I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Hallelujah! I actually stamped again! And I have an adorable card to share with you. Thanks to a little help from my dear (and oh so talented) friend Maureen, that is! I guess I can call her my first "Guest Designer" :-)

At one of our recent club workshops, Maureen had the cutest card for us to make! I absolutely fell in love with it and asked her if she'd mind if I copied it to put on my blog. I've been hoping for Maureen to start a blog of her own but she seems to have no interest in blogging herself. So, when I asked her permission to use her card design she didn't hesitate to give me the go ahead.

Thank you, Maureen!

Aren't these the cutest cards? It's funny- Maureen and I have very different stamping styles and rarely are attracted to the same things in the Stampin' Up! catalogs. She gravitates to the fun, cute, trendy and whimsical while I tend to be attracted to the vintage, romantic, flowery and elegant styles and images. However, we seem to be each others biggest fans, lol, and love what each other does.

The card above is the one I made at her house copying exactly what Maureen had designed.

I had no intention of buying the Stampin' Up! Create A Cupcake set she used, or the punch to go with it, but once again Maureen "made me" rethink my order! ;-) As I often tell her "It's all her fault!" when I end up buying way more than I had intended, lol!

As you can see here in this close up, her cupcakes have this awesome glitter on them. There was no label on the jar, so we are unsure where this glitter originated. But we seem to think this is one of SU!'s chunky glitters that may have just been out for a short time in a mini catalog. It's just like the chunky glitter now available in silver (and other colors), only it's got an iridescent look to it. Kind of like the dazzling diamonds but with a bit more pink to it and it's chunky. It's super pretty! If it is by SU! I sure wish they would bring it back!

And here is my version of Maureen's card. I made a couple of slight changes: I didn't have the same ribbon she used, so I substituted sheer polka dots. And I decided to raise the cupcakes a tad and stamp the "Happy Birthday" sentiment underneath.

And, since I didn't have the same kind of glitter, I had to concoct my own. I used Stampin' Up! chunky clear along with Dazzling Diamonds and sprinkled in a little fine pink glitter by Marcella K. This was added on top of the Pink Pirouette ink (Maureen had used Pretty in Pink).

And for this blue card, I used the same glitters except rather than the pink glitter, I added some Martha Stewart Blue Sapphire glitter stamped over Baja Breeze ink. I also stamped the bottoms in Crumb Cake ink instead of Chocolate Chip.

So there you have it. My CASEing of my friend's cards. I am so thankful for having an easy project to get me back into things a little. One that I could just copy and not have to do too much trial and error in the process of making it.

As I have mentioned previously, I am having a lot of trouble with my hands. I am currently going to an Occupational Therapist and hoping to avoid surgery. I have nerve damage in both of my hands and my left elbow. So, until I am better I am limiting my stamping. And typing, too. Uuggh... it's so hard to have to pull back from the things you love to do! But I have to remember to keep my faith and go by the little words I have up here on my blog: "In everything Praise God". I know He will never leave me or forsake me, and that He loves me. He is my strength and my shield. I am trusting in Him that I will be healed and back to doing what I so very much love to do. I also strongly believe in the power of prayer, so if you are a praying person, I would so appreciate your prayers for healing. This is quite a frustrating time for me, and I truly miss stamping and blogging. So, I will do it as often as I can without pushing myself too much.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will try my best to post again soon. I have a couple of other little cuties Maureen gave me to share with you for next time!

And thanks again, Maureen. I love you, Girlie! You are such an awesome friend! :-)