Love and Sympathy

Hello Everyone. My post today is a mix of emotions. I needed an anniversary card for my son and daughter in law and that was fun to create. But I also needed a couple of sympathy cards for friends who lost someone very dear to them during this holiday season. Sympathy cards are never easy to create, but it was especially hard now. I really should create some and have them on hand. Maybe that would be easier.

Here's the anniversary card.

This swan image is perfect for anniversary cards and pretty easy to color, so I chose to go with it. I stamped it twice onto white CS, colored them with some Copics and then fussy cut and glued them onto the blue die cut oval. The white panel was embossed with a Wedding Ring Quilt folder from SB. It makes a very pretty and elegant background. The Happy Anniversary was stamped with VersaMark ink, embossed with white EP and die cut with a banner die from SB. Everything is attached to the blue card base.

Here are the sympathy cards.

The backgrounds were created using reinkers and baby wipes. I had these in my stash. The Long Tall Wheat image was stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with white EP. On the first card the sympathy greeting was stamped with Old Olive ink and heat embossed with clear EP. On the second card the Thoughts and Prayers greeting was stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with white EP.

Thank you for stopping by today.

blessings,
shelia

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Merry Christmas Week!

Happy Day before Christmas Eve!  Hope you are enjoying this Christmas season with family and friends.

I needed one more Christmas card and a dear friend gave me this beautiful die cut image yesterday after church. She and I get together to create cards and she had just gotten this die and had to share it with me. I'm so glad she did. I love creating Christmas cards, especially ones that share the true meaning of this special holiday.

I needed a night sky to go with this die cut of the holy family heading to Bethlehem, so I stamped the starry background onto the top of some water color paper, heat embossed it with clear EP and then sponged on three shades of blue Distress Oxide Inks. Once that dried I glued the die cut to the panel and attached it to a white card base. The Silent Night Holy Night greeting was stamped with VersaMark ink onto black CS, heat embossed with white EP, die cut with a SB banner die and added to the card. I really like how this turned out. I may be investing in this die for next year's Christmas cards. I guess I'd better find out who makes it!!!

I hope you have a blessed Christmas as you think about Jesus and what his coming to earth means for us.

Merry Christmas,
shelia

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Many Thanks!

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope you had a great weekend and found some time to get creative. I went to a friend's house Saturday along with a dozen others and we baked cookies and made candy all day long. It was so much fun and exhausting all at the same time. I've never seen so many different cookies and candies! I may have even discovered a new favorite cookie!  I am in need of a thank you card for my friend for sharing her home and kitchen with all of us and that was my inspiration for my cards today.

I started by stamping the Blizzard Thank you greeting with SU Cranberry Crisp ink onto white CS, die cut it with a Fawn Lawn rectangle die and attached it to the Cranberry card base. The snowflakes were cut using a variety of dies from my stash. A sparkly rhinestone was added to the centers of the snowflakes.

Since I'll be needing more thank you cards this Christmas season I decided to make another, well actually several others using this same greeting. I think it's the perfect thank you greeting for this time of the year.  

Instead of die cutting snowflakes for this card, I stamped the Interlocking Snowflakes Background image with Stazon Red ink arranging them so they only covered the upper portion of the white panel. The greeting was stamped with the same ink. After die cutting with the same Fawn Lawn die, I attached the panel to a red card base.

These were quick and easy to create, so I will definitely be making a few more. Maybe I'll try some other colors.  Hope you like them. Thanks for stopping by today!

blessings,
shelia

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Poinsettias!

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a wonderful weekend! A few weeks ago I saw a video by Jennifer McGuire where she uses background dies to do partial die cutting on her cards. She explained the process so clearly and her cards looked amazing (as always) so I thought I'd give the technique a try.

I used an older SB lattice die and arranged it in my SB Platinum machine so only the lower right corner was die cut. I really like the look and it is rather simple to do.  Here's my card.

I stamped and colored the Poinsettia twice, then fussy cut and layered them together. This poinsettia is one of my favorite Christmas images from DRS Designs. The Merry Christmas is part of the Christmas Scene Greeting and was stamped with black ink. A strip of gold glitter CS was added along the edge of the die cut part. I then added a piece of green CS to match the leaves to the inside to show through the lattice.

This was a fairly quick and easy card to create and I really like the way it turned out.  DRS Designs is having a special sale through December 3. You can purchase this gorgeous Poinsettia image for 20% off and there's free shipping on orders over $50. You can check out the details here.

Hope you are enjoying creating Christmas cards for your friends and family. These are my most favorite cards to make!

Thanks for stopping by.

blessings,
shelia

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Snowflakes!

Hi Everyone. Hope you had a great weekend and for those of you in the US, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving this week. My kids, along with their families are all coming here for Thanksgiving this year. My husband and I are beyond excited to have everyone together again. Most of the kids and grandkids are hoping we get some snow while they are here. Not sure the weather is going to be cooperative, but with all the talk of snow, I decided to make some snowflake cards for today's post.

I joined the Spellbinders Small Die of the Month Club a few years back and have enjoyed the variety of dies included each month, some more than others. This month has a few snowflake dies and I am loving them. I die cut three flakes in white CS. These are actually sized so you can layer them together. I decided to keep my cards flat and used them as individual flakes. 

I started with the card base, masked off the edges and used some Gesso mixed with water to add splashes for the snowy background. The white frames were created using a couple of Fawn Lawn Rectangle dies. The sentiment is part of the Christmas Scene greeting and was stamped in matching inks and embossed with clear EP, then die cut with a SB banner die. The snowflakes were glued onto the cards and the banners are added with foam squares for some dimension. I added some milky white half pearls to the centers of the snowflakes to finish it off.

These were quick and easy to put together. And since I'm so far behind on my Christmas card making, I'll probably be doing a few more of these.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

blessings,

shelia

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Merry Christmas!

Hi. My card today again features our Medium Mr. Snowman. He is just so fun to create with. He's the perfect size, easy to color and easy to fussy cut. 

Here's my card:

I started by creating my background paper using DRS Designs open plaid background image and stamping it with TH Distress Oxide Candy Apple red ink.  Next I stamped the snowman image with Memento black ink, colored him with Copics and fussy cut. He is layered onto a white snowflake created with a Sizzix die and then the greeting was stamped with VersaMark ink onto black CS, heat embossed with white EP and die cut with a banner die. I really like how this turned out. In fact I created a second card using purple instead of red ink. My niece loves purple so it will be her Christmas card this year.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great week!!

shelia

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Holidays!

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and were able to get into your craft area and be creative. Nothing relaxes me more (and stresses me more LOL) than creating cards. Today I have two cards to share with you: one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.

The Thanksgiving card uses the more recent small die of the month set from Spellbinders. I tried to create the lady to look like me - gray hair, but the rest of her really doesn't look like me. I mean I will be presenting some pies at Thanksgiving to my family, but I won't be dressed like this. I'm pretty sure I'll be in jeans! :-)  Anyway, here's my card.

I began by creating the lady with all the die cut pieces. To create her dress and apron, I stamped some Old Olive ink onto white CS using the Polka Dot background image. Once everything was die cut, I glued her together complete with the pie. While that dried I stamped the floor image with Memento Black ink and colored it with Copic markers. I masked the floor and sponged on some TH Distress Antique Linen ink for the wall. The pumpkins were stamped, colored with Copics and fussy cut. I glued two of them onto the floor and added some foam adhesive to one for dimension. The See You Later was die cut using the same die set from Spellbinders. My kids and their families are all traveling here for Thanksgiving so I created a card like this for each one. I'm so excited to have everyone together here for the holidays!

My second card is a pretty quick and easy card. I've been using the Snowman image quite a lot lately. He's adorable as well as easy to color and fussy cut. I especially like him layered on top of the die cut snowflake from Sizzix.

The snowman was stamped, colored and fussy cut before attaching him to the die cut snowflake. The panel and frame were created using a Fawn Lawn rectangle die set. The Peace and Joy greeting was stamped with black ink and then I added the snowflake and snowman. It looks like his scarf and hat band are orange in the photo, but they are red in real life.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful week!

blessings,
shelia

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Merry Christmas

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and found some time to get crafty. I decided I had to get started on Christmas cards. I have really neglected to make them all throughout the year like I usually do. So I have lots to make!

I decided to go with a very quick and simple card. Those are my favorite, go to kind of cards. For this one I started with the white panel, embossed it with a Darice Snowflake Swirl EF and attached it to the navy card base. Next I stamped the small navy strip with the snowflake background using VersaMark ink, heat embossed it with white EP and then attached it to the white panel. The die cut snowflake is from Ranger. Isn't it a pretty snowflake?! Last I stamped just the Merry Christmas greeting from the Christmas Scene Greeting with Versafine majestic blue ink, heat embossed it with clear EP, die cut it with a SB label die and popped it up over the snowflake with some fun foam.

This would be fairly easy to mass produce and I may end up going that route! Though I do have a hard time creating more than 4 or 5 of the same card. But this year may be different since I'm so far behind. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you are further along with your Christmas cards than I am!!

Shelia

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Happy Autumn

Hi Everyone. I have a fun fall card to share with you today. I used last week's challenge at Cupcake Inspirations for my card today.  Here's a look at their yummy cupcake. 

The challenge was to have something inside your card. Before I could start my card, I found myself staring at this cupcake wondering how they got that pumpkin shape perfectly inside the cupcake. Is that one of those candied pumpkins that they just put into the cake batter whole? I'd really like to know how this was done. I think it'd be fun to create some of these for my grandkids for Thanksgiving since most of them are young and not really into pie. I guess I'll have to google it or check Pinterest!!

Anyway for my card, I cut off a panel in the front, added some transparency between the two pieces and added the die cut leaves behind so they show through the clear transparency.  The greeting is a fun one from DRS Designs and was stamped with Hero Arts Orange Ombre ink. I smooched some TH Orange Distress Oxide ink onto my mat, added some water and then made some splashes on the front of the card for some added interest. I really like how this turned out. Plus it was pretty quick and easy to create.

Thanks for stopping by today. I'm off to check out how to make these cupcakes. :-)

blessings,

shelia

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Pumpkin Spice!

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a great weekend and found some time to get inky!!  My hubby and I recently returned from a trip to Disney World with our daughter and family. We had a wonderful time visiting the parks and enjoying time together. It was rather hot so my daughter and I enjoy some Starbucks Cold Brew Coffee with Pumpkin Cream everyday. Yum! It's that memory that inspired my card today.

I stamped and fussy cut the coffee cup, lid, cup cozy and little pumpkin after coloring the images with Copics. The background was created by stamping the silhouette leaf with VersaMark ink onto the light brown CS which was die cut with a stitched rectangle die from Fawn Lawn. The greeting, one of my favs from DRS Designs, was stamped onto white, die cut and layered onto a die cut orange square to match the card base. I wanted a little mat so set the coffee cup on, so I die cut a stitched oval from the same orange CS. A twine bow was added to finish it off.

Looking at this card makes me smile. It brings back some awesomely fun and magical memories.

Thanks for stopping by today.

blessings,
shelia

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Hello Fall

Happy Monday! Trust you had a wonderful weekend and found some time to get inky. I have a simple fall card to share with you today. I used my wreath template to line up the small acorns and groups of leaves around the greeting. I really like this wreath builder template. It can be used for more than just creating wreaths!

I started with the 4 inch square piece of white CS, stamped the leaves in the four corners and then the acorns inbetween. I colored the images with some Copic markers and stamped the greeting with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. The panel is layered onto some yellow and then green CS and then attached to a 4.5 inch square card base. I rarely do square cards, but this one just seemed to work better as a square.

Thanks for stopping by today,

shelia

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Give Thanks

This card was super easy to create. While looking through my scrap drawer for something else, I found this piece of orange striped paper that I had stamped a long time ago. I remember using part of the paper and I guess I kept the other part in the scrap drawer. I'm so glad I didn't throw it away and that I found it! It made putting this card together quick and easy. The stripes were stamped using TH Distress Oxide ink and the open plaid image. I just stamped the plain one direction to keep it striped. 

The card base is cream CS and once the striped panel was added I stamped the greeting with Memento Cocoa ink. The pumpkin pile was stamped onto white CS with Memento black ink, colored with Copics, fussy cut and glued onto the panel. The stamps I used are:

Give Thanks greeting

Pumpkin Pile

Open Plaid Background

I really like the way this turned out. I enjoy doing different challenges, but sketch challenges are by far my favorite! I used the sketch from a MFT Challenge a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for stopping by.

shelia

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Favorite Season

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a great weekend. We have had some unusual warm weather for this time of the year, so I created a fall card to remind me to hang in there. Fall really is coming!!

I saw a video by Jennifer McGuire recently where she used the "kissing" technique. I haven't used that technique in years and thought I'd give it a try. I started by stamping the silhouette leaf image with various fall colors of ink and then kissing them with a couple of images stamped with brown ink. I used the splattered background image and Vicki's Versatile background image for the kissing. I really like how the leaves turned out.

Next I stamped the Goodbye Summer greeting with the same brown ink and die it with a circle die. I didn't have CS to match any of the inks so I just swiped the red ink pad onto some white CS, kissed the edges with the Vesatile background image and brown ink, die cut it and layered my greeting on top.

After creating this card, I took the dog for a walk and found some piles of raked leaves throughout the neighborhood. Fall really is coming!

Thanks for stopping by,

shelia

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Monster Hugs!

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and found some time to get inky!!

Today I have a couple of Halloween cards I created for my grandsons using Halloween and background images from DRS Designs, the sketch from TMS and the latest small die of the month from Spellbinders.

These dies are adorable and I really like how these cards turned out.

The stamps from DRS Designs are:

Spooky Eyes Background

Monster Hugs

Easy Dot background

The sketch from TMS was perfect for creating two cards. I stamped the green panel with dots using orange DO ink and the orange panel with the spooky eyes using black ink. Creating backgrounds with DRS Designs' images is super quick and easy. Once I cut them at an angle for the sketch I had two sets, so it was easy to create two cards. Here's the sketch.

I used the most recent small die of the month to create the little boys in their skeleton costumes and an older small die of the month set to die cut the little bats for embellishments.

Thanks for stopping by.

shelia

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Happy Fall Y'All

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I am so ready for fall and the weather here has been pleasantly cool with a nice breeze - perfect for spending time outdoors and enjoying some pumpkin spice coffee. Yum!  So this cooler weather inspired my card for today.

I started with a white panel cut to 5.25 by 4 inches and stamped the 4 in 1 Harvest Designs with Memento Black ink. I only stamped on the top and bottom of the panel since the middle was going to be covered up. All the little images were colored with Copic markers. Next I stamped the Pumpkin Pile with Memento Black ink, colored with Copics, cut it down and layered it onto yellow CS, I used the same yellow CS to create the little banner and stamped the Happy Fall Y'all greeting with SU Pumpkin Pie ink.

The sketch design is from MFT weekly sketch challenge 453. 

Thanks for stopping by!

shelia

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Boo!

Happy Monday Everyone. I don't know about you, but once September arrives life tends to get really busy, really quickly and doesn't seem to slow down until after Christmas. So I decided I really should get started on some Halloween cards for my grandkids. My grandkids are fairly young, so I tend to create less scary and more fun cards for them. This Ghost Boo image is perfect for the younger kids. Plus it's easy to stamp and color. 

I started by stamping the Ghost Boo image with Memento Black ink onto white CS, colored it Copics, die cut and layered it onto a black panel. The Happy Halloween greeting was stamped with VersaMark ink onto black CS, heat embossed with white EP and die cut. The orange panel was embossed with a spider web EF and layered onto black. The vellum ghost was die cut using a Small die of the month set from SB and is glued on behind the greeting banner to hide the glue. Once everything was put together, I added some black and orange rhinestones so complete the look.

I used the sketch from last week's TMS challenge. I thought it worked perfectly for this fun image. Have you started on your Halloween cards yet?  DRS Designs has some great Halloween images and greetings. You can see them here.

Thanks for stopping by!

shelia

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the Beauty of Autumn

Happy Last Monday of August. Can you believe it's almost September?!! While I'm not really ready for August to be over, I am definitely ready for some Fall weather. I think Fall is my most favorite season, though there are things I really like about all four seasons. Variety is nice.

My card today was created in honor of Fall.

I began by stamping the silhouette leaf image with various TH Distress inks onto white CS. While that dried, I used the same inks and stamped the open Leaf image onto another piece of white CS and die cut the panel with a Fawn Lawn stitched Die. Before adding this panel to the card base, I sponged some of the Fossilized Amber ink along the edges of the white card base since I couldn't find any CS in my stash that matched any of these colors. I did the same thing to another panel before layering the silhouette leaf panel to it. This sketch is from this week's sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. To complete the card, I stamped the Beauty of Autumn greeting with the same inks, stamping just a portion each time so the inks overlapped a bit. After die cutting the greeting some of the Amber ink was sponged along the edges.

Once I had every thing put together the white areas looked too bright, so I sponged some of the Amber ink onto my craft mat, added some water and splattered some of it onto the card. It really does pull it all together.

Thanks for stopping by today.

blessings,

shelia

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Snail Mail

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a great weekend and found some time to get inky! My card today was inspired by a painted jar I saw on the Splitcoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge Saturday and I decided to use this week's sketch for my card layout. It's a cute sketch.

I started by stamping the Script background with Stazon Dove Gray ink, die cutting the panel with a Fawn Lawn rectangle die.  The main image was stamped with Memento Black ink onto white CS, colored with Copics, die cut with a SB circle die and added to the background panel. Next the banner and circle were die cut with SB dies and glued into place. The sunflowers were created using a flower punch I've had in my stash forever. I bought in Germany when we lived there and have no idea what brand it is. It makes a cute little flower. I added some black dots to the centers with a gel pen. The leaves were die cut with a small leaf die from SB. Once everything was attached to the script panel, some fun foam was glued to the back and then onto the gray card base for some dimension. Some Nuvo drops were added to the tiny stamped flower and some blue Distress Ink sponged on for the sky.

I enjoy sending and receiving cards via snail mail, don't you? I just have to decide who to send this one to.

There's still time to join in the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge that DRS Designs is sponsoring. The challenge is to use glitter on your card. And the prize is a $20 gift voucher to DRS Designs on line store. You can see details for the challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by today.

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the Beauty of Autumn

Happy Monday Everyone. Hope you had a great weekend. I did!! Saturday was my birthday and the weather turned cool. It was a beautiful day filled with birthday wishes, yummy cupcakes and dinner at my favorite restaurant where we got to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather even more. I loved it.  So in honor of both the cooler weather and beautiful cupcakes, my card features fall leaves and is based on this week's challenge at Cupcake Inspirations. DRS Designs is the proud sponsor for this challenge. If you play along, you could be the winner of a $20 coupon to DRS Designs on line store. Nice! Here's the cupcake for inspiration.



The challenge this week at Cupcake Inspirations is to use glitter on your card. I don't know about you, but I am horrible with glitter. I get it everywhere - all over my craft table, the room, my clothes, in my coffee and on my poor pup who usually hangs out in the craft room with me while I'm creating. So in light of that, I decided to use glitter embossing powder instead of just straight up glitter. I still managed to get glitter all over the place, but not nearly as much as usual! Anyway, here's my card:

I started with some water color paper, added some TH DO inks, stamped the Open Leaf image with VersaMark ink, and then heat embossed them with the gold glitter EP. These were die cut with a SB circle die and added to the cream panel that was embossed with a SB leaf EF.  This cream panel was added to another cream panel that was embossed with the same gold glitter EP as the leaves. The greeting was stamped and embossed just like the leaves. Here's a close up of the greeting.

I hope you can find some time to join in the challenge this week. And I hope you have better luck with the glitter than I do! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by.

shelia

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"Paws"itively Fantastic Birthday!

Happy Monday Everyone! Can you believe it is August already! This summer seems to have flown by! Maybe it's because I made a couple more trips than usual during the summer months. I don't know, but I sure feel like it shouldn't be August already.

I have a Birthday card to share with you today that uses a die cut puppy, the "Paws"itively Fantastic Birthday Greeting, the puppy paw, dog bone and some tiny hearts from the Love Bug image. I used my craft knife to cut out the tiny hearts and once I was done stamping, I just placed them back into the bug! Anyway, here's my card.

I started with a 3.75 inch square piece of white CS, then using my Misti and the Gina K wreath builder template I stamped the paws, bones and hearts around the square panel. After I colored the bones with some Copic markers, I used TH D.O. ink and a stencil to sponge on the circle. The white panel was layered onto some brown CS and added to the red card base after stamping the greeting with VersaMark ink and embossing it with white EP. The puppy dog was created using the Small Die of the Month Kit from SB for last month. Once all his parts were glued together I added him to the sponged area with some foam adhesive. Isn't he the cutest?

I really like how this turned out. Now to decide which grandchild will get this card for their birthday!

Thanks for stopping by today!

blessings,
shelia

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