Envelope Making Board

I don't have a card to share today, so I thought I would share something else. I had a 50% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket earlier this week, plus a gift card for Michael's. So, I HAD to buy something! Since there isn't a whole lot there that I want these days, I bought an We R Memory Keepers Envelope Board. I thought I'd tell you what I thought about it.

It works very well and it's very cool to be able to make envelopes so easily. (I don't make many envelopes, but hopefully that will change now!) However, the dimensions they give for making an envelope for an A2 (standard card-making size) were not satisfactory to me. It was more square-ish - didn't fit nicely, in my opinion. I went on SplitCoastStampers and searched the forums thinking that it would have been discussed there. I found a forum with a couple links. Yippee! HERE is a link to a great site with an Excel file that you can download and use to make awesome envelopes any size you would like! Basically, the one I will use most is this: cut your paper to 8 x 8 inches and start by scoring at three and a half inches. Voila! The perfect size for an A2 card.

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

Lilies of the Valley Birthday

I made a card for the SplitCoastStampers Sketch Challenge today and here it is. It is the last card I need to make for April - yippee:)

I stamped the image with Memento black ink and colored with Copics. It's from JustRite Stampers. I cut it out with an oval Nestability (and trimmed a little bit) and matted with Gumball Green cardstock that I cut with a scalloped oval Nestability. I added white gel pen to the scallops and Star Dust Stickles to the flowers. I mounted on foam squares. The center strip was embossed with a SU/Sizzix embossing folder. The sentiment is from Gina K.

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

Happy Birthday to My Dad

This is the card I made for my dad for his birthday. His birthday is not until April 17, but I keep making cards that I can't show yet so I wanted to share something! (The recipients of the other cards I've made read my blog.) I am almost done making cards for April - one more to go.

Anyway, not the most masculine card, but those are hard for me. I used a Gina K set for the images. I stamped them on cardstock with Tim Holtz Iced Spruce ink and punched them out with a Marvy punch. Then I took another piece of white cardstock and punched three circles evenly spaced. I used my Martha Stewart scoring tool to score a double line above and below the circles. I stamped the sentiment in the same color ink using a Papertrey Ink sentiment. I used the sentiment panel as a template for gluing the punched-out circles onto the card front, and then mounted it on foam squares for dimension.

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

Anniversary Wishes

It's my cousin's Fortieth Anniversary soon, and this is the card I made for them. 

The flower, flower center and leaves are from a Papertrey Ink set. The sentiment stamps are from a Verve set. I matted with PTI Berry Sorbet cardstock, to match the flower. That's it!

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

"Guy" Birthday Card - Part 2

Part Two of yesterday's post - although there was only part one when I posted it!

I kept looking at the cut-out of the birch trees and wondering what I should do with it. (It was cut out of white with my Cameo Silhouette.) I decided to use my Versafine Onyx Black ink pad to color it. That worked well - I just kept tapping it until it was all black. So, today's card is VERY similar to yesterday's. The sentiment is from Verve. I colored it with a Tim Holtz black distress marker and stamped it off. Then I spritzed it with water and stamped. I matted with black and mounted on foam squares. The red bird is left over from yesterday's card - cut with a Martha Stewart Birds on a Wire punch.

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

"Guy" Birthday Card

A birthday card for my brother-in-law.

I cut the birch trees out with my Cameo SIlhouette, just to see how they would cut. It worked nicely. But, I cut it out of white cardstock, and didn't think I could really use it for anything, since the space between the trees was white, and not the trees themselves. So, I thought to myself, "You could use this as a stencil and use white ink on black cardstock." So, that's what I did:) The sentiment is stamped with the same white ink - it's from Papertrey Ink. I mounted it on foam squares. The little bird was cut with my Martha Stewart "Birds on a Wire" border punch.

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

Happy Birthday, Amelia!

Here is the card I made for our granddaughter, Amelia. She is the only girl out of five grandchildren - a princess:) Her birthday isn't until next Friday, but it's all I have to share for now.

The main image is from a Penny Black set. I stamped her with Memento black ink and colored with Copic markers. I added a gem to the flower center and Star Dust Stickles to her wings. The sentiment is from a Papertrey set. I curved it on the block to follow the curve around the fairy's head. I embossed the "with love" with a Cuttlebug folder. I scored a line on both sides of the embossing, and also a double line around the outer edge. I matted with Stampin' Up! cardstock.

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

Happy Birthday, Kris!

This card is for a friend in my stamping group. Happy Birthday, Kris!

The tulips were stamped using a Papertrey Ink set. The sentiment is from the same set. I used Stampin' Up ink to stamp them. I punched the fence with a Martha Stewart Picket Fence punch. I scored a line with my Scor-Pal right under the fence. I matted the bottom of the fence piece with cardstock to match the flowers and mounted on Pop Dots. I matted the tulip panel with the same color.

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

More Poppies

 

Another birthday card for a friend. It's been great to be back in my stamping room. It's still not often enough, but has been enjoyable.

This die cut was sitting on my table. I had cut it out of white. I used Copic markers to color it. Then it sat for a while longer. I finally used it on a card. I matted it with New Leaf cardstock (Papertrey.) I mounted the panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey, also.

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

Celebrate - With Balloons

Here are the last two cards that I made on Saturday. The second one is for my nephew. I asked my husband what card he would like to give his sister, and he chose this one, so I made this top one with a purple balloon for her.

For both of them, I stamped the sentiment (from Impression Obsession) on a piece of white cardstock. I matted with black.  I stamped the balloon (from the same set) and then paper-pieced them with paper from a Recollections pad.

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

Purple Birthday

Another birthday card for a March birthday that I made on Saturday.

Once again, the sentiment was cut using a Memory Box die. Gotta love 'em! I stamped the present on the white square and again on patterned purple paper. I cut the one out from the patterned paper and glued it to the one on white. I matted with purple cardstock and mounted on foam squares. I matted the dotted paper with a darker purple, too.

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

Celebrate - With Flowers

Here is another of the cards I made on Saturday. It's a birthday card for a friend.

I was using up some more of the die cuts I made while I was in Des Moines last June. I really do like the Memory Box dies - wish I had even a small fraction of the ones that some of my stamping friends have! Anyway, the swirly piece and the "celebrate" were cut with Memory Box dies. I cut the white piece and a black piece to mat it with. I scored the lines with my Scor-Pal. I added the swirl between the scored lines and then the flowers. Then I added the sentiment.

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

Pink Anniversary

I spent a while in my stamping room on Saturday and made five cards. It felt wonderful! Two of them are the same, but still ... I'll be sharing them over the next few days. And hopefully I'll be making some more very soon.

This is an anniversary card for some friends. They don't check my blog, so I'm safe to post it. I used up a few of my die cuts from last summer on my cards. This die cut is done with a Memory Box die, I'm pretty sure. I embossed the pink panel with a Sizzix embossing folder and matted with black. The sentiment is stamped with a Papertrey Ink stamp and matted with pink and black and mounted on foam squares.

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

Butterfly Birthday

A birthday card for a college student. It's hard to be creative when it's been a while since I did any stamping. I cased a card of mine for this card. And unfortunately it's going to be late, as her birthday is today. :( Oh well, better late than never.

I sponged Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Dusty Concord and Iced Spruce) through a die cut opening for the butterfly. The sentiment is stamped in Dusty Concord and is from Impression Obsession. I sponged the same purple ink around the edges. The card base and image panel are ivory.

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

Remembering Joanne

This is my good friend, Joanne. She was a member of our Yahoo! stamping group - one of the founders. She passed away on February 27. We loved her and will miss her a lot. Our Group Gathering will not be the same, but we will still have a great time and we will reminisce about Joanne. Six of us were able to attend her funeral last Monday. Several of the group were able to visit with Joanne one last time in January, but the extremely cold temperatures prevented me from attending, which made me VERY sad. However, that was the day that my dad called to tell me that my mom was being transferred to a different hospital and I was able to be with him at that time, so things worked out for me.

Here is a picture of our group last year in Des Moines at Archivers. (That will be another change for us, since Archivers is no longer open.)

Finally, here are a couple of the many cards that Joanne made. She was a fabulous card maker.

I'll see you later, Joanne.

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

Thank You

I finally took some time for stamping. Making Thank You cards came to the top of my "to-do" list.

The leafy branch is from a Papertrey Ink set. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! The border on the black matting is punched with a Fiskars punch and the butterfly is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I added a pearl for the butterfly's body and drew in the antennae with a fine-tip marker.

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

Thanks for the Cards

Thanks to everyone who sent cards to me and my family. We appreciated them all, very much. Today I am sharing with you the handmade cards we received. I knew they would get some some well-deserved ooohs and aaahs if I posted them here.

From Harriet

From Georgia

From Leslie

From Sheri

 From Bonnie

 From Vicki

 From Kris

From Donna

From Andrea

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

Remembering My Mom In Pictures

Today I wanted to share with you the photo boards my daughter and I made for my mom's funeral. My daughter did most of the "work" - I just supplied the tools. The boards were framed for the funeral and looked very nice, but I couldn't get a good picture of them there without glare.

I'm sorry for my personal posts lately, but that is what my life has been about for more than a month. Tomorrow I will post about my friend who passed away, and then I will get back into card-making. I promise!

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

March Calendar Page

March 4th and finally my March calendar page. The image I used was a clip art image from the Microsoft site. I added the "Welcome March!" and printed the image and sentiment at the same time. I colored the image with Copic markers. I matted with patterned paper from a Recollections pad. I added Star Dust Stickles to the clouds and the sun. Might I say - it sure does NOT seem like March out there!!!! Sunday was a high of below zero - crazy! And it's snowing again as I type this post. Oh well, spring will come some day - I'm quite sure of that.

Thanks to all of you who so thoughtfully left me comments and sent cards in memory of my mom. I appreciate them all so much.

I hope to return to stamping some day soon, also, when I get a bit caught up. I have a couple of blog posts in my head that I plan to share with you. I plan on showing you the photo boards we made for my mom's funeral. I plan on sharing with you the handmade cards we received. And I also plan on sharing with you some photos of a very special friend who passed away last week. I miss you, Joanne.

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