Challenges: 365 Doodle and Popup Challenge

Hi there kids! Yes I've been a bad blogger. I'd like to blame it on summertime - yes let's blame it on that! The schedule is off you know? I would like to invite you to follow me on Instagram as it's quite easy for me to post things there on a daily basis - and really its a whole lotta fun. I've been participating in a 365 Doodle Challenge run by a wonderfully talented illustrator, Johanna Fritz. Not only is she amazingly talented,  she's also such a friendly and supportive soul.  As a matter of fact, I'm finding the Instagram community a very positive and supportive group. If you like to draw or doodle the 365 Doodle Challenge might be for you - check it out!

Another Challenge that is coming up this weekend is The Daily Marker's Pop Up Challenge. It's going to be a lot of fun - and there is a giveaway right now on her blog. Over the weekend she'll have videos and prizes so it would be a great time to get out your stamps and markers and play along!
The Daily Marker - Kathy - also runs the 30 Day Coloring Challenge I participated in twice over the last few months. She's got another one coming up in October. If you like to color - this is definitely a challenge you don't want to miss.
Okay, I need to get going - errands to run, doodles to doodle. Thanks for stopping by!

First Communion

I have been looking for years - really - for a First Communion stamp set. I've seen some ok ones but nothing I was willing to spend some money on. So every time I had another First Communion in the family to celebrate (and there have been mmmmmmaaaaaannnnny) it pretty much killed me to go to the card store - but go I did. As recently as last month - a nephew celebrating First Communion and Confirmation all together. Right after that I happened to be looking at Marybeth's Time for Paper blog and saw her post of a Communion card. The stamp (from Serendipity Stamps)was perfect and I said "sold"! So here's my card (as there's another Communion coming up next week :-))
I colored using Copics for everything but the chalice. I tried a number of gold pencils to color in that chalice but I couldn't get the gold I wanted - so I finally used a silver Prismacolor pencil and mineral spirits. I used a Nestabilities die to cut out the image and stamped the "First Communion" sentiment from the set. The "on your" is just my handwriting with a Micron pen. I stamped out a bunch more of these images needless to say - so I could make more cards for the next First Communion. (After I hit the stamp store to get a refill on my one butter Copic pen........LOL) Thanks for stopping by. Have a good one!

I like bright happy colors but....

find myself using a lot of the same, monochromatic color schemes in my card making (and my clothes come to think of it ... hmmm.... well I guess that makes sense huh? but i digress ;-)) As I was thinking about this - I also needed to make a few "hello-how-are-you-I'm-thinking-about-you" kinda cards for a few Aunts that are special to me. So I thought let's get out the colors and make somethin pretty and cheery for them. I pulled out Papertrey Ink's Stitches and Swirls stamp set which I thought would work nicely and found inspiration on Nichole Heady's blog (which is probably the most ridiculously inspiring place to visit as far as stamping goes... if you can't get some ideas there well ... I don't think your eyes are looking at your computer screen k?) I also pulled out the Fillable Frames Sentiments set, and the Fillable Frames #9 die (cute little tag die that coordinates with the sentiments set). I like how they turned out and I definitely fit the "cheery" bill I was goin for.
On another note - I've been busy with this and that - work, home stuff, and I'm working on getting a recent pile of pics scrapbooked so not so much cardmaking going on. I do have one other card I made I'll be back with tomorrow.
Oh one final thing - anyone have any good books they've read lately? I'm heading to the beach in a week :-) and need to fill up the Nook....

spring thinking

i'm thinking spring.
actually i've been thinking spring for a few weeks now - probably started whilst shoveling all that snow! LOL
anyway, as i've mentioned on other occasions, I belong to a little group online. Same group I send all those valentines to. We did a little tag swap/mingle and the theme was "spring". I decided to join in and here's what I made (not the best scan i'm sorry to say). I hand cut the little cardstock border - do you see the little loop on the right hand side? well that's where I punched a hole and added ribbon. The flowers and leaves are Quickutz and the alphas are Sizzix Funky Brush. There's also a cuttlebug swiss dot embossed background there too. For something so seemingly simple I fooled with this off and on for days. (ridiculous huh? well i couldn't decided if I'd use just one color for the flowers or not - actually it looked ok either way - the edge going to using 2 colors as you see above.) I'm in love with these colors - particularly the turquoise. I guess my tag really has more of an aqua... but hey its only a few shades away. Close enough for me. Interestingly enough, I just read Turquoise is Pantone's color of the year. I enjoy looking at the Pantone website. Have I ever mentioned I got to visit Pantone years ago? Long ago, in another lifetime - I was living in New Jersey and my employer had Pantone as a client. I had to visit there to meet up with some of their employees. Oh I wanted to just stay and hang out there... way cool.
Onward. I need to get back to scanning negatives of old photos. My current Suzy Scrapbooker project.

Christmas Card #11 - Oh by golly.....

and yes, the inside does say "have a holly jolly christmas this year!" courtesy of a cute sentiment stamp by Purple Onion Designs! The "HoHoHo" is also by POD - great stamps, huh?

Those adorable snowmen are from the 6x6 Jolly by Golly Cosmo Cricket pad. The embossed background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the snowflake is from Quickutz - glittered up with some glitter i believe i bought at Walmart (who knows when!) The background paper - is a patterned cardstock by Memory Box i bought a while back from Ellen Hutson - and when i received my order they tucked in that ribbon you see on the card - as a thank you - isn't that lovely? I've bought from Ellen Hutson a few times just for that reason - wonderful customer service. Oh yeah - the tag is from Nestabilities - from the Double Ended tag set - i just trimmed off the bottom "end" and covered it up with the snowflake.

Well - off to fold laundry! have a great day kids!

Christmas Card #6 Pink Winter Wishes

i'm not a fan of pink. I don't dislike it either but it's never been my favorite color. But every once in a while i find something pink i love - like this Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly paper - i love the whole pad of paper. It's so cute and happy. So it deserves to be on a cute and happy card. I saw a cute card by Debbie Olsen using some of the same paper so I thought I'd give it a try.

I used two different Cuttlebug embossing folders (Snowflakes and D'vine Swirl), a retired StampinUp! set called Frosty (for the snowman), a Nestability tag (ribbon tag trio) and a cute little sentiment from Purple Onion Designs Merriness set. I paper pieced the scarf and hat.

Now back to more card making!!!!

Have a fun day :-)

Christmas Card 4 & 5 and a wee kitty thank you

Have you been following Kristina Werner's Holiday Card series? Every week day for the past 3 weeks she has posted videos of Christmas cards she is making- very fun! I'm a big fan of her cards. I was looking at this one from Day 11 Although I'm not a fan of the paper she used I liked the design and thought it might work nicely for a card using some holiday patterned paper I had in my stash. As I mentioned I'm trying to Make Do... use what I have. I'm sure I'd originally planned to use all this paper for scrapbook pages but by the time that happens I'm also completely sure I'll see more lovely paper that will work just as well... right? There is always something new and pretty coming out!Okay so you've seen that card with the Christmas tree paper she made... here's my version with some Basic Grey Fruitcake Vintage ornaments paper. The purplish/pinkish ornament seems very un-Tracy huh? well if you look close you'll see that same color in the paper. You should know that that ornament shape was cut in every color of the rainbow (ok... every color that was in the paper) but no color seemed to work until I tried the purple/pink cardstock. Any traditional color like red or green just left the ornament lost (i think the blue would've worked but i had no color that really matched... which is of course very Tracy :-) it had to match or at least be in the neighborhood). Now onward to card#5 - this one uses some Basic Grey Wassail 6x6 paper (in my stash) as well as some K&Co Christmas Cheer Phrases & Tags Chipbox Chipboard (say that 3x fast). I've had these in my stash since last year - I'm sure I got them with a coupon and equally sure I thought I'd use them last year for cards but that didn't happen LOL The gold ribbon on both cards was adhered with Tombow Mono Multi glue - that works very nicely for really thin ribbon.

And now onto the wee kitty thank you. Last weekend we went up to New Jersey for my nephew's engagement party. Exhausting weekend but a lovely party. Everyone went except, of course, the kitties. (they're not travelers... at all) We had our little neighbor watch them - she's such a sweet 10 year old girl - she feeds, litters them but I also know she plays a good bit with them so I don't feel too guilty leaving them - they don't lack for attention with her around. So here's the little thank you card I made for her - starring Frankie and Spencer. (no I didn't pick out their names. They came with them!)
So that's all for me now. I've gotta figure out my Thanksgiving shopping list.

Christmas Card #3

i'm going to say right upfront, before i forget - inspiration for the card comes from this card by Debbie Olson (whose blog i just love to look at - she does some amazing and wonderful things with cardstock, paper, stamps and pens... whew!) Now you'll note that her card is from a year ago - but when i see something i like i make a mental note (maybe that's what's slowing my brain down?... all those mental post its! lol). The stamp is from a set from Cornish Heritage farms called Winter Vintage Signage. I finally bought it back in September - its got a bunch of cute stamps in the set and I'm determined to use them all. But the one that I decided to try here is the Hot Chocolate & Marshmallow one. I wasn't keen on the price or the pitcher in the stamp so I decided i'd do a little editing - ala Debbie Olson. I inked/stamped the Hot Chocolate portion then went back and did the same with the & Marshmallows part - leaving enough room for the replacement mug - a Quickutz die shape. I cut the oval with a nestabilities die then used my Tim Holtz antique linen and a little Tea Dye to get the look I wanted. The paper is Chatterbox and the eyelets are Making Memories. I'm pleased to say aside from the stamps everything else I had already - use it up and MAKE DO :-) I think it has a Christmas-y look - whaddyathink? That's all for today kids.

beautiful fall

The title of this post could mean I fell down (in a very gracious way -oh but of course....) and went boom... but no. I am truly referring to the beauty that is taking place outdoors.

Fall is my favorite season. Hands down. When I was out running some errands today - I was thinking how lucky I was to have off on this spectacular day. The temperature was in the low 70's (particularly welcome after a run of rainy days last week that felt like winter -temps in the 40's!) and the sun was shining. But what struck me were the fall colors. The trees are just gorgeous. The most amazing reds, golds, oranges.

Oddly enough my good friend June had a post on her blog this morning called Create something beautiful for fall (it's a challenge on another blog). And as I was driving along past some beautiful trees, I thought about the card she created and the sentiment on the card. When I got home I decided I wanted to try and use that sentiment and also try a technique recently shown on Splitcoaststampers called acrylic smash. I don't know about smash but i definitely used a transparency and painted on some acrylics! I found a leaf stamp in an old Stampin Up! set called Botanicals. I stamped that leaf in two rows of three (knowing I'd probably like to make 2 cards while I was at it) in StazOn Black. I painted the acrylic paint on the back of the transparency then glued it onto some kraft cardstock. I printed out that beautiful sentiment onto some cardstock and then aged it with some Tim Holtz antique linen. I added the cardstock button (cut from a sizzix die from StampinUp!) and tied it with some twine. Then I pulled out my sewing machine (which hasn't seen any action in forever - which is obvious - I could not get the tension right to save my life but I'm over that!) I decided to fool around with a little Bronze pearl ex here there and everywhere on the 2nd version you see here. It looks much better in real life, trust me.

Anyway I enjoyed making something a little different. Hope you all have a wonderful Friday - go out and enjoy the beautiful Fall!

Happy Anniversary....

hard to believe - 24 years. But then of course I look at the photo and i think ... uh yeah... that was a few years ago.

I know its been a while. The last few weeks have been extremely hectic. I've felt a little too crazed to be blogging. I did have some time here and there to make a few cards so i'll post them here now while i've got another few moments.

thought i'd start out with the anniversary card for my husband. I had some text paper (probably 7Gypsies but i really can't recall whose it is) that I aged with Distress Antique Linen ink. I cut the oval with my Nestabilities; all the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs (see a link on your right). Oh the white paper I stamped on for the "chapter 24" is from PapertreyInk and its just the most wonderful, thick white cardstock i've ever stamped on... you need it!

Here's the calendar page for August/September i had mentioned previously. I made myself a calendar for work - i needed the current month plus the next month (and i couldn't find anything I liked). I made pages through the end of the year and put them in a 5x7 acrylic frame. The empty portion on the right is taken up by a post-it note pad i affix to the acrylic frame (put on your imagination caps for me kids... imagine it). I used some Basic Grey paper i had hanging around and stamped the calendar months with stamps from Purple Onion Designs (i will make next years calendar when Michele at Purple Onion puts out the 2009 calendar stamps!)

Let's see what else - I made these two thank you's for my dear friends June and Mary who were so sweet to me on my birthday recently. They met me at a nearby place to eat - set up a little birthday celebration for me. June gave me these wonderful stamps - I love them June!

I love the stamps so much I used them again to make this birthday card for Barbara - well i should say the typewriter image is from the set June gave me. I also used a sentiment on the inside of the card. Here you see the image, to which i added the "hb"(for happy birthday) and a sentiment from a stamp set by Club Scrap (i believe). Some KI Memories text paper and i used my little punch from SU! to create the scallop and a corner rounder from Creative Memories as well as some thick black grosgrain ribbon - i think it was from Walmart.

Here's the card I made for my nephew for his most recent birthday. I used a Paisley Cuttleburg embossing folder in the blue background; Paisley stamps from Purple Onion Designs in the kraft colored background (stamped with Versamark); circles cut with Nestabilities and the cake is made from dies from Quickutz; and a few DCWV brads that were just the perfect color to match the blue cardstock (i love when that happens). The adorable sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas and given to me for my birthday from Mary.

I think i could post one more but I gotta run.

warm wishes on a warm january day

....here in the burg
Earlier this week I would have said it felt like an
ice-burg. It was so stinkin cold! Today a totally unseasononable day. Sunny and in the 60's I guess. I'm going to enjoy it as long as it lasts.
Anyway -
I wanted to make a card for a friend who is ill.
I saw a lovely card challenge via my friend Amy's blog. Amy is the Guest Designer for January at i{heart}2stamp and Amy made a lovely card (Amy only knows how to make lovely cards) and I thought I'd take a crack at that challenge. So here it is. I had pop-dotted the sentiment and finally gave up on scanning it as I couldn't get a straight scan - apparently I can't get a straight photo either!
I used some textured white cardstock I found at ACMoore, some snowflake vellum I had hanging around, my marvy punches, a hand held punch; SU! mat pack (yes June I finally played with it!) and sentiment stamp (from SU! All Year Cheer I set -retired) and silver cord; versamark and white ep.
I have a few thank you's I made last week I'll be posting tomorrow. Now I'm off to watch Amazing Race. It'll be a nice break from the CNN ballot bowl we've been watching most of the day- I enjoy the politics but it's enough for one day.

Tag, a new blog and postcard

Here's today's rather odd postcard - #51.
I am posting as I promised I'd post whatever I made to send to my son. This one --- well its sorta borders on strange and ugly. I mention this because Lauren talks about "permission to make something ugly" on her blog today - its definitely worth the read (and to look at her beauteous books). I've gotten much better about this in the past say 2 years - getting over my perfectionism and even sharing anything I make. Trust me when I say a few years back you never would have seen me posting this bit of strangeness anywhere. And I'm not totally sure I think its awful - but it gives me some thoughts on what i will do for more postcards this week. and that's a good thing (in my best Martha imitation)
I meant to work on postcards yesterday but shtuff got in the way - mostly running hither and yon. I had to run my daughter to a friend's house yesterday (study group - physics test in a few days dontcha know) and on my way home i stopped by AC Moore for 10 minutes of fun - i thought. You know I didnt see a thing I wanted? I guess I have it all LOL! which is my segue to this portion of our program for the day:
I've been tagged by June so here goes:
1. If you could have 100.00 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose? Paper (i hope cardstock counts... but paper over embellishments any day!)
2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons, which would you choose? Now that's easy - stamps!
3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year...which would you do? As much as I love making cards, I really would have to say layouts (cos after the year was over i'd be sooooo caught up LOL!)
4. Would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home...(can't have both he he he) I would never want to own a store (i've worked in one already) I'd pick my own room (which i have!)
5. What is your CURRENT cardmaking or scrapping style? Style Shmile. I'm just making stuff. However if anyone has an idea of what my style is... let me know - i have no stinkin clue.
New blog: Have you seen this one: Adventures in Diecutting The Official Quickutz Blog
ok.. i gotta get goin....

#39 and #40 and some thinking (award)

this house postcard is #40

i am surprised i've been able to keep it up this long
even though many have been less than stellar
i have enjoyed pulling out different supplies
and making them

my son was home last weekend and

he told me how much he appreciates them

(i got a back breaking hug to go along with the thank you)

even if he didn't like them so much i'd probably keep it up

it's been good to have a little project to keep me busy

the lunchbox postcard was yesterday's edition.

I have another award I need to pass along. This one is called the Thinking Blogger Award from Lisa R at The Tattered Tiara and Linda at In Pursuit of Paper. It's for blogs that make you think - I imagine they think i'm a little nuts (nah - they know i'm a little nuts... but i digress). What i know is they are both talented, lovely and thoughtful women that I'm happy to know. Thanks girls! Course now i need to nominate a few others whose blogs make me think (my nominations will give you a little insight into my head - and people that's a strange and crazy place)

So here are my 5 (in no particular order --- geee this is sorta startin to sound like "Dancing with the Stars") :

1. Will - Teensy and the boys - Will writes the most wonderful posts! Little gems of stories about his children and also childhood memories. Each one is filled with his wonderful brand of humor and i look forward to reading them.
2. Jean - Snap out of it Jean! There's beading to be done! - just read one post - you'll see why I make it a daily stop on my list of blogs. Jean's hilarious and tells the best stories always accompanied by pics
3. Lauren - All the good blog names were taken - could it be cos she's a Jersey Girl? Well that's just one of the reasons I enjoy reading Lauren's blog - she's funny, talented and she's always got something fun goin on!
4. Sue - Wandering Star - a creative girl who's always got something interesting goin on and posts the most fun photos - specially those wonderful "road signs" - makes me wanna wander too!
5. Monkee Maker - its a new read for me and i'm thinkin i love it. Makes me think about being silly, knitting and not taking life so seriously. This is wonderfully wacky and YES! there are monkeys! (and we all know how I love my monkeys!)

Okay. I started this post at 5:45 (and put it on hold), took the daughter to the bus stop, came home, napped got up showered and dressed, changed the battery in the smoke detector in the basement (its been chirping for days and driving us all a tad wack-a-d00) got breakfast for everyone (cats, mom, me), put a load of laundry, emptied the dishwasher, handed out all the medicine, finished this posting (just about) and now i'm off to finish making a little creation that needs to get in the mail. Have a wonderful Friday!

Draw your pet sleeping

i don't know how well you can see this - it was a quick pencil sketch from a few weeks ago. I was sitting on the couch and my mostly companion (that's Eloise, right Barbara?), Holly was right next to me - being semi-cooperative. She didn't move right away which is her normal modus operandi. Anyway, the most talented Joan, who has a wonderful blog named Drawing on Nature, suggested people post drawings of their own pets sleeping. So here's mine.

I will post another postcard tomorrow before it makes its way to the mailbox. Thanks for all the kind words everybody. And thanks to the adorable Lauren - who mentioned my little postcard project on her very fun blog all the good blog names have been taken