A Sunflower CASEing

Hello!

By Chris

Today I am CASEing twice this wonderful card by Chris Dayton posted back in July. You can check out her wonderful blog and many videos at http://www.cattalesandpapertrails.com  I just had to have this stamp and a new die of daisies too!The stamp is by Impression Obsession called Double Cone Flowers.

My card was made using Ranger watercolor paper. I inked up the whole large wooden stamp which is a background stamp with etched in flowers using my favorite go-to Versafine Onyx Black ink. That is how the background looks bumpy which I kinda like. I colored the flowers and leaves with Zig Clean Color markers along with some generic colored pencils plus clear, white, yellow and black Wink of Stella. Whew! I had to stop myself from tweaking more so not to ruin the whole thing.  LOL  The black WS is mainly on the center of the flower. I wish the sparkle shows; in real life it is really pretty. The sentiment is a 2012 wood Hero Arts stamp. I sent the card to my sister-in-law for her birthday.

My second card was much more simple to make. Just inked up the lovely stamp again this time with Stampin' Up! retired Midnight Muse ink. Quite an easy-peasy card! For contrast I mounted the image on a piece of  SU's Daffodil Delight cardstock and centered all onto the base card. Notice some scoring on the top and bottom. Finished up with a couple of yellow dots. Done.

Thanks for stopping by to visit and for wishing me well with the new hip. I am feeling great, walking without a cane, and can drive next weekend!

Smiling today!

                       

I'm Back! Sort of...

Hello!

As some of you know, I've had my right hip replaced! I am now in the recovery/PT phase and am doing well. It hasn't been easy sitting at my computer, so today is the first time I have spent quite some time on it. I'd like to say thanks for all the kindness from fellow crafters who contacted me. Much appreciated. I have over 200 emails to read...yup, they are mostly from crafters I follow and you all are prolific bloggers. :-) I will get to you, promise.

Today/tonight I wanted to post my July CCC card. The colors were pale peach, pale yellow and bubble, none of what I have except the yellow. Anyone remember Barely Banana? One of the themes suggested was mythical creatures and of course friendship is always good. Anyway,  here's my card!

Isn't it funny? Mythical? Well, I think so. Like others, I just had to have the Stampin' Up! set called Hey, Chick. This particular chick makes me laugh. I've used it more than the others, so far. The two friends are mounted on pink cardstock and dry embossed with an old Sizzix folder, I think called Plaid. Two sizes of Spellbinders Wonky Squares made my frame. The sentiment is a goodie from Jillibean Soup called Handmade Sentiments. A single heart dot from SU covers the period at the end of the sentiment. Just my opinion, I don't think this is a sentence, so no period is needed. The card was fun to make and was well received.


Back when, I promised that I would post the card I had made for my youngest granddaughter Maddie on her birthday. Here it is. She really liked it. As soon as I can, we have planned a shopping trip for her present. Maddie loves color and is very artistic. She mostly paints but loves multi-media crafting too. She makes colorful cardboard mazes for her pet mice to run in. 

A simple but pretty card. Here I again used the Lawn Fawn plaid paper which I adore, making a frame for the die cut flowers that is new to me from Taylored Expressions. It's called Silhouette Stems1and popped up with dimensionals..The plain background is SU Bermuda Bay cut with a snippet from a previous project. I have misplaced the die, so cannot tell you who made it. All is mounted on a top folding card using the new SU Whisper White Thick Cardstock, which I really like for bases. Inside I die cut happy birthday from more plaid paper and wrote an I.O.U. note for the shopping trip. Sorry, I did not take a picture of the inside. Oops!


Well, fatigue has gotten to me, so I will say goodnight. Take care of one another!

CAS Dragonflies Sympathy Card

Hello!

A last minute entry to the CAS Mixup July Challenge. 

After many, many tries I finally got a card made with crinkled tissue paper in colors that I liked! Here I used Distress Inks in Shaded Lilac and Peacock Feathers. The tissue paper I have is really thin, so this is done with two layers after watching Loll's Video technique a dozen times. It was fun trying out several types, but am running out of July days to enter the challenge!

The card base is a NBUS to me, Stampin'Up's Thick Card Stock in Whisper White. It makes a nice card base, I think. I forgot to use sticky back paper when I die cut the dragon flies, so glued them down with Glossy accents. The tissue paper is just folded over and glued over a snippet of white card stock. For the sentiment, which is an old one from a company called Rubber Stamped, I again used the Shaded Lilac ink. The card will be added to my stash in case I need to send a sympathy card. My choice is the die cut which is also from SU called Detailed Dragonfly.

I've been missing in action, getting ready for some hip surgery. I'll be fine and as soon as I can sit comfortably at my craft desk and computer, I'll be back. Thanks for visiting.

Thinking of You...with Feathers

Hello!  Made these two cards a while back but have recently sent the card on the left to my wonderful friend  Darnell, to wish her the best on the up-coming surgery. Thoughts and prayers and hugs go out to her.

These two cards were made with the Elizabeth Crafts Designs Peacock Feather die following the instructions from Els on her Technique Friday March 17, 2017 blog.  Love how they turned out. The white background card uses the inlaid card technique. The feather were cut from a piece of watercolor c.s. that I had smooched with Distress Inks. Sorry, I don't remember exactly which colors I used, but probably Shabby Shutters and Faded Jeans or Peacock Feathers which are three of my all-time favorite ones. I matted the feathers with a simple border of coordinating card stock.

The card on the right did not photograph as well. It is made with the same die plus Elizabeth Craft Design Silk Microfine Glitter in Blue Green. Using ECD Clear Double Sided Adhesive paper makes the glitter stick so well especially since it is burnished into the stickiness. Oh, I wish you could see the wonderful shiny glitter. This stuff restored my faith in using glitter! The feather on the right is just the cut out from pretty Bazzill slightly textured background paper and adhered next to the glittered one just as Els suggested. Truly CASED cards. Fun to make; hope you like them and will try the glitter technique.Thanks for visiting!

Edited to show feather with glitter better. Isn't it pretty?

What Happend to May? And some Snippets!

What happened to May? The month escaped me and I didn't post anything. Thank you to the visitors who left messages for me anyway. I really appreciate it. :-)

Am posting a couple of card made in May (really, I did make some). First, though, here is a picture of my oldest granddaughter Megan and my foster dog Digger. Thought you might enjoy seeing them. Megan just finished her sophomore year in high school and Digger will be 19 on July 1st! 

Now to my cards! Lots of snippets were used in these cards, so am hoping it isn't too late for Pixie's Crafty Playground this time. These pictures were taken so long ago and mailed or delivered that I hope I remembered how I made them .LOL  More senior moments, I guess. This one is a get well card made for a friend. The pretty plaid paper is from Lawn Fawn with the center cut out with one of the Lil' Inkers stitched rectangle dies. I used a retired punch from Stampin' Up! for the 3 butterflies that are accented with a polka dotted embossing folder. The hard to see pink butterfly makes the rectangle look funny in this photo, and in retrospect, it should have been cut in pale turquoise color instead. Much better in real life. The white card base is A2 size and is top folded. A piece of SU's Pretty in Pink paper (Oh, why did they retire that color?) was used for the bottom layer cut with a scalloped rectangle die from a Mama Elephant set called All Prettied Up.  If you haven't seen that set, check it out as it has the neatest little box die. I placed the sentiment inside using a snippet of plaid decorated with more snippets of paper for the butterfly. A left over part of the pink paper from the front made the border frame. I like the curved message which is from Hero Arts Stamp & Cuts set of stamps with the coordinating dies called Ribbon Notes.

This next card also made in May again uses some of my hoarded designer paper that rarely sees the light. It is made by Photo Play Paper Co. and called Flip Flops (which are on the other side and are adorable.) 

I love the aqua/turquoise and white with the squiggly lines that make me think of the ocean. I think I'll use it for an ocean scene next time.This card is a birthday card made for a dear friend. A white card base was again used with the top embossed with an unknown crisis-cross diamond shaped lines.The flower was cut from coordinating dies by Memory Box called Pavilia Bloom and Pavilia Bloom Outline. The outline flower shape was cut with a snippet of white cardstock as was the sentiment square. The It's your day! stamp is by SU stamped in Encore! silver metallic ink. To balance the card and cover up the placement of the embossing folder, I used a strip of same dsp. Inside it says happy birthday heat stamped in the same silver ink. The card was well received by my friend! This is the card I entered in Pixie's Snippet Playground. Pixie's Snippet Playground Wk 283.

That's it for May. Next up a couple of cards made in June including one for my youngest granddaughter. Thanks so much for visiting. See you soon, I hope.

Yay for All Seasons and My Oldest Grand Daughter

The latest challenge at CASology has as the cue card, SEASON. That made me think of a really old cling stamp tucked away in my stash and never used, so I thought to play along. Checking on-line to see what the name was and who made it, I found a wonderful card by Susan Raihala at Simplicity from 2011. My card is a CASE of hers.

I know it is difficult to even see the trees, which are pink for summer, lilac for spring, orange for fall and gray for winter. The stamps are from Hero Arts,  called Trees of the Season. (My kingdom for a good camera! Or someone else to photo my cards). teehee
To make the card, I first stamped some Stampin' Up! Whisper White cardstock with VersaMark and heated it usomg clear embossing powder. The tree images were then sponged with Tim Holtz Distress inks Spun Sugar, Shaded Lilac and Black Soot then carefully wiped with a soft cloth. Not having any Distress orange, I sponged the orange tree with SU Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment is from the Spring Hills set by PaperTrey Ink. All the pieces were cut out and mounted on black fun foam for some dimension. I wonder if there is enough white space for a CAS card, hope so. Other than the photo, I am pleased with this card and can imagine it being sent to someone tired of winter and ready for the next season.


 My second card today was made for my first grand daughter who turns sixteen today. Megan is so pretty, quite the athlete for the JV Lacrosse team and she takes her driver's test tomorrow. Am really proud of her. The card front was designed by Kelly Emerson, a good friend and demo, but made by me with a few tweaks of my own. The supplies are all SU to which I added some Wink of Stella on the wings and bling on the dragonfly's body. This is the first time using the set and die, Dragon Fly Dreams and Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits. A piece of vellum is like a shadow behind. Colors used are Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Tempting Turquoise and Chocolate Chip. Inside I used PaperTrey Ink numerals and letters and Spellbinders Phrases Set One Happy Birthday die along with some gold bling. Megan liked the card!
Edited April 28th: She passed her driving test and got her license!

April CCC

Hello Friends!

I finally finished and mailed my card for the April Card Chain Challenge. Am guessing it has been received; sure hope so as I was quite pleased with it so wanted to post it here.

The colors suggested this month were red, sky blue and navy. After checking my stash, I found no navy, so made a quick trip to Michaels. Didn't have a coupon and they didn't have a true navy available, so I got the best option. As it turned out, you cannot see much of the navy anyway!

Here's my card:

I went the easy route making a simple but elegant, (I think) card with one of my favorite cover plates by Papertrey Ink. It's called Peony. I was glad I had a Sizzix precision base plate for this delicate die, as it needed to be run through the Big Shot several times anyway. Forgetting to use sticky paper behind it, I used small dabs of liquid glue all around to glue it down. The Real Red and Bashful Blue cardstock are from Stampin' Up! I'll never understand how they could have retired this blue. It is true pale blue and I liked it better than sky blue with the navy. The card base in tent style is from Bazzill.

I was thinking of the friend option for this challenge, so just used a snippet of the red to say hello. The stamp is from a Stampendous! set called Happy Messages and is stamped in Memento Paris Dark. I stamped my friend on a blue rectqangle inside with a note to my recipient in Colorado. It is so nice making new friends in blogland. Join us, won't you?

Thank you for visiting today! Next up the birthday card for my oldest grand daughter who turns 16 on Thursday!

Boo-Boo with Brusho

Hello!

April came in for me with a bad case of the flu. Am now getting better enough to try to make a card for Darnell's Annual April Fool's Boo-Boo Hop and NBUS Challenge #11. My boo-boo card and NBUS challenge was an attempt  to get my new  Brusho Black to show it is made up of pretty colors like I have seen in YouTube videos. Sorry, I cannot remember who demonstrated this technique. Anyone know so I can give credit?

No matter what paper I used, I had trouble with blotches, the paper pilling and tearing and just ugliness. Most results went into the circular file! But I pulled out a piece to have something to show here!

Can you see the rip? And no matter how I tried, I couldn't get the paper to flatten out. I tried another forgotten technique to use both the negative and positive die cuts on a single card. The flower punch is called Blossom from Stampin' Up! and the stem and leaves are a die by Penny Black called Coy. I used retired Midnight Muse blue to try to bring out the blue in the flower and the cardbase is SU Very Vanilla. Am not sure why it look gray in the one photo. The greeting is a fun 2007 stamp also by SU.

Truly, I am not sure if this card will ever make it out of my house, but at least I prove one can try to make something out of nothing! Thanks for coming by!

The Flower Challenge - Lilacs

Yay, today is the first day of Spring! I am so ready for some color outside. There has been little snow this winter, so what I see mostly is brown grass and bare trees. The current Flower Challenge #6 is so much fun this time as we can create anything, so I chose a large wooden stamp of my favorite flower, Lilacs.

So what is Spring all about in my world? Lilacs in bloom along the highways and bordering gardens. Not the freeways, you know, but the smaller roads connecting the Metro to the suburbs and beyond. No, lilacs are not in bloom here in MN yet, but they will be. So here's my card.

I've used this stamp before and will again as it is so lovely. By Northwood Rubber Stamps, Inc. it is called Lilac Glass Vase, part of the Spring 2013 supplement catalogue.The designer is Jean Arneson. Using Ranger water color paper, I stamped the image in VersaMark and Stampin' Up! Basic Gray ink then heat embossed it with Ranger Superfine Detail Clear embossing powder. For the flowers and leaves I used two Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens, the purple and green. To soften the colors, I scribbled the pens with water on an acrylic block and painted with a small paint brush. I tried to make the vase area look more like water by combining the blue and black pens and lots of water to make gray. My 6 pen set doesn't have brown, so I mixed a lot of colors together with water to lightly color the submerged stems.

To finish my card, I simply matted the flower image on a piece of  black cardstock and centered it on a top folding basecard of SU's Basic Gray. No sentiment inside yet, but I think it would make a nice Mother's Day card or Spring birthday card.

Thanks for stopping by today. Happy Spring to everyone!

Editing to add this card to the Challenge 58 at Retro Rubber/Anything Goes since my stamp is from 2013. who would have thought something from 4 years ago is Retro? lol  

New Dog & A Card With Snippets!

Hello on this last day of February! It has been a good month for me, and I hope it has been for you too! 

Today I am sharing a picture of my new foster dog, Digger. Funny name, but I understand a child named him.

He is a wiggler and this is the best picture so far. He is 18 years old - can you believe it? His original owners had to find him a new home as they travel for work and hated to board him anymore. I am growing fond of Digger, and will keep him as a foster hospice dog instead of adopting him out! Unfortunately he has developed an eye infection/ulcer, so we've been back and forth to the vet often the last week. With meds, he is getting better.

I just had to play with Pixie's Crafty Workshop Weeks 269 & 270.
The snippets are the white stitched rectangle piece, silver foiled paper from DCSW, and some glossy white paper to make the birthday word pop. First I  smooched Ranger Distress Inks Peacock Blue and Faded Jeans onto my mat, painted it with a water brush onto the glossy paper. Following an idea I saw recently, but am not sure where, I then used some drywall tape and sponged on some more color trying for some texture. When dry, I die cut birthday from PaperTrey Ink . The shine and texture doesn't show very well here, but IRL it does.Another snippet was used to say happy with a NBUS set from MFT called Label Maker-Sentiments and matching die. The blue ink is Midnight Blue, a Memories Dye Inkpad that matches quite well the layering piece of unknown dark blue paper. To make the cupcake, I used an Elizabeth Craft Designs die. Isn't it pretty?

I did not make a flowery card like Di's pretty one for this card, hut it sure is full of snippets all glued together! Hope OK. Thank heavens for small tipped bottles of white glue!

I thank you for visiting me today. See you in March!

Promised Valentines

Hello!
February is not over, so I still can post Valentine's Day cards. Right? Here are the last two of the three I made this year. This first one today was for my 13 year old grand daughter, Maddie. She loves design and is very creative, so I thought she would like this. It is fancier (is that a word?) than I usually make but I think it turned out OK. My card is a CASE of a wonderful card by Doris at The Stamping Tower that posted on February 7th. I too used some printed vellum by Stampin' Up! over an embossed background. It is by Darice that fits the whole front of the card. The red hearts are cut with a Die-namics duo by MFT and the gold ones are punched with snippets of gold paper with SU's retired Itty Bitty Accents heart. Love is made with another snippet of gold paper with a die from a PTI set called One Liners Collection that I cut down a bit to fit.

Last up is the card made for my grandson who loves hedgehogs and has one called Sherman. The banner sentiment is stamped in Baked Brown Sugar ink from SU on Real Red paper, and says Sending Hedgehugs. It is from the Lawn Fawn stamp and matching die set. Aren't they cute? I used the same background embossing folder as on his sister''s card. The red heart I found in my UFO box. A clean, quick, and simple card to make that I think Gavin liked.

 

That's it from MN. It's been spring-like weather lately, but we hear that a snow storm is coming Friday. OK by me! I thank you for stopping by to visit. 💟

OMG??

Hello!  I am finding that doing challenges has helped my mojo. Cleaning up my space has helped too, 'cuz I found a few lost misplaced things.

I have wanted to try and do a card for the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge - February, so here it is. This is one of the first mixed media cards I have ever done. Doing a CAS card is also challenging as I usually do layers. Right? It was hard to get a picture to show the shine and texture.Had to use a flash tonight as I won't be around the next few days to get this entry finished.

The Tim Holtz collection Bird Crazy for Stampers Anonymous still make me laugh. I am envisioning him thinking "Is this an egg, or what?" Thus the OMG. Notice the Ranger Glossy Accents on the eyes as they bulge out. This challenge required using some corrugated cardboard,  so I cut out an  over-sized egg with a Spellbinders oval die then set to work changing it. I used Twinkling H2O's Mediterranean blue with a water pen to get this color. I like the variation that came up. This paint and several others have been in my stash forever, but are NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff). Thanks Darnell!  The funny bird is fussy cut from some kraft paper that I found during my cleaning and popped up with  thick tape (I don't know who makes it). He's stamped using my MISTI and Versafine Onyx Black ink. My choice is the die cut letters from PaperTrey Ink on black card stock. I used Elizabeth Craft Designs double sided adhesive to stick the letters down. The card base is Stampin' Up! discontinued Confetti Cream, although it looks white in my picture. 

Hope you enjoy seeing my card. Any suggestions on what his name should be?

Magical for The Flower Challenge

Hours...I spent hours trying to do justice to this challenge, finally after several cards went into the circular file, I finished. Then the real challenge, getting a decent photograph! I am submitting my card to The Flower Challenge #5.

I am CASING this lovely card by the Guest Designer Therese. I have created my card using most of her colors and mimicking her white outlined flowers. First change was to make my card top folding. Used some new and old goodies from many companies!

Next up, the flowers. They are the two coordinating dies from Memory Box, Pavilia Bloom Background and Outline. The pink card stock is Stampin' Up! and the white outline and base are PaperTrey Ink. The flowers are popped up with SU dimensionals. I used an Edgelits-Adorning Accents die and the dotted line stamp from SU  Bordering on Romance to make the card opening a bit special. Had to temporarily tape the edge down to get a photo. The sentiment is a NBUS from My Favorite Things called Rainbow of Happiness. It says, "I Hope Your Birthday is MAGICAL". In real life it is quite pretty. Used VersaMark and an old ink pad from, Kaleidacolor called Baby Powder for the colors and some shine. Inside I just put happy birthday with a die by Elizabeth Craft Designs on the retired Pretty in Pink card stock. To finish up I added a few sparkly sequins from Darice. Whew! Told you I like shopping different sites, didn't I?

Next time I'll share the valentine's I made for two of my grand kids. Megan got the one I previously posted here. Oh, and I got another foster dog! Picture to come.

Thanks for stopping by. 💓   

Fancy Flourish for MUSE and RRCB55

Here I am again! Twice in one week! A record for me, right? Today I am entering two challenges with this one card. Fun ~ makes me happy!

First up is for the  Muse Challenge 201. I was inspired by Guest Muse, Valentyna who has a wonderful card. Love the colors and the pop of black which I shamelessly copied. Or should this be called a CASE? Let me know, pretty please.

Anyway, I pulled out an old stamp with vines or flourishes. From a 2007 Stampin' Up! set called Baroque Motifs, I have only the one wooden stamp probably bought at a garage sale and rarely used. After applying VersaMark to a small piece of PaperTrey Ink white cardstock, I got out two colors of green embossing powder for some heat embossing. The powder is from an old set of 14 colors I got from Stampendous! years ago. I like the mixture of greens and the shine, but it doesn't show up well in my picture. Some pale pink hearts left over from a previous card added some color. For some dimension, I popped the black piece on craft foam. Worked well as I didn't have any white. The simple thank you was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and is one of the stamps from the Vertical Greetings set by SU. Some black round and faceted bling from my stash and rounding the bottom corners completes the card. I am hoping there is enough white space to be called CAS. I kind of like this card!

Secondly, I am entering this card to the new Retro Rubber challenge. They are asking for stamps older than one year (the flourish) and want a heart motif, so I think my card fits well. It is satisfying to use older forgotten stamps, I believe!

Thank you for visiting today!

NBUS Challenge #10 Oldies But Goodies

Hello!

Here is my entrant to the NBUS Challenge #10 over at Darnell's place. I made this card while at a crop session at my favorite local craft store Crafter's Haven last Saturday evening.  I needed a sympathy card. So I pulled out an oldie but goodie single stamp from Stampin' Up! from 2012 called Blooming With Kindness-Flower that I had heat embossed on vellum and left in my UFO box. Here's my card:

Stumped, as usual, about how to adhere the vellum (from SU) to my card base, I bought yet another adhesive that promised to be invisible. Sorry, it didn't work. I do like using vellum, though. Then I remembered a hint by Jennifer McGuire about putting the adhesive behind something, so I looked around the store and found this wonderful ribbon. A NBUS, yay! The leafy ribbon is from May Arts in dark green with the veins nicely showing. It compliments the shine from the vellum that seems to have a greenish tinge. I like the white and green combo on the Soft Suede card base. I used SU glue dots to hold the ribbon to the vellum and also to the base. Worked like a charm. The vellum is left loose on the bottom of the card. To finish the card, I used something  even older from SU - embossing power called Forest Green for the sentiment. The stamp is from MY Favorite Things Grand Peaceful Wildflowers set, my second NBUS. This set is old,  but not to me. Sorry I cannot get a good picture due to the shiny vellum and embossed flower. I tried!

Thanks for stopping by and for all the comments I been getting lately. Love them!

A Heart for NBUS #9 and Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 255 & 256

Hi Again!

Couldn't resist submitting a card for Darnell's challenge called NBUS #9. I sure wanted needed to use some of my new stuff! Since Valentine's Day is upcoming, I chose pink and silver for my colors and tried to figure out how to do the hidden message technique. So, here's my take on it. Need some instructions, I think. Any suggestions? I appreciate your help! ☺

I took the easy way out, I'm guessing, and die cut the heart out of pink Bazzill textured paper with Heart of Hearts die from Memory Box. As I now have a million tiny pink hearts laying around, I could have made a shaker card, however that is another technique i have not mastered.

My NBUS is the Hi die (pun intended) that is part of the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Phrase Set One. Can you see it? I cut down the pink panel and glued it to a snippet of embossed white paper found in my "To Do" basket. The embossing folder is a favorite called Bouquet from We R Memory Keepers. Strips of silver cardstock accent the focal point which is just placed on a white card base. Pretty simple card. I like that. No sentiment inside yet, but the card will probably go to one of my sweet grand daughters.

After a second look at the options and rules, I need to acknowledge that my card is a total CASE of Darnell's card that she used in announcing this NBUS #9 challenge. CASEing her color, her heart and the bumpy polka dots too. Thank you so much for your inspiration. Darnell has prizes, wonderful woman that she is. So I encourage you all to enter this challenge to honor her five years of blogging! Send her a get well message too, if you can.

Since I used snippets of embossed paper and the silver strips, I am also joining Pixie's Crafty Workshop  Week 265 & 266 challenge. My first time. Fun! I've been watching for ages.

Thanks for visiting! I do  love comments and will visit you too! ☺

NBUS Challenge #8

Hello Blogging Friends! I hope you are having a nice start to the new year and that you had a wonderful time over the recent holidays. I sure did.

A new challenge is here. Thanks to  Darnell who is celebrating her 5 years as a blogger with 3 challenges. Her "Blog Birthaversay" as she calls it. LOL

Hasn't it been a wonderful fun for all of us to get new stuff? But now we need to use it!  NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) was coined by Darnell and she is so right to urge us to use it. We do really need to give some love to what we buy. I personally am so happy to make a card to push myself to get creative again and to use neglected supplies. My mojo has been missing! Yay, it's back now!

Here's my challenge card.

  

It was a real challenge to find kraft paper in my stash ( I don't have any so used the closest I could find) and to use colored pencils. I was given a whole bunch of colors of pencils by my crop friend Therese, but never used them. She has hundreds of pencils, so gave me quite a few. Lucky me. My little scene uses several. They are from Crayola and the white one is from my Staedler Karaft set of watercolor pencils. Not wonderful choice of colors used, I guess, but trying is part of the fun. Right? The white doesn't show up very well, I know. I wanted a white dog with a few buff colored areas as this stamp reminds me of my foster dog Abby. (BTW - She will probably be going to her forever home this Saturday!)

The NBUS stamps are  from Stampin' Up! set called Stella & Friends.  The clouds are hand drawn as I tried to fill up some space without using dies for a change! teehee The papers are SU and PTI.

I am looking forward to seeing all the entries in this and the upcoming challenges. I love seeing other people's work. Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.

A Christmas Card or Two

I mentioned I would add some of the holiday cards I was making, so here are two! A challenge entry is the first one. It's for Kylie's Day 10 - Twelve Days of Christmas Challenge. It sparkles, like my special friend Darnell suggested. Can you see?

I sponged on the background using a lot of water and the Hero Arts Ombre  ink pad called Dolphin. Such a set of pretty blue, purple and pink inks, I think. Using my heat gun with Heat and Stick powder by Stampin' Up! and both Elizabeth Craft Design Silk Microfine Glitter and SU's Iridescent Ice embossing powder, I tried for some sparkle and shine. Used the same for the tree and star. The tree is a die cut from the PaperTrey, Inc. set called In the Meadow. I mounted it all within a stitched frame from Lil' Inker Designs. To finish, I die cut the little star from Memory Box. See, I support many companies! LOL 

Card #2. Using the same ombre ink pad to make a winter snow scene, I CASED a card by a wonderful crafter on the Splitcoasterstampers site known as Stamping_Crazy. I do not know her real name to give her credit. I changed up her dark background and used a different sentiment. For eyes, the snowman has raised black dot embellishments by Zva Creations and a hand-cut nose in orange. The snowman body uses dies from SU! called Swirly Scribbles. The middle one had some surgery! The water color paper is just left white on the bottom for the snowy texture. The card base is SU! Not Quite Navy. A banner sentiment is done with a stamp from the same PTI set as above.

Thanks for stopping by. I sure am enjoying all the Chrismas and holiday cards I've been seeing on your blogs. I appreciate all comments left here and will visit you too. 

Best Wishes

Hello Again!

I've been wanting to do an entry for the The The Flower Challenge #3 so here it is. The challenge asked us to take out and use an older stamp. This one is called Framed Azalea from Stampa Rosa Inc. circa 1999. I believe Stampa Rosa has closed although I found this image among some House Mouse stamps on Google.

Azaleas come in all kinds of colors, but I love the pink ones. I first heat embossed my stamp with opaque white embossing powder onto a piece of linen cardstock from Ellen Hutson. After coloring with my watercolor pencils from Staedtler, I used a water brush to soften the pencil lines and get a watercolor look. Used 2 colors of pink, 3 of green and a yellow and brown. I matted the framed flower image onto a  piece of Stampin' Up!'s Chocolate Chip cardstock to frame it. Lastly, the whole focal point is glued atop the card base. To mimic the frame, the card front was embossed with the Sizzix folder called Plaid. The sentiment is a die from a Spellbinders set called So Sweet. I cut it twice out of SU's Melon Mombo for some dimension. What do you think? I like it and it was fun to not do only holiday cards!

Thanks for stopping by.

News! I've a New Dog...

Hello Friends!

What a merry-go-round the last few weeks have been! My foster dog Bucky was adopted by some wonderful folks who live on a hobby farm about 40 miles from here. When I took him to visit, I knew right away they were the perfect family, home, acreage and animals for Bucky. Missed  him terribly...for about a week when I was notified another foster dog needed me.

Abby, who is almost 11 was left with the Humane Society in Sioux Falls, S.D. and my group Shih Tzu Rescue of Minnesota was contacted. Of course I said yes to fostering her, and here she is!

Isn't she a cutie? Love at first sight for this little 9# Shih Tzu. Of course, as a foster mom, after she checks out with the vet, she will be available for adoption. That's our mission at STRMN. "Rescue, Rehabilitate and Re-Home". A perfect passion for this retiree (me) who loves dogs.

Am busy starting - what am I late? my Christmas cards. I am so slow and picky. It is very hard for me to make more than one of a kind. Anyone else do that or are you all mass-producers? I admire that, honestly. It's just not me.

Take care. Some cards to post whenever I get the photography and writing done.

Thanks for looking in. Thanks too for all the comments. I very much appreciate them. :-) 

A Happy Day

Hello!

My one and only grandson turned 15 recently! What a joy he has been his whole life. He liked this card that I made especially for him using his favorite color, orange. Family joke on me... I've always pronounced the color "oinge" which naturally makes all the grandkids tease me. His birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant was no exception. ☺ Lots of laughter.

Here's my card for Gavin:

I CASED my card from the card shown below found in a video by Nichol Spohr LLC for Simon Says Stamp. The supplies she used were from the May 2014 monthly kit. I only have the stamp set, so I improvised the rest with what I have in my hoard collection.

The stamp set is called All Boy by Simon Says Stamp.  I used the shoes, dude and the 3 dots (surgically altered) stamps plus the small star from the set. A piece of navy cardstrock from my stash and the orange striped paper is from Michael's. My card base is PaperTrey Ink white. I colored the shoes with my NBUS ZIG Clean Color Real Brush  pens in the Bright Yellow, which looks orange to me when straight from the pen. I found it is yellow when mixed with water. I am truly at the "learner" stage! Inside I just stamped happy birthday with a message from me, Grammy. Sorry, forgot which of my many birthday stamps I used. One cannot have too many birthday stamps and dies, I always say. tee hee

Thanks for visiting. Oh, and a very Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this week! 

Hop to Stop 2016 - Wonderful You

Hello!

I am a bit late to this hop, but wanted to acknowledge Becca Cruger at The Damsel of Distress. She  posted a heart-rendering post recently alerting the stamping community to this hop. I am in complete support! Verbal domestic violence has appeared in my family, not physical, (thank heavens).

Here is my card in support of this cause. I hope some of my faithful and wonderful readers will join in. Kudos to all those who have before me.

Thinking to remind victims of domestic violence that they are wonderful, I pulled out My Favorite Things Simply Fabulous Saying set. Works well, I think. The words are heat embossed in white. I used Bazzill cardstock in purple, the color of this cause, and PaperTrey Inc. white for a simple card. Added 3 clear stones from Pretty Pink Posh for some bling and finished up with the diagonal strips of white cardstock. Fun how the stones appear pale purple.

Thanks for visiting today. I am thrilled to have received many comments lately! Thank you! Thank you!