BLOOMIN' BIRTHDAY!

Donna's Bloomin' Birthday

Boy oh howdy ... I just looked at my May Calendar and, not only do I need to get busy on my May Challenge Flower project but, I have several birthdays in May!  I just finished this Bloomin' Birthday card above and I'm liking the LI's Orange Gingham cardstock and this design will sure come in handy next month.  I'm off to make several more in different colors.  Again, I will say that the new Cut Outs from LI sure made it easy to put this card together!  Bloomin' Joys, :-) Donna

FLOWERS ARE SPRINGING UP EVERYWHERE!

Donna's Happy Birthday Cut Out Flowers.

I have been having such fun creating cards with LI's Cut Outs.  Their recent release of flowers is right up my crafting alley.  Here are several examples using LI Cut Outs that I've made thus far:

Donna's Thinking of You - same design in 4 different colors.

Donna's Happy Birthday in Lavender.

Donna's Just For You in Plaid.

Donna's Glad There is You.

Donna's 2nd Happy Birthday Flowers.

Donna's Hello Circles.

Donna's Happy Birthday Balloons.

Donna's Thanks So Much.

Donna's second Happy Birthday Balloons.

Donna's second Thanks So Much.

Have you seen enough to be inspired?  Well, you can bet I am going to have some more.  I hope you will give the Cut Outs a try.  They truly are fun and so easy to use.  Have an amazing day and stay safe and healthy!   :-)  Donna

A ROSE IS JUST ANOTHER ROSE - OR IS IT?

Donna's Rose, LI Template #L9379

Several years ago I used this Rose Tag on a Wedding Gift.  I love the colors ... the black and pink together ... and the fun layering you can accomplish with LI Template #L9379.  Yesterday, my crafting buddy Jan says, "Did you know you can make a paper rose from this template?"  Well, I didn't!  I've used this rose image many times but never like this:

Simple Layout of LI Template #L9379 embossed.

First Jan embossed the image.  She cut it out going around and around the embossed edge.  Then she held the smallest section (center) of the flower with her tweezers and started wrapping her cut edges around the tweezers.  When you take the paper off the tweezers your rose will expand a little and you will need to add glue in the center to hold the petals.  Then using the tweezers once again, Jan curled the edges of the petals to give it more shape.  There you have it ... a perfect paper rose!

Thank you Jan for sharing another way to use LI Template #L9379.  I think I may have to re-make my wedding tag!  Embossing joys, :-) Donna

MAY TEMPLATE CHALLENGE

Good morning everyone.  While LI Template #L9758 might not look like much here, it's our May Challenge Template, chosen by Karie, and it is really pretty made up.  If any of you have ideas using this template, please let me know as I would love to post them by April 30th.  In the meantime, here are a couple suggestion from the past to get those juices flowing!   Embossing joys, :-)  Donna

Barbara's

Card by Lasting Impressions

Card by Lasting Impressions

Card by Lasting Impressions

Card by Lasting Impressions

IT'S A NEW DAY!

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all had a nice Easter.  We sure did with ham and Au Gratin potatoes.  Can you smell the pot of ham/beans I have on the stove?  Oh yum.

I got the nicest surprise this morning ... an email from a long-time embossing buddy!  I met Sharon years ago when we, who love embossing, were members of two embossing groups:  Embossing Exchange and The Bossy Group.  She sent me a photo of a card she made for her son's birthday and she did a fabulous job:

Sharon's card is so bright and beautiful.  She used Templates #L9574, #L1067, and #L9647.  Her layout looks particularly nice with LI's newest birthday papers.  Great job, Sharon and thank you so much for sharing!

Sharon asked if she might join the May's Monthly Template Challenge and, of course, I said, "Yes!"  It is Design Team Member Karie's turn to choose a template and she chose LI Template #L9758 Summer Flowers!  If any of you have that template and would like to join the fun, please send me your inspiration by April 30th.  :-)  I will post more about this Challenge soon!

Thank you again Sharon for making my day.  With embossing joys and the fun of friendship, :-)  Donna.

HAPPY EASTER

Happy Easter everyone!  Just a quick note to wish you a wonderful day and I hope you all are coloring your eggs!  Dick and I will be joining 3 of our grandchildren, via group Skype, to color our eggs and I can't wait!   Please be safe and stay healthy ... and inside!  Embossing joys, :-)  Donna

THE BUNNY'S END!

The card above was done by Barbara a couple of years ago and while this is the last time this year I am posting cards with Easter Bunnies, there are more bunnies to come like this card I just made for a friend's birthday:

This bunny card was made with L.I.'s Cut Outs and while I prefer to emboss my images, this card did come together really quick using the Cut Outs.  Here are a few more Easter bunnies from Barbara and Karie:

This card by Barbara was also made with the latest Cut Outs from L.I.  I love the new plaid paper and the chocolate bunny is so cute with her little flower in her hair/fur!  :-)  Here are a couple more from Barbara:

Barbara has done a great job with these new Cut Outs from L.I.  She agrees they quickly come together.  The tag is adorable, the gnome bunny is so silly and I love this "bunny hugs and kisses."  I can't get enough of L.I.'s new bloom papers!  Here are a couple of ideas from Karie:

Bunny template #L9273 happens to be one of my very favorites and Karie has done a great job with her layout and here's one more from Karie that I absolutely love:

Karie used the L.I. Colored Impressions Software to make these two tags!  They are so cute.  She printed the faces from the software using #L9740 and then combined two templates to make the eggs, #S644, and ears from #L9273.  The small flower is #i144, carrot #L9741 and the tag is #L9190.  Wow quite the job, Karie.  Very clever!  :-)

And here is my very last Easter Bunny.  I have one more to show you next time that I can't post yet because I've just mailed them out and I want them to be a surprise!  So, let me wish you all a very Happy Easter and I hope you are embossing something fun.  Embossing joys, :-)  Donna

JELLY DONUT

Donna's Donut

On Sunday a small group of us decided to go visit our 84 year old friend Shirley who lives by herself  and recently took a horrible fall while walking near her home.  We sat outside ... 6 feet apart in a circle ... in the parking lot next to Shirley's complex and surprised her with donuts!  It felt so good chatting and catching up with friends I normally see all the time but don't because of the current "Stay Home Order."  Afterwards, I came back home to craft and I came across the silly card above and the few below I thought you might enjoy.  This first one is from Barbara when we were showing off a new LI Template on the Blog.  The other two are ones I did for that same post.  Happy embossing and go have a donut ... the ones here are calorie free!  :-)  Donna

HOPPING ALONG

Okay, now don't expect a Blog update every day but, as Easter is just around the corner, I thought it wouldn't hurt to upload a few ideas that I have previously posted on the LI Blog just in case you missed those.  The bunny above, LI Template #L1041, is a very old card I made many years ago and you can tell that it is an older template by the number!  LI's templates are now in the 9000's.  This one is still adorable and who doesn't like a chocolate bunny?  Here are a few more Easter cards you might enjoy taking another look at.  Be safe, :-)  Donna.

Kaye's

Donna's

ONCE UPON A TIME ...

Once upon a time, almost 20 years ago, my girlfriend Jan and I went to a craft show at the Del Mar Fair here in San Diego.  We met a woman by the name of Lorie Jacobs who introduced us to the world of embossing and Lasting Impressions.  Jan and I have continued on that journey and boy what a ride it has been.

I remember that first day so vividly because we both bought lots of "stuff," and then went home to play.  Jan called me, from her house, about an hour later saying it wasn't working ... she could not get an embossed image.  Oh no!  What was she doing wrong?  Well, did you know you need to put your template on your light source first and then your paper?   Rub wax paper over the paper you are going to emboss before you use the large end of your stylus to push the paper into the open areas of the template design.  Well, as you might have guessed, my sweet friend had put the template on top of the paper, ran her stylus over the template and, of course, nothing happened.  We have laughed about this often and there have been many wonderful memories like this over our crafting years together.

 Recently Jan made this beautiful card with the latest paper from LI.  While there is no embossing on this card, I think she did a fabulous job with her layout, don't you think?  Happy embossing, :-)  D

NEWS FROM DONNA

Hi everyone.  I made this card a year or so ago and thought it would be appropriate to upload it here to tell you all ... what's up!   :-)

OMG ... where do I begin?  I have supported Lasting Impressions for almost 20 years and have headed their Design Team for several years with the help of my two very good friends Kaye, who works at LI and Barbara, who lives in Las Vegas.  We recently added a new member to the team, Karie, who lives in Huntington Beach, California.  Recently LI announced they would no longer be making brass templates.  Wow ... that was a hard pill to swallow because embossing is, and always will be, my very favorite thing to do.  I was very sad to hear this news but change is constant and there have been lots of changes at Lasting Impressions.  LI will always make the best paper, in my opinion, and with no new templates they are now going down a different path with their new Cut Outs and Shelf Sitters and I will no longer be on the LI Blog.  I am hoping this will give me more time to concentrate on my own blog and my teammates will continue to send me their ideas and projects so that I can display them here.  I am wishing you all an amazing day and promise you there will be lots and lots of fun ideas coming up.  Embossing joys, :-)  Donna