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Go here to check out some great blog candy!

Thanks Diane!

I got a nice little acknowledgement from my friend Diane at www.nelliesnest.blogspot.com today telling me she loves my blog. Thanks Diane. I love you too. Go check out Diane's blog and view the lovely property and home she lives on in the country, her cabin on the creek. While you are there take a look at her wonderful creations.

Halloween Metallica.......

This was a hard card to photograph because the light/flash kept reflecting off the grey metallic background card. The bat paper is our new Ghostly Greetings DP. This focal image was made from two new sets: SU Nature Silhouettes and House of Haunts. The sentiment is from All Holidays. Ribbon is an old MS. I heat embossed both the tree and the pumpkin, added a little yellow light with chalks and just drew a line with a black pen connecting the jacko and the tree. ( No not THAT jacko!!!) This Nature Silhouettes set is going to get a lot of use I can tell! Good night everyone!

Happy Saturday-Holiday Weekend

Hope you are all enjoying the last big holiday weekend of the summer season. This card's image is from Harvest Home from the new SU Idea Book and Catalog. The sentiment is SU Thoroughly Thankful from last year. I colored this with chalks and the blender pen and it came out very well. It was stamped on watercolor paper and the background papers are from various sources. I'm ready to get out my fall decorations. How about you?

I'm Still Here Faithful Readers!

I'm still here everyone, just have been busy the last few days doing yard work. You've all seen pictures of our pond and my DS has decided we need a bigger, deeper, pond. SO I have been clearing part of the garden to make room and transplanting flowers. Everything looks good so far as we are having several days of light steady rain.

I finally got my first SU order from the new catty. I am in rubber heaven and our new papers are delish! We have a lot of train enthusiasts among our family and friends and I couldn't resist this new set Happiness is a Journey. There's a color picture of this in the catty and it took me awhile to figure out how they did this background. Well, here's how I did it. This is a reverse image stamp, so I turned the stamp over and sponged Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, Going Grey and Chocolate Chip across the stamp, then stamped. It came out great. You could easily change the look of the card by changing the colors. So many places have train rides to see fall foliage. We have one here in the mountainous western part of Maryland and it's an antique train. Tickets always sell out. This would be so pretty in fall colors. This is going tomorrow to a dear friend who lost his wife a year ago and he is a BIG train person. I hope he enjoys it. I'll be back soon with more creations from the new rubber.

This is a halloween card (obviously) created from SU's new halloween stamp set House of Haunts and our new DP Ghostly Greetings. The only non-SU product I used was the ribbon. The solid green background is Kiwi Kiss, one of the new IN colors. I cased this layout from smithden on SCS. You can find it under the SU Gallery, House of Haunts category. What fun!

CB Embossing

This shows the holly cb embossing folder. I just went over it lightly with chalks, using Candy Cane Stickles for the berries, added sparkly ribbon and mounted it on a pale green metallic background.

One More Today

I got this idea from the following site:

http://imageevent.com/donnamb/borderideas It has lots of great ideas. This is a large card, made to fit a business size envelope. Just Whisper White backbround with Real Red cs ribbon. Leaves are about a 1" size punched leaf. Marvy makes one. Mine is EK Success. Michael's had it displayed with their halloween things. It took 12 leaves, the circle is metallic gold cardstock, about 3" in diameter and 1/2" wide. I went around the edges of the leaves and did the veins with a metallic gold marker, then stuck them on and added berries with Candy Cane Stickles. It's a very bold card, has a nice masculine look to it even. That's it for today folks. See you later in the week.

Productive Sunday Afternoon

This has been quite a productive day for me. DH is fixing dinner and I went to Mass yesterday. So today was a play day. You can see the result here and below. This is the new Cuttlebug Christmas Tree embossing folder. I embossed on 140 lb. watercolor paper which really gives you a hugely raised image, much better than regular card stock. Try it. I did another but different embossed image a few days ago and tried to color it and was not happy. Here's one trick I discovered. Use a sponge dauber, lightly dab it on your chosen ink color, then lightly rub across your image. You may need to go back for more ink and do this several times until you get the depth of color you want. On this image, I then added gold Stickles for highlight and mounted it on the Garden Green cs. This image is larger and does not fit well on an A2 sized card so this card is actually 4.5 x 6 so it will need a custom made envelope which I hate doing BUT I think the effect is worth it. LOVE this card! Now I want to try the same technique on the Haunted Halloween House folder on black cs.

Here's another wonderful Cuttlebug embossing folder. I'm not sure about the names of these but I think this one is called Winter Village. Again, I embossed it on watercolor paper, and just added a simple sentiment from Papertrey at the bottom, stamped with Night of Navy and brushed with the same on the edges. I like simple and this is surely it.

This card is SU Night of Navy cs and ribbon and the beautiful part is one of the new Cuttlebug embossing folders. This one is snowflakes and I embossed it on 140 lb. watercolor paper and it makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD in how it looks. I got this tip from Becca on Amazing Paper Grace. For the focal image I used a snowflake die from Sizzix or SU, embossed it with Winter Wonderland EP. I think this is so elegant. And I also think this CB folder could be used as a quilt background. Don't you think it looks "quilty?"

This is another of the bags like I posted yesterday. This one is made from Afternoon Tea DP from Stampin' Up! and the stamp is from SU Friendly Flowers. I loved doing the detailed stamped images like I did on yesterday's bag but this one is quicker and easier, especially if you are selling them.

Excuse the darkness of this picture. These are note pads. I have seen these on so many blogs I wouldn't know who to give credit to. They are the lined pads of paper that you have cut into long skinny pads at your office store. They can be grocery lists, wish lists, to do lists, make a nice little gift and are great for craft fairs. I made mine like a book, opening right to left. Some girls do it other ways.

I am getting ready to do a craft fair at our church in September (yikes, it's sneaking up!!) and I am showing a few of the things I have been making. These are post it note key chains, very quick and easy and inexpensive, great for craft shows. Here's Angie's instructions: http://chicnscratch.typepad.com/stampinacademy/2008/02/post-it-notes-k.html. I just made up an assortment in different colors and added Stickles for a little bling.

A Beautiful Bag

These bags are all over blogland! This particular one was designed by Andrea Walford and shown on her blog Sunny Stampin. It's larger than most and made to hold cards. But it's large enough to be a great gift bag and you could really get a lot in it. I used SU More Mustard DP and cardstock. The image is an old Inkadinkadoo and I really went crazy with the bling: lots of various colors of Stickles and Liquid Pearls. Used the Fiskar's corner punch behind the image and four little matching brads. Michael's ribbon! Enjoy! And check Andrea's blog for more inspiration http://andreawalford.com/.

Holy Bats!!!

The background of this card is a kind of dark khaki green with gold, a slightly metallic look. I used SU Always Artichoke for the main image which matched really well. Then I used Carved and Candlelight, an old SU Halloween set for the pumpkin but embossed it with a fall looking orange color and Stickled the stem in Patina. The greeting is Inkadinkadoo from Cats and Bats, one of their new fall stamp sets. I really like how this turned out.

Simple and Easy

A tale of two cards: really easy and simple and in serene colors. I came into a boatload of free cardstock from Leslie Hanna on her Crooked Stamper blog. She was giving it away! I used some of her pieces to make these two today. And isn't using ONLY solid colors interesting? Try it sometime. Have a great weekend everyone!

Oh No! Don't use the "C" word yet!!!

I know what you're thinking....it's only August. You're right. But I had to tell the story of this stamp. Last year I wanted this stamp like crazy. Checked everywhere..no luck. Tried on ebay....it was going for crazy prices, like $30. So I gave up and thought about it as the one that got away. Fast forward to this summer. I get an email from Delta who either owns or distributes Rubber Stampede telling me that they are going to re-issue the stamp and did I want one. ABSOLUTELY! I do the credit card thing, wait 3 weeks and one day it comes in the mail. I'm in heaven. Had to make a card with it right away.

I also in this same week visited my local Michael's and yes they are putting out Christmas things. Lo and behold, there is MY stamp for $7.99 (same price I paid minus the shipping et al), I could have used a 40% off coupon!!! Oh well, I got my stamp and I'm happy. My daughter said I should have bought a dozen and sold them on ebay!!!!!!!!!!!

Somehow, to me anyway, this card doesn't look like me. It came together out of my scrap basket. Have no idea where this DP came from but the stamps are SU A Beautiful Thing and I had to add stickles to the little dots which I think makes this card. Anyway, after a big cleanup of the studio and purging of unnecessary items, I am back in the cardmaking business! My first big SU order from the new catty is scheduled to arrive next Wednesday and I am ready for it. New rubber! Yay!

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!!!

Well 5,000 hits finally came and I used my very scientific random number generator ("honey please pick a number from 1 t 8" as DH is washing the dishes). He picked lucky number 7 and stampincats is the winner. Please let me know your mailing address so I can get this boxed up and out to you. Congratulations and thanks to ALL OF YOU out there for helping me reach such a milestone. I can't believe that many people want to see my little creations.

On to 10,000!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blog Candy Reminder!!!! Don't Miss Out!

Just wanted to remind you to be sure and check out the blog candy post below to get in on the goodies!!! Thanks!

Good Night Inkadinkadoo!

Here's the last two cards of the day. I need to clean up the mess I've made. The one above is Inkadinkadoo's Halloween Trails and SU Home Is Where the Haunt Is. The little pumpkin stamp is one of a group I won on ebay last fall. The sentiment is SU All Holidays.

The card on the bottom is the More Mustard CS and DP again. Ink is Close To Cocoa from SU and the stamps are from (can you guess???) Harvest Expressions and Autumn Trails. I again used the Nesties to showcase the main image. A few Stickles on this one. You know me and Stickles!

Still have more new rubber to share with you but I need a break. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend. Don't forget the blog candy BELOW!!!

Inkadinkadoozie!!!

I have been a cardmaking fool this afternoon. Yesterday I visited my local A.C. Moore store and went temporarily insane! They had all the new Inkadinkadoo fall and christmas stamps in. I tried to be good.....but you know how that goes!! This card is three shades of rusty cardstock, two are SU and the lightest and the black are non SU. The background stamp is Inka's Foliage Trails and the sentiment is from Harvest Expressions. I stamped the background with Close to Cocoa on Really Rust and the sentiment is also stamped with CTC ink. Used the slot punch and added some black ribbon. Fall, but elegant looking. I have two Halloween sets I also bought but haven't used yet, so those will probably be up next.

PLEASE sign up and leave a comment for the blog candy post and get a chance to win some goodies in honor of 5,000 posts. YOWZA!!!

The background cs is SU So Saffron and Really Rust under the image. I distressed the edges of the print paper with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo. Stamped the image from Inkadinkadoo Harvest Expressions. Added a strip of ribbon from Mike's and punched out some leaves, adding darker ink to the edges and veins with a gel pen.

This is my favorite of all I've done today. Again it's very peaceful and soft. I used More Mustard SU cardstock and DP and stamped with SU Close to Cocoa. The images are from Inkadinkadoo Foliage Trails and Harvest Expressions ( 2 separate sets....told you I went insane). I highlighted with chalks and a few Stickles on the sentiment. Cut it out with the Nesties Rectangles and added white Spica dots to team up with the dp.

This card is from a set called Winter Birds. I used SU Not Quite Navy cs and ink. The paper and ribbon are not SU. Used the Nestabilities ovals to focus the main image and the sentiment (which is from Papertrey's Winter Wonder). This is so peaceful and serene looking. I also highlighted the image with Liquid Pearls, just a little.

Blog Candy---To Arrive Soon!!!

I will be coming up on 5,000 hits on my blog. I can hardly believe it. So I dug out some goodies for one lucky person. When I reach 5,000 I will draw one name from all those who leave a comment. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you. Included in the blog candy are some Sizzix papers, foam stamps, a Mary Engelbreit box, Magic Mesh, Halloween stickers, mini clipboards to alter, felt cutout ribbon, and some other ribbon rolls I forgot to include in the picture. If I come up with anything else between n ow and then I'll add it in. USA and Canada only at this time. Good luck everyone!

Carolina Purse

http://creativepad.typepad.com/CarolinasPurse.pdf

Here's the link to make this adorable little purse. A baggie added inside or a flap to hold a gift card would work for this little goodie container. I used velcro dots to close it but it's rather bulky at the flap. Other than that, it's a darling little project

Star Box

Haven't made a box in awhile and had always wanted to try one of the star shaped ones. Very easy, really. I got the directions for this one from Score Pal's web site. I even used the same paper they did! You can vary the height on these very easily. This one happens to be 6". I cut the matching tag with a Sizzix die and covered it to match the box. White shred would have looked better but this was what I had. I could have made my own....did you know you can do that. Just cut narrow strips of scrap cardstock and run it through your crimper. Voila: custom made shred! I'm giving away all the papercrafting secrets!!!! Have a good night!

Blue on Blue (sounds like a Bobby Vinton song!)

So many people love blue so I decided to make this little set today. It's a tote with 6 "friend" cards.....we always need those, right? Used SU Brocade Blue and Night of Navy CS and stamped on Whisper White with the All Holidays stamp set in Brocade Blue Ink. The DP is something I bought on a clearance table years ago. Have no clue. Thanks for stopping by!

Let's Try This Again

The new Fall and Winter '08 Stampin' Up! Catalog is indeed here. However, I have not included a hyperlink to the catalog....yet. BECAUSE, it is only viewable in .pdf format. I suggest for the time being you view it at http://www.stampinup.com It's the same format there but they are trying to make it faster and when they do I will include a hyperlink. Sorry, folks.

The Martha Stewart Halloween Card ???

I am wondering if I should call this the Martha Stewart Halloween card. All three stamps used are from her line. The sentiment and fence were from last year and the embossed owl is a new one this year. I don't care for her paper so I used a scrap I had on hand for the background from Making Memories I believe. Enjoy!

This is Spooktacular paper by Remenisce. It's beautiful paper. Has a soft sheen to it. The tiny witch cutout is a new Martha Stewart punch. It's very tiny but detailed. The sentiment is an old Mike's stamp.

More Halloween!!!

No special techniques here just a MS stamp for the sentiment, some ribbon from Mike's, and a vintage image I Xyroned from a page I had last year. The paper is Along Came a Spider from Reminisce. The green glittery paper behind the image is from last year. Using up some odds and ends.....makes me feel good.

Halloween Cuttlebug

I almost didn't buy this CB folder as I wasn't sure how to use it. Then it occured to me to punch out the individual circles. I used the SU 1 and 3/8 punch for the circles then backed them with the SU scalloped circle punch. You waste a few images using the circle punch but it's a great way to use this CB folder. I have shown you an entire sheet embossed with this folder so you can see how may different images you get on one sheet. This little scalloped back images would be great on Trick or Treat bags or gifts.

Eeeek!

You may have to click on this to enlarge it to really see the spider web in the background. It's one of the new Cuttlebug embossing folders for Halloween. The spider is a Martha Stewart punch I glittered up and the sentiment is an MS stamp. The very bottom "drippy goo" border is also a new MS border punch available at Michaels. More to come.

Friendship Card-For No Special Reason

This is just a simple little card to a friend. Don't you like to receive a card for no other reason other than you are special to someone? I do. I just got all these new Cuttlebug folders this week and will be showcasing some of them over the next few days. You may even see a Christmas (shhhh, don't say it too loud) card or two. And definitely some Halloween ones. Enjoy your day everyone!

Halloween/ Fall Accordian Card

This was so much fun to do but VERY difficult to photograph so that you could see all the detail. I started out intending to make a Halloween accordian card. When I finished it, I thought "gee the other side looks so empty." So I proceeded to do a fall side. Everything is distressed with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink. The flying witch is a new MS stamp and the punched out spiders is from a punch of hers and the RIP is an MS stamp as well. The woolfelt pumpkin on the fall side I made from a pattern. Colored the basket of fall fruit with chalks and blending pens. If you have any questions about any of the embellishments or papers, let me know and if I know the answer I'll be glad to tell you. I hope you enjoy this. I had a great time making it. Have a great weekend!

A Tip

The product shown in the picture is called Adhes-A-Mag and is available at Michaels--that I know of. It is adhesive backed material in a sheet. I use it to line cd cases in which I store my Nestabilities. Also in the picture is a strip of the paper side of it and a circle I punched out showing the magnet side. I was working on another project this morning and had some scraps of it sitting on my desk and a lightbulb went on! You can stamp an image on paper. Then pull of the paper side of the Adhes-A-Mag, adhere your stamped paper, then punch it out in a shape. Voila--a fridge magnet! I used the Fiskar's square punch on my little saying but when testing it, the SU punches worked better. This would be a great project for kids, girl scouts, little gifts for clubs, etc. Quick and easy!

Wonky Camera Today

As you can clearly see, this card looks like two different colors but it's actually the same card. The cs is a lavender. I think the one on the top is the truer color but the flower looks darker. I used yellow Stickles on the bee for a little sparkle. This Bloomin Beautiful set made it into the new catalogue. Yay!!!

3 Posts in one day....I'm on a roll!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a fun project. The bird is a Stampington template, available from their website. It was featured in the current Stamper's Sampler issue. Take a look if you get a chance. Some great designs. I just covered him with some paper from last year. I don't know if you can see it but the work "october" runs across his body. Then I used this broom and hat stamp I had. Embossed the hat with detail black EP and the Broom Rides stamp was a Michael's $1 stamp last year. Some tiny snowflakes (I thought they looked like stars) with bronze stickles in the centers. Hope you like it. Have a great evening!

Prismacolor and Odorless Turp

I decided to get serious about trying my hand at coloring with pencils and odorless turp. I can't find Gamsol in my area so at Michaels I bought something called Turpenoid Natural. It's absolutely odorless and works pretty well. I used mostly Prismacolor pencils and some Koh I Noor Woodless Pencils. It's just my first attempt but it won't be the last. Obviously this would not be a card I produced 2 dozen of because of the time spent on it. But I learned a lot and I decided to keep the presentation simple and uncluttered and let the color speak for itself.

Beautiful Green

I CASED this card from Becca at http://www.amazingpapergrace.com. I visit her blog everyday for inspiration because she is one awesome cardmaker. Her cards take your breath away. I have a 95 year old neighbor who was hospitalized this week and this card is going to her. I used SU cardstock and ribbon and SU Refuge and Strength for the sentiment. I cut the arch and the background square with Nestabilities, then embossed the square with a Cuttlebug folder and grid scored it with Score Pal. The little frill at the top is a Martha Stewart scallop punch. It's a 4 x 4 card. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Scripture Box

Don't forget to click on the pictures for larger views.

I was inspired by the scripture verse challenge on SCS and decided to do some cards myself and a box to go with it. All the cardstock is Stampin Up Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink. The DP is all Basic Grey and the embellishments came from various places. Also used the SU scallop punch, round tab punch and round punch. This was a really fun project and I had a special friend in mind the whole time I was making it. Now I love it so much I'm not sure I will be able to part with it!!! It took awhile but once your verses are researched and printed (I did that in Microsoft Word in various fonts) and computer generated, it goes pretty fast. So much fun choosing the embellishments and I absolutely love these colors...chocolate, teal, pink. A major project but so much satisfaction when it's done! Thanks for stopping by.