Saturday, April 4, 2026

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Hi y'all!  Happy Holy Week, and Happy Easter!    

My card for today represents a journey!  It might even be called a pilgrimage of a sort.  

A pilgrimage is a purposeful, often spiritual, journey to a sacred place or shrine, undertaken for devotion, penance, or personal transformation. It signifies a deep, respectful visit to a meaningful site—either religious or secular—representing a break from daily life to seek profound meaning.

I'll share the card first and then you can scroll further to read more about the inspiration for it.  You'll see why, when I sat down to stamp, I was immediately drawn to these beautiful greens! Definitely a case of one craft influencing another!  If you're here for only card-making, you can check out the card and then skip the rest.  

While the colors were inspired by Iona Abbey and my freshly finished hand-spun yarn, the verse on the front was why I chose to make another gate-fold card.  He is The Way.  The Shepherd sits at the gate and His sheep know His voice.  

I used beautiful papers in various shades of green from three different Craft Consortium paper pads for this project.  

I also used verses from our Good News series (product of the week) and the Eucalyptus leaves from one of our sympathy sets.  If you look closely, you'll also notice a tiny bit of gold heat embossing on the top left of the inside.  

Here's a close-up of the verse at the bottom right corner of the inside.  


Stamp Simply

Tomorrow (Easter Sunday) there'll be a new product of the week, which means that TODAY is the LAST DAY for a discount on the Good News series!  

Supplies:

Two years ago I took my first tour of Scotland and one of our stops along the way was the Abbey of Iona.  Upon my return I purchased some spinning fiber inspired by the lichen-covered stone of the Abbey.  (The fiber was prepared by the Green Orthodox nuns of Inglenook Fibers.  Steffie, one of the Inglenook nuns, had also taken a trip to Iona at around the same time I had, and had come back with a collection of gorgeous photos that inspired several color ways).    


Here is the Inglenook fiber in the Iona Abbey color way, and Steffie's photo that inspired it.  

The next year I took another Scotland tour and took my spindle and Iona Abbey fiber with me. 

 


I continued to spin throughout that trip, and after returning home. It took me months to leisurely spindle through all those little tufts of fluff.  I started September 28, 2025 and finished just last week, March 27, 2026.  You can probably imagine that spinning, especially spindling, is quite calming, soothing, and meditative (revisit that Pilgrimage definition!).  It is a really wonderful prelude to other "slow stitching" crafts.  I love it so much!  The colors and textures really speak to me.  


In the end, when I lined them up in pairs in gradient color order, all those little turtles looked like little Brussels sprouts waiting to be roasted.  LOL!


I joined them end to end and wound them into a two-ply plying ball.  


I plied them on one of my spinning wheels and this is the resulting skein, ~ 700 yards of sport-weight yarn.  (So think about that...1400 yards of spinning singles and then another pass through for 700 yards of plying).  Once it is plied, it is soaked and then hung to dry to set the twist.


I was very excited to have finished this very sentimental spin, and immediately went searching for an appropriate pattern for the yarn even though I really already have too many projects on my needles. I couldn't help it, I couldn't wait to make something with it!


I'm so excited to see how the stitches will play out in this tweedy yarn, and to watch the gradient develop as this shawl becomes larger.  So far, I really love it.  This is a mystery knit, so the pattern is released in a series of clues.  I'm currently working on Clue 4 of 7 (the last clue will arrive on April 25th).  This next section is a bit of chevron lace.  

I am so happy that I have several more Scotland-inspired Inglenook color ways to spin.  I will meditate my way through the series, savoring every second of this silky fiber as it slides through my fingers and winds its way onto my spindles.  Who knows...maybe you'll see another spinning inspired project or two as time goes on!  

Next up:  Iona Golden Sunrise!





I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and a very blessed and happy Easter!  

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Thursday, March 26, 2026

With Sincere Condolences


Hi everyone!  

It seems as we get older, we need sympathy cards more and more frequently.  On this particular occasion I wanted a simple card with understated elegance, with scriptural references and Christian symbolism.  The card measures a standard 4.25 x 5.5 but with the score lines offset so that when closed the edges meet slightly off-center.  


This photo of the belly band captures the colors of this project a little more accurately.  There's a peek of beautiful Grunge Light designer paper from underneath a die cut quatrefoil pattern that reminds me of stained/leaded glass, topped with our layered cross dies and accented with pearls. 


Here's the inside, with the belly band along side.  Every time I see this sentiment, it always reminds me of the hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness."  I hope it brings comfort for this family in the loss of their beloved brother/husband/father/uncle/grandfather.

Supplies:

Here's a reminder of this week's product of the week!


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Thursday, March 19, 2026

Blessed are the Peacemakers

 

Welcome, friends!  

Today's Stamp Simply project brings together a couple of paper pads and a couple of stamp sets for a quick and easy vintage style card. I've used this particular plaid for several masculine cards...it is one of my favorites in a collection that is largely Christmas themed.      


The Vintage Emporium paper pad has a few sheets featuring sepia photographs.  I'm no historian but I believe they range from the Victorian era through maybe the 1920s (?!).  They sorta remind me of a photo I've seen of my dad when he was around three years old (late 1920s), so I wanted to use one.  That's what prompted the use of this particular verse.


So here's one of those photos alongside another sentiment from the same stamp set, with some random partial stamping using the "Love is patient..." verse from one of our background mini stamps.  I think this combination of verses works very well together, making a nice card for anyone in a leadership role...first responders/police, military, government service, etc.  I'm praying for all of the folks in those roles.  

Supplies:


Stamp Simply

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Thursday, March 12, 2026

Easter Blessings



Hello again!  

If you're like I am, your projects are most often fairly fast and easy, often even clean and simple, but every once in a while it just feels right to make some extra effort to make something a bit more special.  Today's card is one of those projects.  It is a little bit fussy to put together but imho, the end result is worth it.  

The card begins with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch piece of card stock scored at 2 1/8 (yay for using some paper scraps!).  When I made my card I mistakenly thought that I could glue the mat and designer paper layers onto the card base and then cut through the entire thing with one pass of the circle die.  WRONG!  So I will advise you to do as I say and not as I did!  Carefully measure and die cut the separate pieces before glueing them together.  While you do need to accurately measure so that everything will align properly, doing it this way should be much easier and neater in the long run!  


One more word of wisdom!  It would be a good idea to use heavier card stock or even cut and glue an additional layer for the gold "frame" and for the flowers to give them extra strength.  That will help prevent bending when this uniquely shaped card is opened/closed.  


I mentioned that I wrestled with cutting through all those layers! The inside edges on mine looked a little ragged, so I found a way to neaten them and make them a little more presentable.  I really love how green and full of life this designer paper makes this card feel!  I also enjoy putting that little trio of pearls onto the card front...threes are repeated here in a couple of places and it feels so right to include a little symbol of the Trinity on an Easter card.  ❤️❤️❤️

If you have been visiting my blog for a while, you might know that this is one of my favorite Stamp Simply stamp sets!  One of the reasons I wanted to make this card with this stamp set was because the graceful curve of the daffodil stems looks so lovely against the edge of this card's circular window.

Stamp Simply

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Thursday, March 5, 2026

For God so loved the World

 

Hi y'all!  Hope you're having a great week!  

The days are getting longer, and hopefully even in places other than Florida there are a few signs that Spring is on its way, or at least just around the corner.  It's the time of year when people of faith turn their hearts toward God and celebrate His greatest gift.  

Those ideas came together for a (masculine?) card for this week's Stamp Simply project.  I love this Vintage Emporium paper and the way it lends itself to this particular scripture.  Thumbing through paper pads and die cuts, this is what came to mind.  The tree line is cut from a scrap of a print from the Grunge Light paper pad which had colors that echo those in the Vintage Emporium map.  


Here's the inside.  From this angle the sentiment seems quite camouflaged because this print is definitely "grungy" but the sentiment is easier to see IRL.  


I love it because it feels so earthy and garden-ish which is the way Florida feels these last few weeks. 

Supplies:


Stamp Simply


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Thursday, February 26, 2026

Fresh Springtime Greetings

Hello friends!  

I hope you're having a great week!  We have been having some yo-yo weather down here in Florida!  Spring is trying to make an appearance (the redbuds have blossomed, the azaleas are blooming) but we have had several overnights in the low 30s recently.  So crazy!  


I've been spinning lots of undyed fiber/fleece lately, alongside a couple of colorful spins.  You can sorta see where my color inspiration for card-making has come from lately.  (These "turtles" from one of those spins were spun leisurely over a span of six months, and recently completed!  Now I'm spinning the undyed fiber as a plying partner, so it will still be a while yet before the actual two-ply yarn will be finished).      

This project includes some of those lovely pinks, corals, purples and blues.  I so LOVE gingham and dotted Swiss!   


These little scraps of paper were from a 6 x 6 paper pad that had a hole to accommodate hanging from a pegboard display.  Rather than trimming them into even smaller pieces to avoid those holes, I decided to just make that a focal point and stick a couple of jewels in there!  


I love mixing and matching designer papers and found a print that had all those lovely Spring colors to go along with the floral.  A bit of spattering with white acrylic paint added some interest and tied all the designs together.  


One of the stamp sets I used (for the sentiment inside) is a set that is currently on sale as part of our ongoing Product of the Week series.  This particular one goes through the end of February.  

Supplies:
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Thursday, February 19, 2026

Easter is Coming!

Hi friends!  With Mardi Gras now behind us it is time to get serious about Spring and Easter!  Memories of Easter always include lots of ruffly pink, pretty lace, white lacy gloves and something sparkly! Mom always wore a corsage (usually an orchid) and all the ladies wore hats to church on Easter Sunday!  The sanctuary was always filled with lilies.  

Of course, the kids were always much more concerned with whether or not the Easter bunny had made an appearance the night before and what candies and chocolates were in their Easter baskets when they woke up.  And usually there was an Easter egg hunt!   

As an adult I've attended lots of sunrise services, but in childhood we typically went for 930 Sunday school and then 1100 services. Then we'd go home and have a big Easter lunch with ham, potato salad, Spring vegetables and deviled eggs, with chocolate candy for dessert!   

All these happy memories are what I tried to capture on today's project!   


Here's the inside.  I wanted this simple, rustic cross to take center stage so I used beautiful sunrise colors alongside a quatrefoil-style print that makes me think of stained glass.  


The tab needed to be quite narrow to remain invisible.  I die cut two layers of heavier card stock and glued them together for the cross to make it nice and sturdy.  

Supplies:
Don't forget to check out our product of the week!


Stamp Simply

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Thursday, February 12, 2026

Happy Birthday!


Hello again!  I hope you're having a great week!  We have been enjoying watching the Olympics and pulling for Team USA.  


I even knitted Patrick the opening ceremonies hat that he requested! I was really excited that I finished it in time for him to wear it during our recent cold snap!


I remember sitting and watching the Winter Olympics "nap-trapped" with Matthew when he was a brand new baby!  I thought that was a sweet memory to capture in his birthday card for this year since once again it is time for the Winter games.  


I used Spellbinders circle dies to cut a window into the card front, then built a scene with our tree line and slopes dies that are part of the Church die set.  There's only a small peek through the front but the full scene is visible once the card is opened.  


I love this pretty designer paper for a wintry blue sky.  It's so much fun to fully personalize a card this way.  

Supplies:
There is still (at the time of this post publishing) a little time left for our Valentine's Day sale!  I hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day and a wonderful week!


Stamp Simply

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