Play Date Cafe - Early Christmas Gift

I am excited!

I have in my possession a GREAT photo of my Dad and Uncle from when they were boys. It belonged to my Grandmother and I have wanted to do something special with it for years. However, anytime I tried to PhotoShop it, my efforts weren't met with much success. I tried it again this week and finally came up with something that worked!

Once I started planning my layout, I realized the scheme I wanted matched up perfectly with the Play Date Cafe challenge this week.

I made two copies of my little framed layout - one for my Dad and one for my Uncle. We go to his (my Uncle's) house each year for Thanksgiving, so I wanted to have the copies ready this time to surprise them. I can't wait to give it to them! :)


Here are the Play Date Challenge colors....




And here is my framed "surprise"....

Apologies for the picture quality; it's not the best.

For the recipe; all products used are Close to my Heart unless otherwise noted.

Striped paper - Sarsasparilla paper kit (retired); Patterned Paper - Passages paper kit (retired); large photo clip from Passages coordinating elements (retired); Mileposts Shapes (seen here); "Live Inspired" stamp set (seen here) (eagle - top right corner, dial - bottom left corner, and postage stamps on kraft Milepost Shape tag); Chocolate waxy flax; Buttons Basic Assortment; natrual twill ribbon; ribbon slide is Hodgepodge Hardware from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for looking! Hope you are having a great Turkey Day Week so far. Travel safely and enjoy your family time! Pin It

PPA120 - Holiday Wishes

Happy Thanksgiving week!

This means a little extra time off work for me which is a good time for me to start all my "gifts". My most time-sensitive project is a set of Christmas cards I want to make for a close family friend.

Last weekend, my mom and her best friend spent the day in our area Christmas shopping and then spent the night with my family (since they live 3 hrs away). As a "Thank You", 'Grandma Glenda' bought me a stack of Christmas paper for my craft room. I think she felt sorry for me - not having very many supplies and all. Anyway - after a heated debate in which I repeatedly contended she did not need to buy me anything (!!! puh-leeze!), I decided to make her a set of Christmas cards with the paper she bought! Ha! I will get the last word after all! :)   I have made her cards before as a Thank You when her and Mom babysat and so on. She always loves them; so I am happy to make her some.

I decided to use the Pals Paper Arts sketch this week to add to her set. I LOVED how this one turned out.

I used the Recollections paper (Michael's) and "Close to my Heart"-ed it up. (That's a new word, I've coined, by the way.)

Here is the sketch:



And here is my card:

Here is the recipe --
Patterned Paper: Recollections "Naughty or Nice" paper stack
Gold Ribbon: Celebrate It! Michael's
Solid Cardstock: Bazzil
Glitter Rubons: Close to my Heart
Sentiment Stamp: Close to my Heart, "Holiday Wishes" stamp set (yes, that so happens to be the name of the set AND the phrase I stamped. That looks confusing!)
Colonial White cardstock: Close to my Heart
'Twilight' colored ink and matching "bling" Close to my Heart

Hope you like it! Thanks for looking! Have a great  Thanksgiving Holiday and be safe. Pin It

Clean & Simple Stamping card - Patriotic

Whoa - 3 cards and 3 posts! A record.

For this sketch with Clean & Simple Stamping I wanted to use it for a patriotic card for my brother-in-law for Veteran's Day tomorrow. He served twice in Iraq (when my nephew was born and when my niece was born) and we are so proud of him! I like to send him patriotic cards when I can.

This sketch was perfect.


And here is my card....

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H2H - card #2 this week!

Another card AND the subsequent blog this week. That's the hard part!

I wanted to participate in the H2H blog this week, because it has been so long since I have got to do so. This challenge called to use metal somewhere on your creative project. I don't use metal as much as I used to and I've been hoarding my pretty brads, clips, and what-nots!

I was excited to see my Shimmer brads (purchased along with the Olivia kit last fall) were a perfect match for this bronze colored ribbon. It was a great match to the patterned pieces from THIS fall's Dreamin' kit. FYI - I almost seized up when I punched those 2 circles out of that Dreamin' paper! ha! It hasn't been cut yet! -- I punched those 2 blue circles and put it UP! I'm not kidding! I went and found 2 other coordinating colors from some scraps so I wouldn't "waste" anymore. Maybe, I should just give up and frame the patterned paper and let it go. : ) 

My sister and I made a card a few weeks ago with a similar pattern. We really liked it and I decided to use that idea this time.

Here it is.....

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend! Pin It

Colour Q #110

Hello there!
I am exited that I was able to squeeze some cardmaking in one night this week. That seems like a major accomplishment. I barely even WALK BY my craft room these days. With hectic work schedules and kids in school, it just doesn't seem to happen for me now.

So I couldn't make any excuses for not blogging this weeks cards, since the chance to make them is so rare! I am stealing a few moments even now, as the kids are playing across the street, the hubby isn't home yet, and I am stuck waiting for files to load onto my work computer!

When my friend, Gina, and I discussed this weeks challenges, we both thought the Color Q colors this week screamed Thanksgiving. Since that is a holiday I rarely take the time to get creative with, I enjoyed it. The blue was different - and that's what makes it fun.

This "Grace" paper (now retired) from CTMH just keeps on going! I've made so many cards (even after a complete album for my Mother-In-Law's 60th birthday!) with this paper. I have to admit, while I'm usually ready to "use a kit all up", I'm glad this one lingers. I think it works so well on cards.

The stamped sentiment is from the CTMH November Word Puzzle (also retired). It doesn't get out of its case much, but I was proud I had it for this. The mocha pearl (MY FAVORITE accents these days!) are also CTMH (surprise!).

Here are the Colour Q colors:


And my "Thanksgiving" card with these colors.....

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend! Pin It