A Double Dare Thanks

The Double Dare Challenge for last Tuesday that I do with some SCS friends - was from Michelle (sf9erfan) and that was to case a card from the now 'old' SU catty.Wanting to use my 'bought em, love em, never used em' stash of stamps - I cased the card on Page 18 of the catalogue using the Organic Grace stamp. I used the flower instead of the dragonfly - changed the colors and cuttled the panel instead of stamping. I used one of the sentiment stamps from Upsy Daisy.

This is a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 card. I thought it came out pretty cute!

You too can join in our fun weekly challenges - just make a card using the challenge (case a card from the Fall Winter 2008 SU catalogue) Post it on SCS and use the keyword DDC. The Double Dare team will be looking for your cards!! There is no time limit to these challenges so come along! You can see all the Double Dare Challenge cards here. And you can see all the Double Dare Team members on my side bar (scroll down a bit).

Stamps: Organic Grace & Upsy Daisy: SU
Paper: Pumpkin pie: SU, Summer sunrise, white, Ripe Avocado: PTI
Ink: Pumpkin pie: SU, First Snow: PTI
Accessories: script guttlebug folder, foam dimensionals, SU scallop circle punch, circle punch

And I also wanted to share with you the wonderful project my DH Kent just completed for me to use for my "His Holy Name" challenge 6"x6" pages.

Every other Sunday I'll be hanging a new page on this beautiful wooden rack. I'll be able to flip them over - back and forth - forth and back - so I can keep reviewing them throughout the year. Since there will be 26 of them - he's going to make me a 2nd rack so I can put 13 on each one so neither gets too full. He earned a BIG kiss for this one!!

Short post today - I have a church meeting at my house so gotta go!

Thanks so much for dropping by today!

A Featured Birthday

Yippee! I used another stamp set that I love and had purchased quite some time ago but never got around to inking up! This card was made for the Featured Stamper challenge over at Split Coast.



Vicky Gould was Featured stamper and I chose this card from her wonderful gallery to case.

My changes were: I made my card a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 square, different colors, no ribbon, punched bird instead of stamped, and cuttled bg instead of stamping.

I used the script Cuttlebug folder on the background panel and my scalloped Nestability circles to frame the image. On the white circle - I left the die in place on the card stock and sponged from the edges into the center - then removed the die so it left a white clean edge. The sentiment and circles are popped up on foam dimensionals.

I'm so happy to be using my 'old' stuff!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday! Thank you for dropping by today!

Stamps: Upsy Daisy: SU
Paper: Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist, White: PTI, Basic Black: SU
Ink: True Black, Aqua Mist: PTI
Accessories: foam dimensionals, scallope circles Nestabilities, keytag punch: SU, bird punch: Martha Stewart

Say Thanks to the Teacher!

Our inspiration today on Split Coast was a web site of Lang Calendars - this school page inspired me:

And here is the card I created from the inspiration:

I finally inked up this fun school set by Cornish Heritage Farms called Making the Grade - that I've had forever - waiting patiently for me to use it. My base card is light green like the inspiration but I sponged some red over it so you can hardly tell that it's a light color. I used Fresh Snow ink by Papertrey Ink for the sentiments - what great coverage that ink gives - but you do need to allow extra time for it to dry - it's real juicy!

The bench and tree with the grass line are all one stamp from Stampendous called Parkscape. And the bird punch is from Martha Stewart. All the panels are up on foam dimensionals as is the cute out school house and punched bird.

Kent and I went to see a wonderful play this afternoon at the Huntington Theater in Boston - called "The Corn is Green" starring Kate Burton (Richard Burton's daughter for those of you old enough to remember him!) and Kate's son Morgan Ritchie. It was a great story about a woman (Kate) who started a school in a small remote Welsh village in the late 1800's - where the children worked in the coal mines and no one got an education. The teacher mentored one of the students (Morgan Ritchie) and he got excepted to Oxford.

So - I made a teacher card and saw a teacher play - all in one day!

Thanks so much for coming by!

Stamps: Making the Grade: Cornish Heritage Farms, Bench: Stampendous Parkscape
Paper: pure poppy, Spring Moss: PTI, basic black: SU
Ink: True Black, Fresh Snow: PTI
Accessories: heart brads, sponge, foam dimensionals, bird punch: Martha Stewart

A Couple of Sweet Valentines!!

Today's Ways to Use it Challenge on Split Coast was to alter patterned paper to make it special. I've been making crafts to sell at my church for Valentine's Day and I needed to create something to decorate some pretty red heart shaped glass bottles I bought on sale last year at Michaels (they were 50 cents each as I recall - great buy - I just had to store them all year and remember that I had them for this year!!)


I chose to stamp on my patterned paper and punch it with a scalloped heart punch and attach it to the pretty bottles.

I tied a narrow grosgrain ribbon around the neck and filled it with candy Conversation Hearts.I love how they came out! A simple adornment but very effective I think!

I just got the stamp and paper in the mail today from Danielle (DPKennedy on SCS) as part of some wonderful blog candy I won on her blog last week - Thanks for getting them to me so quickly Danielle!!

Stamps: Heart: Inkadinkado Gem Stone Hearts, xoxo: PTI Sweet Love
Paper: DP: Sabrina 6x6 paper set Making Memories
Ink: True Black: PTI
Accessories: marvy heart punch, ping grosgrain ribbon: Michaels, Conversation Candy Hearts: Necco

And here is a 2nd Valentine's Day craft I made for our sale - once again using containers I got at Michaels last year on sale (again 50 cents each!) These are red and white heart shaped ceramic dishes.

I didn't decorate the dishes at all - but chose to fill them with red and white basket filler paper and a clear treat bags (from Michaels candy aisle) filled with jellied candy hearts (CVS) and tied with grosgrain ribbons.

I made the cute narrow cards to tuck inside the dish. Each card is 1 1/2" x 8 1/2" Kraft card stock folded in half (pieces left over from the Velentine Origami Boxes I made here.) I stamped on a piece of white card stock 1 1/4" x 4" and adhered it to the folded Kraft piece. The XOXO is a $1 stamp from Michaels - and the hugs and kisses as well as the Happy Valentines Day inside are from the Sweet Love set by Papertrey Ink.

Stamps: XOXO: Michaels $1 stamp Studio G, Hugs & Kisses, Happy Valentine's Day: PTI Sweet Love set

Paper: Kraft, White: PTI

Ink: True Black: PTI, L'amore Red: Palette

Accessories: Ribbon: Michaels, clear treat bags: Michaels, Red & White Heart Shaped ceramic dishes: Michaels, Jellied hearts: CVS

I hope you are inspired by my Valentines Crafts - easy peasy to make if you have the containers or something similar. Thanks so much for coming by today!

You're the Coolest!

I have seen so many cute cards using this fun Comfy Valentine set by H&M Stamps. So I finally got my set out and inked it up for today's Sketch Challenge on Split Coast.

I used my new Raspberry Fizz papers from Papertrey Ink (please don't notice that I bought something in the New Year! so much for resolutions - but I KNOW you understand!!) I paper pieced the pajama pants (it's a great stamp for paper piecing! so much easier than coloring!) and added a punched heart to the top (over the flower that is on the stamp).

The fun Petaloo flowers come with the gems on them and I added two more gems on the heart and on the sentiment.

I gotta run and get in my own PJ's (mine are flannel though not as sexy as these!) so I can settle down to watch "Tell Me Lies" on TV - I think that's gonna be a fun new show. Will probably do some blog hopping while I watch though :)

thanks so much for dropping by!

Stamps: H&M Stamps: Comfy Valentine
Paper: White PTI, Basic black, Purely pomegranate: SU, DP Raspberry Fizz Mix: PTI
Ink: True Black: PTI
Accessories: Swiss Dot satin: PTI, Floradoodles: Petaloo, Adhesive gems: K&CO, heart punch, oval punches: SU

A Valentine, Sovereign God and Some Pics of VT

Sorry that I didn't post yesterday - we ended up having about 8" of new snow and I had to help DH shovel us out! I'm so glad it waited until we were home from VT - I would have hated to come home to a driveway full of snow and had to unpack through it!!

And then there were those two football games on when we were done shoveling...........

But I did make a card for the Featured Stamper on Split Coast. I CASE'd this card of Lori's (stamp_momma)

I changed the colors and made it a Valentine card with Heart Nesties instead of squares. I just placed the basic heart Nestability inside the scalloped heart Nestability and ran them through my Cuttlebug together and it gave me this heart frame - plus I can use the inside plain heart piece that punched out on something else later! Following the instructions on her card - I was so excited to learn how to use the small Nestibility bird for the wings on the middle size bird on this card! You just have to snip off the beak on the front "wing" - now why couldn't I think of that???!!!

Stamps: none
Paper: White: PTI and SU, Real Red: SU, DP unknown (DCWV stack?)
Ink: none
Accessories: Martha Stewart Punch, dotted grosgrain, foam dimensionals, Nested birds and Hearts: Nestabilities

The next thing I have to show you today is my 6"x6" page that I made for the 2nd His Holy Name Challenge which is issued every other Sunday by Patter. You can click on the blinking box on my side bar to get to Patter's blog or you can also see the challenge in the forums on SCS just scroll down to comment #350. I'd love to have you join in on the challenges - you can join in any time and only do as many as you like.

God's Attribute this week is: God is Sovereign. I chose this verse from Isaiah 61:11

"For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the SOVEREIGN LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."

I liked the analogy of things growing out of God's earth - and humans growing out of God's love.I used this great Urban Prairie designer paper by Basic Grey along with a leaf Sizzix die and layered flowers using a Martha Stewart flower punch. The bird is also from Martha Stewart. I typed the verse on my computer useing 3hourtour and CK fraternity fonts and printed it on an Avery Mailing label #8463.

Stamps: Snap Stamps: Karen Foster
Paper: Sage Shadow: SU, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist: PTI, DP: basic greay Urban Prairie Harvest
Ink: Onyx black versafine, Ocean tides: PTI
Accessories: foam dimensionals, glue dots, flower brads, square brads, sponge, computer generated verse, Avery Label, sizzix leaf die, adhesive gems: K&CO, oval punch, Designer label punch, spiral punch: SU, flower punch: Martha Stewart

And finally as promised - here are a few pics from our trip to Vermont this week visiting my DH's brother and sister-in-law.

This is the beautiful diningroom/livingroom in their gorgeous post and beam home.

Here I am on our first day snowshoeing in the woods - with my neck all wrapped up in my Head Sokz (a tube thing made of fleece that is a scarf and hood you can pull up if you need it!). It was about 4 above on this day out. And you can see not much sun getting into the woods here!

This is DH Kent at the edge of the woods when we just started out - standing by the sign of 'his' brook! That's his brother ahead waiting to lead the way!

This is Kent's SIL bringing up the rear with trusty dog Blue - who loves to run through the woods and snow - she calls Blue back to the trail by offering treats of cheese. Blue wears a bell to let any wild animals know she's around.

And here are some wild turkeys that came by their birdfeeders looking for a meal on a cold day!

We got some delicious coffee drinks as well as some home made cookies and muffins at this wonderful bakery down the street from them.


And a final shot of the old bicycle they have on their porch - it's lit with white lights at night.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

More or Less Quilt

I'm BACK!!! and I'm so happy to get back to stamping!!! We had a great time in Vermont snowshoeing and visiting with Kent's brother and sister-in-law. I'll have some pictures to share with you tomorrow so be sure to check back!

I made these two cards for today's inspiration challenge on Split Coast which was the Pottery Barn Teen catalogue web site. I was inspired by this quilt:I made two cards - one minimal and one stepped up for the January Fan Club More is More challenge. (One of these cards is not like the other - one of these cards is not the same... that song just popped into my head and now it won't pop out!!!)On one card I sewed up and down the panels with my sewing machine to give the card the quilted look, I popped up the center square as well as the sentiment, sponged the outside edges of the card with So Saffron ink and attached two dew drops on either side of the stamped square.

On the less card - I did not do the sewing, only popped up the sentiment and did not sponge on color or add dew drops.

The pretty heart quilt stamp and square quilted framing is from a set called Quilter Sampler Additions by Papertrey Ink and the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment is from the H&M Stamp set called My Favorite Valentines which is back in stock and at a great low price so be sure to check it out!!

Heather let us know that all the following sets are now back in stock over at H&M Stamps:

My Favorite Valentine

Comfy Valentine

Sweetly Stamped

The Cat's Meow

A Lil' Behind

Old English

Christmas is the Time for Cookies

so if you missed getting these during her big sale hop on over and check them all out now at new reduced prices!

Thanks for coming by today and I'll see you tomorrow with some pics of our mini vacation!

Stamps: Sentiment: H&M Stamps, Quilter Sampler Additions: PTI
Paper: white: PTI, Night of Navy: SU, DP: SU, DCWV Stack, Basic Grey Prairie Harvest
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Night of Navy: SU
Accessories: word window punch, prismacolor markers, dew drops, glue dots, foam dimensionals, Sponge