December's cards

I just returned home from today's make -'n- take at Karen's, and it'll be no surprise to my buddy Kim nor Joann as to which card's posted this afternoon, I'm betting! I loved this one the moment I spotted the snowflake Cuttlebug background and colors - they're my favs! This color combo is thought of more as a country color combo, methinks, and it's one I prefer over the bright, more traditional "Christmas" green and red combo. We stamped the single stamp with some studio g green and used a marker for the red-brown acorn, then stickled the berries. I popped my focal stamp up on dimensionals, tho' the class sample wasn't. The class sample also used stickles on the snow background, which looked awesome. This would be a nice card to mass-produce for Christmas, don't you think?

deets are minimal, 'cuz this was a class project - stamps: a home-grown one - Karen's sells their own creations and do custom order stamps; paper: dark green, dark red, white card stock; ink: studio g green, unknown marker; accessories: Xmas Red stickles, Cuttlebug with snowflakes embossing folder, dark green sheer ribbon

hippo birdie 2 ewe, Pat!

I'm no artist, but I occasionally try to be one while at work! I attempt to draw a series of animals ... yep, you guessed it ... a hippo, bird, and sheep ... as my standard happy birthday greeting on joint cards. Well, I purchased some animal stamps while at the Great Lakes Mega Meet this past spring while with some friends, one of whom had a birthday this past week, so these stamps finally got inked! I used Flower Soft for my first time too.

stamps: Stamps by Judith's D-02 and O-29, Saltbox Studio's Sheep; paper: SU's Whisper White; ink: StazOn Jet Black, SU's Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango, Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: Flower Soft's Ivory

happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanks giving, all! I hostessed our family get- together today, and both my local sibs, a niece, and my Mom were able to attend. My older brother will be in town over the weekend so we'll get to see him too, but it didn't work out for him to stop over today.

After company left this evening I got time to play and made this card based on Karen Diron's sss45 sketch and the latest OCC color challenges. I love the way these three unrelated stamps seem to go so well with one another!

I'm off to watch the latest Bourne movie w my sweetie so this'll be a quick post. Hope you and yours had a t'riffic Thanksgiving. Here's my e-card to you all! I have a subscription to Jacquie Lawson's cards - she's amazin' and you should check her out!

stamps: Hero Arts' Antique Brocade, Inkadinkado's Autumn Leaves mini, SU's Holiday Best; paper: SU's Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White; ink: Versamark, SU's Chocolate Chip; tools: Spellbinders and Cuttlebug, ek success' scallop diamond border punch

happy b'day Robin

My cousin's birthday was this past weekend and I'm posting her card early thru the miracle of modern science (ok, that and Google's timed post option), but I've delayed its post date as I'm mailing it late. I don't think I've seen Robin since she got married! BAD cousins! My sister and I flew together to VA where they lived then and joined the celebrations with my folkes, who I believe drove over earlier for an extended stay. Methinks they had their pop-top camper conversion van then, but I recall we all stayed at a hotel intended for guests.

No deets to share today except that this was today's make-'n-take at CAM. Garrett and I stopped there on way to errands at Barnes & Noble, and Best Buy. We got some Christmas shopping done and picked up a late lunch / early supper on the way home ... and I'm making this a quick post as I SHOULD be cleaning. We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. So much to do and so little time, y'know?!

blog candy alert

This sweet package is available only 'til 10 p.m. EST today ... so run, don't walk, to check out Donna Downey's sponsor giveaway, compliments of the kind folkes at Coordinates Collections!

incompetech "graph" paper

The kind folkes at incompetech provide free online "graph" paper ... and a whole lot more! Think background DP! Check out their site and experiment - you select different dot weight, grid spacing, radius multiplier (just play around here - it's fun!), different output paper size and colors, and it'll generate a PDF of your output. Me likey! You will too!

Here's a sample I made using their circles options:

give thanks

Here's another class project from October's stamp camp w Mary. I've no deets except that it's mainly SU product, is a small (approx 3x2") bag made from Choco Chip card stock ... but I DO have this t'riffic poem to share (enjoy!):

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.
--Unknown

p.s. I've temporarily pulled my "countdown to Christmas" post after some gentle ribbing from my brother ... and it'll reappear after Thanksgiving!

Crystal's got blog candy!

Just a quick "heads up" to let you know that Crystal's got blog candy in a big way ... and if I don't win it, I think one of my blog readers should, so head on over by December 9th, her wedding anniversary!

nuts about you!

I stopped by one of my local stamping stores a few weeks ago after seeing a similar acorn on the Web and thought I'd e-mailed myself the link to give credit where credit's due ... but now can't find that e-mail. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most, y'know?! This cutie is made using a couple die cuts - I folded the lighter card stock in half and used a large uppercase "U," and I folded the darker card stock AFTER using a labels die. It may be hard to see the clear stamp next to the card - it's another squirrel, this time part of a Hero Arts set, holding out a heart, and I used the Kitchen Sink's "nuts about you" sentiment on the inside of the card. Right now it's buried within a group of Sudoku puzzles next to my DH's favorite chair.

Have you ever used any of Kitchen Sink's 3-step stamp sets? I purchased this one because of the squirrel but it also contains two sizes of acorns and two different leaves. My DH has been known to be pretty loud when shouting at squirrels to keep them away from our bird feeders. He's even used a squirt gun and an air gun aimed out our kitchen window. It'll come to no surprise to my close friends to know I seized the opportunity to tease him about it a couple Christmases ago by purchasing everything I could find squirrel-related. I picked up a pretty darn expensive squirrel-proof bird feeder, "will work for nuts" coffee mug and matching hat w picture of squirrel, a squirrel informative DVD, etc. ... get the idea? Now, I think the squirrels are pretty cute, and we have one that'll walk up onto our deck in the back yard and peek inside the house ... BUT ... can we talk about the woodpeckers who seem to thrive on our wood siding?! sigh ...

stamps: Hero Arts' Whoo Loves You, Kitchen Sink Stamps' 3-step Autumn Squirrel; paper: don't recall brown card stocks; ink: SU's Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip; tools: unknown die cuts borrowed from Capture-A-Memory (see link at right)

an after-school project

Today's after-school project was stamping some winter-y cards with my eldest. He made 5 cards in the time I took to make one, LOL! Truthfully, it was just fun watching him - he was SO determined! I don't remember now where I'd ordered this stamp set - somewhere online, I recall tho' - as well as some crafty supplies to make my own paper molds. Hey, maybe I'll get to THAT this year too!

This stamp set has a globe on base, and 8 other stamps to build a scene, three of which are a snowman-cat, snowman-dog, and snowman-bunnie. It was the bunnie that sucked me in!

After stamping the card, I ran it thru my trusty Cuttlebug using an embossing folder while placing a cut-out wood frame as the top part of the Cuttlebug sandwich. That way you only emboss the edges of your card and the oval cut-out portion isn't embossed. We made a card using this technique at last month's stamp camp w Mary Allen (sorry, no blog or Web site to share). Gotta give credit where credit's due! Thanx, Mary!
update: here's a tutorial on the process ... and I purchased my Lara's Crafts oval and square frames at Michael's also!

stamps: Plaid Enterprises' Holiday Snowglobe, SU's Cold Play; paper: SU's Whisper White; ink: SU's Old Olive, StazOn Jet Black, Tri-C watercolor markers; tools: Cuttlebug w QuicKutz' snowflake embossing folder, Lara's Crafts' 6x5" Frame w Oval

Nov scrapbook page

Hi folkes! Here's a cute scrapbook page from this past Saturday's make -'n- take at Karen's - where a few friends and I are winding down a series of two 6x6" scrapbook pages we've been meeting to make every other Saturday. You could make a similar turkey page using punches, but these are made with a combination of punches and die cuts. Cute, eh?! The opposite facing page was green with the brown stripe and the word "November" in a cute scripty font from another die set.

no deets today - except that the waddle was made from a paint splotch, the feathers from a glove, and the eyes from a hand-held punch. We cut a triangle for the beak and I'm not certain about the turkey body. Did you learn a new word there? The "waddle" is the section of floppy material hanging below the turkey's beak. I'd not known that 'til Saturday!

thinking of Dad

As it got closer to Thanksgiving, and continuing on to Christmas, my Dad used to answer the phone and / or greet OR leave folkes with "peace." I'll probably always make a special card for my Dad tho' he passed away 5 years ago in early November, and picked up this "peace" sentiment from stampingfreak.com back in '07 (aka Gina K Designs). So, here's Dad's clean & simple card for '09!

stamps: CTMH's Festive Frills, StampingFreak's "peace" sentiment; paper: SU's Old Olive card stock; ink: SU's Real Red, Versamark; accessories: Mark Richards' 3mm metal nailhead stickers