Fall Watercolor Window Card

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was good. I set up my fall decor inside which seems a little odd since it still in the upper 80s / lower 90s here in NC. I’m fairly certain summer is never going to end! Maybe by the time I decorate for Christmas, it’ll finally feel like Fall.
Anyhow,  I decided to break out some watercolors and make a Fall colored thank you card. I used Tim Holtz Distress watercolor paper and my Gansei Tambi watercolors to create a simple background.

After it completely dried, I cut out a circle from the panel and stamped one of the trees from my much beloved “Lovely as a Tree” set from Stampin Up using Walnut Stain Distress ink.
I cut two more circle frames from rust color card stock and also Spring Moss from Papertrey Ink. I used the larger circle frame on the front of the card and I layered the tree image and smaller circle frame on the inside of the card

To cover the hole in the front of the card, I added a piece of acetate to the back of the front watercolor panel and then used some foam tape to adhere it to a standard size card made from cream colored card stock.

I white heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom which is from my ever- present and much used Hero Arts “ Everyday Sentiments”
I added some white dashed lines around the outer circle frame and a some sparkly dots around the inner frame for the finishing touches.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me today! I hope you like what I made. Feel free to scroll around and see some of my other creations!

1. Corrosive Challenges: Anything Goes
2. Creative Fingers Challenges: Anything Goes
3. Crafty Catz: Anything Goes
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5. QKR Stampede: Anything Goes
6. Brown Sugar Challenges: Anything Goes
7. Crafting Happiness Challenge: Orange
8. Get Creative Challenges: Anything Goes (3rd)
9. Make My Monday: Autumn

Altenew Fine Frames: Thank you, you are a blessing

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re all having a great day! Thank you for visiting me today. My card for today features the “Fine Frames” die set from Altenew. I have to admit, I had a bit of difficulty using this die. I couldn’t get it to cut through on the top and bottom but only on the sides. Now, I have to give due thought to the fact that I have a very old (1st edition old) Cuttlebug die cutting machine and it could be very well be the reason it isn’t working well. I’m hoping Santa might bring me a new machine for Christmas! For now, I will probably just use this die as a one piece frame and I plan to order another set that has the frames as individual dies.

I wanted to do another fall colored theme card. This is a bit of a non traditional fall colored card, so I included the picture that inspired it, so you can see where my thoughts started.

 I began by layering the individual frames as shown and then I knew I wanted a bold sentiment in the center panel. I actually dug around and found an old ‘Thank You” wood block stamp. I heat embossed it with white powder and added the smaller sentiment from Altenew’s “You are” set

I added a couple of small embellishments, twine  and white dashed lines around a few of the frames for some final finishing touches.

Have a great day, everyone!

1. The House that Stamps Built: Anything Goes
2. Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes
3. Crafty Creations: Anything Goes
4. Aud Sentiments Challenge: Anything Goes with a sentiment
5. Crafting with an Attitude: Anything Goes (3rd Entry)
6. Lavinia World Challenge: Anything Goes

Thankul: Embossed Falling Leaves

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it has been a few days since I posted. Last week was a bit of challenge in the mom world for me. As you may remember, my daughter had her wisdom teeth taken out last week and unfortunately, she had a rough recovery, so lots of TLC was necessary. She finally turned a corner this weekend and seems to be getting back to normal. I did get some crafting done as well; but just finally got around to getting some photos done this morning.

The card for today is an Autumn themed card. I will admit, I am not one to make a lot of autumn/ Halloween type cards. I just don’t send them out to people, so they’re not really of great use to me.
Usually the only reason I make them is to have a few things to show on my blog during the Fall season. I also try to make them multi-functional such as a Thank you card.

I used the Falling Leaves Background Stamp from Simon Says Stamp. This is an older stamp from last year’s Stamptember release. This stamp is perfect for a background focal point. I decided to heat emboss it and I actually did it several times before decided to mix it up a bit by using two powders: Enchanted Gold, and Copper. The copper embossing matched well with the scrap of copper paper I found in my stash.

I originally white heat embossed the “Thankful” sentiment on to the copper paper; but made some mistakes, so I trimmed out the sentiment and attached it to a new piece of paper. I added some tiny hearts that I punched out and then added some sparkle with my Spectrum  Noir Glitter pen and topped with glossy accents. I added some dashed white lines around the card edge as well as the bottom line of the copper sentiment piece. I added some little gemstones and sequins for final embellishments.

Have a great day everyone!


1. Crafting Happiness: Fall or Autumn
2. Crafty Cardmakers: Fall Colors
3, Creativ Fusion Arts and Crafts: Autumn
4. Get Creative Challenges: Anything Goes (3)
5. Pammies Inky Pinkies: Anything Goes
6. Shopping our Stash: Embossing
7. Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
8. Tuesday Throwdown: Anything Goes

Pink Fresh Studios Modern Mandala Die Cut CAS card

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to my blog, thank you so much for stopping by and visiting me today.  Recently I purchased the Modern Mandala Die Cut from Pink Fresh Studios and it’s been sitting on my desk in the “to do” pile for a while. I finally got a chance to play with it and it was a lot of fun. I can definitely see many more uses for it in the future. For this first one, I decided to die cut it from both light pink and dark pink card stock

I took scissors and separated the different sections and then pieced them back together in alternating layers. This was also an easy way to get two cards done rather quickly.

Since the medallion was the main focus of the card, I added a thin frame around the edge of the card and simple sentiments in the bottom corner. For the second card, I lost the tiny little middle piece (I’m sure it’s in the trash) so I added a small prima flower with a little glass flower embellishment. I thought this was a nice way to make the two cards the same; but also just a little bit different.

To add a bit of final interest, I added some liquid pearls to the various points of the medallion and added some glitter with my (new to me) Spectrum Noir glitter pen.
So two rather  simple cards for today. I hope you like them and I hope it inspires you to create something too!

Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you again soon!

1. Die Cuttin Divas: Just because
2. Lemon Shortbread Challenge: Anything Goes
3. Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
4. Addicted to Stamps and More: CAS
5. Crafting by Design: Anything Goes (2nd Entry)

Layered Medallion Stencil: Wishing you only the Best!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was full of fun and crafting and family time, so it was good! My son ran a 1/2 marathon and finished 9th overall and 1st in his age group! So super proud of him!! We did some reorganizing and decorating in my daughter’s room that she’s been wanting to do for a long time. She had her wisdom teeth removed today, so I’m glad her room will be a nice peaceful place for her to recover for a few days. I was able to get a good bit of Christmas crafting done this weekend as well.
The card I’m sharing today features the same layering and rotating stencil technique I used on the Sparkle and Shine shaker card I posted last week. This stencil is one I got from Hobby Lobby a while ago and I really like it; but I often struggle with ideas to use it. This technique worked rather well, however and I look forward to using it more often.

I die cut a scallop heart from white paper and then inked the edges with Simon Says Stamp Coral Reef ink. I also die cut another small heart from a piece of paper that I heat embossed with silver powder a few times to make it very shiny! The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Best Hugs set.
I’m a little late in the day posting this, so that is all for me today. I hope you like the card and I hope you all have a great evening!

Anything Goes Challenges:

1. A Gem of a Challenge
2. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends
3. A Bit More Time to Craft
4. Love to Craft
5. The Creative Crafters

Sparkle and Shine Layering Stencil Shaker Card

Hi Everyone!

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope you are all doing well. I have been very busy formulating and designing some new Christmas crafts which I will be sharing very soon. Today, however I have a simple card that actually has a couple of detailed elements to it which make it super fun!

The inspiration for this card came from Jennifer McGuire. Whenever I am stuck for ideas of how to really use some of the supplies I have, I will visit her blog and I always find the inspiration I need! I’ve stated in some previous posts that I’ve been really trying to use my stencils a bit more. Stencils are just so inexpensive and really, once you search around and find some inspiring ideas to use them, they are a lot of fun as well. For this technique I used Jennifer’s idea of layering and rotating the stencils. You can see Jennifer’s video showcasing this fun technique here
For my card, I started with a piece of Simon Says Stamp Island Blue Card stock. (The color is a bit off in the photo, bad lighting I suppose) The stencil is from Hero Arts and I began by ink blending some Salty Ocean Distress Ink over it. Then I shifted the stencil so that it was a little off center from where it was and blended a heavy layer of Simon Says Stamp White pigment ink over it and set it off to the side to dry.

While it was drying, I made the center shaker panel. There are a wide variety of ways complete with You Tube tutorials about how to make a shaker card. I feel like I do a different way each time! For the sentiment in the center, I white embossed the “Sparkle and Shine” which is from an older Simon Says Stamp card kit set on to a a piece of heat resistant acetate.
I decided to put a small strip of white card stock across the center because the shaker circle just got lost against the stenciled background when I just had it directly against it. I added some white dashed lines around the edges of the die cut circle, and two large silver sequins to finish the card.

Ok, that is it for me today! A fun card to make, if a bit time consuming! Go check out Jennifer’s blog...she’s always great!
See you again soon..

Anything Goes Challenges:

1. Lemon Shortbread 
2. Through the Craft Room Door
3. Crafting By Designs
4. Crafty Creations
5. Crafting with an Attitude

Additional challenge: 

6. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Bling it on. 

Cross Stitch Hello

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all having a great day! Thank you so much for visiting me today. I am back home and finally getting back into a normal routine after our little “hurrication” Today I have another cross stitch card to share with you. I made this one around the same time I made the other ones I have shared; but I figured I’d save it for a little while. This was a fun pattern to stitch and I will definitely use it again.

For the center I use the framed rectangle die cuts from Simon Says Stamp. I cut them so I could inlay the layers instead of stacking them. I wanted this card to have layers; but I thought if I stacked all of these, it would just make it a little too bulky.

The sentiments are both from older Hero Arts set: The “hello” is from “Living Life” and the other one is from “Everyday Sentiments” which is one of my favorite and most used sets.

For card stock, I used Enchanted Evening from Paper Trey Ink, New Leaf and Surf Blue from Simon Says Stamp, Neenah Solar white and a grey that I found in my stash.
That is all for me today. I do want to let you know I am starting to work on some Christmas crafts which is keeping me busy, so I may not be posting as frequently for the next couple of weeks. Don’t worry though, I’ll be around as much as I can!
Have a great day, everyone!


1. A Bit More Time to Craft: Anything Goes
2. A Perfect Time to Craft: Anything Goes
3. Love to Craft: Anything Goes
4. The Creative Crafters: Anything Goes
5. Get Creative Challenges: Anything Goes
6. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies: Anything Goes
7. Crafty Calendar Challenge: Add lots of layers

Simon Says Stamp Floral with Prismacolor.

Hi Everyone!

Well, the damage from Dorian seems to be minimal and everyone is safe back home, so the kids and I will return home tomorrow and life should just get back to normal by next week. I’ve been a little busy the last few days while staying with friends, so I haven't had tine to blog until today.

I’m sharing  another card using the Cosmos Floral Background stamp from Simon Says Stamp. I posted another one recently. If you missed it, you can see it here. For that first card, I used Copic Markers to color floral images. For this card, I decided to use my Prismacolor pencils. I chose an all red theme and basically used the same pencils, I just colored some lightly and some more darker.
It was all easy and fun to do! I added the sentiment which is also from SSS “Handwritten Greetings”

As with the previous card I made with this background stamp, the focus is on the background, so you really do only need a simple sentiment to complete it.
Short and sweet post, today; but I wanted to make sure I popped on and at least shared something!
Have a great weekend; and I will be back again next week sometime!



1. Brown Sugar Challenges: Anything Goes
2. Color Crazy Challenge: Anything Coloring Goes
3. Crafty Catz Challenge: Anything Goes
4. Creative Fingers Challenge: Anything Goes
5. Polkadoodles: Anything Goes
6. Crafting with an Attitude: Anything Goes
7. Crafting by Design: Anything Goes
8. Simon Says Stamp: Stamp it

Stencil Ink Blending: You are the best

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re all having a great day and enjoyed your Labor Day holiday. We are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Dorian here in Eastern North Carolina and making preparations. For now however, I have a quick card to share with you.

For this card, I used stencils from Simon Says Stamp and My Favorite Things. I started with the circle stencil from Simon first and stipple brushed a light coat of distress ink in Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch and Picked Raspberry. Then I laid the other sketch down positioning it the way I wanted over the circles and then used my ink blending tools to put down a slightly heavier layer of ink in the same colors.

The sentiment band is from Simon Says Stamp “You Matter” set. I probably should have centered the three smaller sentiments a little bit better; but honestly...that’s never my strong suit. I added some iridescent sequins and white dash lines to various parts of the circles for a little added interest.
Simple card overall, I think; but still with some interesting elements.

Have a great day; and I will update again as I can depending on the Hurricane Dorian situation.

Challenges:

1. A Gem of a Challenge: Anything Goes
2. Little Patch of Crafty Friends: Anything Goes
3. Get Creative Challenges: Anything Goes
4. Pammies Inky Pinkies: Anything Goes
5. Lemon Shortbread Challenges: Anything Goes
6. Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes