Catered Crop: Animal House

The current challenge at Catered Crop is "Animal House". Linda says...

We’re going to get wild with this challenge. No, it’s not a Toga party or a food fight like the 1978 John Belushi classic. Just add wild life, pets, or any animal (dogs, cats, bears . . . ) anywhere in your challenge. And party on!

I was cleaning my desk yesterday afternoon and found one lone fall stamp still in my NBUS stash.  I had worked so hard to make sure nothing "fall" had to hang out in the box for the entire year - but I missed one.  However, I wasn't feeling "fall" anymore so I took this squirrel (which included a "Happy Fall" sentiment) and put him in a winter scene.  The poor little guy's acorns were all buried with the first snow..."Oh, Nuts!"


I did glitter the sentiment to make it look a little more snowy and I'm wishing I wouldn't have done that.  I worked so hard on that sentiment and now it's not very clear.  I put together the scene with a strong memory that there was an "oh nuts" stamp in the set.  Guess what?  There wasn't.  There is a "go nuts" sentiment.  Luckily, the various sentiments all had the right letters so I cut up my teeny tiny sentiments.  I don't mind cutting stamps - but not teeny tiny letters out of various sentiments.  Anyway...I got my "oh nuts" then I messed it up with the glitter - but I most definitely was not going to line up and stamp those letters again!
I hope you play along - but whether or not you do, you must check out the Pinterest board full of animal ideas that Linda has curated.  You can head over to Catered Crop to get the link (and be sure to check back in Sunday when the entire design team shows their creations) - or here is the direct Pinterest link.  There's another week to play along so you have plenty of time!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Nuts for You
• Ink: Memento black, Copics
• Paper: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand CS and dsp
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Nuts for You dies, Lil Inkers Sentiment Flag die, Taylored Expressions Birch Tree Border die, My Favorite Things Snow Drift die

Happy Thanksgiving: Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today!! It is a day of gratitude and do you know what I am most grateful for at this moment - the fact that my husband does all of the Thanksgiving cooking!!

My card of Thanksgiving includes a wonderful sentiment - one that I most definitely could do a better job of living by.


A week or so ago, I mentioned my husband's leftover turkey soup and that I liked it better than the actual Thanksgiving.  It's also the reason that we rarely accept invitations to other's Thanksgiving meals - we wouldn't have the leftovers for the soup!  And I am going to share it here.  There's really nothing fancy about it - it's mostly just dumping in everything you have left over!

---

Leftover Turkey Soup
1 leftover turkey carcass 2 bay leaves 1 pinch marjoram 1 pinch thyme 1 pinch basil 2 Tblsp butter 3 Tblsp flour 1/4 cup rice 1/2 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cups fresh mushrooms 1 handful thin or medium egg noodles 1/2 cup chopped parsley 3 Tblsp sherry Leftover gravy, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, cranberries, etc. Chicken stock
Take all meat off the bone and set meat aside. Cover with water, add spices, salt and pepper and simmer slowly for 3-4 hours. Remove bones and strain for stock.
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in stock. (It should be 1 1/2 to 2 quarts, if not, add chicken stock). Bring to a boil.
Add rice, celery, onion and a handful of noodles. Simmer 25-30 minutes.  Saute mushrooms. Add to soup with diced turkey meat, all leftovers, and parsley. At serving time, add sherry.
Enjoy!

---

My card uses the sketch from clean&simple stamping. I've used it twice this week - it must be a keeper!

I'm also playing along with Crazy 4 Challenges Thankful theme and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes.

• Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop Fall Gratitude
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Soft Stone
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics, Papertrey Ink Soft Stone (the small shadows)
• Accessories: Hemptique white twine, Neat & Tangled Crystal Clear sequins, Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise button

Fresh Squeezed Release Week: Take a Number

It's the second day of release week at Fresh Squeezed Stamps.  Today is a basic sentiment set but with a very fun twist!

The idea of this set is basic sentiments and there are numbers for you to include within the sentiment. That way you can personalize your card or you can use different colors to highlight the number.  SO many fun options that I got a little carried away!

Do you see how the numbers can be used to personalize it?  And even though I have four cards, this just a sampling of the fun sentiments.  (I love the one that says "It's ___ o'clock somewhere" but I didn't have a good image to go with it so you don't get to see it today!)
I did pair each of the sentiments with a little flair from Breath of Fresh Flair.
Here's a close-up of each card. (I have the worst time photographing glitter - but the funky look on each "flair" is actually a little heat & emboss sticky powder then covered with glitter.)



There's a sad story with this next card.  It actually wasn't planned.  There's an entirely different sentiment in the new set Take a Number that says "you are __1__ of a kind".  Then there's a great stamp in Breath of Fresh Flair that includes four birds sitting on a wire.  Wouldn't it be cute to combine those two and then color just one of those four birds a different bright color?  That idea is actually what started my entire idea for this set of cards.  But I got a few of the others made, then reached for the bird stamps - and it is gone.  I don't know.  I've reached a certain age...maybe I had already peeled it off and then set it down and then got distracted and then set other things on top of it - and it's now stuck between pieces of paper somewhere.  I tore my desk apart trying to find those silly birds.  But I was running out of time - and I couldn't possibly show you a set of only three cards - so here's my last minute fourth card!


{I still like my bird idea better!}
Just like yesterday, there is a give-away on the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog so be sure to head over there, sign up and check out all of the other design team projects!
And be sure to bookmark the Fresh Squeezed blog and check back later in the week for some more fun!

Fresh Squeezed Release Week: Love You Penguin!

I have had some fun stamps sitting on my desk for weeks now - and I finally get to show you.  It's release week at Fresh Squeezed Stamps!

The set that is being previewed today is Arctic Friends.  It's a builder set.  You pick a body and then add eyes, nose/beak, feet, etc.  I chose to build a penguin but be sure to check out the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog to see all the cards done by design team members. There is a walrus and a bear in this set - and all of them are so very sweet!


And if just seeing the other cute animals isn't enough - there's a giveaway at the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog.  You can win this set - but you have to head over to the blog today to enter.
My sentiment comes from a different Fresh Squeezed set - it's You Said It, Sister and includes a good variety of basics. 
Be sure to come back tomorrow.  I have four cards to share using another new set! (I must have liked it!)

Clean & Simple Lawnscaping: Sounds Corny

As I got all of my Thanksgiving cards ready to mail, I realized that I had missed one very special person - my sweet 5-year old niece.  In a family of big and tall people, she is a tiny little thing - and unlike the rest of us, has very little interest in food.  So I thought the Happy Feast set from Lawn Fawn would be a fun message for her!


The layout comes from clean&simple stamping.

My choice of paper comes from the current Lawnscaping Challenge to use polka dots.

• Stamps: Lawn Fawn Happy Feast
• Paper: Simple Stories Snap Color Vibe
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics
• Accessories: Hemptique twine, Papertrey Ink Terracotta Tile button

Seize the Sketch and Merry Monday: Merry Penguins

Whew!

Card done in 16 minutes.  (That's really, really short for me - thus the reason I have never participated in the 10 minute challenges!)

One minute to spare when I got this up and uploaded to Seize the Sketch.  I posted and now I am writing the words!  (Sorry for you Feedly users - I don't think it updates so you just got a pix!!)

And the photo is a little dark - but that's what happens with one minute to spare!

It's a great sketch - I love the panel that hangs off the edges a little bit - plus it was designed by my good friend Stacey Schafer.  She's got more creativity than I could ever dream of having - I keep hoping some will rub off.  {Sigh!}  For now, I'll just content myself with playing along with her sketch!

I also managed to Heat & Stick and glitter it so I'll also be posting this to Papertrey's Make It Monday challenge!  

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Tremendous Treats: Christmas
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy, Limeade Ice, Stampin' Up Marina Mist, MME Mistletoe Magic 6x6
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow (sentiment), Versamark
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Tremendous Treats Christmas die, Stampin' Up Heat and Stick Embossing Powder, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter, My Favorite Things snowflake die

Make It Monday: Heat & Stick Snowflakes

This week's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday was a MUST-DO for me - using heat and stick powder and glitter.  I love glittering entire images and die cuts and even the entire fronts of cards for my holiday cards and Heat & Stick makes it so much easier.  PTI provides a video with instructions.  Even though I do it regularly, I watched the video and was glad that I did.  I recently had a friend struggle because her glitter wouldn't stick and I couldn't help her because it always worked for me.  The video had the answer. Did you know that if you heat the Heat & Stick for too long it loses its stickiness?  You are supposed to heat it just until it changes and no more!

I pulled out Papertrey's Snowflake Flurries because I knew that I was simply going to stamp them on circles and then glitter the entire circle.  I love the delicate look of these flakes.  The sentiment came from a newer set called 'Tis the Season.  The snowflake set does have sentiments but none of them fit on my layout.  Also, in yesterday's mail, I got my PTI package from their last release and had to use the Tilted Tops dies.  I can't believe that I paid for dies that  cut a shape that would be very easy to cut with a paper trimmer!!??  But it sure made it easy!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Snowflake Flurries, 'Tis the Season sentiments
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow, Webster's Pages It's Christmas dsp
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores, Limeade Ice, Hibiscus Burst, Smokey Shadow
• Accessories: Spellbinders Circles and Rectangles, Pearlized Crochet Thread, Stampin' Up Heat & Stick Embossing Powder, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter, Neat & Tangled Crystal Clear Sequins

25 Days of Christmas Tags: Season's Greetings

The wonderful Tracey McNeely at In My Creative Opinion is doing 25 Days of Christmas Tags!  Her work is amazing and she has doubled the fun by having guest designers each day.  Guess what?  It's my day to guest!

I realized that I don't do a lot of tags and that's definitely a mistake.  How perfect (and easy...and fun) would it be to wrap gifts in basic kraft or stone color paper and add a bright tag as decoration? I need to find a gigantic roll of basic kraft paper - maybe with monochromatic stripes or snowflakes - and then just have a tag day.  (Has anybody seen paper like that?)

In my Christmas NBUS stash are two sets by Clearly Besotted Stamps.  The first is Signature Christmas and was part of their very first release.  I fell in love with it - but, at that time, I was concerned about international shipping.  Then recently they came out with Signature Christmas Additions and with matching dies.  I've learned that CBS ships quickly and the postage is cheaper than most companies in the U.S.  So I finally own the set I fell for a year ago!

My first Christmas tag!!
Now if anybody can answer my question about basic kraft wrapping paper - here's to many more!
I'm also playing along with the Clearly Besotted Challenge with a Christmas theme.

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps Signature Christmas and Signature Christmas Addition
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Simply Chartreuse
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Limeade Ice, Hibiscus Burst, Simply Chartreuse, Smokey Shadow
• Accessories: Clearly Besotted Christmas Signature Christmas Die Collection, Reverse Confetti Tag Me die, Neat & Tangled sequins, Trendy Twine Tickled Pink, My Favorite Things Glitter Glaze (on the star)

Fresh Squeezed Stamps: #HOLIDAY FUN

I am loving the trendy look of the holiday stamps from Fresh Squeezed Stamps Hello December.  Check it out - word bubbles and a hashtag!


I love how cheerful this card is.  Personally, I am not a cheerful holiday person, at least until the evening of December 24th.  In my opinion, everything up until then is money and stress and busy-ness - but it all gets better on December 24th!  I know people who actually love everything about December, but I don't think that I am the only one who is a pre-Christmas grinch!  These cheerful stamps could bring a smile to someone who needs it, don't you think???  Or maybe I just need to frame it and keep it above my own craft desk to keep me smiling!
I hope the next month stays Merry & Bright for you and that you have continue to have #HOLIDAYFUN!!

• Stamps: Fresh Squeezed Hello December
• Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Webster's Pages It's Christmas (my fave Christmas collection of the year!), scrap of gray
• Ink: My Favorite Things Jellybean Green, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow

CAS(E) this Sketch: May Your Days Be Merry

This is my second post today.

It's time for a new sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch!  And you will plenty of time to play along as it is a two-weeker.  The link will stay open until December 5th.  So even in this busy season - Thanksgiving in the U.S. or just general Christmas/holiday preparation - you have time to play!

I'm ashamed to admit that I bought new stuff for this sketch (as if I don't do that regularly!!!)  I have been eyeing the Fill in the Blank series by Avery Elle.  Since the die matches that rectangle panel - I took it as a sure sign that it needed to be part of my collection.  I started with the holiday series, but the non-holiday series is just as fun - and they all work together. 

(There's a great "& Bright" stamp to go underneath but I was trying to stay true to the sketch!)

• Stamps: Avery Elle Holiday Fill in the Blank
• Paper: Stampin' Up Gumball Green and red glitter paper
• Ink: Stampin' Up Gumball Green
• Accessories: Avery Elle Holiday Fill in the Blank Elle-ments, Papertrey Ink Holly Jolly die, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder, Neat & Tangled clear sequins, misc red gems

Curtain Call Reminder: Looking a Lot Like Christmas!!

I was having so much fun playing with my CAS-ual Fridays Stamps as part of the joint challenge between CAS-aul Fridays and Curtain Call that I made one more.  I made three cards when the challenge started, but this card has been in my mind since then.  I love that long sentiment and wanted to use it like an ornament hanger.


The stamps come from two different sets.  The long sentiment and the poinsettia is from Christmas Carols and the circular Season's Greetings on my ornament is from Snowflake Greetings.  I love that the fonts work together to give me more options!
The theme for the current Curtain Call is CAS-ual Christmas.  You don't have to use CAS-ual Fridays stamps but you do get a chance to win a set.  You have until 8 a.m. CST on Monday, November 25th to play along!

• Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Christmas Carols, Snowflake Greetings
• Paper: My Favorite Things Jellybean Green, Webster's Pages It's Christmas 6x6
• Ink: My Favorite Things Jellybean Green, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo
• Accessories: gold cord, circle punch

clean&simple: Happy Fall Y'All

I haven't posted for a number of days...very busy getting my house ready for a large dinner last night. My husband and I don't entertain often, nor are we particularly clean and tidy people - so we have to invite people over every so often just to force us to do basic maintenance.  We painted halls and bathroom, we started a rock garden along our walkway, and about a million other little decorating/cleaning things.

Thank you so much for everybody who thought of this gathering and said a prayer.  It was a very nice evening - great conversation, lots of laughter, but only time will tell if the church's long-term interim pastor said the words that this group needed to hear.  It's been a long and difficult year at this church. A year ago - over 400 at worship, now a good week is 150, and the youth program has been hit even harder.  The group that gathered last night had all been hurt in some way - some left the church, some stayed but not happily - but all still love the church community and all still want to see it grow again. Last night was just a dinner, but it felt like a start!

I was going to skip posting again today.  I hadn't planned on making cards, rather I was going to organize and plan ahead.  One of the things that I did was look at my fall/Thanksgiving stamps in my NBUS stash - I figure I have to get them used in the next week.  With other posts already scheduled - I needed to start today to get my fall stamps used!

This is a Hero Arts set called Happy Fall Y'All (although it also a Merry Christmas stamp).  I liked it for the idea of coloring in the dots - but when it came in the mail, I realized it was much bigger than I had thought!  The current clean&simple sketch gave me room to use it.

When I saw the picture I realized that I hadn't done a very good job of blending the Copics.  I went back to fix it, the cat jumped up while I was coloring and I now have a smear across the card.  So you get to see the non-blended coloring and the original has to go in the trash.  Good thing that cat has a nice purr because this is not the first card she has ruined.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Happy Fall Y'All
• Paper: My Favorite Things Primitive White, Simple Stories Harvest Lane
• Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Copics, Versamark
• Accessories: Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles, My Favorite Things Fishtail dies, Sparkle 'n Sprinkle Chocolate Sparkle embossing powder, Hemptique Natural Twine

Deconstructed Sketch: 1-800-LUV-TRKY

I am so completely in awe of this blogging world and the people in it.  Thank you to everybody who posted loving, supportive and prayerful comments on my blog yesterday.  I laughed and cried and prayed through them - and then re-read them for my husband as his emotional support. I cannot believe how many of you have survived the same things - paint spills, the need for codeine, shopping for boulders(!) and even the loss of a church.

I wish I had words of wisdom for those of you dealing with church issues but it is so deeply painful to lose a church community, there is little wisdom to give.  I know that faith is more fundamental than the church building, yet that community is what gives us a foundation.  Sometimes the Lord seems so close - but sometimes so far away - and I need my church community to remind me that it is me that keeps Him far away.  He never leaves. You are all in my prayers.

On a much, much lighter note...

I fell in love with this mini set from Sweet Stamp Shop called Turkey Hotline.  Each of the sentiments is separate so you can used them individually, but I anted to tell a complete Thanksgiving day "story" with them.  Heat up that oven, eat that turkey, ate 2 much, never again...at least until leftovers!!!  (My hubby makes a fabulous turkey soup with every type of leftover from the meal in one pot...it's better than the actual meal!)


I've had the set for awhile, but had to jump on it when I saw the Deconstructed Sketch and realized how well it would showcase my "story"!

• Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop Turkey Hotline
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, Simple Stories I {Heart} Summer (the stripe)
• Ink: Memento Espresso Truffle, Copics
• Accessories: Lil' Inkers Stitched Squares, May Arts twine

Merry Monday: Deck the Halls

I am having one of those weeks.  Thank goodness I had pre-done most of my posts for this past week, because I was in no mood (or health) to deal with them!!

First, my kids coughed throughout last weekend and, even with extreme precautions on my part, it's my turn.  Apparently Colorado is in the middle of a whooping cough epidemic.  I don't know if that's what we have but it's a cough that's deep and nothing seems to help.  On Wednesday, my son's high school had their highest absence rate in their history.  The very worst part of it was that I missed a gathering of my favorite Colorado crafters.  I was planning to go until my husband gave me that look and asked if I thought the crafting group would ever forgive me if I spent the time coughing on them.

Second, the good news is that my husband is painting my bathroom and hallways (WAY overdue!)  We are having a large gathering of friends in my home next Tuesday and the house needs to shine.  (My house isn't a shiny kind of house so it takes a lot of work!)  I am sitting downstairs, coughing, being upset that I wasn't crafting with my friends, when I hear a thump, thump, thump and then extreme swearing coming from upstairs (very rare with my husband).  I cautiously went upstairs to check it out, and I see paint everywhere. The paint tray had slipped off, bounced down all the carpeted stairs, spewing paint everywhere, and landed upside down on the freshly shampooed family room carpet.  Bummer.  (I think I should have gone to cough on my crafting friends because I ended up scrubbing carpets!)

The final straw was our attempt to make the outside walkway look a little nicer (in advance of the Tuesday party).  We live in the country and anything we plant gets eaten by deer and rabbits.  Plus we have a dog that digs.  So the front walkway, with its supposed landscaping, has begun to look just a little trashy.  We decided to do a xeriscaped rock-garden.  Clearly, the whole xeriscaping part isn't going to happen before Tuesday - but since our guests are coming after dark, we thought some rocks and mulch and a couple of miniature pines would make it look like it would be a beautiful garden in the spring.  We spent two hours at a landscaping materials place (never, ever go rock-shopping with a geologist).  We finally picked a one ton palette of boulders.  Not small rocks - but boulders!  They weighed it, we paid for it, then it occured to us to ask when they could deliver.  Guess what?  Their truck is out of commission.  So guess what is in the back of my Suburban waiting for my men/boys to wake up and deal with this morning - half a ton of boulders - we'll get the other half on Monday!

Are you bored with my drama yet?  I'm so glad my life isn't boring - it seems to change daily - but I am blessed by the fact that every little drama is something on which I can look back and laugh!

If you've made it this far in my story - say a little prayer for my Tuesday gathering.  A church in trouble, so much so that many long-term members including my family had left. After a year many are still feeling hurt and lost, now a new interim pastor with a sincere desire to meet those who left - thus the gathering at my home.  We will need prayers.

Now...for what everybody really comes here for - a card!  Here's my attempt at this week's Merry Monday challenge.  There were a lot of requirements on this one and I carefully checked them off as I went - stripes, red and chocolate, stars or hearts.  Whew!

I realized a few weeks ago that I had absolutely no ornament dies.  I looked around and found this set just called Christmas Ornaments from My Favorite Things.  It has a coordinating stamp set too but I just got the dies.  They come with toppers and other decorations like holly, poinsettia and a little tag.  They are a good size - you can see how nicely three ornaments work on this card.

Since I was using My Favorite Things dies, I pulled out some NBUS sets - the newly released Cheerful Christmas Greetings for the sentiment, then I saw the row of stars in another Christmas set LLD Holiday Subway Art (I'm not sure inking up just the row of stars qualifies as truly using Never-Before-Used-Schtuff so you'll be seeing this set again!)

I have most definitely typed enough (can you tell that I'm avoiding the cleaning in front of me the next few days!)  Thanks for making it to the bottom.

• Stamps: My Favorite Things Christmas Greetings, LLD Holiday Subway Art
• Paper: Papertrey Dark Chocolate, Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Bo Bunny Elf Magic stripe, shiny silver and gold from my stash
• Ink: Papertrey Dark Chocolate, Stampin' Up Poppy Parade
• Accessories: My Favorite Things Ornament dies, Hemptique white twine, Studio Calico Sequin Stars

Curtain Call: A CAS-ual Christmas

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

scroll down for a Fresh Squeezed Anniversary!

It's time for a new inspiration challenge at Curtain Call!  Check out this gorgeous graphic:

photo credit:  myhomeideas.com

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is our fabulous sponsor and graciously gave each design team member one of their Christmas sets. And the Lead for this challenge will get to choose a CAS-ual Fridays stamp set of their choice! AND you can play along at the CAS-ual Fridays challenge also for another chance at winning!  

I had a very tough time narrowing down what I wanted to do for this challenge because I do have a growing collection of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.  This is probably because CAS-ual Fridays headquarters is just 5 miles down the road from my house!!  (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)  I ended up making three different cards.  This first card is the card that I used for the Curtain Call blog.   I think it best represents the challenge graphic - warm and just a bit rustic.  The set is Merry Kiss-mas and includes mistletoe, holly and about every sentiment that you can think of that would be appropriate for mistletoe and holly!



My second card uses the set Snowflake Greetings.  I liked the blue furniture and fireplace in the photo (although I went for aqua just because it feels fresher) and I noticed the snowflakes on the trees in the inspiration photo.  This set has a number of traditional Christmas greetings with snowflakes as the "O"s. The colors on this card come from Festive Friday.

Then I have one other CAS-ual Fridays Christmas set that was feeling lonely - it's Christmas Carols.  I can't say there was any inspiration from the challenge - maybe the big gold balls. Mostly, I was just having fun and I kept making cards! This set has a coordinating die called the 4-Petal die and, in their brand new release, they have a set called Wallflower that uses the same die!  I adore the sentiments in this set!

I hope to see you each creating card(s) for our CAS-ual Christmas challenge.  Even though we focused on CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, you don't need them to enter - but you do stand a chance to win them!!  The challenge is open until November 25th.  Have fun!

Addicted to Fresh Squeezed, CAS and Sketchbook!!

A few days ago, my must-make-ASAP list included an anniversary card.  The card was for a younger couple so I wanted it to be "fresh" and unique.  I was immediately drawn to the sketch at Sketchbook Saturday with the idea of a splash of hearts (see sketch below).  I was also thrilled to see that the challenge at Addicted to CAS was "Anniversary".

Then I was stuck.  I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to realize that I had just praised Fresh Squeezed Stamps for being "fresh" yet I didn't immediately go to my collection to see if I had the stamps to do an anniversary card.  Guess what?  I do!!  So I made sure that I took pictures before I mailed it - then kept it for today because it's my day to post on the Fresh Squeezed blog!

I love the Polaroid frame with its three little stripes.  It's from On Trend 2013 which also has the little sparkles that I used here.  The little people are from Breath of Fresh Flair which includes a totally fun and unique variety of stamps!  I used the sentiment from You Said It, Sister but I cut it in half so that it would fit.

If you haven't tried cutting clear stamps - try it!  It really increases the usability of the sets!  But I would highly recommend that you cut a stamp with a curve or other unique shape so that you can easily fit the stamp back together.  If you cut straight through the stamp - it becomes very difficult to line up again when you want to put it back together.  Here's a straight cut.

Can you imagine trying to get it lined up again on an acrylic block?

So cut with a curve or a squiggle so it fits back together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle!

Kim's Tip of the Day!!  Hope it helps!

CAS(E) this Sketch! Greetings

This is my second post today.  Check out 

my earlier post for a special birthday greeting!

It's time for a new sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch!

I was thrilled to be an early recipient of two new sets at Sweet Stamp Shop - sets being released TODAY!!  They're sets that allow you to create monograms - plus a ton of other fun effects.  I did do this traditional monogram type card.  I made eight of these thinking they would be very good for quick notes during the holidays.

There are a dozen or more stamps in this set to create different looks and types of sentiments.  The alphabet is Monogram Alpha and all of the fun add-ons are Monogram It.
While I was creating my monogram cards - a few other images kept "winking" at me.  I swear!!  They just wouldn't leave me alone.  So I decided to have some fun!!

Each of the images is separate so you could use them in many different ways.  Here's a close-up - can't you just see him winking?!

I do hope you play along with this week's sketch!
And most definitely check out the new release festivities at Sweet Stamp Shop!!

• Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop Monogram It, Monogram Alpha
• Paper: misc striped cardstock on first card, black on second card
• Ink: Stampin' Up Celery and Hero Arts Pale Tomato on first card, black on second card
• Accessories: Spellbinders Oval and Papertrey Fillable Frames 10 on first card, Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles and Hobby Lobby ribbon on second card

Happy Birthday Anne Marie!!

It's a birthday linky party for Anne Marie at Stampin' Anne.  We worked together when Dynamic Duos opened so I HAD to play along.  The linky is at the Dynamic Duos blog so you can see all of the birthday fun!

If you haven't spent time on her blog - you must check it out.  She does wonderful things with patterned paper.  Each element on her cards is exactly right.  They are all works of art!

Anne Marie likes pink and girly - but I didn't go that direction.  {Sorry!}  She designs for The Paper Players and for Dynamic Duos.  I wanted to honor her long-term participation in these challenges, but neither one was very girly this week.  The current Paper Players challenge at least had colors that I could use for flowers.  I also wanted to reflect her love of Stampin' Up.

Happy Birthday Anne Marie!!  I hope it's a good one!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Five-Way Flower (a single), Banner Greetings
• Paper: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip
• Ink: Stampin' Up Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Scalloped Circle punches in 2 3/8", 1 3/4" and 1 1/4" (I love how this flower layers up with the punches.  There's even one more smaller punch at 7/8" that I could have used for the center), Hemptique white twine, Clearly Beloved Sequins (my favorite for totally clear sequins - at Simon Says Stamp)