Mojo Sketch Challenge 106

Good morning! This lil card was made using this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge (Found on my sidebar.) I don't use Kraft enough so wanted to try it with a new stamp that a friend gave me, this cool make your own gingham cling stamp that I used for the background. It is more subtle on the kraft paper, but it melds so well with all colors! I paired this with bravo burgundy paper and inks, and this cute scalloped border gingham ribbon...and added a couple of pretty red buttons for accent. Rectangle nestabilities were used for the teapot and the mat for the sentiment.

The teapot lid was stamped twice, and cut out and mounted for added dimension. The entire teapot was covered with the crystal effects for some added color depth.

Question: do any of you have a kraft knife that you love? I have the hardest time using them and getting smooth cuts. This last one is a fingertip control by fiskars, I believe, and the blade doesn't seem very secure. If you have a tip for using them, I'd be so appreciative!

Thanks for looking, and hope you're having a great day!

Serendipity and Socks!!

This is what is going on in my life today...I am getting ready for a big batch of ladies for the first time and driving myself a little bonkers, trying to fit in chairs, clean, decorate, and bake...but it is all going really well. I just needed a silly break.

So the previous card posted was using this same stamped image from SU's set, Country Blessing. When I punched it out with my nestabilities , I threw the scrap piece of cardstock into my pile. Yesterday I go to grab a scrap paper and what did I see? Not one punch, but two, perfectly spaced, perfectly aligned...honestly better than I could do if I had tried. How this happened, I don't know. But I wanted to try to utilize this "scrap" for a new card creation. This Country blessing set and sentiment fit perfectly! So this card is serendipitous.

I looked the word up in my dictionary:

serendipity: The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

Or maybe a "happy mistake."(my definition.) Don't we all make those in stamping??

The other picture is a follow-up action step I took after reading one of my friend's comments on my last Tilda's entry. My lament had to do with the serious business of socks. I love socks...I like them much more than shoes, because I am limited in the style of shoe I can wear due to arthritis in my feet. But I can go fashionable in my choice of socks. However, I commented that Tilda had matching socks and I did not! That is true...so my friend, Dawn, mentioned I needed a sock makeover!! Now why didn't I think of that?

Meet the Brown family! This is my tribute of socks to browns. I got them yesterday during s sock shopping spree after pulling out my sock drawer and tossing a few mismatched and giving a few I don't wear to Goodwill. I have room now for the Brown family and am truly excited beyond anyone's rightful mind should be!! These browns are so rich in hue, so don't be fooled by their solid color. I plan on adding slowly to my sock deficit when I see a color that inspires me. Hopefully soon I won't be outdone by Tilda's socks!!

And while organizing my sock drawer, I found an old hand written letter from my dear younger brother. It was his birthday this week and I was trying to think of what to say in my annual birthday letter. Once I read his, I knew just how to respond. Now that was serendipity. Don't you think???

Foliage in Metallics

This is one of those cards that took a couple of days to put together. Saturday I had purchased some metallic pearl ex powders with the hopes of bringing some of the Fall foliage colors to life. This set is from SU's Country Blessings and is one of my favorites. I embossed the image with copper embossing powder, practiced a few techniques over an hour and this is the finished product. The sketch is taken from today's Mojo Monday 105 sketch to use circle punches for the bottom 2 borders of your card. These were different designer papers punches and then sprayed with the pearl ex powders for a little glimmer. Satin ribbon was tied around the base of the first row to hide the tops of the circles. Copper SU paper was embossed with the" finial press"and tiny gold rhinestones added for accent. I love this look in person, even though it is difficult to capture on photograph all the subtle shimmer. You can always click on the card for a larger image.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!!

Magnolia Moments

This is my submission for Magnolia's weekly challenge on the Just Magnolia blog (a link is on my sidebar.) This week's was to use embossing on your card...and my designer paper was embossed using a new SU folder I ordered. I love the subtle look with this one. The not so subtle colors are my nod to purple, actually rich razzleberry is the name! I love this color, and it matched up well with this already colored Magnolia.
I won the sentiment stamp at my demo and friend, Carn's, last month!! How fun is that?? Nobody else even put their name in the bucket, so I had pretty good odds of winning. I like to bake and figured I'd use this stamp set, and I have! I am wanting to make an apple pie or apple crisp soon.
Tilda is holding out her prize winning apple pie!! Her secret ingredient...you'll have to wait to find out! One thing I love about coloring my Tilda's is she always has matching socks! In real life, that is my aim, but too often my socks not only do not match my outfit, they don't match each other!
Have a super day!

Rupert Romps

So it's another Tuesday and to get the whole story, you need to visit Mothermark's blog (on my sidebar), This is my Story! Rupert is wanting to romp in all the Fall leaves and is hoping Barney Bear will drop the basket and join him!

It's all about teapot fun!

Oh, and this is also a sketch challenge on the Crazy4Challenges blog.

Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you some fun leaves to romp in or stomp on today!

My Favorite Things

Today is Featured Stamper at SCS...and the featured stamper is Shannon Steubner. Congratulations Shannon on being chosen...wonderful gallery and a style I love!!

So the assignment of the day is to take a card and CASE it...and this is my take on one of Shannon's cards.

As much as I like this set, "Like it a Latte" I felt I had exhausted it's use...until I saw this layout. This card is 51/4 inches square, which helped to accomodate all the elements.

The coffee cup and steam were stamped in Tim Holtz Walnut distress ink...then heat embossed. This added some texture and made the image dark enough to show up with my patterned paper.

I have a coffee date tomorrow, it is one of my favorite things. Just the smell when entering a good coffee shop is intoxicating to me~~

Thanks for stopping by, I always enjoy your comments.

Just sharing a treat with you!!

Today's inspiration challenge on SCS is from a children's clothing site~~ Talk about cute!!

I found my inspiration at the bottom of the screen with this adorable little outfit that featured a pumpkin! Since I had already colored my hedgie and pumpkin, all that was left was assemble it, and the colors and designer paper came after seeing the inspiration! I guess that's why they call it inspiration challenge! Hee~

Also, sharon on Notimetostamp's Friday's blog challenge was to make a Halloween card. I don't make cards to celebrate Halloween, but I love the idea of Fall cards, and this image fit the bill on both counts. Not too scary, I don't think.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Flourishes Feel of Fall Challenge

Fall is definitely in the air!! We just drove through the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado over the Labor Day weekend and surprisingly the tips of the aspens are beginning their seasonal golden glow!

In celebration of Fall and the new September releases, Flourishes has a "Feel of Fall" sketch challenge ending Friday at 4:00 p.m.

You can view the challenge here on the Flourishes Blog:

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This card was made using one of my favorite Flourishes sets, "Thinking of You." The main panel was stamped in versamark and embossed with bravo burgundy SU embossing powder. The designer paper was punched with the arch lattice punch from Martha Stewart and both main panels made with the rectangle nestabilities. The bow was made with some wonderful silk ribbon from Sharon's (notimetostamp) online store. You can find her blog in the sidebar.

My favorite thing to do with pearls is color them with copics. I did not have the color I was looking for, so I swished a copic in "burnt umber" on and it is definitely pearlized in pretty tones of amber and umber!

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you many beautiful days to enjoy this season!!

Magnolia Mini Accordian File

Good morning! I wanted to share a project with you today that I found while cruising Becca's Blog at Amazing Paper Grace. (view sidebar for link) This is a Mini-Accordian File!! I am excited about this project partly because I love the idea for sending a little gift...think of the possibilities here: little tea bags or apple cider packets, tiny prima embellishments, or even as a way to send images to a friend and make them a gift!! Secondly, this project's tutorial by Valerie Strangle seen here: Valerie's Blog that I just couldn't mess up! The only thing I changed about this project was I used my Martha Stewart lacy flower punch on the top of each envelope before assembling. That's right, this project uses business sized envelopes cut in half so a portion of the cutting/measuring is already done for you! That brought the height of the pocket down a little bit, but it added a lot in design interest!

This is a challenge from Magnolia-licious to make one of these projects by September 29, and upload it to their blog. There are a lot of very cute inspiring projects found on the

Magnolia Hi-Lights blog also: The prize for the drawing was a 25.00 gift certificate for Magnolia stamps!!

My Tilda was watercolored using reinkers and Tim Holtz distress ink. The papers were a mix of different companies that I just loved together. The bright gold primas and top of the file were embellished with chocolate pearls...yumm!!

Thanks for looking, and hope this project inspires you to stretch yourself and try something new!!

I'll have a Tilda with Everything on It!!

It's one minute from morning, so good morning! I have been missing my favorite little girl lately, so wanted to make this card for this week's SCS sketch challenge and the Magnolia challenge for this week. The Magnolia challenge was to use ribbon, and I did, with this sheer organza in a double bow made so much easier with the bow-easy!!

I feel like I must be hungry lately, because this Tilda is a real smorgasbord of garnishings (not embellishments, we're talking food language)...we have ribbon, an oh so delicate crocheted flower from a dear friend, coupled with two primas, then two pearls and a generous topping of stickles!!

Tilda is thinking of you, wishing you a beautiful last days of summer!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I always love to read your comments!

Summer or Fall??

Just returned a few days ago from a trip over the mountains to visit my parents and a good friend...and it is so good to be home back in my own bed again! One night I spent on a fold out couch and though it felt fine at the time, I don't think my old back liked it too much, so have been having to nurse it along before I could sit still long enough to stamp~~

This is a set I won (miracles do happen!!) from my wonderful friend, Dawn B (flowergal36) blog candy!! I was so excited, and wanted to get this inky just as soon as I could!

This set is from Clear Dollar Stamps and is called Jar-Gone...it is filled with all sorts of fun things to put in a jar.

I attempted two looks with this set, one for Fall and one more summer. The fall one is colored with copics and a bit of glitter, crystal effects, and those shiny lil rocks along with a big bow. The summer is colored with copics in more yellows, and I made a frame inset for this one, used blue gemstones for embellishing, and the scor pal for score lines. The two looks shows the versatility of these flowers!!

Just a note, for some reason my cards never come out as close up as I would like, so please click on the image for a better view. (and ignore the mistakes!!)

Anyways, it is late and I need to scoot...but wanted to let you know I am back and thanks so much for looking!

I love this set...thanks so much Dawn!

Edit: For those of you who want to know: my Mom is down in weight again, dangerously low. She is in good spirits though, but mostly sleeps. She and I had some good visiting time while I was there, and I was so thankful for that. My Dad is slow in recovery from his knee surgery. The question remains whether Mom will need to go back to the nursing home so Dad can continue rehab...right now she is putting her foot down and saying "No!! She doesn't want to go!"

I so appreciate everyone's prayers and support for all of us as we continue to go through this long haul!! I know the prayers help so very much!!