Thankful Tree

Sunday. Everyone ready for some football today?? :) We are making chips and queso and Arnold Palmers (the non-alcoholic kind). I've been doing a little stamping and wanted to play along with the Cupcake Inspirations challenge. I love this challenge and try to play when I can. This time it was football related. :) I used espresso paper, but it seems to look black in my pictures. I also used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I was hoping to actually play along with the team, but I didn't get it finished in time.


I had a busy week. Laila's teacher needed help two days, I had my library volunteer shift another day, and then the school garden club had one of the leaders out so I filled in there as well. I think Thursday was the only day I wasn't at the school doing something. This week I'll be there Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's nice to help out. Laila is still struggling, so that's been hard. It's very mentally exhausting and I've been crying a lot. Send good thoughts that things get better. I do think that she's better overall, but we still have a ways to go. A boy from her class brought her some snails this week, so they are now friends. lol

Falliday Fest Continues

Sharing two more cards from the Failliday Fest challenges on Splitcoast. Anyone else playing along?   I am having so much fun with them.  They are helping to pull me out of my slump.  With all that's been going in my personal life lately, I haven't even wanted to step into my room and create.  I'm so thankful for this motivation.  :)   This challenge was to make a birthday card with "wrinkles".   Laila has been in here playing with my crimper, so I used that.  I found this image printed out in my pile and colored it with my Copics.

And here's my Stampin' Up! card for you guys.  :)   I love Lovely as a Tree.  It's such a beautiful set and can be used for so many occasions.  The challenge for this was called Snowy Leaves.  I used the crayon resist technique and my distress inks to make my snowy tree.   I added a simple sentiment and left is.   There's a little Wink of Stella on the snow, but it's hard to get that in the picture.

A no-reply Blogger asked me where to find the template for the angel card.  It is on the Falliday Fest challenge, so you have to go to Splitcoast to get that.  The main thread for that particular challenge is here and the first entry has template at the bottom.  I get a lot of questions from people whose comments come in as no-reply and it makes it difficult to answer those.  If you want to check if that's you and possibly change it, here's a link on how to do that.  :) I always feel bad because I can't email back a quick answer and I usually forget to include it in my next post.  Baby brain apparently never goes away!  lol

I hope everyone has a great week!  I'm hoping for cooler temperatures to come back.  We got a little taste of it and then it got all hot and yucky again.  The weed pollen can go away with those high temperatures.  I've had a headache since Tuesday and nothing is helping.  I hate allergies!

Lovely as a Tree Hope

Sorry for a second post today.  I wanted to share another card I made for Hope You Can Cling To.  It is for Kathy's strength/warrior challenge.  I was a bit stumped on this one, but she helped me out and mentioned this oak tree from Lovely as a Tree.  I haven't inked this set up in ages, so I grabbed it and started working!   I haven't made a card with so little white/vanilla in ages!  lol

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree
Ink:  Always Artichoke, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Regals Designer Paper Stack, Very Vanilla

Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree

Just a quick post today before my stamping event.  :)    This is one of the projects we are making today.   Simple, but perfect for the dudes in your life!  Lovely as a Tree just never gets old for me.  I stamped it on watercolor paper and colored it with my Aquapainter.   Easy!  

She might be wearing pink, but she still loves her truck.  

Stampin' Up! Leadership Update and Swap

I thought I'd share my swap card that I made for Leadership.  I didn't do general swapping, so it was just 20 for an organized swap.  I hope people liked it as it was much different than most of the ones I got back.  They were mostly soft and bright, not the dark masculine thing I created. lol   I was happy that I got to meet a few friends at the swap, especially Pat Smith who I was hoping to run into.  (Hi, Pat!)

I'm trying out a new thing for the supply list, so you'll have to let me know what you think.  If you are in the mood to shop, you can click the links and go directly to my store to buy all these goodies!

• Banners Framelits Dies
• Early Espresso Baker's Twine
• Hardwood [clear]
• Lovely As A Tree Wood-mount Stamp Set
• Naturals Designer Buttons
• Neutrals Core'dinations
• Perfect Pennants [english, clear]
• Stampin' Sanding Block
• Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
• Early Espresso 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock
• Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
• 2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch

I had a fantastic time at the event.  My roommate was super fun (Love ya, Anne Marie!) and I got to meet some awesome new people and a few blog followers too!  It did make me think about where my business is at the moment and where I want it to go.  I'm down to very few customers and the thought of dropping has crossed my mind more than once over the past few months.  I am now hoping that maybe I can turn things around a bit.   If you are local, please consider coming out to an event, contacting me about any questions or needs you might have, and let me know if there's any type of event you'd be interested in.

I'm sure if you've been on any Stampin' Up! related blogs or websites you saw the awesome information about the new markers that are coming soon.  Exciting, right?!  Learning to color was on my list to practice and improve on this year, so they are totally helping me out there.  ;)   I need all the help I can get, so yay!  Here's a peek of the colors:

Finally, there's an awesome new promotion for new My Paper Pumpkin subscribers.  We got to see the next 3 months of the kits and let me just say, if you aren't subscribing yet, GO DO IT NOW!  I am so in love with the March kit!  If you are a new subscriber, sign up NOW to get the Welcome Kit in February and then you can get the March kit that I LOVE!  Plus if you sign up before February 10th you get a free set of markers! Between the markers and the clear block included, it's like getting all the cards and stamps for free! Who doesn't LOVE free?!   If you sign up before January 25th, I'll also be sending out a little freebie.  I'll also be hosting a My Paper Pumpkin night for my local subscribers to get together to assemble their kits.  Fun, fun!  So head on over and sign up! 

The other big announcement was also AMAZING!  Demonstrators who signed up after July of last year and those who sign up before Convention registration ends get to attend Convention for free*.   Well, free in that they don't have to pay the registration fee.  You'd still be responsible for travel and hotel expenses.  Saving almost $300 off the registration fee helps a ton though!  I wish I was new again.  lol  Be sure to contact me today if you are interested in signing up and getting in on that! 

Laila and Jason survived okay without me, so it was nice to get away and not worry too much.  Maybe I'll have to do it again! Ha!

HYCCT Fails

Another of my Hope You Can Cling To cards.  I don't think I like this one and sadly, it's the second attempt at this challenge!   I think I have some sort of mental block going on because I can't get this challenge completed and I've been stuck and not stamping for a couple days now.  I'm a few behind, which is NOT good if I hope to do them all. Hopefully I get a burst of creativity soon so I can stamp out some cards!

This was Beate's challenge:
Create a card Clean and Simple card. One or two layers....no bulky layers or embellishments. Keep it flat.

It shouldn't be THAT hard of a challenge, so I don't know what my problem is.  :-/   Here's my first attempt:

I tried the masking tape technique with some tape I crinkled up before inking and it didn't work out like I wanted.  I used the lightest current green, Pear Pizzazz, and it was still too dark.  Ugh.  Maybe I'll go back revive Certainly Celery and try again.

So that's my day of not stamping... How's yours?! 

Laila LOVES my purse.  Too much in fact.  She got a little mad that I zipped it up and she couldn't pull all my credit cards out.   Last time she did I lost a Visa and my Target card, so no more of that! 

Stampin' Up! Lovely As a Tree CASE

We are trying to get Laila's pictures taken for the Hope Calendar again today (attempt #4), so we'll be on the go early.   I thought I'd share our other club project this morning before I jump in the shower.   It's a simple card using the masking tape technique.  A friend sent me a link to Laurie's awesome cards and I decided to CASE one because they are just so gorgeous!

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Tools: Masking Tape

She's so cute when she's happy.  :)

Mashed Up Window

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project "using the Sketch".
2. Or Make a project with "Rosettes".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project with the "Sketch featuring Rosettes".

Time for another challenge at The Friday Mashup!  I didn't get to play along last week, but I got back in the groove this week!  :)  I combined the challenge with a Hope You Can Cling To one as well.  I used Kittie's challenge:  My challenge for you is to create a card with a Window of Hope. You may use window die cuts, window stamps, pictures of windows, hand cut a window using your craft knife, sketching a window, painting a window. The sky is the limit.

It's a bit of a different card for me, but I think it would be a nice birthday card for a dude.   I hope it does look enough like a window to fulfill the challenge.  :)

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Garden Green, Early Espresso, Bashful Blue

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, More Mustard, Very Vanilla

Tools/Accessories:  Sponges, Regals Buttons, linen thread

My little giraffe wasn't impressed with Halloween.   I think the costume was too hot and there was no reward of candy.   Maybe next year little one.  

Dynamic Dirty Cards

This week I'm trying to fit in some of the awesome Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoaststampers.   It's a fun set of challenges for people who are members of the Fan Club there.   I've been using that website since I first started making cards and LOVE it.  It's a great way to look at card samples sorted by the stamp sets you own!

Here's my card for the first challenge.  It was a tough one, but I kinda like how it turned out!

Stamps:  Papillon Potpourri, Butterfly Prints (retired)

Ink:  Staz On Black, Versamark

Paper:  Whisper White

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Labels Collection Framelits, Stripes embossing folder, Elegant Butterfly punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Heat Tool, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Embossing Buddy, Simply Scored w/ diagonal insert, Basic Pearls

For my second card I combined two challenges, the second Dare to Get Dirty challenge with the colors from Dynamic Duos.   I was making this at midnight last night while my blueberry cheesecake bars (Pinterest recipe) were baking.  :)   It's a simple, but still gorgeous card I think. I love the new ink pads because it really gives some amazing coverage and color to the image! 

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Netting background

Ink:  Early Espresso

Paper: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Neutrals DSP stack

We had Laila's one month pictures made last week so I thought I'd share one of the sneak peeks we got to see.  Such a little cutie!  

Retro Tree

I love sketch challenges and I found a new one that I haven't played along with before!   It's called Retro Sketches and they have some great sketches over there for inspiration.   I used this week's sketch today to make another Father's Day card.  Hopefully I almost have enough to drop off at the local shop soon.   If anyone needs one, you can email me or stop by Merry-Go-Round in Kingwood.   :)

When I sat down to stamp I had intended to do a very distressed card.  After looking at the design team samples, I realized they are more into clean cards without a lot of fuss (aka distressing) so I decided to go with what I'm best at and do a somewhat clean-and-simple card.   For some reason Father's Day and Christmas are the times of the year that I am really drawn to use Lovely as a Tree.  It just works so well for both!   I'm trying to use up more of my hoarded designer paper, so you'll probably be seeing a lot of retired paper on my blog.   Sorry for that, but there's only so much space in the craft room and it's too pretty to throw away!  

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Always Artichoke

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Naturals White, Woodland Walk DSP and other misc retired paper

Tools/Accessories:  Ticket Corner punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, linen thread

FM60: For the Boys

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

1. Make a project for " That special Man in your life ".
2. Or Make a project with the " Sketch ".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Masculine card using the above Sketch ".

Know that old saying better late than never?  Well, that's me this week!  I had actually decided to take this week off from The Friday Mashup because I was feeling so bad, but after some new medicine and a night of sleep, I felt like stamping a little today.  Holly has such a great challenge that I didn't want to miss out playing along.  Now this will be my last card before I'm "officially" on maternity leave, but I still want to try and do some of the challenges if I can fit them in.  It depends on how I'm feeling and then how recovery and motherhood go if that happens or not.  I can't believe it's only 38 more days!  Yikes!   Anyway, on to the card, right?!  

I pulled out some retired designer paper that I really need to stop hoarding use up and the classic Lovely as a Tree stamp set.   It's an easy choice for a masculine card.  I did a bit of "thumping" on the tree to get in some different shades of green; one shade was just a bit boring.  :)    It's a pretty simple card, but it's hard to go all out with embellishments when you are doing something for a man.  Ribbon and bling just don't work without some serious creative effort!  

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Woodgrain background

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Always Artichoke

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Whisper White, miscellaneous retired DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Vintage Trinkets, Color Spritzer, Linen Thread

I hope you'll come play along with us this week!  It's a great time challenge to get your Father's Day cards made before June hits!

Lovely Tree

In my last post I mentioned wanting to make a card of my own that was inspired by the cased card that I posted.  Well, here it is!  :)  I am having fun playing with my background stamps, sponges, and cutter kit.  For this one I added in an old favorite, Lovely as a Tree.   I'm pretty sure that's one of the best stamp sets EVER!   You can really use it for just about every occasion.   I didn't put a sentiment on this one, so it will go in my stash and get one once I find myself needing a certain kind of card.   

I actually had to break out Chocolate Chip for this one.  Believe it or not, I ran out of Early Espresso!   That's my favorite color and I guess I have been using it way more than I thought lately.   Do you remember the days when we all loved Chocolate Chip and thought it was the best color?   Poor thing.  I know here at my house it  started being neglected once Early Espresso showed up.  

Stamps:  Woodgrain, En Francais, Lovely as a Tree

Ink:  Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Naturals White, Neutrals DSP stack

Tools/Accessories:  Cutter Kit, sponges, Twine, Always Artichoke buttons (retired)

Hostess Club Card #2

This beauty is the second card we'll be making at my stamp clubs this month.   Isn't it pretty?!  I am such a big fan of Lovely as a Tree.   One of the ladies in my Friday night group mentioned she'd like to try to the Crayon Resist technique so I decided to plan a card with it.   I love how it looks like snow!   I hope you can see it; I didn't want a lot of sponging on my main panel, but of course the more you add, the more the resist will stand out.   I'm really loving this combination of colors for Christmas this year.  I've never been a big fan of Wild Wasabi in the past, but I have to say, I love it right now!

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Woodgrain
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Naturals White, Cherry Cobbler, Frostwood Lodge designer paper
Tools/Accessories:   white crayon, sponges, blender pen, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine

Lovely Fall Colors

Ann presented an interesting challenge at the Paper Players this week:  make a card with plants or animals.   I thought about using my Sock Monkey stamp, but since it seems that nobody loves him but me, I went with another favorite set, Lovely as a Tree!   I figured French Foliage needed a rest, but I still wanted to use this awesome color combination that I seem to be stuck on.   It's a great way to use up those two packs of More Mustard that I accidentally ordered last year!   :)   I also used a fun technique called thumping to get those pretty colors on my tree.   If you like beating things, it's totally the technique for you!   Just don't abuse your markers or stamps too much.    My layout comes from this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   Lesley made two cards using it, so I figured I'd try to keep up.   Finally, the challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments was to impress with embossing!

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree
Ink:  More Mustard, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Naturals White, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Neutrals DSP stack
Tools/Accessories:  Jewelry Tag punch, Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Early Espresso taffeta ribbon (retired),  that punch with the really long name (Dotted Scalloped Ribbon Border Punch I think?)

And speaking of animals, can someone please tell me how this could even remotely be comfortable?

Clean and Simple Class continued...

Here are the last 3 cards for my upcoming class.   I am proud of myself for finishing up my designs a whole week early!    Wow!   :)   This card is similar to one I've made before; it was just too awesome not to include for this class.   Lovely as a Tree might be an old set, but it is a good one for sure.  I'm happy it is sticking around for another year as I've only had it for a few months.  :)

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes, En Francais

Ink:  Old Olive, Early Espresso

Paper:  Confetti White

Accessories:  Early Espresso 3/8 taffeta ribbon (retiring)

Tools:  sponges, stamp-a-ma-jig

The Stampin' Up! catalog isn't called an idea book for nothing!   I love the projects on the front of the current edition and just had to make one of them for this class.   It is probably on the extreme side of clean-and-simple, but I wanted to show a bit of the spectrum for the class.   Isn't it lovely?  It makes me smile just to look at it! 

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Early Espresso

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze, Pumpkin Pie, Greenhouse Gala designer paper (retiring)

Accessories:  Brights buttons, Early Espresso 3/8 taffeta ribbon (retiring), linen thread

Tools:  Big Shot, Top Note die, Lots of Tags Sizzlits, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder

Rich Razzleberry is one of my favorite colors and I've totally been neglecting it lately.   I decided to use it along with another neglected item, Upsy Daisy, for this card.   This stamp set is a great beginner set because it has the image and 3 sentiments.  It is so versatile and can be used for so many different techniques.   I think I must have some pent up aggression to get out because I can't stop using my paper piercer this week.  :)   

Stamps:  Upsy Daisy

Ink:  Rich Razzleberry

Paper:  Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories:   Rich Razzleberry 5/8 grosgrain ribbon (retiring)

Tools:  Mat Pack, Paper Piercer

Class Cards & a Challenge

I finally stamped this week!   I have had a pretty blah month, so I haven't felt like getting in my room and stamping very much.   I am trying to make myself go do it this week as it improves my mood so much.   I have a clean-and-simple class planned for next week, so I decided to work on some ideas for that and to do at least one challenge as well.   

This card was inspired by Maureen's card found here.   I love her style!    This one is my favorite of the three cards I'm posting today; I think it is lovely.   The layout uses the clean-and-simple sketch for this week's challenge on Splitcoast.  

Stamps:  Apple Blossoms, Vintage Vogue

Ink:  Baja Breeze

Paper:  Greenhouse Gala designer paper, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze

Accessories:  basic pearls

Tools:  mat pack, paper piercer, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies die

Here's another simple, yet elegant card.   Here I used one of my favorite colors, Pear Pizzazz to give Elizabeth her first inking.    I find this stamp to be a tad bit challenging, but I like how this turned out.  

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes, Elizabeth

Ink:  Pear Pizzazz

Paper: Greenhouse Gala designer paper, Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz

Accessories:  basic pearls, Very Vanilla 3/8 taffeta ribbon

Tools:  Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Scallop Trim Border Punch

Finally, here is my challenge card for today.   This is for the color challenge on Splitcoast to use Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla.   This is one of those cards where the idea just didn't translate like I wanted, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it.    It might end up being one that I take apart or add to once I think about what needs to be changed to make me love it.  :)

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Paper:  Jolly Holiday designer paper, Woodland Walk designer paper, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Very Vanilla

Tools:  Big Shot, Fancy Favor Die (I love the little border that it makes!)

One Layer? Impossible!

This card was meant to be my design team card for this week's Paper Players challenge, but Blogger has had so many issues that they have decided to extend the current challenge to make sure everyone is able to play along. 

The challenge for the card was to make a one layer card. Can we discuss how difficult it is to make a card with no layers? I finally came up with this one and while I like it, I LOVE LAYERS.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, En Francais, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Old Olive, Early Espresso
Paper: Confetti White
Accessories: Vintage Trinkets, Early Espresso ribbon
Tools: Sponges

Wednesday Sketch Challenge

I have been trying to work on my distressing skills and this paper and color combination lends itself perfectly to that look.   This is for the Wednesday sketch challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers.   It is a fun sketch that I'll definitely be using again!

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Lovely as a Tree
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Garden Green
Paper: Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Woodland Walk designer paper
Accessories: Regals brads
Tools: Sponges

Thumping? Huh?

Confused? No, it's not fall again, but I wanted to try out a fun technique and it works great with fall colors. It is called thumping and uses the awesome Stampin' Up! markers. You can see a closer shot of the thumped tree in the next picture.    I was inspired by Leonie's card that you can find here.  

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze

Paper: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Confetti White

Tools: Paper Snips (edges are great for distressing!), sponges

Accessories: Early Espresso satin ribbon

Here is a close-up of the thumped tree. Isn't it neat? 

You can find the technique here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/thumping/

Sale-a-bration Class/Workshop

(inspired by Laurie)

(inspired by Barb)

(Not my original idea, but it has been recreated so many times that I'm not sure who to credit for the original?)

Here are the 3 cards we are making tomorrow at a Sale-a-bration workshop/class.   The ladies asked for techniques, so I focused on the different looks that can be done with the Stampin' Up! sponges and ink pads.    I love all of them and I hope they will as well.