Love, love, love...and other things...

“Love is all you need...” the older I get, the more these words ring true. Then again, I suppose a little CASH is a great accompaniment to living well. ;) I’m about to embark on a major change in my life, and working on these cards has reminded me of how fortunate I am to have such a supportive, loving family, and friends who enrich my life, in so many ways. Life is GOOD.

I created this first card for free themes over at Dream it Up, Fab and Funky and Papertake Weekly. I paste embossed the “Love” from the Dreamweaver “Love, Honor, Cherish” stencil with Dreamweaver black matte embossing paste, and layered that with four assorted Nesties. The embossed border is from Ms Martha, and the butterfly stamp is from Hero Arts. I used Tulip® Glam it Up™ Iron On Crystals™ on the border, glued on with Aleene's® Paper Glaze™, both by iLovetoCreate™. I glue the layers on my cards with Aleene’s® Crystal Clear Tacky Spray.™

The very first Impression Obsession Challenge for 2011 is “All you need is love!” The design team is having fun showing off some of the new images that will soon be released by Impression Obsession during Winter CHA later this month. You can read all about our challenge right here. Remember, there's a $25 gift certificate to the IO Store for some lucky stamper.

I decided to focus on some of the wonderful new IO sentiment stamps. Although these aren’t available at your local stamp shop yet, they soon will be. I’m always looking for sentiments to fit different occasions, and I’m just tickled pink with all the new IO beauties!

For this card, I stamped the sentiment on a background done with Ecoline watercolour inks mixed with a little water and Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium for shine, sprayed from a Ranger Mini Mister over a flourish mask on Arches watercolour paper. I cut it with Spellbinders Labels 8, then added Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fleur de Lis and Tulip crystals as embellishments. The Creative Card Crew challenge is “new beginnings;” this card will be going in the post to a dear friend who’s recovering from a catastrophic illness.

What a wonderful sentiment:

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

The Wednesday Stamper challenge is "Dream Big." This sentiment helps me do just that!

This next card also uses one of the new IO sentiments, along with an old favourite IO flourish stamp, thermal embossed with Top Boss Gold embossing powder. I combined Spellbinders Nesties with a couple of Martha Stewart punches and added a few Kaisercraft flat back pearls.

All the IO designers have participated in this challenge...you can link to their eye candy on the right sidebar...you'll be happy you did!

The Cute Card Thursday challenge is "Out with the old." This is a card I did to match a stamped candle, posted here on my blog on Dec. 23rd. I used this Quietfire Design rubber stamp, paired with a Norman Rockwell image.

This card is done for Art Journey's challenge # 5...embossing. I used this lovely Art Journey floral stamp from this "Nature 3" stamp sheet, and this sentiment from the "Roses" stamp sheet. I really LIKE the crisp, graphic feel of this card!

These cards actually aren't for any challenges, but they use Art Journey stamps too, and were published in the current issue of "Just Cards," so I decided to post them to show you a little more of the Art Journey beauties. The shop is in the Netherlands, and the stamps are a great value...sold in unmounted sheets...stop by to see their wonderful designs!

So that's all for today. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit. I wish you the pleasure of time spent doing what you love!