Stempel Spass

I just discovered the  Avery Elle blog  - don't know why it did not come across it any sooner....Too much available on the internet, I guess. Thankfully my husband also has a time consuming hobby and we usually spend our time together in our "cardroom" - he plays with his and I play with mine.... So he doesn't mind and I don't mind and I always have him around to ask for his opinion, although I don't always follow his suggestions.....                                                           So back to the card......above is the inspiration picture. The first thing that came to my mind was glitter. The rain in the water - it just glitters. And then I needed to incorporate the dock somehow, which I solved with the Papertrey Woodgrain embossing plate. This picture is all about straight lines. So I glittered up some Scor tape, glittered up the little flowers on the Avery Elle digi stamp and placed Memory Box pearls in the center. The sentiment is mou

I wish all my dear followers and visitors   Happy Easter! Thank you for all your kind comments and for your frequent visits - they are very much appreciated! Cath Edvalson at Moxie Fab has all those cool challenges going on - I am sure you know about them. One is about Washi Tape. I do own some...., but I rarely use it. I really don't know what to do with it. I like Jennifer McGuires suggestion - she uses it instead of repositional tape and it really is fabulous for that. But regardless,  I decided to try to use it for what is is designed..... and made a card for my nephew's birthday: I taped the Washi tape onto card stock and then ran it through my Big Shot in a Sizzix embossing folder - works beautifully, I think. I totally blends with the paper. You can't even tell its separate. The arrows are die cuts from QuicKutz and the sentiment is Studio 112. 

First I want to say HELLO to a new member -  ANGEL joined my blog. Unfortunately I can not find a blog, so I can't link her. But I am always happy when somebody new joins in here - I hope you keep liking what you find here. And as is customary for my blog I have a thank you picture for you: I was at the Liberty Arts Science center with my son and friends and on the way to the parking lot we saw those bronze plaques in the sidewalk. They were commissioned by the NJ Transit Authority. I thought they were really pretty. And my welcome picture in a way also fits the card challenge I made this card for...   --X-- Shapes Galore - that is the theme at OWL this week. I always love polka dots - and rainbow colors - they never fail. The card looks really simple, but it was not. Most of the time I do one try and that's it, but this one - I think I did 5 - first I had different colors and lining up the stamp was a pain.  Most of the time I just

I found a new challenge!  Cool! I am such a challenge junkie......Now usually I don't really like sketch challenges, but this one appealed to me. I also liked the way the challenge is shown - just hand drawn on a piece of paper. The challenge is by  A Muse Studio .   I thought I have several stamps from them, but then I could only find one - this one - its called open Chrysanthemum and its old (but good!) - but perhaps its not the same company - I don't know it says A Muse Artstamps on it. The half circle is made with a Lifestyle Crafts nesting die. I heat embossed it and colored it with Copics. The sentiment is from  Hero Arts - Leaf Print Cl395 and I used patterned paper for the background - a rarity for me, but was inspired by the patterned paper class, that I unfortunately missed.... I also linked up this card with the The Die Cut Diva's challenge - Anything Green .

In good old fashion - at the last minute I an playing with this weeks Muse challenge   - Ardyth made the inspiration card. I am a big admirer of her style. Here is her happy birthday card: And that is my interpretation of it: I went with the circles and the colors, but just punched them out of colored card stock. The sentiment I underlyed with black - in true Ardyth style...... I also linked this up with  the  CAS Colours and  Sketches challenge  #18.

Make My Monday has this beautiful inspiration photo, to entice us to play in their challenge. You guessed it - I could not resist. Anything on black always just pops - I love that. I got this beautiful Memory Box die from my blogging friend Sylvie in Gibraltar as part of a give-away I was lucky to win. So that's my first time using it. I colored it with Copics. The sentiment I white embossed - it is from Inkadinkadoo. The butterflies is a Martha Stewart punch. The card is very different, from what I usually make - I hope you like it! I linked this card also up with the Simon Says Anything goes challenge . --X-- And in case you don't - perhaps you'll like my cave pictures from my Texas trip. The cave is called "Cave Without A Name. In a naming contest (1940) a  young boy suggested that the cave "was too beautiful to have a name". He won the contest and received a 250 dollar cash prize, which was a huge amount of money back then.

 NO INK that is the challenge at Black Tie Friday ...... No ink???? How am I going to solve that? I think it was two years ago that I bought a bunch of bottles of acrylic dabbers at the Rangers factory sale. They all turned to be dried out, but I could not part with them - one day I thought perhaps I will revive them. ... and that was today... Asked the internet - how to thin acrylic paint - water it says  - not the best, but works. What the heck - that I have in abundance. I picked 3 colors - purple, green and blue, dropped some water into the bottles and stirred, and stirred, and stirred, and stirred...... Finally the paint came back to life. I smeared three fat drops of paint onto a somewhat glossy paper and then rubbed a second sheet of paper onto the first. I die cut the squares and assembled the card. Hope you like it. 3 little drops of perfect pearls. The sentiment is a Memory box die, which I blackened with a Sharpie - ehm is that ink?

I decided to combine the 10 minute craft dash  with the Papertrey blog hop . At the last minute - as so often....Well, that happens, when you have to work all day, as I had to do yesterday, too... the requirement at Papertrey is sequins. I happen to have a few, that I have never used. So I quickly threw this card together - I was in Yoga class earlier and thought the entire time about how to compose this card...Amazing, what yoga is good for.... I made a quick grid with pencil, used a flower from the Papertrey Beautiful Blooms set and a Michaels sentiment. I made this card in exactly 9 minutes and 50 seconds. Puhhhh, that was close.....Its a little off center and the sentiment is a little off, too -  oh well...otherwise I would have gone over the time limit....

Here is the card I made for the Playdate cafe challenge . Somehow the bluish green comes out as blue on the picture - in real life it is a little more green, but anyhow, I think its close enough for the challenge. I cut lots of 1/4 inch strips, pasted them together and cut them again diagonally into 1 inch strips. Re-taped everything together and adhered it to the white card base. Somewhat tedious process. I prefer usually quicker things, but i still like how the card looks like. The sentiment is from  Hero Arts  - Leaf Print, the flower is Memory Box Chloe Stem die. I got sooo many lovely comments on my last blog post - thank you all! I really appreciate your comments and your time coming to my blog.  --X-- I wanted to share some more pictures from my Texas trip. I went to the San Antonio Botanic Garden. It is very pretty. Lot of flowers were in bloom and it was a lovely warm day - not like here right now, where we got another prediction of snow, brrrr

I have been a member on the new Muse blog since its very beginnings and so far have not managed to create a card for it - although I have voted twice.....But now, my first entry: Marion Vaggs card below is the inspiration card. I followed it closely with those monochromatic horizontal stripes, but I did not stamp on it. I used a TWC stencil over which I just partially sponged Versamark ink and them white embossed it. I did not want to cover the entire strip with the template - I thought that would be overpowering. The sentiment is die cut, using my old Cuttlebug alphabet dies. The sentiment is elevated with foam dots and I put a little pearl onto the "i". Since I did not use any stamp I will also add it to the CAS-ual Fridays challenge  and since its monochromatic it fits the Make my Monday challenge as well. And because its green its going into the  The Die Cut Diva's challenge - Anything Green .

I am back from Texas! Boy, did I miss blogging! I did not bring a laptop and was dependent on the very limited internet access the hotel provided... I guess I kind of detoxed from my card making addiciton...But no more. Here is the card I used for the   flickr LOVE group card exchange. I liked it the best of all my Easter cards- happy and colorful! The big bunny is from Inkadinkadoo, the littel bunnies and sentiment are from Michaels. The egg is from Hero Arts April (Cl051), poppped up on a foam dot. The scalloped border is made with an EK success border punch. I submitted this card to the Simon Says Easter/Spring challenge --X-- I wanted to share some Texas pics with you. It was really hot there, not like New Jersey  which had a little bit of snow while I was gone .... I loved the flowers, the sun, the butterflies - just beautiful! Have a great day and thanks for not abandoning my blog over the last week. I'll share more of my pictures in upcoming pos

Here are two more cards I made for  the flickr LOVE group card exchange. They did not win my family's approval....The card I sent out I will post later - once Greta has received it.... I guess its a bit bland.... I used the Hero Arts Silhouette Bells stamp (CG165), stamped it on pp and white embossed it. I colored it with Copics. The sentiment is from Michaels, the bunny is Lifestyle crafts and the border punch is EK success. The bunnies are from Michaels, the sentiment does not have a label on it....

Look at that inspiration photo! Had to play with Cuttlebug Mania ! This is going to be a quick post - I am leaving for a couple of days - no laptop, no posts, no blogging....  Here is my take on it: Materials: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Hero Arts Essential Messages (Cl374), Simon Says die cut, Washi Tape, twine Hope you like it. Thanks for all your lovely comments! See you in a couple of days!

And again I can welcome two new members to my blog - how great is that! Wow - you guys amaze me! I started this blog at the end of October last year and I never ever dreamed of having so many people actually like my cards so much and join here. Thank you all!  And now lets say HELLO to Wendy and  Sunehra Wendy is on the DT for Designs by  Ryn ( I am envious....), who has designed of of my all time favorite stamps - the famous water droplet stamp and Sunehra has several blogs at once - how does she do that??? One of her blogs is pointedly called "Crafting till the Crack of Dawn" - I guess that's a hint.... As I do with all my new members - I have a welcome picture for you: It is from a small exhibit that was last spring in the Museum of Hoboken. The exhibit was from a group called Puppet Heap , which is based in Hoboken and founded by Paul Andrejco. It was so much fun, to look at all those puppets and props. I hope you like it as mu

When I saw this picture for the Tuesday trigger at Moxie Fab I immediately  thought of this piece of pp that I had laying around begging to be used.                                                                        It's not much of a challenge to use pp like that .....I did add some stamping, which I gold embossed - to go along with the golden belt. I added some white pen along the flourish. The sentiment is Autumn Leaves, as is the flourish. It was actually one stamp, but I cut it apart - that was easier than masking.....I applied some Stickles to the butterflies

I signed up for an Easter Card exchange at the flickr LOVE group a while ago. Not sure why, because Easter is not one of those holidays that comes easy to me in terms of card making. I had a lot of trouble last year and I guess this year is not any better. The first card I made turned out kind of okay, but then I dropped a wet rag on it and that was the end of that. Here is a slightly different version of the ruined card (I'll spare you the look of that one...) Materials: spellbinders circle die, Michaels $ stamp, sentiment Hero Arts April (Cl051), Lifestyle crafts bunny die and Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Perfect Pearls I added this card to the Simon Says sketch challenge - it kind of fits... --X-- Today I had to go into the City, not for fun, but work related. Lately I always bring my camera along, because if I don't I'll regret it. I thought I'll share this picture with you: Some guy painting a mannequins' toenails in a shop win

Life is good - I have 2 new members, who joined my blog - yeahhh! I am always so excited when I see somebody new!  HELLO and WELCOME Penny and  Kristie I hope you continue to like the cards I make and come by and visit! (I of course had to visit their blogs -both are linked - and wow - what fun and creative cards I discovered there! ) I have a welcome picture for you: It is from the African artist  El Anatsui , which creates these stunning pieces out of scrap metal, such as liquor bottle caps. I recently discovered him in the Newark Museum and showed the piece of art from there in a previous blog post . Funny, that there is now an exhibit of quite a few of his pieces in the Brooklyn Museum. Of course I had to go there and look at them. It is very impressive and definitively  worthwhile   to  see. Perhaps you like it too.  --X-- Time to play again ! Thanks to  Kelly  - the queen of Quatrefoil  - I now own a Papertrey Quatrefoil die, that I

Yesterday was so much fun - Linda hosted a scramble in the hero Arts flickr group. Its one of my favorite things to do. Last month I messed up and missed it by a day, this time I  put it in my calendar..... The theme was    Embossing Technique - either  embossing with powder or an embossing folder or other dry embossing. You could even do that faux embossing using die cuts as Shari showed on the HA Blog - see it  here   - or use a score tool to get an embossed effect. first I had some trouble with that - I tried to guess what we would do thinking  Easter  is coming and who couldn't use an Easter card.....So it took me a  while  to come up with something. Being totally stuck on Easter I made an  Easter  card anyhow. I used a Sizzix embossing folder, the stamps are Hero Arts from the April set Cl051, little dots of Perfect Pearls and Stickles Then I went back to the scramble to see what everybody else is doing - and some people already had posted 3 - yes, THREE cards...

Time again to cook up something for the runway inspired challenge #31 Such a FUN outfit - I love that cute cyclops monster on the T-shirt. I immediately thought of some on-eyed monster stamps I have, but when I looked at them none of them seemed to be a good fit. So I settled on a Toucan stamp from an old Stampin' up set that I have called "Just Beakause". I paper pieced the toucan. I settled on the houndstooth, since I did not have black and white striped paper and I put black gems and little dots of pink Perfect Pearls on it to finish the card.  I hope you like it - have a great weekend and thank you all for all the lovely comments you left on my blog!

I have several reasons to celebrate! My daughter turned 21! And I have 2 new members to welcome to my little blog Amy V. and Jenny  I hope you continue to like what you find here. And today you can celebrate with me. I don't have a piece of artwork for you as I showed in the past, but I will share our most loved cake recipe with you - its at the end of this post.....something to look forward to... --X-- After a couple of turbulent teenage years our daughter became a beautiful responsible young women,  who is finding her way in life. Recently she took a break from college and is doing an internship, which she absolutely loves. That is her birthday card. We got her a GPS - she guessed it after she looked at her card.  The labyrinth is downloaded from the Internet. All stamps are Papertrey as are the number dies. The arrow is Lifestyle crafts. We celebrated her birthday with a lovely dinner and cake. Here is a recent picture of her -she w