Thankful For You

It's my day to post over at The Alley Way Stamps.  There isn't much longer to revel in rich fall colors - so I used Framed to create this fall scene, along with a leaf and sentiment from It's Fall About You and a little background pattern from Background Check.

This is going out to my dear friend in hospice care.  I am truly thankful and will always be thankful for her friendship over the last 48 years!!I'm playing along with the current challenge at The Friday Mashup: a thank you project with leaves 

And I'm playing with Simon Says Stamp: Thanksgiving/Thank You.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Framed, Background Check, It's Fall About You
• Paper: Stampin' Up Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Basic Black,  K&Co Fall Harvest Mat Pad (I've had it for a number of years so probably long retired!)
• Ink: black
• Accessories: misc twine

Be Still and Know

It's my day to post on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog and I decided to celebrate an anniversary.

One year ago, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps asked me to be a guest designer.  They sent me two stamps to play with - Beauty by the Sea and Ocean Paradise.  I most amused - after all, what does a Colorado gal know about the ocean - but I had a great time playing along.  Now I serve on their design team and get the fun of playing with their new sets each and every month.  But I decided to go back and play with this original set...



Although it's not as easy to see as I had hoped, there is tulle stretched across the window.  I also used an impression plate to give it a pebbly look.

I made this card for the Friday Mashup challenge and I actually did the full mashup - a sketch and a lazy summer day theme.

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Ocean Paradise and sentiment from Peaceful Swans
• Paper: Stampin' Up Marina Mist and white
• Ink: Stampin' Up Marina Mist
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Impression Plate, Nestabilities ovals, crochet thread, tulle and miscellaneous beads

A CASE Mashup with Leaves!

This morning's card started with the Splitcoast CAS challenge to use leaves.  I also knew there was a fun Friday Mashup out there to mashup "Autumn" and the colors orange and  yellow.  Last but definitely not least, the Less Is More challenge is simply to fill their gallery up with 1000 CAS cards - so you'll see a lot of CAS cards from me this week.

I also have a personal goal to only use stamps from the overflowing, in-the-way box of stamps-that-will-not-be-put-away-until-they-are-used.  Thank goodness - way at the bottom - was a set that I had gotten over a year ago that included leaves!

Each leaf was inked in the lighter color and then one edge was "rolled" on the darker ink pad.

The stamps on this card are from Verve Stamps.  They make very high quality clear stamps.  I recently did this post on getting good images with clear stamps.  One of the comments asked what to do when the clear stamps quit sticking.  That can happen but it is very easy to fix!

A clear stamps loses its ability to stick because of oils from your fingers, dust, and in my case, cat fur, that accumulates on the stamp.  The best way to get it to stick is to use dishsoap - just dip it in some soapy water and rub lightly.  In some ways this seems counter intertuitive, like you would wash away some special "stickiness" - but it does work!!

• Stamps: Verve Harvest Blessings
• Paper: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla and Pumpkin
• Ink: Stampin' Up Daffodil, Pumpkin, Cajun, Suede
• Accessories: gems colors with copics, Cuttlebug embossing folder

Friday Mashup with colourQ

I so wanted to play this week's colors at the colourQ color challenge and I immediately envisioned using the Stampin' Up Field Flowers set.  I went looking for a sketch to match and found the Friday Mashup challenge (realizing after the fact that a number of the designers had also used Field Flowers!!)  The "mashup" was to use the sketch along with dry embossing - not a problem for me!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Field Flowers, French Foliage (the script) and Kindness Matters ("Thanks")


• Paper: Stampin' Up Indigo, Olive, White and Razzleberry dsp (the Curry flower)


• Ink: Stampin' Up Indigo (the background is stamped off once), Olive, Pumpkin, Curry


• Accessories: Tim Holtz Embossing Folder, Stampin' Up Flower Burst and Butterfly Embosslits, Olive grosgrain, gems.