I made this card for a friend of mine who just lost one of her very best friends.  They were friends for something like 40+ years!  Long time!
And, guess what her favorite color is...you guessed it...GREEN!!!

And, another card for a girl in my church who is turning 16 this month.  The BG paper is from the Floral Prints Mat Stacks.  The flower is in my stash without a name on it, but you could use any flower you have on hand.  I stamped it, colored it with colored pencils, cut it out, distressed the petals with a stylus, and raised it up with double sided foam tape.  I made the leaves with a cut die: Marianne Design Creatables Stencil - Flower & Leaves LR0156.  The tag punch is from EK Success.  I made the butterfly at the bottom from two 1" pieces of crepe paper, folded, and then glued onto a dragonfly punched piece of paper.  I raised it up with foam tape also.  I added a little glitter and called it a card! 

Another little card I made for a little girl at my church.  I drew out the cupcake template by hand, added a few buttons, a ribbon, and a little free online image.  It actually looks much cuter in person than here in the photo.  The background papers are from the Brenda Walton Designer Mat Pad by K&Company.

A little folded card I made with background paper, a little Spellbinder's die cut heart, a Martha Stewart butterfly, a pink bow, and some greenery.  The card is made so the flap on the right tucks between the left flap and the heart for mailing/closure.

Here's something new I'm trying.  It's called doodling, Zentangles, Zenspirations, Zendoodles, etc.  On the internet I've seen it called many things.  Zentangles are actual copy written patterns (or tangles) that you can use for doodling.  Just read their rules if you want to use any of their tangles on cards you might want to sell.

I actually started out with this very plain online free image (see next image down) and added some tangles to it!  Isn't it cool!!!  I am sooooo fascinated by this technique!  I just recently found this media online and couldn't wait to try it.  Well, here's my first real attempt!  I did practice a little first on scraps of paper, and just a couple of days ago decided to give it a try.  In the very center of the flower I did add some yellow glitter which is a little hard to see in this photo.   This is a really fun way to decorate your stamped images and/or stencils.  Online there are LOTS of examples of how you can doodle in rubber stamps, stencils, and/or make your own frames to doodle in.  Even the lines on the frames don't have to be straight - they actually look better crooked, so there's no intimidation about doing it.  The cool thing about this is that there really are no mistakes...because no one's really going to notice it.  The ideas are endless and it's sooooo fun and relaxing.  It's really quite easy...If I can do it, anyone can!

This is the free online image I started with.

A cute little cupcake card for a little girl at church...I made this with a few cupcake stamps and a Martha Stewart cupcake punch.  Added a little glitter and a background made with the Cuddlebug Swiss dot embossing folder.  I added a little bit of glitter and a few punched flowers.

Here are three of my beautiful and handsome grandsons.  Jake is 3, Skyler is 12 (He broke his arm riding his motorcycle!), and Brayden is 7.  WoW!  They grow so fast.  I have always taken pictures of my grandchildren (6 of them!) in my rocking chair.  These three are almost too big to fit in it!!!  (All three at once, that is!)  But, I'm glad they still do.  I LOVE you little guys - you are AWESOME grandchildren!!!  You make my heart melt!!!

SMILE, Jake!!! 

Happy Birthday Brayden!  Seven years old already!!!  That should be illegal!!!

Here's another card I decoupaged with a free decoupage set from online.  I LOVE the way this card turned out.  It is sooooo cute!  For the wood background I started out with a free online image of a piece of wood.  I printed it out, cut it to the size I wanted, and then ran it through my "looks-like-wood" Cuddlebug embossing folder (It's not really called that!).  Then I distressed it with some distressing ink.  The little image on the bottom right was another free image from online.  I did the "Happy Birthday" in my card program, punched it out with my oval punch, distressed it, and added some little red brads.

* I wish the dies and the embossing folders had the names on them, but they don't and I haven't kept all the papers that came with them...too much "stuff" to keep!

I've recently gotten into decoupage.  How fun is that!  I'm having a blast!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the look of decoupage on a card.  The raised up effect just makes your card POP!  This is a free decoupage set I found online.  There are TONS of free decoupage sets online! 

* A special thank you to all you wonderful people who provide so much for us card makers online!  The possibilities are endless!

The background of this was cut with a Spellbinder's die...I didn't keep the name of it...I'm bad!  The birdhouse is from Spellbinder's "Bird Sanctuary" and it is the small birdhouse in the set.  The bird on top is another die by Marianne Design Creatables called "Bird on a Branch Small LR0137".  I colored the bird, added some little punched flowers, and a little bow.

When I get a chance I'll try and search out the names of my dies, because - inquiring minds want to know!!!

This stamp is made by Stampendous called "W003 Three Home Nest".  I love this stamp...one of my favorite!  I water colored the image, added a little bird, and some raised up punched flowers. The little bird is from "Bird On a Branch Small LR0137" die (You can see the whole die in my next post.) by Marianne Design Creatables which I don't have the name of.  I usually take my dies out of their original packaging and store them in a 4" x 6" photo album and I don't think to write down the name of the dies.  I will try to do better in the future. 

Note: I used to store my dies loose in a little 4" x 6" photo album and if there were several pieces in one set, sometimes it was hard to get them out, or they would fall out when I didn't want them to.  Well I've gotten organized with my dies!  Now I use a little piece of drafting tape to adhere each die to either a piece of card stock, or a piece of clear acetate, that is cut just a little smaller than the 4" x 6" so that it slides easily out of the sleeve of the photo album.  The drafting tape is wonderful because it doesn't stick tightly when you want to use your die and the tape is reusable.  For an example, Spellbinder's Floral Flourishes is a seven-piece set and some of the pieces are small.  With my organized way of storing my dies, I can now see at a glance exactly what is in each sleeve of the album!

Well, I had a dilemma!  I purchased this Fanciful Flourish die from Cheery Lynn Designs and I could not get it to cut  through the center of the die.  I called Cheery Lynn Designs and they actually sent me another die and still the same problem.  I LOVE this die and I was so disappointed.  I have the Spellbinders Wizard and I suspect that is the problem.  I added 'shims' and did everything I could think of to get it to cut to no avail!  A friend of mine has the new Spellbinders Grand Calibur and I'm anxious to see if it will cut on that machine - I'm assuming it probably will.  Well, they say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"....

WALLA!!!  I decided to try and do SOMETHING with that silly die!  I LOVE IT!  Mistakes can become masterpieces!

Happy Birthday Shirley!
This is a birthday card I recently gave to a friend of mine and I told her that originally this was a mistake!  She said, "I wouldn't call THIS a mistake!"  She loved it! 
In this card I made the flowers out of light-weight vellum paper and ran them through Cuddlebug's Swiss Dots embossing  folder.

Note: The bling in the center of each flower.  These were plain/clear and I colored them with alcohol ink.  So much cheaper to purchase non-colored bling and color it yourself!

Another rectified 'mistake' done with purple background paper.  

Well, I haven't posted for a while, so thought I'd just add my cards that have been waiting to get posted for ohhhhh sooooo long!  My latest thing in stamping is making handmade flowers with crepe paper.  In the next few posts you will see my creations of crepe paper flowers.  I really like the way they turn out.  They look so feminine and delicate.  The only problem with them is if you put them in an envelope for mailing, they will go flat.  So I usually save these and just put them into a gift bag along with a gift and forget the envelope.  As you will see, I've made different shapes for the petals.  The way I make the flowers is to simply draw out a single petal shape, cut several of the shapes out of crepe paper and layer them - two layers of five each on the bottom, then a layer of four, and then a layer of three.  Of course you can layer them however you think looks nice.  Try them; they're a lot of fun!

There's a web site called scrapcoloring.com that is sooooo much fun!  You can upload an image into this site and color it in with either solid colors or patterns.  That's how I colored this image.  Isn't it cute!  I just love it!    

The little dress on this card is made with Spellbinder's dies and the flower is a twisted crepe paper flower.

I photographed clouds outside with my camera, then stamped on the photo, and then colored the image with either Tombo or Marvy markers.