Eat, Drink and Be Scary!

I have been so busy and crazy getting back to work - I am a school librarian, and the beginning of the school year is insane.  My 11 year old twin boys are very active and involved in lots of things, and I have had no time to craft.  I feel awful that I did not contribute any entries to the LIM try for 1000 posts. I have such loyalty to Chrissie and Mandi, and I am so sorry I could not take part in the festivities. In an effort to get back to the weekly challenges though, I made this for the Less Is More Week 34 challenge, which is a sketch.

The base layer is Elegant Eggplant, topped with Kiwi Kiss. I embossed the white panel with a spider web EF.  The spider is made with a MS punch and black glitter paper. It is very sparkly.  The little tag with the sentiment is made with SU tag punches and the tag image from the (retired) Eat, Drink & Be Scary set.  I am so happy to have had the chance to make something this week! Thank you for stopping in.

Hello Friend

I had a glorious summer off and now I am back to work.  As expected, I am having trouble finding time to craft, but I think about it all of the time.  This creation was rolling around in my head this morning at 4:30. I could not go back to sleep, so I finally just got up and made it!

The "Less Is More" challenge for week 32, is a ONE LAYER CARD entitled SEEING DOUBLE. Chrissie and Mandi would like to see TWO of something on our entries this week.  These little birdies from PTI's Little Bitty Bird set came to mind immediately.  I wanted to add a little texture so I stamped the SU "Sanded" background stamp on to the entire card with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink. I then stamped the two branches with VersaFine Vintage Sepia and colored the leaves with Forest Moss and Bundled Sage. I colored the birds with Barn Door.  I used my red atyou spica glitter pen on the wings to give them sparkle. The sentiment is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. 

Thank you for stopping in today.  I am off to see what other Limettes have up their sleeves this week!

Remember

I {{{heart}}} PTI.  This card was created with the inspiration of Make It Monday #31: Creating Backgrounds With Non-background Stamps.  The video tutorial on this was wonderful and inspiring.  I received Havest Berries with my latest order, and I was anxious to use it.  I am trying to embrace the idea that it is time to think pumpkin instead of popsicle, so I chose fall colors for my project.  I stamped the background with the smallest ginkgo leaf image from the set in SU Crumb Cake ink and also added some berries. I stamped one of the background images from PTI's Half & Half in SU Garden Green and cut it out with the matching die to make the decorative strip.  The sentiment is stamped on vanilla card stock and matted in SU Cajun Craze.  I stamped the medium ginkgo images In SU Cajun Craze ink, cut them out and adhered them with dimensionals. I really love the way this turned out.

Thank you for visiting. I always appreciateyour comments so very much.

Christmas Blessings

My creation today is born of inspiration from 3 challenges:

Play Date Cafe #97

The Color Splash!

 Simply create something in Black and then add just a splash of color

THIS WEEK IT'S A SPLASH OF RED!!!!

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CAS-ual Fridays #18

In honor of International Literacy Day on September 8th,

the Girl Fridays have a special challenge involving papercrafting and books.

CFC18: Create a Clean And Simple project inspired by a book, and use the colors black, white and red.

I am a school librarian and I love to be surrounded by books, to share them with my students, and to read the the little ones.  My creation is inspired by the book The Littlest Christmas Tree : a Tale of Growing and Becoming by Janine Jasin. In this story, a small seedling pine wants very much to grow tall enough to become a real Christmas tree, but while she waits, she learns to appreciate the world around her and the value of being her very best right where she is planted.  It's one of my favorites!

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Less Is More #31

A colour themed challenge once more and this time it is:

METALLIC

Make CLEAN & SIMPLE cards with something that has a METALLIC finish to it... ink, embossing, card, charms, actual metal...

I have owned this Krylon Silver Leafing Pen for quite a while and never used it.  This was my perfect opportunity to break it out.  I used it to edge the while panel with the Christmas tree image on it.  It is a beautiful silver finish.  It does not show up well in the photos, but it is very bright and shiny.

Thank you for coming by. As always, I appreciate your wonderful comments so very much! Have a great week!

Supplies:

Paper~PTI white, Gina K black

Stamps~Penny Black Starlit, PTI Signature Christmas

Ink~VersaFine Onyx Black, PTI Fresh Snow.

Accessories~Kaiser Rhinestones, Sizzix/SU Petals-A-Plenty EF, Ellen Hutson red satin ribbon, Krylon Silver Leafing Pen, Dimensionals.

Across the Miles

This card is going to a far away friend, in a far away place, along with a special package. (Don't peek Jenny!)  Today is my last day before starting back to work after a wonderful summer off.  If it weren't for Irene, I would be at work right now!  I guess I have to thank her for that at least...

For this creation, I used a combination of 3 challenges for inspiration, and I am really pleased with the results. My first inspiration was:

CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is to : Use Stickers in your Clean And Simple design. rub-ons are fine too if you don't have stickers. This was no easy task for me at first. Stickers?  I don't use them on cards, only memory book pages.  You would crack up if you saw the monstrosity I created for my first try. Then I remembered that I had this gorgeous paper with coordinating stickers from Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden Collection.  For my layout, I went with this week's wonderful sketch from the Clean & Simple blog : FTL155.

Finally, this week's Flutter By Wednesday #FBW168 is an open challenge! Anything goes as long as you have a butterfly, fairy or angel on your creation!!  My butterfly sticker creation certainly fits the bill there.  I love the way these three challenges inspired this creation.  I am grateful for all of the work that goes into these challenge blogs, and so inspired by the work I see.

Supplies:
Stamps - Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden Collection, PTI Everything Button Bits.
Ink - VersaMark, PTI Fresh Snow.
Paper - Kraft, Cajun Craze, White, Always Artichoke, Pink Paislee Butterfly Collection DP.
Accessories - Pink Paislee Butterfly Collection stickers, PTI Double-Ended Banners die, PTI Mehndi Medallion Impression Plate, white embossing powder.

Thank you for stopping in. Have a wonderful day!

Tuesday Trigger Invitation

I live in Northeastern US in NJ, about 40 miles from the coast.  Irene has been here and gone.  It was quite nerve wracking awiting her arrival.  We were very lucky to have had no damage, and we kept our power.  My beloved shoreline is devastated though.  I hope to be able to get to the shore tomorrow.  In the meantime, the winds are still high, so we have to wait to put our deck back in order.  Until then I am getting some crafting in before I return to work on  Tuesday.   I have been very inspired lately by the Moxie Fab World blog hosted by Cath Edvalson.  I decided to play the Tuesday Trigger : Girly & Gutsy challenge, which closes today. Here is the inspiration photo:

Isn't it just fab?? When I saw this, PTI's new Table Service set immediately came to mind.  I love these colors, and I enjoyed putting this card together.  For the background, I CASE'd an idea from THIS post on Nichole Heady's blog. I stamped the Chrysanthemum from PTI's Year of Flowers Collection on white card stock, then I outlined the flowers with a C1 Copic marker.  I love the way this looks. 

I am going to try to do at least one more challenge today.  I hope wherever you are, so are safe and dry and enjoying this day.  Thank you for stopping by.

Peaceful Soul

Week 28 - One Layer with a special feature.  USE INK

** This does include ink pads **

...hopefully in a way you haven't tried before.... or using a favourite technique.

Well I have to say I am so excited about this creation.  Mandi & Chrissie - thank you for making me do things I would not have done!  I {{{heart}}} LIM challenges. 

I recently made a couple of cards with an inking technique that I have never used before. Then lo and behold, this week's LIM challenge was to make a one layer card and use an inking technique that you may not have tried before.  I felt compelled to do something different, so I looked to my Ranger distress inks that I have barely used.  I really had no idea what to do with them., so I viewed a couple of Tim Holtz videos on You Tube and I was off.  I have to say that I think this is my favorite card I ever made.  I masked a one inch border on my vanilla cardstock. I then used various Ranger distress inks with a blending tool and covered the open rectangle. I spritzed with water and dried it with a heat gun. I added Glimmer Mist for shine, then stamped the triple tree image from PTI's Through The Trees.  I finished it off with a sentiment from PTI's Peaceful Garden.

I love the way this card turned out. I am thankful to Mandi and Chrissie for making me do this! Thank you for visiting my blog today. I siwh you a peaceful day!