Fall Roses

 

Good Morning! How are you doing post-Thanksgiving and post-Black Friday?  Thought I'd share some non-holiday goodies today.  I figure there will be plenty of time to share more Christmas & Hanukah creations, but these seem kinda fall-ish colorwise.  I'm running outta fall time!

 

I had fun using up the tags I had cut from the pumpkin tags I shared last weekend.  They had a little bit of color on the tags and these were all plain woodgrain.  Rather than use glossy accents to adhere the buttons, I used gold Stickles. Just a hint of sparkle peeks out when you look closely at the buttons.

I love the shabby-chic vibe of these tags.  They'd make a great decoration on birthday, anniversary, or thank you gifts!  Well, I'm off.  We might go to see the trees at the Methuen Festival of Trees.  Gotta go early to beat the crowd!!

Happy Birthday

Happy Sunday!  In an effort to find my studio under all the papers, stamps, and ink, I made a couple of birthday cards. :)

I'm also trying to create using all those embellishments that I HAD TO HAVE long enough ago that I can't remember having to have them! LOL!  A couple friends had asked if I would have some birthday cards for sale when we get back from vacation, so the scraps and embellies made their way to birthday cards. 

Well the other reason that I ended up making birthday cards was that I figured that if I were to show any Christmas cards you'd all groan so load I'd here it all the way to my house. :)  Have no fear.  I have begun making Christmas cards for next year.  Yup, you read that right.  This year was such a success in reducing stress and I had such a nice variety of cards that I will again be making a few each month so by November there'll be a nice stash to pull from.  Will they be pulled before Dec 16th (predicted busiest mail day in 2013)? Well, that's another story. ;D

Stop by tomorrow for my "year in review" post reflecting on all the projects that made 2012.  Have you looked back at your successfully creative year yet?

Hugs All!

Christmas Thanks Peek-a-boo

All things Downton are getting chic again, like sending handwritten thank you cards...

Were your friends and family good to you this Christmas?  Have you sent your note of thanks?  The Dowager would be speechless were she to see your beautiful thank you card (and wouldn't that be a coup!).

Here to the rescue!  I've got a tutorial over at The Hen's Den that'll have you making an easy 'n elegant Christmas Thank You card in no time flat.You'll have thank you's done with buckets of time left to enjoy the last season 2 recap episode this Sunday night.

Wash That Man Right Outta My Hare!

I crack me up!  This weeks challenge at Cooking It Up With Katie has us using 3 designer papers, 1 clear item, and a song.  The papers are easy you can see three on the card.  The clear- that doesn't show up as well.  I used a gel pen to add some clear dimension to the soap bubbles.  The song, well I couldn't help myself.  As soon as I saw this image that Whimsy Stamps (our sponsor this week) provided that song from South Pacific popped into my head!!!  Join us in the challenge won't you?

Thanks for stopping by!  May you have a bubbly day!

Many Thanks

Just a quick card to let y'all know I haven't dropped off the edge. :)  I got to craft all day yesterday with my uber talented friend Lynn and she helped me get a scrapbook 97% done.  If I hurry and do the last 3% I'll have accomplished #10 from my Summer Resolutions list.

Quick deets on this card:
Buttons and "flower" stamp-PTI
kraft card- Memory Box card that I cut to a square
pink paper- Bo Bunny
sentiment- Amuse
swirl- Technique Tuesday
star cluster- SU
ribbon- who knows :)
ink- Memento
marker- Copic W-1

One follower away from a new addition to the blog candy!!!  Also, my apologies for my blog candy question!  I'm embarrassed to say that I forgot not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and/or Halloween.  Gosh!  I'd love to hear about any holiday you really enjoy. :)

I added this card to the mix here:
Night Owl Crafting
Someday Crafts
Little Red Wagon- Circles

Scandinavian Christmas

Christmas in July has caught everyone's attention this week!  I'm always up for making Christmas cards. :)  To me, this rabbit is a nod to the St. Lucia celebration my Swedish relatives celebrate.

I used a ridiculous number of Copic markers to color this image!  Me being me, I had to add some sparkle via Stickles and Spicas.  Disclaimer- this one did not take 10 minutes. :)  I really did try to go with clean lines here, but it looked too plain.  I HAD to add the flowers and then it still looked a little off so I HAD to add the buttons.  I tried.  Really, I tried.  I just had to add some umph.  Whaddaya think?

I've linked this to:
The Shabby Tea Room
Magical Crafts
Fussy and Fancy
Winter Wonderland
Lucy's Card Challenge 
Christmas Cards All Year 'Round

3 Pink Balloons

Another use-your-scraps card.  How do I end up with so many bits and pieces?!?  My Grandma Poppy (of Sweet Tea fame) was a lived-through-the-Depression-not gonna-waste-anything kinda gal.  I grew up 2 doors down from her and she rubbed off on me.  I hate to through out my scraps!  I might NEED them.

Yippee, my hoarding of scraps paid off this time.  LOL!  I think this is a happy card, although I got so into putting it all together I forgot to stitch the buttons.  Oh well.  I left the inside blank so it could be used for a birthday or a thank you card.  The stamp is from Papertrey, the green card is Amuse and the rest is a good guess.  These were all pieces most folks would have tossed after cutting. :)

I hope you enjoyed this and thanks so much for stopping by!  Leave me a comment and I promise to reciprocate. :)

Triplets for the Papertrey Blog Hop

Papertrey's Blog Hop for March was a call to button lovers.  I SO LOVE USING BUTTONS!!!  Maybe it's a throwback to my childhood when my mom would hand me her cookie tin full of buttons.

How much fun is this Papertrey Baby Button Bits set!?!  I hand punched the scallops to get the lace effect.  I like the effect, but my hand is not as fond. ;)  The peapod is stamped with StazOn Olive and then I just colored it in with a random copic marker that seemed to work.  The buttons are from Papertrey.  The ribbon and card base are AMuse.

This snail is too cute!  I used lots of scraps that I conned convinced my DH, FIL, and MIL to help punch out ages ago for the background papers (I figured I better start making stuff with those or I may never be able to con convince them to help again).  I used a random white button I had and colored the little fella with yet another random copic.

 

For this card, I finally got my act together and actually sewed the button on to the tag.  I like the sewn detail, but I get so excited to put the cards together sometimes I forget (blush).

So here are the triplets all together.  They are each sure to go to a good home in the near future.  I know a few ladies who are expecting a bundle of joy soon!

Lucky Purse

I love winter, but this time of the year I do start to think about cute warm weather clothes, shoes, and purses.  Since March has finally arrived, it seems only fitting to make some green cards and a cute little purse to carry them!

 

To make this "purse", I cut a stationery box in half and covered it with paper from Little Yellow Bicycle's Lucky Me line.  I'm lucky to be in a kit club at my LSS and the latest kit had all these goodies from the Lucky Me line...

 

...so I had lots of goodies to play with, but I still seemed to pull stuff from my stash. :)

 

The purse holds 4 standard size greeting cards, but I cut mine down to 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 to go with the Clearly iStamp It's Hip to be Square challenge.  I always like to decorate the envelopes that go with my cards, so I stamped some swirls from a Technique Tuesday clear set using Lime Pastel chalk ink.  I edged the green of the cards with the same green ink.  All the green goes with the Cute Card Thursday Lucky Green challenge, the Etsy Inspired- United Thread challenge, and the Pile it on Lucky Me challenge.

 I added Lime Green Stickles in little dots for some extra sparkle 'cause I love sparkly stuff (too much time watching that bird from The Rescuers make a nest with "sparklies") and Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturday was hosting a Sparkle challenge.  I liked the clean lines of these cards so I didn't put a sentiment on the inside, thinking that these would make a nice hostess gift.  The recipient could use these cards for thank you's, birthday, or whatever. :)

 

I know this one screams Happy St. Patrick's Day, but thinking outside the box, this one could even be a "Good Luck" card for a graduate.

 

Don't you just love this fun button?!?  Stamp Something is hosting a Designer Paper, Buttons, Ribbon challenge.  The buttons from Little Yellow Bicycle and the ribbon from Papertrey ink are just perfect!  What kind of fun embellishments have you used?  What kind of crafty hostess gift have you given? I'd love to hear!!!! (And- Does anyone remember that bird's name???)

  



Materials:
pattern paper and pattern buttons- Little Yellow Bicycle- Lucky Me

solid cardstock- Bazzill

ribbon and plain buttons- Papertrey Ink

flowers- Prima

cards- MemoryBox

More "inspired by" cards

Edit- I am so excited, happy, and touched!  This card was selected as a Top Five on Hope Stamps Eternal.:)


I love when I have extra paper and supplies sitting out and inspiration hits! I made some cards yesterday and I almost never have a clean work area. Bits and pieces ended up sitting next to each other and they looked so pretty I came up with a "cherry" of an idea (I know, I know. I pushed it too much with the cherry thing huh. ;).

These are the cards I made with leftovers after making yesterday's cards. Hope Stamps Eternal had the cutest cupcakes for their cupcake challenge. The button candy on top of the cupcakes is so cute! Your Next Stamp has a spring themed challenge so I'm claiming spring colors since cherries are really a summer fruit. ;)
The paper is Bo Bunny Ella and some Bo Bunny Poppy Dot. The buttons and cherry stamp are from Papertrey. I stamped the cherry stems with Distress Ink peeled paint The tag is a 2" office label tag and the ribbon is leftover from some cookies I got in a beautiful bag (love that "free" ribbon!).

Where do you get your inspiration? Magazines, blogs, sketches, catalogs? I'd love to hear when, where, how inspiration struck and what you were able to create!

Scraptastic Challenge

Papertrey Ink is hosting a use your scraps challenge. I have to say that when I have leftover paper I tend to punch it in to lots of shapes (full disclosure- I did con my husband and his parents into helping punch my last load of scraps. :) ). I bag everything by color and leave it in the 12x12 boxes that I store my 12x12 paper.

I think in color, so all my supplies are sorted in a rainbow, paper, ribbon, flowers, brads, etc. I've tried lots of other approaches, but the rainbow thing is the only one that works for me. When I saw this challenge, I grabbed my pink bag and whatever was left on my table. I even found a leftover stamped image from the Vintage Picnic set! All I had to do was look at the supplies in front of me and run with them.

I colored the picnic basket with my prisma pencils and then added some stickles for sparkle. I still had my holiday buttons on my craft table so I added a little button bling too!

The cutie patootie cardigan corgi in the back is my loyal wingman Cadfael (pronounced Cadfile). He was in the midst of deciding if he should stay with me or investigate what was going on in the kitchen.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to spread New Year cheer and post a comment. I love to hear from everyone!

Moriah