Cross Stitched Hello

Hi Everyone!

So sorry I didn’t post more last week! I was very busy last week crafting and creating so that I will have things to share with you! This week I have several cards featuring cross stitched backgrounds. I have been inspired by Jennifer McGuire’s stitching on cards for a long time now. This was the perfect way for me to pass time in the car last week during our very long road trip to and from Colorado
.

 The trickiest part of these were punching the holes for the stitches. I have since come to my senses and ordered the Altenew Cross stitch die cut! Can’t wait to get it and make even more backgrounds.
For this card, I chose orange, turquoise and purple for my background colors. I die cut the “hello” which is from Hero Arts several times from white card stock and then stamped one of them with the coordinating stamp using my MISTI tool to line it up just right. I stacked all the die cuts for some dimension and then layered a coat of glossy accents.

The sentiment below is from Altenew “you are” set. This is a set I often forget about; but have recently rediscovered it and hope to use it even more in the future.
I hope you enjoy the card and I hope it inspires you to create your own stitched backgrounds. Have a great day and I’ll be back soon!

Challenges for this card:

1. A Gem of a Challenge Anything Goes
2. Little Patch of Crafty Friends: Anything Goes
3. The Corrosive Challenge : Anything Goes (2nd Entry)
4. Dare 2B Artsy: Anything Goes (2nd Entry)
5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies: Anything Goes

Polka dot pinwheel birthday and Estes Park!

Hi Everyone!

I am finally home after our wonderful family vacation in Colorado. I’m sharing a couple of photos at the end of this post. If you ever get a chance to visit Estes Park, I highly recommend it!

So, now back to the matters at hand. I have another birthday card to share. I know I’ve been sharing a lot of those lately. Full disclosure:  Many of the cards I’ve been sharing since I started blogging again have been cards I made a while ago and had just stashed away.  So this is the last birthday card I have and now I’ll need to actually get situated at my craft desk and make some cards!

This is another super simple card I made using some polka dot pattern paper. I made some simple pinwheel flowers and added the sentiment at the bottom.  I added the panel to a piece of Aqua Mist card stock from Paper Trey Ink and attached it all to a white card base.

Not a whole lot else to say about this one. I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll be back again as soon as I can!

Challenges for today’s card:

Sunday:

1.  Dare to Be Artsy: August Anything Goes
2. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: Anything Goes
3. The Corrosive Challenge: Anything Goes

Monday:

1. PammiesInkyPinkies: Anything Goes

 Finally a few pictures from our vacation!

Cupcake Birthday Wishes!

Hi Everyone.

I am still on vacation in beautiful Colorado! I posted some pictures to my Instagram story...hope you get a chance to pop over there and take a look

Sharing another quick birthday celebration card. This one made with inkadinkado stamps. This is one of those stamp sets that I always seem to keep no matter what othering purging I do of old craft supplies.

I layered some fun bright colors and stamped the little cupcakes with Simon Says Stamp very black ink and then colored them in with some Copic markers. I don’t remember where the sentiment came from and I’m not at home to look. I think it’s a Simon Says Stamp one; but it’s quite possible it could be from an old “Verve” set

Have a great day everyone and I’ll post again when I can!

Challenges:

1. Crafting By Designs:  Anything Goes
2. Crafty Creations: Anything Goes (2nd Entry)
3. Crafty Gals Corner: 3+layers
4. Creative Moments: Anything Goes

Celebrate your Birthday!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re having a great day so far. By the time this posts, I will be in Colorado for a family wedding. I’ve never been to Colorado, but have always heard wonderful things so I am looking forward to it. I will share pictures over on my instagram account, so be sure to follow me over there if you haven’t yet. Just click the green circle instagram button over there to the right ➡️😊

So I am prescheduling a couple of posts for while I’m away so that I keep my rhythm going here in the blogosphere. Today’s card I’m sharing is another very simple card just using some patterned papers and sentiment stamps. The sentiments are from Altenew and honestly I don’t remember the paper. I think it’s just a pad of paper I picked up from Michael’s a while ago.

I loved all the different fun colors and polka dot patterns and then I just added a couple of hearts with glossy accents to add something extra because otherwise it was a little too much polka dottiness going on.

Anyhow, I do hope you enjoy it.  Thanks for visiting me and I’ll be back again soon! Have a great day.

Challenges for today:

1. Cute N Crafty Challenge: Anything Goes
2. Get Creative Challenge: Anything Goes (no twist)
3. PammiesInkyPinky Challenge: Anything Goes
4. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Birthday!
5. Crafty Sentiments Design: Anything Goes
6. Lemon Shortbread Challenges: Anything Goes
7. Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes

Simple Floral Thank You

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a couple of days! Busy prepping for a late summer vacation. As a matter of fact, I am in the car typing this while my DH drives and the kiddos are all happily entertained amongst themselves.

Super simple card that I made a while back with some pretty floral pattern paper and prima flowers and a simple thank you sentiment on the bottom. Not a lot of detail to discuss with this one, it’s pretty much just as simple as you see it here! 

I decided to keep the embellishments and sentiment simple since the floral patterned paper takes most of the focus of the card. Simple; but I hope you like it!

Have a great day everyone and I’ll be back again in a couple of days!

Challenges:

1. Brown Sugar Challenges: Anything Goes
2. Colourific Challenge: Anything Goes
3. Creative Fingers: Anything Goes
4. Polkadoodles: Anything Goes
5. A Gem of a Challenge: Anything Goes
6. Crafty Calendar: Anything Goes

Pet Sympathy Card

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Sorry for not posting on Friday, the day was busy celebrating my son’s 15th birthday! We didn’t do too much, just had some cake and presents and then I made his favorite dinner Salisbury steaks. He even deemed it a a worthwhile event enough to take a picture with me, which these days as a teenage boy is a rare occurrence! Somewhere over the last year he legitimately grew taller than me...which really isn’t hard to do since I’m not exactly a tall person!

Ok, so on to the card for today. I made this card for a dear friend who lost her furry family member last week. It’s always hard when we have to send our beloved pets over the rainbow bridge. She has a 4 boys who will surely miss him so very much so I wanted to make the card with some bright vibrant “boy” type colors so I chose a red, blue, green and yellow palette. The stamp set is from Great Impressions Stamps and I stamped it with black ink from Simon Says Stamp, and then used some Copic markers to fill in the hearts. I covered a few of the hearts in glossy accents as well. I heat embossed the little paws on the edge of the card with some platinum embossing powder. I added a little personal touch with the “RS” in the small circle on the left which are the initials of the pet.

That is all for me today. I am trying out a new photo technique. I hope you like the new picture styles and I hope you all have great evening and I’ll be back in a couple of days!


Lots of challenges for this card today!

1. Creative Crafters Challenge: Anything Goes
2. Love to Scrap Challenge: Anything Goes
3. Love to Craft Challenge: Anything Goes
5. LeAnns World 101: Anything Goes
6. Crafts Galore: Anything Goes
7. A Gem of a Challenge: Anything  Goes (2nd Entry)
8. Cute N Crafty Challenge: Anything Goes
9. Double Trouble: Something Anything Everything
10.

CAS Butterfly Birthday and Thank You

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my blog! If you’re a first time visitor, thanks for stopping by and visiting me. I hope you like what you see and get some good inspiration. For my returning visitors, thanks for coming back again, it’s always good to know people come back!

Not a whole lot of extra things to talk about today, so I’m going to just jump right into the cards for today. Today’s cards were simple to make and ones that can be made into multiples easily just by changing the center color panel and sentiment or embossing folders.

For both of the cards I used the Quatrefoil embossing folders by Paper Studio that I bought from Hobby Lobby. I used the small die cut from Papertrey Ink’s What the Doodle: Butterfly Die Set. The sentiments are from Verve Stamps “Joyful Blooms” set. I kept them both black and white except for the pop of color with the teal and pink. I added some glossy accents to the center of the butterfly’s an some sparkle around the outer scalloped cut circle.

Have a great day everyone, and I’ll see you again soon!

Tuesday Challenges

1. Lemon Shortbread: Anything Goes
2. Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes

Wednesday Challenges:

1. Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes
2. Crafty Creations: Anything Goes
3. Creative Moments: Anything Goes
4. The House that Stamps Built: Anything Goes
5. Mod Squad Challenges: All that Sparkles (stickles around the scalloped circles and glittery ribbon)

Christmas in July

Hi Everyone!

Well, it’s been a minute hasn’t it? Lots has happened since I stopped blogging a couple of years ago...too much to bore you with all the details here. I took a long break from blogging and really a bit of a break from crafting for a while as well. I’m ready to get back into the crafting groove and one of the best ways for me to do that is to start blogging again! So, here we go. It may take me a little while to get back into the groove again; but best foot forward, right?!

What better way to get started again than to share some Christmas in July cards. I figure it is never too early to start, right? This was an easy design and one that I know I will use again because it’s easy to create multiples of it.

I used the classic favorite “Lovely as a Tree” from Stampin Up and decided to create a layered shadow image by stamping the lighter inked images first. I actually stamped off first to make the image even lighter. To get the front darker image placed just right, I used a stamp positioner

I stamped all the tree pieces first. 

Then I assembled the cards.  For the first card, I used surf blue cardstock from Simon Says Stamp with the Neenah Solar White. I used two Close to My Heart Ink colors for this one: Crystal Blue, and Twilight. (These are new inks to me and I like them. A friend recently relocated to Italy and chose not to take them, so they needed a new home...lucky me!!) 

The next card features Certainly Celery card stock from Stampin Up along with Green Leaf ink from Simon Says Stamp and Sweet Leaf from CTMH. 

For the third card, I chose Enchanted Evening card stock from Paper Trey Ink along with Caribbean Blue and Soft Navy inks from Simon Says Stamp.

For the final card, I chose Pine Feathers card stock also from PTI and used Pine Needles and Cracked Pistachio Distress ink. Yes the original ones...no I don’t have any Oxide inks. Yes, I realize that’s the equivalent of using VHS tapes in the craft world; but I used what I have, what can I say?!  

I am entering these cards into the following blog challenges:

1. Crafty Catz: Anything goes, optional Christmas

2. Creative Fingers

3. Polkadoodles Challenge: Anything Goes

4. Crafty Creations: Anything Goes

5. Crafty Gals: Christmas in July

6. Creative Moments: Anything Goes

7. Cute N’ Crafty Christmas: Anything goes Christmas

8. Mod Squad: Christmas in July


Have a great weekend everyone and I hope to be back on Monday!

Have a Wonderful Day.

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was quiet and relaxing; but now it's Monday and time to get back to the business at hand, which for today is to share a simple card. I've had stacks of pre-cut patterned paper in a case for ages; and a while back I decided to match up the pattern paper with some card bases so they would be ready for some quick cards I could just throw together in a couple of minutes. This is one of those cards. I layered it as shown and then added the sentiment to the bottom, which is Handwritten Greetings (designed by Kristina Werner) from Simon Says Stamp. I decided to heat emboss it with versa mark and white embossing powder. I ran my anti static tool across the paper, first; but I clearly missed a few spots....oh well

Finally I added some faux white stitching with a gel pen and the ribbon to complete the card. Like I said, super easy and simple card for today. What do you have on hand in order to help you make quick and easy cards? Tell me in the comments, I'd love to know. Also be sure to leave a comment, so I can come visit you! I've been trying really hard to make sure I return comments and I've been seeing some great blogs out there!

Have great day and I'll see you all again tomorrow!

Anything Goes Challenges for today's card.

1. Pammie's Inky Pinkies 
2.  Crafting From the Heart
3. Artistic Inspirations
4. Always Fun Challenges

Fun Fold Friday: Interlocking Gate Fold Card

Hi Everyone!

I am currently on vacation; but as I said in my post the other day, I do have a few things pre-scheduled to share with you, including this week's Fun Fold Friday Card

This card came about as a result of a mistake I made last week when designing the Lever Card that I shared. I had a tri fold card; but needed a way to close it. After a little bit of scouring through Pinterest boards, I saw a card that had an interlocking closure and decided that was perfect!

It was really simple to put together. I just die cut some a circle frame and then cut another smaller circle. I partially adhered the larger circle to the left panel on the card front and then did the same with the smaller white circle on the right side of the card.

I originally planned to put a small sentiment on the little white circle in the center; but then decided to put a larger sentiment on the inside at the bottom center of the panel. This sentiment is from Altenew's Birthday Greetings.

To finish the front, I simply added some a flower and some blingy stickers around the edges of the circle.

I hope you all have a fabulous 4th of July. Be sure to check out my reeent family post about "Teaching your kids that July 4th is much more than BBQ and Fireworks" 

I will be back again soon!

Challenges for this card:

1. Crafting with Friends: Anything Goes
2. Crafty Catz: Anything Goes with embossing
3. Creative Fingers Challenge: Anything Goes
4.Fussy and Fancy Friday: Punches and Dies
5. Jo's Scrap Shack: Anything Goes
6. Polkadoodles Crafting Anything Goes
7. Simply Papercraft: Anything Goes

Happy Hearts Birthday

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're all having a great day so far. I have a CAS card to share with you today. I've had this yellow card base with two small circles cut out of it for a while. I added a piece of patterned paper behind it and then die cut hearts from Verve Stamps "From the Heart" die set. I cut out eight total hearts, colored all of them with Copic marker (R46) and then stacked them in 2 groups of four.  I added some Wink of Stella to the hearts and then covered them both with glossy accents.

Unfortunately, some of the glossy accents did spill over a little at the top of one of the hearts and I didn't realize it until after it dried, and by then it was just way too late.  I added a simple Birthday sentiment from Hero Arts "Year Round Sentiments" I completed the card with a simple white ribbon.

That is all for me today! Have a great day and I'll see you all again tomorrow.

Anything Goes Challenges.

Through The Craft Room Door
Lemon Shortbread Challenges
Everybody Art Challenges: 
Creates and Makes Challenges (Use Yellow)
Crafty Sentiments Designs:  (Add a Sentiment)
Crafty Creations
Inspiration Destination

Fun Fold Friday: Double Front Fold Card

Hi Everyone!

I hope you have had a great week and are looking forward to a great weekend! It is time for another Fun Fold Friday! This week, I decided to do this really simple but oh so cool Double Front Fold card. It is a card that has two openings on the front. I thought this was such a neat way to add a little interest to your card without having to go through a lot of complicated steps. There are a ton of tutorials out there for this technique. I used this one from Lisa's Stamping Studio
I decided to use Teal, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf and Aqua Mist for my color palette. I wanted to keep the front simple, so I just used a flower for the front image panel. I embossed the side panel with my hearts embossing folder. I added some gold stickles and then the white ribbon and gold cord on the side.

For the inner fold, I used Simon Says Stamps Square Sayings stamp set and then added some small hearts around it as a border. I decided to add a thin green pen border around the edge of that piece as well.

And really, that is it. As I said, really easy to put together and I really liked the end result! I took a few pictures so that you can see all the different elements and angles. I hope that you like it and I hope you are inspired to try this fun fold for yourself!

Have a great weekend and I'll see Sunday for Coffee House Sunday!

Anything Goes Challenges:

1.  Crafting with an Attitude:  2nd Entry
2.  Creative Knockouts
3.  Crafting with Friends: 2nd Entry
4.  Creative Fingers

Happy Birthday Gifts

Hi Everyone!

Thank you for visiting me today, I hope you're all having a great week so far. I have a simple birthday card to share with you today. I started with a cream card base and added three "presents" with bows made from some scrap pattern paper. The sentiment is from Verve's "Poppy Birthday" and I kept it simple by stamping it in black ink. I decided that the card was just a little too simple, so I added a black border frame with a pen around the edges of the card.

That is it for me today. I hope you like what I shared today. I hope you have a great day today and I will see you all again tomorrow!

Anything Goes Challenges:

1. Lemon Shortbread Challenges:
2. Through The Craft Room Door:
3. Addicted to Stamps
4. Crafty Creations:
5. Creative Moments:
6. Inspiration Destination

Other Challenges:

7. Everybody Art Challenges: Happy Birthday
8. Inky Chicks: Use 3 Patterned Papers

Thank You and Thank You.

Hi Everyone!

I have two cards to share with you today. I have been so busy making birthday cards lately, that I haven't replenished by stash of other cards lately. One group that I'm really lacking in is Thank you cards. So, I decided to take some scraps of patterned papers that I had laying on my desk and make a couple of Thank You cards to share with you today.

I kept the first one really simple. I had this piece of patterned paper already trimmed in a triangle shape. (I'm not sure where the paper came from....I just have a huge stash of scrap patterned paper.) I also had the red base already as well, so it was a perfect match! I added the layer of Kraft to the base and heat embossed the sentiment from SSS "Handwritten Greetings" set with versamark and white powder. I added a small strip of SSS Surf Blue diagonally across the middle and some stickles as well. I finished it all off with some faux white stitching line.

Anything Goes Challenges for this card:

1. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
2. Crafting from the Heart
3. Pammies Inky Pinkies

Now for the second card. I started with a Ripe Avocado base and added a layer of dark brown. I took some Vintage Photo Distress ink and inked up my Argyle embossing folder before I ran a piece of Kraft card stock through it with my cuttlebug. I distressed and roughed up the edges of the embossed piece before adding it to the card  I layered up the rest of the card as shown. The sentiment in the middle is from PTI's Framed Out #1 set.

Anything Goes Challenges for this card:

1. Artistic Impressions:
2. Incy Wincy Designs:
3. 613 Avenue Create (embossing folder optional)

Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!

Fun Fold Friday: Top Note Gift Card Holder

Hi Everyone!

So technically this is not a fun or fancy fold; but it is a little bit more than just a regular card. This cute little card opens up at the top note die cut to reveal a gift card. Please overlook the fact that I have an old Christmas gift card, it was the only one I could find so that I could show you the inside!
I had seen this idea on Pinterest; but had a hard time finding actual instructions for making the gift card holder part. I finally found this video from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts and thought it was the best at explaining how it is done.

 I used Aqua Mist and New Leaf for my main colors becuase they cooridinate the best with the strip of patterned paper tha I found in
my scraps. The layered paper flower in the center is from an old set of sizzix dies I have called, "Lots of Tags" I added a small silver sequin to the center as well.
I heat embossed the sentiment which is from Altenew on the bottom with versamark and white embossing powder.

Have a fabulous weekend and I will see you all again on Monday.

Anything Goes:

1. Crafting With An Attitude:
2. Crafty Girls Creations:
3. Southern Girls Challenges
4. Crafting with Friends:
5. Crafty Catz (Optional twist: dies and punches)
6 Creative Fingers:
7. Polkadoodles

8. Cut it Up: Use dies and follow a tutorial (2nd Entry)

Java Great Day

Hi Everyone!

Good to see you again. There have been lots of updates and new features added to the blog lately. I encourage you to have a look around at the various new page tabs up there at the top and see if anything sparks your interest. I've been working really hard lately to try to give you a wider variety of content.
For today, I have a card to share with you. I started with a Fine Linen (PTI) card base and added a layer of Scarlet Jewel followed by Simply Chartreuse. Before adding the layer of Chartreuse, I used my mini scoring board to add some texture with some score lines. I added more texture with an embossing folder on the Fine Linen piece in the center.

I used SSS "What's Brewing" stamp set. I stamped the mug from the set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then used Prismacolor pencils to color it in. I wanted the mug to look like it was sort of painted and grungy, so I used some blending sticks and a little baby oil to accomplish that. I stamped the sentiment with Worn Lipstick Distress ink onto a separate piece of white card stock and then cut it out and added it to the center of the mug. I cut the entire mug out and added it to a piece of white card stock. I used Berry Sorbet from PTI as a final color element behind the image panel and the scalloped edge as well.
For finishing touches, I added a white gel pen border and some gold stickles.

Challenges for today:

Anything Goes:

1. Crafty Sentiments:
2. Lemon Shortbread 
3. Through the Craft Room Door
4. Crafty Creations

5. Crafty Gals Corner: Emboss It.

Have a great day!

Suzy Doodle Watercolor Cards

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're having a fabulous day so far! I'm here a little late in the afternoon, to share a couple of simple but fun cards I made using these fun Watercolor Paintable Prints from Suzy Plantamura. These doodle prints are so much fun to color. I keep mine pretty simple and just use my watercolor pencils and water brushes.  You should visit Suzy's blog at Suzy Doodle to see the artist in action!
I wish I could spend more time telling you about them; but there's really not a lot to say.. I colored them in and then trimmed them just a litle so there would be a border on the card front.  

Challenges:

Anything Goes:

1. Artistic Inspirations
2. Crafting from the Heart
3. Pammies Inky Pinkies: 
4. Come and Get It.
5. Little Patch of Crafty Friends:

I hope the rest of your day is great! I will see you all again tomorrow!

Fun Fold Friday: Flip Card

Hi Everyone!

I have decided to restart Fun Fold Friday! I always think it's fun to add a little interest to cards by doing something easy and simple like using a different kind of fold.  I've done a few other posts with different types of folds as well, including this "Double Z" Fold card  and this Free Standing Pop Up card

For today, I decided to try this "new to me" fold and created a "Flip Card" There are many tutorials for this fold out there on Pinterest and in blog land. I decided to use this one from Stampin U

At first, it was a little confusing; but once I got going with it, it came together pretty easily. My base is Simon Says Stamp Blue Violet Card Stock. I also used PTI Autumn Rose, and Summer Sunrise along with Neenah Solar White. For stamp sets I used Verve's "Beautiful Kindess" and Clearly Besotted "Eastern Delights" Unfortunately, I don't think this particular set is available any longer. I stamped the border flower images in Fossilized Amber Distress Ink and the sentiment in Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.  To make the flip part of the card, I used Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 11 Dies

I took a few pictures so you can see the different angles of the fold. Links to the products where available are included below.

Have a great day and I'll see you Sunday for Coffee House Sunday!

Challenges:

--Anything Goes--
1. Crafting with Friends
2. Polkadoodles
3. Simply Papercraft:

Other Challenges:
4. Cut it up: Use a die cut and follow a tutorial

Blue Violet Card Stock SSS	PTI Autumn Rose	PTI Summer Sunrise	Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets
Fiskars SureCut Personal 12	Martha Stewart Crafts Mini Scoring Board	Beautiful Kindness: Verve Stamps	Ranger DIS-27119 Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad, Chipped Sapphire
Distress Ink Fossilized Amber	Uni-Ball Pen Signo Gel WHITE UM-153

InLinkz.com