My Old Stamping Grounds

 It doesn't need to be Valentine's Day to include hearts on your cards! This simple, two stamp card was made with the Art Nouveau Faces and Journaling Letter Guide stamps from Lost Coast Designs .  Join in the fun and submit your "Love and Hearts" creation for February's Challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity . Submissions due by February 28. 

Ahhh, February. The month of love. Whether you have a romantic partner in your life or not, it's truly important to love yourself. You matter.  This card with cutouts, embossing, a dimensional sticker and jewels will be something special for the receiver. I made it with the Princess of Everything , Large Flourish , You Matter and Pieces of Calligraphy stamps from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda . Follow along with this pictorial to see how I made it: The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is hosting a February "Love and Hearts" Challenge. Join in the fun and submit your LOVE-ly creation for your chance to win a prize. 

I LOVE making gift tags. They may be smaller in size, but that doesn't mean they can't have a big impact! With ribbons, embossing, 3-D butterfly sticker wings and photo corners--there's a lot of visual interest: I used the Sunglasses Gnome and Brush Strokes stamps from Lost Coast Designs , and the Butterfly Reminder sentiment from Carmen's Veranda . Follow along for how I made it: The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity is hosting a January Challenge "Things With Wings." Submit your creation by January 31 for your chance to win a prize. Go for it!

Happy New Year! Have you set any resolutions? How about heading into 2026 with the intent to leave a trail of kindness everywhere you go! I made this gift tag with Lost Coast Design's   Mini Whimsical Birds 1 stamp, grunge border and Carmen Veranda's Trail of Kindess sentiment. Follow along with this pictorial to see the steps I took to complete the look: The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity January Challenge is "Winged Things"--join in the fun and submit your creation by January 31 for your chance to win a prize.

I wanted to share a recently published card that appeared in the Winter Issue 2025 of Rubber Stamp Madness Magazine.  The design was created as part of the magazine's Paper Challenge, where they encouraged stampers to use as many types of paper as they could. You can see that I attached embossed paper to the card base. I then tore a diagonal out of a book page (fun fact: this page is written in Lithuanian), inked the edges, and stamped one of Lost Coast Designs Mini Whimsical Birds 1 over the print. Prismacolor pencils colored over the print quite nicely. I then added paper flowers and leaves for embellishment. Here you can see it described in the magazine: This month is an "Anything Goes" Challenge on the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. December is a busy holiday month, so maybe look at your previous creations and submit one of those to the blog for your chance to win a prize. 

My two toddler granddaughters are learning the joy that comes from moving their bodies to music. Their faces just radiate joy, and they don't care AT ALL what they look like as they move to the beat. I hope they stay fearless in doing what brings them happiness!   These funny kid images are from the Cartoon Kids stamp set at Lost Cost Designs. The Dance Like A Toddler sentiment is from Carmen's Veranda. It's a super simple card to make: Visit the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity and submit your own "Anything Goes" creation for November's Challenge. You might win a prize!