Love Bird

I can see a lot of ways to use these chipboard bird shapes fron StampinUp.   I made a little Valentine's Day one, but I can see they'd make great Christmas ornaments, too.

One thing I'm not so impressed with is the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint (Clear Rock Candy).  I've used it here and I just don't see that it leaves a very big impression.  Not the first time I've tried it and been less than impressed with it.

Make A Moo -- Sewing

I couldn't resist the "sewing" theme this week at Make A Moo or Two as I have this great vintage sewing machine stamp from StampinUp.

This & That Part 2

Fabulous ATC's from the Year of ATC's swap I am in.

More swapped ATC's from Cynthia in Germany. The very first one is actually an ATC envelope which is very, very cool.

Is this not the cooooolest thing? My favorite SU demonstrator, Barb, made this for me. It's a journal to keep track of all my stamping supplies. I never remember which color paper I like or which punches I have -- this keeps it all in one handy place for me!

Note cards

I got this new set of Vintage Puns from Stampin Up. They seemed perfect to create sets of note cards to give as gifts. Here is one of four sets I made up.

Altered Picture Frame & Card

Don't remember where I found this picture frame (Probably Big Lots), but it was in desperate need of alteration. So I altered it as a graduation gift for my neighbor's girl who is graduating grammar school. The papers and letters are from K&Co. Chipboard flowers from Heidi Swapp.

I used the same colors to make a matching graduation card. All stamps are from StampinUp.

Graduation Card

Here's a graduation card I made for a great nephew. All stamps are by StampinUp except the hat and diploma which an old $1 stamp from Michaels.

The topper card was pre-made from the Paper Cut.

Background Stamps

I'm liking this Tres Chic background stamp by StampinUp more and more. I saw Allison's blog calling for background stamps and thought I'd play around with this one a little bit more.

This time I white embossed it and am pretty happy with the results. I stamped it on River Rock paper from StampinUp. The accent paper is Purely Pomegranate.

The image is from American Art Stamp. I stamped that in Versafine Black Onyx and then colored it in with gel pens.

Mother's Day

I just realized yesterday how quickly Mother's Day is approaching, so I made a few cards to send to some special mothers I know.

The background text on this card is from StampinUp. I stamped that in purple Brilliance ink and then applied some purple chalk over the text to make it really stand out. With a purple dye ink I stamped my flower from Paper Inspirations over the text. The image is from Crafty Individuals. I also added a flower rhinestone and monogram sticker to each card.

Just found out what I'll be doing this summer. My soon-to-be-college-graduate son

e-mailed me this week with the following: "Mom, I've got about 600 pictures from the last four years. Do you think you could make me a scrapbook like you did for high school?"
Scratch the "this summer" part. Edit that to read "the next year."

Swiss Dots

I finally got the Swiss Dots embossing folder for my Cuttlebug I had wanted for a while. I embossed my magenta cardstock and vellum for this card. I used the Tres Chic text background stamp from StampinUp with Colorbox white pigment ink. The flower stamp is "repurposed" which simply means I had stamped it previously for something else and decided to use it on this card instead. I don't know who makes this stamp. I do know I colored it with watercolor crayons and blending pen.
Although you can't see it in this picture, my friend Sarah recently sent me a clear Spica pen which I used over the light purple petals in the flower. It really does give them a nice glimmer.

Gift Card Package

My friend Barb recently showed me how to make the coolest holder for a candy bar. I altered her template somewhat to make it large enough to hold a gift card. I wanted to give my brother and his wife a set of gift cards for an evening out -- one for a restaurant (Red Lobster), one for dessert (ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery), one for coffee at Starbuck's, and then one for entertainment (a Blockbuster gift card) so they could rent a movie or two.


Once I created the foldover holder I simply punched the half circle at top. I stamped the front of each one of them with the Baroque background stamp by Stampin Up. I used my scallop punch and then added the little circle greeting from Stampin Up inside that. On each one I hand wrote on a little banner whether it was for dinner, dessert, coffee or entertainment.

Here are the four of them I created in matching colors of brown, light and navy blue.

I then created a little holder for them by scrounging around in my kitchen cabinets and finding an almost empty Splenda box which I cut down a bit and wrapped in this blue and red flowered paper from Making Memories. I added the red scalloped border from cardstock and then also created an oval frame (Hero Arts) to hold the sentiment "For You." I placed the whole package in a cellophane bag and added a ribbon to tie it. All in all, it was a nice way to give a bunch of gift cards.

Cards for Heroes

Although I've just recently sent my first bunch of cards off to Cards for Heroes, I'd been keeping up with their efforts for a while. Now I see that there is a call for Mother's Day and Father's Day cards to send to our troops overseas. The servicemen can then use these cards to send to their parents back home. Just hit me that just because both my parents are now gone does not mean my Happy Mother's Day and Happy Father's Day stamps have to sit idle. This weekend I am planning on having some friends over and we are going to make up a batch of Mother's Day cards and Father's Day cards to send to Cards for Heroes.
This card is one sketch I was fiddling around with tonight. I'm going minimalist in terms of layers of paper and embellishments so as not to affect postage. That's a challenge in itself. Also want a design that my noncardmaking friends can easily recreate quickly.

The bear is from StampinUp and the trees and ground are from Art Impressions. Sentiment is Hero Arts.

Wednesday Stamper

The theme this week at Wednesday Stamper is "keys." Great opportunity to pull out this little used stamp set from StampinUp with keys, locks, quotes, etc.

I stamped my background paper with the different keys and lock from the set. I stamped the heart lock twice and cut that out to use against my love collage from Paper Inspirations.

A Couple More Winter Cards

This card didn't photograph real well (maybe because of the sparkle in the paper), but I really like this stamp from StampinUp. The snowflake border is from Hero Arts. Again, you can't tell from the picture but I stamped the border with Brilliance inks and it adds nicely to the sparkle in the card.

I wanted to use this snowman at least once this winter -- he's from Art Impressions. He's my second favorite snowman stamp. Used to be first, but he recently got replaced by this guy. Also used my paper lace from Mary.

I made this card just to prove I can make a winter card that is not blue and white! I silver embossed the background with a snowflake stamp from Stampington. The image is from Crafty Secrets. I applied the snowflake rub-on to a metal tag. The sentiment at the bottom is a PSX stamp which I like -- actually think I can use it for any season.

More Holy Triptych

My friend Dawn suggested I try alcohol inks as a background for this Holy Triptych set that has frustrated me so. Good idea, Dawn! I created a background with the Lettuce and Gold Adirondack alcohol inks to stamp on. I added a little more color to my image with some glitter gel pens. I also had this rich, brown flocked paper from Paper Bouquet which I thought made a great frame for it.

Although I don't like this one quite as much I also tried the alcohol inks once again on acetate and then stamped my image with black Staz-On. I added the tag which came with the set and gold embossed that.

Wednesday Stamper

I have one and only one chair stamp, so when I saw the theme at Wednesday Stamper, I knew this old SU stamp was going to get used.

For this card I created the background with my chair stamp. The image is a stamp from Paper Artsy. The tag includes a collection of stamps from Technique Tuesday and Stampington.

I started fooling around with this stamp and ended up creating this faux postage ATC.

The background stamps are from SeeD's.

Rejoicing!!!

That's what I'm doing since I finally completed a card with the Holy Triptych set from StampinUp that I am pleased with and is going in the send pile. My saga on my blog this week has been my frustration with this set. There's three parts to this set, so I have some more experimenting to do with the other stamps, but at least I have created one with the angel that works for me.

The embossed background is made from a script stamp by Art Impressions. It's a lot of embossing on this card so I wouldn't want to make 50 of them. Since I make a lot of variety in my cards, I should be okay.

Triptych Revisited

I am so glad I posted the other day about my frustration with this stamp set from StampinUp. I got some inspiration from some friends and decided to continue in my pursuit of a card I'm happy with. I'm getting closer.

These cards are simple but that is what I really wanted from this stamp set. For the first one I embossed the background with my Cuttlebug and then swiped white Memories Ink over the embossing. I gold embossed both the tag and the image, but used pop dots to pop out the tag. It's a small thing that I think makes a big difference. My sister used to call me the "Pop Dot Queen, " but I've kind of forgotten about them lately. I'll have to start making more use of them. The second one is the same general idea only using the angel that comes in this set.

This card has a different color scheme for Christmas, but I rather like it.
The thing that really makes this one pop is the glittler I've placed around the halos and stars. Because not a lot of the image is colored in, the glitter really stands out when you see the real card.

My next goal is to work on using these sketches but adding sentiments to them. Eventually I will get a card I am perfectly pleased with.

In the meantime these "prototypes" I've made will go to the nursing home in our village.

Card Candy

My friend Barb gave me some yummy card candy recently (decorative corners and punched flowers). That along with her fabulous color scheme inspired these note cards.

The sentiment on the first card is from PSX, flourish by SeeD's. All paper from StampinUp.

Christmas Nativity

I've been starting to experiment with some Christmas stamps and create a few designs for this year's cards. I don't like to make too many of the same card, so I have to have several designs. Here is one I came up with yesterday.

Nativity image and flourish tag is by StampinUp. Background script is by Art Impression. Corner flourish is by Stampington.

Inspired by......

.....this advertisement in my Better Homes and Gardens -- this color combination caught my eye!

I made both of these cards using the Oh, So Lovely set from StampinUp (Hostess set). I stamped the background panel with Mustard Seed distress ink and then stamped my flowers over with black StazOn. Colored in the flowers with a little more of the Mustard Seed and my blender pen. For the first one I used the Stampin Up ticket corner punch, and then the spiral punch for my turquoise strip, and finally the window punch to place my sentiment on.

I created this second one by cutting a strip of brown cardstock and trimming the edges with my scalloped scissors. I then punched a whole in each scallop and outlined it with an Opaque Stix from Marvy. I added a turquoise panel on which I stamped my harlequin border (Technique Tuesday Olde World Squares). I added my flower panel on top of that.

I also stamped my harlequin background onto a brown panel to create a tag. I added the happy birthday sentiment to that and attached it to my ribbon with a jump ring.