I realize it's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. Boy, how time does fly!
Our November weather has been incredible this year, though October was very wet. It's been nice to see the sun shine and get the leaves picked up off the yard.

My project for today is a sympathy card. We lost another good friend who lives in Wisconsin.
I made this card using a set from Our Daily Bread Designs called Light of the World. I've had this set for a while but haven't used much lately. I love this image and the verses that are in the set.
You may want to check out their newest Christmas sets that were just released, they look great to me.











I pulled out my Watercolor Pencils from Stampin' Up! to color the main image.
I felt that the paper used was great for this time of year.
I'm going to have to admit one mistake that I made and tried to cover up. When I was doing the paper piercing, I forgot to leave the card open and ended up piercing thru both layers of cardstock. That's why the inside of the card has the paper from the front carried onto the inside. I figured it would help to make the piercing look intentional rather than the mistake that it really was. My daughter said that she like the fact that the inside was decorated as well as the front.

The inside of the card uses stamps from 2 different stamp sets from Stampin' Up! and also a stamp from Stampabilities.

I hope you like the card. I know this man's wife will appreciate it since she is also a stamper and loves to receive hand made cards.

Have a great week!

Influenza Bugs and A Sad Event

The influenza bug hit our household this week. Two of us came down with the bug and it hit pretty hard. We are finally feeling on the mend, but the cough just won't let go very easily. It's a good thing the guest bedroom was ready for use. This is the first time in years I've slept in a different bed, but needed to so as to keep the bug from my husband. So far so good, he hasn't come down with the symptoms yet.

Monday brought a lot of sadness to our household as well. As my husband was dealing with the fact that both of the "girls" in the house were sick, he was hit with another blow.
Tom takes Shadow, our dog, for a walk almost every morning. This gives the dog the much needed exercise that he needs. Shadow has had a bad habit of treating cars as if they are a toy - he likes to play chicken with them. He lost the game this time. Shadow was hit by an unsuspecting driver when he didn't make it around the front of the car in time. He was a handful of a dog - still mostly puppy, but we loved him and he will be missed greatly.

October Create and Recreate

Here's the card for this month's Create and Recreate at church tomorrow afternoon.

After having spent a number of hours today mowing the leaves that have fallen (since most of our snow from this week has melted and who knows when the next storm will arrive),
I wanted a card that would use Autumn colors and images.
I chose Stampin' Up! Fantastic Foliage, a set I've had for a long time with images.

I stamped the oak leaves onto Whisper White card stock in Versa Mark ink, then embossed them with Stamp-n-Stuff Copper Embossing Tinsel. This stuff is great because it combines glitter and embossing powder in one easy step. I then took a sponge dauber and sponged 2 of the images with More Mustard ink and 1 image with Really Rust. I used the Scallop Oval punch to punch out the images.

The main image is framed with a Large Oval punch in a coordinating color and then on a Nestabilities Scallop Square.

More of the leaves and some acorns were stamped in Dusty Durango on paper from the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up! (3 5/8 x 4 1/4) which has had the edges distressed and this layer was mounted on a layer of Old Olive (4x4 5/8) which has the edges distressed and rubbed in Dusty Durango. The card base is Crushed Curry.

The cord is a copper cord from Stampin' Up! wrapped around the card front and tied.

I hope you like my latest creation. (And, I hope those that make it tomorrow like it too.)

2 Challenges - 1 Great Card for 1 Great Daughter!

I made this card for my daughter. There is a concert tomorrow night at school. It's called LHS Live and it is the 2nd year that this concert has been done. It features the jazz band, swing choir and other smaller groups. My daughter is a part of the swing choir and is also being very brave and singing a solo as well. I thought I needed to give her some encouragement and a thumbs up by making a special card just for her.

I purchased this stamp set about a year ago and haven't taken the time to use it yet. I'm sure glad I pulled it out for this card. It fits perfectly since our family LOVES music! The set is My Heart from Close to My Heart.


This card also fits into the Sketch Challenge and the Technique Challenge for this week on SplitCoastStampers.

The card is a regular 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" size, but is mounted so that it will stand up like an easel. I sure hope she likes it.

Recipe:
Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Night of Navy, Whisper White, SU DSP Tea Party
Ink: Night of Navy, Melon Mambo
Stamp set: CTMH My Heart
Other elements: Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder, Melon Mambo ribbon, SU large oval punch and scallop punch
The images on the front as well as the sentiment inside the card are mounted with dimensionals to pull them off the page just a little bit.

Thanksgiving Easel Card

I had to use the new stamp set Gifts of the Earth from Stampin' Up! again. I love the images.
Today's technique challenge was to make an easel card. It's pretty simple and the instructions can be found by following the link in the 1st post of the challenge. The fold that is made in the card base makes the card easy to stand up and displayed.

I also used the colors from last week's color challenge. That challenge was to use Mellow Moss, Whisper White, and Kraft.

I used Spellbinders Nestabilities - Scallop Squares to help with the layering on this card. I like how you can cut it out and add the embossed edge to the cardstock.

I also added a button from my stash of old buttons from my mother and grandmother, (it's fun to use some of these little treasures), and also some of my SU HodgePodge Hardware.

I hope you like my card.

Carstock: Kraft, Whisper White, SU Designer Series Paper (hostess pack)
Stamps: Gifts of the Earth, Teeny Tiny Wishes (both from Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Stazon Black, Mellow Moss, SU Markers
Ribbon is a scrap piece I had saved for the right project.

Gifts of the Earth

Fall has definitely come here in North Dakota. Even my teenage daughter left for school this morning saying that it's winter coat time.

I made this card for today's sketch challenge on SCS. I used a new set that just arrived on Monday at my house called Gifts of the Earth from Stampin' Up! I love the images in the set.

The card base is Dusty Durango. The back panel is Crushed Curry embossed using the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder and framed with Soft Suede. The image panel is framed with Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango and colored with SU markers and then the sky is sponged with Bashful Blue and Marigold Morning. The cross panel underneath the main panel is an image also from the Gifts of the Earth set.

I hope you like my creation. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Fall Cards & a start on Christmas

I have worked on a couple new card ideas in the past week or so and thought I would share them with you.

The 1st is a card idea I got from looking thru the resources pages of Splitcoaststampers. It's called an Accordian card. I made 2 of these and adjusted the size of the second one just a little bit, but both sizes work out beautifully.

The pumpkin that pops out is made from the SU Round Tab punch. I saw this idea somewhere else for a table decoration and thought it would be fun for a pop out inside a card. The more tabs you add, the more full your pumpkin looks, but be careful to make sure your card will still close.








I used SU's Autumn Harvest set for the stamped pumpkins and leaves on these cards.

Remember to attach your ribbon to the outside of your card before attaching the image layers! It will help to secure the ribbon.











The next cards were done after seeing last Monday's New Technique challenge on SCS. It was to use aluminum foil to make a shiny embossed panel on your card. You just fold the foil around a piece of cardstock and run it thru your Big Shot, Cuttlebug, or whatever machine you have in an embossing folder.


It makes for an easy WOW effect on your card that doesn't cost a lot of $$$$. I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a start on my Christmas cards this way and this new stamp set from SU and the ornament punch to go with it made is easy as well.

Colors used for these cards are SU Rich Razzleberry, black and SU Whisper White.