Now, how did that happen?!

Hello! I am so glad you stopped in today, and even happier that you haven't given up on my poor neglected blog!  Since school began, I have not been able to squeeze much creative time into my life, but I think things are finally starting to gel into a routine.  

My girls and I were recently talking about upcoming events and they mentioned Halloween.  I laughed and said we had plenty of time until Halloween was here...Ummm...Hellooooo! It's the middle of October!! Now, how did THAT happen?!  I don't usually make Halloween cards, so no worries about being behind on cards, but that does mean that the C word is just around the corner...

As luck would have it, I had a bit of free time last week to make a few cards, and I will be sharing them over the next few days.  I decided that I really need to use up my older papers before buying anything new for Christmas!  I made good progress last year, but there is still quite a bit there. Maybe by the time I finish scrapbooking Christmas, it will be gone!

Today's card is pretty simple in design because the paper had such a bold stripe pattern.  It might be a little difficult to see, but the banner is actually three dimensional.  I scored the strip on either side of the sentiment so it would pop up a bit.

Not much more to say about this one-pretty basic!  

We recently had a family reunion at a local park with a beautiful walking trail.  The leaves are just beginning to change and I managed to get a few nice pictures when DD#1 and I went for a walk.

Well, that's all I have to share for today.  Hopefully, I will get another post up soon so my poor blog won't feel so lonely!  Have a wonderful and creative day!

Card Recipe: Paper-old olive, whisper white, Holiday Treasures dsp (ret), Ink-chocolate chip, Stamp Set-Good Greetings, Accessories-circle framelits, scallop circle punch

Orange and Black Challenge at ABAC- It's My Turn!

Hello! I am so glad you're here!  We are winding down our orange and black challenge at Anything But a Card Challenges.  I hadn't shared a scrapbook layout for our challenges in quite some time, and the orange and black colors seemed so perfect for a Halloween layout.  Unfortunately, I don't currently have any Halloween pics to scrap, so I made a page that will hold a standard 4x6 photo and now I will have a page all ready to go when my photos are printed!  I don't usually do this, but I'm glad I have a bit of a jump start!

This layout is a nice mixture of some new goodies and older supplies.  The black and very vanilla colors in the Modern Medley DSP were perfect and I had so much fun playing with the splatters in the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set!  The orange base, buttons, and letter stickers were some oldies from my stash.  The letters were white and I inked them up with a little tangerine tango ink to coordinate with the buttons and paper.

I hope you have enjoyed my page and don't forget that there is still time to join us with your very own orange and black creation!  Have a wonderful week!

Page Recipe: Paper-orange from stash, very vanilla, basic black, Modern Medley DSP, Ink-

tangerine tango, stazon black, Stamp Set-Gorgeous Grunge, Punches-large scallop circle, 1 1/4 scallop circle, eyelet border, Accessories- Sweet Stitches buttons (ret)

Wrapped up in fall!

Hello! I hope your weekend is off to a wonderful start!  I have my upline Stampin' Up meeting today, so my morning will be full of crafty fun!

I really got into the fall theme for our latest stamp club meeting!  All three cards featured goodies from the Holiday Catalog and were perfect for fall!  

I don't normally do a whole lot of creating with Halloween but the Googly Ghouls stamp set (also part of the Ghoulish Googlies Bundle) was just too cute! The bundle is perfect for making little treat bags so I made sure I put it on my preorder.  When I saw the adorable mummy card at  Robyn's Stamping Hood , I knew I had to CASE it!

 

The 'wrapped' background is an easy technique but looks so awesome.  I started with a piece of whisper white cardstock in the size that I wanted the layer (sorry, didn't write down the measurements...).   I cut 3 strips about 1" wide  and the same length of the layer with the paper trimmer. Then I did some very unscientific or mathematical cutting.  Just make sure that the one side is wider than the other. Hope that makes sense.  This does not have to be even and actually looks better when it's a little wavy.  Before adhering the 'wraps', I inked all of the edges with basic black ink, then alternated the strips onto the layer.  The rest was pretty basic.  Don't you just love the little googly eyes (or is that just the preschool teacher coming out?)!

Thanks once again for stopping by and I hope you find some time to be crafty this weekend!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, basic black, pumpkin pie, Ink-basic black, stazon black, Stamp Set-Googly Ghouls, Accessories-lots of punches: word window, modern label, scallop circle, and 1 3/4" circle, googlies, basic black scallop dots ribbon

The intervention...

Hello, my name is Margaret and I have a problem.  I started making Christmas cards about a month ago to use up my old Christmas DSP.  I thought I could handle it, just make a few cards, use up some old paper, and then I would stop.  I was in control... or so I thought.  I have recently come to realize that I have an addiction to creating Christmas cards.  I've even started looking at other old packages of  Christmas DSP, just to see what was there...  I knew I hit rock bottom when I became frustrated that I had to make a birthday card. "That won't use up my Christmas paper... I have to use up my Christmas paper!!"  So that's my story.  I am a Christmas card addict.  The saddest part of this is I will have to find a way to control my behavior.  After all, Christmas is an annual holiday, and there will always be new DSP to buy, therefore making my current DSP old.  It's a vicious cycle...  But I can change... if I have to...I guess...

All silliness aside, I am really enjoying making my cards early (gasp!) and I was so excited when I realized I only had two full sheets and some little scraps left of my Merry Moments paper.  Bring on the new paper!!  

I once again used a Merry Monday sketch for my cards.  I'm just obsessive enough to feel that I need to do the sketches in order, but really would have liked to skip this one.  It was a wonderful sketch and I had this brilliant card pictured in my head, but when I attempted to put my vision to paper, I did not love it.  So I decided to try the sketch again with a different idea.  Not overly crazy with that one either...  But I finished the sketch and the next few are very basic and I think they will be a lot easier for me to use.  So here are both of my cards using sketch #7 from Merry Monday.  

   

My initial plan was for the cardinal to be resting on the branch, but it just didn't look right.  I also thought the background would be less bare and more 'forest-like' with the pine tree images.  I just feel like the whole vision fell short of what I wanted...

First of all... apologies for the washed out image... grr...

I decided to go a completely different route with this one.  I wanted to use the shaker frame, but didn't want to actually have a shaker card (confusing, I know).  So I stamped my image twice, added dazzling details to the bottom image and then layered the second image on top.  I think I would have been happier with this one if I had embossed the red background.

So do you ever have this problem?  Finishing a card and then really not liking it?  

Hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the weekend! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe #1-Cardstock-old olive, very vanilla, real red, Merry Memories DSP(ret), Ink-chocolate chip, old olive, Stamp Sets- Lovely as a Tree, Bells and Boughs, Language of Friendship, Punches-scallop oval, scallop circle, bird builder

Card Recipe #2-Cardstock-real red, very vanilla, garden green, Merry Memories DSP, Ink-real red, asst. markers, Stamp Sets- Sweet Snowglobe (ret), Warm Words (ret), Punches-1 3/4" circle, large oval, scallop oval, Accessories-dazzling details, shaker frame

Club project-gift ideas

Wow! Feels like forever since I've posted! We had our first snow on the 29th... It was very pretty and best of all, by nightfall, everything was clear again.  I love watching snow fall, but hate shoveling and cleaning off my car, so this was a perfect snowfall for me!

My club ladies wanted some simple gift ideas for this month's club projects.  I received this wonderful post it note holder in a swap at the SU regional from Tamra Needles.

 It inspired me to make a wintery version.  This would be a great gift for co-workers, teachers, or friends. Who couldn't use post it notes?! I am notorious for using tons of them to write notes, jot down ideas, and them post them on my craft table where they are promptly forgotten until I unearth them about a week later... Maybe I need to create a wall mounted post it note organizer!

This is a pretty basic easel design, but if you need detailed instructions, just let me know.  I knew I wanted to use the sweet little girl from Gift Givers for this and hope the club ladies love this as much as I do!

Recipe: Cardstock-wild wasabi, very vanilla, Holly Berry Bouquet DSP, Ink- soft suede, wild wasabi, real red, blender pen, blush blossom & crumb cake markers, Stamp Set-Gift Givers, Accessories, scallop circle punch, dazzling details, mini post it notes

Some Halloween Treats

I just finished making over 30 Halloween treat bags for my preschoolers and wanted to share a quick picture of the tags I made for the bags. (If I didn't have to make so many, I would consider making the treat boxes, but goodness... that's a lot of treat boxes!)  I'm also sharing a picture of a really 'sweet' treat we made at our last team meeting.  I am making several of these for our trick or treaters and some close friends. Both of these projects were pretty simple, which is wonderful when you have a lot to make!  I also noticed that the challenges at Simply Stampin Challenge and Top Tip Tuesday were Halloween and Trick or Treat.  My creations fit both categories!!  So I also get to play along with a few challenge sites too!!
 Top Tip Tues was also asking for tips (who would have thought?!) and I thought I would share a tip that saves time.  When I already have my supplies out and my mojo is working, I usually create a few extra images or embellishments to use on a future project.  I made a few extra scallop tags to use on my kid's scrapbook pages.

Recipe for treat tags: Cardstock-rich razzleberry, the white is not SU (old stash) and I could tell a huge difference when I stamped my images..., Ink-Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Stamp Set-Batty for You

Recipe for Mummy: Hershey bar, Basic black cardstock (to glue the wiggle eyes on), wiggle eyes, white crepe paper

Holiday Mini Swap

This month I decided to join our team's monthly card swap.  The theme was 'Holiday Mini' and we are to use at least one item from the mini on our swap card.  I knew I wanted to use the beautiful DSP Spice Cake and found an old sketch (not sure where it was from...) that would work perfectly for my card.  To keep from ruining the surprise, I've had to post this for a later date so the participating team members don't have a sneak peek!!

The flowers were made with the floral fusion sizzlet.  I've had this for ages and recently rediscovered it. Sometimes I think I might have too much to play with, but then I chase those crazy thoughts out of my head ;D  

Card Recipe: Cardstock-very vanilla, soft suede, pool party, Spice Cake DSP, Ink-more mustard, Stamp Set-Batty for You, Accessories-floral fusion sizzlet, basic rhinestones, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, pear pizzazz seam binding, dimensionals

A Little Spice Cake!

When I first saw the Holiday Mini, I fell in love with the Spice Cake DSP, but since I couldn't buy EVERYTHING at once, I had to wait to order it! This month, my stampin' club made this card.  I really like the pumpkin from Batty for You and thought this makes the card a little more versatile than the other Halloween themed stamps in this set.

We used the square punch to make the clipped edges of the dsp. Soft Suede is the perfect color to 'age' paper and we used it on the edges of every piece of paper on this card!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-very vanilla, soft suede, Spice Cake dsp, Ink-soft suede, more mustard, Stamp Set-Batty for You, Accessories- linen thread, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, square punch, dimensionals

Jr Varsity cards

OK, quiz time...Who remembers the year of the DSP Jr Varsity? That's right, it's from the 2008 catalog! Well, in an effort to use up some of my stash, I was digging through a container of retired paper and found Jr. Varsity! I have really got to start using up my DSP!! So, today's post is a couple of cards I made using the very retired, JV!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-old olive, whisper white, bashful blue, Jr. Varsity DSP, Ink- bashful blue, Stamp Sets- Riveting and Birthday Wish (both ret), Accessories-corner, scallop circle, and 1 3/8 circle punch, whisper white 1/4" grosgrain ribbon

Get Well Wishes

I needed a few more cards for my stash of 'last minute' cards and decided to make a get well card.  I used the sketch from Stamping 411 to get me started.  Here's the sketch...

and here's my card...

I also made a birthday card for one of my best friends using this layout.  The only difference is on the label, I cut out and pasted the numbers 2 & 9 from the DSP Play Date, since she's celebrating her 29th birthday (again!)  It's the most amazing thing, I'm a year older than her, but she is turning 29 this week and I will be 29 next month.  Math never was our best subject ;-)

Card Recipe: Cardstock-old olive, so saffron, chocolate chip, Play Date & tempting turquoise DSP, Ink-versamark, so saffron, and tempting turquoise, Stamp Sets- Butterfly Prints, and Word Play, Accessories- decorative label, scallop circle, scallop border, 1" circle and 3/4 circle punches

Memory Lane

My introduction to paper crafting was after the birth of my oldest daughter. I received a free scrapbooking sample in the mail. I was hooked! Over the years, my interests have grown to include card making and other paper crafting, but I still love to scrapbook. I just don't always have enough time to keep up!  As I was going through some of my older photo CDs, I found these pictures of my youngest daughter when she was in preschool and realized that I had not scrapped them... So here is my walk down memory lane, and my submission to two challenges-Clean and Simple Stamping provided the sketch and the color combo came from Create, Ink!

Layout recipe: cardstock-island indigo, baja breeze, baja breeze & rich razzleberry DSP, ink-rich razzleberry, stamp set- Cute by the Inch, accessories-vintage flowers (ret.) and crumb cake seam binding, scallop circle punch, scallop trim border punch

Bold Blossoms Thanks

This is a peek at one of the projects we will be making at my New Catalog Kick Off Card Class.  The stamp set is in the Summer Mini (which will only be available until the end of August). I apologize for the photo quality, I couldn't get a clear shot for some reason today... We will be making 6 cards at the class and the class fee is $10.  If you are interested in enrolling, I still have a few spots available and would love to see you there!

Card Recipe: cardstock-tempting turquoise, whisper white, and blushing bride DSP from the In Colors pack, inks-pear pizzazz and peach parfait, stamp set-Bold Blossoms, accessories-framed tulips embossing folder, scallop circle punch, basic rhinestones jewels