Challenge at Simply Create Too

Well good afternoon stampers. I had hoped not to have to share this with you...but alas, I may as well. I and my family have been living out of a local area hotel. Last Wednesday, my SIL rapidly strode through the house at 7AM advising us to get out of the house NOW! After taking one look at his face, I grabbed the dog & cat and my robe...I was lounging around deciding just what time I would be in my craftroom and also how I would be fixing the chicken in the frig for dinner. Within five minutes, fire trucks from two towns and EMS trucks were in front of the house (Neighbors on their way to work stopped to see too). Well, the short of it is we had a total electrical fire in the control panel box and it will have to be re-built...no easy matter in a custom-built house for which there is no electrical schematic available when there should be. But that's another matter. Sooo, if all the plans work out, we are hoping to be back in our home by next Friday. Please say a quickie prayer for just that. And, it goes without saying that we are so very thankful to God that no one was hurt and damage is minimal and that there is such a thing as home insurance.

Nuff said...on to my card...which I  made in the wee AM hours when the house was cool by natural sunlight, I might add.
So, I don't have my stuff to give you every detail, but here's the basics. The card is 5 1/4 x 5 1/4, stamped in Memento tuxedo black. It may appear that it is one BG stamp, but actually it is Just-Rite border stamps that are then die cut with a Nestibilitie Bordabilities die and adhered to the card in four rows. I added a 1 3/8 ribbon and a double bow, which I somehow managed to tie with my bowmaker...but please don't ask me how I did it, since I can barely make a single bow with that thinga-ma-jig.

So readers, I hope you are having an excellent weekend in your very own homes or if you are in a hotel, it is by choice and you are in the midst of a fab vacation.

Blessings,
Erica

Here's My CA grand-daughter

Just thought I'd post a little collage with my inept photo skills showing. I put this together using an IPad app. This is my 4 yr. old youngest grand..Sienna Harper, with whom I spent my month long visit to CA. She has the most incredible vocabulary for her age and we got along famously though we don't see each other often as I do my other two grands. Whenever she has done something she realizes is not going to be something her Mommy will appreciate. She puts her little hand up and says, OK, OK, I need a do-over...and then promply gets it right. It's just too funny. I love 4 year olds.

Blessings,
Erica

Cards for Teachers

Well, it's that time of year stampers...when we need to give a little something to the brave teachers who have done their best to educate our children...in my case grandchildren. I made these using papers from a Prima 6x6 pad called Madeline. Then I added embellies. The sentiment on the first card is a truly old unmounted stamp from a convention. The second is from Sparkle Creations called Bookroom Ruby and the third is from a Hampton Art Graphic Art set. It's vintage, no? Coloring was done with everything I had on my desk! I made some simple gift card holders which I'll put WAMA or Targee cards into and a message that they have a restful summer.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Less Is More Challenge

 Good Morning Stampers
I'm off for a stamping day
with friends. The four of us have become dear friends. Isn't is great how stamping does that.

Over at LIM, the divas have gone easy on us and asked that we "deliver" a baby themed card, so I delivered TWO, as in twins! The Lord blesses us with children and I do often need baby cards. Rarely do I have a stash, but I like making them on
"an as needed basis." So now I'll be ready for twins.

Here I used a Gina K heavy base weight white and embossed with a Cuttlebug teeny heart folder...(just picked a kinda of retro looking CB heart folder to add to my collection...I can't get enough embossing
folders).  I have had the vintage looking outfits images forever and they are very different looking plastic stamps for a company called Scraptrends. It's an adorable set I go to often.
The sentiment is from Autumn Leaves clear stamps called proud/smile I bumped a teeny heart I had laying around at the end for a little pizzaz. All the coloring was done with Letraset markers....loving these and gotta get more.
Well, off I go to get my friendship time on. Have a blessed and restful Sunday.

Hugs,
Erica

Simply Create Too Challenge Time

 Hi Stampers...this card has been up at Simply Create Too for a day or too and I haven't done the accompanying blogpost....mia culpa, but it has been a whirlwind Mother's Day (and a graduation Saturday) and fun.  I hope yours' was too.

This sweet little girl is a mini clear stamp by KaiserCraft called Lil' Primrose - Tea Time.
She's a find from my trip to California. The square she is resting on is a Nestabilitie and I did the 'outside the box' technique onto another Nestie diecut, and the lace strip is from Cherry Lyn. Papers are a mix of Stampin' Up and my ds papers. She is colored with everything I had laying within reach...ha ha. I popped up the teacup onto her hand as this is a separate stamp. And I jazzed her hat with some paper piecing. The flower is layers using an MS flower punch. The sentament is SU and a little bling finished off.

My Mother's Day was fun...a Thai restaurant for family, me and my dd who is mom to two of my grands. After church, I came home to a mopped floor in my bedroom...they could only sweep in my craftroom and left the pile of dust in the middle of the floor as they noticed a bit of bling in it and thought I might need to retrieve it...too funny! In the evening, we opened a lovely bottle of wine and relaxed watching "The Vow." Good movie.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Less Is More Challenge

Hi Stamping friends. The divas have challenged us with using yellow...never a favorite of mine. As a matter of fact, does
anyone really like yellow all by itself? I shall have to check a few posts. Several songs came to my mind for some reason...the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, The Yellow Rose of Texas, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Gosh, I don't know why, but I had no bikini stamp, no sub image, and only a huge rose, so I settled with the common baby chicks. Aren't they adorable? I  found them at a convention I went to several months ago. They are a DeNami Design image and I have lots of ideas in my head to use them. They're colored with copics and/or SU markers in "yellows".   The photo was taken with my Iphone and I added some filters in an attempt to make the white be really white...don't know as I've achieved that or not. After I uploaded this, I added some cute cloud dies overhead .The puddle of water from Stamp A Mania fits underneath them perfectly.
Although I'm a bit ambivalent about yellow, I have some other card ideas floating around my head, but that's because of all the inspiration from Mandi and Chrissie.

Hope your weekend is off and running, but not so much that you can't do a little stamping.

Blessings,
Erica

Quick...create a baby boy card

 Hi Stampers. How's your week so far? I'm using an IPad app to put some discipline in my life...you know, actually complete the daily "To Do" List. One of the things needing doing today, was a card for a neighbor who had a baby boy after having three girls. You can imagine just how welcome this little one is and how spoiled he will be. He's the baby by some 11 years.

The image is two stamps which required a bit of masking to get the bear atop the blocks. These images are in a Recollections Clear Stamp set called Bouncin' Baby Boy. It's my "go to" set for boy baby cards.  I used Nesties for the label and circles, some SU cs and retired dsp, pearls, ribbon, flax, buttons and Memento inks with copics. I definitely should have made that little bear a darker. It is somewhat darker IRL, but I'll work on him more next time.

Gotta run get some shut-eye for an early rise. I'm walking again and I have to bake a sour cream coffee cake in the AM for our final Bible Study until the fall.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica