Where does the time fly to? What seems like a nano-second, an adopted "niece and nephew" of ours celebrated their daughter's 21st birthday yesterday, unbeknownst to me. She has excelled and is due to graduate from college this spring with amazing grades each year. A quick and last-minute birthday card was in order and I just happened to have this stamp on my work desk. I love Laurel Burch and her colorful designs; I have for over 30 years! I stamped with VersaMark onto white

I know I don't use my Magenta Stamps as often as I'd like to. Every one of their stamps is beautifully and artfully designed; and the quality of the rubber is the best. I'm so fortunate to have been introduced to Magenta's line of stamps and other art supplies in my beginning days of stamping. Birthday card 5" wide & 6.5 high This is a Christmas poinsettia stamp that I used as a non-seasonal flower. All of the watercoloring is done on Strathmore 140 lb. hot press watercolor p

They say never apologize at the start of any article or letter. But I must! My absence has been far too long. However, life takes priority and this ankle and foot thing has been a much longer journey than I ever anticipated or thought possible. I'm very mobile, have finished up working with a physical therapist, and now I'm working on strengthening my ankle even more by spending time in a swimming pool kicking my feet back and forth. I require a walking cane to make steps and

I know, where have I been since I haven't posted in a week. Well, my ankle gave way when I stepped down and down I went, body and all. X-rays the next day revealed 3 fractures in my foot around my ankle bone from rolling into the fall. The doctor said either the ligament or the bone will give way under that much stress; luckily it was the bone and not the ligament. I've been on the sofa, 24/7, with my ankle elevated and on ice. I have a walking boot and crutches and I can hob

I wanted more of a monochromatic type of card design. This came out a little more "colorful" than I had intended. However, I like how the brown tones and green tones came together. Penny Black Stamps: Sweet Perfume 40-464 Heartfelt 30-286 (sentiment) Prismacolor Colored Pencils Sakura Glaze Pens Tsukineko VersaFine ink in Vintage Sepia Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners Die LF1139 Elizabeth Craft Designs' Shimmer Sheetz! (accent panel) Velvet Paper by SEI (base panel) Conqu

A friend of mine lost her mother last week; even though she lived a long life, it's still tough to say a final good-bye to mom. I wanted to make a very simple card to send. I was able to do that with the new feather dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs and the new Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks. Elizabeth Craft Designs: Sentiment: Hope RS004 Die: Feathers 1272 Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks: Broken China; Worn Lipstick; Cracked Pistachio; Spiced Marmalade Tsukineko's VersaMark i

There is always something new and exciting to discover when you have the time to "surf" the web and read through the various blogs out there on card making. I've seen many new stamp lines that I never knew existed before. One of them is THE TON STAMPS. I saw this card on their blog and thought it was just beautiful; the combination of the stamp design, watercoloring technique and new embossing powder color was a "wow" factor for me. I just had to try it. I tried to follow the

It doesn't seem possible that my last posting was in late July, just before I left on the 3-week trip to England, France and Italy with my sister-in-law and nieces. We had a fabulous time. That long of a trip really set my body clock on the wrong time, almost on a semi-permanent basis. I'm still going to bed early and getting up early, but perhaps that's a good thing. I've kept saying "tomorrow" I'll post to the blog for the last few weeks; however, I've not been home much. I

My nephew is expecting his second son any day, any hour. His wife is going to the doctor tomorrow and they may find themselves with a new addition to the family before they return home . . . who knows! All I know is I cannot wait to meet Reed when he chooses to make his debut. Reed also has a big brother, Jack, who is 5 years old and is quite anxious for everything to happen. While I've been waiting to hear, I made this card. When I saw this stamp in the current Stampin' Up!

While working the Elizabeth Craft Designs' booth at the Scrapbook Expo in Puyallup last weekend, I was totally taken with a card that was on display. The die design is from Joset van de Burgt and the card stock is ECD's new Soft Finish Card Stock. This card stock has such a subtle texture to it; when Distress Inks are applied, the paper takes on a velvet-looking finish. Of course, I had to buy the die and the card stock. The Soft Finish Card Stock comes in two weights. Using

I hope all of you enjoyed the Fourth of July Celebration with your family and friends. We were fairly low-key since we'd hosted a birthday dinner party of 15 for my husband the night before. The view from our deck took in many, many fireworks displays all over the skies, nearby and afar. It was awesome! My stepson's birthday is today; he celebrates his 44th birthday. The number "44" is a favorite number in the family. His sister's first boyfriend was on the football team and

I'm knee-deep in creating cards for a class. For a quick break, I thought I would share with you what I saw on various blogs that I really liked. I love this card that Justin Krieger made for the Stamp Ink Paper CASE Challenge this week! Click on this link to Justin's blog for the details; http://jkcardsonline.com/2016/06/sip-challenge-53-case-the-designer/ Earlier in the year, Karen Dunbrook made this monochromatic card. It appears to be a very easy technique to use when you

It's been such a short time since I remember Els first demo'ing at CHA with the micro fine glitter and Shimmer Sheetz! Both her son, Mark, and her daughter, Josette, were there helping out and seemed so young. Now, the Elizabeth Craft Designs product line is extensive and quite popular. I bought a few things at the consumer show I attended in Anaheim, and I've just now taken some of the ECD goodness out of the bag! Adhered adhesive sheet 3.5" X 3.5" to the same size piece of

More time in the studio today to clean up my workspace, as best I could. Then I was ready to make something with this Impression Obsession stamp designed by Dina Kowal. I've always thought that this silhouette of a young girl with an umbrella is so sweet. I had this piece of left-over watercolor card stock that had been colored with one of Magenta's Nuance watercolor powders. I stamped the image with Memento ink. Then I die-cut around the image with the raindrops die. The sta

I promised something totally different and I think I found a very simple "different" from what I've posted the last couple of days. LOL! Meet a new stamp line I discovered, Stamping Bella's Cool Chicks Collection . . . full of humor! My sis-in-law has been trying to exercise and I haven't quite jumped up to join her yet. So I thought this card would be most appropriate to send to her. On white card stock, I stamped with Memento in Tuxedo Black. Used my Copic Markers to color

In my reorganizing, I came across this stamp set from Impression Obsession. I had never used it yet because I needed to brush up on using a stamp positioner (the old-fashion ones). Along comes the MISTI stamp positioner and I want to immediately work with it. On white card stock, stamped each peony stamp in the set with Distress Inks. After it was dry, I made a watercolor palette with 3 of the green Distress inks. With a small watercolor brush, I colored around the peony. The

This afternoon the stamp club I belong to enjoyed a play day. We brought our MISTI's and stamped away. We're all learning that the MISTI is a must-have tool for many reasons. I not only love it for the repeated impressions that can be made; I also love it because it allows me to stamp sentiments exactly where I want them and in a straight line! I've been wanting to use this Penny Black stamp for a long time. I had tried it without the MISTI and I wasn't very successful. With

Yesterday didn't go as planned but that's okay; it was a terrific day. I was supposed to drive to Bellevue for my haircut and my head started doing its thing, so I rescheduled and drove back home. On the way, though, I stopped at Happy Donuts here in Puyallup . . . the BEST donut shop ever! My comfort food was donut holes and they filled the spot. Later, I went to Costco and found the perfect salad kit for dinner. I continued my organizing and purging, and I even managed to c

Yesterday's Easter celebration with family was a wonderful time spent. My 2 year-old great granddaughter provided us with lots of love and loads of entertainment. The food was yummy, too! Easter has always been filled with children; in addition to my great-granddaughter, we had 4 other small ones to prepare an Easter "basket" for. On Saturday, I discovered the sweetest stencil from Echo Park Paper Co. I had to purchase it because it was perfect to make Easter cards for the li

UPDATED COMMENT: This post was to have posted early Saturday morning and it didn't. So here it is. The day didn't go quite as planned. I lost track of time after lunch and squeezed in too many errands before returning to Puyallup. That meant I had to cancel, AGAIN, my Italian tutoring lesson. Dang! Before dinner, I sorted through my stash of embossing folders; I hope I found them all! Inevitably, I came across a few duplicates. Then the Gonzaga U v. Syracuse basketball tourn