Thank You Veterans!

Thank you to all the veterans and active duty military (and families!) protecting freedom and democracy for the rest of us! Happy Veteran's Day! (And thanks to my awesome friend -and Air Force wife! - Jen for loaning me this great set!)



Supplies: Stamps - Greeting Farm Hero Ian, Papertrey Ink Let Freedom Ring
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Versamark Dazzle Diamond
Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White
Other - Copics (It's been a while so I'm not sure which ones, sorry!), pop dots

Fall Y'all

There's not much fall weather in Southeast Texas. We're running the heater today, but all this week we've had the air conditioner on. But we've been doing fall crafts and activities and it's been tons o' fun!

Here's a wreath I made. It's an 18 inch grapevine wreath, wide ribbon from my stash (bought last year 80% off), and felt roses and leaves. Finding the felt was the hard part. Everything else was easy. If you want make one, you cut circles out of the felt, then cut a spiral shape, and roll it up. (Betz White has a fantastic tutorial on a project using these roses so head to her site to see pictures. And, obviously, hers are far more fabulous than mine!) The leaves are just hand cut. The orange, yellow, and darker green felt are from Weir Crafts, btw. I really love how this wreath turned out!

Here's another project. I saw this tutorial from Sparkle Studio on One Pretty Thing. I loved it! I even found some of the canvases in my craft room so that sealed the deal. I'm not 100% crazy about how it turned out. (And my picture is awful, sorry about that.) Next time, I will use a glue with a precision tip for the edges and that should help a lot! It was really fun so there will be a next time. :) I think once the kids are old enough to be trusted with glitter they would have lots of fun with this!

These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are so yummy! They'd make a great Thanksgiving morning breakfast!

Pumpkin pie playdough was a big hit here. One whole hour of quiet after I made it. Unheard of! The neighbor kids all liked it, too. (I bet peppermint playdough would be fun for winter! Or gingerbread. Mmm.)

I hope you're having a fun fall!

Chirp, Chirp, Tweet, Tweet

If you recognize that then you spend way too much watching Nick Jr. just like me. ;) Today, I have a triple challenge card! I picked this sweet Crafty Secrets bird image (thanks Jaala!) for the SCS Hope You Can Cling To Cancer is for the Birds challenge. I've loved this set for a while so I'm excited to finally be playing with it! The sketch is from CPS. It's super cute! I was also inspired by this week's Tuesday Trigger, Sweater Weather.


I was inspired by the colors, the texture, and the overall cozy feeling.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - Crafty Secrets Bird Notes

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Ink Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo

Paper - Papertrey Ink Lemon Tart, kraft, Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla

Other -Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, yellow rhinestones, American Elements ribbon, sponge, Copics (Y00, Y11, Y15, YG93, YG95, B000), pop dots

Card Patterns Sketch 87

Woo hoo! I was very excited to find out this morning that my butterfly card was picked as one of the Moxie Fab Trigger Targets! So awesome!!! And, what made it even better, was my friend Tessa (Kraf*T*y Mama) was a Trigger Target, too! Yay!

Today's card uses Card Patterns Sketch 87. This is such a pretty sketch! I had a few ideas pop in my head for it, none of which are on this card. ;) It just sort of happened. I like how it turned out and it came together pretty quickly. Love when that happens! The sentiment is from an older Unity Kit of the Month. This was the only circle I had that would fit it so I inked the edges to give it some definition. The colors are Stampin' Up! Old Olive and retired In Color Soft Sky. I wish they'd bring Soft Sky back! The felt flower qualifies this for the Splitcoast Hope You Can Cling To Flower Power challenge. Off to MD Anderson at the end of the month. :) I tied the bow, but decided it was a little plain. Slipped the seam binding off and stamped the background with PTI Text Style in Antique Linen Distress Ink and that did the trick.

There's plenty of time for you to make a card with this week's sketch! Check it out at Card Patterns! Thanks for visiting!

Supplies: Stamps - Unity November 2008 Kit of the Month, Papertrey Ink Text Style

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Ink Walnut Stain and Antique Linen

Paper - Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Soft Stone

Other - Martha Stewart seam binding, Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream felt, Beautiful Blooms 2 Dies #1, Sweet Blush button, Marvy Giga circle punch

PTI October Blog Hop Challenge

It's Papertrey Blog Hop time again! This month's theme is right up my alley! The challenge is that since Christmas gets so much crafting attention to make a card for any winter holiday except Christmas. Hanukkah cards here I come! I made three cards for today's hop. They didn't all turn out exactly like I thought, but I figured I'd show them all anyway. ;)

The first card uses the Sunshine Impression plate which I absolutely love on Hanukkah cards and I'm not even sure why. Maybe the circles remind me of the glow from the candles? I dunno, but I like it! I think this one would be good for a guy. It's clean and kind of graphic. You could mass produce this card pretty easily. The dreidels don't take long to color and, if I cleaned the adhesive gunk off my scissors, would be easy to cut out.

The window idea I've had in my head for a while. It's a little more rustically (is that a word? and if it is, is that how you spell it?) imperfect than I had intended, but still cute. The wood frame and shutters are kraft cardstock run through the woodgrain impression plate and sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Then I handcut the shapes and added some outlines with a Copic multiliner. The menorah is outlined with a Sakura Stardust pen, but I'm not sure if clear or silver. I wish those things were labeled. The window itself is a square of office transparency. All held together by scor-tape then popped up.

I wanted to make a card with an untraditional color scheme, but I didn't really have any ideas and it was getting late so I ended up casing my own card layout from Holiday Cards and More. Kind of embarrassing, but I think the colors make it different enough from the original that I don't feel too bad. I also wanted a more light-hearted greeting to go with the offbeat colors and in the end this is what I came up with. I want some really cute and fun sentiments for Hanukkah, anyone with me? (And, out of curiousity, am I the only person to have lost several of my Simple Alphabet letters? I'm going to need a new set before long to spell anything!) The candles are a cuttlebug embossing folder that is supposed to be for birthdays but has so far only been used for Hanukkah. I blinged them up with some Shimmerz paint.

Thanks so much for looking and I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with! Check out all the creations from Nichole's blog.

Supplies:

Dreidel card

Stamps - Papertrey Mazel Tov

Ink - Memento Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black

Paper - Papertrey white, Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue, GinaK Pure Luxury Good as Gold

Other - Copics (B21, B23, B24, B000, 0), Bic Mark It Midnight Navy, Sakura Stardust pen gold, Papertrey Sunshine Impression plate, Long Rectangle Nestabilities dies, pop dots

Window card

Stamps - Papertrey Mazel Tov

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Vintage Photo

Paper - Papertrey kraft, white, Enchanted Evening

Other - Copics (Y15, YR16, B23), Papertrey Woodgrain Impression plate, office transparency, Sakura Stardust pen, Copic multiliner, 1/8" scor-tape, pop dots

Delightful card

Stamps - Papertrey Mazel Tov, Simple Alphabet

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Vivid Raspberry

Paper - Papertrey Ripe Avocado, Aqua Mist, Raspberry Fizz, white

Other - Copics (Y17, Yg93, YG95), Birthday Wishes Cuttlebug embossing folder, Pixie Dust Shimmerz Blingz paint, pop dots

Tuesday Trigger

I got to play this week's Tuesday Trigger challenge! Isn't this a great inspiration piece! I love the vignetting in the photograph and the monochromatic feel.

I don't have any spooky stamps, but I think it works on a birthday card. Yeah, I guess I do have a slightly dark sense of humor to make a birthday card inspired by a graveyard. :)

The vines were made with a Tim Holtz mask that I bought (under $3) after seeing a card Melanie Muenchinger made with it on her blog. That was over 6 months ago and this is my first time to use it. (Yes, I'm lame like that.) Love the effect! You just stick it down and sponge over it. (I use an art sponge cut in quarters on things like this and save the sponge daubers for cards that need smoother results.) The butterfly from GinaK Hope Is Faith is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics then sprayed with Vanilla Smooch Spray for a subtle shimmer.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Hope Is Faith, Sew Pretty (sentiment)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Soot Black

Paper - Papertrey Ink Soft Stone, True Black, Georgia-Pacific White (for coloring)

Other - Copics (B000, C0, C1, C3, N5, C7), Cutterbee scissors, Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Tim Holtz mask, sponge

Double Challenge Cards

So I'm back on a spending freeze. I have a couple of planned purchases, but, otherwise, back on the wagon. Jaala (The Witch Crafts) started one and I decided to jump back in with her. No craft shopping until we make 50 projects. She came up with the added rule that if it isn't blogged, sent, or given away it doesn't count. Oh my! That definitely complicates things! You may be seeing lots more of me in the near future. I really like to shop. :) On that note, I got to make a couple of double challenge cards! Always fun to kill two birds with one stone. Well, metaphorically anyway.

The first card uses the StampTV color challenge: red, chartreuse, and black. It's very striking. Remember me posting that Melanie Muenchinger was giving one of her new stamp sets away on her blog a few weeks ago? I won! I've been itching to use it and have other things I had to finish up. Splitcoast has a Hope You Can Cling To challenge to use something old and something new. Obviously, the stamps are new and I'm pretty sure everything else is at least a year old. Now, I will admit, I'm not that awesome at 2 step stamping. I need to just play with this set to really get a good feel for it. I love it, though, and I can't wait to try another card with it. I did stamp the flowers on a cardstock scrap so I could get the placement right this time. And so I didn't have to be super careful coloring. ;) On the jar, I outlined the glass with B000 and then tried to color in some water with C0. I'm not sure about the water. It seems like it should be there, but doesn't look right. Thoughts?

The second card is for the StampTV sketch challenge and the Hope You Can Cling To challenge to make a vintage card. I love this stamp set. Love. It. I had fun coloring her dress. I don't own a lot of pink Copics so I don't do a lot of pink coloring, but I tried R00, R20, and R22 and it worked pretty well! Isn't this a cute sketch? I might try it again sometime!

Floral Jar Card: Stamps - GinaK Buds and Vases

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Stampin' Up! Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Georgia-Pacific White

Other - Copics (R22, R24, R29, YG03, YG06, YG09, YG95, B000, C0, Y15), Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, pop dots

Sew Vintage card: Stamps - GinaK Sew Pretty

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Palette Charcoal, Distress Ink Tattered Rose

Paper - Georgia-Pacific white, Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush, Soft Stone, Stampin' Up! Basic Gray, Basic Grey Bittersweet

Other - Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush button, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Nestabilities Ovals and Scalloped Ovals dies, sponge