Fall Banner

I was completely inspired to make something 'fall' yesterday for my home

- the trees are so gorgeous right now with leaves of green, gold, orange and red!

And then I saw what Kimberley made for Founder's Circle (which I was not at...I'm not even a demo...yet;), and I just had to play!

See here for the Boo-banner Kimberley made!

Each piece for the banner is 3 1/2 x 8" and is scored at 6 1/2".

Recipe (all items SU unless mentioned):

- cardstock: natural ivory, chocolate chip, cherry cobbler, marigold, pumpkin

- stamps: medallion, elements of style, tiny tags

- big shot: SU impression plates; lettering-vintage mkt (new from Tim Holtz)

- ribbon: SU kraft taffeta & cherry cobbler seam binding; lace & green were odds and ends I had (the green was actually hard to work with)

Lynn's Birthday

It was my sweet friend's birthday on Monday and this was the card I made her:)

Recipe (all ingredients SU):
- cardstock: vintage ivory; always artichoke
- ink: always artichoke, bravo burgundy, caramel
- stamps: vintage vogue, oval all, very vintage
- stencils, brad & hodgepodge
- and oops, the ribbon wasn't SU, but I'm not sure where it was from, I just have a big roll I've been working on forever;)

Vintage Baroque

I was playing around with making flowers out of scallop circles and this is what I came up with...

All supplies SU:

- stamps: baroque motifs; french flair

- inks: always artichoek, close to cocoa, basic black

- cardstock: vanilla, chco chip, always articoke

- ribbon: wide satin choc chip (it's on the clearance rack!)

- antique brad

Notably Ornate

I'm sure you've noticed by now, I'm totally in *love* with pg 125 of the new SU catalog. From the moment I saw it, it was just me!

Supplies used on this card (all SU):

- stamps: Notably ornate; Elements of style

- cardstock: ridinghood red, chocolate chip; very vanilla

- ink: ridinghood red, chocolate chip

- other: designer label punch & hodgepodge hardware

Card Holder

I found this Eiffel Tower card/picture holder this weekend at Home Sense and couldn't resist it! ...perfect for displaying cards, I thought. In my craft-time this morning, I decided to embellish it though because it was so starkly black and that it's Paris at all - Paris has this wonderful brownish-vanilla'y-yellow tone...and antique goldish...well kind of like this tag I made:) I just love vintage!!

Embossing Charms

In the second September challenge over at A Charming Place, we were challenged to create a project using 3 charms and to emboss those charms. I never knew you could do that - what fun! I used a heart, key and slide charm and embossed them in 'pirates' gold':) Here's a link to the forum where Leah explains how:) It's really just like embossing a stamped image...stamp your charm into a versamark pad (generously!) and then emboss with embossing powder (generously again!) and a heat tool. As I was doing this, I realized a great application of this would be if you needed a silver brad and only had gold or a copper eyelet and only had silver:) I also pulled out my Big Shot for this project using several of my SU dies and my embossing plates. I think it's important to remember to pull out our stuff and play...too often we don't think to use what we have;)

Charms were, of course, from A Charming Place, and all other supplies were Stampin' Up including:

- chocolate chip, ridinghood red, vanilla, crumb cake and baja blue cardstock

- Artistic Etchings, Tiny Tags and French Flair stampsets

- Top Note and Label dies for the Big Shot along with one of the standard embossing plates

- Inks were: close to cocoa, chocolate chip, ridinghood red and black. I also used a versamark pad with the embossed pieces

- Ribbon: very vanilla satin ribbon, chocolate chip taffeta ribbon and linen thread

Flattenable Box

So I finally got around to trying this project from Kimberly! I mostly wanted to figure out how to make a flower like this and play around with a few new supplies. I worked that into my last August Challenge from A Charming Place and this is what I came up with:)

Supplies are from all over on this project: SU, My Mind's Eye, A Charming Place and even The Dollar Store;)

Altered Tin Swap

I'm part of an altered tin swap and this is what I came up with...now to figure out how to mail it;) It's filled with some crafting treasures all of which can be inked, smooched or glimmer misted to coordinate with lots of different crafting projects...

August MAP Challenge

I was a little stumped at first on this challenge (over at ACP). I didn't have any map dp or stamps?! But then I took some inspiration from a co-worker's upcoming anniversary trip to Italy and I found a map of Italy online, copied it into word and edited it a bit - then printed it out on kraft and inked it up. I stamped the background using SU's flourish stamp from the elements of style set and I clear embossed it. The flourish on the tag comes from SU's tiny tags set and the 'bon voyage' stamp is from Michael's $1.50 bin. I chose to use a wine bottle charm to finish it off because Italy is the wine capital of the world (well, next to France) and it seemed fitting with the sentiment:)

August Challenge #1 - Travel Challenge

Shawna is hosting the challenges at ACP this month and posted the most breathtaking project this morning. Her challenge was to create a travel themed project and to make it 'charming'. As you all know, I LOVE Paris...with my husband working and my daughter sleeping this morning, I had time to play. I decided to try and use some supplies or techniques I hadn't before - so I pulled out my decor elements stencils and my presto paper. I had sponged with the stencils before, but today I also used a background stamp. With the presto paper, I used my favourite spun sugar smooch spritz and some sponging. I used 2 charms from ACP, the postcard and the 'paris'....and voila!

First Challenge

I became a member at ACP this week. They have monthly challenges and this is what I made for my first-ever challenge. The challenge was to use EITHER black OR white and then only 2 other colours (and to use a charm, of course!). I chose to use white, turquoise & brown - and since I was making a flower, I used a flower charm:) I combined this challenge with a flower tutorial I found today that I wanted to try out. The DP is some old Penny Lane paper from last summer.

Card Candy Swap

I'm participating in a card candy swap over at 'A Charming Place'. This is what I came up with:)

Rocker-husbands read too!...

...another bookmark...this time for my hubby...more scraps used...more fun playing...

Reading is the 'key';)

I've made a few more corner bookmarks - mostly as a place to play with some new goodies, but also because my family really liked how they work:)

I used the new sizzex die from Tim Holtz on this one (paper is all scraps;)

Mini Album...started..

Yesterday was 'Stamp-Camp'...an annual event at Shawna's cabin at the Lake were we do projects and get to see the new Stampin' Up Catalog:) It was a fun day of projects, techniques, friends and food (I even had that first smore I've had in probably 4-5 years!)

This was the mini album I started - there's lots more to be done, but I thought I'd share it since it features some of my favourite new products - actually, everything on page 125 in the new Catalog is my favourite;) It will be fun to finish off the inside and maybe I'll get some pictures posted of that part when it's done:)

Another Bookmark

I liked the way the corner bookmark I posted on the weekend works, so I made this one for my tea-loving friend...again out of scraps...the stamps I used were from Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry, Cup of Tea collection. All inks used were distress ink...the brownish tone is my usual (and most favourite), vintage photo:) and the blue is called stormy sky:)

Corner Bookmark

I played around with this week's Splitcoast tutorial this morning and this is what I came up with. I have to say I'm really pleased with how well it works as a bookmark! I used an assortment of scraps really - the largest piece of cardstock needed is only 4 x 4. I embossed the stamped images - and the stamps were from Pink Paisley's Cupid Collection:)

Memory Glass

This was my first attempt playing around with Ranger's Memory Glass. I had a little trouble with the thickness, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice dimension for it;)

Merci

Just playing around with smooch spritz on a thank you card this weekend:)

Penny Lane Frame

Friends of ours recently went on a mission trip to Africa and the pictures inspired this frame. I used some penny lane paper and some chestnut fluid chalk ink:) The flower is made out of 3 circles punched out of coordinating paper and distressed.

Also on a side note, I finally got my 'create' up on the wall in my craft space:)