Crafting Surprise!

I got a wonderful surprise at church yesterday. A friend, Joy, had been to the States for a visit and while she was there a friend of hers, Carol, gave her a box filled with crafting goodness to bring back with her. Our monthly group of card makers is going to love, love, love this unexpected gift! Carol sent us twelve Stampin' Up stamp sets (all new to us!), card stock, ink pads and three SU catalogs for inspiration. We can't just order crafting supplies online and have them shipped here because of extremely high custom duties so a gift like this makes us giddy with happiness!

You should have heard the oohs and aahs as I and another stamping friend looked through all these goodies. What fun it is going to be to have all these new stamp sets when we meet again on the first Saturday morning of February! Thank you, thank you, Carol, for such a fabulous gift, and also to Joy for making room in her car to carry this terrific batch of goodies back with her.

While I'm blogging I guess I should share one of my latest cards with you. This was made for my friend Faith, who loves to celebrate birthdays with her family and friends by sending personalized cards. This one is for her brother-in-law who, along with Faith's sister, served as missionaries in Australia for six years.

Take care all. It's still chilly here but the sun is back and helps to warm up the house when it shines through our floor to ceiling windows!

Betty

Valentines

Made a number of valentine cards this morning for my friend Ruthie to take to the Monday Market. All money from card sales go to the dental fund for the boys at Hope House. These are the two designs that I used for a total of seventeen cards. Thanks to my friend Alice who let me use her heart punches!

I found this card on Pinterest and it was the inspiration for my first card. I love how you can get inspired by a card and end up with something that looks completely different.

Betty

Candy and Kiddos

This morning we went to the nearby village of Mezcala to distribute the prettily wrapped candy to the children of the barrio of La Cuesta. I gotta tell 'ya, it was just plain FUN! Here's a picture of some of the kids waiting in line to receive their gift.

And here's one of a little girl helping her smaller brother.

 It was all very orderly.

Pastor Jose and the kids after they have received their candy. (Those are avocado trees in the background!)

We gave out all 140 presents and could have used some more -- next year I'll have to shoot for at least 200!

And on the way home we had another treat! Saw this little burro walking down the side of the road all by himself, his back loaded with firewood. Don't know the story of his owner; we figured this little guy had done this so many times that he knew where he was supposed to go even without being led!

We love our life in Mexico!!
Betty

A Banner Birthday with Freshly Made Sketches

This card is based loosely on sketch challenge #117 by Amy at Freshly Made Sketches. It's a very simple card really, but I like the fact that the banners are not adhered to the card and appear to "float". This will be given to one of our church members on their birthday. Our stamping group that gets together on the first Saturday of each month makes one birthday card for the church and any others for themselves. Here's a picture from our last meeting. All are very busy working on their Christmas cards.

We'll be giving out our Christmas candy treats this coming Saturday. Watch for photos!

Betty

Christmas Candies for 2013

Dropping by for the first time in a very long time to share a Christmas project that I've been working on. We have been saving empty toilet tissue rolls this past year to fill with candy and distribute to kiddos in a nearby village. This is our second year to do this and it sure is fun to see the smiles on so many sweet faces!

Here is a picture as I got started. All the toilet tissue rolls (some have candy inside already), candy and wrapping paper laid out on the spare bedrooom bed.

I made tags to attach to one end of the candy rolls with curly ribbon. "Feliz Navidad" stamped on tags.

Finally finished up the wrapping last night after several different sessions over several days. There are about 140 shiny, wrapped gifts all ready to go -- what fun there will be passing these out!

Hoping you're all enjoying your Christmas preparations this year. Merry Christmas, peace and joy to all!
Betty

Birthday Cards

This post will be short and sweet.....

This is a card I made for a fellow who used to be a fireman. Found this free image on the internet -- don't you just love the rainbow?????

This image is from the Graphics Fairy. Hope the recipient enjoys having her name on the  butterfly!

Betty

Anniversary Cards

I've been busy making cards for my friend from church who is so good at remembering relatives and friends on their special days. We make a pretty good team -- she tells me something special about the person and I find a way to translate that to a card.

This couple is in the process of building a home. What makes this card special to me is that I used a picture from when we were building our home in Conroe, Texas. This is the house we lived in before moving here to Mexico.

This is another anniversary card. There's a family story behind the plate of cinnamon rolls!

Before I sign off, I want to leave you with another picture of the Vermilion Flycatcher. He likes to sit on the beak of this metal figure I have on the front porch. Only problem is, he poops on my porch!!!

Adios,
Betty

Summer Lovin' Challenge

Flourishes is having a Summer Lovin' Challenge. If you'd like to play along, make a card inspired by the photo above or inspired simply by SUMMER. You have until Friday, April 12 at 5 pm EST to enter your card, and please make a card only for this challenge. You'll have an opportunity to win the entire Flourishes April Release! If you use Flourishes stamps, your card counts as two entries -- this is what I have done (stamp set is Flourishes Sweet Days of Summer) and here's my card that is inspired by summer.......

Does this stamp ever make me think of summers of my childhood! I don't remember a sprinkler but we definitely had a water hose and that provided hours of fun during hot Mississippi summers! Thank goodness I had a sister -- we'd take turns squirting each other!! And how much fun was it to hold that hose straight up and have the water fall back down on you. (we also had lots of fun playing out in the rain too when it was hot outside!)

Since my card has a red color scheme going on, I thought I'd share a picture of a little red visitor to our yard. This is a Vermilion Flycatcher and is the most beautiful red and black -- it's hard to miss them when they are perched outside on the fence or utility line because their color is so brilliant!

Adios for now,
Betty

Collage Card

I tried a new technique today after watching Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge featuring Dawn McVey. She challenged us to use different stamps to create a collage effect on a card.

The stamps I used are Papertrey Ink (sentiment and gingham background), Stampin' Up (green foliage), Clear Art Stamps (birds), Autumn Leaves (lace), and Martha Stewart (scallop flower).

Mine didn't turn out nearly as good as Dawn's example or many of the other gorgeous cards posted for this challenge, but, hey -- I gave it a try and the winner is chosen by a random draw so I'll still have a chance to win!!!! A couple of things I really do like about my card is how the largest bird looks like it is saying "Happy Birthday" and the fact that I went out of my comfort zone in order to create it!

Speaking of going out of my comfort zone, we had lunch with friends today and I had a chance to try something new -- cactus salad! I have to admit that it wasn't my favorite but I did enjoy the homemade cactus tortillas we had with the chicken fajitas!! Here's a picture of my (mostly) delicious lunch......

Trying new things is a good thing!
Betty

Single Layer Card

I normally don't have lots of luck with single layer cards -- it always seems to me like there is a little something missing! But I made this card yesterday and was very pleased with how it turned out. It's difficult to see in the photo but I first embossed a scalloped circle onto the white layer. Next I stamped the flowers from Gina K. Designs Elegant Flowers inside the circle and used colored pencils and baby oil to color and blend. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, Gracious Vases; two corners were rounded off from the white panel and the card base and after adhering the white panel to the base, the card was done! Very simple and sweet!!

Wanted to share another photo with you today. We had a wonderful Easter service with inspiring music and sermon. To close out this fabulous Easter service we had some lively picking and singing of the old gospel song I'll Fly Away. Loved it!!

Hope your week is going well!
Betty

Masculine Birthday

This is my card for the Seize the Birthday challenge this week to make a masculine card with the following sketch.

Hoping you all have a wonderful day!
Betty

Watercolor Embossing

My card was made using the technique from Make It Monday with Papertrey Ink, which involves watercolor stamping and embossing. The flowers are from a Martha Stewart two step stamping set. The sentiment stamp is from Papertrey Ink, Gracious Vases and the background for the sentiment is a gingham background stamp from PTI. The watercolor technique was a little bit messy but sometimes messy can be fun!

Check out the link and perhaps you'll want to give this technique a try too!

Betty

Alter Something

This is my card for the challenge at Joan's Gardens this week.

Here are the requirements:

• Use a square
• Alter something...even if it is a card
• Use flower paper...you can make it 
• You must use something sold at Joan's Gardens on your card.

My 2 inch square frame has rounded corners. The frame and the flower are a purchased embellishment.

The flowered paper is from an old Colorbok 12x12 paper book designed by Tracy Porter.

The thing I used that is sold at Joan's Gardens is a Cuttlebug folder. The folder that I used (Checkerboard) is no longer produced but Joan has plenty of embossing folders for sale. If you don't see what you want, just let her know and she'll be able to get it for you. One good thing (there are many) about Joan's Gardens is that she only charges you for the actual mailing costs -- no price gouging on shipping!! By the way, this embossing folder also features squares!!

My altered something is a card. Here is a picture of the card that I chose to alter.

Hope you have time to play in this challenge too  -- let's see what you come up with to alter!

Betty

A Challenge at Joan's Gardens

My cardmaking style is layered, clean and simple, but I think I've managed to capture all of the requirements for the challenge at Joan's Gardens, which are:

• Use black and white
• Use an embossing folder
• Use flowers, pearls and lace
• Use something sold at Joan's Gardens

As you can tell right away, I've used black and white. Also used a favorite embossing folder from Stampin' Up, Square Lattice. For many years my favorite has been Swiss Dots; guess now I have two favorites!

Got two requirements done with one swoop -- my Memory Box Prim Poppy die was purchased from Joan's Gardens. I have a flourish of lace and the pearls are quite subtle (meaning you have to hunt to find them!!). I've put a pearl at the center of the flower on the lace and at the left side of the sentiment frame. The stamps are from the set Wedding by Inkadinkado, which I purchased on my last trip to the States in June of last year.

By the way, I won't be traveling back to the States this summer; instead my daughter is coming to see me!! I'm so excited -- I've been here in Mexico for two years (can it really be????) and this will be the first time she's come -- can't wait to show her around "my town"!

Bye for now,
Betty

Coral Bird

Just a quick post today -- I'm off to Bible Study in just a few minutes! Hope you enjoy the bright, pretty bird in Cameo Coral. I found this piece of coral paper with the circle cut out from a previous project and this little tag fit on it perfectly.A scrap piece of white for the mat, stamped with the bird. Yay for scraps! Used the SU Square Lattice embossing folder for the front of the card base.

Betty

Die Cut Window Card

I was playing around with my new dies (Fancy Framed Tags 2) and made a window card. The next picture shows how it looks when it is closed.

I used two different stamp sets. The one on the bottom is from The Craft's Meow, Beautiful Hymns, and the upper stamp is from Gina K. Designs, Fanciful Tags.  Both sets were designed by Nina Brackett.

The piece that was cut out of the card base was sponged and used underneath the lower panel. We may be making window cards at our stamp group next month!

Betty

Vintage Easter

I haven't made anything vintage in a long time and when I saw Linda Payne's post this morning for Sugar Creek Hollow, I knew I wanted to play along and make a vintage Easter card. I got my image from Bumble Button and created the sentiment in MS Word. Couldn't figure out how to change the color (I wish the green were a bit lighter) but I was able to add just a hint of the little girl's dress color to it. I used a bit of a doily distressed with inks on the image and added lace to the background panel from a paper pack by Glitz, French Kiss. The metal butterfly embellishment is sitting on a mother of pearl button that came from my mother's button jar. I added distress inks to the butterfly to tone down the shine of the metal.

I'd also like to enter this card into the Pink Gem challenge to make an Easter/Spring card and into Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge to use green.

We're experiencing quite a bit of wind this afternoon. Wish we had a wind turbine as well as solar panels for generating electricity!!

Betty

Flowers and Easter

I'm back with my other favorite stamp from Gina K. Design's StampTV kit, Spring Mix (an oldie but a goodie!) I colored the stamp with my markers and touched up the edges with a darker shade of pink. My printer has stopped accepting white cardstock (jams every time!) so I've started printing on regular printer paper and cutting out the regular paper on top of the white cardstock and adhering them together. Guess that's called "making do"!

We are off to Guadalajara this morning to make a Costco run so this will be a quick post. Did want to show you some Easter cards that I made for a friend's grandkids.

Betty

Go Green!

This is my entry for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge to incorporate green into our card or project.  I've used the Flourishes set Calla Lilies to create this sympathy card. I colored the image with watercolor crayons and a blender pen. Here's the inside...

Looks a bit like a watermarked image and verse. I inked the image with Momento London Fog ink and stamped off first on a piece of scratch paper and then stamped again on the card.The verse was stamped with dark green.

Get your green on and join me in this challenge .... wouldn't you love to win their March release??? I know I would!!

Betty

A Card for Carol

I was asked to make a card for a lady who will be returning to the States soon and it needed to have plenty of space for people to be able to sign it. I do like how it turned out. I used a new die cut that pierces the paper as it cuts and I sponged on the inside before removing the die. The stamp is from an older StampTV kit, Spring Mix.  The two flower stamps in that set are among my all time favorites.

I used my "new" Stampin' Up Square Lattice embossing folder on the background panel. Interesting story there -- I had ordered it to be sent to my daughter so I could get it on my trip back to the States last year. However, when I returned home, there was no embossing folder to be found after unpacking. Would you believe that I found it earlier this month??? I had also brought back several boxes of envelopes on that trip. I opened a new box to take envelopes to our stamping group and -- lo and behold! -- there was my embossing folder right in front of the envelopes! I'm sure I thought that I had put it in a perfectly safe place for the trip home -- unfortunately, I forgot where I'd put it and it was hidden quite well!!! I tell you, it was like Christmas in March when it finally turned up!

Here's how the card looks when it is opened -- plenty of space for signatures.

Adios,
Betty