CLC A Cup of Inspiration

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I confess...as much as I love coffee, I have never played with the Coffee Lovers Cardmakers challenge!  I needed a special thank you for a special friend, so this was the perfect time to play!  Here's their photo inspiration:

I recently got an adorable Close to My Heart stamp set and couldn't wait to play with some of the images, especially this wee little coffee cup:

My card is notecard-sized; the image was stamped in Sahara Sand and I colored it with SU Blends, stamping the stars with Soft Suede and the other elements with Sahara Sand:

I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso on Creamy Caramel cardstock before embossing it with a polka dot embossing folder, then added a little burlap ribbon and a Mint Macaron heart!  Love this color combo! Now this is getting popped in the mail ASAP!  And since Addicted to Stamps and More wants us to "make our mark" with markers, I am also entering it there!  

Thanks for popping in today!

We had rain all day yesterday, but for a few minutes in the late afternoon, I noticed a HUGE double rainbow out the window!  The sky was such an odd color....I ran outside and tried to photograph it but it was just too big...I couldn't get it all in the frame:

However, Dana's friend Kate managed to capture it perfectly - she is an amazing photographer - haloing her barn in the beautiful Chester Country countryside:

Yep.....that's just what it looked like!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	September Stamp of the Month (Close to my Heart
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White Notecard, Mint Macaron, Early Espresso, Creamy Caramel (ret)
Ink	Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Soft Suede
Accessories	Burlap Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Layering Circles Framelits, SU Blends, Big Polka Dots EF

RRCB99 Anything Goes Christmas

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Time for another Retro Rubber Challenge where we use stamps at least a year old!  Today it's "Anything Goes"!!

I thought the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch was fun:

And I had SO many ideas!  Ultimately, I went for Christmas because these My Favorite Things Christmas Seasonal Sentiments, that I have had for at least three or four years, have big, bold sentiments:

I paired them with some Poppy Stamps pine bough dies and a wonky-stitched mat, then added some red glimmer paper stars:

Fun and festive!  While I was at it, I stamped another one, same sentiment, but this time I used a Lawn Fawn stamp from 2013 called Peace Love Joy:

I stamped the little lights in Smoky Slate and colored them in with markers, then mounted it on a Real Red card base! You can't see it here, but I also added some Wink of Stella to the lights for fun!  Easy peasy, especially with my Stamparatus!

Come on and give those older stamps some love--you know you have lots of them!  Share your creation with us at Retro Rubber--be sure to read the guidelines--can't wait to see them!

After my confession of not liking to eat anything colored blue, two of my Paper Players teammates recommended a book for Cassidy to read called Droo; it's about an imaginary creature who can only eat blue things!  It was a challenge to find it, but ebay finally came through! It was quite charming and she read it it to her mommy as well as to me!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Christmas Seasonal Sentiments (My Favorite Things), Joy Peace Love (Lawn Fawn)
Card stock & Papers	Shaded Spruce, Whisper White, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, Adhesive Sheets, Red Glimmer
Ink	Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Wonky Stitched Rectangle Die (My Favorite Things, Pine Boughs Dies (Poppy Stamps), Star Die (Verve), Markers and Blends

Thankful in Gold

Happy Monday, peeps!  What a lovely fall weekend we had!  Did you remember to set your clocks back?  I love having an "extra" hour, but hate that it gets dark so early!!  I have one of my stamp clubs coming this morning, so this will be short and sweet!  My card today is for two challenges, the Inkspire Me color challenge and the Festive Friday Thanksgiving/Thank You challenge:

And here we go:

I had a piece of Sahara Sand already cut to mat size in my folder, so I embossed it with Sahara Sand ink and the Buffalo Check background stamp.  The wreath is from a new-to-me company, Fun Stampers Journey; it was stamped in Mint Macaron and fussy-cut.  I heat-embossed some leave with Gold Encore ink and gold embossing powder, then added some "berries" punched with a 1/8" punch:

The "Thankful" is a die from Close to My Heart, as is the "give thanks" sentiment that I stamped on the inside left of my card; the blessing sentiment is from Right at Home:

I managed to give a lot of companies some love for this card, LOL!  

After our shoebox packing party on Saturday, Cassidy went to the pastor's house, where she took charge and gave the boys some karate lessons!  It gave the pastor's wife a little break and they were both sad when Daddy came to pick her up!

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Buffalo Check, Harvest Wreath (Fun Stampers Journey), Grateful Heart (Right at Home), Inspired Words (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Gold Foil, Adhesive Sheet
Ink	Mint Macaron, Sahara Sand, Gold Encore (ret)
Accessories	Gold Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Heat Tool, Thankful for You Thin Cut (Close to My Heart), 1/8" Circle Punch

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!

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)

IB44 Soup in a Bowl

Hey everyone!  Happy November!  Yikes, how can that be, this year is whizzing by!  Laurel has a sweet inspiration photo for the first Inspired By challenge of the month;  I had actually been thinking of something along these lines even before I saw her photo!  So let's see what we've got:

  

And here is her inspiration photo:

Doesn't that soup look delish?  Yum!  I had seen these bowls in my local grocery store:

And someone brought these napkins to my Bible study one morning:

I loved the warm color and simple silhouette design and thought the images would work well with Laurel's challenge as well!  So I got out my Papertrey Wreath for All Seasons and some Crushed Curry cardstock for my silhouette wreath image:

I embossed it in white and added some Pear Pizzazz "berries".  Originally I was going to make a square element, but when I saw the FMS sketch yesterday, I went to plan B:

I didn't want to re-stamp a new image, so I just added another stitched panel to create the rectangle, mounted it all on some woodgrain DSP from Festive Farmhouse, tied on some Old Olive ribbon, and added my sentiment, also stamped on a little piece of the same woodgrain paper :

I love the earthy tones of this!  I hope you'll play along with our challenge this week...be sure to check out the IB blog so you can check out what the other designers created as well!

A little Halloween action the kids' neighborhood: Cassidy dressed as some sort of Minecraft being (Minecraft being NOT one of my favorite things, LOL!):

Eden dressed up in her very own Halloween tutu!  

Another Halloween for the books, as Dana says:

Enjoy your day and be blessed...be sure to come back tomorrow for another As You See It challenge, too!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happy Birthday Gorgeous, Wreath for All Seasons (Papertrey Ink)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Festive Farmhouse DSP
Ink	Craft White, Pear Pizzazz, Smoky Slate
Accessories	Old Olive Ribbon (ret), White Embossing Powder, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Heat Tool, Stitched Squares Dies (Lil'Inker), Pear Pizzazz Marker