November Power and Spark Challenge~Portion Control!

Hi again! My, but this isn't the most timeliest of challenges with our typical American Thanksgiving Day just around the corner with a lot of feasting and celebration going on! I am actually going to attempt to bake two desserts ahead of time and freeze them! That's because I don't like standing for hours on my hard kitchen floor and this way I can make as much ahead of time. But I also am wanting to try making small bars rather than pies...because if your family is anything like ours, no one can have just one dessert. The polite thing to do, I guess, is try one of everything. Aha! So this year, I'm going to be ready for the buffet line and make small bars to go on plates rather than your standard pie size. Think it'll work? Well, I'll let you know!
Sorry to get off on a tangent...what has me thinking "portion control" is this week's Power Poppy challenge by the Bloom Brigade, Cindy Lawrence, to practice "portion control" in your card making. I took out my very favorite Christmas stamp, "Heaven and Nature Sing," and just started playing around with it.  What I ended up with is the rose image stamped and white embossed in all four corners...and then I did the same with the holly image in this set on the tag. I don't recall that I've used this Spellbinders Die before...but the card turned out very pretty and very large. And it actually made me a bit dizzy with all the swirls and flourishes....What do you think?
It was really fun to see my stamps differently and find a new way to use this set and also be happy with the outcome!

I used silver glitter paper for the tag, and threaded two ribbons, a dark pink and white on top of each other and threaded those through the tag.

Here's a close up of the center panels:

This card brings back a memory...as do so may cards I make. Isn't it funny how our creativity so often comes from long ago memories filed away from childhood, or travel, or ??  Once I finished this and examined it closely...I realized I had first seen this color combination as a child when I'd been taken Christmas shopping by my Mom. I stood behind the gift wrap counter (in those days they had several samples of wrapped packages on the wall,) and thought as a young girl that I'd never seen anything more fancy and beautiful than  the bright pink package with silver ribbon and was so bedazzled by it. I don't recall if we took that package all wrapped up home with us, or even what the gift inside might have been...but that memory came flooding back when I saw my finished card.
Thanks so much for looking, and have a blessed day!

Create Along With Us~November 2017

Just a quick post today...sharing a card inspired by this month's Papertrey Ink release from Betsy Veldman of the Design Team. The Create Along with Us November 2017 had so many beautiful card designs.

I was inspired by the cut out window and the white winter background. I went to bed with visions of this card...but since I did not have any of the dies...I used this winter die from last year and made my own scene with critters from the In the Meadow Set.

Since the scene is so white...it doesn't have the best photograph...but I am happy with the outcome...A deer, bunny and birds nestled on the branches with a light blue background and snowflakes. The snowflakes in the upper left are PTI felt, a blue glitter, and white layered up...all to hide a sentiment that went slightly askew...

Thanks for looking! And thanks to Betsy Veldman for so much inspiration!

A Cup of Cheer!

Good morning! We had a fresh batch of snowfall this week and it left such a dreamy effect on the Evergreens in our neighborhood. It is true that a fresh white coating of snow puts me in the thinking ahead to Christmas mode. I opted not to start the Christmas cookie baking...because as it is just my husband and I at home...it's a dangerous situation. Somehow even if the cookies are baked and stored up tight in our deep freeze in the garage...my little feet go pitter patter all the way to the freezing cold freezer and find a way to defrost them and make them all nice and soft and warm and into my tummy. It sounds cute when you're a toddler...but a woman my age doesn't need that kind of temptation. So I settled for a cute card with the hint of a cookie to go with this Christmas-y pot of Coffee and teacups all stacked up on a lacey table cloth.
I just love this stamp and have a few different ideas in my head. Here's what I came up with after much dilly dallying and moving things around.

I invested in the matching dies to the set from Papertrey Ink, "A Cup of Cheer" which made it so much easier to arrange. Here I used a teacup die and the newest release of "Bitty Big" paper in Pinefeather for the teacup and then a border in the same paper. I also used two other stamp sets, one for the steam from the "Winter Village" set and the heart stamped onto the green mug is from another set, "Fair Isle Motifs."
I'm hoping to come up with a design that is cute and not too time consuming to use as an invitation for a Christmas brunch.
I love to hear your thoughts and appreciate your visit. This time I can invite you to share a cup with me...what will it be for you~coffee or tea?

Altenew Florals ~ Couldn't stop at just One!

This will be a quick post with more photos than text...I have a wedding to go to this afternoon! This is the second wedding of my nieces and nephews in a matter of months. I don't know my nephew's fiance very well...but wanted to welcome her into the family with a handmade card.

This new to me stamp by Altenew, Painted Flowers, was very fun to stamp. I tried different color combinations and sentiments. Well, I'll just let you see.

The first one is the wedding card. I used Gold Mirror card stock for the border, and embossed in gold. Also, a bit of glitter on all the floral, which unfortunately didn't capture in any of the photos today. 

This looks lopsided...but the sentiment and border are straight...just the camera angle.

Then, because I always need a "Just because" card...I chose this sentiment with softer pink floral. I am a bit smitten with this one. What do you think?

This one would make a cheerful "Get Well" or just a "Thinking of you" card. I used a sentiment from Papertrey Ink die, layered a sparkly blue with a black backdrop...then used two of the strips from trimming my card as border strips. 

So...that's it for my color explorations in my new Altenew stamp set. I really love this one...although it took a bit of time to figure out which stamps layer and just how...but once I did...it was really fun! 

Thank you for your visit...and wishing you blessings on your day!