OK…so there is no sale but I couldn’t let July go without having one Christmas card to show you!    I found the stamp set Winter Sparrows from Lawn Fawn and fell in love with it.  So this is what I came up with:

I die cut the sparrows after using my blendies to color their accessories.  I die cut their branch and used my nesties to cut the ovals where the sparrows would perch to sing their Christmas carols.  A button and twine (of course!) finished off the card.

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner?  School will be starting soon and I am left wondering what happened to summer! 

Happy what’s left of Summer! 

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, SU! crumbcake, old olive, early espresso and last year’s Christmas DSP.   Ink:  Memento black.   Stamps and dies:  Lawn Fawn Winter Sparrows, Nestibilities ovals.  SU! woodgrain embossing folder.  Embellies:  SU! candy dots, button and hemp from my stash.

My high school English teacher, Mr. John Roberts, has become a woodworker now that he is retired.  I am surprised he made it past the first year of teaching English!  I can say this because my class was his first teaching experience.  He has told me numerous times that he learned way more from us then we ever did from him!  In fact, he said his mistake was believing that at 17/18, he could treat us as adults.  He learned quickly that was a rather flawed view!! 

Mr. Roberts was one of my favorite teachers and is one of my favorite people in general.  There is a reason he is one of my favorites – he told me this story last year about me that I didn’t remember.  Evidently, on one of the English assignments I was given, Mr. Roberts gave me a perfect score AND not a red mark on the paper.  He told me that is the only time in 30 years of teaching he ever did that.  Obviously, perfection cannot be repeated!  Ha!

Anyway, now that Mr. R has given up teaching and is becoming a master woodworker, people like me, who appreciate handmade items, can rejoice!  Mr. R came into my office the other day showing off recent items that he made.  One of those items was a pencil box.  As it happens, I needed one of those for my new Stampin’ Up! blendibilities.  So I asked Mr. R to make a few modifications and voila – this is what he made.

It is double the size of the original pencil box and built to hold lots of blendies!  Yay!!  In fact, Mr. R knows me so well, he made two of them knowing I would snap them both up.  Then I requested he make two more!  So I will have a box for the blendies, my SU! regular markers, my distress markers and my colored pencils.  These boxes are gorgeous in person.  My poor photography skills do not show them off as well as they should be!  Mr. Roberts does have a website – www.jwwoodworking.net – in case you are interested.  He makes all kinds of items and does custom stuff too!

Check out this cutting board with the inlaid design.  Gorgeous!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Enjoy!!

While I had my camping themed scrapbook paper out and my Love You S’more stamps and dies I had to make a card using the bear.  He is sooo cute!!  I stamped and die cut him and then used some light gray colored pencils around the edges.  It is unfortunate because you cannot see that in this picture.  You can a little around his legs in the close up picture. 

Anyway, I envisioned this little fellow to be a polar bear sitting out at night in the artic waiting to tell his mate that he loved her.  (Isn’t that sweet?)   I stamped the sentiment and added some twine and button and I was done.  This card shape is also an unusual one for me – 3 ¾ by 4 ½.  I layered a piece of smokey slate between the scrapbook paper and base to give it a little oomph. 

Enjoy! 

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, Stampin’ Up! smokey slate, scrapbook paper from my stash.    Ink:  memento black.  Stamps and dies:  Lawn Fawn Love You S’more, Lil Inker stitched flag die.  Other:  Colored pencils, button and twine from stash.

One of my favorite summer treats, other than ice cream of course, is s’mores.  I love the crunch of the graham cracker, the oozy gooeyness of the marshmallow and the melty chocolate.  Heaven!  I also believe the marshmallow should be burnt.  I guess I never saw the point in a brown marshy.  This summer I noticed that Russell Stover came out with their version of a S’more.  And it isn’t half bad.  But I digress…..

When I saw the Love You S’more stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn, I had to have them!  I also remembered I had this cool camping themed scrapbook paper that I have had for years.  Every time I would clean out my scrapbook paper, I would stop, look at this paper, debate, and put it back in my stash.  I was saving it for a reason!  S’mores it is!!

This card is a size 3 ½ by 4 ½ and scored at 3 ½.  I wanted a tail because the scrapbook paper was going to cover the card.  I used colored pencils on the squirrel, fire and marshy.  As you can see, the marshy is on its way to burnt!  I love the sentiment – let’s toast!  So many uses – s’mores, a job promotion, an engagement, a new baby, its Friday…you get the idea.  I die cut the squirrel, fire, moon and marshy and stamped the logs for the fire. 

I better run along, it’s S’more time!

Enjoy!!

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, Stampin’ Up! so saffron, scrapbook paper from my stash.    Ink:  memento black.  Stamps and dies:  Lawn Fawn Love You S’more.    Other:  Colored pencils, rhinestones.

My mom has a friend who still makes raspberry jam in the summer and from scratch fruitcakes at Christmas.  Plus she always treats my mom to a from scratch german chocolate cake every birthday.  Every year when mom gets a jar of homemade raspberry jam – it is hands off to the lot of us.  Not even the grandkids get to have a taste!  I mentioned this to Mom’s friend a couple of weeks ago and she told me that she would give me my own jar!  Yay!  The payoff was yesterday and boy does the jam look tasty!

So I thought I had better do my bit and whip up a thank you card for her.  This took me about 20 minutes – I used a stencil and some chalk to make the background.  A die cut, twine and button and the card was ready for the envelope.

Enjoy!  I know I will!

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white and SU! all abloom     Dies:  PTI wet paints    Stencil:  MFT large chevron stripes    Other:  SU! retired chalks, SU! pistachio pudding thick twine and a button from my stash.

I was scouring the internet for challenges and came across a stamp company called Sugar Pea Designs.  I don’t know how long they have been around but they host a challenge called SugarSketch.  I thought I would play along with them today.

I started off with white for the base layer and added a piece of Stampin’ Up! soft sky that I embossed using the PTI argyle impression plate.  Then I dug out a retired SU! stamp set that I have never used called Studio Sketches.  Now, I don’t know why I haven’t ever used these stamps because I really like them!  I used some chalks and colored the pears and the pitcher. 

I ran my completed project thru the cuttlebug using my nestabilities ovals to cut and emboss.  I added the seam binding ribbon, lace, button and hemp and I was done.

I liked how this card turned out.  Simple but elegant I think.

Enjoy!!

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, SU! soft sky    Stamps:  SU! Studio Sketches retired   Ink:  early espresso    Dies:  Nestabilities ovals and PTI argyle impression plate    Embellies:  SU! soft sky seam binding, retired lace, button.    Stash:  hemp and chalks.

Today’s card is made with some pretty crazy colors (coral, aqua, lime) that I like separately but need to be put together as part of the Reverse Confetti color challenge.  I struggled for quite a while trying to find a way for these colors to meld together.  In fact I ended up with two separate cards – one a thank you and this one…which will be sent to some extended family who recently lost a loved one.

I started off with Stampin’ Up! calypso coral, coastal cabana and lucky limeade (retired) and used the Reverse Confetti doin’ the wave die to create my wavy sidepiece.  Using the RC love note die and the coastal cabana patterned paper I made the background for my circle.  I used the SU! Love and Sympathy stamp set and the coral and limeade markers to stamp the image.  I added a little twine and some paper flowers I made with RC petal n posies dies and I was done.

I used the sketch from Sweet Sunday sketch for this layout.  I compared the two cards (you won't see the other one - i really don't like it!) side by side and I was pleased with this one.  Just the right amount of color all around. 

Enjoy!

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, SU! calypso coral, coastal cabana, lucky limeade (retired), in color DSP and scraps.    Ink:  Memento, calypso coral and lucky limeade markers.   Dies:  Reverse Confetti circles and scallops, doin’ the wave, love note, petals n posies.  Stamps:  SU! love and sympathy and RC lots to say.    Embellies:  SU! coastal cabana twine and a brad from my stash. 

Today I made a card to play along with the Pals Paper Arts Challenge 212. 

I liked this sketch right off the bat because when I saw the shapes I saw mini tags.  I mulled over my design for a couple of days, trying to figure out the size of the card and what to put on the tags.  Then it hit me!  I needed a thank you card and thought I could use the tags to spell out the word thanks.  I don’t have the new alpha die set yet from Stampin’ Up! so I had to make do with the recently retired typeset alpha. 

Once I cut the tags, I knew the card was going to have to be an odd shape.  I do not make odd shaped cards very often – but I should.  It is good to do something different every once in a while.  This card is 8” by 3 ½”.   I drew my colors from the sweet taffy DSP.  But, I ended up with a more fall like card than I had intended.  Lots of pumpkin pie and early espresso.  I die cut the alpha twice – once in the sweet taffy and once in pumpkin pie.  I thought the DSP needed a little more strength and the CS would help support it.  I offset the letters so the pumpkin pie could play peek-a-boo.  The ribbon is all retired SU! with some brown twine from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Enjoy!!

Supplies:    All SU! unless otherwise noted.   CS:  white, early espresso, pumpkin pie, sweet taffy DSP.    Dies/Punches:  typeset alpha (retired) and scalloped tag topper    Embellies:  retired ribbon – old olive, tempting turquoise and daffodil delight.  Twine from stash.

I am going to call this post, The Sequel.  You will be pleased to know that Fred and Ethel have made up!  They are not going to visit Ethel’s mother AND their wings are glued on correctly!!

I really didn’t set out to make a second flamingo card but when I made it to my craft cave, this card just came to me.  I didn’t even set out to make the card based on the Mojo Monday Challenge 354.  See, Fred and Ethel were talking to me! They were worried about the bad impression they left yesterday.

I started off my card with Stampin’ Up! blushing bride and went looking for some DSP that had blushing bride in it.  Fortunately, I had the SU! flowerpot DSP sitting right on my craft table and drew the colors from the piece I chose. 

An odd color combo but I am diggin’ it.  I also carried forward the triangle theme from the DSP on to the white layer – thank you SU! tiny triangles embossing folder.  The sentiment is stamped on a hand cut triangle.

So we shall leave Fred and Ethel (for the time being…they may make a return sometime!) 

Fred:  “Oh Ethel, you are so wonderful!”

Ethel:  “No Fred, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

This may go on forever so I am outtahere!

Enjoy!

PS I have decided to enter my card in the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge Anything Goes as well.

Supplies:  CS:  All Stampin’ Up!  blushing bride, crushed curry, whisper white, flowerpot dsp, all abloom dsp.   Ink:  memento black   Dies and folders:  SU! tiny triangles EF, SU! woodgrain EF, Reverse Confetti fabulous flamingos and circles and scallops.  Stamps:  SU! retired hostess set express yourself.  Embellies:  SU! retired blushing bride ribbon.

Do you ever make a card that just speaks to you?  Sometimes I do.  And this is one of them.  It is the Tale of Two Angry Flamingos.  It goes something like this:

“Fred, does my wing look OK to you?”

“Yes Ethel” Fred says without looking up.

“FRED, does my wing look OK to you?”

“YES ETHEL”

“Well, I never, my wing is on upside down.  How are we ever going to go see my mother?  We aren’t going to be able to fly.  AND your wing is upside down too!”

“What?”

“Did you hear me?  Your wing is upside down too!”

“Wait – did you say we are going to see your mother?  I never said I was going to see your mother.”

“WHAT????” says Ethel.

So there you have it – I glued their wings upside down.  When I got the card done, I thought – hey – something looks off here!  I stamped and fussy cut their legs – I can only imagine the conversation if I hadn’t given them legs!

 
I used dies from the latest Reverse Confetti release to make these flamingos and the background shape.  I plan on entering this card in the Retro Sketches challenge.  The sketch calls for embellies on the bottom right side of the card.  However, I thought that looked a bit too much like….droppings.

Well, I am going to leave Fred and Ethel to their squabbling and go back to work! 

Enjoy!!

to be continued....

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, Stampin’ Up! island indigo, rose red and various dsp scraps.  Ink:  memento black.    Dies:  RC fabulous flamingos and diagonal stripe pretty panel, Lil Inkers stitched alpha.   Stamps:  RC fabulous flamingos  Embellies:  various enamel dots from my stash and cork from MFT.