What a Wild Day!!

...well after days of new reports today is the day that Hurricane Sandy is going to make landfall somewhere on the Eastern Coast of New Jersey.  I do hope that everyone in that area fares well and that no one is seriously injured or loses their home.

    Here in Northeastern Massachusetts, we are doing pretty well so far and after a long day of very light rain and wind, it's starting to get darker now and the winds are really starting to blow hard.   I took Scout out for a very short walk about 10 minutes ago and it was kind of scary.  I do hope that he won't have to go out much more today, but was thankful that the temps seem fairly mild and that I was not near any power lines or large trees.  I can't imagine how much worse it much be closer to the eye!!  I'm very thankful it's not worse and that we will have power and I hope it last throughout the night.   Ironically, I had Verizon her today, after losing internet on and off for the past few weeks.  We found out on Saturday there was trouble with the line, so after coming and doing work (they had to put in a new line), I'm back to having my phone and my internet if working much better.  It's actually faster than it has been in ages, so the call turned out to be worthwhile.

     I'm just catching up on posting after having hosted my very first 90-Minute Scramble Saturday over at Hero Arts Flickr Group.   I picked a theme of  Winter/Christmas or Holiday cards with a twist-and my twist was to use Non-Traditional colors!   I ended up having over 40 entries, which was SO exciting.  If you would like to see the cards entered into my Scramble, go to the Hero Arts FLickr Gallery and do a search in the Hero Group for Quickcard51 (all one word) and you'll see all the fantastic cards that were entered!  I was blown away and how many there were and it took me hours to comment on each one.    Special thanks to everyone who played -- you are all fabulous and I was so happy with the fabulous response.   Congratulations to Dawn, Betty and Franziska, who were the lucky winners.  Note if you click on their names, it will take you over to their winning card!!     The prize packages I put together, where shipped out today and Franziska should be hearing from Hero shortly regarding her digital prize, which they so kindly donated!   I hope you all enjoy your goodies and want to once again thank you ALL for playing!!

    Here are the cards that I shared as my inspiration -- nothing that first two were cards I created last year while in the Holiday Card Boot Camp -- which I LOVED!!   These cards were also totally inspired by those that were created by Jennifer and Kristina in that workshop!   If you like them, then you are just in time to sign up and start this year's Holiday Card Workshop 2012 -- which started today!!

  

    This last card was one I created last week, specifically for my Scramble and also for the Copic Coloring challenge that is currently going on now over at The Outlawz!  

   After the fun on Saturday, I found myself totally wiped out yesterday and never found enough energy do get many new projects started.  I, did, however pick out some new challenges and printed out the information and sketches so that I could work on those today.   My first card was one that I made based on the weekly Sunday Sketch from Operation Write Home's Stars and Stamps Blog.  This is always a regular challenge for me every Sunday and a favorite.   This is a copy of this week's sketch and I hope maybe it will inspire you to play along.

Sketch #144

My Card

   That cute little card features and adorable Printable Digi image that I bought over the weekend, from Pink Gem Designs.    I bought the black and white digi and this cute little pre-colored version.    Most often I color all my digis with my Copic markers, but every once in a while, when I am in a hurry or want to make a super quick card, I love having some cute pre-colored images on hand.    This was the only card I managed to make yesterday, so I was very happy to have this cutie on hand.

  Today, now that I have more energy, I have new cards and this is another take I created based on the same sketch from OWH.   As you'll see I'm still into my Pink and Purple mode (my favorites colors) and I made this card specifically that way, to submit to this new CAS Challenge hosted this week at The Outlawz, where the theme is your favorite treat or favorite thing!

  And now I am very happy and excited to be sharing two more brand new cards, that I created today for Day One in the brand new Holiday Card Workshop - 2012, which is antoher fantastic online class offered by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner at their Online Card Classroom!   I LOVE their classes and have taken EVERY one they have offered!  This is the second of the Holiday Workshops and we are already off to a fun start.

   This first card is a small 4" X 4" card and that idea came from seeing the adorable small 3" square card that Kristina shared in her first class video today!   I did not use the same colors or images, but I thought it was fun to make a smaller card and I used these brand new adorable images that arrived in my mail today, from Lili of the Valley.  These are absolutely amazing and they are brand new and are par of the Mini Masterpiece line.  Each image is already colored and there are a variety of sizes on each sheet.  They sell for $1.60 per sheet is USD, which is such an affordable price.   I will be heading back to the store for more, as I only bought four sheets and now that I have them, and have seen the quality, I want to buy a few more!!

  Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about these cute little Sentiment.  They are also new and I bought them from Purple Onion Designs, who has some of the most adorable red rubber stamps.  You can find them HERE!!   A wonderful little online store that I was first introduced to from another of the online classes, after I won a fabulous set of stamps, last Summer!!   You can find lots of super cute Christmas stamps as well as a huge variety in all types of themes!!

  And least by not least, I have one more card and this one was inspired by Kristina again today, not because it's like her card, but because she has recently started to fall in LOVE with Copic Markers, and has been using them more and more in her cardmaking.   I have LOVED them for quite some time and truly LOVE to color, as a way to relax and that's what I did to this cute little Bugaboo image.   I then simply picked out papers from a new set "Christmas Cheer" by Lilybee Design and added a Sentiment from this "Let it Snow" Penny Black Set,, which is a favorite I had from last year.

    And that is it for today!   It's starting to get very very windy now and our lights have flickered a few times  I'm heading downstairs to make something quick and easy for dinner and still hoping VERY much that we do not lose power.   I'm very thankful that the storm is not as bad as I had expected and hope that we go through the night without any damage or power outages. Mother Nature is quite a force here today and affecting millions of people on the East Coast!   My heart goes out to everyone on the East Coast who in in the worst part of the storm.  I hope tomorrow will be a brighter day for all!!

    I'm looking forward to spending another fun day the Holiday Card Workshop and can't wait to see what we'll be working on tomorrow!!

It's my Scramble DAY!! Come and play!!

  I am very happy and excited to be hosting my very first 90-Minute Scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.   I have been a member of this wonderful group for about a year now and as most of you know I'm a huge Fan of Hero Arts and their products.

  Today, at 3 PM - Eastern Daylight Time - I will be hosting my very first 90-Minute Scramble and have some awesome prizes that I will be awarding to two lucky players.   The actual Scramble Theme will remain a secret until the time I post it and you will then have 90 minutes to create your card (tag) etc, and upload it to the Hero Arts Group.    If you are new to the group, you are very welcome to join us.  The scramble is open to all group members.   Hint:  You may want to be sure you is ready and that you know how to upload photos to the your Flickr account.    Hopefully, my internet connection will be okay too --- as I have had some problems this morning and had connection issues on and off for an hour of so.   Luckily, it seems to be better now, but I did call Verizon Tech Support and they did see some trouble of one the the tests they ran.  Unfortunately, they can not send some one here to my home, until Monday, so please keep your fingers crossed that I will have access when I need it later this afternoon!

   To entice you a bit more, these are pictures of the prizes that I will be awarding to two winners, plus Hero Arts will also be donating a digital prize to a third winner!!   Woohoo!!

    In the meantime, I have had some fun creating cards for a variety of challenge and some for fun.  This first card was a for another challenge that Barb posted in the Hero Arts Group.   Barb had the fun idea of challenging the group to pick one of their "Favorites" and CASE it for a fun little extra challenge.  I loved the idea and the hardest part was picking ONE card out of my many favorites to use for the challenge.   I chose this wonderful card that was originally created by Sandi Neumann and just happens to feature the same die that I'm giving away as one of today's prizes.   I love it and already own it myself!!

Sandi's Card 

My Card

Card Recipe

Teal and White Cardstock

Fresh Daisies Die Cut - Simon Says Stamp

Lotus Background CG849 - from Hero Arts

Hero Arts Mid Tone -Tide Pool Ink

Ranger Distress Inks - to color the die cut

 (Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass and Evergreen Bough)

Black Memento for Sentiment

Sentiment - "Lil Pics" by Art Gone Wild

Embossing Folder by Crafts-TOO

  It was such a fun card to make and I'm blown away at how many people have left comment, Thank You!!  But, please keep in mind, all the credit goes to Sandi, as this was her design!  I simply used what I had in my stash to try and make a card as lovely as hers!

  I have one more card to share and this one was created for today's new Paper A la Mode challenge at The Outlawz Group, where the theme is "Use Negative Space".  I started my project by picking out one of my favorite die's - Whimsy Circle,  from Memory Box.  I then took a Hero Arts (Lilac Card) and cut the die shape directly on the front of my card.   Next, I lined the inside of the card front with a piece of clear acetate and added on some strips I cut from this Hero Layering paper along with one strip of this Washi Tape that I bought from last week on Etsy!    And the last step was to add the die cut to the inside of my card, which lines up with the front "negative space" when the card is closed, as shown in the first picture!

    And that's it for now, but I will be back a bit later to share the cards and inspiration I put together for my Scramble!   In the meantime, I'm heading back to my craft desk, to see what else I can work on from my brand new Simon Says Stamp - November Card Kit, which arrived yesterday!!   It looks awesome - here is a picture I'm sharing from the store website!   Pretty cool, don't you think!!

Oh, what a day...? My evil dentist....! UGH!!

 Halloween is almost here and in a way, I'm happy, because I now have plenty of Halloween cards and am more excited to work on more Christmas cards  -- my favorites.     It's been another of the very hectic and busy week for me, but happily I had most of the day to relax and create and that's exactly what I have done!!  Love it!!

   I started by working on some new cards for challenges, and also finished creating a bunch of new Halloween cards that had been inspired by Card Club.  These are some a few of fun Halloween cards that we all started on Tuesday and took home to finish up.  I still have more to work on, but I may put them away for next year, since I don't send out too many Halloween Cards.

   This is one of my favorites and it's also a card that was easy to create.  I especially loved the Glitter covered little bats, which are cute little die cuts that we covered with Ranger's new wonderful Dry Stickles- Glitter.

  And these are the rest of  the cards that we started in Card Club.   It's also a fun time and I can't wait until next month, since it's going to be all "techniques"...which are my favorite types of classes!  

  This card is being submitted to the new "Twisted Thursday" Challenge over at The Outlawz Group.  The theme this week is "Halloween" and everyone is welcome to play along!!

   I'll be you can see now, which I enjoy my LSS so much and why it seems I am always there.  How can you pass up fun classes like this!!   We make (10) new cards every time we meet and they are always new and a lot of fun.

   My next card is also a cute new Halloween Card, but this one I made at home for the new Day Two - Purple Poison Challenge being hosted over at "Designed to Color".   I was shocked to find out that Purple is the least used color in the coloring world?   Are you kidding me?   Well, not in my world that's for sure!   I love Purple, in every tone and shade and those of you who know me well, know that it's not only my favorite color, but my go to color and one I use very often in for my cards.   

   Isn't she a cutie, I sure think so and this adorable image (Winter Dana),  is a digi that I purchased last year from By Lori Designs.   I also used lots of my Violet and Blue Violet Copics to color her up !!   As you can see I also used a purple card base and one of my all time favorite 'purple' papers, which is from the Viola line, by Memory Box.   

   My next three cards were also created in a Winter or Christmas theme and were also inspired by some new challenges.   The first is this cute little Snowman card that features one of my favorite little snow people images from Bugaboo Stamps.

  I am submitting this card to two fun challenge, the first if the Copic Challenge being hosted over at Suzanne Dean's Color Me Creative Classroom, and second is this week's Anything Goes Challenge over at Through The Craftroom Door!!  If you are one who loves to take part in Blog Hops, I recommend you head on over to the TTCRD Site and take part in their newest HOP going on NOW!!  I heard there are lots of fun prizes, and you just might be a lucky winner!!  

  This fun little card was created for the new  CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge be hosted over at the new challenge blog, which you can find HERE!  I flipped the sketch for my card and hope you'll come on over and join our fun.   I am also happy to share a copy of the sketch for Challenge # 3.

   And now, I am rushing as I have to head out and go to the Dentist, something I always dread.   Luckily, this appointment is only for a cleaning, so it should not be too bad.   When I come home, I will come back online and update this post with the links to the challenges I'm submitting my cards too~!   Wish me luck, like I said, I'm NOT at all a fan of dental appointments and would MUCH rather do pretty much anything else!   UGH!!

    UPDATE  -- Not a good time at the dentist, so I will update my challenge info tomorrow.  Things when downhill fast after I had my teeth cleaned.  Of course, they said it was time for updated x-rays...which I always regret, because they ALWAYS seem to find something that they would never have known otherwise and that's exactly what happened again.   Now, I have two new cavities and they said, I also have a tooth that needs a crown?  WTH?   My teeth were fine, I have no discomfort or pain and go for bi-annual cleanings every six months.  I had a filling fall out last year and that was replaced, by him and was NOT at all pleasant as it seemed to take forever.  Now, I find out that is the tooth the he says NEEDS  a crown? Are you kidding me....now that you drilled it all apart and put in a huge filling, you want me to have a crown?   I No WAY!!    I was so upset, that I basically left the office in tears and will be calling tomorrow to cancel any and all appointments for me any my family.  As soon as I told Hubby, he said the same thing, it's time we ALL find a new dentist, as he also has not been happy.   Something, in hindsight I should have done a long time ago.  Tomorrow, I'll start my research and ask all my friends who they would recommend.  I know there has to be a dentist that I will be happier with and this time, I'm taking my time and making sure they know how much I dread dental visits, because of this history!  Wish me luck, as this is never easy and it's frustrating to be forced to do this!    GRRRRRRRRR!!    I have to wonder IF I really have to fill these cavities now either....if they are NOT even bothering me?     

Another creative Sunday!!

   Happy Sunday !  Can you believe another week has flown by....?  Yikes where does the time go?  On top of that it's getting close to the end of the month and November will be here before you know it.  I guess I really need to get going on my Christmas cards and my shopping too.  I used to be one who had almost all my gifts bought and wrapped before Thanksgiving, but now, that rarely happens!!!

   Today, has turned out to be a very fun and productive day for me in my craft room.  I'm very excited to be here to share some new cards and also tell you about some other fun craft-related news.   I met another goal in helping others this week and finished up a package of Christmas Cards for the wonderful card drive "Caring Hearts Card Drive" being hosted by Vera Yates.  If you love to create cards and can help out, please go HERE to read all the details on Vera's Blog!   It's a wonderful cause and one of the best things about cards is how happy make people, so every little card can help!!

    And if you happen to love to help out year round or often find you have lots of extra cards from playing in Challenges - I would like to suggest that you consider donating them to Operation Write Home and you can find all the details on supporting that wonderful group on their blog HERE!!   Speaking of which I love to play in their weekly challenges, and my favorite is always the Sunday Sketch Challenge, which you'll find here  This week, I made a super cute and fun Halloween Card and although it's too late for this year, I will likely save it for a batch I sent for new year!   Keep in mind that creep or death like cards are not at all appropriate for OWH, but a sweet card like this would be perfect for a Soldier's child!!   This is a copy of our sketch for this week and I hope you'll consider playing along -- My cute little digi is from Pink Gem Designs!

Sketch # 143

My Card

       My next card is also another fun little Halloween inspired card and this card was created d by the new Copic/Alcohol Marker Challenge hosted every Friday at The Outlawz.  Our theme this week was a choice of Halloween or Fall Colors  and I went with the Halloween theme and colored up with cute little card for the challenge.  

 This fun little Halloween digi image is from A Day for Daisies and it's once I have owned for a couple of years. I have always admire the wonderful artistic skills that Tammy has in drawing her amazing images  I also LOVE the wonderful image - Blossoms for A Cause - that Tammy gifted to everyone this week for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Thank you for another wonderful image - I am looking forward to using it on a card later this week!  If you would like one of your own, please visit the A Day for Daisies Store HERE!!

   I also have this fun Fall-Themed card that was created for today's new "Clean and Simple" Challenge, also hosted at The Outlawz.  This week the girls has asked us to created cards using a Fall-Themed colors, but to limit our choice to three of these colors - Red, Brown, Yellow, Green and Orange -- I chose to use Orange, Yellow and Brown along with another digital images, this one being from MelJen Designs.  This card was also colored with Copics and could also have been used for the Copic Challenge.

  And next we have another really fun and cute Halloween card which I created using my wonderful Silhouette Cameo along with a cute cut file I bought at the Silhouette Store.   Instead of cutting mine on a variety of colored cardstocks, I used the Paint and Pattern fill options and turned the image into a new Print and Cut file.  This card was created for the brand new Silhouette Challenge at The Cameo Spotlight, where were are now working on Challenge #6 - Halloween! 

  As you can see I used a black and white polka dotted patterned fill for both her hat and hair and then filled her face and nose in with shades of green.   I did not cut the eyes that were part of the file, and instead using my own googly eyes, which I love for the extra dimension.   You can find the original image in the Silhouette Store HERE!!   If you hurry you can buy it now on sale too, as ALL the Halloween images are on sale for 75 cents through the end of the month!  :) 

   I also have one more card that was created and inspired by Saturday's Paper a la Mode Challenge, also hosted at The Outlawz and this week, our challenge is called "Inspired by Nature" which you can use in any way you like!   I thought immediately of Spring, because our weather has been so warm and nice for the past two days and that had me back to using one of my favorite Hero Arts Background stamps (Large Lotus Pattern) and an assortment of inks to create this bright and fun floral inspired card.

    And speaking of Hero Arts -- I am very happy and excited to be hosting my very first 90-Minute Scramble which will be played next Saturday, October 27th, at 3 PM - Eastern Time.  You can find all the details over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group and EVERYONE is welcome to play along and this fun group is also open to anyone who has a love for Hero Arts products!!   I have some fun prizes that I'll be giving out and Hero Arts also donates a digital prize to one lucky winner!   These scrambles are a lot of fun and everyone always comes up with some fantastic card.  If you would like more details of how the Scrambles works, please go to the Flickr Group and read this thread!!!   

    Phew....that was a long post and now I'm beat!   Heading back to my desk, to clean up this mess?   Tell me, does your desk always end up looking like this, after you create?   I start off with a clean desk every day, but Yikes...what a MESS I have now!!

Spring Fever....

   It is absolutely gorgeous here today -- beautiful blue skies, lots of sunshine and nice warm temps.  On top of the that the foliage is close to peak and the colors are amazing.    It was so nice being outside today, and  really love days like this, especially when it's time to take Scout out for a walk.   So much better than a rainy windy day.   I didn't even need a jacket and had on my flip flops and was comfy and warm.   Oh how I wish this lovely weather would last for days and days, but it sounds like this is a one day event...Bummer!!

   It's also so much better for my Fibro and I also feel pretty darn good today, another blessing that comes with good weather!   And I'm actually slowly adjusting to Brian and Meghan being on the road, and am very happy that they are having such a great adventure and enjoying every minute.  Today they will be in Colorado and they'll have a great stay with family and friends.  I am finding every day is a bit easier and as much as I miss them, it's getting better.   Thankfully it's very easy to keep in touch with all the wonderful technology we have in our lives.   I've enjoyed following them along with all the pictures they've been sharing each day.  It won't be long now before they are in California and I know that they rest of their trip will be a blast for them!

   Today is also a very creative day for me and I have three new cards already completed for some of my favorite challenges.   My first card was created specifically to submit to three different challenges and the first one is today's brand new challenge over at Cas(E) this Sketch, which is fast becoming a new favorite.  This is our Sketch for this week and I hope I can inspire you to join the fun!!

  In addition to that challenge, this card was also created by following a fun BINGO theme, over at today's new Twisted Thursday Challenge over at "The Outlawz".   I have also copied over the BINGO image to share, so that you can see the elements I chose  for my card.

 On my card I used "Die Cuts" - the snowflakes an old Sizzix set, "Designer Paper" this fun new Christmas Paper, from Dovecraft and "Inks" - Unicorn White Pigment Ink from Hero Arts.   

    And the third challenge that I'm entering is this new "Getting Ready for Christmas" Challenge being hosted over at "Crafting by Designs".

    Next I have Fall inspired card that was something I put together for Challenge # 40 at "Through The Craftroom Door".   It was also one of the cards the I created using up "stuff on my desk", which is always a fun way to use scraps and clean up!!   The only downside is that I'm having a hard time take good pictures of any cards that have black or very dark backgrounds?   If anyone has some great hints and tips on that -- please share!   I find the pictures tend to be washed out and look a bit gray and when I edit the colors, it seems the other colors are too bright?  HUM???

    My next card was inspired by another fun challenge over at Crafting by Designs and this one was again created with scraps and left over elements on my desk.   As you can see I used the same cute Christmas Papers and along with a cute digi sentiment I had already printed.  The color inspiration was part of the challenge and came from an image that was found over on Pinterest!   Oh how I LOVE Pinterest and really love all the wonderful ideas I find there!!

   This is a copy of the wonderful inspiration image, along with a link to it on Pinterest.  It's called Sky Colorful Sky, and is actually a painting, by this artist.   I loved the wonderful variety of colors and that is what inspired me to chose the papers I did, the variety of fun colors -- very spring like in a way, much like our weather here today!

  My card is very much a Clean and Simple card and also one of the cards I love making, because it uses scraps.  I simply added them onto a pink background, added a simply white flower and my digi sentiment. A very sweet "friendship card" which will be added to my next OWH package! 

    Oh, and speaking of Operation Write Home, I'm heading back to my desk now to work on a card the "Midweek Throwdown Challenge" that was posted yesterday over on the Stars and Stamps Blog.  It's a color challenge and you can find all the details HERE!!   If I finish up today, I'll be back with that card, if not I'll post it next time.  Until then, I hope you are having a day as nice as mine.    Enjoy and Happy Crafting!

    Update:   Back to share the card I created for the Midweek Throw Down.   I started by picked out three flowers from my stash, two in lime green and one in black and then picked out a green and white piece of patterned paper from my Scrap bin, which I cute down in a 2" strip and added to a piece of black cardstock.  I then took a piece of black and white ribbon and added to the to left side and added the 3 flowers down the right side.  I added white pearls to the center of each flower and put it all on a Hero Arts Celadon Green Cards!   As it turns out, this is my favorite card of the day!!    

WOW!! It's Wednesday???

...or at least I think that's what day it is?  This week is flying by for me and it's all been good, well except for missing Brian and Meghan, but they are awesome, so I'm happy!!

   I started my week by heading off to my LSS for a fun morning of creating with our newly formed Silhouette Group.   Cathy put together some great handouts and also shared a super cute little Frankenstein Box that she designed after seeing it on a blog.  I also learned some new hints and tips and it was fun to see how everyone has their own techniques in the way they design and use their machines.   I felt very much like a newbie and had fun!   Our next meeting will be in November and for that class I'm going to show the group how I create Print and Cuts - using some of the pre-designed images from the Silhouette store and also how I have created some of my own!!

  Tuesday, I spend catching up on my medical appointment and saw my regular doctor and also had my routine blood work done, which should be back any day.  I'm hoping it's all the same, but have had a lot more fatigue lately, so it will be interesting to see of anything is off?   Right after that, I went for Chiropractic adjustment, which was perfect and much needed.  I know that it's odd, but for me, doing extra walking often makes my low back hurt and between walking more with Scout and also carrying him every now and then, my low back was very sore, but seems better today!!  

    I pretty much missed the "Earthquake" that hit our area last night, although I did feel a slight rumble, but thought it was the dog running across the floor.  Now, I know that we were all experienced the effects of a earthquake that was up in Maine. The funny part is that Brian called me about 15 minutes later and he already knew about it and asked me what it was like.   They were in St. Louis last night and are having a great trip.  How ironic that we had a small earthquake here in New England and he's moving to California, where you'd expect it much more.  As for their trip, they are totally enjoying it and think it's awesome to have the chance to travel across country and see so many places, they would otherwise never have the chance to see.  They have had good weather which has made the driving nice and they have stayed or met up with friends and family all along the way!   Tomorrow, they will be in Colorado and will spend extra time there with one of Meg's best friends, Paige, who was here for the wedding, and also Mary, Meg's sister.

    Today I have spent as much time as I can catching up on paperwork, bills and working on new cards, which I have to share now.   I really did not have any special ideas when I started, but once I found a few challenges, I was happily on my way to putting together these three cards.  My first card is one that I found to be the hardest and it was inspired and created for the newest challenge over at CASology, where our cue this week is NIGHT!

   

   I found it was hard to come up with a CAS style "Night" card, but still had fun trying.   I started with a simply black card base and some lavender paper that was in my Halloween Stash.  I hand cut a strip of Memory Box paper to use as my "land" and then created my row of trees with one of my new Memory Box Dies.  I then ran them through my Cuttlebug to give the look of leaves.   I also used two other embossing folders to add texture to my background and also to my "purple" moon.   I found this a hard challenge and can't wait to see all the entries!

   My second card was made for fun and kind of a take off on the whole "Night" idea.  I again started with a simple black card base and then stamped and embossed my favorite Sunflower Stamp onto white cardstock.  Once the embossing cooled, I used my Copic to color each of the section and then cut it up into four squares and added it directly to my card base.  To finish it I simply added a strip of yellow "Checked" patterned paper to tie in the color and also used the same paper inside my card for a area to write on.   This card is being submitted to this week's new CAS Challenge over at A Blog Named Hero!!

   My next card is a fun little card and this one started with a cute little "Fuzzy Monster" digi image from Meljen Designs.  I thought "he" would be fun to color and also would make a cute Halloween Card!  I also wanted to make another card for the weekly Copic Coloring challenge over a Crafting By Designs and also to the Halloweeny Challenge being hosted over at Scrapalicious,  a new, (well I should say, new to me) blog and online store that I found today, via Feline Playful!!

   I'm off now to head out for a little walk with Scout and then will be thinking about what to make for dinner.  For the guys it's Spaghetti and meat sauce night, but that's not something I like, so I need to come up with something easy and it'll probably be a nice bowl of oatmeal (a favorite), but I'm out of blueberries and it's not nearly as yummy without them!!   Hum?  What else would be good with oatmeal?   How about you, do like you like oatmeal and how to you eat yours!!

A Bittersweet Goodbye...and a creative day!!

   Last night I was very happy and excited to take part in the 50th Scramble being hosted by Chris, over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.   My special thanks to Chris for switching dates with me, so that I had extra time to spend with Brian and Meghan before they left for California, earlier in the day!   A tough and very bittersweet goodbye for this Mom!  

     Coming home and knowing a challenge was coming up, was just what I needed to keep my mind off of the days events, plus I was very much looking forward to Chris's Challenge!!   I will continue to focus very much on crafts and being creative, which will be my primary way to keep myself very very busy, at least for the next couple of weeks, while Bri and Meg made their way across country.   Being that both my boys have always lived close to home, I'm finding it's heartbreaking to see my oldest and his wonderful new wife (Meghan) move so far from home.  It's a whole lot harder than I even imagined and I've found myself very teary the past day!  I knew their plans for months and was super excited for them, but I guess maybe deep down, I had hoped they would change their mind or maybe that saying Goodbye would be easier....it's wasn't and it's heartbreaking.  I just LOVE my kids so much that it's a huge change to not be able to see them every day, if I wanted to.   And even thought I often did not see Bri or Meg for a week or two, I knew they were only a few miles away and could have gone down to the Pub to see them at anytime...!!  Now that's a whole new challenge and as much as I can't wait to make my first trip out to see them, it's not as easy and a long plane ride for me!!

   The good news is that they are wonderful about keeping in touch and with the Internet, Email, Facetime, Text Messaging and so much more, I'll easily be able to talk and "see" them often.   Brian actually called me last night to let me know they were only a hour away from their first stop - which was at Meg's Grandparents in the area of Syracuse, NY!  They were spending last night there, as well as all day today and then will head to Niagara Falls sometime tomorrow morning.    It is fun to know they'll see lots of places that you would never see, unless you are driving and that's a fun part about this move and trip for them -- an adventure into their new life!!     Okay...enough on that, please ignore me  babbling, but's it's nice to 'share' and talk to my online friends, especially those who have been through this already!

   Okay...now back to Crafts  --- Chris came up with a really fun idea for her challenge, which started at 7 PM last night.  Our scramble theme was to create a project (or two) using Black Backgrounds and she shared some wonderful examples, which you can see in the FLickr Group HERE!!  If you would like to see all the cards that were entered into the scramble - please go to the "Quickcard 50" tagged page here!!   I was really amazed at how different and wonderful each and every card came out and I'm also sharing my two cards with you now.

   The was my first card, which was really pretty easy and quick to make.  I started with basic black cardstock and used one of my favorite Hero Background Stamp - CG330 - Flower Dot Pattern, which I inked up in White (Unicorn) Memories ink and stamped onto the black.  I used my heat gun to dry it and then quickly made the strip of white that I used down the side (to cover a bad spot, LOL).  I embossed that in my Cuttlebug and then added a simply Sentiment  also done with a Hero Cling Stamp from the "Things" set.  I also inked this with the same Unicorn Pigment Ink, but for this time I added white Hero Arts Embossing powder and heat embossed it for a more vibrant look.  I wish I had thought do emboss the background, but in my scramble, I did not want to take too much time.   Once I put everything together, I had this fun and easy card!

   Once that was done, I realize I had plenty of time (each scramble runs for 90 minutes), so I quickly went to work on a second card, which I made into a Halloween Card with a cute image from Bugaboo Stamps.  I had the image (and several others) already printed and colored, as I keep them on hand and color several at a time, so that gave me time to cut it out, and create a card front, pretty much from scraps that I dug out of my scrap bucket.  Once I had my design done I added it all to an orange card (by Hero) and had this fun and easy Halloween Card.   I love this sentiment and smiles are exactly what I need a lot of right now.  This one always makes feel happy, just the way I feel whenever I talk to Brian and Meg on the phone!!  I wish them the very best and look forward to having them settled into their new home, so I can send them lots of fun and happy cards -- just like this one!!

  

   I am also submitting my fun little Halloween card to this week's challenge over at Bugaboo's - Catch the Bug Challenge blog!   I totally LOVE Jodie's adorable images, and always find something new every week in her store.  If you are quick, you can hurry on over today and pick up some adorable Birthday images, all on sale at 25% OFF!     

   And now I'm heading over to The Outlawz Group to check out today's new CAS Challenge and will make my second stop over at Operation Write Home for their weekly Sunday Sketch Challenge too!   Once I have those done, I hope to be back with more photos to share!!

  I'm also packing up my Silhouette Cameo and supplies for my next group class that starts tomorrow at my LSS - Absolutely Everything.   I'm excited to finally meet up with some local gals who also own and love creating with their Silhouette machine.   I have my new tote bag which is perfect for carrying along everything  I want and will also be bring along my new laptop with I bought on clearance this week at Walmart and absolutely LOVE!   Its' an HP Dandelion Breeze 15.6" Notebook, the same brand as my tiny netbook, but, truly a full size laptop and so much nicer, faster and with a much larger screen -- perfect for on the go and travel.  It's also a gorgeous aqua color with a cute design, that also matches perfectly with my Silhouette rolling tote!   I think I fell in love with the design and the price before I even read all the specs.   I was also very happy and excited to see this inexpensive netbook, had so many great reviews and I'm already very happy with it, after only one day!    It was a special treat - A gift to me from me!   Even hubby was impressed and is using it right now, while I'm up in my craftroom, typing this on my PC!   Isn't this the cutest design --  I sure think so!!

Afternoon Update:

   After taking Scout out for a walk, I headed right back to my desk and went to work on card for the other challenges I had wanted to play in and I'm not happy to be back to share the three new cards I created today.   The first two cards were inspired by challenges over at the  The Outlawz Group and I started first the yesterday's Paper a la Mode Challenge, where the theme is "Use Something You Don't" -- which to me meant to find some thing in my stash that I had not used for a long time.

     Ironically, I had started doing a bit of cleaning in my craft room closet and had been inspired by a fun new stamp storage idea I saw over at Pinterest.   I thought this would be a nice way to have more of my wooden stamps out and easily accessible and that had been browsing through them trying to think of which stamps I would like to 'put out' if Hubby can create some storage like this for me.   That's when I found this wonderful old stamp that's from Great Impressions and it's one of the very first stamps I ever bought at my LSS, back at the time, when they taught a Great Impressions Class every month.  This sweet sunflower image was the "Stamp of the Month" at that time and it's one I still LOVE!!

   And next, I went to work on my card for today's new CAS Challenge, also being hosted at The Outlawz, where the theme is Leaves.   I immediately, knew exactly which stamp I wanted to use and it's my Floating Leaf Pattern Background Stamp from Hero Arts.   Love, Love Love this stamps for Leaves and Fall themed cards.   It's already the second time I've used it this season and it always makes a nice card.   I was also very excited to find out today that Hero Arts has this image available in a cut file form the Silhouette Store and you can be sure, it's one I know own - stayed tuned for even more cards with this design.

   In addition to the CAS Challenge, I am also submitting this card to this week's new Anything Goes Challenge over at  "Through The Craftroom Door"!    Come on over and play along!

    And my final card for today is for a challenge that I love to play in every Sunday, and that's the Sunday Sketch Challenge hosted every week over at Operation Write Home's Stars and Stamp Blog.   You can find this week's challenge HERE and I am also sharing a copy of the sketch, which is a fun one!!

Sketch #142

My Card

   I also am very excited to let you know that I shipped off a package of 55 cards to Operation Write Home this week along with a donation that I also enclosed with every package.  I'm super excited with this shipment because I broke my yearly record and my own personal goal for 2012!   YIPPEE!!  It feels so good to do my little part to help out and this is why I love cardmaking so much!!

  My next goal for this week is to finish up the package of Holiday Cards I am making for the "Caring Hearts Card Drive", being hosted by Vera Yates Ling!   I took part in this drive for the first time, last year and it was really fun.   You really feel so good inside when you can use your creativity to make other people smile and to me, that's a JOY and why cardmaking is such a Passion for me!!

  

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