Maybe it will snow

It's become very cold here in St. Louis.  Maybe it will snow!

I actually have a Saturday afternoon all to myself after a very busy week.  I got into my comfy clothes, made a cup of Earl Grey tea, and have spent the past couple of hours with Christmas Jazz on my Pandora station --and making Christmas cards!  I am blessed with so many happy memories of Christmas and many of the cards I make for this season are a reflection of those happy thoughts.  

This darling little tree reminds me of Charlie Brown's tree.  Watching "It's Christmas Charlie Brown" has been a family tradition ever since my children were toddlers.  I also lived in Santa Rosa California, home of Charles Schultz.  There's a wonderful museum of his work and hs life there.

I love the simplicity of this image.  I added some red berries and a gold star on the top.  That was all it needed.

Paper:  PTI Rustic Snowflakes

Cardstock: PTI Pure Poppy

Die: PTi Stitched Rectangles

Image:  PTI  "O Tannenbaum"

Feel Better Soon!

Another get well card.  My grand daughter had some wisdom teeth pulled today.  Tomorrow I'll go over for a visit and bring a hot fudge Sundae from Ted Drewe's, THE best purveyor of frozen custard and "concretes" in St. Louis.  The flower petals have been scored and then popped with some sponge squares, so they're very dimensional.  Sweet card for a sweet girl.

Paper:  PTI Harvest Gold dots, Doodlebug "Fruit Stand"

Ink:  PTI New Leaf

Dies:  PTI "Oopsie Daisy", Impression Obsession "small bow", MFT Blueprint #3
Stamp:  PTI 'Oopsie Daisy"

Get Well Soon

One of my best friends went to her local doc-in-a-box with a stiff neck and some indigestion and ended up with a triple heart bypass operation.  It's really true.  Women's symptoms for a heart attack can be vastly different from the norm expected for men.  I was so relieved to be able to finally see her on the mend the other day when I brought her this card.  She's my card-making buddy and I knew she loves polka dots, the color RED, and some home-spun images, so these apples were perfect!  I added an extra pair of apples to the sentiment with a few leaves from PTI's Garden Grace and some extra apples were hand drawn and colored with copics and a white Signo pen.

Paper:  Crate Paper "Farm House"

Cardstock: PTI Vintage Cream

Die:  PTI Bookmark #3

Sentiment:  PTI Sentiment Signs

First Christmas card of the season

I adore making Christmas cards and I've been collecting stuff since August to use for this year's batch.  And Knowing that I'll be out of town the last two weeks of November, I decided to at least play around with some ideas.  Before I knew it I was off and running and seven different designs are already done.  I confess that I've been enjoying it so much that I turned on my Pandora station for Jazz Christmas music. ("It's Christmas Charlie Brown" is my favorite)  I thought the pearls for mistletoe would be the perfect embellishment for this one.

Paper:  PTI Rustic Snowflakes

Cardstock  PTI White

Dies:  PTI Phrase Play #8, Merry Kissmas

Watercolor:  Kuretake and details with a Copic Multiliner

Thanksgiving leaves

This card has more of my watercolored leaves with the Kuretake watercolors. I love how brilliant these Japanese watercolors are.  
When I started making cards, I never thought I would use the brown kraft paper look - so boring!
But there are times when it creates the perfect soft look - the graphic polka-dots set off the organic nature of the wreath of fall leaves.  

Well....  Another "simple" but bold card.

Cardstock:  PTI Kraft, Vintage Cream

Die:  PTI Rustic Wreath

Paoer: Doodle Bug "Kraft in Paper"

Thanksgiving

Wow!  I came across this sunflower paper - It has such rich, saturated color - and when I combined it with a strip of PTI's Canyon Clay cardstock, those rich colors came out even more.  All this card needed was the simple sentiment.
I confess that sometimes I think my cards aren't complex enough, with lots of layers and embellishments  --I remind myself that instead I have an eye for color and design.  And sometime the simplicity is what makes an image outstanding! 

This card will be hard to send away.

Cardstock and Sentiment: PTI

Paper:  Graphic 45 French Country Collection 

(I LOVE Graphic 45's papers and own several different collections)

Song Bird

Picasa and Blogger have updated themselves, I see...  it took some fumbling around to get this photo uploaded etc. but here it is.  I was at Checkered Cottage this week, flipping through some pads of patterened paper and for a split second saw this paper and immediately knew that it would match the motif of this "Songbird" die from PTI.  

My blog is called "Creating With Spirit" and I am constantly in wonder at how I am led to put random glimpses of things together to create these miniature works of art to give to someone who could use some kindness or appreciation.  This card went to a friend who is caring for her elderly mother.  I think it's particularly hard for a care-giver when the person they are taking care is uable to acknowledge the gift of love they are receiving.  In this case, my friend's mother has dementia and I thought some acknowledgement and appreciation might be really nice to receive.

Paper:  Basicgrey "Evergreen"

Cardstock:  PTI Vintage Cream, Scarlett Jewel

Dies: PTI "Songbird"

Various Copic pens to color the songbird