IB219 Mountains

Happy Friday, everyone!  I have another masculine card today---January just seems to be the month for them!  Laurel's Inspired By challenge is GORGEOUS...those big cables make me want to knit something...but I chose to use just the sketch for this particular card.  Here are the prompts:

I pulled out a couple of  Tim Holtz dies and went to work:

This is quite a change from my normal style of card, but I like the final result for a masculine birthday.  I created the mountains with Basic White, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate and Soft Stone (PTI) cardstocks; the trees are Mossy Meadow.  

I used some Smoky Slate DSP and some Tim Holtz letters for the "HB".  Words are from the Paper Studio.  Enamel dots were the final addition.  The inside will read "Mountains of blessings on your birthday!" 

 Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people now and forevermore.  

Psalm 125:2

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Everyday Expressions (The Paper Studio)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Mossy Meadow, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Soft Stone (Papertrey), Smoky Slate DSP
Ink	Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Enamel Dots (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Alpine Dies (Tim Holtz), Alphanumeric Upper Classic Alphabet Dies (Tim Holtz)

TH Vintage Santa Christmas

Happy Thursday, peeps! I have another Christmas card for you; I have SO many Christmas stamps and I just can't get to them all in one year...but I'm trying!  This one uses a Tim Holtz embossing folder that I didn't even know I HAD!  I paired it with a TH vintage Santa, tree and star, along with some other vintage-y looking doo-dads!  Here we go:

I started by embossing a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and sponging it with some Cinnamon Cider ink, then stamped a Crumb Cake panel with a Cornish Heritage Farms sheet music stamp and the tree from Tim Holtz's Holiday Things set in Evening Evergreen.  I stamped the Santa and star on Basic White in Cherry Cobbler and also sponged them.  In hindsight, I wish I had used Very Vanilla!  I added some gold glimmer paper diecuts in the corners:

and a sentiment from a fun company called Flonzcraft, headquartered in New Zealand!  Isn't that a pretty font?

One of their sentiments for the inside too!  Thanks for popping in today!

I promised some more pictures of Longwood; here you go:

This is the view as you walk into the conservatory, with my favorite tree in the background!

This tree was made of succulents!  Check out the "stars" at the top!

This tree was decorated with all kinds of natural things--pine cones and dried foliage and lots and lots of lights!

John "warming" himself by the fireplace....the swag was probably 6' across!

And this was such a cool display: a whole wall of wreaths and everything you can think of with which to decorate them!  I could have just looked at it all day!

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Holiday Things (Tim Holtz), Vintage Christmas Sentiment (Flonzcraft), Aged Sheet Music (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Basic White, Evening Evergreen, Cherry Cobbler, Gold Glimmer (ret)
Ink	Cherry Cobbler, Evening Evergreen, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Blending Brush
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Detailed Deer Dies (ret), Deckle Edge Dies, Christmas Words EF (Tim Holtz)

Vintage Season's Greetings

Happy Thursday, peeps!  My card today is for a couple of challenges; Little Red Wagon wants "Yesterday"--anything vintage, and Try Stampin on Tuesday is a sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side in order to accomodate this Tim Holtz image of a horse-drawn sleigh, stamped on some music paper:

The image was stamped in Merry Merlot, then the papers were sponged with Soft Suede to give them a more vintage appearance!  I added a little panel of Baja Breeze to coordinate with this little scrap of DSP I found in my stash:

I colored a silver Glimmer brad with a couple of Blends to try to match the blue hue!  I stamped some greenery on the Merry Merlot base with Versamark ink and added a sentiment from the retired More Merry Messages in Early Espresso:

And on the inside, another sentiment from More Merry Messages, along with a vintage-style Merry Christmas from Kaiser, both sponged for vintage-ness!

I am also going to pop this in a Krafty Chicks, as their challenge is anything stamped!

Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	More Merry Messages (ret), Winter Wishes (ret), Deco Christmas (Tim Holtz), Frosted (Kaiser)
Card stock & Papers	Merry Merlot, Baja Breeze (ret), Scraps from my stash
Ink	Merry Merlot, Soft Suede
Accessories	Glimmer Brad (ret), Large Glue Dots (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Blends in Night of Navy and Old Olive, Blending Brush

PP615 Happy 90th Birthday

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge, where Anne Marie has a Tic-Tac-Toe grid for us, since it's the fifth Sunday!  Check it out:

My dad's cousin is turning ninety and a special celebration is on tap for him, so I thought I'd use the center column of die-cut, texture and birthday as my tic-tac-toe!  And here we go:

I had a little scrap of the Rings of Love DSP in my stash, so I started with that, adding a mat of Soft Suede and mounting on a Cinnamon Cider card base that was embossed with the Timber embossing folder.  I stamped the bear from Thankful Forest Friends and fussy-cut him out, then stamped the border on a diecut piece of Basic White.  I added a sentiment and numbers as well as a few metallic elements and it was done!  

Added a quick little sentiment on the inside:

I hope you'll play along with us and our tic-tac-toe grid this week!  Can't wait to see what you create!  Share it with us at the Paper Players, and check out what the design team created as well!

Thursday night the town where Cassidy takes karate lessons had their annual Halloween parade, and her karate class participated:

Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Thankful Forest Friends (ret), Best Year (ret), Number of Years (ret), Mini Numeric (Tim Holtz)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cinnamon Cider, Soft Suede, Rings of Love DSP (ret)
Ink	Cinnamon Cider, Soft Suede
Accessories	Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dots
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Tasteful Label Dies (ret), Timber Embossing Folder (ret)

CAS Mix It Up Things with Wings

Happy Saturday, peeps!  I stepped a wee bit out of my comfort zone with the CAS Mix it Up challenge for this month:  Things with Wings!

So here we go, although I am not sure if the watercoloring is the "main element"...oh well!:

I had a piece of 3" x 6" Very Vanilla cardstock already scored for another (unused) project, and a piece of watercolor paper already cut to this size, so I thought I'd used them together. I heat-embossed a Tim Holtz butterfly image in black, then added a watercolored background to each one.  I chose blue, green and purple so I could play with the Seize the Birthday challenge:

I used Mint Macaron, Balmy Blue and Highland Heather inks with an aquapainter and just blended them into each other:

I did a bit of speckles with some Highland Heather ink.  The background looked a little blah, so I coated it with some Wink of Stella.....that really jazzed it up a bit!  Too bad you can't see how awesome it looks here!

I added a sentiment from a really old Crafty Secrets bird set, but I thought it was appropriate since it was about wings!

I added a birthday sentiment on the inside and it's added to my stash!

Thanks for visiting today!

The kids went to Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island recently:

It's a pretty amazing place!  Check out that driftwood!  It's hard to imagine how huge these pieces of wood are!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hold on to Hope (ret), For the Birds, Garden Notes (both Crafty Secrets), Butterfly Melange (Tim Holtz)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Watercolor, Purple Posy (ret)
Ink	Versamark, Stazon Black, Highland Heather, Mint Macaron, Balmy Blue
Accessories	Dijmensionals, Black Embossing Powder
Tools	Aquapainter, Heat Tool, Wink of Stella

AYSI278 A Special Birthday Sketch

Hi everyone!  Happy JULY!  It's time for a new challenge from As You See It, and this week we have a sketch...and it has THREE elements, my favorite!

The leader of our TOPS weight-loss group is going to be a very youthful-looking 70 years old in a couple of days, so this sketch worked perfectly for a card for her!  Here we go:

 

Those gorgeous flowers from Hues of Happiness were easy as pie to dicut and layer on a panel of Basic White that had been embossed with the Timeword Type embossing folder.  Before embossing it, I lightly stamped the number "70" using a Tim Holtz number day and added the happy directly over top of it in Starry Sky ink.  I layered that all on a piece of plaid Coastal Cabana DSP and as a final embellishment, added some sequins and vellum leaves that were embossed with White craft ink: 

Two sentiments from Happiness Abounds were stamped on the inside, as well as a rose outline; I love how these fonts work together!

Our design team has some fabulous samples for you to check out and to give you some inspiration!  I hope you'll check them out and play with our sketch this week!  See you at As You See It!

Another of Cassidy's baking achievements....this was also a box mix (we'll graduate to scratch one of these days) and she managed to do 99%  of it without my help!  She made chocolate chip cookies with cookie dough filling and sprinkles around the outside!  They were DELICIOUS!  Of course, we have to have a little fun while they're baking:

Getting the hang of an offset spatula:

The final product!  Let me tell you...they were amazing!

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happiness Abounds, Endless Birthday Wishes (ret), Mini Numeric (Tim Holtz)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Vellum, Bermuda Bay DSP, Hues of Happiness DSP
Ink	Bermuda Bay, Starry Sky, Craft White
Accessories	White Embossing Powder, Whale of a Time Sequins (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Timeworn Type EF, Blossoming Happiness Dies, Heat Tool

RRCB182

Hello stampers!  Today is a new Retro Rubber challenge, where we show some love to our older stamps!  Here's our theme prompt for this week:

Aren't those blooms pretty?  I don't have many tulip images, but I did have these big Tim Holtz flowers so I thought they'd fit the bill:

I stamped them on Shimmery White cardstock in Stazon Black ink, masking a few of them to give them depth.  I then loosely watercolored them with shades of pink and red.  To get the brick-looking background, I lightly inked up the inside of a brick embossing folder and pressed it gently on the cardstock. 

Finally, I stamped the "hello" from a retired SAB set, fussy-cut it out and mounted it on a stitched banner.  Some matching sequins added some sparkle, and it all went on a Polished Pink card base.

I am also going to enter this at Just Us Girls, since their challenge this week is flowers!  

This card is already out in the mail to a special recipient!  I hope you'll play along with us, and share your spring (or any season) flowers!  Just make sure your stamps are at least a year old and tell us the approximate age!  Splitcoaststampers is a great place to find the age of those older stamps!  Be sure to hop over to the Retro Rubber blog to see ALL the great floral creations made by the DT and share yours too!  Thanks for popping in today.  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hello (ret, 2016), Flower Garden (Stampers Anonymous 2018)
Card stock & Papers	Shimmery White, Basic White, Polished Pink
Ink	Stazon Black, Polish Pink, Sweet Sorbet, Calypso Coral, Sahara Sand, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive
Accessories	Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Brick EF (Stampers Anonymous), Aquapainter

PP576 Butterfly Birthday

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Joanne is our Paper Players hostess today and since it's the fifth Sunday, we have a fun tic-tac-toe grid!  Check it out:

I chose the bottom row across (although I could use the right column too!), so here we go:

I am still on a bit of a vintage kick.  I saw this card that my friend Bonnie created recently and I remembered that I had that butterfly image, although smaller, as well, so thanks, Bonnie, for the inspiration!  I started with a piece of Crumb Cake and stenciled a pattern from the new Butterflies and Flowers Decorative Masks with some white craft ink, then heat-set it and diecut it with a Stitched Rectangle Die.  I stamped the butterflies in Stazon Black ink, then stamped a scripty stamp on top with some Crumb Cake ink, diecut it as well, then added a Basic Black mat.  The sentiment from Friends are Like Seashells was stamped, diecut and embellished with a little piece of Basic Black, diecut with a Basic Borders die:

Before mounting it on a Very Vanilla card front, I dyed some Gingham ribbon with the leftover reinkers I had from this card, then tied it around the panel:

This will go in my birthday card stash!  

I hope you'll play along with our fun grid this week....check out the DT created on the Paper Players blog, then share you creation with us too!  Thanks for visiting today!

A little bowling fun with some friends from church:

She even beat her mom, her dad and her stepdad!!  Beginner's luck, I think!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Friends are Like Seashells, Papillon (Tim Holtz), Outpost (Artistic Outpost)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Black
Ink	Stazon Black, Crumb Cake, Craft White
Accessories	Gingham Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Butterflies & Flowers Decorative Masks, Blending Brushes, Basic Borders Dies