I think I've been in a time warp. Where did the last half of the year go? A lot happened in the last 4 months with trips to Las Vegas, London, Hawaii and Orlando; and oral surgery that required 24 stitches on the roof of my mouth accompanied with a soft food diet for 5 weeks. Now it's the new year and a new decade. Happy New Year! Birthdays happen quite often in December thru February. Here we go . . . "Partners" Hero Arts and Gina K Designs Clear Stamp Set (floral design and

This month's Rounds & Rectangles Swap is a "summer vacation" postcard. Hmmmmmm . . . Luckily, I just received my monthly Hero Arts Club package featuring the dock and jumping swimmers. After cutting the card stock to the correct size, I made a mask with the dock die cut. With the mask in place, I stamped the jellyfish stamp with VersaMark ink and embossed with white embossing powder. Using the school of fish stencil, I inked over the embossed design with VersaFine Clair using

I'm in a swap group that sends either a rectangle (self-mailing postcard) or a round (Altered Trading Coin) each month. This month, we were asked to send our partner a postcard using a spring theme. I was lucky to find a pre-designed postcard on very heavy chipboard; I don't know where they came from but I think Impress Cards & Crafts in Tukwila, WA is ordering some for customers who are attending a "Creating Connections with Postcards" class there next Saturday, March 30. I

One of my nephews is a crazy and fun-loving guy. It was birthday night at his family's home the other night and I wanted to make an unexpected card for him. And here it is . . . I've loved her since the day she arrived at my studio. She's one of the Slapstick Cling stamps from Penny Black. I stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I colored most of her with Copic markers. Yes, the entire stamp was colored even though some of it is hidden by the s

I belong to RubberMoon's MoonMail Club. For the low monthly subscription fee, we are sent a stamp that is designed just for Moonies, along with an extra goodie or two. RubberMoon and Inchie Arts work together very closely and I usually enjoy one of their Art Square Boards, i.e., inchies, twinchies, Art Swatch, etc. You can click on this link to read all about joining the MoonMail Club: https://rubbermoon.com/pages/moonmail-club. Some Moonies swap Moon creativity with that mo

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

The days are whizzing by faster than I can keep up. Can you believe this is the last week in June? Not I! With all of the celebration for LGBT rights and the recent Pride Day parades around the world, I wanted to do my part. I saw this technique on the internet yesterday and decided to give it a try. It's very quick and simple. I embossed a piece of clear acetate (3-3/4" x 5") using an embossing folder from Sizzix (product information unavailable). On the backside, I used 5

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

Another graduation card ready to go. I came upon my stash of Lost Coast Designs' stamps and this stamp I've waited and waited to use. I thought all of the pencils were appropriate for a high school grad, since Lord knows how many pencils a student goes through over the years. I stamped the background stamp with VersaFine in Toffee onto white card stock. It was matted with a piece of So Silk card stock in purple because that's one of the school colors. Both panels were adhered

It's been a fun and a dramatic weekend. With two of my high school girlfriends, we saw Motown, The Musical, in Seattle . . . fabulous music, even more fabulous singing talent. Then I drove to Olympia/Tumwater for my 45th high school reunion; it's true, you see them as you remember them in school and not what they look like now. Sunday started out slowly and then I was horrified to see the television news about the mass shooting in Orlando. And I continued my ongoing prayers f

I'm upright and mobile. I'm comfortable in my home. All of this is a good thing! Yesterday I learned that a very good friend's wife is enduring a traumatic medical condition under the top-notch care of Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Today, I learn that one of the attendant's at Hannah's grooming salon has lost her home to a fire; luckily, their 12 year-old son spent the night with his grandma and was not in the area where the fire caused the most damage. Please look aroun

It's a holiday weekend. My weekend started with a road trip to Long Beach, WA for a garage sale; it was a bit far to drive since it was a little more than 100 miles away from home. It was a fun time because I enjoyed the company of my sister-in-law and another good friend in the car, and I was able to see a long-time family friend that I hadn't seen for almost 2 years. The views from her home are spectacular since they live on the ocean beach. When I returned home, my husband

Today's major activity was taking a wonderful book class at The Urban Scrapbooker in Edmonds, WA. It's on Edmonds Way as you make your way to the Anacortes Ferry. Donna was the instructor, and she teaches several classes at The Urban Scrapbooker, especially Graphic 45 book classes. Today's book featured their new papers from the Voyage Under the Sea collection. When I have more of my book together, I'll post pics. I've been wanting to send a condolence card to a friend who is

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

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the women I know, even some "mom" dads. You're a mother, even if you haven't given birth to or adopted a child. It's the family, friends and paw'd loved ones that you nurture each and every day. I made this card for my granddaughter. She is enjoying her second year of motherhood and she's one of the most loving mommies I'm proud to say. To top off my joy, her little one is the spitting image and character that she was at two. Inked with Distress Ink

I am back from our trip to London to visit our granddaughters. The weather was cold, windy, rainy, icy and snowy, as well as sunny. I had vertigo that kept me in bed on 2 different days, and I ended up falling in the shower two days before we left. It was quite an eventful stay. The best part was spending time with Cecilia and Hailey. Our hearts were warm the entire time spent with them. Hoping to get back into sync with the local time, I actually didn't start reading in bed

So far, I'm just flittering around. To concentrate on just one thing is a challenge. I've been multi-tasking all day long, unintentionally! I also kept flittering through stamps and ideas, and finally dove in. This is an older stamp from Magenta, perhaps new to you. Because it's more of a shadow stamp, I decided to bring out the Distressed Inks. Applied Distress Inks to completely cover stamp image. Stamped onto card stock; allowed to dry. Used Spica glitter pens to follow th

Another quickie card in the works today. Just found out some wonderful news from a family I know out-of-state and I wanted to send a note off immediately. What quicker way is there than to pull out my Nuance watercolors, embossing powder and die cutting machine! Inked with VersaMark; embossed with white embossing powder onto watercolor card stock. Misted with water and shook Nuance in several places. With a wet watercolor brush, moved the colors around. Blotted with a paper t

Wow! March is a blink in the rearview mirror and it's already April. This month is so busy I don't think it will vanish with a complete blink. Yikes! And 15 years has gone by in less than 2 full blinks! Today is our sweet Hannah's 15th birthday. This little Bichon Frise has been the petite princess in our household since she flew to Seattle from Oklahoma 15 years ago. Everything revolves around those 4 paws of hers. We've enjoyed every single moment. Both of us think that she

Sorry for the absence the last couple of days. When I left a card class at Art 'n Soul on Saturday afternoon, I was driving to a memorial event and about 1/2 mile up the road my head pain came in with a roar! It was all I could do to get home. Even the pain meds didn't work. So, I also missed a Mended Hearts Auction & Dinner that evening and a full day working on the studio project yesterday. I slept a lot and watched a few movies . . . boring! I've been waiting and waiting