I'm Back!

Hi Everyone!

Well, I did it! I attended my very first craft fair with my cards and other paper crafts. I had such an AWESOME day! People responded very positively to the cards, gift sets, tealights, and card sets that I was selling. Thank you to my sister, Jeanne, for spending the entire day at the fair with me. Thank you to Amy, Angela, Peggy, and Terri for coming to visit me at the fair.

While I was at the Creating Keepsakes Conference a couple of weeks ago, I purchased some stamps from Purple Daisy Designs. They have designed some stamps that work with EK Success paper punches. I used the daisy stamp to stamp the images on these cards and then I used my paper punch to cut them out. Very cool. They do not have a web site. You can order a catalog from them for $6 and it comes with a $5 coupon. I didn’t realize they didn’t have a web site so I am kicking myself for not purchasing a catalog at the conference. If you want to order a catalog from them the address is Purple Daisy Designs 8541 Riverdale Road Green Castle, PA 17225 and their phone number is 717-597-8803.

Some of the leaves on these cards were stamped with stamps from Blooming Button Bits and others are from Turning Over a New Leaf from PaperTrey Ink. I have told you many times that I love the quality of their stamps. The butterflies were punched from a Martha Stewart punch. I only glued down the middle of each butterfly to add dimension to the cards.



My Father’s Day stamps are a set of Clear Stamps from HeroArts. The background paper on my Father's Day cards is from a 12" x 12" block called "The Guy Stack" from DCWV. I looked in all of the local stores for a smaller block of that paper before I checked their web site and learned that the 12" x 12" block is the only size available. I think that sometimes the prints in a 12" x 12" block are too lorge for a card, but happily all of the prints in "The Guy Stack" are card friendly. The apron and the "metal" spatula on this card are die cuts from Sizzix. The grill, food, and tools are stickers

I created a variety of cards using tool stickers and tool buttons. The stamps are from that same Hero Arts set.



The cups on this card were stamped. The donuts are epoxy stickers that I found at Michaels.

I cut out ties from a second sheet of paper and used 3D dots to attach 3 ties to this card.

I just want to add a few thoughts to this blog. When I saw the "cookout" paper in "The Guy Stack" I knew I’d want to place accents on top of it. I looked through my die collection and decided that the apron and the spatula were just what I wanted. I bought those dies a long time ago, but they are still available on the Sizzix web site. Aprons have come back into fashion, but even if they hadn’t I associate aprons with baking Christmas cookies, grilling, chefs, and pizza makers. I’ve used cutouts from the apron die on Christmas cards, Valentine cards, Mother’s and Father’s Day cards. I am trying to say that I have gotten a lot of mileage from that die. When you see a die in a store or on a web site think of
all of the possible ways it can be used. You can even post a comment or question about a die here and maybe I or other readers can give you suggestions on ways to use it and/or will learn about ways that you use your dies.
Random thought Number One...
I was surprised not to find any 3D or epoxy dump truck stickers in any of the local stores. In the Father’s Day clear stamp set from HeroArts there’s a stamp of a small dump truck with a heart in it and a stamp that says "Loads of Love for Dad". I wanted to buy some stickers of dump trucks and add hearts to them, but I never found any dump trucks. Anne, what do you think? Do you find lots of stickers and embellishments that you like for your son?

Talk to you soon! I am planning to start to work on Christmas cards very soon. Yes, I said Christmas cards. I plan to exhibit at fall fairs so I must build up my inventory.

Carol