Invitations

Here are the invitations that have been keeping me busy of late. These are for my MIL's 80th birthday party near the end of October. Can you tell her favorite color is purple?

I only need to find 2 more addresses and I can get back to some other things on my list. I'm looking forward to that. Most of the invitations will be mailed out tomorrow. Hope the end of your week will be spectacular! Thanks for stopping by today.

Fall Get Well

Sorry for the absence this past week. And my coming week is another very busy one. Still working on the invitations for my MIL's 80th birthday party. But I have a few cards that I need to send out. My cards tonight are some get well wishes for family members.

My cards are definitely CAS. The sentiments are digis (by Marlene of Disguised as a Grown-up) cut and sponged with pumpkin ink. The designer paper is Basic Grey cut with Magnolia Berry Lace die cut. The leaves are punched with several shades of orange paper. These cards are for a couple of challenges:

• Clean and Simple: sketch challenge
• CAS-ual Friday: at least three shades of monochromatic plus brown

Thanks for stopping and hanging in with me. I'll see what I can get done this week. Hope you have a wonderful week.

Outlawz 1,000 Member Party

Sorry for the long silence this week. It's been a busy week working on the invitation for my MIL's 80th birthday. I am very close to being finished but not quite yet. My son, Dan, is visiting from Salt Lake City this weekend. We picked him up from the airport this evening so I doubt that craft time is in my immediate future. And my DH's parents will be arriving tomorrow to visit with Dan while he is here. So extra people around this weekend. I thought I would share a project that I did for a friend who recently had a baby.

It's a little difficult to see the hat on the blanket since it's the same color. I haven't crocheted in a very long time so this was great fun to do.

I also wanted to mention that Outlawz is having a big party to celebrate 1,000 members and you are invited!

So be sure to check out the fun at Outlawz and you could win some wonderful prizes. I've won twice at Outlawz and I've received some really great prizes. I love their challenges. Check it out!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I know I'm looking forward to it. It's been a very busy week at work.

Charming Flourishes

Tonight I have a quick card that I made for a Flourishes challenge called Three's a Charm. You needed to use three layers on your project. I have the card base, a rectangular background and the image layer. Then I added a ribbon and bow and a few self-adhesive rhinestones. The borders were punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The image is from Flourishes Calendar Flowers.

I love the fall colors. I think the leaf border works well with the flower image.  I hope you are having a wonderful week and looking forward to the weekend. I know I am. I'll be working on my MIL's 80th birthday invitations this weekend. Hoping to get them finished soon. Take care and stay well!

Color Challenge and Wedding Wishes

Tonight just a very quick post of a card that I made for a challenge at Outlawz. I won the biggest prize at Outlawz last month: a $50 gift certificate at Oozak.com. Tonight I got my shopping spree there and I had a blast trying to decide what to buy. A very timely birthday present since my birthday is tomorrow. So I'm really enjoying doing the challenges over at Outlawz. This card is for the Tuesday color challenge at Outlawz (lavender, bright pink and creamy white). In addition to the color challenge, the card needed to have a wedding theme.

The wedding cake is a clear stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps and the Window Box Frame is a digital stamp from Happileigh Scrappin'. The image is also from the same set from Clear Dollar Stamps. I added some Zva swirls and the image is cut from a Clear Dollar die. The window frame is popped up from the cake so it really looks like a window.
That's it for tonight. I do have to work on my birthday tomorrow but I am saving my vacation time for October when we will be traveling to Austria to see my son Steve. Hope the rest of your week goes smoothly.

You're Invited

Happy Monday! I'm glad this day is over. Work is very busy right now and at least the day goes quickly when you are so busy. We had a beautiful day weather-wise and I think tomorrow is supposed to be similar. We did get a little rain over the weekend but we could use some more. I won;t be complaining though. My brother's home is in the path of the Texas fires so I am praying that they get rain very soon.

My card tonight is a possible invitation for my MIL's 80th birthday party. It's my job to make the invitations. So here is one of my attempts.

I used 2 embossing folders: Just My Type (the flowers up the right side) and Swiss Dots both from Cuttlebug. I used markers to give the embossed flowers some color. The trellis is a punch. The flowers are two different die cuts from Heartfelt Creations and the vine and leaves are a Cricut cut. I'm not thrilled with how my handwriting turned out. I think I need to use a fatter marker. What do you think? How can I improve this? I'm entering this card in several challenges:

• Joan's Garden challenge: Create a background with 2 embossing folders; use 2 or more die cuts and add a sentiment.
• Do You Stack Up challenge: Use texture
• Speedy the Cat's Friends challenge: Use a punch

Thanks for sharing some of your day with me. I love your comments and appreciate you leaving one for me. Have a wonderful week!

Autumn Gift Box

For the last few days I have been working on a 3-d project. I found a pattern for a box that I thought looked like a great way to give a gift. So I had to try to make one. You can find the tutorial at Cloth, Paper Crafts and More.

This is side one of the box. The main image is from Designed to Delight. I colored it with Bic Markers and a Copic Blender Pen. I've added ribbon around the top, a secondary image from Anne's Cards 4 U, and Some great bling in different sizes.  All patterned paper is Basic Grey Indian Summer.Here's the other sides of the box.

The sentiment is from Tiffany's Doodles.

Image from a Copic marker tutorial.

The Fall image is from My Grafico. Hope you liked my project. I may have to make a few more if these for Christmas gifts. Perfect for the little extras to give.
I am entering the box into a couple of challenges:

• Designed to Delight: Progressive image
• Clearly iStamp: Patterned paper
• Ribbon Carousel: Anything goes with ribbon, twine, etc.
• September Scor-Pal: Create a box
• Flourishes Fall Fashion Challenge: Color challenge
• Delightful Challenge: Bling it!
• Crazy 4 Challenge: color challenge

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful week.

We'll Never Forget

Today is 9/11 and ten years ago America was attacked. Thousands died or gave their lives trying to save those involved in the tragedy. Today we remember and remind ourselves that we will never forget those who lost their lives and remember all those who were effected by this tragedy. I wanted to pause today to remember all those involved with 9/11 and for all those brave men and women who continue to put their lives on hold to keep all of us safe and free. Please take some time today to think about what each of us can do to make America strong and safe!

Warming It Up

After so many weeks of steamy weather we had our first fire of the season tonight in our wood burning stove. Last Saturday we were close to 100 degrees here and on Monday we hovered around 60 degrees. Today it was very windy and chilly so the fire felt very good. So my card fits right in.

The image and sentiment are from Carolyn King's Warm Winter Wishes stamp set. The sentiment is embossed with white embossing powder. I used lots of Spellbinders die: classic large circles, scalloped circles and contemporary heart pendants (for the snowflakes). I embellished with lace, pearls and Stickels glitter.

The challenges that I'm entering this card in is:

• Scrap Creations: Winter wishes
• Crafty Booth Challenge: Anything goes
• Card Patterns: Sketch
• Outlawz Monday Challenge: Pearls and lace

Hope you liked my card today. I talked with my son, Steve, in Austria by email today. I was so thrilled to hear him say that he likes it there. He seems to be settling in well. He said people look at him oddly and sometimes there's a language barrier but he is enjoying his job and he's learning to cook. LOL! He said grocery shopping is a challenge. They don't have the things that we do in the US. But he'll conquer that challenge too I'm sure.

Hope your week is on the down side and everything is going well. Looking forward to Friday at 5pm. Take care!

Trick or Treat

Happy Labor Day! Hope your day was wonderful even if you didn't have it off. I did have to work this morning because today was our first week of classes reporting but we were finished by noon. Over the weekend we had a chance to talk with Steve in Austria. He's doing fine even if he is a little nervous about driving over there. He has a nice but small apartment and he is trying to figure out cooking for himself. I think this will be an amazing experience for him. It's actually really fun to Skype with him and so amazing to see all his facial expressions too. I'm so glad that we are able to keep in touch with him.

My card tonight is the first for the Halloween season. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

The image is from Designed 2Delight called Falloween Cat and That is the first challenge I am entering this card in. The sentiment is computer generated and cut from dies from Clear Dollar Stamps. The image is cut from Spellbinder's Classic Oval and backed with Lacey Ovals. The embellishments include black brads, black polka-dotted double bow ribbon and orange picot ribbon.

I am entering these challenges:

• Designed 2 Delight: Use the free image in your project
• Outlawz Wednesday Challenge : Sketch
• Do You Stack Up: Friendly Critters
• Delightful Challenges: Halloween
• Inspire Me Fridays: Anything Goes

Hope your week is off to a wonderful start! I'm looking forward to a good but busy week. Take care!

A Beauty For You

Happy Thursday! I've been kind of impatient all day today. We haven't heard from my son Steve who flew to Austria yesterday.He should have arrived by 8:30am this morning. I'm sure he must have been very tired after 14 hours of traveling. We are just praying that everything is going okay. There's a six hour difference so it might be tough to get both of us at a good time. Hopefully on the weekend we'll get a chance to talk with him. I've got my Skype fired up.

My card tonight is one that I am really pleased with. Everything just fell into place with this card.

I love Spellbinders dies and I used the Lattice Pendant and one of the Scalloped Circles. The flower image is from Flourished Calendar Flowers and the sentiment is from Flourishes Strawberries. I embossed the background with the Victoria embossing folder. I added some lace and 3 self-adhesive pearls. Both the image and sentiment are popped up with pop-dots. I'm entering this card into several challenges:

• Mark's Finest Paper Speedy the Cat Challenge: Use lace
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge: Bingo! I used embossing, pearls and the color pink
• Outlawz Monday Challenge: Recipe: one image, 2 patterned papers, 3 embellishments and a sentiment
• Party Time Tuesday: Anything goes!

Thanks for stopping by. We are making a run into Cincinnati tomorrow to help my DH's parents with some chores. Have to come back Saturday night. I do have to work on Monday morning so I won't see a three-day weekend. If you are in the US I hope you enjoy your three-day weekend. Stay Safe. Thanks for stopping by.