Flashback Friday!

I remembered just this morning when I awoke that today is Flashback Friday. And since you all know I haven't had a minute of stamping time in over a week, you can probably guess I didn't have anything prepared to share today. I figured I could just show the card and not do a recreate. But, I hate disappointing you guys, so I whipped out "today's" version of last years 4th of July card!

It actually felt great to put ink to paper this morning! I was able to stamp a tish last night, but today's feature was not on my mind otherwise I would have made this last night! So, out came the paper and the inks this morning, and away I stamped. Obviously, I didn't the same paper I used on the Flashback Card, so I used some new paper I had bought a little while ago. The good news is I made the Re-Create card without almost no distressing (although I did "age" the new card with some Ranger Tea Stain ink rubbed on it). No DTP technique though! The Flashback Card is drowning in it!!!!!!

I love the background paper I used on the new card. It is by Rusty Pickle and is called Freedom Words. It looks like words typed out of one of those old label makers (of course, I have one of these "old" label makers!). The "America" panel is actually made using a stamp I bought in Virginia on my vacation a few months ago. I just stamped it with my Ranger Walnut Stain ink three times down a piece of Very Vanilla carstock. I then rubbed Ranger Tea Stain Ink all over it with a sponge to give it an aged look. It was then matted with gold metallic cardstock.

The top panel is a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock stamped numerous times with the star image from the Artifacts SU stamp set. This panel is also aged with Ranger Tea Stain Ink rubbed on it. The sentiment is stamped with Cranberry Crisp. I used my paper piercing set to make the holes around the panel. A navy blue organza ribbon is tied around this panel for a little color!

Even though it was a quicky, I like how this card turned out. I need to be making another patriotic card over the weekend because it's the hubsters birthday on the 4th of July. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get it done in time for his birthday! Does anyone have any fun plans for the 4th? At this point, I'm sure we'll be BBQ'ing at our house and have Doug's dad over to share it with us. We are fairly certain Muriel will still be in the hospital.

Speaking of Muriel, she is doing better. I went and visited her Wednesday, and I'm happy to say she got confused only a few times. She is VERY weak still, but was moved from ICU to the "step down" floor of the heart hospital. At this point, the only way she will be released soon is if she continues using her Spirometer (breathing apparatus) 8-9 times per day to fill her lungs with air. They are not fully inflated, and until that happens, she is there to stay. Our guess is she'll move to a rehabilitation facility first, and then be released. I think she is very depressed about what happened. She mentioned often while I was there that she didn't expect it to be as bad and as hard as it was proving to be. What a long road ahead, is about all I can say.

Well, how about I leave you with one really fabulous, outrageous, and amazing tidbit of news before I sign off for the day????????? I'm sure many of you remember that one of my goals for this year is to become a member of someone's design team. Wellllllllll.......believe it or not, I have been invited to be on the design team of an up and coming, AMAZING new stamp company! Now I know why all the other design team submissions I went after didn't work out for me. I think God had this one planned all along as the one he wanted me to be a part of. I couldn't have asked for a better fit, nor a nicer, sweeter, ROCK SOLID woman to work with! I mean, truely, when this company and her stamp line is unveiled, you guys are gonna SCREAM with delight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've seen her first set of stamps and they ROCK! In fact, I've got the VERY first sentiments in my hot little hands and I will be designing some fabulous cards with them this weekend! Woo-hoo! I'm so excited for this great opportunity to work with this amazing woman, and I can guarantee you're going to want her stamps for your collection!

Be sure and stop by later this weekend for more information on the name of this company and a sneak peek at some of her new sentiment stamps! I'm not going to tell you her name just yet, but you know her as well as I do, and you love her work as much as I do! I just love teasing ya 'all with these little tidbits of juicy, top-secret info...he-he!

Hugs,
Amy

Flashback Friday!

Hey! It's one of your favorite days here at Heartfelt Greetings today. It's Flashback Friday, where I show you one of my "old" cards (I say it that way becuz I haven't been stamping all that long) and recreate it based on where I'm at today as far as skill level goes. I think just by looking at these two cards you can tell that one was made in the fall, and one was made in the summer! My tastes in color definitely changes with the season!

I made the flashback card last September when I was big time into tearing. You can also tell that my love affair with designer paper started early, as there are 4 different patterned papers included here! Of course, since I'm even a bigger patterned paper hog today, I had to stay with that original idea of using lots of paper!!

The stamp I used on the original card is by Paperbag Studios. I really love their selection and style of stamps, but images like this are difficult to get to stamp well. You can see I had a difficult time the first time around. You can barely see the little girl or the words! Since then, I've discovered Versafine Black Ink, which made the little girl image on my second rock!

I went with a black, red and white color theme for my new card. I've been using this color combination a lot lately, haven't I? I think I'm trying to be a good girl and use up my scraps! To add a little pizzaz, I used a red and white toile type patterned paper to mat the little girl image. I added a black ribbon loop at the top for fun. At this point, I thought I was done last night. I went to bed, but did so knowing I wasn't happy with the outcome of the card where it was at. It seemed a little boring to me. I didn't like that I added a sentiment below the little girl image on the first card, so I knew I didn't want to do the same thing on the new card. When I woke up this morning, I decided I needed to add something or I was going to be embarrassed showing it this morning on my blog. It didn't look much better than the old card!

So, I simply added some red cardstock horizontally across the card in a few places and added both a black and red button. This was just the right touch to finish the card off so I could share it with you today without cringing:)!!!

I've got some good news for those of you following my MIL's heart surgery. She is now basically "awake", although she still is pretty incoherent due to pain meds! The two diuretics they tried WORKED, and she never had to have the mini dialysis! And lastly, they've taken the breathing tube out! Woo-hoo! We are all so relieved she seems to be on the mend. At this point, they can begin having her sit up, getting her to walk, etc, etc. All parts of her rehabilitation can begin now that the problems seemed to have been solved. My hubby got to see her yesterday after work, so he's feeling better too. It was so rough on him. He's so close to his mom. I heard from my hubby this morning that she has received a few RAK's so far from my blogger friends....THANK YOU! My husband told me that it has restored his faith in humanity, that so many people that don't know his mom would consider sending her a card with get well wishes. Doesn't that make you feel good inside? You guys are the best!

Hugs!

Flashback Friday

Well, I'm sitting out in the garage right now having my "garage sale"...."yard sale", or whatever you might call it in your neck of the woods! Not a SOUL has stopped by yet, I can hardly believe it. It's a gorgeous day for garage "saleing", sunny and cool. Two trucks have driven by, but they must not have liked what they saw. It's actually a very small sale, I don't have lots of "stuff" to get rid of this go-around, but I do have furniture, which is typically a big draw. I was so bored I finally decided to bring my laptop up and work on my post instead of sitting here like a bump on a log!! Good idea!

Today is one of our favorite days! Flashback Fridays, where we laugh out loud while looking at a card I stamped when I was just starting out! A few of you have suggested I "re-do" the flashback card so you can see sort of a "before" and "after". I thought that was a great idea, so today I'll do just that!

Ok, here's the "before" card. Isn't she puuuuurdy? I was so into DTP distressing of the edges, wasn't I? And yuk, why did I stamp the image on colored paper? I will sometimes do that on black cardstock with white ink, but I wouldn't do something like this anymore. I don't like the look. And of course, we all know that if I was making this same exact card today, I'd be slappin' designer paper all over that baby! Remember,I'm the queen of designer paper! I very rarely use my background stamps anymore. I find they are difficult to use...by that I mean they don't always give great images. I can't get a good background image with my paisely stamp for all the tea in China! And come on, there is NO background stamp near as pretty as a piece of Basic Grey designer paper!

And now for the "after" card. I hope this isn't too bright of a photo today. I actually took a picture of it outside (because of the garage sale), and I edited it on my laptop, which is outside. It's hard to see my screen very well! Hopefully it's not blinding you. I'll have to take a look at it when I'm inside again to make sure it's ok. On the remake, I used my favorite designer paper, MME/Tres Jolie, and used it as the main background. I stamped the tree in two different browns, Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink in Creamy Brown and Chestnut Roan. The sentiment, from Words of Wisdom, is stamped with a blue (since I'm outside, I don't have access to my inks!) and kissed it with a tish of Creamy Brown. Edges were slightly distressed (note: they WERE NOT distressed like they were on the "before" card) with a sponge and a bit of Ranger Ink in Walnut Stain. It is matted with a metallic brown cardstock. The coordinating strip of paper underneath the main image is the opposite side of the MME designer paper. I sewed a zig zag edge across this strip and all the way around the designer paper for some detail. A brown gingham ribbon is tied just to the left of the tree to finish the card off.

Well, what do you think? Did I do ok on the re-make? Do you like seeing "before" and "after" cards? In some cases, I won't be able to do it because when I first started stamping, I used all my friend's stamps. So many of these stamps I don't have access to. But when I do have it available, I think this is a fun little added-bonus to our Friday Flashback feature!

Be sure you check back tomorrow for Scrap Stash Saturday.....I put a little "twist" on the day that you're sure to get a chuckle out of! And, I made another card using the scraps one of my readers sent to me! It's a doozy, let me tell you! You won't want to miss it!

Have a great day!

Amy