Short Story Featured on Ruche

After our fun Halloween party tonight, I was over the moon to sit down and find an email in my inbox from Ruche Marketing. I just so happened to type up a very quick short story on the 28th of this month after seeing their blog call for all readers to submit a spooky story. And mine got picked! WOW! I can't stop smiling from ear to ear. You can check it out HERE at Ruche.

Happy Halloween!

Pinterest inspired Wreath

My new obsession with Pinterest has actually caused me to be even MORE productive if you can believe it! I made this sweet yarn wrapped wreath, felt flowers included, by checking out this fab tutorial HERE. Only one blister was had and I LOVE the results, the best part is whenever I see this wreath, I can proudly say, "I made that!" which I've been doing over and over again in my head, hehe...

 (a close up shot of the felt flowers and leaves)

I'm entering my DIY fall colored wreath in the following challenges this week and hopefully I'll inspire others to pull out their own yarn and felt as well!

The Shabby Tea Room

is asking their readers to create a "Homespun Fall" themed project using the above photo as inspiration. I think I took the homeSPUN quite literally since I spun my yarn, around and around and around my wreath!

The Paper Players
are hosting an "Anything Goes" challenge this week and our projects are to contain a fall element.

I've also linked my little wreath over at the Fall Pinterest Challenge at Young House Love and you can check out Sherry's cool Pinterest inspired ornaments, 38, to be exact. Also Katie, Ana & Erin have some awesome projects to check out as well as the rest of the Young House Love followers who have linked all of their lovely creations!

Happy Fall Y'ALL!

Final Halloween MOJO

Figured I'd sneak one last Halloween card into the mix with this weeks MOJO Monday's sketch challenge. I had fun putting together a little creepy with a little cute on this card. 

 MOJO212

After smooch spritzing my very vanilla cardstock with Silver Foil, I then took a dry paint brush and dabbed over the top with a bit of Basic Black Ink. The edges were also darkened with a sponge and black ink.

I couldn't resist making the most of this fabulous DSP, so pulled the Treats word out along the bottom of my card and also cut out a nasty black rat, which once I put the red jeweled eye on, totally gave me the chills. The cute little owl was heat embossed with black embossing powder and his little treat bag was cut out and popped up with a left over piece of the Pick Your Poison DSP.

Hope you all have a wonderfully SPOOKY and fun Halloween!

SU! Products Used:

Stamps - Hostess Warmest of Wishes

Paper - Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Pick Your Poison DSP

Punches - Owl Builder, Scallop Edge

Accessories - Basic Rhinestone Jewels, Silver Foil Smooch Spritz, Black Embossing Powder

note: DSP stands for Designer Series Paper

All for 1 and FREE FOR ALL

Couldn't help myself with the title of this post...

 This week over at Wee Memories, they are hosting a "free for all" challenge. We can choose our own inspiration, theme, etc for our creation. I know Halloween is almost here BUT my favorite holiday of all time is Christmas, so I decided to pull out some buttons and felt and create something cute! Christmas songs are already filling my head but I usually refrain from actually playing them out loud in our house till just after Thanksgiving. 

WMC73

I hand cut the glittery stiff felt to fit and then glued them onto my card. Thanks for stopping by!

SU! products used:

Paper - Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler

Accessory - retired Season of Cheer rub on

Pencil Treats

Not knowing if the schools in Rhode Island allow sugary treats, I picked up some pencils for my kiddos to give out to their friends on Monday. While they stuffed these handy little cellophane bags from SU! I cut the tops and stamped the images they had picked out. For the little witch skirts, Adelaide and I snagged the back of a crafty magazine cut it into strips and then scallop edged the bottom before hand cutting the triangle shapes. Addie glued them on and then wrote her name on the back. She's recently become enamored with the whole "Trick or Treat, smell my feet" ditty, which she learned from school. So, we thought it only appropriate for the ones with feet to say just that! 

 Dair's pencil treats

 Adelaide's pencil treats

Paper Players Sketch #69

This week over at The Paper Players blog, they have this wonderful sketch on display from Nance Leedy. I've been drawn to chevrons lately via Pinterest and made a mini version for my card. 

Instead of flowers or button (that I was originally planning on going with) I decided on stars, to make this fit into more of a man/boy card category. That slot in my card box is always empty! 

SU! items used:

Stamps - Hostess Happiest Birthday Wishes

Paper - Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla

Ink - NIght of Navy

Punches - Large and Small Stars

HSS Inspiration Challenge #90 - Giving Thanks

I've been recently asked to join the Hand Stamped Sentiments design team and I couldn't be more excited to work with such a fabulous group of talented ladies who share the same creative passion that I do!!

This week at Hand Stamped Sentiments with the cooler temps, changing of leaves (my first on the East Coast) and pumpkins on every door step, we've got fall on the brain. Create a project with the above photo as inspiration. 

I love the green of the leaves in the background behind the glass windows and all those fabulous cake stands, hence all the fussy cutting on my card. 

Using a sheet of the Lucky Limeade DSP, I ran it through my Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder, inked the entire sheet up with Versa Mark and then heat embossed with Clear Embossing  Powder to bring out the shine, before cutting it into strips to mimic the window panes. 

I snagged my little cake stands from the RETIRED Hostess Birthday Bakery stamp set and heat embossed them with Silver Embossing Powder. The stems and leaves on my little button pumpkins were created using the leaves on the Bird Builder Punch. I just folded the leaves up towards the stem and then cut off what I didn't want showing. The Silver Embossed Happy Thanksgiving sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I colored directly onto the wreath stamp with More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Markers, a bit of huffing (but no blowing down of houses) and then stamped my image onto Very Vanilla. The "empty" leaves looked a bit bare, so I smudged a bit of More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie chalk on them with my finger (the closest tool I could find) and then cut out my image. My recent obsession with Pinterest and all the fun fall yarn wrapped wreaths made me pull out my Linen Thread and try my hand at wrapping, although I'm still going to try my hand at the much larger version!

We'd love to see how you interpret the inspirational photo this week, click HERE to view the rest of the design teams wonderful creations and to upload your creation to the HSS challenge blog.

SU! products used:

Stamps - Hostess Warmest Wishes, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Retired Hostess Birthday Bakery

Paper - Chocolate Chip, Lucky Limeade DSP, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake

Ink - Versa Mark / Markers - More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie

Punch - Bird Builder

EF - Square Lattice

Other Medium - More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie Chalk, Clear and Silver Embossing Powder

Accessories - Crumb Cake Taffeta Ribbon, Linen Thread, Silver Brad, retired Chocolate Chip corduroy button, retired Mustard and Pumpkin Pie buttons

Hanging Wish Lists

The Paper Players are having a clean and simple challenge this week, using the colors RED & GREEN, so I whipped up these cute and easy Christmas Wish Lists for my three kiddos. They've already started cutting pictures out of magazines to clip onto their strip of ribbon with mini clothespins, can't wait to see what they find! Santa is sure to love this list since he doesn't have to decipher any words, just pictures!

PPC#68

SU! products used:

Stamps - Punch Bunch (Sale A Bration)

Paper - Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla

Ink - Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black

Punch/Die - Owl Punch, Scallop Square Bigz Die

SAS OCT SWAP

Holly chose this month's SWAP theme for our little SAS SWAP. We are to use orange, brown and a color of choice with a fall/harvest/Thanksgiving theme. I found the following inspiration photo over at Just Add Ink and got to work with my heat gun, trying to recreate the photo with my own flavor.

JAI89

Tangerine Tango is my new 'IT' color when reaching for an orange, I just love the warmth and it matches my living room decor! I wanted to pull the darker colors out of the photo, so I went with an Early Espresso for my brown and Basic Black.

I just love the new It's a Wrap Holiday stamp set and decided to stamp the "Give Thanks" image directly on top of the first, to create a side border. After stamping the image in Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossing, I added color to my leaves by sponging a bit of Tangerine Tango ink directly onto my image. The little acorns needed a smaller paint tool, so off to the bathroom for a QTip!

The Early Espresso background matting was roughed up with SU!'s Cutter Kit Tool.

SU! products used:

Stamps - Thoughts and Prayers, It's a Wrap Holiday

Paper - Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, Early Espresso, Whisper White

Ink - Craft Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso

Other - Basic Black Embossing Powder, retired Aged Copper Brads

Bday Scrap Banner

Sweet Sunday Sketch's just seem to always get my mojo going...that AND I was itchin' to try out my new banner punch!

SSSC139

I started off with a yummy cool palate of Basic Gray, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party and Very Vanilla and started searching for just the right scraps of paper for my pennant & paper pieced presents. Do You Stack Up is asking crafters to use their scraps this week on projects and I did just that pulling out my ever handy SU! demo paper sampler. My dry embossed piece of Pool Party was just shouting for a little attention, so out came a sponge and my Frost White Shimmer Paint (photographed in the afternoon sun to REALLY show off the glamour!). A bit of paper piecing and coordinating ink on the little presents to make them pop, some Grey Taffeta Ribbon and an ever so gentle Wisteria Wonder "Happy Birthday" sentiment to finish it off.

DYSU#41

SU! products used:

stamps - Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess set)

paper - Wisteria Wonder, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, retired scraps of DSP

ink - Wisteria Wonder, Basic Gray, Pool Party & Frost White Shimmer Paint

Ribbon - Grey Taffeta

Punches - Large Oval, Pennant, Scallop Border

accessories - dimensionals, sticky strip

Think PINK

This week over at Hand Stamped Sentiments, the challenge is to create a project using PINK, I may or may not have gone overboard with the whole "pink" theme but really, can a girl have too much pink ever?? I think NOT! 

HSS challenge #88

I created a friend card and a banner, which I debated on making say "live", "love" or the usual "hope" but in the end LOVE won. I used an array of pink products, all SU! except for the pink ribbon DP, letters & the pink crepe paper. I've listed the products used below.

on my card, I took a scrap of paper and layered 1/2" pieces of the ribbon DP & Pretty in Pink and then ran it through my Big Shot with the top note die creating a fun striped background

My Grandmother had breast cancer and was a survivor, she has now passed but her memory will live in my heart forever. I'm sure you all know someone or by third degree of separation, have heard of someone affected by breast cancer. Early detection is key and what a simple reminder to send your friend a handmade PINK card in the mail this month!

 All SU! products used:

Paper - Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink

Stamps - Punch Bunch (from Sale A Bration)

Ribbon - 5/8" Grosgrain Regal Rose, Melon Mambo Pom Pom

Punches - 1", 1-1/4" & 2-1/2" Circles

Bigz - Top Note

Happy Birthday Seat

For the ladies who used to come to my monthly club meetings in TX, we've started up a monthly swap which I'm calling the SAS (San Antonio Swap), just so I can keep my head screwed on straight, haha! This last month, our challenge was Birthday cards using the Sweet Sunday #134 Sketch. 

This week over at the ColourQ, I snagged these colors to work with (basic black, chocolate chip, pear pizzazz, wisteria wonder & white) and without further ado, here's my card. 

I stamped the little black chair in Versa Mark ink and then heat embossed with basic black embossing powder for a shiny and raised effect.

SU! products used:

Stamp Sets - Have a Seat, Happiest BirthdayWishes

Cardstock - In Color DSP patterned paper pack, basic black, chocolate chip, pear pizzazz, wisteria wonder & white

Ribbon - Basic Black Satin

Punches - scallop boarder

Ink - Pear Pizzazz, Chocolate Chip, Versa Mark, Basic Black

Accessories - retired Chocolate Chip corduroy buttons, black embossing powder

Happy Bean Birthday

I have to say that I LOVE making Birthday cards, especially when I can imagine the recipient opening their mailbox and finding one of my creations inside, instead of a boring old bill...which comes, regularly like Birthday's, no matter if we like them or not. Hopefully, this little latte sippin' lady will put a smile to a certain someone's face this month, as she celebrates another fabulous year! 

This week over at the Hand Stamped Sentiments Blog, they are warming up to fall with this lovely color pallet of Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie & Night of Navy

HSS#87

&

the sketch for my card came from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Blog

SSSC137

A lovely brown box was dropped off on my front porch yesterday and I was able to try out my NEW Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder with the Happy Birthday sentiment, FUN STUFF, I tell ya! 

 How cute is she in her white jeans and polka dotted blue top?

A sweet little treat tucked inside!

The following SU! products were used to create this card (and then some)...

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Night of Navy, Whisper White & Cherry Cobbler

Ink: Versa Mark

Stamps: (Hostess) Happiest Birthday Wishes

Like it a Latte (retired)

Punches: Scallop Edge & Word Window

Ribbon: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding

Bigs Dies: Scallop Circle & Clear Circle