"Bricks Along the Journey"

Bricks Along the Journey is a silent auction to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. Artists in the greater Cincinnati area receive bricks to decorate in any manner they want. These bricks are then auctioned off raising money for various, local Breast Cancer agencies.

This is the brick I created, using paper as my medium of choice. I created a shabby chic flower and filled the center with seed beads. Twisted paper creates the vines to which I attached leaves and butterflies of vellum.

Each entry must have a pink ribbon somewhere on it. I used one of the pink ribbons we made into pins for Harriett's funeral.

This brick was created by my daughter, Kristen, who had a very special bond with Harriett. When we first moved to Kentucky we fell in love with the cardinals and Harriett chose to sit in our sun room where she had a wonderful view of all the birds and animals that visit our yard daily.

Our bricks honor our friend/sister/mother Harriett Milburn, Nov. 10, 1949 - June 19, 2009.
**Click the link to Bricks Along the Journey to read more about the history of this auction. You can also see bricks auctioned off in the past and some of the current bricks to be auctioned this October.

Re-Carding?

I recently received a very pretty hand crafted wedding invitation. Designed with pretty pale blue glimmering paper and accented with glimmery black paper which had been embossed with a beautiful vine and bird embossing folder.

The papers were so pretty together I thought I really wanted to re-use them to make the wedding card I would give back to the bride and groom. However, I was at a bit of a loss as to whether it would be okay or if it would be tacky. Such a dilemma!

The invitation was clean & simple aka Classy. It was adorned with a single layered stamped medallion, which meant a fair amount of usable paper. Here is the original invitation both front and inside.

The embossed black strip & medallion are part of the back of the card and fold over the front from the back. That flap was three layers of heavy card stock and the black was nearly impossible to strip off. It certainly limited how I could use the piece.
The inside has a pocket for all the important little things you must include with invites... directions to the church, RSVP card, etc. That piece was also most firmly attached. Since I did have a bit of trouble separating them I had to alter from my original idea. Perhaps for the best.
My finished card. I used Twilight card stock from CTMH for the card base. A strip of the embossed black was attached to the lower edge. I cut two pieces of the shimmery pale blue and edge punched them. One was centered on the front over the black and the other was used inside the card to write my message on.

The flower was more difficult in trying to match the color. I used dream coat white paint and an old CTMH re-inker, Cloud Blue. I was hoping for more variation in depth of color but starting with such a light color it's hard to get very dark. After dabbing on paint and ink I sprayed it with shimmer mist, dried it with the heat tool and cut three different size flowers with my Cuttlebug. I scrunched the flowers up, un-scrunched them and added a thin coat of Liquid Glass. Although not exactly the result I was looking for I am pleased with it. It looks a little "rubbery" almost like I made it from Naugahyde.

I also tinted a large brad then clipped all the three flowers together with it. Layered with a black and thinner blue ribbon and three leaves cut from Twilight card stock and Ta-Da! my re-carded wedding card. Then, just before I was ready to put it in the envelope I added a bit of glitter to the brad. You can see that in the top photo.

I was still feeling a little unsure about 're-carding' but those fears went away at the reception. My family shared table with two couples, of which both the women are avid stampers and scrappers. I shared my secret with them and guess what.... they both made their wedding cards for the bride and groom from the invitations!! I hope I get a chance to see them!! By the way, the photo makes the flower look pinkish - it's not.

Brain on Overload!

Close to my Heart convention never fails to hype me up and inspire me.

Then I return home.

Oh My Gosh. So much to see and do and make... I simply have not been able to assimilate it all yet. Not to mention we got to DC three days early to spend time sight seeing in very hot weather. You know that feeling that you need a vacation to recover from your vacation? Um, yeah....

As usual, Close to my Heart has some super great things coming up with the September release of our Autumn/Winter Idea Book and I can't wait to share it all with you. But for now I will remain mum and share what I made for roomie gifts instead. I created 3 mini albums using the tri-fold shutter card as the base. I love Love LOVE how they turned out!! I snuck out one afternoon to get photos printed and placed in the albums before I gave them away. That part may have been a mistake... not that it didn't make the albums more special, I think it did, but I absolutely hate missing any of convention!!

The paper I used for this album was from our Notebook pack. It always stumps me at first when I try using this pack, but I always love the results!

This is what the album looks like with just the front flaps open.

When the mini album is fully open, this is the left "wing" including the center photo, on the far right.

Here is the right wing, with the center photo now on the far left.

This is the center shot of the album. I didn't write on the tag slipped behind the center photo. I thought the recipient of the album should use it to write their own thoughts about convention and their roommate experience. The back of the album is quite plain, but I did stick a photo of me on the back and write a short, very brief note.

Getting the Most from your Stamp Pad

I taught a class designed to show my students just how versatile our old friend "stamp pad" can be. These are some of the cards they made.

It's so much fun to stretch my creative muscles looking for (or recalling) the very many ways we can add color and depth to our cards with nothing more than the stamp pads we use.

And what I love most about teaching was seeing the reactions and delighted expressions of my students as they discovered these "new" ideas for themselves. It really is the reward at the end of the rainbow.

This first card was done by cutting a reverse stencil of the flower stamp on scrap paper. We tossed out the flower and used the hole, placing it over the stamped flower. Then we sponged color from our stamp pad onto the flower. The layers and subtlety of shading are one of the great benefits of this technique.

Did I say we tossed out the flowers we cut out? Oops! I did encourage my students to use them inside their cards to continue the theme. So pretty!

This card was probably the class favorite. There was a lot to putting it all together, but we learned so much on this card! Too much detail to relate here, but I hope we all learned about thinking outside the box.

I designed this card after I had the parts. My friend, Mary Jane, let me borrow her Cuttlebug and I whipped out the textured pieces to take home and play with. The results were so quick and easy and I think the look is fabulous! Some students were dismayed that the pad left color in areas other than the embossed lines. But then they looked back at my sample and saw that it looked burnished with color- very cool.

Something I don't have a sample of to show you is using the same technique on the back of the embossed piece. Try it sometime.

We did one more card using the water brush with our stamp pads. It's like having a perfectly matching marker. Perhaps I'll post that one tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Happiness is a Beautiful Card

This is one of my favorite cards. I love the tri-fold pattern which makes the card even more beautiful when it is opened, as well as these beautiful Close to my Heart papers, Creative Basics, Veranda Collection.


Most of the CTMH paper packets include several sheets and colors of solid card stock as well as 6 different designs of patterned paper - 2 of each double sided design. It's a wonderful value.



But... the Creative Basics collection introduced with each catalog? Only 2 double sided designs, six sheets of each, and 4 yards of coordinating ribbon. Perfect for card makers like me, it means more sheets of the designs I love!!



Here is the opened card. Isn't it gorgeous? I find these colors and patterns so beautiful, I don't think I could go wrong with them.

I first saw the pattern for this tri-fold shutter card when a friend posted a photo of her card using this pattern. I played around with some paper until I figured out the cuts and folds and used it for my Christmas Card (2009). Recently I had the opportunity to share the pattern with a stamp club I am a member of. It was so fun to see what everyone did with the same basic start. I'll be teaching this exact card this week in my Yoga Class. I am so excited!


This final view is the flower detail. I sponged the white paper flowers in the same colors of the papers (Juniper & Garden Green). I was a little stuck on what to do for the center of the flower because I was not at home - away from collections of stampin' & scrappin' do-dads. So I took a thin strip of solid Juniper card stock and wound it around a embossing stylus to make a tight swirl. I attached it to the center of the flower with Liquid Glass. I love how necessity stimulates creativeness!

Happy Administrative Assistants' Day!

My husband needed a card for his administrative assistant tomorrow and asked me to make one for him to give her. I know he thinks very highly of her and I wanted to be sure to give him something he'd be proud to give. This is the card I came up with.

I do hope he stops and picks up some flowers or a Starbucks Gift Card to go along with it!

Happy Administrative Assistant Day to anyone it applies to. I hope you are remembered and treated well!