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Liberate Your Art: Part 2

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Today is a blog hop for the participants of the Liberate Your Art postcard swap hosted and executed by Kat Sloma. I posted about my participation here, but today I’d like to share the postcards I received in the swap. I only know of one person who received one of my postcards, I’m hoping I’ll find some of the other recipients today.

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From left to right: lovely colored pencil works from Angela in Pittsburg, PA (I love how she photographed two pieces of her art with a collection of her colored pencils surrounded them), an incredible drawing from Eliz Burton (I tried repeatedly to log into her blog but was never able to, so I’m not sure where Liz lives), and this beautiful painting with such lovely colors by Lisa Wright.

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From top to bottom: More beautiful colors; I believe this is a photo of one of Elaine Miller’s fiber art pieces. She has three blogs and you can link from one to the next. Elaine hails from Portland, OR. Next, a delightful drawing of tubes of paint by Tracey Fletcher King in Australia. I want to be able to draw like this! And last, but not least, one of Kat’s gorgeous photographs from Corvallis, OR. 

Clicking through on any of these links will take you to some amazing art and photography. You can check out other participants in the blog hop here.

Happy Cards

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It seems like I’ve had far too many occasions to make sympathy and get well cards this year. Today I have two cards to share that celebrate happy events. The first is for a friend who retired this year from a career as a school counselor. When we saw her over Labor Day, she was just beaming at the thought of a carefree fall.

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When we returned from our trip there was a Papertrey order waiting for me. One of the items was the stamp and die set called “Fabulous Frames” which I quickly put to use on this card. There was a thread recently about how often you combine different stamp sets. Frequently, in my case. I also used “Button Boutique,” “It’s Official,” and “Daydreamer” on this card. The card itself is a Memory Box card—my favorite as they have a white interior.

While we were in Denver, Matt took the practical exam for a national landscape certification. The written part of the test was taken in early August. This is quite the exam, and costs $450! The practical exam started at 7:00 am and lasted about five hours. Each section is administered by a different instructor and covers all aspects of landscape work and design. It’s a challenging exam, but this week he found out he had passed. I thought it warranted a card.

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Another Memory Box card that I cut down to be square. The sun rays are from “Super Star” (WPlus9), the sentiment and die cut from “Wonderful Words” (PTI). I added three little star gems from A Muse and die cut the corners of the sentiment panel with a very old corner punch.

Ten on the Tenth: Crystal Bridges

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The tenth of the month surely does sneak up on me. I have lots of the photos (I took over 1,000) edited and many deleted but I’m not ready yet for a 10 favorites post from our road trip. One of the places we were really looking forward to visiting was the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art  in Bentonville, AR. We were not disappointed in the least. Here are 10 shots of this amazing museum. The architecture and many trails are worth the visit, but the collection of art is also wonderful. We spent four hours here, and could easily return and find much more to see.

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A view of the museum as you come in from the parking lot.

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The space between two galleries.

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An outdoor patio (and another outside staircase for the scavenger hunt.)

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The views of the grounds from the museum are lovely.

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The restaurant, Eleven. We had one of the best dinners of the trip here.

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The grounds are as beautiful as the museum. There are many trails, but we only had time to walk the Art Trail.

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And another trail for the scavenger hunt. 

Tracy and I both agree that Crystal Bridges is worth a special trip if you are anywhere near Bentonville. We would definitely go back.

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You can find links to more 10 Things on Shimelle’s blog here.

Summer Scavenger Hunt: The Final Finds

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When we left for our trip I had just two photos to find for Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt. I knew finding one of them wouldn’t be a problem, but in the end, I found both and a little extra, too.

#12 was to find “A maze, labyrinth, or trail.” Since we were going to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, I knew I’d find a trail for sure.

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This trail ran along a stream hiking back from Emerald Lake.

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I think this trail was on the way to Alberta Falls, but I’d have to go back to Lightroom and check the photo sequence to be sure.

That satisfied the requirement, but the next day we stopped in Winter Park, CO and Matt spotted this:

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It wasn’t the kind of maze that I was looking for, but it fit the bill. I love that my family and friends are on the lookout for the scavenger hunt items when they’re traveling with me.

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#21 was to be a photo of you with something that symbolizes your nation. We’ve had a lot of good conversation about this one over the summer. One of the possibilities was a photo with a piece of apple pie. I wasn’t quite sure where the saying “as American as apple pie” came from so I looked it up and found this explanation online:

“As American as apple pie” is a common
saying in the United States, meaning “typically American” However,
the expression (its full form being “As American as motherhood and apple
pie”) is clearly metaphorical, rather than literally ascribing an American
origin to either apple pie or motherhood, since both motherhood and apple pie
predate the United States. To some, the saying expresses the feeling that the
concept “America” is not just geographical, but is instead – along
with motherhood and apple pie – something wholesome.

While we were in Hilton Head, I stopped a bakery to pick up some desserts for dinner. When I saw the apple pie, I knew I had my photo. Thanks to Adam for taking this great shot.

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So there it is. Last year I lacked two items, so I’m pleased to have found them all this summer. I want to find some way to document this project, so that’s the next and final challenge. I love this project, and hope it continues again next year. Thanks, Rinda!

Casual Friday Challenge & Updates

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First off, a post for the current Casual Friday challenge which is a Back to School challenge. I’m really grateful that I’m not going back to school. As much as I loved teaching, I love retirement more. I needed one more thank you note for friends we visited while we were away, and thought the notebook paper and pencil filled the bill for both the challenge and the card.

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Card:  Hero Arts; Stamps: Happy Trails (PTI) and pencil (Judith); die: Fabulous Frames (PTI); punch: Knock-outs (American Craft) and Copics.

And now for a bit of an update and a few projects I finished before the trip. We got home a day earlier than we planned, and it was a good
thing. Tracy’s stepfather was admitted to the hospital a week ago. At first it
appeared that an ulcer was causing the difficulty and some medication and new
diet would be the answer, but then he suffered a heart attack in the hospital. It
was touch and go for several days, but he seems to have turned a corner in the last
36 hours. My mother-in-law is sleeping here as it is closer to the hospital
than my sister-in-law’s where they have been living since their bed and breakfast
burned in February. The family has gathered round and is providing almost 24
hour coverage at the hospital. That and getting ourselves back into some
semblance of a routine has taken up our time since we’ve returned.

Before we left, I wanted to prepare a hostess gift for the friends we were staying with, and I wanted it to be local products. A friend had given me a bottle of lemon olive oil and honey and garlic balsamic vinegar from a shop in East Rochester which we have loved. They encourage you to taste whatever you’d like, and are ready with all kinds of suggestions. It was wonderful! I ended up buying myself a bottle of the basil infused olive oil and have used a good portion of it already. Next on my list is a bottle of the raspberry balsamic vinegar.  These bags have the basil olive oil, a white balsamic vinegar and homemade pasta in them.

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And a closer look at the tags:

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One of the friends we’re stayed with is a young couple with a new-to-them house, so we picked up a Home Depot gift card for them as well. Staying with them was so much fun. Dan’s parents (also friends of ours and from Rochester) happened to be there for some of the time as well, so it was a great get-together.

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It will be a few days before I make the rounds of all the blog entries that you’ve posted while I’ve been away. I’ve read many of them, but I hope to be back into the familiar routine by the end of the week.

Just Playing

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Our drive from Atlanta to Denver included stops in Birmingham, AL, and Little Rock and Bentonville, AK. I’ll be back in a week or so with some vacation posts and some photos of what we did and saw along the way. For the last four days we’ve been in Colorado. Saturday afternoon to Monday night, Matt, Tracy, and I enjoyed Boulder, CO and the Rocky Mountain National Park. The park is simply spectacular, and we had perfect weather for hiking and driving the Trail Ridge Road. Today we’re relaxing at our friends’ house in Denver. Tonight we’ll have our last meal here with Dan, Nikki, Matt, and Stevie and head out for New York tomorrow morning. Dan and Stevie’s parents were also here for most of our stay so we’ve really had a great time.

We’re anticipating a four-day drive home with stops in Amana, Iowa and Lancaster and Amanda, Ohio (where I grew up.) But we can decide along the way if there are other things we’d like to see or do, or if we’d just asoon drive a little further and get home earlier. So nice to have the time to decide. Here are two cards I made before I left. I have to say, I’m itching to get back to the craft table, and have a few new projects I want to tackle this fall.

Often I have a recipient in mind for a card, or I’m making a card for one of the challenge blogs. But before I left on our trip, I spent some time just playing with some products. I love this die from Memory Box, but have never used it. Once I finished the card, I remembered the sentiment from Papertrey’s “Love Lives Here” set, and thought it would make a good anniversary card. 

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And here’s yet another Lovely Layers card. I used the Gridlines paper from Papertrey to help organize the stamps to create the background. Until recently, it’s not a technique I’ve used often. I think next time, I’d use the smaller image to create the background, but I’m happy with this as I have been with just about every card I’ve made with this set. I don’t have anyone in mind for this one yet, but it’s always good to have a few birthday cards stashed away.

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Although I’ve kept up with some of your blog posts, I haven’t taken the time to comment as my internet time has been very limited. I’ll be back soon to catch up, and I’m looking forward to getting reconnected.

Best Buddies

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At the last minute I had time to scrap these strip of photos I printed a week or so ago. Larger versions of them have been on our kitchen bulletin board for over a month. Caleb just gets cuter and cuter. I can’t wait to get my hands on him on tomorrow night. Tracy and I will have him for nearly 12 hours on Monday while Sarah and Adam are involved in a Fund for Theological Education conference in Atlanta. I hope he still likes us!

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These photos seemed like the perfect place to use the Studio Calico quote bubble stamps. The red background paper is from “American Made” by My Mind’s Eye, the title and the border strip are also MME, the “Good Day Sunshine” line. The heart is very, very old Heidi Swapp chipboard.

Here’s a closer look at the cute photos of Caleb and Sadie, who really are best buddies. I just loved the quote Adam put on Facebook for the first photo:  “Hey Sadie, look at me! That’s me!” Caleb is now able to recognize faces on the iPad when we do Face Time. I hope he remembers us tomorow.

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Ten on the Tenth: Summer Road Trip

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We’re leaving today for a three week road trip, so I thought I’d share 10 things I’m looking forward to seeing in August. I’ll be linking this up with Shimelle’s 10 Things later today when I get some wi-fi.

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So here are the 10 Things in the order that we’ll be seeing them. (Not necessarily in the order in which I’m excited about them.)

#1. Our good friends, Carol and Gordy. I have no recent photo of them although we’ve seen them both in 2011 and 2010. I’ll be sure to get good photos this time around. We’ll be staying with them two nights, and if the weather is good, will be enjoying Gordy’s boat on Lake Norman on Saturday.

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#2 Sarah, Adam and Caleb

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We’ll be meeting them in Atlanta on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, we’ll be babysitting while they participate in The Fund for Theological Education conference. We last saw them in early May, so we’re due for a good visit.

#3 The Atlanta Aquarium. It’s been a few years since we visited, but Caleb loves to look at new things, so we figured a trip to the aquarium might entertain him (and us) for a few hours on Monday.

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#4 Hilton Head Island

Following the FTE Conference, the five of us will be heading to Hilton Head for five days. We haven’t had a beach vacation in several years, so I’m looking forward to family time and some time on the beach. 

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#5 After we leave Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta to travel home to Oregon, we’re headed to Birmingham, AL where we hope to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

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#6 From there, we’re headed through Memphis, TN (not sure if we’ll have time to explore or not) to Little Rock, AR where I’m looking forward to visiting the National Historic Site at Central High School. Our neighbors highly recommended a stop at the visitor’s center there. They also recommended a stop at the Bill Clinton Library, but I’m not sure we’ll have time to do both.

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In preparation for the two civil rights stops, I’m reading Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. It’s an excellent book, and since I was pretty young at the time these events took place, I don’t have any strong memories of them. I know I’ll get a lot more out of both stops because I’ve read the book.

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#7 Next on the agenda is a stop in Bentonville, AR to visit  Crystal Bridges, an art museum and park built by the Walmart heiress. Everything we’ve read about this place sounds wonderful!

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#8 Then we’re off to Denver, Co (via Wichita, KN) to spend some time with Matt. We last saw him in June, so it’s time for a good visit.

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#9 While we’re in Denver, we’re staying with our long-time friend, Dan, and his wife, Nikki. We haven’t seen them in over a year so it will be good to catch up with them.

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#10 One of the things we’ve always wanted to do in Colorado is visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Matt is taking the second part of a national landscape certification exam on Saturday. As soon as he’s finished, we’re headed to the national park for two days. Although he’s been in Denver for over a year now, he hasn’t had the time to visit the park either.

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Given that any month when I see both of my kids is a good month, and that I love road trips and new experiences, I’m really looking forward to this trip!

 

 

July Photo of the Day

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Before we head out on our road trip, I thought I should get my POTD layout completed. I printed differently (by accident) this month. The plus is that the photos are larger, but it seemed more difficult to scrap.

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I used a few Papertrey Ink dies on this one: Heart to Heart #6, Clouds 1 and 2, and the Block Alphabet. I hand cut the banner. I love the little button on the tag that says “Here’s the Story” . . . and here it is:

July started with a birthday cruise on the Erie Canal to celebrate Ellie’s birthday. Greg and Sonora were here from Texas, so it was a bigger family group than usual. We left on the 4th for Hyde Park to celebrate Stephanie and Kevin’s wedding on the 6th. All the festivities were wonderful! We had an early breakfast with Dane on the 7th, and arrived home in plenty of time for Dane and Jen’s wedding here that afternoon.

Other fun events:  the Giant Panda concert at Highland Park, camping with Bob & Cathy at Keuka Lake, Mati’s baptism, and a day in Niagara-on-the-Lake with Dane who came for a three day visit. It’s not often we see one another twice in one month. We entertained our bridge group, attended a film at The Eastman House on the Lost Bird’s project, and went to the Third Church Picnic.

On the 28th, we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary. Amazing how time flies! It’s still great after all these years!

Our neighborhood had it’s first-ever book group and the author attended. He gave us some advice on how to create a more active, caring, and interesting neighborhood. I had lovely meals and visits with Nancy & Karen, Chris, Mary & Jean, and Tina. It’s so nice to have the time to really catch up with friends.

 I finished three books:  Canada by Richard Ford, The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, and The Cost of Hope by Amanda Bennet. I liked them all. I started and abandoned John Irving’s new novel. After 80+ pages, I hadn’t become invested in the narrator’s story. There are just too many books I want to read to finish one I don’t care for.

 I have all but two of the photos for Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt, created 13 cards & 2 layouts, and made great progress in another purge of unused/unwanted supplies in my studio.

Hopefully, I’ll have time to schedule a post or two before we leave tomorrow morning. We’re lucky to have a friend’s daughter living here while we’re away, a young couple who will harvest the vegetables from our community garden, and neighborhood kids who will water plants and mow. I’m quite sure time at the computer will be sporadic, but I’m hoping to visit blogs occasionally, and perhaps do a post or two from the road. I’m so looking forward to time with my kids!

Liberate Your Art

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Last year I read with interest about Kat Sloma’s Liberate Your Art project, but didn’t do anything about participating. This year I signed up early, but let the printing of the postcards sit on the back burner for too long. I finally ordered 4 different prints from Zazzle, and I have to say their customer service has been wonderful. Nonetheless, the order came in two parts, and I was nervous enough that I got the first set in the mail to Kat before the rest arrived. The very next day, of course, the remaining postcards arrived here. In the end, I’m happy with the photo that I sent along with a greeting from my garden. 

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Kat has over 150 participants in this year’s swap. I can’t imagine trying to organize all those packages, but I’ll be excited to get my postcards from other participants when I get home from our road trip. I made a card for Kat, and wrote a note thanking her for doing this. Now I have three sets of postcards I can use for thank-you notes or encouragement notes. I would never have done this without the push a new project gave me.

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Almost all the products on this card are from Papertrey Ink. The exceptions are the patterned paper from Teresa Collins’ World Traveler paper pack, and the camera stamp from Studio Calico.

We’re having too good a time to spend much time trying to edit photos, but rest assured there are a lot of cute baby photos to come!

Extending Sympathy

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I’ve recently had two occasions to send sympathy cards. One to a friends whose mother passed away, and another to Sarah’s mother-in-law who lost her father last week. Both of the deceased were in their 90’s, and both were ready to go. Nonetheless, it is always hard to be the ones left behind. I know that they have many happy memories to help ease the loss.

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I actually created this card for one of the challenges in an online class, “Stretch Your Stamps.” I’ve only seen one or two days worth of the wonderful videos in this class, so I’ll be working on it again in the fall. The stamp is one of my Hero Arts cling stamps that doesn’t get enough use.

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Once again Lovely Layers came to the rescue. This stamp set seems destined for a record number of uses. It looks so different depending on the colors you use. I also used my new PTI Impression Plate, “Stripes,” which will also see a lot of use. Both cards used a sentiment from Botanical Silhouettes (PTI). 

Summer Scavenger Hunt Link-up

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It’s time for the mid-summer link up for Rinda’s scavenger hunt. I’m nearly finished and you can find my previous posts here,  here, and here. Last week, I got one of the three final photos:  border. Actually I got a lot of different shots as we waited on the bridge to get into Canada.

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Here’s the official Boundary Sign about three-quarters of the way across the bridge.

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We frequently have a long wait to get back into the states, but this was an unusual sight approaching Canada, espcially on a Thursday morning.

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There was a slight drizzle that morning and you can see the raindrops on the window. The U.S. flag was flying at half-staff in honor of the victims in the horrible Aurora shooting.

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We got out our passports as we approached the inspection booth. The bright red cover was given to me by a friend for my birthday one year. We travel to Canada together at least twice a year.

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And finally, the welcome sign once we were through the inspection station.

We were on our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the day. My brother was visiting and had never been there. We knew he’d like the Irish Harp for lunch, and we visited some of our favorite wineries. We both brought back a few bottles of our favorites.

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The town itself is charming, and we walked off our lunch with a stroll down the main street.

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Two of my favorite guys!

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

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Today is Sarah’s birthday, and I would typically be feeling rather sorry for myself that I am so far away on her special day, but a week from today we’ll be heading out to meet Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta. Sarah and Adam are involved in a Fund for Theological Education conference there, and we are happily babysitting while they are busy at the conference. When they finish, we’re all off to Hilton Head for five days, so I am sending birthday wishes across the country today, but don’t have long before I can present them in person!

Her package was sent by UPS, and ended up taking much longer to deliver than I expected, so I made an extra card (forgot to photograph the one in the package) so she’d have something to open on her birthday.

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I’ve seen so many lovely cards made with the Daydreamer set by Papertrey that I ordered it last month. I combined the sentiment and flowers from that set with the jar from Friendship Jar: Summer to create this card. The patterned paper is also Papertrey, and the card is a Memory Box card I cut down a bit.

Happy Occasion Cards

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I never shared the wedding card I made for my niece. It’s a close copy of one by Maille Bells that she created for the release of the Gracious Vases stamp set by Papertrey. I love the simplicity and elegance of it.

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Cardstock:  Select White ; Die: Mat Stack #5, Impression Plate: Diamonds; Stamps:  Gracious Vases and Delightful Dahias; Silk ribbon. (All by Papertrey Ink); Copic Glitter pens; Clear Dimensional Magic.

Last week we attended a baptism and luncheon for a friend of ours almost three year old son. I didn’t want to do a religious card, but wanted something I thought he’d enjoy.

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Cardstock: Select White and Summer Sunrise (Papertrey); patterned paper: Summer Sunrise pack (Papertrey); stamps: Clear & Simple & Lighten Up Sentiments (Papertrey)

Purging and Creating

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I’ve been on another purging expedition in my studio, and have made some remarkable progress in handing off some supplies that I’ve had for just too long to a friend who is delighted to get them. In the process, I’ve done some reorganization as well. As I was going through the embellishment drawer I came across a couple of tags I thought would make quick and easy cards.

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The tag is from American Crafts (Amy Tangerine). I die cut a circle from the Nestabilities Small Circles dies, tied a Pink Hibiscus ribbon (PTI), and attached it to a ready-made Paper Source card.

(This card is off to a friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor last week. I saw her yesterday, and was amazed at her positive spirits. She’s been feeling nauseous for over a year, and seeing specialist after specialist. Finally her new GI sent her for an MRI and this is what they found. The expectation is that surgery will occur early next week, but they won’t know for sure until further tests are completed today. She’s the second of my very good friends to have received this diagnosis in the last six months. I find that really hard to believe. My other friend is stable right now. Her tumor was inoperable, but they were able to shrink it with radiation.) 

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One of the things that got reorganized during the purge were the non-PTI acyrlic stamps and cling stamps that were housed in a notebook. I now have them in CD boxes on my shelf and can easily flip through them so I’m sure they’ll see a lot more use. I stamped the background on this Hero Arts kraft card with the chevron background stamp (Hero Arts). The tag is another one by American Craft (Amy Tangerine). I cut another circle with the Nestabilities and a double ended banner from Papertrey. The sentiment is from Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts) and the ribbon is from my stash. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the little gems are heart-shaped (A Muse).