Have A Frightfully Spooky Halloween!

 

Today's fun Halloween card was created for both The Paper Players and Just Us Girls card challenges. To create my card I started by die cutting a panel of plain white cardstock using a Paper Rose stitched rectangle die. Using some Inkadinkado masking paper I masked off a large circle in the upper right hand corner and inked the panel using Tim Holtz distress inks and a blending tool. I Then removed the mask and added some color to the moon using my Copic markers. I then stamped the witch from the Pebbles/American Crafts Midnight Haunting stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink and heat embossed it using my heat tool and some clear embossing powder from Zing. I then stamped the sentiment from the My Sentiments Exactly Halloween Innies & Outies stamp set and heat embossed it. Finally, I stamped the trees on the bottom of the panel using Close To My Heart's Always Grateful Seasons & Nature stamp set and heat embossed them. To finish my card off I popped the panel up off of the card using some fun foam, added a few 6mm clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and a few twinkly stars in the sky using my white gel pen. Thank you for stopping by my blog!

Always Grateful-November Words To Craft By

Hello fellow crafters! I cannot believe we are already half way through November. This year is just zipping by way too quickly. Our word inspiration for W2CB this month is "When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup." - Sam Lefkowitz. To create my card I started by layering some Stampin' UP chocolate chip cardstock onto my white A2 card base. I then layered some pretty patterned paper from the Echo Park Reflections Fall 12x12 paper pad on top. I stamped the beautiful tree from the Close To My Heart Always Grateful Seasons & Nature stamp set onto some white card stock and then stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set right below in Memento rich cocoa ink. To create the illusion of leaves on the trees I added some gorgeous chalk ink in pumpkin spice from Versa Magic using a Q-tip. Once dry I die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs and mounted it onto some more of the same chocolate chip cardstock. To finish my card off I popped the panel up off of the card using some fun foam from Hobby Lobby and some pretty mocha sequins from The Ton. I can't wait to see how everyone was inspired by this beautiful quote!

Ah, Autumn-Words 2 Craft By September/October

Hello and welcome to the September/October Words 2 Craft By word challenge. Your inspiration this month is Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall-F. Scott Fitzgerald. Anyone who knows me knows it's no secret that autumn is my favorite time of the year. I love the cool, crisp air, the foliage, the warmer clothing...and my birthday is in the fall. So, I was excited to create a card that celebrates my favorite season! To start I layered a piece of chocolate chip cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my standard A2 white card base. I then layered a piece of the Autumn Splendor patterned paper from Best Creation Inc on top. I then stamped the gorgeous tree image from the Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Trees stamp set onto some white cardstock from Staples using Memento dew drop inks in fall colors. For the ground I used one of the images from the Paper Smooches Positive Strokes stamp set and more Memento inks. I then stamped the sentiment from the Close To My Heart Always Grateful Seasons & Nature stamp set and die cut the image using a stitched edge rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I matted the panel onto more Stampin' UP chocolate chip cardstock and popped it up off of the card using fun foam from Hobby Lobby. I added some coordinating 3mm sequins from The Ton onto the tree image to mix in with the leaves to finish up my pretty autumn card. I can't wait to see how this month's quote inspires the rest of you!

Deep Sympathy-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello, and welcome to the June installment of Coffee and Cards with Celeste and Deb! We decided to combine two different themes this month. In honor of Father's Day we decided to create a masculine card with a sketch. We also have our fabulous and creative friend Michael Trent joining us again this month...thank you Michael! I love sketches and have an entire board of them collected on Pinterest. It's where I go when I need inspiration and am lacking creativity. I wanted to keep my card simple so I pulled out Close To My Heart's Always Grateful stamp set and stamped one of the beautiful trees from the set onto white cardstock. I stamped the sentiment below it from the now retired MFT Essential Sentiments stamp set. I then die cut the image and sentiment using a pierced edge oval die from MFT. I went around the outer edge with a foam dauber and some Tim Holtz distress ink in black soot and added some black dashed lines around the outer edge. I adhered some patterned paper from Basic Grey's Archaic 6x6 paper pad onto my white card base and then cut a few fishtail banners using the same patterned paper pad and a Jillian Vance die. I adhered the longer fishtail banner directly to the card and added some black dashed lines around the outer edge for some visual contrast. I then adhered the shorter banner to the bottom of the oval die cut panel and popped the whole thing up off of the card using some foam squares from Scrapbook Adhesives. 

For my coffee choice I opted for a nice big iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I stayed up way too late last night and needed a little extra caffeine boost today!

Thank you for stopping by today. Now be sure and pop on over to Michael and Deb's blog and leave them some love in the way of a comment!

Thankful-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello, and welcome to the November edition of Coffee and Cards with Celeste and Deb. Deb and I decided to go with a Thankful theme this month since we celebrated Thanksgiving this week in U.S. We also have my good friend Rebecca Ledbetter joining us again this month as our guest designer. To create my card I started by layering some pretty burnt orange cardstock onto my white card base. I then cut down a smaller panel of white cardstock and splattered it with Memento cocoa brown and morocco inks using a small tipped paint brush and some water. Once it was dry I adhered it to the card panel and added some dashed lines around the outer edge using my Memento cocoa brown dual tip marker. I then stamped the medallion from Stampin' UP's Day Of Gratitude stamp set onto some more white cardstock using a combo of both the same Memento inks. I added a pretty bronzed brad from Stampin' UP in the center and popped the image up off of the card using Stampin' UP's foam dimensionals. I heat embossed the sentiment from the Close To My Heart's Always Grateful stamp set onto a strip of the burnt orange cardstock and heat embossed it using Recollections snow white detail embossing powder. I stamped the leaf image from the Stampin' Up stamp set and popped it and the sentiment banner up off of the card using more foam dimensionals. To finish my card off I added a few mocha sequins from The Ton to the card panel and added some dark brown dots to the medallion and leaf for some additional interest. I will also be entering this card into the latest Time Out Challenge. 

As for my coffee beverage of choice this month, I popped in on Becky and brought us both a McCafe' peppermint mocha latte. She had leftover cookies and cake from Thanksgiving so I dug in and enjoyed way more sugar than I should have. Good thing I ran this morning. LOL. Now, hop on over to Deb and Becky's blogs and leave them some love in the way of a comment.

Christmas Wishes-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello and welcome to another coffee and cards with Celeste and Deb collaboration. We loved our October collaboration so much that we decided to continue it as a monthly feature on our blogs and, as a special twist, we thought it might be fun to invite some of our fellow crafty friends to join us each month. This month we have Deb's friend Lynne Mizara. I have to admit that I was not familiar with Lynne's work up until our collaboration but after looking at her blog and checking out her work I am smitten. It's beautiful and very detailed! Deb and I let Lynne select the theme for this month's collaboration and she chose snow. It seems fitting since we are rapidly approaching the winter months. I wanted to keep my card subtle and simple. I don't typically do clean and simple cards but I had recently picked up a fun new stamp from Altenew and thought I'd try something different with it and put a slightly masculine twist on it. I started with a clean white card base and stamped the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp mini Christmas stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink. Using a separate piece of Copic-friendly cardstock I cut a rectangular panel and added some dashed lines using a Paper Smooches edge die. I stamped the pretty winter cabin image onto the cardstock using Altenew's Winter Cottage mini stamp set and then stamped the trees from the Close To My Heart Always Grateful Seasons & Nature stamp set. I love how the trees frame out the scene. I took my Copic B60 pale blue gray maker and added some interest the sky. I then took my Zig two-way glue pen and added some glue to the roof and the trees and sprinkled on some pretty and shimmery clear micro glitter to look snow. To finish my card I popped the focal panel up off of the card using some 3M foam tape. The photo honestly doesn't do the sparkle and shimmer justice...it's so much prettier in person! Now, pop on over to Debra site and Lynne's site  and see what fun they have in store for you today!
As for my choice of beverage, I went for cocoa with a big pile of fluffy marshmallows instead of coffee. Don't get me wrong...I had coffee but it's a chilly 55 degrees here this morning in SE Missouri and after my morning bike ride I wanted something really warm and comforting. So, cocoa it is!

What's Shakin'?

Today's card was created for the latest Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge. The challenge was to create a clean and simple card without a lot of layers. I'm not exactly noted for my CAS style so this was a tough challenge for me. I really wanted something where the sentiment was as much the star as the focal image. I started with a clean, white card base and die cut the sentiment using cherry cobbler cardstock from Stampin' UP and the lower case alpha dies from MFT. I adhered them onto the lower left corner of my card using Zig 2 way glue. I stamped the monkey from CTM's In The Wild stamp set onto some crumb cake cardstock from Stampin' UP using Gina K's charcoal brown ink. I fussy cut the image and separated the fingers from the hand so I could adhere them to the branch. I adhered the monkey flat to the card and then die cut the branch using an MFT die and chocolate chip cardstock from Stampin' UP and green cardstock from Hobby Lobby. I popped all of the branch elements up off of the card using foam dimensionals and adhered the monkey's fingers directly onto the branch. I hope you like it!

Happy Birthday

Today's card was created for The Male Room Young Ones challenge. The challenge is to create a card for a male baby or little boy. I don't know anyone pregnant right now with a little boy so I decided to focus on little boy birthdays since I have nephews with birthdays coming up soon. I began with a simple card base and layered on some black cardstock from Hobby Lobby. I cut down a piece of evergreen cardstock from Recollections and embossed it using a Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder and adhered the panel onto my card. I stamped four of the adorable critters from the Close To My Heart In The Wild stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink and cut the images down to simple squares. I layered them onto black cardstock squares cut slightly larger and adhered them onto to my card using some 3M foam tape. I cut a fishtail banner using a Jillian Vance die and some more black cardstock and adhered that to the card using foam tape. I used my Stampin' UP Word Window punch and some white cardstock from Staples and stamped the birthday sentiment from Sweet Stamp Shop's Just The Basics stamp set and adhered that to the fishtail banner. Using the same evergreen cardstock I die cut a few of the buttons from the My Favorite Things button die set. I tied a bow using some black and white baker's twine from We R Memory Keepers and adhered the button the card with some more foam tape. This is such a fun and simple card to make taking less than 10 minutes to put together from start to finish. I hope you like it!

Have A Super Day

My final card today was created for the Less Is More masculine card challenge. I tell you...I love making masculine cards. They are so much fun for me! I started with a plain white card base and layered on some old grey patterned paper I'd picked up at Hobby Lobby and layered on some red cardstock and then some white. I stamped the city skyscape from Close To My Heart's super powers stamp set using some Colorbox charcoal grey ink. I used a Stampin' UP borders dotted line stamp to create the top border and then used to speech bubble from the CTMH stamp to create the sentiment which I stamped using Paper Trey Ink's petite alpha in the same grey ink. I stamped the super hero image in Memento tuxedo black ink and colored him to look like Superman using my Copic markers. I popped him up on some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals to sort of look like he was hovering above the city. I love this adorable stamp set! So fun and so versatile!

Happy Birthday

I was so excited when I saw the new challenge over at Less Is More because I love making masculine cards. I used to struggle so much but I'm lucky enough to have a husband who offers me amazing input and acts as my sounding board on my creative output. I put together a collection of cards that can work for both grown men as well as younger men and teens. My first one is just a simple layout that I found on Pinterest. Using some simple cardstock and patterned papers from Hobby Lobby I stamped out the motorcycle image from Deep Red Stamps using Versafine onyx black ink and layered the panels together, added a few white and black mini brads on either side and slapped it together. The sentiment is from a My Favorite Things stamp set. Love how simple but pulled together this card turned out. This one was so easy it could be mass produced. 

Thanks for stopping by!