FMS592 Sending Love & Christmas Cheer

 Hey there! Happy Saturday!!

I have Stamp Class at my house tonight. It's always a fun night making cards, and enjoying some wine and chocolate!! Tonight we are getting a head start on our Christmas cards. From February through June we make regular cards: birthday, sympathy, thank you, anniversary, congrats, thinking of you, etc. From July through November we make mostly Christmas cards and gift card holders.

The card below is one of the cards we'll be making tonight! The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches. I've CASEd this card from Amy O'Neill.

Since this is a Christmas card, I chose to leave the leaves off. If you zoom in you can see that I didn't start blending the Azure Afternoon ink on scrap paper before moving onto the card. When you don't do this, you get heavy splotches of ink. My Azure Afternoon ink pad is especially juicy, which makes the splotches even more noticeable. I'm leaving it this way as a word of caution to the ladies tonight. A "learn from my mistakes" moment. haha! I used Masking Paper and a circle punch to mask the area for the sun while blending the Azure Afternoon sky. Then I used that same circle punch to create a mask for the Daffodil Delight sun.

I am slowly building up my Stampin' Blends collection, but didn't have what I needed for this card. The branch and bird were colored with Ohuhu alcohol ink markers purchased in a set of 120 from Amazon. Now that I'm looking at the photograph, I think I change the color of the bird. There's not enough contrast from the color of the sky.

Wishing you all a fabulous Fourth of July weekend! I'm so excited to have a four-day weekend!! Planning on getting lots of stamping done.

Thanks for visiting! Happy Birthday to this flawed, but still AMAZING, country of ours!! God Bless America!!

~Shawn

FMS591 Little Bit Late

 Ahhh! A little bit late ...that's me! 

I love this sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches:

I have challenged myself to participate in at least two challenges each week. Freshly Made Sketches is one of my favorite challenges!

My Aunt Sandy taught me the art of sending handwritten cards and letters. We have always lived pretty far away from each other. From the time I was a little girl, she always sent me cards. I can still remember the excitement of getting my very own mail!! I've been a "happy mail" addict ever since!

Who doesn't need a belated birthday card from time to time? I mail a TON of birthday cards every year. Try as I might to get them in the mail on time, sometimes life gets in the way. 

I used the now retired Happiest of Birthdays stamp set and Dandy Designs DSP. I topped it off with some Fresh Fressia ribbon and adhesive-backed sequins.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Have a great weekend!