Eeek! and a WINNER!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Just popping in to share a card for Halloween! I've got lots of fun goodies on this one: chipboard cat from Maya Road (inked with black pigment ink), washi-tape-covered tags and punched scalloped borders (orange stripes washi tape from DeNami Design), black May Arts corduroy ribbon, black Paper Smooches twine, alphabet stickers from Lily Bee, and a fancy background stamp (Looped Flower) from Hero Arts. I sent this one to a very dear, cat-loving friend. I hope it brought a smile to her face!!

I'm also sharing the winner of my washi tape giveaway from Monday. I used Random.org to select a winner. It was lucky #12, which was

terriavidreader (IN-USA) !!!

Congratulations, Terri! I've emailed you :D Thanks to everyone who entered!

I hope you have a fun Halloween wherever you are! My oldest is now a freshman in high school. She decided that she's too old for trick-or-treat, so she will be manning the door at our house tonight to hand out treats (most likely in her mad scientist costume). My fifth grader is very much looking forward to trick-or-treating tonight. He was very happy to recycle his Apple iPhone costume from last year, which made me very happy. I'm glad that last year's hard work lives on!

Hope your day is filled with more treats than tricks! Thanks for stopping by,
Emily

DeNami Design Product Spotlight October Blog Hop

It's the last Wednesday of the month and that means it is time to show off another awesome DeNami Design stamp with a blog hop! This month we are featuring the adorable Halloween Kitty stamp.

Isn't that one cute kitty? Just because she's named "Halloween" Kitty, doesn't mean you can only use her for Halloween. I wanted to share a simple card design to show that she's perfect for year-round use, too.

Every single supply that I used for this card comes from the DeNami Design store!

Halloween Kitty stamp

Hello Friend stamp

Teal Chevron washi tape

White cardstock

Onyx Black Versafine ink
Habanero Versafine ink

Autumn Twine 3-pack

You can purchase this adorable stamp for 10% off the regular price for the next week. You also have the chance to WIN this fabulous product in today's spotlight blog hop! All you need to do is hop along to each stop in the lineup, leaving comments along the way. Here is the blog hop lineup:

DeNami blog 
Lisa Petrella
Deb Wabbe
Wendy Elliot
Emily Keaton  <==== you are here!
Lisa Elton
Pattie Goldman
Dana Seymour
Tammy Hobbs

One commenter will be selected at random to win this month's prize! Just check out the DeNami blog for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by today!!
Emily

TCM October Previews, Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the October stamp release from The Craft's Meow! I'm back again today as the TCM October Guest Designer, and I'm sharing cards made using two more brand new sets. Today I'm previewing Winter Fibi & Lilly and Christmas Cheer along with the TCM design team.

Here's my card for Winter Fibi & Lilly:

This set has several delightful Christmas and winter images of Fibi and Lilly, but I thought the angel and coordinating sentiment could make a sweet thank you card for any time of the year! The label stamp I used comes from the TCM Timeless Tags set. (Cardstock: SU Bashful Blue and Not Quite Navy; Ink: SU Not Quite Navy, Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Frost White)

And now for a clean and graphic card using Christmas Cheer:

Not much to explain here! But I love how it turned out. :D (Cardstock: PTI White; Ink: Versafine Satin Red, Spanish Moss, and Vintage Sepia)

Be sure to check out the fantastic creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Winter Fibi & Lilly and Christmas Cheer over on the The Craft's Meow blog. There's a giveaway going on, too, and you can find out all about that over there as well. :D

Well, tomorrow is the last day of previews before the big release party on Thursday. I'll be featuring projects made with my two favorite sets from the October release. I hope you'll join me!

Until then, I hope you'll make time for a little bliss in your day!
Emily

Flashback Friday 10.0

I have been having so much fun playing along with Amy Tsuruta's Flashback Friday Challenges! I was thrilled to learn last weekend that I was selected as the winner of Flashback Friday 9.0, and part of my prize (in addition to some fantastic sewing-themed Stampin' Up goodies) was to be the Flashback Friday 10.0 Guest Designer AND pick the 10.0 challenge!!

Just in case you aren't familiar with Flashback Friday, here's the scoop: in this challenge Amy encourages players to re-post a papercrafting "first" and take ownership of the project in the present day. No newly made project required! It's fun to see where we started in our papercrafting journeys and how far we've come, even if it provides some cringeworthy viewing moments. Amy picks each Flashback Friday winner randomly, and she always has some awesome prizes to award to those brave enough to play along!

So, on to my pick for the Flashback Friday 10.0 Challenge:

re-post your
**first project with STITCHING
on it (real or faux)**

I love to sew and play with fabric almost as much as I like to play with paper, so this was an easy choice for me.

Oh, and you'd probably like to see my first stitching project. I made this in June 2009, well before I started my blog, so this came from my Splitcoaststampers gallery. Not only is it the first time I used stitching on a card, I used both machine stitching and faux ("pen") stitching here. Fancy me, right? You can see my original SCS upload for this card HERE.
I was rather proud of this creation back when I first made it and still feel pretty good about it today. And look at me--getting all impressive by making a full-front tri-shutter card. Of course, I can think of hundreds of ways I could improve this thing if I were to make it today, but it was definitely a start. :)

If you'd like to play along with Flashback Friday 10.0, head on over to the Flashback Friday blog to play along. For version 10.0, Amy has lined up a fantastic sponsor:

Jane's Doodles

Jane is being so kind as to give out Mr. Smiles and Party the Penguin . . . along with some of her signature buttons.

Please come join us for some Flashback fun! Flashback Friday 10.0 runs from today until Friday, April 29th @ 11:59 pm PST. Just re-post your first project that incorporated stitching on your blog and add it the inlinkz linky at Flashback Friday. I can't wait to see all of your stitching firsts!!

See you around!
Emily

Yuletide Fireside

I really had fun creating the card I made yesterday! The Free for All Challenge on Splitcoast was "Tail Waggin' Greetings," which was to make a project (any theme) using something that has a tail. Well, Speedy the Cat has a tail and I think this image of him wearing a Santa hat is adorable, so I decided to use him for a yuletide greeting as he gazes into the fireplace!!
This card gives you a sneak peek of two different Mark's Finest Papers stamp sets that will be released next week: Christmas Postage Due (Speedy) and Brick Wall. Last Saturday I made a different sneak peek card for Brick Wall using only the butterfly and flowering vine images from this new set. After seeing my sample, my friend Colleen was puzzled by the set name, and I then realized how provoking it was to sneak peek a set without its titular image! So, Colleen, this sneaky peek is for you. :)

This card was kind of a departure for me. I'm not sure that I've ever created a scene like this, but I sure did have fun!! The problem is that I could probably have spent the rest of the day adding more and more little details. It's like decorating a doll house!! Some of the details:

• I white embossed the brick wall image on red card stock to create the fireplace. After adding a scrap of black for the opening and scrap of kraft for the mantel.
• Creating a somewhat realistic-looking fire gave me pause. In the end, I sketched a rough flame shape on white card stock, colored in some orange flame centers, and cut it out. Then I used vellum to cut out a slightly larger, similarly shaped set of flames. After sponging the vellum shape with yellow ink and drying it with a heat tool, I attached it as on overlay with a glue pen.
• The rug in front of the fireplace is from a piece of embossed card stock that I found in an SU scrap pack from Colleen. (Thanks, Colleen!!!) The texture was just what I was looking for to make it look like something woven! I sponged it with some old olive ink to match my "decor."
• Like my mantel decorations? I added a swag of tinsel using a tube of Studio G Sparkle Writer. I found the tiny stocking image among some ancient mini stamps from The Angel Company.
• I knew I needed something to hang on the wall above the fireplace. I thought about making a wreath somehow, but didn't have any good images for one. While I was mulling over making a wreath with punches somehow, I suddenly remembered that I still had a few items left on an awesome card of decorative brads from Making Memories. Some have the coolest little home-dec-like frames and I thought that a trio of these would be perfect as wall hangings!

As you would suspect from me, I incorporated a few challenges as well:

• Cute Card Thursday: Gently Does It, to use vellum or tissue paper on your project. I used vellum to make my fire flames.
• 4 Crafty Chicks: Challenge #10, to use the color combo Riding Hood Red, River Rock, Old Olive, Pink Pirouette, plus a neutral. I had to substitute a bit, but I think I came pretty close.
• Caardvarks: to create a new holiday card using die cut(s). Check out the oval rug and the photo corner in the upper left.

Thanks so much for checking out this holiday creation of mine. I had the best fun making it! See you back here soon :)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: MFP Brick Wall, MFP Christmas Postage Due, TAC (stockings)
Paper: SU old olive, PTI kraft, SU basic black, The Paper Company scraps, Pink Paislee Tinsel Town DP, vellum
Ink: Palette noir black, Versamark, SU old olive, Palette paris lights
Accessories: photo corner die cut, oval die cut, scissors, white EP, heat tool, Studio G glitter glue, dimensionals, sponge, Making Memories brads
Techniques: embossing, sponging

Stampin' B's Halloween Challenge

It's Thursday--time for another challenge from the Stampin' B's Design Team!! This week Vicky G. is challenging us to make a Halloween card, but this is a Halloween card with a twist--NO BLACK or ORANGE!! Here's what I came up with. (And just for the record, that mat under the top purple layer is GOLD, kind of a goldenrod sort-of-color, not orange. In real life, it's clearly not orange, but something got lost in the translation in the photo. Sorry!)

I've got to say, though, that this was harder than I thought it would be!! At first, I was thinking, "No problem! I'll just use green and purple. Perfect!" But I found that I kept wanting to reach for some kind of black--black ink for my stamped images, black thread for my stitching, . . . you know how it goes. I even got tripped up when I was adding my brads. After peeking at my Halloween brads, and purposely avoided the candy corn one ('cause it's got orange, don't ya know!!), I spotted the perfect brad to go with this card's theme--a fun spider!! I added it between two purple brads and called it a day. Later, I was showing my family what I came up with for this challenge, explaining that it was to make a Halloween card with no black or orange. My astute 7YO DS immediately piped up, saying, "But, Mom!! What about that black spider brad? You can't use that!!" Ugh!! He was SO right. I didn't even catch it!! Good thing I showed my family or my card would be in total violation right now LOL! :) My quick fix was to swap out the cute {black} spider for a metallic green brad.

This is not my favorite card. I had some great ideas for putting it together, but once all of the different elements were ready and I assembled them, it was kind of a let down. It doesn't have the impact I thought it would. Maybe because it has a less than strong focal point? I'm not sure. But when I was showing it to my family, my dear hubby warmed my heart when he told me he thought I'd been very clever--the vertical panels reminded him of striped wallpaper like you'd find in a creepy old Victorian {haunted} house. Just what I needed to hear! Got to love a man who can serve up a slice of happy :)

Challenges:

• Off the Wall Craftiness: Challenge #29
• Everything But The Kitchen Sink: Challenge 25, a sketch
• Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge: #25, stitching (or faux stitching)
• EtsyInspired Challenge: #110, to be inspired by something from the Etsy store Capturing Creativity. I was inspired by this fun spider and web card:
• A Spoon Full of Sugar: Challenge 126, Boo! (Halloween creations)
• Tuesday Throwdown: Anything Goes

I hope you've been inspired to play along with the Stampin' B's!! If you do make a card, post it 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!! :) And now I'm off to see what my fellow Bs made for this intriguing challenge. Can't wait to see everyone's creative approach . . .

Card Recipe:
Stamps: The Angel Company (spider background--retired), SU Party Punch, Studio G (spider and web)
Paper: card stock scraps--all from The Paper Company, I think
Ink: Palette belle rose, chartreuse, violette, lavender sachet + ColorBox frost white
Accessories: SU round tab punch, white EP, heat tool, foam tape, sewing machine, brads
Techniques: machine stitching, embossing, backkground stamping

Halloween Kitties and Pumpkins and Bats--Oh, My!!

You just can't go wrong with orange and green and black for Halloween!! I threw this together for Repeat Impressions' What If? Wednesday sketch challenge, which ends today in just a few hours. Nothing like squeaking under the wire at the last minute!! In case you couldn't tell, I rotated the sketch for my card! ;)

This is also for:

• Paper Sundaes: Something from Your Stash (I've hoarded that pretty oval brad in my stash for a while now and figured NOW was the time to use it!)
• City Crafter Challenge Blog: Week 25, Hooray for the Holidays--create a holiday project for any holiday. Just stating the obvious: I went with Halloween! :)
• A Spoon Full of Sugar: Challenge 124, Sparkle and Shine. It may be hard to tell, but the stars on the jack-0-lantern DP are sparkly and I used a tube of studio g Sparkle Writer to add sparkly dots around the scallops of the middle oval.
• Papertake Weekly Challenge: pick your favorite Papertake challenge from the past three years. I chose "Shiny, Sparkly & Special" from May 2010. I used a brad with a shiny frame and lots of sparkly glitter. :)
  

My slice of bliss for today? I just found out last night that I won the "birthday gift" in last week's Happy Birthday ColourQ celebration for colourQ52! My project was drawn at random for the $25 gift certificate prize AND I was selected as one of the colourQueen Courtiers for the week. You'd better tie me down to my chair today--I might just float away! :) Thanks for stopping by to share in my happy!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Broom Ride (sentiment)
Paper: SU tangerine tango CS, SU kiwi kiss CS, SU basic black CS, Halloween DP from Target's Dollar Spot, My Mind's Eye Magnolia Stack DP
Ink: Marvy LePlume II black marker
Accessories: SU scallop oval punch, SU large oval punch, CM oval cutting system, EK Success spooky cat punch, white gel pen, studio g Sparkle Writer, foam tape, orange satin ribbon, black adhesive pearls, fancy brad from my stash

Spooktacular Halloween

Happy TGIF, everybody!! I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on my kids' school schedule and the time I have in my day for doing my freelance work, so I took a little time this morning to treat myself to a little slice of bliss. Here's what I've been up to!!
I played along with today's Free for All Challenge, F4A30, over on Splitcoast. The challenge is to use a punny saying on your card. No problem!! As a DT member for Mark's Finest Papers, I'm amassing quite a collection of MFP sets, many of which include a variety of punny sayings. It seems to be one of MFP's hallmarks!! I wanted to add to my stash of Halloween cards to send to far-flung family next month, so I went with the MFP set Broom Rides which includes the punny saying "It's SPOOKtacular!"

Next, I went looking for an awesome sketch to use for this card and found a great one in Repeat Impressions' What If? Wednesday Sketch challenge S810. Then I thought I'd see if I could play along with Jazzy Paper Designs Inspirational Challenge #13, which was to be inspired by an album cover on the Verve Music website. I found the perfect inspiration piece in John Fogerty's Revival album cover: Perfect idea for a Halloween card, doncha think? I set to work with my brayer and some pumpkin pie and so saffron ink to reproduce that awesome sky on the album cover. Didn't get it quite right, but I'm still quite happy with my results. Finished up my scene with some silhouette-y Halloween elements.

Finally, I made sure that my card included something that tweets or flutters for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge 130, to include a bird or butterfly somewhere on your card. I've got my spooktacular owl to cover that base. ;)

So that's the story of my card creation and bit of fun for today!! Next, it's time to get down to work on today's allotment of my freelance project. I'm looking forward to my "book group" tonight--our first meeting since the end of the last school year in June. Gotta use those quotes because we never do any reading or anything--our "book group" is just an excuse for a bunch of girlfriends to get together on a monthly basis and socialize. If we didn't make our appointments for "book group," we'd never find the time to get together!! Sometimes we just get together at someone's home to chat; other times we might craft, see a movie, go out for dinner, or whatever fun someone cooks up. And we always have a visit to a local day spa in March. Fun! It's going to be great catching up with everyone tonight. :)

Well, have a fabulous weekend. Thanks so much for checking in today!!

Recipe:
Stamps: MFP Broom Rides
Paper: SU basic black CS, SU pumpkin pie CS, HP glossy photo paper, Pink Paislee 365 Degrees DP
Ink: SU pumpkin pie, SU so saffron, Marvy Le Plume II black marker
Accessories: EK BOO border punch, MS postage stamp punch, black satin ribbon from Mark's Finest Papers, foam tape
Techniques: brayered sky

Christmas Kitty in July

Happy Friday, everybody! The weather is going to be perfect here this weekend, and I'm so psyched. I wanted to share my little bit of happy with you today to get a fun weekend rolling!

The stamps I used on this card are another sneak peek of the Mark's Finest Papers set Tweet Blessings, to be released in August. This set is not a holiday set, but the little flower elements remind me of poinsettias, so this was perfect for a couple of Christmas in July challenges I wanted to enter! Here's the scoop on challenges for this card:

• Color Throwdown #103: These just screamed Christmas to me! I had to sub from my collection of generic card stock for the red and river rock, but I think I got pretty close.
• Stamptacular Sunday #69: Christmas in July
• Tuesday Throwdown #10: Christmas in July
• Free for All #23 on SCS: Side-Swiped! To give some special attention or treatment along an entire side. I used a scallop edge border punch along the bottom and then dolled it up with lots of buttons :)
• EBTKS Challenge #20: to use buttons (preferrably buttons you found around the house!). The 14 buttons I used came from my rather extensive button collection. About half the buttons are vintage buttons that came from the button tin I inherited from my Gramma.
• Jazzy Paper Designs Challenge #11: card sketch based on this awesome jazz album cover.

Well, it's just about time to get our Friday pizza night started! My DH makes the most awesome hand-tossed homemade pizza. Yum! And afterward we'll have a movie night with the kids. Thanks for stopping to visit me on Bliss Road today!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: MFP Tweet Blessings
Paper: SU certainly celery CS, SU whisper white CS, various Paper Company CS, DCWV Christmas Mat Stack
Ink: Palette moulin rouge, SU certainly celery
Accessories: CM 1.25" square punch, SU curly label punch, SU scallop border punch, sewing machine, dimensionals, chipboard alphas from the Target Dollar Spot, assorted buttons from my stash
Techniques: machine stitching