Welcome Back To My Blog

Some of you know I have been making memory twisted easel cards for the Sandy Hook families.  It became very involved because I decided to add charms to them showing what their parents, family, etc. had shared about their favorite things and accomplishments were.

That being said, my neighbor saw them and asked if I could make one for her grand daughter's graduation from college with a nursing degree.  This one is done as a grad beach party with charms for the lanterns.  Above is the result and below is how I did it:

Images Cardfront:

1. Stamped Path To The Beach with Memento Desert Sand on Natural Neenah Cardstock, painted with Twinkling H2O's, cut out with largest Romantic Rectangles die, threaded with twine, and attached to a piece of 6"X4" Solar White cardstock.  Added Gold Dust to highlight sand with glue for glitter.
2. Stamped the grass from Beachcomber with Memento Desert Sand, trimmed and painted with twinks. Turned over and used stylus on emboss mat to give depth.
3. Resized digital Girl Walking On Beach, mirrored image in PSP X2 photo program, changed color of image from black to beige, and cut out.  Turned over and embossed with stylus. Painted with twinks and mounted on grass.
4. Used 3D pop dots on back and mounted to image.
5. Found free images of Stargazer lily online, painted with twinks trimmed, embossed with stylus on the back and attached to girls dress.
6. Mounted to scene.
7. Sentiment was stamped with Toffee Crunch.

Card Fold:

1. Go here to see how I did this twisted easel base.  It is 6" in width and 4" wide. and Neenah Solar White cardstock.

Card Base:

1. Cut a piece of 5.75"X3.75" Natural cardstock and mounted in the middle of the base.
2. Used IO Grass Border to cut grass for the the edges as shown.
3. Mounted 2-3mm heats to the edges.
4. Cut the base for the photo from Spellbinders Splendid Circles die.  Her photo was emailed from the grandparent and transferred onto photo paper.  The die was used as a stencil.  I did one of these for each Sandy Hook child or teacher.
5. The shells and sand were added to the corner using real shells with a tiny heart pearl in the center shell.  The bow is from May Arts ribbon.

Charms:

1. I made a list of what I thought she would be using as a Neonatal Nurse.  Next I searched Charm findings sites, Etsy, and EBay.  It's amazing what is out there that doesn't cost a lot.  For the Sandy Hook cards I did the same and included Charmtastic and Charm It! charms.  It really didn't cost that much.  Some even include free shipping.  Charms are small!!

Envy & Note:

1. The envelope card was stamped as shown.  The note stationary also has an envelope since there is no room to write on the card itself.

As a last thought and in case Amanda doesn't like charm bracelets, I built a mini floating heart locket key chain.  What nurse doesn't have a lot of keys.  I saw the lockets while hunting for all the charms I have needed and found these itty bitty ones.   Take a close look.  You can find charms for anything in this size.  The prices are as little as $1.  The lockets start at around $6.  How fun.  The heart says "Love My Grand Daughter" and the other one says "Believe In Miracles".

That's it for today.  Thanks for waiting and for stopping by to look and share.  Hope to see you sooner than later.  ;-)

 Shirley

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Happy Holidays To You And Yours

Thank you so much for stopping by so I can wish you a very Happy Holidays and a wonderful healthy Happy New Year too. Thank you for all of your visits and for sharing your thoughts and time with me.  I hope to post more in the new year too.

This beautiful ornament is from alongway99 on Photobucket.

Love and hugs to you all, my blog friends.

 Shirley

Cards of Condolence for Sandy Hook Families

I am sure my heart is not the only one crying for the families in Newtown, CT.  I just can't stop thinking about what happened.  I kept thinking how I could help.  Then I saw 3 ways and they are listed below in case you would want to do any or all of them too.  

I. Mail Cards To The Families At A Special USPS PO Box:
The lists of the children's and faculty names:

1. Charlotte Bacon, 6
2. Daniel Barden, 7
3. Rachel D'Avino, 29
4. Olivia Engel, 6
5. Josephine Gay, 7
6. Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
7. Dylan Hockley, 6
8. Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47
9. Madeleine Hsu, 6
10. Catherine Hubbard, 6
11. Chase Kowalski, 7
12. Jesse Lewis, 6
13. James Mattioli, 6
14. Grace McDonnell, 7
15. Anne Marie Murphy, 52
16. Emilie Parker, 6
17. Jack Pinto, 6
18. Noah Pozner, 6
19. Caroline Previdi, 6
20. Jessica Rekos, 6
21. Avielle Richman, 6
22. Lauren Rousseau, 30
23. Mary Sherlach, 56
24. Victoria Soto, 27
25. Benjamin Wheeler, 6
26. Allison Wyatt, 6
27. Nancy Lanza, 52

The last name is the mother of the young man who shot them.  She had no idea he would do that, I believe, or she certainly wouldn't have given him access to the guns.  A real testimony of the need for gun regulation and more education and access to mental health services in this country.

Below is the address set up by the USPS to get condolence letters and cards to the families of the above.  I plan to address cards To The Family Of ..........., and then put them in a larger envelope for the post office to separate:

Messages of Condolence for Newtown Families
PO Box 3700
Newtown, CT 06470

II. Winter Wonderland For Children returning to school:
The next project in which the public can take part is to support the children who will be going back to school, on January 12, is by making snowflakes and sending them to the PTA there.  They are planning a Winter Wonderland theme for when they return to school.  You can check it out HERE.  If you need ideas for the snowflakes go HERE.

III.  Request For Review of Gun Laws And Education And Access to Mental Health Services: 
At the same time I am going to contact the President, my Representative, and Senators to ask for action on how guns are sold and at the same time review ease of access and education about mental health services.  If you need to find out how to reach them you can join Congress.org.  It is free and they provide the email address, telephone number, etc. of the people representing you, both state and federal.  You can even sign up to be notified of votes to be taken and then of how they voted.

If you have questions, please feel free to ask me.  Thanks for stopping by to look and share.  I know this is a card art blog, but sometimes change is needed and good too. :-)  Bless you all.

 Shirley

It's Easy Peasy Blogger Snow Time!!

Had to let you all know I found a really simple way of adding snow to a Blogger blog this year.  It was posted at Edgy Tricks.  How to I find these things.  I 'Googled' "12/2012 blogger code for snow effect."  The link to the Edgy Tricks blog is HERE and showed up near the bottom of the page.

 The code looks totally weird:

 <Script Language='Javascript'>
document.write(unescape('%3C%73%63%72%69%70%74%20%73%72%63%3D%22%68%74%74%70%3A%2F%2F%63%6C%6F%75%64%2E%67%69%74%68%75%62%2E%63%6F%6D%2F%64%6F%77%6E%6C%6F%61%64%73%2F%65%67%79%74%72%69%63%6B%73%2F%63%6F%64%65%73%2F%73%6E%6F%77%73%74%6F%72%6D%2D%6D%69%6E%2E%6A%73%22%3E%3C%2F%73%63%72%69%70%74%3E%3C%61%20%68%72%65%66%3D%22%68%74%74%70%3A%2F%2F%77%77%77%2E%65%67%79%74%72%69%63%6B%73%2E%63%6F%6D%2F%22%20%74%61%72%67%65%74%3D%22%5F%62%6C%61%6E%6B%22%3E%54%72%69%63%6B%73%20%57%6F%72%6C%64%3C%2F%61%3E'));
</Script>

I told you it looks funny.  :-)  But it oh so works so well:

1. Drag your cursor over the whole code and right click on it.
2. In the drop down click on Copy.  (It's now stored in your computer memory (clipboard).

Open up a tab/window next to my blog tab.   Follow the steps below.  SOOOOOO EASY compared to the other stuff.  At the end of snow season it's so much easier to delete too!!!

1. Sign into your Blogger account on the new tab.
2. On your Dashboard go down the left hand column to Layout and click on it.
3. At the bottom of your layout page is a Footer section and you should see another "Add A Gadget" link.  Click on it.
4. In the pop up window go down the list to and click on it. 
5. In the new box you will see a place for a title.  Leave it blank.  If you name it, the name will appear at the bottom of your blog on the left.
6. Right click and in the drop down click on Paste.
7. Click the orange SAVE on the bottom left.
8. Click on Save Arrangement in upper right hand corner of the Layout page.  
9. Your are done until snow season was over.  
10. When that happens go to the Layout page and delete the gadget.

If you have questions or need help, email me.  Off to finish my Christmas Cards!!!  Have a great weekend.

 Shirley

IO Online Store Sale And Kind Of New

IO is have a 25% off everything in the store sale until this coming Wednesday.  Go HERE to check out the details.  :-)  Then come on back to check out another remake.

I made a card quite a while ago HERE.  I never did like the way it didn't stand like it should and never used it.  Got it out the other day and here is what did for the reused center and how I mounted it to use this Christmas.  It can be used as a any kind of Christmas season card.

Center Of Card:

1. Holly Snowflake was stamped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold on Curious Metallic Ice Gold paper and painted with Twinkling H2O's using a Niji Waterbrush. 
2. The embellishments are Glossy Accents on the holly berries and Mark Richards pink Crystal Sticker Elements in the middle of the image. 
3. I scored around the edges using my Scor-It. It was mounted on Stardream Chiara Rose Quartz and then Ice Gold again.
4.  A piece of white card stock was folded to fit behind it.  It opens from the left with room for a message.
5. The ribbon is by May Arts. The card front was then mounted on Neenah Paper Classic Solar White Super Smooth Cardstock.

Cardfront:

1. Directly behind the card portion is another piece if Curious Metallic Ice Gold that was enclosed with a piece of Stardream Chiara Rose Quartz.
2. Before sealing the Rose Quartz I clipped the corners as shown to show the Ice Gold on the tips
3. Cut another piece of  Rose Quartz 5.25"X5.25".  Used my Scor-It Board to do the embossed frame 3/8" from the edge.
4. Embossed a piece of Ice Gold with Sizzix Starry Night folder.  Cut it 4.25"X4.25" and mounted to Rose Quartz.
5. Mounted that on a 5.25"X5.25 piece of white cardstock to give it body.  (Pink and Gold are text weight papers)
6. Mounted center of card.
7. Tied a green bow and mounted with glue dot as shown.  Dipped in glitter so it wouldn't stick when card center closed.

I was able to use the same envelope I had for the first card I didn't like.  Very fast and easy the second time around.  ;-)

Hope you all had a safe and great Thanksgiving.  See you back here soon I hope.  Thanks for stopping by to look and share.

 Shirley

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