Happy Second Birthday, Amelia!

This is the card I made for our granddaughter's second birthday, which is today. They will be arriving for a few-day visit this afternoon. Yippee!


I paper-pieced the butterfly, which is from a Recollections set. The papers I used for this card are from the same matstack (Recollections, also) that I've been using a lot of lately. I matted with PTI Plum Pudding. The HAPPY BIRTHDAY is from PTI, too. I stamped the letters (from a dollar set), colored them with a Copic marker, and punched them out. They are mounted on pieces of Dimensionals. I colored the dots on the butterfly with a marker, too, and added flower gems on the antennae.


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

Repeat Impressions Designer's Choice Challenge - Stair-Step Card

A new Wednesday brings a new challenge from Repeat Impressions. This week 's challenge is a Designer's Choice Challenge and Kendra is the "chooser." She has asked us to make stair-step cards. There are several different versions of stair-step cards, so decide which kind you want to do. Please visit the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built, for all the details, and to link up your card. You will find the wonderful creations by the Rock Stars there, too. Or you can follow these links:

Cheri ~ Darsie ~ Dawn ~Joy ~ Karen ~ Kendra ~ Maki ~ Miriam

I used the Repeat Impressions stamp called Wild Violets, found on this page. I colored with Copics. The sentiment is from Repeat Impressions, also. My patterned paper is from the same matstack from Recollections that I've been using lately. (I've found I've been using purple a LOT lately! There will be another tomorrow, too.) I matted the image and sentiment after I scored some lines beneath each of them. I also added ribbon to the flowers panel. The butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I added pearls to the flowers and butterflies.

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

Flutter By Wednesday #196

Today starts a new Flutter By Wednesday challenge. This week's challenge is to make a card for Butterfly Kisses - an organization that supplies "care baskets" for families of children who are battling for their lives. You can find more details on the Flutter By Wednesday challenge blog. Please visit the design teams' blogs for inspiration, and make sure your creation contains a butterfly, angel or fairy.


I've had this image stamped for quite a while. I'm pretty sure it's a Penny Black, but I'm not certain. I colored it with Copics. The sentiment is part of a sentiment from Hero Arts. My matting is from Papertrey Ink and the patterned paper is from Recollections. The image and sentiment are mounted on Dimensionals. The butterflies were made using a Martha Stewart punch. I drew in the antennae and added pearls to the bodies.


We'd love to have you join us again this week!


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

Heal Quickly, Preston!

The ten-year old grandson of a friend of mine from our stamping group had surgery on Friday. I made this card for him. We thought it would be kind of fun to get cards from different states.


The birds are from a dollar set from Michael's. I colored them with copics. The sentiment stamps are from Verve. The card base is textured.


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

Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week - Beauty of Springtime

It's Monday and time for a new Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week. This week's stamp is called "Beauty of Springtime" and can be found on this page. It is available through next Sunday for 50% off. Please visit the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built, for all the details and for some examples by the Rock Stars of what you can do with it. You can also follow these links to the Rock Stars' blogs:

Darsie ~ Dawn ~Joy

I stamped the sentiment on white and added the Easter Lily, which I colored slightly with Copics. I matted with both pale yellow and green cardstock and mounted on Dimensionals. The background is from a matstack from Debbie Mumm. I also added a little ribbon and a bow.

Please check out the two available challenges from RI, too. You can find them on the blog. One is a Designers Choice Challenge to make a sympathy card, and the other is a WHAT IF? Wednesday sketch challenge.

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

"Christmas Sunday"

I have two simple Christmas cards to share with you today. As usual, I am linking them up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. This week's challenge is a color challenge - to use purple, pink, green and white. Or to just make a Christmas card. Obviously, mine do not fit the color challenge!


For this first card, I stamped the snowflakes and the sentiment with Versamark and embossed with Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder. You can't see the sparkle in the picture, but it's there. After embossing, I brayered over the stamped piece. I scored a couple lines beside the snowflakes and added a thin strip of black between them. I matted with black. The stamps are from a Recollections set.

I stamped the snowman (from Inkadinkado) and the sentiment (from Recollections) with Soft Sky ink from Stampin' Up! I cut the snowman and the mat (Soft Sky) with Nestabilities. The snowman panel is mounted on Dimensionals. (Nine months from today is Christmas.)


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

Happy Birthday, Wendy!

Today is Wendy's (the co-owner of Repeat Impressions and designer of all their stamps) birthday and the Rock Stars - past and present - wanted to surprise her with a blog hop. We also sent our cards to Cheri, and Cheri (wonderful Cheri!) put them all into an awesome book and sent it to Wendy. Maybe there will be some pictures of it on the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built.

We'd love to have you do a little "hopping" and visit the blogs. Then finish your hop and wish Wendy a happy birthday! Here are the links to follow:

Robin ~ Dawn ~ Miriam ~ Makiko ~ Lynette (You are here) ~ Vicki ~ Joy
Darsie ~ Karen ~ Cheri ~ The House That Stamps Built ~ Michele

Wendy likes green and purple, and she also likes cards that "do something." So, my card to her is a Free-Standing Pop-Up card. You can find the tutorial at SplitCoastStampers by following this link. My flower is a lupine, available from Repeat Impressions, of course:) I colored it with Copics. The butter flies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch and have pearls for their bodies. I added some scoring with my Scor-Pal, and embossing with my Cuttlebug folders.

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

CAS-ual Fridays and SCS Challenge

I made this card yesterday and thought about not posting it, since it's kind of similar to others I've done, but what the heck! It seemed to be fate, since it fits the SplitCoastStampers Free 4 All challenge to use three or more of something, and also the CAS-ual Fridays challenge today to use pastels and black.


The patterned paper is from the same Recollections pad I've been using lately. I cut it with a Papertrey die. These squares are actually left over from another card I made yesterday. I adhered them to the white and then matted with black. I added the flowers to the squares with black brads. The sentiment is from Stampendous.


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

No-Frills Birthday

Making "guy" cards is often not easy. Making "young guy" cards is even more difficult, I think. Two of my nephews have March birthdays. They are in their early and late twenties. This is the card I made for one of them.


The patterned paper is from a pad from Recollections I just got. The border piece and matting are from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from All Night Media. I maybe normally wouldn't have bothered to share this card, but I had nothing else:)


On a personal note, our daughter-in-law had out-patient back surgery on Monday, and she is doing nicely. Hopefully she'll be back to normal soon. She will be happy to be able to lift her son again - after six weeks.


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

Repeat Impressions WHAT IF? Wednesday Sketch

(This is my second post for today. To view my Flutter By Wednesday post, please scroll down.)


Time for a new WHAT IF? Wednesday challenge from Repeat Impressions. Wendy draws up the sketch, and the Rock Stars get to work creating. You can find the sketch and all the details on the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built. You'll also find the design team's creations. One random winner for the month will receive a $25 gift certificate from Repeat Impressions. Here are links to the Rock Stars' blogs, too:

Cheri ~ Darsie ~ Dawn ~Joy ~ Karen ~ Kendra ~ Maki ~ Miriam

For my card, I used the Floral LOVE stamp, found on this page. I colored it with Copic markers. All my matting is Tangerine Tango from Stampin' Up! The patterned paper is from Recollections. I used Nestabilities for the ovals, and also Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I used my Scor-Pal on the image panel. I added ribbon per the sketch.

There is another week left to enter the Designer's Choice Challenge from Repeat Impressions, too. The open challenge is mine - to create a sympathy card. One random winner will receive a full sheet of unmounted rubber of their choice. You can find those details here.

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

Flutter By Wednesday #195

The newest Flutter By Wednesday challenge is now posted. This week's challenge is Open - anything goes as long as you include your butterfly, angel or fairy. You can find the details and link up your creation to the Flutter By Wednesdays blog. You'll also find links to the FBW team's blogs.


A couple years ago, my friend Harriet bought something kind of cool and shared with me. I had just a little bit left and used it on this card. It was like a rub-on glue design. (I'm so tired as I'm writing this, I'm not even sure this will make sense, but I'll try!) I removed the backing and rubbed it on a strip of white. Then I used three different colors of Martha Stewart glitter on it. I matted with Papertrey Ink's New Leaf cardstock. The sentiment stamps are from Verve.


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

"Christmas Sunday"

This is to continue my new tradition of posting Christmas cards on Sundays. I'm not doing quite as well as I would have hoped, but I do have 24 done so far. I am linking it up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. Since I make my cards during the week and post them on Sunday, it's only coincidence if they match up to the challenge. However, part of the challenge is to just make Christmas cards. (The specific challenge this week is to make a shaped card.) It's also for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week, which is to use a pattern, an image and a sentiment.


The image and the sentiment are both from a Recollections set. I stamped them on a slightly shimmery off-white cardstock, embossed with gold embossing powder, and matted with shimmery gold. The patterned paper is also from Recollections and is also matted with shimmery gold. The card base is ivory.


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

Cards Revisited

A friend requested a few thank you cards, so I had to whip them up quickly. I decided the fastest way to do that is to case some I've already done. So, I did! :) Here are two that I made yesterday. They are cased from this one and this one.


I used a Papertrey die to cut out the squares. I used the same paper to punch out the butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is from Stampendous. I added gems to the butterflies' bodies and drew in their antennae. After cutting out the squares and realizing I would have liked them to be a little higher, I decided to put the squares at the top of the card. However, when I adhered it to the card, I put it on with the squares at the bottom! So, I just dealt with it and stamped the sentiment slightly in the boxes. I like it that way. I like the center butterfly "askew," too. :)

For this second card, I used the squares that I cut out of the first one. I temporarily stuck them to scratch paper and stamped the image (from Gina K) on them. After stamping them, I removed them from the scratch paper and glued them on a piece of white and matted with black. The sentiment is from the same Gina K set.

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

One-Layer Wednesday - Swirl Part Two

OK, Annie - this one's for you:) This is the card that I wasn't going to post. I "fixed" it though, so it's much more acceptable.


I made this card for last week's One-Layer Wednesday challenge, which was to use swirls, and for the CAS-ual Friday challenge which was to have the sentiment be the focal point of the card. I stamped the frame, which is from Hero Arts, and added the sentiment, which is a dollar stamp from Michael's. Then I added the butterflies, which are from the same Hero Arts set as the frame. Then I masked off the frame and added a couple of swirls. I did a little coloring on the butterflies and frame and added some Stickles. I thought that would be good enough, but it was too unbalanced and I didn't like it. I came back to it later and added swirls over the entire background and I liked it a whole lot better!


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

Featured Stamper Card #2 - For Harriet

This is the second card I made for the SplitCoastStampers Featured Stamper for this week. The Featured Stamper is my great friend, Harriet. I chose to case this card.

I changed the colors, added a matting layer, and mounted the cutout heart layer on Dimensionals. The heart was cut with a Quickutz die. The paper is from Die Cuts With a View. The sentiment is from a dollar set from Michaels. 


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

Repeat Impressions Designer's Choice Challenge - Sympathy

This is my second post for the day. Please scroll down for my Flutter By Wednesday challenge card.


Today starts a new Designer's Choice Challenge from Repeat Impressions - where one of the Rock Stars chooses a theme or other type of challenge and invites the rest of the team and YOU to join in. Today was my turn to choose, and I choose for everyone to make a sympathy card. I figured we all need to have one on hand for those sad instances. One random winner for the month will win a full sheet of unmounted rubber of their choice. You can find all the details, plus the other members' cards, on the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built. Or, you can follow these links to the design team's blogs:

Cheri ~ Darsie ~ Dawn ~Joy ~ Karen ~ Kendra ~ Maki ~ Miriam

For my card, I chose to keep it simple. What else is new! :) I stamped the Tulip Bouquet, found on this page, on watercolor paper and painted with Stampin' Up! inks. The sentiment is also from Repeat Impressions, of course, and can be found on this page. I matted with Always Artichoke cardstock from SU! I punched the bottom with a border punch from SU! and scored three lines with my Martha Stewart scoring tool. The card base is Very Vanilla to match the watercolor paper.


You also have almost another week to join in the WHAT IF? Wednesday challenge for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate from Repeat Impressions. Details can be found here. And Wendy is still looking for new Rock Stars, so if you have a blog and would like to join the RI Design Team, please let Wendy know!


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

Flutter By Wednesday #194 - Send a Smile 4 Kids

This card is for two challenges. It's for Flutter By Wednesday Challenge #194. The FBW challenge this week is to make a card for Send a Smile 4 Kids. Remember to include a butterfly, angel or fairy. You can find the information on the Flutter By Wednesday blog. You can also check it out directly on the Smiles 4 Kids Challenge blog. It's also for the challenge on the SAS4K challenge blog, which is to create a Clean and Simple card for kids. Be sure to check out what the FBW Design Team has come up with!


The idea for my card actually came from the SAS4K challenge. It gave a definition of Clean and Simple. Then it stated "CAS does not mean slap a couple stickers on a card and call it done." That reminded me that I had some beautiful butterfly stickers that would work very nicely:) I cut out a white circle for the butterfly to rest on. I drew in the antennae. I matted with Pale Plum cardstock cut with a Nestability. I mounted on Dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) on the white cardstock, then embossed with a Swiss Dots folder. I matted with the same plum cardstock. You can't see it in the photo, but the butterfly has sparkle to it.


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

SCS Featured Stamper Challenge - Harriet!

My friend Harriet is the Featured Stamper at SplitCoastStampers this week. I'm so excited for her! I made two cards to help honor her. I'll share the other one on Thursday.


I chose this card of Harriet's to CASE. I used the same embossing folder and punch as Harriet, and added some daisies on the bottom, like Harriet. I changed the colors and added a sentiment and more matting. My daisies stamp is from Repeat Impressions and the sentiment is from Papertrey. I colored with Copics. I also scored a couple lines on the bottom of the daisies panel.


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

Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week - Goose

Time for a new Stamp of the Week from Repeat Impressions. This week's stamp is Goose, found here. It is available for 50% off through Sunday. You can find the details, as well as examples by the Rock Stars, on the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built. You can also check out some of the design team members' blogs by following these links:

Darsie ~ Dawn ~Joy

I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored slightly with Copics. I cut the image out with a Spellbinders die. I loved Miriam's idea for a border on the die-cut, so I copied it. (Trace the inner edge of the die before removing, and then color with a marker.) The papers are from a Die Cuts With a View matstack and the sentiment is from Repeat Impressions. The image is mounted on Dimensionals.

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

"Christmas Sunday"

I'm struggling a little bit getting even one Christmas card done a week, but I'll keep plugging away:) Here is my card for this week.


Both stamped images are Hero Arts stamps and die cuts. I stamped them in black and added color with Copics. I also added some Star Dust Stickles. Both images are mounted on Dimensionals. I used Cuttlebug folders to emboss the top and bottom parts of the textured white cardstock and my Martha Stewart scoring tool to score the lines in between. I matted with Always Artichoke cardstock. I added an eyelet to the tag. Remember them? LOL! I'm also linking my card up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. 


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

Black and White Warm Wishes

I've had this black paper sitting around for a while, waiting for me to use it. It is white on the back, so I wanted to emboss it and then sand it down. That's what I did:) I used a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! and I used a Spellbinders die to cut it out. I added the only black and white wide ribbon that I had. It's been nice to have some time for stamping, even though I should have been doing other things. I actually made a card yesterday for a couple challenges that I was going to post today. I thought I liked it enough (just enough, not a lot) but when I put it in the post, I really didn't like it! You'll never see it.


Have a great Saturday.


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

Super-Simple Thanks

This is what was left of a 12 x 12 piece of patterned paper from Anna Griffin. I trimmed it close to the edge of the pattern and matted it with plain purple cardstock. (In real life, it matches much better than it appears in the photo!) The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. The card base is ivory.


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

One-Layer Wednesday - Swirl

I made a card yesterday afternoon for Susan's One-Layer Wednesday challenge. The challenge this week was to use a swirl. Not too tough:)


My swirly stamp is from Tattered Angels. The Thinking of You stamp is from Stampin' Up!'s All Year Cheer set. Both inks I used are Versamagic. I used a Fiskars corner rounder on the bottom corners.


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

Repeat Impressions WHAT IF? Wednesday Sketch

(This is my second post for today. For my Flutter By Wednesday post, please scroll down.) Wednesday brings a new challenge from Repeat Impressions. This week it's the WHAT IF? Wednesday challenge where Wendy gives us a sketch and asks us to create something with it. We invite you to join along! You can find the details on the Repeat Impressions blog, The House That Stamps Built. You have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate. You'll also find all the wonderful creations by the Rock Stars on the blog. Or, you can follow these links to their blogs:

Cheri ~ Darsie ~ Dawn ~Joy ~ Karen ~ Kendra ~ Maki ~ Miriam

I used the Sunflower and Monarch Butterfly stamps from Repeat Impressions. I colored the sunflower with Copics and I paper-pieced the butterflies. I matted them all with black. The flowers were punched with an EK Success punch from glittery yellow cardstock. The bottom layer is the same glittery yellow. I used brown brads in the flowers and adhered them with Dimensionals.

You have nearly a week to participate in the Designer's Choice challenge, too, which is to make a spring/pastel card. You can find those details here. One random winner will get to choose a full sheet of unmounted rubber.

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

Flutter By Wednesday #193

Time for a new Flutter By Wednesday challenge. You can find the current one on Flutter By Wednesday. This week's challenge is to make a spring card. I hope an Easter card counts! We are sponsored this week by Robyn's Fetish, and the design team members were given some images work with. One person will win five digital images from Robyn's Fetish.


I printed out my image and colored with Copic markers. I added Star Dust Stickles to the butterfly, the eggs, and the bunny's eyes. I cut the image and the frame with Nestabilities. The sentiment (mounted on Dimensionals) is from Stampin' Up (All-Year Cheer) and the patterned paper on the bottom is from Anna Griffin.


Be sure to check out the FBW blog to find links to the other Design Team members' blogs.


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

Fall-To Layout 180

I just started making a card, and it seemed to fit the Fall-To Layout 180, so I went with it.


The "stem" and flower are from a Technique Tuesday set and I colored the flower with Copics. I believe the sentiment is from Hero Arts. The patterned paper is from Die Cuts With a View. I matted with Perfect Plum cardstock from Stampin' Up! That's it.


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

"Christmas Sunday"

It's Sunday and I did manage to get another Christmas card done last night, even with company:)


The image stamps are both from a Recollections set. I stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. I matted them both with green cardstock. I stamped the sentiment (Rubber Stampede) on red cardstock and embossed the top part with a Sizzix snowflake folder. I mounted the main image panel on Dimensionals.


I'm also linking this to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. I even got the challenge in this week, which is embossing, but is always optional.


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

Row of Daisies

Gosh, life has been SO busy for us lately. It's all fun stuff, but it sure cuts into my stamping time! LOL! I had much to do yesterday, but stole a few minutes to make a couple cards. I'll only post this one, as the other one is almost identical.


The daisies stamp is from Hero Arts and came from my "grab bag" box. I stamped it several times in a long row and cut it in half for my two cards. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up correctly. I did my coloring with Copic markers and added Stickles to the flower centers. The sentiment is two stamps from Technique Tuesday. I also scored lines on both sides of the daisy panel, which is matted with yellow and black cardstock.


I may be a bit scarce this next week, as I'm trying to get some things caught up around here. Please bear with me! I should just take the whole week off and really get things done, but I'm not sure I can do that. :)


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

March Calendar Page

Well, here it is - the first day of March. Time for my calendar page. The Excel files (and Open Office files) that I have made to print the blank calendars are always available at the top of my blog.


For this page, I used Sizzix dies for the kites and cloud. The kites are cut from My Mind's Eye papers and the cloud was cut from Die Cuts With a View textured cardstock. The image stamp is from a dollar stamp set from Studio G.


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