Fab Friday: Truly Grateful

I had one of those wonderful Wednesday afternoons that I get to have once or twice a month - playing in a friend's craft room who has more "schtfuff" than I do!!  She hauls out stamps and supplies that are appropriate for the season and since she is a Fall/Halloween fanatic, we had plenty of fall colors surrounding us! (Check out the name of one of her blogs - A Nostalgic Halloween.)

She had gorgeous sample cards using paper adhered to coaster board for great dimensional diecuts and the negatives, so this card is definitely inspired by Kris.


I used the current sketch from Fab Friday.

Well, I finished up one of my class papers yesterday.  I'll finish the last few things in that class and submit that paper this morning - one down!  I have the research done for another paper but I am having a tough time getting started simply because I am completely uninterested in the topic.  I have until Sunday at midnight, but I was truly hoping to be done before that to have some break before the next classes start on Monday. So I'm posting this and then settling in in front of the computer - only coming up for air to get the kids up and off to school and then for the first high school football game (and more importantly marching band performance) tonight.  Fingers crossed it goes fast! I'd love a weekend of relaxed crafting before next week begins!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Wonderfall, Truly Grateful (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, Sweater Weather dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Wonderfall Sizzix die, Houndstooth embossing folder, coaster board, Pumpkin Pie Chevron ribbon, Avery Elle sequins

CAS on Sunday and a Fab Friday: Thx for being Wonderful

I know that I had said yesterday that I had finished my using my entire Paper Smooches order - and I had.  But when I started thinking about a card with a tag for CAS on Sunday and the sweet colors at Fab Friday, I knew that I was going to pull out another Paper Smooches set - Reflections.


I love these fun flowers.  They are a little bit funky (but not too much) and add a sweet touch to every card.  The dies make it so easy - although be warned, there are three sets of dies that coordinate with the set!

• Stamps: Paper Smooches Reflections, Many Thanks
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Crisp Cantaloupe dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, So Saffron
• Accessories: Paper Smooches Reflections dies, Papertrey Ink Tag Sale 3, Frayed Burlap Distress Stickles, Timeless Twine Krazy for Kraft, misc sequins

Fab Friday and Rockwell's Colors: Hang In There

On Sunday, I did the nectarine card for Jackie's challenge at Rockwell Designs to use the 2013 Pantone Spring Fashion Colors.  I got there to load it up and she had moved on to Lemon Zest.  But that is OK, because each of the colors goes until September 22 - you can go back and play with any of the colors.

I also had my eye on the sketch at Fab Friday and I thought it would work well with a Lemon Zest sun.  Plus, I hadn't cleaned my desk from yesterday's use of the charming critters from Mama Elephant's Up and Away and they just were not ready to be put away!!

I'm just happy I got to craft for a couple of days in a row.  My summer break from college courses was only two weeks so I have been back to a full-time schedule.  It's not so much that I don't have the time to craft, after all, many of you do it with full-time jobs and young children.  I just don't always have the brain power to craft.  I haven't had to read textbooks, do problems, study and write papers for a very, very long time.  I'm hoping my brain wakes up soon as the plan is to go back into the work world next summer after I graduate and I'm going to need the gears to be moving a little faster at that point.  I'm not consistently making it around to everybody's blogs to comment but please know that I am loving seeing what you do.  Even when I don't have the brain power to create a card, I can alwayts relax by looking at all of your beautiful creations!

• Stamps: Mama Elephant Up and Away
• Paper: Stampin' Up Summer Sun, Echo Park Dots and Stripes Candy Shoppe 6x6
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Spellbinders dies, Avery Elle Lemonade sequins, dot of Liquid Pearls on his tail

Fab Friday and Nacho Average Sketch: Can't Thank You Enough

I have another card that I made at my friend's house - the friend that I talked about yesterday who has an incredible Stampin' Up collection.  I wanted to try out the new colors and I remember that the current Fab Friday challenge was to use all five of them on one card and that the sketch at Nacho Average Challenge had five banners.  I think it was meant to be!


This is one of the new sets from Stampin' Up called Chalk Talk. The scribbling on the hearts is a chalk effect.  I tell you that because as I am sitting here looking at this picture, I think it looks like I did a really bad job with markers!!  It's supposed to look like that!!

A FIRE UPDATE: Did you hear that the fire that I showed you last week that was just south of here ending up burning over 500 homes?  They expect to have that fire totally out today.  It has been a real eye-opener the last few years to realize that wildfires can threaten entire communities.    There were other fires burning at that time too that did serious damage to other areas of Colorado - lots of land and many structures (an entire tourist area is gone with very sad pictures of a blackened carousel) - but not homes, so they didn't get as much attention. There are still a dozen other fires burning today.  There's even an entire small town of 3,000 people on pre-evac notice.  In an entirely different situation, yesterday a dear blogging friend commented that her town was declared a state of emergency due to heavy rains and flooding.  Even my local news was showing the massive amounts of water and the damage in Western Canada with 100,000 people affected.  (I do hope all is well.) Wouldn't you think this could all be evened out somehow??

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk
• Paper: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana
• Ink: Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe

Blog Hop with TAWS: Wish Big

It's that time of the month!  New stamps from The Alley Way Stamps!!!

As always there are three new full-size stamps and a mini that's free with a $40 purchase.  If you started with me, be sure to go back to the beginning of the hop at The Alley Way Stamps blog so you can see peeks of all of the sets! 

I have chosen to show you some of the big and bold stamps from the new birthday set - Wish Big.


Their big, bold size makes them perfect for stamping on patterned paper!!  
For this card I used the current sketch at Fab Friday.

Then the paper pad with all of the bold prints also comes with a wonderful olivey green (quite a bit more olive than my photo shows!) - so I decided to go masculine too!  This gives me a chance to show you even more images from Wish Big!!

The sketch for this card came from Seize the Birthday.

Next on the hop is: Melissa!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Wish Big
• Paper: Simple Stories, solid pink cardstock is Papertrey Raspberry Fizz, solid olive is unknown
• Ink:  Memento Black and Copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Raspberry and Avocado buttons, Divine Twine Black Licorice

The official words from TAWS:

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!! YEP!! So if you want to be that person.. 
all you have to do is comment on the hop! 
Here are ways you can win.. You can pick and choose which ones you want to do.. 
but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.. 

1-Comment on The Alley Way Stamps Blog

2-Comment on the DT girls blogs (below)

3-Post about it on facebook or your blog

4-Like us on Facebook

(leave a separate comment for each that you do)

You have until tonight at 9:00PM TAWS time to leave them.. 

This is a fun mini set that is yours FREE when you spend $40.00 or more during the month of April! Nothing to do but shop.. this little guy will be added to your package..

Isn't is fun??!!  What do you think?

Now off you go to do the HOP!!! :) You never know which blog random.org will pick!

Here is the lineup.. if you get lost feel free to come back here at anytime :)

 
 
 

Fab Friday Colors and a little iPad fun!

{For a tutorial on Feedly - a replacement for Google Reader - read this post}

This card is still one of those I made last week with the-friend-who-has-more-than-I-do. Fab Friday has a color challenge that includes Sahara Sand.  In their write-up, they specifically mentioned that some people may not have Sahara Sand - which I interpreted to mean that maybe it wasn't a fave color.  I arrived at my friend's house with no idea what I was going to make, but the rest of the group was in a discussion as to whether any one ever used Sahara Sand.  Obviously, I had to give it a try!

I really had no idea Sahara Sand was so low on everybody's list.  The team at Fab Friday must like it because they also included it in their second ever challenge and that color combo is one of my all-time faves - here's my card for it.

Do you like Sahara Sand?

The real problem for me in this color combo was Calypso Coral.  That's my least favorite color!!

So, I solved all of these problems by just including a dash of each color!!

The sketch is from an old sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch!

As I think that I have mentioned this once or twice - I love my iPad and I use it regularly for crafting (or at least organizing my crafting).  One of the things that I do is provide direct links to archives of my favorite challenges.  I create my links, then place them all in one folder on my iPad - I'm never short of inspiration.  Here's how you do it.

1. Find out if your favorite challenge has an archive.  For CAS(E) this Sketch - it is here.  It's just a page that shows all past sketches.
2. Bring that page up in Safari on your iPad or iPhone.
3. Click on that little box with the arrow coming out of it (the sharing button)
4. Choose the option to "Add to Home Screen"
5. It will prompt you for a name for this icon, just type in the challenge name.

You now have an icon that, with one click, brings you immediately to all of the sketches!!

I check out my favorite challenges, created icons for all of them that I could, then added them to a folder called "Inspiration".  It's my favorite folder on my iPad!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvelous (a sale-a-bration set), That's the Ticket
• Paper: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade
• Ink: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Sahara Sand, Calypso Coral, Pink Pirouette
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Ticket Punch, Pink Pirouette button, white twine 

A Fab Friday Mood Board Monday!!

There isn't even a hint of creativity in this card - not a hint!!  I saw the WPlus9 Monday Mood Board and sorta thought I wouldn't play along because it's all lacy and I don't have WPlus9's lace sets.  But I re-read it this morning and it talks about pink and metal.  I had just cleaned out my embellishment box and come across big metal butterflies.  Then I remembered the sketch at Fab Friday...ding...ding...ding!  The sketch has a big butterfly.  So I took the sketch 100% literally and added a big butterfly.  So...not an ounce of creativity.  (But I like it anyway!)


I LOVE this sentiment - the saying AND the fonts!!Here's WPlus9 Monday Mood Board:

Here's the sketch from Fab Friday:

• Stamps: WPlus9 Quite Like You
• Paper: Stampin' Blushing Bride CS and dsp
• Ink: Versamark
• Accessories: Graphic 45 Metal Butterflies, Martha Stewart adhesive die cut doilies, PSX Detail Platinum embossing powder, My Favorite Things fishtail dies, Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush button, Timeless Twine Bubblegum Pink

Bunny with an Argyle Belly!!

I hadn't used one of the new sets from The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS) called Spring Has Sprung - - and this bunny is charming!!


The set does have "Happy Easter" type sentiments - but I wanted to have this card for either a new baby boy or a first birthday.  
I stamped the bunny image twice and cut out one extra ear.  Then I adhered it with glue on top and a little pop dot on the bottom half.
I used the sketch from Fab Friday.

FYI - I did not make that cute bow - I bought it here - but you need to know that I used two bows to make it big enough.  I actually snipped one of those cute bows in half and spread out the bottom one to add that layer.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Spring Has Sprung
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy True Blue 6x6 pad
• Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa and Copics
• Accessories: American Crafts Fabric Bows, Ek Success border punch

Countdown to Christmas

I am not at all convinced that I am ready to be doing Christmas cards.  But Merry Monday has their first challenge up and I strongly remember the feeling of relief at the beginning of this past December when I realized I had enough Christmas cards already!!

I also wanted to play along with Fab Friday.

 

And, as a final inspiration for this card, I had already planned to spend some time with Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio (MDS) today.  I recently recognized that I would likely never scrapbook again - I don't have the space or time and I really prefer the mini "works of art" that come out of card making.  I even gave away all of my scrapbook supplies to a charity that supplies craft kits to kids undergoing chemo.  BUT, I love my family so much more when I have spent time with photos of family fun, events, holidays or just goofy faces!!  So, I want to move toward digital scrapbooking.  At the beginning of the year, I started reminding myself of how MDS works and organizing what downloads I already own.  

So, the strip on the above card is a practice MDS strip.  I used the downloads "Days to December" and "Owl Occasions" to put together the countdown.  The 4 and the 9 are punches that I paper-filled.  I just wanted to try a few techniques to refresh my memory!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio downloads Days of December and Owl Occasions
• Paper: Stampin' Up Island Indigo, Real Red
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Real Red ribbon, embossing folder, snowflake punch, white baker's twine and a misc. button that matches Pool Party

Christmas Mittens

I have just a quick post today with a card for the current sketch at Fab Friday.  It's a Christmas card although...funny story....I sorted out all of the Christmas cards that I had made over the last year and matched them up to my mailing list.  I had cards for EVERYBODY on the list plus one extra card.  How perfect is that?  But...I still love the season and am enjoying Christmas colors and stamps, PLUS I hadn't yet used these Stampin' Up mittens!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Make a Mitten, Happy Hour
• Paper: Stampin' Up Garden Green, Real Red and Candy Cane Christmas dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Garden Green, Versamark
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Mitten Punch, Garden Green grosgrain, misc white embossing powder, twine and white felt

A Retro Fab Friday

This is my second post today.

CAS(E) this Sketch is just a post away!

The current Fab Friday is a wonderfully rich color combo.

It certainly feels like fall, doesn't it?  But, for unknown reasons (as I am typically a very traditional color person) I didn't make a fall card!  I made a Christmas card...

I also really love this week's sketch at retrosketches so definitely had to put the two together!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Ornamental Christmas, Petite Pairs
• Paper: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Crumb Cake, Champagne Glimmer
• Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Scallop Border Punch, ornament dies, copper cording, misc sheer ribbon, Copper Stickles (on ornaments)

Got Merry??

This is my second post today.  If you are here

for TAWS BE Inspired, it's just a post away!

I put this together for this week's CASology challenge: sugar, using the current Fab Friday sketch challenge.

I do love sugary things.  Halloween is a favorite because my children get their candy, eat all of the chocolate and leave the sugary treats for me - Smarties, Starbursts and Skittles are the best!!  I also love all things baked - gingerbread cookies are high on the list.  I like chocolate but candy and cookies are my faves!!
Besides the gingerbread man, I also "sugared" the Gumball Green cardstock with a spritz of adhesive and a lot of glitter!

It's a busy weekend in my family - it's the state marching band competition.  I dropped my son at the high school in the pitch dark this morning.  They started with pancake breakfast, then they are rehearsing all morning before heading to the beautiful campus of the Air Force Academy for the preliminary competition.  They have a pretty darn good chance of making it to finals tomorrow - fingers crossed.  I'm pretty proud right now - so you have to suffer through a few pictures of their Halloween rehearsal!!  (It's a rehearsal so no uniforms.)

They have a patriotic show with serious moments then they rock out a little with Katy Perry's Firework!   (I always feel sorry for the homes next to the high school as they deal with the music...noise...of these rehearsals!)
Here's my guy - for about six notes of music he stands in front of the other 100 band members and plays a solo!!
After Halloween rehearsal, the parents set up a trunk-or-treat party for them (and siblings) - here's my guys!!  I understand Andrew's "musical" costume with the Lawrence Welk style accordion (although he had to ask me afterwards who this "Welk" guy is/was that all of the parents kept comparing him to.)  I cannot explain the tutu on Erik!

Have a great weekend - I may not be back again depending on today's results!!  If you think of it at 4 p.m. Mountain time - cross your fingers!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Got Treats
• Paper: Stampin' Up Real Red, Gumball Green
• Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Suede
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Apothecary Accents dies and dot embossing folder, Queen and Co Christmas twine, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter

You're a Lifesaver

I love challenges - have I said that before??

First I saw this week's Fall to Layout at clean&simple stamping.  It's my day to post over at The Alley Way Stamps blog and I had the new set Kid 'n Caboodle set out with its charming boat and the sentiment "You're a Lifesaver".  The layout is the perfect sea scene.

Then, just when I thought it couldn't get any better - Fab Friday came up with this color combo!

Here's how it came together...

I have so many people in my life who deserve this card!!
My cutting skills are not great - so I printed out the sketch on regular printer paper.  Luckily it printed out at 4 x 5 1/4" so I could cut it out and have my own template!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Kid 'n Caboodle
• Paper: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse CS and dsp, Island Indigo dsp, Summer Starfruit dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit, Memento black, copics
• Accessories: crochet thread