Garden In Bloom Anniversary Cards

Hello there! This past week I finished up my birthday and anniversary cards for May. For the anniversary cards I wanted to use one of my retiring sets that I just hadn't used very much. I also used the retiring Marina Mist color for my cardstock and flowers. 

This is one of those sets that's not only very pretty, but it's pretty easy to use. It's a 2-Step set, with a hand sketched, watercolor kind of look to it. This means that the stamp that colors in the image doesn't perfectly line up with the outline, which makes stamping pretty easy since you don't have to be precise. 

Since I was making multiples of this card, I used my Stamparatus. Having the removable/flip-able plates made this go pretty quick. I was able to have the outline on one plate, the blue image on another plate, and the green on the back of that one. I did have to rearrange the stamps a couple of times on the plates as I used the flowers and leaves multiple times on each card front. I stamped all the card fronts with the flower in one spot, moved the flowers and then stamped all the card fronts again. I had to do this multiple times, but it was still much easier than making sure all my flowers were lined up each time. 

Not much time left to get this stamp set. I think it's a pretty versatile set as you can even do some more masculine themed cards by using the bumble bee in the set rather than the flowers. How about you? What set do you love that can be used for both feminine and masculine cards?

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

June's Suite Sampler Craft Kit

Hello there!

I am so excited to share with you June's Suite Sampler Craft Kit. For those who don't know, this is a specially curated box of crafting goodies based off of one of Stampin' Up!'s suites. It's a sampling of the suite along with some other goodies added to round out your crafting possibilities.

This month's kit is based on the new Rooted in Nature Suite coming out in 2018/2019 Annual catalog. You guys, this kit is so gorgeous, and so versatile!

It's also perfect for Father's Day, which in the US is celebrated on June 17th this year. I am posting this now so you have plenty of time to let me know that you want the kit. I will place the order for the products June 1st (when the products will come available). I will post them out to you as quickly as I can so that, hopefully, you will have time to make something awesome to give for Father's Day. I already have a couple of projects planned and will post them over the next couple of weeks along with instructions so you can make them to.

So, what's in June's kit?

Isn't this paper gorgeous!?!

All of this, and actually, a little more. There are a couple of things missing from this picture. For $20 ($25 with shipping) you get:
     *1/2 pack Nature's Poem DSP (6 x 12)
     *2 sheets each Blackberry Bliss, Tranquil Tide, Soft Suede, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral cardstock
     *4 sheets Whisper White
     *10 Whisper White envelopes
     *8 Leaves Trinkets (2 each of 4 designs)
     *1 yd Blackberry Bliss Twine
     *1 yd Crumb Cake Twine
     *1 yd Grapefruit Grove Twine
     *1 yd Mint Macaron Twine
     * 1 sheet Watercolor Paper
     *2 Kraft Pillow Boxes (shown in very top photo)
     *6 True Gentlemen Buttons (2 each of 3 designs) (not shown)
     *BONUS: 11 each gold and silver pearls (not shown)

If you were to buy all of these products in their original packaging it would cost over $105! You get a sampling of them for just $20! Plus, you get some project ideas from me so you can put your kit to use right away.

As usual, there are some optional extras that you can add with no additional shipping charges, and they will also get you a few extra goodies from me.

Optional Extras:
     *Pinewood Planks 3D Dynamic Impressions Embossing Folder (not shown)  $10
     *Rooted in Nature Stamp Set $55 wood mount/$42 clear mount
     *Nature's Roots Framelits Dies $39
     *Rooted In Nature Bundle (includes stamp set and Framelits) $84.50 wood mount/$72.75 clear mount

BONUS: If you add on any of Optional Extras, I will add 1 yard of our Burlap Ribbon, and any 2 products will get you an entire package of Corrugated Elements. (The Rooted in Nature Bundle counts as 2 items.)

I'm so excited to share this Suite Sampling with you. I can't wait to post the projects I've made. :-)

RESERVE YOUR KIT

The deadline to reserve your kit is May 31. Remember that you need to email me to reserve your Suite Samplings Craft Kit. I will send you an invoice and payment will be to me in advance of the order being placed and sent out.  

Shipping Notes: If you live local to me and would like to pick up your kit, your total price is $20. If you are not local to me I will send the Suite Samplings Craft kit and any Optional Extras in a Priority Flat Rate padded envelope. Your total price will be $25. 

This is only available in the United States. You need to email me to order. You cannot order this kit through my online Stampin' Up! store as this is a kit that I have specially curated for you. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello there, and Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there. I don't usually blog on Sunday, but, as usual, I am a bit behind on my crafting. I actually spent today and yesterday making Mother's Day cards. I was going to make a couple of Mother's Day cards for my mom, mother-in-law, daughter and daughter-in-law, but then I realized I needed to make a few more.

I realized I know quite a few amazing moms, most of which will be thoroughly enjoying today and getting spoiled by loved ones, but there are a few out there that this might be a pretty tough day for them. Maybe someone whose lost a child, or has a wayward child, maybe she's a widow, or in a nursing home with no one coming to visit. So, I decided to make several more cards and send them out to women I know that may need a little pick-me-up today. (Yes, they will be late, but I'm sure they'll love them just the same.)

I used the new Love What You Do stamp set that is offered right now as a pre-order in some pretty amazing bundles for this card, along with the Large Letters Framelits and the Celebrate You Thinlits. (SOO glad those dies didn't retire after Sale-a-Bration!)

I used all three of the watercolor stamps in the set to achieve the Blushing Bride background by simply stamping them randomly in the corner. The flowers were water colored in with Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry, which I have to admit, is a color I don't use very often. My daughter and I were undecided as to which of those two colors to use for the letters and card base, and eventually settled on the Rich Razzleberry. I thought about using some of the pearls from the bundle, but I really like it just as it is.

I really do like how this came out, and hope it can help cheer up some pretty amazing women in my life.

How about you? Know any amazing women in your life? I challenge you this week to drop them a letter, or better yet, give them a call. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

Cozy Cottage Home Decor Piece

Hello there! How are you on this fine spring day? Our snow is finally melted, and much to my delight, the tulips are coming up! Spring is so fun here. It seems like every time we go outside there's something new growing. Of course a lot of those are weeds, but we'll overlook that for now. They're green. 

I've been working on this piece for a little while. I had the idea back in February and started working on it then. I got the layout planned, finished the stamping and the water coloring in just a couple of days. Unfortunately, life got in the way after that and it sat unfinished on the corner of my desk for several weeks. It is finally done and currently hanging in my craft studio, but I think it may find a permanent home in our living/dining room pretty soon. 

Considering how many different sets and products I used on this sampler, I was surprised to see that only 4 or them were retiring. I will list below all the sets that I've used along with the paper and other supplies. The Cozy Cottage set is a Hostess set, so it will be retiring along with the Friendship's Sweetest Thoughts stamp set, In the Trees stamp set and the Island Indigo cardstock and inks. Of all the colors retiring, I think I'm going to miss that one the most since it closely matches the color scheme in my living/dining area.

This is in a 12 x 12 frame.  All of the coloring was done by squishing my closed pad so that the lid of the pad touched the pad itself and left an ink puddle there. I then used an Aqua Painter to lift the color from the lid and used it as I would watercolor to paint in the design. If you're interested in the measurements of each of the blocks, let me know in the comments and I will measure them out and edit this post with them. I have listed below the various sets and supplies that I used on it.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

April Suite Sampler #4-A Pretty Foil Bag

Hello there! The snow is melting and the creek is flowing! I think spring is finally here. Might get to take the outside Christmas decor down this weekend. I even noticed my daylilies are coming up. Yep, spring is here. :o)

I thought I'd share with you another project from the April Suite Samplings Kit. If you're not sure what that is, check out this post. The kit included a couple of the gold Striped Treat Bags. These are flat treat bags, but with a couple of score lines, it's pretty easy to make a gusseted, stand up style bag.

Start by scoring a line 3/4 of an inch in from each side and the bottom.

It's a good idea to then fold the bag along those lines in both directions. Then it's just a matter of opening up the bag and creasing along those folds.

Just pinch along the edges to crease them. The bottom corner will end up making these little triangles. You can use a glue dot or Tear & Tape to adhere them to the bottom of the bag.

Voila! You have a gusseted bag! Once the bag is filled, fold over the top and add your decor. For my bag I cut a 2 x 6 piece of DSP and a 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of vellum. They were both banner punched and then folded about 2 inches down from the top and simply laid over the top of the bag. I didn't even glue the vellum to the DSP. The library clip is holding it all together. Some simple stamping and fussy cutting, along with some sequin trim finishes up the tag. I used the Sweet & Sassy heart dies to cut out my heart, but you could easily fussy cut that out.

What do you think? Are you enjoying these projects? I hope so. I've been perusing through the new catalog and picking out which suites I love the best and what items to put together with them to make up next year's kits. So many super-awesome choices! It's gonna be hard narrowing things down. I do have June's picked out and most of the details figured out. Can't wait to share it with you. Remember, there won't be a kit in May due to most of the DSP retiring. I will announce the June kit as soon as I am able to.

I will be back with at least one more project using the April kit. If I have time, I will show more because I have a LOT of paper and supplies still left from this kit. Just not sure I'm going to have time to make more goodies before April is gone. I would love to know where time flies to. If anyone finds out, could you please let me know? Thanks.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

Mail A Card Monday--Turquoise Dragonfly

Hello there! Doing my part to make Mondays a little more enjoyable. It's Mail-a-Card Monday again. Here's a look at the cards I mailed out today.

Two of these are from my stash and were made a while ago. Unfortunately, the food truck stamp set has been long retired, but, as you may remember from my last post, I love a good pun, so I've been holding onto this card for a while. Thought it was time to bless someone else with it. It's on its way to my super awesome sister. (Hi, Pam!!) The middle card uses the Flourishing Phrases stamp set that has been in the catalog for a while, but is retiring soon.

The dragonfly card we made at last month's TNT (Tips N Techniques) Class. All of our projects that day focused on embossing--heat embossing, dry embossing, and embossing paste.

On this card we used the embossing paste and colored it with several shades of blue and green. As we smeared the paste over the stencil, the colors blended together. It came out pretty awesome! Thankfully, the Detailed Dragonfly Framelits are not retiring, but the Tempting Turquoise cardstock is. I actually designed this card specifically for one of the ladies who comes to class as it is her favorite color.

Kind of hard to see in the pictures, but there is vellum behind the wings that we colored with blends in various shades of blue and green. Then, of course had to use a spattering of iridescent sequins to mimic real dragonflies.

Another dragonfly stamped in Lemon Lime Twist for the inside. Love how this came out. What do you think? I wasn't real fond of Lemon Lime Twist when is first came out, but it really is such a fun color to use and I love it with the Turquoise. 

It looks like spring is finally coming to Wisconsin. Our creek is flowing and I can see patches of grass here and there. Still have 2 feet of snow on the flower bed, but that'a half of what it was this time last week, so that's good. Hoping it will warm up enough to open some windows soon so we can hear the water. Love that sound. 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )

You Octopi My Thoughts!

Hello there! What do you think of this fun card? My family well knows that I love a good pun. My daughter's and I are constantly sending jokes to each other. Sometimes, when you're having a bad day, a random joke is just the thing to put a smile on your face, and puns like this are so fun. 

So, there's actually quite a lot going on on this card. Lots of texture and movement. I used the "Smoosh" technique to apply Bermuda Bay ink to the watercolor paper background. Once that was dry, I used some Embossing Paste that I colored with Bermuda Bay and added Dazzling Diamond glitter to. I made a stencil to apply the Embossing Paste through by cutting some scrap paper with the Swirly Scribbles wavy thinlit.

The "netting" is a piece of the Copper Trim that I stretched out. Super simple stamping and a splattering of copper sequins from the Metallics Sequin Assortment finishes off the card.

Unfortunately, the Message in a Bottle stamp set is retiring, so be sure to order yours soon if you are like me and you love a good pun.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Hostess Code Bonus: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do No Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o(  )