CCC#049: November Challenge - Thankful for Fall

CCC#049

November 2014 Monthly Challenge

Thankful for Fall

This month's challenge from Catherine and Cathy Create is all about autumn! Leaves, sweaters, pumpkin spice, boots, Thanksgiving... whatever inspires you about fall, we want to see it! :)

I have a crazy-simple project for you this month, but I totally love it. I gotta say (and I know I say this every month but...) this last month really got away from me! And I'm so bummed, because October is my favorite month of the entire year and I feel like I missed it! I have been so busy lately, and I know I'm not the only one, and I know it's just going to get worse with the holidays approaching so quickly. I usually feel like I have to pull out all the stops on any projects I share here on the old blog-o, like I really have to turn up the "wow factor." But today I'm proud to be sharing literally a 10-minute project, because I know it's something we can all use around this time of year! :)

I decided to dress up one of Stampin' Up!'s great new Kraft Grid Journals. This could be a great little gratitude journal, or just a cute notebook with a great message to just throw in your purse to use for everyday lists and notes! And because I only used two stamp sets, it literally takes no time at all! :) I used one of my favorite sets from the Holiday Catalog for most of the stamping, so really, you only need one stamp set to make an adorable little journal. The set is called For All Things. I also used Gorgeous Grunge to add a little extra interest to the background.

One thing to keep in mind when stamping on these kraft journals... They seem to be more absorbent than regular cardstock. So don't press your stamps too hard, and expect that the images will lose a little of their definition. The stamp set I chose for my project - For All Things - is great for this because the images are designed to look sort of watercolor-y, but you do lose a lot of the great texture of the images.

So that's it for me for today. I hope you liked this super cute and quick project, and I encourage you to head on over to Catherine and Cathy Create to check out the other projects, and to play along!

Happy Stampin'! :)

World Cardmaking Day 2013

Happy World Cardmaking Day, my friend! I hope you have fun and exciting crafty plans! :) As seems to be the case pretty much every World Cardmaking Day, I, alas, do not. Farmer's market in the morning, then we're hightailing it up to our "local" (it's about an hour away) annual renaissance fair with some friends. Somehow I seem to have other plans or obligations every year that happen to coincide with World Cardmaking Day - I think I need to plan ahead a little better! But I don't even know when World Cardmaking Day is! Is it always October 5th? The first Saturday of October? Isn't this something I should know?? :-P

Anyway, if you follow my facebook page, you may have seen that, after a crazy-long creativity slump, I recently made three cards in one night after discovering my love for the Magnificent Maple stamp and Sweater Weather DSP combo. As promised, and in honor of World Cardmaking Day, I wanted to share the first two with you. (The third will feature in an upcoming video - Yay!)

I was in charge of a make and take for the monthly meeting of my Stampin' Up! group. I knew I wanted to create a background with the Magnificent Maple stamp, and I thought I wanted to use the amazing new Expressions Thinlits. But after I made this card I decided it was maybe a little too time-consuming for a make and take. Oh, and that little burlap "bow"? I just took a short piece of the burlap ribbon and cinched it in the middle with some linen thread. Then I tied the thread through a button. (I squirted some Tombow Mono multi glue under the button too, for added stability.) Isn't it cute?! :)

And here is the card I ended up bringing for my make and take. Super cute, super easy... Plus, just change up the elements a little and this layout is super versatile!

You know what a fan I am of layered sentiments/focal images and I love the addition of the burlap in this one!

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you get some cardmaking in on this great holiday!

Happy Stampin'! :)


Here are the supplies I used on these cards:

InLinkz.com

Start-to-Finish Sunday #35 - Envelope Punch Board and 3x3 Card

Happy Sunday evening my friend! Videos are back - Can't believe I've been absent from YouTube for SO long! Our schedules here are slowing way down, so I hope to get back into sharing videos regularly.

For today, I wanted to share a brand new product from Stampin' Up! This was something they introduced at Convention and it is so awesome!!! It's called the Envelope Punch Board, and you can use it to effortlessly make custom envelopes in no time flat. And you can make 66 different sizes of envelopes with this thing! WOW!

So I decided to start small - literally :) - and make a 3x3 card with a coordinating envelope. I obviously had to use the Magnificent Maple stamp and Sweater Weather DSP - seems I'm a little, um... well, obsessed with this combo!

Stay tuned in the next couple days for some more projects featuring this stamp/DSP combo. I need to force myself to use something else soon! ;)

You can watch the video below, or over on my YouTube channel. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. (Remember: you won't find the Envelope Punch Board in any current SU! catalogs. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/1bkHNWj) Oh, and ignore that it says STFS #34 in the video - I didn't catch the mistake until I'd already uploaded it.)

I've also got a great mini-series of Fall/Thanksgiving home decor projects coming up soon... I've got a lot in the works and plan to post one project at a time as I go. I don't want to toot my own horn, but these are some of my favorite projects I've made in a long time! :)

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a great week. Happy Stampin'! :)


Supplies used in today's project:

InLinkz.com

Caring Hearts Card Drive

I recently came across another card drive for a very worthy cause. It is called the Caring Hearts Card Drive, and this time, cards are being sent to elderly people in nursing homes and care facilities who may not have their loved ones close by this holiday season. The drive is being organized by Vera Yates of Ling's Design Studio. I hope you will consider making a Thanksgiving or Christmas card to send. You have until early November, since the cards don't have to be received Vera until November 15th.

I have a Thanksgiving card and a Christmas card to share for this card drive.

I know I shared a very similar card recently. I am in love with this stamp and this design, and so I made a bunch of these cards at once. This one in particular was stamped and glued by me, and then very thoughtfully decorated by my awesome husband. He didn't have anyone he wanted to send it to, and I didn't want to sell it, so I suggested sending it to the card drive. He may even be writing the note that goes inside it! He's so sweet to be interested in the things that mean a lot to me.

And here's my card for the drive. I've been wanting to try a "faux window" card for a while now, and I love this stamp for the technique. You can't really tell but I put sparkles on the trees with a Sakura Stardust pen, and the white layer is embossed with a snowflake Cuttlebug folder. We're having a lot of rain here lately, and they don't anticipate it going away for a few days, so I hope you'll pardon the lousy pictures. :)

So again, please consider making a card or two (or more!) and sending it to this worthy cause. You can find all the details in Vera's blog, or by clicking the Caring Hearts badge at the top right of my blog.

Oh yeah, and not that you need the external motivation, but there are some pretty awesome prizes too! :)

horn of plenty

Just one more quick post today to show another card I made with Lawn Fawn's Harvest Season. I didn't think about this card at all while I was making it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the stamp set I recently lauded for its whimsy can also be used on really elegant cards :)

Happy 'Hump' Day!

squash!

Hey everybody! Just a super quick post today to show you this card I made with my *first ever* purchase from Lawn Fawn! Their latest release was just irresistible! And these stamps are amazing in person.

Supplies: Cardstock - Pure Luxury by Gina K. Designs (white), Stampin' Up (yellow, kraft); Ink - Versamark, Colorbox Chalk in Chestnut Roan; Stamps - Harvest Season by Lawn Fawn; Misc. - Labels 8 dies by Spellbinders, Stampin' Up clear embossing powder, Pure Luxury by Gina K. Designs ribbon, Copic Markers, 3M foam adhesive

I bought two of the three sets from the new release. This card uses Harvest Season, which is so adorable. I LOVE this cornucopia! My one complaint (sorry Kelly Marie!) is that I can't really tell what some of the vegetables are supposed to be, exactly. But I decided they're various types of squashes and colored them accordingly. ;) I love how perfect this set is for coloring, but it's really fun and whimsical, which is awesome because I don't have the skills or marker selection to make things look super realistic!

I haven't busted out the Christmas set yet - but I promise you'll be seeing it here very soon! :)

Hope you had a happy Monday!

ETA: Haha, it's totally Tuesday! I really had no idea! :)

StampTV Thursday Sketch 9/16

Here's the sketch for this week

And here's my card using my new Hero Arts goodies that I picked up yesterday from my LSS! :)

And... Here's another variation that I made for the Hero Arts September Challenge Contest. This is more like what I wanted to do with the square card, but I couldn't figure out where I could make room for the sentiment.

Isn't that patterned paper great! It's by Moxxie. The other side is a really pretty yellow and orange with branches and falling leaves. It will definitely make an appearance soon! :)

Oh, and in other news, while DH and I were in the "city," we bought a futon! It's a really high-quality, pocketed coil innerspring mattress - not like the junky ones you find in dorm rooms :-P We're not going to use a frame - just sleep on the floor à la Japanese. We'll probably be picking it up this weekend or early next week! :) Not sure what we're gonna do with the bed we currently have... The box spring and bedframe are perfectly fine, I'm sure, though the mattress should probably just be chucked. Technically, though, it all belongs to my parents, so it's up to them what we do with it!

Have a good weekend!