It's Fall About You

I am so loving fall colors and the new set by The Alley Way Stamps called It's Fall About You is the PERFECT set to use these colors...


I had to use these colors from the color throwdown - isn't that inspiration photo amazing!

And I used these week's sketch from Technostamper.

Card details at the bottom of this post.

I have had the busiest weekend.  We spent all day yesterday on hard stadium bleachers, in the Colorado sun, watching my son compete in marching band.  This is the 6'4", 200+ pound son whom I have told you about in the past - "Are you sure you're not a football player??"  Nope - THIS is what he does...

He's the saxophone looking right between the drums.  

I am so proud of him.  Just last week, in Theology class, they were discussing stereotypes.  The teacher looked at Andrew and said "Just look at Andrew...you would think football...but NO...marching band!!"  In my day, I would have crawled under my desk at being a band geek.  But my son owns who he is and is extremely proud of being in the band!  (And the teacher knew that about him - it was a PERFECT example of stereotypes)

He's almost right in the center looking VERY serious. Their show started with them all marching in the old-fashioned style, fife and drum style...

Then they broke into a funky rendition of Katy Perry's Firework...
They were extremely upset that they didn't make the finals of the competition (top 12), but when we saw the final scoring - they scored 5th in group musicality!!  I am guessing they will be drilling their marching even harder over the next few weeks before the next competition!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps It's Fall About You, sentiment is from Cover Up
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Summer Starfruit CS, Pumpkin Pie and Sahara Sand dsp
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie Taffeta, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder

As You Wish: Boo to You

It's just a short scroll down for Dynamic Duos!

I was thinking that I was done with Halloween cards, but as I was spending an exciting Friday night sorting through my digital images, these eyes from As You Wish Designs kept following me...


I also knew that I had this fun Authentique paper in my Halloween stack and knew they would be a good fit.
I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

• Stamps: As You Wish Designs Card Quotes Word Art 3 (in the Hybrid section)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Tangerine Tango, Papertrey Ink Fine Linen, Authentique Enchanted Collection "Glowing"
• Ink: none
• Accessories: Memory Box spider, Papertrey Ink Fine Linen ribbon and Linen/Canvas Impression Plate, Spellbinders squares and circles

Dynamic Duos: Cherry Plus One

This week's Dynamic Duos is a Mix and Match week - we pick one color and you get to pick the second color.  This week's color is Cherry...although by looking at my card, you might think it is Pool Party!!

I love the richness of the cherry against the soft background.  There's lots of sparkle on this card also which is somewhat easier to see in this close-up.  I put a little dab of sparkle on every snowflake and across many of the branches.

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team - there's an amazing variety of cards this week!!  Then create your own using Cherry plus one other color and link it up.  We love to see what you have created!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Through the Trees, the sentiment is actually from a Sweet 'n Sassy set that I have just realized hasn't even been released yet - check back on October 11th for a full preview of the set
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pool Party
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Glitter Glue, Cherry Cobbler twine and embossing folder (retired), Spellbinders circle and lacy circle

Santa's Christmas Wish

I was playing at my friend's house again - the one with the massive Stampin' Up collection.  Everything on this card is hers - except I had to come home and add the twine!!


I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Christmas Wishes, Petite Pairs
• Paper: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Polka Dot Parade dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Old Olive
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Bitty Banner Die, Delicate Designs Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart twine

There's a New Sketch in Town....

It's just a short scroll down for the TAWS Blog Hop!!

There's a new sketch challenge in town...

and it's CAS (Clean And Simple)!!

Two of my favorite things in one place!

Check it out here!!!

Then it gets even more exciting for me...I am on the design team!!

The excitement for you is checking out the rest of the design team (just click on the above link).  If you love CAS and you love browsing blogs and ooohing and aaahing over amazing creations, this is a group of ladies that you need to follow!  I have been following and getting inspiration from many of them even before we gathered for this design team - and those that I hadn't discovered yet immediately went into my blog reader.  I spent an enjoyable few hours catching up on their work.

You do have a short wait before you can play along - the first challenge goes live at 8 a.m. Mountain Time (10 Eastern) on October 11th.

See you then!

TAWS New Release Blog Hop

It's one of the special days of the month...the new release blog hop for The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS)!!

I am definitely hopping today...


Check out that face.  He could be angry, or surprise or confused.  I'm not sure how I am going to use this - probably for some nasty "you're not really old" birthday card!!  The frog comes from a new set called Kid 'n Caboodle which is the same type of set as Priceless Joy.
Another new set this month is called Trees Company - trees and birds...could it get any better??  I used a few of the "pieces" to put together this little scene. 
The colors on both cards come from Papertrey Ink:  Aqua Mist, Limeade Ice, Summer Sunrise and Kraft.
I used the third new set on Monday's sneak peek post - this set includes my favorite little turkey BIGGED!  I love him so much!!
Here's all the official details on this blog hop:

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!! YEP!! So if you want that person to be you.. all you have to do is comment on the hop! 

Here are ways you can win.. You can pick and choose which ones you want to do.. but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.. 

1-Comment on The Alley Way Stamps Blog

2-Comment on the DT girls blogs (below)

3-Post about it on facebook or your blog

4-Like us on Facebook

(leave a seperate comment for each that you do)

 You have until September 30th by 9:30 PM TAWS time to leave comments.

Here are the DT Blogs to visit

Alison
Annette
Arielle
Audrey
Danielle
Jessica
Kim <===You Are Here
Lyndal
Tracy

The layout on the frog card is the Fall to Layout from clean&simple stamping.

The layout on the bird card is from iSpy Sketches.

Have a great hop!!

Sweet 'n Sassy Season of Blessings

I love the graphic leaves and the fun fonts in the Sweet 'n Sassy Leaf Silhouettes set.  I layered one of the leaves with one of the sentiments for this simple, yet interesting effect...

The layout comes from the current sketch challenge at the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge blog.  I love all of the flags heading different directions - it's such a festive look!

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Leaf Silhouettes
• Paper: Stampin' Up Orchard Harvest dsp, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Island Indigo CS
• Ink: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso
• Accessories: Spellbinders dies, MFT Fishtail Stax, Stampin' Up Rasberry and Vanilla ribbon, Queen & Co. Twinkle Goosebumps

CASology: Shoe

Such a simple word for this week's CASology challenge, but a fairly strange word for a card challenge..."shoe".  I have had Stampin' Up's Bootiful Occasions sitting on my desk waiting for the perfect use and I think this is it.  (Boots are shoes, right??)

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Bootiful Occasions
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores
• Ink: Memento black, Copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores buttons, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder, Stampin' Up Apothecary Accents die and glitter glue, misc twine

Owl Always Love You!!

This is my second post today.  It's just a short

scroll down for a very sweet turkey!!

I jumped on the Washi bandwagon with the purchase of two tapes - a woodgrain tape and a clouds/heart tape.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them - two lines with wood for the base and a sky above it.  Have I done it?  Not yet.  So when I saw that today's CAS Challenge at splitcoaststampers was a sketch that included two lines along the bottom - I was going to make it work no matter what!!


(I'm looking at this photo and realizing that I overcorrected in Photoshop - IRL the coloring doesn't look so blotchy!)

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Owl Be Here
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pool Party
• Ink: Memento Black and Copics
• Accessories: Washi tape from Love My Tapes, Sweet 'n Sassy cloud die, misc heart punches

Sneak Peek: Tom Turkey has been BIGGED!

Last week, I said that one of my favorite stamps from The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS) has been "bigged" and today I get to show you a sneak peek!!!


Isn't he totally charming??!!  He originally showed up in the set Cover Ups but in a mini version.  I was thrilled when I saw him in this big size in the upcoming set It's Fall About You so I can showcase him!!    There are sneak peeks on the TAWS blog this week for the three new sets being released for October, then a blog hop on Thursday.  After that - YOU too can buy Mr. Turkey in his new big size!
To make him interesting (as if he needed to be more interesting) - I cut out three of his tail feathers and gave them a little curve.  Here's a close-up:

Be sure to check out the TAWS blog - there is a prize at the end of sneak peek week!!

I got help for this card from unscripted sketches (turned on its side)

And, the idea for the knot embellishment came from the Catered Crop challenge to use a knot.  This knot came directly from a list of ideas that they had on their post.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps It's Fall About You
• Paper: Simple Stories Harvest Lane
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink button twine, MME Miss Caroline Decorative Brads

CASology: Reindeer in White

OK - I JUST posted an all white card.  But I had this cute little reindeer punch and I had all the white paper and snowflake folders on my desk - so I had to do another one!

This is for CASology:

And retrosketches:

I am also going to submit to the Simon Says...Emboss It challenge.

• Stamps: Memory Box
• Paper: white and glitter white
• Ink: Stampin' Up Going Gray
• Accessories: Cuttleubug snowflake border (done around each edge) and snow folder, Quickutz tree die (very old!), Fiskars reindeer punch (brand new!), Spellbinders flag die

CASology Joy in White

Did you miss me?  You didn't even know that I was gone, did you?  I have been away for four days babysitting those charming nieces that I mentioned last week.  (For the first time ever, I got cards made in advance and scheduled posts for while I was away!)

But now that I am back, I am hurrying to get a card made for CASology because I haven't missed a week yet.  (I'm going to have to miss one at some point because I don't craft well with the stress of HAVING to do something!!  However, this week is NOT the week that I am missing because I love the challenge - ALL white!)

I got some new dies (turns out my nieces' house is just a few miles from an Archivers!) and wanted to include them on a wintery white card.  They are quite big and I was struggling with how to do it.  I went browsing challenges and, as usual, a challenge came to my rescue...the sketch at Pals Paper Arts!

(I apologize for the shadows on this picture - I have never figured out how to show embossing without keeping shadows)

I did add some glimmer spray to the letters to make them stand out a bit more...

I am also going to submit to the Simon Says...Emboss It challenge.

• Stamps: none!
• Paper: white
• Ink: none!
• Accessories: Cuttlebug snow folder and snow border folder, Lifestyle Crafts stripe folder and JOY dies, Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist, Stampin' Up sizzlit snowflake strip, crochet thread, Making Memories shimmer white brads

The First Snow

I love this week's monochromatic colors at Dynamic Duos.  The soft colors reminded me of a misty forest when the snow first starts to fall.


Here are the first few snowflakes...

I used this week's Merry Monday sketch.

And I'm going to enter this card into the Simon Says Stamp: Emboss It challenge.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Dynamic Duos design team has done with the colors - it's a gorgeous gallery!!  Then try it yourself and head over to link it up...we love to see what you have done!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Trees Three, Labelicious
• Paper: Stampin' Up Always Artichoke
• Ink: Stampin' Up Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Embossing folder, Stampin' Up Label Punch and celery ribbon, Martha Stewart Snowflake border punch and Crystal Fine Glitter

The Spider and the Web

I have had so much fun with Ghoul-Friend by The Alley Way Stamps this month, that I am almost sad that this is my last post before myself and the rest of the design team move on to using the October release.  (I'm not that sad...I've seen the October release...my favorite small TAWS image has been "bigged"...yeah!!!...check back next week!)



This was supposed to look like a spiderweb wreath.  I'm not sure the wreath part comes through?!  But I still love the little eyes peeking from the inside.  The bow is a 10 cent bandana from Hobby Lobby.  I just ripped strips to tie into bows.
The sketch came from Tuesday Morning Sketches.

I am also entering at Simon Says Stamps: Emboss It as the background is dry embossed and the web and the spider are heat embossed.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Ghoul-Friend
• Paper: Stampin' Up Black, Crumb Cake, Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise
• Ink: Versamark
• Accessories: Stamp'n Stuff Starry Night Embossing Powder, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle dies, Halloween bandana

A Play Date with TAWS

Two of my favorites are getting together: The Alley Way Stamps is posting the Play Date Cafe!!

The colors in the Play Date inspiration seem very modern and bold to me, so I tried to step a little out of my comfort zone...a very little.  I kept a LOT of white, then used these bold colors in my little "cameo".

I originally just had the little cameo by itself in the corner and it was getting lost.  So I remembered this week's Less Is More challenge of "ovals".  I added a row of orders as a border.  I like the concept, but I should have popped them or something as it gets a little lost.

I am also entering at Simon Says Stamp: Emboss It as this card includes dry embossing and heat embossing.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Awesome Blossom
• Ink: Versamark
• Paper: Stampin' Up More Mustard, Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz
• Accessories: Creations Unlimited Teddy Bear Embossing Powder (brown), Sparkle White Detail Embossing Powder (no name on jar), misc sheer ribbon, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate Twine, Stampin' Up Oval and Scalloped oval punch, gems colored with Copics

Quarterback...or Kicker??

My youngest child cannot decide whether to try out for quarterback or for kicker on his middle school touch football team.  (It sounds like he would prefer not to tackle nor be tackled on a regular basis!?)  I made a quarterback card here and I thought I better have a kicker card ready.


I really had no idea what the little "peg" stamps were in the Touchdown set by The Alley Way Stamps. So I used the pair of short ones for grass and the long one for a kicking tee.
I started out with school colors on this card but the red and blue with the green grass was not working.  So I browsed current challenges and found CAS-ual Fridays...black, white plus one.  I love the way it worked out!

Then I originally had the sentiment along the grass but the card seemed bottom heavy - so back to browsing challenges and found this week's at The Paper Players...CAS plus pennants.  Yeah!!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Touchdown
• Paper: Stampin' Up Gumball Green CS and dsp, Black dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Gumball Green, Memento black
• Accessories: MFT Fishtail Flag Stax

An Autumn Anniversary

My brother and his wife have an anniversary coming up soon.  As soon as I saw this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge, I knew it would be perfect for their card.

The black and white is perfect for them.  They have family photos and photos from their travels on their walls - all in black and white.  It's a wonderful look.  They had their wedding in the autumn and used fall colors so I wanted to honor that with a little orange.  

The three panels on this week's retrosketch were perfect for Papertrey Ink's Take Three die.  I have all of the seasonal sets that go with the die - and, funny enough, I used the winter stamps for this fall card!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Take Three: Winter, Tag-Its 5 (sentiment)
• Paper: black, Black Market Paper Ebony and Alabaster
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Canyon Clay
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Canyon Clay satin ribbon and button, misc twine, Cuttlebug dot embossing folder

CAS Challenge: Leaves on Pinterest

Today's Clean & Simple Challenge at splitcoaststampers is a Pinterest inspiration challenge.

Isn't it gorgeous??

I die cut a number of leaves out of patterned paper and cardstock and then laid them onto a rectangle to replicate the print as a whole.  My picture does not do a great job of showing my water drop inspiration - I spritzed the cardstock leaves leaving puddles of shimmer.  (You can kind of see the splotchy part, but sadly the shimmer doesn't show!)

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Blessings & Thanks
• Paper: Stampin' Up Cajun Craze, Papertrey Ink Fine Linen, K&Company Alleghany Plum
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate
• Accessories: Sweet 'n Sassy Season of Change Leaf Dies, Papertrey Ink Rustic Cream Button Twine and Dark Chocolate Button, Rectangle Spellbinders