Pink and Red Christmas

My dear husband loves getting handmade cards. I usually make 4 to 5 cards for him at Christmas. This year, quite serendipitously all his cards were in pink and red. Since there was really no time to blog before Christmas I thought I would share all 5 cards with you now.

I use this very old Penny Black stamp that I have been using for George's Christmas card for the last 12 or more years. He finally realized this year, that I use this stamp every year!! Here is a link to last year's card.

George always gets a card from our sweet girl Miss Pinkie. Avery Elle had the classy holiday cat out there!

We had a bit of scare with her this past summer. She was pretty sick. George said the best Christmas present this year was having Pinkie at Christmas. I agree. 

George is a sucker for cards with bears, so I  couldn't pass up this stamp from Wplus9. I even used pattern paper, a rarity these days.

OMG, how could I pass up these cute mice Clearly Besotted!!

Lastly, Ellen Hutson's Essentials by Ellen had this absolutely fab ornament set that you could make these adorable snowmen faces. Love, love, love this card!

I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the hub's cards. Maybe they will inspire you to create for that someone special in your life!

 

 

Winter wonderland

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday so far. I had a fabulous one. This was the first year I was ahead of the game. The tree was up and decorated, my cards were done and mailed and gifts made 2 weeks before Christmas!! Unheard of!!

So with Christmas 2016 under my belt, I decided to get back to blogging a bit. This card was a last minute card that I made with a Tim Holtz die that I forgot I had. I decided to use the negative for this simple but elegant holiday card. I only sent this card to one person and will be using this idea for my cards next year.

I entering this into my alma mater  Happy Little Stampers, the "anything goes with dies" challenge.

 Another fav challenge site, Shopping our Stash is looking for "winter themed, but not not Christmas related" Do you think the star on the tree will disqualify me?!!?

Donna from Cards in Envy asked me to post my card for their "celebrate the  season" challenge. How could I resist?!!?😀

I am hoping to spend the next few days doing some serious stamping before school starts back up.

Check back in soon,

Look out for UFOs

Hey everyone, I hope you are survived turkey day! I spent the week at my brother's cooking, but managed to get in some stamping time before I left for his house.

My Sisters in Snark seem to find my Halloween watercolor card worth making me not only Queen of Snark!

Along with the all honors this title bestows is getting to be a guest designer for the next challenge. Today's challenge is to use those pesky and forgotten UFOs that all stampers seem to collect. 

Think the Island of Misfit Toys in that ultimate holiday classic Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. So you still don't get it?!!? UFOs- unfinished objects. We all have stashes of stuff we haven't finished, misfits that need a makeover and new homes to be sent to.

I have several. This is my Christmas UFO stash. Since the holiday is around the corner, I decided to focus on that box.

After going through it, here are the pices I pulled out to play with.

The only new thing I added to my card was the cool BG paper from Reverse Confetti. The rest was just working out the design.

I loved how all my UFOs came together into this fun and whimsical holiday card!

So please join the snarky stampers and pull out your misfits and UFOs and put them to good use at this great challenge!

Bootastic

I am so happy my mojo is back. You can't get me out of my studio! Today's card was inspired by two challenges. Addicted to CAS has "monster" of a theme and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (a new challenge for me) ask us to watercolor!

 

My watercolor panel was created with Ken Oliver's colorbursts.  The purple is the best purple in watercolors I have ever seen! I created several of these cards using this stamp set from Mama Elephant. The grave yard background was from this Newton's Nook stamp set.

Of all the "weeners" in the "Bootastic" stamp set, the mummy monster is my fav. 

I have been trying to stamp the inside of my cards as I make them. I usually leave them blank and then I am at the eleventh hour quickly stamping a sentiment on the inside.

I took the time and stamp a fun "inside"

So beware, it's mischief night tonight! Just stay in and stamp!

where have I been?

I'm baaaaaack........

OMG!!! Where has the time gone and where have I been and what have I been doing? I haven't blogged since August!! This is the longest drought that I have ever had since I first started blogging.

Life has so gotten in the way of my creativity. I have been in a stamping slump. Despite the purchase of a bunch of cool new stuff, it has taken awhile to get my mojo back.

Usually a look at pinterest or challenges helps. I just had to let it go and wait. Today inspiration hit. Shopping Our Stash had a challenge with "trees" as the theme. You could go anywhere with that one. Since the holidays are just around the corner, I decided on a Christmas card.

The trees are a bit subtle, my friends at SOS my choose to disqualify me, but all I know is their challenge gave me mojo back!! Thank you SOS!!!

I used this Hero Arts stamp for the trees.  Where the moon is on the stamp I added a bit of bling.

The deer hanging in front of the trees are also Hero Arts.

Add any saying and you have a quick and easy OLC. Just perfect to get the creative juices flowing again!

Hopefully, I won't let so much water flow under the bridge before I blog again!!

Miracles

I truly believe in miracles. For one thing how can you not wake up in the morning and find the dawning of a new day a miracle. I am celebrating a small but long prayed for miracle today. For those who know me or have followed my blog, you all know that my muse is Pinkie my sweet calico kitty. She spends her days hanging with me in my studio inspiring me to create. 

Poor Pinks has been pretty sick over the last month or so. Not unexpected I suppose in a 16 year old girl. She has been quite a trooper through, hospilizations, IVs, sticks, xrays etc etc. She is on multiple medications and the poor thing has been not eating and losing weight. 

Yesterday morning after yet another visit to the vet, a small miracle happened and Miss Pinkie woke me up asking for food. She scarfed down a small bowl and cooperatively took her meds.  I tried not be to excited until I awoke this morning and she was waiting for me in the studio asking to eat. She is now a member of the clean bowl club!

In honor of this small miracle, I created this card using a fav sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.

I die cut an old die from Memory Box and lightly traced the flowers onto the water color paper. I then just created a watercolor wash just trying to stay within the confines of the image. When I was happy with the water-coloring, I adhered the  die cut and stamped the sentiment. 

I am submitting this card to three challenges:

My old teamies at Just Us Girls are hosting a watercolor challenge:

Just Add Ink inspired my flower colors:

Muse has a card by Tracy McNeely.  Her colors and flowery card inspired mine:

I hope you all find miracles every day!

Go to your happy place

Every year I get away to the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania  for a crafty weekend of stamping, good food and good times with my best buddies. My buddy Judy aka "the angel" has a house in the "Nos" right on a gorgeous lake. Every year the weekend seems to grow and this year all of us will be there.

To get everyone psyched, I will be sending out this card. My card reminds me of one of the views from the porch.

My card fit into three challenges so I am submitting this to Time Out Challenges where the challenge  is:

'Holidays with the Optional Twist of No Stamping' 
(stamped sentiments allowed)

 I am submitting it to my friend Kylie's Happy Little Stamper CAS challenge   

where the challenge is:

I am also sending this out to a new challenge to me: The Sisterhood of Crafters

CLOSE TO NATURE

What does that mean to you?  

This is a perfect challenge since that's what we have going in to the NO's- a sisterhood of crafters and the theme couldn't be better!!!

I used the British view of holiday- our idea of a vacation here in the states.

The inside of the card says "go to your happy place". We have a running theme of the Nos being our happy place so this card is perfect for our upcoming holiday.

 The masking was a bit tricky and took several tries to get the masking inside to line up with the outside diecut window.

Check out both of these fun challenges and join in!!

Cool challenges

We have had some really hot weather for the last few weeks in Pennsylvania, but there has been a reprieve in the last few days. I am taking advantage of the cooler morning to stamp, since my studio doesn't have AC. 

Speaking of cool, who doesn't like a cool treat, but how about some cool challenges?  Today's card was inspired by three challenges.

It is always fun to be able to combine challenges. Three is the most I generally can combine. I find it amazing that some people can create one card that meets 10 or more challenges.

So here is my creation inspired by cool treats. I really went back in time with this card. I pulled out an old Lizzie Anne set- they made images kinda like AMuse. The set is Sweets and Treats. I can't even find it on the net to show you. It is my go to set for ice cream stamps.

CAS(E) this Sketch always has a fun CAS sketch and combined with Curtain Call and Inkspirational 

this card practically stamped itself!

I added some sticles to make the jimmies stand out.

OK, there is a question for you. Jimmies or sprinkles, which one are you?

Please check out these fun challenges and join in the fun and show your creativity!