Greetings from the Garden

This is one of the shoebox swaps from the get-together at Kristin's last Tuesday. One of Kristin's downlines designed it--such a fresh pretty card! The flowers were a little bit of a pain, though, since we had to use a stamp-a-ma-jig, which is normally a useful tool, but those flowers are tough to get lined up properly! Took me a few tries. Now I know with this set, you can be a little off and it still looks fine, but I was going for perfection, people!

Prairie Home Companion

This year has been so wet in our part of the country that harvest has been the latest its been in years--we were seeing corn standing in the fields still in early November, which is very unusual for us. So I figure I can still get in a harvest-themed card and have it be seasonally appropriate. I'm thinking I'll send it to my friend from college who married a farmer and still lives in Iowa amidst the corn fields (long harvested by now, I'd hope!)

I copied the basic idea from a splitcoast stamper but added a few extra details/upgrades here and there. I wouldn't have thought to use the large tag punch for a tractor body, that's for sure! This was one of the cards that I used Kristin's punches for this week, since I don't have the tag punch, heart punch or the 1 3/4" circle punch (yet).

CASEing Stuart Davis

Now, who is Stuart Davis, you might ask? I'm glad you did! He is considered one of the fathers of the Cubist movement, starting in the 1920s. I copied this card from Butternut Sage Designs, but I think the card has a kind of cubist vibe to it, hence the title. I actually wrote a paper in high school on Stuart Davis (many, many moons ago) and while this card bears little resemblance to the wild paintings he produced over his long career, it does feature bright colors mixed together, as his paintings often did. So there's your bit of new information for the day--you can go back to bed now!

Supplies:
Whisper White, Pumpkin pie, Real Red, Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue cs
Stampin' Write Markers: Real Red, Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue, Real Red ink
Of the Earth and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
1 1/4" square punch, 1 3/8" square punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, large oval and scallop oval punch
red polka dot ribbon (non-SU)

Charming

I don't own this set, but I borrowed it from Kristin on Tuesday to make this card, which I copied from a splitcoast stamper. The original used Soft Sky, but lacking that, I subbed in Baja Breeze. I like the clean lines and I'm starting to love this stamp set. It was a set that I blew right by in the mini catalog, but I'm starting to see lots of possibilities! Kristin was kind enough to loan me the set for a few weeks, so I'll hopefully get my mojo on and show you some great creations with it soon!

Supplies:
Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze cs
Charming and Define Your Life stamp sets
Chocolate Chip ink
paper piercing tool/mat pack
chocolate organza ribbon (non-SU)

Gobble, Gobble

I should be baking a pumpkin pie right now for tomorrow's feast, but instead, I'm here, blogging about stamping instead. Priorites, right? I went to a shoebox swap last night at Kristin Kortonick's house out in New Jersey, which was a blast. There were six of us, which was a small crowd, but that left us plenty of time to utilize Kristin's Riverton-esque classroom and her extensive collection of stamps and dies. I brought a ton of cardstock just to use all her punches! I've had a bunch of punch pal ideas I've seen lately that I wanted to copy but lacked the proper punches, so I just went ahead and punched all the pieces last night and assembled most of the cards today.

The project to share today, however, is a small Thanksgiving turkey favor. I don't normally go in for favors and such for myself, but I saw these on Meg Loven's blog yesterday and had to make a few to take to my MIL's house for the feast tomorrow. We will be a small group of 5, so it wasn't a big deal to throw these together. The turkey's insides are a York peppermint patty. Apparently I got the last bag of the type that are packaged in the round--the new packaging is square; what a bummer. Stinkin' cute, huh? Well, I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and good luck on Black Friday.

Supplies:
Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Red Riding Hood, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, basic black cs
Tag corner punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/4" circle punch, 1/8" hole punch on Crop-a-Dile, scallop circle punch, heart to hearts punch, boho blossoms punch, large oval punch.

S'Mores Gift Kit

I made this yesterday for a friend who is having a birthday next week (I have to get it in the mail this week, I think). I had bought a template from my fellow Philly Inker, Illina Crouse (you can purchase the instructions/template here) for a hot chocolate holder, and I've had in my mind for a few weeks an idea for a S'Mores kit. I thought Illina's template would adapt well to my idea.

I changed up the color scheme, used a different stamp set and voila, a S'Mores kit, ready to go! I made up a little card with instructions for indoor use (did you know you can roast marshmallows over the stove top? Works on gas or electric).

I like the poinsettia that people have been making with their 5 petal punches, and I wanted to give that a try as an embellishment. I thought it was a little plain just with a punch, so I used the Polka Dot Punches star from last year's SAB set to give it a little extra detail and interest.


Last step was to make a small card to go with it. I had a scrap of 6x6 real red left over and just cut it in half and made a mini-card out of it.

Supplies:
Real Red cs, Christmas cocoa dsp
Teeny Tiny Wishes, Hugs and Wishes (retired) Polka Dot Punches (retired) stamp sets
real red ink
Scallop oval, ornament, large oval, ticket corner, 5 petal punches
gold brads, paper piercing tool
real red grosgrain ribbon

Graham crackers
Marshmallows
Hershey bar
Bamboo skewer, cut to size
Indoor use instructions
Clear envelopes

Productive bunny

Today I was a productive (pregnant) bunny. I actually forwent my afternoon nap in the effort to get a bunch of things crossed off my to-do list. My god daughter's namesday is tomorrow and her birthday is next week, so I needed to make something for her, plus I had a custom tea bag order that I needed to finish before the weekend. I had to design a shoebox swap card for tomorrow night and get all the supplies cut, plus one of my regular etsy customers reordered tags, which I printed, but will have to punch tomorrow as my hands are dry and sore tonight.

Oh, and I ran to the grocery store (with my toddler), went to CVS to pick up my developed photos and made a nice vegan dinner for my son's godfather, who came to visit for the evening. And got two loads of laundry done. Whew! I'm tired just reading the list!

I did get the cards from the weekend and so forth photographed today, but will need to edit them tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to start posting photos tomorrow. I will say that my Stampin' Success magazine for December was in my mailbox this afternoon, along with some goodies that I'll be able to talk about in January.

So, with that, I will sign off from my ramblings for tonight and take my tired self off to bed.