Just a Note - The Grettery

I've been playing along with some challenges at A Cherry On Top and Splitcoast Stampers. 

I started with THIS SKETCH AT ACOT and THIS ONE AT SCS, 

they are very similar and a great place to start.

I made a cut file with the silhouette for this set in an effort to start using the tools I have on hand.  

It's a pretty easy process, just take a few minutes to scan the initial stamped image. I had my first image already colored which helps me to find them when I go to use it again in the Silhouette files.  

I cut my background with The Greetery Postal Frame Die. 

Then stamped another panel just to fit inside the frame with 

The Greetery Windowpane Plaid Background Stamp.

I fussy cut the Sketchbook Roses Stamp Set that I had already copic colored so I could cluster them in the Signed & Sealed little envelope I had already die cut and stamped. 

I finished by adding the sentiment and faux wax seal from the same Signed and Sealed set. 

A little twine and some post dots, and this lovely little note is ready to go in the mail.  

Have a great Super Bowl weekend and I hope the team you are rooting for wins.  

I'll be enjoying the food and half time show but likely in my craft room.  

Bye for now!

Hello Beautiful!

Hello Beautiful, yes I'm talking to you! 

I hope you are doing well.  

I made this card just for you today.  

Despite the rain, wind and hail I think it's a perfect day to play along with a few color challenges.  

I started by stamping and copic coloring this gorgeous image by The Greetery to make a cut file, then once I realized it's easier to cut first then stamp and color I figured I would just go ahead and finish a card with this gorgeous image.  

Both color challenges I looked at had purple, lavender and green palettes. 

The stamped imaged is layered with Impression Obsession inks.

The blossoms are lavender and orchid. 

The leavers are IO turf and MFT Jellybean green. 

A Cherry on top also has a challenge to use different fonts in your title so this die from The Greetery worked perfectly for that as well.  So pretty, and so easy to attach with the letters being connected.  

I made the background with dies from The Greetery and Sugar Pea Designs.  

I finished by adding a ribbon and button from my stash. 

You can find the Splitcoast color challenge HERE. 

You can find the A Cherry on Top color challenge HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 

Bee Mine

Hello, Hope you're having a great day.  It wasn't an easy start for me.  I'm not used to city living and every single noise wakes me up, then I can't fall back to sleep.  It's a struggle.  And this morning my neighbors directly behind me started a new patio.  The banging and power tools started early.  So I got up and went to yoga, but honestly I felt like I was ready for bed at 6:30! So playing in the craft room to stay up a bit longer.  lol.

I colored this adorable Penny Black image and made my first Valentine card for this year. I love coloring this cute little fairy outfit.  And I think the colors just pop against the Valentine papers.  

I used the Mojo Monday sketch 529. You can click HERE to see the sketch.  

After layering up the papers I finished the card by adding some ribbon and a little die cut heart.  I stayed pretty true to the sketch and I think it turned out awesome!  And I was concerned because the coloring of my black hair ran a bit and I wasn't so sure I should finish, but I did and I think it turned out great.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Unity stamps and a CAS challenge

Hey, hey stampers! Hope your doing well.  

I had an awesome start to my Sunday.  Ever have one of those classes that kick your booty, but makes  you feel so accomplished after?  Well, that was my day.  I started with an intense Warrior Sculpt class.  If your not familiar it a high intensity work out combining weights and yoga moves.  You are moving the entire class with weights in your hands.  Even with tiny weights it's a workout! Then I did surrender yoga, this is the AHHHHHHH! type class.  It's a more mat based yoga class where you get into a pose and hold it a while.  It's just a great stretch to follow the intense class.  ThenI finished with a meditation class.  Which, I honestly don't remember because I'm pretty sure I slept through it.  lol. It as awesome and I felt so good after.  Then a nice new hair trim to finish the afternoon.  Now I'm just relaxing in my stamp room.  And get to talk to all my stamping friends :) 

On to the Splitcoast Stamper Challenge.  This week Lisa challenges us to use gold on our projects.  

I started my card by stamping the Unity KOTM image from Sweetness, Miracles and Kisses  in gold delicata ink, then heat embossing with gold glitter embossing powder!  

I love the gold sparkle, you should see it in real life.  It's SOOOOO pretty! 

I started coloring the image, trying to channel my inner gold goddess to come out but I went a bit to orange in my color selection.  But I loved it so I kept going! 

Then I used a die from The Greetery to die cut the panel.  

I really didn't think the card needed much else so I added just a touch of washiest tape.  

See all the gorgeous sparkle!  

Ok, I just couldn't decide what images to use, so you are getting them all.  

For more information on the challenge click HERE to visit the SCS clean and simple forum and play along!

Unity Challenge and Growing in Unity Winners!

Happy Tuesday! Today I am playing along with the Unity Show and Tell Face Book group challenge.   This challenge is all about creating cards for NEW BEGINNINGS-- could be new baby, wedding, new job-- etc. 

I used the stamp set Feather Flight.  I started by stamping a background (OK, I can't remember what the background is and I didn't label it) using my Misti. Then I used the ink I stamped the feathers with like water color and splattered the background.  I stamped the feathers and sentiment then fussy cut the feather.  I inked the edges of the sentiment with the same blue ink.  

My husband got me a new MacBook and tonight loaded it all up so I can use it with my Silhouette, so hopefully I can start creating cut files and get back to using the Silhouette more.  

I layered the images and tied them off with some twine to finish the card.  

And now for the Growing in Unity Winners! 

Ellie Hass Wilkins

Patricia Cousins 

Congrats winners! 

Unity Feather Flight 

MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle 

Misti Monday and Impression Obsession Challenges.

Hey again today, can you tell what I'm doing today? I'm getting caught up with all my favorite stamping challenges! For this card I combined the Misti Monday challenge on SCS and the Impression Obsession heart challenge. 

I use my Misti for everything.  Can't you tell it's well loved!? I stamped the floral spray then masked it off, then stamped the heart, using my Misti of course! 

For this card I'm using the Impression Obsession Floral Heart set.  Isn't it a stunning image. 

The Impression Obsession challenge is hearts. Isn't this gorgeous and is a heart for more then just Valentines Day, I made this as a note card.  

The Misti Challenge is to use the 2020 Pantone color of the year, Classic Blue.  

I don't think I use Blue nearly enough so this is working out well for me.  

Some copic coloring, then used the grid lines on the top of my Misti to line the panels up.  

You can find the Impression Obsession Challenge HERE. 

You can find the Misti Challenge HERE.  

If you can get some time to play along I would love to see what you make! 

Hope your having an awesome start to your week!

Love you more,  Joyce 

Misti Monday Challenge, Panatone Color

Have you seen the Misti Monday challenge on SCS? It is amazing! And the prizes are awesome! I hope to win so I can order the brand new improved Misti.  I use my original all the time, so I'm super excited to see what the Misti folks have done to improve it.  This months challenge is to use the Pantone 2020 color of the year, Classic Blue. 

I made this card using an image by Deep Red.  I colored with shades of blue to highlight the Pantone color.  I love it! Just reminds me of winter!

And here is a close up of the ribbon and embellishment. 

And of the coloring.  I find the darker blues and reds the hardest to color with, and my copic B28 was super juicy.  

While the rest of the crafting world is at Creativation I'm here all cozy and warm watching what's to come for us in 2020 and coloring with years years beautiful Pantone color! 

Have a great day and thanks for visiting! 

Growing in Unity Day 5!

 Hello everyone, thanks for joining me this week as I explored my Unity stamps and made some pretty fantastic cards if I do say so myself.  Today I have 2 cards for you.  First a warm and cozy card to send cheer to a dear friend.  This is another one of my favorite Unity stamps, I could definitely cuddle into a warm sweater today.  

I started this card by coloring the image then fussy cutting it.  I had no idea what I wanted to do with it so I pulled out some water colors and attempted to make a background, but none of my water colors matched.  So I scrapped that idea and went to my inks for a similar shade and ended up using a stencil to make a subtle background.  

I added a sentiment from a holiday kit that I thought worked perfectly.  

My fussy cutting isn't perfect but I think it gives a homemade feel to the card.  

For my second card I played along with this weeks CAS(E) this sketch challenge CTS355.

I bough this fun image last year and never used her so I thought I would make a card with her today.  

I added some ink splatter and a sentiment for a quick and easy Valentine card.  

Thank you all for joining me this week.  For a chance to win a prize pack from Unity Stamp Company be sure to comment each day this week on my blog, face book post and instagram.  

I'll announce the winner next week.  Thanks for playing along and hope you have a great day! 

Joyce 

Growing in UNITY day 4

Day 4, what a week it has been! So hard to pick what images from Unity to use, honestly if I had time I would love to do a year of Unity and make a card a week.  Maybe after my beautiful daughter is wed and moved on to begin her new family.  I first saw this image from a swap I participated in on Splitcoast Stampers and I just had to have it.  I love poppies, although I have never lived where I could grow them.  And I never knew they came in so many colors until I googled them for inspiration to color this image. 

Someone asked how I mail my cards so I thought I would share a few tips I have learned over the years.  First if the card is just a bit bumpy I just used an extra sheet of card stock and place it on top of the card in the envelope.  

If the card is a bit too thick for just a sheet of card stock I use a piece of bubble wrap and a slightly larger envelope.  I place an extra 20 cent stamp on it and write on it in red to hand sort. I've never had an issue with mailing cards this way.  

For this card I started with the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #528. 

Of course I used a little maneuvering of the elements but I think It turned out great! 

And one final close up of my simple pencil coloring for this gorgeous Unity image.  

If your just finding your way to my blog this week be sure to  comment on each post this week to be entered to win a Unity Stamp Company huge prize pack of stamps! 

You can enter here, on my fb page as well as on my Instagram post for each day.  

Hope your week is going well. 

Joyce 

Growing in Unity Day 3

Welcome! Today is day 3 of of my week of posts as the growing in Unity card maker. Each week Unity Stamp Company pick a different person to showcase their work. So that's 52 weeks of fun and inspiration as well as giveaways each week!  If you aren't familiar with Unity stamps be sure to check out their store HERE as well as Unity Show and Tell group on facebook.  It's an awesome group to hang out with and be inspired by.   

For this card I used the Focus on the Things stamp.  Isn't it awesome!? Unity has several camera stamps so if you love cameras or have camera loving friends to make cards for be sure to check them out.  

I used a black card base for this card so I had to finish the inside as well.  

Just a quick add of white paper and a swatch of card stock and it's all ready to write a note and get in the mail.  

If your just joining in this week be sure to visit each day of the week and leave a comment on all the GIU posts here on my blog, on my facebook page, and my Instagram and I'll pick 2 winners to win an awesome prize pack from Unity Stamp Company! 

Growing in Unity Day 2

Hello friends, so happy to be blogging along with Growing in Unity this week.  If you are  just checking in be sure to comment on yesterdays blog post as well for a chance to win a Unity prize. 

Todays card is a CAS card with one of my favorite embellishments, ribbon.  I still love ribbon and buttons.  This is a super sweet little Charlie Brown Christmas tree stamp that I just love.  It is super quick to stamp and color and makes not only perfect cards but tags as well.  

You can find Small Stuff Christmas stamp Here in the Unity Stamp Company store.  

The sentiment says life is about the small stuff Merry Merry Christmas.  

Be sure to comment on each of my blog posts this week as well as on my facebook and Instagram posts to increase your chances of winning an awesome prize of stamps for Unity Stamp Company!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.  

Growing in Unity Day One

Welcome! This is my first day post for my Growing in Unity week.  When I started making my cards for this week it was right before Christmas so you'll have to bare with a few more holiday cards.  I was really bad with holiday cards for this year and didn't mail any so I thought this year I'm going to make a holiday card a week so I'm all ready to go next year.  Do you make your holiday cards early or do wait until the last minute?  I"ll invite you to join me in making a card or tag a week, I would love to see them.  

For my first card I copic colored this image.  

You can find this beauty at Unity Stamp Company Here. 

A close up of the coloring and the sentiment I used.  

And that's it for me for day one of GIU. I'm so excited to be blogging all week with Unity stamps. And it's likely I'm wearing my Unity hoodie as well.  Maybe I'll get a pic when I'm all put together.  

 Be sure to comment on this post as well as every post this week here on my blog, on my facebook and on instagram (Joyce Casaldi) and I'll pick to 2 random winners for a very nice gift of stamps from Unity Stamp Company!

Thank you for joining me and have a great week!