Lovely Peony

 Last week one of my high school friends finally turned the BIG 60 ... yes, my day is coming soon .... not looking forward to it.  Well I made her a card and a Purse of Blessings but I did not take pictures of it.  It came out really nice so I thought I would try and recreate the card but this one is not as nice as the original .... oh well. 

I used TAC's new set Lovely Peony and the current Hostess set Thinking of You.  I scored part of the background with the Scor-Buddy on the off-set diagonal in sets of 3 lines every 1/8" spaced 3/4" apart.  I really like this look.  It is colored with my Copic markers and then I added my Spica Glitter pens for accent.  It is not matted on pink paper .... instead I like to edge cards with the chisel end of a Copic marker.  I put it on scrap paper and the with a very heavy hand go around the edges so it matches the coloring perfectly. If you push hard while you go around the edges of the card it keep you going straight or follows the edge of the cut paper.  I was on a roll last week so I made a few more floral cards and will post them later this week.

I got a few new ideas for projects to make for my craft shows last night so I am excited to try them out this week .... but I need to make up more staples first ... WWW books and Pocketed Books since I sold so many last weekend. I really want to take a count and see how many I sold last weekend so I should put that on my to do list. So I better get down to the table and get crafting ... such a fun life I lead!  I am going out for dinner with a good friend tonight too so it sounds like a great day.

Bag of Wishes!

This year for my craft shows I am making Bags of Wishes to sell. I will be showing you a few of them in the next few posts. I made 8 cards with stamped envelops, all blank inside, of 2 designs of each and wrapped them like the picture. I will stand these up with my stamped cubes of paper which are another good seller of mine to display. I used three basic elements in each card:

• scored background using the Scor-pal and Scor-bug
  
• die cuts using the Cricut Expression and Gypsy
  
• stamps from The Angel Company

In the top two I used the stamp sets 'Curls and Swirls' and Creative 'Impressions'


In the above two sets of cards I used 'Ordinary Greetings', 'With Sympathy, and 'Build a Background' stamp sets
In these two I used 'Label Lingo', 'Curls and Swirls, and 'With Sympathy. So if you are looking for ideas for quick and fast card making these are your answer!! I will be posting more examples of them later. Have a great weekend! Blessings

Sea Critters #1

This month's Stamp of the month is called Sea Critters and is a great set for summer time cards and scrapbook pages! It is $9.75 with a $30 order until June 23, this is the last day I will be able to send in orders with this catalogue. For the top one I made a background using the shells from the set and Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, and Burnt Sienna inks on cream cardstock. Then on craft cardstock I stamped the seahorse and colored it with my watercolor pencils and Dove blender. I added some brown card stock and tan Stamper's Floss. The bottom card is a monochromatic card using our Blue tones Monochromatic cardstocks and light blue stampers floss. It is a quick and easy layered card. You could have any message put on either of them. I used the set Ordinary Greetings for both of them.

This past weekend I had my annual sale for my used stamps and some new sets at my home and then at Rubber Stamping Studio. It was great seeing many of you again that I have not seen in a while and catching up. I had a wonderful time at both events. Yesterday I spent some time getting my patio cleaned and put together so I can sit out and visit with nature more. It has been so cold here I haven't had time until now. If the weather is good on Weds, I will be at the Farm parks selling my cards and paper arts. Hope you will be able to stop in and see me! Have a wonderful week. Blessings

Beautiful Friendships

I love this set called 'Beautiful Friendships' from the Spring into May special with The Angel Company. It is only $10.50 with a $30 until the end of the month. It has a modern look with the polka dots but yet is realistic with the animals, and the words in the set are great too. I was playing with it the other day and here are a few of the things I made with it. I give a free gift card with all of my orders on Etsy and I needed a few more. So I made these with scrapes of 2 x 4" cardstock, my Scor pal, which is my best friend, and a few other stamps. I hope my customers will enjoy them.
In this next card I did some detailed scoring with my Scor-Pal on the top only of the card and then stamped the flower at the bottom from 'Fleur Birdies' in nude ink. And who said that ovals do not fit into circles .. I think it looks kinda nice on the top of the card with the birds. Do you?
For this one I used the 'Script' background stamp with the nude ink for the back of the card. Then added a scrape of Amberly Grace SWIC with a ribbon. I then stamped the deer in the nude ink and the words in Burnt Umber over top on the scalloped punched circle. I added more detail with edging the cards and circle with the nude ink.


And for the last one I used the words only from this set in the smaller punched circle with Noir ink. I added the flower again with the black ink at the bottom. Did I tell you all of these cards were made from left overs I had laying on my table? I love to create that way .... it really makes me get out of my box. Now you should try it too! Hope you are having a great weekend. Blessings

Stamp-a-Stack #3

Happy Mother's Day to all!! Call or see your mom today and tell them how much you love her ... you never know when the last time you will be able to do it again. Be a blessing to her today!This is another card from my SAS last weekend. I designed this one first and loved it. I was going for the present or hatbox look with this card. Did I fget it??? It is a simple and easy card to make with very few supplies. I used the Scor-pal to create the striped look on the bottom, by scoring every half inch and then sanding to make the scored lines pop. The rough side or right side of the orange Matchmakers cardstock is on the inside of this card. I used the set 'Playful Parenthesis" stamped on the top and then dirty stamped on the inside. The words are from the set 'You are' and are stamped in Noir. I added a glitter gel pen for some sparkle, scalloped edge and a white bow. OH ... don't forget to stamp the envelope ... you do not want to send out any naked envelopes!! The bottom picture show the inside of the card.Mom, I am thinking of you today and I am thankful for all of your love and nurturing ways. Being a mother now, I see how hard your job was and how great you were at it even though I did not see it then. Thank you for all you did for me. Blessings

Stamp-a-Stack #1

We had a really nice day on Saturday at my annual Spring Stamp-a-Stack. I created 10 card designs and then you can make 10, 20 or 30 of these all occasion cards in one day. I wanted to share a few of my designs here this week.


This one, I think, was every one's favorite!! It is one of my favorite sets from TAC called, 'Beautiful Day'. I used the Scor-pal to make a gate card on Matchmakers white core paper. It is so easy .... just line the card up on the left fence and score at the two dots! Now how easy is that. It meets perfectly in the center of the card when folded every time! Then on the inside front of the card I put the crease from the gate card on 3 5/8", which is the first arrow, and scored at the 4, 4 1/4 and 4 1/2" lines. I did this on both sides and then sanded it from the front side to make the lines pop. I added stamped flowers from the set, colored with watercolor crayons and mounted them on pink Matchmaker paper. Then we glued the top and bottom one on the left side of the card and the middle one on the right to make the cute closing.

On the inside we stamped the birds at the bottom and colored them with watercolor crayons also. I love all of the words from this set and how you can stamp the accent word in a different color so easily! I added grass to them by using little lines of two or three colors of green under them. The words on the front and the back are stamped in Burnt Umber with the scripted word in Claret for accent. Sorry the last picture is a little blurry.

Thanks for stopping by and Be blessed today!!

New download on TAC website

The Angel Company posted a new FREE download sheet that matches our Angelee & Natalee papers. They are a sheet of tags that coordinate with our punches. Isn't that a great idea!!! Check all of the free downloads out here.

I used my Scor-pal and made some textured backgrounds on a cream card stock and added some scrapes of paper that were in my scrape basket to make all five of these cards in less than 30 minutes. I used the same stamp from 'Heartfelt', a Level B hostess set for all of them and added ribbon and embellishements. So what do you think??? I think they look pretty classy and wow were they easy!

I like the words on this one. I used two of the tags on the card above. Remember you can click on the picture to see them better.
There are two tags on this one also. I added a button with a ribbon through it for embellishments on this one and check out the envelope ... I love to send stamped envelopes. They really can cheer people up when they see them!! So much better than getting bills in the mail.


I do think this square and long rectangular tags are my favorite!! I cut the third tag with 'smile' on it in half to add to this card also. So basically this is three FREE tags and a ribbon. Love it!!

For this last one, I am not sure you can see it in the picture but the front of the card is cut off and the tag is mounted on other paper at the top. The solid purple paper is really on the inside of the card.

So what are you waiting for ... go get your download sheet now and start creating! Be a blessing to someone today!

Spring into April

The Angel Company is having three different months of savings on new stamp sets! You can get all of the three new sets each month at a discounted price with a $30 order during Spring into April. The sets are great too! Here are a few samples I made with my Spring into April sets. On all three cards I used my Scor-Pal. How did I create before I got this fabulous tool???? I use it on almost every project I make any more. Notice the embossed lines in the background on all of them, this is my favorite thing to do. Make unusual embossed backgrounds for my cards and then put the images and papers on top. It makes them look so much more professional.

The top left card is very simple but I think elegant with the scored background, cut out image colored with colored pencils, black script words and a simple ribbon. I used Forever Friend . This is a classic set with beautiful script words and two bouquets of flowers

I love the new cupcake set, Sweet Thing, on the bottom left. I used four different colors from the same pattern paper from one of TAC's Designer Collections and scored a grid on the background for them. I used a new tool, the Zutter Round it all, to round the corners. I did all four at the same time! Isn't that cool. I love this tool for rounding corners of multiple papers at one time. It is really a time saver. Then I paper pieced the cupcake and added crystal Stickles on the frosting for accent. The background for the cupcake is three punched scalloped squares. I used our new Tombow white gel pen to highlight the black scallops and the black Slick Writer marker to highlight the white. I love the accents.

And on the card at the right, I used Friends, which matches very well with the new Serendipity set, A kind of Gratitude. And these two sets match very closely to one of most favorite things, Vera Bradley Java Blue ... so I will be creating with these two sets in the future using those colors! I used a scrap of TAC's Cha Cha SWIC and punched two holes in it with my Crop-a-dile to add a black ribbon, colored and cut out the bird and used my Scor-pal for the embossed lines on the white and black paper. I used the new Tombow White gel pen to add stitching lines on the valleys of the embossed lines on the black.

Last week was such a busy week for me with so much on my plate, I am working to try and catch up this week. I promise to get my newsletter out soon and keep the blog up better this week. Have a great day and blessings to all!

Putting Pictures in your cards

A good friend of mine, Velda, has been taking pictures of nature and using them in her cards for a long time. I have always admired them and wanted to try it myself. I got a new camera that I can take pictures up really close and really far and have been having so much fun taking pictures this month. Today I had an opportunity to try my hand at making cards with them! I sent them to Snapfish to get developed and make them in 4 x 6 collage pictures with four pictures per collage. (I am going to try making them with 2 per picture next). This makes the pictures smaller and easier to put in mini books and cards. I have a wooded backyards with all of my little creatures playing all of the time. The squirrel on the first one is a regular picture and I used the Hostess Level A set Feel Good for the words. I really like how both the picture of the squirrel and the way the card came out. The second squirrel card is one of the collage pictures and I used a retired set for the caption. The paper is one the pages I had left over from a Woodrowe Album. It is double sided paper so I can pull up the corner to show a colored back side. The third card I used Reece SWIC as a background paper and a retired set for the words. I will post of few of the bird cards later. If you want to see the pictures closer, I will be adding these cards to my Etsy store for sale.

I am asking for prayers for my little baby, Gabby, my dog. She has been having some problems and had some tests done. She has a kidney stone that looked like the size of an egg in her bladder. She will have surgery this Wed. She is such a good dog and has been such a blessing to me. Please help me by praying for her and for a safe recovery. Thanks and blessings

True Beauty

These are beautiful stamps and will make some beautiful cards too! I couldn't wait to give them a try so I played with them before I left for a few cards I wanted to get in the mail before I left. I used the Glitter Gel pens to color and highlight them and I am very pleased on how they turned out. I just picked up a few scraps of thin stripes of paper I had left from other projects for accents with the color for the first one.

For the second one I use Playful Parenthesis also but turned it around so it looks like a shelf holding the image. On this one I stamped the butterfly a second time, colored it with Glitter Gel Pens and a black Gel and popped it on to of the image for a raised look. I sent this one to a very special person for their 60 th Birthday!

WOW!! Wait until I get home to show off Serendipity!!! TAC's new magalogue!! It is beautiful and has 47 new stamp sets, and new accessories. I will try and post a picture of it soon. I am so thrilled to be apart of TAC and all of the fun we have being angels. It is beautiful here ... warm with flowers blooming. What more could a girl ask for ... warm weather, great company, new stamp sets, and lots of fun!! Blessings

Corner Holder

Here is a great way to display your holiday cards! I folded up a corner to hold them standing for viewing! You can make multiples of these to put a line of cards on your mantel or table to add to the decorations for the holidays. Your friends put a lot of time into making your card and it a blessing to receive hand stamped cards .... so show them off!!

I personally have been saving my cards unopened so I can open them all on Christmas Eve as a reminder of all of the wonderful friends I have. I will be out of town for the holidays so they will be used as decoration there too.

Dual Corner Holder
Supplies: two 4 x 8” red card stock (making two)
white paper
bone folder, acrylics, adhesive
2 1/2” scalloped square punch
green colored pencil, stipple brush
red and crystal Stickles
Viridian Leaf pad
Holly Flourishes T-2938

1. Start with a rectangle 4” x 8”
2. Fold in half forming a 4” square and crease well
3. Fold in half again forming a 2 x 4” rectangle and crease well
4. Open it to the 4” square again. Fold in half in the other direction and crease well.
5. Open to the 4” square again. Fold one side’s corners to the middle fold and crease. Go just inside the folds on both sides so it will have room to fold again. Do this to all four of the loose corners.
6. Fold each of the triangle ends back on the fold again so the top point of each triangle is in the middle to the first fold. Do this on both sides. It will now be in a 2 x 4” rectangle.
7. Finally fold it so it is a 2” square corner. REPEAT STEPS #1-7 FOR THE SECOND ONE!
8. Punch out two white scalloped 2 1/2” square and cut them each in half diagonally.
9. Stamp the holly flourish on each with Viridian Leaf ink
10. Stipple the green ink on white triangle.
11. Color the leaves green
12. Glue them to the outer corners of the Dual Corner Holders so the diagonals are even
13. Apply red Stickles for the berry and the Crystal as highlights on the Leaves and flourishes.
14. Your cards, pages etc. will go in the folded pockets with the decoration!

Fun Gift Card holders

These is a really cute little project to put your gift cards in for the holidays. It will hold 3-5 git cards if you are giving a WONDERFUL gift this holiday season or just one for the economic mined gifters. I got the idea from a friend, Yuki, who designed it herself. I used my own creative mind to make the embellishments. It can also be used to carry your personal business cards. Here are some quick directions and then you can embellish them how ever you would like. I am selling these at Jenniffer & Co. on Mentor and on my Etsy store.

Supplies: 3 1/2 x 5 1/2“ cardstock for base
2 x 5” cardstock for flap
Scissors, acrylics, adhesive, Inks, stamps, bone folder
Score-Pal, Cutter, Red line or Scor-tape
1. Score the base cardstock at 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 3 3/4" and 4” down the longest side
2. Score along the shorter side at 1/4" and 1/2”
3. Cut off of bottom sides except for the center section
4. Crease all folds and fold to make a little pouch and adhere together with strong tape
5. Score the flap cardstock at 1 1/2 and 1 3/4” crease and fold
6. Place business cards or gift card in base to get the height you need. Then attach the smaller
section of the flap to the back of the base
7. Decorate you you would like.

For the flower, which I think looks like a poinsettia, I used a five pedal pointed punch. I punched out two red and one green. The red ones I scored down the center of each of the petals and then pinched them together. I attach them with mounting cushion off centered and then added a 1/2" punched gold circle of cardstock and added gold Stickles. For the leaves, I cut the flower into two petals each and then attached to the back of the flower.

I had a nice craft show yesterday but was really really tired! I have one more this fall unless I find another one I would like to participate in before the holidays. It's been a fun season but busy! Hope you all have a happy and restful Sunday. Blessings

Christmas Gift Card Holder

This week just flew by .. my computer crashed and I could not use it for a few days but then I had an angel come over and help me out! Thanks Dan! But I did not have my printer until last night and guess what .. I fixed that myself. YES ME!! Well, I had two wonderful large workshops this week, worked hard on making new items for my upcoming craft fairs, and got part of my craft room cleaned. Yes .. that really kept me busy.

Here is one of the projects I have been making. (This is the project I was making.) It really started as a mistake .. I cut the paper the wrong way after I had folded this project but then discovered it was really a good idea. See mistakes are good in paper crafting.
Here are some quick directions:

1. Start with a 6 x 12 piece of card stock
2. With your fabulous Scor-pal, score the longest side at 3", 6" and 9"
3. Score the shortest side at 2" for the pocket
4. Fold the 2" side up and use red line or Scor-tape on the ends to hold it securely
5. The fold on the other score lines like an accordion
6. I glued the middle two sections together, but you do not have to it can be open
7. Then decorate. The finished book is 3" x 4".
   

I used Holly Flourishes, my Big Shot and the Christmas die, ribbon, Stickles, colored pencils, mounting tape, Vintage Holidays (retired) and Fun Bet (retired). The 'for you' is from Trendy Holiday Tags. It is a stamp with two lines ... the the great thing about The Angel Company's stamps is that you can cut them and use them how ever you would like. So, I needed it to be one line, so I cut it. I can now use it either way. I made three IOU cards for the pockets and the other pocket can have a gift card put in or money, or if you want to give more gift cards, put all of the IOU's on one pocket. This came from ideas I heard from my last craft show from my gift card book that sold out. I hope to post more of these this week. Hope you like it! I will have some at my next few shows and will be selling them at Jenniffer & Co Salon also. Blessings

I'm back ......

Sorry again for not posting for so long. Again, I was so busy with getting our gathering ready etc. that I did not have any time left. Here is one of the projects we did at the gathering. I love the Sweet Skunks set!! This is a bookmark card that has part of the front cut away. Then the bottom of the card is a pocket so the bookmark can slip into it. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for all of the messages asking about me. I have been fine ... just busy! I will explain more in future posts.

Supplies: half sheet white cardstock
3 1/4 x 4” & 1 3/4 x 2 1/2” Uptown Girl WIC
bone folder, scissors, colored pencils, adhesive
Score Pal, cutter, Noir ink, GWP stamp
Linear Sentiments, Little Skunks & Be Still
1. Score the white cardstock at 4 1/4” and crease
2. Cut off the top 2” of the front of the card. SAVE this for bookmark!
3. Attach the 3 1/4 x 4” Uptown girl to the front at the bottom and
sides only, lining it up in the middle. It will form a pocket!!
4. Stamp leaf in the upper white corners & the bottom printed corners.
5. Stamp ‘Just Because’ at the bottom middle on the printed paper.
6. Stamp the line stamp, ‘we are friends’ at the top of the front flap on the white cardstock. It will really be on the inside of the card.
7. Stamp the line with the dots stamp on the top of the printed paper, which will be the top front of the card at the top of the pocket.
8. Stamp the skunk at the top of the white piece you cut off and color
9. Cut out close to the image at the top only, the rest will be the bookmark.
10. Stamp the words on the pink 1 3/4 x 2 1/2” piece with the leaves on the bottom
11. Attach the pink to the bottom of the bookmark at the top only! This will allow the book mark to slide over the page in a book.
12. Put the bookmark into the front pocket with the flap on the inside or the outside.
13. Apply Crystal Stickles to the image