GOODBYE JUNE

    When the end of June approaches, I face  my oldest brothers  birthday...  He celebrates his day on June 28 th, just one week before I celebrate my birthday . 
     But then July brings  anniversaries  for both of my brothers. The oldest was married on July 3 rd  47 years ago ...WOW...
And the other was married on my birthday  July 5  37 years ago  : )
July 26  is mine and my husbands  anniversary, and it would have have  39 years  this  year...I miss him.
   So as you can see  the time  near the 4 th of July  has always  been a busy time in our family. My Mother always celebrated  my birthday on the 4 th...so I remember lots of family time and  lots of fun...My Daddy told me the fireworks  were just for me...and I being a daddy's girl  believed that...for many years... 
   I have  two wonderful sister in laws,  and  they are  as close as any real sisters could be...Actually they both have a given name of Mary...Though one will always Susie  to me : )
  I hope  they all like their cards this year...

     This is  Bill and Mary's card...I loved this paper and thought Marylou would too, my brother loves  red   well really  he prefers orange , he once wanted an orange suit ...can you believe  that !~  he he : )
I thought  the paper  outlined  with red then placed  on top of the pretty  paper again  was a  nice  effect  .
      I am having  difficulty in  adding Don and Sue's card...
 and I really liked  that one...   : (
My image of it seems to be distorted .  
 It is off in the mail already so I cannot scan it again  : ( 
  I hope I can  get  another picture of it   so I can share it later.

   So, as July is  fast approaching, I hope you are enjoying  your summer. Thanks for stopping in...See you all soon. July has more days  that  have a reason to be celebrated  around  here  : )

The Love of Pattern Paper

     In creating time  with friends and doing  some easy or some times not so easy challenges,  I totally enjoyed  making these cards.
The use of  not even a half of a 12 x 12 sheet of simply beautiful  pattern paper was the secret . From super simple  fast cards  to  a little  more  fun,  they were all extremely EASY,  yet  a couple I thought were pretty too ...
First  a  fast   Thinking of you   card using some scraps of that  Pattern paper .  I cut a small strip off of the  front of the card  and them added  a strip of paper inside   to balance the outside , I matted the sentiment that was stamped directly onto the pretty  paper... this is  3 3/4 x 7 1/2

Second , is another fast  card, I used  wide  sheer ribbon  over a wide strip of the  pattern paper,  then added a strip of sahara sand  cardstock,by SU, stamped the sentiment in  brown, paper pierced a bit and added  flowers  from  my  stash 

Third  is a bit more fun, using a home made  tulle flower  made by  a super creative friend  : )    and one  of my  awesome  butterflies with some bling... The pattern paper  is just so pretty  and really fun to work with, pretty enough that  just one or two  fun things is plenty ...I did mount this on a melon mambo card base, it is such a  fun  summer color to work with   : )

And fourth is my personal favorite.I again stamped right on the pretty paper that I mounted on Crumb Cake as my card base.  Then  I used markers and a blender pen to color and coordinate  my image  to  the paper. I matted the image on dark brown to set it up and off and used a piece of  neutral ribbon to dress it up  a bit. Last I rounded  a couple of corners  to  make a change of style.I really  love how this  card turned out ..It just shows that ...

















Sometimes  just a  half of a sheet of pretty  paper is  what it takes  to  jump start   my creativity ,  So  I hope this  sends you looking at your stash of paper  to see what  you can  create too...


    Thanks for stopping by,  And I hope  to see you here again real soon.
Until then, Smile, Craft, and enjoy your day .