More Halloweenies!

Halloween is such a fun time each year.  I love the costumes and as I mentioned the other day... I LOVE THE CANDY!

I know there are people who don't celebrate Halloween thinking it's evil or something...I respect that BUT I love it and there is nothing evil about Flash Gordon and Minnie Mouse!

We went to an annual Trunk and Treat the other day.  I hadn't heard of that until last year....the church where the little ones go to preschool/mother's morning out has one each year.  People decorate the trunks or the back parts of their vehicles, dress up and give candy out to the little kids.  My grandkids love it!

Of course, Thursday is the big night, isn't it?

Here is another card I made with one of the Halloween sets from Paper Smooches.  I've had so much fun working with these sets....those little images are adorable!

I used Doodlebug papers and a Tim Holtz embossing folder (for the spider web).  I used white core paper so that when I sanded it the white showed through.  Whomever dreamed that one up was brilliant!

The little vampire was paper pieced and I added some goldish Stickles around his eyes.

And that would be it.  Simple, simple, bo-bimple, fanana fanna fo fimple.  There you have it.

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Challenge Halloween or Halloween Colors HERE.

Happy Crafting!

Thank You

I made a set of cards for a friend of mine who has done some very nice things for me recently.  She's also the friend who owns the house at the beach that I rented earlier this year for a month.  What a lovely time that was.  I enjoyed it so much that I am booked for a repeat in 2014!

Anyway, she's helped me with a few other things and I wanted to make a few cards for her.  She requested something beachy so this is what I came up with using the Hero Arts Let's Chill clear stamp set.

I used Salty Ocean distress ink to ink up some white cardstock, tore some paper for the "sand" and stamped the other items with Jenni Bowlin and Memento inks.  I colored the palm fronds, coconuts and the little crab with Copics and  added a bit of Crystal Stickles to the coconuts.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.  The palm fronds were adhered with foam dimensionals.  It came out purdy cute, I think, and my friend liked them so there you have it!

Lots of fussy cutting but it was fun!

We had a full day of rain today but the weather today was fantastic.  So pretty!!!  It was warm and sunny...I really am dreading colder weather.  Give me 80s any day! ;)

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday, David!

Today is my grandson's 4th birthday!  I can't believe he is 4 today but he is always reminding me that he is a "big boy" now.  And yes he is!

This was after hard tough soccer session! :)  Had to have a snack after all that effort!

I decided to make him a big boy card.  No cute teddy bears or babies for him.  *sigh*....

Instead I cut an image with my Silhouette Cameo that was a 3x3 numbers card that I adapted for my standard sized card here:

The numbers design is by Lori Whitlock and then I used a little flame from Samantha Walker.
The sentiment is from Paper Smooches which I inked with Versafine Ink and then threw some clear embossing powder over.  That gives it a nice little sheen and lift, methinks.

I gooped a bunch of Stickles on the 4 and the flame to make it stand out a bit more. Who doesn't like sparkle, right?

Oh and I used some foam tape on some of the layers to give it a bit more dimension because we just can't have a totally flat card now, can we?  HAHA!  I can make a flat card....just more fun to stick that foam tape under! LOL!

That's it for today, my friends!

Happy Crafting!

When Life Gives you Limes...

Well, oh my goodness.....the summer is flying by!  Here we are at July 2nd already.  We are officially halfway through the year.  Before you know it we will be dragging out holiday decorations and I will be grumbling! Bah Humbug!

I've been so busy lately.  I won't bore you with the details but have been spending lots of time with my grandkids....fun, fun, fun...but they DO wear me out!!!

But what better on a hot summer's eve than a nice cold and icy margarita?  Here is another card made with Unity Stamps and an exclusive card kit from Archiver's that I picked up last week.  I have lots of margarita lovin' girlfriends so this card will come in most handy!

Very simply done...just a bit of stamping, coloring in of the word "LIMES" with some Copic Markers and a bit of clear Stickles on the limes although I don't think you can see that here.  Simple and fast.  Fun.  Happy!  I think I want a margarita!

I'm hoping to get into my craft room this evening for a bit of Project Life fun....

Happy Crafting!

Thank You!

And a big Merry Christmas and a thank you to all my blogging friends and followers!
I get so much inspiration from all of you...thank you so much!  

I've hated the thought of putting up all the Christmas stamps and fun papers I have so have been making a few thank you cards with a wintery theme.

Here is a card I made that I think turned out sooo cute....

The snow globe is from the Sihouette store and cut out on my Cameo.  Hero Arts has a lot of designs in the Silhouette Online store and this happens to be one of them.  The little reindeer is a Hero Arts stamps and colored in with Copics and fussy cut.  The paper is My Minds Eye.  I also cut the snow globe out of some shimmery gold paper as you can see.  I used some Ranger inks for the reddish snow globe base and some blue for the snow bank.  And I added the teensiest of gems onto random snow flakes.  The sentiment is also Hero Arts and was punched with an EK Success label punch.
I put a little Rock Candy Stickles on the reindeer.

And once again....wishing you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Happy Crafting!

Flat is Phat!

OK, I am way cool...admit it.  Here I am...a grandmother of two....using the word PHAT like I know what it means.  Well, I do....do you?  Of course I had to GOOGLE it but it means Pretty Hot and Tempting.  HAHA!

So my card today is quite flat....a great one for mailing....but it is also pretty PHAT if you want my oh so honest opinion.  BTW, my husband's pet peeve is when people say "Well, to be honest with you...".  He always wants to say..."what the heck?!  Are you usually NOT honest?"  LOL...

Ok, I digress....back to my perfectly Phat and Flat card.
Here it is:

 I did some non traditional colors for Christmas starting with a blue background.  I used some blue distress ink (Salty Ocean) to color a piece of plain ol' white cardstock.  Then I stamped it with a Hero Arts background stamp (with the dots...can't recall the name of it right now)....and then stamped it again with some white Close to My Heart white pigment ink.  Don't touch it, Susan!  It take s awhile to dry!
Then I stamped with the fabulous Tim Holtz blueprint toy soldier stamp from his new Christmas set and some Ranger ink onto the background.  Stamped him again to color with some Distress markers Used my aqua pen to give the watercolor look...cut him out and smacked him down on the background.  I added some gold stickles and there ya go...Phat and Flat!
Oh, and the other thing I did before I commenced stamping was to spritz the paper with some Pearl Glimmer Mist to give it a little sheen.  You can see said sheen in the photo below.

I stamped the bottom with a Hero Arts sentiment stamp and viola....done!  I really love how different a look this is for me....and it was very fun to do!

Happy Crafting!!!

A Time of Thanks

So much to be thankful for and I'm happy for a day of thanks.  I'm looking forward to seeing how my Tree of Thanks which can be seen HERE will be received by my family.  My daughter saw it the other day and she liked the idea....no rolling of the eyes!  So there is promise here... :)

I made another Thanksgiving card to send to someone dear to me and for whom I'm grateful each day.

I used the acorn from the Tim Holtz Autumn Blueprint set. Once again I used BoBunny Apple Cider papers.  A little Distress Ink and tearing to scuff up the edges and a good layer of Rock Candy Stickles on the acorn top with some twine tied around the acorn and that was basically it.  

I'm happy.

I'm off to a craft show today and then to a tennis match.  The weather looks great!

Happy Crafting!

Just Buzzing By to Say...

I made another card with the cute Bees4Me set which is the stamp of the month set at The Stamps of Life.  It's just such a cute set to me....and I just love the sentiments included.

I even decorated the envelope!
The background clouds are a Unity Stamp.  I did the background with Distress Ink and then stamped it with Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder.

 I put some fun sparkle on the wings with some Stickles.

And here's the sentiment on the inside.  I just love those little bees!

Another beautiful fall day here in Georgia...a great day for some tennis!

See you on the court!

or...

Happy Crafting!

One More Day!

One more day until we have one of the most fun filled days! Halloween!  I'll be with the grandkids so that will be fun for me.  We went to the Trunk and Treat on Sunday and I didn't get the best pictures but here are a couple of the kids.  My daughter made the little ghost onesie with a tutu for Taylor and David was Captain Hook.  I'm hoping to get better pictures tomorrow.

 Let me tell you....that little 16 month old totally got the concept of getting candy!  And of course her big brother is a pro at this now!

 I made a couple of cards to give to them tomorrow.  These are designs from the Silhouette store by Jamie Koay (Totally Jamie).  I just thought they were so cute and not as "dark" as the Tim Holtz stamps I've been using.  Anyway, I just did an offset (one was slightly more offset than the other...I love that you can just manipulate things the way you want them and each creation can be just a bit different!) and created a shaped card and then cut the designs from some Authentique papers.  I added a little Stickles and that was it.  Quick and easy...both cards were done in about 15 minutes which included buying the shapes from the store!

I've entered this in the following challenges:
Party Time Tuesdays: PTT #92 Anything Goes
Die Cuttin Divas: Challenge #89 Anything Goes 
And the fabulous Cameo Spotlight Challenge #6: Halloween

I hope all the folks in the northeast are safe and with power.  We have had lots of wind gusts here in Georgia...nothing like hurricane force winds but windy nonetheless....the wind advisory will be lifted at 6pm which is great because I have a tennis match at 7 and the wind is NOT a friend to the tennis player!

Happy Crafting!

Halloween!

I love Halloween! I think it's a great holiday for young and old alike.  We took the little ones to a Trunk and Treat yesterday where some folks decorated the trunks of their cars or vehicles and gave out candy to the children.  David loved it and Taylor "got" that whole idea quickly and really seemed to enjoy taking her little pumpkin bucket around and filling it up!
I made a few Halloween cards and here is one with a Tim Holtz stamp and Authentique paper.  I love these blueprint stamps he's done.  This set came with four stamps and is sold online at Archivers Annex for $21.99 but I found this set at Overstock.com which has the larger stamps PLUS the fall ones for just $23.99.  And if you go through my favorite rebate place, EBATES you can get a 5% cash back!  If you're not an Ebates member check it out HERE.
OK, so I got all excited about that buy but I already have all those stamps! LOL!
Anyway, here is the card:

 I love that spooky bat.  Looks like something Dr. Frankenstein would be drawing...
I used a Martha Stewart border punch and added a little sparkly Stickles and a few gems and just a tad of inking.  I used a We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, as well. That's it!  (And Cyndi....I almost got to the point where the Stickles were dry before I touched it!)
This card with a $20 bill inside it brought a huge smile to my son's face.  LOL!

Happy Crafting!  And may those of you along the east coast with Frankenstorm bearing down on you....I hope and pray you stay safe!

Spooky and Scary!

I love Halloween.  I used to make most of my kids' costumes...well, that's probably not true but the costumes I did make them were just wonderful!  I do remember making a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for my son and a mime clown costume for my daughter and I did make the cutest little devil horns for my son to wear on his first Halloween as we strolled through the neighborhood.  Of course, now my children are adults so I don't get the fun of making their costumes anymore.  But they both still like Halloween, too.
I'm in the process of making a few Halloween cards to send to a few special folks...I bought this set of Tim Holtz creepy and spooky stamps at Archiver's recently...I believe they are exclusive to Archiver's.  I just love the blueprint look to them.
Here is the first card I made with this set (no, I haven't made a second card but I'm hoping to get there!):

 It is actually a shaped card on top of an A2 card sized base.  The background print is Authentique.  I cut the little bats out on my Silhouette from the free shape that was in the store a week ago.  I added a little green Stickles to the eyes to give them a little eerie glow.  The grass was done with the Martha Stewart fringe scissors.  Here you can see how the tombstone opens:

Well, I'm off to a fall festival with the grandkids today. 

Happy Crafting!

More Copic Coloring

I love the cute little Mimi stamps from Penny Black.  They make me think of my little granddaughter, Taylor.  Although she's not quite as "big" as Mimi is....I can see a lot of Taylor's sweetness in cute little Mimi.
This is a wood block stamp....I don't usually buy woodblocks anymore because of the storage space they require but I couldn't resist this cute one.
After stamping with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar Crest cardstock I colored with lots of different Copics.

 I actually stamped her and then cut her out.  I don't know why....probably could have saved myself that step but initially I was going to mount her on some colored paper.  That just didn't look right so I went back to putting this cute little gal on white to make her stand out.  I cut the mat out with a Spellbinders die.  The printed paper is from Imaginisce and I also used an embossing border from Cuttlebug.

I added a little Scattered Straw Stickles on the little bluebirds beaks and the flower centers. The sentiment was From Papertrey Ink's Fillable Frames #6.  The rickrack border was cut with a Papertrey Ink die.
And 4 hours later she was done!  OK, she didn't really take that long!  LOL!  And every second spent was total fun! :)
I heart Copics.
I hate Copics.
It's a love/hate relationship.  A definite learning curve which I am still at the bottom of! LOL!

I'm entering this in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Simon Says Put a Stamp on It
Perfect Sentiments Challenge: PSC48: All Creatures Great and Small
Simple Salutations Challenge 10: Animal

Happy Crafting!

Imagination Can Take You Anywhere

In yesterday's post I showed the things I brought back from my shopping spree at Scrapbook Expo.  Since I've gotten more heavily into stamping this past year or so I was delighted to see all the different stamping companies represented....and many new to me.  I didn't buy a ton of stamps because ...let's face it...they can be very expensive...but I had a great time looking.  One set I bought at a nice discount was a Unity Stamps set called Happiness Is...  I just loved this little girl on a swing.  And I love Unity Stamps. They are cling stamps and such wonderful quality...you always get a good image!

 I stamped the young lady with Ranger Archival ink onto some water color paper.  Colored her in with a combination of Stampin' Up and Close to My Heart inks as well as a little Distress ink. 

 I added a little "magic" to her hair and a few other parts of the image to simulate a bit more movement...she IS magic! :)

I mounted the image on black cardstock and then placed that on a Loolah paper that has text on it.  I'm entering this in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC60 which is for a clean and simple project using Text.

Today is the championship match of the ladies at Wimbledon.  Serena Williams vs Agnieszka Radwanska.  Power vs finesse.  My money is on Serena but hopefully the match will be a great one!

Happy Crafting!!!

Using Burlap and Favorite Hero Arts Stamps

I saw some cute sample cards with burlap as an embellishment or background recently so made a few cards with one of my favorite Hero Arts/Sizzix sets ....you know, this is the set which comes with the stamps and the corresponding dies.  Love them!
I colored with Copics (not (!)...I made a huge mess so need to do more research on inks to stamp with for Copics coloring) pencils and used Gamsol (odorless minerals spirits) for some simple blending.  The Happy Easter sentiment is from Close to My Heart.  I used some Core'dinations cardstock and ran it through my Cuttlebug for a little embossing and then sanded the cardstock a bit.
After I took these photos I added a little Rock Candy Stickles to the bees and the center of the large flower but didn't retake the photo so you will just have to imagine how cute that is!

Here they are:

And a little closeup:

Also...there is a new blog in town called A Blog Named Hero which is a blog devoted to all things Hero Arts.  I love Hero Arts....it's my all time favorite stamping company (and I have a lot of favorites!).  There is a challenge going on there now so check it out!

 Happy Crafting!