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

Let the summer begin with the celebration of our nation's independence in 1776! I wanted to do a patriotic looking card, but I couldn't find the stamp I wanted to use. So, I improvised! Impression Obsession: "Circle Dangle" L15052 IMAGINE Crafts: Memento Ink and irRESISTible Pico Embellisher by Tsukineko in Bahama Blue Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker in Geranium Red Glitter Pen in Red Memory Box Stitched Square Layers Die 30038 We R Memory Keepers Next Level Emb

Sweet peas are one of the sweet memories I have from my early childhood. My mother grew them behind the detached garage, along with the 'Pennies from Heaven'. One day while take a walk around a small island in upper Puget Sound, I found them growing wild along the roadside. When I saw the Sweet Peas Cover-a-Card stamp design by Dina Kowal for IO, I knew I had to order this stamp. Impression Obsession: Sweet Peas CC284 Warm Hugs A13385 Spellbinders Nestabilities Card Creator S

When I saw this background stamp on the Impression Obsession website a short while ago, I knew I had to add it to my treasured stash of stamps. Impression Obsession: Cover-A-Card Stamp Design by Dina Kowal - Layered Pansies CC282 Alesa Baker Designs - Bold Sweet Wishes C9138 Spellbinders Nestabilities Card Creator 5x7 Matting Basics B Die Set S6-002 (smallest size) Crafter's Companion - Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Brush Pens Butterfly embellishment from Little B VersaMark i

Know what happens when you bury yourself in the studio to continue with the ongoing never-ending clean-out, purge and organize task? Nothing real creative. It's Halloween month and as I unbury more and more Halloween stuff, I am working to resist the want to stop the organizing and start the Halloween fun. I have managed to organize all of my dies from Memory Box, PoppyStamps, Elizabeth Craft Designs and most of the Spellbinder dies. I still have the dies from Savvy, Penny Bl

Impression Obsession has wonderful dies and here is an example of a monochromatic seashore card theme using some of their new dies. On Kittie's blog post, she shows 3 different cards using this theme and coloring style. Click on this link to go to Kittie's post on her blog: http://www.kittiekraft.com/2016/07/monochromatic-beach-scene-in-the-classroom.html Mariette van Leeuwen created this card for Magenta using my new favorite Magenta stamp, bubbles. She colors it with the Ku

The last couple of days have been a blur. For different reasons, the rest of this week becomes even more of a blur with 4 birthdays and 2 graduations, all celebrated on Friday and Saturday. Whew! The first graduation card for a celebration I missed this last Saturday is a very simple card for an amazing young lady. She changed her major and just graduated, with a job!, in elementary special education. Excited doesn't begin to describe how anxious she is for the new school yea

The new feather stamp from Magenta has been sitting on my work table, awaiting its turn. I bumped it up a few spots because I couldn't wait it out any longer. Cut 2 of the 4 dies of Tim Holtz Sizzix die set to use as stencils. Applied StazOn ink with dauber. Stamped feathers with Memento ink using the MISTI. Colored with Magenta's Nuance. Stamped sentiment using the MISTI with VersaFine. With scrap of faux leather card stock, cut a frame using Memory Box Stitched Rectangle La

The sun is shining and it's a beautiful spring day in the Pacific Northwest. The day after a holiday weekend means lots of errands. And I'm still wanting a leisure holiday pace. What to do? Make a very simple card. I had 3 squares of handmade paper intended for another unknown use. I had a new die from JustRite. With a panel of white linen card stock, I used the new die which cut 3 stitched square openings. I stamped the brushstroke with Electric Pink ink and took the heat gu

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

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

The term "black gold" is one used quite often by asphalt producers. They lay down millions of miles of black asphalt on our roadways every year. It's black and they make money. My card today is a "thank you" card to an asphalt paving company who invited us to their annual employee awards and recognition breakfast last month. All employees from all over Washington State and northwest Oregon are invited to attend; there must have been 3-400 people. Everyone is like family; this

Do you own a MISTI? MISTI = Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented. Art 'n Soul cannot keep them stocked; they sell out almost immediately. I've read that more are on order! On Dina Kowal's blog, she has made a MISTI cover using canvas material, IMAGINE Crafts' Memento Luxe craft pigment ink that is permanent when heat set, and stamps from Impression Obsession. Click on this link to go to Dina's blog posting for the details: http://mamadinis.blogspot.com/2016/03/mini-misti-canva

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

Eeek! It's Friday already and I have several Easter cards to make today; a few of them have to be in today's mail drop, too. Of course, I have to take Hannah to the vet in Olympia for a follow-up on her ear infection and a booster shot for her flu shot. If there's time after the vet appointment, I'm hoping to make the lunch with my stamping club. And then there's the Friday afternoon traffic on I-5. Here's the start on my Easter cards. This is a card using an adorable stamp f

Another day of cardmaking fun with Dina Kowal's Brushstroke stamps from Impression Obsession; I also added a Grunge Circle stamp to the mix from IO, designed by Yvonne Blair, and an Open Brush Swirl stamp by Alesa Baker. Cleaning, purging and organizing is a two-fold dichotomy. I find things forgotten about or found; and I'm limited as to what's around my work table because of the ongoing work. I reorganized my stash of IMAGINE Crafts' Amplify! and StazOn Glaze, so Ithought i

Yesterday morning we awakened to the horrifying news taking place in Belgium. The tragedy and unspeakable terror shook any peaceful calm of the morning. My cousin and her husband are traveling in Europe, arriving in London yesterday from Venice. I'll be so relieved when they're back on American soil later this week; I think they will be, too. I came across this stamp from Magenta and it expressed what I was feeling. I found the stamps designed by Dina Kowal for Impression Obs

It's only a short day because daylight savings time begins at 2 a.m. tomorrow morning, meaning we "spring" forward and lose one hour in our 24-hour day. The good news is that means the real days of spring, summer and hours of daylight are around the corner. Yay! It's been a full day. It started with an Awards Breakfast for a family-owned business that we know quite well. It may be family-owned and spread throughout western Washington, but it's certainly not a small company as

As I started to make this St. Patrick's Day card for an Irish friend, I reminisced about several Irish blessings and songs I've enjoyed over the years. What fun to hum and laugh over a few as I mixed the two green Magenta Nuance colors, jade and grass green, with water on the watercolor card stock. As you can see, I wasn't able to quickly locate my "Happy St. Patrick's Day" stamp. I used a Rosie's Roadshow word stamp that I thought sounded liked an Irish blessing; inside, I'l

I would love to show you the card I made; however, the blog powers that be wouldn't upload the photo. Numerous attempts repeatedly responded with "upload failure." I'll try again this evening. On the Magenta blog, we're so used to seeing such vibrantly colored designs from their Nuance watercolor powders. In a recent blog posting from Ellie Knol, the card she designed featured softer color values that really make you think "spring!" Click on this link for the details from Ell