I have a friend who gives me a lot of her used cards because she thinks I might be able to use something on them.  This was one she gave me and I cut it up, added a sentiment, and some stars, and called it a card!!!  :)

Another simple little card.  The image at the bottom was stamped twice...once on the left and again on the right.  I added the Happy Birthday.
The butterfly was punched out with a die and I used black glitter paper, which you can't really see very well on here.

Here's a nice little card for the Autumn season.  I got the border somewhere online (free), added the butterfly, and formed the butterfly's antenna with some craft wire.

I thought some of the kids at church would enjoy some different type cards for their birthdays, so here's what I came up with.  

There are many, many sites out on the internet where you can get free mazes, word search puzzles, etc.

I found some free autumn borders, added some embellishments  and the card was ready to go.

I made several of these type cards, but I'm only posting a couple of them.

I haven't posted anything for a few weeks as my puter has been very very ill.  Also, I had 3 of my grandsons for four days and since they left I have been sick with a cold and sinus infection...yuck!  I have quite a few cards that I will be posting soon.  So, those of you who enjoy my blog, I should have some new posts soon.

FOLDED FRONT CARDS:

Here is a technique that I really like.  I saw a card similar to this on someone's site and can't for the life of me remember whose site it was on.  I don't even know what this technique is called, so I call them Folded Front Cards.  The real trick to this card is to find the center of the top background paper and cut it to or almost to the center of the paper and then fold the paper back.  It's nice if you use two-sided paper, but I don't have a lot of that, so on this particular card I simply stamped dots on the back of the top background paper.  Then use a coordinating background underneath the top background paper.
On my second card I did use two-sided paper and I think I like that better, so I guess I have to go shopping for more two-sided paper.  Yea I love shopping for stamp stuff because I always find more than I'm originally shopping for.  Hard on the budget though!!!  Tee hee!!!  :)
P. S. One little tip: If you want to round the corners on the top piece that you cut to the middle of the card, then do it BEFORE you glue it on as it is really hard to get to once it has been glued on.

This is another of the many cards I've made for the kiddies at church.  Their ages range anywhere from two to teenagers.  So I try and make some for each age.  I just make them and drop them off at church and let them decide which card to send to which child.  
The water in this card is a free-online image.  I hand made the boat and then cut from the edge of the water and then slipped the boat in.  I added a little saying, some clouds, and a bling bling for the top of the mast.  It was a fun card to make.  Here's the site where I found the wave image: 

http://www.123freevectors.com/realistic-water-illustration/#.Ug5oHtJsyeN

This too was a fun little card to make.
I started out with white card stock.  At this point I typed the saying into my card program and printed it out on the blank card stock.  I cut a big hole in it with a large Spellbinder's circle die, Then I embossed it with the Cuddlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder.  In my card program I typed "Happy Birthday" many times and printed it onto computer paper and then slipped that behind the hole.  I used a red crayon to color in some of the raised areas on the white card stock, and then I found a cute little bird that was a free image online and added him to the outside and the inside of the card.
Another cute little card for church.

BACKGROUND TECHNIQUE #2

The background on this card is a technique I've never tried before.  I'm always trying to think of something different to do on my cards.
Underneath the layered square in the middle of the background is a smaller square that I glued down onto a piece of white card stock.  Then I proceeded to take strips of three different kinds of background paper and glued them down in four different directions.  Below this card you will find a sample of what I drew on a piece of paper before I made this card.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it look like a quilted card or not and that's why I drew in the little doodles on the paper.  But, from this sample you can see much easier what I was trying to explain here.
After the placement of my background strips I added the layered square with the leaf image on it and the Happy Birthday layer also.
The giraffe is a stamp from a company called Validated.  On the stamp itself it says: "Validated ©1997 Santa Rosa, Ca 95403 707-579-5443".  They make a lot of really nice stamps and if you like animal stamps, they make quite a few of them.  I actually stamped the giraffe on a piece of the giraffe background paper and then cut him out, went around the edges with a black marking pen, and raised him up with mounting tape.

FREEBIE:

This is my sample I was talking about.
Note how the direction of each group of papers starts out in a corner of the square.  Also, you don't have to have the square in the center of the paper...it can be placed anywhere on the paper you would like.  On my card above I placed it a little above the center and to the right as I knew I was going to add the giraffe on the left side of the square and I wanted to allow myself the space for it.
Please feel free to copy my sample and use it to make yourself a card also.  I would love to see what you do with it...please post a sample of your card if you use it and refer people to my blog for the sample.  Thank you so much!

FOR FOREST:

I made this card for my grandson, Forest, who has gone up to Oregon for the summer to visit his dad.  I will miss him sooooo much!!!  But, he is having a GREAT time and I'm happy for that.  He is a sweet, sweet boy and I love him dearly!

There is a river nearby where they live and they often take walks to it and go swimming (It's a very safe and shallow river.), so when I saw this image online (free), I just HAD to make this card for him and send it to him.

HAVE FUN on your vacation, Forest.  I'll see you when you get back!

I LOVE YOU!

FOR ANNA:

A little GET WELL card for a lady I know who's been VERY sick with pneumonia!
GET WELL Anna!!!

CARDS FOR CHURCH

The following are cards I've made for the children in my church who have birthdays coming up:

I really like the way this card turned out.  I started with a free-online image, colored it, and then printed it again and cut out the dinosaur.  I colored the 2nd image of the dinosaur and then ran it through an embossing folder  The little dinosaur was a separate image that I colored, cut out, and ran through the same embossing folder.

One Minute Sermon by Gaylon Huddleston

A card for a little 7 year old at church.  I used a free online image.  Added some background paper, and some flowers.  Added a flower to the hat and then raised up the hat.  A pretty simple little card.  I love the blue and yellow combination.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!

I just made this card today for my son Todd's birthday as I know he loves the mountains.  He will be 43 on April 2nd!  WoW!!!  I was just thinking back to when he was really little and I couldn't wait until he was 3 so I could hold a real conversation with him.  Well...I got what I asked for, and here we are now 40 years later!!!  It's funny though, because he's the one who calls me a LOT when he's on his way to/from work.  Sometimes we talk about TONS of stuff and other times, not as much, but either way, I really enjoy his calls.  He's a GREAT son!  :)  

Remember the $.01 gumballs?  WoW, I'm dating myself!  
This card is for a little boy at church.  Pretty simple online image.  I raised up a few of the gumballs and added some verbiage around the outside edge of the card.

Another card for a boy at church who's turning 14 years old this month! 

I LUV LUV LUV the little flowers on this card!  
I went to the Scrapbooking Expo in Pleasanton, California a couple of weeks ago and this was my favorite find:  Rolled Flower Dies (I don't think this is the real name of them).  They are made by Impression Obsession Rubber Stamps.  The largest die is approximately 1" in diameter and the smallest about 1/2" in diameter.  There are 5 different dies in the set.  They are sooooo cute!  I've seen other companies who make the rolled flower dies, but they're usually a LOT bigger than these.  When I first bought them I thought maybe they might be too small, but as I found out they're PERFECT!  I was able to send this card through the mail without too much bulk that would require extra postage.  I embossed the white layer with an embossing folder, then cut a hole with a Spellbinders circle die, and added a sheet of background paper behind it.  I then added a die cut butterfly made by Cheery Lynn Designs, Exotic Butterfly small #2 die (#DL113) and added a few seed beads to its body.  

GET WELL PHYLLIS!

This card was made for my friend, Pill (That's what I call her.)!  She was recently hospitalized with what turned out to be "Valley Fever!"  WOW!!!  Who'da thunk?  I read about Valley Fever online and it says that 5% of people who contract the disease get lesions in the lung.  Well, she had the lesions and until after the surgery we didn't know whether or not she had lung cancer.  Praise God for people who pray!  We believed in God's favor for her and He came through for her!  
I printed out a free-online-pocket template onto floral background paper.  Then I added the flowers. I also cut tissues into quarters, stamped 'Get Well' on them, along with some little flowers, and tucked them into the pocket.  The flowers were die cut from Marianne design Creatables # LR0131 die (www.mariannedesign.nl).  

A birthday card for a little 6 year old boy at my church.  The airplane is a free online image.  I embossed the background with an embossing folder.  The "6" and the "stars" are stickers.  A strip of red with white dots paper was added across the bottom.  I hand-cut the clouds, colored and put dashes around the edges, and then embossed them with a Swiss dot embossing folder.  I cut the corners at the top with some fancy scissors.

Another card for a boy in my church.  The background is done with wood-grain paper and is then embossed with an embossing folder.  The basketball, hoop, and shoe are free online images.  The basketball is also embossed with an embossing folder and the hoop has some mesh that I put in it.  

It's with sadness I had to make this card as I had to say goodbye to a dear, sweet lady.  My neighbor and friend, Caroleene, lost her 93 year old mother, Barbara.  Barbara was a spunky lady with a lot of personality and she was always fun and laughing when I was around her.  I will always remember her "dancing" and her delightful ways.  And now I KNOW she is dancing on the Streets of Gold up in Heaven.  She was a Christian and was well loved!  I will miss you Barbara!!!  Rest in the arms of Jesus! :)

I started this card with plain pink card stock, added a strip of pink/purple background paper that was edged with a Martha Stewart edge punch.  I added the sentiment with my card program and added a flower and some skeleton leaves (My favorite!).  The leaves are Marianne Design Creatables - Flower and Leaves.  The flower on the card is NOT made by Marianne Design - I don't know who made the flower as it doesn't say on the stamp.  I finished the card off with a little piece of bling inside the flower, a little shiny butterfly, and some dashes around the edge of the card.

KINDNESS: Pass it on!  This is a button that Craftymumz Creations has requested that we put on our blogs to help spread kindness.  You can also use it on your blog.

I saw the idea for this card online and for the life of me I cannot remember where.  I call it my "Folded Front Card".  I thought the idea was so unique that I just had to make one.  The background paper with the hearts on it is double sided and I cut the paper from the left at the mid point in to the center point.  About 1/4" from the top and the bottom, the paper is folded back on itself so you can see the pattern on the back of the heart paper.  The flower is done with a rubber stamp that I added some bling to and colored the bling with an alcohol pen.  The leaves are from the "Maryanne Design Creatables Dies - Flowers & Leaves LR0156" set.  I love the leaves and I really like the way the card turned out!  Thank you to whoever had the original idea!!!

I decided to make a winter card for a little boy at my church since  his birthday is in January and I have so many winter/snowman images.  It turned out sooooo cute!  
This is what I call a panel card.  The front actually has two panels.  
Where I have the big snowflake on the right side of the left panel, you can put any image and actually tuck the right panel under it to keep it closed.
In the photo, the panel on the right is actually part of the front.  To make this card, take a piece of card stock 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and place it on your scoreboard left to right from 0" to 8 1/2".  Score at the 1 1/2" mark and again at the 5 1/2" mark, and then fold the card on the score lines.  On the left panel I glued some snowflake background paper.  On the right panel all I did was score it with my scoreboard vertically every 1/8"  There is room for six vertical score lines on the right panel.  If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you you will have a better view of  the vertical score lines on the right panel.  In my card program  

I added a saying on a piece of card stock, punched it with the Martha Stewart icicle punch, then added some glitter to the icicles, and some blue snowflakes to it.  I also added some more snowflakes, along with one large layered one.  The snowman is a free online image that I colored in Gimp (Gimp is similar to Photoshop.  It is a free program that you can download from online and you can do sooooo much with it.)  I cut out and raised up his hat, nose, and scarf.  I also added glitter to the large snowflake and to the snowman.  And last, but not least, I added some little wiggly eyes to the snowman's face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHANIEL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKYLER!!!

This card is for my grandson, Skyler.  Skyler just turned 13 years old!!!  I can't believe he's a teenager already!  Wow!
Many, many months ago Skyler told me he wanted a San Francisco Giants card in orange and black and he wanted it embossed with an embossing folder, so this is what I came up with.
The "2012 World Champions" was done as a water mark in my Printshop 6 card program, and the "San Francisco Giants 2012" was printed over that in the same program.  I then glued on the baseball at the bottom which was a free online image, and then I did the embedded embossing technique with a Sizzix diamond embossing folder.  I typed out the Happy "13th" Birthday Champ! in my card program and cut and then embossed it with a Spellbinder's oval die, and raised it up with foam tape.
Skyler was VERY happy with the card!  :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARRY!!!

I play cards once a week with three of my neighbors and we have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.  I made this card for Larry's birthday.  
The Happy Birthday background was done in my Printshop 6 card program.  The decorative border below that was done with a Fiscars border punch. and the embossed diamond background was done with a Sizzix embossing folder.  The cards (Aces) were a free online image that I printed out, cut out, and raised up with foam tape.  The little Game On tag was made with a Provo Craft die.  I added a little baker's twine, and walla!!! it was done!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DILLON!!!

Just a simple, but cute card this time.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.  

The top and bottom images were free-online images.  

Dillon in the middle was done in my card program.  

The balls on the bottom were cut out and raised up twice to give the card a little dimension.