On Saturday I took a Gatefold Album class at Scrapville in Greenville. What a cute album! When I manage to find the digital camera, I will upload pictures of it to my blog.
In the meantime, I bought some beautiful paper and a small set of "Inchies" at the store, so I had to come home and create. The challenge I made this card for is called "Fly Away" and features anything that flies. I used birds, bugs and butterfly stamps and Adirondack's Wild Plum ink to stamp the images on white CS. The patterned paper was double-sided, so I mounted the images to the back side of the paper and then to a slightly larger piece of white CS. I then tied a white striped ribbon around it before mounting it on the card. The base of the card is white CS with the floral paper mounted on it.
I have designed two different Christmas cards and will be posting them soon. It seems Thanksgiving is almost upon us so Christmas is sure to follow in a hurry.
I'm not basically a football fan, but I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan for years. This year the team has been just sorry. How embarrassing is it to have the newest, most modern stadium in the sports world and a Super Bowl coming up and a sorry, sorry home team. All those high-dollar players need to get out there and do their jobs! That's what they're paid for, and professional football is not a sport ... it's a business. We'll see what happens under new leadership.

So much of what I have posted on my blog has been the simple stuff. Today I'm posting this journal I made for a swap along with instructions for it ... if I can remember them. I made it a long time ago but kept the scan of it, thinking I might want to make another one when I get a Round Tuit. That day hasn't come yet.

The front and back of the journal was covered with a speckled mauve paper, and I stamped flourished down the side using a mauve ink. I stamped the main image on a plain scrap of mauve CS using black ink and then cut it out with deckle-edged scissors. I mounted it on a wine CS scrap and rounded the corners. The words "beauty" and "time" are stamped above and below the mounted image. Charms, a flat-backed key, and frilly fibers finish it off.

I'm in a Christmas-card-making mode today, and I have completed at least five of the nearly 300 cards I have to finish by Thanksgiving. At least 135 of the cards are cut, printed, scored and folded. Most of the layers are already cut, Cuttlebugged and stamped, too. Right now, though, I need to go check my whole wheat bread which is in the final stage of rising, and then it's back to cardmaking.

Today is a beautiful day in Texas. I hope it stays that way after the Rangers try to beat the SF Giants tonight in Game 3 of the World Series.

This is another one of the 3"x3" gift cards I made using mainly scraps of paper. The 6"x3" strip of aqua card stock used for the card base was a scrap. So was the strip of darker aqua that I ran through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder. I cut it in two pieces and attached a strip to the top and one to the bottom of the card. The flower was cut from scrapbook paper using the Cricut. I attached a white Prima flower to it using an aqua brad. The leaves were stamped with Marvy Matchables' Jungle on white CS and cut out by hand. The flower and leaves were then mounted to the card using foam tape.
We had a very welcome thunderstorm yesterday which left our yards full of much needed rain. This afternoon and evening there has been a lot of damage to the east and south of us as tornadoes touched down and baseball-sized hail hit. The small town of Rice had damage to the high school, reports of multiples injuries, and people trapped in cars. Hopefully the storms have calmed down by now. Whether it's rushing wind or rushing water, Mother Nature can play havoc with our lives almost too quickly for words.

This is an ATC I made today for a swap challenge. The magenta background is a candy wrapper from Hershey's Raspberry Bliss candy. I pressed it open and smoothed it before trimming it to fit the ATC. The images were stamped with Adirondack's Watermelon ink and outlined with a Spica glitter pen.
Since I have been a huge Texas Rangers fan for years, last night was such a sweet victory! The Rangers will face the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Since both teams are underdogs, it will be interesting to see which team comes out snarling and attacking like a pit bull. Go Rangers!

What a fun evening last night! I met with a local ATC group for our monthly exchange, and then three of us went shopping at the magazine racks at Barnes & Noble. After that, we went across the street to eat at LaMadeline while we talked, exchanged ideas, and browsed each other's magazines.
If you haven't seen the latest issue of Stampers' Sampler's Take Ten, you should. There are some great cards in theere. I bought the current issue of CardMaker magazine and am delighted with the Christmas and Hanukah cards featured.

The October swap challenge for one of my groups was to make three small gift cards. I used a 6"x3" strip for paper folded in half for each gift card. The words "To" and "From" were stamped on the inside of the cards. The first one was a dark green base with a smaller Cuttlebugged square of mint green mounted on it. The ornaments were stamped on an even smaller piece of mint green CS using Adirondack's Bottle ink. It was then mounted on dark green CS and attached to the card using foam tape.

If you have never made gift cards, they are a great way to use up scraps of CS with beautiful results. Try it ... you'll like it!

This quick, simple card was made using paint chips, colored paper, and a skeleton leaf stamped with Adirondack's Terra Cotta dye ink. The embellishments are Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest.
The colors of fall, at one time my least favorite, are now ones I love to work with. There are never ending combinations using these colors. Try them and enjoy the results!

It has been so long since I have posted anything that I have almost forgotten how to do it. After several months of Rubber Rot, which is a serious disease for any rubber stamper, I have been creating cards and using the Cricut and Cuttlebug more and more. Do you have any idea how quickly you can cut out a sheet of snowflakes with a Cricut? Zip, zip, zoom ... and they're done.

One of the groups I belong to did an image swap, and the challenge was for us to make a card with one of the images. Here is the card I made using a handmade card stock for the base and paper scraps I found in my stash.

It's spring time in Texas, and I'll be our friends in the northeast part of the country could say the same thing. Spring is not just a season ... it's an attitude.
I traveled around town today, doing some banking, picking up prescriptions and, most importantly, going to a beautiful park to watch the ducks. The duck population in the little park has grown quite a bit over the last few years, and today I saw twelve tiny ducklings bobbing about in the water. With wind gusts about 25-30 mph, they were being swept back and forth, but they continued to paddle after the larger ducks.
The image above is an ATC I made for a swap calling for the Color Purple. The base is purple CS, and then I used a floral lavender print on top and punched the corners with the SU ticket punch. Over that went another layer of purple without the corners punched. I stamped irises on an lavender paper and colored it with Copic markers. I then used the oval Nestabilities on the image and the scalloped oval Nestabilites on a darker lavender paper. Finished it with flat-backed pearls.

FAREWELL TO WINTER!

This card was made featuring a record snowfall in North Texas on February 11, 2010, about 6:30 a.m. I used a broom and a dustpan since we don't own a snow shovel to clear our front walk so I could walk down to the main sidewalk and take the picture while looking down the street. The street was silent, and the snow was still falling, creating a beautiful world for us to enjoy. The snow continued to fall all day and into the night until we had over 12" at our home.

We thought that was the end of winter for us ... and it was in a sense. The first day of spring we got another 4-1/2" of snow, officially marking the end of winter.

When I was a lot younger and lived in the northern part of the Midwest, I wondered why my in-laws took pictures every time it snowed in Texas. Having lived here for many years, I now know the answer. Snow is so rare down here that it merits making memories with a camera.

The card was made using mainly CS, corner punches, patterned paper and corner rounders. The snowflake embellishment was made using Nestabilities and navy ribbon.

It seems almost impossible that so much time has past since I posted on my blog. I have been involved in making cards to send to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I encourage all of the stampers and scrapbookers to join me in the effort. I send my cards to a stamper in Missouri who is able to forward them to chaplains for distribution to the troops. If you are interested, go to http://www.fromourhearts.info/ for details.

This card was made using a new set of stamps from TPC and Basic Grey background paper.

This card was made using a background stamp from Great Impressions, a Route 66 stamp from Seaside Stampin Ink, luggage from Hero Arts, and a car from Classic Status Stamp Co. I have had the car stamp for a long time, but I think the company is now out of business. If not, I would love more of their classic cars.

This card was made using a Hero Arts penguin, but I'm not sure which clear stamp set the "Snow Place Like Home" was from. The snowflakes in the corners were punched from a shiny cardstock which doesn't show up here.

I used the Candy Stripe folder for the Cuttlebug as a background and colored it with Salmon ink from Adirondack using the direct to paper method. The frames are from DeNami Designs, and I can't tell you where the shoes are from. I took them off the wood blocks, remounted them on cling foam, and didn't write down the name of the stamp companies.

Until the next inking, have fun stamping and scrapping!

Since I have been stamping for so many years using numerous techniques, I find it strange that I had never done the Soot technique until I made the above card for a group swap. The one I chose to do is the Reverse Soot Technique. After applying the soot to the glossy card stock, I inked my stamp (Forest Fairy from Elemental Doodles) with VersaMark ink and stamped it. I then used a soft paper towel to lightly remove the soot from the card stock and ended with an image that looks as if it had been stamped with black ink. To keep the soot from further smearing, I used a spray sealer to set the images. The little "ovals" in the corners are actually round dark pink flat-backed pearls, but the light from the scanner makes them appear to be ovals.
It's hard to believe that the month of December flew by without a single post from me. It was a wonderful month filled with family, fun and laughter. I sincerely hope that all of you had a great holiday season.