BLUE CHRISTMAS CARD

My last post was of my first ever Santa card, and this one is of my first all blue Christmas card. I even used blue ink for the stamping inside which says, "The Lord has come, let the world rejoice". Good words for all year long, in my opinion.

My card uses a smaller simple stamp of a dove holding an olive branch made by Stampendous 2005. I wanted the card to be CAS so the image was the focal point and not a lot of fluff, stitching or embellishments. I stamped it in Stampin Up Bordering Blue ink on a gray SU card stock. I had to hand cut the shape of the gray panel, and roughed the edges. The blue under the gray is cut with a Spellbinder 4 label die and embossed. The next panel down is a shiny steel blue CS which I ran through the Cuttlebug using the vine folder. I wrapped it with a blue ribbon that has a glitzy thread between the satin side and the sheer side. Makes it look like a present. I also used the Martha Stewart corner rounder which takes off a big bite! Last is a lighter blue paper with snowflakes scattered in the gray and steel blue. I added some Stickles to the snowflakes that show. The steel blue pearls are added in the corners. This has only the first two panels popped up. I added some white gel pen to the dove and covered it with Stickles to make it shine! It is relatively uncluttered compared to others, using simple shapes and lines. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:

MY FIRST SANTA CARD...EVER!

Some people make lots of Santa cards for Christmas. I never have in the 4 years of card making under my belt. I like them, but just never have. I recently bought this vintage Santa on Ebay in Sept, I think, and loved the round design of it with the holly. So I have designed my first Santa card, and now my brain wants to try some more to see what I might create.

I first stamped the image in Versa Mark onto a white card stock. I heat embossed with black ZING ebp and colored the image with SU markers and a few Copics for shadows in the beard and hat. I used my Cuttlebug to make a red smooth circle mat, then a black inverted circle mat. I cut the Santa out by hand and adhered to the Nesties and popped those up onto the doily which had been distressed with a Tim Holtz ink, and some Stickles rubbed over the edges for some glitz. The background mat is black on the white base card, then a dark green hounds tooth from a Christmas stack. I again used my Cuttlebug and cut out and embossed the red and the holly pieces and adhered them on. I added some white snowy dots to the doily and also the four corners. The red satin bow was tied using my Bow Easy. It is kind of dark in color, but very traditional. What do you think? We will always remember our first, right?

Be sure to check back about 5 postings as I added a bunch today. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:
Timeless Flourishes Tuesday: doilies
Tip Top Tuesday: anything goes
Tuesday Taggers: Santa
ABC Christmas:Holly & Berries, Red & Green
Marks Finest Papers: Red & Green
Crafty Ann's: Christmas
Paper Players: Christmas
Inky Impressions: Christmas
2 Sisters: Sparkly Christmas
The Paper Variety: Tic Tac Toe Christmas ( die, card, holiday)

MY TRIO FOR VERVE WINTER RELEASE

This is my first ever attempt at a "release challenge". I love the look of Verve stamps but I don't have any yet. I hope to rectify that problem really soon. Sorry for the occasional shadow from the overhead light. I am NOT a very good photographer, but you can get the idea of my projects.




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My TRIO begins with the little box on the upper right, that contains 3 tea bags in a Sugar Plum flavor. I wrote "You're TEA-rrific" on the little banner. I decorated the string on each tea bag with a piece of the plaid and a snowflake. The box I constructed with white CS, cut the plaid panels to fit, added the snowflakes with a rhinestone center on each, and put the banner across to help hold it closed. Inside I made a little card with the brand of tea, the flavor and the "caffeine free' info in case that was important and they wanted to find it again.

The plastic candy container was one of a set of 5 that I found at Hobby Lobby for $2.99...a really good deal in my book. What was cute about them was that they are a miniature of the big tubs with the flip over locks on the handles on the side. I made some peppermint bark (almond bark melted in the Microwave and crushed peppermint candy canes added and then spread out on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet. I chilled it and broke it into bite sized pieces.) I put a layer of red tissue with silver sparkle dots inside it to line the container. I made a cover of the dark green CS, added a row of the white Martha Stewart snowflake border on both outer edges, backed it with the plaid CS, and added my die cut sentiment and matted with the plaid in the next sized die. I wrote "MINT for you" to hint at the mint candy inside. On the front side, I put the small banner with "peppermint bark" so they would know for sure what was inside. I added the 3 snowflakes (also Martha Stewart snowflake punches) and a rhinestone in the center of them.

The card is the third item and pretty simple. I stamped a flourish in green over the plaid CS. I did that to all three projects. I matted the plaid with green, added the row of MS snowflakes using a border, added the "Merry Christmas" on the Die cut panel and matted with a green one the next size up. I added three MS snowflakes to the card. All the snowflakes on all three projects (except for the ones on the tea bags) were covered with the Martha Stewart "tinsel" glitter and it looks so much like snow. Love it! I made a red bow but decided it covered up too much and so chose not to use any ribbon. So that is my take on the "Trio Challenge" for the Verve Winter Release. Thanks for stopping by.

THANKSGIVING THANKS

Often times we are invited places and for some reason we don't get to express our appreciation. We recently were included in our DIL's family Thanksgiving. The food was wonderful, the company fun to talk to and a good time was had by all. I appreciate all the work and prep Johna did getting everything ready and keeping everyone on track. I did express my appreciation as we left to both the hostess and host. but sent a card too.

This card was made from a Fall collection of glittered CS. I used the corner rounder on the upper left corner and the lower right corner, and I mirrored that in the sentiment panel. I used brown and red as the matting colors. I used a red/orange ribbon behind and Matti and Emma helped make the lady bugs and Emma stamped the inside. It was a pretty quick card. Thanks Johna!

ONE MORE FALL CARD

Since I in live in the cold tundra of Minnesota (You can go back a few posts and see the snow we have already had!), there still are places in the US that have bare trees, warm weather, green grass, and alley cats on the picket fence. This one is for you.

I saw this image on ebay some time ago and had wanted it. Of course I did not manage to get it, and had to wait for the next, which was over a year coming. But I finally bid/won it and here is my card. I used my Water Color Wonder Crayons from Stampin Up, which I love. They are so easy to watercolor with.

I matted using a brick red (which has a dotted texture all ready on it) on the white base. a blue, and a black I used my new Martha Stewart Vintage Floral for punching the blue and black edges to the right. I drew a few extra leaves at the base of the picket fence to color in the brick color. The sun/yellow moon is a bright yellow...maybe Summer Sun.

The sentiment was cut out using a die and the Cuttlebug. I hand cut the black one behind it. The extra leaves are very small and hand drawn. I used some scraps of the brick red and some water colored scraps that were left from another project. I cut them out by hand and put some Glossy accents over each one to give them shine. I think they add to the fall feeling. Thanks for stopping by to see my latest projects.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH

This card was made for my only daughter's BD just before Thanksgiving. She had come for a visit and I had to wait to mail it, so it got to her a couple of days late. (Sorry Beth. I didn't want you to see me working on it.) I really like this small flower stamp and thought it would look good in fall colors. With three flower panels, and "happy" there three times, it kind of goes together. I tried to carry out the colors of the flowers in the matting. I liked that beige print against the brights. The card was larger than most and so I had to make it an envelope to match out of the beige DP. If you enlarge the picture you can see the red and orange thin sheer ribbon that criss-crosses behind the images and sentiments. It adds another design element to tie all four rectangles together. I am happy with it. Thanks for stopping by.

MASCULINE THANK YOU

I needed to say Thank You to my daughters BF who was in India this summer and shopped for a sari for me. He did a wonderful job of it. They tend to have bright, orangy colors with gold and I can't wear those colors successfully. He picked a dark shade of blue and another which is light blue. They both are gorgeous and I am thrilled with them. Now to learn how to wear them and get the other parts for it too. Thanks, Sujan.

This card is pretty simple. I chose the dotted CS first for the subtle manly colors. I tore the edge and layered over the gray/blue shade on the bottom. I matted with black and added a golden/brown ribbon that has ridges on it. I used the Cuttlebug to cut out the die shaped saying, edged it with a medium blue cs, and popped it up over the ribbon. I had been playing with a corner punch from Martha Stewart. I cut the pieces and slipped under the saying above and below, kind of as a metal looking piece in black. I was happy with the results. Thanks for stopping by.

BARE TREES

There is something about the fall and bare trees. They look so strong and majestic without their leaves. I guess they have to be to make it through the tough winter. They raise their limbs up to heaven in awe of the Creator. They are grounded by a root system that sustains them in all kinds of circumstances, that nourishes them all year long and provides what they need to grow and thrive. And they give us shelter (wood for our homes). shade from the sun, and a special beauty all year long with their many shades of green foliage for spring and summer, brilliant hues for autumn, and their bare limbs for winter. Oh how I love the seasons and bare trees as part of it all.

My card is made using a bare tree background stamp I have had for some time. I believe it was from Cornish Heritage Farms. I colored a piece of white card stock using my Stampin Up markers in red, golden yellow, orange, peach, bright yellow, and pale yellow. I blended them with each other as I added the rows of horizontal colors. Then the bare trees were stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink. I trimmed this and matted in an orange from Basic Grey, a shiny yellow CS and a black. I used tiny sheer ribbon in red, orange and black to tie around the trees and instead of a fussy bow, I just knotted it and let the 6 ends be my "fluff". It is a bit more subtle that way. I chose a saying from Coleridge "Friendship is like a sheltering tree" and matted it the same. I know, I know...there are no leaves on the trees, but they carry with them the promise of shelter and the sky background is full of bright colors and hope for a new day. Thanks for stopping by.

MY WINTER WONDERLAND

Welcome to my Winter Wonderland! It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas and it is only Nov 13th when these photos were taken by our daughter who is visiting from TN for a long weekend. She has a knack for capturing special views in my opinion and I wanted to share some of her photos with you. This is the view from our front door. The house light was off but the flash made the snowflakes look like stars that had come down. I love it.





The second photo is of the front of our house from across the street. We used to have another tree in the middle of the front yard, but it blocked out the sun and was killing the grass. So we had it taken out. These pictures all were taken about 7:30am and with the recent time change, it was still dark. Of course the sun never came out since it snowed all day and we had over 7 inches.







The third picture is of our beautiful Colorado Blue Spruce in the front. It was only a 5 ft tree 23 years ago and now is as tall as the 2 story house almost. It is planted near a sprinkler head and gets a good "drink" in the summer and that might be why it has grown so well. We used to put Christmas lights on it when we could reach, but now we just enjoy its pristine beauty as God made it. The flash sure lit up those snowflakes again. Wish I could capture that look on a card. Hmmm! Have to think about that one.



Lastly is a photo of our backyard from the decking one story off the ground, We have about 8 mature oaks that are 60-70ft tall and a few Colorado Blue Spruce trees I have planted through the years. They have always been my favorite tree and I love MN/WI because of all the tall, beautiful deciduous and ever green trees in both states.

We have about 1/3rd of an acre and these trees continue to add their beauty to our home, even in winter. Thanks for stopping by to see my Winter Wonderland.

TRIP TO TEXAS

I recently was able to go back down to Texas to visit with my mother when she needed to go in the hospital for her pacemaker "generator" change. I arrived 2 days before afraid that since I fly stand by, I might not get there exactly when I wanted. But all went well, and we were able to get some pre op tests out of the way on Weds. Thursday we arrived at 11:30am, and the procedure had been scheduled for 1:30 but they got behind and it was 2:15 before they did it. All went well and mom was in recovery about 4pm. They let her rest, fed her some light foods since she had not had anything since 5am and we were home about 6pm. She is a pretty good looking 89 yr old lady, I think.

She had to leave her bandage on for 4 days and then could remove it the 5th day. Boy, they used some good sticky tape because it really pealed some of her skin off. But she is all set for another 20 years.

My nephew John and his wife from Little Rock came by and surprised Mom and me on Tuesday. John was able to bring my sister, Gloria, back up on Thursday for a good 4 hr visit. They had to drive 2 1/2 hrs to get there. We had a nice Barbequed brisket dinner and played Glorias favorite game, Skipbo and my taxi arrived at 4pm to take me to the airport. On their way home through San Antonio, a dump truck had lost its load of gravel on the highway, and they were stuck in traffic an extra two hours. This would be very frustrating to all of us but was particularly difficult for them. My sister is in a wheel chair and it had already been a long day for her.

Here are a few photos...one of mom and one of my sister and of course one of John and his wife Cindy, whom I had not seen for several years. I am very thankful John took the time and effort to bring us all together for a little mini reunion. I had not seen my sister in a year. She is 2 years younger than me and suffered a couple of mini strokes in the last 6 months. She also had been in a car accident and suffered through so much from that. I admire her spirit and her determination through it all. Her belief in Jesus has remained strong. All the women in my family ROCK! May I grow up to be as strong and resilient as they are. Thanks for stopping by.

EARPHONE AUDITION

Is Matti auditioning for a job at the radio station? Nooo. She is wearing earphones to listen to the Disney movie while her grandpa reads his book. She thought it was pretty cool being able to hear it and no one else could. We have a wireless head set and use it when one is sleeping and the other wants to watch TV. Bill has hearing aids and using these allows him to hear at the level he needs and not blast me out of the room. My hearing is still good, thank goodness.

The girls worked on a couple of cards while visiting me. They make a card just about every time they come over. The mummy card they did collectively for their "mummy". They each colored their mummy, cut it out and put it on the purple background. The grass is a Martha Stewart punch and the pumpkins are stickers...well, they are little girls and love stickers too.

Emma helped with the spider web in the corner and inside it says "We love you mummy". Too cute!



The last card is from Matti. She really loves hearts and stamped the small heart w/ bow four times. She colored them all the way she wanted and cut them out herself. Please note, they are not alike which adds so much to the charm of the card. I did mat them for her with the green which she picked out and she punched the heart border using a Martha Stewart punch which she picked out. I think part of the fun for them is picking out what to stamp, what to punch, what to color, etc. Isn't that what is fun for us too? The process is the same no matter how young or old we get. Creating on paper is just FUN! Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my grand daughters with you. They are "grand".

KINDERGARTEN GIRL

Here is a photo of Emma getting off the bus after school. We occasionally have the privilege of being there when she gets home. We make an after school snack with graham crackers or vanilla wafers and frosting or something interesting to her. Sometimes we get to pick up Matti from daycare and make treats with her too. No matter what we do, we seem to have a good time together. Thanks for stopping by.

MAMAW"S CRAFT TABLE

There is something very special going on in the half front bedroom I call my Craft Area. When my two grand daughters come over to visit, they are drawn to the table and want to stamp and make a card. They are fascinated by the punches, markers, adhesives, stamps etc, and want to use different embellishments. Emma is in the yellow colored shirt and Matti is in the pink shirt...and both are very preoccupied with the task they are doing.






This thrills me to be able to share my craft with them. I hope their interest in art will last their whole life and that they will enjoy the process of creating art, cards, whatever from inside themselves. I just love these girls and they give me many hours of smiles and happiness. Thank you Emma and Matti for being the sweet girls you are.

TEACHING MATTI

Matti saw the card I made for Krissia's BD and the lined envelope I made for the card. She wanted to make a card and line the envelope too. So we went with this simple snowflake paper, punched the corners, some punched Martha Stewart snowflakes which she loves to punch, and the sentiment which I wrote by hand in a blue to match the card front. I cut the paper for the envelope lining and she added the tape runner and tried to stick it inside. It kept sticking in the wrong place and I had to help her line it up properly. She is 4 1/2 years old, and was a good learning experience for her and she has to start somewhere. The next time she will be a little older and more able. Thank you for coming by.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISSIA

This is the card I made for our exchange student/daughter in Costa Rica. She is so special to us and I know these last few weeks have been difficult for her. Her FIL is dealing with a terminal illness. Our prayers are with him and the whole family. I thought my card might give her a few moments of happiness.

My card has a shortened front width-wise and is folded back on itself. I added a floral panel over the front which is matted in lavender. I added the Cuttlebug cut circle with the heart stamped in Momento ink and colored with Stampin Up markers. The floral corners were also in the set of clear stamps as was the saying. I added the ribbon under the circle before adhering it. I was not sure of how to do the tie coming from the back. I decided to cover the back of the front circle and cut it to meet the fold line, and used the left over piece to cover the ribbon attachment point on the back. Here is a picture of the inside of the card showing the use of the small floral print. It worked out. Thanks for stopping by.

MISSED ONE

I made a BD card in Aug for my friend Emiline in Del City, OK but I failed to post it on my blog. Here I am trying to catch up. Emiline met me while wintering in Green Gate Grove retirement park years ago and she is so funny and makes me laugh. So I thought to make her a BD card to make her laugh. I used the Penny Black image of four chickens...one with a card, one with a bouquet, one with a BD cake , and the last with a present. It is stamped with Momento Tuxedo black, colored with Stampin Up markers and a Copic soft gray for shadows on the chickens. The bottom corners are rounded on all matting, DSP and image. I matted in red and purple and the BD candle DSP which has very bright primary colors was where I got my inspiration. I tied a sweet purple ribbon and a popped up sentiment "It's your day" which was matted with the same red and purple and with rounded corners.

Inside I stamped in Momento Tuxedo black the funny saying and added a little "spring chicken". She loved it and said all my cards are special because they are home made. Thanks for coming by.

FRIENDSHIPS

My card today is a D. Morgan image. I learned about D. Morgan from my DIL whose family came from TN and she has several framed D. Morgan prints on the walls in their home. They are just lovely and when I see all the wonderful stamp images made from D. Morgan, I really get happy. Love them all!
This one says "In my garden of memories...you are the dearest flower." The flowers are so sweet and fun to color. I think they are hollyhocks.

I followed the coloration as best I could from the stamp top. I used a blue from Stampin Up and stamped the whole image on it in Momento Tuxedo black ink. I notched the corners with my little Marvy punch, and matted with hot pink.

I then stamped it again on white, colored the flowers, splattered the white framed section by making tiny little blue and pink dots placed randomly. I distressed the frame edges, and added some Copic shadows in a very pale pink. I cut the flower/frame section out, tied on the pink dotted sheer ribbon and pop dotted the panel onto the blue section. I added a little Stickles to the flower centers for a little sparkle. I could have added more embellies, but honestly felt it would detract from this beautiful image. This is the kind of card you send to a really sweet friend. We need to tell our friends how much they mean to us and often. We never know when we might not get the opportunity again. Life can change in a moment and someone who means a lot to us can be gone forever. Carlene...this one's for you! I appreciate all you and your husband did for me as a teenager years ago. I am sorry I did not tell you enough before your passing but know you are looking down on me still.
Thanks for stopping by....

Creative Stamp Friends (Kreative Stempelfreinde) #11- Favorite stamps
A Spoonful of Sugar-Embellishments (Stickles and ribbon)
ABC Challenge-Glitter

AUTUMN COLORS

I wanted to make another Autumn colored card. I missed our leaves turning since I was traveling and spent a week + in TX with my mom. I am so Thankful to live in a place that has all the seasons. Each has a beauty all its own and Autumn is spectacular in Minnesota/Wisconsin. And I am Thankful to GOD for the beauty He has created. All Thankfulness begins with knowing GOD and who He is and appreciating what He has done for us and continues to do every day. GOD IS LOVE!

This card started with a leaf print paper which I cut around the leaves to "leave" a window to allow my textured Kraft card stock to show through. I used the Distressed stripes folder for the texture. I love that folder because the stripes can blend with so many types of papers and themes. I used a Bazzill linen card stock at the top in a chili pepper red, matted with a smooth chili pepper red and Kraft CS and distressed the edges before I adhered the layers. I stamped the saying in Versa Mark and heat embossed it on an orange card stock. I cut it out with the Cuttlebug Nestie and matted the second one in SU cranberry crisp, but turned it . I used Stickles on the one leaf and the bottom paper was a little uneven, so I added a "stitch line" of Stickles to draw the eye away from the irregular edge. : ) We crafty crafters need to be able to fix things some times. (Have you ever had to cover something up with a bow, or turned over the first stamping job because you bobbled it a bit, etc...? "Necessity IS the mother of invention" they say! LOL) Thanks for stopping by.

Sew Many Challenges-FALL
ABC Challenge-Glitter
Our Creative Corner-Attitude of Grattitude

SUNFLOWERS ONCE MORE

My last card I made before going back to MN is another sunflower card. This one fits in a business sized envelope. My poor sunflowers by the deck are hanging their heavy heads and the squirrels are eating the seeds out and scattering them for next years sunflower crop. : ) I made this last sunflower card in honor of those flowers and remembering their beauty.
This card is an unusual shape on top. It is a bifold card, slightly elongated to accommodate the longer image and my little gifty inside...a bookmark. I colored the image (a couple of sunflowers and one having a lady bug on the center) with Stampin Up markers and used my Cuttlebug to cut out the shape with a die. I trimmed the top of the card to make the edge follow the top of the die shape and to create some interest. I matted it first in dark green and then used the two different greens to make two panels behind the image. I tied on some golden yellow ribbon before sticking it all down. The image is pop dotted up.


When the front is opened, it opens to the second folded surface. I added more dark green as a scalloped mat around the oval sentiment "Happy, happy, happy Birthday!" which was cut with the Cuttlebug. I added a vertical of brown and white check on top of the med green, trimming the tops by hand to follow the unusual shape. I had a really tiny lady bug stamp and stamped one off on a separate piece of white, colored it, cut it out and popped it up on this side with a dashed line to make it look like it is flying. I loved doing this. You may need to enlarge the picture to see my dashes.



When this side is opened, I have placed a coordinating book mark inside with a vertical sunflower image and golden yellow ribbon tied on. I also added some stamped lady bugs on the sides to bring it all together. I think I need to add something around the edges of the book mark or mat it behind with the dark green. or at least edge it with some green ink to make it show better. To hold the book mark in place, I put a strip of the brown/white check which is matted with green and if you look closely, you can see where I stamped "Love You" on the brown/white check. It is hard to see and I may need to do something to make it show better...like embossing it in black or something. Thanks for stopping by.

Party Time Tuesday #19-Birthday
TSG79 Here she goes getting "gifty"

FRIENDSHIP BEARS

I have loved this image ever since I saw it used by my good friend Davi. I finally found it on Ebay and here is my version.

The bears are colored with pencils, and cut out using a Nestie. I mounted on a larger blue Nestie of SU brocade blue, I tried to distress the inside of the panel in the nestie but it was too dark. Need to find out what others are using for that technique. I added the Basic Grey yellow with tiny blue dots, a back panel of blue and punched the corners. I added pink pearls in the corners. The sentiment is on the tinest of the Nestie set and I used three colors of ribbon just tied in a knot to bring all the colors together...pink, blue, and yellow. I like the softeness of this card. Thanks for coming to see me today.

HELLO MUMMY!

I am not much into Halloween as it conflicts with my Christian beliefs. I think it is fun to have costume parties for kids and the genuine Harvest Festival parties celebrating God's bounty in the food we grow and share. I did let my kids Trick or Treat a little but only a few neighbor houses. and we never did Santa pictures or Easter bunny pictures. They are just not what we wanted to emphasize.

When I let my grand daughters pick out a stamp each in the sale stamps at Hobby Lobby, I did not restrict them. Matti chose the house silhouette stamp which you might have seen her card about 6 posts back. Emma chose a mummy stamp and hasn't had time to use it as she is in Kindergarten all day. I decided to use it to make a different card than Halloween. It says "Hello" on the outside and on the inside"Mummy", as a play on "mommy" for my mother.

I chose to make the card base look like it was wrapped as the mummy is and used strips of paper toweling to do it with. I distressed the edged with Tim Holtz "old paper" distressed ink and some black marker. I used two panels of card stock in two browns to mat the mummy panel but off set them. And I used SU Dusty Durango around the image to give it a little pop. The "Hello" is stamped on a small die cut piece. It is very different than my usual flowers and flourishes, but I think cute and "almost" Halloween looking. Thanks for stopping by.

VERVE VSWCMD5

My card for this sketch uses a variety of papers and card stock. The matting is Basic Black from Hobby Lobby. the background print is Recollections "Purple Daze Flashback", the left lavender is from the same collection and is called "Grape", as is the swirling green called "Ride the Wave" (all from Michaels). The purple to the right is SU Lavender Lace as is the border around the circle. The floral image is from Stamp City and was fun to color. I used SU markers and used a light lavender to add flourishes to the circle before I stamped the sentiment which is a square peg type stamp but has no name on it. The "ribbon" is really a cord and unravels if you don't put tape around the end or tie a knot. I used the tape this time. The circle punches are from SU and all stitching is "faux". I added three pale green pearls which were a gift from Simon Says Stamp. Thanks Simon!

Thanks for stopping.

VERVE VSWCMD4

This card uses a wreath for the circle. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to make such a perfect circle to put on this card. Thank you Julee for explaining it to me and others. That is part of the fun of learning from each other. The wreath is the PSX Sunflower wreath and I fussy cut around it leaving a little white on purpose. I used a dotted back ground in tan and a dull red from a pad of papers in my stash. I ran the raffia around for the ribbon since the wreath had a raffia bow in the image. I tied a raffia double bow to add dimension. The saying, "Autumn Blessings" is from Print Works. and the Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown panel is punched with the Martha Stewart Simple Scallops. I added some tiny red rhinestones to some of the berries and under the saying. I did faux stitching around the background and sentiment panel.

Thanks for stopping .

VERVE VSWCMD3

My card for this sketch uses the PSX sunflower botanical. I matted it with green and chocolate truffle brown. I covered the background with SU yoyo yellow and edged it with the Martha Stewart Swirling Lace punch and some small rhinestones. I used the SU 2002 sentiment, "It's Your Day" (the sentiment square is smaller than the sketch so the flower could be seen.) The ribbon is some from my stash.

VERVE VSWCMD2

My card for this sketch uses a Stamps Happen stamp and is titled, "Bumble, the bee keeper". I colored it with SU markers but used Copics on the wings and face and skin. The sentiment is a Judith stamp I bought off of Ebay. I used the Martha Stewart Embossed Scalloped border and the SU Ballet Blue and SU black for my matting. The ribbon is from Walmart and has been discontinued at some Walmarts. it is my favorite ribbon because it is half sheer and half satin with a tiny shiny thread down the center. The ovals are Spellbinders Classic oval and Scalloped oval.

VERVE VSWCMD1

My card for this Verve Release sketch uses shades of orange and some Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown. I used the Cuttlebug folder of Autumn Words for the background and the EK Success "Swirls" punch. The vertical brown is textured using the Cuttlebug Herring Bone folder and I used the Swiss Dots folder on the light orange. Everything is matted with SU Dusty Durango (retired). The pumpkin image is a PSX from 2000 and colored with SU markers. The bling flourish is from Walmart and I used it instead of ribbon. I added the punched corner and rhinestone jewel to the upper right.

Thanks for stopping by.

OCTOBER IN WISCONSIN

Here we are back in Oshkosh. Our family is such fun for us and keeps us moving! I attended swim lessons this Sat morning. Emma is doing well with her back float kicking. She has a strong kick! Matti is practicing the crawl stroke and becoming more accustomed to water in her face. The three little boys in her class love to splash and all the time, much to her frustration.

After swimming, we made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and the girls each picked out two colors of embroidery thread. Emma has two stuffed animals who need some repairs to their faces and Matti just "needed" some thread "for her picture". Not sure what picture and what she intends to "create" but she likes to experiment with things. I let them each pick out a stamp in the discontinued ones. Emma chose a walking mummy with bandages all around except for eyes and some bandages are unraveling. Matti chose a 2x2 Stampabilities stamp with 2 haunted houses. She asked me if I have turquoise ink and I do, so we will have to see what she makes from that.

I am playing around with both of their stamps. I used the houses and created a night time scene with the houses in black over a sunset sky and I did the whole card in 10 min. I was experimenting directly onto the card front and it just happened. I will wait until Matti makes her card before posting mine, and will put them up together. Mine uses Cat's eye chalk inks for the sky, and I made a circle mask for the moon before inking the sky. I drew the clouds, the spider webs, and the spider. The rest is pretty simple.

Here is Matti's card, all bright and sunny just like she is! The only part I did for her was to ink up the stamp for her(so she didn't get it on her clothing!). She picked out all the colors and where she wanted to put them. The turquoise house is close to the pink one and she did not stamp it hard enough to get the full color, so I outlined it with her permission. We talked about the sidewalks and the punched flowers for the flower beds. She wanted some birds in the sky, so I showed her on another piece of paper how to make birds from the letter "M", but the points are rounded. Matti made hers more like "M's" but that is OK. She did it herself! I think for a 4 1/2 yr old, she did a super job and is learning so much. It is amazing that one stamp can be used to create such different looks. We had a blast being together and "stamping".

We are making ourselves available for picking up the girls to help the family when needed. Jodi is finishing up her second masters and so there is a time crunch some days since Matti is still in the daycare, and Emma is in kindergarten. We help when we can.

Thanks for stopping by.

UNUSUAL

My backyard is about 1/3rd of an acre with about 10 mature oak trees (60-80 ft tall) A few are red oaks but they are mostly white oaks which are resistant to oak wilt disease. We used to have lots of elm of various sizes but now most of those have been cleared because of Dutch elm disease. And we had to remove a couple of oak trees in the 23 years here. We have a bit of the woods cleared with a cement curb edging around to separate the grass from the wooded parts. I have planted some hostas, shrubs, and a few Colorado blue spruce to give us a variety of trees , bushes and flowers. My neighbor says it looks like a park in my backyard.

This week was unusual as we had two sitings of birds not typically found in my backyard. For the last two weeks we have seen a large pilleated woodpecker on the suet feeder and in the tree. Now this bird is about 15" tall and has a red head. It is very wary of any movement and the picture, although not clear, at least will show you what he looks like. Bill snapped the photo from inside the family room and about 10 ft away from the window. We hope to get a better photo at some point. He has been here three times, so is hungry. I plan to leave the suet feeder full when we go over to WI soon, so there will be suet for all the woodpeckers and other birds who like it.


The next unusual bird I saw, is an eagle! YEP! and I've got the picture to prove it! I was up early that morning this last week, and as I sat in my recliner looking out the window, I thought I saw a stump or something large up in the tree about 100 ft from the house. It had been raining and all the trees were wet. Then this thing moved and I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped this one photo. I ran to get the binoculars and as I tried to get closer to the window, it must have seen me. Just those few seconds and it was gone. Bill enlarged and enhanced both of these photos so you too could share in the unusual birds from my back yard. Thanks for stopping by. M

THE FLYING FAMILY

Our son and his family were able to come over for the long Labor Day weekend and it was such a blessing to have them here. Here is a photo of them at the airport. They all are so precious to us!

The airplane was pretty empty on the 40 min flight and each girl was able to sit by the window and look out side! Emma commented they even flew through a cloud! They also commented how small houses and trees look from the air. We all need to see the world through the wonderment and eyes of a child and hang onto those feelings.

They were able to make a couple of trips to the Mall of America where I rode the Log Ride with Matti and Emma rode with her daddy. That is their favorite. There was hardly anyone at the mall which made it nice...no lines! We also visited a Park Reserve that has some fun climbing towers. The girls spent a couple of hours playing there and we all had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (Jodi's fave!) after wards.

Thanks for coming over! You made the weekend wonderful for us! Love you to pieces!

COMPUTER GIRLS

Give a girl a computer at any age and STAND BACK! They will learn at such a rate as to make your head spin! These two love their Mamaw's little pink computer aka. PINK. They have a few games on it that they really seem to enjoy (Winnie the Pooh Pre School game where they can paint pictures, and learn numbers, and counting and adding and subtracting and looking for pictures that are alike for Owls picture album, and more!) They also enjoy their moms iPad and Matti (on the right), has been sending me pictures she colors on her mom's iPad using a free app for drawing and coloring. I think we have another Jackson Pollock here. Matti seems to love color and applying it to where ever is available. They both love drawing on the driveway. Emma is in Kindergarten now all day, and Matti in the 4K program at the daycare where teachers from the school district come out and teach the 4 yr olds half a day. It is mandatory by state law and some children who are not in daycare get bussed to school for half a day. Should give them all the preparation for being successful students the rest of their school careers. GO EMMA! GO MATTI! We are so proud of you both!