Celebration, Graduation, Reaffirmation...Oh My!!

Greetings everyone! Hope you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.  I truly have so much for which to be thankful and being able to use my cardmaking skills to share important events is just the icing on top. November is an example of when it all comes together..... :)

The first request I received was from my most awesome brother who wanted a set of party invitations with a winter festive theme.  I embossed the snowman, rubbed ink over the raised sections before adding some glitter, and then stamped the sentiment. However, I really wanted something special so his guests would have an easy way to remember the date.  So I created a pocket fold on the inside and made a snowflake shaped magnet with the date to slip inside...his guests can put the magnet on their fridge and enjoy a little festive sparkle.

A second request came with the most exciting news....Our daughter, Carly, would be graduating from college in December!! I was so tickled that she asked that I make her invitations because it gave me a way to be a part of such an important time in her life.  I was also a little concerned that they would not meet her artist eye standard but I wanted to take the challenge.  I created the mortar board from foil cardstock that I pounced with blue alcohol ink to match her school colors. The tassels I made by hand winding gold twine between my fingers and slip knotting together.  The brads held the pieces together and I popped it up on a creme colored cardstock that was gold embossed with a corner stamp.  I knew she wanted to have a place to send everyone a picture, so inside I created a pocket tab.  I am happy to report that she was super pleased with the final product...yeah!

Now it was my turn.... My husband, Greg, and I will be married 15 years in December.  If you follow this blog regularly, you know that I was diagnosed with Cancer in 2003 and Greg was diagnosed with Cancer in 2011.  To be both a survivor and a support partner brings so many unique blessings to our life that we really wanted to use the upcoming anniversary as a milestone to renew our vows, recommit our marriage to Christ, and to rejoice in our new normal.  This was the most challenging design for me because I wanted it to say so much...winter beauty that mirrored a snowy original wedding evening, God's presence in our union, the festive joy of the Christmas season, celebration of our Lutheran heritage, the excitement that we have been given a second change at life, and the reality that I was going to get a chance to marry my soul mate again. A tall order for one simple invitation...

To begin, I stamped the romantic couple sleighing onto the middle of a piece of white cardstock. I then clear embossed the quote from Martin Luther and a ridge for the snow horizon and snow. When I rubbed on blue ink, it resisted everywhere the clear embossing was placed. I gold embossed the Christmas Star and added shadows to the sleigh.  Using vellum, I silver and gold embossed the sentiment and mounted it all to a blue card base bringing it all together.  We are both so thankful for this opportunity and sense of awe in life that it seemed appropriate to share our rejoicing during this time of miracles!!!

Have a wonderful week and thanks for being part of our mission.

Jeannette

Guiding Light

Greetings Blog Readers!

Thank you for your patience while I finished out Survivor activities during our special month. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who sent support, prayers, donations, love, and volunteer hours our way. You are all Guiding Lights and your dedication/inspiration is so very much appreciated.  Here is a little something to show we are blessed!

If the cold weather, holiday sale advertisements, and houses already displaying Christmas decorations are any indication, the Fall is over. However, I refuse to give in just yet!  So even though I have already made some super cool party invitations, sent out hand made Thanksgiving reminders, and begun coloring images for my Christmas cards, this post remains focused on the still present beauty of autumn.

Last post (if you can remember that long ago :0), I shared a water color technique using an embossed image.  I am still fascinated by water coloring on cards but I didn't really feel the embossed line technique gave the "fine art" look I was trying to achieve. I pulled out a new Fun Stampers Journey light house stamp to make a Thank you card and tried something different. Using warm fall colors of distress markers, I colored individual sections of the stamp to align with an autumn day and stamped the image on a piece of water color paper. Water based markers will react to water even after they have dried so I went over the lines of the image with a water damp paint brush to move the color enough for shading and highlights.  I loved the results! I hope you will give this technique a try and share your results.

Have a blessed week!
Jeannette