Nordic moose!

 

I love this Nordic Moose from Poppy Stamps but doing it in white silhouette made it hard for me to photograph the details. Do you think he needs a bow on his antlers?

The red and green plaid paper is from Honey Bee Stamps, and the sentiment is from Spellbinders'.

He's propped up on Fiestaware plates.

Dancin' moose!

 

This is the "Dancin' Moose Klondike" from Spellbinders.  He's just so stinkin' cute!  The white panel is embossed with the 2D embossing folder of the month from July, "Hexi Snowflake", and the striped paper and gems are from a Michael's paper kit from last year.  The sentiment is a free printable from Sassy's LLC, a channel on YouTube.

He's so tall that it needed to be a 5 x 7" card!

Yes, he's propped up on a Fiesta plate.

Dogs in Halloween Costume, How Cute is That?

 

I love the meme that goes around every year with the 3 yellow labs in ghost costumes, all ready for Trick or Treat.  So when Spellbinders came out with a die set for these I was all over it!  I didn't get the other set with sentiments in them, as they were from either Better Press or Glimmer, both of which I do not have the tools or desire to do.  So the outside "Happy Halloween" is a die-cut from a different set, and the inside sentiments are printed on lightweight cardstock and glued inside.

Except I had already ordered a similar one from the cheap Chinese place.  I looked all over for the brand name for the cheap one and couldn't find it not even as clipart. What I've seen on the cheap Chinese site is that a lot of the dies are ripoffs of .gif  or other clipart, but not necessarily other die brands.  What are the ethics there?  Same art but different product?  

This one is the Spellbinders' "Woof or Treat". So cute.

This one is from the Chinese site.  If you know where this design is from, please let me know so I can purchase it authenticlly from the real artist.

Oh yes, I did buy 4 more big paper pads from Michael's this week, 3 of them Halloween  themed.  I have gift cards and I'm not holding back any more! Although my stack of paper is threatening to slide over again.

Using up the bits & bobs again

 Two posts in one day, fancy that!

These simple thank you cards are the result of me trying to cut the sentiment bubble on the edge of cardstock.   The scripty word die is from CZ Designs, and the embossing folder is an old one from Darice.  The butterfly and bug are from Spellbinders, over 10 years old.

More blooms, of course.

 Three more sets of flower cards.  This first one uses Spellbinders' Be Bold Blooms, the next was flowers cut from the tie-die paper pad I've been working on using up.  The third is a generic flower that was cut from white cardstock and lightly shaded with some Distress Oxide in Worn Libstick. The greenery is from my leftovers box, and the sentiments are from Honey Bee Stamps.

Little Whittles

I'm playing with my little Whittle dies from Poppy Stamps. I'm also making envelopes with old 12 x 12 paper I'll never use otherwise.  

I'm using the hearts embossing folder that was last year's folder of the month from Spellbinders.  This may be the closest I come to making Valentines, but we have a few weeks to see about that.

As I'm typing this, I'm getting my new AC unit installed. It's been an expensive month for me so far: new washer, dryer, microwave and AC unit.  Oh well, at least I have plenty of craft supplies.

 

Santa's arms are complicated

 

Spellbinders special edition card kit this year is "Santa Lane". It features a die set with a somewhat complicated Santa.  I managed to put together 4 incorrect arms before I cracked the code.

There are a lot of little pieces that create 3 different arms, 2 bent and one straight.  I went to several different videos to get the combination of arm/cuff/glove that works correctly.

I made this little cheat sheet from a picture of the dies I found on the Spellbinders website.  In the picture below, arm 1 is labeled "A" in the drawing above, and includes A, B, C and D.  The Arm 2 combo is numbered 1, 2 and 3 and circled in yellow.

 

The third arm, the straight one, is pretty easy to guess. 

I really hope these photos help someone else get these put together with less perspiration than I did.

Bigger cards for the time being

So, I have almost used up all the 5 x 7 card bases that I inherited from Mimi in 2004. Here are a few of the cards I made with a 12 x 12 pad from Michaels'.

The birds are a die from Paper Smooches, the hello is unbranded.

This is made with a combination of dies from Spellbinders and Gina Marie Designs.  The sentiment is from a very old set from Lawn Fawn.

Let's hear it for the butterfly from Honey Bee Stamps. The oval die is from Gina Marie Designs.

The "hugs" die is unbranded.

No dies, all the patterned paper. The sentiment has been stamped a while and was just waiting for a card to hop on!

The die was cut with a Gina Marie Designs die and embossed with a folder from Spellbinders.  The "thanks" is from an unbranded die.

 

It's May, it's May, the lovely month of May

 

Here, I was having fun color-dipping the layers of this coneflower die from Honey Bee Stamps.  The layers are cut with Spellbinders' Fluted edge dies and the rusty red mat is embossed with a Spellbinders' embossing folder.  I the "hello" die is from MFT, called "Hello There".  Who needs the "there" part anyway??

The card below is made with one of my 5 x 6.5 card bases, using paper from a Michael's 12 x12 pad.  The lovely butterfly is from Honey Bee Stamp's Lovely Layers Bugs.  I'm really loving that die set.  You can't tell by the photo, but the wings are cut from holographic silver cardstock. 

More from the beach.

 I forced myself to "finish" the May 2021 Spellbinder's kit before I started the June kit.  My kits are now coming well over half into the month now. I  got the June kit on the 17th, well after the affiliated crafters have put their "10 cards one kit" videos up on YouTube.

Anyway, here are the rest of the cards I made. Why yes, I did use the dies from the June kit, since I love the sentiments. 

Moving into May's kit of the month, finally.

 

Spellbinders' May kit of the month is "Beach Day" and is beach and tropical flowered themed.  It comes with a LOT of premade hibiscus die cuts, as well as a bunch of philodendron leaves. For this first card I used the dies that came in the kit to make the anchor and its chain, and filled in around the "ground" with various premade die cuts of shells and plants. Then I slapped on the seahorse in the upper right corner to indicate this whole thing is under water.

In this next card, a mini slimline, I used a mermaid with a beach umbrella and one of the many hibiscus flowers included, as well as 2 kinds of patterned paper and some of the plastic "gemstone" embellishments. This one wouldn't stay shut for a flat photo, even with a tiny glob of adhesive in it, so that's why it's a standup picture.  Funny story, I couldn't bend over far enough to get a more direct-on photo. I take these photos on my little screened in front door area, which isn't very wide.

The sentiment reads "Wonderful, Fresh air & sunshine, Summer life". 

10 cards, Spellbinders' Let Your Heart Soar

So, on the last day of February I'm posting the first 10 cards from the February Spellbinders' card kit of the month, titled "Let Your Heart Soar".

I took quite a few ideas from other card makers, but the most obvious is that I used a bunch of embossing folders (Thanks, Tina, at Cards and Coffee Time)

I pulled out my old sentiment dies and an edge die for this one. There are only so many ways I need to tell someone to let their heart soar, but I always could use some thank-you cards.

I also pulled out this old sentiment from Lawn Fawn, since it really seems appropriate.

I don't know about you, but I'm not sure who I'd send a "Dreaming, one of a kind" card to. But hey, they are already printed. I'm loving the little puffy stickers.

And, the star of the show is this hot-air balloon die, pieced and inlaid just as fine as you please.

I have already made 4 more from this kit, but they are not photographed yet. So, watch this space for some more flying themed cards.  I figure I'll keep going until the March kit is due to arrive. I haven't yet EVER run out of stuff in the kit to create with. This time I'm trying harder!