Birds, Birds, Birds for this week's StampinB Challenge

This week's challenge, hosted by Joanne, over at the Stampin' B's Design Team Challenge is Birds, Birds, Birds. I'm starting to look toward Christmas, so I came up with this card featuring a fancy bird Christmas tree ornament:
I hate to admit how much I struggled with this one! I'm afraid it shows. And do you know how hard it is to photograph sparkle, shimmer, and bling? But I sure had fun adding it!! :) The dotty border around my sentiment frame was made with a glue pen and then heat embossed with copper embossing powder along with the sentiment.

I'm playing in these challenges:

• Flourishes Release Week Heavy Metal Challenge: to use a little metal on your card
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #139: to make a Christmas card that either features an ornament, or create an ornament
• Ribbon Carousel Challenge #24: sparkle and bling
  

Thanks so much for dropping by today for a little slice of bliss with me. If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes O Christmas Tree (sentiment) and Flourishes All That Glitters
Cardstock: SU marina mist CS, SU wild wasabi CS, white CS from The Paper Company
Ink: SU wild wasabi, Versamark
Accessories: SU designer label punch, MS snow flurry edge punch, copper EP, glue pen, heat tool, Pink Paislee glitter, rhinestones, baker's twine
Techniques: heat embossing

Something my kids made

My mojo is MIA. I don't know where it's gone. I've tried several different projects over the past several days, and nothing is coming together as planned. Boo hoo. I've bagged my attempts (except for my StampinB post for tomorrow--but be prepared to be underwhelmed) and have decided to give it a rest for a few days.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little something that my kids cooked up on their day off from school for Columbus Day on Monday. My daughter (who is 12) received a cool Halloween treats cookbook as a gift a number of years ago and looooooooooooooves looking through it when autumn rolls around. This year she flagged about 30 pages of themed treats to try. There's nowhere near enough time to make them all (for this year, at least), but I encouraged her to pick one or two to start with. She decided to try this cool Graveyard Treats dessert, and she and her little brother spent Monday afternoon concocting it.
We found the decorated sugar jack o' lanterns in the bakery at our local grocery store, a 6-pack for $1. So cute! The tombstones are just Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies (with some eerie green gel frosting inscriptions). There's a chocolate graham cracker crust, topped with a vanilla pudding mousse layer, topped with an orange Jell-o layer, topped with Cool Whip and decorations--complete with some graveyard dirt (chocolate graham cracker crumbs). They had a ball putting this all together. And it is SO delicious (pretty rich, too). I wasn't sure about the chocolate crust and orange Jell-o combo, but it is terrific and refreshing.

That's all I've got. If you find my roaming mojo, can you send it back home? I miss it.

Have a super day,
Emily

A Flashback

Today I'm playing along with Flashback Friday 16.0. My blogging friend Pam is the guest designer this go-round. She came up with an awesome challenge: to {re}post your VERY FIRST tag. Well, I came up with mine, and, boy, did they make me cringe:
For these, we're flashing back all the way to May 2009 (so these were first posted to my gallery on SplitcoastStampers, not here on my blog. And I think this was second-ever project I uploaded to my gallery). Guess I was using up some miscellaneous punches that day. :)

Thanks for bearing with me!
Emily

Chrysanthemums

This card has been in the works for more days now than I care to admit. I've had an aimless kind of weekend, and finally pushed myself to finish it--just to have it done.
It was inspired by these challenges:

• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #138: to be inspired by this autumn photo
• Bring Back Beautiful Challenge over at Flourishes to use a stamping technique (I used masking and watercolor painting to color my mums)
• Flourishes Release Week Heavy Metal Challenge: to use a little metal on your card
• Ribbon Carousel Challenge # 23: anything goes
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Sparkle and Bling (my little gold spiral clip adds some nice sparkle, don't you think?)
• Paper Sundaes Challenge: Favorite Color Combo (pumpkin, saffron, lavender, and kraft is definitely my fave color combo for fall right now!)
  

Thanks for stopping by,
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes: A Year in Flowers Calendar Set (#3), Tag Lines
Cardstock: kraft CS, watercolor paper, Stella & Rose Gertie papers from MME, DP from Indian Summer Stack by DCWV
Ink: Versafine vintage sepia, Ranger tea dye distress ink
Accessories: sponge, MS modern garland PATP set, watercolor brush, inks for watercolor painting, foam tape, sewing machine, sheer ribbon, spiral clip
Techniques: watercolor painting, machine stitching, masking, ink distressing

We have a WINNER!

Thank you to everyone who entered my World Card Making Day giveaway! I had so much fun reading your comments and finding out which of my Halloween cards you liked best :). I promised to post a winner on Friday, October 7, and here I am to do it. :)

Using random.org, I came up with my winner as:

And lucky #6 is Anne Tussing! Anne, I wasn't able to find an email address for you, so I couldn't contact you directly. Please email me to claim your prize! (You can find my email address through my blogger profile page. )

Thanks so much for dropping by!
Have a great weekend,
Emily

FALL for FWF

It's a Friday tradition: Unity's Friends with Flair blog hop! Check the Unity Stamp Co. blog for hop details and a full list of today's participants.

I'm playing along today with a versatile fall card: it could be for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or really most anything (thank you, thinking of you, birthday, etc.) the next couple of months.
I got all challenge-happy while planning out this card (I'm trying to keep up with you, Erin!). Here's what I rolled into it:

• Unity's WCMD3 challenge: to use this sketch
• Unity's WCMD4 challenge: to be inspired by this photo
• All Things Unity #41: feeling inspired? (see above photo!)
• Unity Stamp Company Challenge: Falling Leaves (any project, created with Unity/Ippity stamps, with leaves on it)
• the {ippity} challenge to tie it up with twine, ribbon, or string on your project
• Ribbon Carousel Challenge # 23: anything goes
• Dolce Stamps Challenge: fall colors
  

Got any good plans for the weekend? Wherever you are, I hope it's a good one! Thanks for swinging by for a little slice of bliss before you head off.

See you back here again soon!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: frame from Total Cuteness by Unity; leopard print banner from The Best from {ippity} by Unity
Paper: Circa 1934 digital paper by Cosmo Cricket, SU old olive CS, SU rich razzleberry CS, SU basic black CS, buff CS from The Paper Company, DP from Indian Summer Stack by DCWV, K&Co Tim Coffey Fall Pad patterned paper
Ink: Versafine onyx black, Ranger tea dye distress ink
Accessories: 1/2-inch circle punch, MS maple leaf punch, foam tape, sewing machine, sheer black ribbon
Techniques: digital papers, machine stitching

A {not white} One-Layer for the StampinBs

**Have you taken time to play in my WCMD Giveaway yet?**
Today is the last day! Entries close at 5 p.m. EDT. You can find all the details HERE!

Another Thursday brings us another challenge from the Stampin' B's Design Team! This week our hostess is Lois, who is challenging everyone to make a one-layer card that is not white. Shall we meet the card that stepped up to the plate?

I stamped this wonderful fall image and sentiment from my new A Season of Thanks stamp set, which I won last month from Flourishes, directly onto some yellow cardstock. I colored the Indian corn with colored pencils (no gamsol this time), added a few scored lines, rounded a single corner, and I was done! Clean and simple design, quick and easy production, light and flat for mailing. What more could a crafty gal want?

I'm also playing along with Flourishes' Wacky World Card Making Day Challenge, which was to be inspired by the colors of a favorite animated character. This time I picked up the orange, yellow, red, and (skin-tone)/tan of my favorite comic strip characters, Calvin and Hobbes.
Thanks so much for dropping by today for a little slice of bliss with me. If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily 

Card Recipe: 
Stamps: Flourishes A Season of Thanks
Cardstock: morning sun cardstock
 Ink: Versafine vintage sepia
Accessories: colored pencils, scoring tool, corner rounder 
Techniques: scoring

Thanks a Bunch!

I can't believe it's Monday already! Where did the weekend go? I suppose ours flew by so quickly because we were having so much fun ;) . I celebrated World Card Making Day on Saturday with some blog hopping and some card making. (Have you played in my WCMD Giveaway yet? It's going on through Thursday, October 6, at 5 p.m. EDT. You can find all the details HERE!) But the highlight of our weekend was a family trip to the nearby Topsfield Fair, America's oldest agricultural fair, founded in 1818. Our kids earned free admission tickets, a voucher for a free hot dog and drink, and tickets for two free carnival rides as part of our public library's summer reading program. Fabulous prizes, we thought!! We had a great time visiting the cattle, sheep, goat, horse, rabbit, and poultry barns; browsing the beekeeping, fruits, vegetables, and flower displays; taking in the baked goods, wood crafts, needle arts, fine arts, and photography exhibits; touring the fairground's permanent Grange Museum; watching the Great American Duck Race; and cheering on Robinson's Racing Pigs! And Mom and Dad had just as much fun watching the kids take their free rides on the Freak Out as they did riding it. Twice. :) We were exhausted but happy by the end of the afternoon.

I have another quick post to share another quick card, another result of some of my WCMD inky time.
I made this card for Flourishes' Wacky World Card Making Day Challenge, which was to be inspired by the colors of a favorite animated character. I've always been fascinated by the Disney Princesses, so when I found this picture of Sleeping Beauty (or Princess Aurora to all you royalty fans out there) in some online instructions on how to draw her, I latched on quickly. I picked up the rich razzleberry, melon mambo, pumpkin pie, and daffodil delight for my card creation.
I inked up and heat embossed the beautiful medallion from Flourishes' new Medallion Motif set, another one that I won last month. I sponged on pumpkin pie and melon mambo ink as part of the emboss resist technique to really make the patterns of the medallion stand out.

I'm also entering this in the Anything Goes Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and the Bring Back Beautiful Challenge over at Flourishes to use a stamping technique (I used the emboss resist technique).

Thanks so much for sharing my little slice of bliss today!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes: Medallion Motif and Peaches & Cherries (sentiment)
Cardstock: SU whisper white, SU pumpkin pie, SU textured rich razzleberry, yellow from The Paper Company
Ink: ColorBox frost white, SU pumpkin pie, SU rich razzleberry, SU melon mambo
Accessories: sponge, SU 1.25" circle punch, SU photo corners punch, foam tape, white EP, heat tool, Kaisercraft pearls
Techniques: embossing, sponging, emboss resist

Tailormade Friendship

**Have you taken time to play in my WCMD Giveaway yet?**
It's going on through Thursday, October 6, at 5 p.m. EDT. You can find all the details HERE!

I'm squeaking in under the wire on this one. Just a quick post to share a creation inspired by this Tuesday Trigger inspiration photo over at the Moxie Fab World.


I'd been thinking about this one all week and hoped to get time to actually put it together on World Card Making Day, but I didn't get very far. I was able to squeeze it in this afternoon, though. The dress form image and sentiment are from a new set by Flourishes called Feminine Charm, one of three September release stamp sets that I won from Flourishes last month. I was so excited to get these inked up!
I'm also playing in the Anything Goes Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and the Lots of Layers Challenge over at Paper Sundaes.

Thanks for dropping by!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes Feminine Charm 
Paper: mint sparkle finish CS, white CS from The Paper Company, various DP scraps from Stampin' Up! 
Ink: Versafine onyx black, Ranger tea dye distress ink 
Accessories: sponge, decorative and modern label punches from SU, paper doily, needle and thread, foam tape, sheer white ribbon from Michael's, SU vintage flower adornments
 Techniques: sponging

A Giveaway!!

Happy World Card Making Day!

I must admit that this is the first year that I've really paid attention to this papercrafting holiday, but it totally makes sense to me. I love the idea of devoting an entire day to something that makes so many people happy. Not only does the creating process give me a terrific sense of satisfaction (and most other cardmakers, as well!), but it also usually brightens the day of the person receiving one of my handmade creations. It's a two-fer!! And that makes me so very happy. :)

So in honor of WCMD and my 300th blog post (which went live earlier this week), I'd like to share my little slice of bliss with one of my readers by offering this blog candy as a giveaway:

Yes, it's a little Halloween-flavored kit of papercrafting supplies including a 12 pack of 12 x 12 specialty papers from K&Company's Spooktacular collection, a pair of Halloween paper punches from EK Success, and an adhesive gem spider web from Colorbok. All this Halloween goodness because I've had Halloween on the mind so much recently, having made six Halloween cards this week. In case you missed them, you can find links to all of them here:

Monday: Boo! to You (1 card)
Wednesday: Jack O' Lanterns (3 cards: orange, purple, and green)
Thursday: Halloween Bingo (1 card)
Friday: Spooky Chandeliers (1 card)

So here's how you can enter my random drawing for this Halloween prize package:

1. take a look at the Halloween cards that I made this week(the links are listed above),
   
2. and then come back here to leave me a comment on this post telling me which one was your favorite!!
   

That's it!! You don't have to be a follower or anything, just be sure that I have some way of contacting you (either through your blog or by including an email address in your comment). Only one comment per person--unless you are a follower (or become one!) and then you are welcome to leave a second comment telling me so for a second chance in the drawing.

Comments will be open until Thursday, October 6, at 5 p.m. EDT. I'll announce the winner here in a blog post on Friday, October 7, and will try to contact the winner directly as well so you don't have to remember to check back. ;)

Thanks for stopping in today. Have a terrific World Card Making Day!
Emily