12-10-22

 Hey there-

I am hard at work getting those last few cards made. Today is my deadline.  So the post will be short.

Stamped image from Holiday Heights by Newton's Nook Designs, along with copic coloring and some fab SU paper and this card is made.

It will be visiting the galleries at Tic Tac Toe (first row snow/ice, layers, celebration) and Stamping Sensations taking the option of winter wonderland.

I have a couple more to make but they'll be takes on designs I have already shared.  I'll be taking the rest of the month off, but will make some blog visits as time permits.

Enjoy the holidays and I'll be back in the New Year!

 

12-7-22

 Greetings-

I don't think I have ever been this late with my Christmas cards.  Thankfully my overseas cards were mailed about 10 days ago.  The domestics will go out by the 15th.  Now I just need to finish them. Only about 7 more to go. I found a few more that I needed to send...lol

I made a similar card last week, but this one features the pre foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studios. I made several cards similar to this with the foiled sentiments. The patterened paper is from SU, it is the back and front of one sheet. I cut the bigger rectangle with a stitched edge die, then flipped the die cut piece over and cut out the smaller piece for embossing. Fortunately the die for the smaller piece fits beautifully in the space even though I flipped it.

I'll be sending this one to Time Out Challenges and Christmas Kickstart.

   

Thanks so very much for visting during this busy time.

12-03-22

 Hello-

I am trying to finish up my Christmas cards.

This is today's offering:

 

 

I am entering this to the Greeting Card theme over at CAS on Friday.  

 

Some blue cardstock inked around the edges with cornflower ink, and then I glued on the dove (MFT) and Peace(also MFT). I added a bit of frosted lace stickles on the edges of the dove's wings. 

I hope that if you're making cards you are farther along than me.  I think I have 10 left to make now.

Wish me luck.

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

11/21/22

 Happy Monday...

Of Thanksgiving week here in the USA.  Today I play...then the chores and Wednesday the deserts. Pumpkin pie for hubs, and pineapple upside down cake for me. Since we are each not fond of the other's dessert there'll be no poaching or plate envy.

So on to my cards. I loved this simple tree stamp from MFT, along with several sentiments.  

I started with a red panel and added distress inks in barn door and fired brick to the edges. The white cardbase was sparkled up with some gold embossing to match the tree.  This will go to visit the gallery at CAS on Friday-Sparkle.

I also made a second card using some two sided paper from Stampin Up. I cut the small rectangle from inside the sheet on the opposite side. Heat embossed the image and then plopped it back into the sheet using the other side to provide a frame.  Its not quite CAS, but I am sharing it in this post but not at the gallery.

I may make a few more of these with the other paper colors.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

11-18-22

 Hi There -

Back to the Christmas cards.  This card is for sticking in a gift card or check or cash. Its a fun fold I spied on You Tube here. Its made from a standard A2 side folding card scored at 1" and 4.25"s. Both scores are folded the same direction so you don't have to flip your card to get the fold clean.

 

the interior of the front flap is a lil pocket

 I covered the card with some left over flocked vellum from stampin up, a bit of glitter tape and the holly leaves were from pretty pink posh along with the die to cut them out and add the frilly border.

I'll be linking these up at both We love stamping, and Stamping Sensations-- Christmas is the theme at both.

 

Thanks so much for visiting.

11-17-22

 Hello---

Now what was I saying about more Christmas cards?   Ya my attention span is ZERO these days.

I needed a new home card.  When I saw Leslie's cards using this die...I had to get it. 

The die is called Rickety House from Memory Box, it comes with the fence too. Its an all in one die and I have to say my new Gemini Jr cut it beautifully in one pass. Along with the memory box die, I used a cloud die from MFT, and punched a 1/2 in circle for the sun. Glad I still had that punch...I sold about 20 of them a while back. But I did keep all my little circle punches - Yay me! The embossed panel is from Greta, she puts them in her cards to protect the card fronts...clever girl and the recipient gets a treat too! The little path was hand cut from a kraft scrap.

I am going to add this to the Can you handle the pressure gallery - no twist.

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

11-16-22

 Hello-

Todays card is inspired by Color Hues Scarlet and Green.  I am  using gold as a neutral.  

The stencil set is from Pretty Pink Posh -layered Christmas Lights; the sentiment is from the Pink Fresh collection - Foiled Sentiments 4 Holiday. The panel dies are from Winnie and Walter-Audrey Cut Away.

 

Time just flies right now and I don't get into my craft room.  I better get on the stick--I am 18 Christmas cards short at first count. Who knows it might actually be 28...I'll have to check my lists of sent and received the last few years. I want to make sure if one was received in the last two years that I send one back this year.  We are often traveling this time of year and I cannot always pull one out to send in response to an unexpectedly received card. 

Thanks so much for visiting.

11-10-22-2nd

 Hello-

I needed a sympathy card for a very good friend. I didn't want to use the last one I had in my stash, it needed to be special.  I used SSS Leaf dies one the leafy branch the other the outline. I cut the solid in vellum and the outline in gold. I left three leaves in from the outline die. A small but heartfelt sentiment and here is my card.

 I am entering this card at Addicted to CAS- Sympathy.

  

 

Some of my crafty friends know as I was soliciting opinions last week; after we arrived home from visiting Hubs folks in Ohio, I set about making my card for a GD spot.  In the process of embossing a piece of paper with my beloved Vagabond...I killed it. Not the paper, not the folder---but my trusty cutter of 8 years. 

So the search began for a replacement. I need an electric cutter as my grip is not strong and hand cranking can be painful.

This past weekend I welcomed a Gemini Jr to the crafty space. I love that it self feeds, its smaller so I have more desk space to destroy with bits and pieces.  I have figured out a sandwich that allows me to use the magic mat to cut so yay on all sides.  I have an old spellbinders grand calibur that I will use for the embossing folders. Hubs has offered to crank...

So after rearranging my work are for the new hardware I hope to be back at the crafty desk, making more cards after a slow spring and summer.

Thanks so much for visiting.

11-10-22

 Hello there- 

I am slowly getting back into the groove of cardmaking.  

I was lucky enough to earn Top Honors at the September challenge at Lets Squash It and was invited to Guest Design for November. 

 

Thanks so much Gail for the invitation.

I used a mini folder to emboss pine branches (stampin up - wintry), and placed it on a white card base. I added two flat jingle bell charms (stampin up) on some gold woven thread and a little Merry Christmas sentiment (mft - itty bitty gifting) to finish it off. 

I'd love to see you play along with this Christmas themed challenge over at Let's Squash It.

 

10-8-22

 Hello again-

I honestly don't know where the time goes, though this week was my "work" week when I am helping hubs with his business. 

I thought it would be a good day to make a few cards.

I started with the Card Concept challenge, I loved the colors used in the inspiration photo. I am going to call this style clean and layered, I think the inked background takes it away from clean and simple. The trees are an SU die and the blending is DOX inks in mustard seed, carved pumpkin, candied apple, and villainous potion. The sentiment comes from Close to My Heart.  I thought the finished card was also good for the gallery at Four Seasons- fall.

 

I liked Amy's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the design evolved into this along with some inspiration from Double D's Challenge - Oktoberfest, the tree colors in the upper left mood board drew me in.

The paper is from Stampin Up, the mouse in the leaves is from MFT, and the sentiment is from CTMH. It was fairly easy to round it out on a block to stamp inside the circle.

   

That's it for today, enjoy your weekend. Thanks so much for visiting.

10-1-22

WOW, how did it become October so fast?

For those of you in the path of Ian, hope you made it through the storm with little or no damage sending prayers and good thoughts.

 

Its a special day today, the first Saturday in October - World Card Making Day... 

Peggy and I are face-timing making some cards to celebrate the day. 

The first card I tackled was inspired by both Can You Handle the Pressure and Tic Tac Toe Challenges.

The card panel was dry embossed with the Stampin Up EF Layered Leaves.  I added fall colors of orange,  yellow, red and green to the embossed areas. To finish I added a sparkling copper ribbon from SU as well, and die cut a SSS sentiment which was mounted on vellum and adhered to the ribbon. A few copper gems and this one was finished. For Tic Tac Toe I used the upper row, for Can You Handle the Pressure the theme was embossing folder with a twist of leaves.

   

Have you seen the colors at Color Throwdown?  Wow so eye catching so you know I had to play along.

The pumpkins are from Lawn Fawn dies, I added a sparkling blue ribbon over a cream one. The cardbase is cream, and the focal panel is kraft.

  

I think its time for lunch, I can smell the chili I put on this morning.  I'll probably still make a few cards later on, we'll see.

Enjoy your day.

Thanks for visiting.

9-28-22

 Hello-

 A quick share with a new stamp set from Stampin Up called Heron Habitat.  I thought it would make a good card for hubs' birthday this month.

 We see herons here several times a month, so I thought he'd enjoy the card. Keeping it manly with blue, browns and blacks.

Thanks for stopping by.

9-22-22

 Hey There--

I am on a roll this week.  Been in my craft room 3 days plus.  The colors at Color Hues  are brown and  yellow.  If you know me you know that yellow is my favorite color. So I had to play along.

This MFT bouquet has been sitting in my new stuff bin far to long, I recently got the die on sale. So it was time for it to come out and play.  I had to re-aquaint myself with my Copic markers. It was a bit difficult to get into the grove when one of my darker yellows turned up dry with a loose cap too...so the refill did me no good I have to order another... and then I have somehow mislaid my copic blend swatch cards. I have no idea how, because its a big unwieldy thing. Onward!

The stems, leaves and flower centers are all different brown shades, the flowers of course are yellow shades.  I did some inking on the card base. I wont call it blending as its a bit splotchy which I quite like...kind of a foggy shadow. The sentiment from the flower set is heat embossed on vellum, with a second layer of vellum underneath to make the sentiment show up and still leave the blooms showing through too.

 

Thanks so much for visiting.

9-21-22

 Hello--

Today I played with new things. 

I splurged on the Distress watercolor crayons, and in a word...LOVE them. Actual watercolor paints and I have a fantasy relationship. I think I can use them to color, but the results always disappoint me. I don't seem to get that translucent feel I'm looking for.  So I am going to stick with moveable ink type colors and these lovely crayons.

I have a card for We Love Stamping- Anything Goes and The Flower Challenge add some sparkle.

My sparkle comes by way of goldenrod colored gems added to the image.  I am pleased with the way I was able to play with the watercolor crayons, it was quite fun and relaxing and I did enjoy every moment.

   

Thanks so very much for visiting.

 

9-20-22

Hello-

I decided to play with two challenges today.

First up is Less is More - Black and White.  This is truely a CAS card, quick to make. I used some Stampin Up Patterned paper, an MFT Die Cut Leaf branch and an MFT sentiment.

 

 Next up, another card for the Christmas stash, inspired by Let's Squash it.  2/3'rds of the card should be dry embossed. 

I used a Stampin Up snowflake EF, and some Lawn Fawn snowflake dies cut from platinum mirror card. The sentiment from SSS was heat embossed with platinum ep.

 

Thanks so very much for stopping by.

9-18-22

 Good Morning!

I've been working on this card for several hours, since I can't seem to sleep.  I saw those luscious pumpkins at Color Throwdown, and I had to play with their colors of blue aqua, kraft and cream.

I started with an MFT vine wreath cut from kraft, and then added loads of Lawn fawn leaves cut in 3 shades of blue aqua and layered them up.  I wasn't satisfied with the wreath only partially covered with leaves; showing the twigs below...so I ended up with the entire wreath covered with leaves.  

I added gems and the sentiment stamped in a kraft colored ink...but it seemed lacking the kraft color.  Three little bows fixed that for me. I think its a sweet card.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

9-15-22

 Hello-

I was inspired by all the glittery and shiny beauties over at CAS Christmas for this card.

 

  

Thanks so very much for stopping by.

9/3/22

 Greetings, 

Although I thought I had finished my Halloween cards, I got this one in my head after taking a gander at the challenge over at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, and the colors from Four Seasons September anything goes challenge added to the design as well.

 

I still had Stampin Up's Bewitching stamp set out and I hadn't played with all of the stamps yet. So I grabbed an embossed spider web panel (I had sold the ef, but ran a dozen panels through first to keep) and added the hat and shoes along with a die cut and layered boo sentiment from Simon Says Stamp. All were mounted onto a purple card base along with some black gems.

     

Thanks much for visiting.

8-31-22

 Greetings -

I love the stamps and dies from Newton's Nook Design, so when I saw this Inky Paws challenge I had to play along.

I stamped the NND image in versafine sepia ink and used colored pencils to add color. The sentiment comes from SSS.  Then panel was die cut (Reverse Confettii) and placed on an orange cardbase. 

I am also adding this card to the Time Out Gallery - Festive.  And to the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

     

Thanks so very much for visiting.