BetterPress - To my Favorite Person

Happy Saturday!

It's my first post of 2026!  I have the birthday card I made for our niece to share today.  She turned 29 a couple weeks ago.  I'm not sure where the time has gone.  Seems like yesterday we picked her up at daycare, which is a sweet memory. She was playing in the sandbox and looked up to see us, then ran to us with the biggest smile.

I used the BetterPress plate that came with the Spellbinders BetterPress system.  It did not have a name on it, but the sentiment is 'to my favorite person".  

I used a Unity scalloped nested die to cut some PaperTrey Ink white cardstock and taped it to the clear plate.  Then positioned the BetterPress image plate on the magnetic mat, applied Memento ink and ran the BetterPress through my Spellbinders Platinum Machine.  The sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink retired Fillable Frames #4.  I colored the flowers and leaves with Prismacolor colored pencils. 

I experimented with the special inks and paper the system came with; they are nice.  However, I think the even pressure you get putting the BetterPress through the Spellbinders machine is really the key to the crisp image and the beauty of this system. 

A pretty card, with some patterned paper, an ribbed embossed panel and white organza ribbon from my stash.  I'm trying really hard to use all the pretty things I've accumulated over my many years of cardmaking.

Thanks for stopping by...

Blessings,

Deb

Spellbinders - Gold Holly and Colored Pencil

 Happy Sunday!

Today I have another Christmas card to share using Spellbinders - Glimmer Holly Background.  This the second card I made with this glimmer plate.  This one I used gold foil on blue cardstock (PaperTrey Ink - Enchanted Evening). 

I colored some of the the holly and leaves with Prismacolor colored pencils.  This was a technique I saw in both online cardmaking courses I took this Fall.  The Stress Free Cardmaking Summit and Justine Hovey's online 12 Days of Christmas cardmaking tutorial.  Using the colored pencils on a dark cardstock is really striking and unexpected.  I was really drawn to trying it myself and this is the card I came up with.

 The background is matted on gold cardstock and the Merry Christmas is die cut from the center of the gold mat. The Merry Christmas die I found on Amazon and I liked that it was all one piece, even the dot of the i is part of the Merry swoosh.  I matted the Merry Christmas sentiment on a piece of vellum to help it from getting lost in the background.  This was something I learned from Justine Hovey's online 12 Days of Christmas cardmaking tutorial. 

I made some cards vertical and some horizontal.

Yesterday I posted a card created with this same glimmer plate in silver.

Saturday, I will have another card version using the stencil from the bundle.

Thanks for stopping by...

Blessings to you,

Deb 

Butterfly Birthday

Happy Saturday!

Today, I have a birthday card inspired by one made by NinaB.

This is my version, using stamps I had in my stash.  

The birthday background is from My Favorite Things.

The butterfly (TAC) was colored with colored pencils.  

Found some new colored pencils earlier this year - 

Raffine Marco Fine Art Color pencils 72 color

I'm really happy with them.  The colors are really bold.  Love that!

Challenges:

Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes

Polkadoodles - Anything Goes

The Pencil Case - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by...

Blessings,

Deb

PaperTrey Ink - Autumn Hills

Happy Saturday!

Today, I have two similar cards using a PaperTrey Ink set - Autumn Hills.  This is the October card for the home-bound ministry that went out this week.  A simple card that was easy to mass produce.  So much so I made some birthday cards too.  Love when that happens - a design can be used for multiple occasions this month and into the next.

The blue block background is an old TAC set "Background Builders", which had solid block squares, rectangles and circles - perfect for the blue sky.  I used PTI "Spring Rain" ink.

The tree and sentiment (both) are from Autumn Hills and stamped using PTI "Dark Chocolate" ink.  I colored the leaves of the tree with scarlet red colored pencil.

The hill was created with a PTI die "In the Meadow" and Ivy Bazzill cardstock.  The base card for the first card is PTI Kraft and this one is PTI "Spring Rain".  The woodgrain paper is from A|Muse.

Supplies -- 

Images: PTI Autumn Hills, TAC Background Builders

Patterned Paper: A|Muse woodgrain 

Cardstock: PTI White, Kraft, Spring Rain, Bazzill Ivy

Inks: PTI Spring Rain and Dark Chocolate

Colored Pencil: Scarlet Red

Twine  

Challenges:

Clearly iSatmp - Twine

Fat Pages and Cards with Attitude - Anything Goes

Fussy and Fancy - Anything Goes

Pattie's Creations - Autumn Colors 

Polka Doodles - Autumn

Cupcake Craftroom - Autumn

Live and Love Crafts - Autumn

Paperplay Challenge - Wooden it be nice  

Thanks for stopping by...

Blessings,

Deb

{TAC} Totally Awesome Chicks Design Team

 Hi All,

Today is the debut post for a brand new design team, {TAC}: Totally Awesome Chicks.  This design team is an effort to keep images from The Angel Company (the original TAC) out there and visible.  There were just so many great images over the 14+ years.

Like this classic: TAC Bloomin' Boxes  (2006-07) 

 

Colored with PrismaColor pencil and Mineral Spirits

Meet the Chicks... 

Diana Maldonado

Debra Miller <--- You are Here

Laura Nehring

Carol Norby

Missy Owoc

Christine Pennington (Coordinator)

Nichole Taylor

Donna Thielker

Kerry Urbatch

See Christine's blog for more info about the team.

Our team will be posting the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month.  There will be a Blog Hop on the 3rd Saturday of the month open to everyone.  Create a card that fits the theme, post and link in to the hop to win blog candy!

October Schedule:

Wednesday, October 12th - Any TAC image

Saturday, October 15th Hop - Theme: Mabelle RO image from any TAC catalog

(Blog Candy to hoppers!)

Wednesday, October 26th - Any TAC image 

This is a 3 month commitment, so if you are a former "Angel", have lots of TAC images you would love to use again and are interested in being on the next design team starting in January - contact Christine.

We hope you mark down these dates.
Blessings,

Deb