Truly Special Season

I'm happy that I got to participate in Merry Monday this week - I've just been wanting to be able to create for fun so made an effort Monday evening to do so....... They have an interesting challenge this week- love it.  Makes your brain work around the requirements!

I've mixed a bit of fall and winter together with this card using the woodgrain from Truly Grateful along with the Special Season tree.

Just a quick post today because I have a full day of teaching and a technique class tonight.  Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday!

Thanks for taking time to stop by.

Joan

Yippee Skippee Monkeys!

Yipee Skippee it's a new sketch for Sunday Stamps brought to you by Steph!  I'm lovin' these little animals from the Zoo Babies stamp set!  They're just so  cute....so I thought this little monkey would be pleased to help someone celebrate something they're happy about!

Here is the sketch from Steph - you really need to check out the other creations by the rest of the Design Team!  They're awesome - as usual!  Remember to link your project back to the Sunday Stamps  Challenge Blog so we can all take a peek at your creation!

I still have room at my Technique Class this week if you're wanting to stop by to create two cards using the Versa Mark Resist and Joseph's Coat Techniques.

I'm happy we had a fantastic first week at school and I'm gearing up for the next full week.....ooops - actually it's another short week for me because I head to Banff with Greg Thursday afternoon.  LOL!

Hope you have something to look forward to this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan

Sketch for a Birthday

It's sketch day at Sunday Stamps and our host Hayley has a great one for us.  I love all the lines in the sketch although I opted for adding circular shapes on my card.

My son turned 24 yesterday and this is the card I created for him - I crossed out the "me" and turned it into "us" before giving it to him.  He's a musical boy, so the music sheet from the Natural Composition Specialty Paper was perfect.  You can't really tell from the picture, but I've punched out and popped up the little globe.

I hope you have fun with this sketch - you can use any colours and create it for any occasion....so the sky's the limit.  Once you've finished share it with us over at Sunday Stamps.  We love seeing what you come  up with - and this month - each time you enter a challenge you get your name put into a draw for   one of two $25 Stampin'Up! Gift Certificates.

If you need some inspiration before starting - check out what the rest of the Design Team has come up with this week.  It's always fun to see what take everyone has on a sketch.

Hope you have a fabulous Sunday.  Thanks for taking time to visit.

Joan

Sweet Gingerbread

My craft room smells like sugar and spice this morning after working with these little guys!  YUM!  The gingerbread men are from the Scentsational Season set in the upcoming Holiday Mini along with co-ordinating framelit dies.

I've used the colours from Dynamic Duos today - Crumb Cake and Early Espresso (Wow - it's a food sort of day I guess!)

The base of the card is Very Vanilla with an Early Espresso Mat.  The embossed section is the new Holiday Frame Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  Can you tell I'm getting ready for an Open House to showcase items from the new Mini?!

It's cool, overcast and thundering today (no rain yet) - so maybe I will bake the cookies I promised my daughter a day or two ago.  It was way too hot to turn on the oven then.

I've been meaning to share this video of this year's theme song from convention.  I love this song - I play it almost every day just to boost me up for crafting.

Hope your day has aromas which make you smile.  Thanks for visiting.

Joan

In the Spotlight

I haven't done the spotlight technique in quite a while....and of course I got carried away with things again yesterday.  Actually, I decided that the card I created for the challenge at The Paper Players (the sketch is from this weeks challenge) and SUO Challenges (creating a birthday card) was a bit too much for my technique class, so I revamped it using last weeks' Freshly Made Sketch to simplify it a bit.

I think these "Packed for..." stamps are perfect for this technique!  I stamped the image three times in a row and then punched out the small circles, to be coloured and backed with the large Not Quite Navy circle to create the spotlight.

Because everything is pretty straight forward of this card, my stampers will be given the option of which "Packed for" image they'd like to use.  The sentiment goes with all of them - Mom, Dad and Birthday.

I'm all packed for my next convention and looking forward to having a fantabulous time with Tamye!

Hope you have something to look forward to this week.  Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Fresh Creation

 I do not like how my camera deals with Cherry Cobbler paper!  It's always so dark - even when I "fix" it through editing, it just doesn't look like it does in real life.

Oh well - today's card comes courtesy of Create with Connie and Mary and Freshly Made Sketches.  I knew as soon as I saw the sketch that I wanted to create a scene that I split into panels.  Unfortunately I don't have many sets that can work that way - and I'm NOT getting more!!!! (Who am I kidding - of course I'll get more as soon as the new mini comes out! - Duh!)  The colours today are from Create with Connie and Mary - Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard and Basic Black.

I created a second card for my Mother's friend since I wasn't sure how happy I was with the Concord one.  I'm going to send both of them to her and she can make her selection.

The sky looks like it's not quite sure what kind of weather it wants to throw at us today - I got all my plant pots and deck furniture dealt with yesterday so I'm pretty much ready for anything now.

Hope you're having a wonderful day - and thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Joan

Tri Fold Nature Walk

 

Today, over at Hand Stamped Sentiments, they've laid down the challenge for fancy fold cards - I don't think I've ever actually finished one of these Tri Fold Shutter Cards - but I'm relatively happy with the way this one turned out.  Lots of little pieces depending on the sections you want to highlight.  It's interesting to look through the gallery on Splitcoast for this type of card  - just to see the different ways that people have place their papers and what they've done to embellish their creation.

AND, over at Hand Stamped Sentiments, the DT has a wide variety of fancy folds cards to share for inspiration.

I'm off to the city to do some shopping and then I'm looking forward to having dinner this evening with a few of my former (won't say "old") college roommates.  We've been staying in touch for over 30 years!!!

Hope you have some life long friends to share good times with.

Thanks for stopping by to visit

Joan

Life's a Bowl of Cherries - Enjoy!

I wasn't sure I would use this little bowl of cherries from the new "Cherish Friendship" set, but when I saw the Color Challenge from Splitcoast this past week: Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy  and Crumb Cake, it just seemed to make sense to use it.  So I pulled out the water colour paper and gave them a try.

The clean and simple look is what the  4 Crafty Chicks  are looking for this week.  I seem to be able to keep it simple as long as the main piece has texture.  I just have this strong aversion to flat paper on my cards - maybe that's why I like dimensionals so much too.  I have raised the square with the cherries and the small vanilla oval with "Enjoy".

Well, I'm off to sort cards today, and do some hemming.  I going to do the hemming first so I that it actually gets done!

Have a great day!  Thanks for the visit!
Joan

Sock Monkey in the Flowers

I'm pretty sure that if Sock Monkey didn't insist on coming out to play today, I wouldn't have taken so long to get this card put together. I had to walk away from it for a while!

The sketch is this week's challenge from Stampin' Royalty. I was surprised and honored to have my Sailboat Imagining picked as one of three "Stampin' Royalty Goddess Picks". Thank you Ladies!

Sock Monkey was coloured and cut out before I put her through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder. Gives her a bit of texture that I may use again.

Tomorrow is the last school day of the week - the kids got off easy this week with only three days because of Easter Monday and our "Professional Development" day on Friday. Then there's another Extravaganza on Saturday - Wooooo Hooo!!!!! Livin' for the weekend.

Hope you have good plans on the horizon of your week - thanks for stopping by! Joan