Friday, September 26, 2014

Amazing Day

Did you make today ridiculously amazing?

You did?  Oh - I'm so jealous!
It was just a normal, insanely crazy day for me at the 
patent (intellectual property) law office where I
 work - after a grueling hour and a half of physical therapy 
for my knee - surgery was only 10 days ago - seems 
like it was longer than that!!
The challenges for this amazing card:

the wonderful colors were from Create with Connie and Mary   CCMC322

and the sketch was from the fabulous Freshly Made Sketches     

What I used -
Stamp set:  Amazing Birthday (#134225)
Inks:  Tangerine Tango (#126946), Crushed Curry (#131173), and Jet Black StazOn
Card Stocks - Whisper White (#100730), Basic Black (#121045), Crushed Curry (#131199)
Ribbon - Basic Black 1/4" Taffeta (#119261) and Neutrals as well as the Regals Candy Dots.
Then there was the awesome Rotary Arm for the Trimmer with the Scallop Blade and the Punch that creates a tag top (darned if I can remember what it's called).

Go out there and make today ridiculously amazing, my friend!  
There's still time - unless, of course, you're cruising 
around in blogland during the wee hours - in that case, there's always tomorrow!
Thanks for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Love a Holiday Home

I just love a Holiday Home, don't you?  This evening I got 
out some of our fall decorations and scattered a few around the
 house - a couple of fall leaf wreaths (one for the front door and the 
other for a hallway), throw pillows in rich, vibrant fall colors . . . 

And in between helping our younger son study 
for a government test that he has to 
take tomorrow, I got to make this card ~~
And this card falls into so many challenges this week!  
Woot, woot!!  
Love, love, love when that happens.  
Lucky, lucky, lucky me.

Make My Monday   "Autumn/Fall Colours!"

The Card Concept with Clean and Layered        

CAS-ology - Cue Card "Flutter"     



What I used:
Stamp Sets - Holiday Home (#135095) and Lots of Thanks (#129690) - getting these numbers is when I can tell that I need to use my reading glasses more often - and, of course, they're nowhere around right now!
Ink - Pear Pizzazz (#131180) and Real Red (#126949)
Card stock - Whisper White (#100730), Daffodil Delight (#119683), Real Red (#102482), and Pear Pizzazz (#131201) - Brights Designer Series Paper Stack (#130134)
Brights Candy Dots (#130931)

All right!  Hope you have a fantastic day and get your holiday 
home on, too.  I'm so glad you stopped by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!


Monday, September 22, 2014

Celebrate - As You See It

Do you have a reason to celebrate today?  
Does anyone you know?  How about an anniversary coming up
 for a friend or some other special event?
 This card is going to do just that for my girlfriend
 who got a promotion at work.
It also fits in nicely with the
AYSIChallenge054
I also want to celebrate because I created two 
DIY photo lights and this was the first card I photographed using
 them!  I was able to make both lights for less than $75 with
 supplies I got from Walmart - not my favorite place to shop, 
but definitely a one-stop shopping place for these supplies.  
Just to purchase one light that is 
premade online is $95 - so I feel like the amount I spent is great!!
See my set up?  I can clamp the lights wherever I want.
Here is the card before the lights are on - and here is after the lights were turned on:
After - Nice and bright!


Before - Yellow-ish - Ugh!




















After all, I live in northern Ohio - and even though it's September, it's 
already getting dark around 7:30 or actually a little earlier - crazy!  In a month 
or so, it'll be dark as soon as I'm home from work       and then before I'm home!  
Sometimes, I want to photograph a card at, say, 10:00 pm.  
Now, I can!  WooHoo!!!  I'm so psyched!  
This is the website where I got the instructions on making the lights:
thetiptoefairy.com/blog/2014/01/diy-soft-lights-photography-blogging.html

What I used when playing in my stamping studio today:
Thanks for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!



Sunday, September 21, 2014

Age Awareness - AAA Cards

Fussy cutting is the name of the game this week at the AAA Cards Challenge.  
I had so many different tries getting the stars to come out just 
right on the bottom of this card (size of the card stock, should it go all 
around the card - stuff like that).  Then I carefully - and 
fussily - adhered cutout stars onto the card by the sentiment.
The card is already in the mail to my sister-in-law to 
help her celebrate her birthday.
And, of course, I made two (since I had it all figured out) 
and my chemo angel has an upcoming birthday.

Are you familiar with the chemo angel program?  
If you already make lots of cards, you may want to get involved.  
Here's the link for more information:
http://chemoangels.wix.com/chemo-angels-1/index.htm

Thanks to everyone who played with my inspiration 
card last week at AAA Cards.  It was so much fun and humbling to 
see what people's
 interpretations would be.  I really liked that the best.  
You are a creative, big-hearted group. 

So grateful you stopped by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Starry Birthday

Got a birthday coming up to celebrate?  
We've got so many in September that it's crazy!!  

This card is one I made for my niece, Julia.
It also fits in with the Retrosketches Challenge this week.
Great layout and fun, too!
   
 Every girl likes a bit of "bling", so there's some in the cut-out star.  

Some of what I used:
Stamp Sets: Everything Eleanor  (#131987) and Remembering Your Birthday (#131347)
Dots & Stripes Decorative Masks (#133775)
Card Stock - Whisper White, Smoky Slate and Soft Sky
Inks - Soft Sky (#131181) and Smoky Slate (#131179)

 Thanks for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Inspire Sunshine - AAA Cards Challenge

Today's AAA Cards Challenge card is full of sunshine - it's an 
inspiration card - sure hope you play along this week 
and CASE (Copy And Share Everything) with us.  
The Design Team has some super cool cards. 
 It's so impressive the way they can put their own creative spin 
on their cards.  Truly awe-inspiring!!!
Please join along and play at the AAA Cards Challenge.  
I cannot wait to see what you do. 
 I love to visit everyone's blogs and leave comments 
and get more inspiration.

So I finally had my knee surgery on Friday.  
I had a repair done on a torn meniscus and arthritis scraped off.
You know, getting older is not for wimps!!  Ha!
Anyway, I've been on crutches - and amazingly enough - haven't needed 
them all the time!  
The doctor said I'll be having a knee replacement before a year is up. 
 So - I'm sad about that, but not too surprised.  Feels like the knee is
 bone-on-bone a lot of the time.  At least it wasn't in my imagination.  
That's why the replacement will be necessary.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting my craft on 
while I recover this week.  WooHoo!!
AAA Cards
Thanks so much for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'! 
Can't wait to see your creations this week!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Daydream Medallion Lots of Thanks

When you have lots of colors to use, but want 
to keep your card clean and simple, what do you do?

One easy thing to do is use circles or some other
 geometric shape.  I used the Daydream Medallion
 stamp set to create this Clean and Simple card 
 mask to sponge color and stamp with the 
Daydream Medallions stamp set.  
The sentiment is from Lots of Thanks (#129690).  The other card stocks 

It's quite the challenge to get all those colors 
in a card and keep it CAS!  Thanks to the suggestion
 casually made by a co-worker when I was explaining the problem 
I was having with this challenge, I did it!!!  
Yay!!
A fun, modern take on an almost one-layer card . . . 
Thanks so much for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Kitty Moon Card

The challenge this week at AAA Cards is "Enjoy"
with a moon-type sketch.
 
I worked on several cards in order to come up with what
I wanted to use for the challenge.  Here's one of them:
I had so much fun doing this cute little card of a kitty
on a brick wall, but every time I would stamp the kitty
(the head and body are two different stamps), even though
 I was lining it up with my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, the kitty's head
would be floating about half an inch above the body. 
 
And that's fine if you want a floating kitty head above the kitty body
on your card -- not the look I was going for, though. 
 
So I ended up doing the moon part of the card four
times before I managed to get the kitty head near
the body!!  LOL. 
Oh - the mistakes we make when crafting!! 
I got pretty good at doing the moon, though!  Gotta
look for the bright spots, you know?
 
Anyway - thanks so much for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'! 
Hope you find some time today to do one, the other, or even both!!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Moon Card - AAA Cards Challenge

What's a technique that's really fun for you?  
One that I do time after time is brayering.  Are you
 familiar with it?  Brayering allows you to put layer after
 layer of color on a project in a subtle way - so cool!
I created a "moon" scene with my brayer and a mask for 
today's AAA Cards Challenge.  Love the colors on this sweet 
card, don't you?  It's sooooo peaceful and serene.
I only used two stamp sets:  Wetlands and one from the 
Project Life sets that Stampin' Up! has.  I can't remember 
the name right off the bat.
Be sure to join in the fun at AAA Cards.  I'm looking
 forward to looking at your blogs and commenting.
Thanks for stopping by ~~ Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!