Happy Birthday ... to Me!

Well, another year has passed and I am older now:) Again per tradition, I post the cards I received for my birthday. It was actually yesterday, but we have company and this is the first chance I've gotten to post them. My "stack" is smaller this year, but I love them all! And I do know that a couple more are on their way.

From Sheri.

 From Vicki.

 From Harriet.

From Kris.

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

Blue and Gold Color Challenge

Here is the card I made for a color swap in my stamping group. The colors were blue and gold. I think this card would work for a guy.

The sentiment was cut from gold foil cardstock with a My Favorite Things die. The blue foil was embossed with a Darice folder. I added it to a layer of white cardstock, then scored the lines under the blue. I mounted the entire layer on foam squares.

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

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! As per my tradition, I am sharing a picture of our Christmas tree. Sorry you can't see that the lights are on. I wish you all safe travels and great times with family and friends.

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

A Bouquet for You

On Thanksgiving night, I went to Michael's to get some good deals. With stamp sets half price with an additional 30% off, the $10 sets were $3.50. I just had to get something! I bought this set by Stampendous. When I sat down to use it, though, I had no idea what to do with it. I'm pleased enough with the way it turned out, though.

I stamped the jar on vellum with black ink and then embossed with detail black embossing powder. I stamped the flowers with leaves, and also the separate leaves, on scrap paper. I colored them with Copics and cut them out. I stamped the stems on a piece of white cardstock, also, and colored them. I adhered the vellum piece over the stems. I mounted the flowers and leaves on foam squares and added them. The sentiment pieces are from the same set. I found some patterned paper to match, and matted the pieces with green.

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

Iris Sympathy

I stamped this iris last summer at our Group Gathering. It's a Penny Black stamp. I colored it with distress markers and stamped it on watercolor cardstock. I matted with green and stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) in black.

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

Happy Birthday, Sheri!

The card I made for my friend, Sheri. Hope you have a great day!

I started with the butterfly border - cut from black with a Memory Box die. I added a piece of Washi tape and scored a few lines. For the background, I masked off the edges and sponged purple distress ink on it, getting less and less as I headed toward the left. Then I spritzed it with water. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

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

Hip Hop Hooray

Such a simple card, but I like the way it turned out. The frog is a sticker. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I matted the sentiment with green cardstock to match the frog. I trimmed down the main panel smaller than the card front and mounted it on foam tape.

Julie - you left me a comment yesterday and I had no way to get a hold of you. I hope you check my blog! The folder with the daisies that I used on this card is from a Cuttlebug border set called "With Love."

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

More Season's Greetings

And yet another Christmas card for next year! I just can't stop:) I've been working with "card parts" again and had this die-cut piece in my box. I wanted to layer it on foil cardstock and liked this green, but it screamed "Christmas" to me. I found a sticker to put in the center of the circle. I embossed the white piece with a Sizzix folder after stamping the greeting (from My Favorite Things.)

Edited to add: The die I used for this card is from Memory Box. It is called "Circle Burst." There is a large one and a small one, according to the website.

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

Positive! (And Negative, Too)

I came across these stickers while digging in my sticker drawer. Thought I really should use some, since I have so many. For this card, I used the "positive" sticker. It is silver, in case you can't tell by the photo. I placed it on sticky paper and added microfine glitter. Then I colored it with Copic markers. I matted with a pinkish cardstock and mounted on foam squares. I embossed the bottom piece of cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things and is embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

For this card, I used the "negative" portion of the sticker. I matted with silver shimmery paper. The bottom layer is a card part that I actually dug out of my trash bag! I had made it into a card a while ago, but didn't like the card, so I threw it out. Came across it while I was looking for something and decided this part was worth saving. So, I trimmed it down and matted it with silver, also. I had made the background by sponging cardstock with distress ink, then "stamping" with water spritzed on a background stamp. The sentiment is the same as the first card.

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

"Recycled" Anniversary

A few years ago, I made some wedding cards for a friend and put the bride and groom's name and the date of their wedding on the front. However, I spelled the bride's name wrong on one of them! Oops. Luckily, my friend saw it right away and I made a new one. This card has been sitting around ever since. I removed the wedding cake from its original position and moved it over the mispelled name. Then I stamped the sentiment and embossed it with silver, matted it with shimmery silver, and added it. The background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and the cake was done with a small Cuttlebug folder.

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

Happy Fifth Birthday, Owen!

Our third-oldest grandchild is having his fifth birthday today. Happy Birthday, Owen! Here is the card we made him. He's into Star Wars, so that was the theme. The pictures are all art we found on-line. The sentiment was done with a Star Wars font. The main picture panel and the sentiment are both popped up on foam squares. The card is a full-sheet of cardstock folded in half.

We added Owen's face to each of these characters. I think he'll get a kick out it! (I HOPE so, because it took forever to get it done and then we ran out of ink for the printer and Jim had to go to two stores last night at 9:30 to get some!)

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

Spotted Birthday

I made this background piece a few weeks ago, and finally got it off my table and on to a card. I think you've maybe "heard" me say that a time or two ... or ten!

I brayered distress ink on to a Cuttlebug folder, spritzed it with water and then put a piece of cardstock in the folder and closed it - didn't emboss it. Then I used the same color purple ink and sponged around the edges. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession.

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

Season's Greetings Tree

Another Christmas card for next year:) This tree was sitting on my table. The stamp is from Paper Smooches. I had stamped it with Versamark on green cardstock and embossed with gold. (I know - it doesn't look gold in the picture, but it's a very pretty, shiny gold.) I colored the trunk with a brown marker and cut it out. I added the "ornaments" with Liquid Pearls. The sentiment is embossed with gold, also, and is by Papertrey Ink.

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

Die-Cut Birthday

When I had the opportunity to buy Spellbinders dies at 50% off, I bought four sets. This is one of them.

One die nests inside of the other. I used just the intricate part to cut the design out of white and trimmed it down to just slightly smaller than a card front. Then I cut both pieces out of a burgundy cardstock. I glued the burgundy piece onto the white piece. I scored the lines with my Scor-Pal. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession. I mounted the white panel on foam tape and added it to the card front. It's hard to tell in the picture that it's raised up.

Update on my dad: He started chemo last Friday. The cancer has gotten bigger in all locations. The most troublesome is the stuff at the top of his spine/base of his brain. They are hoping to keep it in check for as long as they can. He has a bus trip scheduled for the end of December and a cruise starting in the middle of January. We're hoping he is able to do them!

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

Happy Hanukkah

Here is the Hanukkah card I made this year. Hanukkah greetings to my Jewish readers.

The menorah stamp is a dollar stamp from Michael's from years ago, and the sentiment is from a mixed-message set from several years ago, too. I used Versamark and silver detail embossing powder for each of them. I stamped them on blue and matted with shimmery silver. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares. The background was embossed with a Sizzix folder and I matted that with silver, also.

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

Silver and Black Birthday

Another "card part" from my table. I cut out three of these butterfly sections a couple weeks ago and uncovered them a couple days ago.

Not a great picture, but I scored three lines with my Scor Buddy on the black part. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things and is embossed with detail silver embossing powder. The background is very glittery silver cardstock.

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

Gold and White Christmas

I finally had a little time in my stamping room yesterday, so I cleaned it up a bit. Then I used some pieces I found laying around and made them into a couple cards.

I had embossed this white piece while working on my calendar page for next year. (It didn't make the cut, though.) I used a Dreamweavers stencil for it. I matted it with shimmery gold paper and scored a couple lines under it. I used a My Favorite Things stamp for the sentiment. I'm not usually a "Happy Holidays" person (I prefer "Merry Christmas") but this one fit very nicely. I matted the gold with another layer of white and mounted on foam squares. This one will have to be for next year, as my cards all went out in the mail on Monday.

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

December Calendar Page

It seems I kind of have a "theme" for each month that is the same every year. My December page is Christmas, of course, and it's almost always embossed and silver.

The embossing folder I used for this page is from Darice. The stamps are from Inkadinkado. The stamping was done with Versamark and detail silver embossing folder. The matting is shimmery silver paper.

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