Sunny Days Ahead - Mother's Day Edition

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I think being a mom is the hardest job in the world, but during a PANDEMIC? SHEESH. Add moming to homeschooling, disinfecting all the things, keeping people from losing their minds, doing Zooms, working with all those humans in the house. Wow. My hat is off. Then there are moms like my mom, who can't see any of us right now and is probably worrying, as are we all, about everyone. Not for the faint of heart.

I decided to do an early Mother's Day card for everyone in all of these situations. This image is so sweet - it's a builder, so you can swap out kid images, and there are TONS of great mom sentiments. It also comes with dies. I love how they are facing away from us - it's like they are looking forward to sunny days ahead, and that could not be more perfect for this bizarre moment we find ourselves in.

I stamped her in Fadeout ink, and then masked her with masking paper, and then stamped the kids in Fadeout on watercolor paper. Then I watercolored them with Daniel Smith watercolor.

The sentiment is stamped in Nocturne.

Simon Says Stamps and Dies A MAMA'S... [ SSS ] Avery 6465 Removable Multipurpose... [ AMZUS ] The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World... [ BLR ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne -... [ ELH | SSS ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC ] Escoda Versatil Brushes, Travel Round... [ UTR | BLIC | INK ] Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes... [ BLIC | ELH ] Fabriano Extra White Cold Press... [ BLIC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... [ BLIC ] My Favorite Watercolor Sketchbook [ UTR ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | MFT ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] New Products [ SSS ]

Hope you are doing well and have everything you need!

I hope you head over and see the rest of this release, because it's amazing, and I'm astonished at how people are still creating beautiful things to bring us joy right now. It's hard not to feel sort of paralyzed, so I admire everyone who is moving forward in any way!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
 Arkon stand link below!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!


I'm getting ready to head up to my mom's for our family celebration, and I have to tell you what about my mom inspired my Mother's Day cards for her, my sister in laws and my mother in law.

My mother gave me the gift of contrast.

I absolutely adore absolutes, and she (and her father) are a big part of why.

While I understand that life, and nature offer no such thing as an absolute, what my mother and her father excelled at was conviction.

And since I was a wee tot (ask her), I have felt that conviction and the absoluteness of things that are right and things that are wrong.

And I may or may not have been a wee bit opinionated about them. Please don't ask anyone about this. :)

And she (and her father) may have given me this trait of certainty, for which I am grateful, even if it makes my Libra friends puzzle a bit over me :).

It's very easy for me to say yes, or say no - and I don't very often say maybe, and this is a gift from my mom.

What I've only recently realized is that it is PRECISELY what I tend towards in art. As Gladwell observes, you're not really good at anything until the 10,000 hour mark, and it was about then that I decided that what I was good at was contrast. Light and shadow, black and white, blue and yellow, red and green.

It was very liberating to let go of everything else - like vintage, which I love, and am completely incompetent at. Or shabby chic. Or subtlety.

I embrace the gift of my gene pool now and I celebrate the sharp, clean edges. So thanks mom! :)

For the five moms in my family - my mother, my brother's wife, who raised two of the kindest, sweetest, smartest children I know, my other sister-in-law who is the mother of the most stunning and graceful and kind and ladylike twins on the face of the earth, and my other sister-in-law who is tied with my first sister-in-law for raising the world's most favored nephew, and my mother-in-law who raised three of my favorite boys on earth, I say - thank you and I hope you forget all the barfing and backtalk today. Although I bet it will come up over lunch. In which case, I hope there are lavish gifts.

Mothering is some thankless work most of the time, I think. But trust me - we grown up children appreciate it more than you know.

One of the things (simple, I know) that I am most grateful for is that my mother cooked us breakfast every day. Egg in the hole, just eggs, soft boiled eggs torn up with toast - I cannot cook a glorious egg to this day without being grateful to my mother for starting my day with the world's most perfect food.

Also, I never ate a school lunch. And I did learn how to cook like a boss.

So here are the cards I made for all these great ladies, inspired by my own mom's gift of black and white. Hand zentangled while I listened to the little birds singing out back.

Hope you have a good, lazy Sunday.

Loveyameanitbye.

Yeah, I Was Saving it for Mother's Day!

Well.... Maybe not.

See, I got this beautiful set - Elements of Style - at Leadership this year. In case you were wondering, Leadership is in JANUARY. I had all these great intentions of going home and making things with it right away because it's sooo beautiful, but did I? Or did someone change the definition of "right away" to "five months later"? Because if someone did, I'm very timely!

Anyway, today's Free For all Friday challenge on Splitcoast is to get out your gel pens. Purrrfect since I basically sleep with my white gel pen under my pillow, I love it so much.
So I whipped up this little ditty!
I stamped the floral image onto some paper I just got yesterday - it's DCWV At Home - and it's all these cool glittery blue patterns. I was at Michael's for paint, but then this paper jumped out in front of me and yelled I'M 60% OFF AND I'M BLUE and I temporarily forgot my mission and just got it. I cut it with my Top Note die and then colored the image with my white gel pen.

The card base is Not Quite Navy, embossed, and the ribbon is Basic Grey satin.

I used Nestabilities for the oval, and I used the greeting from the set, but I colored the center part with my marker and stamped just the sentiment.
After I got done I thought my mom would love this card - so it will be arriving in a mailbox near her soon!

So Happy Mother's Day to my mom, and to all the moms who read my blog! If you have any great Mother's Day stories to share, feel free!



Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?