Red Lace Christmas

I bought this wide red foil border a few years ago, but never used it. The other day, I decided to try making a Christmas card with it. I applied it to a 5x7 card using my Xyron, then cut around just the lacy edge with scissors, and ran a gold pen over the edge of the scallops. Next, I applied gold mirror card over it, then applied some glittery designer paper from my stash over that, leaving just a narrow gold border between the DP and the Lace.

Inside, I added another piece of white, which I matted with the gold mirror card so the gold would show underneath the lace's scallops. Unfortunately, you can't see the gold underneath the scallops in the photo, because the card was open a bit when I took the photo.

Then, I stamped and embossed the merry Christmas using an older JustRite stamp, and cut them with a JustRite custom die. The border was embossed with SuperFine Detail Gold, and the sentiment was embossed with an old red tinsel EP I have. Those older EPs don't work nearly as well as the new stuff, but it looks okay anyway. Then I ran a gold pen around the outside of the stamped images and mounted them onto the card. Last, I added a bow and pearls.

Now an update on the minks. I have a smaller bucket under the leak, and apparently one of the babies likes swimming in it. Today, he went over and climbed into the bucket and played in the water. He kept sticking his head out of the bucket and looking at me, then going back down and playing some more. It was really cute!

If you didn't read my first post about the minks, you can read it here.

Merry Christmas Tree Card

I love these tags from K&Co. They are really supposed to be tags to put on gifts, but they are so pretty I prefer using them on cards. All the DP and tags are from K&CO

I chose the christmas tree as a starting point for this card, and mounted it onto a piece of gold dp, and cut it out with Spellbinders Labels One. Then, using the same die set, I made a frame with a piece of green DP to put around it. The tree tag is mounted dimensionally onto the gold DP.

I mounted the whole thing dimensionally onto the background paper, then mounted the Merry Christmas tag dimensionally below that.

The background paper is matted with green, gold mirror card, and deep red CS and mounted onto an ivory card. To dress the card up, I added a small gold bow and some green half pearls.

ODBDSLC124 Something Musical

This is my last week as guest designer for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge Team. It has been so much fun working with all the girls and Kelley, and designing cards using their beautiful stamps. Thank you so much ladies for this wonderful experience!

First I will tell you about the challenge.

This week's challenge: Something Musical

Create a card or project with some musical element. It can include a musical theme, some words in the sentiment or verse having to do with music or instruments, an embossing folder, dp or etc.

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, October 7th at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, October 7th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC124. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.

For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich,
Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

I look forward to seeing your beautiful entries into this challenge!

Now, about my card.

For this card, I wanted to use ODBD's beautiful Sing to the Lord set. My friends who visit my blog frequently must know that I love bluebirds, because I use them so often. When I was deciding on a color scheme, I remembered that as a child, I had always loved sky blue and gold together, and it might be pretty on this card, so I made this one a bluebird too. I stamped everything with VersaMark, and embossed it all in gold. The white paper is all Core'dinations Pearl because I love coloring with my Copics on this wonderful paper.

After coloring the bird and dogwood blossoms, I fussy cut them with scissors and mounted them dimensionally onto this sparkly sky blue paper I had in my stash. The blue was cut with Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles and mounted onto pearly white, then matted with gold mirror card, which was mounted onto a card I made with the white pearl. Then I outlined the blue with gold.

The psalm was cut with another of my Spellbinders dies, but I don't remember the name of it, and also mounted dimensionally onto the blue. Lastly, I added sky blue Liquid Pearls and white half pearls. I wish that instead of running my gold pen inside the die to outline the psalm, I had used a ruler and made the outline further from the verse, but I didn't really notice that until after I had mounted the psalm.

Creatables Christmas Tree Card

I hadn't used this Marianne Designables embossing folder for a long time, so I decided to make another Christmas card using it. I tried all my Marianne Creatables in the center, and decided to use this Christmas tree.

After cutting and embossing everything, I took Diamond Stickles and outlined some of the embossing, then used a gold PenTouch on the tree balls.

To finish the card, I added gold stickers from my stash, deep red half pearls, and a red and gold bow I made. All of the reds are actually the same deep red, but the camera's flash made the tree look lighter than it is, and made the half pearls look darker.

Roses and Lace Card

Today at work we had a lot of company, so I only had time to make a quick card.

I decided it was a good opportunity to try out some of the K&Co cards and envelopes I bought yesterday. This one was die cut with vellum behind the cut outs. I used a doily die cut from a pack made by Colorbok, and mounted it dimensionally in the center of the card.

Then, I mounted four prima leaves, with one of my Spellbinders Rose Creations roses in the center. After that, I added little roses in each corner and a bow at the bottom. The corner roses were some my local craft store sells, with some packaged cloth ones on either side.

Since I had the center rose already made, the whole card took less than half an hour to make.

I always feel like I am cheating when I start out with a ready made card background, but it is nice for quick cards, and the envelopes that came with it are very pretty and match the card.

After I made the card, I still had time to start making bows from my new ribbon. I like to have some bows made up in each color and different widths so I can try them on cards. The packs I got at TJ Maxx had 24 different colors in each pack, and I bought two of the ribbon packs, one in sheer colors, and one in solid satin, plus I had two spools of Christmas ribbon, so I've got a lot of bows to make, but it's fun and time saving when you are ready to add them to a card!

Fall Flower Card and I got some more goodies

A few days ago, my Mojo left me, so I decided to color some stamps. One of the stamps I decided to use was this old one from Anna Griffin. I've had it for years, and never used it.

I decided to use fall colors, so after stamping with VersaFine, I colored it with my Copics. The minute I finished it, I decided it needed to be mounted onto a golden yellow and lighter yellow CS.

I got it all mounted and thought I was finished with the card except for the sentiment when I decided to outline it with my gold pen. As I was outlining, the pen slipped and made a mess on one of the edges. I decided to cut a frame out of the golden yellow, and mounted that on top of the stamped design, which luckily covered up the mess. :-) Then I more carefully used the gold pen again.

Finally, I used a Spellbinders die and cut a label, then stamped Happy Birthday from one of my JustRite stamps and cut it to fit over the label. All that was left to do was add a few pearls for dimension, and it made a quick and simple card. Once I finished that one, my Mojo came back!

Today I was off the island and got to JoAnns. I was really disappointed because there were no new Spellbinders. Their selection wasn't much better than AC Moore's was a few weeks ago. Since they had 30% off, I had to buy at least two, so I got the twisted Metal tags one which I had sort of wanted, and one of the cut and tuck ones. At least the cut and tuck ones were sort of new, but since I used to do a lot of the Lacé stuff back before I had a blog, I wasn't really excited about them. I got tired of cut and fold a few years ago, and have been more into stamping and coloring lately.

They also had a lot of those inexpensive packs of Core'dinations paper on sale, so I got a bunch of colors, plus some less expensive glittery paper sheets.

Those larger packs of K&Co stickers were also on sale, so I got some of those, as well as some interesting card kit packs from them. I had never seen those kits before, and thought I'd try them and see if I liked them. Some are shaped with flowers and things, and some are die cut. They included matching envelopes. I've gotten away from kits, but sometimes it's good to have something fast to decorate.

I also got some Christmas ribbon, three more sponge daubers, and some tape for my ATG. (I usually buy my sponge daubers in bulk from Scrapbook.com, so it sort of hurt to buy a three pack, but I was desperate).

There was an interesting kit of Something called Fran Tage Embossing Enamel from Stampendous. So far, I haven't been able to find out a lot about it on the internet, but it looked interesting, so I got the kit.

Then we stopped at TJ Maxx, and they had large multi-colored packs of Bakers Twine, Jute Twine, and ribbon, so I got some of those. There isn't much ribbon on the ribbon spools, but there were a lot of colors, and I can't resist packs with lots of colors in them! I really needed the jute and Bakers Twine, and there is a lot on those.

Now, about the Spectrum Noir pens I bought a while back. I don't like them much. I don't like the point, and they seem to make every stamp pad ink I've tried them with bleed. I think I'll stick with my Copics and my Distress pens. I'm glad I tried them so I won't have to feel like I'm spending too much money on Copics though. Now I know they are worth it! I also am very happy with the few Distress pens I own.

Anyway, it was a fun day at JoAnns, and I got some things I needed!

Christmas Quad Twisted Easel Card

Since I have been selling so many Christmas cards lately, I have to keep making them.

It's been a long time since I made a quad twisted easel card, so I dug out some of my older JustRite stamps. These older two inch stamps are the perfect size for this type of card.

The top photo shows the card folded flat for mailing.

This is a view from the top looking down at the card, and the following photos show how the card looks from each side as you turn it.

Each color, and both the frame and the center design are on different layers, and I outlined each one with gold. I meant to mount the little center design dimensionally on each one, but after I finished the first little easel, I forgot and mounted it flush with the card, so I had to do them all that way.

Silent Night Easel Card

I've made a number of cards using these dies from Marianne Designs, and I wanted to do something different with them, so I made an easel card.

I used another sheet of this pearlescent textured blue as the background, and since I still don't have any silver mirror card, I outlined it with a silver Jelly Roll Pen.

The sleigh and reindeers, villages, and poinsettias are all Marianne Creatables, the snowflakes are an EK Success punch, and the saying was stamped using VersaMark and embossed with Recollections Opaque White, then cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels Four.

I'm not really happy with the white embossing powder. The "Silent Night" is from Our Daily Bread Design's Blessed Christmas Set, and is very fine and beautiful, but every time I emboss anything with this white, it always spreads and the detail doesn't show. I need to find a white that keeps the fine details.

Anyway, after applying everything to the card, I used crystal Stickles to highlight the embossing, and to cover the snowflakes.

Elegant Dove Card

Today I was playing with this Sizzix embossing folder. First, I inked the folder in red before embossing. It came out quite rustic looking, and I was trying different things in the center of the embossed image. When I tried this dove from K & Co, I liked the dove in the center, but not with that rustic finish.

I put the inked image away for later, and decided to emboss in plain white and use red velour paper instead. After embossing the image, I cut around it with scissors, and rubbed metallic gold ink over it with my daubers. Then, I used a Spellbinders oval and cut out some gold mirror card to fit into the center. I cut a smaller oval of red velour paper and mounted that onto the gold, then placed the dove on that.

I mounted the whole thing onto more red velour which was matted with gold mirror card and placed onto a white 5x7 card.

It looked nice, but needed something, so I cut and embossed four Anja Corners from Marianne Designs, and added more of the metallic gold with my daubers while still in the stencil. Those looked quite nice in the corners. I finished up by putting some red rhinestones in the corners, and at the top and bottom of the embossed frame to match the one on the dove.

When I finished it, I really liked it. I love it when I get a card done and really like it, since so many times I'm not really happy with the end result.

ODBDSLC123 Poinsettia Christmas Easel Card

This is my third week as guest designer on Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge Team for the month of September, and I am enjoying it so much!

Here are the details for this month's challenge:

ODBDSLC123- Stamp Your Own Background

This week's challenge:

Stamp your own background on a card or project. (You can use one stamp or several...your choice)

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, September 23rd at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, September 23rd at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC123. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.

For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich,
Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

For my card, I decided to make the background using the beautiful Joy to the World Hymn. I wanted my card to be 5x7, so I mounted it onto gold mirror card, and mounted that onto this metallic gold poinsettia paper I had in my stash.

For the focal point, I used ODBD's gorgeous Ornaments Set, and cut it out with Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornament Dies.

For the base of the easel, I used ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set, and cut it out with their custom Poinsettia Die. This perfectly matched die, cut all of those intricate leaves and stems in just a few seconds!

All stamping was done with VersaMark, and the embossing was done using Superfine Detail Gold. The shading on the ornament was done with Distress Antique Linen, and all of the outline stickers have been in my stash for years. The pearls are Queen & Co, and all the coloring was done with Copics.

I can't wait to see all of your beautiful entries in this challenge!

PSX Church Christmas Card

This is the last card I made for my commission, but in the mean time, I've been selling a lot of Christmas cards, so I guess I will still have to make more!

I used another of my old PSX stamps to make this one. Those stamps were so beautiful, and it was a shame that they had been sitting in my drawer unused for such a long time.

For this one, I had this beautiful pearlescent, textured blue that I thought would be perfect for this stamp. I really wanted to mat it with silver miror card, but unfortunately I don't have enough left, so I used a silver JellyRoll to outline the blue CS where it was mounted on the white pearl CS. I cut around the embossed stamp with scissors so it would sit directly on the blue background, then cut the background to fit into the frame.

The stamping was all done with VersaMark and embossed with some old silver tinsel EP I've had for years. The background was cut with one of my Spellbinders dies, and the little silver things in the corners were pieces I cut out from some Dresden paper trims, and added pearls to. I added silver Stickles to some of the points in the frame.

This card reminds me of the Christmas Eve midnight services we used to have at the church I attended as a child. Those services were so beautiful and peaceful, with the dark sky and snow, and are one of the things I still miss now that I've grown up and moved away.

PSX Birds and Sleigh Card

I made this card a few days ago. All the paper was cut with Spellbinders Labels Four, and the matching Grand Labels Four. All the paper is pearlescent. The white and ivory are both Core'dinations, and the two shades of green were in my stash.

The card itself was die cut on the fold with Core'dinations pearl white paper using Grand Labels Four, then the layers were added on top of the card to make the curve at the top match the bottom. Each layer was outlined with PenTouch Gold.

The image was stamped with one of my old PSX stamps using VersaMark, then embossed with Super Fine Detail Gold and colored with Copics. (The pinecones are actually brown, but my phone's camera always seems to pick up the red pigment in the brown, and make it look more red than it is). Since the card was pretty flat, I added the pearls around the frame for dimension.

Playing with flower parts and Rose Creations

Our internet is back today, I sure hope it lasts!

Yesterday I was still taking a little break from Christmas cards, so I played with my Spellbinders Rose Creations die. The flowers on top were more that I made from Prima Flower Parts a while back, and the bottom row are the ones I made yesterday with the Rose Creations die.

For all the roses, I used one each of the three smallest dies, and two of the fourth smallest. The one on the left was done with pink paper and VersaMagic Plumaria put on the very edges of the petals. The three on the right were cut out with yellow paper, and metallic gold, Distress Crushed Velvet, and a Brilliance pink added to the petals.

They were all made by rubbing my largest embossing stylus in a circular motion from the edges to the very center of all the petals. For the three largest sets of petals, I pushed down in the centers of the front sides around the hole. For the next to smallest, I just left it, and for the smallest, I glued the petals up into a tight bud, and set it aside.

Then, I placed the next to smallest over the point of my stylus, and began layering the larger sets of petals onto that, gluing only the bottoms, and alternating the petals so they wouldn't all be lined up. Then, I shaped them while still on the stylus, until they resembled real rose petals.

After taking them off the stylus, I put the little buds into the centers of the roses and shaped them some more if they needed it.

I was quite happy with them, and would like to make some more, in more sizes and colors, but I need to do more Christmas cards first!

No Internet Again

They say they are working on it, but no idea when it will be fixed. I'm roaming on my cellphone at the moment. Got to go, this connection is really weak.

Bluebird and Blossoms

I did more Christmas cards for my commission over the last few days, but I thought I would take a break from it and make a quick card today.

I wanted to use my Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles. I tried a few stamps inside the second largest rectangle, and liked the size of this bird from ODBD's Sing to the Lord set. I colored the bird as a bluebird with my Copics, and tried to do dogwood, but I'm not good at dogwoods, so I turned them into pink blossoms instead. I stamped the image twice with VersaFine Onyx Black so I would have two sets of flowers.

Next, I die cut the white card with the largest die in the set, leaving the top partially uncut on the fold. Then I cut another of the largest die and mounted it onto the front of the card so it would have the lace completely around the card. (The white behind the card is the paper I photographed it on, the lace actually is the border of the card).

I cut a piece of medium blue to fit into the largest rectangle, then cut the second largest die out of white CS and mounted it onto the blue. Next, I cut another rectangle of lighter blue and mounted that onto the smaller rectangle.

I cut out the whole stamped image, and just the flowers from the second image with a combination of scissors and an X-Acto knife, and ran the image with the bird through my Xyron. I applied that flat against the background. Next, I shaped three of the flowers from the second image by running my embossing tool over the back side of the petals. Then, I ran the embossing tool in the center of the front side to reverse the shaping, and curved the petals some more over the metal part of the embossing tool. I applied those to the lower corner, and mounted the fourth, partially opened flower, flat rather than shaped, in the upper left corner. The flowers on the bottom look really nice shaped, it gave a lot of dimension to my card!

Last, I added pearls to the corners of the lace.

Spellbinders and ribbon gold Christmas

Wow, I didn't realize the flash made the card look like this until I got home and got ready to upload my card!

Anyway, I got this Christmas ribbon on sale last weekend, and decided to use it on a card. I wanted the card to be cream and gold, so I made a 5x7 card out of ivory pearl Core'dinations CS. Then, I made a mat with gold mirror card, and cut another piece of the Core'dinations CS to fit inside that. I added the ribbon to the cream CS, then mounted the layers onto the card.

Next, I used a Spellbinders Shapability, and cut all the pieces out of both the ivory and the mirror card and began layering to see what order I wanted to mount the colors in. I decided to use the largest ivory piece on the bottom, and outlined that with a gold Pentouch to separate it from the background. I alternated the gold piece on top of that, then added the rest of the pieces, alternating the colors.

The large gold piece needed some contrast, so I cut up some of the ivory pieces and mounted them onto the gold to break it up a bit. It still needed something, so I added some Liquid Pearls. Then, I added some outline stickers from my stash to the outside borders, and it was done. As you can see, it is very shiny!

Peace on Earth

I have a pretty Christmas mat pack from K&CO, and I wanted to make a card that worked with this paper from it. Since the paper is kind of old fashioned, sort of like wallpaper, I decided I shouldn't make it too fancy.

I antiqued around the edges of the mat with Distress Antique Linen, then mounted it onto an ivory 5x7 card, then drew around the edges with a Pentouch gold pen.

I decided to use this older JustRite stamp for the focal point. After stamping the border and the center onto ivory CS, I cut them out with Spellbinders Labels Eighteen, and went around each piece with the Antique Linen and the Pentouch. The wreath is colored with Copics, and the verse is colored with chalks.

When I was in Rochester, I got something called Fantastix because I liked the fact that I would be able to use chalks in small spaces. When I got home, I read the reviews, and many people didn't like the fantastix. They had problems blending with them. I must say, that I really liked them. I used the finer point one to color and shade the chalk on this one, and it seemed quick and easy. (I thought I'd add that in case anyone else is wondering about them. Some people really hate them, but I liked them).

Anyway, when I got the centerpiece done, I held it onto the card, and it needed something. I decided to die cut all of the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two, and tried them around my centerpiece, to see if any of them would look good around it. I liked this one, and went over it with the distress ink, then cut it up and put the pieces around my wreath. It added just enough to the design to fill out the empty space and look nice on the card. I attached the wreath and tag pieces, then mounted the verse dimensionally over that.

Then I added Queen & Co pearls to the corners. It still looked kind of blank, but I didn't want to get too fancy, so I tried a bow on it. That seemed to dress it up enough so it looked finished. (There isn't antiquing under the bow, it's a shadow from the flash on my camera). Anyway, it looks quite different from most of my Christmas cards, but I kind of liked it when it was done.

ODBDSLC122 Sparrow at Sunset

I made this card for my second week as guest designer on the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge team.

This week's challenge: ODBDSLC122 Use a bird or birds on your creation.


To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, September 16th at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, September 16th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword ODBDSLC122. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.

For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich, Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

For my card, I used ODBD's He Watches Me for the sparrow and thistle. These were cut with ODBD's custom Sparrow Die, which made it so easy to layer the stamped image onto my sunset background. The sparrow was colored with Copics.

Inside the z-fold card, I used ODBD's Bird & Butterfly Labels, and a saying from ODBD's Faith Set. Both were stamped directly onto another sunset, and cut out with the matching Spellbinders Labels Eighteen. I colored the butterflies and bird in the label with a copper colored Jelly Roll pen to match the copper metallic paper I used to mat everything.

The patterned background paper is from the Mariposa stack, and the sunsets were my photographs, which I printed out to stamp on. I thought the beautiful sunsets were perfect for the saying "He makes everything beautiful in His time".

The top photo is the card closed, the middle one is how it looks while standing up, and the bottom one is the card fully open.

Angel Christmas Card

I made another Christmas card for my friend. This one has another of the tags from the same K&Co set as the chickadee card. These were actually designed as gift tags, but they are too pretty to be used and thrown away, so I mount them dimensionally onto cards.

Both colors of paper on this one were cut from backgrounds on the K&Co stacks which matched the tags and stickers. I diecut the paper with Spellbinders and used my sponge daubers to ink the middles while they were still in the die. Then I ran my gold Pentouch around the inside of each of them.

The DP was mounted onto gold mirror card before mounting that onto an ivory card, then I used gold Stickles, and a Christmas green glitter similar to Stickles as accents. I can't remember the brand name of the green, it's something new our AC Moore carries, and isn't anywhere near as nice as Stickles, but AC Moore doesn't have any Christmas green Stickles.

It's so disappointing to see AC Moore carrying more of the cheap stuff like Walmart, and less of the good stuff like Michael's and Hobby Lobby have, especially since we don't have any Michael's or Hobby Lobby anywhere near us. I've always tried to support the brick and mortar stores, but with no place but AC Moore and a bad JoAnn's, I can see a lot more mail order in my near future.

Anyway, I did try a bow on this one, and am still trying to decide whether or not to add it. It gives a very different feel to the card, and I can't decide which way I prefer it.

Chickadee Christmas Card

A friend who is only here in the summer was buying my cards and sending them to a friend who was in the hospital near her winter home. Her friend loved them so much that she asked my friend to commission me to make her some Christmas cards for her to send to her friends. I feel really honored! Anyway, my friend chose some that I had already made, and now I'm making more for her.

I had this pretty dimensional chickadee sticker from K&Co, and I decided to design a card around it. I chose some generic dark green, some mottled gold, which was part of the background from some K&Co paper, some gold mirror card, and some darker patterned gold which was in my stash of cut offs.

I used a scalloped Spellbinder oval under the chickadee, and two sizes of Labels Twenty Two for the other die cuts. The dark green is actually a frame over the mottled gold. The outlines were done with a PenTouch Gold pen.

The outline stickers in the corner were in my stash, and the pearls were white ones I colored with Copics.

I finally got to AC Moore again today, and was very disappointed to find out that they are discontinuing any new Spellbinders. They are only going to carry a few older ones. I did get two of the older ones I didn't have, one was the Grand 12" Rose Border, and the other was The Renaissance Hearts Border. They were only $10 each. I guess this means we won't be able to buy Spellbinders products locally.

I also got a Darice Damask embossing folder for $3.99. They actually had the Grand Calibur Raspberry plate, so I got one of those as well, and I finally got the Ranger non stick craft mat. I needed that.

I also bought a bunch of discontinued paper for .20 per sheet and since they don't sell Copics, I decided to try a set of Spectrum Noir markers. I've read on the internet that they work with Copics. I got the essentials colors, since my colorless blender was getting low, and I didn't have black or grey. Hopefully the browns are different from my browns, and the yellow looks paler than my yellows. They don't have a brush tip, and the chisel doesn't look as sharp as Copics, but I was curious about them, so now I will be able to try them out.

It was kind of a disappointment because the scrapbook department was one or two aisles shorter than it used to be, but it was fun getting new things.

Doily Santa Card

I used two different Marianne Creatables for this card. First, I cut out the doily using green and metallic gold card stock. Then I cut out the corners six times using the same metallic gold. After that, I just embossed the same corners two times with green card stock, and cut around them with scissors to frame two of the corners. I kept cutting and fitting everything together for the front of the card so it would look like two of the corners were part of the doily, and the other four would look like a large square doily in the background.

After that, I cut another large doily and mounted it on the bottom part of the easel. I stamped the sentiment from ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set onto the center of the doily with VersaMark, and embossed it with SuperFine Detail Gold.

All gold outlining was done with Pentouch Gold. The pearls were some small white ones which I colored with a Copic to match the green in the card. The Santa is one of those embossed German die cut ones from a sheet I've had for years.

Seagull Popup Card

I made this card quite a few years ago. I got the image from one of those free sites, but I have no idea where I got it from now.

I have a beautiful book on making pop ups. I wanted to do this seagull from the book inside a card, but since I had done mostly book making before I made this card, at the time I didn't have very much for card making. Anyhow, the front of the card didn't match the inside very well. I am mostly showing it here because I just found the photos of it and I have never shown any of my pop ups before. Now that I've done more card making, I can see lots of ways I could have done it better.

The Sea

This card is made by mounting a K&Co background onto an off white 5x7 card. I used a stamp from JustRite, cut it with Spellbinders Labels Twenty Two, and layered it onto more pieces of paper cut with the same die set.

Each element was outlined with PenTouch Gold, and distressed with Antique Linen before mounting them. The space just above and to the right of the ship needed something, so I cut a seagull out of the paper and added it. I have sets of those papers in various sizes, as well as matching stickers, but unfortunately the seagulls in this size were only printed flying in on direction. I know it's never good to have everything moving off the page, but I didn't have any choice with this one. I wish he was flying toward the ship instead.

I added Queen and Co pearls to the corner to finish the card.

ODBDSLC121 You Leave Me in Stitches

ODBDSLC121 You Leave Me in Stitches

Due to the holiday weekend, Our Daily Bread Designs is extending the You Leave Me in Stitches challenge giving our players another week to participate. The team, however, has another set of samples to share with you.

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, September 9th at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Tuesday.


While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, September 9th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC121. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.


To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.


For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich,
Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

For my card, I used ODBD's beautiful Worship the Lord Set.

This is my first stitched card, and I decided to make an elegant card using real stitching. First, I cut a 5 inch square from Core'dinations pearl paper, and used a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set to shape the panel and make the holes for stitching. Then, I used some metallic embroidery floss to stitch in every other hole in the center square, and every hole in the outside border.

Next, I stamped the church twice, and the "Merry Christmas" once on another sheet of paper using VersaMark. After embossing with Superfine Detail Gold, I cut around the whole church scene, and around only the trees on the other church scene I had stamped. I mounted everything dimensionally onto the sewn card, then cut around the sentiment and mounted that dimensionally as well.

I wanted to stitch a Christmas star, but was afraid I'd make a mess of things, so I colored a crystal Christmas button with a Krylon 18 K pen, and used that for the star instead. The background looked kind of blank, so I added some Stickles stars. The Stickles don't look as good in the photo as they do in person. On the card, they really sparkle, and look much lighter.

Lastly, I mounted the card onto a 5 inch square card I made from the same pearl paper and traced around it with the Krylon pen.

PSX Lupine Card

I tried another of my older stamps today.

This one is Lupine by PSX. During June, our island is blanketed in these lovely flowers. They grow wild all over the island, and just about everyone has them in their yards. We have so many that we have an annual Lupine Festival, so I thought I should make a card with them.

The lupine on this card appears darker in the photograph than it is in person. It is actually a closer shade of pink to the background, but as usual, my phone's camera picked up the red pigments in the ink.

It is stamped with VersaMark and embossed with Superfine Detail Gold. The paper is my favorite Core'dinations pearl paper in white and pink. The flowers are colored with Copics and look shimmery because of the paper.

The lacy background was cut with a Spellbinders die. I had to die cut two frames and put them together to fit the stamp. The stamp is on a separate sheet and mounted onto the lacy piece to hide the seam, then outlined with PenTouch Gold.

I outlined the whole outside of the card with gold and added Liquid Pearls to finish it.

Tomorrow morning we are headed off for the weekend, I hope everyone who has a long weekend has a great time!

Rose Card

I was looking over some of my older stamps, and decided to try this one from Stampendous. I really like coloring with Copics on Core'dinations Pearl papers, so I stamped it with VersaMark, and embossed it with Superfine Detail Gold, then colored it. The pearl paper gives the Copics a shimmer that I really like.

I used Spellbinders Grand Labels Four, and cut the design out, then outlined it with PenTouch Gold, and mounted it onto a brighter pink, and cut out around that. Next, I used gold mirror card, (although the mirror card doesn't look like gold in the photo), and cut around that. Next, I used a larger die and cut some pink Core'dinations Gemstones out to form the card itself, and mounted everything on that. I used Queen & Co half pearls, but added more than I should have, but it looked too blank before I added them. I think I should have tried something different, instead of the pearls, but once they're on, it's too late to change them. I tried adding a bow, and that drew some attention away from all of those pearls and made it look better. The outside of the card was also outlined with PenTouch Gold.

I wish the gold mirror card showed up in the photo. I took it outdoors in bright sun, and I think the gold must have reflected the clear blue sky above.

Flower Soft Bouquet Card

Today I wanted to try making one of those floral bouquets with Flower Soft. I had originally planned on it looking different than it does. Instead, it ended up looking very much like one of the examples in the Flower Soft instructions. I guess they knew better than me, what looks good on a card! :-)

I'm still not really happy with this card, it looks kind of plain, but at least I've finally made a bouquet.

The paper is Core'dinations Pearl, in pink and white, and the diecut is a Marianne Creatables. The cone is from one of the sheets in Flower Soft's Floral Card Making Starter Kit. The kit is great because it contains a lot of examples from their other kits, and gives you an idea of what is in each kit, as well as three colors of Flower Soft. The color I used for the flowers is from the Flower Soft - Bouquet Colour Selection Box on the same page.

The "pearls" are Liquid Pearls.

My Exciting News

I haven't posted as much since I got back from Vacation partly because my internet connection has been either terribly slow, or non existent since I got back, partly because I am trying to catch up with all of your blogs on this bad connection, and partly because I have been working on projects for Our Daily Bread Designs.

I was so excited when the sweet and talented Challenge Team Coordinator Chris Olsen, asked me to be guest designer for the challenges for the month of September!

I have always loved ODBD's stamps, with their beautiful designs and wonderful messages, and began getting their stamps and entering their challenges last spring. Not only are their stamps wonderful, but Kelley and the design team members are so nice. (As well as very talented)!

Anyway, I've wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to make my examples, and try to do as good a job as Sherry Kushibab and Linda Lucas who preceded me, so I've mainly been working on examples for the September challenges early. That way, if I mess up, I've still got plenty of time to make a new example. :-)

I feel very honored to have been asked to be a guest designer for such a wonderful company. Thank you so much to Chris, Kelley, and the others who chose me!

Blue Iris Card

This card was made using JustRite's Botanical Medallions & Banners, and cut with their Nested Oval Medallion Labels and Nested Medallion Labels custom Dies. I stamped the designs with white ink, and embossed them also in white.

I cut the blue background using Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles, and mounted that onto white CS. Then I traced the inside of the die with a white Jellyroll pen, and went around the edges of the white card with a blue stamp pad, and blended the blue in as far as the outside edges of the blue die cut. The card actually is wedgewood blue, and all the blue matches. My phone's camera picks up the ink pigments differently than the paper pigments, and makes them look different. Also, it is pure white inside the lacy part of the die cut, even though it looks blue in the photo.

The stamped motifs were mounted dimensionally, then I added white pearls to the corners and a bow to the iris.

Still Catching up from Vacation

I'm still catching up from vacation. If I haven't visited your blogs yet, it's because my internet is barely working, so it's taking me a long time to catch up.

I have been working on some cards, but I can't show the ones I've been doing yet. Next week I'll be able to tell you why. :-) Instead, I'll talk about some of my new goodies I got at Michael's last week.

I got one of those multi colored 10 drawer rolling carts so I would have more storage. They were on sale. I'm glad I didn't pay full price, because there were a few screws missing even though everything was sealed. Since the kit would have been over $60 at regular price, I would have thought they would have had a few extra screws in there rather than too few. Also, the drawers don't fit very tightly and come out of their tracks easily. I don't hate it, it's very useful and I'm glad I bought it, but it wouldn't be worth $60. If you get one, don't expect to store anything like punches or large amounts of paper in the drawers, because it won't support them. It's great for things like stamp pads and bottles of Stickles and other light things though.

I also got one of those plastic storage boxes that have all the little containers for 4x6 photos. That was on sale too. I bought it to sort and hold all those beautiful K&Co dimensional stickers, as well as to sort some of my scraps in.

I also got one of the five piece sets of distress markers. I got the small set because I'm still building my collection of Copics, (I got some more of those too), and I wasn't sure I needed to start a collection of another brand of marker.

I finally found the Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles in stock, so I got those. Spellbinders has really been making some beautiful dies lately, and my wish list is getting too long!

I also got some of those plastic tubes you put ink into and a nib onto to make your own marker. I forgot what they are called, as well as some blending stump things. I can't remember what those are called either. (All my stuff is at my shop, so I can't look at the names of them).

Then I got more Liquid Pearls, more distress stamp pads, more memento dewdrops, more ribbon, more tape for my ATG, and some K&Co Christmas dimensional stickers.

I also finally found the MS Punch with three hydrangeas, and the one with three small butterflies, and the sand dollar and starfish one.

It was a really fun shopping trip!

Back from Vacation

We got back last night. Had a great time with the kids, and took a side trip to Thousand Islands (Wellesley Island) on the way home. Got to catch a glimpse of my Uncle's house while there. I loved that house while he was still alive, but it has been sold to some rich dude and is surrounded by a fence and a lot of trees, so I couldn't see it very well. Also, it is surrounded by a new development.

We used to have to go up a long driveway with canals and poplar trees on either side of the driveway, and no houses near it. It was beautiful in those days. I suppose after 40 years, things were bound to change. It was really good to see it anyway.

We also got to see Boldt Castle. They are doing an amazing job restoring it.

Got to Michael's but not Hobby Lobby while in Rochester, and picked up some really nice stuff. :-)

Spent today catching up on everything that needed to be done, and started a card project.

I will be gone for a week or so

Our nephew is getting married in Rochester, NY on Sunday, so we are leaving tomorrow. Since our son and his family also live there, we will be staying with them for the week.

Anyway, if I don't post to your blogs, that is why. I'll be back to visit you all on the 19th or 20th!

Morning Glory and Psalm ODBDSLC118 Scripture

I made this card for the challenge ODBDSLC118 Scripture at Our Daily Bread Designs. For the central motif, I used ODBD's Flower Border, cut with Spellbinders Labels Eighteen and colored it with sparkly Jellyroll pens, then outlined it with Krylon 18K gold. I mounted that onto some sparkly light blue paper which I cut around with scissors and also outline that in gold. Then I stamped a Psalm from ODBD's Faith Set using Brilliance Sky Blue, and cut that with a die two sizes smaller. I went around that with gold as well, and traced inside the die with a Jellyroll pen. I mounted that onto the sparkly blue paper, then mounted it dimensionally onto the frame.

The background paper is from K&Co. It is outlined and mounted onto the same sparkly blue, which is layered onto a white card. I made the bow, and added the ribbon before mounting the background to the card.

I decided the background paper needed a bit of sparkle so I used a gold Jellyroll on the flower stamens, then added some blue Stickles to everything, and some gold Stickles to the ribbon.

Lighthouse at Sunset

This card isn't as bright as this in person, but both my camera and my phone really like to enhance reds.

For this card I used a photo I had taken of a sunset printed out to 5.5 x 4.25 inches. Then I stamped Our Daily Bread Designs Keep My Lamp Burning using VersaFine Onyx Black onto the photo once, and onto a piece of ivory CS twice. I trimmed around the stamped image on the photo, and cut out the lighthouse and compass from one of the stampings on the ivory, and just the compass from the other.

I shaded the lighthouse and compass with a mix of Distress antique linen, and several shades of chalk, trying to get just a tint of the colors in the sunset. Then I added copics to the lantern room of the lighthouse to reflect the sunset, and to the compass.

The lighthouse is mounted dimensionally over the lighthouse in the photo, then the compass is mounted dimensionally on top of that. I layered the completed design onto some yellow CS, and two shades of antique copper CS, and then onto an ivory card. The brads in the corner are from Recollections.

I have 26 different sky images sized to 5.5 x 4.25 that I have zipped up to put on Etsy, but so far, even zipped, the file size is huge. Too big to upload. I really don't want to lower the quality too much, so I've got to figure out how to make them smaller. Sooner or later, I hope to get this background and the other 25 uploaded for anyone who is interested in downloading them to stamp on.

Creatables Front Pop Out Card

When I was making my front pop out cards, I kept wanting to try this Marianne Creatables die, but since it is only one size, I used Spellbinders instead. I really liked the depth I could create by using several sizes. Today I gave in and tried one with this die. I'm thinking now that I wish I had made the center part wider, but it really is quite pretty in person.

The blue paper is pearlescent and is from a stack I bought quite a few years ago. I think it was probably from DCWV. The white is Core'dinations pearl.

The flowers are some old Prima ones, and the ribbon is very old from Wright's Trim. The Stickles are Crystal.

Whale Birthday Card

My mother had a birthday a few days ago, and she likes nautical cards. She also likes the simple ones without a lot of bling, so I made this one for her a few days before her birthday.

It uses ivory CS, antique copper metallic CS, and a whale from a sheet of K&Co CS. I antiqued the edges of the K&Co CS, and added a JustRite birthday banner to it so it framed the whale's spout. Lastly, I added Bisque Liquid Pearls, and colored over them with a brown Copic. It made them sort of resemble rusty studs.

It was a very quick and easy card.

Very Cool Carousel Exploding Box

I just found the neatest exploding box made into a carousel on one of the blogs in my sidebar and had to share it with you. It is on the blog Hand made by Wisnia. I hope you enjoy seeing it!

Iris Pop Out Front Card

I decided to make another card I call a front pop out card. This was made from a tutorial by Marianne Skjelstad.

For this card, I used some peach pearlescent CS mounted onto a textured white CS. All the cutting on the DP was done with Spellbinder Labels Four, and Grand Labels Four, and with scissors on the white CS, so I could cut a narrow border. All parts were outlined with Krylon 18K gold.

The stamping was done using JustRite's Botanical Medallions & Banners-Clear. It was stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with Superfine Detail Gold.

I stamped the background, and cut it with Labels Four rather than the custom die which was made for these stamps, so it would match the card. The iris was colored with copics, and is stamped on Core'dinations pearl paper, to match the pearlescent background paper. The darker red in the irises isn't really dark in person, I think it just reflected differently when I took the photograph. I used shades of pink and yellow to make the peachy color, which matches the DP. To add the irises, I traced the inside of the frame stamp, and cut the oval with scissors. The irises, frame, and layer beneath it are all mounted dimensionally, which gives a lot of depth to the card.

The top photo shows the card closed, and the bottom photo shows it open.

PSX Fish Shack

I made this card using one of my old PSX stamps. I colored it mostly with Copics, but since I have so few of them, I also used some colored pencils. I wish I had colored the boat red, because it isn't colorful enough to suit me. The colors are so vintage looking that it reminds me of an old engraving I have from the 1800's though, so I don't mind it. The netting on this card is more of the 100 year old seining twine from the weir that used to be in the cove where my shop is.

The image is stamped onto ivory CS with VersaFine Onyx Black and cut with a Spellbinders Grand Calibur die. I mounted that onto green CS and cut around it to mat the image.

The card is also cut with the same die set. I cut the mottled blue CS with a larger die, then cut the ivory card larger than the background paper. The ivory card and center motif were distressed with Antique Linen.

The stamped motif and netting are mounted dimensionally onto the card.

More flowers I made from Prima flower parts

A few months ago, I showed some flowers I made from those containers of inexpensive flower parts from Prima.You can see that post here.

I mentioned then, that sometimes I like to take the time to make a bunch of flowers, so they will be ready for cards. I also mentioned that some of the flower parts weren't exactly beautiful, but when added to other parts, or having a stamp pad rubbed over them, I could make some really interesting flowers.

If you have some of these parts that you don't know what to do with, try playing with them. It's really fun!

Violet Floral Card odbdslc117

I made another card for the Our Daily Bread Designs ODBDSLC117 Sketch Challenge. For this card, I layered violet paper, gold mirror card and an Anna Griffin DP from my stash onto a white card. Before adding the DP, I ran a piece of wide ribbon down the center, and adhered it to the back of the DP, then I mounted that onto the mirror card.

All the center motifs were done on Core'dinations Pearl paper and mounted dimensionally. They were all also outlined with a Krylon 18K pen.

The bottom layer of the center motif is stamped with ODBD's Flower Border using VersaMark and Superfine Detail Gold EP. I cut it out with Spellbinders Labels Eighteen, and colored it with Copics.

The top layer was stamped using VersaMark and the same EP, for the frame, and Distress Peeled Paint for the sentiment. This layer is from the ODBD Eternity Set. It was cut with the ODBD Custom Die - Elegant Ovals. Last, I added a bow made from a narrower version of the same ribbon as the piece on the DP, and added Queen & Co pearls to the corners.