I'm (Sort of) Back

I still have many things to do around the house, especially sorting through my mom and dad's pictures, but I am back in the states, anyway. We went to England, Wales, Norway and Iceland. What a trip!!  Maybe I'll share more photos later, but this was taken while we were on narrow boats in the canals of England/Wales for a week. In total, we had four boats with 13 friends for that portion of the trip. From there we went to Norway - Oslo, Balestrand and Bergen - before going on a seven-day cruise up around the northernmost part of Norway. From there we went to Iceland for two days.

Also, I'm doing a huge card-making class through Scrapbook and Cards Today - Crop and Create Delivered. There are nearly 20 companies participating, so there is a LOT of product. And a lot of homework before the classes officially start on Thursday. So, I still won't be around to do any blogging or visiting blogs. Fun stuff, but keeping very busy. I am still golfing when I can, also, so that takes up more time.

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

September Calendar Page

Welcome, September! For this calendar page, I used Gina K stamps. I stamped with white pigment ink and embossed with white powder. Then I ink-blended over that, masking off the bottom part of the page.

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

Moose Birthday

Here is the other card that I put together a few days ago. The die-cut pieces are all from Hello Bluebird and are all popped up on foam squares. I drew in the balloon strings. I used thin strips of red cardstock on the top and bottom edges of the patterned paper.

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

Happy 44th Birthday!

Today is our son's 44th birthday. For many years, we have been making him a card with a picture of an athlete whose number is the same as our son's age. So here is this year's - Chuck Foreman. It's nice that we can use a Minnesota athlete this year.

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

Let's Celebrate!

Well, I actually got all those little critters and miscellaneous things colored and the card front backgrounds glued together. It was something, at least!  Then I had a little time and I put together a couple cards. Here is one and I'll share the other in a few days. Have to spread them out a little since I don't know when I'm going to have time to play in my stamping room again. I'm getting new golf clubs on Wednesday, and I'm anxious to try them out as much as I can. :-) I had some scraps of this patterned paper. The rest of the pieces (stump, bunny, balloon and sentiment) were stamped and die-cut using a set from Hello Bluebird. The stump is glued directly to the patterned paper, but the other pieces are popped up. I drew in the balloon string.

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

My Workspace

Nothing to worry about, but I won't be around for a while. Possibly a little bit here and there, but with the cooler, less rainy weather, I've been spending more time outdoors, especially golfing. Getting together with friends and family also occupies a lot of our time. We will be taking our grandson camping soon. And planning a vacation in the near future. So much to do - so little time!! Oh, and I still have to deal with my mom and dad's photographs and the contents of my cedar chest which is filled with "memorabilia." 

There used to be a thing out in blogland called "What's on Your Desk Wednesday." Everyone was just supposed to take a photo and share. So, I just thought I'd share a photo of my workspace and a taste of what will be coming up when I get a chance. I think this is the last set for me to use of the items I got from a friend in March. It's a bunch of little critters and other things and nearly everything has a coordinating die. I stamped them all and cut out the ones with dies. I did get a chance to start coloring them one day, and sort of making arrangements of the pieces. Also, on the top left is a very small stack of future cards using the last of a 12 x 12 sheet of patterned paper.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll be back when I get a chance.

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

"Sweet" Things - Part Two

This is a continuation of yesterday's post. Five more cards that I made with My Favorite Things dies and sentiments. The embossed backgrounds were made with a Darice folder - one of my favorites.

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

"Sweet" Cards - Part One

Several years ago, I was so lucky to get a bunch of My Favorite Things stamps from a friend. I have used them so much! These cards were all made with the same set. All the dies and sentiments are from that set. There are also image stamps for all of these sweet things, but I only used the dies and the sentiment stamps this time. Actually, there are two sets of dies. One cuts these images and embosses lines in some of them. The other set cuts the stamped images with a slight border around them. I haven't used any of those yet, I don't believe.

Tomorrow I will post the other five that I made. 

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

Hello

Another simple card - that's about all I do! I had this extra die-cut panel (using Spellbinders dies) so I matted it with black and added a "Hello" sentiment from Hampton Art and popped it up on foam squares after added three sequins to it. The patterned paper is very ancient Stampin' Up!

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

Embossed Birthday

I met my friend, Cheryl, for lunch last week to give her a bunch of cards I had made for her to bring to the thrift store she volunteers at. She brought me a 3D embossing folder that she had accidentally gotten two of. Thanks, Cheryl! So, I had to make a card right away using it. I decided to rub an ink pad over it in each direction, and then matted it. The sentiment, from Gina K, is matted and popped up.

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

Happy Birthday Friend

A simple birthday card for a friend. I matted the patterned paper that I had sitting out and added it to an ivory card base. The sentiment panel was cut using Spellbinders dies. The stamps are from Gina K. The sentiment panel is popped up on foam squares and I added three enamel dots. 

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

Hello in Blue with Flowers

I was determined to use up the things on my stamping table, and I finally did it! Well, I have to admit that I simply filed a few pieces back into my "card parts" book. :-) I had a few of these white rectangles sitting out, and also some pieces of this patterned paper. So I matted the patterned paper with the white and popped up the panels on foam squares. The hello die and shadow are from Gina K, and it is popped up, also.

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

August Calendar Page

August has rolled around. I hope you've all been enjoying a great summer!

The tree stamp is from My Favorite Things. The sentiment is from Repeat Impressions. To color the tree, I stamped on a piece of scrap paper and then cut out the leafy part of the tree and placed it over the stamped image on the calendar page. Then I used my blending brushes to ink blend. I like the way it turned out. Much easier than using Copics! I colored the rest of the image with non-alcohol markers so the ink wouldn't come through.

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

Bleach-y Background

A while back, I spritzed a piece of dark green cardstock with bleach. This is the result. It's been sitting around for all that time and I finally put it on a card to get rid of it. I cut it down and matted it with black. The sentiment, from Gina K, was heat-embossed. I die-cut the leaves, dabbed them with Versamark ink and heat embossed them, too.

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

Single Birthday Flower

I had a few of these flowers left on my stamping table from a few weeks ago. I used this one and tossed the others. I also had this cork circle on my table, along with three others of different colors. We put these little cork pads on our cabinet doors so they would close quietly. But, we bought 2000 of them!! I thought maybe I could color them with markers and use them on my cards. I probably won't do that, but here is one, anyway. I also had the little scraps of black and white. And I had the left-over part after cutting a scalloped circle, which I used as a stencil. They all came together to make this card. The sentiment is from Gina K.

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

60th Birthday

We were invited to a 60th birthday party for our neighbor, and I realized about 45 minutes before we were heading over that we didn't have a card for him! So, this is what I came up with. I already had the stair-step card base cut and ready to go. (If you want to see other stair-step cards that I have made, you can click on the stair-step label at the end of the post.) I usually do some matting on the patterned paper, etc, but I had no time this time!! So, I simply adhered the patterned paper and then trimmed around the edges. That worked just fine and it was so much easier! I die-cut the numbers and the balloons and attached them and added the sentiment.

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

Many More Patterned Paper Cards

Here are the rest of the cards that I made with my stack of patterned paper that I got free from Michael's. All of the papers (except for the card bases) were from the stack. I used many different companies' stamps to finish up the cards.

I made two of each of these cards except for this first one. I hope you will take a quick glance at them to the end of the post! I started out with 48 12 x 12 sheets and now I have 33 sheets left - mostly smaller prints which are great for cards. I set aside two sheets for a scrapbooking friend. Now I can work on something else when I have time. And, I may have a bit of time this week. It's supposed to be very hot every day!! Yuk! No outdoor activities for me when it's in the 90's!

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

Patterned Cardstock Cards

I have no idea why, but every once in a while, I get an email from Michael's giving me a five-dollar voucher. It's not because I've earned a "reward," since I don't spend any money there. But, I do like to spend the voucher. We went camping "up north" last weekend, and the mosquitos were HORRIBLE!!! So, we went into town to have some ice cream and get away from the mosquitos. Well, they had a Michael's, so we went there, too. And they had exactly what I was hoping for - a 12 x 12 pad of patterned cardstock for - you guessed it - five dollars! I don't even get charged tax on it, so it's completely free. Can't beat that! So, I have my routine. First I take all the sheets out of tablet form. I sort out the smaller patterned ones and set them aside. I put the ones that need cutting aside and one or two sheets that I know I won't use/can't really cut down, and I set them aside for a scrapbooking friend. Then I cut the sheets apart that need it. Here are six cards that I made using some of the cut-apart pieces. All of the stamped sentiments are from Gina K. All of the papers, including matting and borders, are from the stack that I just got. I made two of each of these cards.

There are a very few sheets that have gold foil on them. I used a thin border piece cut in half for the edges of this card. The "HELLO" was also included. It's popped up on foam squares. You can see the gold better in this photo.

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