Waving Hello

I am excited to be joining the Gorgeous Gift Tags Instagram Hop on the 5th of each month. We are a group of crafty friends who just love to create gift tags. This month the optional theme is Travel/Vacation. I went with a well-traveled Santa, relaxing at an undisclosed beach on December 26th each year. This is my 2025 Christmas in July project too. I wanted to make something Christmas-y after seeing/being inspired by others' December holiday projects this month. Here is the tag I made at the end of July.

Products I used:

Spellbinders - Dancin' St. Nick die set

My Favorite Things - All Occasion Icons die set, Snow Swirls Cover-up die

Reverse Confetti - Tag die (with the wave shape at the bottom)

Hero Arts - Seas the Day Seagulls stamp set

Altenew - Obsidian black ink pad

Concord & 9th - Mini ink pad

Ranger - Distress Oxide ink pads

Lawn Fawn - Palm Trees die set

Gold card stock

Twine

I had to create custom swim trunks (with his signature belt) from Santa's suit that comes in the die set by cutting them freehand and die cutting his body, legs and arms out of the same color of card stock as his face. 

I found a cocktail glass in another set but still used his list from the St. Nick set. He is making notes on his list for next Christmas. 

I also omitted his hat since it is too warm at the beach to wear it.  

The double meaning sentiment made me smile because he is by the ocean waves and is waving to the world from his happy place.

If you would like to hop along with us, you can jump over to Instagram on my account: https://www.instagram.com/sawithadtomakeit/ and proceed from there.

Carol

Tickled Pink for You

It's CASE a DT (Designer team member) this week at Just Us Girls #786 which means you pick one of our cards to make your own. You can take the colors, the layout, the theme, etc. Whatever you like! We love seeing what you come up with on this week that only comes around on months with a 5th week. I went for a repeating die cut.

All I used is one die set from  Echo Park Paper Co. and gold, pinks and black glitter card stock, plus a sentiment from Ellen Hutson Inner Flamingo stamp set. It was fun making the tubes of lipstick, choosing the colors and textures.

Stop by all the blogs to see how our team made their cards. Can't wait to see what you come up with for our challenge. Be sure to say which team member's card you CASEd and how you decided to change it.

Thanks for visiting,

Carol

Seas the Day

When I saw the choices for our Time Out #294 Pick Two Challenge: Torn, Transport, Star, Stripes, Rainbow, Book, I had an idea but put it off until the time came that I really needed to try it out and see if it would work. I chose Transport, Stripes and Book for my project and made a "book" entitled Seas the Day to hold nautical A2-sized cards with envelopes as a gift. (There are actually many real books with this title) Here is how it turned out.

First, I searched You Tube for a tutorial to make a box with a lid. Once I found the size and type box I wanted, I knew I wouldn't be making the lid, but making a book cover and attaching it to the box. I also knew I would make the page edges gold and that I would make a card front and attach it to the top of the box as the book's front cover. Julie at The Paper Pixie had the exact tutorial for the A2 sized box I wanted. 

Products I used:

Papertrey Ink - Build a Sailboat dies

Hero Arts - Seas the Days Seagulls stamp set (title on front of "book")

Lawn Fawn - Oliver's Stitched ABCs dies (title on spine)

Ink Road - Compliments 1 stamp set (title on spine)

My Favorite Things - Watercolor Wash Square stencil (title on the spine)

Alternew - Osidian black ink pad

Gold card stock

Vellum

Distress and Concord & 9th ink pads

Back to our challenge at Time Out: Newton's Nook is our wonderful sponsor, generously offering a $25.00 Newton's Nook Store Credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner.  Our winner will also be invited to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

You may choose a minimum of two of our words or incorporate up to all six if you like. Take a look at the team's creations and visit their blogs to see the words they used and how they interpreted them. Leave them some love, too.

We hope you will be inspired to join us and play along with this challenge! As always, thanks for stopping by.

Carol

You're One in a Melon

Our Just Us Girls Challenge #785 is Stencil Week and I found some images I stamped and stenciled a while back and decided to create a card with them. My family is loving watermelon this summer so I was really in the mood to work with these images.

Products I used:

Pretty Pink Posh - Watermelon stamps and stencils

Altenew - Obsidian blank ink pad, Artist Markers

Simon Says Stamp - Wonky Rectangle die

Copic Markers

Various ink pads for stenciling

Be sure to check out the team's blogs as well as that of our July guest Donna Mikasa for all the details on the cards we have made for your inspiration. We hope to see you in the gallery with stenciled fun!

I hope you will stop by again soon,

Carol

Hello

For our next Just Us Girls Challenge #784 our sweet teammate Carol has picked out a very pretty Moodboard for inspiration...soft shades of blue, green, peach and pink in light and dark hues. I tried to get all of the colors in the form of flowers and leaves. There are many ways to approach this challenge with the variety of flora and fauna in the moodboard.

I used the Concord & 9th Spring Print die for my card. I chose colors close to the ones in the graphic and added the strip across the bottom to kind of mat the sentiment. Using this die is like putting together a puzzle. I read somewhere that the best way to put it all in place is to start in the bottom right corner and move upward, and I agree.

We all hope you will join us this week with our moodboard colors and its elements. There is a lot you can take from it!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carol 

 

Ciao!

There is quite a story to my card today. It started with our Time Out Challenges #293: Your Favorite Song. I didn't know where to begin because I enjoy all kinds of music and have many "favorite" songs. But, I just got this die set in the mail and I was dying to make one of several cards I've had in mind.

First, I looked through the songs on my phone. Then I thought to go to iTunes, but then I thought I would look up Italian songs on the internet (because of "Ciao" in the die set) that have been popular in the United States over time. The song Volare popped up and I knew I had my song. My mother used to sing it in the house when I was a little girl. I picked up the many songs she sang and they remain among my fondest memories of her. Here is a link to it (sung in Italian with English written translation afterwards) and to one of my favorite versions of it by The Gipsy Kings, which is partly in Italian but mostly in Spanish, my second language. (You may have heard Dean Martin's version too!)

Our wonderful sponsor, Lawn Fawn, is generously offering a $25 prize to their store for our Challenge Winner, who will also get an invitation to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

Products I used:

Spellbinders - Ciao Spaghetti dies, Notched Corner Frames Etched Dies (bowl), Rose Gold Pearl Metallic card stock (face)

Your Paper Insider - Holographic card stock (stars)

Ranger - Distress ink (cheeks)

Stampin' Up! - Stars border punch

I chose a blue background and sparkly stars because of these lyrics: (written by Domenico Modugno and Franco Migliacci)

But I keep dreaming of your beautiful eyes
Which are blue like a star-studded sky

I made her cheeks rosy by ink blending them with pink ink to match her lips. Then I die cut a lot of extra pieces of spaghetti and cut them down further into pieces to put in the bowl. The bowl is a notched corner frame cut off at the end that I saw on a card using this Ciao set. I think I'll give this to an Italian neighbor friend of mine who likes my handmade cards.

We sure hope you will have time to play along using your favorite song as your inspiration! Can't wait to see all the songs in our gallery!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Carol

Just Saying Hi

This is a card I just made for the CASE It July 2025 Instagram Hop. We are a group of cardmakers who have come together to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) and share cards we have seen on Instagram. It's so much fun to see which cards the other participants chose and how they made those designs their own! I used a variety of pinks and matte gold metallic card stock with the Playful Pieces cover die by Concord & 9th to CASE Channin Pelletier's card on Instagram. I love how she used bold colors and swiped the color on. I want to try her beautiful method soon.

Channin's beautiful card below.

The die and stamp set has so many variations that you can make using the one die and the accompanying sentiments. My photos don't do the gold justice but I think you get the gist of the colors I used.

Our CASE It Instagram Hop is once a month on the second Saturday at noon eastern. You can go to my Instagran account to see all of this month's cards here: @sawithadtomakeit along with all of the other cardmakers involved in our hop. Stop by!

Thanks for visiting!

Carol