Heart to Heart Card Drive and Blog Candy

I was surfing the blogs that I follow day before yesterday and I came across a card created by Jennie Harper for Carolyn King's Heart to Heart Card Drive . She does this in remembrance of her Grandmother that died from complications related to Alzheimer's Disease. As some of you that know me or follow my blog and have seen mention of it, this hits close to home for me and my husband, as we are full time caregivers for his Mom who has this terrible disease. She is bed fast and usually does not know him as her son and to her I am the hired help that takes care of her. We are basically alone in caring for her, however we do have one shining light in our days....Rick's cousin has worked as an orderly and physical therapist at our local hospital and is now disabled, he is so good with his Aunt Polly and gives us a break once in a while so that we can get away for a few hours. I made this card with him in mind, to thank him for helping us during this trying time. We would be unable to go anywhere together without his help.
To make this even more of a celebration, Carolyn has rounded up an unbelievable amount of friends and sponsors to donate to Blog Candy to celebrate her Grandmother's Birthday and Life....around $1000 worth of product, and yes you read this correctly. Can you believe it. Please find the information and details to how you also can participate Here


My card was created with a base of Stampin' Up More mustard and I used the Thanks embossing folder by Cuttlebug to emboss my background. The ribbon is from Gina K designs. I love the labels by Spellbinders and I used Labels 2 to cut out around the oak tree image from the SU set Lovely as a Tree and layered the next size up in brown Bazzill textured card stock. Hope that you enjoy my manly thank you card and will check out this awesome blog candy. Thanks for stopping by!

Joan's Garden Challenge

Several of my friends play each week at Joans Gardens and I keep meaning to play along with them, but sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes I don't have all of the supplies needed, but this week I have finally made a card for Joan!! The recipe this week is to use the colors brown and tan, embellish with buttons, use 3 layers (prefers nesties) and a fall flower. I started with a base of SU kraft card stock and then used dp from Making Memories and Die Cuts with a View which I die cut with my Spellbinders Peony nestibilities. The image is a sunflower from Gina K designs set "Year of Flowers" and the background is stamped with images from GKD's set "Autumn Beauty". I used pop dots to elevate the layers and added buttons from GKD threading a piece of the dp through one of those. My images are stamped using Versafine Vintage Sepia and I sponged with the same ink. I am really happy with this card and hope that you like it too!
Hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday!

Crafters Digital Art Center is having their first blog hop! This is a hop of several digital image companies that are coming together to highlight their new releases. You won't want to miss it. You have a chance to win through random drawings a free digi on every blog and a grand prize over at CDAC. The only requirement to win is that you leave a message on every one's blog throughout the hop and that you are a member over at CDAC. Now, of course you don't have to be a member to do the hop, but CDAC is free to join, this is a wonderful center for digital art and it has a lot of great tutorials and lots of fun people and great challenges as well as some freebies from the companies sponsored there. So I would encourage you to join. Paper Cupcakes will be part of this hop and we can also be found at CDAC as a group, so we would love for you to come by and join us in our group over there. The hop starts next Friday, Oct. 1st and goes through Sunday Oct. 3rd.



Help us spread the word and grab the icon and post it on your blog. I have made a card using one of Nina's new images and would love for you to go to her blog and check it out during the hop! Her blog is Here . Thanks for stopping by and I will have some cards posted in a bit.

Hosting at TMITA

Good Monday Morning everyone!!
It is my turn to host the challenge this week at There's Magic in the Air and I hope that you can join me in using my inspiration photo as your jumping off spot:

I love the Fall season and colored leaves especially! When I saw this picture I just knew that it would be a wonderful inspiring picture for my week to host for Nina.
Feel free to see in this what you will and create a project for our challenge this week. We will be showcasing some of Nina's new images this week and my image that Nina chose for me to use is called "Pumpkin Jester".




My card base uses Stampin' Up Garden Green and some of the dp from Basic Grey's paper pack Ambrosia. I stamped leaves from the set Autumn Beauty illustrated by Theresa Momber and found at Gina K designs.I used my SU watercolor pencils to color my image and sponged with Memento Tangelo and used some paper piercing and punches from Su to highlight my card. The buttons are also from GKD. I hope that you like this one and will try and play with us this week. I would really appreciate the support.
Sorry to be so quiet this week. I hope to get lots more posted this week. I have been busy doing some fall cleaning and yard work, and I also had some design team work to take care of. There is a local business that I am working on some projects for them and have tried to get that taken care of. Thanks for understanding and hope to hear from you....love your comments.
Take care and have a wonderful week!

Stamp Something---Use a Digi

At Stamp Something the challenge is to use something digi and I used the moss topped birdhouse image from Paper Cupcakes . I love this image of Nina May's and how this card turned out...so simple. I used Stampin' Up's kiwi kiss for my card base and am not sure where I got the dp. I colored the image with SU markers and chalks. The butterfly is from Memory Makers. This looks like an awesome challenge site...hope you will have time to check it out. Thanks for stopping by tonight and hope you can leave me a comment. Take care, my friends.

Easy! Easy Does It!

That is what we say this week at There's Magic in the Air . Don't you want to play with this cute image and show us your creativity? And we have a great prize for you this week...

Aren't they just the cutest and just think what you can do with them in the next few months.
Rick, my DH came in after I had completed this card and noticed it right away on my shelf...he loved it! Patti Nelson is this week's challenge host and she is asking us to use this image "Easy Does It" and to bling it up!
I colored my little friend and his stack of cupcakes with my Stampin' Up markers adding Rangers stickles and red rhinestones from my stash. I love sponging my sky and ground colors and used Memento summer sky and bamboo leaves for this.
I love the scalloped rectangle nesties and think it nicely framed my image. The sentiment is from SU's set Small Sayings which I punched with my SU oval scallop punch. I hope you like my card and will leave me a comment and even more than that I hope you are inspired to go to TMITA and play along with us this week...we would love to see your creations.
Happy Magical Monday to each of you and I hope this is the start of a wonderful week.
Thanks for stopping by!

cs-Bazzil textured blue, unk dp
ink- SU markers, memento summer sky, bamboo leaves
Ranger stickles
Spellbinder scalloped rectangles, SU scalloped punch, ticket punch, SU piercing template and mat
Images- Paper Cupcakes "Easy Does It", SU Small Sayings

Santa is here!

I have another Christmas card under my belt...I love the way this turned out and hope you will, too! I am posting this card for two of my favorite challenge sites, ABC Christmas and The Paper Players . This week at The Paper Players they have a sketch challenge and I combined it with ABC"s letter S- Santa but not red challenge. I got out my Stampin' Up retired set "Santa Post" and stamped 3 of the stamps using Stampin' Up's Old Olive and Memento Summer Sky for the Santa colors. This retired Christmas dp by SU is one of my favs and I will miss it when it is gone. This was a quick card and I think it would be a good one to make a lot of. I even got out my old decorative scissors and cut around the stamped postage images, haven't used those in a long time. You have a few days on these challenges, so I hope you will join me and play along. I hope to see some of your creations along side of mine. Thanks for taking a look and have a wonderful week!

cs- SU Old Olive, dp retired SU, SU Cranberry Crisp-retired
Stamps- SU Santa Post, Sincere Salutations and inside sentiment Heard from the Heart
ink- SU Old Olive, Memento Summer Sky
SU oval scalloped punch, pearls- Queen & Co, decorative postage scissors

Clearly Delightful

I bought some images week before last when I had Laurie design my new watermark and I have been wanting to create something with them. You will find these at Doodle Pantry and I am entering my card at Laurie's blog where you will find Challenge #9 to use an image from Doodle Pantry. She also has some beautiful freebies if you would like to try one and give this challenge a go! I used her images Wire Basket and Psalm 145:8 for my card. Until just a few months ago I had not ever used a digital image before...I am finding that I enjoy these and the opportunities to use them in so many ways and sizes not possible with standard stamps. I hope that everyone is having a Blessed Sunday and enjoying your day.



cs- Stampin' Up garden green, dp Basic Gray Green at Heart
ink- SU watercolor pencils, Studio G glitter glue
Stamps--images wire basket and Ps. 145:8 Doodle Pantry, butterfly SU
pearls- Queen&Co
Spellbinders labels 4

It's a Color Challenge at Paper Players

I hate to post this card so late, since the deadline is in about an hour and a half away, but I have been under the weather the first of the week with a severe headache and then we have been out of town for a few days (more about that later) so in between laundry and trying to get back on schedule today I created this card for the challenge at The Paper Players which is hosted by Ann Schach using the colors by Stampin' Up More Mustard, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze and Old Olive. I used one of my favorite stamp sets and I think everyone else as well, As Lovely as a Tree and stamped the oak leaves in Versamark and then embossed with SU clear embossing powder. I cut two sizes of the large Spellbinders scalloped ovals, one in Old Olive and the other in Very Vanilla which I then sponged with More Mustard and Old Olive before stamping my oak tree image with Chocolate Chip. My buttons are from Gina K designs. I then wanted to use an image from last year's set by SU called Wandering Words...so I stamped it as my inside sentiment on a piece of More Mustard card stock. Again, I am sorry to be posting for this challenge so close to the deadline, but if you work fast you can join in or at least check out the beautiful examples at this blog...and a new challenge will be up soon.


I have some pictures of our trip to show you and will try and post later on, but for now I'll say, hope you'll leave me a comment and let me know how you've been!

Afternoon Tea at TMITA

I love the images in this digital from Nina's store at Paper Cupcakes and is what I used for my Magical Monday post this week. Melanie has created a sketch for our challenge this week using any acquired image from Paper Cupcakes and I hope that all of you will give this a go! I used an ivory for my card base and some of my retired stash of Stampin' Up's dp Berry Bliss. The images in "Afternoon Tea" are colored with Memento New Sprout, Angel Pink, Vivid Tea Rose and SU Creamy Caramel. I love these Long Scalloped Rectangle nesties that I found at the stamping show in NC...and they were half price, gotta love that! I wish you could see the ribbon better as it is a beautiful pink with small flowers and vines. I sponged around all the images and use some stardust from my Spica gel pen to highlight the centers of the flowers.
Please join us for the challenge this week and remember that coming the last of the month is some great new Fall images from Nina. We will be showcasing them on the last Monday of September and you know that you want to see them.
I hope this is a great start to your week. I am sorry to be MIA this week-end, but I have had a really bad headache and couldn't do much but keep my eyes closed and rest.
Take care and talk with you soon!

Clean and Simple

I have thought about this challenge for a couple of days and when I started working on this card, I still wasn't sure what I was going to do. What is the challenge you say? Well, it is to use 5 of something.... at Speedy the Cat and when I finished the card I realized that it worked for my next challenge at The Paper Players where they are doing Clean and Simple. I started with a piece of textured ivory card stock from the Rubber Cottage for my base...I sponged several colors of Tim Holtz' distress inks on another piece of the same ivory and then stamped leaves from Gina K designs set Illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger called A Year of Leaves along with acorns from the same set.I cut them out and after mounting a strip of fresh asparagus by GKD and a piece of her asparagus stitched ribbon I used pop dots on some of the leaves to change the dimension. Except for a few minutes cutting, this was a quick and simple card to make.
Hope that you like it...will see you all soon!

Oh, I meant to tell you to be sure and look at my new watermark...I got it at The Doodle Pantry and Laurie did a wonderful job on all my proofs and was super quick getting it out. I also bought some of other images. Be sure and keep an eye out for my cards using them. Take a look if you have a minute. Thanks!

This card won as Headliner at The Paper Players!

Anything Goes at Cowgirl's Sunday Stampen Challenge

You know that I have been on the search for new challenge sites and I found one that I think is so cute...it is called Cowgirl's Sunday Stampen Challenge . Their challenge this week is also sweet, Anything Goes, how do you argue with that?!?
I used a new image that I won last week from Isabella's Sketchbook called Hummingbirds, it is colored with Stampin' Up watercolor pencils after I had die cut it with my Spellbinders peony die. I used my Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the SU baja breeze card base and the piece of cherry cobbler. I hope that you are enjoying seeing new challenge sites as much as I am....and then again you may have already scoped these out and be playing there, either way I am so glad that you stopped by today to see what I am up to. I am going to my room, stamping that is, and it is not punishment but a good thing...wish you could join me. Hope your day is happy!

It's Recipe Time

Monday again, but this may be a holiday for many of you and if not, I hope that it's the start of a great week. You know that Mondays around my blog are magical and this week is no different. My fellow designer at TMITA , Nilla has challenged us this week to use any acquired image from Paper Cupcakes and use her recipe: 1 ribbon, 2 embellishments(pearls, brads, rhinestones, etc.), 3 dp's and 4 flowers and the next thing you know you have a beautiful card made. This week I am using Nina's image "Cart with Flowers" which I think is lovely and hopefully you will too! I decided to make it more of a monochromatic look by using greens. My card base is Stampin' Up whisper white and I used SU's retired dp Paper Prints in certainly celery. I colored the image by using Memento new sprout, SU mellow moss, creamy caramel and close to cocoa. I cut out the image with Spellbinders nesties and also punched some flowers with a SU flower punch which I roughed up and took the card stock apart so that I could layer the flowers. My 2 embellies are Gina K's pearls mounted on the flowers in the cart. I am very happy with the soft look of this and hope that you will love it too. Check out this image and many more beautiful ones at the Paper Cupcakes store and be sure and check out the other design team's creations this week...
Come on cook one up with us!

Sweet Giraffe

As I have been telling you, I have been on the look out for new challenges and I found this one when I was looking last Wednesday at The Daily Dare. The name of the blog caught my eye and I just had to look. It is called Cooking it Up with Katie and she uses various recipes for her challenges...this week we were to incorporate buttons, a furry friend and patchwork. The sponsor this week is Meljen's Designs and you can win 4 of her designs. I went to her website and found a freebie called "Giraffe's Necktie" which I just love. She is also sponsoring a challenge and her only request is to use stripes somewhere on the project. I decided to use this cutie and make a card to fit both challenges at the same time. I cut a top fold A2 card out of Stampin' Up black card stock and used dp from Basic Grey's pack, Granola. The image is printed out on a piece of ivory from Rubber Cottage. I colored the giraffe using my SU markers and colors from Memento. My husband walked in when I had finished this card and he loved it(but he may be biased)...I think that it would make a great masculine card or I could see this image colored up for a baby or small child, yeah thinking out loud!
So my friends, what do you think? Want to check out these two sites? Hope so, I'll be looking for you! Hope that your week-end is going well...beautiful here in the mountains of Virginia and we are loving the low humidity and temps. See you soon!

Free up a Freebie

I just want to say that I appreciate every one of you that follows my blog to see what I am up to and I am always excited to see a new follower. A while back I noticed a new follower, Stef whom I had seen at other sites and when I checked out her blog I saw that she had challenges, her site is Glitterbabe's Challenges . She is into sparkly and glitter as you can probably tell by the name. As many of you already know, I am not so much a bling girl, but I thought I would give this week's challenge a try. Stef has several free images and she wanted them to have some love. We are to use a freebie and make it sparkle. I made a 5 x 5 card which I don't do very often and using her image sparkle flower (which I used 3 times) and her birdhouse image. My inks are Memento angel pink, bamboo leaves and Versamagic pretty petunia. I sponged these colors around the flowers and then cut out the birdhouse with my nesties peony die. I sponged these same colors alternately around that also. My sparkle came from the Sakura clear star pen, which doesn't show very well in my upright photo, so I took a close up, and the heart bling that I had in my stash.
So all of my friends that like bling, and I know several of you do....stop by and check this challenge out...free images and glitter. Ahh!

How about a Christmas challenge?

I was at the Daily Dare looking for new challenges and I found ABC Christmas Challenge , they post a challenge every two weeks and use the letters of the alphabet. They are on the letter R, so you can see how late I am. LOL R is for Rudolph and we were also to use brads on the card. I used a set that I bought from Stampin' Up called Festive Favorites...love this set. My card base is ivory textured card stock from Rubber Cottage and I used SU chocolate chip and green galore behind SU's dp Merry Moments. The layers were all distressed slightly and I added a brad and hanger tying a piece of Gina K designs ribbon to it. I decorated the inside of the card with another image and sentiment from the same set. I have been making some Christmas cards, but this challenge site will help inspire me to do more...hope that you will check it out if you are also on the lookout for more challenge sites and want to get some cards made up for the holidays....you know how they creep up on you!!

Sympathy Tree

I am trying a new challenge site that I first noticed through my friend Vicki's blog and have since seen several of my friends playing at Simplicity in Susan's One Layer Wednesday's challenges. The challenge is to only use one layer which is your card base and this week, a tree image. This is definitely not me, but I loved it ... I had the card finished in a minute. I had a piece of the Stampin' Up crumb cake already cut to an A2 size laying on my table from my previous project and I knew that I wanted to use the tree from SU's set Thoughts and Prayers. I stamped it with Versafine Vintage Sepia, sponged and then stamped the sentiment from the same set. I think that this is one of my new challenges every week, yeah! So if you have a minute and this is new to you also, stop by and play along. And don't forget to visit Vicki and check out her blog...beautiful things.
Need to get back to stamping and I need to take some pics.... I have a Christmas card to show you later. Not quite as quick but still pretty simple.
See ya,

Playing at Color Throwdown

It has been a good while since I have played a challenge at Color Throwdown but I am trying to get around to some of my favorites and try some new ones to see what I have been missing. I love the colors for this week...


I have been making several Fall cards with similar colors this week and since I need more birthday cards decided to make one using an older set from Stampin' Up called Nature's Wonders. Don't you just love this button? It was a win several months ago at Picture Perfect Creations and I thought it went well with this card. Love all the texture in it.
Since it is getting close to dinner time, I had better get a move on...I will try and post a card for a new site for me later tonight, it's so simple and quick that I can't wait to show you.
See ya later, gang!

cs: SU crumb cake, chocolate chip and so saffron
ink: SU so saffron and Memento rich cocoa
stamps: SU Nature's Wonders and Elegant Cheer
extras: SU hemp twine, SU scallop punch, pop dots and glue dots, Spellbinders Nesties Square