Joyful for Inspire Create

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I have a busy day so this will be short and sweet!  The Inspire.Create.Challenge this week is veeeery interesting:

So the idea is to create your own sketch!!  I made one sketch, two cards with matching color combinations:

Both cards use Mint Macaron and Blushing Bride ink, using one color for the card base.  It's a really simple design; the wreath from Wishing You Well was stamped in Mint Macaron, the bow and "berries" were stamped in Blushing Bride:

The berries are from Many Blessings, but you could use little dots from any set, or even just the tip of a marker or blender pen!

The final touch was an embossed sentiment using a Tim Holtz EF:

These are quick and easy enough to make several for your Christmas card stash!  Thanks for popping in today!  

Another program that Cassidy uses on the computer allows her to put words into this collage:

The computer sorts it and she chooses the colors in which to print it; some of the words are a wee bit "misspelled" but it's a treasure to me!  Enjoy you day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Wishing You Well, Many Blessings
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron
Ink	Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Christmas A2 Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz)

ATSI188 Speedy Feathers

Hi everyone, Happy Friday!  Today we have a fun challenge from As You See It, these ALWAYS challenge me...speed stamping!  Make your card in ten minutes or less, once you get all your supplies together!

This is hard for me because while I start out with an idea, I might change it at some point in the middle of the process, which might involve new dies, new stamps, you get the idea!  So it took me a couple tries to get my time down to about 8 minutes and 45 seconds!  So here we go:

I don't think I have used these feathers from Four Feathers maybe but two or three times, but I thought they would make a big bold statement on my very simple card.  I had the Real Red card base already on my desk; cut out the stitched frame, stamped the feathers, added a sentiment and two enamel dots and it was done! 

So let me show you my first attempt at 10-minute stamping; I saw a technique on A Stamp Above's blog (although I cannot find the exact post right now, I'll search for it!) where Kelly stamped on a window sheet with Stazon ink and colored the back with Blends, then backed her image with glimmer paper...so pretty!  So that was my first attempt, and it went well until I got to the sentiment; I didn't like what I had picked out, so I ran over my time.  But I'll share my final project with you anyway:

I used some Lovely Lipstick DSP, a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings, and the image is from Many Blessings:

When I had that one finished, I took my leftover pieces and made one more card!

This one uses the sketch from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

I cut out a candy cane with an Impressions Obsessions die and backed it with another piece of glimmer paper, and used the Lovely Lipstick leftovers and same sentiment as the second card:

And the unused original sentiment from the second card went on the inside!!

I have been trying to create two cards each time I sit down to stamp, and I was happy this day to create three!  So I hope you'll play along with our timed stamping challenge!  You CAN make a card in ten minutes or less--give it a try and share it with us at As You See It!

Bus stop Halloween....Ninja Turtle, Princess Ana and the Karate Kid!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Four Feathers (ret), Many Blessings, Itty Bitty Greetings
Card stock & Papers	Real Red, Whisper White, Window Sheets, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer, Lovely Lipstick DSP
Ink	Lovely Lipstick
Accessories	Enamel Star (ret), DImensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circles Framelits, Bitty Banners Framelits (ret), Stitched Rectangle Dies (Avery Elle), Candy Cane Die (Impression Obsession)

Fab Friday Sunflowers

Happy Monday, everyone!  Hope you had a good weekend!  I have a quick little card today for the Fab Friday sketch challenge!  Here's the sketch:

My card is notecard-sized; I used a piece of Garden Impressions DSP for the background; my image from  Many Blessings was stamped on watercolor paper in Stazon ink and watercolored:

I added a frame of Mango Melody and Old Olive and stamped a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings on a diecut from the Stitched Labels set:

It came together very quickly!  Thanks for popping in today!

A little pre-Halloween "horsing around"!!!

That's just a wee bit creepy!  Funny thing is, when she was younger, she loved to watch videos of people in these horse masks!!! 

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Many Blessings, Itty Bitty Greetings
Card stock & Papers	Note Card, Old Olive, Mango Melody, Watercolor
Ink	Stazon, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Mango Melody, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Layering Squares Framelits, Stitched Labels Framelits, Aquapainter

GDP154 Sunflower Gratitude

Hi peeps!  Happy Wednesday!  I have still been playing with the Many Blessings set that is available today in the new Holiday catalog!  Yesterday I colored my image with Blends; today, I stamped my image with Stazon ink so I could do some loose watercoloring!  Check it out:

I used the Global Design Project sketch for my layout:

I knew I wanted to use the sunflowers from the Many Blessings set, but I was struggling to find DSP that would fit the colors I wanted; I checked the new Festive Farmhouse papers and there was a lovely Mossy Meadow stripe that worked perfectly!  I stamped and watercolored my flower image on watercolor paper, then diecut it:

Next, I stamped a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings on a panel of Crushed Curry.  I ran it through the Subtles EF, and added a little strip of Mossy Meadow for the horizontal panel.  Can you see the little sunflowers I stamped on there as well?  So cute!

My final touch was a little banner of retired Mossy Meadow ribbon and some of the new Festive Farmhouse Cotton Twine...you get three colors and one of them just happens to be Mossy Meadow!  It's nice and soft and made a great little bow:

It is so stinkin' hot here, it's nice to stamp something fall-ish, even if the weather outside doesn't feel that way!  

Here's another cute photo from the wedding; this is my nephew Timmy (he's the brother of the bride as well as the contractor who did our addition) and his wife, Allyson; Timmy withstood the rain for a little while but rather than get an unmanly umbrella, opted for camouflage raingear!  Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!

Thanks for popping in--enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Many Blessings, Itty Bitty Greetings
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Mossy Meadow, Watercolor, Crushed Curry, Festive Farmhouse DSP
Ink	Stazon, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Festive Farmhouse Cotton Twine, Mossy Meadow Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Aquapainter, Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Subtle EF

Fab Friday 145 Many Blessings

Happy day after Labor Day!  Doesn't it feel like Monday?  My card today uses a new set from the Holiday Mini Catalog that will go live tomorrow, and it's called Many Blessings!  Here we go:

And I used the sketch from Fab Friday to get me started:

I love this little set; it has some seasonal images that are small enough to be colored in quickly, whether it be with Blends, which I used here, regular markers, or watercolor pencils!  For my card, I stamped the image in Early Espresso:

My banner is also Early Espresso, which I embossed with the Subtle EF; I used the Stitched Shapes Framelits to cut out the main image as well as my sentiment, then added some layers and embellishments.  The background is from the Share What You Love DSP pack; I like the country feel to this particular print:

And I really don't have any current Thanksgiving stamps, but I remembered this sentiment from Painted Harvest, so I stamped it on the inside and stamped the focal image again, this time in Sahara Sand:

I am thankful for you!  

It's a bitterweet day for our family; my dad finally agreed to move out of his home and to move in with my sister.  I know he is sad to leave his neighborhood and friends, but he really needs more care and shouldn't be alone.  So it's a new reality for all of us.  I SO appreciate and thank you for your prayers, as this will be a challenging transition for all of us!  But at least he won't be two and a half hours away! 

My other sister and her family were up over the weekend for my niece's wedding, and my nephew, who is at West Point, was able to visit as well.  Cassidy roped him into playing some games with her; he's a good sport!

Thanks for visiting today and have a blessed day! 

TMS466 Green Deer

Happy Saturday, everyone!  Have you ever seen a green deer?!  Well, I have one to share with you today!  My creative friend Wendy made a cute little card yesterday using the Tuesday Morning Sketches sketch (you can see her card HERE) and I loved it so much, I thought I would CASE it and make my own!  Her card is for Halloween, and mine is Christmas!  I recently got the Under the Mistletoe DSP, and I usually gravitate towards the smaller prints, but I thought I would challenge myself to use the bold Shaded Spruce one...so here we go:

And here is the sketch prompt:

I stamped a deer from Dashing Deer in Shaded Spruce and diecut it with the Detailed Deer Thinlet, popping it up on a panel that had the corners rounded with my Envelope Punch Board.  The sentiment is from Many Blessings:

What I thought was so clever on Wendy's card was that she cut out some elements from DSP to create her accent piece, so I did the same, cutting a small flower and part of a leaf out, then layering them on top of a larger flower.  There is a tiny bit of Old Olive in the pattern as well, so I used the corner die from the Detailed Deer Thinlet to make a couple of swirly pieces:

My final addition was a glimmer dot in the center of the smaller flower!  While this is certainly out of my comfort zone, I think it turned out nicely!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!  Off to a party!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Dashing Deer, Many Blessings (available Sept 5)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Old Olive, Under the Mistletoe DSP
Ink	Shaded Spruce
Accessories	Glimmer Dot (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Detailed Deer Thinlet, Envelope Punch Board (for rounding corners)

PP405 Many Blessings

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's time for another Paper Players challenge and I am the hostess!  I hope people won't groan when they see my choice of colors, LOL!  In my high school yearbook, under my likes, I listed my favorite color as orange!  You can tell that by palette this week:

I love monochromatic tones, and these just looked like happy colors together! I hope they don't scare you away! They could be summery or fall-ish, there are lots of possibilities!

I was thrilled when I got a peek at some of the new goodies in the upcoming Holiday Mini catalog (if you need one, let me know!)!!!  There are some lovely sets for the holidays, but I was really excited when I saw the new Buffalo Check background stamp!  So I went to work with it along with a few other new things:

From the new Wishing You Well set, I stamped the wheat sheaf in So Saffron and the flowers in Mango Melody.  That pretty bow was stamped in Pumpkin Pie and fussy-cut, then popped up with a dimensional. It all was diecut with an oval from the Stitched Framelits dies and matted with a Layering Ovals scallop:

The sentiment is from Many Blessings; it was stamped in Pumpkin pie and it got the same stitched and scalloped treatment:

It was all mounted on a Pumpkin Pie mat that was stamped in matching ink with the Buffalo Check background stamp, then adhered to a Very Vanilla card.  It was pretty simple and easy, really--no embellishments, just stamping and die cutting!  I am looking forward to playing with more of my new goodies tomorrow!  And I hope you'll play with my color challenge as well...I can't wait to see what you create.  Check out ALL the samples at the Paper Players blog!

Cassidy is camping with her daddy so no pictures today, but I do have a couple more cards to share!  There are stories behind them, too!  This one was from my dad:

Now, it's just a store-bought card, but growing up, we had a rooster just like this on our farm.  This rooster HATED me and would chase me around the yard and down the driveway to the bus.  I was petrified of it and of course my younger siblings thought it was hysterical and to this day, still tease me about it.  My dad did not choose the card because of that, but he did remember the rooster!

My next card is extra-special!  My hubby John printed out the front of this card  (and he is computer-challenged!):

and because he got me a new hummingbird feeder, he searched and found a hummingbird, then printed it out with his own little sentiment:

He's so sweet!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!