A Red Letter Day

Meet Mr. Pumpkin. He’s been in my life for almost 30 years! I have very strong feelings for him. In fact, I think I love him. What’s not to love? He’s always smiling and he shows up every Fall (my favorite season). And besides, he’s really cute!

My mom bought him for me at a craft show years ago. He was one of my first Fall decorations. Mr. Pumpkin has followed me to 3 different homes. I think he loves me too.

Usually towards the end of September I start thinking about him and really want to get him out and put him up in my yard. Once he’s out, I feel complete. I sometimes wonder why he makes me so happy, but I’m pretty sure it’s because he reminds me of my mom. If you haven’t figured it out, I’m a very sentimental soul. So, when Lawn Fawn released the Stitched Pumpkin Frame and Outside In Stitched Pumpkin, I had to have it! I wanted to make a cute paper pumpkin!

I created this little thank you card using both sets of dies and the sentiment is from Hello Bluebird.

My goal was to make a simple, cute card. I needed to make several of these, so a quick card design was needed. This card came together so easily. I just die cut the pumpkin pieces and glued them together. I cut an additional pumpkin to attach to the top, back part of the pumpkin, to create the little card.

Lastly, I die cut 3 of the sentiments and glued them together, to add dimension.

Super quick and easy card. This card makes me smile almost as much as Mr.Pumpkin!

As soon as I saw Newton’s Nook Shrimp Cocktail stamp set, I knew I had to have it. Those shrimp are so stinking cute!!

Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I had faith I’d come up with something. I saw a card on Instagram by a_touchofshimmer that was so cool! It inspired me.

Here’s my card:

I wanted my card to look like the shrimp were having a party in the sea. I know I want to join them!

Congratulations to Christine Miller! She is the lucky winner from the Coffee Loving Cardmaker Coffee Date giveaway. Thank you to everyone who visited and left such sweet comments!

My good friend, Kathy Schweinfurth invited me to be her coffee date on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog . This is a new feature where the design team members invite a friend to be their ‘coffee date’. We each created cards for this special blog.

Our cards were inspired by a sketch and color combo:

Here is the card I created. I really love this pretty to go cup image and I thought the sentiment was a good fit.

Coffee Cup Image:  Unity Spring To Go

Sentiment:  Altenew Coffee Talk

Patterned Paper: Jen Hadfield: Heart of Home “Painted Gingham”

I started my card by stamping the image and coloring it with my Copic markers. I fussy cut it and also fussy cut an additional flower to give my card a little dimension.

Using the sketch as a guide, I cut my card pieces, including some pretty ribbon I had in my stash. I wanted to add something more to the back panel, so I stenciled some coffee rings with Ground Espresso Distress Oxide Ink. (As you can see, I’m really taking this coffee thing seriously!)

Next, I glued my pieces to my card base, except my to go cup because I needed to line up my sentiment. Using my Misti, I stamped the sentiment and then adhered the die cut circle to my card. Lastly, I used foam tape to pop up my cup.

This card will most likely be sent to a friend at work, who swears she can’t function without her caffeine.

Also, we have a little giveaway!  Leave a comment on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog for a chance to win a coffee-loving prize package (US only).  For an additional entry, leave a comment on my blog and Kathy’s- Stamps At Play

Commenting open until Saturday, August 3rd.  Winner will be announced on our blogs Sunday, August 4th.  

Thanks for stopping by. I’d love it if you followed me on Instagram!

I created this card for MFT’s sketch challenge #447. I seriously love these marching band bunnies! When this set, “Strike Up the Band” was released, I knew I had to have it. I’ve had it for a while, but haven’t used it in a long time.

I was in marching band in the early 80’s. I didn’t play an instrument; I was a flag girl. I have lots of fond memories from band camp and football season.

Then my son joined marching band his freshman year. He played percussion until his senior year, when he became a drum major. This is a picture from his last marching band rehearsal.

Making this card brought back all of those memories!

This card is pretty straightforward. I colored my bunnies with Copics and then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. The sentiment is also from that stamp set. I stenciled some clouds with the MFT cloud stencil and added my grass pieces. I decided to pop up the bottom grass and bunnies. It was difficult to squeeze in all of the bunnies – but I had to use them all! ( they are just too cute to leave off any) My layout was determined from the sketch challenge.

I’m dedicating this to all of the guys and gals sweating it out at band camp. Can’t wait to see you marching in the Fall!

Update: a friend asked for this card. She’s sending it to her son who just finished up his first band camp as the band director. I hope he likes the card❤️

This week on the Newton’s Nook blog, it is fan feature week. Design Team members are picking their favorites from social media and challenges and sharing them on the blog. There have been so many amazing projects featured this week!

To my surprise, one of cards was featured today! I am so flattered that Samantha Mann picked my card. ❤️ The card she chose, was a shadow box and it utilizes one of my favorite stamp sets.

I hope you get a chance to check out Newton’s Nook blog this week. You will find tons of inspiration! http://www.newtonsnookblog.com

My original intention for this card was to enter it in the bi-weekly Inky Paws Challenge. But as you read on, you’ll see that a whole other reason and inspiration came about.

**warning** lengthy blog post

Obviously since this was a color challenge, I had to incorporate all of the above colors.

For the background, I used the Newton’s Nook Music stencil and worn lipstick Distress Oxide ink.

The color was a little too vibrant for me, so I decided to put a layer of vellum over it. My vellum kinda stuck, because I was a little heavy handed with my Pixie Spray, but I was fine with that. I thought it actually worked to my advantage. 😉 I still thought my pink was to vivid, so I decided to add another layer of vellum. This time I purposely sprayed Pixie Spray on the back and adhered it to the other piece of vellum. It worked beautifully!! You can’t see the adhesive.

I know that this could be peeled off, so I did add some Glitter Art glue under the area where I knew my images would be added to hide the glue.Does that make sense?

Next I started designing my focal point. I had stamped and Copic colored some images from the Winter Birds stamp set.

After I die cut them, I decided I needed two more of the branches to create my design. So I stamped, colored and cut two more.

I then placed the branches to look like a frame around the cardinal. I stamped the sentiment and added some music notes from the Caroling Newton stamp set.

Lastly, I adhered everything together and added my card base.

I did add some foam tape to the back of the cardinal to add some more dimension to the card.

Now, to tell the rest of the story.

Yesterday, a friend from high school had posted on Facebook that she was really missing her dad; he has been gone for five years. I had commented back that I understood exactly how she felt. (My dad has been gone for about 18 years.) Later that same day, my friend saw my Instagram post where I had shown the colored up pieces to my card. In my post, I said that I wasn’t sure yet what I was going to do with these. She then commented that every time she sees a cardinal, she thinks of her dad…and she thought that me posting that,when I did, was perfect timing. So I decided that this card was going to be in memory of her dad.

Mr. Greenawalt was my band teacher. I have many sweet memories of him. I played percussion at the time with a bunch of boys. The boys never let me have any ” good parts.”I think Mr. Greenawalt realized this, so he asked me to play timpani drums on a piece that featured the timpani. This had such an impact on me. He was not only a gifted musician and teacher, he was empathetic and caring to his students. I learned so much from him. I thought the music notes and cardinal on my card would be a nice reminder of Mr. Greenawalt. I hope my friend Beth loves the card. I’ll be mailing it out to her today.

If you know me at all, you know I am very fond of giraffes. I love their sweet faces so much! In honor of world giraffe day (June 21st) I decided to create a giraffe card.

The giraffe stamp is from “Loved All Over” (Unity Stamps) and the sentiment is from “Giraffing Me Crazy” (My Favorite Things).The die is “Leafy Frame” from Simon Says Stamp.

I first stamped the giraffe and colored him with Copic markers. He doesn’t have a die, so I fussy cut him out. Next I used Stormy Sky distress oxide ink to create the background. I spritzed a tiny bit of water because I love how it reacts with the ink.

Next, I die cut the border out of green cardstock. I decided to die cut another out of darker green cardstock as I wanted to give my card a little more detail. As you can see, I did not line up the two backgrounds. I rotated the darker one so I would have layers of leaves for my giraffe to peek from. I really like how this border turned out.

For the sentiment, I placed my background paper in my MISTI and carefully laid down my giraffe and border. I then figured out the best placement for my sentiment. I removed everything but the background, and stamped my sentiment in Ink on 3 clear embossing ink. Then I sprinkled Ranger Black embossing powder and heated it up.

Finally, I glued all of my pieces down and added it to a card base.

I love how this sassy giraffe is peeking out of the leaves! I’m hoping my son likes it, too. Sending this card to Cincinnati to remind him how much I miss him and love him❤️

Picket Fence Studios has a new release and I just had to order! To create this card, I used “BFF Claire” stamp and die and a sentiment from “Natural State if Sarcasm”.

I had to order because my daughters name is Claire and she wears glasses so…

I’ve ordered from Picket Fence previously. I’m a big fan of their creative and fun sentiments. This set is just hilarious. Had to have it too.

My order arrived yesterday, so I really wanted to stamp and color this cute girl. I colored her using my Copic markers.

I felt like I needed a little something in the background, so I used this stencil with Distress Oxide ink. I really do enjoy using these brushes with stencils.

Have you tried Pixie Spray yet? It works amazingly with stencils. Just spray it on the back of your stencil, wait about 30 seconds and you are good to go. It gives a light adhesive and holds your stencil in place while you ink it up. I love it! It’s probably one of my favorite products right now.

After I made my background, I put it in my MISTI and placed Claire so I could stamp my sentiment. I stamped it twice with Memento Tuxedo Black ink to get a nice, bold image. Next, I wanted to pop Claire up, so I die cut her out of white, fun foam and glued it to the back of my colored, die cut girl. This is a really inexpensive and easy way to add dimension.

I bought my fun foam at Pat Catan’s. It was so cheap; I bought a bunch! This is the finished result of adding the foam to Claire.

I was pretty happy with how this snarky card turned out.

I’ve been really into making these pop-up shadow box cards lately. This one is a shallow version, and I’m very happy with the result. This is also an entry into the Newton’s Nook Inky Paws Challenge.

I LOVE the rainbow theme! For this card I stamped images from Newton’s Birthday Balloons and colored with my Copic markers. For the background, I thought the Confetti stencil would be perfect!

I chose Distress Oxides to get a rainbow background. I love how creamy the oxides feel when blending them.

To make the shadow box, I used 110# card stock. I cut my 2 panels to 5 1/4″ x 5 1/2″. Next, I scored them at 1/2″ and 3/4″ – both sides of EACH panel ( I placed the 5 1/2″ side at the top of my scoreboard) Then I folded them like an accordion using my bone folder. You want to get a nice crease. I die-cut a rectangle out of one of the panels. I cut my rainbow background down to 3 3/4″ x 5 1/2″ and glued it inside the back panel.

I also glued some grass to the front panel to add a little more interest. I then glued my panels together. I glued one side and held it for about 30 seconds, then did the other side. I was careful to match up the flaps so that everything was aligned. Finally, I decided where I want my birthday kitty to be floating and used foam tape to pop him up a bit.

This is how it looks assembled. This really is not hard to make and I think it is a fun card idea. I also love that it folds flat and fits into an A2 envelope! Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

**note: this does not fit in an A-2 envelope! I need to adjust the measurements 😔

It seems like all too often I need to make a sympathy card. I find them difficult to make because I truly want the recipient to know I care, and I want my card to give them some comfort. I own several sympathy sentiment sets so I have lots of options to make that perfect card.

For this card, I stamped this beautiful floral background from Unity Stamp Company. I’ve colored this as a floral in the past, but this time I wanted it to look like succulents. It took me a while to color it with Copics, but I was happy with the outcome.

I then cut a piece of black card stock to create a place to put my sentiment. Next, I die cut the word “prayers” out of white card stock using a die from My Favorite Things. I cut a few of these and layered them to give some dimension to my card.

I hope my friend likes her card.