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Thank you for stopping by & visiting. I appreciate you interest and your comments. Have a great day.

May 18, 2025

IB#336 - Lemons

 Hello & Welcome!

Today's card is being shared for the Inspired By challenge #336 - Lemons.


Here is the inspiration photo and sketch:


Here is the card I created for this challenge:
I was inspired by the colors of the photo and also the sketch which I altered a little to fit my squares into a patterned that worked for my card idea.


For this card I used a stamp set from Catherine Pooler,  Your Zest Life.  - I've featured this stamp set before on (this post) using the same paper but different stamps, So you'll have another idea for this stamp set.

Details: Card Base: SU - Night of Navy card stock.
Designer paper was purchased at a JoAnn's store. I used a Scallop Rectangle Die from Unity Stamps to cut it out.
Lemon slices stamped with Memento Tuxedo ink on SU Daffodil Delight card stock and cut out with the matching dies.
Lemon was stamped on SU Basic White card stock with Daffodil Delight Ink and cut out with the matching die.  I added sparkle to the lemon and slices with a Wink of Stella Pen.
The sentiment was stamped with Versa Mark ink and embossed with SU Bold Black embossing powder on a piece of textured yellow card stock.
The squares are from Stampin'Up! - Stylish Dies and were cut out with Navy textured card stock. I mounted the images over the squares with foam tape and added some homemade enamels dots:
thanks to Leslie Miller for this idea.

A sample of the sparkle from the Wink of Stella:



Thank you for stopping in and don't forget to check out the Design teams cards and 

May 15, 2025

Art Nudge#525A and Freshly Made Sketches #686

Welcome  and Thanks for stopping by.


Today's card is being entered for Art Nudge #525A  and Freshly Made Sketches #686




Here is my card for these two challenges:  Click to enlarge


Details:  Image and Sentiment - Sweet Miss Daisy - Unfrogettable
Designer Paper - Sweet Miss Daisy - Ribbit
Card stock: Distress Watercolor Card Stock - Ranger,
SU retired Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa - Also Old Olive which is not a retired color.
Inks: Distress Ink from Ranger: Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive,  also used Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Early Espresso
Distress Mica Spray - Antique Bronze
Punch - Birthday Candles EK Success
Circle Die
Water Brush SU

I'm trying my hand at "water coloring" and still have a ways to go but think this turned out okay.

Foam Mounting Tape 

I stamped the image with the Memento ink and water colored it then fussy cut it out. The Close to Cocoa panel was stamped with the bugs using the Early Espresso ink.  Then the frog image and panel were spritz with the Mica Spray. 

Lots of shimmer on this card.


This is going to be hubby's birthday card this year. - I'm happy with how this one turned out.

May 9, 2025

Paper Players #736 (Something Old, Something New), Freshly Made Sketches#685 & A Challenge with a Friend

 Hi,  Welcome to my blog.

So today I'm combining a challenge that I'm doing with a friend,  TK from Time4Kards along with this weeks Paper Players #736 challenge:
Something Old, Something New. and Freshly Made Sketches#685

My good friend, Terri (aka TK) and I met awhile back for a visit and coffee together.  She brought a long an envelope filled with stamped images and sentiments that she said we could use to do one of our challenges together.  We each used the same image for our cards.  

Since the Image is new to me and also the die-cut that I chose to use and I'm using very old card stock and a patterned piece of paper that I've had in my stash for a couple of years now I thought this card would work great for the Paper Players challenge.  





So without further ado here is my card:  Click to enlarge cards.


Here's another view of the card:


For this card I started with the patterned paper as my inspiration point along with this weeks Freshly Made Sketch #685.  I bought the designer paper at Hobby Lobby several years ago and have never used it.  Then I decided to use this image from the ones TK gave me.  It's from Penny Black (Blooms) and comes with a matching die although for this image I didn't have the die so I fussy cut my image.  I colored it with a mixture of Colored Pencils and Copic Markers.  I used 3 color pencils, Celadon Green and Powder Blue and Metallic Gold. The marker I used was, Powder Blue as well.  I added Wink of Stella, Gold Glitter and Tarnished Brass Mica Spray to the flowers and the Embossed Background and Sentiment Die Cut.

I used retired SU card stock colors, Sage Shadow and I believe, Bliss Blue.  Both have been long retired so that is my something old along with the patterned paper.

Other items used: Fishtail Die (MFT) Swiss Dot Embossing Folder, Hello Die (Unity Stamps), Rectangle Die (Unity Stamps) Small baby blue pearls and foam mounting tape.

This card has tons of shimmer on it.  Hard to see in the photos but this is a closeup of part of the card:


You can see some of the shimmer from the Mica Spray, the Gold patterned paper and the pearls.

Be sure to stop by TK's blog - Time 4 Kards and check out how she used that stamp.

May 3, 2025

Monster Mayhem3 - FMS#684

 Greetings! - Guess what? - It's another Monster Mayhem card!

This one I'm entering for FMS#684  *on a fun note if you want to skip all the details you can read about my stamping mishaps at the end. - I promise you will laugh.


My card is done the opposite direction and I used a rectangle image instead of the circle. Plus this is a bit different from my first two monster cards as very little coloring was done on this one. Plus I did not use the matching paper pack.  Instead I chose to go a more, "grunge" style and used a monochromatic color scheme.

Here is my card:



I finally found my cloud stencil that I was looking for a few cards back (I believe it was the mouse with the umbrella card).

So I started off by stamping the Monster with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Crumb Cake (Kraft) card stock.  Next I made a mask of him and place it over the image white I blended white ink over the cloud stencil to create clouds.  My white pad is not the greatest so you don't see the white that well.  I need to find a different white pad. Then I colored the eyes with a white pencil and added highlights to the monster's hair and horns with a Copper metallic pencil.

Next up I spritzed the image with Brushed Pewter Mica Spray. Cut out with rectangle dies and mounted it on a piece of Basic Black cs that I distressed.  Wrapped some twine around the 2 corners and set it aside.

Next up I stamped a piece of Crumb Cake cs with Memento Black ink and a stamp from Unity Stamps (Squared Impressions) stamp set, tore the edge and distressed it with my finger and also added the same spritzing of mica spray to it. Then I added a strip of white card stock cut with a punch from EK Success . I glued that down to a piece of Copper metallic card stock and layered it onto the black card base.  I stamped the sentiment on the kraft card stock and mounted it with foam tape. The main image was also mounted with foam tape.

This really sparkles in real life, I tried to get a picture to show it but it looks even better than the picture.


So yesterday while working on the 2nd Monster card, I realized that I couldn't find the circle sentiment I'd put together anywhere on my desk.  I spent about a half an hour looking for it before deciding to just make a new one.  Of course as soon as I did that I found the original one...stuck to the back of the main image panel!

It get's better...so today while I'm stamping the background panel I stamped off the first image and then stamped the 2nd one which had barely any ink on it.  I'm thinking to myself that maybe I didn't get enough ink on it so I stamped it down a couple of times on the pad and then realized I'm not stamping on my ink pad.  I was stamping on top of my cell phone!  Boy did I feel silly.  Thankfully I was able to clean the ink off and discovered that my stamping pad was on my right hand side and not my left where my cell phone was.

Does anything like this ever happen to you while you are stamping?

That's it for my first set of Monster Mayhem cards.  - My, She Monsters will hopefully be here Monday so be prepared for more monster mania! - Thanks for stopping by.

May 2, 2025

#IB334 - Inspired by

Welcome .

Today's card features those adorable (Mayhem Monsters) from yesterday's card.  Plus it's for this weeks, Inspired by challenge:





The idea is to be inspired by either the sketch, the photo or both.

Here is my card:  I was inspired by the colors of the photo although mine are a bit different as I leaned more towards purple and green which are in the photo.  Plus the blueberry color for the splatters.



My original idea was to follow the sketch but as often happens this card took on a mind of it's own and the sketch went the way of the "wild goose" as they say. - I hope you enjoy my interpretation of the inspiration photo.

I stamped the image on white card stock and colored it with my pencils (blended with gamsol). For a fun detail I used some Diamond Glaze on the teeth and added Crystal glitter.  I masked the image off and stamped the splatters with Azure Afternoon ink.  Some enamel dots were added to finish the card off.

Supplies: Stamp set - Monster Mayhem (Unity Stamps)
Pattern Paper - Monster Mayhem (Unity Stamps)
Card Stock: SU - Granny Apple Green, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather and Basic White
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Azure Afternoon (SU)
Colored Pencils, Blending Stubs, Gamsol.
Enamel dots, Glitter, Foam Tape, Diamond Glaze

Thanks for stopping by.  If you leave a comment please include your e-mail in the comment if you want a personal thank you.  

Apr 30, 2025

Monster Mayhem - NBUS#73

Hello,  Thanks for stopping by.

Today I will be sharing a card that I created for no particular challenge whatsoever.  

 Here is the card:



This card features one of the adorable monsters from Unity Stamps,
Monster Mayhem stamp set. It also features matching paper with the same name.

Details: Card Base, Basic Black (SU)
Basic White cs(SU)
Patterned Paper, Unity Stamps (Monster Mayhem)
Color Medium - Copic Markers
Embossing Folder, Spots n Dots (Cuttlebug)* - retired
Heart Punch *retired SU
Circle Dies from both Unity and MFT
Staples, Googly Eyes, Foam Mounting Tape

I stamped the Monster with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Copic Markers.  I am trying to learn how to use these markers so I've been watching a few video's - How do you think I did?

I just love this Monster set and what's even better is they came out with a girl monster set (I'm still waiting for mine to arrive) called,
She Monsters and patterned paper,  Love Notes  both available separately or in a Bundle package.  - I can't wait to use them.

Since this is my first time using this set I'm going to put it up on NBUS#73 



Have a great day.

Apr 12, 2025

Color Throwdown #830 and IB#331

 Welcome.  I hope you've been having a good week.  Mine has had it's, "ups and downs" but nothing to major.

Today I'll be sharing a couple of cards that I created for two different challenges.

First up a card for the ct830




Here is my card for that challenge:


This challenge was a bit hard for me.  I didn't have any patterned papers that had those 3 colors all together.  SO instead I just went with the colors through the paper and accessories.
I broke out a very old stamp set: (A.muse Studio - Bunny Business) and dusted it off for both of these cards.

Paper - Highland Heather, Mint Melody*retired & Basic White cs - SU
Embossing Folder - Paper Studio
Tag - Unity (Grunge Cuts - Tag Dies)
Flower Ribbon - A.Muse Studio
Other: Colored Pencils, Glitter, Heart Punch, Foam Tape
This is a very CAS card - Something I find hard to do but it worked out.

Next up : Inspired by...Bunnies (now mind you both of these cards would work for this challenge.



Here is my card:


For my card I was of course inspired by, bunnies.  I chose to do brighter colors for this card so perhaps the first card fits the pastel colors of the inspiration photo better but I'm sticking with this one for the challenge.

Papers: Only Orange and Basic White cs - SU
Patterned Gingham check - A.Muse Studio
Colored Pencils, Gamsol, Flower border Embossing Folder, Liquid Pearls-Cantaloupe from Ranger and Scallop/Rectangle Die (Unity)

Apr 8, 2025

Inspired by-IB#330 Rain

 Hello and Welcome.

Today's card is one that I'm sharing with the Inspired by blog,

This was the Inspiration photo:


Here is my card:


For this card I chose this adorable little mouse from Unity Stamps,  Spring Mouse

Since this is just an inspiration point I decided to add another color, (green) to my card.  After all this is a Spring mouse!

My card stock colors: Basic White, Granny Apple Green & Azure Afternoon - SU.

The image was stamped in Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with pencils blended with Gamsol.
I masked off the mouse image and created clouds by using a homemade stencil since I couldn't find my cloud stencil (my craft room needs serious organization!)

As you can see it's not perfect, I'm still learning stencil techniques.
I colored the border and drew in grass with my pencils.  Then I stamped rain using an old SU stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds.

The dies are Unity (Rectangle Scallops and Circles). Main image was mounted with foam tape.

Thank you for stopping by.  If you leave a comment could you include your e-mail address as Blogger seems to put comments into, No-Reply now and unless I know your e-mail I can't sent you a personal thank you for your comment.

Mar 27, 2025

ArtNudge#325D and Freshly Made Sketches#679 and NBUS#72

 Hello and Welcome!

Having some fun today with the Art Nudge challenge and the Sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

First the Sketch: FMS#679


The Art Nudge Inspiration photo: ArtNudge#325D


Here is the card that I created for these 2 challenges:


I was inspired by the colors of the inspiration photo and of course (chickens which lay eggs).

My starting point was this fun stamp set from Unity Stamps:
Impeckable Silhouettes and the fun patterned paper from Unity Stamps: Cluck and Bloom.

Card Base is: Lost Lagoon (SU). Then the layer of designer paper cut with a Unity Scallop/Rectangle Die.
The chicken was stamped with Calypso Coral Ink on White cs and cut with a Unity Scallop/Circle Die.
I cut a fishtail tag (MFT) on Old Olive cs and used a Chicken wire embossing folder.  I added another strip of designer paper (don't those dots resemble eggs).  The sentiment was stamped with Memeto Tuxedo black ink. I also used Petal Pink Paper and ink for the small chick and the circle under the chicken piece.  

This is my first time using this stamp set and paper so it's going in for NBUS#72 as well.




Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate your visits and comments very much.  Happy Stamping.

Mar 15, 2025

St. Patrick's Day Cards and a Bonus card from way back.

 Hello & Welcome.

Today I'm sharing a couple of St. Patrick's Day cards that I managed to make and mail out!

First up was a card based on this card that I did many years ago(2007) and decided to use the same layout:  I don't know if this card was ever featured on this blog or not so you get to see it along with the one I did for St. Patrick's Day.


This uses an old retired SU set: Heartfelt Thanks.
The colors featured in this card were : Pumpkin Pie, Apricot Appeal, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery (*retired colors) and Very Vanilla.
This is the inside of that little tag on the front:

So now onto the current St. Patrick's Day card I made using that same idea:


So for this card I used: Pumpkin Pie for the base of the card.  Then I stamped a strip of Basic White with a large shamrock and a small shamrock from a retired Close to my Heart stamp set (Lucky You).
I used Garden Green ink and card stock.  Since I no longer had the set with the dot featured in the above card I used the eraser on a pencil stamped onto the Pumpkin Pie ink pad to create the same look.
The small stamped heart image on the tag panel is from a Studio G stamps set.  I colored in the clover with Wink of Stella for some shimmer.
Inside of the tag: & card pictured below: Click to enlarge.




Finally the 2nd St. Patrick's Day card I made:


This one used:  Granny Apple Green and Lemon Lime Twist card stock.  The Hat is a wood block stamp from: Rubber Stampede that I've had for forever.  The sentiment is from Studio G and was also featured on the card above.
Other details: Image colored with pencils, cutout and mounted with foam tape. Dies from Unity Stamps, Enamel Dots.
I also used this sketch:

Which I was to late to enter but wanted to show it anyway.

Hope you have enjoyed these cards.


Mar 3, 2025

PP727 and NBUS72 - Spring Flowers

 Good Day - Hope the start of your week is going well.

Today I'm finally sharing a card! - I started this card on Saturday and when I saw what the Paper Players theme was this week I knew that I was going to post it for that theme.

Here is the theme this week:  PP727


Here is the card that I created:


Since this is brand new stuff I'm also going to share it with NBUS#72


I wanted to use one of the images from Unity Stamps February 2025 KOM (the sweetest spring)

This is a rather large image so it will cover most of an, A2 Card.
I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink twice on Basic White card stock.  Then I cut out a portion of it with a Unity Circle die. This is called the, Spotlight technique.

I colored the circle portion with Prisma Colored Pencils and blended with Gamsol.  I also splattered some white dots using a White Luster Brush (Scrapbook.com).  The main image was cut out with a Unity Scallop Rectangle die.  I used a piece of patterned paper (source unknown) to cover the front of a A2 Card of Granny Apple Green.
The sentiment was stamped in the black ink and cut with an Oval die (MFT) - Then I used a Q-tip to brush real red ink around the edge.
I punched out some small photo corners (EK Success punch) in Granny Apple Green and mounted them with foam tape.  The flower panel was also mounted with foam tape over the main image.  To finish the card off I added some red enamel dots.

I hope you enjoy this little touch of Spring.



Feb 3, 2025

Freshly Made Sketches#671 and NBUS#71

 Hi,  So happy you've stopped in for a visit. - Please know that I appreciate each and every visit and comment made.  - For some reason lately Blogger will not let me reply back unless I know your e-mail address.  So if you don't get a thank you personally from me that is the reason why.

Now on to today's card.  


I'm participating in Freshly Made Sketches #671  and NBUS#71

Here is my card:


I finally got to use my brand new Unity Stamp set: Purr-ty Cats and the new designer paper, (Atomic Kitty Cat)  there is also a die set that goes with the stamps but I have not purchased that "yet."

So for this CAS card I used, Basic Black cs,  Calypso Coral, Basic White (all SU)
I stamped the cat image with Mint Macaron (retired SU) ink.  I added strips of the designer paper and reverse embossed the coral paper with a chevron pattern embossing folder.  I added some light coral enamel dots and used circle dies from both SU and Unity.   I embossed the sentiment with versamark ink and black embossing powder. The cat image was mounted with foam tape.

Thank you again for stopping by.



Jan 16, 2025

ARTNUDGE125A and NBUS#70

 Welcome - Well the year got off to a difficult start with the passing of my niece, Krissy on New Years morning.  -  Thank you to everyone who offered condolences and prayers.  She will be greatly missed.

Today I'm sharing my first ever card for the Art Nudge challenges.

This one is for ARTNUDGE125A

Here is the Inspiration Photo:


Here is the card that I created:


For this card I chose (Frosty & Feisty) from the (pissy kitty) line of Unity stamps. - This is my first time inking it up.

I started with a White card base that I brushed on some chalk to distress the edges. - The image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with chalks and a Q-Tip.  I then sprayed with hairspray to seal it.  I added some white paint splatters and decided they were to faint so I also used my Lustre Brush to add more white splatters which showed up better.

To mimic a sweater pattern I used an embossing folder (Herringbone) on some Not Quite Navy card stock. I panel out first with a (Scallops/Rectangle) die from Unity Stamps and then did the embossing folder.  I cut the image out using an SU Stylish Square die and added a larger piece of Only Orange (retired SU) cart stock that I distressed with a distressing tool (also retired SU).  I mounted that over the embossed panel with foam tape.

The sentiment was also stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink and distressed with the chalk.  I used a fishtail die (MFT) and added an old SU button that I put a small piece of pink card stock as the thread and glued it down with a glue dot.

Everyone who knows me well knows that I am NOT a fan of winter so this card is something I can relate too.  I hope you find it as amusing as I did.


Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate your visit and comments.