Happy Birthday, Owen! - and Bonus

Today is one of our grandsons' 15th birthday. He plays string bass in the school orchestra, is on the sailing team, loves Legos, and plays bass guitar in a band called "The Relish Agents" whose "mascot" is a pickle. So, we had AI generate this image for us. What a great idea for a card by Jim! It is 5 x 7 inches.

Yesterday was Day One of Gina K's 12 Days of Christmas. You could purchase a box with 12 "gifts" in it. She will be doing a live every day until December 23, opening up one of the bags in the box and then showing a card/cards she makes with them. Yesterday was this Ornate Frame. I got up really early this morning and this is what I did with the frame.

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Christmas Tree in Red

Well, MAYBE this one will be my last Christmas card for a while! (That makes 21 for next year.)This is the last of the pieces on my table. I can't figure out why I had so many! This one is a bookbinder style card. The red panel was embossed with a Sizzix folder. The sentiment is from Gina K. The die is from Taylored Expressions.

Today starts Gina K's 12 Days of Christmas. I bought the box and I'm looking forward to opening one package every day until December 23rd and seeing what's in there and maybe using each item on the day it's opened.

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Even More Simple Cards

More pieces on my table. The sentiments are all from Papertrey Ink. The dies are all from Taylored Expressions.

I have five of this design, in whites and silvers and light blues.

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Another Simple Tree Card

The tree was on my table, as was the die-cut rectangle. I put them together after matting the rectangle. :-)

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Christmas in Green

I had these patterned paper pieces on my desk, so I used them for another card for next year. I matted with a green foil cardstock, which I also used for die-cutting the sentiment. I also added three scored lines on the sentiment piece.

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Penguins in Blue

I really don't want my scraps and card parts to pile up, so I'm trying to keep up with them. These blue plaid pieces have been on my table for a little while, but now they're gone! The stamps and dies are from Simon Hurley and they are popped up on foam squares.

The die-cut oval on this one was also on my table. The image is popped up, but nothing else.

Christmas cards are going out in the mail today. The house is decorated. And most of the presents have been ordered. Yippee!! (We don't have many people to buy for - just the kids and grandkids.)

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Lighthouse - Times Five

I happened across this lighthouse stamp from Impressions Obsession recently and left it out on my desk to use it. I stamped it five times and made these five cards. I love the monochromatic-ness and simplicity. I finished each of them off differently with different sentiments.

I still don't have my Christmas letter written and we haven't done ANY decorating! At least the cards are all ready to go. :-)

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More Christmas Trees

I made two of these cards for next year. The patterned panel was made with a Lawn Fawn stencil. I matted this layer with green and gold. I put gold under the die-cut tree and popped it up on foam squares. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

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Christmas in Green and Gold

Two more Christmas cards - for next year. I just can't stop! Not much to them, but I think they are very pretty. I matted the layers with gold. The trees are die-cut and layered over the same gold foil and popped up on foam squares.

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Sending Joy

Two more Christmas cards for next year.  I saw this layout on Wanda's blog and I thought it was so pretty I had to make a couple, even though I didn't have time. They were quick, though!

The tree die is from Taylored Expressions. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. I made one with a white base and tree and one with an ivory base and tree. I sponged a little bit of green on the ivory tree. I also embossed the first sentiment with a bit of sparkly embossing powder.

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Have a Mice Christmas

I finally had a little time to do some creating, and this is what I came up with. I dug through my box of items to use and pulled out this stencil set and stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn - from the class I took over a year ago. The mice images were already stamped, colored and cut out. I made a frame for them to land on - they are popped up with foam squares. The background was stenciled.

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

December Calendar Page

And my final calendar page for 2025 - can you believe it?? The embossed panel is part of a Darice folder. It's matted, and that's it! I hope everyone is ready for Christmas and can sit back and enjoy the season.

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More Re-Purposing

The flowers (and the little butterfly on this first card) were fussy-cut from a thank you card that we received. I love the colors and they matched so perfectly with papers from a recently received paper pad. The sentiment is from Gina K.

Same papers and flowers and the sentiment is again from Gina K. I added the flowers onto a die-cut oval.

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Gold Foil Birthday

A birthday card with gold foil over black. Really hard to see in this photo - well, actually impossible! You can see how it really looks in the photo to the left, except the top is not black, either. The image and die are from Gina K. I cut out the image from black cardstock, too, and offset it from the gold one and popped it up on foam squares. The sentiment was printed on my computer and foiled and also popped up. The background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and matted with black.

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

Warm Christmas Wishes

Another Christmas card using the holly corner punch - this time in the corners. :-) The sentiment again is from Lawn Fawn and this time I added a green metallic sticker at the top of the sentiment panel. The red background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and I added Nuvo drops for the berries.

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

Holly For Christmas

Well, I finally have a couple cards to share with you. I think three days worth and then I'm done for a while again. The good news is, though, that the Christmas cards are all complete and the envelopes are all addressed and stamped. We still have to do the letter, though. AND I still have to figure out which card to send to which person. That is almost the hardest thing! LOL! 

I used a corner punch to make the border along the border of these cards. I added Nuvo drops for the berries. The sentiments are from Lawn Fawn. I also added thin, red, metallic stickers above the punching.

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

Oops - More Christmas Pieces

Several years ago there used to be a theme - What's on Your Desk Wednesday. Well, here's what's on my desk on Friday! LOL! I think that I said a month ago that I had all the Christmas cards that I needed for this year. But, I happened across these dies again and just had to use them! So, here are more card parts for me to make into Christmas cards for next year. The square ones are made with dies. The holly ones are made with a punch. I used the corner punch to make a border. One piece is not for Christmas - the gold one in the upper right. It was done with a left-over foil piece on black toner paper. I cut out a black piece to put as a shadow. I'm not sure if this will get used or not. It's awfully dark and hard to see the floral image. Just thought I'd share what I've been working on.

Update on my hand. The surgery sites are basically all healed up now. At this point, I'd say that my hand is back to the way it was before the surgery - not better. I guess it probably WILL take the several months that I was told!

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Warm Birthday Wishes

My hand is healed up enough to golf now, so my card-making has taken a back seat. Golf, and other things like getting ready for winter and Thanksgiving and Christmas.

These cards are both made with Gina K foilable sheets and stencils and dies. On this first one, I added very thin metallic, scallopy stickers alongside the white panel. The flowers and the main sentiment are popped up.

I happened across some pre-made card bases from many years ago, and I used one for this second card. It's a tri-fold card with a hole in the front. One panel just folds over the holed panel. I added a piece of patterned vellum behind the hole. The image and sentiment are from the same Gina K set as the first card.

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

November Calendar Page

What - November??? Here is my calendar page for the month. The background was stamped with a stamp from My Favorite Things using multiple ink colors. The pumpkins and the sentiment - from Gina K - were stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with gold. Happy November!

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Repurposed Thank You

Often when we receive a thank you card, I will "repurpose" it. This one was simply the silver Thank You on a white card. I looked for some patterned paper that I had that had silver in it and came up with this pattern. I cut out the opening with a die that has x x x around the edges and then I matted with silver cardstock. I also took my turquoise and purple blending brushes and added slight color to the sentiment piece with the ink that was already on the brushes.

Update on my hand: the surgery site is healing amazingly well. The surgery was not quite three weeks ago and the stitches were removed just six days ago. It's practically all healed up already. However, I think it's going to take a long time for the full range of motion to return. I'm just hoping that it DOES! I'm actually going out golfing this morning. Wish me luck! LOL!

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

Baby Boy

These scraps of blue plaids were also on my table. I matted each of them and thought they would work for a baby boy card. I dug out a set from Inkadinkado from forever ago. I colored the cute little teddy bear with Copics and popped him up on an oval. The sentiment is from the same set.

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

St. Paddy's Day - in October???

Another piece that was sitting on my table. It's left over from my calendar pages. (You'll see it again in March. :-) ) I stamped, colored and matted the image and popped it up on foam squares. I found another piece of green patterned paper and matted that for another layer. I printed the sentiment out on my computer.

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

Simple Thank You

The stencil that I used to ink up the background for this card is from Picket Fence. I got it for 60% off. :-) I had it matted and added to a card front for a few weeks and it was finally its turn to get made into a card. I simply added the "thank you" sentiment that I had recently dug out. I may have never used it before. It's from Heidi Swapp.

I get my stitches out this morning at 10:00 CST. I can't wait! I'm pretty sure I will need some PT on my hand, though. I can't bend one of my fingers and I can't totally straighten out another. It'll all be good, though.

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

White on White Birthday Wishes

A white on white birthday card - always nice, I think. The butterfly is five layers of die-cuts. I dipped it in Versamark and added some iridescent sparkle. The background is embossed with a Gina K folder. The sentiment is also from Gina K - stamped and die-cut.

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

Season's Greetings

Another Christmas card - only because this "Joy" ornament was on my table. It's mounted on foam squares. I used a piece of patterned Christmas paper down the middle, with thin metallic strips on each side, and one more metallic strip for the ornament string.

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Simple Pleasures

The sentiment and the chair stamp are both from Repeat Impressions. I fussy-cut the chairs for all the cards after stamping them on patterned papers. I added a little bit of shading with Copic markers and popped them up. For this first card, I just added it to a die-cut square. This is one of my favorite simple layouts.

For these other two, I took a piece of white card stock, scored it with a score board and then dragged a few colors of ink across it. I thought I would look like wainscotting, but it looks more like flooring. Whatever! I used Gina K stencils for the background on the tops of them, with a thin strip of brown in between.  I matted the sentiment on this card.

Different paper, different stencil and different placement of the sentiment. Otherwise the same thing. :-)

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Birthday Irises

The image on this card is an unmounted rubber one from Repeat Impressions. I was on Wendy's Design Team for many years and I still have all of the stamps. I colored this one with Copics and matted it. Then I used a square die and embossed the background for it. The sentiment is from Gina K.

Just a "bonus" card since these two pieces were on my desk, too. Not really any different from a previous post, but new nonetheless, so here it is!

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You're the BEST

The flowers were stamped with an old wooden stamp from Inkadinkado. The sentiment was from another ancient wooden stamp from Studio G. The background on this first one is a wooden stamp from Inkadinkado. I think I'll leave this stamp out for a while and use it again.

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

thanks so much!

My right hand is still healing, but I've been able to put together some more simple cards. My mission is to use up all the parts and card fronts that were on my desk in that recent photo. I only have one more card front and a few more parts to use - maybe 4 - 6 more cards. 

These cards were done with a very old wooden stamp - probably from the dollar bin at Michael's or Joann's from 20 years ago! I stamped, colored and matted them, and placed them on panels from my card parts book.

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