A Wonderous Birthday

My aunt asked me to make a birthday card for her friend who has a birthday in December.  She told me she wanted me to make it Christmas-like, even though it's for a birthday, so I did.  My aunt loved the card and she can't wait to give it to her friend.  I sure hope her friend likes it ... she said she loves hand-made cards, so that's a plus.

Here's the card I made for her:

I made the poinsettia's both red and white, and although you can't see it very well, there are gold berries on the wreath.  I liked the way it turned out.  For the banner, I used brushed gold cardstock, but it looks like crumb cake in the lighting, I'm afraid.  Bummer!  It looks much better in person.

Thanks for stopping by again to check out my cards.  Keep coming back for some more inspiration.

Hugs!

Wintertime

The Paper Plunge - #10, Focus People

The challenge over at the Paper Plunge this week is called "Focus People".  Focus is on the words, not the rest of the design.  So this week was an easy one ....  I decided to use the stamp set, Wintertime, and it worked out perfectly.  Take a peek:

I wish you could see the rhinestones better, but I couldn't get the lighting right.  I tried every different angle, and nothing.  This was the best I could do.  I'll have to invest in some better lighting and a nice backdrop.  Hopefully, I'll have that figured out soon ... so stay tuned.  And don't forget to hop over to The Paper Plunge.  Try your hand at entering your creation.  We'd love to see it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for Gid and my faith, my family, my doggies and kitty, my job, and all of you, my dear friends!  Have a wonderful day.

Coloring Down the Lines - Ornamental Pine

Welcome back to our blog hop this week.  Our color pallet and photograph was rather simple to emulate, and so I found my own inspiration in this picture and was happy with the outcome.

If you've come here from Carol's blog, then you saw the lovely card she made using the color pallet from the challenge.  If not, please make sure you hop on back over to check it out.  You'll be glad you did.

Here is the color photograph and color pallet we used for our challenge this week.

So now that you've seen the photograph we used for inspiration, this is the came up with:

Recipe:

Paper:  basic black, sahara sand, mossy meadow, whisper white

Ink:  old olive, crumb cake, mossy meadow

Stamp Sets:  ornamental pine, trendy trims, endless wishes

Accessories:  clear embossing powder

I stamped the background using the snowflake from the endless wishes stamp set and used clear embossing powder to get the effect I wanted.  I think it turned out rather nice, don't you think?

Let's hop on over to see what Joni created for us this week .... I'm sure she'll surprise you.  I sure hope you  find inspiration to create your own cards.  

Have fun!

A Flower Patch Birthday

My friend, and neighbor Debbie's birthday is this week, and so I didn't want to forget to make her a special birthday card.  I was going to make something with a Fall theme, but then I thought it would be more fitting to make a birthday card that was not seasonal, but rather, just for a birthday.  I sat down and wondered what I would make her, and then it came to me ... flowers, who doesn't love flowers?

So I broke out the flower patch stamp set and started creating Deb's birthday card.  Here it is:

And here's a peek at the inside:

So here's to Deb for a happy, bloomin' birthday.

See you again soon ... 

The Paper Plunge Keepin' It Clean - Many Merry Messages

Today's creation is one I made for The Paper Plunge Challenge, Keepin' It Clean.  So of course, I didn't want to use a lot of embellishments, nor did I want to do a lot of stamping on the card.  I love the "Many Merry Messages stamp set, so I made my card using it.

I used gold embossing powder, and scored each edge of the inner piece of the card, topping it off with the gold bakers twine.  Simple and Clean.

Hope you like it!

Cheers!

Coloring Down the Lines - Give Thanks

This week, our challenge is Fall colors, and so it isn't too hard to come up with something that celebrates Fall.

Here are the colors and the picture we used for inspiration:

I didn't want to use pumpkins in this week's card, so I used leaves.  Here's my card ...

For my card, I used the smoky gray chevron ribbon through the chevron punched areas for a bit of interest, and i crumpled the leaves that I cut out using the autumn accents bigz die and took a bit of sahara sand and smudged the leaves a bit to make them look worn and ready to lose their beautiful color.  I also added a bit of gorgeous grunge for a back drop, and there you have it.

Now, if you haven't checked out Carol's blog this week, please do so.  And after that, make sure you move on to check out Joni's card as well.  We all love sharing our creations with you, and so glad you take the time to visit us.

Lots of hugs!!!

The Paper Plunge: We Are Grateful For You

WOW, can you believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner?  Doesn't it seem like as soon as you hit September, the remainder of the year flies by?  I can hardly believe that the holidays are fast approaching, and I want to make sure I take time to enjoy them.

One of the things I'm grateful for, besides my faith, my family, my life, my friends, and Stampin' Up is you.  This card is for The Paper Plunge Challenge for November 14th.  We are so grateful that you join us each week and post your beautiful artwork for our weekly challenges.  What would we do without you!!!  Thank you for sharing your lovely creations so that others, including us, can be inspired by your art.  I don't know about you, but paper crafting and stamping is a passion of mine and it allows me to bring out the creativity that lies within me.  It makes me happy, relieves stress, and makes me feel good all the way around.  Having wonderful friends that are creative, and access to some of the most gifted artisans in the world is such a blessing.

This week's challenge wasn't hard at all to do.  I created it in no time, and I actually used some inspiration from Paula Reid's Christmas card to make this one.  So, this is what I designed especially for you:

Recipe

Paper:  blackberry bliss, very vanilla, mossy meadow, tangelo twist, brushed gold, gold glimmer

Ink:  gold embossing powder

Stamp Sets:  for all things

Accessories:  labels collection framelits, autumn accents bigz die, zig zag EF, linen thread

So please don't forget to hop on over to The Paper Plunge and take the plunge.  I challenge you to show us your "grateful for you" card.  We can't wait to see it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Banner Star Water Bottle Tags

I made these banner star water bottle tags for my upline's weekend retreat.  They were a lot of fun and looked so cute on the water bottles.  Here's a few of them.

Here's a close up as well:

I gold and silver embossed the stars, and the loop at the top is a piece of smoky slate cardstock.  I used the stars EF on the white, and shaded the stars and edges with smoky slate, and then mounted them onto smoky slate card stock that I cut from the banner framelits.  Whola!  Easy peasy.

Hope you enjoyed them, and perhaps you'll try them as well,

Cheers!

Coloring Down the Lines - So Thankful

As we get closer to Thanksgiving, a wonderful holiday we celebrate here in the United States, it gives us more reason to create beautiful Fall-inspired cards and enjoy the lovely colors Autumn has to offer.

This week, our challenge was to use the following colors:

The colors in the pallet are:  soft sky, pistachio pudding, basic black, perfect plum, soft suede, and crumb cake.  I felt these were very muted colors and at first, had a hard time trying to figure out what to make.  Then, all of a sudden, it came to me and I like how it turned out.

Recipe

Paper:  basic black, perfect plum, whisper white

Ink:  soft suede, perfect plumb, pistachio pudding, crumb cake, soft sky

Stamp Sets:  bordering blooms, 12 days of Christmas, PL holiday cheer, wonderous wreath

Accessories:  wonderful wreath framelit, star punch, basic pearls, perfect plum candy dot

I was over at Carol's blog and she seems to never have trouble using the colors in pallet to make her cards pop.  If you haven't been to see her submission this week, hop on back and check it out.

I think we should also hop on over to Ms. Joni's blog and see what she made for you this week.  She never disappoints us either ... don't you think we have some very talented ladies that are our designers?  I do!

Well, thanks for stopping by this week.  We love your comments and appreciate you checking us out.

Cheers!

Happy Wonderful Christmas

I just can't get enough of the Wonderous Wreath stamp set, and there are so many ways you can use it, not only for Christmas and Thanksgiving, but for all year long.

The card I made for you today was CASED from Inking Idaho.  I love her creations, and this one caught my eye and I knew I had to make it.  I did add a little stamping over the white area, and it looks great.  Take a peek:

So what do you think?  Cute, huh?  I'm off to make more cards, especially since I have yet to make my Christmas cards.  I have some made, but really need to concentrate on getting them done.  I've been busy with fund raisers, library club, operation snowflake project at work, and the like, so I don't have a lot of time.  I also have some orders I need to fill that I received at my last fund raiser.  Whoo hoo!

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you again tomorrow.

Hugs,

Tis The Season

Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la.  Can you tell I'm starting to get into the holiday season?  I made this card a while back and forgot to post it.  So, it's a good thing I realized it so I can share it with you today.

Tis the season ...

I love the glimmer paper Christmas tree.  It looks so pretty on the card, and I wish the picture did it justice.  I'm using a lot more of glimmer paper, so stay tuned.

Ciao for now.

Punch Your Art Out - Chef Josh

I found this cute chef punch art over at Bonnie's Creative Place and since our son-in-law is a chef in New York, I thought I would try and make a punch art chef birthday card to send him.  So, I sat down and tried my hand at CASING Bonnie's chef card and I managed to do pretty good with it.  The trick is always getting the sizing right.  The first one I made was too large, so I kept at it until I got it just right.

This is perfect timing with The Paper Plunge challenge this week being "Punch Your Art Out".  I have made some cute punch art items, but since it's Josh's birthday next week, I wanted to use this card for the challenge as well.

Take a peek ...

Isn't he cute?  I'm mailing this card out to Josh tomorrow so he gets it in time for his birthday.  It was fun making him .. and I hope you enjoy him as much as I do.

See you soon .... I'll have some creations for you from my fund raiser I'm working on this weekend.
Stay tuned!

Coloring Down the Lines - Letterpress Winter Pizzazz

I'm back ... yeah!  After last week's debacle, I completely forgot about my posting and felt so bad after I realized it 2 days later.  I had so much going on last week:  one of my babies, Bandit, a Maltese doggie, had to have knee surgery and our whole schedule was turned upside down.  Never-the-less, it was our anniversary the same day, and it was just a topsy turvey week, so I apologize for not posting a card and linking it so you can hop to everyone else's lovely creations.

And so I'm back now.  I hope you stopped by Carol's blog to check her design out first, and if not, please do hop on back to see what she's created for you.  Joni is after me, and of course, she always has a wow card too that she graces us with.

This week's pallet was a pretty one.  My card is rather plain, but I captured the colors I needed to, so that's a plus.  Here are the colors we had to work with this week, along with the picture for inspiration:

The colors are:
 Pistachio Pudding

Wild Wasabi

Basic Black

Crisp Cantaloupe

Pear Pizzazz

Given the colors above, I made my card and here it is:

For some reason, you can't see the pearls in the bottom left and top right corners, or the center of the snowflake, but they are there.  

Thanks for taking a peek.  Hope you'll keep stopping back.

Happy Anniversary Hubby

On Wednesday, it was our 37th wedding anniversary.  Can you believe it - 37 years?  It's hard to believe.  We celebrated by going to dinner, but we couldn't really do too much since one of my little doggies, Bandit, had major surgery to repair what was left of his ACL, and secure his kneecap in place.  What a long day it was, waiting to hear from the surgeon to see how he made out.  Bandit is a little Maltese, and he and his brother, Barney, have never been separated.  I thought Barney would have a hard time, but he did rather well.  He only walked around the house a few times, whimpering and looking for his brother.  When I picked Bandit up at the veterinary hospital, Barney was so happy to see him, but then was a bit timid because of the bandage, boot, and Elizabethan collar he has to wear for 2 weeks.  Poor baby!  But keeping him calm and rested for the next 8 weeks is going to be tough.  I pray all goes well.

But ... never-the-less, dinner with Tom was nice and we managed to have some quality time to just talk and enjoy a nice dinner.  Of course, I made Tom's card ... so here it is:

I like the way it turned out...very clean and simple.  Tom really liked it, so that's all that matters.

Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to share my creations with you.

Ciao for now!