Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous LeAnne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge tonight and it's my favorite type of challenge - CLEAN and SIMPLE. This time it's a theme challenge: As part of the shopping spree I won at Cas-ual Friday's Stamps, I purchased a lovely stamp called Foxy. The day before I saw this stamp in the shop, we had watched a fox trot through our backyard on his way to whoever knows where. We haven't seen one for a couple of years, so it was such a great sighting for us. So, when I saw... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Saturday. It's the fabulous Bobby's turn to host our Addicted to CAS Challenge this week and this is her code word: I must admit, I was initially tempted to go with a masculine card. Instead, I decided to go with something a little more feminine:-) I partially stamped the Pattern Play stamp into the bottom left corner and added some shading with my warm grey Copic markers. I then stamped the Build A Rose stamp and leaves and die-cut them. I really do love this rose - it's one of my favorite Altenew stamps. Of course, I... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. It's the fabulous Laurie's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and she has a color challenge for us: I started with a Smoky Slate base and stamped flowers from Altenew's Sweetest Peas with the darkest grey. I then colored the flowers with a few different pink pencils that are as close to Melon Mambo as I could get. I added the slightest touch of yellow to the base of the flowers, but the photographs are showing much more yellow/orange than there really is! Here's my card: I hope you will join us and play along.... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Friday. I don't know about y'all, but I am SO HAPPY that it's the weekend. It's been a long... snowy... and cold week! (-40F again this morning!) I made a card for a couple of challenges The Card Concept and AAA Cards. I recently purchased a new Penny Black stamp called Christmas Wishes and I have Terese from lostinpaper to blame for this! She made some of the sweetest cards with this image - check out this video. I totally fell in love with this stamp when I saw it being used - so my inspiration for... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday. Quick post for you today. I did manage to get into my craft room and make a card yesterday and I decided to play along with the sketch challenge across at Freshly Made Sketches , The Library Challenge and Watercooler Wednesday I was lucky enough to win a $25 gift voucher from the Fusion Challenge 5th birthday celebration. It didn't take me long to spend the $25 and a few more when I shopped at Casual Fridays Stamps. I've used three of the stamps from my windfall for this card. The book cover at the Library... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. Today was glorious. Absolutely glorious. After the -57 temps from earlier in the week, it reach 37 degrees. When we awoke this morning it was 14 degrees above zero and felt like summer. Really... .it was amazingly warm considering where we had been mid-week. It was also beautifully sunny. What a gorgeous day! Anyway, it' is the very talented Joanne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week - and it's a theme challenge: I needed a Happy Anniversary card for my besties who celebrated their 37th anniversary this year. I decided that the Penny... Continue reading

Hi Everyone Happy Saturday. Greetings from the depths of cold in what has felt like Siberia this week! Tonight's card is for our AddictedtoCAS Challenge. It's the turn of the very talented Vicki to host our challenge and she has a code word that I loved :-) How could I not enjoy playing around with that code word? I decided to go REALLY clean and simple on this card. I brought out my old Hey Chick set from Stampin' Up! (I will NEVER get rid of this set!). This silly chick makes me smile everytime I see him. I was... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday. Popping in with a quick post today. I did manage to spend a little time in my craft room yesterday and played along with this great sketch at FreshlyMade As the vertical element was going to be popped off the page, I didn't want to add more bulk to the card by adding an embossed or speciality paper for the middle element. I decided to use a stencil to create a pattern for that area instead. I then used my Ellen Hutson stitched dies to add a stitched detail above and below the stenciling. Here's a... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's my turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and I have a sketch for you: I decided to make this card for a work colleague who is coming up for her 3rd year of being cancer free. I thought the image, and the sentiment, from Beautiful You would be perfect to express congratulations on reaching this milestone. I'm also entering this card in the Time Out Challenge The friend this card is for - would love this quote! To add some interest to the background, I used my Altenew die-cut. I didn't want... Continue reading

HI Everyone. Happy Tuesday. I have another card to share with you from my Sunday crafting spell. As usual, I went looking for some inspiration and found two challenges to play along with at Inkspirational and Casethissketch: Now.... let's talk about Kraft..... Mmmmm.... Not my usual go to color - so this was a real challenge for me and I decided it was time to put my new Caran D'Ache pencils to the test. I began by stamping some sweet peas down the right hand side. I then set about coloring them with my new pencils. I was really pleased... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday from a very cold Minnesota. It was -7 here this morning. Brrrrr :-). I did manage to get into my craft room and make a couple of cards yesterday. I went looking for some inspiration and found two challenges - this amazing sketch across at Less Is More and the theme of Pastels at Just Us Girls. Now... the sketch really did make me stretch my creative muscles. I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. I just knew that I wanted to do SOMETHING with it :-). And you know that Pastels stretch... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Claire's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and she has a theme for us: I decided to have a little fun with this theme and use some new goodies that I got before Christmas. I think I discovered them on Jennifer McGuire's "sale" post. Anyway, there was an image of a barn on their website and I loved it. Then I found some other little bits and pieces that went with it. Before I knew it, I had about 10 stamps in my basket! As this is a Clean and... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Firstly, thank you to those of you who played along with my blog candy give-away. I really loved reading the places - and the reasons - why those places were special. If you will indulge me, I thought I would share the responses in this post. Then... we will get to the winner of the blog candy! Terri: New York City! Or Paris. The city that never sleeps and the city of lights ... Doris: I would like to go back to England and just roam the countryside. When my son-in-law was in the Air Force they were... Continue reading

Hi Every0ne. Before I get onto my Addicted to CAS Card tonight. A quick update on my blog candy. I want to do a separate post on that as I want to devote some space to your responses to my question. Consequently, I will be back later on Saturday with that post - and will announce the winner. In the meantime, it is my pleasure to host my first Addicted to CAS Challenge for 2019 and it's a code word that is very close to my heart. After all, where would we be without: Our guest designer for this challenge... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Tuesday. I promised to share another card with you that I made on the weekend. It's still cloudy, dull and grey here - so I had to take the best shot that I could on the windowsill! The Library Challenge has a great inspiration book cover for us this week. I love the colors... but the focal image reminded me of the Stampin' Up! Set - Mediterranean Moments. I decided it would be perfect for my card. I stamped the image onto Neenah Solar White 80# card stock and then colored the image with my Copics. I... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday. It's not often that I get to play along with several challenges at once. I saw this great sketch at Case this Sketch A wonderful theme across at Watercooler Wednesday A fabulous inspiration photo across at Fusion - Happy 5th anniversary! I decided to make a birthday card. This week I received some Acetate Butterflies in Altenew order. I saw the butterflies at fusion and decided that would be a great starting point and that I could tie the butterfly nicely into the sketch. Pastel colors aren't my normal go to color family, but I loved... Continue reading

Seeing a card you have submitted to a challenge site being featured never gets old! As part of my 2019 NY Resolutions, I decided that I would start tracking them and celebrating them publicly. :-)Here are some recent accolades: 2019 Watercooler Wednesday Challenge # 202 Freshly Made Sketches - Sketch Challenge # 369 CTS #304 Fusion 5th anniversary challenge Freshlymadesketches #372 February 2019 Absolute Beginniners Challenge - Challenge 373 Challenge #387 WatercolorWednesday Challenge #206 Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. I saw this great color challenge across at Color Throwdown I love the rich brown textures with the pop of black and white. Fabulous photo! I wasn't sure where to go with this, when I discovered a piece of shimmer coffee color paper that I had in my stash. The shimmery paper and the coffee color set me in the direction of creating a clean and simple card for my honey. We have just gotten back from a Christmas Caribbean Cruise and breakfast was a highlight for us. We had breakfast (Lou had croissant and other... Continue reading

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday. It's the fabulous Anne Marie's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and it's color week! This color scheme is as bright and cheerful as AM herself and the colors were a great combo to use in the depth of winter in Minnesota! While I was cleaning out my crafting space, I discovered a stamp that I bought years ago at a crafting fair in Minneapolis. It's. Rubbernecker Stamp and I can't find it on their webpage anymore. BUT... I love it and decided it was a keeper. For my color of choice -... Continue reading