Dandelion Wishes

For my 8-year wedding anniversary, I wanted to make something for JP since I can't remember the last time I made him a card. I also wanted to keep it simple because like always, I get grand plans in my head only to realize I am out of time.

I wanted to play around with my distress inks because I want to use them for upcoming Christmas cards and I've forgotten all my color blend combos. (Thank Christ for Kristina Werner) The combo I used was Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon and Scattered Straw. I used a cute Bunny stamp from Mama Elephant and used Copics to color it in. I'm also starting to realize that some of my markers have dried up (I mean, some of these are 10+ years old so I think that's a pretty good run!) so I am trying to discover new combos for my critter stamps. Thankfully, I DID write those down. But this just means I get to ask for Dick Blick gift cards for Christmas! 

We Make a Great Combo!

Good news was recently shared in my family- my brother-in-law got engaged! To be honest, he's been with his girlfriend for so long, I cannot remember what life was like before her. It'll be nice to make it official though!

I wanted to make them a congratulatory card and I knew the exact stamp set to use. Years ago, I bought this set from My Favorite Things (RIP to a real one) entitled We Make A Great Combo and it's all different kinds of food that go together. I thought the burger and fries was beyond adorable and before I had put everything back into storage, I had started to stamp and color but never made anything with it. Until now!

I used the stitched heart die from Waffle Flower and colored it with Fired Brick, Scattered Straw and Squeezed Lemonade distress ink. Using copics on the stamps, I also used a white Posca marker that my husband gave me a long time ago for accents. The next part literally took me two hours. I had different letter dies that I cut out to spell combo and I tried embossing the first half of the sentiment on black paper, but I haven't embossed in years and I forgot just how tricky it could be! I kept messing it up and then the letter dies were too big so I just went for a simple sentiment. (finally got the hang of embossing again!)

Excited for a fun wedding! I know my son is looking forward to ring-bearer duties. =)

It's all coming back to me now

I finally got to a place where crafting was possible again. While my craft room now also doubles as my office and my son's playroom (Legos everywhere is super fun!) it's still a space I've been carving out for myself. When my friend Rachel's birthday was coming up, I knew I wanted my first card in over three years to be for her.

It took me a LONG time to figure this out. At one point, I had all of my birthday stamps laid out on my table and it was just overwhelming. So I picked something simple and looking at the card now, I'm kind of disappointed and how simple it actually turned out, but baby steps.

I used a balloon die from Waffle Flower partnered with the corresponding stencils which helped me use my distress inks to shade them red and yellow. Rachel shares my love for Disney so I grabbed another Mickey stencil I had and used it only for the larger balloons. I was going to add a border but then it looked too cluttered and then I tried balloon strings, but it also looked messy so I left it as it was. To end it, I added a small sentiment on the bottom. 

Not my best work, but I was dipping my toe in. It certainly opened the floodgates because I've been creating other things since then (oh the fun of discovering Copic markers that have dried up!) 

I'm tackling Christmas cards next.... in October. 

2025

 An unexpected hiatus- probably one of my longest, but unavoidable. Life has completely transformed since that last post in August 2022. Crafting took a backseat for a long time. I managed to make a few cards but it's been so long that I no longer remember colors, techniques or even who they were for, sadly. So I'm just going to post them without comment. 

I've recently created a new craft space for myself and hope to get back into the swing of it by the holidays. Wish me luck.