November Anniversary Card

This anniversary card is for my daughter Emily and son-in-law David. They celebrated their anniversary and Emily's birthday by going out for dinner to one of the fanciest restaurants in the city! Dave likes to do things up right...and pamper his wife whenever he can.

I am entering this one in 2 challenges. The 1st one is http://dutchcardlovers.blogspot.com - a sketch.

 DCL #163

The 2nd one is http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com - the challenge is

"Make your own background"

I have done that several times before so this sounded fun and they gave suggestions for new things to try...so I did! I used watercolor paints; I painted the stamp (oak leaves) with a brush after mixing just the shades I wanted. I repeated the stamp several times...the first one was kinda "blobby" but looked alright when it dried. I then spritzed the papers with Smooch Spritz in an amber color, so it is shimmery.

My list of ingredients used:

Oak tree and leaves stamps are Stampin' Up

TH Distress Ink - Antique Linen

Metalic gold cardstock is a fiber paper from Paper Studio

Other cs, bias tape, gold string, tag and brads are all from my stash.

Thanks for stopping bu today!

Shopping Our Stash- #77 "Thank You"

With the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, this week at SOS the challenge is simply to make a Thanksgiving card OR a Thank You card. I have several Thanksgiving cards made already so I decided to go with the 2nd option. YOU can make either one (or both!) for this challenge (#77) at Shopping Our Stash.

The flower on my card was sort of an experiment...I saw one like it on a blog I often visit because I absolutely love her creations! Her name is Julie and she is uber-talented; she's from London, England, and I just love her style! The flower is made from Nestie circle die cuts and the button in the center is really old: its been in an old button tin that moved with me from our first house at least 16 years ago. The aqua paper is from one of the packages of scraps you can buy at Hobby Lobby (like I needed more scraps!). The embossing folder is called "Flourish Dots" from Sizzix; the Thank You stamp is from Stampcraft; the die cut leaves are Spellbinders "Foliage"& the square is "Labels 15"; ribbon and gems are from my stash.

I hope you feel inspired to join in this challenge this week!

THANK YOU for stopping by!

"Think Pink" Christmas Card

This evening while we are anxiously waiting for the election results to come in I spent a little time in my craftroom. I knew there was a challenge ending tonight for a Christmas card with pink on it and I thought that sounded just lovely! So here is what I made:

The challenge is at http://perfectsentimentschallenge.blogspot.com/

 It is PSC54: "Think Pink for Christmas"

The lovely wreath is a colorized digi image, one of the "Deck the Halls" set, from Daydream Designs. Their new Christmas digis and digital paper packs just came out and they are GORGEOUS!!

The embossing folder I used is a Cuttlebug called "Madison"...a new favorite of mine!

The grey and pink cardstocks are from my stash as is the silver string. I used Stickles "Stardust" on the poinsettia centers and Pop Dots to adhere the wreath. The sentiment is computer generated.

Shopping Our Stash #76 "Oh what a deal!"

This week at Shopping Our Stash the challenge is:

Best Deal Ever - create something using one of your best bargain/had to have it- it was on sale! purchases (be sure to tell us what it is).

I am a real "bargain hunter", "deal finder", "hollander", "clearance sale queen", etc. etc. so it was kind of hard to chose just one. I seldom buy anything unless it is on sale and a real deal! I remember starting to collect supplies for cardmaking when I first started and found a good-sized bag of the Flora Doodle glitter flowers on a half-price sale. They have lasted over 2 years, but I don't use them much any more...only for "little girl" cards. So here is my girly card for my granddaughter Pearl, who just turned 14. The photo is of her when she was just a sweet 5-year old.

I was running short on time so didn't do much on the inside of the card.

The dies used were Spellbinders "Scalloped Edge Frame" (inside) & "Labels 20"

The corner punch is a Martha Stewart - "Double Loops"

Ink: Memento "Tuxedo Black"

Stamps: HB is Imaginations

Bible verse is Verve Stamps

DP is K&Company, the "Julianne" collection

Glitter flowers - Flora Doodle

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you will join the challenge this week at SOS and show us what item(s) you got a bargain on and just HAD to have!

One more picture...as you can see I changed things a bit...just wasn't happy with "the look" of my card. So do you think this is an improvement or not?

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #75 "Flowers"

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #75 

Flower Power- Use your handmade or 3-d flowers!  (your project can include stamped images but it also needs to have at least one flower that is either handmade or a 3-d flower you bought.  Think Wild Orchid Crafts, puffy stickers, Prima's, etc.)

Please join us this week at SOS with your card or project that includes a 3-d/handmade flower of some type! Can't wait to see what all you creative people come up with! For inspiration check out my fellow DT  members' blogs...listed in my sidebar!

My card features a flower called a "Gardenia" that I purchased at www.stampingscrapping.com about a year and a half ago...when they stopped selling them! Now they only carry the white ones (which you can color yourself!). The leaves and stem are Stampin' Up stamps; the HB stamp is from Bildmalarna.

The edge border punch is a Martha Stewart called "Doily".

I am also entering this card in the special anniversary blog hop challenge #4 at Perfect Sentiments.
 The "challenge with a twist" was to make a card with a sentiment that has a bird or a bloom on it, or a combination of both! Obviously I did just the one flower!
http://perfectsentimentschallenge.blogspot.com/2012/10/psc53d-birds-blooms.html

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #163 "Time"

Wow! Time marches on...so quickly! Here it is the end of October already. Yikes! Are we ready for winter? With all the wind and rain we've had lately almost all the leaves are down in our woods already. We can see sunsets again!
This week I am honored to be the hostess of the challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ.
Here is my card:

A b-day card for my brother. Inside it says,

"Yes, little bro, it's time for another birthday! Hope it's happy!"

Challenge theme:
TIME - Use clocks/watches, calendars, sundials, etc. OR use black and white only (to represent night and day).

Sponsor:
Inspired Stamps - http://www.inspiredstamps.com/servlet/StoreFront   They are generously offering a$15 gift card to one randomly chosen winner from all participants!

Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

² A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
³ A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;

⁵ A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace,
                                                                     And a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
⁷ A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
⁸ A time to love,  And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.

On our main challenge blog (SSiC) I have a devotional about the scripture verses above. I actually chose this passage quite some time ago, before I knew I would be stepping down from this design team. But this is so very "timely"...yes, I have decided this will be my last week as a DT member of Stampin' Sisters in Christ. Life has gotten very busy and even though I have tremendously enjoyed my time on this great team, it is definitely time to focus on other things...like my family, my grandkids, my neglected Bible study group, my house cleaning (!), etc. etc. You get the idea! It has been wonderful getting to know these strong Christian women on this design team...I sure hope we work at keeping in touch! I thank them for the amazing influence they have been in my life the past six months. Through their prayers, devotionals, emails, and their creativity they have encouraged and inspired me. Love you girls! Thank you so much for sharing yourselves with me! Blessings to you all!

Please consider joining in this fun challenge this week. Make a card or project using the "Time" theme and link it up to the SSiC blog for a chance to win a lovely prize!

Shopping Our Stash Challenge # 74

Good morning! And Happy Tuesday! Are you ready for a new challenge at SOS!?
This week its a really fun one! Here's what we want you to do:
Challenge 74 - "Out of the Jar": use anything that came in a jar- flower soft, glitter, perfect pearls, embossing powder, etc.,  OR a jar image - OR make something using a jar! (decorate a jar) I chose that last one...use a real jar for something. I needed another button jar so I decorated one for white buttons. My craft room has kind of a black and white and pink theme so that's what I went with! What do you think?

Here's the "before" picture!

I will list my ingredients later today when I have a few minutes!

Thanks for stopping by today! Check out the SOS blog and my fellow DT members' sites for some inspiration...join our fun challenge this week!

Merry Christmas Moose

The Perfect Sentiments Challenge blog recently had a blog hop and asked people to enter 4 challenges for a chance to win a grand prize. So I decided to participate! The samples by the DT were very inspiring and the 4 challenges are a nice variety! So here is my 3rd entry:

This challenge (PSC53C) required a Christmas theme card with a "critter" of some type on it, as well as a sentiment (always required!). Another Christmas card done and its still October! Yippeee!

http://perfectsentimentschallenge.blogspot.com/2012/10/psc53c-christmas-critters.html

Ingredients:

Cardstock/DP - SEI "Alpine Frost", Paper Studio (green)

Stamps - ??? (borrowed from a friend!)

Die-cut - Spellbinders "Frou Frou Tags"*

Rhinestones - kimemories "Wild Life"*

Glitter Glue - Stickles* "Star Dust", Hampton Arts "Copper"

*items purcahsed ast www.stampingscrapping.com