So Thankful

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a great week. I was able to go back to work finally and it felt so good to be back at the school. 

Today we have a brand new challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog and this time we have a fun color challenge. I went ahead and used the photo for my inspiration, coloring up a fun sunflower digital stamp from Power Poppy. I used some retired SU DSP for my background paper.

The layout for my card comes from the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.

Make sure and head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us, we'd love to see how you use these colors!

Glad to Have You

It's time for a new challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog and this week we have a fun sketch from Annette!

For my card I used a fall bundle coming out in the SU Holiday Catalog Sept.4th called Gather Together. I started with a base of Pretty Peacock and then used one of the stamps in the set to make the pattern coming out from around the leaves and sentiment. The largest leaf was stamped in Cajun Craze on matching card stock and then cut out with a die, while just a die was used for the 2 smaller leaves. The strip of DSP going down the right edge is from the DSP that matches this bundle, I just love this pattern and the colors in it! The sentiment was stamped in Pretty Peacock on Whisper White and popped up with dimensionals over the leaves.

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

Stamps: Gather Together (SU)

Paper: Pretty Peacock, Cajun Craze, Pear Pizzazz, Merry Merlot, Whisper White, Gather Together DSP (all paper SU)

Ink: Pretty Peacock, Cajun Craze (both SU)

Accessories: Gathered Leaves Dies (SU), Dimensionals

Thankful for You

Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating their 400th sketch by taking it back to the very sketch that started it all, sketch #1. I looked through my blog to see if I had played along with the very first sketch but it looks like I didn't jump in with FMS until sketch #2, but still, I've been playing along with them since the beginning! 

To play along with the throwback sketch I decided to pull out an MFT Pure Innocence fall stamp. I just love coloring the PI images, they are so sweet. The colors of the girls clothing were pulled directly from the colors in the DSP. After coloring the images I adhered the background panels to a Crumb Cake card base with various patterned paper used for the layers on the card. I added the tree to the left edge of the square layer and then popped up some leaves on the branches. Then I adhered the girl over the square image. The tree is supposed to be the heart element in the sketch and the girl is jut a bonus image to go with my scene.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Sending Blessings (MFT)

Paper: Crumb Cake (SU), Neenah Solar White, Woodland Forest Paper Pad by Pebbles

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Poppy Red (SU)

Copics: R02, R05, R08

YG91, YG93, YG95

Y21, Y23, Y26

E13, E17, E18

E000, E00, E01

Accessories: MFT Blueprints 23, MFT Inside and Out Stitched Squares and Rectangles, Dimensionals

So Thankful for You

For today's card I played along with 2 Power Poppy challenges....the monthly Power and Spark Challenge is all about giving thanks, and the weekly Creative Confetti Challenge wants us to use our monogram to create our project.

For the giving thanks part I used a wonderful new clear set called Fortunes of Fall. The maize image is also a digital stamp and now it's a clear stamp, so I had to have this set when it was released recently! For the sentiment I used one of the ones from the new set "So thankful for you". Right now our 22 yr old daughter is home visiting us....her and her boyfriend moved to Oklahoma City a year and a half ago and we haven't seen her since they moved so it's wonderful to have her home for a week. We had an early Thanksgiving with her and her older brother yesterday and then we all got to watch the Northern Lights as a family after dinner, which was a wonderful treat. Usually I'm the only one awake when the aurora comes out to dazzle Alaska!

For the Creative Confetti Challenge my monogram is LMJ. Therefore I chose:

L= Layers

M= Maize (the corn image)

J=Jewel (there is a blue rhinestone placed on the ribbon in the image).

The J was really tough and I went back and forth between the jewel and jute twine but ultimately ended up using the jewel.

Thanks for stopping by!

Harvest Blessings for Sunday Stamps

It's time for a new challenge over at Sunday Stamps and this week we have a color challenge. I took one look at the colors and instantly thought of fall, so I pulled out the Harvest Mouse set from MFT for my card.

I focused on the dark reds and orange from the graphic and brought them in with the patterned paper and card stock I used. I added one of the blues by coloring the sweater the mouse is wearing.

The layout probably looks familiar because I've done several cards with it this week already...it's the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm really loving this sketch!

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us, we'd love to see what you do with the colors!

Autumn Thanks

I'm a tad late getting my Sunday Stamps card up but here it is!

This week at Sunday Stamps we have a color challenge, some nice bright colors that are perfect for autumn themed cards. I used a sentiment stamp from SugarPea Designs as my focal point and stamped it in the purple from the challenge. I brought in the orange and turquoise (I used a more muted shade) with my background papers and the leaves.

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

Grateful

2 weekends ago I stamped a bunch of images, cut them out with my Scan N Cut and then colored them and set them aside. When I saw the new challenge over at The Paper Players I knew my PI images of a girl raking leaves would be perfect for this sketch.

To create my hill I used Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Border dies along with some of their retired Sweater Weather paper. The plaid paper is also Lawn Fawn and I used an MFT die to cut that out. I adhered them together and then cut out some leaves from the hillside paper and popped those up around my girl, like the wind was blowing up leaves around her as she raked. It's perfect for my neck of the woods today, as the wind is whipping and blowing leaves all around.

 I kept the sentiment simple, adding the "grateful", which is from another MFT PI autumn set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: PI Thankful Friend, PI Jumping for Joy (both MFT)

Paper: Rich Razzleberry (SU), Neenah Solar White, Sweater Weather (Lawn Fawn retired), Perfectly Plaid Fall (Lawn Fawn)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry (SU)

Copics: Y08, Y19

B91, B93, B95, B97

G24, YG63

E23

E37

C3, C5

W2, W4, W6

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Blueprints 15 and 29, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Border, Dimensionals

Sketchy Moose

It's Saturday and I've got exciting news to share. For the month of January I'll be a guest designer over at Sketch Saturday! I love sketch challenges so I'm thrilled to be working with the awesome team over there. Today's Sketch Saturday challenge is sponsored by Little Miss Muffet Stamps, how fun is that?!

For my card I chose to use the Moose Love image. While we are still below normal for snow in my part of Alaska the snow we do have is helping bring down the moose from the hills into the lower elevations. Tonight my friend down the road looked out her front door to see 2 moose licking the salt off her truck! How fun is that?

I love sketches like this because they really allow the image to take center stage and that's what I did on my card...I printed out the LMMS image, colored it with copics, used my ScanNCut to cut out the image and then popped it up with dimensionals on my card. Because Valentines Day is just around the corner I went with a color scheme of red, kraft and white with just a touch of soft blue thrown in.

Make sure you head over to the Sketch Saturday blog to see the great inspiration from the DT and then play along with us! You can visit the LMMS store HERE to grab the Moose Love image or any of their other fun digital stamps! By playing along with Sketch Saturday this week you have the chance to win a $6.00 gift card to the LMMS store.

One of the cow moose enjoying what my friends yard has to offer. You can see how big she is compared to the truck, or the doorway to the garage.

Stamps: Moose Love (LMMS digital stamp), Sheltering Tree (SU-sentiment)

Paper: Crumb Cake (SU), Real Red (SU), Soft Sky (SU), Neenah Solar White

Ink: Real Red (SU), Printer Ink

Copics: E15, E17, E18

Accessories: ScanNCut, Cuttlebug, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Squares, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Rectangles, MFT Blueprints 27, Dimensionals

Autumn Splendor

It's time for a new challenge at Sunday Stamps and this week we have a color challenge. 

These colors are so nice and rich and really say autumn to me. I used the small stitched leaf die set from Lawn Fawn to create 3 leaves in 3 of the challenge colors and then popped them up on my panel. The sentiment is stamped below them in brown and the papers are from the Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall paper pack.

I was stumped on my layout and so when the new sketch came out at Freshly Made Sketches I knew that it was perfect for what I had swimming around in my head! It's a great sketch that I'll be using often!

Head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then play along with us! There is also time to get in on the fun at Freshly Made Sketches, so check them out too!

Stamps: Happy Harvest (sentiment-Lawn Fawn)

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Cajun Craze (all SU), Neenah Solar White, Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Small Stitched Leaves Dies (Lawn Fawn), MFT Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle, MFT Bluerprints 15,  dimensionals

Fall Blessings for Sunday Stamps

It's time for another challenge at Sunday Stamps and this week we have a nice simple sketch to play along with. 

I grabbed the set Lovely Leaves from SugarPea Designs and embossed the sentiment "Fall Blessings" in gold on the left side of the card front. I then used some paper I've had for years from S.E.I. to create my border on the right side of the card. It has gold on it also so ties in nicely with the gold sentiment. To help separate the 2 sections I added a strip of Old Olive, cut out with a die from MFT.

Make sure you head over to Sunday Stamps to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

Stamps: Lovely Leaves (SPD)

Paper: Soft Suede (SU), Old Olive (SU), S.E.I.

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Cuttlebug, MFT Die-Namics 23, CB Swiss Dots EF

Thanks and Giving for Sunday Stamps

Oooops, I'm a bit late getting my Sunday Stamps post up! Hubby and I went to Seward Alaska with good friends this past weekend to celebrate my birthday and I forgot to set up the post before I left.

This week at Sunday Stamps we have a color challenge. I decided to use the browns and go monochromatic on my card. I also played along with the sketch over at SugarPea Designs challenge blog.

The sentiment is from SugarPea Designs set Lovely Leaves. I love this sentiment and the font used! I stamped the leaves from the set in a few different browns, cut them out and then popped them up in the corner.

Head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and play along with us! Don't forget to also go check out the challenge over at SugarPea Designs!

Stamps: Lovely Leaves (SPD)

Paper: Early Espresso (SU), Neenah Solar White, DCWV Everyday Essentials Stack

Ink: Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede (all SU)

Accessories: Soft Suede Dots (SU retired), dimensionals, MFT Zig Zag Stich Rectangles, Cuttlebug

Full of Thanks 2

Today's card is pretty similar to the card I posted the other day, I just changed up the layout and color scheme  a tad. It uses the same items as the previous card, other than the Pumpkin Pie CS. Nice and simple and once again, great way to highlight this fantastic sentiment!

Stamps: Lovely Leaves (SPD)

Paper: Island Indigo (SU),  Neenah Solar White, Countryside Charm (SPD)

Ink: Pumpkin Pie (SU)

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Circles, MFT Blueprints 18, dimensionals, gold sequins

Full of Thanks

SugarPea Designs recently had a new release and as soon as I saw their set Lovely Leaves I knew I had to have it. I'm very picky about fonts and sentiments and I just love the fonts and sentiments in this set, they are perfect for fall cards!

I wanted the sentiment to be the main focal point so I kept the rest of the card simple. I adore plaid and this paper from their Countryside paper pad makes me swoon, I love the green and orange with the touch of blue. That is where I drew the rest of my inspiration for this card.

Stamps: Lovely Leaves (SPD)

Paper: Island Indigo (SU), Pumpkin Pie (SU), Neenah Solar White, Countryside Charm (SPD)

Ink: Island Indigo (SPD)

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Circles, MFT Blueprints 15 and 18, dimensionals, gold sequins

Giving Thanks (again)

This week I am making loaves of banana bread to hand out to friends and  coworkers and I am also including cards for some of the recipients. This particular card is going to a friend of ours that serves on city council with my husband and also teaches at my kids school. She is such a wonderful person and we are very thankful to have her and her family in our lives, and so the card and bread are just a little gift to say we're thankful for her friendship!

The Paper Players sketch was the perfect starting point for my card. Because I used a larger image from MFT I just did the tag shape and then stamped the sentiment and created a banner for that coming off to the right. The patterned paper is from SEI and was sitting in a stash I've had for a few years. To create the tag I used the MFT Tag, You're It and then used the Snow Drifts Cover Up die to create strips across the tag. I then popped up my PI girl with dimensionals on the tag, and adhered the tag to the card with dimensionals also.

Stamps: MFT PI Turkey Time

Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Old Olive, Patterned Paper from SEI, Vanilla colored paper from SEI

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Old Olive

Copics: YR07, YR09, YR18

G21, G24, YG63

E37, E39

E53, E33

R000, E21, E11

E35, E99, E39

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Die-Namics Tag, You're It, MFT Die-namics Snow Drifts Cover-UP

Sponge, Dimensionals

Getting Thankful for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup Heidi is our hostess. She has a fun sketch for us and would also like us to create a project with a thankful theme.

I used one of the images from SU's Thankful Forest Friends and colored it with various markers. I used the 2 1/2" circle punch to  cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals over the DSP. The simple sentiment is perfect for the busy DSP background.

Head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

• Use the Sketch.
• Create a project with a Thankful theme.
• or Mash it Up! and create a project using the Sketch and a Thankful theme. 

Stamps: Thankful Forest Friends

Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Delightful Dijon DSP

Ink: SU Markers

Accessories: 2 1/2" Circle Punch, dimensionals

Thankful Sketch for Sunday Stamps

This week at the Sunday Stamps we have a nice easy sketch to play along with! Looking at my card you may not think I followed the sketch but I did! I just turned the card to the side and my little girl is the circle shape, with the division created by the die perfect for separating the top and bottom layers!

I love this image from MFT called Turkey Time....they just had it on sale for retirement so I am so glad I picked it up last month!! I colored the girl with copics to match the paper with the paper from SEI that I used.

I kept it very simple, I love how this die makes it so easy to create a CAS card.

Make sure to head over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then play along with us!

Stamps: MFT Turkey Time

Paper: Old Olive, Cajun Craze, X-Press It Blending Paper, patterned paper from SEI

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Early Espresso

Copics

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Die-Namics Stitched Cover-up Companion Horizontal, dimensionals

Grateful for my Blessings

Yesterday hubby had to work and 2 of my 3 kids at home were also working so it was a quiet day at home. I decided to take advantage of that and do some stamping. Simon Says Stamp has a thankful theme for their Weds challenge so it was the perfect opportunity for me to put their November card kit to use!

I used the brown cardstock for my card base and created a layer with green patterned paper, with a scallop border created with green cardstock. Another strip of patterned paper was placed across the card and the image panel was created with one of the white prescored cards that came in the kit. I just stamped the sentiment and images on the card and cut the panel to size. The image panel is popped up with dimensionals, as are the leaves on the panel.

I think I'll send this to a good friend of mine...it's been a rough year for her family and I want them to know how much I treasure their friendship!

SSS November Card Kit

SU Old Olive, Early Espresso, Delightful Dijon Ink

Dimensionals, Scallop Edge Border Punch, sponge

Sketchy Leaves for Friday Mashup

It's time for a new Friday Mashup challenge and this week Holly is our hostess. She has a fun sketch for us, and would also like to see leaves on our projects. Here in my neck of the woods the leaves have been off the trees for about a month and we're supposed to have snow showers most of Friday! Wooohoooo for snow!

I used the small stitched leaves die from Lawn Fawn to cut shapes into a white panel. I cut the 3 leaves out of various DSP and then did the inlaid technique (which we did as part of a FM a few weeks ago). I used a green pen to create faux stitching around the leaves and for a border around the white piece. I then sponged the green color around the edges of the white panel.

The sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn set Thankful Mice and I used Doodlebug Sprinkles for embellishments.

Head on over to The Friday Mashup blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then play along with us!

This week's Mashup Challenge:

• Use the Sketch.
• Create a project with some Leaves.
• or Mash it Up! and create a project using the Sketch and some Leaves. 

Stamps: Thankful Mice (Lawn Fawn-sentiment)

Paper: Mossy Meadow (SU), Neenah Solar White, Hello Honey DSP (SU), Mossy Meadow DSP (SU), Tangelo Twist DSP (SU)

Ink: Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow, Tangelo Twist, Early Espresso (all SU)

Accessories: Big Shot, Small Stitched Leaves Dies (Lawn Fawn), Doodlebug Sprinkles

Watercolor Silhouette for Friday Mashup

This week Heidi is our hostess at The Friday Mashup and she would like to see a background filled with color (watercolor, sponging, braying, etc) and also a silhouette image. A bit out of my comfort zone but I went for it.

My friend (and Friday Mashup creator) Holly knows I don't care much for watercolor. It's just something I'm not good at. She told me about some watercolor powders from Ken Oliver and how easy they were to use. I decided to give them a try and bought the Earth Tones assortment when my local stamp store got a few in. Holly was right, they are very easy to use!

For my card I squeezed some powder onto the watercolor paper.....mind you the powder tends to go all over if you squeeze too hard and you do not need a lot to create, so be gentle and if you want more color just add as you go. After adding the powder I began to spray the paper with water and just let the colors combine and do their thing. I added more powder to areas I thought needed it, sprayed with water again and then set the piece aside to dry.

While the panel was drying I took one of the sentiments from Thankful Forest Friends and colored the stamp with markers. I then stamped it on watercolor paper and used an aquapainter across the words and image to carry on the watercolor theme.

After the panel was dry I took an image from Serene Silhouettes and stamped that in StazOn Black right on the watercolored panel. I took the sentiment piece, cut it out and then popped it up to the right of the silhouette image.

Head on over to The Friday Mashup to see what the rest of the DT did and then play along with us!

• Create a project with a Silhouette image.
• Create a project with a Background filled with Color (watercolor, Sponging, Etc.)
• or Mash it Up! and create a project with a color filled background and a silhouette. 

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Thankful Forest Friends

Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper

Ink: Black StazOn, Various SU Markers

Accessories: Ken Oliver Earth Tones Assortment, Big Shot, Chalk Talk Framelits, dimensionals

Pumpkin Frames for Friday Mashup

It's my turn to host at The Friday Mashup and this week I'm all about fall and pumpkins! We all know I'm a winter girl but I do love fall, as fleeting as the season is here in Alaska. Our leaves have already changed and are quickly falling off the trees, it wont be long before the branches are all bare. 

My family loves Halloween and every year we buy a bunch of pumpkins to carve and line our front porch with. This is where the inspiration came from for the pumpkin part of the challenge! I don't like to eat anything made with pumpkin or pumpkin flavor but I do love pumpkin decorations!

I used one of the sentiments from the Thankful Forest Friends set and then used some retired framelits to create my frame. I created 2 pumpkins from punches and added those to the bottom of the frame. I paper pierced the frame as well as all the corners of the card.

Head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then I hope you'll play along with us!

Here's your Mashup Challenge:

• Create a project with Pumpkins.
• Create a project using Die Cuts to create a Frame. 
• or Mash it Up! and create a project with Pumpkins and a Die cut Frame. 

Stamps: Thankful Forest Friends

Paper: Mossy Meadow, Tangelo Twist, Whisper White, Hello Honey DSP

Ink: Mossy Meadow, Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Lost Lagoon, Blackberry Bliss

Accessories: Big Shot, Labels Collection Framelits (retired), Circle Punches, Paper Piercing Tool, sponge