Grateful Pumpkins

Once again I am combining Stampin' Up with Lawn Fawn and they work well together.  The grateful die cut is from the retired Seasonal Frame Thinlets (presently on the Clearance Rack).  I die cut it twice, gluing one on top of the other.  The little pumpkins and the pretty pattern paper is from Lawn Fawn.  I used an orange Wink of Stella glitter pen to outline the stitching on the pumpkins.  The chocolate chip cardstock was embossed with the Woodgrain folder and is a perfect background layer for Fall.  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Witch Hat Clip

Every week, Splitcoaststampers has a tutorial.  I have tried quite a few and some were a little too involved for me.  When I saw this week's tutorial, I just had to try creating a Witch Hat Clip or two.  The first one is the hat on the polka dot bag.  I used solid black cardstock and then brushed it with a black Wink of Stella glitter pen.  It turned out pretty good so next I used  black glitter paper. The glitter hat is extremely cute, but since the glitter paper has white backing, when not looking directly at the hat, you do see the white to which the little clothespin is attached.   I closed a solid orange bag with the clip after putting a Ghirardelli mini inside.   The cute little stamped and fussy cut image is from Penny Black's Bewitched stamp set.  On the picture here, you will see smeared ink on the sentiment.  Since taking the picture, I have replaced the bag so that the smeared ink is no more. If you want to try your hand at this cute little witch hat clip, go to www.splitcoaststampers.com  and on the home page and under Top News and Tutorials, you will see the Witch Hat Clip Tutorial.  Have a great day!

Birthday Treats

Yesterday we went to dinner to celebrate John and Matt's birthdays.  I wanted to use the clear tiny treat boxes (pg. 176) in the Annual Catalog to fill with a little treat.  While I was in Walmart the other day, I saw these Hershey Kisses and I was sure
they would be perfect in the boxes.  Couldn't be much easier to make:  put some kisses and raffia in the box; wrap the box with a 1-1/2" wide strip of paper and wrap ribbon over the paper.  That was for John's birthday.  For Matthew's birthday I made a favor equally simple:  little bags from Amuse Studio with Sixlets little sleeves; orange DSP wrapped around each bag; and all wrapped up with white ribbon and a "cheers" tag.  We went to Chandlers Steakhouse in Schaumburg and had a good food and great evening.  We always have a good time when we are together.  Last night we had the pleasure of having our son's girlfriend and her nine year-old son with us, too. That made the evening even more enjoyable.  Kira and Vinny fit right in with our family.  Have a great day!

Thanksgiving Harvest

I cannot believe that I have already made more than one Thanksgiving card!  Today's card is so pretty that I had to share now rather than wait until closer to Thanksgiving.  The basket of fresh picked squash and pumpkins is from Stampin' Up's Basket of Wishes set.  After stamping and coloring, I fussy cut the image.  For the backdrop I used a number of die cut stitched leaves (Lawn Fawn) and a little gold thread. I really like this stamp set as it has a variety of baskets and a variety of things that fit in the baskets~~a little something for each season.  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!  

Crafting Afternoon

On Saturday, Cherie and Paula came over to play.  Cherie brought a card to share with us and it was very pretty.  We used the Gently Falling stamp set (retired) and gold embossing powder, an item I have not used in ages!  We stamped on vellum with Versamark and then heat embossed using the gold powder.  Once everything was stamped and embossed we turned the vellum over and used markers on the back side to color the leaves.  Cherie told us to be careful as the marker ink needs to dry,  I heard her say it and I got a couple random ink smears and even little butterflies would not cover them~~hahaha.  So yesterday, I went down to my craft room and fussy cut a couple of the stamped and colored vellum leaves and adhered them to a new piece of vellum.  Since the gold embossing was wide enough, I was able to glue the leaves to the vellum under the gold embossed lines so the glue was invisible.  The vellum was framed using dies from My Favorite Things.  I stamped a sentiment on coordinating cardstock, embossed it with gold embossing powder and die cut it using a Die By Dave.  The card is very pretty and I will use this technique again.  Thanks, Cherie, for sharing!  Have a great day!

Halloween Mice

Jen could hear mice running around in the attic when she was in her craft room so Mark was put on mouse patrol!  And he did catch a couple.  While looking at stamp sets on the internet, I saw the stamp set, Bewitched, by Penny Black.  I had to have it to make a mouse card for Mark for Halloween (his very favorite holiday).  I used one of the images for today's card.  Isn't it so cute?  I have been using orange a lot lately, so decided Green Galore would be a nice change and yet still be Halloween.  The stamp set has a number of cute Halloween images, especially if you like coloring, and a couple of them feature these cute little mice..  And the sentiment included in the set is cute font, too.  Have a great day and enjoy the weekend!

Happy Fal!

Summer sure went by in a flash!  I hope Fall lasts for a long, long time. I had to make a card for the first day of Fall and what better stamp set to use than Basket of Wishes (Holiday Mini)..  After stamping the image, I colored it with Copic markers.  I used Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up and Lawn Fawn for this card.  In person the colors go together much better than it looks in the photo.  I couldn't leave well enough alone~~I had to have a sentiment.  Mistake!  I stamped the sentiment and it was crooked so I stamped it again on another piece of white cardstock and adhered it over the first sentiment.. Still crooked so I will fix it before I send it to someone.   It is that old saying~~more is not necessarily better!   I should have left well enough alone and not added a sentiment.  The colors of the card are very pretty and soon we will be seeing those colors in the trees.  Have a great day!

Birthday Weekend

The last weekend was definitely a birthday weekend in my family.
First up was John's!  Since hunting season is just around the corner, I used the pretty Balloon Celebration stamp set and die to make this camouflage color card.  He got a kick out of it.  It was also Sydney's Grandmum's birthday.  I am posting the card Syd made for Grandmum.  Can you guess that Grandmum's favorite color is purple?  And I can't post Syd's card and not Jenny's for her mom-in-law!  Isn't it very cute, too?  So today you get to see three generations of creativity.  Each one is different but each was made out of love!  Happy birthday, John and Dorothy!  Hope your year is full of happiness and good cheer!   Hope everyone has a great day!

Swirly Wave

I kept looking at the Halloween card I posted last Monday and it was kind of on the dreary side.  I decided that I would try using different colors to create a similar card.  I cut the Whisper White cardstock just as I did the black for the earlier card and created the card in the same way.  I used DSP from the Neutrals stack.  The white and black color combination makes a pretty, crisp card.  And the addition of the little stamped flowers ( Love & Affection stamp set) continues the print of the DSP onto the white space. I did not want to put too many little flowers on the card, so a couple of colorful little butterflies were the perfect addition.  The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.  I should mention that since the set is photopolymer, I was able to bend it to follow the curve of the wave.  I do prefer this white and black card over the orange and black version.  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time.

Birthday Card & Gift Box

I am enjoying playing Stampin' Up's Balloon Celebration stamps and dies and Lawn Fawn's Scallop treat box. Here I combined Lawn Fawn's pattern cardstock with Stampin' Up's long-retired Close To Cocoa cardstock.  I always liked Close To Cocoa~~not too dark, not too light.  It is an almost perfect match to this Lawn Fawn brown.  The sentiments on both the card and box are stamped and layered on cardstock cut using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies.  I stamped the balloon and punched it out adhering it with dimensionals.  A quick brush of the clear Wink of Stella Pen on the lower section of the balloon adds a little glimmer.  Now who is having a birthday in the near future?  Have a great day!

Celebrate Your Day Balloons

I finally did give in and order the Balloon Celebration stamp set. I still had Designer Series Paper
from the Occasions Mini from earlier this year and that collection included a balloon print.  I used that as the background, but you can barely see it.  I stamped the multiple string image in Mint Macaron and the balloons in both Mint Macaron and Pool Party.  I did stamp off once before stamping the balloons on the strings, giving an almost translucent look to the balloons.  The sentiment is from the Designer Tin of Cards stamp set.  The sequins are from the new Frosted collection in the Holiday Mini.  They are just about the prettiest sequins I own.  And then there is that cute little bow~~the one I wanted so badly!  Let me tell you, this is about the fourth card layer I made that I did not mess up when I stamped that cute bow and throw in the trash!  But this time, I smartened up.  I stamped the strings first, the bow second and then the balloons rather than stamping the bow last!!  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time.

Lawn Fawn Scallop Treat Box

This is my last Halloween post this week!  I just received the Scallop Treat Box from Lawn Fawn and I had to try it out.  Since my Halloween supplies were on the counters, it automatically became a Halloween treat box.  The jack-o-lantern stamp is also from Lawn Fawn and colored with Copic markers.  I punched a scallop circle using Green Galore cardstock and then added gel dots around the edge.  A few sequins, ribbon and netting and it is quite festive.  The nice thing about this treat box is that it will fit a gift card.  It measures approximately 1-5/8" deep, 3" wide and 3-1/2" tall (including the handle).   Have a great day!

Happy Halloween Jack-o-lantern

This was a quick and cute Halloween card to create.  The jack-o-lantern is from a Lawn Fawn Halloween stamp set, colored with Copic markers.  The sentiment is from a retired Stampin' Up stamp set, Good Greetings.  And the twine is Lawn Fawn's  Spooky twine that I purchased a few years ago.  There was a lot of white space left, so I just had to add a few black sequins.  Since the card base is black, I lined the inside with a piece of Whisper White cardstock on which to stamp or write a message.  Have a great day!

Swirly Scribbles Halloween

I came across retired Halloween DSP from a couple of years ago (at least) and used it for today's card.  I cut a piece of black cardstock 5-1/4" x 3-3/4 and then die cut the wavey framelit in the lower section of the black cardstock.  So I ended up with two pieces of cardstock and the wavey die cut.  I also cut a piece of the retired DSP to 5-1/4" x 4", layering the black pieces of cardstock over the DSP.  None of the pieces touched and that is why I cut the black cardstock a little narrower than the DSP.  I remembered that I had Tangerine Tango embossing powder (also retired) and after stamping the sentiment from Clearly Besotted in Versamark, I heat embossed it with the embossing powder.  I added a few of the Halloween enamel dots from the Holiday Mini, but the card still needed something.  So another strip of DSP at the top and the card was complete.   Have a great day!

Peekaboo Peach Just For You

Isn't today's card pretty?  I actually saw the design on a card on the internet and thought that paper from the Fruit Stand DSP collection would be perfect.  What I did this time is run the Peekaboo Peach DSP and a piece of craft foam (a smidgeon smaller than the striped paper) thru the Big Shot using a die from the Tags & Labels Framelits at the same time.   Before adhering the craft foam and DSP layers together, I temporarily placed the DSP on the  piece of Whisper White cardstock that would be the base for the craft foam/DSP layer and stamped the sentiment in the opening.   From there I adhered the layers (stamped white cardstock, craft foam and Peach DSP) together to the card base and began embellishing.  I used the Botanical framelits and the retired Bird Builder punch, rhinestones and an alcohol marker to color two of the rhinestones.  Have a great day!

That WPlus9 Wreath

So I tried the WPlus9 wreath stamp again and still I missed the mark when stamping the little black centers of the flowers.  I am just having a heck of a time lining up the layers of this stamp.  So, I decided to use the wreath as a base for a Fall thank you!  I have no problem stamping the wreath itself.  Adding the Stitched Leaves from Lawn Fawn was easy to do.  I even added little "berries" to the wreath.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Endless Thanks set and fits in the middle of the wreath perfectly.  The twine bow on the wreath and on the card add another touch of Fall.  The strip of pattern paper is from my stash of retired Close To My Heart paper.  Have a great weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time.

Trick or Treat Favor

During this past weekend, in addition to cute cards, I used a new Halloween stamp from the Holiday Mini, Halloween Treat.  The image was stamped in black on Calypso Coral cardstock and then fussy cut..  The top of the cardstock tent was wrapped with black and orange twine and tied with the tag attached.  The tag needed a little bling, so out came Halloween sequins I had from last year.  To make the tent you will need cardstock that is 3" by 9-1/4" scored at 1", 4-7/8" and 5-1/2".  I used a variety of retired Halloween cardstock and black cardstock for the tents.  I stapled the top of the tent together with the candy inside using  Stampin' Up's handheld stapler.   Inside the little tents are Russell Stover chocolate  pumpkins. And then there is another version.  Same size but I used a Label & Tag framelit to create a window so that the candy corn I put in a cello bag would show.  Ribbon, eyes and a little sentiment made this one even cuter~~at least I think so! Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Bushel and A Peck

When Sydney was a baby,  I would sing "I love you a bushel and a peck" to her as we rocked.  My Dad sang it to Jen and Matthew when they were babies and even when they grew up.  Now I have Nipper, my little parrotlet, and I sing it to him.  As a matter of fact, for Christmas I received a piece of art/home decor from Sydney that has those words on it.  She saw it at Hobby Lobby and told Jenny she had to give it to me for Christmas.   It hangs above Nipper's cage.  When Sydney is here, she takes Nipper in her room and sings "a bushel and a peck" to him, too.  So when I saw that Lawn Fawn released a stamp set with that saying, I had to have it.   I made today's card for Sydney from Nipper who is singing the song to her.  So silly but so special to us.  If I only use the stamp set, Thanks A Bushel,  this once, it was well worth it.  The little bird is from Clearly Besotted's Some Birdie Loves You stamp set.  When I mentioned in a post the other day that I made cutesy things over the weekend, I was not kidding!!  This card is definitely cute, too!  Have a great day.

Just Saying Hello

Over the weekend I worked on cute cards and Halloween favors.  Today's card was created using my favorite stamp set in the Annual Catalog,
Bella & Friends.  I sponged the background with Distress Inks before stamping the images and sentiment.  Since the sponging was very light, I stamped directly on the card and then colored the images with Spectrum Noir markers. Between the cute Wonky Stitched Frame (Avery Elle Dies) layer, the cute little dog and the cute little bird, this definitely is a cute card! Have a great day!

Baby Cards

Today's cards were created using the Baby Bear stamp set.  The bears on both cards were stamped directly on  Whisper White cardstock.  The corners of the Marina Mist card were punched using the retired scallop
corner punch. The card is simple but very cute.  For the Melon Mambo card I started with the white card base.  The stamped bear layer was adhered to a larger piece of Melon Mambo DSP which was adhered to the Polka Dot embossed cardstock.  The Melon Mambo thick baker's twine is an adorable embellishment.  I then mounted the Polka Dot embossed layer on to a 1/8" thick piece of craft foam cut a tiny bit smaller.  The card is so cute but I had to add one of my favorite new embellishments~~a little Melon Mambo enamel heart.  Speaking of enamel shapes, SU is offering the enamel shapes for $6.75, a 25% savings along with a few other items thru September 7th.  You can check out the specials on my SU web site.  Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! 

Hello Fall

I hate to say this, but I can actually feel Fall in the air.  It was a beautiful day yesterday and it inspired me to use my small stitched leaves dies from Lawn Fawn together with Stampin' Up Fall colors of cardstock.  I used one of the Swirly Scribbles die for the base and added the leaves over it.   The 'hello" is from my most used stamp set, Watercolor Wishes.
A twine ribbon goes with the simplicity of this wreath.  After viewing the photo of the card, I do think a litte gold metallic thread would be very pretty intermingled in the leaves.  It looks like today is going to be another beautiful day~~enjoy!