[Focus on Life] Week 28: Pretty Patterns

It's the weekend again, time for Ms. Sally Russick's Focus on Life.  

It's Week 28 and its all about Pretty Patterns.

Let me share with you the card that I made for a friends special birthday.  My friend has a nice garden with different kinds of roses, hibiscus, and fruit bearing trees that her mom planted when she visited from the Philippines a few years ago.  It's her birthday and I wanted to make her a card full of flowers.

What do you think of this card?  Isn't it pretty?  I used a from Hero Arts rubber stamp H5481 Classic Bloom that I bought during last week's trip to the craft store.  I stamped the image using Versafine in Onyx Black several times on a piece of yellow cardstock to make a pretty pattern of happy flowers.  

Hero Arts H5481 Classic Bloom Rubber Stamp

I colored the petals with a combination of yellow and orange colored pencils and the center with shades of brown.  The sentiment is from TPC Studio's "Everday Greetings Stamp" that I heat embossed using Versamark and Judikins black opaque embossing powder.  

Finally, I added Mod Podge Dimensional magic on 2 of the flowers to add a little interest.  I love the gloss!

Did you notice the chevron pattern on the background of the photo?  

Can you guess what that is?

It's the car seat cover.  We were running late for our birthday surprise so I took a last minute shot of it.  Pretty pattern, right?

Thanks for stopping by to see my pretty patterns.  Let's head over to The Studio Sublime and check out other pretty patterns.

Have a wonderful weekend ya'll!  

See you soon!

♥  michelle  ♥

Tanjoubi Omedetou [Happy Birthday in Japanese]

Have you seen this clear stamp set from HeroArts?  It's so cute!

One of our famly members is celebrating her birthday so I decided to use the stamps for her card.

I stamped the Japanese girl on white cardstock and the robe on a green patterned origami paper using Versafine ink.  I added a green bling-bling on her hair.

The paper lamp was stamped in white cardstock and colored using Tombo ABT markers.  I added embroidery floss for on the top and bottom of the lamp.

The sentiment is from HeroArts too.

I layered these elements on a designer paper and then on an off-white cardstock that was distressed with Ranger's bundled sage.

Have a great week of crafting!

Enjoy!

Christmas in October 2010

The best season of all for me is Christmas!  It's the time when people have long breaks from work and school.  Christmas was fun in our home.  We'd often spend it with our brothers' in-laws - we would play games, laugh and have our "white elephant" style of gift giving.  When I was in Pediatric residency training, we had to take turns either for Christmas or New year break.  Even though we had to be on duty, it was fun spending it in the hospital with colleagues and friends.  This year would be my first Christmas away from my family in Manila and my first to hopefully, have a White Christmas.  I anticipate that it would be a time of "confusing emotions" for me, having to miss my family but making happy memories with my husband and the whole of America.
Whew... getting kinda sentimental here.
So folks, here is my first Christmas card for this year.  I recently saw Hero Arts' Jeniffer McGuire's lessons and I decided to give it a try.  I used the "block stamping" technique for the blue background and then I added the pine trees using the "Generation stamping" technique using Versamagic hint of pesto.  I masked the house and stamped the trees; then I stamped the house using Memento rich cocoa and colored it with Derwent watercolor pencils and added glossy accents for the "snow" effect.
The sentiment and all the stamps used were from heroarts CL 464 Sending holiday cheer.

That's it for now.  Hopefully, my Christmas card making bug will keep me going.  Blessings to you!