A Shih Tzu Pup

 Hello!

Tonight I am posting a card to The Paper Players Clean & Simple Challenge PP509.  I have an adult Shih Tzu, Willie, as you may know. But at one time I had a puppy. Hence I have several ST stamps, and this puppy one is a favorite. See, isn't he cute?

I do not usually create cards with a scene, so this really took me out of my comfort zone. I had the pup from Dog Stamps Plus stamped, heat embossed and fussy cut out so just needed to figure out how to make a CAS card with him. He is still available, Shih Tzu-ACF29.

Using white cardstock, I added some green grass with a SU marker in Gumball Green, and looked for a tree for the pup to sit under. Without a stamp the right size, I die cut the tree with my NBUS Taylored Expressions On the Line Cutting Plate. I only used part of the double tree die, cut it out and colored it with Ranger Distress Inks Vintage Photo and Distress Oxide Spiced Marmalade. It is Autumn here after all, you know. The trees outside my window are changing rapidly. 

Anyway, trying for a lot of white space, I only added a few clouds using another NBUS goodie, ARTPlorations by StampPlorations Clouds stencil. Here I sponged the trio of clouds using DI Faded Jeans. For fun (really to cover a boo-boo) I added some hand drawer bird images. 

I am also entering this card to  Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge #387 since the pup and the tree are from snippets of white cardstock. Sharing with NBUS #18 too.

It is really pretty outside these days here in MN with delightfully cool nights and warm days. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Stay safe and well and keep creating, my friends. I am.

Edited to add:   Looking at my card more, it seemed dull with the plain paper. Luckily I could slowly take off the tree and puppy. I then ran the card through my Big Shot with the Stampin' Up! Subtle 3D embossing folder and re-attached my focal points. Looks much better. 

         

 

A Tree at Christmas

 Hello!

Here is my card, that I finally finished and photographed, for the CAS Christmas Card Challenge September 2020. I really struggled coming up with a design, so went looking on-line and found one from 2013 from Sheryl's Crafting Corner using the tree stamp I chose to use. I CASED her card with different colors, decorations, die, and sentiment. 

Here is my card. You can see the inside below. 

I first stamped the tree from Stampin' Up! retired Christmas Lodge wood stamp set onto a Papertrey Ink Linen cardstock piece using the direct-to-stamp technique. All are SU colors, Lemon Lime twist, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green, and Cucumber Crush. The spritz of water helped mix and mute the colors. 

To make the snow, I drew and dabbed with Hero Arts Lacquer and Puffing Powder before heat setting. Kind of lumpy, that's for sure. LOL 

The card base is retired Cucumber Crush. It was tricky doing the die cut opening! Some c.s. was put in the circular file, I admit. It is the largest die from an oldie but hardly used S.U. set  called Framelits - Labels Collection.

Finally, I heat embossed with white WOW embossing powder the sentiment from Poppy Stamps Clear set called Christmas Greetings circa 2016. To make the whole opening more stable, I cut a piece of black c.s. and glued it behind the front. You can see it on the inside photo. Another card for my stash. Yay!

So that is all from me today. Take good care of you and yours. Hugs from me on a nice autumn day in Minnesota.

A Shaped Card

 Greetings!

Today I made my September 2020 CCC card that is off to Michigan. Linda, don't read this post!! I also am submitting it to Pixie's Crafty Workshop: Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #386 that is ending soon. The Card Change Challenge this month had for a theme option, friendship, and a technique option, a shaped card. My card fits both!

So here is my small shaped card and also the inside. It is 4 x 3-3/4 inches!

There is a reason why it is so small...I (for some odd reason) wanted to use an oldie but goodie stamp that had never gotten any love.  This wooden stamp of a watering can is by Stampin' Up!  Circa 1997, is part of a set called Definitely Decorative Wild Flowers. No matching die, of course. To make the card, I first folded a piece of Basic Gray cardstock, then stamped the can near the fold with VersaMark. Next, I heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder for some shine and texture. I then fussy cut the watering can out and began to decorate it. The leafy border, leaf stem and flowers are all from SU's retired Everything is Rosy Thinlits Dies set. I used snippets of Melon Mambo and Lemon Lime Twist c.s. to make the front and back festive.  MM is still around, but LLT is not. To finish, I fussy cut a snippet of white to fit inside for the sentiment. 

The sentiment, which I love, is from another retired SU set called Incredible Like You. I just found it on eBay after looking for it for ages. 

I don't think I have ever made a shaped card before. This was fun. Creating should be fun, don't you think? 

Be well and I hope you come visit again soon. Hugs from Minnesota.

First Festive Friday Fun

Hello Friends!

I found a new to me challenge and just had to use some of my new goodies and join in. I am loving the Fall weather coming in here in Minnesota and the colors speak to me on some of the new Stampin' Up! DSP. So I've made a card for Festive Friday Challenge FF0067. They requested three things from their list this time and I used leaves, green and gold. There are even acorns in the paper too. I am quite pleased my card. Most of the new products I used are from SU.

Can you see the shiny leaves on the background paper? It is from the Gilded Autumn Specialty dsp pack. I die cut the focal point single leaf from the retired Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies set. The gold paper for the leaf is called Brushed Metallic. A rectangle of green cardstock is popped up beneath the maple leaf. Both the leafy paper and gold papers are NBUS to me, so am adding my card to NBUS Challenge #18. These items are still available at SU. The sentiment is made from the retired Papertrey Ink Wreath For All Seasons stamp set. I heat embossed it with SU Copper embossing powder, I'm afraid that is gone too. Sigh. I used another retired SU color, Mossy Meadow for this top folding A2 card base. It is a really nice green for fall.

Some old and some new things went into making my card this time. I like using the older things that have been in my collection and ignored or unloved for so long. Don't you?

Happy Fall. Take good care of you and I look forward to seeing your creations. See you next time.

HAPPY Birthday

 Happy Greetings To You!

I have been working on my card for the Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge #385 for a couple of day. Time to get it blogged about before the deadline. For some reason I had forgotten to check out the newest challenge until recently, but I've had a summer cold. Not COVID thank goodness. So after using some snippets and something new too, here's my card.

One of the snippets I have used is this birdie designer paper of which I had only part of the 12 x 12 sheet left and had been hoarding it. I saw a reference on-line linking it to 2012, so no wonder I could not find it available anywhere. It's from Echo Park Paper Co. and called Betty Bird. The backside is the two shades of pink diamond pattern that became the shadow behind the happy. It's not often (if ever) that I use two patterns on one card, but tried it this time. My other snippet is the piece of yellow c.s. that I cut with my NBUS die from Simon Says Stamp! called Chunky Happy. It is still for sale. I inlaid all the pieces back in to make the happy stand out. Then I stamped and heat embossed with WOW Opaque Bright White e.p. only part of a PTI happy birthday stamp onto a piece of Stampin' Up! retired Rose Red. My MISTI really helped. I cut it out with an old whale style S.U. punch. The word looks crooked in this photo, but I assure you it is not. To finish, the whole sentiment was popped up with foam tape and added to my birdie paper. Hated to have covered up some of the cute birdies! The card base is S.U. Old Olive. Another card done. It makes me happy to look at it. 😊

I sure appreciate you visiting me and love your comments. Hope you stay well, my stamping friends. 

August 2020 CCC

 Hello!

OK, a blank post? That's what Blogger showed at first and showed a publish date of August 19th. But the post wasn't finished. How did I do that? Hit publish by mistake before doing anything but the title. Trying again, I am posting and scheduling the post date of my card sent to PA this month. I have chosen the option "pets" and "friendship". I used the color suggestions too, Tangerine, Teal, and Taupe as part of my coloring. Here is a link to The Card Chain Challenge. Think about joining us. 

Now here's a look at the inside. 

On to how I made this card. First, it's a one layer card using stamps by Newton's Nook Designs. The set is called Woof Pack. I bought it at the suggestion of  Kim at Cupcakes, Cards and Kim. Thanks Kim! I stamped the whole image in Versafine Onyx Black, my go-to basic. Secondly, I used lots of markers and colored pencils, too many to name them all. Sorry. Email me if you would like to know. 

Lastly, the cute sentiment is part of the above stamp set so that is the friendship part. Suzanne is a new CCC friend. The little pup with his tongue sticking out I found in my "critters" drawer, but there is no name on it. 

Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you come again and I will visit you too! 

Stay well and happily create, I am. Hugs from Minnesota. 

Shiny Birthday Card

Greetings!

A shiny and happy birthday card this time to join the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge # 500. Just for fun I die cut the Happy Birthday circle from my NBUS Holographic cardstock bought from Erin Lee Creative. I forgot to use my double-sided adhesive paper before die cutting, so it sure wasn't fun gluing down the narrow letters.  Oops! 

My card:

Can you see how the holographic paper shines with different colors? So much fun, I think. I bought the Simon Says Stamp! made Birthday Circle and cupcake die set and it is still available at the online store. The frosting part, from the same set, is cut with some leftover holographic paper. I cut the cupcake outline this time from a snippet of white glitter paper. The card base is Papertrey Ink Linen, which I use often. A thin piece of gray cardstock from my stash surrounds the focal point. To complete the card I attached three sparkling dots from Stampin' Up! called Clear Faceted Gems. Sorry, they are retired but the first time used.

I have been enjoying submitting my cards to challenges. Am not selling cards very much these days, so challenges keep me creating. I'd better think about donating my cards. Joining NBUS # 17 again. 

Bye, bye. Take good care of yourselves. Thank you for visiting. 

  

CAS Christmas ~ August 2020

 Hello There!

I have managed to do almost all the things I needed to do for this month, so got to work on my entry for the August CAS Christmas Challenge. I have chosen the song phrase "Two Turtle Doves" for my card and here it is. 

My stamp is quite old, from Woodware Crafts, called Nordic Dove. There are lots of pictures on the web, but it isn't clear where it is for sale. Many crafters have added a leaf in the beak, so I did too. Should I have left it off? What do you think?

My card base and the layering piece are from Papertrey Ink, their Basic White. A die from Sugapea Designs, the Card Front Element Builder set outlines the main image. The set is still available. I stamped the dove and sentiment using my NBUS, the Mini MISTI. I finally broke done and bought it! Sharing my card with the NBUS #17 Challenge too. 

The two doves were heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail embossing powder in gold. Using a mask, I stamped the second one trying to leave white space for this CAS card. I had a lot of trouble keeping the fine powder from going everywhere despite using the embossing buddy. I do like that the dove is shiny in real life, although not easy to show in a phonograph, as we all know. For an added bit of color, I stamped and fussy cut a tiny leaf twig from the retired Stampin' Up! set called Cottage Greetings. The color is Emerald Envy. 

The challenge does require a Christmas card and for me this year, I am making cards with sentiments about peace predominately showing. I hope my sentiment (which is a part of the dove set) is OK. 

My stash for Christmas cards is getting bigger. Yay! This challenge spurs me on. Thanks!

Many thanks for visiting my blog and stay safe, my crafty friends. 

You Can Do This

Hello & Happy August!

Today I finally got a card made and photographed for the Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #383.  

 

Here is my card:

I found this leftover piece of Stampin' Up!'s Old Olive cardstock where I had die cut some leaves previously. I think this is called the negative. Anyway, I cut it to fit onto an A2 card. The leaves are all from the retired SU die set called Botanical Builder. The side folded base card is in Mint Macaron which I thought was an interesting contrast to the Old Olive. Both colors are still available. On a narrow green snippet I then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment with Zig! White Opaque embossing powder. The sentiment is in a lovely font, I think. Also by SU, it is from the Forever Fern stamp set. (I'm still waiting for my matching dies, though.) Inside I stamped a we'll get through this together message, with a stamp from the Good Morning Magnolia set. I am thinking this as an encouragement card that I could send to any number of friends that are struggling through this horrible virus epidemic and staying at home orders. Crafting helps me, how about you? 

I've got to run, my dog Willie wants to go outside for his supper time walk. Take good care, my friends. See you again, I hope. 

Made Some Cards

Hello!

I've stayed busy while staying at home, mostly. Today I am posting my Card Chain Challenge card for July, and two card-parts creations. My to-do drawer is over flowing, so like many of you I'm trying to use up some things.

First up is the CCC card which has been received by Hilary in England. One of the suggested theme options was "under the sea" hence my card. The background waves are a piece of Kaisercraft paper from their old Mermaid Tails Collection. The jellyfish, octopus and sea turtle are from an older Hero Arts monthly kit and cut out with the matching dies. I cut out two extra ones to add some dimension. To be honest, I don't recall how I colored the creatures. I remember looking on Google for color ideas, though. Senior memory is failing, sigh. The sentiment is also from the kit, rather fitting during theses pandemic times, I think.  Inside I wrote a note of friendship, as that is a central part to this monthly challenge. Join up, won't you?

Next up is a card I CASED from this one by Betty, who was kind to send me a few die cuts of the lattice after I admired her card. Thanks again, Betty.

On an A2 white card base, I added the card part embossing folder image that had been languishing for ages in my drawer. It's by We R Memory Keepers called Bouquet but is retired. The rose bud I finally colored up with  SU Real Red and Early Espresso markers and my Zig Pure Green marker. I topped it off with some clear Wink of Stella. I am leaving off a sentiment until I need to send the card. 

Lastly, here is a card with a fun recycled image that I am sending as a thank you card. This old YoYo Yellow card base finally came out to be used! I had embossed it with the Stampin' Up!/Sizzix Basket Weave folder. I re-colored the squirrel image to make him match the base and added the sentiment strip. It is from the Taylored Expressions Simple Strips sentiment making system. 

That's it for now. Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you will come back again. Stay well, my friends. 

A Second Grad Card with Snippets

Hello Crafty People!

I made a second card to celebrate my grandson's high school graduation. There is a party for him soon...masks and social distancing too, hence the second card. The first one I mailed at the end of the school year with a present. Here is the new one:

Lots of snippets used to make this card. The school colors are red and black, and I do save paper scraps 'cuz you never know when I'll need them. My card below is an entry to Pixie's Craft Workshop: Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge #382. I do notice that the link on Di's page says #381, but when you click on this link it  does go to Challenge 382.

From strips of red and black cardstock of Stampin' Up! Real Red and Basic Black, I glued them down after loading up a rectangle with tape runner. My go-to runner is by Tombow and I like the Dots Adhesive best. Anyway, the stripes are sticking well. Whew. Even the triangle corners are from scraps. I cut down this background piece to 5 x 3-3/4 in order to fit on a standard white A2 card base.

Can you see the tassel? I had this one colored green, so I took a black permanent marker plus my ink pad and colored it until all black. The sentiment, where I got the idea, is from Taylored Expressions, The Tassel stamp set, as is the coordinating graduation hat die. Luckily, they are both still for sale. I cut out the inked sentiment with a square die from SU's Sttiched Shapes Framelits, which is retired. Inside, I stamped congratulations from the same TE set.

And the card is done. I am glad to have these goodies as I have another grandchild who will graduate next year.

Bye, bye. See you again, I hope. 😊

Celebrating a Birthday

Hello again!

Happy congratulations to The Paper Players team and the creator Lesley Croghan! Reaching 500 challenges is a super milestone. I'm proud to join in the celebration at The Paper Players: PP500 A Clean and Simple Challege.

Darnell (isn't she great?) used the direst-to-stamp technique recently, and as I had not tried that in years, I made my card CASEing her card from June 14th. I inked up with the Stampin' Up! markers I have on hand. Here's my rendition.

Using PaperTrey Ink Linen cardstock (again) for an A2 card base, I colored up this favorite wooden stamp by Penny Black. It is called Noble from 2014 but is still available. The markers I used were retired Marina Mist and Not Quite Navy, and current Granny Apple Green and Old Olive. I do like how the water spritzing made some of the image look smooth and some shows the stamp's texture. After many tries, I was satisfied.

The frame in the same c.s. is also by PB, called Stitched Nested Frames, keeps the card CAS. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from PTI's old $5 Keep It Simple Birthday set. Having lots of birthday stamps to choose from is so much fun. My good friend Lou in Oregon has a birthday soon, so my card will go to her to celebrate. We've been friends since the 70's so that alone calls for a real celebration!! I used my Night of Navy ink pad.

So that is it for today. I hope you are all staying well. Hugs from Minnesota.
Thank you for stopping to visit.

Sending A Hug

Hi There!

I have been experimenting with stenciling. A learning curve for me, that's for sure. I do have quite a few stencils, but haven't used them very much. Seeing the wonderful cards at CAS Mix Up Challenge for July, I got to work again. Here is my finished card.

 

The stencil I chose is from STAMPlorations, part of their ARTPlorations line. This one is called Peony #2. I love the size of  this stencil, but cut the completed image down to lob off imperfections. ;-)  I used my make-up brushes with Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink in Picked Raspberry because I love pink. I didn't use any water being afraid of doing so and ruining the image. I tried to do stencil tracing as the challenge requires outlining the flower. Using a Gelly Roll pen called Clear Star, I started around the peony. However, I messed up badly on the inner petals, so ended up filling in the spaces completely. Hopefully that is not against the rules. Can you see the shine/sparkle? 

The card base is Stampin' Up! Basic Gray. A snippet strip of black cardstock frames the flower and is also used for the sentiment. I had made a bunch of sentiments using the Taylored Expressions Simple Strips die and Background stamp set. A black round and raised dot finishes the card. I believe all the products used are still available. 

We have a nice cool down today after a few days of heat and humidity. I am so grateful. Take good care and come visit me again, I love visitors. 

 Update: I need to acknowledge that this card is a CASE of  a card by Nancy Littrell, one of the designers at CAS Mix Up. Thank you for the inspiration, Nancy. 

Another Christmas Card

Greetings, Friends

It is time to get another card done for my Christmas card stash.  I found three different Nativity stamps in my collection and chose the oldest one to join the July CAS Christmas Card Challenge. I do not believe I have ever used this stamp, so am also adding this card to NBUS #16.

  

This Nativity scene is from the Best of Christmas set by Stampin' Up! The set was issued to celebrate being in business for 25 years, and that was in 2013! I used Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink on a base card of Night of Navy cardstock. I like one-layer cards for mailing. Inside I put a rectangle of white ready for a note. 

Thinking the card needed something, I added a die cut called Star of Wonder from Memory Box. It's cut from a snippet of shiny gold paper and the tiny heart above the infant Jesus I dabbed with Martha Stewart's gold Hand Lettering pen. 

Done, and I quite like this simple card. It was not simple to make, mind you, as the white ink kept smearing. Seems there is a learning curve for stamping with pigment ink. Or is it just me?

It has been very hot, humid and sometimes rainy here in MN. I only go out for short dog walks, poor Willlie. Many thanks for visiting. Stay well. 

A Somewhat Fancy Fold

Hello!

I am back from CA. Had a wonderful time with my daughter and granddaughter. My mojo was left out there, so the planning and creating of this card took hours! I figured entering a challenge or two would kick start me, but am not sure if I am encouraged or not. I had wanted to enter this into the Paper Players Challenge # 498, but did not finish in time. Sigh. But I was able to enter the current TIME OUT challenge. Yay.

I think this is the first try at a z-fold card. It may be a double z as the stop sign is loose on the left and the right. Anyway, I kind of like the card and here is how I made it and the supplies.

The base card is a regular A2 size card in Papertrey Linen. I folded back a 1-1/4" to hold the stop sign. I had to hunt to find the stop sign stamp. Luckily I have my all my stamps loaded into Evernote that shows the picture and where the stamp is stored. Whew. The CAS-UAL Fridays retired set called STOP is where I found the sign and most of the sentiments. The word crafting is from the Altenew set Crafty Friends. Because CAS-ual Fridays is the sponsor for this challenge, and I used their stamps, I am entering this card in TIME OUT Challenge #165. They asked for "Days Gone By" which I took to mean older stamps.  My set is labeled 2012. Old, right?

The red paper is Stampin' Up! Real Red and I used snippets of  Basic Black cardstock. My go-to ink is Versafine Onyx Black. 

Time to get this posted and walk Willie before bed. Bye now. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to visit you soon. 

 

CCC Game #4

I'm Back!

I am back from my vacation in CA to see my daughter and granddaughter. Had such a great time. I was able to do Game #5 but then their computer broke down. Now here is my Game #4 entry that asks for a favorite card received. Oh my, that is difficult.

After narrowing my favorites down to 5 today, I chose this doggie one. But, gosh, my CCC friends, I've received so many very great cards!!!

I guess I chose this one from Jo aka Dotty Jo that I got in June 2016! We both love dogs, so she must of known that about me. Can you see the names on the dog houses? So cute. Thanks a million again, Jo.

The CCC challenges are so fun and I do love sending and getting cards. Nice to make new friends too. 3,000 cards sent is something to celebrate and I am proud to be a part of the group. Do join us.

Take care of yourselves, my blog readers. Cyber hugs from Minnesota.

June 2020 CCC Card

Howdy!

Am posting my entry to the Card Chain Challenge for June 2020. I decided it needed to be completed and mailed and posted before my trip West. Arlene, don't look!

The challenge for this month color suggestions were Peach, Terracotta and Pineapple. I knew I had cardstock in these colors or close to them. One of the themes was friend and the other CAS, so once I found just the right punches and stamps, this card came together fairly easily. Have a look.

The cardstock I used is all from Stampin' Up! Terracotta Tile is still available, but the other two, Peekaboo Peach and Yoyo Yellow are retired. SU is my go-to for colored card bases and to be honest, I have oodles of colors. One of my good friends is a demo, and I do like the products. As you know, though, I do get supplies from a lot of great companies. That is one reason I bold the names of the company when I do the details. Today, however, is all SU stuff.

Another two SU oldie and retired goodies were used to make the flowers. Called Pansy Punch and Itty Bitty Punch Pack, they helped me create the flowers. Snippets of c.s. were used for the flowers. I used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit 3-mm tool to add some rounding and dimension to the flowers. I haven't used that technique is ages. The white window frame was in my to-do drawer (another snippet) just waiting to be used. That drawer needs a new name. What do you call your collection of unused treasures?

Two stamp sets provided the sentiments on front and inside. Glad We're Friends is from a new to me (NBUS) set by SU. Called Fable Friends, it just retired but for sale on eBay. Inside, I used a quote about getting through this together from the still around set Good Morning Magnolia.  'Cuz I used snippets of paper, I am adding the card to Pixie's Snippets Playground #380.  Also I am adding this card to NBUS Challenge  #15.

Many thanks for visiting. I hope you will consider joining CCC and mailing off your cards around the world. I love getting cards, don't you?

Bye for now.

     

CAS Christmas Challenge - June

Greetings!

Today I am posting my latest creation for the CAS Christmas Card Challenge.  So far so good...I have more than the six monthly cards done, but this challenge sure is a help to get me motivated. And it is fun to see everyone's ideas.

Digging through my Christmas goodies drawer, I found several bells. This large one has rarely been used, so it is time to give it some love. It is from Papertrey Ink, called Enclosed: Bell Die. I like the word joy inside. Apparently this bell die is sold out presently. I do hope it is OK to use one bell when the prompt is bells.

The base card is PTI Linen and is a top folding A2 size. I used a retired Stampin' Up! embossing folder named Softly Falling for a snowy looking and CAS background. It can be found on eBay.

I cut the bell from a snippet of Real Red SU cardstock and some red fun foam, gluing them together for some dimension. The clanger was cut in gold paper from DCWV Metallics Mat Stack. I am hoarding saving the few gold pieces that I have left. I added the word Sending using my MISTI and Encore Gold ink. The stamp set by Poppy Stamps doesn't seem to be available.

Sorry to use supplies so old from my stash that they are not around anymore. I do like to use what I have. Right? Buy more? Of course. LOL

I close saying I hope you stay well, my friends. Thank you for stopping by.

I will be traveling soon, so won't be posting for a while.  😎

My Oldest CCC Card

Hello!

I looked back and I think the card here is the first one I posted for the Card Chain Challenge. Back in July 2015!  Wherever you are, Deborah, thank you for starting this challenge. Hope you are well.

This is the card that went to Missouri.  I do send cards all over the world. Just love to get cards from across the sea and from all around the US and Canada. I encourage you all to come and participate if you haven't!

Looking back over my posts, I see my style has become mostly CAS. Haven't used much designer paper since, which accounts for me having stacks of paper. Really. I bought a wire stacking paper rack when a local store was closing and it is over flowing. Sigh. I also noticed I used a fair amount of ribbon back then, which I happily see more of lately in blog posts. Two drawers of that stuff too.

Enough nostalgia. But it has been fun participating in CCC and I will continue. Proud to be a member. Here is a link to the 3000 Cards Blog Hop - Game 1.

Bye for now. Hugs and please stay safe.

I Am a Proud Grammy

Hello!!

I am indeed a proud Grammy (that's what they all call me) as my grandson graduated from high school last Thursday, the last day of school for seniors. Wait, no ceremony, although there may be one in July. The occasion warrants a card (and a gift) from me, of course. I will probably make another card if there is a cap and gown ceremony in July at the school. 😊 I've a picture of Gavin in his cap and gown, but don't have permission to publish it. LOL They all have their gowns to be ready for a ceremony if it happens in late July.

Using my go-to PTI white cardstock, I dry embossed the front with a retired Stampin' Up! folder called Lucky Stars. The frame in black is from my stash of frames. I am so proud of my grandson. He's heading to college in the fall and working this summer at Target.

The Proud of You die is from Simon Says Stamp! and was cut from snippets of SU Real Red cardstock. Red and black are the high school colors. The hat die is by Taylored Expressions called The Tassel, which is part of a stamp and die set by the same name.  They are both still available. I used Versfine Onyx Black ink, which is my favorite black ink to use except for water coloring.
    
For the inside, I put a layer of the same red c.s. stamped with three stamps from the above set.  Just for fun I wrote 2020 on the hat. Can you see it? Sorry the inside photo is so blurry. Better in real life, IMO. 

Gosh, the class of 2020 sure has had a strange last half of the school year. I wonder what it will be like for Gavin's sister who will graduate next June. My three grands are stair-step, one graduated last year, one this year, and one next. What fun watching them grow up. Too fast, though. Right?

Well, that is it for me this time. Take care, my friends. Thanks so much for visiting. I love the comments too. Cyber Hugs!

Children's Birthday Cards

Greetings!

This is a re-do of my original post that has disappeared! New blogger is NOT my friend. I was trying to edit the post and then nothing of the original copy was there except two comments. They still show, so thank you!!!  Am just doing an abbreviated post now, so bear with me.

The giraffe card was made for my nephew's daughter who turned 7 recently. I've put away the things used but can recover most. The giraffe is by Impression Obsession, a Dina Kowal design. I used the Spellbinders Wonky Squares to make the top folding shaped card. Used a Stampin' Up! embossing folder called Petal Blast for behind the water pencil colored giraffe. I recall saying I was trying to do some shadowing behind her, but wasn't fond of that. Oh well. 

On the inside I re-stamped and colored the giraffe just peeking out from the corner. The greeting is SU too, from my much used Birthday Blooms set. 

This second card, pun intended, was sent to my great-niece's twin sisters who turned two last week. Next year I will have to send them each a card, right? The red numeral 2 is from Papertrey Ink. I colored the little cakes with several SU markers, as I recall. A background in pale pink old dsp is also by SU. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, sorry. I remember using the Simon Says Stamp! Birthday Circle die with a cupcake in the middle. Mostly done in pink. 

Because both the cute giraffe and the cupcake stand are new and first used by me, I sent the original post on the Darnell:s NBUS Challenge #15. 

Thanks for stopping by. Hugs to you and stay safe!

May CCC

A Happy Hello!

This is the card that I sent three weeks or so ago, but Gail in Norway hasn't seen it arrive yet. Am posting it now, though, being afraid I'll forget how I made it and with what supplies. I remembered most of it. Yes!

The challenge this month had much different color suggestions, but I wanted to show more traditional hues of Iris. My Iris wooden stamp is by Stampendous! and labeled 1997.  I've a four drawer small storage cube that holds most of my wooden floral stamps. My Stampin' Up! ones are still in their cases on two bookshelves. Lots more flower stamps there. Anyhoo...

Four themes were asked for this challenge and I chose to do 3 of them. They are Brushos, Repeat (use more than once), and Friend. The Brushos in green, yellow and lavender colored the iris on the left. SU markers Gorgeous Grape and Daffodil Delight along with a Zig  marker in Pure Green was used for the flower on the right. The sentiment on the front is also SU from the Birthday Blooms set. Inside, it says "Dear Friend" from the same stamp set.

I had the scallop frame lying nearby that is a pretty good match for the green colors used. It's by Impression Obsession, the Rectangle 6-in-1 die. I keep a pouch of frames all ready to use in various colors. I attached the frame with strips of adhesive for some dimension.  

That's pretty much how I made the card. I hope Gail doesn't read my blog and that her card arrives soon.

Take good care, my blogging crafty buddies. Stay home or go out, but take care and be well. Thanks for stopping by.