No Stamping Card

This card is for the November 24th CCEE supplies challenge. Charlene (LilLuvsStamping) supplied us with the beautiful red starburst translucent paper, three poinsettias and leaves, some snowflakes, and the gold cord and ribbon. We had to use some of the red paper, at least one poinsettia and either the gold cord or ribbon or both. The use of the snowflakes was optional. I layered all three poinsettias, added a cuttlebugged snowflake panel, and used a beautiful paper lace sticker from Mrs. Grossman.

Recipe: stamps- none; paper- red designer (source unknown), white; ink- none; accessories- Cuttlebug, silk poinsettias, gold ribbon, gold cord, lace (Mrs. Grossman's stickers).

Autumn Basket

I just wanted to post a pic of my fall basket, because I'll be replacing my title pic with a winter one. I love this basket. I got it at for half price at Michael's a couple years ago, and it has become my holiday basket I keep on my kitchen island. It holds pumpkins and gourds in the fall, pinecones and Christmas decorations in the winter, marble eggs in the spring, and miscellaneous themes in the summer. Time for the seasonal change!

The Hurrieder I Go....

...the behinder I get. I love that old Pennsylvania Dutch saying. I can remember visiting my great grandmother, Memmie, when I was little and hearing her converse on the phone in German Dutch and thinking it was the coolest thing. When the house was messy, we had to redd up, and when you left a room you needed to outen the lights.

As for being behind, I really am. In getting ready for Thanksgiving I got a lot accomplished, but not in blogging or stamping. It meant getting the house clean and ready for family coming home. Always a wonderful thing.

This card was for my CCEE challenge for November 17, for the featured SCS stamper name...Eggette. It had to have at least one egg, the color green somewhere, and some ribbon. The chicken and egg are paper pieced.

Recipe: stamps- Best Of Cluck (SU); paper- white, SU designer series; ink- black archival, always artichoke SU marker; accessories- black grosgrain ribbon (Offray).

Think Pink!

In honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, all the challenges for one week on SCS included the use of the color pink. This cause has become especially meaningful to me because of a precious family connection. So I combined the color challenge of pink and black, with the CCEE Monday challenge to use sketch #75 (changing the square to any other shape) and to use eyelets. I used a black eyelet for the hole in the tag.

Recipe: Stamps- Bella Toile and Too Terrific Tags (SU), butterfly (PSX); Paper- black, pink pirouette (SU); Ink- black archival; Accessories- black eyelet, black ribbon (Offray).

Cuttlebug Love

It sounds like a cute little stuffed animal, doesn't it? But for those of you who are not paper crafters, it's a wonderful little genious machine (boy, do I wish I had the patent on this one) that embosses. I love this thing!!!

I was playing...uhh, did I say playing...I meant "creatively experimenting" with a couple new embossing folders, running white cs through them, when I noticed the contrasting patterns laying around on my work table. I loved the white against white and decided to make an all white card.

Recipe: Stamps- Sincere Salutations (SU); Paper- white; Ink- white pigment; Accessories- Cuttlebug embossing folders (swiss dots and formal squares), spring flower bouquet punch (SU), 1 9/16" square punch (McGill), ribbon (Offray), white pearl brads, white ep.

Yet Another "Big Butt" Card

I'm really not obsessed with big butts, but it does seem like someone in my online group of stamping friends is. Lol! Cindy (Mothermark on SCS) was responsible for the theme of a new set of acrylic stamps from a company called "H&M Stamps". Heather, the owner/designer/illustrator of the company was so generous to give Cindy enough sets to send one to each of us CCEE'ers. The challenge for Monday, October 27th was to create a project using this set and to also use chipboard. The face of the cave on my card was made from a chipboard restaurant coaster, cut to shape, and sponged with grey and black pigment inks. (for those of you who have seen me tuck my drink coaster into my purse in a restaurant, this is what I use them for)

Recipe: Stamps- A Lil' Behind (H&M Stamps), Inspired By Nature (SU); Paper- black, white, grey, garden green (SU); Ink- garden green, archival black, black and grey pigment; Accessories- chipboard restaurant coaster, Prismacolor pencils, Turpenoid.

Flaky Friends

I love the sentiment to this stamp set. I hope there's just a little flakiness in all of us. It makes life so much more enjoyable. When my family gets together, there's always a lot of laughter.

The subject for this Monday's challenge among a small group of stamping friends was to make a suspension card with a winter or Christmas theme. I was able to include another challenge on SCS...using a plaid.

Recipe: stamps- Flaky Friends (SU); paper- real red, white, patterned paper (DCWV); ink- black archival, SU markers (real red, bashful blue, certainly celery, summer sun); accessories- ribbon (Offray), tiny blue button, chalks (sky), liquid applique, dental floss, circle punches (1 1/4, 1 3/8)

The Last Rose of Summer

(Isn't there a song by that title?) I adore fall...colorful leaves, pumpkins, gourds, mums, sunflowers, candy corn, cool crisp air....ahhhh....can't you hear the strains of "the falling leaves, float by my window" in the background?....!!! I've decided the perfect seasonal year would be 5 months of autumn, 1 month of snowy winter, 5 months of spring, and 1 month of swimming hot summer. My only regret is losing my tomatoes and flowers. This is probably my last bouquet of roses for the year. There's sure to be a frost soon. And eventually...hopefully...snow. Woo-hoo!! But that's another post.

Birds and Stars and Buttons and Brads, Oh My!

Yes, those are all the things I had to put on this card. This Monday's featured stamper name was jstarbright, and this was a combination of things she likes and things relating to her name. The owl image was stamped in silver pigment ink on black paper and embossed with stardust transparent ep. I drew the tiny stars with silver gel pen and put a teeny dot of crystal Stickles in the center of each. The stripe in the black paper is silver, as is the background edging. For the buttons I put the prongs of silver brads through the buttonholes, then coated the top of each brad with the Stickles. So the card has sparkle and shine that the photo fails to show.

Recipe: Stamps- Inkadinkado (Winter Birds), MFT (Essential Sentiments); Paper- Basic Grey (Ambrosia), DCWV (striped, mellalic silver), black; Ink- silver pigment; Accessories- silver ep, stardust transparent ep, silver brads, black buttons, silver gel pen.

Do-It-Yourself Designer Paper

The challenge issued for Monday, October 6 was to create your own patterned paper and use a fall theme. The floral paper was created using the flower from SU's Carte Postale, colored with rust and artichoke markers. The stripe was done with those two colors, plus mellow moss. I just did it freehand using a straightedge, no measuring. I finisheded each stripe grouping with a fine line of chocolate chip. All three panels were topped off with linen stamped in river rock. It's nice to know if you need patterned paper and do not have the right colors, you can just make your own.

Recipe: stamps- Carte Postale, Linen, and Simple Sayings II (all SU); Paper- always artichoke, chocolate chip, off-white; Ink- chocolate chip, river rock; Accessories- Cuttlebug, SU markers, brads, Prima flowers.

A Generous Friend

The stamps used on this card and a previous one with the leaf charms are from a delightful new set designed by a friend and fellow CCEE member, Carolyn King (aka 'Cammie' on SCS). The set is called "Whimsical Autumn" and is manufactured and distributed by Gina K. Designs. Cammie recently lost her grandmother to the devastating Alzheimer's disease and is donating 100% of her proceeds from the sale of this set to the Alzheimer's Association in her memory. I think that is just awesome. This is a wonderful way to add to your stamp collection and do some good at the same time.

The pumpkin is paper pieced.

Recipe: Paper- always artichoke (Stampin'Up), off-white, dp; Stamps- Whimsical Autumn by Carolyn King (Gina K. Designs); Ink- black archival, always artichoke SU marker; Accessories- Cuttlebug (distressed stripes), ribbon (Offray), brads.

Basic Grey

As I first began exploring SCS (SplitcoastStampers), I kept seeing cards made with the most gorgeous and unique designer paper. And I kept seeing the words 'Basic Grey'. I finally figured out that BG was not a color, but the name of the company that manufactured this wonderful paper. It was the beginning of a love affair for me. This card uses one of their Christmas collections called "Dasher", and uses another sketch challenge layout from SCS. I love this sketch and it's a great way to use up scraps. The flower in the center is cut out from some of the dp. I wanted to use just the word 'peace', but didn't have a stamp I liked. So I inked up just that part of the word from "Peaceful Wishes". Also, the berry sprig is from that same set and I added a little red Stickles to the berries.

Recipe: Paper- Basic Grey dp (Dasher collection), blue bayou (Stampin'UP), white; Stamps- Peaceful Wishes (SU); Ink- black archival, real red and old olive SU markers; Accessories- red Stickles, red brads.

A "Charm"ing Card

Once a month, one of the CCEE challenges involves making a card around a unique or unusual user name on SCS. This month's is Charmwarm, so we were instructed to use a charm on our project. The catch....it couldn't be store-bought, we had to make it ourselves. I used two small leaves I had that had been punched out of green cardstock. I coated them with pigment ink and embossed them with clear ultra-thick embossing powder. The layout design used for my card was sketch challenge 191 on SCS.

Recipe: Paper- ivory, green (leaves), dp; Stamps- Whimsical Autumn by Carolyn King (Gina K. Designs); Ink- gold and forest green pigment (Color Box); always artichoke, really rust and chocolate chip SU markers; Accessories- clear ultra thick ep, charm pin, SU scallop edge punch, leaf punch (source unknown), gold ribbon (Offray).

Catching Up

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. It's been such a busy month, plus I had a little minor surgery on the 4th. It was same day surgery, went well, but I didn't bounce back quite as quickly as I anticipated. That darned ole age thing again! I didn't even feel much like stamping, so you know I wasn't quite myself, lol.
I did, however, do some catching up on the challenges I missed. This card was for a CCEE supply challenge. Tosh sent us this beautiful double-sided designer paper and a sheet of pale pink pearl accents. I cut a panel of Cuttlebug embossed dotted swiss the width of the wide sheer ribbon. The butterfly is white embossed on vellum.

Recipe: Paper- off white, vellum, designer paper (My Mind's Eye); Stamps- Wonderful Words (Stampin'Up), Butterfly Garden (Storage Units, Inks & More); Ink- white pigment; Accessories- Cuttlebug, sheer ribbon (Offray), pearls (Kaiser Scrapbook), white ep.

Tag Challenge

I was to make a tag for this Monday's CCEE challenge. I used Basic Grey designer paper (my absolute favorite paper company). For another challenge on SCS we were to dig out some stamps that we hadn't used for a long time, so I chose Watercolor Garden, an old favorite.

Recipe: stamps- Watercolor Garden (flower), Vintage Postcard (to-from), Paint Prints (leaf), all Stampin'Up; paper- Basic Grey dp, black, white; ink- ruby red, black, old olive; accessories- ribbons (Offray), buckle slide (source unknown).

Big Butt Bertie

Interesting title, isn't it! Some kookie friends on SCS were responsible for bestowing it on a lovely, definitely not big butted friend named Charlene (LilLuvsStampin on SCS). She loves M&M's and was warned she might get a big butt if she ate too many, lol. Anyway, Charlene just had hand surgery and it was suggested by one of the goofiest of my fellow CCEE'ers that a big butt or M&M themed get well card would be fun to send. You know, I just don't have any big butt or M&M stamps. I thought I might be able to draw a figure from behind (much easier because...no face!) So here's my result. The sentiment was computer generated, so no stamping was involved in this card.

recipe: stamps- none; ink- none; paper- chocolate chip (SU), white, designer paper; accessories- rhinestones, SU markers, Creative Memories cutting system.

Thanks a Latte!

Another challenge card. This time for an SCS'er whose screen name is Stamps'nCoffee. Thus the coffee themed card. The background is cuttlebugged, then tapped with white pigment ink, then dusted with Perfect Pearls which gives it a very pretty and subtle shimmer. The mug image was stamped in chocolate chip ink on the white panel. I stamped it again on a scrap of sage shadow, cutting out just the mug, and glued it on top of the first stamped cup.

recipe: stamps- sentiment (What's Brewin' by Stampin'Up), cup (Inkadinkado); ink- chocolate chip (SU), frost white (Color Box pigment); paper- chocolate chip and sage shadow (SU), white; accessories- brown brads, brown gingham ribbon (Offray), Cuttlebug, Perfect Pearls.

Busy Times

August has been a busy month...vacation, garden stuff, baseball games, births!

Our vacation was a week of camping. After camping every year since we've been married, we missed several years. So it was especially nice to go again. The weather was wonderful, not too hot and only one hour-long rain shower before we got up one morning. I read four books and played sudoku to my heart's content. My three grandkids had a great time.

Last Year's Christmas Card

Since the last card I posted got me thinking about this year's Christmas card, I thought I would post last year's. It probably wasn't the smartest one to choose, because it was very involved. But I loved doing this one.

Clearly Recycling

This card was made for my weekly challenge with my CCEE friends and we were to use acetate. I didn't have any acetate sheets so I used a piece cut from a product's packaging. Thus the recycling. When you stamp on glass or plastic you need to use an ink made especially for smooth surfaces, called StazOn. This bird stamp is from a new set I just purchased, that I just love. I'm leaning towards something along this line for my Christmas cards this year. So dear family and friends, you may be getting a sneak peak. I stamped two of the birds, cut one out and layered it on top of the other with pop dots. The snowflakes are painted with frosted lace Stickles. You can see it better in the photo if you click on the photo for a close-up.

Recipe: stamps- Peaceful Wishes (Stampin'Up), Winter Birds (Inkadinkado), swirl (Inkadinkado); paper-black, white; ink-black StazOn, black archival; accessories- frosted lace Stickles, sheer ribbon (Offray), acetate, pop dots.

Ribbon Challenge

For this supplies challenge, I sent each of the other members of CCEE (a group of 8 friends from all over the world who do a stamping challenge each Monday) a baggie of printed ribbons from which to choose. We were to design a card around one of those ribbons. If you ever want to see 8 different styles and personalities doing the same challenge, click on the CCEE link on the left side of my blog. I think it's so interesting to see the variety. This is mine. In real life, the cardstock is more of a pink lavender and matches the ribbon exactly. I used the circle and oval cutting system from Creative Memories for the oval. The two stray flowers were cut from the ribbon and glued onto the cardstock.

Recipe: paper- lavender (Bazzil), bright green; ink- black archival; stamps- Rubber Stampede; accessories- Cuttlebug, ribbon (Offray), pop dots.

Now That's What I Call A Moth!

I admit it. I was a hard sell on digital cameras. I was so happy with my Canon T-50 35mm camera we bought way back in 1983. It took great pictures, was easy to use. Never mind the fact that sometimes it took me ages to get the film developed. But now that I have my digital, I am constantly taking pictures. I love taking pictures of nature and being able to look really close up at things. This huge moth was on my patio today. He very obligingly walked onto the ruler so I could measure him. I looked him up on the internet. He's an Imperial Moth (Eacles imperalis). You may want to know that some day. Make sure you click on the picture to see the close-up. He's furry!

My Favorite Thing

I found, through a friend, a delightful blog called "My Romantic Home". If you love the romantic, shabby chic look, you'll love this site. Cindy is wonderfully creative and inventive and has a fabulous eye for design. Her home is so beautiful. She also has great tips on refinishing furniture. Anyway, she is having an "our favorite things' weekend, where you can share one of your favorite belongings. You can find her blog at http://www.romantichome.blogspot.com/

I had to think a little, but definitely one of my favorite things in my home is this chair. I bought it at a yard sale for $25. It was covered with a very 1970's orange and green upholstery fabric. I can't believe I didn't take a before picture. This was my first attempt at reupholstering and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Even the fabric was a bargain...purchased for just a few dollars at a remnant sale. A few weeks after finishing, I found this pillow that matches perfectly at a gift shop while on a trip.

Cake Inspired

One of the challenges on SCS this week is inspired by a stunning cake. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll include a photo of it. This card is my interpretation of the inspiration. Am I allowed to say that I love this card without sounding too egotistical? lol!

Recipe: paper- black, apple green dp; ink- white pigment; stamps- Brocade Basics, Wonderful Words (SU); accessories- satin ribbon (Offray), green crystal brad, white ep, pop dots.

Same Card, Different Colors

Last Wednesday I posted a card using Basic Grey designer paper. This is just the same design using a different color scheme. Most of the time, when I ink up a stamp I stamp it several times. This gives me a supply of stamped images I can draw from when I need a card. I also love to do a card I like in different color schemes.

Recipe: ink- black archival; stamps- French Script, Essence of Love (SU); paper- Not Quite Navy, Blue Bayou, black, Basic Grey dp; accessories- ribbon (Offray).

A Week of Challenges

Splitcoaststampers is sponsoring a week of challenges hosted by the Dirty Dozen design team. I've been trying to do a few. What I love about doing challenges is that it stretches you out of your comfort zone...making you try techniques and styles that are not your usual fare.
This first card is the result of the challenge to keep a lot of white, the design simple, and layers to a minimum. I combined it with a challenge to design a card around ribbon. I've been wanting to use this ribbon since I got it. The size and boldness of the pattern is such a statement on it's own, it was perfect for a simple card.

Recipe: paper- white; ink- black archival; stamps- Essential Sentiments (MFT); accessories- ribbon (Offray), crimper.




Watercoloring was the technique of choice for another challenge. I don't watercolor very often, so it was good practice for me. I used a blender pen and a water pen, pressing on the closed lid of the stamp pad to use the ink gathered on the lid as my palette.

Recipe: ink- black archival, various colors dye inks; paper- pale grey, white, lavender Bazzil; stamps- Inkadinkado; accessories- Cuttlebug, ribbon (Offray).

Music and Tea

Another Monday stamping challenge. This time we were to make a card with a music theme and to use tea staining. The photo on my card came from the back of a calendar featuring paintings of angels. The sentiment is one I stamped ages ago, borrowing a stamp from a friend...so I've long since forgotten the company that produced it. All panels are distressed with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I used both Tea Dye and Antique Linen. Although difficult to see, the kraft panel is lightly stamped with the Irish Blessing in mellow moss.

recipe: stamps- Irish Blessing background (SU), sentiment (source unknown); paper- rust and green Bazzil, vanilla, kraft; ink- mellow moss, close to cocoa, Tim Holtz Distress Ink (tea dye and antique linen); accessories- cuttlebug, copper brads, pop dots.

Weekend At Jan's

Can you imagine having 21 overnight guests? My brave sister, Jan, just hostessed a lovely weekend of houseguests at her home in rural New Jersey. I love the house and property. We just want to pick it up and move it closer to "home" here in Maryland, to have her closer. She had a baby shower for her soon-to-be-here grandson and his parents, Jeff and Sarah.

In addition to wonderful food, a beautiful setting and great fellowship, she also provided us with a great evening of entertainment. There are several perks with living next to a winery. One is scheduling your party to coincide with their wine festival. Nothing like sitting in your own back yard and being treated to an awesome display of fireworks! Very cool!!

We were also visited each morning by the neighboring guineas.

Faux Silk

After almost a hundred photos in every conceivable lighting, angle and position, I finally gave up and settled for this one. This card was done for my weekly CCEE challenge. This one was to use the faux silk technique. You do this by stamping tissue paper, balling it up, smoothing it out and glueing it to a piece of cardstock. It gives great texture to your artwork. The red panel has gold oriental writing stamped on it, plus I got a little gold ink on my finger and lightly rubbed it on the raised edges to highlight the texture. It's very subtle and looks great in real life. However, I had a terrible time trying to capture the effect in a photo. All three panels are done in the faux silk.

recipe: paper- white, real red, black; ink- black archival, real red, gold pigment (Ranger); stamps- Bamboo II (SU), scene and writing (PSX); accessories- tissue paper, square gold brads

Oh, Those Designer Papers!

Two of my worst temptations when it comes to spending money...plants, and, yes, I admit it...paper! I love designer paper. And when it comes to designer paper, there is (in my humble opinion) no equal to Basic Grey. It took me a while to realize that BG was a paper company, not a color. Ala Will Rogers, I never met a Basic Grey paper I didn't like. I'm going to cry when I run out of this collection. It has been discontinued, but I continue to love it. The plain distressed papers, in particular, are so versatile and lend themselves so beautifully to the silhouette types of stamps. They make my job so easy.

Recipe: stamps- Essence of Love (Stampin'Up); paper- black, Basic Grey dp; ink- black archival; accessories- black sheer ribbon (Offray)

Solved Mysteries

I found it! I found it!

A couple posts back I posted a mystery flower I had in my garden that I couldn't find in any of my gardening books. After google-ing "white flowering perennials", I came upon a website that had twenty pages of them (50 to a page). I figured if I couldn't find it among 1000 varieties of white flowers, I was in trouble. And there it was....Gooseneck Loosestrife (Lysimachia Clethroides). And if you look at the flowers, they do look like little goose heads. How cool! I love answered questions.

Stella Ruby

I just love that name. What visual picture does that conjure up for you? I see a slender, middleaged woman in the 1940's who would never leave the house without every hair in place, a hat, gloves and earrings...with lips a little too red and cheeks a little too pink, and a heart of gold. But, I digress. Actually, it's the name of the line of Basic Grey designer paper used on this card. The papers are glorious, deep rich colors. This card is a culmination of three challenges on SCS...sketch, color, and a challenge to use scoring. It's difficult to see in the photo, but the pomegranate cardstock is scored in a diamond pattern, and the green panel is dry embossed. I love the textures this adds. The white sentiment panel has a soft leaf pattern created by first off-stamping with the celery ink. The leaf is celery stamped on celery, with the veining thinly outlined with Stickles.

Recipe: stamps-sentiment (Inkadinkado), leaf (Autumn by SU); paper- Basic Grey 'Stella Ruby', white, SU purely pomegranate, certainly celery, wild wasabi; ink-black archival, certainly celery; accessories- diamond Stickles, green crystal brads, Fiskars wavy texture plate, dimensional tape.

Unsolved Mysteries

Many years ago I was checking out the end-of-season 50% off plant sale at a local store. Amongst the sad looking half dead plants that were left, I found a very healthy looking perennial. Only one problem...no identification tag. Oh well, it was cheap and I thought it would be fun to see what it turned out to be. As of now I still have no idea what it is, lol! For years I've looked for it in plant books to no avail, and I have begun the internet search. But you know how that can be. Even typing in "white flowering perennial" you get "1 through 5" of 1,728,247 sources. So I still have a few sites to check out, ha ha. However, I thought perhaps there might be someone out in net world who knows what this is. Each flower is a single stalk, and it spreads like crazy. I like the plant, but you absolutely need to plant it where you can control it's growth. It sends runners out underground and can easily take over a bed.

I shall continue to investigate.

Simple Gifts

The very sweet and thoughtful mother of two of my piano students handed me this gorgeous bouquet of hydrangeas after lessons yesterday. I haven't stopped delighting in them. They have been moved around to wherever I'm going to be so I can enjoy them while they're here. I'm easy, aren't I? I don't need diamonds and rubies...just give me flowers. :)

Coffee and Friends

Another Monday, another CCEE challenge. The instructions for this one was to make a card using mostly brown and black. When I ink up a stamp I almost always stamp a few extra images, so I had enough parts to make up a second card.

recipe: stamps- SU (Floral, French Script), Inkadinkado (sentiment), Raindrops On Roses (cup and saucer); paper- chocolate brown (Bazzil), medium brown, cream, natural, black; ink- black archival; accessories- black brads, ribbon (Offray), pop dots, Cuttlebug embossing folder; techniques- paper piercing.

Garden Update

I haven't been taking weekly photos as I did at first. The changes are not as great now. But I did do some alterations to this bed this week. I had to say farewell to my bleeding heart for the year. The foliage was getting really yellow and unattractive, so I cut it out. The other plants around it are full enough to hide the cut stems. Also, I removed the lemon balm. It was too big, and I needed the space for a boxwood I got on sale. Anyway, I'll have lemon balm plants popping up everywhere that I can harvest and replant somewhere else. Also, the spiderwort is pretty much finished. I'm going to cut it back and see if I can get aother blooming from it. I'm still not totally satisfied with this bed and will probably make a few changes next year. But that's the fun of gardening, isn't it?

Wild Wasabi Happiness

Isn't that a cool name for a color? Wild wasabi! This card is for this week's color challenge on Splitcoast...wild wasabi, taken with teal, and white. This huge stamp is difficult to stamp with dye inks. I'm just never quite satisfied. So I use pigment inks. They're thicker and coat better. This time I went on to emboss it with white. I have a flower punch the exact same size as the top row of flowers, so I added them with white pearlized brads. The centers of the flowers in the middle row are colored with a gel pen and a dot of crystal Stickles was added. For the bottom row of flowers, i just colored in the petals with the teal SU marker.

recipe: stamps (Happiness by Stampin'Up), paper (wild wasabi, taken with teal, white), ink (white pigment), accessories (brads from All Sorts of Things, gel pen, flower punch from EK Success, teal SU marker, Offray ribbon)

Paisley Friendship

Sometimes I really have to think out a card. But it sure is cool when things fall together easily. I have a box of parts in my craft room...stamped images, parts of unfinished cards, backgrounds. This card with the paisley background that i've had for ages and couldn't find anything i liked to put on top, accidentally got thrown on a pile on my table with this stamped silhouette image. I like them together.

recipe: paper (chocolate brown, SU certainly celery, Basic Grey dp), ink (black archival, SU chocolate chip), stamps (Paisley and Thankful Thoughts-SU), accessories (Offray ribbon, metal leaf charm)

Friends Furever

One of the Monday challenges my small stamping group (CCEE) does each month is a supply challenge. One member of the group (this month, Cindy Haffner) sends the same supplies to each of us with instructions. Cindy arranged with Kim of MFT to send us an adorable stamp set called "Friends Furever". The only other instruction was to use two different designer papers. The greatest fun of the supply challenge is seeing the totally different work each of the eight of us come up with using the same materials. If you would like to see everyone else's, check out the CCEE blog listed on the left side of my blog.

This card uses designer paper from Cosmo Cricket. The child's shirt is paper pieced. The bone was cut out, sponged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (antique linen), cut in half and positioned as hinges. I colored the image with a combination of Stampin'Up markers and Prismacolor pencils/Turpenoid.

remaining recipe: paper (SU chocolate chip, very vanilla), brads, pop dots

Meme Mose

I love the nostalgic quality of flowers. Just as a song can evoke a memory or a time, I associate certain flowers with people in my life. Sweet peas and weeping willows remind me of Meme Mose. We lived next door to my maternal grandmother so, needless to say, we spent a lot of time around her house. There was a porch type of swing underneath a willow tree, and whenever she would swing with us she sang "how would you like to go up in a swing...." in her warbley voice. To this day, I can't swing without that tune going through my head. I've sung it many times to my kids, and now to my grandkids as we enjoy our porch swing. And of course, it isn't quite right unless you sing it in a warbley voice.

I had to grow sweet peas. First of all, I love them. But just as important...they're a Meme Mose flower. In her back yard was the washhouse (which was a little building they stored all sorts of things in, and I was always dying to rummage through but seldom got to), and by the washhouse was an old fashioned metal gate that led to the road. Sweet peas grew all over the fence beside the gate. I loved getting bouquets because sweet peas are the perfect bouquet flower. The stems are stiff and the perfect length to gather into a little nosegay. And they're purple. What more could you ask for?

Little Delights

I was weeding this morning, and found this little fellow on my liatris. After chasing him away twice, I finally captured this shot. It's not as sharp as I'd like, but I had to use zoom, got only one chance and was in an awkward position.

This is my first year for the liatris. I've loved it in flower arrangements and wanted to try growing it. I'm anxious to see how much it increases each year.

Time To Improvise

This Monday's CCEE challenge is to make a card for a fellow SCS'er whose user name is fun or unusual. The name is orangegymnut (i'd sure like to know the explanation behind that name), and the card must use orange and have something to do with a gym. Well, I have no stamps having to do with a gym...so I improvised. The Dolly Mama stamp I used has her carrying a case that reads "Is it hot in here?" (is that appropriate for me, or what? ha, ha, ha). Anyway, I cut out the stamped image, cutting it off at the waist, and cutting the case away from her hand. Next, I drew shorts and changed her shoes to tennis shoes. The barbell was drawn separately, cut out, and added to the image. The sentiment is computer generated.

Creating An Heirloom

My daughter Erin was somewhere between 1-2 years old when Gary and I bought this used buffet at the Goodwill store. It went through a good many years of use by us, then by my brother and sis-in-law, and then storage in our barn. It was veneered and was badly chipped and peeling. Erin rescued it from the barn, removed all the veneer, stripped the old varnish, sanded and sweated her way through refinishing it and it is now a beautiful refurbished heirloom...recycling at it's best!! I'm trying to get it back from her now...but no doing! LOL!