I Think it's Finally Fall

I think Fall might finally have come to Virginia. I'm not 100% sure, because the trees are still lush and green, critters are still tromping about happily, and the garden is still churning out ripe, red tomatoes, BUT...

It DOES get dark a bit earlier, and the days have gone from 100 degrees, down to the 70's, so I think maybe, just MAYBE, Autumn is settling in.

Since this has always been my favorite time of year, I was hoping for my usual leap of happiness when I felt the change in the air. This year, though, I found it was mixed with a little dose of melancholy, too. Up where I'm from, the leaves are bursting with colors, pumpkins are sold at roadside stands, warm mugs of cider are cradled in my hands of an evening, and the crisp chill in the air makes me happy just to be...

Whoa, before I get too homesick, here is a card that I thought had a fall feel just like home. I love the colors and even the sort of country texture to it. I was going for homespun and warm feeling, and trying to capture a bit of what I love most about this time of year. I hope fall wherever you are is filled with all YOUR favorite things about it:)

And A Happy Birthday To My...TEENAGER!?!

No matter how much I think about it, I just cannot fully believe that my very first baby is officially a teenager today!

That's right - Dakota turns 13 years old today. I can still remember it like it was yesterday: going to the hospital, Jeff and I were so excited we could hardly stand it! I remember holding him for the first time. And now here he is, as tall as I am (not that that's hard to do!)

Dakota has pleasantly surprised us from the very start. He does everything with such intensity. When he first talked, it was in full sentences. When he first walked, it was all the way across the room. When he first read words (in PRESCHOOL!) it was a book!

And now is no different, Dakota is so intelligent and has such a great sense of humor. He loves to write stories and draw, and he is so astoundingly good at both! He has high hopes and I have no doubt he will achieve all that and more!

Among many other things, Dakota loves the Martial Arts and all things Asian, like Asian Art, Food, and Philosophy, I chose the Bamboo II and Kanji stamps for his card. It was the perfect way to wish him what we want for him most: Harmony, Wisdom, and Love!

Happy 10th Birthday to My Mighty Quinn!

Wow!! I can hardly believe it, but today Quinn turns 10 years old!

I keep telling my boys that they are not allowed to keep growing up - a part of me wants to keep them little forever! But at the same time, I am so proud and happy every day of the wonderful young man Quinn is becoming.

He is one cool kid - SO smart, great sense of humor, thoughtful and caring, not to mention he is always the first one to offer his help whenever he can...I am one blessed and lucky mom!

I wanted to make Quinn a birthday card that had a little of "him" in it - he has one MAJOR sweet tooth and an appetite to match, so he got the super-sized sundae. He also loves what he calls "feely" cards, in other words he loves to run his fingers over anything I emboss or that has Crystal Effects. So he got both, lots of shiny "feely" stuff for his special day.

The Same? Or Different? Or BOTH??

At first glance, the rich colors and elegant images in the card on the left seem to have nothing at all in common with the bright and juvenile boldness of the card on the right.

Or...

If we take a closer look, we see it's really the same card, done 2 different ways.

The layout of the cards, or what we'll call the "sketch" is exactly the same. Each card uses a background made up of panels cut the same size and shape, plus a rectangular image panel that is overlaid on the front. And obviously, the card can be used either horizontally or vertically, thus adding even more variety.

This is a great illustration of how one layout can be so versatile. You could do the same card using different stamps, papers, accessories, and changing the directionality, and it would look new and different each time.

Well, Orange You Fabulous?

I had SO much fun with this card! It all started with a little inspiration from the Pier 1 Imports sale flyer...

The room that was the inspiration had gorgeous shades of Autumn colors, lots of texture, and very cool detail elements. I tried to narrow it down, but in the end I just wanted to add as much as I could.

The papers (Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, & Chocolate Chip) were all sponged with the same color ink to shade them, then again in Chocolate Chip ink for even more.

That yummy Designer Paper? From a bin at the Dollar Store! It was my lucky day!!

The blossom was a little "involved":

-First I inked it all over in More Mustard
-Then I "Thumped" the petals a bit with my Pumpkin Pie Marker
-Next, I outlined each petal with my Chocolate Chip Marker
-THEN I stamped it on White CS
-THEN (yeah, I got carried away) I used Really Rust ink & a watercolor brush to add more intense orange to the petals -LAST (after I cut it out) I covered the whole blossom in VersaMark & embossed it with Glassy Glaze to make it shine.

For details, I used my Crafter's Tool Kit to pierce the papers, some Vintage Brads, and a bunch of Linen Thread & ribbon in coordinating colors. It might sound like a lot of work, but I had a blast making it and I was fabulously happy when I was done!

It's happy anniversary time again! Not for me, of course, but for some dear friends of ours. Seems like September is as lovely a month for weddings as June :)

I have been dying to play more with this technique, called "Emerging Colors", I just LOVE it!

-First, Glossy White CS is stamped all over with any shapes & colors you like so that very little white is left showing.

-Then, using a mostly solid larger stamp and VersaMark, stamp it randomly over the colored images. Heat emboss those VersaMarked images with Clear EP.

-After the embossing, use a brayer or sponge (or both), go over everything with a nice, dark ink until it has filled in all the areas that were not embossed.

-Use a clean cloth to "polish" the embossed areas, and what you have left will be the beautiful original colors "emerging" from under the clear embossed images. (This will also work with regular cardstock if you do not have glossy, but glossy is sturdier, gives a slightly better effect, and is a bit easier to work with)

Hope you give this one a try and have fun seeing what "emerges" for you!

Happy Anniversary to...Us!!

Today my Hubby and I celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary! Hard to believe, but it it has been 14 wonderful, eventful, and amazing years since the day we tied the knot.

Okay, we didn't actually do so much "celebrating", more like returned books to the library, ran to the grocery store, picked up more chicken feed, dropped the kids off at school, picked them up...

But, the point is, the day was special anyway. And we were lucky enough to get to spend some time together. So I thought this card would be a fitting entry for the blog today. I find I really like So Saffron with Black, it makes the soft yellow really pop.

The layout came from Splitcoast, the rest came from me. This was put together a few little steps at a time as I ran through my day, but Jeff really seemed to like it just the same. I was pretty happy with the result, but what I loved even more was the card HE gave to ME. I don't know how he managed it...a great card and he didn't even have to take out any stamps or ink!?

Here Comes the SUN!! (well, for a minute...)

Between the remnants of Hurricanes Gustav, Hannah, and Ike, it seems like we have seen nothing BUT rain here in Southern VA for the last week or 2, and I was ALL DONE with that!

We have been very lucky to only get rain, some winds and nothing more serious, but also only a peek of sun now and again.

When I saw this Sketch Challenge (i.e. make a card using this layout, and pick any stamps, colors, and accessories you want) I knew I needed some bright, happy colors.

The problem was that after all the gray outside, I just could not narrow down my color choices, so in the end, I decided to use ALL of them!

In the end, after I combined Perfect Plum, White, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Rose Red (and the kitchen sink?) I was happier than I thought I would be with the result.
A little ribbon and bling (what is a card WITHOUT those??) and I felt cheerier already. This turned out to be the perfect birthday card for a friend AND a nice way to perk up a dreary day.

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, and a little card, too.

I thought this was such a sweet idea! Not MY idea, of course, but a lovely lady hosting a challenge on you-know-where.

The instructions were to create a project using the little Wedding Day poem of Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue.

Those were the guidelines, the rest was up to us. For the "Old" I chose to use my long-retired Square Steps Punch to create the bottom edge, plus I threw in some Retired Soft Sky elements, which also took care of the "Something Blue" part of the game. I just love that color, and it gave such a soft look to the card.

For my "New" element, I used my Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, which I have had for a little while, but had never used until this card, so it was "new" to me!

And for my something borrowed - not as easy as you might think! I not only do not live near other stampers from whom I can borrow items, I live near almost NO people at all! But I have a nice lady nearby who was willing to lend me that pretty organdy ribbon. Lucky for me!

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My...Card??

It has been raining for what seems like an eternity down here in VA, so this seemed like the perfect time to post this little card. This is another 4 1/4" inch square - see, I really love this size!

This was yet another challenge - there are stamping geniuses in this world and lots of them hang out over at Splitcoast Stampers, so if you are ever in that online neighborhood, you should stop by - there is inspiration galore!

And for this Inspiration, we got to check out some of the cool umbrellas by a company called Marimekko. They had lots of styles, but the happy colors on this one would make any rainy day brighter, so this was my choice.

I loved how the circles on the umbrella were not quite perfect and had a really "mod" feel, so after I punched my circles, I trimmed them by hand to get that same look.

I added the white-on-white circles by dry embossing with my Seeing Spots Classy Brass template, then adding a little Crystal Effects. Kind of made me feel like there were real raindrops! Had to have a touch of black, so I added it with the Gingham Ribbon and the words.

Very simple and not too outside the box, but hey, an "Inspiration challenge" is all about how something makes YOU feel. What are YOU inspired to create? Rainy day or not, go make something fun!