Going Grey...and Spicy Red

Continuing on my grey theme, here's a card I made for our outgoing pastor's family. Of course it would make a whole lot more sense to you if I had snapped a photo of the inside where I put the sentiment taken from Isaiah 42:10, "Sing a new song unto the Lord". But by the time I thought of it, I'd already written in the card. Ugh. Oh, well.

Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
Isaiah 42:10

I finally cracked into my retired Ever After 12x12 collection kit by Cosmo Cricket. I picked it up some months ago on sale/clearance not so much because of the wedding theme, but because (yep, you guessed it) I loved the glorious greys! Like all my new loves/obsessions, I rabidly and rapidly collect and compile, and then hesitate to use. I think it's crafter's performance anxiety. So silly!

The yummy wide, striped ribbon is from Stampin' Up, and the image is from the Ippity set "Sing A New Song". I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, accented it with Copics (W00, W0, W3, W5, W7 and W9), trimmed it out and popped it up on foam tape.



I'm entering this into the CAS-aul Friday Challenge #40, which calls for us to use ribbon.

And the Ippity Linking Party and the Ippity Challenge to go CAS!

Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more in my Going Grey... series (with a return to the grey + yellow combo) and some long overdue BLOG CANDY!

(((Hugs))) & Blessings!

Always Thankful for Fall

I. Love. Fall.

LOVE IT!

So when I was browsing blogland several weeks ago, and saw Sav's gorgeous card, I remembered that I had yummy Pyrus papers & embellies (that I scored a sweet deal on) that were crying to be used, and I knew I had to hop to! Here's the first one (oh yes, there are more autumn Pyrus cards to come).
A very sweet friend at church gave Mom & me some delish pumpkin bread - seriously the best I've ever tasted - and also was kind enough to think of me when someone offered her a Pecan Pie recipe. MJ knew that I was a bit nervous about my assignment to make Pecan Pie for our church Thanksgiving meal, and she wrote me such a sweet note and mailed it to me with a copy of the recipe. I don't know about you, but I rarely get snail mail cards/letters, and it just made my day to see that little envie among the catalogs and junk mail. Well, I must confess I've been remiss about getting a Thank You note out to MJ. So it's a couple weeks late, but I really wanted to make the card for her. Heartfelt and homemade deserves the same in kind, don't ya think? I do!
I used the aforementioned Pyrus papers, a long neglected Bubble Gum Tree stamp from Unity, dark kraft cardstock, Distress Inks, a brown Spica pen (which isn't showing its sparkle in this photo), a Hero Arts Sparkle Clear 2x3 sentiment set ("Thanks" is stamped inside), and lots of foam tape. If you look at the biggest bubble on the tree, you'll also see a little chipboard heart from the Pyrus Chip Sticker Shapes. The ribbon is by May Arts.

And here's my Autumn cross stitch, as promised (just please pardon the glare). The Winter one is still waiting to go to the framers, and I've missed my goal of having it up before the first snow (we got a taste of winter late last week...but being Ohio, of course the next day it was 20 degrees warmer. LOL!).
Blessings & love to all.

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Another Belated Birthday Card

Okay, first off: How is it November already??? And how is it that it's been over 30 days since my last post??? Granted, busy season was in there somewhere. Along with its long hours and weekend work. No wonder now that things are back to normal in the office, I find myself obsessively thinking about cardmaking & scrapping. I did manage to keep my crafty muscles in shape (and BTW, those are seriously the only muscles that have gotten a work out lately - yikes!) by restarting and finishing a cross-stitch project (which I will share as soon as I get it framed), and restarting the next in the series (2 down, 2 to go..and are you picking up on the trend of not finishing things when I start them? Yeah, not good.). I think that between that crafty outlet and church (which is such a good anchor), I got through this busy season much more graciously than years past, since historically the equation has been: Stress + Lack of Sleep = Crankiness
But this time around was different/better, and it just goes to show (again) what the Holy Spirit can accomplish when you get out of the way. :) Really, when you start out trusting & obeying the Lord, then you just know everything is going to be okay, no matter what challenges/temptations/obstacles you face. So then, what's to worry about? Or get bent out of shape over? Not a thing. So awesome!

But back to the card... This is for a gal at church whose b-day was mid-October. *hanging head* I just kept forgetting to make the card! Had it in my head. Kept telling myself (always away from my craft area & supplies) that I needed to do it. But... Does this happen to you??? It happens to me too often.

One of my happy-little-mental-vacation-if-I-can't-craft-I'll-buy-things-to-craft-with-shopping-sprees was at Two Peas when they had all of their 6x6 paper pads on sale. I bought my 1st three Jillibean Soups, along with two 12x12 die-cut sheets. And I got over my "but I only have one of these" hoarding habits and went for it. The cupcake image is from The Greeting Farm's "Susie Surprise" set (retired) and I colored with Copics and added a bit of glitz to the candle with a touch of Stickles on the flame. The pattern paper & die-cuts are from the "Sweet & Sour Soup" collection.
I just loved the sentiment around the circle: Make every moment count. Very wise words.

Since I'm all about getting back in the swing of things/stepping it up a notch (just a tiny notch), I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Ribbon Carousel Challenge RCC27 "Anything Goes"

CAS-ual Fridays CFC 26

Thanks for visiting and have a very blessed day! I'll be back in a couple days to share that 1st finished cross-stitch I completed many, many moons ago...and a seasonal card. (((HUGS)))

Going for Broke: Crafting on a Budget, CAS & Welcoming Baby

Good grief! I have just gone through a painful review of my spending, and the craft craziness has got to be contained! Not to mention, my stash has taken over. There is so much to dig through that an excavation is required to find what I'm looking for. And forget getting it all put back away. *sigh* I was able to donate a box of goodies to charity and give another to a friend, but that barely made a dent.

Sooooo, I've resolved (I mean it this time!) to use more of my stash and keep my spending in check. Praise the Lord for free digital images! (And for the CDAC Digi Club! I signed up for the whole year, and it works out to less than $1 per digi. Woohoo!)

This card was made with a free image from Mami Doodles called "Baby In Pram" which was offered on Crafters Digital Art Center in April. My church's Assistant Pastor & his wife just welcomed their 4th son, and this is the card I made & gave to welcome baby Samuel.


Not that I've ever been one who could sucessfully pile on the embellies, but I am trying to explore the Clean & Simple (CAS) style more. (Still mustering up the courage to try a one-layer card.) So granted there isn't a ton going on on this card, but everything I used came from my stash. I'm especially proud about the alpha stickers, which have been waiting for over 5 years to be used.

Thanks for stopping by & taking a look today. I'll be back soon(ish) with cards for Father's Day and a bridal shower. ((((HUGS)))) & Blessings!