AUTUMN IS HERE!

Here in MN the temperatures are dropping at night, the leaves are beginning to turn and a few have landed on the grass! CRASH! Autumn is here! The peak color season will be here in a few weeks time and by the middle/end of Oct, most of the leaves will have fallen and blown around the yard and collect in particular spots and flower beds.

I have spent some of this month in MN cleaning out pantry cabinets and getting rid of items that are from the prehistoric age! LOL! And that is the kind of job that makes a mess first because you have to take everything out of both cabinets, and then move the canned goods over nearer the one by the stove/refrigerator. I have thrown away all the pasta, dry goods, and old items to make room for some of my craft items. YIPPEE! I love having a space for my stuff. I still have a couple of shelves above to clean out and need to wash down all the shelves and run the Tupperware through the dishwasher. I only use part of it and maybe need to get rid of some of it.

I did make a nice 6x6 Friendship card. I have included 3 photos here. I used a white card base, Basic Grey Indian Summer background., two panels of a rose pink shimmer CS, turquoise Bazzill "tropical", and a pretty piece of My Mind's Eye Bohemia "Bliss" "darling daughter" (this is a long name but has the rose, white and turquoise colors in the chrysanthemums on it). I just love this top CS. I stamped a 1994 Stampendous "Friendship blooms in loving hearts" in Baroque Burgundy from SU , cut it out with the Spellbinders Deckled rectangle die on my CB. I matted with the tropical turquoise and the rose shimmer. I added a piece of SU grosgrain in Baroque Burgundy ribbon down the middle and tied a small bow I made with my Bow-Easy. I added pink rhinestones in each outer corner. The third picture I took at an angle to show the two side panels popped up as is the saying panel. I'm liking it a lot!

I also have been coloring on some sunny sunflowers...one fromPSX (their botanical), a fall wreath also from PSX, and a THANKS with a row of sunflowers under it. These will be posted when I figure out how to use them for some Autumnal cards. Enjoy Autumn!

Thanks for stopping by. M

BOO! IT'S LUCI!

I promised a reveal of Miss Luci under the comforter...and HERE she is!

Here in MN we don't have as many windows on the world for the cats to look out and dream. They all sit on top of the love seat in the family room at one time or another to watch the bird feeders. Jack makes a "cak, cak, cak" sound when he watches them. Here they all three are looking out the front storm door. Two cats from next door come over for breakfast occasionally and I give them a little and they will sit on the outside and look in longingly as our three look out longingly. Not sure what they would do if they were together. Mine do not have their front claws so not sure who would be aggressive and who would run and be passive. I'm thinking it would be three against one! LOL!

BACK IN MINNESOTA

We are back after traveling the 5+ hours in our van with the three cats to get here. The cats do pretty well and usually settle down after the first hour or two. We bring along bins of my stamping stuff and I throw a big comforter over it all and they each find a place to sleep a little. We usually stop twice to stretch our legs and get a bite. We listen to audio mystery stories on the way and for us, the time passes quickly.

I have several pictures of the cats doing various things, and thought I could combine them in a posting since they are our "children". Here is our Mari cat in the vertical blinds on the window ledge at the condo in Oshkosh (I love those verticals for the cats because they can not damage them getting up on the ledge!). Our blinds hang free and the cats can get up there and get some rays even when they are closed. The ledge is about 6 inches so plenty of room.

Yes there is a cat under the comforter on the couch...can you guess which one? For some reason, Jack mainly but Luci sometimes likes to hide under there. Jack will sleep a while. Luci is usually just playing a little at Hide and Seek or her other favorite You Can't See Me! This is Luci. See the next posting for the reveal!

This is Jack on the girls daybed with their stuffed animals and soft pillows. He likes to be in that room with me as I am doing my crafting. The three of them provide us with such joy everyday. Even the work required to care for them is minimal compared to the joy we gain. They are just plain FUN! And make us laugh!

Thanks for stopping by...M

SUNFLOWERS

Isn't GOD'S creation marvelous. Besides all the flowers in His garden for us to enjoy, he uses birds as planters. We have a sunflower feeder off the edge of our decking in Oshkosh. The birds must fly over to the edge of the deck and while trying to crack the seeds, drop a few. We have four beautiful sunflowers growing there. Makes me want to make a few cards with sunflower images. I just received about 5 different stamps with sunflowers, so will work on it. Here are a few of the pictures I took. They are taller than our grand daughter Matti who is 4 1/2 yrs. She liked the bee on the one the best. Look around you at the wonders He has made for us to know HE IS!

SECOND WEDDING CARD

I was reading another persons blog about "square" cards. They require special envelopes and usually extra postage but can be soo pretty. I was wanting something white on white or near white and came up with this one as a wedding card.

My card base is white, the next layer is a wedding swirl print in echrue and I rounded the corners with my Creative Memories punch. The next layer is "punch around the block" with Martha Stewarts Deco Shell set. They tell you what size to make your pieces so as to match up the corner and border. The third layer is a solid echrue colored CS run through with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and edged with a scallop. The center is an image of the word LOVE in block letters. I stamped it in Versa Mark on cream. I heat embossed it with white EP. I distressed the edges of the LOVE square with Tim Holtz "Pumice Stone" distress ink and then matted it with a thin layer of white CS. Love thatPumice Stone color! The larger flower is made by me...my first paper flower. Woohoo! I punched 5 flowers from the echrue CS using a 5 petal punch, spritzed them lightly with water and scrunched each layer up tightly into a spit ball. I let them dry over night, flattened them out a little, and punched a little hole in each. I layered them on top of each other and stuck a beige brad through the center. I then scrunched the center petals tightly and as I went down the stack, each lower one was a little more open. It was really easy and next time I will try it with a scalloped circle. The other flowers were just small flower punches. I tried some greenery but decided I liked the little blue flowers instead. I may add leaves also later. I added the little white ribbon because that corner looked bare. Thanks for stopping by.

CARD FOR SIS

Emma had her adenoids removed and tubes put in just before school. We took care of Matti while Emma was having the surgery and while she was recovering in the afternoon. All went perfectly.

Matti and I decided Emma needed a "get well" card and spent most of the morning making it. When I do cards with the girls, I make it important to include them in every phase of it that I can. I collected some stamps for the front image and Matti chose the ice cream sundae and the two ice cream cones. I also picked out some appropriate sayings, and Matti asked me what each one said and she picked "Hope You Feel better soon" for the inside. She picked the colors to color the image and did that and she also chose the colors for the matting. She wanted to punch too (she loves punching) and decided on the pop-up butterflies and every other one is punched out. She added them to the inside. She did all the pop dotting and Stickles to give it some bling. She wrote her name inside and I helped guide her hand to do the front writing ("Have a treat"). We did not have the right stamp for it so just wrote it. Matti did all the adhesive runner and

wanted the ribbon and put it down with double stick tape. There was one little booboo with the Stickles, so I just added all the dots of Stickles to confuse the eye. Was I successful? I think for a four year old with some guidance, she did a marvelous job.

AUG ANNIVERSAY

Jodi and Bill had their 8th wedding anniversary Aug 9 and this is the card I made for them. They took their girls and had a family vacation at the Wisconsin Dells for a few days. I made a bag of Chex snack mix with lots of pecans for them to take along.


My card uses some pink razzleberry card stock for the solid with some light pink with loopy flowers. I used a spellbinder Nestie to cut out the white and the mat of the razzleberry. The "Celebrating 8" stamped in Versa Mark was embossed in hot pink. Also on the inside I added "wonderful years" and stamped in hot pink. The daisies with pink centers are from a roll from the fabric dept at Wal-Mart and the leaves are a Martha Stewart punch. The bottom punched border on the front is also a Martha Stewart punch called "Quilted" and is a very pretty edge. I also used the corner punch of this set on the corners of the pink daisy paper but they might be a little hard to see. I needed more light to showcase this card.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share.