Simple Thanks

Gosh, I had SO many cards made earlier and had blog posts for over a month scheduled. They are all done already!  I just haven't had time to play in my stamping room much at all. Here is a very simple thank you card that I made a couple days ago. I was sorting through my dies a little bit and came across this little die/embossing plate from Stampin' Up! I'm not even sure where I got it. But, I cut it out about four times and layered them, then dragged a blue ink pad across it to highlight the embossing. I found some patterned paper that worked and matted it. Done!

We got back a couple weeks ago from a river boat trip in The Netherlands and Belgium. It was supposed to be on the Rhine and mostly in Germany, but low water levels forced that trip to be canceled. It was a great trip, though, and we traveled with ten other friends. I still hope to do the Rhine River trip some time soon.

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

Patterned Paper Christmas Cards

A few weeks ago, I made these Christmas cards - I was thinking about how fast time is flying!! They all feature patterned paper, so I'm linking this post to the "Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge" blog.

Not much to say about any of them - pretty self-explanatory. I have duplicates of a few of them, so 14 more done. What I REALLY need to do is work on my calendars for next year!

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

Soft Sympathy

I needed a sympathy card a little bit ago for a sentiment, and went to this wood-mounted set from Stampin' Up! While I had it out, I decided to use the images from it, also. I used markers to color the images and then "huffed" on them before stamping. I added some tiny stickers to the flower centers. The background is shimmery cardstock that I embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

This one is softer, because I didn't re-color the image. I just breathed on it again and there was enough ink left for this card. This one has a slight texture to the matting layer.

The other image in this set - done the same way. I embossed the background with a Cuttlebug/Anna Griffin embossed folder. I have SO SO many wood-mounted Stampin' Up! sets and I don't want to get rid of most of them. I would sell them if I could, but they are even hard to GIVE away! LOL!

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

Unicorn Wishes

I got a beautiful Mother's Day card from a friend, reminding me of a long-forgotten technique - markers on rubber stamps, spritz with water and stamp. So pretty!! So, I did some digging through some of my thousands of wood-mounted stamps and picked out some flowers for that technique. But, I also came across other stamps that begged to be used. One was this unicorn stamp from Stampin' Up! I was looking for some whimsical, fantastical or other appropriate patterned paper and came up with these. The sentiment stamps are from Gina K. I cut out the unicorns and mats with Nestabilities.

The unicorns on this paper are silver metallic.

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

Butterflies and Dragonflies

Happy Mother's Day!

The butterflies and dragonflies on these cards are from Gina K. I was experimenting just a little bit with watercolor. For this first one, I wet the butterfly (which had been heat-embossed) and then dropped the paint on it. It's popped up. I used an old Stampin' Up! stamp for the background for the butterfly. The sentiment is also from Gina K. In fact, all of the stamps in this post are Gina K.

This one is also watercolored, with a few white dots added.

The panels on each side of this gate-fold card were done using my gel pad. Haven't used that for a long time. (Almost never!) I watercolored the flower.

And the last card for today. I had used my gel pad to make the cardstock I used to stamp and die-cut these pieces. The background panel was done when I was cleaning off the brayer. Then I embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder and added a little extra color. I also added a little Diamond Glaze to the dragonfly and the flower center.

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

Birthday Balloons

Finally, another card. And when I had a chance to spend some time in my stamping room, did I use some of my new items? Nope! I went through more of my cards parts and started organizing them. I think at some point in the not-too-distant future, I'm going to just throw some of them out. I'm down to small things. I actually emptied my book and put them in little storage containers.

Anyway, here is my card. I had, at some point, added thin strips to cardstock and die-cut this sentiment out of it. Now I cut two more of the same sentiment from really thick cardstock and glued them all together. Then I added it to layers of coordinating cardstock. I punched out the balloons and popped them up and drew the strings before adding the sentiment panel. It really needed something else, so I brought out my Itty Bitty Background stamp set from Stampin' Up! and used it to fill in a little bit around the balloons. That helped. 

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

Flowers and Greetings

These have been partly made and sitting on my table waiting for a rainy day - which was Thursday. Such a fun day that was! At any rate, the patterned papers are all from the same paper stack. I added thin cardstock strips or the foily stickers next to the patterned papers. The flowers are all from a Stampin' Up! set that a friend brought over years ago and I had stamped and die-cut a lot of them. This is the last of them, finally. I either added Star Dust Stickles or Diamond Glaze over the flowers. The butterflies were all in my card parts, as were the sentiments, which are all foiled in some manner. The flowers and sentiments are all popped up.

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

For Baby

Another card part. The stamped image was done many years ago. I believe it's from Repeat Impressions. I embossed the top panel with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is part of an old Stamping Up! stamp. I added the thin red strip (very crookedly!) at the bottom of the embossing panel.

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

More Sympathy

Three more sympathy cards for me and my church and maybe for the thrift store Cheryl volunteers at and makes cards for. The stamps are from an old Stampin' Up! set. i embossed the side panel with an old Cuttlebug folder. I also added some Liquid Pearls to the flower centers on this first one, which I made two of. For the stamping of the images, I used markers directly on the rubber stamp.

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

And Even More Card Parts

These two die-cut backgrounds were in my card parts.  I own the dies and I believe they are from Memory Box. I mounted this first one on foam squares. The flower pieces and sentiment were done a couple years ago using a borrowed Stampin' Up! set.

The sentiment on this one is from Altenew. The leaves are from Gina K - from an ephemera package.

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

Using Up More Card Parts

I keep trying to use up more and more card parts. These backgrounds I have had for many, many years. I'm sure they were made with alcohol and Stampin' Up! inks. For this first one, I added a die-cut wreath. It had been cut out of purple cardstock. I colored the leaves green and added enamel dots to the flower centers. The sentiments were also in my card parts - stamped and die-cut using a  Stampin' Up set. The "Sending" is mounted on foam squares.

The die-cut "doily" is from my card parts, as are the flowers and leaves. The sentiment is from an Altenew set. I used foam squares under the sentiment, the roses and the outer-most leaves.

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

Christmas - in January

Three Christmas cards for 2024. It's a start. The images are all old, wood-mounted Stampin' Up! stamps, stamped with Versamark and embossed with detail gold embossing powder. The sentiment is from Gina K and is also gold embossed. I rubbed Versamark on the edges and used the gold powder on them, too, to separate them from the patterned paper, which is from a Paper Company matstack.

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

More Upcycled Christmas

We got a Christmas thank you card from friends, and I made these three cards using the card and the envelope liner. I used dies on this first card - to cut the image out and to emboss the frame on the under panel. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.

I added some envelope liner under the main image panel.

More envelope liner on this one. The image is from Stampin' Up! and is embossed with gold. I added a gold strip across the bottom of the striped panel. The sentiment is again from Lawn Fawn. I'm guessing this will be the last cards of the year!

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

Noah's Ark Stickers

I had these stickers that needed to be used up. I believe they came from Darnell, who very generously sent a box of stamping supplies for our granddaughter, Ameila, a couple years ago. Amelia recently realized that she would not be using the stickers, and returned them to me. So here they are! For this first one, I used strips from a stack of patterned paper that I bought awhile back to make the background. These strips were the very tops of the pages.

The sentiment on this one and the next are from Technique Tuesday. I used a die to emboss the circle on the turtle one.

The sentiment on this one is from Stampin' Up!

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

Thanks For All You Do

I got to spend some time in my stamping room yesterday, but a lot of it was refilling some Copic markers. I just ordered some refills and they arrived yesterday. Sure seems like I have to change my nibs a lot, since they get too dried out. Does anyone else have that problem? At any rate, later in the afternoon I made this card. The image and sentiment are from Gina K. I colored with Copics. I punched out the sentiment with an old Stampin' Up! word window punch. (Thanks for the idea, Leslie!) I colored the punched-out piece with a Copic marker and added the little bit of black around the edge and then popped it up on foam squares. I added some Liquid Pearls to the centers of the tiny flowers and Gina K sequins around the flowers.

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

Five More Sticker Cards

I've had these stickers for many, many years. I made these simple cards with them. The stickers themselves are white with lines around the edge. The sentiment on this card is from Stampin' Up! I colored the image with Copic markers.

I matted this panel with white and added it to a card base. The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

The embossing was done with a Darice folder.

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