Lack of Mojo and a Dog with Nine Lives

Hi everyone!! I hope that you are all doing well.

I have not been doing a ton of crafting as I have been so anxious between my dog being unhealthy and anxiety about going back to work FT to school in a month. The bottom line, I don't feel safe. No easy answer for any of it and all my concerns have not even been addressed in detail, anywhere.

As for Zack...this darn dog has nine lives!! July 4th we had to bring him to the ER Vet, thinking we were going to put him to sleep. His breathing was shallow all day, he didn't want to eat or drink, and he was coughing. He did nothing but lay around, sleeping and did't have any energy for anything. We know he has congestive heart failure and we thought it was the end.

HOWEVER, once we got there, they gave him a shot of diuretic and some antibiotics because they thought he had a secondary infection. He left there all perked up and gradually became himself, except he would not eat dog food. We wound up having to make rice, veggies and chicken because he needed to ingest his seizure meds and many of his heart meds. Zack gets most of his prescriptions via his food so he has to eat.

Fast forward to Sunday. I witnessed Zack having a stroke. It was NOT pleasant to watch but there was not anything anyone could do for him so we waited it out. We thought we would be taking him to the ER Vet once again, waiting for my daughter to come home from work. However, he rallied once again!! Within two hours, he was begging for food, though his neck was skewed to the right and he seemed to have more difficulty walking.

Two days later, he is getting better and better, now going up and down stairs again. I love him so much but him being up and down like this is stressing me out. We know he does not have a ton of time due to his heart condition getting worse and worse every time he is examined but he just seems to be hanging on!!! Since I went to the vet by myself yesterday, I was able to discuss when "the end" might be but he is not there as of yet. We now are renewing his meds on a bi-weekly basis rather than a monthly basis as she does not think it will be that long. Zack could prove us wrong once again!!

Anyway, I did make two cards this weekend before the stroke. The first was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #443 but I never uploaded it to the challenge in time.

Below is the Sketch that inspired this card:

I started off my card by stamping my background on Neenah Solar White cardstock with the Stamp Market's "Just Vines" background stamp and coloring it in with Copic Markers.

I added this panel to a white, A2, top folding card. I then adhered light green cardstock triangles that I had stamped the same background on with Versamark Ink.

I used the Stamp Market's "Paper Hug" die to die cut my sentiment out of white and green paper. I adhered this over the stamped panels.

I tucked white, die cut leaves and flowers from some leftovers under and over the sentiment.

My last step was to use a Clear Aqua Shimmer Pen and Glossy Accents over the die cut sentiment, and used Nuvo "Fresh Snow" Glitter Accents in the middle of the flowers. This still needs something else but right now I am putting it aside.

For my second card, I used this weeks CASE this Sketch #380 as my inspiration for my card.

I knew when I saw this sketch, I wanted to use Pink Fresh Studio's "Frame Builder Botanical Oval Set" that has been sitting on my desk, waiting to be used. My interpretation of the sketch is not exact, but I like how it came out.

The paper is from Dress My Craft "Hydrangea Lawns" paper pad.

I used the "stained glass" technique with these die cuts. I die cut the flower portion of the botanical frame three times and glued the pieces together. I then adhered it to the card front. The inner portions I colored with Copic markers, glued them inside the frames, then colored in using the Clear Aqua Shimmer Pen and then covered them with Glossy Accents.

 I used the same technique with the leaves x2.

My last step was to add the sentiment, which was on my desk and do not know the manufacturer off the top of my head.

I am entering this card into The Flower Challenge #46-Summer/Winter too.

That is all from me tonight. I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a fabulous night!!

CAS-Fridays and Crafting of Hue Blog Hop

Hi everyone!! Today the CAS-Fridays Design Team is doing a blog hop. We are featuring the
CAS-ual Fridays Stencils. There is also a SALE on stencils!! They will be $5.00 until July 12, 2020!!!

I created a card where I used the Curtis Stencil to dry emboss AND heat emboss for a simple look.

The key to dry embossing with a stencil is the layering "sandwich" you do through your die cut machine. I have an old Sizzix Big Shot so I use a Sizzix Texturz Impressions Pad and Sizzix Texturz Silicone Rubber Mat for my sandwich.

I have an old tabbed adapter plate so I open it to the right tab, place one standard cutting mat down, with the silicone rubber mat on top of that. I usually clean my silicone mat with a lint brush but when I was making this card, I couldn't find where it was in my room!!

Next I place my paper over the rubber mat, with my stencil over the paper.

I then top off the sandwich with impressions pad and run everything through my machine.

When you take your paper out, it looks like this. You see the top where there is a line from the outside of the stencil? This DOES NOT always happen. It depends on the stencil. I worked around this by cutting my embossed paper down to make it disappear. If I had not cut it down, I was going to put a strip of gold cardstock in between the embossing and the edge so you would think it was part of the design!!!

For the next step, I die cut my sentiment from gold cardstock and fun foam using the "happy" from the Happy Hanukkah Fri-dies. I adhered the gold die cut over the foam and set it aside to dry.

While the die cut was drying, I used a gold embossing ink to smear over a white cardstock strip and then heat embossed this with gold embossing powder. I adhered the strip onto an A2, top folding card front, and then glued the red embossed cardstock around this.

I masked and heat embossed the birthday sentiment from the Whole Shebang stamp set on  a white strip of cardstock and adhered it to the card front.

My last step was to I adhere the die cut sentiment to my card front using Ranger Multi Matte Adhesive.

This card was so simple to create and using your stencils to dry emboss just extends the uses of your supplies!!!

Remember, all STENCILS are on sale today until July 12, 2020 for $5.00 with no code needed.

Also, clearance has been marked down to $.99!!! When it is gone, it is gone!!! You can even use my code, NORASENTME to get an extra 15% off your TOTAL ORDER!!

Be sure to click on the links below to see what the other members of the Design Team created!!!  One commenter from all the blogs will be picked to win a $50 CAS-ual Friday Shopping Spree Code! This code will be picked on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

Start at CAS-UAL FRIDAYS

Vicki Dutcher

Michelle Wallace

Larissa Hackett

Nora Noll <<<<<<<You are HERE!!

Maria Russell

Lisa Bzibziak

Carolina Flores-

Special Guest from Crafting of Hue

I thank you for taking the time to stop by today. Have a FABULOUS day!!

Playing Cards With a Friend!!!

Hello everyone!!

I am popping in some cards that I created on a virtual playdate with Michele from I Card Everyone. Michele and I picked a technique from a video by @lostinpaper, watercolor stamping, to try for making our cards. We also decided that we would use Altenew stamps because we both had a ton of them on hand.

For my first card, I used the stamp set Beautiful Day and Altenew watercolor pens (Fiesta) to create two cards. My first card I used first generation stamping and one of the layers of the large flower.

I chose to use purple and orange as my main colors for my card.

After stamping the colors, I stamped the black outlines. I then splashed some watered down acrylic paint and more watercolor onto the background. I actually used black acrylic paint on all my cards. Some I had a heavy hand in, some I  were more subtle.

On my second card, I used second generation stamping from the colors on my first card.

I actually like the lighter colors on this card than on my first card.

On my both my first and second cards, I finished off with sequins and gems.

For my second set of cards, I decided to try the same technique using the Build a Flower: Hyacinth and did the same technique using Distress Markers.

For my first card, I used two Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord markers for my flowers, and Mowed Lawn for the stems.

I used Shaded Lilac Distress Stain and black acrylic paint on the background and surrounded the flower with a black frame die cut.

Dandelion Yellow Nuvo Crystal Drops were used for the middle of the flowers.

For my second card, again, I used second generation stamping for my flower.

I chose to make this card a little cleaner. I popped up a black sentiment strip with some foam adhesive.

I added some sequins around the sentiment to give it some presence.

For my third set of cards, I used Leaf Canopy and Oxide ink for this technique.

I stamped the leaves with Iced Spruce Oxide ink and then heat embossed it in silver.

I used an MFT background stamp for the stripes. I added some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray over the front, as well as watered down black acrylic paint.

I added a die cut hugs and some silver glitter paper at the top.

For my second card, the leaves were stamped using the second generation of the first stamped card.

Again I used the MFT stripes background stamp in Iced Spruce and Speckled Egg Oxide Ink.

I added a blue butterfly that was in my stash to the front of this card.

I chose to add the silver glitter paper in the middle of the stripes at the top rather then where I placed it on the first card.

This was the last card I created using this technique. I loved trying this using all these different stamp mediums.

I am going to share my flower cards over at The Flower Challenge. 

I hope to play cards again with Michele another time this summer. It was so much fun stamping "virtually" with her and I would love to do it with someone else if anyone would like to do so. Be sure to pop in on her BLOG POST to see what she created!!

I thank you for taking the time for stopping by!!!

On the Blog at CAS-ual Fridays

Happy Monday everyone!! Today I am on the blog at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. I created some cards based on patterns from Pinterest. Here is a sneak peek of one of my cards.

Hop on over to the blog to see the cards I created.

In Full Bloom

Hello everyone!!

I am just popping in with a couple of cards I created this weekend for some challenges.

My first card is for this weeks CASE this Sketch Challenge #378. While this card did not come out as I had planned, I am still entering this into the challenge anyway.

Here is the sketch that inspired my card:

The flower is the Peeking Daisy die and sentiment is Tiny Words, both from Simon Says Stamp.

The paper is from Lawn Fawn (gingham) and Prima (yellow flowers). I colored the flower in with Copic Markers.

I added some glossy accents to the middle of the flower and some gold sequins around the sentiment to finish the card off. Lately, I am in bling mode!!

My second card was inspired by The Fusion Card Challenge. I was inspired by both the image (the blue colors and flowers) and the sketch. However, I did flip the sketch to make it a portrait card.

I decided to pull out some of my pattern paper 6" by 6" paper pads to embellish my cards. I combined Dress My Crafts Hydrangea Lawns paper (background) with some Pinkfresh Studio Joyful Day stripes.

I then added flower pot with flowers that I die cut using Lawn Fawn's Little Flowers dies. I have had these flower dies FOR YEARS but have never used. They have been sitting on my desk to play with and this card was the perfect card to use them on.

The sentiment is from Altenew's Paint a Flower: Rose stamp set. I heat embossed it in white.

I do not usually make my backgrounds this bold but I LOVE this paper!! Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers, even if I cannot get them to flower in my yard no matter how many times I watch videos on how to care for them.

I am also going to submit this card to Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Well, that is all from me today. I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a FABULOUS day!!!