I Love Butterflies

 I found the "Most Beautiful Butterfly Card" on Pinterest.

 Rachel Tessman , who blogs at, Stamp Your Art Out , has the full  step by step instructions  for making  the butterfly card and she also has a video on her blog. You can see them by clicking HERE.

I just had to copy her card but I made a couple of changes

As you can see, I made multiples  of this card because each of my sisters will receive this card for their birthdays this year.

I know you are asking "Where Is The Butterfly?" I didn't have a small butterfly stamp for the front  of the card so I decided to leave it off. 

I think the butterfly on the inside of the card is just awesome!

Thanks for visiting my blog today.
 I love to get comments and hope you'll consider following my blog.

Mid-Week Throwdown Challenge

The Mid-week Throwdown Challenge, over at Operation Write Home, is to make a white on  white card.

This is the card I made for the challenge

Months ago  I  won this Penny Black butterfly die when I left a comment on their blog. This is the first time it's been used but I think it is beautiful and I  cut out a dozen  more so they will be all ready and  in my file when I want to make multiples of this card.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm wishing all my friends and family a very 

"Happy Thanksgiving"

 or 

"Happy Turkey Day"

Can you see the owl?

Bring On The Sunshine

We've had three inches of rain over the last three days. Unusual for the desert.

Hope my card will bring on the sunshine.

I've been  trying to use up some of my paper scraps so I made this star burst pattern for the background.
I found a great video demonstrating this technique and you can watch the video here.

The sunshine and the sentiment are free digital images from Paper Smooches (did I say I love their stamps?) and can be found here. Of course I used my favorite color pencil and baby oil technique for coloring the sun. I then fussy cut the image and popped it by using foam squares.

Why Do I Love Owls?

I think it must be their eyes. Those great big eyes that are so expressive. It could also be the fact that their exaggerated features are just too darn funny!

That must be why I love using owls on greeting cards.

This card was made using a free digital image from Paper Smooches. Their stamps are so cute and I love the   fonts that they use in their sentiments. They seem to add just an extra touch of humor to the card.

The image was colored with pencils and blended with baby oil. The embossing folder is  Birch Trees by Darice. The oval was made using the Spellbinders Oval die set. I used foam squares to pop the owl image.

Thanks  for visiting my blog today. I love getting comments.
Kathy

So Sweet!

Isn't this little girl just the sweetest little thing?

The stamp used on this card  is from Hero Arts. The image was colored with colored pencils. The image was cut out using the Spellbinders Oval die and the accent border is also a Spellbinders die.  The embossing folder is from Darice.

This card and six more just like it are going in the box to be sent to Operation Write Home. I sure hope that this little girl will put a big smile on the face of the little girl who receives it.

Hope you have a great day. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back to visit my blog again soon.
Kathy

Catching Up On The OWH Sketch Challenges

I love the Operation Write Home Sketch Challenges but I've really fallen behind on completing the cards for each challenge. Now it's time to catch up on those that I've missed.

 This is the card I created for Challenge #199.

For the card base I used an embossing folder that I received as a gift from my sister a couple of years ago. The 3 white stamps were cut using the die that came with my Cuttlebug. The hearts were cut using the smallest heart die from the Spellbinders heart set. The letters were cut using the Hero Arts alphabet dies.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.   Comments are always welcome.
Kathy

I Used About A Pound

I just put the finishing touches on this little baptism afghan.   This is a TV watching (or TV sleeping)  project. It is an incredibly easy pattern.  Just crochet a chain the length you desire. I think I chained about 130 stitches and then it is all double crochet til the  blanket is finished. You can edge it any way you desire.  I did a bobble type border and a picot edge. This afghan used an entire skein of, Lion Brand  Pound Of Love yarn.

Now it's back to the card making. Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog  today.
Kathy

Fast Forward to Valentine's Day

I'm working hard to get some cute kid type cards and Valentines finished so I can mail a box full   of Valentine's cards to Operation Write Home by December 31.

This is one of the cards that I made  in a few different colors.

 

This is my favorite Stampin Up embossing folder. Love the tulip border. I've had the "with love" sentiment embossing  folder for a very long time but this is the first time I've used it. 

The digital image was colored using colored pencils. I blended the colors with baby oil. This is the first time I've used a white gel pen to make highlights on the little bear and her wings.

Many thanks for visiting my blog today. Hope you like my cards. I love getting comments.
Kathy

Cards For Christmas

Some of the first stamps that I bought, way back when, were stamps that I thought I could use for Christmas cards. I have a good size collection of stamps with snow covered trees, villages, and covered bridges.

I added a window die to my collection this year, but it just isn't large enough to really show all the scenery on my winter scene stamps. I found this great technique for making a "Window Card". 

Dawn from Dawn's Stamping Studio has a video and instructions for making this window card HERE
This card needed very little coloring. I used a little blue chalk for the sky and you can see the sparkle from the Stickles that I applied to the snowy roof tops , trees and snowbanks.

Made one card without the window sill.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog today.
Kathy

A Coffee Cup Card

In our family November is a "BIG" birthday month. I always have lots of cards in inventory, but when it comes to family birthdays....... I always try to make a special card just for that person.

 This is the card I made for one of those November birthdays. He likes his coffee!

I used the coffee cup card tutorial on the "Operation Write Home" tutorial page. Click HERE if you would like to see how this card was made. I did make a slight adjustment by attaching a gift card to the insert. Worked great!

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Hope you will visit again soon.

She Has A Job & Does It Well

It doesn't matter what I'm working on...... ChiChi always manages to be there right in the middle of everything. She's is often referred as "Quality Control".

Before we left Minnesota I bought three, 14 ounce skeins of Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the color "Aran". There are 744 yards of yarn in each skein. I used my favorite afghan pattern again but I made a couple of modifications.  I added more rows of double crochet. Just finished the afghan this week and as soon as I draped it over the chair to take this picture....old Quality Control jumped right up in the chair  and started to get comfortable.

Here she is giving her approval to  the new kitchen chair cushions that I made. It looks like they passed the "Nap Test."

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Hope you have a nice day and stop back again soon.
Kathy

A Little More Organized

My friend showed me her birthday card organizer and  I was so impressed that I went right home and made one for myself.

I used 6" x 9"  Manila envelopes, made a word document to use for addresses and name and birth dates, and I had a three ring binder all ready to use  for this project.

All I have to do to stay organized is list the names and birth dates for each month then enter each persons mailing address on the address sheet. Place the card that I've made for that person in the Manila envelope and record the date that I mailed the card.

Sounds so easy!
  I'm glad you stopped by today and hope you'll visit again soon. Have a great day!

A "Class" Card

Each month I attend a card making class which is put on by my good friend and neighbor, "Millie". She designs all the cards that we make and assembles all of the kits that she provides for each class. She gave me permission to post pictures of her class cards.

This is one of my favorites from class this month:

Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of my cards. Have a great day!