Shall We UnWINEd?

I was at Archiver's the other day...had professed to use some restraint as I was just going to meet up with a friend and NOT shop...yeah, right...but I had a COUPON (read: MUST USE TO SAVE MONEY!) that was for 10 sheets of 8 1/2 by 11 cardstock with the purchase of an exclusive card kit.  Well....duh...that was a no brainer.  Everyone knows that cardstock costs money so if you can get it for free...well, you just gotta do it!
;)
Heheheh....I like the way I think sometimes....
Anyway, this particular card kit had a really cute little set of Unity Stamps in it and here is one of the cards I've made with it.  I have lots of girly friends that I could send this to....let me tell you!
The kit included a paper stack from My Mind's Eye and I just chose some papers from it...stamped the wine bottle and cut it out.  The Unity Stamps are cling and stamp a really nice crisp image.
A simple card but I sure love this sentiment!
A little Pearl Accents for the hearts finished it off!

Hope you all have a great weekend with some time for unWINEding....

I am entering this in the following Challenge:
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes


Happy Crafting!

With Sympathy

I was so happy with the Wedding Wishes card I made the other day which you can see HERE that I made another even simpler version for a sympathy card.

I used the Simon Says Stamp daisy die and Stampin' Up Pool Party Ink and paper.
I just inlaid the flower.
Uh....easy.  Almost embarrassing it's so easy.   I'm hanging my head in shame.  Not.  I love the simplicity of this.  They don't all have to be blinged, layered, ribboned, twined, SUSAN!
*sigh*....

 Here you see the inlay.  The nice thing about using the metal dies as opposed to a machine die cutter at times is that you get that nice rounded edges that only the obsessed notice.
I'm obsessed.  I admit it.

That's it for today!

I'm going to enter this in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes
A Muse Studio Challenge: Beautiful Blooms
The Craft Place Blog Challenge: FLOWERS

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 25

Well.....myyyyyyy gooooodness!  I am all caught up with Project Life. 

Long post today...with lots of photos!  I'm proud of this week's "share".

I had the best time doing this week's layouts.  I went from last week of basically just ripping out journaling and filler cards from a little tablet I had to making everything on my own.  Sometimes it's fun to go the quick and simple way....and sometimes it's great fun to be a little more creative.

You know I love Hero Arts.  We've been together a long time.  Our love grows stronger.

I am amazed at the new stamps from the Stamp Your Story line and have grabbed up several sets.  They work wonderfully for cards and art journaling....but what really grabbed my eye was how well they would work for Project Life.  And....you can use them over and over again...and, of course, if you change out papers and ink colors...well, you can get a whole new look!  Love it!

So here are my Project Life pages for Week 25.  All Hero Arts with 3 colors of Stampin' Up inks (Calypso Coral, Pool Party, and Wisteria Wonder).  My Wanna Have list has more Hero Arts inks on it and I'm hoping Archiver's will increase their inventory on those!  I used white cardstock from my stash as well as a couple of Stampin' Up colored papers.

Here is the left side:

And here are some details...
I created the background with various ink blot stamps (made me think of the psychological ink blot test!....what do YOU see?) and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the word "Week" and the numbers with the Digz Your Hart font.

 And here's a closeup of the little circle stamp that I used for my date.

 Love, love, love this little birdie....and is pop dotted above the month stamp.  I also used some epoxy arrows I had in my stash.

 Here is another little card...I just LOVE those stamps and how well they work to make your OWN journaling cards out of just plain white cardstock!  Too cool!....and so easy!

My good friend, Cyndi, who is a faithful blog reader just learned she will be a grandmother again and I snagged this photo that she'd sent to my iPhone of her granddaughter, Kendall.  I just stamped the heart and cut it out and popped it with some foam tape. 

Here is the right side:

I used Tracy Larsen and the Lily Pad templates for all my photo collages.
I added a bit of washi tape and a few Hero Arts flowers and gem to these photos.

And another card....love the pen and ink bottle which I stamped and then cut out.

 

I did all the journaling I was going to do so just created this little filler card with stamps from several of the sets.

 

I was able to get a rare photo of my daughter and her family and I used a Becky Higgins 5x7 insert page to stick it in.  On the back I did a little background paper with a stamp from the Brush Strokes set and journaled on it.

Here are the journaling cards all together:

And here it is all together:

 

I am going to enter this in the Stamp Your Story contest at  Hero Arts.  Most of the entries seem to be cards but I thought it would be fun to show a different take on the stamps!

I used the following sets from the Stamp Your Story line:

Notebook Essentials

Remember

Brush Strokes

My Favorite

Sketchbook Letters

Well, whew....I was certainly long winded today...but I do hope you enjoyed!

Happy Crafting!

Wedding Wishes

I needed a card for a dear friend's granddaughter who just got married over the weekend.  I wanted something classy and elegant...but not too stuffy...and wanted it flat so that it would easily mail.  This is what I came up with and I was soooo happy with it!  I will definitely be making a few more of these!

Oh so clean...oh so simple...oh so much white space (which is usually tough for me!...I usually have to stick a ribbon or a flower or a gem or a button when I see oodles of white space....but NOT THIS TIME!)

I basically cut out the daisy flower with a Simon Says Die on the white cardstock and then cut it out again with the blue paper and DRUM ROLL PLEASE....inlaid the flower!  I just loved it! Woohoo...so cool!!!

See?

I used a Lawn Fawn sentiment which I stamped with the same color ink as the paper (Stampin' Up's Island Indigo)....matted it on some more blue and put it on a white card base.  HOW EASY WAS THAT?!

This card literally took me less than 10 minutes to make...which included finding where I put that die! LOL!

But I was so happy with it when I was done.

Don't you just love when things work for you sometimes!  All the time?

:)

I'm entering this in the following challenges (thanks Sunshine Honeybee for the info on the challenges!):
Entering this into the following challenges:

6/28 Hiding In My Craft Room HIMCR#103 Wedding 
 
6/28 That Craft Place Flowers 

6/29 A Muse Studio Beautiful Blooms

6/30 DLART Thankful Thurs Linky Ch : June Anything Goes

7/7 Creative Card Crew Ch39 No Designer Paper 

Happy Crafting! 

Back to March....Just Because

A quick post today....off to play a tennis match shortly.  It's sort of gray out....hoping the rain holds off.  Scheduling makeups is always a nightmare!  I've still got to finish a match I started 2 weeks ago but it has rained on the rescheduled nights!  Crazy weather!  But I'm not complaining...summer is here and I like warm weather (and air conditioning!).

I'm still on my mission to use up the supplies in my Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month boxes!  July's will be here before I know it.  I really loved March's kit...loved the bright and cheerful colors.

I saw this card on the Eterno-ly Yours blog which I found inspiring and changed it up for my own version here:

 

I used some paper strips and washi tape at the top as well as some baker's wine and then just stamped some random images on the bottom of the card with mostly Stampin' Up inks. 

Didn't take too long and it's pretty much flat which is always a challenge for me!

I think I'll make a few little envelopes with the rest of the kit and toss that box and make room for more! ;)

Happy Crafting!

 

 

Be Yourself

I written several times how I enjoy being a part of the Simon Says Stamp Monthly Card Kit club. 
The kits are just jam packed with fun things to try out.  My July kit will be here shortly. 

I worked on a few cards with the March card kit as I'm working on using up those supplies.
:) 
The kit came with a couple of little kraft bags which are just so cute.  I stamped them with the stamps in the stamp set (and how many times can you use the word "stamp" in a sentence??!) and then added a little die cut with the Simon Says Stamp "Be" metal die.  That die comes with some sentiments that work so well in cardmaking (or PROJECT LIFE!).

I wrapped a little twine around and added a little card for the inside which I stamped with a sentiment and used a cute little paper clip that also came with the kit.

QSD!  (Quick, simple & done!)

Off to meet up with my friend, Christine, today at Archiver's.  I will use restraint though....and not buy!  Maybe....

Also Simon Says Stamp has a 20% off your purchase through the weekend with coupon code SUMMER20! 

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 24

My friend, Cyndi, went to  Salt Lake City recently and brought me back a stack of journaling cards from Pebbles in My Pocket...one of the first stand alone scrapbooking stores.  I visited there in 2000 and have a scrapbook page somewhere devoted to it with a picture of the nicest young ladies who worked in the store.  Anyway, she brought me back a little tablet of journaling cards that I wanted to use right away so used them for Project Life this past week.

Gosh....I'm only 2 weeks from the halfway year mark!  Wow.  Having to go to volume 2 as my book is so fat! :)  See?

Here is the left side:

Very simple....a few stamped arrows, some stickers and some washi tape and once again I used a 4x6 template from The Lily Pad.

David played in a little soccer camp this week and I got a bunch of photos to use.  The templates are so helpful in getting lots of photos on your pages.  I like that.  It does take a bit of time to drop the photos into Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (which is what I use) but it is well worth that extra time, I think. 

We also went to the pool...I have a nifty little Fujifilm waterproof camera so I snap away and don't worry about damaging a phone or other camera.  And it takes surprisingly good photos.

I added some stickers to the top right journaling card to make sure girls were represented, too! Those stickers were so old I don't even have a clue where they came from but they were unearthed when we excavated the Great Scrapbooking Room in the Cleanup of 2013.  Despite Carbon 12 testing local archaeologists were unable to date them. Certainly pre 2005...

The photo below was done with a Lilypad template and some word art from CZ Design Cheeky Overlays.   The "Can't Get Enough of You" stamp is from the Simon Says Stamp Loving Words set that also has metal die talk bubbles. 

And that's it for today....all caught up...and now it's just about time to start sorting through pictures for this week!

Happy Crafting!!!

Project Life: Week 23

I am caught up!  After I went to the beach for a week I got a bit behind.  I was only 2 weeks behind but that became almost overwhelming.  I feel for people who are 6 or more weeks behind!  But if that's you.....just keep on plugging away!

This is a simple week layout....
It's a little bowed in the center because of all the zillions of pages below it! LOL!  My book is fat!

I made the "week" card with my Silhouette and punched some layered butterflies with an EK Success punch.

I just made a couple of little cards with paper and embellishments  I had....all scraps from A Walk in the Park by Echo Park.

I found a four leaf clover on a walk recently and stuck it in a laminating pouch and added it to my Project Life.  You can't have too much good luck, can you?

Here is the right side:

I used several templates from the Lily Pad to make the photo collages.  They can be a bit time consuming but certainly a great way to add more photos to your layouts!
...and it IS about the photos!
And just another little filler card done from some cardstock embellishments that came with the kit.

 Check out that photo on the very top right....my grandkids both got Hand, Foot, Mouth Virus (not to be confused with Hoof and Mouth Disease that animals get)....and passed it on to their uncle (my son) who was quite sick with it.  Those darned childhood diseases are so much worse on adults!  I got chicken pox at 23 years of age and was never so sick in all my life!  A five year old gave it to me and he was out for a day....I was out of work for 2 weeks! LOL!

That's it for today...

Happy Crafting!

It Matters....

I love, love, love the new sets that Hero Arts came out with...very watercolorish, artsy....just love this look.  I had to have immediate gratification and couldn't wait for some of the sets to arrive in stores so I ordered some from the Hero Arts site.  But lo and behold....I was at Archiver's yesterday and they had a few of the news sets so I picked this one up called My Favorites:

 What a great set that will work well for Project Life, too!  I also used the Painted Circle stamp which I just LOVE! Here is a photo of this great stamp!

I got out some water color paper and played around a little bit.  Sometimes I spritzed with water....sometimes I didn't.  I used Stampin' Up inks for some of the stamping....
So without further ado here is my card:

 It was so much fun to be a bit messy with my stamping....that's what that watercolor look is all about, isn't it?  Just fun! 
This is a pretty flat card....I did pop up the image a bit on foam tape and backed with some Stampin' Up paper but this would be a pretty easily mailable card. 

It was fun and I loved the way the sentiment ended up.  I might have to make a few more of these for my artsy friends.

I'm entering this in the Hero Arts Stamp Your Story contest HERE.

Happy Crafting!

And Yet Another....

....PQC (Pretty Quick Card) with Simon Says Stamp June Card Kit of the Month....a Father's Day card to be exact!

I used some of the tags from the little Basic Grey tag booklet that came with the kit, some twine as well as a stamp and die cut from the Simon Says Stamp Be die and stamp set.  I love that little "Be" die.
Pretty Quick, Pretty Simple, and Done!

Happy Crafting!

A Five Minute-er!

When I make a really fast card I feel like I'm cheating.  Plain and simple....it's just cheating! HAHA!  I feel like I should have to sweat over a card or a project a little more.  A quick card makes me feel like I'm taking the easy way out! LOL!

So...I surprised myself with this I used the June Simon Says Stamp Card Kit which came with these great Basic Grey tags which were perfect for cards (and I still have a ton left that will be great for Project Life!)!

Once again here is the June Kit...filled with all kinds of Basic Grey papers!

Here is the first card:

I used the little wood banners from Jillibean that came with the kit that are so cute!  Very simple and very fast.
And for once I'm ok with simple and fast!

I entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Simon Says,,,,Transport.

Happy Crafting!

Father's Day!

I did make a few Father's Day cards with the June Simon Says Stamp Card kit of the month.  Great card kit and I still have tons of stuff left over!

The first card is a shirt shaped card that I did with a cut file from the Silhouette Online store.  It looks a tad lopsided here because it is partially open...the green piece in the back is actually the back of the card.  I used a couple of buttons and some printed papers that I inked.  The sentiment is from the June kit which I embossed with some copper embossing powder.  I added a couple of buttons and that was it.  A very fast and fun card!  Not terribly exciting I will admit but I think my father in law will enjoy it!

The second card I made for my son in law who is a wonderful daddy to my grand-kids.  Here it is:

I used a Paper Smooches border die for that cool border along the bottom.  The rest is all Simon Says Stamp!
Here it is with my big ol' finger in the way...holding it closed so you can better see the sentiment:

Best wishes for a fabulous day tomorrow for all the fathers in your lives!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 22

Well, I'm sort of officially caught up with Project Life.  Now....if you want to be specific I am one week behind but that doesn't even really count, does it?  I will get those photos tomorrow and whip those pages out so really....in my book I am caught up.  :)

Week 22 was very easy for me because we were all at the beach for a week. After my son popped the question to his girlfriend we tended to just stay on the beach.  We went from the condo to the beach...with an occasional trip to the grocery store.  I usually go to the Outlets or try to hit AC Moore but nope....didn't go anywhere....just hung at the beach and gazed at the water...played with the kids...

I didn't even walk as much as I usually do!  I just sat and vegged.  It was great and I am not complaining at all!  It was a fabulous week.

So...Week 22 was easy because I just printed a ton of pictures and slapped them in my book.  Yep, that's it....just one big slapping event!

Here's the left side:

My week and journaling cards were done with "Splash" by Echo Park....and yes, this was also leftover stuff from last summer's layouts I'd done.  Too much to toss and those scraps work perfectly for Project Life.  I even had a few stickers left that I put on a few of the photos....
Here is the Week Card....simple, simple, simple!

And here is the journaling card:

I made the little banner with some EK success punches I have. 
And here is the right side:

Not a word of journaling.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I am letting my pictures speak for themselves! :)  I just didn't want to cover these up with words....I decided you can tell we are on the beach and all the who, what and where info is on the journaling box on the facing page.

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it! :)

Happy Crafting!

Thank You for Just Being You

The Simon Says Stamp Card Kit for June came with all kinds of things that would be great for masculine cards.  But really....lots of the stuff in the kit was sort of gender neutral.  Does that make sense?  In other words, although the items didn't have a frilly or really feminine quality to them they could be used for girly things!

Here is the Card Kit which has sadly sold out:

It did have a great little stamp set by Kelly Purkey that is great for guy cards and things.
But here is a card I made with papers and a sentiment from the kit that could be sent to either a guy or a gal, I think.

I used a Paper Smooches border die to give the wave in the middle but before doing that I embossed with my NEW Hero arts Painted Circle stamp from the Stamp Your Story catalog.  I love  this stamp and it works so beautifully to make pretty water color images but I decided to see how it would look heat embossing it.  I used Versamark and then some Zing Powder embossing powder which gave it a sort of tone on tone look.

And guess what?  No bulk!  A flat card!  It's a miracle!

I'm entering this in the Hero Arts Stamp Your Story contest HERE.

Happy Crafting!!!

Project Life: Proposal

Since I had so many shots of the night that my son, Jeremy, proposed to his girlfriend, D'Ann I decided to do a full 2 page spread for my Project Life book.

One thing I've learned is that the more photos you use the less cute little filler cards you have to make.  It sure simplifies the process! LOL!

I did use templates from The Lily Pad to make several collages which helps in using more photos in a given "slot". 

I used leftover things I had from the Photo Freedom kit Today's Story by Alison Kreft.  I thought the theme and colors worked perfectly for these layouts.

Here's the left:

Sorry about the glare but I've gone back to just taking photos in the sleeve for the most part.  It just takes way too long to take the cards out and slide them back in!  Seriously!  And the more I take them in and out the more there is risk of damaging some of the elements.  Really. 

I did realize that my photo of the men in the middle is the same as one in the collage on the top left and just had the wrong photo printed.  I have a better one to put in so will change that out.  You probably didn't even notice.  LOL!

Here is the right side:

I made these lovebirds with a Lori Whitlock cut file from the Silhouette online store and cut it out with some charcoal grey Papertrey ink cardstock.  I cut it twice to give a bit of dimension.

I bought some black foam dimensionals a year or so ago and they worked perfectly for this so you don't see any white under it.

Cool, huh?

and that's it for today!

Happy Crafting!!!