IB189 with a Guest!

Hi stampers!  This is a very special Thursday at Inspired By!  Today we're having company!  Yep, we've each asked a guest stamper to stamp with us!  You can see all the DT and their friends over at the IB blog...be sure to pop over and give them some love!  But first, let's look at our inspiration photos...fall and the holidays, both gorgeous:

My guest is the oh-so-sweet Linda Callahan!  I have met Linda a couple of times at SU conventions and she is a delight!  She's fun to be around and an awesome stamper to boot!  She chose the first photo for her card and look at this stunner:

She nailed it!  I feel like I could reach right out and take a bite from one of those apples!  Yum!  I chose to use the second photo inspiration for my card; that little galvanized bucket with the Christmas trees on it was calling my name:

It's hard to tell, but the gray elements are my card are actually Brushed Silver cardstock; I stamped the (very old) Cornish Heritage Farms sentiment in Stazon ink and used elements from the Sparkle of the Season bundle to create my wreath:

The panel behind it was embossed with the Pinewood Planks EF, and the buffalo check is a digital paper!  I had an extra little leaf left over, so I added to the inside of my Old Olive card along with a sentiment from Christmas to Remember:

I am also entering this at the Make the Cards challenge this week, where they are looking for "Country Life & Buffalo Plaid"!

I hope you'll play along with us this week...lots of inspiration to get your creative juices flowing!  Linda and I are happy that you popped in!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sparkle of the Season, Christmas to Remember, Winter Vintage Signage (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Brushed Silver (ret), Digital Paper
Ink	Stazon Black, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Accessories	Dimensionals, Black Gingham Ribbon
Tools	Big Shot, Pinewood Planks EF (ret), Ornate Frames Dies, Seasonal Swirls Dies

TSOT526 Simple Hello

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  We're on the downhill slide to the weekend!  I thought the sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday was a super one, so I made TWO!  

Here's my first one, uber-simple, great for a masculine birthday, and it uses Christmas papers for a non-Christmas theme!  

I used Tidings of Christmas DSPs, a Crumb Cake card base and Kraft for my stitched leaf.  The Ornate Frames tag features a sentiment from Best Year stamped in Evening Evergreen and embellished with a little Linen Thread bow:

To create the diagonal panel, I used the largest Stitched Rectangle die and angled it so that longest edge cut across the 4" DSP.  The second one is more feminine; it uses DSPs from Harvest Meadow, and a pretty flower from Color and Contour, stamped in Calypso Coral, Pale Papaya and Soft Succulent:

I used the label die from Pierced Blooms and a Tailor Made Tag with a sentiment from Celebrate Sunflowers; I also added a little smattering of Sequins for Everything:

Thanks for visiting today!

So remember the tree branch that broke off from a tree in our yard less than a week ago?  And I said I didn't see how the other branches could hold themselves up?

Pulled the topmost part of the tree off, and we didn't hear a thing!  John went down the driveway on an errand and noticed it!  We'll probably take the rest of it down...he had just gotten the first portion cleaned up!

More wood for our neighbor!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

RRCB168 Peaceful Tree

 Hi everyone!  Tuesday means Retro Rubber!  Yay!  This week we've got a tic-tac-toe grid for your inspiration:

I chose the middle row down:  greens, trees and die; it also fulfills the diagonal of one-word sentiment, trees and a bow!  Here we go:

This tree is image is from Flourishes from 2008, one of my first photopolymer sets!  I stamped it on a panel of Basic White with Soft Succulent ink and ran it through the Big Shot with a snowy embossing folder.  The "peace" diecut is from Papertrey, and it was diecut with some green glimmer paper from a few year back; it's mounted on a Tailor Made Tag and embellished with some ribbon and silver twine:

I must have used an older piece of Whisper White for my tag; it definitely has a different white tint than the new Basic White, and the ink stamped a bit differently on it!  I really didn't think there was much of a difference, but I can see it!  Not so much that the recipient will notice, but my eye did pick it up!  Anyway, I hope you'll find some ideas from our grid this week and share you retro creation with us!  Remember that your stamps have to be a least a year old, and you must tell us the approximate age!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks for visiting---enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Trees (Flourishes, 2008)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Soft Succulent, Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper (ret)
Ink	Soft Succulent
Accessories	Soft Succulent Sheer Ribbon, Silver Twine (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tailor Made Tags Dies, Peace Die (Papertrey), Snowing Die (ret)

TTTC132 Spooky Halloween Card from Cassidy

 Happy Monday, peeps! We had a very busy weekend and I have stamp camp tonight, so I didn't get any stamping done!  However, Cassidy decided she wanted to enter a challenge and make a Halloween card, so I helped her out a wee bit!  She chose to do the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for this week, opting for the right row down of embossing, patterned paper, and Halloween:

A few weeks ago we had gone to an Amish stamp store and she picked out some pretty "pour" papers from Paper Rose.  She chose to work with a purple and black one for her card today:

She stamped and fussy-cut some ghosts and a banner sentiment with a CTMH stamp, but before she adhered them, we had to figure out how to get the embossing in there!  I remembered I had a spider-web folder, so she embossed her paper with it, but it really didn't stand out.  So she took a sponge dauber and sponged white craft ink on it and it looked amazing!  Spooky and foggy!  She diecut a little spider from some black glimmer paper, then adhered everything with dimensionals:

We adhered everything to a Basic Black card.  She prefers to write personal messages on the inside of her cards, so she opted to write it in a glitter pen instead of stamping something, and I didn't share that.  But she DID insist on taking the photo of the card (and adding the watermark) herself, using my photo box and my faithful old camera:

She did a great job, too!  And here are a few more pictures of our day at the bay:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!  And thanks for visiting to see Cassidy's card!

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hello Pumpkin (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Basic White, Black Glimmer, Paint Pour DSP (Paper Rose)
Ink	Memento Black, Blackberry Bliss, Craft White
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Spiderweb EF (ret), Little Treats Dies (ret), Sponge Dauber

PP560 Peaceful Snowflakes

Hi stampers!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge....Joanne is our hostess with a fabulous sketch with THREES!  I love my threes!  (I just realized that I put my sentiment in the wrong place, but of course it's too late to make a new one, oops!)

I pulled out some Feels Like Frost DSP from last year along with some Balmy Blue glimmer paper to create three snowflakes from our newest Stitched Snowflake dies!  Here we go:

I used one die to cut the snowflakes, lining them up along the right edge, then I embossed the left edge with the embossed snowflake die from the same set (difficult to see in the photo).

To complement the snowy pinecone, I stamped a sentiment on Kraft cardstock in white and heat-embossed it , then diecut it and popped it up.  I also embossed a little Kraft strip with a little snowflake die and layered it along the edge of the DSP:

I am adding this to the Jingle Belles challenge as well, it's "Dashing Through the Snow"!  There are so many possibilities with this sketch, I can't wait to see what you all create!  Be sure to check out what the DT has created as well, hop on over to the Paper Players blog to check them all out!

We have had Cassidy all weekend, and yesterday we took a little day trip to Rock Hall, MD, which is on the Chesapeake Bay.  John wanted to look at some boats, so we went to a couple marinas, went to lunch at the "Admiral's Club" and also visited Chesapeake City.  It was a gorgeous day and although it wasn't real exciting for an 11-year-old, she was a good sport!  This was her favorite boat, or should I say, yacht! LOL!

I liked this vintage skipjack....check out the little star at the end of the prow!

And it had its own little matching dinghy...so cute!

And John just will not be serious for the camera!

More to come later!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Festive Silhouettes (Altenew)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Kraft, Balmy Blue Glimmer, Feels Like Frost DSP (ret)
Ink	Craft White
Accessories	White Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Snowflake Dies, Ornate Frames Dies, Heat Tool, Stitching Lines Dies (Ellen Hutson)

Fusion Peach Birthday

Happy Saturday, peeps!  I somehow missed the Fusion challenge when it came up, and when I saw all that peachiness, I knew I had to squeeze in a card!  I actually used both the sketch and the photo inspiration: 

I loved the peach hues with the tans!  I pulled out Hand-Penned Petals, which I hadn't used for a while, along with Sunny Sentiments and some Pale Papaya and Crumb Cake inks and came up with this:

The bottom DSP is Hand-Penned, and I diecut the sentiment with a Tasteful Labels die and backed it with another Ornate Frames die cut from Crumb Cake cardstock.  After stamping and diecutting the florals, I added a couple of Crumb Cake "sprigs" from the Nature's Thoughts dies.  I embossed the top portion of the card with the Tasteful Textile EF.  My final addition was a couple of pieces of burlap ribbon:

Light and delicate but with a touch of fall!  Thanks for popping in today!

We had pizza with the kids last night and since it such a beautiful, cool fall evening, John put a fire in the chimeria and roasted some marshmallows!  Disclaimer:  this is an ember, not a burning marshmallow!

I was bundled up in a sweatshirt with my hood up and here's how Cassidy was dressed!  Kids!

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sunny Sentiments, Hand-Penned Petals
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, Hand-Penned DSP
Ink	Crumb Cake, Pale Papaya
Accessories	Dimensionals, Burlap Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Nature's Thoughts Dies, Penned Flowers Dies, Tasteful Label Dies, Ornate Frames Dies, Tasteful Textile EF

FMS504 Happy Fall Flowers

Happy Friday, peeps!  I got a couple new stamps last week (like I need more, right?!) and the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was perfect for it: 

I haven't jumped on the slimline card craze too much...I think I am just lazy and don't feel like finding envelopes to fit, LOL!  But I challenge myself and here's my wee little slimline creation using a happy little image from Impression Obsession:

The size of my card is 2 3/4" x 6", and I used papers from Peaceful Prints and Harvest Meadow for my accents.  The image was stamped on Very Vanilla in Stazon ink and watercolored, then fussy-cut. I stamped on the DSPs as well to continue the pattern, and added a sentiment from Banner Year:

I know the sketch only uses two horizontal panels, but I had to add a third....my adhesive went over the top edge a wee bit and I could not get it off; the more I rubbed it with my adhesive eraser, the worse it got!  So I covered it up with a narrow piece of orange glimmer paper and added some Wink of Stella to my flowers centers and now it's sparkly as well!  I am also going to enter this at Krafty Chicks for their "All Occasions" challenge, and the TGIF challenge for their "pumpkin theme!!  

Thanks so much for visiting in today! 

We had a pop-up storm yesterday and another branch from our big pine tree bit the dust!  At least it didn't fall on John's garage...he was inside when it happened!  Yikes!  I had been waiting for this to happen....those branches were just too big and I knew they wouldn't be able to support themselves too much longer!  Now to get out the chain saw, tractor and dump trailer...big boy toys!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Banner Year, Sunflowers and Pumpkins (G12370 Impression Obsession)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Peaceful Prints DSP, Harvest Meadow DSP, Orange Glimmer Paper (ret)
Ink	Stazon, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Aquapainter

TTTC132 Boo!

Hey again, stampers!  It's Tic Tac Toe time again, with Team X on creative duty this week!  Here's our board for you to choose from:

 

If you saw my earlier post, you know I used this die to create a cover for a Christmas card!  Since I already had it on my desk, I thought it would be fun to create a Halloween card as well!  I diecut the panel from some Pumpkin Pie cardstock, then this time, filled in the openings with some fun Halloween papers:

I added another diecut from some black glimmer paper to say "BOO!":

And I have so many Halloween goodies, I just had to add another diecut to the inside:

This all fulfills the diagonal line of diecut, free, and Halloween!

I am sure there are lots of things to inspire you from our grid this week!  Please play along with us and share it with us at the Tic Tac Toe blog!  Can't wait to see you there!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	None
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pumpkin Pie, Black Glimmer, Cute Halloween DSP, Motley Monsters DSP (ret)
Ink	None
Accessories	Black Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Circle Die (Close to My Heart), Boo to You Dies (ret), Trick or Treat Die (Impression Obsession)

IB188C Plaid Tidings

Hi everyone!  Time for a new Inspired By Challenge!  We're still offering TWO choices and an optional sketch, so lots of possibilities for creating!  Let's check out the inspiration photos first:

And here's the optional sketch:

I went with those adorable little Christmas embroidery hoops...toooooo cute!  And I knew exactly what I was going to use!  Here we go:

This CTMH die was perfect for my little "ornaments"!  After cutting it from some Kraft paper, I backed it with some retired plaid SU DSP, then added some little Tim Holtz Seasonal Chitchat stickers (that I have had for years)!!  

I added some diecut greenery, berries and a big red bow!  Easy as can be!  

I hope you'll find some seasonal inspiration from our photos and share your creations with us over at Inspired By as well!  And be sure to come back a wee bit later...I'll be using this same die for another holiday creation---different holiday, though!  Thanks for popping in!

Just a few pictures from my morning walk....fall is in the air!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	None
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Kraft, Evening Evergreen, Plaid Tidings DSP (ret)
Ink	None
Accessories	Enamel Dots (ret), Real Red Sheer Ribbon, Chitchat Seasonal Stickers (Tim Holtz)
Tools	Big Shot, Circles Die (Close to My Heart), Pretty Pines Dies (ret)