50th birthday SURPRISE for my aunt :)

Hi there! After Collin's birthday dinner last night, my Mom took the boys to spend the night at her house. I gotta say, my Mom has been SO generous with babysitting help since she retired, thank you Mom! :) So, Hubby and I were able to attend a 50th birthday SURPRISE party for my aunt that was later in the evening. :) I am so bummed to tell you I **FORGOT** this card & the little gift I had bought for her. She lives in a different state and just happened to be visiting, so my cousin threw her a surprise party. So, I guess I will be getting a package in the mail this week. I just hate it when I do dingy things like that! 

Here is the card I made for her! I used some pretty K&Company papers on this, I love this collection, it's called Sweet Nectar. I used the coordinating mat stack to cut out the "50" on my Cricut. I used an old stamping system I have where the stamps are magnetic, and there's a metal block you can arrange the stamps on to make a word. That is how I stamped the "& fabulous!" part on the card. Those are fun stamps, I used to use them A LOT when I was a beginning stamper and didn't have very many sentiment stamps. But it still comes in useful from time to time! :) 

I used an edger punch on the top of the DP where I did my stamping. I made a bow around the card with some seam binding I ordered awhile back from SU!. I added a mini library clip, a resin flower, and a pretty paper red and white dotted rose for embellishments. All in all, I thought it was a fresh, pretty card. I hope my aunt likes it! :) 

Well, that's it for me today, gotta go clean my house so 10 boys can come destroy it for Collin's party this weekend! LOL, life of a Mom! :)

hugs, Noelle

supply  list: papers: K&Company; paper & resin flowers: Prima; All Mixed Up Cricut cartridge; seam binding, library clip, solid cardstock & gray inkpad: Stampin' Up!; mini letter magnetic stamps: making memories; punch: EK Success

DUST IT OFF!: That magnetic stamp set is really old, I'd say 8-10 years at least! Still works great! :)

Happy 9th Birthday, Collin! :)

Hi there! happy 11/11/11! today is actually my middle son's birthday, Collin is NINE today, I can hardly believe he has gotten so big! Curse of a mother, I guess... This is a pretty cool day to have a birthday, actually. I told him that unless he lives to be 109, he will never have an 11/11/11 birthday again. Here's his card, I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and it doesn't have the 85 zillion layers that many of my cards do. Ha! ;) Here's my boy a couple weeks ago & as a little one! 

Ok, now I've had my little walk down Memory Lane, we can get back to the crafty goodness that is this card. ;) I'm so happy with it, because it IS a really cool boy card & works well for an older boy, too, but it really is still bright and fun, I think. :)

I started out with an already cut and scored white card that I'd had from before. I masked off the top and bottom scored sections with painters tape and stamped the video game controllers in each section. I decided to use some DP in the center section, and die cut some pieces for the sentiment. After the sentiment and DP were on, I wrapped some ribbon around the top and bottom of the middle section, and I really liked the dimension that added to the card. The final touches were some punched stars with a button and a "9" metal tab on top of the sentiment. 

All the stamps are from the PTI set Game On. You might remember that I made the invitations for Collin's party a couple weeks ago with the same set. :)

Well, I hope you like this card... I am very happy this is our last kid birthday of the year. By mid-November, I'm always a little "birthdayed" out since my boys' birthdays all fall in a 7 week period. Have a great one! We are doing some party stuff this weekend, should be fun! :)

hugs! Noelle

supply list: stamps & dies: Papertrey Ink; punches: EK Success; ink & solid cardstock: Stampin' Up!; ribbon: Stampin' Up! and Hobby Lobby; patterned papers: My Mind's Eye (lime twist collection); metal "9" tab: Tim Holtz

DUST IT OFF!: Oh, my star punches, I've had them for years & they are so wonderfully versatile! Gotta love that! :)

Plaid Ian

Hey there, Hope you are doing well. This is a funny little card I made last night with my new stamp. I am not sure how I feel about it.... I was in a really weird mood when I sat down to craft yesterday afternoon.... I think it came out in the card! My Dad was in a heart surgery, and I was somewhat anxious at the time. VERY glad to tell you he is recovering nicely. :) 

 I started out by scoring a white card at 1" and 2 1/2" to divide the card into 3 sections. My thought was to do some simple stamping on the top, and bottom sections, and then add a strip of this plaid paper in the center section. After I made the card, the plaid paper was just too busy, so I pulled it off & added the red paper instead. Well, I did my stamping, and then thought I should color the stamped plaid pattern. After I colored the stamped plaid pattern, I realized it was really really wrong! Way too bright, too many colors... Oy. What a mess. So, I decided to mask it off with some scrap paper and painters tape & spray it with dark brown Smooch Spritz. this REALLY helped a lot, and is one aspect of the card I like alot, as the bottom panel is only the one layer, I really like the depth that spray gave my screwed up coloring and stamping! Ha!

 I stamped my little Ian (like my son!) stamp on some white cardstock & colored him with Copics. I cut him out & added a little brown flock to the center of the sunflower, and the button on his hat.

I used some PTI dies to cut out a base to put little Ian on. I stamped the sentiment on top of the green polka dots I'd stamped on the top section of the card. I tied the ribbon around the card, and there's a funky little card for you. Not my fave card ever, but he will do. Hope you are having a great week!

hugs, Noelle

supply list: stamps: The Greeting farm, Martha Stewart Crafts, and Lil' Inker; Log Cabin Smooch Spritz; corner rounder punch: EK Success; dies: Papertrey Ink; markers: copic, Stampin' Up, Inkadinkado, Zig; ribbon: Hobby Lobby; patterned paper: BasicGrey

Giddyup (CQC110)

Hi there folks! Here's my layout for this week's colourQ challenge 110! Great Fall colors here, I think, and I love that pop of blue! 

I gotta admit, this spread turned into an exercise in frustration! First, I couldn't find photos that would work with these colors. Then I couldn't find a good sketch. Then I didn't have enough of one of the papers, then my Cricut and the SCAL software were really mad at each other. Cutting that title took me over an hour! But all in all, I love the end result, so I'm glad that I kept at it! 

As I mentioned, there was no sketch to begin with, I knew I wanted to make the layered star embellishments you see in the corners with circle and star punches, I felt like that would give the page a very western feel. I cut the title out on my Cricut, using SCAL software and a font called "Wildrodeo" on an old SU! DSP.  I stamped the Pool Party bg papers with an old SU! stamp and the Dusty Durango ink. I cut two frames from that rusty "Durango" shade and I wanted to make thicker frames of the Suede color to peek out from inside the frame, but I only had one piece of that brown paper in the right color, so I cut it into strips instead and just adhered the strips to the back of my frame so they peeked through. Same look with one sheet of paper, gotta love that! 

For the title strip, I took a woodgrain printed paper and I punched a white strip with a border punch. I cut a peach piece with the Top Note die and stamped Collin's name on it. I made it so the die cut piece was peeking out from between the 2 layers of the title strip. To finish it off I added a cool oversized brad that happened to be the right color, yea! 

On the second page, I die cut some lined cardstock for my journaling. And I added a few horse stickers and horseshoe stickers to finish the page. 

It's funny in a way that this page goes up today. My Dad and his wife gave Collin these lessons as a gift. My dad is having a 9 hour heart surgery today, and so I am thinking of him more than normal. I am trying to give my worry to Jesus. I hope you all have peace in your hearts today.  

xoxoxoxox, Noelle

supply list: stamps/ink/die: Stampin' Up!; punches: EK Success and EK for SU!; mini letter stamps: Image Tree; patterned papers: SU! and American Crafts; stickers: Paper House Productions and Jolee's; lined cardstock: Creative Memories; large tin horse brad: Karen Foster

Joyful Deer (Jingle Belles, Paper Players)

Hi there! Hope your weekend was great! :) I had an extra hour of sleep Saturday night, so that made me a very happy girl. :) I decided to get my craft on Sunday afternoon & got my pages done for colourQ (you'll get to see them tomorrow!) and finally a challenge card done? Yep, it's true :) I am for the first time ever playing over at The Paper Players, and also at one of my **fave** challenges Jingle Belles with this card. I also got to use some fun, NEW goodies on it! Check it....

Now, sweet Anne Marie is the host at Paper Players for this challenge. Anne Marie is a follower of **this** humble little blog, and I have to admit, I am very flattered she is a follower, because I love her work! :)

Here's the "recipe card" for this week's challenge at PP. Cool huh? Now the challenge at Jingle Belles is a challenge to use something CLEAR, so my patterned acetate card front is (and this being a Christmas card!) are the qualifying factors over there. It seemed like the 2 challenges would mesh well. I have to admit, I'm really not a big fan of when people play 17 challenges with one card. I hope I'm not offending anyone by saying that, but it seems that often the card doesn't "fit" ALL the challenges it's linked to, in that case. I'm a one, or like today, maximum of 2 challenges per project kind of girl. I'll only mix challenges if I feel I can blend them without "watering down" one of the challenges.

I was at a crafts show with my Mom this weekend! Super fun, I love craft shows! Though I don't mind telling you, this one was CRAZY packed, I have rarely seen those kinds of crowds, whoa! At the craft show, there was a booth for The Greeting Farm stamps! One of the "characters" of their stamps is Ian. Well, my son is named Ian, so I had often thought of picking up a couple "Ians" for my stamp collection! But I never had, until this weekend! I got Hello Ian and the stamp you see here is from Forest Friends. Don't be surprised if you see more of these cute stamps join my collection, either! Especially since they gave me a coupon at the craft show. ;) And I had no idea this company is really close to home for me, they are located in Parker, CO! Isn't this little deer precious? :)

Ok, well for layout, I was stumped, I had to include 3 patterned papers, two ribbons, a punch (I actually used 2 punches!), acetate, glitter, and I wanted to use my new stamps, WHEW! However was I going to fit all that on one little card? Well, I found this OLD Mojo sketch that looked like it would work, I didn't follow it EXACTLY, but this was my jumping-off point.

I started out by making my card base. I cut a 2 sided patterned paper to 4 1/4" by 12", and my acetate to 4 1/4" by 6." I used the same border punch on the end of both pieces. Then I trimmed the acetate so the total length was 5 1/2." I scored my DP right below the punched area and measured 5 1/2" from the scored line & cut. Added a little adhesive to the top of the acetate piece and I slipped that underneath the scored flap that now was coming down the front to create that front flap you see on the card.

I then moved on to my dear little deer. I stamped her on white cardstock and colored her with Copics. When I was done with my shading, I used my colorless blender pen to dot some ink along her back and the top of her head, I was trying to make white dots like deer often have along the top of them. It gave a cool look, but not as white as I wanted, so I added a few more white dots with a chalk marker. I fussy cut her out and adhered her to a patterned paper panel. I gave her a jingle bell brad for a collar, because I wanted her to look like a baby Santa's reindeer.

For that blue panel with the sentiment, I cut an Island Indigo scrap to size. I stamped some little snowflakes on it using VersaMark ink, and then I stamped the "joy" sentiment over that using the black Memento ink again. I added a rhinestone flower sticker to the "o" in "joy." After all that was adhered, I adhered a brown grosgrain ribbon around the bottom of the card, and then a light blue thinner ribbon on top of the brown one. The final touch was a very glittery snowflake 3D sticker backed with a punched piece and popped up with a foam dot.

So, I think I got all the recipe pieces, though if you count the patterned acetate, the punched piece behind the snowflake, the piece the deer is on, and the front and back pieces of my card base, I think I have **five** DPs? Hope that is not TOO many! I do think this card ended up a wee bit busier than I would have liked, but I'm leaving it as-is. You know how much I like patterned paper! I also used 2 punches, and I hope the glitter on the snowflake qualifies as a sprinkle since it's not loose glitter.

I hope you like it! Have a fabulous day & I will see you back here tomorrow morning with another colourQ challenge! :)

hugs, Noelle

supply list: stamps: The Greeting Farm & Inkadinkado; DPs: Little Yellow Bicycle; markers: Copic; punches: EK Success; snowflake sticker: Jolee's Parcel; ribbon: The Ribbon Boutique (Hobby Lobby) & Stampin' Up!; snowflake acetate: Hambly Screen prints; solid cardstock in Soft Suede & Island Indigo: SU!; ink: Memento Black and VersaMark

DUST IT OFF!: Uh, that snowflake sticker is from last year, but that's about it... my scrapbook pages for tomorrow have some more fun, older product on them, though! :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas! (MFTWSC44)

Hi there, friends! Hope you are all doing well, today. :) We woke up to this scene this morning, which resulted in a SNOW DAY for the boys! They have been having so much fun playing outside in the snow, putting up our few Thanksgiving decorations, and I think later on we will bake a little something! :)

While they were occupied outside, I started on this card that had been swirling around in my brain for awhile.... Last weekend, I didn't have my class at church, but the boys did have Sunday School, so, while I had an hour to burn, I went to Barnes & Noble for a soy latte and a look around, I happened upon these **fabulous** vintage look Christmas tags, at 20% off! :)

Here's what the tags look like, so pretty, all glittery and vintagey....

So, I had been thinking on this, even looked around at sketches, but nothing was floating my boat... then today, it's all wintery here, and I spied this new sketch at My Favorite Things! Oh, so perfect for these new tags! :)

I ended up making a 5" square card, but in retrospect would have preferred a 6"instead. I needed a bit more "square footage" than I ended up with! Here's my card:

Everything was going along swimmingly, and I was thinking I'd have room for a sentiment stamp in the lower LH corner of the card. I was also under the mistaken impression at the time, that this was a Mojo sketch, and so I would need a Verve stamp. Uh, wake up, Noelle! MFT! Then I started to panic a wee bit because the only MFT Christmas set I have is the one I used to make this card last year (no longer available). So, what's a girl to do? You want to include some product from the challenge site, but are out of room and don't have the right stamps? Well, here's what I did, I inked up the word "Christmas!"on one of the sentiment stamps & then I stamped it on a teeny tag, I attached it to the vintage tag with a pearl brad, which actually helped hide the hole in the big tag anyway, and I managed to squeeze in a little MFT, anyway! :)

The DPs I used are new (and the tag), but everything else on this card is from last year or older. In fact, that mini tag is really old! 

Well, I hope you like my card! Enjoy your day, whether it be snowy like mine, or a bit on the warmer side! :)

Have a stellar day! 

hugs, Noelle

supply list: decorative tag: Cavallini and Co.; mini tag: Stampin' Up!; stamp: MFT; Patterned papers: Authentique; embossing folder: Cuttlebug; oval cutter: Creative Memories; glitter photo corner and decorative tape: Martha Stewart Crafts; border sticker: K&Company; pearl brad: The Paper Studio; glitzy snowflake brad: Karen Foster; solid cardstock in Real Red & Garden Green, dye inkpad in Real Red: SU!

DUST IT OFF!: Lots of oldies but goodies on this card, including that mini tag, which is probably close to 10 years old! :)

Gratitude (CQC109)

Hi all! I am in **LOVE** with these gorgeous rich tones for colourQ this week! Don't you love them, too? Here is my card, which I had so MUCH FUN making! :) I really felt like my Mojo came to visit for this card!! :)

Here's the fabulously RICH palette for this week:

I love this Island Indigo shade and haven't used it much... The layout of the card came from last week's sketch at The Paper Players. I'm **embarrassed** to admit that I didn't follow that blog before.... and then there were some FABULOUS cards in the colourQ Gallery last week, all that used this awesome sketch. Check it!:

So, that was the jumping off point for this card. I loved that banner trailing down the side, so I had to make one :) 

I started off with the dry-embossed background in the houndstooth pattern. I used the Cherry Cobbler red for that main panel, and then I brayered and sponged the Soft Suede ink over the top. I matted that piece with a Soft Suede mat, and mounted both pieces onto a Island Indigo card base. For that strip with the sentiment, I heat embossed that "gratitude" stamp in white EP on an Island Indigo strip, and matted in with a Pumpkin Pie strip. Both pieces were distressed with one of those razor distresser thingys. 

Then I started on my banner. I cut a white strip to size, and then stamped it in the challenge colors with these stamps, which I often go-to for background stamping like this. When I was going through the box that holds my dies and embossing folders, looking for the houndstooth folder, I had spied this tree die which I hadn't used in ages and is just so very cute! :) So I decided I would layer the tree on top of the banner, and use buttons for the "leaves." 

I pulled buttons from all different containers and jars looking for just the right combo of colors and sizes/shapes. I didn't have any buttons in the Island Indigo color, so I used some clear buttons I have that have coordinating punches so you can back the buttons with paper or cardstock. I used glue dots to stick down my buttons after playing with the arrangement of them a bit. The final touch was two clear heart-shaped buttons under the sentiment that I stitched into place with orange baker's twine. Believe me, it was no easy feat stitching through 5 layers of cardstock! Even though I pierced the holes first, there's just no making 5 layers of cardstock and glue dots an easy match for a needle and twine! LOL! 

Well, that is all for me today! I hope you will come play these luscious colors over at colourQ this week! I'd love to see what you come up with! :)

hugs! Noelle

supply list: stamps: Inkadinkado & Autumn Leaves; embossing folder: Cuttlebug; tree die: My Favorite Things; buttons: Papertrey Ink, Stampin' Up!, reclaimed buttons; mini punches to cover buttons in paper: Stampin' Up!/EK Success; white embossing powder and heat gun; VersaMark inkpad; solid cardstock and ink in challenge colors: Stampin' Up! orange bakers twine: Jillibean Soup; square punch (for "tail" of banner): EK Success; edge distresser

DUST IT OFF!: That gratitude stamp is really REALLY old! From the same old set I pulled these stamps for the Halloween treat bags from last week! :)