Papertrey Blog Hop: Bouquet Builders

This is my THIRD post today!!!

Today is the monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.  They have given us seven different gorgeous color schemes to choose from and challenged us to create a floral project.  On a whim, I decided to find the oldest floral Papertrey set that I had - it's called Green Thumb and comes from the second ever release in March of 2007.  (FYI - I have the very first set too - Paper Tray- and it has a little flower blossom in it, but I just couldn't build a bouquet with it!)  The butterfly and sentiment did come from slightly newer sets!

I actually started out this challenge by challenging myself to colors that I find challenging.  Didja follow that?  One of the other color schemes includes a couple of colors that I just never use.  So I actually started out with this card.

I don't dislike this card, but I so love bold colors on white (like the first card), that I just can't be happy with this one.

I am looking forward to being able to hop through all of the entries - bouquets of flowers - it's going to be gorgeous!

BIG NEWS: The downloadable Copic charts for color matches to Stampin' Up and

Papertrey Ink have been updated for the brand new Stampin' Up colors and the

most recent Papertrey Ink colors.  The link to these charts is on my side bar to the right!!

Birthday Wishes (bold colors):

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Green Thumb, Beautiful Butterflies, Up, Up & Away (sentiment)
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Simply Chartreuse, Orange Zest
• Ink: Paperrey Ink Terracotta Tile, Orange Zest, Melon Berry, Harvest Gold, Simply Chartreuse
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Mat Stack 3 and Layerz, Double-Ended Banners, Woodgrain Impression plate, Orange Zest button, twine

Happy Birthday (muted colors):

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Green Thumb, Tag-Its 10 (sentiment)
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Fine Linen
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Winter Wiseria, Lavender Moon, Sweet Blush, Spring Moss
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Mat Stack 3 and Layerz, Cane Print Impression Plate, Fine Linen ribbon, misc gems and pearls

Addicted to TAWS time! Birthday Hugs

This is my second post today.  It's just a short scroll down 

for the Operation Write Home blog hop.

This is my last post with the May sets from The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS) and I wanted to pull out the doilies that were released this month.  They are totally TAWS-style - sweet doilies but a little chunky and fun!  (Be sure to check back on Monday when sneak peeks start for June sets leading up to a blog hop on Thursday!)


This is also for the current Addicted to CAS challenge which is "birthday".

BIG NEWS: The downloadable Copic charts for color matches to Stampin' Up and

Papertrey Ink have been updated for the brand new Stampin' Up colors and the

most recent Papertrey Ink colors.  The link to these charts is on my side bar to the right!!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Delicate Doilies, Jibber Jabber (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow
• Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow
• Accessories: My Mind's Eye Enamel Dots, Stampin' Up Calypso Coral twine

Operation Write Home Blog Hop

Today is a big day at Operation Write Home.  It's a huge blog hop full of cards to send to our armed forces.  The theme is "Thank You" and the idea is to make either blank cards for our heroes to use or to make AnyHero cards which are thank you cards for our heroes.


Operation Write Home has a huge number of sketches for our use - you can find them weekly on their blog or they are all collected here.  For this card, I used a bonus sketch which you can find by clicking on the link and looking at the bonus sketch PDF.  (FYI: if you haven't browsed their site, they also have an amazing number of tutorial videos!)
OWH recently sent out their 2 millionth card!  They created a video commemorating the moment - I dare you to watch this without a box of kleenex nearby!
Click here to get to the beginning of the hop so you can see it all!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Service and Sacrifice
• Paper: Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar, Night of Navy, and Poppy Parade CS; Night of Navy, Sahara Sand and Poppy Parade dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy
• Accessories: Stampin' Up punches, Basic Grey star stickers, Timeless Twine Krazy for Kraft twine

BIG NEWS: The downloadable Copic charts for color matches to Stampin' Up and

Papertrey Ink have been updated for the brand new Stampin' Up colors and the

most recent Papertrey Ink colors.  The link to these charts is on my side bar to the right!!

School Days!!

One of the things that I do love about cardmaking is the ability to match the card to the recipient...or, in this case, the school colors.

This first card is a CASE of myself with this card but I changed it up so that my son had thank you cards in his school colors for each of his teachers.


It was particularly important for him to give our thank yous this year as his teachers have been truly amazing.  My poor guy had some bad experiences in his first few year at the local public high school, enough so that we brought him home to home school.  But he still wanted to have a school experience so he enrolled for a few classes at Lutheran High School.  It has been wonderful for him - in fact, he plans to attend full-time next year so he can graduate from that school.  The school makes sure that the teachers have time to care about the students.  One of the teachers mailed a personal card to my son congratulating him on his growth throughout the year - you just don't see personal cards from teachers very often.
My second card is a quick graduation card in the school colors of red, blue and gold.  (I have just realized how dull the picture is, but it's already off in the mail!) Thank You Teacher

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Teacher's Apple, Paper Smooches pencil
• Paper: Stampin' Up Perfect Plum, silver
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Linen Impression Plate and Spiral Notebook die (cut down), misc gems and twine

Congrats Grad

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Blue Ribbon
• Paper: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Fancy Fan Embossing folder, scalloped circle punch, gold cord (retired)

CAS(E) this Sketch: Miss You Like Crazy

My card today is a little different for me.  It's still clean and simple, but I don't generally do soft colors, nor vintage paper and elements, but I actually have reasons for this card.


First, it's for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch!

Second, on Mother's Day, I told the story of my mother - her passion for cardmaking, how she started our church card ministry and that I "miss her like crazy".  Thank you to all of you who have left such kind and caring comments.  But there was more to the story that I just didn't want to tell on Mother's Day.  

Today is actually the anniversary of my mother's death.  She died of a heart attack.  What we did not know at the time is how different a woman's heart attack symptoms can be from a man's.  My mom actually had her heart attack on Mother's Day.  The only symptom was extremely severe back pain, so extreme that my South Dakota farm-stock, never-ever-see-a-doctor-when-you-can-just-tough-it-out mother was actually going to go to a doctor the next day.  But she woke up the next day feeling fine so never sought medical care.  My mom always overdid things and her back pain could have been related to carrying some heavy boxes the day before, so we didn't think a thing of it.  And that's what I want to say today.  Take a moment and read this article on heart attack symptoms in women.   The article says, "Even though heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, women often chalk up the symptoms to less life-threatening conditions like acid reflux, the flu or normal aging."  This article just briefly mentions back pain but we also don't know what else my mom was feeling - she just wasn't one to talk about her aches and pains.  Don't ignore symptoms, but also remember the key word is "extreme" so you don't have to worry every single day.  If you have any concerns, also check out Go Red for Women for risk factors, heart healthy foods, lifestyle changes and other actions you can take to increase awareness of and fight against heart disease in women.

And...one last reason....almost a year ago now I asked for advice as to how you were all using your cards.  Due to a very negative situation, my family chose to leave our church home of sixteen years, which sadly, also meant leaving the church cardmaking ministry.  Your advice poured in but it's taken me this long to move on from the emotions of the situation and, in the meantime, I have created two very large boxes of cards without a home.  

So many of you mentioned Operation Write Home.  What an amazing group!! Their mission is:

Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as "AnyHero" cards of gratitude to encourage them.

OWH recently sent their 2 millionth card!  They created a video commemorating the moment - I dare you to watch this without a box of kleenex nearby.

They are a well-organized group that has the process down perfectly.  There are rules, but they all make sense - for example, would you have guessed that a single fleck of glitter that drops from a greeting card onto a soldier's uniform could be picked up by night-vision goggle and be dangerous - so NO glitter on the cards!!  I already have my OWH stamp for the back of my card.  And I have a large quantity of envelopes coming that OWH gets us at a discount.  There's also a huge Memorial weekend blog hop that you can check out here.  The OWH blogs are full of challenges and care sketches and thank you's from soldiers.

I'm joining in - and this "Miss You Like Crazy" card is my first official card!!




I know...too many words today and too few cards...thanks for sticking with me!

• Stamps: Verve Hope Blooms
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Kraft and Sweet Blush, My Mind's Eye the sweetest thing Lavender 6x6 pad
• Ink: Versamark
• Accessories: My Mind's Eye the sweetest thing Lavender Wood & Chip buttons, Zing white embossing powder, crochet thread

Fusion: Allow Faith to be Your Guide

This is my second post today.

I needed to quickly throw together a confirmation card this morning.  I had tucked some links to confirmation cards into my inspiration file and I planned to totally CASE something because I really didn't have a lot of time.  I just couldn't do it.  I used to totally CASE all the time (and I mean totally copy cards without any adjustment to make it my own.)  Don't get me wrong, I CASE ideas all the time - I'm great at putting a bunch of ideas together on a card - I'm not so great at coming up with my own creative ideas.  I was fairly proud of myself when I realized I don't copy anymore!

I like the FUSION challenge this week and it was perfect for my card.  Obviously I used the layout.  I was also inspired by the muted colors and twine in the inspiration photo.

• Stamps: Paper Smooches Spiritual Sampler
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Sahara Sand, Fancy Pants Park Bench 6x6 dsp, Simon Says woodgrain paper
• Ink: Versamark
• Accesories: Stampin' Up Butterfly punches, Papertrey letter dies, Zing white embossing powder

The Alley Way Stamps: Miss You Lots

I think this guy is utterly charming...


He looks a little bit lost and not scary at all, so I thought he would be perfect hiding behind those trees! 
I used the colors from Dynamic Duos plus the dessert option of a kid-themed card.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Deep in the Woods, Delicate Doilies (sentiment), Fa-la-la (bitty snowflake
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pacific Point, Basic Black
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pacific Point, Memento Black and Copics
• Accessories: Taylored Expressions birch tree dies, Divine wine Black Licorice