MCV 102 With Snippets

Good Morning!

I made this card a few days ago and just was able to get a decent enough picture to enter the Muse: ChristmasVisions 102 challenge. I loved the shadow buildings, moon and Santa that Cornelia showed, and knew that I had never used my new-to-me Santa and all the eight reindeer stamp. I bought it at a garage sale recently. It is from Stampin' Up! 1997 as part of a hostess set called Four Seasons Borders. I only found this one stamp, not the others. It is truly one of my oldest SU stamps and as you know, I still love and use my wooden stamps.

My card making preference is leaning to making CAS cards and this one fits that bill. I think the most difficult part on this one was figuring where to place the moon! The moon was cut with snippets of white cardstock with an EK Success 1-3/4 circle punch. My houses and apartment buildings die is the other snippet, so am also entering in the Di's Pixie's Crafty Workshop fun. I accidentally lobbed off one of the houses from this Taylored Expressions die called Neighborhood Border. I did use it inside with my Merry Christmas greeting. Hopefully, not having the sentiment on the card front is OK.


So that is it for this post. Short, sweet and simple! I enjoyed thinking of Christmas and cold weather as it has been extremely hot here in Minnesota lately. Actually, I prefer winter weather where I can bundle up to hot weather and air conditioning. Whine, whine. Sorry. 😉

Thanks for stopping by. I love visitors!!

                      

It's Twofer Time!!

Hello!

The month is getting away from me. Sigh. However, during the last few days I've finally set to work to come up with an idea, (not an easy task) make the cards, and take some photos. For Darnell's Twofer Card Challenge #6,  the challenge prompt is trees. Here's what I came up with:

The Christmas card was the easier one to make as I struggled for ages trying to get my tree/star to line up nicely and stay there while I glued them down. Oh well, perfection isn't our goal as crafters. Right? Actually the star is less crocked in real life. ha ha

The tree die is from the Stampin' Up! Perfect Pines Framelits die set and is cut from a snippet of  Cucumber Crush cardstock. The sweater die is from Elizabeth Craft 
Designs, called Winter Sweater.
It is the first time used, but I've had the set for ages. For some texture, I embossed it with a Darice folder called Basketweave. Isn't it wonderful? Next, I stamped in my go-to Versafine black ink, the sentiment, which is a stamp from the SU Holly Berry Happiness set. As I send quite a few cards to friends in other states, this card for my stash will come in handy. The card base is Lipstick Red from Simon Says Stamp. A really nice bright red, I think. 

On to my second card. I die-cut the trees from water color paper for its texture. Am not sure who made it, sorry. The star idea is a CASE from Lady Joyful. She made a card with a Christmas tree star, so to make mine different, I chose to make a congratulations card.  Was thinking of my dear grandson who recently passed his driver's license road test and deserves a card. The card base is in Island Indigo from SU. Two different companies were used to make the words.  Neat & Tangled made the 3 little words "You are a" and found in the Journaling Companions set and the Congrats is from My Favorite Things from the Label Maker Sentiments set. I cannot seem to line up the matching dies to cut out these words, but the Misti helps make it easy to get a good stamped impression with the black ink. Am not sure what I ever did without my Misti!

Below are the two cards individually so you can see them better, I hope. I feel like something was accomplished finishing up the cards before the challenge deadline! 😌

 Have you noticed that I use stamps and dies from many different companies? I haven't a favorite, so I support them all. LOL

Thanks for coming by and visiting my blog.

  

A Puffer Fish

Hello!

Wanting to join the June CAS Mix Up Card Challenge, I started playing with my hoard/stash of embossing powders. I have many brands with two whole drawers of them! I don't know the brands I used here, but I have a whole bunch of colors that came in sets. Initially my thought was to make a Christmas ornament, so I cut out several small ones with a Stampin' Up! punch. Since I was just experimenting, I glued a couple together for strength. Had trouble layering several layers of powder and more layers of VersaMark to make anything decent. So after many attempts, I turned to glue, well actually Ranger Glossy Accents. Yup, added embossing powder in several shades of blue, some copper EP and for fun mixed in some generic iridescent glitter. All was put onto the ornament and covered with the RA. The Copper Dreams embossing powder is from Sprinkle N Sparkle. I then heated it with my heat gun and it all puffed up and spread. No longer looking like an ornament, I saw what looked like a puffer fish! So here he is! Can you see his little eye? A keeper!

The ocean is made on glossy cardstock using the smooched background technique. I used Ranger Distress Inks in Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and a bit of Distress Oxide in Iced Spruce. Three layers of PTI white cardstock were cut with Lil' Inker Designs Stitched Mats: Rectangles and glued together for my frame. The A2 size card base is SU Marina Mist. The simple greeting of Hello is a stamp from Gina K.s Vertical Greetings set. My hope is that my card is CAS enough! What do you think?

 It occurs to me that I blog a lot about the goodies I use when card making. Is that OK? Needed? I personally like it when others tell me the supplies they use, but maybe I over-do it. Would you rather know more about me and/or my life instead?
 
I do like my card. In real life the blue colors are more muted, not so close to turquoise. Here is a close-up so you can see the little guy with all the dimension and sparkle. The background ocean is also somewhat shiny as I set the colors with Micro Distress Glaze as suggested by a Tim Holtz video.

Whew! Done and posted. Thank you for dropping by to visit.

Happy June!

Hello! Happy Almost Summer!

Today I am joining Di's Pixie's Crafty Workshop Challenge #237 with a fun card I just made with some new goodies. Snippets were used for the background, the panda bears, the tidbits they're holding and the greeting. I am guessing this will be a birthday card when I finish the inside, but it does not have to be. Sometimes it is just fun to send a card saying hello. 

Isn't this a happy card? Many more colors than I usually use, but I so wanted to use my new frame die and the background. This frame set is going to get a lot of use. It is from Lawn Fawn, called Peekaboo Backdrop. I cut it from an snippet of The Paper Company cardstock labeled Seagrass Metallic. I've had it forever judging from the sticker on the back. The cutie panda bears were an incentive with order during my birthday month of May. Of course I had to get it. :-) Party Panda is the name of the Lawn Cuts dies. All the tiny things the lads are holding came with the set except the flower and bling. The "Hi" die is from Spellbinders Phrase Set One, a very useful set, IMO.

Back to the background story. I took a look at Di's latest snippet card and loved her pink and white background. I knew that I had a piece of Stampin' Up! Specialty Yours DSP left over. Yay! I sponged Distress Oxide  Picked Raspberry onto the paper. Right afterwards, I went over it with a soft cloth and the flowers magically just appeared. This paper comes with the flowers already there, of course. Great fun to play with. The paper was a Sale-a-Bration gift with purchase, so is probably not available unless maybe in the new catalogue. I haven't read that yet!

A busy week coming up for me, so I may not get any crafting done. Will you? I hope you have a wonderful week!

Thanks for stopping by to visit.

May CCC and More

Hello and Happy Memorial Day!

Tonight I am posting the card I made for the May Card Chain Challenge. For those who don't know, this challenge promotes good will by its members sending cards all around the world. It is so fun getting a card from over seas and across America. There are so many talented people and everyone is so friendly. I chose the flower option this month. My card has already been received by Linda, by my recipient who lives in Michigan.

The Spring lilacs here in Minnesota were so lovely this year, but alas, are gone now. We've had a heat wave lately and storms, so those that were left were blown away. The Lilac stamp set I used is by Flourish, a company that I believe is out of business now. The biggest bloom stamp was heat embossed in white then Pale Plum and Wisteria Wonder were sponged on. The lilac word stamp is also in WW. I tweaked the individual tiny flowers using matching markers. The leaves are in Cucumber Crush, a bright spring-like green. I fussy cut out the lilac sprig and popped it up on dimensionals. I do love all shades, hues & colors of purple, so chose Blackberry Bliss for the card base. All the inks and cardstock are from Stampin' Up!  Why don't you contact the challenge and join us?



Next up is another card made for a friend who loves books as much as I do.

This wonderful whole card front stamp is by Hero Arts, called Bookcase. As soon as I saw it, I had to have it!! LOL The card base is PTI basic white and I was lucky to be able to stamp right onto it with no problem using Versafine Onx Black ink. Look, Ma, no layers! Unusual for me. Too many markers to mention were used for the coloring, mostly SU. A slow, but fun process. Can you see the rainbow order? I am quite pleased with this card and I hope Beth, my BFF in San Diego likes it.

That is all for this time. I hope you had a pleasant holiday weekend and those in the path of storms will be safe. 

Bye for now. I appreciate you visiting.

My May Twofer

Hi Again!

Finally finished my two cards for Darnell's Twofer Card Challenge #5. It closes so soon! Whew, I made it. The challenge this time was to use butterflies. I have so many butterfly stamps and dies that it was really hard to choose, but ultimately chose to use my trusty old Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

Once I decided what to do, the cards where quite easy to make...at least the blue one was. Bashful Blue (my favorite, but retired) is from Stampin' Up! for my A2 top folding card base. Regular, not Thick Whisper White was used for the clouds and butterflies. My punch doesn't like to work on heavy cardstock,  as I found out the hard way. The sentiment stamp is from the Simon Says Stamp Safe Travels set. I do wish all butterflies to have safe journeys on their way north each Spring. Safe travel wishes for my friends too! The wings are not attached so I could pull them up a bit to show movement. The clouds are a retired die by MFT Die-Namics called Cloud Trio.

I did not want just a get well card, so the second butterfly card is for encouragement. Yellow is such a happy color. The three butterflies are die cut from SU Daffodil Delight. I typed the sentiment in MS Word and printed it directly on HP photo paper as my printer would not accept regular cardstock. What took ages to figure out was where to put that sentiment so it would appear correctly below the fold. Spatial relationships are not my forte. LOL! Just for fun and to brighten up the card more, I placed some pretty purple Hero Arts bling on the butterfly bodies. Below are the cards individually. Hope you like; I am quite pleased with them - CAS cards, I think.

        

More Cards and Challenges Too

Hello!

As promised here are some more card recently made and photographed. I find that if I want to update my blog, it helps me get busy and make a card. Some days it is too easy to just sit and read other people's blogs. Right?

Greta posted many thanks cards just as I was finishing up this card. So here's mine. Good minds think alike. Right? LOL I am sending mine to Pixie's Snippets Playground #326.  

The die I used three times is from Spellbinders Shapeabilities Phrase Set One from 2015. The lovely bright pink is Stampin' Up! Melon Mambo and the yellow is Bazzill textured, both from my snippets hoard stash. I used it for the A2 top folding base and matting too. The turquoise thanks and flower are snippets from when I was playing with brushing Tinkling H2O's Mediterranean onto glossy paper. First time using H2O and I really like it. I have several more colors  in my ink drawer. I believe I got them at a garage sale several years ago. The little flower I felt finished up the card and it is also Spellbinders, from the Wreath set.

Next up is a Christmas card made for Muse: ChristmasVisions 100 where they are celebrating their 100th Challenge! Congratulations! Quite an accomplishment for the team. 

I am really behind in making holiday cards, so entering this challenge helps me a lot! As I really like red, black and white together, I focused on the poinsettia in the inspiration photo by designer Chriss at her Botanical Cafe blog. I stamped mine* in Encore Gold. The red paper is Simon Says Stamp Lipstick Red. The mat is embossed with a retired SU folder called Snow Burst on SU Basic Black for some texture. Three tiny black bling accent the center of the flower just for fun. As we all know, it is notoriously difficult to photograph shine, so please pardon these less than stellar pictures of my card. The sentiment is from Savvy Stamps Winter Set, also done in the gold ink. A SU punch called Wasbi Label finished up the card. A close-up photo show it better. Whew, another one done. Yay!

So that is all for this posting. I cannot believe how quickly this year is flowing by...it is almost June. The weather here in MN has been lovely lately. Take care and I hope you are enjoying your Spring. Now I am off to watch my grandson's first soccer game of the season.

Thank you for coming to visit!

* Altenew Poinsettia & Pine

 

I Made Some Cards Lately...

Hello!  Happy May! Really, I have been making quite a few cards of late, just taking pictures, but not getting them ready to post. Oops! So here are a few of the ones finished during the last couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy!

First up is my latest entry to Pixie's Crafty Playground Challenge #325. Snippets were used for the background paper, the birthday die cuts and the solid circle too.


This great plaid paper is from a 12 x 12 sheet of Lawn Fawn Item #LF111. I've used it several times before and this is almost the last of it. To cut it, I used my NBUS scalloped rectangle die from SugarPea Designs called Card Front Element Builder. I love the pink, white and deep aqua together. My card is a CASE of a card by Marcia Hill at Marcia's Stampin' Pad since I realized that I had the birthday die set. This set is by Simon Says Stamp! called Birthday Circle. Instead of using a die to cut a circle right out of the plaid, I took the easy way out and used a 2-1/2"  e/k circle punch. Stampin' Up!'s Bermuda Bay is a pretty good match to the plaid. The  wonderful happy birthday greeting circle and cupcake die and frosting are snippets from my stash of white and Pretty in Pink cardstock. I am happy with this card and think it is cheerful! Adding it to my stash.

Next is the card I made for my Great Niece Giana who recently turned five. She's a girly-girl, but also loves sports and going to hockey games with her mom and my nephew. The polka dotted vellum partly shields the princess image so am showing the inside too. The top folded card base is Bazzill pink and I used my good old Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on the vellum. A heart bling finishes it. The Birthday Princess stamp is an old one from Hampton Art that I colored with SU markers and a Signo Uni Ball pen in white. I haven't heard yet if Giana likes her card, but I do. 😀

Finally, here is a fun card that I made using a technique that is new to me. The focal point image is part of a napkin! I recently saw a video (sorry, I do not remember who made it, so if you do, please let me know) that gave good directions. A pretty CAS like simple card using a napkin that I had absconded with from a birthday party I went to recently. So it's a birthday card with the sentiment inside. Don't you wish you were in Paris drinking some of this wine? LOL I used Very Vanilla Thick cardstock from SU for a top folding A2 card. The napkin was sent through my Minc machine following the directions from the video. As the napkin part started to unravel, I had to cut it down quite a bit before gluing the piece onto a snippet of SU's Daffodil Delight. The narrow border is Basic Black and I placed some dark gray dots on the butterfly just for some dimension.

So there you go. See, I have been busy and I have several more waiting to get written up and posted. Thank you so much for visiting.❤

Edited: The video I watched is by Karen Hasheck at Karen's Kreative Kards. 

It's a TwoFer Again

Hello!  I finally came up with a couple ideas for Darnell's 4th monthly TwoFer card challenge. As you may know, I volunteer with a dog rescue organization and foster Shih Tzu's until finding them a forever home. While I am really a dog person, I do like cats and have had this kitty stamp for ages, so here are my cards! Hope you like!

 

The kitty wooden stamp is from Inkadinkado and is quite old, although I saw it at Michael's not that long ago.

I love that she looks so furry and sweet. On the first card she is stamped in Memento London Fog onto a snippet piece of light gray heathered cardstock from my stash. I made a really simple card just cutting out the frame with MFT's Die-Namics Peek-a-Boo Window die. I just love this die; so versatile. My go-to base cardstock these days is PaperTrey Ink Basic white. I like the thickness and it is very white. My sentiment, "Adopt Me" of course, reminds me of my volunteer work and a cause I fully support - adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue group not from a pet store. The die cut letters in Stampin' Up! Basic Black are also from PTI, their Upper and Lower Block alphabet collection. I used my T-ruler to try to glue them straight.

My twofer has a bit more color! Again using white cardstock, I embossed the card front with Sizzix/Tim Holtz embossing folder called Birch Trees for a little texture. The kitty was stamped in SU Baked Brown Sugar which I think was an In-Color a while back. I colored her fur with a Marvy La Plume marker in Rosewood which made her look like an orange Tabby cat. To enhance the fur and stripes, I lightly drew on each line with the marker and a brown Crayola colored pencil. The kitty was lastly fussy cut out. I had to really think what sentiment to use, so I am saying this kitty was adopted and so she says thank you! The die cut out in SU Island Indigo blue paper is from Impression Obsession, called Greetings Top Edgers. 

So that's my story and I am sticking to it. 'Cuz I used so many snippets of paper, I am entering this card into Pixies's Snippets Workshop Challenge # 324.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I will come visit you too!

             

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge

Hello!

Since I love puppies and particularly Shih Tzu's, I have many dog stamps. So I made a card with one of my favorite stamps in order to enter the Merry Monday Christmas Challenge #283.  Here she is, all prettied up for Christmas.

Once I decided what color the pup and the background should be, the card came together pretty quickly. The Shih Tzu stamp is from Dog Stamps Plus. I inked up the stamp with Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake onto a snippet of Whisper White c.s. Taking the same color marker, I highlighted the lines of the fur to make it stand out more. I popped her up with dimensionals on a background made from the SU Brick Wall embossing folder done on Very Vanilla card stock. I drew a bow near where the top knot would be on an adult with an In-Color Emerald Envy marker. Added some Wink of Stella for sparkle. The sentiment is a clear stamp from Poppy Stamps, Inc. called Christmas Greetings inked in Real Red. Using my MISTI, I curved it to fit a banner die from Hero Arts, Stamp & Cuts. I like that the stamps come with matching dies. The card base is SU Real Red along with a narrow frame in Emerald Envy completed my card.

 One more card for my Christmas stash! YAY! Thank you for stopping by. 💚

I Love Blossoms

Hello!   I am so ready for Spring! How about you? Here in Minnesota the snow is melting, some green grass is peeking out, but it will a while before the trees bud and the blossoms come out. That is OK. I can do Spring colors on my cards. Here are my two for Darnell's March Twofer Card Challenge!

As the call was for blossoms, showing different uses of the same image, I chose a floral die that is one of my favorites. Have a look-see!

My salute to Spring is the birthday card. Snippets of card stock from many companies were die cut in pale blue, lilac, pink, pale yellow and bright yellow for the blossoms. The leaves are done in Stampin' Up! Cucumber Crush. Boy, did my Big Shot get a workout. Lots of snippets here, so am also linking up this card to Di's Pixie's Crafty Workshop #322. I ran out of sticky back paper to use when die cutting, so all these cuts are glued on. My question is: Why, oh why does liquid glue always get stuck coming out even with special tops on the bottles? I was smiling as I finished, though, as the colors make me happy. The card is completely flat, so good for mailing. I have several Spring birthdays in the family coming up.

 
I have been experimenting again with Ranger Alcohol Inks. For my second card I used a piece of  thick vellum and played away. Some of the alcohol inks are just called Ranger, and some are older ones called Adirondack. The colors used are Wild Plum, Cool Pari, with small touches of Stonewashed blue. In real life, the inks are much more blue violet, not the wine color the camera picked up. All the colors were blended together in several layers with the blending solution and tool helping out. I framed the part that I liked best in black with part of the Impression Obsession's Rectangle 6-in-1 Frames cover plate. The other ones that cut out at the same time will come in handy later. My blossom is called Coy, by Penny Black. As it is always good to have a sympathy card on hand, I finished with a sentiment from the My Favorite Things set called Grand Peaceful Wild flower. As usual, I used VersaFine Onyx Black ink. My favorite. I like the peacefulness (is that a word?) and simplicity of this card,

I hope you will be getting some Spring weather soon! Thank you for visiting. Take care and come visit again soon. 💙

A Funny Bunny

Hello!   Today I completed an Easter card for my grand daughter Maddie, and realized that I had used many snippets to make it. So am entering it in the Pixie's Crafty Workshop Challenge #321.

This card was fun to make even though it took quite a bit of fussy cutting. The bunny makes me smile. How about you? He is from a die by Cheery Lynn Designs called Funny Bunny. The die cuts only the outline and details, so I traced the outside edges onto black card stock, fussy cut it out, and glued it behind my white die-out. He is sitting in the grass made with a Taylored Expressions die called Grass Border from a snippet of green card stock. The pretty eggs I found in my "to be used" (TBU) box in black and white. I colored them with colored pencils and cut them out. Only 3 of the five eggs would fit my design. I've no idea where I got the tidbit of paper, nor do I have the stamp. The background is really a snippet of lilac colored Bazzill textured paper, although it looks gray in this picture. Purple is Maddie's favorite color (this month). To finish the card, I cut a mat in black for a thin border and placed it all on a top- folding card base. Lately I've been using more of this type of card base than the traditional A2 folded card.

I stamped Happy Easter inside with a 2003 Stampin' Up! stamp along with a little basket of Easter eggs that I stamped, colored, and cut out  The stamp is also by SU and is dated 1997. It too was just waiting to be used. Just for fun, I put some grass there too! Here is a little look .

Whew, I have finished all three cards for the grand kids early this year. Guess I am longing for spring instead of more snow. We got socked on Sunday with several inches of snow so now I get to move my car so they can plow. Oh well, the snow is really pretty to look at! So sorry our storm is heading east as I know they don't need more snow there.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you will stop by again soon. 💜

A Card For February Card Chain Challenge

Hello!  Am posting today my card that was sent to Jutta in Canada for the February CCC. I really like sending and getting cards from all over the world and making new cyber friends. So I encourage my readers to play along. 

Here  is my latest card. I chose the friendship option as I wanted to use the special die-cut that was sent to me

with my January card from Gail in Norway. The globe was cut from shiny gold paper and I think it is a great representation of the CCC idea. On a top folding A2 card base in PTI basic white card stock, I made the opening using a die from the Elizabeth Craft Designs die set called Beaded Circle Frames that I've used before. I wanted the globe to be the star of the card and to keep the card CAS, my favorite type of card making. The sentiment is stamped in Stampin' Up's Early Espresso ink and is from my NBUS Altenew stamp set called Crafty Friends. Lots of great stamp ideas for and about crafters in this set. I see that it is sold out, but probably worth going on a wait list, IMHO. I just wrote a note on a Post-It instead of writing inside the card in case Jutta wants to pass it on.

That's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by. I sure love that so many friends come to visit and leave comments. I try to do that often too! 💙💚

Here's My Two

Hello!

I found it really difficult to come up with an idea for Darnell's Twofer Card Challenge #2. How about you? But I kept looking at my stamps, dies, and videos that I had saved and came up with these two. In the end, I am quite satisfied. Whew. Done. Smiling.

 The Twofer element requirement this time is hearts, but I am burned out making valentines, so made a friendship card and an Easter card using fancy circle dies on both along with the same heart die.

This multi circle card was done first. It is a CASE from the Elizabeth Craft Designs YouTube video Technique Friday by Els posted in July 2016. My card is white cardstock, not sure why it looks kind of blue in the photos, a 5" square which is an unusual shape for me. This is the first time I have used these Elizabeth Craft Designs dies called Beaded Circle Frames. My Big Shot got a work out as I was trying to decide what colors to use. Chose Midnight Muse, Bashful Blue, and Marina Mist that I believe are all retired from Stampin' Up! The hearts (with a touch of Wink of Stella) and sentiment are done with Pink Pirouette. The hearts are from a die set by Verve called From the Heart. The phrase "I'm So Lucky To Call You My Friend" is from the SU set Sprinkles of Life. Almost all the elements are from snippets of paper, so I am also entering this to Pixies Crafty Workshop Snippets Playground #319.

Personally, I love stripes and found this snippet of an old SU DSP in my stash. It is so pretty. The colors are pink, blue and a touch of green along with white, but I am not quite sure the name of the paper. A heart is covering up a bouquet of flowers that are on the original wooden stamp. It is from a set called Easter Blossoms where the sentiment is from also. Another scrap of blue for the heart almost matches the stripe.  I chose to stamp the little girl with the Easter basket as a silhouette using my go-to ink, VersaFine Onyx Black. The base is SU Basic Black, and is an A2 top-folding card. The dotted circle was done in a scrap of white cardstock.
 
It was truly a labor of love making these cards.  ❤ Thanks for visiting!

                                                           

January CCC

Hello!

My card for the Card Chain Challenge for January did not photograph well, but here it is anyhoo (MN speak, LOL). Really a simple card to make using the suggested colors, purple, green and yellow. All the cardstock is from Stampin' Up!, Blackberry Bliss for the base, and Emerald Envy for the mat. Barely Banana, a long retired ink, was applied with a roller to glossy white paper. Loving flowers, and needing a touch of Spring, I used the ink resist technique to stamp a flower. The old stamp is labeled from Stampa Rosa Inc.,  prorbaly closed, dated 1999.  I cannot find the name. It is a Magnolia flower, I believe. Using VersMark and Wow white embossing powder and heat embossing finished up the card front. By wiping the white with a soft cloth, the image show prettily.  In real life, anyway. Inside I wrote a note about friendship to my recipient, Sara in Missouri.

I really like getting cards from crafters around the US and the world so I encourage my readers to check out the CCC challenge.

Sorry to close on a sad note, but I want to let you know that my rescue dog Digger went across the Rainbow Bridge last week. He was a remarkable dog at 19-1/2 years old. I miss him terribly, but realize he is no longer in pain or discomfort. He came to me about a year ago from Shih Tzu Rescue of Minnesota as a hospice foster dog, and we became good friends. Here is his picture taken just a few weeks ago. Isn't he a cutie? I also encourage rescuing and adopting dogs that need a home.  R.I.P. Digger. 

 

Thanks for stopping by. I really love visitors! 

Bear in the Snow

Hi!

Am trying to beat the deadline for Muse: ChristmasVisions 91. I finished this card while watching the Vikings football game. Sigh. So, here's my little friend sitting in the snow.

This is a Memory Box wood stamp called Fredward Bear. He has a little smile on his face and I think he is cute. To make the snowbank, I used Wendy Vecchi  Embossing Paste. The cloudy sky is just Distress Ink in Broken China swished on with a snippet of white cardstock to help make the clouds. Fredward was stamped in Memento London Fog ink on another snippet and fussy cut. He is mounted on white foam. Fred's scarf is paper pieced with some striped paper from Stampin' Up!. The banner sentiment is from the SUset called White Christmas. It continues inside saying ...And Sending Every Good Wish For the Coming New Year. The whole panel is just placed on a top folding card of SU Basic Black cardstock. A pretty easy card to make except for the fussy cutting! Not my favorite thing to do.

Horray, made my first Christmas card for 2018! Gotta go get the dog out!   

Bye for now. Thanks for visiting.

It's two!

Hello Friends!

I've been trying to get decent photos the last several days before writing this blog. Oh well. Here's what I am submitting to Darnell's new gig called Twofer Card Challenge.  Her first challenge is to use feathers. Here is my entry:

The "twofer" stamp is an Inkadinkado stamp with a feather and an ink well that I have had for years. I cannot find its name, but I do like it. It is a NBUS to me as I don't think I have used it before. I hope you like it too. Below are the details with some close-ups of my two cards. 

I made the sympathy card first using a really pale pink textured cardstock. It looks white in the single photo, but better above. It's probably from Bazzill, but I am not sure as I got it at a craft store that was closing quite a few years ago. A touch of Wink of Stella is in the inkwell center, but it hardly shows. For a bit of bling, I added three enamel dots from my stash to finish the card. It is matted with Stampin' Up! Basic Black and placed on  Basic Gray cardstock.

The feather stamp, (did I tell you it is on wood?) was inked with Versafine Onyx Black and the sentiment is from SU dated 1993, also red rubber and wood. I really like and still use many wooden stamps. The technique is the oldie but goodie, straight ink to paper.

The embossing resist technique was used for my second card. I stamped with VersaMark, dusted with WOW Fine White embossing powder, and heat set it before attacking the background. My goal was to make it look like a night sky. Ranger Distress Inks in Shaded Lilac and Black Soot were blended with touches of Distress Oxide Salty Ocean for my darkish sky. For the first time I tried to do some splatters to look like tiny stars. Not having any white paint, I used Tsukineko All-Purpose Ink in Frost White. Not too bad, but maybe too many. Used a paint brush for the scattering. Shiny silver cardstock from SU is my mat and Basic Black is the card base. This card was number 3 or 4 as the other ones went into the circular file. Finally done, but I could not miss this challenge. I am not sure which takes longer for me, making cards or writing! I am sure you all understand. 😕
Edited to add that the sentiment "This is me missing you" is from Jillibean Soup! Handwritten Sentiments
Thanks for visiting. It makes me smile to get visitors.