Welcome to my blog!

Thanks for visiting my blog. As the title suggests, I love to scrapbook, stamp, and sing! I will share cards and scrapbook pages I create, as well as information about my music - Barbershop harmony.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Vintage Love

Welcome everyone - hope you're having a great weekend! Vintage isn't my usual style but I find myself attracted to vintage cling stamps, especially by Tim Holtz. I went to a Rubber Stamp Show near the Mall of America yesterday and, while I didn't find any Tim Holtz, I bought the stamps pictured below from Our Daily Bread. The vintage ones are from what they call a "sister" line called Artistic Outpost. Wow - found several fun sets and a hat background I thought would be great for masculine cards. I bought A LOT of other goodies that I won't bore you with here but you may see more projects in future with my finds...


I came home from the stamp show to play in a Scramble over on the Hero Arts Flickr group. What was the theme? VINTAGE - such a coincidence after all my purchases. Well, my new stuff wasn't Hero Arts so I went into my stash to find the fun Deco Flower Background, a cling stamp, and a pocket watch from a clear set called Serenade Pocket Watch. Here's my card.


Vintage Pocket Watch

I stamped the card base (carnation by Hero Arts) with Memento Rich Cocoa which came out looking more grey on the pink - fine with me. The strip of paper is from The Paper Studio "Tattered and Worn paper - very Old World looking paper pad. Lace is from Hero Arts. The postcard is from BoBunny's Garden Journal Collection (6x6 pad). After stamping and trimming the pocket watch, I popped it onto the card with foam tape and colored in a bit with a Copic. Might've added some Glossy Accents to the face by didn't have the time or the inclination - LOL. Tied a bit of May Arts string twine onto the watch and added some pearls.

So today, I woke up eager to try my Artistic Outpost stamps to create a masculine birthday card for my uncle. Here's the card:

Cycle quartet birthday

I started with a putty colored card base and added a rich brown mat (Neenah cardstock found at Target). I stamped the Hats Background using Memento Rich Cocoa Ink on a greenish piece of the Tattered and Worn paper. Had to laugh - as I was distressing with a scissors (where is my tool for that?!) the paper tore and I realized it was adhesive backed!! Funny how I didn't notice that in the mad dash of yesterday's Scramble!! I stamped the quartet of cyclists (from the Artistic Outpost Hat's Off cling set ) on a piece of Neenah kraft cardstock and edged the top and bottom with some Tim Holtz tissue tape. The Happy diecut and birthday stamp are from Hero Arts clear set called Happy Stamp & Cut - I just love these sets; I have every one of them - so perfect with their bold word die (with matching stamp) and lots of little word stamps to go with them. I left off any other embellishments this time. Keep it simple for a guy.

So that's my vintage weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, June 22, 2015

Get Funky?!



It's another Monday off work and - yay! - I get to play on Merry Monday first thing in the morning!! Nina's Challenge: create a card with a funky hat on it. Well, I love that idea!! Looking at the cute top hat sculpture in her photo, I thought of doing a snowman with a fun top hat. I have a snowman stamp so went to my Silhouette to look for the hat. I downloaded several hats for the snowman, including one for a snow woman! But, my snowman went by the wayside when I saw some cute penguins from Michelle Renee Designs on Cloud 9 (see her website Pink &Main for her darling stamp line. I combined two of the designs,"Penguin in Frog Cap" Design ID #52866 for most of it and "Penguin in Owl Cap " Design ID #52868 for the scarf and tassel. I cut the pieces on white, black and a dotted red paper; then I colored the white frog hat (Twisted Citron Distress Ink, direct to paper), and the bill and feet with Copics.

I formed a top folding A2 card with Hero Arts grenadine layering paper, stamped with Tiny Snowflake Grid a lovely cling background stamp. I cut the stitched snowbank with a Lawn Fawn die and stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts' Family And Friends clear set. I assembled the card using foam tape to pop up various parts, then I heated some liquid applique on the white tassel poofs for some dimension. I bought the googly eyes at Michael's - I have a bunch of sizes in a bin - just love them! Here's my card:

Merry Penguin in Frog Cap

You could mass produce this card if you cut the pieces in bulk and out of a solid colored paper; the shading makes it fun but time-consuming. When all was said and done, from the time I spotted the challenge to when I finished the card was about 4 hours, including time spent surfing the Silhouette online store and cutting my pieces.

Be sure to check out the inspiration on Merry Monday if you want to get motivated to do your Christmas cards. I'm having a blast there!! Thanks for stopping!

Friday, June 19, 2015

Red and White at Merry Monday

It's another Merry Monday challenge - this time Lori chimes in to use Red and White on your card. Be sure to check out the inspiration of the Design Team and all the yummy entries by the players - this is a winning color combo! I decided to make a simple but elegant card with no sentiment on the front - could be in a Hallmark box - LOL! Here's my card:

Red and White

I formed an A2 card with shimmery white cardstock by DCWV then layered a mat of glitter cardstock from American Crafts (found at Target - yay!). I cut the Snowflake Background (Impression Obsession) using the same shimmery card stock and adhered it to the glitter cardstock using Glossy Accents. This is an intricate die but it cuts beautifully! An easy card for mass production.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Friday, June 12, 2015

Tags on Merry Monday










Here's a quick card to play along at Merry Monday where Kristie challenges us to use a tag on our card. I whipped up a card very quickly using a pre-made tag from Hero Arts (Just Tags Green) - I just love these tag sets and have quite a few. I added the tag to the Gift cut on the Silhouette. Here's the card:



Present with tag

Other than the ribbon and washi tape, the rest is just paper. This would be an easy one to mass produce if you had the inclination. Thanks for stopping and check out Merry Monday for lots of inspiration!

Hey Tiger!

Hi everyone - it's time to play with the current 

Hero Arts Blog challenge



I just adore tic-tac-toe themes- so many fun options!! I chose the vertical row on the left, using some new Hero Arts products and a fun old fave. Here's my card:

Hey Tiger,jpg

I loved Libby's card on the Blog yesterday, featuring the sweet bear Oscar. I thought I'd ordered that stamp set and was eager to use it. Oops - I ordered Avery and Millie! So I got out Avery to make a card for my uncle who's recuperating from surgery. I stamped and cut Avery, then colored him with Copics; I doodled the little triangles on his paws with a Distress marker. Then I stamped his little shirt on some striped paper, fussy cut it and adhered to the die cut. I stamped the Forest Floor background stamp with Pine Needles Distress Ink and clear embossed it, then watercolored it with Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks. I die cut a circle window for Avery to pop out of, then added the sweet little coffee cup (heart has Candy Cane red Stickles on it). I stamped a speech bubble from Psst! (a fave older cling set) and added the "hey" from the same set. Then I added a stitched circle by Sizzix and a smaller one stamped with the sentiment "you are grrreat" from the Avery set.

Thanks for stopping and I hope you feel inspired to play Tic-Tac-Toe with Hero Arts!!

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Sparkle, Shimmer &/or Bling




Hey everyone - hope you're having a crafty weekend! I was sorry to miss Merry Monday last week - I started a card but didn't finish it yet. Karren's challenge was to use newsprint, and I have the perfect stamp from Hero Arts. Oh well, I'll finish it someday... As it turns out I incorporated some text paper (I think it would've qualified) with this week's challenge from Kathy to use sparkle, shimmer and/or bling on your Christmas card. I love all that!!

A couple weeks ago I bought this yummy American Crafts  6x6 paper pad at Target which contains 12 colors of glitter paper (2 pieces of each color). I know I'll buy more during my next Target run! It's a very soft flexible paper so I glued it to some card stock before die-cutting my fave Snowflake Fancy Die from Hero Arts. I just love this turquoise color and thought it looked so pretty on the white scalloped Spellbinders circle. The kraft and white text paper is by Graphic45 ('Twas the Night Before Christmas 8x8 pad).  The sentiment is from a 2012 Hero Arts clear set, Holiday Sayings (CL343 - one of my faves!). I used the MISTI to stamp the sentiment using Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink; the MISTI is perfect for repeat stamping so I could intensify the depth of ink. Love MISTI!!

Here's my card:
Glitter snowflake


I made two of this design very quickly, thereby making up for not finishing any Christmas cards last week. For being week 23 of the year, I'm still ahead of the curve with 44 Christmas cards made!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Christmas card stash is growing! Be sure to stop by Merry Monday for lots of inspiration!!