Inspired by...Winter Knits

 Hello & Welcome.

I'm excited today to share my first card of 2026.  I chose the Inspired by Winter Knits challenge for this card.

I decided to go for the colors and the textures for my card from the Inspiration photo. - There is also a sketch you can follow.

Here is my card:

So for this card I used, Frosty & Feisty (pissy kitty).  I wanted to use this particular piece of patterned paper (which took me forever to find in my paper stash). I've had it forever.  It was called, Alpine Stash from KI.

My card base is Night of Navy then I used a Unity rectangle/scallop die to cut the patterned paper out.  You can see in the photo but it has a slight shimmer/sheen to it.  I then used a piece of Close to Cocoa (retired SU) card stock and embossed it with a Herringbone folder and cut a strip of.  I layered that to the patterned piece.  

The kitty was stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with pencils that I blended with Gamsol.  I added some white splatters and layered that on a piece of Early Espresso cs. - Unity and MFT circle dies were used.  The piece was mounted with foam tape.

The sentiment was stamped with Night of Navy ink.  - To finish the card I added some light blue gems.

Hoping to get back into stamping more as the year progresses. Thanks for stopping by.

GIU - Day 2 Stir The Pot (Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge).

 Welcome! - Today is Day 2 of my GIU (Growing in Unity) stamp week. -  I want to thank everyone who left comments on yesterday's card.  

Before I post today's card PLEASE leave a name in your comment so I can put you in for the $20 Voucher.  I had several comments yesterday that were (anonymous) and a name was not left in the comment.  If you left one on the Pumpkin card please check to see if you included your name so I can count you in for the drawing at the end of my term. 

Now let's get on with today's card.  -  I love Halloween and Cats so this card was a perfect combination for me. Click to enlarge photos.

This card used another stamp from the September KOM (Harvest to Holiday).  That little "witch kitty" just made me laugh when I saw it and I knew I had to use it for one of this weeks cards.

I used a piece of Granny Apple Green cs and stamped an old SU background Sanded with some white pigment ink but unless you look really close you can't see it because my pigment ink pad isn't the greatest.  I'll be investing in a better one soon.  I added a punch goo border that I punched from Old Olive cs and embossed with a Versa Mark pad & Clear Embossing powder 2 or 3 times to give it some dimension.

Card Base is Purple (one of SU retired colors though).  The designer paper is from DCWV. The witch cat was stamped with Memento Tuxedo ink and colored with Pencils and blended with Gamsol using blending stumps.  I added some light gray splatter with an old SU stamp (Itty Bitty Backgrounds).  I cut it out with a Square die (SU Stylish Dies) and then mounted it on a piece of Tangerine Tango* cs and distressed the edges. The sentiment was stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink.  I added sequins (Picket Fence Studio) to compete the card and mounted the focal image with foam tape.

Will be sharing this over on the Two Old Bats Halloween challenge as well.

What a fun mood board.  Love the cat and witch hats...thus the inspiration for this card.

Thanks for stopping by - Leave a comment, including your name for a chance to win that $20 gift voucher from Unity Stamps.

Wrapping up Christmas - Part 1

 Welcome.  I'm wrapping up Christmas cards from 2024 today and tomorrow.

Starting off with a couple of Nature themed cards:

Card #1

For this card I started out with the patterned paper for my inspiration.  It's from Unity Stamps, (Rustic Christmas line)

Next I used 2 stamps (Merry Christmas & a Plaid Stamp) both are from Unity Stamp KOM

The card base was Early Espresso. I cut out the patterned paper with a Unity Scallop/Rectangle die.  Circle Dies were used for the sentiment.  That was stamped on Soft Sea Foam cs and embossed with Gold Glitter embossing powder.  The plaid was stamped with Shaded Spruce ink on Garden Green card stock.  I added some pinecones, leaves and a small poinsettia that were punched with various dies and topped it off with a piece of sparkly gold ribbon and a tiny brown pearl.

Card #2

This was one of my favorite cards I made this year.  I started with a base of Old Olive Card stock.  The stamped a piece of Very Vanilla with the pine cone image from the (Festive Flair - Nov. 2023 KOM)

with Memento Tuxedo black ink.  I used retired chalks from SU to color the pinecones and sprayed with hairspray.  I tore a piece of Old Olive and distressed the edges with Old Olive ink and layered that over the pinecones and cut it out with Unity Postage Dies.  Next up I splattered the image with Antique Bronze Distress Spray and mounted that on the card base. - Finally I used the smaller postage dies and Embossed the sentiment with Copper embossing powder and also distressed the edges and splattered the same spray on it. That was mounted with foam tape on top of the stamped image.

It was very shimmery in real life.

Card #3

This one just made me smile as I knew who it was going to right off the bat. So for this I started with a card base of Cherry Cobbler.  Then I found this cool piece of plaid paper in the little goodie bag from Unity and decided to use it for my card.  I also picked out a piece of designer paper (Unity Rustic Christmas pack) but from there I took a snowflake image from the (Wander and Wonder - Sept. 24 KOM) and some Crushed Olive Distress ink and stamped on top of the designer paper.  I tore the edge, layered it over the plaid piece and cut it out with a Scalloped Rectangle die.

The cat image is from Unity (Ho Ho No Pissy Kitty).  I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Basic White card stock and colored with pencils. Cut it out with SU Stylish Die and mounted it over a piece of Old Olive card stock.  Stamped the sentiment on a Fishtail die and added some red enamel dots to complete the card.

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow I will be wrapping up with my final 2 cards that I made for Christmas of 2024.

BC215 Pets

Hello and Happy Friday!
This week the Blogger Challenge Theme is: PETS-What a great theme. If you're a regular on my blog you know by now what my favorite pet is, Yes it's a "Cat" and we have 6 of them in our house. So for my card today I naturally chose to use a cat image.
Here's what I came up with:

I wanted to showcase the row of furry feline's but didn't feel like coloring all of them so I just left them uncolored and then used another image to color. Stamps: The Cat's Meow-retired SU
Card stock: Very Vanilla, SU - All other colors are from Chatterbox - I've had them for years so I don't know the exact color names. The DP though is Sunny Plaid from the Sunroom Collection.

I have to confess that I purchased another punch just for this project. I've been wanting this punch for some time now and even looked at it last week while my friend was down for her visit but didn't buy it then. However it seemed like the perfect time so I went and bought the Paw Print punch yesterday and I'm glad I did as it really added to this card.

Okay I just have to show off the "perfect prop" for this card:

This is, Captain Cuddles the youngest of your furry feline family members. He just happened to get up on the couch while I was taking photo's so I had to take his picture with the card. Isn't he adorable!


It's been quite the week here with pets. Sunday evening Coleen was in the basement playing with her pet rats (Cheesy and Wheezy) when she came upstairs screaming and holding something in her hand. She was hysterical so it was hard at first to understand her but we managed to get her calmed down enough to find out that she had accidentally shut the door on one of the rat's tails and it had come off. Yes, it was icky since the bone and tissue were exposed. She was crying and quite upset. We managed to get her calmed down and after her mom got home we researched on the Internet about what we could do since it was a holiday weekend and taking the rat to the Vet would have been an ER call and way to expensive. After talking to the on-call Vet we just bathed the rats tail in Saline Solution to help stop the bleeding and waited until Tuesday to take him to the vet. He ended up having to have a portion of his tail amputated but I'm happy to report that Wheezy is home now and doing just fine.

Please note that Blogger is having "issues" right now with some people's blogs (mine is one) when trying to leave comments. If you don't have the feature (Name/URL)and don't see a comment from me it's because I am unable to post comments on certain blogs if that option is not available to me.



Now it's your turn to play along. Just use the link below to show us your Pet themed project.

BC148 - Here For You

Click HERE for the Annabelle Challenge card or scroll down one post.

It's time now for the Friday Blogger Challenge,  Can you guess what this week's theme is?                                         We had a "color" combo this week:  Orange, Blue and Moss Green...Now I have to admit that at first I really struggled with that color combo.  I kept going through my stacks of patterned paper in hopes of finding one with all 3 colors but alas there was none to be found.  Needless to say I started to panic and then I pulled myself together and started working on the focal piece of my card.  I pulled out my (Friends 24-7) stamp set and stamped the flowers on Shimmery White cs with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and water colored them using ink pads and my Aqua Painter. I highlighted the Orange flowers with a Clear Spica Glitter Pen   Next I masked the flowers (that was a tricky mask to cut) and stenciled my clouds on with Bashful Blue ink.  I mounted this to an Oval of Moss Green and added some orange gems (Annabelle Stamps). 
After that piece was finished it took me the rest of the day trying to figure out my layout and papers...I decided on a piece of retired DP from SU that as of this moment I don't recall the name of.  I believe it was part of last years Sale-a-bration catalog.
I paired this up with a piece of textured Only Orange cs tied with some Moss Grosgrain ribbon.  The sentiment was mounted on a circle of Bashful Blue cs and I added an orange flower with a moss brad.  I was super pleased with how this one turned out and hope you like it as well.

Lastly I'm leaving with you a hilarious picture I took on Sunday of our couch...count them...1-2-3-4 (only one was missing and she was in the cubby in my stamp room.)

Left to right:  Harley, Cuddles, Callie-Jo and Snickers.

Don't forget to check out the other BC members blogs (click on the icon on my sidebar) and leave some comment lovin!

Have a great weekend!

Cattitude Monday - One Cool Cat

It's "Cattitude" Monday - This is a favorite feature of mine. I absolutely adore cats & have 4 very fun and unique little furry feline friends living with me. They are such a joy & sometimes a real "pain in the butt" but we love them to pieces. To honor cats everywhere I am dedicating Mondays as "Cattitude" Monday day! Here is a card I did a couple of years ago and really liked how it turned out.

For this card I used: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel Card Stock

The stamps I used were: Cool Cat, Alphabits, Daisy Wheel (not sure of the name of this one & can't locate my old mini catalogs) so if you know what this wheel was called drop me a comment & I can change this post.

I stamped the cat with Chocolate Chip ink on Creamy Caramel card stock & mounted it to a piece of Bashful Blue cs. I stamped the small daisy pattern with Bashful Blue ink on and dotted the centers with a Close to Cocoa marker.

Then I used Craft White ink to stamp the wheel and the dots on the blue piece. I stamped the word HELLO and punched out the individual letters and mounted them to my card.

This is a really SIMPLE card but I still like it.

Hope you all have a wonderful MONDAY! Hugs, Ida