Anniversary Thank Yous

We requested donations to local food shelves and a child food program instead of gifts for us for our anniversary, so I'm expecting to need several thank you cards. I made 35 of these. I hope I need more! The paper is from Recollections. The sentiment on this first one is from Verve. The sentiment on the second one is from The Paper Studio. Simple, but I like the layout and I based this card on a previous one I had made. The panels are popped up on foam squares.

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

Simple Flowers

Remember when I got some stamp sets from a friend - back in March? Well, one of the sets was these flower stamps and dies from Taylored Expressions. I made these up shortly after getting the set and now I have used them up. I had stamped them with black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder - or maybe black. I don't remember. I colored them with Copic markers and die-cut them. The sentiment stamps are mostly from Papertrey Ink, but the Mother's Day one is from Verve. I used the same patterned paper on each of them and added thin black strips along the sides. I used up a full half-sheet of a 12x12 piece of patterned paper! LOL! Only about 10000 to go! Or maybe more??

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

Blue Thanks

A couple card parts on this card. For some reason, this solid blue piece was on my table and the ivory circle landed on top of it. I thought it was a great idea! So, I embossed the blue panel with a Gina K folder. Then I rubbed a bit of white ink over it. The cardbase is ivory. I used a Gina K stencil on it. I stamped the sentiment, from Verve, on the oval and sponged a bit of navy ink around the edges. I mounted it on foam squares.

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

Wishing You a Speedy Recovery

A speedy recovery card for a friend having hip surgery. The image panel is an alcohol inked background - one of my first attempts. It was made after I had my blowing tool, but before I had better special paper. I still like it a lot, though. You can see the "wispiness" better in person. The "wishing you" stamp is by Verve and the silhouette stamp is Gina K. I added thin holographic strips on each side of the panel.The inside says, "a very speedy recovery."

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

Hand-Drawn Flowers

When our granddaughter spent time with us last fall, she drew some flowers for me - based on a stamp that I have. I'm not honestly sure if she drew all of these flowers, or if some of them are my drawings. She gets all the credit, no matter if she did them or I did. I colored them with Copics and put them in my "card parts" book. I dug them out a few days ago and here is what I did with them.

On this first card, the background was embossed with a Sizzix folder. The image is mounted on foam squares.

For these next two cards, I stamped the background with a new-to-me background stamp that I got in a "Mystery Box" from Gina K. I don't know who it's by.

The background on this card is paper by Echo Park, again that came in my Mystery Box.

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

Wishing You a Speedy Recovery

A friend recently had rotator cuff surgery. This is the card I made for him. The tree is from an old Stampin Up! set. I inked it up in green, then used a brown marker to color the trunk and and ground, and a darker green marker to "thump" some extra color on the tree. That panel is matted with green and then mounted on foam squares. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the top part of the bottom layer. I added a strip of the green cardstock between the embossed area and the patterned paper. The sentiment is from Verve. The inside says, "a speedy recovery."

I sure haven't been doing much posting to my blog, for sure - haven't made any new cards. But, my stamping room keeps getting a little bit more organized. And our Christmas shopping is almost done. (We don't have a lot of people to buy for.) And the Christmas cards (80) are all ready to go out except for the Christmas letter. So, I'm feeling pretty good about those things! Maybe we can get decorated for Christmas this week and then sit back, relax and enjoy the holiday season!

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

Another Thinking of You

When I was looking through my stamps last week, I came across this old set from Verve and left it out to make sure I used it. I think the flower can also be a butterfly, as it comes with an antennae stamp, too. I chose to use it as a flower for this card. There is the outline stamp, the "filling in" stamp, the "stamen" (?) stamp and the itty bitty stamp that goes between the two sides of the flower. It was very easy to line up, though. Also the stem and leaves stamp, of course. The sentiment is from the same set. I used a stencil and lightly used a blender brush for the background. I added a few "disco ball" sequins from Gina K for embellishments, which I usually tend to omit.

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

Mother's Day

I met a friend for lunch on Wednesday (Cheryl) and gave her about seventy cards for the thrift store she volunteers at. I don't usually make Mother's Day cards anymore, but I thought I should add a couple of those. Should have been more, but our meeting came up very suddenly and I didn't have time for more. Here is what I came up with. Both used patterned paper from Die Cuts With a View. You can't see it in the photos, but each pattern has parts that look heat-embossed. The sentiment on each is from Verve. I made two of the second one.

For this first one, I stamped the sentiment on vellum and embossed with silver. I wrapped the vellum around the patterned piece before attaching to the card front. I also added thin shimmery silver strips to each edge of the vellum.

For this one, I stamped the sentiment on slightly textured ivory cardstock and embossed with gold. I colored the tiny flower with an orange marker. I added a piece of gold tape between the patterned layers.

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

Accordion Card

I recently watched a video showing this card. The papers are all from a Gina K pack called "Casual Friday." The stamps are from Verve. I die-cut the sentiment circle and the matting for it.

Here is a link to the video. I made mine using 1/8 inch borders rather than 1/4 inch. Karen was my up-line when I was a Stampin' Up! demo many years ago. I just happened across her videos while on the treadmill last week. How fun!! I will be showing a few more things that she has done, too.

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

A Couple of Re-Makes

In my "card parts" box, I have some pieces of cards of mine that I have dismantled. Here are two of them, remade. For this first one, I trimmed down the bottom of this piece and removed a flower I had added to it. I used a piece of matching cardstock and embossed it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The flowers stamp is from Stampin' Up! I think the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

This "card part" was the main panel, minus the "thanks." I placed the panel onto a card front and added the sentiment, mounted on foam squares. The heart stamps are by Stampin' Up! and the "thanks" sentiment is from Verve.

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

Speedy Recovery

Our daughter-in-law's father recently had quadruple by-pass surgery. (He's doing quite well, from what I hear.) This is the card we sent him. I used a die for the timepieces. I placed it on an ivory panel and matted with black. The sentiments are from a Verve set. The card base is Papertrey Ink kraft.

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

Bloom Where You're Planted

I have had this stamp set from Verve for a very long time. I think I may have used some of the flower stamps, but never the sentiment. I'm not actually a big fan of the sentiment, even though I've seen it often. At any rate, I really wanted to use more of the stamps from the set, so here it is. All four stamps are from the set, as well as a few more flowers. I matted with matching cardstock, and also added a strip of the same color with three small "nail heads."

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

Christmas 2016

My first Christmas card for 2016. I really, really would like to use up my card parts. I truly thought it was an unobtainable goal, but I'm making some progress. (I also want to use all my SU! stamps, my stickers, my patterned paper, etc. :) ) So, this is another "card parts" card.

The "Joy" is a layered dimensional sticker from Pooch and Company - from the dollar (well, what used to be the dollar area) at Michael's. I've had the stickers for several years. This one was already mounted on the green diamond. I glued it on a piece of textured ivory cardstock and matted with a matching green cardstock. I stamped the sentiment, from Verve, in a coordinating ink.

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

One-Sheet Wonder

I have, for a long time, wanted to try the "One-Sheet Wonder." It was finally time:) My friend, Michele, has this post of her design for cutting the 12 x 12 sheet, and also the cards she made with her pieces. Looking back at it now, I see that she matted her pieces with black. I like that better. Wish I had matted mine! Maybe next time. Anyway, here are my fourteen cards. All cardstock is off-white. I will put my cards in the order of Michele's pieces. I cut my pieces the same as hers (with a little exception) but didn't follow her layouts for all of them. I used a Memory Box die for the rectangles with sentiments in them.

This first one uses a stamp from Stampabilities.

Stamp from Papertrey Ink.

Stamp from Verve.

Stamp from Stampabilities.

Stamp from Papertrey Ink.

Stamp from Impression Obesssion.

Stamp from Stampabilities.

Stamp from Stampabilities.

Stamp from Impression Obsession.

Stamps from Verve.

Stamp from Stampabilities.

Stamp from Inky Antics.

Stamp from Stampabilities.

Stamp from Stampin' Up!

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Wishing You ...

I need six anniversary cards for November. Now, WHO would get married in November??? (Kidding - WE did! :) )

I made three cards like this one. It's very similar to yesterday's card. The flowers were done with My Favorite Things dies. (Thanks, Sheri!) I hand-drew the stems. The sentiment is from Verve. The bottom layer was die-cut with a stitched rectangle die.

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

Happy Anniversary, Eric and Brooke!

Today is our son and daughter-in-law's ninth anniversary! This is the card I made for them.

The flowers were cut last summer using a die from Memory Box (I believe) at our Group Gathering. I also cut out the stitched rectangle there using a die. The sentiment is from Verve. I added small red gems to the flower centers and mounted the entire panel on foam squares.

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

Sparkly Sticker Birthday

Okay - here is the "positive" of yesterday's Elizabeth Craft sticker. I used the same technique as a few days ago - added microfine glitter to the double-sided sticky paper after adding the sticker. I LOVE the sparkle, which you can see a little bit better in the picture on the right.

I colored the image with Copic markers and added a border along the edges - also with a Copic. The patterned paper is from Debbie Mumm (from JoAnn's a while back.) I mounted both the image panel and the sentiment panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Verve. The inside says "a very happy birthday."

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

Wishing You

More card parts. Actually, Monday's card used a leftover from this card! LOL!

The stamped partial circles panel was in my card parts, as was the punched and scored border piece. It's hard to tell, but it's actually a dark green. The images were stamped with a mustard color, and the middle mat is matching mustard. The sentiment is from Verve.

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

Happy Anniversary, Lucy and David!

Happy Anniversary, Lucy and David! Lucy is one of my oldest friends ... well, make that our friendship is one of my oldest! :) This is the card I sent Lucy and her husband for their anniversary, which was yesterday.

I used a friend's die set when she was here to stamp with me a couple weeks ago. (Thanks, Bonnie!) It's by Sizzix through Stampin' Up! The papers are SU! also. The die cut flower border is from my stash from our Group Gathering last summer. The stamps are from Verve. I would not normally choose to sponge black ink around the edges. However, that was my solution after somehow rubbing the card on my black ink pad after it was finished! Oops. The butterfly was cut using a Memory Box die.

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

Happy Birthday, Georgia!

A white birthday card for Georgia - have a great day!

I cut the two pieces with dies from Spellbinders. I sponged some light blue ink on the smaller piece before removing from the die. The sentiment and the flourish are from Verve. I added the "pearls" with a Viva Pearl Pen. I mounted the sentiment panel on foam squares.

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