AHSC589 Ocean Friendship

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Time for a new Atlantic Hearts sketch:

As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew that I wanted to use the retired Gentle Waves stamp.  Although my colors go from light to dark instead of dark to light as on the sketch, hopefully, it will be okay!  Here we go:

I inked the stamp up using a brayer and three different blue inks:  Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon and Misty Moonlight.  It's a little tricky to get them blended but I think it worked okay!  I stamped a sentiment from Seaside Wishes in Azure Afternoon ink, and added a couple of wee little starfishes:

I frayed a bit of white ribbon to lay behind it, then added some sparkly sequins.  Everything went on an Azure Afternoon card base.  This is such a nice sentiment for almost any occasion!

I hope you'll play along with our fun challenge this week....I think there are lots of variations you could use!  Share it with us at the AHSC blog so we can enjoy it too!  Thanks for popping in today!

 So I am finished sharing my birthday cards but I couldn't ignore one of the nicest gifts I received from my friend Sally.  This is truly a work of art, inspiration and incredible attention to detail!  This is a little trinket box, sort of like a cigar box, and she's decorated every single side  of it beautifully!  Here's the top:

And sides:

The inside:

And even the bottom! 

The papers and elements she used are just beautiful, I can't stop looking at them!  And if that wasn't enough, it all came with this adorable little tag:

I will treasure this for sure!  Thanks, Sally!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Seaside Wishes, Gentle Waves (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Azure Afternoon
Ink	Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Basic White Herringbone Ribbon, Adhesive Backed Glitter Sequins (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Seaside Wishes Dies, Unbounded Love Dies, Brayer (ret)

52CCTD24 Love Joy Peace

Happy Tuesday, peeps! Hope all are doing well...thinking of those affected by Hurricane Debby!  The weather forecasters predict it will probably hit PA on Saturday...just when we were planning a boat ride on John's new boat!  Anyway, I whipped up a little card yesterday using the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown sketch for the month:

I had about a bazillion ideas for this and my final product didn't use any of them!  I found some unused papers in my stash from Kaisercraft and went to work:

The papers on the card base have leaping deer on it, amongst the trees, so that was my thought when adding the Memory Box deer.  Unfortunately, the center panel covered them up, LOL!  But I continued with my deer and snowflake theme anyway!  The corner panels have a border of Lost Lagoon; the center panel is Crumb Cake and the deer is Evening Evergreen, accented with a little sequin!  I stamped the panel with some snowflakes and Christmas words, then sponged some white ink around the edges:

Not exactly what I had envisioned, but the end result was okay!  Thanks for popping in today!

SO now we have a boat:

We had a little sailboat for several years but sold it a few years back.  John's been looking for this particular make and model of power boat ever since!  This was the maiden voyage, after many, many hours of engine repair, other repairs and hours and hours of cleaning in the hot sun!  He is one happy boater right now.  I haven't been on it yet, but I look forward to some cool river air very soon!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.  Nor does he need anything that we can supply by working for him, since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone. Acts 17:24-25

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Christmas Words (Impression Obsession), Snowflakes (Kaisercraft)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Lost Lagoon, Evening Evergreen (ret), Wonderland (Kaisercraft)
Ink	Craft White, Evening Evergreen (ret), London Fog (Memento)
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sequin from my Stash
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Deckle Edge Dies, Countryside Corners Dies, Dashing Reindeer Die (Memory Box), Sponge Dauber

Wishing You Peace

Happy Monday, peeps! My card today isn't for any challenge, but I liked it so much, I wanted to share!

 Most times, when I am stamping and diecutting an image, I diecut the cardstock FIRST.  Then I use the negative piece of the cardstock (the outside edges) as a template for use in my stamp positioner.  I stamp my image on some scrap paper while in the stamp positioner, then I place the negative piece over top of the stamped image on the scrap, line it up, add my magnets so it won't shift, then I place my diecut inside the opening and stamp again.  I find this is a really good way to ensure my stamping and diecutting "jive"! It is a couple of extra steps but I feel it's worth the extra minute or so!

 But sometimes, especially when I am doing a stamp camp, I make an additional template from Kraft or Crumb Cake cardstock, because it is a little sturdier and it makes it easier to line up because of the difference in color between my template and the actual white diecut. I am telling you all of this because now I have all these diecut shapes from Kraft cardstock floating around on my desk, unused, but perfectly good!  SO....I took one of the diecuts, this one happens to be a tag from the Bonanza dies, and created a Christmas card with it:

Since I still had my Waffle Flower Postage Stamp stencils and dies sitting on my desk from yesterday's card, I also made a single little image using the Christmas ones:

I stenciled the house & tree in Garden Green and Versafine Black and then mounted it on the tag.  I heat embossed a sentiment in white (Christmas Blessings, Simon Says Stamp) and added some ribbon and twine.  The background paper is from Unity, and it all went on a Soft Succulent card base.  Here's the inside, also from SSS:

I love these colors together! And now there's one less lost little diecut floating around on my desk!  Thanks for popping in today!

Here are the last of my birthday cards; this beauty is from Peggy:

And this cutie is from Sally; I love the bright, cheerful colors:

And this gorgeous one was from Debbie (and there was a nice little surprise inside too---it involves ICE CREAM!):

And Michele knows how much I love BLUE:

I am so blessed!  Thank you, ladies!  Enjoy your day and you be blessed as well!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Christmas Blessings (Simon Says Stamp), Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Soft Succulent (ret), Kraft (Close to My Heart), Watercolor Winter (Unity)
Ink	Craft White, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Versafine Black
Accessories	Crumb Cake Stitched Ribbon (ret), White Perle Cotton, Dimensionals, White Embossing Powder
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies (ret), Bonanza Dies (ret), Postage Dies (Waffle Flower), Postage Collage Christmas Stencil (Waffle Flower), Heat Tool

PP701 Beachy Collage

Happy Sunday, peeps! Time for a new Paper Players challenge with the awesome Stef as our hostess.  She chose a great theme, especially if you're in the northern hemisphere (although Jan probably doesn't mind!) and you're sweltering in this heat!  So here we go:

I just received this stencil and stamp set from Waffle Flower called Postage Collage Beach Days, and hadn't used it yet, so this was a perfect time to get it inked up! So here we go:

I used lots of different bright colors on the stencils and stamped the sentiments and postage images in Versafine Black and Smoky Slate.  I also used the regular Postage Collage stamp set:

That seagull just cracks me up...my favorite part of Finding Nemo is the seagull scene, LOL! I also added a few little sequins for sparkle!  The inside of my Crumb Cake card was stamped with a sentiment from Seaside Wishes:

No beach for us yet.....later this month, though!

A few more birthday photos! This refreshing image is from Robyn:

This pretty set of banners (and brad!) is from Fran:

And I admit that I am a wee bit jealous that my friend Kathy got this die set...how cute is THIS beachy scene?

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Seaside Wishes, Postage  Collage (Waffle Flower) Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake
Ink	Versafine Black, Pecan Pie, Balmy Blue, Pool Party, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Poppy Parade, Lost Lagoon, Granny Apple Green, Azure Afternoon, Daffodil Delight, Blueberry Bushel, Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate
Accessories	Sequins from my Stash
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Postage Stencil (Waffle Flower), White Gel Pen

CCCC32 Warm Winter Wishes

Happy Friday! Yay, the weekend is upon us!  My desk is covered with Christmas stamps right now, so when I saw the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge this week of "cute critters", I knew just which stamp I wanted to use!

And here we go:

I admit that this Mr Fox from Lawn Fawn is probably thinking that there is hot chocolate in his mug, but for today, we'll pretend that it's coffee!  I stamped him in Versafine Black ink and colored him with an aquapainter and inks.  I snipped a wee little snowflake from some printed paper and adhered it to his mug, and there is glitter on the snow! A pretty plaid mat and some Cherry Cobbler seam binding finished the outside:

A fun little sentiment from Oh What Fun went on the inside!

Here are a few more birthday cards from friends!  This is from my friend Karen in Florida:

And this happy one is from Tracy:

And this beauty is from Mollie:

And here's a shot of my family; Dana, Wayne and John all planned a surprise birthday dinner for me at a local restaurant...an Italian restaurant so I could have my yearly celebratory tiramisu!!  After a comical mixup of seating, the surprise was revealed and I was happy to be with them to celebrate my birthday.  A few seconds later, I felt a tap on my shoulder and my sister from South Carolina stood behind me! She flew up to PA the day before and spent a secretive weekend with Dana just to surprise me!  They REALLY got me!!  I was thrilled!  And oh my goodness, John is actually smiling, LOL! Poor guy was in torment all weekend long, keeping that secret!

Dana had another surprise up her sleeve, but I'll tell you about that much later!  Thanks for popping in today, enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Winter Fox (Lawn Fawn), Oh What Fun (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cherry Cobbler, Christmas Salutations (Echo Park)
Ink	Versafine Black, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Pool Party
Accessories	Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched So Sweetly Dies (ret), Aquapainter, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (ret)

FMS647 Just a Note

Happy Thursday, everyone! And happy August!  I had a chance to stamp between shredding zucchini and blanching tomatoes yesterday, and the FMS sketch by Karren was a fun one:

I pulled out a bunch of retired products and this is what I came up with:

These papers from the retired Fitting Florets are so pretty! It was hard to choose just three!  I finally decided on the ones I wanted, then added a sentiment from Simply Said, diecut with a Stitched Shapes square and matted with a Layering Squares mat:

My simple embellishment was a Pierced Blooms flower!  I left the inside blank and I'll stamp it when I decide the occasion!  I really like this sketch, I can see it being used again, maybe with some Christmas papers!  Thanks for popping in today!

Here are a few of the birthday cards I received!  This beauty is from my friend Shawn:

And this fun fold with its gorgeous papers is from Wendy:

And this is from my friend Sandy, who always remembers my birthday and gives me great goodies even when it's not my birthday!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

 

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Simply Said
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Balmy Blue, Evening Evergreen (ret), Polished Pink (ret), Fitting Florets DSP (ret)
Ink	Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Pierced Blooms Dies (ret), Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Layering Squares Dies (ret)