Diane's Country Cards & Crafts

Halloween Cards for the Grandkids

This a remake of the card I made for my eldest grandson eleven years ago. I loved it then and still love it. This time it's for Logan, my three year old grandson. The image was from QKR Stampede. It has a different name now, but I can't recall what it is. The digital papers are from Bearly Mine. The spider was cut on the Silhouette. I colored the image with Copic markers.

The above two cards are for Aidan, age 1 and Ari, four months. The image was from Bugaboo. I miss them being is business. I colored the images with Copic markers. The spider webs were cut with the Silhouette.The buttons and papers were from my stash.

The final card is for Lucas, age 12. I used some digital images from Bontik Vintage Designs on Etsy. The ghosts and bat is from Spellbinder's. The paper was a leftover scrap. I save absolutely everything. You never know when a scrap will come in handy. I made a simiar card, but with larger circles for Ethan, age 9. I used that as one of my entries for the Dirty Dozen on Splitcoast so I cannot post it online.

Five cards each with a 10 dollar bill in it. I try to make and send holiday cards every holiday with money in them. The older ones really enjoy getting cards with money. The younger ones will understand at some point. I even had a special stamp made that says "Grandma Made This Just For You."

No cards for a while

Sorry, most of my cards can't be published for a while. I was invited to join the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen in September. I make six cards a month for that group. My cards cannot be published elsewhere until I complete my commitment, which is six months. I will still probably try to get a card in here and there.

Nativity 2024

This is the second or third card I have made with the Spellbinder's Better Press System. I absolutely love using it. I have purchased lots of dies for it, but as usual I have not used most of the so far.

I have been making lots of cards lately, but I cannot post them to my blog for six months. I was invited to join the Dirty Dozen at Splitcoast Stampers. I was really thrilled to be asked. Part of that is sharing my monthly cards with only the group. So there will be lots to see eventually!

Lucas' 12th Birthday Card

This is a steampunk style card that I made for my grandson's birthday. He just turned twelve. I used Stampin' Up papers and Lots of Tim Holtz paraphernalia. Page one sentiment is "What seems like the ordinary is often the extraordinary."

I used a Tim Holtz globe die for the inside right page. The page ias also stenciled with a Tim Holtz stencil. The sentiment is The world needs who you were made to be."

The inside right page has a sentiment written in German that says Happy twelfth Birthday, Lucas. He is a huge German fan. That includes the language, WWII, and more. I used Tim Holtz washi tape and paraphernalia. The sentiment is "Always listen to your heart it will show you the way. Also included is my lucky number "34."

The back is stenciled with a Tim Holtz (surprised?) clock stencil The sentiment says "Know in your heart you are loved.) The card also has a metal tag hanging by a chain with his name on it.

Christmas Ornaments

These two cards were made with Spellbinder's dies. The paper is very old, from my stash. The sentiment id from Lili of the Valley

Christmas Cross Stitch

This is a new die set from Spellbinder's. This is my first try with it. I want to make a few more and tweak it to see if I can get it to turn out a little better. I tried to ink the scissors and needle with black so they would look old. It didn't work. Handling the pieces took the ink off.

Birthday Flowers

I'm trying to rebuild my stash of birthday cards. I used the Club of the Month stamp and die set from Spellbinders to make these two cards. They are colored with Copics. The paper is from Hobby Lobby. I'm not real happy with them, but I think I will use them anyways.

A Couple of Christmas Cards

The above card uses an image and sentiment from Lili of the Valley. I just love their images, but don't use them very often. The paper is from Hobby Lobby. I colored the image with Copic markers.

This card uses two separate images from Mo's digital Pencil. The background window and Fa la la la la! The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils. The paper is from a very old Christmas pad.

Adding to my Stash of Birthday Cards

The lighthouse cards were "quickies." I found the images on Etsy. Since I absolutely love lighthouses and stained glass the combo was perfect and they were very inexpensive. The last card is for my son's birthday. I've had the yellow submarine colored for years. I finally put it on a card. I am caught up now through July on birthday cards. July will be an extremely busy month. With my daughter, son-in-law and their two kids coming from Michigan. My son, his wife and new baby coming up from Phoenix and my daughter and her husband and two boys will be here also. There will definitely be no time for time for card making!

July Birthday Cards

I have a huge amount of July birthdays that I send cards for. They are not my best, but considering what July will be like, I surrender. There are fourteen birthdays. My kids from Michigan and Phoenix will be coming up in July, and my middle daughter's family is already here. That makes fourteen again. I can't wait to see everyone together. That hasn't happened in years. I am quite nervous about how I going to handle it. My house is no longer kid safe and there will be lots of little ones. Anyways, here are some of my quickie July birthday cards.

First of My June Birthday Cards

This week's project was cleaning my 250+ Copic markers and refilling at least 80 of them. What a chore that was. My markers had gotten so dirty that some didn't close properly. They are all perfectly clean now! I put a little note on my bulletin board for June 2025 to clean and refill markers. I don't know who everyone orders their marker refills from. I have been ordering from a company called Otakufuel in Florida. Their prices are very good. Shipping is free and they ship in about 2-3 days. They almost always have all the colors, also.

I purchased a set of Lighthouse Stained Glass Windows from Etsy. I absolutely love them. I thought they would be good if I needed some birthday cards in a hurry and didn't feel like coloring. This is the third card I made with their images, I think i forgot to photograph the others.

This card was made using a Spellinder's quilt die set. I tried to follow their layout example three or four times. I hated it. I finally decided to do a log cabin layout that I was fond of and I feel like it worked perfectly.

This card is for my niece's birthday. She just got a Newfoundland puppy. He is so adorable! I tried to reproduce his coloring. It's not great, but I decided my third try would be my final one, no matter what. I have really been filling up the circular file with cards this week. This is actually a freebie image that I got this week from Mo's Digital Pencil Patreon. It's actually an image of a Great Pyrenees, but I thought it was similar enough, so it would do.

Die Cut Cards

These two cards were made with three Spellbinder's die sets. I have been collecting Spellbinder's dies for years and have almost never used them. I decided to take a little break from coloring and start using the dies that I have spent so much money on over the years. I found the bottom card on Facebook it was done by Lynn Kramer-Put. I was just floored at how gorgeous it was. The bottom is very similar to the original except that I arranged some of the flowers differently. The top was my spin on it. I plan to make several more in fall colors. These will be perfect for birthday cards.