A Petal Palette Birthday

I have truly enjoyed using the "Petal Palette" stamp set and coordinating thinlets. I also purchased the "Petal Passion Memories & More Card Pack". This card uses one of those cards. I made this card for one of my special friends.

Stamps -- Petal Palette

Ink -- Memento Tuxedo Black with Sweet Sugarplum and Pear Pizzazz for watercoloring

Card Stock -- Sweet Sugarplum for card base and Smoky Slate for accent layer

Accessories -- Petals and More Thinlets, Aqua brush and dimensionals

Old Becomes New

One retired stamp set
One retired framelit set
One current stamp set
Equals one modern birthday card.

I really find it hard to let go of my retired stamp sets and accessories. I purchased them because I really liked them and I still enjoy using them. I guess I am just not a very good salesman.

Stamps -- Stampin' Up Work of Art and Big on Birthdays

Ink -- Soft Sky, Pool Party and Bermuda Bay

Card Stock -- Pool Party, Bermuda Bay and white

Accessories -- Botanical Builder Framelits and my Misti

Wreaths and More Wreaths

I love watching these designs come to life. Every new elements adds dimension to the overall image. I keep telling myself that it is time to do something different. Hasn't happened yet. Maybe today.

Stamps -- Petal Palette and Bunch of Blossoms for sentiment
Inks -- Wisteria Wonder, Pear Pizzazz and Memento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock -- Wisteria Wonder and white

Stamps -- Gina K Designs Wreath Builder and Unity Stamp for sentiment
Inks -- Gina K Designs Turquoise Sea, Sweet Mango, Grass Green and Stampin' Up's Pool Party and Daffodil Delight
Card Stock -- Pool Party and Grapefruit Grove

Creating

With the Wreath Builder templates, you can also create square designs. That is what I did on this birthday card. The template keeps everything lined up.

Card Stock -- Highland Heather for card base, Pistachio Pudding, Gorgeous Grape and White
Stamps -- Leaves -- Hold On To Hope
                 Border -- You're Lovely
                 Flower and Sentiment -- Wreath Builder
Ink -- Memento Grape Jelly and Lulu Lavender, and SU Pistachio Pudding

From Me To You!

The wreath builder template from Gina K Designs fascinates me. I had a few minutes before lunch this morning so I thought I would try another card with the large template since everything was already out. I love to watch the design come to life. This time I made a square card 4 1/4" x 4 1/4".

Stamps -- Gina K Designs Wreath Builder, ODBD Mini Tags 3 and Stampin' Up Thoughts and Prayers
Card Stock -- Stampin' Up Almost Amethyst, Granny Apple Green and white
Inks -- Gina K Designs Mini Cubes and VersaFine Onyx Black

Happy Father's Day

May is half gone so I was thinking about my upcoming card class. With June knocking on the door, I thought of "Father's Day" cards. I did not want to use brown or gray or dark blue. I wanted something bright and happy. The colors that jumped out at me were Soft Sky and Lost Lagoon. I didn't have any of the new designer paper so I made my own. I used Soft Sky card stock and ink. I think it made a beautiful background design. After stamping the sentiment on Soft Sky card stock using Lost Lagoon ink, I trimmed the words, cut them apart and used dimensionals to add them to the card. The candy dot was perfect to finish off the front.

I wanted to decorate the inside. I stamped the bottom of the white card stock using the top edge of the background stamp. Finally, using a ruler, I drew a line across the top of the stamped edge with the Lost Lagoon marker in one long smooth stroke. Love it.

Card Stock -- Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon and white
Stamps -- Just Rite Background Harlequin Script
                 Front Sentiment from Hero Arts
                 Inside sentiment from Stampin Up The Wildness Awaits
Ink -- Lost Lagoon
Accessories -- Candy Dot and Lost Lagoon marker

Blessed is those who fear the LORD,

Who find great delight in his commands.

They will have no fear of bad news;

Their hearts are steadfast,

Trusting in the LORD.

Psalm 112:1,7

Why So Difficult?

Why are masculine cards so difficult to create or is it just me? I spent all morning working on this card. I still feel that it is missing something. Not sure what! I will leave it for a while. I want to make at least one or two masculine cards in my next "Create, Challenge, Encourage" stamp club meeting. So I still have some work to do.

Stamps -- Stampin Up Hardwood, Country Livin' and Big On Birthdays

                 Impression Obsession background stamp Distressed Corduroy

Ink --  Memento Rich Cocoa

Card Stock -- Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla 

Plus circle dies

Mega Meet and Mother's Day

I went to the Great Lakes Mega Meet on Friday and had fun looking and shopping. Below is a picture of most of the things I purchased. There were so many vendors and so many new things.

I was surprised to see that a few of the Gina K Designs products were there for the first time. Gina was busy showing how her new "wreath builder" templates work. I had seen her video a few weeks ago and really, really wanted one. The templates come with a coordinating stamp set. There were just  a few left so I was able to purchase a set. I love how they work together.

Saturday morning, I just had to try the wreath builder templates out. I started by doing one flower, adding some green leaves, a few more flowers and finally the hearts. Each round added more depth to the wreath. So easy and so much fun. I finished the card and decided that it would be perfect as a Mother's Day card for my daughter. Angela had asked if we could meet her and Stephen, our grandson, in Kalamazoo for a late lunch this afternoon. Of course my answer was "yes".

Daisy, Daisy, Daisy

So often there is one stamp in a set that I get stuck on and the other stamps never get used. When I ran across this card on Pinterest, it inspired me to use the small daisy from the set "Daisy Delight". This is a link to the original card that was my inspiration -- Spring Daisy Delight.

The sentiment came from the set "Petal Palette" I just received my preorder Tuesday from Stampin' Up which had the new "In Colors" card stock for 2018 -- 2020 in it.So I had to use one of those colors -- Grapefruit Grove. It is layered on a Very Vanilla card base.

Stamp Sets -- Daisy Delight and Petal Palette (Sentiment)
Card Stock -- Very Vanilla and Grapefruit Grove
Inks -- Grapefruit Grove and Wild Wasabi
Other -- Seasonal Layers Thinlet Scalloped die
Enamel Dots from Halloween Night Enamel Dots package (Retired)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,

Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22-23

The UPS Guy Came

Yesterday afternoon the UPS delivery guy left two packages at my front door. One box had new Stampin' Up catalogs in it. The other box had my preorder stamp and die sets in it. I finally got to my craft room this afternoon. My creativity is not very good these days, but I did want to try out some of the framelits and stamps.

The first die I used was from "Stitched Labels Framelits". It was the one that added texture to the background. The piece with the "Best Wishes" sentiment was stamped and cut out three times before I got it right. I took the two mistakes and glued them all together to add more body to the piece. The bird is from the Serene Garden set. I stamped it with a soft gray ink and then used a gray colored pencil to add a little depth to the image. I cut out a second bird, glued the two together and finally attached it to my card with dimensionals.

These final two pictures shows the details a little better.

One Year Anniversay

In April of 2017, our local scrapbook store closed. I had been doing a class there once a month. After receiving the news, the ladies wanted to continue our classes. I moved the class to my house on a the fourth Saturday morning of the month. Our April 2018 meeting marked our one year anniversary.   I wanted to do something special.  I wanted to make some cookies, but I just didn't get it done. Parkinson's got in the way. But I did get some little boxes made that held a Yankee votive candle. I found the pattern on Pinterest, messed up a few, and finally got eight made.

Then last week I finally made the decision to drop the card making meeting for a group of ladies from my church who have been coming to my house since February or March of 2012. We have had many good times together. I will miss them coming. Again Parkinson's has gotten in the way. The disease continues to progress for my husband. I just need to eliminate some stress from my life. I just can't do all the things I have been doing. Last week I was finally able to make that decision  and have peace about it.

I have to tell them tonight that this will be our last meeting. I have made some of the little boxes with a votive candle in each one. I hope they will each know how much their friendship  means to me.

God understands

Our Prayers,

even when we

can't find

The Words

to say them.

                     Author Unknown

Inspiration And A "CASE"!

 After having a really busy week, going here, there and yonder, I needed some inspiration. I was looking on Pinterest to see if I could find something and I did. My card is just like the original. Here is a link to the original card by BJ Peters and her excellent video post "Passionate for Petal Palette". I really liked the added touch she used with the die cut. I am thinking to use this card in my next stamp class. Have fun watching her video.

From THE Heart

Quilt Guild Challenge for 2018

My Second Love -- Quilting

Life has kept me busy the last few weeks. After getting everything ready for my card class, I took a couple of weeks off from my paper-crafting and did some sewing. Our Quilt Guild was having a challenge for our April meeting. The challenge was to chose a piece of art work and use it as inspiration to create a quilt (30" x 40"). I chose a picture that my mother had purchased years ago. The artist is Ralph McDonald. He is an artist from Tennessee and has created beautiful pictures of wildlife. When we had to close my parents home in Tennessee, I brought the picture to Michigan and have it hanging on one of my walls.

This is the picture.

Here is my quilt. It was a challenge! I learned a lot and I am glad I did the challenge.