Happy 100th Birthday Aunt Mary!

• Memento Dye Ink
• Copic Markers and Airbrushing
• Cricut Cartridge "A Child's Year
• Spellbinders Corner Die
• Stampendous background stamp
• Rubber Stamp Tapestry Butterfly
• Sentiment -unknown
• Black and White Photo

The card and 1st layer were cut with the Cricut cartridge then stamped with a roller (unknown)  and a Stampendous Faux Finish Quad  cube.  I airbrushed the edges with Copics. The picture is edged I with the Making Memories Distress Edger  The picture is a black and white of me that I colored and air brushed with Copic markers.  This was my first attempt at coloring a black and white photo and I have to say it is an amazing experience. It is like coloring the best rubber stamp image ever created.  I just couldn't believe the way the skin looked so natural.  I do see where I could have done better, but all in all, I though it came out well.  Copics blend so nicely.  Another item worthy of note, is that I did this on regular cardstock that you buy for your computer printer.....the cheap stuff, and it blended and absorbed nicely, no blurring of computer ink (I have a Canon). 

Copics used:

• Card background and Layer E31, E55, E25, E27, E13 (love this one), E37, E55, E19
• Skin E00, E02
• Hair Y21, E00, E31, 0, E40
• Butterfly stamped with Memento Tuxedo, E00, E13
• Birthday Cake E00, E25, RV13, Y08, YR16
• Wash Tub E40, C0, C2
• Air Brushing edges and corners of card E13, E31, E35, E25, E27, E19

Happy Birthday Aunt Mary!

When I was a little girl, we used to go on vacation in July and frequently we would visit the Cook family who lived on a farm in Chattanooga TN. The Cooks had raised a very large family of 6 children who were married with children of their own by the time that I became one of their visitors.  Their household was always active with lots of people around doing fun things.  I tasted fresh cows milk there for the first time. OH! and chocolate gravy too!  Those visits to the Cook farm were a highlight of my childhood.  Theirs was a faithful Chrisitan family and spending time with them increased my faith as I noted the good examples that they modeled.  It just so happened that my birthday fell in the middle of a few of our visits and one one particular visit, my loving Great Aunt Mary asked me what kind of cake I would like her to bake for me. Of course, there is only one kind of cake to my three year old mind (and yet today) and that is chocolate! Aunt Mary baked me a chocolate cake several times for my birthday. Part of the birthday ritual at the Cook household was to go outside in the yard and turn the wash tub upside down and set the toddler on it to take their birthday picture. This year it is now time for Aunt Mary's birthday and she is 100 years old!! Aunt Mary's heart will truly stay young because she has such a loving heart. And doesn't she look great too! 

Button, Button, Whose Got the Button?

Today's card is for Lisa Somerville's button blogger challenge.  You too can participate in the blog hop ! (see instructions below)

Dye Inks: Memento
Chalks:  Colorfin Pan Pastel
Stamps:  Rubber Stamp Tapestry, Beeswax, Gray Wolf Graphics
Dies: Nestabilities

• started with white cardstock and layered a light coat of pink Pan Pastel chalk over the white card front. 
• Stamped a square in the middle of the page with a lace stamp from Rubber Stamp Tapestry by repeating it four times in a green Memento ink. 
• Stamped around the edges of the square with the same lace stamp in a purple memento dye ink pad. 
• Stamped the dress makers form (Beeswax) and buttons (Rubber Stamp Tapestry) in black. 
• Stamped the dress maker's form with the ruffled dress (Beeswax) with purple Memento ink on a separate piece of white card stock chalked first with pink and then with purple Pan Pastels. 
• Fussy cut the dress form with the dress and placed it on the card with pop dots. 
• Colored whiet lace left over from son's wedding invitation with the Pan Pastels and secured it with adhesive. 
• Embossed sentiment with detailed black Color Riser embossing powder on a pink Pan Pastel chalked white cardstock.
•  Layered sentiment over purple cardstock cut with a Nestabilities die from Ribbon Tags.

Wide Eyed Fireworks Back to School Challenge

WIDE EYED FIREWORKS

Back to School Challenge

When I was a little girl, school always started the day after Labor Day.  The community that I lived in had a small lake in the center of town with a Gazebo and a little beach and grassy hill with a sidewalk all the way around it.  You could walk around the whole lake in about a half hour if you walked slow.  There were beautiful cherry trees all around the lake.  The lake was very deep, in fact they said that they had never found the bottom of it.  The night before the Labor Day holiday the city would put on a grand fireworks display.  My mother would dress us up in our pajamas, pack a picnic quilt and off we would go to sit on the grassy hill.  We would anxiously wait for darkness to arrive and the first ear piercing star of color would slowly rise to the highest heavens and then burst into a shower of colors.  We watched with wide-eyed excitement as the fireworks burst agains the night sky for the next 45 minutes.  The colors were spectacular. At the end they would show a ground display of fireworks on the other side of the lake.  It looked like civil war cannons were shooting at each other.
I can remember walking to the car afterwords and being sooo tired I just couldn't walk another step and my dad would pick me up in his strong arms and carry me the rest of the way.  The next day, school would start.  I was always ready for school to start, we had played all the board games and worn ourselves out playing kickball in the scorching sun.  The fall weather felt cool and good, I loved the colors of the leaves, seeing old friends and challenges for my brain that had grown lazy over the summer.

Todays card depicts those fond memories.   The stamps are Stampscapes, Rubber Stamp Tapestries, Stampabilities, Cloud 9 Fiskars clear stamps. Color is from Pan Pastels, ink is Memento.  I had a great time remembering those good old days. 

This blog was created for the Back to School Bloggers Challenge.  If you would like to post a link
Back to School Challenge Blog Hop  Follow the link.
Thanks for stopping by!

More Mini Birdhouse photos

Birdhouse Blast

You know those cute little birdhouses that you see at the Craft Stores for a dollar? I was in Michaels in Chicago and saw a basket full of them. They have such cute designs. I have always loved miniatures and these appealed to my sense of fun. I decided that I had a bookshelf that needed a little color and so I picked out five of them. This bookshelf holds a very large flower arrangement of orange tiger lilies and purple petunias and trailing green vines. I wanted to add another touch of those colors to the room. I began work on one of these birdhouses and was amazed at how fast that it was to complete and so I kept going and had all five of them finished before the day was out.

Here is a final picture of the birdhouses in their place on the shelf.