Doggies on Bloggies Halloween Blog Hop

Good morning!!  Happy Halloween!!!!  Halloween has long been one of my favorite days of the year.  I have such wonderful childhood memories of my mom working and preparing our costumes, painstakingly cutting, sewing, and coordinating the perfect costume for me, and my sisters.  I can remember when I was in elementary school going more than one round with mom, because I wanted one of those plastic Halloween jumpsuit costumes with the hard plastic mask like everyone else.  I think there were maybe three choices of costumes you could pick up at the dime store, and I wanted one soooooo badly!!  Mom always insisted on making our costumes, and one year she finally caved in and let us get the "store bought" costumes.  Well, needless to say, we didn't get two blocks before our plastic jumpsuits had ripped to shreds, and those  hard plastic masks were sweaty and oh so uncomfortable.  It only took one year of whining for those plastic costumes, and actually wearing them to have a true appreciation for the lengths my mom went to to give us the best costumes she could for Halloween.  THAT is a tradition I kept with my own kids, too.  Well, now my kids are all grown up, and next Halloween, I'll have a little Max to hopefully help plan and make a costume for, but in the mean time, I'd like to share some photos of our fur babies in all their Halloween glory, and believe you me...  THEY HATE IT!!

A few of my crafty friends from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards, thought it would be fun to share pictures of our doggies dressed in their Halloween attire, and create a little blog hop, so without further delay, I give you:

Oliver the Canine Crime Fighter

Oliver is sporting his canine cop uniform, complete with screen printed handcuffs, and the badge on his cute little cop hat.  Can you tell by the look on his face that he's ready to nab those bad guys?  LOL!!  Actually, Oliver is the best alarm system one could ask for.  Be it in the light of day, or the dark of night, Oliver can hear a pin drop, and doesn't hesitate to announce it to everyone in the house, and anyone else within a quarter mile radius.  He's a keeper!!  He's actually sitting on his hind feet with one paw on that sign, and I didn't pose him that way.  He's such a ham!!

For the next fashion show appearance, I give you...

Lola the Good AND Fast Witch

 Our sweet Miss Lola is all decked out and ready for some Halloween treats, wearing this cute little witch costume.  I think the trick is on Miss Lola, because she looks positively horrified and humiliated to be a part of all of this, and she wasn't posed, either.  Believe me when I tell you that those paws on the sign were just a stopping off point/spring board for jumping off of that table and making a run for it!!  Thank Heaven I was ready to snap the picture before she made her escape!!!  Lola's black witch dress with pink trim and spider web ruffles looks even better as she's running wildly through the yard, trying to remove that adorable hat, which came complete with hair to match Lola's natural blonde coiffe.

I hope you've enjoyed our little stop on this Halloween Blog Hop.  Please be sure to visit the blogs of Karen, Catherine, and Kelly, to see what their darling doggies are up to this Halloween.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Please enjoy a safe and Happy Halloween!  

Love ya,

Happy Haunting!

Hello and happy Friday!  Are you all ready for Halloween at your house?  I have a card to share with you today that will surely get you in the spooky mood for some Halloween fun!  I LOVE Halloween, and there were so many wonderful Halloween dies available at The Scrapping Cottage this year, so I tried to work as many of them as I could into this one 6x6 card.  For this eerily wonderful creation I used the Skeleton, Midnight Owl, Harvest Time (tiny pumpkin), and Spooky Fence Cottage Cutz dies.

 You know me and my sparkles, and the minute I saw this skeleton die was available, I knew I wanted it, and what, you might ask was my first thought about it?  BLING!  Glitter, to be very specific!  I couldn't wait to get him so I could bling him up with some chunky crystal glitter.  LOL!  Probably not your typical thought when you see a skeleton, but what can I say?  That's the way I roll!  :)  I also added a little bit of black glitter to the tree.  The edges of the pumpkins and skeleton were sponged with some Crumb Cake ink, and the owl was shaded with Copics and highlighted with a white gel pen.  The wide grosgrain ribbon is threaded through an antique brass slide from SU, and the sentiment I chose is from the Haunted Pumpkin Accessories stamp set from Peachy Keen Stamps. 

Thanks so much for stopping by The ThINKin' Spot today!  It's my pleasure to have you.  I wish you a safe and happy Halloween, and of course happy stamping!!

Love ya,

Piles of Smiles

Good morning, and happy Wednesday to ya!  I've had the pleasure of serving as guest designer for Deedee's Digis this month, and today is my last day to post on her crafting blog.  It has been a joy to be a part of the wonderful world of Deedee's Digis, and I'm so happy she asked me to join the fun!!  For today's card I used the adorable Plenty of Fun stamp from Deedee's store, and colored it with my Copic markers.  The layout for this card comes from the sketch challenge today at Splitcoaststampers.  I also played along with the challenge at Crafting With Deedee's Digis, which is to use leaves in your entry this week.  

 The card stock is all from Stampin' Up!, and the patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Nutmeg collection.  I embossed the background of the card with a  wood grain Tim Holtz embossing folder.  The image was cut with classic oval Nestabilities, and the sentiment was punched with a SU scalloped oval punch.  The "Thoughts" charm at the top is also from Tim Holtz, and it's tied with twine from Martha Stewart.  I think that pretty much wraps this card up.  I hope you likey!!!  :-)  BTW, there's still time to enter to win a free stamp set that I'm giving away.  All you have to do is read the story of The Great Paper Cutter Caper and leave your scenario for what happened.  You have till midnight on Halloween to play along for your chance to win the Build A Scarecrow stamp set from Peachy Keen Stamps. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you're enjoying a beautiful day, and of course I hope you get to do some happy stamping!

Love ya,

The Great Paper Cutter Caper

With all the wonderful things I experienced at my Copic Intermediate Certification class, I  do feel compelled to share a  story with you., and I assure it's a story that I'm laughing about now.   I'm going to have a little fun with what happened, and let YOU, my readers give me your opinion on what YOU think happened in this Great Paper Cutter Caper for a chance to win a free stamp set.   This is my story, and it's my hope that you will see the humor in it as I do, because that's truly why I'm sharing it.  It's just too good to keep to one's self, and honestly, what ARE the chances?

 A few weeks ago, I was asked to fill out a designer spotlight form for Peachy Keen Stamps, and one of the questions on that form was, "You're asked to get crafty in a room with absolutely no supplies -you can bring five tools. What do you bring with you?" One of my top five things that I cannot do without for my crafting is my Making Memories self sharpening paper cutter.  That was one of my answers on my spotlight form, and anyone who has had a paper crafting tool discussion with me will also know that I sing the praises of this piece of equipment!  I LOVE my MM paper cutter, and this is what it looks like.

So, a paper cutter was on the list of supplies that we should bring to our Copic class, and mine went with me for that purpose, and also because I needed to cut card stock and prepare materials for the class I was teaching on Saturday.  I did indeed cut card stock for that class on Thursday evening in my hotel room, and my paper cutter was working just beautifully as always.  I gathered my supplies and placed them all in my "My Creative Time" bag that was gifted to me by my sweet friend Emma at CHA, and that bag was placed under the table at my feet for the duration of the Copic class on Friday.  

Our class started at 9 a.m., and we spent an incredible 3+ hours learning all the wonderful things that Maryann had to share with us, taking a break for lunch around 12:30.  Then it was back to class for more instruction and a chance to actually start coloring and putting some of our new found knowledge to the test. 

We took our break for dinner around 4 p.m., and I chose to leave my bag with everything in it just as I had at the lunch break, and I had no worries whatsoever about doing so.  We came back to begin the make and take portion of our class, and I will share with you that this project included a sheet of chipboard that needed to be cut in half.  When I sat down at the table, I noticed that the person sitting next to me had already begun working on their project, and their chipboard had been cut.  Honestly I was very surprised at the condition of it.  It looked like something had gnawed the chipboard in two, and this person was feverishly sanding on it trying to smooth up that frayed and gnarled edge.  I didn't think too much about it, but I did feel  bad that the project obviously wasn't turning out the way they had hoped, and honestly, I was a little worried that I would be struggling with it as well.  I went on to begin my project, and got to the point where I was ready to cut my chipboard.  I picked up my paper cutter, and  I looked at my paper cutter, then looked at the chip board, and I said out loud, "Oh, I don't think this is a good idea.".  The chipboard was very obviously to me, too thick for my particular paper cutter, and it does say on the top of the paper cutter that 2 sheets of card stock is the max that should be cut at one time.  The person next to me heard what I'd said, and leaned over toward me  a bit to state "That won't cut it.".  Well, I had pretty much figured that part out, BUT, I was glad for another opinion to confirm what I suspected, so I put my paper cutter away, and got out my heavy duty scissors to cut my chipboard.  I continued to work on my project, and got to the point where I was ready to cut the card stock that my image was stamped and colored on, and  of course I got out my  beloved  paper cutter for that. ;-)  Only one sheet and a piece of cake, right?  When I made the first cut, I commented to my friend, Kathy that something wasn't right with it.  It was doing more chewing than cutting, and it really looked like I had distressed the edges  of that card stock instead of cutting it, but, not thinking too much about it, I decided I was okay with that look, and went with it.  I knew there was something "not quite right" with my top five favorite paper crafting tool, but I really didn't have a clue what would cause that, as I'd never experienced anything like it before.  With the rush to try and complete as much of my project as possible before our time was up, I put my paper cutter back in the bag, and moved on.  

I will note that the person sitting next to me became continually frustrated as time went along, stating that they weren't happy with their coloring, and a multitude of other complaints about their work, and that person finally put their make and take project away and worked on something completely different than what we were given.  I smiled and acknowledged their obvious disdain for their work, and commented that sometimes that happens to all of us, and especially when we feel like we're trying to get something finished in a short amount of time.

I completed as much of my project as time would allow, and gathered my things, preparing to make the long trek home, as it's about a 6 hour drive from Chicago to my home in north central Missouri.  I honestly didn't think another thing about why my paper cutter was acting so funny until after I arrived home and laid my head on the pillow somewhere around 4 a.m.  At the point where I was just about to drift off to sleep, my eyes popped wide open, and the thought struck me like a bolt of lightning, but I convinced myself that it was probably my imagination,  that I'd check my paper cutter out in the morning and it would most likely be working just fine.  I was just too tired to think about it! 

So morning comes, and despite the fact that I was running on only about 4 hours sleep, I jump up and ran to the craft room where I had dropped all of my things when I arrived home earlier that morning.  I grabbed my paper cutter and plopped down in my comfy chair to try it out, because I just knew that I had imagined all of this, due to a lack of sleep, and the excitement of all that had gone on in the past few days.  I pulled a piece of scrap card stock out, and proceeded to cut away, only to find that my paper cutter was indeed distressing the paper as opposed to cutting it.  *insert sad face here*  I knew what needed to be done next and that was to take the entire thing apart to get to the rotary blade to try and locate what the problem was.  As I took the blade housing apart, and released the rotary blade from the spring mechanism that holds it in place, it was very noticiable that there were notches and nicks out of the blade.  It almost looked like the blade had come out of the track it follows for sharpening, and actually hit the sharpening guide, causing it to take chunks out of the blade.    Hmmmm...  Now how did THAT happen??   At this point, I really thought that I could buy a replacement blade, and it would work just fine once again, but I did notice that there was a lot of what appeared to be paper stuck in the track where the blade should be sharpening each time it cuts a piece of paper.  You know how you get used to the way your equipment sounds?  Well, each time I ran the cutting blade the length of the track, it just didn't sound right.  That blade just bumped along, and the sound was nothing like what I remembered only two days before.

I quickly realized that when I did replace the blade for my cutter, it wasn't going to track or cut  right if the track was full of paper particles, so I went ahead and completely cleaned out the track with my X-Acto knife.  Upon removing all of the debris, which  there was a lot of, I noticed it was a dull gray in color, the same color as chipboard, BTW.  Once the paper debris was cleared, I could clearly see that the track was actually bent, and it was then that I resolved myself to the fact that my paper cutter had cut it's last sheet of card stock, and that I could kiss it goodbye. 

Well, this is my story.  I will tell you that I an not the least bit upset about this.  I didn't actually "see" anything happen with my own two eyes.   I have NO idea what really happened, and I'm not going to make that call. Maybe I watch waaaaaaay too much Investigation Discovery, and this is all in my imagination?  Who knows??  What I do know is that there is NOTHING wrong with making mistakes.  I make them all the time, and thank Heaven I do, because I can honestly say that I learn from them.  Most of the time, I think mistakes can be considered blessings, just for that reason.  I also know that I have gone through enough in my life to know that "things" don't matter.  That's why I'm not upset about this.  While it was an unexpected expense, and an  inconvenience to have to replace my paper cutter, which has already been replaced, BTW, it's a thing, and things don't matter at all.  People are what matter, and I have far too much love and respect for people to  NOT take responsibility for MY mistakes and at least attempt to make things right, when I've made a mistake.  What do you think?   Please feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what YOU suspect might have happened, in the Great Paper Cutter Caper, and you will be entered to  win  the following adorable stamp set from Peachy Keen Stamps.  My dear hubby is anxious to see how creative my crafty friends really are with their scenarios, so I'm going to let him choose the winning entry.  I'll leave this mystery open for comments until Sunday, October 31st , yes... Halloween... at the stroke of midnight.  The winner will be announced on my Monday morning blog post.

PK-609 Build A Scarecrow   

Thanks for stopping by today, and thank you for humoring me with my story.  I'm looking forward to your thoughts, and I wish you a beautiful day filled with lots of love, a chance to learn from your mistakes, and of course, happy stamping!


Love ya,

 

 

Blog Candy Winner & Copic Class Fun

Hello and happy Monday to all my stamping friends!  I warn you this is a long post, because  I have a LOT to share with you today. ;)  First and most important, I have a winner from my weekend blog candy, and that lucky winner of the three Cottage Cutz die/stamp sets, designed by Kathy Jakopovich is commenter #19... 

*******Glora*******

  "Lorie, what an awesome giveaway. My favorite thing about fall is the changing of the leaves. It is breathtaking."
  
True Random Number Generator  Min: 1   Max: 72 Result: 19 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations, Glora!  I'll be in touch soon to find out where I need to send your winnings!!  
 I'd like to thank everyone who left a comment and shared their favorite things about my favorite time of year.  I truly enjoyed reading your responses. 

The second order of business today is, sharing the projects with you that we made at my first Copic instruction class held at Ben Franklin (my LSS) on Saturday.  There were 10 wonderful ladies who signed up to take my class, and we had a very good time!!!  There was a lot of information to cover, and they hung in there with me faithfully, right up to the time we were ready to get stamping and coloring with those wonderful Copic markers!!

 Our main objective was to complete this card, learning basic shading techniques while coloring these beautiful pumpkins with the Fall Fun Pumpkins stamp (PK-614) set from Peachy Keen Stamps.  I have to say that everyone had amazing results with their coloring, especially since it was the first time to use Copics for nearly all of them.  What a great group!!!!!  Naturally in my haste get to class, I forgot my camera, but I'll have pictures to share the next time!!!

 This 6x6 scrapbook page was a great project to advance the masking technique we learned on the card, and take them a step further.

And the final project for those who had time was this large sour cream container, which was designed to double as a gift box/place card for a lovely Thanksgiving tablescape.  

I had a ball with these ladies, and I can't wait till the next class to share some more Copic fun, and expand upon what was learned!!!! 

  

So now, on to the next order of business.  I'd like to share with you how much I loved the Copic Intermediate Certification class that I attended in Chicago on Friday.  It was a whirlwind of a trip, because I had to leave and head back home immediately after the class was over Friday evening in order to be here for the class at Ben Franklin on Saturday.  Thankfully, my dear daughter-in-law and my youngest son's girlfriend went along, and DDIL did all of the driving.  They enjoyed a beautiful day in the city on Friday, while I was in class.  

This class was taught by Maryann Walker, and I can't say enough wonderful things about how she conducted the instruction of this class.  She was articulate, extremely knowledgeable, and manged to work fun and humor into the mountain of information that she had to share.  This class was attended by all of the Regional Certification Instructors, as it served for training for them as well.  What a trip to be in a classroom with so many of the artists whose blogs I follow and have followed for so long.  Talk about surreal!!!!!   Our evening class session was a make and take, led by Sherri Siemens, and Debbie Olson, and this project is just amazing!!  I'm not going to share it, because I'm not sure if they'll be offering the same make and take at the next Intermediate Certification, and I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone else.  Let me say that these ladies did a beautiful job.  They were very attentive and gracious leaders, and gave us the perfect project to apply what we had learned in the earlier class session.  I'm so happy I was accepted into this class, and getting to spend time with my friend, Kathy J. was icing on the cake!  I had a ball!!!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and congratulations once again to Glora for her big win!!!  Have a beautiful day, and happy stamping!

Love ya,

BLOG CANDY, BLOG CANDY, BLOG CANDY!!!!

Good morning my crafty friends!!  Are you in the mood for some fantastic blog candy?  Oh, I certainly hope so, because I can hook you up!!!   I have the Eeker Beaker ($15.95 value), Knickity Knack Cat ($15.95 value), and the Haunted Pumpkin House ($34.95 value) die/stamp sets all to be given away to one lucky winner. 

All of these dies include  coordinating stamps and were designed by the amazing and wonderful Kathy Jakopovich of Peachy Keen stamps.  There are only two things that need to happen to have your name in the drawing to win all three. 

1)  Be one of my followers.

2)  Leave a comment on this post, and tell me what your favorite thing is about Halloween, and or Fall.

That's it!!  I'll chose 1 winner at random on Monday morning to receive all three of these wonderful dies, with hopefully enough time left before Halloween to have some fun playing with them.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I wish you a beautiful weekend, lots of love, and of course happy stamping!

Love ya,

Purr-fect Halloween & Chicago Bound

Good morning!! Halloween is getting closer, and if you haven't noticed by now, it's my favorite holiday.  At least my favorite holiday for crafting and decorating.  My card today features a digi image from Deedee's Digis.  This Purr-fect Halloween image is so sweet, and lots of fun to color with my Copic markers.  I added bling to this card by framing the sentiment, sides, and even the eyes of the pumpkin with rhinestones.  One thing I love about Deedee's Digis, and there are many things that I love, BTW, is that she almost always includes at least one great sentiment with her images, but many times there are several to choose from, and her sentiments are always cute, clever, and in this case, just purrrrfect!!  :-)

The paper that I used for this card is all from scraps that I had laying around from other cards/projects that I've worked on this season.  I've been busy, busy, busy getting ready to leave for Chicago tomorrow.  On Friday, I will be taking the first ever Intermediate Copic Certification class, and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!!  A few weeks ago, I sent in my application for the class, but truly didn't know what to expect, because unlike the first Copic class I took, this time applicants had to submit a page  with colored samples demonstrating that the basic Copic skills had been mastered in order to move on to the next level.   It was a happy day in my crafty world when I got my acceptance email, and an even happier day, when I found out that my dear friend Kathy J. was accepted to the class, too!!!!  Now I'm even more excited, because I get to spend a little more time with Kathy AND have the chance to learn more about these Copic things that I love so much!!!   For a hopeless addict like me, it just doesn't get any better! 

Since I won't be around for a few days to make a blog post, I think I'll offer some blog candy for my followers while I'm gone.  Be sure to check back in tomorrow to see what I come up with.  Thanks so much for stopping by on this beautiful Fall day.  I hope your day is a great one, and as always, I wish you happy stamping!

Love ya,

Peachy Keen Challenge #39

Good morning, and welcome to another Peachy Keen Challenge!  I hope you're not tired of my Halloween projects yet, because I have a few more to share with you right up to Halloween day.  The challenge for this time is "Wrap It Up", so pull out your magic bags, and start creating projects that involve wrapping.  Remember that you don't have to have or use Peachy Keen Stamps to participate in our challenge, but if you have them, we love to see how you're using them, and what you're creating with them, so please, by all means... Use 'em if you've got 'em!!  :-) 

I decided that for this challenge I'd made a gift bag set with a bow and tag.  The bag is actually just a plain white lunch sack, and I stamped the faces on it with PK-693 Monster Mash Faces, then distressed the edges of the sack with the direct to paper technique using my basic black ink pad.  I simply measured the width and depth of the opened bag, and added 3"  so that when I scored  it, I could make fold lines, with 1 1/2 inches folded down for each side of the lid.  I used a Martha Stewart Cracked punch around the page set to punch the edges of the lid before I secured them with tacky tape.  I used a word window punch as a template to cut openings in the top of the lid for the handles that I made using ribbon.   You can click on any of the pictures to get a closer look at what I'm talking about.

 The bow was made with patterned paper from my Recollections Halloween stack, and I followed the tutorial for that from Splitcoaststampers, and you can find the instructions HERE.  The adorable little ghosts you see on the tag, bow and lid are some of the newest Peachy Keen/Cottage Cutz die and stamp sets that are availabe right now in the PKS store.  I cut those out with white card stock and colored them with my Copic markers.  If you haven't played with these die and stamp sets yet, you will definitely want to!  They are the best of both worlds!!!!  I did take some of my scraps of paper and cut some thin strips to make curly ques to go along with the bow. 

 The tag was cut using a template from my Coluzzle set, and I added some more of that distressing with the direct to paper technique.  You do that by simply touching the edge of an ink pad directly onto the paper and swiping.  It's a fun technique with a great result, and I always manage to get incredibly inky fingers when I do this.  :-)  I added some rhinestone swirls to the tag for some fun and interest, and attached it to the bag directly under the bow. 

 Here's a view of the top of the bag, and the little ghosts that I popped up using dimensionals.  I hope you've enjoyed this project today, and I hope you can find time to join us for our challenge.  There are always great prizes up for grabs if you're one of the lucky winners from the random or judged entries, and be sure to check out the Peachy Keen Design Team blogs for lots of amazing and wonderful creations to get you in the "Wrap It Up" mood!!!  They are so awesome and inspiring, and we have a  very talented and special guest designer joining us this time.  Her name is Lauren Brewer, and I think you're really going to enjoy HER BLOG.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I wish you a glorious day, and of course happy stamping!

Love ya,

What I've Been Up To...

Good morning, and happy Friday to ya!  I've been staying busy in my craft room, and here's a little of what I've been up to.  First up, I have Mr. Frank here, who REALLY and very literally digs Halloween!   He is a part of the Frankly stamp set from Peachy Keen Stamps. Isn't he adorable?  Well as far as monsters go, he's about as adorable as they get!!  I colored him with my Copics, and paired the image up with some Bo Bunny paper from my scrap bin.  You know I love my bling, and I had a ball playing with these pretty, green pearls that were gifted to me by a friend.  I went all out and used the whole package on this one card!!!  Maybe it's crazy, but why not?  It makes me much happier to see these pretties on a card, than stashed away in a drawer.  That's a hard mind set to let go of,  but I'm determined to put my bling to good use and not hoard it up anymore, so hang on, because this could get messy!!!!!

 The next little item I have to share is an altered Band-Aid tin.  I covered it with some wonderful Autumn Splendor paper from Papertrey Ink, and used my Cottage Cutz Happy Fall Y'all and Mini Pumpkin dies from The Scrapping Cottage as focal points.  Again with the bling around the scalloped circle, and on the petals of this lace that I had stashed away.  I crocheted it quite some time ago, and had it in my scrap ribbon jar with all of the  ribbon you see here.  I did a lot of sponging on this entire piece, and I wanted to point out the smidgen on glitter you see around the edge of the tin, and how I did that.  I used a piece of tacky tape around the top of the tin, and stuck the lace to that, then in the areas where tape could still be seen, I sprinkled on some Martha Stewart Fire Opal ultra fine glitter.  That completely solved the problem of the exposed tape, and added a little more blingage to this piece. 

 I hope you've enjoyed my offerings today.  I think I'll head outside and do a little bit more decorating for Fall around here.  There are all the makings for a scarecrow outside just calling my name, so I guess it's about time I answered the call, and put him together.  We're planning a bonfire/weiner roast and hayride for tomorrow night, and ya just can't have that without a happy scarecrow waving as the wagon goes by! ;)  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I am always blessed by your visits, and I wish you a glorious day and of course happy stamping!

Love ya,

Hay Pumpkin!

Good morning!  Well, it's been a few days since my last post, and I guess you could say I'm still recouping from the weekend.  The trip to Branson was fun, and it was good to get away, but we had to cut our stay a little short due to my niece coming down with a fever.  She's fine now.  It was just something going around, but nonetheless, it put a damper on her fun. 

Sooooo, I have a card today!  Woohoo!!  This card was made with the Hay Pumpkin digi from Deedee's Digis.  I printed the image out on Neenah Solar White card stock, and colored it with my Copics.   The Pumpkin Pie card stock is from Stampin' Up, and the DP is from Papertrey Ink's Autumn Abundance stack.  I played along with the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge, and used copper brads and the twine with the leaf button, which were all elements that are a part of this week's sketch. 

This was a fast, and fun Fall card, and I love those sweet pumpkin faces, as well as that wonderful "Hay Pumpkin!" play on words.  I hope you're enjoying a beautiful day today!  I wish you a blessed one filled with lots of love and of course some happy stamping!

You're A Hoot!

Good morning!  I have a hoot of a post to share with you today.  This is going to be a quick one, because I'm off to Branson with my sister and niece for the weekend, but I couldn't leave without sharing this card.  I made this one with my new Hoot Owl die from The Scrapping Cottage.  I cut the pieces out with white card stock, and colored everything with my Copic markers.  Oh, how I do love to color!!

 A little faux stitching around the panels, and some foam dots for dimension, and this little lady is good to go.  Wishing you a blessed weekend and of course lots of happy stamping!

Love ya,

Bushels of Blessings as Deedee's Guest Designer!

Good morning!  Just a quck post for today, and one that's filled and overflowing with Bushels of Blessings!  That's the name of the digi stamp set from Deedee's Digis that I used on my first card.  Now how can one resist that adorable little pig?  I sure can't!  I colored this image with my Copic markers, and played along with the challenge at Crafting With Deedee's Digis, which is a sketch challenge this week.   I kept embellishemnts simple, in order to show off this beautiful paper from Making Memories.  My favorite thing about coloring this image was the barrell.  I don't know why, but I loved coloring it!

 

My second card features another one of Deedee's Digis    that has always been one of my favorites.  There's nothing like a trip to the orchard to really make you feel like Autumn has arrived.  I just love this sweet image and all the memories it sparks.  This is my absolute favorite time of year!!

I hope you've enjoyed my cards today, and please stay tuned, because I'll have new creations with Deedee's Digis to share every Wednesday for this entire month.  Have a blessed day, and happy stamping!

Love ya,

PKS Challenge #38 Video

Hello and happy Tuesday!!!  Well, it's time for a Peachy Keen Challenge once again, and we've got a good one for you!  For Challenge #38, we are to make something for Fall, and the only stipulation is it can't be a card.  Well, that's easy, right?  Heeheehee...  maybe not!!  I came up with these little sour cream containters for my project.  I've made these a lot before at stamping events and workshops.  They are so fast and easy, and always manage to get the oooh's and aaaah's when people see how easily they go together. 

It's been a while, but I decided maybe it was time for another video.  I love sharing them with you, but I have to be honest and admit that I HATE the process.  This technologically challenged gal really struggles with the whole putting it together process, so please, please, when I share a video, know that it's a complete and total labor of love!!  Hopefully as I do more of them, it will get easier.  Oh, how I hope THAT!!!!  :-)  Would you like a little good news about the stamps I used for this project?  Well, if you hop over to the Peachy Keen Stamps Store, you can find these little guys now available in die form.  Yes, you heard me!!  They've been made into dies, so you can cut them out, switch their feet, and each die includes stamps for the faces, so you can switch those around, too!  There's an entire new line of Halloween themed dies!!  Oh what fun!!!!! 

Here ya go!  It's a longer one, because I'm sharing the Copic coloring techniques, as well as the instructions for the sour cream container.  ENJOY!!!

Don't forget to check out the PKS Challenge Blog for all the wonderful DT samples, and I'd love to see you play along so we can see what you've been up to with your PKS stamps!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope your day is filled with blessings, and lots of happy stamping!

Love ya,

Good morning!  Thank you so very much for all the wonderful comments on the Peachy Keen September Blog Hop post.  I read each and every one, and this morning I let Random.org choose a winner.  The winner is lucky commenter #7 SHARON!!  Congratulations to you, Sharon!  I'll be in touch soon!!!! 

True Random Number Generator Min:  

                                                    

                                                     Max:  

                                                           

                                                             Result: 7  

                                                    Powered by RANDOM.ORG

 

Now, for a little craftiness.  I have a card to share today that I made for my monthly Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards Swap.  This month the lovely Karen was our hostess, and those of us who know and love Karen, are endeared to her wonderful sense of humor and her ability to always leave us smiling when we show up to catch up on what's been going on in the sisterhood.  She's keeps things lighthearted and happy, and I've got to give her a shout out, because today's  her birthday!!  Happy Birthday Dear Karen!!!!!  I LOVE YA!!    

 

So back to Karen's theme choice.  She asked us to make our cards funny.  Add humor, she says, and make it a card you're comfortable sending to a close friend.  Well, I found this little bra stamp a long time ago at my local scrapbook store, and I loved it.  The bra with the "Thanks for the support." sentiment just cracked me up, and I thought it was perfect for Miss Karen's swap, and with this being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, what better time to share this card.  Thank you, Karen for a fabulous and fun theme!!

So, here's my card:

 I used some retired Stampin' Up! designer paper for this one, and did a little zig-zag machine stitching down the scalloped panel.  The image was colored with Copics, and the pearls and ribbon were the only embellishments I chose for this card.  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful day and happy stamping!

Love ya,

 

 

Kit Cat Sunday Rides Again!

Hello and happy Sunday!  Yes, we're BAAAAAACK!  The Kit Cats have returned, and we've been busy creating with our latest card kit sent to us by our sweet and dear friend, Jeanette.  For those of you who may not know about the Kit Cats, we are a group of friends from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards swap group on Splitcoaststampers.  We thought that since we live in nearly every corner of the US, and in between, it would be fun to stamp together, but due to our varied locations, that's a lot easier said than done.  However, with some careful planning, and a lot of faith in our good old snail mail service, we manage to get the job done.  Each month one of us serves as hostess and sends the rest of our purrrrrfectly creative kittens a kit to create with.  Each kit is put together with the same images, and similar papers, embellishments, and bling.  Then, on the designated post day, we all post our creations to our blogs to see what amazing things each individual has come up with.  It's so much fun, and you can see below that I REALLY enjoyed my  books/reading themed kit from Jeanette!

 My first card is made with the Spencer the Bookworm from Stamping Bella., and I played along with the Card Patterns Sketch #83 for the layout.  I colored Specer with Copics, and cut the image out with my circle Nestabilities.  The paper for both cards is from Bo Bunny's Learning Curve collection, and I have to tell you that this paper is wonderful.  The colors and aged look of the paper is just beautiful, and the weight and finish made it just fabulous to work with.  Jeanette sent a variety of goodies to work with for trim and embellishment, which included satin ribbon, Martha Stewart woven Ombre ribbon (Brick-Ladybug...see clip below), 7 Gypsies antique brass mini key, an office clip (below), and an assortment of buttons.  Jeanette also cleverly included some pages from a vintage dictionary, which was a great element to work into this theme.    Miss Betty Bookworm (below) was sporting some cute little round glasses, and I had a heck of a time trying to color them in the way I wanted, so I thought about it a little while, and then decided to grab my black Micron pen and give her some funky horn rimmed glasses.  Well, that looked pretty cute, but I remember back in the day that my grandma had some of those, and they were sparkly.  I remember how fascinated I was with her sparkly glasses, and how pretty they were, so I decided that with a few stardust Stickles, Betty's glasses could look just like Granny's.  These really turned out cute!!!  Now she's a hottie bookworm!!  LOL!

 I hope you've enjoyed what I did with my card kit, and now you simply MUST travel over to the rest of the kitten's blogs to see what they've done with their fabulous kits.  Kelly, Jeanette, Michelle, and Susan have been having some happy stamping fun, too, and I know you will be inspired! 

Thanks for stopping by today, and there's still time to enter to win the  Haunted Pumpkin House stamp set that I'm giving away tomorrow morning.  Check out the post below, and be sure to make the rounds on the Peachy Keen September Blog Hop for a chance to win a stamp set from each DT member on the hop!  Woohoooooo!  FREE STAMPS... FREE STAMPS... FREE STAMPS!!!  Now THAT makes for some happy stamping!!  Have a beautiful Sunday!

Love ya,