Christmas Stocking Thank You

A Xmas card in May!!?? Yup.  It's actually a Thank you for a lovely woman who helped complete a Xmas stocking for my "little Theo." 

Challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use Dies or Punches
  
• Crafty Hazelnut Patterned Paper Challenge - Option of Candy Canes
• NBUS - everything on this card is NBUS!  
  
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes
  
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
  
• Time Out Challenge - Items from your home.  The Xmas stockings are from inside my son's home this past Xmas.  

Backstory: My mom knit gorgeous Xmas stockings for her 3 children. Then she knit for our husbands, and her grandchildren. She knit each person's name onto the top of their stocking. As she was getting older she realized her family might outgrow her ability to continue knitting stockings.  So she made a "stash" of stockings for future family members.  As the oldest I am the "keeper of the stash".  Happily, mom's forecast came true.  Her family grew.  Eventually she was no longer able to knit the names on the stockings, and then she passed in 2019.  Along comes Theo (her 3rd great grandchild). 

My sister-in-law found a lady who was able to knit names onto the stockings.  This thank you is for her. 

Mom knitting a stocking ~2005

Theo's stocking with his Mom's & Dad's

Supplies: 

• diecuts: Thank-you (Simon Says Stamps); stocking (Concord & 9th)
• pattern paper: assorted (HoneyBee & DCWV & My Mind's Eye)

These stockings bring a smile to my heart. The tradition continues. Here's a peek at the inside:

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying a lovely spring day. 

More Love

 I made this card using the positive (?) part of the die cut from the card for my hubby, you can find HERE

There is NO Stamping on the front of the card -- only Die Cuts!  And they are varied brands . . . the frame heart was actually 2 heart dies layered to cut out the frame.  The pattern paper is a very old set from My Mind's Eye.

It was a bit time consuming to do these cards, because I actually made 7 of them for family. But any time in my craft room is always soothing to the mind and soul. And I really enjoyed the time.  And I still have many hearts left over to use for. . . . who knows. 

I'm putting this into the following challenges: 

• Happy Little Stampers - anything goes with Dies
  
• Just Us Girls - Valentine
  
• The Paper Players - hearts or stars
  
• Little Red Wagon - Total Eclipse of the Heart
  
• Shopping our Stash - Love is in the Air - Use Hearts.  Well, when I started to look at my heart dies, I found a few.  Then I looked in my Love stamps, and  . . . I found a whole bunch more dies!!  I am such a hoarder. No need for me to ever buy anymore heart dies -- LoL, who am I kidding? 
  

 

Here is a picture of the inside: 

The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday.  Now you can see why I made (and mailed) so many. :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by to take a closer look.  Stay safe, and stay well. 

And Happy Valentine's Day to you.  Be sure to give yourself a hug today.

Love

 

It's almost Valentine's Day.  This is for my hubby.  There is not a bit of stamping on the front of this card -- oh my!!  The big heart and Love is a die from "I don't know".  It's a lovely company - LoL.  The other hearts are cut from assorted heart dies - the frame heart was cut by layering 2 heart dies. I used a texture embossing folder from Stampin Up.

The pattern papers are from a verrrrry old paper set from My Mind's Eye. 

I'm putting this into the following challenges: 

• Freshly Made Sketches - rotated, and shape changed to hearts
• Little Red Wagon - Total Eclipse of the Heart 
• The Paper Players - Heart or Stars
• Just Us Girls - Valentine
• NBUS - many of the dies haven't been used, and definitely the paper! 
  

 

Here is a look at the inside:

Trying out Vintage

This card is for my friend who is a scrapbooker, and loves vintage, layered, embellished layouts.  

And I made a second, similar, card for my stash. 

There was so much put into this project. I used distress inks (and sprays) for all the coloring - mostly vintage photo and the new speckled egg.  The "sewing" is from a stamp set that another friend gave me.  The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions. The flower is stamped and embossed, and colored. The green leaves are from a Tim Holtz die cut set.  I "distressed" the edges of the watercolor cardstock. The tags were cut from pattern paper. Ribbon from Stampin Up was "worn" with some distress ink. There is a deco edge of paper created with a Martha Stewart punch. Phew! 😀

I had a blast doing this -- I'd work on it, and leave it.  Then work on it and leave it - and so on.  Then I saw these two challenges -- to use a tag on your project.  And the whole thing finally came together.

• A Vintage Journey Tag You're It - It's not a stand alone tag.  So I'm not sure that it qualifies for this challenge.  But I wanted to share. 
  
• Just Add Ink -  Just Add T  - Tag starts with T. 
  

I don't usually craft in this style.  But I saw this card by Stacy at Tattered Nest Designs and fell in love with it.  And felt a need to try something like this.  

Will I do another one like this?  I don't know.  So many ideas and projects. . .  so little time. 

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Until next time, stay safe.

Father's Day

This is for my hubby for Father's Day.  He is REALLY  into cars -- of all types.  The stamps, word stamp-die, and flame stencil are all from HoneyBee Stamps. The wood frame die is from Hero Arts.  The stamping is embossed in sliver, and I colored the car with distress inks.  

1) Stamplorations Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes - Can you see the stenciled flames on the side of the car? 

2) Double Trouble Paper Crafting Challenge - This is a new challenge for me.  

Thing 1 (Trouble Maker) -- create a masculine project

 Thing 2 (Double Dare) - Link to "Use Your Stuff" Challenge

 Thing 3 (Twisted Sister) - use at least one round item -- do tires count?

3) Use Your Stuff - Masculine or Father's Day

4) NBUS - Never Before Used Schtuff - the stamp and die (from Honeybee) have never been used before

5) Cardz 4 Guyz - Father's Day

Here is a pretty picture of a recent sunset. Looks like cotton candy.  

Thanks for taking a look.  Until next time.  😷

Cozy Cabin

Decisions, decisions:  black background or red background.  Which do you prefer? 

You may be "gnomed-out".  

But, when I saw all these challenges posted, they spoke to me and said, "Oh, just Gnome for it!" 

I loved how these challenges all combined, and the card was so easy to create.


The Card Concept: Cozy Cabin - This was my starting point.  I decided on the wood background.

The Male Room: It's Snowing - I don't know if you can see the clear snowflake accents on the card.  In retrospect, they probably should have been white. . . but I didn't have white ones that looked nice.

Color Throwdown - Colors: Amazing!!

Freshly Made Sketches - and this sketch is so simply nice.  I had to move the sentiment bar to fit.  

Products used:

• Gnome diecuts & cardstock from Simon Says Stamp
• sentiments from Hero Arts (Merry Xmas) and Gina K (Gnome Like You)
• Wood plank stamp from Unity by Brutus Monroe

Thanks so much for stopping by for a look.

Happy 90th Birthday !

My father-in-law is turning 90 in a week.  He retired from his job as an automotive repair teacher for a local High School technology school system, called BOCES.  Prior to this job, he was a mechanic; and then owned his own gas / service station.  He is also a veteran of the Korean War.

Cars are one of his passions.  So I thought a rusty car pulling balloons would be appropriate for him.

He is the kindest, sweetest, most considerate man you'll ever meet.  My husband takes after him.  And my daughters-in-law say their hubbies (our sons) do also.
So the inside is for him -- The Man, The Myth, The Legend (from Honeybee Stamps).  I think the "love, kisses. . ." is from Penny Black.

When I saw this card by Therese Calvird on her blog Lost in Paper, I knew that someday I would recreate it for my father-in-law.   Therese always makes such beautiful cards.  Her videos are also awesome.  If you haven't seen her blog, please take a look.

For my card, I used Paper Artsy watercolor powders.  They are similar to brushos, but have walnut stain crystals in them.  I used a mix of an orange (named Rusty Car) and blue.  The balloon dies are from Avery Elle. I sponged on some clouds from a stencil.  The "road" is from pattern paper (I'm unsure of the brand).   All dies were cut 3 times, and layered for dimension. I also popped up the balloons.  

I'm putting this card into the following challenges: 

 Seize the Birthday - Topping of NUMBERS

Watercooler Wednesday: Masculine Anything Goes

 AAA Birthday: Use a Stencil

Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes with Dies

I am so looking forward to this weekend when we celebrate his birthday.  My older son and his wife are coming in from out of state.  It will be so good to have my whole family here to help celebrate.

Enjoy your week.  I know summer is officially over, but it is still nice and warm here in NY.

Thanks so much for taking a peek.  

Hill? What Hill?

My daughter-in-law turned 30 just this week.  This card is for her.  But I don't have any way to get it to her.  Because she and my son are traveling across the country for an extended honey-moon / finding a place to live journey.  They left on May 10 to visit all 48 lower states.  They should be home this week, for a brief stop.  Then back out to do the NewEngland states.  

This is a photo of their camping set up before they left:

And here it is in action. This is one of their first nights out.  

I think in the Blue Ridge mountains.

They started a Blog.  But due to limited Internet access, the blog is not quite up to date.  

Here is the  LINK .  

Claire tells some amusing stories.  

The stamp is Happy Trails from Taylored Expressions stamps; I used their sketch for the basis of my design.  But it morphed a bit.  I put the stripe segment across the bottom and used the road die from My Favorite Things.  
So this will go into the Share Joy Challenge.

I colored the car and camper in the colors of their camping set-up.  I think they are fairly bold and bright.  So this will be for the Seize the Birthday - BOLD and Bright challenge also. 

I'm also putting this into Addicted to Stamps Challenge to "Make your Mark"  I colored the truck and camper with Spica glitter pens.

Also at Happy Little Stampers the challenge is to use die cuts.  The road and 30 balloons (from Avery Elle) are die cuts.  There are dies for the camper and truck, but I don't have them.  So I fussy cut them by hand.

At Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge you are asked to   Create A Scene.

It's been a while since I've had some crafty time.  And I had a real good time designing and making this for Claire.  Thank you so much for looking.  I hope you are enjoying your day.