Happy Spring! Happy Mother's Day!

Hi everyone - hope you're enjoying Mother's Day if you're celebrating today! My mom's been gone two years already so it's a low key day; Dad & I are watching baseball - no surprise.

Today I'm playing along at the current Day of the Month Card Club Challenge #63 where they're celebrating Vappu, the Finnish version of May Day. So, that means spring flowers and I was lucky enough to find a UK magazine the other day with freebie stamps featuring daffodils. I love daffodils and fondly remember the Cancer Society fundraiser selling bunches of those sweet flowers. The stems would be bundled up by the dozen - just buds which would gradually open to a gorgeous bouquet. Before I retired, we'd go out of the office on our lunch break & come back with several bunches for our desktop. Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - Poptone oatmeal & black; 

Authentique plaid; Paper Studio A2 cqrd

Stamps - Crafter's Companion Springtime Wishes

(freebie with Issue 132 of Creative Stamping magazine)

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set

Other - Creative Expressions Wordies Sentiment Sheets Hello Spring;

Copic Markers; foam tape

I stamped the daffodil swag twice and colored with Copics. Trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle and matted in black; added to a panel of plaid, then to an A2 card. I stamped a couple extra single flowers from the set and used them to cover up Easter eggs within the daffodil swag. Colored the eggs green so anything peeking out would look like a leaf. Popped a pre-printed sentiment onto the center with foam tape - done!

I'll also add my card to Darnell's May NBUS Challenge #62 since the stamps are newly used and to Inkspirational #315 where they're celebrating Seasonal. This makes my first time playing at the latter, although I have been inspired by their DT members, especially Pia (Pias Papir og Perler) and Julia (Create with Me). Also, my friend Hilary (Fiddling About) has inspired me to play at the We Love Stamping May Challenge; theme is Vintage or Anything Goes (I chose the latter).

Remembering Mom on Mother's Day: My mom had quite the green thumb and her garden still has some beautiful flowers. We've always had bleeding hearts and lilacs at our family homes; sadly, I have a brown thumb and can't grow either! Here's a couple of photos I took at Dad's this afternoon:

That's it for today, friends! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!!

Craft Roulette 214 - Retiform Appreciation

Happy Saturday everone!! I watched Craft Roulette Episode #214 live last night (replay HERE) but was also monitoring the Twins/Blue Jays baseball game on television (we won!). That kept me from crafting along with host Mary Gunn FUNN and her guests Lauren & Abi Taylor but I finished a card this morning. 

Supplies: Paper - BoBunny Double Dot;

Poptone Black; Paper Studio A2 card; Neenah white;

Betterpress Porcelain

Stamps - Hero Arts Wish You Were Here (c2011 retired)

Betterpress plate w/Die - Spellbinders You Are Everything Sentiments

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set

Other - Copic Markers; Distress Oxide inks; orange fineliner

I'll bet you can guess at least one of the parameters the roulette wheel spun! Here they are (screen shot during LIVE):

Project: Appreciation is pretty obvious; I used a Betterpressed thanks sentiment from the stash. Colors: Candlelight, it was agreed, were yellows and oranges. Element: Leave it to...  caused some consternation but most decided you could leave it to almost anything. I decided to leave it to chance! I took a chance and reached into a bin of stamps, using whatever came out! I did make sure I didn't have the box with a ton of alphabet stamps since I wanted images. I lifted out an old Hero Arts set with several chairs that I've used in the past. Random: Retiform - I've watched videos on this technique (basically inking or using paper blocks to create a background of shapes) but hadn't tried it until now.

I masked areas of a piece of Neenah and inked the shapes; trimmed with a stitched rectangle. Adhered to a black mat, then a dotted background & the A2 card. Stamped and colored a chair image, fussy cut it & added to the card with foam tape in an area looking like a floor. Popped a sentiment with foam tape and doodled some dots with a fineliner. Done!

I mailed this card to my aunt as a Mother's Day card. Yeah, I'm late; she won't get it by tomorrow. Oh well....at least I didn't totally forget.

That's it for today - hope you're having a great one!

Here Comes Santa!

Hi all - it's been a while! We had our Sweet Adelines Regional contest last weekend so I was very busy with chorus stuff, plus we have a show coming up on the 18th. Lots of work but fun too!

I'm here with a card for the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge #86 where the theme is Playing with Plaid. Besides plaid paper from the stash, I just got a new texture die from Waffle Flower - perfect for CKC!! Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White;

Betterpress Porcelain; Paper Studio Red A2 card; 

Authentique A Magical Christmas (plaid); scraps

Stamps with Dies - ECD Santa Claus (dies HERE)

Dies - Waffle Flower Sweet Plaid Texture Die

 Betterpress Plate with Dies- Spellbinders Poinsettia Corner (sentiment) &

Merry and Bright Sentiment Strips

Other - Copic Markers; foam tape; Paper Studio gel stickers

I started by texturizing an A2 card with the WF die - it's gorgeous! Added a panel of plaid paper trimmed in black to anchor my Santa head. Santa was already colored and leftover from previous cards (here & here). A couple Betterpressed sentiments from the stash & some gel poinsettia stickers finished the card.

I'll also link up to the current Merry Little Christmas Challenge #56 where anything goes & to Darnell's May NBUS Challenge (celebrating 11 years!) since my plaid texture die is getting first play here.

Thanks for stopping and have a crafty weekend!!

April 2024 Card Chain Reveal

Hi all - it's the 2nd so that means another Card Chain reveal. In April, thirty-two people participated; you can see the full reveal HERE. My card went to dear Imke (My Crafty Place) in Germany:

Supplies: Paper - Anchor Paper marbled green; lots of scraps;

Paper Studio Holiday; Spellbinders Betterpress Porcelain

Dies - Poppystamps Fern and Daisy Pop Up Easel Set;

Spellbinders Floral Reflection (white flowers) & 

Betterpress with die - Spellbinders Always and Forever Sentiment Strips

Other - white gel pen; Betterpress Cosmic Sky ink

We had the following options in creating our April cards:

Color Palette Option

Sketch Option

Theme Options: Spring / Food and drink / Friendship

Product / Technique Options:  Something You Were Given / Pop Up

I used a couple of the colors but wasn't feeling the silver. My brain just couldn't wrap itself around the sketch this time. So, I went with the theme of friendship & technique of Pop Up. I have loads of pop up die sets & since I'd been sick for quite awhile in late March/early April, I was under a time crunch to get this card made and out. Luckily I'd recovered and was able to put this pop-up card together quickly! Basic die cutting and I had a Betterpressed sentiment on hand. If it looks familiar, this card was made before one I did for a Craft Roulette episode & posted HERE. Just happened to have the die set handy and used it for CR but I prefer this CCC version. 

The first photo was of the card popped up; here are a couple other views:

I received this darling card from Joanne (Slices of Life) in Connecticut - love her use of the colors!

That's it for today, friends! If you'd like to join in the May Card Chain (make one card, receive one card), you can still sign up HERE by May 6th.