to another year! My nautical birthday card has been sitting on my “please finish me” pile for a long time. So I used the motivation from The Four Seasons blog challenge to get it done!! Navy and white with a bit of blue stenciling behind my navy die cut letters and a white unbranded sailboat die completes my card today.

My card will be share with:

The Four Seasons Challenge: August Summer Season 2026

It’s a hint of cooler weather in Pennsylvania today and a pleasant surprise. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and make it a great day.

A recent order with Scrapbook.com included toner panels of bees, sentiment strips, and honeycombs. Using Gina K Designs Fancy Foil in gold, fussy cutting and coloring my bees, I found an older Cuttlebug Honeycomb embossing folder in my stash. After using Taylored Expressions All Planned Out 1 die set, I ran the yellow section in the embossing folder, added some splatter then found a piece of patterned paper and die cut with the same planned out 1 set. The bees are a bit funky cute not like the nasty ones that attacked my son and daughter in law while sitting on their deck. Apparently a nest of wasps decided to attack and my DIL was stung about 25 times ended up in the hospital. Thankfully all is well and none of the grandkids were stung and the hive was removed. I don’t think she would appreciate this card but I will find someone who will.

My card will be shared with:

Can You Handle The Pressure: (8/2026) Anything Goes with a Twist of Bees and of course the required embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Schools in our area are back in session tomorrow and that means that high school soccer has begun. This year we have a Sophomore and a Freshman both playing Varsity Soccer. Unfortunately they both play on the same day but on different locations so we will need to divide and conquer.Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and make it a great day.

A speed challenge with a crafting theme accepted. Thanks to Johanna for reminding me of the always fun challenge at the As You See It Challenge blog. My card today was one recreated from a card class. The original class stenciled on felt and included twine. Since I didn’t have another piece of felt and could not find my twine and the clock was ticking, I opted for card and began the time. Taylored Expressions quilt square stencil in four different inks was used for my focal image. Then using TE’s All Planned Out 4 die set for my scalloped backer, followed by TE’s Cross Stitch embossing folder in jujube cardstock and inked with the same color to help the embossing stand out a bit. I couldn’t decide on a sentiment from the many pre stamped and cut sentiments in my stash and of course the time was starting to run out so I figured Life is a mess would fit since I found a few smudges on my card. My card was completed in 8 minutes and 45 seconds and will be shared with:

As You See It Challenge: Challenge #379 Hastened Handicrafts

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, stay cool and make it a great day.

Our son and daughter in law are having their marriage blessed by their priest on Saturday so I, of course, needed a card for them. When the feathers challenge was posted, I thought it may work for them,. Using Gina K Designs’ masking magic I sectioned off a portion of my card and ink blended with Taylored Expressions Royal Icing and Tiki Mule inks,. added Hero Arts Blessings Stamp & Cut set for the sentiments and using the reinker/baby wipe technique stamped Taylored Expressions The Thing with Feathers stamp and die set. The ink blended section also has feathers stamped in versamark and clear heat embossed.

My card will be shared with:

Double D Challenges: Double D Feathers Challenge 2026

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, keep cool and make it a great day.

Using inspiration from the Two Old Bats mood board, I knew I wanted books, a witch hat and a moon. I went on my search for The Rabbit Hole’s Autumn is Calling stamp and die set for my stack of books, The branch with black birds is my much loved Inkadinkadoo’s Halloween Trails and after first stamping and die cutting a witch hat from TH Sizzix set, I pulled it off and added a felt ephemera from my stash. My background was ink blended in Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks using my circle stencil cut from cardstock. My card will be shared with:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

I know I have Halloween sentiment strips somewhere in my stash but they didn’t seem to want to be located so I opted to leave a sentiment off of the front of my card. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, stay COOL and make it a great day.

Searching through my stash of patterned papers, I found this background from a Recollections paper pad named Sky & Sea. Cutting down a section of sky paper, I then stamped images from a My Hero Arts August 2017 kit. Using white pigment ink and white embossing powder and then a bit of gold embossing powder for the swirl of stars, die cut clouds and the larger star “balloon” to complete my card. The card was completed but the clean up was only beginning. While stamping on a messy desk, I accidentally spilled the gold embossing powder onto the stamps. Yikes, off to the sink for a stamp bath. Hopefully the clean stamps will help with their stickiness, too!

My card will be shared with:

Love Those Pretty Papers August 2026 Challenge This month’s optional theme is Look to the skies ( Galaxy, Lightning, Sunshine, Clouds, Stars) Themes keep me motivated so I played along with a galaxy and star theme.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, keep cool and make it a great day!

Today’s card uses Taylored Expressions Balloon Party layering stencils and C’mon and Celebrate word die. After making the background, I die cut the word die and layered it with several die cuts from white cardstock to make it pop off the card front. However it was not popping enough for me so I carefully deconstructed the word die and using the shadow die cut a piece of vellum and reassembled the card. I like it better. My card today will be shared with:

Word Power July 2026 Challenge

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and make it a great day.

It was fun attending Taylored Expressions Summer School virtual classes this year with our theme of Fruits of Summer! Yum! All of the fruit stamps were fun to color with our alcohol marker instructors. I was happy that raspberries were part of the stamp set because they are still my all time favorite summer fruit. Growing up we had a raspberry bush and my neighbor had a row of raspberry bushes. Nothing better than picking them straight off the bush amd eating them….no water needed….anyway not “back in my day”. My card today will be shared with:

Double D Challenges: (DD 7/26 Your Favorite Fruit Challenge

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and make it a great day.

I have been having a lot of fun making “summerween” cards this past week. My card today was influenced by our Buddy Judy who shared the Scrapbook.com’s summerween release. Love Buddies helping Buddies! My card uses the stamp and dies floating skeleton image as well as the sentiments. The patterned paper was from an older paper pad from Paper House World Beaches.

My card will be shared with:

ATG Love Those Pretty Papers July Challenge with an optional theme of Coastal

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. Take care and have a BOO-Tiful day!