Simple Fall Gratitude

It's been a very busy weekend, and I'm glad to be home - frustrated with a stuffy nose - but glad to get home.  I had a great time at the Fine Arts Conference and learned a lot of new stuff to take into the classroom!  So - I've created a relatively simple card this afternoon to fulfill my stamping need. 

The Paper Players are looking for a fall element in this week's challenge - the trees are pretty much bare here and the leaves on the street have even been picked up so that's why I selected these lovely bare trees.  The sketch for today's card comes from Stamping 411 and the colours are inspired by a photo at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

I have a lot to look forward this week - hope you do to!  Thanks for stopping by.
Joan

So....I lied.....

I thought that the card I made last week was the last Halloween card - but when I saw the sketch from Create with Connie and Mary - I absolutely envisioned the haunted house as the focal point - so here we are!  The card also goes with the spooky/creepy Halloween challenge this week at Stampin' Royalty.

I'm keeping this short and sweet - my husband and I are heading to Calgary this weekend to a Fine Arts Conference.  I'm looking forward to a number of the classes that I'm going to be taking.

Hope your weekend turns into something you're looking forward to.

Thanks for stopping by - Joan

One Last Halloween Card?

 I'm not sure, but this may be the last Halloween Card I create this season.....we'll see.  I've incorporated the Friday Mashup and the Paper Player's Sketch for this card.  The Friday Mashup! was:

1. Make a project featuring "A Belly Band".
2. Or Make a project using "Twine".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project "Using Twine with a "Belly Band"

Below is the card without the belly band so you can see the sketch better.

 

 I had to use those little bats again, and although you can't tell from the photo - I added their eyes with white gel pen and then coloured them yellow.  I was sort of hoping to use rhinestones, but the smallest weren't small enough.

Next are the I and J pages of the anniversary book:

 I did case part of this page from someone on the My Digital Studio website.  She had used some sort of tag and I used the arrows. 

This page just has photos of the Jeffery family from the wedding reception to 2009.  Not every year is represented, but I sure am thankful for my Mother taking pictures of the four of us when she came to visit!

It's been a beautiful Sunday afternoon - hope you are enjoying fabulous fall weather where you are too.  Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Joan

Global Snow

 Gotta love supportive husbands!  Mine came home this afternoon, and after the usual "Make a Card!" greeting - I showed him what I had done.  "That's nice, but..."  And then I noticed - I've got animals from two different poles - so we decided that it was globally friendly!  LOL

I used the Crayon Resist technique to keep the polar bear & penguin tummy white while sponging Marina Mist onto the Glossy White Paper.  Over at Hand Stamped Sentiments you could use the Shaving Cream, Crayon, or Popping Pastels as a technique for your project. The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches.  I suppose in hindsight I should have used the snowflake embossing folder, but I was using up pieces of embossed paper which I already had.

I've been busy planning, cutting and prepping for upcoming events.  It's a busy time of year - but lots of fun too.  Hope things are going tickety-boo for you this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.
Joan

Merry Chickadee

 I finally got around to using this wonderful little chickadee - they're my favorite little bird.  The leaves and berries have been coloured with Frost White Shimmer Paint with a bit of re-inker added.  That way they  shimmer nicely on the card.  I applied the paint with an old blender pen that had lost its "stuff".   An Old Olive marker was used to colour the shading of the leaves.  I also used the shimmer mixture to distress the edge of the oval.

I really should have thought out what paper I was going to use for the rest of the card before I coloured the image though - the image uses Old Olive and the DSP and mat are Garden Green.  But that's okay - the Challenge over at The Paper Players this week is to use traditional red and green colours for a Christmas card - and both greens work.  Stampin' Royalty has provided the sketch for this card.  I have adjusted it a bit because my image was so large and I used 3 little Merry tags on the side.

This is the anniversary card my daughter made for my husband to give to me.  It wasn't what she had had in mind because she couldn't find the stamp set she wanted to use - that threw her for a bit of a loop  (It would throw me for a while too) - but I love what she's come up with.  She didn't realize until later that she put the world on upside down - I said her dad turns my world upside down anyway - so it's all good.   My gift from him was a trip to anywhere in the world I want to go - so the card is fitting!

Hope something turns your world upside down in a good way today - Thanks for stopping by! Joan

Let it snow...well, not yet!!!!!

 I'm fine with the fallen leaves right now, and the crisp clear air - don't want the white stuff yet - but I do like snowflakes - and that's what the Friday Mashup is all about -

1. Make a project featuring "Snowflakes".
2. Or Make an "Easel Card".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create an "Easel Card featuring Snowflakes"

Easel cards are fun - and I do enjoy making them, now that the initial fear of them has subsided!  And as the quote on the Friday Mashup states - "A Snowflake is winter's butterfly".  I think that's wonderful!  So - I used the "Snow Much Fun" 'cause these snowmen are so cute - and I used the silver glimmer paper with the Northern Frost die.  I just HAD to add rhinestones to the centres of the snowflakes, and a mini jingle bell to the end of the snowman's hat!

Here are the next two pages in the anniversary book.....

 

 Grant - our musically talented son - who drums in a band and creates wonderful piano pieces that  make me stop and listen

I'm looking forward to more  holidays together!

Hope your working into a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!
Joan

Heartfelt Kisses

 I have a coupler of challenges meshed into today's card - Hand Stamped Sentiments have a Think Pink Challenge out because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - so I pulled out some pinks and decided I had to use the lips again - and when I glanced at the "Floral Fillers" set, I wondered if I could use the Kissing Technique with the lips - and it worked perfectly.  The sketch is the Saturday Sketch from Stamping 411 and although I missed the deadline for posting a link, there was a die cut challenge at Just Add Ink - so that's why I added the swirls along the bottom.

I noticed once I saw the card on the computer that I added absolutely no bling of any sort - I may have to fix that - add some rhinestones or something.

Below are the next two pages in my anniversary book...

 I had fun stringing these little people together.  And one of the main logos for our school board has been the apple with the check mark in it - so that worked well too.  I LOVE the grunge set - especially the little pieces of tape!

This flower page is a case from someone on MDS - I regret not writing down whose ideas I borrowed for a couple of my pages!

It's pretty windy here today - still walked to school though and it wasn't too bad.  I hope your day has been a good one - and thanks for stopping by!
Joan

25th Anniversary

Today, 25 years ago, I married a wonderful man, who I have grown to love more over these 25 years.

I had loads of fun creating the alphabet book on MDS and this very silvery card.  I knew when I saw the sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary, that it would work perfectly with what I had in mind.  I am so thankful for that silver glimmer paper!

I'm keeping this short today - thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Joan

Gem of a Friend

Mojo Monday - WoooHooo!  Very cool sketch today.  I pulled out my Beau Chateau DSP and decided to go with a totally Marina Mist card - not hard for me to do really - it's my favorite blue right now.  I guess I really only used one piece of the DSP, and coordinated with stamping from Vintage Vogue. 

I tried out the new Peekaboo Frames Bigz Die for the Big Shot.  I love the idea of being able to make little windows easily for cards, scrapbook pages and crafts.

I remember when the Big Shot came out I thought- "I just can't see myself using this enough to buy one"  Wow, I'm glad I broke down, got one with the Convention Special - I have used it sooooo much.  And now, Stampin' Up! is giving one for FREE to whoever purchases the Starter Kit in October.  Fabulous!

If you're interested in paying for your hobby or paying some bills AND getting a FREE Big Shot and a discount for your stamping or crafting , just contact me and I can help that happen for you.

I hope you've had a wonderful day -  Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Joan

Dino Birthday

 I do so love these little dinosaurs - they're just so cute.  I've used the sketch from this past week's Splitcoast Sketch Challenge and the colours - More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Cajun Craze and Very Vanilla are from The Paper Players

I stamped the little dinos onto the vertical Vanilla strip with Staz-On Black so that they wouldn't run with the blender pen.  I didn't really pay attention to their placement, so when I was going to put on the square focal piece, I realized that one of the heads would be covered - so I just cut it away so that it would overlap onto the matting.

Here are the next two pages of my anniversary book - I still have to wait two days before giving it to my husband.  I have, however, decided how I am going to package it and "give" it to him.

 The choir pictures range from going on our first Concordia Choir tour,  the Concordia Community Choir, the two church choirs we've sung in and a small church choral group.

 

I know I cased this page - at least parts of it from someone I saw on the MDS website.

Hope your weekend has been wonderful - thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Joan

One Huge Spider!

 I feel like I haven't posted anything since - forever.  It really hasn't been that long, but it's been busy.  Thursday night was taken up with an event, and on top of having a Professional Development day for school on Friday, our family had our Thanksgiving dinner since it was the only time both kids would be around.  So - it's was busy - but it's nice to know that the rest of the long weekend will be relaxing!

So - today - once I gutted out my stamping room - AGAIN - I worked on the Friday Mashup!

1. Make a "Halloween themed" Project.
2. Or Make a Project using the colors: "Black, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade & Concord Crush".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Halloween project using the Colors listed above".

Honestly, I have been wanting to make a spider using the same method I've been making pumpkins with - and today was the day.  He is made with the Concord Crush - just to make him more deadly - and once I put the pieces together I spritzed them with the glimmer paint.  Finally, I just HAD to add some googly eyes which I have from past crafting days.

I brayered the raised side of the spider web embossing folder before putting in the paper.  I don't mind the little bit of smudging around the edging that happened while brayering. 

I used the Halloween image from the "It's a Wrap Holidays" and coloured in the "empty" words with the Versa Mark Pen.

This is a banner I worked on last week - I TOTALLY cased it from a demonstration at Regionals.  Well, all except the Y - for some reason I didn't take a picture of the Y.  Duh!!! 

Well, I'm off.  Tonight we are helping a friend celebrate her 50th birthday.  Should be a good time!  Hope you are enjoying your weekend so far - Thanks for visiting.  Joan

Gratitude Tea

Just a quick post before I run out the door to head to the city for our team meeting - well, and to be honest - browsing around one of the shopping centres first.

I used today's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches along with the colours from Stampin' Royalty: So Saffron, More Mustard, Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant.

For the main matt - I rolled More Mustard onto the Striped Embossing Folder with a brayer before putting the Saffron paper in to emboss it; so the Mustard is embedded in the "lower" stripes.  The teacup was done on watercolour paper and I had to do two to get one I liked.  Fancy teacups always remind me of my Grandma and going to the back lane neighbors for tea when I was a little girl.  I do remember proper tea parties too - I just don't recall what the "real" purpose of them were.    I do remember being dressed up and offering around the plate of goodies to the guests.  Good Times!  Good Memories!

And I'm off .... to more good times with Stampin' Friends - hope your day is enjoyable too!  Thanks for stopping by!
 Joan

Remember When

Leaves, leaves, lots of leaves...Hand Stamped Sentiments is challenging the use of Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie and Not Quite Navy - which works with SUO challenges of including leaves in your project and I've used the sketch from Stamping 411.

I did end up using Early Espresso for the bases of the leaves - and in hindsight figured that using the Not Quite Navy would have been pretty cool too.  I tried twisting the Seam Binding Ribbon, holding the twists in place with glue dots.  The punched leaf has been stamped with the veins from "Gently Falling" and then crumpled up.

The following are the A and B pages for the alphabet book I created for my husband for our 25th anniversary next week....all done on My Digital Studio.  I love the capability of being able to change the sizes of stamps - connecting them and manipulating them.

Hope your week is going well - thanks for stopping by!

Joan

Leafy Smiles

 

Today's card uses the sketch from over at Mojo Monday.  I finally used the Gently Falling set in the manner to which is was created - two step stamping.  I do love two step stamping!!!!

I used the wreath from the Warmest of Wishes hostess set - the centre is punched out and the layer of circles have been raised above the wreath using two layers of dimensionals....because, of course, the wreath has been attached with dimensionals.

I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED - because the book I have poured my heart into for the past number of months finally arrived today from Stampin' Up!  Oh my word it's fabulous.  It's a book I created for my husband for our 25th anniversary using My Digital Studio.
The cover is below - perhaps I'll share some of the other pages along the way.

Daring Adventures

It's been a busy weekend - and we're heading into a busy week - but  it's all good!  I got this card ready today - covering 3 challenges - and then I spent the afternoon working on simple sketches to take to school for our newly formed "Birthday Bridgade" to work on for handing out to students on their birthday.

The three challenges for my Adventure card come from
The Paper Players - Have music on your card - I rolled the notes onto vellum and also used a small piece for the wing of the bird.

Freshly Made Sketches - the Sketch - I found a chipboard tag in my stash - I had to cut it down a bit to fit the card - but it feels good to get rid of another one of those tid bits lying around waiting to be used.

Create, Ink! - the Colours - Rich Razzleberry, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray.  These colours could so easily be Halloween in nature - but I moved completely away with that - using the quote from one of the first inspirational women I was introduced through a child's level biography.  Helen Keller and Florence Nightingale were the first biographies I owned.

I don't read a lot of biographies anymore - but perhaps I should.  I hope you had a good weekend, and that there are things for you to look forward to through the week.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Joan