A Sympathy Sail

This image of the sail boat was another element 'floating' (pardon the pun) around on my desk.  So of course I had to use it as part of my quest to clean up the area.  Since I had stamped this boat in Memento Rich Cocoa I used the brown and blue color scheme that I had going already.  The image is from Papertrey's Masculine Motif's set.
I really had goofed a little bit while stamping this by not getting the best coverage of ink.  The image is somewhat distressed anyway so I still think it works.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Lone Sunflower

This card was part of the birthday gift for my sister.  She doesn't like to acknowledge the passing of another year but she can always use a card or two to send out so that's what she gets.
Papertrey's August release had a Simple Sunflower set (with the matching die of course) that just jumped into my virtual shopping cart and screamed 'Take me I'm yours' (do ya think I've been reading to many romance novels???).
So I made this card with a leftover sunflower and a strip of DP  from the Fall Prints and Patterns by Papertrey.  The sentiment is from the Think Big Favorites 7, also Papertrey.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Tea Pot of Sympathy

I was lucky enough to win a challenge on the Sweet Stamps blog a little while ago and with my prize I selected this stamp (among others lol).  There were so many great stamps that I just had to go over my budget.
I really like this stamp a lot.  While I was getting ready to color, with Copics of course, I tried to picture what kind of card I wanted to make and sympathy kept coming to mind.  After all what is more comforting in sadness that a nice cup of tea.  I have also come to believe that sympathy cards don't always have to be somber so I chose to go with bright colors.  After I had the flowers done I went to the color wheel and picked this blue from the opposite side of the wheel.  I wanted strong contrast and I think I achieved my goal.  I used a bit of distress ink around the edges of each layer to soften it up a bit.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Flower In a Tea Cup

To continue my saga of desk cleaning....this tea cup was an element that was left over from a card making session many months ago.  I had seen this idea on a blog some time ago and thought it was a really cute idea.  I used my mat stack dies and cut out the frame and set it on the card base to get an idea of positioning.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey's Think Big Favorites 7.  The cup is also from Papertrey the Tea for Two Additions and was cut out with the co-ordinating die.
The flower is from their Flower Fusion #5 set.  I stamped directly onto the DP (also Papertrey, Bitty Box) then the flower was cut with a die and stamped with Memento Lady Bug and mounted to the DP.  This shows that you can have several layers and still keep a clean look that highlights the image and sentiment.  I truly love cards like my friend Sandy makes that show great color and texture with layers of DP that make a great card but I also love the Clean & Simple cards that are just as satisfying.  If you click on those names you can see what  I mean about the cards in both design ideas.
I do hope that you like my card and thanks fro stopping by.

Alice Says Hello

While cleaning up my desk last week I came across some images that I had colored up and set aside for future use.  Well the future came and went and there they sat, so since they were on my conscience I said ok already stop whining and I got to work.   This image is from Maurie Manning and is so sweet that I had to have it, but has been a struggle for me to come up with what to do with it.  Well inspiration struck while I was looking at it and this card is the result.
Since Alice's dress is blue I went with the brown and blue theme I had used on other cards.  For Alice it works very well.  I used the hello sentiment from Papertrey's Peaceful Garden set.
I'm really fond of this card, several layers but still a very uncluttered look.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Rose Red

Well actually it's Raspberry Fizz.  That's the name Papertrey gives this card stock.  I used co-ordinated DP from the Bitty Box Basics set on the base, then a layer of white card stock then another layer of the Bitty Box paper.
Then I got tricky, I took my Mat Stack 1 die and the Mega Mat Stack 1 die and layered them and ran them through with the white card stock.  That left me with a separate center portion that I could then rub the edge with Memento Lady Bug ink.  This makes it look as though it's another layer but it is just nestled back into the frame.
I used Memento markers to color the rose from Papertrey's Year of Flowers set, trimmed it out and pop dotted it onto the mat.  While I was making this card I kept thinking "Wow this is a bold color, not sure if I'm getting it right" but in the end I loved it.
 Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Card for Tara

Yesterday was a granddaughters birthday.  She turned 18 and I think that age brings out the sophistication in a girl.  So for that reason I decided to go with black, silver and white theme.
In the past I've used medallions on my cards and so I pulled a couple of them out to work with on this card.  I also pulled out this beautiful DP that I believe is from The Paper Company.  It's a black and silver paisley pattern and when ever I see I grab a sheet of it.
I ended up selecting the card on the right to send her as I like the angles of the DP and the medallion.  The medallion didn't show up very well on the DP so I cut a small piece of white card stock and rounded the corners to mimic the medallion.  I opted to leave off a sentiment from the front of the card to keep it very simple.

Big Sisters

My sister is Nanny for a family that has grown this past week with a new little girl.  She has two older sisters that are so excited about a new baby.  I thought it would be fun to send them each a card to congratulate them on the new baby. 
Last August at the Novi stamp show I picked up several card sets at The Papercut.  I just love that company, they have the neatest items.
These cards are an example.  The set consists of the card base and and over layer that has a cut out under the circle.  I used a Papertrey 3/4 inch die (Limitless Circles )as a mat for the focal image and the image is from an acrylic set that I've had for years and I no longer know where it came from.  I colored with Copics and added the sentiments on the over layer.  By the way I ran the over layers through my Cuttlebug using Swiss Dots for one and Divine Swirls for the other.  I haven't heard how the girls liked them but I'm sure they are to busy playing with the new baby.

Happy Birthday Ann

Like many of us my 'younger sister' Doesn't really want to acknowledge her birthday.  I don't know why since it's a day traditionally spent eating cake and ice cream.  Oh well.
I did make a card for her that just asks her to celebrate the day anyway and on the inside I asked her to enjoy the day that she joined our family.  It's a fall card since it is fall and I used DP from Papertrey's Fall Prints and Patterns.
It also gave the chance to use some of the leaf cut outs I bought from The Papercut that I bought at the Novi show in August.  (One good thing about cleaning my desk is finding all the goodies that had gotten lost in the shuffle.)
So I used a green card stock for the base then the DP and layered on some of the leaves.  I decided to stamp the sentiment right onto a leaf rather that add another layer (sorry Sandy).
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Thank You Cards for West Side Story

I've been super busy lately with many ongoing projects, but I have had some time in the last couple of days to make cards.  These are cards that are long over due but still needed to be made and sent.
Last May was Bruce's 75th birthday and my family went in together and bought him a gift certificate to the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.  What a terrific gift.  We took it over there this past week and purchased tickets for West Side Story that will be here in November.  This is one of Bruce's favorite musicals, can't wait.
So of course I had to get off my (you know what) and get the thank you cards made & on the way.
I have been clearing my desk off (again) and had made some other cards (to be posted later) using a brown and blue theme.  I'm really liking this color combo so I decided to use the scraps and for my images I chose to use Papertrey's Peaceful Garden set.  Using the dies that go with the set I cut out my focal points and stamped them with Memento Rich Cocoa.  The middle card was easy but I decided to get fussy with the other two.  First I stamped the image onto the blue card stock, stamping once and then again without re-inking,  I then added a narrow strip of the brown card stock as a base and pop dotted the focal images.  Then I just stamped the sentiment and was done.  I think they came out very nicely, what do you think?
Thanks for stopping by.

Poppie in a Bottle

Back in July I made these cards and loved how they turned out.  When shopping at, I don't remember where, I found this stamp also from Inkadinkado and had to have it.  I just love the whole flower in bottles thing.
So anyway I decided to do the one layer thing again and stamped directly onto the card base.  This time out I used Prisma pencils and Gamsol for my coloring and just colored the flowers and lightly shaded the bottles.  Stamped the sentiment from Papertrey and was finished.
It has been a long time since I've seen the top of my desk and I have to spend some time clearing it up but as I do I'll be making cards and getting rid of extra stuff (package for Kristi being filled up).
Hope you like the cards and thanks for stopping by.

A Get Well Pearl

I absolutely adore this DP from the Paper Company.  I got in this brown and also in black just so I could make some masculine cards.  Well men like pearls don't they???? 
I've been saving it for a time when my creative mojo was working and it finally kicked in the other day.
I decided to use this dark brown card stock from Gina K for the base and the Mehndi Medallion stamp set from Papertrey stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa.  I stamped the medallion onto one of the Limitless Layers shapes.  I thought this one worked well with the stamp.  After I had it done it just felt unfinished so I slapped a flat backed pearl in the center.  I used the larger of the Double Ended Banners, also from Papertrey, for the sentiment and used two small flat backed pearls at each end.  The sentiment is from the Little Labels set.
I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Kellen

I've had a fun and exciting summer and haven't been able to get any where near my craft desk for over a month.  It's been KILLING me. 
I did however manage to make a couple of cards in spite of the chaos going on in my home (kitchen redo, new windows, minor basement flooding and a short vacation--whew!)
I had to make my great-nephews card for his first birthday and I went right to the Train Tracks set from Papertrey (after all that set was bought mainly for Kellen's cards anyway).  What a fun set it is.  I cut out the kraft paper using the co-ordinating dies and then stamped them accordingly.  I stamped and colored the gift packages and trimmed them out and placed them on the flat bed.  I found ribbon to use for the train tracks , a little checked ribbon on the blue card and then I found the birthday ribbon for the other and it worked out perfectly.  I used Papertreys Road Trip DP for the card on the right and I just used blue card stock for the base on the other without any DP.  Stamped the 'steam' and the sentiment and was done.  Kellen of course loved it and spent a lot of time showing it off to everyone (she said tongue in cheek).
I'm pleased with how it turned out and I hope you like also.  Thanks for stopping by.