FF153 Thanks in Purple

Happy Monday, peeps, and Happy New Year's Eve!  I had this card created a week ago and totally forgot to post it in all the holiday excitement!  I usually shy away from purple hues, but a special friend really likes it, so I created this card for her!  It uses a Gorgeous Grape card base and inks, along with accents of Old Olive and So Saffron:

My background is, of course, Buffalo Check, and the florals are from Painted Harvest and Rooted in Nature.  I covered a narrow piece of Gorgeous Grape with the Polka Dot Tulle ribbon, because I love plaid and polka dots together...in small amounts!

Finally, the sentiment is from Wood Words, and it is all mounted on a circle diecut with the Stitched Shapes framelits.  My sweet little sketch is from Fab Friday:

Easy and cute!

A few photos from our Christmas day....my niece in her "Ralphie" bunny pajamas!  This cracked us all up, especially since first of all, this is very much unlike her, and second of all,  her brother, who outweighs her by about 100 pounds, put it on after she did!  (I didn't want to embarrass him by showing you that photo!!):

My great-nephew with his new "digger":

And a silly picture of Cassidy from breakfast:

And of course, Eden, in her Eagles outfit:

 Just look at that face!

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

IB52 Let It Snow

Hey peeps! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  Laurel has a beautiful neutral-hued-palette inspiration for us today at Inspired By...first, here's my card:

And here's Laurel's prompt!  Check out those sweet, simple snowflakes!

I chose to use the smaller snowflake as my inspiration.  My card uses papers from Festive Farmhouse along with Gray Granite snowflakes cut with the Seasonal Layers thinlets, embellished with some rhinestones, Wink of Stella, and silver and white baker's twine:

My sentiment is from Dashing Deer, and for my layout, I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I hope you'll play along with us at Inspired By and share your creation with us as well!  Thanks for popping in today!  

The day before Christmas, amidst all my preparations for the big day, Cassidy wanted me to teach her how to needlepoint on plastic canvas!  We made a chart of a Minecraft sword on some graph paper:

and with a lot of assistance, she began to make her sword:

Tada!!!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Dashing Deer
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Gray Granite, Festive Farmhouse DSP
Ink	Gray Granite
Accessories	Rhinestones, Silver Baker's Twine (both ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Seasonal Layers Thinlets, Wink of Stella

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope you have a blessed day with friends and family. 

 Dana's youth pastor, who is now involved in Christian Service Brigade, sent the words below with his yearly Christmas card.  They are from a song by Zach Williams...if you've never heard it, you should Google it and listen!!  Enjoy!

"Wonder of all Wonders

Outside of Bethlehem

Angels come to shepherds

Ordinary working men

Not the high and mighty

Or the powerful and great

But those who feel unwanted

That the world has pushed away

Hear the call of Christmas

All you lost and left behind

The lowly and those longing

With an emptiness inside

The forgotten and forsaken

I bring you good news

Hear the call of Christmas

The Savior waits for you

All who feel rejected

Unwanted and alone

We're all so undeserving

Of the kindness we've been shown

So come behold the King of Kings

Find rest you weary souls

Lay down all your burdens

He will mend and make you whole" 

Zach Williams

FMS368 A Bright Thank You

Happy Sunday, peeps!  I have another thank-you card, quick and easy, using the Freshly Made Sketches sketch for this week!  First, let's check out the card:

I used some of the pretty Share What You Love DSP, backed with some Berry Burst mats, and a sentiment from A Big Thank You, matted with a Tranquil Tide scallop piece:

This set is so versatile; it has more than just thank-you sentiments, and it has a lot of fun little elements!  I used a two-step leaf and a heart to add a little pizzazz to the simple design.  I layered everything on top of a card that was embossed with the Basketweave EF!  And here's the sketch:

We did a little gingerbread-house decorating yesterday!  The house was pre-made, and I got the icing into the piping bag, but Cassidy did most of the work herself:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

CTS302 Birdie Birthday

Happy Friday, peeps!  Are you close to having all your Christmas prep done?!  I am getting there--got a lot done yesterday, have company coming today, so this will be short and sweet!  My cousin's wife is celebrating her 60th birthday a few days after Christmas, and since my craft room is a hot mess and I honestly feel a bit "rusty" in my stamping, I went clean and simple with CAS(E) this Sketch's current sketch:

and some new Flora and Fauna stamps I got recently:

I stamped this little bird in Stazon and watercolored it with Blueberry Bushel and Balmy Blue inks, fussy-cut it out and popped it up; the sentiment is from Best Birds, and the numbers are from a little SU set called Simple Serif:

My gingham paper is from Lawn Fawn and I added some linen thread as a tiny little accent!  Thanks for popping in today!

Dana, Wayne and Cass went to Longwood Gardens a couple nights ago...it was perfect weather (it's pouring here right now!) and the only complaint was that there wasn't enough time to see everything!

The ride home was way past bedtime:

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Birds, Simple Serif Alphabet (ret), Winter Aviary, Mini Aviary (Flora and Fauna)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Blueberry Bushel, Homespun Gingham DSP (Lawn Fawn)
Ink	Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Stazon Black
Accessories	Linen Thread, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Aquapainter, 1/2"Circle Punch

IB52 Sleds Sleds Sleds

Hello everyone!  I'm back...not "whole", but I am working through the grieving process due to my dad's sudden death.  THANK YOU to every single one of you who sent cards, prayers and thoughts to me and my family.  They really meant a lot to us! My family and I had several wonderful days together and we are trying to get back to a new normal!  Now if I can just get through my "bereavement brain"...honestly, the thoughts just drop out of my head like a bucket being emptied....I should be okay, LOL!  

Laurel's fun vintage prompt for today's Inspired By challenge prompted me to make a wintery thank you card....I am going to need many of them in the coming weeks!  So here's my card using the Alpine Sports thinlets:

And here is Laurel's prompt:

Believe it or not, I still have a sled like this....it's not much good on our little hill, but I usually dress it up with an old pair of skates and a big bow and put it on my porch as a decoration!  For my card, I diecut my sleds from some Wood Textures DSP, then colored the slats with some Real Red and Shaded Spruce blends:

I used a piece of Festive Farmhouse DSP for the background panel, running it through the Big Shot with the Subtle EF, then doing some sponging to give it more of a woodgrain look.  I added some sprigs of greenery behind the sled and some baker's twine bows.  My "thanks" is from A Big Thank You, stamped in Early Espresso, as is my card base.  I added a little more stamping on the inside:

I hope that this cool vintage photo will give you some inspiration to create something of your own!  Share it with us at Inspired By...can't wait to see what you come up with!

I took Cassidy to a little ballet performance at a local high school as a surprise - four of her church friends were in it and at first, she informed me that she "hated" ballet!  But she had fun looking for her friends' names and characters in the program (the show was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves):

And it was a really good experience for her...we had to guess what characters were represented by the costumes, including trees, fire and owls; what the story line was (it was slightly different than the regular story), and we had to recognize the characters her friends were dancing!  We both agreed that one of her friends made a perfect Grumpy!!!  It was a quick little program, and a nice diversion for a Saturday afternoon!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	A Big Thank You, Alpine Adventure
Card stock & Papers	Early Espresso, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Festive Farmhouse DSP, Wood Textures DSP
Ink	Early Espresso, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Festive Farmhouse Cotton Twine, Thick Baker's Twine (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Alpine Sports Thinlets, Pretty Pines Thinlets, Blends, Sponge Daubers

Sad News

My dad passed away suddenly this morning, so I hope my stamping friends will forgive me if I am MIA for a few days.  He had been going through some health issues but went out to dinner with my brother last night and was in good spirits.  I am very thankful that he is no longer in pain, because his ailment caused him a great deal of it and he bore it without complaining.  My family spent the day together upholding each other, and our pain was tempered with the knowledge of being able to see him again in heaven as he was a believer.  He went quickly and that was a blessing as well.  Hug your loved ones and tell them you love them; you may not realize how short your time with them will be.

I love you all, my stamping friends!

IB49 Cozy Peppermint

Hi peeps!  Happy Thursday to you all!  Brrr...it's cold here in PA, we even had a few snow flurries yesterday!  My Inspired By card for this week should warm you up:

And here is Laurel's sweet prompt; don't those candy canes look pepperminty-delicious?!

My layout was inspired by Try Stampin' On Tuesday:

I had several candy cane stamps but wanted to do something a little bolder, so I stamped the Buffalo Check stamp with Real Red ink on some white cardstock and used the candy cane die from Scentsational Season to tuck inside the mug from the same set, heat-embossed in silver:

I embossed the circle with a knit embossing folder and added a silver glimmer paper scallop, a Soft Sky tag and some Soft Sky seam binding:

The sentiments on the front are from Papertrey and on the inside, Close to My Heart!  I also embossed the Smoky Slate card base with the Subtle EF, just for fun!  I hope you can find something that inspires you in our latest challenge prompt, and share it with us at Inspired By!  And just for fun, Laurel has encouraged me to add this to the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!!

Santa visited Dana's work....Cassidy got all dressed up in her Christmas finery to tell him what she wanted:

Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Buffalo Check, Scentsational Season (ret), Just Treats-September Stamp of the Month (Close to My Heart ret), Holiday Treats (Papertrey), Christmas Script (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Silver Glimmer, Soft Sky (ret)
Ink	Real Red, Encore Silver (ret), Soft Sky (ret)
Accessories	Soft Sky Seam Binding and Baker's Twine (ret), Silver Embossing Powder, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot,  Circle and Scallop Dies (Nestabilties), Cozy Knit EF (Fun Stampers Journey), Tag Die (Papertrey ret), Scentsational Season Dies (ret), Heat Tool, 1 3/8" Circle Punch

CAS Christmas Stars

Hello peeps!  Yay, it's Wednesday....the week is halfway over!  I have a quick post today for the CAS Christmas challenge as well as the Stamp Ink Paper Holiday challenge:

I saw some "minimal" tags and cards while surfing Pinterest and thought I would combine some sets to make a card and gift card envelope:

I stamped a really old SU star in Gray Granite, masked it and stamped a Concord and 9th wreath over top in Smoky Slate.  I used an Ellen Hutson die to impress the little "stars" down the left side and added a sentiment from Lawn Fawn!

I made the gift card holder using the Envelope Punch board and Kraft cardstock, same star, a wreath from SU's Making Christmas Bright and a sentiment from Concord and 9th.  I added some thick baker's twine to hold it together:

Even though I love the colors of Christmas, I love the neutral palettes too!  Thanks for popping in today!

Cassidy got her own little Christmas tree for her bedroom:

Snazzy!  Definitely NOT neutral!   Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Making Christmas Bright, Retired SU set (don't know the name), Joyful Noel (Concord and 9th), Joy Peace Love (Lawn Fawn)
Card stock & Papers	Kraft (ret), Rustic White (Papertrey)
Ink	Gray Granite, Smoky Slate, Early Espresso
Accessories	Thick Baker's Twine (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitching Lines Die (Ellen Hutson), Envelope Punch Board