Word Art Wednesday Guest Designing, Again!

I'm honored and blessed to be guest designing another time over at Word Art Wednesday! This time their sponsor is a company called Not Too Shabby, and they are giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to a randomly chosen winner. And let me tell you, for this challenge you'll definitely want to enter, because Not Too Shabby has so much wonderful stuff in their shop.

This was my first time buying from them and choosing was so hard. I wound up ordering the Serene Escape Ephemera Pack and Coordinating Paper. I chose these because I have quite a bit of purple card stock that I bought at Michaels and even have some purple envelopes. So these were perfect. 

Ephemera makes card making so, so easy and I just loved working with these pieces. They're so pretty and unique. I ended up making 12 cards in one afternoon and since it was just before Mother's Day I ended up taking them to church for the ladies to take if they wanted to. (See my picture below.) 

The scripture fit perfectly on the card as well. I printed it at home on some light lavender card and trimmed it down. It makes a great centerpiece for the ephemera.

In addition to the supplies from Not Too Shabby, I used purple card stock from a Michael's pack, Stampin' Up!'s Basic Gray card stock and some pearls from Jolee's. Super simple!

Here's the card rack at church. The flowers were there already and I love how they matched!

My desk just as I was getting started. I id add some of my own rubber stamp scriptures to the 12
cards I made for church.

Here are a few other photos of the cards that I made with this set...

Be sure to check out this challenge over at Word Art Wednesday and play along. It's always an "anything goes" challenge and you never have to use the scripture if it doesn't work. It's just fun and they would love to have you!

Masculine Birthday Stars

Here's a quick post of the two cards that I made today. One thing I love about card making is how they sometimes seems to make themselves, and today is a perfect example of that.

The blue paper scraps were laying on my desk, leftover from an earlier project. I knew I wanted to use some starts, thinking I was going to create another 4th of July type card. But after looking at the blue paper I noticed that there was yellow in it, so I went with that instead.

I stamped Stampin' Up! stars (from a couple of different sets) on SU! So Saffron card stock. After adhering the patterned papers down, I added the die-cut stars, a sentiment (which I wish was bigger now, but that's okay) and added some enamel dots for balance and fillers.

This was a really easy pair to make. My hope is that they're masculine enough to send to a guy.

Well that's it for today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!

Father's Day Freshly Made Sketch

Tomorrow is Father's Day. It's 11:15 at night and I decided last minute that I wanted to make a card for a friend whose family is sick and they're not able to celebrate tomorrow. I know he must be down so I thought a card would cheer him up, even though he's not my dad.

Needing some quick inspiration, I turned to Freshly Made Sketches #690 to give me a starting point. My supplies were very limited as I only have this one stamp that says Happy Father's Day. The images I have for men are limited too. Thankfully this guy likes fishing so I think I've got a good combo.

Here's my complete supply list:

• Stampin' Up! By The Tide Stamps
• CTMH A Little Everything Stamps
• Core'dinations Patterned Paper
• Kaiser Kraft Patterned Paper
• Misc. Patterned Paper
• SU! Night of Navy Card Stock
• Memento Nautical Blue Ink
• SU! Blueberry Bushel Ink

I still have yet to make (or find a previously made card) for my hubby by tomorrow. I've spent way too much time cross stitching today and now I really have to hustle. I've even procrastinated on the gifts so we have to open them tomorrow night. Where were we before Amazon!?

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day whether you're celebrating a special guy in your life or not. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Cardz 4 Guyz #374 Seashell Card

Hello stamping friends. Today's card was made especially for the Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge #374. The theme is seashells. I used to have a wonderful Stampin' Up! set of shells years back, but got rid of it as I was thinning out my supplies. The best I could come up with was this sand dollar that I picked up at a Stamp Festival years ago. I think it's a pretty close second, even though I guess technically shells are on the outside of a sea creature and a sand dollar is actually inside of it. Anyway, since both are pretty and can be found on the beach I'm going with it!

Here's my complete supply list:

• Seaside Stamping Ink Large Sand Dollar
• Stampin' Up! Wetlands Stamp Set (birds)
• SU! Blueberry Bushel Card Stock & Ink
• SU! Baked Brown Sugar Ink
• SU! Crumb Cake Card Stock
  
• SU! Balmy Blue Card Stock
• SU! So Saffron Card Stock
• Sizzix Circle Die
• Stampendous SSC1883 Sentiment

Much of this card was pieced together with torn card stock and a die for the sun. I forgot to emboss or stamp the "sand" and "water" before I taped them down, so I left the sand blank, as there wasn't a lot of room showing anyway. For the water I used a light blue Copic and hand drew little waves on. That way it was easy to work around the already-taped-down edges.

I always love the challenge of making guy cards and I'm so thankful to everyone over at Cardz for Guyz for creating these great challenges! 

Primrose Cottage Freebie Cross Stitch June 2025

I just finished this adorable cross stitch freebie from Primrose Cottage. Each month they email you a free pattern if you’re signed up as one of their newsletter subscribers. This was my first month signing up, and I didn’t do so until June 7. I wasn’t sure if I would get the pattern because it was past the date that they send it out, but I got it right away.

If you’re not on their email list and would like this pattern be sure to sign up before the end of the month. It may be available after that, but not for free. Here’s the link to sign up:

https://primrosecottageshop.com/blogs/free-stitch-friday/q-a-with-aldo-vacca-1

I’m excited to see what next month’s freebie is!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

D is for Dies (and No Dies too!)

Happy Monday! Here we are at the beginning of another week and it's fully summer just about everywhere I'm sure. My daughter is in Nebraska this week complaining about the heat! And I'm feeling very summery too. So when I went over to Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. Challenge and saw that D is for dies, one of the first ones that jumped out at me was my "Hello Sunshine" from Pink & Main.

I love word dies that also have backgrounds, and this is one of my faves, but I've never used the whole thing because I feel it should have a sun on the card somewhere. Usually I just use the part that says "Hello" as it's easy to cut away the "Sunshine" part. But as I hopped around on other blogs this morning I saw some summery cards and really wanted to make something using the whole "Hello Sunshine" sentiment. But alas, I have neither a sun die (only little ones I bought premade on eBay) or a sunburst die. So, taking Darnell's cue, I made both!

I started by creating my own sun using a round die and a diamond die strip then cutting the diamond shaped pieces apart and gluing them around the circle. Then I created a sunburst by cutting four pieces of paper into triangles. You can see in the last picture that the pieces of patterned paper didn't line up perfectly, which is why I cut strips of orange to over up the gaps. 

Here's my complete supply list:

• White Card Stock
• Black Card Stock
• Pink & Main Hello Sunshine Die Set
• Spellbinders Circle Dies
• Sizzix Border Dies
• Stampin' Up! Daffodil Delight Card Stock
• SU! Pumpkin Pie Card Stock
• SU! Pineapple Punch Card Stock
• Various Yellow Patterned Papers
• Generic Diamond Embellishments

I tilted the sentiment to give it a fun feel and hopefully the placement of the diamonds lead the eye up to the little bee. Had I planned this better I would have made his placement more pronounced, but he's still visible so I'm happy.

In addition to Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. Challenge, I'm also uploading this to Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge and The Four Seasons Challenge, both perfect summer challenges. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a sunny day!

Color Throwdown For Freshly Made Sketches

Hi stamping friends! Today's card was made specifically for a combination of two challenges. Over at Freshly Made Sketches #689 is a sweet, square sketch and over at Color Throwdown #834 you had to use three colors, orange, turquoise and green. What a fun combination! And I was also encouraged by Carol over at Inkspirational Challenges to enter there as well, following their summer-y mood board.

My biggest difficulty was determining exactly what color turquoise is. I used to have a Stampin' Up! Tempting Turquoise Ink, but that's been discontinued and now I have Azure Afternoon, which is the one I decided to use in this challenge. The picture below shows the three inks that I do have that I thought would be considered turquoise, but none of them really captured exactly what I was looking for. Pinkfresh Studio makes a turquoise ink and refill that I want to get, but I had to make do this time.

Here's my complete supply list for this card:

Hmmmm.... turquoise?

• Stampin' Up! Cup of Tea Stamps & Dies
• SU! Azure Afternoon Ink & Card Stock
• SU! Orange Dotted Patterned Paper
• SU! Pumpkin Pie Card stock
• SU! Parakeet Party Ink
• SU! Perfect Peach Card Stock
• White Card Stock
• SU! Cucumber Crush Ink
• Generic Rhinestones

I created the middle section first, following the Freshly Made Sketches Design, then decided that the size of the card would need to be 5.5 x 5.5 in order to accommodate the design. This will be a hand-cancel mail anyway so the larger envelope size shouldn't be a problem.

This was so much fun to make. And if you're up for a challenge be sure to check out these two. Thanks so much to everyone over at those blogs for making creative time a bit more challenging! Hugs!

Sweet Watermelon Season

My top favorite thing about summer is indeed watermelon. Or should I say, WATERMELON! I really love watermelon. I'm on my fourth one this season and it's just hubby and me. In fact, one of my resolutions is to eat 30 watermelons this year. It's a weird resolution that my daughter challenged me to do on a BINGO New Year's Resolution Card. I don't think it should be a problem.

Anyway, over at Shopping Our Stash this round their theme is "Sweet." So naturally I chose watermelons! And since my sentiment is quite large, I'm also entering it over at Word Power Challenge. And because the Color Hues Challenge this time is Coral and Green, and my watermelons are in the coral family, it's being entered there too. And over at Never Before Used Schtuff (NBUS) they are celebrating their 75th challenge and giving away three $25.00 gift cards to any company of your choice. Wowza! And since I haven't used this set yet, I'm entering it over there too!

Here's my complete supply list:

• Stampin' Up! Watercolor Watermelon Stamp Set
• Sweet Dies and Sentiment from Pink & Main
• SU! Calypso Coral Card Stock
• SU! Cucumber Crush Card Stock & Ink Ink
• SU! Flirty Flamingo Ink
• SU! Soft Suede Ink
• SU! Garden Green Ink
• Dollar Tree Dimensionals

I hope your summer is off to a good start and that you're enjoying the things you love most about summer. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a sweet day!

Pearls In The Ocean Lap Blanket

I'm glad that Colorful Options gives us a sneak peek of their upcoming challenges, because this project really needed the extra time! I started on it right when the June inspiration picture came out, but it took twice a long as I thought and of course, cost a bit more too. However I'm really pleased with the finished project.

I got the idea for this after seeing the colors in the challenge. I wanted to combine those colors with the lap blankets that I'm making for some people at my church who are going to give them to nursing home residents this coming Christmas.

The pattern is one that I made up as I went along. Basically I started with a chain 7, joined it then worked in sets of 3 double crochets. As I went along I could see when it was getting too wavy, and I just cut back on the next row. But basically it's a bunch of double crochets. Pretty easy!

One thing that this piece gave me the opportunity to do is to add beads to my work. I've always wanted to try doing it and it's really easy. Just pull the yarn off the hook and while it's folded, string a bead on, then put the yarn back on the hook and stitch like normal. (See pic below.)  The only thing with the beads is that you need to make sure the hole is big enough. Mine were 3 sizes, and on the smallest ones I had to stick the yarn through with a toothpick, but it worked. These beads became the "pearls" in this project. And I know that pearls don't float on top of the waves, but it was a fun concept to create.

I have a whole new respect for pattern makers and those who create crocheted pieces on YouTube. There is so much work that goes into creating, and in my case, I had to pull out so many rows and try again until I got just the right look that I wanted. And while I'm pleased with it, I think something a little less ruffly would maybe be better. It was a hard balance to strike. It seemed like the waves were non-existent or too wavy. I think to get it 100% perfect it would have taken me a year! From now on, unless it's something really simple, I'll let someone else do the difficult work and just follow along!

The idea behind the lap warmer is to give nursing home residents a little something fuzzy
to keep them warm, cozy and feeling loved.

For my supplies, I used the following items pictured below. The blue yarn is from Walmart. The white fuzzy yarn and the beads came from Michaels. The third picture shows how I crocheted the beads on.

I wasn't planning on putting the white yarn in the project, but my mom suggested it and it I'm glad she did. She said that the foam is always white and she was right, even if it did add an extra $10.00 to the project!

I'm not sure if I'll keep it or pass it on to someone in a nursing home. But this was a great project to create, and I really have Colorful Options to thank for stretching me and helping me create something unique.

If you're not familiar with their challenge, be sure to check them out at challenge HERE. Their challenges are so fun! I'm already thinking about what I can do for next month. I hope to see you there, and happy crafting!

Word Art Wednesday Guest Designing!

I’m so excited to be guest designing this time over at Word Art Wednesday. Their sponsor this time is Taylored Expressions and I’ve used two of Taylor’s products in this card.

The first Taylored Expressions item that I used is one of my favorite stamps called Big Delivery. It’s perfect for masculine cards and coloring the truck is so fun. The second TE product is the Frame in Frame 2 die cut set. I love how easy it makes it to frame an A2 card. 

Here’s my complete supply list:

• Taylored Expressions Big Delivery Stamps and Dies (retired)
  
  
  
• TE Frame in Frame 2 Dies (retired)
• Stampin’ Up! Smoky Slate Card Stock
• White Card Stock
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Stamping’ Up! Poppy Parade Ink
• Copic Markers C3, C5, E35, E37 & R35
• Doodlebug Beetle black Dot-Stripe Paper

Even though my products are retired, Taylored Expressions has a wonderful lineup of great products that are currently available. So be sure to check out all the wonderful cards over at Word Art Wednesday. And if you play along you’ll have an opportunity to win a $30.00 gift certificate from Taylored Expressions. Taylor’s line has so many cute designs that it will be hard to choose! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day!

Happy Independence Day for 3 Challenges

Hi there stamping friends! Today's card is made for three challenges. Retro Rubber #256 is a Sketch Challenge #rrcb256. Cardz 4 Guyz #373 is asking for cards that have shades of blue (and of course mine has a few reds too, but it's definitely a card made especially for a guy). And I'm also entering this over at The Neglected Stuff Challenge. 

First I started with the sketch. I went looking for a stamp that was vertical. Originally I was thinking of a tree, but when I was digging around in my Close

To My Heart stamp basket, I came across this sentiment stamp set that has certainly been neglected. In fact, I didn't even know that the sentiment "Independence Day" was a part of the set until today. I'm super happy to have discovered it!

Here's my complete supply list:

• Stampin' Up! Night of Navy Card Stock & Ink
• Speckletone Oatmeal Card Stock
• Memento Rhubarb Stalk Ink
• Close To My Heart A Little Everything Stamp Set (2018)
• Stampin' Up! Be The Star Stamp Set (2014) & Dies
• Photoplay Patterened Paper

This was a really fun card to make and I'm looking forward to sending it out for the 4th this year. I even stamped the matching envelope too.

I hope you can get in on the fun and play along with these challenges too! Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

Stamps from a Sweet Son

David and the stamp set.

When my son was home this past winter, he went up to a local thrift store. He didn’t find what he was looking for, but he saw this stamp set and picked it up for me. I thought it was so so sweet of him to think of me like that. I told him I wanted to take a picture of him and the stamp set and put it on my blog, so here it is.

The stamp set, called Nice & Easy Notes, was made by Stampin' Up! in 1996 - the year he was born! I have been buying from then since the early 2000's, so this was an old one even for me.  But just because it’s older, doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of life left in it. Below I’ve made a few cards from this and plan to make a lot more.

Three cards I made with this set.

One thing that I had forgotten about is just how much work it was to "assemble" these sets. For those who are newer to stamping, you may not know that back in the day we had to trim the red rubber from around the edges, peel the sticker paper off the back of the stamp and attach it to a wooden block. Then we had to peel the image off and attach it to the front of the wooden block. Positioning it was often difficult. Boy do I feel old and boy do I have an appreciation for today's acrylic stamps!

This was our reality back in the day!

But getting this set has meant so much to me. Not only was it a trip down memory lane, but the sweetest part was that my son thought enough of my hobby to buy this for me. My heart is full.

I tried to keep the colors retro when making these cards too. I think that a young girl will like the look and I'll keep my eyes open for just the right people as I look around on the Angel Card Project.

I hope this post brings back some early stamping memories for you as well. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!