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The Wishful Snowman

It’s definitely unusual, but this is the second post for today! One of the dies from the Memory Box’s new Christmas Cheer release is a cute snowman, The Wishful Snowman.”  This card went up on the Memory Box blog this morning. I opted to keep it simple, creating a landscape of glittering snow, bare tree branches, and a bright blue sky. 

Although the glittering snowflakes in the sky are hard to detect in the photo, they doe reflect the light when the card is in your hand. I added a gold star to the snowman’s hand. This Wishful Snowman is sending lots of good vibes for a Merry Christmas.

I’m way behind on creating Christmas cards. A couple of years ago I started creating sets of cards each month, so by now, I’d have nearly 70 cards in my stash. Not so much this year, so every single one is a win. I’m sending this off to Addicted to Stamps and More where creating Christmas cards is the current challenge.

Woodblock Wednesday-July 2026

It’s Woodblock Wednesday, and I’m on time this month! When I started this card I thought it would be a second entry into the current Paper Players Sketch challenge. These squares seemed too large for that sketch so I went in a totally different direction. 

The woodblock stamp is one of two sunflower designs by Annette Watkins. The other is a full sunflower, but was definitely too large for the challenge or even this card. After stamping the flower three times, I colored it with Copic markers and die cut each with one of Ellen Hutson’s Essential Squares. I love these dies because each one cuts a frame as well as the square. I thought the framing was especially nice with these flowers.

The striped pattern paper has long been separated from the 6X6 paper pad so I’m not sure of its origins. The sentiment was stamped in dark brown and is an old favorite from Papertrey Ink’s Banner Sentiments. The card base is 6 X 4.5.

Thanks, as always, to Amy for this monthly event. It’s a great reminder to look more closely at the woodblock stamps I saved. Must admit, I wish I’d saved a few more. 

Paper Players: Sketch Challenge

A sketch challenge is not often where I start for a card design, but as soon as I saw the sketch from The Paper Players, I knew just what I wanted to do.

One of my recent purchases from The Greetery was the Tile Style stamp set. It’s a beautiful set of tiles in two sizes. I used three of the larger ones for this card. The tiles were stamped and then die cut with one of the Shortbread Shapes: Rectangle Labels.

I embossed the blue panel with a Stampin’ Up embossing folder and added it to a white card base. I purchased the embossing folder several years ago from eBay, and never had the packaging so I don’t know what it’s called. The Thinking of You White Gold Foiled Greeting Tab from Memory Box worked perfectly for the sentiment. The gold foiling prompted me to use two gold hearts die cut from Simon Says Holiday Shapes. They were added with tiny pieces of dimensional tape.

It’s always good to have another encouragement card in the stash.

Shortbread Shapes Tiled Birthday Card

Knowing that the end of July through the middle of September is incredibly busy, I’ve spent most of my crafting time making sure my obligations to the Color Hues and Memory Box Design Teams are completed. Now what time I have can be spent on using some wonderful new products I’ve acquired this summer. 

The Greetery’s Shortbread Shapes: Rectangle Tiles was top on that list. I experimented with a few design ideas, but ended up with a monochomatic card that I’m quite happy with.


After die cutting the Shortbread Shapes Rectangle in Vintage Cream cardstock, I ran it through in the Shortbread Shapes: Rectangle Tiles 3D Embossing Folder. The details are so beautiful, the card doesn’t need much embellishment.


For the sentiment I die cut the Shortbread Shapes Rectangle Label and added just one of the embossed tiles narrowly framed with gold cardstock and a sentiment from the new Simple Everyday Mini Sentiments embossed in gold. I didn’t center  the sentiment top to bottom, so I added three Pinkfresh Studio Gold Pearls. That was a mistake that actually improved the card, and when I make another (as I surely will) the three gold pearls will be right there. 


This card is off to a very special event at Darnell’s NBUS site—be sure to click through to read about the amazing number of cards submitted from 2020 until today created with Never Before Used Stuff! I’ve contributed quite a few myself, but this is the first one for July. It’s also off to Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes. 

 Color Hues #137


Jules has chosen one of my all-time favorite color combinations for the new Color Hues Challenge: 


I have to thank teammate, Stef Perry, for the inspiration for this card. For our May 1st Color Hues Challenge, she posted a card with the Spellbinder Block Accent Arches. I immediately fell in love with them. It was part of a Spellbinder’s kit, and the arches were already out of stock. I put myself on the wait list, and when they finally arrived, I knew I would use them for this challenge. For the centerpiece, I’ll pulled out an old favorite from The Greetery, Best Bouquet Detals die. I have to say, I love how it all came together.


I die cut the leaves and guide for arranging the florals in black, adding flowers that I die cut and assembled from several hues of red cardstock found in my scraps bin. Then I die cut four floral pieces in metallic gold. 


The original gold berries were too intense for the arrangement so I die cut one in red and slightly offset the gold. Much better. Not long ago I spent an afternoon with my foiling machine, so the Spellbinder’s Fancy Sentiment Strips banner was all set to go, foiled in gold on black. 


The Color Hues Blog is showcasing some fabulous cards by our Design Team and our Guest Designers, Joanne James and Julia Aston. I hope you’ll find some inspiration there and join us in the gallery. 

Birthday Balloons

The Seize the Birthday Challenge: One or More Numbers came at just the right time. I have a birthday card to share that I made for my great-nephew who turned two recently. 


The Stamp Market’s Balloon Essential dies and Birthday Balloon Greetings are proving to be a good purchase. I’ve used them several times for kids’ birthday cards, but know that switching from the bright colors to metallic balloons will make great cards for adults as well. Once again, I pulled out the Lifestyle Crafts tiny stars embossing folder. It’s so old, I don’t know what it was titled when it was released. I chose a bright Kelly green, orange and yellow color combination. The number 2 was die cut three times with Papertrey Ink’s Block Numbers, also a very old product. 


In addition to Seize the Birthday, this is off to the Neglected Stuff Blog since I pulled out two old products for this card.

Christmas Greenery


I’m on the Memory Box Blog today with a festive Christmas basket featuring some wonderful new products from the just released Christmas Cheer collection. The Harvest Basket, Pine and Berry Sprigs and Fresh Poinsettia Bundle work together beautifully.  Die cutting, a bit of ink blending, and some glittery snow on the pine branches & it all came together nicely.

All the details are on the Memory Box Blog.

For the last several years, I’ve made 10 Christmas cards each month. By now I’d have 60! I’ve made a few Christmas cards, but not many, so I’m happy to have another in the stash!

I’m sending this off to The Card Concept where Christmas in July is one of the options. I was inspired by the Christmas theme and colors to create a Clean and Layered card.

Color Hues #136

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The new Color Hues Challenge is live with an elegant color combination, chosen by Julie:


One category of cards I never have on hand when I need them are sympathy cards, and this beautiful combination seemed perfect for one. 


I pulled out two much older, and neglected, products: Papertrey Ink’s beautiful die cut butterfly from the Life is Beautiful set, and Gina K’s wonderful embossing folder, Tapestry. I die cut the shadow for the butterfly and the panel for the embossing folder from Simon Says Cream cardstock. The detailed butterfly was die cut from metallic gold, and then from black. I snipped the body and antenna from the black and added it to the gold butterfly.


After embossing the smaller panel, I added it to a cream card base and attached the butterfly at a slight angle with some dimensional tape. The sentiment, gold foiled on black, is from Spellbinder’s You Are Everything set. A CAS card with lots of elegance thanks to the detailed embossing folder. 

The Color Hues Blog is showcasing some fabulous cards by our Design Team. I hope you’ll find some inspiration there and join us in the gallery. 

This is a perfect card for the Neglected Stuff Challenge, so I’m sending it over for the July challenge.