IB96 Pretty Jars

Happy Thursday, peeps....Happy Halloween, happy last day of October, happy whatever!  It's weirdly warm and rainy today but tomorrow....it's gonna feel a wee bit cooler, looking forward to it!  Today is another Inspired By challenge day, and when I saw Laurel's inspiration photo, my heart swooned!  In fact, I went out and bought supplies to make some of my very own, I was so inspired.  Haven't made them yet, but I have everything I need when I do, LOL!  So anyway, here we go:

And here is her prompt!  Aren't they pretty?

I changed banks recently and I wanted to write a little thank you note to the gals who helped me set everything up....they were sweet and charming and personable!!  And I thought this would be a fun seasonal card for them.  It uses (again) the Reverse Confetti Cotton and Thistles set, which I just used a few days ago, but this time I left off the puff paint!  I stamped everything in Crumb Cake and Soft Sky, and used Blends to color in my images:

The leaf and pumpkin are from an older Paper Pumpkin set; the images are just the perfect size for small thing like this!  I added a burlap ribbon and another little cotton boll at the bottom, and mounted it on a piece of Soft Sky and French Flea Market DSP from Julie Nutting.  The thick white card base took the Pine Planks embossing folder so well, too!  It really stands up to the "pressure"!  I followed the sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday:

And for my sentiment, I used a diecut from Well Written, cut from Early Espresso cardstock!

I wanted to share some of the pretty cards I got recently:

From my sweet friend and teamie Michele:

Love this little cat from Martha:

A cute Halloween confection from Robyn:

A fun spooky card from Wendy:

And a lovely seasonal selection from Joan:

I have really enjoyed these!  Thanks for popping in today; enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Cotton and Thistle (Reverse Confetti), Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, Early Espresso, Soft Sky (ret), French Flea Market (PhotoPlay)
Ink	Crumb Cake, Soft Sky (ret)
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Well Written Dies, Pinewood Planks EF, Soft Sky Marker (ret), Blends

Sympathy in Purple

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  No challenges today, just cleaning up some scraps on my desk to make them into finished projects!! I know you don't have any of those little bits and pieces hanging around, do you?  LOL!  This little cotton boll and thistle image from Reverse Confetti had been stamped and colored, but after seeing someone using the SU's Snowfall Accents Puff Paint on the Country Home image, I thought it would be fun to add it to this image as well!  So here we go: 

The puffy paint certainly makes the cotton bolls look real! I love this effect!

To complement the purple in the thistles, I added some Gorgeous Grape DSP and a couple of Crumb Cake accent pieces.

My second card was for my pastor and his family, since October is Pastor Appreciation month.  I recently got this stamp set from the Stamp Market, and when I saw this card from Silke, I knew I had to recreate it! 

I also got my color inspiration from the cover of the seasonal Close to My Heart catalog, LOL! 

I stamped another leaf and added this sentiment on the inside!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Flourishing Phrases, Cotton and Thistle (Reverse Confetti)
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Ink	Memento Black
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Snowfall Accents Puff Paint, Heat Tool, SU Blends

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Lots of Leaves (Stamp Market), God is Good (Close to My Heart), Grateful Heart (Right at Home)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Night of Navy
Ink	Gray Granite, Cajun Craze, More Mustard (ret),
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Wonky Stitched Dies (My Favorite Things)

IB82 A Touch of Fall

Gosh, how can it be Thursday already?  The week is whizzing by and that means it's time for another Inspired By challenge!  I am calling this one "A Touch of Fall" because it has these lovely orange hues...check it out:

And here is Laurel's inspiration photo, which she called simply "Centerpiece":

And what a pretty centerpiece it is, too!  My time was limited this week, so I used the sketch from FMS:

and started by creating a watercolor wash with some Mango Melody ink on watercolor paper for a background.  The flowers and cotton (a special gift from a special teammate) were stamped on Thick Whisper White cardstock in Linen Distress ink and colored with Mango Melody, So Saffron and Pear Pizzazz inks:

 I added a little Polka Dot Tulle ribbon after fussy-cutting it out, and popped it up atop the wash.  My sentiment was stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink, It all went on a Soft Seafoam mat and a Mango Melody card.  I would have liked to have added some darker orange hues, but I think it will do just fine!

I hope you'll play along with this fun color palette....it's just a little teaser of fall in the warm summer weather.  Share your creation with us at the Inspired By blog---can't wait to see it!

And speaking of warm summer weather, we earned some beautiful weather by suffering through that terrible heat last week, and were rewarded with a gorgeous, crisp summer day yesterday!  It was too nice to sit inside so I took Cassidy to Longwood for a quick little walk around the fountains and gardens.  We didn't stay long (she gets bored unless she's got a friend) but I did snag a few pix:

This plant was HUGE and PRICKLY!

And this espaliered tree was worth imitating!

And I don't remember what kind of tree this is, but from the outside, it is huge and very deceiving...the branches go all the way to the ground, but you can crouch down and go under them and actually stand up on the inside!  This was her favorite one!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Here's a Card, Cotton and Thistles (Reverse Confetti)
Card stock & Papers	Mango Melody, Soft Seafoam, Watercolor, Thick White
Ink	Mango Melody, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Linen Distress (Tim Holtz)
Accessories	Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Aquapainter, Wink of Stella, Corner Rounder Punch (ret)

AYSI187 Saying Thanks

Happy Friday, peeps!  I hope you have something fun planned for this weekend!  I am gearing up for a stamp camp on Monday, but we have a hayride and bonfire at church planned for Saturday!  Fun stuff!  Today's As You See It challenge is a "Fill in the Blank"....how will you fill in those blanks?

My fill-in was "I need to say thank you to my friend" for a sweet gesture and gift!  I saw this video by Mike Funke and I was enthralled by the vintage look he achieved with just ink and an aqua painter!  I have met Mike at a SU convention, and he is a very creative guy, so I am happy to share his technique!  I don't have the SU set that he used, but I do have a similar one from Reverse Confetti, so I thought I would do a practice one, and I liked it so much, I made it into a card:

I followed Mike's directions for coloring with the aquapainter, then went a step further with my image, which is called Cotton and Thistles, and colored in the cotton bolls with a white watercolor pencil and smoothed it out with the aquapainter as well:

I added a Pear Pizzazz frame, a little embossing with the embossing die from Stitched Labels, and finished it off with my sentiment, also using a Stitched Labels die and heart.  I fastened it on with some Braided Linen Trim and added a couple of sequins from my stash:

I chose these colors because I wanted to play with my friend at the Color Throwdown this week:

I hope you'll visit the ASYI blog, check out all the samples from the DT, and then come play along with us!  Can't wait to see you in the gallery!

Cassidy didn't seem too interested in adding any stamped embellishments to her candy boxes (attention span is limited, I guess!!!) so we just punched out some ovals and I wrote the names on them for her:

And you can tell by the look on her face, she didn't want it in the photo!!!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	A Big Thank You, Cotton and Thistles (Reverse Confetti)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake
Ink	Soft Suede
Accessories	Braided Linen Trim, Sequins from my stash, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Labels Framelits, Stitched Rectange Frame Die (My Favorite Things), Aquapainter, Watercolor Pencils (white)

IB36 Fall Picnic

Happy Thursday, all!  It's time for another Inspired By challenge, and we have a sponsor this week! (And there might just be a prize involved too!)  Reverse Confetti has some gorgeous fall sets coming out and I was fortunate enough to receive Fall Foliage to play with!  I do have some of their dies, but this is the first stamp set I think I've gotten from them!  I paired it with some beautiful papers from Amber Moon by Prima:

And here is our prompt!  I chose the colors, particularly the golden sweater as well as the mug (which has cables on it, but is hard to see) as my inspiration:

The images in the set are bold outline images, but I thought I would try my hand at doing a no-line coloring technique, so I stamped them in Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink, then watercolored them with various fall shades and fussy-cut them out!  To make them stand out even more, I highlighted the leaves with a Wink of Stella pen...they are gorgeous, and it's a shame the photo doesn't capture how pretty they are!  I also stamped some smaller images directly on the top of the Amber Moon paper, lightly coloring them as well with some ink!

I stamped the sentiment directly on the paper as well, in Cajun Craze ink, then mounted it on a piece of PTI's Rustic White cardstock that was embossed with the Cable Knit EF:

I mounted everything on a Cajun Craze card and added some burlap ribbon and linen thread to finish it off!  Both the leaves and the papers are beautiful!  

I hope you'll check out what the other designers did at the IB blog....and then gear up for some fall stamping!  You might be a winner!

Mommy did up Cassidy's hair so pretty!  Occasionally, she lets down her tomboy guard and allows some femininity in! 

She was also excited to show off her new earrings!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!