The Heart Desires #6 , Virginia's View #25 and IBATLT #32

If I go on a card making spree, I usually line up my finished cards in chronological order by due date and sometimes I have to put sticky notes on them with the challenge they're for and what that due date is.  If I'm not careful, I miss a deadline and I'm coming close to the wire now so I'm posting two cards.

This first one is for The Heart Desires.

The plaid is something that has been in my stash forever.  I just happened upon the cut frame in a pile of leftovers and thought it worked well to show off my PTI snowshoes.  How to add a sentiment was tricky but my NBUS Holiday Snippets from PB was the perfect answer.  Here is the inspiration photo.

The plaid makes this eligible for Virginia's View so I'm sending it there also.

My second card is for Inspired By All the Little Things and their inspiration photo.

Wouldn't you know I made a card with skis just last week that you can see here.  I decided to give an entirely different feel to this one.

It's a little more rustic with the inked edges, darker greens and twine bow.  The ski panel is embossed with houndstooth and popped up beside the sentiment stamp from SSS.

It promises to be a beautiful day here in mid-Michigan so I may have to forego any crafting and enjoy the out-of-doors.  I hope it's a lovely day where you are.

MUSE CV #70, CTS #198 and 25 Tags Day 10

It's Christmas time in the craft room.   First up is Muse Christmas Visions.  Chriss's card inspired me to make this.

I used the same SSS village cuts on a vertical card with a bigger hill and white sentiment on pp.

Lucky me I had already made a card that was just waiting for a challenge and CAS(E) This Sketch is it.

I wanted to try colored pencils on black so I white embossed the SSS set and used my Inktense Pencils.

Lastly I have another entry into Tracey's 25 Tags of Christmas.  I was inspired by Tracey's own card.

I used a Neat and Tangled set from SOA and pretty much CASEed her tag.

That's silver you're seeing on the star and little balls, and the pink starbursts are almost undetectable but they're there.

I'm so glad you dropped by today.  Your comments keep me going.

CASology #224

Guess who's a guest designer at CASology this week?  Yes, it's little ole me. I won the 'Welcome' challenge with this card and Melissa emailed me with the opportunity.  I would never say "No".

The cue word this week:

I almost regretted saying "yes" when I saw the word.  It's a good one but not one I have many stamps for.  Then the light bulb went off and I remembered a stamp from Stamplorations and built my card around it.

The hummingbird spiritual animal symbolizes enjoyment of life and lightness of being so I added the WPlus9 hummingbird colored with Zigs and that was all this CAS card needed.  Well a little Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen never hurts.

I'm so glad you dropped by today.  Please go see what the Design Team at CASology has made for your inspiration.

Tic Tac Toe #21 and AAA Cards #77

Amidst all the Christmas cards comes some for Thanksgiving and that's what I have for you today.  This card fits both the Tic Tac Toe Challenge and the AAA Cards Challenge.

It's a PB sentiment surrounded by Altenew flowers.  If you look at row 3 down, you can see I needed to add pearls and so I colored some with my Bic pen.

It's been a busy day but now it's time to sit for a while and make a couple of cards.  I hope you get a little time in your craft room today.

Freshly Made #262 and HLS - NovemberCAS

Quick post today so I can get started on a quilt while my husband is off helping repair a church member's ramp.  This one uses the sketch from Freshly Made and the metal theme from Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge.

I cut out that brassy looking leaf a while ago when I found some 'decorator foil' in my mother's stash and wondered how it would die cut.  As you can see it cut beautifully so I cut another one using the reverse side which was silver.  I just got a pack of fallish patterned papers and the strip goes perfectly with Smoky Shadow cs.  I need at least 15 Thanksgiving cards for my homebound people and this one brings it close to my goal.

Yesterday I mentioned going to see my granddaughters' dance.  It was a wonderful performance of Hansel and Gretel.  You all know the story although I think the ballet adds some extras like Queen Seraphim which is the role Anneka danced.  I couldn't take pictures while they were on stage but I did get this darling one of her with some of her fangirls.

The little ones wanted to see the 'princess' and some even asked for her autograph.  Anneka was gracious enough to honor them all.  Love that girl! Kjerstin was already out of costume by the time I saw her and I can see why.  She was one of the captured children and wore a suit that 'blew up' when the witch fed them to fatten them up.  It was so funny to see those girls in fat suits (think those crazy sumo wrestler suits).  And then to dance in them.  Hilarious.  My lovely daughter-in-law, Christy, is the wardrobe mistress and made many of the costumes herself.  She did have more help this year than in the past and I'm so proud of her talent.  I hate to admit it but I was as much enthralled with the costuming as I was with the dancing. Unless the girls were on, of course. ;)

I guess that wasn't much of a 'quick' post but I sometimes forget to follow through on things I've talked about.  Today wasn't one of those days.

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I hope you've had a terrific weekend.

CASology #223

My church has a telephone prayer chain, a prayer group that meets at a local bakery every Wednesday morning and a prayer shawl ministry.  On Sunday a member presented us with a challenge to make care bags for eight people in the local nursing home who have no family.  I ended up making prayer cards for each of them.  You could say prayer is a team endeavor so I made another of the cards for the challenge at CASology - cue word TEAM.

Taylored Expressions die, Altenew Spicy Yogurt and Neenah Desert Storm papers

I must admit I didn't glue all those little hearts in the other eight cards I made but the CASness of this card called for a little color.

I'm off today to watch my granddaughters dance in Hansel and Gretel this afternoon. This will be the last time they will be in a production together since Anneka will graduate from high school next spring.  It's always a joy to see these beautiful girls dance.

Just Us Girls #369

I am the host of Just Us Girls this week and the trend I picked is 'Metallics'.

The are so many wonderful metallic papers and embossing powders available that it shouldn't be difficult for you to make a card to join our challenge this week.

For my card I used the leaf die from Concord and 9th and embossed them in silver, gold and copper powder. I also dry embossed the leaf into PTI vintage cream paper for the background.  The border and sentiment are also copper.

The rest of the design team and guest designer Cecile Ribon have wonderful inspiration waiting for you at Just Us Girls.  Enter a card and you may be chosen Chic of the Week and may get a chance to be a guest designer.

I can't wait to see what you make.

Merry Monday #221

I have another card for Merry Monday today.  It has to have a winter activity on it

I used to go cross country skiing before these old bones started disliking winter and we started going south for the winter so I included skis from PTI.  Snowflakes and hills stenciled with embossing paste are covered with glitter.  Someone is going to be unhappy when they open this card. ;)   but it looks so good.

Thanks for dropping by.

Tag You're It! #60

Diane Jaquay has a wonderful tag to inspire us at Tag You're It! 

I usually follow pretty closely with whatever the inspiration is but I went outside the box this time.

From Diane's tag I got: layered tag, all over leaf design, sentiment image layered over greens, bow.

I made a striped backgroud from my CP stamp, and using my NBUS infinity tags from HA I cut out a striped and white tag.  The holly leaves are from a TH set that I cut in scrap paper and used as a stencil.  I used that same set to make the greens.  A tiny tag and sentiment from MCS are tied on with an organza bow.  So you see, all of Diane's elements are there, just in a Christmas tag.

What kind of tag would you make?  There are plenty more on the TYI blog to spark your imagination.

ETA:  Loll has a wonderful Twelve Tags of Christmas event going on and I'm going to send my tag over there.  It's a mixed media challenge and I've stenciled, stamped and die cut.

Tags, Tags and More Tags

There are a number of people who are presenting us with tag ideas for Christmas.  I don't usually use tags but I love making them because they are quick and easy (sometimes) and I can later turn them into cards.

On day 7 of Tracey's 25 Tags of Christmas, which was Ellen Hutson day, I was inspired by this tag by Carolyn Peeler:

and made this one.

I'm also sending this to Loll's 12 Tags of Christmas, which is a mixed media challenge. You must include stamping and two other elements.  I heat embossed on vellum the little tree from EE and colored it on the back.  The background was watercolored with DIs, and splattered with water.

Day 8 of Tracey's tags was sponsored by Uniko and although I didn't use their stamps I was inspired by this tag of Sarah Gray's - the one on the left.

I used a W&W set from SOA and followed Sarah's line stamping.

Tracey has many designers with inspiration on her blog and Loll has friends adding to her inspiration.  You definitely should check out their fabulous work.

Less Is More #301

After 300 challenges, Chrissie is stepping down from the helm of Less Is More.  We're sad to see you go, Chrissie, but know that the rest of the team will carry on beautifully in your honor.

My card for Less Is More's 301 challenge - purple and gold:

I knew I wanted to use this mod ornament from SSS but the dilemma was what to do and still make it CAS.  The solution was a frame I found in my box that I popped up with foam.  It was just what the card needed to add dimension.  Unfortunately the purple foil reads more black in the photo.  I still don't have the hang of the lightbox and/or editing program to make my cards look better.

There's been lots of action in my craft room so I'll be back later with another post.  See you then.

Addicted to CAS #100

I quickly made a card for the challenge at Addicted to CAS when I saw their cue word and knew I had a monster stamp set from YNS.

They're stamped on Bristol board and colored with Zigs with GA on the eyes. Time's a wastin'.  Gotta go link this up.  Thanks for dropping by.