Speedy Recovery

Hi, everyone! This week's Color Challenge over at Splitcoast helped me to create a get well card for my niece who had surgery today to repair a torn ACL....ouch! The sentiment is from 'Get Well Wishes', the card base was stamped with the Gingham Background stamp and the aster was cut out with the ODBD Custom Asters and Leaves Dies set. Since I didn't have matching embellishments, two strips of poppy cardstock were added at the top of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a blessed weekend!

Get Well Wishes

Hi, everyone!  This week's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast is Jenny Hall aka JennyStampsUp....congrats, Jenny!!  What an amazing gallery!  I chose this gorgeous CAS design to case today.  A scripture verse from 'Get Well Wishes' (available August 1st) was stamped onto a tag cut with the ODBD Custom Tag Trios Dies, popped up over a panel cut from a floral design from the ODBD Romantic Roses Paper Collection using the largest die from the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Rectangles Dies set.  The flower spray was cut with the ODBD Custom Bitty Blossoms Dies set.  A perfect length of sheer ribbon was found in my misc ribbon bucket to tie through the tag...yay!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Happiness Always

Hi, everyone!  This week's Color Challenge over at Splitcoast forced me to dust off one of my 'oldie but goodie' stamp sets from Stampin Up which hasn't been used in years, 'Sun Ripened'.  I was lucky enough to have a Berry Burst marker, but had to use Lucky Limeade for the leaves.  The raspberry image was stamped in Stazon Jet Black, then colored both with markers and watercolor.  A craft knife and paper snips were used to fussy cut the image before popping it up with foam tape over the Smoky Slate card base which was scored with a Scor-buddy.  The sentiment is from another older SU set, called 'Happy Harmony'.  I chose not to add embellishments so that it would stay very CAS.  I will also be submitting this card to the Less Is More 'Stripes' Challenge due to the multiple score lines.

Thanks for visiting today!

Blessings,

Dump Truck Birthday

Happy Monday, everyone!  The Clean and Simple Challenge over at Splitcoast this week is incorporate plaid in your CAS card.  I love plaid so this challenge was very fun!!  I chose a fun plaid pattern from the ODBD Birthday Brights Paper Collection and used the coordinating yellow and red sheets from the same collection to paper piece the dump truck.  All of the stamps are from 'Dump Truck Birthday' from North Coast Creations.  The truck was stamped on white, red, and yellow, then the pieces were cut apart and adhered together.  The plaid frame was cut out using two dies from the ODBD Custom Pierced Squares Dies set.  Other than fussy cutting the truck pieces three times, this was a very simple card to make.  The edges of the card base were sponged for a little added dimension.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a blessed week!!

Live In The Sunshine

Hi, everyone!  This week's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast is Jill aka JD from PAUSA....congrats, Jill!!  I have been a fan of Jill's work for many years.....after cruising through her awesome gallery, I finally decided on this amazing card since I'm a sucker for sunsets and silhouettes!  For my card, I have used 'The Outpost' set from Artistic Outpost.  I will also be submitting this card to Stacy's 'Tank of Gas' Getaway VSN Challenge since this country scene reminds me of Young's Dairy in Ohio which is a little over 2 hours away.....I have made it there and back on one tank (depending on the vehicle!).  Since this stamp was not a full silhouette, I sponged dark gray and green to shadow the scene against the sunrise/sunset. The sky was also sponged, with yellow, orange, and red.  To keep it flat for mailing, I used a small hole punch to create 'faux brads' for the black layer.  The edges of the card base were sponged for a little dimension.

Thanks for visiting!

Blessings,

Monarch Butterfly Prayers

Happy Saturday, everyone!  This week's Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast is to find inspiration from the many postage stamp sheets from the US Mint Sheets site.  Even after I chose these beautiful Monarch Butterfly stamps, I continued looking until I had seen every page....they were very interesting to me, even though I'm not a stamp enthusiast!  For my card, I have also combined Brenda's 'Get Well' VSN Challenge.  I was too lazy to stamp an entire sheet of butterflies, so I went with a simpler, CAS version.  The butterfly was stamped with the 'Trois Jolies Papillons' set, cut out with the ODBD Custom Tres Papillons Dies set, colored and popped up over a panel which was stamped with the Chalkboard Vine Background stamp in light green and then trimmed with a pair of postage edged scissors which I have had in my tool bin forevah!! :)  Instead of  a 'get well' stamp, I chose the Praying for You stamp from the Ornate Borders Sentiments set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Have a blessed weekend!!

My Lifeguard

Happy Friday, everyone!  Today I would like to share a bookmark which was made to cover three challenges over at Splitcoast: the Friday Free4All Challenge is to use Crumb Cake (kraft); Jean's VSN 'Scavenger Hunt' Challenge : bookmark, beach, lifesaver (Jesus); and the Fan Club July 'Sun, Sand, and Surf' Central Theme Challenge.  The image and sentiment are from an ODBD set called 'My Lifeguard', stamped on a white panel which was cut out with the largest die from the ODBD Custom Bookmarks Dies set.  Once the panel was colored with sponges and markers, it was adhered to a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock....the curves were fussy cut and the straight lines trimmed with a paper cutter.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Have a blessed weekend!

The Great Outdoors

Hi, everyone!  For my card today, I am combining the Ways To Use It 'Happy Camper' Challenge with Michelle's VSN 'Great Outdoors' Challenge.  The stamps are from the $1 bin from either JoAnn's or Michael's from at least five or six years ago....I'm happy to finally use them today! Since the tent and the fire stamps were the same size, I layered two strips of green cardstock after sponging the edges to make the tent look further away. The tent was stamped directly onto the background then again on white and colored with markers....since the tent image had tie-down stakes, I was not interested in trying to fussy cut the thin lines.  Once the 2nd tent was colored, it was cut out and popped up over the stamped background.  The moon from 'Rocket Man' by North Coast Creations was stamped and sponged in gray, then the sentiment from the $1 set was stamped over it.  Three tiny sequin stars were adhered to the night sky and then some dots were added with a glitter pen.

Thanks for visiting!

Blessings,

Rock On!

Hi, everyone!  My card today combines the Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoast plus Melody's VSN challenge to use an old book page or image of a book.  I scanned the glossary page of a 1926 Song Book and printed it out. the sentiment banner and brown stars were cut from the margin of the same page.  The stamps are from an ODBD set, 'Rock Star' (retired); the image was stamped in Stazon Jet Black, then water-colored.  The following custom dies from ODBD were used: Double Stitched Rectangles, Double Stitched Stars, Sparkling Stars, and Double Stitched Pennant Flags.  I love the natural aged tone from the page but the edges of each panel were sponged a bit for a little more character. This card will go into my birthday stash for later use.

Thanks for visiting!

Blessings,

Summertime Cocktail

Hi, everyone! What a happy, summer-y Color Challenge at Splitcoast this week...pineapple, coral, and pear....yummy! For my card today, I have combined the Color Challenge, Misti's 'Pool Party' VSN challenge, and the July Fan Club Central Theme Challenge since I used watercoloring on the summertime cocktail image.  The image has been in my stash for at least five years....it's from Inkadinkado and I picked it up either at JoAnn's or Michael's.  The image was stamped in Stazon Jet Black; a clear glaze pen was used on the clear parts of the glass and the air bubbles to act as a resist against the watercoloring.  The shaped card and layers were cut out with the ODBD Custom Large Banners Dies and the image panel was cut with the ODBD Custom Pierced Circles Dies and sponged with yellow. Baker's twine and three green gems were added for simple embellishments. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Grillin'

Hi, everyone!  My card today has combined this week's Clean and Simple 'Embossed Dies' Challenge plus Kim's VSN challenge to 'Fire Up The Grill'.  The sentiment flag and grill image are from a $1 Studio G clear set which I picked up either at JoAnn's or Michael's a couple of years ago.  I used the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Circles Dies set for the die embossing technique and for the image panel.  (The largest circle was embossed on the inside of the card base so that the stitches would be raised on the front.)  The grass was first cut with the ODBD Custom Grass Lawn Die, then shaped with the same stitched circle die.  The sky was sponged in Bashful Blue over a piece of scratch paper then two small clouds were added.  The flag pole was cut with a stir stick/straw die from the ODBD Custom Beverage Cup Dies set.  I needed small clouds, so I used Memory Box dies instead of my go-to clouds from ODBD.  The edges of the card were sponged to give a little character.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

A Time To Mend

Hi, everyone!  This quick card was made for Dawn's 'Crafty Sentiment' Challenge for the July VSN (Virtual Stamp Night).  The sewing machine image from 'A Time To Mend' was inked in navy blue and stamped onto a white panel which was cut out with the ODBD Custom Layered Lacey Squares Dies set, stenciled in gray, then matted with a gray panel cut out with the ODBD Custom Pierced Squares Dies.  The navy blue layer is the largest die from the same Lacey set as the image panel.  The button was cut out with the ODBD Custom Sewing Set Dies set with navy baker's twine.

Thanks for stopping by again!

Blessings,

You Are So Cool!

Hi, everyone!  It's been a couple of days since I was able to stamp, so I have a lot of catching up to do.  Splitcoast held a 'Virtual Stamp Night' event Friday night and all day Saturday, so you will see many cards from me this week as I complete at least some of the challenges and post the photos by next Sunday's deadline.  Though each VSN challenge must be submitted separately, we are allowed to combine them with the daily Splitcoast challenges.  For this card I have combined Misti's 'Ice Cream Social' challenge with this week's Featured Stamper challenge.  This week's chosen artist is Selma Stevenson....wow, what an amazing gallery!!  Since the VSN cards should only take an hour to create, I chose this super cute card from Selma's gallery and changed the cupcake to an ice cream cone.  The layout design was kept the same except that I used a polka dot design from the NCC Sweet Shoppe Paper Collection;  instead of stars around the image, I used sprinkles and both Selma's cupcake and my ice cream cone have a cherry on top and a sentiment at the bottom.  The ice cream image and sentiment banner are from 'What's The Scoop?'; the cherry and sprinkles are from the ODBD Custom Beverage Cup Dies set and the framing was cut with the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Rectangles Dies set. 

Thanks for visiting!  Stay tuned for more posts!

Blessings,

Sunflower Simplicity

Hi, everyone!  Today's Ways To Use It Challenge over at Splitcoast is based on 'National Simplicity Day' which is held in honor of Henry David Thoreau's birthday.  For my card, I have used a retired set from Our Daily Bread designs, called 'Dreams' since it includes a fantastic quote from Henry David Thoreau.  This was a very quick card to make.....three squares were cut with the ODBD Custom Pierced Squares Dies out of a musical pattern from the ODBD 'Follow The Son' Paper Collection, then the quote stamp was stamped in espresso brown in the empty quadrant.  Score lines were added at the top and bottom of the vanilla card base.  Since there is both music and score lines on my card, I will also be submitting this to the Fan Club Central Theme for June.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

The Highest Mountain

Hi, everyone!  It's another fun Sketch Challenge at Splitcoast this week. Instead of adding layers for the two vertical strips, I used a craft knife and cut the strips from the card base and tucked the other layers underneath. The image from 'Keep Climbing' was stamped in kraft on a panel cut with the ODBD Custom Squares Dies, matted in black with the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Squares Dies.  The quote is from the 'Mountains' coordinating set.  The background panel, cut out with the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Rectangles Dies was stamped in kraft with the 'Birch Background' stamp.  Before adhering the square panel, some holes were paper pierced in the corners and linen thread was stitched through with a needle to coordinate with the linen thread tied through the eyelets.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

On Angels Wings

Hi, everyone!  This week's Color Challenge at Splitcoast is so soft and beautiful, so I have used it to make a sympathy card.  The background image from 'Belles Vignes' was embossed in white on white cardstock, then pink, lavender, and light blue inks were sponged (embossing resist technique).  The angel wings image from 'Holy Angels' was inked in light blue then edged with a lavender marker before stamping onto white cardstock (the thumping technique).  The wings were fussy cut and popped up with foam tape on each side of a layered flower cut out with the ODBD Custom Bitty Blossoms Dies set.  The sentiment from 'Carried To Heaven' was stamped in lavender to match the sponging and the panel was cut out with the ODBD Custom Pierced Rectangles Dies.  The only embellishments added were baby blue pearls.

Thanks so much for visiting with me today!

Blessings,

Tropical Smile

Happy Monday, everyone!  This week's Clean and Simple Challenge over at Splitcoast is to create something tropical.  Since the 'Less is More' Challenge Blog theme is to use tangerine and olive, I decided to create an orange hibiscus card so that I could submit to both.  The following dies from ODBD were used to create this quick card: Inspiration Words, Hibiscus, and Tropical Leaves.  The white card base was scored with my Scor-buddy.  Since I used scoring, I will also submit to the Fan Club Central Theme challenge for July.

Thanks for visiting today!

Have a blessed week!

Cling Wrap Sunset

Hi, everyone!  This week's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast is Mary aka redi2stamp...congrats, Mary!  For my card, I chose to case the layered layout from this beautiful silhouette card from Mary's gallery and have combined this challenge with this week's Friday Free4All Challenge and the Inspiration Challenge.  The Friday Free4All Challenge was to use cling wrap techniques and though I did not stamp on Friday, I couldn't get cling wrap off of my mind.  When I saw this gorgeous pink and orange table setting on 'A Beautiful Mess' on Saturday, I decided that I would use these colors with some cling wrap to 'stamp' a background!  For my card, a piece of cling wrap was crumpled up and used to dab tangerine and melon ink onto white cardstock.  the panel was cut with the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Rounded Rectangles Dies and the shaped card base was cut with the ODBD Custom Rounded Rectangles Dies.  An oval was cut out from the inked panel with the ODBD Custom Double Stitched Ovals Dies, then the large silhouette from 'Bon Voyage' was stamped in black and a partial circle was sponged for the sunset.  (A black journal pen was used to color in the stitches at the bottom.) Instead of a sentiment panel like Mary's card, I cut the 'Dream' sentiment three times from the ODBD Custom Inspiration Words Dies set and layered them at the bottom. The top looked a bit bare so I added some tangerine ribbon.

Thanks for visiting!!

Blessings,

Love and Hugs

Hi, everyone!  This week's Inspiration Challenge is to find inspiration from 'A Beautiful Mess'.....I was mesmerized by the colors in these DIY soaps so I used light green and blue inks with the Ink Spray and Smash Technique with plain white cardstock.  I didn't over-saturate with the colors so that there would be some white areas showing through...I am happy as a clam that it came out so well (even though I realized after the fact that I used the wrong shade of blue!)  I've been dying to do an inlaid die-cut design;  here are the steps from start to finish: once the inked panel was dry, it was cut with the ODBD Custom Quilted Background Die (plus another Quilt was cut from white to create the frame.) A cardstock panel was cut the same size as the frame and ran through my Xyron to make a sticker panel for adhering the frame and inked pieces together easily.  Once the quilt was finished, a heart was cut out from the quilt panel using the ODBD Custom Pierced Heart Die.  A light green heart was cut, inset and taped in place on the back side, then the 'hugs' die from the 'Hugs' Stamp/Die Duos set was cut out from the panel.  (Note: if you try this technique with a word die, be mindful of all of the tiny die-cut pieces you will need to save to insert back into the background.)  The 'hugs' was cut again from blue, stenciled, and inserted back into the panel, along with the little inside pieces from the first hugs cut from the quilt and heart. To keep the design simple, the only embellishments were three tiny hearts cut out with the ODBD Custom Clouds and Raindrops Dies set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Birthday Balloons

Hi, everyone!  It's another fun Sketch Challenge this week at Splitcoast, so I couldn't resist!  Instead of three rectangular panels, I chose these cute oblong balloons which were cut out with the ODBD Custom Birthday Balloons Dies set.  Since today is July 4th, I chose a fun red, white, and blue pattern from the ODBD 'Americana Quilt' Paper Collection and cut it with the ODBD Custom Leafy Edged Borders Dies set.  The tiny stars are from the ODBD Custom Sparkling Stars Dies set and the layered word die cut is from the ODBD Custom Celebrate and Wish Dies set.  I will put this card in my birthday card stash since I have a nephew who will be three later this year. 

Thanks for stopping by today!!

God bless!!