Monday, November 17, 2014

Hello! Is Anybody Out There?

It has come to my attention today that it's been a long time since I have posted anything here. Six months to be exact. Luckily for my family, I take better care of them than I do my blog.  My only excuse is work. Since I write for a living, often the last thing I want to do in my down time is write some more. Hence, my neglected blog.

I have come to realize two things over the last few months. First, as much as I love to scrapbook, I am, first and foremost, a card maker -- by necessity. I still love to scrapbook and am working on a slew of layouts in my head. However, I can't remember the last time I sat down and created a layout. As for making cards, there always seems to be an occasion that calls for my craftiness. And, I am grateful to have the excuse to create! Last week was the first time I actually bought a card in a long time. Wow! It cost $4 for one card! Maybe this hobby is actually saving me money. (Insert laugh here!)

Anyway, I digress.

The second thing I realized is that One Little Word is not for me. Remember this post? Well, lets just say that somewhere along the way I have lost my FOCUS. At least I have been keeping my emails to under 200, mailing cards more on time and focusing on family!

I am going to try to be less absent more present here and share whatever project I am working on at any given time. And, although I haven't been blogging regularly, I have been making lots of cards so I hope to have new content here once or maybe even twice a week. Stay tuned, there may even be a giveaway here to welcome you all back!

With that said, I do have a card to share today.


I made this card as part of the Stretch Your Stamps 2 class from Online Card Classes. If you are ever looking to jump start your creativity, these classes are great. This card called for making a stamped background from alphabet stamps.

To create the card, I lined up the letters for "Welcome Baby" on my stamp press. I really like the Lawn Fawn stamps for this technique. Since each stamp is a perfect rectangle, it's really easy to line them up and the set comes with multiples of commonly used letters. (Before stamping on the background, I tested the phrase on scrap and made the necessary adjustments.) Taking a piece of white card stock cut 5.5" x  3.75, I stamped the first sentiment in the middle and then filled in the background working from left to right and up and down. Once the background was completely stamped, I used blue distress ink to color the sky.

I stamped the adorable bunny image directly onto the background (for the balloon strings) and again onto a piece of white card stock. I fussy cut the bunny and the balloons, then adhered them to the card with foam dimensional adhesive. For the grass, I used a Martha Stewart drippy goo Halloween punch.

I am going to keep the supply list pretty simple. Leave a comment if you have any questions about a specific product.

Supplies
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White.  
Pattern Paper: Lawn Fawn.
Stamps: Lawn Fawn (Milo's ABCs); Mama Elephant (Up and Away).
Ink: Memento (Tuxedo Black) Ranger Distress Ink; Assorted Copic and Spectrum Noir markers.
Misc.: Martha Stewart Punch.


9 comments:

hanes132 said...

I'd say, "Welcome Back"... but you (or your cards, more accurately!) have actually been present on my bookshelves most of the summer & fall! :) This one is very cute!

Lisa Rukin Swift said...

I'm so happy to see you're back! I kept checking and checking your blog for new stuff and now there is. Yay! Loving this sweet card!

Emily Adams said...

I love this card. I am pretty new to card making and really want to learn some new skills. I"ll have to try this technique!

Leslie Miller said...

Hi, Linda, and welcome back! I sure do hear everything you're saying about time and focus and family and home. It's hard for me, too, to get on the computer at night after being on a computer all day at work. I understand, too, how the little time you have for crafting tends to be spent on cards which you have a use for. I have a hard time making more than two cards per week. Any more than that and I'm really pushing myself. You're sharing a very cute and creative card today! Clever way to stretch the stamps. I like the text background, and the Halloween goo for grass is a great idea. I'll look forward to receiving your emails, however frequent or infrequent they are!

Susan (rainy) said...

Hi Linda, Good to see you posting! I know the feeling of life sorta getting in the way sometimes. But here we are. :)

Darling card. Love that cute background you created.

Diane said...

Just adorable design and colors.

Hugs Diane

Leigh Penner said...

Oh, this is such a sweet card!

Jingle said...

This is a very cute card!

Kara said...

super cute!