Pretty Twine!

My sample pack of Twine arrived today from my friend Diana of Latina Crafter. It looked so pretty all rolled up with the colors laying side by side. It inspired me to make the card below. Now that I look at it, I realize that I have the twine panel upside down. :-( I wanted the teal on the left and gray on the right. Oh well...

I decided that "Celebrate" would let me put something else inside later and customize it for the occasion.

Aren't those yummy colors? :-)

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack

October 22 was my annual Christmas Stamp-a-Stack. Even though The Angel Company is no longer in existence and I'm not with another company at this point, my customers still wanted some Christmas fun. It was almost 80 degrees outside, but inside we were in the Christmas spirit with Christmas music, snacks, prizes, and my Santa earrings.

Every year at the end of the afternoon I ask the ladies which card was their favorite. Usually one card is the obvious winner. This year the gals said they had a hard time choosing because they liked them all. When I *did* make them choose, though, they were really divided on a winner.
This card was inspired by the sample in the Amuse Catalog using this set. I changed it up quite a bit, but it is still obvious that it was the inspiration. The background stamp is Bit of Burlap from Market Street Stamps, and the trees/sentiment are Amuse Studio's Cool Yule. It's hard to see, but the red tree has glitter pen on the swirlies.

It was tought getting a photo to show the Stickles on the peppermint, but still show the red coloring! Oh well... This is a very old TAC set, but there are peppermint stamps everywhere so I went ahead and used it. Paper is from TAC's Reece collection.

Another TAC oldie is Mini Wreath. Since there are so many wreath stamps available, though, I figured I'd go ahead with this one too. It's actually three different stamps layered. The twine is from The Twinery. MUCH thanks to Jennifer for sending me a few more yards when I ran short! :-)

Card #4 was the purple version of the card in this post. I always try to do one card in non-traditional colors.

New Mercies

This card is a little unusual for me because I normally don't create "scenes." When I started on this, though, it just sorta took on a life of its own!

I started with the Verve sentiment and knew I wanted to use the sun but I wasn't sure how. Then I realized that the colors of TAC's Miss Moxie were just what I wanted. First I realized the round tag would work, then I discovered that my circle punch was exactly the size of the sun if I'd stamp it on patterned paper. I found the blue/green piece (part of a Rockin' Roxie Matchbook Kit) in my scraps and thought it looked like grass and sky. The rest just sort of happened!

The rays of the sun have glitter pen, and I used Orange Peel Stickles for the insides of the paper-pieced flowers.

Elegant Birthday

After making the card for yesterday's post, I got the idea to change it up a bit and make this card.
The sentiment is another new stamp from Verve. The black carstock looks shiny in the photos, but it's not. After I made it and thought I had changed it up from yesterday's card, I realized that it actually looks more like the original card that inspired me in the first place! LOL

It's not an exact CASE, but I'm sure I must have still had that card in my mind. :-)

Give Thanks

As I was just dozing off for my nap, this card just sort of came to me. No, I didn't get up and make it right then, but later that day. To be honest, I realized later that the inspiration must have come from this card that I had seen earlier in the day.
I'm wishing now that I had snipped of those little bits sticking off the end of some of the points on the doily. Oh well... The Scripture stamp is one of my new Verve stamps! :-)

Butterflies and Leaves

Yesterday was my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack. You'll see those cards later. For now, you get this one. :-) These leaves from Amuse were just begging me to emboss them. First I tried copper on yellow--UGLY!! I ended up using white embossing powder, then Cognac Palette ink over that. I used a cosmetic swab to go from the center out, then I used a rag to wipe the ink off the leaves themselves. I must have been in a yellow/green mood because I designed this card the same day I did the one in the previous post. :-)

The paper is from The Angel Company's Emma collection, and the butterfly is a Tim Holz die called Mini Butterflies.

Happy Anniversary

When I designed this card, I had my other two cards (this one and this one) in mind, figuring I'd sort of combine the two.

Overall I like the result, but now that I really look at it, I'm thinking I should have lowered the flower down into that bare spot of leaves instead of having it stick way out the top. I may do it again--maybe not. We'll see...

I'm LOVING the Vintage Labels and coordinating dies from Amuse!!!!!! So easy to use, and they look so fantastic. :-)

More Holly Jolly

This card is from the same set as yesterday's post, but the ornaments are bigger this time. I sorta CASEd this card in designing mine.

It was tough for me to use such bold paper. I'm just not used to that!

Too bad my punch was just a hair too big to use on these ornaments! I ended up cutting by hand. sigh...

Holly Jolly

Holly Jolly from Verve is SUCH a FUN set to play with!!!! I have to also admit that the clear stamps make it even easier to line things up than if they were rubber. (I do think I still like rubber better, though!) These two cards were inspired by this card.
In the photo below you can kinda see the sparkle on the sentiment. I used Brilliance black that almost looks like silver over black. Very cool.

New color scheme for the card below. Not sure which one I like better. What do you think?!!??!

New Stamps from Verve

My Verve order arrived Saturday so I just HAD to play! Here's a quickie card that I colored with Copics and a red Stardust Glitter Gel pen.


The red piece is embossed with an Impressie--don't know if you can see it very well.
This was quick and easy. I'm thinking I'll keep it even cleaner and simpler the next time!

Market Street Block Party

These cards are for Market Street Stamps Anniversary Block Party. That's a mouthful...all you basically need to know is that I used Market Street Stamps on these cards. :-)
I stamped the main image in Momento Rich Cocoa and colored with Copics. For the background, I used Bit of Burlap and stamped off before stamping my "real one." After embossing the die cut, I saded lightly to bring out the white core of the paper from The Angel Company.
None of my twine matched so I used Sew Easy floss and twisted one of the aquas and one of the browns together! Voila--two-toned twine! :-)

Dessert Blog Hop, Part 2

This card is actually from a few years ago, but I know I've never posted this photo--it was from before I joined the blogging world. I decided to add it to the Dessert Blog Hop. okay?

The set is the same as yesterday's post, but I used different pieces of the set and a totally different color scheme. Instead of Copics, it was colored with watercolor pencils and a Dove Blender.

You can't really tell, but there is glitter pen on the cake. It sparkles in real life! Looks like my bow was doing something funky too. Oh well...can't change that now...

If you haven't already, be sure to check out all the other desserts in the hop!

Dessert Blog Hop

Once again my Angel friends and I are having a blog hop. This time the theme is Dessert(!) because October 14 is the official Dessert Day. I'm not so thrilled with how this turned out, but I'm posting anyway. :-)


While coloring I could tell that I'm pretty out of practice using my Copics! I better do more coloring and remedy that right away {wink}. I went with these colors because there's an ad on one of the sites that I visit that has a chocolate cupcake with teal icing. I always think it's so pretty. Besides, this could be a masculine card too.

I'm going to post another one for the hop tomorrow. Same set--totally different look. Come back and visit again!!!

Hello, Gorgeous

My husband and I are godparents to a beautiful young lady who is in high school now. We don't live in the same town, but we are Facebook friends. When I was looking at her recent pictures she posted, I realized that she is truly growing up into a lovely young woman. She doesn't look like a little girl any more!

So...I knew I had this stamp sentiment and decided to make her a card with it--just wanted to let her know I'm thinking about her and noticing how she's growing to be so beautiful.

The doily (that's only one cut in half) and sentiment are from TAC's Beautiful Lace. The label stamp and coordinating die are in my new goodies from A*Muse. Not so sure the card is my fave, but it conveys what I wanted it to. :-)

More fun with new stamps

Once again, this is Beautiful Botanicals 2 from A*Muse Studio. I used Versamagic inks and purposefully wanted to leaves to be light and "sketchy." Not only did I ink sparingly, but I also stamped some of them off.

The flowers are in Versamagic Purple Hydrangea and Thatched Straw. Leaves are Hint of Pesto. I realize the ribbon (from TAC's Emma collection) should be a bit higher, but I was trying to hide a boo boo and didn't want to start all over. :-)

Isn't this set just awesome?!?!?

Yippee!!! New stamps!!!

Mr. Brown (UPS, if you don't know what I mean) brought me a box of goodies from A*Muse Studio today! I couldn't wait to get to my craft room and play. I got my homework done before I made this card, though. :-)

The Harlequin Background is an old TAC stamp that I inked up with Versamagic Jumbo Java. I then "kissed" it with Market Street's Bit of Burlap (same stamp I used here). The label and die made to fit are soooooo cool. I've wanted these for a while now! The branch of berries is from a fantastic set called Beautiful Botanicals 2. I kept tellin myself I didn't *need* them, but Heather kept posting cards using them! Then Seleise had to go and post this card using a similar set. I was roped in and added it to my order. :-)

It's hard to see here, but the label is popped up on pop dots. Now that I see this close-up, it also looks like I should have lined it up better. Yikes!

Stay tuned tomorrow for another card with my fun goodies...

Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so my (former) Angel friends and I are having a blog hop! This first card is one to send to a friend who is undergoing treatment. It lets her know I'm thinking about her, and that with God all things are possible!

The set is a very old TAC set that came out after 9-11. Unfortunately I didn't record the name, and I can't remember for sure. I'm thinking it's called "Awareness Ribbon." For this card, I made a window in the darkest pink piece and adhered the smaller white piece onto the card base in the middle of the window. This gave me a nice little place to tie a pink ribbon!

The card below is just a note card that could be sent to anyone. If I choose to send it to a survivor, though I can because I stamped "Be Strengthened, Be Encouraged, Be Comforted" very faintly in the lower right corner by stamping off. I CASEd it from this card by the designer of Beautiful Lace, the TAC set the the doily comes from.

No, that's not real stitching--it's a stamp. And...since I didn't have lace I used a lacey-looking punch on vellum to give a similar effect.

Now visit the other blogs!

Elegant Birthday

This card uses another new stamp from Market Street Stamps--Bit of Burlap. Don't you just love the added "oomph" that it gives? The ribbon is from Ribbons and Bows, Oh My. It's double-faced so making bows look good is really easy. :-)

Pretty simple card. Not really much to say about it, except that I made it for a friend at church who is turning 30. Her surprise party was last night. Happy Birthday, Chas, and may God bless you abundantly in the year ahead.