Remembering the Fallen

I won't say "Happy" Memorial Day today, because it is not supposed to be a happy day--it is a somber day, full of reflection.  It is to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  It's not to say to a veteran, "Thank you for your service."  Technically, that is for Veteran's Day (although it is acceptable to say that on any day, in my opinion).  Armed Service Day is to thank current military personnel.  But today is to think of those fallen soldiers who gave their all.  I found this in the Epoch Times:

Lincoln concludes his remarks at Gettysburg by saying: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

God bless us all.

PP543 Happy Hello Tic Tac Toe

Hello, peeps!  It's my turn to be the hostess at the Paper Players and since it's a fifth Sunday, we have a tic-tac-toe grid for you!  There are lots of possibilities here:

I chose the bottom row across of heat embossing, DSP and white for my "happy hello" card today:

I heat embossed a floral image from Hand-Penned Petals with some gold embossing powder, then watercolored it to coordinate with the striped paper from You're A Peach:

I also heat-embossed a sentiment from Sunny Sentiments, then added a diecut border in some Gold Foil and some gold sequins from Sequins for Everything....they are cool because they don't have any holes in them!

I hope you'll find some inspiration from my tic-tac-toe board; be sure to check out what the DT created at the Paper Players blog, then play along with us!  You might be our Headliner next week!  Thanks for popping in today!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hand-Penned Petals, Sunny Sentiments
Card stock & Papers	Thick Basic White, You're A Peach DSP, Gold Foil (ret)
Ink	Versamark, Pale Papaya, Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories	Sequins for Everything, Dimensionals, Gold Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Penned Flowers Dies, Be Mine Dies, Heat Tool, Aquapainter

Fusion Kitties

Hi peeps!  Sneaking in with another card today; when I saw the cute Color Throwdown inspiration this week, I just had to play along!  It's a rainy day here in PA and I couldn't find anything better to do than stamp, LOL!  And the Fusion Card sketch challenge seemed to fit as well: 

I have these cute kitty cat dies from Impression Obsession, so I cut some out, colored them with some markers and here we go:

My papers are from Honey Bee Stamps, called the Bee's Knees, along with some Basic Black cardstock:

I colored the kitties with Blends, but I think I would have done better with regular markers as the ink did bleed a bit more than I preferred!  I used a stitched circle die on which to mount them, and a sentiment from the new Best Year stamp set!  Just a fun little card to say hello to someone!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Year
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Bee's Knees DSP (Honey Bee Stamps)
Ink	Memento Black
Accessories	Blends, Dimensionals
Tools	Bigi Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Cat Dies (083-K, Impression Obsession)

Jolly Ho Ho Ho

Happy Saturday, peeps!  I have a quick Christmas card today using the sketch from Inspire.Create and the "bling" challenge from the Jingle Belles:

I pulled out some fun coordinating Christmas papers from My Mind's Eye and some sparkly red twine I had saved from a gift package and here's what I came up with:

These papers are so cute together:

I used the Basic Borders dies to cut a little border, backed with Real Red, and added a glimmer paper diecut "jolly":

Another Christmas card to add to my stash....we are almost halfway through the year, I need to gear up!  Thanks for popping in today!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Real Red, Naturals White (ret), Oh What Fun! DSP (My Mind's Eye), Real Red Glimmer Paper (ret)
Ink
Accessories	Red Twine from my stash
Tools	Big Shot, Basic Borders Dies, Christmas Greetings Thinlets (ret)

AYSI251 Feathery Birthday

Happy Friday, peeps! Time for a new As You See It challenge and this week, it's a recipe!  Woohoo!  Check out our "ingredients": 

I needed a masculine birthday card, so I chose a pattern from Sweet Symmetry DSP, a tag diecut from Tailor Made Tags, and a birthday sentiment from Biggest Wish:

The sentiment is heat-embossed, although it's a challenge to see here!  I used both plates of my Stamparatus, stamping each section of the sentiment in ink (Mint Macaron and Shaded Spruce), then cleaned the stamps without removing them from the plates and inked each one again with Versamark.  Then I removed my tag and heat-embossed the words with clear embossing powder!  I just love the versatility of this sentiment set!!!

The tag looked a little plain, so I added a feather diecut and some ribbon; it all got mounted on the DSP as well as a Shaded Spruce mat, both of which were diecut with the Stitched Rectangle dies!  So I think I managed to get all the ingredients of the recipe in a fairly simple card!  Thanks for popping in today!  I sure hope that you'll play with our recipe and bake up some fun creation of your own!  Share it with us at As You See It!

It's hard to believe that my little great-nephew Jameson graduated from kindergarten!  

I am sure Sawyer can't wait to go to school too...he has a couple more years to go!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Biggest Wish
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Just Jade, Shaded Spruce, Mint Macaron, Sweet Symmetry DSP
Ink	Versamark, Mint Macaron, Shaded Spruce
Accessories	Soft Succulent Ribbon, Dimensionals, Clear Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Nature's Thoughts Dies, Tailor Made Tags Dies, Heat Tool

IB176 Lilac Sympathy

 Happy Thursday, all!  We have a lovely floral inspiration photo for you today at Inspired By:

Well, I don't have any lilac stamps, but I did find some hyacinth ones in my W+9 Spring Blessings set, so I stamped and diecut several of the images to create a sympathy card for a close friend:

Purple hues are ones I don't gravitate to, but I did enjoy playing with these!  I used Fresh Freesia, Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape to create these, along with some Pink Pirouette and Regal Rose for the pink ones!  The leaves were stamped with Soft Seafoam and Soft Succulent:

My little wooden crate was stamped with Sahara Sand and Smoky Slate and embellished with some Linen thread.  The circular background is some digital gingham and it fits the optional sketch for this week:

Finally, I stamped a two-color sentiment on a Tailored Tag and layered it on top of the card base, which was embossed with the Pinewood Planks EF.  It got a Linen thread bow as well as an In Color Jewel, which I also added to some of the flowers.

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I hope you'll play along with our pretty floral inspiration...you can use the flowers, colors or just the sketch!  Can't wait to see what you create!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Spring Blessings (WPlus9), Everyday Expressions (Paper Studio)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Digital Gingham
Ink	Fresh Freesia, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Soft Seafoam, Soft Succulent, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Pink Pirouette (ret), Regal Rose (ret)
Accessories	Linen Thread, In Color Jewels, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tailored Tags Dies, Spring Blessings Dies (WPlus9), Pinewood Planks EF (ret)

TCC156 Sail Away With Me

 Happy Wednesday, peeps!  Time for a new Card Concept challenge, where we feature our different styles of cardmaking!  Here's the fun prompt that Julie has for us today:

Just in time for Memorial Day or the 4th of July!!  I love those nautical images too!  That's what inspired me for my Clean and Layered card today:

I loosely copied some of the pillows in the image; I used several embossing folders for the backgrounds, then added diecuts from Seaside Seashells and Smooth Sailing dies.  My colors were Basic White, Riding Hood Red, Misty Moonlight and Night of Navy:

On this one, I stamped the white strips with one of the stamps from the new set Stitchery; I love how it mimics the embossing in the rope!

I found a fun set of sailing sentiments from Clearly Whimsy in my stash and stamped one of them twice in Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler inks, then did some fussy cutting, adding a Candy Dot for the "i"!

On the inside, I added a birthday sentiment from Wish Big along with a few stars from the sentiment set:

John's birthday is several months away, but I might just save this one for him!  I hope you'll play along with our challenge this week; be sure to tell us what your stamping "style" was when you created your masterpiece!  If you need help figuring out what your style is, you can find all the details on the Card Concept blog! See you there!

A little ice cream fun!

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

"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." Psalm 13:5-6

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Big Wishes, Ocean Journey Sentiments (Clearly Whimsy)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, Riding Hood Red (ret)
Ink	Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Candy Dot (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Seaside Seashells Dies, Smooth Sailing Dies, Checks & Dots EFs, Wrapped in Texture EF (ret), Tasteful Texture EF

Retro Rubber 159

Hey everyone!  Tuesday brings us a new Retro Rubber challenge, where we use stamps that are at least a year old!  This week is Anything Goes! 

I have a binder box of stamps that are too big to fit into standard size clear cases, so I tend to "forget" about them since they are not in full view!  I pulled out a really old Waltzingmouse stamp set (probably from around 2010) called Country Labels 4 to create my card today:

I began with three of the colors from Sunday Stamps as well as the sketch from Try Stampin on Tuesday, although I chose not to make a see-through panel:

I found some pretty peach-colored DSP for my top layer, then stamped the sentiment and border in Strawberry Slush ink; I knew I had matching dies and after much searching, tracked them down in one of my drawers, LOL!

The horizontal panel, which was a small piece of striped DSP I salvaged from my scrap bin, was stamped with some tiny flowers from a past Paper Pumpkin set, and embellished with some Crinkled Seam Binding as well as a Strawberry Slush scalloped border:

The inside was stamped with another set of images from the same Waltzingmouse set, then I added a couple more branches from the Paper Pumpkin set:

I hope you'll play along with our Anything Goes challenge this week at Retro Rubber!  Just remember to use older stamps and tell us their approximate age!  Can't wait to see what you create! Thanks for popping in today!

A visitor to my back yard bird feeder....she came by several times, in fact! She is probably the same one who walked up our driveway a couple of weeks ago!

We just never know what we'll see when we look out our door!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."  Proverbs 16:9

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Country Labels 4 (Waltzingmouse), Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Strawberry Slush (ret), Felicity DSP (BoBunny), I Am DSP (Simple Stories)
Ink	Strawberry Slush, Blushing Bride
Accessories	Crinkled Seam Binder
Tools	Big Shot, Labels Dies (Nestabilities), Stamparatus

SS661 Happy Birthday in Blue

Hi peeps, happy Monday!  We had a great weekend, hope you did too.  I played in my stamp room just a little bit; I am still exploring all the wonderful DSP patterns in the new catalog!  I found this sketch from Sketch Saturday:

and using some papers from You're A Peach, along with a sentiment from the new Best Year, came up with this:

I embossed the base with the Dots embossing folder, then created my layers with the DSP.  The sentiment was stamped in Balmy Blue and diecut with the Tasteful Tags, running the tag end through the non-tag end to create a symmetrical diecut: 

I added some panels of Mossy Meadow DSP behind my sentiment, then snipped out a couple flowers from a scrap of the DSP to add to the sentiment.  Such pretty colors and patterns!  I am also entering this in Make My Monday's Floral Birthday challenge!  Thanks for popping in today!

Over the weekend we attended a fundraiser baseball game featuring the local police and fire company from a neighboring town against the local PA State Police!  The recipient of the fundraiser is a young man from our congregation who was seriously injured in an accident eight months ago. Now that he is out of the hospital, his family has the monumental job of seeing to his every need as he is basically still in a coma.  He does try to communicate but he hasn't "awakened" yet, and his care is very expensive.  Anyway, the police won two games out of three, there were lots of raffle baskets, 50/50 tickets sold, and of course, food! Cassidy goofed around with her cousin Jameson:

and they played so hard all afternoon that she fell asleep in the jeep:

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Day
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Mossy Meadow, Mossy Meadow DSP, You're A Peach DSP
Ink	Balmy Blue
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tasteful Labels Dies, Tailored Tags Dies