Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing cards with a monochromatic color theme. I decided to go with an array of browns to make a sympathy card that was more masculine. Sadly, I needed one to send tomorrow to a friend and former downline who lost her father-in-law this week. It's always sad to lose loved ones around a holiday and I hope that Thanksgiving won't be too painful for them next year. Today's card features the the Hope You Know and Oceanfront stamp sets. I kept this card very minimalist to give it an artsy feel, but also because it is to express sorrow for the death of a man.... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing thank you cards. With Thanksgiving in the U.S. coming up this week, it is a great time to reflect and be thankful. I am so thankful for the many friends and customers I have met over the last 18 years that I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and I hope to meet many more in the future! Two wonderful demonstrators that I have been stamping with for over a decade are Karla Anders and Rachel Yurkanin, with whom I co-host the Sisters in Stamping blog. I haven't seen Karla in person in quite a few years, but managed to meet up with Rachel... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday Monday! If you're wondering where I've been, we recently moved to Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and it has been quite an ordeal packing up a house that we have lived in for 22 years and then unpacking enough to find stamping supplies to make a project. I promise to be posting more regularly now and hope you enjoy this week's Sisters in Stamping blog project. We are sharing card ideas to use up scraps. You know, those pieces of left over card stock and DSP that seem to grow on your crafting table every time you make a project. This card is a clean and simple one featuring a birthday sentiment from the... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing cards featuring a great color combination that Karla chose. I decided to watercolor a masculine birthday card with this color palette. Karla chose the color combination of Copper Clay, Old Olive and Pretty Peacock for our cards this week. I must admit this was a tough one for me! I thought it looked like a masculine combination, so I made a masculine birthday card using the Wild & Sweet stamp set. The Wild & Sweet stamp set is great for watercoloring! And the new Water Painters make it so easy - I just pulled the ink off the lid of the stamp pad to... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing fall cards. Can you believe we are already in October?! The leaves are starting to turn here in Central Virginia and the temperatures are finally beginning to feel like fall. I challenged myself to try using a stamp set that is not ordinarily used for fall and think I pulled it off thanks to the color palette. The Hello Ladybug stamp set is currently in low inventory status, so if you want to purchase it please place your order online. In addition to this set I used the Go To Greetings stamp set for the birthday sentiment. I also added a bit of bling... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing cards featuring fun folds. These cards are so fun to receive and some techniques are more difficult than others. I found this card idea by Karen Titus on Pinterest (see that pin here for great directions). She didn't give the fold a name so I am just calling it a fun fold surprise card. I made a set of two using this fun new DSP from the Holiday catalog and wanted to show how versatile it is by making both a Christmas card AND a birthday card just by switching up the stamp sets used. Read on to find out more about each card...... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Monday! Sorry for the delay, but I forgot to publish my post yesterday (oops!). This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing cards featuring the Fractured technique. I made this card a short while after creating my project for the Stampers Dozen Blog Hop (see that here) and still had the stamp set and ink on my desk so decided to make my own "DSP" to create this fun card. I stamped the images all over a piece of 6" x 6" very vanilla card stock and cut it down to size for this card. I will probably use the remaining pieces on another project soon. Once again I used the Color &... Continue reading

Hello and thank you for stopping by during this month's Stampers Dozen blog hop! We were tasked with creating projects with a Fall theme. When I think of Fall I think of all the beautiful pots of Mums sitting on people's porches. I decided to try and recreate that look in some cards. I have a Color Combo and Inspiration board on Pinterest and it is always my go-to when searching for color combinations. For these Fall cards I decided to go with a palette of Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry and Old Olive that I found on the Birds Nest Designs blog. Aren't these colors great together?! For both cards today I used the Color & Contour stamp... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday evening! It has been a crazy last couple of weeks so I apologize for being MIA for a while. This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing cards featuring Vellum. Since I haven't stamped in a while, my creative juices were not flowing easily. I decided to keep things simple and go back to one of the first techniques I learned using vellum - stamping line art images with Stazon ink and coloring on the reverse side to create a look like stained glass. In the past I used stampin' write markers but thought I would change things up and use my Stampin' Blends today. For today's card I used the Quiet... Continue reading

Hello and thank you for stopping by during this month's Stampers Dozen blog hop! We were tasked with creating projects featuring a Dynamic Duo color combo. I decided to create a card set featuring Night of Navy and Pecan Pie. I have a Color Combo and Inspiration board on Pinterest and saw this color palette recently. I know it says "rust", but to me this looks like Pecan Pie and it pairs so well with Night of Navy! This is a more masculine color combo, but I challenged myself to come up with two cards - one for a male and the other for a female (you know I have to use one of my many floral stamp sets!!). For... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday evening! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing black and white cards with a pop of color. This is such an easy color combination as most colors look great with black and white! I chose to feature Melon Mambo in my thank you card today. For today's card I used the Color & Contour stamp set and coordinating Scalloped Contours dies along with Melon Mambo stampin' blends and Clear Wink of Stella. My black ink of choice is always Memento Tuxedo Black ink as I think it is a softer, prettier black. Plus, I tend to grab my stampin' blends whenever I color these days and this is the ink of... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday evening! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing sympathy cards. This is the kind of card that I am sadly finding I need more and more the older I get. Today's project is a quick and easy one! For today's card I used the Quiet Meadow and Something Fancy stamp sets along with small blending brushes, and the gold Metallic Enamel effects. To place an online order or check out the products available from the 2023-2024 Annual catalog, please click on any image to hop over to my online Stampin' Up! store (don't forget to use Host Code BK2CKGVA* with your online order at checkout through August 30th). I CASE'd myself... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday Monday evening! Sorry for the delay in posting, but we were gone for the weekend and I didn't finish my card until super late last night and had to work today. This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are featuring projects that have paper strips. I recently made some Open Trellis cards (see the directions along with the cards here in my July Stampers Dozen Blog Hop post) and thought this fun fold would be perfect for this week's theme. For today's card I used the Two-Tone Flora stamp set and coordinating dies along with the Biggest Wish stamp set, Countryside Corners die set, Rhinestone basic jewels and Mini Stampin' Cut & Embossing... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Friday! I shared some cards in my Sunday Fun Day post last weekend (see that post here) for the Sisters in Stamping blog where we were showcasing the Ladybug Builder punch. I created the three cards above and promised to share details about the cocktail glass birthday card this week. Please read on for the details... For my card today I used the Ladybug builder punch, coordinating Hello Ladybug stamp set, Biggest Wish stamp set and the Taco Fiesta stamp set. My color palette includes Blueberry Bushel, Daffodil Delight, Parakeet Party along with basic black and basic white. To place an online order or check out the products available from the 2023-2024 Annual catalog, please click on... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are showcasing the Ladybug builder punch from the Stampin' Up! annual catalog. I came up with three different ways to use it and will share details of 2 of the cards today and the last card (cocktail birthday card) in a post later this week. For my cards today I used the Ladybug builder punch, Hello Ladybug stamp set, Biggest Wish stamp set and a color palette of Daffodil Delight, Parakeet Party, Sweet Sorbet along with basic black and basic white. To place an online order or check out the products available from the 2023-2024 Annual catalog, please click on any image to hop over to... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Tuesday! Find yourself staring at multiple stamp sets from the 2023–2024 Annual Catalog and can’t decide which ones to get? You won’t have to stare for much longer because tomorrow, July 19, 2023, you can get those stamp sets you’ve been wanting at a 15% discount! But you will have to act fast because this lightning deal will only last for one day, so make sure you are ready to shop ‘til you drop! This is definitely a deal you don’t want to miss out on. Note: Please note that this sale does exclude host stamp sets. Double up on your savings and check out the new items added in the Clearance Rack and you are getting... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are CASE'ing cards from the Stampin' Up! annual catalog. I once again used the Hey Chuck bundle (I just can't get enough of these funky chickens!). The catalog is not only a place to find products, but also a great source of inspiration!! You can find fabulous color combinations to try and get card layout ideas. Don't forget, you can rotate a portrait-style card and make it a landscape one and vice-versa... that doubles the layout ideas, doesn't it?! I decided to CASE one of the sample cards for the Bird's Eye View stamp set from page 48 of the Annual catalog. I changed it up... Continue reading

Hello and thank you for stopping by during this month's blog hop! We were tasked with creating cards with a garden/floral theme and I wanted to try out a new technique I saw called an Open Trellis card. I used flowers on one card and chickens on the other (that counts as a garden theme, right?). I saw that the Open Trellis card was the technique of the week shared in the SplitcoastStampers newsletter last week and wanted to give it a try (TLC958). Please note you do have to have an account on that site to view it, but the accounts are free and this site has tons of inspiration! I made two different cards, one using the straightforward... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are sharing cards celebrating Summer Fun. What better way to celebrate summer than at the beach?!? It is definitely my happy place and I intend to spend retirement near the ocean!! My Mom loved sea turtles and I purchased this set in honor of her. I also have a co-worker who loves sea turtles, so this is going to be his birthday card come September. For that reason I had to keep it pretty simple with some added texture since that is how I like to make masculine cards. I love the way this one turned out and can't wait to use this set more!! For... Continue reading

Hello and Happy Sunday! This week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are CASE'ing a past project that we shared. I decided to recreate a sponged sympathy card from a few years ago (see below for more about that project). I really like how this one turned out and plan to make more to have on hand as sadly I am needing these kinds of cards more often the older I get. I made this sponged sympathy card back in September, 2017 (see that post here). I can hardly believe it was almost 6 years ago!! I loved the sponged oval and black silhouette image and decided to recreate this card using current product. This card featured a... Continue reading