IB136 For Real

So, confession time.....I messed up my Inspired By post earlier today by sharing with you NEXT WEEK's inspiration!  So upsetting!  My teammate Michele encouraged me to go ahead and create a card for this week anyway, despite the fact that my mojo was in the tank!  And guess what....I made a card in about ten minutes!  So here is the REAL inspiration for this week:

Anyone remember the movie Endless Summer?  It came out in 1966; I definitely remember those graphics, but I never saw the movie!  I just used my one and only surfer image a couple of weeks back, so I didn't want to use him again, but my friend Amy just bought the Sailing Home stamps and dies and was looking for inspiration, so I decided to use the sailboat die for my graphic-design card:

I sort of used the sketch, although I wasn't really trying!  I simply cut layers of Poppy Parade and Magenta Madness to fit my card front and added a big Daffodil Delight "sun". I diecut the sailboat from Basic Black and the "enjoy" is from the retired Mini Treat Bag dies.  I did do a wee bit of stamping on the water and added some seagulls from Sailing Home:

I think this will make a great masculine birthday card...I am so glad Michele "made" me make a card for this week...thanks, Michele!  I hope you'll play along with our pretty summer inspiration this week at Inspired By!  And thank YOU for stopping by!  

What I did with my free time today....dill relish!  Only had four big cucumbers and there are NO LIDS AND SEALS to be found in my area....had to scrounge around my cupboards just to make these jars!

I guess I should be glad that canning has been so popular this summer!  Who remembers the "pop" the jars would make as they cooled off...a sure sign of a good seal!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sailing Home, Gorgeous Grunge (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Basic Black, Poppy Parade, Magenta Madness, Daffodil Delight
Ink	Poppy Parade, Memento Black
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circles Dies, Smooth Sailing Dies

TTTC76 Vintage Ephemera

Hi peeps, thanks for stopping by again today....this time for the latest Tic Tac Toe challenge!!  Here's our grid for this week from Team X:

and I chose the middle row down: number, square and pencil because I LOVE this stamp featuring a  row of vintage pencils!!!  Check it out:

AND, I love this row of vintage numbers too!  I stamped these in Early Espresso on an old piece of SU DSP, and the sentiment on a piece of Bumblebee DSP, cut out with a Tasteful Label die:

The pencils were stamped, colored with markers and fussy cut and then both strips were adhered to a piece of Echo Park paper called This and That:

Since it is a masculine birthday card, the only other embellishment that I added was two "stitched lines embossed on the left and top edges....I really like that effect!  Both sentiments are from Unity; here's the one stamped on the inside of the Bermuda Bay square card:

And since it was a large card, I also made my own envelope for it using SU's retired Punch Board!  I hope you'll play along with our Tic Tac Toe challenge this week...it's a great one for kids going back to school...in real time or virtually!  Let them know you're thinking of them!  And thanks for popping in today!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Pencils, Numbers (Lost Coast Design---I think!), For the Guys (Unity)
Card stock & Papers	Bermuda Bay, Bumblebee DSP, This and That (Echo Park), Misc SU DSP
Ink	Early Espresso
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tasteful Labels Dies, Stitching Lines (Ellen Hutson)

Bright and Happy Birthday

Hi there, stampers!  Phew, what a day we had yesterday!  There was flooding everywhere!  We got lots of wind and tons of rain....blessedly, no damage but we spent the evening picking up lots of branches!  I snuck into my stamp room last night and made a quick, simple little birthday card using the TSOT sketch and the HSS colors:

I pulled out the new Little Treats set and some Coastal Cabana DSP, cutting it to fit the sketch.   So here we go:

I stamped the gift from set three times, once in each color, and fussy-cut them before I remembered that I actually have a DIE to cut them out, LOL!   I'll remember next time!

I mounted them on a stitched circle, and added a Magenta Madness border, diecut with an Ornate Borders die.  The sentiment on the front is from Many Mates, the inside sentiment is from Little Treats as well:

Thanks for stopping by today!  And here are the last of my birthday cards; this one is from Renita:

From Billie:

From Debbie:

From Elaine:

And from my Inspired By teammate, Michele:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Little Treats, Many Mates
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Magenta Madness, Coastal Cabana DSP
Ink	Magenta Madness, Coastal Cabana, Bumblebee
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Ornate Borders Dies

Peaceful Christmas

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Hope you're safe and sound if you're on the east coast....we certainly don't need the trials of a hurricane amidst all our other issues!  I think stamping is a good way to take our minds off things, don't you?  I found an interesting sketch at the Christmas Card Throwdown, and the Jingle Belles want us to use up our holiday "leftovers"!

I have a LOT of scraps!!!  I rummaged a few scraps of Wrapped in Plaid DSP pieces from last year, along with some gold glimmer paper to start my card today; speaking of glimmer paper, this is my bag of glimmer paper scraps....I save every teeny weeny piece, because they're good for little stars, or hearts, or anything!  

So here's my "leftovers" card:

I used a new-to-me Altenew die to cut out four ornaments (and gold glimmer paper tops) from the plaid DSPs.  I arranged them on a card a wee bit wider than 4 1/4" square and then added a banner and sentiment:

Another scrap of gold foil paper was embossed with the (retired) Tufted embossing folder and adhered to the bottom; it looked a little plain, so I added some Cherry Cobbler twine, using the "one-hole bow" method so that it won't slide off.  You can see a tutorial HERE. 

Another Christmas card for my stash!  Thanks so much for popping in today!

Cassidy passed her written karate test with a score of 100%!  Woohoo!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Festive Silhouettes (Altenew)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Gold Glimmer, Gold Foil, Wrapped in Plaid DSP (ret)
Ink	Cherry Cobbler
Accessories	Cherry Cobbler Twine (ret), Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Bitty Banners Die (ret), Tufted EF (ret), Festive Silhouettes Dies (Altenew)

Daisy Thanks

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend! We went to a birthday party and just puttered around the house for the rest of the weekend!  I did get a wee bit of stamping time last night for a couple of challenges!  The first one uses the Fab Friday sketch:

This sketch has lots of possibilities; I needed a thank you card for a customer and thought it would be great to use some of the Flowers for All Seasons DSP....you can whip up an impressive card in a heartbeat with those beautiful papers!  So here we go:

I started with an embossed Blushing Bride card base and diecut the DSP with the largest Stitched Rectangle die, only catching the die on the bottom and right sides of the DSP.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment on a piece of Just Jade DSP, cut it with a smaller Stitched Rectangle die and added some floral images from All Things Fabulous, "tied" with some gingham ribbon:

I switched seasons for my second card; it uses the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches, and the color inspiration from TGIF:

I used the green plaid as my inspiration, stamping a gingham background in Old Olive on a Pear Pizzazz card base to start out my Halloween card.  

The images are from Banner Year, stamped in Memento Black, Gray Granite, Smoky Slate, and Pumpkin Pie, layered on a stitched circle; the spider die (which is really cool!) is from the Little Treat Box dies:

There is a sweet little die in the Fabulous Florals dies that creates this cool filigree design; I layered it  in Basic Black along the diagonal plaid lines and stamped the "boo" sentiment from Banner Year in Pumpkin Pie:

It's really too hot outside to think about Halloween, but stamping something fun and spooky is okay!  

We attended a small surprise 30th birthday party for my niece Paige on Saturday; I rarely get any pictures but I did get a cheesy picture of Jameson, showing off his new Chuck Taylor sneakers (and check out the hand-made card for Aunt Paige!):

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

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Many Mates, All Things Fabulous
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Flowers for All Seasons DSP, Just Jade DSP
Ink	Craft White, Poppy Parade, Just Jade
Accessories	Flowers for All Seasons Gingham Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Fabulous Florals Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Greenery EF

Second Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Banner Year, Gingham Background (Concord and 9th)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Basic Black, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie
Ink	Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Memento Black, Gray Granite, Old Olive
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Little Treat Box Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Fabulous Florals Die, Early Espresso Marker

PP502 Love and Laughter

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge with mother-of the groom Laurie as our hostess:

This one had me stumped a little bit, as we don't go to many weddings at our age, and my anniversary is in January, although I do have a niece and nephew that are still single....anyway, it's always good to have something lovey-dovey on hand!  So here we go:

I started with the Case This Sketch sketch for this week:

and the stamps I chose were the tree from the new upcoming set called Life is Beautiful, along with a sentiment from Forever Fern.  First, I stamped the tree in Cinnamon Cider on a Very Vanilla card base as well as a piece of Crumb Cake DSP:

The wee little tips of the outer branches extend beyond the DSP, so I wanted the whole tree to show.  I searched through some old Paper Pumpkin Valentine stamps and found some hearts, and stamped them in Real Red, Merry Merlot and Cherry Cobbler, then diecut a cardstock heart in each of the same colors for my accents.

The sentiment was stamped in Cherry Cobbler and diecut with a stitched die from Ornate Layers...such a versatile set!  I left the inside blank so I can add an appropriate sentiment when the occasion arises!

I hope you'll play along with our challenge this week!  Be sure to stop by the Paper Players blog to see the lovely creations the other designers made!

A few more birthday cards!

From Linda:

and Robyn:

and Martha:

From Wendy:

and from Colleen:

All so pretty!  Thanks ladies, I love them all!  And thank you for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Forever Fern, Life is Beautiful, Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Merry Merlot, Crumb Cake DSP
Ink	Cinnamon Cider, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Merry Merlot
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Be Mine Dies, Outline Shapes Dies (Simon Says Stamp)

HSS344 Thanks

Happy Saturday, peeps!  And happy August!  We had a rainy day yesterday and I was really, really lazy, LOL!  I did manage to get one card made for the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge:

I needed a thank you card, and was anxious to use some of the Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP, so here's what I created:

After choosing my papers, I cut and adhered them to a Very Vanilla card base and embossed the "thank you" from Beautiful Autumn on a piece of Early Espresso.  The embossing is a challenge to see; here's a "tilted" view....in hindsight, I think I should have done this on a piece of Crumb Cake, but it's already in the mail!  Maybe I'll do a retake!

I diecut it with a Tasteful Labels Die and popped up a little gathering of foliage on a circle above it:

I used images from Forever Fern and Beautiful Autumn as well as dies from Christmas Cardinal and Forever Flourishing to create my sprigs, and tied them all together with some Linen Thread.  I love these colors together and the papers, with their gold accents, are just beautiful!  Thanks for popping in today!

I do have more birthday cards to share, but I'll share just one today; this one was from Cassidy.  She made it at home (apparently there are some leftover craft supplies from Wayne's stepdaughter still there!) and Wayne told her to put some thought into it, so here it is:

The front flap:

another flap:

and two "arms" that fold inward to give me a hug!  Isn't that cute!!  I will treasure this one!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Autumn, Forever Fern
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP
Ink	Terracotta Tile, Mint Macaron, Versamark
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Gold Embossing Powder, Faux Suede Trim
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Tasteful Labels Dies, Christmas Cardinal Dies, Forever Flourishing Dies, Blender Pen, Heat Tool