FMS654 Peaceful Pines

Yay!  It's Friday!  My sweet friend Jen at Freshly Made Sketches has a fun sketch this week:

Normally I try to think outside the box with sketches, but this one just screamed "trees" so I went in search of a die that I got last year but I don't know that I ever used it!  So here we go:

I began with a Soft Succulent card base, then I diecut my Memory Box trees in Evening Evergreen and Thick Basic White cardstocks; I added an Adhesive sheet to the back of the white to make it easier to adhere.  I found some pretty "tree" paper from Tidings of Christmas in my retired stash, but it was too busy with the diecuts, so I added a layer of vellum to soften it.  Here's what it looks like under the vellum:

I adhered my trees to the vellum, added a silver sequin:

And added a couple of horizontal panels, one another piece of the Tidings of Christmas under the vellum, and Basic White on top.  The sentiment is from Impression Obsession, stamped in Evening Evergreen:

The die actually cuts three trees, so I adhered the last one to the inside, along with a sentiment from Flonzcraft, a company from New Zealand:

So happy you visited today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Christmas Words (Impression Obsession), Vintage Christmas (Flonzcraft)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Basic White, Adhesive Sheet,  Evening Evergreen (ret), Soft Succulent (ret), Tidings of Christmas DSP (ret), Vellum (ret)
Ink	Evening Evergreen
Accessories	Silver Sequins (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Layered Narrow Pines Dies (Memory Box)

CASC&S545 Celebrate

Happy Thursday, peeps! Gosh, this week has been busy! I feel like I am in a whirlwind!  Thankfully, my card today was quick and EASY!  I am giving Joanne at CAS Colours & Sketches a nod because she gave me the idea to use another image from my Joyful Images Ephemera pack, since I had it on my desk already from yesterday's card!  Here is their sketch:

I loved this little bell, and I already had a Very Vanilla circle diecut with the Spotlight on Nature dies, so I put them all together for this:

The red horizontal panel is also from the Ephemera pack; it's two piece adhered together.  I did add a little Garden Green circle behind the diecut circle; a partial sentiment from Simply Said, and I adhered it to a Very Vanilla card that was embossed with a retired embossing folder.  I cut the card down to 4" wide so that the piece hanging over the side would still fit in a standard envelope!  My final addition was a wee little sequin from my stash!  Easy peasy! And since this week's Krafty Chicks challenge is CAS, I am entering it there as well!

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Simply Said
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Garden Green, Joyful Images Ephemera Pack
Ink	Garden Green
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sequin from my stash
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Spotlight on Nature Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies (ret), Boughs & Berries EF (ret)

AHSC595 Winter Scene

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  It's time for a new Atlantic Hearts sketch: 

The Joyful Images Mix and Match ephemera pack has lots of fun precut images for Christmas, and I thought it would be fun to use some of them on today's sketch! So here we go:

I embossed a Pecan Pie card with a retired embossing folder, then adhered the ephemera pieces. The circle does have a scalloped mat from retired Brushed Gold cardstock to bring out the gold is the images. The sentiment was stamped in Mossy Meadow and backed with some Mossy Meadow DSP:

I added a few sequins as well as highlighting the pine boughs with some Craft White ink.  Finally, I stamped a retired sentiment from Greatest Part of Christmas on the inside....which looks like Crumb Cake, but it's just the way the photo was taken!

This is such a versatile sketch, so I hope you'll play along!  If you check out the others' designs over at the Atlantic Hearts you'll get lots of inspiration!  Thanks for visiting today!

My great-niece is growing like a weed:

As are her brothers:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Greatest Part of Christmas (ret), Merry Mantle (Concord & 9th)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pecan Pie, Joyful Images Mix & Match Ephemera, Mossy Meadow DSP (ret), Brushed Gold (ret)
Ink	Mossy Meadow, Craft White
Accessories	Natural Sequins, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Layering Circles Dies (ret), Banner Dies (Forget the maker), Sponge Dauber

Thankful Pumpkins

Happy Tuesday, peeps! I spent a wee bit of time in my craft room this morning and decided to make a fall-themed card for two challenges: As You See It has a nice sketch, and Hand-Stamped Sentiments has a lovely fall mood board:

I have been saving this pumpkin paper (well, hoarding it, really) for a long time, so I decided to finally break it out:

This is a larger card, 7.25" x 4.25", because I wanted to make sure I got all those pumpkins on it!  The papers are all from Recollections, called Thankful Heart.  I stamped the "thankful" in Mossy Meadow on some of the striped paper and matted it with a scalloped mat:

The floral image is from the same papers, diecut and matted with a Pistachio Pudding scalloped mat:

And although it's hard to see, I did add some speckled stamping around the pumpkins in Basic Beige, and added some Mossy Meadow twine and a few neutral sequins.  The inside is a sentiment from Simply Stamped, and I fussy-cut another pumpkin to add to the bottom. The vine stamp is from Close to My Heart:

I think this will make a nice Thanksgiving card!  

It's Solanco Fair week, so I am off to put in a blanket that Dana crocheted as well as a small cross stitch project that I did.  I did several projects this past year....getting them framed was another story!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Seaside Wishes, Blessed (Paper Sweeties), Farmhouse Scriptural Quotes (Stamp Simply), Autumn Blessings (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Mossy Meadow, Pistachio Pudding (ret), Thankful Heart (Recollections)
Ink	Mossy Meadow, Basic Beige, Pistachio Pudding
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Mossy Meadow Twine (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Scalloped Contours Dies (ret), Layering Circles Dies (ret)

SSC344 Hello Friend

Happy Monday, peeps!  I have a quick little card that uses the sketch from Sunday Stamps along with some of the lovely Thoughtful Journey DSPs!  Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

The hardest part of making this card was cutting the smaller tag and extending it to fit the larger one!  These papers are so pretty, the rest of it was easy! I split some of the thick Boho Blue jute to make the bow, and the sentiment is from Country Birdhouse!

The trees are just beginnign to show a wee bit of their fall colors in my area, just like on this card!  

I had my first lobster roll while in Cape May! It was delicious!

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Country Birdhouse
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Thoughtful Journey DSP
Ink	Mossy Meadow
Accessories	In Color Jute, Dimensional Strips, Color Dots (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Tailor Made Tags Dies (ret)

PP707 CAS Nature

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Ann is our Paper Player's hostess today and it's CAS week!  Here's our theme:

That's a fun theme!  Lots of ideas popped into my head!  I was focused this week on making some Christmas cards for an upcoming class, so this one seemed to fit the bill:

I managed to do a plant AND an animal, LOL!  This is pretty simple...I had this scalloped piece already diecut in my stash, so I stamped and diecut the winter image using Boho Blue ink, then popped it up on top.  A retired Paper Pumpkin sentiment and a little glimmery gem were added:

I also added some Frost White shimmer paint under the trees; it looks odd in the photo, but it's pretty in real life!  I embossed a mat of Boho Blue with the Snow Fall embossing folder, added another Paper Pumpkin sentiment on the inside, and it was done!

The Design Team has some really fun samples for you to check out, too! Get some inspiration from them, then come share your Clean-and-Simple creations with us too!

Dana and Wayne's birthday gift to me this year (it was a big one) was a weekend trip to Cape May, NJ to go on two bird-watching trips!  We stayed in the cutest little cottage Air B&B:

It was adorable!!  All the amenities were perfect and the owners decorated it perfectly with lots of boat/sea/ocean pictures, but they weren't so "beachy" that you felt like you were in Florida (no offense to Floridians!).  A lot of the decor was vintage/retro (right up my alley) but everything was upscale and fresh!  Here's my bedroom (very comfy):

This was Dana's first foray into birdwatching and she did great!  We had two trips, both near the beach, but in different areas.  We didn't see many birds, but we heard several new ones and the guides were very helpful in identifying the sounds as well as the flora!  She even downloaded Merlin (a bird app I highly recommend) and heard a new bird last night while sitting on her deck!  (I think I have got her hooked!):

We were both pretty beat by the end of the day!  But it was a trip of a lifetime and I was so touched that Dana put a lot of time and effort researching something for us to do!  It was like a second vacation!  Thanks so much for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Wonderland (Close to My Heart), Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Boho Blue
Ink	Boho Blue
Accessories	Glitter Sequins, White Frost Shimmer Paint (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Snow Fall Embossing Folder, Stitched So Sweetly Dies (ret), Wonderland Dies (Close to My Heart)

Feel Better Soon

Happy Thursday, peeps! I have a simple card (hope it's CAS enough) for the FMS sketch as well as the colors from the CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge:

I pulled out the Wanted to Say Dies and here's what I came up with:

I created my sentiment with Basic White and Misty Moonlight cardstocks, added a Blackberry Bliss and Basic White mat, and there are little flowers and leaves in the die set as well, so I cut some of them and added a bit of baker's twine and some Smoky Slate pearls:

The background DSP is from Country Lace!  It's always good to have some get well cards on hand!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Misty Moonlight, Mossy Meadow, Blackberry Bliss, Country Lace DSP
Ink
Accessories	Smoky Slate Pearls, Mossy Meadow Baker's Twine (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Countryside Corners Dies, Wanted to Say Dies, Fun Patterns Embossing Folder

AHSC594 Happy Halloween Boo!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Time for a new sketch from Atlantic Hearts, and here it is:

 

I went old-school here and pulled out some stamps and papers that I've had for a while to create a Halloween card:

The papers are from Carta Bella; I cut some Watermelon Wonder paper with a scallop-edged die and mounted it all on a card base of Basic Beige.  Before mounting, I stamped some little bats all along the edge! I believe the vintage Halloween sentiment is from an old Recollections set....can't be 100% sure!  The "boo" is from Scary Cute and the "happy" is from The Paper Studio.  I stamped it on a diecut banner and it just seemed too big, so I did some creative folding to make it stand up, but still lie flat in the envelope!

I added some big enamel dots, and a sentiment from Close To My Heart's Hello Pumpkin on the inside:

Fun sentiment, fun card, fun sketch!  I hope you'll play along with us at Atlantic Hearts!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Scary Cute (ret), Everyday Expressions (Paper Studio), Vintage Halloween (Recollections), Hello, Pumpkin (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Basic Beige, Watermelon Wonder (ret), Happy Halloween (Carta Bella)
Ink	Versafine Black, Basic Beige
Accessories	Enamel Dots (unknown)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Banner Dies (Nellie Snellen), Edgelit Dies (ret)

52CCT24-33 Joy & Peace

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Hope your week is going well so far!  I finally made another card using the pretty Graceful Greenery vellum; this one uses the sketch from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

So here we go:

I layered the white vellum on a piece of Old Olive cardstock that I had cut on a curve at the bottom (even though you can't see it here!).  I added a few diecut vellum pine branches around the bottom and used a sentiment from the retired Night Divine, diecut with the Countryside Corners dies.  When I photographed the card the first time, I realized I could see the glue dots that I used to adhere it at the top...grrrr....so I covered them up with some Glitter Sequins. Then I thought they would like nice on the greenery as well, so I added a few more...they remind me of pieces of ice!

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Night Divine (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Old Olive, Graceful Greenery (Online Exclusive)
Ink	Old Olive
Accessories	Dimensionals, Glitter Sequins (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Golden Greenery Dies, Countryside Corners Dies

PP706 Hey Chick!

Happy Sunday, all! It's time for a new Paper Players challenge and Elizabeth is our hostess!  She hit the ground running with this color challenge....I really had to put on my thinking cap for it!  I love the be challenged, though!  Here's the palette:

I had a couple of ideas in mind, but as I was going through my stamps, I came across this Taylored Expressions set and thought it would be ideal!  I pulled out the matching stencil and went to work! Here we go:

I just love these little chicks, don't you?  I blended Daffodil Delight in light and dark shades to create them, then added accents in Real Red and Memento Black.  I mounted everything on a Azure Afternoon card base and added a black and white gingham trim to hold my little "hey, chick" tag!  I thought about stamping something at the bottom section of the card, but as I was digging around through my drawers , I spied this one lonely piece of metallic mesh thingie from SU; I saved it from a long, long time ago!  I think it looks great here!   And on the inside:

Age is only a number, right? I know I feel like I am about 25 in my head, LOL!  I hope you'll play along with our fun color challenge!  Check out what the DT with them over at the Paper Players blog, then come play along too!  Thanks for visiting today, enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hey Chick (ret), Just Checkin In (Taylored Expressions)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Real Red, Azure Afternoon
Ink	Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Azure Afternoon, Pecan Pie, Versafine Black
Accessories	Black & White Gingham Ribbon (ret), Dimensionals, Metallic Mesh (ret), Spring Chickens Stencil (Taylored Expressions)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Banner Die (Nellie Snellen), Blending Brushes