FMS652 Hot Cocoa Day

Happy Thursday, everyone! I am back from vacationing at the Delaware shore and we had lovely weather and a wonderful time! I felt a bit rusty going into my stamp room yesterday, but Linda had a fun sketch at FMS, so that helped get me started!  Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I couldn't wait to play with the new DSP called Sentimental Christmas, along with a sentiment from Christmas Labels!  I just think that sentiment is the cutest! I added a cup of cocoa from Latte Love, stamped in Poppy Parade on Basic Beige, and I added a snowflake from Iconic Imagery:

The circle die is from Spotlight on Nature dies; I added a small snowflake from a retired set called Warmth & Wonder.  The horizontal panel is a piece of Pecan Pie cut with a die from Iconic Imagery as well; I cut it in half to make it seem longer!  Here's the inside:

While I had all my supplies out, I made another card; this time I used the Christmas Labels die as well as the smaller cups, diecut from the striped paper:

And here's the inside as well:

I love these papers!  Thanks for visiting today!

Dana, Wayne and Cassidy came to spend a few days with us on vacation, which was really fun!  We took a sunset lighthouse and dolphin cruise from Lewes; the sunset wasn't cooperative, but we saw LOTS of dolphins!  

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Iconic Imagery, Latte Love, Christmas Labels, Warmth & Wonder (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pecan Pie, Poppy Parade, Basic Beige, Sentimental Christmas DSP
Ink	Poppy Parade, Pecan Pie
Accessories	Naturals Sequins, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Iconic Imagery Dies, Latte Love Dies, Christmas Labels Dies, Spotlight on Nature Dies

AHSC578 Bold Greetings

 Happy Monday, everyone! Time for a lovely new Atlantic Hearts Sketch for us to play with:

Another Christmas card....I can't help myself, LOL!  I got these pretty graphic papers last Christmas and have not used them at all, so I thought it was time! Here we go:

I made a frame from some Real Red cardstock and put a pane of vellum behind it so the papers could still show through, then added a diecut tree and some little red cardinals:

The sentiment is a diecut from Concord & 9th, cut from Evening Evergreen cardstock.  Everything went on a Soft Succulent card base and I used a retired SU sentiment for the inside:

This is a fun sketch, you could use it for most any season or occasion!  I hope you'll play along with it! The Atlantic Hearts design team will be showcasing their samples on Wednesday; meanwhile, put on your creative thinking caps!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Warmth & Wonder (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Real Red, Evening Evergreen (ret), Soft Succulent (ret), Vellum (ret), Watercolor Winter (Unity)
Ink	Evening Evergreen (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies (ret), In the Woods Framelits (ret), Cheery Cardinals Dies (Poppy Stamps), Season of Cheer Dies (Concord & 9th)

Five-Minute Christmas Card

Happy Monday, peeps!  Wowza, I have a crazy busy day today so I have a crazy simple card to share...really, it took maybe five minutes!  Well, maybe a wee bit longer, but you'll see why!  I am entering it in the Jingle Belles challenge of Winter Fun as well as the Less Is More challenge of One Layer/Off Center:

So here we go with my uber-simple vintage-style one-layer Christmas notecard:

I actually took my inspiration from Stephanie's second card for the challenge; you can see it here.  I really liked the sepia tones and remembered these (old) CTMH silhouette images and thought they would be cute stamped in a vintage style!!  I stamped the snowman/kids image on a Very Vanilla notecard in Crumb Cake ink, then added an old SU sentiment and some snowflakes from a Paper Pumpkin kit:

I really wanted to add some glitter, but the challenge says NO embellishments, so it's just plain SIP:  stamps, ink and paper!  I added another retired SU sentiment on the inside and it was good to go!  Oh, I did round the corners, I hope that was okay!  Thanks for popping in today!

Is anyone besides me a fan of the British/PBS show Call the Midwife?  WOW....what an ending to last night's episode.  I could barely stand to watch the ending, I just knew there was going to be a big tragedy.  Talk about being on the edge of my seat!  I am hoping for a happy continuation!  I just love that show!  Thanks for indulging me!

I am going to be taking a little bloggy break for a few days, so I'll see you when I return!  Enjoy your day and be blessed! 

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Warmth & Wonder (ret), Snow Much Fun (ret), Winter Joy (Close to My Heart, ret), Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla
Ink	Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Accessories
Tools	Corner Rounder Punch (ret)

RRCB150 Warm Mittens

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  The Retro Rubber Challenge took a break but we're back with a fabulous new challenge starting off the new year, giving those older stamps some love!  Here's our prompt:

Ooh, isn't that a beauty of a prompt?!  I love it!  I knew just what I wanted to do, too!  Here we go:

I had this beautiful foiled snowflake paper in my stash, and I simply used an old mitten die to cut out a pair of them, mounted them on a stitched white panel and added some silver twine and sequins:

The sentiment from Warmth and Wonder (2013) was stamped directly on a piece of patterned DSP in Misty Moonlight ink:

While I was at it, I made another card using some fun snow-themed DSP that I had been hoarding, simply because I really didn't know how to use it!  I created a larger card...7 1/4" x 4 1/4"...in order to fit all the cute images on:

I got a little carried away with the bling, glimmer and snowflakes, but I had fun:

The papers are all from Simple Stories' Winter Wonderland, with accents of Blue Glimmer paper diecut snowflakes, sequins, silver glimmer ribbon and a sentiment from Snow Much Fun (2011)!

I hope you'll find some snowy, winter-wonderland inspiration with our challenge this week!  Just remember, your stamps have to be at least a year old, and you have to tell us the approximate age!  Can't wait to see what you create!  Thanks for popping in for a visit! Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Warmth & Wonder (2013)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Silver Bells DSP (Kaisercraft), Wonderland DSP (Kaisercraft)
Ink	Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Silver Twine (ret), Sequins from my stash
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stamparatus, Mitten Dies (Nestabilties), Sponge Daubers

RRCB125 Red White and Green

Hello stampers!  It's time for another Retro Rubber Challenge, and this is a great one:

Yum yum!  I love different colors for Christmas, but you just can't beat the traditional red and green, can you?  It's always fresh and pretty together!  For my CAS card today, I created a tag with a Papertrey die from some Wrapped in Plaid DSP and a stamp set from Warmth and Wonder (hostess set, 2013-2014):

I stamped my cardinal and holly image first in Garden Green, and punched it with the Large Oval Punch, then again in Real Red and fussy-cut Mr Cardinal to pop up on top:

I painted in the berries with a white gel pen and re-colored them with a Real Red marker, but I can see I need to go over them to give them a bit more intensity!  Before adhering my tag to a SU Note Card, I added a Real Red tab at the top and some Real Red cotton ribbon.  I also stamped the little tree from the same set in Garden Green and Real Red, just for some added interest.  The inside was stamped with a sentiment from the same set.

The inspiration for this card came from a wee little unused leftover that I adhered to another tag cut with the same die, then adhered to a card front that I was going to make into a buckle card, but ditched at the last minute, LOL!  Since it is also red and green, I thought I'd share it as well; here's the leftover, attached to the tag:

And here it is, on the card:

The hat is from a Close to My Heart stamp called Beary Christmas Cardmaking (2018), the holly is from W+9's Merry and Bright (from a couple of years ago, not sure of the date!).  I embossed the top of the Garden Green card with the Tintype EF and added a stitched diecut border from Be Mine....all the reds are Lovely Lipstick.  I love this fun fold!

I hope you'll play with our traditional red, white and green challenge this week!  Share your creations with us at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog...can't wait to see them!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

AYSI212 Shades of Blue

Hi peeps!  Happy Friday!  It's time for a 10-minute "Speed Stamping" challenge at As You See It!!  Those are always fun!  This week, it's Shades of Blue:

As much as I love blue, you would think this would have been a really easy challenge for me....well, I made FOUR cards before I was happy with the final choice!  Most of my blues are less vibrant than the challenge photo, so I just embraced a few of them from my Authentique's Alpine collection:

I also used the FMS sketch:

I layered some of the lighter papers on a Very Vanilla cardbase, and trimmed off the little tab at the top of the paper where it meets the spine of the tablet, and used that for my sentiment, stamped in Pretty Peacock ink.  As an afterthought (which is what upped my time to 8 minutes and 14 seconds), I decided to diecut a snowflake in glimmer paper and back it with another piece of blue:

Can you speed stamp something in less than 10 minutes, in shades of blue?  If you can, share it with us at As You See It, and be sure to tell us your time!!  Can't wait to see what you create!   And just for fun, this was the original one I was going to post, but decided it wasn't quite "blue" enough...still pretty, but more teal than blue, using the same sketch:

 Thanks for stopping in today!

Cassidy got her brown belt this week!  (Sorry the photos aren't so good!)

We enjoyed watching it except for the sparring....I just hate seeing little kids "fight" with each other, LOL!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love With All The Trimmings (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Sparkle Glimmer,  Alpine DSP (Authentique)
Ink	Pretty Peacock
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circle Dies, Snowflake Dies (Verve)

Second Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Warmth and Wonder (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Wonderland DSP (Kaisercraft)
Ink	Early Espresso
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Banner Dies (Nestabilities)

Sketchy Saturday x Two

Happy Monday, peeps!  After a very wet, soggy, gray, dreary Sunday, I am actually happy to see Monday arrive!  My creative friend Laurel has a nice little sketch challenge (AND a give-away) over at her blog, Seabrook Designs!  You need to check it out!  Here's her sketch:

I thought this sketch would be an awesome way to use up some pretty papers I have sitting around!  Of course, I made two cards (no wonder I never seem to get out of my craft room!), the first was a birthday card for a little girl at church, using some Cute Girl papers from Crate Paper:

I used the Merry Christmas thinlets for my big "Happy" along with an Altenew birthday sentiment called Label Love:

The stitched flowers are from My Favorite Things, embellished with some scraps of glimmer paper!  

My second card uses Winterberry papers from My Mind' Eye and a sentiment stamp and die from Concord & 9th:

The paper really does all the work on this one as well!  The sentiment (Christmas Turnabout) was stamped with Cherry Cobbler and is also backed with another Cherry Cobbler banner to help it stand out a bit.  The tree from the retired SU set Warmth & Wonder was stamped in Memento Black on Mossy Meadow cardstock and punched out with a triangle tree punch; the glimmer paper snowflake was diecut with a die from Alpine Sports thinlets:

I had some enamel dots that weren't quite the right shade of red, so I colored them with a Dark Cherry Cobbler blend...those markers are so versatile!

The family had a very busy weekend, and this has to be my favorite photo of all the ones Dana sent me:

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

FMS343 Vintage Snowmen

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I have a quick little Christmas card today; I let the paper do most of the work on this one!  It uses the FMS sketch from Jen T:

and some fun coordinating vintage-style papers that came from.....I don't remember!  I think I bought this as a kit on Etsy!  Sorry!  Anyway, here we go:

My card base is Soft Sea Foam and I used a Papertrey die for the "Holiday", cut in Real Red. The words are stamped in Tranquil Tide, and I added a little baker's twine bow and some sequins from my stash!

I just love how that snowman is waving, right by the "hello"!  A happy coincidence!  The inside uses a little scrap of the printed paper and a sentiment from SU's retired Warmth and Wonder:

I am also entering this in The Merry Christmas challenge of Anything Goes!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Some pool time fun from last week....although it's going to rain today, no pool for us today!!!:

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Warmth & Wonder (ret), Everyday Expressions (The Paper Studio)
Card stock & Papers	Soft Sea Foam, Real Red, Misc Christmas Paper
Ink	Tranquil Tide, Soft Sea Foam
Accessories	Sequins (Sylvia's Etsy Shop)
Tools	Big Shot, Holiday Die (Papertrey)