Grateful Woodland Wreath

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  A sweet little card today for two challenges: the SIP challenge of thankful (mine is actually grateful, I hope that's okay), and the TSOT sketch:

I realize as I look at the TSOT sketch, I missed the little horizontal banner part..oops, oh well!  Anyway, I just got this cute Woodland Greetings set (CTMH) and couldn't resist inking it up and coloring in some of the images:

All the images were stamped on Crumb Cake with Soft Suede ink and colored with Blends and Copics; I heat embossed the sentiment in white and did a little bit of sponging around the edges:

I shaded the bunny a tiny bit with a Blend, then highlighted his tummy and tail with a gel pen...he is the cutest, don't you think?  All the patterned papers are from Authentique's Nestled pad.  I added some white twine to complement the white embossing.

On the inside, I stamped a little fox and a sentiment from CTMH's Inspired Words set.  And it's already in the mail!

Thanks for popping in today!  Sorry I have no pix lately, but Cassidy is spending the night Friday so hopefully I will have some then....if I can sneak them in!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

FF0047 and JAI482 Thanksgiving Mice

Happy Saturday, peeps!  Today is John's birthday and we have some things we want to do, so this will be short and sweet!  I had a massive Thanksgiving-card-making day yesterday; most of them were quick and easy, but I did make this one using the Festive Friday challenge as well as the Just Add Ink sketch:

For the Festive Friday challenge, I used woodland creatures, thankful theme, leaves, and twine!  I've had these little Lawn Fawn Thanksgiving mice for a couple of years and am just now getting them inky for this season!  I found this pretty Photoplay paper and the opposite side is the stripe, so I used that for my tag:

I stamped the mice in Soft Suede ink and colored them with Blends.  I punched them out and matted each one with a Terracotta Tile mat.

For the tag embellishment, I diecut a leaf from Terracotta Tile, sponged it and topped it with a sentiment from My Creative Time.  So many fun elements in this card!

One of my chores today is to get all these cards out in the mail!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Thanksgiving Mice (Lawn Fawn), Mixed Holiday Sentiments (My Creative Time)
Card stock & Papers	Terracotta Tile, Naturals White (ret), Delightful Dijon (ret), Autumn Day DSP (Photoplay)
Ink	Soft Suede, Terracotta Tile, More Mustard (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals, Thick Bakers Twine (ret), Embroidery Floss
Tools	Tag Punch, Word Window Punch (ret), 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Blends, Leaf Dies (Lawn Fawn), Sponge Daubers

FMS411 Thankful Wheat

Happy Friday, peeps!  Yay, the weekend is upon us, and I am looking forward to relaxing a bit!  I gathered up some scraps I had sitting on my desk (eventually I hope to "gather" them ALL up and have a clean desk, LOL!) and made a Thanksgiving card using Kim's Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

I recently got these wheat dies, so I cut them out using some retired Delightful Dijon cardstock.  The "thankful" diecut is from The Stamp Market, as is the gold bow:

Here's a closeup:

I embossed the lower portion of the card with the Vine Street embossing folder, and added some gold metallic pearls to complement the gold bow!  Thanks for popping in today!

I don't think I shared this photo of Cassidy with Darth Vader at Legoland!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	None
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Naturals White, Early Espresso, Gold Glimmer, Delightful Dijon (ret), Luke 2 DSP (Photoplay)
Ink
Accessories	Gold Metallic Pearls, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies,  Lots of Leaves Dies (The Stamp Market), Candy Cane Christmas Dies (The Stamp Market), Wheat Die (Impression Obsession), Vine Street Embossing Folder (ret)

Reindeer and Turkeys

 

 Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I have two cards today...one features a reindeer and the other a turkey!  For the Jingle Belles challenge this week, they want to see Rudolf!  This wee little reindeer from Holiday Haul is a perfect image for the challenge, especially when he is embellished with a tiny red glimmer nose:

I used an 1/8" punch to punch out his nose!  Toile Tidings makes a great background, and I stamped Rudolph in Soft Suede and added a Soft Suede mat behind the stitched circle:

The sweet sentiment is from the hostess set Greatest Part of Christmas:

Now, for my turkey card!  After seeing Su Mohr's beautiful use of the Day of Thanks stamp set, I finally broke down and got it for myself!  I need a few samples using it, so I used the Tuesday Morning Sketches sketch for this one:

And here's their sketch:

I stamped Tom in Early Espresso and colored him with assorted Blend markers.  My card base is Sahara Sand, and I embossed the front with the Subtle EF and added a panel of gingham DSP.  I had a hard time imagining sequins with my turkey, so I stamped some small leaves from a past Paper Pumpkin kit in Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake, fussy-cut them out and placed them around my turkey image.

I added a half-circle scalloped mat in Real Red, and stamped a sentiment from the same set inside, along with a few subtle leaves:

I actually cut apart the Happy Thanksgiving stamp that I used on the front...it's easy to match back together to make it long again, and having it in two pieces allows me to stamp it in different orientations!  Thanks for visiting today!

I had a little free time last month and picked up a couple of cross-stitch projects to do....this one turned into a little pillow:

I had some buffalo print fabric in tan and black for the border and back, and I hand-stitched some SU black lace trim around the edges!  Now I am working on a little tom turkey sampler!  I just went to the frame shop today and almost had a heart attack when I got the price for a frame....I think I am in the wrong business! Enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Holiday Haul, Greatest Part of Christmas
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Real Red, Toile Tidings DSP, Red Glimmer
Ink	Soft Suede
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Stitched Nested Labels Dies, 1/8" Circle Punch

Second Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Day of Thanks, Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Real Red, Sahara Sand, Sahara Sand Gingham DSP
Ink	Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Blends, Subtle Embossing Folder

PP464 Say It Loud

Happy Sunday, all!  Hope your weekend is going well so far!  Today, I am the hostess at the Paper Players, and my clean-and-simple challenge is this:

I was trying to use some stamps and colors I hadn't used for a while, so I pulled out Rooted in Nature and Blackberry Bliss---a color I rarely use!  It's a beautiful color, but I just am not drawn to shades of purple!  So I challenged myself and here we go:

Since Naturals White is a bit of a porous cardstock, I knew I would probably have to ink up the wood stamp a few times to get good coverage, so I positioned it in my Stamparatus and inked it with Crumb Cake, then sponged Soft Suede on the outer edges to get the two-toned effect.  It took about three tries to get it to where I liked it.  Then I made a mask so that when I stamped my leaves it would look like they were behind the wood....I stamped once on a scrap piece of paper first to get the lighter effect:

My sentiment is three layers of Blackberry Bliss, diecut with a CTMH die and glued together.  I really love that effect; it makes for a stand-out sentiment for sure!  Finally, on the inside, I stamped a few more leaves and a sentiment from a retired set, Falling Leaves....perfect for a Thanksgiving card:

My interpretation of clean-and-simple is minimal layers, stamps and embellishments!  I hope you'll follow along and create something with my challenge this week!  Be sure to share it with us at the Players, and while you're there, check out what the other designers created too!  Thanks for popping in today!

I love this photo of Cassidy, looking out the window of the plane on their trip to Disney.  I can remember the first time I flew, what an experience!  I will see her today for the first time since they got back, I can't wait to hear about her trip!  

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Rooted in Nature, Falling Leaves (ret), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Naturals White (ret), Blackberry Bliss
Ink	Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Blackberry Bliss
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangles Dies, Thankful For You Dies (Close to My Heart), Stamparatus, Sponge Daubers

PP462 Grateful

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Time for another Paper Players challenge, and Joanne has given us a wonderful theme this week:

Over the weekend, we went yard saling and I found an Eldreth pottery crock with a Noah's ark and rainbow on it.  In our area, Eldreth pottery is very popular, now even more so as the studio has recently gone out of business.  All the crocks and figurines were made locally, not only in the traditional salt glaze blue but other colors as well.  I have quite a few pieces but one of my friends at church is an avid collector...in fact, last weekend she found a little piece in a box lot I had purchased for a song, and I gave it to her!  Anyway, here's mine:

This one is from 1998, and I believe it's a second, because the images aren't real clear...but why I am going on and on about crocks?  Because this was the inspiration for my card today:

I used the In(k)spire Me sketch:

and pulled out a few old SU sets:  Truly Grateful, Sanded and Falling Leaves.  I started by inking the Sanded background stamp with Gray Granite ink and stamping on some Smoky Slate cardstock.  Then, I inked up the wheat and acorn stamps with Blueberry Bushel ink, lightly spritzed them with water to give it more of a blurry look, then stamped them and once dry, diecut them out:

I added some banners, one stamped with the honeycomb image from Butterfly Basics, one plain Blueberry Bushel, and the other, some BB DSP that I swiped with a Gray Granite ink pad to make it less bright.  My final additions were a sentiment punched with the Modern Label punch, a Linen thread bow, and this sentiment on the inside:

Oh, and you can't see it but I embossed the front of my card with the Subtle EF too...I wish it would show up better!  It's a nice touch!

I think this is a nice change from the traditional fall/Thanksgiving colors and it was fun to play around with the images!  I hope you'll find some grateful/thankful inspiration and play along with us!  Be sure to check out the Paper Players blog to see what the designers created, and share yours with us as well! Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Nothing like a little Halloween mask shopping after karate practice!!!

Too funny!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Subtle EF, Truly Grateful (ret), Falling Leaves (ret), Sanded Background (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate, Blueberry Bushel DSP
Ink	Blueberry Bushel, Gray Granite
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Modern Label Punch (ret), Spritzer, Subtle EF

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

"I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.  For in him you have been enriched in every way, with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge."  

1 Corinthians 1:4-5

Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving!

AYSI189 Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone!  Yay, it's Friday and the weekend is upon us!  Looking forward to it!  The As You See It challenge for this week is a fabby sketch:

What a great layout...terrific for using up little bits of DSP, right?!  I still need a few Thanksgiving cards, so I pulled out some DSP with fall colors and images, along with a new Spellbinders die I got recently:

I made my card 3 1/4" by 5 1/2"; it still fits in a standard envelope, but I could have my little acorn cap pop up above the fold!  All the papers are from Echo Park's Fall Is In The Air 6x6 pad, from which I chose four coordinating patterns for the background.  Then the acorn was diecut from two more different pieces, and I backed the cap with some So Saffron for better definition.  I added a stamped "happy" and the Thanksgiving was diecut from Old Olive cardstock:

I added a piece of Mossy Meadow twine on the stem, a little diecut leaf in Cajun Craze, then stamped a sentiment from Technique Tuesday on the inside, and added a little stamped leaf and a big diecut ampersand:

This sketch just makes me happy and I know I'll be using it again soon!  I hope you'll check out what the DT created, and be sure to share your creation with us as well!  Thanks for popping in today!

We got our first snowfall yesterday and I had filled the feeders a couple days before, so we got lots of finches and sparrows!  With taking the tree down in our backyard over the summer, my birds had no cover and didn't come around at all!  I put the feeder in a different spot and they are returning!  I think this is a house finch and some sort of sparrow:

Another sparrow, taking cover under the patio chair; maybe a white-throated:

and this duo, perched in the gutter, surveying it all:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Merry Christmas to All ("happy"),So Blessed (Technique Tuesday)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Fall is in the Air DSP (Echo Park), Adhesive Sheets, Early Espresso, So Saffron
Ink	Early Espresso
Accessories	Mossy Meadow Twine, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, October and November Small Dies of the Month (Spellbinders), Blends, Stitched Leaf Die (Lil'Inker)