Dream

Okay, first I have to say, this is not my usual style, not by any means...

but when someone puts a challenge out there, I had to jump right in!!

 

Not only is there a challenge at Papercrafters Corner for Magazine Monday

using the cover shown below, but my friend Dar challenged me to do it....

how can a girl resist.
 

 

I looked and looked at this cover, and it had to be one of the hardest yet!!

But, then I remembered years ago, before our wonderful scrapbook store

shut it's doors, they had a paper crafters "garage sale" of sorts.....

you could bring in all your  unwanted stuff, they gave you a number and you sold it...

I had picked up this HUGE bag of old labels and vintage prints and such...perfect

for this challenge.....so here it is...

I focused on the words, colors, the photos  and just the vintage feel of it...... 
the center photo is an old playing card, the jack of hearts to be exact!!

Fall ~ Holiday Wreath

Sharing with you my post  that is on the
Classy Cards 'n Such Blog today.
Go to the "Store" and take a peek at all
she has on sale this week and
don't forget by using my code DIANE-10
you can get 10% off your purchases!


Hello, Diane here with you today on the Classy Cards 'n Such blog.

 

Today I have a fast and easy card to share with you, though it looks as

if you spent hours creating it!!  It took me about 30 minutes to create!

I first embossed my white card stock, then drew a light circle on so I would

have a starting point for my wreath.  I had a button jar sitting on my table,

 so I just traced the lid from that.

 

I used the Cheery Lynn Designs Wreath Strip to cut my twig branches.

I cut 6 strips, you get 3 large branches and 4 small, all from one Wreath Strip die cut.

 

Each twig branch has a little piece on the end to connect one to the other with a brad

if you want, but for this design, I snipped each off, it only took a couple of minutes to

do that.  I placed all the bigger branches on first, then filling in with the smaller ones.

To adhere the branches, I put some Art Adhesive glue on my mat and dipped the ends

only of the branches in it.

 

I know it does not show in the picture, but I "painted" Stickles here and there to give a

bit of  "sparkle" to the wreath.

I added a bow and left my wreath, as is, but you could decorate anyway "you" want

by adding Pearls or Rhinestones to change the look.

 

I am entering this in the challenge at City Crafters to "decorate" a wreath.

 

Hope you have enjoyed my quick project for today, and try one yourself.

See you soon!!

Tags for Christmas and The Power Outage

First up I made a couple of quick tags for the challenge at Impression Obsession

using two of their new dies I just received.   I had been wanting that little sled one

"forever"...but it was "forever" sold out where I shop...it came in the mail yesterday....

 perfect timing, as it was a nice "pick me Up" I needed just about then!

and the cute little igloo I picked up a week or so ago.  the sentiment on the sled tag

is also an IO stamp from one of their grab bags of stamps I purchased

 

 

The challenge is to make a card, tags or gift.......due to my not so wonderful start

of the week I choose to make tags....

 

Now onto the power outage.

I am sure you all have seen the terrible storms the Midwest had on Sunday, and the homes

destroyed in Illinois and Indiana....I feel terrible for them...we lost our power

and though it is an inconvenience, we at least still have our homes!

Our power went out on Sunday around 3:15pm and it is to be on no later then Saturday

morning...it is/has been a hard week.  We heard the storm go over and about 8 miles straight

east of here they had a F1 tornado touchdown.   

We were lucky.

 

I am sharing a few photos of my week so far (don't laugh)!!

 

The first is after the storm early Sunday morning around 5am I saw this in the sky...

it put on quite a show...beautiful...

I did not alter this photo in anyway....

 

 

Next picture is Sunday night...self explanatory

 

 

Then is the wire mess of a generator...

 

 

Monday the DH had had it, and bought this...this is what we are living with for the week.

 

 

So there you have it...my life as it is right now...no water, no toilet (ahem)..nothing to

cook with...but I do have our lives, home and we are safe...I am grateful!!!

Country Time Christmas

Sharing with you all today, my post up on the Classy Cards 'n Such blog today.

There will be a sale there soon I will let you all know about...but right now if you sign up

for her newsletter, you will receive a one time 20% discount off your entire order...

please tell her "Diane" sent you!!

 

Hello Friends,

It's Diane with you today on the Classy Cards 'n Such blog.

After making  more involved cards lately, I decided to share with

you an easy card today.....easy, but it still "packs a punch" so to speak".

 

I started out with a 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" white card stock.

Sponging TH Distress Inks Spun Sugar on first, then Evergreen Bough next.

Using a black ink I stamped an image from Flourishes Country Time Christmas

on top of the sponged ink.  I like how it gives a soft, muted look to the card front.

I went over various parts of the trees with a Sakura Gelly Roll Pen, giving a bit of

shimmer to all the trees...

I used 1/2" Scor-tape to mount the card front to a black piece of card stock,

and 1/2" Scor-tape once again to mount the piece to the front of my card....

To add a bit of texture, I cut my deer from cork,

 using a die from Memory Box called Deer Trio, only using the Doe and Fawn.

I used a gelly roll  pen to make a few spots on the fawn.

To finish the card I added a bit of twine, tied on a bead

and had a fast and pretty holiday card.

 

I wanted to mention the Flourishes Country Time Christmas set has several

beautiful Christmas sentiments included with it, which will help making your Christmas

cards fast and easy.

Thank you for visiting and hope to "see you" back here soon!!

Nutcracker Gift Card

I took some time out of my creative room move this morning to do a few

fun challenges...

I have to say though, that I LOVE my room moved to where it is now.

I have my computer right before me....so much better....

the only downside is the crazy cats!  Now that this room has carpet in it

they like to hang out with me...a lot!!

That's okay, but they get into everything!!
 

 

For today I made this cute little nutcracker card, that will hold a gift card

in it's envelope...these little envelopes are from Webster's Pages new line

"a Christmas story"....as well are the papers and the little button I tied on...

The rosette was made with the TH mini rosette die from a SU scrap piece of DP
 

 

I am entering this into the challenge at "The Kraft Journal" to use any sketch

 

 

which brings me to the challenge at "Seize The Sketch #8"....a perfect fit for my card!!

 

I hope you all had a good week, mine was productive in the sense

 that I got more things moved into my room, the hubs got one of my two lights hung,

and he took my paper stacker apart and rebuilt it for me, I got all my November

design work done and submitted for Classy Cards 'n Such (whew... a relief) and they turned out wonderful (pat on the back), talked to Dar of Dar's Crafty Creations on the phone....

yep, it has been a pretty good week...

see you later...off to Home Depot!! (I'll show you what for later)!

Thanksgiving Traditions

HI, just wanted to share my post that is on the Classy Cards 'n such blog

today...I made a bit of fun décor for Thanksgiving...if you could,

I would love for you to pop over there and "leave me some love.

Also don't forget, by using the code DIANE-10 you can save 10% on

your orders there, and she also has a great sale going on, too, check out the home page

and the clearance items.

 

 

Hello, Diane here with you today on the Classy Cards 'n Such blog

to talk and share a bit about one of my favorite Holidays..."Thanksgiving"!!

 

It's the time of the year where you can sit down with family and friends,

count your blessings, be "thankful" for what you have before you,

 and let your creativeness flow.

 

I love to make most of my holiday decorations and with all the wonderful

dies and beautiful papers available to us, it is an easy task!!

 

We have good friends coming to stay with us over the holiday, so I decided to

make a group of Thanksgiving décor.

 

 

First is the invite itself.....if you "know" me, you know I love to think of ways to

use my dies for other ways then they were intended for....

I started with the gorgeous Champaign Neenah Pearlized Metallic 

paper Beverly stocks in her store.

 

 

I love this paper, it is a nice weight and  quality that has metallic shimmer for

making classy and elegant cards.  I embossed it first, then added a Fanciful flourish from

Cheery Lynn Designs.  My turkey was made with one of the leaves/petals from the

Cheery Lynn Designs Build A Flower #2...I used 12 of the larger leaves, and 2 of the smaller

just building the turkey as I went...easy...easy!! ( I have a little pattern at the end of the post so

you can see what the body looks like.)   The sentiment is from the set Autumn Blessings by

Flourishes.  Adding a couple stick pins and a snippet of a bow and my invite was finished.

 

 

Next is a candle ring made with Graphic 45 12 Days of Christmas  6x 6 paper pad and Authentique Tradition  6 x 6 paper pad...in fact, all the designer papers used in all the projects are from these 2 collections.  I cut out numerous fall leaves from the Impression Obession leaves dies. 

 

 

 It might look like it took long, but in reality it was only about 10 minutes or less of cutting.

I traced a small plate for my base and just started adding flowers around it, leaving room for the candle.  When I had all the leaves I wanted, I just cut an X in the center, big enough to slide

the candle in.  This could be decorated more if you wanted, with berries and such.

 

Using some of the left over leaves I made my napkin ring by cutting a strip of paper and

gluing a few leaves around it...very quick and easy.

 

 

Last are just simple little candy cups to set at each place setting...a few left over leaves glued on as well.  I will use these items for my dinner with friends.

 

 

  I hope you enjoyed my post and it has inspired you to get creative for the Holidays yourself!!

 

Here is the turkey body pattern.

 

I am entering this into the challenge at

Decorate To Celebrate Thanksgiving/Fall

and

Cheery Lynn Designs "Fall Colors"

 

Coffee With Friends

Hello All,

I am still working on my creative room "exchange"...

tonight the DH is going to move my lights, yeah, then maybe I can see what I am doing!!

 

I had to put it off for a bit to do some DT work...so am not sure when I can get back to it.

I did manage to get a black eye from my "moving" event.

My "laziness" caused me to have my paper stacker fall over on me and hit me

in the eye, let alone dumping ALL my DS paper helter skelter.....

AND...the fact that the entire thing came apart and not so mechanical "me"

had to figure out how to put it back together....ugh...

 

 

So, last night, just to pacify myself, I actually put a card together for a challenge.

I used to never, ever miss the Flourishes challenges, but it has been awhile

So, I came up with this card for the challenge "Grab A Cup"

 

 

I don't know about you, but I love any kind of coffee, teapot, cup stamps!!

I started my card on SU Very Vanilla cardstock with a piece of paper that

I received in a package of goodies I won from Simon Says..it is so pretty!

I already had my Cheery Lynn Designs Fanciful Flourish cut, and the bow

was one I had made up..that ribbon came from Walmart...love gingham ribbon!

My birds are a MS punch...and the coffee cup is a Flourishes Stamp from the set

"Coffee With Friends"...I think this might be one of the very first stamp sets

I purchased from Flourishes....I stamped it and fussy cut it out.

I even finished the inside of my card!!

 

 

Well, that's it for now...back to work !!