Happy Halloween!

No card today, just a vintage gal wishing everyone a vintage Halloween!!!  Be back tomorrow!

GDP162 Happy Holiday

Hello, peeps!  I snuck in a Christmas card (I should be making birthdays!) because I had this Festive Farmhouse DSP out on my desk for another project, and it seemed perfect for the Global Design Project's sketch:

Card base is Cherry Cobbler; the banner is Very Vanilla, embossed with the Basketweave EF:

Sentiments are from Merry Christmas to All, the Tranquil Tide diecut is from Merry Christmas Thinlets; the little holly is from the Alpine Sports dies; it comes as two layers and I added a layer of Frost White Shimmer on the top layer and gave it some Real Red glimmer paper "berries":

This went together nicely!!  Thanks for visiting today!

Over the weekend Cassidy and family went to Rehoboth Beach for the Sea Witch festival.  Most of the activies were cancelled due to the storm, but Cassidy got her first Uber ride; apparently the driver decorates his car with party lights!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Merry Christmas to All
Card stock & Papers	Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Tranquil Tide, Festive Farmhouse DSP, Red Glimmer
Ink	Versamark, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories	Dimensionals, White Frost Shimmer Paint
Tools	Big Shot, Alpine Sports Framelits, Merry Christmas Thinlets, 1/8" Circle Punch, Basketweave EF, Bitty Banners Dies (ret)

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

PP416 Birthday Sketch

Hi everyone!  I hope everyone on the east coast weathered the storm okay!  We got rain, rain, rain!  It was a good time to stamp!  Anne Marie is our Paper Players hostess with an awesome sketch for us this week!  Check it out:

I really need some birthday cards, so that's what I went for today!  So here we go:

I had a few other challenges in mind while creating this card; Little Red Wagon wants distressing; the Color Throwdown has a rust, teal and cream challenge; and TGIF is featuring washi tape and baker's twine:

So I went through my huge stash of 6x6" pads and found some papers to match the colors; after sponging and distressing them a bit, I adhered them to a Very Vanilla card that had been stamped in Sahara Sand with the Linen background stamp, and I sponged the edges of that too!  I used a tag punch to create a little tag on which I stamped a bird's nest, then added a little watercolored bird diecut from the Birds & Bloooms die:

I mounted some retired washi tape on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and added some linen braid for the horizontal piece; I know it's not baker's twine so if I get "disqualified", I understand!  Finally, on the inside I added a feather stamp and a sentiment from Perennial Birthday:

And just for fun, I created another card, this one is a thank-you for a friend of mine, using Share What You Love DSP and a sentiment from A Big Thank You:

I fussy-cut a flower from the floral DSP and tucked it under my ribbon, then colored some pearls with a Mint Macaron Blend to add a little oomph:

I hope you'll find some inspiration from Anne Marie's sketch...I already have several more ideas in my head, it's a great one for using up pretty DSPs!!!  Check out what the other designers created:

·        Claire

·        Jaydee

·        Joanne

·        Laurie

·        Nance

·        Anne Marie

·        Sandy

·        Elizabeth

·        Annie - off this week

·        Jan

·        Ann

Cassidy earned her orange belt this week:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Perennial Birthday, A Big Thank You, Soft as a Feather (ret), Linen Background (ret),  Mini Tag Sentiments (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Watercolor, Petal Pink, Basic Black, Share What You Love DSP, Fall Break DSP (Carta Bella), Fall is in the Air DSP (Echo Park), Botanical Tea DSP (Graphic 45)
Ink	Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Lost Lagoon, Cajun Craze, Basic Black
Accessories	Washi Tape (ret), Linen Braid, Dimensionals, Pearls, Soft Sky Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Birds and Blooms Thinlets, Tag Punch, Sponge Daubers, Aquapainter, Stitched Shapes Framelits

FMS360 Spooky Cat

Hi everyone!  Happy Friday!  I actually got to sleep in a little bit this morning, what a treat!  I have one last Halloween card for you , then I need to start bulking up on my Christmas and birthday cards!  This one uses the FMS sketch for this week:

This card morphed into something totally different than what I had in mind when I started, LOL!  I wanted to use my cat punch, I haven't used it for a long time and I thought I would make a spooky moon for him to sit in front of, and it just kept going from there:

I used some Halloween papers from last year (Spooky Night) and some Pumpkin Pie glimmer paper.  I punched my cat from Basic Black cardstock and sponged around the edges with white craft ink to give him some dimension against the black DSP:

To make his eyes orange, I stamped them in white craft ink, then dabbed on some orange chalk from my old pastel chalk kit...worked like a charm!  I gave him a little magic wand and added a spooky "boo!" from Basic Gray cardstock that was stamped with a stripey image:

Finally I added a little sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and punched it out with a Word Window punch...going old school here!  I made three of these and they'll be going in the mail today!!  

So, in keeping with the orange and black theme, I promised I would show you what the kids' cookies looked like after baking:

So, I guess maybe black sugar isn't such a good idea....they definitely look burnt, LOL!  They sure had fun making them, though!   Cassidy didn't seem to mind a "charred" ghost:

Mommy was not so enthralled!  You can see Cassidy chowing down, though!  My brother happened to think they tasted okay too!!!

Thanks for popping in today...enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Howl-o-Ween Treat, Spooky Cat, Teeny Tiny Wishes (all retired)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie Glimmer (ret), Spooky Night DSP (ret)
Ink	Craft White, Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories	Dimensionals, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circles Framelits, Boo To You Framelits (ret), Cat Punch, Sponge, Word Window Punch (ret)

IB43 Mad for Plaid

Howdy, peeps!  Thursday....the week is winding down...and it's time for another Inspired By challenge!  I loved Laurel's photo prompt, but I admit it did challenge me a bit!  First, here's my card:

Now here's her cute prompt:

Aren't all those thermoses full of retro fun?!  I wanted to use the CAS Colours and Sketches sketch for this week:

and I was trying to keep it pretty clean and simple, so instead of incorporating all those gorgeous plaids, I just did a few!!  I used the Buffalo Check stamp and stamped it three different ways, then used the leaf dies from the Seasonal Layers Thinlets to cut them out:  I added some additional "plaid" with markers:

I adhered them to a panel of Very Vanilla that was embossed with the Cable Knit EF, then added a sentiment from A Big Thank You that I cut with a Stitched Shape Framelit:

 

Finally, I dusted off some washi tape to make my horizontal lines and added a little embroidery floss bow!  When I was cleaning up my desk (haha--sort of), I noticed the negative portion of the red Buffalo Check was a fairly good size, so I used it to make a second card; I used the same sketch, but made it into another shaker card:

I stamped the panel with the Burlap background stamp, adding a sentiment from Jar of Love, and the inside of the shaker was stamped with a crackle stamp from an old Paper Pumpkin set:

I found adding sequins to a shaped opening was a little more challenging than just a square or circle!  But in the end, I was happy with it!  I like the country feel of this one!  

Thanks for popping in today and I hope that you'll participate in the IB challenge this week...those plaid thermoses will give you lots of inspiration!

So we had about 45 minutes yesterday afternoon to make Halloween cookies...Cass invited Lee over and we went to work.  The cookie dough was already made, they just needed to roll it out, cut the cookies and we had some Halloween confetti candy, black and orange sprinkles and green icing with which to decorate.  I helped them with the rolling, but basically left them to their own devices for the rest!  

The rolling and cutting went very well!

Then the decorating began; they each had their own unique style!  You'll have to come back tomorrow to see how they ended up, LOL!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Buffalo Check, Burlap, A Big Thank You, Jar of Love, Crackle (past Paper Pumpkin)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry
Ink	Real Red, Memento Black, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Pick a Pattern Washi Tape, Sequins (from my stash), Embroidery Floss, Fun Foam, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Squares Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Seasonal Layers Framelits, Cable Knit EF, Markers

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

RRCB98 Harvest Delight

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  It's time for this October's last Retro Rubber Challenge, and here is our prompt:

Isn't that pretty?  SO many inspirations here!  I chose the basket and the pumpkins, and thought I would try my hand at the October CAS Watercolor challenge of orange, green and brown as well:

I've had this Close to My Heart fall set since 2016 but in my research, I think it came out around 2011!  Before stamping, I loosely colored some watercolor paper with Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Granny Apple Green inks, drying it between colors with my heat tool.  I then stamped the image with Soft Suede and Versamark inks, using my Stamparatus to stamp the brown ink first, then after cleaning the stamp but leaving it on the plate, inking and stamping with Versamark.  I then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.   

I added some more color in certain areas, to give it depth, and I actually took my finger and rubbed the ink around the edges for texture!  That really brought out the grain of the watercolor paper and gave it an organic look!

I added a banner with a sentiment, some green perle cotton, then matted it with some Early Espresso and popped it up on a Crumb Cake mat that was embossed with the Basketweave EF:

Although my fingers were green and orange when I finished, it was a fun card to make!  I hope you'll get some inspiration from our pretty photo and play along with us this week at Retro Rubber!  Remember, your stamps have to be at least a year old and you must tell us how old they are!  Check out the other samples at our blog and share yours too!  Give those older stamps some love!

So one of our friends and church members is a farm manager at The Farm at Doe Run, which is a lovely farm near us; Josh kindly lent us the farm's apple press where everyone got in the act of making cider at the Harvest Party on Saturday!  Even our dear friend John, the one-armed man (cancer) could toss the big apples into the press:

As Josh cranked the wheel, the apples, seeds, cores and skin, all got mashed up and the juices started to flow:

Then he took off the grinder and set up the press; his son Avery got first dibs at turning the crank, which in turn, pressed the apples down even harder!  If you look closely, you can see the juice flowing out into the bowl at the bottom:

(Cassidy was not in the least bit interested in this, so you won't see her anywhere!  She was busy teaching two of her little friends her latest karate moves!!!)  Anyway, the kids who wanted to, all got a chance to turn the press:

I can honestly say it was the best cider I ever drank!  There was even enough left over for Sunday School fellowship time!  Yum!  Thanks for popping in today...enjoy it and be blessed!