You make me happy...

I was up at 6am this morning, even though we had quite a hectic day yesterday visiting the new twins in the hospital and having dinner with the old twins at their home.  My husband was still sleeping and I wondered if I could actually make a card before he woke up... just A card.  I saw this beautiful blue paper staring at me from across the room and decided I'd see if I could make something using it.

 

Step #1,  See if I have any paper in my stash that matches it... I found the brightly colored flowers.  The bright flower paper reminded me of OWH's Sketch #218 which is perfect for paper that needs to be showcased.  Step #2, Find two other patterned papers to match the colors in the flower paper.  Hence the light blue and sunny yellow.

Step #3, Cut all the pieces following the measurements.

Step #4, Assemble all the pieces.

Step #5, Pick a sentiment.  The whole color scheme seemed so happy.  I looked at the sentiments I have in a printers tray on the wall and there staring back at me was

"You make me happy".   How perfect!

Step #6, Add brads.

 

Wow!  I looked at the clock and it was only 9am... and seven cards were done!  I was amazed at how quickly something comes together when you use a sketch, find some papers

and "Just do it..."

 

Let's go to Paris...

Holy Eiffel Tower Batman!  I haven't been in my studio since the 9th!  WAY too much travelling.  But the piecé de resistance was watching my brother run the 118th running of the Boston Marathon ON Patriot's Day in Massachusetts.  He is soooo amazing!  And in all the times I've seen the Boston Marathon, I've never seen it from the Start line... wow!  I spent most of the time just bawling...

 

This card is one I've made a # of times before.  As I was assembling the papers, I discovered I didn't have the paper I really like to use for this which had blues, reds and yellows over words.  I was about to say, "Oh well, next time... " when I realized (duh!), I can add my own blues, reds and yellows with some background stamps and my own inks.  It came out fantastic!  After the ink dried, I crumbled the paper over and over then distressed it with Vintage Photo ink.  All the pieces, with the exception of the paper I altered, are scraps... ALL of it!  Boy did I make a dent!  :)



Today's cards...

Thanks to Wuzya, I've been up since 4:30am.  THAT was when she wanted to be petted... grrrrr!  Since I couldn't get back to sleep, I made a cup of coffee and headed to the studio.  Here's my first creation of the day.  Every piece here is from the scrap pile... yay!  Even the flowers are leftover stickers from another card I made last month.

More scraps AND a leftover sticker from a set I received in the Project Life classes I took last year.  This "one of a kind" will go to my own dad.  I'm happy to use up stuff but the card itself isn't really "singing" to me.  I'm just not as good designing as I am at CASEing... :)

 

After lunch, when my personal life got nutty, I pulled out these to work on.  Each cake on each card is watercolored and each circle is hand selected with another circle on top of it, also hand selected.  For some reason, this activity is very, very calming for me.  I've completed eight cards and have five more to finish up.  I wanted to get the picture taken before we run out of daylight... :)

 

So, this is the extent of what I'll do today.  Fifteen cards... wow!  I'm pleased.  I won't be back in the studio the next few days as it's time to go do my real job... :(



Look what I found...

I've been methodically going thru things in my studio to purge items I've had for years and are no longer interested in using.  The items will be for sale at a "Yard Sale" out in PA in May.  I came across a notebook I started when I first became interested in Cardmaking (now 4 years ago).  In it was a sheet of directions my friend (and mentor) Barb in California had sent me to make this card.  She also loaned me the stamp set (Stampin' Up's "Two-Step Stampin' Simple Sketches"... don't even get me started on why it's called TWO step when it is CLEARLY three).  I later purchased the set from her, dirt cheap!  And NO, this is NOT a set that will go in the Yard Sale.  Finding the notebook (propped in the background) just made me want to make these again... so I did!  And ta da!, it fits in the April Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge, woot, woot!  It's been months and months since I've done an ODBD Challenge.  I feel industrious... :)

The April Five...

I'm so excited that my five are done for April!

 

This month gets insane for me as it moves along.  I became a grandmother on Friday and am planning a trip to Florida to meet my grandson.  My brother is running the Boston Marathon two weeks from today and I'll be there for that.  And of course, I'm still getting everything together for my weekend retreat to Cozy Crop the 1st of May.

 

This is OWH's Sketch #218 from 3-30-14...