"Cheater" Cards #1

A few years ago, I bought a pad of Recollections Christmas-patterned cardstock. I had used a few sheets of it over the years, but I still had most of it left. I did a "mini-purge" with the matstack. I separated the sheets into sheets I knew I would not use, those that could be used for non-Christmas cards, and sheets that I could cut down to use for my this-year's Christmas cards. I had a friend over on Thursday, and while she worked on sorting through her photographs, I made twenty-one cards. Oh, how good that felt. On Friday morning, I used the sheets that I knew I would never use! I flipped them over and used the blank side to stamp images and sentiments for twelve more cards. I will share them later. So, as of Saturday night, I have my Christmas cards finished for the year! I still have to stamp the insides, but at least the outsides of 72 cards are done.

I will start with the three very simplest designs. All I did with these was to trim down the design and then stamp a sentiment. The card bases are all ivory. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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

Peace on Earth

Another card using a scrap - this panel with the hole cut out of it was in with my white scraps. The holly leaves and berries were stamped with Technique Tuesday stamps. I colored the leaves with a Copic marker. I stamped the sentiment on textured red cardstock. I mounted the holly panel on foam squares and added it over the red layer.

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

Holly Christmas #2

The holly leaves and berries on this card were cut with a Sizzix die. The embossing was done with a Sizzix folder. I mounted this panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey. How's that for short and to the point? :)

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

Holly Christmas

While digging through my white "scraps" I found several pieces with circles and ovals cut out of them. I don't like "wasting" and so I keep the "negative" parts. Time to use some:)

The holly stamp is from Stampin' Up! I colored it with markers. The sentiment is from Papertrey. I scored a line above and below it. The sentiment panel is mounted on foam squares.

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

Little Shepherd

This card uses a pre-cut window card base. It's actually a triple fold card. The stamped image and the sentiment are both from Repeat Impressions. I did the coloring with my Copic markers.

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

Embossed Christmas Tree

I finished up my calendars for next year on Monday. Yippee!! Now, on to my Christmas cards. I was pleasantly surprised to find out I had 35 cards tucked away from during the year so far. Add to that the two that I made on Monday and Tuesday, and the three that I made yesterday, brings me up to 40! Only about 40 more to go:) I think some mass production is in my future.

I embossed this Christmas tree using a small Sizzix embossing folder. I matted it with shimmery gold and mounted it on foam squares. The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday and is embossed with detail gold embossing powder.

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

Monster Birthday

This card happened, unbelievably, on my way to making a card for our monthly color swap whose color's are brown and silver! It's a long story, and I'm not going to get into it:) 

I found some scraps of paper in a matstack of patterned paper by Recollections. I felt they needed to be used, so I started cutting out the big monster. Oh my gosh - does he ever have a lot of bumps and teeth and claws!! LOL! I also cut out the smaller monster. He's got tiny little legs, a tail and some sort of antenna. What I have to say is - I better actually USE this card some day, for how long it took me to make it. :) The sentiment bubble is from the same paper, as is the stripes in the background. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set. Both monsters and the sentiment bubble are popped up on foam squares.

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

November Calendar Page

My November calendar page. Both the sentiment and the image are from Inkadinkado. I stamped the image with a Kaleidacolor Creole Spice ink pad. I stamped the sentiment on vellum and placed it over the image. The panel is matted with black.

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

Happy Halloween #4

The last of the Halloween cards. I made two like this for our two oldest grandsons.

Once again, the background paper is from a stack by Recollections. I had this piece of white with the oval cut out of it left-over from the card from a couple days ago. I just happened to set it on this piece of paper that I had gotten out. I thought it worked out great! Funny how that happens sometimes. :) The ghosts are from a Recollections stamp set and the sentiment is from an old dollar set by Studio G. The ghosts are mounted on foam squares.

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

Happy Retirement!

This is the card I made for a friend of ours for his retirement. Both of the stamps I used are by Repeat Impressions. I colored the image using Copic markers. I scored one line on the bottom and three lines on the top with my Scor-Pal. I matted with brown cardstock and added it to a kraft base.

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

Happy Anniversary, Eric and Brooke!

Our son and daughter-in-law's anniversary was yesterday. Here is their card. Our daughter-in-law loves puns, so this card was made mostly for her:)

All the stamps - the pears, the stems, the leaves and the sentiment stamps - are from Technique Tuesday. I stamped and cut out the pieces. The matting is all the same color olive green. The background was embossed with a Darice Wire Fence embossing folder. I used Nestabilities to cut the ovals. One of the pears and the "PERFECT PEAR" part of the sentiment are mounted on foam squares.

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

Color Swap

The color swap in my stamping group this month is kraft and any other color. My "other color" is red. The off-white and black are neutrals.

The poppies were die-cut with a Spellbinders die out of black cardstock. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! I used ivory cardstock for the background and the sentiment and matted with red. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares.

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

Happy Halloween #3

This card uses the same background paper as the two cards from yesterday. For this one, I used the same sentiment (from an old dollar stamp set from Studio G.) I matted it with black and mounted it on foam squares. I stamped the image (from a Halloween Recollections set) and colored with Copics. I cut it out with an oval Nestability and used a scalloped die on black for the mat. This one is for our granddaughter.

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

Happy Halloween - #1 and #2

I finally got around to making my Halloween cards for the grandkids. Three will go out in the mail tomorrow, heading for Chicago. The other two will be hand-delivered. They are all pretty simple this year. (Not unlike every other year, I guess!!)

The background paper for all of them comes from a pad from Recollections. The papers were all 8.5 x 11, but I cut them down to fit on standard sized cards. I trimmed off the lower left corner of this one, along the spider web edge. I matted with black. The sentiment is from an old dollar set by Studio G. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed with detail white embossing powder. The ghosts are from a Halloween set by Recollections. I stamped them on white, cut them out, and mounted on foam squares.

This piece had the spider already on it. I simply matted the paper with black, added the sentiment (same as above), and then popped up the ghost. These two cards go to the two youngest grandsons.

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

"Thumping" Technique Video

Several people have asked me about the "thumping" technique that I used on this card. It's very simple, and I thought I would do a very short video to show you how I do it. You can view the video here. The tree stamp is from Gina K. (Not professionally done, by any means, but you can see how easy it is to do it!)

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

Autumn Wishes

I placed an order with Gina K last week, and here is my first card using my new stamps. You will be seeing these stamps on my September 2017 calendar page:) I was just a tad behind, but have now finished that page.

I inked up the tree stamp with yellow ink. Then I used four different color markers to finish the tree. I used brown for the trunk and branches. Then I "thumped" with the other three markers to color the tree. I used the coordinating brown ink pad for the sentiment. I doodled the border with the brown marker, also, and matted with matching cardstock.

Edited to add: I have uploaded a short video to YouTube showing how to do "thumping." You can view it here.

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

Best Wishes

A "best wishes" card for today. They can be used for so many occasions.

The flowers on this card are from Gina K. I used markers to color directly on the stamp and then spritzed with water for a water color effect. I matted with green and used the same green marker for the sentiment, which is from Stampin' Up! The patterned paper really does match much better "in real life!" It's funny how photographs change the colors sometimes.

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

More Birthday Flowers

I almost forgot I had this card to post. I used the same flower stamps as this card, but I didn't use the dies on this one. The stamps are all from Papertrey Ink. I added some orange gems for the flower centers. The tiny butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I added a purple gem to each of them. I also used a fine-point black marker to draw around the edges of them to match the black on the edges of the flowers, and to add antennae. The image panel is matted with green and mounted on foam squares. The second panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and matted with the same green.

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

Wedding Shower

Today I am going to a wedding shower for the future daughter-in-law of some long-time friends. This is the card I made for her. It's not the card I envisioned in my head, but it works:)

The heart is a sticker I've had for years. It is slightly popped up. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. It is matted with soft pink cardstock and mounted on foam squares. The background is embossed with a Darice Chicken Wire embossing folder and matted with the same soft pink.

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

Die-Cut Flowers

For some reason, the die I used on this card was sitting on my table, so I used it, possibly for the first time. It's from Papertrey Ink. The die includes the three sizes of flowers. The stamps are all PTI, too. I find it very hard to line up stamps on die cuts. I stamped the stems with green (all one stamp) and then added the die-cut flowers. The sentiment is also from PTI. I added enamel dots for the flower centers. I matted the image panel with matching green cardstock.

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

Birch Tree Christmas and Birthday

A friend was over last week to stamp, and she brought over this beautiful die. I cut three of these birch tree scenes. I made two of them into Christmas cards and one into a birthday card.

This card is a non-standard size - 4 x 6 inches. I mounted the die cut on dark green cardstock and then matted with black. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I cut it with a Memory Box die and mounted on foam squares. I added a red gem for the dot on the "i." The birds were punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Basically the same card, except this one is standard size. I added the die cut to dark blue cardstock and placed directly on the card front. Again, I cut the sentiment with a Memory Box die and mounted on foam squares.

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

Swirly Birthday

I went to a craft garage sale a couple weeks ago. There was LOTS of stuff, but I managed to just buy a little bit. One thing I bought was a stamp set from Close to My Heart. It had swirls and other such stamps. I decided to try it out.

I stamped it in the corner with Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry ink. I added the sentiment, which is from a Paper Inspirations set. I matted with matching cardstock and added the butterfly, cut from the same cardstock using a Memory Box die. I added a couple small pearls for the butterfly's body.

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

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!