A New Card, Hooray for a Bit of MOJO!!

I thought I was back three weeks ago, apparently due to a lack of postings, it wasn't to be, however, today, I made a new card and I am so thrilled to be able to share it on my blog. I am just going to be down right honest here for a moment and let you, my faithful readers know that I have an illness called treatment resistant depression. As the name says, my body resists most treatment  , and I have tried them all.  My wonderful doctor works with me on new medications cocktails, and in the last 15 years, I have managed a couple of times to get as much as a solid 5 months of a good period of time, then my body becomes immune to the meds. However, I am on an upswing, with a bit of energy that I haven't had for months, and I am an optimist at heart, with good friends and family support. I originally started this blog as a way of reaching outside of my own walls, giving myself a forum to share my creativity, and setting weekly goals for myself. This worked for the first 3 months, and I hope it will work again. I love to be able to challenge myself, I love to be creative, and I sure do love all the positive feedback that flows through cyberspace. So with that said, here is what I would like to share today.

My next door neighbour, bless her heart, decided 2 years ago to go back to school to earn her grade 12 diploma, and on June 11th, she will walk across a stage and do just that. What a thrill it will be to cheer her on. So I have made this card of Congratulations for her.

I made all the pieces of the card out of metallic card stock. I stamped the  scroll work using a Stampin up roller, and embossed it and the writing, with silver. I added a silver 2013 charm with a silver brad, and added a pearl to the flower, as well as 3 pearls to the top right hand corner.  The picture doesn't show how stunning the card is with the metallics, however I know she will just love it. 

I would like to show you the inside as well since I was experimenting with some new products and techniques.The wheat was done with straw distressing embossing powder from Tim Holtz, and I used white ink to make the writing. The butterflies and the royal blue edging where done with perfect pearls. This is an interesting new medium which is very pearlescent and adds such a fun touch to the card.

I am entering this card into two challenges , the first is at cas-ual fridays where the challenge is to make a Congratulations card. The second challenge is at shopping our stash where the challenge is to use no patterned paper.

This was just so much fun and I thank each and every one of you who have found your way to my blog today. Please feel free to leave me a comment as each one means so much to me.  If you would like to become a follower, I would be honored to have you join me.
And one last thing, if you or any one you know suffers from depression and needs a listening ear, I am here...Blessings, Cathryn

Thursday Vintage Card!

My oh my where does the time fly???  It has been three weeks since I last posted, I have been rather sick, however on the mend now and hopefully will be able to post a little more regularly. Thank you to all who have been inquiring. Your thoughts and prayers have been a great inspiration to me.

 This is a new card that I have made for my Dad, he has been one of my biggest fans through out my life, and he is the man I hold most dear to my heart with my husband as well.
I am making this card for the shoppingourstash ; Stash Attack challenge this week and I was inspired by the DT Michelle so you might also want to check out her amazing card as well as all the other fabulous DT's over at shoppingourstash.

To make this card I used a background scrap of patterned paper and inked it with walnut ink around the edges. I then took two large paint samples, cut them into smaller pieces and inked them with the Tim Holtz car shapes , in black,and inked their edges too. I took another scrap of patterned paper, and added the Live the life you imagined stamp, tore, and inked the edges, glued it to black paper and tore the black paper edges.I attached it with foam squares to give it a lift off the page and finished it off with a button. I love the look, and I hope you will too. My dad is an antique car buff, so I hope he will love it.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. I love reading all comments left for me, it is such an honor.

Wednesday Butterfly Birthday Card

Hello my dear blogging friends. I hope you are having a wonderful week, lots of fresh air and sunshine, and finding time to use your creative talents.

 Today I have for you a card that I have made after combining four very fun challenges together. I apologies for the poor picture quality, but at least it shows you the pretty little card I made.

I do admit photography is NOT one of my talents!
So, starting with the challenge from tuesdaythrowdown which is to make your own background, I have used my happy birthday embossing folder with white paper to make the background for this birthday themed card. Over at simplylessismoore they have two cards for inspiration, and I have chosen to use the birthday theme, and the red heart on this card. On the pinspirationalchallenges the photo inspiration is a picture of beautiful butterflies which you can see I have put three on my card as embellishments to add interest. These butterflies were purchased at our local dollar store which is the fourth challenge from shoppingourstash. I always love to be given a challenge to use what I already have, and at Shopping our Stash, the challenges are always about pulling out something from your pile of stash.
Thank you so much for looking and for stopping by today. It means so much to me that you have found your way to my little space here in blogland. Your comments are always welcomed and very appreciated.

Friday's Vintage Card

Welcome one and all to my little piece of cyberspace. I hope you will enjoy the card I have made to show you today.

My inspiration for the card has come from the sketch posted on the challenge for unscriptedsketches. I have made the card vintage for the challenge at cardsgalorechallenges where they are having a vintage challenge for the whole month of April.  I am entering my card in both of these challenges.

To make the card I used a piece of music paper from an old music book. I inked it with Tim Holtz distress inks, vintage photo, and tea dye.  Then I took a cream color piece of paper, ripped the edges and inked it in a similar fashion.  I stamped the sentiment 'a note of thanks' on to this piece, then added inked green twine and an old button to finish off the card.

I have been a primitive crafter for many years, and love the look of all things old.    Making this card was very fun. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you so much for coming to my blog. I would appreciate any comments you may leave for me. I would also be honored if you would consider becoming a follower. Have a great day, Hugs, Cathryn

Thursday's Card

Good Afternoon, my blogging friends. Today I have a simple card to share with you that is bright and fun and very easy to make.  But first I want to make a shout out to all those celebrating their 4th Blogiversary over at unscriptedsketches. Way to go gals, 4 years sharing your challenges, sketches, and fun for all!  I do so appreciate all the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep the challenges going for card makers like myself. Thank you all so very much!

I am using the sketch from unscriptedsketches for my card this week. I am using the theme Friend from addictedtocas.  I have added faux stitching which is the challenge from fussyandfancychallenge. I will be entering my card into each of these challenges.

I have made this card using bright yellow paper, then I added a sentiment stamp about friendship which I colored in with my new colored pencils. I then backed it with purple polka dots before placing it on the card.

I used purple bakers twine and a pretty little purple flower to give the card a little pop of color.  I love how bright and cheerful the card turned out and I hope you will love it too.
Thank you so very much for stopping into my blog today. I love to read any comments that are left for me, each one leaves a stamp on my heart. I would  be honored if you would consider becoming a follower of mine...just click in to join at the top of the page. Thanks so much, and please come back again.

WOYWW

Hello blogging friends, who can believe it is Wednesday already? Another day to snoop around the desks of fellow crafters around the world! If you are new to WOYWW, please hop over to see Julie and you will discover everything you ever wanted to know about this crazy phenomenon "What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday". You will also find a lot of other desks to visit, and if  you haven't already joined, you can find out how to join in the fun yourself!

Today I haven't done any work to be totally honest, so I just put a few things together on my desk. A card I made for a challenge that I will be posting later this week, and a few new things I have added to my stash. So many people have oodles of markers, but I have decided to buy pencils to use for colors on my cards at this point as I am so new to card making and don't want to make a huge money investment right now. You can see my bag of Sharpie markers that I have, but I don't use them very often, sometimes for doing faux stitching, but not often for coloring because they are not acid free. When I purchased them I didn't know anything about the importance of being acid free. 

I have also bought some Tim Holtz paper and a few more colors to add to my distress inks.  I just love the Tim Holtz products,I am just not very familiar with how to use them, so I am looking forward to learning as I go.
Well, thats it for me today, thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you are having a grand time snooping around the world of desks on WOYWW.
Please leave a comment and let me know you  stopped by! 

Friendship Card

Hi my dear blogger friends. Today I have a very CAS (clean and simple) card for your viewing pleasure. But first I want to make a shout out to all those celebrating their 4th Blogiversary over at unscriptedsketches. Way to go gals, 4 years sharing your challenges, sketches, and fun for all!  I do so appreciate all the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep the challenges going for card makers like myself. Thank you all so very much!

I am using the sketch from unscriptedsketches for my card this week. I am using the theme Friend from addictedtocas.  I have added faux stitching which is the challenge from fussyandfancychallenge. I will be entering my card into each of these challenges.

This is a very simple card which would be easy to remake, which is one of the rules for a Clean and Simple card.  I have used a simple spring purple polka dot pattern background, added a stamped sentiment which I backed with yellow paper, and colored in with my new colored pencils. I added yellow bakers twine and a simple yellow silk flower.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, your comments are so appreciated.

Serendipity Card Tutorial

 Hi all, this is my first tutorial, so I hope it will be easy enough to follow. This is not something I have made up myself, nor do I claim any ownership for this design. I just thought I would share how I made this card in case someone has not made a serendipity card before. It is a fun card to make and the results can be quite stunning. Good Luck and Have Fun!

Supplies:
Card stock for background: 5x10
Card stock for card : 6 1/2 x 10 your color of choice
Card stock to back the collage pieces, your color of choice
Card stock for inside card : 6 x 4 1/2
Scrap papers colors of your choice. plain or patterned
bone folder
glue
stamps (any you might have)
colored inks of your choice
versa mark ink
embossing powder
heat gun
ruler
craft knife
scissors
paper trimmer
sentiment stamp (if desired)
ribbon (if desired)

1.On a piece of paper, 5x 10 glue ripped plain or patterned paper in a random way until the paper is fully covered. Let this dry fully.

 2. Stamp randomly over the collage with different stamps and different colors to add design. ( I did not do this on this piece, but you will see it on my other samples.)

3.Stamp with the versa mark and add embossing powder. Heat with the heat tool.

 

4. Cut collage into 1" strips using a paper trimmer.

5.The card I am making today uses 3, 1" x 2" pieces and 3, 1"x 1" pieces. Once I have all the strips cut, I decide which of the longer strips I will cut the smaller pieces from to make my design.

6. Glue these cut pieces to the backing color, for my card, this is silver. Then cut out a 1/8" matt around it. I use the perfect layers rulers . You could also use a paper trimmer, or skip this step if desired.

7.Fold your 6 1/2 "x 10" paper in half with a bone folder, (this is the main card). Attach  the pieces to your card as shown in the final picture. I added a ribbon and a birthday sentiment to this card.Glue the 6" x 4 1/2" piece of card stock inside the card to finish.

Please see the following samples for other card ideas. I apologize for the poor picture quality.

Thank you so much for coming to my blog. I appreciate any comments or feedback you might have that might help me improve this tutorial. Your words are always welcomed.

WOYWW

Hello my blogging friends around the world. Today I have a short post as I am not feeling up to par, but I wanted to share my work desk, and try to get around to see a few of yours too! I just love to see what you all are up to, and I love knowing that you are visiting me too.
If you are new to WOYWW, please hop over to see Julie and you will discover everything you ever wanted to know about this crazy phenomenon "What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday". You will also find a lot of other desks to visit, and you might even join yourself!!!! (if you haven't already!)
On my workspace you can see the beginning of my scrapendipity card that I will hopefully be getting to tomorrow, and hopefully will be making my first tutorial for. I am making the card for my youngest son for his birthday, and it is a process that is a lot of fun to do and turns out quite stunning, so I hope you might come back to see the finished product!

I have also laid out some of my newest paper stash that I purchased at Michaels on the weekend...if you live in Canada or the USA you might think of hopping over to Michaels before their best sale of the season ends on Thursday...I don't show you all my new stash,but my they do have a whopper of a good sale on this week!
Thank you so much for stopping by, I would love it if you would join my blog while you are here, and I appreciate every comment that is left for me, your kind words bring a smile to my heart!

Happy Card!

Welcome one and all to my little space in blogland.  This is where I find a place to share some of my creative talent with the world. It seems quite impossible that sitting here in my living room, typing at my computer, you, whoever you might be, will be reading this, in another place, at another time. I am touched really, humbled, that I might make a difference in your life, no matter how small that might be. In this moment we matter to each other. I want you to know how important you are to me for taking the time to read this. If you are one of my close friends, know that your friendship holds me together in my toughest times. If you are just popping in to visit, know that I appreciate you coming here because your presence means you care enough to look at my work, and I am grateful for all the support and encouragement I have received from so many kind bloggers since I have started this new journey. I have realized that it isn't only about the craft, it is about the relationships, the support, and the generous sharing of time that we give to each other, that makes this blogging work. So thanks again for being here, in this moment, you are appreciated.

The card I am sharing today was inspired by many challenges. I love to read through and integrate many challenges together because I find that somewhat, 'challenging'! First off is the cardmakinmamas  .  Their challenge this week was to create a card with no patterned paper.  I thought that would be quite interesting because it is always so easy to reach for the dots and swirls and other delicious papers of which I have stacks of. (come  on how many of you are addicted too?) . Then there were two challenges with the theme of spring. These are the allsortschallenge, and the craftsandmechallenges .  Then over at cutecardthursday the challenge is to use something borrowed such as an idea, a button, a ribbon, or a sketch, which is what I used. I borrowed a sketch from a class I took at mycreativeclassroom.  Then the final challenge was from stampandcreate . They are having a month long April challenge which is to create a card with at least one die cut on it.  So having said all this...here is my card!

I embossed the top of the card with small dots, and made the bottom with different shades of purple stripes.  The flowers where made with my Cricut cartridge, Ultimate creative sampler. I cut out three layers, stamped them, inked the edges of the petals and added a pearl to the center. I love how feminine this card turned out. I could add a sentiment on the pink center space, but have left it blank for the time being as then I can add to it later.
Thank you again for stopping by, your support and encouragement mean the world to me.