It's a Grumpy Christmas

 Another lovely day at the cottage, another holiday card made and plans on the itinerary for another except I had not planned on a trip to Port Dover to Len's Mills for supplies, like foam dots, I realized I had not packed them so couldn't pop my image up. I decided to follow a Sheetload sketch from November 2024. there are instructions to make 8 cards but there is also the measurements for just making one and they help you use up patterned paper and scraps. I also followed the Jingle Belles tic/tac/toe challenge board. 

Stretching it a bit for the Jingle Belles it was the left vertical  line animal/diecut/red and I only have two die sets, circles and hexagons and a few word dies but they just didn't fit. I even had a scrap of smooshed water colour paper in my basket of scraps. It took me longer to pick out 2 patterned papers that I thought went together nicely than it took to make the card.

Finished the inside with a scrap of patterned paper and a wood block stamp from Michaels eons ago. It's so much easier when you have a couple of challenges that make it easy and a sketch that ties them together. 

So on to where I am adding this card.

Jingle Belles ~~ Tree Skirt Tic/Tac/Toe (left vertical line)

Animal/Diecut/Red 

Christmas Kickstart ~~ #100 Merry go round

I'm glad you stopped by today to see my newest holiday card, I hope you are making progress with yours, both these challenges are great for building your stash. 

Peppermint Dreams

 I am so far behind with making holiday cards, I need to step up the pace and one place I get my inspiration is from the Jingle Belles challenges, I brought some crafty things for my almost 2 weeks at the cottage, not sure I have enough to last the whole time,  home is just an hours drive away if I really get desperate, I just need to remember when fall arrives I have to bring it me. 

There is a perfect time to take pictures by the lake and I missed it.  I was very happy to see I had an already coloured house mouse image with me, saved a little time. I followed the top row of the tic/tac/toe board at the Jingle Belles challenge, Animal, designer paper and ribbon. (if I had added a diecut it would have been a two-fer.)

Finished the inside with sentiment and a scrap of patterned paper.

I am adding this to:

Jingle Belles ~~ Tree Skirt Tic/Tac/Toe

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge ~~ Anything Goes

Christmas Kickstart ~~ Merry go round

Thanks for visiting today and if you need to add more holiday cards to your stash you have until 

July 30 to play.

Wood is Good X 2

 Hello friends as always it seems 2 weeks just fly by, I want time to slow down so I can enjoy the summer.  I managed to spend 9 days at the cottage, of course being my first trip down there were a lot of forgotten items, but Simcoe is only a 30 minute drive to pick anything up I had forgotten. There are always little things like flour, I had a plan to make some mac & cheese well can't make a roux without flour, and if you flip the breaker for the outside outlets you don't get hot water, never a dull moment when I'm in charge. I didn't accomplish much crafting, the temperature was high as was the humidity.  So on with the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, Wood is Good....create a card that includes woodgrain or wood pieces on it. I decided to turn my woodgrain into masculine cards, they seem to go together and with mostly males in the family they are always needed.

I used Stampin'up's woodgrain background stamp inked with versamark vintage sepia ink, added some cotton yarn from my knitting bag and three enamel dots (I made them a long time ago) and the perfect big birthday wishes die which I cut 3 and layered them for elevation.

I finished the inside of the card with a favourite sentiment and a couple of scraps of the woodgrain. 

Bonus time!!!

Since I am trying to get some cards ahead to donate to the troops I made an extra card.

Same woodgrain stamp, the circle with the trees is elevated, the background behind the trees is a scrap of smooshed watercolour paper, the sentient was stamped in sepia and diecut. 

Finished the inside with some off cut scraps and a leaf  and another great sentiment. 

Adding this to 

Seize the Birthday ~~ anything goes

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to check out the great inspiration on the MAIN Blog. 

It's Halloween all Year Long.

 My great grandson loves Halloween sculls, spiders, ghouls anything in between, So I made him a halloween card for his birthday, makes it real easy to make cards for him. 

One of his favourite colours is purple so this scull paper was perfect and when you have a BIG sentiment it makes a card easier. What 8 yo doesn't like a shaker card, actually is there anyone that doesn't love a shaker? 

Finished inside of the card with a scrap of patterned paper and some escapees from trying to get the shaker together. Of course finished it off with a Hero Arts vertical sentiment.

Hopefully I can this can pass for a Halloween all Year long challenge

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge ~~ Anything Goes 

Seize the Birthday ~~ Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great day!!

Poinsettia Perfection

The current challenge at the Jingle Belles is Poinsettia Perfection and you just don't need to stick with the obvious you can use any Christmas bloom, greenery, mistletoe holly even evergreen boughs but of course I stuck with the obvious, mainly because I had a gold embossed image with me at the cottage, of course with the embossing I couldn't use my copics but I smooshed distress oxide inks ( one at a time) on an acrylic block and watercoloured  with a brush. I'm really quite pleased with the outcome. 

I layered the image on gold paper and popped it up on a dry embossed red panel, I don't often make a wide border but this image deserved to be front and center. (I love my old PSX stamps) I did add a gold layer under the red embossed one before attaching it to a top  fold base.

Always a good plan to finish the inside at the same time or you really get a surprise when sending your holiday cards. I added a scrap of gold which I embossed with the same folder as I used on the front. My favourite vertical Hero Arts sentient. 

I am adding this to 

Jingle Belles Challenge ~~ Poinsettia Perfection

Thanks for stopping by today, I am way behind in my Holiday stash this year, how are you doing?

Red, White & Blue

 Hello again, can you believe it has been two weeks since the last SOS challenge where has the time gone, well here we are again with a new challenge Red, White & Blue, the predominant colours should be a combination of these three colours.  I made a red & white card last challenge and the leftover cardstock was still on my desk. 

The first thing I did was look for red, white and blue patterned paper and I had a Martha Stewart valentine paper pad that has to be over 5 years old once that was settled I had to pick a festive stamp set and I picked a NBUS Stampin'up salebration set from 2017.  This will be a good card for the troops drive my local craft store is sponsoring. I fussy cut the truck and the cupcakes (they were not easy). I added three red enamel dots which I made many years ago. 

Sorry the fussy cutting isn't stellar but I now have located my good snips. the truck is elevated and all three cupcakes are popped up. 

Finished the inside with leftover patterned paper and a scrap of red die cut, I use a lot of scraps when they get left on the desk.

 

I am entering this in:

Seize the Birthday ~~ Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting today and head over to the SOS blog and check out the great cards.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends (July 1)

Happy 4th of July to my American friends 

A Stitch in Time.

 New month, new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and it's all about stitches, cross stitch, faux stitching with a pen, machine stitching. very short post today as my fingers are not co-operating. So here is my stitched card.

First time I have coloured this cute House Mouse Designs image up and I have had it for a few years, it really seemed like way to much work, I did use a red pen liner to do most of the cross stitches.

Carried the red scallops to the inside framing a very very old wood block stamp from the Artful Stamper. I see my photography skills are lacking today as well. 

Thanks for stopping by today and stop by to see the inspiration projects the rest of the team have made. 

 

You are so Sweet

 Welcome to a new month and a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, "You are so Sweet" I think the prompt is easy peasy all you need to do is make a card with cakes, candy, icecrean even fruit will work.  Here is my offering for the challenge.

Of course I used my favourite stamp from House Mouse Designs and made a triangle easel card.  I also used the same paper as my last card I guess it was out on my desk and matched the icing on the cake.

This is the back of the easel where I added the sentiment.

Just to show the 5 1/2 inch square card folds flat and fits in the envelope. 

Thanks for stopping by and check out all the sweet cards the rest of the team had made.

By the Numbers

 Hello and welcome to a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, By the Numbers which just as it sounds we want to see at least one number on your project. I thought what a great challenge as I need a birthday card for my great grandson's 8th birthday but nothing would come to mind to add a number of course after my images were coloured and cards partially done I had a lightbulb moment and know exactly what I want to do. A project for another day so stay tuned. So here is what I came up with for the challenge.

I started out with the sentiment, it has 2 numbers in it and then had to match it with an Art Impressions Golden Oldies stamp, love this image, it works for a lot of sentiments. This is one of my first AI stamps and the patterned paper is eons old too.

What is better than one birthday card? well it's two, I am making cards to donate to the local craft store, Younique Scrapbook store for the armed forces, it isn't much more work to make two, same amount of mess with just a bit more time. 

Finished the inside with a few leftover scraps and a favourite sentiment.

Thanks for visiting today and head over to the MAIN BLOG and see what the rest of the team have created.

R is for RUDE

 Welcome to a new Month and a new Challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and I will let Edna introduce the theme.

Now that is just rude, every parking lot has one or two.

While flipping through a box of my snarky cats and sentiments I saw the sentiment and thought "perfect"  and when I spotted the cat reaching for the butterfly "double perfect?, now the yellow butterfly is not the original one as sadly I clipped a wing while fussy cutting, so I was digging through a container of extras and along with the butterfly I found a partial piece of fence, voila something to use as a springboard. The background is from a DCVW pad I've had kicking around for at least 15 years. The cat is on a wobble I have a video but still cannot figure out how to attach it here.

I finished the inside a sentiment can be added later.

Thanks for stopping by and check out the Main Blog to see the rude cards the rest of the design team have made.

Hippity Hop

 It's finally Spring (at least on the calendar) the tulip and daffodils are growing and if we could just have more sun and it a little warmer they will be blooming by Easter.  It is amazing how fast two weeks flies by it seemed like I just posted a card for Shopping Our Stash and it's time for a new challenge so for this fortnight we want to see and Easter card or a card featuring a rabbit or a chick. I'm sure you have a couple in your stash, I know I have a few. Since we shop our stash I went back to March 2022 Crop and Create virtual crop and dug out the Hero Arts class which I hadn't done, everything I used was in the package, Stamp set. stencil and all cardstock enough to make 3 different cards.

 

Now I don't often stencil but I followed the instructions except I added the purple base (I just don't like one layer cards) I coloured and fussy cut the flower and bunny, Happy Easter is from a retired SU set. 

Closet look at the bunny and flowers 

The horizontal easel card folds flat for mailing, because of the added cardstock it didn't want to fold flat for the photoshoot.

  Stay tuned for more projects from March 2022 Crop & Create.

Thanks for stopping by and check out the great projects the rest of the Design Team have made.

M is for Masculine

 Hello friends and followers, it's been a terrible start to 2025 I managed to catch a bug that was going around and I was down with a bronchial virus for 8 weeks, I have not kept up with my design team duties. on the up side I lost 10 pounds, now I need to build up my strenth. 

The new challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is M is for  Masculine and it  came at the right time as I needed a card for my youngest son's birthday on March 31st, I don't worry about him seeing it before that day he doesn't have any social media. 

Of course I had to bring out the snarky cats, I pondered which to use and planned on a B&W card until I found out I had no shiny black cardstock so used the holographic paper pad I picked up at Dollarama eons ago. I love how the big birthday die cut stands out. I finished it with some tiny black pearls from the Eyelet Outlet that I had in my stash.

Side view which shows I popped the snarky cat up and the die cut is layered 3 black and the holographic die cut on top.

Finished the inside with a scrap of holographic paper and a sentiment. (sorry no snark today)

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to head over and see the really great masculine cards the rest of the team have made. (now they have snark)

Fun Folds

Welcome back to a NEW challenge at Shopping Our Stash and its a fun challenge, something other than a regular card. I love making fun fold cards and there are so many to choose from. I follow Creating with Kristina on You Tube and she makes a fun fold every Friday. I missed a few DT challenges as I was down and out with a bronchial virus for 8 weeks and I'm so happy to be feeling good, able to craft and make a Fun Fold card for the challenge.

This is a Bay Window Card and of course I used one of my favourite House Mouse designs, such fun images and great for all ages. I found the tutorial on Delight of my Art  You Tube you can find it HERE

Here is the inside of the card using a sentiment to follow through with the cup "cake" thee. 

        

A picture that shows the card folds flat for mailing. 

I will be adding this to:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge ~~ Anything Goes.

Seize the Birthday ~~ Anything Goes.

Thanks for stopping by today and head over to the SOS blog and check out the fun folds the rest of the design team have made. Then make one and add it to our gallery. 

Remnants of a Missed Challenge

 Hello and welcome to a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash~~Crafty Remnants. What a great challenge as we all have extras on our desk and sometimes they are enough to make a full card. Going back to the first challenge of 2025 at the Jingle Belles to use something new and old I picked a new die I had just received when the PO strike was over and I decided to take it for a spin on the big shot, once done I cut the rest of the layers then life got in the way and when I checked the challenge was over. The only new items were Peace cut from glitter cardstock to match the sky and the white base. 

I have so many new ideas for this die, it makes a quick CAS card, Woah I made a CAS card. I think it would work as a shaker card and a great mini slimline. 

Close up of the scene sadly the colours on the Peace die cut don't show well.

Well now you have seen what I found on my desk it's time for you to do a January clean and show us your crafty remnants. Check out the great cards the design team  have made with their crafty stash.

Glitter Me Happy!!

 Hello and welcome to the first Shopping Our Stash challenge of 2025....Glitter me happy. Glitter makes me smile but only if I'm not using loose glitter. My first idea was a technique using tombow glue with a bit of water with glitter to look like snow/ice but neither of the two glitter containers were on the shelf, so Stardust stickles was my glitter of choice for my snow scene. 

I used one of my Gruffies (he was on my desk)  and a rectangle of smooshed watercolour paper (also found on my desk) to make a holiday card (it's never too soon to start) I coloured and fussy cut the sled and snowbank, flat attached the snow but popped up the gruffie and toque. The stardust stickles was liberally applied (maybe a tad too much) to the snow bank and the toque. Sentiment was on the desk from where I stamped holiday envelopes after the PO strike was over.

Flags made from leftover scraps and a favourite sentiment were added to the inside. 

This is my first card for my 2025  holiday stash.

I am adding this to:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge ~~ Anything Goes 

Thanks for stopping by today and head over to the SOS blog and see the glittery inspiration the design team have made.