Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of my Christian friends! I hope you get to spend at least some of of the day with friends and family! (Clipart is from the Microsoft website.)

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

More Flowers!

I have quite a few stamp sets that I have never used, so I thought I'd try to get good use out of this set in case I don't get it out for a while:)

The flowers are from the same set as yesterday (and earlier in the week, too!) Secret Garden from Stampin' Up! I inked the stamp up once with Raspberry Ripple ink and stamped three times without re-inking. I cut them with the matching die. The stems are stamped with Gumball Green and another stamp from the same set. I used an aquapainter to fill watercolor inside the lines a little bit. The bottom border is Gumball Green cardstock punched with an EK Success punch. The sentiment is from a retired SU! set called Sincere Salutations. The two darker flowers are mounted on foam squares and I have layered white on white.

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

Another Pink Birthday

Another birthday card using my new Stampin' Up! Secret Garden stamps and dies sets.

This card is actually ivory, even if it looks white to you. I stamped the flower on watercolor paper and used an Aquapainter and Raspberry Ripple ink.it I cut it with the matching die and mounted it on foam squares. I embossed the panel with an SU! Square Lattice embossing folder. I have long admired that folder, and now I finally own it! I matted it with black. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Linda at Paper Seedlings has honored me with a Liebster award. Thank you so very much, Linda! (While I am thrilled to receive the award from you, I rarely pass them on. Sorry - it's nothing personal. I just don't!)

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

Flutter By Wednesday - a Color Challenge

Happy Wednesday to you all! A new Wednesday means it's time for a new challenge from Danni at Flutter By Wednesdays. This week's challenge is a color challenge, and the colors to use are blue, yellow and green. You are allowed to use other colors, also, but please make these your dominant colors. Have fun, and be sure to link up your creations - including a butterfly or a fairy, of course! - to the Flutter By Wednesday blog. Check out the awesome creations by the design team while you're there.

My card uses an image I stamped a long time ago. I came across it after it our move. It's a stamp from Door County Rubber Stamps. (Check out the "About Us" page. My husband took the picture when we were there a few years ago!) The stamp I used is called Tracey's Bouquet. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and used Goo Gone for blending. I added tiny black gems for the black-eyed susan flowers. I matted with black. The entire card front is covered with sparkly cardstock from a Die Cuts With a View matstack. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. It's matted with black and mounted on foam squares.

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

Flower-y Birthday

I haven't had any new Stampin' Up! items for three and a half years, but I placed an order last week and it arrived today. That was kind of fun:)

The flowers and leaves were stamped and die cut using the "Secret Garden" set. I inked the flowers with Summer Starfruit. The leaves were inked with a Gumball Green marker and then "thumped" with a different color green Tombow marker. I sewed buttons for the flower centers and the lower left flower is mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations - also SU! (retired.)

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

Pink Princess Birthday

This is the card I made for our granddaughter for her third birthday, which is later this week. (Three already!)

She likes dressing up and being a "princess" so I thought using this embossing folder which has a castle on it would be good for her. (It's a Cuttlebug folder.) I cut the letters using Lasting Impressions paper and my Cameo Silhouette. The flourish was cut with a Memory Box die. I matted with pink, and rounded all the bottom corners. Since it was "princess-y" I thought I'd add some gems. 

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

Pink and Delicate

I made two cards yesterday - yippee! They were both made using some parts that I cut with my Cameo Silhouette. I'll eventually learn how to use it and have some fun with it. I must say, it was great to take the time to actually make some pieces specifically for cards, instead of just "testing it out." Both cards I made are pink and girly. I'll share the other one with you tomorrow.

For this one, I cut the doily and the butterfly with my Silhouette. I added Star Dust Stickles to the butterfly. I cut a circle of light pink and put on the doily. Both the doily and the butterfly are mounted on foam squares. The bottom white layer is embossed with a Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and matted with the same light pink. (Pink Pirouette from Stampin' Up!)

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

Birthday Wishes

A simple birthday card for today - my favorite kind:) Happy Belated Birthday, Kris!

The flowers are from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Love Blooms. I used True Thyme and Orchid Opulence inks. The paper I stamped on is shimmery white, so I also embossed with clear embossing powder. I cut the scalloped layer using a punch and Orchid Opulence cardstock. The green layer (True Thyme) and the white were cut using Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations and is stamped with True Thyme. I mounted the circle layers on foam squares and used white and True Thyme layers on the card base.

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

Navy Birthday

Another simple "guy card." These are so hard for me to make, even when I'm on a roll with stamping!

The sentiment is from a $5 set from Papertrey. I used navy ink. The papers are from a Die Cuts With a View matstack. The matting is all navy, and the vertical piece is scored with my Scor-Pal. It was in with my scraps, and worked quite nicely. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares.

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

Flutter By Wednesday - a Sketch

This week's Flutter By Wednesday challenge is another sketch by Kathy. Fun, huh? We'd love to have you join in, so just create your card based on this sketch, add your butterfly or fairy, upload it to your blog or on-line gallery, and link it up to the Flutter By Wednesday blog. Be sure to check out the wonderful creations by the Design Team, too.

For my card, i started with the lily image from a Hero Arts set. I stamped it with Stampin' Up!'s Crushed Curry ink, cut it with a Nestability, and drew in the dashed lines before removing the die. The matting is Crushed Curry also, and black, cut with more Nestabilities. The patterned papers are all from a Recollections matstack. The lily panel is mounted on foam squares. The butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch and the sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set. I added three gray rhinestones to the vertical layer and also smaller ones to the butterflies.

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

Best Blossoms Anniversary

An anniversary card for friends.

The frame was cut with my Cameo Silhouette - one of the few things I've cut with it. Hopefully I'll spend more time with it some time soon! I cut an oval to put under it and stamped the flowers on it. (They are from a Stampin' Up! set called Best Blossoms.) Then I stamped the sentiment, from My Sentiments Exactly. After stamping, I sponged the entire panel with SU! Soft Sky ink. I added a row of black gems under the sentiment for a little more balance. I matted with a layer of Soft Sky cardstock and a layer of black. It feels good to be doing some stamping again. I'm entering this into the Repeat Impressions Designer's Choice Challenge, which is to use sponging. I suppose my sponging should be a bit more prominent, but I made the card first and then saw the challenge:)

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

Flutter By Wednesday - Any Winged Creature

This week's Flutter By Wednesday challenge is an always-popular one - create your card using any winged creature! Please check out the blog for all the details, to link your card, and to check out the samples by the design team members.

I used a piece that's been sitting on my table for a couple weeks. The partial circle is the piece cut out for another card I've shared. And I stamped the sentiment as a practice for placement on that card. Since I hadn't tossed it out, I decided to use it:) The sentiment is from Gina K. I stamped the bird (from an Inkadinkado set) with Versamark on Riding Hood Red cardstock (from Stampin' Up!) and embossed it with detail gold embossing powder. I cut it out, mounted it on foam squares and attached it to the sentiment piece. Then I matted with more red cardstock. I used some shimmery gold paper for more matting and embossed with a Sizzix folder. I matted it with one more layer of red.

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

Simple Black, White and Red Birthday

I took a little time in my stamping room tonight. Gosh, did that feel good! Honestly, I'm worried that after so much time away from stamping, it might be hard to get started again and maybe I'll quit. I don't WANT to quit! So, I'm going to try to make more time and see if I can get some creative juices flowing again.

So, here is my simple - but kind of elegant:) - card. The flowers are from Hero Arts. I had stamped them a couple weeks ago, trimmed them way down and matted them with red. They've been sitting on my table since then. I added a black strip, popped the image up with foam squares, and added the sentiment from Papertrey Ink. I put everything on a white layer and added it to the card front. I love white on white layers. I remembered that Repeat Impressions' Designer's Choice challenge this time is black, white and red cards, so I'm entering it the challenge.

An update on my mom: Even though the radiologist recommended several weeks of radiation even if the PET scan came back negative, the surgeon said she should have her PET scan the beginning of April and if comes back negative, she doesn't need to do radiation. So, prayers for a negative PET scan would be greatly appreciated! How awesome that would be!

And a house update: We finally had both cars in the garage last night. Yippee! The garage isn't totally finished but at least everything is close enough to the edges that we can use it. The bikes are hung up and the tools are in the workroom. My stamping room is really quite finished. We still need to go through each room and clean and polish the woodwork and remove all the "excess" paint (they were pretty sloppy!). And we still need to hang the pictures. But, it's pretty much home:)

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

Flutter By Wednesday #230

The challenge this week from Flutter By Wednesday is open - just use a butterfly or fairy on your creation and link it up to the blog. We're sponsored this week by Pattie's Creations and the design team members were generously given some images to work with. I chose this delightful Thinking of You image.

I printed the image and colored it with Copic markers. I matted with Papertrey's Berry Sorbet cardstock. I used a cardbase from Repeat Impressions. (They are available here.) We'd love to have you join us with the challenge! Edited to add: There is a prize this week for entering the challenge. One lucky entrant will win three digital images from the sponsor!

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

Birthday in Blue

My creativity is starting to return, although you can't tell it by this card! Since I'm lacking in blogging material, I thought I'd post it anyway:) I needed a "guy card" and let's face it - there are some guys that really don't care what the card looks like, or even if they get one!

The two stamps are from the same Inkadinkado set. I inked the circle one up with some Versafine ink and then used a Tim Holtz distress marker around the outer edges. The sentiment was inked up with just the marker. The patterned paper is from a Die Cuts With a View matstack and the solid matting is from Stampin' Up! The circle panel is mounted on foam squares.

Update on my mom - I went down to visit them and go with them to her appointment with the radiologist on Thursday. She will likely decide to have radiation. Doesn't sound very pleasant, but is highly recommended in her case. She will see her regular doctor next week and get his recommendation, also. She would probably have about six or seven weeks of it, five days a week.

I think I finished my stamping room finally - except for the pictures, clock, etc. to hang on the walls. Yippee! We still have things to do around the house (I've been working on scrubbing cupboard doors, etc. and then polishing them, cleaning windows, scrubbing sinks and showers. The previous owners were really quite hard on the house!) but we're getting there.

I printed out my calendars for 2014 earlier this week and got them all cut on Thursday. I feel like I'm slowly making progress. Last year at this time I had at least January and February done and possibly March. Plus, I had lots of Christmas cards made already. Oh well, that was last year and this is this year and I WILL be ready when the time comes. Maybe it will be another year of making about 50 cards the same and the other 30 or so different. I often end up liking the mass-produced ones better than lots of the unique ones anyway!

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

March Calendar Page

Oh my gosh - it's March! I know I've been very busy with our move, but how could it possibly be March already?? LOL!

Here is my page for this month. The basket is stamped with an Inkadinkado stamp and is paper pieced. (I noticed when I put it in the frame after photographing it that the upper left corner of the basket was folded up. I fixed it when I put it back, but didn't bother to take another picture.) I colored the eggs with markers. The patterned paper is from Recollections and the sentiment stamp is from a Studio G dollar set.

If you would like to print your own calendars to decorate, feel free to use my Excel files. You can find them (both 2013 and 2014) at the top of the page under the header. I'd love to hear from you if you choose to download them.

I'll be back tomorrow with a simple card and a couple updates.

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