Whoa, Cowboy!!

That's kinda how I feel ... my whole life since the middle of July has been one fast and furious horse ride - at break-neck speed!! I have been mostly absent the past several days because of two HUGE projects I was working on ... the craziest of which was a video/slide show of our recent pioneer handcart trek. I finally finished rendering and previewing it last night at 5:06 p.m. (only had to be down to the church to set it up at 5:30!)!! After a huge formatting error that made me have to start over last week AND the crash of my external hard drive yesterday morning at about 5:30 a.m. I FINALLY got 'er done!!!

Sooooo, I feel like I will get to spend a little more time stamping and playing pretty quick here!! HOORAY!!! Time for "happy dancin'" that's for SURE!!

On to today's creation ... I made this for sketch challenge #300 over on SCS ... can't believe there have been 300 already!! They weren't even up to 100 when I joined Splitcoast way back in the day ...

I think Day of Gratitude is my new favorite stamp set ... and Cookie Crumb my new favorite color (okay, OKAY ... I KNOW it's called Crumb Cake, I just can never remember THAT either ... maybe I should use it with some of my Groovy Grape??)!

Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Fundamental Phrases
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla
Ink: Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder, Corner Rounder Punch, Decorator Label Punch, Build a Brad, 1/2" and 3/4" Circle Punches, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Pearl Stickers, Dimensionals

Fall "Fly-By" ..

Got a VERY busy day ahead, but DID manage to squeeze in a quick little Thanksgiving card for today's challenge over on SCS (WT289 - Holiday Headstart). I LOVE fall (I think y'all have seen my type that before!!)!! Had to take this pic with my phone since my computer is all tied up at the moment (looonnng boring story!)!!

Have a wonderful day!

Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Seasonal Sentiments
Paper: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede
Ink: Soft Suede, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Bunch, Corner Rounder Punch, Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon, Dimensionals

The Freakster Mash ...

Welcome, welcome my Freaky Friends!!! You should have just jumped here from the fantabulous blog of my BFF and Fellow Control Freak, the Infamous JanTink! Weren't her projects AWESOME?!?! I swear, it's sweet bein' Freaky!! I LOVE fall, so this month's projects were MUI-FUN to work on!!

Not only do I love fall, I REALLY love Halloween!! I don't know if I can really say that it is my FAVORITE holiday, but I can't say that it's NOT, either!! I love dressing up, the school carnival, making beef stew (a Halloween tradition) ... everything about it!! Dare I say that this card is an ELEGANT spooky card? Is there such a thing?? I'm not even very good about sending Halloween cards, but I DO like making them!

Stamps: From the Crypt, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Basic Black, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Ink: Whisper White
Accessories: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Designer Label Punch, Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon, Photo Corners Punch, Wide Oval Punch

Next, I made this card after I was inspired my yet ANOTHER Freak, Mary Brown. Here is HER lovely creation:

Mary's Leaves

I loved the clean-ness of this ... so simple yet so amazing!! She ROCKS!!

Stamps: Friends Never Fade, Fabulous Phrases
Paper: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Ink: Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, 1 3/8" Square Punch, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals

And for my final project, I made this cute little Thanksgiving frame (saw something similar SOMEwhere when I was blurfing). I have had a package of these small frames for the past few years ... they have been TAUNTING me to make something with them. Sooooo ... this is what I came up with. Now, I just gotta find a place to hang it up!!

Stamps: Day of Gratitude
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Daffodil Delight
Ink: Whisper White, Early Espresso
Accessories: Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Decorator Label Punch, Early Espresso Taffeta Ribbon, Glimmer Brad (Neutrals), Dimensionals, Frame

Guess WHAT??? There's MORE!!! Go check out the blog of the wonderfully-talented Dawn Olchefske! She ROCKS, too!!

ONE More Owl ...

Had my stamp club the other night (YAY!) ... and AS USUAL I was runnin' around like a chicken-with-my-head-cut-off until the last possible second!!

This is one of the cards I made them (which is very similar to one I posted a few weeks ago EXCEPT that my "peek-a-boo" owl is actually INSIDE the card instead of on the front. I LOVE this idea (although I can't take ANY credit for it). It's kinda been all over, but I don'g know who made it up!

And I will be busily getting ready for the Control Freaks Blog Tour for the next couple of days ... be sure to come back and check it out!!

Stamps: Perfect Punches, Woodgrain bg
Paper: Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Peach Parfait, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch, Owl Punch, 2-Step Bird Punch, Spiral Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Curly Label Punch, Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Folder (for owl's belly)

Mojo Prison ...

You've all been there, right? You know the place I mean .... when you can't seem to think straight enough to get the creative juices flowing in a positive direction .... when everything you try to do seems to take WAY more effort than it should???

Well ... that's where I was visiting yesterday as I tried to make this card!! Dang!! I HATE it when that happens. I just could NOT seem to get to a happy place with this card for the LOOOOONNGGGEST time!! And once I finally got 'er done, not ONLY did I forget to attach the photo to my gallery post over on SCS (where I made this for CC290 - Always Artichoke, Blushing Bride and Marina Mist), but I hadn't even EDITED the darn photo after pulling it off of my camera!! My brain was OUT to LUNCH, baby! And it wasn't even 10:00 a.m.!! Some days are like that ...

By the way ... I got the idea for the purdiful butterflies on this from my good friend (and fellow Control Freak) Dawn Olchefske. I thought the idea was BRILLIANT and KNEW I was gonna have to "borrow" it from her. Check out HER creations with it:

Dawn's Lovely Butterflies

Stamps: Elements of Style, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Blushing Bride
Ink: Marina Mist, Blushing Bride, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Early Espresso, Rose Red, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Circle Scissor, Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die, Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Folder, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Paper Distressing Tool, Pearl Stickers, Blender Pen

"Epic Fail" ...

... at least that's a phrase that my kids would use to describe this! I had THE hardest time getting this card together for TLC290. The challenge was to do a technique called "lace sponging." The basic idea is to take a piece of lace, lay it down on your cardstock; sponge over the top of it, then remove the lace ... which SHOULD leave the pattern of your lace behind. I was batting zero from the start ... first of all, I don't own ONE single, solitary piece of lace!! Not even a piece of lacy ribbon!! Okay, well I have some that a friend recently sent me, which is VERY purdy ... BUT, it was too dense for me to sponge through, so THAT didn't work. THEN, I tried to use some tulle ... which looked kinda BLAH, so THAT was no good. I finally decided to just give up and cheat ... yup! That's right!! I CHEATED. I used my old SU Victorian Lace background stamp!

THEN, I decided to try the "faux tile" technique that my BFF, Jan, recently did on a card for a Control Freaks swap. (Check it out HERE.) It was LUVERLY, so I decided to try it. Well, it is HARDER than it looks!! I kept messing the images up!! First I stamped the images too hard, which made them go down into the score lines or "grout", which totally ruined the whole effect. But if you stamp TOO lightly then you get goobered-up images. I tried stamping this stinkin' background about FOUR times! Sheesh!!

To top it all off, I went to upload the card on SCS and not ONLY did I forget to attach my photo to the upload, I hadn't EVEN edited the photo after I took it off my camera!! It was NOT my day for stampin' ... that's fer SHURE!!

Stamps: Autumn Days, Day of Gratitude, Victorian Lace background
Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke, More Mustard
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Scor-Pal, Stitch-Doodle-Dot Template, Always Artichoke Seam Binding

Circles & Rectangles Challenge

For the challenge I posted on SCS for the Free for All today I decided to do a sketch. I seem to get stuck in the same type of layout ALL. THE. TIME.

So I decided to shake it up a bit with this card (which is based on one I did back in June HERE, at least as far as the layout goes). I like adding lots of different patterns and textures together (which, oddly enough, is weird since I didn't use a SINGLE embossing ANYthing on here!). I'm still likin' my Groovy Grape. And I'm having issues with the name of one more color ... Crumb Cake (formerly known as Kraft). I swear the first thing that comes to my mind for THAT one is "Cookie Crumb" ... I think SU shoulda just called ME first and asked me for names!!

Happy to have a weekend where I am not going out of town for a change. It will be nice to resume a more normal schedule now that the kididdles are back in school.

Stamps: Day of Gratitude
Paper: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard, Very Vanilla
Ink: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard
Accessories: Circle Scissor, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" Circle Punches, Paper Piercing Tool, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Pearl Stickers

Fishin' Wishes

Let me start off by saying that I don't really like Thomas Kinkade (is "hate" too strong of a word?). His art just kinda just doesn't do it for me (don't flame me ... I know there are a LOT of people who love him ... that is why the man is filthy stinkin' rich!).

Okay, now that I have done the disclaimer thing ... here is a card I made with a Thomas Kinkade stamp for today's sketch challenge over on SCS (SC297). The only way I like his images is if they are all monochromatic ... I guess that's just me. So that is where this came from.

Kind of a short post today. Gotta go and get ready to go stand in HOURS of lines to get my driver's license renewed ... JOY of JOYS!! Can't wait!!

Stamps: CHF Don't Get Much Better, SU Wonderfully Worn, SU Short & Sweet
Paper: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Ink: Soft Suede
Accessories: Paper Distressing Tool, Small Oval Punch, Word Window Punch, Hodgepodge Hardware, Twill Tape, Cuttlebug Forest Branches Embossing Folder, Spiral Punch, Small Binder Clip

Birthday Blues

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... okay, well .... maybe not! But at least a few years ago I found a mui-lovely card on SCS that I knew I was just gonna HAFTA use as inspiration one day. Wellllll ... today is that day. Isn't this card love-er-ly??? I really am happy with how it turned out ('cept for the fact that the squares aren't exactly even). Here is the card, done by Melody Schwartz (aka lacyquilter) over on SCS:

Melody's Blue Tile Mosaic

Pur-de-ful, isn't it??? I was trying to figure out what to do with the little bit of "extra" space that I ended up with at the bottom of my card. I decided to try a border punch. After I punched it once smack-dab in the middle I decided that I kinda liked it like that, so that is how it stays ....

Stamps: Watercolor Trio, Bella Toile
Paper: Very Vanilla, Pacific Point
Ink: Pacific Point
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Photo Corner Punch, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder, Pearl Stickers, Pinking Hearts Border Punch, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Dimensionals

And today is kinda bittersweet at our house. Our dear, sweet and adorable German daughter - Coco - is headed back to her home in Munich tomorrow. She has been with us for a month and the time has just flown by. We have truly enjoyed the time she has spent with us and are trying to figure out how much money we would have to give her parents for them to let us KEEP her!!! We spent the better part of today up in Midway, Utah, where they were holding the annual Swiss Days Festival (it's all about fun, crafty booths, food, music and time spent with those you love). We now consider her part of our family and look forward to the time when we will be able to see one another again ... hugs to you, Coco!!