Autumn Chrysanthemum

Hello again! I'm thinking I'm on a roll at the moment! Three times in less than a week! The card I have for you today is using a new stamp set in the Holiday catalog that came out Sept 1st. It's called Painted Harvest, it actually has a whole suite, but I just got the stamp set and the Designer Series Paper (DSP). My Mum and Nan used to love to garden and we always had some kind of flowers throughout the year beginning with Snowdrops in January and continuing on to the beautiful Chrysanthemums in the fall. Consequently, I was dying to try my hand in trying to duplicate a chrysanthemum with this set. It's a two-step stamp, and after trying out several inks, I decided to use Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze for the flower and Pear Pizzaz and Old Olive for the leaves. For the center of the flower I used Soft Suede and Crushed Curry for the little dots, so cute! The flowers also were brushed with Wink of Stella, but I'm not sure that you can see it in the picture. The set also has this darling little acorn, I couldn't resist stamping a couple of those too! These were stamped using Crumb Cake and Soft Suede. I used Very Vanilla for my stamping mat, then mounted this, using dimensionals, onto a mat of gold glimmer paper. My card base is Cajun Craze. This is one of the many reasons I love Stampin Up, everything matches, you don't spend valuable time trying to match inks with paper etc. and the finished product looks so good! I was very pleased with the outcome of the 'Chrysanthemums', it brought me back to my childhood, I could almost smell them, that beautiful autumn, deep woodsy smell they have! I hope you like my card as much as I do and if you would like to purchase any of the items I have used, I would love to have you as my customer. My Stampin Up website is at the top right of this post. Similarly, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email, address at top right also, or feel free to comment on this post. Til next time.......

Colorful Seasons.........again!

Here I am again! Didn't quite make my promise of 'the next day', but at least it wasn't two months! LOL! So these two cards I made using the Colorful Seasons stamp set again and the accompanying  Seasonal Layers Thinlets. A while ago I saw a fellow Demonstrator (unfortunately, I don't remember her name) demonstrating a card with an acetate window in the front. So I decided I'd give it a try, I experimented on two cards before these two just to give myself a little practice. I decided as an extra step I would emboss on the acetate! Now I'll warn you, if you want to emboss on acetate you will have to get 'Heat Resistant Acetate', I got mine on Amazon.  I sandwiched the acetate between the card base (thick very vanilla) and the DSP. The first card I used the Wood Textures DSP, the mat on the inside as well as the outside mats. The leaves on the acetate are embossed using the copper embossing powder and the finely detailed leaf stamp. Gorgeous, I love it! On the left hand front mat I cut out a copper leaf using the finely detailed leaf thinlet, it's so beautiful, I just want to keep cutting them out and using them on something.....anything! I cut two of the smaller leaves using gold shimmer paper and placed them above and below the center leaf. On the inside mat I stamped the branches and small leaf from the stamp set. A couple of days ago I was experimenting, using watercolor paper and various inks to make a mat I could use to cut out anything 'Autumny'! I was quite pleased with the result, hence the two leaves placed on the branch on the inside mat. So, this is the first card, the front and the inside left and right.

Front

left inside front

right inside front

Now the next card is my absolute favorite, I felt with my first card, the copper embossing wasn't shown off enough as the DSP was kinda 'busy'! So this card, I embossed using gold embossing powder on the acetate and the left front of the card! On the inside I sponged the width of the acetate with Crushed Curry and Peekaboo Peach and then stamped the branches and leaves from the Colorful Seasons stamps. The card base is, again, thick Very Vanilla. To finish it off I used some of the glitter enamel dots in Crushed Curry.

Front

Inside

That's it for me today, as always, if you would like to purchase any of the items I have used or if you have any questions at all, I would be more than happy to help you. The links to my Stampin' Up store and my email are at the top right of this post! You can also leave me a comment, I love to read them, they give me a ton of encouragement to continue doing what I love to do! Thank you all so much, I hope you like these two cards.

Colorful Seasons - Autumn!

It's been a while since I last blogged! As much as I try and blog more often, life happens and my blog doesn't! LOL! I will attempt to blog at least once a week if possible, that doesn't seem to daunting!
Lately, I have been totally obsessed with the Colorful Seasons stamp set. This set was in the annual catalog that came out on June 1st. I made quite a few cards during the summer with the flowers and now that Autumn is here, I have been using the leaves.  I love the colors of fall - the reds, the yellows and different shades of each, I love to sponge and create different combinations for the leaves. My first two cards I tried the 'baby-wipe' technique. Using my re-inkers, I put two drops each of Tranquil Tide, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Lemon Lime Twist and Rich Razzleberry on to the baby-wipe. Then you can use this like an ink pad, putting your stamp into various parts to get the different hues to come through. I layered it onto a mat of Lemon Lime Twist, wrapped some 1/4" copper trim around the bottom and glued it to a Tranquil Tide card base. I wasn't really bowled over by this one, I thought it was a little too 'busy', I've never seen leaves with that many hues, but it was a good experience. I went back to the drawing board, so to speak, and this time I used three colors only, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Rich Razzleberry. I stamped the leaves onto a piece of Color Theory DSP in Crushed Curry. It has a marbled effect and it's my favorite in the pack! I matted it onto a piece of Crushed Curry card stock and then onto a Cajun Craze card base. I put some Crushed Curry glitter enamel dots onto the front. I liked this one so much better! Now in addition to stamping with the 'baby-wipe ink', I embossed the leaves as well! These stamps are photopolymer, therefore very easy to see through and place directly on top of your previous stamping. When the leaves had dried from the inking, I re-stamped over them with Versamark and heat embossed using clear embossing powder, this gave a really nice wet look to the leaves, much like you would see after a frost in the autumn. On the second card, I even embossed a second time on the smaller leaves using glitter! I was really happy with how this one turned out. 

I have a couple of other cards that I made today, using the same stamp set and accompanying thinlets, to show you, but I will do that tomorrow as it's now getting late in the day. If you would like to purchase any of the items listed just click on the link at the top right corner of this page. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them, drop me a line, my email is also at the top right side of this post or leave a comment below. Thank you for taking the time to look, I hope you like my cards! 

Blue Ridge Winery

Hello out there, I hope you all are having a fantastic 4th of July commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence 241 years ago on the 4th July 1776!
On the 17th of June Blue Ridge Winery unearthed their new wine, Underground. It had been buried for 9 months, six feet underground! My friend Peggy and I visit the winery every Tuesday, Peg loooves her tasting! We know Randy, the owner of the Winery as he is always nipping in and out during the week. He is one of the most conscientious people I've ever met, definitely the truest definition of Entrepreneur! Their wines are absolutely fantastic, there isn't one I don't like, though my favorite is Sunshine Red! I wasn't there for the unearthing, Peg was, don't doubt that! I tasted it last week, dry red, and I must say extremely good and I only usually cook with dry, not drink it! Here are two pictures, one is the barrel unearthed and the other you see one of the guys 'rolling out the barrel' as they say! 

 Anyway, I wanted to congratulate Randy and his family on the 'unearthing' of his new 'red' so what other way would us card makers do that........yep, make him a card! Now when they first 'buried' the wine, they had a painting made and I tried to, kind of, mimic that painting. Here's the picture of part of the painting (don't tell, but I 'borrowed' all these pics from their Facebook page!). Beneath the painting is my card

I sponged a 5 3/4" x 5 3/4" piece of whisper white with the following colors: Blackberry Bliss (retired), Fresh Fig, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie and Peekaboo Peach. For the 'water' I sponged with Pacific Point and Soft Sky. The tree was stamped using Blackberry Bliss and the oak tree from the stamp set 'Lovely as a Tree', one of my absolute favorite sets ever! However, none of my existing stamps have a 'bare branch' tree in the same shape so I drew the branches using my Blackberry Bliss stamp-n-write marker! I embossed 'Congratulations' using some retired Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. I then glued this to a Pumpkin Pie mat and then onto a 6 x 6 Whisper White card base. All in all I had an enormous amount of fun creating this card, I've found, over this past year, that I really love sponging, you can get some absolutely stunning effects with inks and sponges! Anyway, I hope you like my card (and I hope Randy and his family do to, I'm giving it to him tomorrow, we couldn't go today as it was the 4th!). If any of you are ever visiting the Poconos in NE PA I urge you to visit the Winery, you won't be disappointed! There is a link above to their Facebook page. If you have any questions about the card (or the Winery LOL!), please don't hesitate to contact me, my email address is at the top right of this post.

At Home

Whoa, I'm on a roll this week, I've again been playing with one of my new stamp sets, At Home With You. The set has 26 stamps and it comes in a bundle that includes 12 thinlets all for $50.00! I mean, you can't beat that price-wise now can you! It includes stamps for spring, summer, fall and winter, you can't go wrong with this set, there's a little for everyone! There are already a lot of cards on Pinterest using it, some with blue doors, some with red doors, some with wooden doors. I decided I wanted a red door! I chose Early Espresso for my card base which is portrait style, 4 1/4 x 11 scored and burnished at 5 1/2.  I married that with a pumpkin pie mat. I embossed a piece of Sahara Sand with the Brick embossing folder and then 'dirtied' it up a bit with a sponge and some Crumb Cake ink. I stamped the door with Early Espresso on to Real Red card-stock and cut it out using the door thinlet. Now the fun thing about the door thinlet is that you can either just cut out the door or you can cut out the frame and have the door open! How fun is that! You may be able to see from this picture but I chose to have the door open! So, when is a door not a door - when it's ajar! Sorry, I couldn't help it, reminds me of when I was a kid and we were always looking for riddles to solve! Anyway, to continue I stamped the two lanterns and the sentiment with VersaMark and embossed them with copper embossing powder. The wreath and two planters were stamped with Early Espresso and then colored with my markers using Old Olive for the Leaves and Melon Mambo and Blushing Bride for the flowers. The Welcome mat was also stamped with Early Espresso. I finished off the wreath and flower pots with some Wink of Stella on the flowers and little linen bows. Oh, and the lantern, wreath, welcome mat and sentiment also have thinlets which I used to cut them all out. Now, after the whole card was put together, I decided I wanted to make the door look kind of freshly painted if you will, so I covered it with Glossy Accents, should really have done this before I put the door on to the mat! The picture, because of the lighting, makes it look wet, but it looks quite good in person ---- I promise (she says!)

Now, as the saying goes  - let's see, what's behind the red door!

The sentiment on the front says "Thanks" so inside the door I chose the sentiment "For Everything". I stamped this on a piece of (now retired) Serene Scenery DSP which I also cut out using the door thinlet, that way it fits perfectly behind the door itself. I'm sorry you can't really see this in the picture, but I wanted to show you how the door opens and you can still write your message on the inside of the card as well. Oh, and by the way, there is a thinlet for the little windows on the door, 6 panes! You can't really see them on the front of the card because the wreath partially covers them, but there they are, peeking out just here! Isn't that just the cutest thing!
I really enjoyed making this card, At Home With You is a fantastic set! If you would like to purchase the bundle, the number is 145351. All you have to do is go to my Stampin Up site, there is a link at the top right corner of this page and put the number in under 'Search the Store' and Bob's your Uncle, there it is! Of course, you can buy them separately, but why on earth would you want to! LOL! Thank you for taking the time to look at my post, I hope you like my card!

Graceful Garden

So today I'm just making a card to just make a card as they say! I received my new goodies from Stampin' Up on Monday and today has been the first day I've been able to dedicate a little time to stamping! I've wanted this set since the demonstrators have been able to see the catalog on line. It's called 'Graceful Garden'. It's a 6 piece stamp set, I have placed a picture below. I wanted to do something a little different, I saw one of the Stampin Up bloggers demonstrate a 'basket weave' and I actually managed to complete one on this card! The card base is the new in-color Berry Burst. After I completed the weave, I stamped the actual card base with the 'trellis' stamp, in the same stamp set, using Berry Burst and stamping off once. I used a piece of the Fresh Florals DSP next and then my stamped image on top. For the rose, I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black and then, using my stampin' write markers, I colored the rose in Berry Burst and the leaves in Old Olive.To finish off, I used my Wink of Stella on the rose and added three of the new faceted gems which come in 4 different colors and have a beautiful ombre effect. The sentiment seemed just perfect to sit beneath the rose. I think I'm going to make a set in different colors, which would be a perfect gift to give, to maybe, a rose lover!

If you have any questions or would like to order any of the items in this post, please do not hesitate to use the links at the top right of this post. Thank you so much for looking!

Colorful Seasons Birthday Card

Yesterday was Father's Day and also my daughter's birthday! She was born on Father's Day 'x' number of years ago! (Kara would die if I put her actual age here!). So, anyway, it was a double whammy day for my grandchildren and I! We had a wonderful time together as always and this is the card that I made for her. I got the inspiration from a card on Pinterest (don't we all!) made by Jesse Holton, a fellow Stampin' Up demonstrator!

I looove this set, Colorful Seasons, I could play with it all day (and probably will!). For the background, I used shimmery white paper, really excellent for water coloring. The inks I used were  Bermuda Bay, which is Kara's favorite, I've probably mentioned that before! I also used Powder Pink which is one of the new in-colors. I used Sahara Sand for the stamen and the flowers were stamped using Powder Pink, stamped tone on tone on the same color paper and cut out using the matching set of die cuts.  For the sentiment, also from Colorful Seasons, I used the new in-color Tranquil Tide, which is a bluey greeney (don't think they are actual adjectives!) color - love it! To add to the way Jesse made her card, I finished mine off with a double linen bow glued to a piece of burlap, I thought it just added that kinda 'umph'! I've always tended to shy away from water coloring, it always kinda scared me, but I took my own challenge and I think this came out rather well! Love the card, love the set, can't wait to sit down and use it some more!

Wild About Flowers Thank You card

One of my favorite Stampin' Up blogs is JanB Handmade Cards. Jan is a Stampin' Up Demonstrator in the UK.  I also frequent Jan's You Tube channel quite a lot too! I get tons of inspiration from her. When I see her cards, I see my style of cardmaking. I can't quite find the word I'm looking for to describe her style except that it is uncluttered and not too busy. The stamps Jan tends to use a lot are those with flowers and today I have made a card that Jan made last week. Yes, I totally C.A.S.E.D her card!  I changed the positioning of the sentiments, that's the only 'selective editing' I did! The primary stamp set Jan used is Wild About Flowers, this includes three sets of flowers which are two-step stamping. The base of the card is Very Vanilla and I used the flourish stamp from First Sight for the background on the mat. These are beautiful stamps, there are tons of cards on Pinterest showcasing these sets. So, without further ado, here are three pictures of the card which include the inside and the envelope. If you would like to see Jan's card, please press here

Jar of Love Mother's Day card

Well, tomorrow is Mother's Day and yesterday I spent some quality time with my daughter's two youngest children, Jaden and Rorey! As 9 and 10 year olds go these days, they are the most fun loving, caring, beautiful children on this planet, states their Grandmother! As such, I was thinking how much I appreciate my daughter for raising my grandchildren to be the way they are. So, because making a card shows how much you care or love someone, I made her a card from me for Mother's Day! Her favorite color is Bermuda Bay, I used that for the card base and the small flowers and hearts. Daffodil Delight was used for the main part of the large flower (it's a two step stamp) and for the center I used Crushed Curry.

I used the 'Jar of Love' stamp set, which, by the way, will continue to be in the 2017-2018 Stampin Up catalog, yipee! It's a beautiful set with 37 stamps in total! Along with the stamps, there are framelits. The set of 'Everyday Jar of Love' framelits contains 17 dies. Enormous value for your dollar I would say! I used both on this card. One of the dies is the small strip of hearts at the bottom of the white mat, first I used the die to cut out the hearts on the white mat, then I repeated the cut on some Bermuda Bay glitter paper (which sadly has retired). I then glued those tiny blue hearts into the spaces left in the white mat! I embossed the rim of the jar using copper embossing powder, a new item in the catalog this year, and then popped it up on the jar using dimensionals. All the stamped images and die cuts are from the Jar of Love sets with the exception of the sentiment. I wanted to hang a label from the jar so I used Teeny Tiny Wishes as that stamp set is just like it states "Teeny Tiny" and this worked really well on the jar. I put dimensionals onto the jar and placed it on half of a white doily. To finish off, I die cut the label with the Stitched Shapes Framelits and tied it to the jar with Bermuda Bay bakers twine. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I will celebrate Mother's Day with my daughter, her husband and my grandchildren!  If you would like a 2017-2018 catalog, please email with your name and address and I will gladly send one out to you. If you have shopped with me in the past 6 months, you will automatically receive one. Similarly, if you would like to purchase any of the items listed here, please do not hesitate to either contact me by email or shop online from my store, both of which are listed at the top right of this blog. I wish all of you out there in blogland a very happy Mother's Day!

Stampin’ Up! The 2017 Retiring List Has Posted!!!

Stampin' Up is getting ready to retire products from both the 2016-2017 Annual and 2017 Occasions catalogs. They don’t want you to miss out! Select retiring products have discounts of up to 50% off.

Be sure to place orders before the sun sets on these items May 31!

• Promotion dates: April 10–May 31, 2017 beginning at 1:00 PM (MT).
• No minimum purchase required.
• Retiring items may be added to all orders.
• Retiring items are eligible for Stampin’ Rewards with qualifying orders.
• All retiring items will be discontinued after May 31.
• All retiring accessories and tools are available while supplies last.
• Due to high demand for retiring stamp sets, Stampin’ Up! will keep producing retiring stamp sets until May 22.  After May 22, all retiring stamp sets will be available while supplies last.
• Order Deadlines:  May 31, 2017, by 11:55 PM (MT)

You can see the Retiring List right here. There are some great deals on some of Stampin Up's fantastic products so go take a look-see, get a list together and happy shopping!  Here’s a quick link  to the Retiring Products in my Online Store.

Mark's 50th birthdayI

I haven't posted in a really really long time! I went to Minnesota in September of 2016 and when I got back it was one thing after the other! First Halloween, then Thanksgiving and then, of course, Christmas! And, like every other year, I got sick! It seems that every year, around the holidays, I come down with something! This year wasn't any different! I ended up in hospital the week of Valentines! Still not sure what's going on with that, so I won't bore you with the details! Onto something pleasant, my eldest son will be turning 50 on March 6th! I keep telling him he's catching up with me! I made this card from black and gold paper (gold shimmer) and used the Number of Years bundle, this includes the stamps and the dies! I love this set and have used it a number (no pun intended!) of times for birthdays and anniversaries. It was quite simple to make, I die cut the 50 from the center of the black mat which was then laid on top of the gold mat. I stamped and die cut the banners for the 'birthday' and 'TH' sentiments and then glued the two mats to the black card base. I then 'dressed' it up a little bit with the gold accents. Didn't want to do too much as it is, after all, a masculine card! I hope you like it, it's simple but very nice I think! If you would like to purchase any of the products I have used please visit my online site, there is a link to it at the top right of this post!