I started this card on Monday and finished it off early this morning.  I had cut the figure out on my Black Cat Cutter a while ago using LD designs Weather Girl set and have been wanting to use it. As these last few days have been rather dreary, I was so looking forward to some sunshine but wanted to convey the arrival of Spring….yay!!! I drew in the background and was thinking “April showers bring May flowers ” the whole time. It’s an adorable birthday greeting card.

I recently bought MFT Magical Dragons Stamp and Die set. I love, love, love these stamps. They are just so adorable and are fun to color. They are also fairly easy to manipulate and make new shapes.

As anyone who knows me, I love manipulating existing stamps to create new things after having fun with the originals and giving dimension so that, if one wishes to do so, can frame them and hang them as artwork. I love mashups. The cute little baby dragon just cries out to be hugged but the Mamma Dragon has her right “arm” kinda tucked under her foot. So, I cut the dragon’s foot and inserted baby into it so that it looks like it is being held and then cut out a full “arm” so it could wrap around baby. Neat huh?

I think God had a real sense of humor when he decided to create dogs. They do some of the funniest things and when I’m feeling rather down I just have to look at them and smile. In many ways, they are like children and depend on us for everything! (That’s why I am very vocal on my FB page about people abusing or abandoning animals). If you’re not willing to take care of an animal, don’t get one …. period!

That said, I just adore MFT dog stamps. I already have “You make my tail wag” and I recently bought “Lucky dog”. I decided to create a mash-up of the two for a birthday greeting.

While I was in the States I ran across some stamps that…that…well, what can I say…it was LOVE at FIRST SIGHT!  They are Angela Porter’s Color me stamps distributed by Hampton Art. When I saw them they reminded me of a puzzle that I received when I was 10 years old “The psychedelic Mother Goose puzzle”.    I still have it because I love looking at the cover.

Anyway….I bought the Color me Sunshine and Color me Amazing . They are great stamps as they have a lot of little stamps to embellish or use on your own. They all coordinate together so they can even be mixed together.

I used copic on them. I had experimented using pencils but did the colors lacked the vibrancy that copic has. I also embellished them with Glossy Accents and added some dimension .

I’ve had such fun using an Elizabeth Craft Designs die that sat in my stash for a long time. The die is Garden Patch and I have been making some shaker cards using the elements that have been cut. To make the shaker part, I cut the square 6 times then layered them together on the card. I hand coloured the flowers using only two colours and then added a bit of sparkle.

This was an old post that, for some reason, never got published. I saw the draft only today. Oops…..

Day 6 (forgot to post yesterday) made with Memory Box Leaf Canopy and Impression Obsession Solid Tree die and stamp set. Took inspiration from Kitty Caracciolo. It needs something but not sure what so I’ll leave it for now and come back to it.

Before I left for the US I got an order for some baby cards. As I was making one to welcome my new grandson I decided to make them all “more or less” the same….that is box cards. I just made sure that when I was making the elements I would make a bunch and use them. I had a lot of fun doing these and getting creative using my Black Cat Cutter machine. I got this after I bought my first Cuttlebug. I now own not just those but a Brother Scan n’ Cut, a Spellbinders Grand Calibur and now I just received an order from Amazon of the Sizzix Big Shot. I felt I needed something a bit more stable that the other two handheld ones. I’ll let you know how it goes….in the meantime…. 

Ok….after a hiatus of 3 months I’m back and as a New Year’s resolution, I have decided to dedicate more time to crafting and keeping up this blog.

Before I left I did some work on scrapbook albums that I made as gifts and some Christmas cards that I had been ordered.

I must admit, I LOVED making the albums. I used the magnificent Graphic 45 papers and Kathy Orta Kings template for the pages. Once I got the hang of doing the pages I was able to embellish more adding some more interactive flip out pages and such. I also made one small change to her binding technique. For the accordion binding, Kathy seems to just use printed cardstock. I noticed that when using the Graphic 45 paper it would tear easily. So, to make it a bit more durable  I lined the back with Tyvek paper and then folded the tabs.  It’s a bit stiffer to turn the pages but at least they aren’t tearing as thy had before. (The first album I had ever attempted without the Tyvek just fell apart in my hands.

Anyway, here are the results:

This first one was a gift for my daughter-in-law’s sister. She had a little boy back in July and I got around to doing the album in September.  This is my third album. I tend to like less decorated covers as the paper is so beautiful in itself…just a bit of embellishment is all that is needed.

I made another album for my own grandson using Mother Goose by Graphic 45 and would you believe I can’t find any pictures of it? I hope I find them. It turned out beautifully.

Next album made was made a week and 1/2 before my departure. Using Graphic 45 Under the Sea, it was a gift for my best friend who winters in Naples. We stopped in to see her for a couple of days.

Glossy Accents used on hair to give definition to strands and to make bubbles.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos….I need a new camera!

Last album made was for my brother for Christmas. I made this while in the States. Having lost his wife back in March of 2016, I wanted to make an album that he could place cherished photos of their brief life together. She loved flowers but since it’s going in his new home I wanted to make it with a masculine feel to it as well. Graphic 45’s Artisan Style fit the bill perfectly and, as an added bonus, it has peacocks! I remember from my art history days that peacocks are the Christian symbol of resurrection. 🙂

Here I added a flap to the small pull out pages that Kathy Orta King inserts onto a tab cut from the main tab on the binding. It wasn’t laying flat so I inserted the tab into the opening of the page before fixing it to the binding. It worked out much better and I will probably use this on all my other albums.

I used a lot of Glossy Accents on the areas I wanted to pop.

This past weekend we celebrated the retirement of one of my husband’s cousin who is also a great friend. After 42 years of nursing, she is finally exiting the healthcare service to enjoy some time with her family. I did think about making a nurse related card for just a fraction of a second but wanted to use what I had on hand. I have this stamp “Cheers to you” from Art Impressions. I love her! I have made many a Christmas card with her but wanted to see if I could use her for other themes. I blocked out her corsage and legs and stamped her several times. I colored her using an idea by Sandy Boone. I loved how she colored the Art Impressions stamp in different ways. Although I had no legs for my new lady, I didn’t want her so squat as she originally is so, using the inspiration from Sandy, I hand drew the legs and bottom of the skirt, cut them out and pasted them under the original. I added dimension using two layers of the stamp plus Glassy Accents for the glass and glasses and  used liquid pearls for her oversized earrings.

Yeah, I’ve been lax but apart from vacation where I did not have a real access to internet, I’ve been busy trying to catch up on all the things I left behind since I went on vacation. Whew! That also means trying to catch up on card making…..

Here are some cards that I am making for an order. Hope you like them. The skates and tin man soldiers are from Tim Holtz Alterations die and the stained glass window is from Hero Arts. It was stamped and embossed on heat resist acetate and colored with Copic markers.