STAMPtember, Christmas Tree Halves

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Hi folks, today I'm sharing cards created using my Christmas Tree Halves stencils. This is a set of four stencils. Two work together to create one set of trees in the row, one right side up, and the other upside down. These create every other row of the design. You then shift the stencils down to fill in the blank rows.

For my first card, I inked up the stencils using Sprout and Pearfection for the right side up trees, and Kale and Artichoke for the upside down trees. Fun fact, I originally planned to use this with the darker trees right side up, but decided I liked the brighter ones better. 

Anyway, to add a bit of definition to the trees, I very loosley outlined them with a journaling pen. I also added a bit of gold splatter using Pawsitively Perfect Splatter.

The Merry & Bright sentient was die cut from Gold Matte, adhered to a black shadow piece, and then popped up with foam adhesive.

For this next card, I stenciled the trees in Pine and Sage, and then Marine and Sweets. This time, instead of just shifting the stencils down, I also shifted them to the side, so rather than having the trees line up directly below one another, they are offset. I also only used Marine on every other row.

For the sentiment, I swiped my Sweets inkpad over some white cardstock, and then die cut my Joyful sentiment. This was then adhered to a white shadow piece and popped up with foam adhesive. I also added a secondary sentiment using a Sentiment Strip.

Next, I thought it would be fun to show off how you can use just a portion of the design to create some really simple one layer cards.

First up, the simplest version. I inked up one set of the trees using Pine and Sage at the bottom of my panel, and then added a sentiment from an older retired set called Holiday Greetings.

Next, I did the same thing, and added just one of the top sections with Morning ink. This might be my favorite of the three cards, I really love the modern vibe. The sentiment is another from the Holiday Greetings set.

For this last card, I used the full design, adding Sky for the final color, and this time used a sentiment from the Peaceful Trees set.

Hope this has given you some ideas for how to use these stencils, thanks for visiting!

August 2026 in Books

This reading recap is SO late, but it has been a crazy month. Still, August was a great reading month with a strong emphasis on historical fiction. Here are the recaps:

The Road to Tender Hearts - fiction - Annie Hartnett - five stars - This was a really cute book. PJ Halliday is a somewhat lost old man gliding his awy through life. Ever since the death of his older daughter, he has been struggling, and can't cope with any difficult or sad news. He drinks too much, which led to him losing his job, although he won the lottery, so that doesn't actually matter. He remains on good terms with his ex-wife who still takes care of him to a large extent. When she and her boyfriend go on an extended vacation, he is at loose ends. Then he reads about the death of an old friend who married the 'one that got away' and decides to go visit her across the country in Arizona. At the same time, he becomes the guardian of his half-brother's grandchildren, so they end up coming along as well. The book is light, and funny, and sweet, a great palate cleanser.

A Far-Flung Life - fiction - M.L. Stedman - five stars - This was a really good book, but hard to read because bad things just kept happening to people. I really almost stopped reading at some point because it was so depressing, but I did want to know what happened to the characters. Stedman does a great job creating the characters, and you are rooting for them, but it really was hard to read. It's about all the misfortunes that befall the MacBride family who live in Western Australia raising sheep. Stedman does bring it all together in the end, you get clsure, but this one is not for the faint of heart.

The Foursome - historical fiction - Christina Baker Kline - five stars - Based on the true story of the Bunkers (1800s). Chang and Eng Bunker are conjoined Siamese twins who have been a sideshow throughout Europe and the US. They are now rich and wish to retire from this life. They buy a plantation and store in Willkes County, North Carolina, and wish to start a family as well. Sarah and Adelaide Yates are from a good family, but due to a scandal, are unwed. The book tells of how their relationship develops from courtship to marriage, to establishment of a large family. Really interesting read.

The Parisian Chapter - fiction - Janet Skeslien Charles - four stars - This was pretty good. I really enjoyed Charles' previous books in this series, so was excited to read this one. It's focused on Lily, the young neighbor of Odette from the first book, traveling to Paris after college to work. Her story is good, although not as compelling as the earlier books, more fiction than historical fiction. My biggest is that it has been a LONG time since I read The Paris Library, and didn't remember all the exact details or how it ends. This book really doesn't provide much of the backstory, so I felt like I was missing things. If it's been the same for you, you might want to re-read that one first.

The Dream Hotel - fiction - Laila Lalami - four stars - This was my audiobook for the month. Set sometime in the future, the government has now instituted a policy of detaining citizens based on crimes they might commit based on a complicated algorithm that takes into account data from many sources: social media, complaints from neighbors, interaction with federal agents, and dreams. Sara is returning to the US from a conference and is detained at LAX. She's sent to a detention center for a 90 day hold which turns into months as those running the detention centers can extend your time for the smallest infractions. This was a really interesting premise, and I really enjoyed it, except for Sara, who I just didn't really like as a character. If it weren't for that, this would five stars.

The Half Life - fiction - Rachel Beanland - four stars - This was another book that could have been great if I liked the protagonist at all. Eileen O'Malley has a whirlwhind romance with naval officer Paul Archer, marries him and heads with him to his next assignment in La Maddalena, Italy, where the Navy has a submarine base. I had no idea that the US had a sub base in Italy, so it was really fascinating to learn about that, and to hear about life for the military at La Maddalena at that time. Beanland does a great job capturing all this and weaving in events and concerns for both the U.S. and Italians during this time. She doesn't have the greatest husband, but Eileen is basically a selfish, immature human being. Five stars for the book, two stars for Eileen.

The Seekers of Deer Creek - fiction - Thao Thai - four stars - Sisters Vivi and Calla Nguyen have been following very different paths, but when Calla finds a curious note/picture in her fathers effects after his death, she enlists Vivi, an art conservator, to help her unravel the mystery, which relates to the current exhibition Vivi is working on involving a painting by Vietnamese artist K.P. Ly. The sisters set off on an around the world hunt for how Ly connects to their father, and rediscover family they did not know they had. The sisters bothered me some, but not nearly as much as some of the other characters I've encountered this month.

The Brunswick - historical fiction - Callie Murray - four stars - The story of Cora, whose father built a grand hotel in a small town in Georgia which has struggled since the Depression. Her mother left years ago to return to France, and Cora, struggling to make ends meet, has turned the hotel into a general store. There are a several storylines: her burgeoning romance with Thomas, whose father recently moved to the area from Chicago after purchasing the town's pharmacy; Cora's decision to take in Jewish refugee children (it's 1939) fleeing Vienna; and the story of Charlotte, one of those children. This was a pretty quick read, and I enjoyed the characters, although I thought they could be fleshed out a bit more. There was also a thread about Thomas in Germany (he goes to help with the transport), that I thought was a bit of a distrction and the book didn't really need. The resolution of that thread was also somewhat hart to believe. In any case, I did like the book, and hope the author will be writing more. 

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck - non-fiction - Sophie Elmhirst - three stars - The story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey whose boat was destroyed by a surfacing whale when they were on sailing to New Zealand in 1973. They spent 117 drifting on their lifeboat until they were rescued. This one was OK. I thought the story itself was fascinating, what they did to survive, how they kept themselves busy, etc. The writing was a bit dry though, and the couple themselves were only somewhat sympathetic, so it took longer to get through than it should have. 

Favorite this month was probably A Far Flung Life which was so good, but also so hard to read. Least favorite was A Marriage at Sea. Would love to know what you guys have been reading.

STAMPTember, Dimensional Tree

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today I'm sharing a couple cards created using my new Dimensional Tree die. This die doesn't actually cut out a whole shape, rather it cuts out three sides of the horizontal stripes of a tree, alternating the end that is not cut, creating a really cool dimensional effect.

For this first card, I simply die cut a dark green piece of cardstock, embossing a sentiment from the Peaceful Trees set in gold beneath it.

I carefully folded the layers up. The non-die cut ends are scored, so this is easy to do. The entire piece was then adhered to a panel of Gold Matte cardstock, so you can see the gold peeking through beneath the tree layers. I love this simple elegant look.

For the next card, I die cut a piece of white cardstock. Each of the tree sections was then masked off, and I inked them using Sweets, creating a blend from dark to light, darker at the scored end.

The sentiment is from my Holly Jolly set, and I added pink glitter cardstock beneath the tree as well as some Cottontail embellishments to add a little sparkle to the card.

This die is a great price point, and allows you to make some really striking cards very quickly!

STAMPtember, Wavy Rainbow Cover

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards created using my Wavy Rainbow coverplate from the STAMPtember release. 

For my first card, I die cut the cover using white cardstock, and then colored the rainbow pieces with Copics. I used shading to create more movement/dimension in the waves. 

For the white space, I added just a touch of gray shading (C0 and C1) to make the colors pop more.

The sentiment is from my Positive Thoughts set which was actually designed with this coverplate in mind. It was stamped with Versa Clair black ink, die cut, and popped up with foam adhesive.

For my next card, I again die cut the coverplate using white cardstock.

This time, the pieces were inked with a blending brush. I used Cantaloupe, Honey, Orchid, Peony, and Lilac. 

Instead of using the frame, I simply popped each of the rainbow piece up with foam adhesive.

The Good Vibes sentiment was die cut from white cardstock, inked with Lilac, and adhered to a white shadow piece. Once complete this was adhered with another layer of foam tape.

This is a really fun one to work with, hope you enjoyed the cards!

STAMPtember, Modern Star Quilt Stencils

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp. 

Happy Friday! I've got a couple of cardst to share today featuring my Modern Heart Quilt stencils from the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember release.

There are two stencils in this set which create the star pattern. The stencils create every other row of the stars, so to get the full design, you'll ink both, then shift them down, and ink again. 

For this first card, I inked the stars using Dusk and Night ink on light blue cardstock.

To add some extra texture and dimension, I added a bit of shading using Prismacolor Pencils (one dark and one light).

The Hi There sentinent was also inked/colored with the darker pencil, and then adhered to a shadow piece cut from the same light blue cardstock.

The stars in my second card were inked with Watermelon and Lucky.

I swiped the Watermelon ink pad across a piece of white cardstock and die cut the Joyful sentiment, adhering it to a white shadow piece, and added a couple secondary Reverse Sentiment Strip sentiments to finish things off.

I also added a green mat to my stenciled panel to set it off a bit.

That's all for me today, hope you have a great weekend!

STAMPtember Fractile Snowflake

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards created using my Fractile Snowflake products. The stencil set includes six stencils and a mask. Five stencils work together to create the full snowflake image, and there is also a solid snowflake and mask.

I started by die cutting the snowflake and placing it on a sticky mat. The stencils were then centered over top of the die cut snowflake. I inked four layers of the snowflake using Morning, Sky, Dusk, and Shark inks. For one snowflake, I used Stardust Stickles for the final layer, and for the other, I used Silver Lunar Paste for the final layer.

For my background panels, I placed the mask around the edges of the panel, and added soft inking, using Shark for one, and Sky for the other.

The die cut snowflakes were adhered with foam tape, and then I added silver embossed sentiments from my previously released Holiday Messages set which were die cut and adhered with foam tape as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

STAMPtemer Blog Party Time!

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

It's the second day of STAMPtember, and Simon Says Stamp is hosting a blog party!

This is different from a blog hop where there are stops linked to one another.  Instead, everyone is linked to the Simon Says Stamp blog, and there are links to all the participants from there.  There are A LOT of participants, so be prepared for a ton of inspiration!

There are all sorts of prizes sprinkled throughout the party stops, my prize is the above stamp/die set that you can get free with any $30 order using code MBLM.

OK, on to the inspiration. Since this is a party, I thought I would feature my new party themed products: Celebrate, Party Streamers, and Background Streamers. First up Background Streamers, which is a set of two stencils that layer rogether to create a dimensional background.

For this first card, I used Bubblegum and Sweets. Bubblegum was used for the front/lighter portions of the design, and Sweets for the inside/darker portions. I inked with a large blending brush, and then went in with a smaller one, using the same ink color, to darken up the edges to create moe dimension.

For the sentiment, I die cut the shadow piece from my Celebrate dies in white. I then swiped the Sweets inkpad over white cardstock, and die cut the sentiment itself from that. A Reverse Sentiment Strip finished things off.

For this next card, the background was created using Bubblegum and Sweets again along with Heather and Violet. 

Starting with the lighter/front stencil, I randomly inked Bubblegum and Heather, then placed the second stencil over top, and inked the darker shades based on where the lighter shades had been inked.

I also added some very soft pink inking around the edges of my panel to soften it a bit.

After inking some white cardstock with the same colors, I die cut the Cheering You On sentiment, adhered it to a white cardstock shadow piece, and added a Reverse Sentiment Strip.

Next up the Party Streamers dies. These mimic the stenciled background, but are a bit thinner. In many ways they are bigger, curvier versions of my Ribbon Quilt dies.

I chose two shades of teal, and two shades of yellow, and created several streamers in each color family. The die set includes the large streamer base, and then two sets of pieces that create the lighter/front version, one set runs in one direction, and the other the opposite.

For my cards I mixed up the orientation as well as the sentiment, using my Celebrate sentiment for the vertical card, and Yay You for the horizontal card.

These are pretty easy to put together, and easily mass producible. 

That's all for me today, be sure to head over to the Simon Blog to check out all the creators participating in the party!

STAMPtember is here!

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Happy first day of STAMPtember! The STAMPtember release is live and available in the Simon Says Stamp store, and it's packed with all sorts of goodness. I'm excited to have many of my designs in the release and will be sharing samples with you throughout the month.

Today I'm showing off one of my new coverplates, Peace Joy Love. Christmas is my very favorite holiday to design for, and this cover plate scratches so many of my design itches. It's bold, graphic, a little geometric, and so easy to use.

I started by diecutting the plate from black, Gold Matte, light green, dark green, red, and pink cardstock, and then randomly inlaying pieces of the Gold Matte and colord cardstocks to create my design. 

I had plenty of leftover pieces, so I took the dark green background piece, and inlaid light green, red, and pink pieces into that. This time instead of working randomly, I alternated the pieces in a particular order.

Since there were STILL pieces left, I thought I would mix thing up. This time instead of inlaying pieces, I simply adhered them onto wide strips of Starlight cardstock. 

I also changed up the order, so the words graduated in size from top to bottom, and adhered the strips to a light green mat.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share with you the rest of my designs in the STAMPtember release:

Quilted Modern Star

Background Streamers

Party Streamers

Christmas Tree Halves

Wavy Rainbow

Celebrate

Dimensional Tree

Candle Cover

Fractile Snowflake

That's all for me today. Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for a fun blog party!

SSS Glow On

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

I've got a bright and sunny card to share today.

When I saw the Glow On dies that were released a couple of months ago, I immediately thought of my Retro Wreath stencils.

There are four stencils in this set, and they were inked up with Butter, Melon, Cantaloupe, and Sunbeam.

The sentiment was cut from a gold cardstock and mounted on a white shadow piece, and I used a soft yellow for the card base to add another sunny color to the mix.

Super easy, and love being able to mix my old and new products!

July 2026 in Books

This was a pretty good reading month. Some really strong books (particularly the historical fiction), and a couple of duds. Recaps below:

Pollock's Last Lover: A Novel of Art and Deception - Stephen P. Kiernan - historical fiction - three stars - Gwen, a young associate at an auction house, is assigned the task of verifying if a painting is a genuine (and the last) Pollock painting. It was brought to the auction house by Pollock's last lover Ruth Kligman. I simultaneously enjoyed, and hated this book. I hated Ruth. The book was weird, tried to portray her as very likable and down to earth and in a few pages she becomes someone you hate. I did like Gwen a lot, and I enjoyed reading about how one goes about authenticating things, all the research, etc. Four for Gwen, one and a half for Ruth, two and a half overall, rounded to three.

The Forgotten Midwife - Laura Anthony - historical fiction - five stars - A dual timeline story, although really most of it is in the past. Riley Carmichael is about to get married and her grandmother who has Alzheimer's gives her something in a lucid moment wanting to explain, but then the moment is lost. It leads Riley down a path to discovering who she really is. In Ireland in the 1950s, Margaret Lannigan's life is turned upside down when her sister dies, and she's sent by her family to take her place in becoming a nun. Margaret's story is both horrifying, and hopeful. Really enjoyed this one.

Whistler - Ann Patchett - historical fiction - four stars - Daphne and her husband go to the museum one day, and run into Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather. Eddie played a pivotal role in the her life, and then just disappeared when her mother divorced him. This reunion opens up a floodgate of emotions, repressed memories, and opens the door to a new relationship between the two of them. An exploration of family and friendship. I did enjoy this one, although I felt like it was not as developed as my favorite Patchett books, it sometimes seemed to kind of skim the surface. Still, a very good read.

The Supper Club Saints - Claire Swinarski - fiction - four stars - Cass Simon walked out on her family two years ago to join a 'Mommune'. When the leader is jailed, Cass turns up back home just as her family is getting ready to sell the Supper Club they have owned for generations. The story alternates between present day, and what happened at the Mommune. I enjoyed the characters and the family dynamics, although the whole Mommune thing was a little too out there for me. Decent read.

The Last Good Year: Seven Games That Ended an Era - Damien Cox - non-fiction - four stars - This was my audiobook for the month. It's about the 1993 Toronto Maple Leafs who lost to the Wayne Gretzky Kings in the Stanley Cup Semifinals. Cox weaves details about the players, coaches, owners, etc. in and around the narrative of each of the games. There were definitely some interesting characters involved in the series, not the least of which was King's owner Bruce McNall who would go on to be convicted of fraud and sentenced to 70 months in prison. There was a fair amount of detail in the book, and this is one that I might have enjoyed better reading vs listening to, but still quite interesting.

This Immortal Heart - Jennifer Saint - fiction - three stars - This is the second of Saint's books in a row that was a big let down for me. It's a mythical retelling of Aphrodite's story. I feel like this one and the last books that was just so so (about Hera) are maybe a problem because the character is too well known. There is just too much mythology about the major gods/goddesses, so it is perhaps too hard to  pull off a unique retelling. It seemed at times that Saint was trying too hard to weave in too many of the myths surrounding Aphrodite. On top of that, I feel like Saint tries too hard to give the books a feminist slant. I don't think they need it, and it ends up being distracting. Not sure I'll attempt another of her books for a while.

Daughters of the Sun and Moon - Lisa See - historical fiction - five stars - I am a huge fan of See, and was thrilled for her to be coming out with another book. This did not disappoint. It's about three Chinese women in 1870 Los Angeles living vastly different lives. Dove, the daughter of an imperial scholar who has fallen upon hard times, is sent to LA to be the second wife of a merchant there. Petal, the daughter of peasants, is sold and ends up a prostitute in LA, and Moon, already in LA, is the wife of a physician who treats both Chinese and American patients and has assimilated into American life, helping her husband with his practice. The women come to know one another, and deal with competing gangs/Tongs, as well as significant anti-Chinese sentiment. A really excellent read.

Theo of Golden - Allen Levi - fiction - four stars - Theo comes to the small town of Golden, seemingly randomly. When he enters the local coffee shop, he is drawn to a series of portraits on the wall, of the towns' residents, created by a local artist. Theo decides that he should unite the portraits with their rightful owners, their subjects. He begins to purchase and gift the, slowly getting to know the people in the town, and making an impact on their lives. I enjoyed this book a lot, although it was a bit of a let down based on all the hype about the book. For me it dragged at times, but overall a really good book, and I loved how it was tied up in the end.

The Young Will Remember - Eve J. Chung - historical fiction - five stars - Ellie Chang is a Chinese-American war correspondent during the Korean war. The medical evacuation flight she is on goes down in enemy territory, and she survives after a Korean woman claims her as her long lost daughter. Ellie goes with 'Emma' staying with a Korean pastor and his family. As Ellie tries to make it back to the Americans, bombing intensifies. She and her rescuers make the decision to head south to flee the bombing and give Ellie a chance to get home. I haven't read much about the Korean war, and I really liked the characters. Excellent read.

It's really hard to pick a favorite this month, the five stars were all equally good. Least favorite was Pollock's Last Lover. What have you guys been reading?

SSS Sunflower Blooms

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

I've got a really simple card to share today featuring the Sunflower Blooms dies from Simon Says Stamp.

I generally think of sunflowers as very bright and bold, but wanted to try for a softer more muted color scheme today.

I really love the depth you get from these dies. 

Everything was adhered together with just liquid adhesive, but you can see how dimensional it is.

A sentiment from my previously released Plant Sentiments set finished the look.