Friday, November 7, 2025

2025 Fall Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop


Hi everyone!  A special welcome to the Fall Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop participants!  



Stamp Simply is honored to be a Super Sponsor of the hop, and Sharon is giving away a $25 gift code. Visit her blog for information regarding how to be eligible to win.  

So how are things with you?!  If you're like I am, you've been leaning a little harder on your coffee cup this week while trying to adjust to the time change!  My body clock has been struggling for most of October anyway...that 5 hour time difference between here and Edinburgh has been hard to get over!  I was just about back on track, but this one wee hour of time change will throw me off again!  🤪  


I had a lot of fun creating today's project.  I have an ivory Christmas tea cup with holly branches imprinted on it that looks a lot like this die cut paper coffee cup!  

 

I love projects like this that use up the odd bitty and bobbly scraps of paper, all while showcasing how various prints work so well together!  I love that little peek of tartan plaid in rich coffee creams and browns! Just a hint of Scotland!  And y'all know how much I love an interesting card fold! (This one is super easy.  It's just a 5 1/2 x 11 inch piece of card stock, scored at 1 1/4, 5 1/2, and 9 1/4 inches, held closed by a belly band).  


I stamped the bird and branches directly onto the die-cut mug (just needed a tiny bit of masking) and colored it all with Copic markers. (I debated inking the edges with tea dye distress ink but ended up leaving it just the way it was.)  All of the stamping was in brown ink, and for a little extra emphasis I took a fine point marker and lightly added a little black to the note "dots" on the music scores.  


Here is the inside.  I could have done more with those extra surfaces but decided that I really liked the more minimalist look for this particular card.  It kinda has a more masculine feel except for that big red bow!  

So grateful that His mercies are new every morning and that He is indeed a place of refuge because sometimes life can be challenging or just downright hard!  But still, I am thankful!  And it is November so gratitude is in sharp focus this month!       

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Thanks for visiting!  Have a great weekend, and Happy Veteran's Day!  
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Thursday, October 30, 2025

Shaped Masculine Birthday Card


Hi y'all!  

I'm here today with a card whose shape was inspired by a "front pocket wallet" that I gave my husband for Christmas years ago...less likely to be pick-pocketed and perfectly shaped to fit into the front pocket of his jeans.  


Here you can tell that this gift has been well loved and daily carried for a long time!  

No fancy how-to's for this project either...just a pot lid aligned along the top and side edges of a piece of card stock, traced with a pencil and cut with scissors.  For more control I chose to cut the front and back separately. Distressing the edges helps to hide any imperfections in your cutting, so you don't even have to be too particular about being precise.


I love the way this stamp set and the leaf dies go so well together!  I tucked a few sprigs (die cut from white card stock and colored with Copics, as were the pearls) behind a fish tail banner sentiment panel.  The twine wraps around the card front and through a tiny hole in the fold to tie into a small bow.  (I don't usually put bows on masculine cards but I felt like this tiny twine one would work out just fine!)


The inside reflects the same fonts and patterned paper as the card front.  Relatively clean and simple and super easy.
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Thursday, October 23, 2025

Sunny Days to Come!

Hello everyone!  I hope you are doing well and enjoying the beautiful colors of Fall!  They may already have peaked where you live, but here in the Deep South we are still in the very beginning stages if there's color yet at all.  Fall Foliage Map 2025

We did witness the most beautiful rainbow a few evenings ago when we were coming home from dinner at a local restaurant.  It was one of the biggest, brightest, most vibrant rainbows I've ever seen (the photo does not do it justice!), and the skies behind us were an incredible, intense yellow gold.  I have never seen a sky glow quite like that!   


I wanted to make a card that would reflect the look and feeling of that "Sunny Day."  (The original idea was to make get well cards for two of our nephews who were each in the hospital recently...but that little hint of pink in this lovely background paper got me side-tracked so I might need to revisit that intention!)


I stamped the Sunny Days sentiment directly onto a scrap of paper from our Coffee or Tea pad.  The daisy pitcher was stamped and colored with Copic markers and accented with Wink of Stella.  To tie everything together, I splattered it all with diluted distress oxide inks in hues of gold and pink, and then again with diluted white acrylic paint.  


There's a strip of that same paper inside.  I die cut a heart from it and inserted one cut from pink paper into the negative space.  More splatters here too.  

Well, what do you think?  One nephew has a wife and little daughter so maybe I could get away with sending him a card with splashes of pink?!  The other is 14 so it might not work so well there!  ☺️  

Stay golden!

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Thursday, October 16, 2025

Square Column Fold Card


I love this fun fold for displaying a card upright, and was especially happy to find that our border stamps fit perfectly within those score lines!  Easy peasy!  


I stamped it right onto the card base, colored with Copics before folding, then simply added patterned paper and a little more stamping to spice up the rest of the card.


The colors of the designer papers and the Copic markers that coordinate with them portray the beauty of  Fall at its finest!  Some of us, depending upon where we live, must live vicariously!  ;)  I suppose the spattering of copper ink and diluted white acrylic paint could even be considered to represent an early snowfall.  


This photo shows the card's easy "box" construction.  The measurements and method can be found in this tutorial.  

  
I cut the inside leaf into two pieces before adhering it to either side of the inside fold so that the card would fold completely flat for mailing.  Fits into a standard envelope and with the exception of the bow it would be completely flat for mailing. 
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Thursday, October 9, 2025

Time for Tea!

Hello everyone!  You might have noticed that it's been quiet around here for a few weeks!  I was in Scotland from September 22nd through October 2nd.  Usually I try to stamp ahead of time and post cards while I'm traveling but this time there was so much to do, the trip kinda snuck up on me!  

This was my second trip to Scotland.  Last year we went in May, so the weather was similar.  We repeated some of the same locations/activities this time, dropped some and added a few different ones too.  One of the things included for both trips was a trip to the Balmoral Hotel for afternoon tea!  Here's a photo of my desserts from last year (we had pastries, dainty sandwiches and savories before that, hence the to-go box)!  This year I was more "in the moment" and didn't take nearly as many photos.  It was so nice to be able to relax and enjoy without feeling the pressure to document.        


For this year's tea I was seated on the inside corner of a table for seven which meant that the server had to reach w a y across the table to pour my cup of Jasmine Silver Tip green tea...and he MISSED!  Oopsie!  So my card for today is inspired by the pretty Balmoral table setting and a well known passage of scripture to go along with that "mishap."  


I used our Coffee or Tea bundle for the cup die cut and some of the sentiments, adding the greenery from Farmhouse Signage to the top of the tea cup to mimic the Balmoral's china.  If you look closely you can see a splash of tea underneath the tea cup.  

On the inside that splash has become more of a puddle, just as it was IRL!  😂   

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The results of spinning with friends in the Lounge at the hotel in Dumfries.


On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond!  🎶


A mirror selfie in the hotel in Glasgow...this is the entirely spindle-spun, hand knit sweater that was inspired by a photo of a Highland Coo that I took last year.  


Another coo...


and another wonderful tea at Kitchen Coos and Ewes.


Sunset on the beach and bay behind our hotel on the Isle of Mull, taken through the dining room window with such a magnificent view.


The ruins of the nunnery on the Isle of Iona.


Some of the Iona flock...I have spun fiber from this flock in the last year too!  I am knitting some of it into fingerless mitts.


And in this photo I was spinning the Iona Abbey color way (from Inglenook Fibers) while visiting the Abbey.  Such a beautiful, sacred, serene space.  I love it there so much!    
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Thursday, September 18, 2025

Tartan Plaid and Turning Leaves!

 

I'm leaving for Scotland on Saturday so of course I had to use a plaid on today's card!  It ended up being a fun card to make using paper from several different pads and two of our beautiful stamp sets.  Black and Beige is one of my favorite color schemes, this time made even richer with a bit of "chocolate."  

This is another no coloring card!  This leaf is so beautiful in bold changing colors courtesy of a sheet of designer paper from Craft Consortium's Metal Textures pad.  

The adjacent sentiment is stamped on a sheet from Test of Time, which has a bit of a wood bark feel.  

The cross was stamped onto a sheet from the Scorched Wood pad, and sits atop another print from Metal Textures.  


Inside, there's another scrap of the tartan plaid against a background from Test of Time.  

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I'll be leaving Florida's temps in the upper 80's for Scotlands 50's with lows dipping into the low 40's, so I'm trying to decide what to pack.  I'm touring with a knitting group, so we're all looking forward to some Sweater weather!  Last time we were there I was either too hot (indoors) or too cold (outdoors) so this time I am determined to pack thinner, more adjustable layers that will be more comfortable outdoors and in.  I'm taking my hand-spun, hand-knit Highland Coo inspired cardigan!  I finished it just in time!  

Fingers crossed that I will find some beautiful fleece/fiber and yarn to bring back home as souvenirs from this trip!  🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇺🇸 

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Thursday, September 11, 2025

Count your blessings and give thanks!


Hello friends!

Today's project was inspired by one sheet of Ink Drops Vivid designer paper where the sage blue-greens faded to golden yellows.  I thumbed through the rest of my paper pads looking for prints that would harmonize and landed upon a few prints from Echo Park It's a Boy!  (Kinda nice to be able to use that paper pad for something besides baby boys, as much as I love 'em!  The colors work great together IRL but my camera kinda struggled to catch them accurately.)  


I'm also trying to use some of my "just shy of card-size" bits of card stock, so I went with something sort of like a buckle card using Tim Holtz tags.  I like that this layout gives an opportunity for those various prints to play together even from the inside.  


This photo shows how the tag (two pieces of designer paper glued together and scored so that they'll fold over the front edge) attaches to the inside.  I used the tag die cut to remove a portion of the white mat and designer paper layer to eliminate some thickness/heaviness, so the tag actually adheres to the gold card base.  

Since the "baby" paper print had leaves of various colors, I grabbed one of our other Fall sets to stamp and die cut a few leaves from scraps of the harmonizing prints and some card stock.  No coloring at all on this card!  Just stamped ink.  

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Thursday, September 4, 2025

We Will Never Forget


It feels like a "God-wink," a Divine appointment, that just as I am sitting at the keyboard to write today's blog post, the commercial on the TV in the background is talking about how our brave firefighters run toward danger rather than away from it.  I will never ever forget watching the news coverage of September 11th when the firefighters and first responders of FDNY ran bravely toward those two towers still determined even while understanding the horrific danger.  

Our policemen, firefighters, first responders, and our military make me so very proud to be American.  I'm so grateful for them!  They came running when the ginormous tree fell onto our home in September of 2004 from Hurricane Jeanne, and they even came to change a smoke detector battery that is so high up that we couldn't get to it ourselves!  Our Station #22 is awesome!  And hey, speaking of hurricanes, please include the linemen in this group...they come from far and wide to get our power going again after the storms knock everything out.  Another reason to be extremely grateful!


This is an easy card to make and looks like a traditional card when closed, but reveals an extra fold on the inside once opened.  The base is a standard 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch piece of card stock folded portrait style, with another 5 1/8 x scant 8 1/2 inch piece (scored at 4 and 6 1/4) adhered to the inside.  The window die-cut into the card front allows the circular focal point to peek through from the inside.  


Here's the card half-opened.  The right half of the circular element is adhered to the interior fold.  


When fully opened, the date, pledge, and "Patriotism" sentiment become visible.    


To get the cleanest ink impressions, plan your layout and stamp the sentiments before adhering the various elements together.  

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Thursday, August 28, 2025

With Heartfelt Sympathy

Hello everyone.  I'm here today with a sympathy card for one of our dearest friends whose father passed away in the wee hours yesterday morning.  We were close enough to this sweet, gentle, kind man to call him "Abuelo."  He always had a huge smile on his face and was quick to offer a hug and a soft word of encouragement. We loved him, and he will be sorely missed.

I wanted the card for his family to be filled with the kind of Light and Life that his life represented so I selected some designer paper in lovely Summer sky colors paired with a bright and colorful sunflower.  

The sentiments are from a couple of our Sympathy sets.  These sets come separately or in various bundles, and include a nice selection of sentiments to choose from.       


Here's the inside, clean and simple with another strip of that Retro Summer designer paper and a stamped sentiment.  

I hope to go to the florist in the next day or two to purchase a sunflower bouquet to go along with my card.  When we were in Michigan visiting Patrick's family we purchased a gorgeous sunflower bouquet at the farmer's market.  Those blooms were spectacular (nearly plate-sized!), so I'm hoping to find something similar here.    

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