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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Typewritten Year Round Greetings
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - All Occasion Sentiments Set 1
• Echo Park My Favorite Spring 6x6
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Candy 6x6
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Farmhouse Signage (tiny heart)
• Spellbinders - Labels 59
• Kaisercraft Mini Paper Blooms - Fairy Floss
• Dotted ribbon
• Distress oxide ink
• diluted white acrylic paint for spatters

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Easter is for Jesus Bundle
• Spellbinders - Labels 59
• Craft Consortium Watercolors 6x6
• Craft Consortium Grunge Light 6x6
• Kaisercraft Mini Paper Blooms - Dusty Pink
• Variegated Silk Ribbon
  
• May Arts 1.5" Pleated Satin - 15 yard spool - White
• May Arts 1/2" Scallop Loop Trim - 3 yards - Pink
• Melissa Frances Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Cream
• white tulle
• Copic markers

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

Stamp Simply

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Happy Day Iris
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Country Church
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Christmas Stockings & Mittens
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Holiday Greens Mini
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles LG
• Carta Bella Winter Time 6x6
• Craft Consortium Over the Rainbow 6x6

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

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Farmhouse Signage Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Farmhouse Sentiments QUAD Bundle
• Craft Consortium Retro Summer 6x6
• Craft Consortium Test of Time 6x6
• Seam Binding Sampler - Rich Pastels - 40 yards
• May Arts 1/4" Variegated Silk - 54 yard spools - Blue/White

For the sheep:

• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners (legs and hooves)
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Country Church (clouds for sheep's topknot)
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Welcome Baby Basics (flowers also for topknot)
• scalloped circle die (body)
• ovals dies (cut in half for face, ears)
• white acrylic paint for eyes

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

Stamp Simply

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Yooper) Bu...
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Lower Peninsula of Michigan TRIO
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Birthday Blessings
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Craft Consortium Ombre 6x6
• Memento ink
• Copic markers
• clear Wink of Stella glitter pen

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - He Has Risen
• Craft Consortium Vintage Emporium 6x6
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Earth 6x6
• Spellbinders - Labels 59
• May Arts 1/4" Variegated Silk - 54 yard spools - Blue/White
• button from stash
• vellum

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Farmhouse Scriptural Quotes
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Farmhouse Scriptural Thoughts
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Hearts
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Rose 6x6
• Seam Binding
• Flowers
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Celestial Copper
• Distress oxide inks
• gold cord from stash

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:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Farmhouse Simple Sentiments
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - A Man of Knowledge Books (key dies)
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Farmhouse Pierced Nested Hearts
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Postale
• Echo Park Love Notes 6x6
• Craft Consortium Grunge Light 6x6
• Luxury Pearlescent Metallic 105# Cardstock - Silver 6 ct
• white tulle
• various distress oxide inks
• button from stash

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!  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - He Lives Bundle
• Craft Consortium Grunge Light 6x6
• Seam Binding Sampler - Rich Pastels - 40 yards
• Dots ribbon
• May Arts Baker's Twine - 110 Yard Spool - Kraft
• Dritz Cheesecloth - 36" x 3 yards
• Gems
• Memento ink
• Copic markers

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. 

Sending Love

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!