Lots of Love At Christmas

Happy Monday, peeps!  Did you have a good weekend?  Hope so!  I have been neglecting this uber-cute Let It Snow DSP...maybe I'm just subconsciously hoarding it, LOL!  It is SO sweet!  The Just Us Girls challenge this week is to use designer paper (got lots of that!) and the Christmas Card Throwdown challenge has a great sketch:

   

So here we go:

I used one sheet of DSP; the snowy paper is the opposite side of the tree paper...how convenient!  I love how they coordinate the patterns that way!  I snipped out a couple of the trees from under the circular image and layered them on top and added a Glimmer paper star:

The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Christmas, stamped and embossed in white on Call Me Clover cardstock; when I posted the photo, I realized that the little trees in the background of the DSP were actually Shaded Spruce, but I had already spent time inking and embossing that sentiment, so I wasn't going to change it....but it would have looked better with the darker green, LOL!  Anyway, it's a fun little card, I love these little sparkly trees, and the colors are bright and fun too!  Thanks for popping in today!

Cassidy wanted to match Wayne's shirt that he wore to church yesterday; it's hard to see, but it's black and orange checked plaid (Flyer's colors, of course!), so Cassidy wore an orange and dark blue striped shirt....she is NOT into girly clothes at all these days, but she did look cute!  And see that guy way, way in the background?  That's Grampy!!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Christmas
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Call Me Clover, Let It Snow Specialty DSP, Sparkle Glimmer
Ink	Craft White
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circles Dies, Small Star Punch (ret)

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

FMS409 Crafty Hello

Happy Saturday, peeps!  A quick post today, lots to do!  I had a gazillion ideas for the FMS sketch this week, but my mojo must be on vacation, because I just couldn't make anything work!  In the end, I chucked all my autumn ideas and pulled out It Starts With Art to make an almost-one-layer card!  Here's the sketch, first:

And here's my card:

I used Thick White cardstock, stamping all the images in Stazon Black, then watercolored them with an aquapainter and some ink; a few reinkers to start:

You can't see it here, but all the sequins are brushed with Wink of Stella to give them a shine:

And finally, some spools of ribbon!

It will be going in the mail real soon!  Thanks for popping in today!

It's school picture time!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	It Starts With Art, Here's A Card, Itty Bitty Backgrounds (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Thick White
Ink	Stazon Black, Mango Melody, Real Red, Crushed Curry, Highland Heather, Pacific Point, Call Me Clover, Smoky Slate, Flirty Flamingo, Balmy Blue, Blushing Bride
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Arts & Crafts Dies, Aquapainter

TCC120 Country Cottage Sympathy

Happy Friday, peeps!  Yay, it finally feels like fall around here--what a beautiful day it is, cool and crisp!  Do you have some fun weekend plans?  I haven't quite decided yet to do, but I do have some cards to get ready for an upcoming stamp class, so I know I'll be working on that!  

The Card Concept had a wonderful photo inspiration challenge:

I love this cottage style, especially these colors, but when I sat down to stamp something, my ideas fell flat.  I finally ended up letting some beautiful Authentique papers do most of the work for my vintage shabby chic-style sympathy card:

My father's only sibling, his brother Dave, passed away in Florida yesterday.  He and my dad hadn't seen each other for many, many years, but in his last days, in his confusion, he wanted to see Jim.  So sad that he didn't get to see my dad before he passed away.  So this card is for my aunt and her two daughters, my cousins Nancy and Bonnie...we spent many, many hours together in childhood, growing up next to each other and camping at the Delaware beaches.  I loved this paper, but it is 6x6" and I wanted to capture both sides with the butterflies, so I cut the paper in half and covered the seam with another piece of polka dotted paper, diecut with a scalloped edge die, then added a pretty grosgrain ribbon for accent.  I diecut two panels from the Stitched Nested Labels dies and stamped a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings in Night of Navy on top:

My final accent was a vellum butterfly on which I dabbed some So Saffron ink, added a couple of pearls and swished it with a Wink of Stella for shine...it's very pretty!  Thanks for popping in today!

On a happier note, Wayne attended the Eastern Produce Conference yesterday--their theme was a tailgate party, which made my Philly-team-lover son-in-law happy (see his Eagles shirt?!).  While he was there, he met Vince Papale...he was a well-loved Eagles wide receiver, and was the inspiration for the 2006 movie Invincible:

He was a happy boy!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Greetings
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Subtles DSP, Vellum, Genuine DSP, Original DSP (both Authentique)
Ink	Night of Navy, So Saffron
Accessories	So Saffron Grosgrain (ret), Pearl
Tools	Big Shot, Be Mine Dies,  Stitched Nested Labels Dies, Small Butterfly Punch (ret), Wink of Stella Pen

IB92 Truck Full of Pumpkins

Happy Thursday, peeps!  It's time for another Inspired By challenge--Laurel always comes up with beautiful inspiration photos!  Here's my take on her challenge today:  a truck full of pumpkins!

And here is her inspiration:

  

The vintage truck theme is wildly popular these days, but usually it's a RED truck, so I was excited to see this tan truck!!  My mind immediately went to the old SU stamp called Loads of Love, but apparently, I got rid of the Accessories set, which had pumpkins in it!  So I turned to another set called Countryside...it had a perfect vintage truck, but it had the word "apples" on the tailgate and the baskets inside are full of apples...SO....I need you all to put on your imagination hats and pretend that these apples are actually those little baby pumpkins...you can do it!!  Check it out:

I began by stamping my truck with Stazon ink on SU's watercolor paper and using my aquapainter to color it in.  I cut a little scrap piece to fit over the tailgate to hide the word apples...betcha couldn't tell that from the photo, could you?  It blended very well!   After watercoloring it, I diecut it with a Nested Label die, then added a sentiment from an old Impressions Obsession stamp and diecut it as well:

I mounted it on a piece of woodgrain paper, then on a Pear Pizzazz card, and stamped an image and sentiment on the inside:

I am also entering this in Happy Little Stamper's October watercolor challenge!!  

I need lots of masculine birthday cards this month and I am really low, so this will go into my stash!  I hope this fun photo will challenge you to make a card too--share it with us at the Inspired By blog!  See you there!  And thanks for popping in today!

So here's the outfit for Wacky Wednesday (and the wacky ham that's wearing it!):

And the wacky hair:

 Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Countryside (ret), Autumn, Autumn Squares (both Impression Obsession), Watercolor Wishes (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Pear Pizzazz, Watercolor, Cajun Craze, Thankful Heart DSP (Recollections)
Ink	Stazon Black, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Gray Granite, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Balmy Blue
Accessories	Old Olive Linen Thread, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Nested Labels Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched Banner Die (Reverse Confetti), Aquapainter

Wonderfully Wicked Trio

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  The middle of the week...a steamy day here, then a huge temp drop tomorrow...I am READY for fall!  Today I have a couple of Halloween cards using the current Wonderfully Wicked set!  The first one uses the Try Stampin' On Tuesday sketch (I used the sketch only) and the Rainbow Card color challenge:

I used a Stitched Shape square die to diecut three squares from a panel of Basic Black, then stamped the three images on white with Black Stazon and the cobwebs with Smoky Slate:

I added a sentiment from A Wish for Everything, and a triple-layer diecut from Well-Written dies, with the top layer made from the last little piece of black glimmer paper I had in my stash:

I added a few little silver glimmer stars, then mounted everything on a piece of distressed cobwebby paper!

And this is the card we made on Saturday with my hostess and her friends:

And here's the inside pop-up part!  Fun!

Thanks for popping in today!

This is spirit week at Cassidy's school; yesterday was Western day:

 Today is Wacky Wednesday...I wonder what she'll wear??  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Wonderfully Wicked, A Wish for Everything
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Brights DSP, Silver Glimmer Paper, Black Glimmer Paper (ret), Nightfall DSP (Authentique)
Ink	Stazon Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Layering Squares Dies, Well-Written Dies, Star Die (Verve), Bitty Banners Dies (ret), Aquapainter (for distressing)

FF173 Punkin Pillow Inspired

Happy Tuesday, all!  A couple of weeks ago, I bought this 10" felt pillow at a church yard sale for fifty cents:

It was in a little rough shape, but I cleaned it up and put it on my chair as a sweet little fall decoration...I love it, especially for the price!  I got to thinking how fun it would be to re-create it on a card, so I went to work:

I started with the Fab Friday sketch:

I did not have any cardstock that was the warm tan color I wanted, so I brayered a piece of Very Vanilla with Crumb Cake ink (and wished I had gotten a little more even color), then using my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped a little stitch line in Memento Black all around the edges.  My pumpkin is a past Close to My Heart stamp, inked in Terracotta Tile and stamped on the same color paper.  I markered in some stitching lines to mimic the pillow, then diecut some Mossy Meadow leaves, punched out some Crushed Curry berries, and added some stamped stitched lines for vines:

I also added a couple little "vines" below, diecut from Mossy Meadow as well.  My sentiment was stamped on Crumb Cake, diecut with a banner die and sponged with Soft Suede ink.  I added a birthday sentiment and greenery from Botanical Bliss on the inside:

I kinda like how it turned out!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Botanical Bliss, Christmas Quilt (ret), Stitched Borders, Autumn Wishes (both Close to My Heart), Mixed Creative Sentiments (My Creative Time)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Terracotta Tile, Very Vanilla, Mossy Meadow, Crushed Curry
Ink	Memento Black, Terracotta Tile, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Flower Dies (My Favorite Things), Bitty Banners Dies (ret), Patterned Pumpkins Dies (ret), 1/4" Hole Punch, Basic Black and Early Espresso Markers