IB205 National Coffee Day

Happy Friday, happy last-day-of September, peeps!  Ah, the weekend! Hope you have some fun plans!  My sweet friend Laurel is back with her awesome Inspired By challenge and although I haven't been able to play for the last couple weeks, when I saw the inspiration photo and sketch, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring!

You can choose either the inspiration, the sketch, or both!  I was intrigued by the color of the bottom cup, so I focused on the colors but I did throw in a wee bit of coffee-inspired stamping, using the retired Merry Cafe again:

I would not normally put these colors together, but after playing with them, I really like them!  The DSP is retired Come to Gather, along with Crumb Cake, Soft Sky and Baked Brown Sugar cardstocks.  Love those little Stylish Shapes circles:

Everything went on a Baked Brown Sugar card base that was embossed with the Stitched With Whimsy die.  Here's the inside (even though the color is way off from my camera!):

Cute way to use these retired products!  Thanks for popping in today!

I've actually been doing a wee bit of crafting lately too, now that summer is over!  I finally finished my redbird sampler cross stitch on linen; this is the first time I have used hand over-dyed floss and it was really pretty, and soft and easy to use:

I even had some scraps of dark red fabric in my stash along with some linen rick-rack to finish it off!  I also made a chunky knitted pumpkin:

I've made these before (in fact, I don't really need any more) but they're fun to do and I've never done one in chunky yarn like this!  

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.  Proverbs 3:9-10

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Merry Cafe (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar (ret), Soft Sky (ret), Come to Gather DSP (ret)
Ink	Baked Brown Sugar (ret), Memento Black
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched With Whimsy Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Black Marker

Sending Hugs

Happy Thursday, peeps!  If you're down in the southeastern portion of the US, we're praying for you!  We have been getting a lot of wind here in PA, but nothing compared to what's happening there!

A sweet lady from church is recovering from a fall and subsequent hip surgery, so I thought I'd send a get well message using the sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches as well as the monochromatic challenge from SUO Challenges:

 

I chose neutrals as my color scheme...I was thinking that maybe as a get-well, I should have used something brighter and more cheery, but I had already begun and hopefully she'll like it regardless!  So here we go:

I used Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand cardstocks, and Sahara Sand ink for the foliage, which is from Forever Fern and Eden's Garden.  The sentiment was stamped in Soft Suede:

I tied a little Linen Thread bow to my foliage for an extra embellishment.  Here's the inside, and I added another extra diecut as well:

Thanks for popping in today!

Wayne is on a business trip in Washington state, checking out the apples!  He must be getting a bird's-eye view as he snagged a helicopter ride!

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Eden's Garden, Forever Fern
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand
Ink	Sahara Sand, Soft Suede
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Forever Flourishing Dies, Tasteful Textile EF

Stamp Camp Christmas Cards

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  No challenges today, but I do have a couple of cards to share with you; these are two of the cards we made at my monthly Christmas card stamp camp!  Take a gander:

This one features a silhouette image from a no-name clear stamp from  AC Moore, on top of a Crumb Cake Tim Holtz-embossed panel and decorated with some Tim Holtz diecut pine trees.  The little gingham ribbon added a country touch!  Card base is Shaded Spruce.

The second features a sketch that was on FMS a couple of weeks ago; we used the Postage Stamp punch to punch out panels from the pretty Lights Aglow DSP. It was topped with a Evening Evergreen pine tree from the retired Tree Lot dies and topped with a glimmer star, and the sentiment is from the retired Wrapped in Christmas!  Thanks so much for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

AHSC492 Hello Fall!

Happy Tuesday, all!  Today I have a fun card using some retired coffee-themed stamps and pretty fall papers!  It uses the sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

Another one with lots of layers!  So here we go:

I used stamps from Coffee Cafe and Merry Cafe, and papers from Gilded Autumn and Come to Gather, along with some retired Baker's Twine and Stitched Leaf Dies:

The tag and the cup were shortened a bit so to fit on the card better!  How about you?  How do you feel about pumpkin spice lattes?  I do like the flavor of pumpkin spice, but not so much in my coffee!  The coffee shops go a little overboard, in my opinion....a wee bit goes a long way!  Thanks for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Coffee Cafe, Merry Cafe (both ret)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Gold Foil, Gilded Autumn DSP (ret), Come to Gather DSP (ret)
Ink	Soft Suede, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Mint Macaron Thick Baker's Twine (ret), Sequins from my stash, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tailor Made Tags Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, 1/2" Circle Punch (ret), Stitched Leaves Dies (ret)

Gold Star Christmas

Happy Monday, peeps!  I have a quick Christmas card for you today using the sketch from the Jingle Belles:

And since I already had my Lights Aglow DSP already on my desk from yesterday's project, I decided to use some more of it!  Here we go:

I recently got these country star dies and I thought they would look pretty with the gold printed on the DSP.  I accented them with some rhinestones that I colored with a Bronze Blend, then added a sentiment banner from Brightest Glow:

The retired Sports Event die has a plethora of stars that were perfect for the corner embellishments:

And I was originally going to put this sentiment on the front, but it was too big, so it went on the inside!

Such pretty papers and beautiful sentiments!  Thanks for popping in today!

The kids went to a local farm called Cherry Crest over the weekend...it's not your average farm!  There's a corn maze, hay rides, games and all sorts of fun things to do!  Cassidy and Wayne did a pedal tractor race:

And Wayne made short work of the strong-man thing!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."  

1 Peter 5:6

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Brightest Glow
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Lights Aglow DSP, Gold Foil
Ink	Evening Evergreen
Accessories	Rhinestones, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Sports Event Dies (ret), Primitive Star Dies (Shady Lane Designs)

PP610 Joyful Sketch

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge with Jaydee as our hostess!  She has a lovely sketch for us this week and it gave me a chance to use some of the pretty Lights Aglow papers fron the holiday catalog!  First, let's check out the sketch:

I pulled out some of the gold and Cherry Cobbler papers and this is what I came up with:

There are four of these sparkly outlined images on one sheet; I cut down the circular one and mounted it on the remaining opposite side, then added another panel of gold and CC sparkly paper for the panel across.  I diecut a gold foil snowflake and the word "joy" and adhered all together with some gold flat sequins:

I guess maybe a star would have been more appropriate for the center element, but I really liked that snowflake...so a snowflake it is!  And guess what...no stamping!  At least on the outside!  (I did add a sentiment to the inside!) I want to play with this sketch again soon, I love how versatile it is!  I hope you'll play along with us too!  Be sure to check out what the Design Team created as well...there are some unique ways of interpreting the sketch you'll want to see!  Thanks so much for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Gold Foil, Lights Aglow DSP
Ink
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sequins (ret)
Tools	Big Shot,  Labels Aglow Dies, Stitched Snowflakes Die (ret), Joy Die (Lil'Inker, ret)

HSS398 Stitched Up Birthday

Happy Saturday, peeps!  A quick little card using a few stamps that haven't seen the light of day for a while!  I started with the sketch from Hand Stamped Sentiments: 

And here we go:

I stamped the Knit Together background stamp on Pale Papaya cardstock in matching ink, and the knit image and sentiment from Sugar Pea was stamped in Versafine ink and watercolored with Pale Papaya and Calypso Coral inks:

I did a little embossing on my Crumb Cake mat, highlighting it with a sponge dauber and some white craft ink just so it would stand out a bit.  Here's the inside:

And it's in the mail, ready to go!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Knit Together, Knit Wit (Sugar Pea Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pale Papaya, Crumb Cake
Ink	Pale Papaya, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, Craft White, Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Quilt Top EF (ret), Aquapainter, Sponge Dauber

Happy Fall to My Friend

 Happy Friday, peeps!  Wowza, fall has fallen in my neck of the woods....I know these temps and wind will go back to normal soon but right now it is definitely feeling "fallish"!  I thought I would visit my friends at As You See It because they have a really fun sketch this week and I wanted to incorporate the Just Add Ink challenge in there too! 

So I chose masking and friend as my two choices for my card today, and I pulled out a lot of different stamps to create it!  Here we go:

My Buffalo Check background stamp with inked with a combination of Sahara Sand and Tim Holtz's Antique Linen inks, then I stamped my pumpkins in Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzaza, Antique Linen and Lost Lagoon inks, masking each one as I went along.  The sentiments are a combination of SU (Biggest Wish and Endless Birthday Greetings), Papertrey (Wreath for All Season) and Paper Studio (Everyday Expressions), all stamped in  Lost Lagoon:

I used some Burlap Ribbon on which to put my little circular sentiment and I also embossed the panel with the Subtle EF!

I enjoyed getting all my stamps inky for this fun card!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

I found a new bird on my walk yesterday morning...there were several of these flitting around my neighbor's tree and they actually didn't fly away as I took a picture!  My camera does not photograph very well, so they're not clear, and I still am not 100% sure as to what kind of bird it was!  The consensus on my birding FB page was a Tennessee Warbler, but whatever it was, it was fun to watch!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."  Proverbs 4:23

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Biggest Wish, Friends are Like Seashells, Pick a Pumpkin (ret), Endless Birthday Wishes (ret), Buffalo Check (ret), Everyday Expressions (Paper Studio), Wreath for All Seasons (Papertrey)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Sahara Sand
Ink	Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Lost Lagoon (ret), Antique Linen (Tim Holtz)
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals, Burlap Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Subtle EF (ret), Stamparatus

FMS554 Floral Sympathy

Happy Thursday, peeps!  No one likes making sympathy cards but we do need them occasionally.  A family at church has had their second loss since April, so I needed to start getting some out in the mail.  I recently got a pad of 6x6" paper in beautiful vintage prints and I thought the sketch at FMS would work well with one particular piece.  Here's the sketch for this week:

The papers are called Pen & Ink, by Kaisercraft; here we go:

I simply cut the panels (both from one sheet) with some Stitched Rectangle dies and layered them on a Very Vanilla card on which I had embossed a scalloped border with a really old EF, one of the first SU ever sold!  Here's a different view so you can see the embossing better:

I added a Hero Arts sentiment in Crumb Cake, stamped on a scrap from the same piece, and diecut it with a narrow Stitched Rectangle die, popping it up.  I put a Bible verse on the inside, and it's ready to go!

I wish I had some pictures of Cassidy to show you but she's busy with school and soccer, so I don't get to see her much now!  She is growing up for sure!  Enjoy your day and be blessed, and thanks for popping in today!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	CL342 Sentiments (Hero Arts)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Pen & Ink DSP (Kaisercraft)
Ink	Crumb Cake
Accessories	Genial Gems (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched Needlepoint Borders EF (ret)

AHSC491 Tweet Cardinal

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  This week is flying by!  I finally had a chance to play with the Atlantic Hearts Sketch for this week:

I just loved all those layers---gave my sagging mojo a bit of a jump start!  So here we go:

I recently got this cute cardinal die and I had it all assembled (except for those very wee tiny legs) and he was just sort of flitting around on my desk because I really didn't have a project in mind for him.  But when I saw the bird on the sketch, I knew it was time to put him to use!  I used some pretty papers from Painted Christmas along with some matching Poppy Parade and Garden Green DSP, diecut with some Stitched Strip dies from Pretty Pink Posh, all mounted on a Basic White card base.  I diecut some panels from Basic White and Garden Green, did a bit of embossing and sat Mr Cardinal right down in the opening:

My sentiment is from Brightest Glow, and I added some greenery and faux berries sprinkled here and there.  The inside used another sentiment from the same set!  Those berries make it a wee bit "fat", so I'll have to spring for some extra postage on this little baby!  Thanks for visiting--enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Brightest Glow
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Garden Green, Real Red, Poppy Parade, Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Painted Christmas DSP, Poppy Parade DSP, Garden Green DSP
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Matte Dots (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Pretty Pine Dies (ret), Tweet Cardinal Dies (Spellbinders), Stitched Strips Dies (Pretty Pink Posh)

Twiggy Fun Fold

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Yesterday my stamp clubs met and we made a cute card using a fun fold that I am pretty sure I saw on Mary's Deatherage's blog (but I can't find the actual post right now!).  I'll give dimensions later on in my post.  Anyway, it uses the Cottage Wreaths stamp set and some fun hostess papers called Celebrate Everything!  Here we go:

And here's a side view, so you can see the folds:

The wreath was stamped in Early Espresso and the leaves in Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Poppy Parade and Cajun Craze.  The berries were stamped in Pear Pizzazz, and it was all on a Crushed Curry card base.  I added a little black outline leaf to complement the black designs on the DSP!  It went together quickly and is really cute and fun!

Here are the measurements:

Card panel:  5 1/2" x 8", score at 1", 2" and 5" on the long side.  

Pop-up panel:  3 1/8" x 5", score at 4 1/4".

White layer:  2 7/8" x 4".

Narrow base layer:  7/8" x 5 1/4".

Larger base layer:  2 3/4" x 5 1/4".

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Cottage Wreaths
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Celebrate Everything Hostess DSP, Poppy Parade DSP
Ink	Early Espresso, Real Red, Poppy Parade, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Country Wreaths Dies

GDP361 Cottage Wreath

 Happy Monday, peeps!  A quick card today as I should be mopping my floor and getting ready for my stamp clubs today!  I just had to play with my Cottage Wreath set one more time and I incorporated the colors from the Global Design Project to make a non-fall birthday card!  Here's the palette:

And here's my card:

Very simple layout; some Parakeet Party DSP, a Flirty Flamingo mat and a diecut wreath of Shaded Spruce.  I added some greenery in PP, a bow in FF, and I colored some large pearls with a Blend for accents:

The circular opening was cut with the Stylish Shapes dies, and I used the cut out portion on which to stamp a sentiment from Friends are Like Seashells:

I like stamping on DSP, but sometimes the ink is a wee bit resistant, so I have found that if I ink my stamp in Versamark ink first, then in the colored ink, it works like a charm!  Thanks for popping in today!

The kids went to a Canine Partners for Life fundraiser on the weekend. CPL trains service and companion dogs using prisoners to begin their training, then other CPL volunteers to finalize their training, to help people with disabilities.  Some dogs can actually sense when someone will have a seizure!  It is right down the road from our church and several members are actively involved.  Here is our friend Sue with her dog and another puppy trainee, selling "puppy kisses" for $1!

And of course, there was FOOD!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Cottage Wreaths, Friends are Like Seashells
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Flirty Flamingo, Shaded Spruce, Flirty Flamingo DSP, Parakeet Party DSP
Ink	Shaded Spruce, Parakeet Party, Versamark
Accessories	Pearls
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Country Wreaths Dies, Blends