Magazine Monday

Today's card was created with a special friend in mind. MaryLou is a sweet lady whom has been going through so many medical and personal issues of the past several years. She is the sister-in-law of my dear friend, Soni, whom I've introduced you on here in the past year with trials of her own. To say this entire family has been bombarded is an understatement. I just wanted to send a little cheer MaryLou's way.

MaryLou and I connected several years ago during a visit she and her husband, Bill, made to Soni and Wally's. We discovered we both love and collect bears. So I know when I began this card for her, it had to include a bear. All of my cards for MaryLou have included bears. LOL We agree you can never have too many!

The design for this layout came from the Spring 2006 issue of Paper Creations Magazine. Designer Rhonda Palmer created a square card. She chose 3 coordinating colors of DP from Scissor Sisters for the panels. Her senter mat was a SU flower as well as the sentiment on the tag (Thank You!). Rhonda used a black gingham ribbon knotted at the top of the mat and a button for the flower center.

Where Rhonda positioned her panels vertically, I chose to flip the card and run them horizontal. I selected DP pieces from my scrap drawer to coordinate with that soft, cuddly Ted E. Bear from RubberStampede. The peachy/ brown stripe is from S.E.I and the green flourish is from. Ted E. is stamped in Memento Brown and accented with Derwent WC pencils. I colored him first very lightly in ORANGE then went back over him with DK. BROWN. When I took the water-brush to him, the two colors blended beautifully to create the soft caramel tones with a perfect shading. I matted him with SU Chocolate Chip. The ribbon is from Ribbon Trends. Although the flower brad looks orange in the picture, in real life it comes very close to that peachy stripe in the DP.

I hope this very special bear brings a smile to MaryLou, if even for a moment.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday - Weddings!

So glad to be back to a routine. I've spent the morning playing catch-up on business then made a trip down to the Studio to create 2 weddings cards. My husband's niece as well as a dear friend I've known most of her life are both getting married Memorial Day weekend. It is impossible to attend both so I'll be representing Bob and I at the family wedding in Oklahoma while sending lots of prayers and well-wishes to Dasha and her fiance in southern Illinois.

The card today comes from a 2008 issue of Crafts 'n Things magazine. The sophisticated stamped wedding ensemble on page 19 is the creation of Keri Lee Sereika. We've visited Keri's Pink Lemonade blog at typepad before. Probably because her designs are beautiful and inspiring.

My inspiration was actually the cover of a wedding album. I didn't change anything except the technique for this card. Keri chose a lace background stamp to create her DP strip where I used the Starry Night CB folder for mine. Keri also used hers for the top strip, where I used mine as the mat for a coordinating DP. She used a ribbon accented with flowers on top of the strip. I chose not to use any additional accent because it seemed to get lost in the striped paper.

I chose SU Elegant Soiree papers, pairing them with Marina Mist and Very Vanilla CS. The sentiment is from Rubber Stampede. Though I used the same layout on both cards, I did reverse the mat/ pearls positioning on the other one.

One thing I did notice in putting this week's card together is I do not have enough 'elegant' DP. So guess I'll have to fix that as SU, as well as a couple other of my fav paper designers, have a great selection.

I'm hoping for a TPT card tomorrow. I already have a post for Wednesday. How is it possible to be ahead one day, yet still behind LOL

Creative Blessings!