Joy is the Word

The monthly challenge on the Faber-Castell blog is to find one word for 2013.   This is something I have tried to live this year.  Some days it is so hard to find something to be joyful about but you dig deep and come up with something.  It can be very small but you find it.

The Joy and the scallop trim were cut with my Silhouette and colored with the Big Brush Markers over the top of gesso.  I stenciled the white dots on the canvas and the letters with the White Marker.  The piece was colored with gelatos.  I tried using them with water.  I had never done that before.  The stamping was done by coloring the stamps with Big Brush Pens.  All the paper was attached with gel medium.

I am not real happy with my creation but this is one of those weeks when it is hard to find much Joy.  The canvas has pretty colors so I will be joyful about that.

Find joy everyday.  One time I listened to a presentation and the one thing I came away with is to smile at people - because you never know - that may be the only smile that person gets that day.

Oldie Moldie Monday on Tuesday

Well the cards were made on Sunday but I was going to post last night.  Blogger would not load my pictures so no post yesterday.  Please forgive me - I did carry out my weekly assignment of using some old supplies for card making.

The paper is from Basic Grey.  It had a date of 2010.  Not as old as some paper I have used lately.

The first card I am entering in the December challenge for Operation Write Home's card blog Stars and Stamps and Our Daily Bread Designs.  The monthly challenge is to make a masculine card. How about a masculine golf card.  Our Daily Bread Designs will pay postage for two boxes of cards each month if we can make 50 cards for the challenge.  The OWH team does a great job of meeting this goal each month.

Well I would like to get a couple Christmas cards ready to go in the mail tonight.

Stay warm.  We are very cold here in Wisconsin.  It is warmer in Anchorage Alaska.

Anything Goes with Paper Smooches

Better late than never.  I am sliding just under the deadline to get a card posted to the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge of "anything goes".  Boy time flies when you are busy.  Too many balls in the air.  First card I have made this week.

This card is for the staff at the Nursing Home where my mother now lives.  They take such good care of her and keep her safe.  I know they like to see my cards when Mom receives them.  I thought I would give them one of their own for the holidays.  I was going to drive up today and deliver the card, a box of fruit and visit with my Mom but it was so cold, I did not want to venture that far.

I need to make a sympathy card this week end.  I so dislike making those cards.  Well off to do my dishes.  I finally got some rugs down in the living room after the new floor was installed.  I thought I was quite creative with my one area rug and two inexpensive ones from Menards.  I like how it turned how.

Have a good evening.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Yes I know it is the end of Monday but I must confess the cards were done yesterday - I just had no gumption to go take pictures and post them.

This remodeling is hard on a person plus I did lots of traveling over the Thanksgiving week end so did not have much time to create.

This is a collection from Cosmo Cricket from 2009.  Pretty bright colors.  Both stamps are from Whipper Snapper Designs.  The Hello heart sentiment is from Hero Arts.  These two cards will go into my next Operation Write Home box.

Enjoy what remains of your Monday.

Basic Grey and Oldie Moldie Monday

I think it is always fun to look and see if you can find a date on your paper or paper pad so you can see how many years you have aged your paper.  This paper (a 6 x 6 pad from Basic Grey) was dated 2011.  A little newer than last weeks 2005 paper.

I wanted to see if I could get a masculine and feminine card out of the same paper pad.  I was able to to.  The train stamp is a new one I picked up this week end from Crackerbox Palace in Janesville, WI.  Easy stamp to use for a card.  No coloring needed.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

The feminine card is very simple - I just let the paper do the talking on this card.  The sentiment is a favorite for my Operation Write Home cards.  It is from Hero Arts.  The flowers were in my flower drawers.  I rounded one corner to soften the look of the card.

Well back to work.  I need to do dishes and keep moving things out of my main living area so the floor people can do their magic.

Enjoy your Monday.

Kraft and Christmas

This card is based on a challenge photo.  It was a wreath of kraft colored flowers on a whitish base.  Since I am in a holiday mode currently, I used my Silhouette to cut some snowflake tags, white embossed a sentiment.  I love the contrast.  I added just a touch of color on the snowflake brad.

The sentiment is by Paper Smooches.

Everyone enjoy your Saturday.

Be Jolly With Paper Smooches

This is a 4 x 4 canvas.  I love how it turned out.  The paper used on this canvas is old dictionary pages which I have colored with gelatos and distress paint and gesso as the base. I cover the page with gesso.  After it has dried, I smooth on some gelatos and then add another layer of color with the distress paint.  It is adhered to the canvas with gel medium.  The snowman is stamped on a gessoed piece of dictionary page.  The trees are colored with gelatos.  Everything was adhered to the base with more gel medium.  The sentiment was stamped on a separate piece of paper which was colored like the background.  Modeling paste was swiped on around the tree and snowman to make it look like a little dimensional snow.  The hearts and nose were colored with Big Brush pens.  Glossy accents was added to the hearts.  A little banner and some snowflake rubons were added to the canvas.  I brushed the edges of the canvas with my Big Brush White pen.

I did this canvas for the Paper Smooches Cool Shades Challenge.  Orange may seem to be a strange color to add to a winter scene but I have a friend whose favorite color is orange - so I had to add a touch of orange to finish off the canvas.  I did another canvas with snowflakes - but I think I prefer the contrast of color.  Here is the cool shades challenge colors.

There is a touch of red and orange on the canvas.

Yeah tomorrow is Friday.  Half day of work because my new floor is being delivered.  Hopefully they come early because I want to go buy more canvases.  I think I got them at Michael's.