Linen Thread Bird Nest

This is a CASE from Stamping School. I had to change the direction of my layout a bit as I was using a retired bird image from the Nature Walk stamp set. And I used some retired Dusty Durango Designer Series Paper. You know when that color came out I didn't care for it; now I wish it was still available. Oh well! I've combined it with Pool Party and Crumb Cake. That color trio just made me think of robin's and spring time. We've had a bit of cold weather again. Blah!
The bird's nest is essentially made by wrapping linen thread around two fingers several times and then adhering to the card. Then after you've fussy cut the bird adhere it on top with a dimensional. I used the discontinued Blendabilites to color my bird but think if I did it again I'd get better robin look by using markers. Live and learn!

Fun Pinwheel Fold Card

 This card is much easier to make than it looks. Dawn Ochefske has an excellent video on her blog that I used as my guide. I then mounted the square card onto a piece of 4-1/4 X 5-1/2 cardstock so it would fit in an A4 envelope perfectly. (You could just put the square card in the envelope, too. But I like the added ribbon above or the stars below.) I decided to add the "to open" image to the card front so the recipient would know what to do. That stamp comes from the retired "Got Treats" stamp set.

The star strip and stars come from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies.

Love is Kindness

Woohoo! I won this stamp by posting a picture of a recent card project on Stamping School's Facebook Freebie Friday post. It is from the Occasions catalog and I had manged to pass it up but really wanted it. So I was excited to get it last week and immediately sat down and made several cards. It is so pretty!

Banner Cut Out

I saw a card where the banner was cut out along the edge and expression was stamped above that cut out. I changed it up a bit. This was a quick and easy card using my Big Shot, Banner Framelits and Birthday Bash Designer Series Paper.

Here's another card using one of the foil sheets from the Birthday Bash DSP. I used the Small Oval punch and the feet from the Owl Builder Punch to make the balloons.

Amazing Birthday

I was looking for some new birthday images and Amazing Birthday caught my eye. This is my first card using the set.

TBT: All in the Family Sisters

A friend brought her two little nieces with her to church. My husband sends out cards to all the visitors so he requested a special one for these little girls. I used the All in the Family stamp set, Warm Words stamp set, Lullaby Designer Series Paper, In Color ribbon, markers and Large Oval punch to make this card.
Hint:  to get the knots on the ribbon lined up they way you want; attach a flat piece of ribbon to the card front, then knot a smaller piece of ribbon to that flat piece. Then you can slide that knot wherever you want it.

More Moon Lake

This is the third image in Moon Lake stamp set. It's such a pretty sketch. I stamped on watercolor paper and then used an aqua painter and my ink pads to color the scene.

Another Moon Lake Image

For this card I used the same technique with the stamps from Work of Art and a second image from Moon Lake.  Thank you comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

Moon Lake

I decided I wanted Moon Lake stamp set. If you live in Minnesota you should have a stamp with a loon on it, not mention some lake images. Honestly the images were just too beautiful to pass up.
About the same time my set arrived I received the Stampin' Up! demo's magazine and they had used the loon image with a couple of stamps from Work of Art set to make a small square gift card. So, I modified that a bit to make this card. So quick and easy to get this look.

And speaking of loons... and no, I'm not referring to my friends in this photo but I am holding a glass of Loon Juice. Loon Juice is the name of The Four Daughters Winery's cider. I joined this crew for an afternoon excursion to the winery. Some of us enjoyed tasting and some just enjoyed a drink or two. But we all enjoyed the food. We each ordered an item off their Sunday menu and then passed them around to share. Delicious! And what a fun group to be with yesterday afternoon.

Let the Cute Begin for Baby Girl

This card front had me looking through my stamp sets for the words "sweet" and "girl". Sweet comes from You Are Loved stamp set and girl from A Dozen Thoughts stamp set. Once I found the stamps I wanted to use I just used my black marker and stamped them on the front and then adhered the b-a-b-y that I cut using my Big Shot. 

CASE:  Deanna Jean

Friends just had a little girl and the photo they sent out for the birth announcement is beyond cute! I used the image that was in the Best of Brides and Babies 25th Anniversary stamp set. Can you see that I stamped a second time on Designer Series Paper and then fussy cut the little onesie out and glued it down over the stamped image on the card interior. 

TBT with Another Thank You

We send a lot of thank you's from our home. So many people are active in the ministry of the churches Brian serves.
I had this little scrap of Designer Series paper sitting on my desk and lots of these retired buttons and ribbon. So, it just made for a very quick card. The sentiment is from Another Thank You stamp set which is still available.

Hearts a Flutter

Hearts a Flutter stamp set is one I thought I would use a lot and haven't. So, I've challenged myself to get it out put it to work. If you make a card like this you will want to pull out your stamp-a-ma-jig to get the banners lined up and probably also to stamp the sentiment. My sentiment comes from Delightful Dozen stamp set. The little flower was punched using the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and topped with a candy dot.
CASE: Amy O'Neill

Stamping and Doodling

Here's a fun technique my niece shared with me. I'm hooked!
I've used the retired Secret Garden stamp set and Blushing Bride and Sahara Sand ink pads to stamp the flower and leaf images. Then I used my black marker's fine tip to doodle. I've ordered the journel pens and will give them a try when they arrive. I'll let you know which I like better for doodling. You can doodle as much as you like. I kept it pretty simple.
The little welcome tag was punched with the Decorative Label punch with just half of it peeking out. Welcome comes from Warm Words stamp set.

Believe Bookmark

This month's women's Bible Study was a lesson on faith and doubt. It made me think of this expression from Just Believe stamp set. So, I made bookmarks for all the women. They love getting little treats,
I heat embossed the expression to give it a little pop. The flowers were stamped with Pool Party ink on Pool Party paper.

You will want to be sure and let the flower image dry completely before stamping the expression to heat emboss. I didn't on my prototype... I thought it was dry but there are little bits of green embossing all around the expression. So on the remaining bookmarks I made sure to give them more time to dry.

Circles!

This card uses 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" punches to make the circles out of card stock and Sweet Taffy DSP. Glue the circles to the white card stock base and trim off the excess along the edges. Then layer on the Daffodil Delight card stock and add the buttons and the banner. I used the Hexagon punch to make the notch in the banner.

TBT with a Fun Fold

Today's throw back card uses retired colors along with a retired die cut and the retired Circle Circus stamp set. This is a CASE of Jane Knudsen. I pretty much took her fold directions and created my own card. The Basic Birthday Decorative Strip was used in the Big Shot to cut out the letters. I cut it 4 times to get the different colors for the inside of the card and then cut the Happy apart and every two letters of Birthday apart. I'm always looking for ways to use this die as the cut strip is almost 12 inches long. I really like the way the card turned out. I used Midnight Muse and Encore Silver pads to ink the front. The rhinestones on the front are smaller than the current ones in the catalog. These came from a previous SU! product for decorating eggs. (I've been digging in my stash and straightening up my studio again... seems like it needs a good straightening every couple weeks.
The bottom photo shows how simple the fold is.
Start with a 5-1/2 X 11 inch piece of card stock.
Cut 5/8" off one short side
Score at 4-1/4, 5-1/4, 6-1/4 inches.
Flip over and score at 4-3/4 and 5-3/4 inches.
Fold back and forth in zig zag fashion to get fold as shown in photo above.
Decorate front and inside of card.

Punched Circles

This card is a CASE of Kelly Rasmussen on Pinterest. The hardest part of making this card was creating the template for punching the 3/4" circles. Once I had that created the rest of the card went together quickly using the little star punch and some scraps of Sweet Taffy DSP. The greeting is from the retired On Your Birthday stamp set. After I had this card done I felt like it could use a little something more. So I grabbed my Essentials paper piercing pack and made this stepped up card.

Gold Soiree Dots

 Today's card uses one of the special papers from the Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper. It's hard to tell in the photo but some of the dots are made with Metallic Gold Ink. I've used the Big Day and Something to Say stamp sets and a circle punch plus three little Garden Green Candy dots.

Seeing Spots!

This week I'm seeing spots! Today's card uses two stamp sets. Celebrate Today from the Occasions catalog for the Celebrate and the dotted background and Big News for the candle.  

CASE: Jill Hilliard

Seeing Stars - Day 5

Two cards today made with the Work of Art stamp set. The top card using one of the brush stroke stamps. Start with your lightest color first and then increase in intensity and you won't have to scrub your stamp between. Add a sentiment. I used Word Play stamp set, then some stars punched from silver glimmer paper and some rhinestones. I wasn't going to use the rhinestones until I had a tiny smudge of ink on the card... so had to think of a way to cover that up. Happy Accident!

The bottom card uses a piece of the Sweet Taffy DSP. That gave me the jumping off point for my colors. The sentiment is from the Pictogram Punches stamp set.  The larger stars were cut using my Stars framelits and the smaller star in the sentiment was punched using the star in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. 

CASE:  Laurie Zoellmer

TBT is Seeing Stars - Day 4

For TBT I've used one of the first stamp sets I purchased, Starring You. I've used the retired Gumball Green ink pad and three patterns from the retired Birthday Basics DSP along with retired Summer Starfruit Ribbon and card stock for the star. All those pieces are layered on a piece of retired Raspberry Ripple card stock and attached to the Very Vanilla card base.

Seeing Stars - Day 3

A small strip of the Birthday Bash Designer Series Paper gives this card pizzazz. Then it's just a few punches of card stock (Crushed Curry and Tangerine Tango here), stamping your sentiment (from Big News stamp set) and added a few candy dots.