Welcome Little One

Happy New Year’s Eve to Everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful evening.

My card today is for SplitCoastStampers Sketch Challenge #209. You can find the challenge here. There isn’t much to it, but it was nice to finally do a challenge again, even if it was the middle of the night because I couldn’t sleep. :) The stamps are from Studio G sets I got at Michael’s. The patterned paper is from Die Cuts With a View – Nana’s Nursery Boy and the plain cardstock is Stampin’ Up!’s Baja Breeze. I cut the onesie out of scrap paper and mounted it on Pop Dots. I had sponged Baja Breeze on it, then colored the clothes pins and sailboat with markers. I used a Martha Stewart border punch, Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug folder and my Scor-Pal. The Dew Drops are adhered with glue dots. (I noticed after I took the picture that you can see the glue dots, so I fixed that.)

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

Lucky Me!

Since I don't have a card to post yet for today, I thought I would share my birthday cards! My birthday was Sunday, and I was the lucky and appreciative recipient of all of these cards. Eleven - count them, ELEVEN - of them were hand-made for me! (And that doesn't even count the ones that were "hand-made" on the computer.)

Thanks to all of my friends and family who sent me cards and called me up to wish me a happy birthday. I had a wonderful day.

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. I hope to have a card to share with you tomorrow. Have a great day!

Great News About My Dad

I think I'm finally going to get a chance to do some stamping soon, but I wanted to share some great news. My dad got the results back from his surgery, and he has no cancer in his lymph nodes! Thank you all so much for your prayers and good wishes. I know they helped him through this. We are so relieved to get this wonderful news. My brother is also recuperating nicely from his rotator cuff surgery. Thanks for your prayers for that, too.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah. We sure did. Lots of family time - it was great. It was nice having a baby around for a few days, too. My immediate family is all done traveling now, and everyone made it to and from their destinations safely.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope to be sharing some cards with you soon!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my Christian readers. Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish readers. And I wish happiness to everyone else, too!

The shopping is done. The presents are wrapped. The cards all mailed out. The groceries are purchased. (Actually, that stuff was all done a few days ago.) We had our fist “celebration” last night with our next-door neighbors. What’s left now is cooking. Tonight we will go to my sister’s house to gather with my extended family. Tomorrow will be the celebration with my immediate family – our daughter and family will arrive today from Chicago, and our son and daughter-in-law will return from Bismarck tomorrow. Then Saturday we will travel to visit with my husband’s extended family. Lots of fun times.

I am sharing a picture of our this-year’s tree. Looks like every other year! The ornaments are all hand-made or gifts. For 18 years, I made a different type of ornament and dated one of them. I made three to 10 ornaments each year. The nineteenth year, I couldn’t come up with anything new. My daughter didn’t want the tradition to die, and made them that year. That was the last year, though – 1999. There are crocheted, cross-stitched, tatted, hardangar, bargello, needlepoint, beaded, smocked, macramé, glass – probably more, but that’s what I can come up with for now!

Anyway, enough rambling. Happy Holidays to ALL!!!

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

Calla Lily Edgeabilities

I had a little stamping time a few days ago, but no blogging time. I will take that time today.

I found the Calla Lilies Edgeabilities on clearance for $4.00 and I could not pass it up! I used Papertrey Stamper’s Select white cardstock and the Calla Lilies for this card. The two lilies in the center are separate from the rest and I mounted them on Pop Dots. I did the coloring with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I embossed a small piece of white with a Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug folder to place behind the opening. “birthday wishes” is stamped with stamps from Papertrey’s Paper Tray sentiment set. I added a double layer of ribbon at the bottom.

An update on my dad – the surgery itself went really well. He is feeling good. He will get the results hopefully on Wednesday, and we’re praying they will come back “No cancer!” Thanks for your prayers.

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

Circular Birthday Wishes

This is another card that just “evolved.” I was reminded by this card (the second one) from Natasha that I had the set Good Things Grow and had hardly ever used it. (So what else is new!) So, I got it out and stamped the dandelion stamp with Palette ink Jardin Moss. Then I stamped the “birthday wishes” with Versafine Onyx Black ink – from Papertrey Ink’s Mixed Messages set. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. I thought I remembered seeing a die cut green circle, and I was able to find it in my “card parts” pile. I cut off a section so I could put it on the left edge. I put the square in the middle of the full circle. It needed more – I added the white “faux stitching.” Then I added the flower border towards the bottom with scoring on either side of it. Too lopsided. Aha – I took the part of the circle that I had cut off, trimmed a bit off of that, and added it to the right side, along with the white dashed lines. I’m fairly satisfied with its simplicity.

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

Simple Bees

How about a couple “bee” cards for today? I received the bees and the yellow scalloped circles from a friend. (Thanks, Annie!) I colored one with watercolor pencils and an aqua painter, and I colored the other one with Stampin’ Up! markers. I also used Stickles on the wings of both of them. I don’t know who makes the bee stamp, but the Happy Birthday is from Stampabilities.

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

Cardinal Birthday

I got to do some more stamping recently. I’m sure there are more important things for me to be doing – like maybe finishing up the Christmas shopping and cleaning the house for company – but that will keep! I haven’t stamped anything that will teach anyone anything new, just fun, easy cards.

I will upload one today. That will leave me some for later, if I get a chance to blog again. This could be about a five-minute card to reproduce. The cardinal is cut with a Spellbinders die. The die includes this cardinal and a chickadee. I always like the dies when I see them, but I can never figure out what to do with them, exactly. I usually end up liking them best in just white. If I were to color it, I think I would use Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol and just add subtle color. The red is embossed with a Paisley Cuttlebug folder. The stamp is from Paper Inspirations, and is stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and embossed with detail black embossing powder. (I was looking for a link to the die, and I guess it's retired, and I also found out the other bird is not a chickadee, it's a finch. Looks like a chickadee to me!)

Tomorrow my dad is scheduled for his surgery. Please pray for a surgery with no permanent effects from the surgery, and more importantly, that they find no cancer in his lymph nodes. I truly appreciate all of your prayers.

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

Four "Quick" Cards

I had a fun afternoon yesterday! I’m sure I had more important things to do, but I decided I would make my mother-in-law a few “quick” cards and give them to her for Christmas. Well, those “quick” cards took all afternoon! Oh well.

I’ll share the pictures, but there isn’t really all that much to say about them. I used Stampin’ Up! markers to color the images. I used some ribbon, my Scor-Pal, my Dotted Swiss folder, some glitter, some Nestabilities and some stamps. That’s about it. If anyone would like information about a particular stamp or anything else, please feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email.

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

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.