Birthday Cards from Others

Thought I'd share some of the cards that I've received over the past couple weeks. I appreciate everyone's birthday wishes and it was a LOT of fun getting "real" mail in the mailbox for a change! LOL.

This first card is from Melanie (aka batgirl on SCS).


I love how she did the presents with different patterned papers. What a great way to use up all those scraps of paper. Right now she has some great craft fair ideas posted on her blog HERE.

The second card is from Fancy on SCS.


The third card is from my SBS4 sister Marcia...all the way from Australia. You can visit here HERE on her blog. I love the white on the lettering. It really gives it some great dimension.


The fourth card is from another one of my SBS4 sister's...Chris...this comes to me via Canada. Unfortunately, it lost on of it's "baubles" in-route...but is very pretty nonetheless. I love the little glittery centers on the flowers! (Oh...and the dark purple is the color of my PT Cruiser!) You can visit here HERE at her blog.


The fifth card is from an online friend, Bonnie, who doesn't have a blog yet (imagine THAT!) I think she needs one to share her artwork. I love the color wash over the main image here and the white on the piano keys. And...once again...it's the color of my Cruiser. Can't go wrong there!


The sixth card is from another of my SBS4 sisters...Sparkle! She does absolutely amazing work...this card is one of the simpler ones I've seen her do. To get a true look at her artwork...go visit her HERE at her blog. I love the colors she used here with the layout and the tiny bit of sparkle on the owl.


The seventh card is a BRAK (Birthday Random Act of Kindness) from Gina L. She said she chose to send a card to me because we share the same birthday! Very cool! I love the pink and brown color combo she used.


And lastly (at least for now) is a card I received from Crystal. I really like this layout and may use it as a sketch to make some of my own cards in the future.


I have a few more to share on another day but figured this is enough for one day! Hope you have had a wonderful week.

Jane

Raining Cards!

I belong to a group called the Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers 4. I just participated in a swap with them and received some wonderful cards that I wanted to share with all of you out in cyberland. AND I made quite a few cards myself this weekend so there should be something new each day this week! So come back to visit!

Without further ado...let the "raining" of cards begin...

This first card is from Kelly L. It's the first card I received. I love the clean line and the piercing at the bottom of the card.



The second card is from Marcia P. over in Austrailia (one place I have always wanted to go visit!) She did some paper piecing on the dresses and hats and I love the glittery flowers. She sent me a variety of images to play with. Thanks!



The third card is from Deb over in Scotland (that's the coolest thing about these swaps is getting mail from other countries!) These images are very popular outside of the US and seem to be catching on here as well. What I love though? Is the paper piecing on this one and the unique cut of the card. Deb also included some images for me to play with. Yay!



Here's a close up of the image with the paper piecing so you can see it better:



And the last card I received is from Seleise B. The image is from The Angel Company. I love the pink/black color combo. Seleise also sent me some images to play with. One of which I played with yesterday and will be sharing later in the week.



Thanks to all these wonderful women! I love all the cards. It was nice to come home to a surprise in my mailbox. I still may receive more and if I do I will post them as well.

For all my visitors...you can find links to these ladies blogs at the right hand side of my blog under SBS4 - Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers 4.

Have a great day!

Jane

House Mouse Cards

Thought I'd start sharing some of the House Mouse cards I've received as part of my Mouse-a-Round swap...

So these first two cards are from Lisa C. One was actually a birthday card that I don't think I posted yet. The second (valentine) one was my MAR swap card from her.





I'm loving being a part of this swap because I'm getting to see so many of the House Mouse (and Happy Hopper) images in person. Also, as part of the swap we are supposed to send 2 stamped images...so I'm getting lots of images to play with.

Have a great Thursday everyone...one more day to the weekend!

Jane

Still MORE birthday cards!

Here are a couple birthday cards I forgot to share:



The card on the left came from Lena (tackertwosome). Love the bright colors and the simple design.

The card on the right came from Bev (treasimate). I'm guessing she colored a metallic panel with alcohol inks and then embossed on it...but that's my best guess. Whatever it is in looks very sophisticated!

Thanks ladies!

Jane

RAK's to Share

Had a great time at the Expo today. Got to meet a few other ladies from the AZStampers group and got to meet Dave from RubberNecker (and picked up another fun stamp). Will have new artwork to share in the days to come. Already made a couple new cards but am holding out on sharing for now because I have even BETTER stuff to share...cards that OTHERS have sent to ME!

Between my birthday and also being the person up for the "Mouse-a-Round" swap...my mailbox has been happily full of handstamped cards!



The card on the left is from Debi on SCS. Love the "Fluffles" cat! The card on the right is from my Secret Sister on our SBS4 group. She also included some images for me to play with! Love the way the corner is and the mini brads. Thanks...whoever you are!



This next card is from Laura on our AZStampers group. The quote says "Your birthday came and your birthday went...here's the card I should have sent!" I love that it was late...makes my happy mail last longer! Thanks Laura!



This one is from Marjorie on our SBS4 group. This turtle is so adorable! Another belated card...and another opportunity to stretch out my special "day". Thanks! And thanks for the images to play with as well.

I also received a BIG envelope of stamped images from Chris in Calgary. I'm in heaven! Thanks Chris!

So far I've received several of the Mouse-A-Round cards. I think I'm going to wait and post them all in one post once they've all arrived.

Oh...and one last BIG thing to share...my last Secret Sister package arrived from my SCS secret pal. Here's a pic of all the goodies! It was a great package...thanks for everything Kim!



Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Jane

More Birthday Cards to Share!

Time to share the next round of cards I received for my birthday. None arrived yesterday so maybe my week of celebrating is over :-( . See, I don't mind late cards/gifts because it just makes the holiday last longer.

However, I did get chosen to be the next "Mouse" for the Mouse-A-Round swap so should be receiving lots of cute HM cards in the near future.

In the meantime, here are cards from Stephanie (SBS81) and Denise (Peanutbee).



And this last one is from Melissa from the WISH RAK list on SCS. She even included items from my WISH list! (Stamped Bella images and punched out scalloped circles.)



Well, I need to get headed off to work. It rained most the night last night and I'm afraid the roads are going to be icky. A bad commute gone badder. Have a great day...at least it IS Friday! Yay!

Jane

Monkey Love!

This is the card I made for my husband for Valentine's Day. It actually is part of two challenges as well. It was this past weekend's "sketch challenge" over on Beate's blog AND it was part of a challenge for our SBS4 group to "use something you love" (my monkey stamps!)



I love how it came out! It combines two Stampendous sets. Remember the "chick" cards I posted a few days ago (Easter themed)? Well, the chick has all sorts of "accessory" stamps so you can use him year round. I combined the hearts from that set with my Changito monkey sets to make this card. The bottom set of hearts is pop-dotted and there is Stickles on the hearts.

Also, I wanted to share some more birthday cards I've received! These have all been wonderful and it's so nice to come home after a long day of work to something fun in the mailbox! I'll share a few today and a few tomorrow.



These two are from Concetta (a local stamping buddy) and Julie (aka hobbywoman on SCS). Thanks ladies!

Jane

Happy Birthday to ME!

I've received a few more birthday cards that I wanted to share with everyone. These first two cards are by Kathleen (from SCS Wish RAK) and Cynthia (from AZStampers). Aren't they pretty? Kathleen's has this beading on the bottom that is really pretty (and managed to survive the mail...a feat in itself!) Cynthia's has a clear rhinestone in the middle of the center flower and the word February is all glittered. Both very happy cards!



The next two cards come from Sandye (aka sgc on SCS) and from Karen (from SCS). I love the variety of images. I'd never seen the House Mouse image before. If you can't tell it has three larger mice singing (apparently "happy birthday" and then a little mouse in the front. In front of the little mouse is a scoop of ice cream with a lit candle. The second card uses an image by My Favorite Things. Love the pink/brown color combo on the card. Thanks ladies!



Today I need to finish my Design Team project and work on the kids' valentines. Tonight I plan to be an Gina K's "Reveal Party" (where she debuts her new stamp sets). I'm planning on choosing me a new set for my birthday gift! Last night my niece babysat for us and we went out for mexican food for dinner. It was really nice to get out.

I'll be back either later tonight or tomorrow to reveal the blog candy winners. I need to look through all the comments and find THE ONE that I can't resist for my cards.

Have a wonderful day all!

Jane

BDay Cards Received

I've started receiving some birthday cards and wanted to share them with all of you.

These first two are from Virginia (AZStampers group) and Melinda (PIF thread on SCS).



These next two are from Carol (AZStampers group) and from Yara (House Mouse group).



Thank you ladies! It's always a good thing when my mailman brings fun mail and not bills!

Jane

Liz's RAK and A Little Something From Me

Yesterday I received a beautiful RAK in the mail. What is an RAK you ask? It's a Random Act of Kindness. Liz belongs to a yahoo group I belong to and is very talented. I wanted to share her card here for all to see.

She used a House Mouse image that I haven't seen before. The little mouse is inside the birdfeeder looking quite full and content...the birds are outside looking at him. She added dimension to the birds by popping them up...and each bird has a different area popped up...so, for example, the one in the middle has a in indent where his neck would be bent looking up...but the rest is popped up. Very realistic. She also added something like liquid glass to the birdfeeder so it looks like plastic or glass. And there is glitter on the flowers. This cheerful card is JUST what I needed when I got home yesterday. I hadn't had a good day and it really was a nice surprise! Thanks Liz!





And here is a close up of just the birds...hopefully you can see the dimension. I've never seen it like this before.

And now...just a little something from me!

This is a new Langley Design's stamp from Gina K. The design is a sketch from Angelosity's blog.



I added little glitter dots to the panties. Isn't it fun? The set also has a bra stamp which I'll show you tomorrow.

Gotta get dressed and out of here for the day. Have a great Thursday...TGIF is ALMOST here!

Jane

New Rubber!

I received my order from Biblical Impressions aka Eureka Rubber Stamps. They had a sale with 50% off unmounted stamps...so I HAD to buy a few! LOL! It's a sickness I tell ya!

A friend from work is into horses and I realized I owned ZERO horse images (gasp!) So I HAD to buy a couple of those. And then there was a deer image...and I also had NONE of those. So he went into my basket as well. And then a cute "snail mail" stamp with a snail carrying an envelope (just cause he was so cute and he'd be great for the outside of envelopes). Hmm...I think that was it. I thought I showed pretty good restraint actually. (ok...I can hear your laughter already!) ;-) I really am TRYING to get better about buying only images that are totally different than what I already own.

With that all said, I did make one card tonight. Nothing overly fancy...but I love how it turned out. It uses one of the new horse stamps from Biblical Impressions. Colored the image with chalks. The rest is just layering for the most part. This "paper" is some handmade paper I bought a while back at a place that was going out of business. I only bought a couple sheets so have been using it sparingly. It's a little shimmery in real life.



So, what do you think????

Also, since I'm in the sharing mode - here are a couple cards that OTHERS have sent to ME. These were the two cards I RECEIVED in the ArizonaStampers Above/Below Swap that had the Americana theme. The card on the left is from Virginia (a person...not the state...I'm not important enough to get a card from the state! LOL!). The card on the right is from Febe. Febe didn't know it, but we used to raise beagles...so this card was perfect for me.

FUN MAIL!

Did you know you can send LOTS of things through the mail? Things that are NOT in a box or envelope? Pretty muchly, as long as it's safe to send (not breakable, flammable, etc) it can be sent. I belong to a group of stampers called Arizona Stampers and they enjoy sending out fun things. One day I got a pen that was in a package (like the store packaging) and they'd just put my address on the back and put stamps on it and put it in the mail! Then today I got a PLATE...yep, a plate. A pretty paper plate. I decided it needed to be shared here where everyone could enjoy it. So, without further ado...here it is!



I don't know if you can read it...but handwritten around the edge of the plate it says "Little by little, day by day, friends and flowers grow that way."



And here is the back so you can see they just put on postage and addressed it. Hmm...if you were going to do a themed party...how cute would this be for the invites? (Just need to buy an extra package of plates.)

In the continued spirit of sharing - here is one of the cards we made last night at the stamp club. It was all designed out for us so we mainly just had to copy it. Even there I screwed up. But the good thing about stamping is that you can use your screw ups and just modify your plan.

The striped paper on this card was supposed to be cut across and then taped down so there was a gap of the yellow showing through. I didn't realize that and had already stuck my paper down before I did realize it. So I just went ahead with the rest the plan. Noone else would know except for me (and now all of you!) that I made a boo-boo.



Today I've been working on a couple things that I'll share later in the week. One is a post-it note holder made with 4x4 cardboard coasters and the other is my "quirky cards" swap card. I've got them mostly finished but both need a few finishing touches. So you'll have to wait...but I promise they are WORTH waiting for! One has new stamps...and the other will make you laugh.

Have a great rest of the day.

Jane