Skip to content

Just a Note


We’ve been home for just three days from a fabulous trip to Croatia and Slovenia. I have photos to share later, but I want to send this card off to Just Us Girls Challenge where Carol is hosting the current challenge: CASE a DT.

Image


Carol is a wonderfully creative card maker, and the minute I saw her card, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. Here’s Carol’s beautiful card:

Image

And here’s my take:

Image


Like Carol’s, the background for my card is a piece of patterned paper. It’s from an old favorite 6X6 pack by Sunny Studio. I die cut the Spiral Notebook by Papertrey Ink from Fresh Snow Linen cardstock that reminds me of the texture of some expensive stationery. I added it to the background at the same angle as Carol’s postage stamp design.

Image


The pen from The Greetery’s Pen Pal die was also cut from a scrap of patterned paper (unknown) with silver mirror cardstock for the nib and pen accents. Rather than stamp my sentiment as Carol did, I added a die cut from The Greetery’s Scripted Sentiments. The pen was added to the card with some thin dimensional tape.

It’s good to be back in the craft room again, and to have some time to create just for fun! I have 16 birthdays and anniversaries on the May calendar. Fortunately, many of the cards I need were created before we left, but I’ve been busy trying to get the rest of them done.

Color Hues #132


It’s May 1st, and I’m always glad to see this turn of the calendar. In western New York, you can be pretty sure Spring will finally make an appearance and stay put. Stef has chosen a very springy color combination for our new Color Hues Challenge: Yellow and Blue.

Image


While I was hunting for an embossing folder to use on another card, I came across the Altenew 3D Embossing Folder, Fragrant Florals. It’s been awhile since I stenciled an embossed design. I’m happy with the end result, but it was a bit more involved than I anticipated. Because I wanted two colors, it was necessary to do a lot of masking. This card represents the third attempt to get a clean result. I added some white gel pen to the floral centers to make them stand out a bit.

Image


I pulled out two shades of blue, yellow and gray inks to color and shade the florals and leaves. I cut down the embossed panel in order to have a narrow mid-gray frame on a dark gray card base. The sentiment is gold foiled with Spellbinder’s You Are Everything Sentiments which fit in perfectly with the florals. I added a few gold pearls as a final accent.

Image


Please hop over to the Color Hues Blog to see the variety of cards by my very talented teammates, and our Guest Designer, Greta! Then I hope you’ll head for your crafting table, and add a card to our gallery.

Color Hues 131


Sheri is the hostess for the mid-April Color Hues Challenge and she’s chosen Coral and Green.

Image

The first time coral appeared in one of our challenges, I had to do some research and some hunting through my supplies to find papers and inks that are coral. This time I had no hesitation, and I actually started with the design of the card in mind before choosing the stamp set.

It’s been awhile since I used Pinkfresh Studio’s Darling Dahlias stamp set, but it worked perfectly. I used the stencils to color it with a combination of Pinkfresh and Papertrey Ink inks. I tend to have a heavy had when it comes to ink blending, but have discovered that using the large Pinkfresh Studio blending brushes and standing up while applying the ink made it much easier to get the look I wanted. 

Image


After cutting the coral cardstock panels with two sizes of Ellen Hutson’s Essential Rectangles, I die cut an oval from the same series in the middle of the smaller panel. I adhered the stamped piece behind the oval opening.  The dies in these sets cut the shape as well as a narrow frame. I die cut two so I could glue two frames together to provide a bit of dimension. That panel was added to the card base with dimensional foam. Finally, I added a gold foiled sentiment from Spellbinder’s Curved Everyday Greetings. 

Image


I hope you’ll join us in the gallery for this pretty color combination. Be sure to check the Color Hues Blog for lots of inspiration from our Guest Designer, Kelly, and the always creative Design Team.

Guest Designer for Time Out Challenge

Image


Thanks to a win in February, I’m delighted to be the Guest Designer for the new Time Out Challenge: Pick Two. It’s interesting that the challenge I won was also a Pick Two. 

Image


My card uses just two of the prompts: pastel and bloom. I was hoping to add a sentiment for hope, but I don’t have many and the ones I had were too large for the design of my card.

Image


I started with a silver hot foiled image from Pinkfresh Studio, Folk Floral Stem. Although it’s long been a favorite, I haven’t used it in quite a while. There are two stencils for both the florals and the leaves. The second stencil for the florals was too stark for what I wanted so I added the pale pink to the bottom of the yellow florals to create some soft blending. It’s harder to see on the pink portion of the main floral but I did add more pink to the bottom of that as well. It does show up a bit better IRL. I used both of the stencils for the leaves, but tried to use a very light hand with the darker green ink. 

Image

Once the floral was colored, I did cut it with the accompanying die. To create the white-on-white background. I ran a panel of white paper through the die cutter with the Penny Black, Texture, embossing folder. I cut that down to fit behind two of the Penny Black Elegant Frames that I glued together. I added the frame to the card front, then tucked the floral design in on top, adding dimensional tape under parts of the floral. I didn’t want to cover the design so found a simple sentiment in The Greetery’s All Occasion Script Sentiments. I embossed it in silver and die cut it. I love the script font, and it fits in beautifully with the curve of the floral design. The final touch was to add a few Pinkfresh Clear Iridescent Drops which add a bit of sparkle.

Many thanks to the Design Team at Time Out for the opportunity to play along with them for this challenge. 

Shaped Poppies Card

I’m here to share a new card that went up on the Memory Box Blog this morning. Red poppies are my favorites, and I’ve been meaning to get back to the delightful Playful Poppies stamp set. This stamp is large enough for a 5X7 card, but I wanted one that was A2. 

Image


I stamped the image with Copic friendly ink on white cardstock and then placed one of the Nested Globes over the design to decide which part of the design I wanted to highlight. I die cut it before I colored it with Copic markers. It’s been awhile since I did any Copic coloring, so this was lots of fun.

Image


To createdthe card base, I die cut two of the next largest Nested Globes from black cardstock. On one piece I scored about 1/2 inch from the top and folded it back. I applied glue above the fold, and added the other piece to the front. 

Image


I attached the poppy panel to the front of the card base, and added a Black Tab Birthday sentiment. I decided to keep this very Clean and Simple, so didn’t add any embellishments. 

I’m sending this off to Seize the Birthday: Spring Garden, my second entry this round.

Image

Happy Birthday, Adam

Today is my son-in-law’s birthday. I started his card with a bold birthday greeting die from The Greetery, appropriately named Make a Wish. I die cut the greeting in white and the shadow in black. Then I added two more layers of the shadow to give it some dimension.

Image

The background panel was foiled in matte black foil with Pinkfresh Studio’s Stippled Plaid Press Plate. The foiling is quite subtle, but lovely, and doesn’t show up in the photo. I trimmed it down and then added it to a black card base before adding the sentiment with foam dots.

Image

This is my second entry to the As You See It Challenge asking what cards, beside Christmas, do you make the most often. Hands down, it’s birthday cards.

Image

A Pocket Full of Poseys


I’m back on the Memory Box blog with another card using the wonderful floral die cuts from the Woven Flower Basket. This time I created a card with a faux pocket and arranged the flowers at the top edge of the pocket.

Image


The first step was to die cut the flowers from papers in the Lagoon, Blush, Greenery, and Sunrise paper packs. Next I die cut the largest of the Round Eyelet Circle Frames from white cardstock followed by a circle from the Basic Circles Dies just a bit smaller than the Eyelet Frame. I die cut the plain circle with the Pinpoint Flower Plate and cut it to a little more than half to create a pretty pocket which I attached to the Eyelet Frame.

Image


I arranged the flowers and leave on the pocket, some with dimensional tape, and attached one of the cute gold embossed Happy Birthday Greeting Tags, also with some dimensional tape. 

I’m sending this off to the As You See It Challenge where you fill in the blank:

Image

I definitely mail birthday cards more than any other! In fact, I’ll be mailing 14 birthday cards in the month of May! I’m also sending it off to Seize the Birthday: Spring Garden.

Image

Spring Flower Basket


This is a card I created for Memory Box awhile ago, but was just posted yesterday. The Flower Basket Bouquet from the Spring Blossom release, is sure to get a lot of use. I stuck very close to the design on the product envelope but earlier I used just the tulips to make a simple bouquet and have used a few of the flowers on other projects. So many possibilities, especially when combined with the Woven Basket die from the recent Birthday Blossoms release. 

Image

I die cut the basket from light gray cardstock, and added some ink blending to give it some dimension. I die cut the backing to the basket with dark gray cardstock. 

All the flowers and leaves with die cut with scraps of cardstock in my stash—many of them from Memory Box paper packs: Blush, Lagoon, Sunrise and Greenery. I added a bit of ink blending to some of them, and used a Sakura Black Glaze pen to add centers to the small white flowers. 


The largest of the Oval Eyelet Rectangle Frames was die cut from dark gray cardstock and then adhered to a light gray card base. I attached the basket to the background with dimensional tape which makes it easier to arrange the flowers. I also added some bits of dimensional tape to some of the flowers. The final touch was to add a few clear Fairy Drops.  

I deliberately left off a sentiment. It will be easy to add a little tag for a birthday or thinking of you card when I need it.

Image

Spring is definitely on its way despite nearly freezing temperatures the last couple of night. The forsythia is beginning to bloom, the daffodils are blooming, and there are more warm, sunny days. It will continue to be a roller coaster of temps until May, but the light is beginning to appear!

Happy Easter!

  • by


The last of the Easter cards were finally finished yesterday—just in time. The first three are variations of the bunny card I posted here, and use the same products except for the flowers. This time I used The Greenery’s Bigger Botanicals: Jacob’s Ladder and Soapwort.

Image
Image
Image


The last card was made for a friend. It uses one of my all-time favorite Easter images: Rejoice Rabbit by Waffle Flower. It’s no longer available, so I’m glad to have it in my stash.

Image


It’s cold, damp,and dreary here. Not the kind of Easter weather you’d like to have. I feel sorry for all the parents who had Easter Egg Hunts planned for today. The church service this morning, however, was joyful and the beautiful flowers remind me that Spring is coming—albeit a lot slower than I’d like.

I’m sending the Rejoice Rabbit off to The Card Concept. My Clean and Simple card was inspired by the pretty flowers in their inspiration photo. It’s also going to Inkspirational: CAS: E is for . . . Easter, of course.

Image
Image

Easter Cards: Round 1

  • by

The first two Easter cards are finished. Just Us Girls opened their new challenge just at the right time: Die Cut Week: Spring or Easter. I couldn’t get started on my Easter cards as early as I would have liked since we left for Wisconsin just as The Greetery released their Spring Jardin Collection. My new goodies were waiting for me when I got home. 

Image

I love this Chocolate Bunny, and the card is a  CASE of one of Kelly Lunceford’s gorgeous cards. I used products from the Golden Egg suite of products, one of the new Bigger Botanicals (Hawthorn) as well as the darling chocolate bunny.

Image

I decided against a sentiment on the front, but add this to the inside of the card:

Image

The Silly Goose line of products is so much fun, and this will surely be the first of many cards you’ll see using them.

Image

I wanted the goose to hold the smallest of the eggs which you can then emboss in the Shortbread Shapes Rectangle: Easter embossing folder.

Image

I love the inside sentiment which came from last year’s Hey, Honeycomb Spring Sentiment set from The Greetery.

Image

Along with JUGS, I’m sending this off to Darnell’s NBUS blog – almost everything on these cards is new!

Image
Image

I’ll be back soon with three more Chocolate Bunny cards that must be finished by Sunday.

Color Hues #130

  • by


Nancy’s the hostess for this new Color Hues Challenge. She chose Fuchsia and Navy. I knew exactly what I wanted to create with this color combination.

Image


I couldn’t resist purchasing the Spellbinder’s January Small Die of the Month, Sunny Stems. I’ve held off using it until now because I thought it would work perfectly with this color combination, and I’m not disappointed.

Image


I die cut two of the shapes to create a navy card base. Then I cut all the “petals” and added them to the card front with dimensional tape after adding some ink blending to the bottom of each. I die cut the half circle for the sentiment and ink blended it as well before white embossing the sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio’s Butterfly Garden. I love the font of the sentiment, and “hello” is general enough to use for a variety of occasions—determined by the inside greeting. I’m holding off on that for now. I added it to the card front with dimensional tape as well. 

Image

For once, I carefully planned how to use the two hues of fuchsia cardstock (one from The Stamp Market and the other from Paper Source) and white cardstock before die cutting all the pieces to create the flowers. I chose a light gray for the stems and leaves and added some ink blending to each of those as well. For the large middle floral, I ink blended the bottom portion of the flower with some fuchsia ink to darken it a bit. The flowers turned out to be easier to assemble than I thought.

I hope this color combo inspires you to create a card to add to our gallery. Before you head to your crafting table, be sure to check out all the inspiration on the Color Hues Blog from my very creative Design Team members. 

I’m sending this off to Darnell’s NBUS gallery—sure to be one of the early entries in the April collection. 

Image

Woodblock Wednesday: March 2026 Edition

  • by

This is my second post for the day. I’ve been a lot busier at the craft table than the posts here would indicate because I’ve had to work ahead for both Color Hues and Memory Box since there’s more than the usual travel in March and April. I did, however, make time to create a card for Woodblock Wednesday.

Image

This wonderful stamp of a fountain pen is very old. It has a date of 1994 on it and is from Stampa Rosa. The summer of 1996 we went on a three week trip to California with our kids. I was already heavily into stamping, and planned several stops at stamp stores; one of them was Stampa Rosa. What I remember specifically about this store was how welcoming and helpful the staff was. (I also fondly remember how patient my two teenagers were! Remember there were no “devices” in 1996.) I love that pulling out a stamp can bring back memories you haven’t thought about in awhile.

Image


My first idea was to stamp this in three different colors. No matter what ink I chose, I couldn’t get a clean image. When I moved to black, it was perfect. Just as well, as I’m in need of masculine birthday cards, and this one now has someone’s name on it. It’s stamped on white cardstock, but it looks more ivory in the top photo. I tried redoing it, but it’s just the light I have! After stamping it three times, I die cut it with one of the Greetery Postal Frames.

Image

The sentiment from Stamp Oasis was stamped on white cardstock and die cut with one of Simon Says Stitched Rectangles. The card needed some interest in the background so I ran a panel of black cardstock through the die cutting machine with Altenew’s Basic Plaid 3D Embossing Folder. (Sadly, not easy to see.)

Image

I’m sending this card to the AAA Card Challenge: Anything CAS, but not the optional twist!

Image

Thanks, as always, to Amy for hosting Woodblock Wednesday.


A Little Sparkle

  • by

I’m up on the Memory Box Blog today with a birthday card that, for me, might just be a little over the top! I do love the happy colors!

Image

I wanted a bit of sparkle and glam so started by stenciling a panel with the 6X6 Polkadot stencil using bright pink, teal, and orange inks. For the fourth and final stencil I applied a layer of Pearl Shimmer Relief Paste. I set that aside to let it dry completely while I die cut the largest of the Notched Eyelet Frames from silver metallic cardstock. Then I trimmed down the stenciled panel so it would fit just inside the decorative frame. I used a corner rounder to round the corners of the panel before adhering it to the silver frame. Next, I created a card base from bright pink cardstock and rounded the corners of the card base before adding the decorative panel. 

Image

The greeting was stamped with bright pink ink on white cardstock and die cut with the accompanying die. I added it to the card front with dimensional tape. The final touch was to scatter a few crystal clear Fairy Drops for some added sparkle. 

I’m sending this off to Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays.

Image

I’ll be back a bit later with my entry into the March Woodblock Wednesday group.

Color Hues #129

  • by


The new Color Hues Challenge is live, and it’s a good one. Marcia has chose Purple and Marigold.

Image


Once again, it’s not a color combo I would have gone to, but I loved working with it. I pulled out an older favorite from Concord and 9th: Paper Posies. The set comes with dies as well as an embossing folder for some of the blooms. I used that on just one of the flowers.

Image

I got a gift certificate for Christmas for Spellbinders and one of the dies I purchased is Stitched Edge Circle Backgrounds die. I’ve seen a number of cards using these dies and was quite sure it would work for this challenge.

The circle was die cut from white cardstock and added to a white card base. I did cut the flowers from colored cardstock and the leaves from a heavy vellum and arranged them around the left edge of the circle. The beautiful gold foiled sentiment is from Spellbinders You Are Everything and was a perfect fit. 

Image


You’ll find lots of inspiration on the Color Hues Blog from my talented Design Team members and Guest Designer, Chris.

Floral Wreath

  • by

I’m on the Memory Box blog today with a floral wreath that shouts Springtime to me. We had just a taste of spring the last two days, but today it is pouring rain, windy and much chillier. Temps in the 30’s are in the forecast again. That IS March in western New York, but after 50+ years here, I’ve yet to give up my futile wishing.

The card uses just the florals from the Woven Basket die. The flowers are so pretty they can be used in a variety of ways.

Image


I die cut multiple flowers and leaves from papers in the Greenery, Lagoon, and Sunrise paper packs, and added some subtle ink blending before assembling them. I cut a 4.5X4.5 panel from lightly textured cardstock and used one of the Basic Circle Dies to lightly draw a circle in the center.

Image


The next step was to stamp a sentiment from the Birthday Greetings stamp set in the center of the circle. Then it was time to arrange the flowers and leaves to create the wreath. I added dimensional tape to some of the flowers and leaves. There are many options for layering the florals as you can see. Finally I added the panel to a 5X5 card base.

I’m sending this off to the AAA Card Challenge: Use Die Cuts, and to The Card Concept: Spring Flowers (this card fits their Clean and Layered category.

Image
Image