Monday, December 13, 2010

Xmas cards 2x2 at last!


Card inside below:


Card inside below:


It seems like forever since I last posted to my blog. Here are a few of the Xmas cards I made this year. The first and last ones were variations of cards we did at an SU stamp-a-stack put on by Jen Sannes (http://www.simpleandsincere.com/). The insides of the cards were my own design. The peace doves were cards I designed. The first peace dove card was done with the new MS dove punch. The other card was a Hero Arts peace dove stamp. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Life has been a bit crazy for our family lately, so even though I have not had the time or motivation to work on cards, I have been following most of your blogs and making comments as time permits.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Mojo Halloween


It's been a while since I've done a Mojo Monday sketch so it's about time I take a stab at one again. Here's my take on this weeks sketch with a Halloween theme.
The cool spiderweb paper is by Paper Studio. The scary bat and dracula are from an old SU set, colored with copics. The cute little "Boo" is from a Gina K Halloween set and is backed with a nestability. The spiders were created with an EK success punch. The goo border is from Martha Stewart. I also used a couple of CB embossing folders on the green backing and the pomegranate paper. The ribbon is something from my stash. Thanks for taking a peek.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Anniversary Card




Just a quick post today of the anniversary card I did for my daughter and her husband. I used one of my clear acrylic stamp sets and cut out and popped the monkeys and the vine. For the background, I used the branches embossing folder by CB and then brayered over the embossed paper with brown ink. The sentiment is from SU and stamped on a Spellbinders die cut label. I used some scrap yarn to accent the label. I've included a picture of the inside of the card as well. I created the sentiment on my computer and then cut it out with a Spellbinders Nestability, backed with brown paper that I hand cut.

On to Halloween cards.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Birthday Card for stamping friend




Just a quick post of a birthday card I did for a fellow stamper.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Anniversary Card



Just a quick post today of an anniversary card for my son and his wife. I'll try to get out to post the details soon.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Birthday card for friend



Hi all! I'm finally back from a wonderful vacation in Alaska. It was absolutely gorgeous...a trip everyone should do at least once in their lifetime. Can't believe I ate seafood everyday and I'm still not tired of it.

I'm here with the first of what will be several posts for upcoming birthdays, get well wishes and anniversaries.

Today I'm posting a birthday card for a dear friend of mine. My DP is from Stampin Up, featuring barely bannana, pumpkin pie and bashful blue. My stamp images are from various clear stamps sets I own. I believe the sentiment is Stampin Up. Nothing too fancy here, just lots of layering and a little glaze pen on my cake icing and ice cream cone. I added some EK corner punches to accent my sentiment. I'm also including a peek at the inside of the card too.

Now I have to spend some time checking out what all of you have been doing on your blogs while I was gone.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Get Well Card for Friend


Just a quick post of a get well card for a friend who had knee replacement surgery last week. Hope she gets a kick out of it.

The image is "House Mouse Designs" by Stampabilities. I colored it with my copic markers. Then I layered different parts of the image for dimension. I used some nestabilities for mounting and the cute DP is by Paper Studio. I created the sentiment on my computer.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Bday card for friend



Just a quick post of a birthday card for a friend of mine who has a dream of owning a white lab puppy. I found this cute puppy picture out on the internet and thought it would make a perfect birthday card for her.

Nothing too fancy here, just some nestibilities for mounting my picture on and the EK success paw border punch.

I hope to be back with another card sometime next week. I've been busy working on rehabing my new hip. Things are going very well and I even cracked out my bike a week ago Sunday...not even 8 weeks out of surgery.

Best wishes to everyone in the U.S.A for a safe and fun 4th of July celebration!!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Vintage Chocolate Birthday


Whoohoo! I'm now done with all my cards for May. This little vintage chocolate beauty is for my sister who lives in Boise, Idaho. We share a passion for dark chocolate and when I saw this image on the internet when I was surfing, I knew I had to have her so I could create something special for my sister. This was hard to photograph, especially at night. The color of the image is a bit redder than real life. I may try another photo in the daylight and swap it out if it turns out closer to the real thing.

Anyway, here are the card details:

Paper: Dark chocolate linen from Archiver's, Basic Grey Cappella DP, Kaiser Scrapbook DP (for sentiment), Paper Studio shiny copper

Spellbinder label die, MS border punch, SU sentiment, choc flower accents, trim and ribbon from JoAnn Fabrics, CB embossing folder for papers behind image. This was just my second vintage card and I was quite happy with how it turned out. Hope you enjoy peeking at it.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Daughter-in-Law Birthday Card



This card is for my daughter-in-law, who loves frogs, especially "Kermit the Frog". This isn't exactly "Kermie", but it's the best I could come up with from my stamp selection.

The the frog images come from my Simon Says acrylic frog stamp set. You can find this set at www.simonsaysstamp.com. I added some red bow ties to my frogs, just to dress them up a bit and to add a contrasting color. My daughter-in-law is a piano and guitar teacher so I added the musical notes for fun. I used several CB embossing folders to give texture to my background and a number of nesties on my sentiment and to finish off the inside. The black and white dotted background on the inside of the card was made with SU's top note die. The corner accents were done with an EK success punch and finally, I added some black and white dotted ribbon loops on the right side and glossed up the frogs' eyes with a little Diamond Glaze.

Now I'm down to just one more card for my sister and I will have all the May birthdays done. Whoohoo!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Birthday Card for Max




This card is for my precious grandson, Max, who will be 5 on May 2nd. Max is autistic and just the sweetest little boy you'd ever want to know. He's smart as a whip but a bit behind in his language skills. He has really come out of his shell over the last 6 months and we are so happy to see him starting to interact with the other children at school. He seems to have a very special connection with one of the little girls in his class who has downs syndrome.

Back to the card...I always have fun with Max's card each year. I get to use stickers of his beloved Sesame Street characters. I love kids cards with primary colors and these stickers were just made for a card like that. I dug through my papers and found this fun piece that worked out perfect. I just had to figure out a layout so I could use all the characters, then I added the stamped and punched "5" circles and the "Happy Birthday" greeting. At first I wondered if it was a bit too busy, but the more I looked at it the better I liked it. I know that he will take time to examine it very carefully and it will bring a big smile to his face. I had fun with the inside too.

One more card done...two more to go.

Birthday Card for Great Niece




Just a quick post with a card for my great niece, who will be 2 in May. Her grandma tells me that she loves "Wow Wow Wubbzy", so I went searching online for an image to use to make her a Wubbzy card. This was actually the top of a cake image I found, but it worked out nicely. Nothing too fancy here, just the birthday CB embossing folder and the newest SU border punch. For the inside I used some Nesties and a Fiskars punch to finish it off. The sentiment was done on my computer. Along with the card I'll be sending a super soft small Wubbzy blanket that I found at Target online.

I'll be back tomorrow with another card to post for my grandson. Then two more BDay cards and I'll be all set for May.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Mother's Day Card for Mother-In-Law




This is a card we did at at recent SU "Stamp-a-stack" put on by Jen Sannes. I love the colors she chose for this card; pale plum, rich razzleberry and mellow moss. It turned out to be just the perfect card for my Mother-In-Law. I think she's going to love it. We used the new SU Vintage Vogue stamp set. The sentiment is from another new SU set called Well Scripted. I had to order both of these sets when I first saw them. I think they will both be favorites of mine for years to come.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Baby card





Today's card is for my great nephew who is due at the beginning of May. The paper is Baja Breeze from SU. The teddy bear is from a clear acrylic set by Recollections called "Bouncin Baby Boy" and is colored with copics. The sentiment is from Studio G and the cute button brads are from Making Memories. The embossing was done with a CB embossing border from the "Frills" pack of borders.

The inspiration for this card came from a darling card I saw on Amy Sheffer's blog,
http://pickledpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/ Amy has the most amazing cards and I always find inspiration there.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Bithday Card for Hubby




Just a quick post of my husband's birthday card today. I totally cased this card from the SimonSaysStamp.com website. It was created by Debby Yates. That card is no longer on the website and I couldn't find a link to it on Debby's blog, but I put the picture of her original card below my card. Debby is a member of the Simon Says design team. You can check out all of her fabulous cards on her blogspot, http://debby4000.blogspot.com/ They're inspirational.

I had been eying up this Simon Says stamp set for a long time and decided to finally buy it late last year when they had a sale. I usually try to use frog images for my husband's cards as his nickname in High School was "Froggy". He got that name because he was the lead triple, long and high jumper on the high school track team. And yes, I did know him then as we started dating late in our sophomore year of high school. Next year we will be celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary.

Anyway, as you can see, he turned 60 this year and I will follow suit in September.
How we got here so fast is beyond me. Life just happens that way.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Mother's Day Card with matching gift card holder






Sorry it's been so long since I posted last. I think I may have my mojo back and just in time. I did manage to get some Easter cards done, but didn't have time to post them. I have two birthdays coming up this weekend, then 4 more in May, Mother's Day and a brand new great nephew on the way. Lots of cards to get done. To top it off, I'm having a hip replaced on April 29th, so I don't have any time to spare.

I will try my best to get all the cards posted.

Back to this card. Here are the details: I had an idea for this card when I found the rose paper at JoAnn Fabrics a month ago. I found the layout in my idea folder from a card that was on Amy Sheffer's blog. I used my brand new MS border punch, which I think is very classy. The circles and scallops are all nestabilities and the flowers are from my stash, as well as the brads. The black background was done with a new CB 5x7 embossing folder. The little flowers behind the brads on the right hand side were embossed with that same folder and then punched with an EK Sucess flower punch. The sentiment is a new SU sentiment. The ribbon is by American Crafts.
Doesn't black and red always make a classy looking card? I know that mom will love this.

Now on to those cards I need to have done by this Sunday. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I'm Back with a Valentine's Card



Hello to all! I'm finally back to post a Valentine Card. I took a picture of this before Valentine's Day and didn't get back to publish it until now. Sorry I have been gone so long, but we've had a bit of family drama going on that has had me quite wrapped up with worry and no motivation to work on my cards. Some of you know what I have been going through, and I thank you for your kind words of support. For those of you who don't know, I will try to give you a rundown of what's been consuming my life for the last few months.


My only son, who is 36 years old, has been suffering with a bad back for about 8 years. Over the last few years it has gotten worse and last October he was hospitalized after collapsing in horrible pain. After having an MRI, it was discovered that he had virtually no disc left in his bottom 2 vertabrae and also that his spine had shifted so that the vertabrae were resting on a major nerve root, thus causing him severe pain down his whole leg. Surgery to fuse his spine was the only answer. Unfortunately, that surgery here in Madison, WI would be about $125,000. At this time, my son and his wife do not have health insurance because of his inablility to work, her job changes and his pre-existing medical condition, there was no affordable option for insurance for them.

Ultimately, they decided to go outside the country to have his surgery done. After much research on the internet, they connected with a Medical Tourism agency that recommended a spine surgeon in Malaysia. This was right around Xmas. They were able to schedule the surgery for January 9th of this year. So we put him on a plane and 3 airports and 36 gruelling and painful hours later he arrived in Penang, Malaysia 2 days ahead of his scheduled surgery.

The cost of surgery, physical therapy, airfare, and hotel costs would be about 1/3 of the cost of just the surgery here in the U.S. Fortunately for them, they had the resources to pay cash for everything, otherwise, he would still be at home suffering.


As parents, we were beside ourselves with worry through his whole ordeal. Luckily, the surgery went well and he appeared to be on his way to a great recovery until 4 days into his physical therapy when he developed two bad blood clots in his upper thigh. That stopped the PT and put him in bed with heparin IV drips to thin his blood and prevent the formation of more clots. Several days afterwards, he was released from the hospital and continued to battle with the problems that the clots created in his leg and an attack of gout that no doubt was brought on by the stress of the whole situation.


On February 8th he flew back to Los Angeles (another very painful flight with a lot of leg swelling). He stayed a couple of days in L..A. to recover and then flew back home on Feb. 10th.

He is still suffering with swelling and pain, although it has gotten a bit better, and he is still fighting the gout symptoms. He's anxious to get back to rehabing his back, but has to wait until the blood clots in his leg are dissolved. At any rate, we are so happy to have him back and are praying that he will see some improvement soon so that he can enjoy how good his back is feeling now and be relieved of his pain.

Thanks for sticking with me through this and I look forward to getting back into my cardcrafting as time and motivation allow. I've decided to concentrate on doing some color challenges this year to further help me improve on the quality of my crafting and to broaden my horizons a bit.

I hope you'll stay around for the ride.


About the card: I used this same layout for most of my Valentine cards this year and just changed the texture on the brown strip on the side and the border punch on each card to make them unique. My family knows how much I love dark chocolate, so that is why I used the sentiment I did for the inside of the card. In fact, we are a family of dark chocolate lovers.

For this particular card, I used my CB hearts embossing folder and my MS double hearts border punch. The hearts on the front of the card are SU's new heart stamps & matching punch.

The paper is SU chocolate chip, as well as the ink on the hearts. I created the inside sentiment on my computer and the sentiment on the front is from "My Sentiments Exactly".