Category Archives: Congratulations

Sheltering Tree

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Rebecca is the fourth member of our walk club to achieve the challenge of increasing her step average over the previous year. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I decided to send cards to the four members who achieved this. Karen’s, Gary’s and Gail’s cards can be seen using these links.

Stampin' Up! Sheltering Tree

I am especially proud of Rebecca for meeting this challenge because she had some very painful issues with her back to overcome so she gathered her steps a few at a time. Constantly. And focused on the goal every single day. Such determination is to be applauded.

Rebecca is a member of my Critique Board as I call it. I often email them with photos of cards completed or sometimes in progress. So Rebecca saw Karen’s card before it was published (or even sent) and she commented that she loves square cards. So this is a 4 inch square card in old olive (she loves green too). I was planning to use the tree from the Stampin’ Up! Sheltering Tree set but it didn’t really fit so I just used the grassy bank and the flower stalks both in old olive and the flowers in real red on a layer of very vanilla.

Then I cut out the you using the Hello You thinlits in both real red and old olive so that I could decide on colour. As you can see, old olive won. I’m amassing a nice stash of words from this thinlit set as I usually cut them in a couple of colours and only then decide which to use. The “so proud of” comes from the Crazy About You stamp set and it’s stamped in real red.

Stampin' Up! Sheltering Tree envelope

I then used the envelope punch board and a square of very vanilla to create an envelope for this card. Instead of lining it, I stamped the images from the card (the stamps were already covered in ink!) onto the front as you see. I’m really pleased with how this came out.

Stampin’ Up! Hello You Thinlit Dies

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The Stampin’ Up! Hello You thinlit dies are one of my favourite things, (okay, there are many favourites) from the new occasions catalogue. I wanted to make a card for Gail, the third member of the Walk Club who achieved the annual challenge (details of the challenge are on the first of these posts about Karen’s card) and out came the Hello You thinlit dies.

Stampin' Up! Hello You thinlit dies

It was definitely a day to be playing with new things because this card also uses both the Painted Petals and the Crazy about you stamp sets. They look good together don’t they?! I started with the leaves in garden green – it looks a trifle intimidating with the leaves and stems broken up so much but it’s all one stamp and then the flowers are all on another stamp and fit the gaps easily. I like to focus on the single flower on the left to help with the placement. The flowers were stamped in rose red.

Then I cut out the word happy with the thinlit dies, also in rose red. The tip on the thinlit packaging, to run the die through the big shot multiple times really seems to work well. I’ve also found that I can leave the wax paper on the die itself after it’s cut out and that works multiple times. So far I’ve cut out a word three times using the same wax paper. I figured out where I wanted the “For You” from the Crazy About You stamp set and stamped it in garden green before sticking the word happy – I didn’t want to be using my stamp-a-ma-jig on an angle. I used the tombow glue to adhere the word to the card – if you leave the glue to set a little before sticking it down, it doesn’t ooze. I finished off the envelope with the backgrounds DSP in rose red from the regals collection. I am now incapable of leaving an envelope untouched and either line it, put the paper on the outside flap, dry emboss the flap or stamp on the envelope to coordinate with the card. It really finishes the card off in my opinion.

Another congratulations card

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Gary is another of the walk clubbies who has achieved the year long challenge that I started last January. You can read about the clubbies and more details about the challenge here. As I mentioned in Karen’s post, I decided to send a card to each of the members who had succeeded in the challenge. Here’s what I made for Gary

Stampin' Up! Bravo

I started with some island indigo card and stamped the sentiment from the Stampin’ Up! Bravo set in versamark before sprinkling over the silver embossing powder. I then used my confetti stars punch to create a mass of little stars in the silver glimmer paper. I stuck the largest ones on with glue dots and used the two way glue pen to fix on the smaller ones. I finished off the card by lining the envelope in the backgrounds DSP in island indigo (from the regals collection).

 

Stampin’ Up! Lotus Blossom

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I think that that the Stampin’ Up! Lotus Blossom set is going to be the most popular of the Sale-a-bration free items. There are a lot of good things in the brochure, but the Lotus Blossom is awesome! The detail created by the 3 step stamp process is amazing.

Stampin' Up! Lotus Blossom

I belong to a small online step club where we have competitions and try to encourage each other to step more. For the last 3 years, I’ve run a year long challenge where the goal is to end the year with an annual average higher than the previous one. This year hasn’t been so good for a lot of people – injuries, illness and so forth – and only four of the dozen or so members achieved the goal. I decided to send a card to each of the people who met the challenge.

Karen is amazing. She’s a walker which means that she can get a maximum of around 6,000 steps per hour; runners can get closer to 9,000. So the fact that Karen is our highest stepper in a club that contains runners, most of whom do marathons, is quite outstanding. She has averaged over 22,000 steps per day; to do that consistently is quite a feat.

So the sentiment from the Painted Petals seems apt. And I was still trying to make happy lotus blossoms and finally succeeded. I thought I was using the colours from the All is Calm paper but today discovered that this DSP has Soft Sky, not Pool Party. However I really love the combination of lost lagoon, pear pizzazz and pool party. I stamped the first (smallest) petals in lost lagoon and then the second stamp in lost lagoon after stamping off once. The final flower image was done in pool party. For the stem I did the first image in full strength pear pizzazz and the second one after stamping off once. I matted my very vanilla in pool party and mounted it on a square of lost lagoon.

A Happy Thing for Holly

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First I would like to thank Rizzo and the Pink Ladies at In The Pink for selecting my card as a Perfect Pinky. It’s an honour to be recognised.

My friend Holly is amazing. This year she’s run 1400 miles which includes 8 marathons, 4 half marathons and some 10K and 5Ks too.  She has a brilliant method which means that for each training run that she does she puts $5 in a jar for charity and apparently this means that she almost never misses a run. Perhaps I should try that!! Read her blog for more information. She’s on a quest to do a marathon in each state and has done 26 so far. She’s kind enough to say that I inspired her by running marathons (way back in 2001). I think it was a sort of “heck if Liz can run them, I can too” kind of thing. I’m not much of a runner. At least, I don’t look like one. Or rather, I’ll never be fast, but I’ll get there. Eventually. I was trying to run 780 miles this year and didn’t make it (thyroid issues and sinus infections derailed me) and got to 641 which is a record for me. So I’m in awe at 1400. This deserves a card. And the Stampin’ Up! A Happy Thing set combined with Painted Petals seemed perfect.

Stampin' Up! A Happy Thing

I know that Holly’s not a pink kind of girl so I figured yellow and green would work. I stamped the lemon from the A Happy Thing set in memento black on some scrap paper and cut it out (it’s not that hard, really) and then stamped it on the card. I used my cut out ( a jig in woodworking terms which I’ve heard a lot of lately with my father visiting. He and my brother spend a lot of time in the basement workshop!) to mask the first lemon and stamp out 2 more. Then out came the blendabilities in daffodil delight and old olive and some silence as I coloured away. I’m not sure why colouring stops you talking, but it does. I used the colour lifter to add some highlights to the lemons. Next I used the sentiment from the Painted Petals – it’s made for Holly! – also in old olive. I mounted the card on an old olive base and I’m really thrilled with how this came out.

Maybe you think that lemons are an odd thing for a celebratory card. But Holly pushes through any issues – fitness, plantar fasciitis and makes things work. So it seems right to me. Congratulations Holly!