Well, here we are after all this time. 2026 is starting off with a bang and bucket list items. I attended the 2026 Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA (lots of rain and lots of fun). And on January 19, I became a grandmother for the first time to a little baby boy. I feel like I've already had a full year!

I had fun over the past 6 weeks working on 3 different Valentine designs. 

The first is a CASE of a Tammy C. Wilson card. It features a retired stamp and die set by Stampin' Up called Sweet Conversations and Sweet Hearts, respectively. I used an old woodgrain 2D Sizzix embossing folder. Ink is Wisteria Wonder, Sweet Sugarplum, and Versamark. Embossing Powder is the wonderful Brutus Monroe Alabaster. Patterned paper was also retired from Stampin' Up! The splatter pattern was made with a spatter stamp from MFT. Cardstock is SU's Wisteria Wonder, Sweet Sugarplum (both retired) and Rich Razzleberry. Embellishments are from my stash.

The next card features a Honey Bee Stamps 3D embossing folder called Spring Medley. I used Pinkfresh Studio's Shaker Hearts dies, their Breezy Blossoms stamp, die and stencil sets, and their All Kinds of Wonderful stamp and die set for the sentiment. Inks I wasn't so good about keeping up with. I know I used Concord & 9th's Nectar and Grapefruit and then I used an orangish-red ink for the darkest color. The greens are very blue-green inks such as Distress Evergreen Bough. I used my handy color wheel to pick the greens and I was not disappointed. 

The last card features the super cute Simon Says Stamp die set called Mail Call along with Taylored Expression's Papaya cardstock and Stampin' Up's Pretty Peacock. The sentiment is computer generated. The background uses Waffle Flower Love Postage Collage stamps along with the original WF Postage Collage stamps, all stamped with Concord & 9th's Powder dye ink. The arch dies are Spellbinder's Essential Arches. (Can you tell how much I like the coral-teal color combos?)

I am entering the Just Add Ink Challenge, the Cut It Up challenge, and the Alphabet Challenge.

Today's card uses a fantastic set I stumbled upon at Simon Says Stamp. It is called Fantastic Flowers and when I purchased it (on sale!) it came with stamps, dies AND a stencil set. Now, that's winning. Currently only the stencils and dies are available. I've been watching oodles of Jennifer McGuire videos and she's done so much ink blending through stencils that the technique called my name. 

I first stamped the palm frond stem in Versamark on Hammermill 80lb white cardstock (later I glued this to a 110lb Neenah Solar White Classic Crest piece after they were both die cut - gave it some real heft). I also stamped the Happy Birthday from Simon Says Stamp's Circle Sayings Stamp set in Versamark. I used my Ink on Three Gold Rush gold embossing powder (five stars, highly recommend) to heat emboss both images. Next, I put down the stencil and blended Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire together. I was thrilled with the results and I know I will make more because it was so fun. (A thanks to Cathy Zielske or I would never have thought to do the stem before the stenciling but it worked perfectly). 

I used the matching die to cut the stenciled image and a "shadow" from Stampin' Up's Berry Burst cardstock. I glued both these down onto 110lb Neenah cardstock. I die cut the circle saying with a circle die from Trinity Stamps and popped it up with some foam tape. The wonderful hole-free sequins are in a brushed gold and from Spellbinders. Pretty simple card that was really fun to make.

I'm going to enter this at Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge PP731. I think it meets the criteria of sentiment, lavender, and glitter. 

I hope to get back here with more cards but I know I will post more on my Instagram too. Thanks for reading this and happy crafting. 

If this card looks familiar it’s because it is a carefully made CASE of a card posted by the uber talented Martin Stone of @martinmayhem on February 4. His blog post on it is here. Instagram post is here.

You’ve probably had it happen to you where you see something and HAVE TO make it. I went so far as to get the retired stamp and die set, called Happiness Abounds, off eBay (very reasonable price, thank goodness) in order to make this card. Since then I have made other cards with the stamps and dies. I think if I were stuck on a deserted island with my craft supplies I'd take this stamp and die set with me, it's so good. 

One game-changing idea I learned from Martin’s Mayhem is how to alter a diecut to better match the color of your card. When you stamp an image on white cardstock, color it, and die cut it, you end up with a white outline around the image. Sometimes it works with your design and sometimes the white is just too stark. On this card, Martin colored the white outline with alcohol ink markers to fit in better with his card. Now I've started doing that (I used watercolor here) and I'm loving the results.

I stamped the flowers from Happiness Abounds (retired) on watercolor cardstock with black Distress Archival Ink and watercolored the inside of the images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers (I know Dull Blue was one of the colors). I used a waterbrush with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink to color the leaves, and then with Misty Moonlight ink to color the outside edge of the images, just before I die cut them. After this, I splattered the image with white ink. Specifically, I used Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White ink. I am splatter-impaired and both the black and white ink from Dr. Ph. Martin's allows me to use a small paintbrush to make tiny splatters with NO giant blobs falling on my paper. It dries super fast and I think I am "cured" from my impairment. 

I stamped the sentiment from another amazing SU stamp set called Good Feelings with black Memento ink onto 80lb white cardstock, and used one of the dies in the Happiness Abounds stamp set to get the spiral notebook edge at the top.

I assembled it to copy his card as best I could, adding lots of different bling when I was done. I was very happy with the results. Thanks, Martin. 

What I've used here :

Cardstock: Watercolor paper, 80lb Hammermill Premium Color Copy Cover, Stampin’ Up! Misty Moonlight

Stamps: Happiness Abounds (plus matching dies), Good Feelings, both by Stampin' Up!

Ink: Distress Archival Ink in Black Soot, Memento Black Tuxedo Ink, Distress Ink Fossilized Amber

Other: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White ink for white splatter.

My last September dog card celebrating the season of Halloween and trick-or-treaters.

Here are all the supplies I used for the three cards:

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cover stock, Stampin’ Up! Basic Black, Soft Suede (retired), Hello Honey (r), Pumpkin Pie.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Stamps by Judith & Heather - Scruffy Pup, Trick-or-Treat Pumpkin, all tiny “stubby” stamps; Sentiments - Happy Halloween from SU’s And Many More, Autumn Greetings from Autumn Wreath set by Pretty Pink Posh

Patterned Paper: All from My Favorite Things

Die: Mini Slimline Stitched Layers by Popsiclesticks (Etsy store)

Markers: Mostly Copic, a few are Spectrum Noir.

Embellishment: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, black gel pen to add movement lines

These were fun to make, except for the fussy cutting it took to make itty bitty leaf and candy corn masks.

I am entering all three cards in the Sept 11 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Four Legged Friends, the Tic Tac Toe 256 Challenge, and the As You Like It Challenge. 

My second Halloween Doggy Card is featured here. 

Here are all the supplies I used:

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cover stock, Stampin’ Up! Basic Black, Soft Suede (retired), Hello Honey (r), Pumpkin Pie.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Stamps by Judith & Heather - Scruffy Pup, Trick-or-Treat Pumpkin, all tiny “stubby” stamps; Sentiments - Happy Halloween from SU’s And Many More, Autumn Greetings from Autumn Wreath set by Pretty Pink Posh

Patterned Paper: All from My Favorite Things

Die: Mini Slimline Stitched Layers by Popsiclesticks (Etsy store)

Markers: Mostly Copic, a few are Spectrum Noir.

Embellishment: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, black gel pen to add movement lines

These were fun to make, except for the fussy cutting it took to make itty bitty leaf and candy corn masks.

I am entering all three cards in the Sept 11 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Four Legged Friends, and the Tic Tac Toe C256 Challenge and the As You Like It Challenge.