Birthday Blooms

I love this card. I wish you could tell better in the photograph what it really looks like. At any rate, this is how I made it: The flower was done with a Memory Box die. (Thanks, Harriet.) I did it last June using a technique we learned at our class in Des Moines. First I embossed the flower die, then watercolored it using distress inks. After it dried, I cut it out (with the die.) The lattice-y piece was done with a Spellbinders die. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I put these pieces on a layer of cardstock. All of the cardstock is ivory.

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

Tags So Much - Part Two

The last two cards using the Stampin' Up! set called "Tags So Much." I inked this first stamp up with markers. It's hard to tell, but I added tiny dots of yellow Liquid Pearls to the flower centers. I matted with green and mounted on foam squares. I also added a small piece of green for the bottom layer.

I'm sure I had never posted an Easter card in August before, but I guess I have now! LOL! The sentiment is from a SU! set called "All Year Cheer." The rabbit is from the tag set. I did the little bit of coloring with markers. I added the scored lines and matted with patterned paper.

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

Tags So Much - Part One

Today's cards (and tags) all use the Stampin' Up! set called "Tags So Much." It consists of six tag stamps. These four are actually tag-shaped. The cards I'll share tomorrow are not. I'm really tired of using tag stamps! With the cards for tomorrow, I'm done with tags - at least for a while. I'll be moving on to my next stack. That means I'm about half done. At this rate, I should be done about next October.

I stamped this spider stamp onto orange cardstock and cut it out with the coordinating SU! punch. I colored the spider with a medium gray Copic marker. I colored the border with orange. I added Diamond Glaze to the eyes. (I should have colored them white first, though.) I matted with black and mounted on foam squares. The patterned paper is from Recollections. I matted that with orange and then black. The sentiment is from Repeat Impressions.

I'm not sure what this card could be used for, but it is "sew sweet." :) I paper-pieced the flower and added an enamel dot to the center. I matted with the same paper as the flower and mounted on foam squares. The bottom layer was cut with a die at our Group Gathering in June.

And here are two more tags that have not yet been made into cards. I inked the valentine one with pale pink ink and and colored the words with a red marker. I matted with red and added a red mini brad.

For the Christmas one, I colored with markers and matted with red.



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

Turquoise and Brown Color Swap

I decided to sign up for the color challenge in my stamping group this month, but kind of ran out of time. Here is the simple card I made. While I was at it, I made two more! The stamps are both from My Favorite Things. I stamped them using dark brown ink on turquoise and matted with dark brown. The card base is kraft.

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

Terrific Tags #3

Here is another card using a stamp from the Stampin' Up! set called "Terrific Tags." There are six stamps in the set, but I decided to only use three of them. So, this completes my use of another set!

I stamped the image with Versamark on purple cardstock and used white embossing powder to emboss it. I then punched it out with the coordinating punch. The patterned paper is from a Recollections matstack and the die-cut and embossed leaf was in my "stash." I'm pretty sure it came from my friend, Vicki, several years ago. Thanks, Vicki!

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

Tiny Flowers Birthday

This isn't even a "card parts" card - it's a scrap card! Everything on it is a scrap except for the green matting on the silver piece. The little rectangles are left over from yesterday's window card. I stamped on them with a teeny tiny flower from a Technique Tuesday set, colored them with Copics and mounted on foam squares. I also added a tiny gem to the center of each flower. I found the scrap of green and punched the border using a Martha Stewart punch. I also scored a line under the punching. The silver piece was just sitting on my table, so I embossed it with the Darice "Wire Fence" folder which was also sitting on my table! The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

To my "anonymous" commenter from a few days ago on my glittery sticker card - there is no "fussy cutting" on that card. Without going into detail, you put the sticker on the sticky paper, cover it with microfine glitter and then color the flowers.

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

Christmas Window

I took a little while last night and made this card. I was trying to think of a starting point, and thought I'd like to use a die. I really don't have a lot of non-standard shapes, but realized that I got this Spellbinders (at least, I'm pretty sure it's Spellbinders) window die quite a while ago and hadn't used it yet. Now I have:)

Then I had to figure out what to put on the outside to look out at. I decided this pine tree from Stampin' Up!'s "Lovely as a Tree" would work nicely. I inked it up with Old Olive ink, added some brown on the trunk with a marker (which you can't see) and then "thumped" on some darker green with a marker. Then I sponged it with some very light blue ink. I trimmed it down and glued it behind the window. I thought this striped paper from a very old SU matstack would work, looking rather like wallpaper. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I used Sahara Sand ink to stamp it. 

I'll link it up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. This week's challenge is "Anything Goes." (Just found out I was a top three from last week!)

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

Camping, Anyone?

I haven't got a card to share with you today, so I'll share a few pictures from last week. We went camping at a state park from Wednesday through Saturday. We had awesome weather! We originally had reservations from Tuesday through Friday, but changed them due to the bad weather predicted for Tuesday and Tuesday night. Great decision! Then more rain Saturday night, so we timed it perfectly.

Here is the campsite - with tent and screenhouse.

The screenhouse. Kept most of the bugs out, plus gave us shade and would have helped to keep some things dry if it had rained. That is a camp stove/oven in the foreground. It's awesome. We even baked cookies while we were there:)

We got a new tent this year. Our other one was deteriorating. This one has two separate rooms. Here is the view of the "screened-in porch" taken from the "bedroom." There is plenty of room for the table and two chairs. The walls are all screens which open up pretty much completely. The roof is totally open, too, if the fly isn't on it.

And here is the "bedroom." Lots of room for a queen size bed. It has a very high ceiling so we can stand up. Also plenty of room on each side for dressing. It was very cold the first night - down into the low fifties. We stayed plenty warm, though. It got hot on Thursday and Friday, but was still pleasant for sleeping. We had time for hiking and relaxing. We plan on doing more camping in our retirement.

Last weekend our daughter and her family from Chicago were here visiting. That's why I have no cards to post. Hopefully this week I will have some time for creating!

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

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Here is the birthday card I made for our son, whose birthday is today. I used a piece of copper for the main panel. I embossed it with a Darice embossing folder from a set called "Nature." After embossing, I used a lighter to heat the copper to discolor it. (I bought the copper and lighter at a stamping store in Branson several years ago. Haven't used them very often.) I matted with black. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! Kind of weird for me to use a colored card base:) This card is similar to a card that my friend, Bonnie, made when she was over "playing" with me recently.

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

Sparkly Sticker Birthday

Okay - here is the "positive" of yesterday's Elizabeth Craft sticker. I used the same technique as a few days ago - added microfine glitter to the double-sided sticky paper after adding the sticker. I LOVE the sparkle, which you can see a little bit better in the picture on the right.

I colored the image with Copic markers and added a border along the edges - also with a Copic. The patterned paper is from Debbie Mumm (from JoAnn's a while back.) I mounted both the image panel and the sentiment panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Verve. The inside says "a very happy birthday."

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

Sticker "Negative"

I have quite a few stickers by Elizabeth Craft to use up, so here is another one. You will get one more tomorrow.

For this card, I used the "negative" portion of the stamp. Makes the stickers half the cost if you can use the "positive" and the "negative." :) I stuck it to some Papertrey Ink cardstock and matted with black. I mounted that panel on foam squares. I added the birthday sentiment which I purchased a few years ago from someone weeding out their stamps, so I can't tell you who the manufacturer is.

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

Terrific Tags #2

The second card using the Stampin' Up! set called "Terrific Tags." I stamped this image with Baja Breeze ink and matted with matching cardstock. I added an eyelet and some ribbon and mounted on foam squares. I embossed the background with a Sizzix embossing folder and matted it with Baja Breeze, also. I added a slight touch of color with Copic markers on the tag.

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

Terrific Tags #1

I finally got a couple more cards done for my Stampin' Up! "mission" - to use all of my SU! sets. I thought I started it last August, but it was actually July 24. I'm not quite half done, so I have a long ways to go.

The set I've used for today's card is called "Terrific Tags." I will be using three of the six stamps. I stamped the birthday tag stamp using Soft Suede ink. I punched it out and punched out the coordinating background - using SU punches. I embossed the background using one of my new Paper Studio embossing folders. I used a textured blue cardstock and sanded it down lightly. I added a strip of Soft Suede cardstock - with a line scored on it - and also matted the blue layer with Soft Suede.

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

Christmas Joy

 I have had this gold Christmas tree sticker for MANY years. I decided to finally use it. I still have several snowflakes that came on the same sheet. I don't know if it's Elizabeth Craft or not, but it's a similar sticker. Plus, I finally got some microfine glitter. How cool! I have done the technique with ultrafine, but it's just not the same:) The microfine is so soft.

I put double-sided sticky paper on a small piece of white cardstock. Then I removed the other side of the non-stick paper so that I had a sticky surface. That's where I carefully put the sticker. Then I put the microfine glitter over the entire piece. I colored carefully with my Copic markers. I sure wish you could see the wonderful sparkle! I matted with a scrap of gold that was already embossed with my Darice Wire Fence folder. I stamped the "joy" (from Papertrey Ink) with Versamark and embossed with detail gold embossing powder. The background was embossed on a piece of white cardstock with a Sizzix embossing folder.

I am linking this up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. This week's optional challenge is a photo inspiration, but the real challenge is to make a Christmas card.

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

Happy Anniversary, Kris and Ron!

Happy Anniversary to a friend from my stamping group. Congrats, Kris!

I stamped the image from My Favorite Things using Memento ink and colored with Copics. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I added four gems to the sentiment. I also added black matting.

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

Happy Retirement, Leslie!!

Leslie, a good on-line stamping friend, retired - Friday was her last day. This is the card that I sent her. She makes the most beautifully awesome cards!! I wanted something special, but this is about the best I could do.

The image stamp is from Repeat Impressions. I stamped it with Memento black ink and colored with Copics. I cut it out carefully and mounted on foam squares. I added Star Dust Stickles to the wings and a tiny gem to each flower. I embossed the background with my Darice Wire Fence folder and matted with black. The sentiment is also from Repeat Impressions. I cut it out with a Spellbinders die and matted it with black, also. Happy, happy retirement, Leslie!! I wish you all the best. I'll be joining you soon:)

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

Tree:)

We now have a Hobby Lobby! :) I went there last week when it first opened. Stampabilities and The Paper Studio items were all 50% off. I found so many beautiful paper stacks that I would have loved to have purchased, but I know how I stamp and I know they would have pretty much sat in a box waiting to get used. So, I passed on them:( However, I bought two embossing folders, a package of tiny little purple flowers with teeny wooden bead centers, and a sentiment stamp set.

This card uses one of my new embossing folders from The Paper Studio. I first brayered brown ink on the folder, and then embossed a piece of kraft cardstock. I matted with Always Artichoke cardstock. The stamp set that came to mind to use with this folder was "Lovely as a Tree" from Stampin' Up! I pictured using the pine tree, but ended up with this oak (?) tree. I inked up the whole stamp with True Thyme. Then I added brown marker to the trunk and "thumped" some lighter green on the leaves. I cut it, and its matting, with Nestabilities. I'm not sure if I'll use it as-is, or if I'll eventually add a sentiment.

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

Thanks a Bunch!

Another card using another one of these frames:) I cut out the center of this one and mounted on foam squares. I added one of my new tiny flowers that I just got at Hobby Lobby. It was purple, but I colored over it with a dark blue marker. The sentiment was chosen because it fit! It's from Inkadinkado. Because of the sentiment, I wanted flowers on my patterned paper and chose these small flowers from a stack I bought at Archiver's a couple years ago.

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

Calendars

Since I've had a couple questions about my calendars lately, I thought I would do a post on them. I'm kind of running out of cards to post anyway, and I've got some busy times coming up starting today.

This is what my calendar looks like. It's in a "bent acrylic frame." They used to be readily available at Michael's and JoAnn's for less than $2.00. My calendar pages - and frame - are 3.5 x 5 inches. Michael's carries the acrylic frames, but not in that size. Amazon has them, but they are a lot more than $2. (They are $4.30.) I have also ordered them from Frame USA. (3.5 x 5 inch vertical frame.) Before I ordered from them, I checked on shipping. I store the rest of the months' pages behind, held in place with a rubber band. Hope this helps!

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

Birdie Thinking of You

More "card parts." The bird (done with a Stampin' Up! punch) and the white border (made with a Martha Stewart punch) were in my card parts. I mounted the bird on foam squares. The sentiment is from Stampabilities and is embossed with black embossing powder. The background was embossed with a Darice Wire Fence embossing folder.

Jeanne - this is for you:) (Since I have no other way to contact you.) My 2016 calendar pages are already available. They have been there since last December. You can link to them through the tabs near the top of my blog page - under the header. If you have more questions, please email me using the link in my Profile. The pages are 3.5 x 5 inches. I have frames to fit them, but those are getting harder and harder to find.

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

Two More Christmas Cards

I had these green-stamped tags in my "card parts" and used two of them for today's cards. The sentiment on this first one is from Technique Tuesday. I added two red mini brads and mounted on foam squares. The background was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and matted with red.

The sentiment on this card is from Papertrey Ink. Again I used foam squares to raise up the sentiment. The background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and matted with red.

I am linking them up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. This week's challenge is "anything goes."

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

Tagger's Dozen #3

Here is the third (and last) card that I made with the Stampin' Up! set called "Tagger's Dozen." It's the flowers and "happy for you." I used markers to ink it up and stamped on white. I matted it with the scrap of dark purple textured cardstock. Then my eyes fell on the border. I stamped it a few years ago and die-cut it. (I am pretty sure it is Stampin' Up!, also.) I recently cut out the center with a craft knife and put foam squares on the back. It was ready to be used. Perfect timing! I was able to trim down the white image panel a little bit, which is all that was necessary, and then added the border over it. The background was embossed with my former-favorite-now-sadly-neglected Swiss Dots folder from Cuttlebug. I thought it was a good match for the dots on the border stamp. Oh, and I added tiny yellow gems to the flower centers.

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

Tagger's Dozen #1 and #2

As I mentioned a few days ago, I've reached the point where my next four Stampin' Up! sets are all tag stamps. I've made a decision - I am not going to use them all. I have the set called "Too Terrific Tags." I am not going to use any of them. I also have the set called "Tagger's Dozen." I have used three of the twelve stamps. I have the set "Terrific Tags." I am going to use three of the six stamps. And I have the set called "Tags So Much." I will use all six of those stamps. And I will call that "good enough!" :)

So today's tag and card are done using the "Tagger's Dozen" set. This first one is about two and a half inches across. The punched base was in my "card parts." I stamped the flower with the sentiment onto white cardstock and used a Nestability die to cut it out. I sponged light blue ink around the edges before removing from the die.

For this second card, I used the friends stamp. I inked it up with lavender ink and used black for the sentiment. I cut it with a Nestability and again sponged ink around the edge before removing from the die. I added tiny black gems to the butterflies' bodies. After doing that, I decided I wanted more black, so I used a black marker to draw over the stamped antennae and also the "trails." The embossed border was done with a Darice folder and I matted with black. I mounted the image piece on foam squares.

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

More Card Parts

I am really having a lot of fun using more of my "card parts." One of these card parts was pretty new, but the other one has been around for a couple years. 

I have used these Elizabeth Craft stickers with glitter and markers, but this time I thought I would try glitter paper. I put the sticker on the glitter paper and colored with marker. It worked fine, but I'm thinking the color is still rubbing off. I even sprayed it with hair spray. I matted with black. I found this yellow striped cardstock already matted with the black. Combined the two pieces, and voila! :) The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Medallion Cards

First off, here is a link to the instructions for the transfer sheet that I used for yesterday's card.

A friend from our stamping group has always sent stampoffs and medallions to share. Thanks so much, Annie! I'm finally using a few of them. Annie had already stamped, embossed and cut out these pieces. 

For this first one, I added some light purple in a few spots with a Memento marker. I put the medallion together using foam squares. I embossed the background with a Sizzix embossing folder and matted with shimmery gold. The sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) was embossed with gold embossing powder.

I added some green to these medallion pieces. I embossed the background with a Darice Wire Fence embossing folder and added a scored line, then matted with shimmery gold. The sentiment was embossed with gold and is from Stampabilities.

Hard to see in the picture, but Annie had already added glitter of some sort to this medallion. The sentiment, which is from Papertrey, is again embossed with gold.

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

"Negative" Sticker

My friend, Vicki, posted several cards where she use the "negative" parts of a sticker. So, I got some of the special paper so that I could do that, too:) Here is the card I made using that technique. The sentiment is from a Stampabilities set that I just got our our NEW Hobby Lobby!

Edited to add: Here is a link to the transfer sheet that I used. You can find videos on YouTube on how to use it. It IS reusable. And here is a link to the instruction video.

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

Stitched Snowman #1 and #2

The next set in my "use my Stampin' Up! stamps" project is this set called "Stitched Snowman." There is a greeting that I didn't use. (It says, "Christmas is caring, loving and sharing.")

For this first one, I stamped the snowman, then used a second stamp from the set to stamp the snowflake background. I colored with Copic markers. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white and mounted on foam squares.

 I used the third stamp for this second card, making a border with it. Again, I colored with Copics. I scored a couple lines on each side and matted with green. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I'm linking these up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. The optional challenge is a color combination this time, but the main challenge is to make a Christmas card.

The sets that are left of the stack that I'm working on now are all tag sets - four of them. I have to decide if I'm going to make over 25 cards with tags on them, or just make the tags and put them in my "card parts." I'm thinking I wouldn't like to just use tags for so long!

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

Holiday Greetings

How about a Christmas card for today? 

The image is from My Favorite Things. I colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!'s "Sincere Salutations."  This completes my use of this set, although I will use it again and again! (Oh yeah, I didn't use the stamp that says, "You're Invited.") I matted with red and mounted on Dimensionals. The background was embossed with a retired Sizzix embossing folder.

I'm linking this up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. There is a weekly optional challenge, but the main challenge is to make a Christmas card. (This week's challenge is a color challenge, but I didn't use the colors.)

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

Tender Toile #1 and #2

Here are my two cards using the Stampin' Up! set called "Tender Toile." There is also a sentiment stamp which I did not use.

I stamped the bunny with Memento black ink and colored him (her?) with Copic markers, matted with black, and mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I embossed the background with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder called "Lace." 

I used one of the stamps to make the background on this card. I used Versamark and clear embossing powder. For the main image, I inked up the stamp with Versamark first and then with gray ink. Then I embossed with clear embossing powder. I'm not sure why the image got darker around the outside, but I like the effect! The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I matted the pieces with gray cardstock.

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

Sweet Stems - #1 - #3

I'll be running out of posts soon, if I can't find any stamping time! :) I guess I have a few to share yet, though.

My cards for today use the Stampin' Up! set called "Sweet Stems." It consists of four simple flower stamps. On this first card, I used two of them. The portion of the flower on the bottom is one of the stamps. I used another stamp (and my Stamp-a-ma-jig) to stamp the upper two pieces. I make very few of them, but this is a one-layer card. I colored with Memento markers. I added small gems to the lower flowers, the dots on the sentiment and to the butterfly. The butterfly was punched out of glittery cardstock with a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I also rounded the corners on the right side.

A single flower stamped and colored with Copic markers.  I added gems to the petals. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!'s "Sincere Salutations."  I added a piece of Washi tape above the sentiment. And that entitles me to submit this to the QKR Stampede challenge to use Washi Tape!

Again, stamped and colored with Copics. And again the sentiment is from "Sincere Salutations." I added gems, matted with bright orange, and placed it on the side of the card front.

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

August Calendar Page

Well, August has managed to arrive already! Here is my calendar page for this month.

The flower was made using a scalloped circle punch. After punching it, I cut towards the middle from each scallop using a scissors. I sponged a little bit of brownish ink around the edges. The center was also cut with a punch, and then embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. The leaves are lemons from a Technique Tuesday set:)

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