ODBDSLC90

Using up some cut pieces I had precut for a stamp group that didn't get used. I only have a few ODBD stampsets, but I love them. I really need to get some more by either trying to win them or fitting a few into my budget. We use this stamp to make the bags for our bread ministry at church. I make little loaves of bread on the 4th Sunday of the month to give to visitors.I decided to use it for this card tonight.

Just us Girls challenge 117

I'm already getting started on my new year's stamping resolution to check out some new challenges to start doing on a weekly basis when my schedule allows it. I used a bunch of new stuff on this. I had some felt I had ordered from Paper Trey that I had not used yet, and also some new stamps I got over at Verve.

Fussy and Fancy Challenge 53

Well, the new year is almost here and 2011 is about done. My stamping resolution for 2012 is to find a new challenge or two to try. So, I guess I am starting early on that one, as I found this one over at Fussy and Fancy that I have never done before. They are celebrating their 2nd anniversary this week, so the challenge was to use animal print on a birthday card. Cheetah just seems to go with almost everything these days, so I tried them with these poppies from Flourishes. It is stamped in Tuxedo black and colored with copic markers. The papers are black, red, cheetah print dp, and kraft. The kraft paper distorted the colors somewhat, but I liked how it turned out.

         Happy New Year to all of my followers, family, and friends!

May 2012 be prosperous

and happy for you.

SS4

This week's challenge for the Rubberneck Sisterhood Sunday challenge. It has just taken me all week to find a little time in my stamp room. I used Bahama blue to stamp this Rubbernecker image. I cuttlebugged the card base and added a ribbon. It was quick, but wanted to do the challenge.

Technique Lovers Challenge

My buddy, Joan, a wonderful fellow Texan stamper, hosted the challenge Monday for the Technique Loveres challenge over on Splitcoaststampers. She asked us to make a snowglobe on our cards. This is a one layer card that I did masking on to make the globe. I cut out a base pattern and traced it below the globe.
I love this little stamp and I love its vintage look. I have only one sister as a sibling and she has always been my best friend as well. I can't make it a couple of days without calling her on the phone. Wish she lived closer to me. We share our passion for stamping and between the two of us, we have some pretty awesome collections of stamps, papers, inks, punches, and diecuts.

C4C117

The challenge was to use Santa! I decided to use 4 Santas since he seems to be "around every corner."

This Santa stamp is by Hampton Arts and has a wonderful vintage look. It was stamped with tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. The letters I hand wrote on the red is done in silver gel pen.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

SSIC120

The challenge was to do a card that told the real story of Christmas. I loved this new stamp I bought at Archievers recently. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. I added some glittered paper and foil paper to give it that royal look and I love the rich textures and patterns on the wisemen's robes.  I've about completed my cards for this Christmas season. It is my hope that we are all still seeking Christ and that He is an ever present part of our lives not only at Christmas but everyday of our lives. Christmas blessings and Peace on earth.

FTTC148 opposites attrack-sadness/gladness

The challenge on for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge today was to do two cards that showed two totally different looks. My purposes on the cards are opposite one another. One is subtle colors  done for a sympathy card, the other in brighter colors for a birthday. I also used the same image from Flourishes using it in different directions. One has the limb hanging down, and the other coming from the other direction and going upward.  I did some embossing on the subtle one, and I used Basic Grey design paper for the more colorful one.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ 119

The challenge on Stampin' Sisters in Christ was to make a birthday card. I have a friend in Colorado who is celebrating a birthday on Tuesday. As you can see, it's not even in the mail yet. The inside has a slot to place a gift card that I will enclose. I hope she gets it by the end of the week. I think I will write on the inside: When life gives you too many candles, pop popcorn!!!  The papers are from Stampin' Up and Basic Grey.

CR84FN 44

This card is for the CR84FN 44 challenge to use coral, pink, and aqua. The papers are from Basic Grey and Stampin' Up. The verse is from Verve. The flower diecut I got from MFT. The embossing folder is by Paper Studio.

Free for all challenge 94

I love vintage cards and this stamp and matching paper that I found out at  Archeivers was just perfect for some cute Christmas cards for my collection. I used flocking powder to make the fur and of course, colored my images with my copic markers. I can't believe Christmas is just 16  days away. I have a lot to do including making my scrapbook pages for my family's Christmas gifts. It's a tradition we started some 10 years ago or so, and they have become one of my favorite herilooms. Everyone gives each other pages for a representation of their year to each family represented. I make 12 double pages to give to everyone and to have a page for myself in my album. We add these to our albums and how fun it is to go back and see from year we have changed and what things we spend our time doing.

SC362

Woke up early this morning to the coldest day we have had this season. Guess that's why I grabbed up this snowman, huh?? Course, I live on the Texas Gulf Coast, so snow is not what our cold usually offers. It's usually cold and damp. Course, with our summer droughts this year, I guess I need to embrace whatever damp we get. This card was made for the sketch challenge today on Splitcoaststampers, my favorite place to go every day of the week. Their challenges offer me my MOJO of inspiration and so I have been a faithful member for over 7 years now. I can't seem to get motivated to get tree trimmed or my cards in the mail yet, but I am having a heck of a lot of fun creating. Merry Christmas and safe travels during all the hustle and bustle of the season.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ

This week's challenge over on Stampin' Sisters in Christ was to use an angel. I loved this sweet little simple angel from Recollections. I added a sentiment from Stampin' Up and added a gold glittered puffy sticker star. The white background was embossed with a Paper Studio embossing folder, and the design paper is a scrap of Paper Studio dp. I used copics to color the facial details.

Stampin' Sisterhood

This card was made for the Sisterhood Sunday challege you can find here. I used some stamps from Stampin' Up and some design papers from Basic Grey and Paper Studio. The poinsettia is a diecut from Spellbinders as are the shapes. I am still making those last minute Christmas cards that I need to get mailed. Will probably get some addressed and mailed today.

CAS147

I had a great few days with my sister, Lynn, who really is the one responsible for me ever owning a stamp. After quite an adventure to Canton and alot of obstacles along the way, we got back to Houston and headed straight to the Acheiver's out in Katy. I found this adorable little stamp with matching dp and could not resist it. I decided to use it for the latest CAS challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  I added some flower soft for the fur and did my coloring with copic markers.

FTTC 146

The challenge was to use a flower, a tag, and ribbon. I think all these stamps are from Flourishes. I know the sentiment is. I embossed the stamped images with gold embossing powder. The poinsettia is a diecut from Spellbinders as is the red panel piece. The cardstock is from Stampin' Up.

Color challenge card

This card was for the Color Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers today. I seem to have made many of my Christmas cards this year with kraft cardstock. I used kiwi kiss to punch some small circles, formed them into the shape of a tree then added white Martha Stewart snowflakes on top. The sentiment is from Paper Trey Inks. This was a really quick and easy card, because I got it done before I left for work this morning. I had a great week long visit with my family last week and was away from my stamproom. It's good to be back. I will try to get more of my Christmas cards posted over here later this evening. I've been playing catch up this week. Hope this finds you readying your heart and spirit for the celebration of the Christ Child. I've been reading a great advent book called, The Journey Walking the Road to Bethlehem. It's by Adam Hamilton and it certainly has spoken to me about the significant ways that God uses even ordinary folks to further His kingdom. His blessings are truely those that He can use to glorify His work in the world. Praying for our nation and our world this season.

Liz's Christmas collection #3

Not all cards in my collection are elaborate and time consuming to make. This card I used for the CAS challenge today over on Splitcoaststampers. Sometimes the clean and simple cards are the quick solution to that late card that is received that you forgot to send. I embossed the white paper, and the little image was one of those cute $1 stamps you find at Michael's. I am spending some time with family this week. I can't decide how many of my stamping supplies I will pack along, but my mom and sister are stampers too.
I'm sure Mom's cards are all made and sitting there ready to send. Unlike me, still in the making process here. I still have those family scrapbook pages to do that  we make every year as our Christmas gift to each other that goes in our family albums. I put the "PRO " in procrastination. Hope your T-day is a great one, and that black Friday not too hectic.

My personal Christmas card collection #2

I made this card to enter into the CAS winter DT challenge. The challenge was to use design paper and ribbon. I punched some holes in the design paper and wove the ribbon in and out of the holes to make this Christmas tree shape for another Christmas card for my collection of cards that I will be mailing out for Christmas. I think  challenges are always a great source of getting the mojo going when you need to be on a roll with cardmaking. I sell many of my cards at various locations, so making these to send out to my friends take a little extra time to have some in my own little stash for my own card sending.

Christmas collection #1

I'm starting a showing of my 2011 Christmas card collection here on my blog as I progress with my Christmas card making for this season. I think I will show a little love to many of my Christmas stamps that have not seen ink in some time. I think a friend gave me this stamp from All Night Media. I used versamark and then embossed it in gold embossing powder. I colored it in with some SU markers and copic markers. The background was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the pale blue paper. I punched some pine leaves with my Martha Stewart punch to add to the top of the ornament,

So, here's the first of my featured cards.

Getting started on those Christmas cards

It has always been my style to mainly do one of a kind cards, mainly because I find it boring to mass produce my cards. I like the creative thinking involved in each card and I don't enjoy the process of making the card so much. So the fun now begins for me, I pulled out my huge "under the bed" tub that I keep all my Christmas stamps in during the 11 months during the year that I don't use them. It is kind of like getting those Christmas decorations and ornaments out of the hall closet when it is time to start decorating. That's the feeling I got this morning when I pulled out the tub. This is my first Christmas card made from the stamps I have stored in there, and I think I will spend the day using these great stamps on most of the cards I make today. During the process of creating, I am thinking of those friends from my life that will receive these cards and wonderful memories flood my brain. It's a nice time of year that I enjoy so much. This year it seemed to arrive even earlier that usual for me, as November has whizzed by in such a hurry. Not sure where last week zoomed off either. Oh, you say it's the price you pay for growing older......?? I rest my case!!!!

This week's FTTC

Tammy, the host of the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge challenged us to use a flag or banner on our card. I pulled out this terrific set from Flourishes to make a card for a friend. I used olive and purple cardstock, as well as white and pale green (on the flag). The image was stamped with tuxedo black Memento ink and then colored with my copic markers. I added the gold domes around the Spellbinder diecut shape. I used a different Spellbinder shape to diecut the image. The purple cardstock was embossed with a Paper Studio embossing folder.

Prayers for the Ladies of Kairos #29

For the next 4 days I will be serving the Lord in the capacity of being on a team that goes into a Texas women's prison to share God's love for them. Over 1500 dozen cookies have been baked to be distributed to everyone on that unit,  thousands of prayers have been lifted, and a team of 42 women will meet 42 sisters in white tomorrow. Pray for harmony for the team, open hearts for the participants, and God's grace over the entire weekend. It is our prayer that these women will come to trust in the Lord, find love and fellowship among their sisters on the unit, and can build a Christian community within the prison walls. There is a powerful service on forgiveness, so pray these women will be able to lay some heaviness of their lives down and let God take those from them.

Thanks for all the wonderful people at Christ United Methodist Church, Sugar Land, Tx. who have donated money, cookies, and prayers for this weekend. None of this would be possible without God's love and the love of God's people. I love you all, and cherish these wonderful acts of love and kindness.

CR84FN42 challenge

Anytime I have a great desire to stamp, but lack an idea of where to start, I head over to Deb's

Daily Dare to get me motivated. I love challenges and she always has such a great collection of daily challenges to go check out. I found this one here and thought this was a great group of colors to get things going for me. I scrounged through my scrap bags and found this black and white printed paper, and this quote from Verve fit my nestabilities shape pretty well. Black and white is always a great combo for me.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ #114

I was given this Boyd Bear set by a friend years ago. And sadly, I don't think I've ever even had ink on it. I'm not really  a teddy bear person, but  these two bear friends might just be the cup of tea for today's Stampin' Sisters in Christ's challenge to get out an old stamp and makig it new again. I think it looked cute with some of this new design paper from Basic Grey. I colored it with my copic markers and added a pink and white gingham bow just to accent that "country" feel. These little pastel primas added just an extra little touch.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #113

This week's challenge was to use fall colors. I used this pretty set from Verve to stamp onto white paper. The scripture stamp is from Verve as well. In the part of Texas I live in, we are finally getting some cooler weather. Fall is my favorite season because of the richness of the colors of the foliage and the beautiful fall sunsets.

Color Throw Down #166

Haven't done the Color Throw Down Challenge in a while. Here are the colors:

I used one of my old favorites from Stampin' Up and some old SU paper I still had around. The sentiment is from Verve. I colored my image with copic markers and the image was stamped in tuxedo black.

My final "Hope you can cling to" card

The challenge today was to do a style that I was not known to do so often. I seldom make these fancy fold cards, because they take too much time for me. It took me 4 pieces of paper just to get the base of this card done correctly (and maybe I shouldn't use that word "correctly" either because that is probably questionable too).LOL  I found these cool brads at Michael's one day on sale and couldn't resist of course. They worked perfectly to camoflauge where my ink didn't stamp dark enough. You can almost always count on if my card has an embellishment it is covering some flaw in my stamping. My motto is "If you make a mistake, embellish, embellish, embellish!!" Now I will get my last batch of cards off to mail this week to MD Anderson here in Houston. It's been so fun taking part in these challenges, and my sister, Lynn has already won a prize for one of her cards. Congratulations, Lynn!

This was stamped with Kitchen Sink Stamps. It's a great set with some great sentiments to create with the card  you use the ribbon on.

Belli Challenge 1234 #129

The Belli Challenge today was to use a 1-2-3-4 recipe. So I used one stamp, 2 MS border punches, 3 colors, and 4 rhinestones. It was pretty quick and easy. The cardbase is kraft paper, the others are red cardstock and some Basic Grey dp.

12 Days of Christmas

12 Days Of Christmas Blog Hop

Speedy the Cat at Mark's Finest Papers likes to get a head start on special Christmas gifts and memories for friends and family. He gathered the design team at Mark's Finest Papers to bring you 12 days of exciting paper crafting gift ideas to get that holiday mojo flowing. The hop runs for 12 consecutive days, starting October 17th! Begin your holiday hop at Speedy's home base, the Mark's Finest Papers blog and relax with a cup of eggnog (or sprig of catnip, your choice) as Speedy leads you though a short, daily hop. You'll find your holiday paper crafting ideas and supplies at Mark's Finest Papers.

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop! We have four samples each day for our hop! Please visit each of the following blogs for holiday inspiration! Start off tomorrow on the MFP Blog for more inspiration!

Day 6 Altered Frame Oct 22:

Harriet
Vicky
Debbie
Liz (that's me!)

My frame is one of those $1 wooden frames from Michael's that I spray painted with gold metallic paint. I stamped the French horns onto cardstock, colored them, and cut them out. I glued them to the side of the frame. I added a bow and some sparkling holly Jollee's stickers to add to the holly on the French horn. I created this little poem and stamped some additional holly to it to put inside the frame.
This is a quick and easy project that you could even do with kids. Makes a great gift idea for them to give grandparents, adding their favorite photo of themselves. What grandparent does not cherish those?? Hope you will merrily hop through the other remaining 6 days for other holiday and  gift ideas.

My good stampin' buddy, DebDeb is hosting the challenge today for the Hope You Can Cling to Challenge. I have been taking part in this challenge for the entire month and have already sent two envelopes full of cards to MD Anderson Cancer Center here in Houston. Having always lived in the Houston area, within an 80 mile radius anyway, this is near and dear to my heart. I used my new Paper Trey Ink set and diecut for this card as well as one of my Spellbinder labels. I embossed it with a Paper Studio embossing folder, and used some new Basic Grey design paper on it too. I colored the white taffeta ribbon with my copic markers to match my colors. I love those markers because they work all kinds of magic like this.

I hope you have been wearing the pink and taking part in some form of support for the Breast Cancer awareness campaign. It really does change people's lives and gives them HOPE! Blessings to you and yours.

Double the challenge Double the fun

I did this for this week's Speedy the Cat's Friends' challenge to stamp a double image. I also am using it for the challenge on Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge to use 2 stamps, 2 design papers, and 2 of what ever other embellishments you use. I used a set from Mark's Finest Papers called Bold and Free. The design papers are from Basic Grey's Pyrus pad. Kraft paper is used for the card base and I used two large eyelets from Stampin' Up.

New Stamps from MFP

.

 I sponged over the punched piece for the background panel of the card. Then I flipped over the punched piece and used it as the white trim on the left side of the card. The image panel and the frame are Spellbinder pieces. I used some red ribbon to weave through the frame. I added some punched pine needles to the frame. The image is colored with copic markers. This set is the newly released set called Cardinals in Winter from Mark's Finest Papers.

Final Day of Mark's Finest Papers' October Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to the October 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!

This month's new releases are: Holly Greetings, Christmas in the Country, Snowball?, Country Thanksgiving, Cardinals in Winter, and Ginger Cookies.For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.

So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Set: Ginger Cookies? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)

For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Ginger Cookies. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's MFP blog post.

Emily
Nancyruth
Neva
Faith
Dawn
Marilynn
Patricia
Chrissy
Karen
Pam
Joanne
Markie
Carol
Mark’s Finest Papers

3rd Day of Mark's Finest Papers' October Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to the October 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!

This month's new releases are: Holly Greetings, Christmas in the Country, Snowball?, Country Thanksgiving, Cardinals in Winter, and Ginger Cookies.For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.

So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Sets: Country Thanksgiving and Cardinals in Winter? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)

For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Country Thanksgiving and Cardinals in Winter. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's MFP blog post.

Emily
Nancyruth
Neva
Faith
Dawn
Marilynn
Patricia
Chrissy
Karen
Pam
Joanne
Markie
Carol
Mark’s Finest Papers

Mark's Finest Papers' October Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to the October 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!

This month's new releases are: Holly Greetings, Christmas in the Country, Snowball?, Country Thanksgiving, Cardinals in Winter, and Ginger Cookies.For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.

So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Set: Holly Greetings? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)

For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Holly Greetings. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's MFP blog post.

Lois
Vicky
Dawn
Anne
Peggysue
Connie
Linda
Karen
Patty
Liz
Geri
Lynn
Claudine
Debbie
Mark’s Finest Papers                                                     

I mailed off about five of the cards I have made so far for MD Anderson Cancer Center yesterday. October is my favorite fall month, and the Hope You Can Cling To challenge is one of the reasons.

Everyday there is a new challenge for each day in October. The hostesses have come up with some super challenges. Today's was to Have Only Paper Embellishments. This cardinal is from a soon to be released Mark's Finest Papers' set called Cardinals in Winter. It is beautiful.

It's sneak peek time at MFP!

I've been busy using these 6 new sets coming out next week to give you some ideas of how fabulous these new sets are  before the release and Blog Hop at Mark's Finest Papers. There are great choices for fall, winter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. You will love the stamps and the sentiments. Here's a peek at one of them.

Week 75 Speedy the Cat's Friends' challenge

Saturday is not quite over yet, so thought I'd get busy on today's Speedy the Cat's Friends' challenge to use polka dots. I love this piece of Basic Grey design paper and that color of green is my favorite green. I decided to keep the circle thing going with my layout as well. I haven't used this stamp in a while and it fit the space I needed to fill. I just added a few punched leaves for my embellishment.
The stamps are of course, from Mark's Finest Papers. I used rich cocoa and tuxedo black Memento inks. The white dots were added with a white map color pencil.

Hope You can cling to challenges have begun!

October is here and so is SCS's fabulous Hope You Can Cling To challenges. There will be a new challenge each day, and today there are three! It is fun and I enjoyed taking part last year, winning a prize, and receiving a sweet note of appreciation from MD Anderson for contributing my cards for women who are fighting breast cancer to use for their personal use. Living just outside of Houston, I know how many women have successfully overcome their cancers, especially when detected early.

My card is using stamps from Mark's Finest Papers and is photographed on the new Global Promise Fund Calendar for 2012 from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. It has beautiful pink skyscapes from around the world and other pink elements in other parts of the world. It is gorgeous. You might want to visit the komen.org website to see who you might receive one.

Hope you will join in the fun over at Splitcoaststampers.

I am keeping many friends and acquaintances in my prayers who are fighting breast cancer and all the other cancers that are out there. As we approach October and Breast Cancer Awareness month, I hope you will keep those you know and love who are fighting this disease in your prayers as well.

This is stamped with a fabulous set from Kitchen Sink Stamps. The ribbon is stamped with 3 layers.

Some great sentiment stamps are part of this set.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ #108

This card is for today's Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge and was to use the word blessings in the sentiment. Grace had a beautiful devotional over on their site and a wonderful video clip from Laura Story's song "The Blessing". I love that song. This design paper is from a new pad called Lauderdale from Basic Grey. The sentiment is from a stamp from Stampin' Up and the butterfly is a multi-layered stamp from Kitchen Sink. The punches are from Stampin' Up and Martha Stewart.  I also used my nestabilities. I have a few friends who have really helped me through this tough week of difficulties I had to work through, but God gave me support through their help and prayers. I hope your blessings are supportive people in your life that are just irreplaceable. This card is for these individuals who give you the encouragement you need.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ 107

Guess what amazing gift of hope we received from God this weekend? Some much needed rain. This card today is for the Sisters in Christ challenge to use a scripture and wings on your card. This is going to be included in a set of cards with scripture for a birthday gift for a friend in a couple of weeks. Today was our pastor's last Sunday in the pulpit, as he moves onto an administrative leaders position. We will miss him. Hope your Sunday is filled with God's grace and mercy. Make His kingdom to be part of your plan. Blessings to all my followers!

Final day of Mark's Finest Papers' September Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to the September 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!

This week's new releases are:Autumn Glory, Boo To You, Covered Bridges, Get Your Broom On .For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.

So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Set:Get Your Broom On? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)

For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Get Your Broom On. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's MFP blog post.

Emily

Nancyruth
Neva
Faith
Dawn
Marilynn
Patricia                                                                                       
Chrissy
Karen

Pam

Joanne

Markie

Carol

Mark’s Finest Paper