harvest

With about one month to go before Thanksgiving, I am trying my best to make my Turkey Day cards, but the snow tonight made it a little difficult - how on earth can it be snowing when all the leaves haven't even fallen off the trees yet?

I decided to play along in the ColourQ Challenge as well as the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge this week. The cQc colors were a little bit tough for me, mostly because of the two shades of yellow. This is my first time playing along in Freshly Made; I love the idea of this blog because the sketches aren't too CAS nor are they too complicated for my style. Here are the two challenge photos...hope you'll play along too:
 

My card uses lots of A Muse Studio goodies. I am really loving this Bounty of the Season stamp set because it stamps so beautifully, and because it's not a pumpkin set...I am pretty much pumpkin'd out until next year. 

The A Muse Studio (a|s) ink color used to stamp the wheat image is Apricot. I used some Bazzill papers for the lighter yellow and peach tones, then added some a|s diamond glitter strips to the banner diecut (PTI). I tied black DMC floss "around" the wheat and finished it off with a clear heart-shaped button (SU!). The gingham paper is from a|s as well.

Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned next Tuesday when I'll have some fun crafty news I've been dying to share!

october papertrey blog hop

Yay for the Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge! This month's inspiration photo is this beautiful shot:

I decided to make another pumpkin using the same Nesties technique that I used on my post from last week, but this time I stamped white and orange zest cardstock with Polka Dot Basics II and a flower from Peaceful Poinsettia in Orange Zest and Fresh Snow inks, respectively:

I used In Bloom and Bitty Box Basics patterned papers from PTI, as well as Spring Rain which was die cut with a nestie and stamped with Vintage Labels, then embossed with the Woodgrain IP. The sentiment is from Fall Elegance and stamped on a double-ended banner die cut. I decided to add twine and sewing to add to the rustic feel I picked up from the fabric and quilts in the inspiration photo:

Happy Blog Hoppin'! I can't wait to see your creations!

boo! for colourq challenge #107

It has been too long since I've played along with the ColourQ Challenge! This week's colors struck me just right, mostly because I've got little bits of Rich Razzleberry (RR) stockpiled in my craft room and various scraps of all the others colors are strewn across the room right now.

I started off with a RR base and added some of Amuse Studio's woodgrain paper as a background and then stitched along the edge after adding the strip of lime green patterned paper from Echo Park.

I got a little fancy with the Plum Divine Twine, RR ribbon and PTI button with small BOO! tag, as well as some leaf pins from My Little Yellow Bicycle:

Have you started your holiday cards yet? Have a fun day!

Supplies: Stamps: Tiny Tags(SU!); Paper: French roast & French roast woodgrain (Amuse Studio), orange from Bazzil, PP from Echo Park A Walk in the Park, RR (SU!);Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa; Other: pins (My Little Yellow Bicycle), oval Nesties, rhinestones (Hero Arts), Divine Twine, RR ribbon (SU!), picket fence die (Papertrey), Sew Mini.

market street special edition block party

The Market Street Stamp Company is celebrating their 1st Anniversary with a Special Edition Block Party and there is a WICKED AWESOME prize at stake. You can read all about it here!

It's not everyday that you get the chance to enter a contest like this one! I am soooo excited! So excited, in fact, that I ordered the same background stamp twice ... {oops}.

I used two different collections on my card for this contest: Autumn Greetings and the Bit of Burlap background stamp. The cardstock base is French Roast cardstock from Amuse Studio, and I combined that with Vintage Cream cardstock from PTI and patterned papers from Crate Paper's Farmhouse Collection:

Everything was stamped using Memento's Rich Cocoa ink. I used a paper punch to cut out the hearts and strung them up on a piece of cream twine to make it look like the cute little scarecrow was holding a banner:

Then I finished the card off with the sentiment stamped on the die-cut banner, which was stitched at one end and layered in between the two pieces of cream cardstock.

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed making it!

Holiday Madness: wee memories #72

Today I've got a batch of Halloween cards to share with you for the Wee Memories Challenge, which was to make a card for any holiday.

The theme of their contest is "Holiday Madness," which fits perfectly for these cards because I went truly mad die-cutting all of these spider webs (Memory Box) and bats (Amuse Studio)...and then glittering all the bats:

I made 20 cards in total and they'll be going in the mail soon! As you can see, I used many different patterned papers on this set of cards. Most of the papers are from the Echo Park Apothecary line. I chose the one above to enter into the contest because I love the light gray tone of this polka dot paper...plus, who doesn't like polka dots?!

And that's all for today, folks!

christmas tag funtime

This morning I am getting ready for our 2nd PTI gathering, with a group of 12 other women from all over New England. We're doing a shoebox swap of Christmas tags and I wanted to share my tag before I leave today:

The design centered around using 1.5" maple tags from Amuse Studio, which I stamped and embossed with the snowflake image from PTI's 2010 Holiday Tags set; I also really wanted to use the fun holiday papers from American Crafts. The maple tags are surprisingly thick and easy to work with. I love them!

It's a two-layer tag, so the wooden circle is actually attached to the bottom layer, and the top layer was die cut with a Nestie so that the wooden tag could pop through the top. The inside is decorated with patterned paper similarly to the outside. I finished the big tag off with the "very merry" sentiment from Tiny Tags and the tiny tag punch from SU!. I also added a Berry Sorbet button to the center of the snowflake after threading it with some rustic twine.

If I had some silver jingle bells, I would have added some to the twine bow at the top...{sigh}. :)

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

MIM: homemade washi tape

Hello....homemade washi tape!

That's the theme of this week's Make It Monday Challenge at Papertrey...and I went several rounds with the tape before I got the hang of it, ultimately having to emboss the ink on my tape to keep it from smudging:

I layered the summer sunrise cardstock after embossing the top layer with the Linen IP and then I added the sentiment strip, which was stamped with images from the Half and Half set.

That's pretty much it! Pretty simple and fun!

halloween's coming!

I have actually gotten an early start on my Halloween cards this year, thanks to some motivation from my bud, Jessica. This is so great because it's allowing me to enter a couple of challenges this week!

First up is an opportunity to win a fantastic Halloween stamp set from WPlus9 over at the incredible Lea Lawson's blog! I'm also sending this off to CARDS magazine blog for this week's challenge! Both challenges called for Halloween cards, plain and simple, so here we have it:

The sentiment on this card is from the 2009 Halloween tags set from Papertrey. Yes, you read that right: 2009...which is why I would SO love to win the new fabulous Halloween set from WPlus9! ;)

Here's a closeup of the adorable Hero Arts felt pumpkin stickers, the Amuse Studio gingham paper and ribbon, Recollections rhinestones and my perfect PTI button. The polka dotted Halloween paper is from Echo Park - I love it!

And here's Teddy, fresh from the groomer's today...sporting his Halloween scarf. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

moxie fab world tuesday trigger

This week's Tuesday Trigger in the Moxie Fab World is "Treat Yourself!"...

I was inspired by the colors and all the layers of yumminess in this photo to make this card:

I also made this with a special friend in mind - I can't wait to pop this in the mail for her!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Verve sentiment; Paper: rustic cream, harvest gold, brown (SU!); Ink: dark chocolate; Other: JBS flower, twine, harvest gold button, tab punch (SU!), rhinestones (Recollections), corner rounder

my first attempt at 10MSPC

Every now and then Jessica Witty makes a 10 Minute Scrap Pile Card and I decided to play along for the first time last night. After I made the card that I posted last night, I didn't feel done in my craft room...I was itching to play some more.

I first snagged some PTI soft stone cardstock and started stamping flowery images (from a|s) in grass, orange, bubble gum, shell, and blackberry (a|s inks)...then added the twine from the Twinery, some glitter and mounted it all to some paper from SU!...

I probably could have conditioned the stamps first, but I was in a rush to meet my 10 minute deadline! They inked up pretty well regardless. This is one of the few cards I have ever made that consisted of mostly stamping. I loved it!

moxie fab world card play challenge

Edited on April 1, 2013 to add:

Here's proof that I must have been drunk or completely delusional on October 3, 2011. Unlike most people I've talked to about this, I didn't even have to go back to the beginning of this blog to find my ugliest of ugly cards! Have pity on me!!!

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Here's a quick card that was inspired by one of the pins over in the Moxie Fab World Card Play Challenge post this week...using more gingham paper from A Muse Studio, some Sizzix die cut letters, Verve die cut hearts, alpha stickers, and some fabulous black saddle stitch ribbon!

Thanks for looking! Have a great night!