It’s been such a mild winter so far here in Maryland that some days it already feels like spring. The warm temperatures have inspired me to create with spring-like colors. For Lori McAree’s January Release Party Challenge, I made a patchwork background by glueing 3/4″ squares of patterned paper on a 3″ x 4-1/2″ piece of white card stock, which was then cut with the largest Labels Fourteen Nestabilities die. I embossed the smaller label image in white on pink card stock and added the oval sentiment on top with dimensionals.

The card base was embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder, but it looked too dramatic so I softened it up a bit by adding the vellum paper layer. The organdy ribbon was adhered to the card with Scor-Tape behind the smaller pink label.

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I am looking forward to another year of Jen del Muro’s “Sketches For You To Try” and hope to create cards for all 12 sketches this time around. January’s sketch was a great starting point for my father-in-law’s birthday card. He loves sailing!

There are still a few days left to participate in this challenge. Click on the sketch below for details…

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Here’s a 7″ tall birthday card I made today, using the first Viva la Verve sketch of this month. I paper-pieced the birthday cake from Verve’s Birthday Bash stamp set with striped Bella Birds designer paper and colored the candles with Copic markers. It was the perfect image for trying out my new Liquid Pearls, too.

The sentiments were stamped with Chocolate Chip ink on two embossed oval die-cuts and placed on top of the classy label die-cuts. I tied two buttons to the So Saffron ribbon with embroidery floss.

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We are celebrating the 100th birthday of my great-aunt Louisa today! She has lived in a convent most of her life and worked as a hospice nurse until she retired. She doesn’t like to be in the limelight, but I hope she won’t be too uncomfortable today. At least she’ll be surrounded by lots of relatives, and I know she’ll enjoy having us all there!

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It’s a shame I can’t just drive to my sister’s house and drop this birthday card in her mailbox, because then it wouldn’t be arriving too late. Sorry, sis! Hope you have a wonderful, warm, and sunny day in Belgium today!

The Dutch sentiment could be translated as: A birthday is a day that floats between yesterday and tomorrow (but my translation skills are quite rusty). I used a Viva la Verve sketch (6/10/11) to get my mojo started. Love the pretty papers in BasicGrey’s Sweet Threads collection!

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Thanks for your concern, Pat and Marilyn! I’m still here, just not stamping as much as I used to. It took a Mojo Monday sketch to get me in the mood again.

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William and Kate picked a wonderful date to get married: my sister’s 22nd wedding anniversary! Thirty years ago, Charles and Diana chose to get married on my parents’ 20th wedding anniversary. The apple does not fall far from the tree!

Of course I wanted to make a “royal” anniversary card for my sister and her dear husband this year. Luckily I had recently purchased this Lovely Labels 3 stamp set from Gina K. Designs, which includes a couple of crown images. I found a fitting background paper in BasicGrey’s Ambrosia collection.

Best wishes to William and Kate, and to Linda and Roel!

Whenever I design a card for a shoebox swap (as this one for today’s get-together in Fort Meade, MD) I try to come up with something quick and easy, yet appealing. I decided to use the misting with markers technique with this floral image from Gina K.’s Stenciled Spring set. Love the effect, especially when you stamp on watercolor paper.

This time (I think) I came up with the layout myself — at least I wasn’t closely following somebody else’s sketch. I’m sure I must have seen it somewhere along the line. I embellished the Labels Ten die-cut by piercing a hole at both ends and inserting a knotted piece of black hemp twine, that was then taped to the back.

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Last month I made this card for a sketch challenge on StampTV (gkdfeb11sd). It just dawned on me back then that these flowers from Gina K.’s Spring Mix stamp set go really well with Stampin’ Up!’s Thoroughly Modern Designer Series Paper. Don’t you agree?

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I’m so glad spring has finally arrived! Here’s a little card to celebrate my favorite season.

I followed sketch SC320 from splitcoaststampers.com and used the out-of-the-box technique with my daffodils. I stamped the image with black ink on white card stock, colored it with Copic markers, traced a rectangle around the image with a pencil (letting the leaf on the right-hand side extend beyond the drawn line), and cut it out. The patterned paper I matted the image with is the same as that on the left panel. The white organdy bow was attached to the card with Scor-Tape.

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