Happy Retirement

Today I have a card that uses Clear and Simple Stamps All Occasions I and II for the sentiments and a little lighthouse stamp from Inkadinkado. The image was colored with watercolor pencils.

5 days until Christmas

Today I'm sharing a couple more Christmas cards that I made this year. As you can see, I'm really enjoying the sequin trend. Thanks so much for stopping. Happy Stamping!

Season's Greetings

Today's cards feature some Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather papers, a greeting from Inkadinkado, a die cut from Papertrey Ink, a snowflake die from Cuttlebug and twine from The Twinery. These cards were made with the last of a 12x12 piece of Mitten Weather paper so the layouts are slightly different to accommodate the scraps. Since they're a little different, I thought I would share both.

I embossed the sentiment with SU Gold embossing powder and sponged the edges of the die cut with Vintage Photo distress ink. Before adding the twine, I used my crop-o-dile to add eyelets to the die cut. The snowflakes are die cut from Warm & Natural with button centers.

Thanks so much for stopping. I hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday. Happy Stamping!

Black Friday

Happy Black Friday! For those of you out shopping today I wish you luck.

I have another Christmas card to share today. This one uses the same stamp set from Inkadinkado as yesterday's card. For this one, I embossed the tree with clear embossing powder on October Afternoon patterned paper and then sponged Walnut stain distress ink over the entire piece to bring out the embossed image. I added some brown trim I picked up at an estate sale recently along with white seam binding and a paper rose made from some vintage sheet music. The die for the rose is from My Favorite Things. I applied B00 Copic to the flower to give it some subtle color and help match it to the patterned paper. The leaves are from the Spellbinders Foliage dies. The scalloped image and sentiment both use the Spellbinders Long Classic Scalloped Rect dies.

Thanks so much for stopping. Happy Shopping to those of you participating in Black Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you celebrating Thanksgiving today a wonderful day with friends and family. Hopefully you're not stressing out about the food and are able to enjoy the day. Unfortunately I don't have a Thanksgiving card to share with you today but I do have a couple of Christmas cards to share.

My daughter recently found this stamp set for $1.99 at TJMaxx and bought it for me. I had to ink it up as soon as she brought it home. I paired it with papers from the Jovial collection from Basic Grey. The 12x12 papers are double sided so by using this simple layout I was able to make 5 cards from one sheet of designer paper plus a matching scrap of My Mind's Eye paper for the circle borders around the sentiment. The snowman stamp and snowflake are from Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from Memory Box. For fun, I added some A Muse Studio glitter to some of the circles around the snowman image.

Thanks so much for stopping. Happy Thanksgiving!

English Robin

Just a quick post today to share a couple of simple cards using the English Robin stamp from Inkadinkado and my oval Nestabilities sets.

I hope you're having a wonderful day! Thanks so much for stopping. Happy Stamping!

Bats about you

I know Halloween is over but I wanted to make a card for my hubby the other night and when I saw the bat stamp sitting there on the shelf I had this idea.

The bats are stamped on mustard cardstock and heat embossed in black. Then I cut them out and mounted them with pop dots. The card base is mustard with a layer of black, then a layer of Basic Grey dp and a circle of My Mind's Eye dp. I added some dots around the circle with a copic multiliner. All of the edges of the dp papers were sponged with vintage photo distress ink. Finally I used my Dymo label maker for the tag.

Just a simple card to let my hubby know that I was thinking about him while I was in my craftroom and he was working late.
Supplies:

• Stamps - Inkadinkado
  
• Ink - Distress inks (black, vintage photo)
  
• Paper - SU Mustard, Black, DP (Basic Grey and My Mind's Eye)
  
• Misc - Black EP, Nestabilities, Pop dots, Copic multiliner, Dymo label maker

More Inkadinkado Halloween

I just have a minute to quickly post a couple more Inkadinkado Halloween cards. For the top card I stamped the cat on the purple paper then paper pieced his ghost costume! The prima flower was colored with a Copic marker to match the striped paper.

For this card I used the distress ink technique with the craft sheet and shipping tag. The tutorial is here. The birds were stamped in black and glitter was added to the moon but it didn't photograph well. The bottom portion of the black mat was run through my cuttlebug with the swiss dot folder for a little texture.

Thanks for stopping! I hope you are have a fabulous weekend.

Happy Halloween!

Just a couple of simple cards today using the Inkadinkado Ghouls and Goblins clear set. The card bases are Kraft and the designer papers are from My Mind's Eye. Both images are stamped with Palette Hybrid Noir on Kraft. For the monster puppy I colored him with Prisamolor Pencils and then sponged the edges with distress inks. For the Mummy Kitty I colored the bath tissue with a white prismacolor pencil.

Supplies:

• Paper - kraft, black, My Mind's Eye
• Ink - Palette Hybrid Noir, Distress inks
• Stamps - Inkadinkado Ghouls and Goblins
• Other - ribbon, sewing machine, gems, prismacolor pencils
  

Wise Old Owl

I thought the owl stamp from the Inkadinkado set Birds Galore would be cute on a graduation card so I inked him in Colorbox dark brown chalk and stamped him on SU very vanilla. I outlined him with a brush and certainly celery reinker. The patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye and the graduation stamp is from a retired SU set. I matted the layers with SU chocolate chip and mounted everything to a very vanilla base. I'm thinking about making him a little graduation hat to wear. What do you think?

SheetLoad of Cards

As mentioned in my last post, I really enjoy the SheetLoad of Cards eZine so I made time to use the sketch from the April issue to make some cards. All of the cards have the same basic layout using SU very vanilla bases, chocolate chip mats and patterned papers from My Mind's Eye. The first two cards feature one of the birds from the Inkadinkado set Birds Galore. I stamped the bird with Colorbox dark brown chalk ink on SU very vanilla, cut it out and mounted it with pop dots. The Sending love your way message is from the Hero Arts Birds and Messages set. Happy Birthday is from a retired SU set.

For the next card I used the Hero Arts Birds and Messages set again and added some distressing to the chocolate chip layers. I also added some ribbon to the card by using a bobby pin. It's a nice simple way to add some ribbon to a card without punching any holes to attach it. The image was stamped with Timber Brown Stazon and colored with SU reinkers and an aqua brush.

The next card uses a frog stamp from PaperSource. I stamped the frog with Timber Brown Stazon and colored him with SU reinkers and an aqua brush. Then I stamped the birthday greeting from Papertrey Ink's Faux Ribbon set in Warm Red Colorbox chalk ink and layered it using my Nestabilities.

The final card is my series uses my new Stampendous Changito stamp. When I saw this stamp I had to bring it home with me. I think it will get a lot of use at my house. Again the image is stamped with Timber Brown Stazon and colored with SU reinkers and an aqua brush. The message says "You are truly amazing" and I believe it's from Hero Arts. It's my brother's birthday today and I think this might be the card I bring him this evening. It seems pretty fitting for our relationship! Maybe I'll change the sentiment to "Mom always liked me best!" *giggle*
Thanks so much for stopping and checking out my creations. Have a wonderful day!

Tacky Tape First

I finally broke down and bought some tacky tape to use with the micro beads that I've had forever. I bought several containers of beads thinking I would make shaker cards but that didn't happen so it was time to buy some tacky tape and try using the beads another way.

The sketch for this card is from Mary Jo Albright's blog Beauty Lies Within. I started with a SU buckaroo blue base and layered that with My Mind's Eye Mademoiselle paper. The blue band is the reverse side of the striped paper. Then I stamped the inkadinkado bird stamp with chestnut roan colorbox chalk ink on SU very vanilla cardstock. I sponged the edges with timber brown stazon and layered it onto another piece of very vanilla. The next layer is buckaroo blue, then a thin mat of close to cocoa and finished with orchid opulence. For the finishing touches I added two strips of tacky tape and micro beads then two primas with a Making Memories Boho Chic Olivia brad as the flower center. The card measures 5x5. I really like how simple it is to use micro beads with the tacky tape and recommend trying it if you haven't already. Thanks for stopping!

Jitterbug Valentines

I'm still playing with my inkadinkado valentine stamps. For this card I started by stamping the hearts in warm red colorbox chalk ink on SU very vanilla and then cutting them out. Then I stamped the message from hero arts in chestnut roan colorbox chalk ink also on SU very vanilla and matted it with a layer of chocolate from Paper Source. I attached the hearts with pop dots and added some dew drops to the corner. The bottom panel is Cosmo Cricket Jitterbug - Tall Sally paper also matted with chocolate from Paper Source. I tied a ribbon from May Arts around the lower panel. The base of the card is strawberry from Paper Source.

During my recent trip to Minneapolis I was able to stop at Paper Source. They have a wonderful line of flat cards, folded cards, shape cards, cardstock and envelopes in some fabulous colors.

Valentines Delight

Here is another valentines card made with my new inkadinkado stamps. The card base is Stampin Up very vanilla and the patterned paper is Just Perfect from the Tres Jolie Ooh La La line from My Minds Eye. I ran the solid side of the designer paper through my cuttlebug using the textile embossing folder and then lightly sanded it. To attach it to the card I sewed it on. The hearts are stamped on very vanilla with SU regal rose ink. I added the Delight rub-on from K&Co to the bottom corner but it doesn't show up very well. I thought about putting a ribbon over it to cover it up but decided to add the ribbon to the top instead. The ribbon is from May Arts.


My daughter and I took a shopping trip to Minneapolis yesterday to shop for clothes for her and to stop at some stamp stores for me. We had a great time except for the driving - it decided to snow for the entire 160 miles to the Twin Cities and then it started snowing again about half way home. During the drive home we passed several vehicles off the road including a semi-truck so we took our time and made it home safely. Now I'm hoping to spend the day in my craft room with my new stuff.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. And as always, thank you for stopping.

New Inkadinkado

While in a little town about 30 miles from home yesterday I found the new Inkadinakdo valentine line of stamps in a small scrapbooking store. I had to bring these three little cuties home with me.

The card base is Stampin Up's sahara sand and the designer papers are from the BasicGrey Blush line of papers. The birds are stamped on SU very vanilla using timber brown stazon. The edges of the bird panel are sponged with SU basic brown. I punched a scalloped square with my Marvy punch and cut off the corner to make the photo corners. The ribbon is from May Arts and the Happy Anniversary is from Studio G. Thanks for stopping.