Birthday

I have a lot of this ephemera from Gina K that I never use. I pulled it out a while back and finally used it for one card. I have much to go. The flowers are popped up on foam squares - the others are glued directly to the card base. The sentiment is from Paper Inspiration.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We went to our daughter and son-in-law's house near Chicago. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and four birthdays while we were there. Fun times. Our son and his family were there, also.

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

Sympathy Flowers

My cards just "evolve" on their own, quite often. I came across this background piece that I had made a while ago by misting a piece of dark green cardstock with bleach. (I have two more.) I cut it, and the backing, with Waffle Flower dies. On the same magnetic sheet was my three-square holes die, that you will see used on tomorrow's card. Then the following day you will see a card made with the left-over squares from that card. :-)

I was trying to figure out what to make with the bleached piece and thought a sympathy card might be a good idea. I found this sympathy stamp from Paper Inspirations and stamped it in black and embossed it. Then I decided that a flower would be nice, so I used this die and cut it from black shiny cardstock and layered it to make it stand out more.

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

Another Black Magic Rose

Here is another of the "Black Magic" roses that I made a few weeks ago. It is made by stamping the rose with white pigment ink on black cardstock and coloring over it with Prismacolor pencils. I then cut the black panel with an oval Nestability and matted it with a scalloped oval. I mounted the image panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Gina K. The rose is from Paper Inspirations. The die-cut heart is one that came from my card parts. The bottom layer is patterned paper from a very old matstack from The Paper Studio.

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

Black Magic Birthday

This technique has been around for a long time, but Gina K did it fairly recently and I tried it again. It's called "Black Magic." You stamp a solid image with white pigment ink on a black/dark cardstock and then color it with colored pencils. My image is from Paper Inspirations. I used Prismacolor pencils. I cut the ovals with Nestabilities and mounted on foam squares. I did the background with a stencil from Memory Box, first doing the leaves in green with the stencil and then adding blue over that. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

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

Super-Simple Birthday

I've seen Gina K make many very pretty backgrounds with her ink-blending, and I do love them. But, so many non-crafters don't even realize that the background was hand-made! So, I simply used up some patterned paper from The Paper Studio and made a couple of these cards. The image is from a Paper Inspirations set. I matted with black. I don't remember which set the sentiment came from, but it's likely retired anyway.

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

Perfect Pearl Rose Anniversary

Every once in a while I dig out my Perfect Pearls and make something using them. Here is my latest. I used the rose stamp from a Paper Inspirations stamp set. I stamped it with Versamark ink and then used pink and green Perfect Pearls on top. I matted with a deep red cardstock. I mounted that panel on foam squares. The background was made with a stencil. I tried a technique with my stencils a few weeks ago that didn't work out for me, so I have several stenciled backgrounds to use up. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Graduation Congratulations

The daughter of friends of ours graduated this year. Bummer of a year to graduate, but what can ya do? Her party was held recently. This is the card I made for her. The main panel was done with my JustRite Stamper. I double matted it using school colors. I embossed the top part with a Sizzix folder and the bottom part with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is popped up.

I rarely stamp anything inside my cards - mostly too lazy! But I made an exception for this card. The main sentiment is from Paper Inspirations. The sentiment on the left is the last one that I made at Taylored Expressions last summer. The die cuts are from LifeStyle Crafts/QuicKutz.

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

Recycled Daisies

I have another card to share with you today. It uses a piece that I salvaged from another card. It's possible this is its third card! Maybe I'll actually send it out this time. The "recycled" piece is the daisies. I trimmed around the edges for this card. They were done with a Dreamweavers stencil, embossing paste and glitter. I can't get the color to show up very well, but here is the card that was on my blog three years ago yesterday! In that post, I link to a tutorial I did on this embossing technique a long time ago. The sentiment is one stamp which I inked up twice - in black and green. It's from Paper Inspirations.

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

Swirly Birthday

I went to a craft garage sale a couple weeks ago. There was LOTS of stuff, but I managed to just buy a little bit. One thing I bought was a stamp set from Close to My Heart. It had swirls and other such stamps. I decided to try it out.

I stamped it in the corner with Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry ink. I added the sentiment, which is from a Paper Inspirations set. I matted with matching cardstock and added the butterfly, cut from the same cardstock using a Memory Box die. I added a couple small pearls for the butterfly's body.

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

Two Cards - Same Stamp

This flower is a great (old) stamp from Paper Inspirations. I used it for two different cards.

I colored the flower with markers and for this first one I put it straight up and down. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I used the same brown marker as the flower center. I matted with olive cardstock.

For this second card, I used the same markers as the first card. I stamped the flower at an angle. The sympathy stamp is also from PTI. I matted this panel with brown. Both cards open up from bottom to top.

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

Letting the Paper Do the Work

This paper has been in my stash for many years. It was free with a purchase at Archivers long ago. It came in 8 x 8 sheets. I cut it in half, and then cut them to fit on my card fronts. I matted with a matching blue cardstock. Then, I just added sentiments! This first one uses a sentiment from The Paper Company.

For this second one, I used a stamp from Paper Inspirations.

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

December Calendar Page

The last calendar of 2014. My 2015 calendars are complete and ready to be gifted, so you'll start seeing them in January.

I did the embossing with Cuttlebug folders. I stamped the sentiment (from Paper Inspirations) on shimmery silver paper with Versamark and embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

If you are interested in printing your own calendars and would like to use my files, you can find a link to them under my blog title. I'd love to hear from you if you do!

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

Super Simple Birthday

The stamped image was from my "card parts." It's from Paper Inspirations. I added the sentiment (from Hero Arts), matted with brown cardstock and used a kraft base.

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

Christmas Sunday

A short post for today. I have the cards done, but don't have much time for writing. These  cards both use images from the same Paper Inspirations set that I used last week. My goal was to use all of the images. I'm close, but I'm not sure I'll end up using them all.

This first one uses the mistletoe image. I colored with Copics. I matted the image with white and matted with Pop Dots. I used Star Dust Stickles for the berries. (I've heard they're white, but have never actually checked that out!) The background is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

I used the bow image for this card. I colored with a Tombow marker and spritzed with a glittery spray. I mounted on foam squares. I scored a couple lines on the green layer with my Scor-Pal. I punched the border with a Martha Stewart border punch. The patterned paper is from a Recollection matstack.

I'm linking this up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog.

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

Christmas Sunday

Two more cards for my Christmas card stash! I'm keeping on schedule, I think. 

Both of these cards are made with stamps from a Paper Inspirations set. It includes six images and six sentiments. I used Kraft and Riding Hood Red for both, and an ivory card base. I did all the stamping with Versamagic Vintage Sepia ink. I colored both images with Copics. I added a little glaze to the berries and gems to dot the i's. I embossed a frame on this one with a Nestability.

I did a little hand-doodling around the image on this one. I mounted the matted image on foam squares. 

I am linking them up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog.

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

Another Masculine Birthday

I made this card for our nephew. Gosh, I can't believe he will be FORTY next year!!


You can't really tell from the picture, but I stamped the tree stamp (from Lovely As a Tree by Stampin' Up!) with black, stamped it off, then "thumped" an Always Artichoke marker on it before stamping. I matted it with Always Artichoke, also. The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations. I used black marker for the "Birthday" and artichoke for the smaller words. That's it!


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

Cheery Yellow #3 - and a CASE

I was inspired to make this card after seeing a card by my friend, Vicki. You can see her card in this post - the third card in the post. I hadn't used these sentiment stamps by Paper Inspirations for quite a while, even though I really do like them, so it was time.


I took the yellow patterned squares that were left over from my Saturday's card (cut with a die from Papertrey Ink) and spaced them out on a piece of scratch paper, then stamped the image (from a Gina K set) on them. I adhered them to a piece of white cardstock and matted with black. Then I stamped the sentiment, and poof - it was done! :)


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

Flutter By Wednesday #189

This week's Flutter By Wednesday theme is LOVE:
L = Layers - use two or more
O = Odd - use an odd number of embellishments
V = Violet
E = Except - Use any color except red
Check out the Flutter By Wednesday blog for details.


For my card, I started with the patterned paper this time. It's from Deja Views. I matted with purple cardstock. The butterflies image is from Inkadinkado. I used a Stampin' Up! marker to ink it up, scored a border with my Martha Stewart scoring board, and matted it with purple, also. I stamped the sentiment (from Paper Inspirations) with black. I punched the little butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch and added a pearl to each one. We'd love to have you join us!


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

Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week - Joy (Times Four!)

 

Well, Monday has rolled around again.  I can't believe how quickly the weeks fly by!  Because it's Monday, it's time to reveal another Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week.  This week's stamp is 2108-H, JOY.  You can view it on this page.  To find out how to purchase this stamp at 50% off, please visit the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built.  You will also find links to the other Rock Stars' creations there, too.  Or simply follow these links.

Dana ~ Harriet ~Julie ~ Maki ~ Robin

I have four cards to share with you today using this wonderful Joy stamp.  They are all very simple, of course!  For this first one, I stamped on white with black ink.  I also stamped on a light blue cardstock, colored the land areas of the world with a green marker, and cut out the "O."  I glued it on to the white and matted that piece with the same color blue cardstock.  I think this is my favorite of the four.

 

For this second one, I stamped with Versamark on blue cardstock and embossed with a clear, sparkly embossing powder.  I matted with white and used some old patterned paper by Fiskars for the background.

For this third one, I again stamped with Versamark on blue, but this time I embossed with white embossing powder.  I rounded the corners on both the blue layer and the white matting layer.  I tripled matted using red cardstock.  The card base is a pre-made one by Die Cuts With a View.  The punched snowflakes are mounted on little pieces of Dimensionals.

I once more used Versamark to stamp the image on this fourth card, and then used a white embossing powder with silver sparkles in it.  I matted with white again.  For the border, I used Scor-Tape on the card base and then sprinkled with Martha Stewart glitter.

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

Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week - Round Pumpkin

Monday means returning to work for lots of people, but it also means it's Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week time!  This week's stamp is 2318-G, Round Pumpkin.  You can find it (and all the other stamps I used, too) on this page.  Visit the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built, for details on how to get this stamp for 50% off this week only.  Be sure to check out the other Rock Stars' creations, too!

Dana

Harriet

Julie 

Makiko

Michele

Robin

For my card, I used three different faces for the pumpkins.  I first stamped the faces and the pumpkins on the pumpkin-colored cardstock.  I also stamped the faces on yellow and the stems on green.  I cut out the pumpkins, the stems, and every little piece of the faces:)  I glued the face pieces and the stems on to the pumpkins and put them on two different heights of Dimensionals - the middle pumpkin pops out a little bit more than the other two.  The bottom piece is torn along the top and embossed with a "leafy" Cuttlebug folder.  The top of the card is a light-blue textured cardstock.  The sentiment is from Repeat Impressions, also.

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