Happy Harvest Angelosity Card

Tonight, while watching election returns, I decided to catch up on some of Angel's challenges. I think I'm still missing 2 days, but I'll get there! This card is for Day 11, which was a sketch challenge. The image is Lizzie Anne Designs Celebrations and Celebration Frames. DP is Basic Grey Mellow and the twill tape is Martha Stewart. Sentiment is from SU! Loads of Love Accessories. I colored the pie plate with a silver Spica glitter pan and the crust is colored with a Prismacolor pencil. The frame is Pumpkin Pie. The large left panel is embossed with the Cuttlebug Distress Stripes folder.I hope you like it. I'm off to watch more election stuff then go to bed, since I've had a horrible headache all day and the Excedrin is wearing off. Have a good one and thanks for looking!

Scrappy Suckers!

Here are some Halloween lollipops that I'm sending to school with DS on Friday. The tutorial is here, on Red-Eye Stamper. I hope they like them - inside are Yummy Earth organic lollipops. They are free of the top 8 allergens, and are made from organic fruit purees and extracts. Quite delicious!

If you can believe it (you would if you saw my scrap box!), they are made almost entirely of scraps! I did have to cut into a new green sheet and a new purple sheet for the covers, but all the other pieces are from the scrap box. I even threw the remaining bits away (usually I horde the tiniest scraps in case I have to punch a small shape)! Using scraps was Angel's Day 6 challenge. So, another day of Angelosity completed!

The spider is a foam stamp that was RAK'd to me, and the Trick or Treat bag is from Lizzie Anne Designs. Circles and Scalloped circles were made with Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug. Ribbon is from the clearance section of the craft store. I scored a bunch of deals at A.C. Moore last week, shopping their clearance section and using my 25% off total purchase coupons!! Yesterday when I was there, the Martha Stewart Halloween stuff was all 50% off already!

Well, time to go finish laundry and start dinner. I can't believe another weekend is almost over. I hope you've had a good one. Thanks for looking!

I Made a Sheetload!!

Of cards, that is. Have you seen this monthly newsletter yet, Sheetload of Cards? I kept hearing about it, and subscribe to the blog, but this was the first time I actually downloaded an entire issue and followed the plan. Each month, they give you a layout, and a template for the cuts of paper you'll need. With only 4 sheets of paper, I created these 6 cute cards, and have scraps to make a couple more. It's so easy, a great way to increase your stash!! I chose the October 2007 issue to follow. Just link to the archives from their blog site and you can quickly view and download all the issues.

Right now they are running a contest with the current e-zine and I hope to get to it this weekend. For now, here are my cards:

I used Miss Elizabeth's dp from the dollar store, along with solid blue and green from my stash. The flower stamp is Lizzie Anne Designs and the bird is Studio G. The sentiment on the bird card is MFT Icing on the Cake. I used Colorbox Chalk inks and colored the flower with Prismacolors. The little bird is paper pieced. The ribbon is American Crafts and the brads are Queen & Co and Making Memories. The holographic flowers are from some candy I won. Oh, and I used my Mat Pack and paper piercer for the piercing, and the ticket corner punch, too. Seriously, it took me a total of about 1.5 hours to crank out all these cards!

Here's a close up of the little bird:

Last night I got to clean off my desk, which was littered with scraps and bits and bobs of things. Tonight I'm going to give it a rest and let it stay clean one more day. I'm tired and could use some couch time! I'll be back tomorrow with another post, I hope! Thanks for looking!

Spring Fever Continues!

This card layout began as Jen's Sketch For You To Try, but I changed it up a tiny bit. I lowered the circle tag so that the small images wouldn't be covered up. I used only 2 brads on the lower left corner. But it is a great sketch and you should go check it out. She posts a new one each Saturday.Denise's Spring Fever Challenge also continues at All Things Stamped. This is my entry for Day 4. Today we had to have a tag, some bling and the color red in our cards. My tag is the scalloped circle with the sentiment, which is from Studio G. The circle frame and the images are Lizzie Anne Designs, Celebration Frames and Celebrations. The paper is from my stash and was given to me, so I don't know the name. It might be CTMH. The base card is SU! Certainly Celery. My bling is the Stickles on the package ribbons and the pom pom of the hat, as well as the shiny red brads in the lower left corner. Originally, I had grand plans to make a pocket card with a beautiful tag inside, but I am so tired I couldn't execute it tonight. I still like this one, though, and think it would make a good masculine birthday card.

Can you believe that tomorrow is Friday already? Yikes! I have to get up super early to bring DH and DS to the airport. But that means I'll have time to play before going into work in the morning. How happy does that make me??????

Thanks for looking!

What A Day!

This morning, I got up at 6, rushed out of the house and drove to Philadelphia for a library conference. Well, I didn't go for the whole conference, just to view the exhibits. For those of you not familiar with library conferences, exhibits mean FREE advance reader copies of books!!! I was on the fence about going at all, but my pass was paid for and it would be a nice day out, so off I went...and came home with two huge bags of things to read! If you're a reader, there are some fantastic books coming out this Spring :) Now the decision: to stamp or to read?

This evening, it's neither, since after gettting home around mid-day, I took ds to the park to ride his bike and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Two hours later I convinced him to leave, but we had a blast! And the way he rides his bike, I got a great power-walk in!

Also, tackled the grocery store and am exhausted now. Couldn't even find the energy to stamp, so I watched The Nanny Diaries. It was cute, but definitely a chick flick.

Even though I'm too tired to create today, I did want to post this card that I made the other night. Don't remember which night, mind you. Oh, yes, it was the Gina K release party on SCS. They posted a few sketch challenges and this was my entry for one of them. The dp is from DCWV Mini Stack 3. The mailbox stamp and sentiment are from the Kim Hughes Collection at Cornish Heritage Farms, Hugs and Kisses. The "stamp" stamp is actually from Lizzie Anne Designs, Celebrations and Celebrations Frames. The grassy patch under the mailbox is My Favorite Things, from Icing on the Cake. Can you guess how I colored the images?

Thanks for looking! Enjoy the rest of the weekend. We are expecting snow tomorrow night, so keep your fingers crossed for a snow day on Monday!

What's Been Keeping Me Busy

I've decided to try to spread some holiday cheer around my workplace and surprise everyone with a little treat box. I found the nugget box template on Splitcoast Stampers. There are templates for all sizes of box here, and they are very easy to put together! Luckily, there are only 30 people who work at my library. I started these last week and am still putting on the finishing touches. Also, I made the mistake of buying one bag of Nestle Treasures instead of Hershey's Nuggets, and they just don't work! So back to Target for another bag of Nuggets, and more wrappers to stamp! Here's what they are looking like inside. I added a thin wrapper with a round stamp on the top. The wrapper just keeps the boxes from sliding apart. And I like how they look! The stamps are Lizzie Anne Designs Celebrations and Celebration Frames, a Michael's dollar stamp and a snowflake from Verve Visual Winter Wonder. Love these cute little stamps!! They are colored with color pencils, blended and highlighted with a white gel pen and a glitter pen. I hope they bring a smile to my co-workers' faces...I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend! I worked Fri and Sat, so didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Oh, well, there are still a few weeks before Christmas! Thanks for looking!

A Very Productive Weekend So Far...

So what are YOU doing with the extra hour this weekend? I plan on stamping some more tomorrow and also finishing The Memory Keeper's Daughter. It's great so far!

I've been plugging away at Angel's sketches, and completed 4 between last night and today. Here is Number 9. Although I think it looks like a paintball exploded on the pickup truck, I like this color combination. The base is True Thyme and then I used dark green and Soft Sky panels also. The dp is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V. I'm getting tons of use out of that pack that Cindy sent me a few months back. Thanks, Cindy! The images are from SU! Loads of Love, the tree and sentiment stamped in True Thyme, the truck in Basic Black. The polka dot ribbon is from Target.

This next card is from Angel's sketch #11. I really like this sketch, and can see myself using it lots and lots. I have printed out all her sketches and they will be kept in my sketch book for future reference. It really helps me if I have a starting point and Angel has made some great sketches this month! The base of this card is Soft Sky and the inks are Soft Sky, Vintage Violet and Pretty in Pink. The panels for the image are scrap, not SU! papers. The stamps are Lizzie Anne Designs flower from Celebration Frames and sentiment from a set I just got and threw away the label for. Sorry! I watercolored them with the above inks and Stickled the centers. The only thing I have to complain about here is Vintage Violet. As cs, I love it, but the ink on paper always looks a little muddy to me. Maybe that's the "vintage" part, but I never can decide if I like it or not. What do you think?

I don't want to make this post too long, so the next two cards will be in another post. Thanks for looking!

Angelosity Numbers 6 and 7

These two sketches were fun for me! And believe me, after this morning's battle with my DS, I was in DIRE need of stamping therapy. Yikes, he was in an ugly mood and would not do anything I asked him. He ended up getting himself so upset and yelling so much that he almost sent himself into an asthma attack. So I panicked and kept him home from daycare. Luckily, his mood has improved...

This first card is for Sketch # 6. I absolutely love fall colors and like to give Thanksgiving cards to family members whom I don't see very often. I think I'll send this one to my aunt. I watercolored the leaves on the background (SU! Year Round Cheer oak leaf and Tags & More maple leaf. The turkey is from my Lizzie Anne Designs Celebrations set. The sentiment is from SU! Everyday Flexible Phrases. Ink is Close to Cocoa and the turkey is also watercolored. The dp on the center panel is Basic Grey Perhaps, the ribbon is luscious gold silk from May Arts that I got from Verve Visual this week. (Don't tell DH that I went online shopping twice this week ;)

For my second card, I used Sketch #7 from Angelosity. Have you SEEN the pile of goodies that Angel is giving away? Wow! DP on this card is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V. The red is some scrap I had laying around and the ribbon is standard craft store ribbon. The images are Lizzie Anne Designs from Celebrations again (yes, I'm using this set A LOT). It's so versatile! The sentiment is from SU! Loads of Love, punched with the word windo punch, stamped in Old Olive. I added a little Stickles to the packages for some sparkle.

Well, DS is playing nicely now, so I'm going to take advantage and make another card. Thanks for looking!

Thankful Cards

I managed to eke out another 2 cards this weekend. I'm determined to complete at least half of the sketches before deadline!

Last night I stayed up way too late and finished sketch #10 of the 31 Days of Angelosity. I am quite pleased with this card, which is a 4" square. I tucked into the Perhaps pad from Basic Grey for the background. The stamp is SU! Small Script, stamped in True Thyme on green paper (a scrap, unaccounted for). The "staples" are lines drawn with my metallic gel pen. I pierced all around the border, then went over the holes with the metallic gel pen to make them stand out a little more. This Basic Grey dp speaks for itself - it is so gorgeous! I wanted to tuck this card into my dh's suitcase before he left on another business trip tonight, but didn't get a chance. I'll sneak it to him when he returns.


I also got to complete Sketch #5 today. We had a birthday party to attend this morning, and then tried to go to the local kids' Halloween parade which proved too scary for ds. Since the parade was a bust, we spent some quiet time "being busy." That means I start a card, he colors for about 10 minutes then starts bugging me play with him again. So I finished this card after he went to bed... Anyway, here are the details. A Rust cs, 6" by 3" in size. The dp is Frances Meyer East India which I have used probably too many times before, but I adore it. The sentiment is SU! Everyday Flexible Phrases in Really Rust and punched with the word window. Maple leaves are Lizzie Anne Designs Celebrations, stamped in Really Rust and watercolored. The ribbon is SU! grosgrain, but I'm not sure of the exact color name. My "staples" are actually stitches made with embroidery thread. DMC #400 for those of you who are curious. This is one of my favorite cards of the weekend. It just came together for me, which made it easy and fun. And isn't that why we do this - to have fun?



Time for me to turn in. I'm reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter and have to get it done so I can find out what happens! Thanks for looking!

Angelosity Sketch #2

Slowly, but surely, I'll get through the sketches over at Angelosity. Here's Number 2, which I began on Monday morning and just finished last night. The dp is Frances Meyer Diva Stripes. The sentiment (not sure if it's visible on the green strip) is Michael's dollar bin. The presents are from my Lizzie Anne Celebrations. They are so fun to color (ok, I know I've said that before...). The circles are edged using the rounded corner punch, and I love how it made them look like flowers. The ribbon is from the craft store. I only turned the polka dotted side up on the bow because I thought it was too busy on the stripes the other way. For a card that took me all week, it really wasn't that difficult. Other stuff just kept getting in the way!

Off to tackle Number 3 and the newest challenge she posted - to create sketches! Thanks for looking!

Better late than never...

I finally had time today to print off all the sketches from Angelosity. She is counting down to her birthday with some great sketches, and a fabulous prize package for one lucky winner!! This is the sketch from her first day of the countdown. My son is going to a birthday party Sunday and I needed a boy birthday card. I used Frances Meyer Aquatic Stripes for the pp. The stamps are from Lizzie Anne Designs (birthday hat) and Studio G (sentiment and cupcake). I colored them with pencils and blended with OMS. I watermarked the backgound with the sentiment. Brads are Making Memories and ribbon is craft store stock. Oh, and I added some glitter with my glitter marker to the cupcakes and party hats. I don't think that shows in the photo.

Simple. Cute. I'm happy that I was able to whip it together before having to go into work.

Stamp time is over for today. I have to work 12-8pm today, because we have a big program tonight on cybersafety for kids. Which means the day will be spent running around to take care of final details and nothing on my to do list will get done! Thanks for looking!

Today's Project

Here are some 3x3 gift enclosures that I've been chugging away at all day long. I have about 24 made and am hoping to crank out some more tonight. My husband has been with our son all day so I've been able to hide out in my stamp room for some alone time. It's been really nice! Now, though, I have to stop to run out and get groceries. I'll be back at it after ds goes to bed...

The bases of these are a variety of maroon, red, gold and silver cs. The dp is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V. The stamps are my adorable new Lizzie Anne Designs! The sets are Celebration Frames and Celebrations, both from the Little Bits line. They are very fun to color and I love that they came backed with cling film so I can use them with my acrylic blocks. Go get some for yourself if you haven't already! The corners of the image layer are punched with the ticket corner punch and I used glitter glue in the corners for some sparkle...

Thanks for looking!