Sympathy Pocket Card & A Royal Jewel Pen

Hi sweet friends!

Since the Penmaker and I made the trek last Thursday to Pennsylvania, we thought we'd head toward West Virginia today. Didn't quite make it though. It seems there is an inordinate amount of road construction going on in Ohio. As we approached the east I-70 on-ramp, we could see traffic at a stand still. After waiting a good amount of time, we decided it was a no-go, and backed up and off the ramp and headed west. We had a lovely drive even if not to where we wanted to go. Southern Ohio is as beautiful as West Virginia, after all.

My card today is part of a series I created for a special order. The papers are a mix of Bo Bunny and 49 & Market. If you haven't used anything from 49 & Market, you simply must. Very high quality, and gorgeous besides.

The dies used are all Alterations Thinlits... Lace, Garden Greens, and Stitched Ovals. The butterfly is a Tim Holtz Botanical Layers. The light pink organza ribbon is from Joann's. The flowers are all by I Am Roses.

Another special order... this one from the Penmaker.

A chrome Royal Jewel in a special mix designer resin.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Quick Love Forever Tag

Hello friends!

If you're like me you always need a quick tag to add to a gift bag. I put one together using some Kaisercraft scraps and a piece of black cardstock. Tags are simple in that you don't need a lot of supplies to come up with a design, and can usually be made from the leftovers laying on your craft table.

I already had a sheet of 3x4 tags cut and ready to go in my Kaisercraft stash, so I grabbed this one. I backed it with a piece of a coordinating pattern. I glued on a wood humming bird, a "love" sticker, and an unused "forever" die-cut from a previous project, thankfully in black.

I added an antique brass filigree to the left corner, a tiny wood key, and a vintage Prima fabric flower with a multi-pearl center. I wide metal eyelet with a coordinating double seam binding bow finishes it off. Simple and ready to go.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishes Anniversary Pocket Card

Hello dear friends.

 It's another cool day in Ohio, but nevertheless beautiful and sunny. Our temps have barely reached the seventies for several days, and it's downright cold at night. That always happens when I decide to put the extra quilt away for summer.

In honor of the sunny skies, I'm showing a golden yellow pocket card today. This started out as an all occasion card. In the end, I added a gold glittered 50 to the chipboard frame, and we gave it to our friends who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I didn't get a photo of that alteration, so please use your imagination as to the final look.

The papers and printed chipboard are from the Prima Time Traveler collection. The bird image was printed from my computer. The beautiful seafoam and yellow flowers are from I Am Roses.

The doily was cut with Alterations Thinlits Doily die.

The rhinestones are by TPC Studio, the vintage lace is from my stash, and the soft yellow organza ribbon is from Joann's. The tiny wood key came from my favorite wood shop down in Tennessee (where I'm longing to visit about now, but have to wait until fall).

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Framed Bird Sympathy Pocket Card

Hi friends!

Busy week at our house, but the Penmaker and I took a day off yesterday and ran away. Our destination was Butler, Pennsylvania. I'll tell you more about that later. For now, I have a sympathy pocket card to show you made with Bo Bunny's Juliet collection with a bit of Kaisercraft Fairy Dust.

I did a lot of layering on this card and made a number of die-cuts... all from Alterations. The doily is  Thinlits Doily, the frame (it's doubled for extra stability) is Bigz Ornate Frame 2, the oval is Thinlits Stitched Ovals. With the Petaloo teal Botanica flower are Thinlits Garden Greens leaves that I heat embossed with Ranger UTEE, and Thinlits Wildflowers.

With Sympathy is from the Kaisercraft mini stamp set Sympathy. The bird image is one I printed from online onto white cardstock.

Now back to Butler, PA. The Penmaker (wonderful husband that he is) is always on the lookout for scrapbook shops. He found this one, Scrapbook Super Station, in Butler on Wednesday, and drove us over there on Thursday. It took us a little over two hours, but was a gorgeous drive and the weather was ideal. And the store... Super Duper. We had a great time going through their massive selection of supplies. Just about anything you would want, but a little light on some of my staples like Prima papers and flowers. I picked up a couple sheets of Rossibelle, which is almost impossible to find. They had 49 & Market on which I spent most of my budget... Vintage Artistry papers and lots of their new flower packs. I was tempted to buy Tim Holtz's new Oxide Distress inks, but the rack was nearly empty, and I was wanting all the colors at once. All in all a great shopping experience... very friendly staff and an extremely nice fellow crafter I met down one of the aisles. Be sure to check this one out if you're anywhere near.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yellow Botanical Pocket Card

Hello friends! 

I'm off to an early start to make up for yesterday. Seems that I didn't accomplish anything worthwhile. So with a mug of coffee in hand, here I go.

This pocket card, made last week, is sporting a botanical image I printed a couple years ago and stored in my stash along with dozens of others. Good thing, too, because my new printer isn't nearly this quality. I paired it up with my Prima Time Traveler, using the yellows and greens from this beautiful collection. The bottom floral mat is from Echo Park's Celebrate Easter by Lori Whitlock called Little Chickadee. You wouldn't think that would go with these other papers, but it distressed nicely and fit right in. It has a definite vintage calico look.

The flowers and leaves are a mix of Petaloo and I Am Roses. The doily was cut with Alterations Thinlits Doily and heavily inked with Walnut Stain Distress.

I wrapped some of the mats with natural burlap string, and added a printed Prima chipboard ticket and two wood elements from my favorite wood shop in Tennessee... a tiny key and a hummingbird. My bow is pale yellow organza from Joann's bought on sale at 60% off.
And on that happy note I'll close.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Life Pocket Card and Another Unique Circuit Board Pen

Hi friends! Happy Saturday!

It's not even ten o'clock and the Penmaker has the car washed and ready to go. It's so hot, though, we'll probably just stay at home. Seems like a good day to be inside and read or create.

Here is a card I did this week with Stationer's Desk by Prima. As you can see... all neutrals. I avoided the reds in this collection so I could add these lovely Tim Holtz Botanical Layers to my mix.

I cut a few pieces of foliage using his Alterations Garden Greens with a dark green color from the Core'dinations Kraft-Core Nostalgic collection. (Which I'm assuming is a thing of the past since I see Idea-ology is now producing Tim's line of Kraft papers.) They are teamed with a single white rose from I Am Roses.

The beautiful old lace is, I believe, one from Webster's Pages.

The "sweet life" is from Tim's Quotations Metallic stickers in silver. The half pearls are by Queen & Co. The frame was cut with Alterations Ornate Frame 2 and is doubled. It's popped up with foam adhesive.

The Penmaker's newest circuit board writing instrument is called Deco-Pro. You can get all the details here. It's a beauty!

Thanks for stopping by!

With Love Pocket Card

Hi sweet friends!

Today I have a pocket card with layers of beautiful Stationer's Desk papers from the Prima collection. This truly is a favorite of mine partly due to the appearance of pens, pencils and ink bottles in the patterns. You can't beat a good writing instrument. Nor an antique ink bottle. I have a collection of Civil War era ink bottles I bought during the time we had our CW book business. I sold off some, but kept a few of the more special ones that I couldn't part with.

I felt this card needed a bit more pizzazz, so I used a glittered Petaloo Botanica bloom instead of the plain red. I put in a couple of Petaloo leaves and a bow of ivory burlap string.

Along side went a Prima timepiece brad from the Engraver collection.

The doily was cut with one of Tim Holtz dies by Alterations...

and the tag is part of the SD collection. The tiny red rhinestones are by TPC Studio. Everything is distressed and sponged with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

You & Me Mixed Media Pocket Card and Circuit Board Pen

With not doing art journaling in a while, I thought I'd keep my hand in by created a mixed media card. In the end, I actually didn't do that much to this card, but it was fun to play with some super heavy gesso, a stencil and inks. The card is fairy heavily distressed though.

The papers are from Prima's Time Traveler collection. Some of the ephemera are by Tim Holtz. So are the game spinner and fastener... all from Idea-ology.

The ecru cotton lace is from my stash. The wildflowers were cut with Alterations Thinlits dies. I bought this set some time ago, and this was my first time to open up the package.

A Prima Tag Me piece from the collection adorned with one of my wood butterflies from Tennessee and a burgundy rhinestone from TPC Studio.

More wildflowers mixed with foliage cut with Thinlits Garden Greens.

I found a scrap of wired burlap ribbon and added it into the layers.

 And last of all, a double bow of wrinkled seam binding tied to the tag.

And something brand new from the Penmaker. This is a gunmetal Dauntless click ballpoint writing instrument with a clear cast circuit board. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Stationers Desk Love Pocket Card and Family

Still working with my Prima collections, this one being Stationers Desk. The colors of these papers are gorgeous, but seem to be hard to photograph. These shots certainly don't do them justice. 

I created this pocket card with various elements from the collection, along with I Am Roses burgundy and red roses and their leaves.

Now a bit of family news. Meet Tommy... our newest grandchild (number ten) and our son's first child. What a blessing! As you can see by the onesie, Seth is still making movies and doing very well at it. In fact his latest is in the top 10 on Amazon this weekend. Can't help doing a little boasting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always Pocket Card

Hello crafty friends!

As I normally tend to do, I've gone digging through my huge stack of paper collection boxes and pulled out Time Traveler from one of the Prima boxes. I say one because there are three in my closet stuffed full of Prima goodies. Time Traveler is a favorite of mine, but not much used. Why on earth is that? The colors and patterns of these papers are definitely my style, but I have trouble finding the right flowers in my stash to match. Today I think I did okay.

I searched through all of my flower boxes and found this glittered Prima beauty. Added with a few I Am Roses blooms and leaves, it fulfilled my expectations. Along side the Prima printed chipboard timepiece, they all blend in pretty nicely.

I believe the fancy wood heart came from The Funkie Junkie. It's been in my stash for a long while, so I'm guessing.

The brightly tinted robin is from Tim Holtz new Botanical Layers by Idea-ology. The wood key is from my favorite wood shop in Tennessee.

A close-up shot of that fabulous Prima flower. I need more like this. It would be nice to lay in a stock of new flowers about now. I've been looking around, but can't seem to find just that right type that say "buy me". Do you know what I mean?

I finished it all off with two sizes of ivory half pearls. They always add just a touch of elegance.

Thanks for stopping by!

Teal Time Pocket Card and Two Wood Pens

Up today is another pocket card I created with Bo Bunny's Juliet collection. I've made so many cards using these papers, and I never grow tired of them. The patterns are stunning and so varied.

Along with Juliet are Prima's printed chipboard and a wood timepiece... both vintage, some old lace from my stash, and flowers from Petaloo.

I also have a couple of the Penmaker's newest writing instruments to show you.

These are both called American Patriot. This one is antique pewter with segmented wood...

and this is in chrome with dyed curly maple.

Thanks for stopping by!