Baby Bear Note

This is a baby gift card I made using a card idea in the IB&C. It's Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point and Whisper White.

The teddy bear is from All in the Family and the greeting is in the corresponding greeting set. The bear was colored with Watercolor Pencils and I used the piercing tool to finish off the bottom of the card. I used 1/4 inch Navy grosgrain.

The dots on the Chocolate chip are punched and adhered with mini glue dots. I used a variety of square punches to mount the pic of the bear.

Have a great Hump Day and we'll see you tomorrow.

Much love and joy,

Greenhouse Gala Dotted

Here's a sample using Greenhouse Gala DSP. As I said earlier, I finally broke down and bought some. (Finally? I waited, what?, two weeks!

The DSP is so bold it's hard to stamp near it. That's a new experience for me. This one uses Pear Pizzazz card stock as a base. I then cut a piece of Whisper White and put it through my Big Shot in the dotted die. I ran Pumpkin Pie through with the butterfly sizzlet and punched Itty Bitty shapes out for an accent. I tied crochet thread through the holes of the clear Bitty Buttons and topped things off with a ribbon in Daffodil Delight.








My son insisted I needed a caterpillar so here he is, on the inside. I have to admit Ryan was right. I think this set, Bugs and Kisses" might really go with the DSP.

That's it for me. I have a ton of errands today.
Take care of you!
Much love and joy,

What's WRONG with this card????

So yesterday I started out making a set of cards for my aunt who is moving. I wanted her to have a set of ten cards or so to send to people with her change of address. What started as a simple card became an all day saga.

First, I loved the inspiration of an ad I'd seen in a magazine. (Forgive the creases, it's been folded and stashed for a while)

So, I matched the colors to Cajun Craze, Bordering Blue, Mellow Moss and Kraft. The top matched Sahara Sand and the background was closest to Soft Suede. I know, hard to believe but there it is. I wasn't sure I liked that final Sahara circle so eliminated it from the card.

I rooted around and found the only set I owned that had anything to do with moving. Actually, it's my son's set called Loads of Love. You know the one, with the little pick up truck? Welllllllll.... I've often stayed away from that pickup because I'm not a great colorer. Yesterday was no exception. Here's the card I came up with ...

I loaded a uninked cartridge wit Soft Suede ink and rolled a pattern across the same color card stock. Then I punched the various colors out and ran them through the Big Shot with the different embossing plates, primarily because they looked a little boring just sitting there all smooth.

I stamped my truck on Watercolor Paper with StazOn ink and colored it with corresponding markers. I bled the ink with an aqua painter. I even remembered to ground the image. Inside the card it says "Just Moved." I have to tell you. I hate this stupid card. Something is desperately wrong with it and I don't know what!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS CARD???? Tell  me please, oh blog readers! I need to know what to do to save it.

In the interest of time I ended up going a completely different route. I changed up a card I received from my upline and here's what I ended up with ... MUCH more my style.

I stamped the grass from Inspired by Nature and pasted with slot punch cattails in Chocolate Chip on a few of them.  The colors are Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke and Crumb Cake (aka Kraft). Fast, easy and simple. I made ten of them, decorated envelopes and will have them in the mail. It took me about an hour.  After spending all day fussing with that idiot truck card I can't figure out!

Please, you can't hurt my feelings. If you see what's wrong with the card let me know!!

Have a great day!

Much love and joy,

Bits and Pieces in Pear

Hi everyone!

For those of you who picked up catties ... aren't the accessories amazing! I'm so excited to place an order in July. If you want to get in on the 10% shipping make sure you have your order to me soon!

We ran down to the farmer's market (the peas are awesome!) yesterday. Praise God for all that bounty when so many go hungry. It was amazing. Organic breads, meats, and produce. Ryan and I listened to the

music for a bit but I'm still semi-caffeine free so I didn't stop and get a fresh coffee but boy, did it smell good!

The afternoon was spent stamping. I made this card using the new Pear Pizzazz In Color. It's a deeper dustier color than celery. The other card stock is WW and Pumpkin Pie. The DSP is Greenhouse Gala, I finally broke down and pre-ordered a pack. I was going to try to wait until July 1 but I wanted to work with it before the new catty went active. I always struggle a little at the beginning of each year, wondering how things go together. The new color coach is helping with that.

I ran the pear card stock through the Big Shot with the Lattice die. The flowers are from a Level 3 hostess set I purchased called Bits and Pieces. Demos get to purchased one Level 2 and one Level 3 set during pre-order. Lately, I haven't purchased any but this time one of my best friends, an avid stamper, saw this and loved it. I bought it, am making her a ton of cards with it, then will send the whole kit and kaboodle to her for her b'day. She's fine if I use it to make samples first, as long as she gets some too!!

I stamped the tulips from that set but then grabbed Itty Bitty Bits for the middle flower so I could put a clear Bitty Button on it! I used crochet thread to the white tie in it. The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes (a must have set) and is punched with the Curly Label punch and layered with the Movers and Shakers Curly Label die. I tucked it under the artwork for a different look.

At any rate, thanks for stopping by. I need to write my other blog and get to church. Oh yeah, here's a picture of the color coach! You'll love it!!

The reverse side of each color is the card stock itself! The post mount lets you slide colors together at any point in the deck to match them. This side gives you a "dynamic duo" like More Mustard and So Saffron, in other words a tone on tone match. They they have Creative Combinations which look complementary to me and Sweet Set which appear to be colors that SU! people thought went well together. It's small enough, like a deck of cards, to fit in your purse, that way when you're shopping and you see a inspiring color combo you can match it immediately! It will be available July 1 for around $15.

I'd better get going or I'll be racing around like Rabbit in the Winnie the Pooh books! God bless and have a great Sunday!

Much love and joy,

It's Scrappin' Saturday!

Here's the facing 12x12 page to last Saturday's layout. I used the same color scheme for continuity of course. This page uses Old Olive, WW and The Write Stuff DSP. The taco is More Mustard, Certainly Celery and Real Red. I cut out a circle for the taco with the Circle Scissors plus, which is soooo incredibly easy to use! I folded it in half a little off center so you could see the back as well as the front of the taco shell. It made it more three dimensional I think.

The journaling piece is a die cut from The Write Stuff. I ordered about three packs of it this month so I'm sure I'll have enough to finish the album. The gentleman in the photo was the owner of our lunch haunt in Guadalajara. He had the absolute BEST potato tacos I'd ever eaten! Of course if I would have put a potato taco on the layout no one would have known what it was, and they aren't very colorful so I americanized the taco. Call it artistic license!

It's off to the farmer's market for me. I want peas! We headed up to a favorite greenhouse of mine yesterday (actually they have 27 greenhouses and a store!) and bought plants on sale for the side patio. It's so hot there that I thought I'd try moss roses. It's an adventure in horticulture so we'll see what happens.

Have a great Saturday ... do something fun and just for you! My customer catalogs came in yesterday so if you preordered you can pick up any time.  Otherwise call, I only have a few left then I'll have to reorder again.

Thanks for stopping by,
Much love and joy,

It's 3-D Friday!

This is so easy! It's a bookmark on a Popsicle stick. I took the stamp set Tart and Tangy, for which I still had matching DSP (do I overconsume or WHAT??) The colors are Real Red, Old Olive and Soft Sky.

Here's what it looks like with the book mark out.

I used the Slit Punch, various circle punches and the Scallop Circle punch. I finished it off with Old Olive 5/8 inch grosgrain ribbon. How fun is this? It's so simple you can make a bunch in one afternoon for favors or gift ideas.

Ryan's back yard sanctuary is going well. We weeded his raised horticultural beds last night and he watered them. He was thrilled that his green beans were blooming and his tomatoes had little green fruit on them. We picked a few onions and he's so proud to be contributing. I'll have his raised beds on my other blog today if you want to check them out. We can stand and garden. With his CP that's crucial for him. Not so bad for my decrepit bones either!

Have a great day and I'll see you back here tomorrow!

Much love and joy,

Graduation Wish Upon a Star

I've been making a lot of graduation cards lately and this one is a 3D project to send money. It uses Pacific Point card stock (coming back July 1), WW and Basic  Black. I cut the stars out using the SU Sissix die Stars, in my Big Shot.

You can barely see it but I fine layered the little stars too! Here's a shot of the open card:

No, I didn't just give someone ONE dollar for graduation but it was handy and I needed to show how the money fit into the card! The black 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon is adhered to the back with sticky strip for a more durable tie cord. I didn't take a photo of it tied, shame on me, but I'm sure you can figure it out!

Rather than the typical congrats I put the sentiment Wish Big from Warm Words on the card in black ink. It's an easy go-to card and can fit in a legal envie which is nice if you need something fast. I'd recommend the legal envies without the security coloring so you can decorate it and it'll look more like a gift card envelope.

Have a great day! It's supposed to be 80 and sunny today ... a perfect day! Unfortunately, I have to get the chapter I'm working on finished before I can run around and have fun. I have a SU box coming today (the thrill never wears off and it's only card stock!) I'm also thinking I might see my customer catalogs this evening. My regular shipments come between 2:30 and 3:30 but my catties always come in the evening for some weird reason. At any rate, I'm putting off the inevitable.

Take care,

Much love and joy,

Circle Circus CAS

This is a clean and simple on a hump day when I don't have much time.  I used the Circle Circus stamp set in Soft Suede and Bermuda Bay. I punched the center of the stamp out and put them on the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. The sentiment is in suede (and a little crooked I might add .... pffft!) I do love my CAS cards. This one was a variation on a CASE. Thanks for sharing the idea!

Purple Coneflower

Hi everyone,
I've got a full schedule today so thought I'd post something fast. I CASE'd this one from someone on SCS but cannot remember who. So sorry. I HAVE to write down the names or figure out some technique to remember who I CASE from.

I used Inspired by Nature here, a stamp set that is sooooo versatile. The coneflowers look blue here but they're actually purple, Elegant Eggplant. The grass is Mellow Moss. The middle of the flower is Chocolate Chip as is the card stock and the Satin ribbon. There is a sliver of a mat in Mellow Moss. You'll notice that there is tone on tone work on the Chocolate Chip. I stamped the grasses in Chocolate Chip to give the card a shadowed look.

I used the Designer label punch to set the sentiment then offset the mat as well. I put a Mini Library Clip on top of the sentiment after I popped it up with a Stampin' Dimensional.

Does this need a butterfly? I have the textured die and wonder if that would add something. Or even a stamped one. Maybe I'll do one in Saffron and stamp it off first. Seems like I'm always tweaking things....

The day is sunny right now. We're supposed to have rain, AGAIN, but we may get out and enjoy that Vitamin D while we can! I swear I'm going to have to take a supplement this year!

Take care and see you tomorrow,

Prayers and the joy of his promises,

Much love,

It's Manic Monday!

So naturally I have a CAS card for all of you!

This one uses Real Red card stock topped with a printed window sheet from Clearly Thanks (#115122). I covered the adhesive with the Whisper White tafetta ribbon (#109070). The strawberry stamp is from Tart and Tangy (#111514). I colored with with Real Red and Always Artichoke Stampin' Write markers, huffed on the stamp and laid it down on WW card stock.

I punched it out with the 1 1/2 inch square punch (#104400) and then matted it by punching a 1 3/8 inch square (#103375) in Always Artichoke. I used a pop up glue dot to adhere it and it was finito!

Strawberries are in season here and they've been so sweetly amazing. I'm thinking about making some jam. It's tastes so summery and scrumptious in January and is such a great gift item. I'll pull my recipe today and figure out if it's something I feel like doing. The whole house smells like strawberries when I make jam. hmmm. Now I might have to!!

Have a wonderful week! We're off to the game reserve this morning, Ryan works there.

Take care of you and see you tomorrow,

Much love and joy,

Twill Monkey

Here's another Sock Monkey card ... so BEWARE those of you in the Scared of Sock Monkey Camp ... yes, that means you , Kim P.!

I used Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red as well as Whisper White on this one. I inked up The Twill Background stamp but only in the middle. You can see when I stamped it I ended up with white around the edges which I like. I used StazOn to stamp my monkey, and colored in the red portions with a Stampin' Write marker.

I finished it off with White Tafetta Ribbon and a Baja Breeze Designer button. A very simple card, but one that I loved making.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. My papa has been gone now for 16 years. It's doesn't seem possible. Give your dads an extra kiss today if they are still with us.

Take care and we'll see you tomorrow. We're going fishing today! I'm not really sure what I'm doing but hey, I get to be out in the beautiful summer day so who cares, right? Now I'd better get to church!

Much love and joy,

It's Scrappin' Saturday!

Hi everyone!

Too funny! I forgot that yesterday was 3D Friday and posted a regular card instead. Actually, I didn't space the 3D part as much as the Friday part! I kind of thought it was a different day. I'm not sure which one really, just not Friday. Who's in charge of me anyway??

Today is Scrappin' Saturday! I've got ... wait for it ... another Mexico page for you! This is a 12x12 layout and I hope to have the matching page here next week.

This page is about the bus (el camion). We took buses everywhere when we lived with families in Guadalajara. Most experiences were good and one was kind of scary, but I won't go there!

I'm still using The Write Stuff DSP with die cuts here. The pages is Old Olive textured card stock with smooth Soft Suede inset. The letters are cut from the Alphabet Simple Letters (an exclusive SU Sissix die) die (#115960). The button is a kraft corduroy button that will be retiring. I took a sliver of the Ruby Red DSP in that paper pack and threaded it through the button holes.

The bus is cut and punched. The square is Sahara Sand card stock with the corners rounded. The bumper is the Word Window punch and the tail lights and wheels are various circle punches. The little square back window are punched with a small square punch.

The photos are dark but you remember what it was like taking photos in 1978! You never knew if your film would turn out, especially after they x-rayed everything in customs!

The journaling circle is from the DSP pack and the top conversion chart is converting miles to kilometers. I recommend saving ticket stubs, charts, maps and the like for scrapbooking. I find that it's helping me fill out pages. Still new and not great at scrapping, but by golly, I'll get there!

Take care of you and see you tomorrow. If you 'd like to see my privacy fence, all finished read about it on my other blog Life on the Exceptional Side.

Much love and joy,

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Isn't this one fun? I know I say it a lot but ... I LOVE this set.

My mother moved to town a few years back and lives a few miles from us in an apartment. I made this card for her. The stamp set is All in the Family, the houses are a coordinating Jumbo wheel. The houses were stamped on WW, colored with markers and cut out. Then I mounted them on the same rolled images on Soft Sky card stock, but Bashful Blue or Baja Breeze should work. I just LOVE the soft sky and wish it would have come back to use for ... SKY!

I colored the clouds in the wheel with my white gel pen. I stamped the people on Watercolor paper and bled Stampin' Write markers to get the shading.It was a fun project!

The fence is done and now all we have today is final cleanup and polishing so to speak. It should be wonderful. It smells good too (cedar!)

We'll see you tomorrow for Scrappin' Saturday!

Much love and joy,

Lovely as a Tree - Spring

Lovely as a Tree is one of my all time favorite sets. It's so versatile. You can make cards for any season. This one was going to be a fall card, but I was inspired by the spring tree colors. Sometimes spring trees seem to be as colorful as fall, but with a different palette. I love all the celery, wasabi, saffron, lavender and pinks. It's amazing. So ... I made a spring card for men.

I used Close to Cocoa card stock for the card base, Elegant Eggplant for the mat and WW for the stamping area. I colored the image with Stampin' Write markers in Mellow Moss, More Mustard and Elegant Eggplant, primarily because I had Stampin' Up! glitter in those colors. I then used a two-way glue pen, touched the trees in various branches and added the different colors of glitter to make it pop. I finished it off with Elegant Eggplant 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon and some silver cord.

It's supposed to feel like summer here today. Yesterday was only about 80 degrees and it's the first non-rainy day we've had in a while. Today is going to be 86 and sunny for the most part. I love opening my windows the minute I get up!

The privacy/safety fence for my son should be finished today. It's a Western red cedar basket weave and absolutely gorgeous. I wanted the cedar (a) because it was cheaper than composite and (b) because it'll keep down the bugs. Ryan is terrified of bugs. He has raised garden beds for horticultural therapy so staying inside isn't an option. He's been such a houseplant that we put the beds in last fall. So far it's working other than him feeling unsafe and needing an army of adults to go outside and garden. Once the fence is up  he should feel secure enough to be out there alone ... I hope. :-)

I'd better get rolling. Thanks for stopping by and God bless you and yours!

Much love and joy,

Sunflower Seasons

For some reason THIS card got too MUCH light! Sheesh! I can't win for losing on this picture taking thing. It may explain why scrapbooking can be intimidating to me, right?

This card uses a Crumb Cake base, with Chocolate Chip mat and Really Rust background. A slip of designer paper has the greeting from Stem Sayings (#115078) on it in ch chip ink. The stamp set is A Flower for All Seasons (#111592) and will be in the new catalog. I used Watercolor Paper and stamped the image in Black StazOn ink. Then I outlined it with Stampin' Write markers and bled the ink with my aqua painter. The result has a bit of nice shading.

The sunflower is a combination of two Big Shot dies: the chocolate center is Flower Burst embosslit (#114515) and the Summer Sun portion of the flower is the Flowers Daisy #2 die (#114520). I sponged some chocolate chip ink onto the edges of the flower petals with a sponge dauber (#102892) so that I had more control over the color distribution. The leaves are the Little Leaves sizzlit die (#114511).

Have a wonderful day!

Much love and joy,

3x6 Gift Cards - Wasabi

Hey there!
It's another rainy day here in the northland! I have to tell you ... I'm wanting a bunch of SUNSHINE, thank you!

Today I thought I'd showcase the Trio Flower punch (#109183) because it's retiring this month. The stamps I used with it are the Three for You stamp set which retired but you could use any small sentiment or just make prima flowers by layering or separating card stock.

Here's our first one:

This one uses a Wild Wasabi (color returning July 1) card base with a tiny bit of Basic Black 1/4 inch ribbon as an accent. I then stamped the image with Purely Pomegranate (you could easily use Rose Red) to stamp the image followed by Wasabi dotted lines. I put a black eyelet through the flower with my Cropadile (#108362)

I punched out the image with the 1 1/4 inch Square punch (#104400) and punched the mat out of Pomegranate with the 1 3/8 inch Square punch (# 103375). The Black and White Gingham ribbon (#104832) is retiring too. Boo hoo! It's one of my favorites! I stamped the sentiment tone on tone (wasabi on wasabi) for a softer look. That's it.

For the next one

I used a So Saffron card base, a WW rectangle with raised, stamped flowers that I punched with the same Trio Flower punch, stapled a Wasabi strip and stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip. It looks crooked in this pic. Sometimes those tiny little cards are harder to get straight than the larger ones, you know?

This one is a little bolder in color and would be good with a plant gift. The colors are Purely Pomegranate (or Rose Red), Wild Wasabi and Handsome Hunter for the mat and the stamping. This one is pretty self explanatory. :-)

Same colors here. I patterned the Pomegranate with a dot punch before I laid down the Wasabi with the three flowers punched out. I used the Slot punch for the ribbon.

This one used the circle punch, as well as the piercing kit.

This one is a little softer again with the Pretty in Pink added. The flower has a silver brad through it before I mounted it on the card stock. I trimmed the edges of the brad with the wire cutter.

Don't forget to decorate the mini 3x3 envelopes!

This card is one of my absolute favs. The color of the base card is Soft Sky, a retired In Color, and one of my ALL time favs (along with Vintage Violet!) the sky circle at the side is matted with Brushed Silver card stock (#100712) and I put a small Crystal Rhinestone brad from the Pretties Kit (#109114) in the center. The accent color is Blue Bayou, as is the ribbon.

Here's another shot, showing the card held closed. 

 

Hope you had fun looking at all the ideas for gift cards! They're simple, fast and fun! Consider ordering the Trio Flower punch by the end of the month, after that it's gone. They aren't retiring many punches, just this one, the Tag Corner, and a fabulous scrapbooking punch, My Way. You can order through me or better yet, my website, Stamps and Such with Karen.

That's it for me. They're starting to install our privacy/safety fence today for my son, who has special needs. He's so excited and I'm looking forward to having peace of mind.

Take care,

Much love and joy,

It's Manic Monday!

Time for a CAS card! That's Clean and Simple for those just joining me!

The above card couldn't be any easier. I cut the base card from Mellow Moss card stock. This color is retiring so make sure to stock up by the end of June if it's one of your favorites.

The over layers is Whisper White card stock. The stamp set is Trendy Trees (#113258) as is the sentiment. I stamped the tree in Mellow Moss and Chocolate Chip. I ran two dry embossed lines at the bottom of the card to give it some pop. The lines are about 1/4 inch apart.

That's it, my friends. You could probably make this one in five minutes!
Have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow.
Much love and joy,

July Fourth at the Marina

Good morning!

It's a little before 6:00 a.m. and I don't have church until 9:00 but I had to get up and let the dog out anyway so decided to get a jump on the day. The only problem is I could easily sleep in, you know?  I'm hoping for blue skies today. I'm weary of the rain. Enough of my whining!

Here's today's card. I played with some Summer catty stamps this weekend along with some Sneak Peek colors! The base card on this is the new Marina Mist color of blue. I love it! The WW card stock on top of it I ran through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots Impressions folder (#117335) which was sold in the Occasions Mini Catalog. It will be carried over into the new catalog so don't worry if you haven't gotten it yet.

The other colors are Cajun Craze (the rusty red color) and Daffodil Delight.(the yellow color). These new core colors are amazing! I used the July Fourth stamp set (#118523 - wood mount; #120063- cling mount) in the Summer Mini catalog. I used Stampin' Write markers in those three colors (I LOVE that there are markers for all the colors in the new catalog!) and filled in the greeting stamp. I punched it out with the 1 1/4 inch Square punch (#104400) and matted it with Cajun Craze using the 1 3/8 inch Square punch (#103375) and raised the image with Stampin' Dimensionals (#104430).

I finished off the project by using a Mini Library Clip (#109857)  on the greeting and some Sneak Peek 1/8 inch Tafetta ribbon, which I tied crooked! Sorry about that!

I know you'll love the new colors, they're amazing! Let me know if you need a new catalog ordered. I have only a couple left in this shipment!

God bless and have a great sunny Sunday!

Much love and joy,