All About Love....

What do you say to a woman who has been your friend through ups and downs through thick and thin, through old creative pursuits and new exciting endeavors? What do you say when she is about to step into a new and beautiful chapter of her well-lived life?

Well, let me take a stab at it because this woman happens to be Ms. Marcella Hawley. Tomrrow at 5:30 PM CST, she and the love of her life will pledge their love and with the celebration of vows and a kiss to seal the deal, she'll be Mrs. Douglas Scronce!

Just check out these two love birds, will you??? Those little photos of fern and woodsy greenery is just a teeny weeny sneaky peek of the look Marce is going for on her big day. So unique. So whimsical. So Marcy!

Marce, you are an absolutely amazing woman. You constantly amaze me with -- for lack of better words -- your beautiful human nature. You teach me on a daily basis what it means to truly care for others, to give them your best. I told you before that for me to give you advice on your new married life would be silly. You and Doug already have all the "ingredients" for a beautiful recipe for marriage. The way you honor eachother is something that is a testament to love. It's beautiful and I know the two of you are going to just traipse through life from one adventure to the next. I so wish I was there just to capture a bit of the magic that will soon unfold. Cherish your special day sweetie and know you are loved by so many -- including me!

Because Marcy's decor inspiration board included some succulents for her centerpieces, I decided to make a wedding card to honor this theme using Power Poppy's Succulent Singles! I created the front thanks to just a little handiwork in PhotoShop and then, stamped and masked all around the names & date. It was hard, as you can see, to center it all up and I didn't really do the best job but, overall, I think it was a fun effect! I pretty much used every shade of green I own in the YG shades --- YG00, YG03, YG06, YG17 along with BG70, BG72, G21, G11, G20, G24, V01, V04, V06, before highlighting with BG000 and BG0000. I also added, which you can't see in any of the photos, some Wink of Stella clear pen. This really sparkles in real life when it hits the natural light, which is super fun and ramps up the wedding feel!

Here's a close up, you can see that I added a little dimension to portions of this spray of succulents!

From there, I matted this on pearl green Bazzil card stock - again, you can't really see the pearl sheen, but it's there! Then, I added some pale pink satin ribbon and a layer of white sheer with an irridescent edge for another pop of razzle dazzle. I kept the razzle dazzle on the down low for this because Marce is more of a simply elegant lady! ;-)

I'm not the only Bloomie posting today! There is a whole slew of us and it's all a part of this...

Check out our Bloom Brigade and Instant Gardener Team creations and heartfelt words as they help celebrate this happy and beautiful couple! 

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Kathy Jones

Katie Sims

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Jennifer Dove

Broni Holcombe

Cheryl Scrivens

Barb Walker

Nancy Sheads

Jessie Banks

Elizabeth Zaffarano

And, if YOU want to send Marcella away wishing her a lifetime of happiness, please HOP ON OVER HERE leave your sentiments in the comment section! I happen to know Marcy reads each and every comment and this would just be icing on her wedding cake knowing you care enough to share the very best with her! 

💗💗💗 All the best to you Marcella & Doug! 💗💗💗

~Julie

White Wedding....

Hi all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! It feels like spring has finally sprung! And.... with spring comes weddings! My hubby's cousin is going get married here soon so, I spent some time making a white on white wedding card. FYI: These are not the easiest cards to take a photo of!

I used white paper, silver pearl embossing powder, and pearl striped paper. The stamps are from Inky Antics and are pretty old! Actually these are some of the first stamps I bought when I started stamping 10 years ago! The saying is a stamp called Love is a Canvas and the leaf is called Leafy Stem.


To make the card, I stamped and embossed the saying with the silver pearl powder and then started making a frame around it by embossing the leaves around it. After I made the frame, I stamped the leaves on a piece of scrap and embossed them as well, so that I could cut them out and layer them over my original frame. The little pop up circles are actually just pieces of pearl paper that I punched with a 1/8" hole punch. They were popped up by putting them on a piece of foam paper and molding them with a fine tip stylus. After I assembled, I punched a heart out of the pinstripe pearl paper and put it at the top center of my frame. Now, in order to get my leaves to pop up just right, I did use silicone glue instead of foam tape. That way, I could situate the leaves and let them dry at the different angles.

EDITED TO ADD: Shirley asked this question: "Could you please explain a bit more about how you curved the leaves and how to use the silicone glue? Do you curve the leaf and then just put a dot of glue at the tip? Or is the glue what is pushing up the high part of the leaf?"

Shirley, I use a tool that is a paper sculpting tool. I tried to find it on line but couldn't! It's that old! It is a plastic tool with a curved end. You can also use a metal baby spoon and holding the leaves in your hand run (with some pressure) the spoon over the leaf. This will mold and curve the leaves. After that, use some silicone glue or E6000 (type of glue) and situate the glue on different parts of the leaf to angle them in different ways. The neat thing about using silicone glue is - it is pretty dense. So, if you create a glob on the back, it will stay that glob until you push and situate it on your paper. Leave it overnight and your leaves will stay exactly as you positioned them! Hope this answers your question Shirley!

Here's a close up!
It's a good thing I don't have to mail this card - I am afraid even bubble wrap would smoosh it! It was a fun card to make though. This could be a nice anniversary card as well!

Hope you have a great start to your week! See you back here soon!

When A Man Loves A Woman....

Golly Jeepers, I wish pearl paper showed up better in photos! This paper actually made my heart stop it is so pretty. It is like a pearl Bazzil but it feels like fabric. I knew right away, a wedding card was in store. The stamp is one of the new ones from Gina K. Designs - Heartfelt Hits I stamped the man and woman with Versafine Smoky Grey ink and that was the only stamping I did! I layered it with the help of one of my rectangle scalloped Nestabilities. The only difference here is - the scallop was cut twice - once from the pearl paper and a second time with the pearl fabric feeling paper. I cut one of them in half and layered to have the reverse colors match up with each side of my base layer on my card - make sense? Hope so! Since the layer is half and half, I didn't want the mat around my stamped image to get lost so I made the scalloped rectangle layer half and half - only in reverse. I put a line of pearls down the center separating both sides of my base mat layer and on the left side of the card, I embellished with some paper piercing (Lasting Impressions template). The fun part about the stamped image is the fact that I wanted the woman to have a kind of wedding dress on - so.... I cut a line at her waist using an Xacto knife and then strung 2 pieces of wired sheer white ribbon through to make her tulle skirt. At the top of the skirt, I added some mini pearls as well.

Like I said - not a lot of stamping - but, thanks to the paper and embellishments, it has plenty of flair!

Happy Hump Day!

p.s. Part of the reason why I chose paper piercing on this card was thanks to a challenge from SBS5 Sister Donna *HERE* That was part of her first ever little ole weekly challenge!
p.p.s. I actually was spoiled today. I got to make TWO, yes two, cards this afternoon. Tomorrow, you'll see my "light bulb" moment with one of the other Gina K. Designs sets I got recently. Fun stuff!