Life has been very busy, but I decided to finally start my blog so I could share some of my cards!  I enjoy looking at blogs for inspiration and ways to color or use some of my stamps. Well, it is time I joined the rest of the cardmakers out there and share some of my creations!   I am hoping that spending a few minutes each week and posting my creations will help keep me focused on making cards and scrapbooking.

Last week at Whispering Pines was a great scrapping event- lot of laughs, great food and friends and lots of paper! It was great to scrapbook again.  At home, making cards  is my preference since I can stamp, color or assemble when I have a small amount of free time. Scrapbooking is more time consuming, but I do love to put together pages!

I recently enrolled in Jennifer Mcguire and Kristina Warner's Holiday Card Workshop- they have great classes!  I love that I can watch the video whenever I want, and can re-watch forever!  This is the 2nd online class that I joined with these talented ladies as the instructors- and each series is chock full of ideas, inspiration and techniques. They have great guest designers too!  I hope to have time to use some of the new ideas in the coming weeks!

I make the majority of my cards to send to our deployed troops. I send some of my cards to Operation Write Home.  OWH is a great group of people and the sharing of ideas is overwhelming! Three shippers collect cards from all over the states and sort and pack them to go to some of the larger units; most boxes contain 360 cards!

I also send cards to smaller units, along with some of card creating gal pals! It is a blast to get together and create;  it is fabulous when we hear from some of our contacts via email or cards! My 11 year old niece also makes cards for our military- she is a joy to papercraft with!

Photographing my cards...not an easy task! I hope to improve on this skill but in the meantime, I hope my photos are clear enough!

Here is a card I recently made. I saw this technique on a few blogs.  It is quicker and easier than you would imagine! 

*Just cut 3 pieces of white paper, my largest is 5 x 3 1/4 inches, the other layers are 1/4 inch and 1/2 in smaller. I use copic X-press it blending paper or  Crafters Companion ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock when I plan to use copics.
*Adhere the 3 layers with removable adhesive then stamp your images.
*Remove each layer and color- I used my beloved copics! I also used a clear glaze gelly roll pen by Sakura on the birds colored pink and green. the pen gives a clear shine but dries much faster than crystal glaze...and it is so easy to apply! I purchased the pen at Michaels- there is also a 10 pack with colored glaze-fun!
*Mat each layer, then assemble together.

I really like this look!

I liked it so much, I made it again with a different color scheme!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Diane