Friday, November 7, 2025

Snowflakes

Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: Add Some Sparkle.  I am using an image from our fabulous sponsor: Polkadoodles.

 Here is my card:
What better occasion for which to use sparkle than Christmas??  So, I chose to use this adorable winter fox with his winter hat and scarf.  I added ultrafine diamond glitter to his pom pom and hat trim and also to the snowflake he is holding.  The glue I was using came out too thick on the snowflake, so after I added the glitter I didn't like it and ended up scraping it all off.  For a fun twist, it left a very thin layer of glitter on the snowflake.  I also added some red glitter paper behind the fox to separate him from the background and backed that with a bunch of die cut snowflakes.  The picture below shows the sparkle a little bit better.


You have all month to play along.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Polkadoodles "Snowflake Freddy Fox"
Dies: unbranded circle die from Amazon; PaperTrey snowflake dies

Challenges:
Creative Fingers #311--anything goes
Cards Galore #141--anything goes
Unicorn #115--Christmas/winter
Crafter's Cafe #324--anything goes with the optional twist: Christmas
Die Cut Divas--critters













Creative Inspirations--wrapped up in winter
Craft Rocket #131--Christmas/winter
Paper Funday #625--anything goes with the optional twist: Merry & bright
Penny's Challenge #609--anything goes
CRAFT #767--Christmas
Sweet Stampin--use red for Remembrance Day
Colorful Options--red or rainbow
Love Those Pretty Papers--anything goes with the optional twist: forest critters

Saturday, November 1, 2025

Under the weather

Happy November 1st!!  It's time for a new challenge on the Critter Crazy Challenge blog!  As always, it is a month long challenge: Anything Goes as long as you feature a creature.  Here is my card for your inspiration:




Thanks for stopping by!  Hop on over to the Critter Crazy blog and check out the details and the rest of the projects from the Design Team.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted "Under the Weather"; Verve "Joyful Blooms" and "To the Moon" trio of hearts
Dies: MFT Stamps "Blueprints 13" banner 

Challenges:













Love Those Pretty Papers--anything goes with the optional twist: woodland critters
Penny's Challenge #608--anything goes
Crafty Catz #703--anything goes with the optional twist: halloween (I did not use the twist)
Snippets Playground #518--anything goes with snippets (all of the patterned paper were scraps or cut from scraps.)


 

Friday, October 31, 2025

Thankful

Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Thankful, Grateful, Blessed

Here is my card for your inspiration:
October is traditionally Pastor Appreciation month--a time for church congregations to shower their pastors with appreciation.  They work hard guiding, teaching, leading, etc. and so it is a good time to show them that we appreciate them.  This card is actually not for one of our pastors but for a man who has filled in for our church several times when we have been between pastors and is also teaching a class that my husband and I are taking.  So, I decided to give him a card as well as the four pastors at our church.  We gave them each a gift card to Dunkin' Donuts because, here, in Rhode Island, no one can live without their coffee!!!  (Except me, I don't drink coffee.)  Since I was including a coffee gift card with this card, I decided to continue that theme over onto the card front with the little travel coffee cup.  I thought I had a larger one in stamp form, but after thinking about where that would be, I decided it was most likely in digital form and I didn't have time to search it out, so little it is.
I embossed the front of the card base with a really pretty leaf embossing folder.  Then I added two different die cut maple leaves (I just love the shape of them the best!) cut from a really bright, rather hideous orange card stock.  After inking the edges with red ink, I think they turn into the most beautiful leaves!  I stamped, colored and die cut the travel cup and adhered it on top of the leaves and then die cut the word "thankful" from gold matte card stock and stuck it on the top of the pile.  I finished it all off with some tiny yellow rhinestones.  I didn't want anything too flashy as this is a masculine card, but I think the rhinestones are a good touch.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:
Stamps: PaperTrey Ink "Heart to Heart #2" coffee cup
Dies: Papertrey Ink large maple leaf; unbranded set from Amazon including the smaller leaf and sentiment
Park Lane embossing folder

Challenges:
Creative Inspirations--autumn/something spooky
Creatalicious Challenge #293--anything goes with the optional twist: fall colours or Halloween
Can You Handle the Pressure--anything goes with the optional twist: pumpkins or orange (I have orange leaves)
Creative Knockouts #557--Halloween OR fall
Penny's Challenge #608--anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday--add some texture (texture from the embossing folder, the rhinestones and the layered elements)
Crafty Chicks #792--anything goes

Monday, October 20, 2025

Paper pieced pumpkins

Hello, everyone!  It's time for the mid-month reminder for the challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: Wings and Things.  I am using an image from our fabulous sponsor: Mirtillamente.

 Here is my card:
I wasn't feeling like coloring this image this time around, so I decided to paper piece the entire thing.  I'm not sure why in the world I thought that would be faster OR easier!  Not my brightest idea, but it did turn out really great!! (At least, I think so!)  It took forever because I had to print out each section pretty much one at a time (and I may have miss printed a couple times and had to redo it).  I used scraps from this beautiful paper pack for the images and then used paper from the same pad for the rest of the card.  The largest pinkish panel is a piece of patterned paper from the pack, but since it is plain, I ran it through a leaf embossing folder for some texture and interest.  I punched out some butterflies from coordinating paper from the pack and added them with gold pearls.  I finished it off with some beautiful gold ribbon.

You have all month to play along.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Mirtillamente "Autumn Season" digi
Dies: unbranded circle die from Amazon
Martha Stewart butterfly punch

Challenges: 
Unicorn Challenge #114--autumn AND/OR Halloween
Cheerful Sketches #149--sketch













Creative Inspirations--autumn/something spooky
Creatalicious Challenge#293--anything goes with the optional twist: fall colours or Halloween
Craft Rockets #130--autumn/Halloween
{Pin}spirational Challenge #330--pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere













Love Those Pretty Papers--anything goes with the optional twist: Halloween colors (I did not use the optional twist)
Inkspirational #352--seasonal













Pearly Sparkles Challenge #112--pumpkins and/or leaves
As You Like It Challenge--ribbon or twine and why? (I use both, but I prefer ribbon.  I love the texture it adds and the fact that it comes in ALL the colors.  And It creates really beautiful bows.  Since this is an extra large size, I will probably either hand deliver this one or include it inside a package, so the added bulk isn't a problem.)
Creative Fingers #310--anything goes

Friday, October 17, 2025

Plaid birthday

Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Add Embellishments

Here is my card for your inspiration:
This was the card I made for my brother's birthday.  I used a fantastic stamp set from Altenew that created that beautiful tartan/plaid background.  It takes a little bit of time, but you can create a fabulous background in any color!  After stamping the panel, I die cut it with a stitched rectangle die.  Then I die cut the "happy" several times from white card stock and adhered the layers together for some dimension.  I stamped the "happy" from the coordinating stamp set onto the die cut layer.  I stamped "birthday" on a piece of dark gray card stock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I adhered that panel onto the "happy" and added some enamel dots.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Altenew "Tartan" (unfortunately, it does not seem to be available anymore); PaperTrey Ink "Pairings: Commodities" (also does not seem to be available anymore)
Dies: My Favorite Things "Blueprints 13" (discontinued); PaperTrey Ink "Pairings: Commodities

Challenges: 
Die Cut Divas--anything goes
Moving Along with the Times #182--sentiment as the focus
Word Power--sentiment as the focus
Penny's Challenge #607--anything goes


Monday, October 6, 2025

Birthday Wishes

Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: Wings and things .  I am using an image from our fabulous sponsor: Mirtillamente.

 Here is my card:
I colored up this beautiful "Rose Mandala" image, added gold enamel dots, a die cut bow and some punched butterflies (for my wings).  I added more of the enamel dots to the centers of the butterflies for a fun touch.  I die cut the main panel with a stitched rectangle die and matted it with gold matte card stock before adhering everything to a teal card stock base.

You have all month to play along.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Mirtillamente "Rose Mandala" digi; Verve "Be Blessed" sentiment
Dies: My Favorite Things "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle; Picket Fence Studios "A Bow for Any Reason"
Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch

Challenges:
Double Trouble Challenge #201--SomeThing, AnyThing, EveryThing (#1: 3 colors of card stock {white, matte gold, teal}, 2 dies, 1 sentiment)
Di's Digi Designs--hand colored image
Crafter's Cafe #323--anything goes with the optional twist: flowers
Die Cut Divas--anything goes
Creatalicious Challenge #293--anything goes with the optional twist: happy birthday
Beautiful Blossoms #33--anything goes with flowers with the optional mood board














Friday, October 3, 2025

Snowy Christmas

Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Use more than one die cut.

Here is my card for your inspiration:
As always, I was looking to create a quick card (I just can't seem to get myself together enough to have time to actually spend creating!) and this one fit the bill.  I looked through my stash of new(ish) dies and stamps that is sitting on my desk and found this gorgeous snowflake frame die from Lawn Fawn and knew I definitely wanted to use it.  As I went to my other desk to use my die cutting machine, I saw this commercially produced Christmas card front in one of my other stashes and knew it would be perfect to go behind my snowflake frame and it was!  Then I die cut "Christmas" out of gold mat card stock and "merry" out of black card stock (twice, so I could stack them together for a bit more dimension) and glued everything in place.  Quick, easy, and quite stunning in real life, I think.  I didn't add any embellishments as I thought there was enough going on without them.  In hindsight, I wish I had placed a layer of vellum over the background picture so the greeting would stand out a bit better, but I didn't, so . . . this is what I ended up with.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:
Dies: Lawn Fawn snowflake cover plate die (unfortunately, I don't see it on their website); Picket Fence Studios "Merry Christmas Word Dies"

Challenges:
Penny's Challenge #606--anything goes
Little Red Wagon #827--H is for Holidays
As You Like It--favorite: square or not (I almost always create an A2 sized rectangle card because you can get two card bases out of one sheet of 8x11 inch card stock.  That makes it more economical for me and I can easily get envelopes to fit.)
Die Cut Divas--anything goes
Moving Along with the Times #182--sentiment as the focus
Word Power--anything goes with the sentiment at the focus