Christmas Kitten

 Hello, my friends. It is afternoon here in Houston, Texas. We had a chilly start to our day here. The temp in my house this morning was 68*. Brrrrrr..... I like sleeping when it's cold, but I like it warm when I get out of bed.

I guess it's chilly enough to think about Christmas. Trying to get some of my cards done for this year. Won't be long now. I made this card for the Fan Club Christmas Card Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. Each month of 2020 a different color is picked to be the main color for your cards. I'm a little behind for August which is YELLOW. I was going through all my Christmas stamps and found this one tucked away which I don't think I've ever used. The image just looked so adorable.

The image is Christmas Kitten from Stampendous and the sentiment is from Power Poppy's Under Glass stamp set. I found this designer paper collection from Stampin Up called Warmth & Cheer. It's a big 6" paper pad. I liked these papers for the background of my image and chose Stampin Up Going Gray for the cardstock base and mat. I added a little bling up in the right-hand corner and it was done. The coloring was done with my Copic markers - G21, G24; R22, R24, R2; YR21, YR23, and YR24.

That's it for now. I may make some more using this image and different colors.

Falling Leaves - CYS

 Hello, my friends and Happy Tuesday! Things are going along well here. I'm in the middle of my third week of this semester and doing well in both classes. The weather has turned a little cooler here. I know that my outside kitties are liking that since they are wearing winter coats. It's okay. It will be back up to the high 80s by next week. I'm so NOT ready for winter to come. 

I'm a little late with this card. It was supposed to be posted yesterday, but with school work, I just didn't get the chance to get a photo and get it uploaded. This was pretty easy. It is for the Challenge Your Stash challenge swap on Splitcoast Stampers. This month the hostess was Tracie and she wanted us to make a card using Leaves - any kind of leaves. I wasn't sure what to do for it, but as I was organizing my craft room over the last few weeks, I was going through leftovers from old swaps and found this one. It is from 2012!!! I'm not even sure which group it was from. It turned out to be perfect for this challenge.

The leaf images are from Stampin Up Gently Falling set which were embossed using gold, copper, and early espresso embossing powders. Each leaf is different. I used a sentiment from my SU Day of Gratitude stamp set stamped using SU More Mustard ink. I also used SU More Mustard cardstcok for the base and the mat for the sentiment. The designer paper is from DCWV Amber Autumn collection. The border punch is from Martha Stewart, but I'm not sure of the name. I colored the leaves using my Copic markers - E02, E04, and E07. It didn't take much to color them up. 

Enjoy and have a great rest of the week.

Jade Pumpkins - IAS #93

 Hello. Happy Sunday, my friends. I hope you are all enjoying your day. It is good here, but supposed to have a cold front come through tomorrow and bring cooler weather. I'm so not ready for winter to be upon us. It was a great week. I released all the Monarchs that I had in my hutch which were about 24. One day alone I had 20 all at once. It was so amazing to see them all fly off.

Finishing up the second week of classes - so far so good. 

My card today is for the International Art & Soul challenge. This is a for fun challenge blog that we post to every other Sunday. This time the challenge is to make a project with Autumn Colors! It can be any type of craft you like as long as it fits the theme. Here is my card:

Materials Used:

• Image - Simply Betty Stamps - Jade Pumpkins
• Sentiment - Stampin Up
• Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
• Cardstock - Stampin Up Hello Honey; Xpress It Blending Card
• Designer Paper - We Are Memory Keepers - Autumn
• Accessories - Stampin Up Ribbon - Hello Honey; Oval scallop punch; Oval punch; stitched die
• Copic Markers - B0000; E25, E31, E33, E34, E35; E50, E51, E53; G20, G21, G24; T4, T6; Y06, Y13, Y18; YR00, YR02, Y404.

That's it for now. I hope that you will pop on over to the IAS challenge forum and take a look at what the rest of the design team has created. Join us with your own creation and you could be picked as the Winner or one of the Top 3. See you soon.

Dancing Snowflakes

 Hello my friends. Happy Tuesday. It's been quite a day with pouring rain throughout. Tropical Storm Beta is causing havoc here as usual. Flooding all around town. Lucky for me, my house is set up off the ground so you need to step up to get in. That keeps the water out. Two of my outside kitties have been stranded on the patio since yesterday, but they are all curled up in their happy places with food and water, so it's all good.

Today I have another Christmas card to share. This one is very simple, and if I need to, I will make more of these to send out. It's great because I can make them whatever color I want.

I made this for the Splitcoast Stampers Fan Club Christmas card challenge. It is late. It was for the month of June. Each month this year is a different color and June was RED. Can you tell! LOL!

I used a card base of Stampin Up Whisper White and layered on a die cut frame cute from SU Real Red. The die is from Memory Box and is called Dancing Snowflakes. The sentiment was just perfect for this card. It fit just right in the center. It is from the Power Poppy - Flowering Santa stamp set, stamped using SU Real Red ink. Easy peasy.

I hope to have more to share tomorrow. I still have July, August, and September! Stay safe.

Winter Wonderland

 Hello my friends! Here I am again today taking a break from my online classes. There is so much reading to do, but lucky  me, so far I've aced all my quizzes. Let's hope that keeps up. 

I am playing catch up with my Christmas cards for this year. I am following a Christmas Card Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers where each month there is a different color to be the main color. I have two totally different cards for the May Challenge where the color was BLUE. 

This first card was pretty simple. 

Materials Used: 

• Image - Stampin Up - Christmas Cuties; Great Impressions - Snow Drifts
• Sentiment - Stampin Up - Christmas Cuties (inside the card)
• Cardstock - Stampin Up - Marina Mist and Mint Macaroon; Xpress It Blending Card
  
• Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
• Designer Paper - Fancy Pants - Winterland
• Accessories - snowflake die - Tree dies
• Copic Markers - E34, E35, E37; E50, E51, E53; B12, B14, B16; W00, W2, W4, W6 

I made this card with the Winter's Eve Collection from Heartfelt Creations using stamps and dies.

• Snow Kissed Spruce Stamp Set
• Frolicking Frosty and Spruce Die
• Christmas Cardinals stamps and dies (retired)
• Copic Markers - E23; G24, G28; R05, R17; T9, Y15; 
• Accessories - White liquid applique; foam tape

That's it for today. I hope to be back tomorrow with more of my Christmas creations. Stay safe

 

Wild Party Animals! Creative Card Chicks

Good morning and Happy Monday. We are dealing with lots of rain today. Glad that I don't have to get out in it to go to work or the store for anything. What would I have done without grocery delivery!!!

Today I have two cards to share for the Creative Card Chicks monthly swap. This month Terry was our hostess and sent us a fun party animal kit. So far I have made two cards using the ingredients and images she sent. The images are from the Taylored Expressions set - Mane Event as well as the sentiments. These would be great for a child's birthday.

For this first one I used Stampin Up Bashful Blue for the mats and card base. The designer paper is from Pebbles - Party Animal. I added some confetti looking blue dots for interest and colored the image using my Copic Markers - B000, B12, B14, B18; E23, E30, E22; G24; T6; T10; Y11, Y15, Y21; YR02; YR04.

The image and sentiments are the same for this card. I used Stampin Up Real Red for the card made and circle mat for the sentiment. The designer paper is from Pebbles - Happy Hurray! I added some red enamel dots from Paper Shoppe and some polka dot ribbon. Terry included a little pop up spring so I used that to pop up the lion. Fun times. The Copic Markers I used were B14; E23, E30; G24; R21, R22, R27; T6, T10; Y11, Y15, Y17; Y21, Y38.

Thanks Terry for a fun kit.

 

Life is Lovely

 Hello again my friends. Here it is still Sunday and I have another blog post. This is my last post of card kits I received back in May from the card kit swap that I am in. This kit was sent by Carol (momcgw on SCS) and contained a bunch of beautiful papers, die cuts, bling, and all kinds of pretty embellishments. She also sent me the lovely stamp set called Fiskars by Teresa Collins. I had a great time making these two cards and there is so much more to play with in the kit for later.

For this one I used Stampin Up Bordering Blue for the card base. I used one of my dies to cut out the flower image and then sponged a pink edge around it.

For this one I used Stampin Up Bashful Blue as the card base and I used my Copic Markers to ink one of the pretty die cuts Carol sent. I believe it is Memory Box Flower Border. The sentiments are cut from a piece of the designer paper from Recollections. All the embellishments were included in the kit. I also used my Copic Markers to color both images, but forgetful me forgot to write them down this time.

Such fun toys to play with. Thanks so much Carol for a beautiful kit and I can't wait to create more with the rest of the items.

Butterflies, Butterflies, and More Butterflies!

 Hello my friends. It is Sunday evening here. We are just getting done with a big rain storm and have more on the way thanks to Tropical Storm/Hurricane Beta heading our way. It's not a severe storm, so I'm not worried and I live inland rather than along the coast where it may be worse. My house sits on an uphill, so I also don't worry about flooding. I hope that you are well wherever you are located.

Today I have another card to share from one of the remaining card kits that I received back in May. My these was flowers and/or butterflies. One of the swap members sent me a kit with a bunch of butterfly images in it and some really pretty flower paper. So far I have just made one card from the kit, but I hope to do more in the future.This was from Linda a/k/a SkyNacho on SCS.

Unfortunately, she did not tell me where the images came from, so I can't pass that along to you. The sentiment is one that I picked out since there weren't any included in the kit. No problem since I have tons of sentiment stamps. This one from Stampin Up Party Pants was perfect. I used Stampin Up Delightful Daffodil for the card base and sentiment base. The ribbon was included in the kit. I used my Copic Markers to color up the images - T5, T9; Y02, Y08; YR01, Y402, YR04; YR23; YR24, and YR27.  I had fun designing this card, and I'm sure will use the rest of the images in the kit at some future time. Thanks Linda for the fun kit.

Gnome Friends

Hello, friends. Happy Wednesday! I hope you are all doing well and away from the fires and path of Hurricane Sally! We are on the dry side here, so no rain except for the usual afternoon showers that are common here in Texas.

I had an outdoor project to work on today - reattaching the metal back of my bench. Back in May, I went to sit on it when my kids came for a visit and it just fell off. I recently had a handyman refinish the bench and when he put it back together, he used screws that were too short, so they just all fell out of the holes. It took some doing, but I've got it all back together with a nice new cushion on it and an old sheet so the outside kitties can sleep on it without messing up the cushion. Besides, Frosty likes to hide under the bench whenever it storms, so the sheet gives her a little more protection.

So, today I have a card that I made from a card kit sent to me by Shelly which is another kit received from the card kit swap I am in with my theme of flowers and/or butterflies. She sent me these cute little garden gnomes and I had fun putting this card together to make it sort of look outdoorsy.

The gnome image, as well as the sentiment, is from Simon Says Stamps - Spring Gnomes. The flower spray is Bloom from Pink Fresh Studios. The blue DP is from Bo Bunny Harmony collection. I also used a strip of washi tape across the top of what is like a brick wall. I added a couple sequins and colored with my Copic Markers. The panel and sentiment are popped up on a base of Stampin Up Delightful Daffodil.

Thanks Shelly for the fun kit. I have more fun images and embellishments to play with later.

Together We Bloom

Hello, again my friends. Happy Tuesday! I have another card to share with you today. This is one that I received from the Card Kit swap that I am part of. I received the kits back in May/June but I am just now getting to finish up with some of the kits. Actually, I am nowhere near finished because I received tons of stuff with each kit that I can still use. This card is made with a kit I received from Emily a/k/a SkyNacho on Splitcoast Stampers. My theme for my kits was flowers and butterflies, and Emily sent me a whole flower stamp set from Studio Katia called Together We Bloom. It has some beautiful flower images in it.

I wanted something striking for the background, so I used a Stampin Up Real Red cardstock for the base. The sentiment is stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black on Stampin Up Whisper White and then cut using the Scallop Circle cut out die. I fussy cut the flowers and leaf images and popped up the largest on with SU dimensionals to give it some lift. I used two flowers and some bling to add interest to the design.

The flowers and leaves were colored using my Copic markers: G21, G24, G28; RV10, RV11, RV13.

That's it for today. I hope to be back tomorrow with another card kit card to share.

Brighter Days - IAS #92

 Hello, my friends and Happy Monday! I hope it was a good start to your week. If you are in the path of Hurricane Sally, I will be praying that you and your loved ones stay safe. We have been hoping for some cooler weather, but it hasn't materialized as yet. I was having dinner with my daughter and family yesterday outside and it got pretty hot with the sun beating down on us. We finally moved to the shaded back yard. We were supposed to have stormy weather so we started out in the garage. We do not all eat in the house together as yet. Mostly the weather has been good to us.

The last seven - ten days have been very busy for me trying to get projects done before classes started today. Didn't quite make it, but I think I can work on the other couple projects in my spare off time. I was so busy with other stuff that I did not get this card posted to the IAS DT site so it's not on the website this week, but since I had it done, I thought I would go ahead and post it anyway. The theme for this challenge was chosen by Jane and it is Tic Tac Toe. Here is the grid.

 And here is my card. I took the first vertical line - A bow (sort of), green, and an image.

Materials Used: 

• Image - Stampin Up Beautiful You
• Sentiment - same as image
• Card stock - Stampin Up Green Galore
• Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up Green Galore
  
• Designer Paper - Basic Gray Hillside collection
• Accessories from my stash - flowers; ribbon; Stampin Up scallop oval punch
• Copic Markers - G00, G02; E000, E01; E00; E33; R20

That's it. I hope that you will pop on over to the International Art & Soul website and see what the rest of the design team has created with the Tic Tac Toe grid. Then join in the fun and get creative. You could be picked as a winner or one of the Top 3. Have fun.

Blossoms and Blooms

Hi, friends. I'm here again today with another card kit. Is it just me, or are the days just flying by? I can't believe that it's already Thursday. Only one more week until classes start up again. I've been trying to get all my card kits caught up. In the meantime, I'm still working on cleaning up and organizing my craft room. Tossed a bunch of old card making magazines. since I haven't looked at them in years, I didn't figure there was any reason to hold on to them.

Meantime, I was able to put two cards together from a kit I received from Barb. This is another kit I received from the Card Kit swap I am part of from my turn as recipient hostess back in May. Again, my favorites are flowers and butterflies. Barb did not disappoint with this lovely kit. All of the elements I used were from Barb's kit except for the cardstock. I colored them with my Copic markers. On this first one, I put the sentiment inside.

•  Image - GinaK Designs - Bitty Blossoms
• Cardstock - Stampin Up - Blushing Bride
• Accessories - Classic circle die and scallop circle die
• Copic Markers - B0000, G43; R00, R21, R22; Y15, Y17

• Image - GinaK Designs - On My Mind
• Cardstock - Stampin Up - Barely Banana (it's too bad they retired this color. It's such a soft color and would be excellent for baby cards. I used up my last full-size sheet for this card).
• Copic Markers - BG0000; G0000, G00, G21; Y02, Y13; YR21, YR22; YG61.

This was a great kit. I'm glad to know I still have a few more images and supplies to work with to make some more cards. Thanks Barb for this fabulous kit.

Blooms and Butterflies

Hello, my friends. Happy Thursday! I hope you are all very well. This week has just flown by. I was hoping to get started on my dining room chairs recovering, but now waiting to get a tack remover. I did a really good job putting the old ones in when I recovered them the last time. It should arrive sometime today. In the meantime, I've had time to work on some more of my card kits from the card kit swap that I'm part of. I was the hostess recipient back in May and received lovely card kits from the rest of the members. My theme was flowers and butterflies. The four following cards were from a card kit that I received from Tracie. All the supplies were provided in the card kit.

•  Daisy Bouquets by Inky Antics and Loads of Blooms by Newtons Nook
• Designer Paper - My Minds Eye - Splendor collection
• Embellishments - Stash

Cardstock - Stampin Up Blushing Bride
Accessories - Oval die; Scallop Oval Die
Copic Markers - E50, E51, E53; G00, G21, G24; R11, R12

 Cardstock - Stampin Up - Not Quite Navy;
Accessories - Oval Die; label punch
Copic Markers - C0, C3, C4, C6; B0000, B000; B02, B03; G20, G21, G40, G43; R81, R83; RV19; Y15, Y19

Cardstock - Stampin Up - Pretty in Pink
Accessories - Die
Copic Markers - 23; E40, E41; E50, E51, E53; G20, G21; R11, R12, R21; Y13; T10, W1

Cardstock - Stampin Up - Summer Starfruit
Copic Markers - C0; E23; G20, G21; G43; Y04, Y11, Y13, Y15, Y18; YG61, YG63

Thank you for this lovely kit, Tracie. I had a great time putting these cards together.