Lovely Tree

My brother is having rotator cuff surgery on Thursday, so I wanted to send a card to let him know I was thinking of him - especially since he lives so far away and there is nothing I can do to help.

This is the card I made for him yesterday. I started with a piece of glossy paper. (You can’t see in the photo, but it really is glossy.) I stamped the tall pine tree from Stampin’ Up!’s Lovely as a Tree with Versamark on the glossy paper, then embossed it with Detail White embossing powder. Then I sponged it with Baja Breeze ink. I matted it with black and Baja Breeze – using an SU! Ticket Corner punch and a black glaze pen for the “faux brads.” The Thinking of You is also from Stampin’ Up! – from Sincere Salutations. I thought the thin strip of black and Baja Breeze added just the “little bit more” I was looking for.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

More Birthday Flowers

I "stole" about ten minutes today to do a little stamping. This card is for a friend of mine whose birthday is New Year's Eve. It could not be simpler, but it felt really good to make something. :)

The three flowers are all one stamp - by Great Impressions. I colored the images with Stampin' Up! markers - all from the Rich Regals family. (The shadows are colored with a different brand of marker, but I don't have it with me right now, and of course I'm in a hurry - sorry!) I used my trusty Scor-Pal, of course. I matted the image with Marvelous Magenta. The card base is one that I printed on the computer a while back. I also added a little bit of Diamond Glaze to the flowers.

For those of you out there who are "pray-ers" I would appreciate any prayers for my dad. He had a tumor removed from his neck yesterday. Hopefully it had not spread to his lymph nodes, but he needs to have another surgery in a couple weeks (IF he can get in!) to remove the lymph nodes from his neck to have them checked out. If they have no cancer, he is fine. And I'm sure that is the case! But, if they find cancer in them, he will need to have some treatments. Please add him to your prayers that he is cancer-free. Thank you so much!!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you come back and visit again soon!

Pink Birthday

I wanted to post SOMETHING to my blog, and since I haven’t done any stamping lately, I thought I’d look and see if I had something “old” to post.

I found this card that I never uploaded. Very simple. Stamped, colored with Stampin’ Up! markers, Scor-Pal’ed, matted. The daisy is from the Martha Stewart collection and the pink is punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. I’m pretty sure the ink is Pink Passion by SU! and the pink cardstock is, also.

I finally got my Christmas cards ready to be mailed. Oh, what a wonderful feeling! They should go out tomorrow. Now I can concentrate on presents. Then, hopefully, I can sit back and enjoy the holiday season for a little bit. Our grandson will make his first visit to our house – that will be pretty cool.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Stampin' Up! Enabler Alert

Since I don't have any new cards to share with you, I thought I would share some specials from Stampin' Up! The retired sets were announced today, and Stampin' Up! is offering them at the sale price of 10% off. AND they are offering FREE SHIPPING on any orders over $70!! The sets will be available until January 18. However, the 10% discount and the FREE SHIPPING are only in effect until December 23.

Also, if you spend $20 on merchandise, you can purchase stamp sets from the Fall/Winter Sampler Mini Catalog at a 20% discount. This special is in effect until January 18.

The new catalog will be available beginning January 19.

Here are some links for you:

Stampin' Up! home page

Retired List - by page number

Fall-Winter Sampler Promotion

Fall-Winter Sampler Mini Catalog (Warning - if you have dial-up, this page will take a LONG time to load.)

If you have any questions or would like to place an order, please feel free to contact me by email - LJNeus@hotmail.com.

Waxed Paper Cuttlebug Resist

A while back, I was sent a link to this technique. I thought it looked interesting and knew I wanted to try it. I finally did.

In a nutshell, this is the technique. Use a Cuttlebug folder on a piece of waxed paper, then iron that embossed waxed paper between two pieces of cardstock, then brayer over the result. Voila! I used Stampin’ Up!’s In-Color, Baja Breeze, for my brayering and also to stamp the mittens and sentiment. I embossed the mittens and sentiment with Iridescent Ice embossing powder, also. I stamped the mittens twice so I could cut one set of them out and pop them up with Pop Dots. The ribbon is from Anchor Paper, and unlike the picture, matches the paper exactly “in real life.” The stamps are from an All-Night Media set I got at Michael's a few years ago called Winter Wonderland.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Another Reason to Eat Chocolate!

See the gold embossed layer on this card? It’s the wrapper from a piece of dark chocolate from a bag of chocolates we got at Costco! That is the full piece of gold foil – run through in a snowflake Cuttlebug folder.

I matted the gold foil embossed piece on to a piece of teal cardstock. I had come across some old rick-rack from my sewing days that matched perfectly, so I used that and a couple of gold brads. The scalloped circle is punched with a Marvy Uchida punch. I added the gold Christmas tree sticker. Then I used a gold gel pen and drew around the edges, and drew around a circle in the inside. The focal piece is mounted on Pop Dots. I added a couple scored lines with my Scor-Pal, and the sentiment – a dollar stamp from Michael’s.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Christmas Card Case

Today’s card is a case from Catherine – her blog is Inksomnia. The card I cased is here. Thanks for the inspiration!

My card base is Stampin’ Up!’s Kiwi Kiss. I embossed it with a Cuttlebug Snowflake folder, then took a Memories white ink pad and rubbed it over the snowflakes and along the edge. The image is from Inkadinkado – one of the sets I got at Costco. (I found out they had a third set, and rushed out to get that one, too!) I stamped it in Kiwi Kiss and used some Iridescent Ice embossing powder. The white strip is stamped with a Studio G stamp with Versamark, embossed with silver embossing powder, and then embossed with a Dotted Swiss folder. Both pieces are mounted on Kiwi Kiss and a shimmery silver paper. The snowflakes are punched out of the same shimmery silver.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Happy 50th, Nancy!

How about a non-Christmas card for today? This is a card I made for a member of our Yahoo! group. She and her husband recently celebrated their 50th Anniversary – congratulations, Nancy!

I started with some shimmery gold paper. I stamped the butterfly from an Inkadinkado set on the gold rectangle, and another one on a small piece. I used Versafine Onyx Black and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I used a paper crimper on the rectangle. I cut out the extra butterfly and mounted it with Pop Dot pieces under the body. The corner swirl is cut from black with a Cuttlebug die and adorned with six pearls. I mounted it on black and added some sheer black ribbon. I printed the sentiment on my computer, used my Scor-Pal for some added texture, and mounted the butterfly panel on the card.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

December 2008 Calendar Page

As promised, here is my calendar page for this month. I’ll try to make it a habit of posting the current calendar page on the First of each month. My first “blog tradition.”

I used a Dreamweavers stencil to emboss the ornaments. I sponged the edges with Night of Navy. The silver and blue papers are both shimmery. The “Merry Christmas” is embossed with silver embossing powder.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Another Christmas Card

I hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving. I know that I did. It was great to spend a few days with both of our kids and their spouses and our grandchild. Wonderful! And the drive to Chicago and back wasn’t even so bad. With Thanksgiving being so late and with being gone again, though, I am once again behind! Seems to be the story of my life recently.

I mass-produced a card today that I had already done previously – made eight more of them. That wouldn’t be so exciting to show, so I made another VERY quick card. In my “card parts” pile, I had these holly leaves and berries that I had made last year. So, I stuck them together, mounted them on Pop Dots, and mounted them on some background paper by Fiskars. The stamp is from a dollar set from Michael’s by Studio G.

My calendars are coming along fairy well. I have eight months done. Oh that reminds me, I had said I would post this year’s December page on my blog. Cool beans – I will do that for tomorrow! And I also decided to share a picture with you - of me and Andrew. He is just the SWEETEST little thing!

Thanks for much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon.

A Quick Card, a Deal, and Thanksgiving Wishes

This has got to be the quickest post ever – I’m supposed to be packing up to leave for Chicago!

First, a quick card I made last night. The stamps are from a new set from Inkadinkado (see below.) I pieced the scarf out of a shimmery blue paper. The snowflake is sparkly, although it just looks multicolored in the picture - it’s silver. The card base is from DCWV. The snowman and mat are cut with rectangle Nestabilities. I ran the edges of both plain rectangular pieces on an ink pad and they are mounted on Pop Dots.

Next – my deal. We were at Costco last night and I was just thinking that they hadn’t had any stamping stuff for a long time. Well, they did last night! They had two different boxed sets of Inkadinkado stamps. Each box had five full sets of clear stamps, plus a nice acrylic block and an ink spot (which may just go right in the trash.) They were $19.89. Plus they each had $5 instant rebates. So, $14.89 for FIVE Inkadinkado sets!! Here is a picture of the box, and also of the stamps in each box.

Lastly, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. If you are traveling, I wish you safe travels. I hope you all have some special family and friends to spend the holiday with. We will be heading to Chicago shortly (assuming that I get ready!) and will return on Saturday. That means I get to see Andrew again – yippee! (And my daughter and son-in-law, too, of course! LOL!!)

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon.

Color Swap - Brown and Turquoise

My card for today is for a color swap for my Yahoo! group. The colors for this month are turquoise and brown. I used the “Fall-To Layout” sketch from Natasha’s blog, Clean and Simple Stamping, found here.

Both of my turquoise papers are from My Mind’s Eye that I got at Costco last year. The “friends” sentiment is from Penny Black. (Thanks again, Vicki! You can buy Penny Black, plus most anything else, from Vicki B.) The scrolly design is from a clear set from Studio G from Michael’s. Both of the stamps are stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia. I mounted these layers on some brown textured paper from a stack from JoAnn’s. The brads are from Bazzil, and the grosgrain ribbon is from Stampin’ Up! And of course, I had to use my Scor-Pal. Almost no card is complete without a little scoring. :)

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon.

JustRite Stamper Christmas

I stamped again! I’m always so excited to get to stamp something when I’ve been a while without. It’s the addiction, you know! I’ve been under the weather for a few days, and it feels wonderful to feel wonderful (or at least pretty good), if you know what I mean.

I did two things today – I finished another month of the calendar. Woo-hoo! I have decided that starting in January, and even perhaps in December, I will share my calendar page on the First of each month.

The other thing I did was make a Christmas card using my new JustRite Stamper and Christmas Ensemble. How fun! The main focus of the card was made with the JRS. I stamped the holly border with Versafine Onyx Black ink and colored the leaves and berries with Stampin’ Up! markers – Always Artichoke and Real Red. I cut it out with a scalloped circle Nestability. Then I stamped the Merry Christmas for the inside using the same two colors of markers. I apologize for the stamping not being done very well. I did it with an ink pad earlier, and it stamped very nicely. For some reason when I used the markers, it didn’t stamp as cleanly. But I was too impatient to do it again, and besides, I like the "weathered look." I cut and embossed that part with a plain circle Nestability. I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the bottom of the card, then cut a slice of Real Red and placed on the inside. It doesn’t go quite down to the bottom of the card, but you can’t tell that, since I had to set the card on the bottom of the red. I scored lines with my Scor-Pal on both sides of the ribbon that I added, and also on the top of the card. I mounted the JRS panel on Pop Dots. I sponged red (before adding the red strip on the bottom) around the edges of the card. It still needed more, so I used a little stamp from PaperTrey Ink’s Borders and Corners - Ovals to stamp the holly in the corners with Always Artichoke and colored the berries with Real Red.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon.

Lucky Me!!

Looky what I won! Michelle Rodgers of Stamper’s Dream had this post on her blog. And guess who was the lucky winner – me! Thank you so much, Michelle! (I just realized that post was on our anniversary – how cool!) I just emailed her on Tuesday and I received it today – how’s that for speedy.
Here is a picture of what I won. I’m so glad my Christmas cards aren't quite finished yet!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Casing Leslie Miller

While reading some blogs this morning, I found this card by Leslie Miller that I really liked. I promised I was going to case it soon, and now I have! Twice, in fact.

I started out trying to case it, but change things up just a little. I ended up with this first card. Really not too much similarity with Leslie’s. The border is punched with a new border punch by Martha Stewart that I got at Michael’s. (Gotta love those 50% off coupons!) I embossed the top of the white piece with a Cuttlebug snowflake folder, then scored a couple lines and added some Stickles. The bottom layer is Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red. The trees (with background) is from All-Night Media. I think the set is called Winter Wonderland. I stamped it with Versamark and then I embossed it with – coincidentally – Winter Wonderland embossing powder. I stamped the Merry Christmas with Versamark, also, and embossed with the same powder. I added the white ribbon and adhered it to a white card base.

Then I made myself do one much more like it! I used a Martha Stewart border punch again, embossed the snowflakes, scored lines on either side of the ribbon, which I then added – red grosgrain. I added Stickles to some parts of the snowflakes and also to the embossed line from the punch. I used SU! markers to color the trees, and a Versamarker to color the circles and the snow line – directly on the stamp. Then I used Winter Wonderland embossing powder on it. I stamped the Merry Christmas with Versafine Black Onyx and embossed it with Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder. Then I scored a double line on top and a single line underneath the sentiment, mounted it on Real Red, and then on to the white card base. I wish all the "sparkle" was visible in the pictures, but it doesn't photograph well.

Thanks so much, Leslie, for the inspiration!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

A Blog Award - and July

Deb (Itty Bitty Ink Spots) has graced me with another blog award - The "Kreativ Blogger" award. Thanks so much, Deb!

I think I’ll post one small part of a project I’m working on. Every year, I make calendars for a few friends and relatives. They are three and a half inches by five inches. So far, I have three months done – only nine more to go! Since I just finished up July today, I thought I’d share it with you.

Edited to add: Silly me! I didn't write anything about how I did this calendar page. Here is a little information: I used a Lasting Impressions brass stencil for all of the embossing. The hat is embossed and cut out of white and the stars and dots are colored with a marker and the edges are sponged with ink. The hat band is embossed and cut out of shimmery red and the stripes colored with a white gel pen. The hat is mounted on paper from a Summer Collection by Die Cuts With A View. The firecracker is embossed with the same stencil and sponged a bit with red ink. I hope that helps. The calendars are printed from a file that I did in an Excel spreadsheet.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Santa Christmas Card

Another quick Christmas card. I just HAD to do a little stamping tonight – time passes so quickly! We went out of town again this past weekend to visit with my husband’s mom and to celebrate her 91st birthday.

I stamped Santa on a shimmery white paper. I used Versafine Black Onyx with Papertrey Ink’s set “Believe.” I colored Santa’s hat and robe with a glue pen, then pressed red flocking on it. I used Liquid Applique on his beard and the “fluff” on his hat, sleeves and the bottom of his robe. I used Stampin’ Up! markers to color his face. The heart is popped up with a Pop Dot. I used a red gel pen for the hand-doodling around the edge. The background is embossed with a Fiskars Snowflakes texture plate. Both pieces are matted with SU!’s Real Red cardstock. The sentiment is also stamped with a stamp from PTI’s “Believe” set. I used an SU! punch to punch holes for the ribbon to go through. I also rubbed the ink pad on the edge of the sentiment to highlight it a little bit.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Two-Step Anniversary (Well, MORE than two steps!)

Tuesday allowed me a little stamping time, but I can’t post the cards I made to my blog yet, because the recipients of them read this. Today I got to make a card, too, and I’m going to take a chance and share it with you.

The card for today is actually stamped! I’ve been realizing that my cards don’t really have that much stamping anymore. And if today is any indication, I think I know why! This card took a LONG time. And I’m not sure I like it as well as the cards I’ve been making lately.

I started with Stampin’ Up!’s Very Vanilla for my card base. I used two Two-Step Stampin’ sets – Watercolor Garden II and Petal Prints. To stamp the leaf sprigs from Petal Prints, I used Kiwi Kiss and True Thyme. For the flowers from Watercolor Garden II, I used Pale Plum and Perfect Plum. I used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to line up my stamping the way I wanted it. Then I took a piece of vellum the same size as the card front. I scored a lattice of diagonal lines on the bottom with my Scor-Pal. I stamped the Happy Anniversary (from Inkadinkado’s Wedding/Marriage) with Versafine Black Onyx and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I used a double layer of ribbon – a sheer and a grosgrain. I used double-sided tape to adhere the vellum under the ribbon. Then I added a couple brads to attach the vellum in the upper corners.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Butterfly Birthday

My mother-in-law’s birthday is on Thursday, and as you can see by this card, she’ll be turning 91. She lives alone and is doing awesome!

I’ve had this “Garden Delight” set by Inkadinkado for quite a while and I finally used it. I stamped the butterfly on a variegated blue cardstock from Die Cuts With a View with Versafine Black Onyx ink, embossed it with clear embossing powder, and cut it out (without the antennae!) Then I cut a piece of white cardstock two and a half inches by three and a half inches. I stamped the butterfly partially in the corner. Then I stamped the tips of one of the flowery stamps several times in the opposite corner. After it was completely dry, I embossed it with a Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder. I mounted it on a piece of black, and then on a matching piece of the variegated blue. I folded the wings up a little bit, and used Pop Dots on the body to mount it. I added a thin strip of black about a third of the way from the bottom. The sentiment was printed on my computer.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

"Scrappy" Christmas Card

Gosh, I know it hasn’t been that long, but it seems like forever since I got to do any stamping or post something to my blog. I guess we’ve been busy! We just celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary yesterday and went away overnight. That was wonderful. But, we’re back now.

So, here is my card for today. It’s pretty much a “scrap card.” We had some friends over Friday night (after the Lutefisk Dinner at our church. Yum, yum. NOT! I wouldn’t touch the stuff, but everyone else at least eats a little bit of it:) ) Anyway, some of our guests wanted to see my “stuff” so I demonstrated the Snowflake folder, the Dotted Swiss folder and some Circle Nestabilities. I had the pieces laying around and I realized they would make kind of a nice card! So, I put them together and this is what I came up with. I sponged around the edges with Garden Green and Real Red. The circle is embossed with the Argyle CB folder. The snowflake is punched with a Marvy Uchida punch.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!