Summer Splash Congrats

Happy Thursday, peeps! I needed a couple congratulations cards for some new recuits!  The In Color Summer Splash is probably my favorite one from this year, so I decided to put it to good use, along with some diecuts from Hooray for Surprises and a sentiment from Best Family Ever:

I began by diecutting a panel of Summer Splash  with the Radiating Stitches die, then added a panel of coordinating DSP.  I cut some floral elements with the Hooray for Surprises die, then adhered them on with some matching ribbon:

I stamped the sentiment on a Stylish Shapes banner and popped it up:

The inside is from a new set called Happiest Day, which is my new favorite set; isn't this a fun sentiment?

New stamps, new colors, it's all fun! Thanks for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happiest Day, Best Family Ever
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Summer Splash, Summer Splash DSP
Ink	Summer Splash
Accessories	Summer Splash Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Hooray for Surprises Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Radiating Stitches Dies, Coastal Cabana Marker

Christmas Wishes

Happy gray, icky Tuesday, everyone!  I had a hard time getting started today! But I really wanted to do some stamping, so I checked out a few challenges and came up with a Christmas card in sort of non-traditional colors:

The Peace on Earth challenge has some lovely inspiration photos for us, and the Jingle Belles wants to see only cardstock....no DSP!

I took my inspiration from the bottom right inspiration photo of the pink candy canes on the brown package!  I stamped the candy cane from The Stamp Market's Candy Cane Christmas in a combination of Pretty in Pink and Blushing Bride inks, then added a bow, some glittery holly leaves and some a sentiment on a Crumb Cake diecut panel:

The Every Day Details dies are really fun to use but sometimes all those little dots can get stuck in your die, or on your cutting plate, so here's a couple little tips:  Put a layer of waxed paper between your day and your cardstock.  The "chads" are less likely to stick in the die that way! You may still need a piercing tool to poke out a stubborn one here or there.  Then, use a lint roller to remove all the little dots from your cutting plate!  Works like a charm!

And here's the inside:

Very simple and easy!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Candy Cane Christmas (The Stamp Market), Reindeer Crossing (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, White Glimmer (Close to My Heart)
Ink	Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Blushing Bride
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Every Day Details Dies, Candy Cane Christmas Dies (The Stamp Market)

CAS C&S536 Of The Earth

Happy Monday, peeps! This will be quick, as it is stamp club day! Love stamping with my girls! I needed a birthday card for our pastor's wife; she is an artist in her own right, and loves what I call the "minimalist" style, so when I saw the color challenge at Clean & Simple Colours & Sketches, it called to me!

She also loves to garden....her flowers are amazing....so I pulled out a couple of really old retired sets and made this CAS card:

The silhouette image is from the retired SU Of The Earth. My intention was to stamp, emboss the image with the Subtle embossing folder, then sponge with Pool Party ink and diecut it out.  I got ahead of myself and embossed first, and I was upset because I knew my silhouette would not have a clear image.  I tried it anyway and decided I liked the "distressed" look of it, so I went forward, adding a Pool Party and Lost Lagoon mat:

I stamped both the outside and inside sentiments with Lost Lagoon ink and it was done!

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Of The Earth (ret), A Garden is a Friend (Cornish Heritage Farms), Birthday Centers (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Lost Lagoon, Pool Party
Ink	Pool Party, Pebbled Path
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Blending Brush, Subtle Embossing Folder (ret)

PP689 Sweet Little Birdhouse

Happy Sunday, peeps! And Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, step-moms and pet-moms out there! Ann is our Paper Players hostess this week and she has a perfectly delightful color challenge for us!

I couldn't help but ink up the Country Birdhouse stamp set, with all its fun little elements, to make my card today:

I chose Smoky Slate as my additional color!  I stamped and diecut my images, coloring the florals and bird with either Blends or Markers.  I did emboss the bird house elements with the Timber embossing folder and very lightly added some Smoky Slate ink on top...you can barely see it!

I added a little silver pearl on the top, as well as some stamped embellishments on the roof elements.  Finally, it all went on a panel of Basic White, embossed with the Eyelet embossing folder.  I left off a sentiment, as I am not sure for what occasion I'll use this...it could be used for almost anything!

I hope you'll play along with these gorgeous shades that Ann has put together for us--I know I love them! Check out the Paper Players blog to see what the other team members came up with!  Hope to see you there!

Dana usually takes me out flower/plant shopping for Mother's Day, and yesterday we made a trip to a local Amish nursery.  We have LOTS of Amish nurseries in our area, so we decided to try a new one and although it was smaller than some, it didn't disappoint:

This is just one section of plants.  I was fascinated by the hanging baskets waaaaay up at the top and wondered how one would get one of them.  The Amish girls climb up and scamper across the grates to pick out the one you want!!  I was fascinated by this hanging basket:

Part of our haul:

Cassidy was very helpful in pushing the cart to our car!  Now we just have to plant everything!

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Country Birdhouse
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Lost Lagoon, Fresh Freesia, Highland Heather, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate
Ink	Smoky Slate
Accessories	Smoky Slate Pearls, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Country Birdhouse Dies, Eyelet Embossing Folder, Timber Embossing Folder, Blending Brush, Fresh Freesia Marker, Lost Lagoon & Highland Heather Blends

A Little Latte Just For Fun

Happy Friday, peeps! Yay, the weekend is here and of course, it's going to be rainy! That's okay!  Dana, Cassidy & I will be plant-shopping so a little rain won't stop us!  

My card today is a just-for-fun one...no challenges, just making some samples for my club girls to check out!  It was quick and simple, I let the DSP do most of the work!  So here we go:

I used the Little Latte DSP, fussy-cutting one of the mugs out and diecutting a plaid piece on which to stamp a sentiment from Country Bouquet:

I added a little Lemon Lolly twine just for fun! And here's the inside sentiment, from Latte Love:

I love how those two sentiments fit together, even from different sets!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Latte Love, Country Bouquet
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, A Little Latte DSP
Ink	Early Espresso
Accessories	Lemon Lolly Twine, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Nested Essential Dies

RRCB230 Set Sail

 Happy rainy Wednesday, peeps! I have another nautical card for you today using a really, really old stamp for the Retro Rubber challenge! Here's their theme

It also uses the FMS sketch:

And here we go:

This card turned out nothing like I imagined it would.  First, I wanted to use gingham, so I printed out some computer-generated gingham, and I thought it would match Azure Afternoon, but I really wanted to use Misty Moonlight.  In hindsight, perhaps the Azure would have matched better.  The stamped image of the sailboat from Set Sail (2004) was larger than I thought so it went over the edge of the panel.  Grrr.  

The sentiment from Special Events (2022) was also larger than I thought, but by this time, I wasn't going to do it over, it is what it is! At least I liked the little rope trim, LOL!

This will go in my masculine birthday card stash---I never seem to have enough!  Thanks for visiting today!

Big day yesterday--Cassidy got her braces off! Now a retainer!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Set Sail (ret, 2004), Special Events (ret, 2022)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Misty Moonlight, Home Again (Carta Bella), Gingham (Computer-generated)
Ink	Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Smooth Sailing Dies (ret)

AHSC576 Feel Better Soon

Happy Monday, everyone! Time for a new sketch from Atlantic Hearts!  At first, I was a wee bit intimidated by it, but once I got going, I really liked it! Here's the sketch: 

I wanted to use some new products, so I pulled out some Country Lace DSP, along with Stippled Rose and started playing around with some colors! Here's what I came up with:

Since I already had a piece of Basic Beige sitting on my desk from yesterday's card, I decided to pair it up with a very subtle print and use the pretty polka dotted pattern in Petal Pink for the scalloped design.  Since I had some new ribbons that matched both those hues, it was easy just to add the ribbon as the horizontal elements!  I stamped the rose in Petal Pink as well and added some Basic Beige leaves:

Since I thought the Beige ink would be too light for my sentiment, I stamped it in Pebbled Path, then finally added a wee Linen Thread bow to finish it off.  I really like these colors together!

I hope you'll play with our fun sketch...I could see how using some scraps would come in handy with it---we all have scraps, right?!  Check out the blog to see what the other designers created! There are some cute ones there! Hope to see you in the gallery as well!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Stippled Roses, Unbounded Love
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Beige, Petal Pink, Country Lace DSP
Ink	Petal Pink, Pebbled Path
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Basic Beige Bordered Ribbon, Petal Pink Diagonal Trim Ribbon
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stippled Roses Die, Scalloped Contours Dies (ret)

PP688 Animal Antics

Happy Sunday, peeps! It's my turn to be the hostess at the Paper Players this week, and I've chosen this as our theme:

I recently saw a Unity stamp set; it was a bit pricey, but the dachshund image in it was too cute to resist!  My sister and parents all have had doxies and they are so funny....I could tell you many stories about Roscoe, my sister's dog! So anyway, here's my card honoring my family's dachsunds:

I stamped my image in Night of Navy on some Basic Beige cardstock and used a Rectangle Stitched die to cut it out:

A sentiment from the same set was stamped and diecut; I pieced together two banners end to end to put behind it.  I added a layer of the new Country Woods DSP as well as some long-retired candy dots for embellishments.  The old Sahara Sand ones match this Basic Beige pretty well!

And here's a photo of Dana and Roscoe in the backyard of my little apartment almost 40 years ago; Dana was about 18 months old and I was dog-sitting Roscoe!  We were hanging laundry while Dana enjoyed her little sippy cup sitting in my laundry basket!  The picture is not very good....no cell phone cameras in those days!  But I remember that day very clearly!  That may have been the same day he ate a tennis ball....well, that's another story!

I hope you'll play with our Animal Antics challenge at the Players this week...any animal will do!  Check out what the DT created over at the Players blog, then share yours with us too!  Thanks for visiting and have a blessed day!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love and Good Vibes (March 24 Kit of the Month, Unity)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Beige, Night of Navy, Country Woods DSP
Ink	Night of Navy
Accessories	Dimensionals, Candy Dots (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies

Simple Stamping Fun

Happy Saturday, peeps! I thought I'd share the cards we made at the retirement center yesterday.  They're very simple but everyone liked them! The general design of each card was the same, but they were able to choose a sentiment of their liking, and some did different techniques with the ribbon! (I love it when they take the initiative to do that!)  Here are the cards:

We used a variety of products!  The facility has a lovely activities room...it was abuzz!

And here are a few of the ladies showing off their creations!

They're excited and looking forward to our next get-together!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

KCC714 Nautical Father's Day

Happy Friday, peeps! Yay, it's almost the weekend! I have a very quick card to post before I go off to stamp with my sweet retirement community ladies!  I recently bought this amazing Cast Away embossing folder and had been playing with it along with some Boho Blue cardstock.  After shuffling it around on my desk for weeks, I finally finished it off with some images from Sailing Home.  Here we go:

I stamped and diecut some of the images on some Basic Beige and Misty Moonlight cardstocks, using Misty Moonlight ink and some metallic brads that have been languishing in my stash:

I mounted everything on a Basic White card base and added a Father's Day sentiment from Your Biggest Fan:

I am entering this in the Krafty Chicks challenge of stamps!  Thanks for visiting today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sailing Home (ret), Your Biggest Fan (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Beige, Boho Blue
Ink	Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Dimensionals, Metallic Brads (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Smooth Sailing Dies (ret), Cast Away Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)