Merry Monday 77

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend.  We went to DH’s 40th HS reunion!  I didn’t know too many people but he had a blast, so that’s all that matters!  It was a beautiful weekend, too, so that was an added bonus! 

Lesley’s inspiration for today’s Merry Monday challenge is a real cutie:

Cute, cute, cute!  So many ways to be inspired!  I chose to use those sweet little gingerbread men on my card today:

I am wishing I had used Garden Green instead of Glorious Green for my dark green, but I am not going to change it now, LOL!  I used this week’s sketch 27  from Fab Friday for my layout:

and here’s the inside:

Cute, fun & easy!  Hope you’ll play along with us….I am sure you’ll have fun with the colors and inspiration photo!  Can’t wait to see what you create!

Over the weekend, Dana took Cassidy to Steppingstone Farm Museum in Havre de Grace, MD.  (One of these days, I’ll get there too!)  Here’s a picture of Cassidy on a 1952 Farmall tractor, which will make both her daddy and great-granddaddy very happy!!!:

Enjoy your day!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Jolly Bingo Bits, Four the Holidays (ret SU); Holly Jolly Sentiments (Lil'Inker Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Regal Rose, Real Red
Ink	Green Galore, Glorious Green, Regal Rose, Real Red
Accessories	Red Baker's Twine, Sparkle Brad
Tools	Big Shot, Lots of Tags Die (ret SU), 1" Circle Punch, CB Snowflake EF, Square Pinked Die (W+9)

Paper Players 165

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Ann is our hostess today for the Paper Players, and it’s a fun one---a tic tac toe!  Here is the layout:

My original plan was to use the center column – thank you, embossing and pearls – but then I realized this also completes the center row across – patterned paper, embossing and any shade of blue!  So here we go:

It wasn’t until I actually photographed my card that I realized that the Quatrefancy Specialty paper is actually Pool Party, NOT Soft Sky!  But at that point, I certainly wasn’t going to remake it, so my card actually has three shades of blue:  Pool Party, Soft Sky and Island Indigo!  I used the Apothecary Accents die and coordinating piercing mat for the DP; Fancy Fan and Adorning Accents for my embossing; and the sentiments are from Another Thank You (new polymer set) and A Fitting Occasion.  The tag is from Chalk Talk dies:

Not too sure about this card….I think I rely on sketch challenges so much that I second-guess myself when it comes to making my own layouts!  But it’s done and I needed it, so it’s actually in the mail already!  I hope you’ll play along with this challenge….so many possibilities for this one!  Have fun with it!  And check out the other designers’ projects as well:

•  Ann
•  Anne Marie
•  Jaydee
•  Nance
•  Sandy

Cassidy was playing with her chalk on the sidewalk a few days ago and when she was finished, she looked like a chimney-sweep:

She needed a scrub-down afterwards!!!  Enjoy your day!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Another Thank You, A Dozen Thoughts
Card stock & Papers	Soft Sky, Whisper White, Island Indigo, Quatrefancy Specialty
Ink	Island Indigo
Accessories	Pearls, II Ribbon
Tools	Bit Shot, Apothecary Accents Dies, Chalk Talk Dies, Fancy Fan EF; Adorning Accents EF, 3/4" Circle Punch, 7/8" Scallop Punch, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Dimensionals

Toxic Treats Halloween Bags

Happy Saturday, peeps!  I won’t bore you with the long drawn-out story of how this project finally came about, but I will tell you it was fraught with mishaps, trials & errors, and plain stupidity on my part.  BUT….it is finished!  Not quite how I envisioned it, but I can say that I actually finished something I started!  It all began when I saw this fun project on the My Digital Studio blog (I hope you can see it HERE).  I had a plain tote bag in my stash so I thought it would fun to make a Trick or Treat bag for Cassidy.  I purchased the Toxic Treats Designer Template and after many attempts, this is the final project:

As you can see, the transfer paper didn’t always cooperate with me (upper left corner):

This part is a little better:

Different fabrics really take this particular transfer paper differently!  I had gotten some of the muslin bags from the Holiday mini, so I shrunk the project down and made a treat bag:

Here are a couple of SU samples of treat bags…..again, I think my transfer paper is not the best after seeing theirs.  And I will let you in on just ONE of my epic fails during this whole project creation:

Yes, I managed to iron on the transfer UPSIDE DOWN!  So I added the “Trick or” at the top and did another one on the other side:

A wee bit of a save to my epic fail!  I think I will try another brand of transfer paper for my next project…IF there is a next one!   Enjoy!

Poor Cassidy has a nasty cold….she fell asleep sitting up on the couch:

She is so rarely sick, we hardly know how to make her feel better!  It would be better if she could learn to blow her nose OUT!

FMS105

Howdy, peeps!  Just a quick post today…..I do feel better, thanks to all who were concerned!  But I seem to have a craft room full of unfinished projects, none of which are getting done.  So I may take the next few days to finish them up….we’ll see how that goes!  But today I am sharing a thank you card using the Freshly Made Sketches sketch from this week:

I pulled out some gorgeous papers from KI’s Autumn Flowers line, as well as the new polymer stamp from SU, Another Thank You:

Once I figured out which papers to use, the rest was easy…stamping in Chocolate Chip ink, a brown stitched ribbon and some glittered flowers, and I was done!

Thanks for lookin’!

Some outside fun:

CAS Christmas Stamp Camp Cards

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I am paying the price for this wonderful fall weather with some icky allergy symptoms that have me down low….so today I am just sharing the cards we made earlier this week at my Christmas card stamp camp.  As usual, they are very simple, but still pretty and fun to make:

All stamps are SU except for the last one.  If you need details, EMAIL me, as I am making this short & sweet today!  Hope you understand!

Cheesin’ it up at Pizza Hut!

Enjoy your day!

CASology 63 Guest Designer

Hello again, peeps!  A second post for me today!  Well, last week was my lucky week!  I had this card chosen as a winner for the CASology 61 challenge, as well as this one as an honorary mention for the ART 14 challenge and this one  for the Kraft Journal Make it Monday challenge!  I am so blessed!  So the lovely designers at CASology asked me to be the guest designer today!  And here is the cue:

Who doesn’t love autumn?  I think it is just about my favorite season…I am so drawn to the natural hues, and decorating for the season is one of my favorite pasttimes!  So I had a hard time narrowing down which autumnal image to use---I have SO many!  But I love this twig wreath from PTI, so I went with it:

I stamped it on Very Vanilla in Chocolate Chip, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Pumpkin Pie.  I didn’t have any twine dark enough to match my wreath, so I just “dyed” some SU linen thread with a brown Copic marker!  Perfect match!  To hide the thread on the inside, I matted my card on an Early Espresso card base and added this to the inside:

I hope you’ll pop over to the CASology blog and show us your CAS autumn cards too!  Toodles!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Wreath For All Seasons, Autumn Abundance (PTI)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Early Expresso
Ink	Chocolate Chip, Cajun Craze, Crushed CUrry, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories	Linen Thread
Tools	Copic Marker, Needle

ColourQ 208

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Oooooh, a fun challenge from Arielle today at the ColourQ:

Wow, any color plus black and white!  FUN!  Since the Less is More challenge was to use felt or fabric on your creation, I chose to use So Saffron as my spot color:

I happened to find this beautiful digi sentiment from TLC that I felt really was appropriate to the zentangle look to the challenge; you might be able to see that I colored in the “autumn” a wee bit, plus added a few stamped images:

I used the sketch 223 from Unscripted Sketches as well:

I know black is not a traditional fall color, but I just love how this turned out!

Playing with wood near Grampy’s new garage:

This little piece looks just like a house!  Enjoy your day!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Gingham Wheel, Autumn Squares (Impression Obsession) Digital Sentiment
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, So Saffron
Ink	Stazon Black, So Saffron
Accessories	Felt, Brad, Embroidery Floss
Tools	Big Shot, Chalk Talk Dies, Autumn Accent Die

Merry Monday 76

Happy Monday peeps!  Wow, fall is upon us for sure here in PA!  It was a chilly but beautiful weekend!  I am getting excited for the upcoming holidays!  Here is Lesley’s Merry Monday challenge for us today:

Now, I know that the colors in this challenge are cool hues, but the only criteria is to use a snowman on one’s card!  So I went in a different direction…. here is my take on the challenge:

I haven’t done a card with lots of detail like this for a while, and it was so fun!  I used the  fall sketch from Create with Connie & Mary:

as well as the color challenge 207 from JUGS:

I had a card already embossed with the snowflake embossing, so I used that as my base, adding the layers and my stamped image.  I wheeled the red piece with a retired snowflake wheel, and brayered some Crumb Cake ink on the polka dot paper so it wouldn’t seem so starkly white.  Of course my little snowman was stamped, colored, cut out and popped up for dimension:

I gave him a couple extra snowballs to juggle, and he is even standing on a little snowy hill!  I punched out a sentiment from the same set with my Modern Label punch:

And I added a little stamping on the inside as well:

Snowmen are so much fun for Christmas cards, so I hope you will play along with us at Merry Monday!  Check out Lesley’s blog, Always Playing with Paper, for all the details as well as the lovely designs from the others!

Cassidy knew just what to do with this spatula….even though the gingersnaps were a wee bit too “snappy” for her taste!  Notice the partially-eaten one on the table!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	More Merry Messages, Gingham Wheel, Snowflake Wheel (ret), Snow Much Fun, Itty Bitties (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Polka Dot Parade
Ink	Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Craft White, Real Red
Accessories	Stitched Ribbon, DD Glitter
Tools	Blender Pen, Big Shot, Delicate Designs EF, Modern Label Punch, Dimensionals