A Techno Play Date!!

Sadly, I need sympathy cards for our church card ministry.  I was browsing challenges and saw soft colors at Play Date Cafe.  I paired it with the sketch at Technostamper.

These are so not colors that I would have put together, but I love how soft and gentle they are.

As I was looking through embossing folders for the first card, I found a butterfly folder that I had not yet used and thought it would look great with these colors.  It seemed a little "cheerful" for sympathy so I made it Get Well.

I also had to share some pictures of a fun moment from yesterday.  We have some very cold, snowy weather.  My oldest is in charge of taking the garbage out to the corner (which when you have 5 acres is quite a haul). He had forgotten to take it out last week so we had piles.  With his new learner's permit for driving, he decided he would load up the back of the car with trash bags and drive them out.  Made sense to us.  Somehow this is what happened...

Front end in the ditch!!  The truly inexplicable part of this is that our driveway is about 20 yards to the left of where he is, so it's not like he shot out of the driveway too fast and ended up in the ditch??!!

Then he had to come get Dad to help him.  Can you imagine how mortified he was to come tell Dad?  Of course, I grabbed my camera.  Andrew is actually walking from our driveway in this picture, so you can see how odd it was that the car is in the ditch almost by the neighbors house??!!

It turns out that after he unloaded the trash, he tried to U-turn so he didn't have to back down the driveway.  You can tell that the road is very icy - so he just slid right off!

Scott just pulled forward a little bit for traction and it came right out!  But it sure is going to be fun teasing Andrew about this over the years.  (And clearly we have to teach some snow driving!)

We are going to head up to our mountain place a little later today so I won't be back until Monday.  We are thrilled because the forecasted high in the mountains is 12F and the low is -9F.  We are a strange family that that excites us, aren't we??

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Kindness Matters (butterfly), Perfectly Penned (Get Well), All That Scraps Sympathy Sentiments
• Paper: Stampin' Wisteria Wonder, Groovy Guava, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
• Ink: Stampin' Up Wisteria Wonder, Groovy Guava, Soft Suede
• Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing (leaves), Darice embossing (butterflies), Stampin' Up embossing, (stripes on fence), Stampin' Up Scallop border punch, Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval, My Favorite Things die (leaf), misc pearls and gems colored with Copics

Technostamper is the fun challenge that lets me show you all the other entrants.  Remember, you have to go the blog if you want to enter yourself.

Splitcoast Sketch and a Sweet Chickadee

Every time that I pull out this sweet chickadee, I walk away with a smile on my face!!

Check out the "frost" on the berries.  And can you see the glossy accent on his eye!

Here's today's Splitcoast Sketch Challenge. 

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy God's Purpose
• Paper: Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel, Real Red, Silver Glimmer, Echo Park Dots and Stripes (the Sweet 'n Sassy online store carries the Dots and Stripes series)
• Ink: Memento black, copics
• Accessories: Nestabilities Fleur de Lis Square, Cuttlebug embossing folder (the actual folder is just a sprig of holly but I moved it around on the paper to fully cover), Stampin' Up Red Taffeta, Ranger Glossy Accents.

SCS Color Challenge: My Faves

I had sworn that I would not make any cards today - at least until my craft area was clean - which could easily take the hours that I have to create!  But I saw the color challenge at Splitcoast and couldn't help myself: Krafty White Pizzazz.  Kraft is so natural and Pear Pizzazz is so soft and White is so clean!
I combined the colors with this week's Fall to Layout to create this little scene.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Pennant Parade, A Muse sentiment
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, white, Silver Glimmer
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz, ColorBox Frost White
• Accessories: misc circle, scalloped circle and star punches, oval nestie (to cut the snowy hill), Stampin' Up Embossing Folder, American Craft ribbon, Making Memories bird brad,

Clean & Simple Up and Away Rudolph!

The sketch for today's Splitcoast CAS challenge is wonderfully flexible.  The sample card is rustic and as I browse the gallery I see teddy bears and snowflakes and cute little dogs!!  I went for Rudolph taking off into the snowy sky!

This is my second post for today so keep reading!!!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Reindeer Stamp & Die-Cut set, Papertrey Signature Greetings
• Paper: misc green and white, Stampin' Up Silver Glimmer Paper
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Memento Black and Copics
• Accessories: Nestabilities Scalloped Squares, Cuttlebug border snowflake folder, jingle bells, red rhinestone noses and silver twine

Freshly Made Wildflower and Thanks

Good morning everyone!  I hope that all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful and relaxed holidays!  I found myself within enough time to really think about everyone for whom I was grateful and I made sure that I called and/or made cards for them. 

This card is for a particular friend who has recently gone so far above and beyond for me. I asked her to simply "point me in a direction" and she made phone calls, did research and gathered materials!  Her own cards tend toward vintage collage.  I don't have the talent nor the supplies for that style, so I tried to base the card in my own fairly simple style but by adding a text background and some sponging on the edges, I think it takes on a vintage look.

I added a little golden shimmer on the main image and the red panel and the flower centers use a sticker that is full of glitter!

I used this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. 

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Wildflowers, Stampin' Up Tiny Tags
• Paper: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla, Black, Cherry Cobbler, First Edition dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Markers in Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke
• Accessories: Sweet 'n Sassy Lacey Eyelet Border die, Stampin' Up Artichoke Grosgrain and Tiny Tags punch, Tattered Angels Gold Glimmer Mist, Mark Richards Candy Bonbon Stickers

Less Is More: A Bit of Bling

Less Is More is SUCH a great challenge.  Mandi and Chrissie, the hosts, are full of fun ideas and their inspiration cards are always amazing.  But, even more amazing, are the entrants each week.  If you are ever stuck for clean and simple ideas - just pick any week and browse for awhile.  I am guessing that this week will be a particularly full week of entrants as the theme is...

A BIT OF 

...and who doesn't like bling!!

Check out the shine on this tree!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments: Holidays, Bitty Background Basics
• Paper: white
• Ink: Delicata Golden Glitz
• Accessories: Best Creations Red Glimmer Cardstock, Papertrey Merry & Bright dies (I don't have the coordinating stamp set but used the Bitty Backgrounds to add the patterns), misc ribbon

Papertrey November Blog Hop: Warmth & Joy

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  My husband did all of the cooking (he doesn't even let anybody in the kitchen!); my brother and his family joined us; we all ate too much and we all played* too much.  Besides the food, the highlight was viewing the photos that my brother had taken on a recent trip to Israel.  Amazingly, he stood in exact places named in the Bible as sites of Jesus' miracles!

A side story...we gave my brother his birthday card which included a wolf image.  Before opening it, he held it to his head (imagine Johnny Carson as Carnac), thought awhile and said "it's a wolf".  My jaw dropped.  It turns out they read my blog on a regular basis and I had posted it early!!!  Lesson learned...you never know who reads the blog!

Today, I am playing along with Papertrey Ink's November Blog Hop.

The inspiration photo for today's blog hop is a dream - I wish my home could look like that.  Unfortunately, I am married to a man who prefers a minimalist look to Christmas and my boys couldn't care less as long as there are presents!  But I love the photo because it is heavily decorated by still so fresh and natural.  I was inspired by the clean look of the photo, the warmth of the wood, the greenery and the dangling skates.

I used multiple Papertrey sets on this card.  The sentiment is from Stylish Sentiments: Holiday.  The pine boughs are from Bells & Boughs.  The ornaments are from Tiny Tags and the coordinating die set.  I used Bitty Background Basics to add the pattern on the white and gold ornament.

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink
• Paper: Papertrey Pinefeather, Pure Poppy
• Ink: Delicata Golden Glitz and ink to coordinate with Papertrey Pure Poppy and Pinefeather
• Accessories: Papertrey Cane Print Impression Plate, misc ribbon

*How did we define "playing" yesterday??
With the turkey tryptophan sleepiness and given many of us had colds, this was our excitement yesterday...a lot of iPad/iPod action and you can see my brother's knees and laptop as he shows us pictures of Israel!  My oldest niece discovered the app Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo - a BIG hit - and my boys loved helping/playing with her.  My youngest niece was doing a memory match game - there were 24! squares on the screen and she methodically found every match!  Amazing!!  I'd love to tell you what my sister-in-law is doing/playing but I think I will hold on to that little tidbit just in case she EVER again shows my brother his birthday card on my blog!!