White on Ivory

White on cream is elegant, but difficult to photograph.  This close up photo is a bit washed out to highlight the white tree.

Stamped the trees in Hero Arts Unicorn, a white pigment ink, on cream card stock, and let it dry.  I stamped the sentiment in brown over the tree and colored in a bit with a marker, as the white ink washed out the "s" in thanks.

I have a thing for flat note cards....and always use the heaviest card stock I have on hand, particularly when it is a one layer note card.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Serene

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Winter Woodlands and Stampin Up Thank You Always
Ink:  Hero Arts Unicorn, Versamagic Jumbo Java, and Stampin Up marker
Paper:  ??
Other:  We R Memory Keepers Corner Rounder

Love in an Envelope

Thanks so much for all of your warm and supportive comments over the past few days.  This has been a very special week and I thought it would be a good time to post what I call "Love in an Envelope".

Made with more of the Stampin Up! gold foil paper, the Silhouette, a Memory Box Holly card, and a bit of glue.

That's it.

MOOD WHEN DONE = delighted

Christmas in a Sea of Change

First up is a card I made, inspired by this post at Damask Love.

Because the deer (cut with my silhouette) is fragile, this card was hand delivered.

and some talk --

Christmas 2013 was my first Christmas without my mom or anyone in my childhood family.  My brother died earlier this month and that left me the last of my immediate family.   My brother lived a sad difficult life and his death was a shock.  More than anything it was a tremendously sad thing.  I am glad my mom was not alive for this as it would have been beyond her.

I spent a few weeks blown over by the sheer sadness, but got my bearings this week.  I am happy to say that I spent a delightful Christmas surrounded by my son, husband, mother in law, and my brother in law and his family.   Lots of fun, music, noise, teasing and games.  Did I say food?  Wow, my wonderful sister in law cooked her heart out.

Hope to be back stamping soon and hope that those of you who celebrate Christmas enjoyed it.

MOOD WHEN DONE = grateful

Merry Christmas

To those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope your holiday is filled with peace, happiness, and good health.  If your family isn't the Norman Rockwell version of Christmas, then I wish you strength and patience --  and also peace, happiness and good health!

This was the last Christmas card I made for this year -- cut the "joy" with my Silhouette using Stampin Up's gold foil paper.  Hard to see, but there are some white embossed snow flakes under the sentiment. Here's a close up.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Pensive

Easy Christmas Thank You Cards

A simple way to get across a "Thank you for the Christmas gift."  Made even easier by using pre made holly embellishments.  I prefer the top one, but the bottom one is fun too.

Supplies:

Stamps: Stampin Up Another Thank You
Paper:  Neenah Solar White; top card Stampin Up Real Red; bottom card Memory Box Holly
Ink:  Ranger Black Archival
Other:  Jolie embellishment

MOOD WHEN DONE = Happy to be stamping

Directing Your Attention...

to 2  blogs that are inspiring me lately.  (You can always click on the top of my blog for links to some of my favorite blogs.)

The Storyteller -- How could I not know about this blog??   I have never seen anyone combine stamping and watercoloring the way she does.  Warning, plan on spending some quality time here.

Fill Your Paper With the Breathing of Your Heart -- Always lovely.  Always.

That's it. I did a mile on the treadmill.  A very s l o w mile.  I was off for a few days due to getting sick, but I'm fine now and back slogging away!

Gee, Another Christmas Card!

Made this quite some time ago.  In fact, so long ago that I do not remember how I made the background, other than it involved a lot of water and some gold spray.  Must have used some Distress Inks??  Stamp from Impress Rubber Stamps.  Love it.

Nevetheless...

MOOD WHEN DONE = Excellent!

Joy

No stamping -- used my Silhouette and purchased holly embellishments.

and just because....

Now these will wake up the recipients!

MOOD WHEN DONE = Joyful

Moving

No, I'm not moving again; rather I'm walking/jogging on the treadmill.

What may be normal for most hasn't been for me.  I just prefer sedentary.  Crafting, working, reading, writing, watching TV -- not a lot of movement.   But I also got a good long look at a bunch of stroke victims at the nursing home where my mom was and I'm not ready to be that sedentary.

So a couple of months ago, I bought sneakers and got on Mike's treadmill.  I'm slow, as in my first walk was 1 mile and it took 35 minutes.  I'm down to a 17 minute mile, most of which is walking with a few moments of jogging thrown in.  My distance is now 1.1 miles 4 times a week.  Progress.

Now the amazing part is that I don't hate it.  I don't leap out of bed and run down to the man cave to get on the treadmill but it turns out that I really like the feeling of working up a sweat.

I've decided to track my progress on the blog -- you'll find the widget in the upper right.  Now I have to keep moving!

Poinsettia Tag Card

Ah coloring....

Relaxing.  I stalk Jill Foster's blog and this tag is the result!

MOOD WHEN DONE = A little Bing Crosbyish and don't tell me you don't know who that is.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Flourishes Poinsettias and Pines and PTI (sentiment)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo

Paper: Neenah Solar White

Other:  Copics, Faber Castell gold marker (excellent), Ranger Distress Inks, twine, rhinestone

Happy Birthday (and some talk about selecting stamp sets)

Love this squiggle frame from Clear and Simple.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Reasonably content

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Curly Label Frames 1, Stampin Up Itty Bitty Banners, and Lawn Fawn Cruising Through Life
Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Other:  Faber Castell Big Brush Markers, Stampin Up yellow marker, Ranger glossy accents, dimensionals

Talking:

I have developed a bad habit of taking my time to carefully look at stamp set offerings, buying a few knowing at the time that they will be exactly what I want, and then finding myself disappointed at my choices.

I never noticed this before -- I suspect because I bought a lot more sets in the past and so there was always something lying around to love!

See that curly label frame above?  I do like this a lot.  I love that whimsical style and think I will use this frequently.  When I went to find something to put inside it, though, I had almost nothing that worked, except this pinwheel.

So, I'm looking for advice on selecting sets.  How do you ensure that you buy what you like???

Snow Boy

Love this little boy.

MOOD WHEN DONE = It is 4:20 am, I've been up for 2 hours and about to go on the treadmill.  I possibly need a nap.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Stamps Winter Woodlands
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Amuse and Neenah Solar White
Other:  Paper Source Embossing Powder, Red Copic (to draw in scarf), glue, paper trimmer, embossing buddy, heat gun, time to commute to work to earn the $$ to buy this stuff....

Mittens, Many Mittens

Used the Silhouette to create these cute mitten cards.

I made a lot of these, using different color combinations, but am only showing you a few of my favorites.  I love the crisp fun look of these cards.

The cards are prefolded Memory Box (white interiors), and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Inside Out Christmas.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Accomplished

20 cards in 20 minutes

Pressed for time but want to send out hand stamped Christmas cards?
Me too!

Here's a design that uses one stamp (Impress Merry & Bright Chalk), a pre-cut and scored card) (Memory Box), one ink (Hero Arts Unicorn) and some glitter glue (Ranger Stickles).  The large stamp contains everything you need -- sentiment and accents so all I did was stamp at a slight angle.

Using the assembly line method, I made 20 cards in 20 minutes!  I varied the colors of the cards, using what I had on hand.  Most of them are the Memory Box Graphite cards that produce a fun "chalkboard" look that is so popular now, but I slipped in a few other colors as well.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Well, I started the day dragging and a bit overwhelmed but I'm wrapping up the afternoon feeling Merry and Bright!

Hey

What happens when you have insomnia...just a silly fun card.

Colored the envelopes so that there was a bit more pink and so that each color was in as much of a triangle as possible.  Purposely didn't fill in each envelope to keep it more casual.

Went wild and centered the sentiment rather than put in in the lower right.  Stapled the sentiment first and then adhered it so that the inside of the card doesn't have staples poking through (shudder).

MOOD WHEN DONE = Guilty   I've pretty much been ignoring my girlfriends lately so it is time to fix that!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Neat and Tangled  Just say hello
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo
Paper:  Cream  (unknown)
Other:  Tombow markers, Stampin Up pinking die, clear rhinestone, neon pink Copic to color rhinestone, mini stapler, glue

Noel, Noel

In a major coloring slump, so I broke out the Silhouette.

and so you can see the glitter:

Supplies:

Stamps:  that would be none
Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Memory Box Holly
Ink:  that would be none
Other:  Memory Box Holly die, Silhouette, glitter, Xyron sticker machine, Iridescent cord, Corner Rounder, glue, circle die, Copic marker (to color the NOEL on the top card), money to buy all this stuff....

MOOD WHEN DONE:  Frustrated at lack of coloring mojo but happy to use the Silhouette and glitter. It's all in a day's craftiness.

Gold Embossed Christmas

A little gold embossing ... one more card for Christmas.   (I will buy many of my cards this year and not worry a bit about it.  I'm not letting this hobby add stress to the holidays.)

Using a panel helps with the slight warp caused by the heat of the embossing gun.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Stamping is Good

Supplies:

Stamps:  WPlus9 Holiday Greetings
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Ink:  Versmark, Colorbox Fireberry Archival Dye (this ink stains clear stamps)
Other:  Gold embossing powder, Faber Castell Big Brush red marker and SU green marker

Christmas Bells

Fun coloring this gorgeous image from Flourishes.

Close up of the little bells....

MOOD WHEN DONE = Happy with the card.  Wishing I could squeeze just a bit more time to stamp! Looks like I may be purchasing some Christmas cards this year.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Flourishes Mistletoe and Holly
Paper:  Inchie Arts ATC and Flourishes White
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo
Other:  Copics, Ranger Glassy Accents; Iridescent Cord, Bells, Micron Black Marker (hand drew the border)

Trip to Maine

We went to Portland, Maine for a few days in August.  Had a great time.  Here are a few pictures from that trip.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Thinking about our next trip!

Monogrammed Wreath

Totally stole this idea from Miss Amber at Damask Love here.  Thank you talented person!  Here's my super simple version (more versions to follow...)

And for those of you who prefer the "upright" version...

MOOD WHEN DONE =  Pretty good!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Build a Wreath Winter and Alpha Monograms, and PTI Men of Life (chain at the top)
Ink:  Versamagic and Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Other:  Ranger Stickles (on the berries), Black marker to outline the top layer

Gold Embossed Hello

I got hooked on stamping after I saw how embossing works.  And I still love it!

MOOD WHEN DONE = impressed I can stamp an even background....

Supplies:

Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp Best Mom Ever and Papertrey Ink Embroidered Blooms (sentiment)
Paper:  Cream cardstock (unknown)
Ink:  Versamark and Versamagic Pixie Dust (pink)
Other:   Gold embossing powder, gold and cream twine

It's Coming....

Susan's post on holiday planning and keeping it simple prompted me to share a bit of what I've been up to.   Some Christmas card successes, and some not so successful!  The snippets above of 3 cards are an example of a good idea still waiting to succeed.

And now I'm off to see Helen Fielding, the author of Bridget Jones' Diary.  Should be fun!

Inky Mouse

And by inky I mean -- Distress Inks, Archival Ink, Copics, Watercolor Pencils, Prismacolor Pencils, Gold Encore Ink, Distress ink mixed with Glossy Accents, Faber Castell White Brush Pen, and Water.  All that is missing is the partridge in a pear tree...

One of my favorite things to do is spend a few hours making an inky mess.  I've missed this.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Inky, Colorful and HAPPY

Supplies:

Stamp:  House Mouse, Impression Obsession Screen and Hero Arts (sentiment)
Ink:  (see above)
Paper:  Inchie Arts 2" x 3" mat, Mat, Memory Box Poppy Card, Amuse Studio green
Other:  (see above), paper towels, sponge, mist bottle, paint brushes

Gray and White Thanks

For the past few months, I've been part of a local Stampin Up monthly club.  Great way to meet local stampers.  Decided to sample a photopolymer set from Stampin Up.  Quality is not as great as most of the companies I buy from -- Waltzingmouse, WPlus9 etc, but they stamp great and are priced well.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Well, that is complicated.  I am very glad the furlough is over, and am trying to get back to my normal schedule.  Going to take awhile to shed the #$%^!.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Stampin Up Another Thank You
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Neenah Solar White and Paper Source Slate
Other:  White embossing powder, red prismacolor pencil

Sweet Birthday

Needed a birthday card and here's what happened.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Happy to be stamping again!  Hope it lasts.

Supplies:

Stamps:  WPlus9 Sweets and Treats, Impression Obsession Diagonal Stripes, and Papertrey Ink Mini Blooms (sentiment)
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo
Other: Copic markers, black and white twine, Ranger Stickles, Clear and Simple Stamps A2 envelope die, Paper Source envelope