VALENTINE CARD #2

Valentine #2 (Version 1)

I'm sorry I don't rmember who makes this die.  I keep most of my dies in their original envellpes and this one is no longer in a package.  It is a die cut that would be hard to add glue to adhere it so I put the card stock on "Stick It" and cut it.  Very easy to attach to the colorful mat.  The solid heart in the middle was cut with a Spellbinders die.

Valentine #2 (Version 2)

The "Stick It" adhesive that I use for this type of die is a little hard to see once it is on white card stock.  I  mistakenly put the die on the adhesive side so the design is reversed on this card.  I made several of this style using up some sheets from various paper pads.

Thank you for coming by today!

VALENTINE #1

I'm still here!  Time since Christmas has been strange.  I've been busy but unfocused and struggling to get motivated.  So I have not been posting anything because I really haven't gotten anything ready until now.

It was time to force myself to get going on Valentine cards for the care center where my mother-in-law resides.  I knew I needed 53 so I chose a very simple design.  Normally I emboss a piece of card stock and then adhere it to the front of the card because I don't really like to have the embossing show inside.  In the interest of saving time, I just embossed the front of the card this time.

All I had to do then was add a punched heart to the center of the embossed heart and stamp a sentiment inside. Punching a heart was much faster than die cutting 53 hearts. Those cards have been delivered and ready for the staff to sign them for all of the residents.

Thank you for coming by today!  I hope to get back to a more normal schedule of posting.

TWO SYMPATHY CARDS

Unfortunately we have needed sympathy cards for several families in the last few days so I have made four using these stamps.

The first step was to punch a large circle with a Spellbinders die and then use the negative circle. I placed it over the white card front and sponged three colors of SU inks.  The sentiment is from a little pack from MSE! (My Sentiments Exactly!) which I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  The beautiful  scene is a stamp from Magenta (Country Landscape).  

I used the same design here with different colors and then matted it with the same Baja Breeze ink that I had used when I sponged the circle.

Thank you for coming by today!

PENNY BLACK - DREAMY

Today's card is another CASE from Pinterest.  My sentiment on the front is different and I mounted it on foam squares.  I clipped the right edge of the sentiment but that doesn't show very well.  Since I was stamping the design with my MISTI, I stamped a couple more in other colors.

Thank you for coming by today.

JUST A NOTE

For our group's Artist's Choice swap this month, I made this card to send to my partner. The dies used are from Stampin' Up! (Swirly Scribbles) and the Memory Box Treble Clef.  I did the notes with a small Spellbinders circle die and cut thin pieces of black to finish the "notes".  

I have a "Just A Note" stamp somewhere, but unfortunately it is nowhere to be found.  

This was a case of a card on Pinterest, but I added the Treble Clef and an extra note to make it my own.

Thank you for coming by today!  (I'm a little late in the day to post.)

BIRTHDAY CARD USING STICKERS #2

Using the same layout as yesterday's card, I used some feather stickers that I had purchased at the same time I bought the cupcakes. The "green" color goes very well with the SU Certain Celery card stock.  The Happy Birthday was stamped with the Certain Celery ink.

What do you think?  Would this be a card I could use for some guys?

BIRTHDAY CARD USING STICKERS #1

One time when I was at Michael's I found this package of cupcake stickers.  By using three at a time with this die cut, there were enough to make six cards.  My mother sends birthday cards to her great-grandchildren and I thought the cupcakes would be a fun choice for some of them.  I'll probably use a couple of them for some of the elderly in a nursing home.  I believe the die that cuts the three squares is from Papertreyink but I'm not sure.  If anyone knows the name of it, please let me know.

Thank you for coming by today!

BIRTHDAY #1

This card was made using another piece of the Yupo paper design that our granddaughter made with alcohol inks.  The die cut is from the Stampin' Up!  Swirly Scribbles Thinlit dies. The mat and ink used were SU Tempting Turquoise.

Thank you for stopping by!

USING GRANDDAUGHTER'S DESIGN

If you visited last Monday, you probably saw this piece that one of my granddaughters decorated with alcohol inks.  

She wasn't real crazy about it and let me keep it.  I told her it would make a great background to put behind a die cut.  I was able to make three cards using it.

This is one of the three that I made.  I emailed a copy of it to her so she could see that it is a really beautiful design to use.

Thank you for stopping by today!

RETIREMENT CARD #3

When my husband was employed by the town where we live, he made friends with some of the men who worked in the neighboring towns.  One of those friends just retired and we wanted to send him a card.

At one time the family living next door to us were far from the ideal neighbors.  We had problems with them over their children and their dogs which resulted in a lot of phone calls to the County Sheriff's office.  They were very patient with us and very helpful!  That sheriff also retired at the end of December and we wanted to send him a card and thank him for his service.

So I made two of this design.  It uses a similar design to the one I posted last Friday but more masculine using the brown along with the blue.

If you have any questions, just let me know.  Thank you for coming by today!

RETIREMENT CARD #2

This year there are four people we wanted to send retirement cards.  You saw the one on Tuesday for my husband's doctor.  Today's card is for a friend of ours who retired from working at a local bank.

I saw a card very much like this in Des Moines a couple years ago using different colors.  These types of scenes take a little more time to create but they are so much fun and I was pleased with the results of this one.  The dies are all from Impression Obsession.

Thank you for coming by today.  Have a great weekend and be sure to stop back next Monday!

BIRTHDAY CARD

A few days ago my friend, Lynette, celebrated her birthday and this is the card I sent to her.  I was looking for ideas on Pinterest as I do so often and found one similar to this.  The card I saw was square and used a pink background.  I decided to make mine into the A2 size.  I had just received the die for the bird on the branch, and I already had the stitched rectangles and the fence.  I'm pretty sure I'll be making more of these.  

Thank you for stopping by today!

COLOR SWAP CARD

In December our Yahoo group's color swap challenge was to make a Christmas card using non-traditional colors.  I chose the lavendar and pink combination.  I cut the ornament with a Memory Box die using Mirror Gold paper. (The leaves on the ornament really are all gold although the picture makes it look like one is green.)  Then I also cut a portion of the ornament two more times using the pink for the berries and lavendar glitter paper for the ornament.  

Thank you for checking in today!  I hope you will come back again soon!

RETIREMENT CARD

My husband's doctor is retiring much to the disappointment of my husband.  He has really liked him and gone to him for a very long time so he asked me if I would make a retirement card for him.  I like to personalize cards for people and Gary said that the doctor does a lot of biking.  The Stampin' Up! "Sheltering Tree" set is the only set I have that has a bike so I put this one together.  

After stamping the images, I sponged a very light blue for the sky down to the grass.  That left a white area at the bottom so I sponged Soft Suede in that area.

As much as I love making Christmas cards (I have so many supplies for them), it really felt good to be making something different.  Thank you for stopping by today!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Last week was a very busy but very fun week!  Christmas Day our family got together and end enjoyed our meal together and exchanged our gifts which included a few gag gifts for our two daughters.  My husband loves to "pick on them" with something funny almost every year.

Our grandchildren, Taryn and Tucker came home with us and stayed for the week.  Their sister Ashlyn also joined for several of the nights.  We had a full house.  When I volunteered to have them all week, I thought I'd be very tired by the end of the week but it was so much fun and I enjoyed every minute of it.  The biggest thing I noticed was so many more dirty dishes with five of us here.  

Taryn and Ashlyn are very interested in art.  Taryn has played with my alcohol inks before and she wanted to show Ashlyn how to do it.  (Younger sister teaching her older sister.)  Here is some of their results.

Taryn #1 - watermelon results

Taryn #2

Taryn #3  (I think this would work great under an open die cut)

Ashlyn #1 - (she left this one for me to use)

Ashlyn #2 - Her interpretation of abstract art

Ashlyn #3 - She made this for her mother

They had so much fun with the alcohol inks that I actually placed an order to get all the tools, Yupo paper, felt and inks for them.  I placed the order one evening and had the items two days later.

One day one of our other granddaughters (Emma) joined Ashlyn here and they made chocolate chip cookies for Grandpa.  All of the grandchildren have made cookies for Grandpa at various times but these two had never gotten to do it together and asked if they could.  The pictures of all of them are on my refrigerator and they wanted a joint picture of the two of them.

Taryn also loves to stamp.  I gave her two sets of my Stampin' Up sets with some cute animals to play with and ended up letting her keep them.  Before it was over they went home with a bag full of stamps, inks,and all of the alcohol ink things.

It sounds like Tucker was ignored while they were here but he just had other things he was doing and not so much into the crafty items.  He had his share of fun too.  He enjoys getting to watch movies on Netflix when he is here and has some different computer games that he gets to use. They also played the board game Sorry and Old Maid.   I pretty much let them do what they want (within reason) while they are here.

I hope all of you enjoyed your holidays as much as we did.  We took in a couple of great movies (Hacksaw Ridge and  The Accountant).before and after the grandchildren were here and had several meals out.  Now the house is quiet again and it is time to get back to "normal".  I'll have a new card for you tomorrow.   Thank you for coming by today!