commissioned milestone birthday cards

Next up in my summer programming - commissioned milestone birthday cards. 

Can you guess the recipient of this first card? A teacher! How'd I do?

Action Deutschland banner dies

Simply Graphic frame dies

Memory Box number dies

embossing pen to write sentiment

white embossing powder

star sequins

And this one was a challenge.  A Covid theme for a gal turning 40. Had to get creative with clip art and a hole punch!

Memory Box alpha dies

MFT number die

Have a great day! 

more milestone birthday cards

Summer programming coming your way the next few weeks...

First up some milestone birthday cards. 

Can you tell we have quite a few friends who are winemakers?!?

Renke Happy Numbers die 

Little B Block Out die 

Rayher Alles Gute die

Have a great weekend! 

milestone birthday cards for him

Summer programming coming your way the next few weeks...

First up some milestone birthday cards. 

For a friend who's not so keen on ending his 60s...

Ellen Hutson Bottles of Bubbly

and a friend looking forward to more biking in his 50s. Don't ya love the gold helium balloons trailing off the bike?!?

.Simon Says Stamp Bicycle die 

Have a great weekend!

altenew march challenge

I had to join in over at this month's Altenew challenge. Norine is so inspiring, I love the colors she chose and add succulents to the equation... it was a no brainer!

And could I be more predictable? Mega Succulent here I come.

Altenew Mega Succulent stamp

Altenew watercolors
MFT Deepest Sympathy stamp
vellum

white embossing powder

I love how Norine did her BG so I mixed up some green, blue and purple watercolor and had some fun watercoloring the heat embossed image.

I decided to turn it into a sympathy card. Isn't that a great sentiment for those times when you're truly at a loss for words. The inside reads "sharing in your sorrow".

Then I made a totally different version using up the watercolors that were on my palette. I thought the purple in my first card seemed a bit too bright for the inspiration photo. And the blue touches on some of the leaves kinda disappeared. So I pulled out the flowers.

Altenew Engagement Wishes stamp 

Altenew Birthday Builder stamp

Altenew watercolors
white embossing powder

I heat embossed, watercolored and die cut the peony and leaves. For my background I stamped all the happy birthday sentiments as they are on the packaging, heat embossed them and did a light wash of green over them. And added some green splatters. And Nuvo drops. Figured the background did the talking so I skipped an additional sentiment.

Have you played along? Why not give these colors a try?

I'm joining the fun at:
The Daily Marker - 30 Day Coloring Challenge (first day in my craft room since it started)

The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers - Watercolor

guest designing at inspired by all the little things

Very happy to be joining Tracey M (of 25 Tags of Christmas fame) and the great team over at Inspired by all the Little Things this week. How do you like this inspiration photo?

When I saw that fabulous wooden star I couldn't not go with the wood plank idea to make my own star. And then of course, gold heat emboss a sentiment onto it to recreate those gaps where the planks come together! And well, why not put a loop of twine behind it?  Geez, I really had good intentions to come up with something original! The only thing I actually changed up a bit were my pine branches.

Hero Arts Pine Bough, Sizzix Star, MFT Hand Lettered Holiday

Created a spray of branches with my favorite wooden stamp and added some snow with strokes of a white gel pen.

Hard to see, but I actually stamped a wood pattern (Winnie and Walter Into the Woods) onto the black CS after I'd scored it but you barely see it. You see that some stray embossing powder stuck to some of the still-damp Versamark woodgrain when I embossed the sentiment. Rather than brushing it off before heating, I decided to leave it so that it would accentuate a bit of the woodgrain pattern.

Hope you'll play along. I'd love to see how the photo inspires you. I'll stop by next week. We are celebrating Thanksgiving this Sunday since it's not a German holiday, so I'm busy in the kitchen right now! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving if you celebrated. And thanks for having me, Tracey!

more tag fun at the CLASSroom

On the eleventh day of Christmas

The CLASSroom gave to me

A perfect tag design by

the amazing Kittie!

Maybe you saw my post yesterday with my first six tags for the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist over at the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom. I love this special event they have every year so I squeezed some time in to play along. Especially after I'd seen Kittie's tag design for day 11 .  I grabbed STAMPlorations Luggage Tags dies and made some tags.

Now before I move on to days 7-12, can you say "Dumbkopf"? That was me yesterday in my rush to get tags made, photographed (in this various shades of gray weather we're having) and blogged. Posted Day 7's tag as Day 3's cuz it has foil too. Duh. Meet my actual tag for Day 3, that was inspired by Joni's foiled spotted deer. I applied rubber cement through SSS Falling Snow stencil, let it dry, then burnished foil onto the dots with my bone folder, Added a strip of double sided tape and more foil where the PP meets the tag and topped it off with an Essentials by Ellen Merry and Bright die cut...

I'm hooking this tag up at Simon Says Stamp November Work it Wednesday - Dies and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Gift It. I think a gift tag counts.

Moving on...
Day 7

These ladies had a nice striped sketch - I CASEd Melania's tag - and having just foiled for the first time (tag up top) I pulled out double sided tape, laid it onto the black tag and then burnished gold foil onto it. Easy. Hard to photograph. Stamp set:  MFT Hand Lettered Holiday    Die: SSS Poinsettia Parade

Day 8

Inspired by Carly's colorful inspiration piece from Margaret Berg and adding a touch of Ashley Goldberg's style I made this one-layer tag with a vellum overlay. I chose to use a camper image to play along with The Heart Desires Challenge #7. I inked the trees up with Distress inks and spritzed them before stamping. Stamp set: Artemio, Precious Remembrance Sketchy Christmas

Day 9

White = Elegant. I can't seem to go all elegant, gotta have a touch of playful.  I heat embossed trees and a house on the tag. You can barely see the gold glow I added to the house windows and door. Added a couple snowy hills, dry embossed. And snuck the gold antlered deer and his family in too. Stamp set: Neat and Tangled Winter Wishes    Die: MFT Snow Drifts and Memory Box Deer Trio

I'm joining the fun at Little Tangles - Silver and Gold. Not sure if you can see it but the silver is on the deer edges so you can see them in all the white. The gold is on the antlers, the house and the heat embossed sentiment. And at Memory Box - Marvelous Metallics too.

Day 10

Inspired by the the girls' use of kraft this tag was born. Used pigment and dye inks in greens. Stamp set: Winnie and Walter Winter Woodland and MFT Hand Lettered Holiday

I'm joining the Rerun fun at Winnie and Walter, although I chose the pine needle bough from Winter Woodland instead of Hollie's Festive Florals. I loved the natural look of Heather's card - kraft and twine.

Day 11

Kittie's tag for this day inspired my design for most of my tags. Love the PP on top, dry embossing on the bottom and a focal image. Unfortunately I don't have a wreath that would have looked the right size on this tag. And I was too lazy to create my own. Thus the ornament.  Stamp set: Waltzingmouse  Die: Spellbinders

Day 12

Inspired by the beautiful color palette and motivated to play in Where Creativity Meets C9 "Winter" challenge I made another tag with vellum overlay. Soft stone tag with world map stamped in khaki. White heat embossed snowflakes falling onto the world. Heat embossed and snipped sentiments atop the vellum overlay. Stamp set: Concord and 9 Map Love and Poppystamps Holiday Hoopla

Whew! Thanks for checking out my tags. Hope you are having a wonderful Advent and not getting too stressed out. We're off for more Christmas cheer this evening. Might even be carol singing... I wish you and yours - and all of us the world over - peace, love and joy this holiday season.

on the first day of ellen hutson christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas

The CLASSroom gave to me

A perfect tag design by

the amazing Kittie!

So I ran with it. See, lately I'm quite the b***h. Least that's what my family says. So I'm in the kitchen making Christmas cookie dough for five hours one evening. Then baking them in a seven hour marathon the next day. Enter the "B" word. Only when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel did I get nicer ;) And took a moment to check out the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist over at the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom. It's become a favorite of mine every year - there's so much talent over there. Couldn't bear to miss it. And then I took several hours to whip up some tags. Literally. Of course, pissed off DH a bit when I woke him sneaking into bed after 1 am, but oh well!

May I present days 1-6. Largely modeled on Kittie's tag design for day 11 and using STAMPlorations Luggage Tags dies for all my tags CUZ IT KEPT ME FOCUSED, people!

Day 1

Inspired by Laurel's colored image with lotsa white space I heat embossed a sentiment in sparkly teal as my main attraction and decorated the tag top with stamping. Stamp set: Essentials by Ellen Holly Jolly    Die: PTI Holly Jolly

Day 2

Inspired by Kay's design and colors I made a shaker housing lots of chunky glitter. Crappy photo, sorry. The PP is actually green! Stamp set: STAMPlorations Trendy Christmas Trees

Day 3

Inspired by the foiled deer on Joni's tag, I pulled out some vintage gold I bought  this summer and foiled for the first time. Used doubled sided tape and burnished the foil onto it with my bone folder. Coolio! Stamp set: MFT Hand Lettered Holiday    Die: SSS Poinsettia Parade

Day 4

Inspired by Jennifer's LOVE tag and knit-sweater-looking embossed BG I made a simple, clean tag. Die: STAMPlorations Be Jolly phrase, PTI Holly Jolly

Day 5

There's a story to this one. When I saw the graphic and the word "frozen" my mind did not go to margaritas. It went to "Let it Go". Enter a box of cereal that came to live at our house (because DD and I really love "Frozen") and this tag was born. It does have lots of frozen goodies on it though, the glitter around the edge, and the sequins. Stamp set: Essentials by Ellen Tis the Season

Day 6

This was actually the first post of the series that I saw. And I fell in love with the unexpected color combo, and let's face it, these two ladies can ink backgrounds like nobody's business. I gave it my best with Victorian Velvet and Seedless Preserves. Stamp set: MFT Balloon Strings BG on the tag, Tim Holtz Mini Holiday 2 and Precious Remembrance Sketchy Christmas sentiment (what a fabulous set!)    Die: Poppystamps Small Madison Window

Whew! If you're still here - GO DO SOMETHING FROM YOUR CHRISTMAS TO DO LIST! And should you be all organized and waiting for Christmas to roll around - GO MAKE TAGS FOR THIS WONDERFUL EVENT!

Nuff said. I've got presents to wrap...

















(every year I say I'll do it better next year, then I don't)

CASEplorations August

It's CASEplorations time again, folks! And how about some navy and white striped goodness for August? This bold beauty is from Shalu of All By Art Creations. There's so much to work with on her card. I went with the navy and white stripes, an orange bloom, silver CS and thread and lotsa sequins.

I die cut a label tag and stamped grungy stripes from Mixed Media Elements onto it with navy pigment ink. I heat embossed the rose from Blossom Overture and watercolored it before fussy cutting. Die cut a sentiment from silver CS. Before I adhered the tag I stamped the frame and sentiment from the same set onto my cardbase. A messy nest of silver metallic thread and a liberal sprinkling of sequins (literally, I dropped them and glued them down where they'd fallen) finished off my card.

Please check out the rest of the DT's creations and join us in the gallery. It's open until end of day on August 31st. The DT's favorite will win a $15 GC and two runners-up win a $5 GC!

MMCC #26

This month at the Mixed Media Card Challenge the theme is sure to please - Rainbow!

Now my card may not be real mixed media-y, but I used stamps (ok, one) and ink and have texture and dimension and technique for ya! Want to see how I used dies to achieve it?

First off I raided my leftovers to find ROYGBIV color scraps. Die cut them with MFT Rainbow die. Die cut small cloud from white CS with WPlus9 Hearts and Cloud die. Then I used the cloud dies to deboss - once onto a black cardbase and once onto a white CS panel that I'd stamped my PTI Hello Sunshine sentiment on. Simple but with a little oomph!

Please take a look at the rainbow-y beauties the DT created and then join us in the gallery with your over the rainbow creation!