This year for Christmas I did a variety of cards based on 4 themes or techniques: school nostalgia, cute forest animals, watercolor, collage. I was quite taken with the Pink Fresh line of Christmas papers and used them for building collage cards with some stamping. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

It has been awhile since I have blogged but I must say art is alive and well. Today I completed 6 sets of cards for the vet techs that took care of my dog during his recent bout with kidney disease. I like to give card sets as a thank you. The cards were made with Mama Elephant and My Favorite Things stamp sets. The people who care for our pets are special. The vet is also such a caring person. They all deserve my thanks. Here are pictures of a few of the cards I made.

Today I wanted to show the cards I made for the people at the Vet's office. My Westie, Lucky, is groomed at the vet's office each month and although a quiet dog at home he barks in the groomer's quarters when I leave him. Everyone knows Lucky. He doesn't like to be confined in the pen while he is waiting. As soon as he is out of the pen he stops barking. This dog knows what he wants. He is quite opinionated and makes sure you understand. Most of the time he is allowed to walk about while Tressa finishes the other dogs. He is not aggressive but if another dog who is being groomed is, Tressa has to put him in the pen then he starts barking again. Anyway, Tressa has the patience of a saint. His vet loves terriers so she has a special place in her heart for him and Lucky loves her. He never barks while he is visiting Dr. Sue. Each year I make a set of cards for them. Last year I made dog cards. This year I made cat and bird cards for them. Then I put the cards in a clear box and made tags for them. I altered a Tiddleywinks stamp and drew on a Christmas sweater, scarf and earmuffs. The cat stamp was made by Simon Says Stamp- the bird stamps were made by Lawn Fawn.

It's December and I made a batch of Christmas cards using Simon Says Stamp kits and dies I have accumulated. I love the kits form SSS.  There are a number of items in each kit and I love playing with the materials. I like to do collages as well as stamp. I'd like to share two collage cards that were inspired by Shari Carroll(my muse). I can't get enough of her stuff now that she is designing  for SSS. Ever since I took a few classes from her when she was visiting Buffalo, I caught her vibe. When she was here she gave countless artistic tips. Her cards are always finished to perfection, are well-designed and so creative.

Here are the two cards. the first is a copy of a card that she did on a video with some minor changes I made. The second is a card I made for my nephew, Mike, who is away at school and will be coming home for Christmas.

At our most recent Card Club meeting we completed our monthly challenge. We receive a plastic bag with a few elements in it at the September meeting. Each person in our group uses the elements to make a piece of art. The products shown at our October meeting were wonderful I'd like to share a few here on the blog. What a great group pf creative people. We received our next package which has elements of fall. Looking forward to the end results.

I did the first one with the Halloween theme. I used the Tim Holtz Stopwatch die which was given to us and used the brass metallic Distress paint and Black Soot Distress ink to color the watch. I used a variety of Halloween Stickers from my stash, Martha Stewart ribbon and a variety of Halloween papers.

How things change suddenly

How things have changed since my last post. I designed a card for my mother for Mother's Day and unfortunately it was the last one I spent with my mom. She had a massive stroke at the end of May and died a few days later in June. We will all miss her very much because she was a very special woman. Her last day was spent in hospice. They provided a massage therapist who massaged her arms and shoulders followed by a music therapist who brought her guitar and sang all my mother's favorite songs at her bedside. A chaplain followed and our family prayed a prayer of Thanksgiving for a life well spent. There were wonderful, compassionate nurses and doctors who took care of her. I made thank you note cards which I sent to the doctors and nurses who took care of her during her brief stay in the hospital.

I have not blogged for a few months. It is remarkable how time flies. I've taken a few online classes with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner. I also took a journaling class with Dyan Reavely and a paper mosaic workshop at our local stamp store.  I really got excited about making mosaics with bits and pieces of craft paper. for grout we used glitter, embossing powder and also used a variety of stamps to stamp on our projects. I am getting ready for Mother's Day. My mom is almost 88 years old and she is a special lady. I am so lucky to still have her in my life. So I made a card for her, for my sister and a friend whose mother passed away a few month's ago.

The cards were made with the Simon Says Stamp May Stamp Kit and the second card also used a stamp from Stamping Bella called " Flower Garden"