Merry Christmas

Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with many happy moments! Thank you so much for all your visits and sweet comments on this blog! I appreciate them more than you can imagine. Also, I wanted to apologize for the silence here and hope to be able to post more regularly after the holidays.

By the way, you might have already heard that the one and only Darnell is starting her own Challenge Blog and has invited me to her Design Team!!! I am so honored and beyond excited! Check out all the details on the Twofer Card Challenge Blog! The first challenge starts January 10th - mark your calendars!

Stamps: Picture Show (snowy village), Winnie & Walter (sentiment)
Other: Embossing folder strip (Cuttlebug?)

The layer looks black on screen but is navy blue. Also this photo was sharp in my iPhoto but now looks not really focused. Hope it will look better on your screens...

Be well and keep in touch!

Purple Best Wishes

It's a very busy time of the year - I am sure you all agree. For me that means very little time to play and blog, don't know how you all do it... Maybe you are better organized than I am...

Amidst all the gorgeous holiday cards in blog land I dare to show you a birthday card!

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (background), Avery Elle (sentiment)
Dies: My Favorite Things (flowers and leaves)

Clear embossed the background on watercolor paper and watercolored it. Die cut the flowers, the purple one is watercolored, the smaller one is cut from a scrap of shimmery vellum. Stamped the sentiment on a strip of vellum.


Sending this to

CAS Watercolor December Challenge






Just realized it would work also for

CAS Mix Up December Challenge
I used heat embossing, watercoloring, and die cutting

Be well and keep in touch!

Striped Autumn Greetings

My blogging friend Greta from GG Creations inspired the card I am showing you today with the second card in this post. I really loved the shimmery stripes and the leaf die cut.

Stamps: Hero Arts (sentiment), Stampin' Up (linen background)
Die: Gina Marie Designs (leaf)
Other: Yasutomo (shimmer paints)

Autumn Greetings everyone! I hope that everyone enjoys everything Fall has to offer and wish all of you who celebrate a very happy Thanksgiving !

Be well,

Masculine 60th Birthday

This is the card I made for my brother-in-law who loves maps and geography. When my guys signed it they all admired it! That was a first! Usually they don't show too much enthusiasm for my creations. I am also happy to report that my brother-in-law liked his card!

Stamps: Toybox (map), PTI (sentiment), My Favorite Things (wood plank background)
Dies: Memory Box (large numbers)


The blue/turquoise sponged piece of card stock I found in my stash. As it was some kind of coated paper I had to heat emboss the image because it wouldn't dry. Die cut the numbers from it and from black foam. Stamped the background on a kraft card (not entirely happy with the ink I used). The rest is self explanatory, I think, but if you have any questions let me know in the comments.


Seize the Birthday "Kraft Card Base"

Have a fabulous weekend!

Be well,

Sympathy and Halloween

Hi there,

Thanks so much for stopping by! Today I have two cards for you for very different occasions.

First a sympathy card because my stash has dwindled down. I like to keep them simple.

Stamps: Stampin' Up (leaf), Uniko (sentiment)

I smooshed a background with Distress Inks. Stamped the leaf and the sentiment, tied a piece of raffia around it, mounted the panel on a piece of dark brown card stock, and attached it to a card that has pieces of dried flowers in it (from Marco's paper).

The second card is for a more fun occasion that's coming up: Halloween.

Stamps: Hero Arts (tree trunks background), Inkadinkado (sentiment, spider)
Die: Impression Obsession (ghost)

I stamped the moon surface (unmounted, unknown stamp) in white on yellow copy paper, punched it out and glued it on the blue card stock. Then I stamped the tree background on top of it. I cut a slit in the blue card stock and slid the ghost in there. The glittery bats with the fun googly eyes are stickers I found at Michaels. The rest is pretty self explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions.


Entering the first card in the

Time Out Challenge #95 "Sympathy with and optional twist of distressing"





Fusion Challenge 
I was inspired by the leaves





The Card Concept #80 "Autumn Love"

Be well,

Modern Birthday Wishes

The challenges for World Cardmaking Day really got me mojo going...
Here is another card that I finished today. Fortunately some of the challenges are open the whole week! 

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (background strips, heart), PTI (wishes)
Die: Stamplorations (Birthday)
Other: Caran d'Ache (watersoluble crayons), washi tape

Sending this to the following challenges (check out the galleries for inspiration):


Winnie & Walter WCMD 2017 Background Building/Pattern Making






CUTplorations October Challenge
My die cut word shares some of the colors in the photo

Simon Says Stamp WCMD 2017








Be well,

Bookmark with Important Message

I love bookmarks, I have quite a selection (no e-reader for me yet) and I enjoy giving them away. Today it occurred to me that a bookmark is a great place for an important reminder because you see it every time you open your book.

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (sentiment)
Other: TCW (stencil)


The challenges over at Winnie & Walter for World Cardmaking Day are open for a whole week, hurray! Check them out (there are many more on their website), get inspired, and make something!

Winnie & Walter WCMD 2017 "Anything but a Card Challenge with Kelly"

Winnie & Walter WCMD 2017 "Stenciled Challenge with Kate"






Happy Creating!

Be well,

Happy World Cardmaking Day 2017!

Hope you have all spent some time in your craft areas today making beautiful cards!

There are many fun challenges out there but the one where an idea immediately popped into my mind was, of course, the rainbow challenge at My Favorite Things. I made two cards because I couldn't just throw out the negative, now could I? The striped paper I made myself with markers a long time ago because I had a similar sheet that I loved but couldn't find any more of it. So I made one myself and made color copies of it.

Stamps: My Favorite Things (sentiments)
Die: My Favorite Things (Happy)

ETA: Just discovered that Winnie & Walter also has a rainbow challenge. It is hosted on Lea Lawson's blog. Check out her amazing rainbow cards!







ETA: Also sending this to the celebration at

Simon Says Stamp WCMD







Don't want to keep you any longer so that you can go back and make more cards! But thanks for stopping by! And taking the time to leave a comment!

Be well,

Hugs in Red and Browns

The warm and cozy colors of Heather's card and the current color challenge at Winnie & Walter really spoke to me and I just had to make a card! I even used a piece of Designer paper, how about that! Soon I will run out, lol!

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (leaf), Hero Arts (wood background on the hugs die cut, sentiment), script background unmounted & unknown
Die: Winnie & Walter (hugs)


What is hard to see is that I stamped a wood background on the die cut word and it's three layers to give it some dimension. The reds are a bit brighter IRL.


Winnie & Walter September Color Combo
ETA: This was one of the favorites, yay!





That's it from me for today! Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your visit and your comments - they always make my day!

Be well,

Little Sailboat

We live by a rather large lake and I never get tired to look out at the blue water dotted with sailboats in the summer. But I have no desire to learn how to sail and own a sailboat! I wouldn't say no if someone invited me on their sailboat but otherwise I'd rather make a card featuring a sailboat!

Stamps: My Favorite Things (background), Hero Arts (sentiment)
Die: SSS (sailboat)

This is another salted watercolor wash that I made at the same time as the green one. I cut a wavy slit in it to tuck in the sailboat. Added some Stickles there to mimic the sparkling water. Doesn't the balloon string background from My Favorite Things look like the surface of water here?

Since the die and both stamps are NBUS I am sending this over to Darnell's challenge

NBUS #12






Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"





Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Be well,

Cat and a Rainbow of Fish

Quite a while ago I got this fun stamp set from the very generous and sweet Gundi from "papierelle" and finally dug it out from my bursting NBUS box to make a birthday card for her. (She likes cats...)

Stamps: ScrapBerry's (cat and fishes)
Die: SSS (balloon)

Just stamped everything in black Versafine, colored it with my Polychromos, added some accents on the fish with glitter pens, and put Glossy Accents on all the eyes! Die cut a little balloon from a scrap of glossy paper. White embossed one of the fish on a strip of black card stock. I had so much fun making this card!

I'm sending this over to the very generous and fun Darnell and her equally fun challenge called

NBUS #12
Check out the gallery to see what people have been finding in their NBUS boxes...

Be well,

Best Wishes in Green and Gold

Over at the CAS Watercolor Challenge the theme is "Silhouette" and it doesn't have to be a black one. So mine is gold with a green watercolor wash, sprinkled with salt, in the background. Instead of using gems, I die cut the top of the flower again, cut out some of the circles, "hammered" them with the end of a brush to give them some textures and glued them on.

Stamps: Hero Arts (sentiment)
Die: Memory Box (flower)


CAS Watercolor September Challenge
ETA: This card won Outstanding Design!






CAS Mix Up September Challenge
ETA: This card won Outstanding Design!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Be well,

Copper and Turquoise

When I saw the photo at "Inspired by the Little Things" (see further down) I thought the color combo of the mason jars was so striking!. So that's what I concentrated on for my card.

Stamps: Concord & 9th (world map), Clearly Besotted (striped background), Inkadinkado (sentiment)

Created a DI background with water splatters. Stamped and embossed the map with an ancient embossing powder from PSX. It created a texture but I don't know if that is because it is old or not super fine. I kind of like it. Stamped and embossed a border around a white panel using the same powder. The rest is self explanatory I think. If you have any questions, contact me.
I really love this color combo of copper and turquoise!


Inspired by the Little Things #64

On another note, I always used picmonkey to add the watermark to my pictures for free but all of the sudden it wants me to pay for a membership - bummer! Do any of you know of another free software for watermarks?

Be well,

Stars Just For You

When I saw Heather's color combo at the August color challenge at Winnie & Walter I knew I wanted to create something using them. These colors together make me so happy! 

Stamps: Winnie & Walters (stars), Uniko (sentiment)
Die: Avery Elle (border)
Other: Schmincke Watercolors


This month's theme at CAS Mix Up is watercolor wash. I watched all the videos that Loll recommended and learned a lot! I tried one of the ways to do a color wash in the background and like how smooth it came out. Thanks Loll for always providing links to technique videos! That was very helpful!


Winnie & Walter August Color Combo Challenge
ETA: This one was a favorite!






Winnie & Walter Rerun #23
Unfortunately I don't own " A Tree for all Seasons" but I was inspired by Vanessa's card.






CAS Mix Up September Challenge 
I am not sure if my card is CAS enough for the challenge - if it isn't please just ignore it.

Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Wednesday Challenge "Stamp It"







As always, thank you so much for your visit and comments! If you have any questions let me know (my email is in the "Contact Me" page).

Be well,