Beautiful Bees Stamp Set

 This card is made with the awesome stamp set designed by Melanie Muenchinger for Gina K Designs called Beautiful Bees.  My sister is a bee keeper so I just had to have it.  This is the first card I made with this set and while I am not happy enough with it to give it away (the honeycomb is lined up very messily) I am very happy with the design of it.  I would like to try this again.  It may work better to stamp the honeycomb hexagons individually then cut them out.  That would allow me to space them more evenly.

I had a few very sloppy areas in the honeycomb-one of which is hidden by a sequin, then I decided to add 2 more sequins.  I tried covering up the other messy spot of the honeycomb with a sequin but it was too close to the other one and didn't look right.

I used Hero Arts Ombre dye ink in the color "Butter Bar to Orange Soda" as well as my trusty Gina K Designs Black Onyx dye ink.  The layers were cut with Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies.

I will try to remember to post a picture when I finally get around to making a better version of this card.

Just Add Color, the Current Free Gina K Incentive Stamp Set

 

I had fun playing with the Gina K Designs free incentive stamp set that came with the order my husband got me for Christmas.  The stamp sets change and you need to spend a minimal amount before you qualify for them but hey-free is free correct?  

I honestly didn't know if I would like this stamp set because I like clean and simple, one layer, elegant floral cards.  I thought about making the rainbow "brush strokes" like in the first card and then adding a black floral silhouette through the strokes but when I looked through my stamps I didn't have anything that I thought would work.  The third card pictured is actually the first of the three that I made.  I got a smudge in the white space where I wanted to put the sentiment so I decided to put the rainbow in the air and add the layered sentiment that you see.  It fit better in that arrangement. The last card I made is the middle one in the picture.  This type of card doesn't appeal to me but I know many people appreciate colorful cards and I like to use my stamps as much as possible so I did experiment with the "rings".  I figure I can still add a birthday sentiment to the inside or perhaps a different sentiment at a later date making it so that it can fit many occasions.

I send many cards per year to nursing homes and people that request card showers so the card that says you are beautiful like a rainbow is going to be perfect for that purpose.

I also used the Master Layouts 1 dies that was part of the gift my husband bought from Gina K Designs to cut the card layers and the ovals.  My paper cutting leaves a lot to be desired.  These dies are a game changer for me.

The Versatile Gina K Designs Holiday Tapestry Stamp Set

I recently posted some embossed Christmas Cards I made (and 2 Birthday Cards) using this awesome Gina K Designs Holiday Tapestry Stamp set.  I wanted to make some cards that were not embossed so I gave it another try.  I used Gina K Designs Card stock in Blue Raspberry and Christmas Pine.  The green and blue inks are memento and the multi colored one is the multi-colored Tsukineko Kaleidacolor in the Spectrum Colors variety.  I am not sure if this is available any more but there are videos of how to make your own multi-colored temporary ink pads using baby wipes on You Tube.

The cards seemed a little bit boring so I added pearl embellishments to the flowers and I used Wink Of Stella to the leaf designs in the center of the designs at the top and the bottom of the cards.  You cannot see the sparkle in the photos but it really make the design seem special in real life.  

The Stamping Village Happy Birthday Collaboration Stamp Set

I love this collaboration stamp set that has images provided from multiple stamp companies.  I purchased it several months ago but finally got the chance to play with it.  

I had an old 6 x 6 paper pack (birthday themed) that I paired with it.  I cut the larger layer 3.5 inches by 5 inches.  I then cut down the biggest left over piece of the same patterned paper to 1 1/2 inches by 5 inches.  That allowed me to utilize most of the paper on 2 separate cards.  I mixed and matched several of the papers throughout all of these cards.  I also took several more of the left over pieces and made my own background design on one of them. I really like to get as much use from my papers as possible.

I picked out 2 copic marker colors that coordinated with the multicolored papers and used them throughout all of the cards.  I stamped one image in each of the smaller rectangles then minimally colored them.  One of the stamps was a "And Many More" stamp which is stamped inside the 3 cards that say Happy (or Hoppy) birthday.  I used the "Sending Birthday Wishes" stamp inside the other cards.  The only stamp I did not use on these juvenile type cards was the "Happy Birthday with love" one by Gina K Designs.  It has hearts all over it and just reads more mature to me.  I will make an adult card with that one.

The cards seemed a little "flat" in design to me so I added wink of stella to all the colored images and I also added a line of gemstones to the cake image card.  It seemed more teenage in design to me and definitely for a girl.  Now they all look good.  I have 11 nieces and nephews that are baby to high school age.  I also have 4 adult nieces and nephews but that's another story.  These cards can go to the family with 5 children and I don't have to worry that I sent the same card to more than one child in the family.  That is a relief.

 

Embossed Christmas and Birthday Cards

 

I am in love with the Gina K Designs Holiday Tapestry stamp set.  It works equally well for Christmas as for Birthdays or other occasions.  I made 2 Birthday cards using the set along with the Gina K Designs wreath builder template and one of the cards used some of the stamps from the original Wreath Builder stamp set.  I used the analagous colors of blue and green card stock (specifically Blue Denim and Fresh Asparagus Gina K Designs card stock) for the birthday cards.

For the Christmas cards I made 12.  3 are red and gold while 9 are blue and silver.  They are specifically made with the Gina K Designs Holiday Tapestry stamp set, Blue Denim Gina K card stock, Red Velvet Gina K card stock and Stampendous detail gold embossing powder plus Hero Arts silver embossing powder.  I had an unknown brand of silver and gold glitter papers for the background card stock and the black frame is also from an unknown brand.

As always, these are A2 sized cards (4 1/4 inches by 5 1/2 inches).

I do believe that the Holiday Tapestry stamp set with be my all time favorite set!

Cards for Healthcare Workers

 I wanted to thank some healthcare workers so I pulled out some die cuts, some extra bases that I hadn’t finished figuring how to decorate and various stamp sets and this is what I came up with. 

Variations on a Theme

 I recently was playing around with my patterned papers and found two coordinating papers that I have been hoarding. I needed some quick cards that I could use to send to people when they were down in the dumps and this is what I came up with. 

Birthday Cards

      I send out 30 birthday cards a year, and that is only to my family.  I had a large selection of birthday cards saved up for this year.  From time to time my children ask to look through my cards to give a card to a friend so I like to have an assortment.  I decided to pre-assign cards to each of the 30 people I need to send the cards to this year and after I was done, I had none left and still needed 1 more.  

     Here is the result of my first of my attempt to build up a better supply of birthday cards.  I seldom use patterned paper anymore but I decided to try it again because it is easy to put something together and comes together much quicker.  I had some die cuts and stickers ready to go.  The only thing I stamped was the inside sentiment.

Pet Sympathy Cards

 

My daughter works at a Veterinary Clinic and recently she has asked me to make a sympathy card whenever a co-worker loses a pet.  I am always in a hurry so I don't photograph them.  I just made 3 for her today but 1 of them wasn't up to my strict standards so I didn't photograph it.

Here are the two that I am happy with but the others were very good too.  I need to start making them ahead of time so I can photograph them and not be stressed out and staying up way too late at night in order to get the cards done for her.

My First Baby Quilts

 

I made 2 baby quilts last month and had a blast.  I had fabrics that I had no plans for using and I thought I could make a baby quilt out of it.  Most of my fabric stash is made up of fat quarters up to about 1/3-1 yard cuts.  This makes it ideal for baby quilts.

I used my Accuquilt die cutting machine to cut 5 inch charm squares of white and 8 different prints with pink in it.  I put a pretty pink floral on the back and used the same fabric for binding.  I used a simple crosshatch quilt pattern for quilting because as long as my corners all matched-which they were very close-I could quilt without even marking the quilt top.  I am hanging onto it until I have a need to make a baby quilt.

Prior to this quilt I made another baby quilt from various blue fabrics in a 9 patch pattern..  I tried stitching in the ditch but since it was my first attempt at making a quilt top, my corners didn't match at all and my straight lines ended up zig zagging all over the place.  I decided not to do stitch in the ditch in the future since a crosshatch design is easy and turns out very nice.  That quilt will eventually go to a charity.

This is my cow quilt.  The gray looking squares are actually the words 'moo' written over and over again.

The back is white and the binding is white and again I used the crosshatch no marking quilt design that is so easy to do.