Pink And Blue Stitched Joy Card

Can You Handle The Pressure has a new optional theme going and it is
CHRISTMAS, our themes are always optional and you can enter anything
you want as long as an EMBOSSING FOLDER  is used.
Wet embossing is okay too, but you MUST use an embossing folder too!! 

For my card rather then using a Christmas embossing folder I used a Christmas
die to create my card.  The embossing folder is a favorite of mine
WeR Memory Keepers Quilted.

The ornament is a Stitched Ornament die from Spellbinders!
The greenery comes with this die.

 I also used a JOY sentiment from Cottage Cutz as it fits perfectly
on my card front!

I hope you will join us at Can You Handle The Pressure!
Make sure to stop by and see all the beautiful designs from the team!
This is a perfect challenge to get those embossing folders out and USE them!!

Sweater Weather

 It's Autumn and with much cooler weather we are all in need
of warmer clothes or in the theme at The Sisterhood of Crafters
better known as SWEATER WEATHER!

What could be cuter then a small kitty in a sweater?
Though I don't think I could get any of MY cats
in a sweater without a lot of struggling, meowing and scratching!
Good thing we have stamps of such cute things
thanks to Simon Says Stamps.
I used their Christmas Kitties stamp set.
The background is a metallic paper which when tilted
you can see a bit of pretty shimmer.
I used a Blanket Stitched Oval die cut from
Pink Fresh studios thinking the blanket stitch would work well 
with the sweater!

Once my card was put together I noticed a bit of black marks
on the red metallic paper so I added Emerald City Pops of Color
which I received free with a scrapbook.com order!!

Make sure to visit The Sisterhood for more pretty 
sweater' cards by my 'sistahs'!!

Peace On Earth Challenge #52

Peace On Earth has a new challenge beginning today
and we have a pretty mood board to inspire if you wish
but you can create anything as long as it is Christmas themed. 

I always tend to let the  mood boards inspire me
and as soon as I saw this board I knew I had the perfect
designer paper for it from Recollections A Winters Night.
The tag is part of the paper pack.  I added a few gems for some sparkle
but other then that, the card is complete!
This time of year when the holidays are fast
approaching, it is always good to be able to create
 a simple and easy card that still looks beautiful!!

Make sure to visit Peace On Earth as the teams always have

more beautiful inspiration!!

Sketch 739

Hello and welcome to our second Sketch Saturday for November.
The optional twist is to add a stamp featuring a person.
I chose to not use the option! 

One great thing about sketches is that you can 'make them your own'
as long as the sketch can be recognized and that is what I did with my card!
After a sleepless night in bed for some crazy reason I thought about the cards I

had left to do for the year for design teams and this sketch was one of them!

I remembered I had some dies from Impression Obsession that I thought
would work perfect for this sketch and had never used.  Well, they did, sort of!

When cutting the dies they don't cut out completely but cut 'into' the paper
but I wanted them to cut out, so die cut each one with a circle die, I tried a
circle punch first but it was either too small or too big!

But had I lined them up as the sketch shows I would of had perfect circles
with designs cut into the paper, just wasn't thinking I guess!
I thought about starting over but had already put too much work into
this card and decided this one was perfectly fine!!
Like I said, a sketch is a starting point that you just make into your own!

Hope to see you at Sketch Saturday and see YOUR interpretation of our sketch!!

TOB November Mid Month Reminder

We are halfway thru our challenge at Two Old Bats
and you still have plenty of time to join us 
and we have a fun inspiration board below!

I let the owls and bats inspire me this time by letting a designer paper
do most of the work.  Sometimes these designer papers are just too
perfect to cover up with stamps or dies and make the cutest cards themselves!
This paper looks as though it could have been stamped and inked
it's so cute!  I just added some black and white twine and a sentiment
and it was done, easy peasy!

Pop on over to Two Old Bats for some spooky fun and some
fabulous inspiration from the team!!

Lego's Challenge At A Barrel of Monkeys

 
A Barrel of Monkeys is all about using children's games/toys to use as
inspiration for your projects, so many ways to let it inspire,
the colors, the raised dots, the shapes, where ever it takes you.
Our theme to inspire this time is Legos!!

I created a Legos birthday cake, perfect for a young child in bright

colors using a Spellbinders A2 Curved Matting Basics A die set
embossed with WeR Memory Keepers Dotted Embossing folder.
I used another die to cut off the candles for the top and a few
decorative flowers along with the The Ton Easy Expressions stamp and die for the sentiment.
The background paper is from an old pad I am trying to use up of

DCWV Birthday Wishes (I now have only 2 sheets left...yay!!)!

Visit A Barrel of Monkeys and join in,
can't wait to see how YOU were inspired!!

Beautiful Blossoms November Challenge

We are well into Fall at Beautiful Blossoms and have a pretty
mood board for inspiration!!

I used an older Flourishes stamp 'Autumn Blossoms' for my card,
colored with Copics and die cut out with a Tonic Ribbon and Bow layering die set.
The sentiment is from The Greetery, punched with an SU tiny punch
 and the gingham paper is Prima Blue Denim.

I hope YOU will join us at Beautiful Blossoms!!

 

Stripes And/Or Dots

New challenge, new theme at Double D and its is
STRIPES &/OR DOTS
and we have this fun mood board for inspiration!

I got real creative and created not one but two cards using both
stripes and dots.  I had a new and never been used before die
from Lawn Fawn Simple Stripes Diagonal.  When cutting from
both card stock and designer paper it creates two reversed backgrounds
so instead of setting one aside, I made the two cards.
The turkey on the first card is a Cottage Cutz Turkey owl.

The turkey on the second card is from Spellbinders.
The sentiment is an old Stampin 'Up Holiday Best stamp.

Hope to see you over at Double D,
the teams always have awesome inspiration and there is
always a fun prize up for grabs too!!

Entering the fun following challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday .... Thanks/Thanksgiving
Crafty Gals .... Dots/Stripes
Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday .... ATG
Dream Valley .... Occasions Other Then birthday

It's Snowtime

 Another FREE day for me so I decided to join in all the fun at the 
House Mouse challenge
where their theme is Anything Goes or the Optional SNOW theme
which is what I went with!!

The stamp is  Sweet Music (2008) and sent to me years ago by
a blogging friend 'Curt', do any of you remember him?
I checked his blog and he has had nothing since 2014
and I often wonder what happened to him.  That's nine years,
I hope he is doing well!

I used an Altenew 3D Layered Snowflake EB folder
for my snowy background and though you can't see it
there is crystal stickles for the snow.  The image was colored with
Copics and a gold and red glitter pen in certain areas.
I ran a blue strip along the side for a place for the image to
'rest' on and add a bit of interest!

I have lots of House Mouse stamps so I think I need to play in this fun challenge
way more often!

Love~Joy~Peace

 My blog has another free day today so I decided to join the
PEACE challenge at the Alphabet challenge.

Two years ago I used this Banner & Bough die/stencil/stamp set
from The Greetery for most of my Christmas cards
and decided it was time to pull it out again.
The poor thing looks almost warn out LOL!!
I started with the 4 layer stencil and various inks
then finishing up with the stamping details.
If you have a Misti or a Platform then it is very easy
to line up your stamps with your stencils.
Once I had all my stenciling and stamping done
I came back in with Nuvo Glitter Drops Dazzling Blue.
I wish I had used a lighter color as it is almost the color of 
my flowers but in the container it looked way lighter, live and learn as they say!!

I have another 'free' day tomorrow so be sure
to pop back in and visit!!

Joy To The World

 I mentioned the challenge at ABC Christmas
that the theme is W for WREATHS or
X for XoXo
to my BFF Dar at Dar's Crafty Creations
and she challenged me to make a card for it in traditional Christmas colors and to use something new!  I'm always up for a good challenge!!

I die cut a Cheery Lyn Wreath in different green scrap pieces
then offset them when I adhered them together.
The bow was cut from another wreath die that I just snipped off
to place on my wreath.  The sentiment is part of the first
wreath set and I die it first from a adhesive back foam
and also from a snippet of red card stock.
I used a piece of a bright red brick designer paper (my new item) then
placed a piece of embossed vellum on top that I received
from a friend when she sent me a birthday card.
It really toned down the brightness of the brick red paper,
but made a pretty 'soft' place to add my wreath to.

Make sure to pop on over to Dar's blog

to check out her wreath too!!

Enterign the following fun challenges too:
Die Cut Diva's ... It's All About The Holidays (#2)

Happy Thanksgiving

Once again it's time for a new challenge at
Can You Handle The Pressure and our OPTIONAL theme is
Turkey/Thanksgiving/Thanks.

I used a Spellbinders embossing folder Falling Leaves
which I believe is the same one we are giving away as a random prize!
It's a pretty folder that I embossed onto a piece of P13 plaid paper
which added some pretty colors to the leaves.
I added Impression Obsession wheat dies and a die cut
sentiment from Karen Burniston.
To finish it off I glued a cord bow and a few gold half gems from 
Pink Fresh Studios.

I kind of like how this turned out and hope you do as well!
Join us at Can You Handle The Pressure and be in the random draw
for the pretty falling leaves EB folder!!

Entering the following fun challenges:
613 Avenue Create .... Embossing Wet or Dry

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

 My last card I think for this years
Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!  It ends soon and
I found I just didn't have much energy to
participate much, maybe next time!!
But you should go and take a look as holy moly
there are a ton of fabulous cards there to see
and admire!!

I had several of the Waffle Flower Postage dies cut out
and decided it would work well for some of my
mounting packages of 'ephemera' and also came in useful
for this coffee card!

That's about it for me today,
have a great evening everyone!!

Also entering these fun challenges:
Caffeinated Christmas .... Holly & Coffee 

Jingle Belles .... Hard Candy Christmas (candy canes)

Fall Harvest

We are celebrating Fall Harvest for  our new challenge theme at
The Sisterhood of Crafters.

I created a somewhat simple card by die cutting and inking some 
never been used before Spellbinder leaves.  The plaid background paper
is from a mini pad of P13 Hello Autumn.
The sentiment as well as the gold half pearls are from Pink Fresh Studios.

I hope you will visit our fall harvest fun at The Sisterhood and see all
the beautiful DT designs from my 'sistahs'!!

Coffee Lovers Challenge

 

Today I have three cards I am sharing at the Coffee Lovers blog hop
for Fall and Winter.
They have it twice a year and every year I have plans to join
in and each time I miss it as too much going on in my
life usually to participate.

But, I had purchased the Pretty Pink Posh
Winter Mug dies and the Fall Additions dies
and couldn't wait to use them, so thought
'what a perfect time" to bring them out!

Today I have three cards to share but have six
more sets to finish sitting on my work desk.

First Card

Also entering this card into the 
Caffeinated Christmas challenge where the theme is
to add Holly!

Die Cut Diva's .... It's All About The Holidays (#3)

Second Card
I used some of my Spellbinder flowers on this one.
Also entering this card into the challenge at
Little Red Wagon where the theme is
Hot Hot Drinks!
Die Cut Diva's ..... It's All About The Holidays (#4)
Challenge Up Your Life .... Cozy Christmas

Third card, I kept this one a Fall card!

Make sure to check out the blog hop at 
Coffee Lovers as it is full of some
fabulous inspiration and fabulous sponsors!!

Leaves Challenge

A new challenge starts today at Stencil Fun with an OPTIONAL theme of 
Leaves challenge.

For my leaves card I used a new kind of stencil from
Concord & 9th called Autumn Hues Turnabout.
If you have ever used their turnabout stamps then you are familiar
with how the stencil works.  If you have a Misti or a Platform
then it makes this stencil super easy.   This also comes with a turnabout stenciled wreath.  I have other turnabouts I need to get back out and use, but this stencil was a new one for me
and lots of fun. 

Here is the entire stenciled piece before I turned it into a card:

 I was disappointed in that the TH Distress inks
aged mahogany (first time use for me) and the fired brick 
were very similar colors, who knew!!  The other inks used were
mustard seed and spiced marmalade.

Anything goes

For my anything goes card I used a fun small stencil
from Tim Holtz Mini set #25.  I love these mini's as
you get 3 in a set and they make great card fronts!
Not much to this card other then the stenciling.
I added a few gold flat gems from Pink Fresh Studio,
designer paper, a rick rack die cut piece and a sentiment
stamped and die cut from Pink Fresh Studio.

We would love to have you join us at
Stencil Fun, the stencil inspiration by the entries there
have been beautiful and so many great ideas too!!

Peace On Earth Challenge #51

We are headed closer to Christmas and Peace On Earth has a fun
new challenge today to help get those holiday cards created!
We have a fun mood board for lots of inspiration
but our challenge is always Anything Goes CHRISTMAS!! 

I certainly let the mood board inspire me using the bottom left corner
just perfect for my never been used
Spellbinders Parcel & Post Mailbox dies and Sentiment stamps. 
I embossed the sentiment with S&S gold embossing powder
and die cut several various pieces to decorate my mail box .
It looks like a lot of fussy work but it was very easy to create!
I think this will be a die I will have lots of fun with for any occasion!!

Hope to see you over at Peace On Earth
where there is always plenty of pretty inspiration 
from the design teams!!

Entering the following fun challenges:
Die Cut Diva's .... It's All About The Holidays

Sketch 738

 Time for a new fun sketch at Sketch Saturday!!

This was a very easy sketch and I didn't change it up much.
I uses a paper from Pebbles Woodland Forest (2016) which has a
very subtle leaf pattern on it, since it is November I waned to keep my
card in the 'fall' range,  I used a cheery lynn designs label for the sentiment
which is from Pretty Pink Posh. The leaves and flower are from my already
die cut stash!

Won't you join us at Sketch Saturday??

November 2023 Triple B Challenge

Hello Autumn!
At Triple B we have a pretty Autumnal inspiration board
but you can create anything as long as it has birds~blooms~butterflies
on it, you can use one, two or all three, your choice!  

I created two cards for this challenge as I wasn't as fond of the first card so came up with this
card below!

First Card:
I wasn't going to, but finally fell for the Spellbinders Betterpress
and have to say it is one of the better decisions I made as
I LOVE it.  This card was created using the Betterpress 
Autumn Floral Corner die for both the image and the sentiment.
In real life, you can feel and see the impression it gives.
I used my Zig watercolors to color it in on watercolor paper.
I added a butterfly as I had laid my hand in ink evidently
and noticed I had gotten it on the spot where the butterfly is.
I had just finished the piece when I noticed that
so a butterfly appeared to cover up the ink smudge!
The butterfly die was a freebie from scrapbookdotcom.

Second Card:

I let the pretty fall colors on the right picture inspire me!

I cut a circle mask/stencil and applied Distress inks, using 
wild honey, scattered straw, spiced marmalade, carved pumpkin
and black soot to stamp the image.
The stamp is a Northwoods (2003) wood block stamp given
to me by my friend that gave me all her wood block stamps last summer.

I placed the finished panel on a Sizzix black card base.
The sentiment is of course from my favorites The Ton Easy Expressions.
I thought the bird looked like he was 'thinking' so thought it was a good
match for the stamp!

We have a guest designer joining us,
so make sure to stop on by Triple B 
and leave her some love!!

Give Thanks

A new challenge month begins today at
Simply Clean and Simple
and our OPTIONAL theme is to use the word THANKS!! 

The stamp I have used has been in my stash forever and today
was it's debut which worked perfectly for a CAS design along with
a scrap piece of gingham paper.
The stamp is one from the dollar bin at one of the craft stores,
it's been so long I can't recall which one, which really doesn't matter does it??
Just a little added color to it and it was done!

Head on over to Simply Clean and Simple
and see all the pretty inspiration from our fabulous team,
we would love to have YOU join in with us too!!

Red Color Challenge

Happy November!!
At Colorful Options we are seeing RED this month!
We want to see all your red creations.
Don't like red?  Then you have the OPTION of using rainbow colors!
We have an inspiring mood board for you. 

I had a few ideas for my red DT contribution, a red apron, a red purse or even a red bird,

but then I remembered I had purchased this Sue Wilson shaped shirt die a zillion
months ago and being November in Michigan it is flannel shirt weather,
though a long sleeve is mostly worn lol!!  This is the first time I have pulled out this die

to use and it was so much fun now I want to make a lot more shirts, a great die for
a masculine card and you could even make it girly too!!

The die comes with several pieces to make a fun, tropical Hawaiian shirt,
giving you many possibilities to create!

Pop on over to Colorful Options and join in for some fun
and there is always a Simon gift card up for grabs!!

Entering the following challenges:
NBUS .... Never Before Used Schtuff

TOB November Halloween Challenge

Hello there!  I know, Halloween is over but at Two Old Bats
Halloween challenge we have spooky fun year round!
We have a fun mood board for inspiration but you can create
anything as long as it is Halloween themed! 

I let the bottom left inspire me this time, loved the fun owl
with the glowing eyes.  It's rare to see a real owl since they come out at night
but my husband and I had one fly ahead of our headlights one night
and he went quite a ways with us, it was a fun sight to see!
I went to my Cricut for my owl die cut, resized him to fit the front of my card,
I think he turned out pretty cute!

We would LOVE to have you join in our spooky fun with us
at Two Old Bats, the design team has some fabulous spooky inspiration too!!

Entering the Following challenges:
Halloween Crafts All Year Round .....ATG Halloween

Oh Deer

Our new challenge theme at Double D is
Oh DEER!
We have a fun and 'dear' deer mood board for inspiration.

Every year at Christmas we have resorted to giving the kiddos, greats, and grandkids
money instead of gifts, there are so many that it got to be a big chore for me to
shop for them all and then having to wrap them all too, I would spend weeks
doing it, so as they grew older we decided money was the best way to go.
I make them all money holders each and every year, usually 24 of them total.
Last year I made 12 reindeer and 12 package shaped holders (I'll post those at a later time).
Each deer was uniquely different and you can see I made some for the boys 

and some for the girls.  I used a stitched rectangle die for the money to go in
then made the deer faces by die cutting an oval for each and using a 

Spellbinders Seasons Greetings
dear die to create each face. 

The banners across the front is where I wrote their names!

 The holders open at the top to slide the money in.
here are 4 of the 12 I created:

Head on over to Double D to see all the beautiful inspiration
the Design Teams have to offer, you won't be disappointed!!

Four Seasons November Fall

Hello FALL!
We are into our second season of FALL at
The Four Seasons and  have a fun 'fallish' of course mood board for you
but it can be anything you created as long as it is FALL themed!

Fall Season November 2023

As soon as I saw this fun squirrel I knew which stamp I was going to use.
I pulled out a stamp from Stacy Stamper and my card was created from there.
The sentiment is from Picket Fence A World of Octobers.
I added some cord and a few gold half pearls from Pink Fresh Studio.
I have used this stamp once before so it was fun to see this fluffy guy
come to life again!

I hope you head on over to The Four Seasons and have some FALL fun with us!