Just giddy...

I loved how this card turned out and so did my nephew.  I found this pad of paper called Stationers Desk by Prima and fell in love with it.  I started thumbing through the pad trying to figure out what I wanted to do for his birthday card, when I came across this piece.  It immediately started "talking" to me...hahaha!

I inked up a NBUS stamp from Penny Black called "Regalia" in VersaMark ink and embossed it with Liquid Platinum by Ranger.  Don't you just love this color?!?!?  I got so excited when I saw how the tree turned out...just giddy!!!  I decided to do a Jennifer McGuire trick and inked up a scrap piece of card stock with VersaMark and embossed it with the Liquid Platium and just a bit of Stampendous' "Aged Silver embossing enamel.  Then die cut "Happy" from Wplus9's "Happy Trio" die set.  The word "birthday" is from Wplus9's "Whole lota Happy" and the tag is a die cut from Simon Says Stamp "Bundle of Stitched Shapes".  I used gold thread to tie off the tag and sequins to finish off the card and mounted it to a piece of Stampin' Up's "Chocolate Chip" card stock.

If it ain't red, leave it in the shed...

My dad and my son, Tim, are tractor fanatics.  My dad has had a Farmall tractor for as long as I can remember.  Tim started out as a John Deere fan, but has come to the right side of the tracks and wants nothing but a Farmall.  The caption is from a t-shirt Tim got as a present last year.  This birthday card was for my dad who turned 82 this past Sunday and still drives his Farmall whenever he can.  I think he somewhat looks forward to snow so he can plow with the tractor.

Penny Black came out with this stamp set last year, I believe.  It was a must have for me!  It's called "Life is Simpler", which I colored with pencils.  The die cut tree is from Impression Obsession (IO die 0006-V), which I cut out from a piece of Stampin' Up's "Basic Grey" card stock.  I water colored the sky and grass on water color paper with Distress Inks in "Broken China" and "Peeled Paint".  I fussy cut out the tractor and popped it up.  My dad sure did agree with the sentiment.

Thank you for stopping by, I sure love it when you do.

My Last December birthday...

Back again with another birthday card.  This was for my brother-in-law.  Last year, I also fell in love with Simon Says Stamp January 2015 card kit.  Did you figure out yet, that I love winter colors?  Again, SSS used my favorite color scheme.  It was BoBunny's "Altitude" designer paper collection that did me in.  I've had to order a few of the 6x6 paper packs, in addition to some of the 12x12 individual sheets out of that collection.  Beautiful!!!  I started with a piece of SU's Bermuda Bay card stock as my base and added a piece of the "Altitude" designer paper.  I had looked at Tim Holtz's January Tag blog and thought I would try his technique "industrial metal", but didn't want to use "Black Soot" ink, so I used "Bermuda Bay" ink and "Iced Spruce" Distress Stain.  I took a piece of silver foil tape and covered a piece of white card stock and put that into a Sizzix snowflake EF.  I then took the Iced Spruce Stain and Bermuda Bay ink and layered on the color, letting it dry before adding more.  I ran across the problem of the ink not completely sticking as it kept coming off on my fingers.  So I took some multi-medium matte to the strip I was trying to use.  I let that dry and ta-da, that worked.  No more ink coming off on my fingers.  Yea!  I'll be honest, it took me a couple of hours to figure out how to fix my problem.  Seriously thought about ditching it, but I loved the way it looked.  I die cut "Happy Birthday" from Simon Says Stamps "Painted Happy Birthday" in white card stock and attached them to the front of the card.  Another easy card, after figuring out my little problem :) 

Thanks for stopping by, I sure do love it when you do.

Simon Says Stamp January Card Kit

When I saw this card kit, I had to order it.  I love the colors Doodlebug Designs used in their Frosty Friends designer paper collection.  My favorite winter colors.  My card is a CASE of Shari Carroll's card from the collection.  Here's the link to her card.  I loved the colors she used and the layout.  Of course my card ended up with more snowflakes...I seem to have that problem of never knowing when enough is enough.  I made this card for my niece who turned sweet 16 in December.  I used the the white 120 lb card stock in the kit as my base and stamped the snowflakes from "Cute Snowflakes" that was included in the kit in Stampin' Up's "Bermuda Bay" and "Coastal Cabana" inks, Versa Mark ink and Simon Says Stamp "White" pigment ink on the "Audrey Blue" card stock, also included in the kit.  I then cut a few strips of the Frosty Friends dp for the edge.  I had one of the "Festive Flurries" from SU, left over from last week's card and added it to this card instead of the snowman and the "Make a Wish" stamp is from PaperTrey Ink's "Mum's the Word" stamp set, which I stamped in SU's Pacific Point ink.  I added some silver thread and popped up both the sentiment and the snowflake to the front of the card.  I added some of the Doodlebug Sprinkles that were included in the kit and the white snowflake sequins are from SU.  I think this card turned out super cute and my niece thought so to.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do. 

January Birthdays...

What a busy weekend I had.  I had to make 6 cards for our January birthday get-together we had today.   A few of the cards, were actually for birthdays in December that I didn't have a chance to make.  This card was for my nephew, whose birthday was in December.  I'm so glad my mojo is working again.   I really think taking a stamp class at my local stamp store truly helped.  This card we made in the class, but I came home and tweaked it just a bit.  She had us make a card that was 6" x 4.25.  I took the card apart and trimmed it down to 5.5 x 4.25.  We used Penny Black's stamp "Snowy Grove" and inked it up in black, then used Distress Inks in "Wild Honey" first to make the sunrise, and "Blueprint Sketch" for the sky.  I am so in love with Blueprint Sketch.  It's my new favorite Distress color!  After that, we took White Enamel Embossing Powder from Stampendous to mimic falling snow.  On a previous card I made with this same stamp (before I took this class) I used a white gel pen for the snow.  It took a bit more time, but gave the same effect.  I then used Simon Says Stamp "Stitched Slopes & Hills" dies to make my snow drifts.  The three die cut deer are from Memory Box called "Valley Deer Trio" that I glued on.  I stamped "Happy Birthday" from Penny Black's "Friendship" stamp set also in black ink.  Quick, easy card.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do.

Altenew Watercoloring Classes...

Oh my goodness.  I can't believe my last post was back in late October.  I am so sorry.  The holidays,when working in a church, become even more hectic than usual, and then comes January, which means year-end statements for parishioners and year-end tax forms.  But they all went out the in mail this past Friday, so I have some breathing room again. 

I have been making cards all along, but did forget to take pictures of most of them.  I couldn't believe I forgot to take pictures of them before mailing them out.  I do have some, but today I thought I would post my cards I made from the first two classes at Altnew on water coloring.  I'm finding that I can't be my "has to be perfect" self when water coloring.  It's more free-flow and where the water lands is how it is.  You can't control it.  That frustrates me more than anything...lol!!!

The first card is the ombre look.  My ombre never went to white as it did on her video, even though I followed her steps by the book.  I used Distress Ink in "Dusty Concord".  The snowflake is from SU's "Festive Flurries" and coordinating dies and the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's "Celebrating You" stamp set.  I finished off the card with some snowflakes and sequins.

The second card is the smooshing technique.  I think I used too light of ink colors.  I'll probably try that again and use more vibrant colors.  I used PTI's "Aqua Mist," "Spring Rain," and "Winter Wisteria" inks.  I used stamps from Altenew's "Vintage Roses" and "Vintages Flowers and "Sending Hugs" is from PTI's "Big Hugs" stamp set.  I finished the card off with silver washie tape and a silver wink of stella pen. 



 I'm hoping to watch the next two videos and try them out today, too.

I really hope you all didn't give up on me.  I will try my best to post at least once a week, even if it's just a card with a quick note. 


Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if you wish.  I love it when you do.

PTI - October Blog Hop Challenge

 

I was so glad this blog hop was on a Sunday.  It seems to be the only time I get to stamp anymore.  I had a few more cards to do today, but finished my card for PTI before 11:30pm!  Here's the inspiration picture.  I decided just to use Red & Green as my inspiration and here's what I came up with.  I love the Holiday Plaid papers and used one of the plaids as the base of my card.  I then pulled out my new stamps from PTI this month and went to work.  I stamped the snowflakes (Quilted Winter) in both Pure Poppy and New Leaf inks and put together the base of my card, with a strip of SU's Real Red cs and a strip of Silver paper from Ranger.  I then stamped the ornaments (Wet Paint Holiday Tags) in both Pure Poppy and New Leaf inks and die cut them out.  I attached a silver bow and strung them together and pop dotted them to the card base.  IRL the way this card turned out.  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out PTI's October blog hop here

My first Christmas card...

 OMGosh!!!  I fell in love with My Favorite Things' Santa's Elves the minute I saw them and had to order them as soon as they became available on their website!  I am so happy I did.  My first inspiration for this card was for Stamp Nation's WCMD2015 for their Scotland challenge (using plaid).  My second inspiration was for Happy Little Stamper's October CAS Challenge Paper Piecing.  Isn't this elf so cute????  I paper piece the present, hat and his jacket from a piece of plaid paper from Stampin' Up's Trim the Tree 4x6 paper pack and colored him with Copics (C5, T7, W8, RV00 and 0) and Wink of Stella in Clear and White inks.  I finished him off with a couple of black gems for his buttons on his coat.  I popped him up on a piece of SU's Garden Green cs, which is mounted on a piece of Gina K's White Luxury cs.  I added a piece of plaid paper on the bottom of the card and added Christmas Joy from Tim Holtz's Sizzix's Holiday Words Script die cut set.  I'm entering this card into HLS October CAS Challenge, and Simon Wednesday Challenge.  I hope this card is clean and simple enough for both challenges.

A bit of Switzerland & Al's Birthday

I'm still working on challenges from Stamp Nation for their World Card Making Day from last weekend.  This card is for Switzerland.  Edelweiss is a flower native to Switzerland and the focus for the challenge.  While I couldn't really think of a flower stamp that would pass for Edelweiss, I thought these two snowflakes from Clearly Besotted's Ornamental Style stamp set would work.  I colored the center with Tim Holtz's Mustard Seed Distress Maker after I stamped the snowflake with Hero Art's Unicorn White ink and then embossed with white embossing powder.  The wreath was stamped with two stamps from Judith (no names or numbers on the stick stamps) on a piece of Stampin' Up's Crumb Cake cs.  I finished the card off with WPlus9 Hello die cut.

This is the card I made for Al's birthday this past week.  He thought the bird looks like a crotchety old bird.  Well, to be honest...I wanted to stamp that said "Happy Bird-day to an old bird", but of course, I don't have one.  I thought about writing it, too, but, I don't think my handwriting is that good, so I decided to use Wish Big, from PTI's Stylish Sentiments Birthday Stamp Set (which is one of my favorite sets, ever!) in Tuxedo Black ink.  The bird is from Tim Holtz's Bird Crazy set that I think almost everyone has bought.  I water colored the bird with SU's inks in Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango for his beak.  I stamped the gingham from PTI's Background Basics: Super Gingham Stamp Set in SU's Real Red ink.  I added a few sequins to finish the card off.


Thanks so much for stopping by.  I love it when you do!

World Card Making Day (Weekend)

Hi everyone,
I didn't have a chance to stamp yesterday as I went up to see Mom and Dad for the day, so I did a few cards today in honor of World Card Making Day!

I decided to use a couple of stamp sets that I've had for awhile (one for over a year) that are NBUS.

I recently joined StampNation and decided to partake their World Card Making Day and participated, so far, in their first two challenges.

This card represents the USA.  I used PTI's Make It Market: County Fair stamp set and made a bandanna type pattern using Hero Art's Unicorn White ink, which I embossed with white embossing powder and I also used SU's Night of Navy ink, too, to complete the pattern and to stamp the Happy Birthday from SSS Big Scripty Greetings.  I added more to the pattern then I originally intended to, because I had a few oopies I had to cover up.  I also added dots with my white gel pen.  I sponged the white card stock with TH's Distress Ink Barn Door and attached to a piece of SU's Night of Navy card stock.  I really like the way it turned out.



This card represents Canada.  I made a plaid pattern from PTI's Plaid Builder stamp set in SU's Real Red, Night of Navy, Garden Green and Daffodil Delight inks.  I die cut out the Maple leaf in SU's Real Red card stock from SU's Leaflets Framelit dies and cut out sending (SSS) from SU's Night of Navy card stock and stamped the words birthday wishes from SU's Endless Birthday Wishes stamp set.  I popped up the maple leaf and attached the card front to a piece of green card stock, which I bought at a local scrapbook store.  I worked on this card for awhile.  I had the colors to work with and tried to work with stripes first and I just couldn't figure out the rest of the card.  My hubby came through with the idea of making a plaid out of the colors.  Yes, he does help me sometimes when I just can't get a card to work.  I'm always glad to be able to bounce ideas off him and friends from time to time.


Thanks so much for stopping by, I love it when you do.  I am adding the bandanna card to Simon Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes.