Autumn Blessings

I've been itching to play with my new Gina K "Grateful Hearts" stamp kit.  And was also missing the story telling of our lives.  Kind of my own version of the Project Life stuff that's been sweeping the scrapbooking work.  It's been well over a month since I've written the family so I decided a letter was way overdue.  Love how this turned out and had so much fun doing it.

The Gina K kits are pretty nice.  It has a bunch of stamps in the kit, coordinating cardstock and patterned paper and some ribbon and brads.  And is packaged in a nice plastic box.  Pretty good deal I think.

Maybe you can see the kit details in this pic? . . .

See you at the shop tonight!

Dangling Bats

Hi Gal Pals!

Wanted to share a link to some really cute Halloween printables from Paper Crafts.  These bats are cute on their one but can also be made to hang down from a doorway, although I think the patterns are too pretty to be scary.  There's also some other cute Fall and Halloween quotes here from Creating Keepsakes.

Hope you have a good day.  See you tonight.

Julie

Lonely Leaf

I love this card - or more precisely, I love this picture.  It's one Allan took a couple of years ago during a Fall  walk along Old Grant Creek Road.  We stopped to watch the creek and he snapped a shot of a lone aspen leaf floating by.  After the weekend we just had, that time and space feels very far away.  

We got home Monday shortly before noon from our North Carolina trip.  We had a wonderful time with Allan's family.  I have lots of stories to share when I see you next week.  Maybe I'll bring a little sunshine with me!

Hope you're staying warm.

Lots of Family

Made it to the end of another week.  Maybe not as gracefully as I would of liked but oh well, I keep trying.

We're off to see lots of family this weekend.  Heading north up the Carolina coasts to see Allan's daughter and her family, his parents and his sisters and their families.  It should be a great time.  And I think a change of scenery will be just what the doctor ordered.

This is a card I made last fall.  I used a sketch from one of the clean and simple challenge blogs I follow but it's been so long I can't remember which one.  I loved the chipboard embellishment.  It was part of a Bo Bunny pack I picked up at Memory Lane along with the cute acorn ribbon.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  See you back here on Monday.

Quick and Easy

I know most of my Gal Pals have seen this card at the shop but I wanted to get it posted on the blog for use later on.  With all the coordinated paper packs I've been picking up here and there, this is a great card sketch to keep on hand for those last minute cards you might need.  I actually got the sketch from the Clean and Simple web site - one of my favorite sites for easy-peasy ideas.  I've got the dimensions for the patterned pieces somewhere on my craft counter - which is kind of a mess right now :-( but will edit this post as soon as I find them.  I've also made a bunch of different versions of this card and will post them too.  Working on the one for Christmas now.

Hope you all have a good weekend.  We'll be at the Brawl of the Wild Griz-Cat game on Saturday.  It ought to be a good one.

See ya' back here next week.

Triple Time

Hi Gal Pals,

Just wanted to post these pictures and the link to the instruction video so I wouldn't lose track of this idea.  I really want to give this a try.  Tuesday Card Group did it at the shop a few weeks ago and these pics are cards Staci made.  So cool!

Here's the link to the instruction video.  And here's the link to the related blog post with the measurements.

And last but not least, more of Staci's card samples. . .

 

 

Last of the Fall Cards

Here's how my watercolored card turned out.  Thank you Mona! for the help with the blending technique.  I added some mossy green under the tree which I thought added a nice color balance.  And then because it looked a little drab mounted on plain cardstock I randomly stamped a branch stamp in Early Espresso ink to create my own patterned paper.  Can't quite decide if I like it or not??

Lovely As A Tree

Have had my Lovely As A Tree stamp set out for the last few weeks.  Made this card  for one of the weekly family cards.  Loved the gold embossing.  Used the Dazzle sticker lines to outline the tree and the sentiment.  Wish I would have done something a little different on the quote - different font? different alignment? ???  but I just ran out of time. 

Here's another version where I used a different patterned paper. 

Have been trying to go to my scrap folders first before cutting anything new.  That's actually been kind of fun and something I want to do more of in the New Year.

Gratitude

Feels like a long time away - away from this blog, away from my gal pals, and away from being able to breath.  I've been struggling with a really nasty cold for over a week now.  Early last week I thought I was on the downhill side of things but then Thursday I really bottomed out.  Have been home and quiet for 3 days now.  Although still very congested, my energy feels a little better than it did on Friday.

I'm trying find quiet things to do and to resist being up cleaning or wrapping presents.  I feel so behind on everything for the holidays which makes me so sad and disappointed but I'm trying to find the lessons in all of this - maybe that you just can't control anything and just have to accept and go with the flow.

So I'm cleaning off my desktop and will be posting some of the weekly cards to the family.  Some you've seen at the shop and others - maybe this one? - will be new to you. 

The word panel on this one is a jumbo wheel stamp from SU.  Of course I can't use the rollers to save my soul so I unmounted this one.  Then took my watercolor crayons and randomly colored the words.  I misted it with water before I stamped it.  I loved how it turned out.

Hope your week gets off to a good start.  And this is a very special week for our gal pal Val - her last week of work in the looney bin.  After Friday she's a free woman - free to define whatever next chapter she chooses.  I'm so excited for her!

Easy, Peasy

This is the card I was making at the shop a couple of weeks ago.  I got the idea from the Simplicity blog where she was using pieces of patterned paper or just one piece of a big print patterned paper to make a focal point for a clean and simple card.  Loved how this one turned out using the Fall BoBunny papers.

Looking forward to craft night tonight although I'm just bringing something to color tonight.  No Christmas cards or assembly work this week.  Just need a break from that. 

See ya' soon!

Last week's family card

Wanted to show you how the card I was making a couple of week's ago for the family newsletter turned out.  Remember I punched the little leaves in the wrong color and didn't have the sentiment block done.  I thought it turned out pretty nice.  Will be putting together the one for next week at the shop tonight.  I'll actually be in Florida this Sunday when we typically write the letter and send the card so Allan's agreed (i.e. got drafted!) to do it in my absence.  I'm sure the family will enjoy hearing the news from his point of view for a change.

Losing Steam

Happy Friday Gal Pals!

Have you noticed I've kind of lost steam for posting on Thursdays and Fridays these last 2 weeks?  I told someone earlier this week that I recently discovered Thursday seems to be my hardest day of the week.  The day when I notice I'm starting to feel a little empty.  Friday's aren't as bad as it feels like I've really reached the end of the work week and have thoughts of fun things to do at home on my mind.  For example, I'm really looking forward to this weekend as I don't have anywhere I have to be.  So naturally my thoughts turn to the craft room.  And for a little inspiration I turned to my favorite blog.  Because I follow this one every day, I went back this morning to blog posts from 2009 and found this beautiful card that of course reminds me of my Jewel of the Pines.  And the best part about this one is that I think? I thave the stamp set. 

So hopefully in between cleaning the house, doing laundry and paying bills - things I'm actually looking forward to so I can feel a little more organized and caught up with my life - I can squeeze in some time to make my version of this one. 

Hope you all have a good weekend.  See ya' next week.

Autumn Leaves

This is one of Mona's cards from last yearr that I thought was just perfect for this week - well it's just perfect for anytime :-) - but especially perfect now given that our wallks through the University district on our way to and from work are so beautiful right now with all the maples in various stages of their color change.

See ya' tonight!  I'm really looking forward to getting back on schedule.

Lovely Colors

I was walking through the University district yesterday because I had to park almost on Higgins (that will teach me to come in late!). But the good part about that was that I got to take a nice walk through all the maple trees which are the most beautiful color of red and gold right now. Just like the colors in this card.
I used the new BoBunny papers I picked up in the shop a couple of weeks ago. Loved how the leaf patterned paper made beautiful punched leaves. Trimmed it off nice and neat with the new brown ribbon from the SU Holiday Mini catalog. I really like it. I ordered it in the brown and the red (Cherry Cobbler).
I've got a busy weekend on tap but am really hoping to find a way for a little time in the craft room. It feels like it's been way too long.

Hope you all have a great weekend too.

Fall

This post goes out to Val who recently bought this Leaves of a Tree stamp from the new Holiday Mini Stampin Up catalog.  When I saw the stamp I thought it was so beautiful but I worried about how you could use it with multiple colors.  It seemed like it was going to be hard to quickly color some of the individual leaves so there was some variety in color when you stamped it.  But it looks like others are finding a way to get multiple colors in the image.  I thought this card was a beautiful example.  I snapped the picture from the blog and now can't find the blog to be able to give credit.  So please just send a virtual thanks out to all the card makers doing really great things, making the effort to share them and in the end inspiring us.

Have a good one today!

New Paper Toile

This post goes out to my best-est Gal Pal Val. . . . .

Uh-Oh! Val - you may be in trouble?!  Did you see the latest video on Paper Wishes with the new paper toile kits that have?  Over-the-top beautiful!.  Check it out if you have time.  Here's the link.

See ya' at the shop tonight.

Fall Tag

Since it's turned cool and grey - a sure sign of the change of seasons - I thought I'd post a pic of a Fall tag I made many, many years ago.  It was a copy cat of a pre-made tag I bought somewhere around town.  I copied and improvised the elements.  Wish I had the original to compare it to but I think I used both on Thanksgiving cards that year.

May try to do a couple of more of these tomorrow night at the shop with the new Fall BoBunny I bought last week at the shop.

Hope to see you there tomorrow.  Have a great Monday.