Goodbye 2014!

Wow, it is hard to believe that another year has come and gone.  This is possibly my last blog post for the year.  Hopefully I will have time to participate in some other challenges before the year is up, but it is my last design team challenge for Addicted to Stamps and More! I have had so much fun designing with this team. I will miss it greatly but I feel like I have not been able to put the time into it that it deserves, so I have decided to step down.  I am finishing off my time at ATSM with a great challenge...Anything Goes!  Hopefully you will join us for this last challenge of the year!

For my card, I decided to use this fun sketch from Create with Connie and Mary.  I thought it had such a unique feel to it!

And just look at these wonderful Christmas colors I found at Fab Friday!  I simply could not pass them up!  I haven't done much Christmas card stamping AT ALL, so I am treating myself to some fun with color. :) 

I thought these colors would make a nice little Christmas scene, so I pulled out two of my favorite go-to stamp sets...Lovely as a Tree and Endless Wishes.

My trees are covered in Dazzling Details so they are very sparkly in real life!  I added some rhinestones for even more bling. Bling makes me very happy this time of the year. :)

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed my card!  If you don't hear from me again this year, enjoy the holidays with your loved ones because that is what I will be busy with next. :)  God bless! 

From our Home to Yours

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS, and I am your hostess!  For this challenge, I have chosen a word that is important to many of us this time of the year: 

My family has been so supportive of me while I have been working full time again for the last few months. It has been really stressful on me, and they have been a huge help at home!  I am glad that I had a chance to get back into teaching full-time, but I quickly learned that I made the right choice when I quit teaching six years ago. :)  I am much better at being a temporary substitute and I can't wait to go back to doing that! 

For the challenge this week, I started by embossing my houses on Brushed Gold and Brushed Silver cardstock with Black Embossing Powder.  The Glimmer Paper makes perfect snow and when it reflects in the light it has a pink tone to it.  My card base was born from there! :) 

I think the pink ended up being a nice addition. It looks even better in real life when you can move the card to see the pink in the snow.  I might just have to reproduce a few of these to use as Christmas cards!

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to visit the rest of the Addicted to CAS design team!  The have some beautiful CAS cards for you again this week, as always!

Little Ink Equals Little Mess!

Only 14 more days of teaching (13 by the time this post goes live!), and it will be Christmas break!  I can't wait!  I was spoiled with a 5-day Thanksgiving Break.  Now I'm just ready for another one. :)  I ran drove home today and got right to work on my card for our new CAS challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  I also used the challenges at The Paper Players and Create with Connie and Mary for inspiration.

        

I used the first column (tree, patterned paper, and star) from the Tic-Tac-Toe board, and turned the sketch sideways.

I love the pennants, but I didn't know where to put my tree. So I put it right over the top of them!  I really like how it turned out!  I hand cut the tree since I don't have any dies or punches for that, and embossed each part. Then I popped it up on Dimensionals and stamped my sentiment on each side of the star.  Easy peasy!  Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to check out the rest of the design team's wonderful creations!  

The Stamp Review Crew: Endless Wishes Edition

Wow, can you believe it is the beginning of December already?! This year has gone so fast. I can hardly believe it is almost Christmas.  I am not ready for winter yet, which has already shown up here in Indiana a little bit, but nothing too big yet. I do, however, love making winter cards. This week The Stamp Review Crew is using one of my favorite winter sets, Endless Wishes.  This photopolymer set was first introduced for a short time last year, and had such a huge response that it was brought back in this year's Holiday Catalog. Yay!  

You know that fabulous Pool Party tissue paper that comes with every My Paper Pumpkin kit?  That is what I used for my background!  I stamped on it, scrunched it up, and used Crystal Effects to glue it to a piece of pre-cut cardstock.  These snowflakes are perfect for making your own DSP!  I kept my sentiment panel fairly simply because I knew I wanted to add the two rows of gold sequins to tie in with the Brushed Gold cardstock and Gold Encore ink.  To finish things off, I added a few white snowflake sequins.

Thanks for stopping by!  Click on the links below to continue on through the hop!

Blog Roll:

1. Yapha Mason  http://yaphamason.com/blog/2014/11/30/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition/
2. Tanya Boser    http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
3. Debra Burgin  http://heartfeltinkspiration.com/2014/11/30/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes
4. Heidi Baks  http://runningwscissorsstamper.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html
5. Ann Schach   http://www.stampinchic.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html
6. Cindy Beach  http://stampspaperandink.typepad.com/stamps_paper_and_ink/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
7. Dawn Tidd   http://tiddbitsfromdawn.typepad.com/tiddbits-from-dawn/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
8. Rochelle Blok   http://rochelleblok.blogspot.com/2014/12/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
9. Shana Gaff  http://stressfreestamping.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html
10. Wendy Weixler  http://wickedlywonderfulcreations.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
11. Nancy Smith  http://iguanastamp.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes/
12. Mike Funke  http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html

Wondrous Wreath

Ahhh, this has been a wonderful Thanksgiving break so far. I have enjoyed some of my favorite pastimes...eating, shopping, and crafting, of course!  Today we have a new challenge at Addicted to CAS for you to enjoy.  

Such a fun challenge!  We have Linda joining us as Guest Designer, and she has a great CAS Christmas card to share with us.  Make sure you stop by to give her some love!  

For my card, I have used the challenges at CAS(E) this Sketch! and Fusion for additional inspiration. 

                 

I know I have said this before, but 'tis the season to be thankful and I am thankful for all these wonderful ladies and gentleman who run the design challenge blogs to inspire us all!  Without them all, I would be lost!  They put in a lot of hard work and dedication to these blogs, and I appreciate them all so much! Here is what I have designed today using these three challenges:

I just love the red and silver together! I probably would not have chosen those colors for this stamp set if I had not seen that wonderful inspiration photo!  I just got Wondrous Wreath in the mail, along with the coordinating framelits, and I must say that it is so easy and fun to stamp and cut out!  I went over my berries with some Red Dazzling Details to make them pop a little bit, and my "Joy" is die cut in Red Glimmer Paper.  The silver dotted background is Brushed Silver Cardstock. I am down to just a few sheets...yikes!  Time to reorder! :)  

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Make sure to stop by the ATCAS blog to see the rest of the design team's lovely creations! 

Four Feathers

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! and for once I am not getting my card finished at the last minute!  I really needed this weekend to do some crafting and since it is deer season, I am a hunting widow and have plenty of free time. :)  Our challenge at ATSM this week is Make Your Mark, so you can use markers, colored pencils, watercolor crayons...whatever coloring medium you want!  I used a few other challenges on my card for inspiration: Fab Friday, retro sketches and The Paper Players.

I made my card to thank all of you that have created and organize these wonderful challenge blogs.  I know it is a huge undertaking and I am so grateful to each of you for all of your hard work and dedication to help inspire those of us who are occasionally in a creative stump. :)  Here is what I came up with using these amazing challenges:

I started my background by coloring a large, clear block with Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze markers, then stamping Blackberry Bliss splatters from Gorgeous Grunge over the coloring. I then spritzed it with some water and pressed my cardstock onto the block. I use this technique a lot, I know, but I just love it!  I also used markers to ink up the Crushed Curry feathers, so I could get Cajun Craze on the edges. After I had my background finished, I traced the inside of a circle framelit with a pencil and cut it out with Paper Snips, cutting out the feathers that overlapped the circle.  I used a LOT of Dimensionals underneath it so it looked raised, and you can barely even tell in my photo. lol Oh well, in person it looks exactly like I had planned it and that rarely happens, so I am happy with it! :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to stop by the ATSM blog to check out the rest of the design team's lovely creations!

Amazing Birthday

Welcome to another round of blogging hopping from The Stamp Review Crew!  This week we are using my favorite birthday stamp set from the annual catalog, Amazing Birthday.  I tend to use the biggest stamp in the set the most, so I challenged myself to use some of the other sets!  The circles are really nice because they match up with our 1 1/4" Circle Punch. The banners also coordinate with the Banner Framelits.  It sure makes things easier when you can cut them out quickly and perfectly every time!  

I picked out some of this year's In Colors for my card. I stamped off each color onto scrap paper before stamping on Whisper White cardstock to give them a more subtle look.  The stamp that I used for my background was really easy to stamp because the words are all crooked on the stamp, so I didn't have to stamp them perfectly to get them to look good!  I would have loved to sew my banners on, but I don't have a sewing machine so I did some faux stitching.  I did this by using my paper-piercing tool to pierce the holes, and then connected them all with my Blackberry Bliss marker.

Thanks for stopping by!  You can click on the links to go backwards or forwards through the hop.  Happy hopping!

1. Mike Funke  http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html
2. Dawn Tidd  http://tiddbitsfromdawn.typepad.com/tiddbits-from-dawn/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
3. Yapha Mason  http://yaphamason.com/blog/2014/11/16/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition/
4. Cindy Beach   http://stampspaperandink.typepad.com/stamps_paper_and_ink/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
5. Shana Gaff   http://stressfreestamping.blogspot.com/2014/11/amazing-birthday.html
6. Kerry Willard Bray   http://www.peoniesandpaperchains.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
7. Tanya Boser  http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html
8. Adriana Benitez  http://escape2stamp.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html
9. Wendy Weixler   http://wickedlywonderfulcreations.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
10. Ann Schach  http://www.stampinchic.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html

Kinda Eclectic

Okay, so I have a confession...full-time teaching is not for me!  I miss having some days off during the week. I cannot believe I did this for seven years. Of course, I have had six years of not working outside of the house at all since then, so that could be part of the reason I am feeling so exhausted. Not to mention the fact that I was much younger then!  I know I'm not old now, but I sure do feel like it by the end of each school day!

My crafting has taken a serious hit now that I have lessons to plan and papers to grade. Thank goodness for the few design teams I am on to give me a little bit of an excuse to take a break several days each week. :)  Today I snuck in a few early morning minutes to work on our new challenge at Addicted to CAS!

ATCAS is celebrating it's 2nd birthday!  I can't believe it has been two years, and I have been on the Design Team since Kylie came up with this wonderful challenge blog.  Joining us for this challenge is Linda L.  Make sure to stop by her blog and give her some love. She has created a beautiful winter card with this set.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team's cards too. They are such a talented group!  Here is what I came up with.

I may have gone a little bit overboard to be CAS, but I could not help but add the layered butterfly on there. (This is my secret way of saying there was a smudge that I needed to cover up. lol)  There is still quite a bit of "white" space, so I decided it would work. Plus, it's been a while since I've made a card, so I couldn't stop having fun. :) Okay, enough with the excuses. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Oh,one more thing...I finally figured out how to add my watermark that the lovely Kylie created just for me!  Isn't it beautiful???  If you would like have her custom make one for you, here is her business card!  :)

Traditional Christmas

It's time for another challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! and we have a beautiful inspiration photo this week!

When I looked at this photo, I immediately saw the stars and traditional Christmas colors. I combined those with the photo challenge at Just Add Ink.

I also noticed the little snowflakes on the ornament and the swirls of ribbon and wanted to include those on my card, too! 

I turned my star into a little shaker and put little white snowflake sequins inside it.  I added the squiggles around the outside to replicate the swirls of ribbon. My sentiment comes from Endless Wishes. I just love this font!

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to check out the rest of the design team's beautiful creations! 

Lovely as a Tree

It's time for another challenge at Addicted to CAS and I decided to pull out a classic stamp set for this challenge...Lovely as a Tree!  Here is the challenge code word chosen by our lovely hostess Vicki:

Joining us this month as Guest Designer is Linda. Make sure to stop by and welcome her!

For my card this week, I used the challenges at Nacho Average Challenge and Colour Me...!

For the color challenge, I chose the first combination of Basic Gray, Garden Green and Blackberry Bliss. This is a lovely Christmas card combination!

I made a little shaker card with the snowflake and sequin embellishments from the Holiday Catalog. They are so much fun!  Here is a closer look:

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to stop by the Addicted to CAS website and see the rest of the design team's creations. :)  

Endless Wishes

It's time for another fabulous challenge at Addicted to CAS!

Once again this week, Hannelie is our Guest Designer. Make sure you stop by and show her card some love. I just love her CAS style. She really rocks it!  For my card, I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. 

I thought that little panel would work perfectly for my vellum. And I was able to use up a little tiny scrap of DSP, too! lol 

I was so happy to see Endless Wishes revived in the Holiday Catalog. I don't have many sets for Christmas cards, and this one works great for plain old winter cards, too. Just change the sentiment and it can become whatever you want!  I stamped the snowflakes on my cardstock in Silver Encore ink and stamped off Island Indigo. My vellum panel is adhered underneath the DSP strip and with two staples in the right-hand corner.  

I made a second card on Brushed Silver cardstock that I actually like better, but for the life of me I could not get a picture where you could see the snowflakes that I stamped under the vellum! I will go ahead and show you the card anyway, just envision the snowflakes under the vellum. lol They are really nice and subtle in real life, I promise! :)

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to check out the lovely creations by the rest of the ATCAS design team!

For All Things

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More...Anything Goes!  It's been a while since I've played over at Create with Connie and Mary, so I grabbed their cute little sketch for my card. Looking at Stampin' Celebration Challenge, I just loved their fall images so I went with a fall theme, specifically the acorns in their photo.

I wasn't sure what colors I wanted to use, so I went with some DSP...that's always helpful when you're in a stump!  I used Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow and Sahara Sand from the Color Me Autumn DSP. This is one of my favorite DSP packs of all time!  

I just love the little acorns on that sheet of DSP!  I stamped my sentiment and acorns on Whisper White cardstock and then sponged over the whole thing with Crushed Curry ink.  It needed a little something extra, so of course I had to bring out the pearls! :)  

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to visit the rest of the design team's fabulous creations!

The Stamp Review Crew: Work of Art Edition

This year sure is flying by. Can you believe it's the beginning of October already?!  That also means it's time for a new edition of The Stamp Review Crew! Work of Art is by far my favorite set out of the 2014-2015 catalog.  There are so many creative ideas out there for this set that it is hard for me to think of something new and innovative. But I love to use Work of Art for backgrounds that look watercolored, so I went that direction!  

I LOVE using this set to make backgrounds. For this one, I stamped all of my images from Work of Art on my largest clear block, and then spritzed it with water. I then carefully placed my Shimmery White cardstock on top of the block and pressed it into the color. For my leaves, I stamped them in one color, and then used the smallest blotchy stamp from Work of Art to add additional colors to each one before cutting them out. This is such a great set for "coloring" images without spending a lot of time using markers!  

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to click on the links below to continue on to Nancy's wonderful blog, or if you are traveling backwards you will end up at Mike's awesome creation!  Or if you get lost, like I tend to do, the complete blog roll is at the bottom for you.  

Blog Roll:

1. Tanya Boser  http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art-edition.html
2. Ann Schach  http://www.stampinchic.com/2014/10/the-stamp-review-crew-work-of-art.html
3. Lisa Young   http://addinkandstamp.blogspot.com/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art-edition.html
4. Dawn Tidd  http://tiddbitsfromdawn.typepad.com/tiddbits-from-dawn/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art-edition.html
5. Betty Traciak  http://kittystamp.blogspot.com/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art.html
6. Adriana Benitez  http://escape2stamp.blogspot.com/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art-edition.html
7. Cindy Beach   http://stampspaperandink.typepad.com/stamps_paper_and_ink/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art-edition.html
8. Holly Krautkremer  http://rubberredneck.typepad.com/rubber-redneck/2014/10/the-stamp-review-crew-work-of-art.html
9. Kerry Willard Bray http://www.peoniesandpaperchains.com/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art-edition.html
10. Beth Beard   http://www.mylittlecraftblog.com/2014/10/the-stamp-review-crew-work-of-art.html
11. Mike Funke   http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/2014/10/stamp-review-crew-a-work-of-art.html
12. Shana Gaff  http://stressfreestamping.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-stamp-review-crew-work-of-art.html
13. Nancy Smith  http://iguanastamp.wordpress.com/2014/10/05/stamp-review-crew-work-of-art

Babies, babies, babies!

It seems like EVERYONE I know is either having a baby or adopting. We are WAAAY past that stage, so I am more than happy to love on all of my friends' babies and then pass them back. All of these babies means I am in need of baby cards!  This one is for our new challenge at Addicted to CAS.

I still had my star stencil out from another challenge last week, and I thought it would be perfect for a baby card!  So quick and easy too!

I just love the stars with the cute little ellie!  And I could not resist the "hey there" word bubble to go along with him.  I think I might have to do a pink version of this one too, just in case!

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to check out the rest of the design team creations, as well as our Guest Designer, the fabulous Hannelie...wow does she ever do some cool things!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, I have been keeping CRAZY busy with subbing. I have worked every day since I started!  I love keeping busy but it is also challenging trying to get in my crafting time!  I was expecting to have the whole day off today but then received a call this morning asking me to sub in the afternoon, so of course I agreed!  That only left me with two hours to get 2 cards completed and all of my housework finished for the day. Yikes!  I made it though!  One of my cards was for our Clean and Simple challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  I was able to use this fabulous sketch at retrosketches for my card, as well as the challenge at The Paper Players:

I just noticed the other day that I was running low on male cards, so this was a great challenge to participate in!  

I got to use a few of my new goodies on this card, so that made me feel good!  The mini stapler in the Holiday Catalog is so stinkin' adorable!  This was also my first time using the star mask. LOVE it!  I don't know what I have been waiting for!  Time, I guess. :)

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to stop by the Addicted to Stamps and More! blog to see the other ladies' lovely creations!