When I need a quick card, I often reach for my Songbird die cuts. When I first purchased this stamp and die set, I die cut multiple pieces and can usually put them together to make a quick card. 

The folk art nature of these dies seems to lend itself to kraft cardstock. I love the pop of bright yellow gold and orange against the brown.

For the second card, I die cut the Phrase Play #6 in kraft and layered it on a cream card base. Then I tied a piece of twin (from my very cool antique-looking twine holder) and layered a branch with a bird with dimensional tape.

The sentiment also comes from Phrase Play #6 (Papertrey Ink.)

Both cards fit the current Virginia's View challenge of Layers and Dimension, but I'm just linking up this last one for now.

Switching from a concentrated effort on Project Life to card making proved to be more stressful than I anticipated. This card doesn't even begin to match the idea in my head when I started to make a birthday card for a good friend. I even switched stamp sets in the end. But I am happy with this card, and it gave me an opportunity to use a die that arrived in the mail about a week ago—Sentimental Splits. I resisted ordering it when it first came out, but broke down when I placed an order during Papertrey's April release. No regrets. I think it will get a lot of use.

I created the watercolor background (on Tim Holtz Watercolor paper) for the original card, but it came in handy when I moved to creating an ombre butterfly (die cut from "Life is Beautiful") similar to the ones Laurie demonstrated in a Papertrey Make It Monday. I ended up using just two colors of ink, and sponged it on the die cut directly. I die cut a piece of vellum with the Scribbled Circle die and added a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins to finish it off. The sentiment is from Simon Says "Friendship Messages" and continues to the inside with "Happy Birthday." The "gems" on the body of the butterfly are Papertrey Ink's rainstones.

I'm linking this up to the CAS-ology challenge: OMBRE.

When these cards were made I was so sick of winter I decided to break out the butterflies for some of the March/April birthdays.

This card uses my new favorite paper pad, "Watercolor Wonder" by Maile Belles, "Life is Beautiful" dies, and some of the new "Sheer Basics" vellum, all by Papertrey Ink. I think it was Nicole Heady who created the card with this die cut technique during the anniversary release. It turned out to be pretty easy to do.

The next card uses one of my favorite papers from "Watercolor Wonder." It reminds me of the little embellishment clusters that some of my favorite scrapbookers use on their layouts, but so much easier.

I die cut the solid butterfly from an old Papertrey Ink pad I hadn't used in quite some time called "Pretty Pastels." The lovely sentiment is from "Inside and Out: Birthdays" by Papertrey.

It turned out to be very difficult to photograph, but the vellum is covered with tiny polka dots.

After two weeks in the sun, I'm hoping for an early spring in the northeast!

Recently a friend celebrated her 65th birthday AND her retirement. We had a great time at her open house, and took this card and a bottle of wine.

The card turned out to be a snap to make. I picked up Teresa Collins' Studio Gold "Create a Beautiful Life" paper pad at Joanne Fabrics a few months ago. I gold embossed the sentiment from "The Big, The Bold, and The Party" by Winnie and Walter, and added that panel to another patterned paper from the same pad.

The gold embossing powder turned out to be an almost perfect match.

The wine tag was created with the "Uncorked" dies by Papertrey Ink, some gold and silver papers from The Paper Source, and a strip of same paper used for the card. And, of course, some sequins.

All I can wish for someone who retires is that they enjoy themselves as much as I have since I retired! A former colleague told friend of mine who was considering retirement not to be in any hurry, since retirement was "lonely and boring." I felt so bad for her. I'm never bored, never lonely, and fortunately, neither is my friend who retired in October and is having a fine time of it.

We're off tonight to celebrate a wonderful vacation at The Dry Dock. Our friends, Bonnie and Ed, who just happened to be here on Longboat Key with us for several days took us there the first week we were here. We loved it, and already know what we're going to order this time around. Can't say I'm very excited about heading back to the cold. Matt tells us a lot of the snow has melted, but as I expected, there's still snow on the ground. Hard to imagine, sitting here looking out on the Gulf of Mexico in the bright sunshine.

As soon as I saw the dies and stamps designed for Papertrey Ink's anniversary by Maile Belles, I knew I'd be adding them to my collection. I also purchased her new paper pad, "Watercolor Wonder," and some of the gold adhesive paper they released. With these three products and a few sequins I got several March birthday cards created.

All the colors in the Watercolor Wonder pad coordinate with Papertrey's cardstock, so matching it to a card is so easy.

This gives you a better look at the gold adhesive paper which makes using these die cuts a breeze.

I needed a couple cards for guys as well, so I made two of these. I thought the colors were more masculine, and there are no sequins to be found.

This paper pad is going to get a workout! All the designs are printed on beautiful linen cardstock that's a great weight for "bumping out." I used to use dimensional tape to do that, but after watching Jennifer McGuire use "fun foam" from Michaels, I've started using it. It's a much better for mailing, pretty economical, and easier!