KC705 Ears to You

Happy Thursday, peeps!  And Happy Leap Year day! I made a fun card yesterday, trying to get a wee bit ahead of making some Easter cards and I remembered this fun little Impression Obsession set with bunnies and squirrels!  So I stamped a few and here's what I came up with:

I stamped the bunnies in Smoky Slate and die cut them out, then mounted them on a Lemon Lolly mat, cut with a Close to My Heart die.  Each opening was filled with a little scrap of gingham, and the bunnies were popped up on top!  I had the retired Little Cuties set out on my desk for another project and I thought the sentiments would work well with all those wee little ears, LOL!

I added a Lemon Lolly twine bow and it was finished!  And I am going to toss this in the ring over at Krafty Chicks where anything goes!

 Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Little Cuties (ret), Bunnies & Squirrels D5643 (Impression Obsession)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Lemon Lolly, Gingham DSP (ret)
Ink	Smoky Slate, Versafine Black
Accessories	Lemon Lolly Twine, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Circle Panel Die (Close to My Heart), Bunnies Dies (Impression Obsession)

AHSC566 Queen Bee Birthday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Halfway through the week! I have a sweet little card using some sweet little papers, all for the Atlantic Hearts sketch this week!  First, here's the sketch:

So here we go:

The papers and circular element are all from Echo Park's Bee Happy pad....I just love the colors and prints!  (For anyone who wants to know, the narrower pieces are 3/4" wide, and the wider pieces are 1 1/8" wide!)  I isolated the edges of the pre-printed banner by fussy-cutting them out, then slipped it into a Stylish Shapes dies with the banner edges over TOP of the die and ran it through my Big Shot.  The leaves are cut from the same pad using the retired Pierced Blooms dies.  The So Saffron flowers were cut with a My Favorite Things Stitched Flowers die. That sweet little bee is from a retired SU set called Every Little Bit!

I used a Darcie's Heart & Home set for the inside:

Thanks for popping in today!

I am asking your indulgence here...my family's heritage is Scots-Irish and whenever I see a man in a kilt at any sort of heritage function, I am reminded of our trip to Scotland a few years back with my sister.  I jokingly asked my (only) little brother if he would ever wear a kilt.  He smirked a little and said "Maybe!"  Imagine my surprise when he knocked at my door the other day and was wearing this:

The Black Watch plaid is considered our Mackey family plaid, and I remember my dad having a plaid jacket like this, but he definitely did NOT have a kilt!  Anyway, Raymond's Masonic group is having a kilt night, so he will put it to good use!  And no, he's not holding a glass of scotch, but good old homemade Italian wine, made by hubby John!  I give a man credit for wearing a kilt and knee socks!  He looks pretty good, I think!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Every Little Bit (ret), Beeutiful (Darcie's Heart & Home)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Black, So Saffron (ret), Bee Happy (Echo Park),
Ink	Versafine Black, Bumblebee (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals, Black & White Gingham Ribbon
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish SHapes Dies, Pierced Blooms Dies (ret), Stitched Flower Dies (My Favorite Things), 1/8" Hole Punch, 1/4" Hole Punch, Aquapainter, Wink of Stella

inspire.Create#162 Yee Haw!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Today I'm playing with the Inspire.Create challenge to CASE their designer!  Here's the card they want us to CASE:

I've been trying to make some masculine birthday cards to have on hand, as well as use up some scraps of scrapbook paper I have, so I looked in my stash and decided to make a cowboy-themed card! Here we go:

This retired Yee Haw set is one I'll never part with! Such a fun array of images and sentiments!  I used some papers from Authentique's Frontier Collection, cutting out the circles with the Stylish Shapes dies and arranging them on some gingham paper.  I stamped, colored and fussy-cut the sentiment, the popped it on top of some leather-looking paper and added a rope embellishment:

I combined a sentiment from the set along with some words from Paper Studio's Everyday Expressions for the inside:

Another one to add to my b-day stash!  Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Yee Haw (ret), Everyday Expressions (Paper Studio)
Card stock & Papers	Naturals Cream (ret), Cherry Cobbler, Frontier (Authentique)
Ink	Real Red, Versafine Black, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip (ret), Early Espresso
Accessories	Twine from my stash, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Red Marker, Blender Pen

Inkspirational #310 Snarky Birthday!

 Happy Monday, peeps!  I have a sweet, funny birthday card for you today.  It uses the mood board from Inkspirational, which is really yummy:

And I CASE'd a really cute sketch that Jaimie Babarczy used here...adorable!  So here we go:

I recently picked up a fun CTMH set at a flea market, and it had this cake slice image and die in it, so I put it to use, stamping it in Mint Macaron and Pink Pirouette.  I added a Country Gingham mat and a Pink Pirouette scallop and diecut a circle from the Everyday Essentials dies.  A little candle, some iridescent gems and some embossing on the front for fun:

And then the snarky part...you definitely would have to be a certain kind of friend to send a card with this sentiment, LOL!

My sister would probably get the humor on this one....but I'll have to save it until December, LOL!  Thanks for popping in today!

Cassidy's basketball picture:

She's almost as tall as I am already!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Celebrate Today (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pink Pirouette (ret),  Country Gingham DSP (ret)
Ink	Mint Macaron (ret), Pink Pirouette (ret), Blushing Bride (ret)
Accessories	Iridescent Gems, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Softly Sophisticated EF, Everyday Essential Dies, Scalloped Contour Dies, Celebrate Today Dies (Close to My Heart), Daffodil Delight Marker, Wink of Stella

FMS678 Sketch By Anne Marie

Happy Sunday, peeps! Hope your weekend is going by nicely!  Anne Marie is our Paper Players hostess this week with an awesome sketch! Love all these layers--check it out:

The hardest part was choosing which papers to use, LOL!  I chose to use some Boho Blue-themed papers from Countryside Inn and Poetic Expressions, and a little sprig from Dainty Delight!  Here we go:

Each panel is matted with cardstock to coordinate; I stamped the flowers in Night of Navy and lightly watercolored them with Boho Blue ink.  If you use a light touch, the outlines won't bleed!  I mounted them on two circles; both were was diecut with the Everyday Details dies, and I embossed the white one with the Timeworn Type embossing folder, and added some pearls:

The sentiment from Lasting Joy was heat-embossed in white on another piece of Countryside Inn DSP.  Since the embossing tends to warp DSP, I backed it with a piece of cardstock before embossing to give it some stability:

Everything was mounted on a Basic White card base; I think this could be used for any number of occasions, so I left the inside blank.

The design team at the Paper Players blog has come up with some fun, amazing samples, so I hope you'll head over there to see them! Be sure to share your creativity with us as well!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Lasting Joy, Dainty Delight
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Countryside Inn DSP, Poetic Expressions DSP
Ink	Night of Navy, Boho Blue, Craft White
Accessories	Pearls, Dimensionals, White Embossing Powder
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Everyday Details Dies, Dainty Delight Dies, Timeworn Type Embossing Folder, Heat Tool

Wish Upon A Star Birthday

Happy Saturday, peeps!  My card today is a little out of my norm, but I needed a card quickly and just sort of threw this together!  A sweet church friend is a dog lover....I mean a REAL dog lover, and her birthday is coming up.  The challenge at JUGS is to use stencils, and the Seize the Birthday challenge is to use red as the main color:

I pulled out the retired Happy Tails and its matching punch, some star stencils I received as a gift, and here is my quick card:

I remember experimenting with red inks on red cardstocks but I forget what I ended up thinking was the best color...this was Cherry Cobbler, and I don't really like the muddy effect it created, but I needed to get this in the mail, so I'll have to experiment again!  Anyway, I stamped my pup on Crumb Cake and punched him out:

The sentiment on the front of the card is a from Lawn Fawn's Upon a Star:

and on the inside, the sentiment is from Spellbinders, along with some paw prints from Happy Tails:

I hope she likes it!  And just to show you how special my friend is, she volunteers for an organization called Canine Partners for Life.  They train service dogs for people with disabilities and are seizure-prone, and besides the regular trainers, they use people like Sue who raise and foster puppies to be service dogs. They also use prisoners who train them as well.  It's a pretty cool setup! She brings her dogs to church and sometimes we can hear them as they are napping and dreaming, LOL!  Check it out at their website!

Thanks so much for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happy Tails (ret), Upon a Star (Lawn Fawn), Greetings (Spellbinders)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, Real Red
Ink	Real Red, Versafine Black, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Nested Essentials Dies, Dog Punch (ret), Star Stencil (A Color Life Designs), Blending Brush

FMS624 Smile

Happy Friday, everyone! I just love the FMS sketch this week...SO many possibilities! 

I am still playing with the SAB Sunny Day DSP, so I cut some coordinating 1" strips and came up with this:

I used the big floral from Hooray for Surprises, along with the matching dies, to make some big bold flowers.  Wasn't quite the look I was going for, but it has a fun contemporary feel with the black leaves, so I just kept going with it.  I did add a couple of enamel dots to jazz it up a bit:

And the "smile" from Circle Sayings, stamped directly on the DSP, made ME smile:

And since I still had leftover strips, I made another card; I love things in threes, so this made me smile too:

I used the largest Perennial Postage die to cut a mat from Basic White, then cut and layered the strips to fit; I used the opposite side of the Petal Pink paper because I had cut it in the wrong orientation the first time...ooops!  These are colors I would not normally put together, but they do look nice here.  I added a Zany Zoo sentiment and a Petal Pink diecut flower, then mounted it all on a Pool Party card.  Another birthday card to add to my stash! 

Thanks for popping in today!

Dana & Wayne enrolled Cassidy in a basketball skills camp; it happens to be run by someone that Dana went to school with:

She had fun and hopefully will hone her skills!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hooray for Surprises, Circle Sayings, Zany Zoo
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pool Party, Petal Pink, Basic Black, Sunny Days DSP
Ink	Versafine Black
Accessories	Dimensionals, Enamel Dots (Pretty Pink Posh)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Hooray for Surprises Dies, Everyday Details Dies, Perennial Postage Dies

CASC&S531 Make A St Patrick's Wish

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Yay, the weekend is almost here!  The sketch at Clean & Simple Colors & Sketches is a fun one this week:

I hope that I didn't detract too much from the CAS part, but I just had to add a little doodad to my card:

I was so excited to see this lovely green patterned paper in the SAB Sunny Days DSP!  I think SU has fallen short on their use of green lately!  So I decided to use it for the horizontal strips, then added a little shamrock made from stitched hearts from the Give It A Whirl die set:

I guess I should have made it a FOUR-leaf clover to wish on, but it looked better with three, LOL!  The sentiment is from Hooray for Surprises, which has become one of my favorites from the current mini catalog! So versatile!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hooray for Surprises
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Shaded Spruce, Sunny Days DSP
Ink	Shaded Spruce
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Give It A Whirl Dies

AHSC565 Stippled Vellum Roses

Happy Thursday, peeps! Do you ever have an idea in your mind for a card or technique and when you try to execute it, it falls just a little short of your expectations?  That's what happened with this card, but I am sharing in nonetheless, just because I put time into it and it's about 75% okay...not 100%, but I'll go for 75%!  It uses the Atlantic Hearts Sketch for this week, which has banners...I love banners!:

And my idea was to heat emboss the rose from Stippled Roses in white, on vellum.  So here we go:

So my issue with the card is not so much the way the embossing came out...I loved the effect, and I colored the roses themselves on the back side with a Bubble Bath blend.....but my issue was  ADHERING the vellum to the DSP.  What a wrinkly, warped mess! Of course I couldn't use dimensionals because they would show through the vellum, so I used a new-to-me clear glue a little different than what I usually use.  The edges of my diecut began to curl up something fierce, so I ended up adhering them with glue dots, which is probably what I should have used on the whole thing.  Anyway, it's not really noticeable here, but believe me, the top of the card looks a fright.  It was a lesson learned, that's for sure!

At any rate, you can see that I used several different patterns of Bubble Bath DSP as well as a strip of Bubble Bath glimmer paper---hopefully that will draw the recipient's eye away from the wrinkles! I added the birthday sentiment at the bottom; it's from the same set!  

I like the sketch, so I may try again with a different focal point! Thanks for bearing with me today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Stippled Roses
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Vellum, Bubble Bath, Bubble Bath DSP, Bubble Bath Glimmer
Ink	Bubble Bath, White Craft
Accessories	White Embossing Powder
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stippled Roses Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies

FF0153 Making Friends

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I have another "friendship" card today; while I was making my Paper Players card, I decided to just ink up another cute image from that Rare Images set. This one features a little girl with her kitten; so here we go:

This time I stamped my little girl on some watercolor paper with Stazon ink and colored her with inks and an aquapainter, leaving the little kitten's face white:

I found an older SU stamp that had this friendship sentiment, so I stamped it on watercolor paper as well, then diecut it with the Nested Essentials die.  I added some featherstitching to the side of the watercolor paper panel, as well as at the bottom of the Azure Afternoon card, and added some black and white gingham to coordinate:

I think I'll throw this in the ring over at Festive Friday; the blue and white colors and the "supportive statement" should fit the bill!

Thanks for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Friends 24-7 (ret), Vintage Children (Rare Image Stamps)
Card stock & Papers	Watercolor, Azure Afternoon
Ink	Stazon, Azure Afternoon, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride (ret)
Accessories	Black & White Gingham Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Perennial Postage Dies, Nested Essentials Dies, Stitching Lines Dies (Ellen Hutson), Aquapainter

Celebrate You

Happy Monday, peeps! Just a quick post today; Friday was Dana's birthday and we weren't able to celebrate it with her on the day as she was standing for her best friend at her wedding!  So we got together over the weekend at PF Chang's (no pictures, oops) and had a birthday dinner.  Here's her card; I was experimenting with some "fun fold" techniques:

It uses a 12" piece of DSP (in this case, I used two 6" pieces!), cut to 5 1/4" then scored and folded at 2" and 4" from each end.  The top section on each side is cut from the 4" score down 2" to create a triangle.  The triangles are then flipped over and adhered to the bottom section of the DSP on the inside and folded back and forth to meet in the middle:

I used some Carta Bella's Gather papers for this card, and I covered the "seam" on the inside back with another strip of paper.  It all got adhered to a Blushing Bride mat of 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".  The belly band on the front was stamped with a sentiment from Suite Sayings and the inside sentiment was from Hooray for Surprises, both in the retired Soft Succulent ink:

A fun fold for my sweet daughter!  I am going to enter this over at the Creative Creases Challenge, where they are always looking for fun folds!  Thanks for popping by today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Dana's and Wayne's newlywed friends Billy and Lisa:

What a pretty background for a courthouse wedding!!  They look so happy!  Congratulations!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hooray for Surprises (ret), Suite Sayings (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Blushing Bride (ret), Evening Evergreen (ret), Gather (Carta Bella)
Ink	Soft Succulent (ret)
Accessories
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Layering Ovals Dies (ret), Stitched Shapes Dies (ret)