Back To School

It's been way, way, way too long, my friends!  I have been buried in normal day to day things with kids since they've been home 24/7 for over a year, but this week school starts and all mine will be in school for the first time.  I hardly know what to do with myself!  I did get around to making some cards this year but haven't had any time to post them.  

These first ones feature text I cut out with my Silhouette Portrait.  If you don't have an electronic cutting machine, you're missing out.  I love making cards with stamps and dies, but a Silhouette or Cricut really opens the world.  Imagine, being able to cut any thing you can think of!

This bicycle is a cute die-cut pre-printed from Doodlebug, I think.  I love what quick cards you can make with them.

These darling sea-life creatures are from Papertrey Ink Salt Air.  I didn't buy their dies initially for the seaweed, got some other brand on Amazon, but I have since bought Papertrey's when they had everything on a great sale.  

I think this last card is my favorite for today- I had pieces I had previously stamped and die cut lying in a dish for later and assembled them in an arrangement that just felt good to me.

I'm glad to be back and will hopefully be blogging much more often now that I'll have some personal time.  

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Make it Monday #283: Watercolor Wash Backgrounds

Well, I finally got around to making a card this week just in time for a new Make it Monday challenge.  I love the idea of using watercolors as a wash for the background.  I definitely need more practice and some better supplies, but here is my take on it:

I used some metallic watercolors I got from Amazon by Yasutomo.  I'm not too impressed with the quality, but it's my first experience using watercolors so I need to try them a bit more and see if I can get them to do what I had intended...  

I used a star embossing folder by Darice on the watercolored panel.  I punched some stars with a fiskars punch.  The sentiment is the Oval: You've been Framed set from Papertrey.  

Thanks for stopping by!

See you again soon.

MAKE IT MONDAY #280: STAMPING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

I was excited to try Papertrey's Make it Monday #280:  Stamping Outside of the box.  I needed some Easter cards, so I thought a bunny/egg combo would be fun.  I used Papertrey's Easter Alleluia's stamp set for the sentiment and an older Easter set (Stampendous, I think) for the bunny and eggs.

Thanks for hopping by!

Make it Monday #276 Challenge

I'm back today with a kraft and colored pencil card after seeing the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #276 inspiration video and post.  I needed some Easter cards and since spring flowers always remind me of Easter, I used this poppy stamp and Papertrey Easter Alleluia's set for the greeting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Feb 2017 Blog Hop

photograph from The Mrs Box Wedding Heirlooms

Well,  I made a card last night when I had a few minutes and planned to post it this morning, but my new computer crashed today.  Computer problems can be so frustrating!  It's gonna be awhile until that is fixed, so I'm back on my old computer that also has issues, we'll hope for the best!

I just started participating in these blog hops with an inspiration photo and they are a lot of fun.  When I'm not feeling very creative I have a tendency to just case something cute I've seen on pinterest, but this forces me to be a little bit more creative and get outside my comfort zone.  It's really amazing to see how many different cards can be inspired by the very same picture! 

I have definitely been in a mostly white background rut lately and so I especially liked the inspiration photo this month.  I purchased my first few sets of Papertrey stamps this year so I didn't have a lot to choose from, but thought the Easter Alleluias set could work with a royal Easter-y feel.

Here's my take on it.  

Thanks for stopping by!

February Valentines

Hello again.  I'm back today to share some Valentines I made this month.  This first one uses the You've Been Framed:  Oval die, a heart punch from Stampin' Up! and Heart die from Clear & Simple Stamps.

This next one features a mouse blowing bubbles stamp I've had for years and decided to pull out again.

Here is another with the You've Been Framed: Oval die and Clear and Simple heart dies.

And lastly, here is another with the mouse stamp.  

Which one is your favorite?  Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop

Hello again!  I'll be back soon to share some more of my recent cards, but today I wanted to participate in the Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop.  

photograph from Julie Baerwald

Isn't this the cutest inspiration photo?  I just love stripes and the black/white/pink color combo is one of my favorites.  Here's my take on it...

Dies used:  Floral Fusion and Leafy Branch (Stampin' Up!)

Flower punches

Adhesive Pearls

White Gel Pens for dots

Thanks for stoppin' by!  Have a great day!

Goodbye to 2016...

I'm back today with a few of the cards I made for Christmas 2016.  :)  I wasn't able to make cards for a while so I got back into it by using my pinterest boards as inspiration.  

To start with, I loved this card and especially the snowmen in the circle (Lawn Fawn's Making Frosty Friends), so first I made one like that, and then just made a bunch of circles and colored them while I was watching cheesy Christmas movies on Hallmark channel for the month of December.  :)  I have the Spectrum Noir pens instead of Copics, because of the price, but they seem to do a great job blending and I like them so far.

 I thought this was a great use for the snowflake brads I bought several years ago when I thought they were cute but had no idea how I'd use them...

I made several variations on the one above.  This next one uses an oval instead of a circle but the idea is the same.

Can you tell I was having fun trying different things? :) 

I'll be back soon with some more...

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year!

I haven't posted in a while but I'm back today with some cards I made last week.  Soon I will be sharing the Christmas cards I made for 2016, so check back again.  :)  

For Christmas, I received Papertrey's Oval: You've Been Framed die and stamp set.  I had fun playing around with that last week while catching up on Hallmark movies.  I love how different it can look based on the papers and colors you use. 

Stamp set:  Simply Scrumptious- Clearly Besotted

Thanks for stopping by!

Father's day cards

I was in a rush to make a couple of  Father's day cards last weekend since I hadn't had time to get around to it before.  I saw this cute mountain card on Soapbox Creations and since my dad loves nature and the outdoors I thought it'd be perfect for him.  I got to work finding some clip art online and used my Silhouette portrait to cut out the mountains, "forest" of trees and sentiment.  If you'd like the cut file, leave a comment with your email address and I'd be happy to send it to you.  :)

For my Father-in-Law, the soda drinker, I came across this card with a soda can and thought of him.  So I found a soda can clip art and used my Silhouette portrait to cut it out as well as the text.  

So there you have it, two fairly quick and easy Father's day cards that got rave reviews.  Thanks for stopping by!

The latest

Hello again...

I've been away for awhile... we moved and I'm just getting set up in my new crafting space and getting around to uploading photos, etc. Hope your summer is off to a good start.  

I made this cascading card for my mom for Mother's day.  I can't seem to find the tutorial I used, but this one is very similar.

Dies used:  Stampin' up Floral Fusion, Little Leaves,  Framelits Label Dies

Next, I made this doughnut birthday card for my father-in-law who loves doughnuts.  I used  this card as my inspiration.  I saw a technique where you use press-n-seal wrap to help glue down small items, so I tried that for the "sprinkles" on the doughnut and it worked perfectly.  No glue all over my fingers or where I didn't want it on the card.  I just cut out a circle with my circle dies and a smaller circle in the center, repeated on a lighter shade of brown paper, and then used a scalloped circle to make the "bite" out of the doughnut.

 ...and lastly I made this for my brother's birthday.  I had been furniture shopping the day before and decided on a color scheme of navy and grey with a possible pop of yellow, so obviously I was still thinking in those shades when I made this card.  I found the tutorial for it here.

Stamps used:  Big Birthday Wishes set by Simon Says Stamp 

Thanks for stopping by!