Autumn Days Masculine Card

This was a very fun masculine card we made at the Shoebox swap. Juliann was the designer of this card. Isn't it fabulous? I had a little issue with this one!!! I rounded the corners on the left sides and wasn't suppose to. I wasn't paying attention when I was making the card. I swear sometimes when I get to these types of swaps I just become dumb about stamping. I look at the cards and can't figure out how to do them. All of the stamping basics seemed to have left me!!!

But I did manage to do the rest of the card and had I not told you about the rounding the corners part you never would have known!!!

There is SO much about this card that I like. The layout is fabulous for one thing. And the colors are all the new ones, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry. Oh and don't forget Very Vanilla.

I just thought it was a wonderful masculine card! Great job Juliann!!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

A Housewarming Gift

You can hardly bring a card to someone with a new house without bringing them a housewarming gift. I thought Cyndi could use something to help her relax after unpacking all of those boxes. Moving is NOT fun. We moved here in this house MANY years ago and have collected a lot of "stuff" and now I'm slowly going through things and looking at "things" and deciding whether or not I want to keep them anymore. Each year I have "stuff" for the huge neighborhood garage sale. Plus I have actually been using some of these "things" too!!! Done collecting!!! I say that right now, who knows if it will continue!!! LOL

Anyway back to Cyndi's little gift. I used Whisper White card stock and ran it through the Big Shot using the Stampin' Up! "Bag with Scallops" die. Among my favorite dies to use!!! I punched the oval hole in the bag before I assembled it. It's SO much easier to do it right away!!! And yes, I have tried to punch the hole after I got it all put together. It's next to impossible!!! I put some acetate behind it so the opening had a window. I filled a little zip baggie with bath salts and set it inside the die cut bag. I did tape the scallop part shut. Sometimes I will punch holes in the the scallop part and the upper part of the bag and tie a ribbon though it so I can close the flap by tieing a bow. This time I made a bow and taped it in place with a half a pop dot (which by the way I do NOT like cutting in half!!! Though I did figure out if you put rubbing alcohol on your scissors it cuts nicely and no sticky residue on the scissors either!!!). The beautiful paper on the front is from the Razzleberry Lemonade decorative paper. I only have a half sheet of that design left and two full sheets of two of the other designs. That paper is almost gone!!! Do I buy another pack or try a different one??? What to do??? LOL

To get the hole in the decorative paper correct I just set the paper on the bag (before I taped it all together) and traced where the window should go. Then I punched it out. For the scallop, I punched out the oval and then I lined up the scallop punch, centered the oval and punched it out. It's a very thin scallop piece but it was what the window needed!!! Oh and notice I actually photographed the picture at an angle instead of head on so you could tell it was a bag and not just a piece of flat paper!!!

These are fun to make and to give away as gifts. These would be great for hostess gifts, customer appreciation gifts, craft fairs, make n takes, Christmas gifts, etc!!! These links contain many items under each topic!

The bath salt recipe can be found here.

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Wednesday Sketch Challenge

Here is my card for this weeks Sketch Challenge over at SplitCoastStampers. I don't know what happened here to the photo, it's kind of fuzzy and the flash made the coloring look just awful!!! LOL It has the look of a kid coloring it!!! LOL

This was a fun sketch challenge. I got to use the Stampin' Up! "Farm Life" set and the new "Autumn Meadows" decorative paper. I am going to be using that set a lot too. Maybe I won't be buying a new package of the "Razzleberry Lemonade" after all!!! LOL

I stamped the image using black StazOn and then I colored it in using a blender pen and chalks. I was wrong the other day about coloring. I still like to color, I must have been in a non-coloring mood that day!!! I should really take another picture of this card so you can see that it is colored a lot nicer than it looks here. The flash must have bounced off it wrong. I'm not the greatest at taking pictures so it could be anything!! LOL

Ok, that is about all there is to this card. I wanted to make a masculine one, it's hard to find them!!!

If you have time head on over to SplitCoastStampers and give this sketch challenge a try. You don't need to head on over there if you don't want to post your card. You can just do the layout on your own!!

Thank you for visiting today,
Wanda

New in the Neighborhood!!

I made this card for my friend and fellow demonstrator Cyndi. She had just moved in to her new home. I had trouble finding a set that would work for this occasion. Actually I didn't have a set!!! I did have the Stampin' Up! "Neighborhood" jumbo wheel!!! I have this thing about wheels and I also have a "thing" about not using them enough too!! I need to make another "happiness in your new home" card too and I may just use this wheel again for it. Hopefully I will have more time to do something different with it than just running the wheel across the card stock and coloring it in. I am finding out that I don't like coloring as much as I use to!!! Or maybe it was just the mood I was in at the time. Not sure on that one but I'll let you know the next time I have to color in something like that!!! Lucky you!!! LOL

This was really a simple card to make too! The coloring was simple, as you can see!!! I used the blender pen and markers to color in the images. This wheel goes so well with the "All in the Family" set. I have not put the two together on paper yet. I need to find some REAL play time!!!

There's not much to say about this card, it was pretty basic and simple!!! Tomorrow I'll post a more complex card!!! Tomorrow is the Wednesday Sketch Challenge at SplitCoastStampers and those usually have several layers to play with so it would be a bit more complex than this card now wouldn't it? LOL

Thank you for visiting today!!
Wanda

Circle Circus Swapping!

This is one of the cards from the Shoebox Swap on Thursday evening. We all had such a fun time and it was held at Cyndi's FABULOUS new home!!! We stayed REALLY late and poor Cyndi had to work in the morning! Sorry Cyndi!

This card was made by my upline Sue L. I am not a big fan of the Soft Suede color but when I see it with the Crushed Curry I like it a lot more. I've tried to mix it with other colors and the Soft Suede looked like it was more of a brown olive color. I guess you just need to know what colors to mix together!! LOL

The stamp set used here is the Stampin' Up! "Circle Circus." I don't have that set and I may have to put it on my wish list. It makes a fun background too!! Every time I see things done like this with sets they somehow end up on my wish list. It's getting longer all the time!!!! UGH!

Didn't his make a fun birthday card? The words I believe are from the "Teeny Tiny Wishes" set. The Word Window punch was used and the "Modern Label" punch behind it. Don't you just LOVE punches? They sure do dress up a card or scrapbook page and it's SO much better than cutting them out by hand!!! I think I might do that once!!! LOL

I have more cards to share with you and I'll fit them in as I post on here!!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

My Card for the Shoe Box Swap!!

I was at another card swap today with my fellow DIVA's!!! I LOVE it when us gals can get together and stamp. And when we do shoe box swaps, it's the best!!!

This is the card I made for the swap. I took the SplitCoast Sketch Challenge #239 and moved things over to the left so I could work in the scallop with the wording!!! You can see the original sketch layout and what I did with it that week by clicking here.

For this card I used the Big Kick and an embossing template on the white card stock. I used some strips of the Razzleberry Lemonade decorative paper. I almost fell over when I realized I was almost out of that paper!!! Shocker, huh? I rarely use half a package of decorative paper and this time I've used one almost up which means I may actually be buying a second package!! Even bigger shocker there!!! LOL

For the wording I used the Stampin' Up! "Holiday Blitz" set. And for the flower I used the FABULOUS "Kind and Caring Words" set. It's such a pretty set!!! I have lots of ideas for this set but I don't have the spare time to put those ideas down on paper. Don't you just hate that???

This was a pretty simple and basic looking card to make. This is a fun layout to play with too!!

I have LOTS of cards to show you that were made at the swap!!! I will be sharing them with you as the weeks go on along with other cards and projects I'm working on!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Kind & Caring Thoughts Sympathy Card

I was in need of another sympathy card. Gosh how I hate to have to make these things. Anyway, I was the website Koogle Knotes and I was inspired by a card Carol made. Ok, I was more than inspired, I practically copied the whole card!!! LOL I didn't have the background stamp she used so I used the Stampin' Up! "Texture" jumbo wheel. I just LOVE that wheel. And I did change the shape of the top layer but for the most part it's pretty much considered a CASE!!! I just loved the look of the card she had made and I thought it would be a perfect sympathy card for my friend.

When I do the Direct to Rubber technique I try to cut corners where I can. This one was easy to do. I stamped the flower image using the Melon Mambo ink pad. Then I took a blender pen and removed any color from the stem. I took a Q-tip and wiped off the stem so it was dry. Then I took my Rich Razzleberry ink pad and touched it on the edges of the flower tips. Kind of like the Rock N Roll technique. And finally I took the Always Artichoke marker and colored in the stem. I huffed on it and stamped the image on my cut piece of card stock. I set my ribbon on the stem but didn't tie it yet. I wanted to see where I was going to stamp the words. I added the words and layered the white piece on a piece of Basic Black card stock. Then I tied the Melon Mambo ribbon around it. This piece is set in place on the card using Dimensionals.

I taped a piece of the Melon Mambo ribbon to a strip of black card stock. That was then taped on a scalloped piece of Melon Mambo card stock.

The background was done using the Texture jumbo wheel and going in all directions using the Blush Blossom ink pad.

It's a very easy card to make. It just takes a little time to cut all those pieces. But all in all it's a pretty quick card!

Stop on over at Carol's blog and see the other fun things she has there! I have my eye on a couple more cards I may have to CASE too!!!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

A 50 Funny! 50 Sucks Gift

I saw this on Sara's blog Sara's Creative Adventures. She's quite a talented lady. Her blog contains not only card but gift items and scrapbooking. Yes, scrapbooking!!! I know, I know. I'm getting closer and closer all the time to scrapbooking. I think once I get over that first page "shock" I will be fine. I just saw that Sara had a fabulous scrapbook page on her blog an I may have to give that layout a try! Just got to get my feet wet there!!

Ok, back to this post. This was the little project I was working on for my sister-in-law's 50th birthday!!! Sara used much bigger suckers than I did. Her's was for a 40th birthday so she needed 40 suckers (sucks). It looked pretty packed in there so I hunted around for smaller suckers. I probably could have gotten by with the larger ones. But this is ok, it gets the message across!!! LOL My sister-in-law will think it's funny and my nephew (her son) will eat all the suckers!!! He'll probably sneak them one at a time until it gets to the point to where you can tell some are missing. Then he'll be confronted and end up with all of the suckers anyway!!!

I used Rich Razzleberry card stock, Razzleberry Lemonade decorative paper, the Top Note die, Scallop Edge punch and the words on the front of the cube are from the "On Your Birthday" set. The wording on the Top Note piece was done on the computer. This was fun to make. I love to take a little break from card making and do some 3D stuff! I have wanted to make this since I saw it on Sara's blog but just didn't get around to it. And now I HAD to get it finished because my sister-in-law's birthday was here!!! I would LOVE to be ahead of myself for a change!!! Is it possible?

If you want to make one of these Sara has the instructions for it, just click here to find it! And while you are there check out the other things she makes! She's very creative!!!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Sweet Swapping!

I pre-posted this because I am off at a Shoebox Swap! I have not participated in a shoebox swap or any swap in quite a while! It's about time I get back into swapping!!!

Here is the card I have in my shoebox!!! I like the layout of this card and of course I LOVE the Razzleberry Lemonade decorative paper!!! And the Mellon Mambo color is SO pretty. It's a nice bright and cheery card. And just in time for my sister-in-law's birthday too!!

If you are not familiar with a shoebox swap, please read on!! To participate in a shoebox swap you need to cut all the card stock for the number of people in the swap. You put in the box any inks, punches, ribbons, stamps, etc. that are used to make the card. When you are at the swap all the pieces to the card are removed from the box and set out in front of the stamping areas. You sit down and make a card and move on to the next card until you have completed them all. It's a fun time and you come home with lots of full size (not card fronts) cards!

I will share with you some of the cards I will be making at the swap! Oh and there is another swap on Sunday!!! I don't have any idea what I'm going to make for that one but I'm sure I'll figure it out before then!! I'd better!!! LOL

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Wednesday Sketch Challenge

Once again it was another fun Sketch Challenge over at SplitCoastStampers. For me this card was stepping a bit out of my comfort zone with the #3 layer. I normally would have made a circle out of card stock and stuck it in the designated area. But the first few cards I saw come in had flowers in that corner and I thought that was a cute idea. SO I looked for something that would go with a flower that would fit in the #4 spot. I didn't have to look very far. I saw the Stampin' Up! set "The More the Merrier" sitting on my worktable and I immediately knew I wanted to put a snowflake in that corner.

But this isn't just your everyday run of the mill snowflakes. It's made using white velvet paper. I found some in a stash I had. I don't even know how long I've had this paper. I don't even know if they still make it anymore either!!! It's fun paper to play with!!!

I used the Sizzix Snowflake die and I cut it in pieces so it would fit nicer behind the #4 piece. Now that I see it in the photo I think the bottom could have used one more piece of snowflake. I can always add it later.

I used the jumbo Snowflakes wheel on the Bashful Blue background and I sponged the edges in with the Bashful Blue too.

The snowmen were colored in using markers, mostly from the Soft Subtles family. There isn't a whole lot to this card. Once I found out what image I wanted to use the rest was easy!!!

If you have time and are up for a little challenge, head on over to SplitCoast and give this layout a try!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Someone"s Turning 50!!!

My sister-in-law is turning 50 tomorrow and I made her a nice card!!! I didn't want to go to the store and get her one of those cards that rub it in! I don't want her to feel bad because she's now old!!! LOL I'll have some fun teasing her as it is!!! LOL

I am working on a gift for her too which I will share with you later in the week. Hopefully I'll get it done by the weekend when I can get it to her!

SO back to this card. I used the new Melon Mambo card stock on top of a piece of Basic Black. I used the Stampin' Up! "Flight of the Butterfly" set for the butterflies on the white card stock and on the background. The "Happy Birthday" came from the "Viola" set and the fun texture behind all those little butterflies came from the new "Texture" wheel. I just had to have that wheel because it reminded me of the "Canvas" background stamp that was retired a couple of years back. I REALLY miss that stamp. For the background here I inked up the wheel and then ran it across scrap paper for one round and then ran it across my cut piece of card stock. I didn't want it dark, I just wanted a hint of "texture!" It was just enough to tone the background down so it wasn't so bright.

I used the "Eyelet Border" punch for the strips on each side of the butterfly piece. It dressed it up a bit. And that is pretty much all there is to this card. It's just basic layering. And notice, I didn't even do any sponging!!! Could it be because all of my sponges need cleaning??? Or did this card REALLY not need sponging!!! LOL

It's now ready to get sent off in the mail tomorrow and her fun gift will be late!! I'm just shocked that I've been keeping up on cards this year!!! Shocker, huh??? LOL

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

! Says it All!

It sure does!!! I got the most adorable thank you card in the mail today and I just had to share it with you all. I hope you don't mind Mary but I just had to show off your card. What an adorable way to use the Stampin' Up! "Pick a Petal" set! I have not played with my set much at all and I really should before they retire it.

I love how Mary used the flower petal and the flowered decorative paper. Such a cute way to use this set!!! Isn't it fun to see other people's perspectives on sets? I never would have thought to use a petal for an exclamation point! It's so clever!!! It's a very neat and clean looking card too!!

I just LOVE it Mary. Thanks SO much!!

Thank you for visiting today,
Wanda

Right From Fifth Avenue!

Don't you just love the name of that stamp set? "Fifth Avenue Floral." I LOVE the images in this wonderful Stampin' Up! set. I bought it a long time ago and set it aside to play with when I had time. I haven't even put it together yet. Well ok, just the one image!!!

I used that image on Whisper White card stock and Bermuda Blue ink. Then I used white ink on Bermuda Blue card stock. I accented these colors with Soft Suede and Dusty Durango. To be honest here, I chose the Dusty Durango because I had the ribbon to go with it!!! I was leaning more towards the Crushed Curry but I don't have the matching ribbon for that yet! The wording came from the "On Your Birthday" set. It's a very fun set to have, there's SO many fun verses in it!!!

I used the scallop edge punch on the Bermuda Bay card stock. It just needed a little something along that edge. It was a tough choice between tearing it and using the scallop punch.

That is really all there is to this card. It's pretty simple to do and it is quick if you heat set the white ink. It's craft ink and takes a bit longer to air dry. Heat setting it really speeds up the process!

It's a very FUN card to make!!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!

Have you ever made a card that was SO blah that when you looked at it you couldn't really see the background? If you don't know what I mean, just take a look at this card. Not a long look, it's not necessary. You'll immediately see the blahness (is a real word!!!).

I was playing around with Wednesday's Sketch Challenge at SplitCoastStampers. I had already made a card that I was happy with, click here to see it. I just couldn't leave well enough alone so I had to play some more.

I used a couple of strips of decorative paper fro the Razzleberry Lemonade package. I taped them in place on top of some Rich Razzleberry card stock. I was happy with the way the two papers went together. Of course they should, they were designed to!!! LOL

Then I didn't stick with the size of the of the center piece in the card sketch. If you had clicked on the link above to see my card from Wednesday you'll also see the sketch for the day too. See how much smaller the piece is in the sketch? I wanted SO bad to use the stamp from the "Thoughts & Prayers" set. Well, I used it and it just didn't work.

Oh and throwing in some words didn't help make it any better!!! Lesson learned here: It's best to follow the sketch the way it's presented give or take no more than a half an inch!!!

I will give this one another try keeping the two background pieces and making the top piece just a bit smaller and I'll see if I can't come up with something better. Something that isn't so blah!!!

Thank you for visiting today, please come back and see a much more improved card!!
Have a great day,
Wanda