Love those Eyes...

Have I mentioned how much I love my Canon T2i? As a serious amateur with a heart for learning and a determination to use all the buttons...I continue to shoot enough photos to make my family insane. Lucky for them - I shoot without a flash as often as I can so they are not yet blinded by the flashing lights. Of course, the learning curve of using natural light has increased the number of shutter snaps they hear. The probably hear them in their dreams...or nightmares as they would likely describe them.

This shot of my youngest man was "winterized" with a Florabella freebie. I love the snow. I now longer have to risk getting my camera wet. I wish I had found the snow overlay before I ordered my Christmas cards. Oh well...maybe next year.

Hope you can slow things down enough to make some merry with those you like best.
Valerie

Birthday wishes....

A birthday card for a friend is always a delight to create. I love using my Sizzix with my Cricut and then breaking out my stamps always is the icing on the cake. I love when lots of my toys get to come out to play.

Make a wish! Today, I hope your wishes are sweet and your dreams come true.

OOPS....Birthday card

Our neighbor boy, Isaac, has been fun to watch grow. I can hardly believe he is a Senior in HS. His birthday falls between mine and my son Walker's in early November.
At a sports award night this week, he sweetly called everyone's attention to Walker's birthday. The 48 Cross Country kids and their families sang to him. At that point I realized that Isaac's birthday had completely escaped me. This card...with Stamps by Judith designs...is heartfelt. Happy Belated Birthday, Ike!

I must elaborate on the stamps. I you don't know Judith K. She is a true artist and so very kind. I met her years ago and still adore her work. Hope you like the card.

Sweet 16th Ciara

My niece turned 16 yesterday and we are having a surprise party for her. What a fun reason to celebrate. She has brought light and color to our world. She is an artist and a farm girl. She is comfortable with watercolors and worms. I remember her campaign to save the earthworms when she was much smaller. I am not entirely sure what she was saving them from - but she had a purpose.

Those who know me best know my passion for words...yes...they paint pictures with nothing more than letters. Amazing. Word play is having fun with words and I couldn't resist this twist. Hope you enjoy the card.

Valerie

I love Fall...Family, Festivals, Friends and Photos

We have a new shop uptown Morton. The wine bottles are so pretty and a great opportunity to take some photos during the festival. I love this seas for all of it's colors, crispness and scents. Morton - being the "Pumpkin Capital", we are biased towards our pumpkins. The many shades of orange make for beautiful snapshots. I hope you take the time to capture the joys of the season.

Shutter Happy!

My little blog is being neglected - but I am in photography mode right now. I shot this of a sweet little neighbor. I hope it makes you smile, too.

Leather and Lace

Where has 24 years gone? Actually, 26 if you count the friendship and the dating. This is from my Picture color class. I don't remember the assignment -but the Stevie Nicks song got stuck in my head and here is the picture that resulted. He is the leather and I am the lace. Corny...sure...but I like it.

I am back...working on wedding albums..again!

Well...I have been busy with Picture Color class over at Big Picture Classes. I just finished 30 days of color with Tracey Clark. What fun and I learned a great deal from some wonderful photographers. I may start to add photographs to my humble blog. The first is of my Walker. He is starting High School...my baby in High School. Frankly - he was only a baby for twelve months and they he learned to walk and has been running after the big dogs every since. :)

What a hoot

These are not my normal colors, but this little owl seems content dressed in them. I think it is a perfect from for a graduation, congratulations or for any other occasion you give a hoot about and want to give a shout out.

I like to have some "half done" cards to finish quick when I need them. This little guy is perfect for that.

Have a spendid week.

Forever Young 2011 Graduation Card

So another round of graduation parties has begun and I find I simply cannot resist my old friend Forever Young. It is perfect for the quote I found for my card. (I actually found the quote on a little notebook in a local boutique and tweaked it to make it my own). I used Model 17 and the Glitter Ritz glitter is the finishing bling every girl card needs. I hope you enjoy taking a peak.

For those...like me...who need reading glasses - the quote is "She packed up all her potential, and everything she had learned, and a cute pair of shoes...and headed out the door to change the world.

Trying A Digital Page

I have had this software for a long time, but I never really figured it out. This is my first attempt. At this point, I am much faster with Paper, Cricut and adhesive. It was fun, neat and I really did enjoy the process.

Sentimental Butterfly

 

This is a birthday greeting for my friend Kim. The "Sentimentals" butterfly is really fanciful. I am in a Pink, Brown and Teal mood..and trying to refrain from doing all of my current projects in pink and orange. :) The stamps are Hero Arts and The Stamps of Life. Hope you enjoy looking.

Just a note. I attached the butterfly only on one side and used the "negative" of the pink lace layer on the underside of the butterfly wing. I folded the wing down so to put it in the clear envelope and it POPS up when you take it out.

I am addicted to the "Gitter Ritz" glitters. I get them at Rubber Rainbows in Tremont IL...a sweet little stamp store that recently moved here from Galesburg. I taught classes there about 15 years ago. It has new owners but the same sweet heart in a much more convenient location.

Easter Blessings

Happy Easter! What a wonderful season of celebrating hope, new life and the promise sealed by the resurrection.
I am still loving the Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard. They are high quality and she is so sweet. You can tell she has made her vacation her vocation.
I love the white on white with some glitter for the cross. I ran the front of the back layer of the cross through my trusty xyron.
Then carefully set the top layer down being careful not to touch any of the adhesive.
The next step...sprinkle with your favorite ultra fine glitter. I am sold on Glitter Ritz for the quality. Let me tell you, not all glitter is created equal!
The embossing is mostly Sizzix and so are the dies...except the cross is from my Easter 2010 Cricut Cartridge.

My scrap cave is a wreck...since I cannot be neat and creative at the same time...but my soul sings. Now I need to switch my song to "this is the way we wash the clothes, wash the clothes, wash the clothes. This is the way we wash the the clothes so early in the morning"...or in my case, until I go to bed.
I hope you have a blessed Easter season and that the meaning of that morning changes everything.
Valerie

Happy Easter Chickadee!

This is a card I created with Stamps of Life clear stamps. I could NOT resist using the scripture
with the "break out" in it. It seemed so perfect to use it for Easter. I think it is so happy. I realize that I do love orange, pink and green together. The colors make me smile...and this week...well...this is a good week for reminders of hope, color and joy.

Inside I stamped Happy Easter. I hope you enjoy taking a peek at my peep.

I have several more Easter Cards...so hopefully, time will permit me to post them.

May hope be at the center of your Easter celebration.

Valerie

A Card for my friend, Judy

Wow!  The weather is wonderful here in central Illinois and I am going to enjoy it.  Here are is a card I made this morning for a friend who lost her husband.  It was a "Celebration of Life" and it was a sweet and special.  Judy and Sol shared nearly 50 years of love, marriage and laughter.  My girlfriend and I donated to her favorite animal sanctuary charity...she loves her cats and all creatures great and small...thus, the cat theme and poem combination.  I hope you like it. The cartridge used is "Nursery Rhymes" It is an easel card....my first, but not my last.  Happy Saturday.  Hold those you love close and celebrate the gift of every day.

I almost gave her this card from my collection...but I wasn't quite ready to part with it!

Birthday Wishes for a special friend!

My dear friend is having a birthday on the 29th.  It was a great excuse to make some birthday cards.  Yes...I managed a girlfriend card with out using "Forever Young" on my Cricut.  I did use Storybook ( my other favorite)

I am happy with the results.  The colors are fun and fresh for Spring.  I am looking forward to warmer weather and it is showing in my projects. Thanks for looking.

Forever Young...Saturday Girls

I am going to have to put these girls back in the box and play with something new...I don't want to bore you. These are new cards that I made with this old favorite. I just love the Coredinations black/white core zebra print. It makes it more sassy.

I have not placed a sentiment inside - I thought about "Happy Birthday, from one fabulous babe to another!" or "Hang in there, sister!" for encouragement.

I love to add bling and the inside of the card needs more than just a sentiment (in my opinion). I love to bring the front of the card inside for artistic balance...and fun. After all...this is all about the love and the fun of playing with paper, scissors, glue, glitter, Cricut and Sizzix toys.











This black daisy paper from Making Memories is really easy to use on many different projects.








Use the "multiples" button on your Cricut and save yourself time. If you have some elements pre-made...you can put a card together in the wink of an eye and everyone will think you slaved over it all morning. (Remember the Rice Crispies comercial where the mom throws flour on her face before serving the Rice Crispies Treats? Same idea!)






As you can see...this is along the same theme. I made this for my closest girlfriend that is like a sister to me. We have been friends since college and have weathered lifes many storms together. She is 9 months older than me and I never let her foget it. She got married first...she had a baby first...and every year, she gets older first. She got a tickle out of it, as intended.




I hope you enjoy these girls and I promise the next time I will work from another Cricut cartridge.

Happy Saturday.

"Forever Young" Cards

This is definitely one of my most used cartridges. I think the girls are so fun to dress and my favorite way to dress them is on a black silhouette.

The orange and pink graduation card has "Always remember your faith, your manners...and the way home. This is the custom quote over my back entrance that we all use. I think it is perfect for graduations.

The sentiment of this card speaks to my soul. Who wouldn't rather shop that exercise?

Whatever the reason, or the season...there is a lady in waiting on the "Forever Young" cartridge. I love to glitz and bling the clothes. My favorite technique to add glitter is to:

1. Run the image through the Xyron face down (yes....sticky will be on the front)

2. Take your Pampered Chef Scrapper or the one that comes in the Cricut assessory kit and rub it over the top of the images before removing the the top layer. (This rubbing process seems to insure the adhesive is well adhered to the back of your image and it comes off much cleaner)

3. Gently remove from the waxy paper and cover with glitter. This is the best and cleanest way I have found to get glitter that STICKS and STAYS. I highly recommed an ULTRAfine glitter like "Glitter Ritz"

4. Run the image through the Xyron a second time to achieve adhesive on the back.

5. Place on your project. Step back and admire your own creativity.

More of Wedding Scraps

The Bride was so dear to my heart and I dug up this little "Letter from Jesus" that I found before I met my Hubby. It reminded me of her. They were engaged in Chicago and the pocket journaling allows a place for private thoughts and memories of their special night in Chi-town.

I simply adore the colors. One of my favorite shades of blue. I used Lyrical Letters, Sweethearts and Storybook for most pages. They are my go to cartridges for these kinds of albums.

Wedding Scraps

This is a peek at one of my "famous" (at least in my church and circle of friends) wedding gift albums. I did NINE of these last summer...and at one point I did FIVE in FIVE weeks. Each is 20 pages long and designed with the couples colors and personalities in mind. I just loved the process - but pray I NEVER have to do that many again so close together. I wouldn't say I was burnt out on scrapping - because I never lost the passion - but I was exhausted from the process. Each album is a 15-20 hour process. I hope you enjoy looking.

My Happy Colors Birthday Card

This is a birthday card I love. The colors make m happy and the sheer ribbon was the perfect match.  Gotta love it when it all comes together.  Fushia, Pink, Orange, Yellow and a kiss of whimsy...hope you like it.

New to this Blog thing!

I am entirely confident that I have no idea what I am doing on a blog.  I want to learn to do this and to share my art from my heart.  If anyone actually looks at this, please be patient.  I am learning and growing in my technology skills...but it will take me a little time.  Hang with me or come back when I've got it figured out.  Wishing you blessing pressed down and your cup still running over. 
Valerie