King & Queen of Hearts card / Mojo Monday 201

I made this engagement/wedding card for the Mojo Monday challenge #201.  I've been looking for something to do with some old playing cards, and I thought they fit with this week's sketch.  The colors are black, holiday red, and sunny yellow.  The B&T paper is from CTMH's fanfare pack.  Both the tag and the heart in the circle on the right are raised.  I like how it turned out, but if I was redoing it, I'd make sure the king's face was visible.  Next time...   TFL!

H2H Paper Lantern card

I made this card for this week's H2H challenge.  The paper and color inspiration is from the Wings B&T pack.  The stamp set is Paper Lantern. The lantern on the right was stamped in vineyard berry ink, cut out and attached with a pop dot, then embellished with "pearls."  TFL!

Wedding Layout/Wall Art

I helped my niece with this project.  It's a layout for a 11 x 14 frame, which she gave as a gift to a couple who are newly married.  I think it turned out awesome!

A Little Rant -- Please Read!

Protesters Pack Hearing To Cut Help For Disabled - Politics News Story - KCCI Des Moines

I attended this rally (click on above link for details) and the legislative rules review committee meeting today as an advocate for my special needs son.   Iowa lawmakers made cuts to our budget at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens, the ill and handicapped.  I urge you to stop these funding cuts in Iowa, or whatever your home state, and maybe most importantly in the federal government, especially in response to buzz words like "smaller government."  The reality is "smaller government" doesn't mean fewer bureaucrats.  It means less money for education; fewer programs for the sick, disabled and elderly; public parks and recreation closures; less funding for road maintenance; delays for courts; understaffed law enforcement; and cuts to every other public service we take for granted.

Welcome to Finland Layout

Welcome to Finland is the name of Jimmy Buffett's 2011 tour, so it makes a great title for my Buffett tailgate layout from Alpine Valley.  The layout is based, very loosely, on the Monologue layout from CTMH's Imagine book.  I used CTMH's Sweetheart B&T papers and added Dutch Blue and Pear cs.

Almost everything on the layout is CTMH, except for the stamped woman image, which is from Art Impressions.

I paper pieced the dress with some random B&T paper, and colored the rest of the image with copics.  Her lei is made by stringing small papercrafting flowers on a piece of string and threading it through and attaching it to the back.

For the title, I used the CTMH stamp set Around the Block for "Welcome to" (barely visible in this pic), Hang Ten for the shark fins, and Bohemian Alphabet for "Finland."  I stamped "Finland" in pear ink, filled in the flowered areas with Cotton Candy marker, then cut out the letters.

You're Sweet -- Owl Card

This card went together pretty quickly.  Coloring the stamped images took the greatest amount of time.  The background tree as well as the owl & limb insert are from Hero Arts, and the "You're Sweet" sentiment is from CTMH.  I paper pieced some of the owl and the flowers on its limb.

Woodburning Oar Project -- Update

My oar was a success!  (HERE is my post about making it, if you don't know what I'm talking about.)  Attaching the shotglasses with velco was perfect--much easier to transport, and they're easily cleaned or replaced.  Here is the oar in action during our recent Jimmy Buffett concert weekend in Wisconsin.

MoJo Monday 198

I made this Christmas card using the Mojo Monday 198 sketch challenge.  The paper is all CTMH, but the snowman image is from Whipper Snapper Designs, Inc.

I colored the image with copics and added snowflake punches dappled with icicle Stickles.  Here's the inspiration sketch from the Mojo Monday blog:

To make the ribbon-like edge of the strips easily and equally, here's my trick.  Use a chevron punch (mine hadn't been used in ages), and line of the strip from the back (see pic).  It was really easy and will work for varying sizes of strips of paper.