Sympathy Cards

Unfortunately, I have needed several Sympathy cards this year.

A masculine card for a friend that lost a son.

Another masculine one with a beautiful saying.

Several...the one in the lower right has embossing that doesn't show up very well, so below is a close up photo.

Howling Wolf

Sympathy Card

4th of July

Southwestern

SCS Sketch Challenge 431

O, Fair New Mexico, 
We love, we love you so,
Our hearts with pride o'reflow,
No matter where we go.

I've been homesick lately, so I've been thinking about a chile card for several weeks, but nothing I tried seemed to work. I was visiting SplitCoastStampers, and found this sketch challenge and suddenly, the card came together in my head. Here is the link to the sketch challenge, check out all the creations!

I don't remember where I got the chile paper, I think a LSS was going out of business :( so I bought all they had. One side is the green chile and the other side is red chile. In NM you will be asked (when ordering Mexican food) if you want Red or Green? I'm a green chile person but my husband is a red chile person, so in our house we make both kinds of enchiladas.

The phrase is from Stamp A Mania, the chile is from SU's Southwest set and is embossed with Stamp A Mania's Red Chile EP.  I used the Cuttlebug Southwest embossing border on the black strip.

Native American Chief

This wonderful image is from B&J's Stamps. The background teepees are from Stamping Sensations. I stamped the teepees in black on Bazzill paper. The Chief is stamped on copic paper and colored with copics. To cover a mis-stamped image, I used feathers as an embellishment.

Paper: Bazzill (2 different browns) and Neenah white paper

Ink: Ranger Archive black ink, Copics #E25, E27, R11 and E51 for the face, T3 for the feathers blended with the 0 colorless blender pen, BG05 and R22

Accessories: feathers (from Stamp A Mania), Deckle Nesties, twine

I made this for my Uncle's birthday. The cool thing about this card is that these cliff dwellings are near Silver City, NM which is not too far from where I grew up in Las Cruces, NM.

The stamp is of the Gila Cliff Dwellings and is from Stamp A Mania. The EP is also from Stamp A Mania and is called Sand Tapestry and it was embossed on Bazzill Tortilla cardstock.

I tore it and put it on a brown from DCWV and added the 3 brads in the corner.

Sympathy Angel

I love this angel and this sympathy verse and given that it is a Native American saying and a Native American angel, they seem a perfect match.

I used a yellowy color paper that coordinated very well with More Mustard, which is what I used for the angel. Then I overstamped the verse using black. I cut out the black matt with deckle edges. I used the smooth side of the yellowy paper for the angel and then the textured side for the bottom matt.

Stamps: The expression is from SU's Hope for Comfort

The angel is from Stamp A Mania

Paper: American Crafts

Ink: Basic Black and More Mustard from SU

Accessories: Deckle scissors

Monochromatic Flower Card

This is an anomaly for me...a Stamp A Mania card that isn't a southwest card!

I used their Iris #2 (large one) stamp, the Brushed Bird in Flight and the saying Hope Blooms for the card. The background uses their Memory Mists - which make GREAT backgrounds - Eau de Pansy, Blueberry Shake and Lavender Tea for the background. When Cynthia (from Stamp A Mania) showed me how do do this, she said that mixing 3 colors together looks better than 2, and now that I've tried both ways, I must agree. I then stamped using the Cat's Eye chalk ink - Blue Iris, and found a complimentary blue to use as a matt.

It is an easy card and I find the monochromaticness calming.

Independence Day Cards

I made 4th of July cards this year; 31 of them. Here I'll post 2 of them and here is the link to pictures of all the rest.

The first card uses paper I bought at the Arlington Scrapbook Convention. I wish I remembered the brand, but I don't. I borrowed the Statue of Liberty stamp from a friend and embossed with Stamp A Mania's Verdigris EP on Ivory paper. Matted on a blue and a red scrap paper. The stamp Stars and Stripes is from The Paper Studio and is stamped with SU's Brilliant Blue.

The second card uses patterned paper and red for the background. The Happy 4th is from the SU set Happy Fourth, stamped with Brilliant Blue on white paper. I punched it out with the SU punch Curly Label. The firecrackers I made by rolling strips of patterned paper and gluing a small piece of twine inside them for the fuse. I don't think you can see it in the picture, but the end of the fuses I dipped in red Stickles so it looks like they are lit.

Happy Independence Day!

Ocean Cards

I wanted to make an ocean birthday card for my aunt, but didn't like the first attempt, or the second attempt, or...

I finally came up with 3 variations...which do you like best and why?

The first card has a turtle. In the first, failed, attempts the grass didn't look very good when it was embossed with the bubbles. So with the turtle card, I only embossed part way down, but I'm not sure I like the abrupt stop of the bubbles.

The second card has a seahorse and different grass. The grass held up better to the embossing, so I think I like this one best.

The third card doesn't have the bubbles embossed on it. I will put it on the same orange background as the others once I've decided if I am going to emboss it or not.














Here is the inside.

For all cards:

Paper: SU Bordering Blue, DCWV orange

Ink: Adarondack's Lettuce

Embossing folder: Cuttlebug bubbles

Animals: Spellbinders Shapabilities From the Sea

Chalk: SU Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Olive Green

Stamp: Inspired by Nature by SU for the second and third cards and Potted Grasses from Stamp A Mania.

Musical Card

I wanted a musical themed card for a birthday card and finally came up with this one. The scanner had a bit of a hard time with the silver paper because it is so reflective, but the two main components of the front are matted with the silver paper.

Paper: Black, silver envelope liner paper, white DCWV textured card

Ink: Versamark, SU Black

Stamps: SU Musical Manuscript, sheet music background is Rubber Stampede

Accessories: Stamp A Mania's Silver City EP (the absolute best silver EP I've ever used)

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.

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! :)

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:

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.

Stamp A Mania's Big Sale

Hi all,

My favorite stamp company, Stamp A Mania, is having a huge sale. They are selling their inventory of Clearsnap products; rollagraph wheels, Cat's Eye inks, etc. They are making room for the new POSH line from Dee Gruenig. Check it out!

Card Candy - Father's Day

For the card candy swap I've joined, I also choose the Father's Day category. Here is my creation:

The topper is cut from ivory cardstock I got from Office Whichever and has the sentiment piece on it. The sentiment is from Auntie Amy's and is stamped on scraps using Adirondack's Cabin Fever ink. The saw, hammer, drill and screwdriver are Dustin Pike images colored with copics. Two of my drills have cords, but the other two are cordless, LOL! The golf tag and hardware tag are punched using SU's tag punches, while the saw tag is an Ellison Thin Cuts (Tag #7). The campfire tag is cut with Sizzix Tag Set.

The golf tag uses SU's Tropical Turf roller and Sporting Goods. The golf tee and the background tag are colored using Bic pen.

The campfire tag uses SU's Roughin' It, with the logs stamped with basic brown and colored with copic XXX, and the flame colored with generic orange and red markers and then colored with yellow copic XXX. The mosquitos are embossed with clear EP.

The hardware tag is SU's Builder Bits roller and embossed on black paper with Stamp A Mania's Silver City EP. This is the absolute best silver EP I've found. I tried multiple brands of EP and *none* work as well as Stamp A Mania's. The background tag is cut from silver envelope linings.