Autumn is Second spring

 Autumn is Second spring

I do like the Autumn.  The weather is cool, and you can get away with wearing a sweatshirt, or just a sweater.

I had a good time making these cards.  Do you know why? I'll tell you, because I carved the pumpkins!  If you look close you can see they go in different directions.  Instead of coloring the pumpkins I stamped them on pattern papers.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Leave me a comment and let me know if you like to carve your own stamps.

Halloween

 Halloween

It's been awhile since I have blogged ... did you miss me?

It's October so that means Halloween time.  If you are on my mailing list, and want to be surprized ..... than close your eyes.  😁

I used a lot of dies for my Halloween cards this year.  Also have cut down my mailing list. I will be mailing these cards out soon.

Thanks for stopping by.  Leave a comment to let me know if you mail out Halloween cards.

Midnight magic again

Midnight magic again

The #altenewchallengelive with Jen Rzasa with Altenew stamp co. theme is Midnight Magic.  I am still having fun with this theme: Midnight Magic!  This time I did the technique called Reverse embossing blackout or Blackout embossing.  

Of course, if you know me, I had to do a couple of tags.  I also made a card.  I think this is my last entry for this Midnight magic theme.  I reason I did so many cards, and tags for this theme is because we had three weeks to enter this challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Midnight magic

 Midnight magic

The #altenewchallengelive by Jen Rzsa with Altenew stamp co. theme is Midnight Magic.  I am having a lot of fun with this theme, because I'm taking it in different directions.  Go here to see my first entry for this Midnight Magic theme.

First I couldn't resist doing tags for this theme with the technique called Northern lights.  

Here is one of my first posts back in 2013 doing the technique Northern lights.  If you type Northern lights in the search bar you will see more I did with this technique.

Of course, I had to also make several cards for this challenge. Believe it or not my favorite card is the one with the cheshire cat!

 I do like the bright colored jelly fish floating in the dark waters.  I saw different colored jelly fish at Mystic aquarium in Mystic, CT.  

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Soft Focus

 Soft Focus

This week Jen Rzasa  Altenew #altenewchallengelive theme is Soft Focus.  She explained Soft Focus as pastel colors ... that's not usually my style but sometimes you just need to get out of your comfort zone.

As I mentioned it was a little out of my comfort zone, but it was nice to play with pastel colors for a change.  My pastel colors were mostly a light pink.  I did stay in my comfort zone by making a couple of cards, and a bookmark.

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Duoprinting Chlorophyll cards

 Duoprinting chlorophyll cards

Here are pictures of my latest cards from my duoprinting chlorophyll fun. 

All the sayings are from Altenew stamp company.

To get instructions look back here for video, too.  If you type duoprinting chlorophyll in search bar you will see lots of posts.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.
 

Pop of color

 Pop of Color

 This week for Jen Rzasa #altenewchallengelive theme is Pop of Color.  

I had a bit of fun with this challenge because besides the pop of Color I did a spotlight technique.  Haven't done this technique in years!  Used Altenew 3D embossing folder named Daisy bed for these two cards.  The inks are Catherine Pooler ink pads, they are still my favorite right now.  These inks are so bright and beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Metallic Fun

 Metallic Fun

I am having fun with metallic cardstock, and embossing folders.  Here are a couple of bookmarks.

 Don't worry I haven't stopped making cards.  Cards are my go to projects.  Used Altenew stencils, dies, and paste to make all the bookmarks, cards, and tags.

Also made a couple of tags.

For all of these samples I used eighter gold, or silver cardstocks, and pastes.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Grid cards

 Grid cards

This week Jen Rzasa #altenewchallengelive with the theme divide and design. 

stamps used all by Altenew stamp co.

I did a technique that was popular years ago called grid technique. It's a fun and easy way to divide, or create sections on your cards, and tags.  You can look back  in this post to see grid technique, but if you type grid in search box a lot of posts will come up.  Here's a post showing the grid technique that I did way back in 2009!  

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Fracture cards

 Fracture cards

Had fun making these two cards for Jen Rzasa #altenewchallengelive Divide & Design theme

All stamps are by Altenew stamp co., Papers by SU

   I decided to make fractured cards.  Fracture cards are an artistic technique that will give your handmade cards a one-of-a-kind look. I have made this style card before which you can see here.  If you type fracture in the search bar you can see more posts I did with this technique.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Take care

 Take care

I'm getting back into the swing of doing Jen Rzasa #altenewchallengelive Tuesday Altenew challenge.  This time the challenge is Frame It. 

supplies used:  Unity stamp co. Floral Tapestry, Waffle Flower co. Take care die set

I decided to do my own take on this Frame It theme. The saying is framed with the black die of the take care words. I believe you can also call this a take on the eclipse technique.  Hopefully Jen will see what I was trying to show with my take on the Frame It theme.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

  

Tic tac toe

 Tic tac toe

It's December, and time for the creative card crew group I belong to; to have our monthly meeting.  

stamps/die/stencils used:  Altenew stencil art: nature splashes, Stampin' Up saying

We had to choose a line from a tic tac toe board this time.  I chose on of the diagonal lines:  die cut/punch - matching envelope - sponging. If you take a look I sponged colors using Altenew Stencil Art: Nature Splashes set, which has layering stencils, and I used the leaf dies in the same set for the die cuts.  Look to the left of the picture to see the envelope, which I stenciled plus used one of the die cut leaves.  This was a different theme for us, but it was fun to do.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Seasonal cards

 Seasonal cards

Went to a friend's house, who is a SU demonstrator, to make some cards.  

First card is a mitten card and gloves for a fun winter birthday card.

Second card is full of pumpkin delight!

Third card is what I call a platform card, because it is flat...BUT...this one has a pocket.  Inside the pocket are three little tags.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Pastel perfection

 Pastel perfection

This week for #Altenewchallengelive with Jen Rzasa the theme is Pastel perfection.

The pastel perfection on all these cards/tag are Pebbles pearlescent chalks in the background. Basically what I did was burnish the chalks with cotton balls on white cardstock.

The two cards below are what I call the Faux grid technique.  You can see more on this technique here, and here with a video.

supplies:   Altenew and Pebbles pearlescent chalks

These chalks can possibly rub off a bit, so I took them outside and sprayed them with a Fixative spray.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon. 

Wreath cards

 Wreath cards

I was at Interlaken Inn, Lakeville, CT for Making Memories at Lakeside crop on Friday Nov. 7 - 9, 2025.  I was there with a few friends to have a nice weekend away. 

I made a bunch of cards using dies from Altenew stamp co.  and Sizzix. Basically I penciled a half circle, then adhered leaf dies to it.  These are only a few of them that I created at the crop.  Interlaken Inn is out of the way ... in a lovely setting.

I also made some Christamas cards that I will show at a future time.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon
 

October - November swap cards

 October - November swap cards

I am behind in showing my local swap cards, so just going to show the last couple of months.

October Anything goes cards

stamps used:  Stamping Up

For my Anything goes theme I did the dryer sheet technique.  You can see more on this dryer sheet technique here. 

November Get well card

stamps used:  Stamping Up

This is a simple card where I just inked image with color ink pad then stamped.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Come back soon

Carve a Pumpkin

 Carve a Pumpkin

I'm back to carving my own image!  It has been years since I have carve an image ... I found my stash of carving material, and tools ..... so I said to myself "why not, carve something!" 

I actually basically carved the same image, a partial pumpkin twice.  I did it twice because I had a square of the pink rubber, and a bigger square of the white rubber carving material.  The pink rubber is a softer material, and easier to carve. 

The white carving material is a lot thicher, and harder material.  This white is more like carving in linolium, which is harder to dig out the material.  

If you look at both pics you will see that the carving are opposite ... left and a right pumpkin.  Had the materials, and time to do two so I did.  I stamped the pumpkins with black ink then colored them in with my prisma color pencils.  Added some squiggles, a sentiment, and even some stickles glitter glue for some sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Crafting with dice

 Crafting with dice

This week #altenewchallengelive with Jen Rzasa the theme is crafting dice roll.  Anotherwords Jen asked us to roll a dice then do the technique from the list of 6 ideas.

I couldn't help myself, I had to do more than one!  My first card, and tag dice rolls were #5 Geometric genius, and #6 Sentiment spotlight. The geometric shapes are the stencils from Altenew   Modern circles and Calligraphy maze stencils.  The black set rolls were #3. shimmer/shine, and #6 sentiment spotlight.  I used the same Altenew stencil Modern circles.  All the die cut words are also from Altenew. 

 The shimmer/shine on the black tag, and card are from some texture paste I have in my stash. 

For the next set of cards, and bookmarks I used the same Modern circles stencil.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Booooooooo

 Booooooooo

These Halloween cards are a little different for me ... I say that because of the color scheme.

dies used:  TH Sizzix Fright Night and Gothic Protraits

I had the backgrounds done and laying out on my table, along with a bunch of dies I had die cut ... so ... why not use them together.  And that is how these cards came about.  Also when I stenciled these backgrounds ... guess what ... you guessed it ... those color ink pads were out on my table, so there you have it.  You could say I was being creative or just lazy.  what do you think creative? or lazy?  Either way I like them with all their quirks of color and theme.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.

Masking off

 Masking off

Another masking technique for Jen Rzasa #altenewchallengelive.  

supplies used:  Altenew Retro Plantines, Enamel dots

I did a technique I have done years ago that, I think is called grid sections.  I masked off sections with masking paper, but you can also use post it notes.  You can see more here in this post.  Just type in grid, and you will see more cards with this technique.

Here is a bookmark, and another card I made for this challenge.

supplies used:  Altenew Painted jellyfish/mini seashells, Dovetail butterflies

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back soon.