It is Chris' 40th birthday and here is the card I put together for him to give him a hint at his gift this year - tickets to watch the Bluejays on July 1!

 Ok, I have appreciated Steamboat Willie for a long time now, but after visiting Disneyland, this stamp set was a MUST! 

 Father's Day is two weeks away! Here are some simple plantable cards I made up to try out the new-to-me Robin & Wren set from The Greetery.

 My UVic reading course started up this week and I wanted to make some welcome cards for my students. I was feeling very uninspired with the supplies I had, so my crafty friend Tammy lent me some fun supplies to play with!

 Today was an exciting day in our house - it was Harvey's first day of kindergarten! I made up a card for him along with some extras for him to give to all of his little friends who were off to kindergarten today, too :).

 I was asked to create a card for someone who is switching jobs this month. The card was to be larger and I knew that I wanted to use the beautiful Print Shop: Spring Mix from The Greetery for the card.

 My reading course is beginning again this semester, and though we were planning to be in person, we were required to pivot at the last minute to online learning. I am hopeful we will be in person soon! In the meantime, I was able to put together these simple cards to welcome each student to our course.

I knew that I wanted to include a book somehow and some nature element on this card. You can see the cards I designed last year for the course here. I used the open book this time from Den Sweet Den and coloured it with my favourite Tombow marker colour. I decided to pull out my Lawn Fawn Stitched Woodgrain Backdrop die and emboss it onto a heart shape from Close To My Heart.

I added in a scripty 'welcome' sign from Little Bundle to complete the card.

Paper: Solar White (Neenah); Kraft (Lawn Fawn); Coldpress watercolour paper (Canson)
Stamps: Den Sweet Den, Little Bundle (CTMH)
Ink: Archival Black, Black (CTMH)
Dies: Basic Hearts (CTMH); Den Sweet Den, Stitched Woodgrain Backdrop (Lawn Fawn)
Markers: 373 (Tombow)

 I got the PinkFresh Studio Skiing By set especially to make some cards to sell in Kimberley. I had been planning on being in a makers market this fall but with that having fell through, I focused on making some skiing themed cards for Fullfill.

When I first saw some of Pigment Craft Co.'s holiday release, I could not get the Treemendous Bough out of my mind. It was so beautiful and detailed with the layered stamps...it was a NEED for my Christmas stash!

 Because I just couldn't resist making a fall card, here is a plantable card I made up with a fall wreath! This card uses an older Close To My Heart stamp set. I was looking back at some old photos and thought it would be fun to take it out again. 

 Here is a baby card I made up for my husband's friend who just had a baby last month. I decided to go with a farm theme as they have many animals on their property. I am linking up with the Lawn Fawnatics challenge of favourite place or travel destination, which I figured fits nicely with the farm.

 Here is another plantable card design I made up this week to send to the zero waste market in Kimberley, Fullfill. I used all Close To My Heart inks this time and stamped each part of the image up to three times to get proper ink coverage.

 It was exciting to take out some Christmas décor today to stage photos of these cards! I got a fantastic idea from The Papercrafters Workshop Demo Days with Karen Day to use alphabet dies to create a shadow sentiment. I chose to use the word, "Noel," with this beautiful new Close To My Heart Jingle Joy paper. I was able to make 12 cards with this design - yay!

Today I finished putting together some cards for my cousins (and some for Lane & Meadow) to congratulate them on their new homes. I used the stitched square frames dies from Close To My Heart to set my scene and then used papers and cardstock from Lawn Fawn.

It's back-to-school in BC this week and I'm feeling for all of my teacher friends and colleagues during this uncertain time. Our nephew is starting kindergarten this fall so I wanted to make him a special card to go along with the book we got him - The Pigeon HAS to go to School by Mo Williams (read this book - it's hilarious!). 

 Close To My Heart has launched a new core catalogue and fall mini-catalogue this month! Included are these beautiful sunflower papers that I just had to create with. I decided to make a card for a good friend of mine as she heads back into the school year. I am linking up with the "anything goes" challenge over at Heart2Heart.

I was asked to make a custom Paris-themed 40th anniversary card. The recipients were supposed to be celebrating their milestone anniversary this month in the City of Love, but of course like many things this year it was cancelled. This is a fully plantable card adhered together with a water-based adhesive from Studio Katia. I kept my colours mostly around the blue, white, and red of the France flag.

I wanted to create a simple birthday card with this beautiful lavender stamp from Old Island Stamps (made in BC!) that I got from my sister-in-law. I decided to use some a light grey cardstock, called Fog, from Lawn Fawn and stitched a panel of Lilac Close To My Heart cardstock for an accent.

I was asked to make a custom baby card for some Green Bay Packers fans. Luckily, this happens to be my husband's favourite team so I know a little bit about them! I used my Cricut to cut out a football and a piece of cheese and then had a random baby onesie die in my collection. I was able to cut out all of these from paper scraps in my collection.

It's July 1st which means we have a new catalogue live at Close To My Heart! These awesome plaids are part of one of the newest paper packs - perfect for masculine cards and maybe even to get a jump start on some Christmas cards! For now, I was inspired by my Auntie Karen and the masculine birthday cards she made up a little while ago that I wanted to make some using my own stash.