KCC495 Simple Christmas Card

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I have a card to share today that is the most simple style of card you can make...just stamps, ink and paper!  Well, there is a little Wink of Stella on there, but not much else!  I got some new Tim Holtz stamps at the end of the year, and was just sort of playing around with one of them on a Crumb Cake card base....it's been hanging around on my desk, waiting for me to do something else with it, but when I saw the CAS challenge at the Krafty Chicks, I thought, well, I'll just leave it as it is!  Here you go, stamping 101:

I love vintage Christmas images!!  This one was stamped in Shaded Spruce, and since there wa a little star below the "Greetings", I markered in a couple more, then added the Wink of Stella, which of course, you can't see much here, and called it done!  Squeaking it in just under the wire!

It's another gray, cloudy, yucky day here in PA, and it's my work day, so that's it for me!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Holiday Greetings (Tim Holtz)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake
Ink	Shaded Spruce
Accessories
Tools	Wink of Stella, Shaded Spruce Marker

IB108 Clusters Sympathy

Hi peeps! Wow, the week is just whizzing by!  We have a new Inspired By challenge today...check this one out:

Isn't that a pretty vignette?  Unfortunately, I needed several sympathy cards recently, so you may see a theme for a few posts.....but this challenge did give me a chance to pull out some lovely elements to mix and match! 

I started with some papers from Julie Nutting's French Flea Market by Photo Play, using some blue for my background, a stripe for my banner, and a pink brocade for my florals; I stamped them in Basic Gray, fussy-cut them out and added a little shading with some Copics:

I just LOVE the tag die from SU's new Bonanza dies, so I cut one out from Whisper White cardstock, stamped a few elements on it from the retired Butterfly Basics stamp set, and mounted my florals on it.  I also added some twine and sparkly sequins:

I stamped and diecut a little butterfly, embellished it with a little glimmer dot, and I found this chipboard button in my stash....IRL it matches a little better than it does in the photo.  The sentiment was also stamped in Basic Gray and is from Our Daily Bread Designs:

For my inside, I used a past Paper Pumpkin sentiment, stamped in Marina Mist, and I also stamped the fern again behind it:

The DT has some lovely samples using the photo as their inspiration....please check them out at Inspired By and share your creation with us as well!  Can't wait to see it!

Cassidy had an inservice day yesterday, so we spent the day together!  She helped me unpack a big SU order; she set up a "store" in the living room and I had to "shop" for all my customers' orders!! Then she took the box apart, re-taped it and made a play house for her dolls with it!

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

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Paper Pumpkin sympathy (ret), Mini Tag Sentiment (Our Daily Bread Designs), Flower Garden (Tim Holtz), Butterfly Basics (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, French Flea Market (Photo Play)
Ink	Pineapple Punch, Basic Gray, Certainly Celery (ret), Marina Mist (ret)
Accessories	Sequins, Chipboard Button, Baker's Twine (from my stash), Glimmer Dots (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Bonanza Dies, Copics, Small Butterfly Punch (ret)

Fall Flowers

Happy Tuesday, all!  I had a few minutes to stamp yesterday between camps, and I was really just kind of fooling around with some watercolored images...wasn't really planning to use them, just practicing, but in the end, when I saw these two challenges, I thought I might go ahead and create a card with it!  The challenges are The Flower Challenge--anything goes, and the Always Fun Challenge, which is asking for fall colors:

My flowers are from Tim Holtz, stamped in Stazon on SU's watercolor paper and colored with Real Red, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede and Old Olive inks:

I diecut it with a Stitched Rectangle die, added a distressed Old Olive mat and mounted it on my card:

The card base is Crumb Cake, and I stamped the "distressed" image from Woven Heirlooms randomly on it before adding a piece of woodgrain paper and a sentiment from Altnew.  I love line-drawn images, they're fun to color!  Thanks for popping in today!

Mommy-daughter lunch date....or I guess maybe it's dessert date!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Woven Heirlooms, Flower Garden (Tim Holtz), Label Love (Altenew)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Old Olive, Woodgrain DSP, Watercolor Paper
Ink	Stazon Black, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Soft Suede
Accessories	Black Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Aquapainter

SS559 Dump Trucks for Jamison

Happy Tuesday, all!  It was a busy day yesterday so I didn't get any stamping done, and it was my nephew's 4th birthday, so I made a belated card for him today.  At 4, I am sure he doesn't really know what belated means, so it's probably okay!  I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday:

I had ordered this dump truck die a long time ago and it finally arrived last week, so I put it to good use, since Jamison LOVES trucks, tractors and dirt!  So here we go:

I cut the trucks from Real Red, Call Me Clover and Daffodil Delight; the wheels and torn edges are Basic Black.  Sentiment is from Itty Bitty Birthdays and the Smoky Slate pattern is from an old Paper Pumpkin set.  It's all stamped on some miscellaneous scrapbook paper I had in my stash! 

I embossed the Smoky Slate card with a Cuttlebug Diamond Plate embossing folder, then stamped a sentiment on the inside (same Paper Pumpkin kit) and over-stamped the number four using a Tim Holtz stamp:

And here's a picture of the birthday boy; our church had an Easter Egg hunt (more pix on that later), and he was quite successful at his quest:

It is so cute to watch these little ones interact; they're so curious!:

And last but not least, I forgot one card that my sweet friend and teammate Claire sent me; she knows how much I love vintage/retro stuff!  I love it:

If you know Claire, you can just hear her saying this...it looks like her a bit too! 

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

PP420 A Sketch from Sandy Times Two

Hello, stamping friends!  Hope your weekend is spiffy so far!  Sandy is our hostess for this week's Paper Players challenge, and she has a fabulous sketch!  Loved it so much, I made two cards!  So here we go:

 

I haven't used the Farmhouse Memories DSP too much this season, so I chose to do an almost-monochromatic card using Mossy Meadow with a touch of Crumb Cake for my first seasonal card:

Christmas Pines is one of the most versatile Christmas sets you could own...the sentiments are so pretty, as are the greenery pieces!  Here, I stamped the sentiment and added some Crumb Cake pinecones, then matted my square with a stitched mat and added some greenery and sequins.  I also separated a piece of thick baker's twine to make it less bulky and tied a little bow to embellish my pinecones:

The inside also has a Crumb Cake mat; sentiment is stamped in Crumb Cake and the greenery in Soft Sea Foam:

And I am also entering this in the Color Throwdown this week:

I also needed a birthday card for our soon-to-be-three-year-old nephew!  For my second card, I used a Balmy Blue card base, embossed with a geometrical EF, then added some plaid papers from Lawn Fawn and the loader from I Dig You:

I added some presents and a little "3" from the retired Little Numbers die in the bucket of the loader:

A Tim Holtz number and a sentiment from Perennial Birthday finished it off!

This sketch is great to use little pieces of DSP, and we all have them laying around!  Show us what you can create and share it with us at the Paper Players!  Can't wait to see it!  Meanwhile, check out what the DT created:

·        Claire

·        Jaydee

·        Joanne

·        Laurie

·        Nance

·        Anne Marie

·        Sandy

·        Elizabeth

·        Annie - on break

·        Jan

·        Ann

First Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Christmas Pines
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Farmhouse Memories DSP
Ink	Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Baked Brown Sugar Thick Baker's Twine (ret), Sequins from my stash, DImensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Perfect Pines Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits

Second Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	I Dig You (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Balmy Blue, Perfectly Plaid Winter DSP (Lawn Fawn)
Ink	Smoky Slate, Balmy Blue, Stazon Black
Accessories	Candy Dots (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Squares Framelits, Little Numbers Thinlets (ret), Zigzag EF (ret)

IB21 Mr and Mrs

Happy Thursday, peeps!  I hope and pray you are having a good week so far!  It's time for another Inspired By challenge; I went clean and simple for a wedding card this week:

And here is Laurel's prompt for this week...SO cute:

My inspiration came from the leather suitcases, white letters and that pretty pink flower arrangement!!!  I have lots of scraps from my Wood Textures DSP pile, so I found a nice strip and adhered the Mr & Mrs diecut letters on top.  I used a piece of Adhesive Sheet on the back of white cardstock, so once they were cut out, it was really easy to adhere them...no messy glue smooshing out!  A sentiment from the new Stitched All Around fit perfectly (and rhymes, too) above the letters!

The pretty floral is (again) from Tim Holtz's Flower Garden; I inked it in Versamark and Melon Mambo, then heat embossed it with embossing powder, and used a Copic to color it in.  The leaves in the background are from a past Paper Pumpkin kit; they were supposed to be "clear", but my Versamark pad had a wee little bit of the Melon Mambo ink left on the surface, so the leaves came out a very pale pink....which looked kinda nice, so I left it as it was!  They were embossed with clear embossing powder as well:

There's another beautiful sentiment in the Stitched All Around set, so I stamped that on the inside:

I have a wedding to attend in August, so I am well ahead with this card!  I hope you'll play with our pretty inspiration challenge, and make sure you check out the IB blog to see what the DT came up with!

Cassidy and my two great-nieces....ornery, all three!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Stitched All Around, Flower Garden (Tim Holtz), Paper Pumpkin
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Wood Textures DSP, Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet
Ink	Basic Black, Versamark, Melon Mambo
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Lower Case Alpha Dies (Papertrey), Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Copic Marker RV34

PP394 CAS Blooms and a Tutorial

Hi peeps!  Sunday brings us another Paper Players challenge with Laurie as our sweet hostess!  It's a Clean and Simple challenge...be sure to check out the PP blog to make sure you follow all the guidelines for "clean and simple"!!

For my card today, I chose a simple outline floral from Tim Holtz and stamped it in Stazon Black on some Papertrey Rustic White cardstock:

I loosely colored it with an aquapainter and some inks, then added a sentiment from Technique Tuesday and a little line of washi tape:

I also wanted to show you how I rounded the lower right hand corner of my card with a circle punch!  It's really easy to do!  On this card, I used a 1 3/8" SU circle punch; turn it to the back:

See the dark "groove" under the big silver outer portion of the punch?  That's where the paper slides into when you are punching:

Take the corner of your card and slide it into that groove as far as you can; see how it fits in there?

Very carefully punch!  Your corner will not be perfectly round, as you can see below, but it is easy to just trim it a wee bit to take off the edges at the top and bottom:

so it looks like this:

The less bulky your paper, the less trimming you'll have to do because you can get the corner into the punch more easily!  Practice on some scrap and you'll have it down pat in no time!  And you can use any size circle punch!  I did not come up with this idea, it was shown at convention several years ago!

I made another card with the same flower set, while I had it on my desk!  This time I spritzed some SU watercolor paper with water and Tangerine Tango ink, heat set it to dry it quickly and stamped a different floral on top.  I used some Simple Stories DSP for the background, mounted it on a Very Vanilla card, distressed the edges of my panel and added the same sentiment:

 

On the inside, I stamped the sentiment again in Smoky Slate, added another sentiment to it and stamped the flower again in Sahara Sand:

I used the Freshly Made Sketches sketch by my sweet friend Linda, and am also entering it in the Time Out Challenge, which is Inspired by Words:

I hope you'll play along with our CAS "Bloom" challenge this week!  Check out what the DT did as well:

·        Claire

·        Jaydee

·        Joanne

·        Laurie

·        Nance

·        Sandy

·        Elizabeth

·        Annie

·        Jan

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Flower Garden (Tim Holtz), So Blessed (Technique Tuesday), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Watercolor, Rustic White (Papertrey Ink),  Reset Girl (Simple Stories)
Ink	Stazon Black, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Really Rust (ret), Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Old Olive
Accessories	Pick a Pattern Washi Tape
Tools	Aquapainter, 1 3/8" Circle Punch