Entry to the Creative Spark Contest with Altenew

 Today, I entered a contest with one of my favorite Stamp Companies.  It is called Show Us Your Creative Spark.  I thought it fitting that I post it on my blog to introduce myself.  I had to edit it a bit to get it to a size I could upload here. 

There was a little more too it but like I said above, I had to trim it a bit to be able to upload it.

Now, back to the card for this post.  For quite some time (maybe January or so), I have owned a set of dies from The Greetery.  I had a vision in my mind of what I wanted to do with them, but had other projects or virtual events that I was working on.  I pulled the dies for one of my weekly craft calls with some new friends.  

First, a little bit about the collection I am referring to.  They are called The Market Place Collection.  There are 4 sets in the main collection, The Mini Market Place and 3 larger Market Place buildings. They are kind of in a Scandinavian style.  The main set released at Christmas time 2025 with the "Festoons" to adorn the buildings.  These were wreaths and Christmas related sashes and trimmings to decorate the buildings.  There was also a stamp set to name the "shops" cute Christmas related store names like Claus & Claus Toy Company, Gingerbread Spice Market and so on.  At Valentines Day time,  The Greetery released an add on to the Market Place Collection.  This set was called Lover's Lane and it had hearts and ribbons to decorate the buildings and the coordinating stamp set had store names like Cupid's Boutique, Romeo's Chocolatier and so on (see The Greetery website for more details on what is included in the set).  

I started wondering if I could create some "stores" that were less specific to a holiday or occasion.  I picked up a few things from Concord & 9th that were in the same scale as the Market Place Buildings. There was a Flower Shoppe and a Sweet Cart that I thought would work well with this concept.  So I pulled them all out.  In the meantime, Mays The Greetery Release they released yet another add on called Celebration Street.  It had a few more of the less holiday specific things I was hoping for, balloons, banners with stars and things to decorate the buildings.  So I started merging all of this together into something. 

I wanted a "city" in my background.  I have one stamp set that I could mask off and try to get it to work but I tried it a couple of times and messed it up.  I decided to make a stencil set with my Cricut.  That seemed to work pretty well and since I used a lightweight mylar I can reuse this later.  I cut both a negative and positive of blank buildings.  

I have been working off and on this for over a week.  Scene building is not my forte so I would build the pieces and when I get stuck, I walk away and come back the next day and try a few more things.  I have a base going and some pieces put together but still working on the rest.  I thought I might be interesting to show it as a work in progress.

Here is the layout so far, it is not glued down yet.  The purple thing in the photo is a magnet holding it down.  The card base is a z fold card so I will expand my street scent when the card opens.  I used the Mini Buildings to start with, I have to adjust the ribbons and banners to fit the smaller buildings.  I also got a freebee from The Greetery when I ordered.  It was a smaller building die, so I am incorporating that as well.

And this is my mess of a work space with all of the pieces I have not yet added or decided for sure where it will go.

Ok, what will you be taking with you if you are stranded on a desert island.  This is my answer, and it was the last part of my video submission.  (Sorry for the multiple "um's", it will get better as I go along). 

Father's Day 2026

Today is Father's Day, my father has been in heaven now for 3 years and to say I miss him every day is an understatement.  He was smart and funny and had a zest for life.  Love you too, Dad.

In honor of Father's Day today's post is showing the card I made for my husband this year.

I did not write down the colors I used, I need to start doing that🤣.  But I will say this is the second time I used this stencil set from Honeybee Stamps.  I love this set, I have lots of ideas using it.  It's called At the Lake.  I used a Copic to dot in some "flowers" where I envisioned there was a valley of flowers,  this represents where he likes to hike.  My husband likes to fly fish which happens in rivers not lakes but I think that point is moot.  But this is why the fishing line is a bright color.  The man, fish, pole and dock is from a Spellbinders set called Fairways and Fish Tales.  I used scraps cardstock to cut out all the pieces.  The sentiments in and out are from the Rest and Relaxation Sentiment Set by Honeybee Stamps.  The water and fush are from the Lucky Lures Stamp Set by Honeybee Stamps as well. 

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there.  Hope you are doing what makes you happy on this day designed to celebrate you. 

My New Blog

 Hello to anyone that find me here.  This is my new blog and this is my first post.  I had an actual website in a blog format and found it too expensive to keep up.  I decided to go back to the blogger days and play with creating a blog here.  Let's see if I can keep up with this.

It is my dream to own a brick and mortar store of crafting supplies.  These days it is difficult at best to get and keep a store up and running.  There are NO craft stores where I live (that is not a big box store).  I have to drive 45 minutes to go to the nearest.  Her store is fabulous and it makes me want to do it more and more.  Anyway, another time.

I made this card inspired by a shirt I bought that said this sentiment on it.  I loved it so.  I decided to make a card inspired by it.  

Lets see, where to start.  Let's go from the back to the front.  I used Powder cardstock for my background.  I blended ink from the bottom up fading to lightest at the top,  This was done with the Blue Mountains Fresh Dye Ink Family.  I then stamped the school of fish from the Craft Your Life Project kit by Altenew Link to Altenew Store both with water first to bleach out the image on the page, then with Alpine Aster Fresh Dye Ink Link to Altenew Store to make the image more defined.  

Next, I used Fish Parade Better Press Plate from Spellbinders to print the fish on Powder cardstock from Concord and 9th.  I cut the letters "Salty" using the Bold Alphabet Upper set from Altenew Link to Altenew Store.  I also blended some of the Blue Mountains Fresh Die Inks onto a scrap piece of Powder Cardstock to match the background piece and cut the same words out of this piece.  I offset the darker cardstock down and to the left of the upper letters.  I stamped the word "feelin" with the Sophisticated Script set from Concord & 9th.  This is an older set and I does not look like they offer it any longer.  It looks like Altenew has something similar Link to Altenew Store , I just do not own it.  I then cut the Blue Tang from the Coral Wonders Layering Die Set Link to Altenew Store (At the time of this post, the Coral Wonders Set was out of stock but it is well worth getting on the email list for when it comes back in, this Craft Your Life Kit is Awesome!) from the same blues and purples that were used for my background and then added that yellow tail fin.  I added some iridescent bubbles from Trinity Stamps trailing up from the fish's' mouth.  I love how this turned out.  

As a Twofer, I had a left over piece from the printing of the original of the Fish Parade, I cut just slightly smaller than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, mounted it on an A2 card base and added a sentiment from the One-Go Solid Sentiment Banners Link to Altenew Store also pressed using the same colors of Indigo Skies Fresh Dye Ink on Power Cardstock.  

Inside, and very faintly I stamped the Sting Rays from the Coral Reef Wonders Stamp Set Link to Altenew Store (Craft Your Life Project Kit).  I am telling you these kits are amazing and worth every penny!

I purchased, recently, the Capsule Basics from The Greetery.  I wanted to play with it.  I created this card where I embossed the capsule in the background, cut the Capsule Fixed Border Large Die with a contrasting color and ran that through my die cutting machine with an embossing folder, this folder is an old folder from Provo Craft and one of my very first embossing folders but I still love it so.  

I cut the Capsule Party Scene Dies (its 3 different dies).  Hard to tell in the image, but the stars are cut from a scrap piece of paper I had used paste on so they have a texture to them.  The banners are out of pink and a matte gold cardstock.  I believe the dark blue cardstock was Peacock from Concord & 9th, and I am not sure about the lighter teal color it was from my stash.  Lets just say I have a little bit of cardstock.  I did do some ink blending on the bottoms of the balloons. 

On a related, but not related topic.  I attended the Concord & 9th Summer Camp event last weekend.  It did not disappoint.  I will post some of the pictures in another blog post.  I did this event with some friends, what fun that is to craft together. 

It was a long weekend but so much fun, that is me on the right.

On a different topic, but another one of my loves, I have a picture to share from my garden.  I only container garden, but I love the flowers and I love to take pictures of them so you may see them from time to time.  

Today, I will be working on a card for my husband to give to someone he works with.  She is going through some rough times.  This is one of the main reasons I love to make cards to share the love around.  I will show pictures when I am done.  I am using products from the Online Card Classes Bundle Better and Brighter Bundle.  

Disclaimer-Links to Altenew Store are Affiliate Links.  What this means is if you click the link and make a purchase I will earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for using those links whenever possible. Link to Altenew Store