Cute Card Thursday is Feminine

First, I just want to say THANK YOU so much to everyone that has joined along with the “Purple Day” blog hop! I’m really thrilled that you have taken an interest in it and I can see from your comments that it’s working and bringing new awareness to some…really love that and appreciate your kind thoughts as well!

So today brings us to Thursday and that means it’s time for a new Cute Card Thursday challenge!! Yay! The theme for this week is “feminine”! This is a great opportunity to make a card for that special gal in your life, so I hope you will join along with us!

Here’s the card I made for the challenge:

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Well, I don’t know about you, but I have “collected” several card kits because…well…they ALL look amazing when they show them off!! ha! I have grown a wee little tired of all of the boxes/envelopes full of card kit product that I’m not doing anything with, and I tend to leave EVERYTHING in the box together and then forget about some of the products that are in there! {sigh} So I was thrilled to pull this one out to make a card!

Anyway, I have used the Simon Says Stamp April 2018 “Mother’s Day special edition” card kit for this. It came with a pretty floral background stamp called “Flower Explosion” that I’ve stamped with the same ink as cardstock in the background and then sponged around the edges. I stamped the “mom” from the stamp set in black and then made a banner by white heat embossing the other sentiment underneath.

A close up of the flowers here that I’ve stamped out from the SSS “Mom’s Clematis” stamp set over some Bristol watercolor paper. I’ve used the Zig Clean Color Brush markers and a water brush to color them in with and then fussy cut them out to arrange over the stamped card panel. As you can see in the photo, I have covered the flowers with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen. (You have to get that just right in photo to show up!) I used some foam dots to pop up the bud and largest flower.

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And then to embellish it up a bit, there were some pretty gold puffy stickers in that kit, so I took a heart and placed it next to the sentiment and then added some sequins from the kit and filled them with some gold Stickles. Everything was mounted over a piece of black cardstock which was then mounted over a top folding A2 sized card base the same color as the image panel.

Please do hop on over to the Cute Card Thursday Blog and check out the rest of the inspiration from the design team and play along with us!

Thanks so much for dropping by and I’ll see you soon!

challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Spring flowers + use SSS product
Try it On Tuesdays – Say it With Flowers
My Time to Craft – Mother’s Day or For a Female
Crafty Cardmakers – “That Special Someone” (Mother’s Day)

Whimsy Stamps March New Release!

Hello friends! I don’t think I ever remember being so sick before! WOW! I was literally stuck in the bed for a couple of days there! I’ve been taking some meds from doctor and starting to feel a bit better now, just regular cold and not so much the fever and chills any more. Thank you SO MUCH for the very kind get well thoughts as I truly appreciate that! So glad that’s over with now!

Have you checked out the new release over at Whimsy Stamps yet? There are lots of really adorable digital stamps this month and I’m excited to be sharing one of those with you today:

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I have used this sweet little image by C.C. Designs for Whimsy Stamps called Bunny. (And that little bunny is too cute wrapped up in the garden hose!!)

I have also used some fun new digital papers for the background on my card here too! I’ve printed out a piece from the Whimsy Stamps Rustic Wood and Brick Papers digital collection and used it on the background of my green card panel.

I also used some die cuts to add some fun elements to my design as well as wrap some ribbon at the top and add a white flower with a rhinestone in the center of it. I heat embossed a sentiment in white EP over a piece of the green cardstock and cut it out with a stitched die cut banner.

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I have it all colored up with my Copic markers and then I’ve used some metallic gel pens for the dots and for the water sprinkling from the hose.

Here you can better see how I’ve colored in the image and the details of sparkle with the gel pens. I’ve used some craft foam behind the image panel for a bit of dimension too.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my card for today and have been inspired to go check out the rest of the new release at Whimsy Stamps!

I’ll be back again tomorrow for some more inspiration! Thanks so much for dropping in!! Have a great day!

Brightening A Rainy Day

Hello friends! Are you longing for that rainy Springtime showers with lots of flowers because you’re tired of snow? I know that I’ve been wanting Spring to get here very soon! I thought I’d bring some of that feeling into my blog post this morning:

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I started out with my images from these stamp sets that were released as a bundle set called May Showers Spring Bundle.

I wanted to incorporate both of these rubber stamp sets into my design, so I heat embossed the parasol image from the Showers of Tulips set and the bows from the May Showers set with White EP over some Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper. I colored them in with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and fussy cut them out with my scissors and set them aside.

For the background panel, I took another piece of watercolor paper and spritzed it with water to get it good and wet before sprinkling on some Nuvo Blue Blitz Shimmer Powder. I spritzed it again to really get the water moving around and manipulated the panel so that I could get the water drips going down the panel. Once this dried, I cut it out with the Tonic Basics Scalloped Square Dies.

Using my cut-out parasol image for placement, I heat embossed the sentiment from the May Showers stamp set with the Coffee EP where I wanted it over the watercolor panel. I then took the raindrops image from the same stamp set and stamped it with VersaMark ink repeatedly over the background and heat embossed it with that Magic Speckle EP. I’ve also added some Nuvo Morning Dew Crystal Drops to the center of each drop for more dimension and shine to get a nice wet water look to it! This was set aside to dry for a bit.

I took another piece of cardstock (slightly larger than the watercolor panel) and rubbed my VersaMark Ink pad along the edges to heat emboss it with the Coffee EP. I attached these layers together and then glued some craft foam behind it for dimension.

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I’ve used a blue 5″ square top folding card base for my design and took a piece of white doily I had from my stash and glued it on with some Dimensional Glue. I then added a strip of white cardstock covered with a piece of 1/2″ Tear Tape going diagonally across the card base and burnished some Sunny Daze glitter over it.

Finally, I added the watercolor and embossed layers over top of the card base and then took my fussy cut images and added them to the design with some foam dots.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Spring Showers card today and it’s inspired you in some way! I thank you SO MUCH for dropping in! I appreciate all of the kind comments and a big welcome to my new followers…love meeting fellow crafty friends!!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Cardz 4 Galz – Weather (any condition)
Moving Along With the Times – Little Bit ‘Shabby Chic’
The Flower Challenge – Use Latest Stamp/Dies + flowers (SNS stamps)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – (PIP1907) – Anything Goes
Try it On Tuesday – “Powder Your……..” (Shimmer powder, Embossing powder)

Fistful of Flowers From Whimsy Stamps

Hello friends! Hope that you are having a great week so far! There is plenty of ice and snow over my way for the next several days, so I thought I would bring a little ‘happy’ today with a “Fistful of Flowers” from Whimsy Stamps!

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Isn’t she the cutest?! This was originally released as a rubber stamp from Crissy Armstrong, but this month it has been released in digital format now as well!

I have to be honest and say that after I had colored in the image, I was struggling with the colors of cardstock I wanted to use, and it seemed that anything I picked out wasn’t quite working. (You ever have this problem?) My hubby came in to visit me and I told him I was struggling, so he took me over to my paper and picked out these colors and I liked it, so I went with it! Did he do good? 🙂

I have cut a piece of yellow cardstock out and then took the WS Mom’s Layered Flowers clear stamp set and white heat embossed the background with one of the daisy images. I wrapped a piece of white ribbon around the yellow embossed piece that was also mounted onto a white 4.25 x 5.5 card front piece. After wrapping the ribbon around both pieces, I added a bow and this panel was then mounted onto a white top folding A2 sized card base.

The colored image panel was layered with a blue cardstock which I’ve also cut a piece for a fishtail banner and added some daisy accent flowers to it.

This cutie has been colored up with the following Copics:

Jeans & Bow tie on shirt – B97, B95, B93, B34
Shirt & Hair Bows – R85, R83, R81
Flower Petals & White Band on Shirt – BG000 (also around image)
Flowers – center: Y17 – Leaves/Stems: YG67, YG63, YG61
Grass – G24, G21, G20
Hair – YR30, E41, E43, E44, V95
Skin – E21, E11, E00, E000, R20

I took a glue pen and added some clear glitter over the edge of the flower petals for a bit of sparkle. You can see that the daisy accents also have some light touches of glitter on the edges as well.

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So I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and thanks for dropping by!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Crafting With an Attitude – Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #334 Anything Goes
Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP1906 Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash – Make Your Mark (colored with markers)

May Day Floral Wreath

Hello friends! With the cold weather and ice around my area, I thought it would be nice to turn my attention towards the month of May with my creation today:

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I have used this digital stamp set called May Day Floral Nosegay. I have printed out the pre-colored floral images and fussy cut them out for this card. The sentiment in the center of the wreath is also from this same set which I’ve printed out as well and then cut it out with the Tonic Scalloped Squares Basic die set and sponged around the edges with some blue ink.

For the wreath, I’ve used the Tonic Rococo Fern Garland die and cut it out once in green cardstock and another in white cardstock. For the white one I cut the ribbon area only and covered this piece with VersaMark ink which was heat embossed with some Sweetheart EP. (This is such a pretty EP with lots of sparkle! See below!)

I also heat embossed this same Sweetheart EP along the edges of a white cardstock that I cut out to layer behind the wreath panel. The heat embossed bow was glued over the green wreath and then the entire wreath was centered over the sentiment panel. I also then layered these panels onto a piece of black cardstock. I also put some craft foam behind this panel for some dimension on my card.

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For the tiny flowers behind a couple of the white flowers, I took my Clear Mark Embossing Pen and heat embossed the very tips with the same EP as above. All of these cut flowers were attached with the Dimensional Glue onto the wreath with a couple popped up for dimension. I also took some Nuvo Honey Gold Glitter Drops for the centers of the flowers as you can see in the photo above.

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Lastly, for the base of my card, I cut a piece of A2 sized top folding card base with a light blue cardstock. I also used this same cardstock color to cut out a couple of pieces using the Tonic Elegant Columns die set…so pretty! I sponged some white ink around the edges of them and attached them to the card base. I cut off the edges that were sticking out with my scissors.

Hope you’ve been inspired by my creation today and I thank you so much for stopping by!! See you soon!

Challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks – Anything Goes
CRAFT – Anything Goes
Moving Along With the Times – Add a Sentiment
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes + optional: Lots of Layers
Papercraft – Something New (new stamp set, dies, EP, flowers)

Whimsy Stamps New Digital Release – Willow

Hello friends! So are you having a Super Bowl party today? It’s always been sort of a little “thing” at our house each year since my kids were little….they were in it for the snacks of course! LOL!

Today I want to share with you a card I made with one of the brand new February digital releases from Whimsy Stamps!

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I have used this darling little Willow girl on my card today! Oh, those eyes are so catching on her! (Had to make them a pretty blue!) I have colored her up with the following Copic markers:

Dress, hair bows, shoe bows – R85, R83, R81, R00
Flowers – Y17, Y15, Y11, V17, V12, YG63, YG61
Shoes, Socks – E84, E81, BG000
Hair – E27, E25, E23, E21
Skin, Eyes – E21, E11, E00, E000, R20, R00, BG49, BG45
Around image – C1 (white gel dots on cheeks and eyes)

First, I took the Whimsy Stamps Notched Rectangles die set and cut out the colored image. Then I thought those yellow flowers she’s holding needed to be brought out a bit so I took the smaller flower image from the Whimsy Stamps Mom’s Layered Flowers clear stamp set and stamped it with yellow ink around the edges and die cut a scalloped rectangle layer with a suede brown cardstock to layer behind it. I sponged around the edges with some Brushed Corduroy distress ink and ink foam blending tool. I did the same to the left edge of the white A2 sized top folding card base.

For the right side of the card base, I took some of the Oh Boy digital papers from last month’s release and attached it. Then I took the sentiment from the same floral clear stamp set as mentioned above and stamped it with some brown ink at the bottom right corner of the card.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring on my image. You can see the yellow glittered hearts and those piercing blue eyes!

I then took the layered image panel and attached it to some craft foam and added it to the center of the card design. Lastly, I stamped a couple of hearts from the same stamp set mentioned above and filled them with some yellow glitter and added pearls to the corners.

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Please be sure to stop by the Whimsy Stamps store to check out all of the brand-new February release.

Challenges:

City Crafter – Floral Background
Addicted to Stamps & More – Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC206 Anything Goes
CCEE Stampers – CCEE1905 National ‘Thank You’ month
Creative Knockouts – Flower Power

“It’s a Girl Thing” TSA Inaugural Blog Hop!

Hello friends! So happy you are here!

Welcome to the “It’s A Girl Thing” Turner Syndrome Awareness Inaugural Blog Hop! Before I share my project with you, here is some important information regarding what this special blog hop is all about:

Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder where a female is born with only one X chromosome, instead of two, leaving her with life-long medical issues and learning disabilities. This condition occurs one in 2,500 female births worldwide but is more common among pregnancies that do not survive to full term. That is why Turner Syndrome Females are considered MIRACLES!

Turner Syndrome and the Butterfly

The butterfly has become the symbol for “Turner Girls”. Just like a butterfly, they are considered fragile and beautiful miracles. Turner Syndrome may also cause a myriad of health complications, such as heart defects, learning disabilities and infertility, according to the Mayo Clinic. Sept 14, 2013.

Because it represents femininity, strength, and uniqueness, the butterfly was designated by TSSUS to become the Turner Syndrome symbol. “Butterflies fly on their own which is our hope for our girls.”

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I have used this digital stamp set called “Ribbons of Love” I think it’s awesome that you can choose to use the pre-colored versions from the set which I have for my card here. It’s a perfect set to have on hand in multiple-colored ribbons that can be used for any cause you like to support! It also has some fantastic sentiments to go with it too! The butterfly was perfect to use for this particular cause!

I have used some papers from my stash for the background and the colors all chosen from the TS color palette! I printed out the image and sentiment together and die cut it with a stitched circle die. For the circle glitter layer behind it, I cut out another cardstock circle layer with some Super Adhesive Sheets over it, peeled off the backing and sprinkled some Gecko MF glitter and burnished it in. Added some blue ribbon with a bow over the papers, attached the circle layers, flowers and pearls. I then took a clear glitter pen and went over the butterfly with it for more shimmer. This was all mounted over a SU! Pacific Point 5×5″ top folding card base.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and it has inspired you in some way! Thanks so much for dropping by and taking part in this blog hop with us!

I am happy to be donating this card along with a few others to Lori so that she can use them to help raise funds for this cause as well.

Challenges I’d like to support with this card:

Creative Fingers – #156 Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP1904 – Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown – Anything Goes

Mixed Media Wall Hanging

Hello friends! I’m back again to share a mixed media wall plaque that I’ve made:

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It’s been a while since I’ve made any mixed media projects, so it was nice to be able to “get messy” and use some media products that I don’t pull out often enough!

So I started out the image panel thinking I was going to make a card with it, but then it felt like it was too large, so I decided I was going to make a Vintage style wall plaque with it instead! I had this plaque hanging around my room for about a year knowing that at some point I wanted to do something with it, so this felt like the opportunity I needed to get a project going.

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I’ve used a January release stamp set from Bugaboo called Vase of Flowers stamp set. I colored it with Copic markers except for the pink flowers and butterflies. I covered the flowers with the Pink Fizz glitter and the butterflies with the Canary flocking. I cut out the image panel with the Tonic Loopy Lace Oval Die and added it to a piece of cardstock that was covered with the Super Adhesive Sheets. I then covered the entire panel with the same Pink Fizz glitter and burnished into the background.

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Shown at a different angle, you can see all of the dimension and detail of the design.

I have also covered the flowers using some Brushable Glue and brushed it over top in certain areas over the flowers and then I sprinkled some Diamond Dust glitter over top of them.

I hope that you were inspired by my mixed media project today and I thank you so much for stopping in as I’m always happy to hear what you think!

Here’s the challenges I’d like to enter:

Not Just Cards – Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner – Make it Sparkle
Stamping Sensations – Fabulously Feminine (Stamped Vase of Flowers rubber stamp and colored it in.)
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Make it Flowery

Sympathy & Banish the Blues

Hello friends! Hope you have enjoyed a nice weekend. Unfortunately, I needed to make up a sympathy card and didn’t realize that I had run out of them, so I will need to make some up in the future so I can have them on hand and not have to worry about it when the time comes again. I had a friend who recently passed and needed a card for her family, so I pulled out a set that I hadn’t used before until now:

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This is an older set from last year’s Sale-a-Bration at Stampin’ Up! called “Heartfelt Blooms”. I think it’s so pretty and since the lady who passed was a happy crafter, I felt good about making this tribute for her. I will miss seeing you at lunches Penny, rest in peace my friend.

I stamped the floral image several times with a Copic friendly navy color ink over some cream colored cardstock and then colored in the images with my Copic markers. I also went around the images with some markers and blended it all out around the design.

I then took some distress ink and the foam ink blending tool to soften the edges a bit and make it look a bit more Vintage. I also stamped the sentiment with navy ink and die cut it along with some navy cardstock with a banner die. I sponged around the edges of this as well. I wrapped some linen thread several times around this panel and tied it off with a bow next to the banner. I then attached it over an A2 sized top folding navy card base.

I created a matching envelope by stamping the image in navy ink over it as well. Lastly finished off the design with some clear sequins.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring on the floral image I did as well as the sponged around the front panel and banner. I thought all of the blue colors turned out really pretty and made a nice Vintage feel.

Challenges I’d like to enter for the above card:

A Bit More Time to Craft – #84 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional: Blue, Green plus one other color (cream)

So on another {positive} note, I’d also like to remind you that there are still a couple of days left to play along with us over at the Cute Card Thursday Challenge this week! The theme for this challenge is “Banish the Blues” which I felt like doing in my craft room and so I decided to make this “Fun-Loving” card:

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Now how happy do these cute honey bees look?! They almost look like they’re dancing in the air!! I’ve used items from a February card kit for this card.

I’ve heat embossed the bees and colored them in with some Aqua Pigments. I’ve used the paper from the kit and stamped the background and the edges of the bee panel with some SU! ink that happened to match up with it. I then white heat embossed the sentiment from the same stamp set above the bee panel. I sponged around the edges of this red panel with white ink and attached it to a side folding A2 sized card base.

Here’s a closer look at the bees and how I’ve colored them. Some of the Aqua Pigments are shimmery and I’ve used a couple of those colors too! I’ve added some white dots on their cheeks as well as a few around the hearts. I topped off their eye-balls with some glossy accents. I’ve also stamped some more “xoxo”s on each end of this image border and layered it over a piece of black cardstock. I took two strips of glitter washi tape from the kit and added it above and below the image panel area and then attached the bees over top but between the strips. Lastly I’ve added a heart shaped sequins to the center of the white embossed heart “O” in the sentiment and the rest of the sequins from the kit randomly placed on the card. I topped off the circle sequins with some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops.

Hope this helped to end my post on a happier note with a smile.

Thanks so much for checking in with me today! I’ll see you again tomorrow for more crafty inspiration!!

Here’s some challenges I’d like to enter the above “Bee card” for:

Shopping Our Stash – #SOS386 Hearts On Fire
Moving Along With the Times – #89 Have a Heart
QKR Stampede – #331 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #PIP1903 Anything Goes
Paper Girls – #168 Sparkle and Shine
Double Trouble: #20 Thing 1 Trouble Maker – “Love is in the Air” (honey bees!), Thing 2 Double Dare – Entered the Paper Girls Challenge #168, Thing 3 Twisted Sister – “Sparkling and Shining” (I used metallic watercolor, sequins, glitter drops and glitter washi tape)

Enjoy the Changes Life Brings

Hello friends! Back with you today to share a card I’ve made using the January release stamp set called Early Spring Nest!

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I had so much fun playing with this pretty Spring image and playing with some new embossing powders on this one!

To get the background, I’ve taken a piece of watercolor paper and sprinkled it with some Nuvo Blue Blitz Shimmer Powder and spritzed it with water to also move it around the paper until I got the look I was wanting for it. I set it aside to work on the rest of my card until it was COMPLETELY dry. After it dried, I took my Static Free Bag to rub over the area and prep for heat embossing. I stamped the Crackle Background stamp (Really love the versatility of this image!) with VersaMark and heat set the image with the Robin’s Egg embossing powder. (Sounded like the perfect product to use for my card!) I also used my corner chomper to round the corners on this panel.

For the scallop layer behind this panel as well as the layer behind the sentiment, I took my VersaMark ink pad and smeared on a layer around the edges and heat embossed them with the Coffee embossing powder. I also used this for the sentiment as well as the nest image, so this also works for a nice, detailed embossing powder! I made the fishtail banner layer before I did the embossing with my Tim Holtz 5″ scissors. I took some craft foam and attached the front base panel to the embossed scalloped layer which was mounted onto a white A2 sized top folding card base.

Here’s a closer look at the stamped Crackle background with the Robin’s Egg heat embossing over the watercolor background. I just love the shimmer it has in it! You can also see the Coffee heat embossed layers. I love the pretty Copper sheen it has as well as the dark brown flecks in it! You can also see how well it embossed the fine detailed stamped images too.

There are so many different things going on with the embossing powder on this design that you really need to capture all the different angles throughout the design to see it!

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For the coloring of the image, I just used some Clean Color Real Brush markers for it. I like to heat emboss the images when I do this sort of coloring as it helps to keep the water coloring inside the lines and acts as sort of a “well” so that the colors stay where you want them.

For the eggs inside the nest, I took a VersaMarker pen and colored them in with it. Then I took the same Robin’s Egg embossing powder and heat set the eggs with it. It really creates a fun and unique look with the blue tint and speckle flakes in it, plus it gives it a nice embossed shine for an “egg like” appearance!

After coloring in the image, I used my scissors to fussy cut it out and then added a couple of feathers from my stash and attached this image over the card front panel with some foam tape. I finished off my design by adding a few random drops with some Nuvo Dazzling Blue Glitter Drops.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and thank you so much for stopping in!

Challenges I’d like to enter: