Sympathy Cards

I recently had a friend call and request an order of a dozen sympathy cards in no particular colors or designs just as long as they were blank-no inside sayings. 

 I am not very good at sympathy cards as I have not had to many reasons to make sympathy cards since becoming a demonstrator. I was definitely a little worried although, not needing to put any sayings on the cards goes a long way towards helping as I only have one sympathy set. It took me about half a day to make these cards as I was a bit stumped on what to do. I think they turned out well and my friend loved them. 

I hope you enjoy!!!!

DanicaA

Technique Swap Pages

Here are the promised photos of my technique page for the technique swap I joined last month. So much work yet I still managed to keep it fun. 

Here are smaller close ups of the actual technique:

Faux Patina

1 light neutral color ink pad 

2 medium colored ink pads 

1 dark colored ink pad 

Embossing Folder of Choice 

Very Vanilla or Whisper White Card Stock 

Metallic colored Embossing powder 

VersaMark ink 

Big Shot, Heat Tool & Embossing Buddy 

1. Lightly cover the front inside top of your Embossing Folder with the lightest color ink of choice, carefully place card stock in embossing folder and run through Big shot. 

2. Lightly sponge the lightest of your medium colors over the embossed card stock, full coverage is not necessary. Repeat with the remaining medium color. You do want good coverage but some patches of no color or base color will add to the patina effect. 

3. Sponge over the top with your dark color to bring out the embossed image and give your piece dimension. 

4. Pat your embossing buddy over the top of your card stock to get rid of the excess ink. You want the piece to be dry so the embossing powder doesn't stick to the entire image. 

5. Dab VersaMark randomly over the top, you can just use the pad direct to image. 

6. Sprinkle your embossing powder over the top and heat to set. 

7. You are now ready to use on your project.

I hope that this inspires you today to create something beautiful.

DanicaA

danderson@tikvahstreats.com

danicaanderson.stampinup.net

MDS Tuesday

Tuesday is the day Stampin' Up! introduces new downloads for My Digital Studio (MDS). I have really enjoyed putting together projects in MDS and have been working with it to create a new blog design. Although at the rate I am going it may be a while before it is completed. I did create my header using MDS and am hoping to continue to create some great projects to share in the near future. 

Today I am sharing with you this weeks downloads, if you would like to see the full My Digital Studio Catalog visit this page and click the MDS Catalog link. The catalog will download in PDF format.

Here's today's new downloads:

To order any of these or other downloads visit my store 

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

DanicaA

Blooming with Kindness Patina

This month as you may already know, I have introduced my new stamp of the month club and I have decided that every once in a while during the month I will post projects created with the current months stamp set. Hopefully, I can do this at least once a week. I will be mixing the stamp sets up not always using only the current set on each project, but this will give you an idea of what you can do with this set.                                                       

So today I have two cards that I created, using the same technique on both, I used the Faux Patina technique which also happens to be the technique I used to create my technique swap. (How many times can you use technique in one short paragraph? I used it five times here.)

I really like the looks of these cards they are a bit on the Victorian side, which is a change for me. I am finding that as I spend time creating different projects my tastes in card style continues to develop and cards that originally were not my style I have come to enjoy. As you create and continue to do so over time your tastes may change or just grow to include other styles. Also, knowing how to create these other styles does help. When you are unsure of what you are doing it does make it harder to create something that you will enjoy or be proud of. The beauty of being handmade and homemade is that no one expects perfection, in design; they would not be handmade if they all come out the same. One way that can help you grow in your capabilities is to join some of the challenges you can find on these and many other blogs:

Color Throwdown

ColourQ

365 Cards

Mojo Monday

Stampin’ Up! Only

Be brave, feel free to experiment, I have found even the cards that I don’t consider to have turned out well, are well received and very much liked. Many times I end up giving my rejects (not quite to my liking) to my mom and she uses them and brings back compliments-this makes it very much worth the effort and makes those mistakes, okay. I am always more critical of my own efforts. I think if someone researched this, they would find that we all tend to critic ourselves in many ways worse than others would.

I hope you all enjoy!!

DanicaA

danicaanderson.stampinup.net

danderson@tikvahstreats.com

Project Supplies: 

Stamp Sets: Blooming with Kindness

Card Stock: Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Watercolor paper

Inks: Crumb Cake, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Versamark 

Accessories: Big Shot, Labels Collection Framelits, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Fancy Fan Embossing Folder, Gold Embossing Powder, Antique Brads, Dimensionals, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack

Postage Due

This card was made using a stamp set that I just had to have the moment I saw it in the new catalog. As a demonstrator we are able to place orders from new catalogs (called Pre-Orders) before the catalog is released. Now with the minis we can order any stamp set or even all of the stamp sets and up to 3 of each consumable, but with the annual catalog they, being the home office, choose which stamp sets and supplies we can purchase and we get to choose from that list. All that being said, this set was not on the list, so like everyone else I had to wait until after June 1^st to place my order.

This set was one of the first items on my order and I get my orders pretty quickly usually within 4 business days and this includes the day of order. So I ordered the set, was thrilled when it came and I did not even use it until July when I went to craft camp and had almost 8 straight hours of play time.

 Play time- I thought I was to old for this stage in life and here I am looking forward to it again. It is usually the only time I have to be as creative as I would like and not feel as if I should be working on something else. I suppose I could call it craft time, me time, creativity time, but play time works for me.

I hope you all enjoy!

Have a great weekend!!!

DanicaA

Project Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Postage Due
Card Stock: Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse, Whisper White Card Stock,
Inks: Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Midnight Muse Stampin’ Write Markers & Classic Ink Pads, Black StazOn Ink pad
Accessories: Postage Stamp Punch, Sponge Daubers

  

French Foliage with Stamp Off Technique

I hope that Labor Day weekend was as smooth for you as mine was. I was able to stay home, kick back and finish a project I have been working on. I also put in an order for a few supplies I needed and received a couple of other orders large enough to be their own workshops. Those are always fun.

I have also been working on a technique swap I joined, I need 41 samples and as I don’t think I could have done them all identical I switched my colors up a bit on some. When I get them all finished I will share a photo of them before mailing them off. I want to have them in the mail by the end of the week, although I have until the beginning of October to finish.

Today’s project was a card I made using the French Foliage and One in a Million stamp sets. I created this card for last month’s Stamp Camp. I wanted something clean and simple, yet using plenty of color. I really like the French Foliage set, it has versatility to it especially for use in fall or vintage projects.

For the greeting I used the One in a Million set and on the inside just used the stamp in the set that says "that makes you one in a million!" you could make the inside a little fancier like I did on the inside of another of the same card. I took one of the leaf stamps from the french foliage inked it up and then stamped off on a piece of scrap paper to remove some of the ink. You may need to test this out a couple of times on scrap paper to see how light you want your image to appear. I then stamped my inside greeting over the top to add a little pizzazz to the card. Here is an example as to how I did this, I chose to stamp off two times as i like the look of the image a bit lighter than it would have been.

I hope you all enjoy!
DanicaA

Project Supplies: Whisper White Card Stock, French foliage & One in a Million Stamp Sets, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip Classic Ink Pads, Apothecary Accents Framelit, Big Shot, Wood grain Embossing Folder

Introducing...........

Visit my Stamp of the Month Club Page for more details!!!!

I love this months stamp set for its versatility. With the flower image and the multiple greetings this would definitely make a good starter stamp set. Although it is also a fine addition to my many other sets. I made up some sample cards that will be given out to all my club members.

Here is a preview of the cards you will receive when you purchase this months set.





I hope you all enjoy!
Danica A
My Stampin' Up! Website
danderson@tikvahstreats.com

Genealogy Research....

  I have been doing genealogy research on my multiple family lines for many years now, most of my research has been done online at websites like Ancestry, Family Search, USGenweb are a few of the more popular sites that I have used. I have searched many other sites and spent many hours at it, not always with results. I still haven't answered the main question in our family....Are the family tales of Indian Blood really true? Family lore has it that a few greats back grandpa was full blooded Cherokee and Grandma was full blooded Crow, whether true or not I still do not have the answer. 

I have found a few other family members I didn't know about like grandpa had been in a previous relationship before he married grandma, I am unsure whether he was married or not that first time around, but I did find out that the aunt that I thought was my grandpa and grandma's foster daughter was more than likely his daughter from that previous relationship, at least the dates all fit. 

Lately I haven't been doing much research, but what I have been doing has been in the 1940 censuses know available free to search at Family Search, and available at Ancestry, along with all the US census records from 1790 through 1940, they will be available for free starting today through September 3rd, Labor day. To visit the censuses at Ancestry follow this link: ancestry.com/census

I have recently connected with a family member through the Find a Grave website. This was a great experience. I was doing some research on one of my Great-Grandfather's siblings (he had 16 of them of which 15 grew to adulthood)  and I found his grave site information on Find a Grave, I had previously researched this info here with no results on this particular family member, (that being said it does pay to return to previously searched sites and look up those names again as more info is constantly being added). The information had been submitted by a _Anderson, I just automatically assumed that this person was the son/grandson of the brother I was researching. It took me a couple of days to work up my courage to email this unknown Anderson, but I finally did and when I received an email back I found that the gentleman I was in contact with was another one of the 16 sibling's, a different brother to my G-Grandpa, son and that he had been trying to make contact with the children of the sibling I was researching at the time.

Well, I am going to have to end this here and come back to more genealogy research information again soon. I have to be at work soon and I really would rather stay home and work on cards and other projects. I signed up for a technique swap and  I am in the middle of working on that project and planning a few classes/ workshop projects. I can do the planning at work in between things, so we will see how productive I will be. 

Ihope you all enjoy this post, it is a bit long, sometimes I get carried away but I hope you will read through to the end.

DanicaA

Black & White with a Hint of Color Swap

This is a card that I did for a swap last March. It was a black and white/vanilla with a splash of color swap. I really like how this card turned out, very elegant. While the stamp set is no longer available you can use any sentiment in it's place.

There are many layers of here, I started with a base of Basic Black added a layer of Very Vanilla and another layer of Basic Black. I used a piece of scrap paper to glue my different paper layers together so I could run it through the big shot with the top note die. 

There is starting at the top very vanilla embossed with the vintage wallpaper embossing folder I used First edition DSP and silver glimmer paper that I colored with basic black ink, I used the scallop trim border punch on the top edge of both pieces. I added a piece of Basic Black embossed with the Houndstooth embossing folder. At the bottom I added another piece of the First Edition DSP. I then ran the layers through the big shot with the top note die added some Basic Black satin ribbon. The tag was created with the lots of tags die and the extra large oval punch, I embossed the saying with white embossing powder and glittered around the edge with red glitter and added a red brad to the center of my congrats stamp. Add a few pearls and the card is finished.

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA

Project Recipe: Basic Black, Very Vanilla Card stock, First Edition Designer Series Paper, Silver Glimmer Paper, Tagtastic Stamp Set,  Basic Black and Versamark Ink, White Embossing Powder, Big Shot, Houndstooth & Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Top Note & Lots of Tags Dies, Extra Large Oval Punch,  Basic Black Ribbon, Red Glitter, Real Red Brad 

Pinwheels

I hope you all enjoy!

DanicaA