August Calendar Page

Here is my calendar page for August. Unbelievable that it's August already! 

The sunflower is from Repeat Impressions. I stamped it on vellum and colored the backside with markers. If you are interested in making your own calendars, you can find my files under my blog title. I'd love to hear from you if you use them!

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

Christmas Chickadee

I bought this Penny Black two-piece rubber stamp set in Des Moines in June. I do really like the image and sentiment, but I have found I don't like coloring it! I have stamped twenty of these card fronts, and have completed six of them so far. I have colored them six different ways, I think. For each of them, I added a flat black dot for the eye and a red gem for the dot on the "i" and matted with red cardstock.

This one was colored with Copics.

This one was colored with Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone.

I think I watercolored this one. Fourteen more to go!

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

Birthday Iris

This is the last die-cut corner piece I have left from Des Moines. Yea for me - I used them all up! :)

I stamped the iris (from Penny Black) and colored with Copic markers. As I had the sentiment stamp ready to stamp (Stampin' Up!) it fell off the block and landed on the image panel. Poopy! :( Since it was my last die-cut piece and I liked the way it had turned out, I decided to trim down the right side where the stamp fell. I think it turned out OK, although I think I would have liked it better with the whole panel there. I matted with textured yellow cardstock.

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

More Die-Cut Pieces

I've had a little bit of stamping time lately, and it's been wonderful! I'm still working on using up some pieces I die-cut or stamped while I was in Des Moines in June with my stamping friends.

I cut these pieces using a friend's dies. I'm assuming they are from Memory Box, but I don't know for sure. I matted this first one with black. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, and I matted that with black, also. I cut it out using one of my Stitched Rectangles dies.

I matted this die-cut piece with textured cardstock from Die Cuts With a View. I added the loon (our state bird :)) using a Repeat Impressions stamp with ink to match the matting. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. 

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

Another Die Cut Birthday Card

The oval and the branch on this card were cut with a single die. I colored the branch with a Copic marker. The green textured cardstock is on the back of the card front. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I cut it out with a Memory Box die and mounted it on Pop Dots. (Thanks again, Kris! I think I still have three die cuts left from using your dies in Des Moines.)

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

Lime Green and Red Color Swap Birthday

The colors for my stamping group's challenge this month are red and lime green. This is the card I made for it.

I started by cutting the white rectangle with my Memory Box stitched rectangle die. The poppies are from Penny Black. I stamped them with Memento ink. One was stamped on scrap cardstock and then I stamped two of them directly on this piece. I colored them with Copics and carefully cut out the one on the scrap. I added Pop Dots to that one and added it to the other. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. The lime green is textured. I embossed it with a Cuttlebug Anna Griffin folder and lightly sanded it. I matted both pieces with black and added them to the white cardbase.

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

Die-Cut Birthday

Another die cut that was made using a die from my friend, Kris, when we were in Des Moines in June. 

The die was used on patterned paper. I backed it with shimmery gold and mounted it on Pop Dots. I used an ivory card base. The red piece was embossed with a Darice folder. Another card that could be used for a guy.

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

Masculine Birthday

I finally took some time this morning to make a card. That was fun! Seems like it's been forever. I'll post another card very soon - as soon as it arrives at its destination - but I made it a few weeks ago.

I have some envelopes that are non-standard card size. I thought I would use one of them for a card. The card is 3.5 x 6.5 inches. I started by cutting a piece of patterned paper from The Paper Studio to completely cover the card front. Then I took a scrap of ivory cardstock and stamped the wheat on it. I matted that with brown. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I had previously cut the stamp into two pieces. I stamped the "birthday" first and it was nice and straight. However, the "HAPPY" I stamped crooked:( No worries - I just stamped it again on another scrap, cut it out, and popped it up over the crooked one! This one still looks a little crooked, but I fixed it after seeing the picture. :)

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

Subtle Sympathy

I got this branch stamp by Rubbernecker from my friend, Kris, at our Group Gathering in Des Moines last month. Here is how this card "came to be."

The stamp was sitting on my table, waiting to be used. The card base was also sitting on my table. It had "THANK YOU" stamped on it. Time to use them! I want to make use of my Stitched Rectangle dies, so I cut a piece of ivory (to match the card base) with the largest one. That was big enough to cover the previously-stamped sentiment. OK. How could I use this branch? Well, on a sponged background, of course:) So, I cut an oval out of a piece of scratch paper. I used distress ink to sponge around the inside of the oval. Then I left the mask on and stamped the branch three times. I couldn't have had them line up this well if I had tried - really hard! The first time I stamped was the image on the right. The second time I stamped was the center branch. It didn't reach the bottom, but I would figure out what to do about that soon. The third time I randomly stamped the branch, it lined up perfectly over the center one. How awesome was that! I finshed the card by stamping with a darker brown (my favorite, Soft Suede) using a stamp from Kaisercraft. And that is the story of this card!

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

Thinking of You

Another card using some beautiful paper from a matstack by The Paper Studio. And another example of letting the paper "do the work." I simply trimmed down the paper to 3 7/8 x 5 1/8 inches and then cut the mat 1/8th inch bigger than that. I stamped the sentiment (from Stampin' Up!) and added the butterfly, which was cut using a Memory Box die.

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

Blue Foil Butterflies - Sympathy

I kind of feel like I "repeat" some cards, but I'm going to share with you, anyway. I wanted to use this butterfly die from Memory Box again, and I also wanted to use some dies on my foil cardstock. So, this is the one I used. I tried adding black pearls to the flower centers, but they were totally lost in the blue. So, I changed to white pearls. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Another Sparkly Birthday

Another die cut from my Group Gathering in Des Moines. I added bluish-green sparkly cardstock behind the die cut. The flower is from Penny Black - I bought the set in Des Moines. I colored it with Spectrum Noir markers, carefully cut it out, and added Wink of Stella for shimmer. I cut a piece of fun foam to add under the flower. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I hope you can see some of the twinkles in this picture.

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

Blue Christmas

When I was doing a little organizing in my stamping room last week, I found out I only had six Christmas cards done for this year! Oh my, I have some catching up to do. My calendars have been lagging behind, also. Just too much "stuff" going on.

I cut this die cut (two of them, actually) when I was in Des Moines. I finished them quite simply like this and now I have eight cards done. :) The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. Edited to add: This die is from Memory Box. It's from a set called Distressed Holiday Collage.

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

Happy Anniversary, Vicki and Gary!

Happy Anniversary to my friend, Vicki, and her husband, Gary!

I stamped this image from Penny Black onto water color paper and used an Aquapainter and Distress inks to color it. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I matted with matching purple cardstock. I also added Wink of Stella to the flowers. Enjoy your day, Vicki!

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

Friends We Will Always Be

I haven't spent much time in my stamping room lately. And the time I have spent in here has mostly been spent sitting and looking around at my stuff, taking out some things and playing with them, and then leaving a bigger mess than when I came in. No motivation or creative energy at all. There's been a "bug" going around our family the past couple of weeks and it caught me on Wednesday. That hasn't helped at all:( However, I finally got a little energy back yesterday and I spent some time putting things in order. And today I finally finished a card. It felt good!

I die-cut this background piece when I was in Des Moines last month. Since it looks like honeycomb, I was thinking "bees" and yellow and black. The first step was putting yellow textured cardstock behind the die-cut and then matting with black. Then I went to look for my bee stamps, but I had tried selling most of my Stampin' Up! sets at a garage sale a few weeks ago (not much success) and they were all out of order, so I had to sort them out. (I had also packaged up about a hundred of my finished cards and brought those to the garage sale, so I had the left-overs sitting on my table. I needed to sort those out, too, and put them back in the boxes.) Anyway, I came across this set called "Bees 'N Blossoms." That one works. I stamped the flower image on a scrap, colored with markers, and cut it out with a Memory Box Stitched Rectangle die. I mounted it on fun foam. It took me a while to figure out the "right" layout and I finally arrived at this one. The sentiment is from the same set. I added a touch of Star Dust Stickles to the bees.

I hope everyone is having a nice Independence Day weekend. Ours will be very quiet, due to just getting over our sickness. I think we will spend part of Monday with our son and his family.

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

July Calendar Page

I cut these pieces on my Cameo Silhouette. The text is a stamp from a dollar Studio G set from ages ago. I used markers to color.

If you would like to make your own calendars using my files, you can find the files on a separate page of my blog. The links are under the blog header.

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

Birthday Blessings

More cards using stampoffs from our Group Gathering in Des Moines last week. I really want to make use of the pieces I made! I used Vicki's Penny Black stamp to make both of these cards. I colored the image with markers and then stamped the bottom image. Then I spritzed it with water without recoloring, and stamped the image for this first card. The sentiment is from Gina K. I matted with black and mounted on foam squares. I found some matching cardstock and embossed it with a new-to-me 5 x 7 Cuttlebug embossing folder, then matted that with black, also. I finally got myself a Wink of Stella pen/marker and added some sparkle to the flowers.

This one, like I said, was the first stamping. I added the same sentiment and matted with matching cardstock. I added a tiny butterfly punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I added the antenna with a black marker and a small pearl for the body. I used Wink of Stella on these flowers, too. Wish you could see the shimmer!

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

Rubbernecker Rose

These two cards use the same Rubbernecker rose stamp. Both were stamped with Versamark. I used detail gold embossing powder for this first one. I used Zig Clean Color Real brush markers to color. (I had never heard of them until I was in Des Moines last week.) After I was done coloring the rose, I sponged with light blue ink and cut out the panel using a Memory Box Stitched Rectangle die. The sentiment is from Gina K and is also embossed with gold.

For this second one, I embossed with white embossing powder. I colored with Copic markers and again sponged around - this time in mostly an oval. I simply matted with matching cardstock. Maybe I'll add a sentiment later ... and maybe I won't! :)

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

Heartfelt Sympathy

 I did the stamping for these cards when I was in Des Moines last week for our Group Gathering. This first one is done with ivory cardstock. I placed the two stamps on my MISTI to do the stamping, and I stamped ten of these cardfronts. On this card only, I stamped off the tree and birds, then stamped again. I matted with black and placed on an ivory cardbase.

This one is done using white, and the tree is "full-strength."

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

Simple Anniversary

Vicki brought these Rubbernecker stamps (OOPS! I guess the sentiment is by Endless Creations) to our Group Gathering, and Kris and Georgia came up with this layout. I just CASE'd it. So simple and lovely. I first stamped the sentiment, then inked up the rose stamp, stamped it off once on scratch paper, then stamped over the sentiment. I matted with matching cardstock.

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

Tulip Ribbon

Kris also brought this fun ribbon for us to use! I colored the tulips with Copics. I matted with blue and then purple and added the sentiment - from Papertrey Ink. This butterfly has been sitting on my stamping table for quite a long time. I was just checking to see how a butterfly would work on this card, and realized this one was just the right color! I had originally used yellow Liquid Pearls, so I just used a Copic to color them purple. Thanks again, Kris!

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

Thanks, Kris!

Kris, a member of our Yahoo group, is so great about bringing cards for us to make. This is one she brought dies for. She came up with the layout, as well.

The flower, flower center, leaves and sentiment are all dies. Kris also brought the burlap. I matted with brown cardstock and used an ivory cardbase. So fun. Thanks, Kris!

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

Group Gathering - 2016

Our Yahoo group got together for our tenth annual Group Gathering in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday through Thursday. Well, it was the ninth one in Des Moines. Our first one was in Reinbeck, Iowa. We were a pretty small group this year - only five of us. But, as usual, we had a wonderful time!!! Left to right: Vicki, me, Kris, Georgia and Sheri. We spent our time shopping in Ankeny and visiting at our hotel on Tuesday, then on Wednesday and Thursday we spent our time at Outstamping Designs/Heirlooms by Design in Valley Junction. Marj is such a fabulous host!

The last three years, Marj has arranged a special-session card class for us. So fun! Here are the cards we made this year. The images are all stickers from Penny Black. This first card is 5 x 7 inches.

 This card is 4.5 x 6.25 inches. There is acetate over the sticker.

This card is normal A2 card size - 4.25 x 5.5 inches.

And this last card is also 5 x 7 inches. Aren't they so lovely!! Again - these are not MY creations. I only put them together:)

I can't wait to get together again next year!

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

Congrats

Our former next-door neighbors' son received his Eagle Scout badge in April. We were not able to attend the ceremony and life has been too hectic for me to even get a card to him until now. This is the simple card that I made.

The embossing was done with a Sizzix brass stencil in a folder. I used gold foil cardstock for embossing it. I matted with black and mounted on foam squares. The bottom layer was also matted with black. The card base and bottom layer are both off-white cardstock.

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

Graduation

 We have need of several congratulation cards, so I had to take some time yesterday to get them made. It was nice to have a little time for card making. I've been spending a fair amount of time at my mom and dad's house, sorting through their things. We're still trying to decide what to do with them. I think I'm leaning towards an estate sale, but I'm not sure yet.

At any rate, here are two graduation cards I made. They are basically the same but with different colors. This first one is for a grandson who is "graduating" from pre-school to kindergarten. The colors in the picture are not very true, but ... The cap is actually a blue foil. It is cut with Lifestyle Crafts dies. The stamping was done with a Stampin' Up! stamp. I cut the circles with Spellbinders dies. The background was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I matted with matching blue cardstock. The circles and the hat are mounted on foam squares.

This second card is the same except for the colors. The hat is black with a red tassel. The scalloped circle is red, also. It looks burgundy in the picture, but it truly is red:)

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

June Calendar Page

Here is my June calendar page. The stamp is from Repeat Impressions. I water-colored it using Stampin' Up! inks for most of it, and a brown marker for the chair. I wish I was there right now!

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

Flight of the Butterfly #2

I made this card for the color swap in our stamping group. (Luckily I made it a long time ago!) This month's colors are yellow and turquoise.

The butterfly is from a set in my current stack of Stampin' Up! sets in my project to use them all. The set is called "Flight of the Butterfly." (The first card with this set was on my blog on May 7.) It's a two-step stamping set. I stamped the yellow, then added the turquoise with the second stamp with the help of my Stamp-a-ma-jig. The sentiment is from the same set. The patterned cardstock is from Die Cuts With a View. I matted both layers with turquoise. I used Spellbinders rectangles for the butterfly layer.

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

Happy Birthday, Jonah!

Lucky for me, I had my cards for May all finished at the very beginning of the month - except one for our grandson, Jonah. He will turn three on the 30th. So, I had to quickly make him a card. The only thing he requested for his birthday theme was "cherries." So, I made him this card with a cherry on his cupcake:)

The dies and the sentiments are all from My Favorite Things. The bluish paper is textured.

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

My Dad

I've been away from my blog for a while. I sure hope I can get back to it sometime relatively soon.

I just wanted to let you know that my dad passed away this afternoon shortly after 2:00 our time. He had been battling cancer for many years and was a true fighter. It finally got the best of him and he left us to join my mom. He was 91 and had a great life and had lots of fun. Thank you for your prayers.

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

Washi Tape Birthday

Another simple card for today - my favorite kind:)

I simply added strips of Washi tape diagonally across a piece of cardstock, and then a birthday sentiment from Papertrey Ink. I matted with black and mounted on a white cardbase.

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

CASEd Birthday

I rarely go on Pinterest. Well, that's not quite true. I often go on Pinterest to see which cards of mine have been pinned, and that's all. When someone pins several of them, occasionally I will check out their boards and see what else they have pinned. Well, following that method, I arrived at this card. I really liked it, and did something that I VERY rarely do - I CASEDd her card. I totally copied the layout and changed the colors, the embossing folder, the flowers and the sentiment. Thanks for the wonderful card, Mary!

The embossing folder I used is from Lifestyle Crafts. I only embossed part of the panel. (I used my  Grand Calibur, which is large enough to be able to put the embossing folder in at an angle.) The flowers are from a Gina K set and I colored with Copics. I mounted that panel on foam squares and matted with white. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I added the white ribbon and bow.

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

Flight of the Butterfly #1

First of two cards using the Stampin' Up! set called "Flight of the Butterfly." (You won't see the second one for a while yet.)

The butterfly was done with two stamps. I first stamped the solid butterfly with a multi-color ink pad. Then I stamped the dotted edge with black ink. The sentiment is from the same set. I added two small gems and matted with light blue. I mounted on foam squares. I stamped the background with a flower stamp from the same set using the mulitcolor ink pad and added gems to the center of each flower.

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

Two Cards - Same Stamp

This flower is a great (old) stamp from Paper Inspirations. I used it for two different cards.

I colored the flower with markers and for this first one I put it straight up and down. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I used the same brown marker as the flower center. I matted with olive cardstock.

For this second card, I used the same markers as the first card. I stamped the flower at an angle. The sympathy stamp is also from PTI. I matted this panel with brown. Both cards open up from bottom to top.

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

Using Up Patterned Paper

I've had this patterned paper for several years, and am using up some more of it. It's from Lasting Impressions. (Thanks, Vicki!)

I used some of the big striped paper for the background. The flowers in the rectangle were a part of another sheet. There were also some "loose" flowers and leaves on the same sheet. So, I cut them out and added them to the already-printed flower by mounting them on foam squares. The sentiment is from a Stampin' Up! set that is in my current stack. It's called "Favorite Greetings." I stamped it in black and added purple in the open areas with a Copic marker.

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

Masculine Birthday

A quick card I made for my husband's uncle. Although it kind of looks black and white, it's actually a pretty Soft Suede (brown) and ivory. The embossing was done with a Darice border folder and the sentiment is from Impression Obsession.

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

Flowery Birthday

This card is very, very similar to one I made a couple weeks ago. I used different patterned paper from the same matstack. And the same paper as the card from a few days ago. For this one, I matted with Riding Hood Red cardstock from Stampin' Up! (An "In" color from several years ago.) The sentiment is from Impression Obsession, and is one of my (many!) favorites. The butterflies were cut with a Memory Box die.

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