GDP413 Lovely Fall Wreath

Happy Tuesday, everyone! The fall color challenge at Global Design Project jumped out at me but I knew that I didn't want to do a Halloween card with the colors:

But they're definitely fall colors so I challenged myself to use some products that hadn't been used lately!  The Natural Prints die set has a lovely big wreath die....which I think I might have used once....so I cut it out once from Cajun Craze cardstock, and then again in Pumpkin Pie.  I snipped off a few sprigs of the Pumpkin Pie one and adhered it to the Cajun Craze one to make a two-toned wreath:

I added some florals from Love for You, along with the "love" sentiment and embellished it with a black & white gingham bow and some amber gems:

A panel embossed with the Cane Weave embossing folder went beneath it, and a sentiment from Fruitful Blessings went inside:

A fun fall creation!  

And this has nothing to do with fall....but I was shopping at a local "scratch-and-dent" grocery store yesterday, perusing the frozen foods, and this one lonely little package looked up at me:

Oh. My. Gosh.  I have never seen anything like this in any grocery store anywhere!  Yikes!  It stayed right where it was, too, even at $1.29.  It just does not look very appetizing to me, I apologize if any of my readers happen to like cooked octopus legs, LOL!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love For You, Fruitful Blessings
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Basic Black
Ink	Memento Black
Accessories	Gingham Ribbon, Amber Gems (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Natural Prints Dies, Love for You Dies, Cane Weave Embossing Folder

JAI652 Pastel Wreath

Happy FRIDAY, everyone!  Hope you have some nice plans for the weekend!  Today Dana, Cassidy and I are going to the pottery place to paint some pottery!  Dana liked it so much, she decided it would be a fun thing for the "girls" to do!  Anyway, I have a card using some pastel shades and the Cottage Wreaths stamp set that made it into the current catalog from the holiday one!  First, it uses the Just Add Ink sketch:

And here we go:

I stamped the wreath in Lemon Lime Twist ink, then diecut it out.  I used the smallest flower die from the Zany Zoo dies to cut little flowers from Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia, Lemon Lolly and Balmy Blue, and everything went on a Bubble Bath panel that I embossed with the Stitched Greenery die.  I added a bit of Lemon Lime ribbon, and all the flowers are embellished with some past In Color gems.  The sentiment is from Love For You:

and on the inside, a sentiment from Best Family Ever along with some hearts!  This will go out in the mail real soon!  

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Family Ever, Love For You, Cottage Wreaths
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia, Balmy Blue, Lemon Lime Twist, Lemon Lolly
Ink	Balmy Blue, Lemon Lime Twist, Bubble Bath, Lemon Lolly
Accessories	Zany Zoo Lemon Lime Twist Ribbon, Dimensionals, In Color Gems (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Country Wreaths Dies, Zany Zoo Dies, Stitched Greenery Die (ret)

PP639 Pretty Little Umbrellas

Happy Sunday, peeps!  It's time for a new Paper Players challenge, with the amazing Claire as our hostess!  She has a theme challenge for us:

I just love all those umbrella images, so I decided to use this little umbrella diecut that I used last week, but this time I paired it with some pretty gingham and floral papers:

I used the fun sketch from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

My papers are from Gina K Designs; the cardstocks I used are Highland Heather and Soft Sky for the umbrellas, and Soft Sky and Pistachio Pudding for the banners:

I stamped a few little hearts from Love For You on the lower banner, and added some gems to the top of each umbrella.  The sentiment is from Stamp Simply.  I think these colors are patterns are just the sweetest!

So what will inspire you from our board this week?  Umbrellas?  Boots?  Cloudy skies?  Or maybe just a rainbow!  Please share your creation with us at the Players and stop by to see what the Design Team dreamed up as well! 

I have been patiently waiting some of the unusual birds that fly through my little yard at this time of the year, on their way to their summer feeding grounds!  I checked my photos from last year and knew that the rose-breasted grosbeaks made their appearance right around this time!  As I was tidying up yesterday, I looked out my kitchen window and there he was!  

About that time, John came around the side of the house with the weedeater and scared him away!  A few minutes later, at another feeder, these appeared!!!

The male (on the bottom) flew away, and if you look at the right side of the photo, you can see the grosbeak coming in for a landing!!!

He's barely visible here, but you can see his red spot behind the wooden platform!

I think he may have been rather intimidated by that big bird, because he soon flew back to the other feeder, where his little friend was a bit friendlier, LOL!

Then Mr Pileated came back to the third feeder and showed off his hanging skills!

It was an exciting bird day!  Now to see some orioles!!  Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.  Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever.  They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.  The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation.  I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.  Isaiah 60:20-22

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love For All, Farmhouse All Occasion Greetings (Stamp Simply)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Gorgeous Grape, Soft Sky (ret), Pistachio Pudding (ret), Sending Love (Gina K Designs)
Ink	Gorgeous Grape, Soft Sky (ret)
Accessories	In Color Adhesive Gems (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Squares Dies (ret), Winter Elements Dies (Sissix), Tailor Made Tag Dies

AHSC520 Sunflower Thanks

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Hope you all had a nice weekend, we certainly did, and I relaxed yesterday and tried to get my craft room in order for all my new goodies!  The Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge made me think of the retiring Celebrate Sunflowers!   Here's the sketch:

And here we go:

I think I may have gone overboard with the diecuts, but it was fun to get some use out of them before they retire!  I stamped the smaller sunflower in Black Stazon ink and used Daffodil Delight and Cajun Craze inks to color it, using Pear Pizzazz for all the greenery:

I used the "friend" from Love For You for the sentiment; I used layers of Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizzazz DSPs, as well as a mat of Cajun Craze for my Gingham-embossed Basic White layer.  I stamped only a portion of the sentiment from the Sunflower set for another sentiment at the bottom:

This is such a great sunflower set, I may just keep this one!  Thanks for visiting today!

Some pictures from Easter:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Celebrate Sunflowers, Love For You
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cajun Craze, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight DSP, Pear Pizzazz DSP
Ink	Stazon Black, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Gingham Embossing Folder, Sunflowers Dies, Aquapainter

SUOC323 Times Two

Happy Thursday, peeps!  Winding the week down, headed to the weekend!  Did you see the retiring list? And the Color Refresh?  So much info, my head is spinning, and I'm a little sad too!  So hard to see old favorites go!  I'll share a little video at the end of the post about the refresh, so be sure to check it out!  Anyway, I made a couple of cards for the SU Only Challenge, where they are challenging us to recreate one of the cards from page 22 of the mini catalog:

I chose to recreate the card on the right, which features a Mint Macaron base (and which is very sadly retiring....sniff, sniff...just like my favorite Sage Shadow did) and since I really liked the sketch, I made two!  The first one just happened to use Fresh Freesia, which has been growing on me, and happily, is returning:

I took some watercolor paper and colored it with some Fresh Freesia and Mint Macaron inks, then diecut my flowers with the Summer Shadows dies. I was really surprised at how pink the flower came out!!  I used some Fresh Freesia DSP for my circles and stamped Shaded Summer images on the Fresh Freesia card base.  I added a few adhesive sequins too:

Same sketch for the second one; it uses Regency Park DSP and a sentiment from Love For You:

I snipped a few flowers from a leftover scrap and adhered them to a few circular layers, then added a couple of "petals" around the edge, diecut with the Blossoming Happiness dies:

Same sketch but two totally different looks!  Thanks for popping in today!  NOW...here's a link to that fun little Color Refresh video:

Color Refresh

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

CTC410 Framed For You

Happy Monday, peeps! I am awaiting my stamping clubs today but thought I would squeak in a card I made yesterday for the CASing the Catty challenge on Facebook!  

They wanted to see something with an embossing folder, and truthfully, I don't have many current EFs, but I do have the Fern one, and there was an intriguing card on page 38 of the catalog, so that's what I chose to CASE!  I went back to some papers from the current catalog that I hadn't used for a while, Awash in Beauty, and went to work:

I admit that this is not really my creative style, but it is good to push oneself occasionally!  I cut 1/2" strips of Mossy Meadow to "frame" the DSP, then added a diecut sentiment from Love For You in Rich Razzleberry, another color that is a little out of my comfort zone!

You can see around the edges, the Fern embossing, which coordinates nicely with the leaves in the DSP!

The most challenging part of this card was weaving those strips....LOTS of glue dots were sacrificed in the creation of this card, LOL!  

Thanks for popping in today---it's gray and dreary here in SE PA and I hear some areas will be getting snow soon!  We'll probably just get RAIN!  Anyway, enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love For You
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Mossy Meadow, Awash in Beauty DSP
Ink	Rich Razzleberry
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Fern Embossing Folder, Love For You Dies

Fun Fold Valentine

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  I found a lovely card while scrolling through Facebook yesterday that featured a pretty (and pretty easy) fun fold!  Here's the YouTube link to the original card HERE.  Her card is 5 7/8" high and I cut mine down to 5 1/2" to fit in a standard envelope.  This is my prototype; I used retired Lovely Lipstick cardstock along with Country Floral Lane and Country Gingham DSPs, and several different stamp sets.  So here we go:

First, let me say that I know the Lovely Lipstick doesn't match the colors in my DSP and ribbon, but it was my prototype!!  The card starts as a gatefold, then when it is opened, the fun fold pops out:

I added some DSP panels and stamped the "Love You" in Real Red, then diecut them out.  The heart was punched from the DSP, and the "valentine" sentiment was fussy cut from the Love For You set as well:

The belly band is Mossy Meadow; I diecut a couple of panels for the sentiment, and I stamped the top floral in Petal Pink, filling in the leaves with a Mossy Meadow marker and the hearts with a Poppy Parade marker.  I added some of the Real Red ribbon for added interest:

I am going to enter this at Anything Goes with a Fun Fold!

I do have another quick little get-well card; it uses the sketch from  As You See It:

This is note-card sized; the base is Very Vanilla and I covered the front with a piece of Balmy Blue DSP:

I pulled out some really old stamps; the bird is from Of the Earth (2009) and the sentiment is from A  Dozen Thoughts (2013).  The diecut borders are from the Arts & Crafts dies....aren't they pretty?  I feel bad that I don't use them often enough!

The inside sentiment is from Friend to Friend (2004).  It feels good to get some older stamps inky! 

So yesterday I took a little class at the local Senior Center and we learned to decorate cupcakes; this month's theme was animals!  So here is my labradoodle:

I definitely need practice with that grass tip!  And my polar bear, which looks more like a husky to me:

I've played with decorator bags, icing and tips, but had never made anything like this!  The fondant tongue just cracks me up!  John refuses to eat them, he says they're too special to eat, LOL!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love For You, Eden's Garden, Country Bouquet
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Petal Pink, Mossy Meadow, Lovely Lipstick (ret), Country Floral Lane DSP, Country Gingham DSP
Ink	Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Mint Macaron
Accessories	Real Red Ribbon
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Stitched With Whimsy Dies, Love For You Dies, Country Bouquet Punch, Mossy Meadow & Poppy Parade Markers

Second Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Of the Earth (ret), A Dozen Thoughts (ret), Friend to Friend (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Balmy Blue DSP
Ink	Balmy Blue, Midnight Muse (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Arts & Crafts Dies (ret)

TGIF403 Happy Anniversary

Happy Saturday, peeps! I am busy getting ready for my Hostess Appreciation party tomorrow!  I love hanging out with my stamping friends!  I did sneak in a little time to share an anniversary card for my special someone...it will be 24 years on Monday!  I used the sketch from TGIF:

and some new (and old) products from the SU mini catalog!  Here we go:

I used some Night of Navy DSP from the Regency Park collection and paired it with some wildflower paper from the retired Heart & Home DSP; hopefully John won't think it's too feminine!  But I loved how the two looked together!  I stamped the hearts in Night of Navy as well and added a sentiment from Love For You. 

 The inside was a combination of Love For You and Country Bouquet:

Clean, simple and easy!  Thanks for visiting today!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love For You, Country Bouquet
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Regency Park DSP, Heart & Home DSP (ret)
Ink	Night of Navy
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Love For You Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Country Bouquet Punch