Floral Wreath for Mom

Hello! 

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and I've got a clean and simple card to share today.

I embossed the card base with the Starry Night embossing folder by Sizzix, and topped it with a little 'wreath'. With a Hydrangea punch (Martha Stewart), I gathered an assortment of blossoms (some colored with Copic markers) around a stamped doily frame (Papertrey Ink's Tag-Its #5).

The sentiment is also from PTI, Tiny Tags. I get so much mileage out of that set!

Stamps: frame - Tag-Its #5, sentiment - Tiny Tags - Papertrey Ink Paper: white - Papertrey Ink; Pink Pirhouette - Stampin' Up! Ink: Basic Gray - Stampin' Up!; Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko Accessories & Tools: Hydrangea punch - Martha Stewart; Copic markers; circle die - Spellbinders; Starry Night embossing folder - Sizzix; White Opal Liquid Pearls - Ranger

December 25th

Yes, I've got a Christmas card to share today.  :-)

Forgive me:  most of my blog post drafts are Christmas-related. I need time to photo-edit more of the cards I've made over the last 6 months! Seems I'm only sitting at my home computer on the weekend, and then only for a short bit of time before I'm off and running with other things (yawn....some of them are boring things...laundry, cleaning the house, restocking groceries, etc. - but they are necessary!).  

You get it, right?  The "25" on this card?

It's all about December 25th, Christmas Day! 

This little stamped circle was in one of those ah-mazing $1 or $2 scrap bags I get from my Stampin' Up! demonstrator. That was the nugget that inspired the rest of this card.

I layered a gold-embossed Filigree Star (DRS Designs) behind it, added sequins, a mod looking Christmas tree (Hero Arts), and assorted other little touches.

Last weekend, I planted a blueberry bush in our yard. I'm excited for an eventual harvest of delicious berries! I've got to watch out for birds...I think they like 'em too. Never planted berries before, and am hoping it is well worth it. I've been a flower gardener all my life, but I'm beginning to put food in the yard, too. Natural disasters in parts of the world that supply food to us all have me thinking hard about the matter.

Hey, thanks to EACH and every one of you who visit here, read through my posts, or take time to leave a comment. You warm my heart, and I am grateful!

Stamps: Filigree Star - DRS Designs; Merry Christmas Trees - Hero Arts; O Christmas Tree - JustRite Papercrafts; French Script background, "25" - unknown set - Stampin' Up! Accessories & Tools: gold embossing powder - Stampin' UP!; gold sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; scalloped-top tag - Stampin' Up! 

Minty Birthday Wishes

Hello!  I hope you're in the midst of enjoying your weekend.  Here in NJ, we're actually having some beautiful Spring days.  Monday it's supposed to reach 80 degrees, which is a mite bit too warm, too fast for me.  I'm not a fan of sweating too early in the season!  

Last weekend, my family and I helped pack over 46,000 meals at a Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack event near us.  It's my second year doing this, along with my eldest daughter.  This year, we brought along hubby and our other daughter, as well.  It's a lot of fun!  In two hours' time, we packed enough meals to feed 78 under-nourished children for a year.  That's pretty terrific!

I wish I'd done things like this earlier in my kids' lives, to get them accustomed to serving others. Now, as teens, their brains are more interested in scrolling through social media sites.  -_- 

My card today uses a little bit of this, a little bit of that, alongside some cute papers from American Crafts and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Daily Designs Sentiments.  I hope you like it!

I'm still making cards every weekend (focus right now: Mother's Day), but am spending far less time on the computer at home.  My job requires that I am on a computer for 8 full hours a day, and by the time I get home, I don't want to see another one. :-D

And, I'm about to make a quilt for our niece/nephew who will be born in the next couple of months. A new baby!  Squeal!  Haven't seen one in a loooong time.  We are excited for the new-parents-to-be.  They don't live close to us, but we look forward to seeing pictures and FaceTiming (is that a verb?) to meet that precious little bundle when he/she arrives.

Textural Grays

Hello there!  I've missed you!  I'd like to share a story about a project I recently worked on, and at the same time show you a card. Hang in 'til the end of this post for info on the card, plus a recipe for Jewish Apple Cake. 

Life has been very busy, to say the least. :-D 

What little time I've had for crafting has been spent not on cards, but on a birthday gift for my husband.  For the last two weeks, I've been sneakily putting together a scrapbook for him, but there aren't too many photos in it.  

Instead, I took a cue from my clever sister-in-law and did the following: 

I asked friends and family -- including old neighbors -- to share memories/anecdotes of my husband, or to give advice on turning a "big number", or to just say what comes to mind when they hear my hubby's name.  I received the loveliest assortment of endearing and sometimes funny words from many folks.  

Then I copied-and-pasted these memories into a Word document, changed up the font for each submission, printed on heavier-weight cardstock, trimmed and placed on sheets of 8x8 patterned paper.

A few folks did send me photos, so I included those, as well.  My husband was very touched by this special scrapbook. :-D

A few words about today's card:  I love gray.  I managed to squeeze in quite a few shades of it on this project. The patterned damask paper has two tones of gray, and the focal point cluster offers a few more. The velvet rectangle, complete with stitching, is from a sweater of mine. Looks great on a card, doesn't feel so good against the bare skin of my neck. It itched me. I like it better here. :-) 

The fabric rose is another bit from a sweater, but this one is from my daughter's.  The edge of her {brand new} sweater sleeve ripped off one day (sigh), so I cut the other sleeve to match, called it a "new look", and decided to make a rose from the cast-off piece. It's pretty uncomplicated; I just rolled it and rolled it until it looked like something. ;-)  And -- one more touch of gray -- under the "for you" sentiment circle, there's a small rectangle piece of mirrored cardstock.  Hard to capture it in a photo!

Paulette asked for the Jewish Apple Cake recipe my husband made for my birthday.  Happy to share!

Jewish Apple Cake

• 3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 large apples, preferably Granny Smith, pared and diced (add sugar and cinnamon to taste)

Put eggs, oil, orange juice and vanilla in large bowl and beat.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar -- beat slowly.

Grease tube pan - put half batter in pan, then lay most of apples on batter.  Add remaining batter and top with remaining apple mixture. 

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 1/2 hours - 1 hour 45 minutes. Use cake tester in center of cake to make sure it comes out clean.

Note:  my husband used one of the four apples to decorate the top of the cake.  Instead of dicing that fourth apple, he sliced it, and arranged the slices on the top of the cake.

 

As I said before, this is my FAVORITE birthday cake!

Thanks for coming by! 

Stamps: Tiny Tags - Papertrey Ink Paper: Basic Gray, Very Vanilla - Stampin' Up!; gray damask - Recollections; silver mirror cardstock - WorldWin Fibers: green felt - JoAnn; velvet tag from a sweater; light gray sweater material (rose) Accessories & Tools: Sparkling Clear sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; circle punch - Stampin' Up!; velvet tag from sweater; Modern Leaves die - Avery Elle

Wee little sailboat

Hello everyone!  Thank you so much for saying hello after last week's post here on my blog.  It's nice to hear from you! :-)

I had a big birthday last week, and it was a day that made me happy. I did have to work, but what a lovely surprise to go in to the office and see my cubicle decorated with shamrocks and "over the hill" signs.

After work, my hubby took the kids and me to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and, yes, the waitress did sing happy birthday to me. :-) Back at home, we shared a Jewish Apple Cake, homemade by hubby and my eldest daughter. It was delicious! That's my favorite type of birthday cake, ever. Ages ago, when I was young in years, my stepmom made one of those for my birthday, and I've been hooked ever since!

I also received some beautiful cards from crafty friends.  Take a look:

Leslie Miller

LeAnne Pugliese

Bonnie Klass

Aren't they beautiful?

I am blessed, indeed. :-D

The card I'm sharing today was made with a little baby boy in mind, but there are some feminine touches on here, so maybe it could be for a girl?

Hope you have a terrific week!

Stamps: sentiment, stars - Owl Be Thinking of You; sailboat, waves - It's A Shore Thing - The Craft's Meow Accessories & Tools: Sparkling Clear, Marshmallow sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; circle die - Spellbinders; Copic markers; sewing machine

Carte Postale

Hello my friends!  Happy Sunday to you. :-) 

Just wanted to pop in and let you know I'm still alive. ;-)

Last weekend, we got new carpeting in a couple of our rooms, and on the stairs, too.  The living room carpet is a frisee/frieze (I found two different spellings for it on the 'net), also known as a twist fiber.  I believe it's the more conservative relative of the shag carpet.  Anyway, we had the frisee made into an area rug, by having the carpet store bind the edges.  Before we laid it down in the living room, we had to first remove the old area rug, and then clean the hardwood floor.  WOW. The floor was FILTHY, and we consider ourselves decent housecleaners! (guess not)

We mopped the hardwood with, first, Murphy's Oil Soap -- five times.  The rinse water wasn't so bad at that point.  Then we used a Bona product for hardwood floors, plus their special applicator mop. It put a really nice shine on the wood!  I do recommend it, if your wood floors need a boost. 

You didn't come here to listen to me talk about floors, did you?  Of course not! 

The card I'm sharing today uses Carte Postale by Stampin' Up!, along with a text-y background stamp from Hero Arts called Old French Script.  I stamped it near the bottom and the top of the card, over top of the green patterned paper.  Not sure if you can see it, but there are some tiny pearls and a little sequin at the bottom, too.

By all means, if you have any questions about the supplies I used on any of the cards I've made, just leave a comment (and a way to get back to you), or email me (see the Contact Me tab near the top of the blog).

Time to run.  Still have a lot left on my to-do list today, and with the loss of one hour from setting our clocks ahead, I'm feeling behind!  Thanks for coming by today!

Little Boy Blue

Hello there!  I hope you've had a good week since we last got together here. :-)

This last week at work was very, very busy for me. Business seems to have picked up, and that's a good thing!  I had NO energy left by the time I'd get home.  Instead of heading up to my craft studio, I succumbed to the lure of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on TV. It was my feeble attempt to have a little fun.  Ha!

I'm working on getting my Etsy shop open, little by little. I've already got a shop -- https://www.etsy.com/shop/CDietrichDesigns -- but there are no listings in it yet. 

There are many things to consider, with 'branding', packaging, shipping, etc. I need a shop banner, too, and it's taking a little while to create. My darling 14 year old daughter helped me with it last weekend, using GIMP (a free editing tool, very similar to Adobe Photoshop). It needs a bit of tweaking, but wow, what a great help she was to me!

The card I'm sharing today really has my heart. Yes, it's intended for a little baby boy, with all that blue, but it is rather frilly. In my opinion, baby cards are really meant to appeal to mom and dad, anyway, so I'm sure this would be appreciated by a special couple who are blessed with a new little boy. :-)

If you have any questions on the materials I've used, please feel free to email me (look for the "Contact Me" tab at the top of the blog) or leave a comment and a way to reach you.

Thanks so much for taking a peek today, and hope you have a great day!

He will bring you through it

I've got a sweet little encouragement card to share today. My inspiration was this pretty piece of rose-filled patterned paper from Stampin' Up! 

Though it's subtle, the top half of the card is stamped with Vintage Farmhouse by Fiskars in a pale, pale pink. The encouraging sentiment is from Inspired By Stamping. 

Those gorgeous resin roses - how about that color matching?? - are from Anna Griffin.

There is a bit of white lace along the bottom, too.  It's rather tough to see in the photo, but in real life, it brings a gentle, textural touch to the card.

I'm so glad you came by. Perhaps you needed to read a message like the one on this card today, and I pray it brings you a measure of inspiration and hope!

Stamps: Vintage Farmhouse - Fiskars; Words of Inspiration - Inspired By Stamping Paper: floral patter, Riding Hood Red - Stampin' Up!; white - Papertrey Ink Ink: Pink Pirhouette, Kiwi Kiss - Stampin' Up! Fibers: white lace - fabric store Accessories & Tools: Scalloped Rectangle die - Spellbinders; Sparkling Crystal sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; resin roses - Anna Griffin; pearls

You & Me: salt & pepper

Hi there! It makes me happy to share this card.  I gave it to my husband for our anniversary this past fall. How can you go wrong with the cuteness of Lawn Fawn?

The salt and pepper shaker cuties are from their Love 'N Breakfast set.  The ampersands and sentiments are from Paper Smooches We Connect, a set that I scored when an online shop closed its doors. 

The scattered white and charcoal sequins represent, what else? Salt and pepper!

Stamps: Love 'n Breakfast - Lawn Fawn; (ampersands) We Connect - Paper Smooches Paper: kraft - Papertrey Ink; white scraps Ink: white pigment ink - Ranger; Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko Accessories & Tools: Marshmallow, Charcoal sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; Copic markers

Tulips: Coloring the negative space

Hello there! I hope you are having a good week so far. We've had some crazy weather here in NJ the past two days.  Yesterday, it was 19 degrees when I got in the car to go to work, and today, it was in the upper 50s, with torrential rain and wind. Totally weird!

I'm popping in to share a card I made several months ago - back in the fall, actually. It's a thank-you card for someone lovely, who did such a kind thing for me. The gesture humbled me, and I made this card to express my gratitude.  

I used a tulip stamp from Dynamic Duos: Peonies & Tulips by Power Poppy, and stamped it multiple times to fill in the blank spaces of a cream-colored cardstock panel. Then, I used a W3 Copic marker and filled in all the negative space between the flowers. (Ahem, this was when I noticed that my marker was running dry, and had to order a Copic refill--my very first.  Sandy Allnock has a helpful tutorial for refilling markers.)

After all that coloring, I didn't want to cover it up much.  Just a bit of Venise lace, topped with a Colleen Bow in black, and a little sentiment were the only things I added.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by.  Be a blessing to someone today!

Stamps: Dynamic Duos: Peonies & Tulips - Power Poppy Paper: Vintage Cream, True Black, white - Papertrey Ink Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko Fibers: Venise lace - eBay; black seam binding - Hug Snug - The Zipper Stop Accessories & Tools: Tiny Tags die - Papertrey Ink; pearls; Copic marker

Dear Santa

Hello there!

My family and I just got back from Disney World a few days ago.  I love it there.  So clean, so magical (except for the crowds....not so magical) and so fun.  And the food!  I've never had a bad meal in Disney. We stayed at Coronado Springs Resort. Previously, we'd stayed at the French Quarter. The more you go, the more you know:  we wouldn't do Coronado again, even though it is beautiful.  It's just too large and expansive of a property.  When you walk those parks all day, the last thing your feet want to do is walk some more back on "home" turf.  Our hotel room was quite a distance away from the main building, where the restaurants and gift shop are located (and the coffee -- very important!).

This week, it's back to school and work...it's back to reality. :-)

I can't seem to keep up with sharing on my blog all the cards I've made over the last several months.  Always, always, I'd rather spend my spare time making cards than photographing and blogging about them. :-) 

For this card, I gave my Unity set, "Believe In Miracles" some inky love.  (Surely, I'm not alone in this:  you have so many stamps, and so little time, that some sets never see ink!)

That's it for now, my friends, at least until I can get some more pics edited!  Take care, and thank you for dropping by!

Stamps: Believe In Miracles - Unity/Webster's Pages Paper: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, gold glitter - Stampin' Up!; holly/plaid pattern - Calisto - Anna Griffin; white - Papertrey Ink; metallic gold smooth - WorldWin; calendar Ink: Garden Green, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler - Stampin' Up!; Frayed Burlap, Antique Linen - Ranger; Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko Accessories & Tools: matte gold sequins - MJ Trimming; bright gold sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; Itty Bitty star punch - Stampin' Up!; circle dies - Spellbinders; 18k gold marker - Krylon

Noel Postale

Hi everyone!  I have a Christmas card to share today that feels a bit unusual with the addition of so much yellow. See the ornament die cut border (K & Co.)? In addition to the red and green, there are slight golden touches on the ornaments, and that was my inspiration.  

The pine sprig and ornament are from Flourishes Stamps All That Glitters. I'm still crushing on Flourishes Stamps, and have acquired many new-to-me sets in the past few months. 

The Carte Postale stamp (All Night Media) -- subtly stamped in kraft -- is new to my stash, and I think I paid a dollar for it at AC Moore. That was the highlight of my day.  LOL  I stamped a "Noel" sentiment and flourish over top of it in Crisp Black by Altenew. There are also some tiny snowflakes stamped on top with kraft ink, so they may not be noticeable at first.

I wanted to point out a little fudging I did at the top of this ornament. 

I fussy cut the whole ornament, including the tiny "eye", which was just a white circle after trimming it out. Once I placed it up against the pine sprig, it didn't look right: the white eye (where you'd place a hook if it were a real ornament) was glaring. I used an Always Artichoke marker to match the pine, and drew in little brush strokes to resemble the greenery. 

The cap is colored with a metallic gold gel pen, but it's hard to see that in the pictures.

I really appreciate you coming by today. Your visit makes me happy. :-)

Stamps: Carte Postale - All Night Media; All That Glitters - Flourishes; Christmas Greetings, Elegant Christmas Sentiments - Inspired By Stamping Paper: yellow pattern - Calisto - Anna Griffin; white - Papertrey Ink Ink: Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake - Stampin' Up!; Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko; Frayed Burlap - Ranger; Crisp Black - Altenew Fibers: gold braided thread Accessories & Tools: ornaments, holly die cut borders - K & Co.; Copic markers; gold gel pen; gold sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; Always Artichoke marker - Stampin' Up!