Friends

Aren't good friends just the best thing in the world! Some of us have a large circle of friends and some have only one or two.  It doesn't matter.  We have to nurture those relationships and treat them as golden.  My card today is about friendship.  Now I am not into the Tilda stamps or other child like characters in rubber.  But this stamp got my attention mostly because I knew it would be fun to color.  It's from Penny Black for Hero Arts and it was colored with Copics.  Lots of different dies were used, mostly Spellbinders and the butterfly is MS.  Don't forget to click on the picture to get a better view.

I've been so busy getting ready for the Prima Paper Doll Hop this week, I haven't had much time to post.  I also am having eye surgery on Thursday so I had to get all my pictures and posts ready to go.  I do hope you will join us.  There will be prizes and so much fun.  Be sure to check my Prima Paper Dolls board on Pinterest too.  You'll get a ton of ideas!

A Sneak Peak!

Just a little peek at what's coming with the Prima Paper Dolls blog hop.  Remember, the seasons is the theme and we are working like crazy to bring you lots of projects and tips on working with these stamps.  This is just a tease......

Peas, Please!

One of the pleasures of springtime are fresh peas.  I eat them right in the garden when picking.  Just steamed and a little butter with salt and pepper and you have a feast.  This is another set from PTI Garden Variety and Vegetable Garden.  I made this very simple with the seed pack and the popped up peas, a sentiment and a MS doily border punch.  Well back to the blog hop  preparations!  Please join us.

Veggies!

In between working on the blog hop today I had a couple cards in the works.  This one features the Papertry Ink stamps, Vegetable Garden and Garden Variety.  The lattice is a Spellbinders die.  The vegetable stamps are interchangeable with the flower stamps in Garden Variety and they also have some great sentiments.  I love gardening but it's starting to get hard to do with some physical limitations I have.  There's nothing like fresh veggies and beautiful flowers from your own garden!

Pop-Pop-Pop Up

Another pop up card to add to the current craze!  I haven't seen one using the bath tub from Sizzix which is a very old die.  I used an SU scalloped circle punch for the bubbles and the little girl is from a Graphic 45 collection.  All the other papers are from SU.  The rubber ducky was a stickler.  I had no stickers or images with that on it.  So I cut out my own and colored it with Distress Inks and Copics.  The little rug and the framed picture complete the bathroom image.

The front of the card uses Spellbinders Labels 21 edged with Vintage Photo ink.  The leaves are a Martha Stewart punch and the flower is Recollections.  These things are so much fun and very addictive.  Be sure to double click to see the images closer.

An Alert!!!

     Hoping everyone had a great fourth!  Our dog did NOT appreciate the fireworks!  I just wanted to tell you that coming up in August, I will be participating in a blog hop.  Something new for me.  All I can say at this point is that the subject of the blog hop will be the wonderful Prima Paper Dolls stamps and accessories.  It will be the whole month of August and we will have prizes and all that good stuff.  Be sure to check back in at that time to see what the fun is all about.

Happy Fourth!!!

I saw a card on Pinterest that blew me away.  It was by Dining Room Drawers and I went to her web site and was amazed at her lovely work.  She did a baby card using the Pop n Cuts system and I was inspired to do the same.  I used a patriotic color scheme.  The only thing was I didn't have the die for the colander that she used.  Off to ebay to see if I could find one and as luck would have it, I did.  So here is my version.  I didn't have any paper that resembled graniteware for the colander.  So I made my own.  The label on the front is Sizzix Label 25 I believe.  The sentiment is from PTI as is the parade of patriotic children.  I used an old Sizzix star die to cut the stars. The flowers inside are from Tim Holtz tattered strip die.  Fireworks are from PTI.  The red checked eyelet border is a Martha border die.  I used some gold Strickles for a little spark.  Hope you all have a great day on Thursday and remember what this country is all about.

Steampunk Accordian Album

Using the Sizzix Accordian Album and the Frame and Label Bracket dies I created a small Steampunk themed album.  There are so many details on this one I think I'll just give you the basic details and let you peruse the pictures.  If you have any questions, you can always email. 

I used the G45 Steampunk papers and, though I didn't show a pic of that, I finished the back with papers too.  Many of the embellishments are from that paper collection but a few are Recollections.  I used Recollections flowers.  The main image which is the corset (see post further down) is from Stampendous.  Some of the words are Tim Holtz and K&Co. 

These are so much fun to do and you can check Pinterest for much more inspiration using these dies by Karen Burniston for Sizzix.  Don't forget to double click to enlarge the photos.  Enjoy!

Prayers, please............

Just popping in here quickly to ask for prayers for the firefighters and community of Prescott, Arizona.  In fighting a lightening related wildfire,  19 people of an elite 20 person specialized firefighting unit lost their lives.  Please pray for their families, the local fire department and the community there that are reeling from this horrible disaster. 

Welcome to the family.....

Well I just had to brag!  Isn't she just darling!  On June 13th my oldest daughter had to put down her 15 year old pug, Maggie.  She was devastated and if you have ever put an animal down, you know how hard it is.  That dog was her whole life.  Quite unexpectedly on Tuesday, an opportunity presented itself to go and look at a litter of puppies and this little girl wormed her way right into our hearts.  Her name is Sophie and she loves her bed, her toys, her food but not the housebreaking.  She is training her to a pad and so far she doesn't get it.  But it's only been three days so we have to be patient.  Don't you just love that face!  Just had to share.....

Sweety Girls

Prima has done it again!  Julie Nutting designed more paper dolls for us to play with.  As if the first ones weren't fun, she has outdone herself again.  This time, they have a set of wings to use with any one of the dolls.  For this one, I took the Prima tags that are made just for the dolls and ran it through my machine with the TH Brick embossing folder.  I swiped my TH Shabby Shutters pad across it.  I added part of a small paper doily, then popped up the doll on top.  She was colored with Copic markers and I used paper piecing for her outfit.  Added some bling (I'll have you know I made the swirls!!!) and a little sentiment from Wendy Vecchi.  Oh and her wings were also run through with an embossing folder from SU and then swiped with a pad.  These take some time but are soooo much fun.  Right click for an up close and personal.  Enjoy!

Pop! Pop! Pop!

I just got the Zig Zag pop up for my basic Pop It Up cards.  I love this because it really displays pop up elements to a card and they MOVE!  This was old SU paper and I used stamps from Papertrey--Garden Variety and Year of Flowers Mini.  You can see the front of the card and then the inside.  This is a  5 x 7 card.  I stamped mostly in SU Soft Suede with Dried Marigold accents and Paprika Stickles.  Enjoy on this beautiful summer day!

A Perfect Fit

Awhile back, JoAnns had a 50% stamp sale on their website.  An enabling friend ( Diane at Nellie's Nest) put me on to it!  This corset stamp by Stampendous was one that I bought.  I just LOVE this image!  It was so much fun to color.  The sentiment was from Papertrey Ink.  I used a Sizzix die for the polka dotted background (Romantic Rectangles) and the sentiment is stamped on Fancy Tags.  The small flourish under the rose is a from Diane  and at the moment I can't remember the company.  I colored the image with Copics and used Viva Décor pens for the trim on the lace and the buttons the corset is laced with.  Paper is SU.  This was a fun card (5 x 7) and I hope you'll give this stamp a try.   Make sure to double click to see it up close and personal.   Have a good evening!

Susan's Peony Card

Here's a great friendship card I made with Susan Cockburn's peony die, seen in my last post. This is 5 x 7 which gives you more real estate to play with.  Now I'm off to make an envelope to match.

Beautiful Flowers

 

                                                        Susan Tierney Cockburn is a specialist at making paper flowers.  She has two books on the subject to her credit and now has teamed up with Sizzix to produce dies to maker her lovely flowers.  I have to say they are really life like. I purchased the peony die from Cut at Home using my monthly coupon there. I will tell you straight out, I probably picked the hardest one to try first.  They take time and patience.  I wouldn't even show you my first attempt.  Looked like a flower after a heavy rain!  Anyway, I was more successful with the second which is shown below. I added a few extra petals to make it more full and I spritzed the finished flower with Mister Huey's Color Mist-Shine.  It gives a really pearlized look.  All the parts needed including the leaves are included in the die.  You do need some basic tools and a rubber mat to shape the flowers on.  There are quite a few videos on You Tube of Susan making her different flowers.  Worth checking out if you're interested. 

Don

Pop n Cuts

I decided to give the relatively new Pop n Cuts system a try.  These are the brainchild of Karen Burniston who as a designer for Sizzix and a former engineer thought up these pop up cards that have a lot of possibilities.  I always like something better if I can get a lot of mileage out of it.  Helps to justify the expense!  I have showed you the two fronts of the cards (turned around that postage stamp on the one!) and then a view of the inside of each card.  They can be very simple or as elaborate as you like.  My good friend, Diane Hover, over at Nellie's Nest, suggested using the Cricut to make cut outs to use on the pop up portion.  I thought that was a great idea!  Well, have a great weekend and stay out of trouble.  We're waiting for Andrea to hit here on the east coast and our area is under a flood watch until 10 this evening.  Be safe!

America: Home of the Free Because of the Brave

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I decided to share a patriotic-themed card with you today.  The stamped images are from PTI's Summer Friendship Jar Fillers and Flourishes' Patriotic Parade.  I colored the stars with a metallic gold pen and added gold Stickle dots here and there among the fireworks.  This card would work for any patriotic holiday. 

 

I hope we all remember those Americans who unselfishly gave their lives so that the rest of us can practice all our "inalienable rights"  which, it seems, are swiftly disappearing. I am from a family where three brothers were in various brances of the service and my hubs is a Viet Nam vet. 

 

It is my sincere wish that all Americans will "wake up" to what is happening in this country and do whatever you can to make sure our children and the grands can enjoy the same freedoms and rights we do now.  It could all be a dream in just a very few years unless each of us does our part to keep that from happening.

 

Enjoy!

Preserving The Berries

Another berry-themed card today!  Used PTI's Friendship Jar and Summer Jar Fillers.  I have a small collection of mason jars and love berries so this seemed like a fun card to do.  I heat embossed the lid and everything was colored with Copics (went out of the line on one berry....my bad).  The border is a Martha Stewart punch.

Art Journaling

This shows a page in my art journal--something I don't do very often but something I really enjoy.  The main image is a Prima girl stamp.  I used Dylusions for the background.  I had an old Monopoly card to add and a few other stamps and embellishments.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

An Old Favorite

This is another favorite image I like to use when I'm making cards for myself to send and I want them to be sort of "all occasion."  It's such a sweet image and vintage-y looking too.  I've done it in the past as a one color ink card and also stamped and then colored in the dresses.  This time I'm using paper piecing.  You stamp the whole image on your surface and then you stamp parts of the image on designer paper and cut out.  Mounted with dimensionals, it looks three dimensional.  I made five of these yesterday-all different.  I'll just show you two.

 I used mostly all scraps except for the card base.  And I also wanted to show you the envelope I made for the strawberry cards in the post below.  Those cards were 5 x 7.  The envies were made with the new Envelope Punch Board by We R Memory Keepers.  Such a breeze to make an envelope.  You can only make them up to a 6 x 8.5 size because that takes a 12 x 12 piece of paper.  But there are many small sizes.    If I had had a strawberry printed paper, a liner would have been great!