SSD 53 TUESDAY SKETCH CHALLENGE

And another Happy Tuesday to all!  I have always enjoyed beginning a card project with a sketch or layout.  It makes creating so much more fun for me.  I have collected sketches for years, and made up some of my own as well.  It is always such a great starting point to jumpstart  a project.

Tuesdays at Skipping Stones Design brings a new sketch, and this month there is one last November sketch from the very talented Shannan Teubner!  I have so enjoyed the opportunity to design to her fabulous sketches.  Here is sketch # 53!  Love the scallops!!  We Stamp Tramps were able to pick our set to use on the sketch this week, and with Christmas coming soooo quickly, I decided to use the "Christmas Swirls" set again.  This is such a pretty set!  It can be both elegant, CAS, country, vintage...works well with almost any theme.  I went a little more country this time.

I wanted to use the Christmas DP I bought from SU, so started with that....The colors are Old Olive, and Ruby Red.  I stamped the SSD star in Ruby Red, and cut it out, then layered it into Old Olive CS.  For the rest of the card I followed the sketch, using lace and buttons from my stash.  Hope you like!  The ornament or Dove from the set would work well with this sketch as well.
Please head over to the Skipping Stones blog, and see what the rest of my Stamp Tramp buddies have come up with..they are all so fabulously talented, and also we have some awesome guest artists this month as well.  We love seeing you all share your creations with us from the sketch as well, so link up your cards and you could be our next Wednesday Winner!
SALE!!!  Don't you love the word?  Well, while you are checking out the sketch and designs at Skipping Stones, don't forget to check out the store, and go shopping.......because...Heather is offering a super fantastic deal!
A Crazy Tuesday (one day only) sale.   For every $30 gift certificate you purchase you get a FREE stamp set of your choice!  Absolutely FREE!  Pretty cool deal huh?  You could give the gift certificate as a great Christmas gift, and you get a fun gift for yourself...how cool is that?  Just hop over to  Skipping Stones, and get the details on how to order your gift certificate.  Just remember that the deal ends today by midnight!
Hope you all have a wonderful week!  Thanks for stopping by today, and don't hesitate to leave a coment or two...I love hearing from you! 

SSD 52 SKETCH CHALLENGE

It is once again time for the weekly sketch challenge from Skipping Stones Design.  We have another amazing sketch from the very  talented Shannan Tuebner. 

This is the card I made...I flipped the sketch and again used last weeks new release "Sassy Snowmen".  I love the snowmen in this set. The  inside of the card says "Does this snow make my butt look big?"  The whole set just cracks me up! 
I paper pieced the hat and scarf from the SU Christmas pack of DP, and used the swiss dots CB folder for the white layer.  The CS is also from SU Christmas pack....Ruby Red and Old Olive.  The lace and buttons are from my stash.
I will make this post short and sweet today because my wonderful mom is visiting me and I treasure every moment I am blessed to spend with her.  If you want to see what she does for one of her creative outlets just scroll down and see my two Sunday posts!  Fun!
Please don't forget to stop on over to the SSD site to upload your own creation....you may be our Wednesday Winner! 
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! 

BUTTON BUTTON WHO'S GOT THE BUTTON

I LOVE BUTTONS!!  But as much as I enjoy them, my mom enjoys them more.  She collects them just for the pure joy of fingering through them, sorting them, admiring them, and putting them in fun containers to showcase their beauty.  They make her happy.  She never tires of searching garage sales and thrift shops for treasures to add to her "stash".  As she ages I hope never to find her in a state of dementia,  for I fear she will have a scissors hidden in her pocket cutting buttons off of clothes people still have on! LOL. Just kidding mom!
As I mentioned in an earlier post today, my mom is here visiting me for a week or two, and brought a whole suitcase full of buttons to sort through and organize while I was at work.  Scroll down to my earlier post today to see a picture of the suitcase!!  I am not kidding one bit!  I just want to share a couple of quick pictures of some of the button jars at her home....notice I said "some" of the buttons.....

She found this coffee table as someone elses throw away item, refinished it, had glass made for the shadow box areas and filled it with buttons.  Even kids that come to her house love to look at the table.
I do have the Making Memories Embellishment Center with quite a few small jars I got at Michaels filled with buttons....but I also had a ton of small baggies in a big bowl that had a few buttons of one style or color etc.  Today mom organized them for me while I was stamping.....We got bead containers from Michaels and she put my mess in order.  The pics are not real good, but you will get the idea.  She filled three cantainers for me, and they look soooo pretty...and  it  will be soooo much easier to find what I need.

Isn't it awesome!!  I just wish the pics would show how pretty they all look together.  Thanks mom over and over..you are so very awesome, and I love you!  P.S.....can I have your button collection someday? 

BLOG CANDY WINNERS

Hello, and Happy Sunday!  Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend, and that is warmer where you are, than it is here in the Black Hills! 
This week we Stamp Tramps from Skipping Stones Design,  did a blog hop for SSD sketch 51, and the release of "Sassy Snowmen." 
On my post, I had up some blog candy!!!......I have the winners!!!!

Congratulations to Patti on winning the lace package from Leslie's Etsy shop at Christopher Pines.  She will be sending you out a awesome little package of goodies!

Also Congratulations to "Snowflake Dreams" on winning the SSD stamp set!!  I know you will love the set I send out to you....I will let it be a surprise!

I have done a little bit of creating this weekend with the new SSD "Christmas Swirls" set....this is a very versatile set that has images that are so intricate and pretty that they hold their own very well as a CAS card as the focal point which is what I have done here with these two cards.  I also wanted to show the versatility with the dove by doing an elegant card with gold embossing, and then a more casual look on kraft Cardstock.  It works well with both don't you think?

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend!  My mom is here from the cold land of North Dakota, and is organizing my buttons!!! How cool is that!  When she gets a little further along tonite, I will take a photo or two and share them with you.  She has been so much fun to have!  She arrived with only two suitcases....one with her clothes, and one FULL of buttons she is sorting through!!!    I KID YOU NOT!!  I couldn't believe it when I lifted the one suitcase!  She had dumped  5 gallon jars of buttons in a suitcase to sort and organize while I was at work...Here is the proof!

I told you I wasn't kidding....and this is after she pulled alot of them out to sort through.  She has the most amazing collection of buttons I have ever seen!  She is the source of most of the buttons I use on my cards.   Thanks Mom for sharing!  You rock!  I will share a few more fun pics later!  Right now I need to make a quick trip to Michaels to get more organizing containers.

SSD SKETCH 51 AND BLOG HOP

It is Tuesday, and not only is it our weekly sketch challenge at Skipping Stones Design, it is also the celebration of the release of a new set called "Sassy Snow".  I seriously LOVE this set....even though I don't  especially like snow, I love snowmen.  This set is soooo cute, and true to her witty and funny sets,  Heather designed this set with a couple fun sayings....like "does this snow make my butt look big", or "I smell carrots!"  I never thought about what a snowman may say, and laughed when I saw this set! 

To celebrate this new set being released we Stamp Tramps have some fun for everyone today....a blog hop to show off some ways to use this fun set, AND.......some BLOG CANDY!!  We also were very fortunate to recieve a gift package of beautiful laces and such from the very kind Leslie Christopher who has a wonderful etsy shop with super good deals on ribbons, trims, and vintage treasures.  It is called  "Christopher Pines".....you gotta check out the link.......COOL stuff!  AND...there is more!!! Leslie will give a lucky winner from each of our blogs  the same fun package of lace we recieved!   Believe me this was fun to get in the mail!  Isn't that nice of her!!  So...without blabbing on so much you lose interest in following along , let me move on.....here is the SSD sketch #51 from the fabulous Shannan Teubner....we have been so fortunate to work with this wonderful, talented gal.

Once Again... a very CAS design with huge creative potential.  You rock Shannan!  This is the card I created using the sketch, the SSD set "Sassy Snowmen", and some of Leslie's wonderful laces and trims she so graciously gave us!  Thanks Leslie!

I also used a copic marker that matched the CS I chose, and colored one of the pieces of sheer white ribbon lavender...really worked well!  I used a Spellbinders mitten die instead of the oval, which I thought fit the theme well.  The snowflakes on the lavender layer were stamped with versamark, and embossed with clear.  The scarf, mittens, and snowflake were colored with copics.

Lets get to the hop!!   You should have arrived here from Amy Tsurutas blog.  I am last on the list of gals on the hop, but if you just happened upon my blog today, you can go to Shannan Teubners blog, and begin the hop there.  If you lose your way, or the link is broken, just head on over to the Skipping Stones Design  blog for the whole list of both Stamp Tramps, and guest designers blogs to see everyones creations, and also don't forget to stop there to link your own creation following Shannans sketch to have a chance at being the next Wednesday Winner!  While there don't forget to go shopping at the store.

Now....for one last fun little detail....THE BLOG CANDY!  There will be two lucky winners on my blog today.....one will recieve Leslies package of lace and trims, and someone else will recieve a free SSD stamp set.....to have a chance at one of these goodies, just leave me a comment at the end of this post with info on how to reach you so I can get your candy to you!

Hope you all have a wonderful week that not only brings work, but a chance to create a little as well!  We are supposed to get some snow this week in the Black Hills, so this set kinda sets the mood ahead of time ya know?  LOL!  Thanks so much for stopping by, and reading this lengthy post today.  PLEASE leave a comment so you have a chance at the blog candy....plus I so love hearing from you, and in turn visiting your blogs! 

SSD SKETCH CHALLENGE 50

WOW!!  I feel bad I have not posted since last weeks sketch, but this week has been very busy...4 super long days at work, then off to Minneapolis to visit my youngest son.  So, my creating time took a back seat this week.  I did however get the sketch challenge completed for sketch # 50 over at Skipping Stone Designs blog.  The sketches this month are from the awesome Shannan Teubner...she rocks, and you won't want to miss any of her sketches this month.  Hopefully you will hop on over to SSD and link up your own creation from the sketch, and be one of our Wednesday Winnners!  This is Shannans sketch!

Again...very clean simple lines that lend itself to so much potential FUN!!  This is what I did with the sketch, using our featured stamp set "Christmas Swirls".  This set is beautiful!!  It can be used so many different ways.  I used just the star and three of the sayings.

This card uses the stamps in a more "country" style way...I just got the paper and embellishments at my local scrapbooking store Altered Playground.  Cathy always keeps the coolest things in stock, and is always so helpful and full of inspiration.  I feel lucky to have such an awesome store here in our small town!  Anyway..the embellishments and paper are called "tinsel and twig" by "the girls paperie".  I so fell in love with how it all worked together that I just started pulling things off the wall and couldn't wait to use it.  Lucky we were to use the "Christmas Swirls" this week!  I stamped the star in the set on the word printed side of the paper and embossed it with clear EP.  Then I sponged it with a coordinating green ink using the star image as a resist, and cut it out. Then I put the rest of the card together using the sketch as a guide, and stamped the three words from the set last.
This set could sooo easily be very elegant using silver or gold embossing powder etc....You will be seeing me use this alot this season!
Hope this finds your week going well....to see the set I used for this card, and view all the other super cool creations from the rest of the "stamp tramps" visit the SSD web site...I know you will find some really fun ideas...we have some super talented guest designers this month too..don't miss out!

SSD SKETCH CHALLENGE 49

Hello and welcome to my blog today...it is Tuesday, which brings a new sketch challenge over at Skipping Stones Design blog.  This week we are starting the month off with sketches from the very awesome 
Shannan Teubner....all month!!  You will not want to miss her sketches.  They are very versatile, easy, and fun sketches to play with, so please hop on over to SSD and link your own version of the sketch, and grab a chance at being our next Wednesday winner...here is the sketch!

I flipped it so the oval was on top..worked better with the set I chose...I love this set..."Funny Coffee" #1.  I seriously cannot do Christmas or winter yet...just a thing with me...Fall is my favorite time of year and all the pretty colors and stamping opportunities to use that palette get away from me by being overshadowed by Halloween, and then right into Christmas!  So for me...I had to do some earth  tone colors this week.  After this I will move on to more "snow" related themes.  This is my card take on Shannans sketch....the DP is "Nutmeg" by "CosmoCricket"...love it!

I did the buttons by hand using clear buttons, and leftover DP...easy to do, and always match perfectly! Have a wonderful week!