NOT QUITE FINISHED

I had borrowed a Stampin' Up! set from a friend when we met in Des Moines last June.  I loved the set so much I actually found it on eBay and bought one for myself.  I love the trees and other designs in the set......."Thoughtful Branches".  I consider this one not quite finished because I'm debating about what to do with the space above the trees. I will either stamp a sentiment or die cut a little cloud to add.  

Thank you for coming by today!

2 CLEAN AND SIMPLE CARDS

I think this embossing folder was available through Stampin' Up!  I must have borrowed it because I don't find it in my collection so I'm not sure.

It makes a very lovely card.

MORE FROM THE GRANDDAUGHTERS

As I said yesterday, the granddaughters created four colorful sheets using my alcohol inks and Yupo Paper.  I thought this one was going to be a bit more of a challenge than the one I showed you yesterday but......I really like the two cards I made with this mix of colors.

Check out the two cards below.  What do you think?

HELP FROM 2 GRANDDAUGHTERS

On one of the last visits, two of our granddaughters love playing with my Yupo Paper and alcohol inks.  I turned them loose and let them do whatever they wanted to do with them.

This is one of the four sheets they did.  I thought the colors were so pretty together.  It is always interesting to see what they bring me after they finish playing.  I told them I'd turn all of the sheets into cards.  This is one of two cards I made from this 5" x 7" sheet.

Thank you for stopping by today.  Be sure to come back because tomorrow I'll be showing two more cards that I made from another one of their creations.

BABIES ARE ANGELS...

Recently some friends became first-time grandparents and I thought it would be fun to surprise them with a card. I stamped the little angel twice and colored with Copic markers.   I have a "grandparent" sentiment which I used inside. It doesn't show but I added glitter to the wings and used a gold glitter pen to go over the "halo".  I love the sentiment stamped outside which is a retired stamp from Hero Arts.

I don't get a chance to make very many baby cards so this was fun!  Thank you for coming by today!

BLACK AND TURQUOISE Color Swap

In August our Yahoo group had a "Black and Any Shade of Blue" card swap.  Thiss is the card I made for my partner.  I used strips of Washi Tape and then added stamped and punched flowers form the Stampin' Up! Flower Shop set.

Thanks for coming by today!

MEMORY BOX - Tulisa #3

The Tulisa die cut doesn't have to be horizontal or vertical.  I decided cut it at an angle for this card and added two Memory Box Chloe Stem pieces on the top.

I have some more ideas for using this die and I'm sure they will show up here eventually.

Thanks for coming by today!

MEMORY BOX - Tulisa #2

For this card I centered the Tulisa die cut and then added a Penny Black "gentle whisper II" floral design over the top.

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MEMORY BOX - Tulisa #1

A few weeks ago when I went to the Scrapmania store to purchase some supplies to make a University of Iowa card for our granddaughter, I saw the Tulisa die on a card sample.  And yes, I had to have it.  It had to be ordered but I received it a few days later.  It is such a great design to be used with other die cuts.  

For this card I cut the Tulisa design off to the side so that another die cut could be "wrapped" along the side.  The flower on this one is a Penny Black die "gaiety".  Tomorrow and Thursday I will be showing two more cards that I made at the same time.

Thank you for coming by today!

WE WILL REMEMBER

CORNER FOLD CARD

Earlier I posted the picture of one of these corner fold cards with a Penny Black sticker.  This is actually the very first card I made using that fold.  I really like it.  The card on YouTube actually used the same card stock and stamp other than the little butterfly.  That is from a set of 3 Inkadinkado butterflies that are always within reach on my table.

I did have a little trouble getting the fold so that it was at the right angle, but I did find a way to make it much easier.  I know this is a fold I will do again because it does make a more interesting card.

Thank you for stopping by today!

TUTTI - Scroll Bird Tree die

There are so many great dies out there to choose from that it is hard not to just want almost all of them!   (My husband may believe that I actually do have all of them.)  The Tutti designs are a completely different style.  I thought this was a pretty one although once I cut it out I wasn't really sure where to go with it.  

I decided to use my Copic markers and colored the birds with a  light blue.  Once I had colored the flowers pink, I decided that maybe I should have colored them with a different color so that it didn't look like a baby card.  

I have learned to love the spray adhesive that almost got given away and that is how I attached the design to the Swiss Dot embossed mat.

Thank you for coming by today!

LAST 3 PROMISE OF SPRING STICKERS

  The Penny Black stickers are so pretty and make quick and easy cards. Thank you for coming by today!

3 PROMISE OF SPRING Stickers

Card #1

This sticker was actually rectangular but I decided to cut it down to a square so I could add it to one of the corner fold cards that I had fun learning how to do.  The light blue card stock really picks up the color that is in the sticker.

Card #2

I have had this flourish die for a very long time and I'm not sure I ever used it.  I thought it would be a great design to place beside one of the stickers.

Card #3

I double matted this sticker (same as on #2)  and added it to a card base which had been embossed with a Dotted Swiss folder.  I added the die cut butterfly and that's all it took.

 Thank you for coming by today!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY HOLIDAY!

I'll be back tomorrow.....hope you will be too.  

3 MORE Promise of Spring Stickers

Card #1

We chose this sticker to make our second card.  Because of the size of it, I wasn't sure what to do with it but this is the card I made.  I wanted to include the butterfly that was on the sheet but also wanted to emboss the card front.  The embossing would have caused the butterfly wing to be bumpy so I only embossed part of the front.  It might have been better not to do any embossing at all since it hardly shows.    

Card #2

This is the design that my friends did with their sticker and I think there decision was better.  I especially like their layout and die cut butterfly with the sticker allowing more of the design to show through.  

Card #3

There was one more butterfly to use, so I just stuck it onto a piece of white card stock and matted it with black.  I embossed a piece of Stampin' Up! Marina Mist card stock with a butterfly folder and then added everything to the white card base.

It's hard to believe that today is September 1st already!  This weekend many will be celebrating Labor Day Weekend.  Hope if you are traveling that you stay safe but have a great time! 

Next Monday I'll have the final cards made with these stickers.  Thank you for coming by today!

PENNY BLACK Promise of Spring Sticker

When I started making cards for a nursing home and independent living center I did a couple of holidays by myself.  Then another friend started helping and now a second friend is helping.  We haven't done any holiday cards since Easter, but we decided that we have so much fun when we get together that we would just do some fun things with cards. It has been a real gift to me to have two friends who come and enjoy the same craft as me.

One of the friends has just started making cards herself and is a natural!  Her excitement has been contagious for the other two of us.  Last week I wanted to show them that some great cards can be made using stickers.  I have a lot of Penny Black stickers and happened to have three sheets with this design on it.  But then it was, "What are we going to do with it?"  Pinterest, here I come.  I found a card very much like this one.  That one had two more elements on it but we simplified ours.  

I already had the Cuttlebug embossing folder, a Penny Black die with the branch of birds (It's a bird's life) and the Memory Box die (Fresh Foliage).  Now three more sheets of stickers have been used and I love this card.  There were additional stickers on the sheet and some of those cards will be showing up soon.

Thank you for coming by!

ANNIVERSARY CARD

I made this card for my friend, Kris and her husband who celebrated their anniversary a couple weeks ago.  This is new Creative Expressions border die - Vela.  I love using glitter paper under these dies. The sentiment is from one of the Papertrey $5.00 sets.  The dragonfly is from the Penny Black "flutters" die set.

Thank you for coming by today!

FRANTIC STAMPER - Ornate Edger Die

Recently I saw this die and I thought it would make a beautiful border - and it certainly does.  I very quickly cut three of them and have started these three cards.  On Card #1 and #2 I will likely add tags with a sentiment on them.  Card #3 may just require a sentiment inside.

#1

#2

#3

Thank you for coming by today!

MOTHER'S 95TH BIRTHDAY

Yesterday we celebrated my mother's 95th birthday.  At her age she wanted a quiet celebration and elected not to include the grandchildren and great grandchildren although they would have loved to have been there.  The picture below shows left to right:  my brother's wife, me, my brother-in-law, my husband, my brother, Mother and my sister.  We don't get together like this very often so it was a special day!

3 CARDS USING Penny Black - Effulgent - Color #3

Card #1

On the first two cards, I used Stampin' Up! Pacific Point and Chocolate Chip.

Card #2

Card #3

Since the colors are lighter on this third stamp-off, I used Close to Cocoa for the card base instead of Chocolate Chip.

2 CARDS USING Penny Black - Effulgent - Color #2

Card #1

The colors I used for the first card are Stampin' Up! Pink Passion and Chocolate Chip.

Card #2

This is the second stamp off without re-inking the design.  (Pink Passion and Close to Cocoa).  I also had some gems that were just the right color.

Thanks for coming by today!

2 CARDS USING Penny Black - Effulgent - Color #1

I colored the image with Stampin' Up! markers, misted with water and stamped.  The card stock is also from Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa.  

The stamp was not inked a second time.  I simply misted the stamp again and stamped it off again.  The colors turn out a little lighter but are just as pretty.  For this card I added some SU Candy Dots.  Some times you can even get a third image without re-inking the stamp.

Thank you for coming by today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMMA

Now that we have grandchildren who are teenagers, it gets a little harder to know what type of a card to make for them.  When it was time to make a card for Emma, I happened to be going through a container of butterfly stamps.  I thought this might make a simple but fun card for her.

After I had given it to her, I was disappointed that I hadn't planned better because this was her 16th birthday last Saturday.  I guess Grandma isn't perfect after all.  :)  She did tell me she liked this card though.  She is a very responsible young lady and has had a school permit to drive to school.  But Saturday she had a pretty special day because she was able to even get her driver's license on her birthday.  We're so proud of her!  She has been accepted into an Internship at a hospital so the first two hours of her school day will be spent doing a new type of learning.   

Thanks for coming by today!

IMPRESSION OBSESSION

On July 11th I posted this card using a die from Obsession Impressions.  Later I saw another way to use the die using just a portion of it and made the card shown below.

I rarely make square cards but liked the one I saw done in black and white so this is the one I made.  I am not exactly fond of the scallop but I didn't have a die with a more delicate scallop.

Thank you for stopping by today!

50TH ANNIVERSARY

The card is a tri-fold.  I embossed the middle section first with the Swiss Dots folder and added a piece vellum behind the window and taped it down.  The next step was to stamp the 50th Anniversary sentiment with Encore Gold Metallic ink Recently I made a quick stop at Michael's and saw Recollection packages of these dimensional flowers.  They simply said "wedding" or "anniversary" to me so I had to buy them. 

The card was sent to a couple who celebrated their 50th last weekend.  Thanks for coming by today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALLISSA!

Our oldest granddaughter is having a very special birthday today!  On her 19th birthday, she is moving into her dorm at the University of Iowa.  I thought it would be fun to make a card fitting the occasion.  I found only one store that had "Iowa" items other than fabrics.  They even had a couple of stamps.  As you can see I stamped "Herky" on the envelope and on the flap of the envelope I stamped "Proud to be a Hawkeye".  I rarely remember to line the envelope but I did  for her with the dotted paper.

Attending college at a large campus is going to be quite a change for her and we are wishing her every success as she pursues her goals.

Thank you for coming by today!

BIRTHDAY CARD

Our oldest granddaughter, Allissa, will celebrate her 19th birthday tomorrow.  My mother likes to send birthday cards to her great grandchildren so this is the card I made for her using another fun Penny Black stamp.  I love the little critters on the PB stamps!

Thank you for coming by today!

2 PENNY BLACK - Cling Stamp "Dreamy"

I love this stamp and how it looks like it is blowing in a gentle breeze.  The first thing I did was to cut the white card stock pieces to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  Then I cut a circle out of the area where I wanted the stamped image to show through.

The white layer was placed on top of the card base and I stamped the border design over the entire piece.  Then the white layer was trimmed down to 3 3/4" x 5".  

The stem of the flower is a lot longer so I had to mask of a portion of the card base so that the black stem would show out from under the white layer. (Clear as mud?)

I felt the pink card was pretty plain, so I added the strip of striped black ribbon around the white layer on this one.  

Thank you for coming by today!

STAMPIN' UP! - Lovely as a Tree

When my husband worked for our town, he became friends with the guys who did the same work in the neighboring towns.  The mother of one of those friends passed away recently and this is the card I made for the family.  

I can't take credit for the layout or design - I saw one on Pinterest very similar.  Since it was going to be given to a "guy", I didn't want to have it flowery and thought this was very appropriate for someone who works outside.

Thank you for coming by today!  Hope you had a great weekend!