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)

PP417 Gather Together

Hi everyone!  Happy Sunday!  Hope your weekend has been wonderful so far!  Claire is our hostess at the Paper Players this week and she has a lovely theme challenge for us:

I am afraid my mojo has gone into hiding lately and my other activities are sucking the life out of it!  I just didn't do this lovely photo justice with my little card, but hopefully Claire will forgive me!  And really, this card looks better in real life than it does here!! So here we are:

My Thanksgiving stamp selection is a little sparse, so I went with the wheat spray from Wishing You Well and a sentiment from Painted Harvest!  I used the color challenge from TGIF:

I first embossed my base with the Quilt Top embossing folder; the image was stamped in Crumb Cake and Cajun Craze, and I added the sentiment and bow in Merry Merlot.  I distressed the Merry Merlot mat as well, and also sent the stamped panel through the Subtle embossing folder for a little interest.  I colored some pearls with a Bronze Blend and added them to the spray:

I pulled out some vintage goodies; the striped Cajun Craze is from many years ago, as is this sweet little sentiment from Falling Leaves:

I know I have more Thanksgiving stamps around, I just need to root around to find them, LOL!  Meanwhile, I hope you will get a head start on your Thanksgiving cards and play with us at the Players!  Can't wait to see you there.  Check out the DT to get more inspiration:

·        Claire

·        Jaydee

·        Joanne

·        Laurie

·        Nance

·        Anne Marie - on break

·        Sandy

·        Elizabeth

·        Annie - on break

·        Jan

·        Ann

Yesterday our church had its annual Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party!  The kids LOVE this!  We have a small church, but we collect items all year long and we were able to pack 118 boxes!  

We are blessed to have a Dansko shoe outlet right in my little town and they very graciously donate empty shoeboxes that would normally be bound for recycling:

After setting out all the school supplies, hygiene items, toys, shoes and whatever else collected, each person gets a shoebox and packs it up according to age and gender!  Sometimes the wee ones need a little help, but most of them are old pros at it!

Cassidy is one of the old pros, LOL!

Luke is one of our new pastor's children, and he was quite serious about his selections:

And when they're all done and stacked up, the boxes make a great place to take a picture, LOL!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

SS190 Framed Shaker Christmas

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  After a few lovely yet chilly days, we are gearing up for MORE rain!  Grrr!  I guess it could be snow...not quite ready for that yet!  I took a break from Halloween cards and made a Christmas card yesterday using the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

That frame was just begging to be filled with some sequins, so here we go:

The papers from Under the Mistletoe are a little too busy for me, but I challenged myself to use them anyway!  My card base is Old Olive and the frame is Pear Pizzazz.  I also challenged myself to try some embossing with my Stitched Shapes framelits...it's not difficult but it's a bit of a challenge to put the embossing mat on top of the framelit without making it wiggle around!  I used the Layering Squares framelits for the inner and outer cuts.  I find using Fun Foam and cutting the frame almost exactly the same shape really helps keep those sequins inside!!!  I embellished it with a small deer from Dashing Deer:

And I love this sweet little sentiment from Wishing You Well:

My sequins are from Verve...thanks for popping in today!

Dana has been busy making hats, lots of hats! I don't have a picture of the ones she made for Cassidy or Lee, but here is Jackie's:

 Cassidy chose the colors; Lee's is orange and black and hers is blue and black!  They all seem to like them!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Dashing Deer, Wishing You Well
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, Under the Mistletoe DSP, Acetate Sheet
Ink	Real Red, Old Olive
Accessories	Sequins (Verve), Real Red Ribbon, Fun Foam, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Layering Squares Framelits, Detailed Deer Framelits, Embossing Mats

IB39 Cozy Up to Christmas

Hi everyone!  Happy Thursday....blessedly, we had a lovely sunny day yesterday and it looks like a nice weekend coming up!  I can't wait!  It's about time!  For Laurel's Inspired By challenge this week, it's a cozy one!  Here's my take on it:

And here's her prompt....such a sweet little vignette, warm and cozy!  I chose the Buffalo Check (of course) and that black and white throw as my inspiration!

I used the Sunday Stamps sketch for this week:

We did a similar card for my recent Christmas card stamp camp, and I thought it would translate nicely to this sketch!  I actually CASEd this idea from my PP teamie, Laurie!  You can see hers here!  I started by stamping a Real Red card with the Buffalo Check background stamp in Basic Black, then adding a white panel from which I diecut three trees.  I backed it with some black and white printed paper, popped up a couple of the trees in front, and then added some snowy glitter to them:

I added a wee little sentiment, diecut with an Avery Elle die:

My final addition was a diecut black scallop horizontal panel, embellished with some thick baker's twine to give some warmth to all the red and black!  And since I used a background stamp, I am also entering this in the Stamp Ink Paper challenge for this week:

I know there is some something in our cute inspiration photo that will catch your fancy!  Please share your creation at the Inspired By blog....can't wait to see it!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Buffalo Check, Wishing You Well
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink	Basic Black
Accessories	Baked Brown Sugar Thick Baker's Twine (ret), Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Tools	Big Shot, Card Front Builder Die, Corner Rounder (ret), Double Pierced Rectangle Die (Avery Elle), Scallop Border Thin Cut (Close to My Heart)

PP409 Wishing You Well

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Anne Marie is our Paper Players host today and she is off and running with her first challenge since returning to the DT!  Check out this gorgeous color palette:

Oh, I had so many ideas rumbling around in my head, it was spinning!  I chose white as my "color of choice" and finally decided on using some leafy images from Rooted in Nature to get me started:

My Crumb Cake card base was first stamped in Craft White ink with the Buffalo Check background stamp; I stamped a few leafy images in the challenge colors and diecut them out, then arranged them on a Blackberry Bliss panel that was embossed with the Basketweave EF:

I found a little scrap of Mint Macaron DSP from a couple of years ago as well as some Blackberry Bliss thick baker's twine to accent my leaves, and my sentiment is from Wishing You Well:

I love that sentiment...it can be used for so many occasions, don't you think?  My sketch comes from In(k)spire Me for this week:

The DT came up with some beauties with these colors, you can check them all out at the Paper Players blog!  While you're there, be sure to share your creation as well!  You might just be a Headliner next week!

One last shot from the wedding; not sure how the photographer captured this; I am thinking he super-imposed the couple over the background, but it's a favorite of lots of people:

He's a very talented photographer for sure!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Rooted in Nature, Wishing You Well, Buffalo Check BG
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Blackberry Bliss, Birthday Bouquet DSP (ret)
Ink	Craft White, Mint Macaron, Blackberry Bliss, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Blackberry Bliss Baker's Twine (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Basketweave EF, Nature's Roots Framelits, Banner Dies (Nestabilities)

PP407 Just a Note

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Jaydee is our Paper Players hostess today with a fabulous sketch!  I just LOVE this sketch, I can't figure out why I haven't come up with this one before!!!  Here is it:

I didn't really follow the sketch 100% (hope Jaydee doesn't mind) but I got so carried away with thinking "threes" that I zoned out on the dimensions!  Anyway, it gave me a chance to finally dig into these beautiful Share What You Love Specialty papers...I know, I am slow on the uptake, but I finally got them and they are gorgeous!  So here we go:

I REALLY wanted to use the velvet ribbon in the Holiday Mini, too...it's technically Tranquil Tide, but it looks more like Lost Lagoon to me, so that's what I used as a mat for my papers.  I used a sentiment from Wishing You Well, and fussy-cut a flower from the same DSP to add as an accent:

I used my trusty Envelope Punch Board to round the corners of my card and layers...so easy!  I hope you'll play along with our sketch this week; I know I'll be using it a lot in the future...just think of the little scraps you have...they would work great!  Can't wait to see what you create!  Meanwhile, check out what the DT members created:

·        Claire

·        Jaydee

·        Joanne

·        Laurie

·        Nance

·        Anne Marie

·        Sandy

·        Elizabeth

·        Annie

·        Jan

My dad is having some serious health issues, so Cassidy and I had to make an unanticipated trip to the Delaware shore to take him to a doctor's appointment.  It's over a two-hour drive, so I promised her a trip to the boardwalk as a reward!  Here she is at Funland on her favorite ride!  I went to Funland when I was a kid, as did Dana!  It's fun to continue the tradition!  She even convinced me to go on the bumper cars!!!

Thanks for visiting today, be blessed and enjoy it!

Bold Butterfly

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I am squeaking in a quick clean-and-simple card for two challenges, the Cards in Envy yellow and black challenge, and the CAS on Sunday butterfly challenge!  I rarely use yellow, so I thought I would force myself to use the new In Color, Pineapple Punch.  I stamped the butterfly from Beautiful Day on some In Color DSP and embossed it with black embossing powder:

I added a little coloring with a Daffodil Delight blend, fussy-cut it out and mounted it on a plain white card that I embellished with a piece from the Delightfully Detailed Laser-cut DSP.  To create some movement, I stamped the flowers from Wishing You Well: 

and added a sentiment from the same set at the bottom:

It's always nice to have a little note card on hand!  Thanks for popping in today!

For her birthday, Cassidy got a bubble kit to make giant bubbles, which is funny, because we had just been trying to do this on our own with a recipe from Pinterest.  We came pretty close, but these were much better:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Day, Wishing You Well (available 9/5/18)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, 2018-2019 In Color DSP, Delightfully Detailed Laser-cut Specialty DSP
Ink	Basic Black, Versamark, Pineapple Punch
Accessories
Tools	Heat Tool, Black Embossing Powder, SU Blends, Stamparatus

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!