Trio of Chocolate Boxes

The Chocolate Lady from my work (aka: the place that pays the bills...for now), has ordered three chocolate boxes to give as gifts to friends and I finished them up tonight. I love that she gives me free reign on designs and colors when I do them. She has liked every single one I've done for her. The one on the bottom is from the original batch I showed her, and she likes that style the best. The one on the bottom is okay, but I really like the one with the PTI ribbon and simply dotted with the Polka Dot Basics set. But I'm lOvInG the one on the right! It's got SU! double sided designer paper and a couple of Prima flowers on it. And do you see the little sparkle of bling in the middle of each flower? Just a touch so it doesn't over-whelm the tiny box. Just a quick post tonight - thanks for looking!

Magazine Holder Card Set

I love to make sets of cards. I have a lot of them on my SCS gallery, and I've posted a few of them on the blog. I find it very relaxing to work with one theme and vary it a little bit to make each card similar, but different. When cruising the blog-o-sphere, I came across Michelle Wooderson's blog entry of September 18th and a light went off in my head. No, maybe not necessarily a light - more like fireworks of inspiration! Unique! How Cute! And the potential for a SET OF CARDS! I'm IN!

First off, the original design came from Becky Roberts who was sooooo talented to figure out everything and kindly share it on her blog! Because me and math don't get along. EVER! And when I jumped to her site to see what's-what, she had already done the math for me! YIPEEE!! Thank you Becky!!

So I decided to make a set of cards for Mom. Mom is an award-winning hand quilter and when I bought the Quilters Sampler and Sentiments from PTI, I had her in mind.

First off, a picture of each sets of cards. They are resting on the coordinating envelopes I made, thanks to Lauren Meader's envelope formula. And me, being math challenged, I can even do it!

And below is a picture of just the envelopes and another picture of just the cards. The envelopes match the paper, which is a mixture of PTI, SU! and DCWV.

Each little card measures 3.75 x 3 and fit perfectly into the little tiny card holder!

But I made the little card holder bust out at the seams by adding one more item. A little envelope that holds sticky seals to keep the envelopes closed.


I hoped you liked today's post - it was a long one, but hopefully it will inspire you! Thanks for looking!

Easy Friendship Card

I just whipped this one out in less than 5 minutes. The flowers are embossed right on the front of the card. Then I just tied a ribbon, used a punch, stamped the sentiment and added a little bling and DONE!

This is just a small 4x4 inch square card. Perfect size for a gift bag or to tuck into a book you may be giving as a gift.

Thanks for looking!

A Day at the River House: The Elusive Monarch!

While up at the River House, a Monarch Butterfly was taunting me the whole while during the very precise positioning of the Sniper Rifle zero-ing in. Every time I looked away from the action, it fluttered by. I swear this thing was doing laps around the house laughing at me and taunting me...."haha - you can't get a decent picture of me!" But I was able to get a few.....

Open....

and close.

And open....

and close.

I got a few shots in - now only if it will pose for me! Thanks for looking!!

Stampin' Up! Party

As I stated in a recent post, I went to a Stampin' Up! party last week and had a blast! I used to be an SU! demo, but dropped a while back. I was thrilled when a woman at Church sent me an invite to attend her party. I haven't been to an SU! party since I was a demo and was excited to go. I went by myself, not knowing anyone there other than the hostess. My love of paper crafting got me over my fear of crowds and I went. So here are the three cards we made:


Very cute, very easily repeated, very nice cards! I loved doing them, especially since the group I was with was very nice! I think you have to be in a nice atmosphere when stamping with a group of people you have never met before. To me, it is difficult being a 'stranger' with a group of already established stampers. But everyone there was so friendly!

Here is a close up of all the cards. All items are by Stampin' Up!

You can contact me to find out MY demonstrator's name by leaving a comment. If you want to find a demonstrator in YOUR area, check out the tool on the SU! website. Thanks for looking!!!

Martha....

I don't need to add a last name. She has some amazing crafting tools, many of which I use on my paper crafts. She has a blog which has a lot of fun stuff on it. You can see it HERE.

Poppy Shimmer!

I bought Lisa Johnson's Remember for Papertrey Ink back during the release in August, but unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to play with it until now. Why didn't I play with it sooner???

I made this for a lady at church who knows I stamp. She invited me to a Stampin' Up! party and I went! I haven't been to an SU! party since before my Dad died in '06 and I was a demo then! I'll post the 3 cute cards we made soon.

So I wanted to thank her for inviting me and I made this card. Granted, I've got hundreds of cards I could have sent her that were already made, but then I wouldn't have had as much fun making this card!

The only layers to this card is the sentiment that was cut out with the Nestabilities and layered on to Pure Poppy cardstock. And the white, well, the white is actually PTI shimmer cardstock - love it! Here is a better picture of the actual shimmer. It was hard to get a photo that didn't actually blind me because of the glare!

And finally a picture of the sentiment close up. Thanks for stopping by!

With just a simple little change....

...a card that was okay becomes better. I had originally made this card with the colorful ribbon. The crease is on the left, just like a traditional card. It measure 5.5" tall by 4.25" wide:


It's okay. But the ribbon is distracting to me. It takes away from the Unity bird with the flourishes coming out of it's rear end. And after all, what's a bird without SOMETHING coming out of it's rear end! (Trust me, I have two birds!) But the bird is really supposed to be the focal point and somehow, the ribbon got all that attention.

But the bird is very cool. I stamped it three times. First, directly onto the PTI kraft cardstock. The second and third times were stamped on PTI Vintage Cream cardstock. The two that were stamped on the cream were cut out and then a tiny little snip of SU! dimensionals were layered between the kraft, the first cutout in cream and the second cutout in cream. A little bit better visual of this here:


But again, the ribbon distracted from the bird. So, I decided I needed some black and cream dotted ribbon to go with the black and cream dotted bird. I had black and white dotted ribbon, but no black and cream dotted ribbon. So what's a chick to do? Go out and buy some? No, it's 11:30 at night. Go borrow some from a neighbor? No, not a single soul in my neighborhood stamps, let alone have black and cream ribbon for me to borrow. Besides, it's 11:30 at night and this isn't a cup of sugar we are talking about! Wait until tomorrow and go to the local craft store? No! I cannot wait! I'm impatient - I must have it NOW! So what did I do? I took my Tim Holtz for Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink and schmeared it all over my black and white dotted ribbon until the white dots appeared to be cream!

And now the ribbon doesn't distract from the bird, nor the sentiment:



I used my Scor-Pal to 'frame in' the sentiment, purposely leaving the parallel lines off-set in length to each other to give it a subtle bit of character. TTFN!

A Cute Little Owl Thank You!

Isn't this little owl cute? He is one of the smaller owls from the Papertrey Ink set Wise Owl. You can also purchase separately the Wise Owl Bellies so that you can change the belly of the larger owl in the set. It has some very versatile pieces in it to customize your owl.


I had covered the PTI kraft card stock with the patterned paper from K & Co. a while ago, but I didn't know what I was going to do with it. If it wasn't for the pink in the paper, it would almost be like camouflage! So tonight I made it into a pocket card.















The little owl has some Crystal Effects by SU! on them. Unfortunately, when I added the CE to them, it made the Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink by Ranger bleed a little. But that's okay! It just gives the owl a bit more character! I could have easily Photo Shopped the bleeding out, but then it looses it's character. And after all, nothing is perfect!


I used my Nestabilities to cut out and emboss the circle that the owl is on and used a circle punch to cut the pink and the half slice out of the actual card. I colored in the owl using my Prisma Pencils and some mineral spirits just to blend them in. I also used my SU! markers to color the little flower on the inside of the card and also for the little dots.

Did you notice the little belly band? (I'm going with a belly theme here!) I used the leaf print from Pinefeather's new Rustic Branches set for PTI and stamped it in VersaMark on the Dark Chocolate PTI paper. The sentiment was stamped and then punched out using SU!'s Word Window punch and then popped up from the paper belly band.


I hope you found some inspiration from today's card. If it did inspire you - share with me a link to what you have made! Thanks for looking!

A New -To - You Card!

I've made this card in several variations. It's my go-to layout and it's a quick card when I don't have one on hand that I think is appropriate. I've got hundreds of cards at my finger tips, but sometimes I just don't like what I have that will fit the occasion.


In the middle of each of the blossoms is a tiny drop of Diamond Stickles. Nothing like instant bling to add a bit of punch to an otherwise bland card! And of course, there is that ribbon again! I can't get enough of ribbon. I love ribbon on a card. You don't see too much ribbon, if any, on a card you can buy in the store, and I love it!


That's it for today! Thanks for taking a peek!

The Deets: Ribbon and paper by PTI as well as ink the sentiment was stamped with. All other ink and the sentiment is by Stampin' Up! Stickles by Ranger.

BLOG CANDY ALERT! Time's Up - A winner has been chosen!

A wonderful woman over on the PTI form is offering up some blog candy on her blog. Check it out here! She is in England, and I don't know if the blog candy is open to U.S. residents, but if you want to see some true art, check out her blog! She is fabulous!

A Day at the River House: Morning Dew

I love going up to the River House because it is so untouched by people. Yes, my Mom and Dad built a big honkin' house on the River - but only so ALL of us, with our families. could spend time together. But other than the small yard that surrounds the house, the 80+ acres are untouched other than paths for the Rhino and to the tree stands for hunting. This makes a great photo opportunity for the wild flowers and plants that grow there. Take a peek!

With Fall fast approaching, it is getting brisk at night and warm during the day which means dew drops! I love the morning dew on the wild flowers and plants and a few of my pictures captured it.

This is a plant which I call Elephant Ears. I have NO idea what the real name for it is, but it grows wild on my parent's property.


You can see the little ice crystals that have formed on the plant during the night and are just starting to melt and evaporate with the morning sun.


Here are some daisy-like flowers. Again - no idea what the real name for them are. All I know is they are PURPLE and pretty and grow abundantly on the property. Do you see the dew? You can click on any picture on my blog and will get bigger.

And finally, some leaves. First from actual camera-to-object distance:

And the last shot is extreme close up of the dew. I love how dew puddles on the plants. It reminds me a freshly waxed car - except Nature waxed the plants all on it's own! Hope you liked the pictures!

CmWC 23

It's been a while since I did the challenge on the PTI forum so I thought I would play today.

This card is very shimmery. Both the copper and the white card stock are shimmer papers. And when you add the copper embossing on both the image and the sentiment, it gives it even more shimmer!

For the main image, I used a Tim Holtz stamp. If you don't know who he is, check out his blog. The man has amazing talent and is always on the go! And it's fun to see a man's perspective to stamping. The Thank You sentiment is from PTI's Remember set. The white shimmer paper is by PTI and the copper shimmer paper is by Stampin' Up! The ribbon is unknown.

Here is another picture of the card. Trying to capture that shimmer on camera is not easy! Thanks again for looking!

Thankful

I haven't thought much about what I'm thankful for in a long time, and while I was making this card, I thought about it and realized that there are many, many things I'm thankful for. I won't even try to list them here, but I like it when I'm making a card and as I'm making it, I get deeper into my own thoughts. Then before I know it, the card is done!

This card was made using PTI's First Fruits set. I used this set before on my Mahalo card and I like the classic look to the set.



The craft and cream paper is by PTI and the patterned paper is by K&Co. Once again, I used my Martha punch - love those punches! The buttons came from my Grandma's button box, so I have no idea what they came off of.

I also used my Cricut to cut out the little frame for the sentiment and used Making Memories brads. I also used dimensionals to, well, to give the main image and sentiment some dimension of course! Thanks for looking!

We now return to our regularly scheduled progamming...

To bring you a blast from the past! This is a card I made about three years ago featuring a rubber stamp from the dollar bin at Michael's. This was WAY before the gadgets and machines and what-not that is out there today. Whew! I'm so glad things in the stamping world are improving! Why do I show this to you? Because I can show you what it was like 'back then' before all the new technology. Hope you like it!

Edited to add: You can find the original inspiration here.

A Day at the River House: Zero-ing In a Rifle

B2 bought a Sniper rifle for my son and they had to mount and set the scope and zero it in so it's accurate. Here are a few scenes from the day. And just so any of you reading this gets freaked out about guns, let me lay down a little history. My son is in the Army, has served one tour over in Iraq and is going back for a second tour soon. My brothers and I grew up in a home were our Dad was Police Chief and also in the Army. We hunt during the Fall season. We all know how to handle guns and rifles and take it very seriously. So take a look - you might get a laugh once you see the pictures I took!

So, here is the gun, all set up and ready to go.

The picnic table is set up at 100 feet away from the target you can see here:



Here are my shoes. And an old watering can. And some clouds while I wait for the fun to commence!


Here are the bullets being used:

Here I am 'pinching' my son's head between my thumb and pointer:


And finally a shot of it all going down. B2 is standing behind my son with a scope on a tripod in the back of the Rhino looking at the target to tell him how much it needs to be adjusted. It takes a lot of patience to zero in a rifle. Trust me, my Mom's nerves were wrecked by the end of it! It was a great time in between the rain falling and chilly days! Thanks for looking!