~Classical Elegant Notes..

Every time I pull this Stampin' Up! Elegant Notes set off the shelf I think of my multi- talented niece. She is not the typical teenager with earplugs in her ears and an iPod hanging from around her neck listening to rock and rap. Her iPod is full of Rachmaninoff and Schumann, Beethoven and Satie, Oboe Adagios and Piano Concertos with an occasional U2, Coldplay or Beatles track stuck in here and there. She is a straight A honur student who serves on her highschool's Senate, plays the piano and the oboe, and holds an after school job. As a Christmas gift I made her a box of thank you cards using this set. I embossed soft white Arturo cards from Ellen Hutson's online store using my rectangular Nestability dies. The text stamp from Elegant Notes was inked with SU Soft Sky and stamped in the center of the rectangle. Half of the cards were stamped with the treble clef and half with the base clef in Buckaroo Blue as an overlay. The Thank You sentiment was also stamped in Buckaroo Blue. The finished cards placed in a Clearly Creative Box from Papertrey and tied with Martha Stewart's Cloud Piped Nylon ribbon.

~one of My Favorite Things..

As I's said before Kim van der Sanden 's My Favorite Things is one of my favorite things. And of all of her My Favorite Things Let's Go for a Walk tops the list. As a dog lover and a collector of dog stamps its no surprise. For over thirty years at least one loving Gentle Giant, more commonly known as the Great Dane, shared my home. My first was Tweed, a beautiful brindle who came into my life when she was only eight weeks old. Seven, a merle rescue came to live with us in Tweed's older years and after Tweed crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge Abby, another rescue, fine and elegant and blue as cold steel graced my couch. Abby and Seven have joined Tweed at the Rainbow Bridge as has Isis, my first regal and well bred Harlequin. Isis was also a rescue of sorts and lived to the ripe old age of twelve, nearly unheard of at that time in a Dane. I fell in love with bold black and white spots of the Harlequin and after Isis I sought out a perfect puppy of Isis' same breeding. Catherine Von Meistersinger came from Kentucky and shared my days and nights, my ups and downs, and my many moves and a very special place in my heart. Today Zoë, my wild and wooly wonderful Whippet graces my couch or any other place she chooses to lie. She is my constant companion.

{ Happy Mother's Day, Mom }

When I ran across this Hallmark card image this morning I had to laugh. Mom is always fussing that she can't figure out how to make that darn DVD player to work so she can the DVD of those good looking Il Divo fellas or her Boxed Set of the entire collection of the West Wing television series, or that her email is all messed up and she can't find the latest pictures my sister and niece have sent her. (She doesn't ask me about her cell phone very often because we both have to ask my niece how to do that.) It seems you aren't alone, Mom, lots of Mothers apparently have the same issues. Why else would Hallmark made this card so don't feel bad. You've spent years raising us, taking care of us, doing for us and loving us. We enjoy doing these little things for you.

This is the card I made for my wonderful mother in celebration of Mother's Day.
The paper is Basic Grey from the Perhaps collection and SU Pretty in Pink and Whisper White. The flower stamp is from Stampendous and the sentiment is an old PSX stamp which i purchased several years ago. The twill tape is from the Martha Stewart collection at Michaels. I stamped the flower image with black Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with black detail embossing powder. The white detail on the flower was achieved with bleach.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom
I love you!