The Louise Valentine

This is my Mom's valentine. I made it with a piece of fancy braiding from the "antique" box described in my last blog. This braid is from the dress she wore to my wedding. Yes, she sewed the dress, as well as mine and all my bridesmaids. She's a VERY special lady!!

I really love this card, even though the pix is not that great. I love all the borders. I used the MS heart punches both for the hearts and the borders. The stamp is an old one I have from PSX (I think.) I love it.

This is a modified version of the last one. It is for my granddaughters. They are spending the day with me today!! While the youngest one (soon to be one) was napping, HRU, the 4 year old and I made her Mommy and Daddy their valentine cards. Wish I had taken pictures. They were great!! I look forward to lots of stamping with both of them!!!
Happy Valentine's Day to each of you!

A Few More Valentines

Valentines are probably one of the most fun types of cards to make, in my opinion. Maybe it's because I have so much valentine stuff! LOL! This card is one I made when I was frustrated. I had a bunch of pieces for a card laying around - extras from the very first card I put on my blog. Hope one of my friends will enjoy it!
I love the rose embossing folder from SU. The next two cards are made with it with VERY different looks. Just added a stamp and a little ribbon for this one.
I got into my box of "antique" card making materials. Actually, this is a box of ribbon and buttons, etc. I "saved" from my parents house when we cleaned it out. One day I went through all my parents 50th anniversary cards and cut off stuff I thought I might use. (Not sure when I had time to do that, but glad I did!) This card has the embossed rose from SU and everything else but the "Be Mine" stamp and pearls are from the antique stash.

This is anther antique stash card. It is hard to tell from this picture, but it is a very light pink.
I cannot tell you how long this card took me. I just could not get it to look right until I put the Spellbinders frame on it. Now it is one of my favorite cards!
This one is for my DH!! He is an expresso fanatic. His old Krups expresso machine bit the dust in December, so he has been trying to find a new one that was not TOO expensive. We have looked at and tried expresso makers ALL month long ranging in price from $180 to $3000. Needless to say, I am exhausted with all of it, but the latte's keep me awake. LOL! He finally got one (on a super sale) below the $180 range. It was WAY more than that originally. So, when I came across the Fiskar's coffee mug punch on the clearance rack at JoAnn's last week, I was SO excited!! (Amazing how little it takes for me to be excited...) I had never seen this punch before. So this is the card I made. I think he will love it a latte...
A little too much glare on the first photo, but shows the brown glitter paper.
Inside is nothing spectacular. Just need to write in it and it it DONE!!
I have a REALLY special antique stash card to show you, but it will have to wait till after the 14th, because it is for one of my most faithful readers - my MOM! See you next time!

Paper Bears

Hard to imagine posting two days in a row! But, I realized I had forgotten something important in my post. I did make some very important bears - were going to be for Christmas, but ended up being a celebration gift for the one year anniversary of my granddaughter's bacterial meningitis. It was life's most difficult time - November 11, 2008 - my GD was diagnosed with BM. Nothing worse than watching your grandchild on death's bed and observing your child handling all of this. By God's grace, we have a healthy GD, with only a left sided hearing loss. So, to celebrate this, I made her a set of paper bears. When she was born, her aunt and uncle purchased a KU build-a-bear for her. This bear went through the 2 week hospitalization for BM. So, I knew it was near to her heart.

When I saw SU come out with the build-a-bear dies, I knew I wanted them.

So here is KU bear - as close to her original as I could make. I used velcro strips to attach the clothes, so she could change them at will. This photo is another bear with some more clothes. I made several bears - you know we have to have friends!!
And the pink and brown outfit...
And, finally her Christmas clothes. Since my GD's name is Holly, I loved this outfit.
I did make them sturdy by cutting out the bears in heavy cardboard, then with the color of CS I wanted to make the bear. Using my xyron, I glued the two pieces together for more play-ability!!

Birthdays, Christmas, Valentines, Oh My!!

It's been a very long time since I posted anything. Soon you will see and read why!!

Currently I am working on Valentine's Day cards and am having a hard time. I have spent so much time with these two cards, I'm a little weary.

I decided to gather all my Valentine's card making "stuff" into one place so I could see what was available - maybe too much. I'm sure some unnamed people in my house might think that is true...

But, that's NEVER true, right?

My favorite stamps are valentines and roses, so I have plenty to choose from!

I got a Big Shot to replace my old Zip e Mate and WOW, I love it. Cuts through about anything and has a wider bed and replacement parts!!

Stamps - SU Hearts background, Quickutz heart border, Spellbinders hearts die and an old Fiskars heart border punch.
I am really disappointed in the color of the second picture - the pink is really a coral pink. (But as you can see on the first picture, one of the inside white hearts is showing in the heart cutout, and there is a lot of glare. The colors are more true in it.) The coral is a little unusual for me, but it is a great glitter paper.

I spent WAY too much time on this card... I started with the BIGZ XL that I purchased in a promotion from SU. It has the changeable dies. I thought this would make great valentines if I put it together with a beautiful stamp from Inkadinkado that I purchased from Archievers. Well, the stamp was too big. So I decided to make a bigger card, but then cutting the heart window became complicated. SO, like I said I spent WAY too much time on this one.

Stamps - heart from Inkakinkado, With Love - Denami, Happy Valentine's Day - PSX.

Dies - Sizzlets, Spellbinders

Border Die - Fiskars
Inside of valentine card.
Now, this may seem like an odd picture, but it is important!! My daughter-in-law is an incredible card maker, gift wrapper, etc. This is a picture of one of the beautiful gifts she gave me before I opened it. (Yes, it had stamping stuff in it!!)
Here is a picture of some of the beautiful packages she placed under our tree. She used the Basic Grey wrapping paper, so...
When I made her thank you card, I used leftover pieces of the wrapping paper and ribbon for the card. I also received a Letterpress machine for Christmas, which I liked, but the template construction leaves a LOT to be desired... I did add a Letterpress piece on the front.
The tree is a chipboard piece from an old Lisa Bearnson set covered in, you guessed it, Basic Grey wrapping paper!! The "Love You" is part of a Quickutz die set I purchased for $3.66; original price $24.99. It is true that good things come to those who wait... Wish I was always patient!!
This thank you was for my son. I forgot to take a picture before I wrote on it. But, I love the reindeer!! The stamp and paper are from Paper Source. In the picture you cannot tell the paper is shiny; it is beautiful. Color is Shimmer Chocolate. I just added different colors of Stickles for the ornaments, and it was done.
This was a quick thank you (after the Letterpress was done.) I love the colors!!

Paper - old SU

Metal gift - Making Memories
This is not a great picture of the card, but I loved the die cut.

Die cut - Lattice BIGZ from SU

Border punch - Martha Stewart

Ornament punch - SU

Stamps - SU, MorningStar
Now, I will explain why it has been so long since I have posted. Above is a pix of my oldest granddaughter. We are making sugar cookies for my son, her uncle. In December we have 4 birthdays, besides Jesus' birthday, and 3 anniversaries. All are before Christmas, except one birthday. SO, we are always busy in December!! On top of all of that...
We got our new puppy the day after Thanksgiving! Now, I know you are all saying, "Why would anyone get a puppy in the winter? Well, I did not want a new puppy in the winter either, but we had to put our 12 year old lab to sleep in April. For a while we were not sure we wanted another dog. But, after a little incident in our neighborhood in August, we decided we WERE getting a new puppy. After lots of searching by my DH, we found a breeder and their next litter was due in October. So, our new pup was ready to be adopted the day after Thanksgiving!! On the day we got her, she weighed 14 lbs. Yesterday, she weighed in at 24!! This picture is of my youngest son with her a few days after we got her. What follows is his birthday card.
At some point in October or early November, we got a bulk mailing from American Express. I looked at the boxes and thought, "Wow, these would make great cards!" As you will see this was my second attempt, far better than the first. The picture above is of the outer covering. I covered it in some great wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby. I stamped the Happy Birthday to You stamp several times on white paper and cut them out. I then stamped the inside of the circles, added Thickers for his name and a little ribbon.
On the "card" I used the SU signs set. I stamped them and cut them out, put them through the xyron and attached them to the out side of the window panel.

I had this birthday DP - not sure of company. I also had a great "son" stamp from My Sentiments Exactly.
Then I put a ribbon on that part to open up to an area to write the greeting. FUN, huh? It's so fun to try something new with a found object!!
This card was made from the 2nd American Express box - glad both my hubby and I got that junk mail!! This was my first attempt. This card was for my daughter-in-law. I used some old Basic Grey papers to cover the outside envelope.
I put the Happy Birthday letters on the outside of the window, as well as the "From our house."

My daughter-in-law had just completed new curtains for their house, so I tried to make the inside look like curtains.

For this I used a new MS punch. And as you can see the SU birthday stamp set.This is my son-in-law's card. He is a NASCAR fan, so I am always trying to come up with something about racing. I had just learned how to make the slider cards, so I thought this would be fun. Besides, my little granddaughter would be amazed at the moving parts!!

Stamps - SU, Morningstar

Embossing folder - Cuttlebug
This is the left pullout panel.
And the right.
Finally some stickers on the inside.

So, even though I have not had time to post since October, I have done some stamping!!

See you soon!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Welcome to my little "peace" of the paper crafting world. Probably as for many of you, making cards is my stress reliever. I can be in my own little world, free of all the other daily worries, creating something "beautiful."

For those of you who do not know, in my everyday life I am a public health nurse, and with the current H1N1 chaos, I REALLY need a little peace these days!! So I took a little time to myself yesterday.

When I first began making my own cards, I purchased a stamp to "Hallmark" my items. Here is what it says,

"'...here I had been paying this guy sixty dollars, twice a week, for five years and I was still depressed. So, I quit analysis and started buying rubber stamps. Now every week I spend one hundred dollars on stamps and I have never been happier. If I could only get Blue Cross to ...'"

I think that describes the feeling all too well!!!

FYI it was a Judi Kins stamp. I don't know if it is still out there, but it's a great one!!

Wouldn't it be great to have $100 per week for stamps?!

On to my Christmas fun. This card started as a scrap. I found it about a week ago. It is the red part of the card. I had cut out the heart with the Spellbinders heart set and tried out a scallop punch (Fiskars) on the bottom. Apparently, I then had placed it in the red scraps. I pulled it out of the scrap box and put it in a holly embossing folder and it turned into something lovely. On top of this beautiful holly paper, with a few add-ons, it turned into a pretty decent "scrap" card! I love the SU tag. I made it with the new embosslit. The Merry really stands out. I finished the card with a little holly stamp and the new SU shimmer paint.
One other thing many of you may not know about me is that my dear first grandchild's name is Holly, so I have many, many holly items. My next blog will be about the "paper bears" I have made for her for Christmas. But, I digress.

The card below was made using a new Basic Grey Christmas paper (thinking of you, Elly) and more scraps. I die cut red and shimmer white papers with the SU top note die cut. I stamped a evergreen sprig (also SU) on the back of the white shimmer paper and attached them to the DP. I stamped the ornaments with the new shimmer paint and punched them out with the new SU ornament punch. I attached the red and silver cord to the back of the ornament, punched a small hole in the top and pulled the cord through it. I attached the cord with tiny dimensional circles. Now, for those of you who DO know me, you are probably asking yourself if I spent more than $100 on new "toys." Well, I just happened to be the hostess at stamp club last month, so I spent some and got LOTS of freebies! Whahoo!!

The white poinsettia card was made using some of my "found" items. The cardstock is plain burgandy. I had a large piece of the swirled, glittery fabric from a bouquet I received about a year ago. I kept it in my stash for just the right card. I have Plenty for more cards. LOL. I cut out the Spellbinder's poinsettia in two shades of white and one large one in a forest green. I used gold Stickles for the center. The flourish is a piece of the Sizzix Decorative Swirls with Berries and Holly.
The second picture is to show the effect of the shimmer paint on the poinsettia.
This card is the traditional colors. I really do love it. I put this poinsettia on embossed white cardstock (again an SU embossing folder.)
Second photo shows dimension. I had seen a couple of cards using the Spellbinders set of poinsettias. I wasn't sure mine would turn out, but just by bending the petals in different ways, it quickly took shape.
Enough for tonight.

I do hope this finds each of you looking forward to celebrating the blessings of Christmas and the Great gift of a Savior we were given so many years ago!

Missing Time to Stamp

Hello friends!

No time since vacation to post. Have made a few cards along the way and decided to post tonight. I always enjoy other card blogs and am sad when some of my favorite bloggers seem to have vanished for weeks at a time, so here we go!!

The first card is one I started on vacation. Several friends have recently lost parents, so sympathy was on my mind. This card was SIMPLE. I embossed some metallic paper with an embossing folder, rounded the edges, placed a simple sentiment on the embossed paper and added a few pearls!!
The card below was a card I made this evening. I have a birthday lunch this week and needed a card for it. Saw a great card on Jen del Muro's site that gave me an idea. I pulled out a Quikutz flower die I've had for a long time and some paper I had been saving for something special. (I have a hard time using my stash of beautiful papers. Some of you know what I mean...) Added a few smaller punches with bling and was nearly done. I did score the moss paper. Love the sewn look. I used the leftovers for the inside, added a happy birthday stamp and it's ready for my friend!
This card is one of my favorite. My son is in the U.S. Navy, so I am always thinking about cards for him. Since he doesn't look at this site, I can post them before they are sent. I have seen several cards lately with multiple border punches, so came up with this combination. The white one reminds me of rope. Added a few anchors, a great soldier stamp and a USN seal, and soon it will be on its way to encourage one of the strong ones who fight for our freedom. Thanks TDG!
This card was for the Navy son's wife. I HAVE sent this one, since my dear daughter-in-law is a card maker too! She is the sweetest daughter-in-law anyone could ask for. This combination of colors always reminds me of her. And the sentiments fit what I was feeling... A little blue missing her.
The die cuts are from the Spellbinder's Scallop frame set. I love the little flowers too! So I added some of them to the inside of the card.
The congrats card was inspired from a Making Memories pad I got from Archiever's. I loved the black and white with just a hint of another color on each page. I added the border, a little bling and it was ready to send.
It's late Sunday night, with a big week of work ahead. (For those of you who do not know, my real job is public health nursing. Flu season is upon us, so, too little time for fun with card making.) Blessings to each of you.