Today Really Feels Like Fall

I guess Fall is officially here now! It was in the 50's this morning when I left to take my son to school, I see Halloween decorations all over town, the leaves on the trees are starting to turn, and the impatiens and petunias in my garden are looking pretty gnarly. LOL. I still haven't ventured into the crawl space to dig out my Fall/Halloween decorations yet, but I plan on it this week. I have an addiction to ceramic and glass pumpkins and have collected many of them during the years, and I always have such a good time unpacking my bins and rediscovering decorations I forgot I bought last year. :o)

I had to take my father in law to the doctor this morning so I didn't get much stamping done, but here are a few cards that were in the shop yesterday. This first one is a Stampin' Up! set I bought at that estate sale the week before last. I wanted to keep this card simple so I just embossed the image in gold, and I especially love the irredescent copper paper on this card - another treasure I found at the estate sale. The second card is another pumpkin card. See I wasn't lying when I said I'm addicted to pumpkins! :o) I added a little gold wire stem to this one and the "friends" sentiment is from Stampin' Up!

I hope you're all having a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Sue :o)

Fall Flowers

Whew! What a week it's been. I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words over the last 5 days. Losing my little furry shadow has not been easy but the Lord has been true to His word and has not left me alone in my sorrow. What an awesome and wonderful God we have - that He cares about our tiniest little hurts and sees us through them. It occurred to me yesterday in church that nothing here on earth really belongs to us and that what we have (pets included) belongs to Him. He gave Cleo to me for 17 years - to take care of her and to love her - and then it was time to give her back to Him. I didn't want to. She was my first cat and has been with me through so much. It hurt to let go, but instead of being sad that she's gone, I'm chosing to thank Him for letting me have her for so long.

With that said, I'm happy to say I was able to get back in the saddle (so to speak) this weekend. Here's the one of the cards that will be going in the shop this morning. This card was made almost entirely with punches. The bushel basket is a clay pot punch that I sponged, cut and layered on foam tape, and the flowers were all made from punches I bought at an estate sale the week before last. I had a few more felt leaves left over from another project so I tossed those in just for fun. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!.

I've got a busy week of stamping planned so check back often!

Have a blessed day!

Sue :o)

My Heart Hurts Today....

No card today - I'm too sad to do anything. I had to put my cat Cleo down today. God blessed me with her fiesty little presence for over 17 years and while I'm hurting so much right now - I know I did the right thing and soon enough my heart will catch up with my logic. I'll get back to making cards in a few days I'm sure. In the meantime - God bless!
Sue :o(

Happy First Day of Fall!

Well it's finally here - the first day of Fall! It's time to get in the crawl space and dig out of my bins of autumn/Halloween decoration - yay!

I made this card yesterday with Fall in mind. I just love these little pumpkins. I sponged the edges of the ovals with Chocolate Chip ink before gluing them together and I don't know if it shows up in the picture or not but the paper I used is textured. The scalloped circles were cut out of black glossy card stock, burgundy card stock and some irridescent copper paper I found in my stash. I taped them all together and then ran them through the Cuttlebug with the Paisley embossing folder. Then to finish it off I added some brown felt oak leaves I got from Kutz (see my side bar for the link). I still haven't decided if I'm going to put this one in my shop or keep it for myself. I will have some new Fall cards in the shop in the next couple of days so be on the lookout!

Oh and while I have you here - let me ask if this is something you've ever heard. The other day my friend and I were taking a walk in a local park and there were lots and lots of acorns on the ground. She said that meant there was going to be a TON of snow this winter. I'm hoping she doesn't know what she's talking about (LOL) but if you've ever heard something like that leave a message in the comments. I used to love snow when I was kid - until I got a driver's license and discovered the horrors of losing traction. That's why I like Fall now - no one skids off the road and gets stranded in a pile of leaves! :o)

Talk to you soon!

Sue :o)

My Fun Morning!

Hey everyone! Boy I've been neglecting this blog all week! I've been in a bit of a funk -- happens every year when the kids go back to school. I get so used to my summer routine and then everything changes and it takes me awhile to get into a new groove. I got some help getting out of that funk this morning though. One of my stamping buddies (yeah I'm talking about you Sherrie!) and I went to a big stamping estate sale this morning and both of us left with a mother-load of stamps and crafting essentials. I took a snapshot of my mother-load (sort of like my hubby has to take a picture when he catches a big fish) :o) Would you believe I got this all for just $40? I feel giddy! (Stop laughing at me Sherrie). I got 3 Stampin' Up! sets, 8 single stamps, 4 punches, a jar of clear EP, a bottle of Diamond Glaze and 2 bags of card stock, die cuts and envelopes! So I guess my funk was maybe due to the fact that I didn't have any new stamping items? Sounds good to me! I should be good and busy in my craft room for week to come now!

For any of you who live near NW Indiana - the estate sale is going on today and tomorrow. The listing for it was on Craig's List. If you can't find it, just leave me a message or convo me on Etsy and I can send it to you. There's TONS of stuff there - more than I could afford or carry home in my little car.:o)

I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend! I've got a busy one ahead of me so I might not be back until Monday. God bless!

Sue :o)

Ballerina Mouse

Happy Sunday Everyone! I finished this card this morning and I'm trying to get it posted before I leave for church. Isn't this little ballerina mouse too cute? It's a digi image I found yesterday from Lori Boyd. I printed this little sweetie off pretty big (3x5) because I wanted her to take up most of the front of the card. I colored her with watercolor pencils, added pink glitter polka dots to her bow and dress, and then glitzed up the rest of the card with sparkles, a big paper flower with a bubble brad, and a chipboard flourish. I plan on giving this card to my friend's little girl for her birthday next month.

Have a great day and God bless!

Sue :o)

LSC237 An Oldie But a Goodie

Hi all! This card is for the Limited Supplies Challenge over at SCS. Here are the criteria for the challenge:

1. Use your oldest stamp set. Mine is good old Button Bear from SU.

2. Use your newest tool. That would be the Nestabilities dies behind Button Bear.

3. Use your favorite color combo. I love blue, brown and cream! These papers are from basic Grey - Granola.

4. Use your least favorite embellishment. That would be eyelets and I hated every minute of using them today. LOL.

Button Bear is actually 3-D on this card and I made all the flowers myself with punches and eyelets :o(. I did cheat a little though and used brads on the flowers inside the card but that's only because I ran out of blue eyelets. LOL.

I'm heading over to SCS now to see what everyone else came up with today! Thanks for looking and God bless!

Sue :o)

Just Buzzing By....

I recently decided to give digi-stamps a try and boy - I have to say I do like them! This card was made from a digital stamp from Soft Pencil Illustrations. Now I have to say that usually I emboss my images on watercolor paper and then color them with markers, so it took a little getting used to on my part NOT to emboss the image. I know there are ways to do it, but while I was just "playing" I didn't feel like going through the work. :o) So I printed the image on regular old card stock and then got out my watercolor pencils and an aqua pen and got to work. The background papers are all Basic Grey and I got the adorable little felt flowers from Kutz, a wonderful little shop on Etsy that sells all kinds of beautiful felt embellishments. I will be adding a link to that shop on my sidebar so check back later! In the meantime, if you'd like to check out some more adorable digi-images from Soft Pencil click here. She sells her creations on Etsy and there is a link for her shop on her blog.

Well, I finally got caught up on all the camping laundry and now I'm on to regular old day-to-day laundry. I swear my washing machine never stops running some days. I've got to catch up posting my cards on SCS and then maybe I'll sneak away from the washing machine for an hour to work in the garden. It is an absolutely beautiful day here in NW Indiana so I should probably take advantage of it and play in the dirt while I can. This time of year many of my floral friends are full of seeds and I like to collect them for next year's garden --- cuz I'm cheap!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Thursday!

God bless!

Sue :o)

Mojo Monday 103

I've never done a Mojo Monday yet, but when I saw the sketch today (a day late) I thought it would be a fun time to try. If you'd like to play along click here.

I'm afraid I have no idea who made the background paper. I just found it in my scrap heap and of course it wasn't a piece with the company marked on the back. Sigh. The image is from Clear Dollar Stamps and I colored it with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. The strips of paper behind the image were run through the Cuttlebug with the swirls embossing folder, and the buttons and ribbon I bought at Joanne's. This is actually going to be a card with pockets in the inside (when I get it finished) so check back later this week to see the inside.

I'm really hoping to get some more challenges done this week, but we'll see. We just returned from a camping trip and right now I'm knee deep in after-camping laundry. I love the smell of a campfire until I get home and smell it on everything we took with us. We had a great time so maybe the happy memories will take the sting out of going up and downstairs fifty times. LOL.

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! Talk 2 you soon!

Sue :o)

A Pocket of Thanks

I made a large pocket card awhile back and I've been meaning to try it on a standard 4.25 x 5.5 card. I like the way it turned out! All the stamps I used (okay, there's only 2 stamps on the whole card) are from Stampendous!, the papers are all K&Co., and I used watercolor pencils and a blender pen to color. Here are the rest of the details:

- I made the pocket by sealing up a regular envelope (3-5/8 x 6.5 inches) and cutting it in half. I then trimmed the open edge with decorative scissors and then layered it with background papers and the little bee

- The bee image was embossed and then colored with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I cut it out with my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities scalloped circle dies, attached a yellow brad to the center of one of the flowers in the bee's boquet, cut a larger scalloped circle out of blue paper, and then taped everything together. I then used my paper piercing tool on the scallops.

- The bookmark was made by stamping the image with Memento Tuxedo black ink and then coloring with watercolor pencils and the blender pen. I layered the image on several pieces of card stock and then stapled the pink polka dotted ribbon to the top.

-The scrolls in the upper corners of the card were cut out with my Cuttlebug and then I attached little pink rhinestones.

-The inside of the card is just a repeat of the image on the bookmark and done the same way only I cut it out with the Cuttlebug and scalloped circles dies.

Thanks for looking!

Hugs!

Sue:o)

Polka Dotted With Hugs

I might have gone on a bit of a polka-dot spree on this card, but I like the way it turned out. I've had these bubble brads in my stash for ---- well ---- a long time and I finally decided to set them free. The little mouse is from Great Impressions, the "hugs" sentiment is from Penny Black, and the sentiment inside the card is from Stampin' Up! I don't normally decorate both panels of the inside of the card, but I have a ton of this polka dotted paper so I thought I might as well go for it. :o) I may start doing this on a regular basis because I think it really does add something to the inside of the card.

I'm trying to keep this post short today because I seem to be having internet problems. It's on for awhile and then POOF - my connection is gone and the internet thingy on the desk is blinking red. Now in addition to needing a personal assistant I need tech support. LOL. Lucky for me, I'm married to pretty cute computer dude who should be able to fix it a lot faster than I can.

Hugs!

Sue :o)

Two Little Fishes

Here's another card that recently went into my shop. If the truth be told, I won't be upset if this one doesn't sell. :o) I just love this little fish stamp by High Hopes Rubber Stamps. They have some of the most adorable stamps out there. These little guys were colored with my ZIG markers, cut out and then adhered to the card on foam tape. The polka dotted paper is DCWV and I added some swirly dry embossed paper and clear dew drops as accents. The sentiment is Stampin' Up!

I've got a lot of new stuff in the works for the upcoming weeks, so I hope you'll check back often. I'm starting to experiment with digi-images and just purchased a handful of them to play with, and I've just ordered some new Halloween and Christmas stamps too. I've also decided to start posting some of my own personal art here on this blog - things I make for me as opposed to things I'm going to sell in my Etsy store. When I'm making things for my shop I tend to go with "cute" because that's what most people like, but for myself --- well --- I like to play with all sort of style and techniques. I make altered books and tags, I keep an art journal, I love to do quilling and punch art, and I even make my own paper sometimes. I've also been experimenting for the last few days with making my own paper flower embellishments instead of buying ones from the store!

Well, as much as I'd love to go downstairs and play in the craft room I'm afraid I'm off for a morning of errands. I think I need a personal assistant! LOL.

Talk to you soon!

Sue :o)