Soft Thanks

Another card part used:) This "splotch" was stamped a couple years ago. I found some cardstock to match it and matted it. I also added a matching butterfly, cut with a Memory Box die. The sentiment is stamped with gray ink. The stamp is from Fiskars. I added gems for the butterfly's body and also three more random ones.

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

Another Simple Birthday Card

When I get something new, I like to "sample" it a bit - try it out. I got some new dies a couple months ago from Michael's with a 60% off coupon and cut this piece right away. I almost returned the dies, but decided to keep them. But, this piece had been sitting on my table since then and I made this card using it. I added the ribbon and scored two lines above and two lines below it with my Scor-Pal. I added the sentiment, which is from Papertrey Ink. I added that piece to a white piece, and popped it up with foam squares.

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

Pink and Gray Birthday

I've had this gray, die-cut and scored piece in my card parts for several years. I took it out and it sat on my stamping table for a few weeks. I kept staring at it, and decided it needed some pink behind it. Also in my card parts were some very old pieces that had been done, I believe, with reinkers and glossy cardstock. This one was the perfect size and just the color I was looking for. I stamped the sentiment, from Papertrey Ink, with gray ink.

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

Gina K World Card Making Day Challenge

Wow, I actually did a challenge! I think it's been years since I've done that:) The challenge I participated in is Gina K's World Card Making Day Challenge #1. Here is a link to her tutorial. She calls it "Carved Wood." It's fun, and I'm looking forward to trying it in different colors. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The stamped image is a Gina K stamp.

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

Happy (Pokemon) Birthday, Andrew!

Today is our oldest grandson, Andrew's, birthday. He is eight already! As usual, I like to try to make personalized birthday cards for the grandkids. Andrew likes playing Pokemon Go. I really know VERY little about it, but our daughter was going to try to make cakepops that look like this, so I thought I would make his card to match. I guess this is the thing you "fling" to catch whatever it is that you try to catch! :)

It was really a very simple card to make just using circle Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

October Calendar Page

Totally amazing that it's October already!!! Seems like summer just started and it's fall already.

Today I'm sharing my October calendar page with you. I borrowed a friend's Stampin' Up! owl punch to make the bat. The wings were done with an oval Nestability and a circle punch. I sponged white ink on the body and wings. I cut the moon with a circle punch and sponged orange ink around the edge. I added the eyes with a white gel pen and a black marker. The sentiment is from a Recollections set.

This is not my original idea:) My friend had seen it on-line and I CASEd it.

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

Gina K and Me

We went to Chicago a couple weeks ago to visit our daughter and her family. We had a wonderful time there. On our way, we stopped at Gina K's "brick and mortar" store, Village Paper and Ink, in Greendale, Wisconsin - a suburb of Milwaukee. It was really just right on our way. How fun!

I was lucky to see Gina there and she was so nice. I asked if I could take a picture of her Stamp TV studio, and she said yes, and then asked if I wanted a picture of me at her desk, and then offered to be in the picture with me. Very cool! What a wonderful person she is, and such a great store. (You can shop on-line, also, of course.)

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

Orange and Gray Color Swap

I made this card for this month's color swap in my stamping group. The colors (in case you can't tell!) are orange and gray.

I cut the swirl while I was in Des Moines at our Group Gathering in June. I believe it may be Memory Box. The butterflies were cut with Memory Box dies. I punched the little flowers. After stamping the sentiment, the background was embossed with an Anna Griffin embossing folder by Cuttlebug and matted with gray.

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

Happy Birthday, Wyatt!!

I can't believe Wyatt - our youngest grandson - is three years old today! Happy Birthday, Wyatt!

The theme of his birthday party yesterday was "Where the Wild Things Are." So, I found some pictures on-line and made them into this card. I cut out the little boy from a second printing of the picture and popped him up on foam squares and added him to the image. I matted with a thin border of black. The card base is ivory. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I added another picture, complete with popped-up little boy, on the inside.

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

Simple Sympathy

I found this very pretty paper in with my scraps the other day and decided it deserved to be used. It is ivory and black, so I used ivory cardstock. I matted the patterned paper with black. I stamped the sentiment (from Stampin' Up!) with Versafine ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I matted that with black, also, and mounted on foam squares.

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

More "Card Parts"

I've had these two frames in my "card parts" for several years. I'm so happy to have finally used them. I do believe they were stamped and cut with Stampin' Up! products - probably stamped and punched. 

For this first one, I found a flower that I liked from an Inkadinkado set and stamped it in the middle. I colored it with Copics and mounted it on foam squares. The leaves were some I die-cut at our Group Gathering. I embossed the white panel with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and matted with matching coral cardstock. The sentiment is from a Papertrey set.

For this second one, I used Papertrey stamps. I again mounted on foam squares. I added a piece of black rickrack that's been sitting around for quite a while. It may have been left over from the card class we took in Des Moines in June. I added these pieces to a white panel and added to the card base.

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

"Re-Purposed" Thanks

We received a Thank You card from our son, and I really liked it:) So, instead of tossing it, I "re-purposed" it. This is the card. I cut out the sentiment and mounted it on foam squares. I added it to a panel of the same kraft background as the sentiment. Then I just added it to a white card base. I'm happy with it.

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

Happy Birthday, Vicki!

This is the card I made for my friend, Vicki, whose birthday was yesterday. Hope you had a great day, Vicki!

The flowers and leaves were done with dies at our Group Gathering in June and also last year. The frame was stamped with a Rubbernecker stamp. (I love the frame! Thanks for letting me use your stamp, Vicki! :) ) I added the sentiment, which is from Papertrey Ink. I cut the stamp into two pieces to allow me to fit the space better. I matted with black and added it to the card front.

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

Miscellaneous - Email

I really love getting email from my blog readers, and I appreciate every one! I try to reply to them, either via email (which I prefer) or on my blog. 

If you leave me a comment with a question, it would be great if you would leave your email address for me to reply to. If you don't, I try to answer it in my next blog post.

I had a weird experience today - I received an email and replied to it, but it wasn't able to be delivered. I tried again a different way, and it still didn't go through. So, I'm going to reply here:

Maureen - I'm not sure which card you are asking about, but all the corner dies I've used are by Memory Box. They have several sets of them. Check the Memory Box website, and search for "Collage." 

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

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.

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

Retirement

A friend of mine recently retired, and this is the card we will be giving her.

The image stamp and the sentiment stamp are both from Repeat Impressions. I stamped the image with Memento black ink. I colored with Copic markers, then I carefully trimmed it down. I cut a piece of green cardstock to mat the square part of the image and left the butterfly unmatted. I added some shimmer to the flowers and butterfly with a Wink of Stella brush. I mounted the entire panel on foam squares.

I'm submitting this to the Repeat Impressions challenge, which this week is "Anything Goes."

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

September Calendar Page

My calendar page for September. The image and the sentiment are both from My Favorite Things. I colored the image with Copic markers and matted with red paper.

If you'd like to make your own calendars, there is a link to my Excel files under my blog header. If you use them, I'd love to hear from you! (There is a link to the file for 2017 and also my cutting instructions.)

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

More Penny Black Flowers

When our granddaughter was here, she wanted to spend as much time as possible in my stamping room. (She is six and a half.) Making cards is her most favorite thing. It was fun for me! I didn't have much time for myself in there, but at least I got to spend some time in my room - AND with Amelia! :) I was able to put some cards together using stampoffs from our Group Gathering in Des Moines, though. I'm pretty sure I have used all of my stampoffs now, except for some wonderful Rubbernecker frames. So, here are five more cards for today. They all use Penny Black stamps (I'm quite certain, anyway) and the sentiments are all from Papertrey Ink. This one uses a Darice embossing folder. I used my Wink of Stella on several of the flowers, too.

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

Thanks a Bunch!

A simple thank you card for today. Haven't had much time in my stamping room lately, although I'll share several cards tomorrow.

The stamps from this card are from an old Taylored Expressions set. Several years ago, our stamping group spent a few hours at Taylor's house. She was a very gracious hostess! I added an enamel dot for the flower center, matted with yellow and mounted on foam squares. I matted the bottom layer of patterned paper with black.

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

Happy Anniversary, Kris and Ron!

Oops - I forgot to finish this post and get it uploaded! Should have been posted on August 17. I hope you had a great day, Kris!

I used an old stamp from Stamper Rosa for this card. It is such a beautiful stamp, but I knew I could never do it justice with my coloring, so I just stamped it with Versamark and used detail gold embossing powder for it. I carefully trimmed it down and then used another layer of cardstock under it to give it more substance. I mounted it on foam squares. I matted with two layers of purple cardstock. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set and is also embossed with gold.

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

Silhouette-Cut Flowers

I've been making progress on my next year's calendars - just one image to finish coloring and I'll be caught up. (Will have finished next year's calendar pages through August. I like to get them done a year in advance so that when December rolls around they are ready to be gifted.) These flowers were leftovers from one of the month's for next year's calendar. They will look quite different on the calendar:) 

I used my Cameo Silhouette to cut them. I first did "practice" ones in white. The ones on the calendar were cut with colored cardstock. I didn't want to throw the white ones away, of course, so I kept them and used Copic markers to color them. I intentionally left the colors a little "mottled." I matted with a matching green cardstock. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set.

I'll probably be taking a bit of a break. Our daughter and her family will be coming up for a little over a week, so I doubt I will have any stamping time. I'll be back, though! :)

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

Six Similar - But Different! - Christmas Cards

More "Group Gathering" cards:) I bought this Memory Box die set in Des Moines. I made nine cards with it and I'm sharing six of them with you today. The other three are identical to others on this page.

The panel on this first card is shimmery silver. The sentiment (from Impression Obsession) is embossed with detail silver.

I love this white-on-white one! The sentiment is from My Favorite Things and is also embossed with silver.

More silver and more My Favorite Things sentiment.

I cut an oval from shimmery turquoise for this one. The sentiment is silver again and is also from My Favorite Things.

More silver:)

I used white embossing powder for this one.

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

One Stamp - Three Cards

This pretty stamp was one that Sheri brought to Des Moines and I stamped these three images in varying colors with it.

The sentiment on this one is from Papertrey Ink.

This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, also. The background was embossed with a Darice folder.

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

One Stamp Set - Three Cards

Three more cards as a result of our Group Gathering in Des Moines in June:) Kris brought a few stamps and tools that she no longer wanted and we could have them if we chose. I chose a couple things, and one was this stamp set from Stampin' Up! All of the stamps in this post are from the same set.

For this first one, I stamped the image twice. I colored them both and cut one of them out. I mounted it on Pop Dots and placed it over the other. I added the sentiment and matted the piece with a bit of matching cardstock.

I used the same Copic markers to color this image as the first one, adding two more, I think. For this one, I mounted the entire image panel on Pop Dots. I also added Wink of Stella to the flowers.

One more simple card using another stamp from the set. I added Wink of Stella to the flowers on the cake, too.

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

Repurposed Poinsettias

While sorting through boxes (and boxes and boxes!) of "stuff" at my mom and dad's house, I found two beautiful Christmas cards they had received from my brother and sister-in-law. (They must have really loved the card, since they sent one to Mom and Dad twice!) Anyway, my brother had already told me that he didn't want any of the cards back and I couldn't just toss those two beauties, so these cards are the result of that. I trimmed them down to just the poinsettia part. I saved another part from each card to use later. I have already attached those pieces to a card base, but I have no idea where to go from there. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set.

Same card, different orientation.

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

Sympathy and Thank You

I stamped these heart pieces while in Des Moines in June. Thanks, Sheri, for bringing this stamp set! The set is called "Heart Swatches" and is from Penny Black. I totally cased the layout from a card Sheri had made in March. Her card was square, though. The sentiments for both cards are from Papertrey Ink. I thought maybe the pink was a bit bold for a sympathy card, so I matted this one with black. I added a couple gems to this one, too.

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

Pink Sympathy

I've been going through my most recent card pieces and just using the top piece and working my way down the pile. It's been fun and productive. I bought a couple new embossing folders a few weeks ago and had to try them out right away. The background for this card uses up one of those embossed pieces. The folder is from Darice. I matted with pink cardstock. The butterfly and coneflower stamps are from an Inkadinkado set. The sentiment is stamped in brown and is from Papertrey Ink. I matted the image panel with the same pink cardstock and mounted on Pop Dots.

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

Stenciled Backgrounds

I created the background for each of these cards the same way. I used a Tim Holtz stencil, rubbed distress ink on it, spritzed it and then put a piece of cardstock on top. One is watercolor paper and the rest are cardstock. Also, on a couple, I accidentally spritzed with alcohol!

To finish this first card, I stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) and then cut it out with a Stitched Rectangle die from Memory Box. I also die-cut a piece of fun foam to mount the sentiment on. I matted the background with dark brown cardstock. I'm pretty sure I spritzed the stencil with alcohol on this one.

For this second one, I stamped the lighthouse using an Impression Obsession stamp and the sentiment with a Papertrey Ink stamp.

This one uses the same stamps, but the background is a bit different. Looks like the second "stamping" with the stencil.

And for this one, I used a stamp from Inkadinkado and the same PTI sentiment.

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

Digital Image Birthday

This is the other digital image I got from my friend, Kris, in Des Moines. I matted it with matching cardstock and mounted on Pop Dots. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I cut it with a Memory Box Stitched Rectangle die and matted with the same color cardstock. The background was embossed with a new-to-me embossing folder from Darice. I got a couple new ones from JoAnn's a few weeks ago when I could get them for 60% off. Can't pass up a deal! :)

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

Dragon Birthday

When I was in Des Moines in June (my, how time flies!) Kris also gave us a couple digital images. This dragon was one, and it came all colored up. So, this is a terribly easy card. The frame around it was part of the card kit for the card class we took. It wasn't used in the class, but of course I couldn't toss it. So, I trimmed down the image to fit the frame. I mounted the panel on Pop Dots. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

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!