Don't Forget Your Retired Stamps!

I don't know if you've noticed, but I have been sharing cards that I have created with stamps.  I want you to utilize the stamps you buy.  They aren't just great accent pieces, but they can make a whole card!  One of my favorite sets is It's Your Day.  It was a double set and the September special last year.  I know many of you have it!  It's one of the trendiest sets and works great for any type of paper crafting.  Today I combined it with the April stamp of the month My Sunshine (which I also know many of you have!) to make this accordion card.

You can find the pattern for this card fold HERE.  Really, it's so simple, but so genius!  I love the way the fold creates a scene for the card.  Here's another view:

It fold flat, but I've used some wooden embellishments and foam tape so it's going to take an extra 20 cents to mail.  I love when I find a pattern that makes the card a gift in itself!  The sun, cloud (Surf's Up paper), and banner were cut with the Artiste cartridge, and I've added a little washi tape.  The colors I've used for stamping are Slate, Creme Brulee, and Ruby.

I am going to enter this card into the Colour Q color challenge, Card Mania spots and/or stripes challenge, and the Inkspirational anything goes challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today - and dig out those favorite retired stamps!!

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Cards, Cards, and More Cards

I have a day off today, so I spent some time making cards. I had a blast trying different techniques, working with sketches, and trying new colors. When it's rainy and chilly, there's not much else to do!

I was playing with alcohol inks again. Today I used butterscotch, lettuce, and stream. I thought it would be perfect for this masculine card. Items used with the inks are Bazzill fudge CS, CTMH glossy paper, Karen Foster charm, Northwoods and CTMH stamps, and random hemp.

I also made a 3x3 card with the same inks. It will fit perfectly into the Cards challenge this week. All products used for this little gift card are CTMH. If you'd like to see another 3x3 card I finished with alcohol inks a couple weeks ago, click here.

I used a sketch and color challenge to complete my next card. The sketch is from CPS:

And the color challenge is from Colour Q:

For this card, I went back into my Cosmo Cricket Material Girl papers. These are so yummy!! I added some hand-stitching, Prima Flowers, and CTMH buttons and edge anchors. The stamp is also CTMH.

This next sketch from Papertake allows for a lot of possibilities:

When I left work yesterday, I picked up some of the new Basic Grey Kioshi paper. If you are looking for a beautiful spring line, check out this set of papers. I really like the mixture of colors. I added Bazzill and Prima flowers, a Stampendous stamp, and some random ribbon. Makes for a good spring card.

The Tuesday Trigger this week over at Moxie Fab, is so pretty! I am quite certain I will make more cards in these colors - they are just lovely!

I used CTMH White Daisy CS, Garden Green CS, Veranda paper, stamp set, and Prima flowers.

In the next card, I mixed a couple of challenges again. The sketch is from ICS:

The color challenge is from Picture Perfect:

This is a very elegant card using a Recollections flourish stamp set. The sentiment is from CTMH. The flowers are Prima and the gems are random (and where I have snuck in the blue).

Yes, I do know I blasted you with a lot of cards in this one post! I thought it might be easier than showing them in separate posts. You can always skip the words and just look at the artwork. My hope is that when you look through my blog posts, you are seeing even just one tiny thing that will inspire you to create!

I am finding it hard to stay away form my craft room right now (and my poor neglected house proves that point!). It helps me cope with this terrible spring fever I've got! Do you know that our first snow fall was October 12th? We've been having snow and cold and winter for 5 months now. The rain this week is really shrinking the snow, so it won't be too long until we hit spring and I can garden again!!

Hope you're having a great day!

Happy Birthday

I really liked this week's sketch over at Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps. What a versatile pattern with so many possibilities!! Check out their site if you haven't been there. It is a wonderful place to donate your handmade cards!

I used all CTMH products for this little one's birthday card. They are Animal Cookies paper & Stickease, White Daisy & Moonstruck CS, Happy Birthday stamp set, and red sparkles. Turned out kind of cute!!

Because of the colors I chose, I noticed that this card also fits the challenge at Colour Q: