Flowery Cards

UPDATE:  I deleted (somehow) all of my blog pictures.  I'm putting them all back, but can not find this picture.  So you'll have to use your imagination.  :-(



I've made some flowery cards for my MIL, which is unusual since I don't usually go flowery. I used the Stampin Up embossing folder Elegant Bouquet to emboss various flowery colors of DCWV cardstock then added flower embellishments from Michael's. In this case, I used silver brads that I flocked with yellow flocking powder (Martha Stewart) for the centers. I matted the yellow on a matching orange cardstock and voila!

More Halloween Cards

 The first card uses batty paper from the Halloween pack from Michael's and I used my Cricut's Jasmine cartridge to cut out the "Boo" from purple paper.

One card uses an image I received in a swap and colored with watercolor pencils and blended with gamasol, a strip of patterned paper from Michael's and the "Bugs and Hisses" sentiment from Stampendous.

Another uses Fluffles the Cat from Stampendous, colored with markers and Spellbinders dies to mat with black on purple with more stripey paper from the Halloween pack. "Bugs and Hisses" completes the front.

I received the spooky shelf of bottles in a swap, don't know what it is called or who makes it. I colored it with map pencils and used gamasol to blend it and put it on a SU Top Note in green I've had and once again, the background paper is from the Halloween pack from Michael's!    :-)

The last card uses SU's CrossHatch background stamped in black on orange, a pale green strip and then tags made with the Carved and Candlelit pumpkins.

More Halloween cards

Here are a few of the Halloween cards I made this year. Some are a variation on the theme of the full moon I posted about earlier and all use the circular chipboard from Michael's I mentioned before.

One is covered in yellow paper and has 2 large die cut bats (Sizzix, old original yellow die) with rhinestone eyes. The wings are curled up to give some dimentionality to them. It probably won't survive the mailing, but I tried!

Another is also covered with the yellow paper for the full moon and has a Martha Stewart witch stamped on it, with some bats from SU's Halloween Backgrounds and a ribbon tied at the top.

The third was super simple, since it was just cut out from patterned paper from Michael's showing a crow on a gravestone.

The last one is covered in black with spider web embossed (Fiskar's texture plate) and then traced with a white gel pen. The spider is cut and embossed with a Cuttlebug die and has black lines added to the legs. Black plaid (with a tiny bit of orange in it) ribbon is the finishing touch.

JDRF Auction - Christmas Cards

My husband's employer has an auction to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and this year I donated 20 Christmas cards. Here's what I made for them. I found the stocking paper at Tuesday Morning and (it's hard to see in the photo) edged the stocking square with gold. The red background cardstock is also edged with the gold and then I tied on a ribbon that I bought several years ago at Recollections. A super easy card!

I made this card a couple of years ago for fall. Recently my mom had hers sitting out and someone commented on it, thinking it was a store bought card. :-o

The leaves are a SU set called Autumn; the text is a small Michael's $1 stamp from a few years ago and I used the Creole Kaleidacolor ink pad and stamped on Ivory cardstock. It is matted on Really Rust paper and tied with an orangey ribbon.

I'm Back!!! Halloween Cards

It's been awhile since I've posted...I have a new job! I've been looking for a job for almost 3 years now and finally found one. It is a contract position, for about 8 months, as a wafer polish engineer at MEMC. They are a company that makes the thin slices of silicon that the semiconductor companies like Intel, AMD and Texas Instruments use as the foundation to make computer chips. So far, I've really enjoyed the job!

But back to cards. I made 40 Halloween cards, but my favorite one (I made 10 of them) is a bit unusual...I found some chipboard at Michael's - in the $1 bin - shaped like a round ornament (with other Christmas shapes) but thought it would make a perfect full moon for Halloween! I covered one side with yellow paper (why do we always think of yellow for Halloween moons when the moon is white???) and used the new jumbo wheel from SU "Bring on the Bats". I tied ribbon through the precut holes in the chipboard and voila...

I'll post more of my Halloween cards later!

White Sands

I grew up not very far from White Sands National Monument, and visited often, so this card reminds me of home. The sunset sky was made using Memory Mists (from Stamp A Mania) - a combination of Orange Juice, Pink Lemonade and Lemonade, the yucca stamp is from Stamp A Mania, and is embossed in black and the sun is from the SU set Little Shapes using the Warm Red Cat's Eye fluid chalk ink. I glued white sand from Michael's (not from White Sands!) to form the sand dune.

Mimbres Wolf

Here is another card using a Stamp A Mania stamp. I used SU's Top Note Die to cut out the background, which I made using alcohol and reinkers using SU's creamy caramel, Cocoa, and gold.

Dustin Pike Has New Digis!

Check out Dustin Pike's newest images. For the next few days, they will be on sale, so check them out NOW!

Organ Mountains Card

This is the card I made for my Dad on Father's Day. The mountains are the Organ Mountains in my hometown. The mountain stamp and the cacti stamp are from Stamp-A-Mania and the little hills I used to fill in between the two and the small yucca are from an old Stampin Up set whose name I do not know. I used a brown ink and then chalked the mountains with SU's Creamy Caramel and a tiny bit of Garden Green on the foothills. I chalked the sky using the SU cloud template and Brilliant Blue. I stamped the cacti in Garden Green and then used Liquid Applique from B&J's Stamps in orange, purple, white and red for the flowers. I hope my Dad liked it! :)

Birthday Gift Set for my SIL

My SIL loves animals and animal themed things...I usually make her animal note cards for her birthday. This year's cards use some slightly dimensional Zoo stickers I got at Hobby Lobby (love their clearance shelf!) and some paper I've had forever. I probably got the paper when Recollections was going out of business 3 years ago, but then again, maybe not... (LOL)

I cut the leaf paper using SU's Top Note Die and used the Top Note for 3 cards and the frame for 3 more cards. The green background papers are American Crafts cardstock.

The alligator uses another piece of paper resembling water for the river and the same leaves for the bank.

The same paper used for the water was used for the sky and sandpaper for the desert for the snake card.

I hope my SIL likes them. I have another sheet of the stickers in case I want to make some for me!!! :)

Birthday Gift Set for my SIL

My SIL loves animals and animal themed things...I usually make her animal note cards for her birthday. This year's cards use some slightly dimensional Zoo stickers I got at Hobby Lobby (love their clearance shelf!) and some paper I've had forever. I probably got the paper when Recollections was going out of business 3 years ago, but then again, maybe not... (LOL)

I cut the leaf paper using SU's Top Note Die and used the Top Note for 3 cards and the frame for 3 more cards. The green background papers are American Crafts cardstock.

The alligator uses another piece of paper resembling water for the river and the same leaves for the bank.

The same paper used for the water was used for the sky and sandpaper for the desert for the snake card.

I hope my SIL likes them. I have another sheet of the stickers in case I want to make some for me!!! :)

Birthday Gift Set for my SIL

My SIL loves animals and animal themed things...I usually make her animal note cards for her birthday. This year's cards use some slightly dimensional Zoo stickers I got at Hobby Lobby (love their clearance shelf!) and some paper I've had forever. I probably got the paper when Recollections was going out of business 3 years ago, but then again, maybe not... (LOL)

I cut the leaf paper using SU's Top Note Die and used the Top Note for 3 cards and the frame for 3 more cards. The green background papers are American Crafts cardstock.

The alligator uses another piece of paper resembling water for the river and the same leaves for the bank.

The same paper used for the water was used for the sky and sandpaper for the desert for the snake card.

I hope my SIL likes them. I have another sheet of the stickers in case I want to make some for me!!! :)

Hospital Visit

Well, I changed cards for this hospital visit...My step-father had hip replacement surgery and I thought I was going to make a card similar to this one for him, but changed my mind.

 This card uses the little bandaid from on of SU's small-many-stamp-all-occasion sets and creamy caramel. The "body" and the bow-tie on the gown are from the SU set Sketch It. The body is the heart stamped in either the Apricot Blush or Creamy Caramel and turned upside down. I cut the gown out freehand (took 2 tries, lol) and used which ever green it was that matched the scraps of paper used for the gown. I don't recall, as I made this card almost 2 years ago.

Here is what I gave him instead. It is one I posted previously on my blog, but here it is again:

I just love Dustin Pike's dragons!!! The photo of the card isn't the greatest. I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder "Tiny Mosaics" for the green background, I thought it looked like scales! I colored in the dragon with watercolor pencils and then used gamsol to blend.

More Christmas Tags

Here are 2 more Christmas tags I made for the Splitcoaststampers swap.

The tag on the left uses patterned paper, Coluzzel tag and the Sizzix tag die and was paired with a green ribbon with red edges. The second tag uses the SU! 5 petal flower punch. 2 red flowers and 2 green flowers are used to make the flower and since I didn't have any yellow brads, I embossed a silver one with yellow EP. I used a cream paper for the tag, once again the larger Coluzzel tag and the same green/red ribbon.

Shopping Spree

I went home to visit family, and while I was there, my mom gave me a shopping spree at Stamp A Mania. They are having an awesome sale on the remaining POSH stamps, check it out before they are all gone.

So here's what I got.

4 of the Pacific NorthWest set:

I also got 2 Stamp A Mania stamps:

Indian Dancer Card

This card took me a long time to get to where I liked it. I messed up the background and tried to fix it first one way, then another. Finally, I found the turquoise brads and that was a good start, but it wasn't until I added the turquoise paper to the corners that I finally liked it.

The Indian image is from B&J's Art Stamps and I colored it with colored pencils. The background is also from B&J's and inked with Inkredible! Maple Cream in the center and Purple Eggplant around the edge. The feathers are also B&J's and are stamped with the eggplant ink and then the edges cut out and embossed with Stamp A Mania's Silver City EP (the best I've ever used). I used SU's Itty Bitty backgrounds and Tempting Turquoise and Creamy Caramel for the background. I covered up a mistake with 2 turquoise brads and then backed the card on turquoise paper.

Christmas Tag Swap

I joined a Christmas tag swap on SplitCoastStampers. It took awhile to get into the Christmas spirit, but just in time, inspiration struck!

The first tag that I made used some holly paper I've had forever. (I've been doing a lot of using stuff I have had forever and not ever used before for these SCS swaps!) I used my old Sizzix tag die and then the old Sizzix holly die. I cut out the tag and then xyroned the paper and put it on white cardstock and cut out the tag by hand. For the tag on the left, I xyroned the wrong side (shouldn't do things that early in the morning) so I embossed with my ultra thick clear EP. I used some green/maroon cardstock for the holly diecuts that matched the colors in the decorated paper and used the holly leaves for the "to" and "from" which I hand wrote. I edged the tag with a gold pen - something I learned at a convention several years ago, but don't remember who showed me - and finished it with gold ribbon.

I've often used my Sizzix lightbulb diecuts for tags, but this needed something "more" so I used some pine tree paper to make the tag (once again backing it on white cardstock) and using thin twine for the cord, tried to make it look like the lights were strung on a tree. I tried green twine first, since most cords are green, but it didn't stand out much on the background, so I changed to the brown. I used silver EP on the end of the bulb and added clear Stickles to the small cutout on the light as a reflection.

I bought this patterned paper for this swap, but then didn't know what to do with it. So this turned into a very simple tag. I used an old coluzzle to cut out the tag, Big Lots paper for the red and the green. I've had the little green tag forever; long ago I had use of a punch/die and cut out bunches to "use later". Well, it was finally later! LOL I attached the green tag with a white brad and here is my simple tag.

Yes, I'm Still Alive, Just Not Stamping

I know it has been quite awhile since I posted last, but between vacations, job interviews, job rejections and the resulting depression episodes, I swapped the craft room with one of the guest rooms and have been unable to find anything. Here is the chaos I've created. You can see why I say I can't find anything! Before I can create again, I must organize it all!

Card Candy - Flowers

Here is the last of the card candy for the SCS swap, flowers:

I'm not a big flower person, so joining this swap and making flowery things is a big deal. The first one is pink flowers from Prima, 2 layers, with a white brad for the center. The tag is punched from SU's Baroque Motifs in Adirondack's Salmon. The background paper is DCWV and the flower brad is something I had and never used - until now!!! The vase is a Punch Bunch punch, punched out of some recycled paper I got at WalMart...I don't recall the name of the company, but it alludes to the fact that it is recycled paper. I then used more Prima flowers, once again 2 in different shades of peach with white brads for the center. The pansy is a Sizzix die, an original red one called Pansy. I cut out one of SU's purples, but I don't know which one, then white, then green scraps, so I don't know what brand. On the white, I used the purple flocking powder from Michael's $1 bin and then Yellow Stickles. The topper is from a paper pack I bought when I first started doing this about 7 years ago. I've used quite a few items I've had forever and never used making the candy for this swap!!! Always a good thing!!! :)

More Card Candy

Here is the graduation card candy for the SCS swap:

The topper, the book and the tassel sentiment are all SU, from Tassel Time. The two die cuts are Ellison Thin Cuts. The books sentiment is hand written. I've included, but aren't shown, different color ribbons for the diploma, so the user can choose an appropriate color. SU circle and scallop circle punches were used. And, once again, deckle scissors were used! :-)

Dustin Pike's Newest Release

Dustin Pike's newest release is a set of zoo images!!! Check them out, and get today's freebie!!!

Stamp A Mania Cards

In celebration of Stamp A Mania's sale, here are some of my cards using Stamp A Mania stamps.

These two cards use SAM's rollers, the quail is a panel from the Spirit Dancer roller, while the other card uses images from their Southwest roller. Both use brown and cream/tan cardstocks from Big Lots, black paper, black ink and the Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Diamonds in the Rough. The sentiments for both cards are from SU, the first is from a very old set ??? and the "friendship" is from Wonderful Words I. I used deckle scissors on both cards.

These cards are also made with SAM rollers. All three use their Ancient Relic roller for the background (I love that one) and the Petroglyph Herder and Petroglyph Hunter rollers for the main image. The top cards use SU's Creamy Caramel ink while the other uses SU's Basic Brown. The lighter paper is from Big Lots, while the darker colors are DCWV. I used the SW corner punch on all the cards. I'm not sure where I bought the eyelets.

I love this stamp. The chile roller is a clearsnap (I think) that I got from SAM and the chile is from SAM as well. I used generic green and red ink and paper.

This eagle is embossed with a mixture of SAM's Silver City EP (the **best** silver EP I've found...and I've tried bunches!) and Desert Jewels EP. I embossed on black paper and put it on SU's Tempting Turquoise.