super saturday catch up

I sorted through my photos the other week. Organized them by date and took them out of the photo sleeves that they arrived in. I don't print my shots, still use the online pub sites and print most of my photos. Old habits are hard to break.

We have this wonderful nursery here in town that decorates their store so BEAUTIFULLY for the holidays. They set up various photo ops throughout, which makes a perfect backdrop for our holiday/Christmas cards! This shot was taken in a gazebo with Frosty. Unfortunately, Feeney's has been very well known and everyone and their mother comes to take photos (which are free to do!!- even sitting with Santa!) We made the mistake of going Black Friday last year- yikes! never will do that again! I do have our photos from the last few years and it is amazing how much the girls have grown and changed. Making me feel old!

Unscripted Sketches posted another great sketch for us- don't wait, join in with your interpretation!

deets:
paper- Flair, shabby princess, around the block
cricut vine border and the flowers are petaloo christmas
velvet scrap ribbon, misc button, creative memories rub on sentiment, fiskars border punch

two for tuesday, a day late!

rain rain go away, come again another day. we are waterlogged. streets are flooded. yard is a muddy swamp. (sigh) The good news is I get to play inside all day on my craft!!! yah! So, while watching afternoon soaps and doing laundry, I found some time to make these 2 cards. I always start with a sketch. Santa comes from Lord Have Mercy #45. Pulled out my stash of Christmas papers and realized how little of this very old CTMH paper pack I had and wanted to use it up. All matchy matchy in color scheme. The stamp is CTMH- night before christmas, the sentiment is $1, clear g studio, large brads complete the card.

I love this card! It is so sparkly IRL! Kris gave away some old Reminisce papers, which I gladly took! The background swirl was actually a 12" circle (like a large peppermint candy) that I was able to make 2 large cards with it, cut down to size. The ornaments are stickers that matched this set. Silver stretch thread wrapped around, Peace on Earth (SU! set) finish off the card. It took like all of 10 minutes to make this card! LOL!! Isn't it elegant, so sophisticated? Someone really special, ONLY, is going to get this card! Oooopss, almost forgot.... the challenge completed is Colour Create Challenge #30: all white. Yup, it is!

tuesday throwdown

Today color challenge is brought to you by Sherrod Studio. The design team was to create a project using the colors buttercup, cranberry and brown bag (Close to My Heart colors). I started off this card wanting to use my Basic Grey paper pack where the papers incorporated these colors. The stamp set is Friendship Blessings by Sherrod ( you can see Kim's store on the website and while you are there, check out the other design team members cards, and.........don't forget to play along. Each week a winner will be chosen to be our guest designer!!)

Here are the other details on this card:

Sketch Challenge at Card Positioning Systems
Pin Up at 365 Cards, Day 240- use safety or straight pins with a charm (see my shell?)
Stampin Sisters in Christ #10- to express our thankfulness to someone that has done something for you. I have some dynamite friends that stick with me through thick and thin.
Crazy 4 Challenges #8- use 3 shapes on your card. I used a square, rectangles (stripes) oval and a star (my charm!)

Thanks for stopping by this tuesday! See you soon!

Falling Leaves

Wow, can you believe that October is over already? We haven't even done our annual fall hike, with all of this yucky rain that we have had- who wants to hike in mud??? So, when all else fails for current photos, I went to my file of unscrapped pictures that were waiting for me to get my grove on and scrap. Found this photo from last year and went to town! This sketch completed 4 challenges: unscripted sketch, crafty cardmakers #6- autumn colors, Belli Challenge- autumn or leaf challenge, and gingersnap creations- green, orange and brown colors.

The leaf patterned paper is one I made a few years ago trying my hand at emboss resisting. It took a LOT of work and time and probably will NOT repeat this beautiful technique. First I typed out a poem on my computer, erased all margins and printed in a fun font. Next I stamped in versamark, large leaves in a random pattern. Heat embossed with clear EP. Then I stamped in wonderful fall colors the smaller leaves, acorns, and berries. Lastly, with a sponge and light colored ink, I sponged over all of the "blank" white spaces - which make the large leaves POP.

So, try your hand at this great sketch, I rotated the sketch for my layout to fit, and don't forget to leave a link directly to your PROJECT, not your blog so we can see all of your great ideas!! Unscripted Sketches is waiting for you!

2 more for thursday

I wanted to clear off my table so, in order to do so, I pulled out my sketches for this week and used this great paper from MME. This card above is for Lord Have Mercy #64. I love her work! This sketch was easy to work with. In order to get my sentiment onto the paper, I tried an old technique of cutting my saying into strips and adding them hodgepodge onto the card. The tea cup is an OLD DOTS stamp from CTMH, before acrylics! Yikes- picked it up at the thrift store recently! Love using it.

This card is for last fridays sketch over at Friday Sketchers. A bit late in the game, but still made it in! whew! Again, an old DOTS stamp, colored in with prima watercolor pencils and waterbrush. I think I may take all 3 cards and make a great christmas present for my SIL! shhh.....

see you soon!

thursday challenges

In between getting my hair cut and making greek chicken pie for greek day at school tomorrow, I managed to crank out this card- for 4 challenges no less!

here are the deets:
The Pink Elephant #37- sketch that I rotated
365 Cards #236- Pretty Paisley (DP from MME- asparagus paper pack)
Caardvarks- new tall card
and The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge- dig deep (the image is an old DOTS stamp before it became Close to My Heart, probably 8 years old?? and the paper is from last year)

thanks for coming by today!

More Christmas cards....

Tis the season. I think. Blogs are either on halloween, fall, or christmas. Since I am vendoring at a few craft fairs this fall, thought it would be a good idea to work on some Christmas cards to sell.

I was able to complete 3 challenges for this card:
Creative Card Crew #33- babies and children. No better baby to use than the image of Christ here. There really is no other greater love.
Stampin' Sisters in Christ #9 - show a project with Christ's birth or the nativity
The Secret Crafter- to use old stash. This paper was from CTMH winter catalog 2007. I only had a few scraps of the striped left to use up and it worked perfectly. The clip is an old metal embellishment from a contest in 2006 (i think???) and the image is one I have had from CTMH for a few years now and is perfect for my Christmas cards.