Hang in There

I loved this set from Clear Dollar Stamps as soon as I saw it. When I was a little girl I actually had a pet squirrel for a short time. My dad found a little baby that had been abandoned and he brought it home. We fed it with an eye dropper and everything. Squirrels really don't make great pets though. I remember him jumping out and onto people's legs as they walked down the hallway. A couple of times of that when you have shorts on and Mom and Dad get a little upset. Anyway, I have always enjoyed watching squirrels scamper about and jumping from tree to tree.

This squirrel is from the Just Nutty set from Clear Dollar stamps. I stamped him with Brilliance Black ink and colored him with Koh-I-Nor pencils. I used a little OMS to help smooth out the coloring lines. The sentiment was stamped with CTMH Chocolate ink. I think I made this card as much for me as anyone else, the past couple of weeks have been a little crazy. All the papers are from DCWV.

Thanks so much to everyone that has been leaving me comments, I really enjoy reading them!

Stamp Something Challenge

This week the challenge at Stamp Something was to stamp something! This week's challenge was issued by Kim from My Favorite Things. This is one of my favorite stamps from MFT. Sadly, this is not one I own. Yet. I love crafting with my friend Angela who is so kind to share with me. I love all of them but this one is at the top of the list. I colored the image with a mix of Prisma markers and Copics. The snow on the ground and on the snowman is some glitter that I got at Hobby Lobby's Make it Christmas area last year. It is so thick and chunky that the only thing I like it from is snow. I covered the ground and the snowman with Glossy Accents and then poured glitter on the ground and then lightly sprinkled the snowman. The snow falling from the sky is Liquid Applique, as are the snowman's arms and his chunks of "coal". All the paper is from DCWV. The snowflake brads are from The Paper Studio. Thanks for looking at my card!

Samantha really enjoys looking at my blog. She is six and thinks it is amazing that she can see things in the craft room and then also see them on the computer. I think she checks out my blog more often than anyone else and it is one of the first things she wants to do when she comes in from school. She spent most of the day with us on Saturday and this is her treasure box that she made. We got the real shells at HL. She mixed about six different colors to paint her water and we also used some die cut fish. Now she will be happy to see her artwork on here!

Just for you

The weekend is here! I was off work today so mine started a little early. My Fridays at work are usually slow, so as long as I have not had a crazy week I am off. But the couple of months have been full of crazy weeks so I have needed to work every Friday to stay caught up. This week wasn't quite as bad so I got the day off. I did very little. I did get up and make Kip his favorite breakfast: sausage gravy and biscuits. I usually do that mainly on holidays, if we are off on a Monday, but I decided having a Friday off warranted a special breakfast this week. I made this card for the ways to use it challenge on SCS. You could make anything but you needed to use a charm. I have had these charms forever and am no longer sure who made them. I used the Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls embossing folder on the pink paper and them trimmed it down to show the white on the card. I cut out a white oval scallop and a pink oval scallop with Marvy punches. The sentiment is from a set that came with something else and think they are from Color Bok. I used CTMH Blush ink to stamp the sentiment and to ink the edges of the pink scallop. Not sure of the maker of the ribbon either, it was also from my stash. I am trying to use up a bunch of stuff that has been here for a while. Have a great weekend.

Changito Mummy Card

Good evening! I love these Changito stamps by Stampendous. Hobby Lobby has stamps on sale this week and I went in to grab a Thanksgiving stamp for our card class next week and this one just had to be taken home too. So did the the one with Changito dressed as a vampire. I really hadn't planned on getting more Halloween stamps but I couldn't resist. The Hobby Lobby near me had several new stamps, they were putting out new Cuttlebug embossing folders, Nestabilities and some other Spellbinders products. Every week I go in there lately, it seems like they have added something new. Yes, I go there almost every week. Kip says going to Hobby Lobby or Jo-Anns's with me is like going to Cheers with Norm, they know me by name at both places.

Anyway, about tonight's card: I used the sketch from today's Sketch Challenge over on SCS. The image was stamped with Brilliance black ink and colored with Prismacolor pencils. I colored the wrappings with white and then went over that slightly with a gray pencil. The Trick or Treat is from a Studio G Halloween set. All the paper is from The Paper Studio. I inked the edges of the stamped image with CTMH gray ink. Thanks for stopping by!

Let it Snow

I know, I know, today is only the first day of fall and so there shouldn't be snowy cards yet. I am really trying to get all my Christmas cards done on time and so far I am closer than I have ever been to meeting that goal. This stamp is from TAC and is called Let it Snow. I stamped it with Brilliance ink and then went over the trees with the black Glaze pen and the snowflakes with the clear one. Then I used Liquid Applique and Fun Flock for the snow. The background piece of blue paper was embossed with the Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder. I painted the embossed image with Oyster Twinkling H20s. I really need more of those paints! All I have is the iridescent set (sad face goes here) and there are so many beautiful colors available. I used these for the first time when I went to Indiana and visited Papertrix. It was love at first sight, with both the store and the paints!

Here is another thing I have gotten done in the quest to organize my craft space. This shoe organizer is perfect to hold my Marvy punches. Wow and right now they are even organized by shape and size. I am haven't got the the other blue ones yet. This hangs on the closet door that is right behind my craft desk. Yellow is my favorite color and I happened to find this at Jo-Ann's for 75% off! Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Another Halloween Card

I always love Halloween as a child (and truth be told, as an adult too). I remember always having so much fun planning for my costume and eating all my candy. What was your most memorable costume? I remember when I was maybe 8 or 9 or so we had gotten costumes, I can't even remember what they were supposed to be, but mine was yellow I think and maybe my sister's was green. It had a poncho type thing that covered your body and matching face paint. And an inflatable headpiece! You blew it up and put it on like a bonnet. We dressed up every year and mom would take up around to all the relatives to trick or treat. Crazy what we remember about our childhoods. I think I have more Halloween Stamps than anything else. This little "Frankie" is from TAC's Happy Haunting set. I stamped it with Brilliance ink and colored it with Prisma markers. Then I went over it with Glaze pens from Sakura. I really like those pens. I accidentally got a black one when I thought I was getting a plain black gel pen at Jo-Ann's one day. I ordered a set of 12 different colors from TAC recently. It gives your writing or coloring a slightly raised and glossy look. The paper is from The Paper Studio and the ribbon is from HL. I used a white gel pen to draw in the stitching.

I have been working off and on trying to rearrange my craft space. I have the desk area done. I am also almost finished transferring my stamps to CD cases. That has really taken much longer than I thought it would. I was going to try and finish it tonight but I ran out of the cartridge that goes in my label maker. I didn't feel like going out so I stopped. I took a couple of photos:

This is my craft desk I have several craft interests, it's not all stamping stuff. A lot of things can be used no matter the craft so it is all in one area now. I love those hardware containers for all my little things. I have everything in there. On top I have other bins to hold my bigger stuff. Under that I have my Big Kick (yea! it finally has a home on the desk), my BIA, acrylic blocks and a couple of other odds and ends.

When I am sitting at the desk this is to my left and now houses all of my coloring options. I love that divided storage for my markers. I got it at Big Lots. I only bought two of the cubes but really needed a third. My friend Angela had one and gave it to me! Three works perfect. My coloring pencils are beside there in the box and in the leather case. My water based markers are behind there too.

And finally, here is my CD stand that is now stamp storage. It rotates and holds just as many on the other side. Now, the things that I use the most often are within easy reach. I am still working on the shelves in the back part of the room and will post them when I have it done. It really isn't that big of a space and one day when it is all together I will post a picture of the room so you can get a sense of the size. Thanks for stopping by tonight and have a great week!

Love and Laughter

I hope everyone has had a great start to their weekend. I know I was really ready for the weekend to finally be here. I have spent most of the day working around the house, mainly in my craft room. I am still working on reorganizing and sorting through everything and moving my stamps to CD cases. It was getting a little late and I realized I had spent all day organizing and none of it crafting. Here is the card I made tonight. I just love fall colors. This paper is from DCWV's Fall Stack. The stamp is from TAC's Love and Laughter set. I have a thing for trees. I loved this set the moment I saw it. To finish it off I added a round metal clip and tied some wine colored ribbon on it. The image was stamped with CTMH Autumn Terracotta ink. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

It's Almost Friday!

I am so glad the weekend is almost here. Finally. We don't really have anything planned so I plan to spend a lot of time relaxing and doing nothing except maybe some stamping. Homework was rough tonight so I didn't have a lot of time in my craft room. I forgot how much I dislike fourth grade math! I did manage to get this card done though. The paper is Daisyd and the cardstock is DCWV. I ran a strip of paper through my Big Kick with the CB Swiss Dots embossing folder. The cardstock has a white core so I ran some sandpaper over the dots to bring out some of that white.I used a circle punch to take off the corners of the DP and the stamped image. The stamp is from See D's and was stamped with CTMH Heavenly Blue ink, and then I put UTEE on the image and heat set that. It is hard to see in this picture but it is nice and shiny. Each of the four corners also has a decorative accent in it.

Here is what I spent most of my craft time on tonight. This was Samantha's project for this week. Flat Stanley came to each child's home for the week. Stanley was supposed to go to work with a parent and document his week in photos. This was a family project and the girl's mom always lets me do the crafty projects. This is what we came up with. I used my Bind it all to make the book and then used the same paper as above to decorate the cover and added the Flat Stanley that Samantha colored. Then Samantha and her mom put in al this pictures and the descriptions. Have a great Friday!

Almost the Right Colors

I was looking at the color challenges on SCS today and the colors were Real Red, Basic Gray and Always Artichoke. I don't have any SU paper so I looked up the colors in my catty and found close substitutes. But I couldn't think of anything that would include all three of those colors. I played with a couple of different ideas and layouts but everything I tried just looked off. And a little weird. I don't think the green that I picked was a close enough match or something. So I decided to use only two of the colors and came up with this. I do love red, gray and white together. The flower is from SU and the sentiment is from CTMH. Both are stamped with Brilliance ink and the flower was colored with Prisma Markers. Cardstock is DCWV and the brads are from Paper Studio.

Ballet Sophie

This is the new Sophie G Moose stamp from Hanna Stamps. I saw barrettes made with this stamp by Judy on her blog. Samantha saw them too and fell in love. She promptly requested a set of her own but colored in yellow. I stamped the image with Brilliance ink onto Shrinky Dink paper and colored it in with Prisma markers. Judy made hers with matching color of the barrette, but I went to two different stores and all either had was gold and silver. I was too tired to go to another store so I decided they would look good on the silver! After backing the Shrinky Dinks I attached it to the barrette with E600 glue. My camera just does not take good pictures up close. I took about 20 pictures, trying to get a good clear image of these and this was the best that I could get. They are quite a bit cuter in person. I have mentioned to "Santa" that I would really, really like a new camera for Christmas. I have looked at a couple and am taking suggestions if you have any recommendations. I want one with a good zoom, takes good, clear close-ups, clear action shots and preferably with the feature that will take bursts of pictures with one click. I would love to hear what any of you use. Later!

Wicked

I will use this card as a Halloween card, but I bought the stamp because of the musical! Kip and I were in Chicago for Valentine's Day this year and he took me to see Wicked for my gift. Yes, it was cold in Chicago and yes, I know that most people do not plan vacations to Chicago in February. I love love love love musicals. Kip tolerates them and is kind enough to not only get me tickets, but he goes with me without complaint. Last year for my birthday he took me to see Mama Mia! Right now these are my two favorite soundtracks to listen to. Anyway, Jenna also loves the music from Wicked. This will be her Halloween card. I will probably give it to her early because when they have their fall break she is going to get to go and see it on stage. She is excited. I took her shopping a couple of weeks ago and she bought green nail polish to wear to see it. She is saving it too, won't use it until then.

The stamp came from the $1.00 bin at Michael's. The paper is from DCWV's fall glitter pack. I used CTMH black ink to stamp the image. The brads are from Paper Studio.

So do you send out Halloween cards? I don't send them out to everyone like I do Christmas cards, but I do give them to the girls and make sure my niece and nephews get one in the mail. Also, when it is something like Halloween, Thanksgiving or something like that, I make seasonal cards and use them throughout the month as thinking of you cards or something like that. Have a great week!

Jewelry Class Last Night

Last night was the jewelry class that I had signed up to take with some friends. I had so much fun! This was the necklace and earrings that I made. Aren't you impressed? I know I was. I thought it turned out pretty cute. I have made a couple of pieces in the past, but now I know how to put the clasps on the right way. Most of the things I have made in the past I have used the elastic beading cord, and it breaks after a while. But last night we worked with wire and since I can do the clasps, I don't have to use that anymore. The elastic is great for the girls to work with, especially since the use mostly pony beads. The class was at Jo-Ann's, and was the beginning jewelry making and all my supplies came from there.

I really needed a new craft hobby! Lets see, that list now includes: stamping, card making, scrapping, crocheting, cake decorating, photography, cross-stitching, a little painting and now jewelry. Plus I know how to quilt a little and some sewing. I want to learn to sew better though. When I go to a craft store I don't think there is a department that I can pass up. Have a great rest of the weekend. I am enjoying my visit with my parents.

Treat Box

Anyone that knows me IRL knows what a bargain shopper I am, always on the lookout for something at a great price. I bought these little boxes a couple of months ago at Wal-Mart. They had been like $19.96, marked down to $10, then to $6.00 and then the sign said 50% off sign above the clearance area. That's right, I got a box of 100 of these for only $3.00! Actually, I got the last two boxes they had. They were originally in the wedding section as they are Wilton Favor Boxes. When I saw them I was picturing Halloween and Christmas treat boxes and possibly something at Thanksgiving as well. We alternate where we spend the holidays: Thanksgiving with my family and then Christmas with Kip's family and then the next year we switch them. We are going to be here for Thanksgiving so I make make place cards or something with them.

These were super easy and quick to make. The papers are from DCWV's Fall Glitter pack and the ribbon is from Michael's Halloween section. I didn't take a picture of the sides but the ribbon runs through the bottom of the box and then up the sides, covering the middle section of the printed paper. Not sure what I am going to fill them with yet.

My parents are coming to stay with us for the weekend, but I will try and get some time in my craft room post, but if I am MIA, I am shopping with my mom!

Stamp Something Fall Challege

This is my card for this week's challenge at Stamp Something. The challenge was to make something Fall. In addition to the few challenges I have been participating in, I have also been challenging myself to use things I haven't used in a long time or those things I bought and never used (don't laugh--you know you have things like that too!!). This card I used two such things; embossing powder and chalk. It hasn't been too terribly long since I used the embossing powder but I can't remember the last time I used chalk. I think the last time was last fall at a card workshop at Julie's and that was her chalk not mine so it doesn't count. Anyway, the stamp set is from CTMH and is called Summer's Wave. I embossed the leaves with brown embossing powder and then used red, yellow and brown chalk to color the leaf. I cut the leaves out and used pop dots to adhere them to the card. The saying is stamped with CTMH Cocoa ink. Paper is from DCWV and I used Fiskars Threading Water border punch and the small scallop is a Marvy punch. Thanks for stopping by tonight!

Another Christmas Card

I am so proud of myself, I have already gotten several Christmas cards finished. Even though I plan on starting early every year, I never do. This cute little cat is from Pink Cat Studios, aren't they just the cutest? I got the idea for the layout at Card Sketch a Day. I colored the cat using Prisma markers. The gift is colored with the Spica markers. I love those things, I am so glad Kip bought them for me. They sparkle like nothing else I have ever used. I used red and white Fun Flock from Doodlebug on the hat and scarf. The metal ringed circle is from Jo-Ann's and was stamped with a Studio G stamp, using CTMH Holiday Red ink. All paper is from DCWV.

I am excited! Why, you might ask. I am taking a jewelry making class on Friday night. I was hoping I was going to be able to but wasn't sure my schedule was going to work out but it has. I need a new hobby, don't ya think?

Prayer Journal

I decided to pull out my Bind-It-All and take it to our craft night at church. We had a lot of fun with it. I made some of these little coaster books for several different projects. I know one is going to be a calendar, one woman is going to make a book of quotes to give as a birthday gift and this one I kept and decided to use as a prayer journal. The cover is a 4x4 coaster covered with paper from DCWV. I decided to take a glitter pen and draw in the center of each flower and to trace the swirly lines as well. I am just in love with that Gelly Roll glitter pen right now. The sentiment, I printed off on my computer and I used my Marvy punches to punch out the square and the scalloped square. I love my Nestabilities but if I need something fairly small I reach for these because it is a little quicker. Right now my Big Kick is not stored on my desk but one of my goals as I rearrange the craft space is to make room for it on the desktop so that I use it more.

Clear Dollar Stamps has these coasters. Also, this month they have introduced stamps that are sized to fit the coasters perfectly. They have a journaling line stamp, a calendar set and a couple of more. I took this picture and then realized I forgot the journaling line on the opening page! The Bible verse is also a stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps called Tiny Scriptures.

I see a lot of people getting these little books as Christmas gifts. I have come up with a couple of ideas, let me know if you have any other great projects in mind. I am planning to make calendars for family members with birthdays and other dates filled in, a scrap album or two and maybe a holiday recipe type book. My nephew is 15 months old and I may try making him a couple of books and laminating the pages. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week!

Howdy

Last night was out monthly card making and scrapping night at church. We had a really good time, the "regular crew" was there as well as some new faces. I rarely get an entire card finished when I am there, but I love going anyway. I do a make it and take it project for everyone to do. I try and do something new for them each month, using either a new technique, product or stamp set. I do take my coloring things and get several images finished and get to visit with my friends so it is totally worth going. We make cards for our own projects but everyone is asked to make and donate at least one card that will be sent to either a shut in from church or a Meals on Wheels recipient.

This was the card that I did there last night. My friend Angela stamped this image for me and I cannot remember right now who makes it. I colored it with Koh-I-Nor woodless pencils. I decided the spurs needed to be shiny so I used a Gelly Roll Stardust Pen on those. I used another Gelly Roll pen to make the dots around the image. All paper is DCWV, and the letters spelling out HOWDY are from a Studio G alphabet set.

We are still in the process of getting things organized. I have spent the day in the craft room/laundry area/cat space. Here is a picture of the one area that I have finished. This is the girls craft storage for all their supplies that they can use unsupervised when they are here. There isn't much that I won't let them use, but some things do need to be supervised. We did have a shelf that we shared but I wanted to get all of that type stuff in one area. The memo board above is waiting on my husband to hang it. I stick cards on here that I have made until they are ready to be sent to someone. I pulled them all off last night to show at church. I kind of rotate them around so the newest things I have made are on the board then they get moved to my card box. TFL and have a great rest of the weekend. We are off to see the Dark Night (again) with my sister and brother in law to celebrate her birthday.

Pumpkin Patch Riley

I have been playing around with challenges on SCS and on other people's blogs for a while, but don't usually submit them! I really enjoy them so I have decided to play along more often. I like the way the challenges often get me thinking in a different direction than I would normally go. This card was made using the Sketch Challenge on SCS today. I used Riley in the Pumpkin Patch, stamped with Palette black ink and colored it in with Prisma markers. The paper is from DCWV and the brads are from Paper Studio. Thanks for stopping by tonight!

Wow!

Erica gave me this cool little award today and it really made my day. So here are the rules that go with it:

1) The winner can put the logo on their blog

2) Link the person you receive the award from

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Put links of those blogs on yours

5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.

It is funny, I just discovered this world of blogging a few months ago (thanks Julie). I would check out that one blog and then started looking at some of her favorite blogs. And then I started finding blogs on my own, now I have several I check every day. Of course Erica's is one of my favorites and in no particular order these are also blogs I check out on a regular basis:

**Julie at My Little Scrap Shop

**Lisa at Mainly Stamping...Sometimes Scrappin'

**Ying at Paradise Corner

**Patter at Triple the Scraps

**Dana at Dana's Dabbling Studio

**Susan at Questioning My Intelligence

I am still working on getting all of my stamp sets moved to CD cases. Another idea that sounded so great, that is before I started doing it! I am making some progress. I love having one system that works for almost everything. My label maker is getting a workout too. Of course it is going to take much longer than I thought it would. I have typed the labels with the company name and the name of the stamp set. Here is what it is looking like:

Happy Birthday Judy

I did get some stamping time today! I needed to make a card for my friend Judy's birthday. We are having dinner tonight with her and the girls but her birthday is really tomorrow. Judy thinks my stamping and card making is an illness that she just doesn't understand.

This stamp is from CTMH and is called Butterfly Kiss. It is stamped using CTMH Petal and Black inks. For the colors here I stamped off first and then used the second stamp for my image. All paper is from DCWV, the patterned paper is from the Far East pack and the purple is from the metallic pack. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo, one of their little dollar stamp sets. I also used a some decorative accents in each corner.

We are making progress on the bedroom! The bed isn't up yet, but most everything else it. We are both worn out. Hopefully in a couple of more hours of work and we can at least get the majority of it done. I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day!