Happy Birthday Kimberly!

It's a Birthday Blog Hop!!   

Today is Kimberly's Birthday!!  Our group of PNW crafters is having a blog hop to help celebrate. You should have arrived here from Kate's blog.  If you want to start at the beginning, head over to Toni's blog to see the complete list of participants.


Kimberly is so sweet, nice, creative, generous, talented, humble, encouraging...the list goes on. And I am happy to call her my friend!  I hope you have a wonderful day filled with special surprises and lots of cake!!

Just last week, it was my birthday and this same group of friends gave me a blog hop.  In that hop, Kimberly had made an adorable card for me.  The pictures on her blog of that card completely inspired the card I made for her!  I hope she likes it:

I used the Lawn Fawn flirty frames stamp set and some masking to add cute critters peeking out to wish her a happy birthday!  Most of the critters are Lawn Fawn, but the bear is Ellen Hutson.

Here is the complete list of participants in case you missed any along the way:

Amy  

Lenae   

Vicki  

Katie

Toni  

Tonya   

BIRTHDAY GIRL: Kimberly  

Lisa  

Kate  

Laura <-----you are here

I'm the last stop on the hop, but be sure to hop along and wish Kimberly a Happy Birthday on the way!

Hope your day is extra special!
Laura

Washington DC Trip

Hello!
Our family just returned from a wonderful vacation in our nation's capital, Washington DC.  Being from Washington State, we kept having to refer to the 'other' Washington!

There is so much to see and do in this wonderful city, and I'm sure we only scratched the surface, but it was fantastic.  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

We were lucky enough to have a tour guide, my sister in law lives in Maryland, right outside of DC, so she was kind enough to show us around (And lend us some Metro Passes!)

Here are the kids with their Aunt Eileen in front of the Smithsonian Castle

We missed the majority of the cherry blossoms, but the tulips were beautiful all over town

It is hard to describe the emotions and feelings you get from standing in front of the War Memorials.  Such a sacrifice these men and women gave for all of us to enjoy the lifestyle we have. 

Natalie at the WWII memorial

The Washington Monument and reflecting pool as seen from the Lincoln Memorial

Jack in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Jack in the Museum of Natural History in the ocean exhibit.

Natalie and her cousin Marcela checking out the dinosaurs

The main reading room of the Library of Congress

My family at the Capital Building.  

We saw many more things, but I don't want to bore you too much!!  If you ever get the opportunity to visit DC, I highly recommend it.   It will reinforce your pride in being an American, even with all the crazy politics!
Thanks for stopping in!
Laura

Kate's Birthday Blog Hop

Hello!
Today we are having a blog hop for Kate who is celebrating her birthday!  Kate is an amazing woman!  She is a teacher and you know how special you have to be to excel at that profession!!  She is sweet, thoughtful, fun, and you can find her at her great blog: Pinnedandpenned.  Stop by and wish her a happy birthday! 

I made my card with the Essentials by Ellen Bohemian Garden stamp set and some fun washi tape.  The sentiment was stamped with Delicata gold ink - it is so pretty in real life! No need to emboss :)

Hop along to all the others in our crafty group to see what they came up with for Kate!  

Toni

Lenae

Lisa

Katie

Amy

Kimberly

Laura  <<---you are here

Novell

I hope your birthday is as special as you are Kate!  I'm glad to call you my friend!

Pin Sights Challenge at Ellen Hutson

Hello!

Today I am sharing a card I made for the current Pinsights Challange over at the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom blog.  Check out the inspiration photo! It is just amazing!  So many beautiful photos with such deep reds and sprinkles of pink thrown in.  I tried to capture that with my card today.

I used the folk heart dies to create the inlaid hearts in varying shades of red, white and pink.  The sentiment and arrow are from the Love you so stamp set.  The Pretty Pink Posh sequins add a finishing touch.

One more Valentine card down, how many more to go??
Thanks for stopping by!  If you are on the east coast, hope you are staying warm and safe.  We here in the Pacific Northwest are enjoying some sunshine and 50 degree weather!
-Laura

Valentine's Day cards

Hello!
I'm happy to be sharing a couple of Valentine's Day cards with you.  I finally had a little time to play in my craft room and was glad to get a couple of cards made!

My first card uses a couple of Essentials by Ellen products.  The stamp set Bokeh Dots designed by Julie Ebersole is such a fun and versatile set, it can be used for so many different types of cards.  I stamped three of the scribbly circles in HA pink to red ombre ink. The heart is from the folk hearts die set and the sentiment is from the Love you so stamp set.   Even the tiny little dot that is scattered around the card is from the Bokeh Dots set - I think it really adds some interest to the card.  You can't tell from the picture, but I covered the heart with some clear Wink of Stella before mounting it with foam adhesive.

The second card uses a fun technique that I haven't done in a while.  I first applied a white pigment ink to a heart stencil on some kraft paper, and then shifted the stencil slightly to the right and down, and applied Memento Lady Bug ink over the top.  The result is a fun dimensional look while remaining completely flat.  The sentiment is again from the Essentials by Ellen Love you so set.  I also used Julie's trick of adding stickles to the edge of the panel.  I love the way it adds just a nice finishing touch to your card.

Thanks for checking in!  I know I haven't been posting much lately, but maybe my determination to send out Valentine's Day cards will help!
Have a great day!
Laura

Thank you cards

Hello all,
I finally got some time to play in my craft room and I was able to get some thank you's made.  I still have quite a few to go, but at least some of my friends and family will get a timely thank you for the nice gifts they gave us this Christmas!

This first card has the cute Mama Elephant penguin floating on a piece of ice with the Lawn Fawn Lets Bokeh in the snow paper as the background.

The second card uses the HA diagonal stripe background to make a plaid pattern.  I used the pink to red ombre ink pad first, then turned the stamp and used soft pool ink to stamp it again, creating that great plaid!  The thank you die cut is one of my favorites, also Hero Arts.

The third card uses the Lawn Fawn notecard in walnut as the base, and I die cut the Avery Elle stitched circle tag from white, then stamped the wreath design using Savvy and Impress stamps.

Hope you all have a Happy 2016 - may it be the best crafty year ever!
Laura

Happy Birthday Lisa!

It's a Birthday Celebration!!  

Today is Lisa Lara's special day, and a bunch of us Pacific Northwest Crafters are getting together to help her celebrate!   You may know Lisa from her blog - Lisa's life lines where she shares her creativity with the rest of us.  She is an amazing colorist, and I love to watch her talent when we get together on crafty days.  

In trying to come up with a card to make for her, I decided the card needed to be like her - Fun and Happy and Cheerful!  So here is what I came up with:

The flowers are from Paper Smooches and I used my HA ombre inks get the fun shading.  I white heat embossed the flower centers and popped them up with some foam tape over a dry embossed dotted background.  To create the 'happy' I swiped the ombre ink pad over some white paper, and then die cut the word.  This results in some shading for your die cut words.

Be sure to hop around to the other PNW crafters who are also celebrating Lisa's Birthday and see what they have in store.  Then head over to Lisa's blog and wish her a very happy birthday!

Amy
Toni
Tonya
Kimberly
Lenae
Lisa    <<<<<Birthday girl


Happy Birthday Lisa, I hope you have an amazing day, my friend!

Thanks for stopping by,
Laura