Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Here are my boys in their Halloween costumes -- Mario and Luigi!!

And here is the pumpkin that my son carved this year....do you see a theme??!!

I hope everyone has a safe and spooktacular evening!!

Thanks for dropping in.

Donelda

Halloween Treats

I have made a lot of treats for Halloween. First of all, I made these awesome Edible Eye Balls!! I saw them on Lauren's blog and knew I had to make them for my son's class!! It was very easy. The bat was a stamp my husband picked up for me from the $1.50 bin in Michaels. I stamped them onto shrink plastic, cut them out and shrunk them!

Then, I found awesome packets of Halloween hot chocolate. One is hot chocolate that is actually orange. The other one is hot chocolate with Snoopy characters on it. I made long holders for the hot chocolate packages - one for my son (the blue with spiders) and the other one is for my husband (the orange one).

Finally, I found some popcorn that pops up orange!! Cool!! I decided to package it to give to my co-workers!! I used this awesome designer paper from Making Memories that my friend gave me (Hi Dawn!!). Not only did she give me the papers, she also got me the cutest little halloween punch form Making Memories. It has a small spider, ghost, bat, and pumpkin. It is hard to see them, unless you click on the picture, but there are actually spiders hanging from the spider webs that are on the designer paper (go ahead, click on it and see it for yourself). It is hanging from a piece of DCM floss!! They were also a lot of fun to make!

Supplies: There are way too many supplies here to mention them all but I will identify a few of the stamp sets. Birds of a Feather (Papertrey Ink), Year Around Fun 2 (Stampin' Up!).

Well, happy Halloween everyone!

Donelda

smARTworks Teaparty #5

Yup, another teaparty from smARTworks! Today's challenge #5 was issued by Trish and was to use this awesome picture for inspiration. Wow, there were so many elements in there that it was hard to focus on only one. In fact, I took my inspiration from 3 things. First, see that awesome picture on the wall .... inspiraiton. Next, see the square pillow on the chair....inspiration. Finally, see the blue wall....inspiration! Had to incorporate them all into my card!

Here is my final creation! The card is square 41/4" x 41/4" (like that pillow). See the black fillagree in the middle (like the picture) with a frame too. That is my favorite part! Finally, I had to use some Soft Sky on the card (like the color of the wall). I love that black paper, it has some crinkles in the paper which gives it some awesome texture. I chose to stitch around the black paper with my sewing machine adding even more texture. I added the sentiment "wishes" with white embossing powder. Finally, I used dimensionals to add it all to the Soft Sky card base.

You have to go and see what the other design team members have created:

Dina

Trish

Susan

Giovana

Now it is your turn!! You can join the tea party by making your card based on the inspiraiton piece and then leave a link in a comment on any design team member's blog!! Go have some fun!!

Supplies: Stamps-DD 08 Patterns; Butterfly Wishes; Paper-Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!), Black (unknown); Ink - Basic Black (Stampin' Up!), Versamark; Other - sewing machine, thread, white embossing powder, dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in this evening.

Donelda

Simple Cards - Cowboys, Grasshoppers, and Frogs

Sometimes it is nice to just make some simple cards to build my stash up! I love this one with the cowbow boot charm! That is some jute that my friend Carol gave me! The birthday sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the word "cowboy" is made with my little letters that I bought at the Dollar Store! I love this striped paper from Scenic Route. It is so bright and cheery - perfect for a birthday card. This little grasshopper and sentiment is from the Green Thumb stamp set by Papertrey Ink. It is one of my all time favorite sets!! See the square, it is "embossed" just like the fancy embossing that you get with Nestabilities ... but I dont' have any yet (shhhh, they are hiding for a Christmas present ... but I'd love to sneak them out and use them a bit). This is "faux Nestabilities". I used a square made from light cardboard (think cereal box) and sticking it and my vanilla square up to the window, I traced around the smaller square to make the embossed edge to the image panel. You can click on the image for a larger picture that will show this detail. The scallop square is one that I punched using my friend Robin's punch last summer (Hi and thanks again Robin!!). And my final Clean and Simple card...this cute little frog. This guy, and his sentiment comes from the Pond Life set by Papertrey Ink. I really love how he has some spots on his back. I did the same embossing technique on this vanilla square of cardstock and then, using a couple of Post It Notes, I masked off the edge and stamped the frog. I love how it turned out!! This paper comes from an awsome 12" x 12" pad of K&Co. paper, one of my favorite paper lines. See, great cards don't have to be complicated. Thanks for dropping in! Donelda

Masculine Cards

Making masculine cards are always a bit tricky to make. They take a lot more thinking time than flowery, pretty cards. Since I have so many wonderful and important men in my world, I work very hard to be sure I have masculine cards around! So, here are a couple I made:

A pretty Clean and Simple card! I love putting sentiments onto popsicle sticks. They usually require being "trimmed" which is quite tricky...but totally worth the effort!!

Supplies: Paper-Very Vanilla, River Rock (SU!), brown (Bazzill); Ink - Chocolate Chip, River Rock (SU!); Stamps- Father Knows Best (Papertrey Ink), Lovely As a Tree (Stampin' Up!), Other- popsicle stick, hemp, sponge.

Another attempt at masculine but I think that brown ribbon might have spoiled it a bit...and maybe that turquoise too. I do really like the repeated sentiment down the side.

Supplies: Paper-Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip (all SU!); Stamps - Tree Cluster Sm. (Stampscapes), Fantastic Foilage (SU!), Father Knows Best (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Chocloate Chip (SU!); Other - Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, 1" circle punch.

Thanks for visiting.

Donelda

Loonie Stamper Challenge #10 and #11 - Owl Tags

I guess I've been extra busy these last few weeks. I know this because I try to do the Loonie Stamper Challenges withthe girls over at Papertrey Ink, but I didn't get last week's challenge finished and looked and saw that this week's colors were posted already! Sheesh!!

So, in order to catch up, I decided to try doing the two challenges at the same time. I needed a few gift tags and I've been really "into" circles lately so I decided to make a few circle tags.

Here are the two color challenges:

LSC#10 and LSC#11

I also broke out my wonderful Wise Owl stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I love him so much - he is just so darn cute!! Who wouldn't love him. For both tags, I stamped all the owl pieces using Chocolate Chip ink. Then, watercolored them in using a paint brush and the ink pad. I made sure to color in the bellies in the approrpiate color for the challenges (the pink and green). Then, I cut them out and adheared them to a circle of matching color. I curved the sentiment onto the block and stamped it onto the colored circle with more Chocolate Chip ink. I attached all of this to a piece of Dark Chocolate cardstock and cut around it carefully using some scallop scissors. Finally, I adheared all of this onto a white or cream circle card.

While I should have cut the circles for the ribbon to go before adhearing the whole thing together, I didn't. You don't want to know how hard it was to get them in there!! But I did it!! I adheared the appropriate color of ribbon depending on the color challenge. Voila, my two gift tags are finished.

I see that LSC10 was supposed to have polka dots and flowers....oops!!

Go check out the Loonie Stamper girls' work:

LSC 10 and 11

Dee Dee

Jewels Jewels

Regan Regan

Char Char

Maria Maria

Wendy Wendy

Supplies: Stamps-Wise Owl (Papertrey Ink), Ink-Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!), Sweet Blush, Spring Moss, Summer Sunrise (Papertrey Ink), Paper - Vintage Cream, White, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink); Other - Dark Chocolate and Pure Poppy twill (Papertrey Ink), Coluzzle, 1/4" hole punch, scallop scissors (Provo Craft).

Thanks for dropping in for a visit.

Donelda

October Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink

Oh no, I almost forgot the blog hop that Papertrey Ink hosts!!! I am very late uploading this....but here it is!! I found these awesome mugs and had plans to give them to my new team at work. Once the blog hop challenge was issued ... "to use polka dots"... I knew exactly what I was going to do!

Notice the steam coming out of the mug....well, I was so excited about it!! I have this cup from the Sketch an Event SU! set but it has a goofy heart shaped bit of steam coming out of the mug. I almost never use the stamp because of that!! When I got my hands on the stamp set called Remember by Papertrey Ink, there are some great swirls in it to go with the flowers in the set. Well, I saw those swirls and they made me think of yummy hot chocolate!! I added them to the tops of these cups and it is perfect!! (now, had I been able to order Heather's coffee cup set, I would have just been able to stamp!! Definately on my next order!!)

Supplies: Stamps - Polka Dot Basics, Remember, Text Boxed (all Papertrey Ink), Sketch an Event (Stampin' Up!) letters (Dollar Store); Paper-Kraft (Papertrey Ink), Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up); Ink- Basic Black, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Other-linen vellum (Papertrey Ink), white embossing powder, kitchen string, black marker.

Off to see all the other creations!

Donelda

Kitty Card

Made this for my friend's birthday (Hi Trudy if you are visiting!). We both love cats so I know it will bring a smile to her face.

Traced the one and only cat die cut from the Martha Stewart pack of chipboard die cuts that I got at Michaels. What's that all about...there were 3 goats in there but only 1 cat!!

I followed Mary K's Casual Mid-Week Challenge over on the Papertrey Ink threads where she had a color combo for us to use -- Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Poppy Red, and Aqua Mist! I had already covered the cat with the red paper so I knew I would be able to make this color combo work!!

Supplies: Paper-Kraft, Chocloate Chip (Stampin' Up!), Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink), red (maybe Bazzill), designer paper (old stuff from my scrap bin); Ink - Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla craft, Close To Cocoa (all SU!); Stamps-Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Other - Chipboard Animals used as a template (Martha Stewart - I got them at Michaels), scallop scissors (Provo Craft), coluzzle (what would I do without it??!!), hobby knife, sponge.

Thanks for visiting.

Donelda

smARTworks - Pussywillows

I love pussywillows, so when I saw this awesome stamp from smARTworks, I knew I'd have to have it!! Part of the reason I love pussywillows so much is that my son, when he was little, used to call them "pussysnwillows". Hehehe, it was so cute in his little baby voice.

For this card, I decided that I wanted to make the pussywillows fuzzy! I stamped the branch with Chocolate Chip ink and then covered the area of each pussywillow with some Frisket Masking Fluid (available at Michaels or any art store). This fluid dries and then acts as a mask! Then, I did some brayering of blues over top making sure there was some gradient of color from bottom to top. Then, when that was all dry, I peeled off the masking fluid (I find using a pencil eraser works well for this but your fingers will work too) and used some Tombo Mono Multi Liquid Glue (that stuff works wonders) and sprinkled on some white flock (thanks Jessica!!). I let it dry over night and used a soft make up brush to brush away any extra fluffy stuff. For the sentiment, I stamped it with Chocolate Chip ink onto some of the most awesome vellum. It is Linen Vellum sold by Papertrey Ink! Such texture and dimension. Anyway, I cut it out, used my corner ticket punch and cut tiny slits on each end. I wrapped some brown organdy ribbon around it, tied it at the bottom and attached the whole thing to a white card base.

My son loved the final card, although he doesn't remember calling them "pussysnwillows".

Hey, don't forget about the awesome sale going on over at smARTworks!! 35% off all in stock rubber ... are you kidding me!! What a deal!!

Also, Trish has posted the next smARTworks Tea Party and she has given us an awesome picture as an inspiration piece. Members of the design team will be uploading their creations on October 29th and you are welcome to play along too! Just upload your creation to any of the design team member blogs by leaving a post in their comment section! What fun!!

Supplies: Stamps - Spring #1, Looking Collage (smARTworks) Borders & Corners {square} (Papertrey Ink), linen vellum (Papertrey Ink).

Thanks for dropping in for a visit!! Donelda

Welcome Bird House

This bird and tree are from a set called Of a Feather by Memory Box. It is a great and versatile set! I decided that the bird needed a little house so I made this cute little bird house out of some light chipboard. The grass is made with a marker. Supplies: Paper- Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla (SU!), Chatterbox designer paper, Stamps-Of a Feather (Memory Box), Limitless Labels (Papertrey Ink), Ink- Basic Black, Close to Cocoa (SU!), colorbox inks, Other-Old Olive, Close to Cocoa markers, light cardboard, sponge. Thanks for visiting. Donelda

Lauren's Sketch Challenge #2

I find I use the same colors over and over and over. Not that there is anything wrong with that but I think I need to try using other colors once in a while! So, I pulled out my darker "regal" colors and pulled together this card.

I followed Lauren's Sketch Challenge #2. Obviously, that was a long time ago!! I never get cards uploaded at the right time! Sheesh!!

I really like the side stip. I made it by stamping that awesome flower from the Green Thumb stamp set over and over with Bravo Burgandy ink to get varied colors. For anyone who is new this is called stamping off and you get some great depth by using it! Then I added some leaves with Always Artichoke, again, stamping off to get a variety of colors and depth. I cut around the leaves and flowers leaving just a little bit of the white cardstock showing.

Next, I made the circle. Originally, I was going to put the sentiment in there but I changed my mind (every girls right!!) and chose to simple use it as an embellishment of sorts. Followed the same process as the side strip. I love it, my fav part of this card. Finally, I finished off by making the main panel where I ended up putting my sentiment. Added more dots for the border to repeate the dots above and also some more of the flowers in the corner.

Now, this card is very busy...but I think I might just like it!! I sent it off to a wonderful stamping friend of mine for her birthday (hi Chris!!).

Thanks for dropping in! And thanks to those who continue to leave comments -- they make me smile :-) and are really appreciated.

Donelda

Three Trees and Red Birds

I saw a great card over on the Memory Box site so I decided to replicate it. Only, I used the stamps I had, of course. This is one of my favorite tree stamps from Papertrey Ink!! It comes in both a solid and lined version which allows for various styles. I used both of them!! Supplies: Paper-Very Vanilla (Stampin Up!), designer paper (K&Co.); Stamps-Father Knows Best, Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink), Of a Feather, Swirl (Memory Box); Ink-Old Olive, River Rock, Ruby Red (Stampin' Up!). Thanks for dropping by today! Have a great Saturday! Donelda

smARTworks Tea Party #4

Susan from smARTworks has provided a sketch for the 4th smARTworks tea party. I love that the circle isn't a circle but where you need to put an image that you have cut out!! I love using my scissors!! I started out wanting to cut out this beautiful sunflower. When I first ordered this set, Sunflowers, from smARTworks, I knew I wanted to make a card like this!! So I stamped the sunflower with Archivers Jet Black ink and then colored it in with my Stampin' Up! watercolor pencil crayons and, obviously, cut it out! Then I stamped the sentiment with black ink, trimmed it, and then sponged some Antique Linen Distress Ink around the edges. Next, I pulled out my Periphery paper pack from Basic Grey. When this paper was first released, I had to have it becuase the colors were awesome. But I haven't actually used any of it yet! I am such a hoarder. So, I pulled it out and decided that I was going to make myself use some. And I did!! Don't you just love that beautiful design. And when I did buy this pack of paper from Basic Grey, I took the time to find and buy Bazzill cardstock that matched the colors within the pack. I pulled out one of the browns to use to mat the sentiment as indicated on the sketch. Finally, I used some wide vanilla grosgrain ribbon. It was just too pale and needed "something" to make it work with the rest of the card. I tried every piece of ribbon I owned but nothing worked. Finally, I tried a strip of the brown Bazzill cardstock on top of the ribbon and it pulled the whole card together! Love it when that happens. Voila, a simple yet elegant card. You need to check out the other Design Team memeber's cards that were made for the smARTworks tea pary #4. Dina Susan Giovana Trish Supplies: Paper-Very Vanilla, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), brown (Bazzill), Bordeaux from Periphery Collection (Basic Grey); Ink-Jet Black (Archivers) Antique Lines Distress Ink (Ranger); Stamps-Sunflowers (smARTworks); Other-watercolor pencil crayons (Stampin' Up!), paintbrush, Very Vanilla wide grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!), sponge. Thanks for visiting, Donelda

Loonie Stamper Challenge #9

Charlene picked this week's Loonie Stamper Challenge colors and I had to play because they were great colors (what PTI colors don't look great together!!)

I also just received a huge Papertrey Ink order, including all the colors of ink!! Yeah!!

I decided to use this awesome leaf from the First Fruits set. I believe that in some sets one image becomes a total "go to" image. The leaves in Beautiful Blooms is one of those images for me and I beleive this leaf is going to be one for me as well. I love it!!

So I stamped the leaf using Spring Moss ink. I was going to do the "rock and roll" technique and add some Aqua Mist to the outside edges but the color combo did not include that color so I refrained from doing it (but watch for a post in the future!). Then I ripped one side of the paper to give it some great dimension. Love the look of ripping on cards but rarely think to include it on my own. I was going to add some spring moss twill but it felt "too much" and then I remembered that I had some satin ribbon from Stampin' Up! in Kraft. So I grabbed it and tied it between the image and the rip. Next, I stamped the two smaller leaves from First Fruits onto a piece of Spring Moss using Versamark ink - a nice subtle effect! Finally, I added the sentiment "thankful" from Rustic Branches using Close to Cocoa - close enough to the Kraft color to work on this card. Easy enough to finish off the card by putting all of this on a Kraft card base. Note that the white panel is popped up with dimensionals!!

You need to check out all the Loonie Stamper's creations:

Dee

Jewels

Regan

Maria

Wendy

Thanks for letting me play along ladies!!

Donelda

Juanita's Scrap Card

You can read HERE to find out about my Scrap Card game!! I think Juanita enjoys this game as much as I do. We swapped scraps and here is the card I made with what she sent me. I, again, forgot to take a picture of what she sent me. It was a pice of So Saffron cardstock, a few strips of Ruby Red cardstock and that cute little star with the metal rim on it! I loved that little embellishment so I wanted to build the card around it!

Since the star has little dots all around it, I decided to use the circle of dots to go around the little metal tag. It fit perfectly - gotta love when that happens. I was going to add more of the circle stamp over the So Saffron paper but I thought it would detract from the star tag, which I wanted to be the focal point of the card. So I decided to leave the card plain. I added the little strips of red across the bottom and then stamped the sentement on them.

I am going to give this card to my son. He and a few of his friends decided to enter the town's Scarecrow Event and were so excited when they got the 2nd place ribbon for Most Creative!!

Supplies: Juanita's scraps, Stamps-Borders & Corners, Limitless Labels (Papertrey Ink), Ink - Not Quite Navy (Stampin' Up!).

Well, thanks for visiting!

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Last year I made some little treats to put at our place settings for our Thanksgiving supper! I had gotten the idea from Nichole Heady's blog and love the idea because they were super simple to make and super cheap too! You can see the treats I made LAST year -- and it was only my second post to my blog !! This year, I decided to "take it up a notch". I used the same ida of gathering a few sweets into a decorated coffee filter, but just added a bit more detail!! I guess it really shows just how much my style has changed and improved over one year!! This year, I took my white coffee filters and started out by stamping the largest leaf from Lisa Johnson's Remember stamp set (released by Papertrey Ink). I used various fall colors for this and just randomly stamped all over the filter. Then I took one of the medium swirls from this same set and filled in between the leaves using Wild Wasabi ink. The coffee filter really accepts the ink well and is such an inexpensive way to package little treats. It would be a perfect way to package treats for your child's class!! Next, I wanted to add some oomph to the tag (especially compared to my tag from last year's treats). I started out by stamping the sentiment Thoughtful from the First Fruits set (from Papertrey Ink). Then I added "for" and "family" in Really Rust. I made this into a little banner tag by cutting the long thin rectangle and then cutting a triangle out of the far end. I punched a hole into the other end, threaded it with some hemp and wrapped it around the coffee filter with the candy treats inside. Finally, I added an imatation leaf behind the tag. It really adds that color punch! Well, I'm sure the boys will like their little treat packages. I know my son is always excited to see a little surprise at the table!! Supplies: Stamps: Remember, First Fruits (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!); Paper - Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Other- coffee filters (Dollarama), hemp (Walmart), leaves (?? I think I might have bought these at Michaels or the dollar store..can't remember), 1/8" hole punch (Provo Craft). I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving weekend (at least all you Canadians out there!). Thanks for dropping in to visit. Donelda

Anniversary

Well, guess what i was doing exactly one year ago today.....I was writing my very first blog entry!! I find it hard to believe that it has really been a whole year! I remember having contemplated for a long time whether I really wanted to start a crafting blog or not. And I remember my wonderful husband encouraging me to just do it!! I am glad I did!!

I have met many great people through the blogging world and I've been able to share my hobby with friends and family. And, I have had some great opportunities come along, like being asked to be a guest designer for smARTworks stamp company! Wow!!

This card is actually made with the smARTworks set called Coneflower. When I saw it, I knew I had to have it and that I would need to color that coneflower in purple!! I stamped the flower and butterfly on white cardstock with a waterproof black ink so I could watercolor the images. Still one of my favorite ways to color images is by using my stamp pad as a color palate to watercolor with. If you have not done this before, you use your Stampin' Up classic ink pads. When it is still closed, push on the pad so that the pad is being pushed against the cover. Then, when you open it up (not all the way) you will see a spot of the cover on the inside roof. You can then use a watercolor brush and some water and "paint" with this color!! So, using this technique, I colored the butterfly and flower. Then, I used some purple "paint" to make some shadowing on the left side of the main panel. I like how that turned out. I added 3 quarter inch punched circles and tied some bits of matching ribbon on. This is a great way to add a touch of dimension and use up some ribbon scraps! You know I'll be doing it more often - I have a ton of ribbon scraps!!

Supplies: Paper-Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (unknown from the Dollar Store); Stampsm - Coneflowr (smARTworks); Ink-Lavendar Lace, Orchid Opulance, Wild Wasabi, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!), Jet Black (Archivers); Other - ribbon scraps (pretty sure they are Making Memories), 1/4" hole punch, watercolor brush.

Don't forget that Susan announced that rubber is on sale -- 35% off to celebrate smARTworks getting another year older!!

Thanks for dropping in and enjoy your evening!!

Donelda

Loonie Stamper Challenge #8

The girls over on the Papertrey Ink site, who created the Loonie Stampers Challenges have another challenge this week. This time Jewels picked the colors. Arn't they the best??!! I LOVE them!!

Here is my card. I just HAD to add the Kraft too. You see, this is Heather Nichols newest stamp set and she ALWAYS uses Kraft in her cards....so it just felt right to add the Kraft!! I'm thinking it is kinda Christmasy feeling but I had not intended it to be. The little red "berries" were stamped with red ink and then colored in wiht my son's red glitter pen (gotta love using your child's supplies for your "habit"). Another small detail, I scored a line on eigher side of the sentiment - love the look of scoring on cards!

Supplies: Paper-Kraft, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink), red (Bazzill); Stamps-Rustic Branches (Papertrey Ink); Ink- Chocolate Chip, Real Red (Stampin' Up!); Other - red glitter pen (unknown), scallop scissors (Provo Craft), my handy dandy scraper (Pampered Chef).

Thanks for stopping in!

Donelda

smARTworks Sunflowers

Susan, owner of smARTworks, announced today on her BLOG that she has a whole bunch of birthdays to celebrate and one just happens to be smARTworks' 4th birthday!!! So she is celebrating by offereing an increadible sale!! You have to go over and check it out - it is amazing!!

In Susan's October New post, she welcomes me as a guest designer. That is so exciting!

And here is a card using one of my newest stamps from smARTworks. I stamped these great sunflowers in their watering can onto some watercolor paper. Then, I colored them in using my Stampin' Up watercolor pencil crayons. I used some Antique Linen to sponge around the edges of the panel and matted it onto some brown cardstock. Then I used some polka dot paper -- I am very into polka dots right now!! Matted on more brown cardstock and finally onto a vanilla card base. The tag was made with my cuttlebug and the Tiny Tags dies. I inked up just the word "wishes" from the sentiment that comes with this stamp set (which actually reads "Sending Cheer-filled Wishes" and stamped it onto the tag using my Stamp-a-ma-jig. Finished it off with some sponging and a little ribbon.

I love that this image is large enough to "fill" the whole card! And it is so much fun to color! I've also tried coloring it with my prismacolor pencil crayons....I'll post that card when I get it all pulled together! I wonder what it would look like done with pastel chalks....mmmm or maybe twinkling H2Os....mmmmmm !!!!

Drop over to smARTworks and celebrate with Susan!!

Supplies: Paper-Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!), Au Chocolate (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (unknown); Stamps - Sunflowers (smARTworks); Ink - Jet Black (Archival Ink), Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger); Other - Chocolate Chip marker (Stampin' Up!), sponge, ribbon, cuttlebug, Tiny Tag dies (ProvoCraft), watercolor pencil crayons (Stampin' Up!), paintbrush.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Chris' Scrap Card #3

I did it again!! I forgot to take pictures of the wonderful crap....oops, I mean scraps that Chris sent me! So I'll describe them. It was that bright and colorful plaid piece of designer paper, the yellow piece of designer paper (only it did not have the polka dots when it arrived), a piece of designer paper that had various sized dots on it with smaller polka dots around some of those bigger dots, and that little flower shaped brad (only it was a bright yellow to start!).

So, what did I do, well I started out by making the curved edge to the card. Then I cut some white cardstock with my small scallop scissors for the edge. Then, I stamped the polka dots onto the yellow paper and adhered it inside the card. Next, I punched out 2 of the circles surrounded by smaller dots and a third circle out of this paper too. I covered the flower brad with white embossing powder (the yellow just didn't match the rest of the softer colors in the papers) and added some light blue organdy ribbon behind the brad and pushed it through the third punched circle. Then, I put it all together onto the card base. I used one of my sentiments from the anniversary set given out by Papertrey Ink, bent it a bit to fit the curve and stamped it with Versamark ink. Finally I embossed that with white embossing powder.

Again, that was 4 pieces but I did manage to pull it together and, while it is a very busy card, I certainly do like the edge and how the plaid and polka dots pull together. I think I will definately be using that card edge again!!

Thanks for playing Chris!! Go to her blog to see her latest creation using the crap, I mean scraps that I sent her!!

Supplies: In addition to the scraps sent to me by Chris; Paper-Bashful Blue, Whisper White (SU!); Ink-Versamark; Stamps-Simple Little Things, Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink); Other-blue organdy ribbon, 1 1/4" and 1" circle punch.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Guest Designer and smARTworks Tea Party #3

So, what is my exciting news???? Well, Susan, the owner of smARTworks has asked if I would be a Guest Designer for her company!!! I just about fell over and then quickly emailed her back to say yes, yes, yes!! I've been anxiously waiting for some stamps to arrive so I can get started. They just arrived in time for me to be able to upload a smARTworks card today!! You can check out the very talented Design Team's work on the Design Team Gallery -- wow, the talent I have to live up to!! Peggy posted the smARTworks tea party challenge #3. She gave this sketch to follow AND said we were to use paper piecing on the card. As I said, I just got my new batch of smARTwork stamps so I pulled this one out to join the party!! I stamped this cute little christmas image onto 4 pieces of paper - some pink Basic Grey paper, some brown paisley paper, some yellow circle paper, and finally a piece of plain white cardstock. I cut the mouse out of the pink (I know, mice arn't pink, but I liked him in pink). Then I cut the tree and the inside of the ears from the brown and finally I cut the bell out of the yellow paper. I glued all the pieces onto the white cardstock stamped image. Then, I used my aqua painter and inked a bit of blue around the edges of the image. As well, I outlined the bow on the bell with a pink marker. I pulled the rest of the card together by using the some of the same papers. The brown paisley paper became a mat for the main image and the long rectangle layer is made with more of the pink paper. I decided to use more of the bells for the 3 embellishments requested on the top right coner of the layout! I don't have a smARTworks sentiment that would work with this image so I used one from Papertrey Ink. I put all this onto a layer of grey-blue paper and stamped some small snowflakes on it with Versamark. Nothing like a non-traditional colored Christmas card. If you haven't joined into a smARTworks tea party you should because they are lots of fun!! Prayers being sent out to Dina and her family!! Supplies: Paper-Whisper White (SU!), Grey-blue (Bazzill); Designer Paper - Pink (Basic Grey), brown paisley, yellow (unknown from my scraps); Images- Christmas mouse (smARTworks), Snowflakes (SU!), Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Basic Black, Blue Bayou (SU!); Other - Aqua marker, black marker (SU!). Thanks for visiting, Donelda