Thursday, June 26, 2025

Proud to be an American!

 

Hi y'all!

Since we live not so far from a naval air station patriotic cards are always in season, but I especially enjoy making them at this time of year.  Today's project was really fun, coming together with only one paper pad, one stamp set and a few dies.  


So fun and easy to mix and match these two-sided papers!  This patriotic floral is absolutely adorable.  

If you've been visiting here for a while, you've probably noticed that our fishtail banners die is one of my favorites!  The star is a Spellbinders die that I enjoy scoring and folding so that it is more 3-D.      


The easel fold is perfect for displaying a special card, but also adds extra "real estate" to show off more sentiments and stamps.  It's a 4.25 x 11 inch piece of card stock, scored at 2.75 and 5.5 inches.  Then an additional 4.25 x 5.5 inch card front is adhered to the bottom of the fold.


Here I have added the Pledge of Allegiance along with a heartfelt thank you.  I'm so grateful for our American service men and women and for all that they do to protect and defend our freedom.  

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If you're lucky enough to already own one of our Old Glory dies (the stamp sets are in stock but the dies are currently sold out) here is another "stepped up" option for the front of today's easel card.  
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Thursday, June 19, 2025

Celebrate Juneteenth! Let Freedom Ring!

When Sharon mentioned that I would be posting a card on Juneteenth and suggested a card using this verse, my mind was filled with memories from when I attended PT school in Galveston!  

Celebrating the holiday is a big deal there since Galveston is known as the birthplace of Juneteenth, where the end of slavery in the United States was declared on June 19, 1865.  It had taken more than two years for the people of Galveston to finally receive the "news" that the slaves had been freed as a result of Abraham Lincoln's January 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.  

I was living in Galveston in 1980 (attending UTMB School of Allied Health Sciences from 1979-1981) when Texas became the first state to declare Juneteenth a state holiday, so of course, it made a huge impression upon me.  Galveston hosts Juneteenth celebrations annually  (I love the words of their intro on this year's website).  The date became a national holiday in 2021.      

So my card for today is not a traditional red, white, and blue patriotic card, but rather a tribute to Juneteenth and Galveston Island's rich history with colors and images representing the ocean, sand, boardwalk and seawall (which was built from October 1902 to July 1904 after the devastating, catastrophic hurricane of 1900).  

The date of the original Juneteenth is displayed using dies from Tim Holtz Collector die set.   There's a bit of cheesecloth "fisherman's net" and a mother-of-pearl button to carry the island theme throughout.  


The inside of the card has another sheet of that gorgeous Ink Drops Earth background paper that reminds me of ocean, algae, seaweed, etc.  (It's on the front too but mostly covered by the "sand/seawall concrete" and "boardwalk" papers/textures).  

Lots of symbolism on this card!  And for even more symbolism...notice that that little star is not entrapped in the net.  Let Freedom Ring!  

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

4th of July Celebrations!


Hi y'all!  Just a couple more weeks until July arrives!  4th of July is a big deal in our household because my birthday is a few days before, and the 4th makes it easy to just extend the celebrating!  Besides, my husband is retired USN so we have always been a patriotic family.  Even with all of the craziness going on in our country lately, I still believe that the good ole US of A is the greatest nation on earth and I'm proud to be an American.  ❤️  I am praying for unity and healing in our land.  God bless America!  


I have had several patriotic paper pads on or beside my desk for a few weeks now, and I have wanted to use some of the little printed paper tags that are included, so that was the mission for today's 5.5 inch square card.   


This majestic eagle was a perfect fit and shape atop a Tim Holtz envelope, which is great for stashing a few of those little above-mentioned paper trinkets.  It's been a while since I have heat-embossed anything!   


These are all made from printed paper tags, die cuts, strips of card stock, a little stamping.  It may be a little corny but I couldn't resist using that "Uncle Sam hand" from the Tim Holtz Postale set.  I can just see the original Uncle Sam "I Want You" poster in my mind's eye!  (Here, in case you don't remember it!  It's been around since 1917!)


Here's the inside of my card.  Perfect for filling in a date and time and inviting a friend over to celebrate!

For years we have gotten together with the neighbors for a friendly neighborhood culdesac fireworks show, although with Nori (son's dog) here now, we will probably opt for charcoal snakes and sparklers rather than anything noisy!  

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Thursday, June 5, 2025

For Father's Day


Father's Day is less than two weeks away, so it is time to hurry and place your order so you can get to stamping!  For today's project I used a couple of sets from our Michigan series and several scriptures from a couple of our other stamp sets to make a card for my Yooper husband.   And I have to say...I sure do miss my dad!  ❤️

This project has hardly any coloring at all and even with all its different papers, stamps and die-cuts, was really quick to make.  I loved combining all these masculine prints (one from Scorched Wood and three from Metal Textures, including that cool steel tire tread pattern)...they work so well together.  


Here's a closer look at the Edmund Fitzgerald, stamped on texture printed paper with no coloring at all.  The only coloring on the entire card is the ship's wheel which has a very little bit of Copic brown.    


This fold is just a 4.25 x 11 inch piece of card stock scored at 2 3/4 and 5 1/2 inches. 


This is a peek at the underside of that circle that's adhered to the front and the center panel next to it.  I added scraps of some mappy paper from a discontinued pad that looks much like Vintage Emporium (I need to order that one!).  I wanted to include this "Train up a child" verse on this card as it is so perfect for a Father's Day card, so I stamped it onto another piece of that scraped metal texture paper that the ship was stamped and die cut from.  (I love that this fun fold gives lots of extra space for more stamps or designer prints).  


When the card is closed, the tags and little Father's Day sentiment are hidden, but when it is opened they are in full view.  


Here's a closer look at the tags.  

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