09-29-26

 Greetings.

I have been away for a while.  My MIL, was hospitalized and passed all in the course of a week. Its been rough. She was the nicest person ever.  I had such a treasure of an MIL.  When hubs and I first dated she and I became penpals sending letters back and forth and became friends.  I am glad she was in my life the last 22 years.

Today is hubs birthday.  His mom had bought his birthday card but hadn't sent it out yet.  His sister found it and brought it by.  I am thankful that he has that card even though its not signed.  

Needless to say, I had not gotten his card made in the last week or so, so I sat down this afternoon to get it made.  I used his favorite color green, and of course a cat.  He like simple cards so he should like this one.

I stamped the sentiment on the balloon and skipped any sort of grounding after all its filled with helium right?

Thanks for stopping by.  I will probably be away for a while longer, services are Saturday. 

 

09-19-2026

 Hello-

Its unusual for me to be in the craft room during football season, but I had an itch to play a bit. I have a card for Love those Pretty Papers.  I had received a sampler of papers from my SU Demo along with some other little bits.  She also sends a monthly card to be put together.  I decided to use the stamped image some lovely flowers, and then went to the sample paper from the Sunflower Fields pack.  However, I used the "B" sides of the sample paper squares.  I quite like the result.

 The flowers were colored in fall tones to include the optional theme for the challenge.

Thanks much for visiting.

 

09-11-26

Hello-

Its  a tough day, this 25th anniversary of 9-11-2001. I remember exactly where I was as the news spread across the airwaves. I was at a client meeting...nothing got done...we all sat around the TV in shock.  This should never be forgotten.  

The seeming decimation of our military and intelligence services in this country scares the daylights out of me.  I needed to get out of my head; so I headed to the craft room for some happier thoughts and times.

I brought out a new stamp set from Stampin Up and had a good play time.  The set is called Cutest Crew. 

The challenge at  CAS Colours and Sketches has a sketch this week.  Here is my take:

 I hope you can see the sketch in my card.

 

Then I played with the other images for fun.

 So this set is ready to be put away. I love the images they really are so cute.

 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting. 

 

 

 

 

09-10-26

 Hello-

I am so inspired by the talented cardmakers I follow here in blogland.  Leslie (from running with sissors) has a fabulous way with patterned papers and watercoloring or coloring with markers and a blender pen. 

She has also cost me money...she finds some of the cutest stamps.  Today, I opened up a recent purchase from Inky Antics  and Stamping Bella inspired by cards Leslie has made you can see them here, and here.

 

Being an eyeglass wearer, I found these stamps so cute.

 

This card will be visiting the Beautiful Blossoms Challenge.

 

 

 

I love coneflowers and the whimsy of this stamp. 

Hard to resist after receiving Leslie's card with this image. 

 

This card is visiting the gallery at Double D...they are looking for vases or pitchers. 

I just love the tilt of his head. 

 

This card is for the Colorful Options Challenge. Calling for rusty brown. 

 

I discovered a few things this afternoon creating.  I pulled out the zig clean color markers and a set of similar arteza markers.  The areteza kinda dried out so I tossed the whole bunch of em.  They worked better on watercolor paper while the zigs are magical on bristol.  All my zigs are still juicy and they are at least 5 years old. I loved coloring with them so Thank you Leslie for inspiring me to try that again.  I should never make just one card in a session even if they are not all masterpieces...someone will appreciate getting them.

 Thanks much for visiting.

 

     

09-04-26

 Hello

 I loved the idea of the colors for Color Hues, Dusty blue and Brown.  

 

   

The die cut sunflowers are from Spellbinders, the sentiment from Ellen Hutson and the gems are random bling.  Thanks so very much for stopping by.

08-08-26

 Hello.

Popping in to share one of the fastest cards I've ever made; thanks to my bin of stuff left over. I grabbed an embossed panel, a bold sentiment panel and a die cut dove. 

Of course we also need inspiration and I took mine  from these challenges:

Word Power Make the sentiment the focus

Just Us Girls Die cut week 

Can you handle the pressure Anything goes, no option

 

 Thanks much for visiting.

       

 

Thanks much for stopping by. 

08-05-26

 Hi Friends,

I'm excited to add 3 Christmas cards to the stash. The mood board at Peace on Earth Christmas challenge is responsible for this card idea.  I generally want gold on red at Christmas, but that red and white tree made me go in this direction: 

Two new to me stamp sets from SU - Falling Snow and Ornamental Christmas. My Favorite winter embossing folder from Honey Bee Snowy Pines, and several sentiments from Pink Fresh's Basic Banners. Stamp a whole sheet and cut once in various shapes. Fun. Nice to have a pile of sentiments ready to go.

I made a couple more as I loved how the first turned out after a couple of pivots and that makes for two more easy cards.
 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

08-03-26

 Hi there...

Its been ages since I played along with Color Hues, so I was determined to do it today.

Mostly Stampin Up stuff...A round of Hellos stamp set. Paper-Every Day Happiness, Night of Navy and Hammermill, Inks-Night of Navy and Lost Lagoon. I could swear I had the round punch that went with this set but its hiding...no worries a pink fresh circle die worked just as nicely. One random teal gem to tie the flower to the stem and leaves. It takes me longer these days to make a card.  I used to whip em out in less than an hour.  Gotta make more cards and get that muscle memory back. This took an hour and a half...of course there were the usual design changes...lol.

  

Thanks so very much for visiting. 

08-02-26

August already...wow.

I have one card for two challenges. This card will visit Cas on Friday - Flowers and As You See It - Summer Days. 

 I had to use that spellbinders sunflower die again, and that fabulous sentiment from Technique Tuesday.

 

  

 Thanks so much for visiting.

07-29-26

 Hi all-

I've been futzing in my crafty space most of the day.  Its been enjoyable...but only produced one card.

I took inspiration from Freshly Made Sketches.  I have been going through my baskets and this is another not used stamp set from MFT. The embossing folder is from Stampin Up.  I had fun minus the fussy cutting and am kinda crushing on it.
 

  

Thanks for visiting. 

07-27-26

Hi Friends,

After hosting poker (just for fun no money exchanges hands) at our house this weekend, I thought poker would be a perfect hobby card for  The Male Room. That embossed frame and birthday sentiment also make it a candidate for Can You Handle the Pressure with a twist of celebration.

The stamp set was a gift from a crafty friend, and the embossing folder is from Darice.

 Hubs and I love playing poker and we are not fond of sitting at the dining room table...so our dining room is our game space. Board games, poker, chess, cribbage, backgammon and darts. 

 

 

  

 

We mostly have the table as a regular dining surface, but it does become a lovely 6 seat poker table. 

 

Thanks much for stopping by.

 

     

 

 

02-24-26-2

Hello...again...

I had one more card in me so I thought I'd get it done and consider today a fabulous day in the craft room.

This card is for the As you see it challenge.  The theme is a recipe for happy yellow flowers.  How could I resist.

 A new stamp from Stampin Up.  I did have a bit of trouble with it...but it was likely user error.  I just didn't want to start over.  So the bold sentiment worked well for my personal struggles...lol. Since I had managed to smudge several places...covering up the worst of it and then adding random drop shadows I think I am going to call it artistic license and be happy.

 

• Enamel dots - check
• Large bold sentiment - check
• Shades of yellow- check
• Die cut- check(sentiment with shadow) 
• Flower-check 

 

Thanks for visiting. 

 

02-24-26

 Hi There,

Today after seeing so many snowman cards as I strolled trough blogland, and my radio station playing a set of Christmas in July tunes...I decided I needed to get started on my holiday cards. Five of my favorite snowman/men stamps and I was on a roll getting 5 cards completed. All very simple but each brought a smile as I was creating.  They will be visiting Loll's CAS Christmas challenge where the theme is Snowman.

 

 

And lastly I couldn't resist playing with this snowperson family.  Its just an adorable stamp.

 

 

 Thanks much for visiting.

 

 

07-22-26

Hello -

Today is a perfect weather day...72 degrees with a slight breeze...reminds me of San Diego. I do love the four seasons here in Ohio so I am enjoying each one.

This spellbinders Sunflower die has made it into my stash thanks to that wallet loosener Michele.  IF only her cards were not just absolutely brilliant; I would have more money in my wallet...lol. She's not the only crafty friend whose work has loosened my purse-strings. More on that in future posts.

This card is visiting Fourseasons - Summer. The upper left grid with its abundance of blooms and the pinks and yellows inspired this card.  Since the die is new, I'll be sending this over to Darnell's NBUS - Mutual Apppreciation challenge. 

 

I cut 6 flowers of each color, and 6 centers, then 3 of each color of the center frame. At first I was going t make the blooms one color with double petal layers...but after playing around I liked the two shades on each bloom. With two opens spots I popped in just two centers to take a bit of that white away. The sentiment is black foiled sentiment also from Spellbinders.  I added a soft pink panel on the interior as well. Its a difficult to photograph card, but this photo was the best of a handful.

 

Thanks much for visiting.

 

       

 

 

07/20/2026

Hello 

Today's card features paper by Stampin Up (waterside retreat) and an old but favorite Stampin Up set called Wetlands.

A fairly quick card, just stamping, cutting, gluing and a touch of inking and its done. 

I'm sending this one to Love those Pretty Papers including the theme of coastal. It's also traveling to Just Us Girls with their summery mood board and also to The Paper Players - going to the beach.

Thanks for stopping by.