Make a Difference

It’s that time - or maybe it’s really past that time. At any rate, I’ve started working on a few holiday things, and I used today’s Weekend Sketch Challenge to make a few ‘flat’ cards that are easy to mail for Christmas.  I’m using Christmas Blessings from Taylored Expressions today.  We Three Kings is one of my favorite Christmas Carols, probably because it’s one of my dad’s favorite Christmas carols.  Never a sentiment more true, ‘wise men still seek Him‘. The pretty patterned paper is Holiday’s & Winter’s Wings from Webster’s Pages.  It’s all stamped with Brilliance Chocolate Pearlescent ink, so it just shimmers and shines.  Sentiment is cut from Spellbinders’ Labels Nine, and it’s shaded with a little mist from my Copic airbrush.

We’re gearing up for a big weekend here in Missouri. I’m off to Science Olympiad with my youngest this morning and then a swim meet with my oldest this afternoon. We’ve got a lot to do in the next 2 days, but it will have to work around sleeping in tomorrow. I’m still playing catch up from being under the weather last week, and while I feel much better, I can’t seem to get enough sleep or OJ.

For other takes on the sketch today, visit Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Mary Jo and Sharon. Better yet, play along and create your own.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I’m pretty sure someone will call fowl play with my sketch liberties today.  You can do that when you’ve been under the weather. You can do that when you haven’t really stamped in weeks… You can do that when you really want to make a card and your supposed to be tying bows on 27 Fall Party treats. You can do that…whenever you want.

I pulled out Kim Hughes’ On the Farm from CHF for today’s sketch.  Copic Makers, a few buttons and a Fiskars punch. Now it’s back to the 27 bows. Hope your weekend is full of treats and sweets. Hugs!

For ideas that more closely resemble today’s sketch, visit Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon. They won’t let you down.

• Stamps: On the Farm - Cornish Heritage Farms 
• Cardstock: Chocolate and Real Red Prism, Farm Fresh - October Afternoon 
• Ink: Rich Cocoa Memento 
• Accs: Copic Markers, Fiskars punch, buttons 

it takes hands to build a house, but only {hearts} can build a home

tap..tap..tap…Is anyone out there?

I’m back from a unintended, but needed break from paper crafting. It felt really odd to be sitting at my stamp table this morning, and even more odd to not know where my USB cable had drifted off to in the last few weeks. Don’t you always find yours under the passenger seat of your car when it disappears? When I left off last month, I was in the middle of 3 or 4 big projects (work, PTO and home improvement). I’ve wrapped most of them up, and it feels good to be moving on.

For the Weekend Sketch Challenge, this is a card for my mom — we’re celebrating her birthday this weekend. My brother and his kids and my parents will arrive today, and I’m really looking forward to it - even though my house is a mess and I’ve not cooked a thing. It’s always fun to spend time together.

To give you a hint of how sweet my mom is, she has just called from Costco in ‘the city’ to confirm a few things I had sent her on ‘my list’. Bless her heart - it’s the PTO paper goods list for the entire year. Then she’s stopping by two other stores to pick up things for me that I just can’t get here in town before she heads this way. I could really go on for hours about the many, many ways shes built our lives with love - of course - I’d be in tears because I just don’t fathom how a girl could be so fortunate. My mom blesses me, not by what she does, but for the woman she is.

As usual, more sketch-spiration from Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon.  It’s good to be back, and I hope your weekend is full of wonderful moments.

•  Stamps: Hearts can Build a Home & Vintage Backgrounder - Unity Stamp Company 
• Cardstock: Indian Summer - Basic Grey, Kraft & Ivory cardstock 
• Ink - Rich Cocoa Memento 
• Accs: Copic Markers, ribbon - Taylored Expressions, oval nestabilities, sew-mini, brad - Basic Grey & punch - Fiskars 

Every month, just for fun, I do a challenge with a few friends where one person picks a stamp image that they like and another friend picks some patterned paper. Then using only the selected patterned paper (with solid papers to coordinate) and the stamp, we each make our own card. A few weeks ago I got this sweet little package in the mail from Kim Hughes with this cute Twizzle Tree from Memory Box, compliments of sweet Ellen. (Thanks, Ellen!) Then a few days later, sweet Julie sent me a few pieces of this pretty double sided polka dot paper,  Pink Floral JustChillin’ Girl from Making Memories. So sweet!

I paper pieced the circles on the tree from the big floral print on the backside of the paper, and added the fun polka dot print from the front side and some pearls that I airbrushed with Copic ink. Ribbon from Papertrey and a sentiment from Unity…Sweet!  This came together very quickly, but I am happy. (That’s not always the case! LOL)

Make sure you check out all of the Just For Fun girls: Alli, Julie, Kim and Michele. I love these girls, and I love watching them work.

In other news: It’s a day full of blessings here in Midwest USA: new babies, pretty paint colors finally decided for an exterior face lift, hubby is returning safely from a long hunting trip, crisp fall weather… God is good!

A quick card for the sketch as we approach the weekend. I used the Dream sentiment from the {100% Happiness} store kit from Unity and some textured Core’dinations cardstock along with Earth Love - Cosmo Cricket.

I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip Craft ink and embossed with detailed clear embossing powder. Applied some chalk ink to soften the edges of my cardstock and stitched on my sew-mini. Another stacked Prima/button embellishment from my stash.

I’m short on the chatter today, but these girls will make up for it with beautiful samples. Check out Beate, Charmaine, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon for fabulous sketch-spiration this week (and every week). Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend Sketch time…this darling little set called The Poppies from MFT came out last summer, just about the time that my DD started guitar lessons. I’m so grateful I didn’t have to say ‘drum lessons’… LOL! (Even though the drummer in this set is just adorable!)

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Is it Friday yet? It’s just been one of those weeks, and setting down to stamp with some Unity lovin’ rubber was just what I needed.

I used the Weekend Sketch by Beate and a new Unity set called Simple Blessings. Love the distressed patterns in the pumpkins of this kit. For the first time in ages, I stamped my backgrounds. I’m gonna start using some of those backgrounders, again. I like that. I pulled my colors from Dawn’s color combo of the week - The whole thing was easy peasy.  Hey, it was just like old times, I even used a sponge dauber.

The Unity set is available to retail stores only right now. You can find it at Paper Maniacs, celebrating their grand opening this week. Psst - they have the Unity September Store Kit of the Month, Everything Extraordinary there, too. Use the coupon GRAND15 to save 15%, and check out the great product selections.

Now, it’s time for me to go see what the other sketch girls cooked up. I’m in need of paper-therapy today, and they never disappoint. You can see them to:

Cambria Turnbow, Charmaine Ikach, Jenn Balcer, Laurie Schmidlin, Mary Jo Albright,  Sharon Harnist and Beate Johns - enjoy!

•  Stamps: Simple Blessings, Distressed Dots Background, Victorian Background & Hodgepodge of Happiness - from Paper Maniacs for  Unity Stamp Co. 
• Cardstock: Ivory, Kraft, Chocolate cardstock 
• Ink: Pumpkin Pie Spice, Ivory, Jumbo Java - chalk ink 
• Accs: Golden ribbon & button - PTI 

 …let our songs with joy resound, - The glory, Lord, be Thine. 

Every month, I participate in a little challenge between friends, Just For Fun. This month Alli Miles selected a Unity image that she liked and asked a few of us to give it a whirl. Myself, Kim Hughes, Julie Campbell and Michele Boyer took on the challenge and paired it with some Graphic 45 Hot Tomato paper that Carole Burrage liked and was so sweet to send. That’s how we do the Just for Fun challenge. I can’t wait to see how their projects turned out. I know they’ll be fabulous.

I stamped my bird from the Unity July Kit of the Month on kraft cardstock, cut with a Spellbinders die, inked the edges with a cream chalk ink and proceeded to cover it with several layers of ultra-thick embossing powder (UTEE).  I love how UTEE gives your images an epoxy look, like an enamel charm or glass window.

Then it was time for a sentiment. Months and months ago, my friend Sandy Redburn from Crafty Secrets (no one does vintage quite like Sandy!) had a beautiful old hymn as a free download on her blog. It’s been sitting on my desktop just waiting to be printed and live out it’s days on a crafty creation. Yesterday was that day.  I loved it so much, that I might do it again. The sentiment that shows reads, “..let our songs with joy resound, - The glory, Lord, be Thine.” from the original song, “Sing Joyfully, Sing Cheerily”.

The patterned paper, the bird, the sentiment tag, Prima flowers and of course, buttons were layered onto a Blush Red, and then a Suede Dark Brown Chocolate square, both from Prism. All the layers were stitched snug and mounted on a 5.25″ square Kraft card.

I wasn’t originally digging the image/paper pairing, but I am loving how this turned out.  Now I just need to find more of that Graphic 45 paper.

• Stamp: folksy bird - July Kit of the Month - Unity Stamp Company 
• Cardstock: Kraft, Blush Red Dark, Suede Dark Brown - Prism & Hot Tomato - Graphic 45 
• Ink: Rich Cocoa - Memento, Old Paper Distress - Ranger, Cream - Papertrey Ink 
• Accs: flowers - Prima, buttons - PTI, sheet music download - Crafty Secrets 

Share with God’s people who are in need, practice hospitality. ~ Romans 12:13

Several years ago, I purchased a starter kit for Southern Living at Home because I loved their decor items. The woman who was my ‘upline’  in my oh-so-brief career would send regular emails, and her signature contained this scripture…. ‘Practice hospitality‘. It touched me, not because it was free reign to go wild on home decor, but because practicing hospitality, no matter how small the gesture is a spiritual discipline. I’ve often thought the verse would make a beautiful ‘thank you’ card sentiment, and I melted when I saw Julee Tilman’s beautiful offering in Verve Stamps latest release.

The sentiment on a circular element worked perfectly with Taylor’s Cupcake Sketch for today.  Taylor was so sweet to ask me to be the TECC Cupcake Sampler. I’m always up for cupcake sampling. <wink> I paired my sentiment with shimmery ivory  cardstock and a piece of Bloom & Grow from My Mind’s Eye. Because I used the shimmery ivory cardstock, I wanted a ribbon with a soft, romantic feel, but there wasn’t really room for a full bow off to the left. I was pleased with the single loop and dangled tails of the ribbon, anchored with a pink button.  I think I’m going to head back to the stamp table while my supplies are tossed about and make a few more of these thank yous.

Speaking of Taylor, here is one of many favorite photos from CHA last month.  This is Taylor and her mom, Linda. Mrs. Linda helps Taylor a lot with the store, and when you order, there is a good chance that she has cut and packaged your ribbons or embellishments or possibly even prepped your package for shipping. We got to hang out on this trip, and that was so fun. Taylor and I have been friends for several years, and I just knew that she had a wonderful family, but hanging out with  her mom solidified the thought: Taylor had ‘good home training’.   Two beautiful women, inside and out…love you, girls.

Have a wonderful weekend!

• Stamps: Romans 12:13 & Bountiful Backgrounds from Verve Stamps  
• Cardstock: Poison Ivory (shimmery ivory) - www.cutcardstock.com, Turquoise Prism, Bloom & Grow patterned paper - My Mind’s Eye 
• Ink: Stream - Ranger 
• Accs: Wide silk ribbon, buttons, nestabilities 

Weekend Sketch Challenge #95. You can get Beate’s Sketch here.  I was in the mood for some solid images and some colored ink pads last night. I do miss straight on stamping every now and again.

I paired Wildflower Silhouettes by SweetMissDaisy with CosmoCricket’s Earth Love papers.  Oddly, I was hesitant with all the layers in the sketch, but happy with how this came together. I hope the other sketch girls had fun with it. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got. Check them out: Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, MaryJo  (posting later) and sweet Sharon.

• Stamps: Wildflower Silhouettes - Whipper Snapper Designs 
• Cardstock: Earth Love - Cosmo Cricket, Ivory Layering Weight Pure Luxury - Gina K Designs, Suede Dark Brown - Prism 
• Ink: Butterscotch, Rust & Terra Cotta - Ranger  
• Accs: rhinestones - Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles, buttons, twine ribbon - SEI and butterfly punch - Martha Stewart