MFTWSC253, Have a Cool Day

Hello there my friends! How are you doing today? It's been a very busy week for me and last week too as I prepared for my son's arrival. We had the best time ever! I'm so proud of the awesome young man he's grown into. I'm not surprised, of course, but he's just amazing and I'm blessed to be Scott's mom. 

Today's card is for Kim van der Sanden, who is the owner of My Favorite Things Stamps (MFTStamps). MFT Stamps is one of my favorite stamp companies. Kim is a wonderful woman, her design team is the best in the industry, and they are very real and kind people. I love them all. Their customer service is top notch and all customers are treated wth dignity and respect. I've watched MFT grow so much since I first met them in a small booth at CHA in Chicago in 2009. I still have the pink bag that they packaged my felt in, as well as the other products I purchased. Who's That Girl and the Pure Innocence line of stamps was their signature. The Pure Innocence line is still around and more adorable than ever – I love to use these images to send my precious daughters cards, specially my Little Princess. MFT still has their felt and I still have the felt that I bought. Their product line has expanded to Die-Namics and such a wide variety of everything for everybody. I can't describe it except that it's all good. I don't make a card anymore, including the inside, without using my Blueprints. I mentioned their Resource Section either above or below this paragraph. You have to download everything and put it in a notebook. I have and refer to it all of the time. Susan R. Opel is a fabulous Creative Ambassador for the company and I'm glad that MFT picked her up. Anyhow…..

Kim recently had surgery about 6 weeks or so ago and I'm the slacker who hasn't sent her a Get Well card or anything like that. So today's card, which is also MFTWSC253, that I also, as usual, missed the deadline on to upload, is for Kim. I was thinking that she might have Get Well card burnout, so I made something a little bit stupid. At least I used her stamps, which justifies everything.

Kim lives in Florida. I live in California. We don't have to deal with snow. So I made her a snow-themed card that used last week's sketch challenge. A new sketch challenge was put up yesterday at CardChallenges.com, which is where MFT hosts their card challenges. Have you seen their November 2015 release yet? It rocks and is to die for. Six new colors of ink and paper, and the entire release was great! All of their stamp sets with dogs in them are Dachshund-themed, so I'm going to think that they make those stamps just for me :), albeit that Kim is a Doxy lover too. I got my box of "a whole lot of happy" today and I don't know what I want to break open first! I think I'm going for the Warm Cocoa stamp set and Die-Namics. I love them. 

Be sure to check out the Resource Section on the MFT Stamps Blog. It's wonderful. MFT, for the past few releases, has been offering classes with their release that various design team members do that you can download. 

I got a lot of Prills, which I'm dying to use! They are so outside the usual sequins and seed beads. It's amazing what you can put on a card these days. The industry has changed so much in the past few years. I sent my kids a shaker card and they loved it! My son was pretty impressed. That says a lot when a 20-year-old young man gets a kick out of shaker card! I've decided that I'm going to make him his own "manly" shaker card using some Tim Holtz products of the leaves and die-cuts with Pretty Pink Posh Autumn Mix. I've been crafting since he was 12 and he still has a few boxes full of every single card that I've ever made him. Moose has always been my most loveable and nothing has changed there. MFT just released Merry Christmoose with coordinating Die-Namics and I'm going to be wearing that set out on my son, whom we have called "Moose" since he was 3 months old. Before I make him a Moose card, he was impressed with a shaker card that I gave him so I have to make him a "manly" card. I think I'm going to go with some water coloring, Distress, Tim's Blueprints Leaf and toss in some Pretty Pink Posh Autumn Mix. He will love it. I also found some Distress Core'Dinations card stock that I can rough up a little and some Neenah card stock that already has the wood grain pattern on it and some very thin actual wood cardstock. I'm going to incorporate some cork as well. I think it's going to be one of those cards that takes me a few days to make between life. It will be worth every second. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I will be sure to share it with you very soon.

I had a quick video planned for this card, but my perfect next door neighbor is having a custom built shed put up in her back yard, as in building it from scratch, with an A-frame even, so I'm subject to hammering all day, every day, again. She told me that it was going to be "small." We already have 10-foot fences and it's an eyesore. I'm going to plant some vines that will grow up the side of the shed. It blocks a nice view I have and I do not appreciate that. I might as well pretty it up a bit on my side.

For the outside sentiment, I used Cool Day and for the inside, I used Hand Lettered Holiday. So I'm telling Kim to have a cool day on the outside and warm wishes on the inside, which is the mother of all oxymoron's, but I think she will get it. Be sure to keep Kim in your prayers for continued healing and a fast recovery.

Oh, and a quick heads up. Did you know that one of your favorite stamp companies will be making their grand debut back into the industry i a few weeks? You all know I'm an equal opportunity stamper to fit my crafty needs. I'm very excited about this and it's one that we've all missed. I will let the cat out of the bag. Go to Facebook and hunt up the Flourishes LLC page and their Pinterest Boards. All of the previous illustrators are back on board, except for one. I've seen the proofs of what is coming up to be released and Jan Caruso has been generous enough to send me everything. She is such a dear, dear woman that I have known for years and was a part of the Flourishes family for years too. I'm very grateful for her generosity throughout the years. I also understand that Flourishes wants several design teams and Friends of Flourishes, which will get your blog link on the Flourishes Blog. If you're interested, shoot me off an email.

So, here's my card for Kim that's a joke, but she will totally get it and it will put a smile on her face. 

With my new November MFT Stamps, it's time for me to get cracking on this week's challenge and maybe get it uploaded in time!

I would like to thank you so very much for stopping by to visit me today. I hope you have a blessed day and be sure to stop back by my blog soon. I have a great Christmas class coming up for you! We are going to focus on tags, wrapping and clean and simple easily mass producible cards that look beautiful. I have 5 days of videos lined up for you and also 5 sponsors so that you have the opportunity to win daily if you play along with the challenges here at my website. I look forward to your participation and we will have fun. I always have a lot of tips and tricks along the way to teach you. One that I never got around to in the 2nd video for the Paper Craft Crew. The video was just too long despite how much I edited it. When I start to bore myself, there's a problem. 

So my friends, I will see you back in a few days here at Cindy B Designs with a few videos and also for the Mid-Week Inspiration for the Paper Craft Crew!

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit me today. I really appreciate your kind comments, as well as the emails and cards that you send me in the mail. I keep every single one of them. I am very blessed to have such wonderful followers who have become my friends throughout the years. 

Hugs and blessings to you and your family.

Philippians 3:13-14.