Occasional Blooms

Hello friends!  I hope that you’re having a wonderful week!  I’m excited about the changes I’m seeing outside with the weather!  Looking forward to that cooler temperature and pretty colors!

• I wanted to do a bit of “house keeping” regarding my blog.  I apologize if you’re having problems trying to leave a comment.  I’ve had a few people contact me about this and I noticed that when I cleared the “cookies/cache” from my end…it somehow changed the appearance of my blog comment area…I don’t know why!?  I did find out that if you start typing in the comment box, buttons above the box will appear in which you can choose how to login.  I suggest that if you don’t have a WordPress/Gravatar account, to choose the envelope button to leave your name and e-mail address that way. (The Facebook login does not work.)  Then you can hit the reply button below the box to publish it.  I tried letting the commenter leave an anonymous reply (without having to type in name and e-mail), but then I’ll have NO idea who it is unless a name is given within the comment, so I had to re-engage that again.  I have also contacted a support person to help me navigate what’s going on and maybe I can get it back the way it was before.  I do apologize if it’s giving you a problem.  You can also go to gravatar.com to create an account which will work with ANY WordPress platform blog….but you don’t have to unless you want to do that!  You should still be able to leave a comment regardless.  Thank you for taking the time to care enough to share your support with me…I deeply appreciate it!

So now to get on with some crafting projects!  I’ve had to change gears on the seasonal makes and create some cards that I needed to send out to some people and they all happen to be in blooms:

First up is a “thinking of you” card creating for a friend using several Lisa Horton products.  These particular LH products all came from Inky Stamper.

I started with the craft background and embossed it with the LH Variegated Leaf 3D embossing folder and went over the texture with white ink.  I then used the LH Hydrangea Stencil/Die/Embossing Folder to create the blooms…love how it turned out!  I took some gold ink on the last layer of the stencil to go over the centers of the flowers.  I popped the bloom up over the embossed craft background and white heat embossed the sentiment from the IS Pig Cause stamp set and cut it out in a banner to place over the blooms.  I finished it with some gold gems.

My next card is a sympathy card needed for a craft friend who lost a loved one.  This person likes to cross-stitch and quilt, so I thought this MFT stitched quilt die (this one retired) would be fun to do over some pretty floral papers.  I had to die cut several white frames with it and lay the centers of the paper cut pieces on the first frame and then I layered two more of the white frames over top with the last pattern paper over that to give it that 3D look.  (Not sure where the paper came from other my stash!)

I cut the sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Sympathy/Heartfelt/Condolences die set and layered it in the same way I did the quilt frame die.  I also white heat embossed the sentiment from the WS Deepest Sympathy stamp set and cut it out from a banner to attach right underneath the “p” in the die cut word.  I finished this one off with some clear gems.

And on a happier note, I’ve made another bloom card to wish someone turning 75 years young a happy birthday!  This is the first chance I’ve had to use this fun die set from Taylored Expressions!  The bottom container came from the TE Antique Pails die set.   I stamped the TE Burlap Background over it with the same color ink as the cardstock as well as Butter Cream ink to give it some texture.  The flower arrangement was cut out from the TE Garden Variety die set in various colors.  I also brushed some of the same colors in the centers of the flowers.  The centers of the flowers have a silver metallic enamel dot.

For the frame, I’ve used the TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle die that only leaves the marks but doesn’t cut anything out.  The sentiment was stamped and cut out with the TE All Together-Occasions 2 set/die and popped up with foam squares over the panel.

I think the most fun was arranging the flowers in the container!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my cards today and you’ve been inspired!  Thank you so much for stopping by!  I appreciate you!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Challenges:

1. Addicted to Stamps & More – Any Occasion
2. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Die Cuts/Anything Goes
3. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
5. Cardz 4 Galz – Use a Stencil, a Sentiment, an Image (top card only)
6. Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
7. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes no twist
8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes