His Love Reaches to the Skies

I've been toying with the idea for this card since last Tuesday.  Loved the idea...hated everything I did.

The inspiration was this week's CASology Cue Card.

The idea was simply a kite with a beautiful saying from Our Daily Bread Designs:

Your love O Lord

Reaches to the heavens

And Your faithfulness

to the skies.

Psalm 36:5

This morning it dawned on me that I was going too "expected" with my colors...using blues for the "sky".  It's not horrible but it doesn't do justice to the beautiful saying.  The kite looked plain - I tried gems and buttons and bows...but nothing worked.

I've recently had blog friends use black as the ocean, and another did a purple sun, and another used a red background to a winter tree (obviously you should go blue or lavender with snowflakes!!??)  Unexpected touches that really made the cards.  So I went hunting for a color combo that I liked and landed on the second Fab Friday challenge.

What an elegant color combo!  And I was thrilled to play along because I also played along with their VERY first challenge two weeks ago!  So here's what happens when I put a gray, tan and yellow kite in the sky.  It added the elegance and uniqueness that I was missing.

I did add a coating of glitter to the gray part of the kite and a few gems to give it the sparkle it deserves! My apologies to the ladies at Fab Friday.  They are all Stampin' Up demonstrators and, other than the paper, I didn't use anything Stampin' Up.  They don't require Stampin' Up so I am entering this anyway.   But I do want to thank them.  I had sort of ignored my Stampin' Up stamp collection for awhile, but then I made a Stampin' Up card for their first challenge and since then, I have made seven more!!

• Stamps: Our Daily Bread Faith, Papertrey Ink Up, Up and Away (kite string)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Sahara Sand, So Saffron
• Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Sahara Sand (kite string)
• Accessories: My Favorite Things kite die, Close To My Heart Bitty Gems, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter

A Dynamic Duo Halloween

This week's challenge at Dynamic Duos is Lucky Limeade and Black with the option of Halloween!!  It's cold, gloomy and rainy today while I am making this card - so Halloween was a MUST!

You HAVE to check out the rest of the cards from the design team.  The cards are not all Halloween and there are some stunning uses of these colors.  Then create your own and link it up - we LOVE seeing your creations.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Bootiful Occasions
• Paper: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, black and white
• Ink: Versafine black
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Apothecary Accents dies*, Michaels brand Glitter Tape, Stampin' Up Limeade ribbon, Martha Stewart web punch, Papertrey Ink Chartruese button, misc twine

*I had envisioned the use of the die on this card and was sad when I realized the actual die was too narrow for the image.  So I cut a strip of paper to the correct width and then used the Apothecary Accents die to cut the top.  You have to roll it into your machine, with the top first, until you just feel resistance or else the die will start cutting the narrower vertical lines also.

Sweet 'n Sassy Fall Frenzy

I LOVE fall!  I love the cooler temperatures.  I love the colors.  I love the crispness in the air - everything seems clearer.  So I was absolutely thrilled when Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps came up with the following idea...

Hello stamping friends!!  We are so excited about Fall arriving

soon that we've decided to celebrate the season with a 

Fall Frenzy Blog Hop & Virtual Stamp Day!

The Design Divas have created some fabulous eye candy for you featuring our wonderful selection of Fall stamps so we hope you'll hop along with us today!

Be sure not to miss a single stop along the way because we'll be drawing one lucky commenter from a random DT blog to win a $25 credit to the store!!

Here's the list of blog participating in today's hop: 

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog

Monika Davis

Jessica Fick

Cathy McCauley

Mary Faus

Kim Singdahlsen <===You are here

Bridget Finlay

Dina Kowal

Jennifer Ingle

Kim Schofield

Ceal Pritchett

Giovana Smith

Jennie Harper

Korin Sutherland

When you're done hopping be sure to join us for a fun day of challenges over in our Splitcoaststampers forum.  We're giving away some fun prizes, too, so don't miss it! We look forward to seeing your fabulous Fall creations!

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When we do blog hops or new stamp releases, we get to pick the stamp sets that we want to share.  I saw the list of fall stamps that we were showcasing and the one that I picked instantly was Sweet Pumpkin because I knew I would make cards for a very special young lady - my youngest niece.  Check out this smile and then you'll see how totally perfect these grinning pumpkins are!

I'm not sure which is cuter?!!  Oh...who am I kidding?  I am the luckiest auntie on earth to be the recipient of this little girl's smiles and hugs!  (But these pumpkins are also pretty darn cute!)

Then I have another very sweet set to show you - Autumn Lovin' Cocoa.  This a very cute set with Cocoa Mouse - but I used very rich colors and papers to create a surprisingly elegant card! Isn't Cocoa a nice surprise peeping over all of those rich autumn colors?! I hope you enjoyed my peek at autumn.  Next on our hop is Bridget Finlay.   Enjoy the hop, then join us for a Virtual Stamp Day in the Sweet 'n Sassy Forum over at splitcoaststampers.  There are new challenges every two hours starting at 10 a.m. EST.  (I have created the first challenge so I hope to see you there!!) Sweet Pumpkin:

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Sweet Pumpkin
• Paper: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade CS, Pumpkin Pie dsp
• Ink: Memento black and copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Scallop border punch, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder, misc twine
• Challenges: Freshly Made Sketches One Year Anniversary to use any past sketch

Autumn Lovin' Cocoa:

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Autumn Lovin' Cocoa
• Paper: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler, Reminisce Autumn Plaid
• Ink: Memento Black and copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler ribbon, Brushed Bronze Buttons, Linen Thread

BE Unique for BE Inspired

Today is the day for a new BE Inspired challenge over at The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS).  Today we are heading into the fall season with this fun inspiration photo:

I saw all the pumpkins and remembered a sketch that I had originally looked askance at - how exactly does someone add 15 little images to a card??!!

This is how...

I just love the idea of all of these identical little pumpkins with a few unique ones tucked in!!
Check out the TAWS Blog for all of the creative ideas from the rest of the design team - then join in and link up!!  Here's the fine print...

• You must use one of the Alley Way Stamps but don't worry if you don't have any we have freebies you can use in our Freebies section of the blog :)

• Prizes.. we have to have prizes for all the effort put into it right? .. 1st place will be hand picked by me.. will receive 1 free stamp sets of their choice, and a badge to proudly display on their blog.
• Random winner.. we will have one random winner, who will receive 1 free stamp set of their choice, and a winners badge to proudly display on their blog.
• Feel free to upload your projects to our Creation BLVD. Flicker group for your chance to be spotlighted on the TAWS blog or our Facebook page where each month someone is randomly drawn for a stamp set of their choice!

Here is our BE Inspired logo for you to use, we would love it if you added it to your blog :)

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Ghoul-Friend, Talk to Me (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla, Pumpkin, Black, MME Haunted
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pumpkin, Black
• Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Martha Stewart Halloween twine 

Sophisticated Spooks

I have officially decided that I am going to use Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio (MDS2) for scrapbooking.  My decision is so final that last week, I loaded the entire back end of my Suburban with all of my scrapbook papers, etc. and donated it all to Kasey's Krafts - a wonderful organization that creates craft kits for use by parents and kids during lengthy chemo sessions.  (Kasey is a charming little girl who has been through four rounds of chemo in her eight short years of life.  Her mom, sister, grandma and great-grandma create all of the kits.  I can connect you with any of them if you would like more info.)

I absolutely love what I have seen done with My Digital Studio (check out Heather's blog) and I know that is the only way I will ever get my scrapbooks done.  I figure I get enough hands-on crafting with cards, so can go digital with scrapbooks. But I loved this week's MDS downloads and I thought they were perfect for a "vintage Halloween"-loving friend, so tried a card!

It does look very dimensional, but in reality everything is printed except for the ribbon, button and three little gems in the lower left! My layout comes from Try Stampin' On Tuesday.

• Digital Product: MDS2 Sophisticated Spooks, Decorate Overlay Flourish Collage
• Accessories: Stampin' Up ribbon (from current mini), Kraft Corduroy button (retired), misc gems, crochet thread

What's Up Ghoul Friend??

It is my day to post over at The Alley Way Stamps blog.  I am absolutely in love with the new set Ghoul-Friend.  I have already shown the charming Mr. Frankie some love on this post.  Today, I wanted to bling out Ms. Mummy!


My ghoul-friend got some help from Sketch Frenzy Friday:

And from Pals Paper Arts:

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Ghoul-Friends
• Paper: Stampin' Up Elegant Eggplant CS and dsp, Lucky Limeade dsp
• Ink: Black, Stampin' Up Elegant Eggplant (the bat), copics for highlights
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Pumpkin Taffeta, Scallop border punch, gems colored with copics, Crystal Effects on the eyes

A Season Full of Bountiful Blessings

This is my second post...it's just a short 

scroll down for embossing with CAS-ual Fridays.

I think that the colors at this week's colourQ challenge are about the strangest group of colors that I have ever seen.  Who puts Cameo with Burgundy or, even worse, Starfruit with Saffron?  Admittedly, the blouse in the photo is cute...but this is still a seriously odd combination.  (Sorry, Arielle!!!)

But somehow it still got my creative juices flowing.  I saw a beautiful sentiment in the burgundy, surrounded by simple flowers or silhouettes.  I checked out the sketch from splitcoaststampers and thought it could all work - as long as I kept a lot of white to offset the colors!!

I like it!  Thank you to colourQ for the challenge!!

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Blessings & Thanks, Nature Silhouettes
• Paper: Stampin' Up So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, Cameo Coral
• Ink: Stampin' Up Bravo Burgundy (sentiment), Summer Starfruit and Cameo Coral (flowers), So Saffron (sponged on edges)
• Accessories: Stampin' Up scallop border punch, white taffeta