Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

I hope you all have wonderful things to do today. We made the trip back to NY so that I could spend the day with my Mom. We are planning to try some techniques that we never have the time to do by ourselves. Hopefully with encouragement and inspiration we can tackle these together. We plan to play with our Copics, Gamsol and try some frame embossing with our Nesties. Can't wait and can't think of a better way to spend the day.

Unfortunately the kids are all scattered and we won't get to see them but such is the life of empty nesters. I received my first Mother's Day present at 8am this morning - kinda early for the recent graduate especially since I was enjoying my chance to sleep in - anyhoo, the son has started a new website for me. He has to help me get it up and going and import all my posts but soon you'll be seeing me at www.craftycath.com . You can check it out now but understand that it's under construction!

I thought I'd share the card that I made for my Mom. Of course, the colors and layout were inspired by Amy Sheffer from Pickle Paper Designs. Besides my Nesties and Cuttlebug I don't know how I could manage making cards without that super talented lady! She provides me with some wonderful starting points. The cards might not have the same embellishments or papers as hers but the footprint is there and I am so thankful to have found her. On to the card...



I used some velvet embossed paper I bought on clearance at Michaels for the background but I don't have any manufacturer information, added an embossed panel from my Cuttlebug framing it with my Labels 1 Nestie then added the black strip - first cutting it with my Fiskars Lace Border punch and then using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. I added an oval embossed Nestie for the sentiment panel and made the flower from a Spellbinder die and the swirl from a Sizzlet. The sentiment is computer generated using the CK Bella font - love it, I have used it so many times now and am glad that I purchased it! I topped it all off with a pearl button and pearl adorned ribbon.

Here's a peek inside...



As many of you know, we commute between NY and MI. Maintaining two households can be challenging at times especially when you want something and know you have but it's in the other house. I couldn't wait to get home this weekend to retrieve my grandmother's old flower arrangement prong (that's not the correct technical term but go with it). Sometimes it's hard to get my cards to stand when they are opened up so that I can photograph them. I found that some women use a flower prong to do this. I knew that I had one from Grandma Soporito's craft supplies and couldn't wait to try it out. It works wonderfully! You can see it in the above picture holding my card open so easily. I am more thrilled to be putting one of Grandma's tools to use than I am that it holds the card so beautifully.

For all you Mother's out there - I hope you enjoy your day!

Thanks for looking.
Cath