Retirement Wishes and Sympathy Wishes
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Paul received many cards for his retirement and we also received so many cards expressing sympathy for the passing of my mom. Thank you everyone! This post will display the many cards that were handmade though all the other cards were just as wonderful and touched our hearts. This post is for crafters – and myself- when we are struggling to find a retirement or sympathy idea in a handmade card. We can pull up the blog and type ‘retirement’ or ‘sympathy’ in the search bar and get ideas.
RETIREMENT CARDS
Thank you, dear friends.
SYMPATHY CARDS
My Mom passed away September 2, 2024. She had a fall August 30 and broke bones in both her lower legs. She was 91 years old and had lived a blessed life.
SAL, Soaking In A Lot of Love
Karen
Riddle of the day:
Question: What is always by your side, yet never stands in your way?
Answer: A true friend.
Retirement Party Card
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Paul,my DH (darling husband), retired after 18 years of working at the same facility. He climbed the ladder and went out on top so that was a success deserving of a very special party and a very special card – of course!
In retrospect, I wish I had made it as a bridge fold card so the scenes would be side by side and the mushy words on the back!
You could use AI and link them for the blog.
No way, Sal. I prefer reality instead of artificial intelligence. My previous post uses the Lovely Layered Eagle from Honeybee Stamps and I wanted to use it for this card with the eagle holding the fish instead of the branch.
Recipe
- Base: Sahara Sand, 7 X 10, scored at 5
- Layer 1 (X3): Evening Evergreen, 6 1/2 X 4 1/2
- Layer 2 (X3): Pool Party, 6 1/4 X 4 1/4
- Top (X2): Basic White, 6 X 4
- Stampin’ Up! Wild About Flowers – Retirement Greetings stamped on scrap white and cut to look like cloud
- Stampin’ Up! High Tide – Water and Grass
- Stampin’ Up! By The Dock – Frog, Fish, Dock
- Stampin’ Up! In The Meadow – Deer & Fawn, Mountains
- Stampin’ Up! Swan Lake – Little Swans
- Stampin’ Up! Special Celebrations – Inside left greetings – both
- Divinity Designs Silhouette Couple Die
- Stampin’ Up! Be Mine Stitched Framelits – Hearts
- Eagle –
- Soft Suede, large wing feathers
- Early Espresso, body and top of wings; talons
- Shimmery White, head and tail
- Crushed Curry, beak and feet
- Dk Grey and Lt Grey for the fish
Stamp the mountains, the dock, the grass, the deer and the frog. Mask them and stamp the water. Sponge the sky and add white to the mountain tops with a white gel pen. I stamped the swans and fish after the water was stamped and then used the white gel pen to color the swans and grey for the fish.
It was fun to use all the stamps I have collected over the years to make this scene.
I had a party for Paul at the Rhyolite park where I could rent the pavilion; Flying Horse catered a great BBQ meal. Paul invited all his coworkers (telling me only a couple would show up) and almost all of them showed up, even some who came and then went back to the site to work and let someone else come. His hunting buddy and his wife came and my stampers came (thank you) and the church small group came as well as our daughter’s and their families and several of our neighbors. Paul got a bit emotional at one point saying “I had no idea I had this many friends.” It was a wonderful party.
SAL, Such A Lot of loving people
Karen
Riddle of the day: What can be stolen, mistaken, or altered, yet never leaves you your entire life?
Answer: Your Identity.
Layered Eagle Thank You
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Hello friends, bear with me as I catch up on my blog posts – or journaling as I like to think of it. Let’s start with the Layered Eagle die set that Sharon gave me for my birthday. I used it for thank you cards. The patterned paper is Whaline Patriotic paper I purchased on Amazon.
I guess it makes sense if someone gives you a die that you make a card with that die to thank them.
It also makes me use it to see how it looks. The eagle die is from Honey Bee Stamps. I will link the site down below where little Sal is waving at us from the computer.
This is a Starburst card, however the diagonal strips are not adhered next to each other, there is a gap between each strip where the navy blue shows. This keeps the card from being overly busy.
Recipe
- Base: Red, 8 1/2 X 5 1/2, scored at 4 1/4
- Layer 1: White, 4 1/8 X 5 3/8
- Layer 2: Navy Blue, 4 X 5 1/4
- Base of Starburst: Navy Blue, 3 3/4 X 5
- Patterned Paper:
- 2 pieces, 4 1/2 X 1 1/2, cut on diagonal
- 4 pieces, 3 X 1 1/2, cut on diagonal
- Mark your center point on the Starburst base and position each strip on the base. When you are happy with the placement of the strips, adhere them to the base and then turn the base over and cut off all the excess sticking out from the base. Now you can adhere the base to the larger Navy Blue layer.
- Circle: White 2 3/8″ die cut with circle dies
- Eagle:
- Soft Suede, large wing feathers
- Early Espresso, body and top of wings; talons
- Shimmery White, head and tail
- Crushed Curry, beak and feet
- Evening Evergreen, Branch
- Soft Succulent, Berries
- Inside Greeting, Patterned paper for shadow, Navy Blue for letters, 3 3/4 X 1 1/2, die cut with Scrapbook.com Word Dies Grateful Sentiments
- Heart: Cut out from a Kokorosa starburst die
That die you started with that didn’t work very well?
Yes, it wouldn’t cut out all the detailed cuts without having a metal shim plate, so I wasted a bit of paper but saved the heart! I ordered the metal shim plate from Amazon so I can try again another time.
- Star Embellishments are silver star gems I colored with red and blue alcohol markers.
I hope you found some inspiration for your card making today!
SAL, Saluting A Land we love
Karen
Riddle of the day:
Question: What game is dangerous for your mental health?
Answer: Marbles; you don’t want to lose them.
Joy Meadows August 2024 Shoebox Event
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I am too excited to wait until next week for another post, so let me show you the amazing cards designed and presented by Joy Meadows for us to make at our August Shoebox Event. Her first card uses a stamp from Pink Inc Designs. It is a British company but their stamps are available on Scrapbook.com. I linked that stamp below with little Sal in the computer. I laughed out loud when she showed me her card. It is so sooo cute!
Let’s zoom in to see those glasses and long eyelashes!
For the greetings Joy used the Stampin’ Up! ‘In Your Words’ stamp set. She had Washi tape that was the perfect embellishment for the front and back and punched out stars with one of the new textured dots bling for the middles offered by Stampin’ Up!
Not to be outdone by the cute giraffe card, her second card was just as awesome! She surprised us when she held it up and said, with a twinkle in her eye, – “looks like a regular card, right”; then she opened it up to a pop up fun fold. Joy said it is a design by Susan Campfield who calls it a ‘million dollar fun fold’.
Drum roll…….. Voila! A surprise inside.
And the middle flap folds down and has the greeting on that part of the flap so you can write on the inside.
Here is a side view.
How special is that card!
And you love monochromatic cards!
Yes, I do, Sal. Let’s look at the products Joy used from Stampin’ Up!
- New In Color, Petunia Pop
- Wildly Flowering Suite Collection.
- Dies from the suite – Wild Flower Designs Dies
- Translucent Florals designer series paper
- Dashing Designs 3D embossing folder
- Happy Birthday – Translucent Florals stamp set
- Inside Greeting – Happiness Abounds stamp set
Thank you, Joy, for looking up those products for me to share on the blog and thank you for your creations! I have seen lots of layering dies but the scalloped layer (check out the first picture) is really special.
PS When you put Joy’s name, or the name of any of our Shoebox designers, in the search box on the blog, it will pull up all the lovely cards that she, or any of the others, have designed. You can also access the cards by going to the ‘Recipe Box’ tab at the top of the blog and then clicking on the card to be taken to the specific blog post for that card.
Thank you, Joy, for giving us a pinch of creativity to spice up our crafting worlds.
SAL, Shoebox A Lot for inspiration
Karen
Click on Little Sal in the computer to go to Scrapbook.com which has the Pink Inc giraffe.
Riddle of the day:
Question: What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and rivers, but no water?
Answer: A map.
Christine Dillon’s July 2024 Shoebox Event
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July’s Shoebox Event was hosted by Christine Dillon. She created two lovely designs and then made card kits for each of us to make the cards. We had fun crafting the cards under Christine’s guidance and then we went out to lunch to eat and visit. Such fun!
Christine used foiled DSP-designer series paper on both her cards which gave a beautiful shiny look to the cards.
Recipe- Some call this an ‘S fold’ others call it a ‘Modified Gate Card’
- Base: Blue, 8 1/2 X 5 1/2, Scored at 2 1/8 and 4 1/4
- Left Side Strip: Foiled DSP, 2 X 5 3/8 (1/16th border)
- Inside Layer: White, 4 X 5 1/4, (1/8th border)
- Base of Flap: Blue, 3 1/2 X 3 1/2
- Flap Layer: White, 3 1/4 X 3 1/4
- Medallion: Gold Foil, 3 X 3, die cut with Stampin’ Up! Eastern Medallions Die, glue directly down to flap
- Medallion Layer: Blue, 2 3/4 X 2 3/4, die cut with Stampin’ Up! Eastern Medallions Die, Pop Up
- Medallion Top Layer: White, 2 1/4 X 2 1/4, Stampin’ Up! Eastern Medallions Die, glued directly down
- Stamp with greeting from Petitie Pairs – Stampin UP
- Inside Layer: White, 4 X 5 1/4, 1/8 border
- Stamp with greeting from Colorful Seasons Stamp Set
Would you call this a masculine birthday card?
I will tag it as generic and masculine. It is so beautiful it could be used for either.
This next card is for a feminine birthday or a gardener who loves flowers. It is foiled DSP, and the foil is only on the edge of the flowers and leaves so each of us chose our favorite color and colored inside the images. The flowers were edged in gold foil and the leaves were edged in silver foil so it was a perfect guide for where to color. I wish I had taken pictures of the different colored cards. They were all beautiful.
I did say that and I have not done it yet. Sigh…… I even had to send a box card to a friend this past week and she will wonder if I sold all my stamps but…
BETTER A BOX CARD THAN NO CARD!
I say that because I have those who say they could never make a card and have quit sending me cards since they know I make cards; as if I would be disappointed to get a box card??! NOT! Receiving any card makes me smile.
I recently read someone comparing making a card to decorating a cake – you make the cake beautiful and it is admired for a short time, but then consumed and just a memory. Hopefully our cards stay on a mantel or refrigerator for longer, but the joy is in the creating and hopefully the recipient is blessed.
Are you going to take up cake decorating?
No way, Sal, but I admire those who do.
SAL, Shoebox And Laughter
Karen
Riddle of the day:
Question: Four cars come to a four-way stop, each coming from a different direction. They can’t decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time. All four cars go, but none crash into each other. How is this possible?
Answer: They all made right-hand turns.
‘Twas My Birthday
Check out these beautiful handmade birthday cards from my dear friends.
Lucille’s was the first one I received in advance of my birthday.
Jo had a very clever little purse which opened and then the inside had a pull tab with an additional wish:
Joy’s card was a unique circle shape with lots of texture and layers:
Christine used a fun die and paper piecing to create this card:
Lisa’s card was a beautiful teacup filled with flowers and lots of layers on a fun fold. Lisa joined with Sharon to celebrate my birthday with a real tea party! I felt like a queen.
At the tea, Sharon gave me this card and many goodies:
Lucille made me a second card:
Thank you, dear friends, for those beautiful creations!
The family is not into card making, but Amber is a wonderful cook and she, Tyler and Stacia put on a great birthday celebration up at the lake. Amber made brownies and her awesome potato salad and Tyler grilled steaks and grilled corn on the cob with fresh corn Stacia had brought. We were able to get two campsites close together at Willow Creek Reservoir, just minutes from Grandby Lake and Shadow Lake.
Paul, not to be outdone for my birthday, booked us on a hot air balloon ride in Steamboat Springs a couple weeks later. It is quite awesome to have a daughter, Stacia, and son in law, Jonathan, who own a hot air balloon business.
https://wildwestballooning.com/
It was a month of birthday celebrations.
Back to the July 4th week — Jaxson and Emmitt, our two grandsons, were camping with us for the week and we drove from the lake to Steamboat Springs for the 4th of July parade. Jonathan asked Paul to drive the jeep with the float they had made. It looked like a hot air balloon basket with lots of red, white and blue balloons attached above. Stacia and the girls were on this float blowing bubbles at the crowds.
The royal wave!
The boys got to ride with Uncle Jonathan in the ‘real’ hot air balloon basket! You can see the burners on the silver truck behind this picture. Jonathan would do a quick touch of the burners to create the sound you hear as they fly the balloon. They won first prize in the commercial float category. I wonder what they will come up with next year!
Then it was back to the lake!
It was Jaxson’s and Emmitt’s first long camping trip with us. Mom and Dad came up on the 4th and Stacia and the granddaughters came up on the 5th. Emmitt had me pull his first loose tooth. In this picture he is trying to show you the gap in his mouth. Grandma is a doctor who can pull splinters out and now a dentist who can pull a loose tooth, but my favorite role is just being grandma and cuddling these grandchildren before they are grown and gone.
Here’s a picture of Emmitt after he caught his first fish. Jaxson had three fish on his hook that were ‘almost’ a catch.
After the Buchholtz family headed home, we took Stacia and the girls and anchored beside a little island on Shadow Lake for a picnic on the boat.
And Ruger was always with us, of course!
When the Whiteheads went back home, it was time for a little R&R with my beloved:
Thank you everyone for a memorable birthday month!
SAL, Shown A Lot of love for my birthday
Karen
I cannot pick a ‘best’ birthday card so I will show the hot air balloon and link Sal in the computer to their site. The videos are awesome to watch even if you have no desire to fly!
From Jonathan:
Question: What do you call it when the hot air balloon shadow passes over you on the ground?
Answer: A balloonereclipse!
Karen Decker’s June 2024 Shoebox Event- Red, White & Blue
It is time to catch up with my card postings here on the blog. As is now becoming common, I post cards for the holiday or celebration we just had instead of the one coming up. If you are thrilled with the card you can find it on Pinterest or Instagram under Stampalosopher and save its design for next year. Or you can come back to this blog and click the ‘Recipe Box’ tab and scroll to the card and click its thumbnail in the Recipe Box to access the blog post for that card. With that being said, let’s look at cards for the Fourth of July (or perhaps July birthdays)!
I wondered if we had been archived!
No, Sal, I just had a camping trip with the two grandsons, then both families joining us over the 4th for some boating and camping. Later I had the two granddaughters for a week with trips to and from Steamboat to pick them up and take them home. It has been a wonderfully full month!
Recipe for Firework Card:
- Base: Night of Navy, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4
- Layer (X2): Real Red, 5 1/4 X 4, Emboss with textured embossing folder (just a guess)
- Top Note: White 5 1/4 X 4, die cut once with the top note, then turn 90 degrees and die cut again
- sponge the edge with Night of Navy
- Use Taylored Expressions 6 x 6 ‘Party in the USA’ Stencils to stamp the background
- stencil 1 – Night of Navy stars & stripes
- stencil 2 – Real Red stars & stripes
- stencil 3 – Basic Grey stars & stripes
- Firework strips
- Night of Navy, 4 X 3, score at 2, fold and then cut 12 -1/8 inch strips
- Real Red, 2 1/2 X 3, score at 1 1/4, fold and then cut 12 – 1/8 inch strips
- Put a little bit of glue on each strip on the unscored end and attach it to itself; put another tiny bit of glue on the inside of the blue strip to attach the red strip. Place the strips symmetrically around the fireworks securing them to the Top Note with a 3/4″ punched circle from a double back sheet
- When all are attached to the circle, add tombow glue to the center to reinforce the pieces
- Punch a 3/4″ circle from the Amazon DSP and add to the very center
- Inside Top Layer: White 5 X 3 3/4
- Bottom Strip: Whaline Patriotic Pattern DSP from Amazon, 3 3/4 X 3/4
- Bottom Front Strips: Night of Navy, 3/8 X 4; White 1/8 X 4
- Bottom Greeting: White 3 X 1 1/2, die cut with detailed Bands Die then stamp with ‘Band Together’ stamp set; the little blue stars are from the Hometown Greetings Edgelit Dies
The inside greeting of ‘Celebrate Freedom’ is from the Taylored Expressions ‘Land That I Love’ foil it sheets. The sheet is foiled with blue foil and then cut to size. The inside and the front greeting are lightly sponged on the edges with Night of Navy. I will link Textured Expressions in the computer at the end of the blog.
The next card uses the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ stamp from Taylored Expressions, the ‘Land That I Love’ foil it sheets, and the ‘Hometown Greetings’ edgelit dies from Stampin’ Up!
Recipe for God Bless America card
- Base: Real Red, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4
- Layer (X2): Night of Navy, 5 1/4 X 4
- Top (X2): White 5 X 3 3/4, Use sticky notes to mask the red for stamping blue and then mask blue to stamp the red of the flag. Use the stamparatus so that you can stamp several times to get a nice dark blue/red
- Church: White textured paper, 3 X 1, cut with Hometown Greetings Edgelit Dies
- Die cut from Night of Navy a second church, 2 3/4X 1, to adhere behind the white and slightly to the side for shadow (next time I would add a blue strip connected to the greeting like the inside has)
- Note: The Foil It Sheet from Taylored Expressions has several greetings on one sheet so it needs to have the greeting cut first and then use a separate set of blue foil sheet for the layer, usually you can cut the blue foil to size and then foil it and use the negative for the layer
- Greeting: Foil God Bless America
- God Bless America, 2 1/2 X 1 1/8
- Blue Foil, 2 3/4 X 1 3/8
- The Foil It Sheet from Taylored Expressions has several greetings on one sheet so it needs to have the greeting cut first and then use a separate set of blue foil sheet for the layer
- Greeting Inside: Land That I Love
- Land That I Love, 1 1/2 X 2
- Blue Foil Layer, 1 3/4 X 2 1/4
- Blue Houses on Inside: Night of Navy, 3 1/2 X 2, die cut with Hometown Greetings Edgelit Dies
- Top Strip on Inside: Amazon Whaline Patriotic DSP, 5 X 7/8
Thanks for visiting!
SAL, Salute A Land we love
Karen
Click to go to Taylored Expressions
Riddle of the day:
Question: How can you drop a raw egg from a height onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
Answer: Concrete floors are very hard to crack.
Father’s Day with a KraftyKreations Mandala
As a reward for purchasing from the Krafty Kreations booth at the Scrapbook Expo, I received a kit which makes two Mandala cards. I was a bit under the weather so Paul helped me make the two cards so we had Father’s Day Cards for the Son – In – Laws.
And this is how we customized it for Father’s Day. The Happy Father’s Day is from words in Pink & Main foil kits, cut to size, and run through the Mini Minc machine with a pretty foil. Call it ‘Mixed Media’!
I think you are taken with the black sticker technique because you always loved black accents.
So true, Sal, and I love glitter! Combining the two, glitter and black accents, with the ability to color the glitter any color and I am thrilled! Wait until you see the Christmas sets I purchased!
You are thinking Christmas already?
Half the year is almost gone; I had better be getting ready for making Christmas cards!
For the inside I used the Stampin’ Up! stamp set ‘Treasures of Life’:
As with most commercial kits, the inside is just the blank white of the card base. Tranquil Tide card stock was a close to perfect match for the card kit front so I cut a piece the full size of the base – 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 (minus a hair on the the 4 1/4 side to account for the score line down the middle). The black mat is 4 X 5 1/4 and the white top layer is 3 3/4 X 3 5/8.
Back to using the kit – when you peel up the outline sticker, you are left with the other pieces and it looks like this:
Krazy Kreations sells ‘transfer sheets’ but I had no clue at the time what those would be used for. Evidently, you apply the transfer sheet to this left over sheet, burnish real well, and then the transfer sheet will pick up all the little pieces and you can then apply those pieces to another card. I will try Glad Seal and Stick and see if that works. I will edit this post after I do that so you can come back and see if I made it work!
Thanks for joining me today as I delve into different crafting techniques.
SAL, Such A Lot of ways to craft
Karen
Click on little Sal in the computer to go to krazykreations.
Riddle of the day:
Question: A barrel of water weighs 60 pounds. What can you put in it for it to weigh 40 pounds.
Answer: A hole.
2024 Scrapbook Expo in Denver
A group of us went to the Scrapbook Expo in Denver, May 17, 2024. It was a fun time, not quite as many vendors as the one I attended several years ago, but certainly enough that I found most things on my list. My favorite vendor that I visited first was Krazy Kreations. I purchased numerous outlines from them years ago but never used them so I wanted to get instructions once again. They had a ‘make and take’ so not only did I receive instructions but I got to use the technique. Sal will link you to their site at the end of the blog post.
The shoes, flowers, greeting and hearts are all glossy stickers. You put the shoe stickers on super fine glitter paper, roll with a brayer tool to set them firmly in the paper and then you color with alcohol markers and then fussy cut the image. I used a light and dark pink to get a little shading. The background is three strips of DSP with a little line sticker on the left side.
I added a happy birthday die cut from pink glitter paper for the inside when I got back home. The line edge is a sticker as well!
It was pretty in real life but the camera didn’t work well with the glitter paper, Sal. I could have used the super fine glitter paper and colored it but I had lots of Stampin’ Up! paper in my stash so I wanted to save the super fine glitter paper I purchased at Krazy Kreations for my Christmas projects when it is my turn for another Shoebox event.
Another vendor I visited and made their make and take was the Spellbinders booth. I have seen the wax kits in advertisements and wanted to try using them. Their card also used a letterpress system to get the tree branch. It has indents and fine details but hard to catch in a photo. The faux strings behind the wax seal are actually from a die. I toyed with buying that die but decided I have a stash of bakers twine so best to save my money – for now!
The next make and take was at the Stampalistic booth, it is a tin box with a top we made from an amazing stamp set that created layers by stamping on different colored papers and then fussy cutting and popping up each layer.
I went back to Krazy Kreations and purchased the borders you see on the bottom of the tin. The flower jewels are from my stash.
I asked if the jewels were Swarovski crystals since they were so bright. She said Swarovski has changed and calls them ‘Illuminations’ so I think the answer was yes, but I am not sure. Anyway they are Illuminations.
And you purchased the stamp so you can make more?
No, Sal. It was a lot of fussy cutting. Now if I had one of those fancy machines that would cut it, I might have. I sold my Brother because I had absolutely no room for it and no time to learn it.
Lastly, we met and compared our treasures. Sharon had found a make and take with a whole kit to take home that makes 8 cards- www.simplestories.com. This was the make and take.
Everything, including the background paper, was a punch out, but a heavy duty punch out, not just a thin sticker. I was impressed. This is something I can do with my grandchildren and they will be able to make a lovely card. They had Christmas card kits but I was hoping for a graduation card kit and birthday kit. I will have to go online for those.
Most of the make and takes were $5 so very reasonable. I had brought cash to make myself keep to a budget and my last purchase of the outline strips from Krazy Kreations, I was counting out my leftover change, but I kept to the budget.
Sharon, Lucille, Terry, myself and Michele!
I headed to the bathroom before we left and when I got back to the group they were yelling “You won”. I won a $20 gift certificate from Acushla Stamps (Acushla is Gaelic for Darling). I chose Petticoat Parlor stamps- a ‘Tea For Two’ stamp set and a ‘Sympathy’ stamp set.
It was a fun day! I would have come back for the second day but I had a party planned for our little graduating kindergarten grandchild, Emmitt. He wanted a chocolate donut and a cake so our dear friend who does cakes for a living made a large chocolate donut cake! She actually made a chocolate and vanilla which was perfect to have one for Jaxson who doesn’t care for chocolate. Yes, he is my grandson, but he sure didn’t get my love for chocolate!
Thank you, Barbara Lane, for wonderful cakes!
Stay tuned for cards from our next shoebox event which is tomorrow. I am the hostess so I will be posting those cards next.
Thank you for letting us bring a pinch of creativity to spice up your crafting world!
SAL, Sharing A Lot of fun with friends
Karen
(Krazy Kreations is the link for this post)
Riddle of the day:
Question: I am easy to lift but hard to throw. What am I?
Answer: A feather.