Let The Merriment Begin

Last October Papertrey Ink released a set Come All Ye Faithful that is dog related, since I was going through a hard time with my dog it was a no brainer for me to get this set.  It is a set geared towards Christmas but I wanted a variety of cards to give to my Veterinarian as a thank you for all her help with Eddie. This card is one of them, I used a sentiment from this set that works well for a birthday card and added balloons and a cute bow tie. There is a matching set of dies that make paper piecing so easy (although I have to say that handling that little bitty tie was fun NOT).  The reason the front of the card is shorter than the back is that I used the cut off piece for another card, then I added some DP to the inside and to the front.  The tree is from the In The Meadow die set (Papertrey Ink)  as is the "hill" in polka dots. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Lifting Me Up

On the other hand this stamp set from Unity Stamps is so cute and could be such a great card to send a girlfriend who's been there for you that I had to use it.  It works great for paper piecing and for using up scraps. It was part of a card kit I picked up at Archiver's before they closed the store.  There is a guy set also that I'll post another day.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Braver, Stronger, Smarter

Gina K issued a stamp set a while back that is comprised of sentiments that can be used in a Poster Board format. An interesting concept to say the least. One of the sentiments is a great one, that has me somewhat in a quandary.  I love the idea of it, I'm just not sure of how a recipient would see it, would it be encouragement to someone who is feeling a bit lost or would they be offended?  Tell me what you think.

Happy Easter

One of the things I'm doing this year is being a prayer buddy for a student at my parish school, part of that duty,

in addition to praying for him/her (obviously) is to send a card now and then to let them know that prayers are coming their way.  This is the Easter card I sent. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Wild Prairie Rose from Stately Flowers 7

On March 10th Melanie Muenchinger posted a video on Stamp TV of the white wash technique (you can see it  here-White Wash Technique).  It is so beautiful that I had to try it, and try it I did, again and again.  I ended up making many cards.  I started out just making my Easter cards then I decided to make additional for other categories such as birthday and sympathy.  I'll be posting those later but for now I will just post the Easter ones.  After I had finished my white wash Easter cards done on kraft card stock I thought I would try the same method on color card stock.  Well I liked the look of the white embossed flowers that I never did the white wash, but I will try it soon. So for now here are the white wash Easter and the embossed Easter.  All items used are Gina K except for the embossing powder.
Thanks for stopping by and hope you like them.

Paper Piecing

I picked up a cute Unity stamp set at Archiver's a while back and I found these images great for paper piecing.  The clouds are Papertrey Ink.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Southwestern Scene

I have a box full of Rosie Roadshow stamps and I made a promise to myself that I would start using them.  Among the stamps are these adobe houses and the cacti. I think they are the cutest things and they make a great scene.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

How an Embelishment Can Fix an Error

One of the many things I've learned in card making is that when you goof up a card it is often an opportunity to embellish. This card is an example.  I had this card all done and as I stamped the sentiment it was crooked. Darn! So I covered it up with ribbon then deliberately stamped the sentiment crooked.  All of the elements for this card are from Gina K Designs.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Papertrey Ink's Pedal Pusher

When I think of pedal pushers I think of the short pants we used to wear, the ones we now call cropped pants.  In this case I mean bicycles.  Several of my family members are bikers (and I don't mean with motors).  Papertrey Ink's Pedal Pusher set is an ideal set for cards for them.  There is a coordinating set of dies that make for a fun option on the cards and the little additions for the basket are great. This card is an all Papertrey card. Blue card base, map design DP, a hill made with the blue check DP and sentiment from the set.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Art Impression's Try'folds

Art Impression came out with these really neat sets called Try'folds. The idea is that you make a card that folds in 3's, trim around the images and each layer shows a part of the picture.  When I watched the video showing how to make one I fell flat in love with the idea.  So of course I ordered three of the sets. So far I've only made one card and it was for my friend form high school Marti, for her birthday in January. I used Gina K's 120 lb. card stock since I can color with Copics with no bleed through. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Having One of Those Days?

Last winter Bruce and I were lucky enough to spend most of it in Florida, this winter (one of the coldest on record) not so lucky. It was so nice I could sit in the sun and color images to my hearts content and now I get to use them to my hearts content (a year later). This stamp is from Rosie's Roadshow and I think it is such a hoot. Probably a very descriptive of many of us on the out of sync days we occasionally run into.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Since It's Still March

Since it's still March I thought I would share my St. Patrick's Day cards.  I chose two designs to do, one for the people I mail to for my Card Ministry group and the other for friends and family.  After I had them done and mailed I realized I should have reversed who I sent them out to, but I'll let you be the judge. One card is very simple just a green card base with a small jar (Stamps by Judith) with 4 leaf clovers in it (Gina K designs) and sentiment Best of Luck (the name of the stamp set).  The other is a white card base with an Irish Blessing on white card stock and matted with green.  I have no idea where the stamp comes from, I think I picked up years ago at the Novi stamp show.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Angel Eddie

Well, when I decided to get busy posting I didn't take into account how many decisions I would have to make. Which card to do next, so I'll just go back and forward in time. We had to put our dog Eddie to sleep a couple of weeks before Christmas and that was a hard thing to do. We are so lucky with our Veterinarian that I wanted to make some special cards for her.  The Come All Ye Faithful set from Papertrey Ink was the perfect set for me to use.  This set is dog images, accessories for the dogs and

sentiments.  Way cool.  So anyway I made several cards for the Dr. and this is one of them, I call it Angel Eddie for obvious reasons.  I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Party On

Hi All, I'm back!  When my cousin Mary told me I hadn't posted anything since September I was shocked.  I have been busy but that is crazy.  When I looked at my cards to be posted photo file I found over 150 cards waiting to be edited and posted.  I've been making them just not sharing them, so I'm going to get to work.  I decided to star with the latest card I made 'Party On'.  I used a set from the Journey of the Heart Stamp TV kit's Party On, from Gina K designs. Sharon Harnist did a video on Stamp TV on coloring balloons and transparent items with Copics. So I made this card.  all of the stamps, card stock, DP inks are Gina K's.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Ann

I finally had time to play with some sets from Gina K Designs that have been sitting on my desk.  There are Silhouette Cameo cut files to go with the sets that make it even more fun to create cards.
First up is this Lady Slipper flower from Stately Flower 7 and the frame cut files that match.  Tell me you don't think this is a beautiful idea.  I colored the flower with Copics and mounted onto Gina K card stock.  The sentiments are form Papertrey Ink's Signature Greetings II.  My sister Ann's birthday is today and the card on the right is what I decided would be the perfect card for her.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping bu.

I need a sentiment, please help.

In my quest to use all of my stamps, I am going through one box at a time and creating 'scenes'.  So while I was picking through my Rosie's Roadshow box (here is the website)  I found these three stamps and created this card.  Now I do think it is a cute card but I am at a loss for a sentiment or what it could be used for, a shower card maybe, but it doesn't seem quite right so if any one has an idea let me know and who knows, you just might get a prize. The pretty dotted DP is Papertrey Ink and the matting for the scene is Gina K.  Thanks for stopping by. 

A Dapper Guy

In my quest to use all of my stamps I got a head start last year when I stamped off so many images to color while we were down south.  Several of the images are these great Penny Black stamps of guys and gals at that age that you think they can be any where from teens to 30's.  This image is Dash, don't you love the name.  When I started to color him I picture him ready to go out on a date with a steady girl friend maybe to dinner and a movie.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

When Life Gives You Limes

This card made using the Good Times card kit set from Archiver's that I bought a while back.  Since my favorite drink is the Margarita it seemed perfect for me.  The set include all the card stock-Archiver's, DP- My Mind's Eye  and stamps-Unity.  The idea is to make 2 of each card in a size that to me was odd 3x4, so of course I changed it to an A2 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 and I had more than enough supplies to make my cards.
The whole set up is kind of a neat idea and I did like the cards so there are more cards for my stash.

 

 

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Baby, Baby, Baby

Last Christmas when I passed out my sets of cards to various family and friends it was noted that there were no baby cards.  I stopped to think about it and realized that the next generation is starting families and my contemporaries are becoming grandparents.  Oh how time has flown, I distinctly remember when my oldest nephew was born (Buffalo, January, 3 feet of snow-need I say more) and how friends were having babies and I was always in need of baby cards.  So I got busy and made some.  This first set I made with a Great Impression water color set (I cheated and went the easy way and used Copics) and did a girl set and a boy set.  I really like how they turned out.  I stamped each image with Memento Espresso Truffle (Gina K is right it is the perfect brown/black) and then colored with Copics.  The DP is various pieces I had in my stash. Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Is this true?

This card was made with a Flourishes stamp set kids play and the sentiment I used from it is the question.  I'm not sure if I want to be a child again, but if I could go back knowing what I know now would I change anything?  No, I'm in a happy place in my life and I wouldn't change anything about my life,  I might change other peoples lives but I suspect they wouldn't listen to me any more now than they would then.  Oh well that's enough philosophy.
One of the great things about this set is that it is an easy card making set.   Using silhouettes means no coloring except for the choice of stamp color, in this case Memento Paris Dusk.  The biggest choice is the DP.  It was an easy choice,the dotted DP is Echo Park Dots & Stripes Bundle of Joy, the strip of DP is from My Mind's Eye Play Date, appropriate right?  

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Brief Note

A week or so ago I was talking with my sister Beth and she told me that her son (Dylan) was frustrated with me, seems he wanted to send me a card (I think) but he couldn't compare with the cards I make.  Well I decided to go ahead and make some cards for him to use (and yes it's ok to send me a card that I made).  Since he's 21 and a cool dude I had to make cards that he would like to send out and there was only one stamp that fit the bill , correction make that two stamps.  The stamps are from Custer's Last Stamp (now out of business).  This was also a great way to use up scraps, I stamped the image and fussy cut them out and mounted them to the card base and stamped the sentiment.  I made quite a few of these cards as you can see (and no I didn't send them all to Dylan had to save some for other projects).  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Rosie's Roadshow Revisited

Recently a card blogger I follow posted a challenge she made to herself to use every stamp she had in her card making.  Wow, that gave me pause.  I talked with my friend Renee about this and said I didn't think I would live long enough to use all the stamps I have.  The point the blogger made (and oh how I wish I could remember who it is) was that when you buy sets of stamps there usually one or two in the set that never sees ink.  I mentioned that I have a plastic shoe box of Rosie's Roadshow stamps (you can find them here) that had not seen the light of day in way too long and I needed to take a look at them.  (I also told her to come over and go thru my stamps and borrow some, I really hope she does that.)  So anyway I pulled out the box and grabbed some stamps and made this card.  One of the cute thing about these stamps is they are given names, the houses are Adobe, Slim and Bungalo, then there is Ramon (the saguaro cactus) and Lance,  the other cactus and of course Sun and Cloud.  I stamped onto Desert Storm Card stock from Ellen Hutson (used the same for the card base) matted with Dark Chocolate from Gina K and colored with Copics YR23,YG91, E30, E33, E42 E50 and E53.

I didn't use a sentiment because my creativeness didn't go so far as to tell me what to use this card for, so it can be anything.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

 

Mr. & Mrs.

I needed to make some wedding cards for a card basket for a fund raiser this summer. 
When I saw this Mr. & Mrs. Diva  set from Gina K I knew it would be a fun set to work with.  I've also wanted to work with the design element of glitter so I decided to combine the two.  I chose to keep the colors very light and soft on the image so I used a pale cool grey Copic for the groom and several pale shades of violet for the bride.
The matting is Papertrey Ink.  Then came the fun part.  I ran two different widths of Score-Tape down the side and sprinkled Martha Stewart glitter on it (my how glitter goes everywhere).  After shaking off the excess I took some tissue paper and ran my finger over the glitter to tamp it down.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Boy on a Log

Dylan's 21st

    I'm really late getting this card posted, my nephew's birthday was last week and this is the card I made to go with his gift.  It's a big milestone in anyones life, turning 21, and we wanted to make it special for him.  Since he lives so far away we had to make do with a gift and card but we know he had fun.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by. 

 

                        

 

Stars, Stars, Stars

 The Papertrey Ink April release included two sets that I absolutely had to have, they are the Stargazer set , with all twelve of the zodiac constellations and each name with a two word personality description.  The Star Gazer Additions set includes a gorgeous complete constellation map and four sentiments.  Oh what fun I'm going to have.
I have this idea (borrowed from one of the design team members) to make a set of cards, one for each Zodiac sign to give as a gift.  Then I realized that it would be more fun to do a set of

more masculine cards and a set of more feminine cards.  This set is the masculine cards (as if you couldn't tell).  My base card and focal image card stock is Ellen Hutson Desert Storm ( love this card stock it is so smooth and takes color beautifully).  I stamped the large constellation map in Memento Rich Cocoa and the Zodiac stars and identifier in Memento Espresso Truffle. As a general rule  I am totally unable to make two cards alike so each of these cards is slightly different.  On some I have extra stars and some I don't.  The constellation map is stamped in different locations as are all of the stars and descriptions. 
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by. 
(Now I'm off to come up with the feminine cards.)

Lighthouse in Blue

When I was coloring over the winter I had fun doing this lighthouse, doesn't it look like somewhere you'd like to be on a sunny morning?  I again used one of the card bases from Cut Cardstock, used a punch for my sentiment and mounted the image onto a dark blue scrap piece I had in my stash.  Another card made and many more images to do.  Fun times ahead.
Thanks for stopping by and hope you like it.

Playing with Fireworks

 While wandering through Michael's (or was it JoAnn's) I came across Fireworks by Imagine Crafts.  It is a set of little spray bottles of coordinating colors, one in blue and the other set in green.  I bought them and promptly forgot all about them (something I do more often than I like).  So I had some free time one day and decided to play with them, I had some glossy card stock so I just sprayed each of them across the card stock and let it dry.  They sat on top of my desk for awhile until my order from Gina K arrived that included The Northwoods set.  A card was born.  The card base is Fresh Asparagus, the matting Black Onyx and I stamped with Memento Paris Dusk.  The Fireworks spray have a bit of shimmer that doesn't show in this photo but is very pretty in real life.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Branch Tree

Yesterday I posted a card using this branch as a branch (go figure), now today I'm showing a card using it as a tree.  Boy those folks at Gina K are clever.  I first took a piece of torn card stock and made the "hills" using Memento Bamboo Leaves, then turned it around and did the sky with Memento Summer Sky.  Love doing things like that.  Anyway I then used Memento Rich Cocoa for the tree and the leaves are Memento Tangelo with a bit of daubing with Terra Cotta.  I used a dark chocolate card base with DP from the Gina k Sunkissed Autumn paper pack. I mounted my focal image on some more dark chocolate (also Gina K) stamped the sentiment and snipped out the end to make it a banner.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Happy Hello

This is another of the designs fro the Gina K Stamp TV kit Spring Parade using the Sweet Friend set.  The one thing I like about this particular stamp set is that the branch can also be a tree (I'll show you that tomorrow).  For this card a turquoise card stock is the base and the DP is from the kit.  The set has both hearts and leaves so it's a fun mix.  A very easy card to make but with enough layers to make it look complicated.  Hope you like it and thanks fro stopping by.

A Couple of Little Trucks

I was able to combine two projects with these cards, how lucky is that.  I've had these card bases from the Paper Cut since last summer and have struggled with how to use them, they are really cute but odd.  I also had these two truck images that I had colored with Copics while down south this winter.  Well hey presto, combine them and two easy peasy cards are made.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the truck is an old favorite.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Holographic Embossing Powder

Last weekend I went to Craft Day at my church and had so much fun.  It was a day for us to get together and share ideas and make cards.  Part of the day was dedicated to learning about heat embossing and how easy it is and really how much fun it is to see the magic of the embossing powder come to life.  I took all of my embossing powders with me and found this holographic powder that I've had for years and completely forgot about.  The card stock, ribbon and stamp were supplied by the sister of  our groups leader (Paula) who is a Creative Memory rep.  I did the top card first and when everyone saw it all they could do was ooh and aah.  Perfect reaction.

I then tried something different on the second card using white and holographic embossing powders at the same time.  On reflecting I should have done the holographic first and then the white on top to look like snow, but I still think it looks pretty.
I like them both and I hope you do also.
Thanks for stopping by.

Spring Parade Scrappy Card

Last months release at Gina K Designs had a new StampTV kit called Spring Parade.  I fell in love with it, there were four mini sets, card stock, ribbon and designer paper that were so pretty that I just had to buy the set.  As always Gina posts videos using the set and showing some great card designs.  I decided to follow along.  I chose to make two cards from each video and this was the first one.  I can't even believe how happy these cards are, the bright colors and the images are so pretty.

Hope you like these cards and thanks for stopping by

A Pitcher of Sunflowers

This is one of the cards I made sometime in the last week.  Life has gotten just a little busy since getting back home that I just grabbed time here and there to whip out some cards and didn't keep track of what I used.  I know that the image is from Papertrey Ink and that I colored with Copics.  The image was cut out with the Papertrey die, stamped and then colored.  I had quite a few ovals cut out with Nestabilities lying around on my desk so I mounted the image on one and ran a gold leaf pen around the edges.  The DP is from a scrap I found in my stash and the banner was embossed with white embossing powder.  I think it turned out pretty good.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Coloring Fun or How I spent my Winter

 I've been AWOL way to long, we spent the winter (or should I say 10 weeks) in Sarasota and all I did was sit by the pool reading or coloring.  Before we left , when I was making cards for my Christmas gifts I stamped off extra images and took them with me to play with while down south.  Great idea huh?  Got to the house and started unpacking and setting up my craft area

and realized I has forgotten my Copics DISASTER!!!  My friend Renee rescued me by shipping them to me (and there in lies another disaster as the package was lost for a couple of days).  So I was able to color all of the images and have them ready to make cards with when I returned home.
so When I got home I unpacked everything and set them on my desk and there they sat until last week.  In the past week or so I've made about 40 cards so I'll have some posting to do over the next few days.  Thanks for stopping by.