,

Just stopping by to say Hi and wish all the Canadians out there a great Canada Day!  Ours is in 3 days so for all Americans visiting my blog, Happy 4th of July as well.  BBQ day for all, in the meantime our company has left yesterday for a 16 hour long flight (I don't miss those) but they will be home after a very busy month away stopping in various places in Canada and the USA.  I am sure they will have plenty of photos to share with loved ones and cherish for a long time to come.

Preparing to make more cards this week so stay tuned LOL, I am coming back!  Thank you as well for all the lovely comments on my being away and coming back soon it warms my heart to feel your loyalty and friendship to all my special followers out there and the ones that only send me emails after reading my blog.  You hold a special part of my heart for making me smile each time I read your lovely words.

Now I hope I will be able to post photos and signature soon it seems to be problematic once again *rolling eyes* LOL

P.S.:  I have received quite a few emails this morning asking me if we are ok and safe from the bad fires of Arizona a neighbor State of ours.  There was also the humongous fire in Colorado for quite a while going on too.  Let me assure you that if it is not saying the fires are in New Mexico, we are safe.  I am not saying that if the winds were to blow more into our direction that some smoke would not affect us, but thus far we are lucky to not have to contend with such disaster and my heart goes out to all of those who have lost loved ones and family members trying to save homes throughout the disaster.   I may also add to this P.S. that we are in an excessive draught period of at least 3 years, therefore visiting nature and river surroundings have been prohibited because we are in an extreme fire risk.  Very little can spark up a huge fire, even a car stopped on the roadside may ignite a brush fire and if there is a forest next to it, say goodbye to it.  I just hope we can continue to be lucky not to have to fight another devastating fire.  Stay safe!

Hugs

Nikky