Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Morning glory

Hello, to my newest follower, Joy, from Morning Glory Card Studio.  In your honor, Joy, I pulled out this old Hero Arts morning glory stamp which I have had for almost eighteen years. The Just for Fun "Dream" stamp that I used on the inside has also been in my stamp drawer for almost that long. I think that qualifies this card as retro rubber!

My friend Susanne is a guest designer for challenge 8 on the  Retro Rubber challenge blog which involves using eyelets.  Yes, eyelets, isn't that a blast from the past!  I dug out my stash and found these little beauties purchased back when we were all using eyelets, and to the best of my memory, I have never used.

Thank you to Retro rubber for the chance to use some of my supplies.  I hope my readers will check out the challenge; you still have time to enter before the deadline, this Friday, February 27. 


I also used several snippets of paper in this card including the white cardstock, left over from my Valentine cards, and just big enough for a 4-1/4 inch square card.  The green backgrounds were in my scrap bin as well as the snippets I used for die cutting the butterflies. So I will be linking to Pixie's Crafty Workshop blog now on challenge week 165.  I hope you will stop by and say hello to Di and Parsnip.

Now to find my white pen in the mess on my desk to write a greeting on the green, hmmm.

Thank you, dear readers, for visiting today.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Happy Valentine's Day

The Cardologists had their own challenge this holiday - make a card with the Simon Says Stamp Swirl Heart die - and here are all seven:
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For my card this year, I knew I wanted to cut with the die twice and then piece together the two.  I originally started with a much funkier paper, but couldn't pull it off since it is so not my style.  I ended up choosing this flowery paper and making a Victorian Valentine.  For the background I used a Stampin Up edgelit die and then embossed the paper.  I used Wink of Stella on the outline and the smaller red hearts.



I am entering my card in the SSS Monday challenge: Red+Pink.



Bob used pattern paper with the die and pulled off a very modern look by cutting out a row of hearts down the side and adding a red ribbon with white hearts across the bottom.  BB gets kudos for using the string of tiny hearts to embellish her card.  And I just noticed, being the only lefty in our group, she used the die the opposite way from the rest of us. I like the fact that she used blue (my favorite color) in her card too.



 Melba and Tina both liked red sparkle paper for their diecut heart.



Tina embossed her white background with hearts.  I looked at the card and at first thought the black polka dotted ribbon was blue  (my mind went fast forward to the 4th of July).  Her embellishment of choice were three white flowers with gems for centers.  Lovely. And congratulations on your retirement Mrs. T!





Melba dry embossed a pink pattern paper for her background and embellished with three sparkly hearts, and little gemmies. Sweet.







Lola went for hot pink on her card.  The amazing part of this card is that she carried the curvy heart into the sweater.  That cute little bird in his warm hat and scarf is an itty bitty stamp by Unity. Our generous friend made sure that we all had the little guy in our gift box.  And that little heart "pin" on the sweater is the perfect embellishment. All this as she is recovering from the flu!



 Susanne went way outside the box with her curvy heart, using the die to cut a stencil to use as a mask when she sponged purple ink on the paper. Her diecut is the LOVE sentiment. She also went for a modern look turning the top layer, adding washi tape and mismatched embellishments (I spy a dewdrop - one down, 99 thousand to go, Susanne). Heavenly.

Susanne has even more Swirl Heart cards on her website Keep in Touch.  I hope you stop in to visit her.



And last but not least, our hostess, Jules went for this black card.  I couldn't take a photograph that would entirely show the shiny gold outline in the heart and around the border.  The heart inlayed with a beautiful gold embossed paper, the reverse fold, the roses caught in another echoing swirl, all make for a stunning card.



I think our challenge was a success and I hope you liked seeing the results.  Thank you for visiting.