Saturday, June 23, 2018

Stamping for Families Blog Hop


http://www.inlinkz.com/new/view.php?id=786565

Hi friends!  It has been a while since I've posted here on my blog due to my broken ankle craziness but I wanted to come out healing mode to participate in this really special blog hop.  As a birth mother, adoptive mother,  foster mother and an aunt to 21 nieces and nephews, I am hopping along today to show my love and support for all of the children who are caught in the middle of our country's border policy with Mexico.  

While I'm not here to argue politics with anyone,  I do want to say that my heart always has been and always will be, on the side of the children.   These innocent children were brought here and put in a traumatic situation thru no fault of their own.   They are scared and hurting because of the poor choices and senseless policies that were carried out by the adults around them.  We are all guilty of wanting the best for our kids.  We want them to grow up safe and healthy and happy.  Most parents do the best they can to make this happen but some are faced with many obstacles that leave them feeling desperate and destitute.  I can only imagine how desperate a mother must be to make such a hard and treacherous journey with a child on her hip.  


With that image in mind I decided to make this card.  In honor of  my three girls.  Each one coming to me with a different story.  Each one following their own path but all of them having one thing in common, their love for their mothers.

For this card I used the following supplies:
Stamps:  Shady Canopy (Penny Black), City Girls Park Life (The Ton), Travel Wagon (Unity Stamps).
Ink:  Green Tea, Eucalyptus, Spruce, Icing on the Cake, Midnight (Catherine Pooler Designs), Tumbled Glass Distress (Ranger),  Copic markers.
Paper:  Neenah Solar White 110 lb.
Accessories:  City Girls Park Life coordinating dies (The Ton), fun foam.




In the link below, you can follow along the path of some other beautiful crafters who are expressing their love for these children thru their card making today.  Also, if you are feeling inspired to make and share your own lovely card in this hop, you can add it to the link below.  Sandy Allnock is offering a free seat in her classroom to one lucky hop participant and also for one lucky commenter on her blog.   So be sure to stop  by and say "hi!".





Take care my friends.
Thanks so much for stopping by.  Happy Stamping!!

Monday, May 7, 2018

Bike Week Winners!

Congratulations Bike Week Winners!  Please PM me here or on Facebook with your contact info!  Note:  Winners will have until 6am Thursday, May 10th to claim your prize.

1.  cghundley:  you get first choice!
2.  Sharon Jones let me know your first and second choice please!
 3.  Demi1 the final set will be yours!

 Motorcycle Layering Stamp Set
https://www.thetonstamps.com/products/motorcycle-layering-set 

https://www.thetonstamps.com/products/motorcycle-boss

 Beautiful Day Bicycle
https://www.thetonstamps.com/products/beautiful-day-bicycle


Have a beautiful day!

Friday, May 4, 2018

Bike Week - My kinda ride - Friday


It's' Friday and the final day of Bike Week.  Thank you so much for riding along with me this week as I showcased some awesome stamp sets from The Ton.  Thanks to Effie over at The Ton for offering up some great stamp sets for the giveaway.  The Motorcycle Layering Stamp set and the Motorcycle Boss set are so unique and fun.  I had a blast working with them this week.  But today I'm pulling out a little stamp set that really won my heart.  This little two wheeler is more my speed.  This is what my bike in the garage really looks like!



That's right!   My little blue bicycle created using The Ton's 3x4" stamp set:


https://www.thetonstamps.com/products/beautiful-day-bicycle

Surprise!
 Add this to the giveaway list!  Three winners will now be chosen from this week's comments so one of you could win this adorable little "bike" set just in time for spring!


For my first card. I made a pretty little scene that I could color with my Zig Kuretake watercolor markers.


The Bike:


My second card is a birthday card using whole a mix of stamps and dies from The Ton.


  • First I masked a strip off the bottom of an A2 size white card front.  Then I did some ink blending with The Ton's Smoky Quartz ink.
  • I stamped all of the images and sentiment with The Ton's Copic friendly Caviar ink then colored the images with Copic markers.  I masked off the little baskets before stamping the puppy and flowers.
  • After stamping the sentiment I diecut it out using the The Ton's Modern Labels die set.  I added some craft foam to the back.
  • I adhered the panel to a card base, then glued on the sentiment label.



 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:
  • I'm giving away THREE stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8"  1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set and 1 Beautiful Day Bicycle 3x4" stamp set.
  • THREE lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday here.)
  • The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The second name drawn will get second choice and the  remaining stamp set will go to the third random winner chosen.  
  • (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
  • I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th 
Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 


Thank you so much for riding along with me thru  Bike Week.
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!  Good luck!

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Bike Week - Build-a-Bike Thursday


Hello and welcome back to Bike Week!  Today I'm going to rev things up a notch, pull out all my tools and build my own bikes.  The Ton's Buildable Motorcycle Standalone Dies are an amazingly, fun way to add a motorcycle to your cards.  No stamps are needed, just a diecut machine (my Big Shot is ready), glue and a good pair of tweezers.



OK, I'm not gonna lie.  Just looking at all these parts intimidated the heck out of me.  Lordy, how in the world would I manage to get everything in the correct place....or even begin to know what each part is?  This die set is truly a puzzle and a challenge the first time around.  But I promise, after I put it together the first time, the second one was a breeze!

For my first card I enlisted the help of: 


https://www.thetonstamps.com/products/motorcycle-layered-coordinating-die



 This die cuts the basic motorcycle shape and served as base for my Buildable Motorcycle parts.  You absolutely DO NOT need this die to assemble the Buildable Motorcycle but it does help.  I'm going to show you two bikes today, one with and one without this base so you can see the difference.


I started with the background on this card by doing some masking and ink blending
 


Motorcycle assembly: 
I cut out all of the die pieces twice.  I found that was the easiest way to do it as you will need two of some of the pieces to build your bike and extra parts you can use as fillers.

  • The "chrome" pieces were cut out of silver mirrored cardstock.
  • The base piece, triangle piece and wheels were cut from black cardstock.
  • The seat, fenders and gas tank were cut from white cardstock.  I colored these pieces using Copic Markers then added some clear Wink of Stella over the top for sparkle.
  •  I assembled the bike by adhering the tires and "chrome" rims to the base first.  Then the triangular frame piece. I glued on the fenders, seat and gas tank next.  The tailpipes  and all the little parts fit in as shown.  You'll notice some of the little pieces are glued on top of each other to add dimension. Also note that I cut and adhered two handlebar/headlight pieces along with the two long posts that attach to the front wheel. 




For my second card today I diecut and assembled this same Buildable Motorcycle only this time I didn't use  the other die for the base. Now that I knew where all the parts go, I found it much easier to make this die set work on it's own.  

Tips:
  • If you look closely at the photo below, you'll see the embossed lines and little cutouts that will help guide you to proper placement of the gas tank and the tailpipes.  
  • Once these are all in place it's time to start adding all the little parts.  I recommend a good pair of  tweezers to make this task much easier. 
  • Don't be afraid to load up that bike engine with lots of little pieces!  Of course I'm not a mechanic so I have no clue what any of it is anyway.  But I do know that the fuller the engine area looks, the better.  So just have fun and put those tweezers to work! 


I kept this ladies card background clean and simple:


For the motorcycle:

 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:
  • I'm giving away two stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8" and 1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set.
  • Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday here.)
  • The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
  • (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
  • I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th 
Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 


Thank you for riding along today!  I'll be back tomorrow with a surprise ending to Bike Week so be sure to come back for the final ride!
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Bike Week - CAS Wednesday


Is it Wednesday already?  We're halfway thru Bike Week and we're still riding strong.  Today I have three more cards to show you using The Ton's new motorcycle line of stamps and dies.  Today I'm in cruise mode, keeping it clean and simple.  Sometimes the detail of a stamp will let it hold it's own on a card.  That's how I feel about The Ton's Motorcycle Layering stamp set.   It takes six layers of stamping to build this intricate motorcycle.  When I stamped this bike the first time my jaw dropped.  Each layer lines up easily and once you get the hang of which colors to use, it is a breeze to stamp.  Seriously, check out all the bikes I stamped in the photo above.  So fun!

This was the very first card I made using The Motorcycle Layering set and I made it for my 15 year old nephew. (eek! He'll be driving soon!). 





  1. Light Onyx
  2. Noir
  3. Crystal Pewter
  4. Smoky Quartz 
  5. Coral Cavern
  6. Valentine Red
  • I masked off the bike and blended some Light Onyx ink for the roadway.  
  • Using the Motorcycle Layering Coordinating Die, I partially diecut the top of the motorcycle to keep it attached to the road.  
  • I adhered the whole piece to the front of the card with dimensional tape.
  • I added some sparkle over the red parts with a clear Wink of Stella glitter marker.






My next card is as clean and simple as you can get!  Check out this totally mod card using minimal supplies.  






  • I stamped the Motorcycle Layering bike with the same color combination as my first card except I exchanged red for blue using The Ton's Hot Tourmaline and Ocean Teal inks. 
  • I diecut the motorcycle out using the coordinating die and then diecut two more layers from white cardstock.  I glued the blank layers to the back of  the stamped motorcycle piece to make it nice and thick (like chipboard!).  Then I glued it directly onto the card front.  Voila! 
  • Must have shimmery paint on this motorcycle so out comes the Wink of Stella again. 





Ramping clean and simple up a little bit, here's my final card of the day.  A festive gender neutral birthday card using the Motorcycle Boss stamp set.  Now that's a mean green riding machine!  It's no accident I chose Packer colors for this card.










 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:
  • I'm giving away two stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8" and 1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set.
  • Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday and Tuesday here.)
  • The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
  • (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
  • I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th 
Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 


Thank you for riding along today!  I'll be back tomorrow with a peek at two cards using   The Ton's  Motorcycle standalone die set.
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Bike Week - City Ride Tuesday


Hey friends, welcome to day 2 of Bike Week!  Today we're riding into the city with two fun city backgrounds created with stamps from The Ton shop.

Today I'm featuring The Ton's  Motorcycle Boss stamp set.

https://www.thetonstamps.com/collections/masculine-sets/products/motorcycle-boss




My first card is a birthday card. 

  •  I stamped the motorcycle in The Ton's Caviar ink which works great when coloring with Copic Markers.  This motorcycle was really easy to color with just some shades of gray, brown and a oranges.  I cut it out using the Motorcycle Boss Coordinating Die then popped it up with some dimensional tape.







A sunny day in the park and a nice, long bike ride is what this dad wants for Father's Day.  For my second card today, I stamped the background  with The Ton's fabulous Scenes: Fountain Terrace Cling Background stamp.  Once again with a busy background like this, I wanted to keep it soft and as neutral as possible so that the Motorcycle Boss really pops.  This means it was super easy and quick to color.  Gotta love that!





  • The Motorcycle Boss is stamped with Copic friendly Caviar ink and colored with Copic markers.  Then I adhered the motorcycle with dimensional tape.
  • To add a little dimension and movement to the fountain I streaked some Nuvo Crystal drops in gloss white to give the illusion of flowing water.





 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:
  • I'm giving away two stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8" and 1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set.
  • Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday here.)
  • The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
  • (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
  • I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th 
Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 


Thank you for riding along today!  I'll be back tomorrow with three clean and simple cards using  The Ton's  Motorcycle stamps and dies. 
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!


Monday, April 30, 2018

Welcome to Bike Week - Monday


Hi everyone and welcome to Bike Week here on my blog.   I'll be popping in every day this week, all the way thru Friday, sharing cards with a Bike Week theme.   As someone who has spent a few vacations on the open road with my husband, attending the famous Bike Week in Daytona, FL and bike rallies in the Black Hills of Sturgis, South Dakota, I was super excited when The Ton came out with their Motorcycle line of stamps and dies.  What an awesome idea for some fun, masculine cards!  But for as many men as I know who ride, I also know a few amazing women with bikes of their own.

This week I thought it would be fun to make up a bunch of cards for men and women, using the The Ton's two motorcycle stamps and coordinating die sets:


https://www.thetonstamps.com/collections/masculine-sets/products/motorcycle-layering-set





https://www.thetonstamps.com/collections/masculine-sets/products/motorcycle-boss


Anyone who has been to a motorcycle rally has seen the rows and rows of bikes lined up along the streets, in parking lots and even along the beach.  Ok, well not so much in the sand but as close as they can get!  Daytona's Bike Week is a sight I'll never forget.  Thousands of bikes among the palm trees.  The serene ocean setting invaded by shiny chrome and revving engines!   So for my first card I brought out The Ton's Palm Tree stamp set to help create a fun and easy background that reminds me of Daytona.   


  •   I added a sentiment and seagulls using Noir.  The texture on the sand was achieved by sprinkling on a few water droplets.



 
Keeping the background simple helps to draw all the focus on these awesome motorcycles from 

 
Do you have either of these stamp sets yet?  Well, I have some awesome news!  The Ton gave me a set of each to give away!   That's right!  
  • Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings.  
  • The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
  • (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
  • I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th 
Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 


Thank you for riding along today!  Stop on back tomorrow to see two more motorcycle cards using The Ton's other stamp set Motorcycle Boss.   Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Paisley Peacock: New grad and wedding cards and a giveaway!

  (updated 4/17/18)

Hello and welcome to my blog today.   I'm so glad you stopped by.  As some of you know, I've been laying low for a while.  I'm still recouping from my ankle surgery so my postings have been a little sporadic the last couple months.   But one thing I've learned is that  life doesn't slow down a bit, even though I have.  There are still fun things happening.....fun celebrations that I need cards for.   With May and June fast approaching I don't want to be caught without a couple graduation and wedding cards on hand so I'm back in my craft room playing with a few of my Catherine Pooler stamp sets and dies.

I pulled out one of my favorite Catherine Pooler Designs stamp and die sets:
(more info on how you can win it below!)

I love using this proud peacock on graduation cards!


What I love most about this set is that it's so fun to stamp.  I never seem to be able to make up my mind which colors to use so this little guy never gets stamped with less than three colors of inks.  I love to pick three coordinating inks and blend them together on his body.  

Here I used Catherine Pooler Design inks:


I also used Catherine Pooler's fabulous new Stained Glass Coverplate die for the background.  I simply cut out the large circle in the center to make room for the large sentiment from the You Did It! stamp set.  I love how the Paisley Peacock nestles into the shape of the circle.




I sprinkled some diecut paisleys and coordinating color sequins over the front of the card like confetti and spread the party to the inside too!  What started out as three little paisleys on the inside exploded to many because I just couldn't stop myself.  There's just nothing like some good old fashioned stamping therapy!





For my second project I needed a country themed wedding card.  June weddings usually bring beautiful outdoor weddings and country themes seem to be the rage here in the midwest.  I love how couples are keeping things simple yet elegant by using handmade country decor and wildflower bouquets.  When I think country, I think of faded denim, so for this card I decided to stamp a soft paisley "denim" background using Catherine Pooler's fabulous Stone Blue ink.  It's the perfect shade of blue!




To create the tag I also used Catherine Pooler's:
 You Did It! stamp set
And Sentiments stamp set
Lovely Flowers stamp set




All that blue and white is beautiful but to top off this country card, it really needed a pop of  Rockin' Red!  I also added some Sauna yellow and Eucalyptus green.   A little leftover flower adds a teeny surprise on the inside!



And.............

I don't normally do this but I just had to come back and add one more new peacock card that I made today.  I thought it turned out so cute stamped in all the bright colors from Catherine Pooler Design's

Party Collection:  Rockin' Red, Orange Twist, Tiara, Lime Rickey, Fiesta Blue and Midnight


The sentiment is from one of Catherine's newer stamp sets:  Zen Feather.  The arrow diecut is from the Lovely Flowers & Banners die set.   I made this card for my little niece so there must be some bling!



Are you liking those paisleys and peacocks?  Well guess what!  I have a whole Paisley Peacock stamp and die set to give away to one lucky winner!  Yep, you heard me!  Here's your chance to own it!  All you have to do is leave me a comment below by 7pm Sunday, April 15th.   I'll choose one random winner from here in the U.S. (Sorry, open to US only, due to shipping restrictions.)

Don't know what to say?  I would love to know: 
 Do you decorate the inside of your cards?
What is your favorite event to make cards for?
Do you make your cards ahead of time or do you make them as each event comes along?


Good luck and happy stamping!

 Just FYI:  I have a few friends who are also having giveaways on their blogs this weekend.  If you get a chance click the links below:
Tracie Pond at Tracie Pond Designs 
Karen Baker at The Bald Dragonfly Designs 
Susan Powell at Creating With Susan
Ilina Crouse at Creativity Within