PP #171 and HCW

Happy Mid-week Day!  The sun is shining here which makes the 32 degrees more bearable.  It should put me in the mood for holiday cards, don't you think?  First up is Thanksgiving and my card for The Paper Players.

I cut the slider from Straight from the Nest in brown,  then hid the outside lines and cut a leaf from orange to inlay.  A band of gold threads through and wraps around the plaid, from an old dsp.

I am taking the Holiday Card Workshop with Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire and others.  The first lesson was about decorating the inside as well as the outside of your card.  I tried the striped paper die cut as shown by Joy Taylor.

Two things, the color variation in my papers may not be enough (the bottom two really don't show differently in the photo) and I didn't listen well enough when Joy said to be sure to use a LOT of adhesive on the paper strips.  I had a couple of pieces fall off and had to glue them down.  The snowflake is cut with my Cricut and embossed with sparkle powder.

Here's the inside with the positive cut from PTI's "Joy" and one of the sentiments that go with it.  I can't wait to see what today's class offers.  If you have never taken one of these online card classes, give them a try.  I know you'll love it and will learn so much from some super talented crafters.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.   I wish peace, love and joy to you and yours.

CF#115 and DCD #134

While I had my inks out yesterday, I made another card for a couple of fall challenges.  CASual Friday

and Die Cuttin' Divas - Fall Colors

The leaves are from Straight from the Nest, cut from a scrap of orange print paper, and highlighted with some Distress Inks.  The bottom layer is a plaid from an old, old stack.  On top of it is kraft cardstock, antiqued around the edge with Walnut Stain.  I cut apart a Hero Arts sentiment and stamped it with Kraft Ink from PTI, tied on some gold colored jute, and popped up a couple of the leaves.   Now if this doesn't say Fall, what does?

ETA:  I'm also going to enter this at  Addicted to CAS.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the colors in nature so matter the season where you are.

Casology #63, CTS #47 and ATCAS #23

You can tell summer is officially over.  A number of blogs have fall/autumn as their challenge this week.  I love when the leaves begin changing color and used that as my inspiration.

The leaves are a border image from Straight from the Nest, cut from white cardstock, and colored with a number of Distress Inks.  I cut a few extra so I could layer them.  The sentiment is computer generated on Rustic White cardstock.

 I am entering it at CASology,

CASE This Sketch

and Addicted to CAS

Thanks for stopping by and may the colors of nature inspire you.

CAS on Sunday #16 and Muse #34

Hello, Blogger friends.  The weather has been is going to be up and down here in Michigan.  Record breaking highs on Tuesday, hot yesterday, cooler today, and Saturday morning is looking like frost. Ughh. I'm not ready for that just yet.  I love fall and the changing colors, but wish it would wait until mid-October.

It just so happens that the CAS on Sunday and Muse challenges collided this week.  Here's the Muse inspiration by Therese Calvird.

 CAS on Sunday's challenge is "Welcome Home" - make a "new home" theme card.  And so I did this.

The cage and bird are cut from Straight from the Nest.  I wanted to make it smaller but couldn't get my Cricut to cut it any smaller than this without tearing the tiny bars.  I used my chain die for the hanger and embossed both it and the bottom of the cage with gold embossing powder.  The sentiment is from my computer.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll visit you if you leave a comment to let me know you were here.

Retro #79

Just a quick post as I'm a little under the weather and shouldn't even be sitting here, but the card is made and the deadline is today. It's for RetroSketches.

I recently bought a paper pack called Happy Campers by WeR Memory Keepers.  I thought these papers worked well with the sketch.  (One of these days I'm going to branch out and not make such a literal interpretation.)  I cut the leaves from Straight from the Nest and they look a lot like the leaves in the background paper. The tiny tag and stamp are from My Craft Spot.

Now that I look at my challenge list, I see that I was also going to submit this to Paper Players, and that's the reason I used these particular papers, but that deadline has passed.  Oh, well.  :(

Thanks for stopping by.

CTS 30 & CS 143

It's a good thing I didn't take a picture of my desk yesterday.  I had three cards going at once and bits and pieces were scattered all about.  They came together and now my desk is almost clean.  One more card to finish that had pieces drying and I can clear it off and begin again.

Card #1 is for CAS(E) this sketch.

I went back to my Fabulous Finds cartridge (I think I called it Fantastic Finds the other day, the name of a consignment shop I used to frequent).  I cut out these cute charms and embellished them with a pearl, glossy accents and a glitter paint I've had forever. The chain is a die from poppystamps and the paper from Authentique.  I have to say I learned my lesson on this one.  I know to stamp first and add the paper later, just in case.  Well I didn't do that and the "just in case" happened.  The stamp smeared.  I had to gently peel the charms off, which had been stuck down with glue dots.  They survived but the chain broke and the paper strip wouldn't come off but those were easily replaceable.  I didn't want to have to redo the charms, too.  I ended up printing the sentiment with the computer to avoid any other mishaps.

Card #2 is for CASE Study.

Isn't this a happy little card? - no pun intended.  The candles are cut from Straight from the Nest in a striped scrap.  The flames are a glitter paper.  I printed the "birthday" on the computer BEFORE adding the candles and word.  See, I said I learned my lesson. ;)

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and maybe I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Fusion #4

Yesterday was another one of those crazy Michigan days.  The sun peeked through early in the day, just before the rain came in, and then all of a sudden it was hailing.  The hail didn't stick around long because the sun came out again.  Fortunately it stayed out and the rest of day was warm and wonderful.

I've been doing my card making at night while watching my favorite television shows.  This one for Fusion came to fruition during Dancing With the Stars.

I thought about doing just the flowers but they sort of evolved into the sketch and voila' - Fusion

.
The flowers are cut from Accent Essentials and Straight From the Next with a couple of punches (the navy) added in.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day.

Season of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, the day, is in three days.  Thanksgiving, the season, should be all year long.  Some people I know keep a gratitude journal, others include their thanks in prayers.  Whatever way you choose to give thanks and praise, do it often.  No matter what your circumstances, you should be able to find something every day that you can be thankful for.

In keeping with the season, several blog challenges have used various themes of thankfulness this week.  I chose not to do a traditional Thanksgiving card but one that could say thanks to anybody, anytime.

The branch and leaves are cut from different images on Straight from the Nest.  The branch originally had small leaves but I wanted the colorful maple ones so I cut the little ones off and added the new ones.  The maples were cut in two sizes from photo paper, then colored with Distress Inks.  The card base and top are cream and the narrow shadow is rust.  The stamp is from My Craft Spot's Thank You set and I double stamped it with Walnut Distress Ink, moving the stamp a little to make a shadow.

I am entering this card at:
Pause Dream Enjoy - Thank You
Friday Mashup - A Thankful Fall
My Sheri Crafts - Give Thanks
Fantabulous Cricut - Be Ye Thankful
My Craft Spot - Thanksgiving


Thanks for stopping by.

Give Thanks

There are so many things to be thankful for and I know many people keep a gratitude journal.  I started one once but I'm not good at remembering to write things down.  I do speak in prayer about the things I'm grateful for every day.

One thing I'm grateful for today is: No more political phone calls and ads. 

I have a Give Thanks card today for a slew of challenges. 

The leaves are a border cut from Straight from the Nest.  I cut them from photo paper ( I have a ton of 4 x 6 pieces that I got free one time with printer ink).  This paper takes Distress Inks very well and gives a great shine.  I printed the sentiment directly on the striped paper, added an embossed strip of matching green and this simple card is done.

It will be entered into the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut Fall Harvest - use leaves
Paper Players Autumn Colors
CardzTV I'm so Thankful
My Sheri Crafts Fall

Bird Sketch

I printed up some birds from my pcCrafter stash of images a while ago and they were sitting on my work table.  When I saw the sketch at Die Cuttin' Divas I knew one would be perfect to use on it.

I used grey as the background on top of a white card base.  Yellow became the under layer of the image to compliment the color of the bird.  The branches were cut from Straight from the Nest, the border cut on page 15.  I trimmed off some of the leaves so the remaining three could take the place of the circles in the sketch.  I cut the branches in white and then used Black Soot Distress Ink to give them a birch bark look.  I love watching birds and any chance to use a picture of one is a plus for me.