Hi!

Coming at you today with a new CAS-ual Friday challenge!

I loved all the samples from last week's "color" theme...what a great turnout.

So this week is a bit different. We have a sketch for you!

And we are sponsored by the awesome LAWN FAWN again!

I used the Hello Friend set for the card above. 

Sometimes a simple sentiment is all you need on some pretty paper, right? *smile*

I hope you'll join is this week and submit your cards using this fun sketch by Laura to the CAS-ual Friday challenge!

Thanks for stopping by,

*mwah*

App sneak peek

Some fun news today!

One of my cards was accepted into the Clear &Simple Stamps app program and is debuting today!

Here's a sneek peek...

If you want to check it out, go HERE to download the app for many, many more samples using Clear & Simple Stamps.

*mwah*

Cornucopia

Hi. *waves*

Thought I'd pop in today with a card I made using Denami's Cornucopia stamp.

It's such a great stamp by itself, but I wanted to create a "spread" of harvest things, so I added in a few leaves and gourds from the Autumn Stamp set and and the Elegant Florals set to make a full layout! The simple sentiment was the finishing touch! 

Sometimes keeping it simple (like plain gold embossing) really makes for a striking card!

The Chocolate Brown card base has that texture that I love and adds a little something extra, while the gorgeous kraft gave me a neutral panel to work with.

If you like the Cornucopia stamp, check out the Denami Blog for several great samples by the DT. 

And as a heads up, it's also on sale this week, so grab it in time for Thanksgiving!

It makes the cutest placecard holders too. *wink* 

Thanks for stopping by today,

*mwah*

Simple gifts

 Happy Monday my friends. *smile*

Remember this card by Maile? Well I loved the colors and the style but wanted something easier to mass produce, so I simplified it. I made 5 of each LO for my son's school fundraiser.

I know this picture is a bit wonky, but it was dark when I took it and I could not fix it in Photoshop so I just blurred the BG a bit. Lol. I'm clueless when it comes to editing my photos so I REALLY depend on good quality lighting! * chuckle*

Thanks for stopping by today,

*mwah*

P.S. I've been singing "Simple Gifts" all day...do you know that song?

Casual Fridays-Color!

This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is a fun one my friends!

And it is practically impossible NOT to do.

Just add color. 

Using any medium you choose; inks, e.p., pencils, markers, paints, etc.

How easy is that? *grin*

We are sponsored by the incredible Clear and Simple Stamps this week. And I just LOVE the set we were given to work with...Craft Room!

But wait, there is a bonus! 

BONUS: Use the html code below to add the CSS blinkie to your side bar, and leave them a message with a link to your blog and they will randomly select (3) blogs featuring the CSS blinkie with the Limited Edition Crafty Bonus stamp set! {bonus closes Thursday 10.27.11 at midnight, EST}

BLINKIE HTML:

<br><a href="http://www.clearandsimplestampsonline.com"><img src="http://www.clearandsimplestampsonline.com/cssbadgeanim.gif" /></a><br>

Cool huh?  

So come on out and join us this week for the newest CAS-ual Friday challenge because you won't want to miss the prize!

Thanks for stopping by,
*mwah*

Karen's Birthday Hop

No, you are not at the wrong blog my crafty friends!

Today's post is for the incredibly talented, dearest, sweetest, kindest person in blogland...Karen Baker. 

Today happens to be her birthday, and some of us were invited to take part in a birthday blog hop for her.

You should have arrived here from Jen's blog, but if you want to go to the beginning, check out our hostess Erin's blog!

I brought cupcakes to the party.

I have discovered that even if you AREN'T invited to a party, if you show up with cupcakes, you will most likely be asked in! *chuckle*

I make cupcakes on a regular basis, so I wanted something special for Karen.

These are mocha mini-cakes with espresso buttercream (and hers has semi-sweet chocolate shavings on top).

Not only is Karen a talented card maker (have you seen her blog?!), but she's really great at blog design (she made the gorgeous header up above *wink*) and she's a sweetheart to work with (we are on two DT together).

I think she's giving away a pretty nifty prize on her blog today in honor of her birthday (does that tell you what a great girl she is?), so be sure to stop by and wish her a happy birthday!

I used a stamp set that she designed for Practicing Creativity...called Nature's Wonder.

I'm so happy to have "met" you Karen, and I wish you the happiest of birthdays today! 

Your next stop is Michele!

Thanks for stopping by, have a cupcake if you'd like,

*mwah*

CAS-ual Fridays

Yay for Fridays!

This week's CAS-ual Friday challenge was my least favorite though. *pout*

I LOVE celebrating Halloween (we call it Samhain here) and we usually celebrate in a big way around our house. We like to do lots of nature inspired craft projects to remind us of the end of the harvest season.

So why don't I like this week's challenge?

Because ORANGE is my all time favorite color and we were asked to create a Halloween project that didn't use ANY orange! *sniff sniff* 

Not one speck. Nada. Zilch.

It was SO HARD!

 I'm not joking here friends. 

This was not easy for me.

Our sponsor is Clear Dollar Stamps and I think they have a really amazing sale going on right now.

In my card above, the skeleton, bats, and the spiderwebs are Tim Holtz stamps, the sentiment is PTI.

I really hope you'll join us for this week's challenge because I can't wait to see what you come up with. You are all going to make me seem like a crybaby, aren't you?! 

Thanks for stopping by,

*mwah*

Jumbled amalgam of stuff

I made a bunch of thank you cards for a local business last month, and this one was one of my favorites. They wanted simple but bold, and easily mail-able. This seemed to fit the bill. 

Unless requested, I try not to make all of them the same, but still supply multiples of several different designs.

I could NOT get good lighting for this card. *shrug*

It just looked off no matter where I took the photo. 

This one above was taken with my phone in my studio at night. Blah.

Although my kids get bused 45 minutes away to private school, I had to drive them in on Tuesday because the local public schools had the day off.  It is truly Autumn here in Western New York and I could not resist taking this photo of them with the gorgeous backdrop of changing leaves. The grass was still covered in dew and it was chilly, but the sun was peeking out from over the hills behind us and shining on the tops of those trees.

This was taken at night with my phone (ignore the graininess!) as a quick image text to my husband who was out. Even though a terrible photo from a photography perspective, I adore it! Our happy, goofy smiles make me laugh!

Thanks for stopping by,

*mwah*

Wheat stalks

ETA: This post was scheduled for this morning, but apparently blogger is not cooperating!

Happy Wednesday friends!

Today we are showcasing a really pretty stamp from Denami called Wheat Stalks. 

It is the perfect little Autumn addition to your collection and it's on sale this week only!

After stamping it several times in the corners of my panel, I tried stamping an almost "snowflake" pattern and LOVED it! I added a few touches of the compound leaf stamp from the Elegant Floral Petit Four collection.  Then for good measure I embossed it in cream on a circle and inked the top to show it off. Sentiment is the ever useful Thankful For You! 

Be sure to stop by the Denami blog to see all the DT samples using this wheat Stalks stamp...you will be inspired!

Have a good one,

*mwah*

Fall Blog Hop

It's Blog Hop time again with Denami!

This month's theme is Fall, and with so many amazing Autumn inspired stamps to choose from it was a challenge for me to decide what to use.

But just now when I uploaded the above image I saw that it kind of resembles my card! 

Cool.

And, umm...I totally planned that. Yeah.

So you should have arrived here from Christy's Blog, but if you want to see a full list, check out the Denami Blog. And if you made it this far, congratulations because I'm the last stop!

Denami supplies used:

Autumn Stamp set., Happy Thanksgiving, Simple Tree, and  Harvest Boutique Button Mix. 

I really love the acorn and oak leaf in the Autumn Petite Four stamp set, so after stamping the simple tree several times, I began adding the oak leaves and coloring them in. Then I decided I wanted to spotlight an area of the scene I had just stamped and using nestabilities, I cut out a larger circle. I like how it is raised up off the card base too.

I hope you had fun hopping along and are plenty inspired to go create something fall themed yourself!  And don't forget there are two chances to win a $20 gift Certificate to the Denami store just for leaving comments along the hop!

Thanks for joining us,

*mwah*

Joy

I have some joyful news to share with you today!

I am the spotlight designer over at Fascinating Fridays!

Go check it out.

This card uses a stamp from Unity, PP by Basic Grey, die by Sizzix, CS and ribbon by PTI, and ink by Impress, Memories, and Amuse.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

*mwah*

Operation Julie's Smile/CAS-ual Friday

Hi Sweet friends (and new-comers)!

Welcome to the Blog Hop and CAS-ual Friday challenge!
If you arrived here from the CAS-ual Friday blog, you are on the right track!

Today is a special day.

We are blog hopping in support of my pal Julie's cause. (see below)

I have 2 cards to share with you.

(all stamps by The Craft's Meow, "smile" is my own handwriting)

Our CAS-ual Friday challenge this week is to base your project around this statement:

True, is it not? 

Well I wanted to go really clean & simple this week, so brace yourselves...

Hee hee! Are you singing that song from Annie now? 

I've been singing it for days!

Because The Craft's Meow is the sponsor this week at CAS-ual Fridays, I made sure to use one of my favorite sets from them: Fun {Tash} tic. SO much fun!

So here are the Blog Hop details:

• BLOG HOP RUNS THROUGH SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9th AT 11:59pm EST
• If you get lost, a full blog list is HERE.
• There are more than $2500 worth of prizes donated by various companies!
• Prizes will be drawn from the blog comments, the Paypal donation list, and the blog hop participants.
• See donation button below:

And here is WHY we are holding this hop:

“The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae.  You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more.  What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child.  It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth  replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out.  But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend about a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight! Because she is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done.

It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click.  Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.”

I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop!  The next stop is the lovely and talented Julie Day's blog.  Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs...and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend.

Thank you so much for stopping by,

*mwah*

Spooky Invitations

Happy Wednesday!

 I recently had a customer request invites for a small Halloween gathering. 

I made several samples for them, and this was one of the the "rejects."

In an attempt to keep them mail-able and cost effective I like to offer a sample with no embellishments...this one was it.

Although they ended up choosing a different invite, I wanted to share this one because it was a favorite of mine.

Thanks for stopping by,

*mwah*

Denami Color Challenge

Happy Monday friends!

Today's card is for the new color challenge that Denami is hosting.

And I was asked to choose the colors!!

Brace yourself, apparently I am not so good at this. *smile*

Golden yellow, charcoal, cream, brown and celery.

I used Denami's charcoal cardstock, chocolate cardstock, the Crown of Thorns, Small Pine Sprig, and Dropping You a Note stamps, Lime buttons, and Denami's chocolate ribbon.

To see lots of fun samples by the DT, check out the Denami Blog!

And if you play along be sure to link your project up to the blog for recognition!

Thanks for stopping by,

*mwah*