A Cardinal for Peace, Love and Joy

I really like the new Winter Woods stamp set from Papertrey Ink.  It's rare that I get a set and want to use absolutely everything in it.  Last week, I used the blue jay image on this card. Today I pulled out the cardinal and also the big pine branch.


I did the branch by stamping it in taupe and avocado, then dabbed some Versamark on the stamp, re-stamped and added some sparkly white embossing powder (made me wish I owned a Misti!)



I love Canson XL Watercolor Paper and I just painted a bit of blue for the sky. The problem with most watercolor paper is that it isn't really white. The good news - My Favorite Things Whip Cream cardstock is a perfect match to the paper!  I have definitely stocked up on the Whip Cream.

I just got the sequins and they turned out to be gorgeous with this card.  They are White Glittered Sequins from Impress Rubber Stamps. They aren't truly white - but are so good with the Whip Cream and watercolor paper.  You'll have to trust me on this because my light box set-up always turns iridescent items pink and I just don't have time to take another photo with daylight.



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PTI Winter Woods	PTI Winter Woods dies	PTI Stylish Sentiments: Holiday	Sakura Koi Watercolors
Canson XL Watercolor Paper	MFT Whip Cream CS	PTI Pure Poppy Ink	PTI Ripe Avocado Ink
SU Tip Top Taupe Ink	Versamark	WOW Sparkling Snow Embossing Glitter	White Glittered Sequins

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Copic Marker Match Charts Updates

I've received a variety of questions on my Copic Marker Match charts on my side bar, so I decided to clarify and update for everybody.

1. I have added a Taylored Expressions chart!!  Click on the chart on my sidebar or the short chart below for a full download. I just want to note that this chart was done for my personal use and is not related to my design team responsibilities.  This chart will be updated each time that a new cardstock color is added.

2. I have decided to stop updating the MFT chart.  There are just too many new colors in the last few months and I can't keep up (nor do I have room to add all of that cardstock). The older chart will remain on my sidebar. (There isn't a mistake in the chart in that Berrylicious and Summer Splash have the same Copic match - there just aren't other Copics that are better matches.)

3. At this time, I still plan on keeping the PTI chart up-to-date, particularly given that PTI has stated they are no longer giving Copic matches themselves. It is up-to-date as of the Stormy Sea cardstock that came out with the last release.

4. The charts for Simon Says Stamp colors don't appear to be updated recently, BUT it's important to note that I do Copic matches to cardstock and lately they have only released new inks.

5. This last point will show you just how obsessive I am about matching!  Simon Says and My Favorite Things have a trio of blues that are exactly the same.  Simon Says colors are Sea Glass, Surf Blue, and Audrey Blue.  My Favorite Things colors are Sno Cone, Berrylicious, and Blue Raspberry. Because they are a nice trio, I kept my Copic colors in the same BG range of Copic colors. But over the last year, whenever I pulled out just the middle color of each trio, I did not like the BG11 color that I had listed - it was way too aqua.  So I've added another match - BG53.  It's a little too blue, but when somewhat removed from the cardstock, it's a better match.

I hope you find these useful!

Merry Monday: Peace & Joy

The current challenge at the Merry Monday Christmas Challenge is to use blue and white, and to add texture.

I just got these birds from Papertrey Ink and I knew one worked in blue.  I hope an embossing folder qualifies as enough texture!

I sat down and sorted all of my Christmas cards and, for the first time, I realize that I'm going to get them all done in time!!  So I am feeling "peace" this morning and more than a little "joy"!!
SUPPLY LIST

PTI Winter Woods	PTI 'Tis the Season	PTI Winter Woods dies	TE Stitched Rectangle Stacklets
SU Softly Falling Embossing	PTI Blueberry Sky CS	PPP 4mm Sparkling Clear Sequins

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Happy Thanksgiving: Let the Gobbling Begin

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends from the United States!!

I hope you are surrounded by friends and family and there's an amazing aroma coming from the kitchen!

I usually try to post a thankful/grateful card on Thanksgiving, but as I reviewed what I still needed to make, the only card I needed was for my 19-year old son, so the card needed to be fun and a bit silly.


My men actually do all of the Thanksgiving cooking. I used to offer to help but they have it down to a science and I only get in the way (except that none of them like candied sweet potatoes so I make those for myself). The process started yesterday with the brining of the turkey in an herb/apple cider mixture. Very early in the morning, the turkey will be placed in our smoker. My guys hadn't done it this way before so they practiced a few weeks ago and I can't say I have ever had such a flavorful and juicy turkey!  My mouth is watering already.

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The link to the stamp goes to a full page of Fall/Thanksgiving stamps. Just scroll almost to the end to see this particular stamp.

MorningStar Gobbling Begin	PS Thanksgiving Dies	Avery Elle Dotted Elle-ments Die	MFT Blueprints 6 Die
Authentique Spectrum II	Versamark	WOW Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing

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Freshly Made Sketches: Peace on Earth

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by the amazing Jennifer Timko.

I've been very focused on using stamps and dies from my unused pile, but I have a tree and snowflake die that I just love and knew that they would make a great little scene on top of that banner!

The tree and the snowflake are both from Reverse Confetti so that led me to the die and stamp set for the sentiment.
Do you ever have an emotional reaction while making cards?  I doubt it's just me. As I was creating this card, I realized that I had the perfect recipient, which then brought back a flood of memories along with a lot of tears. There's a wonderful gentlemen that I know through church. Recently he lost his wife to cancer - they were an amazing couple and I worried about him, but he seems to be keeping active. He follows me on Facebook, and on FB, I'm a bit political - OK, maybe a lot political. Every so often he replies via email, but I think the account must be in his wife's name, because I get emails from his deceased wife. It's very jarring, but at the same time, it causes me to remember this wonderful lady.  Just a year before his wife's cancer diagnoses, they lost their oldest son who was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps and died in a mid-air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and Marine Corps helicopter off the coast of San Diego. This is where the tears started. I was making this "peace on earth" card while being overwhelmed with memories from his funeral. I remember how long his commanding officer knelt in front of the family with the folded flag and spoke softly to them, sharing memories of their son and probably a message of hope. I remember the 21-gun salute echoing through the church. The deep faith of this amazing couple throughout all of it remains an inspiration for me to this day.
Of course, there needs to be laughter too.  I was one of two pianists for our church. For this funeral, I was playing the organ and the other lady was on the piano. Both of the instruments are toward the rear of the church near the open door outside of which the 21-gun salute was happening.  So as we watched the flag ceremony, we looked at each other with tears streaming down our faces. Then the guns went off and even though I knew it was coming, I about jumped off the organ bench. After that we were supposed to start a powerful rendition of "Eternal Father, Strong to Save". My hands were shaking so badly that I wasn't sure that I could find the right organ keys - and the pianist later said the same. We made it - it doesn't take long with such amazing and meaningful music, to feel the power and the peace of God wash over you - but, maybe inappropriately, we still laugh over the mental image of standing up and telling the congregation they would have to do it a cappella!
OK - back to cardmaking!  
I hope to see you play along with Jen's fun sketch - it's a great layout, but with so many options to take in the direction you wish.
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The patterned paper is an older 6x6 pad - Fancy Pants Timbergove.

RC Branch Out Dies	RC Let It Snow Dies	Reverse Confetti Winter Words	RC Winter Word Coordinates | Reverse Confetti, LLC
MFT Tropical Teal CS	SU Sahara Sand CS	PPP 4mm Sparkling Clear Sequins

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Birthday Balloons: Fall Prints

Today is the birthday of a dear friend. I've had her friendship longer than I've had my husband and that's a very long time.

She loves fall colors - mustards and rusts and browns - so I never fail to include them on her card. She also likes antiques and scrollwork and vintages patterns.  Here's my attempt to put them all together (although a bit of a stretch on the "vintage"!)



Isn't it fun that we can all make cards specifically for our friends and loved ones?!  I love this craft.

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With apologies, I keep using this patterned paper even though I don't see where it can be found anymore. It's a 6x6 pad by Little Yellow Bicycle called Feels Like Home.  I do see that franticstamper.com has some 12x12 sheets available.

Sue Wilson Happy Birthday	MFT Birthday Balloons	SSS Fog Gray CS	PPP 6 mm Sparkling Clear Sequins
PPP 4mm Sparkling Clear Sequins

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best.day.ever.

My 15-year old son's best friend has a birthday today.  My husband has coached the boys' lacrosse teams for years.  The families are also great friends so we can do sarcasm and silliness.  (We don't do big gifts, but we did get him a variety of odd foods from World Market, mostly because my son was really tickled by the canned Spotted Dick.  Teenage humor, right?)

I had recently used this sentiment on the inside of a different card and had mentally filed it away as a decent sentiment for a teen boy - it's not mushy, but nice.  The sentiments comes with a really cute dog - too cute for this teenage boy. So since I had dogs on the brain (and the birthday family owns two goofy dogs), I dug out this dog that has multiple funny expressions and gave him a big grin!



After I had the stamps picked out, I got stuck trying to come up with a basic, yet fun layout. Then the light bulb came on and I remembered the CAS sketch at the Share Joy Challenge.

So I think my card qualifies as clean & simple. It might be more of a stretch to see the sketch in my card - but I just flipped it sideways, then I added paper with banners instead of an actual banner!  It may not be totally obviously, but I definitely went from stuck to inspired when I saw the sketch!

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The paper is from the 6x6 Authentique Celebrate pad. It's a piece with a few banners and a few vintage hot air balloons. With some careful cutting and piecing, I came up with the strip on this card.

TE Paw-some stamp & die combo	TE If Dogs Could Talk stamp & die combo	TE Banner Stacklets 1	TE Premium Cardstock - Oreo
TE Sugar Cube CS	TE Cherry Pop CS

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