Hi there, I just wanted to share that my cards were featured both this and last week as "A Cut Above" at The Paper Players. I am truly humbled that I would be featured at a blog that I consider to have such a talented DT. I haven't played many challenges lately, and I was so excited to get this recognition. Thank you so much! What a wonderful treat, I am truly grateful!

:) Noelle

Dan's Birthday Card ala TCP Tuesday

Hey there! Hope you all are having a great weekend so far! We sure are! The boys went to my Mom's for the weekend, and we are getting our Christmas lights up (well, my husband is... I'm blogging, actually ;) and we are going to go grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and maybe a little Christmas shopping done, too. :) All because my Mom and stepdad are **AWESOME** Thanks guys :) The new dog is doing really well, too! :) 

I needed to make my bro a birthday card, and so I thought I would use my TCP stamps! They really are all my favorite birthday sets. I had only used this darling stamp set Catch My Drift a couple times & I thought it would pair well with these new papers from MME. The other set I used is the super-versatile A Beary Good Year. Here's the link & sketch for TCP Tuesday 185 this week: 

Great sketch, huh? I though the filmstrip idea would be cute to frame some of those tiny images from the Beary Good Year set. :)

I started out by stamping my balloon bear onto Kraft cardstock. I colored him with a variety of pens. Some chalk markers, some SU! markers and some Copics. I fussy cut him out and popped him up with dimensionals on some of that new paper, which I am quite smitten with! It's called "Fun Day" from MME. For the filmstrip I cut a strip of Basic Gray cardstock to a 1 1/4" width and cut a slightly smaller strip in the Daffodil Delight color to adhere behind it. I punched 4 1" holes in the gray piece, and then after I adhered them together, I stamped those small images in the holes on the yellow cardstock. I did a bit more coloring on that.

I really really love/covet this fabulous Icing die from TCP! I think it would be fabulous on scrapbook pages too! But alas, I don't have it, but was tickled to see a similar punch in the prize package I recently won! So I used that to punch a little accent strip for the filmstrip.

The final touch was some bakers twine wrapped round my card. For the circular accent on the sketch, I used a punched circle, punched wood star, and some cute new stickpins.

I hope you like my card! I really am happy with it, good thing it's going to a special brother! :)

Have a stellar day!

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: stamps: TCP; punches: EKS for SU! and Martha Stewart Crafts; solid cardstock in Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo & Basic Gray: SU!; coordinating inkpads: SU!; patterned papers: MME; stickpins: Little Yellow Bicycle; Memento Black inkpad: Markers: Copic, Zig Chalk markers, and SU!; wood veneer sheet; red glitter gem

Midnight Stamper

Hi There! I don't have much time to type today, but I wanted to show you this pretty card that I made last night (insomnia, again!). I am embarrassed to admit that after getting a rather large prize package in the mail the other day, I actually went to the craft store and bought 2 new punches as well? Yes, I know, call it a sickness.... ;) Do any of you suffer from the same obsessive craft supply collection syndrome? I feel ya...

Anyway, my new card was a combination of an idea I saw on Lisa's blog when I was Guest Starring at jingle Belles, she made a felt ornament that hung off of her card and could be removed and used on a Christmas Tree! LOVE that idea, and that's what I did here, too. That white circle (which you will see in a minute has 2 sides) is actually an ornament that can be removed and hung on a tree! :)

The flower was made with one of my new punches (yes, one of the ones I bought!;) The Carnation Flower Punch. You punch your pieces and then curl the strips up to make flowers! Pretty cool huh. This one turned out ok, but I hope to get even better with these! :) I used my new Retro Flower Punch from my prize package to make the leaves. The stamps I used are also from my prize! Ok, here's the backside of the ornament...

Admittedly, another new punch, this is the Large Snowflake Punch. I punched it and glittered it with some cheap green glitter from my stash. I ran a string between the two sides of the oranment, and tied a bead on the bottom half and looped the top half so that it could hang on a tree. Here is the inside of the card, so you can see someone could just undo the tape and voila! Ornament time! :)

Here's a pic of the card closed. I took the die cut piece that I'd cut out to "frame" the ornament, and taped it to the inside, so it all fits together when closed. I really love the way this looks... :)

And that's it for me today, I need to make my brother a birthday card soon, so I hope to be back this weekend! :)

hugs! Noelle

supply list: punches: Inkadinkado; stamps: EK Success; bead: Jolee's; bakers twine: Crate and Barrel; lined cardstock: Creative Memories, DP: echo park; silver adhesive button: Jolee's; green glitter: Michaels dollar bin; die: Spellbinders

Prize package win & more pics of the new dog

Hi all! No time to craft today, but I got my latest prize package from the Spotted Canary website yesterday! I wanted to show you my haul and let you know that I will be doing a blog candy giveaway from this pile very soon! So, if you want to be eligible, please follow me, either through the followers tool or through networked blogs. I won this package for my participation in the Fashionable Felt Challenge (that's a link to the projects I entered). 

Here's some pics of Comet and Nova! Everyone is getting along GREAT, it was a total risk we took bringing her home on such an impulse, but I'm glad we made the choice to! :)

I am hoping to get to play with some of my new fun goodies, very soon! Hoping to have some time tomorrow!

hugs, Noelle

Nova

Comet (L) and Nova (R)

Turkeys and Trees

Hi there! I am going to do one 2 card post today, as we are still adjusting here in new dog-land. ;) Actually, our new Pom (who we have named Nova) is precious and she and Comet are really getting along beautifully! I think this was totally the right move to get this dog, and she is truly one of the best things to happen to me all year, too sweet! :)

Ok, card one is for this week's colourQ 111. Great fall colors this week, I made a Thanksgiving card! Here's the palette: 
And, I also used this old sketch from Mojo Monday 109. This is an old sketch, not a current challenge, as is the second sketch I used... here it is!

Ok here's card number two! I meshed both the Paper Players 72 and Jingle Belles Sticky and Sweet Challenge which is to use stickers! You can see that embellishment at the top is a dimensional sticker! Here is my card:

And here is the palette from the Paper Players & the old Mojo sketch I used:



So, here's a lot of pictures, but not very much writing, sorry! I hope you like my cards! :) And, I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Hugs, Noelle

Birthday Party decorations and a new family member! :)

Hi there! WOW, we had a crazy weekend! Collin's Wii themed party was Saturday night and Sunday, well Sunday we ended up with a new family member, more on that after these decorations to show ya! Here is the centerpiece I made for Collin's party above. Some detail shots...

While getting these pics loaded, I realized that I had never posted the very similar centerpiece I made for Ev's Little Einsteins themed party in September. So, here you go! 

If you have a Cricut and the SCAL software, you can download that Rocket cut file here. The other thing I made for the party we just had was cupcake pics. Here's a couple pics:

I think cupcake pics are such a great way to keep the cake part of the party cheap! I just used scraps and toothpicks to make these.

Ok, so here's the scoop, I may be a wee bit busy this week, as we have a new dog! About 3 1/2 years ago we adopted Comet (the larger Pom on the LH side in both pics) and he has just been the sweetest, calmest, friendliest little dog you could ever imagine! So, I had often told my hubby that if the opportunity ever came up to adopt a female Pom (not for breeding or anything, just so I can finally have a girl! haha!) that we might just have to. Well, we went to Petsmart yesterday, and there was a lady there from the Colorado Peke and Pom Rescue and she had this darling little female Pom for adoption! Her name is Nala (like in the Lion King), she's 7 years old, and super calm and sweet. So far so good! Don't she and Comet look so much alike? She is smaller than him, he's 20 lb., she is around 11 lb. So anyway, I might be just a little preoccupied this week trying to get everyone settled, so bear with me! Have a great one! :) 

Hugs, Noelle ;) 

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! :)