Christmas Cookies

Hey everyone!  I have a fun card for you today which uses the Nothing Better Than set with some creative masking and stamping with my Stamparatus!  It's for two challenges:  The Spot's sketch and the Christmas Kickstart Festive Sweet Treats challenge!

     

I grabbed some Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler cardstocks, some Plaid Tidings DSP, my stamp sets and ink and went to work:

The Cherry Cobbler panel was first embossed with a Wrapped In Texture EF, then I diecut a Nested Label panel and began inking up my stamps.  To only use a portion of the sentiment, I lined the stamp up on the Stamparatus, put a wee little piece of Scotch tape on the word that I didn't want to show, inked my stamp, then pulled off the tape carefully so as not to get any stray ink anywhere...then stamped!  I used a portion of a sentiment from Banner Year for the "Christmas" and a portion of the Nothing Better Than for the "make everything better".  After that, it was easy peasy to stamp and diecut the cookies, add a banner from some Mossy Meadow DSP and as an afterthought (although it really doesn't match) I added a little green glimmer paper banner from some retired glimmer paper. 

And here's the inside, using a sentiment from Wrapped in Christmas, diecut with the scallop die from Little Treat Box:

Personally, chocolate chip cookies (no nuts, please) are my absolute favorite Christmas cookie....and they're acceptable at other times of the year as well!  

A few more pix from around the yard:

Some sedum, and then some mushrooms...not my favorite but they must serve a purpose for something!

And a busy little bee that thinks my salvia is the best thing ever!  Speaking of bees, we needed another visit from the bee man as the pesky yellowjackets didn't evacuate 100%!!!

       

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

Autumn Spice

Hi stampers!  I had a nice day yesterday--made some spaghetti sauce with our late tomatoes,  sat on the patio and read a book and got in a little stamping!  I saw this card and fell in love with the stamp (which is sold out right now), so I purchased the digital version!  So here we go:

I printed these out on some Crumb Cake cardstock; this one I colored in with some Blends and mounted it on a Crumb Cake card stamped with the Buffalo Check stamp:

I did some paper piecing on this one...not so crazy about this one, but it was fun to print the image out on some various DSPs and cut and piece them together!  I mounted it on a Mellow Moss card and added some older SU paper and ribbon:

I left them both without sentiments inside and out; I'll add a birthday or thinking of you when I need it!

'Tis the season......I've been seeing praying mantises around a lot lately....this one was climbing up our porch railing:

          

John and I were leaving to run a couple of errands.  We were gone for less than two hours, and when we came home, I looked to see if it was still there....I guess I should say if SHE was still there....this is what we found:

  

An egg sack!  I was so disappointed, as I would have loved to have seen her making it!  But we can watch it until it hatches....and hopefully it will make it through the winter!  Sadly, she will die a couple of weeks after laying this, the cycles of nature!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."  Isaiah 40:8

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Buffalo Check, Better Than Autumn (digital, Stamplorations)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Misc DSP, Mellow Moss
Ink	Memento Black, Computer Ink
Accessories	Tangelo Twist Ribbon (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Square Dies (Lil'Inker), Blends

TMS#573 Candy Corn Halloween

 Hey stampers!  I am squeaking in an unusual second card for today...I forgot about the cool sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches and wanted to play!  I found this fun DSP from a few years ago and thought how cute it would look with my Lawn Fawn candy corn stamps!  First, check out the sketch:

I stamped and colored my candy corn with Memento ink and Blends, then fussy cut them and popped them up on Basic Black squares punched with a 1" and 3/4" square punch.  The DSP was cut with a My Favorite Things die, which cuts the piece in two, so I adhered the outer edge and popped up the middle:

Aren't those little faces cute?

I added sentiments outside and in using a My Creative Time set called Mixed Holiday Sentiments:

Another Halloween card done for my stash!  And I found this cute Halloween advent calendar at a yard sale recently for $1!!!  The little pockets are supposed to hold a little felt ghost but Grammy filled them with candy (of course):

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

PP510 Sketch from Joanne

Hi peeps!  It's Sunday and that means a new challenge from the Paper Players!  Joanne is our amazing hostess this week with a lovely sketch!  Lately, I have been using very simple sketches, so this one was fun to use with its many layers!  So fun, I made TWO!  So on to the sketch:

I went through my stamps and DSP to find something I hadn't used for a while and came up with Rooted in Nature and the In Good Taste DSP.  The In Good Taste is one of those "photographed" DSPs and sometimes it is a challenge to match it up with stamped images!  But hopefully I mastered it with one stamped leaf and two embossed:

My Stitched Rectangle dies got a good workout on this card!  All the panels except for the Soft Suede mat were diecut and simply layered to follow the sketch.  I stamped one leaf in Cajun Craze and diecut and embossed one each in Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.  I just love the embossed look of these, not sure why I haven't used these more often!

My sentiment is from Itty Bitty Greetings, diecut with a retired Bitty Banners die.  And just for fun, let me show you my first photograph card, and see if you can see what I totally missed while taking the picture:

Ummm...how could I have missed that little glue dot chad that statically attached itself?!!  Silly me!  Anyway, I had so much fun with the sketch, I did another one using some Carta Bella Happy Halloween papers, simple cutting and adhering, no stamping, with one sparkly die from the retired Boo to You dies:

I didn't even do any stamping on the inside!!!:

So, I hope you'll find some inspiration with our sketch today and share it with us at the Players!  The DT has made some amazing creations....check them all out at the Paper Players blog!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Greetings, Rooted In Nature
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, In Good Taste DSP
Ink	Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Nature's Roots Dies, Itty Bitty Banners Dies (ret0

Three Fall Cards

 Happy Saturday, peeps!  I have three cards to share today, all with a fall (or Halloween) theme!  Here we go:

The first one uses the sketch from FMS for this week:

I used the Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP, along with matching cardstocks and inks, and the Forever Fern stamp set to create my card:

It also features one of the Greenery embossing folders, some vellum, some Metallic Ribbon and some bronze Brushed Metallic DSP:

These colors are so pretty together!  The next one features the sketch from In(k)spire Me:

I used some DSP from the Flowers for All Seasons DSP, and an Indian corn image from Purple Onion, stamped in Saddle Brown Stazon:

I used some vellum for the sentiment (My Creative Time's Mixed Holiday Sentiments), added some Ornate Borders, and because it looked a little plain, I added some gold Glimmer paper too!

Finally, a silly little card I made using the CAS(E) This Sketch sketch:

I thought about using one of the Triangle Dies to create a witch hat (while in bed one night, sleepless!) and this is what I came up with:

This one won't win any beauty contests, but it did make me laugh!  (Maybe I'll send it to Cassidy!) I used the elf image from the retired Jolly Friends set, stamping it on Soft Seafoam cardstock and adding some shading with Pear Pizzazz.  Her hair is Smoky Slate cardstock; the panels are from Authentique's Nightfall paper pad, and her hat is from black and orange Glimmer cardstock:

I added a "trick or treat" diecut and mounted everything on a Soft Seafoam card embossing with a retired Cobweb embossing folder!

Phew!  Thanks for hanging in there with me....enjoy your day and be blessed! And be sure to come back tomorrow for a new Paper Players challenge!

AYSI235 Stitched Penguin

Happy Friday, peeps!  Hope you have something nice planned for the weekend, even if it's just staying home with loved ones!  We have a fresh new challenge for you at As You See It, and it's a fun one:

   

 I have about a gazillion sewing-related stamps, but I chose something a little out-of-the-ordinary for my card this week...a stitched penguin Christmas card!  Here we go:

This little penguin stamp is from a Clearly Besotted set that is just full of fun "stitched" Christmas images, and since the Christmas Card Throwdown challenge is to use polar bears or penguins, I thought he would be fun to use!

All of my layers are diecut with stitched dies to begin wtih.  My penguin is stamped in Memento Black with some Coastal Cabana accents, which is rather unusual for a penguin, but I wanted to incorporate the Color Hue colors in my card:

I put him on a background of Misty Moonlight DSP, gave him a Night of Navy scallop border, blue rhinestone eyes, and added a panel of Coastal Cabana gingham with a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings and some blue faceted gems.  There is a little gingham heart in this set, so I stamped that in Coastal Cabana and fussy-cut it out for a little extra fun!  

And how's this for a fun "stitched" sentiment, from the same set:

I also am using the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

Phew, a lot of challenge, but I think I got them all in there!  I hope you'll play along with our stitched/sewing challenge!  I know a lot of stampers are also sewing enthusiasts (I hate to use the word "sewers", LOL), so I am hoping we'll see lots of fun creations at As You See It!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Greetings, In Stitches:  Christmas (Clearly Besotted)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Night of Navy,  Flowers for Every Season DSP, Coastal Cabana Gingham (ret)
Ink	Memento Black, Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Blue Facted Gems, Blue Rhinestones (from my stash)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Scallop Circle Dies (Nestabilities), Stitched Strips Dies (Pretty Pink Posh)

IB143 More Fun Leaves

 Well, our challenges have definitely taken a turn for fall and I find myself stamping and diecutting a lot of leaves these days!  Thursday means Inspired By and even when our colors are a little whimsical, we can still find a way to use them for leaves!  Here we go:

and here's our optional sketch for the week as well:

My initial thought was to go in a totally different direction with some paint swooshes, but I have been working with the Stitched Leaves dies for my club projects, so I thought I would try them out in the challenge colors:

I used shades of Garden Green, Soft Seafoam, Rococo Rose and Blushing Bride in which to cut out my leaves, and mounted them on a panel embossed with Pinewood Planks:

My sentiment is from Bloom and Grow, stamped in Shaded Spruce, and I also added a mat of Shaded Spruce around my main panel.  I added some faceted gems in Soft Seafoam for a little additiona interest.

Finally, on the inside I added some pale leaves from Beautiful Day as well as a sentiment from the same set:

You could go in any direction with these colors---how do they inspire you?! Come on over to Inspired By and show us!  

Somehow, this just doesn't look comfortable, LOL!  A dog, an owl and a video game!

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Day, Bloom and Grow
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Garden Green, Shaded Spruce, Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Soft Seafoam
Ink	Garden Green, Shaded Spruce, Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Soft Seafoam
Accessories	Faceted Gems (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Leaves Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Pinewood Planks EF, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Autumn Punch Pack