Color Blog Hop Wednesday -- October 28, 2015

Hello friends.  We are back for another Wednesday blog hop.  You should have come from Liz's blogsite, and when you finish with me continue to Robbie's blogsite.

We are challenged this week with some fall colors.  Our inspiration piece is as follows:

And here are our comparable Stampin'Up! colors:

 I was happy to stay with fall colors even though I have been working diligently with Christmas cards over the past several days.  I need to finish most of mine by the 20th of November because I will be out of town until the beginning of December.  Every year we have a New Years Eve party.  Our invitations go out with Christmas cards.  That means my cards MUST go early.  So, I am getting busy.

Here is my fall card for today, using our challenge colors.  Once again I used the little leaves from the September Paper Pumpkin set.  I just love that set.  I love this month too.  I can already see the many things I can do with the stamps.  If you haven't subscribed to the Paper Pumpkin, you really need to do so.

Now you should continue to see what Robbie has done.  I hope to see you soon.

Have a great day,
Sandy

Paper Pumpkin Halloween 2015

Good morning friends.  Welcome back to more fall creations.  Do you subscribe to Paper Pumpkin?  If not, what are you waiting for?  You are missing out on a lot of fun.  For my customers I have a once a month Paper Pumpkin meet when we get together to work on our boxes, and work on ideas for outside the box,  If you are a beginning crafter, you have everything you need, plus instructions, all in the box.  You might need extra adhesive in some cases, but even glue dots and dimensionals are often included.  If  you are experienced, then you will have all sorts of ideas to continue outside the box to create everything from cards, to 3-D items, even scrapbook pages.  Give it a try.

Here is the September Paper Pumpkin.  These treat bags were soooooo easy to put together.  I made a few for the local grandkids.  Not so easy to mail, as they are bulky, but they will hold together if you want to put them in the mail.  I know my grands are going to love these, especially what is inside.

I also made a few cards with the contents of the September Paper Pumpkin.  I'll show those another time.  Once I have some Halloween pictures from this year, I plan to use the rest of the box contents for scrapbook pages.  I was having such fun with September, I even ordered a refill.  Now I have all sorts of extra tags, twine, and scraps for many more ideas.  As for the stamps, I think I've worn them out already.  Those stamps sit right on my craft table and I grab them for the leaves, pumpkin, witch's hat, acorn and even the piece of candy whenever I want some little extra something on my fall cards.  I can't wait to see what the Christmas box will have.

If you don't have your subscription, contact me and I will show you how to get in on the fun.

Have a wonderful day, see you soon.
Sandy

Halloween Treats for the Grands 2015

Welcome back!  I hope you are having some beautiful fall days, we are.  The leaves are just gorgeous here in the mountains.  Since I have a yard full of woods, I have a yard full of beautiful gold, orange, and red leafy trees.  Of course, that means eventually they all fall down, and we get to gather them up.  Not the most fun, but it is the cost of all this beauty.  And the weather has been stupendous.  Crisp, clear, fall.

So here is a group of Halloween treat bags.  I made them with the Mini Treat Bag Thinlit.  I knew I would get a lot of use out of this thinlit because I knew it would be ideal for treats for the grandkids.  Most of these went to the grands, but a few went to nieces too.  I made a total of about 15.  Easy peasy to do the bags.  They are all in the mail now.  I sure hope the kids love their treats.

And some closeups.

I love sending little things to the kids.

Have a great day.  See you soon.
Sandy

Art Shop Leaves with Vase

I've been working on Christmas cards.  Seems like rushing the season a little, but when I think only 2 months, I think Yikes, I better get going, and fast.  Well, before I start showing Christmas, I thought I would show some of the stack of Halloween and fall creations I've been working on.

A week or so ago I mentioned that a friend and I had gone to an art shop and made "leaves in a jar."  I started showing just a hint of it behind some of the entries to my blog.  So I thought today I would show you the whole thing.

This was done by punching a gazillion leaves from designer paper.  After you have leaves everywhere you glue two together with a small piece of wire between.  Finish gluing and preparing all the little wires.  Then take 5 large wires (or more, if you want) and twist the little wires on them, curling the ends.  It is so easy.  I couldn't believe how easy, just very time-consuming.  It took us about 2 hours at the shop, but we had fun talking and laughing.  It was a good day.

I hope to continue to put my Halloween and fall cards on this blog over the next several days.  Once I finish that, perhaps it will be time to start Christmas.

Happy crafting to you,
Sandy

Color Blog Hop Wednesday -- October 21, 2015

Welcome back.  Are you ready for another hop?  This week we have fall colors.  Our inspiration is a forest that looks a little like the view out my side window.  I'll have to post a picture some time and you'll see what I mean.  You probably have been to Liz's blogsite.  I went over and took a look.  I like her fall colors.  If you didn't come from her site, that's fine, just continue around and you will get there.  Next up is Robbie's blogsite.

Our inspiration piece appears to have more green than our colors indicate.  But I chose to focus on Cajun Craze because I love that color.  I added a little Hello Honey leaves and blackbirds.

 Here is my card using the challenge colors.  If you are wondering what those little leaves are hanging around, it is a vase with leaves I and a friend (hi Linda) made last week at an art shop.  We had fun making it.  I'll post a picture when I get a chance.

Now go over to see what Robbie has.  Have a great week.  I keep hoping to put more cards on my blog but always run out of time.  Maybe this week.  I've made a bunch of fall cards and have done at least 5 or 6 Christmas.  All I need to do is get busy and post.

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Color Blog Hop Wednesday -- October 14, 2015

Hi Everyone:  Nice go have you back for another blog hop Wednesday.  You probably already were at Liz's blogsite and after you leave here you should continue to Robbie's blogsite.

Today I am going to be quick.  It is late, and I want to get to bed, but I needed to post this.  Our colors are mostly pink with a little orange.  I could not work in that orange so I left it out.  I sponged white paper with Wisteria Wonder ink.  The thing I had fun with, but you probably can't tell from the photo, is the tree.  I mixed Whisper White, Melon Mambo, and Dazzling Details embossing powders then embossed the tree with the mixture.  It made it pink with lots of sparkle.

Here is my card.  Now continue on the hop and come back again soon.

Happy Crafting,
Sandy

Color Blog Hop Wednesday -- October 7, 2015

Today is blog hop Wednesday.  Welcome back to another hop.  You should have come to me by way of Liz's blogsite.  Don't you love what she did this week?  We have colors this week which I believe are a little bit more fall like.  The colors are Smoky Slate, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso.

I used the Vintage Leaves bundle from the Annual Catalog.  I just love those leaves and feel this set is one of the best investments I have made in this catalog.  I think the leaves make good die cut leaves, they print well, emboss well, may be used for fall, thank yous, and I've even used the smaller leaves on Halloween cards.  Can you tell I love this set.

Here is the card I created this week using our color challenge.

I can go on and on about the Paper Pumpkin too.  Those little leaves and acorns along the bottom are part of the stamp set in this month's Paper Pumpkin.  I used some burlap ribbon that I cut in half and pulled some of the strings.  I used those strings to tie around the leaf stems.  The leaves are stamped Cajun Craze on Cajun Craze and Early Espresso on Crumb Cake.  The way I do embossing with color ink is by first inking the stamp with VersaMark, then with the color of my choice.  The inks will remain wet and sticky long enough to stamp and sprinkle the clear embossing powder.  Then heat emboss.

You should now head to Robbie's blogsite to see what she has done.  I bet she has a great one for you.  Continue all the way around to me again and you will have done the hop,

Hope to see you again soon.,
Happy Crafting,
Sandy

Halloween Treats for the Grands

I'm on a roll, making Halloween cards and treat bags.  I usually do something for treats for the grand kids.  This year in addition to using the Halloween Paper Pumpkin, really cute paper treat bags, I'm also doing a small treat bag using the Mini Treat Bag Thinlit.  I haven't quite decided whether to keep the candy bar in the mini treat bag if there is already candy in the Paper Pumpkin bag.  If I change my mind on the amount of candy, then I will make a little Halloween card insert to the treat bag.  Here is how it is right now.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays for creating fun cards and treats.  The grands always look forward to something in the mail from gramma and grampa.  These are easy and fun.

Have a wonderful weekend.  See you soon.

Sandy

Fall Leaves with Sparkle

I'm doing a blog post only 2 days after the last.  Wow!  The sky must be falling.  Actually it is.  We have had so much rain the past few days, and the forecast is for more rain over the next few days.  Our bridge is flooded and the run off continues to make the river rise.  No fear for our house, as we are in the mountains and up on a hill, but when the river comes up we have to walk a swinging bridge to get to our car in order to get out.  Not too bad if you are used to it, but just talk to the gals who were at my house the other day, they think it is scary just crossing the bridge when the river is down.  (Hi ladies, you should be here now!)

I have been working diligently on fall, Halloween and a few Christmas cards.  I think I can start showing you what I have been working on.  Today's card is a fall card that I used for a challenge.  I liked it well enough that I made several more for a swap.

This card was fun, and I like how it turned out, but making 15 was tedious.  The stamp set is Vintage Leaves (pg 88 annual catalog), which when bundled with the Leaflet Dies, you get 15% off the combined cost.  It is a great deal because of the many different ways you can use these leaves.  I use this set a lot.  And if you want to make an even better set, look at the fun leaves on page 44 of the Holiday Catalog.  The dies also go with those leaves.  Then you have some real versatility.

For this card, I made my own designer paper by stamping  leaves in 3 colors on to Very Vanilla cs.  To glitter the homemade cardstock I used a mixture of Tombo glue and a little water.  I flicked spots of this mixture with a paintbrush on to my designer paper before I cut it down.  Then sprinkle glitter, shake off excess, and wait for it to dry.  I left it over night.  When dry I cut down the paper to fit the front pieces of the card.  I stamped  leaves on colored cardstock in VersaMark and embossed with gold embossing powder.  Flick some of the glue mixture on the leaves, wait until they dry, then use the die to cut them out.  Finish your card by decorating how you like.  I used our gold buttons and some gold cording trim.  I also used a little thin gold metallic thread behind the leaves.  However, you can barely see the thread in this photo,

I hope you like it, and I hope I get back soonest with more of what I have been working on.

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy