TMS508 Warm Christmas Wishes

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  Summer vacation schedule has got me a wee bit in disarray....my crafting time has to be done in the evening, and I'm having a little bit of trouble adjusting, LOL!  But I am sure we'll get ourselves into a routine!  I got some new goodies and I couldn't wait to use this new set, Rustic Retreat!  I used the Tuesday Morning Sketches sketch for this week:

And here we go:

The base is Naturals White, and the DSP is from the Magnolia Lane series; I stamped the image in Memento Black and colored it with Blends, then fussy cut it and popped it up over a second stamped image:

I added a Cherry Cobbler sentiment and vertical panel, along with the pine branch stamped in Mossy Meadow and embellished with some Old Olive Linen Thread:

A sentiment from Merry Christmas to All, along with some more pine branches:

Another Christmas card for my stash!  How is your stash coming along?  Have you started making yours yet?  Better get busy!

We had really heavy clouds all day yesterday, and I didn't think it would be a good day to hit the pool, but later in the afternoon the sun broke through, so I got out the sprinkler....

They loved laying on the ground and waiting for the spray to hit them in the head, LOL!  It's amazing what a little bit of water can do to entertain a couple of kids!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Rustic Retreat, Merry Christmas to All
Card stock & Papers	Naturals White, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Magnolia Lane DSP
Ink	Memento Black, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Old Olive Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circles Dies, 1 1/3" Circle Punch, Blends

RRCB113 Anything Goes Vintage Christmas

Happy Tuesday!  It's Retro Rubber time, where we give our older stamps some love!  Here's an easy one for you...Anything Goes!

I used several older stamps for my vintage Christmas card today...it uses the FMS sketch from last week, which is expired, but I loved it so much I used it again anyway!  So here we go:

I was in the mood for some vintage images, so I pulled out a couple of vintage-style stamps from my stash:  Christmas Background (Stampendous, not sure of date but I've had it a couple of years), and Paisley (2006).  I stamped the collage in Merry Merlot of some scrapbook paper in a warm vanilla hue, and sponged the edges with some Soft Suede ink.  To give a wee bit of added interest, I stamped a fir tree from Flourishes' Forest of Trees set (2012) directly over the collage in Sahara Sand; it's a little hard to see, but I like the subtle effect. 

  

It was then mounted on a Merry Merlot card base that was stamped with the Paisley background stamp, also in Merry Merlot ink.  I stamped some Christmas words from Sweet and Sassy (2009) in White Craft ink and heat set them with white embossing powder, then diecut them with a banner die and layered them on the left side:

Finally, I stamped a sentiment and another tree on the inside:

The name of the sentiment set is Handy Christmas Greetings, from Amy R, and I know I've had it for several years, but I can't find a date....I'll just say it's definitely older than a year!  And since this is definitely vintage, not just the stamps but the images too, I am entering this is the Christmas Card Throwdown challenge for June, where they are looking for shabby/vintage Christmas cards!

Hope you'll play along with our Anything Goes challenge!  Just be sure to use stamps over a year old, and be sure to tell us how old they are!  Can't wait to see your creation in the gallery!

SO...you might remember that Cassidy's dad rescued a little dog that had been abandoned at a truck stop; they named her Ginger.  Since Charlie is out on the road most of the time, his mom usually takes care of the family's dogs, and it's getting a little too much for her, so Cassidy asked Dana if they could "adopt" Ginger and bring her home to be Eden's playmate.  On weekends that Cass goes to her Daddy's, Ginger will go too!

We'll let you know how it all works out!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Paisley Background (ret), Christmas Collage (Stampendous), Sweet and Sassy Holiday Greetings (2009), Forest of Trees (Flourishes), Handy Christmas Greetings (Amy R, C&C Stamps)
Card stock & Papers	Merry Merlot, Naturals White, Handmade Holiday DSP (Simple Stories 12x12)
Ink	Merry Merlot, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede
Accessories	White Embossing Powder, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Banner Dies (Nestabilities), Heat Tool, Sponges

SSC207 Red White and Blue Celebrate

Happy Monday, peeps!  It's a laid-back day today, Cass is still with her daddy, so I had a little time this morning to stamp!  I used the top three colors from the Sunday Stamps challenge, and the 4th of July challenge from Festive Friday:

I don't normally send out July 4th cards, but I thought I could use this as a birthday card with a patriotic feel!  Here we go:

I used the colors of Night of Navy, Real Red and Seaside Spray, stamping the stripes from Woven Heirlooms and the stars from Country Road.  I backed each one with a 1" circle of matching cardstock, popped up the stars, and fussy-cut a sentiment from Picture Perfect Birthday:

I added a layer of Seaside Spray In Color DSP, and it was done!  All in all, a pretty easy and simple card!  Thanks for popping in today!

Cassidy wanted to make a card for her daddy for Father's Day (which she never finished, so we'll work on it this week...better late than never!).  The stamp image was a little larger than what she usually uses, so I showed her how to use the Misti!  First, she set up the stamp and got her ink pad ready:

Inked it up:

Carefully closed the panel:

And gave it some hefty pressure!!!  This kid!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Woven Heirlooms, Country Road, Picture Perfect Birthday
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Real Red, Night of Navy, Seaside Spray, In Colors DSP
Ink	Real Red, Night of Navy, Seaside Spray
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals
Tools	1" Circle Punch

PP446 Pink Lemonade and a Visitor!

Happy Sunday, peeps!  It's time for another Paper Players challenge, this week Claire has a clean-and-simple one for us:

Once again, like on Thursday with the lemony challenge, I find myself without any summer beverage-type stamps!  I must really live under a rock or something!  In my quest to figure out how to use what I have to create a card suitable for today, I totally spaced out on the CLEAN AND SIMPLE part....so I actually have two cards to show, the challenge one and the spaced-out not-clean-and-simple one!  So here we go for the challenge one:

This is not really as CAS as I would like because the elements are diecut and popped up, but I had the idea and I did it anyway!  I used a couple of retired sets, Coffee Cafe and Jar of Love, to create my pink lemonade cooler, straw and flowers! I just love these colors of Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo and Mango Melody!  I added a couple of words from different non-SU sets to create my sentiment, then plopped on three matching sequins and added some Wink of Stella to my lemonade:

And here is my stepped-up version:

Same basic idea, I just added the diecut stitched frames and more sequins, along with a different summery sentiment on a Word Bubble diecut!  I will probably send these out as summer birthday cards!  And I am entering this one in the Festive Friday challenge of "Summer"!!

The Design Team came up with some amazing cards this week as well...you need to check them out at the Players blog!  Then share your cool, refreshing CAS summer drink creation as well!

So about my visitor....it was my friend Wendy!  Hubby Shawn very kindly took this photo of us!

She doesn't live that far away, but she said she thought it was 2005 or 2006 that we last saw each other...crazy! AND she just happened to be the Paper Players headliner yesterday, woohoo!   She came for a little visit, and brought me a gorgeous framed piece:

This picture doesn't do it justice.....and I am thrilled because I don't have this stamp set and I can share this with all my customers to show them how beautiful it is!  Just gorgeous!  Thanks, Wendy!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Greetings, Jar of Love (ret), Coffee Cafe (ret), Kinda Ecletic (ret),  Wreath for All Seasons (Papertrey), All Smiles (Unity)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Mango Melody
Ink	Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch
Accessories	Sequins (Sylvia's Etsy Shop), Dimensionals, Wink of Stella Pen
Tools	Big Shot, Everyday Jars Dies (ret), Stitched Rectangle Dies, Word Bubble Dies (ret), Stamparatus, Aquapainter

FMS392 Magnolia Birthday

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm a little late today...a lazy day today!  I absolutely love the FMS sketch for this week...I'll be using it again for sure:

That big panel is great for DSP, or a stamped image, or anything!  I haven't used much of my Magnolia Lane DSP, and I thought this pretty pattern would be good for a birthday card I need:

I diecutt it with a Stitched Rectangle die, then matted it on some Mossy Meadow cardstock and stamped the words in Mossy Meadow as well...these are from a free set I got recently from scrapbook.com!  I really love how well they ink up and stamp!  I custom-cut them with a smaller Stitched Rectangle die and popped them up with dimensionals.  Since I didn't get the stamp set that coordinates with this paper, I fussy-cut a bloom from the opposite side of this paper and used it as a focal point:

  

For fun, I coated it with Wink of Stella (you might just be able to see the shimmer) and added some retired Faceted Embellishments.

Thank so much for popping in today!

I am pretty sure Cassidy is going to be a teacher, or at least the boss of somebody; she corraled some our of church family kids at our church picnic and was giving them karate lessons!

Looks like they're doing pretty well!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

IB76 Lemon Yellow

Happy Thursday, peeps!  The end of the week is approaching, yay!  It's time for another Inspired By challenge, and I just got stalled on this one!  I ended up doing what I normally do when I can't come up with an idea...I just throw some elements together randomly, maybe keeping a cohesive shape or theme, and that's what I did today!  You can see I used the square from the Stitched Shapes dies in different patterns and colors:

So let's look to see what stumped me:

A gorgeous table setting, right?!  Don't those lemons and greenery look amazing!  They DO...but I have NO lemon stamps, nothing even close!!  Hence my random elements!  I used some retired SU DSPs, some gifted DSP, a retired set for a sentiment, and some little embellishments on each square.  It's all mounted on an polka-dotted embossed mat, which is mounted on a 4 1/4" square Daffodil Delight card:

I didn't center the design to give it a little edgy look....in the end, I like it!  Hope you'll find something in that challenge photo that will inspire you!!  Hope you share it with us, too!  See you at Inspired By!

A busy day...both Cassidy and Eden were worn out:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Perfectly Wrapped (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Misc DSP (ret)
Ink	Garden Green, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Gingham Ribbon, Enamel Hearts (ret), Linen Thread, Glitter Dots (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Cable Knit EF (ret), Sponge Dauber, Night of Navy Blend, Stitched Flower Dies (My Favorite Things)

TMS507 Times Two

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I've got a double-header for you today; I saw this sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches, and since I love things in threes, I knew I had to play!  So I made not one, but two cards with the sketch!  Here it is:

SU has outdone themselves with some of the new DSPs this year!  My first card uses some Mosaic Mood Specialty DSP; I cut out a few of the butterflies from the paper to use as the two outer elements of the sketch:  

My Soft Suede frame was made with two Stitched Rectangle Dies, and I used a vellum panel behind it so that some of the beautiful DSP could show through.  Using my Stamparatus, Soft Suede and Versamark inks, and clear embossing powder, I heat-embossed a sentiment from Beautiful Bouquet in the center:

And since I had the leftover Soft Suede panel from my frame sitting on my desk, I used it to create another card, this time a note card, and I used some papers from the Garden Lane series:

I used two coordinating patterns, then diecut two little birds from a scrap of Soft Suede using the Botanical Tags dies.  I flipped one over, mounted them both on Whisper White circles, and stamped another wee little sentiment from Beautiful Bouquet on a third circle:

My final addition was a little Mint Macaron twine bow!  Love these colors and patterns!

I know this is not a very good picture, but on Sunday morning, we were eating breakfast and gazing out on the open field through the patio window, where we often see turkey buzzards or hawks.  I said to John, "I've never seen a turkey buzzard with a white head before!"...and got my binoculars, and of course, it was NOT a turkey buzzard, but a bald eagle!!  We have seen a couple of them over the last few years, but only one other time this close, and he was flying at that time! This one sat in the field for over an hour...I only wish I could have gotten a better shot of him!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Bouquet
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Soft Suede, Vellum, Mosaic Mood DSP
Ink	Versamark, Soft Suede
Accessories	Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Clear Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Heat Tool, Stamparatus

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Bouquet
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Soft Suede, Whisper White Notecard, Garden Lane DSP
Ink	Soft Suede
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals, Nature's Twine
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Botanical Tags Dies, 3/4" Circle Punch