On the Sixth day of Christmas

Happy end of 2020!!

This year was definitely a different year. We always hope the new year would be better, happier, better health, better accomplishments, hopefully if we had any goals we will achieved them but early in the year the world was hit with COVID-19 a pandemic we are still dealing with, it tested everyone. Each country had to do what they could to keep their people safe and healthy as much as possible, work together to accomplish this, which was hard, thousands of people got sick and died but everyone was trying, at least most countries did because our country was different. We had a President that did nothing for us and was blocking the state governors that were trying and millions of people got sick & thousands died mainly thanks to his negligence, yes there is a vaccine which we should be thankful for but not enough for everyone, we don't know the side effects and how long it will be effective so we still will be hearing about people getting sick even dying. People that were lucky to survive will have to deal with the side effects for years to come and we all will have to deal with the aftermath. People that believe & follow the President didn't care about getting sick and infecting others, including their love ones unfortunately, the same as the people that were protesting regardless of whether it was for a good reason or cause. We were in a pandemic a time to consider the consequences of these actions, no social distancing and not wearing face mask meant spreading the virus more. Every life matters, and their actions were not helping lives, even if for them only black lives matter, shouldn't all colors of lives matter?! 

Some of us had have been stuck at home because we are high risk and home is the safest place to be.  Being out where all the people that thought like the President, that wearing a face mask, or not maintaining social distancing was not necessary, was just too big of a risk.

This November we also had to vote for President, and like every 4 years, democracy should take effect as each time whether we like who wins or lose we have to deal with the candidate for 4 maybe 8 years if he reelected. We don't always like who is elected for President or Vice-President but this country for the most part whether we like how voting is, we are lucky to have a democracy that respects our vote. 

I do wish and hope 2021 will be a better year for everyone and that we can all be thankful for the good things in every day. In the mean time stay safe avoid gatherings, if you don't need to go out, please stay home and continue to wear your face mask and maintain social distancing with anyone that is not in your household so we can do our part to contain this virus so when the vaccine is finally available to all we can get back to what this country used to be.

On the sad notes, Bret's uncle died in February. He was a vet

In July, Bret's cousin also died, after long battle of cancer

Debbie loss her hubby of cancer in January, Michelle loss her mom in March, Candy loss her hubby from COVID in March, Mary loss her SIL in March, Agnes loss her mom of long age, 93, in April, Don loss his dad from COVID in April, Gary loss his brother from cancer in September, Dough loss his dad, Muriel loss her hubby in November & Linda McCormick died in November some of you might know her. Lots of deaths this year.

On the good notes one grand-daughter celebrated her 10th birthday which we couldn't celebrate with her due to pandemic since the state was shutdown

Our nephew graduated from Prepa equivalent to High School, due to pandemic nothing was done to celebrate like in most schools.

Bret and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary

The other grand-daughter celebrated her 4th birthday

And I had the weirdest birthday celebration, everyone with a face mask and social distancing except for the photo of course. We visited and ate long distance my sister and hubby ate at the kitchen counter/bar and Bret and I ate at the table so they could remove mask and talk while eating, more than 6' between us at all times.

Now for the card a very simple Christmas card, I used season like Christmas set by SU with Altenew inks evergreen & forest glades for the tree, VersaFine Clair fallen leaves for the trunk and amalgam ink whisper for the snow bank which after a day you can't even see them so guess I should have stamped them more times. Then cut my layer with Kat Scrappiness double stitched rectangle die then added the ground with life changing brush and oxide weathered wood and for the sky I decided to add some oxide tumbled glass with my Altenew ergonomic blending brush, somehow since I use this brush for all my oxide inks because this brush is on the expensive side guess I didn't clean well enough so my blue is on the muddy side so my sky looks like a stormy sky LOL the message is from Merry stamp & cut by Hero Arts with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

 For this Christmas card I used pine bough background stamp by Taylored Expressions with mowed lawn and wild wasabi, then stamped my trees that from Christmas greenery set by Gina K with mossy meadow and the message from season like Christmas with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink, cut my layer with double stitched rectangle die by Kat Scrappiness and then added some stormy sky with life changing blending brush to ground my tree in snow 

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

 I made this Christmas card with the layered poinsettia die by Spellbinders and used the holiday poinsettia candle precut set for the message which is by Heartfelt Creations with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink. I did my background first with Colourcraft Brusho prussian blue on the ugly regular watercolor paper, after complete dry glued my poinsettia and added the liquid pearls buttercup color in the center and stamped my message then added the faux pearls from my stash

On the Third Day of Christmas

Quick mostly white & black card using left over things. I had a peace die from swirled peace by Poppy Stamps and a forest crows die cut by MB so put them together then spray sheer shimmer craft spray sparkle by Imagine

On the Second Day of Christmas

I made this card as alternative to my paper pumpkin June 2019 a little smile kit. I cut my top layer with double stitched rectangle die by Kat Scrappiness then cut my Merry Christmas die by Elizabeth Craft Design and then played with the green fern & vellum sea weed from the kit until I was happy and press down on the die which I had made a sticker and then added Nuvo Crystal Drops gloss red berry as if they were berries

On the First Day of Christmas

These were some cards I sent this year. I used some Christmas background papers from my stash and then with red cardstock cut my peaceful Feliz Navidad steel craft die by MB and added some Spectrum Noir Crystal clear sparkle, for my inside message is custom made and die cut it with stitched rectangular framelits 

Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas

 Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Feliz Navidad from our home to yours.

I had another plan for Bret's Christmas card but I screwed up and order a die from Kat Scrappiness that was a preorder by accident never saw it was a preorder so it never arrived so at the last minute had to come up with a card and this is what I made him. I used wave photo frame slimline for my shaker part. On the first opening I used joyful holiday foil-mates with radiant red fancy foils both by Gina K and Therm-O-Web, on the bottom I used part of the stamp Merry Christmas tree by Stampabilities with tuxedo black stamped about 4 times so it was dark enough and colored with Copic markers and added Nuvo Drops as the ornaments, for the shaker bits I used snows from the My Hero Monthly Kit and a mix of beads from my stash

Feliz Noche Buena - Happy Christmas Eve

 It has been a different holiday time but since I regardless of everything I enjoy decorating for myself that has not changed this year. I made this little boxes for gifts using supplies from miscellaneous paper pumpkin kits. The cardinal is a brad I got at Impress and the black pearl is Recollections, everything else was either envelope, tag, paper or die cuts from multiples paper pumpkin that I had left over or never did anything with. The tins were the Altoid mint/gum boxes that my sister gives me to recycle 

Paper Hug

 This is another of the rainbow cards I made last summer that finished recently for a friend that lost her hubby. Used standalone color block rainbow by Pinkfresh Studio, pasture grass steel craft die by MB, marshmallow clouds steel craft dies by MB, puffy clouds steel crafts die by MB and message paper hugs set by Honey Bee Stamps with VersaFine Clair ink Nocturne 

Feel better

 Back in the summer I made a bunch of cards with rainbow theme but never finished them I just had to wait until I needed something to finish them so one of them was this of a friend that was in the hospital.

I used standalone color block rainbow by Pinkfresh Studio, cloud borders by Honey Bee Stamps and pasture glass die by MB, the stamp is feel better by A Muse Artstamps with VersaFine Clair ink Nocturne  

Paper Pumpkin

This was a cute alternative card for the Be mine January 2018 kit. The kit was going to be a waste as I don't do 3D projects and not having little kits don't have a need for treat boxes and with my OCD hard to use something with a score line so for these cards they ended up being very tiny cards as I cut the pillow cases down removing all the score lines so left me for a very small piece to work with as background but at the end ended up with just a small card. Like I always say A2 is not my go to size card I do according to what I am working on so this is what I did. I used one of the stamps from the kit with lemon lime twist ink. The big heart, the little heart and the lizards die-cut pieces are from kit. On the Spanish version I used Luisa Elena Guillen-K Feliz Stamp set by Sizzix/Ellison with melon mambo ink

for the English version I used melon mambo ink with animal outing set

Paper Pumpkin

 These were my alternative to the March 2019 poppin' birthday kit. I added a layer of Bermuda bay cardstock on my card base then used half of a card base from the kit then used the numbers from the kit for the birthdays I needed sponging the edges with bermuda bay ink. I stamped my dance of joy stamp by Rubber Stampede & Posh Impressions with HA intense black ink then die cut with circle stitched by Stamps of Life and then with life changing brush added my clouds and glass with oxide ink tumble glass and shabby shutter with a template. The message is from simple strips background stamp by Taylored Expressions VersaFine Clair ink Nocturne  cut with matching simple strips die 

for this card is the same except I used Snoopy stamp by Stampabilities

Happy Birthday

For these cards I decided to use my stand alone color block stripes die by Pinkfresh Studio, I dig in my scrap drawers and picked different colors some cover the full die others didn't since I was using only scraps. I didn't use the frame itself just the pieces that fell out and I did cut off some of the thin pieces. Most of the cards I did were slimline size but had still some pieces that were long enough for an A2 size so did one. 

For this card the happy birthday was die cut a few times for dimension. Used black enamel accents to embellish

For this card I used MFT happy birthday to you die also die cut a few times for dimension and all pieces are the same size

Congratulations

Recently my one of my foster cousins which is active in the military got a promotion to Master Sergeant so to congratulate him and thank him for his service I made him this card using one of the backgrounds I made in the summer while playing with my alcohol inks. I had to pick one which was hard LOL, these all came from the same inks Tim Holtz eggplant and glacier with blending solution. The first one was on yupo paper the other two were the left over ink on my glass mat that I didn't want to waste so I used photo paper. I picked one of the photo paper just because of size as I like all of them. I used a die that had a frame with congrats, die cut it a few times to give dimension but cut off must of the frame except for words and the bottom part where I stamped with unicorn pigment in a few times as I didn't want to emboss. The you deserve it is from say it in a starburst set by MFT

Paper Pumpkin

 This year I had some milestone cards to make so used the my paper pumpkin poppin' birthday March 2019 to make those cards, yeah you can tell I am a bit behind on my kits but is not all of them is just the ones that don't really call my name at the time I get them. Some I can work on them right away others it can take me years before I get to them some I really thing they are a waste, still work on them but they were a waste either the kit itself or not enough supplies to do more than a few cards since I never use the instructions. Anyway I used the kit's set for the background with crushed curry ink, used half of a card base from the seriously amazing paper pumpkin kit August 2014 for the front as a gift, added the printed die-cut bow from this kit as well as the label from this kit where I stamped the messages with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink, it's your if from this kits set, the big is from hugs set by by Gina K, felicidades is from CTMH felicidades set. The printed pop-up insert, candles and numbers are from this kit

Graduation

This summer our nephew in Mexico graduated from Prepa which is the equivalent to High School, he had to finish the year online and due to the pandemic they didn't have the big diploma ceremony or the formal party that comes after the graduation which is sad but on the bright side his parents didn't had to big expense that comes with it LOL. I had forgotten to post the card I mailed him which was done as an alternative to the paper pumpkin poppin' birthday March 2019. I used the negative scrap to creative my shaker, beads and confetti from stash the stamps are from broadway star paper pumpkin kit set June 2018 with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink and the numbers are with Precious Moments alphabets set

 

Feliz Día de las Guadalupes

 Today in Mexico is a big celebration, we celebrate the Virgen of Guadalupe and everyone that has the name Guadalupe has a Santo and my mom is included as well as some friends so this year I decided to make a slimline card for them. Thousands of people all over the world come to the Basilica to visit the Virgin, not sure how will it be this year with the pandemic, how sad times. We were able to visit one year so Bret could see how it was just before the day as this day it's a day we/my family would not be there

I used the new set by Colorado Craft Company slimline poinsettias,  I just had to have this set as poinsettias are my most favorite flowers don't care what color but specially the red. Growing up we used to have a tree or plant right outside the door and during December-March it bloomed so big that cover half our yard, our yard was little but still. Anyway I sprayed my layer with oxide spray fire brick, spray stain candied apple and shimmer spray frost then stamped one of the poinsettias from the set. The message is from two Spanish messages set one by Stampendous the one that says Felicidades and the other unknown. The enamel dots are from Recollections. All stamping was done with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink

Paper Pumpkin

 

This is another alternative to my August 2019 the gift of fall. For this card I used red punch cardstock by Recollections that is very similar to merry merlot, for my green cardstock I used cilantro by Taylored Expressions, the white layer is an envelope from the gift of fall add-on kit with a vellum printed die-cut from paper pumpkin kit. The words are from thanks stamp & cut by HA with merry merlot spot ink and the butterfly is from the set thanks by Honey Bee Stamps same ink

Paper Pumpkin

This is an alternative to my August 2019 The gift of fall kit. For this card I used merry merlot cardstock then used half card base of the gift of fall add-on and the flap of one of the envelopes, the circle is a printed die-cut from the kit as well as the leaves and the tag. The message was stamped with merry merlot spot ink with a little smile paper pumpkin set June 2019

Sending hugs

This card was done for a mingle aka swap that was using orange, brown & green, since it was a layer stamp set and I was using a stamping tool I made extra cards for sending beside my mingle. The set I used was layered bouquet by Pinkfresh Studio, used Altenew inks orange cream, paper bag, olive & moss. The message is from holiday hugs set by Waffle Flower with VersaFine Clair Nocturne and added some Nuvo Vintage Drops chocolate chip

Thanks

I enjoyed making this card but I probably won't be using this stencil much. When I saw it at Picket Fence Studios loved it but when I got it not so much because it's one of those intricate stencils that you have nothing to hold on to and I use my Make Art STAY-tion with all my stencils so I don't have to use any kind of adhesive as the magnets are great holding the stencils down but with this one I had to use pixie spray. The stencil was triangle collage and I used distress oxide faded jeans with life changing brush after I was done I cut my layer with stitched rectangle die by The Stamps of Life then I mounted my layer to a navy cardstock then white base added my thanks which was cut a few times and then started adding the little Nuvo Crystal drops midnight blue

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. For most of us this is a new way of celebrating the holiday, we normally have a family gathering but this year we are all staying home and celebrating by ourselves. Staying home, staying healthy so we can hopefully be well to do it soon. We love our family but staying healthy is more important.

This card was done using the My Hero Monthly September 2020 kit pumpkin patch Heroscape. I used the inks that came with the kit just because they were in the kit and it was easy to just use those will play with other colors later but wanted to make some cards and those inks were handy...for the pumpkin patch used moss, grape slush, lemon drop & creamsicle for the corn field lemon drop & cup o' Joe. Then I cut my layer with double stitched rectangle die by Kat Scrappiness. Stamped my Snoopy scarecrow with W plus 9 Design Studio pure color dye black ink about 2 maybe 3 times and had to let it dry for a while as when I started coloring it started bleeding, it was supposed to be a safe ink for alcohol markers but maybe since I stamped multiple times I had to let dry or used heat gun but to me it wasn't dark enough and since I had to use the stamp positioner I wasn't going be able to restamp with VersaFine Clair nocturne so had to make sure it was dark from the start as that was it. Used my Copic Markers to color image. The Snoopy images is by Stampabilities. The message is by Impress with VersaFine Clair fallen leaves ink

Happy Thanksgiving

This was a quick card as I sprayed some distress oxide sprays on a box making sure I had some cardstock underneath, learned that trick from Jennifer McGuire and has been great to make quick cards later as all the work is already done. I used walnut stain, vintage photo and fossilized amber then after completely dry I stamped whispering wheat background stamp by Peddler's Pack with VersaFine Clair fallen leaves ink and then I looked into all my dies to see if I had something that said Thanksgiving and found this wreath. It was a little hard to attach to cardstock, I should have removed the release paper while in the die and then attach to cardstock but since I was working on assembly line which means I cut all layer, stamp every and die cut everything then assemble. I assemble all cards as it was easier to add die cut at that point TO ME and that's when I realized it would have been easier to have die cut and apply and I was too lazy to die cut more so did my best to keep them as they should be, wasn't worry about it to be a circle but the words to be straight as...live and learn

Happy Thanksgiving apple

I had colored and finished most of this I think I was going to do it a Halloween card when I did it years ago but then Halloween came and went so put it in my unfinished projects so when I found them decided to finish and I made it Thanksgiving since Halloween had passed again LOL

I used the big pumpkin stamp by Lockhart Stamps with tuxedo black ink and colored with Copic Markers; I die cut my layer with nestabilities leafty square decorative elements die by Spellbinders; I used ribbon tag trio die by Spellbinders and stamped my message by Impress with rich cocoa ink and threaded the stitched satin tangelo twist ribbon from SU

Thank you for your service & Happy Thanksgiving

 Since we are still dealing with this pandemic I decided to make another round of cards for the Heroes in my city and my postal mail lady they are out every day.

It's on the simple side since my shoulder still pretty bad but I wanted to make sure they got a greeting card. I used multi step turkey trot set by Kitchen Sink Stamps with Altenew crips dye inks maple yellow, caramel toffee & milk chocolate and to anchor the turkey I used a stamp by Stampendous, tree leaves with morning frost ink. The Happy Thanksgiving message is by Impress with VersaFine Clair fallen leaves. Cut my top layer with double stitched rectangle die by Kat Scrappiness

For these cards I used My Hero set by Honey Bee Stamps with VersaFine Clair fallen leaves. These cards were for Heroes in the Algona Police Department

Chief James Schrimpsher, Sergeant Ryan Miller, Detective James McKay, Officer Robert Bonjukian, Officer Hector Aponte, Officer Thomas Coyne, Officer Ben Brown, Specialist Jessica Griess, Specialist Cari Sanford, Reserve Officer Cory Tunnell & Officer Phillip Sanches

and for this card I used Stampa Rosa stamp same ink. This card was for my post office mail delivery Debbie which is awesome

I also have an awesome UPS delivery guy Greg but no packages to be delivered this week or next week so couldn't get him a card as I won't be seeing him