On the road

 

See you Monday!!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Wishing you a Beautiful Day!!

A few months ago, Steve and I were in a stamp store and I found this little stamp:

 

  Sometimes you need a simple sentiment to convey a big thought and this one does it for me!!

 

 

 

We're traveling this weekend so I'd like to wish you what ever makes you day beautiful!! 

 My Card to you!!

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Ginny M

 

 

 

Images by Nicecrane Designs

3 D Glassy Butterflies

twinchies

I promised a quick tutorial on my glassy Butterflies and I am posting it today.

This Techniques is really so easy to so and the results are wonderful!  You will probably already have all the supplies in your stash!  I choose butterflies for this tutorial, but you can use anything you loke for a 3D focal image. 

I used a Nicecrane image Called Butterfly Twinchies, you can use a digital or a stamped and clored image

Wether you use digitals or hand stamps, you will need two sets.

Here I printed two sets of the

 

 

Nest step in creating the 3D glassy butterflies

Dollop on a thick layer of Modge Podge

I use my finger, nothing fancy - just try to get a fairly even coat.

 

 

I purchase my Modge Podge on Amazon, for 29.99 a GALLON free shipping!

 

This takes about two hours to dry

 

Here you can see the butterflies before I fussy cut them.

 

 

The next step requires fussy cutting the focal images.  The Modge Podge give the paper a vinyl feel and makes it very easy to cut.

After cutting the images I edge them with black marker.

 

Here is the card!! The glossy butterflies are hot glued on to the same image on the card layer.

 

 

Here is a side view to help you see the 3D effect.  This is so easy and works so well!

 

I hope you give this a try, it is well worth you time

 

Thanks you for Stopping By!

Ginny M

 

Here is a preview of the Nicecrane set

 

 

Simple things

Do you ever wonder if all the nurturing you do in life has a lasting effect?  I do! All the stories I have poured in to my kids, all the wonder of life that I have tried to impart, seeding deeply an appreciation of the gift of life.  Beauty, Hope, Joy Kindness, we all hope to engrain these ideals into our offspring.  They grow up and move swiftly into the courses of there lives - sometimes you hear a faint echo and it is so rewarding.   Today I was busy in my room working at the computer when the youngest came in and said "Hi Mom, I think the trees are starting to bud, is there anything for Lunch"?  Now it doesn't seem like much, but there is a history.  Young Steve came into my life when he was 4, I have been his step mother since he was 7.  He became my youngest.  My oldest was already 18, middle child was 14.  Steve brought me back to that sweet time of blowing dandelions, digging up worms and watching the seasons affect the trees.  Accept Steve wasn't into that, Steve loved game boy. Steve and I had a lot of adjustments to make in our relationship, one by one we did.  Over the years we changed each other.  Steve learned to stop and look around and enjoy beauty, I learned what a DS, playstaton, x box and Wii were. 
The bridge that  allowed our relationship to bloom was a bottle of My Honey Mustard dressing.  I'm serious, one weekend on "our weekend" Steve discovered that My honey mustard dressing was just about one of the best things on the planet to eat, it was right next to ketchup!  If I could make something so yum, maybe I was okay.  I made him more dressing and he told me I should bottle it. I found his little heart right through his stomach! No he never did like digging worms, and I never liked game boy; but we both learned listen to each other and love grew.  Steve is 20 now and tells us he's never moving out, not to worry he'll take care of us when we're old ( in a couple of months).He's been with us full time since he was 14. We went through the high school years like a breeze. When I look back to that four year old and that 38 year old, I see nothing other than a miracle.  It was all the simple things, that added up to something so much.

I made some simple cards tonight too, while I was thinking of those years. Ignacio from Nicecrane designs has sent me a boat load of images to make samples for ( Yay!!) and since I've been sick for the last couple of weeks I am way behind.

I made these using the Vintage Flower Books  Collection .   Simple and fast to work up!

 

 

 

 

my favorite: color is a little off in this, the background paper is a soft brown with pink polka dots.

 

 

Here a copy of the entire set:

 

 

Tomorrow I'll have some beautiful glassy butterflies to give you a short and EASY tutorial on !

 

Thanks for stopping by and remember all those simple things you do make a Magnificent Difference!

 

Ginny M

 

 

What's On Your Wordesk Wedensday # 251

I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks due to being sicko, but I'm back to show you what's happening at Maxam Made!  Today Is WOYWW# 251 -the Blog hop that pops around the world! It starts at Lovely Julia Dunnit's blog !  You'll find  at least another 75 crafty visits to make, click over with A cuppa and join the fun!  Better yet Join the blog hop!

I'm at my standing desk for this project, right now I feel like my whole craft room is a disaster.  It really isn't but I've acquired a few new pieces of equipment in the last two months and I am still trying to find a good place to keep them and work with them.  My major storage area is wall space and there isn't an inch left unused on the walls our counter surfaces.  Steve is working on a solution with me, but right now, I'm feeling  like a sardine. 

 

See the M+M's!!  They came in today as a swap gift goodie!!

 

 I'm am making a Birthday card here and also a DT card for Nicecrane designs.  The image you see me working on is an image from the Frank Haviland series of portraits.  These are really beautiful!  I blush at the décolletage on some of these, but that is what graphic software (or Word) is for! Keeping a more portrait view and no décolletage.   

 

One of my new items is a cricut expressions  - I LOVE it!!

I had an Ecraft machine which is supposed to do everything a Cricut can and more with out a mat. Well It cut labels and simple shapes and that was it.  The Ecraft worked great for a month, it went back to the factory for repair and never worked right after that .  I will still use it for labels and boxes as I don't have Cricut software for that right now.  The Cricut was so easy, about a 5 minute learning curve and No frustrations, no wasted papers! and the blades are cheap!!

 

I cut the beautiful portrait frame for this card with it.  The cut came out perfect first time!

 

 

I think it took me longer for Blogger to up load this card than for me to make it!!  It's on a x7 base and I used gold cardstock for the first layer, and a sheet of K and Company paper for the back ground , flower and frame.  One thing about two sided papers, they usually work perfectly together. This paper had a tortoise shell pattern on one side and a beautiful vintage green with pink rose calligraphy print on the other. I cut a 12x12 sheet into quarters, on for the frame, one for the flower and one for the second background layer.  The flower was made from a Tim Holtz die I especially like as the flower are a little flatter and mail better.

See what was in my photo box behind my card this morning!!  I am very blessed!!
 

I hope you have a great day and thank you for stopping over to my blog and I also hope you enjoy the rest of the hop!!

Ginny M

 

Check out my friend Ignacio's blog for awesome inspiration of beautiful digitals!!
 

Wedding!!

We had a wedding this weekend!!  Our oldest son Roy married Megan  Thursday evening!  They had a very quiet ceremony in South Carolina where they are both working and building a house.  We will be spending some time visiting the Newly wed sin The Summer, needless to say I can hardly wait!

 

Roy and Megan are both Aeronautical engineers for Boeing and have been together for years!

Megan  waited for Roy  to get out of the Marines - That's where they met, in a Tech school, she was Air Force he was Marines.  They both pursued graduate work and this December relocated to SC.

We are so happy to officially welcome Megan into the family and hope they will be very happy and blessed!

 

Thanks for stopping by and here's a beautiful Spring freebie!

Ginny M

 

 

 

Today it felt like Spring!!

We had a very nice sunny day here in Western Massachusetts!  Finally? Spring is here?  Who knows, we could still have a NorEaster come our way!!
It was spring in my craft room today!  With the seasons changing I also have more light in my Craft room and that is always wonderful!  I am also starting to feel better after being sick for 2 weeks - I'm never sick like that!!  Oh well That is a part of life.

I made a set of four cards this Afternoon, using beautiful vintage spring images from Nicecrane Designs :

                                            
                                            You can tell I have feeling better on my mind!

 

 

I also used the Birds and Blossoms set to make trading and calling cards, Here's one:

 

 

Today's Freebie: A beautiful bookplate to color or leave in Black and White

 For even more inspiring creations, Stop over  to Ignacio Molina's blog , you'll be wow'ed!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Ginny M

 



Apparently and a freebie

There is something like a mini - flu - plague going on around here.  It is an interesting when your Dr. walks in the room and says okay I don't want to get to close to you.  Gee thanks!  It is now official, I'm really sick, only I'm some great meds so I'm on the mend. yay! It's about time! 

Last night because I couldn't sleep from coughing so much so I got up and made space in my craft room for the new baby coming home:

I got one second hand for a really good deal.  I've had it with my ecraft machine and it's constant chewing of my good papers.  This is the Expression it's adoption was a result of it's former owner upgrading to an Explore.  Lucky Me!!  My main purpose for the machine is flowers and labels for journals I am making and selling.
                           

 

I am hoping to be back to card making tomorrow! but in the Meantime I will leave you with this beautiful Leonardo Da Vinci drawing as a freebie for your collection:

 

 

Thank you for stopping by!

Ginny M

 

Get well wishes and a freebie

I  received this lovely get well card yesterday from my friend Crystal AKA 'Superstamp girl'
I like it so much that I think I am going to use it for the colors of my new craft room!

I think I might swap the pink for an orange.

Stop over to Crystals for some stampin' up inspiration!!

 

I also received this sweet card From Jenn, the owner of 'Addicted to Making Cards' FB group

 

Jenn is a awesome moderator for this group. ATCM was my first group in the FB genre - so many of the Yahoo Groups have gone over to FB because of the Yahoo issues.  At first I was a little intimidated by the pace , but now I love it, so nice to have so much interaction and pictures to go with it! Just thought it was so mice to receive a card especially since I am a new member!

 

 

And lastly I'm leaving you with a freebie.  I still seem to have a zero level of energy , just enough to keep drinking tea and catching up on old stamp magazine issues!

 

Why This image; a gerbil?  I don't know except I love where his paws are, they could hold a little sign perfectly!  Got something you want to say to someone?  What a cute messenger!

 

 

 

Take care and thank you for stopping by!

Ginny M

 

 

Printing on Vellum Technique

I'm feeling a little bit better today and decided to make my cards for the March OSA Koi Swap.  Last Week I asked my friend Ignacio the owner and graphic designer at Nicecrane if he had a Koi images, When he replied to me it was "I do now"!  He had worked up a new set of Japanese Koi digital stamps! This gave me 5 images to choose from !

 

 

When I do these swap I always try to make my cards unique, we all do , that is half the fun of it!  Two months ago I did another Koi swap and I wanted this one to look very different from the last one, but I loved the technique so I did want to repeat that!

 

This was January's card:

 

                                        Koi on Vellum over a Nicecrane texture image

 

For this months card

I did another  vellum printing overlay  - very simple but very beautiful!  The key with this is having an excellent graphic to print out, these Koi are perfect  for this technique!

 

 

I printed out on 29# vellum.  You can see the detail on the vellum here, One thing to remember when printing on vellum: It takes a little longer for the paper to dry.  The vellum surface is very dry and it takes a bit longer for the ink to set in the paper.

 

 

 

I then printed two "texture images" from Nicecranes' Beautiful Japanese Texture background set.

you can see where I was running out of ink on the print on the left - that's okay, it looked lovely!

 

 

I Used a little ATG tape to adhere the layers together and a coat of this shimmery nail polish to give the scale a wet look 

 

 

You can see how beautiful the background looks under the fish!  I added a little distress inks to the edges for a little more depth.

 

 

 

I die cut an oval in my card stock and added some embellishments

 

Here are the finished cards!

 

 

 

 

I also used several of the Koi images printed on regular paper to make into ATC for another time, they print up beautiful on regular paper!!

 

I hope you give this overlay technique a try sometime it is really beautiful and not time or supply intensive!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day!

Ginny M

 

 

 

Japanese texture backgrounds



Japanese Prints

Being Still

Being still is a very good thing to due when you have the flu! I'm feeling better but not better enough!  Today I  can't seem to look at anything very long with out my eye balls feeling like the are crossing over each other! 

I need to get some beautiful images colored for NiceCrane designs but I can' t focus long enough to do it right, so it is going to have to wait till tomorrow.  Ignacio did a new sheet of spring themed art "A child's garden of verses" I love the girl with the watering can!! What beautiful spring and summer cards these images will make!!

 

I did get a simple card done for National Jewel day  challenge:

 

I love this verse, it says so much with so few words.

 

I hope you all have a great day and thank you for stopping by!

Ginny M 

Ugh, I have the flu and a freebie

Yep, it struck last night and even typing hurts right now, So I won't have much of a post today!  I'm leaving you with two flu freebies!!

Enjoy, I'm going back to sleep!

right click and save.

 

Have a great day!!

Ginny M