Catching Up - March and April Arborwood Card Classes and more

Hi Stampin' Friend!

Time for another post to catch you up on my stamping adventures from the past few months. The above card is my design for a "Make-and-Take" kit offered by Lighthouse Books and Gifts at yesterday's Stampede rubber stamping event in Wisconsin Rapids. It features the "Twisted Ribbon" technique, which is made from strips of coordinating printed papers. If you'd like to learn how to make it, contact me. It's easier than you might think!

I'm back to holding monthly card classes for the residents at Arborwood Lodge. The next picture shows the cards we made in March.

For the April card class, we made these 3 cards.

I am currently working on the Arborwood cards for May, as well as Mother's Day and Father's Day cards to sell at the Central Wisconsin Cultural Center gift shop. Here are a few of the Mother's Day cards I delivered to the gift shop last week.  

If you haven't done your Mother's Day shopping yet, check out the many, varied, locally-produced and hand-crafted items in the gift shop at the Cultural Center, next to Culver's in Wisconsin Rapids.

Until the next time, Happy Stampin!

I'm Still Here! Cards from the Green Lake Ladies' Retreat, April 4 + 5, 2025

 

Hi Friends,

It's been a l-o-n-g time since I posted here on my blog, but I'm still here. I'm jumping back into blogging with some cards I made at a recent Christian ladies' retreat. The 2-day retreat was a wonderful, refreshing time of hearing great speakers, worshipping our Lord in song with over 500 ladies, and enjoying quiet times of getting better acquainted with some friends from my church.

There were a number of workshops to choose from during the retreat, and you won't be surprised to learn that the "One-Sheet Wonder" card-making workshop was one of my choices.

I'll share the cards I made here, and if you'd like to hear more about the rest of the retreat, the wonderful opportunities there, and the gorgeous setting at the Green Lake Conference Center, get in touch with me.

The packet of card kits I chose featured a pretty striped pattern 12x12 paper. The class teacher Judy Lingle had already cut the 12x12 papers into smaller pieces and grouped them with some ivory card bases and coordinating sold color cardstock for mats. There were stamps, stickers and some other fun embellishments available to personalize our cards. Check these out!

 

There they are - 11 cards from one sheet of 12x12 patterned paper.  I have the cutting template - if you would like to try this for yourself and stock up on your greeting card stash, give me a call. I can design a custom card class for you.

Happy Stampin!

My December swap card design

 

Merry Christmas, Stampin' Friend!

Taking time out for a quick post today as I am finishing up my preparations to celebrate Christmas.

The card in the photo above is what I designed for my swap groups this month. The word "Christmas" is die cut out of the white piece, then layered over the Cherry Cobbler card front. I did this because, while I love the set of dies that cuts out words, the die cut pieces are then very delicate and take a little extra effort to apply glue and put them on the card. Plus the little die cut dot for the "i" is easy to lose! But what they call the "negative" of the die, which is the space where it was cut out, works very well for this word.

It's hard to see in this picture, but I embossed a pattern on the Cherry Cobbler layer behind the white piece and added some self-adhesive sequins for texture on the card front.

Here below is a set of cards I made just for fun, from a Close To My Heart card-making workshop kit that Stampin' Up! offered for a limited time. There are supplies for 3 more outdoorsy cards in the kit. Hopefully after Christmas I can play with those.

Happy Stampin!

Review of recent projects

 Hi Stampin' Friend!

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I posted here. Life has been full, but I have been doing a little stamping along the way.

Here are some random projects for which I have photos. There is more to come whenever I get more pictures.

This is a "sampler" I made with stamps and dies from a new set called Adventure Together. For those of us who enjoy RVing, it's a dream team. It pairs beautifully with the Thoughtful Journey 6x6 Designer Series Paper.

The next 3 photos are not my cards, but rather the delightful collection of birthday cards I received from my stamping upline's team. Enjoy this assortment of creative expressions:

And finally, here is a card I designed for my 6th Swap group using the Latte Love suite of products. Sadly, these stamps, paper, dies and ribbon are all being discontinued. They are currently on the Last Chance List, and once they sell out, they're gone forever.

Thanks for looking - Have a Merry Christmas!

Camping and Stamping July 2024

Hi Stampin' Friend!

Eric and I just returned from a fun and relaxing 7-day camping trip at Lake Dexter in central Wisconsin. We enjoyed some very hot and sunny weather, but sometimes when it's so hot we just need to be indoors for a little while. And that's when I made these cards!

This time I brought along a bunch of pieces from a set of Stampin' Up! Memories & More scrapbooking supplies. I did some stamping but many of the greetings on the cards are printed on the scrapbooking pieces. It's a super simple way to put together some fast greeting cards.

Here are the rest of my camping creations :-)

 

Lily Pond Designer Series Paper Cards

 

Hi Stampin' Friend!

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted something here for you - must be summertime and camping season!

When the 2024-2025 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog was released in May, I participated in a paper share hosted by my upline, Cindy Ehlers of Cindy's Stamping Studio in Neillsville, WI.  One of the sets of Designer Series Paper that was included in the paper share is called Lily Pond, and you can see bits of the 12 different patterns in the photo above.

I am always searching for card templates (patterns) that allow me to use up every bit of the patterned papers, or close to it. I recently came across a template by fellow Demonstrator Robin Armbrecht, who calls this a "Pick 2 Scenery Wonder" template.  You can see my VERY crude sketch of the template in this photo:

Basically you select 2 coordinating pieces of Designer Series Paper, 6x6 inches each. Then you cut the paper according to the measurements given, add some coordinating solid colored cardstock, and follow Robin's examples to make a number of cards.

I followed her for the first card but then I was so inspired by the idea that I just "went rogue" and came up with my own designs. I used the Thoughtful Moments hybrid embossing folder and dies for the words, and for a couple of the cards, I fussy-cut some of the images, as I don't have the dies that go with the paper.

Here are my cards - I used the DSP to decorate the insides and the envelope flaps too.

Here are the pieces I still have left from the Lily Pond paper, enough to make at least one more card.

Which one is your favorite?

I'm making some cards now for a swap group, using the Latte Love suite of products.  Stay tuned for the results.

And don't forget that it is "Bonus Days" at Stampin' Up!  For each $50 in product that you order from now until the end of July 2024, you will receive a coupon code worth $5 toward any current Stampin' Up! products ordered in August 2024. There is no limit on how many coupons you may earn in July or spend in August.

Enjoy the summer, and Happy Stampin!

Cards from My Team Swap, May 2024

 

Hi Stampin' Friend!

Here, in no particular order, are the cards I received in a swap this month. The swap was for my second upline's team and the theme was "Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper." It is always inspiring to see the variety of cards that is produced by the very creative demonstrators in this group.

I hope you enjoy the cards and get some design inspiration for your own crafting! You can see the names of the people who created the cards in the photos just above each card.

Happy Stampin! 

This one is my card: