Confirmation Congratulation: Spring 2011

A person very dear to me was confirmed in her faith in Spring 2011 and asked me to be her sponsor.  I was delighted to do that for her.  Of course, since she is an adult, I will not have as many duties to perform as I would if it were a teenager, but I am there if she needs to talk about religion, etc.  I did attend the classes with her for six months almost every Monday night.  That was actually uplifting for me, and I enjoyed learning things I had either forgotten I learned as a youth or maybe never learned 40 or more years ago!

I wanted to make her a special card and give her a special gift to celebrate the occasion.  I found a lovely cross with petite diamonds embedded and that gave me inspiration of how I wanted her card to look.  It's almost like a card that could be used for a wedding because it is pale tan and white with a bit of cream as well.  

Following is the little verse that I composed that I thought was perfect for the occasion.  I hope this lovely person enjoys both her card and meaning behind the verse.  I'm sure she will!

Birthday 2011: The Boy is Four!

On my spring visit to California, my little nephew always has his birthday.  It gives me a really good excuse to make a little boy card!  Parker loves to go out with his Dad or Grandpa on the huge lake on far from their home.  All the men in that family are huge fishermen.  Dad and Grandpa even travel to entry fishing competitions. . .and since Parker has already started fishing with his junior pole, I have a feeling that he will soon be entering contests as well.  Most of their fishing is "catch and release," but occasion when they'd like a little trout for dinner and it's not a contest, they keep a few.

I didn't have a fishing-type boat, but I thought Parker would enjoy the little sailboat that I could make with my Sizzilit die.  I remembered the paper with the schools of fish and my "Catch a Wave" border die.  I only had a few hours to make this card, because his birthday party was shortly after I arrived.  For such a short time, when my scrapbooking stuff was barely unpacked, it had to be simple, but I think it turned out just fine!  I hope Parker will enjoy his little card with his movies gift certificate.

A 2011 Birthday for the Cupcake Maker

Jackie loves to make cupcakes and decorate them to fit just any hold occasion from birthdays, to Christmas, to Halloween, to Easter, to Valentine's Day, and the list goes on!  While I was on my spring visit to my Mom's in 2011, I found that my sister, Heidi Gonzales (My Lil' Scrap Corner.blogspot.com) had taught a Copic-coloring class in her store before I came using a Magnolia stamp image that was perfect for Jackie.  So of course, I had to talk my sister into teaching me how to color with Copics so I could make this card for Jackie.  Surely, I was ready to move onto Copic coloring?  She let me use her pens to try it out and see if I like it, and unfortunately, I met that slippery slope head on.  I think I've accumulated over 200 pens by now.  Here is the finished birthday card, that I mailed to arrive on Jackie's birthday!  I knew she would like it.

Moving on to Copic Coloring. . .the Slippery Slope. . .

Using woodless-colored pencils was a great way to learn coloring (shading, sun angle, etc.) and not very expensive.  But now, I wanted to learn to use Copics because I wanted to make a birthday card for my daughter Jackie using these markers, so I asked Heidi to teach me how.  So, I took classes with the help of my talented sister, Heidi Gonzales (My Lil' Scrap Corner).

Oh my...sigh...my pocketbook (or my husband's) will never be the same!  I have since moved on to use Copics exclusively, and it was good-bye to pencils...probably forever!  LOL  (You've, no doubt, heard of the slippery slope as an issue if you start using Copic markers. . .well, I met that slope head on!)  Here are some coloring card kits designed by my sister, Heidi, that I that we used to begin my learning curve with Copics!  Now, I was ready to do Jackie's card!

CC Designs digital image crafted/ colored by me (a Heidi Gonzales design)

Mo Manning digital image crafted/ colored by me  (Heidi Gonzales design)

Magnolia stamp crafted/ colored by me (Heidi Gonzales design)

Magnolia stamp crafted/ colored by me (Heidi Gonzales design)

Coloring on My Own - Spring 2011

While on my trip to California, my goal was to get in more coloring practice.  I went down to my sister's store and I purchased a few of Heidi's card kits and decided to see what I could do with them.  I did enlarge some of the cards to fit my preference of larger cards, which I still seem to favor.  Here are a couple more of my woodless-colored pencil favorites:

Tilda the sailor - a Magnolia stamp

Swirling Leaves Tilda - a Magnolia stamp

A March 2011 Birthday for David

David's Birthday...as a young boy, he love his Space Invaders. . . and his Atari game console, a precursor to personal computers.  I found this funny paper pad by DCWV that was all computer and game oriented papers with the perfect piece that had all sorts of space invaders, and my creative juices took over.  I went in search of the perfect font to use on my sentiment and verse that would make you think of the computer font found in the old DOS operating system used on the original IBM computers and like the font also seen on the first computer we had. . .the Commodore 64.  When I was finished, I was sure David would like his card.

Trying Out My Coloring on Mom!

I wanted to practice a little more on the woodless-colored pencil coloring that I learn this past fall while in California.  So, I decided I'd make a card for Mom letting her know special to me not only as a mother but as a friend.  I composed the little sentiment and the card verse inside as I thought about all the special things my mother has done for me over the years.  She is there to be help when needed, often traveling for miles, and she is always there to lend an ear if you need one with thoughtful suggestions to help you in your decision making.  I was successful with my coloring and it found a home on Mom's card.