A crop party is a modern quilting bee. A group of friends gather to have girl friend time, sharing joys and sorrows while preserving memories and creating a special keepsake.
Monday, October 20, 2025
Fall Leaves in Shades of Orange
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Snowflake in a Night Sky
Viewed straight on:
Sunday, September 21, 2025
Mooch at Peace
This card was inspired by this one made by Kath Stewart. It also inspired me to order the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Christmastime 2 stamp set which was part of the 2019 release. Although I have used other stamps in the set, this it the first time I have used the stamp that made me want to buy the set to begin with. Six years! How could I let that happen?!
I started by spraying Villainous Potion and Uncharted Mariner Distress sprays and water on watercolor paper and let it dry naturally. Then I stamped and embossed the sentiment in gold and while I had everything out I gilded the edges of the panel with gold. Now it was time to stamp Mooch from Lavinia Stamps in black Versafine ink and clear heat emboss him. Yes, his name is Mooch. Lavinia sells individual stamps and gives names to the fairies and animals depicted. I bought him Christmas 2020 and used him quite a bit for a while, but lately I have been using cat die cuts and he has languished in my stamp drawer for a couple of years. I stamped the holly from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamptember 2018 set with Harbor ink, a dark teal from Close to My Heart. The clear embossing resisted the ink, so it looks like the holly is behind him. I used gray Prismacolors to create a shadow to ground him. Once I had the sentiments, Mooch, and the holly in place, I knew where to put the stars using a Tim Holtz Sparkle stencil and transparent matte texture paste. I had almost forgotten about texture paste until I broke it out for my Abigayil and Her Kittens card last month. Amazingly it was still spreadable after sitting for a few years. I had placed a piece of Press and Seal plastic wrap over the the jar before screwing the top on and it really did work to keep the paste from drying out. The last step before attaching the panel to a card base was to use a Jelly Roll #700 sparkle pen in the center of the stars and along Mooch's head and left side to look like reflected starlight. This is what the card looks like if you tip it towards light.
Monday, September 15, 2025
Digging Into My Stash to Make a Birthday Card
I need a birthday card for someone who loves cats and gardening. The Shopping Our Stash theme is "The Cat is in the Bag" which means use a cat (no problem for this proud, crazy cat lady) or a purse, bag, backpack, etc. I decided to challenge myself to use mostly old, as in retired, products. When I saw this Freshly Made Sketch my concept began to form in my head.
I do not have arch dies, but I do have a retired die, Kitty Window, from Tutti Designs featuring cats looking on a garden through a cathedral shaped window. I cut two from 110 lb white cardstock and stacked them. Now for a background to go behind the window. I looked though my stash of backgrounds and found one with appropriate colors made using Lindy's Magicals. Because the current theme at Seize the Birthday is embossing, I put the background upside down in a retired 3D Fern embossing folder from Stampin' Up so that the design would be debossed, that is pressed down into the paper. Then I rubbed a Stampin' Up ink pad in Wild Wasabi, a retired color, over it, so you could see the ferns.Tuesday, September 9, 2025
A Simple Quick(ish) Christmas Card
'Tis the season for stepping up my Christmas card making. To make it easier I have an 8 x 14 lucite bin that I store all my Christmas themed dies, embossing folders, stencils, and leftover die cuts. I keep the stamps separately "filed" in a drawer by theme such as sentiments, snowflakes, trees, religious, etc. Because snowflakes are my favorite design element, I get out all my snowflake dies early in the year and cut multiples of each and keep them sorted in clear "flip flop" pockets. If I need a quick Christmas card I can get out a card base, pick a background from my stash or a trimming from one, add a large snowflake or several small ones, a leftover sentiment or quickly stamp one, add a sparkle in the center of the snowflakes and I have a card. If I have time I can add a few more touches like an extra layer or embossing.
Towards the end of summer I go through my other stencils, embossing folders, and dies and add any that might be useful to my Christmas bin to have handy, Let's face it. Most of the cards I will be making for the next few months will be holiday cards. Last week when I was looking through my embossing folders I found a Sizzix 3D Impresslits Snowflake folder by Tim Holtz hiding in the back which was easy for it to do given that it's only @ 3 x 4.5 inches. It cuts and embosses a 2.75 and 1.75 inch snowflake in one step. Talk about a time saver! I bought it as part of the 2021 release and forgot all about it. It has now lost it's status as a NBUS (Never Been Used Stuff). I used it and the sketch below from CAS Colours and Sketches for the Alphabet K for Keep it Simple Challenge.
I followed the "add a few more touches" version of my quick(ish) formula. I picked a strip left over after trimming a background I made, I don't know how long ago, and swiped the edges with ColorBox silver metallic pigment ink. I put a small scrap of silver foil into the newly rediscovered embossing folder, ran it through my die cut machine and had a 3D snowflake to use now and a small one for my stash. I looked through my snowflake stash and selected one cut using the retired Beautiful Blizzard die from Stampin' Up to layer on the silver one and finished my focal point with a sparkle. I cut a 4 x 5.25 piece of white to add a layer for interest and heat embossed a sentiment from Close to My Heart's Snow Flurries set in silver. All that was left to do is attach everything to the card base and stamp a sentiment inside. In less than half an hour I had a card.
I also plan to enter this in the NBUS, Jingle Belles Cardstock Christmas (no patterned paper), Can You Handle the Pressure Anything Goes Using an Embossing Folder, and Peace on Earth Anything Christmas Goes Challenges. Thank you for stopping by! Until next time, Hansi
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Colorful Leaves









































