Sketch for You to Try: Thankful for You

My favorite new fall set is Forever Fall from Reverse Confetti.  (Have I mentioned lately that I love fall??!)   I used the woodgrain hearts from the set last week on this card.  The fall cards that I have made this year have a slightly different look.  I have admired other cardmaker's use of stone grays on their cards - it really makes the colors pop.  I have also been adding glitter or sequins to give the cards a frosty look.  I love the colors of fall, but I particularly love the feel and the aroma of frosty mornings!


I used Reverse Confetti's Sketch for You to Try.

Did you see my loopy twine bow?  I'm channeling my inner Stacey Schafer although I still didn't manage to be as big and dramatic.  When she was in Denver last week, she demonstrated how she uses her fingers to wrap the bow - so I thought I'd give it a try!  My acorns were looking a little small and lost - I think the bow gives them some oomph!

• Stamps: Reverse Confetti Forever Fall
• Paper: Stampin' Up Cajun Craze and Early Espresso, Papertrey Ink Soft Stone dsp, Echo Park Reflections Fall 6x6 pad
• Ink: Stampin' Up Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
• Accessories: Hemptique 10-lb white twine, Stampin' Up Heat and Stick Powder and Diamond Dust

Sweet Stamp Shop: Starts Here with Triangle Style

When Judy Marino from Judy's Card Corner asked if she could interview me for the Sweet Stamp Shop blog, I immediately said "yes"!  Judy is a lovely lady who always leaves the nicest comments. Her blog is a great one to view...she has a simple style, and she loves color!!  You'll have to check out the links to read the interview!

I've also been intrigued by stamps that I had seen by the Sweet Stamp Shop.  Among others, the set Easily Distracted is calling my name.  Do you remember the silly scene in the Disney movie where the dog keeps getting distracted by a squirrel?  For a year, my kids would suddenly look to the side, yell "Squirrel?!" and then stay completely still.  In fact, my son's 80-member 6th grade "men's" choir did it during a song and brought the house down.  Sweet Stamp Shop has an entire set that includes a sentiment that says "sorry, I'm easily distracted" and a variety of main words "Squirrel?!!", "Sale?!!", "Cupcake?!!", "Glitter?!!" and more.  I LOVE it!!!

I guess I shouldn't have told that entire story - because I don't have that set.......yet!  But I do have a fun set of words that includes fun graphic words like "totally" and "awesome" and I have a great triangle set! This first card uses the word set, Starts Here, arranged in a way to tell somebody they did an awesome job!



This card combines a couple of triangles from Triangle Style with another word from Starts Here.  This card was inspired by the mountains that I see to the west every day!  The day that I made this, it was crystal clear and I could see the layers of foothills to hills to smaller mountains to the snow-covered peaks - so I put two triangles together to create the look of these mountains.  The "epic" is for anybody who has reached a peak (literally or figuratively!)

I decided to make one more card because I really hadn't shown off the triangles.  Plus I realized that these three words could be arranged in a triangle shape!

(There are some little arrows in these sets too.  I love Maureen's card using these same sets plus the little arrows.  I love her random look although I'm sure it was carefully planned!!!)

• Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop Starts Here, Triangle Style
• Paper: Stampin' Up Smokey Slate, Cool Cabana, black and white, MME Adorbs 6x6 pad
• Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Cool Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Island Indigo, Night of Navy, Papertrey Limeade Ice, Copics
• Accessories: MME Adorbs enamel dots, Doodlebug black enamel dots, Lil' Inkers stitched rectangles

CAS(E) this Sketch: So Thankful For You

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

Remember - this is for inspiration only.  If you don't have word bubbles, check out the design team cards - there are clouds and leaves and snowflakes!

I did use word bubbles, mainly because I had finally gotten my hands on a set that seemed to have been sold out everywhere for awhile.   I love the charming creatures from Into the Woods by Lawn Fawn. I finally managed to get my hands on the stamps, dies, sequins and paper - although if I have to admit it - it took orders from three stores to get them all!  Here is the sweet fox!

Sadly, after all of that, I also have to admit that the sentiment is not even from Into the Woods.  The word bubbles do come from the coordinating die set but I cut up and used the sentiment from So Thankful, a small-sized pumpkin set.
I hope you have fun with this sketch - it's a fun one!

• Stamps: Lawn Fawn Into the Woods, So Thankful (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Tangerine Tango, Island Indigo, Papertrey Dark Chocolate, Simply Chartreuse, Lawn Fawn Into the Woods 6x6 dsp
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics, Versamark, Papertrey Dark Chocolate
• Accessories: Lawn Fawn Into the Woods dies and sequins, white embossing powder, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter (on the log - I like a little frost in my autumn scenes!)

Avery Elle: Warm Wishes

I am thrilled to be posting on the Avery Elle blog today and I get to show off the new set Let It Snow. This set is right up my alley - with a beautiful tree, cute birds, dainty snowflakes and lovely sentiments!!  I posted my first card with it here with a truly clean and simple card - it was one of the few cards that came together for me in less than 10 minutes.  I wanted a very different look for today's card and found a piece of dsp that fit that tree trunk perfectly.  This card was even simpler than the first, even though it may have a less clean look.  I love stamps that make it easy to create quick cards!

Can you believe that I only had to stamp the trees, birds and sentiment?  The paper added the holly and the blue stripes!
I know this picture has a strange, dusty look to it.  I can't tell you how many times I tried to take this picture but just couldn't quite capture it.  After I stamped the tree on the paper, I didn't think it looked Christmas-y enough so I frosted it by covering the entire front with glitter!!  Here's a close-up so that you can see the extreme glitter!

Aren't they a charming pair in their frosty tree?

• Stamps: Avery Elle Let It Snow
• Paper: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze, Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas December Daily
• Ink: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze, Memento Black, Copics
• Accessories: Heat & Stick Powder, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter, May Arts twine

Less is More: White Christmas

I absolutely could not pass up this week's challenge at Less is More - a white on white challenge with a Christmas theme!  Is there anything more perfect than an all-white Christmas card??

A recent favorite of mine (yes, I have a lot of favorites) is Clearly Besotted Stamps.  CBS is in the midst of its first birthday celebration.  I saw the first stamps from a year ago and fell in love with Signature Christmas but my excitement died when I realized they were in the UK and I was in the US.  I naively thought it would be a pain and very expensive to order. But then, as part of a design team, I got a free set!  I added a few other items into my order and it showed up faster and cheaper than some big-name US companies!!!  I've been back to order since.  My last order included a fun Halloween set, the Signature Christmas set that I had drooled over a year ago - PLUS a brand new Signature Additions set and DIES!!!

Since I am excited over the stamps and absolutely love white on white Christmas - it seemed like a good time to bring them all together!



The set obviously includes multiple patterns for the wreath - and also multiple patterns of ornaments and Christmas trees!  I'm not even going to put it away with my Christmas stamps yet - because I want to do each of them and I want to try color!!

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps Signature Christmas and Signature Christmas Additions
• Paper: Stampin' Up Shimmer White
• Ink: Versamark
• Accessories: Clearly Besotted Signature Christmas dies, Stampendous White Pearls embossing, Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing, Maya Road Sparkle Gold twine

What a Wonderful Weekend!!

I have had a truly wonderful weekend!!  A good friend in town, a dozen amazing card makers, an entire day focused on cards and fun and chatter!!  Yay for World Cardmaking Day!!  How many of these people do you recognize??





You may not recognize everybody from their bitty photos on their blogs - but I guarantee you know them all!  There's a picture of everybody with links on my Facebook page!!

Seven hours of crafting takes energy, so we were heavy on the snack food too!!

The whole event was hosted by Michelle, the creative mind behind CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.  She is a truly wonderful lady - a great hostess and an amazing talent.  I have to admit to getting a quick sneak peek of some new stuff that's coming from CAS-ual Fridays and it's going to be a great release. They started peeks today on their blog!

And to make it all even more amazing, the wonderful Stacey Schafer came in for the event (we gave her honorary Coloradan status for the day). We managed to do quite a bit of craft shopping and ate some huge meals (even after the feast shown above).  I took her to the airport early this morning so the weekend is officially over!!!

I had thought that she and I might spend a little more time celebrating over drinks - this was the first time we had met in person!!  But I totally wore out by the end of each day with all of the crafting craziness!!   I had made this card for her in advance of our wild times! (Stamps by Paper Smooches)

I also wanted to be sure to thank Michelle.  When you make a card for her you have to use CAS-ual Friday Stamps, right??

I did use the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for this card and the sequins and chevrons from the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

I did get some cards made yesterday, although less than you might think for seven hours of crafting.  But they are all for posts later in the week.  I am definitely going to take a day or two off (it's going to take me that long to put everything away that I had carted over to the event!) - I'll be back in a few!

Catered Crop: Canning Jar Recipe Swap

This week's recipe swap at Catered Crop is to use canning jars.  They can be real jars or stamped jars.  The challenge says...

For this challenge you can use a canning Jar (Mason, Kerr, Ball, etc.) and fill it, alter it, tag it, decorate it . . . what ever you want to do. Or you can create a card (or scrapbook page) with a canning jar on the card.

As usual, Linda has put together a Pinterest board full of inspiration and I almost felt inspired to alter a real jar.  But I am so firmly into paper-crafting, other types of crafts totally elude me. Luckily, there are great canning stamps out there!


It's hard to tell from photos, but this is just a tiny 3.25" card.   I've been having fun with this size lately - it's easy to put the entire focus on special stamps that might get lost on a bigger card, particularly when I tend to keep lots of white space.
Did you know it is World Card Making Day today??!!  I hope each of you gets a chance to celebrate!

• Stamps: Paper Smooches Crystal Clear, Word Salad
• Paper: MME Adorbs, PTI Smokey Shadow
• Ink: PTI Smokey Shadow, Limeade Ice, SU Smoky Slate, Hero Arts Pale Tomato
• Accessories: SU Island Indigo twine, clear sequins