Cardz TV Stamps New Year's card

Now that Christmas is over it's time to head into a new year. As many people do, I've set a few goals for myself for the new year. One of the things I've decided to do is send my grandson Kameron, who is three, a card every week. Kameron's daddy is on deployment. I'm really struggling with the emotions over this and my heart is breaking for my daughter-in-law. She is having a rough time being alone with a three year old and a new baby with no family close by. She is in N. Carolina and we are in Florida and her parents are in Michigan. 

Anyway, this is the first card of the year I will be sending to Kameron. I've kind of picked a basic design theme for every month. Each card this month will have a bear on it. I used my Cricut and the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge for all of this month's cards. I cut my New Year's bear at 3.5". I stamped the sentiment on his hat from the Cardz TV Stamp set "Just Saying. 

On the inside of the card I used the the sentiment Happy New Year from the Cardz TV Stamps set "Happy Days". 

I hope you'll visit me each week as the year progresses to see my weekly card for my grandson. Along with my themed cards for the month I've made special cards for the holidays (Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, etc). So far I have all the cards made for the first six months of the year. I found it was a quick process to make a bunch of cards as long as I had my Cricut machine out. Unlike some of you, I don't have a craft room. It's a bit of a process to get to crafting. I don't have the option of leaving everything out living in a 500 sq. ft. home and using my dining table to craft on. My hubby really likes it when he can have dinner at the table. No clue why-LOL! Just finding time to craft is difficult. Who knew life could be so busy in retirement. I hope you all have a blessed, healthy and prosperous new year and happy crafting.

The Cutting Cafe Gift Box and Bow

Christmas is just a few days away. Just in case you're looking for a beautiful way to present a gift this Christmas, The Cutting Cafe has just what you need. Today I'm showcasing the fabulous Round Box Template and the Gift Bow Template. Both are easy to put together and take no time at all. Add a pretty handmade gift tag and the box will be as wonderful as the gift. I discovered when putting the bow together that thinner papers work better than thick. For the box, a thicker paper works best. Both my bow paper and my box paper are from Michael's Recollection papers. Make sure you head over to The Cutting Cafe Blog on Sunday, December 21 to see the rest of the amazing projects from the Design Team.

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed and safe holiday. I'd like to ask for special prayers for all our service men and woman who will be spending this holiday away from their families serving this country to preserve all the freedoms we enjoy. My son was deployed just a couple weeks ago and so I know first hand how difficult the holidays can be for both the deployed and those family members left behind, especially the children. Keep them in your prayers.

Cardz TV Stamps Gallery Christmas Countdown

WOW-can you believe Christmas is only a a couple weeks away? It's such a busy time of year. It's been especially hectic for me as we just returned from seeing our son before he deploys and attending our daughter's wedding on December 6th in Pinehurst, NC. The last of our five kids to get married. Anyway, I have another home decor project to share today. I made this little Christmas countdown chalkboard for my grandson. I was so upset with myself because I left it at home. I had wanted to give it to him when we visited. Now I have to stick it into the mail and hope it arrives in one piece. I found this chalkboard in the dollar bin at Target before Thanksgiving and decided to make it into a Christmas countdown. I attached some washi tape to the top and bottom edges then stamped all kinds of sentiments from a couple different Cardz TV stamp sets. I used Very Merry and Home for Christmas. For my little gingerbread scene I used some Lawn Fawn dies and stamps. I also used the Cardz TV stamp set Sugar Rush to stamp Sweet Treats on the gingerbread house. For the words on the chalkboard I used letter dies from My Creative Time. As each day passes the number can be erased and a new number written in with chalk. I think my grandson will enjoy this, and it will give him something to look forward to while his daddy is deployed. I'm going to make another countdown in a military theme for him to keep track of the days until daddy returns from his deployment. Thanks for stopping by today and thanks for your sweet comments you leave.

The Cutting Cafe Christmas Shaker Card

I love making shaker cards, so when Regina came out with this set at The Cutting Cafe and assigned them to the Design Team for this week I was so excited. The Christmas Shaped Shaker Card Template and Cutting File set comes with 8 shapes: Snowman, Stocking, Present, Christmas Tree, Snow globe, Mitten, Christmas bulb and Bell. I decided to go with the snow globe for my project this week that I hand cut after printing the PDF file. I used an older paper stack from SEI that had this pre-printed deer family. I fussy cut the fawn and popped it up for a little dimension. For the shaker elements I used clear seed beads, clear Diamond Dust glitter and clear sequins. Here's a little tip, if you have problems with your sequins, beads, glitter, etc. sticking to your clear acetate, just rub a dryer sheet over the acetate before assembling your card. I added a sentiment on vellum heat embossed with WOW white embossing powder. I know you'll want to head to the Cutting Cafe Blog to see the rest of the DT projects. They'll amaze you for sure.

Cardz TV Gallery-My annual Christmas card

Well, here it is---the finalist for my annual Christmas card. I made 35 of these to send to friends and family. They were a little more involved than what I usually send out because the pieces had to be stamped, die cut and colored but I'm so in love with this Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods stamp and die set. My favorite part of the stamp set are the paw prints to stamp behind the fox. Aren't they adorable?
I thought this scene was perfect for the sentiment from the Cardz TV Stamp Set "Christmas Critter Captions". I used a cloud speech bubble die from My Creative Time and the cute little Santa hat is another die from My Creative Time as well as an edge die for the snow hill.

I made a base card from white cardstock in standard A2 size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") then added a medium blue cardstock mat. Then I built my scene by adding the birch trees on each side and adding a cardinal and a treehouse to the trees. Next I added some snow to the bottom of the card. I originally was going to put glitter on each snow hill as seen in this photo, but to streamline the mass production a little more I left it off of the rest of my cards. I added the cute little fox then placed the paw prints behind him in the snow. Finally, I stamped the sentiment on the the speech bubble cloud with Momento Black Tuxedo ink and attached it to the card front. Whew, one holiday season chore all done! The cards will be ready to mail after I get some holiday stamps from the post office.

Thanks for stopping by today.

My Creative Time Challenge

Today I have a Christmas card that I created for the current challenge at My Creative Time. This is a photo/color inspiration challenge using this photo.

 I wanted to create a poinsettia for the front of my card so I used the dies from the Boughs of Holly stamp and die set. I cut ten petals from cranberry colored cardstock and three in a bright green cardstock then layered them all together to make a flower. For my sentiment I used the Stitched Rectangular Frame Dies and More set to make the frame to stamp my sentiment on. The sentiment is also from the Boughs of Holly stamp set and I heat embossed it with Versa Mark ink and Wow gold glitter embossing powder.

The Cutting Cafe Thanksgiving card

I love this little Turkey Shaped card and template from The Cutting Cafe. This week Regina assigned a Thanksgiving theme for the Design Team. I made this little guy to send off to one of my granddaughters. Isn't he so cute? I used a really old DCWV holiday mat stack for the layers of this little guy. Again, even though Regina's cutting files come in lots of different formats for all the cutting machines out there, I chose to print it out in PDF form and hand cut it. It is really a breeze to put together. After I had him all assembled I added some googly eyes, a little doodling with my white gel pen and a sentiment tied on with twine.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrate the holiday. If not, it's always a good thing to give thanks for all the blessings in your life.

Online Card Class Day 5 Gift Tags

Today's class at Online Card Classes Holiday 2014 was making tags in varying degrees of difficulty. Tag one (one left) was made very simply with two tags cut from white and die cutting a snowflake in the center of the top layer. I stamped the words to and from and then added some twine at the top and a few gems. Tag number two is also two layers with the top layer white and the bottom layer a patterned paper. I cut an ornament (My Creative Time) on the top layer, attached the patterned layer behind it, added a sentiment (My Creative Time) and then a twine bow and twine at the top. Easy peasy! The last card has a shaker element to it. Again two layers, die cut the tree from the top layer and added acetate behind it, added foam tape, sequins and glitter then attached it to the back layer. To finish this one off I stamped some snowflakes around the tree and added a narrow green ribbon to the top.

Online Card Class Day 4 One Layer Cards

Hello my crafty friends! First, I must admit that I skipped over Day 3 of the Online Card Class Holiday 2014 lesson. That class was on watercoloring and I confess, I am not a big fan of watercoloring. I don't really see a reason to take time to do a technique that I really don't enjoy. So instead I made two cards to share from Day 4's class. My first card is a double die cutting technique. I used a stitched circle die and an adorable little reindeer die from My Creative Time. The first step of the process was placing the circle die on the card front then putting the deer die over it and marking the spot where the two dies met with a little pencil mark. Then I partial cut the circle by placing the part of the die I didn't want cut laying off the edge of the cutting plate. After that was done (I ruined several before I got it right) I put the reindeer in place matching him up to those pencil marks and cut the second time using the same technique with the deer hanging over the edge of the cutting plate. The end result is the reindeer sticking up out of the bottom edge of the die cut circle. Again, as in Day 2, this is not a card I would mass produce because it is quite a difficult process lining the dies up and partially cutting. For the inside of the card I used a little bigger circle than the one on the front to make a stencil from acetate. After the stencil was cut I placed it, making sure it was completely under the front card circle and then I stenciled it in using Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass distress ink. For the finishing touch I heat embossed some red snowflakes on the front and added the sentiment to the inside inked circle, and added some Glossing Accents to the reindeer's nose.

My second card was really simple and this would be one that would be easy to mass produce. I simply speckled some Heidi Swapp Gold mist on the front of the card, die cut the word and reindeer from My Creative Time dies, then added a thin strip of gold glitter paper on the lower portion of the card. The paper that I used for this is made by Cosmo Cricket and it has adhesive on the back so I didn't even have to get adhesive out to complete this card. It was done in minutes.

Online Card Class Day 2 Interactive Cards

Today's Online Card Class was making Interactive Cards. I made a shaker card. This is definitely not a card I would mass produce because it is very time consuming, but I know my two granddaughters will get a kick out of it. I used the Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods stamps with coordinating dies to create my little scene. The first thing I did was stamp and cut all the elements for my scene and make the frame using Stitched Rectangular dies from My Creative Time. I made the snow banks with an edge die from My Creative Time. My favorite part of this stamp set is the little fox's foot prints to stamp behind the fox. How cute is that? All my coloring was done with Copics. I assembled all the pieces on the front of the card and then put acetate on the back side. Then I added foam tape all around the edges and placed my sequins, seed beads and a little glitter between the foam tape. For my inner layer I decided to heat emboss some snowflakes in white on vellum before attaching the front of the card. I love how this card came out and especially the shaker element, but I would only go through the process to make a card for someone very special.

Online Card Class Easy to Duplicate cards

I really love learning new techniques for creating cards from Online Card Classes. This time around it's the Holiday Card Class 2014. For Day One the subject was Easy to Duplicate cards. For my first card I created the base of the card from kraft card stock. The card front is created with navy blue cardstock inked up with Tim Holtz Black Soot ink to create the night sky. When it was dry I heat embossed the "let it SNOW" sentiment from My Creative Time with WOW white embossing powder. When it was dry I added some "snow" on the sky with a stencil and embossing paste. To finish it off the right top edge is rounded and a twine bow was the last step.

My second card is a Christmas tree made with "Word Art". You can see how I made this card in my post HERE. This was really fun and once you get the stamps all set up on a stamp press you can easily stamp a bunch of them.

My third card is my favorite and I think I may use it for my annual mass production of cards. This card was definitely the most time consuming but once everything is cut it can be set up in assembly line. fashion. I did some heat embossing with Versamark ink and WOW silver embossing powder. For the first layer of the card I inked up all around the edges and then dipped it in the silver embossing powder to get the glittery edge. Then I added a few splotches of silver. The tag was cut with a die from My Creative Time and the bottom third was heat embossed with the same silver embossing powder. Next I added a diecut snowflake made from an Echo Park die. I diecut a small circle and heat embossed a snowflake pattern in the center with white embossing paste then inked it up with Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass distress ink. For the last step on the tag I added a little silver cording. The last two steps were adding the die "Merry" (a My Creative Time die) and the vellum banner with silver embossed "Christmas" (also My Creative Time die and stamp).

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Word Art Christmas card

There's a popular trend I've been seeing a lot lately on blogs and Pinterest. It's making shapes into word art with stamps. I decided to try my hand at the technique after participating in Online Card Classes 2104 Holiday card event. This is an easy card to mass produce once you get the stamps set out in the pattern. There are a few steps to accomplish this. First I cut a basic triangle shape for the tree pattern using my paper cutter and scrap paper. My tree is four inches tall and three inches wide. Next I taped this pattern onto a piece of acetate and placed it on my work surface with the paper facing down and the acetate on top. Then I started laying out my stamps (with the stamping side face down and the smooth side facing up). This is the hardest part of the project, getting the stamps all lined up and finding just the perfect size stamp for the space. I used the Cardz TV Stamp sets "Snow Day", "Holly Jolly", "Very Merry" and "Home for Christmas". I should mention that when you place the stamps onto the acetate there is a little stickiness to them that keeps them from moving around. It would be a much more difficult process if you didn't use the acetate. After I had them all in place on the acetate I used my Fiskars stamp press to pick them all up. If you wanted to you could do some masking and use different ink colors for different sentiments. Since this may be the card I use to mass produce my Christmas card I wanted it to be a simple process. I used Momento ink in the color called "Cottage Ivy". I stamped it onto my cardstock and then used a rectangular stitched metal die from My Creative Time to cut it for the top of my red base card. I made a stencil for the tree trunk with a piece of acetate that I just hand cut into a trunk shape and with my Tim Holtz circular inking tool and Distress ink in Gathered Twig stenciled under the tree. For a finishing touch I added a gold foil star, also cut from a My Creative Time die, and embellished with red Stickles and red sequins. I thought this was a really fun technique and I think I'll do an ornament shape next. I hope I've inspired you to give this a try. Have a fun and crafty day! Thanks for stopping by.

Cardz TV Gallery Picture Frame

I have a little photo frame to share with you today that I posted over to the Cardz TV Gallery page. I made this to highlight a Disney World photo of my granddaughters with Mickey Mouse. I used some fabulous metal dies from My Creative Time to make the words Smile and I (heart) you, the little instamatic camera with the photo coming out the bottom and the black frame. After assembling all the pieces of the instant camera I added a sentiment from Cardz TV stamps This 'n' That stamp set (Oh SNAP!). Then I heat embossed the Picture perfect! sentiment from the Cardz TV stamp set Simply Said onto the black photo element. I totally love how this turned out and I know my granddaughters are going to be so happy to have this picture momento from their trip to Disney World. Today (October 28th) we are at the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It's going to be so much fun being there with Payton and Paige. I'll be sharing some pocket page scrapping with you soon of this event. Stay tuned!

The Cutting Cafe Halloween Jar Shaped Card

This week on The Cutting Cafe Blog the Design Team is featuring Halloween and Fall in a Jar Shaped cards. This set features the following:  12 filled jars in small and large sizes, a plain small and large jar and 34 sentiments. I chose the jar with the spider in it. Who knew a spider could be so darn cute! This file comes in SVG, PDF, WPC and MTC formats. I used the PDF version and printed it out then hand cut it. I'm so weird because I find that I enjoy hand cutting my files. I find it very relaxing. Plus, it's good therapy for my hand rehab after my surgery. I decided to color my spider with Copics and added some orange gems for his eyes. To give the web a little defining I used some black Stickles. To finish it off I added a few enamel dots (that I made myself by melting pony beads in my oven), then tied a sentiment on with some black twine to the neck of the jar. My lid is cut from some textured silver paper. Don't forget to head over to The Cutting Cafe blog October 21st to see the rest of the DT projects. I know you'll be inspired.

Cardz TV Gallery Fun Countdown

Hello my crafty friends!  I have a cute and quick little project to share with you today that I made for the Cardz TV Gallery. Hubby and I are very excited. In less than two weeks now our two granddaughters, Paige (5 yr.) and Payton (8 yr.) will be coming to Florida for a Disney vacation. Hubby and I have resident season passes to Disney World so we will be joining them for lots of fun memory making time while they are here.

I used my Cricut and the Mickey and Friends cartridge to cut the mouse head and the thumbs up images. Next I added my title with some alphabet stamps in my stash. I embellished it even further with lots of cute sentiments from Cardz TV Stamps. I cut some paper strips in red, yellow and white so the girls could make a paper chain. Every night before they go to bed they tear off one strip.

I used the following Cardz TV stamp sets:

• Cardz TV Stamps-"FAQ's"
• Cardz TV Stamps-"Good Times"
• Cardz TV Stamps-"Picture This"
• Cardz TV Stamps-"This 'n' That"

There are so many other ways you could adapt this project to other occasions. You could make one for a child to count down the days until their birthday or any holiday just by changing up the main image and adding appropriate sentiments. You could use a party hat to count down days until a child's birthday or a tree for Christmas. It's an easy project that a child can help with by making the links into a paper chain. If you haven't crafted with a child lately, consider this a challenge to do so. 

My granddaughter Payton will be having a special sleepover night here at our place while visiting. I sent her an email (she just got her own email address) and asked her what she would like to do while she is here. The very first thing she said was "craft together". Yep, she's my girl. I'll share the project that I'm planning on making with her in a future post. Thanks so much for stopping by today. 

My Creative Time Challenge Thanksgiving card

Today I have a Thanksgiving card I made for the current challenge at My Creative Time. This card has been in the works for months. In fact, since Emma's summer release of the Surf's Up stamp and die set. As soon as my set was delivered and I was looking at it I knew the surfboard would make perfect turkey feathers. Funny how the mind works sometimes, isn't it! Then I had to design a body to go with my feathers. I used several different My Creative Time sets to accomplish this. I will have a list at the end of my post. Can you guess what I used for the turkey's gobbler and his feet? I hand cut a triangle to use for the turkey's beak. His eyes are from Peachy Keen. Here is the photo for the color inspiration.

List of MCT products used on this project:

• All Around Holidays-Small stitched leaf
• Bunch of Fun Circle Dies-Turkey's feather base and head
• Hello Spring egg die- Turkey's body
• Loyal Friends-Turkey's gobbler (dog spot) and turkey's feet (dog bone), Fence
• Mixed Holiday Sentiments
• Piles of Smiles-Stitched leaf
• Stitched Cartoon Cloud Dies
• Stitched Grass Die
• Surf's Up-Turkey's feathers

The Cutting Cafe Pumpkin Shaped Card

It's the spooky, scary, haunting time of the year. Today I have a quick and easy Cutting Cafe Pumpkin Shaped Card Template and cutting file to share. I've always been drawn to the taller, skinnier shaped pumpkins. That's why I love this shaped card so much. I used the PDF version and printed it then hand cut it. There were only three pieces to this card-the base of the card with the fold, the top piece and stem. I cut the base from orange cardstock, the top from an orange chevron print and the stem from a textured woven kraft cardstock. I printed the sentiment from another Cutting Cafe set called Pumpkin Treat Box onto a label. Last I embellished with a couple pompom spiders and a black gingham bow.

Cardz TV Fall Fun Home Decor Gallery Design

I'm so excited to be posting my first project for Mary's new Cardz TV Gallery. This is a daily project blog featuring some of the most fabulous designers on a rotating schedule. I'm very grateful to be a part of the group. That means every single day you can find new inspiration for using Cardz TV Stamps. For my first project I decided to do one of my favorite paper crafts--Home Decor. I love, love, love to make home decor projects. The thing is they always have to be easy to display and easy to store taking up little space. If you've never visited my blog before you might not know that hubby and I recently did some serious downsizing after retiring. We went from living in a 3300 square foot home to a tiny little park model RV that is 500 square feet. A park model is basically a small manufactured home. It got delivered on wheels to a lot we chose in an RV resort in Florida. The wheels are removed and it gets anchored to the ground. We love our little "cottage" with the two rockers on the front porch and living in a small space in a 55+ resort.

Anyway, onto my project. I've had this pumpkin kit in my stash for at least five years. In fact, it has traveled cross country with us several times and I finally decided to get it made. The shadowbox pumpkin frame is from Darcie's, LLC. It comes with the chipboard frame pieces, an acrylic top piece, clips to hold it together and the leaves for embellishing. You just add printed papers of your choice by tracing the chipboard pieces onto the paper, cutting them out and gluing them on. I added a Fall title to the inside of the frame before closing it up with the clips. I cut it with my Cricut and the Gypsy Font cartridge. I wanted to add a special touch to the leaves so I ran the paper through my Cuttlebug's Divine Swirls folder and inked them up good before attaching to the chipboard. For the finishing touches I cut a tag for my sentiment "Harvest Time" which came from the Cardz TV Fall Fun stamps set. This sentiment actually comes in a straight line but I took my Cutter Bee scissors and cut the two words apart to place them as you see them here. I often cut Mary's stamps apart to stretch the use of them. Sometimes I even combine words from different sets to make a whole new sentiment. I also stamped the pumpkin from the Fall Fun set, ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Dotted Swiss folder and inked it up. A little bit of thick twine tied onto the leaves and the project was complete. I'm so glad you stopped by today and hope to see you again soon.

Made it Myself

The other day I had a few spare moments away from doctor appointments, physical therapy and other assorted hum drum life stuff. I got wind of a way to make my own enamel dots.  Why would I want to do such a thing you ask? Well, it boils down to being cheap and always looking for ways to save money so I can buy some crafty goodies that cost a little more. (Mainly the metal dies I've become addicted to). So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some cheap plastic beads in the kids crafts aisle. I put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and then I stuck them in the oven. Here is what they looked like before baking.

I put them in the oven preheated to 425 degrees. I set the timer for 15 minutes, but it only took about 11 minutes for them to melt in my oven. Voila--the perfect enamel dots. Here they are when they came out of the oven.  No more holes in the center and perfectly shaped. Now I have to find some beads in a smaller size to make more. Tell me you don't want to try this yourself now. 

The Cutting Cafe K-Cup Holder Box

Hello my crafty friends! It's time for my second project for the month for The Cutting Cafe. Today I'm showcasing a wonderful container that holds two of the
K-Cups for a Keurig coffee maker. It's called the K-Cup Holder template and cutting file. This file features one K-Cup Holder to hold two K-Cups in a box with a lid or a window lid and one to hold four cups with a handle. It comes in the following formats: PDF, WPC, SVG and MTC. This makes a cute little gift for a pick-me-up for a friend, family member or even a teacher or other service worker. You could also make some to give as token Christmas or holiday gifts. I made the holder with the window lid that holds two cups. I constructed the box from brown cardstock and covered the sides of the lid with a patterned paper. I simply tied it up with a pretty grosgrain ribbon, added a tag and a second sentiment on one side of the box. I printed these on a piece of textured kraft paper. This box was so quick and easy to put together and I didn't even use a cutting machine. I printed the PDF file and cut it by hand.

Wedding Card

This past weekend hubby and I had the opportunity to attend our backyard neighbor's wedding. We've grown to love Ruthe since we bought our place behind her and sadly we only had a short time to know her husband before he passed away about a year a half ago.  Ruthe was married to Zeke for over 50 years. It is rare to find true love once in life, but Ruthe has been blessed to meet another fine man. This is proof to me that you are never too old to find love.

Ruthe and her new husband, Del, had a beautiful ceremony. Her youngest son is a minister so he officiated at the wedding. It was such a happy day for the whole family and it was a blessing to share in their joy. This occasion called for a special card. To create my card I started with a white cardstock A2 card. I added a blush colored mat and then topped it with an embossed white mat with a scalloped heart cut into it. I used a My Creative Time die for the scalloped heart and for the word love. One commenter asked what folder I used for the scrolls in the corners. I can only say for sure that it is a Sizzix folder. Can't elaborate on an exact name. Sorry!

Now for the sad part of this love story. No not for Ruthe, but for us. Ruthe will be moving out of her place and moving to her new hubby's home. We lost our bestest neighbor. For now she will be renting her place out. If she decides to sell I sure hope we get another fantastic neighbor just like her.

Exciting News

Hello all my crafty friends! Today I'm going to share some very exciting news with you all. There is some excitement coming soon to my good friend Mary's Cardz TV blog. Mary has chosen a group of gals to be her Gallery Designers. I'm proud and thrilled to be one of the chosen group and I truly thank Mary for the opportunity and her faith in my design abilities. What I'm most thrilled about, Mary is giving us free rein to design and create anything we want with her fabulous stamps. Since I love all kinds of papercrafting, not just cards, I will be able to included scrapbook layouts, home decor, fun gift wrapping and anything else I can come up with. There will be posts each and every day on this new site as we all take turns to show Mary's stamps in the best possible way. Right now the site is under construction, but I can tell you it won't be long now. Make sure to keep an eye on the Cardz TV blog at the end of the month (my first assignment is scheduled for September 30th). I know you're going to be in for a real treat.

I Moose You So Much

On a recent trip to my local scrapbook store I fell in love with a cute little Lawn Fawn stamp and die set called Critters in the Arctic. I really loved the cute little moose and knew I had the perfect Cardz TV Stamps sentiment to go with it. I whipped this together in no time at all. Sometimes I get the urge to make an odd size card, so this measures 3.5 x 5.5". I added a turquoise colored mat and a tree patterned paper from the Pebbles Lakeside 6x6 paper pad. I stamped and die cut the moose adding him to the front of the card along with a little strip of die cut grass I found in my leftover die cut scraps. The speech bubble is from the My Creative Time Stitched Round Speech Bubble die set. As I said before my sentiment is Cardz TV stamps More Critter Captions.

My Creative Time Challenge

Hello my crafty friends! I'm very excited to be posting my first design post-op after hand surgery. My cast is off and life is much improved! I start physical therapy on Monday. Even though the wrist and hand don't quite move properly I'm very encouraged with things at this point. I thought I'd start with an easy project and decided to make a tag for the challenge going on at My Creative Time. I used a dark brown cardstock for the bottom tag layer and the frame and white cardstock for the top layer of the tag. Next I used the Tag Die Layers to cut the three green zigzags for the bottom of the tag. I used light gray cardstock for the arrow. For the sentiments and the people I used Momento Rich Cocoa ink to stamp them. To finish the tag off I added a sheer white ribbon tied on with a brown hemp.

Here is the photo inspiration that inspired my design.

I used the following MCT products in my project:

• Tag Dies
• Tag Die Layers
• Stitched Mini Frame & Arrow Dies
• Bracket Sentiment
• Many Greetings

Surgery Update

It's been a little quiet on my blog lately. The reason---I recently had hand surgery. It's a surgery that I've been putting off for years, first because I was too busy dealing with the breast cancer journey, then because of lifestyle changes. When we retired five years ago and started traveling a lot in our RV there was never a good time. Then we sold our house and lived in our RV for a couple years traveling back and forth between Michigan and Florida. This summer we decided to sell our camper and move to Florida full time. It was time to take care of some health issues that have been piling up. Finding all new doctors was almost a full time job and I finally scheduled an appointment with a hand specialist. She didn't waste any time and scheduled surgery to repair tendons in my thumb and fix my carpal tunnel. I have had a cast on my right hand since August 28th. I'm looking forward to having the cast removed and my stitches taken out next week. Being forced to do nothing is driving me crazy and not being able to craft, oh my word, it's awful. I hope I'll be able to get back to creating soon. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a photo of my poor hand. Let me also say, typing one handed stinks big time. LOL

The Cutting Cafe Back to School Stationary Caddy

It's back to school time and The Cutting Cafe Design Team is showcasing some fabulous projects for students or teachers. I'm showcasing the new Stationary Caddy Template and Cutting File. This cutting file comes in PDF, SVG, MTC or WPC form to use with a cutting machine or if you don't have a cutting machine you can hand cut this easily. I actually didn't feel like dragging out a cutting machine so I just printed the PDF version and hand cut it. The style I'm showing is the two box style in the front row. There is also a version that has three boxes of equal size in the front. This is a really great item for a teacher's desktop or for a student to organize their supplies. If I was still teaching I would have this on my desk at work. Since I am retired I'm using mine as a craft storage/card organizer. I've long needed some way to organize my cards that I make for friends and family. I've made monthly sorters with tabs at the top. I adapted on the cutting files from The Planner Templates and Cutting File for my dividers. In each month I've written down the birthdays or anniversaries that I need to make cards for on an index card. Then when the cards are made I file them in date order to send out. Hopefully, this will keep me organized enough to have cards made in advance so I don't run around at the last minute madly rushing to get a card in the mail. So far it's working great. Right next to the dividers is a smaller box that is the perfect size for storing my craft tools. In my front row the larger side holds my Doodlebug sequins and glitter bottles and the smaller box has washi tape in it. Make sure you head to The Cutting Cafe Blog to see the rest of the Design Team's back to school projects. Thanks for stopping by.

My Creative Time challenge

Hubby went off to golf today so I had some play time. I decided to make a card for the current My Creative Time challenge. This time it's a photo inspiration/color challenge. Here is the photo that inspired my idea.

For my card I used the following MCT products:

• Bunch of Fun Circle dies-orange slice
• Scallop and Stitched Circle die-orange slice
• Stitched Chunky Jar dies
• Stitched Doily die
• Stitched Message Bubble dies-straw
• Stitched Oval die
• Stitched Pretty Flowers and Leaves dies
• This and That stamp set

This is a standard A2 size card made from white cardstock and topped with a mat of green polka dot patterned paper from Simple Stories. I've been seeing a lot of drinks served in Mason jars lately, so I thought I'd do a version for my card. I used the Stitched Chunky Jar die and cut the jar from vellum. Then I cut a piece of light yellow cardstock to put behind it to make it look like lemonade. I cut the fabric looking piece from an orange gingham and the lid from a textured silver cardstock and finished assembling the jar. Next I looked through all my dies to find something I could use for the straw. I settled on the Stitched Message Bubble die that says thanks. I put the die on the edge of a scrap of orange paper so it just cut a portion of the die that looked like a bent straw. To finish off the jar I added a few sequins. Next I cut a doily from kraft cardstock and trimmed some off to place on the left hand side of the card. I actually had a dream about how to make my little orange slice. In my dream I used two circles from the Bunch of Fun Circle dies. When I went to make it I discovered that it would work better if I used the circle from the Scallop and Stitched Circle die and made the segments out of the second smallest circle from Bunch of Fun Circle dies. I cut the two circles out of white cardstock and cut them both in half. Then I took the half that I made the segments out of and cut it in quarters. Then I used my Copics to color them. I used YR 04 and YR21. I attached the segments to the "rind piece" and was totally happy with how it turned out. Before I attached the orange slice to the card I cut a small flower and stem from the Stitched Pretty Flowers and Leaves. I thought my little flower looked a lot like an orange blossom to go perfectly with the orange slice. Finally, I added my sentiment onto the Stitched Oval die. My sentiment is from the This and That stamp set. I actually cut two words off the sentiment to make it fit on the label. It really said "enjoy the simple things in life". I often cut my stamps up to make new sayings or words. It doesn't hurt the stamps and if you want to stamp the whole sentiment it easily goes back together on a stamp block. That's my card for today. Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you visit again soon.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 online class Days 9 and 10

I was totally lacking in supplies for these two classes. They used lots of flower and leaf stamps. For my first card I used the My Creative Time Pretty Wreaths. I traced a circle onto my card then using a couple different leaf stamps and two different color green inks I stamped around the circle. Then I took a couple of the flower stamps from the set and filled in with those using two different pink color inks. Again, I wasn't at all happy with the finished result, but did the best I could with what I had on hand.

For my second card I followed pretty closely the design from the video presentation. I used My Creative Time Bunch of Fun Circle dies to create my circles and the stamp and coordinating die sets Surf's Up and Lost At Sea. For this card I gathered several different color green and teal colored dies. Some were dye inks and some were chalk inks I stamped them in layers with the dye inks on the bottom and chalk inks on top. Then I stamped three fish, colored them with copics and fussy cut them. Before adding them to the card I put Glossy Accents over them. The sentiment is heat embossed with VersaMark ink and Wow white embossing powder. There is only one class left and it's just a fun play day. 

Stretch Your Stamps 2 online class Day 8

Well, all I can say about this card is, I did my homework. Not happy with the end result at all. Today's class was the second part of using graphic stamps. I totally copy the instructor's card using a leaf shape from a Maya Road stamp set I won from Scrapbook and Cards Today. It was a whole box of goodies with all kinds of stuff in it. I used Momento dye inks for this effect. This was another stamp that I flipped over and used the back side of the stamp. It stamped a little irregular on the edges because of that. Obviously there wasn't much to this other than stamping in rows. After the rows were finished I used My Creative Time Alpha Pack stamps to spell out Miss You and used VersaMark ink and white embossing powder from WOW. If I were to try this technique again, I'd make sure I had another graphic image that was slightly bigger than the one I used so I didn't have to stamp so many rows and use so many different colors. This looks just a little too busy for my taste.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 online class Day 7

Today's online card class is all about using graphic shaped stamps. I totally fell apart at this class. I was in a panic when I went through my stamps and found no plain graphic shapes. My hero, Emma (My Creative Time), to the rescue. I found out about this class one day while I was visiting Emma's blog because she is taking the class, too. So after going through all my stamps and being unable to figure out how I could complete this class project, I stepped away from my craft table and sat down to relax by checking Emma's blog. Behold, what did I find but her class project for the day that looked very similar to my card. Never in a million years would I have thought to turn a stamp over and use the backside to stamp with. In Emma's stamp set You Are Fabulous there are three shaped stamps with patterns on them. By taking the medium sized hexagon and turning it over and attaching it to my stamp block with the patterned side down using adhesive I had just a plain hexie. Now that I finally had a graphic shaped stamp I went into my second panic attack. I have very few inks. I recently started investing in the Tim Holtz mini ink pads, but they didn't work very well for this project. I trashed a couple efforts pretty quickly. Quite a few months ago I noticed, on a trip to my local scrapbook store, that they carried a few Hero Arts inks in a mini size. I'm such a sucker for tiny things, but it's because I spent the last three years traveling back and forth from Michigan to Florida and living in an RV. I don't have a lot of storage space so these inks are perfect for someone like me. Anyway, I have three sets of these Hero Arts inks. I pulled out a set, I think it's a summer color set, and used Pool, Soft Olive and Wet Cement as the colors for my card. I wanted it to have a more manly look. I stamped the hexagons and waited for them to dry and then I went back and used the second technique I learned in class, Kissing. This is where you take a pattern stamp and restamp over your shape using white pigment ink. At this point I turned the hexie stamp back over to the polka dot pattern side and added them to my colored hexies I already stamped. Love this look and will certainly do it again in the future. To complete my card I used a Happy word die and then stamped birthday under the word.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 class Outline stamps

I'm catching up here on my online class posts. I realized as I went to do my Day 5 post that I mailed out that day's card to a friend and forgot to take a picture of it. I used the multi-colored embossing technique by stamping my flower image with VersaMark ink then carefully added different color embossing powders onto it. I used Wow embossing powders in Bubble Gum (pink), Cotton Candy (blue) and Berrylicious (purple) for the flower and Earthtone Olive for the stem. I really liked the end result and will definitely use the technique again.

For day six of class, I again used my flower stamp two different ways. The first shows a tag where I embossed it with white embossing powder onto white cardstock then used Tim Holtz inks to color the background. I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick. The second tag shows the same stamp done with Black embossing powder and then colored in with Copics. I also used a VersaMark pen to add some gold embossing into the center of the flower. I've made it over halfway through the classes and haven't given up, yet. I'm definitely being challenged into finding ways to use the supplies I have without going out and buying more. I did, however, buy this flower stamp because I didn't have any flower with stem stamps. I also purchased the VersaMark pen. I didn't know that even existed until I saw the class videos using one. I was excited to find one, and only one, at my local craft store. I'm really enjoying these classes and learning so much to expand my skills.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 day 4 class

Totally had a great time for the second day of class using Alphabets. Today's class showed how to take alphabet stamps and make words onto die cuts. For my first card I used My Creative Time dies-Loyal Friends for the cloud and Fun Stitched Edges for the hill. My sun is an Impression Obsession die. Then using the My Creative Time Alpha Pack stamps I stamped summer related words onto each of the die cuts. For my second technique I used the alphabet stamps to incorporate a word into my scene. I made the sunrays from the alphabet letters to spell out the word RAYS. I thought this turned out so cute and was so proud of myself for coming up with this idea. I used a couple other My Creative Time dies for this card the sun was made using the Bunch of Fun Circle dies, the umbrella was made with the Stitched Umbrella die and the wave is the Make A Wave die. The sand is made using the Fun Stitched Edges die.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Day 3 class

Today's class focused on using Alphabet stamps in new and unique ways. I was actually ahead of the game on this class where they talked about cutting your stamps into new words or word combos. I do that all the time to stretch my stamps because I don't have that many. This was my first time to use some chalkboard paper and emboss white ink onto it. I used a couple My Creative Time stamp sets to make this card-You Are Fabulous stamp set and the Alpha Pack stamp set. I took the word fabulous and cut it down to just use the word Fab. Then I used the alpha pack to stamp To my and the word friend. This was really a quick and easy card. Oh I forgot to say that I also used the ampersand die cut from My Creative Time Social Media Dies.

Stretch Your Stamps online class Day 2

Day 2 of the Stretch Your Stamps Class 2 was a continuation of using background stamps in different ways. For my first card I was practicing the ombre effect. Clearly, I need a lot more practice. I was not happy with my first attempt and this is my second attempt. I stamped the wood grain background onto white cardstock and embossed with clear embossing powder. Then I used Tim Holtz Distress inks of Salty Ocean, Broken China and Tumbled glass to layer on the inks starting at the bottom with the darkest ink and working my way up to the lighter color.

For my second card (bad photo) I stamped my background onto black cardstock using VersaMark ink. Then I used Perfect Pearls in Biscotti, Mandarin and Mint.  I loved how this card came out. The picture does not do it justice. After I completed the background I used a butterfly die to cut an opening in the paper and mounted it onto a white cardstock base measuring 3.5" x 5". Next I placed the card base onto a piece of cantaloupe colored cardstock. I die cut Hello from the My Creative Time Speech Bubble stamp set with coordinating dies. I took the die cut word and embossed VersaMark Dazzle Ink on the front then covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set it. I repeated this step two more times. When it was cooled and dry I attached over the butterfly cut out.