May Calendar Page

Here is my May calendar page. I used my MISTI and a stamp set from Technique Tuesday for this one. I added a bit more color to the open flowers with Copic markers. I dragged the edges across an ink pad to add color to the edges.

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

Special Day in Turquoise

Here is another card I made using a stencil. The stencil is from The Crafter's Workshop. I brushed on the darker turquoise ink with the stencil in place. I realized that it was too stark a contrast with the white cardstock, though. So, I then brushed the entire piece with the lighter ink. The sentiment was already on my table. The sentiment and its shadow were both cut with dies. I had cut the shadow out of white and then brushed it with the same color of lighter ink. It's mounted on foam squares. I added a turquoise strip across the card and placed thin black strips on each side of it.

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

Rainbow Butterflies

This card uses two card parts that I showed on my blog a few weeks back. I had been using Gina K printed sheets, foil and my laminator. It was nice to make another card using some of the pieces that I had made.

For this piece, I had used rainbow foil for the butterflies. I used blue foil for the sentiment. I trimmed down the butterfly piece to just smaller than the card front. I used a die to cut the sentiment, and then another die to cut the bottom of the sentiment. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares.

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

Loss of a Furry Friend

A friend from my stamping group lost a furry family member last week. She had had him for almost twenty years! This is the card I made and sent to her. The image was already stamped and ready to use. It's from Inkadinkado. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I matted with black. The pretty, striped paper is from Die Cuts With a View. 

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

Honeycomb Friends

I finally spent some time in my stamping room yesterday. It felt great. It feels like a long time since I made anything in there, but maybe it was just over a week. Or maybe it was two weeks. Time is kind of strange lately. Again, though, I was using up card parts. Some of the parts were not very old, but they were pre-made, nonetheless.

I recently had watched a Jennifer McGuire video about using stencils, embossing paste and glitter, so that's what I had done on the background of this card. You can't really see the glitter, though. The stencil is from Heidi Swapp. I trimmed the yellow piece down a bit and matted with black. I added a strip of gingham ribbon. The sentiment is from an old Stampin' Up! stamp set. You also can't tell this, but I colored in the open parts of the letters with a yellow marker, which is darker than the yellow cardstock.

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

Anniversary Flowers in Purple

This is one of my favorite cards for a while. Even though I've been making quite a few lately, it seems like I'm always just making cards to use up parts and they all seem rather the same. At least this one is a little bit different. An on-line friend, Michele, often uses striped paper showing just along the edges of her cards. I always like that and often plan on doing that "sometime." Well, it's finally "sometime!" The flower images are from Inkadinkado. I stamped them in black, colored them with Copics, and then stamped them again with Versamark and embossed them with black embossing powder. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. The black is all thin strips.

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

Thinking of You in Pink and Black

The main strip across this card was done a few weeks ago. I'm not even sure how I made it! I remember just rubbing the strip in watered color of some sort - markers or ink or paint. At any rate, it finally made it on to a card. I matted it with pink and then black. I stamped the design image across the top and the bottom. (The image is from Tattered Angels.) I die-cut the sentiment and added it to the strip.

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

Very Simple Guy Birthday

The other day, I pulled out a set of Tattered Angels stamps that I received when I was on a design team many years ago. I made this super-simple guy card with one of them. The stamp is the "screen-y" pattern done in blue. I simply added a die-cut sentiment over it. I matted with black and used a white card base.

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

Happy Easter (and Passover!)

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. And Happy Sunday to those who don't. And Happy Passover, too!!

This is a weird one, for sure. I hope you are all safe and healthy and staying home. We will be going over to our son and family's house. They have been totally isolated as have we, so we're good! It's nice to have four people that we can get together with. I hope you all have some way - Zoom, Hangout, Skype, Facetime, etc. - to get together with someone.

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

Another Die-Cut Frame

Well, yesterday's WAS my last card, but I made another:) This card uses the same die as yesterday's. It's from Momenta.It cuts the frame and the flowers. I cut it from black and added it to an ivory card base. I colored the flowers and the leaves in with markers. But then I didn't know what else to do! So, I masked off the middle part and covered it with distress inks. Then I added the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) and the thin black strips. The flowers and leaves were too bright, so I had to "dull" it down a bit!

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

Pink and Gold Birthday

A simple card for today and then I'm out of cards for a while. I do have lots of parts to work with, though! :)

This is one of the pre-printed sentiments from Gina K that I foiled a couple weeks ago. I added just a touch of color to the candle with Copic markers. I matted the sentiment with gold foil cardstock cut with a scalloped Nestability circle and mounted it on foam squares. The frame was die-cut from the same foil cardstock and mounted on pink cardstock. The die I used is from Momenta, and I got it a while back at Hobby Lobby when it was 75% off. I stamped the background with an old stamp from Stampin' Up! from the Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp set.

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

Foiled Christmas

I made four Christmas cards using a pre-printed background sheet from Gina K. I foiled them with Deco Foil - one in blue, one in gold and two in silver. Three of them have sentiments that are also foiled and also from Gina K. I matted each background with matching paper. The sentiment on this first one is from Papertrey Ink and is embossed with silver.

The sentiment on this last one is red.

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

Birthday in Blue

This is another background I've had in my stash for many, many years. I just added it to a card front and added the sentiment. The sentiment is pre-printed from Gina K and foiled with blue. I used a Nestability for the matting and mounted it on Dimensionals.

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

Birthday Dots

This background is from Gina K. It's one of the several designs of pre-printed sheets that I bought over a year ago. For this one, though, I didn't cover it with foil. I just sponged distress inks on it and added the sentiment. The sentiment is also pre-printed from Gina K. I foiled it with lavender foil, matted it with lavender and black cardstock, and mounted it on foam squares.

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

Autumn Birthday

This background was in my "stash" for at least ten years. I think I still have another one in my box. I matted it with dark brown and added the die-cut sentiment, which is layered to make it stronger. It is mounted on Dimensionals.

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

Glittery Leaves

This card front is totally covered with glitter - so sparkly. I used a Memory Box stencil and Couture Creations Diecut 'n Bond. I first covered the stencil with green glitter, then removed the stencil and added the light blue glitter. For the sentiment, I cut the sentiment also using the sticky paper, then covered it with the green glitter. The sentiment shadow has no glitter.

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

Oops - More Card Parts!

One night last week, instead of making cards using some of my card parts ... I made MORE card parts!! LOL! I decided to use my foil, pre-printed sheets and my laminator. I made several quarter-sheet backgrounds and foiled several sentiments. I also sponged ink onto another pre-printed sheet, and die-cut a couple backgrounds and a sentiment. I hope to use many of these SOON! We'll see.

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

Thinking of You Butterflies

This is the last of my acetate backgrounds. It's been fun working with them. I have over twenty backgrounds left to use that were done on cardstock. I think maybe I'll put them away again for a little while:) I added a die-cut frame, butterflies and sentiment.

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

April Calendar Page

Wow, and now we're in April. I hope you are all well. We are still doing well, and staying isolated.

Here is my April calendar page. I used my laser printer to print this clipart image. Then I used green foil and my laminator to cover the image. I used a Copic marker to color the "April" and also added ink around the edges with an ink pad.

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

More Birthday Flowers

This is my next-to-the-last card using acetate backgrounds. The background looks a lot more blue in the photo than it actually is, as is often the case with purples. This card uses two pre-made backgrounds - one for the die-cut and the other the acetate background. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and is embossed in silver. The flower panel is matted with shimmery silver paper.

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

Christmas Card Part

Another card made with a "card part" I've had in my stash for probably ten years. The background was done on acetate. My first thought was, "what an ugly background!" But then I realized how appropriate it was for a Christmas card. I added a die-cut frame and a die-cut sentiment. I also added three layers of the frame (including the insides) to the back of this piece for more dimension. The card base is ivory.

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

Happy Birthday, Amelia!!

We were recently in Chicago (it was just before schools, etc. started closing, and we stayed put in their house while we were there. We were also extremely careful on our trip home!!) visiting our daughter and her family. Our granddaughter, Amelia, drew me a picture. Since her birthday was coming up (she is turning ten today) I used her picture to make her card. I scanned it and printed it smaller than the original. I colored it with Copic markers. I kind of wish I had finished it a little bit "fancier" but it is what it is. I simply matted it and added the sentiment on the inside. Happy Birthday, Amelia!

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

Stained Glass?

One more card using a "card part" that I received several years ago. This piece was also done on acetate. I used a die to cut the flower out of shiny silver cardstock. It looks a bit like stained glass. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I matted it with silver cardstock and mounted it on Dimensionals.

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

Anniversary With Card Parts

Here are two more cards using backgrounds that were given to me. These were also done on acetate. They are many, many years old! These both had some gold in them, so I used gold accents. For this first one, I used a die for the sentiment and made it four layers thick. The cardbase is ivory. I used shiny gold cardstock strips on the top and bottom edges of the acetate.

For this card, I used a Papertrey Ink stamp for the sentiment. I used gold embossing powder for it. I also added the same thin shiny gold strips on the top and bottom edges.

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

Thank You

Another card using a pre-made background from my "stash." This one had also been done on acetate. I sandwiched it between layers of a die-cut. The sentiment is also a die-cut which has been layered.

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

Color Swap Flowers

I made this card for the monthly color swap in my stamping group. The colors this month are yellow and bright green. The stamp I used for the flowers is from Inkadinkado. I colored them with Zig Clean Color markers. I used a die to cut the bottom edge and matted with bright green. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I also added Wink of Stella to the flowers.

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

Thinking of You

I have been watching a lot of Jennifer McGuire videos while walking on the treadmill. She has been showing a lot of inky backgrounds lately. That reminded me that I have a lot of pre-made backgrounds. Several years ago, I received three boxes of "junk" from a co-worker of my son. She must have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, judging by the materials in the box. I sorted through every single bit of the "stuff." I tossed a lot out, but kept a lot, too. That is where this background, and many more, came from. I plan on making a lot of cards with them, so be prepared! LOL!

This particular background was done on acetate. I added it to a piece of white cardstock and mounted it on foam squares. You can't see it very well in the picture, but there is silver ink in the background. So, I used silver cardstock to die-cut the sentiment. I also cut three more of the sentiment out of white and glued them together for added dimension.

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

Birthday Flowers

I wonder how many blog posts I have done with that title:) Another very simple card again today. I hope to be able to spend extended periods of time in my stamping room soon!!

The stamp I used for the flowers is by Stampendous. I stamped on kid's watercolor paper. That's the last of it, though. Now I'll start using the "real" stuff. I used my new Derwent Intense watercolors to paint the image. I'm really liking watercoloring. Maybe I'll even start doing pictures. We'll see. I'm guessing not. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I added thin strips of black on the edges and used a kraft card base. I also added Wink of Stella to the flowers.

Stay safe and stay well!

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

Soft Sympathy

I finally took a little bit of time in my stamping room and made this card. I stamped the flower image, from Crafty Secrets, on watercolor paper. I used my watercolors to paint the flower and leaves. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Super simple, but it was nice to get a card made. Maybe it will inspire me to do more.

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

Stay Home and Stay Well!

Even with all this time at home, I haven't had time to spend in my stamping room. Maybe soon! But, I just wanted to take this time to check in. We are taking this situation very seriously and are staying home except for going out for walks. We are not even getting together with our son and his family. I think we will start seeing them again in another week or so, after we've all been "quarantined" for a two or three weeks each. Edited to add: And by that I mean - they are not going out at all and we are not going out at all, so as long as we only see each other, we will be fine.

Stay well, everyone!!

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

Simple "Guy" Birthday

When my friend, Bonnie, was here last week, she brought over a card in this design. Hers was a very feminine card, but I needed a couple of cards for nephews. The front of this card is open above the patterned paper. The patterned paper is from an old stack from Die Cuts With a View. I cut the sentiment and the circles with dies. The sentiment is layered for more dimension and stability.

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

Fishy Birthday

My neighbor and stamping friend, Bonnie, was here last Friday. She brought some things over that she had gotten from another friend. One of the things she brought was this cool patterned paper. She had made a card like this, and I got enough of the paper to make two cards. Such quick and great masculine cards. I cut the circles with Nestability dies, and the sentiment was also cut with dies. The sentiment is mounted on foam squares.

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

Glittery Presents

I had a friend over to play on Friday, and I made five cards. Only three different designs, though. This is the one I made to show her how easy it was to use stencils and glitter. I totally messed up a few times! LOL!

At any rate, I did end up with this one. I used a Lasting Impressions brass stencil and some sticky paper, along with Martha Stewart glitter. I mounted the panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.


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

Watercolor Flowers with Pink

My last watercolored card for a little while. For this one, I drew the image and then watercolored it. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I added a couple black "nail heads." The patterned paper is from Die Cuts With a View. I also did some "doodling" around the edges of the image panel.

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

Even More Watercolor Flowers!

Another watercolored flower card. One more tomorrow - my favorite of the three. :)

For this one, I did the watercoloring, and then I added the black outlines. The image panel is mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from Stampabilities, I think.

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

Watercolor Anniversary

This is one of the three cards that I made "from scratch" as far as watercoloring. I painted the flower and then drew the lines around it. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. At least I'm pretty sure it is and I don't have time to double check right now! :)

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

More Watercolored Flowers

I've been having fun with watercolor. This card uses a stamp, but the next three I'm going to post are "from scratch."

The image stamps on this card (the three flowers and the leaf) are from a Hampton Arts set. I stamped them on cheap watercolor paper. I painted the flowers and added the stems, and the leaves to the middle flower. I matted it and added the sentiment, which is mounted on foam squares. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

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

Watercolor Flowers

Time just flies by, doesn't it? It seems like we are busy most of the time, but I can't really account for it. I haven't spent much time in my stamping room again lately. But, while walking on the treadmill, I have been watching some drawing and watercolor videos on YouTube. They make it look so easy! :) 

I love this simple image by Inkadinkado. I have used it in a few different ways. This time, I stamped it on watercolor paper with Versamark ink and embossed it with black powder. Then I very simply watercolored it. The sentiment is by Inky Antics and is also black-embossed. I mounted the panel on foam tape. The tiny-striped paper in the background is from a pad from Die Cuts With a View.

Another project that I did in the past week or so is to go through a few of the cards I've received and "repurpose" them. I turned them into new cards and donated them to our church. I figured it was better to have someone else enjoy them, too, rather than have them just sit in a box in my room. I still have TONS more sitting in boxes, though! LOL.

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

March Calendar Page

I used an old, wooden stamp for this month's calendar page. It's from Canadian Maple Collections. I colored with Copics. The background paper is from Recollections.

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