Gathering Moments Cards

I had a lot of fun using Stampin’ Up!’s Gathering Moments Dies for the first time. Because I enjoy cross stitching, these guys were perfect for me. The set contains two large leaves that can be used separately Or you can insert a smaller die and make little holes where the veins of the leaf would be. I did the ladder, and then used DMC embroidery floss to sew the veins on the leaves. It didn’t take long at all to do this, and I made all five cards in just a few hours. It was a lot of fun and I’m really glad I got this set. 

I think my favorite card from the set is this one on the top right. I’m going to be sending to my son for Thanksgiving. He’s way out in Colorado, way too far for me here in Florida. I think I’ll include some cookies and let him know how thankful I am for him! 

Creative Worship Giveaway at Word Art Wednesday!

Today's card is made using a wonderful sentiment from the "God is For You" Stamp Set from Creative Worship Stamps. This is a lovely set that includes six encouraging sayings and pairs perfectly with any stamps you may have on hand.

I'm using this set because over at Word Art Wednesday this round, we have a great giveaway from Creative Worship  Stamps. A random winner will be drawn for a great prize to their website where you can get this or many other wonderful Christian stamps! We also have a lovely scripture below, that you can use as well. It's absolutely perfect for a last-minute Thanksgiving card! However it's never necessary to use it, and our theme is always "anything goes."

Here's my complete supply list:

• Creative Worship God Is For You Stamp Set
  
• Stampin' Up! Petal Potpourri (flowers)
• SU! To A Wild Rose (middle of flowers)
• SU! Gently Falling (leaves)
• SU! Berry Burst Ink & Card Stock
• SU! Fresh Freesia Ink & Card Stock
• SU! Bubble Bath Ink & Card Stock
• SU! Soft Suede Ink & Card Stock
• SU! Pear Pizzazz Ink
• Misc. Wood Grain Patterned Paper
• Pink Taffeta Stickles

We would love it if you joined us this round over at Word Art Wednesday! And thanks so much for stopping by my little blog today!

6 x 6 Inspiration

Today’s two cards were made by starting with a 6 x 6 sheet of paper. It had a wreath on it, but I felt that it would be too big for a card by itself. So I cut the wreath in half and used half of a wreath on each of these two cards.

I then grabbed my sweet birthday wishes, stamps and dies from Pink and Main make the sentiments.

One is a birthday card that doesn’t look too Christmasy, but the other one with the red ribbon looked too Christmasy so I decided to make that a holiday card. I already had the word sweet die cut on there, so I grabbed another stamp set and used the wording from that to make the Christmas card.

The ombre circle on the left card is there because after mounting the paper, I noticed that the perforated line was still visible. I thought it looked tacky and I needed to cover it up.

And the enamel stars on the right hand card are there because, after mounting the wreath paper there, I noticed a smudge of ink. I needed to cover that up, and the stars worked perfectly. I think it looks like they are attached to the wreath.

It’s always fun when we make mistakes and the finished product ends up looking better than we had it intended if the mistakes hadn’t been there!

I’m grateful to have such a wonderful supply of Stampin’ Up!  up card stock. For this I used Shaded Spruce and Blushing Bride. It seems like no matter what color patterned paper I have on hand, they always have a color to match.

It feels really good to take just a few scraps of things and make really sweet cards. Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope this was an inspiration to you!

In Memory of the Penny

Yesterday,  November 12, 2025 was a very special day for me. First of all, it was our 31st wedding anniversary! It's really hard to believe how quickly time has flown by. 

And, the last penny was minted in Philadelphia yesterday too. Wow do I feel old! 

Pennies were much a part of my childhood. I remember penny candy. It was at the bottom of the candy aisle in places like 7-11. The little bins filled with Bazooka gum and Tootsie Rolls were such a treat after school. You felt like a queen buying handfuls of sweets in such great variety.

Another memory of pennies is sorting through them looking for wheat pennies. I think at the time they were worth 2 cents, and we felt rich if we had a handful of them, even if we never turned them in anywhere.

I also remember playing an ice-breaker game with pennies at a church small group. A bunch of pennies were placed on the table and we each grabbed one. We checked the year that was stamped on it and told what we were doing that year. I suppose you could do it with any coin, but Pennie’s just seem special.

And how about those old machines that were frequently seen at tourist attractions, the ones where, for a quarter and a penny have your penny pressed into an oval disc that portrayed an image of the place? So fun!

So today I stamped a label and adhered it to a Dollar Tree jar. It's my goal to fill it with pennies just for the memories. I only have four in there, but the oldest one is from 1974. It's been in circulation for over 50 years! I love to think of all the places it's been and the things it's paid for. And when my small jar is full, that will be it. The memories, even if unknown, will be in a sort of resting place. As with everything, life changes, but I'm glad to have a little memorial to something that I was blessed to have a part of in my life.

Wonderfall Beautiful Day!

Today’s card is one that I’ve made from one of my favorite stamping sets. It doesn’t come with dies, but I really enjoy fussy cutting, especially these easy pieces.

I really love autumn cards because they’re great for guys or girls. In fact, I think that I may send this one to one of the guys at the angel card project.

Making the matching envelope was fun too. The trick for me is to remember to stamp on the envelope before I put away all of my stamps and inks, which is frequently a challenge!

Here’s my complete supply list:

• Stampin’ Up! Wonderfall Stamp Set
• Stampin' Up! Beautiful Autumn (sentiment)
• Memento Inks
• Misc. Patterned Paper
• SU! Crumb Cake Card Stock
• Nuvo Pearl Drops

I hope you have a few falling leaves wherever you are, and may you have a beautiful day!

Word Power Birthday Cards

Today's card is a pastel-bright card that I'm entering over at Word Power Challenge for November 2025. 

I'm working on going through all my supplies and analyzing each stamp set to see if I want to still hang on to it. Perhaps like many of us, I buy a stamp set and think I like it but then really don't. Or maybe it has just run it's course in my crafty life. So I make a card with it one last time then decide to keep or donate.

This set was what I grabbed first, and I'm happy to say it passed the test. It's an oldie but one that is so versatile for birthday cards. I actually made two of these since I had enough gold paper with sticker paper on the back to make two "celebrate" sentiments.

Here's my complete supply list:

• Stampin' Up! Amazing You Stamp Set
• SU! Celebrate You Dies
• SU! Flirty Flamingo Card Stock & Ink
• SU! Faceted Gem Dots
• White Card Stock (Michaels)
• First Edition Let's Celebrate Patterned Paper
• Anna Griffin Gold & Cream Paper
• Paper-Papers Glitter Card Stock
• Misc. Gold Ribbon
• Dollar Store White Butterflies
• Gold Stickles (on the butterflies)

These cards are both 5 x 7 to give lots of room for all the fun stuff. I'm really glad to have made them and am excited about keeping both the stamps and dies. They're great for masculine cards too, which is always a challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to check out Word Power's Challenge Blog. So fun!

Seth Apter Inspired November Pillow

This time over at Word Art Wednesday we have a wonderful giveaway from Seth Apter! He's an amazing designer with so many products from wonderful card making supplies to spectacular fabrics. I was inspired to create this pillow because of this fabric.

Sewing was my first hobby in life. When I was 10 years old I used what little fabric I could find, and my grandmother's sewing machine, to make little things. I loved the idea of taking virtually nothing and turning it into something pretty. By the time I was 15, I had a job at Cloth World and was using patterns to sew real clothes.

One of the few photos I have from my early sewing days. I'm on
the left in a dress I made when working at Cloth World.

Today I don't sew as much, but when I went to Seth Apter's website, I was so intrigued by the wonderful array of fabrics that he designs. I chose one that inspired me this fall, then found a cross stitch pattern to go along with it.

I then chose the colors of DMC floss based on the colors of the fabric. Here they are: 

It's really easy to order any of his fabrics at his online store, but I am fortunate to live near Whim-So-Doodle, a quilting store in St. Petersburg that carries his whole line. Both places sell his fabric at really reasonable prices. And what I love about it is that it's so soft and tightly woven. Such good quality! It took just 1/2 a yard to complete this project.

LEFT: Whim-So-Doodle carries dozens of Seth's fabrics. RIGHT: Getting the fabric cut
with a view of so many of their amazing, bright fabrics. Their shop in incredible!

The Box & Fox pattern I chose for the cross stitch was on sale for just $1.80 for a digital download in their Etsy shop. I love using those because I can really make the pattern quite large on my iPad. You can find it HERE, although the price may be different. 

If you do look at this pattern, you'll notice that in addition to using different colors of thread, I also kept each image to just one or two colors. Her pattern has several colors in each leaf, but because I was in a hurry to finish this project I didn't have time for that!

As for the pillow itself, I upcycled a pillow that I had on my couch. It was one that I got for free in a bedspread set. I didn't really care for it, but kept it anyway and I'm glad I did. It was perfect for this project.

Before and after for the small pillow. Definitely an improvement!

The finishing touch is the buttons, which came from my vintage button jar. They're genuine mother-of-pearl that have been sitting for most likely decades. I love using things like that because, although they are inanimate objects, they've finally come full circle and I'd like to think that they're happy to finally be on display!

My beloved vintage button jar, and the buttons I used for this project.

So that's it for my pillow post. I loved exploring the world of Seth Apter, and we're super grateful to him for sponsoring our challenge this time around. However, our challenges are always "anything goes" and we'd love to have you come over and play along with us!

If you're looking for some inspiration, here if the featured Bible verse that you're welcome to use. I absolutely love the fonts that this one is written in!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!

Thankful for Phyllis

Today’s card was made for three different challenges, but also for a wonderful woman named Phyllis. She is a sweet woman from my church who frequently brings me craft supplies that she no longer needs. She’s an amazing quilter, and always an inspiration to me. Today she brought me a nice little assortment of things that I will certainly use in my crafting. So when I saw these three challenges, I thought it would be a perfect time to make her a card that says “thankful for you” and these three challenges helped me do just that. 

First, over at The Paper Players Challenge #PP762 LeAnne has a theme of "Thankful For You." Then over at Rock, Paper, Scissors Challenge #10 you just have to use paper and scissors and at Color Hues Challenge #121 you can only use Orange and Brown with neutrals being allowed as well. 

Here are my paper and scissors!

Here's my supply list:

Stampin' Up! Gathering Moments Stamp Set

SU! Early Espresso Card Stock & Ink

SU! Pumpkin Pie Ink

SU! Tangerine Tango Ink

SU! Sahara Sand Ink

Memento Rich Cocoa Ink

Memento Potters Clay Ink

Misc. Patterned Paper (Double Sided)

Speckletone True White Card Stock

And lastly I'd like to send out a big thanks to everyone who works so hard putting together all these challenges! It's always fun to play along. Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Thankful Cross Stitch

Here’s one of my latest cross stitch finishes for this year. I. found the pattern HERE on Etsy. I fell in love with it because of all the different colors of fall that were in it. It also looked fairly easy to stitch. It was, but I did make one mistake when stitching the leaves of the tree. I had to do some pulling out of stitches, but was able to easily get back on track. When I started to first stitch this, it didn’t seem like there was as much variation in the leaves as I thought there would be. They all seem to be almost the same, or at least similar in color. But after I finished and stood back and looked at it, I could see the differences.

To frame the piece, I found a used picture that I found at the Salvation Army that I was able to pick up for just a couple dollars. I threw the picture and glass out, cleaned up the frame, and it fit perfectly. I really like being able to upcycle things. It’s so easy for old frames to be just thrown away, when they really have a lot of life left in them. When shopping for used frames, I don’t look just for empty frames, but for framed pieces of art as well.

Once I found a frame and took out the artwork, I was able to lay the frame over top of my stitching to see how it would fit. To make it seem more complete, I marked off the stitches and then added a brown border. I think this looks good especially on frames that are a little bit too big for the stitching. I’m really happy with how this project turned out!

This was how the original frame looked on the left, and on the right after it was all cleaned up.