My Last Creative Thought for 2009!

As we count down the hours to 2010, a new year and decade, I thought I'd share one last card I made in 2009. The card was for the Blast from the Past Challenge on Stamp TV. The challenge was to use colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits.


The images and sentiment is from the Gina K stamp set "Owl Always Love You." I used the window technique and added some designer paper with a Martha Stewart border for the valance on the window. The sentiment is cut and embossed from one of my Christmas Spellbinders set off with ribbon.

So its goodbye to 2009 and hello is 2010. Owl always love you for being my creative friends, visiting my blog and leaving me comments that support me. Thanks for stopping by. Please come back "next year" and see what creative projects 2010 brings my way. May you and yours have a happy, healthy, prosperous, and creative New Year! Happy 2010!

Inky hugs,

Christmas again.... 2010!

Happy Tuesday to you all! So glad you could stop by. After the hectic holidays, I am catching up on my email and getting back to creating. One of the challenges that caught my eye was a color challenge at the Little Paper Shop Blog. The colors this week are light blue, navy blue and silver. I just happened to have a leftover piece of silver paper on my desk to use and the color combination screamed "Christmas" at me; so I figured one more Christmas card, and I could say I have a start on my 2010 Christmas cards. LOL!

So the silver paper is embossed with the Cuttlebug Snowflake folder. I used my Scor-Pal to add the two lines at the bottom of the card and a Martha Stewart punch to create the scalloped borders along each side. The sentiment is from Little Paper Shop's Merry and Bright stamp set.

I carried the theme to the inside of the card by stamping snowflakes on the background paper (sorry, they didn't show up very well on the scan) and used the scalloped edge created from the borders on the front to use in the inside of the card. The sentiment and snowflake is from LPS Merry and Bright stamp set. Check out the challenge and have some fun. Maybe you won;t think of Christmas with those colors.

I am hoping to put Christmas behind me now as I have to prepare for a workshop on January 16th that I'll be doing for Girl Scout leaders. I have an hour and would like to come up with two projects: a card for one and I'm still up in the air with the other project. If you have any ideas for a cute small stamping project, please leave a comment. I can use all the help I can get. Have a wonderful evening and stop back soon.

Happy inking,

Belated Merry Christmas and.... Happy Anniversary!

Oh, how I missed creating and posting over the Christmas season. Our travels took us home to Cincinnati and I didn't have access to the Internet. But we're back now and I went back to work today. I was so happy to be back to my desk and play with some of my new things from Santa last night.

Two of my brothers have anniversaries very close together. My brother, Ken and his wife, Rae's anniversary is today (Happy Anniversary, Ken and Rae!) and my brother Rick and his wife has an anniversary near the start of the New Year! So I have two anniversary cards today.

I got this image in an image swap. I'd love this set. Don't you think this image is just the cutest? The background paper is Basic Grey and I used my Nestabilities and Spellbinders to cut the image, backing and sentiment out. I love my new Spellbinders tags!

This card was done with Gina K's Winter Foliage stamp set and the sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps. I added 3 snowflake embellishments to finish it off.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was good to you! May 2010 be a happy, health and crafty new year for you and yours! Thanks for stopping by. Leave a comment and let me know what you got from Santa. I'll start my list for next year! LOL! Have a wonderful week!

Happy inking!

Christmas Gifts

I am a bad blogger lately! So little time right now. And of all things we are trying to buy a property now too. So we've spent time looking at places, talking with our realtor and negotiating. Not exactly what I thought I'd be doing the week before Christmas. But being home this weekend has helped me get a big project finished.

These are the ornaments I made with reinkers and glitter, thanks to Nancy Dawson of Paper Dreams and Creative Wishes. I wish I had something to hang these on so you could see them better. They are very easy to make.

Then I went to the Scor-Pal site and found a cupcake box to use to hold the ornaments. These were very easy to put together too and I embellished them in a variety of ways. This one used the 5 petal flower punch and the Gina K set of Holiday Cheer.

And here's the final product, minus one that I gave away last night as a hostess gift at a holiday party. Don't they make adorable little hostess gifts! I do hope that Hobby Lobby has these ornament left over again after Christmas. I'd like to make a set for my tree next year!
Are you ready for Christmas? I'm definitely not, but working on it. Have a wonderful week! Blessing for a very Merry Christmas. I'll be back soon!

Happy inking,

Hey There Girlie!

Brrr! It's cold here! But not nearly as cold as our northern neighbors. They are below zero so I feel for them. We are in the teens and that's way colder than I like it! Of course our wood-burning stove is working overtime so we're staying warm here at home. It's been chilly in my office too.

My project tonight was a challenge over at Stamp TV. Gina's video this week is how to make an envelope and the challenge is to make an envelope and a matching card. While in Boston last week I took a bunch of stamped images with me to color. I normally shy away from people images because I've never been good at coloring skin tones. But skin tones were the first Copics I bought and I've been practicing. I don't have very many Copics, so the skin tones are done with Copics and everything else is done with Sharpie markers. The under tee shirt and arm band is done with purple Stickles.


The DSP is from the dollar bin at Target. It was scrapbooking paper and I always wondered why I bought it. Worked perfectly for this project. I embossed the background DSP with the Tartan Cuttlebug embossing folder.



The image is from a set from My Favorite Things. I cut the image out with circle Nestabilities and then embossed it. I shaded the image while it was still in the Nestability. I added the cute dotted purple ribbon and tied a knot to one side.

And here's the inside of the card. It looks crumpled in the picture but I assure you it isn't. It must be an optical illusion. I really like the way this card turned out! I guess I'll be trying more cards with people now! Hehehe!

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope that wherever you are you are safe and warm! You know what the saying in Indiana is? "Wait five minutes and the weather will change!" Well maybe not five minutes but we'll get warmer on the weekend, I hope! Take care and enjoy the end of your week!

Happy inking!

You Melt My Heart

Happy almost Wednesday to you all. We arrived back from Boston yesterday and it's been a whirlwind around here catching up with everything. We had a wonderful visit with Dan and I'm looking forward to seeing him again at Christmas. Tonight I had a chance to make a quick card using the sketch challenge at Stamp TV.

I colored the image (and many others) while I was in Boston during my down time. This one fit perfectly for the winter weather that they say is heading our way. We are supposed to have 50+ mile an hour winds tomorrow with rain changing to snow so we could have a tough day ahead. Drat, I have to go back to work! Anyway, I glittered up some punched flowers and added the ribbon, bow and self-adhesive gem stones as embellishments. The embossing is done with the large snowflake Cuttlebug folder.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'm hoping wherever you are it's warm and toasty and you have electricity. They are telling us to prepare to be without, because outage are a sure thing with that much wind. So hopefully I'll be back tomorrow. If not we'll stay warm by the fire! Thanks for stopping!

Happy inking!

My Snowman Army

Happy Wednesday! I am now officially on vacation. Such a great feeling to know that I don't have to worry about work until next Wednesday. And tomorrow I'm leaving on a jet plane for Boston to see my son, Dan. Can't wait!

But before I go.... here's what I've been working on for the past few days. An army of snowmen! The actual snowman part is made mostly from punches.

For the tags, I used my Quick Cutz tag dies. And then decorated them with snowflakes from the Gina K Holiday Cheer set and the "To" and "From" are from the Holiday Greetings set.

And after punching lots of paper, here's the result. My army of snowmen.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be winging my way back home on Monday so I won't get much crafting done this weekend. But I'll get back to business next week. Take care and have a wonderful weekend.

Happy inking,

Window Pane Iris

Tis the season to be too busy to blog. I hate when that happens. Visiting family over the weekend left little time to create. I did manage a little time yesterday as I watched the Colts triumph over the Texans. Go Colts! This coming weekend I'll be away again in Boston to visit my son, Dan. I'm hoping I get one more post in before I leave on Thursday.

Today's card I made for the Cuttlebug Challenge #59. The theme this week was glitter. I hope you can see the glittery irises.

The image is from a Gina K set Elegant Flowers and the sentiment is from another Gina K set called Holiday Greetings. I used my Cuttlebug and Victoria folder to emboss the background. The windowpane effect was a technique that Gina K demonstrated on Stamp TV. I love the way this card turned out with the brayered background. And the glitter adds so much! Hop on over to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog and see what the wonderful design team is up to. They always have some exciting things going on.

Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a great start amd the rest follows in smooth fashion. Thanks for stopping and come back again soon!

Happy inking,

Cuttle Bug Spot Challenge

Happy Sunday! It's almost time to start another work week but at least it's a short one!

This week the Cuttlebug Spot challenge was to use a turkey on your card. So I used a digital image from the Character Cafe. Such a cute Pilgrim and turkey wishing you Happy Thanksgiving! I think this will be my last turkey card for the year.

I used my rectangular scalloped Nesties to cut out the image and the background. The swirls are from a new Quick Cutz die that I bought about a week ago. Then I added some bling.

Thanks for stopping by today and here's wishing you all a wonderful week!

Happy inking,

Blog Hop and Challenge

Happy Friday! Welcome to my blog! This weekend Gina K is having a blog hop with several of the newest stamp sets. Anyone with any of the sets can play along so check all the details out on Gina's blog. I created this card using the sketch challenge on Stamp TV. I used the Stamp TV Holiday Cheer Kit.

The background paper I won in a blog challenge. The silver paper is actually adhesive-backed paper and very easy to use. I punched the edge of it with a Martha Stewart punch. The images and sentiments are from Holiday Cheer and embossed with gold embossing powder. The beautiful ribbon is also from the Holiday Cheer kit. I used golden rod Stickles to make dots on the silver edge punched paper. You have all weekend to join in the blog hop and of course there are prizes. Gina is so generous!

This card also works for the Kaboodle Blog challenge. This time they are asking for buttons, bows and bling. You have lots of time to join in with this challenge too.

I'm hoping to get more time to play this weekend. I have to train Girl Scout adults in Math & Science tomorrow while their girls are doing Math and Science at IU. I give them all kinds of ideas to take back to do with their troops. My teacher background comes out every once in a while. Hope your Friday is going well. Take care!

Happy inking,

Donna

Let It Snow

Happy Monday! Are you ready for a little snow? It's a bit early in our neck of the woods, and we're expecting rain tonight and not snow but I could go for a little white stuff. However if it starts this early, I'll be ready for spring in January. LOL! But my snowy card tonight is for two challenges. First up is the sketch challenge at Card Patterns. I get the Card Patterns sketches every week in my email but this is only the second time I've ever entered one of my cards. I loved their sketch.

I used two patterned papers for the background and cut my squares from solid card stock. The images are actually all one stamp that I found at Hobby Lobby. It has four squares, three with snowmen and one with the sentiment "Let it Snow". So I stamped them and cut them apart. The third snowman I used for the envelope. The die cut flourishes are actually the requirement for the second challenge. Little Paper Shop's challenge is to use a die cut on you card. I found these Quick Cutz Flourishes at Hobby Lobby this past weekend so I was dying to use them.


Here's the inside of my card. The Martha Stewart paper edge punch I used leaves a little piece of paper left over and I love to use that in some way on my cards. So I used the left over top and bottom on the inside of the card, stamped a sentiment and added a couple of glitter snowflakes. You can see several on the front of the card also. The glitter doesn't show up very well though. I hope you like my card. It's a much 'busier' card than I'm used to making. I usually like them clean and simple but this was fun for a change.

I hope your week is off to a good start. The Colts won last night so I am a happy camper! But I didn't stay up to watch the whole game. It would have made me nuts and I wouldn't have gotten any sleep at all last night. LOL! And I had to work today. The day went much smoother because I got some sleep last night. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you come back soon!

Happy inking,

Honoring Our Soldiers

This past Wednesday was Veteran's Day. And I was thrilled to see the Cuttle Bug Challenge blog honoring all those veterans and current soldiers by making the challenge to send cards to Operation Write Home. The challenge this week was to use the sketch to make a flat card to contribute to this cause. I made two cards from the sketch and I intend to make more. I have two brothers and a sister who are veterans and I so support our troops overseas and here at home. Where would we be without them. So my goal this week is to have a big envelope full of cards to send to Operation Write Home.

Both of my cards used my new Flurries embossing folder that I got in a set from HSN last week. For this card I made an easy pinwheel out of Basic Grey paper and added a ribbon and a couple self-adhesive rhinestones. The sentiment is from Carolyn King's set called Warm Winter Wishes. You can find this set at Gina K Designs and all proceeds go to fight Alzheimer's Disease. Another worthy cause!

My second card is of course from the same sketch but instead of the ribbon I used a Nutcracker drummer boy stamp from Drummer Boy by Flourishes. The background and sentiment is also from a stamp set by Flourishes called Christmas Music.

Please take a moment and thank a veteran. Better yet, join in the challenge and help our soldiers stay in touch with those they love back home. Send some cards to Operation Write Home. That's one of the reasons I love this hobby. There are so many ways to use it to help others.

So happy Sunday! I hope to get some crafting time in today along with a little football watching. The Colts play the Patriots tonight so it will be GO COLTS! later today. Have a super week this week and check back for more eye candy!

Happy inking,

New Challenges

Happy Wednesday everyone! We're on the down swing for the week and heading for the weekend, my favorite time of all! More time to play.

My card tonight is for two challenges. One is a new challenge that I've never played in before. Clearly iStamp blog is a great blog that I subscribe to. They have wonderful ideas and tutorials that make stamping fun! Their Clearly Inspired Challenge is announced each Friday. This week you were supposed to use 5 of something. So on this card, I have 5 layers above the card base and 5 gemstone embellishments. You still have time to drop by and check out the fun this week!

The card also is for the Cuttlebug Spot challenge. The challenge this week was to use fruit in your card somehow. My image is from a Stampin' Up! set called Sun Ripened II. The sentiment is from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV kit by Gina K. And of course I used my Cuttlebug to emboss: the black sheet is embossed with the Victoria folder and the green sheet is embossed with Swiss Dots. You can still participate in this challenge too. Doesn't that apple look good enough to eat?

Well, I'm off to work on a few more thing tonight. I hope you're having a fabulous week and you'll stop back again to see what else I'm working on. Take care and...

Happy inking,

Christmas Drawer Surprise

Just a quick post tonight to show you one of the projects I've been working on lately. This is a little drawer that I made and decorated, then filled with Hershey kisses. I'm thinking of giving these as Christmas presents to my co-workers.

I used a variety of different sets for the background paper with all the greetings. The image is from the Stamp TV kit Holiday Cheer. I made the project for the Potluck Friday challenge on Stamp TV.


The challenge is to make a project with no designer paper but what you can make and you can only use words on your background. This was great fun. Loved the challenge! You might want to try it. You still have several days to participate!

Thanks for stopping by today. Tomorrow is Wednesday and halfway to the weekend! Take care and make it a wonderful week!

Happy inking,

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #56

With the holidays fast approaching lots of challenges are asking for creations that deal with Thanksgiving and Christmas. This week the Cuttlebug Challenge #56 is looking at Thanksgiving and our mission (and I chose to accept it! LOL!) was to create a Thanksgiving project. So I made these turkey boxes that I filled with candy corn. I cut the feathers from a template that I drew and then ran them through the Cuttlebug with the Herringbone embossing folder. It gave the feathers a distressed look. I also used the Diamond Plate folder for the turkeys body to give it a ruffled effect.

Check out the goggle eyes. I found these at Hobby Lobby. They have little eye lashes on them and the irises are colored. Hard to tell from the picture but one turkey has red eyes and the other has blue eyes. I'd never seen these before and I thought they were so cute!


Here's a better picture of the box but you can't see the candy corn that's in it. It's a very easy box fold. The card stock was cut at 7 inches square, scored at 2 inches on each side. Cut the opposite sides, and assemble the box with sticky strip. I also covered the side with the green paper to give it a bit more strength.

I hope you like my Thanksgiving project. I had such fun making it. These cuties will be gracing my table throughout the holiday season. Thanks for stopping in today and have a wonderful week!

Happy inking,

Challenges Galore!

When I sat down last night to work on cards and looked at my list of challenges this card just came together and it fit a bunch of challenges I had on my list. I started with the sketch challenge from Stamp TV. The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #55 asked for a Thanksgiving card. I could do that and use the sketch. And on top of that the Character Cafe Challenge #4 wanted Halloween colors and glitter but not a Halloween card. That fits too. So here's my card!



The details: I used the Victoria Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the black background and then I painted black Stickles on the embossing to give it a glittery effect. The image and sentiment is from Whimsical Autumn, a Gina K stamp set designed by Carolyn King. The leaves I stamped and colored twice and pop dotted them so they stood out from the card. And I added some self-adhesive rhinestones along the side. I think that's probably a record for me; three challenges in one card.

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday. We're on the downswing for the week and looking forward to the weekend! Thanks for stopping by today. Hope to see you back again soon!

Happy inking,

Be Inspired #55

This week on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog they have wonderful things going on. They are giving away new Cuttlebug embossing folders that have just been released. HSN had them for sale over the weekend and I did get my order in this time. I missed the last release and paid significantly more money to get the folders when they went on sale the second time. So check out the blog and win some goodies. And then participate in the Cuttlebug challenge. The idea is to make a card that depicts some of your favorite things. I love flowers. And my friend Angie sent me some adorable stamped images and I used one of those images of this little flower girl on my challenge card.

The background is embossed with the Victoria embossing folder. I used a scalloped rectangular Nestability to cut out the image and added ribbon and the birthday wish. Isn't she adorable!

After being so behind on posts this is my second for the day. Hmm. It probably won't last too long; especially since I have to go back to work tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to come back!

Happy inking,

Finally....

I am so pleased to have a new entry today. It's been way to long since I've posted. I thought maybe the fates were conspiring against me. Work was unbelieveably busy the last few weeks. I finally got the Enrollment Report out last Friday. And then I wasn't feeling well over the weekend. With all the busy times, I decided to take off work today to take a "me" day. So far I've done a little shopping and got my hair cut.

Yesterday I got a chance to work on a few things. Here's the first to show you. This card is for the Inspirational Sketch challenge #40. I hadn't done this challenge in a while, but I love their sketches. So here's my take.

This card also works for the color challenge at Stamp TV. The challenge was to use burgundy, olive and ivory. Here's the details: I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder on the olive background. The Music notes background is stamped from Flourishes Christmas Music and the sentiment is from the same stamp set. The jingle bells arre from Gina K Designs A Very Merry Christmas by Theresa Momber. I added some ribbon and some bling to the card.

Happy November 2. Can you believe how fast the year is disappearing? It's amazing. I'll be back with at least one more post today. Thanks for stopping and I'm hoping to be a better blogger this week! Make it a wonderful week!

Happy inking,

Bad Blogger

I've obviously been a terrible blogger this week. Things have gotten busy around our house: my in laws are visiting, we had tickets to see a Halloween organ concert and work has been over the top busy. So I haven't had much time to make anything new. I did finish my cappuccino mix envelopes for my co-workers for Halloween but I had already posted some of those. So this weekend I will be working on some new things. I promise I'll be back with some goodies this weekend. Hope everyone had a wonderful week. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Happy inking,

Donna

Happy Thanksgiving

I think I have enough Halloween cards now so I've made the switch to Thanksgiving tonight. The card I made tonight used the sketch from the challenge on the Character Cafe blog. The image I used was also from the Character Cafe.


This beautiful pumpkin image was colored with water color pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I sponged the oval with pumpkin spice ink. I embossed some branches and leaves with my Cuttlebug. The beautiful patterned paper is from Basic Grey. I made a triple loop bow with my Bow Easy and added three brown rhinestones to complete the card. The sketch was lots of fun! Check out all the gorgeous images that Character Cafe has to offer.

I have a busy weekend. I'm taking 100+ girls on our last camping trip to our Girl Scout camp before it's sold. It's so sad! But there are better things ahead for us. We now have 10 camps to chose from so things will be fine. We'll enjoy our "last blast" at Camp Belmont and then look to a new future. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back next week with more eye candy for you! Thanks for stopping by.

Happy inking,

Halloween Treats

Happy Monday to you all. Tonight I have a treat! I originally saw this idea on Andrea Walford's blog. I changed her idea slightly to fit these Cappuccino packets I found. I thought this would be the perfect gift for my office mates! This week's challenge at Cuttlebug Spot is to make a treat holder. Perfect timing for tonight's project!


I started with paper that measured 4 inches by 12 inches. I used my Scor-Pal to score the card stock at 6 inches. I used my Cuttlebug and various embossing folders to emboss a pattern on each side of the card stock. I used the word window to punch a slot from the end of one side. Push the word window as far as it will go. You may need to punch it more than once depending on how big your treat is.

I used Terrifically Tacky tape to seal up the three open sides. Then wrapped spider web ribbon around and fastened it at the front. I made a bow from Happy Halloween ribbon with my Bow Easy (so fast and effortless!) and pop dotted the bow to the spider web ribbon. I took a piece of white ribbon or silver thread and attached a tag that I had made to the spider web ribbon. I added Happy Halloween on each tag. My little goodies are ready to give to my unsuspecting co-workers! Mwah haha! Fast, fun and easy to do.



Thanks for stopping by tonight. Hope you are getting ready for Halloween. It will be here before you know it!

Happy inking,