A Foxy Fall Fox -- for SheepSki Designs

It's October 1st, and we're starting a new challenge on the SheepSki Designs Challenge Blog.  Challenges will run for a month.  This month, the theme is Autumn Colors &/or theme.  You can use whatever image you'd like, but of course, we love to see those by SheepSki Designs.  You can find man wonderful images that fit this theme in the SheepSki Designs Etsy Shop. 

I've long admired this beautiful fox image in the SheepSki Designs shop called Elsa, but was afraid to color her up.  I decided to taketh plunge for this month's Autumn colors &/or theme challenge.  Here is what I did with Elsa: 

I colored Elsa with Copic markers, working hard on making her look like she had fox fur -- and was fox colored! (I'm hoping that also means Fall colored).

I did find Fall colored papers in the We Are 3 Digital Shop.  The rust colored denim paper is from the Howdy Autumn papers.  The plaid paper is from the Autumn Flannel papers. 

The sentiment is from an acrylic stamp set from Joy's Life.  The felt tree is from my stash.

I hope you can join us this month at SheepSki Designs Challenge Blog.  I'd love to see what you make!

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:
2 Crafty Critter Crazies -- ATG with a Critter
Crafty Animals Challenge -- ATG with an animal
Cards 4 Guyz -- Trees, Leaves, or both
Try it On Tuesday -- Animal Magic
Outlawz Twisted Thursday -- no twist

Sweet Little Pumpkin -- for All Dressed Up

It's the first of October, and that means we're starting a new challenge in the All Dressed Up Facebook Group.  Challenges start the first of the month, and run all month long.  This month, the theme is Autumn or Halloween.  Since I'm not crazy about Halloween, I went with a sweet Autumn themed card.

You can find images for both Autumn and Halloween in the All Dressed Up Etsy Shop, including new releases! 

I used one of the 3 Little Autumn Girls, and created this:

I  colored the 3 Little Autumn Girls (the one on the right) with Copic markers, using earth colors, or, "Autumn" colors, if you will.   The sentiment is from a stamp set from Joy's Life.

The papers on this card are from We Are 3 Digital Shop.  They are from the Howdy Autumn papers.  The leaves and pumpkin die cuts are cut from dies from Yvonne Creations, found in the Dies R Us Store.  The enamel dots are from my stash.

I hope you find time to join in with the Autumn or Halloween challenge at All Dressed Up Facebook Group.  I have so much fun all month long seeing what everyone creates!  Shop for images here in the All Dressed Up Etsy Shop. 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:
Make My Monday -- Autumn
Digichoosday -- ATG
Crafty Sentiments -- ATG
Outlawz Monday Greetings Challenge -- ATG

I'm Talking Turkey!

Oh my, Thanksgiving is one week from today! Are you ready? The Cutting Cafe design team is in full Thanksgiving mode today, posting projects with a thankful theme.  Well, nothing says Thanksgiving like turkey!

 

 

This super fun cutting file can be found here in the Cutting Café store.  This turkey shaped card is BIG.  His wing span is about 6 1/2 inches.  But don't worry -- he also comes with a matching envelope cutting file!

I used Kraft card stock for the base of this card, then a layer of Close To My Heart Chocolate card stock, then layered on Little Yellow Bicycle Acorn Hollow 6x6 papers.  The "give Thanks" sentiment is a Joy's Life stamp -- from the "It's All Fall Puns" set.  You can find it in the Joy's Life Store here.  I used two Viva Décor pearl pens for the finishing touches on this turkey -- an anthracite pearl pen on the eyes, and a white pearl pen on the body and feathers.
I'm getting very close to 300 followers.  If I get that number this week, I'll have a drawing using this post. I've been buying goodies and saving them for quite awhile, hoping to hit the 300 follower mark. If you don't already follow my blog, I'd love it if you do.  Then, leave a comment on this post.  To increase your chances to win, comment on the other posts this week.

Check out The Cutting Café blog in the next day or two to see the wonderful projects from the rest of the design team. Leave a comment on the blog and you could win 3 free sets of your choice. How fun is THAT? 

A Veteran's Day Thank You -- for Joy's Life

Today is Veteran's Day, and it's a big day at the nursing home. There are many Veterans where I work.  Fewer and fewer of them are WWII veterans, but there still are quite a few.  They are a generation where defending their country didn't feel like a choice to them, it felt like a duty.  Saying thanks seems like the least we can do for our veterans.  They have given so much for our freedom.

My father is a veteran, and will be at the Veteran's Day Program at the nursing home today.  Sometime during the day, I'm going to slip him this little treat box, just so he knows I love him, and I'm thankful for him.

 

 

I put some of his favorite chocolates in the box.  He'll be happy!

I used the Joy's Life stamp set, "It's All Fall Puns" on the sentiment.

I cut this box out on my Silhouette.  I found the file in the Silhouette Online Store.  Here's another view of the box.

 

 

Here's a link to the cutting file, if you're interested.  The designer paper is My Mind's Eye, American Made 12x12.  The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

I promised to pick a winner today for the blog candy from the "On the Table" blog hop. Random.org chose #7, Jessica.  Her comment was:

jessicaNovember 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM

awesome job Julie!!!!!
Love the fall colors and thanks for sharing the recipe :)
Have a GREAT weekend

Congrats, Jess!  Send me you address so I can send you your winnings!

Don't forget to thank a Veteran today -- and everyday.



Fall Colors -- for Joy's Life

November already?  Where is Fall going?  We've already had snow here in NW Wisconsin.  I love Fall, with the brilliant colors of the leaves, but it's the season the follows that seems to last waaaaay to long!  This week, the Joy's Life design team is featuring projects using Fall colors. I love the Fall color palette.  They are some of my favorite colors -- I seem to gravitate towards earth tones and blues. I found some Close to My Heart papers that had blues and earth tones in them, a leaf shaped card from The Cutting Café, and got busy cutting it out on my Silhouette:

 

 

The sentiment is from the Joy's Life stamp set, "It's All Fall Puns".  Visit the Joy's Life store to see all the wonderful stamp set -- and the great bundle prices!  A white gel pen to add some faux stitching, and a little crinkle ribbon from 3 Girl JAM, and this card is a wrap.  Now, it's time to rake the thousands of leaves in my yard -- if only they were all this pretty!



Around The House -- for Joy's Life

Happy Monday, my crafty friends.  I'm coming off a weekend of spending time with 2 good friends and their 4-legged furkids.  It was great, but I'm very tired! Back to work with very little energy.

This week, the Joy's Life design team is featuring projects with the theme "Around the House".  I have to tell you, the first thing that came to mind for me was how much cleaning could be done around my house!  Maybe if I stayed home and didn't craft all the time when I WAS home.  Oh well! It just gets dusty again anyway.

So, after much hemming and hawing, stumbling and bumbling, I decided I wanted to make a little something for the end table by our couch in the living room. I found a cutting file for an acorn box -- a perfect Fall decoration that I could cut out on my Silhouette -- and I went with that.

 

 

I used the Joy's Life Stamp Set "It's All Fall Puns" for the sentiment on my acorn shaped box.

 

Here's a close up of the sentiment:

 

 

The box is an SVG file from My Scrap Chick. The leaves were cut out with a Tim Holtz die and painted with Creative Inspirations Paint.  A piece of Trendy Twine in Totally White is tied in a bow on the stem. The tag shape was cut with a Spellbinders die.  The papers are some retired Halloween papers from Close To My Heart.

I'll leave you with one more view of the box...

 

And, that's it for today.  Have a great week.  I'll be posting again on Wednesday for Get Inky! Stamps and again on Thursday for Creative Inspirations Paint.  I hope to "see" you again then. 

 

 



I used Bling!

Hello friends, I hope you enjoyed your weekend! My husband and I had a great time celebrating his birthday and exploring the south shores of Lake Superior.  Or should I say, we had fun exploring in between rain and snow showers! Mother Nature wasn't 100% cooperative!

The Joy's Life design team is using bling this week. I'm not a huge user of bling on my projects, but I managed to use it on this pumpkin shaped card...

 

I used one of my favorite stamp sets -- "It's All Fall Puns" Stamp Set.

 

 

You can find it, and all of the wonderful Joy's Life stamps here, in the Joy's Life Store.

Here's another view of the card, showing the shape a little better:

 

 

The papers are from Close To My Heart.  They are the Sarita 12x12 collection.  The rhinestones are also from Close To My Heart.  The ribbon is from 3 Girl JAM and is the London Blue from the Wine & Jewels bundle.

I promised to announce the winner of the blog candy from the weekend's All Fall hop. Random.org chose commenter #10 (Teresa K): "This banner is just adorable! Wow, I am not sure I could pull an all nighter any more myself- but it sure did not affect your creativity! Great job!
Teresa K" So, Teresa K, please get in touch with me so I can mail your blog candy off to you ASAP!  Thanks! And, I hope you enjoyed today's sweet little card.



Hurray! The All About Fall Blog Hop is finally here!

The entire talented Joy's Life design team is hopping today, sharing projects that are "All About Fall."

Here's the whole hop order, in case you just stumbled across this hop:

 Joy -- http://joyslife.com
Laura -- http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com
Lori -- http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com
Maria -- http://asimplefive.blogspot.com
Stacey -- http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com
Kendra -- http://luv2scrapnmakecards.blogspot.com
Julie -- http://muddypawsinkyfingers.blogspot.com (you are HERE)
Dawn -- http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com (go HERE next!)

 

I have a project to share with you that has lots of pictures, so bear with me.  It may make for a long post, but I think you'll like the end result. And, of course, there's a story. I seem to always have a story, LOL!  One of my dogs, Sophie, is terrified of thunderstorms.  My craft room is in the basement, and she seems to be the most relaxed there.  So, when it storms, we often craft.  Several Friday nights ago, it began storming around midnight.  I started working on this project for today's blog hop.  At 5 in the morning, it was still storming.  Wave after wave of thunderstorms came through all night.  I stayed up all night, and had this project just about complete when the thunder finally faded away. At 5:30, with Sophie snoring at my feet, I finally went to bed for a couple hours. And, what did I make on that all-night crop session?  A Fall banner.  Tell me what you think...

 

 

There's a lot to see on this banner, so I have pictures of the individual panels.  I'll tell you more of how I made it as I go along, too.

First, a close up of the top square of the banner.  Each of these 4x4 decorative squares is from a mini album that I took apart.  Close To My Heart used to make them.  They were called a Mix & Mingle album.  I love them for banners because some of the panels are acrylic and some are chipboard -- perfect for something like this!

 

I used a stamp from the Joy's Life stamp set "It's All Fall Puns" on the first panel, the "Give Thanks" sentiment.  The #4 and all the letters were cut out on my Cricut, using the Cricut Classic font cartridge.  The designer papers are from the Jillibean Soup Apple Cheddar Soup 6x6 paper pad. The white and cocoa cardstock are from Close To My Heart.

 

 

I used various Spellbinder dies to cut the shapes throughout the banner.  Here, you can see an acorn cut from a Tim Holtz die, painted with Creative Inspirations paint.  The leaves are from a cutting file from The Cutting Café using American Crafts Autumn cardstock.  The twine is from Trendy Twine, and can you see that jute string on all 4 corners?  That's the new jute string found in the 3 Girl JAM store.  It worked perfectly on this banner because of the wonderful Fall colors.  I used the Jute ribbon found in the 3 Girl JAM store at the top of the banner.

 

 

the "a" is decorated with more leaves from the Tim Holtz die. They've all been painted with various Creative Inspirations paints.

 

 

On this first "l", you can see another of the acrylic pieces that I used. There's some more Trendy Twine here, too, along with leaves cut from The Cutting Cafe's file and the Tim Holtz die.

 

 

This final "l" gives you a good look at the pretty jute string from 3 Girl JAM.

At the bottom of my banner, I used another Joy's Life stamp, from the same stamp set -- It's All Fall Puns.

 

That cute squirrel is cut from a die.  I didn't use my electronic cutter during the stormy night, so I stuck to metal dies as much as possible.  The Spellbinder ones were perfect for this project, as was this squirrel die from Cottage Cutz. I cut the squirrel out on white cardstock, but used TH distress inks to ink him up.  The eye was made with a Viva Décor Pearl pen.

I have one more view of the whole banner for you, since it was a few pictures back when you saw the whole thing.

 

 

In honor of today's hop, and the fun I had making it (it's been years since I've pulled an all-nighter!), I have some blog candy to give away.  I have some stamps, a 6x6 paper pad, some embellishments, and brads.  To be eligible to win, please follow my blog and leave a comment on this post.  I'll pick the winner with my Joy's Life post on Monday.

Now, off you go to the uber talented Dawn's blog. It's All Fall and all beautiful at http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com.  Off you go!

 

 







Ombre. Ombre? Yeah, Ombre - for Joy's Life

When I first heard this word used in scrapbooking/cardmaking/paper  crafting circles, I thought it was being used incorrectly.  Surely they were talking a Mexican food?  Or a place to visit?  A card game?  The definition of ombre is the French word for color that is shaded or graduated in tone.

I had a few ideas of how I wanted to accomplish the ombre technique, but after much thought, decided on accomplishing it this way:

 

I used various cardstock colors, shading from light to dark, for the ombre look.

The sentiment is stamped on Kraft paper, and is from the Joy's

   Life stamp set, "It's All Fall Puns" has so many great sentiments for Fall.  You can find it, and all of Joy's wonderful stamps, here in her store.

 

 

I made this card large enough to fit in a business size envelope, so there's lots of card to work with. The "Autumn" and "Autumn" shadow are an SVG file from The Cutting Café.  The shadow paper is from Imaginisce.  The card base is from Close To My Heart (Vineyard Berry).  All the letters are cut from American Crafts Autumn cardstock. The leaves are from the SVG file for the Autumn card that I sized at various sizes.  I used twine from both Trendy Twine and Timeless Twine.

You'll see other great ombre technique from the rest of the Joy's Life design team this week, so please stop by that blog and check it out each day this week.  We love visitors! 

 

Happy Fall, Y'all! with The Cutting Cafe

Here we are in the first few days of Fall, and it feels like it here in NW Wisconsin.  Our nights are getting chilly, the sun doesn't have much warmth, and the leaves are turning and falling.  Such a pretty time of year!

 

This week, at The Cutting Café, we had a choice of three sets to design with:

ACORN SHAPED CARD...TEMPLATE - CUTTING FILE

or

FALL WORD SHAPED CARD......TEMPLATE - CUTTING FILE
or

WELCOME FALL......PRINTABLE STAMP SET

Since I used the fall word shaped card in a post yesterday, I went with the acorn shaped card today.  It's definitely a fall-looking card, don't you think?

 

 

I loved how this turned out.  I've been excited ever since I got it made to post it today! The fall looking paper on the base is from Little Yellow Bicycle -- Acorn Hollow 12x12 paper. All other papers are Close To My Heart cardstock.  I used a Spellbinder die for the ribbon slide, and the Joy's Life stamp set, "It's All Fall Puns" found in the Joy's Life store. The fall leaves and acorns are a Tim Holtz die that I painted with various Creative Inspirations paints. The twine and buttercup ribbon are also from Close To My Heart.

It's hard to tell the size of this card without any perspective, but it's big! There's plenty of room to write a great big, long message inside.  My BFF is gonna love this one!

Don't forget to visit The Cutting Cafe's blog every Thursday for a chance to win 3 sets of your choice from The Cutting Café online store.  All you have to do is comment on the post to be eligible to win.  Easy peasy!

Happy Fall Y'all!
 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Inspirations Paint -- Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge -- Anything Goes

D.L. Art Thankful Thursday Linky Party -- Anything Goes

Just B Creative Crazy Linky Party -- Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog -- Fall with a sentiment

 



 



Buttons, Burlap, Kraft, or Twine -- for Joy's Life. And a winner!

Happy Monday, crafty friends.  It's all about using texture for a Fall-like feel this week with the Joy's Life design team.  Since yesterday was the first full day of Fall, we're right on track with these projects!

I used Kraft and twine for my Fall-feeling project, plus some autumn-like papers and falling leaves:

 

The sentiment is from Joy's Life "It's All Fall" stamp set.

 

You can find this set, and all her wonderful stamps, here in her store.

I used a cutting file from The Cutting Café for the "F-A-L-L" and the outline. The fall leaves are a Tim Holtz die, painted with Creative Inspirations paint. The papers used for the lettering are 12x12 Acorn Hollow by Little Yellow bicycle, mounted on a Kraft cardstock base (Close To My Heart).  The tag shape is cut with a Spellbinders die, and the twine is from Close To My Heart.
I promised to pick the winner of my blog candy and announce it today with my Joy's Life post.  I used Random.org to help me with the selection.  I entered my total # of comments from the hop, and Random.org picked comment #11.  Chriss America Real! You are the winner!  Halloween stamps, Halloween rub-ons, ribbons, embellishments, it's all heading your way, as soon as I get your address.

We barely hit 50 degrees here in WI today, with a cold North wind.  Yes, Happy Fall, Y'all!!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Inspirations Paint -- Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge -- Anything Goes

D.L. Art Thankful Thursday Linky Party -- Anything Goes

Just B Creative Crazy Linky Party -- Anything Goes
AUD sentiments challenge blog -- Fall with a sentiment

 

 

 





It's All Fall with Joy's Life

Happy Tuesday, crafty friends.  Joy's Life is having an "It's All Fall" project parade on her blog today.

I knew right away I wanted to do something besides a card, so I started thinking "outside the box".

And, what did I make? Well, a B-O-X! And, it has a wonderful fall feel to it:

 

 

All the projects featured today on the Joy's Life It's All Fall project parade use the "It's All Fall Puns" stamp set, found in the Joy's Life store.

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the stamped image:

 

 

 I used Close To My Heart cardstock and ink throughout this project.  The box is a cut file from the Silhouette online store found HERE.  The ribbons are all from Really Reasonable Ribbons.

Make sure to check out Joy's Life blog for the rest of the great projects showcased by the Joy's Life design team today!