Sharon Fincham’s May 2024 Shoebox Event
With Mother’s Day and Father’s Day right around the corner, Sharon designed cards that we could use for both. For Father’s Day she used a Stampin’ Up! set of dies- ‘Trusty Tools’ that cut out tools! She had pieces for a toolbox so we could slide the tools in the box and then glue it to the shiny silver embossed background! Our part was easy in putting everything in place. Her part would have been hard with making the little tools! Thank you, Sharon!
I saved two of the tools Sharon had in our kits for the inside and used ‘Guy Greetings’ for a fun saying. The paint brush swirl and the ‘you are extraordinary’ are in the ‘Beautiful Blizzard’ stamp set from years ago.
Another stamp from the Bake Sale list! You should just delete that tab.
You’re probably right. Or maybe I should make a card with each of the products and offer the product with a card for sale to see if that would market the stamp set.
For the second card, Sharon designed a fun gate fold with a piggly wiggly!!
I colored him too dark at Sharon’s house so when I got home I tried to lighten him with the blender pen but the ink ran outside the lines on the left, so then I had to find more flowers like Sharon had for the crown to hide my goof. We have our ways of fixing mistakes!
I will send it to my daughter with the movie “Charlotte’s Web”.
The heart is from the ‘Pictogram Punches’ stamp set. I loved how it had a heart in the heart which went so well with the greeting which is from the ‘Places In The Heart’ stamp set.
Sharon had a third card for us – peak performer that she is….. with products from Stampin’ Up! The designer series paper is ‘Meandering Meadows’ and the die is ‘Garden Meadows’ die.
The Happy Mother’s Day and little rose bud are in the ‘Tea Together’ stamp set.
They are Swarovski crystals I purchased at the Scrapbook Expo years ago. I save them for very special cards like this one. This year’s expo in Denver is Friday May 17-18th.
Thanks for stopping by!
SAL, Smile A Little – summer is coming!
Karen
Riddle of the day:
Question: I can only live where there is light but I die if the light shines on me. What am I?
Answer: A Shadow!
Card In A Box
Sometimes ‘Thinking of You’ just isn’t quite enough so then you might want a special card like a card in a box.
Not again! Those are stamps you had in the Bake Sale!
Yes, Sal. Sigh….
The box looks cluttered in the picture but in actuality there is a double Z fold piece you add to the box to give you different sections. Let’s look at the box from the bottom. The blue dashes show the inserted piece. I recommend tear and tape on the sides that attach. I used tape runner and it isn’t as good. I used strips of window sheet to attach the images to the sections.
The box still folds to fit in an A2 envelope. The back has one long piece which is good for writing your own personal message.
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These are so fun to make! I made a dinosaur one HERE.
This is a printable pdf of the directions with lots of pictures: Box Card
This picture shows the sections a little better.
Bye for now!
SAL, Let’s be Salt and Light to someone today
Karen
Riddle of the day:
Question: You go at red, but stop at green. What am I?
Answer: Watermelon. You eat the red part, and you stop eating at the green part.
Triple Pull Out Fun Fold Card
Do you have gorgeous designer series paper that you want to spotlight? This card does that! I was inspired by Rose Ward of Stampersdelight. I changed a few of the dimensions and used different DSP-designer series paper and stamps but the pull out idea is still the same.
. The right hand side has a trifold that pulls up! The left side is popped up so it is the same height as the closed card.
To display the card you would prop it up like this:
. The foil in the flowers really pops! Did you have a die for the flowers?
No, Sal, I fussy cut the flowers on the edge of a small left over piece of DSP that would otherwise have been thrown away.
Recipe
- Base: Just Jade, 5 1/2 X 4 1/4
- Layer: Basic White, 5 1/4 X 3 3/4; layer this on the base then create the pull out section
- Pull Out: Create then adhere
- Just Jade, 12 X 3 3/4, score the long side at 4″ and 8″, burnish well,
- Layers on the Pull Out (X3): Basic White, 3 3/4 X 3 1/2, Be careful when adhering because it is not square
- Top Two Sections of the Pull Out (X2): Designer Series Paper (DSP), 3 1/2 X 3 1/4
- adhere this pull out section 1/8″ over from the right hand side, lining up the white layers top to bottom
- Left side strip: Create then adhere
- Just Jade, 4 X 1 1/8
- Basic White, 3 3/4 X 7/8
- DSP, 3 1/2 X 5/8
- Use adhesive pop up strips to adhere 1/8″ over from the left and line up the white layers top to bottom
- Greetings: Basic White, Scrap to match your stamp. I used greetings from the ‘More Messages’ stamp set with a die that cut out all the images at one time which I then stored for later use.
- Bow: 4″ to wrap the left hand top and then 8″ to make a bow and adhere with a glue dot. If you put a glue dot in the middle of the wrapped section and squish it together before you adhere the bow it will look like you had one long ribbon that you tied in the middle.
Thank you for spending some time with Sal and I!
Be sure and register tomorrow, April 16, for the Scrapbook Expo in Denver.
SAL, See A Lot of crafters at the Expo
Karen
Riddle of the day:
Question: What is more useful when it is broken?
Answer: An egg.
April Shoebox Event with Lisa Christensen
It is always a delight to meet with friends to create beautiful cards. This month Lisa Christensen was our hostess and her cards were lovely. This first one uses the Stampin’ Up! ‘Berry Blessings’ stamp set and the Stampin’ Up! ‘Sweet Strawberry’ stamp set and punch.
. Oooh….can we look at it berry close?
Why sure, Sal!
My flowers were supposed to come off of the branch but the branch reminded me of all the little runners the strawberry plant puts out so I did it a bit different.
This set was available on Ebay if you missed it before it was retired by Stampin’ Up!:
The last cards I sent, I didn’t stamp a greeting on the inside so I could write a short letter. I enjoyed having more room for more words.
I do, Sal, and hopefully others like to read them!
Lisa’s second card was an interesting and beautiful Z fold easel card! We could stamp with Happy Birthday or Happy Mother’s Day or….
Lisa used a die from the ‘Hand Penned Petal’ set for the flower and a die from the ‘Delicate Lace Edgelits Dies’ for the bottom. The greeting is a Close To My Heart greeting.
It’s like an upside down easel card.
True, we usually have the stop at the bottom but how wonderfully unique is this?!
Fancy front and room to write on the back (with a cute little fox in the DSP).
Is that one of those double bows you make wrapping it around your fingers?
It is, Sal. Following is a link to the Facebook Live where I showed crafters how to make the bow. I like that both tails come out from the back. Drag the minute line at the bottom to 28:20 to see the instructions.
I assume you have all those sets from your 15 years as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator?!
No, Sal, and that is what makes shoebox events so fun. Everyone has different tastes and different sets for crafting.
Colorado’s Scrapbook Expo is happening next month, May 17 & 18th. Registration begins April 16 at 9:00 a.m.
Have a wonderful day!
SAL, See you At Lunch at the Expo on Friday
Karen
Riddle for the day:
Question: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps!
Easter Basket Card and 3D
In my last post you saw all the cool cards I made with the Divinity Designs Alleluia die and stamp combo. I also purchased from them a basket die set, a pastel egg paper/die duo and a pastel prints 6X6 paper pad. With all these wonderful products I made these cards with different crosses and different eggs:
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And this one:
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With pastels you can even stamp on the paper as I did here for the inside of the cards:
I had Easter baskets sitting out with paper grass so I used that grass in the paper baskets.
A picture of the products might help you save words.
Good idea, Sal! And I will link Divinity Designs down below with little Sal in the computer.
That fourth screen shot is one of the pastel print papers. I used the Stampin’ Up! ‘Cross of Hope’ die and put the heart of the paper right in the middle of the ornate cross die. When I die cut the cross, I left the middle intact and put scotch tape on the back so the pieces wouldn’t come out in hopes the little heart would show. You’ll see more of that cross in the 3D baskets I made for the grandchildren. The greeting on the front comes from:
The layer on the front is the Stampin’ Up! Ornate Layers die and the inside greetings are from Stampin’ Up! ‘His Grace’. Check out my previous post ‘Easter Celebration’ to see the Alleluia die at work. There’s not much you need for a recipe on this card. It uses a standard base and layer. Here is a pdf you can print out with the standard layers.
Standard Layers.pdf printable doc
Let’s look at the little 3D baskets Paul and I made for the grandchildren:
I added a little heart to the middle of these crosses since the paper heart didn’t stand out.
On the opposite side of the baskets I used the dove in ‘HIs Grace’ punched out with a circle punch and layered on a slightly larger circle in the same cardstock as the basket:
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I cut out numerous eggs and glued matching ones back to back and added them to the basket before the candy. The boys baskets were purple and blue:
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3D Basket Recipe
- Base: Cardstock of desired color, 6 X 6
- Score at 2 and 4
- Turn 90 degrees and score at 2 and 4
- Crease all score lines
- Adhere DSP squares to the four corner squares – measurements below
- Cut on the score lines to the middle score line twice on opposite sides
- The middle uncut part is the part to attach the handle
- Fold the sides up to meet each other
- Handle: cardstock of choice, 8 1/2 X 1/2
- Decorative Layer (X4): Divinity Designs Pastel DSP, 1 3/4 X 1 3/4, adhere before gluing basket together
- Ribbon: 12″ tied to handle
- Adhere cross on one side and dove on opposite side- see above for paper used for cross
It was a wonderful Easter with Tyler, Amber and the boys, Jaxson & Emmitt!
The boys had matching shirts!
We died eggs but then made deviled eggs out of them so a bit pointless but tradition is tradition!
The boys hunted Easter eggs in their lovely yard on a wonderful sunny day! (It snowed again on Monday!)
All hostess’ need a hostess gift and I found this cute rabbit holding a carrot around a vase of flowers. I couldn’t resist!
Jonathan & Stacia spent the day on the slopes with Emma, Joey and a friend!
You can’t always have both families and, you know, ski season is almost over!
I know, Sal. At least we got pictures.
Thanks for spending time with me today friends! Hopefully you have ideas for next year’s Easter cards.
SAL, SingALleuia
Karen
Riddle for the day:
Question: What 5 letter word typed in all capital letters can be read the same upside down?
Answer: SWIMS
Easter Celebration
He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! This year’s Easter cards used mostly Divinity Designs products. I was thrilled when they advertised an Alleluia die set with both the word die and the shadow die. The set also had wonderful words for Easter and a set of card fronts that simplified card making and yet made beautiful cards. For this first one I used Granny Apple Green for the base and Evening Evergreen for the layer and green glitter paper for the Alleluia on an Evening Evergreen word shadow.
For the inside, I used the Alleluia stamp set for the greetings and the Stampin’ Up! ‘His Grace’ stamp set for the dove and scripture on a Pineapple Punch top layer.
Check it out with a different card front and the purples of royalty! The base is Highland Heather and the layers are black. The inside top is Fresh Freesia to match the sun’s rays.
Now let’s look at some of the other card fronts in the Divinity Designs card pack. This first one uses a base of Grapefruit Grove and a layer of black. It uses two of the card fronts and the tomb is fussy cut, with the top edge sponged in black and then popped up on the cross card front. Gems just didn’t seem like the right embellishment for this one so I used the dove from ‘His Grace’ again.
This next card shows the tomb card front and it is not fussy cut. I added a cross from the Stampin’ Up! ‘Cross of Hope’ die set, die cutting once with wood looking designer series paper and a second die cut for a shadow in black. I used the Stampin’ Up! ‘Easter Message’ stamp set to stamp the purple cloth and then fussy cut it to fit the cross. There are actually three pieces glued at the back of the cross to look like one piece. The lily was fussy cut from the same ‘Easter Message’ stamp set. The words to the song are white embossed and are from the Divinity Designs Alleluia set.
The inside for both cards used another of the Divinity Design card fronts which had all the right colors to go with the colors on the front.
I think you got your money’s worth with all those card fronts!
True, Sal, and what a great addition to my Easter stamp collection to have the Alleluia dies and the stamp set. It is called ‘Alleluia & Layer plus stamp die combo’. I will link little Sal in the computer to the Divinity Designs site.
Recipe
- Bases: Granny Apple Green, Highland Heather, Grapefruit Grove, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, scored at 4 1/4
- Layer: Evening Evergreen, Black, 5 1/4 X 4
- Top: Divinity Designs Resurrection Sunrises Card fronts, 5 X 3 3/4, (the third card fussy cuts the tomb to pop up on the other card front)
- Alleluia Shadow: Black or Evening Evergreen, 4 3/4 X 2
- Alleluia Word Die: Green Glitter Paper, Gorgeous Grape Card Stock, 4 3/4 X 2
- Note – use double back adhesive sheets just slightly smaller than the 4 3/4 X 2
- Stamps: Alleluia Set, His Grace, Easter Message
- Dies: Alleluia Die combo and the Cross of Hope Dies
Thanks for stopping by for a look at Easter cards. I have one more Easter post which will have baskets – one 3D and one card with a basket die from Divinity Designs so come back soon.
SAL, Sing ALleluia
Karen
Riddle for the day:
Question: Why is Europe like a frying pan?
Answer: Because it has Greece at the bottom!
March Shoebox with Joy Meadows as our Hostess
“Stack, Slice & Shuffle” is a fun technique that Joy taught us at our last shoebox event. It is like a quilt card, and with a stack of three designer series papers you can have three different looking cards in no time at all.
Joy used the Butterfly Kisses Designer Series Paper (DSP) on a black layer with a white base.
Recipe
- Base: White, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, scored at 4 1/4
- Border: Black, 5 3/8 X 4 1/8 for a 1/16 reveal
- Stack of 3 different DSPs: 5 1/4 X 4
- Slice: Cut through all 3 at the same time at a diagonal about 1/2″ over on bottom and about 1″ down on right; set aside the smaller pile of 3
- Slice again: Cut through the other pile of 3 at a diagonal about 1/2″ over and to about the middle
- Note: The 1/2″ over and 1″ down are not necessarily perfect measurements, diagonals can be random
- Shuffle: You should now have three separate piles.
- Leave one pile as is
- Remove the top piece of the second pile and put it on the bottom
- Remove two pieces of the third pile and put them on the bottom
- Base of your shuffled cards (X3): white, 5 1/4 X 4
- Adhere your three separate patterns to the bases
- Embellish with a die cut mounted to cover where all three DSPs meet; Joy used Stampin’ Up! Deckled Circles with the largest being 1 3/4 and the smaller is 1 3/8 popped up on the larger
- Stamp ‘Hello’ in Memento Black; Hello is from SU Irresistable Blooms
- Inside Strip: DSP, 3/4 X 4
- Butterflies: Black to match the border; SU Butterfly Gala Punch for one large and one small for inside; use a black marker to make antennae
- Brass Butterflies around the greeting and a sparkly gem on butterfly complete the embellishments
Time to make a stack of Christmas cards to get ahead of the December push
That would be good, Sal! If I did two sets each month I would be ahead of the game.
Thank you, Joy, for a fun new technique!
Joy had an additional card for us to make at the event!
The picture doesn’t do it justice. The base is soft succulent with a very vanilla layer embossed with a cobblestone looking embossing folder. The dies for the circles and the greeting are the Stampin’ Up! Everyday Details Dies. The large circle is 3 1/4 and the top circle is 2 1/2. The bird is from the Flight & Airy DSP from Stampin’ Up. The glittery gem exactly matches the soft succulent. The happy birthday greeting is Stampin’ Up!’s Birthday Blossoms stamp set on a 2 3/4 X 1 3/8 rectangle in the Everyday Details Dies.
Another beautiful design by Joy Meadows!
Thank you for stopping by today!
SAL, Sharing A Love
Karen
Riddle for the day:
Q= How do you spell COW in thirteen letters?
A= SEE O DOUBLE YOU
Paul’s Birthday Celebration
Time for birthday cards! I really can make simple cards! This one wasn’t a fun fold just a simple one, but I think the monochromatic look gives it a wow factor.
For our friend Dan!
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For Paul!
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Recipe
- Base: Starry Sky, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, Scored at 4 1/4
- Strips on Front (3): DSP, 1/2″ each, mount with 1/8″ borders between
- White Layer on Front: Basic White, 2 1/8 X 5 1/4
- White Layer Inside: Basic White, 4 X 5 1/4
- Side Strip on Inside: DSP, 1 X 5 1/4
- Stamp Sets:
- Just Believe Stampin’ Up! for greenery stamped in Blueberry Bushel
- Outside ‘Happy Birthday’ is from Go To Greetings Stampin’ Up!
- Inside ‘May Good Things Grow’ – Dragonfly Garden
- Inside ‘No One Deserves…’, ‘Love you so much’, – Flowering Tulips
- Embellishments
- 3 Brass Butterflies
- 3 Buttons with 3 navy blue gems for centers (attach with glue dots- the little glue dots on the gems won’t hold)
Christine’s valentine card for the shoebox event must have given you a bug for buttons!
Yes, Sal! Before her card – see it here – I hadn’t used a button for years but I have a huge stash of them so I experimented and really liked the result.
Paul received a card from Jo and Dan and it was so fun! He is looking forward to fishing trips this summer and Jo capitalized on his love of fishing. The pole has a layer of gold foil and the hooks on the outside and inside are silver foil but the camera didn’t ‘catch’ those details.
For Paul’s birthday we spent the weekend in Breckenridge, CO. It was spring break for many so the town was crowded but still fun to ride a gondola from where we were staying up on the mountain to the downtown restaurant. Stacia, Jonathan, Emma and Joey met us for supper Friday night. They live in Steamboat so they could have supper and then drive home. We had an evening meal here before we left with Amber, Tyler, Jaxson & Emmitt since it was too far for them to drive.
Swiss Haven fondue supper!
Dessert time!
Paul’s birthday was well celebrated and I know he felt loved!
Thanks for stopping by!
SAL, Scrapbooking A Little (digitally)
Karen
Riddle for the day:
Q= What goes up but never comes down?
A= Your Age
Jaxson Has The ‘Card’ Bug
My grandsons came to spend the night and Jaxson’s first words were – “Can we make a card?” You can’t say no to that unless supper is burning! I went to the blog and showed him cards from the Recipe Box to get his creative juices flowing. He saw the turtle cards I made for their birthdays a couple years ago and he wanted to make a Ninja turtle card. I have two turtle sets in my Stampin’ Up! stash – ‘Turtle Friends’ and ‘Back On Your Feet’. My heart soared as he said “I want to make it for my brother, I want to say “Best Brother Ever”. So I pulled out ‘Family Reunion’, ‘A Grand Kid’, and ‘Skating By’. Jaxson is seven years old, Emmitt is six.
I cut him a base of real red with a layer of black.
He stamped the boy from ‘Skating By’ (thank goodness for a stamparatus) adding the trophy.
He wanted the turtle on the skate board but facing left. (your guess is as good as mine as to why). While I read my own technique sheet on reversing an image, he said he needed to make sewer pipes for the turtles. (To make the reverse image, you stamp 3 times on a silicon pad using the stamparatus, and then place your card stock on the silicon pad and rub with your chuckie!) Jaxson followed instructions so well!
That is a tool, Sal, that we use to rub the image on the stamparatus to get even pressure.
While I fussy cut the turtle image – now in reverse – he colored the boy image and cut out the pipes he had made on copy paper. Then he wanted the turtle to be riding the skate board. So he stamped and I cut out a skate board.
Jaxson knew the names and colors of their bandanas, though the markers were drying up and giving him grief:
- Michelangelo – orange
- Raphael – red
- Leonardo – blue
- Donatello – purple
I guided him in using the blue marker to color the back of the stamp that said “Best grandkid ever”, coloring only the ‘best’ and the ‘ever’. He stamped that and then added ‘brother’, from the Family Reunion stamp set, in the middle. He stamped the little turtles and colored them and then lastly stamped the big turtle on his back. Patience was wearing thin as he wanted to be done and Emmitt was growing impatient with playing by himself so as Jaxson stamped the last turtle – he inked it and then—-dropped it on the words! Panic! He grabbed a marker and just started coloring over everything. I reassured him all errors are fixable and removed the right hand layer and the turtle and skateboard and he redid that side and reattached the skateboard and turtle.
Emmitt finally got his card! Now Jaxson was sad because there wasn’t time for him to make his football card.
I cut a white card base and he stamped a football inside a flourish from the ‘Great Sport’ stamp set so he had something before he ran to play. They came again this last weekend and he made many cards with his football heroes but he just hand drew what he wanted and didn’t ask to use stamps. Hmmm…..might have been a bit overwhelming for him to stamp!
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He ‘learned’ to ink and stamp with blocks and the stamparatus, he learned to do a reverse image, he learned to do a partial image by coloring only part of the words and he learned to fix your mistakes. I was just obliging his wishes for the words he wanted and an image going the other way!
So you want us to feel sorry for you trying to meet his demands?!
I did have to say we didn’t have room for the earpods on a phone image he wanted to add to the turtle.
When Papa got home, he ran to show him the card and the first thing he said was, “Grandma made me do the side all over.” So I guess I did traumatize him. I used to encourage redos in classes as well. I would hurry to cut a new layer when someone messed up their card. I wanted them to go home with one that they were proud of making. I don’t want them to drop it in the trashcan when they get home.
I thought your new year’s resolution was to quit being a perfectionist?!
It’s March, it went away with the exercise routine!
Thank you for visiting! Have a wonderful week.
SAL, Such Amazing Little ones
Karen
Riddle For The Day:
Q – Why did the teddy bear say no to dessert?
A – Because he was stuffed.
Sympathy & Get Well with Eden’s Garden
Oh how sad it makes us to need to prepare a sympathy card; but remember that as you craft your card you can pray for their family and friends. I am using the Eden’s Garden Suite from my Stampin’ Up! stash. I also had the Forever Gold Specialty Laser cut paper to use on the card and Lovely Words dies for the inside. Take a look:
SU Delicate Dahlias stamp set had the greeting I used.
I made a get well card at the same time:
The greeting is from SU Speedy Recovery.
How did you get gold foil on the little leaves?
Well, Sal, it was the DSP itself that had gold foil. I didn’t use the Minc machine to foil, that would be a challenge! I do have a pen that I could use to color part of a DSP and then run it through the machine with gold foil but that is a challenge for another day.
Recipe
- Base: Soft Succulent, 4 1/4 X 11, Scored at 5 1/2
- Top: Ever Eden Foil Designer Series Paper (DSP), 3 1/2 X 4
- Top Middle: Ever Eden Cotton Paper, 3/4 X 4 1/4, gives the look of a belly band
- Top Bottom: Ever Eden plain DSP, 3/4 X 4
- Gold Flourish: Forever Gold Specialty Paper, already laser cut so just punch out
- Greeting: Soft Succulent, 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 stamp then cut with #4 circle die (4th from smallest)
- Stamp greeting in Evening Evergreen using stamparatus so you can stamp twice for darker greeting
- Sympathy: Delicate Dahlias stamp set; Get Well: Speedy Recovery stamp set
- Inside Layer 1: Cotton Paper, 4 X 5 1/4
- Inside Layer 2: Ever Eden plain DSP matching front bottom DSP, 3 3/4 X 5
- Inside Layer 3: Ever Eden Foil Side of DSP, 3 1/2 X 4 3/4, die cut ‘Hugs’ from Lovely Words die
- Hugs Layer: Gold Foil, 2 1/2 X 1 1/2, die cut the ‘Hugs’ only to layer on the DSP of layer 3
- Bow: Evening Evergreen, 8″
Easy Peasy! Especially if you have the measurements. Getting those correct took a bit of time.
Imagine what you could do with other DSPs!
Exactly, Sal, with two coordinating DSPs and two coordinating card stocks for the base and the band you could do a lot.
So you’re going to add to your stash of ready to go cards by making several?
Well, I really don’t have much of a stash, and I have a friend who thinks its bad luck to make sympathy cards, and you pray a lot longer when you aren’t just pulling from the stash, and….. So, the short answer is ‘no’, I need to move on to the next needed cards.
Thank you for spending a bit of time with me today as we…
bring a pinch of creativity to spice up your crafting world!
SAL, Sending A Little prayer with each card
Karen
Riddle for the day:
Q=What do you call a bear with no teeth?
A=A gummy bear!
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