Mother's Day Spotlight

Hi all!  Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is such a fun time for cards and when they are handmade it seems to add that much more love to the message.  As a mother myself, I have cherished (and saved) every one of the cards my children make and I smile at the crayon, scribbles, and lopsided images.  After all, where are you going to find a store bought card that has pumpkins on it in May.  Yet, by creating it themselves, my children can decorate it with all of my favorite things any time of the year.  As a survivor, the fact that I am still here to receive these precious works of art makes them masterpieces.

When it comes to Mother's Day, I am doubly blessed... I have the absolute best and most generous Mom ever and I am so spoiled :) (it helps to be the baby of the family even if I am are pushing 51).  AND I have the most wonderful Mom-in-law that any wife could ever hope to share.  The really cool part is that they are both so different and unique that I continue to learn from them both.  It also gives me an opportunity to make very individualized Mother's Day greetings inspired by their favorite things.  I hope my coloring has improved over the years :).

The first card with the fish I made for my Mom.  She lives at the ocean and just loves anything beach related. This card has tons of dimension which makes it seem as if the fish are actually floating by. I stamped the fish and seaweed, colored them with Copic markers and then cut them out.  On a small piece of card stock, I inked the blue background and stamped on the sea grass and sea horses.  By using pop dots behind the fish and sea weed when placed on the background piece, the shadow that it creates adds the depth. These pieces were then set on top of an embossed piece of cardstock that I inked before embossing to give the feeling of waves.  Everything was then mounted on yellow base cardstock and the sentiment added at the end.  She said it was my best card yet and she plans to shadow box frame it for her house...True Mother's love.

The second card I made for my Mom-in-law. She lives in the country and loves to garden and enjoy beautiful flowers.  She is also very active in her sorority whose colors are purple and yellow. For this card, I stamped the flower twice and colored them both with Copic markers. I cut out the first one completely being careful cutting around all the fine detail. The second one I only cut out random petals and leaf segments. I glued the random pieces on top of the full flower curling up the petal ends to give it texture.  I added gemstones to the center of the petals for shine and realism.  The focal flower was attached with pop dots to a swiss dot embossed piece of yellow cardstock that I antiqued around the edges and tied with matching twine. I rounded the corners and put it over craft paper card stock. She said she LOVED it and was going to show it to her Sorority sisters...high praise for sure.

Thanks to both of my Mother's for all that they do for us.  Have a great week.  Jeannette

Tea Time

Greetings bloggers!
Today the Berea Women's Club had a membership tea.  The organization has several breast cancer survivors in the group so I always appreciate when Stamp to Cope can be a part of their events. Last month they asked if I would create their invitations and I wanted to share how they came together. According to one of the attendees, the recipients really enjoyed the tea shaped cards and were intrigued by the surprise inside.

What a fun way to share with friends and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Hope everyone has a super week!  Blessings, Jeannette

So Much To Share

Wow, May 1 already! Where did the time go? So much has happened since my last post so please just smile if I begin to ramble :)....

Let's start with a few heartfelt thank yous....

A HUGE shout out to Betty T for her generous supply donation in support of our mission. STC received  a very large box filled to the brim with stamps, inks, papers, embellishments, fixatives, and projects.  These items are already being put to great use in our survivor bags.  Thank you Betty... always an Angel!

Love and thanks to all the wonderful women of Star Charities who worked so hard to support STC with a super fundraising event.  These hard working volunteers ensured that everyone had a fabulous time while supporting our worthy mission.  Star Charities presented STC with a check for $1500.00 from the event and I cried!  Check out some of these pictures I took of the event...

Finally, Thank you to my sister, Alderman Shirley Isbell for her $150.00 donation toward survivor bags for recently diagnosed survivors in her district. What a nice way to show true service to her constituents.

Now for the crafty stuff....

Happy Birthday to my grand daughter, Lila Grace "Gracie" who turned 2 on the 30th.  To help share in her celebration, I made this kitten card that I hope made her smile. The focal point was actually several separate stamps that I arranged together to form a little story of birthday sharing. I colored the images with Copic markers blending several shades to give texture to the fur of the animals. Cool blue and green were added around the outside of the images to create grounding and depth. She is "so sweet" and we hop she had a wonderful birthday!

Finally, an update....

As many of you know, my husband Greg has been battling throat cancer.  I am over joyed to share that he seems finally on the mend.  I praise God and all of you for this miracle!  AND my stomach is every so happy because this week he even felt well enough to start cooking for us again!!! Yeah!  Soon he will also be able to join us in eating his excellent cuisine.  Welcome back my love!!!!!

Well, that is it for today..but...if my luck holds, next post will be just as busy. :)  Blessings, Jeannette...

OH, PS, I almost forgot... Start thinking about signing up for my Art of Stamping Classes at Berea Festival Learnshops.  All my proceeds are donated to Stamp to Cope.  Check out our website for the registration links...  www.stamptocope.org.