Harvest Angel

I'm enjoying my fall themed cards right now because I know once Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas season will be upon us in full force. I like to have cards like this on hand that have no sentiment on the front. That way I can add what I want to the inside of the card or simply leave it blank and add my own message. This image is called Harvest Angel and is by Karen Lockhart. Karen has a series of angels that fit most of the seasons and the details are wonderful. I colored the image with Copic markers then airbrushed it with a brown Copic marker. For the background I used a Cuttlebug folder on SU! More Mustard card stock along with some coppery colors of Glimmer Mist. The Glimmer Mist kind of settled into some of the embossed areas, creating lots of depth. I finished the card off with a strip of Cosmo Cricket Gretel patterned paper and three Dew Drops. Tip of the day: This is one of my favorite, reliable layouts I go back to often. The main design elements of the card are the circle accent piece and the strip of patterned paper behind it. This enables you to use patterned paper without it taking over the main design of the card. You can even leave off the textured background piece to keep the design simple. To make the card look more like a piece of stationery, you can also reduce the size of the circle.....maybe using a monogram type stamp or a word image.

Branson Road Trip

Last weekend we took a three day vacation to Branson with my family, my inlaws and my husband's grandmother. We had a great time, I hadn't been to Branson since I was a little kid. My FIL signed up for one of those time share seminars so we got our room and one nightly show for free, woohoo! So this card is for my in laws as a thank you card. The stamps are from Rubber Soul/Wordsworth. The stick girl and the vacation sentiment are from a clear set called Vacation. The other stamp is a wood image which features the blowing leaves. The scenery in Branson was beautiful. The leaves were all turning color and I have never seen so many oak trees in my life. Totally gorgeous drive! The rest of the card features Scenic Route (appropriate right?) patterned paper and some of those yummilicious Dew Drops from Ellen's online store. I colored the image with Copic markers and then airbrushed some mustard yellow onto the image. The vacation sentiment is multi colors of fall and was created by applying 3-4 colors of ink onto the stamp before I stamped the image off. Love the Versamagic Chalk Inks for this technique. The dress is finished off with some Copper Stickles. (Copics and Airbrush System available at Ellen's online store) Here's some of the beautiful trees that are changing color in Branson.
Another photo overlooking Branson. My girls sure wished that Ferris wheel was working that day!
Me and the family outside of Branson Landing......one of the newer additions to Branson built in Old Downtown Branson. I love the shopping, the girls got new Build-A-Bear critters and I got a new Vera Bradley tote bag and accessories. (Yes, we love the redheads.......No, they're not twins...I know you'll ask, LOL!)

Okay, I have two stamp sets to give away this month from Rubber Soul. The set is called VACATION and features some cute, cute stick people. I love the dude with the camera and the sentiment *like you blend*....totally cracks me up!! I will be giving away one set to one lucky person who comments on today's post. I'll save the other set for another day so check back soon.

So here's the question you must respond to: Where would you suggest I go for the best mini vacation? Tell me somewhere I can take my family for an extended weekend and why I should go there. I love the beautiful scenery the best but the city life can also be fun! I will pick one winner by the weekend......be sure to leave your name so that I can mention you as the winner. I'll then have you contact me via email with your mailing address. Good luck, I can't wait to read your comments.

Hanna Stamps...Rainy Day Preview

Are you ready for a fun new set from Hanna Stamps? It's called Rainy Day and will be available Friday, November 16th (Thursday at midnight if you're a night owl). You can get your set at Hanna Stamps right HERE! The Hanna stamps are so darling and they take front and center stage on your cards. These cards will be perfect to make during the winter months, when I'm dreaming about Spring! All of the papers are from Rubber Soul, I just love the fun and fresh patterns. The two packs I used on these cards are called Hoop-la and Shake It Up. And of course, I colored all my images with Copic markers. You can get a great starter set from Ellen's online store.

This card has two page pebbles adhered over the big polka dots to resemble giant rain drops.

Below I used red sequins to accent the umbrella.

Clear sequins pose as glistening rain drops on the card below. The paper's fun circle design reminds me of water rings in a water puddle and the polka dots on Hanna's raincoat were made with the sketch tip of a red Copic marker.
Hanna gets fancy on the card below...she's sporting 5 green sequins on her rain coat.
And finally, the double duckies don't mind the rain at all. I drew the grass line with a fine tip marker.

Adorable Baby Cards...

Hi everyone! My family and I just returned from a short vacation to Branson. We had a great time and the scenery was breath taking. The fall trees were bursting with color and the girls got brand new Build-A-Bear critters...so all is well. Please take a moment this Veteran's Day to remember all of those who have served for us. Enjoy your freedom and the beautiful country that we live in!!

On to the cards. These are some more baby cards that I made up for my stash basket. This first little cutie uses the Lockhart images Sweet Pea along with some background stamps from the millinery collection for the card base and the envelope. The main image is colored with Copic markers to match the Cosmo Cricket baby patterned paper. I love the hint of vintage that this card has. Image was cut and embossed with a circle Spellbinder's Die Template and then mounted on a scallop cut blue circle. Two cute pink Dew Drops add a little accent to the card along with some cream SU! grosgrain ribbon and the SU! *adorable* sentiment.

The boy baby cards feature the Lockhart image called Snip & Snails. Again, I colored my images with Copic markers to match the patterned paper. I cut and embossed the images with a Spellbinder's circle die template but left off the scallop mat this time. SU! *adorable* sentiment and stamp was used for the envelopes.

Tip of the day: Whenever I use patterned paper, I usually finish off the top edge of the paper with some kind of horizontal element. For the girl cards, I used ribbon and for the boy cards, I used a strip of blue cardstock. I think this finishes off the *edge* of the patterned paper and creates a nice transition from the patterned paper to the solid cardstock base.

Lockhart Baby Girl...

There seems to be a lot of babies around my neck of the woods. Lots of girl babies which is sooo much fun. So you might be seeing more baby girl projects this month. This is a Maya Road tin that I altered with Basic Grey Lily Kate paper, buttons and ribbons. The handle has white decorative pearls. The tag is made with a Lockhart stamp called Sweet Pea. It's the most darling little stamp that can be used for baby girl projects or even into the toddler years as a little girl outfit. I stamped the image in black on the base tag then stamped the image again and colored it with Copic markers. I then cut the colored image out and adhered it to the tag with SU! dimensionals. A little white decorative pearl accents the *sweet pea* sentiment.

This is a view of the inside of the lid. I adhered patterned paper and ribbon to the inside of the lid and then added a circle accent piece that has the Lockhart Itty Bitty Peas stamp colored wit Copic markers. The little circles on the patterned paper are accented with more white decorative pearls. *Sweet pea* is stamped with retired Karen Foster mini alphabet letters.
I think would make an adorable little gift filled with baby items like cotton balls, qtips, lotions, etc. Or it would also make a nice little memory box that could be filled with baby's first onesie, booties, hospital bracelets, hair ribbons, etc. Oh, and the nice thing about the lid is that the handle can be removed for easy placement of the patterned paper for the top of the lid.

Paper Piecing Clothes for Hanna!

This project will take you back to the days of making paper dolls, guaranteed! If you haven't yet seen the new Hanna Stamps stamp sets, then you are in for a real treat. There are two sets available at this time with more on the way. Today I will be using the *But I Need It* stamp set and Cosmo Cricket Baby patterned paper. Aside from just being super cute and uber girly, the main image of Hanna is drawn so that her outfits are easy to cut out. Therefore, you can paper piece her clothes out of patterned paper very easily. Here's how you do it:

Step 1: Stamp your full image onto white card stock. Color in all of the parts that will not be paper pieced. For these samples, the dress will be left white because that's what I'm going to paper piece out of patterned paper. Set aside. Step 2: Cut scraps of patterned paper just big enough to fit the dress on. No need to stamp the entire image because you'll just waste more of the pretty paper.
Step 3: Place the acrylic image onto a large block and turn image side up. Ink the stamp, just concentrating on the dress since that's all that is needed.

Step 4: Place the piece of scrap card stock patterned side down onto the stamped image. Make sure that the paper fits fully over the dress.
Step 5: Place another clear block over the piece of scrap paper, making a *sandwich* of sorts. The scrap paper will be in between the two clear blocks. Press down the top block firmly, but do not rock.........you can put on some AC/DC and rock out.......just do not rock your clear block.
Step 6: Remove the paper scrap from the *sandwich* and you should have a stamped portion of the dress. Cut out the dress with fine tip scissors. A nice pair of fine tipped scissors is key here so that you can get into those tiny little spaces. When I cut out the dress, I like to cut just on the outside of the black, stamped line. This adds a lot of definition to the image and makes the dress really stand out.
Step 7: Adhere the paper pieced dresses to the main colored images. I like to use Hermafix Removable Dotto adhesive because you can remove any leftover adhesive once the dress is in place. Step 8: Create the cutest cards EVER with your new images! These cards have fun accents of red A Muse Creative Candy available at Ellen's store, a scallop circle from a Martha Stewart punch and some red binding ribbon from Martha Stewart. Base card is Stampin' Up! River Rock. Images are colored with Copic Markers.

Look at these little darlings! This is my new favorite paper from Making Memories called Note Worthy, found at Archivers. Accents are pink sequins and a pink and green Dew Drop from Ellen's store. Ribbon is from Martha Stewart. Base card stock is Stampin' Up! Soft Sky. Images were colored with Copic Markers.

New Crafty Secrets Set Preview!!

These cards show the preview of a brand new set from Crafty Secrets called Favorite Fellas. Here's a LINK to the stamp set at the Crafty Secrets website. If you've been looking for a good guy stamp set like me, this is a good one to add to your collection. Check out all the images it has to offer....22 images and sentiments!! And I just love how you can dress up the envelopes too to match the card. So fun!! Also, Crafty Secrets now has it's own forum over at Splitcoast Stampers. There will now be a gallery of cards made by CS designers and you can chit chat too. Be sure to check out the new forum at THIS LINK. If you are unable to get the link to work, you may need to register as a member of Splitcoast Stampers. It's free and such a valuable resource for card ideas and just a fun place to meet new friends.

Scrapbooking Weekend Here I Come!!!

I'm going on one of my twice a year scrapbooking trips on Friday! I have been packing, printing photos, organizing my piles of scrapbooking supplies and paper, buying more stuff that I don't need.........and getting my Becky Sketches ready!!! I bought her book which contains ALL of her sketches so that is a must have at this cropping weekend. And I also take past issues of CK magazine so I can see even more layouts. I usually get about 30-40 pages done over the weekend and it's in big part to Becky's helpful sketch ideas. While all my girlfriends are trying to figure out layouts, I simply turn to a Becky Sketch and get to work. Voila, it's that easy!! My friend Carmen came over this week and we made goody sacks for our scrapping friends. There are six of us going and we stay Friday, Saturday and Sunday at a nice hotel. We went their board room and one attached bedroom. We rarely all sleep at the same time so two beds are plenty....somebody always end up sleeping in a chair or over their pile of layouts or under the table. It's all good.

Anyway, my friend Piney would get a kick out of these bags. She gave me the inspiration for the tags and she will love to hear that the entire sack ensemble is from supplies we already had. Carmen got the brown sacks from her hair salon. I got the tissue from a gift shop that was closing, COOL May Arts polka dot ribbon from Cindy Lyles at StarLitStudio, buttons from my stash and Dew Drops from Ellen's store. We also tucked in folded up paper grocery sacks so each person will have their own trash bag. The tag is cut from a Spellbinder's Die Template...you need this tag one, it's so fun! The monogram letters were a last minute addition from my SU! chipboard letters. We colored them with Versamagic chalk ink, worked like a charm.
Each scrapper will get a name tag for their scrapping bag. I dug out these really hard plastic baseball card holders I had in my stash and we just started creating. The cute stamp is from Bella Stamps...she's all ready to go with her little rolling tote. We paper pieced the polka dot dress..Carmen about freaked when she learned how to do that!!!
Here's my tag below. I had to custom design mine to match my all time most favorite tool bag from All My Memories. It's pink and brown and my tag matches so perfectly!! May Arts ribbon from Cindy again at StarLitStudio, this time in a big fat pink and brown polkadot variety! Paper is from Love Elsie available at Eclectic Paperie. The little metal charm is from the CK scrapbook convention......for $2 bucks, I shoulda bought one for everybody!

Well, I'm off to do some last minute packing. No need for lots of clothes, we wear the same pajamas for like 2 days straight!! I do however shower and put on makeup and clean underwear, I just feel more prepared and you never know when someone famous like Becky or Elsie or Lisa Bearnson might drop in to scrap with us! I've also got to finish my share of the snacks.....I'm making Texas Caviar Dip with tortilla chips. The rest of the girls are bringing meats, cheeses and crackers and POP! (yes, we say POP here in Kansas) Gotta have that caffeine. I will be so wired by the time I come home on Sunday. I'll be dead tired but so gassed up on caffeine and so hyper from the lack of sleep and all those scrapbook pages I will have completed that I probably won't sleep at all!! It's all good though...........til someone drops an eyelet!!!!!! (Saw that on a CK convention tshirt and laughed out loud!) I'll be sure to show you some of my favorite layouts when I return. I'll be back on Monday!!!