Birthday Daisies

I've seen cards like this in a few places. One of them was on my friend, Vicki's, blog. I hadn't looked at hers since I first saw it, so I was doing it from memory and I like hers better! But, I did mine the easier way. I simply added the square/diamond in the middle and then added the black strips. I colored with Copics and added some Star Dust Stickles to the flower centers. The flowers are from Sheena and the sentiment is from Stampendous.

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

Spritzed Bleach

One of our local grandsons had a summer school class last week on "aliens." Sounds pretty cool to me, but also beyond me! They had to invent a new planet and creatures for the planet and show their evolution and climate and all sorts of things. But, one really cool thing was the shirt he made. They had black t-shirts and they spritzed bleach on them. It looked like it had galaxies on it! So, I took a piece of black cardstock and spritzed it with bleach, and also a piece of olive-ish cardstock, to show him that I could do that with cardstock, too. And, of course, I could not just throw them out! So, here they are. I stamped a sentiment from My Favorite Things, matted it with black and popped it up before adding it to the bottom layer.

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Patterned Paper Birthday Wishes

I've had this patterned paper for MANY years. It's an odd size - 8 x 8 inches and not on my radar to use. I came across it last week and decided to use some of it. It also included some punch-out pieces, which I mostly threw out. I do like the papers and hope to use them again soon. The square/diamond shapes on the left were a few of the punched-out pieces that I kept.

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Re-Purposed Flowers

Some friends of ours recently celebrated their 50th anniversary! Congrats, Tom and Becky. Their invitation had such pretty flowers on it that I just had to do some fussy-cutting and use them on a couple cards. Here is what I came up with.

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Shimmery Daisies

 I embossed these flowers with a folder and then painted them with metallic paints. I also embossed the panel on the left side of the card.

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Easy Patterned Paper Cards

I was near a Michael's a few weeks ago and thought I'd stop in and see if there might be anything I'd be interested in. I found a matstack that had some very pretty patterns in. (I later got a $5 gift card from them and went to a different Michael's and found another one for $5, so that one was free! I'll have some of that to share eventually.)

Anyway, the first thing I did was go through and take out the sheets that had multiple patterned panels on them. I used a lot of them, set a few aside, and tossed some. Here are the cards I made with those panels. I made three of each of these cards. I used sentiments from various companies on them.

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Loss of a Pet

This is the card I made for my friend, Leslie, who lost her beloved Lulu in June. The embossed paw print background was in my card parts book. I used a photo of Lulu from Leslie's blog to make the card. The sentiment stamp is from Waffle Flower. Thank goodness for wonderful memories.

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Celebrate - with Stencils

And one last card I made at the retreat. The stenciled flower is from Gina K, as is the stencil I used on the background. The sentiment is from Maya Road and was in my card parts book. It's mounted on foam squares. I used thin, decorative gold sticker strips along the image panel and all four sides of the sentiment.

Edited to add: The flower stencil is a part of the stencil set from Gina K that includes the lattice from yesterday's cards, found here.

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"Lattice" Stencil

Two more pieces I ink-blended using stencils before I left on my retreat. The stencil is from Gina K. On this first card, I used Gina K ephemera to decorate. The anniversary stamp is from Hero Arts. The two larger purplish flowers are mounted on foam squares. Edited to add: Lisa - I emailed you, but the stencil is a part of this set from Gina K.

The stamps and dies used on this card are from Stampin' Up! I borrowed a friend's set quite a while ago. I think I probably still have several of these left.

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Pinkish Poinsettia

The stenciled poinsettia is from Gina K. I used Versamark on the center dots and then used gold embossing powder. The sentiment is embossed in gold, also, and is from Lawn Fawn.

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Leafy Thank You

The leafy stamped panel was in my card parts book. I added the sentiment to a piece of white cardstock, punched it out, and added the "stitching" with a marker. I popped up the circle. I believe the patterned paper is from The Paper Studio. I think the leaves and the sentiment are from Gina K.

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Bright Thanks

In with my stencils was this scalloped oval "negative" space piece. I used it to ink-blend inside it, and also masked off the center section and did some more ink-blending on the top and bottom. I added thin black strips along the edges of the colored sections. Then, in the scalloped oval area, I added a Gina K "splotch" stamp and the sentiments.

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

More Birthday Elephants

More long-time card parts. The elephants, balloons and sentiment are from WPlus9, I believe. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The patterned paper is from Gina K.

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Warm Fuzzies

This stamped image was in my card parts book, again from many, many years ago. It is probably from Penny Black. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and I curved it (un-perfectly!) above the image. I highlighted with a white gel pen and a sparkle pen.

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Daisy Thank Yous

Another mini set from Altenew - the flowers and the sentiment. I colored with Zig markers. Again - not impressed with my coloring with them. I added sparkle to the centers. The patterned paper is from Gina K and I also added thin silver sticker strips along the right edges of the patterned paper.

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

3D Embossed Thank You

Another card using a background piece colored with my brayer leftover ink. I embossed it with a 3D folder from Altenew, then rubbed an ink pad over it. I added a die-cut layered thank you.

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Pine Cone Christmas

Another of the mini stamp sets that I got from Altenew - the pine bough, the pinecone and the sentiment (plus one other stamp) were in the set. I added some red nail heads.

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Friendship

I ordered some mini stamp sets from Altenew, and I didn't realize just how "mini" they were! I think I used all of the stamps from the set in this card in various Gina K colors. The sentiment is from Gina K and I added a few "nail heads" for embellishment.

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Hello

A very simple card using up a bit of patterned paper - three different patterns from the same matstack, accented with black. The sentiment is die-cut and layered. I'm pretty sure it's from Altenew, but not positive.

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

Birthday Wishes

The background for this card was made by cleaning off my brayer. I added flowers and leaves from my cards parts - they are from Altenew. The piece across the center is an opaque vellum, and I added thin black strips on each side. The sentiment is from Gina K. I used a couple black "nail heads" to accent the sentiment. I also added a bit of sparkle to the spots in the flower center.

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

Jesus is the Reason

Before leaving on my retreat, I stenciled some pieces to use while there. I made three of these. I added the sentiment (from Stampendous) with silver embossing and a bit of sparkle on the star with my Gelly Roll pen.

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

Birthday Elephants

These cute little elephants (I think from WPlus9) have been in my cards parts book for many, many years. I colored these with OLO markers that I got from a friend. I couldn't bring all of my Copics on the retreat, so I brought the OLO markers. I can't say I'm in love with them, but they were nice to have for these cards. (I notice now that I forgot to color the "toenails" on this first one!) The woven stamped image is from Gina K, as is the sentiment. I used foam squares for mounting.

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

Paper-Pieced Kites

Two more cards that were "finished" on my retreat. I rarely make a card without a sentiment, but I figured these could either be used as notecards or a sentiment could be added at a later date. These pieces were in my card parts book and I don't know who made the stamps.

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

Birthday Flowers for a Friend

You will be seeing cards that I made on the retreat for a long time yet. And, sorry, they will all be very simple, which is the way I like them anyway. I believe this flower stamp is from Gina K. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I stamped the image on watercolor paper and colored with Zig Real Color markers. I wasn't terribly pleased with how it came out, but I used it anyway. I added sparkle to the flowers and leaves with a Gelly Roll pen. I also added three silver tiny half-pearls.

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

Stenciled Thanks

Another stenciled card, done with two colors. I added a thin strip of the blue above the stenciled piece. The sentiment is die-cut and mounted on foam squares. I added three white dots to each circle. Simple, but I do really like this one.

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Just Saying Hello

I used stencils for the flower, stem and the patterned section on the bottom. I scored lines above and below the patterned section with my ScorBuddy. The flower and stems are popped up on foam squares. I don't remember offhand where the flower stencils and the sentiment are from, but if anyone really wants to know, I could figure it out. :-)  Edited to add: The stencils are in a Gina K set, as I suspected but was too busy lazy to check out!

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Happy Anniversary, Vicki and Gary!

I made this card back in April, but had to save it for today. Happy Anniversary, Vicki!

Our grandson Wyatt was over at that time and we made a birthday card for a friend whose party he was going to the next day. We used paint and a gel plate. His favorite colors are red and blue, so that's what we used. (I forgot to take a picture of the card he made.) This piece was left-over so of course I had to use it! I thought it would be good for a July 4 anniversary. I matted it with red and stamped a Gina K image with Versamark and used white embossing powder. The image looks kind of pink, though, with the colors coming through from behind. The sentiment is from Gina K, also.

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

Birthday Butterflies

This was one of my favorite dies. I got it several years ago. It's from Memory Box. I cut it from a pinkish cardstock with light gray speckles in it. I scored the lines along the right side with my ScorBuddy. The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations and is embossed with white powder. I added a few gold "nail heads" to the center of the flowers and also near the sentiment.

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

Another Foiled Butterfly

I should have probably posted this one along with yesterday's, but I guess it's different enough to merit its own post. I used a cover plate to make the background. The patterned paper is from Gina K and I had it in my cards parts - cut with a stitched edge die. The butterfly and sentiment were in my card parts, also, and were done with my Glimmer Hot Foil system. They are mounted on foam squares.

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July Calendar Page

This has to be the simplest calendar page I've ever done!! I printed and cut this out on my Cameo Silhouette and added it the page. Happy July!!

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