Happy Birthday, Auntie

One last birthday card for the year. Today is the 84th birthday for my Aunt Sis. She is celebrating by an overnight visit with my Mom to the riverboat casino. She doesn't care for frilly feminine things so I thought this card would be a nice compromise.

Happy 80th Birthday, Mom

Mom won't be happy that I advertised her age but this month marked her 80th birthday. She celebrated in grand style with my siblings and her grands. I made this special stair step card at a class with Stephanie Barnard at Stamper's Corner. Loved it and all the work that went into it, so I knew it had to go to someone very special. 

candles4birthdays4Bob

A Flip It card I made for Farley's hubby Bob who celebrated on the 18th. I used dies from The Stamps of Life. The stamp is from Papertrey Ink. 

Googie Birthday

Now that Christmas is over, I can post a few birthday cards I made this month for some December birthdays. This first one is for Nancy's hubby Mark who celebrated on the 12th. I used my new Papertrey Googie dies to create this little gem. Love the look.

Merry Christmas

Another Sunburst card based upon the tutorial taught to me by my crafty little sister Chrissie earlier this month. I love the complex look we achieved with a few simple steps. And she also inspired me to use a NBUS cardinal die as the focal point. Love it. 

Merry Christmas to all and I hope you've enjoyed seeing my 25 Cards of Christmas. Stay tuned for more card making merriment over the coming weeks. There's always a holiday requiring some cards.

Charley Harper Cardinal

Another card I made at the Shoebox session with Nancy and Farley earlier this year. These are based upon drawings by Charley Harper. I love them. I have been hoarding them since February when I made them, knowing they would be perfect as Christmas cards.  

Another Big Holiday Wish

Another version of the 6x6 tutorial via Operation Write Home. 

Pastel Snowman

Another card from my watercoloring session. Used the snowman2build from Stephanie Barnard as my starting place. Because you don't really think I could draw a snowman freehand, do you?

Merry Reindeer Penguin

Another card made using the tutorial from Kristina Werner on Day One in my Holiday Card Workshop. This one has a few differences from the one I posted earlier this month. One being that I've turned my Stampin' Up Owl into a reindeer. And two, I applied textured Snow through my stencil instead of gold paste. I really like this card and would like to make more of them in the future. On to 2015.

Big Holiday Wishes

I took a tip from Kristie who was featured on the Operation Write Home blog and tried to make as many cards as I could from one paper pad. She uses the adorable 6x6 pads that are so prominent now. I have a couple of 12x12 pads from Christmases past that I would like to finish off this year. Thus, I started an assembly line of cards. Quite a few were made with the silver grey palette. I hope to make many more cards using her techniques. She's a master (or mistress) of quantity quality card making. 

Papertrey Penguin

Another Pompom pal from Papertrey. I think these little critters are adorable. Colored with Distress Markers. Papers are from that same Doodlebug pad I've been using all season. Six more shopping days.

American Modernist Cardinal

This card was made earlier this year when Farley, Nancy and I had a Shoebox card-making evening. Each person brought a shoe box containing the parts and pieces necessary to assemble a card for which we provided a ready-made sample. For Farley's share, she provided pieces cut on her Klic-N-Kut cutter to make cardinal cards. These clever cards were inspired by Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist Charley Harper whose work I adore. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much I liked making them.

Merry Mixed Media

Another card panel from the May Flaum mixed media class at Scramp Camp in Fairfield. The trees were cut on Silhouette several years ago and languishing in my Christmas stash. Finally time to use them.

Warm Wishes

I spotted a cool watercolored snowman on Pinterest and decided to try to interpret it using Stephanie Barnard's snowman2build from The Stamps of Life. I am very happy with the results.

Pinecone

I can't really provide many details on this card because I made it at a recent Scramp Camp class with May Flaum. I do know it uses several Tim Holtz tools & designs and it's way out of my usual comfort zone. But I really like it. And so does hubby. So perhaps I should stroll out of my comfort zone more often.

PomPom Rudolph

Another Papertrey Ink PomPom Pal watercolored with Distress Markers and given a home on a Stephanie Barnard Flip it. This combination of things just makes me smile!

Believe

One of the images I watercolored while at Garage Camp in October. Sweet little stamp from Papertrey Ink.

Santa and Unity's Friends with Flair

 

At last, a Friday where I remember to post in time for Unity's weekly challenge. Made this card with papers from Doodlebug's Home for the Holidays. (Yes, soon it will be gone forever). Clean and simple but I'm happy with it. The stamp is from Unity.

Reindeer Games

Oops. I nearly forgot to post today. I guess my brain is soggy from the rain. I made this card for the monthly challenge at The Stamps of Life. The requirement is to use the current month stamp or die. Tictactoe2play was a challenge for a Christmas theme but I finally came up with the idea for Reindeer Games. I thought it was cute. Sentiment was computer generated. Papers from DCWV Paper stack. Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

Holiday Card Workshop - Day Four

This day of the workshop features one layer cards. As mentioned yesterday, this is not my forté. However, I was taken with Julie's one layer masked design on kraft card stock. So I tried to give it a whirl with the materials I have on hand. This is the result. Ho ho ho

Cool Christmas

Very simple one layer card created in my Holiday Card class in a prior year. I don't really know that I'm a one layer kind of gal. Go big or go home????

Blue Christmas

This is one of those cards that looked a lot better in my head than once created. I used Farley's December sketch for Paperartistsonline.com and a holiday paper stack from Michael's. The stamp is from Unity. I will work on the concept and try to come up with a better one.

Penguin Greeting

This holiday card was created using a Flip It die from Stephanie Barnard, papers from Doodlebug's Home for the Holidays and a Pompom Pal from Papertrey Ink colored with Distress markers. Don't have any pompoms so I used Stickles instead. Stickles dress up anything. Love this little guy.

Make It Monday Merry & Bright

This is another of the Papertrey O'Tannenbaum images I stamped while at Garage Camp with Nancy. When I saw the Make it Monday #191 challenge this week, I knew I had to make a submission. I do not have the urge right now to deal with glitter flying every where in my craft room and my "messy space" in the garage is unavailable to me right now. I saw this glittery ribbon at Hobby Lobby this week and knew it would work as a reasonable substitute. So there you go. Another card done. Merry & Bright.

Rejoice. It's Day Five of my Holiday Cards

You've seen this card before but I'm already running behind on having cards prepared and ready to post. I used an inking technique on an embossing folder along with a stamp from Unity. Too bad it's already been posted. I could play along with Friends with Flair.

Holiday Card Workshop 2014 - Day One

I took advantage of the Black Friday sales to purchase this year's Holiday Card Workshop class from onlinecardclasses.com.

This card is my version of the Day One assignment. Kristina Werner created an adorable card using texture paste and a falling snow stencil. I had neither one of those items so I used an old tool from my stash, the Provo Craft shape punch of a star. I made my own stencil just using card stock and applied Dreamweaver metallic gold embossing paste to create the stars. I'm happy with the results, using items I already had on hand.

I also did not have a round stamp like Kristina used. So I decided to paper piece with a die set I purchased last year and never used. The little igloo is from Impression Obsession. The penguin was cobbled together using parts from the penguin in the same die set as well as my standby, the Stampin' Up! Owl punch. Oh, and the old Santa hat from Quickutz. Man, there's a lot of old stuff going on here.

I don't like to have my twine wrapped around the card so I just used red paper strips to set off the main panel. The Merry die cut word is a RAK from my good Squirrley friend Nancy.

I'm actually happy with this one. Thanks for sliding by.

Bright Christmas

Another card using dies from The Stamps of Life. Love Stephanie's creations. This one is from candles4birthdays. I have given myself a little challenge to use non-Holiday stamps in a new way. The sentiment is from last year's holiday set called lights4Christmas. The papers are from a DCWV stack. The little mistletoe is an old Quickutz die from my Vixen set. The wonky rectangle die is from Papertrey Ink's recent Stamp Affair 60's set. Thanks for bringing your sleigh by my internet home.  

Sunburst Reindeer

I spent the day following Thanksgiving FaceTiming with my little sister. I asked her to give me a quick tutorial on how to make these clever sunburst cards. I figure with all the 6x6 paper pads I have floating around now, it is a good idea to use up the scraps in this way. These papers are from Doodlebug's Home for the Holidays. The fiber is from an old Club Scrap stash and my little reindeer punch was a Christmas present from my sister last year. Love him. 

In the Meadow We can Build a Snowman....

My first holiday card for 2014. I made this using stamps and dies from The Stamps of Life snowman2build along with a snowy scene embossing folder. It's almost like playing paper dolls, putting this little guy together. I'm sure you'll see more of him on future holiday cards. Thanks for stopping by.

Make It Monday #190

You don't even want to know how much work went into this card. It is a birthday card for a dear friend who is turning 70 and isn't all that happy about it. He is an avid bicyclist so I felt this card would be the perfect salve for his feelings. The greeting inside says "Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. Just keep on pedaling."

I made it for the Make It Monday #190 challenge at Papertrey Ink. We were asked to create our own plaid. The only stamps I own by Papertrey Ink which could be used for a plaid design where two little pavement strips from City Scene. After I finished grousing about that fact, I realized that a roadway would be perfect for this card. Making a plaid design with ink is much more difficult than it first appears. Kudos to everyone who has done in successfully.

Papertrey sets used for this card are City Scene, Pedal Pusher and Birthday Classics: December. I also used the matching dies for Pedal Pusher. Papers are from DCWV Merry Christmas stack and Club Scrap. Thanks for pedaling by.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is another card I made for the MIM challenge over at Papertrey Ink last week. Erin Lincoln provided the inspiration piece and I used the embossed lines from a die to serve as guides for watercolor using metallic Twinking H2O's. The die is called Mighty Bloom and the stamps are from the November mini birthday set, all from Papertrey Ink.

Mighty Oak

Can't get enough of the Mighty Oak stamp and die from Papertrey Ink which I purchased months ago and hadn't even opened. NBUS. Love the colorful leaves, each individually stamped. Whew!

Fluttering from the Autumn Tree

Another Thanksgiving card using the Mighty Oak stamp and die from Papertrey Ink. Still chipping away at that Mirabella paper stack. Clean and relatively simple.

Friends with Flair

Just a Thanksgiving card made for Unity's Friends with Flair and Farley's sketch at Paperartistsonline. Paper Studio papers used. Stamp from Unity.

Birthday Cupcake

Hubby asked me this morning if I had any extra birthday cards around he could use to send to his ex. After I stopped snorting, I found this one in my stash. I love this card but never got around to using it or posting it. Made it in 2012 for Farley's birthday before realizing it might be inappropriate to send a cupcake card to my WPF friend. So now the ex gets it. Lucky gal.

Created with papers from a Simon Says Stamp card kit and a cupcake stamp from Cocoa Daisy (gifted to me by Nancy). Love this stamp. I need to dig it out again!!! Thanks for stopping by.

Make it Monday

Well, I actually made it on Wednesday but it is for the MIM challenge over at Papertrey Ink. Erin Lincoln provided an inspiration piece using embossed lines from a die to serve as Watercoloring guides. The die is called Mighty Bloom and the stamps are from the November mini birthday set. The banner die is from the Songbirds set. I used Inktense pencils to color and once dry, I applied a shimmer of Twinkling H2O's. Love the result. Thanks for dropping by.

Happy Anniversary, Chrissie & Matt

As mentioned earlier this week, I needed two anniversary cards this month. The second one is for my dear little sister and her hubby who celebrate one year today. This card is very similar to the one I made for my brother and his wife but I took the Color Play palette suggested in the Inspiration Archive from Papertrey Ink along with the same Shutterbug Special stamp set. I adore this set. I will also post this over at Papertrey to join in their challenge. Thanks for looking.

Happy Anniversary, John & Jean

I need a couple of anniversary cards in the month of November. Both were very similar but using different color ways. This first one was designed for my brother and his wife for their 23rd anniversary using the Shutterbug Special Stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I did do a bit of fussy cutting and raised the shutter area, adding some bling. The image was also embossed with some sparkling EP. A bit of Washi and a gorgeous card. The stamps do it all. I also posted this in a black & white challenge over at Paperartistsonline. Thanks for looking.

Happy Birthday, Ismael

Today is our son-in-law's birthday, as well as that of my Dad in heaven. I don't think Dad enjoyed a stout, being a devoted Wiedemann fan, but Ismael certainly enjoys a stout now and then. So here's one for the birthday boy.

I made this one at Garage Camp using another of Squirrely Nancy's beer stamps as well as a modification of a technique she shared with me. Her technique uses a wood grain stamp. I don't have one so I used my wood grain embossing folder. The result is similar. Image is colored with Distress Markers. I like this card. Hope you do, too.

Happy Halloween

One more card for Halloween. Another made with papers from Martha Stewart, ribbon from Michael's and a stamp from Unity Stamp. I will post this for Friends with Flair over at Unity. Have a treatful Halloween.

Witchy Woman

Only two days remaining to post my Halloween cards. This one was made at Scramp Camp last month with an old Martha Stewart paper pad and my favorite witch from Close to My Heart. Of course, I copied an idea I saw out on the webs. Thanks for looking.

Happy birthday, John

Because I have the need for several upcoming birthday cards (including today!!!), during my recent visit, my Squirrely friend Nancy kindly allowed me to use her beer bottle stamp from Unity Stamps. No longer available, I'm sad to say.

I pretty much shamelessly copied a card she made for her Dad using the same stamp. I have no imagination. Anyway, stolen or not, I still love it. This one's for you, John. Happy 58th birthday.

Life is Full of Ups and Downs

Still working on finishing the old Club Scrap kits. Proud to say I decimated Natural Resources with this layout. Now on to another October kit.

I was inspired by Ali Edwards' Story Stamp layout using tags. I'm just not at that place yet where I can make a no-photo layout. I've been itching to use my new Ellipse dies from Spellbinders and they "sorta" replicate the tag shape so...there you go. Die cut feathers and an arrow from Tim Holtz. Ali Edwards Get Real Story Stamps stamps used to tell my story. Photos taken in the Badlands last year on my South Dakota trip with Mom.

I hope to get to a point where I'm REALLY telling stories with these inspirational stamps but I'll have to work my way there with baby steps. This is just a trip layout. The story here is that we went in and out of the Badlands National Park numerous times on our way to Wounded Knee. Now THAT'S a story!

Go As Far as you Can See

My latest challenge to myself is to use up my old Club Scrap kits. I pulled out all of the past October kits and went to work. The first one I attacked was Natural Resources from 2009. High time to finish that off.

I added base pages from Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm and then started looking for yellow things. Pulled out stuff from Common Threads and Down to Earth as well as other items from stash. Added a lot of Wild Honey Distress Ink and voila, a primarily yellow page. Totally out of my usual zone. Attempted a Paperartistsonline challenge to make some clusters as well as using their sketch again. What you see is what you get. And I used the October Story Stamp from Ali Edwards to write my story. Another one done for the books!

From our Home to Yours

I needed a couple more October birthday cards for two important people in my life. My nephew John and my Squirrely friend Farley. I loved this card and these Papertrey Ink Stamps so I had to make one for each of them. After all, they share the same birthday. The sunshine die is from The Stamps of Life. Happy birthday to both of you!!!

You Lift Me Up

Happy Birthday, Nancy

Loving this card. I shamelessly copied one from the Design Team at Papertrey Ink but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Used Colorbox Inks from Stephanie Barnard which are my latest obsession. Sequins cut from Shimmer Sheetz using a die from My Favorite Things.

I don't know what it is I love so much about this card. The colors, the feathers, the bit of sparkle? But I do love it. This card was made as a birthday card for my good friend, Squirrley Nancy.

Operation Write Home

Spent this early season rainy day making a few last minute Christmas cards for Operation Write Home. Here is one using the stamps and dies from The Stamps of Life ornaments4Christmas along with scraps of paper from Doodlebug Design.
Jen