Tape Paper Scissors

Welcome back to my ramblings ... My granddaughter's 6th birthday was coming up and I wanted to make her a special birthday card.  She recently started taking figure skating classes and really loving it.  That brought to mind the Mice on Ice stamp set from Lawn Fawn.  I bought the stamp set because those mice are so darn cute ... and the ice skating, of course, since I love winter and most winter activities.  BUT I hadn't used them in a card yet so this was the perfect opportunity.  I also wanted to add some sort of interactive element to the card and remembered the Reveal Wheel dies I have rarely, if ever, used.  So there you go, the thought process.  😁 I kept thinking the mice should be on a frozen pond or lake, that's where I'd prefer to ice skate, but that's not where figure skating is taught so I looked at a lot of cartoon hockey rinks to figure out how to draw one on this card AND make the reveal wheel element work.  I think I figured it out...

Good Day! I try to make my step-grandkids cards that are meaningful to them.  They're young and don't REALLY appreciate them for longer than, oh, 2 minutes maybe.  However, for me, it's about letting them know I see them, who they are right here and now. One of my grandsons turned 8 this year.  He loves otters so I broke out this Stampin Up stamp set and got to work.  Scouring my stash of old unused Freshly Made Sketches, I chose design #FMS354.  His favorite color is orange so I also searched splitcoaststampers.com color challenges for a color combo that included orange, #CC983 was the "winner".  To add a bit of fun, I put the otter on an action wobble.  Those are so easy to use and really step-up a card, especially for kids and kids-at-heart like me.  😜  I used a polka dot stencil and embossing paste on white cardstock for the primary background with light blue cardstock as a neutral frame around that but the light blue doesn't really sho...

I thought I'd blog on a few of the cards I've made in the past year ... the ones I am particularly proud of.  Sometimes the idea in my head doesn't come out in a card very well but sometimes it does! Since my mother died several years ago, I haven't been making or sending Mother's Day cards recently.  This year, I decided to make Mother's Day cards for all my female family and friends who were mothers in some sense ... human or critter children.  In my usual manner, I looked through my old pins in Pinterest and found one I wanted to CASE (copy and share everything) but now I can't find my inspiration card again.  I then went to my saved Freshly Made Sketches designs to find one that fit what I was thinking, #FMS351. Lastly, I went to splitcoaststampers  color challenges and picked a combination I wanted to try, #CC991. This card was selected as a splitcoaststampers CAS (Clean And Simple) Favorite on April 20, 2024.  I am very honored to be selected and ha...

At my previous house, I did NOT have a very good system of storing ephemera and embellishments and washi tape, so I seldom used them, I just forgot I had them.   I had just been working on sorting and organizing my craft room after our recent move, when my husband asked if I would make a funny get well card for his friend who recently wiped out on a bicycle. While looking for bicycle stamps and dies, I realized there was an adorable bicycle stamp set where I hadn't used all the stamps.  Some ideas came to mind for cards with this partially used stamp set and the recently discovered washi tape, ephemera and card bases.   This card was one of the results.  I still haven't used all the stamps in the set because I ran out of room on the card.  😂 I followed a saved design from Freshly Made Sketches , #FMS353.  I posted this card in the splitcoaststampers gallery and it was selected as a splitcoaststamper Weekly Favorite on April 7, 2024.  I am s...

Hello! I recently organized my craft supplies in a way that allows me to better see what I have available.  After making the Captain Klutz card, I realized there were some stamp sets and dies I hadn't used much.  This card is the result of those discoveries. I found two card bases left over from my July 2020 Stampin Up Paper Pumpkin kit and wanted to somehow use them with the Bike Ride stamps.  I looked through my saved and unused stash of Freshly Made Sketches, finding that #FMS352 looked a little like a road to me.  So, I scoured my pattern paper scraps for something that looked like a street and found two strips.  These were so simple to make and it's so very nice to use scraps and leftovers.  Isn't it? I hope you like the simplicity of these cards and feel encouraged to use up some of your scraps as well. Thanks for looking! Card Recipe Stamps:   SU! Bike Ride, Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Ride Punches & Dies:    SU! Build A Bike dies E...

An odd sort of card ... Friends came to visit us in Wisconsin.  They stayed at an RV park with a very well groomed bicycle trail nearby.  While riding their bicycles on the trail their first evening in the area, one of them hit a bump on the trail, fell off his bicycle and injured his ribs and back. 😳 He is now home recovering but there's been a lot of pain and embarrassment along the way.  In the spirit of cheering him up, my husband, who is klutzy himself, asked me to make a card immortalizing the klutziness, teasing, as guys often do.  This card is the result of that request. I started by looking through my stash for bicycle and hill stamps and dies.  Having found several, I then worked on a way to make it look like the bicycle was flying through the air.  I found something on pinterest that got my creativity going but forgot to save the pin to share here.  The ground was created by doing  splotchy ink blending and splattering. The background ...

I made this Easter card for my family and friends.  I CASEd* an old pin of a handmade card with a peeking bunny but sadly I can no longer find it in order to link it here.  I dug through my saved but unused Freshly Made Sketches designs and decided I could fit my idea into #FMS342.  This card was a lot of fun to make and wasn't too difficult to mass produce. Enjoy! Card Recipe Stamps:   SU! Basket Bunch Punches & Dies:   SU! Basket Builder dies, Hearth & Home dies Embossing folders:   SU! Climbing Vines embossing folder Paper:     Recollections purple and blue cardstock, SU! whisper white regular and thick, SU! Perfectly Artistic DSP Paper Size:   A2 5.5" x 4.25" card Ink:   Memento Tuxedo Black Accessories:    Nuvo drops Techniques:   Die cut images, dry emboss *CASE - Copy And Share Everything💓