Flowers for the last day of May!

Flowers and flowers and flowers...

I've been making some flowers for a SWAP and I wanted to share them with you...

This is how I made them...

Cut scalloped squares and scored in the center twice.

Then with scissors cut each line from outside to center without cutting completely.

Bent each quarter of the square in the back as shown below.

And then used three of them and glued to a base to have the final flower, which was embellished in the center with a button or brad.

I made a few ... I am ready for the SWAP.

Now, I just found out SEM is having several challenges because of the celebration of the blog's birthday.  One of them is to make a layout using flowers and I thought to myself:  "great opportunity to use one of my flowers".

So I made this layout.

The photo is from our last year's anniversary.

I think the color of this flower went perfect with my photo and papers.  Dont' you think?

I have some hidden journaling too.

And I hope you enjoyed stopping by...  Leave me a comment and let me know.

Let's Celebrate with SEM!

Hello my friends...  Hope you are having a great day!  Either if you had to work, or have the day off in celebration of Memorial Day, I wish you are having fun.

Remember I told you about a blog I found recently, and that I loved the title...?  It's Scrapping Everyday Miracles!  I love the name because this is what we all do with our hobby... Some scrap about birthdays, anniversaries, special dates... an about love, friendship, being thankful, being blessed...  And some about dogs, work, themselves... and so on...  but all these things and concepts are everyday miracles.

Well... this blog is celebrating its first year.  And I wanted to share with you this fact, not only because I would be entering for the opportunity to win some candy, but because I really want to join the fun of celebration.   And YOU CAN ALSO WIN...

There's several ways you could be entered for the candy. Click on the Birthday Celebration image below for more information.

I am very happy for you SEM!!!!  Congratulations on your first year... and I know there's more years to come!!!!  Thanks for the inspiration and support to our projects...

She's Somebody's Hero!

Happy Friday everybody!

A great day to share projects, thoughts and friendship...

Remember my mom was hospitalized recently? You need to know my mom and I love each other very much but I admit we have lots of differences... nothing too serious... but things about decision making, personality... blah blah blah...  Anyway, sometimes it hurts... :(   but sometimes it's great to realize how blessed I am to have her in my life.  We are not perfect and don't have a perfect relationship at all, but we have each other.

When she was hospitalized about two weeks ago, I was very worried because she's very stubborn and she doesn't really take too much care of herself.   I felt I had to repeat her so many times to do this and that... that at some point I just said to myself and God:  "let's just go with her flow...".

Long story short...she's already fine and she was on time to be home on Mother's Day...  Oh my God!  I was relieved.

So I made this layout about that day...to celebrate her and to remember that feeling of she being back.

I enlarged a photo of her and just embellished the page with flowers and delicate ornaments to reflect the feeling of Mother's Day and softness of the moment.  Tried to balance the page with some asymmetry and provided some room for hidden journaling (it's hidden; you won't see it, hehehe!).

I stamped this lamp in the paper I used as base for the layout, and also in another designer's paper and cut the top to place on top.  Why a lamp?  It goes perfectly with the message I stamped as journaling... keep reading.

This message is ridiculously powerful... don't you think?  I always say, us, humans need sweet and sour together, in order to value what we have (or don't have).  So this Mother's Day was beyond special because two days earlier my mom was at the hospital.  How ironic, huh?

I also used a page of an old dictionary showing the definition of "mother".

Patterned paper, stickers and chipboard elements are from Basic Gray; more patterned paper from DCWV; cardstock from AC; dollies from Paper Lace; journaling card from Fancy Pants; shaped border from K&Co.;  letters from Thickers; stamps from Unity Stamp Co; inks:  Staz-On and Color Box.

How blessed are you?  How much do you need the darkness to feel the light as magical?  Tell me about it...  thanks for your comments.

Have a great Friday... my favorite day... and have a great weekend.

Ticket Banner Card

Hello everybody...

Almost Friday... how cool is that?

And this is the other birthday card I made for my husband.

I stamped this "ticket" stamp several times in different designer papers and made a banner out of them...  They look soooo cool!  Two of them even have "foil" appearance.

The beautiful and practical ticket stamp is from Unity Stamp Co.   I love that I could send a great message with the word "Enjoy" all across by repeating the ticket...  

 The Spanish sentiment from Spanish Memories, and the stars from Inkadinkado.

I'm linking this to Unity Challenge HERE.

Let me know your comments... You don't even know how much I enjoy reading them.  Thanks!!!!!

Happy Birthday! DH!

Today's my dear husband's birthday!  Let's celebrate!!!!

It's Wednesday, so we have to work anyway... but hope we can celebrate over the weekend.

For now, a birthday card!

A simple, classy, non-girly birthday card for a 41 year-old...

I used a ribbon showing wine bottles and glasses, from a bow in a gift I received a while ago... (recycling you know?)...

I stamped Happy Birthday sentiment in Spanish, from Spanish Memories stamps, cut and matted with some layers...

I left it pretty simple trying to be plain enough for his taste...

And I included another sentiment from the same set of stamps, in the interior of the card...  it's the definition of birthday!

Hope you liked my card... and let's celebrate life!!!!

Wooo hooooo!!!!

Perfect Pair for a Perfect Friday

Ahhh... People love Fridays... It's usually a day to finish a hard week of work... get some rest...  relax...  hang out with friends... have quality family time... and start a great weekend.

I've always loved this day, but I admit it's all about the attitude and the mindset for the day... And if you think like "Fridays" everyday, you will feel as good as you feel the real Friday... Anyway...  if Fridays make people happier... it's ok to think they are specials.

And I so needed this Friday...

Today I'll share a nice layout I made about how special my dog is... as part of our family.

I used several stamps from Unity Stamp Co. and combined in different ways.  The photo I chose is from my husband and my dog, Malbec, so the "perfect pair" stamp goes perfect with it.  I also used the one of the "date ticket" to document date.

I used the Basic Gray "Max and Whiskers" collection papers and lots and lots of stripes all over the layout...  So sweet!!! 

Even my husband's pants have stripes...

I wanted to fill the page with lots of elements and coordinated colors on purpose...  Wanted to use good quantity of different papers and elements in just one page...

The "family time" stamp served as title... and the hearts were perfect for this corner here.  I stamped the hearts, and stamped separately to cut the large one and show 3D; also added glossy accents and glitter to make it stand out.

My dog is so loving and special...  He deserves to be in my documented life!!!

Thanks for your comments.  Hope you liked my page... Have a nice weekend!

Happy Mothers' Day!

Here I am again... just stopping by to say Happy Mothers' Day!

Being a mother is a blessing, and I am sure it should feel pretty good...   I guess we, women, are born with a chip that only we could manage and understand... and even if we don't have the opportunity to have children, we do behave sometimes as mothers... either in our jobs, with our relatives children, with our husbands... and at some point even with our parents...  We have such a sense of being protective, teach, listen to others, love and give advice...  It's incredible.

So today, is a special day to celebrate our moms and to be a mother.

This is the card I made for my mom.

Used the "Mediterranean Stack" from DCWV... gorgeous papers with so many textures and patterns!!!

The chipboard letters are from My Mind's Eye.  The frame is a stamp from Unity.  Border punch from Martha Stewart.

I cut flowers from the patterned paper and placed them in the middle of the frame with 3D dots.

Have a great day!!!!

Thanks for your comments, as always.

:)

How Girly are YOU?

Hello to all...

I found this challenge very interesting and was so on it!... I didn't have the time last week, so today I quickly took some time for it...

It's from Ippity by Unity Stamp Co... and the challenge was to create something using NOTHING girly.. no pink or purple colors, no flowers, no bling, no girly girly...

I thought it was going to be kind of "easy", but then I realized how much girly stuff we like to use on our projects.

I decided to make a card and I found me thinking of adding flowers, glossy accents, bling, ribbon, this and that...   And suddenly all the sentiments were for women and did not apply for men...hehehehehe!!!

Well, I chose this stamp with a message about friendship.  Since friendship does not have genre... you know...

 I stamped the sentiment on a sticker and then the sticker was placed on chipboard and cut so I could give it a little dimension with 3D squares.

THen I thought.. "this is not just a sentiment"... it's a life lesson for everyone!

So I decided to use a second stamp which is the "No.8" you see in the photo.  I rubbed on the word "lesson" and combined with the #8 to read "lesson No. 8".

I carefully chose papers with brown, green, yellow, orange and blue colors.   I also distressed and inked edges with brown ink.

I think I did it... No Girly at all... but cool message.  Do you like it?

Don't forget to leave your message and visit the other girls (or boys?) too! You can do that HERE.

It's all about Friday...

 And it's Friday, and I want to participate in the Fabulous Friday Friends from Unity!  So I am linking this post to its blog.

I made this card for my brother, since when I talked to him last week he was kind of down for some situations in his life.  Nothing huge, but don't you think sometimes we feel we could not deal with ordinary things.  It's just part of life... What you can control, do; what you can't, let it be... hehehehe...

So I used these Unity stamps, not only because they are gorgeous and always stamp so neat... but because the message is right on!

My brother and I love margaritas, so this is a nice touch for the intended message too!    I stamped and cut and additional lime to use separately from the original image attached to the margarita glass.

I added some sparkle to the border of the glass to simulate salt... Mmmmm...

And the card does not have anything feminine and I used colors that could match the recipient... my brother...  :)

Hope you like it and found it refreshing...  Salud!

Thank You

Hello my friends.  I had a THANK YOU post scheduled for National Scrapbooking Day last Saturday, and it seems to had lost the text...   Well, the intention is what really counts sometimes, don't you think?

I wasn't able to fix it until now since I was all week taking care of my mom at the hospital.  She was hospitalized for asthmatic bronchitis and it was first time ever she needed to stay at a hospital... so it was kind of tough for everyone... but she's already fine and at home.  So I apologize if you received a post update with the title Thank You, and nothing in it... :)

I wanted to thank you for all your visits, valuable comments, your solidarity, and the wonderful way we share this hobby, respecting everybody's styles and different talents.

And speaking about thank you, let me show you this card I recently made for someone who wanted to say thanks to a sister...

I used several sizes of spellbinders to create layered frame for the sentiment from Stampin' Up which says "Sincerely Thanks" in Spanish.

Dollies provides such a nice feminine touch to the projects that I continue using them when I need to emphasize on that.  The person told me the recipient of the card is very girly.  

So, the flowers, the raffia, punched borders and nice flowered background also add to the femininity intention of the card, without over decorating it and keeping the simple message of gratitude.

Hope you liked my card... and again... THANK YOU!!!

Another Friday... Friends with Flair!

Hello my friends...

I participated last week on the Friends with Flair at Unity and I loved the feeling...  So I'm skipping some chores today to spend time posting this before going to work...  Oh the things you do for scrapbooking madness!!!

I'm sharing this card I made with the Angie Girl stamp collection from Unity.  

I stamped it with black ink on several patterned papers and in white cardstock and then used different parts to assemble the whole lady.  In the white cardstock I painted the skin and cut to use as base, adding a blue shadow around it.

For the top and bottom of dress I used two different patterned papers and then stamped the flower alone several times to create layers.

I also used a brad for the layered flower in her dress.

I hand wrote the word "mami" (mom) and cut it to use it as the sentiment placed in top of a polka dot ribbon.

The patterned papers are "oldies" collections from DCWV and Basic Grey...  they're never really old you know... I have tons of papers from former collections that I still use them a lot. Maybe it's because I  don't really throw away scraps... I use them!

I added details in blue to the Angie Girl and the sentiment, and the distressing in the layers, and with the patterned paper layer at top and bottom just to break the color pattern and to stand out the gem in the flower.

Hope you like it.

I'm linking this to the Unity blog for the Friends with Flair event.  Don't forget to leave your comment.

Happy weekend.