Mother’s Day Card – 4

This is my last card that I’m posting in this series. There is only one other special mom in my life and for her I made this Mother’s Day card and that is my mother-in-law. She is a very talented woman and has more energy than most people, even as a grandmother. We will be spending Mother’s Day with her and my father-in-law at our house this Sunday. Everyone is looking forward to it. I never have to stress about the food, which is a blessing for me, because she was a chef of her own restaurant and still has a passion for cooking and baking. I’ll be making an amazing looking cheese cake that I saw on FormerChef.com and my mother-in-law will be bringing a chocolate mousse cake.

The flower was painted by me, another watercolor idea from a Google search. I used orange card and added a strip of gold card for that bit of shine. The sticker border wasn’t long enough so I added a join. The trick is to cut it at an angle, which makes the join less visible. The lettering came from my first scrapbooking kit by Memories Direct.

I hope you and your kids are having fun making your own Mother’s Day cards. Have a great Mother’s Day on Sunday with your families! Oh, and don't forget to check out my poetry blog Consider the Lilies for some great Mother's Day poems. Come back tomorrow for a whole new series of fantastic photos!

Mother’s Day Card – 3

As you can see by the cards in my previous two posts, there is nothing complicated or difficult about these Mother’s Day cards. They are easy and fun to make and can be used simply as ideas for the kids. I made this card for my step-mom and mailed it the same day as my mom’s one. She’s a lovely lady and a good influence in my dad’s life. She’s the kind of woman that I’d happily spend more time with. Unfortunately, I live too far away.

Yesterday, I mentioned my childhood fascination for stickers. Stickers were to me like stamps are to a young stamp collector. I loved them and could look at them for hours (or almost, anyway). Once I was all grown up I thought that I’d have to set aside my childish love and I did for a time. Scrapbooking brought the passion back into my life. Why am I saying so much about stickers? Well, this card is decorated with a lot of them. The borders and letters are all stickers and, of course, the butterfly. They are great to work with, because I hardly needed scissors or glue with this card and, in my opinion, using them did not turn this card tacky as one might think. In fact, I’m very pleased with the result.

I used scrapbook paper for the stripes. It’s one sheet cut to size. The yellow stripe down the left-hand side of the card is the actual card itself. I left it showing through on purpose. The watercolor flowers were painted by me; however, it is not an original work. Just like yesterday’s one, I got the idea through a Google search.

Don’t forget to check out my Mother’s Day poems at Consider the Lilies. Here’s a list of the ones I’ve already posted, but I’ll post at least on more before Sunday.

• Gifted, Talented Woman
• To Be a Mother
• Mother
• Mother Acrostic

Mother’s Day Card – 2

This Mother’s Day card is already on its way to the U.S.A. and its recipient is my mom. There’s a good chance that it won’t arrive in time, because I only mailed it on Tuesday. That’s why I don’t mind if she sees what it’s going to look like ahead of time, that is if she looks at my blog post before Sunday.

This year I decided to add a small watercolor painting made by me instead of a recycled picture from a card. That is one of the best things about card making and scrapbooking, all the recycled pictures, papers and other bits and pieces. Nothing gets wasted. I used to throw little scraps of colored paper away, but not anymore. A small scrap can make a perfect background for a few letters, like this blue piece of paper with “MOM” on it. I like shiny stuff, so I added blue glitter.

Now back to the watercolor painting, although painted by me, it is not an original. I love being creative, but I’m not very good at drawing pictures from my head. In fact, I’m really bad at it. I do alright if there is a photograph or something to look at. In this case, I took the easiest option. I Googled “watercolor flowers” and found a long list of images and then printed a few, so this card and the next two cards that I’m going to post were painted after pictures from the internet.

I also added blue ribbon and a butterfly sticker. Since I was a kid, I’ve loved stickers, but I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Being Herself - 4

In this series of “Being Herself,” I have attempted to choose photos that best depict Amanda’s inner soul. In this shot, Amanda is 2 years old. As you can see, she’s making a study of the white roses by plucking the petals and smelling them. In order to create this photoshopped effect, I used Picnik. For this one I used Sharpen, Clarity, Boost, Matte and Text. I also posted another one of Amanda on her blog, a photo that I took of her today, where I used Stickers.

As you probably already know, Picnik will be closing on the 19th of April since Google is the proud new owner of these great editing tools. The cool thing is that Google has generously unlocked their premium features for the non-paying public to also enjoy.

Something you might not know is that the creators of Picnik have a new free on-line photo editing program called PicMonkey. It’s already been highly recommended by people who love Picnik. I’m sure that I will also use PicMonkey in the future. I have given it a try and it’s easy to use. I first heard of PicMonkey through Jonathan at Blogging Your Passion. I also added a review by Yahoo! for those who want to learn more.