Beach Days Notes

Don't you just love these papers from The Beach House (found at Hobby Lobby -The Paper Studio)? I bought these in June while my friend Cec Wintonyk was visiting.

I showed Cec how I had created note pad covers in the past and fabulous

mind that she is --- she came up with the idea and measurements

for an inside pocket so that the pads could be replaced when

empty. Love this!!!!

You can find the one she created here , such a beautiful vintage

beauty which she gifted to me, surprise! 

I stamped shells on a piece of the design paper and the sentiment using a GinaKDesigns set.

The beautiful background piece was straight from the pad.

The crackle finish was made using Wendy Vechi crackle
texture paste, so pretty!
I also covered the top of the note pad with
another piece of the design paper.

Here is the inside pocket- layered with design paper
stamped with a border of shells and an added
punched shell.

Thanks so much for stopping by - I hope you have a wonderful week.

hugs......

"Merry Deer"- Home Decor

Are you like me and love looking for things that you can alter or use in your crafting?

I found this frame at one of my local consignment stores for only 75 cents....what a find!

I knew as soon as I saw this that it would work beautifully with the set released in November at Doodle Pantry called Merry Deer . Laurie has released this month a SVG cut file Holiday Deer which works with the Merry Deer set as well as an older set Holly Stag .

I had printed my images last month before the release of the new SVG , so I had to trace the beautiful deer making an offset and cutting it with my Silhouette, but so happy to now have the file!

This now has a place in my den----now it is your turn. 

Keep an eye out for those treasures or use some that you have stashed.

I am entering this at:

  Anything But a Card - With a Holiday Twist 

Dream Valley Challenges Challenge #71 Anything But a Card 

Glitter n Sparkle Challenge 62 Show us Some Blue 

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge Blog Challenge #6 Re-cycle  

Some Fall Decor....

Hello all, I know it has been a while since I have posted or visited with some of you in blogland, hope you all are having a great start to the Autumn season. It is my favorite season of all, as the colors, low humidity and great temps just suit me. It is also a time when I have lots of gatherings with friends and family and I do so look forward to that.

Rick and I have been super busy working on projects around the house and my crafting time has had to take a back seat to those for the time being but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, so hopefully I will be posting more soon.

This is a 4 x 6 frame that was originally bright brass but as I have grown fond of using the oil rubbed bronze spray paint ( better not stand still too long, lol) and while freshening up some old brass lamps for my newly painted rooms I sprayed this little fella that I picked up at the local consignment shop.

All of my images are from the Silhouette online store. The Autumn subway art is from Kolette Hall,  the fall flourish is by Loni Harris and my leaves are cut from a file by Lori Whitlock. 

I ungrouped the subway art and colored them in fall shades as well as the fall border. I also did an offset of the border to create a background which I colored in a lighter shade.

The leaves were cut from some retired Stampin' Up double sided dsp. I used pop and glue dots to affix them to the frame and hemp twine, adding a few gems in lovely shades of brown and gold.

I love looking for items to re purpose while out shopping, don't you?

I am entering this at the Weekly Shape Challenge at the Silhouette blog, be sure and stop by, great tutorials and info on using your Cameo. This week's challenge was to use words or phrases in a new project. 

Thanks for stopping by.....

Stamp It

Hello my friends, so happy you could stop by this morning to see what I am up to. I know that I haven't been posting as much and I am sure you can agree with me that there just seems to be not as many hours in the days lately...

Today I am showing you another of my tablets that I created using a plain lined notepad that I purchased at Walmart in a set and simply decorated around. This week at Sugar Creek Hollow we are going old school....you must stamp your card or project, no digitals ---just good old rubber or clear stamps!

And don't forget vintage or shabby chic style.

I used one of my favorite stamp sets by Stampin' Up "Elements of Style" along with the new poetry paper pack that I just purchased from them as well. I colored the flowers to go along with my paper using Spectrum Noir markers adding a bit of blue glitter to some of the centers. My binding was made using a piece of Kraft paper stamped with the flourish from the same set. I used designer dies from Clear Dollar Stamps for my sentiment with a sentiment and flower that I stamped from the same main image.

I hope this inspires you to get out some of your neglected stamps and give it a go......

Be sure and check out what my teammates at SCH have created to inspire you this week and take a look at the details of our challenge and then get your project in for a chance to win!

I would like to take the time to tell you that my dear friend Linda Payne is stepping down at SCH, girl we will miss your beautiful style and sweet encouragement! Her life is taking a hectic turn at the moment and she must devote herself to work and family. We wish you only the best and hope to work with you again in the near future. Love you gal....

I am off for some outdoors time with Rick today, hope you have a wonderful weekend planned as well.

Happy Day.....

An Altered State

It's the first Saturday of Spring and we have a forecast of a wintry mix for tomorrow....oh my! But today is sunny and warm so I will enjoy that. Welcome to this week at Sugar Creek Hollow where we want you to alter something in a vintage/shabby style.

I found this frame at a  local thrift store for a dollar and decided to see what I could create. I used some paint to cover the unfinished wood part before stamping and distressing. My panel was created in the My Digital Studio software using various elements. I love the script background paper and the way using drop shadows makes the elements appear to be on different levels. I added a couple of real brads, lace, a key and pin.

The blues and browns are the colors that I used in our guest room so this works perfectly as an added

piece of decor. The blue gloves are my late Mother in laws and the lace runner was crocheted by Rick's great grandmother.

Here is a peek at my room.

Hope you can stop by at Sugar Creek Hollow and join us this week for this fun challenge.

This week we are joined by our Guest Designer Sandra Mathis whose blog is Sandy's Stamping Scene . Be sure to check out her lovely card and stop by for a peek at her beautiful work. 

Happy Weekend!

"Lovely Lace" and Sugar Creek Hollow

Hope you are having a wonderful start to your weekend and welcome to the "Lovely Lace" challenge this week at Sugar Creek Hollow where our theme asks you to use lace, either fabric or crochet and of course in a vintage/shabby chic style.

I was looking at one of Heather Hudson's (my teammate) videos on her YouTube channel where she

created a paper bag journal and it inspired me to create a paper pad notebook that I had been 

thinking of trying for a while. You will want to check out her channel as she has lots of great tips

in her videos.

I used Stampin' Up card stock to form my base, measuring it to fit my pad with a 3/8" score for my edge. K and Co. creates some of my favorite papers which I used on this along with river rock card stock as one of my labels layers and 3D die cuts also by K and Co.

My fabric lace is from a vintage (or is 1980 not vintage age yet??? sure feels like it) wedding

dress and veil which I cut the lace and tulle from to create my flower and trim.

I have several pictures showing the stamps I also added to the front and the 

gorgeous glassine bag I used on the inside for notes, receipts or other treasures.

I hope you will stop by at SCH and take a look at all of the lacy goodness by my sweet

teammates and get your card entered for a chance at a digital image by Cec or a chance to

be a guest designer. We would love to see your work.

I am entering this in the following challenges:

Stampin For the Weekend Use Lace

  Sparkles Lace it Up 

Oozak Anything Goes with Spring

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a fabulous day....

Card Details:

Paper: Stampin' Up, KandCo. McKenna

Ink: Versafine vintage sepia, Memento rhubarb stalk, vintage photo

Other: KandCo. diecuts, vintage lace, Spellbinders Labels 4, PTI buttons, 

Teresa Collins stamps, Digital tags internet freebie, doily

Something else for Justrite

I have a dear friend that did me a great favor so in repayment for her kindness I created this prayer journal for her which I designed using the sketch at Justrite that I used for my card earlier this week. The challenge runs through tomorrow 6:00 central time so give it a try if you have some time and Justrite stamps.

They have some great prizes up for grabs.

My journal was a find ages ago and taking a cue from the beautiful colorful flowers I used

the sets "Kalidoscope" and "Stitched with Love" along with matching card stock from my 

scrap stash. The berry red is textured and I added texture to the golden paper with an embossing folder.

A punched border, ric rac and some buttons across the top and my layered sentiment and heart which 

I colored with the Spectrum Noir markers and it was finished.

I love how this turned out and she seemed very pleased. She has a wonderful giving spirit 

and I knew she would put this prayer journal to good use.

Love my Justrite stamps, would love to have some more!

Let's Celebrate!!

Welcome, so glad to see you this morning!

This week at Sugar Creek Hollow we are starting our challenges back
and we hope you are ready to join us!
This week's theme is celebrating something new, such as a
new job, home, love, baby or in my case a new year.

I created an easel style calendar and note holder for 2013.

I have been playing a bit with my new programs that I purchased

during Black Friday sales. I finally got my Silhouette Cameo 

machine that I had been talking about for months and months and during

the half off deal at Stampin' Up I decided to also buy the 

My Digital Studio program as well.

I must say that I love both of them and can't wait to learn 

much more about them both!

The calendar is from MDS and the scalloped background is from

Silhouette, I did an internal offset and created the next pink layer.

I took several pictures and will post those below. Love the floral lace and satin

ribbon which I added ribbon roses and buds to.

Even the back looks pretty!

Hope you have something wonderful to celebrate and will

join our team in our first challenge for 2013!

I am entering my calendar into the following challenges:

  Link up for Pink theme- A dash of pink

  In the Pink theme- pink and pearlie 

  Cute Card Thursday theme- inspired by New ( my new toys and the new year)

  Simon Says Stamp theme- New Use something new or to celebrate something new 

  Crafty Creations theme= Anything Goes

  Really Reasonable Ribbon theme- New toys and ribbon.

Project Details:

Paper: Stampin' Up textured, chocolate chip, PTI vintage ivory, My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Madison Ave

Stamps: SU Simply Soft, Send a Celebration, Define Life, Kasiercraft velvet ensemble

Silhouette scalloped label

Other: Offray ribbon flowers, Dollar Tree satin ribbon, factory outlet lace, Want2Scrap pearls, stardust pen,

Spellbinders Labels 4, Making Memories brads

#32 Give Thanks....

This week at Sugar Creek Hollow for our #32 challenge we are Giving Thanks for Autumn!

Your shabby chic/vintage themed card or project needs to use Autumn colors and if you so desire, it can be a Thanksgiving one. I decided to use both for my card and altered canister.

I love all...well, most of my creations, but once in a great while one comes along that I just love beyond reason and this is one of those. 

I am such a huge fan of Autumn and the rich, beautiful colors associated 

with this season that I think this challenge just called to me.

I will warn you that I took several pictures!

These papers from Prima's Reflections pad are so beautiful.  

I added some additional stamping with a retired Stampin' Up set Country Blessings and flourishes from a Studio 112 set with distress inks in Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain. 

After cutting a window in the design paper, I took another piece of the rust textured card stock that I used as my card base and cut a scalloped oval to place behind my opening. The sentiment was stamped in Walnut Stain on the original piece cut out of the design paper. I layered these and used foam dots to make my frame. The leaves were cut with a Martha Stewart punch and Spellbinders dies. Love the way they look out of that book print paper from the pad. 

While making this card the other day and enjoying the cool Fall air, I happened to use the 

last of a canister of cocoa......so my thoughts turned to altering it.

I used some of the same papers from Prima to cover the can and decorate the top.

I plan to use this as decoration in my own home.

Hope you have enjoyed my Autumn projects and it has inspired you to join 

us this week at Sugar Creek Hollow.

We would love to see you and your cards.

I am entering these into the following challenges:

  All about the Vintage shades of brown challenge 

Dutch Dare Card Challenges Fall is in the Air sponsored by Bugaboo

  DRS Designs Fall Leaves challenge 

4 Crafty Chicks Thanksgiving Challenge #110 

 Thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:

Paper: Bazzill  card stock, Prima Reflections and Basic Grey basics manilla

Ink: Distress Ink Rusty Hinge, Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain

Stamps: Stampin' Up Country Blessings

Other: Want2Scrap gems, factory outlet lace, Martha Stewart oak leaf punch, Spellbinders Orchard Harvest dies, Walmart pearl head pin, Spellbinders oval and scalloped oval dies, recycled cocoa cann

It's a Surprise Mini Release....

How about a sweet surprise on a Thursday? 

Laurie at Doodle Pantry decided to surprise us all with 5 new items released in the middle of the month. I had the pleasure of creating this cute gift bag using the new set Watering Can which is free with purchase for a limited time.  I added some buttercups which you can find in the set Buttercups  which has outline and color images. 

Isn't it adorable? I used the outline image which I colored with my spectrum noir pens. Adding just a few strips of ribbon and a few micro beads to the centers and I have a bag for a special someone.

Be sure and check out the new releases by stopping by the new release page at Doodle Pantry.  

Your surprise starts now........

Sharing a Gift....

Hi gang, just a quick post to share with you something that I created a couple of weeks ago for a friend of mine. She is always doing something good for me and I wanted to show her my appreciation. This is an easel calendar/notepad that I created using the wonderful calendar months that I picked up in a blog hop with the talented gals from Create with TLC . Paulette at TLC is always so generous with her art and creations and when we hopped we were able to see the wonderful inspiration from each of the design team and receive these beautiful digital stamps for each month. I have two of my dear friends on Paulette's team, Marsha at Stamping Down South and Carla at Carla's Stamping Spot . If you are not familiar with these ladies, please go by and say hello.

Here is another month:

For my base, I used a piece of GKD's chocolate cut at 6 by 11 and then I scored at 2 3/4 and 5 1/2 to create my easel part. I then cut a piece of textured plum Bazzil card stock for my easel front, mounting a piece of My Mind's Eye design paper which I had stamped with some flourishes from Inkadinkado. I loved that the design paper already had such a wonderful sentiment attached to it "You look lovely today". A satin bow and heart charm and the front was ready for each month. Each stamp is slightly different in size, so when putting them into word (where I was able to get 6 on each sheet of card stock) I made sure to size each of them the same width so that they would be consistent, even if the height was slightly different. I then cut them with the scalloped rectangle die and used pop dots to mount them onto another piece of the plum card stock.

I used my markers, distress inks, gems and stardust pen to color each of these. It was so much fun making this. I also stamped the same flourish onto a bag and then packaged all of the remaining months into it for her to keep them together until needed. The silver clip is easily changed as the first of each month comes around.

PS, I saw on Carla and Marsha's blogs that TLC will be having another blog hop on the 18th of this month, you don't want to miss it , as I am positive there will be lots more goodies to go around. Stop by TLC if you haven't lately.
Thanks for the visit.....now off  to watch the Super Bowl.
hugs....

Happy New Year and welcome to our first challenge of 2012 at Sugar Creek Hollow. This week we want you to save some trees and RE-PURPOSE PAPER TOWELS, TOILET PAPER OR COFFEE FILTERS. Instead of buying some designer paper for your project, go to your kitchen or bathroom and grab one of the above items and let's see how you can transform it and incorporate it into your vintage, shabby chic or primitive card or other paper-crafted project.

This week one random winner will receive a digi of our choice and a winner's badge to display. In addition, the Design Team will choose one project as Card of the Week and the creator will receive a badge and will be in the running for a Guest Designer spot.


I created two projects for this week, I used coffee filters that I soaked all day in some left over coffee and after squeezing out the extra, smoothed out and left to dry. Rick's words when seeing the bowl "I will have to see that mess on a card"! I die cut several circle shapes from one of the two filters and then stamped randomly with a Hero Arts text stamp using Versafine Vintage Sepia ink. I used part of a rumpled torn piece as my background over pieces of design paper from a vintage kit by Deja Views. My card base is chocolate brown Gina K card stock which is so heavy and lovely to use. I used a frame from the same kit to layer on a piece cut with a Spellbinders Labels 4. I had stamped a flourish image from Stampin' Up "Elements of Style". The circle shapes were also stamped with the text and then scrunched and layered to create my flowers which I attached with Stampin' Up brads. For my inside I used some of the same design paper stamped with more of the flourish and a Thanks sentiment. I really like how the texture of the paper gave the image a washed vintage look.

For my next project, I wanted to create a Gratitude journal. Seems as if I have been a bit of a bear lately and thought if I counted the small things to be grateful for each day, maybe it would help me and my attitude. Don't get me wrong, I am so blessed and grateful for my life, home and family, but sometimes care giving just kind of overwhelms me. I just need a kick in the pants, maybe.....lol.
But surely writing in this book should help, I love the look of it. It is just a 100 page notebook that I picked up long ago at Michael's in the dollar bin and the background flourishes were already there. I added layered Labels 4 dies stamping the ivory one with images by Stampin' Up in their set "Happy Harmony" (how appropriate). The chipboard pieces I antiqued with distress inks....see my monogram P! The flower is more of my text stamped coffee filter.

For the inside I used all of the stamps from this set, stamping randomly throughout the book. I am going to love writing in this, maybe my first entry should be " I am grateful for such a pretty book to write in". Here is a look at the front and back inside covers.

Our new Design Team is in place and everyone has worked hard to create some inspiration for you. I am so happy to have the new ladies starting today and look forward to the months ahead. Welcome!!!If you want details on how they re-purposed the various items, click on their names to go directly to their blogs.

Now off you go to Sugar Creek Hollow and have fun looking around. We can't wait to see what you come up with. Thanks for stopping by....hugs and wishes for a great day!