Happy Thanksgiving!!

I started the day today going over all of my recipes for the big Thanksgiving day feast. It seemed like I had so many different cookbooks, magazines, torn out pages, etc. and I just wanted to simplify. So...I decided to copy each recipe and then just put away all the books & magazines and just have the copy to refer to. I hope this helps me get rid of some of the clutter and be a little more organized!  Yummm....I'm already hungry for all those taste tantalizing flavors that only Thanksgiving dinner brings!

My card for today is a Whipper Snapper Designs image: Megan. She's such a cutie! I colored her with Copics and did some shading to her skirt and around the image with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Her shirt was paper pieced then I added some Star Dust Stickles (gotta add some bling!) and Crystal Effects to her glasses.  The sentiment is an old one from a Hero Arts set that I use a lot.  The scallop punch used is from SU! and I added the black inside the scallop edge to make it stand out a little more.  Love, love, love this paper!!  It's from My Mind's Eye and it's from the "So Sophia" collection. A little stitching, a couple of buttons and this card is good to go!

I know this is a short post, but I need to get back to my Thanksgiving preparations so I hope you'll forgive me!  Cleaning is next on my list, then checking to see that I have all the ingredients needed for dinner.  I'm ready for a busy, productive day!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  Don't forget to give thanks for all the blessings in your life.  

{{hugs}}

Once a month?.....

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. I've finally got something to show today! I did a get-well card for my sister-in-law and friend who recently fell and broke her hip (yikes!).  She lives quite a distance from me (3 hours!) so it's not like I can run over a casserole to help out or anything.  She's a trooper though and I know she'll do okay with her hubby taking care of her.

I thought this Whipper Snapper stamp, "Recovering Chicken", fit the bill!  I stamped him in Momento Black ink on Bella's Bestest paper and colored him with my Prismacolor Pencils. I popped the deckled edge cutout back into the Nestability and added the shading around the outside edge with small chalk ink pad and sponge.  The cardstock I used is Riding Hood Red, which seems to be a mainstay of mine....which I think SU! discontinued (????).  (I'd love to get my hands on some more because I'm getting low!)  I added the "Ouch!" sentiment - done by my own hand, and felt like any more would've been too much. I tried adding some ribbon, but couldn't get it to look right. Since I was mailing this card, the less embellishments the better anyway! Of course, I just had to add some glitter around this chick to make her complete.  :)

A trip to Hobby Lobby and Archivers today was a special treat! But you should've seen me when I received my "Cinch" from the UPS guy!! I finally have some of the things I need to start using it after my trip - I'm excited! 

My grandson wants a fishing log book (he's 9 and is really into fishing!), so I'm going to try to make one for him. Trying to keep it fit for a "boy" and not all frilled it up will be my challenge!


Have a wonderful week!

Still trying to find my mojo.....

It's been close to a month since I posted anything....'life' seems to be getting in the way of my card making.  And the less I do, the more my mojo seems to be fading. Right now my stamping space is such a total mess - it's no wonder I don't spend more time there!  I was going to take a picture, but I'd be way too embarrassed!

Here's my attempt at Mo's Digital image "Celebrate".  I love this image! I colored it up mostly with Copics - shading with Prismas/Gamsol.  The paper is from Basic Grey's Sugar Rush collection.  The image is digital, printed on Bella's Bestest paper, other cardstock is from Stampin' Up! - Night of Navy and Almost Amethest.  The punch is Martha Stewart's Double Loops punch.  Sentiment is from an old set that was one of my first stamp sets; I think it's a Hero Art's set....not sure of the name.

This past weekend we had our annual family "Pumpkin Carving" day. Started out in the morning in 3 cars headed for the pumpkin patch!  We found one that we really like about half an hour from where we live. It's pretty basic: hayride out to the pumpkin patch, everyone jumps out and searches for that perfect pumpkin (and we all wind up with pretty much the same thing!), the hayride goes back to where our cars are parked so everyone can deposit their pumpkins then back to where we started. There's a large tent that houses the small concession stand - nothing fancy here. Just about everyone had at least a donut, some had cider, some hot chocolate. I think there's a haunted house there too, but we've never been to that.

But here's the part we like the best: the pumpkin blasters!! They have these huge "guns" that you load either with gourds or apples and shoot them at targets - it's a riot!!   





We all came back to our house for a late lunch/early dinner then we set up for our traditional pumpkin carving.  All of these events usually take place later in the day, so there's normally a few pictures when we're all finished, in the dark, of all of our pumpkins - lit up. But this year, we needed to wrap up earlier, so no final picture (boo hoo!).  Here's the one from last year....isn't this cool?!!  As you can see, we have a very imaginative group!

Here are a couple of photos from our pumpkin carving this year! :)  



Anniversary Wishes....

As you can probably tell if you've visited me before, my blog is not in its usual state! Somehow the list of all my favorite blogs has disappeared too. I've been trying to find time to re-do it, but for now, this will have to do....I expect to get it back to some semblance of 'normal' or at least something better soon!

This past week, my DH and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary - quite an accomplishment in this day and age.  I always have a hard time coming up with a card for him because I can't think of anything as good as what the Hallmark cards have to say. But I wanted to make him a card, so I did my best at expressing myself inside. It wasn't as poetic as a store-bought card, but hopefully he got it....and appreciated it even more because I made it for him! :)

I stamped "Kiss me you fool" on Bella's Bestest paper with Memento Black ink then colored with a combination of Copics and Prismacolor pencils. All the shading is done with pencils/gamsol.  The cardstock is SU!'s Ruby Red and Sage Shadow, the patterned paper is My Mind's Eye.  I used my Circles and Big Scalloped Circle Nestability to matt the image then raised on dimensionals, hand-lettered and cut the sentiment, placing under the raised image. As always, I had to add a little Star Dust Stickles to give it a little bling!

Oh darn... I just remembered that I had intended to somehow attach a little "love" charm and a "key" to my heart, but in the rush to get this done, I completely forgot.  Oh well....he already has the key to my heart anyway.  (blush!)



 

Birthday Kitty.....

These days, I only seem to make a card when I need one - LOL!!  That may change now though since summer is just about over and my days will be my own again.

I needed a birthday card for a neighbor, so I dredged up this Penny Black set buried in with my clear stamps. This little kitty has never been inked up and he looked kinda cute so thought he might give my neighbor a smile!  :o)

As usual, I can't remember which Basic Grey collection this is from!  (Ha!) Hmmm....either I'm having memory issues or just have too much Basic Grey!!  (I think it's a combination of both!)  I used my big scalloped circle nestabilities and intended to layer my image on that. When I tried it, it just didn't give it the 'pop' that I wanted.....when I looked at the remnant of my die cutting, I decided to give that a try....and I liked it!  Looking at the finished product, I wish I'd done a little more stitching, but I'm pretty happy with it. :)

I colored this smiling little kitty with my prismacolor pencils & blended with gamsol. The balloons are covered with Diamond Glaze and I just had to use some glitter (on the gift, his hat & around him)!  Can't seem to do many cards without some glitter or bling!  Some ribbon remnants and a loop and this card is ready to rock & roll! 

I used the big scalloped piece (originally cut out to go behind the image) on the inside of the card as the background for the "Happy Birthday" sentiment. 

The grandkids will be back to school this week so no more coming over to Grandma's house during the day.  I'm really going to miss them!!  They have made this summer so wonderful for both my DH and I.  It's been busy...and we've been totally exhausted at times...but we have so enjoyed the time we've spent with them.  Luckily, they live close to us, so we'll still see a lot of them!   (aren't they cute?!!)

Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!! 

Back to the basics!

My days have happily been filled with grandkids the past couple of weeks (11, 9 & 5 yrs) including a very demanding little 5-year old grandaughter who is becoming an avid stamper! She wants to learn everything I can teach her and wants to use every product she sees!! I'm really happy that I can share this with her, but I sometimes have a hard time sharing my 'hoarded' stuff with her!  :o)  (It's hard enough for ME to use that hoarded stuff!!)  She's so cute though and I really can't believe how she's picked up things like shading and blending! I'm making her use her Crayolas...even though she tries to cajole me into letting her use my Prismacolor Pencils. (Ha! No way, Jose!)

Back to the cards!  One is for my friend, Ruth, who is turning 87 in a few days and the other is for her son who is turning 59 on the same day. They are both wonderful people and I love them to pieces!  I was kind of in a time crunch to get these done in time to mail, so went back to the old 'basics' with both of these.  

For the first one I stamped a single flower on SU's Baha Breeze cardstock with Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder then layered onto Chocolate Chip cardstock and some paper from Basic Grey's Offbeat collection. I stamped the sentiment from the same set in Chocolate Chip ink, cut it out added a few flat-back pearls, a little SU ribbon and ooaalaa! First one done! (whew!)


The second card needed to be more masculine, which I have to admit I struggle with sometimes.  I chose SU's Trendy Trees set for another quick and simple card.

I stamped the trees onto white cardstock and layered onto good old Chocolate Chip and Old Olive cardstock then machine stitched around the edge with brown thread. For the background, I used one of Basic Grey's Mellow collection papers also layered onto the same cardstock then zig zag machine stitched. I added a strip of old olive ribbon and a brad and .... another one complete!


I love coloring with my prismas, but every once in awhile it's kind of nice to go back to the basics and just do some stamping!  These weren't at all complicated, but I was very pleased with the results. 

Off to the mailbox these go!!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Sending Donkey Smiles....

Below is a card that I made for sister-stamper, Michelle Oatman. 

I recently found out that Michelle, who is a design team member for A Spoon Full of Sugar, had a life changing accident about three weeks ago, which left her with the loss of her right eye and a long road of recovery ahead. In an effort to show support, cheer her up and raise awareness for what happened to Michelle, A Spoon Full of Sugar is holding a card drive in her honor.

This cute digital stamp set was created by two of Whimsy Stamps' artists in honor of Michelle. The image is available for free on the Whimsy Stamps store page. Whimsey Stamps and many others are joining together to help with a card drive for Michelle. They are asking you to download this image and sentiments, create a card for Michelle, and help with their card drive from now until Tuesday, July 27th.  More details about this drive can be found on the Spoon Full of Sugar blog. 

 

Stampavie is also having a "Kickin' it" for Michelle drive trying to help raise money for Michelle .... besides sending cyber-hugs, they are asking for PayPal donations which will be sent directly to Michelle to help “kick” the mounting medical costs associated with her surgeries and also to help her obtain an artificial eye. Visit Stampavie's blog to get all the details of how to contribute.

Tina Wenke has produced a special digital download of a very cute donkey to use!! Just go to Stampavie's blog, click on the image and save the larger version to your computer. In return, they simply ask that you donate $3 or more to Michelle's PayPal fund.

My 5-year old grandaughter saw me making my card and was very concerned about Michelle. She asked me if she could make a card too....I couldn't believe what a great job she did!! (see how she tried to mimic my blue shading around the donkey? is that cute or what?!!)  On the inside she wrote, "Sorry about your accident. Hope you are alright.  Love, Lucy". I'm going to send her card to Michelle too....I hope it brings her a smile!!

Please visit both of A Spoon Full of Sugar and Stampavie sites and help support Michelle in her recovery!! 

On her blog, Michelle says that mail time is now her favorite time of day - when her hubby goes out to the mailbox and comes back with all the beautiful cards everyone is sending. She says they have lifted her spirits and brought her hours of smiles!!  Let's flood her mailbox with cards and well wishes!!