Grateful Harvest Blessings

Happy Friday stampers!  

It was back to school week for us and my little family is exhausted...myself included!  As much as I try, I am never quite prepared for the back to school routine.  This year is even a bit more intense with my twins playing different fall sports at school, fall baseball and soccer for my youngest.  Add in youth group one night a week and I feel like I need to stick an Uber sign on my card!  I know after another week or so, we will totally be back in routine and life will return to normal.  Until then, I will happily embrace a four day weekend!  

I should be getting things ready for our camping trip this weekend, but I took a little detour to my craft room this morning for a little creative therapy.  A clear, happy mind will help me be more productive, right?!?!

I absolutely love farm house decor, so the Country Home stamp set is one of my favorites!  Not only are the images amazing, but they are perfect for coloring, which is just what I did this morning!

For my first card, I pretty much stuck with the colors in the Country Lane Suite. I'm really digging the Mint Macaron and Cajun Craze color combo!  I embossed my Mint Macaron paper with the Tin Tile Dynamic embossing folder, then sponged it with Cajun Craze...love the end result!  After some Stamping' Blends coloring, a little strip of DSP and some Chicken Wire Elements was all that was needed to complete this card.

I took a brighter approach with my next card.   Granny Apple Green, Blueberry Bushel and Daffodil Delight are delicious together!  I added a few splatters of Blueberry Bushel to the white panel of my card front to break up white on white from the tag. I'm wishing I would have added a few more splatters...you can never have too much, right?!?  And the Galvanized Clips...how great are these!  That little clip was the perfect added touch! 

As much as I would love to stay in my craft room all day, I've got to get a few things done to get ready for our little camping trip.  I'm hoping to have a couple of extra hands to help me get ready so I CAN get in a bit more stamping time today!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Stamping!

A Paper Pumpkin Thing Blog Hop Blissful Blooms

Happy Thursday stampers!  Welcome to my very first A Paper Pumpkin Thing Blog Hop!  I'm excited to join all of these amazing stampers as we showcase some fun alternatives to the Blissful Blooms Paper Pumpkin.

This months kit includes card bases, coordinating envelopes and embellishments to make 10 beautiful cards that are perfect for almost any occasion.  But there are so many other fun options with this months kit if you let your imagination run wild!

My first project is a cute little treat box made using the Clear Tiny Treat Boxes.  I cut a strip from one of the card fronts to create a partial wrapper for the box.  Using the pretty flower stamp included with this kit, I stamped them in Blackberry Bliss and Flirty Flamingo and put my fussing cutting skills to use.  I added a few of the laser-cut vellum leaves as well as a few loops of the beautiful bakers twine and topped it off with a silver foil tag.  Quick, easy and perfect for a tasty little thank you treat for a friend!  

These card bases are AMAZING and almost too beautiful to cut up!  So I decided to use the Stitched Season's frailest to cut just a portion of the card out, leaving the perfect piece for a beautiful sentiment.  I added a small embellishment using the laser-cut vellum leaves again and a fussy cute flower from the card base I cut for the treat box.  Sadly, one of my co-workers lost is mother this week.  This card quickly made it's way to his family with lots of love from his school district family.  

Thank you for joining me for this hop!  I can't wait for you to see all of the other AMAZING creations from the rest of the hoppers!

Happy Stamping!

Swampy Birthday Wishes ~ HSSIC297

Hello stampers!

It's time for an all new Hand Stamped Sentiments Inspiration Challenge and this couldn't have come at a better time! As I mentioned yesterday, we had one epic alligator party over the weekend...yes, I said alligator!  My stampin' BFF, Wendy, drove all the way up to Washington State to get swampy with us, and she just so happens to be celebrating her birthday today!  Happy Birthday Wendy!


Needless to say, this fun challenge inspired a "swampy" birthday card :-)  I love the bright and vivid colors in the Animal Expedition DSP...and the alligator design was perfect for today's creation!

Supplies Used:

Paper ~ Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Animal Expedition DSP

Ink ~ Memento, Stampin' Blends:  Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Soft Sea Foam

Stamp Sets ~ Labeler Alphabet, Lined Alphabet

Other Supplies ~ 2" Circle Punch, Starburst Punch, Glitter Enamel Dots

When you have an alligator party, you must dress up like a bunch of hillbilly swamp people!  Seeing everyone's attire was GREAT!!!  Some of our friends really went all out!

Wendy and I went with the cute hillbilly look, but my hubby went all out with the coveralls, cowboy boots and cowboy hat.  I'm pretty sure it's been a good 10 years since he pulled out that cowboy hat...LOL!  And yes, that's a real alligator on the grill and he was DELICIOUS!

Not only is today Wendy's birthday, but it's also the first day of school for my boys!  Time for 1st day of school pictures and getting them all off to school!

Have a happy Tuesday!

Happy Stamping!

Alpine Christmas Greetings ~ Monday Montage

Welcome back to Monday Montage!!!  We are back once again another fabulous hop for you to enjoy!  Make sure you click on the links below so you don't miss any of the creations...we promise you will love them all!

Oh my gosh...what a weekend I had!  We had our end of the summer party on Saturday and it was A-MAZING!!!  And we had an ALLIGATOR!  Check back here tomorrow for more details on the swampy good fun we all had!

Our party may have been a ton of fun, but it was even MORE fun having my stampin' BFF Wendy here for the weekend!  Her trip here in July seemed so super rushed and went by way too fast...so fast that we didn't even have time to stamp!  In between playing with her ADORABLE new puppy and prepping for the party, we made sure to take some time for stamping this time and it was so great!  I loved having Wendy in my craft room with me!  Stamping with your BFF is always better than stamping alone.  (She was even sweet enough to spend some time stamping with my youngest on Friday while I was at work...she's the BEST!)

We thought it would be fun to find a challenge to play along with and we decided on the latest Freshly Made Sketches sketch.  I think we both strayed away from the sketch a bit, but we still had a great time creating together!  I had been playing around with the Alpine Adventure stamp set earlier in the week, but end up with stampers block and could't come up with a design I was happy with.  I decided to pick the pieces back up and put them to work with the sketch and came up with this pretty card. 

 Supplies Used:

Paper ~ Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Wood Textures DSP, Festive Farmhouse DSP

Ink ~ Mossy Meadow, Cherry Cobbler

Stamp Set ~ Alpine Adventure

Other Supplies ~ Alpine Sports Thinlits Dies, Softly Falling Embossing Folder

This is the sketch we used to help get our creative juices flowing...simple and cute!

I'm already missing Wendy and her super adorable fur baby Juniper.  I'm counting the days until OnStage in November when I get to see her again!  I am so very grateful for Stamping' Up! for bringing so many amazing friends into my life :) 

Next stop on the hop is Cathy...I can't wait to see what she has for us this week! Or if you want to hop backwards, you can hop on back to the amazing Amy...I just love her style!

Thanks you for stopping by today!

Happy Stamping!

We've added links to all of our home pages as well so you can hop along in any order you'd like!

Amy O'Neill - Amy's Paper Crafts

Breelin Renwick - Craft-somnia Momma * You are HERE

Cathy Casey - Sugar Shack Designs

Dani Dziama - Dani's Thoughtful Corner

Elizabeth Price - Seeinginkspots - taking this week off

Julie Warnick - Julie Warnick Stampin' Up! Blog

Kaitlyn Zumbach - Create with Kaitlyn - taking this week off

Melissa Stout - The Stamp Doc
Wendy Weixler - Wickedly Wonderful Creations

#tgifc174 Product Spotlight - Feelin' Punchy

Happy Friday stampers!  It's a super happy Friday for this stamper because my stampin' BFF Wendy of Wickedly Wonderful Creations is here to visit for the weekend!  We are bound to have lots of stampy {and swampy} fun! Stay tuned!

Do you know who else knows how to have lots of stampy fun?!?!  The team over at  TGIF Challenges!  We are getting punchy today...in a crafty sort of way!

We are pulling out all the punches for this weeks Product Spotlight Challenge.  Stampin' Up! has so many great punches, many of which coordinate with some of our amazing stamp sets.  As soon as I saw the Spooky Sweets stamp set and coordinating Spooky Bats Punch, I knew I had to have them both!  I love me some Halloween bundles!  Add a few more punches to the mix and some fun color and you've got a fun little Halloween creation.

Supplies Used:

Paper ~ Basic Black, Lemon Lime Twist, Whisper White, Velum

Ink ~ Lemon Lime Twist, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape, Smoky Slate, Mango Melody

Stamp Set ~ Spooky Sweets

Other Supplies ~ 2" Circle Punch, Starburst Punch, Twinkle Builder Punch, Spooky Bats Punch, Glitter Enamel Dots, Silver Metallic Thread

What do you think of these colorful bats?  When I first started on this card I punched out some black bats, but decided my card was too gloomy and doomy, so I inked up the bats in a few different colors.  And since I always need a little bling on my cards, finding that the colors I chose were the same color as the Glitter Enamel Dots, you better believe I had to add them!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!  I know mine will be filled with lots of good times and hopefully a lot of stamping too!

Happy Stamping!