Day 1 - 25 Cards For Christmas

Hello Hello ~

So at work today my mind was wandering (never a good thing) and I was thinking of ways to get more Christmas Cards made this year. I have so many Christmas stamps that have never seen ink or rarely see ink. So I thought of this CRAZY idea - to post 25 days of Christmas Cards......So a crafty countdown to Christmas......Will I actually do all 25 days? We will see! :) But I am going to give it a chance!

So today's day #1 (hey 24 days until Christmas!) and here is my card - I used this week's MFT Sketch for inspiration, and the sentiment is from an older MFT Set (retired) patterned paper is from My Minds Eye (6X6 All is Bright Collection).

Thanks for stopping by~ see you tomorrow (sometime)

November Duel - Give Thanks

Hello ~ I'm finally here with this month's duel card between the divas and darlings. Below is the description of this month's duel.  Carol is the hostess for the Divas - and I am part of that group :) 

 The theme Shelley and I (Carol) chose is "Give Thanks". With the Holiday Season upon us we reflect upon all that we have to be thankful for so as an extra we would like you to share (if you are comfortable with it), what you are especially thankful for.

The image on the front of the card is from Stampin Up. I used SU! Watercolor Crayons and a Blender Pen to color the image. The pattern paper is from K&CO and Carol included some coordinating embellishments to use on the card. 

Here is the inside of my card, i used my own sentiment from PTI, and the apple was cut-out from some of the patterned paper in the kit that Carol sent. 

I am thankful for many things. My family is a big part of my life, My mom, Sister Tracy, Tavi (my niece) and Scott. I cherish each moment I have with them. I am also thankful for a successful career, a roof over my head, and being able to do the things I love so much (travel and crafting) 

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs ~LJ

Christmas Swap Card #1 - Snow Snow Snow

Hello - Hello

Today I am sharing a swap card for Barb's Snow/Santa/Religious/3x3 Christmas Variety Swap.  I recently purchased the new Home for The Holidays StampTV kit from Gina K Designs. The entire kit is amazing. What I love is that there is so many types of holiday cards you can create, whimsical, traditional etc. and there is a GREAT music note background stamp, patterned papers, and card stock. Also some of the stamps have coordinating dies (which I love!) such as the snowman image above that I used in my card!

So this card is for the Snow Snow Snow group. I made 6 of these. Patterned paper is old - Martha Stewart Crafts, Red Glitter Paper from Hobby Lobby, bakers twine from my stash, the snow person is colored in with copics/prismas (I use a combination of both) and popped up with a dimensional.

Thanks for stopping by today ! Hugs ~ LJ

October Duel - All Things Fall!

Hello~Hello!

It's time for another duel between the Divas and Darlings!

Here is what Kadie wrote about this month's challenge:

This month Paola and I had trouble making up our minds because we LOVE FALL. Should we go with pumpkins or leaves or thankfulness?? So we just decided to go with it all. All Things Fall!

We've each sent you a kit filled with things that remind us of this season and we hope you will have fun putting together a card that speaks Fall to YOU! 

And if you feel so inclined, please share with us something you enjoy about Fall specific to the area you live in.

This months kit included the above image from Whipper Snapper designs, patterned paper from Lawn Fawn, and multiple embellishments to choose from! My card is 5.5" square. I used SU! Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a SU! blender pen to color the image. 

one of my favorite fall pastimes is going to Badger Football games at Camp Randall Stadium. Today is a HUGE game, #2 OSU is coming to visit #8 Wisconsin in prime-time event. (It's the ESPN GameDay game of the week) so downtown has been absolutely crazy all day. It's supposed to rain/storm later. But that is not going to stop me from going to cheer on the Badgers! Go Bucky!

Thanks for stopping by - Hugs ~ LJ

September Duel - Owls & Halloween

Hello Hello! 

It's the 15th of the month again - so it's time for another Diva/Darling Duel. This month's kits are from Barb (Divas) and Tracie (Darlings) and our theme is Owls and Halloween. 

The image is from Peachy Keen Stamps (out of Wisconsin), patterned papers are from Stampin Up (Night Owl collection). Barb also sent us various ribbons, buttons and brads. It wasn't originally planned, but I ended up making a halloween card without orange! 

The purple square panel started as white, I sponged it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Seedless Preserves) and a little bit of Black at the top. It took a couple tries to get the shading right. I had this in my mind right away to create a spooky sky. The image is colored in Copics and was fussy-cut out, then popped up onto the sponged panel with dimensionals. I also sponged the sentiment banner, that was more challenging, I wanted it lighter so had to sponge-off quite a bit first. The card size is 5.5" square. Added some sparkly black ribbon (love this ribbon) and some black brads for embellishments. 

Barb and Tracie asked to share a favorite halloween memory. My cousin (same age as me - he was born three months after me) was born on Halloween. So when he had is golden birthday (which would have been #31) His family threw him a surprise party at a local restaurant. We had a DJ for the night and it was really fun! 

Thanks for stopping by ~ Hugs ~ LJ

MFT Color Challenge #53

Hello ~ Hello

Over the weekend I had some extra time to play with a challenge. I haven't inked up any of my MFT Stamps recently so I took a look at MFT Color Challenge #53 and decided to give it a go with one of the Older Pure Innocent girls. I don't have the name of this one  (will add later if I find it). I matched up the MFT colors to SU! as best as I could :) Mostly Going Grey and Groovy Guava, along with some retired DSP. Here are the MFT Colors for the challenge:

Thanks for stopping by today! Hugs ~ LJ

MOJO464 - Flower of the Month Mystery Swap

Hello Hello ~

Today I am sharing a card for the latest Mystery Swap (a group I am swapping with on SCS). Darlene is our hostess this month, and she sent us images from an older SU! Set called "Flower of the Month". The set was in the 2001 SU Catalog. I was so happy to see an older set chosen for a swap. Don't get me wrong, I love the "new and fab" releases just as much as anyone, and I get so excited when new SU catalogs come out, but I love the older sets just as much. I think I actually still have this set in my collection. :) 

I used this week's MOJO Monday Sketch  for inspiration. The sketch was perfect for this image. The stitched square dies are from Lawn Fawn. I used some older SU! Prints 6X6 paper, and black basic grey mini brads. 

Thanks for stopping by - Hugs ~ LJ