Very Simple Sympathy

I had just a very few minutes to spend in my stamping room last night, and I finished this card I had started last week. I had already cut the paper (from my new Recollections pad that I got last week) and rounded the corners. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I figured this would work. I took a scrap of white and then cut some more of the matching rose paper to fit, again rounding the corners. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the sentiment panel is mounted on foam squares. The rounded corners add a nice softness, I think.

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

Wreath of Roses #3 - and a Color Challenge

I made this card for a color challenge - the colors being orange and green. I also used two more stamps from the Stampin' Up! set called "Wreath of Roses." I just have a tiny rose stamp yet to use.

I stamped the image with Memento black ink and colored with Copics. I cut it out with a Nestability and then cut the mat from orange with the matching scalloped oval. I mounted on foam squares. I added two colors of orange gemstones. 

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

Birthday Daisies

Don't ask me why (since I have more patterned paper that I could ever, ever use!) but when I went to Michael's earlier this week, I bought another pad of patterned paper because I really like it! So, I decided I better use some of it. 

Normally I start from the top and work my way down, and then patterned paper doesn't look right to me. So this time I started with the paper. I thought this die from Spellbinders would look nice. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Swirly Christmas Trees

After I made this card, I had the dotted tree (below) left over. I tried it over olive green cardstock, and I liked the looks of it. So I made four more cards. Three are like the above card, and then the one below. For the top one, I cut the tree (Memory Box die) out of a shiny pewter cardstock. Then I cut the tree out of white. I matted the white with the olive green and then glued the tree back in the opening. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

I am linking these cards up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. The optional challenge this week is a photo inspiration, but the only 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!

Wreath of Roses #2

My second card using the Stampin' Up! set called "Wreath of Roses." I stamped the stamp, using a Stamp-a-ma-jig, on a strip of white cardstock and colored with Copics. I matted with purple textured cardstock from a matstack of bright colors and mounted on foam squares. The background is the same textured cardstock. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Happy 2nd Birthday, Wyatt!

Today is our grandson Wyatt's second birthday. My husband, Jim, and I spent about three hours this morning and made him this card. The ideas mostly came from Jim:) We were very happy with how it ended up.

One of Wyatt's favorite things is "flying" with Grandpa. He just loves to have Grandpa carry him around in a Superman pose and have Grandpa say, "It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Super-Wy!"

The pictures are clip art we found on-line and we just printed the front panel on the computer and matted on blue cardstock.

And here is the inside. We found the picture of Superman, printed it out, and carefully cut it out. I added a little bit of black around the edge with a Copic marker. We found a picture of Wyatt and added his head to Superman's picture. I stamped Versamark over the entire Superman image and embossed with clear embossing powder. It gave the image more depth and just plain made it look cooler! I used two strips of scrap cardstock, scored lines every quarter inch, and made the "pop-out" pieces to mount Superman on. He really comes out a long way! We found the word "Superman" and then added the "Wy" over it. Like I said, we were pleased with the end result.

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

NBUS #3 - Christmas

Well - I did it, even though it required two posts on the same day:) This is my third entry into Darnell's NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge.

The Christmas tree was cut with a Memory Box die that I bought in June and had not used until this card. I cut it out of a darker green cardstock. Then I cut it out of the burgundy dotted cardstock. I added a trunk and inserted the die-cut tree into the opening of the dotted paper. The sentiment (which you can actually see better in real life) is from Denami.

I am also entering this into the Christmas Card Challenge. This week's challenge is "Anything Goes." 

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

Wonderful Words #1 - and the NBUS Challenge

Finally - another card for Darnell's NBUS challenge - to use some "Never Before Used Schtuff." I have so much of that and I fully expected to have entered the full three times, but this is only #2 and the challenge ends tonight.

I recently purchased this embossing folder from Darice. I started by stamping the sentiment (from the Stampin' Up! set called "Wonderful Words," which is in my current stack) and then I embossed. I colored the trees and leaves with SU chalk. I mounted on foam squares and put it on a kraft base.

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

Happy Anniversary, Harriet and Bruce!

This is for my friend, Harriet, and her husband, Bruce. Hope you have a wonderful day!

I stamped the heart wreath with Versamark and embossed with detail gold embossing powder. The stamp is from Stampin' Up! from a set called "Wreath of Roses" and is in my current stack of SU stamps to use. I used  a fine-pointed Fantastix stick and bleach to "color" the roses. I used a Copic marker to color the leaves. I matted with shiny gold and mounted on foam squares. The patterned paper is from an old SU matstack. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder.

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

Fall Masculine Birthday

I thought this card would work well for a guy with a fall birthday.

It started with a left-over. See the frame around the opening? That was stamped with a My Favorite Things stamp. I stamped a sympathy sentiment over it, but it just seemed to bold and too plain. So, I used the coordinating die to cut it out. That left me with this great frame! I used a Recollections background stamp to stamp over the rest of the piece. I intentionally let it stamp "splotchy" and this was the second stamping. The sentiment is also from My Favorite Things and is stamped with dark brown ink on a separate piece of cardstock. I glued these two pieces together and mounted them on foam squares and adhered to the card base. All the layers are ivory.

I am submitting this to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #5. The frame stamp, the frame die and the sentiment were unused by me before this card. Thanks, Darnell!

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

Wonderful Woodcuts #3 and #4

Okay, here are cards using the last two stamps in the Stampin' Up! set called "Wonderful Woodcuts."

This first one could be a Father's Day card, or any card for a father. I colored it with Copic markers. I added microfine glitter to the ocean for added sparkle. It covered up the black lines just a tad, so I used a Tim Holtz distress marker's fine tip to draw over them. I matted with matching blue and mounted on foam squares. The background is glossy cardstock embossed with a Fiskars texture plate. I misted the cardstock before embossing to deepen the impression.

This second one is a masculine thank you card. I stamped it on a brown cardstock with Versamark and used Emerald Pearl Luster embossing powder. I colored with Copics again. The background is actually a deep pine green embossed with a folder from The Paper Studio.

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

Morning Glory Birthday

I'm pretty sure that's a Morning Glory adorning this card:) It's from My Favorite Things. I colored it with Copics. The sentiment I think is from My Sentiments Exactly.

How's that for a brief post! I'm ready to hit the hay, but I wanted this to post in the morning.

Oh, and to my anonymous commenter from yesterday - thank you! (Would you consider signing your name? Then I could call you by name.)

Edited to add: I almost forgot to link this up to Darnell's NBUS #5 Challenge!! Neither of the stamps used on this card have been used by me before. One was a gift from a friend and one was purchased from a stamping blogger. Be sure to check out Darnell's blog for the challenge and to view her artwork!

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

Wonderful Woodcuts #2

A late post from me. I haven't missed a blogging day since some time in May, and I didn't want it to happen today. So, I went down and made this card. :)

It uses the second stamp in the Stampin' Up! set called "Wonderful Woodcuts." I'll try to get the last two stamps used soon and post them on the same day. I stamped the image in Memento black ink and colored with Copic markers. I used a Fiskars texture plate for the matting. I brayered it with white pigment ink before running it through my BIGkick. I added a scrap strip underneath.

For mrses44: The My Favorite Things stamps from yesterday's card are from the set called "Inspired By the Sea." It's likely retired. Probably about 75% (or more!) of my stamps are retired. I make cards for the fun of making them and post them for inspiration, so it really doesn't make any difference to me if they are available or not.

We went camping again for a couple days with some friends. It was HOT HOT HOT and it rained and stormed. We still managed to have a great time. We just had to go for a couple rides to escape the heat and we ate dinner out on Saturday night:) I'm home today and I hope to get caught up with a few things and maybe get some more stamping time in.

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

Masculine Birthday

I'm starting another stack of Stampin' Up! stamps to use. I may decide to take a little bit of an extended break from my project after this stack. We'll see:)

Anyway, the set that this stamp is from is called "Wonderful Woodcuts." It's a great set for masculine cards. I stamped the image with Versamark on kraft and embossed with white. I colored with Copics, except for the white. That was done with a Tim Holtz distress marker. I trimmed the panel down and mounted it on foam squares.

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

Change of Direction

A very simple card for today. I almost didn't have a post for today or tomorrow, but I whipped up a couple cards:)

Both of these stamps are from My Favorite Things. I stamped them with Versamark on kraft and embossed with white. I matted with a brown cardstock. That's it! I thought it would be appropriate for someone who's hit a bump in the road.

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

Happy Birthday, Danni!

It's Danni's birthday and some of us are celebrating with her. She's been kind of missing Flutter By Wednesday and thought this might help:) So, we're having a "Flutter By Hop."

We'd love to have you flutter around and leave comments. Danni will be giving away two gift certificates to people who leave comments. You can comment until Monday, September 7. Danni will post the winners on her blog on Tuesday, September 8. Enjoy!

Here is a list of bloggers joining Danni's birthday hop:

Danni
Peggie
Harriet
Sheri
Shirley
Kristie
Nancy
Margie
Jan
Marji
Denise
Netta
Lynette (You are here:) )
Brenda
Ashley

For my card, I decided to go with a stair-step card. I had never done a portrait-oriented step card before, so it was kind of fun to work out the dimensions. I like the way it turned out. I started with the border on the left, which was cut with a Memory Box die. I cut it again and used some of the pieces. I added gems to the flower centers. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. The main image is also from Papertrey. I stamped it on white and matted with matching pink.

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

Glittery Birthday

This is made with a left-over part from tomorrow's card:) I was testing the stamp, color, etc. I did like it for my project, but stamped it again for that card. Then I used this piece to test the glitter, too. (I ended up not using glitter on tomorrow's card, though.) The image is from a Papertrey Ink set. I cut it out and mounted it on foam squares and matted with white. The glitter is microfine. The sentiment is also from Papertrey.

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

Card Part Birthday

Another card using a "card part." I've had it around here for quite a few years. The piece that I'm talking about is the main card front. I believe it was die-cut with a Spellbinders Edgeabilities die. (I don't think they are available anymore.) I used Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone for the coloring. I embossed the blue-squared layer with a texture plate, then brayered over it with a light blue ink. The sentiment was cut with My Favorite Things dies.

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

September Calendar Page

Here is my calendar page for September. The leaf stamps are all from Cloud 9. The background stamp is from Tattered Angels. I matted with shimmery gold paper.

My Excel files are available for download. Just click on the calendar tab under my blog header. There is also a link to information on how I display my calendar, as well as where you can get the frames.

To my "question-filled reader" regarding yesterday's card: The Memory Box die is called Bloomington Border. I'm not really sure why the instructor had us do the watercoloring in that order. I like the way it turns out, but I'm not sure if it looks different than if you did the cutting first or not.

Also - for Virginia: That Sizzix embossing folder was a part of a set called "Snow and Trees." It came with two embossing folders and a gingerbread die. You can see it on the Sizzix website here. Here is a link to it on Amazon.

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