bogo sale in my etsy shop

I'm having a buy one get one free sale in my etsy shop this weekend. Please stop by and take a peek. I'm doing the happy dance because I sent in my absentee ballot, and no longer have to watch the talking heads. Can't think of a better reason to celebrate.

The details are on my shop announcement right at the top of the page. It's really easy. Buy one item, and let me know which lower or same priced item you'd like for free. Better yet, buy 5 things and get 5 things free. I'll even pick up the shipping on your free items. Happy shopping!

virtual swap

My friend Jan is hosting a virtual swap. It's where the host sends you some stamped images and you make them into a card. The idea behind it is to see how others might use an image that you need some more ideas on. These are the two cards I made with the same image. The one on the left is colored with markers and lots of stickles applied. The one on the right has lots of distress ink smeared around on it. I love these kinds of swaps because it makes me work outside the box a bit. I don't think I ever would have done these things with this image unless I'd faced a challenge. The virtual part of the swap is that you don't mail anything out, just post your results on the web. Thanks for the fun swap, Jan.

In other news, I'm done voting. Made my picks on my absentee ballot and took it to the post office on Wednesday and kissed it goodbye. No need to watch the rigamarole now. I'm tired of it all. I thought I might post a friday funny, but Sandy did it for me. If you'd like a good laugh about the whole thing, go check out this post on Sandy's blog. Oh my did she give me a good laugh today. I don't think I could give up ketchup in favour of vinegar on my chips, but the rest doesn't sound nearly as bad as what we are dealing with at the moment.

I haven't yet opened the bags of candy meant for the trick or treaters tonight, but it's just a matter of time. Happy Halloween. Eat some chocolate for me!

peace, love, vote

Only one more week left of ugly name calling and finger pointing and blaming. I'll be so happy to see November 5th arrive. The way I figure it, our country is a mess no matter who wins this one. I'd just like to see a little tolerance all around. People in my state are really fired up over one of the propositions this year. I just read in my very tiny local community that 2 people were arrested for removing signs for one side of the battle and there is a $2,000 reward to find someone who removed signs for the other side. What happened to freedom of speech? Seriously.

When November 5th gets here, we are still one country. No red, no blue. Just Americans trying to live our lives. So, that's how this little art piece came to be. I've been wanting to try my hand at some small art quilts combining cloth and paper. Today was my first shot at it, not great but it's a start. I learned that you shouldn't make holes first in your paper if you are sewing it to fabric. I remember how much I like hand sewing and how much I like working with fabric. This little piece measures about 5" x 6". It's my entry for this week's Mixed Media Monday lock and key challenge.

Supplies used: Stampfrancisco image stamp, CTMH letter stamps, gesso, staz-on black ink, various markers, vintage lace, piece of vintage mattress pad, vintage key, purple metallic thread, handmade flower, black brad, and the cutest little hanger that I got at the scrapbook expo this weekend.

who's there?

This is a combined challenge arch. First it's the paper patchwork challenge hosted by Cora over at Gothic Arches this week. The challenge was to create a patchwork of papers for the background and throw some paint over them. That was fun!

Then it's the things that go bump in the night over at Mixed Media Monday. My friend Kim is hosting this week, so I had to play even though I've never done a challenge there. Honestly I'm a bit intimidated by the talent of the folks who play in the challenges. Such amazing artwork. I really enjoyed the process of making this arch that feels really outside the box for me.

I don't do spooky, so it's not easy to get that feel going. I think my little sister made me watch way too many spooky movies with her as a kid. I can't even go into a community haunted house. I'm just a big chicken. So, I guess this was a face your fears arch. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies used: titan buff and nickel azo gold Golden Fluid Acrylics, black Staz-on ink, Ink Blocks stamp, variety of Ranger Distress Inks, lots of paper scraps including a clothing tag, map and postcard, owl pic from vintage dictionary, vintage rummy game piece.

its a wonderful life

I'm in an ATC swap for our favorite Christmas movie. Originally I really wanted to find an old Dr. Seuss Grinch book to tear up to make my ATC's. We always watch it and it is so fun and whimsical. I looked high and low at every thrift shop around to no avail. So, I gave up because I was up against the deadline. I relied on another favorite holiday movie. I decided to try to depict It's a Wonderful Life in some way. This is the result. Do you remember the last scene that shows the christmas tree in black and white and a little bell on it rings? There is tinsel on the tree, too. So, here is my best shot at it with what I had here. It's from my memory as it's been almost a year since I last watched the movie.

"Everytime a bell rings an angel gets his wings."

Supplies used: Hero Arts stamps, Nick Bantock charcoal grey ink, Ranger silver embossing powder, Sakura gelly roll pen, ivory and grey cardstock, silver wired trim.

nightgowns

Here is what we made out of the fabric below. I was wearing the blue one when I took the photo this morning, so it's not in the pic. I can't even count how many nightgowns we've made from this pattern over the years. This isn't a real pattern that you can buy in a store, but is based on a nightgown that my mom and aunt liked some years back. Usually we get into production mode and make a gozillion of them, but this time we just had a few hours, so we only made three. If we all go somewhere together and share a hotel room, we match. LOL

sewing

Mom and I usually spend our Tuesdays together while my dad is golfing. Sometimes we go shopping or out to lunch and sometimes we do things at her house. Yesterday we spent our time sewing. I've had these three fabrics for quite a while waiting for a certain project. Each one made their own item, but the three things are the same.

We have the best time sewing and chatting and unsewing. You see anytime I sew something, there is always unsewing involved. If you sew, you know what I mean. It's those darned little mistakes that get me about sewing. It's not so bad when you are working together because it's about the time together as much as the project. I think we only had to unsew twice and one time I sewed a whole piece with no thread in the needle. That's not bad for a 4 hour stint.

I'll show you the finished projects tomorrow, but for today I'm wondering if you have any guesses about what we made.

harvest

The leaves here are positively luminous this week. They inspired me to make this card for my card swapping group that met here at my house yesterday. Everyone brought a brunch dish to share and we worked on our Christmas tags. All six of us were here and we haven't all made it at one time in so long. It was such a fun morning of creating, laughing, eating, and catching up. I spend most of my creative time here by myself, so it was wonderful to share my space with the group. This is the same group of ladies who introduced me to all things inky and stampy about 6 years ago. What a wonderful journey it's been.

Supplies used: PSX main image, Penney Black leaf image, Staz-On pumpkin ink, orange peel Stickles, sheer orange ribbon, gold metallic cardstock, kraft and pumpkin cardstocks.

challenge cards

Here are a couple of cards I made today inspired by challenges over at a one day online crop with the fiskateers. It's a crazy bunch of crafters over there who love to make all sorts of goodies. Of course using fiskars products is always encouraged. Both of these sentiments came from a Heidi Grace set of stamps that I won on 2peas stamptoberfest. Oh, I do love these stamps. There are 7 different quotes in this set and each one has a nice frame making it easy to cut them out. They are clear stamps that really stamp well with versafine ink. Clear stamps are hit and miss for me, but these do the job well.

Of course you can see I had to grunge up these cards a bit, too. There are some vintage math pages here along with a piece from an old map. Add in some old buttons and lace and I'm in nirvana. It was fun to create just for the sake of creating today. It seems I get myself into this mode of creating for swaps, assignments, or class samples. That's all good, but sometimes it stifles my muse. She was happy to join me today. I hope you make time for creativity this weekend.

gift card holder

I just finished hosting a gift card holder swap. It seems to be the most common gift for the holidays. I now have a beautiful assortment of handmade holders. This was my contribution to the swap. It was a pretty simple one to make and it does the job.

If you'd like to make one, you need a piece of cardstock 7" x 4 1/4" and two pieces of patterned paper 2 1/4" x 4" and 1 1/4" x 4". I used a corner rounder on all 4 corners of the cardstock and 2 corners of the patterned paper. Score your cardstock 2 1/2" from one end and 1 1/2" from the other end and fold. You'll need to add in a small brad on each corner of the bottom folded up piece to create a pocket after you attach the patterned paper to it. I used a bit of pretty trim to tie mine closed, but you could use velcro. Decorate as you'd like. That was clear as mud I'm sure.

Supplies used: Stemma patterned paper, confetti cardstock, SU stamp and punch, brilliance ink, white cord trim, 2 small brads.

I filled up my etsy shop with a bunch of holiday goodies I've been collecting. I'm starting to get in the mode of thinking about the holidays. I have a few gifts purchased and have my tags and gift card holders all ready thanks to some great swaps. For now, though, I think I'll go out and decorate the front for Halloween. We've had some nasty winds the last couple of days and I need to do some serious cleaning outside.

feather dance

Here is my entry for the turquoise gothic arch challenge this week. I tried to capture the colors in my favorite turquoise stone earrings. I love the juxtaposition of distress inks with the stickles glitter. I saw that ranger is coming out with distress stickles which made me think why not try it with what I have now.

Supplies used: PSX kokopelli stamp, Impression Obsession feather stamp, SU swirl and net background stamps, Stamps n Memories circular moon stamp, peeled paint and broken china distress inks, deep lagoon versafine ink, patina stickles, K&Co charm colored with stream alcohol inks.

hurray!

It's the little things in life that make me so happy like faster internet speed. Oh yeah, so worth the $5 more a month. I can actually comment on blogs. It was getting very frustrating that a ton of my fave blogs totally jammed up my computer. Here's to being connected again!

I can't even think of a catchy title for this post. I did not watch the debates today and only caught a bit of the news. I had a sick kiddo home and had to take him to the doctor. Tonight I played bunco with my friends. It's our 6th year playing bunco once a month for 9 months of the year. For those of you who haven't played bunco, it's a dice game that you don't have to think much about and you chat alot, but you change tables every game. So, there are 12 women moving around to 3 different tables all night. We chat about life and our kids and those type things. It's fun.

Tonight was a very different kind of bunco. Running through the conversations were 3 different lay offs in our group. Money worries. Not enough money for gas. Not enough money to buy regular groceries, rice and beans on the menu for every meal. No real talk about politics, just real worries and real problems in real people's lives. People I know and care about. Friends. It sucks. Guess I'll go watch the debate and catch the late news.

busy weekend

I spent the majority of my day on friday cleaning out my mess. I have admitted here before that I'm very messy about my creative space. I achieved my goal of a clean room for World Cardmaking Day on Saturday. So, Saturday arrived and I had visions of stamping the entire day away. My family had other plans, they wanted me to go shopping and to the movies and out to lunch. Normally a great thing, but not such great timing. So, I spent the early morning finishing up samples for my class in a couple of weeks to deliver to the shop in the same area as lunch and shopping. It's an altered game pieces class. Here is a pic of the sample board:


We had a nice afternoon out, and I ran to my craft room as soon as we returned. I made a small pile of cards for my friend Lesa's new endeavor. Lesa is a breast cancer survivor who is paying forward the kindness shown to her during her treatments and recovery time. She started Little Life Preservers to send cards of encouragement to women diagnosed with breast cancer and going through treatment. Here are the cards I'm sending to her today:


And in between all of that I won a drive-by prize at Stamptoberfest. It's a mystery set of stamps. I love a little intrigue in the day and winning is always good. The challenges at 2peas are going on all week, so you can still play and so can I.

Our winter wonderland card crop at SNR was a huge success. Lots of beautiful cards were uploaded and lots of happy stampers won prizes. I loved the whole idea of focusing on getting those holiday cards rolling. Stop by and stroll the gallery for some inspiration on your holiday cards. My new favorite holiday color theme is light blue and kraft tan because of a fun color challenge we hosted. Here is my card that I made for that challenge:

All in all a great weekend even if I didn't stamp like I planned. Oh and if you need an action fix check out Eagle Eye at the theaters or Iron Man on video. I loved both movies, but I was exhausted from all the action and holding my breath waiting to see what happened next.

vote

I can't imagine a more important time in my adult life than right now to get informed, get registered, and vote. I am a little obsessed with national news lately. I really do believe this time will be in our future history books. Just how it will be portrayed is yet to be seen. I intend to be a part of it and be able to tell it to my grandchildren some day. We have just over a month to get our ducks in a row and get ready to exercise our right to vote. Thank you to all the women who came before me that had a part in giving me that right. It's not a right I take lightly. If you are not registered or if you have moved, call your county registrar of voters. It's not too late. You can even download the forms online.

supplies used on this gothic arch challenge: kraft cardstock, gesso, saddle brown staz-on ink, sepia glass finish liquid embossing by Plaid, vintage watch parts, used vintage postage stamp, coin charm, and a ton of stamps~~feather by psx, alpha for vote by POD, elongated watch by Eclectic Omnibus, front view watch by Hampton Art Stamps, mini postcard and postal cancellation by Auntie Amy's Embossing Arts, thank you definition by Hero Arts.