Girlie Grads!

As promised, here's a peek at what my new Cricut Maker helped me make for all of the girls graduating...

 I purchased a file for this cute little coin purse, and then I resized it so it would fit into one of our standard envelopes. It also came with a belly band to hold it closed, but I didn't use it this time. I wanted to use the Congrats word again. Here's what's inside:

Isn't that cute?! A pocket in the coin purse for a check or a gift card. I just fell in love with it and I was so happy to be able to pair it with Stampin' Up!'s beautiful papers and ink. I made a few of these... but I'm sure I'll be making more for girl birthdays and the like!

Happy stamping!

Michele

Graduations Galore!

The announcements just keep comin' in! Here is another version of graduation card I came up with...

...and in case you're confused, that "Congrats" sentiment is not a part of Stampin' Up!'s current or upcoming collection, but everything else is. I am the proud new owner of a Cricut Maker, and I just picked a font and had it cut the word out for me! Don't worry - I'm still a die hard Stampin' Up! purist... but I don't consider this cheating. Wait until my next post where you'll see how my Cricut helped me make a girl's graduation card!!

Until then,

Michele

Mother's Day 2018

I hope all of you moms had a wonderful weekend with your little ones (or big ones!). I sure did. We went camping and had glorious weather and made some fun new memories - including an off-road Segway excursion!! Then, they gifted me with a robot vacuum cleaner... what could be better than that?!

Here are the cards I sent to the moms in my life... I used a new set that will be available in just a few short weeks! It's called Varied Vases. Such fun! The sentiment on the front came from another upcoming set called Itty Bitty Greetings.

It's fun to play with new toys... especially when those new toys involve paper and ink!

Enjoy your week!
Michele

Apologies

We all have to do it some time... apologize. Well, I had to apologize for a late birthday wish, and then I apologized to someone for the loss of their sweet pet. Here were the quick cards I whipped up and got in the mail before any more time had passed:

On this next one, I went back over the top of the letters with the same color marker to make it darker and more interesting:

Do you have some sorry cards in your stash?

Happy stamping!
Michele

PS (5/14/18): Here's another one I had to make...

Graduation Time

It's that time of year - graduations!! I'm trying to keep up with the graduation announcements that we receive. I always like to send a beautiful homemade card to commemorate their wonderful accomplishment. I don't have a graduation stamp set per se, but I came up with this idea which is simple and quick (and I can now watermark the photos on my phone - yay!). I have used some retired items for these, but the basic idea can be used with anything...

Both of these are using Night of Navy ink, but it looks black in the photos.

That's a start - I'll just keep using up some DSP, both new and old, and pop these cards in the mail lickety-split! How many graduation cards do you think YOU'LL have to make this year?!

Happy stamping!
Michele

Getting Back in the Groove!

Hobbies are such a wonderful thing... especially when you have more than one and you get to rotate them! Although I haven’t been creating many cards (or just not posting the ones I HAVE made), I do still LOVE to make them. After a lengthy spell of sewing, I am ready to do some stamping! And because I can create these posts fairly easily on my phone, the process of getting them posted is no longer as daunting a task. I’m skipping the watermark part for now, as that has been a himderance to me posting. So if some dishonest soul decides to take this photo and pretend it’s their creation, well, I’ll just have to hope that the guilt of doing so will disrupt their sleep and their bad choice will catch up with them somehow. 😜 (UPDATE: I can now watermark easily on my phone - yay!)

So here is a card I made yesterday just because I love this stamp set (Friendship’s Sweetest Thoughts) and I’m sad that it is retiring.

I used a combination of watercolor pencils and Stampin’ Blends to get some subtle color with touches of vibrant color. Everything is Stampin’ Up! except the paper clip... I found those at a shop in Berlin while I was there a few weeks ago visiting my son. I thought they were just so cute and they’re partly the reason I’m stamping again, so I hoped you’d forgive me!

Good to be back.

Hugs to all (if anyone still gets my posts!)

Michele