Snowflake Legend

Hi friends.  This week just flew by for me.  It's hard to believe the weekend is already here. 

Today I have a Christmas card.  The snowflake legend stamp I used on my card is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps.  They have awesome stamps.  The spatter stamp is from My Paper Moon, which is another terrific place to shop for stamps.  I don't know the origin of the flourish stamp.  I embellished my card with ribbon, snowflake punches and a couple stick pins.

Challenges I'm entering:

All Sorts - Use Ribbon, no bows.

Catch the Bug - Winter Wonderland

Crafty Calendar - Let's Celebrate - Christmas Card

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Winter Weather

Crazy Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything Goes

Scrapbook Blessings Club - Celebrate Winter

Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes

Blessings:

• I'm so thankful that I know how to mend and alter clothing.  I use these skills nearly every week for myself or my family.  
• We're back to warm weather!!!!  I'm a cold weather wimp. lol
• I was able to do my exercise this week, despite a high pain level and a migraine.

Have a fabulous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Pretty in Pink

Here's another card made with some of the beautiful, new stamps from My Paper Moon.  You can see them here.  Use coupon code val20 at the checkout to receive 20% off your order.  (U.S. orders only.)

This close up shot shows the images better.  The different textures and types of surfaces on this card made it hard to photograph.

Blessings

• My husband is starting to feel much better.
• A nice phone visit with a friend.
• My daughter is getting to spend some special time with my mom while she's here with us.

 Please pray for Holley.  She has the first of two brain surgeries tomorrow morning (Feb. 4th) and the second one on February 11th.  Some of you probably know her from her blog, Holley's Blog.

Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Another Sneak Peek!

It's time for another sneak peek at the new stamps that will soon be coming out at My Paper Moon.  I'm having so much fun playing with these stamps.  For this project I used the sweet cupid stamp and the Love stamp.  This calendar page fits in a 3 1/2" x 5" clear acrylic frame with a magnet on the back.
*** You can print free calendars at Red Castle, Inc.  You can choose the size, format, font, etc.  It's very user friendly. ***

Here's a closer view of the stamps.  Aren't they beautiful?

Here's  a picture of my grand dog, Caesar, wearing his wiseman costume.  I don't think it put him in the Christmas spirit to wear it. lol  Poor little guy is very shaggy.  He has a date with the groomer this weekend.

Blessings

• My husband's student's gave their Christmas play last night.  It was so good and had a great message about the true meaning of Christmas.
• Christmas cards and letters from friends and family that I don't hear from often.  It's nice to stay in touch.
• My niece helped me out in a small way last night, but it meant so much to me, because of her thoughtfulness.
• God shows me that He is there for me time and time again in my life.  It makes me think of the song, "Great is Thy Faithfulness".

Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

It's Red Friday and A Sneak Peek

If you're going out somewhere this evening, why not wear red to show your support for our troops?  I have Red Fridays on my blog to show my support for our troops who are serving our country so that we can remain safe and free.

Another way I show my support for our troops is by making cards for them.  I make cards for them to send home to their families and friends and I make cards with notes in them for the heroes themselves.  I send my cards through a great organization called Operation Write Home.  Operation Write Home is always looking for more handmade cards to send to the troops.  Please consider helping out.  This is a wonderful project to do with kids too.  Below is a photo of some happy heroes that have received cards from Operation Write Home.

The two main stamps on my card today are a sneak peek at some of the new Valentine stamps coming soon at My Paper Moon.  Aren't they fabulous?  It's a privilege to be able to play with them before the release date.  I'll let you know what the release date is as soon as it's ready for announcement. I love this sentiment.  The little heart stamp is from My Paper Moon also.

Here's a close up of the fabulous Queen of Hearts image.  This image was fun to color.  I used my clear glaze pen on the roses and my clear stardust pen for the card border and accents on the crown.  The white part of the card is painted with Angel Wings Shimmerz.

Blessings

• It has rained all day here!!!  It's literally showers of blessings for us since we are having quite a drought.
• A fun family evening planned.
• Friends - they sure do enrich life. :)

Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Spread the Love

Today's card is for an 11 year old girl named Jaimie.  Jaimie and her mom were attacked in their home while they were sleeping.  Jaimie's mom was killed and Jaimie was left for dead.  The Spread the Love Blog Hop is going on to get people to send cards to Jaimie.  You begin the blog hop here at Katharina's blog.  You will also find more info about the whole situation there.   I hope you will send Jaimie a card even if you don't have time to join in the blog hop.  The address is:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057

You can also visit the main blog, which is Stamp Something for Jaimie. 

Jaimie is very into sports, so I decided to use this surfing Tilda.  Obviously Jaimie doesn't surf in NH, but I like this surfer Tilda, because I'm sending my cards from Florida.

I added real sand and shells to the card for a fun touch. The sun and the surf board are popped up with double stick foam tape.

Blessings

• Mark made it home safely from a business trip that included evacuating his 5th floor hotel room in the middle of the night for a fire alarm.
• Lydia just finished up a good dog sitting job.
• Happy mail :)

Happy a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Faux Brad Instructions

I've had several people ask me about how I made the faux brads for the card in my last post, so I figured I better get busy and share the instructions.  It's very easy. For those of you who missed my last post, I make the faux brads, because they don't add extra weight or thickness to an envelope when mailing.  Thank you Lydia for "posing" so I could take photos for this little demo. :)

Materials Needed:

Card Stock
Small Round Punch
Crystal Lacquer, Aleene's Paper Glaze, or like product
Non-Stick Craft Sheet or Wax Paper

Instructions:
1. Punch circles from card stock with a round punch.  I use either 3/16" or 1/4" size punches, depending on what I'm doing.

2. Place circles on a non-stick surface.  Coat circles with Crystal Lacquer. Make sure you get it all the way to the edges.

3. Let dry.  It's humid here and usually takes overnight.
4. Using paper adhesive, adhere the flat side of the faux brad to your craft project where you would normally use a brad.

***Helpful Hints:

• Metallic or textured card stocks make very pretty faux brads.
• Thin sheets of craft metal can be punched & made into faux brads.
• I make up extra faux brads each time I make them, so that I have them ready to use when I need them.
• To make glittery brads use Stickles or adhesive and glitter, rather than Crystal Lacquer.
• Use shaped punches to make shaped faux brads such as hearts, stars, etc.

Edited to add: Several people have asked me what I'll do with all of my brads and other embellishments now that I'm trying to make flatter cards.  They will still be put to good use.  I'll use them on cards occasionally, but mostly I'll use them in my scrapbooks and on gifts and other dimensional projects.  I can't give up embellishments. :)

Here's the card I made with the faux brads shown being made in the above photos.  Wouldn't you know that these faux brads didn't turn out as nice as usual! But I used them anyhow seeing I wanted to get this on my blog for those who are interested.  So please don't let these faux brads make you decide you don't want to try this. Look at some of the ones I've used on past projects and you can see that they do look better. (In fact there are faux brads on the card in my previous post.) You can learn from my mistake today's post.  I put the Crystal Lacquer on way too thick and it dried with a dimple in the center of each faux brad.  :(

I wasn't sure if I liked the red brads on this card, so I just laid them on the card for my first photo.  Here's the card without the brads.  Which one do you like best?

Blessings

• Mark found a winter coat for me today at the thrift store.  I'm all set for cold weather & it's still in the high 80's each day. 
• Happy Mail :)

Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Fall is in the Air

The scene on this card is stamped with stamps from My Paper Moon.  Mark drew these stamp images many years ago, so they are extra special to me.  The clouds are sponged in.  The background stamp on the brown card is the Stampin' Up plaid stamp.  You can't see it very well unless you enlarge the picture.

It actually feels like Fall here today.  It is cool enough to have the windows open and tonight it's supposed to get down into the 50's.

A few weeks ago I showed you our crazy wild flowers that had grown to be 6-9 feet tall and were getting just one small flower each on the top of the plants. Flowers have bloomed all over the plants and they are very pretty now as you can see in this latest picture.  The bees and butterflies love them.

Blessings

• A phone visit with my sister. Such a treat. We don't get to fit one in very often.
• Mark found a brand new jacket for me at a thrift store.  Just in time for cooler weather.
• Mark found some good used books for me at garage sales today.  I was on my last one.

Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Christmas is Coming!!!

I don't get too into making my Christmas cards until about November - usually well into November. :) But I have managed to make a few here and there. I love this Layered Star stamp from My Paper Moon. It's so versatile. It can be used to form many different designs and layers and is great for so many occasions. It even makes a pretty 4th of July card if you use appropriate paper. You can view it at here at the My Paper Moon site and see four samples of other ways to use the stamp. Scroll down to the last stamp. Here's a close up view to show you the detail in the star. I only used three layers on this star, but sometimes use 5 or more. I used the micca card stocks to help showcase my super sparkly silver embossing powder on the star. I also used my Scor Pal to add a few details. I finished the center of the star off with a small gemstone.

Supplies:

Stamps: Layered Star, Peace - both from My Paper Moon
Accessories: Silver Tinsel Embossing Powder, Stamp Cabana Silver Detail Embossing Powder, Scor Pal, Gem Sone

Blessings

• A nice phone visit with my dad for his birthday today. :)
• Happy Mail!
• My daughter's tender heart. She does such sweet things for us.

Have a terrific day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

Just Fluttering By

This is a card that I made quite awhile back and hadn't ever shown here. It is made with a dragonfly stamp that I won in blog candy from Danni's Dreams. The flourish stamp is by Autumn Leaves. The spatter stamp and sentiment are by My Paper Moon. The second half of the sentiment inside the card says: "to say hi!".

This close up view shows the details better. I added stickles to the wings of the dragonflies and some gem stones to the flourishes. I also inked the edges of the card in kind of a shabby chic fashion.

Blessings

• Mark purchased 12 boxes of store brand tissues for $2!!!
• Friends - online & in person
• There are supposed to be approx. 100 Florida panthers left & I was privileged to see one coming out of the woods behind our house.
  
  

Have a terrific day!

Inky hugs!

Shelly

Chunky Dunking

Here's my card that I thought went well with the swimsuit and sentiment stamps on yesterday's card. Kind of along the same theme. All of the stamps used on this card are from My Paper Moon. My Paper Moon has quite a few humorous sayings. I have to brag a bit and tell you that my husband, Mark, drew the pool and the little diving guy many years ago. There's also a stamp of a chubby man floating on his back.

The water in the pool has a coat of Aleene's Paper Glaze on it. It makes the water look fairly real. I made the card for a challenge called "Something Shiny". I think my pool qualifies for the shiny part. :)

To go along with my summer theme cards I've been sharing I thought I'd show you a picture of my grand dog, Caesar, wearing his sunglasses and his Gators bandana. Isn't he quite the dude?

My dog, Princess became very jealous when Caesar received his new sunglasses. She started whining for me to give her something to wear. So I got out her bling bling, which is a blue rhinestone dog necklace that Lydia bought for her. She was thrilled to have something on also. Then she came and started barking for me to take her picture, because I had taken Caesar's picture in his sunglasses. You have no idea how odd this is. Princess normally hates having her picture taken and refuses to look at the camera. As you can see in her photo, she laid down in front of me and looked right into the camera. Those two remind me so much of little kids sometimes.

Blessings

• Fresh Produce
• Happy Mail
  
  

Please pray for my daughter, Lydia, as she starts college tomorrow evening.
Have a terrific day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

A Little Humor and Exciting Happy Mail!!!

Today I'm sharing a humorous card I made. I really enjoy making humorous cards. There isn't a whole lot to tell about this card. The green background was made with the scoring blade on my Fiskar cutter back before I had a Scor Pal. The main image is cut out and adhered to the card to give it a bit of depth.


Below is a close up view, so that you can read the sentiment. :) The glass and the lady's ring have Crystal Lacquer on them.



Supplies:

Stamps: Palm Tree - My Paper Moon; Lady - Art Impressions; Sentiment- unknown

Ink: Jet Black StazOn; Deep Turquoise Nick Bantock

Accessories: Tombow Markers; Crystal Lacquer; Ribbon



I received some very exciting happy mail all the way from Indonesia. It was my blog candy that I won from Dina at Mama Dini's Stamperia!!! If you have never visited Dina's blog, you need to start now. Dina is a very talented artist and I learn so much from following her blog. She's very generous about sharing her knowledge and her blog candy too. :) Dina and her family are missionaries in Indonesia. I really enjoy hearing bits and pieces about their life there.



Below is a card that Dina made with the main image from the set of stamps that I won. Dina designed this image for Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I was just as thrilled to win one of Dina's awesome cards as I was to win the stamp set. There's nothing like having a piece of artwork from a stamp artist you really admire.


Below is a printed paper showing the sheet of stamps I won from Dina. You can see a glimpse of the sheet of rubber underneath the paper. It's deeply etched, great quality rubber. Isn't it a wonderful sheet of stamps for making cards for our soldiers and their families? I'm looking forward to working with these stamps and hopefully being a blessing to some members of our military. Thanks so very much for the fabulous blog candy, Dina.

These are a few of the Indonesian postage stamps that were on my package from Dina. Aren't they beautiful? The top stamp had a little leg punched out and sticking up from the middle of the stamp. My first thought was that one of Dina's kids must have used a punch on her postage stamps. :) Then as I looked closer I realized that these are soccer theme stamps and every single stamp is made with a peel off soccer player in the center of the stamp. There are four different backgrounds and each one has a soccer player in a diffferent pose to peel out of the center. I peeled the player out of the top stamp, so that you can see what I mean. If you look closely at the bottom stamp you can see the outline of the soccer player. These are so unique. They make our U.S. collectable stamps look tame.

Blessings

• Mark was able to get a $22 box of medication for $10
• Phone visits with my mom and sister
• Caring friends
• My blog candy
  
  

Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!

Shelly

It's Flutter By Day Times Two

This is my card for Flutter By Challenge #57 at Danni's Dreams. I've noticed that the cards I've been making lately with pastel cardstock don't photogragh well. They look kind of faded or foggy. But I don't have a photo editing program on this computer, so I guess they will have to do. It gives you the general idea anyhow. You can enlarge the photo to see the details better if you want.

My friend, Julianne, made the beautiful Flutter by for me. In the photo below you can see the detail better and also the glitter on it.

Supplies:

Stamps: Flourishes - Autumn Leaves, Spatter - My Paper Moon, Sentiment - The Rubbernecker Stamp Co.

Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Pretty in Pink SU

Paper: Bazzill Cardstock

Accessories: Crystal Stickles, Gem Flowers

Update Added: I use my spatter stamp from My Paper Moon nearly every time I stamp. I noticed that Becky has it on sale for only $1.25. Check it out along with her other great sale stamps here.

This second Flutter By card is for last week's Flutter By challenge #56 and for a garden challenge on one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. I intended to skid in at the last minute and post it yesterday, but I accidently deleted the photo from my computer, so had to wait until this morning to take another picture. (My camera doesn't take decent close up photos after about 2:00p.m.) Last week's challenge was to make a card inspired by a gorgeous photo that Danni had taken and posted on her site. This card isn't at all what I had planned. But when I received a package of stamped images from my friend, Jennifer, and saw this image that so closely resembled Danni's photo I just couldn't resist using it.

Here's a close up view of the image.

Supplies:

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Tombow Markers, Gel Pen, Paper Piercing Tool, Fiskar Border Punch

Blessings

• Much needed rain last night
• A visit with a friend today
• Happy Mail from my mom
• Some extra time with my husband while he's between college classes

Have an awesome day!!!

Inky hugs!

Shelly

Flutterbies and Happy Mail

Usually I post a Flutter By card for the challenge on Danni's Dream's on Wednesday, but Danni's challenge last week was a little bit different. She is offering blog candy. Today is the last day to enter a card, so I'm slipping in at the last minute. I had fun making this card. The "tree" is made from two different flourish stamps. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see that I stamped the flourshes a second time in Butterscotch ink to create a shadow effect. I particularly enjoy making sponged and spattered backgrounds. The heart charm appears silver in the photos, but has copper color stain on it in person.

Here's a close up photo of the stamped portion of my card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Spatter Background - My Paper Moon; 2 Flourishes - Autumn Leaves; Hello from the Heart - Hero Arts
Ink: StazOn Olive Green; Adirondack Butterscotch; Adirondack Caramel
Paper: DP - Basic Grey
Accessories: McGill Butterfly Punch; Coluzzle Circle Template; Fiskars edger Scissors; Beads; Heat Charm; Gel Pen; Ribbon

This Happy Mail came from my niece, Alison. I was thrilled to receive mail from her. Inside the card there is a story that Alison dictated for her mom to write down. She has a great imagination.

This Happy Mail came from my sister, Sheila. (Alison's mom) I was amazed to find out that Sheila drew everything on the front of the card when she was doodling with her older daughter, Mikayla. All these years we've been sisters and I never knew she could draw like that. I won't confess how many years she's been keeping that secret from me. lol

Blessings

• A phone talk with my mom.
• A rug I needed.
• A fantastic day with my daughter.
• Some much needed rain this evening.

Have a marvelous day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

The Second Look

I'm sneaking in here to post this and then I have to get back to working on Christmas preparation. I've managed to fall so far behind that we just may have to postpone Christmas until I catch up. : ) Just kidding. I know the real meaning of Christmas is our Saviour's birth and I would never want to postpone celebrating that. But I would appreciate some prayers that this flu we have would improve instead of continuing to get worse. It is slowing me down.

This card is the second in my series of One Stamp, Three looks. Today's card is a very traditional look. I colored the tree stamp with my Prismacolor pencils and oms and paper pierced inside and outside the lines of the heart and Christmas tree. I machine sewed the image layer and the dp layer on to the card. That's something I won't be doing again. Why? Because I didn't enjoy it. My theory with card making is that it is for relaxation and enjoyment, so if I don't enjoy something, I don't do it. I used to love to sew, but gradually sewing machines and I have developed a terrible relationship. Every time I touch one for any reason the tension is wrong. But I digress. The stamp on my card is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co. I think you will need to click on the card to enlarge it in order to see the details on the card today. Stay tuned for card number three next time : )


Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

The Frost is on the Pumpkins

Here's one last fall card to share with you. The beautiful main image is from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Company and the little leaves are from My Paper Moon. I colored the images with Prismacolor pencils and oms. I cut the tiny leaves out so that the card would have a bit of depth to it.


Did you think I went missing? Mark got the Thursday - Saturday off, so we spent as much family time together as we could. We put up our Christmas tree and decorations. Mark even decorated outside, which is something we don't do alot of years due to lack of time.

Mark and Lydia braved a few stores on Black Friday. They waited until a little later in the day though so that they would miss the early morning insanity. I guess the lines were still real long though. I changed my mind about the storage unit I wanted, so they didn't have to stop for that anyhow. I did my shopping at home online and even found a coupon for free shipping. : )

Do you have any turkey left? We didn't have leftovers, because we ate at my sister-in-law's, but I have a good recipe to help you use up the last of that turkey.

Tostada Bean Stacks - Serves 4

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Eight 6-inch Corn Tortillas
8 oz. - About 2 1/2 cups - shredded cooked turkey or chicken
1 can (15 oz.) Black beans, rinsed
1 can (8 oz.) Corn, drained
1/2 cup Mild Salsa Verde (green salsa) - red salsa will work too
1/2 cup Low Fat Sour Cream
1 cup (4 0z.) Shredded Pepperjack Cheese
1/3 cup sliced scallions

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Have 2 ungreased cookie sheets ready.
2. Brush oil on both sides of tortillas. Place in single layer on cookie sheets. Bake about 12 min. turning once, or until lightly toasted & crisp.
3. Meanwhile mix the turkey, black beans, corn, salsa and sour cream in a medium bowl.
4. Spoon half on 4 of the toasted tortillas; sprinkle with half the cheese and scallions. Top with remaining tortillas, the turkey mixture, cheese and scallions.
5. Bake 5 min. or until cheese melts.


***Today's Tip*** I keep an old curling iron with my stamping tools. It takes the wrinkles right out of a piece of ribbon and saves me from having to go use the regular iron. The low setting works well for more delicate ribbons like organdy and the high setting is just right for grosgrain and other heavier ribbons.


Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you're all enjoying Thanksgiving. We aren't eating until 6:30 p.m., so we have just been having a kind of quiet, relaxing day around home.

Today's card is Happy Mail. My friend Becky sent it to me and I saved it to post on my blog today, because it is just perfect for the day. I'm not sure how she made the background, but it sure is pretty and I can guarantee you it was a messy process. Becky and I tease each other, because she thoroughly enjoys messy techniques and I tend to avoid them. : ) I took the close up shot so that you could see the background better and also the nice shading the Becky did on the pumpkins. The stamps Becky used are from her company My Paper Moon. Becky has free shipping within the USA on orders of $10 or more through November 30th if you use the coupon code: Turkeyo8 at check-out. Go do some shopping!!!

Like most of you, I have so much to be thankful for. But one thing that is really outstanding for me is that my eyes are remaining in remission. I had to have over two years of grueling treatments and some terrible side effects, but I'm happy to say that it was worth it in more ways than one. I have my eye sight and for 10 months now my eyes have been stable. But the best part is that through the hard times I grew closer to God and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!!!!

Is anyone going to brave the big shopping day tomorrow? I don't have enough courage to do so. I'm not much of a shopper even on regular days. But I did see a nice drawer unit that I would really like to have in the JoAnn's ad, so I'm hoping I can find someone that is going that way and will pick it up for me. I'm running out of storage space. I either need to craft faster or quit buying supplies. : )

Have a wonderful day!!!

Inky hugs!

Shelly

Goodie Pouches

Brrrrr!!!! It feels like the holidays are here. We have been having alot of cold weather this year. We will definitely get to wear a pretty sweater for Thanksgiving this year. Alot of years we don't even get to wear one for Christmas. The only problem with this is that I'm in the midst of losing weight and I don't have any sweaters in the size I'm wearing right now. Ten more pounds off and I'll be able to wear some pretty sweaters I have. That gives me something to work toward. Meanwhile I need to figure out something to wear tomorrow.

Do you like the goodies pouches? They hold quite a bit as you can see in the second photo. Cut a 7"x 9 1/2" piece of cardstock. Score it at 2 1/2" and 7". Use a circle punch to cut a 1/2 circle in the front panel. Adhere bottom & back flaps closed. I used Provo Craft Terrifically Tacky Tape (double stick red liner tape). Crimp the bottom of the pouch approx. 5/8". Decorate the front panel as desired. I cut a piece of white cardstock, scored all 4 edges with my Scor-pal to make it more finished looking, punched the corners with my SU ticket punch, stamped "Merry Christmas" with a My Paper Moon stamp, adhered two ornaments cut with my Sizzix ornament die and added two bows tied with 1/4 ribbon. I also added touches of Crystal Stickles to the ornaments.

Today's kid's craft is Paper Plate Santas. You will notice that the crafts I'm posting are very simple, but with a bit of thought they can be adapted for a child who needs more of a challenge. You will need: red construction paper, a paper plate, cotton balls, markers or crayons, glue, and scissors. On the paper plate draw santa's eyes, nose, and mouth. Brush some glue above his eyes and around his mouth and add cotton balls to form his eyebrows, mustache, and beard. Cut a triangle out of red construction paper for Santa's hat. Glue the hat to the top of the plate. Glue one cotton ball to the tip of the hat for a pom pom. Let dry.

***For an older child googly eyes would be fun. Also, they could cut a hat shape out rather than just a triangle. They could make Santa's cheeks rosey.

I hope to get a chance to slip on here tomorrow, but if I don't I wish you all a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

Inky hugs!

Shelly

Java Time

Hello everyone. I hope you're finding time to craft even though things are starting to pick up toward the holidays already. Seems hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only 9 days away.
The picture above is of an envelope that I made recently. Nothing fancy, but very cute. I use wallpaper samples to make the majority of my envelopes. Our local wallpaper store gives their old sample books away for free. It's an economical way to make envelopes and I'm keeping the sample books from going to the landfill. I use The Kreate-a-lope template by Green Sneakers for making my envelopes. It's so user friendly. You can visit their website at http://www.greensneakers.com/ . For envelopes like the one above, I use a printer label horizontally on the back side to address the envelope so that I don't ruin the picture. The post office accepts them just fine that way as long as you have your stamp on it. : ) If you want to address an envelope so that it would be vertical, it does cost extra to mail it that way.


The background paper for this coffee theme card was made by spraying a sheet of off white paper with water and crumpling it up. I smoothed it out and let it dry. Then I lightly ran the surface of my Sepia dye ink pad over the paper. The paper picked up the ink in the folds where it had been crumpled. Next I stamped coffee beans all over it with a stamp from My Paper Moon. Then I stamped Java with a stamp from Anita's and last came the Spatter stamp from My Paper Moon. I used sepia ink on all of the stamps. Everything else on the card is pretty self-explanatory. The inside of the card is stamped with a stamp by Heart & Soul Rubber stamps that says, "Java Happy Birthday!". I don't know who the rest of the stamps on the card are made by, because I received them in an image swap. An odd fact: I love the smell of coffee, but don't like the taste of it. I do enjoy using my coffee theme stamps though.


Have a terrific day!!!!


Inky hugs!
Shelly

A Card that Makes Me Smile

Happy Thursday! I'm popping in here rather late, but at least I made it. : )


It is still overcast here in Florida. That is highly unusual for us. We're having rain, but not all day long and typically it is only overcast while it rains. Maybe I should listen to the weather forecast and find out what's happening. lol


I made this card because the stamps made me think of my two nieces, who live all the way up in Michigan. They have a swingset that they are often on and they have a chihuahua puppy. They got their puppy this summer and it is now over the 2 lb. mark in weight. Tiny huh? But I digress. The girl stamps on the card are TAC stamps from the Sunshine set, the grass stamp is from My Paper Moon, and the Believe stamp is a TAC stamp too. I colored the images with colored pencils. The shirt on the girl on the swing is paper pieced. I stamped & sponged the grass with lettuce ink. I sponged the sky with deep turquoise ink. I added a some jeweled brads to match the glitter in the background paper.


I ended up getting my hair cut by someone besides the gal who has been cutting it for years. It came out too short and the thing it wants to do is spike. Unless I'm careful how I style my hair, I go around looking like one of those Chia Pet Plants with the grass hair that grows straight up out of their heads. lol Thank goodness hair grows quite rapidly.


Have a great day!!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Enabler Alert!!!

It's a gorgeous day here on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I hope it is where you live too.


I sponged inks on glossy white cardstock for the background colors of this card. I used deep turquoise, peach, and yellow. I used deep turquoise ink to stamp the images, background and saying on the card too. The flower and grass stamps are from a set called Bella Flora by
Inque Boutique. It's a nice little set of 6 stamps. The dragonfly stamp is an Anne Made stamp, which is owned by of Stamping Sensations. They have several other nice lines of stamps also.
The crackle background stamp is from My Paper Moon. My Paper Moon also carries several nice and quite varied lines of stamps. Something for everyone. The saying stamp is from
Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps. This is where the enabler alert comes in. : ) Here's a link to the blog of Sue, the owner of Heart & Soul Stamps. Sue's blog has an announcement on it giving all the details about a sale she's having on her um stamps for $0.50 each!!! And you don't have to feel guilty for spending too much money on her sale, because all of the money goes to victims of the gulf hurricanes. Sue carries a wide variey of stamps, so go check it out. Her prices can't be beat. Even her regular price on um stamps is only $1.50 per um stamp, no matter what size it is. Pretty kewl, huh?

After a doctor appointment today I stopped by our local recycling center to drop off some things and to do a little "shopping". Our recycling center is full of treasures for a crafter. You never know what interesting bit or piece you might find. Today I didn't find anything really unusual, but I did find a number of practical things I can use and a few fun things. Bubble wrap for all the packages I mail, large card envelopes, an interesting tin to alter, some vintage sewing notions that I'll use as embellishments and a couple bags of brand new fancy bows for packages. I should be set for bows for Christmas wrapping now. The only catch is that they are all in different shades of gold - some glitzy, some matte. I wonder if the Christmas wrap I have left matches gold. : )


Have an awesome day!!!


Inky hugs!
Shelly