Season's Greetings

Another new die, and an older one. The new one is the scenery. The older one is the sentiment. I am quite certain, but not positive, that the sentiment is from Impression Obsession. I cut both die cuts out of silver foil cardstock. (I know - it looks more black than silver, but it truly is silver.) The background was done by rubbing the cardstock with a Stampin' Up! ink pad. I made sure to cover the bottom with ink. Another Christmas card done. I think I will make multiples of this card, but perhaps with a solid color background, rather than the inked-up one.

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

Another Butterfly Birthday

Along with cheap dies, I ordered some really cheap ink. I won't do that again:) (It was, I believe, 85 cents for a multi-color ink pad. I ordered two. You may or may not see the other color, which I used in this same way.)

I rubbed the ink pad directly to the paper, then I sponged a little extra on to make sure to cover. The butterflies were done with a new die, as was the sentiment. I matted with black. Easy peasy:) I mounted the layer on foam squares.

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

Flowery Thank You

Our daughter-in-law just spent a week in Japan for work. Luckily for us, it coincided with part of the time that we needed to be out of our house. We were able to give our son a hand with the boys while their mom was gone. Worked out great for everyone:)

She brought me back some beautiful papers from Japan. I thought I would make her a thank you card using some of my favorite. I simply used it for background, matting it with some Papertrey Ink cardstock I've had for years. I mounted the smaller layer on foam squares. The sentiment was die cut. I cut it three times and layered them. I also added some Diamond Glaze over the top for an extra decorative touch.

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

Die-Cut Foil Flowers

Another new die, so I'm linking up to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #12 again (Never Before Used Schtuff.)

I used the die to cut out of white and three colors of foil. I added the colored pieces to the white. It's kind of hard to see the shine in the picture. I matted with green foil. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Time

Another card for Darnell's NBUS challenge #12 (Never Before Used Schtuff.) The new items are dies again - the clock with gears and the stitched circles.

I love this time piece. I thought it would go well with kraft and red. I cut the circles with my new stitched circle dies out of red and white. I didn't know what sentiment I should use, because it just didn't seem quite right for a birthday, which is what I usually make. I remembered that I had a "Time" set from My Favorite Things. That worked. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed with detail white powder.

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

Fall-To Layout 36 - Take Two

I made this card for Natasha's Fall-to Layout #36, Take Two. I'm also entering it into Darnell's NBUS challenge #12 (Never Before Used Schtuff.)  The new items are all dies - the teddy bear, the stitched circle, and the "holey" circles. (I see when I was linking up the blog post that I got the sketch a tad wrong, but I think it will be fine.)

It was so great to be back into my stamping room! A few new dies were delivered while we were staying at our son's house. I finally got a chance to use them. I cut the teddy bear out of kraft. I tried brayering a light brown onto the raised areas, but I got ink in the depressed areas, too. So, I just sponged more ink over the whole thing. I added black "nail heads" to his eyes. (Gosh, that sounds painful! I swear I did it gently.) I had cut the circle out of red with my new stitched circle dies. Then I used the die with holes to die cut inside the stitched circle. I added the teddy bear to the circle and mounted the circle on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. The patterned paper is very, very old. I matted both layers with black.

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

October Calendar Page

Here is my October calendar page - pretty simple:) The ghost, bat and sentiment are from a Recollections set. The matting paper is also from Recollections. 

Update on what's going on at our house - the short version. We just had our kitchen and entryway hardwood floors refinished. We also added some more wood. We replaced carpet to add a hallway and also put wood in our dining room. The old and new wood were not the same color after staining and they had to sand down the floors again and restain. We were out of our house for nearly two weeks, and this was after camping for three days. Luckily, we were able to spend that time at our son and daughter-in-law's house with them. That was awesome! The plan was to just clean up and re-install the baseboards. Well, that didn't work, since some areas were different. (There were no longer any areas where carpet met wood, etc.) The baseboard was not in great shape anyway. So, we had to buy all new baseboard and quarter-round and stain and finish it. Our installer was awesome and agreed to help install it. He and his sons came on Thursday and got that done. They also helped move our very heavy hutch. It's so great to have that much done!! Our house has been in a state of upheaval for over two months, between having the cabinets refinished, painting my stamping room, painting the kitchen and now the floors. We have one more thing, but that will be a piece of cake. We have to decide which carpet we want and re-carpet our living room and stairs. Then we'll be done for a while. (A long while!) 

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

Happy Birthday, Annie!

I've had this card base sitting around my stamping room for years! It's finally been made into a card. Yippee! It has hopefully reached my stamping friend, Annie, in Canada by now. Happy Birthday, Annie!

I stamped the bottom border with a Stampin' Up! stamp a long time ago, and then cut carefully around it. (So, the front of the card ends at the bottom of the "lace.") The roses and the sentiment were cut with two of my new dies. I cut out them of white cardstock and colored them with Copic markers. I mounted the leaves on foam squares and glued the rest down. I cut a couple extra layers of the sentiment and glued them all together for added dimension.

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

Happy Anniversary, Harriet and Bruce!

Today is my friend Harriet's anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Harriet and Bruce!

This is another of my new dies. The card is 3 1/2 x 6 3/8 inches. The patterned paper is from Recollections. The sentiment is an old PSX stamp. I mounted the sentiment panel on foam squares.

Edited to add: I would love to email you, Shirley, but I have no way of communicating with you. You are welcome to send me an email. My address is in the "View my complete profile" on the top right side of my blog under the "About Me" section. PS - I ordered this die from eBay.

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

Happy Birthday, Vicki!

Today is my friend Vicki's birthday. Happy Birthday, Vicki! Here is the card that I made for her. The butterflies and the sentiment are both dies. I added a couple "pearls" to the flower centers. The background paper is from Recollections.

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

Simple Birthday Card - With a Twist! :)

A couple months ago, a friend showed me a card she had made. It's called a "Pop and Twist" card. I thought it was pretty cool and wanted to make one. Last weekend was the time for me to try:) I knew that the hardest part for me would be trying to figure out how to decorate so many spaces! So, I went totally clean and simple. I only took these two pictures, but if you search for instructions, you will see how it works and can find different ways of making it. It looks like a "regular" card from the front, but when you open it, the middle part twists and pops out. Pretty cool!

I used a couple more of my new dies. I layered the "Happy Birthday" with about four pieces. The sentiment stamps are from a Hampton Arts set.

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

Silver Butterflies

Another card using one of my newer dies. I cut it out of silver "mirror" cardstock. The card base is a tri-fold card with the circle already cut out of it. I purchased them at our Group Gathering a few years ago. I embossed the front with an Anna Griffin embossing folder called "Matelasse." I cut a piece of blue vellum for the window. Before adding it, I embossed it with a Darice embossing folder called "WIre Fence." I cut the sentiment out of the silver cardstock, too, and added another layer under it for more dimension.

I had a visitor leave me a comment about the size of my matting and wondering how I did it. (Not on this card, though.) I cut my matting pieces 1/8 inch bigger than my image pieces. That gives me a 1/16 inch border. Not always, but usually. I use a Tonic guillotine cutter that I've had for many years. I love it! This is what it looks like. I did not get mine at Amazon, and I'm sure it's available many, many other places. It's just the easiest for me to link to quickly.

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

Fall-To Layout #32 Take Two

I used the Fall-To Layout #32 for this card. I really love Natasha's layouts - perfect for CAS cards. After all, her blog is called Clean and Simple Stamping! :) (It's called "Take Two" because she is on her second trip through her layouts.)

I used another portion of this fall-patterned paper. (One quarter left, and I actually used it for another card that I made yesterday. You'll be seeing that one soon, or I might just save it for a month or so.) I think this paper is so pretty, and I don't even know where it came from. The die is one of my newer ones. I cut the ovals using Nestabilities. I mounted the ovals on foam squares.

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

Celebrate

For some reason, the first time I used this die, I didn't cut all the way through on the second rose. So, I cut that one off and just went with this one. I colored it with Copic markers and used foam squares under the leaves. I had cut the white panel using a Memory Box die. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set.

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

Congratulations, Andrew!

Our oldest grandson, Andrew, tried out for the traveling baseball last time we were down in Chicago. And, he made the team! So happy for him.

When I was putting my stamping room back together, I ran across this embossing folder "out of place."  I still hadn't put it away, and thought that maybe I should use it! Hence, the card:) Quite a long time ago, I bought the die and embossing set from Cuttlebug. Together, they cut and emboss the hat, the bat and the ball. I mounted the ball and the brim of the hat on foam squares. I embossed the "congrats" with a small embossing folder, also from Cuttlebug, and I mounted that piece, matted with a dark blue, on foam squares, also. The card is done with ivory cardstock. I used the same dark blue to mat the main panel.

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

September Calendar Page

Goodness - another month has flown by! I'm not quite sure how that happens:)

Here is this month's calendar page. I used thin, speckled, off-white paper and two Gina K stamps. I used Stampin' Up! markers to color the tree and a technique called "thumping."  I first used the lightest color marker and then just "thumped" or "bounced" the darker colors on it before stamping.

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

Dream

For some reason, I just loved this dream catcher die when I saw it. So, I ordered it:) I'm not really sure what to do with it, but here is my first card. I cut it out of a textured cardstock. I used a piece of ivory cardstock and a Memory Box die for the matting for it, and then I used foam squares to mount it. The background cardstock is from The Paper Studio. (Mirabelle. I love those patterns!) The "Dream" stamp is from an old Inkadinkado set. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the card opens from bottom to top.

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

More Dies!

Another new die, and another simple card. I cut the die from an off-white panel. I matted with slightly patterned paper. The sentiment is from Inky Antics and is cut with a Memory Box die and mounted on foam squares.

Edited to add: Here is the link to this die that I bought from Amazon. I have bought many dies from Amazon and also from eBay. There are multiple sellers selling them. I haven't been linking, because I think these companies are making dies using other company's dies as patterns. Not sure how they can do that, but I have seen some that I've recognized from "major" companies. Wherever they come from, they work really well!  If you are interested, please allow lots of time for looking, because there are lots of dies. Also, they ship from China, so they take a long time to get here.

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

Die-Cut Baby Card

I received several new dies on Tuesday (and I still have another batch coming in a few weeks.) One of my new ones was this little train. I just thought it was so cute. I cut it out of textured blue and used a sanding block to highlight some of the features. The "Congratulations" was cut from the same cardstock. The train is mounted on foam squares. The background cardstock is from an old Die Cuts With a View matstack.

We've been keeping so busy! We just painted our kitchen. That took about five days to sand walls, wash walls, tape, paint (two coats!), untape, touch-up and put things back. I do love the color. As soon as we finished that yesterday, we started getting ready to have work done our floors. We have hardwood in the kitchen and entryway. We are going to have it refinished darker. We are also going to add a "hallway" to our dining room (which was the sunroom, but we put our dining room table in there) and also put hardwood in the dining room. In order to do that, we have to empty everything from the kitchen, the dining room, the entryway, the area outside our bedroom and another small area outside the office and a bathroom. Whew! We are also removing the trim boards ourselves (well, mostly Jim, but I'm helping!) and will clean and refinish them. Should look nice - I hope! They will start September 11 and I think they said it would take about a week. More disruption, but it will be worth it.

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

Fall-To Layout #30 - Take Two

I actually had some "extra" time earlier this week (not sure how that happened!) and I opened up some of my older stamping bookmarks. Imagine my surprise to find out that Natasha had reactivated her Clean and Simple Stamping blog with Fall-To Layouts:) I just had to make a card with this week's sketch. You can find it here.

The patterned paper I used for this card is from The Paper Studio. I love that stack! I matted with a deep, rusty orange. I added some olive rick-rack along the right edge. The stamping was all done with SU! inks and Papertrey Ink images. I cut the circles with my Circle Nestabilities and mounted on foam squares.

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