And now a Christmas card to post . . .

Again, being brutally honest, this is NOT my design either. My SU! demo and dear friend, Deb, designed this card for one of her FANTASTIC events in November. I merely replicated it using the supplies I had. Deb used the Top Note die for sale through SU! I used a Nestabilities die. She used the lovely floral embossing folder by SU! and I used the lattice embossing folder by SU! as well. (Actually I believe that Sizzix makes them for SU!) Deb used Cherry Cobbler and Pear Pizzazz cardstock while I had to use Real Red and Wild Wasabi. Either combination works well, though. The stamp set we BOTH used is called Welcome Christmas by SU!
I am loving their new unmounted stamps ... especially when you NEED to be very accurate with placement and don't want to go through the Stamp-a-ma-jig process. I am not sure what ribbon Deb used (she had sweetly tied the bows for our use ahead of time). I am sure it was SU!, though. Much to MY excitement, I tied my own bow for this card! FINALLY, I have mastered the Bow-Easy template! I bought a Bow-Easy a number of years ago. I tried and tried to figure out how to tie the bows using it. After a long time with no success, I am pretty sure I gave it away. However, I happened to be watching one of Gina K's videos one day and she was using the Bow-Easy. She demonstrated how to use it. So I ordered another one from her online store. They are very inexpensive. Anyway, it came. I sat down in front of my computer and became watching Gina K's video, again and again. I would learn that I was not getting just one of the steps. However, this time I made up my mind that I WAS going to figure out how to use it. I "googled" Bow-Easy. After looking at a few more videos, I came across one that not only showed, but explained carefully that one step I was not "getting". BINGO! Success! One hint I got from either that video or another one was that you need to use lightweight ribbon for the best results. I started out with Real Red grosgrain ribbon (it was 1/4 inch) but too heavy and not pliable enough. For this card I used some ribbon that I purchased at Anchor Express. It is just 1/4 inch nylon ribbon. On the brochure with the Bow-Easy, it says you can use any width ribbon, braid, threads, cords, and even fabrics.
Well, it is time to get back to work on more cards and baking a Heath Bar chocolate cake for tomorrow night's "Wine & Dine".
Have a great weekend! Not sure how our weekend will play out. Minnesota has made the national weather today as the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning as well as extremely cold temperatures!

A card to post (finally) . . .

Finally ... a card to share. It isn't my personalize design, but it is a variation of someone else's creativity. SU! Real Red and Night of Navy card stock was used for this card as well as Very Vanilla. I love the SU! corner and border scallop punches which I used here. The sentiment was stamped on the Very Vanilla and then punched out with another SU! punch. Online I learned how to punch two more pieces in the Night of Navy and cut one lengthwise and the other in half vertically. By putting these four pieces together, you get a "mat" for the sentiment piece. Credit for the card design goes to LeeAnn. Thanks so much, LeeAnn!

'Tis the season . . .

As I look out my kitchen window, I see more snow falling this morning ... nice, big flakes adding to the 6.5 inches we got over the weekend. It really gets you into the spirit of the season. I've been on a quest since Thursday to get as much of my shopping down by Tuesday as possible. I'm getting close to accomplishing my goal! Hurray! Then I can just settle in and do some creating in my card room. My hands are itching to play with rubber, ink, paper, ribbon, dies, embossing folders and all those other fun things in there.
Have a GREAT week ... and please check back in mid-week. I am SO HOPEFUL of posting some cards! :D

Babies, babies, babies . . .

Here is ANOTHER baby card -- such fun when there are so many new babies!
This one was made for niece Shannon's baby shower early in November. I used the baby embossing folder, again. It just makes such a nice backdrop. It is done in SU! Bashful Blue since this new baby is a boy! I either used a Nestabilities scallop circle die or a similar punch for the circle. In order to get my little holes more precisely placed around that circle, I used my "trusty" eyelet setter and hammer to make those holes. The sentiment was stamped on Whisper White. The sentiment window was punched with the SU! Word Window punch. The buttons and embroidery thread are from my stash. The little onesies is from a package of embellishments I purchased somewhere. Sorry I don't remember where. The card base is Bazzill white. And I used a corner punch on the blue mat. Thanks for stopping by. I know it has been quite a while since I last posted a card. On Wednesday I made a birthday card, but never got a chance to take a photo of it before I gave it away! :-(

Thanksgiving is just around the corner . . .

As I look out the kitchen window, I see snow on the rooftops and the sun seems to be hiding somewhere. Turning to the dashboard on my computer, "white stuff" seems to be in the forecast for today and tomorrow. The temps will be falling further and further each night this week. And in front of me on the kitchen table is a legal pad and an empty coffee cup. Ah, yes, it is time to take those lists that are in my head and transport them to paper. There are the menu lists, the grocery lists, and the "to-do" lists for readying the house for Thanksgiving festivities. I like the early morning quiet when I can collect all these thoughts before they get away from me.
There is no card to post today. I'd better have, at least, one or hopefully two to post within the next day or so as they are both "MUST HAVE" cards!
I didn't want a whole month to go by without posting something, though. It is the beginning of that time of year where we all see ourselves coming and going, where we go from list to list checking off tasks, and when we try to find moments to share with family and friends and even moments for ourselves to ponder the true meaning of both Thanksgiving and Christmas. For all of us, I wish everyone takes the time to find those moments! Blessings to you all . . .

Update on the PEO card-making project ...

We had our second and last work-session last night here with eight of us working like rock stars for 2.5 hours. We completed 179 cards, sorted and packaged them! We hope to sell them all which would net us $447. Wow! What a major project -- accomplished! and ready to make money for the PEO projects which help further the education of women with loans and grants!

Anniversary Card

This is a 20th anniversary card made for my husband's sister and brother-in-law for their 20th wedding anniversary. I used the color of the bridesmaid dresses for the card base in the form of SU! Tempting Turquoise. The image is part of the SU! Delight in Life set. I stamped two of the flowers, cut them out, and adhered one to the scalloped circle and the second one I popped up with SU! Dimensionals. The flower was colored with an SU! Tempting Turquoise marker and brushed with Crystal Effects. I penned the little white dots all around the circle. I wish I would have embossed the circle with a folder beforehand to give it more dimension.
Of course, it is a gate-fold card design. The white Bazzill panels were run through the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss folder. And, again, I used one of the sentiments from SU! Short and Sweet set. The punches I used were the SU! Word Window and the Modern Label.
Both the scallop circle and the sentiment help to keep the card closed.
It is a rainy, cool morning in Minnesota. The leaves have been blowing off the trees this week. Looks like we are progressing the the later part of fall. There is still one beautiful maple with quite a few of its red leaves still attached which we can see out our living room window, though. Have a great day wherever you are!

Baby Shower Card

Finally, a card to post! Last night I hosted our second PEO card-making work session. We finished all 179 cards! Eight of us worked non-stop for 2.5 hours. They are ready for sale and in the hands of the Ways 'n Means chairman.
Today I am sharing a quick and easy baby shower card which I made for our niece's baby shower. Erin and her hubby have decided to be surprised with the sex of their first child, so I used So Saffron and Certainly Celery for her card. The mat was embossed with a Sizzix baby folder. To be honest, I can't remember if I used a Marvy Uchida scallop punch or a Nestabilities die! I did use white Bazzill and embossed it with the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss folder. The ribbon is SU! Certainly Celery. The buttons are from my "stash" and the "welcome baby" is stamped with Versafine Black Onyx and punched using the SU! Word Window punch. The sentiment is, of course, from SU! Short and Sweet.

Too busy to post ...

There are times when posting gets put on the back burner and this has been one of those times. That certainly doesn't mean that I haven't been making cards. And I do take pictures of almost every single card I design. They just don't always get posted in a timely manner or the pictures might sit in my camera for a while longer than they should. We'll be leaving town in another week. I hope to get some card-making done while we are gone. If I do, I might not get the time to post. And, of course, Thanksgiving will be coming as well as Christmas. We'll have family staying with us for both holidays (which always makes the holidays even better), so we'll be very busy just like you all. In case I don't get anything posted by Halloween, have a very Spooky Halloween!

P.S. I was going to post a Halloween card from my "stash", but apparently I didn't get pictures taken of any of them! They must have fallen between the "photo-taking" cracks! I found this image of the pumpkin family in Google Images.

Two More Pictures

I thought I'd show you a side-view of all the cardstock I trimmed this week. There are over 150 card bases and as you can see, even more mats! Last night I stood at the kitchen island and stamped over 110 images to go on the cards. We are making "thinking of you" and "thank you" cards this time. Back to work, I've got ribbon to cut, more daisy chains to punch, and I plan to punch a bunch of the scalloped mats so that some of the gals can just put the cards together while others do punching, coloring, and stamping if they want to do so. This is not a group of hardcore cardmakers, but after this project, there might be a few!
Have a great fall weekend! It is just incredibly beautiful here in south central Minnesota now. And thank you, again, for stopping by!

Fundraiser Work-bee Prep

You can see how busy I have been preparing for the fundraiser work-bees! I've already gone through two trimmer blades. The proceeds from the sale of these cards will go towards PEO projects which support women's education. PEO offers grants and loans to women who need help financing further education as well as funding the 2-year women's college in Nevada, MO called Cottey College. Thanks for stopping by!

PEO Chapter Fundraiser Projects

My PEO Chapter needed to think of a new fundraiser. A number of years ago, I designed some cards for us to make and sell for a fundraiser within the chapter. We decided to do it, again, this year in conjunction with our annual silent auction in November. I designed these three cards which we will be making at two work-bees this month at my house. It is a great way to get together, too, and get to know one another even better.
Today I begin "trimming" all the cardstock elements. I have them all measured out and all the materials ordered. They should arrive tomorrow from Stampin' UP. In the meantime today, I will work from my supplies and keep track of that. I will be using most of the colors shown in the pictures except I will be using So Saffron for the yellow card (I just grabbed some yellow Bazzill from my stash for the example). And I may use Pear Pizzazz instead of Old Olive on some of the cards with the butterflies as I hear Pear Pizzazz looks great with the Rich Razzleberry, too. :D
We are hoping to make sets of 5 cards per package. I just bought a couple of small "Thank You" stamps yesterday so that we can make both "Thinking of You" and "Thank You" cards with these designs. If we are lucky, we might get 50 - 100 cards made during the two work-bees. If we don't get them all finished, at least, we will have them cut and ready to go. I can just keep putting them together at my leisure.
Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy this beautiful fall season wherever you are!

B is for Boy

A baby boy card for our niece and nephew who are having their first baby in January . . . the card base is SU! Soft Suede with a mat of SU! Wild Wasabi followed by a mat of Doodlebug Zoofari patterned paper. The stamped images are Recollections Bouncin' Baby Boy and Cornish Heritage Farms Baby Love. The images were stamped with Versafine Onyx Black . I colored the giraffe with SU! Close to Cocoa and So Saffron. I matted the images with SU! Soft Suede and paper-pierced around the edges and used my corner-rounder on the image and its mat. The ribbon is SU! Wild Wasabi. I used the SU! slot punch to secure the ribbon on the image layer and used the sentiment "tiny little thing, great big blessing" by Hampton Art Stamps Great Big Blessing on the inside. Thanks, again, for stopping by!

Red, White, and Blue Birthday

For this birthday card, I chose red, white, and blue just because I like them together. (They are also two of our grandson's favorite colors. :D) The cardstock is by SU! using Real Red and Night of Navy. The gingham ribbon is from my stash. The Cuttlebug embossing folder is the happy birthday words folder. I used my Marvy Uchida punches for the image circle and scallop mat. The stamp used is SU! Party Hearty. The little birthday gift in the center of the "b" is popped up using SU! Dimensionals. I love using the Signo white gel pen to accent. I used my corner-rounder (which isn't really doing a good job of rounding anymore) for the bottom of the card base and the Night of Navy mat. This is the kind of card design that is great for mass production. I used Real Red, Night of Navy, and Glorious Green to stamp lots of the images, made a variety of Cuttlebug-embossed mats, and also used a variety of punches and ribbon.
It is a beautiful fall day here. Hope it is where you are as well. Thanks for looking!

Thinking of You Versions

Yesterday as I strolled through Michael's, I came across some Recollections patterned paper I really liked. It was 4 for $1, so I bought it. It had really jumped out at me for some reason. When it came time for me to do something with it last night, I had a tough time figuring out to use it. My first attempt was the lower card. I used Nestabilities circles for the stamped image and its mats. The ink I used is Versacolor 17 Violet. I don't know the name of the SU! stamp I used as I bought it used and it wasn't in its original box. Sorry! I also used SU! Very Vanilla cardstock, the SU! Modern Label punch, and SU! Word Window punch. The "Thinking of You" stamp is from the SU! Three Little Words set. The gems are by Kaiser. I wasn't particularly pleased with the card, so I decided to try, again, to get a better design.
Version 2 is the top photo and worked out better, don't you think? I dug around in my stash for some dark brown ribbon and used SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock to mat the stamped image circle. On my first attempt at this design, I stamped the "Thinking of You" (by Stampendous) too high. I covered that side totally with the print and flipped the card over to stamp the sentiment, again, more carefully. By now, a little frustration was beginning to set in, but I was determined not to toss this card out! I also put the coordinating purple paper on both parts of the inside. (It also covered the ribbon.) I loved that the purple gems from my stash matched the patterned paper perfectly. I also stamped the smaller version of the flower image on the inside along with the sentiment "You are never more than a thought away" (SU! Whimsical Words). Thank you for looking AND reading my ramblings this morning! Have a great weekend!

Happy Anniversary

A quick, but pretty (I think) anniversary card. I used SU! Barely Banana cardstock for the card base along with White Bazzill which I ran through my Cuttlebug. The sand dollar was stamped onto a Nestabilities' circle and mounted on another Nestabilities' scallop circle (in SU! Barely Banana). The sand dollar and sentiment were stamped with SU! Close to Cocoa ink. I added some glitter to the sand dollar. The ribbon is also SU! Barely Banana. I appreciate you stopping by to check out my site. Thank you!

Girly-Girl Birthday Card

More fun Doodlebug patterned paper was used to make this girly-girly 8th birthday card. It is a basic design, I know, but I think the recipient liked it. :D She loves butterflies and glitz. I used SU! Party Hearty and Birthday Bliss stamps as well as the SU! Modern Label punch and ticket punch. I also used SU! circle punches and the SU! Embosslits butterfly folder. Thanks for looking!

Baby Girl Card

Sorry to have been missing, but I was "out sick" for over a week. Looks like I need to do some catching up.
Here is a baby girl card I made recently for some friends who just had their 5th daughter. I had such fun making this card for them. Supplies used are: SU! Pretty in Pink cardstock, Doodlebug "Sea Life" patterned paper with coordinating Doodlebug plaid patterned paper (I stamped the onesie image on the diagonal), Versafine Black Onyx ink, stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms and Savvy, border punch by Martha Stewart, SU! ribbon, hearts punched by SU! punches, and little white heart buttons from my stash.
Thanks so much for stopping by and leave a comment if you have an extra minute!

Sweet Scoops!

This was the first time I had used my SU! Sweet Scoops stamp set, but it WON'T be the last. Such a fun set and I kept daydreaming about favorite ice cream and gelato flavors! :D
For this card I chose three SU! colors: Taken with Teal, Close to Cocoa, and Pumpkin Pie. I used them in ink and cardstock form. I also happened to have non-SU! brads that just matched the Pumpkin Pie. Hurray! I used a Cuttlebug and a Sizzix embossing folder on the card as well. The SU! ticket punch is one of my favorites that I haven't used for a while, so I pulled that out, too.
Thanks so much for looking!

For Baby Addison

I can't resist some of the adorable Doodlebug papers to this day! Been a fan of theirs for as long as I have been making cards. There are no special instructions for making this card. it is just a basic design. I did play around with putting more "things" on the front, but nothing ever struck me. So I decided to enhance the inside by using the same "strawberry" paper on both sides of the interior. When I just couldn't figure out what else to add to the outside of this baby card (due to the busy background paper), I decided to decorate it a bit more on the inside. This is the result. I used the same patterned paper from the front on the whole inside. I also matted the sentiment which I probably wouldn't have done on the inside. Thanks so much for looking!

Learning to make more than just one card at a time when you are designing was not something that I usually did. It seems like in my "advancing years", I am getting smarter. (It's about time.) :D
I chose Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, and Purely Pomegranate as my color scheme. I used the "b is for birthday" as my stamped image. The obvious difference between the cards is the orientation. I also used two different embossing folders. One is the CB Birthday folder and the other is a Quickutz folder. I paper-pierced the Chocolate Chip scalloped mats and inked the edges of the stamped image ovals. Thanks for looking!

Blue and White

First of all, please excuse the poor quality of the photo. I was in a hurry and took the picture in our kitchen on a counter. Note to self: don't do that, again.
The card base is white Bazzill with Bashful Blue ink and cardstock. I used Whisper White for the stamped image. Both the SU! scallop trim border punch and the scallop trim corner punch were used along with the SU! Beautiful Wings Embosslits die.
The stamps used were: Friends 24-7 (wood) and Well Scripted (unmounted).
Thanks so much for looking!

Two Fishies Anniversary Card

I got this adorable punch art design from a friend who attended our other friend's SU! class while I was out of town and had to miss the class. I just LOVED the fish and CASED it as an anniversary card. I also chose to use the SU! Jumbo Priceless Wheel as a background on the base mat. And, of course, the fish are made from the ornament punch. The mouth is the little heart from the Heart to Heart ex-large punch and the tail/fins are punched from the 5-petal ex-large punch. I used little circle punches for the eyes! Thanks for looking!

Birthday Card for Joe

Birthday card for SIL using stamps from the SU! Party Hearty set. The colors are as close as I could get to the KU colors of red, blue, and yellow. My blue is a little too dark, though. Joe graduated from KU and is a major KU basketball and football fan! I used my corner-rounder punch on opposite corners of the yellow cardstock like I saw done on one of the MOJO Monday sketches. Thanks so much for looking!

Sea Shell Birthday Cards

These two birthday cards were made using the sea shell embossiblities plate from Spellbinders. The sand dollar stamp looks so pretty when you add a little glue and glitter! I used Bashful Blue cardstock and ink by Stampin' Up! The ribbon is also from Stampin' Up! as is the punched label and sentiment. The "bling" is from Marc Richards. Thanks for looking!

Birthday Wishes for Grandson

Looks like I need to purchase some more "kid" birthday stamps! However, this card does represent our two of our grandson's favorite colors: blue and green! I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder with numbers and made sure that he could see both of the number 9's since it was his 9th birthday! :D
I used Glorious Green and Night of Navy cardstock and inks. The ribbon is Night of Navy as well. The stamp set is: Party Hearty

Thanks for looking!

Sympathy Card

This sympathy card was made with a limited number of supplies since we are down in Florida. Although I am working on populating my workstation here, I do not have any punches, very few stamps, very few dies and embossing folders, etc. You get the idea, I am sure. Some of those supplies will have to travel back and forth with me when we come down for the winter. At the other times we are here, I guess I'd better become more "on the spot" creative!

This card was made using Close to Cocoa and Soft Sky cardstock by Stampin' UP. Thank goodness I had packed a few Cuttlebug embossing folders. I used this floral one for the card. I found some silver brads I had here for the flower centers. I did also bring a Sizzlits oval die. I used it on the Close to Cocoa mat after I had embossed it. Using one of the new SU! clear stamps made all the difference! I only had to stamp one time to get perfect placement. And, lastly, the other thing I brought down was a bunch of "already punched/die-cut" embellishments which included the adorable little butterflies from the SU! Sizzix Embosslits Beautiful Wings die. I LOVE that die!

Thanks so much for looking! Have a great day!

50th Wedding Anniversary for Liz and Ade

What a milestone! Our friends Liz and Ade recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. This is the card we gave them.
I started out with a white Bazzill card base and added a mat of shimmer gold paper followed by a mat of white Bazzill which I had run through my Cuttlebug using the swirl embossing folder (that's what I call it, anyway). I punched out two scalloped hearts in the shimmer gold with one of my Marvvy Uchida punches. I stamped two hearts in Versamark onto SU! Whisper White and then applied gold Perfect Pearls. Using my SU! heart punch, I punched them out and adhered them to the gold hearts using SU! dimensionals. The center of each heart got its own pearl. The sentiment was also stamped with Versamark and then I applied the Perfect Pearls. I used the SU! Word Window punch and the Modern Label punch along with two smaller pearls. The stamp sets I used were: Short & Sweet and Polka Dot Punches. I decorated the inside of the card, too, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I was in a hurry to get them documented before we flew out the door for our drive down here to Florida. Thanks for stopping by!

Congratulations! You're having a baby!

First of all, I checked out my supply of "baby" stamps. I was surprised that I didn't have very many (a comment from my dear husband might be "with all these stamps, you DON'T have enough?"). So I headed over to Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) and started surfing baby cards. I ran across some ADORABLE baby buggy cards made very creatively (of course!) with punches. The picture above is the result of my first attempt at making a baby buggy card. It took a lot of playing around on my part with the right size circle punch, the right border punch, and dies for the handle. I won't even mention HOW long! It really was fun, though, and I will be making more of them. You can use such a wide variety of punch styles and sizes. My next one might even be a bigger buggy!
Since the sex of the baby isn't known yet for this card, I used the green and yellow combination. I used SU! Certainly Celery for the buggy and wheels. I believe I used SU! Barely Banana for the handle. The white border is Bazzill. And the patterned paper is from a Debbie Mumm paper pad entitled "Baby Boy" from JoAnn's. The green buttons and silver brads are from my stash as is the ribbon. They all just coordinated so well together. And you can see that I used the SU! Word Window and Modern Label punches as well. The diaper pin and "baby" are from the Short and Sweet set. I had to improvise with the sentiment since this card is a congratulatory card for being pregnant and not for the birth of the baby.

Again, there has been a dry spell regarding postings on my blog. My brother and I took a road trip to Arkansas the 16th - 20th of July to celebrate with our mom her 85th birthday (as mentioned in my prior posting). I was home a few days and then my dear husband and I headed out on an even longer road trip (almost 1800 miles) to southwest Florida. I am hoping to catch up with a couple of new postings while we are down here. And I am going to spend some time doing more supply-arranging here at my "southern card-making workstation". :D There will also be further documenting of what supplies are here before we return on the 10th of August. My Excel spreadsheet is getting bigger and bigger with Minnesota supplies, Florida supplies, and "shared" supplies.

Thank you for stopping by! Hope you are preparing for a great end of July weekend. Enjoy!

Birthday Card for Mom's 85th!

This is a CASE of a CASE! Susan, aka peebsmama posted a great CASE of Stephanie's (aka sbs81) card. Thanks so much to both of you for your inspiration. This is for my mom's 85th birthday! My brother and I leave early Friday morning to drive down to Arkansas to celebrate our mom's birthday. It is a long day in the car to get there, but well worth the drive! I've made her a box of cards for her gift! I sure do hope that she will actually USE them! ;-)

Here is the link to peebsmama's card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...p;si=peebsmama

I used much of the same colors for the cardstock, different patterned paper, another sentiment, brads, layered butterflies, and doodles. Thanks so much for looking!

Another Masculine Sympathy Card

This is one of the sympathy cards that I am including in my mom's birthday gift set of greeting cards.
I used the bird image from SU! Friends 24/7 and the sentiment from SU! Three Little Words. My paper choices are SU! Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Vanilla Confetti. My inks are SU! Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Always Artichoke. The button is from the SU! Latte Buttons. The punches used were: SU! Modern Label- X Large and SU! Word Window - Large. I used a CB embossing folder as well. It reminds me of houndstooth. Thanks so much for looking!

MS Butterfly Border Punch

This week I used a 50% coupon to purchase a Martha Stewart butterfly border punch. I had watched a video recently on my computer which was like an infomercial for MS punches. If I could have opened the packaging on the punch before buying it, I would have realized it was a "two-step" type punch, so I was a little surprised when I punched a border for the inside of a card. Every other butterfly was still attached! Some of the MS punches are strictly punches. Another variety is one that makes more like a "crunching sound". For example, the MS butterfly punch which has "cut-out" parts. You have to carefully detach the "punched piece" at a couple of anchor points. And then there is the type the butterfly border punch is where some of the shapes are punched out and the others remain to give dimension. I DID like it, though! I haven't used the punch for the outside of a card yet, but I think it will be fun to embellish the little butterflies. The outside of the card is almost exactly the same as the other "tree" or "branch" stamped image cards I've posted lately. I made a few changes: Soft Sky instead of Bashful Blue, a different embossing folder, etc.
Thanks so much for taking time to look!

Birdhouse Card

My friend Deb showed a few of us how to make this adorable birdhouse card this winter. I actually sent the one I made to Deb's sister. It was SO CUTE I had to make another one. Mine is a variation ... different patterned papers and a different border punch, but it turned out okay, don't you think?
You start with a 7 x 5 inch card base. Take two 3 x 1/2 inch pieces of patterned paper or cardstock to form the roof. Place them on the card as shown. Cut the chimney and roof line after adhering the pieces. I used the SU! Bird Punch as well as a Martha Stewart border punch, a Sizzlit circle die, one heart from the SU! Triple Heart Punch, and one flower from the SU! Triple Flower Punch. I added a yellow brad to the center of the flower. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blooming with Happiness Birthday Card

Thanks to whiterockmama (on SCS) and her WRM-Verve Challenge #5 for the wonderful inspiration.

I used SU! Pretty in Pink cardstock, Whisper White cardstock, DSP Petals & Paisleys, the Blooming with Happiness stamp set, Happy Day sentiment by A Muse, Stazon Black ink, MS border punch, tiny silver gems, SU! Pretty in Pink marker, Copic Cool Gray #1, and a Sizzlits Window Cuts Frame, Rectangle w/ Scallop Edge.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Leave a comment if you have a minute.

Sympathy Card

Masculine sympathy card using my sea shell stamp. Thinking of the ocean is a comforting thing for me. I hope it is appropriate for a masculine sympathy card.

Sentiment stamped inside reads: "Some people come into our lives and quietly stay. Others stay for a while, leaving footprints in our hearts and we are never the same."

I repeated the SU! Curley Label punchies on the inside as I chose to add a White Confetti layer on top of the already White Confetti card base. I put one on the upper left and the other on the lower right. KWIM? Thanks so much for looking!

Happy 4th of July!

Basic design and building on it . . .

Yesterday while I was designing the anniversary card I posted, I got to thinking, again, about all the time it takes me to design one card. I came up with a new strategy out of frustration. This morning I decided to start with a basic, clean, and simple design. I used the "Thank You" stamp by Impress Rubber Stamps and the Sea Shell stamp by Inkadinkado. I picked two colors I really like together (SU! Night of Navy and Certainly Celery), stamped the images, cut the mats, and adhered them. There! The card was finished and I was pleased with it. Whew! No hours of agonizing over one card! I already had an idea of how I wanted to develop that basic design. I wanted to add a "random" patterned layer under the "Thank You" image. My "random" has never come out the way I wanted it to, so I have kind of avoided "random". I "googled" random stamping and the very first article that came up was "How to "Random" Stamp" by Tracy Liu. I printed her article, put it down next to me on the kitchen island where I was stamping, and followed her formula. It worked the VERY FIRST TIME! (Did you hear me shrieking with excitement?) Then I used my first sheet of SU! grid paper and stamped the "Thank You" and the sea shells in the exact spots! (I shrieked again!)
This is one of those events that you want to share with someone who stamps, too. I'd tell my DH, but he probably wouldn't appreciate my excitement. Now I have a few more variations spinning around in my head. I should write them down. Thanks so much for dropping by!

Happy Anniversary

Today I made an anniversary card for my younger brother and sister-in-law for their 25th anniversary. I didn't go down the silver anniversary road as you can see. You might be able to tell, I LOVE SU! Soft Sky and use it quite a bit. I should really broaden my color horizons ... which I will be doing now that I have added significantly to my SU! cardstock inventory.
I started the card with the Cuttlebug embossing folder you see. It made it so easy to stamp the sentiment right onto the card. I punched the hearts with my Marvy Uchida scallop heart punches and then ran them through different CB embossing folders. They are both "popped up" with SU! dimensionals. I stamped the flower which is from the Vintage Vogue set (unmounted -- love them!) and cut it out. (I continue to push myself to do that. It looks so nice when you do. And I need to work on my cutting skills as well. I always wonder if I flunked scissor cutting in kindergarten!) I added a few pearls and there you have it! I did more stamping on the inside, back, and envie, too. Thanks so much for looking and if you feel like it or have the time, I'd love for you to comment.

Two Card Monday

There are times when a card just does NOT turn out the way I had envisioned it would. This is DEFINITELY one of those times! I started with the SU! set entitled Vintage Vogue. I chose to use only the "Friends" stamp from that set. The ink I stamped the image with was SU! Basic Gray. It turned out to be darker than I had hoped. Maybe when my new stamp pad of Soft Suede arrives, I will try it with that! The card base is a lighter gray followed by a layer of Whisper White and then the Cuttlebug embossed layer of Rose Red. I added a strip of white Bazzill also embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and edged with the SU! Scallop Border Punch. The ribbon is from my SU! ribbon stash. The ovals (both plain and scalloped) from from Marvy Uchida. I punched two of the gray ones as I didn't have the larger size than the one I punched the Rose Red oval from. The brads were an afterthought. At that point, I was desperate to add "a little something more". I realized too late that I should have placed the "Friends" oval further from the left. However, the SU! dimensionals had adhered so well to the cardstock that the oval wasn't going anywhere!
My second card of the day is one of the last sympathy cards I made for the card ministry project. I started with an SU! Kraft card base, a layer of SU! confetti card stock, and a layer of SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock embossed with another CB embossing folder. The stamped image is layered in the same fashion. The flower is part of the SU! set entitled "Of the Earth" and the sentiment is from SU! Thoughts and Prayers. I used SU! Chocolate Chip ink, did a bit of paper-piercing, and finished up the card with an SU! button and SU! linen thread.
That's it for today. I am off to come up with a better design for that "Friends" card! Hmm . . . maybe it is time to just CASE a few designs. Thanks so much for visiting my blog. And thanks to all who have been commenting. It's so fun to read your messages! Have a great week!

No card today ...

Happy Sunday! I do not have any pictures to post today . . . waiting for my DH to return home this morning with my camera before I can take decent pictures of the tri-shutter card as well as the rest of the sympathy cards for our card ministry. Yes, I am finished with them! All they need are envelopes and to be stamped on the back of each with our card ministry stamp.
As usual, I spent some time early this morning surfing the SCS galleries ... so much amazing talent and so very many great ideas.
I've already stamped a couple of images to work on after I return from picking up DH at the airport. Now that my "sympathy card" project is completed, I should really make a list of the cards I need to make as well as the ones I want to make! Oh, and I do have another project for a different group I am part of. I need to come up with some designs for fundraising purposes.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some new card pictures. Hope you are having a great summer Sunday and that the weather in your part of the world is just the way you'd like it!

Gate-fold Sympathy Card

Always wanting to vary designs when "mass producing", I decided to make a few gate-fold cards. I used the same Sizzix Damask embossing folder set as well as the punches, sentiment, etc. SU! Soft Sky and the same Bazzill White were my paper choices. Of course, when I reach that magic number of 35, I still need to complete the insides of the cards. I have a few different sympathy sentiments I am planning to use for that.
Yesterday I worked on a tri-shutter card. It is a new style card for me. However, as I began working on it, I realized it was very similar to a style I loved about 4 years ago called color blocking. The tri-shutter card has actual physical dimension to it because you score, cut, and mountain-fold the card base before beginning to lay down your design. I watched a tutorial for it in Splitcoast Stampers' Resources section. It was great to be able to watch the video as well as look at the individual steps which are also part of the tutorial. You get all the information you need. If you haven't visited the Resources section on SCS, you are missing a lot of valuable information and lots of techniques. I will be returning there on a regular basis!
I sent my camera off yesterday with my DH who went to St. Charles, IL to attend Bloomington Gold/Mecum Auto Auction. He'll be coming home with LOTS of pictures of Corvettes. In the meantime, all I have for photographing my cards is my cell phone. I plan to wait until he comes back on Sunday to take "good" pictures of my first tri-shutter card. I'll upload them to my blog then.
Have a great weekend. Enjoy the lovingly summer weather. And thank you for coming by!