February 5th Weekly Post

 Hey, Everybody!

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Today's a big day for us, closing day on our new home this afternoon.

38 days went by quickly!

(Our realtor was released from rehab and is doing well.)

Prayers appreciated for a great outcome!

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Michele is hosting this week at Sunday Postcard Art with the theme of GEOMETRY.

I decided that this was the time to finally use my 8X10-inch Stamperia stencil about spirals.

I began by stenciling on letter-sized cardstock using Kitsch Flamingo, Twisted Citron, Rustic Wilderness and Prize Ribbon Distress Oxides. After it dried good, I scanned it into PSE, cropped and resized it down to postcard size, put a frame around it and then played to saturate the colors just a bit.

The stencil reads "In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point."

Is a Spiral a geometric shape? YES.

This video will tell you more than you ever wanted to know!

Is A Spiral A Geometric Shape? - Graphic Design Nerd

Michele loves Geometry and I love Michele, so I am doing it up right for her!

(And since I'm a notorious lower-level math nerd, I am more than happy to oblige.)

💜

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I made this birthday card for a lifelong girlfriend - we met in second grade.

She and my dad became friends later on in his life. He'd go to our mall to JC Penney where she was a manager, and she would shop with him, quickly becoming his personal shopper. They became quite close, which made me very happy because I love her like a sister anyway. Now she's retired and is her mom's caretaker. I cherish my lifelong friends so much!

To make this card, I used a Stamplorations sentiment die, a Crafters Companion floral stamp and die (colored with Promarkers), an Avery Elle signature die and the stamped sentiments that came with the floral stamp. The card base and strips are pink SU and the dp is KI Memories with punched corners. The sentiments were stamped with Versamark and heat-embossed using green tinsel powder. I used a green metallic gel pen to accent the seal dies and the stamped sentiment. I added a pink glitter foam heart to finish.

  

Here's the sketch I used. I stretched it an A9 size.

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I made this mixed media birthday card for one of my sisters-in-law.

This is a photo of the stamp set I used, a Katie Pertiet collab between Sizzix and 49&Market. It also included a die which I used for the floral. It's basically got a silhouette stamp and an outline stamp of the same floral. First time to use as I'd bought it recently. And I didn't really know which one I wanted so I stamped both of them using Lost Shadow DOX ink and clear embossing powder. I painted the outline one with my watercolors. For the silhouette one, I colored the stamp with Tombow markers, misted with water, stamped and then die cut both. I layered one on the other for the card front.

I used an SU card base, Kraft mats and K&Co. designer papers. I had yellow glitter off cuts from a Spellbinders die that I tucked under in 2 places. The dp has metallic foil and glitter on it, so to stamp my Hero Arts sentiment I used Versamark and blue tinsel embossing powder to match the little blue butterfly on the paper. The die cut label was ink-distressed with DI on the raised embossing and is a Cuttlebug embossable die. All papers were also ink-distressed as well, with Brushed Corduroy DI. 

  

And the sketch I used, stretching it to A9 size.

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That's it for me this time.

I hope the rest of your week goes well and a good weekend is in store.

Until next week,

XOXOX

January 29th Weekly Post

 Greetings and happy last week of January!

This month went by fast.

Our cold front ended up getting here a bit later and staying longer.

Thankfully the rain ended soon enough to not adversely affect us when the cold arrived.

No downed tree branches or power lines in my neighborhood or area.

Folks in the Deep East Texas Piney Woods a few hours north were not so lucky though, many are still without power.

And in a nod to my point last time that we down here do not know how to do ice and snow, multiple teens died while street snow sledding and/or falling through pond ice. And that was just in Texas. One hospital in North Texas reported 52 sledding-related injuries!

Prayers to all involved.

Winter Storm Fern's direct effect on me was to bake some cookies the first night.

I was so nervous about the storm that I did have a slight flare but managed to sleep it off.

These are chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (with walnuts and a few raisins).

Then the next day, Honey got into the action with some chicken noodle soup from scratch.

And I met his challenge with some homemade bread.

My 1990's Hitachi bread maker (HB-101, first model they made) is still going strong.

Funny story: right after I got it, I was so excited and tried to make some bread, but not being at all familiar with bread maker machines I took the baking chamber out of the machine first thing to mix the ingredients in it and then totally forgot I took that out and proceeded to pour a cup of water, not into the lift-out chamber, but right into the motor! Well, to say I freaked out would be putting it mildly. I was a young wife and mother on a budget and here I went and ruined this machine before I even used it! Frantically, I called their 800 hotline and got a very nice lady who calmed me down ("this has happened so many times") and proceeded to walk me through emptying the water out, using a hair dryer for 20 minutes on it, then putting it aside for 2 weeks to let it completely air out.

Two weeks later, it worked like a charm and has ever since!

Anyway, I hope I escape winter weight gain as easily as I got out of that near-miss bread maker calamity!

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The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Playtime, hosted by Sabine.

I've been really busy with the new house process (latest is we are good to close on Feb. 9).

Plus my birthday card schedule is heaviest the first 3 months of each year.

So the first thing I thought of concerning playtime was a HunkyDory stamp set I received in Creative Stamping Issue 92 called Sporting Silhouettes. When I got it, I thought, how am I ever gonna use this? Well, this is how. lol 

I snagged a Michael Jordan quote graphic off the internet and in PSE created the 4x6 framed card with the quote in the center. I printed it out, trimmed it down and then stamped the silhouette images and heat-embossed them, thinking I would then stencil the white area with yellow ink. But, I looked at it and thought, hey, it's a cool graphic look, so I left it that way.

Then, as soon as I finished, I thought of all the craft stamps, yoga stamps and music stamps I could have used for this theme.

Oh well, my time is precious right now, so this will have to do.

And I got to use that stamp set YAY.

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Here's a birthday card I made, still using the Art Impressions stamps made for water coloring.

It's an all-in-one scene stamp which I heat-embossed after stamping with clear powder.

I also used some acrylic paint pens and a little colored pencil, so it's a mixed media piece.

I framed it using an Avery Elle frame die, which I used a gold metallic gel pen to accent the inset in the frame. The designer paper is DCWV and the card base and frame are SU. The Wild Rose Studio sentiment was stamped, heat-embossed and cut with an Avery Elle die.

I did not use a sketch for this one.

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I needed to make a retirement card for a dear friend who is moving to a lake house a couple of hours away to be closer to her daughter, granddaughter and great grands. I again used an Art Impressions stamp for watercolor that is also supposed to be for a sympathy card. But since she has been really anxious about this huge life change, I thought the Bible verse was appropriate here. I colored the focal image with watercolor paints and cut it with a Spellbinders postage die. The KI Memories designer paper behind it was cut with an Amazon die and layered onto an SU card base. I cut some stash scraps with Clear Dollar dies and arranged them behind the bottom sentiment, which was stamped and die cut from a Spellbinders set. 

Adn here's the sketch I used.

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Well, that is all from me this time.

Thanks as always for visiting.

Hope you have better weather for the weekend and some fun, too!

XOX

January 21st Weekly Post

 Hello again!

That week whizzed by for me, how was yours?

It rained quite a bit here today finally. And mild temps for a few days then Saturday and Sunday it's ICEMAGEDDON! Everybody's hyping it. The forecast has it being 56F at 1am Saturday and a continuous drop in temp down to 29F at 5am Sunday. Then down to 21F early Monday morning, before a few days of 40's. Wow, IF that happens, that's a really deep front moving down. We usually get shallow/linear intense ones. It's gonna rain all day Saturday, which is why they are using the ICE prefix. That part's not fun and I'm not even going anywhere. High humidity cold is bone-chilling, so ugh! But seriously, nobody down here knows how to drive on ice and they don't even sell snow tires or chains, so everyone should just stay home IMNSHO!

And along those lines...

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Blue Monday and hosted by Mandy.

Hey, I've been retired for almost two decades now but I can still feel that feeling.

Mine was the Sunday night anxiety thing, so very little sleep sometimes.

With all this extra house-buying work, I definitely felt it lately.

I looked in my digital files, found that background from The Digital Design Dock Etsy, the not-listening woman from Elena Zinski Etsy and the Polkadoodles snarky sentiment, opening them all up in PSE. I created the Mondays in PSE. I printed out all the different elements after roughly resizing them all in PSE. Then I fussy cut them, arranged and adhered them to the blue base, adhered that to a black 4x6 base and added some orange Art by Marlene die cut border pieces from my stash to finish.

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And now, it just so happens that I've made 2 religious-themed birthday cards lately.

So I grouped them together to share:

First one is for a really good girlfriend. I've used Art Impressions stamps with watercolors and Tombows. The sentiment die cuts are by Amazon and Stamplorations. The verse (cut with a Spellbinders die and edged with a purple Promarker) came with the path stones. SU card base, watercolor paper and the focal image is edged in a tiny border german scrap from my stash. I bought white, black and gold, and am glad I did. Harder to find now. 

And the sketch I used, but I flipped it horizontally.

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For this card to a niece, I used Art Impressions stamps and watercolors again to create the lighthouse scene. I really like how the rocks turned out and how luminous the lighthouse color is. I stamped using a very light Versafine Clair, one of the new ones. And heat-embossed in clear powder so the lines create dams against the watercolor and if you use a light color it will look luminous. Plus I'm digging that color of turquoise, though I've no memory of it, lol. I'd picked up a tip about birds in the sky. If you want white birds against a dark sky like I have here, after you finish your sky then stamp the birds with a light grey ink. Then go over the lines with a white gel pen or white acrylic and a liner brush. Or just draw the birds freehand. So I did the first suggestion here. The card base and mats are white and navy  Recollections, the designer papers are KIMemories, MFT waves border dies and the vertical writing in white on dp is a Dark Room Door stamp in Versamark and white embossing powder.

And the sketch I used...and flipped the front elements vertically.

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Well, that's all for this time, folks!

Thanks for the visit and have a safe and warm week.

Until next time,

XOX

January 13th Weekly Post

 Hey there!

Hope the week is treating you right so far.

Our realtor is holding his own but still not out of danger yet.

Our week was taken up with a ton of paperwork, so he hasn't missed anything.

Appraisal should be next week or the week after.

Otherwise, same old same old. 

The weather here has been consistently cool this week. Today it barely got to 60F in the daytime, which is cool down here, lol. Lows in the high 40's. Every 3 days or so, we get another little front to keep it this way.

I feel kinda confident saying we won't have any snow this winter because we had no hurricane this past summer. Old wives' tale but truthful most of the time (all of the time in my lifetime).

Y'all can remind me if it does snow, lol.

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Feathered Friends, hosted by Deann.

I need a few more Mardi Gras decorations, so when I saw these crows/ravens at Trendify Designs Etsy, I got them to use. And of course, I had to go with the low-hanging pun fruit of Mardi Caw. Corbeau is the Cajun word for crow, and the groups that form to create parade floats, parties and general mayhem at Mardi Gras are called Krewes. So these crows belong to Krewe du Corbeau (the Crow Crew, translated lol). I have a neighbor who relocated here after Katrina from New Orleans, and she has approved this message. 

😁

I layered the digital image onto a 4x6 blank document in PSE, added the text with the Text tool and printed out. Then using some DCWV glitter card stocks in green and purple, I cut them with an MFT ric rac die to create the top and bottom borders. To finish, I added some yellow gold glitter card stock diamonds that were cut with a Spellbinders die.

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One of the things I have on my 2026 list is to use the Art Impressions watercolor stamp sets I've been buying over the last few years. AI has a specific way of using Tombow markers scribbled on an acrylic block and picking up with a damp brush to paint. Also stamping by coloring the different parts of the stamp with the Tombows. I've watched several videos and decided to make some card front focal images.

This card uses their wagon stamp and various small flower and grass stamps. The card base is SU and the designer papers were in my scrap stash. I used the MFT ric-rac dies again with white card and also an Amazon sentiment die and Memory Box butterfly die.

And here's the sketch I used.

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Okay, this is a Flip-Flap Easel card I made for my friend who lives on a farm on the edge of the Sam Houston National Forest a couple hours northeast of me. She loved this and frankly, I do too, lol. I think it's my best one so far. I used AI stamp sets that had the barn, the fence, birds and the tractor, and also the grasses and wildflowers/weeds. With the help of these, I created the landscape. Lots of layers of Prima designer papers and white card mats on an SU olive green card base. Ink-edging with Distress Inks and a vertical Happy Birthday die that I cut from card I painted same color as the barn. The garden poems are very old rubber stamps, the makers of which I've long forgotten.

Here's the sketch I followed. I went one further and put my flip flaps on a full tent card base, then scored the back across in the middle and glued that shut at the top half. This created an easel which I connected with a stop so it wouldn't do the splits under the card's weight.

The Flip...

The Flap...

Inside sentiment...

Side view of the back easel holding up card. I added some thicker card stock to the bottom inside lip to help it stay straight and strong.

And here is a view of the scored card stop I added. Very low tech, I know, but hey it works!
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Well, that does it for me this week.

I hope we all get some mild weather, whichever hemisphere/season we're in.

Have you made a list of some arty things you want to try or do more of in 2026?

Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for visiting!

xoxo

January 7th Weekly Post

Hey there!

Hope everyone survived the week's weather!

From monstrous snow drifts to record heat, this winter is definitely not a consistent one so far. Just when you think a pattern is forming, BAM! Nope.

We've had a rollercoaster week with our offer on the house accepted on Dec. 30th, then a few minor surprises in the inspection report, but before then our realtor was rushed to the ER January 5th, diagnosed with sepsis and is currently fighting leg and heart infections in hospital. We're just kinda in shock and trying to figure out what to do if anything with the clock running. His Re/Max team finally kicked in today and appointed someone to get up to speed and be our eyes and ears in his absence. Hopefully she will be contacting us soon. And the seller agent came by tonight to offer an extension of 5 days. So we feel we are gonna be good albeit not ideal. It's just stressful for us anyway not having done a home purchase in so long. To have this monkey wrench thrown is even more stressful. We're just trying to focus on praying our realtor beats this and regains his health. He had already done a lot of the heavy lifting.

So, onto a more peaceful and calming home scene, shall we?

This week Anne is hosting a Snowy Landscape/Cityscape theme at Sunday Postcard Art.

Using 4X6 white deckle-edged watercolor card, I stamped the Art Impressions barn and tractor in Versafine Clair and heat-embossed with clear powder. Then I drew two hills and snow drift on the tractor wheels with a Stabilo Aquarelle pencil. I had also stamped and fussy-cut masks and applied them to the barn and tractor, then watercolored the sky, tractor and glitter-brushed the snow with Wink of Stella. I also colored in parts of the snow background with a white Posca. I couldn't find a quote that spoke to me about my scene, so I composed one, written it in my longhand with a blue Posca. Lastly, liberal amounts of Stickles Frosted Lace, Icicle and Arctic Ice were used. 

Angle shot to show the glittery shine.

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This birthday card for a girlfriend features a digital image from Power Poppy called Layer Cake. After printing out on Springhill Digital and coloring with Promarkers, I trimmed it down for my layered center stack of various designer papers in my stash, all ink-edged. I stamped the Creative Visions circle sentiment with Versafine Clair and heat-embossed with clear powder before cutting it with a Spellbinders circle die, then layering that onto another Spellbinders doilies die cut from yellow scrap card.

And here's the sketch I used.

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This birthday card I had a little fun with. I'd never used a stencil and black ink to cover brightly inked colors before, but it works! I took a 5x7 piece of card stock and Distress Inked horizontal bands in a rainbow color order. After that dried, I used my new A Colorful Life stencil and Black Soot Distress Oxide ink to create the focal heat tree. Below it I added a Kat Scrappiness shadowed inset sentiment die cut from card that I'd also inked with the DOX inks, and below that I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment using Versamark and Ranger Magenta embossing powder. To finish, I added 3 tiny Altenew enamel hearts to the tree and colored the center heart with a Posca paint marker.

And the sketch I used.

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Well, that's it for me this time.

Thanks for visiting and I hope your week ends in blessings.

Seeya next week,

XXO