Seriously?

Can you believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving and then Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year with Christmas just a few weeks after that?! My husband and I enjoy all of the hustle and bustle of Black Friday shopping but if you like to shop in your jammies- i {heart} papers is having a sale!

On your marks, get set, SHOP!!

stamps: Chubby Chum Pals, Slang Gang (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: cherry cobbler, very vanilla (SU!); Down By the Shore DP (Fancy Pants)

accessories: Spectrum Noir markers; scallop border punch (Fiskars); Word Bubbles die (Paper Smooches)

Hugs

Hello friends! Today I have a nontraditional sympathy card to share with you. A friend of mine lost her brother earlier this week after a very short illness. It is always hard to lose a family member but I can't image how hard it must be at this time of year and so quickly after his diagnosis. He was in the entertainment business and had oodles of friends and there are tons of tributes and remembrances of him all over the Minneapolis music community. I know the family is grieving but they have so many wonderful memories and so many people have shared such fabulous things about him and his "stardom" that I thought this card was appropriate.

Thanks so very much for stopping by. I'm off to tidy the house and make my grocery list for Thanksgiving dinner :)

stamps: We Connect (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: basic black, very vanilla (SU!); Say Cheese (Simple Stories)

accessories: scallop border punch (Fiskars); banner trio die, star die (WPlus9); chick yellow felt (True Felt); button (SU!); yellow twine (Hemptique)

Grateful Heart

Happy weekend friends! I have been busy, busy with the new house getting everything ready for the holiday season and thus, my stamping has been neglected (if you hadn't noticed!) I think we are pretty well settled in, the pictures are on the walls, most of my closets are organized, all of the addresses have been changed (I think). . .there is still work to be done in the garage- to get all 3 of our vehicles in there before winter hits, and the basement still has about 8 boxes that need to be unpacked, but things are looking up! My craft room is a different story! Yesterday I unpacked 2 very large boxes of SU! stamps and organized them on my shelves. It was fun to go through them and I have a few sets picked out to stamp with this weekend but there are still about 6 boxes left of "supplies" that I'm not sure what to do with. . .

I can't complain, we are so thankful for this beautiful new (to us) home, and all of our "stuff" that goes in it! We are hosting Thanksgiving this year with my husbands family and my family will be here for Christmas and we are just delighted to share our home with our guests! 

This little sentiment from Reverse Confetti truly fits our Thanksgiving season! The DP is from Echo Park and the acrylic dots are form Doodlebug Designs.

Thanks for stopping by!

stamps: Forever Fall (Reverse Confetti)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko); really rust (SU!)

paper: crushed curry, basic black, very vanilla (SU!); Reflections Fall DP (Echo Park)

accessories: fishtail flags (MFT); black twine (Hemptique); black acrylic dots (Doodlebug Designs)

Hippo Birdie

Hello friends! Happy Friday!

Popping in with a quick creation this afternoon. I always need birthday cards for my stash so when I find a good sketch (like this week's Deconstructed Sketch) I tend to create a few cards at the same time all with the same layout!

I used an image and sentiment from Avery Elle and some DP from Fancy Pants. My hippo and birdie are colored with my Spectrum Noir markers and I popped the birdie up on the hippo's back.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek! Enjoy your weekend!

stamps: Hipster-Potamus (Avery Elle)

ink: memento rich cocoa (Tsukineko)

paper: cherry cobbler, very vanilla (SU!); Happy Go Lucky DP (Fancy Pants)

accessories: Spectrum Noir markers; twine (Lawn Fawn)

Moxie Fab Thanks!

If you haven't heard by now (which I'm sure you have or you wouldn't be here!) We are giving Cath Edvalson a blog hop send off as she leaves Paper Crafts magazine as Trends Editor and pursues other adventures! You should have come by way of Richard and when you are finished here you can hop on over to Libby!

My card features a fabulous sentiment, that fits the occasion nicely, from Reverse Confetti and some fun DP by My Mind's Eye. I added some ric rac trim, twine (my favorite) and a banner made with die cut flags!

I know you've hopped a long ways so far (and there are plenty more to go) so I will keep it short and send you on your way! 

Thanks for stopping by and we wish you well Cath! Now keep on hopping starting with Libby!

stamps: Count Your Rainbows (Reverse Confetti)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: very vanilla, melon mambo (SU!); My Girl DP (MME)

accessories: star die, banner trio die (WPlus9); spiral punch (SU!); ric rac trim (May Arts); twine (Hemptique) 

Many Thanks

Happy November 1st!

 A couple more thank you cards for the soccer banquet! They are both quite simple but I really like how they came together!

The first one just uses a simple square of DP, a sentiment from Paper Smooches and some twine for a little interest!

For this one I used an image from CAS-ual Fridays that I colored with Spectrum Noir markers, a sentiment from Paper Smooches and the layout is this week's SCS sketch challenge!

Back to work on the last few! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 

Many Thanks

stamps: Word Salad (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: melon mambo, very vanilla (SU!); Sweet Girl DP (Echo Park)

accessories: square nestabilities (Spellbinders); pink twine (Hemptique)

Appreciated

stamps: Word Salad (Paper Smooches); Truth Is (CAS-ual Fridays)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: real red, very vanilla (SU!); My Girl DP (MME)

accessories: banner trio die (WPlus9); yellow sprinkle dot (Doodlebug Designs); glitter (SU!); Spectrum Noir markers

Happy Haunting!

Happy Halloween my friends! Are you ready for all the little ghosts and goblins to visit you tonight? For the last several years we have attended the party that our church has on Halloween and we trick or treat through the parking lot where volunteers have decorated their cars in different themes. My kids love it and now that they are too old to trick or treat themselves- we volunteer to decorate our car and pass out candy! Last year the 6 of us and my daughter's boyfriend dressed as road construction employees and this year we are all going as super heroes! It should be a great time!

My card today uses an SCS sketch from a few weeks ago and some fun stamps from Reverse Confetti! Enjoy your spooky evening and thanks for stopping by!

stamps: Spooky Sentiments (Reverse Confetti)

ink: memento tuxedo black, memento tangelo (Tsukineko)

paper: Ultra Smooth Premium card stock (Spectrum Noir); Raven DP (Glitz)

accessories: button (?); Halloween twine (Divine Twine); banner die (MFT); glitter (SU!)

Thanks

Hello friends! Just a quick little thank you card to share with you today. I volunteered to make the thank you cards for the girls soccer coaches this year and this is number 1 of 6! Most of them need to be masculine cards so for this one I chose some Destination DP by LilyBee designs and a sentiment from Paper Smooches. My layout is this week's retro sketch.

The soccer banquet is next week so I better hustle back down to my craft room to finish up ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

stamps: Chit Chat (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento rich cocoa (Tsukineko)

paper: chocolate chip, very vanilla (SU!); Destination DP (LilyBee Designs)

accessories: glitter (SU!); ribbon (?); Spectrum Noir markers

Still Partying!

I am so thankful to have a "job" that I love! I love promoting i {heart} papers- they are a great online store and we are still celebrating their 5th birthday so don't forget to check it out!!

i {heart} papers  is thrilled to be celebrating our 5^th birthday this month!  To celebrate we’re having 5 days of savings!   From October 21-25 check our SALE PAGE for steep birthday savings on hundreds of items, some marked down as much as 50%!  

We know there’s no way we could have made it this far without each and every one of our loyal customers sharing their IHP love with their friends or following us on Facebook, Twitter, our blog or through our newsletter.  We will also have a giveaways on the blog and on Twitter during these days (they’ll be linked from Facebook too but since giveaways aren’t technically allowed on Facebook we have to do it on the blog!) so be sure to check in daily to see how to enter.  

But wait!  There’s more!  Most customers know that Kate is a huge dog rescue advocate, volunteering for a local dog rescue, transporting dogs in need and doing rescue work on Facebook.  October happens to also be Adopt A Shelter Dog month, as well as the birthday of one of Kate’s dogs, BooBoo and the Gotcha/Adoption day of Mr. Barbo.  So, in honor of all of that, IHP will be donating 10% of all sales during the birthday sale to Home For Good Dog Rescue, Eleventh Hour Rescue and Pilots ‘n Paws.  

Thank you for supporting IHP for 5 years.  We’re so happy to celebrate this milestone with all of you!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

stamps: Happy Fall (Reverse Confetti)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: basic black, whisper white (SU!); Finley DP (Glitz)

accessories: ribbon (SU!); acrylic sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs); green marker (Spectrum Noir);  black twine (Hemptique); button (?)

Time to Celebrate!

Good morning friends! Remember the sale I told you about yesterday? Well, I hope you have your shopping list ready because it's time to celebrate!

i {heart} papers  is thrilled to be celebrating our 5^th birthday this month!  To celebrate we’re having 5 days of savings!   From October 21-25 check our SALE PAGE for steep birthday savings on hundreds of items, some marked down as much as 50%!  

We know there’s no way we could have made it this far without each and every one of our loyal customers sharing their IHP love with their friends or following us on Facebook, Twitter, our blog or through our newsletter.  We will also have a giveaways on the blog and on Twitter during these days (they’ll be linked from Facebook too but since giveaways aren’t technically allowed on Facebook we have to do it on the blog!) so be sure to check in daily to see how to enter.  

But wait!  There’s more!  Most customers know that Kate is a huge dog rescue advocate, volunteering for a local dog rescue, transporting dogs in need and doing rescue work on Facebook.  October happens to also be Adopt A Shelter Dog month, as well as the birthday of one of Kate’s dogs, BooBoo and the Gotcha/Adoption day of Mr. Barbo.  So, in honor of all of that, IHP will be donating 10% of all sales during the birthday sale to Home For Good Dog Rescue, Eleventh Hour Rescue and Pilots ‘n Paws.  

Thank you for supporting IHP for 5 years.  We’re so happy to celebrate this milestone with all of you!

Now let's go shopping!!

Birthday Celebration!

Happy Sunday friends! Just giving you a little "heads-up" on a sale that will be starting tomorrow, celebrating i {heart} papers 5th Birthday!  Get your shopping list together!

walking ghosts

Happy Monday friends! I have a cute little Halloween card to share with you today. I think I've mentioned before that we live in the city touted as "the Halloween Capital of the World". (Seriously- google it and Anoka, MN will be the first to pop up!) Halloween is a BIG deal around our little town and we have many events happening throughout October related to this holiday! One such event is the walking ghost tours where local historians lead groups of people around our city and point out the historic homes and tell of the former residents who, some say, still reside in those homes. The tour guides are all dressed in periodic clothing and it is quite entertaining. You can go on a walking ghost tour every year and hear different stories each time!

I used Reverse Confetti's Spooky Sentiments and Spooky Cuties for my card today. The DP is all from the Raven collection by Glitz and my layout is this week's deconstructed sketch. I outlined a few of the words in the sentiment with my black Spica glitter pen for sparkle and added glitter to my ghost with my quickie glue pen.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

stamps: Spooky Sentiments, Spooky Cuties (Reverse Confetti) 

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: basic black, whisper white (SU!); Raven DP (Glitz)

accessories: black gems (Kaiser Craft); banner trio die (WPlus9); glitter (SU!); black Spica Glitter pen (Copic)

Happy Fall

Hey friends! I've made it back into the blog world! We have Internet and my craft room is almost put back together! (enough so that I could create a little something today!)

I started with last week's SCS sketch challenge. Sketch challenges really help me get my juices flowing and I am so grateful for them! I took some fun DP from Doodlebug Designs and a sentiment from Reverse Confetti to put it all together.

For the couple of weeks I was "gone", so much has happened at i {heart} papers! One of our team members, Carole, has decided to step down to spend more time with family (totally can relate to that!) and we have added a new Guest Designer for the months of October and November! Please welcome Deborah Anton of Beadn & Stampn. October is also birthday month for i {heart} papers so check in frequently for some fun birthday announcements {wink}

I am off to try and organize the Master closet. . .wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by!

stamps: Forever Fall (Reverse Confetti)

ink: early espresso (SU!)

paper: crumb cake, early espresso (SU!); Happy Harvest DP (Doodlebug Design)

accessories: square, rectangle, scallop rectangle nestabilities (Spellbinders); button (?); green twine (Hemptique); orange gems (Kaiser Craft)

Thank You!

Happy October friends! 

I don't have my craft area set up in my new house quite yet but I thought I would share the card I made last week for our realtor. Although we found our new home on our own, he helped us prep our old home for selling- and had it sold in 3 days, negotiated long and hard with the seller of our new home and basically was good moral support for those frustrating moments of uncertainty! He is also a friend of ours from church and I think he went beyond his business duties as our realtor and was truly a friend during this life changing experience! I would recommend his services any day :)

Thanks for stopping by!

stamps: I Give Thanks (Technique Tuesday)

ink: memento rich cocoa (Tsukineko)

paper: crumb cake, chocolate chip (SU!); Day to Day DP (Doodlebug Designs)

accessories: button (?); twine (Hemptique); Fishtail flags (MFT); Banner trio die (WPlus9); spotted embossing folder (Lifestyle Crafts)

Love. . .

Hello my friends and welcome to our surprise wedding blog hop for our lovely leader, Kate, of i {heart} papers! For my wedding card, I used Paper Smooches Woofers & Tweeters stamps along with the matching dies. Kate and John have 2 rescue dogs and are very passionate about rescue pups (both of their dogs were a part of their wedding ceremony!) so I thought these little doggie love birds were appropriate. I colored them with my Spectrum Noir markers and layered them up on some Say Cheese DP by Simple Stories. My layout is a deconstructed sketch from last week!

Thanks so much for stopping by and now hop on along to see what the rest of the team created for this special occasion!

Amy

Deb

Libby

Linda

Lindsay

Lori

Sarah

Stacey

Tracy

Vera

Wida

stamps: Woofers & Tweeters (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: crumb cake, very vanilla, basic black (SU!); Say Cheese DP (Simple Stories)

accessories: woofers dies (Paper Smooches); Spectrum Noir markers; glitter (SU!); fishtail flags (MFT); banner trio die (WPlus9); spotted embossing folder (Lifestyle Crafts)

Count Your Blessings

Well, today is the day! It is closing/moving day on our new house! I can not wait to have this all done and be settled again. . .

This sentiment from Reverse Confetti just hit home for me today. We have so much to be thankful for! Our family and friends that helped us with this move, my husband's job that provides for our family and allows us the freedom to choose our living accommodations, my job that allows me to stay home and still earn an income as well, our health, and I could go on and on but you get the idea! 

I used this week's MOJO Monday sketch challenge to get me started. It all came together quite quickly and I'm thankful for that too {wink}! By the way, I used my beloved banner trio dies to make the flags and I never noticed that the middle die is a PERFECT shadow for the smaller die!! DUH! Now you know too ;) 

Thanks for stopping by!

stamps: Count Your Rainbows (Reverse Confetti)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: whisper white, basic black (SU!); Finnley DP (Glitz)

accessories: Spectrum Noir markers; circle, scallop circle nestabilities (Spellbinders); clear gems (Kaiser Craft); banner trio die (WPlus9); sheer lime ribbon (May Arts)

Boo!

Holy macaroni! I can hardly believe that fall has arrived and now everybody is gearing up for Halloween! So, I had to get in on the action too (hee, hee!)

I used this week's Sweet Sunday sketch, some Paper Smooches stamps and some fun Halloween themed paper by Glitz for this spooky cute card. I love the new Paper Smooches word bubble dies- your cuties can say anything you want now!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

stamps: Falling For You, Halloweenies (Paper Smooches) 

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: tangerine tango, basic black (SU!); Raven DP (Glitz)

accessories: Spectrum Noir markers; word bubble dies (Paper Smooches); orange sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs); circle nestabilities (Sellbinders)

Grateful

Hello my friends! I had a chance to get crafty this weekend before I had to pack up ALL of my supplies and add them to the growing pile in the garage! I made quite a few cards so I have posts to share while we make the move to our new address.

My card today is for my in-laws. They have helped us so much in this packing process by actually helping pack boxes, taking some of our unnecessary items to store and just being supportive. We couldn't have made this move without all of the help from our family and friends! I used this week's Free for All challenge at SCS to create a clean and simple card without using a white card base. I used a piece of card stock from my scrap bin for the base (so I'm not sure what color it is) and embossed it with the woven embossing folder by Lifestyle Crafts. My sentiment is from Technique Tuesday's I Give Thanks set and I highlighted it with a leaf button and some yellow twine.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

stamps: I Give Thanks (Technique Tuesday)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: rust cardstock (?); crumb cake (SU!)

accessories: banner trio die (WPlus9); leaf button (SU!); yellow twine (Hemptique); woven embossing folder (Lifestyle Crafts)

Best Wishes

Hello friends! Well, it is exactly 1 week until we close on our new house and move in. We are kind of at a standstill in the packing department because we still need to keep a few essentials out! That gives me time to be creative! I've kept a small box of supplies out along with my paper box of scraps (that will be tossed in the recycle bin on moving day!) so I'm limited in my creativity but it sure feels good to craft! 

I made this card for the people who will be moving into our house. We had 15 fabulous years here and I hope they enjoy it as much as we have! My husband thinks it's weird that we would leave them a note but I'm doing it anyways :) I used this week's retro sketch and some DP by Echo Park. The leaf is from Technique Tuesday's I Give Thanks set that I fussy cut.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!

stamps: I Give Thanks (Technique Tuesday); Simply Said (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento tuxedo black (Tsukineko)

paper: basic black, more mustard (SU!); Reflections Fall (Echo Park); Corkstock (Canvas Corp)

accessories: button (?); twine (Creative Impressions); banner trio die (WPlus9); Fishtails flags (MFT)

Happy Bird-Day!

Hello friends! My card today is for my niece's 13th birthday! Another teenager in the family- Eeek!! I used sketch challenge 453 for my layout and some fun new products from i {heart} papers! The DP is Doodlebug Designs Happy Harvest and the green enamel dots are from their Sprinkles accessories. I colored my birdie with my Spectrum Noir markers and added some glitter to her party hat. A button and my beloved twine wrap it all together!

Don't forget that there will not be any shipping from the i {heart} papers store from Sept 18-28 while Kate is away getting married (yay!). You can still place orders during that time but shipping won't resume until Sept 30.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

stamps: Birthday Buddies (Paper Smooches)

ink: memento rich cocoa (Tsukineko)

paper: island indigo, whisper white (SU!); Happy Harvest DP (Doodlebug Designs)

accessories: button (?); twine (Hemptique); Spectrum Noir markers; glitter (SU!); green enamel sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs); circle, scallop circle nestabilities (Spellbinders); scallop border punch (Fiskars); banner trio die (WPlus9)