Before and After 4

Just a simple strip of paper and two purple staples to add just a little more to this card.

I didn't realize...

I recently added a feature to this blog in the column at the right that has a slideshow of cards that I have posted here. Well, when I looked a couple of them up, I realized that I had not included them on the blog in the past after all. So, here they are.
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The top one is a Christmas card made long ago. I cannot remember how many I made that year this way, but I am sure that the coloring of the images took some time. (Maybe that was back when I was only making about 60 cards or so for the holidays! :-) I do remember that I was tickled to get the corner punch that made the cute frame and so then I found the rest to fit with it for the card.
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The bottom card, I believe, was one I made for my in-laws for their anniversary. I am going to label it as a "blank" card on the blog... mainly because it could be used for many purposes. I just love that tree stamp when embossed in gold (as seen here) or silver on a dark background... very dramatic!

Before and After 3

Still just another post of taking a card one step further... I am sure that there may be something else that could be done. What do you think?

And others done recently...

Before and After 2

This top image is how it was left...
... and this shows that I added a simple layering piece and one more stamped image to spruce it up a bit.

Before and After

So... the last time at Hope Stampers (the group at my church that stamps cards to send to people on our church's prayer list) there were two wonderful gals who attended who had not been there in a long time (actually, one of them had not been there in a long time - we're talkin' years - and the other was her sister who had never been before). They were only there for the last 40-50 minutes, but still cranked out a number of cards. One of them had some basic things down, but even she herself admitted that they needed some extra little touches to bring them to life. Above shows one of those cards... and below is after I added a little somethin' somethin'.
I have more samples of these coming soon in more posts. What other ideas might you have?

Happy Mother's Day

Here is the card I made to send special moms I know to wish them Happy Mother's Day. (I can post it now because they should have theirs by now.)

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I really enjoyed the colors with this card. I based them off of the accent ribbon that I used (on sale from Michaels!!!) The glitter (from Stampin' Up!) added that extra pizzazz!

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Things that mothers do are priceless... you cannot put an amount on kissing away boo-boos, hugging a congratulations when they finally write their name, saying good-bye at daycare or with a babysitter when they are crying, driving all over the place to let them have their fun, giving up sleep to help them get theirs... and there are thousands other examples I could put here. Just thought that, along with this being my favorite stamp set, that this "Priceless" theme would work for Mother's Day.

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Happy Mother's Day!

French Curve

I usually don't post cards that I might yet use sometime, but here is one and it shows something new that I tried... stitching. I know, this is nothing new to everyone, but I thought I would give it a go. I have seen templates you can buy, but I opted to grab my ol' French curve tool, drew my design on the back of the cardstock and plotted my own stitching pattern.

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This here is my second attempt. On the first try I got the holes spaced too close together and the cardstock tore. So, on this one I pierced the paper with enough space to get a needle through with the floss without tearing.

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I know there are incredible things people do with sewing machines, too. I will need to wait and see if that is something I actually want to invest in. I just can't use my regular sewing machine for this as the paper tends to dirty/jam up a machine. I will have to look into those cheap-ie little craft machines if I want to pursue more stitching.