Happy Birthday ... to Me!

Well, another year has passed and I am older now:) Again per tradition, I post the cards I received for my birthday. It was actually yesterday, but we have company and this is the first chance I've gotten to post them. My "stack" is smaller this year, but I love them all! And I do know that a couple more are on their way.

From Sheri.

 From Vicki.

 From Harriet.

From Kris.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Blue and Gold Color Challenge

Here is the card I made for a color swap in my stamping group. The colors were blue and gold. I think this card would work for a guy.

The sentiment was cut from gold foil cardstock with a My Favorite Things die. The blue foil was embossed with a Darice folder. I added it to a layer of white cardstock, then scored the lines under the blue. I mounted the entire layer on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! As per my tradition, I am sharing a picture of our Christmas tree. Sorry you can't see that the lights are on. I wish you all safe travels and great times with family and friends.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

A Bouquet for You

On Thanksgiving night, I went to Michael's to get some good deals. With stamp sets half price with an additional 30% off, the $10 sets were $3.50. I just had to get something! I bought this set by Stampendous. When I sat down to use it, though, I had no idea what to do with it. I'm pleased enough with the way it turned out, though.

I stamped the jar on vellum with black ink and then embossed with detail black embossing powder. I stamped the flowers with leaves, and also the separate leaves, on scrap paper. I colored them with Copics and cut them out. I stamped the stems on a piece of white cardstock, also, and colored them. I adhered the vellum piece over the stems. I mounted the flowers and leaves on foam squares and added them. The sentiment pieces are from the same set. I found some patterned paper to match, and matted the pieces with green.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Iris Sympathy

I stamped this iris last summer at our Group Gathering. It's a Penny Black stamp. I colored it with distress markers and stamped it on watercolor cardstock. I matted with green and stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) in black.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Birthday, Sheri!

The card I made for my friend, Sheri. Hope you have a great day!

I started with the butterfly border - cut from black with a Memory Box die. I added a piece of Washi tape and scored a few lines. For the background, I masked off the edges and sponged purple distress ink on it, getting less and less as I headed toward the left. Then I spritzed it with water. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Hip Hop Hooray

Such a simple card, but I like the way it turned out. The frog is a sticker. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I matted the sentiment with green cardstock to match the frog. I trimmed down the main panel smaller than the card front and mounted it on foam tape.

Julie - you left me a comment yesterday and I had no way to get a hold of you. I hope you check my blog! The folder with the daisies that I used on this card is from a Cuttlebug border set called "With Love."

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

More Season's Greetings

And yet another Christmas card for next year! I just can't stop:) I've been working with "card parts" again and had this die-cut piece in my box. I wanted to layer it on foil cardstock and liked this green, but it screamed "Christmas" to me. I found a sticker to put in the center of the circle. I embossed the white piece with a Sizzix folder after stamping the greeting (from My Favorite Things.)

Edited to add: The die I used for this card is from Memory Box. It is called "Circle Burst." There is a large one and a small one, according to the website.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Positive! (And Negative, Too)

I came across these stickers while digging in my sticker drawer. Thought I really should use some, since I have so many. For this card, I used the "positive" sticker. It is silver, in case you can't tell by the photo. I placed it on sticky paper and added microfine glitter. Then I colored it with Copic markers. I matted with a pinkish cardstock and mounted on foam squares. I embossed the bottom piece of cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things and is embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

For this card, I used the "negative" portion of the sticker. I matted with silver shimmery paper. The bottom layer is a card part that I actually dug out of my trash bag! I had made it into a card a while ago, but didn't like the card, so I threw it out. Came across it while I was looking for something and decided this part was worth saving. So, I trimmed it down and matted it with silver, also. I had made the background by sponging cardstock with distress ink, then "stamping" with water spritzed on a background stamp. The sentiment is the same as the first card.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

"Recycled" Anniversary

A few years ago, I made some wedding cards for a friend and put the bride and groom's name and the date of their wedding on the front. However, I spelled the bride's name wrong on one of them! Oops. Luckily, my friend saw it right away and I made a new one. This card has been sitting around ever since. I removed the wedding cake from its original position and moved it over the mispelled name. Then I stamped the sentiment and embossed it with silver, matted it with shimmery silver, and added it. The background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and the cake was done with a small Cuttlebug folder.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Fifth Birthday, Owen!

Our third-oldest grandchild is having his fifth birthday today. Happy Birthday, Owen! Here is the card we made him. He's into Star Wars, so that was the theme. The pictures are all art we found on-line. The sentiment was done with a Star Wars font. The main picture panel and the sentiment are both popped up on foam squares. The card is a full-sheet of cardstock folded in half.

We added Owen's face to each of these characters. I think he'll get a kick out it! (I HOPE so, because it took forever to get it done and then we ran out of ink for the printer and Jim had to go to two stores last night at 9:30 to get some!)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Spotted Birthday

I made this background piece a few weeks ago, and finally got it off my table and on to a card. I think you've maybe "heard" me say that a time or two ... or ten!

I brayered distress ink on to a Cuttlebug folder, spritzed it with water and then put a piece of cardstock in the folder and closed it - didn't emboss it. Then I used the same color purple ink and sponged around the edges. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Season's Greetings Tree

Another Christmas card for next year:) This tree was sitting on my table. The stamp is from Paper Smooches. I had stamped it with Versamark on green cardstock and embossed with gold. (I know - it doesn't look gold in the picture, but it's a very pretty, shiny gold.) I colored the trunk with a brown marker and cut it out. I added the "ornaments" with Liquid Pearls. The sentiment is embossed with gold, also, and is by Papertrey Ink.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Die-Cut Birthday

When I had the opportunity to buy Spellbinders dies at 50% off, I bought four sets. This is one of them.

One die nests inside of the other. I used just the intricate part to cut the design out of white and trimmed it down to just slightly smaller than a card front. Then I cut both pieces out of a burgundy cardstock. I glued the burgundy piece onto the white piece. I scored the lines with my Scor-Pal. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession. I mounted the white panel on foam tape and added it to the card front. It's hard to tell in the picture that it's raised up.

Update on my dad: He started chemo last Friday. The cancer has gotten bigger in all locations. The most troublesome is the stuff at the top of his spine/base of his brain. They are hoping to keep it in check for as long as they can. He has a bus trip scheduled for the end of December and a cruise starting in the middle of January. We're hoping he is able to do them!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Hanukkah

Here is the Hanukkah card I made this year. Hanukkah greetings to my Jewish readers.

The menorah stamp is a dollar stamp from Michael's from years ago, and the sentiment is from a mixed-message set from several years ago, too. I used Versamark and silver detail embossing powder for each of them. I stamped them on blue and matted with shimmery silver. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares. The background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and I matted that with silver, also.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Silver and Black Birthday

Another "card part" from my table. I cut out three of these butterfly sections a couple weeks ago and uncovered them a couple days ago.

Not a great picture, but I scored three lines with my Scor Buddy on the black part. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things and is embossed with detail silver embossing powder. The background is very glittery silver cardstock.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Gold and White Christmas

I finally had a little time in my stamping room yesterday, so I cleaned it up a bit. Then I used some pieces I found laying around and made them into a couple cards.

I had embossed this white piece while working on my calendar page for next year. (It didn't make the cut, though.) I used a Dreamweavers stencil for it. I matted it with shimmery gold paper and scored a couple lines under it. I used a My Favorite Things stamp for the sentiment. I'm not usually a "Happy Holidays" person (I prefer "Merry Christmas") but this one fit very nicely. I matted the gold with another layer of white and mounted on foam squares. This one will have to be for next year, as my cards all went out in the mail on Monday.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

December Calendar Page

It seems I kind of have a "theme" for each month that is the same every year. My December page is Christmas, of course, and it's almost always embossed and silver.

The embossing folder I used for this page is from Darice. The stamps are from Inkadinkado. The stamping was done with Versamark and detail silver embossing folder. The matting is shimmery silver paper.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Red and Kraft Color Swap

I made this card for our group's color swap. The colors this month are red and kraft. I snuck in just tad of green and orange, but ... shhhh. :)

The stamp is from an Inkadinkado set. I stamped it on white and again on the red and white checkered paper. I cut out the bird and the heart. I colored the leaf and the beak, then added the pieces that I cut out. I also a black gem to the eye.The image panel is matted with black and mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Birthday, Harriet!

This card is for my friend, Harriet. Happy Birthday!

I've had these flowers ready for a card for quite a while, and here they are, finally:) They were cut with a die - Memory Box, I think. I colored it with Copic markers, then covered it with glue and microfine glitter. I've tried showing the amazing sparkle, but it's so hard. I embossed the background with a Darice Brick Wall embossing folder. The sentiment is a little stamp I've had for quite a while, but I don't know who it's by. I used a Spellbinders tag that I had in my "card parts" for the sentiment, which is mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Winter Birthday

This is the card I made for our daughter-in-law. Her birthday is in December.

I started with a piece of watercolor cardstock and painted the blue on it. I cut out the "birthday" with a Papertrey Ink die. I adhered acetate behind that area and added the letter centers back in. I cut the snowflakes with a Quickutz die and the "happy" with a My Favorite Things die - all out of silver foil cardstock. I added white dashed lines around the edge, glued the die-cut pieces on, and mounted the entire panel on foam tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Anniversary, Annie and Ray!

Last summer at our Group Gathering, I made this background piece. I used distress inks and a stencil - probably from Tim Holtz, but I'm not sure. I covered it with vellum and added the stamping. The flowers are from a Stampin' Up! set and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I mounted the panel on foam squares. Happy Anniversary to my friend, Annie, who is a member of our stamping group from Canada.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Embossing Paste Birthday

How about not-a-Christmas card for today:) Not sure why these papers were out on my table last week, but they were - sitting there looking kind of like this. So, I thought it was meant to be and this card was born.

The three patterns of paper (the stripes, the flowers, and the gray under the purple) are all from a matstack from Recollections. I used a brass stencil, embossing paste and microfine glitter for the sentiment. The butterfly was done with a Memory Box die. The sentiment panel is mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Six "Cheater" Cards

I was five cards short after making yesterday's cards, so I decided to make these "cheater" cards to finish up. These were all made with one 12 x 12 sheet of patterned cardstock. It came from a matstack by Recollections. It was a "Hot Buy" last year or the year before and I have hardly used any of it. I got the sentiments all stamped on the insides, so all 81 cards are ready to go! Also, I uploaded the file for my 2017 calendar files. The link is under my blog title. I printed mine out and got them all cut out, ready to create. I still have December 2016 to decorate and then next year's will be ready to assemble and wrap!

For this first card, I matted with a matching blue cardstock and added a punched snowflake with a white enamel dot. (Punch by EK Success.)

For this one, I matted with blue and mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things and is embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

I matted this one with silver "mirror" cardstock and added the sentiment - also done in detail silver embossing powder. And again, the image panel is mounted on foam squares.

Matted this one with blue and mounted on foam squares, and again silver embossed sentiment.

Matted with shimmery silver paper and mounted on foam squares. Sentiment already there!

One more matted with shimmery silver and mounted on foam squares. No need to add the sentiment - the "Joy" was already on it.

Six super simple cards but I really do like how they turned out, even if I felt like I cheated:)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Shimmery Christmas

 

I made three of these cards yesterday. I thought that was all I needed, but found out I had miscounted! Six more tomorrow:)

I cut the scene using a Memory Box die and metallic green foil cardstock. I used very shimmery blue cardstock for the top part of the card. I scored three lines with my Scor Buddy. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment twice to make sure it was dark enough.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Another Sympathy Card

I was using up a couple card parts to make this card. Hopefully I won't need to use it for a long time.

I had stamped the image (from Stampin' Up!) on vellum a few days ago, but it wasn't in the right spot. But, it combined very nicely with the white and black rectangles I had leftover from making my November calendars for next year. I covered the white piece with the stamped vellum and then glued it to the black. I stamped the sympathy sentiment (from Hero Arts) and matted that with black, also. I mounted the sentiment on foam squares. I used patterned paper for the bottom layer, also matted with black.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Christmas Wishes

Okay, back to another Christmas card. This one was done with Paper Smooches stamps. I wish I hadn't put the tree on at such an angle - a little less slant would have been better, I think. I paperpieced the tree with a patterned green paper. The stamping was all done with Versamark and detail gold embossing powder. I embossed three decorative lines with my Scor-Pal. I matted the tree panel with the same patterned green. The patterned paper is all from Recollections.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Happy Birthday to my friend from forever ago! Hope your day yesterday was fabulous.

A couple more of my "card parts." Again, the elephant and balloon were stamped and die-cut when I was with friends last spring. I colored them with Copics and mounted them on foam squares. The images are from WPlus9. The patterned paper is from Michael's, but I don't remember who it's from. The sentiment is also from WPlus9 and is matted and mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Sympathy Tree

I've made several Christmas cards lately, so how about a break from them for a sympathy card. I don't need to use it right now, thank goodness, but it's always good to have some on hand.

The tree is from a Stampin' Up! set. I used my MISTI to stamp it. (Love the MISTI. I got it Memorial Day weekend, but I guess I've never mentioned it on my blog.) I used the MISTI because I first stamped it in Old Olive green ink. Then I colored the trunks with brown and stamped it again. Then I tried a technique on it which didn't work so well, but it still looks nice. I tried "swirling" a darker green on the leafy areas. It works well for more solid images, but I thought I'd give it a try on this tree. I'll have to try again with a different stamp. I stamped the sentiment (from Hero Arts) with the same brown marker. I also matted the panel with brown cardstock.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Ornamental Snowman

A simple snowman card for today. The snowman and the sentiment are both from My Favorite Things. I colored with Copics and added a bit of Star Dust Stickles. I also added a couple of decorative lines with my Scor-Pal.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Snowflake Christmas

Sitting on my desk after making this card and this card were several tiny silver pieces. I rescued a few of them and made this card with them.

After gluing the pieces into a snowflake, I cut it out with a circle Nestability. Then I cut a little bit larger one out of the silver foil cardstock. I mounted that on foam squares. The turquoise is shimmery glitter cardstock. I embossed the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) with black embossing powder. The snowflakes on the bottom were embossed with a Cuttlebug border folder, and I scored two lines with my Scor-Pal.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Purple Christmas

I guess this card doesn't look very purple in the picture, but it really is:) I had test-punched the center snowflake for a different card. I didn't like it for that card, but I found a way to use it on this card. I punched the snowflakes out of very shimmery, glittery cardstock. I used the negative piece in the center and added the other snowflakes beside it. The bottom layer is a textured, purple paper. I mounted the panel on foam squares. The sentiment is embossed with silver and the stamp is from Papertrey Ink.

Also - happy 41st anniversary to my husband and me:)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Joy to the World

Two more Christmas cards for today. They both use stamps from a Paper Smooches set, so I thought I'd share them in the same post.

For this first one, I stamped the images with Memento black ink and colored with Copics. I matted with red cardstock.

I used only one ornament for this card. I colored this one with Copics, also. I covered the entire ornament with microfine glitter. I wish you could see the sparkle!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Make Merry

The embossing on this card was done with a Darice embossing folder. The folder includes a frame in the center. I used a piece of glittery silver cardstock to fill the frame. Then I used Versamark ink and detail silver embossing powder to stamp the sentiment - from Stampin' Up. I cut it out with the coordinating punch and mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Embossed Christmas

Another Christmas card done:) For this one, I used a Darice die on turquoise/blue foil cardstock. I used a Darice border folder for the sentiment. I scored three sets of two lines using my Scor-Buddy. I also added a thin strip of the foil cardstock that I trimmed off the snowflake border piece.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!