"Wood-grained" Anniversary

I had two more of these flower die-cut pieces to use up, so I made two cards like this one. The die is an Anna Griffin one, I believe. It was cut from shimmery off-white paper. For the background, I actually started with patterned paper, but you really can't see the pattern any more. I scored lines with my Scor-Pal and then rubbed an ink pad over it. The sentiment is from an old Gina K set. It's actually stamped in a green, but it's hard to tell in the photo. The sentiment is popped up on foam squares.

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Blue Birthday with Ivory Flowers

Well, my first card post for a long time. Not sure where exactly all the time goes, but it sure does fly! We did go to Mexico for a week with our son and his family. That was pretty awesome!

I had pulled out some card parts and made a few cards, so it's time that I blogged them. The card part on this one is the die-cut flowers. I'm pretty sure it's from Cuttlebug, but I'm not certain. I think I have two more of them to use. I had used some of this patterned paper and had some more out on my table, so I used it, too. I used one of my Waffle Flower rectangle dies to cut the center out of the patterned paper, then reversed the outside frame. I added the die-cut flowers and I double-heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder.

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Simple Heart Thank You

The die that I used a few days ago for the baby card also had this heart and flower on it. (It was one three x three inch or so Cuttlebug thinlet-ish plate.) I colored them and used them on this card. I used dies for the circles, too. I added Stickles to the flower center and popped up the circle panel. I added a matted strip of patterned paper to the left side.

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Baby Boy

Our nephew just had a baby boy last Sunday. Here is the card I made for them. The baby, rubber duckie and bottle were cut from white with a very old, unused Cuttlebug die. I colored them with Copics and then paper-pieced the baby's onesie. The ovals were cut with Nestabilities. The oval, duckie and bottle are mounted on foam squares.

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Happy Eighth Birthday, Wyatt!

Our youngest grandchild, Wyatt, turned eight yesterday. Can you believe it? He is doing so, so awesome. Here is the card that I made for him. It's a five by seven inch card, and very thick. Good thing it was hand-delivered. The letters were die-cut from red glitter cardstock. The monsters were fussy-cut from a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock from Recollections and mounted on foam squares. All the cardstock I used on this card was from the same matstack, except for the glitter cardstock. I added a strip of a different pattern across the center. I also die-cut some balloons from glitter cardstock, and drew in the strings.

Here is a view of the inside of the card. I got the instructions from the YouTube channel of Sam Calcott. Here is a link to this card, but she has many more amazing cards and projects.

A couple more views.

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Congrats In School Colors

I really AM on a quest to use up card parts! I pull some out sometimes knowing that I want to use them soon, and then they sit and sit. I just finished up one of those piles on Thursday when I had a friend over to "play." Just to be clear - I have no delusions of EVER using them all up - I just want to at least make progress!!

The blue swirls on this card were cut out at our Group Gathering in June. The piece was actually larger, but this is all that would fit on a standard card. I believe it was part of a layering die set and there were problems with this layer, so of course I had to try my hand at getting it to cut nicely. :) At any rate, it's been sitting out since June and here it is. I did not know what to do with it. I was looking through my small stamp sets and found one from Technique Tuesday that had this little stamp. I decided to stamp it in yellow and make the card the school colors of our local grandsons. The older of the two was recently accepted into the gifted and talented program so I added a Congratulations and will send it to him.

Of course I couldn't send to one of them and not the other, so I used up another card part on this card! :) I had gone to Hobby Lobby in the past month or so and picked up a few things that were 75% off. One of them was the die that cut the stars for this background. I immediately put the die in my die storage and threw away the packaging and I don't remember who it is from. Sorry. I had cut it in silver. I matted it with yellow and then blue. Then I used the blue to cut out some stars to add to it. I used a Cuttlebug alphabet die set to cut the letters. Go Wyatt!

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Happy 99th Birthday!

I was asked to make a card for a mother-in-law for her 99th birthday. This is what I made. The stamps and dies are from Gina K. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the numbers were cut with a Cuttlebug die. I added lots of Wink of Stella to the flowers. If you are interested in seeing other stair-step cards I have posted, just click on the link at the bottom of this post.

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Happy 50th Anniversary, Kris and Ron!

Another member of our little stamping group is celebrating her 50th anniversary. Pretty awesome, I think! Congrats, Kris!

I decided to make a stair-step card for them. The image is from Inkadinkado. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I embossed the image with detail gold embossing powder. The gold cardstock is shimmery. I embossed the front with a Darice embossing folder. The numbers were cut with some old Cuttlebug dies.

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Daisies

Edited to add: I am entering these cards into the Twofer Card Challenge #3 - Blossoms. The challenge can be found here. I thought they were perhaps too similar to each other, but since Darnell mentioned adding them ... here they are!

For some reason, I had these two scalloped circles in my card parts box. I decided to make daisies out of them. I simply cut from the edge, between each scallop, to near the center of the circle. I punched the smaller circles for the centers, embossed them with a Swiss Dots folder, and sponged a little yellow ink on them. For this first one, I added a couple die-cut greenery pieces. The background was embossed with a Darice Wire Fence folder. I don't know who made the sentiment stamp and die - I stamped and cut them when I was at our Group Gathering. I matted the background with black.

This one is even simpler. I matted with an oval that was also in my card parts. On both cards, the sentiment and daisies are mounted on foam squares.

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Congratulations, Andrew!

Our oldest grandson, Andrew, tried out for the traveling baseball last time we were down in Chicago. And, he made the team! So happy for him.

When I was putting my stamping room back together, I ran across this embossing folder "out of place."  I still hadn't put it away, and thought that maybe I should use it! Hence, the card:) Quite a long time ago, I bought the die and embossing set from Cuttlebug. Together, they cut and emboss the hat, the bat and the ball. I mounted the ball and the brim of the hat on foam squares. I embossed the "congrats" with a small embossing folder, also from Cuttlebug, and I mounted that piece, matted with a dark blue, on foam squares, also. The card is done with ivory cardstock. I used the same dark blue to mat the main panel.

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Die-Cut Flower Birthday

I made this card for our daughter, whose birthday is in a couple weeks. It was quite simple, as I used a "card part." :)

The flowers were made a couple years ago. We did this technique at a class during our Group Gathering in Des Moines. First, we die-cut the flowers using a Cuttlebug die. (At least I'm pretty sure it's by Cuttlebug - perhaps an Anna Griffin one?) Then we used distress inks and water to paint them. After they were thoroughly dry, we used the same die to emboss them. Such a beautiful die! I simply glued them to an ivory card (it's taller and narrower than the standard size card) and added the sentiment - from Papertrey Ink.

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Thanks

Another card part:) I'm working like crazy with them - and having such a great time!

I found this angled, die-cut piece in with my parts. I wish you could see the texture of it - it's almost like a textured vinyl.  I'm sure I used the "positive" of it years ago. I liked the angle, so I left it. I placed it on a piece of blue cardstock and then scored three parallel lines with my Scor-Pal. The cardbase is white.

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February Calendar Page

Time for a new calendar page - February is here already!

I used a very old die Cuttlebug for the heart and its layers. The white background was embossed with a Darice embossing folder.

My calendar files are available for your use, if you'd like. The links are under the blog title. I'd love to hear from you if you use them!

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"Little Fella" Birthday

These three pieces (the hat, ball and bat) were die cut and embossed MANY years ago when I first got the die and folder. That was the only time they were used! Good thing they were a clearance item:) However, these pieces are no longer among my card parts. The starred background paper is from the first matstack I ever bought - back in 2002. I matted with blue to match the hat. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.

Our skydiving is scheduled for today. I'll let you know if it actually happens, or if we have to reschedule for a fourth time!

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

Elephant Birthday Wishes - and an Update on my Dad

Another card made up almost entirely of "card parts" from my box.

I found the little elephant, cut from chipboard of some kind with a Cuttlebug die, the white panel embossed with my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, and the patterned pink part, done with my Letterpress. I just put them together, added gems for the elephant's eyes, the sentiment from Hero Arts, and a piece of pink ribbon. Oh, and I also first sponged on some gray ink on the elephant.

It's been a while since I've mentioned anything about my dad. He is doing GREAT!! He has his taste back already and can eat whatever he wants with no problems! The weather down in Atlanta hasn't been the greatest, but it's been better than Minnesota:) He'll be back home in about a month or so, and we'll celebrate his 90th birthday with an Open House.

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

Valentines in March???

How silly - Valentines in March:) But, I post what I make!

This first stamp is actually a continuation with my mission to use all of my Stampin' Up! stamps. It is from the set called "Merci." I mis-cut some white cardstock (fifteen pieces) when I was working on my next year's calendar, so I had several of this size image panel to use up! I stamped with Memento black ink and colored with Copics. I matted with red and added an enamel dot to the flower center. The background was embossed with a Darice folder.

This card is similar to my next year's February calendar page:) I had some parts left over. The red and pink parts were cut with a Cuttlebug die. I added some "stitching" lines with a fine marker. I popped the heart up on foam squares. I added this to white cardstock and scored two lines with my Scor-Pal. I also added a sentiment piece which I printed on my computer. I matted with red. The background was embossed with a Darice embossing folder.

In response to a comment, I added information about the stencil I used for yesterday's card to yesterday's blog post, as well as a link to a YouTube tutorial I did quite a while ago.

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

Purple Anniversary

I have a "stash" of lots of cards, but I didn't have any anniversary cards and I needed several this month. So, I took a little time and got them made. It felt good to make some cards!

This card is for a friend who loves purple. Can you tell? :) The butterfly was cut with a couple Memory Box dies and mounted on foam squares. The shimmery ivory die cut was done (I believe) with a Cuttlebug die. The sentiment was stamped with a Hero Arts stamp and was cut from shimmery ivory with a Spellbinders die. It, also, is mounted on foam squares. The bottom layer is vellum which was embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder.

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Die-Cut Thanks

Again - I used pieces from my table for this card. The card base is gray with speckles. I had already punched the border (with a Martha Stewart punch) and scored two lines above the punching.

I added a strip of plum cardstock to the inside of the card to show under the punching. Then I added a strip of the same cardstock above the scoring and added two more scored lines. I die cut the "thanks" with a Cuttlebug die and glued it resting on the strip of cardstock.

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Thanks!

I needed just a little "jump start" to get me making cards again. The new challenge for April in the Cuttlebug group I'm a member of is to use a button (or buttons) on your card. Perfect - just a tiny challenge. I've also been wanting to use some patterned paper on a card and make a coordinating envelope.

I stamped the flower on off-white cardstock. It's from a Gina K set. I colored directly on the stamp. For the stem and leaves I used a green Memento marker and on the flower I used a Tim Holtz black Distress marker. I stamped the flower again on the polka dotted paper and cut it out. My button is the flower center. I traced around the stem and leaves with the marker. I used my Martha Stewart scoring board to score lines around the outside. The matting piece is the reverse side of the dotted paper - from My Minds Eye. I used a Cuttlebug die for the "thanks."

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Happy Fiftieth Anniversary!

It's my husband's brother and sister-in-law's 50th Anniversary today. Happy Anniversary, Dave and Betty! (They don't read my blog, though.)

I used shimmery gold paper for the background, the sentiment matting, and the numbers. I embossed the background with a Sizzix folder (available through Stampin' Up!) and matted with black. I printed the sentiment on my computer and cut it with an oval Nestability. The mat for it was cut with a Spellbinders die. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares. The numbers were cut using a Cuttlebug die set.

It's our anniversary today, too! :) It's "only" 39 years for us, though.

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