Last Floral Impressions Twisted-Easel Anniversary Card

Well... here is the last of this year's anniversary easel cards! Another "twisted" one! I'm finally done with the Floral Impressions paper pack... yeah!

I don't have anymore anniversary cards to do for this year
(my fiscal Oct-Sept!)

Now I can concentrate on making 2 wedding cards... one I need for next Wednesday... yikes!... and the other for our son's wedding on Sept 8th! Better get myself in gear, and get a move on! My hospital stay put me behind a bit!

Then it will be back to anniversary cards in October with a "new" paper pack and card design... wonder what I'll decide to do? But I'll have to put those decisions off until after the wedding!

Just a side note... with all this wedding stuff going on, and my recuperation, and our first grandchild due in three weeks, and life in general, etc, etc....
I probably won't be able to do many blog posts, if any at all... but I'll do my best to get back asap to my 10 "posts" per month schedule I had decided
to do!

Sympathy Card

Some sad news for today...

My sister's best friend, Kathy, lost her battle with cancer on July 13th.
They were friends for 40 years!

I actually introduced them back in 1972! We were teenagers then, and had just moved to Dallas at the time. There were lots of kids living in the apartments we moved into, and I had met Kathy's younger sister first. Anyway.... I was in the hospital when she died, so I have just now finished the sympathy card for my dear sister.

I have been making anniversary cards with the retired CTMH paper set
Floral Impressions, and it seemed perfect for the sympathy card as well, since Kathy's favorite color was purple. I also decided to make it a
twisted-easel card. I hope my sister likes it, even though it's very late.
She was up at the hospital with me every day, despite her personal grief.... so I know she'll understand why it's late.

It's just so sad to lose a loved one.

Thanks for letting me share this with you all.

Card Ideas using a "Starter" Spellbinders Set

There are so many beautiful Spellbinder dies to choose from, that it's sometimes hard to know where to start!  So making an informed decision before you shop, and spend all your hard earned cash, would be quite helpful and possibly money-saving!

In this video, Christina from Card Making Magic, shows a really good starter set that will cover most of the things you want to do, from textured backgrounds to beautiful flowers. Then she demonstrates some different ways in which to use the dies to make some lovely cards. Such inspiration!..... see for yourself:

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Wasn't that great? I just love all of her ideas. She is so creative and thinks of things that NEVER cross my 'logical' mind...... I wish I had a "creative" one, LOL :)


*** UPDATE ---- See the sequel video to this - "Get More From Your Spellbinders," - coming to this blog, being posted on Novenber 5, 2012 ***

Floral Bow - DIY with Homemade Tool

In this video, Linda Kaiser, from the Paper Boutique, shows how to make a pretty package bow with wired-ribbon and a homemade tool...
I'm not spoiling the surprise by telling you what the tool is, so you'll have to watch and see for yourselves!

Click HERE to watch on YouTube

Create Your Own Pearls and Swirls!

In this video, Christina has some great ideas for creating your own pearls to match your projects. You can start with store-bought white pearls (or clear rhinestones for matching jewels!), and then use alcohol-based markers to color them to your hearts desire!

Or.... you can start from scratch using certain glues, like Perfect Pearls, to DIY.... even creating your own custom swirly flourishes! And when starting with "white" glue, you can color them the same as store bought ones after they're dry! Such a money saver!

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Pennant Cards

Christina from Card Making Magic, shows how to make some really pretty pennant cards in this video tutorial (NO dies are needed!):

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Ribbon Roses

Christina is working her "magic" again!... Here's a pretty easy way to make some interesting ribbon roses. I like that they're glued as you go along to hold everything in place, and no sewing or stitching is involved, lol :)

Watch on YouTube: HERE

I think I like the roses made from organza ribbon the best....

What's your favorite?

DIY - Make Any Size Envelope

Beate, from SCS, shows how to make your own matching envelopes for your cards! After watching this video, I've determined that 12x12 paper can make an envelope for cards up to 5x10 in size.... now that's an odd size, but you might want to make a tall skinny card or a long narrow one!

Watch how easy this is: HERE