Blue Christmas

Hello, stamping friends! Happy November!  I have a cute little Christmas card today that was sort of a happy mistake!  I had stamped a piece of Azure Afternoon cardstock with the retired Buffalo Check stamp for a previous project, but decided it wasn't going to work.  I saved it, though, and later on, brought it out and decided to try embossing it with a snowflake folder.  I liked it!  I added a bit of stamping on a scalloped panel, and came up with this:

The stamp set is used is an old, old one from Cosmo Cricket--remember that company? I don't think I ever got it inky before this!  I stamped the lights and snowflake across the white panel, then stamped and cut out the ornament separately.  No frills or doodads, but I think with the plaid embossed background, it's enough:

Thanks for visiting today!

Eden & Ginger in the Halloween holiday spirit:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Buffalo Check (ret), Christmas (Cosmo Cricket)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Azure Afternoon
Ink	Azure Afternoon
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Scalloped Contour Dies (ret), Snowflake Quilted Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

IB193 Joyful Christmas Friends

Hey there, stampers!  Time for a new Inspired By challenge!!!  Danni always has a knack for finding adorable inspirations for us!  Check these out:

 

Absolutely adorable!  And here's our optional sketch, which I did use this week:

Now how in the world could you choose between these two?  That little acorn was just so stinkin' cute, but I did go with the Christmas one in the end!!  I pulled out some real vintage sets from my stash and just started stampin'!

My main images are from SU's retired Jolly Bingo Bits; the background stamping is from several different sets from Cosmo Cricket (which I've had for years and don't think I've ever inked up!!!) and Purple Onion as well as the tiniest stamp set in my entire collection, the little red star, from Close to My Heart!

I did some stamping with one of the Stitchery stamps on the edges, added some black and white plaid DSP, and finished it off with a "joy" banner (Cosmo Cricket)and some Real Red braided trim:

The inside sentiment is also from Cosmo Cricket:

I had lots of fun creating this...a little busy (I seem to be saying that a lot lately) but still fun!  I hope you'll find some fall or holiday inspiration from our prompts this week!  Can't wait to see what you create!  Share it with us at Inspired By!

When my nephew and his family visited Montana, they stayed with a friend who happens to be a wildland firefighter!!  Jameson and Sawyer were thrilled to get into the big truck he uses on the job:

But Jameson might have to grow a little bit to fill up this helmet!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Stitchery, Jolly Bingo Bits (ret), Whimsical Holiday (Close to My Heart), Country Christmas (Purple Onion), Christmas (Cosmo Cricket)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, Gingham Farm DSP (My Mind's Eye)
Ink	Real Red, Craft White, Crumb Cake, Memento Black, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Dimensionals, Red Braided Thread
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Stamparatus, Markers, White Gel Pen

Paper Players 319 Tic Tac Toe

Happy Sunday, peeps!  It's my turn to host the Paper Players and this week, it's a Tic-Tac-Toe!  Wheee!  So many options!  Here's the grid:

For my card, I chose the left column:  red, Santa, and diecut, but it also fulfills the top row across, which is red, glitter and snowflakes!  I chose to make a little scene:

I used the Hearth & Home die along with Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillsides to create my scene.  My sentiment is from Cosmo Cricket; I sponged the "siding" on the Crumb Cake card, added a red window frame, complete with a gingham curtain, snow in the corners and heaps on snow at the top and bottom:

And ho, ho, ho, who is that we see inside?

Jolly Saint Nick himself (Katy Sue's Silhouette Santas), placing a gift under a Lovely as a Tree Christmas tree!  They're stamped on Always Artichoke, which for some reason, is difficult for me to photograph!  The sentiment is from Amy R Stamps' Handy Christmas Greetings.  I added a few stamped snowflakes on the outside; the "snow" glitter is from Martha Stewart!

Now, I hope you'll find some inspiration in my tac-tac-toe board and play along with us!  Check out the amazing samples from the DT:

• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Nance 
• Sandy
• Linda
• Hannelie
• Colleen

 Cassidy got another Halloween card in the mail; this one was from my very first Stampin' Up! customer, Maryanne!  She loves funny cards, especially interactive ones, and this one did not disappoint!  It featured a little scene with three spooky characters that move along the bottom of the card when you pull the ribbon:

She loved the vampire-looking dude the best!

And check out the cool stuff she put on the spiderweb inside!  Neat!

Hope you have a wonderful day full of blessings!

Merry Monday 131

Happy Monday, peeps!  I had a whirlwind weekend, on the road here and there and I am beat this morning!  But I did manage to get my Merry Monday card created….only one more week before I say goodbye to my MM teammates, sniff!  Lori’s challenge should get your mojo going:

I have to admit I was a wee bit stumped, but I remembered some Cosmo Cricket papers I had from a long time ago, and a matching stamp set.  The little snowmen are on a field of Blushing Bride…not a typical Christmas card color, so I went to work:

I was originally only going to stamp the snowman, but he looked lonely, so I stamped a green penguin (LOL!), gave them a pieced hat & scarf and set them down on a snowy hill!

I added a little “joy” banner stamped in Real Red with some Soft Sky shading, and the final sentiment was from a retired SU set called Jolly Old St Nick! 

Be sure to check out what the design team came up with….lots of fun creations there this week!  Thanks for visiting today!

Just a few fall photos from around my yard:

Merry Monday 58

Happy Monday, peeps!  Phew, what a weekend….it took me all yesterday to recuperate from our wonderful day at Regionals in Baltimore!  I think an inky gremlin came in and messed up my stamping area….I don’t remember leaving it that messy!  And I know it wasn’t Cassidy!  Anyway, here is our Merry Monday sketch for today:

As sometimes happens, I made a card but wasn’t really happy with it, so I made another!  I found this adorable little vintage image in my “vintage” file folder, but I cannot find it on my computer (I lost some files when I got my new one)…..so I can’t tell you where it is from!  Perhaps someone recognizes it!  She sure is cute and I’d love to have her again:

Hence, there’s not much stamping…I found some Cosmo Cricket paper that matched, added some vintage MS glitter:

stamped the sentiment & snowflakes, then punched and matted them:

and added my sentiment on the inside:

This is also for the Festive Friday challenge, whose theme is to make a retro Christmas card!

And here’s the “loser” card:

A notecard sized-card, with some retro stickers from my stash and a wee bit of stamping and glitter! 

I hope you can find some time to make a Christmas card and share it with us at Lesley’s blog, Always Playing with Paper!  You’ll be glad you started early, and we’ll be glad to see it!  Check out all the other designers’ samples while you’re there!

I promised a couple of peeks from our Baltimore Regionals; here we are with Shawn who couldn’t make it (she’s the one on the STICK!):

Front row:  Kathy, Shawn-on-a-stick,  Alison and Penny; back row: Donna and me!

Here’s a closer pic of Alison, Shawn-on-a-stick and Penny!

And here’s an action photo of SHELLY….she gave us our free stamp set!

The day WAS a blur, but we had fun!

The Day After

What day is it?  It feels like Saturday or Sunday, not Wednesday!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday…we did, but now I am suffering from those post-holiday blues…..I just sort of puttered around the house this morning, and finally decided STAMPING would lift my spirits!  Now that I’ve played, I can concentrate on cleaning up a bit!

I needed a special thank you card, so I flipped the RetroSketches sketch 43:

so that I could play with some new goodies:

Unfortunately, this is one time where my MS glitter didn’t look so hot, but once that stuff is glued down, it’s not coming off!

This is also for the Shopping Our Stash challenge 82, which is winter but not Christmas!  I used some pleated and gingham ribbons that have been in my stash a while!

Cassidy got right into the spirit of things yesterday; she actually sat through the entire church service Dana attended on Christmas eve:

and loved unwrapping her gifts on Christmas morning almost as much as playing with them:

Grampy came to the rescue on a particularly tricky package!

We even had snow on Christmas eve!

Have a blessed day!  Any questions, shoot me an email!