Father’s Day cards for our son and son in law this year. The patterned papers for these cards were gifted to me by my sister called World Beaches from Paper House. It’s a lovely paper pack and I was happy to add it to my stash and my goal to keep on using those patterned papers. Who knows patterned papers may become popular again.

The second photo is the inside of the previous card and was stamped using GKD’s By The Sea by Theresa Momber. The fourth photo is the inside of the previous card and will be sent to our son in law. Their annual Hawaii trip may now be in jeopardy. This may little comfort to him if the trip falls through but it sure looks like paradise on the beach. Sentiments also were included in the By The Sea stamp set.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. Hope everyone had a wonderful day. I believe our first heat wave of the season is coming to an end by Thursday. We did have some much needed rain. Hugs!!

June Anything Halloween

My card today is for the Halloween monthly challenge with the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge of Anything Halloween . There were so many choices and directions to have gone with this month’s mood board but I decided on the bottom right tile. Dark spooky skies, Halloween moon, trees and fenceline with a pop of color.

My card uses Penny Black’s “Dark Spirits” slapstick/cling stamp. Ooohh!! Such a great name for this stamp. I finally picked up some gray stamp pads and used them to create my background after masking a circle for the moon and using SSS’s cloud stencil from their April kit. The fence is a Martha Stewart punch. I needed a pop of color to balance my hanging pumpkins and lightly colored in my spooky moon.

So much fun to play Halloween on a monthly basis.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Spring Soccer

Lacrosse

Spring sports are coming to a close so I decided to make some cards for the grandkids celebrating the end of their seasons. I’m beginning with Chase and soccer. First he was the substitute goalie but now he’s the starting goalie. This is definitely a nail biting position. Brooke has decided to give lacrosse a go. Oh my an 8 year old with a stick in the air. She did really well and since this is more of a learning age they are required to pass three times before trying for a goal. Sports stamps are hard to come by so I bought some scrapbook layout embellishments.

Next up will be Softball for Brooke and Lacrosse for Chase….yes he decided he wanted to try lacrosse too much to his mother’s dismay because boys lacrosse can be pretty rough. The final group of cards will be baseball for Chase and soccer for Brooke. I think mom and dad are exhausted from all of the games and practices but I believe the kids are all having fun and contribute a lot to the teams.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Playing along with the May Anything Halloween challenge with Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge blog today. For my card, I chose a cat with pumpkin from a Recollections stamp set as well as a spider stencil which was inked with GKD’s soft stone ink. My center portion of the card layer was sponged using Hero Arts butter bar to orange soda ombre ink pad. The patterned paper as well as the sentiment and spiders are Simon Says Stamp (Spook Up Some Fun stamp set).

Always fun challenge and this month’s mood board inspired the pumpkins out of me.

Thanks for stopping by for a peek. Hard to believe one more week of the month of May.

The month of May brings two major celebrations for our family. The first is my hubby’s birthday. Pops got to celebrate with our youngest granddaughter this year for his birthday and we had so much fun with this little three year old. On a previous post I thought I would give me the card in the warm brown tones but at the last minute decided on something a little more fun.

After we celebrate hubby’s birthday, it’s time for our 45th wedding anniversary on Saturday. We are supposed to be having a long awaited sleep over with our two older grandchildren (8 and 10). It’s been at least 15 months since we had them for a sleepover and we can’t wait. So staying on the light side of our anniversary, I decided on this card:

Both cards’ sentiments are computer generated and the empty toilet paper roll was found on line as a free clip art item. I stamped my hearts using a Sizzix framelits w/stamps set in GKD cherry red ink and mounted it on a Bonnie patterned paper. The birthday card’s candles are a Hero Arts red rubber mounted stamp. I visited Pinterest to find these ideas.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Using a new to me SU Blossoms In Bloom stamp set and dies as a thank you for my SU demonstrator, it fit in with the challenge at Make The Cards. The recipe for the 3 – 2 – 1 challenge is: 3 embellishments, 2 die cuts and 1 stamped image. My stamped image is the main floral image from the Blossoms In Bloom stamp set which has a watercolor vibe to it. My two dies are the coordinating dies for this stamp set which I cut in GKD Wild Lilac and Lovely Lavender cardstock. The three embellishments are tiny pearls.

There are a lot of options with this stamp and die set which could be complex or simple. Not part of the challenge but I decided to go simple with the next two cards which will be for my daughter and daughter in law for Mother’s Day.

The Happy die cut is a Momenta Little Yellow Bicycle word die set and the stamped sentiment is from GKD’s A Beautiful Life.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Last day of April so let’s bring on the May flowers. Such a windy day today it feels like the unpredictable March winds but with little sprinkles of rain off and on all day. We could have used a nice soaking rain to wash away some of the pollen.

My card today will be entered into the Double D Challenges: April Showers challenge to include anything water related. My little bear is stuck out in the rain with a little buddy and thankfully an umbrella. My image is Penny Black’s “Sunshine in the Rain” which was colored in with some markers, my stencil is by Bonnie and I used some Nuvo Crackle Mousse in Celestial Blue mounted on a black layer and GKD’s Lemon Drop cardstock. The sentiment is SSS’s Follow the Rainbows stampset.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. Have a great weekend.

An attempt at a challenging challenge of a clean and simple card consisting of a one inch strip with the optional twist of small stamps. Oh boy, I may be totally challenged but determined to play along with the AAA Cards group. I did find an older Stampin Up stamp set “A Little Bit of Happiness” which should I admit that it may never have been inked until now!! The stamp I chose was my favorite of the set because it not only has butterflies but dragonflies too! After stamping with versamark ink, I heat set with SSS white embossing powder then colored with Arteza markers. Well not really coloring just swiping the marker and attempting to blend the color edges.

I decided to add a little bling and I think my teardrop gems are upside down so now they can be called raindrops. Can I blame the upside down gems on pollen which have eyes itchy and red?

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

It’s been awhile since I last posted but I have been working continuously on prepping cards for the “Making Cards for Troops” organization. May 8th my girlfriends for life and I will be getting together to assemble these cards. The group has requested all occasion cards but no holiday cards except Christmas so I’ve been working to cover a variety of cards. I believe I am up to 24 packs of 5 cards…..one original in each and 4 to make.

I was totally inspired by Bonnie’s card with the dragonfly about a month ago so this is my version of Bonnie’s gorgeous card. Of course my card is not as complex as Bonnie’s but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I decided on warm tones in kraft, ivory and brown. I need a nice gray not green gray but gray gray ink!

The stencil is TCW Sunflower Meadow designed by Carmen Medlin that I found at SSS. I inked that with GKD Kraft ink. My frame was made using two Waffle Flower A2 Lacy Layers Dies and a template that Lisa B had sent to me. Thank you Lisa. I use it often. Instead of the dragonfly, I decided on this soaring bird from GKD’s Springtime Silhouette StampTV kit and stamped in and the sentiment that I found on my desk in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. My cardstock was all Recollections from my Michael’s store. They have a nice variety of heavy weight cardstock in shades of four colors. Unfortunately, their layering weight is only 65 lb and not the matchy/matchy with the heavy weight cardstock.

I have to make one more of these for my sample as I decided to give this one to Will for his birthday on May 2nd. Thanks for inspiring me Bonnie and the rest of our Stamp Buddies. Next I’ll be case-ing Lisa B as I have the die cut from her Pantone color challenge card on it’s way to me, too.