Hey friends! Happy Friday! And, today is the 9th of the month, which means that there is a NEW RELEASE from Concord & 9th today! Yahoooo! The new release is available today, August 9th, at 11am EST! It's SO GOOD! And also, Concord and 9th today is celebrating their NINE year anniversary! Congratulations to some of the best people and creativity out there! I'm so very happy for their continued success! I have a card to share today made using the new release, and then, since it's their anniversary, I thought I would share some of my favorite C9 cards from the past nine years! Yay! The release today is their Autumn release and it's really good!! (As always!)
My card today features the brand new Door Decor stamps and dies, along with the lovely Playful Pumpkins Dies from last year. I created a warm and inviting Happy Fall card and I love how it came out! My finished card is not a rectangle! But it will fit into an A2 envelope…. You could also attach the door to an A2 card front if you want. I kind of like the different shape! I used warm Autumn tones for my color palette. I would sure wish that my front door was this pretty!
I started by die cutting out all the pieces! I cut the base from cream cardstock and then I die cut the doors from woodgrain cardstock. I lined the back of the windows with vellum for just a bit of a frosty touch! The matching stamp set has sentiments that fit perfectly onto a little banner…. I die cut the leaves from yellow, orange and rust cardstocks (all from C9)….
I die cut some Playful Pumpkins out to adorn the front porch. For the doors I splattered on some brown and white inks to make it look a bit weathered.
The doors open wide and welcoming! I lined the inside with some gingham cardstock and then stamped a second sentiment onto a stitched circle… SO CUTE!
As usual, the dies are genius! There is an arched leafy piece and a straight leafy piece. You die cut out the base and then layer on the leaves on top! You can make this greenery for Christmas too! It's really all so lovely.
I die cut out a whole bunch of leaves. I inked each leaf with a small dauber and my C9 ink pads. Then I just glued them onto the arch base! Easy and fun.
Now, if you want your card to open, be sure to only glue down one side of your banner and your leaf arch!! Here's the inside of my card…
In honor of Concord and 9th's anniversary, I went back through my blog posts and found some of my favorite cards I've made for them over the years! I'll show the photos here and if you want to learn more about a card, just click the photo and it will take you over to that blog post for more information! Yeah!
Let's party indeed!! It's Friday!! There are new stamps and dies!! So much good stuff. Have a blessed and happy day, and a wonderful weekend!! Keep on crafting, my friends! XOXO
Hi friends! How is your week going?! I hope you’re doing great! We are in the middle of a (another) heat wave and I’m just counting down the days until Fall arrives and cooler weather returns. It’s been a hot summer, and a fun summer too! On Monday my hubs had the day off work and he took one look at my beleaguered, hot face, and said – let’s drive to the ocean today! Boy, that was just what I needed – Vitamin Sea. We didn’t know it beforehand, but we arrived at our fav beach to find MANY whales swimming in the cove! Humpback whales…. They were everywhere – and surprisingly close to the shore. We watched them for hours!! Magic! California is weird, and expensive, but boy do I feel blessed by the nature that surrounds us here! My post for today is another example of that!
Today I’m finally getting around to sharing our trip to Yosemite back in June! My post is a photo essay featuring the gorgeous Yosemite National Park in Central/Northern California! We went on a day trip on June 12th and it’s taken me a while to get it posted here! Grab a cuppa and spend a little time with me! We are very very lucky that we live fairly close to Yosemite! It’s easy for us to do a day trip down and back so that’s what we did on this trip. We’ve been here many times, but each time it feels new again and I never tire of the awesomeness of God’s creation. It’s a special place and I hope if you haven’t already, that you get to visit here one day!
All my photos today were taken with my iPhone! I have lots of very good camera equipment, but I find if I use my phone instead of all my gear, that it helps me stay more present in the moment. Gotta travel light sometimes, literally and figuratively. I was really looking for a quiet peaceful simple day, so I left all my gear at home. We filled up the cooler with drinks and yummy snacks, and hit the road at 2am! YES 2am! Ha. It takes about three hours to drive there, and you know we had to stop for coffee along the way. We saw the sun rise on the trip and that makes my husband happy! He is not only an early bird, but he is the earliest bird that wakes up the other early birds! LOL. (I am an exhausted night owl….) I hope you enjoy the photos. I’ll put some information before each one for a bit of history and context. CLICK HERE for the NPS website to read more.
This is the famous Tunnel View! Because this vista opens up right after you emerge from a short tunnel on your way into the park. It’s AMAZING! And, it’s where everyone stops for a photo op!! The waterfall you see there is Bridalveil Fall…. Lots of times there is a rainbow in the mist, but not this day. That waterfall that looks small in the photo is 600 feet tall! Does that give you some perspective on the size of this beautiful valley!?
This is Yosemite Falls (Upper)…. As reflected in the river. This in particular is one of my favorite views in the park. Gotta come early to get the reflection just right!
This is the famous El Capitan Granite Formation! This is the “rock” that you see all the movies of the rock climbers on! This tiny rock is about 3000 feet tall from the base. That’s about three times the Eiffel Tower! And people climb it! (Not me!) It’s pretty remarkable!
This is the view from the top of Glacier Point. The top waterfall in the photo is Nevada Fall, and the bottom waterfall in the photo is Vernal Fall. For perspective, Nevada Fall is 600 feet tall and Vernal Fall is 325 feet tall! They look tiny! Fun fact – I have hiked almost to the top of Nevada Fall once! And a couple of times to the top of Vernal Fall (The MIST trail which is one of the highlights of my entire life)!
Here’s a closer view of Bridalveil Fall from the path up to it! The sound of it is so powerful and the air is cool and crisp from the mist…. You can walk right up to the bottom of it and feeeeel it!
The peaceful and clear Merced River….
Beautiful trees and clouds! The air is so fresh and clean and smells like trees!
One more view of Bridalveil Fall!
Early in the morning, by the river, this pretty young lady was having her Quinceañera photos taken!
My boyfriend of 31 years!! A rare photo of my husband smiling! LOL. This is his favorite place on earth and he was so happy in this moment. Behind him is the famous Half Dome… And he and his friend Randy climbed to the top of it several years ago. So incredible!!
And here we are – all smiles!! What a glorious day it was!
Ain’t no interwebs here…. Gotta go old school if you need to make a phone call!!
We found some butterfly wings in the grass – they were perfect.
Another slightly different view of Yosemite Falls (Upper and Lower)…. It’s very hard to convey the extreme scale of everything. It’s like you’re so small in the midst of this amazing place. This is one of the places where I really feel God. If I’m in the right mode it actually makes me cry.
One more view of Half Dome taken from Glacier Point…
There is a lovely chapel near the meadow in the valley floor. They have services, and you can get married there too! We have been there before when a beautiful bride and groom were out front having photos done. Magic!
The trees! The clouds! The amazingly blue sky! A quick note – you do not have to be a hiker to see all of these things!! Of course, there are way more sights to see if you’re willing to hike even a little bit. I like that the park is accessible to everyone! There are a lot of places to stay surrounding the park – and a semi big town (Oakhurst) with hotels and even a Starbucks… AND A STAMP STORE!!! (The Cat’s Meow)! There are many camping options, but you really need to plan ahead if you want to camp – spaces fill up fast! We usually don’t visit in the height of Summer – we prefer early June or September!!
Another view of the River!
I bet these trees have stories…. Simply majestic!
I made a video of our Yosemite trip too! I’m really trying to get better at videos! If you’d like to see my Yosemite video on YouTube – CLICK HERE! It’s about two minutes long and I compiled my favorite videos of the day!
Thanks for visiting my page today and sharing in my love of our golden state, beautiful California! Have you been to Yosemite before? Let me know in the comments! Have a blessed and wonderful day my friends! XOXO
Hey friends! Happy Monday! Happy August! I have a fun project to share with you today! There's an awesome blog hop today! If you're new here today because of the Blog Hop – welcome! Today's post is part of a giant blog hop to celebrate the new Magical Holiday Collection from Pinkfresh Studio!! Beautiful, classy, cheerful stamps, stencils, dies and hot foil plates just in time for your holiday projects! So happy to be here in the lineup to share a card with you. The blog hop links, prizes information, and supplies information is all at the bottom of my post. Enjoy the hop everyone! Wishing you a heart filled with joy! XO
My finished card is an A2 white card base, layered with white + snowflakes, then vellum, then the festive images! This card features the brand new Holiday Bicycle stamps, stencils, dies combo along with some of my previously released Pinkfresh Studio favorites. I chose bright, happy colors and added some sparkle too!
I started by stenciling and die cutting out the holly and pine branches for the top of my card. After I stenciled/die cut them, I used my wonderful Pinkfresh Studio ink cubes and small and large blending brushes. I used white paint spray to add some snow! Then I stamped and stenciled the bicycle/packages and die cut them out with the matching dies. I made a cute little pink bicycle!! This image is just so adorable, with those snowflake spokes!
Here's a close up of the leaves clusters at the top of the card and that perfect sentiment…. Love the saying, and the font!
The bottom layer was stamped with the Snowflake Background stamp and pretty aqua ink…. Adds just a touch of snow!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog on this fun blog hop day! It's always my pleasure to bring you new things, and to work with my friends at Pinkfresh Studio! Wishing you a happy and creative day, my friends!
PRIZE INFO:Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full new release on the Pinkfresh Blog & YouTube channel!! They will also be giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. The lucky winners will be picked from the comments left on all the blog hop stops! Pinkfresh Studio will pull the winners & post them on August 13, 2024 on the Pinkfresh Studio GIVEAWAY PAGE. You must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks. Don't forget to look! Good Luck!
It was my pleasure to introduce the brand new and beautiful These are the Days Collection to you this week!! And, I hope you love it as much as I do!! Happy Crafting!! If you scroll back to my last blog post – from yesterday, you can see all my projects from the new release, and the accompanying supply list. If you have any questions – reach out!! Thanks for all the love and kind comments this week! Happy Creating! Can't wait to see what YOU make!
Hello, my creative, talented and crafty friends! It's going to be a great day today, because I'm here to tell you about a NEW RELEASE from The Greetery! The new release is called These are the Days! It's calendar/planner themed – which is so perfect and fun. Are you a planner girlie? I am! And Betsy has created a suite of products for us the use to make our own calendars and also calendar themed cards and planners. I love this idea so much and I know you will too. One of the best parts of the new release is a collection of florals called Birth Month Blooms. There are flowers for every month of the year and corresponding words that make gorgeous botanical projects! SO much good stuff.
This month only has one release day – today – and the entire team will be sharing our projects and the new products on our blogs. TOMORROW is release day and the release will be available for shopping at 10am – July 30th!
I will be sharing three projects today – two cards, and a calendar!! Loads of beautiful inspiration from the entire design team today. My supplies, prize information, and links to everyone's blogs are all at the bottom of this post. Let's get started!
My first card today is a special birthday card – and I used the calendar items to show the recipients birthday! This card features the brand new Calendar Basics stamp set, and the brand new Birth Month Q2 stamps and dies. My finished card is an A2 cream card base, layered with some pretty rose gingham. I wanted a bit of a vintage feel to this card – with the roses and the gold….
I started by stamping two gorgeous rose clusters using pink and green inks. (THESE ARE MY FAVORITE INK PADS FOR 2/3 STEP STAMPING) I die cut the roses using the matching dies. I stamped the vertical calendar grid in black.
Here's a close up of the beautiful roses stamps! I splattered gold paint on them too!
The roses were affixed to the calendar using foam tape. I heat embossed happy birthday in gold, and circled my friend's birthday date! This is a GREAT way to mark a special date – birthday, wedding, anniversary, Christmas….by circling it on the grid! Love this!
My next project is a lovely 2025 calendar! Gosh I really really like this concept! There are new Pre-Printed calendars that you can decorate as gifts or for your own desk. I used the 2025 calendar and decorated each page using the new preprinted monthly flowers!!! This is awesome. The Spiral die cut cuts out holes at the top of the calendar and then you use the binding to wind it through the holes to make it able to flip!! Betsy thought of everything. I'm going to show you a few of the pages….
For each page, I die cut a kraft rectangle and stamped the name of the flower onto it. I then die cut out the preprinted flowers for each month… My first thought for this project was mass production as friend gifts – so I went with the preprinted florals instead of stamping them – much faster!!
On each page I used Stickles glitter glue to add little bits of shimmer and shine. I also splattered white paint onto each rectangle.
My final project for today is a card made using the brand new Birth Month Q3 stamps and dies, and the new Spiral Bound Die…. The sentiment is from the brand new One Fine Day stamp set. I used pretty shades of yellow and magenta and a bit of ink blending. My finished card is an A2 white card base….
I die cut a scalloped rectangle and ink blended just the top part using bright yellow ink… The lovely sentiment is heat embossed with gold and then die cut with the matching die.
These colors together just say SUMMER to me! So fresh and cheerful.
Here is a close up of the die set that looks like spiral binding – genius!!
I hope you're loving this calendar themed release! Here is another photo of the calendar cover. I decorated it with Stickles and a few gems just to jazz it up!!
That's all for my introduction to the new release! Thank you for your support- and for sharing my enthusiasm for The Greetery. We all love The Greetery! Have a blessed and happy day! See you tomorrow for Release Day.
Betsy will be giving away gift certificates to some lucky winners as usual (Awesome)! To enter to win, please leave a comment on everyone's blog posts for today! She will announce the winners on The Greetery Blog. Good Luck!!
Hi everyone! Let’s kick off a new week! The world has gone mad and crafting is a good way to escape right now. I’m so grateful I have a hobby (hobbies) that help keep me in the moment and keep my mind occupied. I hope that you are doing well and that you have a happy week this week. Today’s project is a ‘better late than never’ project! I had high hopes to finish and frame this cross stitch piece for the 4th of July this year… But alas, I finished it just this morning at around 1am! Oh well, it will be ready to hang next July! Ha! I really wanted to share it with you today. I do love a patriotic cross stitch.
This pattern is called 4th of July Rules and it’s by Primrose Cottage. FULL SUPPLIES are HERE or at the bottom of my post! I stitched on natural 30 count fabric and used DMC floss in my own chosen colors. I love brighter yellows and reds!! Here is my completed piece! Finished stitching size is approximately 5″ x 20″ so it’s a long narrow piece. I’m not sure if I will put it inside a frame, or maybe make it a wall hanging on a string?? I have time to decide, don’t I?? LOL.
This was a fun stitch – not too hard and not too easy. Just enough colors, but not too many colors…. Lots of my favorite elements – a tiny flag, some bunting, pretty words….and patriotic colors!
In stamping, and in cross stitch, I really love to combine different fonts and I love how this all comes together with the wording!!
A cute little bunny pulling her wagon full of fireworks! EEP.
And, most importantly, Celebrate our Freedom!
This next photo was one I posted when I first started out… I think my favorite part is the house and flag image!!
And one more in process photo!
Here is a photo of the pattern book! Let me tell you – this book is SO NICE!!! The pattern is broken down into six segments, and each page is one segment and it’s in full color! And the pattern is HUGE so it’s very easy to see and read. I really appreciate this type of format since I have very bad eyesight. It was a dream following this pattern!!
That’s it for today! I hope you’ll be inspired to start a cross stitch project! (Or if you’re like me, finish some!) Wishing you a lovely, happy, and creative day my friends. XOXO
Hey friends! Happy weekend! I hope you're doing great! I'm relieved that yesterday here in Sacramento we broke our two week streak of days over 100 degrees! Whew, that was hard! It's been so hot, and literally that just shuts down my brain! We had a cool morning on Saturday and it was enough to renew my spirit! You know what else renews my spirit? The thought that Fall is just a moment away! Yeah – my favorite season is next! And, today, I have something super duper fun and exciting to show you! The first Halloween cards of 2024! And a FABOOOLOUS card kit Boo Box from Catherine Pooler!
The CP BOO BOX is a Limited Edition card kit full of stamps, dies, patterned paper, embossing powder and more! If you buy the kit you will also get access to videos and ideas from different designers! The items in the kit are ONLY available in the kit and won't be released separately later. And when the kits are gone, they're gone. I'm predicting a sellout for sure. This is the best box of this type I've ever seen and well worth the price. On my Instagram Stories later this morning I will be posting a full unboxing video to show you everything!
I'm sharing two cheerful and bright Halloween cards today that I made with supplies from the Boo Box! Let's get started! First up is some spooky cute ghosties and a bit of sparkle too! My finished card is an A2 card base layered with gorgeous orange stripes, vellum and a tag! This card is so fun!
The Boo Box has two large stamp sets and one sentiment stamp set, along with lots of standalone dies and a big background stamp. I think my favorite images are these adorable ghosts! I stamped and die cut them out and added pink cheeks with a Copic Marker! I die cut the spooky die from both glitter paper and black paper and stacked them. I stamped some yellow stars in the background….
The Boo Box includes a die set with a great tag and add ons for the tag!! Love that! The little bat is included in the tag dies set…. I tied a bow at the top and attached the bat!
My second card for today features lots of Halloween icons in a grid pattern…. My finished card is an A2 white card base layered with that awesome plaid patterned paper… The Boo Box includes a great grid die set and I die cut out some of the grids and added the classic Halloween icons – cat, bat, witch hat and pumpkin!
That little cat makes me smile! I added the sentiment in the center of my card and placed the grids around the sentiment. A few splatters of black paint and some glitter stars complete the look!! I added glitter glue accents to all the images too.
Here's the BOO BOX! And not everything is shown! It's AMAZING – so many great things – literally everything you could need to make your 2024 Halloween cards!
Hi there my creative and crafty friends! I'm up on The Greetery Blog today to share a project with you! I am always so excited and happy to share with you over there! And of course, sharing my card here too. Hope you had a great 4th of July! Sacramento has been HOT. Gosh, so hot. We are set to break an all time record for most days over 100 degrees. I think my brain is cooked! I'm laying low and moving slow…. For my project for today I created a watercolor card with a nature theme and an all purpose sentiment. I haven't made a watercolor card in a while and I was inspired by the pretty butterflies of Summertime…. Simple and airy for the season….
My finished card is an A2 size Kraft card base, layered with watercolor paper die cut with the beautiful A2 Scallops Dies. All the die cut pieces on this card were made using watercolor paper. I kept the design clean and simple and let that pretty purple butterfly shine! All the coloring was done with my set of Mini Distress Inks and a water brush… I do love this technique.
I started by die cutting the Fern Dies, the Butterfly Dies, the background panel and the sentiment panel from watercolor paper. I used Distress Inks and water brushes to color all the pieces and set them aside to dry. For the background I used a wet on wet watercolor technique: Put down a good amount of clear water onto the paper, then add the blue ink into the water and let it spread out into a free form shape! I use a large brush for the plain water and lots of water…. You never know what you'll get with this and I love that!!
After all my pieces were dry, I glued together the Fern and the Butterfly using liquid glue. I added a purple enamel dot to the butterfly. I stamped the sentiment in brown Distress Ink and then went over the writing with a detail water brush to make it 'messy.' I assembled all the elements together and I used foam tape to attach the sentiment. I do love the greens against the bright purple butterfly….
That's it for my project for today! I hope you have a fantastic and creative day! I look forward to sharing with you again soon. In the meantime, happy crafting! XO Wanda
Happy 4th of July! Happy Independence Day! Happy Birthday America! Sending love and good wishes for a fun and fabulous holiday today! I hope you have a fun day and get lots of BBQ and fireworks! I am looking forward to the 4th of July in our neighborhood. Everyone is always outside enjoying the warm evening and lighting off cool fireworks displays and the atmosphere is so jovial and happy. I have been making tons of patriotic cards and projects to show you, and today I have one last patriotic card! I used lots and lots of brand new supplies from the amazing new Summer 2024 release from Honey Bee Stamps. What an awesome release – so many good products. I have many more ideas! Check it out here!
This card features the brand new Eagle Dies, The Land of the Free background stamp (LOVE), the new Because of the Brave sentiments, and more… My finished card is an A2 cream card base, layered with blue stripes and then more (lots more) layers and elements! I used a traditional Americana color palette and kept it vintage too…. Everything classically USA. (By the way, are you excited for the Olympics?!) I used it all — patterned paper, glitter cardstock, vellum, wax seal, and distress ink! Oh and don't forget the gold splatters!
Here's a side view of all the layers and elements on my card. For the sentiment I die cut out the large letters from gold cardstock and then layered the vellum sentiment over the top.
I double layered the letters USA with gold and dark brown cardstocks. I stamped the sentiment onto the vellum using Stazon black ink using my MISTI.
The star of the show are these new Eagle Dies!!! WOW. The layers are easy to understand and easy to put together – and it really looks like an eagle!! I added gold paint to the tips of his wings for some extra pizazz!! Isn't he marvelous?? In this photo you can also see that I used a background die on the circle just behind the eagle. I thought it looked really vintage….
This new background stamp is great! I stamped it in gold/yellow ink and then used distress inks around the edges. I crumpled the stamped panel into a ball in my hands and then unfolded it flat and this way it looks like old paper/cloth. I splattered gold paint on that panel also.
Hands down, Honey Bee has the best wax seals and melts! This new 3D star is perfection. I made my seal in blue wax to fit the color theme. It is affixed using foam squares.
Look at the detail in that wax seal! Perfection!
And lastly, here's a patriotic photo of me out in our front yard last week! We were getting ready to go somewhere so I took a quick photo to update my Facebook profile pic! Yes – I am very patriotic! 🙂
That's it for today! And I think that's it for the 4th of July projects! I have some patriotic stitching but I didn't finish them all! Boo! Seems there is never enough time for stitching! And my eyes get tired after a while – so I am very slow. I need to be better about starting earlier with that. As usual, never enough time! Happy 4th of July everyone! XOXO
Happy Monday! Happy July! It's going to be a good week! There's a fun holiday involved! Yeah! I am very into Americana themed items – crafts, home decor, clothes, cards, stitching…. Well, you get the idea! Our home is very decorated for the 4th of July with lots of flags and good things. I am wishing you a good week and a fun holiday with family and friends! I recently made it a goal to read more….Summer is a great time for lazy afternoons reading!! I have been an avid reader since I was very small and lately life just got busy and I stopped reading and I miss it!! Anyone else have a giant stack of books waiting on the nightstand?? I recently updated my Amazon Summer 2024 reading list if you want to check it out!!
My project for today is a home decor piece made from paper!! And card making supplies!
My project is a Paper Pinwheel Wreath! Made from patriotic papers and 4th of July theme. It's made from lots and lots of pinwheels hot glued onto a wreath form. It was a very fun project and it came together quickly and easily. This would be a really good group project because it's the same thing made over and over again and it's easy to finish in an afternoon. Here is my wreath and where it's hanging in our home – on the cabinets between the kitchen and our nook. All my supplies are at the bottom of my post or CLICK HERE!
I photo'd it on this white door so you could see the size and scale against a plain background…
In my stash, I had these buttons from Michaels so I added a few of them!
I used the AMAZING 3D Pinwheel Dies to make this project. I made about 30 large and small pinwheels but it only ended up taking about 14 pinwheels to finish my wreath. I actually thought it would take a lot more!! I die cut all my pinwheels first – sooooo easy.
Here they are before assembly – small and large ones!
I folded them over and used colorful brads to finish/close them up! This could not be more fun or simple!
On my desk…. I used a wreath form (in the supplies) and acrylic paint. I painted the wreath form blue (I forgot to take a photo of that part!) and then I used hot glue to attach all the pinwheels to the wreath form. (I only burned myself once! Ha) I glued them right under the part with the brad.
You, again, could make this project with any theme! I am definitely going to make a Halloween one. I have so many cute Halloween papers! As I continue to try to use my stash!!
After the entire wreath was assembled I generously splattered on rich gold paint for a little bit of shimmer….
My trusty sidekick Lucky was right there on my desk when I finished my project…. So I snapped a quick photo of him inside my wreath! How fun is he??!!
That's it for today! Happy July! Happy 4th! I'll be back on Thursday with a cool card with a VERY Americana theme! I can't wait to show you! I hope you'll try to make a paper wreath!
