Spotlight Card

Joyce brought this card for us to make. It's called a "spotlight" card and it's been around for a long time, but I've never made one. Thanks, Joyce! She had already stamped the images and then cut out part of one for us to color and add to the bottom layer. I colored the partial image with Copic markers and then popped it up on foam squares.

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

Letting Paper Speak for Itself

 Kris shared with us some gorgeous paper sheets. I just had to allow them to be seen. They are a bit shimmery, too. For this first card, I just added the die-cut "Mr & Mrs" that I sparkled up with a Wink of Stella glitter marker.

And for this second card, I simply added a sentiment, embossed in white, to the bottom stripe. The sentiment is from a Technique Tuesday set that I purchased at the store's garage sale.

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

Pretty Embossed Flowers

This was a card that Kris had all ready for us to make at our gathering in Ankeny. We embossed the flower with some gorgeous embossing powder - a blue-ish green with gold specks. The left side has a strip of very pretty gold foil with an embossed pattern in it. The card has a black base. The sentiment is embossed with gold embossing powder.

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

Card Parts from Canada

One member of our stamping group lives in Canada. Sure would be fun to meet her some time for real! Maybe some day. At any rate, she sent us some pieces to use. I made them all into cards at our gathering and am sharing them with you today. For this first one, Annie sent the die-cut coneflower, already colored. I did add a bit more color to it. I used a Darice embossing folder for the background and also a sentiment die, cut twice and layered off-set.

 

Annie also sent this die-cut flower piece. I matted with some paper that I got from Vicki, and also added a die-cut sentiment with a shadow background.

And lastly, Annie sent this embossed-on-black mushroom on an inverted scalloped background. I colored with metallic markers, slightly matted it, used another die-cut sentiment and placed the pieces on a printed notecard that I got from Kris.

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

Die-Cut Christmas

Two more Christmas cards complete:) I made these, also, while I was in Ankeny. I used a die gifted to me by Kris for them. This first card uses stamps from a Hampton Art set that I purchased at Memory Bound - the store we spent our time at. The set included the die to cut out the "Merry." Merry is mounted on foam squares.

I used the same die for this one, but this time I embossed a sentiment from Gina K in white and added a couple thin strips of white cardstock.

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

Metallic Marker Anniversary

Here is another card that I made while I was in Ankeny, Iowa at our annual Group Gathering. I believe the flower image is by Altenew. I embossed it with silver embossing powder and colored it with Georgia's metallic markers. They were so cool! The sentiment is embossed with silver, also, and is one of my new (to me) Papertrey Ink stamps.

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

Die-Cut Birthday

I used a friend's die to cut the front of this card out of foil cardstock. I matted it with a piece of Gina K patterned paper which I embossed with a Swiss Dots embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I did that to match the dots on the die, which you can barely see on the top and bottom.

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

Christmas Joy

I bought a few clearance sets of Papertrey Ink stamps and got them delivered to me by a friend in Ankeny. There was a garage sale for stampers and scrappers while we were there, too, so I bought a few things. One thing I bought at the garage sale was this Penny Black poinsettia stamp. I combined it with a stamp from a new-to-me PTI set. For the first one, I used markers direct to the stamp. For the second one, I misted with water before stamping. Actually, the top card may be the second stamping of the bottom card:) 

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

Camping

Well, I ended up not getting my blog posts done before we left for camping. Oops. So, you get camping pictures instead:) We went to Glacial Lakes State Park with another couple, and we each stayed in one of these camper cabins. That was great, since it, of course, rained. We had a great time anyway, and got some walks in. The woodticks were horrific, though!

I thought I'd share a few pretty flower pictures with you. Hopefully I'll get my blog posts done soon, since I have lots of cards to share.

Our state flower is the pink and white, or Showy, lady's slippers and I've rarely seen them. But, I'd never seen yellow ones until this camping trip.

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

You Brighten My Day

A couple years ago, I got some Zig Clean Color Real Watercolor Brush Pens. I haven't used them much, as I was really not impressed by them. However, when my friend, Harriet, was here for a visit, she told me about, and gave me, some Tim Holtz Mixed Media cardstock and said that you can blend your markers on it. It worked great! Thanks, Harriet!

The stamps I used for this card are from a tiny (just these two stamps) set from Stampendous that I purchased in Ankeny. I matted with purple and used an ivory cardbase.

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

Another Make and Take

When we were in Ankeny last week, we also made a visit to Taylored Expressions. How fun! Several years ago, we were invited to Taylor's house to shop and do a couple make and takes there. (Here is a post from that trip. Gosh, it was nine years ago already!!) They were so sweet and we had awesome treats.

While we were there this year, we did a make and take, and this is my card. We used their liquid watercolors to paint. The sentiment is pretty cool, too. There is one huge stamp with lots of sentiments. And then there is a coordinating die to cut them all out at one time!

I have lots more cards to share with you that I made in Ankeny, and shortly after arriving home.

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

Make and Take Card

Well, I'm back and settled after our annual "Group Gathering" in Iowa. This year we had to change things up a bit, as our usual hotel was closed for renovations and the stamping store we've gone for the past several years has closed. :( So, we spent our time in Ankeny. It worked out great - the hotel was quite close to the store we spent our time. We settled in to Memory Bound for three days starting last Monday and departing on Wednesday. They were so kind as to let us leave our stuff in the store even over night. 

Memory Bound also had a make and take that we participated in on Wednesday morning. This is the card that we made. I don't know the brands of anything that we used, but the design is great. We embossed the dotted piece with a star folder and used distress ink on it, and also all of the edges of the pieces. The tag is removable. Thanks, Memory Bound!

And here is a picture of the group. From left to right: Sheri, me, Vicki, Harriet, Joyce, Kris, Georgia.

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

Friendship

I cut the leafy border on this card with another die that a friend brought over. I cut an oval to fit behind it. The sentiment is from Rubbernecker. My friend also brought over some Brushos, which I had never used before - fun! I used a small part of my experimental piece to cut the flowers out using a die. I added enamel dots to the centers. I embossed the background piece with an embossing folder from Stampin' Up! by Sizzix and matted with black. The sentiment panel is mounted on foam squares.

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

"Stained Glass" Flowers

Oops:) These cards were supposed to go on my blog yesterday. I forgot to finish and schedule the post.

When a friend came over a couple of weeks ago, she brought some of her dies with her. I used one of them for this card. I ended up coloring both of them with Copics. This first one is matted and mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

This one is glued directly onto the card front. The sentiment is a die.

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

Hello Friend!

This is a rather retro card - very "old school." :) I used a stencil and really cool brushes to ink up the design. I cut it with a circle die and stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) over it. I sponged a little bit of matching ink on the edges. I matted with a scalloped circle cut with a Nestability die. I added a black dot in each scallop with a black marker. I mounted the circle on foam squares. The background is embossed with a Darice folder and is matted with pink.

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

Floral Anniversary

A simple card using the same die set as yesterday. This time I colored the die-cut with Copics and added enamel dots for the flower centers. The sentiment is another die. I used a Copic marker to add the border, also.

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

Artist Choice Swap Card

I received a beautiful card from a friend using this die set and then I had to have it. (Thanks, Donna!) I gave this to my swap partner in our stamping group for the "Artist Choice" swap. EDITED TO ADD: I didn't give away the one I received - I got the die and then made this card which is the one I gave away in our swap!! :) )

The lattice oval, the leaves spray and the flowers are all included in the set. I cut the lattice piece out of white, the leaves out of green and the flowers out of pink textured cardstock. I matted the oval with light pink and added enamel dots to the flowers. I used patterned cardstock for the background. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and is matted and mounted on foam squares.

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

Patterned Paper Swap Card

This is the card I made for our group's color swap. The "color" for this month is patterned paper. My patterned paper is from Gina K. I used an unbranded die and embossed the turquoise piece with a Darice embossing folder. I added a piece of cardstock behind the holes before mounting the piece on foam squares. I also added a thin piece of patterned paper between the panels.

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

Gold Die Cut Background

I used my friend, Cheryl's, die to cut this background out of gold foil cardstock. I placed textured blue cardstock behind it. I stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) and embossed it with gold embossing powder, matted it with blue and mounted it on foam squares.

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

Graduation Congrats

There is nothing new about this card:) I needed a graduation card and this is a classic for me. But, since I share with you nearly ALL of the cards that I make, here you go:)

The top of the white panel was embossed with a Sizzix folder and the bottom was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I scored lines between those parts with my Scor-Pal. The hat and tassel were cut with a LifestyleCrafts die. The school colors are green, yellow and white.

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

Three-D Embossing Folder

When my friend, Cheryl, came over last Friday, she brought this 3-D embossing folder. I don't remember who makes it. It was the first time I have seen one! It makes a very beautiful, deep-embossed image. I used it pretty much just the way it came - I only added some sparkle with Wink of Stella. I matted the image and the sentiment with purple and popped the sentiment up on foam squares. The card is approximately 5 x 7 inches.

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

Leaf Punch

A subscriber of my blog wanted to buy this EK Success leaf punch from me a few weeks ago, so I used it to punch a few pieces of cardstock before shipping it off. Here are two cards that I made with the "punch-offs." I used a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder for the top part of the purple and also used my ScorPal. The sentiment is a Mrs. Grossman's sticker placed on a thin strip of olive cardstock and then popped up on foam squares.

I used some lightly-patterned paper for the leaves, a sticker for the sentiment, my Scor-Pal and some Washi tape to finish off this card.

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

Leaf Dies

A friend came over to play last Friday. We had previously connected by email and this was our first meeting "for real." So fun! Her name is Cheryl, and you can find her blog here. Thanks for coming, Cheryl, and thanks for bringing some fun toys and dies!

The leaves on this fall birthday card are some unbranded dies that she brought. I used ivory cardstock for the leaf layer and the card base. I matted the strip with some coordinating cardstock. The sentiment stamp is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Double Z Fold Card

I really want to try to make some "different" cards, but I almost always end up making kind of the same things, over and over. This one is at least a little bit different. I got the instructions here. I don't honestly know what led me to that post, but somehow I arrived there:)

All of the patterned paper that I used for this card are from a packet from Gina K. The iris is from Penny Black. I added a bit of sparkle with my Wink of Stella marker. 

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

Happy Birthday, Jonah!

Here is the card that I made for our second-youngest grandson. He likes "Captain Underpants." Oh my goodness - the things kids read these days! LOL! I found the image on-line, printed it out twice, matted one, and cut the other one out and mounted it on foam squares over the first image. The sentiment is another Mrs. Grossman's sticker.

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

June Calendar Page

Goodness - I almost forgot to post my calendar page today! I remembered just in time. Time is flying by way too fast.

The butterfly and mushroom stamps are from a Fiskars set. The sentiment is from a Studio G dollar set from years ago from JoAnn's. I colored the image with Copic markers and added the border with a Copic marker, also.