Lovely Lady 'n' Lace

I love this image. It is from one of the first stamp sets I ever bought. But back then I was so new to stamping I had no idea how to use it. Seriously- I was so intimidated by it. I was just doing such "beginner stuff" back then, and yet I bought it merely because I loved it and just hoped some day I would acquire enough experience and knowledge of stamping techniques to be able to do this pretty lady justice.

Finally the time has come to ink her up!

As soon as I started making this card, I knew I wanted it to have several romantic elements and accents:

Such as, these wonderful brass birds...

And a few pretty blue rhinestones to pick up the hue in her dress...

The dainty lace for a couple of corners....

And some distressing of the paper edges and spays of glimmer mist.

All put together, it was the look I was after for this lovely lady.

And, since I did something rather out of character for me by not adding a sentiment, it is somewhat versatile and can be used for whatever "kind" of card desired (birthday; thinking of you; friendship; missing you, etc.).

It's funny: although all cards I design are "by" me, some turn out being more "me" than others, if that makes any sense. And this one I definitely feel is one of those "me" cards.

Thanks so much for looking! I love and appreciate any comments and feedback you care to give me!

Supplies used for this card:

Stamp: From the SU! set See With The Heart

Papers: Watercolor paper; Basic Grey Perhaps; unknown floral designer paper; SU! River Rock

Ink: Jet Black Ranger Archival ink; SU! River rock for paper edges and light sponging

Accessories: SU! Watercolor Wonder crayons; Michael's $1 bin rhinestones; brass bird finding;

lace corners; distressing tool; Tattered Angels gold Glimmer Mist

CASEing Myself Again

Last month, I shared with you a card I made for my daughter's friend Cara's bridal shower. I was quite happy with how that card turned out, so I decided to make another with a few variations. Really just simple color and sentiment differences. One thing I love about card making is how easy it is to make different cards once you have a basic design done.

See- it's all very much the same. But by simply changing some colors or small details, you can make cards for any occasion out of your design. From wedding to birthday... or anything else you want.

I just love these gold glittered brads. I've had them for a while just waiting to use them. This was the perfect opportunity!

On Cara's card, I used silver. Here, gold accents. But I thought embossing the sentiment in black made it stand out even better.

Just a little fraying of the designer paper edges gives an interesting contrast with the elegance of the fleur de lis die and glitter.

So there you have it- a super easy case of CASE-ing myself again!

Thanks for stopping by- as always I LOVE hearing from you! :-)

Items used to make this card:

Stamps: SU! Flowers of Gratitude; PTI Out On A Limb Sentiments

Paper: Watercolor paper; Basic Grey Perhaps paper stack; SU! Going Gray and River Rock

Ink: Versamark; Jet Black Ranger Archival Ink; SU! Pretty In Pink for sponging

Accessories: SU! Watercolor Wonder crayons; some SU! markers; SU! black embossing powder; gold glittered brads; gold Stickles; EK Success small scalloped oval punch; Spellbinders Fleur de lis die; distressing tool; Tattered Angels gold glimmer mist (lightly sprayed on water colored image)

Katie & Maggie: Another Page!

I couldn't wait any longer to post this. I am so grateful to all of you that have posted comments or emailed me or left FaceBook messages regarding my recent beginning attempts at scrapbooking. So, I am anxious to share this next page with you.

My last pages were what I consider to be "clean and orderly" and that's fine. But the "look" I really love is actually a "busier" look- despite the fact that I have always felt that scrapbooking should be all about the pictures. I always thought you should be careful not to detract from your photos and merely "enhance" them with your work. Well, I guess an old dog can learn new tricks, as I have really broken away from my comfort zone on this one. And, although I feel I have a ways to go, all in all, I am quite pleased with how it came out.

I am an absolute flower lover and had such fun using some of the gorgeous Primas I have been hoarding!

For the butterflies, I stamped the card stock, then punched them out and added little flat backed pearls. Pretty, huh?

Talk about an easy way to put some shape on your page: I just punched out this photo with a large Marvy scalloped circle punch.

And here I used one of the SU! vanilla hardware frames. And don't you just love those Robin's Nest dew drops? The colors were perfect.

So there you have it. I had such fun making this page that I can hardly wait to make another!

And I have to say thank you to my dear friend Maureen. She, in my opinion, is a rock star scrap booker. (WHY she will not start a blog herself is beyond me!) I really value her opinion. Well, today I emailed her a pic of this page and she told me that she did not do pages like this until she had been scrappin' for about 10 years! Talk about a compliment! Girly, you have no idea what that did for me. I have been in real need of a confidence booster and you gave it to me! Thank you soooo much for all your help and encouragement!!!

Getting My Feet Wet

Since it is Summertime, I'll bet the title of this post has you thinking that this has to do with a trip to the beach. Well, not exactly!

You see, I am a card maker- wanna be scrap booker. And finally, after years of procrastination, I have decided to step out of my comfort zone and start putting my neglected photos onto 12x12 papers and seeing what I can do with them. I am taking the plunge here and will be posting some of my beginning attempts at making some albums. I have done a little bit of scrapping before, but not very much. A few years ago I made a simple album for my cousin. I also made some pages and put them in an album I started for my youngest daughter to look at, but really nothing worth speaking of.

But I have been meaning to get more serious about it for a long time and am now realizing that if I don't do it soon, I likely will never get to it!

So, here you go. I have begun my first album for my family.

My first pages are a 2-page layout with one page being a CASE from an example I saw in a Stampin' Up! mini catty a while back. I loved it and it has been on my mind to copy since I first saw it. I love these colors and thought these photos would be perfect for them.

After I CASEd the single photo page, I made another "on my own" to go with it. I am actually pretty happy with how it came out.

So, there you have it. The beginnings of my first family album! I literally have thousands of pictures in boxes, and hundreds in piles set aside to be scrapped! So, six down...... Oh my goodness! So many to go! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by; I would love and appreciate feedback on how you think I did. In a couple of days I will post another page I made yesterday!

My Kind Of Place

Wow! Where did the week go? I can hardly believe it's been a whole week since I last posted.

Well, Mike has been on vacation and that meant he and I actually got some time together on a weekday! So fun! And if you know me (us), you know we LOVE to go looking at/ for antiques. Both of us having grown up in New England, we know good antique places when we see them, lol! And as much as we love living on the West Coast, one down side is that we really miss antiques hunting the way we once knew it.

But we still manage to find some fun places no matter where we are. Like this one:

It sure didn't look like much from the outside....

But we know better than to let that fool us!

One step inside and I just knew we had found a good place! They really have done a nice job arranging things in here. There was a lot of Shabby Chic going on!

Check out that chandelier... wouldn't that be awesome in the boudoir?!

Lots and lots of beautiful linens and textiles...

And all sorts of other pretty things!

I just LOVE the old photographs. But I must say, I find it sad that they are in a store for just anyone to buy; usually nameless and unknown.

Wicker and lace and baby things. I just love it all!

Is this not a feast for the eyes? Oh, I could have stayed in this place all day!

So funny how so much of this stuff is what we grew up thinking was just "junk", and yet now it's so sought after and sooo pricey!!! But it really is pretty!

And how cool is this?! This row of old mailboxes is by the front doorway and they put free flyers and magazines in there. Isn't that great?

Well, believe it or not, that is just a taste of what we saw in that one store. There was actually a lot of "man stuff" too that caught Mike's attention. And yes, he bought a really fun item, which I'll show you soon. I have some other neat stuff to share with you from a couple of other places we discovered. And I think we may head back there tomorrow, so I am going to try to get some more pics.

Well, no card making or scrapbooking has taken place in my studio this week. We have a few days left of Mike's vacation and since we are also starting the 4th Of July weekend, I likely won't get back to it right away. But I am sure once the weekend is over that will change and I'll be posting some more cards soon.

I hope you have a wonderful, happy and safe holiday weekend.

And put up your flags!!!!