Posted in birthday cards, Birthdays, card making, craft, Embossing Folders, masculine cards, Stampin Up

Masculine Cards

Posted on by Be Encouraged

The best thing about card making is thinking about friends and family while I create. This card is for my nephew, such an upstanding, serious, and respectable man. So why do I remember him as the cutest little trouble making scamp ? It’s a masculine birthday card created with Stampin Up’s Brightly Gleaming Decorative Foiled Paper and a strip of copper embossed with Stylish Scroll Embossing Folder.

The inspiration for the card above is a fall themed card embossed with Tin Tile 3D Embossing Folders from last year. It’s one of my all time favorite cards and surprisingly the embossing folder is still available. I made the card at Keenan’s kreations Stamp Class, such fun.

When it comes to manly cards I think metallic accents really hit the mark.

Blessings,

Posted in birthday cards, card making, craft, Stampin Up

Birthday Card for Megan

Posted on by Be Encouraged

I’m excited to have a special birthday card to share today. With the Covid -19 SIP isolation in May my friend couldn’t be there for her daughter’s birthday. So along with the other treats planned she asked friends and family to send cards. I was so happy to have such a fun reason to make a card and hopefully Megan will enjoy receiving a card from California.

Since purple is Megan’s favorite color and she loves chocolate cake, I stamped the cake image from the “Happy Birthday to You” stamp set in Highland Heather ink and choose the coordinating cardstock for the card’s base.

I used a color wheel ( from Michaels ) to find coordinating markers for the Highland Heather ink. In this case the color wheel triad showed a minty green which sounded delicious on a chocolate cake and a soft orange. FYI a triad color schemes consists of three colors equally spaced on the color wheel.

The image was cut on a mechanical press using coordinating dies, the cake outline around the cake image and the platter on a scrap of highland heather. I’ve had questions on this stage before so if anyone want a video clip of the process let me know.

For a soft feminine card rounded corners were added after stamping the Happy Birthday Sentiment, also from the “Happy Birthday to You” stamp set. I used my old corner rounder from my Creative Memory scrapbooking days.

Finally, I used three adhesives in assembly, a snail tape runner for the big pieces of cardstock, liquid glue to the thin area where the cake stand met the platter, and dimensionals to add depth by raising the cake image from the card.

At the very end I added a sheet of decorative paper with purses and shoes to liven up this card for a lovely young woman. Thanks for the card making fun and Happy Birthday Miss Megan.

Posted in Anna Griffin, card making, craft, Stampin Up

Cards to Encourage

Posted on by Be Encouraged

This is my first post since the Corona Virus outbreak and subsequent isolation, life felt so sad and serious for a while. However now there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I’d like to share a few things.

First, thank you to the doctors, nurses, clinicians, and first responders who put their lives at risk during this crisis to help others. May God bless you extravagantly for your heroic actions. I’d also like to thank those who stayed home to flatten the curve and save lives. Some have made fun of this hardship but isolation is a form of punishment in institutions and is known to have a detrimental psychological effect. So please let’s be kind and gentle with one another.

I salute you all with a “just for you” card created with Anna Griffin’s painted garden decoupage kit https://annagriffin.com/product/painted-garden-decoupage-card-kit/. This card came together quickly by pairing a card base with flowers, ribbons and tags. I sent out quite a few of these to friends and family lately because playing with the raised flowers is wonderful stress relief and they turn out beautifully.

Sending Cards to family and friends who I can’t be near shows them I’m thinking of them and they are appreciated. A card kit like the one above is a great way to make a lot of cards fast. Another way to create a bunch of stylish cards quickly is to use Stampin Up decorative papers and coordinating cardstock.

Last night just before falling asleep I saw a great fun fold card on Sharon Armstrong’s site Txstampin.com https://txstampin.com/2019/02/fun-fold-card-youll-feel-proud-make.html . I woke up this morning with my version of it already planned out, thanks Sharon. It doesn’t have her inner card within the card layout but it’s a clean look and makes great use of the gorgeous Bird Ballad Paper from Stampin Up (which is discounted right now on the Stampin Up site: https://www.stampinup.com/ecweb/product/149592/bird-ballad-designer-series-paper ).

These papers coordinate beautifully with the calypso coral, balmy blue and my favorite … blushing bride cardstock with the sentiment stamped in soft suede ink (see picture above). I had these five cards ready after just a few hours of play and relaxation, love these easy designs.

Thank you for stopping by my site. If you don’t already have a Stampin Up Demonstrator I’d love to share the instructions for this “Miss You” friendship card and if needed help you order any of these products from Stampin Up. Hope you are safe and sheltered through these crazy days. Blessings,

Tricia

P.S. Here’s my product list for this card from Stampin Up:

Bird ballad designer series paper

Calypso Coral, Balmy Blue, and Blushing Bride Cardstock

Whisper White Cardstock

Soft Suede ink

“Miss you” sentiment from All Adorned Stampin Up stamp set

Paper trimmer and bone folder

Posted in California Parks, Canon, Travel

Morning Nature Walk

Posted on by Be Encouraged

Here are some photos from a state park visit our first year back to California. On this morning we let Bella run in the big dog area, then strolled through the park admiring wildlife.

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It was a lovely summer morning with the lake surrounded by golden hills.

My Canon MX920 was in manual mode that day for practice with a fast shutter speed to freeze the action at the dog park.  Wish I remembered the setup on the black heron photo, it’s my favorite.

Posted in Food and Cooking

Orange Loaf from Fresh Orange Juice

Posted on by Be Encouraged

Our orange tree has been beautiful with fruit for a couple of weeks now and we have enjoyed lots of oranges, orange juice, and spritzers. However my family’s favorite use for the harvest is an orange loaf bread from the Happy Foods Tube Website. It’s not too sweet for breakfast but I preferred a slice mid afternoon with tea. If you would like to try a fresh citrusy loaf, I’d recommend this one at https://www.happyfoodstube.com/orange-loaf-cake/

The only change I made to Julia’s recipe was substituting coconut sugar for granulated, which gave it a little more flavor and a deeper color.

It was a messy bowl but the results were so good.

I hope you enjoy the recipe and this slice of California sunshine. Blessings.