Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Bold & Bright - #3 and #4

Well, we're home, we don't have company and I woke up early. That combination of events led me to my stamping room. Yippee! Personal updates later (including my dad) but first, I'll tell you about these two cards.

I'm not really enamored of this set, "Bold & Bright" from Stampin' Up!, but I "needed" to use it to continue my mission of using all of my retired Stampin' Up! sets. Now I'm done with it and can move on to the next sets. For this first one, I inked up the stamp with a Brilliance three-color pad and matted with a shimmery blue. I mounted the panel on pop dots. I stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) with the same pad. Lots of shimmer on the card, but not in the picture:)
Last card with this set - perhaps forever! LOL! I used black ink on the stamp and colored with water color pencils and an aquapainter. I matted with black and again used pop dots. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I added the Washi tape before added the image panel.

We have been very busy again, but like I said - we're home now. Our daughter and family arrived from Chicago on the Saturday before Christmas and stayed until Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, Jim and I and our kids and their kids (plus others) all went down to my dad's to celebrate. Jim and I stayed there until yesterday, when we left to attend a funeral, visited his mom and then came home. Lots of fun times, but I must say, it's great to be home.

My dad is doing quite well. His mouth is a bit sore, he isn't hungry and he can't taste. But, he knows he needs to make himself eat, drink water, drink a supplement and put ointment on his face. He is taking very good care of himself. He is now over half done with his radiation treatments - finished up number 16 of 30 this morning. My brother and sister-in-law will be arriving on Monday to stay with him until he is finished. That is SO awesome of them!

Tomorrow I'll post my first calendar page of 2015. On Friday I'll post a picture of my birthday cards (tradition, you know) and then I'll start posting pictures of new cards again, assuming that I get some made in the next few days. I know for sure I have two more, because I got them done this morning. Thanks for sticking with me through all my days of not posting anything. I hope I'm back now for a while!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! Tradition is for me to post a picture of our Christmas tree, so here it is. I hope you all have the opportunity to celebrate with family and friends.

Best wishes for the New Year, also.

Thank you all for your visits. Hopefully soon I'll be able to start posting more.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Friday, December 19, 2014

Happy Hanukkah!


Every year I make one Hanukkah card, and here is this year's.

I cut the dreidels using my Silhouette and some "holographic" paper from Crayola. I glued them to textured blue paper and mounted that panel on foam squares. I printed the sentiment using my computer.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Happy Birthday, Sheri!

Happy Birthday, Sheri!

I made this card last week when I got up so early one day and had a chance to play around in my stamping room. I actually made two cards like it - both for December birthdays. The snowflakes are from Inkadinkado and are stamped in Soft Silver ink. I used a Papertrey Ink die to cut out the "birthday" and used a Papertrey stamp for the the "HAPPY." I matted both panels with light blue cardstock. The sentiment panel is mounted on Dimensionals.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Bold and Bright #2

Here is card #2 made with the Stampin' Up! set called "Bold & Bright." The picture doesn't do it justice, although it's not a great card anyway:) Feels good to be stamping again, though, even if it won't last long.

I stamped the image on a yellowish/cream vellum with Versamark and used black embossing powder. I colored on the back with miscellaneous markers. I stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink) on a scrap of vellum to check out the placement, and again I liked the layered vellum, so I just used it. I stamped it with black and used black embossing powder. Then I punched a couple balloons using the same vellum and a Martha Stewart punch, attached them and added the "strings." When I attach vellum, I always use Duck Tape brand double sided adhesive. It really is pretty "invisible."

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Monday, December 15, 2014

Precious Baby

I woke up really again this morning (hope I stop that soon!), so I had some stamping time. I didn't have any cards that I HAD to make, so I pulled out the next stamp set in my project to use all of my Stampin' Up! sets. Can't wait to get back to that project full force!

This set is called "Bold & Bright." I chose the baby image for my card for today. I stamped it using an old rainbow ink pad. (This pad is a Splendor pigment with ten different colors. It's from Tsukineko. Not sure if it's still available or not.) I trimmed down the image panel and mounted it on pop dots. I really want to start using some of my patterned paper, but nothing ever seems like the right print! So, I went with vellum. The sentiment is from a baby set from Inkadinkado and is stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. I had some thin strips of vellum left and one of them landed on the larger piece of vellum. I liked the looks of it, so I added it above the sentiment before I attached the image panel.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Happy Birthday, Owen!

Yesterday was our grandson Owen's fourth birthday. Hard to believe he's four already!

His favorite movie at this time is "Nightmare Before Christmas," so I found a picture from the movie and printed it on some white cardstock. Then I downloaded a Nightmare Before Christmas font and printed the sentiment on some gray cardstock. I mounted the picture on Dimensionals and added it at an angle to the card front.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Snowflake Christmas and Updates

I stamped! :) I woke up early this morning (after going to bed relatively late) and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I went in my stamping room. Gosh, did that feel great! I'm sure I'll crash later, though:)

I needed one more Christmas card and I already had this die-cut piece on my table from when the grandkids were here at Thanksgiving. The die is from Impression Obsession. I trimmed it down and mounted it on foam squares. I cut a piece of white cardstock to fit it and stamped some snowflakes in silver using an Inkadinkado stamp, then I added some blue gems to a few of the snowflakes.

My dad has finished one week of radiation treatments. Five more to go.

Wyatt is very healthy now, so that is awesome. In fact, everyone is healthy right now. We're hoping everyone can stay that way through the holidays and beyond.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Life:)

Sorry - no card yet from me. Life has not yet settled down for us.

My dad started radiation treatments on Monday. He doesn't really enjoy being strapped down, but he'll manage that part just fine. I'm very concerned about how he'll be doing once he's finished his thirty treatments, but he'll make it. He's a tough Norwegian!

Our kids and their families have been quite sick, but I think everyone is finally on the road to recovery. One family was sharing pneumonia and the other influenza. Wyatt was in the hospital from last Thursday until he was released yesterday. He is doing well. We had Wyatt here one night so his parents could try to get a good night's rest, and we had Owen here a few nights, too. I even spent a night and most of a couple days at the hospital with Wyatt. 

I wanted to be all ready for Christmas by Thanksgiving, but gee ... that didn't happen! I'm still in the process of getting ready, but all that will happen, too.

I hope things are going very, very well for all of my readers and followers. I REALLY hope to get some time in my stamping room SOON! I'm getting anxious to continue on my quest to use my Stampin' Up! stamps. I haven't forgotten about that:)

Thanks for checking on me, and thanks for your prayers.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Happy (Belated!) Birthday, Harriet!

This is the card I made for my great friend, Harriet. I didn't even get it made until the day after her birthday, so it was quite late:( (Her birthday was last Monday.)

I did the die cuts using Spellbinders dies. I mounted the outer one on foam squares for some dimension. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I added soft blue brads for the flower centers.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Monday, December 1, 2014

December Calendar Page

The last calendar of 2014. My 2015 calendars are complete and ready to be gifted, so you'll start seeing them in January.

I did the embossing with Cuttlebug folders. I stamped the sentiment (from Paper Inspirations) on shimmery silver paper with Versamark and embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

If you are interested in printing your own calendars and would like to use my files, you can find a link to them under my blog title. I'd love to hear from you if you do!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!