Good Saturday Morning

Hope your Saturday has started out well. Mine has. After all, it can't be anything but good when you start the day off with a delicious cup of coffee and warm weather. Well, warm for Wisconsin in late October, anyway...(60+ degrees at 7:00 in the morning). In between saying 'good-bye' to company and getting to the cleaning and errands earlier this week, I have played a little in my craft room. Hopefully later today after more of the same, I can sit down, do some commenting, and maybe even make a card or two. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see what happens.

Since I hadn't played at Muse or CASology as of late, I thought that it was about time to remedy that. There's a sweet card by Lucille for our inspiration at Muse, and a fun cue card at CASology:

For my Muse card, I stayed pretty much with Lucille's sketch and colors. Just changed things up a little bit.

mmmm....coffee.... Bought this Jillibean Soup kit a few months back, and I'm still having fun with it. Except for the cardstock scraps and base, plus the ME die, everything is from this kit. Pretty fun and pretty EZPZ.

When my kids were little, a bandaid was the cure for every little boo-boo. Well, that and a kiss. So that's where I went with my "Cure card."

I love this darling little stamp set from Taylored Expressions. That bandaid is adorable in my book. Beside the matching die, I used a couple of WPlus9 circle dies and called it good. Pretty darn CAS, if you ask me. So that's what I've got for this morning. Hope your weekend is blessed and happy dances everyone!

Blessings

Hi kids. It's been quite a while since I've had time to write a post. But I've been busy with some blessings! Earlier in October, I had the opportunity to spend a week with some of the most wonderful cardmakers at (what we've come to call it), the Lake House right smack dab on the shores of Prior Lake, Minnesota. Anita, Ardyth, Darnell, Geri, and Kim are just amazing. It was relaxing, productive, and oh so much fun! What a blessing!! I'll have some photos in just a minute... Through the kindness of our daughter, Cathy (and her family), and our next-door neighbor (and as I like to call him, my third best girlfriend), Michael, I had 'round the clock care for my sweet little DH for the ten days I was away. Another wonderful blessing! I left home on the 6th of October and drove to my son Tad's house to visit with them and spend the night. He's that amazing young man you've been praying for. While I have you for a minute, I'll let you know that even the Mayo Clinic could not put a diagnosis to his neck/shoulder/back/arm issues; oh pooh!! He has made some improvements, but continues to have pain pretty much every minute of every day. His attitude, however, is one of Christian grace; he recognizes his daily blessings and is doing his level best to concentrate on them rather than the constant pain. (If you could, I know we'd appreciate more prayers for him....) The next day after a lovely breakfast and some shopping with Marsha and the kidlets for early birthday presents, I headed to the airport, picked up Anita and headed off to the Lake House where Darnell awaited our arrival! Saturday, the rest of the crafty crew arrived! A whole week of craftiness. Ahhhhhhhhh...... Yep, more blessings. We ate at several fun places with good food, including meeting up with Tad and family at Punch Pizza. Oh. My. Goodness!!! If you live anywhere near, or are headed to the Twin Cities, you absolutely must go to Punch for pizza. Delicious. How about a photo or two? These were taken by Kaylin, who is four years old....

It's a little fuzzy, but not a bad photo for a four year old! Meet my super fantastic daughter in law, Marsha. She is an incredible woman, and we love her very much. That's Tad photobombing...silly boy! And the little face belongs to my granddaughter Samantha.

Sorry. Can't identify the fellows in the background, but that's Ardyth waving to Kaylin, with Geri peeking out from behind Anita.

Darnell and Kim. Folks were packed into this place, and they kept coming and coming and coming. It's almost worth the drive from here just to get one of their pizzas...

And here's our "official" photographer giving 'bunny ears' to Grammy. Isn't she just precious?? Our haircolor nearly matches, too.....hahahaha

Since this post is already waaaay too long, I'll cut to the chase with my cards; the first two were made at the Lake House:

Becca Cruger is sponsoring a hop to raise awareness for victims of domestic violence. Please head over to her blog, The Damsel of Distressed, and read. Then make a card and hop along. Much more than a worthy cause. Seriously. Look around you. At the women and children you know. We can help.

Masculine card for AAA Cards. 

And one last card for SSS Wednesday Challenge with the theme pink.

After returning from the Lake House, I jumped back into my cooking/cleaning mode. We'd been blessed with company from Phoenix, so have had ZERO time in the craft room. Until this morning. But I'll shut up for today. Will post again soon. Happy dances everyone!

Guest Designing for Inkspirational Challenge!!!

Last month, Marina contacted me and asked if I'd like to Guest Design for this fortnight's Inkspirational Challenge. You see, I'd been a Top Pick with this card, inspired by Carol. As soon as I could frame coherent sentences, I replied with an emphatic, "yes!!!" To say it's an honor and that I'm humbled is a huge understatement. The DT is amazing, they are generous with their comments and have been absolutely encouraging. So a shout-out to the team at Inkspirational Challenge, and a thank you as well. I'm delighted you asked!

The brief for this week is "Use five (or more) stamps." Small amounts of panic, as I usually only use a stamp or two and die cuts. Turned out to be much easier than I thought!

All of the flowers and leaves are from my NBUS set by Altenew; Peony Bouquet. Layers, and layers, and layers. The outlines alone were three stamps, done in Versafine black ink. Next I grabbed some Altenew Buttercream ink, and stamped those little leaves next to the berries. Are you keeping count? That's four stamps...The berries were done in some Studio G blue (five). For the large leaves, I used some ME Hazel ink, lightly stamped (six). The peonies and their stems were done in the same blue and hazel inks (seven, eight, nine). And my tenth stamp was the Gina K. sentiment done on a vellum strip. (As to those sequins...they're pretty CLEAR, but photographed pinkish.) Kind of proud that not only did I use five stamps, I doubled the requirement without any problem whatsoever!

Hope you're inspired, and that you play along this week! Lots and lots of ways to use five or more stamps - make your own background, layer stamps, stack a subway of sentiments... well, you get the idea, and don't forget to see what the DT has made, too. You'll see some incredible inspiration there! Happy dances everyone!!

CASology & CLBH#2

Happy Friday everyone. Popping in for a quick second. Waaaaaayyyy too much going on here at the moment. Took time out yesterday to make a card, but got too busy to post it. So I'm finally getting to it today. In between stuff. And yes, I will most definitely be falling asleep in my chair later this evening. Show of hands...anyone else falling asleep on the couch or in a comfy chair after a busy week? One QAEZPZ card to show today. It's for CASology, with the cue card "Cute." And also as my second entry for the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

 

Pretty sure this qualifies as cute...

Isn't that kitty just adorable?! That's a NBUS N&T stamp and die. I used a font from my computer, and a piece of striped paper from a PhotoPlay pad. Copics for coloring, and I trimmed out the tiny coffee cup from an old scrap.  And I'm off. "A man can work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done." Or so they say... Happy dances everyone!

CLBH & Inkspirational Challenges

Getting right to things. DH hasn't been feeling well, so I've been absent. Today I have two cards to share, the first one goes to the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, which you need to check out..., and the second one will be paying a visit to Inskpirational Challenges.

My nod to Fall on this card brown color, the bit of burlap (thx Amy), and one bitty leaf on the cup.

The blue base is a scrap from a million years ago that I've been hoarding, um, saving. A bit of burlap and the stamps are all from EH, with the exception of the little leaf; Verve. I watercolored the cup with my zigs. Much prettier irl. We've got that Midwestern rain thing going on, though not like what's happening in MN & IA. 

Here's my take on the inspirational photo, though slightly different. 

I didn't have a brick stencil, or any brick dp, so I kept the grid pattern with what I've used. The box is from N&T, and I love it! Studio Calico bear stamp, and I fussy cut him. The little 'happy birthday' banner he's holding was a gift from Geri G. many, many long times ago. Thx Geri! And I've got to run my friends, DH duty calls! : ) Happy dances everyone.

Muse + Altenew's Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop

Before I show you my card, I need to ask you a question. Have you seen those stupid laundry gremlins at your house? I mean, really. There are only two of us living here, and I swear, someone is coming in and adding laundry to the hampers. Must be laundry gremlins... It couldn't be me letting it pile up and taking longer to do, could it? Nahhhhh..... Laundry gremlins it is then!

Now that that's cleared up, I thought I'd share a card I made for my sweet granddaughter's upcoming birthday. She's in law school. I know, right?! Yesterday she was two and today she's all grown up. Happened really, really fast! I wanted something special for her card, and had been drawing a blank. Then, I saw Tracey's card over at Muse. Oh. My. Gosh!!! Inspiration Plus! If you haven't seen it, just have a gander here, but be sure you head over to her blog and leave her a comment; it's so right. See what I mean:

Madly in love with Tracey's card. Uh-huh.

My take is just a bit different:

I was inspired by her two flowers, the large black sentiment, and the watercolory look. Where Tracey used watercolor powders, I just used my Zigs. All stamps are Altenew, and I white embossed the blossoms before watercoloring. I love this Peony Bouquet set, and the Calligraphy Alpha, too. Hope she likes it!

Since I've used all Altenew stamps, I'm going pop this into the gallery at The Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop. Pretty sure I've played in most of these featured challenges, and I'll bet you have too! Head over at check out this post. 

That's it for me for today. Must get a few things done. Happy dances everyone!

Monday Morning

Hope your week is starting out well. It's a gorgeous morning here; cool, sunshiny, and quiet for the moment. I love mornings like this. Thanks, God, for today! Got tons done over the weekend, and even tried a new chicken recipe for dinner last night (it was a bit bland for me, but DH liked it....). Even snuck in a short visit with my sister on Saturday. Tucked DH in with his breakfast, remote, and a phone, and drove to see Sue. Nice time. Wasn't gone too long; I start to worry about him and then I know it's time for me to go back home. Hopefully soon, his health will improve enough for me to be gone overnight (if I wanted to go) without someone staying with him. We'll deal with whatever comes.

More craft time over several days. Couldn't seem to get cards done all in one sitting, but I did manage to get one done for Tag You're It, and one for The Heart Desires. Scope out the inspiration from each:

How can you not fall in love with Melissa's sweet tag. I filled my recycle bins with several attempts, and finally managed to make one I like, lol!

So much to choose from! I went with the color palette and added stripes just because they tripped my trigger. 

Here's my tag:

My double tag uses an SC die for the tag itself, and a WPlus9 for the 'hello.' Avery Elle stamps with various inks, some Doodlebug polka dot paper, and bit of gingham ribbon. Don't know why it took me so long to make this...

My card for THD:

I found some felt in my stash in just the right colors, and the red is even glittery! They're cut with RC and WPlus9 dies. I used my Silhouette to make that doily, and an SC die for the sentiment. Scraps of black and stripes. I made the center of the flower and the other yellow dots out of the same yellow cardstock, and added some GA. Looks cooler irl....

Anyhoo...I really must get going. Time to fix DH's breakfast. Me? I'm just having coffee. Mmmmm....coffee! You all have a great week, and I'll be popping around to see you soon. Happy dances everyone. : )

Just a little Happy Dance Today

Can I say thank you once more? For all your prayers, thoughts, and kind wishes. Even though DH still has this kinda big test coming up, I see that his strength continues to improve, and his dread of the possibility of another surgery has waned to a normal level. That, dear friends, is the power of prayer. With this small/medium improvement, he is becoming more independent again, and that leaves me a little more time in the craft room!! I've also been able to get at those chores that had been let go...cleaned out the front hall closet, organized some crapola in the basement, and on Monday I'll be making a run to Goodwill with the back end of my Subaru loaded to the gills. Woohoo!!

Now for the cards. Two of them. Feels good to be able to make cards on a more regular basis! This first one will travel to the Time Out Challenge, with this brief: "Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year." And SSS Monday Challenge has us using a stamp.

Here's what I made:

A scrap of green for a mat beneath the white, MFT die cut panel. The stamps are PTI with an RC sentiment. I colored the leaves with my ziggies, and added a bit of orange glitter to the 'berries.' EZPZ lemon squeezy.

I'm also playing along this week with Cupcake Inspirations; wait till you see the colors on their inspiration photo... Yum!! And since SSS's Wednesday Challenge is also use a stamp, I'm adding this as well!

Love those colors!!

(Can you tell my PTI order came the other day?!) Had to use this tag die that I've been drooling over, since the first time I'd seen it. Endless possibilities! I die cut and stamped some strawberries using WPlus9 goodies, and printed some mint green striped paper from Silhouette. The sentiment is from RC, and is stamped with ME ink. A bit of burlappy ribbon shot with just a smidgen of gold tops off the tag. Turned out pretty sweet! And that's all there was to it. Now I'm off to work on the linen cupboard, put clean sheets on the beds upstairs, and maybe get a little dusting and vacuuming in. After lunch I hope to be crafting a bit more...providing DH is having a good day; he comes before all else. Happy dances everyone.