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!

 

 







A very special Friday!

Hello, and happy Friday! Today is my husband's 55th birthday.  We met when he was 24 and suffering from a brain tumor.  We started out our life together thinking life was precious and not knowing how many years we'd have together.  We'll celebrate our 30th anniversary this December.  We now know without a doubt life is a gift.  So is love, and every day we have together!

We're celebrating his birthday by getting out of Dodge.  The dogs are being kenneled (something we never, ever do -- bad things happen when we kennel our dogs, but that's a story for another day), and we're heading North to Lake Superior. We're hoping for some nice weather to enjoy our favorite lake together (but the forecast is for 2 days of rain mixed with snow. Oh well!). We're taking today off of work to get an early start, making a 3-day weekend of it.  Off we go on a little adventure, celebrating life and love!

I've made my husband several different birthday cards that I'll give him throughout the weekend.  You'll be seeing them in the next few weeks.  Today, I'm showing you a kinda goofy one I whipped up, saving the fancier ones for later...

 

I cut this out on my Silhouette, using some old DCWV birthday papers I've had FOREVER.  The candles are sorta 3D, sticking out from the cake.  Inside, I stamped a Unity sentiment:

 

 

I framed the sentiment with a couple more birthday candles.  One of them covered up an ink smudge ;)

 

I have a couple more cards to share with you also.  This week, my 26 year old nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia.  He is facing a month of hospitalization and chemo.  I made what I'm guessing is the first of several cards heading his way:

 

 

I used the Unity/Susan K. Weckesser Autumn Grunge stamps on this card, stamping the leaves randomly, and in different Fall colors.  The sentiment is from Close To My Heart.

I made another one almost identical to it.  Those of you who know me, know I often make 2 cards the same.  This one went to a co-worker recovering from carpal tunnel surgery.

 

 

I added a little bling to this card, since it went to a "female" recipient. I was also liking the way the fern-like leaf stamped, so stuck primarily to that one on this card.

I promised my husband this weekend is all about him.  I don't know that I'll have a chance to visit all your blogs like I usually do, so forgive me if I skip a week.  I also don't know if we'll have internet access where we're going.

Have a great weekend!

 



Wart's Up?

Hello, crafty friends! There's a new challenge starting today on the 3 Girl JAM challenge blog.  Use anything Halloween, plus ribbon.  I've been enjoying the witches hat shaped card file from The Cutting Café, so I decided to make another one of those for the challenge.

 

 

Isn't it just the cutest? I love that sentiment! It's from the Joy's Life Halloween Puns Stamp Set, found in her store.  The papers are some retired ones from Close To My Heart.

The ribbon, is, of course, from 3 Girl JAM.  I used both Harvest Orange (Harvest Bundle) and Tuxedo (Celebrations Bundle).  The spider and bats are found in the Silhouette Online Store.

I hope you enjoyed today's shaped card.  Make your own Halloween project, add some ribbon, and join the challenge at 3 Girl JAM Challenges.



Best Witches for 3 Girl JAM

Hello, dear crafty friends!  I have a post up today on the 3 Girl JAM blog. We're getting closer to Halloween, and I'm continuing to make cards to take to my nursing home friends.  I have a super cute one to share with you today, sure to brighten someone's day!

 

 

I used two ribbons from 3 Girl Jam on this card -- Harvest Orange, and Tuxedo. Harvest Orange is from the Harvest Bundle. Tuxedo can be found in the Celebrations Bundle.

The Witches hat shaped card is a cut file from The Cutting Café. The bats and spider are from the Silhouette Online Store. The sentiment is from the Joy's Life Halloween Pun Stamp Set, and can be found in her store.

My husband turns 55 tomorrow.  We're leaving town for the weekend, heading to Lake Superior, to one of our favorite towns, hoping to relax.  I can't wait!

Best Witches!

It's a Candy Theme for Cameo Creations Challenges

It's time for a new challenge at Cameo Creations Challenges.  For the next two weeks, it's anything candy.  With Halloween just around the corner, I decided to make a container to hold some Halloween candy.  I'll be ready with a little gift for a co-worker or friend!

 

 

Kinda spooky isn't it?  I cut this out on my Silhouette Cameo, using a cutting file from The Cutting Café.  It's one of the Halloween Pillow Boxes, found here.  The paper is from Carta Bella All Hallow's Eve collection.  I love those spiders on there! I used some old packaging for the window. The crinkle ribbon is from 3 Girl JAM.

Please visit the Cameo Creations Challenge blog to see the other projects from the design team and you'll have 2 weeks to link up your own candy related projects.  Have fun!

It's Pillow Boxes -- for The Cutting Cafe

This week at The Cutting Café, we're making pillow boxes - any theme will do.  Since we're getting closer and closer to Halloween, I went with a "spooky" theme. These pillow boxes that Regina has designed hold lots of goodies and go together very quickly! If you need a quick gift, these are perfect! The pillow box I used is part of the Halloween Pillow Box set, found here.

 

 

I originally filled this with candy, but then changed my mind because I love how this looks with the double sided paper showing through.  It also shows the spider off better.  This paper is from October Afternoon (Witch Hazel 12x12 Collection).  The spider was laying on my craft desk from another project and dangled perfectly on the witch hat.  I believe it is from the Silhouette Online Store, but The Cutting Café has similar spider here, in the Halloween and Fall Basic Shapes Set.  The crinkle ribbon is from 3 Girl JAM.

There will be a great variety of pillow boxes shown from the other design team members this week.  Make sure and visit the Cutting Cafe blog Thursday to see the whole collection.  Leave a comment for a chance to win any 3 sets of your choice from The Cutting Café store. Wow!

Thanks for stopping by today! I always love it when you visit!