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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Thursday, February 5, 2026

Farmhouse Mercies

Hello friends!  I hope you are doing well!  We are gradually returning to normal after having each had the flu for a couple of weeks.  It has been rampant in our area so I suppose it was really only a matter of time.  So thankful to be feeling better.  

For us, the flu has been such a small thing on the comparative scale of things that some of our friends are currently dealing with.  One of those friends is in the hospital after having had a neurological event. Thankfully her condition is gradually improving.  She is a farmer/shepherdess so I thought a card using our Farmhouse Series might cheer her up.  I had a lot of fun choosing papers, stamping and die-cutting farm animals and finding the perfect sentiments to go with it all.  

Since she is a shepherdess (I have purchased a gorgeous fleece from her!) I thought I should include a paper sheep on her card!  I used a combination of punches and dies to come up with this little cutie!  


Here's a closer look.  The body is a scalloped circle, the face and ears are small and larger ovals cut in half.  The "topknot" is several clouds and a tiny flower topped by a silk ribbon.  The legs and hooves are fishtail banner dies.  All super easy to die cut and layer together.  For eyes, I used a stylus to dot a couple of white acrylic paint dots.  I opted not to add ink dot pupils but it would not be hard to do.


You might prefer not to have a sheep inside your version, and it looks perfectly fine without it!  

Supplies:
For the sheep:
Y'all know that I love to mix and match paper pads!  Now is a good time to stock up!


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Thursday, January 29, 2026

Happy (Yooper) Birthday!

Hi everyone!

Today is my father-in-law's 95th birthday!  Although he and my MIL winter in Arizona, they are originally from the U.P. of Michigan, so Stamp Simply's Michigan themed sets are really popular for cards for our extended family members.


I just recently added the lower peninsula set to my collection and thought it would be fun to use the two together to make a card for him.  


And here is the U.P.  I paired the Michigan sets with a set/sentiment from our birthday collection which just happens to be on sale this week!  :)  Keep scrolling for more info!  


And here's the inside.  We spend a lot of time out on the lakes fishing when we visit up there, so this is just perfect!  

Here's a closer view!  I hope you can see the sparkle! 

Supplies:
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Thursday, January 22, 2026

John 3:16

Hi everyone!  An order of stamps, dies and papers arrived from Stamp Simply yesterday, and after a quick flip through of this paper pad, the idea for this combination of designer print and scripture came to mind.  At first I had planned to cover most of the map with vellum and stamp the scripture on the sheer top layer, but the text didn't show well enough that way, so the plan evolved to this framed version.  


This pretty Spellbinders Label 59 die has a very detailed coordinating die set, but I opted to keep this project really clean and simple.  


It seemed appropriate to use a piece of Ink Drops Earth for the inside.  

Just out of curiosity, I decided to experiment with adhering the vellum to the underlying layers on the inside.  Rather than covering the edges with a frame as I'd done on the front, for the inside sentiment I adhered the vellum to a same-sized piece of ivory card stock using a very thin line of Mono Multi glue along the edges and then added that to a larger piece of blue card stock.  

While I was pleasantly surprised that the glue didn't show, the edges were a little gummy and sticky so I still prefer the cleaner, more elegant look of the frame on the front.  (I'll add one to the inside too if I can find another bit of blue card stock...no luck so far! I might have already used the last!)

Supplies:
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Thursday, January 15, 2026

He First Loved Us


Hi y'all!  I realized as I sat down to type today's post that Valentine's Day is only one month away!  I know that it is traditionally celebrated as a romantic holiday but I have always thought of it as an extra opportunity to express my love not just for my husband but for my family and friends as well.  While I've used a romantic rosy red here, this card would really work in just about any color, and with Craft Consortium's Ink Drops series there are a lot of choices!  

This was a really quick one to put together because there is not much stamping.  It took several passes with the fishtail banner die through the die cutter, then I stacked them all, sliced them into three pieces (keep them in order if you care about the print aligning!) and then glued them onto a rectangle of card stock.  Two of the three portions go on the card front.  


The sentiment was stamped in the space in between.  


The remaining small square third portion is on the inside.  

Supplies:
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Thursday, January 8, 2026

Love Letters


Hi everyone!  With the Christmas and New Year holidays behind us and the Mardi Gras season firmly under way, it's time to turn our eyes toward the Spring holidays!  I'm here today with a romantic love letter for Valentine's Day.  Cards like this make me smile because as a back-in-the-days-before-email Navy wife, my husband and I have written and received many old-fashioned real paper love letters from each other over the years.  Those six month deployments sure felt like they lasted forever!


Today's card is a combination of one stamp set, two paper pads, scraps of metallic paper and several die sets.  So easy and so much fun to put together!


A very frilly bow of white tulle holds the "keys to my heart" (keys - Man of Knowledge dies set; heart - Farmhouse Hearts dies set) and slightly obscures the "zip code" (our wedding year) which is adhered to a "stamped" envelope of love letters (Tim Holtz Postales die set).  


The sentiment on the inside is another from the same Farmhouse Simple Sentiments set.  

Supplies:

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Thursday, January 1, 2026

Celebrate!


Happy New Year!

Welcome to all of you, and welcome 2026!  

I'm here with a clean and simple "Celebrate" card that might be for the New Year, or maybe to celebrate longer daylight, or it could even be for Easter! It was inspired by all the Narcissus bulbs (and amaryllis too!) that I've been seeing for sale at the garden center lately. Have you ever "forced" bulbs to bloom inside during the Winter?  I used to force paper white narcissus almost every year, but I haven't done it in quite a while.  It's not too late, maybe I need to try it again!  It is a great reminder that Solstice is behind us, the days are getting longer already and Spring is indeed coming!


It is hard to capture pale colors and sparkle on camera even inside a light box, but hopefully you can kinda see the pale blues, blue-greens and yellow-greens on the flower petals and the clear Wink of Stella sparkle that I layered on top of the Copics.  I used a gold metallic jelly roll marker to color the tips of the stamen.  Sometimes it seems like the flowers in real life almost look like spun sugar, and that is what that sparkle reminds me of, even on paper.  


The card's inside is super simple.  Do you do a word focus for the year?  Maybe this should be mine.  

My wish is that this new year will be filled with hope, warmth, love, health and happiness for everyone.  Blessings to you and yours!  

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Saturday, December 27, 2025

Year End Favorites

Hi friends!  It's our Stamp Simply design team custom to post our favorites at the end of the year.  I always find it so difficult to narrow it down to only 8 or 9 cards because there's almost always something that I love about each and every card that I've made. 

I've posted a photo of each card with a link below it.  If you click on the link a new page will open to the original blog post for that card so that you can see the supplies/techniques that were used to make it.  Simply close that window to come back to this page. 



Deepest Sympathy


Sincere Condolences



Sunflower Season


Just poppin' by!


With Heartfelt Sympathy


Square Column Fold Card


Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have enjoyed my 2025 favorite cards review!  Stay safe, happy and healthy.  See you just around the corner in 2026!


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Thursday, December 25, 2025

Merry Christmas!


Hello friends!  Merry Christmas!  

My project for today is a simple card which includes two profound passages of scripture that go straight to the heart of the Christian faith.    


I hope that in the midst of all of the crazy hustle and bustle of this Christmas season you'll be able to set aside some quiet time to ponder that miraculous moment when Christ was born, when He stepped down from heaven, setting aside His deity and taking on the form of a helpless newborn baby.  Of course, His  story goes all the way from the cradle to the cross because He loves us so much.  He is God's Love personified.  


A lovely sheet of designer paper did almost all of the work for me in the making of this card.  I used distress oxide inks to stamp the star and sentiments.  White acrylic paint, both full strength (dotted with a stylus tip) and diluted (spattered on with a paintbrush) gave the illusion of a nighttime sky scattered with stars.  A little painting with a clear Wink of Stella marker added some sparkle to that special Star.  


I used the remaining scrap of that same designer paper for the inside of the card.  

Supplies:
Merry Christmas with lots of love!  

Deb
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Thursday, December 18, 2025

O Christmas Tree


Hi y'all!  

On any given Thursday morning I'm usually Zooming with my friend Callie, but this morning I'm participating in one of my favorite annual activities.  I'm with a group of my ukulele friends, ringing and singing for the Salvation Army.  We have a fun repertoire of songs that include secular and religious songs for Christmas as well as a few for Hanukkah and of course, a few Hawaiian melodies and Hapa Haole songs as well (referring to a genre of Hawaiian music with English lyrics).  I wish you could see the joy on shoppers' faces as they exit the grocery store and find us there with our happy instruments and silly Christmas garb!  I'd like to think that our exuberant performance inspires them to drop a little extra into the red bucket!  

If you've been visiting my blog for a while, you might remember how my love affair with Hawaiian culture, especially music, dance and my beloved ukulele, got its start.  My husband and I lived in Hawaii for the first four years of our marriage when he was stationed on Oahu at VQ-3 Barbers Point.  I took hula on Monday evenings at Halau Hula O Maiki the entire time we lived there and loved every minute of it.    


We were back on the mainland for quite a while before I seriously started playing the uke.  One of the first "real" songs I learned to play was Iz's version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, so it's a bit tongue in cheek to say that my card for today, with its pink and green Over the Rainbow designer paper, was thus inspired.  I really do love this bright, happy retro color combo!  

For the Christmas tree, I used the tree die cut to cut a negative space into that gorgeous green designer paper, then adhered it to a white mat and stamped the tree into the negative space.  I used Copic markers, a clear sparkly Wink of Stella glitter marker to color it in, with some strategically placed tiny dots of white paint to make the tree's ornaments look like 3-D rhinestones.  


But there really is only one rhinestone on the card front, the pink one on the white snowflake above the banner, so if you're after a flat card for easy mailing, this would be a good image to use.  Just leave the gems and ribbon off and there you go.   


Here's the inside, with more of that beautiful bold green, a little pink and a couple of die cut embellishments.  And...this greeting is from another Christmas song!  

I hope you leave here today with a song in your heart!  And please give a little extra when you see the Salvation Army bellringer wherever you shop!  Happy Holidays to each and every one of you!  

xo

Supplies:
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