Pussy Willows

 So excited to have some new products from The Greetery in my hands... these are the new Pussy Willow dies that I had fun putting together this weekend.  Not gonna lie - they were fiddly and took some time to assemble, but I absolutely LOVE the end result.

The 3 stems come together on one die, so I cut them out of white cardstock, and coloured them with layers of Copic Markers, then the stems are glued down over the pussy willows.  It made sense to do a whole bunch at once, so I have a little stash to use over the next while.  I used an oval Pinkfresh Studio die, a bow from The Greetery, and some older papers from Close To My Heart to put a couple of cards together.

Here's my stash of pussy willows!

Cards to Donate

 I am happy to be back to my mission to use up supplies that have been in my craft room for way too long!  I was able to completely use up the remnants from my 'Chantilly' paper pack from many moons ago, and managed to get 7 cards put together:

I was able to try out my new 'hello' die from Pinkfresh Studio, and the other two sentiment dies from Creative Expressions were bought for just this purpose - to do a quick, generic sentiment for cards that I plan to donate to a local long term care home & a local charity.

The buttons and flowers are also bits and pieces that have been around forever, so I was glad to find homes for them.

Happy Everything!

 I was able to complete 6 cards this afternoon to add to my pile for donation.  I bought several small sentiment dies by Creative Expressions (from the Papercrafter's Workshop!) especially to use on cards like this.  I am happy to use up a portion of an old paper pack, and make some happy, spring-y cards:

Other dies are Memory Box (butterfly) and Verve for the background shape.  Papers and embellishments are Close To My Heart.

Road Trip

 Road Trip is the name of the paper pack I'm using today.  It's a bit of a mission of mine to use up older supplies that I've had sitting around, with the plan being to have a good stash of cards to donate - either to a charity or some local long term care homes in my area.  So this group of cards was a great boost to my collection of masculine themed cards:

Just about all of my supplies are from Close To My Heart (anyone recognize these papers??)  I kept my designs pretty simple, and used mainly diecuts as embellishments.

So happy with my results!

Simple Stories Sub Zero

Oh, how I love these papers!  The snowflakes are cream coloured - which is just a little different, and I love the mix of colours.  I used one of the busier patterned papers in the collection to do a fairly simple card with a grouping of die cut greenery:

I give out a bunch of Christmas cards to men that I work with, so this was one of my masculine card designs this year!  The sentiment is an older Close To My Heart one.

Anniversary card for Inspired By

Oh, it's been so long since I participated in a challenge!  I am very happy to be playing along with this week's Inspired By challenge, which is a box of decadent chocolate covered strawberries.  I was kind of trying to go with the colours... but veered off a little, so I'm mostly working with the layout, as well as the sketch that Laurel provided (if you follow Inspired By on facebook, she gives us a weekly sketch!).  It also just happens to be our 25th anniversary in a couple of weeks, so this is going to be the card for my hubby:

My niece gave me this lovely Studio Katia background die - and it was perfect for the challenge.  I used the Charlotte papers from CTMH, and cut the die in about 5 of the papers to get the look.  I die cut some hearts and mounted them and the sentiment strip with pop dots.

Most Days Require Chocolate

Using a bunch of old stuff today, to put together a couple of fun cards for a friend.  Verve's Chocolate stamps and word die were perfect for what I had in mind, and these ancient Close To My Heart papers with the chocolate accents made them even better:

 I couldn't resist adding a little zigzag detailing with chocolate coloured thread... and the new Art Impressions Tag Die is amazing!  Notice the little ring around the hole?  Yes, it's a separate die that comes in the set - there's a wonderful attention to detail, that let's you add the perfect finishing touch to your card (you're going to hear me go on and on about these dies!!)

Enjoy the day!

Sketchy Saturday Christmas cards

It took me a couple of days to complete these... but I am happy to say that I got four Christmas cards done this week using Laurel Seabrook's current Sketchy Saturday sketch.  It's a great sketch for using busier papers, so that's what I did.  I used some CTMH papers from a few years ago called City Sidewalks, that are really pretty.  Here's what I came up with:

 I'm going to dig out some tiny red gems that I have in my stash - and will add them as the dot in the i!  I add some red zigzag stitching and attached part of the sentiment with my stapler.

Patterned papers are City Sidewalks, CTMH; Cardstock is White Daisy, Cranberry and Peacock, CTMH; Dies are Stitched Alpine Snowflakes by Poppy Stamps, and the word die is Verve; Stamp set is Baking Penguins by Inky Antics.

Mojo Monday #502

Back with a card using the current Mojo Monday sketch #502...  Using up some old CTMH paper that I've had for eons (this stuff never ends!), and I managed to make up four of them:

Here was our sketch:

Freshly Made Sketches #360

This great sketch had me pulling out my Christmas papers last night... and I managed to get 3 of these done to add to my stash!  Using some of last year's CTMH papers, and a sentiment from several years ago... along with a couple of dies that I just picked up, here's what I came up with:

I am using this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

Patterned papers are Oh Deer!, Cardstock is Juniper, Olive, Chocolate & White Daisy, stamp set is Merry & Bright - all Close To My Heart. Dies are Pinecone and White Pine Needles from Dee's Distinctively.

Fusion Christmas card

I'm on a bit of a Christmas card kick lately, so I'm going with it - and have added another couple to my pile tonight.  I've used the pretty City Sidewalks collection from Close To My Heart, and am using the sketch portion of the Fusion Card Challenge:

Hmm... the colours are a bit neon-ish in the photo, they're a little more subtle in real life.  Here was our sketch:

Patterned papers are City Sidewalks; Glitter tape, sparkles & sentiment - all Close To My Heart.  My Favorite Things Stitched Circle and Jumbo Stitched Fishtail dies.

Fusion Card Challenge

I'm just posting this under the wire tonight... playing along with the Fusion Card Challenge, using both their sketch and inspiration photo.  I new that I had this old CTMH stamp set with the vintage phones, so I dug it out along with another CTMH set for the sentiment.  I used Lawn Fawn's Polka in the Meadow papers and a few YNS gumdrops to finish it off:

Coffee Lover's Hop - Fifth Post

I have three cards to share today - two are coffee themed for the Winter 2017 Coffee Lover's Blog Hop.  All three are using digital stamps from Verve, and some older Close To My Heart papers:

 This one is using the Viva La Verve December sketch, and uses Santa & Coffee from Verve.

My second card is using My Cup to Yours by Verve, and the last one (below) is also using Santa & Coffee:

A Simple Birthday Card

A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law asked if I would make a selection of cards that he could give to my nephew as a gift!  As an incredibly busy, fourth year Med student, the last thing he has time for is running out to buy a card, yet like all of us, he needs birthday cards, Mother's Day cards, girlfriend cards and a lot of thank you's.  So here is one of the cards that I've made for his stash:

I used my Misti, and six different Close To My Heart inks - and stamped four of these while I was at it.  I was trying to keep it gender neutral, and a card that someone in their 20's wouldn't mind giving.  I'll post the rest as I get them photographed.

Summer Coffee Lover's Blog Hop

I was able to play along with the Summer 2017 Coffee Lover's Blog Hop tonight!  I haven't missed one of them yet, and I'm hoping to enter more than one this time around.  I recently acquired the Fresh Brewed Tim Holtz stamps, and thought this would work really well for the summer theme:

I paired my image with a sentiment from Verve's Coffee stamp set, along with the matching Coffee die, and used some Close To My Heart papers from a few years ago.  I stitched the main panel onto the mat with my sewing machine, and finished up with a few Gumdrops from YNS.

Inspired By All The Little Things #57

I am the hostess this week over on the Inspired By All The Little Things blog!  Here is this week's inspiration photo:

I just adore the colours in this photo, and we are right in the middle of tulip season here north of the border.  I went with the pretty Rainbow Plaid papers from Lawn Fawn, and a really old floral stamp set from my days as a Close To My Heart rep!  The sentiment and die are from Verve.

I have a former teammate of mine, Shari MacLaughlin as my Guest Designer this week - and she has some mad colouring skills that you're going to want to check out.  You can see what Shari and the Design Team have come up with based on the photo, over on the blog.  Laurel Seabrook is a special guest this week as well.  I hope you'll have time to play along!

A Valentine

I made up a quick valentine today to play along with a couple of challenges.  Falling in Love is the theme for the first week of Feb challenge on the Heart 2 Heart blog, so I pulled out some old-as-the-hills Close To My Heart paper (anyone remember this?  Becca?) and one of their newer thinlit dies for "love".  I had coloured up this little Boy Cupid from Art Impressions a few weeks ago, and wanted to make up a valentine for one of my kids, so I am also playing along with the current challenge on the Ai blog which is "Lots of Love":

First 2017 Christmas Cards

Hurray!  I finally have some cards that I can count over there on the right side of my blog... I managed to get six fairly simple Christmas cards made this weekend.  I ordered this gorgeous City Sidewalks paper by Close To My Heart from my niece (it is even prettier than the photos), and wanted to show off the busier prints in the pack.  I stuck with some simple Verve sentiments, a few colourful & sparkly snowflakes and some wonderful tree diecuts from the newest CTMH Cricut cartridge, Flower Market:

I am really loving the images on the Flower Market cartridge, so you'll be seeing a lot of those in the future.

Wooden Gate Watercolour

 I'm starting my 2017 Art Impressions posts with some watercolours!  For the last couple of years, my New Year's Crafting resolution has been to watercolour more - and I've actually stuck to it!  I own quite a few of the Ai Watercolour sets, and really love pulling them out and painting all afternoon...  Here are a couple of creations that I made using one of the Watercolor Minis: Wooden Gate (Sku # 4762):

 I used an assortment of Tombow & Marvy markers by colouring directly onto my stamps, and then softened the lines with a damp paintbrush.  I used my Gansai Tambei watercolour palette to add a bit of a wash to the sky & background.  Here's a lavender version:

 I added in a couple of stamps from the W/C Foliage Set 1 (Sku #4051) and the small flowers from W/C Flower Set (Sku #4052) to finish my picture off.  You can find all of the Ai watercolor sets here.  Happy painting!

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