Outside the box...

This was a lot of fun to do!

The challenge at Saturday Spotlight was to make a Halloween card, but to not use any Halloween stamps!

Well, I happened to have this new set, Merriest Wishes, from TAC that kept jumping off of my shelf, wanting to be inked.

Who am I to put a set of stamps back on the shelf and tell them 'no'?

So, out came this adorable snowperson stamp, and the following card was born!

What's in it??? K & Co. DP, Computer generated sentiment, Large Nesties, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Tombow Markers, Sharpies, Ribbon and button from my stash, DCWV CS, Sakura Starburst Glitter Pen.

She is entirely colored with either Tombow or Sharpies, except for her paper pieced "coat".

Hope your Friday is wonderful. It is STILL raining here, dark and dreary, Cardinal's got slammed by the Dodger's again, but otherwise...life is good!

Blessings...Patti J.

All that glitters IS gold!

Yep, all that glitters IS gold! On the following card at least! Giovana, over at StampTV posted a challenge this week to use gold, gold, and GOLD! This is a color combination (tee hee) that I rarely ever work with, so I couldn't resist the challenge! Way to get me out of my comfort zone, Giovana! Again, I grabbed Theresa Momber's new Christmas set for this card! I stamped the tree and sentiment on GKD's Luxury Ivory CS, matted on shiny gold and then on a gold swirly DP from my stash. Card base is also Luxury Ivory. The bows are glittered with gold, the apples on the tree are Crystal Lacquered so they appear shiny. The trim is some awesome gold that I found last trip to Hobby Lobby.

The next card was made for several challenges!

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Paper Blooms - Monochromatic Card

FlutterBy Wednesday - Add a fairy or butterfly to your card

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #22 - Sketch

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - "Show the earth rejoicing...flowers blooming, oceans roaring, trees bursting with fruit, etc."

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All papers hail from DCWV's cute little paper packs! Image and sentiment are The Angel Company, CS is DCWV

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Sure hope you see something you like!

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Have a super Friday - I'm off in the pouring down rain to Wal-Mart - ugh...someone can shoot me now and save me the trouble!

Patti J.

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Did you know...a cat has 32 muscles in each ear... (come on now, you canNOT count muscles - you have to take my word for it!)

After all, I read it on the internet, so it must be true, right???

Happy Fall, Ya'll...

I think that fall is in the air! It's been a little chilly in Missouri! Today was beautiful, but crisp. A very fitting day to work on a 'fall' card! I chose to work on the Cuttlebug Challenge this afternoon. The theme was to make either a 'fall' or 'Halloween' card. As I currently am in need of a masculine card, I chose to work on the 'fall' card!

Starting with a piece of pumpkin colored cardstock, I just sponged various shades of greens, oranges, browns, and yellows. It's actually more of a medium green overall shade than what it seems on the "tv", not an orangy color... I then used the Cuttlebug embossing folder "Bird Call". After embossing, the embossed areas were chalked with green and brown.

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Next, I inked up Theresa Momber's newest set for Gina K. Designs, "Very Merry Christmas". What a beautiful set! The image was stamped on Gina K's luxury ivory (thanks Shirley!), and colored with Kooh-I-Noor pencils. The edging was done with a Krylon Gold Paint Pen. The red CS was the sparkly cardstock that TAC sells. After coloring, little accent dots were added with a Sakura Starburst Gelly Roll Pen. I liked the way that the dots gave the image a velvety look.

Hope that you like these. I have so enjoyed Theresa's Merry Christmas set! I actually won this set playing on the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge a few weeks ago! It is wonderful!

Have a great night!

Patti J.

Did you know...a dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

(go ahead and count them, you know you want to!!! : - )

Pretty in Pink...

Isn't she the most adorable little lady ever?

Meet Lili! Lili is shown with her very own Awareness Ribbon! Lili is an Inky Impressions stamp that I purchased last week, and have had in hand for a couple days and have been SO anxious to ink up! I know that when you see her, you are all going to want her, so let me sweeten the deal! If you purchase this Lili, a portion of the proceeds will go the the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and also to the American Diabetes Association. See??? Sweet deal...! You get a darling stamp, and help someone in the process!

What I really like about this is that you can color her ribbon in any color to reflect whatever cause you like!

My card today, featuring Lili, is for three challenges. First, I am using the Mojo Monday sketch for this week.

Secondly, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness this month, the challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot is "Pretty in Pink". I think Lili is definitely pretty in pink!

Third, the challenge at ABC is "E is for embossing". As you can see, I used the Cuttlebug Argyle embossing folder on the pink rectangles.

Recipe: Cuttlebug Argyle Embossing Folder, Inky Impressions Stamp, Pink Ribbon DP by Stemma, Ribbon from Wal-Mart, Pink Starburst Gelly Pen, Kooh-I-Noor Pencils, Tombow and Sharpie markers.

Hope she brought a smile to your face! I'm off to change a load of laundry, and then to come play with the new set I got in the mail yesterday! A couple of weeks ago, I was the winner at the Saturday Cinema Challenge, and the sponsor was Gina K. Designs. I got to pick out a free set! I chose Theresa Momber's newest Christmas set, and I cannot wait to sit down with it!

Happy Tuesday!

Patti J.

The greatest competitor is faced every morning, gazing back from the bathroom mirror!

~Peter Reese

Magic...

Above is my card for this week's challenge at There's Magic in the Air. This is another cute sketch by Nina. When I first saw the sketch, I said to myself, "Self, this is a tough one". I thought about every combination of colors, and no matter what I chose, it still seemed lovey-dovey to me, so pink won!

I printed the FREE digi image off (Nina puts a free image up for the challenge every single Monday) and colored it with my colored pencils and mineral spirits. Then I highlighted the pink areas with Sakura's pink glitter pen. I used a scalloped nestie circle, punched around the image, and sponged with pink chalk ink while it was still in the die. I also drew around the inner edge of each die with the glitter pen before popping the image out!

Hope you like it! Have a great Monday!

Patti J.

~Only in America do we buy hot dog buns in packages of 10, and hot dogs in packages of 8!

Short 'n Sweet Post...

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope that you all enjoyed WCMD yesterday - I sure did! There were TONS of great things out on the web to see and do! Thanks to all of you for inspiring little old me!

I decided to do a scrapbook challenge today! I know, crazy, isn't it? I have stacks upon stacks of photo's that I could so easily start putting in books! that was actually the 'plan' for retirement. Yikes, haven't touched any yet! Well, I have touched ONE!!!

The challenge was offered on Stamp TV, by Theresa Momber. Theresa is an amazing, talented lady, that I have come to 'know' through the blogosphere. If I had just as much talent as is in that girl's pinky finger, I'd be on Cloud Nine for the rest of my days!!! You need to go check out her blog - she puts a wonderful tutorial up with every card she posts! Really!!! Today's post features her newest Christmas set that she illustrated and designed for Gina K. Designs, as well as a sheet full of tips on how to use each of the stamps!

Here is Theresa's sample page (sketch) that she had us CASE.

Here is my page. I used an OLD photo of DD. She was in high school (she's been out for over 10 years!). I versamarked the background, as I couldn't find any DP to coordinate!

Looking at it on the "big screen" I see lots of things I'd change the next time! That's why they call it a challenge, and also why we always get another chance, right???

Recipe: Gina K. Designs, "Friendship Blooms" for versamarked background

Gina K. Designs, "Comfort and Peace" for flower vase

Rupa Shevde's "So Grateful" for Sentiment

Versafine Black Ink for stamping

Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay Ink for distressing, and Bermuda Bay CS.

Tombow Green marker

Gina K's luxury white CS

Checked CS from my stash (I stamped the vase of flowers a second time on this checked CS, and cut the pieces out for the vase and flowers)

Have a wonderful evening!

Patti J.

How I spent my Friday...

Hi there! What a gorgeous COOL and breezy day in Missouri! I am simply lovin' this fall! Hoping to do a bit of outside painting tomorrow if the breeze dies down.

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The first card I'll post here is one that looks much better IRL. I'm not sure why it photographed so poorly. I'm disappointed in the way it looks on "the big screen".

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Anyway, this week, Gina K. offered a tutorial on using the Sakura Clear Starburst Pen to create your own Shimmering Background Paper.
After the tutorial on Stamp TV, Gina posted a challenge for us to create our own shimmering background paper.
I first ran the CS through my Cuttlebug, using one of the new CB Embossing folders.
I took a scalloped rectangle Nestie and cut out the opening.
Every part of the embossed image was colored with the Starburst Pen.
I then stamped with Gina K.'s 'Friendship Blooms' on the inside, using her Luxury Ivory cardstock.
(The inside really isn't crooked, I just sort of slanted the photo - ugh...again!!!




Okay, enough of that one! So glad I have another day and more cardstock to play with!!! Tee hee. Bet you've all had days like that!

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So...Georgia and Cat, hope YOU had a good day at Archiver's! My friend Shirley and I drove about 70 miles to St. Louis Mills for a class at our Archiver's. We stopped first at Xpedx for some envelopes and 'bargains', met up with two of Shirley's friends, and the four of us continued on to "The Mills" for our class. Here is what we created there...

These all look very cute on "the big screen", but we were quite disappointed. This was labeled as a Copic Christmas Card Class. We assumed we would learn a Copic trick or two. What the class amounted to was just 'grab a Copic and color an image'. Even this would not have mattered, but all of the cardstock was paper thin, the markers all bled through, and the ink used was Versafine, which, of course, bled considerably. The instructor was adorable, and tried to be helpful, but she knew very little about the Copics, was certainly not certified in them, and could only do what she could do with what corporate allowed her to use.

Anyway, all in all, we had a lot of fun. We did a little bit of shopping (I know you are shocked at that bit of news!), had lunch, and didn't have to wash dishes or mop floors!

Have a great Saturday - I do, indeed, need to go mop floors today!!!

Patti J.

~When in doubt, wear red! (Bill Blass)