Tis the Season

CIC138

This is Cupcake Inspirations CIC138 challenge.  Have you ever made a gingerbread house?  I've never made a real one but I did make something like it.  If you tape a couple small milk cartons (or whatever boxes you've got) together they make the base for the house.  Instead of gingerbread you use graham crackers with canned vanilla icing to glue the pieces to the box. Decorate with whatever candy you like.   I did this with my Girl Scout buddies.  The kids and the adults had a great time.  

It'll be a lot easier to make a card using the photo for your inspiration.  Stop over to the Cupcake Inspirations challenge blog to see how the other sweeties were inspired.  You'll also find the rules, the sponsor info and the linkey thingy.

the sentiment is "Do I Smell Candy?"

It's hard to realize that Christmas is just around the corner when the temperature is in the balmy 80's and there are flowers blooming anywhere you look.  I lived most of my life in New Jersey where the temps drop considerably lower, the leaves have fallen from the trees and children are hoping for a snow day for Christmas.  I don't miss the cold, or the colors of fall, I just miss those cues that the holidays are coming.  At least I've got blogland to remind me Christmas is almost here.  I took advantage of the challenge to make another Christmas card.  This one uses a Cat's Pajama's stamp  and sentiment, the inspiration is pretty obvious for that. 

Did you know that my fellow sweetie Nina Dee runs I {Heart} Ribbon challenge on her blog?  The current challenge is "Polka Dots" so this week my ribbon choice was picked with that in mind.  The big pink button and my color choices were inspired by the photo.

Here's the deets:
stamp - the Cat's Pajamas "Candyland Christmas"
ink - Memento "Tuxedo Black"; Ranger "Shabby Shutters"
paper - Paper Cuts "Bubblegum" and "Sno-cone" card stock; My Mind's Eye "Winter Wonderland" dp
miscellaneous - copics; Stampin' Up corner punch and ribbon; burlap twine; button, charm

Here's the challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations CIC138 - photo
I {Heart} Ribbon #11 - polka dots
The Sweet Stop SSS136 - sketch
Our Creative Corner - O Christmas Tree (the dp)
Craft Your Days Away #34 - Buttons or Bows
2 Sisters #67 - Holiday
Totally Papercrafts #94 - Christmas
Crafty Sentiments - Metal
L'il Red Wagon - #108 Christmas
Friday Mash Up #34 - Christmas and/or Aqua, chocolate and white
Moving Along with the Times - Ribbons and Bows
Fairy Tale #29 - Christmas

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again and that you'll join us in the Cupcake Inspirations challenge using the photo of the gingerbread house as your inspiration.

Black Friday

In the states it's Black Friday.  Which is just a shopping frenzy that I don't care to partake in.  I'd rather be home stamping, so if you're like me why don't you join us in the  Stampin' For the Weekend challenge.  This week the theme is friends and there's two prizes to  be had so stop over to the blog to check out all the deets and see what the rest of the design team has created.

I may actually make it to some stores today, but it's because there's still lots of stuff that have to get purchased for the new house.  Why is it you can never use curtains in more than one house, or the shower curtains?  Crazy isn't it?  More cleaning supplies which of course means more cleaning, ugh.   I can't wait till this move is completed.  I think I'll stay put for a very, very long time. 

Here's the deets:
stamp - Teddy Bo
ink - hp printer
paper - Recollections silver card base; the Paper Cut "Bubblegum" card stock; My Mind's Eye "Winter Wonderland" dp
miscellaneous - copics; pleated ribbon, ribbon, silver elastic thread, charm; Stampin' Up corner punch

Here's the challenges:
Stampin' for the Weekend #21 - Friends

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again and that you'll play along with our challenge at Stampin' for the Weekend.

Can You Bake a Pie?

Well you don't have to be able to bake a pie to play in this week's Cooking It Up With Katie "Piece of Pie" challenge #85.  In this case PIE stands for P - punch, I - ink, E - Emboss.   For my card I used a Martha Stewart tag punch (the sentiment on it says "hugs"), there's Ranger Ink sponged on the edges of the papers and I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the white card stock layer. 

This week we're sponsored by Meljen's Designs.  Home to many cute images, including this adorable fairy.  Pop over to the Cooking blog to check out what the rest of the design team has created,the rules and the linky thingy. 

Here the deets:
stamp - Meljen's "Cocoa Christmas Fairy"
ink - hp printer; Ranger "Scattered Straw"; Stampin' Up Handsome Hunter marker for sentiment
paper - Georgia Pacific card stock; red Recollections card base; DCWV green card stock; Stampin' Up grey card stock; Authentique "Wonder" dp
miscellaneous - copics; pleated ribbon; linen twine; charm; Crystazzi bling; Cuttlebug snowflake folder; Creative Memories cutting system; mini brads; Martha Stewart tag punch

Here's the challenges:
Cooking It Up with Katie #85 "Piece of Pie" punch, ink, emboss
Ribbon Carousel RCC30 - Holiday Hoopla
Party Time Tuesday  PTT#43 - Snow Us What You Got
Whoopsie Daisy - Anything Goes for Christmas
Stamps R Us - Bling It On
Southern Girls #32 - Embellishment bingo (Twine or String, Punches, Embossing)
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again.  Have a great Thanksgiving.

For Someone Berry Special

Here's something I made for my berry special friend.  We've known each other since high school and that's a berry, berry long time.  The year I moved into the first place of my own I found a pattern to make a fabric cornucopia filled with stuffed vegetables and fruits.  One of the pieces was a strawberry and that pattern was so simple I decided to make a bunch of them to decorate my Christmas tree.  When Aguas (her maiden name was Waters and that's what she was called in high school and forever after) saw them, she liked them a lot and thought they'd be cute presents.  So we went into production and made hundreds of them and filled all kinds of jars and baskets with them.  Ever since then just about every present we've given each other has something to do with berries. 

I found the pattern for this tote bag in "Let's Do Lunch" by Atkinson Designs.  It works up very quickly, if you're obsessive you can complete it in a couple hours (don't ask me how I know).  The "K" is from a sample from a Martha Stewart monogram set that was included with my sewing machine.  It's amazing to watch this machine embroider. 

The flamingo (from a Cactus Punch set)didn't photograph well.  I tried him out on a pair of shorts and it looks great, I should have tried to take a photo of that but instead I took this one which is on a towel.   Working on towels was one of the classes I had signed up for before I knew I was moving and it was a nice break to go out and play for a couple hours.

I've also been to a couple quilting classes but haven't finished up those projects.  So check back now and then, maybe I'll have time to work on them.  If you look for the label "quilt" you'll find it there.  So far there's only two items there but I'll be putting up more as time goes by.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you come back again.

"P" is for...

PINK!!! as in flamingo and pretty in... 
This week the Pile It On challenge is Anything with a "P".  You can fill in that blank with anything that begins with the Letter "P".   Here's a couple ideas - paper piecing, paper piercing, punches...not to mention all the images that being with "P"...pumpkin, poodle, pizza and did I mention PINK FLAMINGO.
So dig out your pink crayons (and don't forget purple begins with P) and crank out some kind of paper project for our challenge and then combine our challenge with at least one more challenge and your Piling It On.

I have a confession to make.  I made this card awhile ago but never got around to posting it and lucky for me it fit this week's challenge cause I'm deep in the middle of getting our new house into move in condition and I'm so tired I don't think I could have picked up a stamp, truly exhausted.  I will be glad when we're in and I can just sit back and enjoy living in it.

So here's the deets:
stamp - Inkadinkado and Stampin' Up sentiment
ink - versamark
paper - white and pink card stock
miscellaneous - gold embossing powder; pearls; SU corner punch; Creative Memories cutting system; Spellbinder's tag; ribbon, SU dot plate

Here's the challenges:
Pile It On #47 - Anything with a "P"...
Card Making Mama #33 - Thanks/Be Thankful
Terrifically Thrilling Thursday - Anything Goes
Card Mad Fairy #21- Texture
Fabulous Friday - Die Cuts
Jelly Park Friends - Give Thanks
Creative Card Crew - Thankful
Crafting For All Seasons #14 - Thanksgiving or Thank You or Sketch
Crafts and Me #61 - Simples
Ruby's Rainbow #16 - Something with Wings
CCEE1146 - 2 die cut or punches
Paper Craft Star #71 - Thank You
Catch the Bug - Give Thanks/Thanksgiving

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again.  I also hope you'll join us at Pile It On and create a paper project using the Anything with a "P" theme.

Fudgie the Whale

CIC137

Are you old enough to remember Fudgey the Whale?  This cupcake cake reminded me of Fudgie and the Tom Carvel commercials.  For those of you not old enough to know what I'm talking about, Tom Carvel started the chain of ice cream parlors and popularized the ice cream cake.  His first cake was Fudgey, and that mold got used for several other cakes by changing the decorations on top and this turkey just looks like a cake Carvel would make and have multiple uses for the mold.

Onto the challenge...this is the photo for Cupcake Inspirations Challenge CIC137.  Our sponsor this week is JLJ Designs.  By the way, JLJ Designs is owned by one of our own sweeties,  Jennifer, and she's offering a $10 gift certificate for use in her store and $10 can go a long way.   For my project I used the Thanksgiving Digital Scrapbooking kit.  What a great value!   There are 15 digital papers and 30 elements and as you can see they're not just for scrapbooking.  I used just two of the the papers and one of the elements to give you an idea of how you can use them before you have the photos to scrap.  I've started with place cards, which no one in my family will ever pay attention to but maybe your folks are better behaved.   If you make the place tag large enough later on it can be used for the "totin" bag.  Whenever I host Thanksgiving dinner everyone gets sent home with a bag of leftovers so they too can enjoy a turkey sandwich.  Then there's the little bag of doggie cookie treats, there's always room for pets at our celebrations and they get a bag too.  This would be perfect for a grandchild too, of course you'd put real cookies in it.   If you've got kiddies running around, you can enlist their help cutting out the turkeys or other decorative elements you use.  The kids love to help with arts and crafts projects. 

Here's the deets:
everything except the adhesvies is from the JLJ Designs Thanksgiving digital scrapbooking kit  -

Here's the challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations CIC137 - photo
Paper Cutz #117 - Let's Talk Turkey
Catch the Bug - Give Thanks/Thanksgiving
Play Date Cafe PDCC108 - Maroon, Copper and Tumeric
Fussy and Fancy #50 - Make a gift/Anything but a card

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again and that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday spent with your family and friends. 

Please join us at Cupcake Inspirations for this week's challenge.  You can find the rest of the design teams creations, the rules and the linky thingy by clicking here.

Just a Note

CIC136

I don't know about you but I am tired.  Thursday was the big day, we finally closed on our new home.  We have been so busy.  It's hard to believe that a house that's only about 10 years old needs so much work but it does.  Because this was a short sale I figured this wasn't going to happen till sometime after the holidays and I had all sorts of stuff planned, including a now cancelled trip North to scrap with my best buddies.  A short while ago I bought an embroidering sewing machine and a serger and had classes to take to learn how to use them as well as signing up for a couple quilting classes.  Little did I know that the short sale was going to be approved shortly after making that purchase.  Well, it's all working out and come tomorrow when I have a quilt class to go to I am going to be thrilled to take a day off from cleaning and packing.  Instead of inky fingers my hands stink of bleach and forget about my fingernails.



Now onto the reason you're here.  It's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge time.  This week are sponsored by Tiddly Inks.  The sweeties got to pick an image to use and boy was it hard deciding.  They are just the cutest things.  I heard a couple of the sweeties couldn't pick just one and went on a little shopping spree.  I can understand why and imagine when things calm down around here I will pushing a cart around the site. 

I finally decided on Danny's Duck.  For a long time my nick name was Duck because I used to ask my friends "What's up Duckie?".  Plus it's just too dang cute and I can always use a boy image. 


Here's the deets:
stamp - Tiddly Inks "Danny's Duck"
ink - hp printer; SU "Chocolate Chip" marker for sentiment
paper - Bazzill "Pinecone", "Citrus" and "Beeswax" cs; Cosmo Cricket "Nutmeg"
miscellaneous - copics; red burlap twine; leaf charm; Crystazzi Crystals; EK Success leaf punch; Stampin' Up oval and scalloped oval punches; Nesties lacey square

Here's the challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations CIC136 - photo
Digi Doodles - sketch
CRAFT #128 - Cute
Charisma #44 - Cutesy
Ruby's Rainbow - Something with Wings
CCEE1145 - Include 3 different shapes
Party Time Tuesday PTT#41 - Bling It On
Kaboodle Doodles #92 - Colors of Fall
Stamps R Us - Masculine theme
Crafty Catz #108 - Use a digital image
Tiddly Inks #73 - Anything Goes


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again and that you'll play along with us in the Cupcake Inspiration challenge. 


Card Tag

Kind of like CatDog, it's both.  It's and easel card attached to a box with the image being a gift with a tag.  More about this later...

This week at Cooking It Up with Katie challenge #83 is fold some fancy flowers.  Now you don't have to fold flowers but we'd like to see a fancy fold (this easel card is very easy to do) and some flowers on your fancy card.  What makes a card fancy - I don't know but for mine I used a charm and some bling and thought that made it fancy.  If you play along you could win a prize from this week's sponsor Robyn's Fetish.

For this project I wrapped a jewelry box with the same card stock used for the card.  Cut a piece of card stock the same width as the box.  Fold the paper around the box.  With each fold score the paper.  Secure the wrap with red tape or score tape.




After you've finished your easel card place score tape or red tape on the bottom of the card to secure it to the box.  This easel card is 4" x 4" x 12" with folds along 4", 6", and the 8".   You can see from this photo how it's folded.  It's a very simple technique.  Just remember that you need to put something with a little depth on the inside so that when you open it up to stand something will catch the edge to keep it open.  Something as thin as a brad or button will usually work.

By the way, I wanted my burlap twine to match the ribbon on the image.  I didn't have any violet twine so I used a piece of ivory colored twine and colored it with the copic I used on the image. 

Here's the deets:
stamp - Robyn's Fetish
ink - hp printer
paper - Bo Bunny "Winter Joy Magic" and "Winter Joy Bundled"; I think the cs is Nicole's
miscellaneous - copics; Taylor's Tiny Twinkles; flower brads; burlap twine; present charm; Spellbinder's Brommet Tag

Here's the challenges:
Cooking It Up with Katie #83 - Fold a Fancy Flower
Top Tip #59- Anything Christmas
Ribbon Carousel RCC28 - photo inspiration (all the ruffles on the pillows made me think of gift boxes)
Party Time Tuesday PTT#41 - Bling It On
Whoopsie Daisy - Tag It
Cutie Pie #4 - Use a Charm
Digital Tuesday #136 Anything Goes
Pink Elephant TPE124 - Gift Tags

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again and that you'll join us at Cooking it Up with Katie for our "Fold a Fancy Flower" challenge.

Easy As Pie

Just how easy is pie?  The best apple pie I ever had was made by my buddy (we've been friends since grammar school, that's a long time) Susie's mom, Annie.  I can make a good apple pie, but her mom's pies were outrageous with a crust to die for.  So one day I asked Susie if she'd ask her mom for her  recipe.  Here's how the recipe went:  first she goes to the orchard where she gets a couple bushels of apples, then she takes one can of Crisco and a bag of flour...so much for replicating that crust.  I forgot that whenever Annie made pie there were usually five or more of them.  Annie had seven kids, not to mention all of their friends (lots of friends) and there was always something to eat on the kitchen counter.  The memory of those pies is making me salivate.

So this week at Pile it On the challenge is to
make a Thanksgiving card or just give thanks to someone.  This week our sponsor is Karen's Doodles who gave the design team some images to play with,  I'm using the Grandma Pie image.  If you click here, you can see what the rest of the design team created, find the rules, and the linkey thingey so you can post your creation.  We all love to see what you do.

Here's the deets:
stamp - Karen's Doodles "Grandma Pie"
ink - hp printer
paper - Recollections Kraft card base; Colorbok green cs; Bazzill "Yukon Gold" and "Ruby Slippers" cs; October Afternoon "Modern Homemaker" dp
miscellaneous - copics; burlap twine; heart bling; apple charm; SU Handsome Hunter marker for the faux stitching and sentiment; gathered ribbon

Here's the challenges:
Pile It On #45 - Thanksgiving, or just give thanks to someone
A Sketch for You to Try - November sketch
Totally Papercrafts #91 - Stitching
Crafty Catz #107 - Anything goes
2 Sisters #64 - Ribbon
Craft Your Days Away - Autumn/Fall (apple pie is a fall favorite for me)
Speedy the Cat #80- Fall or Winter
Moving Along With the Times #123 - Food or Drink
Ruby's Rainbow #15 - Metal (apple charm)
Freshly Brewed FBC71 - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes Plus a bit of bling
Ribbon Carousel - RCC27 - Anything Goes
Cutie Pie #14 - Use a Charm

Thanks for stopping by, please come back again. 

They Look Good Enough...

CIC135 Inspiration photo

...to eat!  My husband wonders why I'm looking at the dessert menu before I've picked a dinner.  Geez, I've  been looking at these bad boys for days now.
 
These are the inspiration for this week's Cupcake Inspirations Challenge CIC135.  This week's sponsor is Stamp Fairy.   You can find the rest of the design team's creations, the rules, the prize and the linkey thingey by clicking here.  As usual the design team has done a bang up job, if you have a few minutes to spare, leave them some love.

I'm still on pumpkin overload so for my card I've used all the colors from the inspiration photo to make a birthday card.  The rest of the sentiment ("the firemen are called because your candles caught on fire!") is on the inside.  I think to make it a little extra snarky I'm going to write in "AGAIN!" in bold red letters. 

Here's the deets:
stamp - Bugaboo - Stella Birthday Fireman Call
ink - hp printer
paper - Recollections Kraft card base; Basic Grey "Ambrosia, Fresh Squeeze" and "Lucky, Dream"; Stampin' Up "Kraft" cs
miscellaneous - copics; linen twine; baker's twine; cake charm; MFT jumbo rick rack die-namic



Here's the challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations CIC135 - photo
Fairy Tale Challenges #27 - Lantern, lights and candles
Craft Your Days Away - Autumn/Fall
Catch the Bug - Anything Goes
Basic Grey - Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times - Food and Drink
For Fun - Special Birthday Card (you can only taunt special friends with cards like this, especially if they're a little bit older than you!)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back often.  In the meantime why don't you make a card using those yummy cuppies as your inspiration.

A Cuddly Christmas

 

Sometimes you just gotta use non traditional colors for Christmas cards.  I think these look pretty good on this adorable image.  They don't get much cuter than this.  It's  Pachela Studios Toby Tumble Christmas Tea.  from Cuddly Buddly. 
This week the Cuddly Buddly challenge #19 is a recipe.  So pick your image, find a sketch and then use the recipe - 3 Flowers, 2 buttons and 1 ribbon.  I cheated a little, my buttons are actually brads and I used two ribbons and twine.  It's hard to see in this photo that under the crochet   ribbon there's a yellow ribbon. 

Here's the deets:
stamp - Cuddly Buddly "Pachela Studios Toby Tumble Christmas Tea"
ink - hp printer
paper - Bazzill "String of Pearls" cs; scrap of blue cs; My Mind's Eye "Lost and Found - Sunshine" dp
miscellaneous - copics; Prima flowers; nesties Lacey Square die; brads; SU crochet ribbon and so saffrron ribbon; Polar White Flower Soft; burlap twine; bunny charm

Here's the challenges:
Cuddly Buddly #19 - recipe 3 flowers, 2 buttons, 1 ribbon
Do You Stack Up #44 - Teal
Digi Doodles - #81 - a Wintry Theme
Paper Shelter #38 - Christmas Fun
Crafts and Me #59 - Let the Music Move You
Crafting for all Seasons #13 - Texture
ABC Christmas - V is for Vintage
Pixie Cottage #95 - sketch and get started making a Christmas Card
CCEE1144 - Use 4 different embellies
Charisma #44 - Cutesy
Southern Girls #31 - Can You Hear the Music
One Stitch as a Time #86 - Christmas
Ladybug Crafts Ink #44 - Non-traditional or distressed Christmas
Cutie Pie #4 - Use a Charm
Digital Tuesday #135 - Cute and Cuddly
the Squirrel and the Fox #4 - Hats or Flowers

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again. 

Who's Counting?

I keep seeing Christmas countdowns but I'm not counting.  It's going to be here before I'm ready and I'll be wondering where the heck the time went.    
In January, we started looking for a bigger house.  Almost a year later we're going to be moving.  Yep, just in time for the holidays. 
As you can imagine I'll be packing or looking at paint colors or some moving related stuff this weekend, but what about you?  How about Stampin' for the Weekend? 
This week the challenge is a sketch.  That' makes it really easy for you to play along.  It's the perfect opportunity for you to get some Christmas cards done.

Here's the deets:
stamp - Verve "Winter Mittens"
ink - Memento "Tuxedo Black"; Close To My Heart "Cranberry"
paper - Recollections red card base; Bazzill "Classic Green" and "Ruby Slippers";  Authentique "Wonder" Collection
miscellaneous - copics; gelly roll glaze pen; bling; bird charm; red burlap twine

Here's the challenges:
Stampin' for the Weekend - sketch challenge

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again.  Now go get busy making a card using the SFTW sketch.  You can find the sketch, the rules, the linkey thingy and see what the rest of the design team created by clicking here.