Singing One of My Favorite Songs

Hello, friends!  No card today...just wanted to share a video from a recent concert our church choir held.  I am one of many cantors in our parish and I was lucky enough to be asked to start off this song by Tom Kendzia called "Endless Is Your Love."  It is a beautiful song and one of my favorites! 

Sorry that the video quality is not so great...my ten-year-old daughter filmed it with my little Sony Cyber-shot and the lighting was not that great.  (She also seemed to have trouble holding still!)  Unfortunately the video clip gets cut off before my part is over...however, it's enough to give you an idea how pretty this song is! 

Anyway, here's little old me singing in church...one of my other favorite things to do!  Click here:

Judy singing "Endless Is Your Love" with Christ our Light Choir

Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!

Judy

March Card Chain Challenge

Hello, friends!  I want to share the card I sent to Betty (known at Flickr as bettijo) as part of Deborah's March Card Chain Challenge.  She e-mailed me that she received it, so we are good to go!

Deborah gave us three choices (and we had to use at least one) -- a color scheme, a sketch, and a theme.  I chose to do a friendship-themed card using her color palette for this month's challenge.

Color Palette:  

Here is the card I made:

Materials Used:  Hero Arts- (CL272) All Occasion Messages, (S5215) Clouds, (CG125) Friend Definition; Impress Rubber Stamps- (5056D) Brush Stem; Prima flowers; Nestabilities Labels 8; ribbon; corner rounder

Thanks for stopping by...have a greay day!

Judy

Happy Spring!

Hello, friends!  No cards to share today...just wanted to stop in to wish everyone a HAPPY SPRING!

I am so happy to see the signs of spring popping up arpund my yard...seems like just yesterday it was covered in snow!  Now the sun is shining brightly and the temperatures are slowly creeping up...ahhh!  I especially love being able to open the windows and smell the fresh air inside the house after a long winter. 

Here are the first of my spring daffodils to bloom.  Each year my children give me flowers on Easter and I love to see them return each year... a perfect reminder of the wondrous circle of life. 

Unfortunatly, spring also means the return of the busiest season of the year for me...which, in turn, means less time for card making.  Between my four kids and their very full baseball and softball schedules (yes, all four play!) paired with the busiest season of the year for me at work, I don't get much free time to play with my stamps.  I also don't get much time to browse and comment at my favorite blogs...I feel very badly about that!

So, even if I seem to be MIA for a while, remember I am thinking of you all and admiring your lovely creations when I get the chance to log on. 

Happy Spring, everyone! 
Judy

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #72

Hello, friends!  I have a card today for the current Play Date Cafe Challenge #72  using this colorful inspiration:

This color combination was a stretch for me...not colors I would usually reach for, but I'm glad I tried!  Luckily I had some patterned papers that included the inspiration colors; I punched them into squares and dry embossed the dots.  I punched two circles using coordinating paper, adhered to the squares with pop dots for dimension, and added Prima flowers and a pearl accent.  Finally, I stamped the Classic Fabric Design onto the card base and embossed the sentiment in navy blue.  

Materials Used: (CG245) Classic Fabric Design; (CL380) Truly Appreciated; blue embossing powder;

Prima flowers; brad; pearl; patterned paper; square punch; circle punch; pop dots; corner rounder. 

Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!
Judy

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #71

Hello, friends!  Just stopping by to share a card I made for the current Play Date Cafe Challenge #71 -- black and white with a splash of color!

I embossed the Hero Arts "Wild Flowers" (K5404) with black embossing powder, cut down, and mounted on black card stock.  After rounding the right corners, I added a few white dots with my Inkssentials pen.  I mounted it with pop dots onto a white card embossed with dots and added some black ribbon.  Finally, for the splash...I attached a Hero Hues Blush Print flower with a black button center and tied with a pink floss bow.  Voila!  A splash of pink!

Thanks for stopping by!

Judy

 

You're 16!

Hello, friends!  Just a quick post today with a quick birthday card I made for my neice for her 16th birthday.  I used glittery Thickers for the number 16 (found them on clearance at my local craft store...what a steal!), and the pre-printed card is from DCWV. 

For the card front, I used part of a sentiment from the Hero Arts "Sweet Wonderful You" (CL381). 

On the inside of the card I stamped "you're old" by using part of a sentiment from Hero Arts "My Type" (CG280).  Of course, I told her that she is not really "old" in my note, but we like to joke around!

So hard to believe she is sixteen...I remember the day she was born!  How time flies....funny how she is getting older but I'm not!  (I'd like to think so, anyway!)

Have a great day,
Judy

Dancing with Flowers

Hello, friends!  Just playing with the Hero Arts "Dancing with Flowers" cling and loving it!  (As an aside, it was the "Stamp of the Week" and 25% off at the Hero Arts store.) 

My first card is a total CASE of Shari Carroll's beautiful card seen at this post at the Hero Arts blog.  I couldn't resist trying what she did...shameful, I know, but why mess with perfection?  (Yes, I think her gorgeous card is perfection.)   I stamped the Dancing with Flowers image with Soft Leaf shadow ink, then stamped the Friend Definition over it with Soft Vanilla shadow ink.  I distressed the edges with Antique Linen distress ink and added a few extra dots on the kraft paper with my white Inksentials pen.   Thanks to lovely Dana (aka Scrapper43 at the Hero Arts Flickr group) for the beautiful lace ribbon I won in her blog give-away a while back...this is the first time I got to play with it and I love it! 

Materials Used:  Hero Arts "Dancing with Flowers" (CG266), "Friend Definition" (CG125);

Fiskars "Threading Water" border punch; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper; lace;

Hero Arts Soft Leaf and Soft Vanilla Shadow Inks; Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink; white Inkssentials pen;

Hero Hues Art Flowers; Prima flowers; gems, button, twine

The next card I made followed the same initial steps (i.e., Friend Definition in Soft Vanilla shadow ink over the Dancing with Flowers image in Soft Leaf shadow ink), but then I cut it out with a Nestie and mounted it to a patterned DCWV card.  I switched up the butterfly and the flowers in order to coordinate with the background card. 

Materials Used:  Hero Arts "Dancing with Flowers" (CG266), "Friend Definition" (CG125);

Fiskars "Threading Water" border punch; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper;

lace; Hero Arts Soft Leaf and Soft Vanilla Shadow Inks; Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink; Die Cuts With a View card; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One; Prima flowers; gems.

And here they are together...

Well, that does it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Judy

90 Minute Challenge - St. Patrick's Day Card

Hello, friends!  I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to participate in today's 90-Minute Challenge at the Hero Arts blog.  Donna (aka Irishmist2009 at the Flickr pool) is hosting the challenge today and gave us two choices:  either make a monochromatic card for St. Patrick's Day, or make a monochromatic card in any color using at least one flower -- in either case, use at least one Hero Arts stamp. 

Here is my take on a monochromatic St. Patrick's Day card (unfortunately I'm still waiting for my "Celebrate Everyday" set, so I had to use a general sentiment for now). 

Hero Arts Stamps Used:  (CL381) Sweet Wonderful You, (CL184) Thoughtful Messages,

(CG139) Cling Dots, (S5433) Large Canvas Stripes

Thanks for stopping by...now I'm off to clean up my disaster of a craft space! 
Take care,
Judy

Layered Background Technique

Hello, friends!  Today I made two birthday cards for the new March challenge at the Hero Arts blog. 

The first card uses the "layered background" techqnique that Shari Carroll described in her post at the Hero Arts blog today.  I first stamped the Friend Definition using Punch chalk ink, then I stamped the Large Canvas Stripes using Soft Rose shadow ink.   On a separate paper I embossed the typewriter and cut it out, shading it in with Spun Sugar distress ink.  The sentiment is from the clear "Birthday Messages" set. 

Materials Used:  (CG125) Friend Definition, (S5433) Large Canvas Stripes, (CG280) My Type,

(CL139) Birthday Messages; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8, American Crafts ribbon, Queen & Co. pearls.

The next card is a birthday card using a latte note card with the Classic Fabric Design stamped in Latte chalk ink.  Pretty simple...

Materials Used:   (CG245) Classic Fabric Design, (CL139) Birthday Messages, Spellbinders

Shapeabilities Fancy Tags, patterned paper, blue gems, Prima flowers, EK border punch, corner rounder

I also have to take a moment to say a very special THANK YOU to the wonderful Patricia Rey (aka Scrapflower) who designed a beautiful new blog banner for me.  Isn't she super talented?  What a sweetheart she is...she did the same for Heather Maria and when I complimented her work at Heather's blog she went and made me one, too.  Now THAT is sweet!  Thanks again, Patricia! 

Happy first day of March, everyone.  Let's hope it goes out like a lamb...I'm ready for Spring!

Thanks for stopping by!

Judy