Merry Monday 93

Hi everyone!  It’s Monday, and that means Merry Monday!  Today, Lesley has a fun challenge:

As usual, I was not happy with my first vintage-style creation; it took me waaaaay longer than it should have, so after I finished it, I went in a totally different direction:

My issue was that I don’t have many ornament stamps—a couple, but I just wanted something different.  Then I remembered my ornament punch from the Merry Mini punch pack, so I punched out a few and strung them on some baker’s twine:

The red, silver and gold ones are all from SU’s glimmer paper, but the colored ones were punched from cardstock that had been covered with SU’s adhesive sheet and sprinkled with some Martha Stewart glitter.  I just love these colors!  The sentiment is from AmyR Stamps, Handy Christmas Greetings, and the card base is Pistachio Pudding.

I hope that you will stop by the Merry Monday Christmas card blog to see the amazing cards that the other designers created….and share your card with us too!  It’s a great way to get a head start on your card stash for 2014!

We have had so much snow lately, I thought it would be fun to make some “snow ice cream” after seeing it somewhere online.  So we sent Grampy out to get some snow and mixed it with milk, sugar and vanilla:

Stir, stir, stir…..

And then the tasting:

Not too bad….it was more like ice milk than ice cream, but between the two of us, we ate the whole thing!!!!

And when it melted, we drank it like a milkshake!

The recipe we used can be found HERE.  Enjoy your day!

Paper Players 180

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Are you staying warm?  Brrrr, it is still cold here in PA and I am trying to stay warm in my little stamping haven!  Ann is our hostess today for the Paper Players with this fun sketch:

That little tag peeking out could be used for so many things!  I made two birthday cards for today, this one is the feminine version:

I hadn’t done a vintage card for a while, so I pulled out a bunch of sets and did some collage stamping in Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Gold Encore, and mounted it on a piece of Brushed Gold cardstock for my pocket.  You can’t see it too well, but I also stamped the Fresh Prints polka-dotted paper with the retired Floral background stamp!  And here’s my tag for the pocket, made with the Scallop Tag Topper punch:

I also embossed the tag with the Adorning Accents heart folder, diecut the sentiment with a Chalk Talk die, and stamped the background in gold with the French script from Nature Walk (retired):

For a final metallic touch, I wrapped the pocket and added a pull using the Gold Baker’s Twine available in the Occasions mini!  And here’s the inside:

For the masculine version, I used some Fresh Prints papers:

using a couple of fun birthday sets, the Tasteful Trim die and some embossing folders and punches!

I hope you will play along with our fun sketch and be sure to check out what the Players came up with….they are AMAZING!!!

• Ann
• Anne Marie
• Jaydee
• Nance
• Sandy

A few more snow pix:

She is obsessed with eating the snow…good thing we have no pets!  Enjoy your day!

Wee Project Details First Card
Stamps	Chalk Talk, Blooming with Kindness, Creative Elements, Nature Walk, Established Elegance, Floral Background (last three retired)
Card stock & Papers	Cherry Cobbler, Gold Brushed, Whisper White, Fresh Prints DP
Ink	Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Gold Encore
Accessories	Gold Baker's Twine, Gold Brads
Tools	Big Shot, Circle Punches, Scallop Tag Topper Punch,  Nestabilities Scallop Die, Adorning Accent Embossing Folder, Sponges, Dimensionals

Wee Project Details Second Card
Stamps	Label Love, Let's Celebrate
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Whisper White, Fresh Prints DP
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Red Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Candy Dots
Tools	Big Shot, Chevron EF, Tasteful Trim Die, Scallop Tag Topper Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Chalk Talk Die, Dimensionals

Valentine Just for Fun

Just a quick post today, a card I made just for fun!  This little Mary Engelbreit “love” stamp was a gift from a special friend, and I hadn’t had a chance to use it yet!  I had a piece of Birthday Basics DP with a circle cut out of it, so I put it to use to make this card:

I found a random piece of plain DP and embossed it with last year’s Vine Street EF from SAB, then mounted it on a Pistachio Pudding card.  It’s such a pretty color and I am looking forward to using it more this spring!  I stamped the image in Stazon on Confetti White and used a blender pen and ink to color it in, then added lots of glitter!!!

I finished it with the Valentine sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes, a Crisp Cantaloupe Boutique Detail embellishment, and another SAB freebie from last year, some satin ribbon!  Enjoy!

Cassidy had a sleepover the other night….and she came out of the tub as a “burrito”!!!

MIM and LIM

Happy Thursday, everyone!  A couple cards today; the Less Is More challenge this week is baby cards, so I made a simple one:

I hope that big bow doesn’t disqualify it, but it was so cute, I couldn’t help adding it to my Zoo Babies elephant!  The bow was made with the Envelope Punch Board, the video can be found here.  I did make my tail a little longer than she recommended, but it’s entirely your choice!  The gingham is a digital paper, and the sentiment is from the retired SU set, Sweet Little Sentiments.

My next one is for The Kraft Journal’s challenge, the Winter Blues.  I used some Crafty Secret digital papers from their Retro Christmas line on a Crumb Cake card base:

I can’t remember where the sentiment is from (also digital), and the Crumb Cake snowflake is from Taylored Expressions, run through the Big Shot with an Adhesive sheet and glittered up with some Martha Stewart Antique Silver glitter.  Some twine and narrow gingham finished it off!

Enjoy your day!

We had about 8” of snow on Tuesday, and Cassidy couldn’t wait to go outside to play in it!  Unfortunately, it was about 5 degrees out, so our playtime was short:

She needs a little practice on those snow angels!

A Plethora of Projects

Happy Wednesday peeps! Wow, did we get hit with some snow yesterday…thank goodness for 4-wheel drive vehicles!!  I spent some time stamping, although these I had made over the weekend to show at my downline meeting.  I promise that I do have some cards made with other than Retro Fresh, but for now, you’ll have to see these!  This is a little birthday gift set, using the Circle Card Thinlits, the Let’s Celebrate stamp set, and the new Sale-a-Bration set, See Ya Later:

The card uses that pretty stretch ruffled ribbon from SU, which keeps the card together nicely:

and here’s the inside:

I wanted to show my downline some cool things made with the Envelope Punch Board, and I found this video showing how to make a 4x4 gift box;  I resized my cardstock to 6x6” and scored it at 2 3/4” and 3 1/4” to make a smaller box, which I decorated with a panel stamped with See Ya Later and topped with a Scallop Tag Topper punch and that cool twine that’s also available during SAB:

And inside, I made 4 little note cards and included envelopes as well:

The sentiment is from the photopolymer set, Another Thank You, and the flower is from the SAB set, Banner Blast.  I gave a lot of my sets some lovin’ with this project!  Thanks for visiting today!

Another jammie pic!

And note the farm people/animal lineup!!!

ColourQ 225

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  We are supposed to get a significant snowfall today, so I am hoping to stay inside and stamp!  Not really…I have a ton of errands to do….but maybe they can wait!  Arielle really threw me for a loop with these colors she chose today:

I made two other cards before finally deciding on this one, which still doesn’t really float my boat, but I decided to quit while I was ahead!!!

I used the (CAS)e This Sketch sketch #60:

although I am not sure it’s really CAS…..maybe a little bit!  Anyway, I used dies from MFT and W+9 and the sentiment is from SU’s Pennant Parade:

Here is my second card…I'm not even going to post the very first one!!!

A more traditional image and sentiment….I am sure I’ll find a good use for it!  I can’t wait to see what you create with these colors….I find when the colors are challenging to me, I am anxious to see how other stampers interpret them!  Check out what we all did at the ColourQ blog!

Cassidy has started coming to our house in the morning in her jammies!  Here she is waving goodbye to mommy as she goes out the driveway!

Enjoy your day!

First Wee Project Details
Stamps	Pennant Parade
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Patterns Calypso Coral DP
Ink	Calypso Coral
Accessories	Early Espresso Stitched Ribbon, Pearls, Floss
Tools	Big Shot, Dots EF, Pretty Patches Tree Die (W+9), Blueprints 6 Dienamics Die (My Favorite Things)

Second Wee Project Details
Stamps	Everything Eleanor, Blessings from Heaven, Gorgeous Grunge
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Basic Grey DP
Ink	Chocolate Chip, Calypso Coral, Always Artichoke
Accessories	Pearls, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding
Tools	Big Shot, Circle and Circle Scallop Nestabilities, Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers

Merry Monday 92

Hi peeps!  Another Merry Monday is upon us; here’s the challenge for this week:

I didn’t even realize until I made up my post, how close to the challenge photo my card actually was!  I knew I wanted to use this new Unity stamp, and I had some pretty cardinal stickers, so I pulled one out and put them all together on some MME Christmas paper:

I added a doily which I dabbed in my Very Vanilla ink pad, then a tiny sliver of red glimmer paper:

and added a little gingham ribbon above my “Wonder” sentiment:

Love it!  I hope you do too, and you’ll play along with us and the other designers at the Merry Monday Christmas Card challenge blog.  We just can’t wait to see what you create!

Story time.....

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Silhouette Song Bird (Unity), Holiday Greetings (Sweet & Sassy)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Lost & Found Christmas (MME)
Ink	Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories	Cardinal Sticker (Recollections), Doily, Gingham Ribbon
Tools