Happy Anniversary!

Last month, my husband and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary. I know once folks get married, they tend to only celebrate their wedding date, but we were together for eight years before we got married, so I tend consider this June date the more important one.

On our first date, we saw Disney Pixar's UP! so it's always been a very special movie for us. When I saw that Sandra from The Sassy Club had stamps from the movie, I knew I had to grab them. 

First, I covered the card with a rainbow background using my distress oxides: Wilted Violet, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Abandoned Coral. I didn't like that though. It just looked too much, so I grabbed a stencil from Waffle Flower and tried to recreate the effect. I messed up a little on the top, but at that point, I wasn't going to start over.

I'm actually really proud of the Copic coloring that I did on these characters. They took me awhile to get just right, but I love the end result. I topped it all off with a CZ Design sentiment.

Hope you all take the time to celebrate the special people in your life!

Oh Mickey, You So Fine

In college, I had a second home with my best friend Kevin. His house was sort of like a safe haven where a bunch of us would retreat to when we needed a breather. His mom is one of the nicest I know and I loved to color with her. Long before Copics, I used to color with good old fashioned Crayola crayons and she'd have tons of Disney coloring books to choose from. It was so therapeutic and relaxing which is probably why I still love doing it today.

Kevin's parents are DVC members and I have so many wonderful memories of going to Disney World with his family. They were always the most fun vacations. So when I wanted to make something for his mom, I knew these Mickey stamps from The Sassy Club were perfect. There are no dies for these stamps so I had to fussy cut it, but I don't think it came out too bad?

I created the background with Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar distress oxide. I used one of the background stamps to create a border and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Muggle

My best friend Rachael's birthday is only a few days after my own. Every year, we have these great joint birthday parties that include roller skating to boy band music, bars and tiaras or karaoke. It's always a good time. Sadly, we haven't been able to do anything for the past two years, but I'm looking forward to next year. It'll be epic.

She is my fangirl partner and expert in all things Harry Potter. When I was still only a few weeks pregnant, we took a trip to Universal and even though I couldn't ride anything, I still had a total blast with her. 

Recently, I discovered Sandra of The Sassy Club and down the rabbit hole I went. There have been so many stamp sets I've purchased since then, but her Harry Potter sets are by far my favorite. The background was blended with Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. This set also came with footprints so I tried to recreate the ending credits of the third movie, but I think I was too neat with them. Either way, I'm glad with how it turned out. 

I have a few more stamps from The Sassy Club to play with (so many really....) so I'm looking forward to future cards!

 

Birthday Girls!

Ruby Anniversary

Last month, we celebrated my in-law's 40th wedding anniversary. 40 is the ruby anniversary (my mother-in-law received beautiful ruby earrings from Tiffany's!) so we "kids" wanted to help them celebrate. We decorated the house and had food catered by their favorite restaurant. (The same place I got married, funny enough)

For their card, I had a different idea in mind, but time got away from me and I had to come up with something quick the night before. I had just gotten the Simon Says Stamp Dandelion message set and I was itching to use it. The distress oxide background was created with Picked Raspberry, Dried Marigold and Squeezed Lemonade. Then I embossed a small sentiment on black cardstock and called it a day.

Simple cards can be beautiful too!

 

Happy 71, Sailor!

This year, my dad turned 71. Last year, due to the pandemic, we celebrated his 70th birthday over facetime since he lives in a Veteran's home and they had closed the place to all visitors. This year, I thought we would be able to see him, but it was only through plexiglass and we weren't allowed to give him any of the presents or food we made him. Instead, a nurse collected all of our things and all we could do was wave. It was rough. While I am very grateful for the care he receives, the toll of this pandemic is starting to wear me thin. I'm hoping once the vaccine becomes more wildly available, normal visitations can resume.

For his card, I again created a distress heavy card. I love this sunset, but this time, I also created an ocean since my father is a Navy man. I used washi tape to create the horizon.

Sky colors: Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire.

Ocean: Tumbled Glass, Broken China and some Black Soot in the edges

I also took a white gel pen to create the waves. The sentiment is from an old Penny Black stamp set which I believe I've used for him before, but doesn't make it any less true!

Hope that wherever you are, you're able to see and hold your loved ones soon! 

 

Wasn’t he a cute sailor?

Baby Parade!

Later this month, I will be attending a baby shower over Zoom for my husband's cousin. She lives in Ohio and I've only met her a couple of times, but she really is the sweetest person so I wanted to make something special for her. She's having twin girls! (God bless her, haha)

I was finally able to use the Party Parade stamps I got from Hello Bluebird a long time ago. I just love how versatile they are and I got the coordinating dies which made things so easy for me. I had to work on the Copic blends a couple of times before I found some combos I liked, but I still need to practice.  The background was colored with Distress Oxides: Tumble Glass, Spun Sugar and Squeezed Lemonade.

Sunset Distress

 I have been experiencing a love affair with these distress oxides lately. I know they are really different from the inks and I like how smoother and brighter they are.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving to pick up dinner and there was a spectacular sunset. It was just one of those you wish you could paint so I decided to try and recreate it.

Colors from the bottom: Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot.

I still sometimes have a hard time blending Dusty Concord with Chipped Sapphire and I think my next purchase will be Wilted Violet since I've seen better blends with that combo. Regardless, I'm really proud of this!

I grabbed my CZ Design Dude die cut once again because I just love it so much and used some holographic foil paper for the front cut. I also used a  Simon sentiment strip which is much straighter now thanks to the Tim Holtz paper trimmer I got!

I gave this to my husband since he was there when I was inspired and honestly, he really does spread happiness like confetti so it was only fitting!

As you can see, I have a lot of them now. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of brush I prefer but the Gina K brushes seem to be winning. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to store them. 

Sigh.