Thank You!

Hi everybody! Happy New Year! Can you believe 2017 is nearly here? Wow, what a year we had!

Since Christmas has passed and Christmas presents have been opened (& played with), I thought it was about time to get out some Thank You cards.

Many people made my Christmas complete even though I didn't get to see my sons during the holidays. I am very thankful for friends who invited me to parties or dinner. That really helped me get through what-would-have-otherwise-been a most miserable Christmas.

I love the Square Flip-It die (from Stephanie Barnard's Stamps of Life) because you can fit just about anything in the square to make it a unique card. Using the same die & sentiment but different patterned paper (also from Stamps of Life), I made multiple cards.

It was easy to quickly get several of these made, which was quite helpful! Now that they're done, I can begin putting away my Christmas stamps, dies & embellishments. Almost time to create some for Valentine's Day, after all! lol :)

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Believe

Hi everybody! I thought I'd post another Christmas card. This one challenged my watercoloring skills.

My sister's (Cecilia) favorite color is red, and her husband owns a truck like this, so I thought I'd put the two together for her Christmas card. As I painted the red, it began to turn pink with water added. I just kept adding more red until I got a good color I wanted.

Cecilia called me yesterday to thank me for this card. She said it inspired her to go get a tree! They apparently hadn't started decorating yet. I'm glad I could be of help!

The stamp set is from Honey Bee stamps. I also purchased dies with the stamps, but for this card I didn't need them. The background paper is from a Lawn Fawn Christmas petite paper pad. Love those patterns!

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Cricut Christmas

Hi everybody! It's been a while since I posted. I went to Boston to visit my brother for the Thanksgiving holiday and just got back. Time to get serious with these Christmas cards!

As a Christmas present to myself, I purchased a Cricut Air Machine, thanks go Black Friday prices. My Cricut Expression was starting to cause issues with cutting, so I felt it was time I upgraded. It's rather old but was still useful until recently.

This is one of my first cards I created with the new machine. It's so easy because I don't have to physically connect my computer to the Cricut. It's all wireless! For this card, I first selected the card image from Cricut Access on the computer, then I hit Go and the machine began cutting, one layer after another. It stopped in between layers for me to change the color of the cardstock. Once it was done, I only had to adhere the layers and add the stamped sentiment on the inside. Easy!

If I get in a pinch and need more cards, this will be the one I go to for duplication.

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Clean and Simple Christmas

Hi again! I'm back with my third Christmas card for the day. This one was created for the Stamp TV Mix It Up Monday Challenge, where we were to create a Clean & Simple Christmas card using Christmas colors.

I chose Christmas Pine for the base of my card, then layered the Kraft with white on it after stamping the page of music. I love that background stamp! It will work for just about anything, even after Christmas. As a pianist, musical stamps always attract my eye. Can't get enough!

The sentiment and the musical notes are from Stamp TV's Kit called Home For The Holidays. The kit has four different pages of Christmas stamps, dies to go with it, patterned paper and cardstock that match. Loads of fun in that one box!

Before I go I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone enjoys the holiday and has some fun shopping on Black Friday. I'll be staying inside and checking out the different web sites online. It's almost too easy to shop that way, and there are no crowds to fight!

Thank you for stopping by again today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~ this is it for today!

Christmas Reindeer

Hi everybody! I'm back with another Christmas card. I'll have a total of 3 today, so hang in there with me!

This card was a lot of fun to make. I got the design idea from Pinterest, kind of a combination of several cards I saw using this stamp set from Stampin Up! called Cookie Cutter Christmas. I LOVE IT! Besides the reindeer, there's an eskimo, gingerbread man/woman, and a Santa, all in one set. The punch that goes with it will cut out any of the images, along with buttons, a heart, and a bow. It's so much fun to create different images but use only one punch to cut it out. Neat!

The Sweater embossing folder and patterned paper I used is also from SU! That ef is very thick, and it took several tries to get the setup right so it would go through my die cut machine., but I made some adjustments in the directions and finally figured it out. Didn't help that my plates were warped. I finally got new ones. Makes a HUGE difference!

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~ one more coming!

Christmas Snowflakes

Hi everybody! How are you doing? I'm working on Christmas cards, trying to add new ones on a daily basis. I always create a lot of different cards instead of creating a lot of the same one in bulk. Guess I get bored!

Today's card was very easy to make. I simply die cut the border of snowflakes using a Simon Says die and then added more snowflakes. The sentiment is from Gina K Designs. For the final touch, I added a line of Diamond Stickles along the snowy border. It looks better in real life--nice & sparkly!

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Detailed Santa

Hi everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. Today I have a fun Christmas card that I made using a Stampin Up! die called Detailed Santa.

This was a very simple card to make. All I had to do was cut out the die and layer it onto the red cardstock base. The sentiment was found from a previous year's Stamp TV kit called Sparkling Christmas.

Before I created this card, I researched a few You Tube videos and saw some people cut Santa's glasses in either black or gold. Others used glitter paper. That looked pretty neat, but I decided for this first card I'd keep it all white.

Since this is a fairly simple card, it's easy to reproduce, so I'll probably make more of these. I could put a nice Christmas phrase on the inside and be done.

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Christmas Gold

Hello everybody! Hope you're having a good week. I am participating in two Challenges this week, Stamp TV's MIUM (Mix It Up Monday) and Mod Squad.

Stamp TV's Challenge requires the technique of foiling, and Mod Squad requires gold, so I combined the two in my card.

The background was created by using a Foil Element sheet called Large Snowflakes, and for the image I used the sheet called Holly Jolly Greetings. I ran both through my Heidi Swapp Mini Minc Machine to obtain the shiny gold. The ribbon is from an old Gina K Stamp TV Kit. I just love her ribbon, and I wish she'd bring back some of what she used to have. Fortunately, I still have some left that I can use now.

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Warm Holidays

Hi everybody! Hope your week has started off with a bang! Our weather is beautiful here in NC. The sun is shining and the temperature is in the high 60s, low 70s.

This is a very simple card I created over the weekend. It's one of my first Christmas cards created for the 2016 Christmas holiday.

The stamp and die set came from Gina K Designs and is called 'Tis The Sea-Sun. Gina had a tremendous release a week ago, and this was part of it. You ought to go check it out!

I thought this penguin was appropriate since I live near the beach (about 5 miles). The images were die cut and colored with Copic markers. There are two other penguins that go in this set who are warmly wrapped in winter hats and scarves.

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Boo!

Hello everybody! How's your day coming along? Our weather has finally turned the corner, and the sun is shining. Goodbye Hurricane Matthew! Thankfully, everyone is safe & sound. No worries here.

Refusing to cave into boredom during the storm, I began creating more Halloween cards. Using my new Playful Patterns-Haunted paper pack from Taylored Expressions, I die cut a few different patterns and adhered them to my base, cut from Sizzix Stand-Up frame dies. (I know that was a long sentence but it told you everything you need to know for this card, didn't it? lol)

I love the patterns in this paper pack. It's my first time buying from Taylored Expressions, and I'm very happy with my purchase.

Below is another card I created using more products from them.

This card has more patterned paper from the same paper pack I used in the previous card. I'm not sure where the web came from but the embossed background was created using an embossing folder, also from Taylored Expressions. I colored some of them black so they would make more of an impression.

The sentiment used and images used on both of these cards came from the stamp set at Gina K Designs called Wicked.

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Happy Halloween!

Hello everybody! Hope you're safe and dry! I'm waiting on Hurricane Matthew, expected to hit later tonight and into tomorrow, as well as the next day. Living in the Carolina's among the East Coast is at times a risk. I've done all I can to prepare, so now I wait.

Can't just sit here without making a card! I've had this stamp set, Happy Scenes, from Stampin Up! for about a year and have lately been anxious to use it. I also have the Hearth & Home Framelits Dies to go with it. That's how I cut out the window. The patterned paper is from Stephanie Barnard's Stamps of Life. I colored the scene with Zig watercolor markers and Copics.

Thanks for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

You've Got A Friend

Hi everybody! Finally, we're at Challenge #4 for Stamp TV's World Card Making Challenges. For this one, we're to use a stenciled background. It's been a while since I pulled out a stencil, but I always enjoy it when I play around with them to see what I can do.

This stencil is from Gina K Designs, and I used her ink in various Fall colors to go along with the trees in the main image, including Faded Brick, Fresh Asparagus, Honey Mustard, and Prickly Pear. This piece was layered onto green cardstock.

I thought I had not gotten this card done in time for the World's Card Making Challenge's deadline, but due to technical difficulties on the site, Gina extended the day and time it's due. YAY! I got all four cards done for the four World Card Making Day Challenges. Now, we'll see if I can get anymore cards created before this next deadline.

Thanks for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Happy Holidays

Hi everybody! As promised, I'm back with the card I made for Stamp TV's World Card Making Day Challenge #3. This one was the most fun to create.

We were supposed to use unusual colors for a Christmas card. Well, I hadn't even started to think about Christmas cards yet because I still have to finish Halloween and Thanksgiving cards! Oh well, I wanted to play in the Challenge, so I dug through some Christmas kits I had from last year and even the year before. Voila! Found one I could use.

The background of this piece of Foil-Mates with the snowflakes was inked with Bubblegum Pink ink from Gina K Designs.  Then I stamped the image in black and colored the booties (socks?) and scarf in hot pink. That was die cut into an oval shape and then layered with black before adding to the background. All that was layered onto black again and then adhered to the pink base cardstock.

This was the last card I got done before the midnight deadline on Sunday, but Monday morning I made another card for #4 Challenge.What can I say but I'm slow! It's all the thinking about perfection that makes me create at a snail's pace. Ha! That's funny.

Thank you for stopping by (again) today. I appreciate your comments and visits today, and I hope to see you again real soon ~ #4 is coming next!

With Love

Hi everybody! I decided to post the rest of the cards I made for the World Cardmaking Day Challenge at Gina K Designs' Stamp TV.

For this card, Challenge #2, I followed the directions to use foiled background and sentiment. It was created by using a Foil-Mates piece of cardstock with the design on it and Rainbow Foil. Before I ran it through the machine, I added Fossilized Amber and Carved Pumpkin inks (by Tim Holtz). You can kind of see the rainbow effect from the foil on the oval with the sentiment. I just happened to find that gold ribbon piece in my stash, and it matches perfectly! WooHoo!

I appreciate you stopping by today. Your comments and visits mean the world to me, and I hope to see you real soon ~ Challenge #3 and #4 are next!

Happy Fall!

Hi everybody! Hope you had a wonderful World Cardmaking Day! I  had hoped to post this yesterday on the actual day of celebration, but it just didn't happen. So, today is the next best thing, right?

For this card, I joined the World Cardmaking Day Challenge #1 at Gina K Designs Stamp TV. She posted Challenges all day for us to try for a $50 Gift Certificate win. I'm in!

Watching a video by Gina K, I created this background using the Carved Wood technique. You first use your scoring board to create the lines (every 1/2 inch), then you use ink pads (Kraft, Dark Chocolate) across the paper. After it dries, you emboss it with an embossing folder that has vines. Lastly, you swipe white or ivory (I used white because I didn't have ivory) ink across the embossed paper. Suddenly, the design of the embossing folder shows up!

For the images, I die cut pumpkins and a squirrel from the recent Give Thanks Stamp TV Kit and then adhered them to the embossed background. I popped up the squirrel with pop dots and added the sentiment across the top.

This was a fun Challenge to join. I had never tried the Carved Wood Technique with the embossed background. I was skeptical, I'll admit, but I'm happy with the result.

Before I close, I want to thank you for your support. My health comes & goes (today it's a go!) and I never know what's next, but this blog helps me to stay positive and move forward. Your support goes a long way with that.

I appreciate you stopping by today. Your comments and visits mean a lot to me, and I hope to see you again real soon ~ there are more challenges ahead from World Cardmaking Day!

Thankful, Grateful & Blessed

Hi everybody! How's your weekend coming along? Here we are with Sunday right around the corner, and it's time to post another card!

For this card, I used PilgrimGirl2Stamp and PilgrimBoy2Stamp from Stephanie Barnard's Stamps of Life.  I just love these sets -- the pilgrims are so cute!

I stamped the images on Ivory cardstock, then colored them with Copic markers. After doing some diecutting, I added the turkey, pumpkin and pie and then layered the stamped piece to a layer of brown cardstock. Finally, this was added to a base layer of patterned cardstock.

My coloring isn't the best, but I'm working on it. Shaky hands and tremors don't help. That's actually the least of my worries, so I won't harp on that. All of us have issues to deal with, right? Might try these folks in grey instead of black next time. Stay tuned!

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Give Thanks!

Hello everybody! Hope you are having a good week. I just got back from West Virginia, so I missed a week posting a new card.

Today's card was created using the new Painted Autumn Stamp TV Kit from Gina K Designs. I just love her kits -- this one included two sets of stamps, dies, cardstock, and patterned paper. For my card, I used the cardstock in pure luxury white and dark chocolate. I created my own background using one stamp of a (three-stamp design) in Honey Mustard, Fresh Asparagus and Faded Brick inks. The images were colored with Copic markers.

I just love the colors of Fall, and I was happy to create a card using some of them. Here in North Carolina, the leaves hardly change color, so I had to create my own!

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Darnell's NBUS Challenge

Hello everybody! How's your week coming along? It's time for Darnell's NBUS (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff) Challenge, and I'm jumpin' in!

The stamp set is called Stippled Blossoms, and it's from Stampin Up! I used their Lost Lagoon ink and cardstock, as well as their silver ribbon. The sentiment is what I've never used before.

All I did was stamp one of the flowers all over the white cardstock and then added the sentiment, die cut on a Spellbinder's Tag , on top of the silver ribbon. That was it! Easy Peasy, but I love the outcome.

Hope you come and join us at the Challenge. It's fun to dig around in your "schtuff" and try out something you've never used before!

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Candles 4 Quintin

Hello everybody! How's your week coming along?

I hate to admit it, but I missed another birthday and am just now getting a card out. My nephew turned 21 last week. This card might not look very masculine or for a 21-year-old, but he's a playful, young 21-year-old. We have a special, close relationship, and I wanted some bright colors in his life. He's had some challenging times, and I wanted this extended birthday to be especially happy.

I used all products from Stephanie Bernard's Stamps of Life. The stamp and die set is called Candles4Birthday, and I used a Square Flip-It Frame for the base. This is a new Flip-It frame for me, and I like it because just about anything fits on it. You can get all the Flip-It Frame dies from The Stamps of Life.

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Believe

Hello everybody! Surprise -- I'm back already! Can't believe I've posted 3 cards in one week. That's a record for me.

Today's card was created for the Mix It Up Monday Challenge at Gina K Designs Stamp TV. We were supposed to create something for Back to School. My sister, Cecilia, is a Special Ed teacher in West Virginia, and I like to send her a card at the beginning of each school year. It's good to let her know I'm thinking of her when everything is so hectic getting her classroom in order.

For the background, I used a Reverse Confetti Cut called ABC Cover Panel, and I just love it. So versatile! You can add any sentiment on top; I used a stamp set from Gina K Designs called Keep Calm, illustrated by Beth Silaika. I thought the message was appropriate for student OR teacher this time of year.

Cecilia LOVES red, so I kept the colors red and white. She ought to appreciate that! Just about every card I send her is red and white!

The heart on the card is also from the Keep Calm stamp set.

Here's a picture of me with my sister. Love her!

Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate your comments and visits VERY much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~

Ouch!

Hello again! How's your week coming along? It's Wednesday -- you'll make it until the weekend!

This card was created for a friend of mine who had to have some unexpected surgery a week or two ago. She's our Youth Minister at the church I go to, and she does a great job. In fact, she just got back from a trip to my home state, West Virginia, to help with the Flood Relief.  She ended up working with my brother-in-law who lives where they went...what a surprise! Anyway, you can tell she's a great gal, and I hate to think of her suffering in any way.


I used another stamp set from The Stamps of Life called Bandage2Stamp. The dies, including the word dies, came with the set, and I just love them. There are so many options! The paper was from my stash, so I'm not sure of the names of the colors. I chose bright colors to help cheer her up. I stamped in the same color on top of the die cuts.

The bottom of the inside was signed, "Sharon, Your Twin" because many people at church got us confused. Someone would frequently say, "Hi Mary Frances!" when it was me! It was funny. They don't do that so often now that I've gotten my hair cut.

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate your comments and visits very much, and I hope to see you again real soon ~