"We do not remember days, we remember moments." Cesare Pavese

Saturday, December 28, 2019

thank you...

Hello!  Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  I did!  Can't believe we are in the final few days of 2019 and heading into a brand new decade!  Where did the time go?  I have a thank you card that I made for a couple of challenges:  Reverse Confetti stock your stash and Fab Friday.  Love the simple layout of the Fab Friday sketch and thought it was perfect to use with the Reverse Confetti Best Days and Thank You stamp sets.  I don't have the die that matches the Best Days stamp set (yet... I just ordered it!) so I decided to just heat emboss the bouquet on smooth Bristol cardstock and do some simple watercoloring with my ZIG markers.  Once it was done and dry I die cut it with a rectangle die from A Jillian Vance Designs.  The large thank you sentiment was stamp with watermark ink and heat embossed on vellum.  I then die cut it with the matching die.  The background is a cover die from Reverse Confetti called Snow Stars.  I die cut that from off white cardstock and adhered it to a bright yellow cardstock base with foam dimensionals.  I them adhered the image panel with more foam dimenstionals.  The vellum sentiment was adhered using rolled up glue dots that I placed behind the embossed letters.   Can't wait to get the matching Best Days dies so I can create some more with the pretty set!



Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope that everyone is have a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends.  When things die down and you need a break I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out one final Christmas card that I made.  Here is a little peek of the card:


Pretty sparkly, right?  Thanks for stopping by and have a very merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Joy to the World

Hello!  Hope you are having a good week!  Had a few more Christmas cards to make and so I pulled out a Christmas set that I bought last year from Honey Bee Stamps and made a card for the current Sunday Stamps challenge.  I stamped the image on water color cardstock and then heat embossed the image in gold embossing powder.  The cool thing about the image is that there are two dies that allow you to cut the sentiment  and floral images separate from each other.  I didn't even realize that until I pulled the set out to make my card.  Anyway, I just decided to keep the sentiment and the image together for my card.  I used distress inks in Forest Moss, Bundled Sage, Fossilized Amber, Festive Berries and Abandoned Coral to color my images.  Once the coloring was done I added some additional Fossilized Amber around the sentiment and image.  When the entire piece was dry I die cut it with a large rectangle die and the I further cut it down to fit a red cardstock base.  I simply popped up the image with foam tape and I was done.


Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

It's Wednesday!

Hey there!  Christmas is one week away!  Are you ready?  I'm still working on a few gifts and things for my boys, but mostly I'm done... YAY!  I have a clean and simple Christmas card up on the AJVD blog today.  Here is a little peek:


Hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out my card.  Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by.  

Monday, December 16, 2019

Spellbinders Fire Sale!

Hey there!  Just popping in to let you know that Spellbinders is have a two day fire sale.  There are tons of great deal to be had.  Just click on the banner before to be taken directly to the sale.  If you use the link and make a purchase I will make a small commission off the sale.  The sale ends on Wednesday, December 18, 2019 at midnight MST time.  Happy shopping!


Sunday, December 15, 2019

Two More Christmas cards!

Well... just when I thought I was done (except for two special cards I will be making for two special little ones!) making Christmas cards I found out that I wasn't, lol!  So I whipped up a couple of quick cards for several challenges.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown and CAS(E) this Sketch.   For this card is used a Simon Says Stamp word die set called Christmas Blessings and a background that was created using an Altenew die (Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover die) that my friend Greta sent me a month or so ago along with one of her pretty cards.  I had been wanting to make something with it since it arrived and the CTS layout was the perfect opportunity.  I used a AJVD Elegant Stitched border die to create my cure and then adhered the piece to a light gray cardstock base.  The words were die cut from bright green and bright pink cardstock four times each, stacked and then adhered to the card front.  The little sentiment (from the SSS Stained Glass Greetings set) was stamped on the light gray cardstock, trimmed out and popped up with foam tape.   Stacking and adhering the words together took the most time with this card!



The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches.  I always love Narelle's simple, but innovative designs that allow you to go in many different directions.   Because I have been in a die cutting mood lately this sketch lent it self perfectly to die cutting.  I used one of my favorite A Jillian Vance Design dies Holly and Swirls along with a die that is also from AJVD.  I decided to go through all of my old Christmas papers (Those are the only ones I have!  I didn't buy any new Christmas patterned paper this year!) and found a few sheets from the a pad called Tinsel & Company by Teresa Collins.  I die cut the holly from a piece that had holiday themed words on it in red and then the strip from a piece that had a small chevron pattern.  I adhered the two pieces together before adhering to an off white cardstock panel I die cut with a large rectangle die.  I then added Stickles to the berries using a color called Tiara.  It is perfect as it has silver and a little bit of red in it as well. The word merry is also an AJVD die, but one that is no longer available.  I like the style so I will continue to use it on my non-AJVD projects in the future.  I originally die cut it just from some additional coordinating paper, but decided to die cut it from red glitter cardstock and I'm so glad I did!  I stacked and adhered all the die cuts and then adhered to the panel.  I finished off the card by adding lots of little silver Pretty Pink Posh sequins.   I love how it turned out and it will be easy to mail!  I decided that I will also add this to the current Time Out challenge of Merry & Cheerful.



Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!  

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Happy Wednesday!

Hello!  Hope you are having a good week!  It is Wednesday and that means I have a post up on the AJVD blog today.  Here is a little peek of my project:


I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project.   Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Monday, December 9, 2019

Merry Christmas

Hello!  Hope your week is off to a good start.  Mine is... I got to make a few cards, lol!  Lately I have been really into buying dies.  In fact my last few purchases have been mainly dies from Simon Says Stamp.  Two of my most recent purchases are the Marie snowflake die and the Eucalyptus Leaves dies.  When I saw them used on several different cards I just had to get them.  They sold out rather quickly when they were first released, but I was finally able to get them during SSS' Black Friday sale.  They were on my mind when I saw that the new Paper Players challenge was a color one and when an idea sprang to mind I had to try it out.  I must say that I love the end result!  I die cut the Marie Snowflake from light blue cardstock and the Eucalyptus Leaves from silver and kraft cardstock.  I then adhered the two larger eucalyptus stems (one silver, one kraft) together, trimmed off part of the stem from one of them and adhered them to a piece of woodgrain cardstock that I had die cut with a rectangle die.  I then adhered the two smaller stems (one silver, one kraft) so that they were layered on top of the snowflake.  I then die cut a second snowflake from the light blue cardstock and adhered it to the back of the first one to get it a little more stability.  The snowflake was then layered on top of the larger stems.   I had the sentiment Merry Christmas that I had foiled in gold using my Glimmer so I decided to cut it apart, trim it down and then adhere it to the panel as you see.  I finished off the card by adding some light blue sequins from Simon Says Stamp and lots of tiny sparkly clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.  Once dry the panel was adhered to a light gray cardstock base.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of traditional Christmas, as well as the Paper Players and Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge.  Decided to add this to the current Time Out challenge.



Thanks for stopping by and have a wondeful day!

Saturday, December 7, 2019

More Christmas cards

Hello!  Popping in with a couple more Christmas cards that I made.  The first one is for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  I used my Glimmer hot foiling system to create this card.  I recently shared a project using the Spellbinders Kaleidescope Triangles die set and I used one of the dies to create my tree.  I found a piece of cardstock that was a light aqua blue that was large enough to make two triangles using the die and green foil.  The foiling is very subtle and pretty in real life.  I have a close up photo, but even that doesn't really show how pretty the foiling is.   Once I had the triangles foiled I hand trimmed them out.   I die cut some gold cardstock using the smallest snowflake from the Spellbinders November small die kit and then cut trunks for my trees from the same cardstock.   The Merry Christmas was gold foiled using the Glimmer and I just love how the sentiment turned out.  It is so pretty in real life!  The white cardstock panel was trimmed down and adhered to a green cardstock base.  I then adhered the triangle trees, the snowflake and three little sequins.   Adding this to the current Time Out challenge of Merry and Cheerful.  I think my trees a rather cheerful!





The second card didn't exactly turn out has I had hoped it would, but sometimes that happens, right?  When I got the Spellbinders November small die kit I die cut one of the snowflakes from some glitter paper I had in a copper color.  It was just there on my work space so I decided to cut additional snowflakes from the same paper and then I adhered them to the beige cardstock panel and die cut it with a rectangle die from AJVD.  I did not have another small snowflake that would fit in the empty spaces so I used clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.  Then came the problem of finding a sentiment.  I decided to use dies from previous Spellbinders small dies kits and cut them from the copper glitter paper and the beige cardstock.  The beige was slightly offset, but it still doesn't provide enough contrast and so the sentiment sort of disappears into the panel.  Live and learn.  I think I will add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of traditional Christmas

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Happy December!

Hello and happy December everyone!  Can't believe that the end of the year is fast approaching.  Where did the time go?  Today is Wedenesday and so that means I have a project up on the AJVD blog.  Here is  a little peek:


Hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out my project.  Have a wonderful day!

Friday, November 29, 2019

Christmas cards...

Hello!  Hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Since I decided to be a little proactive when it came to our Thanksgiving meal I got several things done before Thursday and that left me with time to work on a couple of Christmas cards.  I still need more, but I now have another two to add to my stack.  The first card is for the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  I kinda went a little crazy (for me anyway, lol!) and bought several stand alone dies from Simon Says Stamp.  I used a SSS die set called Christmas Foliage that was part of the most recent Simon Says Stamp release.  I die cut all the various pieces from white glitter cardstock several times and then cut a small piece of red glitter cardstock so that I could die cut the little berries from that.  I then used a classic Spellbinders square die to die cut my sentiment that is from the Simon Says Stamp Yuletide Holiday.  I stamped the sentiment using VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.   I embossed the bottom portion of a piece of white cardstock with a Swiss dot embossing folder and then die cut the piece with an AJVD rectangle die.  The square was adhered with foam tape and then I adhered all the pieces to create my little corner piece finishing up with the three little red berries for a pop of color.  Once everything was dry I adhered my panel to a white cardstock base.


The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  I must admit that my take on the sketch is very loose, but hopefully it passes muster.  I used the Simon Says Stamp Ornate Ornaments stamp set, again, for my card.  And just like the other card that I made using the Ornate Ornament set I did very simple watercoloring with my ZIG markers.  I stamped two of the ornaments on a piece of smooth Bristol cardstock with watermark ink and heat embossed them with silver embossing powder.  I then colored both the ornaments.   The third ornament was stamped on a scrap of smooth Bristol with watermark ink, heat embossed in silver, colored and die cut with the matching die.  I added the little ornament strings and sentiment in silver, as well.    The panel was die cut with a AJVD rectangle die and then adhered to a light gray cardstock base.



Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Happy Wednesday...

Hello and happy Wednesday!  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US.  Are you ready?  I'm getting there.  The pumpkin pie is made (I haven't made one in ages!) and I will be working on getting a few other things put together today so Thanksgiving isn't so crazy!   I do have a post up on the AJVD blog today and here is a little peek:


I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project.  Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving and thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Fall and Christmas...

Hello there!  I have two cards to share for challenges that will be closing in a few hours.  First up is a card for Freshly Made Sketches.   A few weeks ago I colored up the large oak leaf image from the beautiful Colorado Craft Company stamp set called Oak Leave & Acorns from their Big and Bold line of stamps.  At the time I colored up the larger image I had also colored the smaller oak leaf and acorn image, as well.  I set that image aside, forgot where it was, found it, then forgot it again, and finally found it one last time!  Determined to not have it disappear again I die cut it with one of the rectangles from the AJVD Stitched Dot rectangle die set and then adhered it to a kraft cardstock base pursuant to the FMS layout.  I then stamped the sentiment on additional craft cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink, trimmed it down and adhered it to the image panel.   It has been so long since I did the coloring in this card that I don't remember what exactly I used, but I think it was my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.   The paper used was Canson watercolor paper and the image was stamped in Acorn ink.

The second card is for a few challenges:  the Paper Players, Color Throwdown and Inspired By.  For the Inspired By challenge I was obviously inspired by the large lawn ornaments.  After embossing the ornament from the Simon Says Stamp Ornate Ornaments stamp set in silver I did some very simple coloring with my ZIGs and a little bit of water.   The ornament was die cut with the matching die and the little string from some silver glitter cardstock.  I then adhered them together with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive.  Strips of orange and silver glitter cardstock were cut and adhered to a white cardstock panel that I die cut with a rectangle die from AJVD.   The strips were adhered along with the ornament and then I added the sentiment (from a now retired SSS stamp set called Gifts of Love) that I stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  Super quick and easy and now I have one more Christmas card!





Before I go I want to let you know that Spellbinders' Pre Black Friday blow out sale has started and runs through December 3rd at midnight MST.  Here are some of the deals they are offering:

    •    Save up to 50% Off select items
    •    Doorbuster Deals – Select/limited quantity items at highly discounted prices
    •    Merry Everything Christmas Kit – Now $60
    •    Glimmer Hot Foil System – Now $99
    •    Tool ‘n One Kit - Now $20
    •    Jane Davenport Making Faces Bundle - Now $80
    •    Holiday Clearance Savings - Deals from $1
    •    10% Off Any Club – Must use code SNOW10 when subscribing. (New Members Only)

Just click here to find all the deals.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!



Saturday, November 23, 2019

25 Days of Christmas Tags!

Hello everyone!  Stopping in today to share a tag that I made for annual Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags.  A Jillian Vance Design is a sponsor for this fun event and my little tag features several different A Jillian Vance Design products.  As some of you know I have a hot foiling system.  I have been having fun getting used to foiling with it and used it for my tag.  I used the Delicate Snowflake Trio and gold foil on red cardstock.  Once the foiling was done I die cut my tag using the large tag from the Minnie Pearl Tag die set.   I then die cut the smallest snowflake from the Delicate Snowflake Trio set from gold mirror cardstock and adhered it to my tag with Just Glue It adhesive.  The sentiment is from the Just BeCLAUS stamp set.  I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed using WOW! Metallic Gold Rich Pale.  I trimmed down the sentiment, cut it in half and then popped it up on my tag with foam dots.  In keeping with my red and gold theme I finished off the tag with some red and gold twine.  (Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.)


The gold foiling looks so pretty in real life!  Thanks for stopping by today.  If you have played along with the 25 Days of Christmas Tags yet there is still time and lots of wonderful prizes to win!  Have a great day!

Thursday, November 21, 2019

smallest things..

Hello everyone!  I'm popping in to share a card that I made with two newly released die sets from Spellbinders.   The sets I used are the Die D-Lites Tallulah and Kaleidoscope Triangle dies.  I went with a white, pink and light gray color scheme for my card.  I Kaleidoscope Triangle dies set consists of three dies.  I die cut the bottom and top triangle from MFT white cardstock and the middle triangle from rose gold mirror cardstock from Tonic Studios.  Once I had all the triangles die cut and adhered together I adhered them in a row on a piece of light gray cardstock that I trimmed down to fit the front of a white cardstock base.  I then die cut Tallulah from the same MFT white and rose gold cardstocks.  I applied washi tape to the back of Tallulah so I could inlay all the pieces back into her face.  Tallulah comes with a set of flowers and leaves so I die cut those from MFT white and rose gold cardstock and adhered them together.  Tallulah was adhered to the triangle border and then I added the flowers to form her hair.  Three rose gold sequins were added to the top flowers.  The sentiment is from the stamp set found in the Spellbinders May 2019 card kit of the month called Stay Wild and the stamp set carries the same name.  I stamped it in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne on MFT white cardstock, trimmed it down and then adhered it to the triangle border.  Lots of die cutting on this one, but it was so fun to put together!  I used Nuvo Deluxe adhesive to adhere everything together.   I used my Gemini Jr and Big Shot Plus die cutters for all the die cutting.  Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.   Decided to add this to the current Word Art Wednesday challenge.



Thanks for stopping by.  Don't forget that Spellbinders is having a pre-holiday sale right now that runs through December 3rd.  You can check out all the great deal right here!

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Happy Wednesday!

Hello everyone!  Hope you are having a good week.  We are having a soggy one here in the Pacific Northwest!   Today is Wednesday and that means I have a post up on the AJVD blog and here is a little peek of my card:


Hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full card and to let me know what you think!  Have a great day!

Monday, November 18, 2019

snowflakes!

Hello!!  It is raining, raining, raining here in the Pacific Northwest, but just the other day I got my Spellbinders November small die kit and I could not wait to make something with the gorgeous snowflakes in the kit.   So... I made two cards, lol!  I was inspired by the colors and snow in the photo for the challenge over at the Paper Players.  However, I did not pay attention to the fact that they wanted a clean and simple design based on the photo.   I was entirely caught up in the idea of creating a night sky background for my snowflake that was made using two of the coloring in the inspiration photo (green and blue).  Interestingly I had actually started die cutting all the pieces for the snowflake on Saturday night so I did not know what the Paper Players challenge would be!  Anyway, I ink blended my background using distress oxide ink in Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot.  When I was done I cut a rough circle from some scrap paper, placed it on my background and splattered the piece with watered down acrylic paint.    When it was dry I die cut it using a rectangle die from A Jillian Vance Design.  The large snowflake is actually created by die cut three different pieces and then layering them together.  Had to do that five times for each part of the snowflake.  I used silver mirror cardstock and green and light blue glitter cardstocks.  There is a little accent piece that was die cut from additional light blue glitter cardstock.  I adhered all my pieces together to make my snowflake.  It was at this point that I looked at the challenge, again, and realized my card might not fit.    I finished it and then hatched the idea for the second card that does better fit the challenge.   The sentiment is from a stamp set from A Jillian Vance Design called Just beCLAUS and was heat embossed in Imagine Crafts black on vellum and was die cut using a banner die that is also from AJVD.  Everything was adhered together using my favorite glue Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive.  I do love how this card turned out!   Affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.

Okay now for the second card.  This one uses the three snowflakes from the kit and the layout is based on a fun sketch courtesy of Sunday Stamps.  Big shout out to the design team at Sunday Stamps for picking the card I submitted for the last challenge as one of their Top Cups!  Thanks!  Anyway, I used the same green and blue glitter cardstock along with a silver cardstock to die cut my snowflakes.  They were backed with circles die cut from light gray cardstock using Spellbinders classic circle dies.  I adhered silver thread to the back of each circle and then to the back of the rectangle I die cut from white cardstock (AJVD rectangle die).  I adhered the large circle flat to the panel and the other two with foam adhesive.   The sentiment is from AJVD (same stamp set I used for the first card) and was also heat embossed on vellum using Imagine Craft black embossing powder and VersaMark watermark ink.   The panel was then adhered to a card base made from the same light gray cardstock I used to die cut the circles.   I finished things off my adding little bows tied with the silver thread.  Now this card more fully fits the inspiration/theme of the Paper Player challenge, I think.



Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  Don't forget about the Spellbinders pre-holiday sale going on.  It last until December 3rd and you can find all the details here.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

For a Wonderful Friend

Hey there!  Popping in with a card I made for the Card Concept.  I used the Concord & 9th Wonderful Florals bundle and lots of distress inks.  I stamped the image with Antique Linen because I was originally going for a no line look, but in the end I outlined all of the flowers, leaves and berries because it was a bit challenging for me to achieve the no line look with some of the flowers.   But practice makes perfect so I will definitely be taking on coloring this image using the no line technique in the future.  I was inspired by all the colors in the inspiration photo for my card that I think fits into the clean and layered category.   After coloring the main image I die it with the matching die and then die cut the word wonderful using that matching die.   The letters were colored with distress ink and then popped up.  I adhered the piece to a kraft cardstock base and then added the rest of the sentiment by embossing it on vellum using Imagine Crafts black embossing ink.  Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.   Please see list of additional supplies below.

Before I go I want to let you know that Spellbinders is having a huge pre-holiday clearance sale.  You can find all kinds of deals.  Click here to go to the sale.  Sale runs through December 3, 2019 at midnight MST.



Supplies used:  Range Distress inks in:  Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Carved Pumpkin, Antique Linen, Iced Spruce, Forest Moss, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, and Broken China; Watercolor paper:  Canson; Watermark ink:  VersaMark

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!