Poisoned Peas Guest DT

I have been so happy being a part of the Poisoned Peas group as a guest DT member this month. Simply Betty Stamps was the sponsor this month and I have another image to share with you to go along with the Steampunk Challenge. I used an image called Lavina Portrait and colored it with Copic markers, adding some lace, mini brads and some beaded ribbon.

This piece is larger than a normal card, it measures 7.5 x 7.5 and I am planning to frame it and using it as a decoration in my spare bedroom. Right now, it is propped up on the mantel in there and looks great in there.

I want to say a huge THANKS to the Poisoned Peas Design team for letting me play along this month and for all the kind and encouraging comments the have left on my blog.

Vampire Scrapling

I learned something new! While reading the new challenge on the Riley and Company blog, I saw that the challenge was "Scraplings".  I had no idea what that meant so fortunately they provided this description: 

So what are scraplings???? Scraplings are normally 1.25" x 4.25" because they are often made from the off cuts you get when you make a square card (4.25" square) from a piece of card that is 4.25" x 5.5". However if you are like me your scraplings may be a little wider depending on what you are working on at the time. Now for me 1.25" is way too narrow and I normally have wider card then that left over so you can makes yours wider .... BUT for this challenge they cannot be any wider then 2.5 inches that is for the base of the scrapling ... you can have wider pieces hanging off your scrapling if you like, but that is up to you.

I thought that was pretty cool, especially since I end up with so many scraps of paper that exact size! My scrapling uses Count DracuRiley, colored with Copics, some  bat paper I have had for a while, some baker's twine gifted to me by my friend Jennifer, and some mini red brads. 

Fun challenge and I know I will be making more of these. 

Yellow and Green

Good Morning! I have another card to show you that I made for the current Card Cupids Challenge. This challenge is a sketch challenge provided by Sketch Saturday and was sponsored by Sassy Cheryl. I think this image is just adorable. I remember working so hard to learn how to blow bubbles when I was a kid and this reminded me of showing off my new skill to everyone I could. 

We would love for you to join our challenge, you can find all the details here.

Current card requests can be found here.  

Have a great day, gotta run or I am going to be late for work!

Jeepers Creepers

Good morning! Fall is definitely in the air here in Tennessee. I love the cool mornings and evenings. There is just enough chill in the air to be cool, but not quite enough coolness to need a jacket or sweater yet.  I love this time of year, probably more than any other. For one thing, I know that  Halloween is coming! I love looking in all the stores at all the Halloween goodies. I do have to restrain myself though because I already have a ton of decorations. I haven't found anything this year that I just to have, but I found a couple of interesting things after Halloween last year on sale that I will be putting out for the first time this year. 

I make almost as many Halloween inspired cards as Christmas cards. This card uses and image from Simply Betty Stamps called Louie Vampire. He is colored with Copics and I used paper from my stash, a border from K&Co. and the sentiment is from a wooden stamp that I have had forever that I just love. I am entering this card into the Anything Goes Challenge on the Simply Challenged Challenge blog.

Thanks for visiting with me today, have a great day!!

Book Class

I keep forgetting to post these pictures of a book that I made in a class recently, so here they are! This was from a class that I took at my LSS about a month ago. I have been trying to b ranch out a little and learn some new things and making and altering books really appealed to me. When I saw that my LSS was offering this class, I signed up immediately. We started out with book board, a Basic Gray paper pac(Paper Cottage, I think), thread, needle, card stock, metal embellishments and paper and I made the book that you see here. 

I like these side views, the pattern of the papers show.

Here is the inside. The papers were double sided so that you also have decorated coordinating papers separating sections of the book. 

I think this is the first class that I have take that I have been completely happy with what I have made. I'm not knocking any other class or teacher, usually when I am learning something new it takes me a couple of tries before I have the technique down. Especially if I am doing a lot of folding and cutting. So in a class I usually get the technique down but have to practice it a few times before I am happy with it, but I was happy with this book when I left the class. 

I know I will be making more of these for Christmas gifts, but this one is mine!

Poisoned Peas Steampunk

Good Morning! I was asked if I would be interested in being a Guest Designer for the Poisoned Peas challenge blog.  After the shock wore off, of course I said yes! I have had so much fun playing along with their challenges, they give me a chance to try some new stuff and experiment with some new techniques. So the current challenge is a "Steampunk" challenge and is sponsored by Simply Betty Stamps.  Even more fun for me since I love her images. 

My Steampunk card: 

               

My card uses an image from Simply Betty Stamps which was colored with Copic markers. I used paper from DCWV, a Spellbinders die of a pocket watch, some metallic creams, some distressing ink and some hinges that I have had for a while.

Card Cupids Challenge--A Sketch

Good Morning! It is time for our mid-month challenge over at Card Cupids. Our sponsor for this challenge is Sassy Cheryl. In additon to this we are also participating with Sketch Saturday who shared their sketch with us. They also shared some of our Card Cupids DT cards to their blog as well. 

Here is the sketch we followed:

For my card, I used the image "Noah and Patches" from Sassy Cheryl and colored it with Copic markers. I was really happy to receive this image to work with becuase I have found that I am seriously lascking in images to make cards for little boys. I have to admit though, that the teddy bear totally intimidated me, I haven't ever really colored one that I was happy with. Even though I have seen lots of images with them I usually shy away from them. I am very happy with the way this one turned out!

We would love for you to join our challenge. Simply create a project with the avobe sketch and link it to our challenge post. 

Want to brighten the day of a child? Here is the Card Cupids list of current card requests. 

PAB Yellow and Red Color Challenge

Good Morning! Welcome to the second Pholkart Blessings color challenge! The colors for this challenge are RED and YELLOW. It just so happens that those are my favorite two colors so this was a fun challenge for me to do. I used this fun Back2School image for my projects today. 

I have a friend that teaches kindergarden in a low income school and she usually has a few students that are lacking school supplies. I know she puts lots of her own money into her classroom so I try and get a basket together for her at the beginning of the year with some of the basics from her class supply list. Not only am I able to help out a little, it works great for me since I LOVE to buy school supplies and have no little ones to buy them for, so it is a win-win for both of us. 

One of the things I love about digital images is the fact that I can change the size of them depending on the project that I am making. On this Post-It holder, I was able to make the image small enough to fit on this 5 x 7 frame. I added some alphabet paper from DCWV and some 3-D apple stickers to finish the project. 

I also wanted to make her an altered composition book, personalized with her name. I used the same image, but larger this time since I had a lot more area to work with. So they would coordinate, I used the same alphabet paper, the same red and yellow card stock papers and then I used a Sizzix alphabet to cut out the letters in her name. 

And here is the final basket:

We would love for you to join our challenge! 

Remember the colors are red and yellow and you can win 2 images of your choice from the Pholkart Blessings store. You do not have to use a Pholkkart Blessings for your entry, but if you are the randomly chosen winner, and you have used a Pholkart Blessings image, you will win an additional image of your choice. I can't wait to see your entry!!

Card Cupids Halloween Challenge

It's not too late to join us at Card Cupids for our Halloween Challenge! Bugaboo Stamps is our sponsor for this challenge and I have used and image called Halloween Brat Pumpkin. Image is colored with Copic markers and I use candy embellishments and paper from my stash of Halloween stuff. We would love to see what your take on the challenge is, so create your Halloween project and link it to our challenge. Also HERE is a list of the current card requests. 

Have a great day!

Riley Birthday Challenge

Happy Monday! I had a card to show you that I made for the Riley and Company challenge this week. The challenge was to make a birthday card. Perfect timing for me, the fall brings so many birthdays so I am in need of lots of birthday cards. And the challenge provided incentive to get some done instead of waiting to the last minute. Several of the birthday cards will need to go through the mail , so I kept the embellishments pretty minimal. I used paper from Basic Grey and Cake Riley is from Riley and Company and colored with Copics, I added some "card candy" and a tag that reads "celebrate" to finish my card.

We had such a nice weekend here, the weather was really nice. Kip and I went out for ice cream Saturday night and since it was so nice, he suggested sitting outside while we ate it. I agreed, by the time we were done, we were both a little chilly. It's the first time I have felt a little touch of fall in the air. Fall is my favorite time of the year and I can't wait until it is officially here!

Have a great day!

Simply Betty's Monster Mash Blog Hop

Welcome to the Simply Betty MONSTER MASH BLOG HOP!! You should have arrived here from Katya's blog and if you want to start at the beginning so you don't miss any of the awesome stops on this blog hop then you can start here at Betty's blog. 

The challenge was to create anything Halloween using any of the Simple Betty Stamps Halloween images. I chose to use two of the images from the Steampunk Halloween 2012 images A Little Arsenic Before Bed and Jack and Jill. 

I decided to try and make more of my Halloween decorations instead of being limited to what I could find in the stores. I started with two wooden $1 picture frames and painted them very bright green, then a layer of crackling medium then topped that with a layer of black paint. After that was dry, I added the ribbons and the rosettes. I have decided that these will be sitting or hanging fairly close to each other so I put the decorations on opposite corners. 

A Little Arsenic Before Bed:

Jack and Jill:

And a close up shot of both images:

Your next stop on the hop is LISA.

Supplies used: images from Simply Betty Stamps, colored with Copic markers, wooden from from Michael's, acrylic paints, Tim Holtz Rosette die, skeleton and poison bottle from Joilee's, ribbon from Michael's, background paper from Recollections, and silver beads from my stash. 

Snowman Card

Look, another Christmas card! I really am making progress on filling up my Christmas card box. I know this is a first for me. Everyone on my card list might actually get a card that I made instead of a store bought one that I would end up buying at the last minute. For this card, I used a snowman image called Welcome Home Snowman from Pholkart Blessings. Image is colored with Copics, paper from DCWV (I think) and snowflakes punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks for dropping by today, I've got to run or I will be late for work!

A Birthday Card for a Friend

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend--especially if you were off yesterday! I was off but Kip ended up working pretty much a regular day, which is one of the disadvantages of being self employed. In the first week of September I have several friends with birthdays and this is a card I made for one of them. I used a CC Designs image called Geisha Girl, colored with Copics and DP from DCWV's Far East pack of paper. For some reason, every picture that I took made that ribbon look bright red. In person, it is a much darker red and matches so much better. 

Have a great day!

Card Cupids Halloween Challenge

Oh my goodness, I can't believe that it is September 1st already. August is always one of those months that just drags by for me, but this one seems to have flown by. And since it is a new month, that means we have a new Card Cupids challenge! The challenge is a Halloween challenge and Bugaboo Stamps sponsored this challenge. For my card, I chose to use Hween Brat Witch, she is colored with Copic markers, I used paper from my Halloween stash and some buttons and baker's twine.

We would love to have you join our Halloween Challenge!!

(end of the challenge info, the rest of the post is just me musing about Halloween and memories)

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Do you make Halloween cards?

Do you send them out? I don't send out Halloween cards like I send out christmas cards, but I do use a lot of my cards. If you notice, most of my cards do not have sentiments on the front of the card. One of the reasons is that I use a lot of my cards as general note cards. I try and make sure to send thinking of you or encouraging cards and lots of thank yous. So most of my Halloween cards get used that way, if I need a card for any of those reasons, I will use a card without a sentiment and write my message on the inside. Pretty much any card that goes out for any reason other than birthday during the month of October will probably be a Halloween card (although I do keep in my friends that do not celebrate Halloween for whatever reason).

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I absolutely LOVE Halloween. I probably  have more Halloween stamps, images and papers than I even do of Christmas and the other holidays combined. I love the fun of dressing up and all the fun that goes with it. I was so excited when Kip and I got married and I moved into his house because we actually had trick or treaters! This is the first place I have lived that I have had more than just a couple, I have lots of very small kids too, so I don't do scary, just fun. Another reason I love Halloween is it reminds me of my Mamaw. She loved seeing all the kids that would come to her house each year and made each child feel like they were actually the ghost, super hero or whatever they were dressed as. Doing something that she loved doing reminds me of her and how much fun I had with her. 

Oddly enough though, she passed away on Halloween and I thought I would never, ever be able to observe Halloween without being reminded of my grief. It took a couple of years, but then I realized that it would be a way for me to kind of honor her by doing something that brought her so much joy. And now instead of Halloween being a reminder of loss, it feels like a connection with her. I don't know if loved ones look down on us, or observe our lives or not, but I like to think that when I am passing out candy and admiring costumes she is with me and she is once again smiling at all the kids in their costumes. 

I always have Smarties in my bucket of things to pass out too, because so did Mamaw. She was allergic to chocolate and would make sure that was passed out first so that if she had leftovers, she could actually eat them and Smarties were a favorite of hers.