Make a Difference

We’ve been travelling this last week, and we’re heading home from Disney World today. This is just a quick post to share another card from the Rummage Bin Shoe Boutique set that is being released today at CHF. OK - I’ve got to catch my shuttle. We’ve had a blast, but we’re ready to be home.  Here’s a view of the whole set:

I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a wonderful day!

The Lad of the Free and the Home of the Brave

The CHF Challenge Chicks are working from designer style this morning. We were to pick an artist on the team and work from one of their projects. I chose the often imitated, never duplicated Val Stangle. Val’s clean, classic lines and eye for style make her galleries pure card-candy delight. I hope I did her some justice when I chose this card from her Thomas Kinkaid gallery to case.

I hope you enjoy this newest Thomas Kinkaid release, coming this Friday from CHF. I especially love this one because it could very well be my own tree-lined, century old homes, street. You’ll be seeing more designs to come with this beautiful TK image. 

Designer tip: I used VersaMagic ink on this design. It’s a fluid chalk ink, so I dabbed it over the surface of my stamp and rolled across the inked up stamp one time with a brayer to smooth the lines. Then impressed to the cardstock.  And, I thought the ribbon was another perfect touch from my stash. It’s 2-tone iridescent May Arts that I got from Jacksonbelle. It’s a pale, pale blue on one side and a cranberry color on the reverse.

I think that the CHF designers were participating in this challenge 100% today, so click any of their links on the right, and you’ll see how they are each inspired. I’ll see you in the morning with another stamped image from Lesley Langdon’s new Shoe Boutique set that is being released tomorrow. Have a great day!

Finally Friday! And, Beate has another cool, light, hip sketch for you today! I had a ton of fun and this one came together very, very quickly. Good thing because my to-do list this week was 3 miles long! I’m going to keep the blah, blah, short today…but if you want to see something sweet…check out the other sketch designers: Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie and Mary Jo. You’ll be inspired and ready to stamp, I’m sure!

• Stamps: Landing Pad & Pretty Birds by Kim Hughes; Pretty Pattern Backgrounder & Small Polka Dot Backgrounder - all by CHF

• Cardstock: Medium Teal, Birchtone Dark and Rose Medum Prism; Wild Asparagus Patterned Paper

• Ink: Adirondack Espresso, Aqua and Ginger Dye

• Accs: Copics, May Arts ribbon from sweet Jacksonbelle, thread, brads (in bloom collection) Making Memories, glitter, glassy accents from Ranger and Nestabilities

Have a wonderful weekend!

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. ~ Psalm 1:3

Divine Design again…the months are flyin’ by. If you’re just stopping by, you can read about the project HERE. This month, I chose a scripture that often comes to mind from my days in MOPS, but I can never remember it word for word. Fruit yielded in season, not the drop of a hat. I have to constantly keep that in mind when it comes to motherhood, too.

The tree and fruit are from a new Kim Hughes, available tomorrow called, The Landing Pad. It’s another cute one! I colored the images with Copics and then covered the apples with crystal accents to give them depth and shine. The patterened paper is from Wild Asparagus.

You can see other inspirations this month from Taylor, Nancy, Jami and Angel. I know you’ll be touched. If you upload to Splitcoast, which I encourage you to do! <wink>, use the keyword: BVC08. The SCS Master Thread for Divine Design is here. Many, many blessings!

Both of my nephews have birthdays coming up. I’ll be sending this one to my littlest prince. Boys will be Boys (available Tuesday) compliments the sweet little girl in Cherish Every Moment. Now, moms with boys or moms with one or some of each will be happy. Lesley, the artist, does such a beautiful job with these images.   (scroll for Poison Ivory winner details)

• Stamps: Boys will be Boys & Storybook - Rummage Bin for CHF
• Cardstock: Cryogen White, Mystic Dark & Suede Dark Brown Prism
• Ink: Shabby Shutters, Faded Jeans, Dark Walnut and Brushed Cordouroy Distress Inks from Tim Holtz
• Accs: Dew Drops, Key from www.starlitstudio.com, thread, Cut & Dry foam (Ranger)

 WINNER! I loved reading about all that you have to be thankful for, and for the most part, you were thankful for ‘relationships’. That is a wonderful, wonderful thing!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

15

15! That would be Courtney, who said: “I need to thank all of the women who have been “Motherly” influences in my life. They have made a huge impact on me.”

Courtney, send me your address, and I’ll get these out today! Cards magazine recently sent me a goodie box with 2 issues of their beautiful March addition, so I’m throwing one f those in, too!

See you tomorrow with another card in the Divine Design project!

Last fall, my sweet, sweet neighbor (who loves my daughters very much and feeds them cookies at dinnertime) asked me if I would give a simple, little stamping demonstration to her professional teacher’s group the first Saturday in May. I love my neighbor, and I was so glad that she asked me to do it. She & her husband have treated my family like gold, and I wanted to make it special for her friends. I was playing around with new Rummage Bin stamps, used old reliable layout - probably all time favorite #1 and came up with the prototype.

Then I went to my stash of supplies and found something that would work for 20-25 cards. This is a slight variation to the make and take that I took for the ladies. Unbeknownst to me, the ladies of this group have been supportive of a local organization that collects and distributes new shoes for children who need them, so they seemed to be thrilled with this selection. It was a wonderful morning. 

** Shoe Boutique from the Rummage Bin line will be available next Tuesday, and I’ve already got a few things stamped and set up to show you in the coming days. I hope you’ll like it.

See you Wednesday morning when I’ll draw a winner for those Shimmery Poison Ivory notecards.

If your adult Sunday school curriculum comes from Lifeway, your lesson this morning was the start of a month long focus on building relationships that matter. We spent a lot of time this morning talking about concern, contribution and gratitude. One of the suggestions in the teacher guide was to take paper and envelopes and have class members write a quick thank you note to someone they are grateful for. Well…do you think I could take plain white paper and envelopes???? I love it when stamping and church collide.

So we were getting ready to go this morning, and I had my little shoebox ready, complete with a man and a woman project. Wes looks at the box and says, ‘you did a make and take for Sunday School, didn’t you?’ Yep! Sure did! Since we team teach the class, he wasn’t at all surprised. There were about 20 in our class today and every single person made and wrote out their card. (Well, except for Chris who stole my sample! LOL! - I’ll forgive him!)

These little shimmery notecards and envies are something that I always keep on hand. I get mine from CutCardstock. At 3.5″ x 5″ they are the perfect size to recreate this wonderul idea that I stole from my stamping buddy, Stefanie several years ago. With a specialty paper and simple handwritten sentiment, they are just perfect to say, “I care. Thank you. You are special to me.”

Cindy at CutCardstock was sweet to send me some Shimmery (Poison) Ivory notes and envies to share. Leave me a comment between now and Tuesday - tell me who you need to send a thank you note to and why. I’ll draw for a winner and send these out on Wednesday morning. 

All stamps are Cornish Heritage Farms - Silhouette Blooms & CHF Wheat. Have a wonderful evening.

I can’t believe that school will be out in just 2 weeks. This new school set from Kim Hughes will be perfect for end of the year teacher gifts, but today I thought I’d try a thank you card. This card could go to any staff member at my daughter’s school. When people talk about wanting ‘this’ teacher or ‘that’ teacher, I sometimes don’t relate. There isn’t a bad apple at Southeast Elementary, we are blessed! 

The set will be available next Thursday, but for your info, I have not used any other sets to create this card (and I saved plenty of adorable images to show you next week, too!) If you have school aged children or grandchildren in your life, you will really enjoy this.

It’s another fast, frenzied Friday at the Craig house, and there is so much to do, I’ll leave you to check out the other sketch challenge babes: Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, Mary Jo and of course, Sharon. Have a fabulous weekend!

• Stamps: Making the Grade - Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms
• Cardstock: Classic Red, Iced Teal and Sunflower Medium - Prism - wonderfully delicious October Afternoon Detours collection (that I am painfully using up my 2×4 sample swatches and waiting the new shipment!)
• Ink: Red Pepper, Lettuce, Espresso and Slate Grey Adirondack Dye
• Accs: Copics, Nestabilities

The good news is that it’s a new day! Filled with new opportunities! One of those opportunities is this adorable little eagle from CHF - the new Stamp of the Month - Eddie the Eagle! Here in Mayberry~Middle America, the Fourth of July is my favorite celebration of the year. Easter is my favorite holiday, but the Fourth is full of fun, laid back festivity, neighborhood parades, watermelon, good times and lots of red, white and blue! I’ve already been to the party store for this year’s banners, tablecloths and favors to hand out at the parade.

Between now and July 4th, I’ll be making several more of these little window hangings to give away. The chipboard star came from Bazzill. I brushed white glue on one side, covered with glitter and in-set some star eyelets. Eddie, colored with Copics, stands proud.

One of the great things about the Fourth here is the plethora of ‘carry-in’ dinners that go along with it. I’m always searching for my whitest tea-towel to cover bread or cookies when I take this basket.  Here I stamped a flour-sack (about $1.29 at the farm supply store - available at discount and warehouse stores, too) with Eddie and some stars from Supah Star. I used  very light dye-based ink. Then I had my mom (because I’m no good with a needle!) embroider my simplistic design.  America the Beautiful would also coordinate wonderfully with Eddie, if you wanted to do something similar!

Speaking of ‘carry in’, I know that folks call it different things in different areas of the country. In Georgia, it was often called ‘dinner on the grounds’ at our church. What do you call these social get-togethers that involve good home cookin’?