Monday, October 19, 2026

My Birthday Cards

 These are my pretty birthday cards I received and thank you so
much for thinking of me on my 74th birthday!!

From Vicki


From Barb


From Donna


From Leslie


From my local cardmaking friend Suzi and her hubby Keith


From Ellie from our Four Seasons challenge DT


From Judy


From my brother Jim (aka Miles)



Handmade for me from my hubby LOL
He also wanted me to know he wrote the poem he had inside, too funny!!


From my oldest son Scott and my DIL Heather and kiddo's


From my daughter Lori and my SIL Carey


Then if you are signed up for your birthday with Simon Says Stamp they have a birthday gift for
you as well, you do have to place an order to get the 'free' gift but that is not a hardship.
Here is this years gift:


Pretty nice gift I'd say!!
Then Art Impressions sent me a $10 gift code to use
and The Greetery added 250 free points to my rewards.
Nice gestures from all!!
And to add to the fun I won a $50 gift card from Whimsy
Stamps, a $25 gift card to Stamp Simply and a $20 gift
card to Taylored Expressions, so had a lot of shopping to
do on my birthday as well, how FUN!!

I spent my day working outside in my gardens trying to get ready for
winter, then we went to granddaughter's college volleyball game (they won)
we left there and went to the casino to eat and play a bit
I cashed out $100, $70, $50 and $245 tickets.
I'd say I did pretty good, but I paid back hubby what he lost,
we always do that, if one loses and one wins we always
pay the losses back, if we both lose, now that is a different story LOL!!
Saturday night my daughter and SIL took us to a restaurant of my choice
for my birthday and I chose a Italian restaurant I love at the 100 Center in 
Mishawaka, Indiana



They play Frank Sinatra music and my hubby loves it
so it was a good choice for both of us!!

Our after dinner picture:
Left to right, my brother, (we laughed as he had stepped out of line
and the picture makes him look like he is inflated lol!!)
Then my hubby, me, my oldest son Scott and DIL Heather,
SIL Carey and daughter Lori!!  Lori works for Notre Dame so she had on a very glitzy ND sweatshirt,
it lit up the whole room when the sun hit it!!


That was my day, another year around the sun as they say!!

Sunday, October 18, 2026

A Merry Christmas

Hello friends, I am back with my second  card this month for our
challenge at Peace On Earth.  We have a mood board for inspiration 
but  you can create anything as long as it is Christmas themed.


Being the mood board is all Santa's I went with that and used another of my
Stamperia clear die cuts Classic Christmas
I purchased back in 2024, yes that's right, about time I
started using them don't you think??
I also die cut a Spellbinders oval and rectangle to adhere my Santa to. 
I popped up one of the clear holly die cuts on Santa's hat.
A few gems were added for sparkle.  The holly paper is Echo Park's
Have A Holly Jolly Christmas (2023). 


Come on over to Peace On Earth and get a head start
on YOUR Christmas cards, we would love to have you!

Entering the following challenges:
BYSHC ....Falling For The Holidays



Saturday, October 17, 2026

Old Goat

 Today is my brother's 76th birthday so I had to make him a card
that would be perfectly appropriate for him.


Here is my card, do you see the resemblance LOL??
When Stampendous came out with this stamp in 2019 I knew I had
to buy it just for this purpose and here it has sat unused until today,
crazy right?  Unfortunately it seems that when I buy something new
I rarely get to use it right then as I am always working on a DT project.
Well, hopefully that will change as I am hoping to have all all my DT
projects done before the end of the year and have freedom then to
create whatever I want, when I want!!


A pretty simple card that I will be entering into the following challenges:
Sweet Stampin .... Cute Creations
Addicted To Stamps & More #528 ....Birthdays
Crafty Animals #110 .... ATG with Animals
Critter Crazy #115 .... ATG with a Critter


Friday, October 16, 2026

Happy Haunting

Happy 'almost' Halloween!! 
We are running strong at Two Old Bats and this is a reminder
that we are halfway through our challenge so hurry and join us.

We have a fun mood board for inspiration but you can create
anything as long as it is Halloween!


I pulled the 'easy' card this time around using Whimsy Stamps
Grunge Ghosts quick card fronts.  I love that you get eight different
panels (no 2 alike) and two sentiment sheets.  Even the front packaging is
useful for tags and such! 


 The pumpkin in the wreath in the upper right
corner of OUR mood board is what inspired me with this panel.


Come join us at Two Old Bats and be sure to check out the DT
inspiration while there!

Entering the following challenges:
Try It On Tuesday .... Halloween
Just Us Girls .... Mood Board
Whimsy Stamps .... October Halloween Challenge




Thursday, October 15, 2026

Deepest Sympathy

A new challenge starts today at Beautiful Blossoms 
and we have a pretty inspiration board perfect for October!
You can create any blooms though in any color.


For my card I once again pulled out a very OLD stamp set from
Flourishes  Garden Picks.  this set has  three different floral images
and a ball glass jar plus a few sentiments.  I am so happy to 
have these older stamps designed by Marcella Hawley as her
designs were always beautiful, thank goodness I don't purge!
The flowers were colored in with Copics then die cut with an oval 
Sizzix layered die.  The pretty papers are P13 Hello Autumn
that I ran a Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Strip to separate the two designs.
The sentiment is from The Ton easy expressions.


We would love to see your 'blooms' over at Beautiful Blossoms!

Entering the following challenges:
The Paper Funday #92 .... Pumpkin Spice (I used the pumpkin color)
Sunday Stamps #396 .... Autumn Whispers

The Card Concept #230 .... Fall Harvest
(Inspired by the flowers, colors in my clean & Layered card)





Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Fall Paintings

We are well into the FALL theme  at our The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge
and Darlene has a 'bonus' OPTIONAL mood board for you, 
but you can create anything fall your heart desires!


A year (or two) back I purchased these beautiful glossy card fronts
from Picket Fence titled 'A Fall Evening".  So many beautiful colors of fall
on these and they make a beautiful card front!
I couldn't stop at one, so I made two plus the fact I am really
trying to use my supplies up.  No need for a sentiment,
these will be great to send a nice fall greeting!

Card #1:


Card #2:


Aren't they beautiful?  They remind me of paintings!
Hope to see you over at The Sisterhood to have some FALL fun with us!

Entering the following challenges:
Card #1
Crafty Calendar
..... Autumn/Halloween
Sunday Stamps .... Autumn Whispers (going with the colors)








Saturday, October 10, 2026

Birthday Challenge at CYHTP

 Our OPTIONAL theme at Can You Handle The Pressure is
BIRTHDAY
but you can create anything as long as an embossing folder is used.
We want to see LOTS of embossing, not just a tiny embossed heart
or something like that, after all we ARE an embossing challenge,
let's SEE it!

I first stenciled a few balloons using a 
My Favorite Things balloon stencil and Altenew inks.
Once the stenciling was done I drew a few balloon strings then
ran it through my Switch with an old Cuttlebug birthday EB folder.
I die cut a fun bow and added a gem.

We would love to see your embossing folders at our
challenge at Can You Handle The Pressure!!