TIN CEILING ANYONE?

This paper and embossing folder remind me of a country kitchen, so the basket of wild flowers fits right in.

...and I loved pulling out my peg stamps again!

CASEing THE IPAD

This card was inspired by one that I saw on

Yana Smakula's blog HERE.

Using the MISTI, I stamped each of the larger images one at a time.  Then 

I removed the panel and stamped the smaller images in

between.  After coloring in the three large images, I added

some clear Wink of Stella for some shine on the scissor and

craft knife blades and gold WOS on the pen.

The larger stamps are from the SU set, "Crafting Forever" and

the smaller ones are from my peg stamp drawer.  The

inside has a Valentine greeting.

Thanks, Yana, for a fun card design!

DETAIL GATE CARD

When I saw this thinlit in the SU catalog, I

knew it would make a nice non-Halloween gate card.  

In fact, this first card is already in the mail!

Inside reads "May your day bloom with

wonderful surprises" and features flowers from my

peg stamp collection for a Springtime look.  

Spring won't be coming to New Jersey for a couple

of months yet.  Meanwhile, it's sunny and warm in my

stamping tower as we await the warmer weather.  Even our
two cats have cabin fever but shrink back from the
cold when we open the door.

NO DAISIES TODAY!

Talk about easy...

This was done with a few peg stamps and a hand drawn vine wreath for a late September birthday card.

The greeting is from an old wooden stamp set.

PAPER PLAYERS #341--Sketch Challenge

I took a little artistic license on the sketch (HERE) since I re-discovered the label die in my stash!

Using my peg stamps, I created a "swoosh" of flowers and leaves, then added the bow.  The leafy panel is from a SU! pad of vellum designs.

The same peg stamps were used for the bottom corner of the envelope.

JUST US GIRLS #381--Color Week

Kraft, red and black--what a great color combo!  The challenge can be found HERE.

To start, I loosely traced a few circles in black to create a wreath.  Next, I added some funky twigs with one of my peg stamps.

After adding some tiny white flowers (with another peg stamp) I stamped the three large  flowers in red.  Since I wanted them to be bold, I colored them in with Hot Cinnamon H2O's, leaving the white centers.  Next, I fussy cut them and attached them to the wreath with glue dots.

The sentiment was stamped in white onto a black scrap and embossed in white to make it stand out.  For final touches, I added some black spatter, a white ribbon and a rounded corner.

DORIS DOES PINK??

Well, Watermelon Wonder isn't quite so pink...

Dawn McVey posted her Christmas Thank Yous, and I just loved them--so, of course, I CASEd her design.  To make it a little simpler, I die cut the top panel and attached it with dimensionals. after stamping the leaves and flowers.

The purple blooms were done with one of my tiny peg stamps which I inked up once for each bloom and repeated the stamping to make them look like lilacs.

For the greeting, I chose a less bold font to coordinate with the airy-ness of the flowers.

Dawn's blog is HERE.

PEG STAMP BOUQUET

I was recently asked to make some cards for a friend who wanted to pay for a set of 10; so, why not?

This is one of the cards I made with the dsp as my inspiration.  I just love all the ways my peg stamps have been used:  baskets, borders, embellishments, etc.

I also lined the envelopes with the same dsp, which I purchased at Hobby Lobby awhile ago.  The greeting is from a stamp and die set by Frantic Stamper.

SPLITS--Thanksgiving Card

This set is going to make some nice Thanksgiving cards.  Before popping it up on the card, I stamped some oak leaves with my peg stamp.  Then I colored in the stamped leaves around the greeting and mounted it on the card front.

I added the jute and sequins for some embellishment and rounded the bottom right corner.

I think I like this SPLIT set the most!

HOSTESS THANK-YOU NOTES

It seems I've been making a lot of card sets lately!  This one was for my friend, Gail, who had a garden tea last week.  Several people brought hostess gifts, so I made a batch of these for her to use.

I wanted to make something reflective of the rose garden setting, and the Painted Petals set from SU! was ideal.  The leaves are from a Penny Black set, Petal Power.  The tiny flowers and dots were from my peg stamp drawer.

After stamping the leaves onto a die cut stitched rectangle, I started adding the flowers.  Beginning with the largest, I stamped the roses in Watermelon Wonder to match the card base.  Then I added the yellow clusters, the purple blooms and the blue dots.

The sentiment was stamped on a piece of white scrap, sponged with Watermelon Wonder ink and mounted with a dimensional.  Inside, there is a white panel with a flower stamped in the left bottom corner.  To finish it off, I also decorated the envelopes.

These were fun to make and I had all six done in record time!

THANKSGIVING WREATH

Gotta love those peg stamps--they come in handy for so many card themes!

To make this wreath, I punched out a circle of fun foam to use as a guide for my "twig" base.  I loosely traced the first circle around it to avoid making a wreath that was oval or square-ish.  After making several circles in three different browns with SU markers, I used peg stamps for the leaves.  Then I splattered the card front with brown Distress Ink, added the "thanks" and attached the embroidery floss bow.

This makes for a quick and easy Thanksgiving card with lots of variations.  As shown in yesterday's Simple Saturday post, it also makes an even quicker Christmas card.

BTW, I'm still having to get a lot of rest because of the Epstein Barr virus, but I cut back on my activities for awhile.  This leaves more time to spend stamping in the "Tower."

SIMPLE SATURDAY #40--Christmas Wreath

HAPPY WORLD CARDMAKING DAY!

ANOTHER PEG STAMPS CARD

The other day, two new embossing folders arrived in the mail.  They are 3-D folders and what fun!

This one is a basket weave which I used for a floral arrangement.  To make the basket, I used the label punch and snipped off the point on the bottom.  After punching out some "ferns" with a Martha Stewart punch, I taped them to the back of the basket to hold them in place.  I then mounted the basket to a rectangular piece of cs.

Next, I proceeded to "fill" the basket with leaves and flowers using my peg stamps until I was satisfied with the look.  I then added the dragonfly and painted the wings with Wink of Stella for a little sparkle.  Since the dsp I used had triangles, I added three rhinestones in a triangle to finish it off.

This card went out to a friend who had to have her dog put to sleep yesterday.

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT CHALLENGE

After doing very few challenges, this is the second one in ten days!  Could it be that reorganizing my "tower" so that I have more space on my table really helps my creativity???

Although I'm not too happy with cardinals lately (more on that at the end of this post) I got out my peg stamps for this ornament.  Adding the cardinal and music note was just the right finishing touch, as well as the green sponging around the circle.

The greeting was stamped on a white strip cut to size, but it looked too "heavy" for this card.  So I cut around the words to soften it.    The top of the ornament was made from a scrap of silver paper.  I cut a longer piece and put one end into the middle of the scalloped oval punch, punched it, then trimmed it down to fit the ornament.  Then I added a silver sequin and bow and mounted the finished ornament to the dsp with SU dimensionals.

The link for the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Challenge is HERE.

My Crazy Cardinal story:  Every morning at sunrise, one lone cardinal starts chirping (loudly!) and banging our windows.  This began in May and has been going nonstop every day until sundown.  Now  he seems to be eating berries--ask me how I know!  The only thing that stops him is to let one cat out on the back deck and the other in the front, except on rainy days when he stays put in a tree somewhere.  Unfortunately, our cats don't like to stay put on the decks all day...

PEG STAMP BOUQUETS

Someone who loves purple will be receiving this birthday card in a day or two.

The vase was re-discovered during my last cleanup, and it works best with my collection of peg stamps.  It came in a packet of several designs with a foam dot attached to each one.  Just another reason to re-organize my stash every now and then!  After stamping the flowers and leaves, I attached the vase and added the jute bow.  A little gray shading and a tiny flower gem, (purple, of course) and the card was done.

Later, I made two more pastor cards with another vase for one and a basket stamp for the other.

(Click on cards to enlarge.)


Love those peg stamps!

WATERCOLOR ONLINE CLASS

It's not too late to sign up for the Online Watercolor Classes.  I'm learning tons of new watercolor techniques from the videos in this series.  They are so well done, and I'm inspired to go beyond the basics I already knew!

This card is my first attempt since watching the videos.  I used my peg stamps, some markers and my water brush to create this basket of flowers.

Enjoy!

WATERCOLOR BIRTHDAY CARD

After watching Julie Ebersol's video, I just had to give her design a try.  For the background, I applied Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peeled Paint and Wild Honey Distress inks onto an acrylic block.  Then I applied the colors on a heavy cardstock panel with my aqua painter.

Next, I used a tiny flower peg stamp with the same blue inks to continue the watercolor look.  For the birthday message, I stamped the typewriter from the SU "You're My Type" set with Versafine Smokey Gray ink.

To finish, I attached the panel to an olive green textured cs with double stick tape and mounted it to the card front with dimensionals.  For the final embellishment, I added three small sequins.  Done!

Secret Message Thank You

Here we are in the midst of yet another huge snow storm--a good time to stamp!

This secret message card is for someone who sent me a lovely Valentine card.  The base card is kraft, but the front panels are a light green.  The flowers are colored to look more like poppies than daisies.

 When the card is first opened, you see the back of the front square, which is why I used red  for the flowers.  The white boxes are for the letter I'm writing.  Although it's hard to see here, there are snow flakes stamped in white on the kraft rectangles.

Once opened up to reveal the secret message, there are flowers stamped with peg stamps on the kraft pieces.  The white rectangles are used for the words of encouragement hand written in green.

For instruction on how to open the card (or make it) just go to Utube or Google and type in secret message card.  Lots of them will come up!

Opening the card is so simple once you know the trick.  Enjoy!

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

ENVELOPE CARD

In keeping with my own challenge to use only what I already have in the tower to the end of this year, I rediscovered this stamp and used it today.

After stamping it in black ink on dsp, I made slits where the opening would be to insert the tag as shown.  Then I mounted it on a scrap of  textured vanilla cs and cut around it to make the border.

The background is stamped in Versamark Frost with both large and small swirl stamps.  While it dried, I placed foam mounting tape on the back of the envelope and added three tiny black gems at the intersection of the lines.  Once the Versamark dried, I mounted the envelope with its message inserted.

So far, this challenge has been easy.  I've been finding lots of stamps I'd forgotten about and plan to use them soon.  The real challenge will be in the Fall when I start running out of adhesives and cardstock!

PEG STAMP BORDER

Time to get out some peg stamps and pastel inks!

This quote from Isaiah promises all the help we need when we need it.  What better way to highlight it than with Spring colors!  The border was done with several peg stamps in greens and yellows.  The yellow embroidery floss provides the finishing touch.