Mrs. Grossman called !

After years of making cards for personal use it looks like it may finally start paying off and my work has caugth the attention of some of the manufacturers whose products I use. In the last few years I have had cards published in various magazines (including one in the UK); which has made my cards more available to the general public and to anyone else who reads these magazines. I have also been posting cards on a website called "Cuppas and Cards"; which allows me to share my cards with people who also post their cards there. Then I started "teaching" classes at two of our local craft stores. Then I started this blog; which eventually got me to start a Face Book page. The latter was a revelation and I found lots of sites I became a "fan" of. One of these was the Mrs. Grossman Sticker Company and as a result they contacted me and it looks like I may have some of my cards (using their products) be used on the Mrs. Grossman website. I feel so honored.

I have always been a fan of the Mrs. Grossman products and I always look at how I can incorporate at least one of their products in my cards. Here are a couple of examples ... no explanations, just cards.

Celebrating a New Stress Free Year!

Happy New Year to all. This year, more than ever, I want to keep things simple and stress free besides my usual resolutions. Actually I am making resolutions that I know I will keep so as not to stress out when I fail to keep! These are as follow:

I will continue to enjoy an occasional beer!

I will continue to enjoy an occasional piece of chocolate!

I will continue to be politically incorrect once or twice a week!

I know I can keep these without stressing out. So to start things off I made a couple of New Year's cards that are simple and easy.

The first one is a pre-made frame black card from "Die Cut with a View". Before I closed and sealed the frame portion of the card I inserted two fire work stickers from "Mrs. Grossman". I frames the opening with "Mrs. Grossman Design Lines" in silver. I then added a clock sticker from "Sandylion" and the text from "Mrs. Grossman".

The second card is also easy to make. I started with a white legal size card from "K & Company" that I embellished with a piece of "Momenta Distress Silver" paper edged in black. The champagne bucket is a gift tag from "Caspari" that I cut up. The text is a sticker from "Stampendous" and the clock is from "Jolee's Boutique/E.K. Success".

Cricut glittered tree

Although I am not too fond of glitter I wanted to use it on a card for the holidays. I wanted to make something different and yet familiar. So after looking at my choices I chose to use a tree . I cut out some strictly triangular shaped trees and even some more detailled trees, but was not happy with any of them. I finally pulled out some of my "Cricut" cartridges and looked for something different. The scroll design on this tree immediatly jumped out at me but when I cut it down to fit on a card it seemed to loose it WOW factor. I finally hit on the idea to make a really big tree to emphasize the scrolls and then only use half of it. I used bright green paper and after I cut it out I used "Martha Stewart" glitter on it. For the ornaments and star I used "Stampendous" Dot Sparklers stickers of various sizes and colors. The glittered text tag is an old sticker from several years ago from "K&Company" and it just seemed to fit perfectly with the glittered tree.

Christmas already!

For some reason I make more Christmas cards throughout the year than any other. This year I wanted to branch out and try different things and various techniques, but also make some of them masculine themed or masculine acceptable. The first card is an embossed type card with some "bling" effect to it. The background is gold paper even do it looks like brown craft paper here. The large tree is stamp from "Rubber Stampede", the smaller tree is from "Inkadinkado" and the text is from "Stampin' Up". I embossed the gold trees first and then embossed the tree in white on top. The text is also embossed in white. The card is trimmed with gold line stickers from "Starform".

The second card is a paper collage using a simple hand punch, craft paper and pre-printed paper. I selected a section of the pre-printed paper with the image of pine branches at the top. Using a hand punch I made three ornaments from craft paper. Using a "Sizzix Sizzlet" die-cut I cut out the text from craft paper as well. The rest was a simple assembly process, with the addition of some silver marker lines to simulate the ornament hooks and highlight the details on the ornaments.

Count your Blessings!

November is here, which means one of the most American of holidays is just around the corner. The stores are littered with fall foliage and pumpkins and yet these are all sorry leftovers from Halloween. There are actually very few "Thanksgiving" icons available on the market. I wonder why that is? After the 4th of July this is about as American as you can get! In any case I wanted to make a couple of cards to celebrate the occasion and searched high and low for appropriate images. I was tired of the leaf motif or the pumpkin image and yes even of those pilgrims, who each year seem to get trendier and trendier! Because of everything that is going on I wanted an image that represented not only the bounty that america has to offer but also a real Thanksgiving icon. After a long and fruityless search I finally found something I liked on of all things: a paper nakpin! The image here does not quite do it justice, but it is a regal looking bird surrounded by the bounty that is the season. After all the turkey was chosen by some of our fore fathers as one posibility for the national bird. This turkey was indeed a proud and regal bird. I photocopied the napkin and then using metallic markers and chalk I enhanced the overall colors and depth. To add to the depth I edged the card with black and walnut ink. The text is a sticker from Hallmark. The second card is made starting with a window card with a mat from "The Paper Cut". I used cross stitching canvas in a natural tone as the window inset on which I glued a 3D wheat shaft sticker from E.K. Success. The text is a sticker from "Mrs. Grossman". Although 2009 has not been the best of years for me, I still have a lot to be thankful for this year and have many blessings to count. I hope everyone could say the same but I am sure there are people out there who do not feel blessed or feel as if they have anything to be thankful for. To those people I just say: be thankful you are an American.