Holiday RAKs

Happy Saturday, everyone!  Along with my Thanksgiving turkey, I got a little sinus infection, so I have been laying low here at home, resting a little bit.  I don’t have anything photographed to share with you today, so I thought I would share some pretty holiday cards I’ve received recently!  They really cheer me up when I feel a wee bit down!

This one is from my friend Penny:

and this one is from my friend Martha:

and yes, Linda, this is my first Christmas card!!!  And it is a beauty!

And last but definitely not least, this beauty from Lisa Kind, who really IS very kind:

Be sure to stop back tomorrow, when I will be hosting the Paper Players challenge!

Look, Grammy….gloves!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
² Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

May you have a blessed Thanksgiving!

MOJO321, JUGS216 & Catered Crop

Happy Wednesday, everyone---it’s the day before Thanksgiving, so this will be quick!  I have a  card using three challenges!  The Mojo Monday sketch:

The Just Us Girls color challenge 216:

and the Catered Crop challenge this week, which is “Animal House”—use an animal on your creation!!!   I know the JUGS challenge is more Christmas-related, but I thought it would be fun for a happy birthday card:

I tried to incorporate some of the inspiration photo elements into my layout, but I realized as I was posting that the plaid paper really doesn’t match my Regal Rose polka dots!  And boy, that paper was glued down well, so hopefully the recipient won’t mind that the colors are a little off!  The kitty from Storybook Friends is my simple image; I stamped the polka dots randomly on the background and added some pleated ribbon and baker’s twine:

Sentiment is from Papertrey’s little Hexagon set.  Now, off to make an apple pie!  But first, I couldn’t resist snapping this cute little photo of Cassidy taking a nap:

Have a blessed day!

ColourQ217

Happy Monday, peeps!  Brrrr…..winter has made a cold, cold appearance around here the last few days!  I wish I could say I spent the entire weekend stamping, but other things got in the way!  I was able to make a cute little get-well card  using Arielle’s trendy inspiration colors today:

And here we go:

I used the retired Pocket Silhouettes stamp set and embossed them in white on each of my color panels, adding a sentiment from Delightful Dozen.  As a nod to the metallic elements on the handbag, I added a couple of glimmer brads, which also mimics the circle embossing.  For a little extra fun, I embossed the Needlepoint Border across the top.  I used the RetroSketches sketch from this week as well:

And here’s the inside:

And this card is already in the mail!!!   I hope this cool purse inspires you to be creative this week!  Share your card with us at the ColourQ blog and check out what the other designers made as well!

Lambie gymnastics:

Enjoy your day!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Delightful Dozen, Pocket Silhouettes (Ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Early Espresso, Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss
Ink	Early Espresso, Craft White
Accessories	White Embossing Powder, Glimmer Brads, Stitched Ribbon
Tools	Big Shot, Blueprints 6 Die (My Favorite Things), Needlepoint Border EF, Cuttlebug Large Dots EF, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Dimensionals

Merry Monday 85

Happy Monday, everyone!  Back to work, school, whatever!  But it’s also Merry Monday, and Lesley has another gorgeous inspiration photo for us today:

I love these white-on-white challenges, but my cards never turn out quite as I envision!  I wanted to use some white felt to make snowflakes, but my felt was so soft, the flakes kept tearing apart!  I adhered some Adhesive Sheet to the back and that worked better, but I still wasn’t achieving the look I wanted.  I finally opted to do ONE snowflake, some snowflake embossing and a bold sentiment:

My upline gifted me with these beautiful Frosted Finishes embellishments, so one went in the center of my snowflake:

and I did a double diecut, one of white, a second of Sahara Sand, and offset them a little to make the sentiment really pop out:

And finally, I stamped the inside, again with Sahara Sand:

I did do another vanilla-on-vanilla card, this time using a technique my friend Billie told me about:  stamp on your card; spray a used dryer sheet with adhesive; stick it on your stamped image and cover it with glitter.  It’s too bad you can’t get the full “wow” effect of this:

I added a sentiment stamped on a shortened Chalk Talk die:

Believe it or not, this card took about 15 minutes, as opposed to, well, let’s say “MUCH LONGER” for the first one!!! 

Hope you are inspired by this lovely photo and will share your creation with us as well.  You can see all the beautiful white-on-white cards on Lesley’s blog, Always Playing with Paper!

Making Grampy another cake (he likes cake!):

By the way, I purchased this little apron at a craft fair over the weekend, and she LOVES it….for $5, it was a bargain!  Enjoy your day!  If you have any questions, shoot me an email! ♥

Paper Players 173

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Are you ready for another awesome challenge?  Jaydee is our hostess today with a fun one, just in time for the holidays:

I just loved the Shabby Tea Room challenge from last week…hopefully I squeaked it in in enough time!

But how to interpret this into a shaped card?  I certainly wasn’t going to do a hutch!!!  How about a mitten?

(Whoa, that Brilliant Blue is bright!!!)  I made a mitten shape and traced it on my Very Vanilla cardstock, and began to decorate and embellish!  I added some embossed strips, a gingham strip, (I have to admit it---I unmounted my Gingham wheel!!  So much easier to line up now!) and some sweet stars, hearts and snowflakes.  The images are all from Waltzingmouse; the sentiment is a combination of Endless Wishes and Holiday Greetings from Sweet & Sassy:

In hindsight I wish I had used Ballet Blue or Marina Mist, but I wasn’t about to start over!!!  I am sure someone will enjoy it when they receive it this Christmas!  So, how about you?  What shaped card will you make?  It doesn’t have to be fancy; even just a circular card is  fun!  Be sure to see what the Design Team has created….some cute stuff there!  Here’s their info:

• Ann
•  Anne Marie
•  Jaydee
•  Nance
•  Sandy

I was thinking it was time to “wean” Cassidy from her afternoon nap, but after an hour-long meltdown last week, I have decided it’s not quite time.  After she finally calmed down, she got her pillow,  blankie, lambie and sippy and planted herself in the middle of my kitchen floor and pretended to go to sleep:

A few minutes later:

Out like a light.  Don’t you wish you could sleep anywhere like this?  It did make it a bit challenging to make dinner, as she was right in front of my stove!  Enjoy your day!

IB97, CTS55 & CASology 71

Phew, I finally got a chance to stamp some challenges!!  I made a card using a color combo a bit unusual for Christmas!

Inspired By 97:

I also used the CASology Cue Card, which was Bell; and the cool sketch from CAS(e) This Sketch:

Of course, I was working from memory and didn’t put the sentiment in quite the right spot, but I still love this:

After seeing Sandy’s sweet card here, I followed her example and masked off an area onto which I wheeled my music in Soft Sky, then added the sentiment from The Sounding Joy in Midnight Muse:

Lastly, I added a diecut bell in gold, some Soft Sky branches and a little shabby bow from my stash of dyed seam binding…I actually had the perfect color!  Another Christmas card for my supply!

Cassidy found a plastic model house from the 60s that my grandmother used for a Christmas display…it’s actually for a train set….and insisted that Grampy help her assemble it:

Here, she is telling Grampy that when she gets older, she will put it together without his help!  And yes, she is wearing a Halloween shirt…she likes it.

The finished product!

My little engineer!  Enjoy your day, and be sure to come back tomorrow for a really cool challenge from Jaydee for the Paper Players!

A Few More Christmas Cards

I have a few Christmas cards for you today; I was just sort of playing around with my stamps…no challenges, nothing specific, just stamping for the fun of it!  I didn’t purchase too many Christmas stamps from the catalog this year, so I was trying to use what I had in different ways.  I saw a blackboard-style card using O Holy Night, so I tried my hand at it as well, mounting it on some silver paper and using an embossed Apothecary Accent diecut on a Cherry Cobbler card base:

Same stamp set, stamped in Gold Encore ink (why haven’t I used this ink in such a long time?—it’s beautiful!); again on a Cherry Cobbler base (I had cut a bunch for a project and then ending up not using them!!!), and I diecut & embossed the edge, then added some Brushed Gold cardstock as accents.  Really easy and classy!

Finally, I was playing with some scraps laying on my desk and the Endless Wishes stamp set, which sadly has sold out already!!!  I stamped it in Chocolate Chip, then added glitter.  I embossed the Crumb Cake base with a non-SU embossing folder.

Another trio to add to my stash!
Cassidy was playing with a little printout from the computer, gluing shapes on to the designated areas, when she spied my glitter container and wanted to play with the glitter inside.  I had some glitter glue I never use, so I showed her how to squeeze the bottle and dab some on….oh boy:

The finished project…..BLOBS of glitter glue!  She loved it!

Enjoy your day!