Special First Birthday

Welcome to the busiest season of the year! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our kids. All were in town for Thanksgiving and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving at Baby Creek, our lovely property east of Bloomington. Although the winter landscape has taken over it's still a beautiful place. So after Thanksgiving we made a quick trip and visit with the rest of the family on Friday. But on Saturday my two boys left for a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. Out youngest, Steve, is moving there this week to begin his job there. He spent the last three months in Austria. He called today and he's found an apartment. So we'll load all his stuff up on Thursday night and Tom will drive to North Carolina on Friday and spend the weekend with him. I, unfortunately am out of vacation time at work so I can't go.

So, to my card tonight. My best friend's grandson is turning one this week and I wanted to make a special card.

The card is pretty simple. I used the negative of a Spellbinders inverted scalloped circle to create the frame. The image is from Mo Manning called First Birthday. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Gina K's Versatile Verses. I added a few rhinestones to the frame. The little guys favorite color is red!

And on the inside I used the cut out from the die and added a sentiment from Stampin' Up!'s Full of Life stamp set. The little dog is a digital stamp but I can't remember where I got it. I really need to be more organized so I can give credit where credit is due.
I love the way it turned out. I'm entering this card is the Outlawz Sunday challenge of a CAS card and to accentuate the negative. Also Speedy the Cat's Friend challenge for a masculine card.
Hope you have a wonderful week. Travel safely. They are calling for snow in our neck of the woods tomorrow and it's been raining since Saturday so when it turns colder tonight it will freeze over. Yuck! Stay well!

Santa's Pants

Happy Turkey Day eve! I can't believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And wouldn't you think that I'd have a Thanksgiving Day project tonight. Sorry, not so! I haven't had much playing time this week but I did get a chance to try this cute pattern I found for Santa's pants.

I'm going to make these for my co-workers and fill them with Hershey kisses. I made this for the Outlawz Saturday Paper ala Mode challenge.

Wishing all my U.S. friends a very Happy Thanksgiving! I will be gone a couple of days but hope to find time to get something created on the weekend! Have a great rest of your week!

Donna

Happy Holidays

Just a quick post this evening for a CAS card I made tonight.

The sentiment is heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I glittered the top of the stocking. The stocking is an image by Sandi at the Outlawz. If you make a card using one of the four free images you will receive four more free images. Great deal and fun to boot. I stamped the snowflakes along the edge with VersaMark ink. Besides the Outlawz challenge I am also entering this card in the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenge. The challenge is to use a stamp have never inked up. I actually used two stamps that I've never used before: the stocking and the background snowflakes. Have a wonderful Friday. I'll be training for the Girl Scouts on Saturday but hoping that I'll get a chance to create on Sunday. Take care!

Donna

Be Thankful

I love fall and fall colors. When we went to Austria in October I was slightly bummed that we would miss all the gorgeous fall colors but thankfully the week we returned it seemed to be the peak of the season.  So my card today has all the fall colors that I love.

Love the turkey! He looks like such a character. He is a digi from Karen's Doodles. The sentiment was free from Create with TLC. Love the woodgrain background paper and the polka-dotted paper to match. A few self-adhesive rhinestones as embellishments. The turkey is popped off the card.

This card is for these challenges:

• Outlawz Sunday Challenge: Use your favorite patterned paper
• The Cuttlebug Spot challenge: Use a turkey
• Scrap-Creations challenge: Thanksgiving

Thanks for stopping by today. As my week wears on I'm going to have less time. I have to do a science and math training for Girl Scouts this weekend. My handouts are ready to go but I have to get my supplies together. So the next few evenings will be busy getting ready. Take care!

Donna

Hang in There

Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I have a simple CAS card for you today. I used a stamp set by Teresa Momber and distributed by Gina K Designs called Hang in There. This is really a birthday card for my BIL. The inside says "It's only another birthday!" I paper pieced (one of my favorite techniques to use!) the koala with paper from an animal print paper tablet that I have. Abd colored the limb. I used the Scor Pal to add a few accent lines and added the strip of paper from the animal prints also.

I'm entering this in a couple challenges:

• Outlawz Monday challenge: Masculine card with sentiment
• Speedy the Cat's Friends challenge: Use a favorite technique

Tonight I'm having pizza with the "girls". Looking forward to an evening of chatter and catching up with all my friends. Hope you have a wonderful evening!

Donna

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

This Thanksgiving will mark the first year that I've cooked Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to stay home rather than travel for Thanksgiving and all the kids and their girlfriend or boyfriend will be here for dinner. So making some decorations for the table was something I could do ahead of time.

The turkey is made from fan folded paper and punches. The little sign is a stamp (too small to read) that says "Save a turkey... eat pizza this year." My son is coming home from Austria next Tuesday and one of the things that he's missed while in Austria is pizza. They do have pizza but they don't have the same kind of toppings. So I added the sign for Steve. The little pumpkin boxes are filled with M&Ms.
I'm entering thes in a couple challenges:

• Joan's Garden challenge: Use stamps and dies to think outside the box; create something for Thanksgiving/Fall; use fall colors.
• Scor Pal November challenge: Give thanks
• Sentimental Sundays challenge: Thanksgiving/Thank you

Hope you've had a wonderful start to your week. Make it a spectacular week! Thanks for stopping by!

Snowy Holidays

Happy Tuesday! I returned to work today after being sick yesterday. Feeling better today and still had a little time to play this evening. As the week goes on I get busier so I'm trying to get as much craft time in as I can! Tonight I was thinking Christmas and I was still playing with the double embossing backgrounds.

I double embossed the background using the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder and then brayered VersaMark ink and heat embossed Iridescent Ice embossing powder. The snowman image and sentiment is  from a Peachy Keen set. I added some ribbon and accented the snowman with some Ruby Slipper and Gold Stickles.

I'm entering this in a couple of challenges:
Delightful Challenges: Very Sparkly Christmas
Cuttlebug Spot: Anything goes
Outlawz Sunday Challenge: Emboss

That's it for today. I need to get some sleep tonight since my last two nights weren't very good. Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

So Grateful!

Well, it's Monday and I had to take the day off because I wasn't feel very good today. I am feeling some better this afternoon but don't feel 100%. So while I was sitting around I took some time to play. Here's a Fall/Thanksgiving card that I made. I was playing with making double embossed backgrounds. This one still isn't perfect but it was better than my other try at it.

First I embossed the background with the D'vine Swirls embossing folder in my Cuttlebug and then used irredescent ice embossing powder to heat emboss the swirls. I used a brayer lightly on the raised sections and then covered with the embossing powder. Can you see the sparkle? Maybe this veiw will bring that out more.

The wreath image is from Designed 2 Delight and paper pieced with Basic Grey Indian Summer. The sentiment is from Glitterbabe Greetings. And I actually finished the inside this time. So many cards I don't finifh the inside and when I need them in a hurry they aren't ready. But this one is set to go.

I'm entering this in a couple challenges:

• Designed to Delight:  Create a thank you or thankful gift for a hostess or anyone.
• Outlawz Monday Challenge: Give thanks and a sentiment
• Cuttlebug Spot: Anything goes
• Speedy the Cat Challenge: Fall or winter

That's it for me today. I'm going to go take a nap and check up on making dinner. It's getting to be that time of the day. Hope the start to your week was a winner. Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Box

Sunday has almost come and gone. It was mostly sunny today and we spent most of the day at Baby Creek and brought home a trailer full of wood for the fireplace. We're getting ready for a long winter's nap. Hehehe! Snow has already hit the east coast and it's just a matter of time before it arrives here. We often lose electricity so the wood keeps us warm. I did have time to work on a little project this evening.

This is a pizza box decorated for Christmas. I made this for a challenge at Joan's Garden. Here's another view of the top of the box.

Joan's challenges are always fun. Her's what you need to do. Create a box using the tutorial at Selma's blog. You must have a band around the box and it must be decorated. You must use Christmas paper. The angel image is from Digital Delights by Louby Loo and tied to the band with twine. The belly band has two layers: one with a Martha Stewart border and one with Christmas designer paper. I created a scalloped fan fold flower decorated with a button that looks like a green Christmas tree. I added a Christmas sentiment.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

• Cuttlebug Spot: anything goes
• CAS-ual Friday: Over the edge
• Crazy 4 Challenge: Wrap it up

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have an outstanding week. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Fall Thanks

Happy Wednesday! The weather was beautiful today here but a change is coming. Rain tomorrow so our fair weather is coming to an end. Work has been very stressful this week so I look forward to creating when I get home. I've been working on a thank you card to send to someone that I won a blog candy from.

I'm not much for sewing on cards so when I won a $100 gift certificate from Susana's Custom Art and Card Design from an Outlawz Party I decided to try the Sew Easy. I'm not an expert at the Sew Easy yet but it's so much easier than trying to get out my sewing machine and try to get things lined up. I need some more practice but I think with more practice the Sew Easy could be really fun to use on my cards. The image is from Carolyn King's Whimsical Autumn and the sentiment is from Melanie Muenchinger's Arranged With Love. The patterned paper is Basic Grey.
I'm entering this card into a couple of challenges:

• Outlawz Saturday challenge: sewing
• Mark's Finest Paper challenge: use your scraps
• Card Patterns: sketch

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday. Thank you for stopping. Please leave a comment. I so enjoy reading what you think. Have you tried the Sew Easy or can you give me any tips on how to use it? I'd love to know what you've been up to. Take care!