Favorites

Favorite things is the challenge on the Cuddlebug Challenge site. I think my favorite things change every day or maybe it depends on whatever is happening that day. It seems sometimes in my creativity - there are favorites that spring up. Argyle - argyle is a favorite - love argyle sweaters or socks - how about argyle patterned paper or the argyle cuddlebug folder that I used on part of this card. This stamp - seems to be my go to stamp - for birthdays this fall. I think this is my 3rd or 4th card made with this stamp but it could be used for so many other occasions. I love this particular paper - it has some of my favorite colors for creating - browns, reds, greens. Those are my favorites for this particular point in time.

The card design is based on the sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You - of course - it is a loose interpretation. The bow represents the circle on the sketch.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

Patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket (all I have left are some scraps to use to finish the inside of the cards
Stamp - Hero Arts
Ink - Colorbox Chalk Ink - Chestnut Roan
Ribbon - I think is American Crafts
Cuddlebug embossing folder
5 x 7 size

Happy Hump Day

Yeah - we have made it over the middle of the week - on the downward slide to the week end - gee - I am going to be camping this week end - in a luxury RV parked in my friend's yard. Hopefully we don't get any trick or treaters.

I made a Christmas card last night. I based my card on the sketch at Taylored Expressions. Every Friday - a new sketch to help your creativity. Did not get a chance to play last week - I just hate it when work gets in the way of creating. I have a bag of snowflake stuff - buttons, soft snowflakes, etc - so when I go to make a card where I need a snowflake embellishment - I have to dig through everything in the bag - it then looks like I had a blizzard on my tabletop. Isn't my new stamp cute - stopped at Creative Pals in Milwaukee area (home of the Whipper Snapper stamps) and they were also having an unmounted rubber sale so I got 8 more stamps - a couple cute bunnies. The added snowflake on the circle with penguin - well there was an ink spot which needed to be covered.

Everyone have a wonderful evening - playing with a very late birthday card tonight - not coming together real well - I may have to just ditch some of the elements and see what I can come up with.

Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye

Bazzill Cardstock for cardbase

Stamp - Whipper Snapper Designs colored with Copics

Stickles

Ribbon - unknown - right colored scrap in the ribbon box

Snowflakes - who knows

Raking Leaves

I have huge oak trees in my lawn so every fall the leaves fall and they must be raked - luckily I can rake into the street. My daughter was home this Sunday and she raked up lots of the leaves - in one part of the lawn - we left a pile for the neighbor kids to play in. It has rained so the pile was not good to play anymore. I got it all raked into the street. Of course, I still need to rake more leaves but that huge pile is gone.

This week I used the sketch at Card Positioning Systems (CPS) - to make another Thanksgiving card. The scarecrow is a wood piece I bought at Hobby Lobby. I inked the edges to give it an antiqued look.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

5 x 7 card
Paper - Cosmo Cricket - Happy trails
Thankful Sticker - found in old supplies
Cardbase - Bazzill
Twill Tape - Wrights
Button - American Crafts

Rain

I spent today at a conference and will be there again tomorrow. Nice to get out of the office - but you always feel like you are so behind when you get back into the office. Hopefully all is going OK - at least there was not too much in the inbox of my e mail.

Another Halloween card I created on Sunday - this is based on the sketch at Get Sketchy. Somewhat of a loose interpretation but isn't that the joy of sketches.

Stamp: Stampendous colored with Copics

Paper - various scraps

Cuddlebug embossing folders

Another work week about to begin

BOO ..... it is Halloween week - so I guess maybe I should get a few cards sent out in the mail. How did it get to be the end of October - pretty soon it is going to be Christmas. And I don't have very many cards made.

I am attending a conference the first two days of the week for work so that makes the 3 days I will be inthe office very busy. I wanted to get some cards made today so they could go out in the mail. Sometimes there is no creativity during the week.

This is my weekly card for Shari - she needs to have a monkey themed Halloween card - I think she will be surprised by the fact that there is a a halloween monkey. The card sketch is based on the pattern from Card Patterns. I dug out the folder of Halloween papers - this is paper I don't buy too often so just scraps in there. I hope you enjoy my creation.

Everyone have a wonderful week.

Stamp - Stampendous - colored with Copics

Patterned Paper - Unknown

Cuddlebug embossing folder

Spellbinders

Recipe Page Exchange

I have joined a recipe exchange with 6 other ladies and we have all mailed out our first recipe pages - they are 6 x 6. I had done a couple of these with a Stampin Up representative so I have a nice start on a recipe book.

The bandana is actually a piece of fabric so looks like a hanky stuck in the denimn pocket.

Where has the week gone - I still have to make a wedding card for Saturday and now I found out one of my neighbor families lost their paternal grandfather. Will attend the wake on Friday evening. And of course - Work is crazy.

Here is the recipe that is on the recipe card.

SLOW COOKER PULLED PORK SANDWICHES

3 lb boneless pork shoulder (pork roast)
1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets
Onion Mushroom Soup Mix
1 cup ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
¼ c apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. hot pepper sauce

Place pork in slow cooker. Combine remaining
ingredients and pour over the top. Cook covered
on low 8 to 10 hours or on high 4 to 6 hours until
pork is tender. Remove pork; reserve juices.
With fork, shred pork. I put the juice in the refrig
and let the fat separate from the good juices.
Skim fat off, place juices in saucepan, bring to a
boil and thicken with some cornstarch. Pour over
meat, warm and serve.

Do not have to do the cornstarch – but it makes it a thicker consistency for holding pork together.

Leaf Raking

Good Monday evening - left work early today to rake a small portion of my lawn. The walnut tree has dropped its leaves but the Oaks are hanging on to their's. Hopefully they fall before it snows. I also tried a new recipe tonight for an apple dessert to celebrate the birthday of one of my workers - kinda altered a recipe - we will see if it is edible. It will be edible. Apple something.

My card tonight is based on the sketch at Card Positioning System - Card Sketches. It was for a long card but I wanted a 5 x 7 card so I just altered it a little. Would you believe all this paper is from My Mind's Eye Colorful Christmas - Sierra's favorite color is orange and she loves monkeys. Yes I know many of my cards are monkey themed but they are so cute.

Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye - Colorful Christmas
Stamp - Stampendous colored with Copics
Sentiment stamp - Hero Arts
Ribbon - Michael's dollar bin
Clear Stickles on the Frosting of the cake

Everyone have a wonderful evening

Another Week End Gone

Good evening everyone - I hope your week end was a good one. Mine was busy as usual. I did work outside a little today - have to do in little increments - or my old body will break down. I am still waiting for the leaves to fall off the old oaks in my lawn - and the kids are all waiting also.

I made a quick card last night to send to Shari this week. Went to a fundraiser for her today - I hope it brings a smile to her face.

This is based on the sketch that Beate posts on her blog Fresh and Fun on Friday. Haven't done one for awhile but I liked this sketch.

Stamp - Stampendous colored with Copics

Sentiment stamp - Hero Arts

Cardbase - Bazzill

Patterned Paper - Basic Grey

Thursday

Another exciting title to a blog post. I wanted to post my card. Last night I could not get to sleep so finally I got up at eleven and made a card I needed for a baby shower this week end - luckily I knew the paper I wanted to use and the images. I had colored these images before and they were already cut out. Now looking at them with a little more awake eyes - it looks like the monkeys may be two different colors of brown - Hmmmmmm - I will have to look at the card to see.

Card base - Bazzill scalloped paper
Patterned Paper – Piggy Tales
Stamp – Stampabilities colored with Copics
Buttons – American Crafts Twill Tape - Wrights

Frost is on the Pumpkin

so - I apoligize - no cards to share tonight - my friend Shari was over and I helped her make some cards for upcoming showers for her son and his wife for their new baby boy. Shari enjoyed herself and it was fun to help her with some cards. Next week I am going to help her put together pages for a scrapbook for a shower gift - Shari won't be able to attend that shower - she will be recovering from her surgery. I am not a scrapbooker - so it will prove to be interesting. We will just make it so they can add their own pictures.

I am going to share a recipe I made last week - it is from the Duncan Hines web site - very easy to do. Quick alternative to pumpkin pie. I took it to work - and we have a new student worker who is from Mexico - it was the first pumpkin he has ever tasted. He liked it.

Pumpkin Pie Crunch


1 (16 oz) can solid pack pumpkin
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 pkg Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe® Classic Yellow Cake Mix
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
whipped topping

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan.

Combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt in large bowl. Stir until well blended. Pour into pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Top with pecans. Drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 350°F 50 to 55 minutes or until golden. Cool completely. Serve with whipped topping. Refrigerate leftovers.

Brrrrr - cold too early

Good evening. The weather in Wisconsin has been so strange - very cool summer - and now fall is cold - we are in the 30's - I already had to turn on my furnace and normally I can hold out until November - maybe I am just turning into a woose. The leaves have not even fallen off my big oak trees - the neighborhood kids are waiting for this to happen - so they can rake leaves and play in them. We have the most fun and they look forward to it every year - don't tell anyone - so do I. Makes raking the leaves fun.

I found a little time to create last night - of course - I was trying to watch Dancing With the Stars - hmmmm - I wonder who will go home tonight.

This card is based on the sketch at Taylored Expressions - the sketch challenge which is posted every Friday. This week from the posts they are going to pick three new designers - everyone is bringing out their best creativity. Make sure you stop over and check everyone's creations. I agonized over the placement of the three items next to the rectangle. I think I had every snowflake I own and a few other 100 things out trying to find the best thing to place there. I finally ended up these 3 snowflakes. Still don't know if it was what I wanted - but at some point - you have to put it down and walk away. Taking pictures of my creations is becoming a challenge - getting dark, cloudy etc lately. I need to get something set up at work (shhhhh don't tell anyone).

Paper - Kaiser Scrapbooking

Stamp - Whipper Snapper Designs colored by Copics

Scallop - recycled white chipboard cut with the QuicKutz Scallop border (adhered paper strip to the back of the chipboard border and then rubbed Stickles over all the paper) Love the little glitter.

Pom Pom trim - May Arts

Stickles was added to the middle of the snowflakes on the pink patterned paper

Snowflakes - Darice

Good Monday Evening

Good Monday evening - I hope everyone had a wonderful week end. We celebrated my Mom's 91st birthday. It was a nice family gathering and lots of good food. We even made her bake the pies for the party. She can still make a wonderful apple pie and berry pie. My brother had picked the blackcaps in his woods this summer and then Mom made the pie and froze it. Yum Yum. She makes her pies and bakes them just like you were going to eat it, cools it and then wraps it up very well and freezes. It goes directly from freezer into the oven and bakes about 30 minutes - tastes just like it was just baked.

I did manage to do a little paper shopping on the way to and from. Surprise, surprise - on Sunday just as I was checking out in walks an online friend who I have gotten to know in person - she lives in Dubuque and they were in Madison shopping. So, of course, I had to stay and shop with her - well I spent $30 - more than I spent the first trip through. She is such an enabler.

I needed to make my card for Shari for this week so I managed to get that done yesterday. I used some of the new paper I bought. For a cardmaker, I have found that the 6 x 6 pads are wonderful - I do wish more companies would do that - I found two Sassafras 6 x 6 pads - fun paper in fun colors. Monstrosity and Sweet Marmalade

The card is based on the weekly sketch at Get Sketchy - #9. I hope you enjoy my interpretation of the design.

Paper - Sassafras Lass

Stamp - DRS colored with Copics

Rub on - Melissa Frances

Everyone have an enjoyable evening.

Yeah It is Thursday

Happy Thursday evening - one more day in the work week - yeah!!!!! I have many birthdays in October - so this is for one of the birthdays. I love this cute little stamp - I have only just stamped it for the couple times I have used - I imagine you could do some coloring also but I am feeling quite lazy.

Paper - Basic Grey

Stamp - Hero Arts

Colorbox Chalk Ink - Chestnut Roan (my most favorite ink)

Accordian folded some paper for the trim across the bottom of the card

Blah Blah Blah

Had one of those days where I felt very blah, blah, blah - nauseated - so stayed home from work - not for sure I feel that much better - but I will return to work.

Made this card over the week end - this is from scraps laying next to the paper cutter - Both are double sided papers. I have these smaller envelopes so this card will fit into those envelopes. Luckily the scraps worked just fine for this card. The red pin dot is My Mind's Eye and the stripe - I don't know - sorry.

Stamp - A Muse - stamped with red for the bird and brown for the branch. I highlighted the berries with a Sakura glitter pen.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

Look Ma - No Cavities

Had my semi annual dental check up - always glad to go and there are no problems. I think I would rather have a baby than dental work. But I did get to leave work early so there are some pluses - already home, done with the dentist and now I can do some things around here - like play with paper.

My card tonight is based on the weekly sketch at Taylored Expressions. I did mine a little different in that I had my image hang off the edge of the card so I could see more of the cute cupcake paper. The paper is from Bella Blvd. The stamp is either Hero Arts or Inkadinkado - and I am too lazy to find out which. I colored the image with my copics. I used some of the paper from Gina K for stamping on - wonderful paper - but I always have to practice on a sample before I color on good paper.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

Monday

Good Monday evening - big news in Wisconsin - the Packers are playing the Vikings who now has Brett Favre as their quarterback - lots of controversy in the date - I will be channel jumping because I have to watch the dances on Dancing With the Stars. Can't miss that. Did some cooking tonight - actually did two new recipes - one for tomato soup (might change it a little) and a pumpking dessert - that is cooling - hopefully that tastes good - I will take it to work for a treat - I suppose I should stop and get some cool whip to go on top.

Tonight's card is based on the sketch at Card Position Systems - new sketch every Sunday. Lots of layers and I do love layers. I have shown you a close up of the button and also of the monkey I used. Another card for my friend Shari to boost her spirits and make her smile.


This is a iron on applique from Dritz - I love to use some of the sewing notions such as appliques on cards. Very fun and dimensional.

Everyone have a wonderful evening. Go Pack Go.

Card Size 4 x 8

Paper - K & Company

Applique - Dritz

Button - Fancy Pants

Twine - May Arts

October is Here

I don't know how it got to be October - pretty soon it will be snowing. With the summer we have had - cool - we will probably have snow in the beginning of November. I am not ready for snow - my back is not ready to shovel snow. So I make a card with snowmen on it and snowflakes - what was I thinking.

I found a new challenge site . Stamps and Smiles Sketch Challenge. They post on Thursday so it gives you a jump start on your week end creativity. I had colored this image already and the paper was laying out from a previous project so it was pretty easy to pull together. I also did a little recyling on this project - the bow is made out of tulle like material that was torn off the edge of gathered lace. I think it makes a pretty bow - somewhat delicate. Repeated the design of the border on the center of the bow.

Everyone have a wonder week.

Paper - I know it was listed on a previous post.

Stamp - I believe it is Close to My Heart that I have had for years

Bling - Darice

Rub On - Making Memories

Snowflake - Martha Stewart punch

Almost the Week End

One more day of work - yeah - need to get lots done tomorrow - got my hair cut tonight and ran some errands. I worked on some recipe pages I am doing - got some of the pieces ready to go on the page. Hopefully I can finish those this week end and get started on another one. I joined a swap group - only 7 in the group so not too many to do.

Tonight's card is for friends of my daughter. I think the baby is a couple months old so I am not too far behind. It is based on the sketch at Taylored Expressions. She has some wonderful stamps I covet but I am trying not to buy online. Here is a close up of the baby - I think it is such a sweet little stamp. I colored it with my Copics - I do think my coloring is getting better. I have been working on that new year's resolution to learn how to color.

Everyone have a wonderful week end.

Card - 4.5 x 6

Patterned paper - Making Memories

Stamp - Bella colored with Copics

Button - Doodlebug

Rub On - One Heart One Mind