Happy Monday,

So, with my new goal to make a minimum of 4 cards a month (realistically 2) and keeping them very simple, no fancy coloring, no fancy anything, I decided that it was time to start at it.

I took one of my favorite layering stamps by Altenew, The Ranunculus, and some of Altenews ink cubes and got to work doing some layering. Did I take pics along the way?  Of course not. Doing that would mean I was thinking of posting it as a blog post or letting anyone other than the potential recipient know that I had made a card. But...what is the point in having a blog, and putting up a blog post saying I'm going to make a few cards, and then NOT posting a blog about the card?  

So, here we are!!!

I was stumped with what I wanted to do after I had the pretty flower and a few leaves stamped and cut out, I mean, ya, glue them onto paper, okay, I understand that part, but how do you make it look pretty? So, I decided to use a stencil behind it. A sweet friend of mine, Nancy, suggested I do some spotlight stenciling just behind the area where I was going to be putting the flower. GREAT idea Nancy!

The woman who this card is intended is going to be having some surgery this week, and she is far, far, far from being a fancy woman who likes glitter or bling, so I knew I had to keep it pretty simple. I did do some glimmer spray over the background but managed to keep all the sparkles and sequins away. I think the card came out looking pretty nice. 

I hope y'all like it.

2021

HAPPY 2021,

WOW, 2020 was quite the year, I don't think it was what any of us were expecting in January a year ago. It was very rough for many of us. I've been so happy to see so many of my crafty friends have been so extremely busy with making cards and doing other crafty adventures. Sadly, I have been in a MAJOR funk throughout the year and have done almost no crafting. I could give a zillion reasons, and most would be very legitimate, but they boil down to be nothing more than excuses and just not getting off my duff and being creative.

What will 2021 bring? 

WELL???  I'm hoping it brings any and everyone who wants and needs it, a COVID vaccine. I'm hoping it brings us relief from this pandemic that has brought so much heartache to our world. In the US, I'm hoping for some peace to be restored. I'm hoping that our country can get started back to some form of normalcy.

Personally, I have some goals. As many of you know, I've been working a lot on health issues and I'm currently about 15 lbs from my goal weight. I'm going to get to my goal weight this year, and I'm going to do that by getting back on track with my eating, getting my water in daily, and stopping my nighttime "crap" eating, and doing the daily exercise routine that I started in December.

I'm going back to work. I've gone back to the job I was working at over the summer, it is not the job I ultimately want to be working at, so I will be looking for a different job locally that will help me to use my education. And, speaking of education, I'm thinking pretty seriously of going back to school this semester. I have about 2 days to make the final decision on that. I'd only be taking 2 classes, I'd like to do it, I'm so close to having my associates degree, but, I also know right now, with working, and really working on my health issues, I'm not sure have the emotional strength and mental fortitude to be working on studying and homework and all that is involved in school (PLUS, I do not do well with online classes at all, and we have no in class classes this semester, so that is a major factor as well).

AND..... In regards to the fun stuff......... CARDS and CRAFTS!!!  (what I think y'all are here for!!!)

I have set a goal that is probably very small, but I think sometimes setting small goals that are achievable is better than setting huge goals and not being able to achieve them at all. My goal with cardmaking is to make and actually send a minimum of 2 cards per month. I'd like to say I'm going to make a minimum of 4 a month, and that is what I'll work towards, but 2 is what I am going to commit to. I'd really LOVE to get this blog running again, so I'm hoping to post the process and end results of the cards I make here on my blog.

I've also decided, I am NOT a fancy card maker, I LOVE simple, quick and easy cards. Maybe just an ink smooshed background with a sentiment, I'm not into doing a ton of coloring and a ton of scenebuilding (although I LOVE to see them, they are soooo beautiful, I just do not have the patience). So.... my cards may be just dropping watercolors onto a background, cutting out a diecut sentiment or stamping something on it and calling it a day.  IF those are not your type of cards, then, this is probably not your blog to follow. 

If you like to hear life stories, AND see a bit of simple cards, THIS is your place.

I hope this IS your place.

Happy 2021, and welcome to MY adventures.

Altenew Wavy Flowers in Watercolor

Today I started out with Altenews stamp set Wavy Flowers.

After I heat embossed it with Brutus Monroe Gilded on Distress Watercolor card stock. I picked out a few colors of pink and red from my Prima watercoloing sets and started watercoloring it. I am by absolutely NO means a water colorist, but I do enjoy playing with watercolor and seeing how they react. I had stamped it out once ahead of time and sampled different colors to see what I liked best and this is the combination I liked best. 

I really enjoyed the process of watching the colors mix together and trying to get some darker, shaded areas, although they may not show as well as I had hoped. I continued to paint the entire card front. And then I went back to touch up a few areas. After it was dry (I let it dry overnight, as it was getting a bit late and I had homework to do, school is another major part of my life). I did find some warping, so I definitely need to find a hardboard to tape it to while painting and to let it dry on.

I next cut it down an 1/8 of an inch on all sides and put foam tape on the entire back side. I used black paper to cut a sentiment and mounted it all onto a top folding card (slightly lopsided! I can never do anything quite centered LOL)

I am looking forward to doing this card again using alcohol markers, which is the primary reason I bought this stamp set, to practice using alcohol markers. I thought bigger images would be a good place to start using them.

I hope you all enjoy my card.
Have a great day.

Upcoming Card Making Hop

Hi Everyone,

I am a relatively new cardmaker, and I am going to be posting my cardmaking adventures here on this blog. I will occasionally be mixing in a mixed media project as the mood strikes, but lately the mood has not been striking for me to do those, I'm hoping my mojo for that comes back because i truly do enjoy doing mixed media.

My first card is going to be posted very soon. I have been invited to participate in a blog by a group called The Collective Creators.  This "hop" is being run by Courtney Kreeber, and is "Friendship Hop". We are creating cards regarding friendship. 

I'm really looking forward to showing what I have created and I hope you will all enjoy not only seeing my card process and will go through the entire hop, this is both blog and YouTube.

Thanks for stopping by, Hope to see you soon.