Halloween Curvy Box

Happy Monday!  I think Stampin' Up's Mini Curvy Keepsakes Box die is one of the best favor dies ever!  Once you cut the box, all you need to do is fold on the score lines and put the treat in before you close the box.  No adhesive required!  Once the box is closed you don't have to do anything else.  Of course, I need to embellish~~at least with some ribbon.  For today's favors I used the die tags that come with the box.  Those tags were embellished with stamps from the To Every Season stamp set.  Another good thing is that you can get 4 favors from one 12 x 12 sheet of paper/cardstock.  Have a great day!

Halloween Spiders

After seeing a card much like today's card on the Internet , I made my version.  The word "Halloween" was cut on my Scan N Cut.  The spiders were cut on my Cricut.  The little bat was punched using one of the punches in Stampin' Up's Every Season Punch Pack.  If you have a Cricut, I know there are many styles of the word "Halloween" from which to choose.  You certainly don't need two machines to make a card like this and it took no time at all.  Have a great weekend!

Thank You Basket

Today's card is another quick card.  I used a retired Stampin' Up set for the "thank you".  I then added the little bird and basket of flowers from My Favorite Things' stamp set,  Bring Out The Sunshine.  Usually I would used cardstock color that matched one of the flowers, but this time I decided to have the cardstock base match Stampin' Up's twine.  The twine was wrapped around the card between the two lines I scored at the top of the white layer.  I had colored the stamped images previously so all I need to do was put the card together.  Have a great day!

Happy Fall

Fall is officially here and you can certainly feel it in the air and see it with the shorter days.  Yesterday I went down to my scrap room to make a Fall card. The stamp sets used were Happy Harvest from Sunny Studio Stamps and Fall Friends from My Favorite Things.  After stamping and embossing the images, I then cut them out on the Scan N Cut and colored them with alcohol markers.  I used Cherry Cobbler cardstock when die cutting with Pretty Pink Posh's Storybook die.  I sponged the off white layer lightly with distress ink before adhering it to the Cherry Cobbler layer.  For the sentiment, I stamped it in Versamark and then embossed it using clear embossing powder.  Have a great Fall day!

A Card For Annalynn

John's mom had a wonderful caregiver, Annalynn.  Annalynn was much more than a caregiver.  She was with John's mom for several years, beginning when Helen was still in her own home.  She became part of our family.  She is going to miss Helen very much.  I made this card for Annalynn and as easy as it was to make the card, the difficult part is what to write inside.  The image is from Heartfelt Creation's Tweet Cherry Blossoms stamp set.  The Crumb Cake cardstock, pattern paper and ribbon are from Stampin' Up.  The ribbon and pattern paper are retired products.  The dies used for the circles are from My Favorite Things and the ovals are from SU retired punches.  Have a great day!

Fall Daisies

Still playing with the small daisy punch from Stampin' Up.  Today's card is quick to make.  I punched the daisies using Blue Yonder cardstock from MFT Stamps after stamping them using Blue Yonder ink.  The petals get lightly curled under using a bone folder.  For the center of the daisies I used retired Cajun Craze pattern paper and lightly brushed them with Wink of Stella.  It has been a while since I used butterflies, but they are a good way to break up the white space.  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Let It Ride Birthday

Stampin' Up's Let It Ride stamp set has very peaceful horse images.  This image was stamped with Versafine black ink and then embossed using SU's clear embossing powder.  The blue background layer was cut and then Lawn Fawn's Just Stitching Double Rectangles added the decorative stitching.  This particular set of dies are for decorative purposes only~~no cutting.  I did not realize that when I ordered the dies.  Next time, I will have to read better!  That being said, the double stitching makes for an interesting element when designing cards.  Have a great day!

John's Mom

Today I am writing with the sad news that John's Mom passed away on Monday.  Helen was 97 years old and went peacefully.  She had a good life and always talked about how blessed she was.  When Helen and I were together, especially when she lived in Schaumburg, we had some special times.  And when we talked about those times, even recently, we would laugh and laugh.  She might not have remembered all of the details but her eyes would sparkle when I retold her stories of those times (with a little embellishing from me).  She will be very much missed by her family and friends.  She was certainly loved!

Ice Cream & Cake

Today's fun card was created using the Stamps of Life Ice Cream Truck 2 stamp set.  After coloring the images with alcohol markers, I cut the little ice cream treats, cupcakes and truck on the Scan N Cut.  This is a cute card for a child.  Many children have probably never seen a real ice cream truck!  Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, John

Today is John's birthday.  We celebrated with the family over the weekend.  As always, it was a fun time spent together.

Last week Sheryl and Dawn were here and Dawn brought over some of the stamps she purchased at the Scrapbook Expo.  I stamped images from a variety of the sets and then made today's card for John.  The stamp set is from the Rubbernecker Stamps, Fishing 1.  It is a perfect card for John as he was on a fishing trip to Canada in August and is going on a fishing trip later this month up in Wisconsin.  After coloring in the images, I then tore the edges and sponged the edges with Old Olive ink.  The card was layered on Crumb Cake and Old Olive cardstock and then adhered to a white card base.  There was too much white space so I added a little best fishes sign, splatter and sequins.  Thanks for sharing, Dawn!  Have a great day!

Old Friends

The other day I saw a really cute card on the Clearly Besotted blog.  I went to their site, but that set is out of stock.  While there, I was looking at their stamp sets and they had some very cute sentiment stamps that I don't yet own.  I then saw a card using their Clearly Besotted stamp set, Fluffy Flamingos.  I thought of my friend, Lenora.  We have been friends since our girls were in first grade.  Lenora was the room mom and needed someone to make cupcakes.  (Such a far cry from today when everything has to be store bought, pre-packaged and nutritious!)  I offered to bake as I like staying in the background.  The girls were six so we have been friends for 38 years!  We have had some very fun and memorable moments and many fun family camping trips and as we grew older the campers turned into hotels and condos.  Anyway, I just had to make this card for her.  I did not have the sentiment so I typed it in Word and added it to the cute little flamingo images.   Thinking back, I am pretty sure that Lenora was the bad influence!  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Mini Curvy Box

Last week I placed an order with Stampin' Up.  I bought a few things from their holiday catalog including the new Mini Curvy Box.  A few years back I purchased the original Curvy Box and created very pretty favors for the Thanksgiving table.  Shortly after opening the Stampin' Up box when it arrived, I went downstairs to make a Mini Curvy Box in order to compare the original and the mini..  The box in the middle is the original and on either side are two quickly-made curvy boxes to compare the size.  The photo on the left shows the size of original box in Crushed Curry and new Mini in black.  The original die had to be run thru the Big Shot twice to make one box.  With the new Mini, it is a one piece die so no adhering pieces together to make the box.  The new Mini holds four kisses with room to spare. The orange tag is one of the framelits included with the box.  And the cute little bat was made with one of the punches in the Every Season Punch Pack set of four.  Have a great day!

A New Day

The other day I watched a video in which someone colored in images which were stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock.  She used a white colored pencil on the image and then slowly added other colors, layering each color.  Needless to say, I had to try this technique using WPlus 9's stamp set, A New Day.  I like the way the white pencil layer helped to make the colors show up on the Crumb Cake cardstock.  I should have left more of the white visible on the front of the bird.  I need more practice!  Nonetheless, it turned out pretty good.  Have a great day!

Let It Ride

My friend, Paula, came over the other day for a little creative time.  She brought Stampin' Up's Let It Ride stamp set and since I don't have it, I stamped some of the images.  Over the weekend I made this card using an image from that set.  After coloring the horse with alcohol markers, I sponged some blue and green ink around the horse.  Stampin' Up's Brocade Blue (retired many years ago) was a good match to the ink.  I thought the retired Wood Texture designer paper makes a perfect background layer.  Have a great day!

Mint Macaron

Since I had the diagonally lined designer series paper from last week out, I used another color for today's card.  A few years back one of the In Colors was Mint Macaron.  Even though I did not care for the color, I held onto a pack of the cardstock and I still have the Designer Series paper from that year.  And it is good I did, as now Mint Macaron is a current color.  I used the Mint Macaron paper and cardstock on today's card, following a sketch that was on Pinterest for the layout.  The sentiment is from Pretty Pink Posh.  This card is definitely more girly than Friday's card.  Have a great day!

Tip Top Taupe Birthday

A masculine birthday was on my mind as John has a birthday this month.  In my quest to use things I haven't used for awhile, all Stampin' Up products were used on today's card.  The stamp set for the seahorse and shell is By The Tide.  Once again I used the Decorative Label punch for the sentiment and layered that on an enlarged decorative label that I cut on my Cricut a long time ago.  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Pretty Daisies

I love the smaller Daisy punch from Stampin' Up.  When the girls were here last week, Nancy and I were playing with the center part of the daisy.  We finally decided on using the cardstock color of choice, stamp the center image (from Daisy Lane stamp set) using Versamark and emboss with clear embossing powder.  I then used old Early Espresso embossing powder and look how perfect the center is!  Nancy reminded me that we have the smaller circle punch from a while ago and it is the perfect size, 3/8".  The Note Tag punch from years ago made a perfect tag.  The cardstock I used for this card is from My Favorite Things.  The color is Whip Cream and I like it because it is not exactly white, but it isn't as dark as SU's Very Vanilla.   It reminds me of the term "winter white".  Have a great day!

Henry

On Friday night we had a little visitor for a sleepover.  Henry's foster mom had a wedding to attend and didn't want to leave the little guy alone for that long.  He was so cute and a joy to have around the house.  On Saturday, Henry found his forever family.  His new family adopted a really good, loving and smart little puppy.

Today's card is a remake of one I saw on Pinterest.  I used the Daisy Lane stamp set and long retired Stampin' Up Bashful Blue ink and cardstock.  Each daisy twas stamped twice.  I colored the centers with a SU marker and I see they need to be touched up somewhat. The sentiment was stamped with white pigment ink and then embossed using white embossing powder.  This one I will be making again in different colors.  Have a great day!