How About Christmas Sunday ... and a Few Challenges

I had NOTHING going on today. Yippee! I got to make a card and I sure hope that I will get several more made. It feels wonderful to not have to go anywhere or do anything.

I found a few challenges that I wanted to do and I combined them into this one card. The stamps are both from an Echo Park set.  I used Kaleidoscope embossing powder for the sentiment. I matted each piece with matching cardstock. I mounted the sentiment on foam squares. The challenges I'm entering this card in are:
   Christmas Card Challenge blog - anything goes Christmas Card
   Natasha's Clean and Simple Stamping blog - a sketch
   CAS-ual Fridays - use three of something
   CAS on Sunday - use glitter (I guess I kind of cheated, because I used sparkly embossing powder, which you really can't see in the picture.)

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

Double Challenge Card

I made this first card for two challenges: the Clean and Simple Stamping blog challenge, which was a sketch and the CASual Fridays blog challenge, which was to use orange, aqua and green.

I cut the flowers using a Spellbinders die. I added leaves underneath and brads for the centers. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Using the negative strip from the aqua, I simply glued it on a piece of ivory cardstock and stamped the flower centers. It felt great to use up my card parts right away!

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

CAS-ual Fridays and SCS Featured Stamper Challenges

I made this card for two challenges - the SplitCoastStampers Featured Stamper challenge from Sunday, and the CAS-ual Fridays challenge, which is to make a birthday card. The Featured Stamper is Heather T and the card of hers I cased is here.


I cut the mask with a Nestability. I sponged with Soft Suede around the edges and then with Sahara Sand. I stamped most of the images with Sahara Sand and then the darker one with Soft Suede. Both the flower image and the sentiment are from Gina K. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for the placement of the sentiment.


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

Thanks Berry Much!

I made this card on Sunday for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge. The challenge this week is a sketch. You can find the challenge here and the sketch below:

My stamps are from Technique Tuesday and I used Papertrey Ink ink for the berry. I stamped the top of it, masked it off, and stamped the berry. I matted with Stampin' Up! cardstock and mounted on Dimensionals.


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

Challenge Combo Card

I made this card for three Clean and Simple challenges. (They were "current" when I made it.) They are:
Less is More Challenge to make a one-layer card with doodling.
Susan’s One Layer Wednesday challenge to make a one-layer card with no sentiment.
CAS-ual Friday challenge to use opposite colors on the color wheel.

I used a square post-it note to mask the center of the kraft card base. I brayered Pacific Point ink onto a background stamp from a Fiskars set and stamped over the entire card front. Then I rolled off most of the ink from the brayer and used the almost-empty brayer to brayer over the stamped image. I drew lines around the edge of the blank square and also doodled near the edge. The center flower is from the same Fiskars set and is stamped in Pumpkin Pie.


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

Double Challenge Card

What do you do when you can't sleep? Stamp, of course! I made this card this morning for today's SplitCoastStampers Free 4 All Challenge to use inchies or twinchies and also for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use opposite colors on the color wheel.

My inchie stamps are from Inkadinkado. I used Stampin' Up! Pacific Point and Pumpkin Pie ink to stamp them and Pumpkin Pie cardstock for the matting. The inchies are cut out and mounted on Dimensionals. The sentiment is from Gina K and is stamped with Pacific Point.


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

CAS-ual Fridays and SCS Challenge

I made this card yesterday and thought about not posting it, since it's kind of similar to others I've done, but what the heck! It seemed to be fate, since it fits the SplitCoastStampers Free 4 All challenge to use three or more of something, and also the CAS-ual Fridays challenge today to use pastels and black.


The patterned paper is from the same Recollections pad I've been using lately. I cut it with a Papertrey die. These squares are actually left over from another card I made yesterday. I adhered them to the white and then matted with black. I added the flowers to the squares with black brads. The sentiment is from Stampendous.


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

"Christmas Sunday"

This is to continue my new tradition of posting Christmas cards on Sundays. I'm not doing quite as well as I would have hoped, but I do have 24 done so far. I am linking it up to the Christmas Card Challenge blog. Since I make my cards during the week and post them on Sunday, it's only coincidence if they match up to the challenge. However, part of the challenge is to just make Christmas cards. (The specific challenge this week is to make a shaped card.) It's also for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week, which is to use a pattern, an image and a sentiment.


The image and the sentiment are both from a Recollections set. I stamped them on a slightly shimmery off-white cardstock, embossed with gold embossing powder, and matted with shimmery gold. The patterned paper is also from Recollections and is also matted with shimmery gold. The card base is ivory.


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

"Christmas Sunday"

 I haven't done much stamping for about a week, so it felt kind of good to stay up late and work on a couple cards. I thought I'd do Christmas ones, since I didn't have any to share last week.


This first one was done using Natasha's Clean and Simple Stamping Fall-To Layout #178. You can find it here. I really like this layout. All three stamps that I used are from the same Inkadinkado set. I stamped them all with Versamark and embossed with Detail Gold embossing powder. The matting is shimmery gold. The image panel is mounted on Dimensionals.

I made this second one using an item from my "card parts" box. The trees were already embossed using a Lasting Impressions brass stencil with shimmery silver cardstock. I matted with Old Olive and embossed the sentiment (a dollar stamp from Michael's) with Detail Silver embossing powder.


I'm also linking this post to the Christmas Card Challenge blog, which you can find here. Since I pre-post my blog and their specific challenges start on Sunday, I can't do the themes for the week. But the real challenge is to get Christmas cards done!


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

Happy Valentine's Day ... and Two Grandkids' Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I got two grandkids' valentines done and in the mail. The third one I have to make today. This first one is for our granddaughter. I paper-pieced the bunny (from Sandylion) with Die Cuts With a View paper. I added a punched border (with a Martha Stewart punch) and put a strip of white cardstock under it so it would show up better. The pink heart is cut with a Lifestyle Crafts die and the tiny hearts are done with the same MS border punch as the pink, but I cut some purple ones, too. The sentiment is from a Fiskars set. I mounted the heart on Dimensionals. I'm linking this to this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, which is to use paper-piecing. 

This second one is for our older grandson, who is three. The stamps are all from a Fiskars set. I paper-pieced the turtle with sparkly cardstock and colored the hearts with a Sharpie marker. I added Diamond Glaze to the hearts above his head. I stamped and colored the background hearts.

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

Double Challenge Card

Ah, I made a card! We've had a lot going on again. More about that later in the post. At any rate, I spent a little time in my stamping area - after I got it all cleaned up again! - and made this card for two challenges. It's for Natasha's Clean and Simple Stamping Fall-To Layout challenge, found here, and also for the CASual Fridays challenge to make a card using only black and white. You can find that challenge here.


I used a Cuttlebug folder for the sentiment panel, embossing white cardstock and then brayering over it with black ink. The patterned paper on the bottom is from a matstack from Die Cuts With a View. I matted both with black cardstock. I added the black shimmery flower with a white brad. The embossed panel is mounted on Dimensionals.


Our daughter-in-law was having severe back pain and went in to have it checked out. She ended up getting a steroid injection in her spine for a herniated disk. She is doing better, but it will be a slow process, I'm thinking. We had Owen (our one-year-old grandson) here overnight a couple nights and had him extra time over the weekend. It kind of wore me out! Her parents are in town for a few days, so I've had a couple days off to rest up and get a little bit caught up. This was the first card-making I've done, though, as I had other things that needed to be done, including among other things, getting my stamping area cleaned up. It was a MESS! If anyone would be so kind - we would love prayers for a rather quick and complete recovery. Thanks so much!


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

Challenge Card - Anniversary

I made this for yesterday's SplitCoastStampers CAS challenge, which is a sketch. I also made it for the CAS-ual Friday challenge, which is to use bling.

My card base is Papertrey Ink Kraft. My matting is shimmery gold. The beautiful patterned paper is by Kanban. (You can get it in the Creating Everlasting Memories eBay store.  Here is link to the Kanban selection.)  The gold strip across the middle is made with a Martha Stewart punch called Double Link. The little medallion was made by cutting the circle (from the lower patterned paper) with a Circle Nestability and the matting with an EK Success punch. I hope pearls count as "bling" because I added small and medium sized pearls along the punched chain. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and is embossed with detail gold embossing powder.


You still have a week to enter to try to win the awesome blog candy from the Creating Memories in Time blog.  It's a great prize and there are not a lot of entries yet.  Check it out here.


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