Ink Something Crafty

I have one last Christmas pressie hat to share.... another penguin, in turquoise this time.  This is one my daughter Carly requested.  You can find a free pattern for the main hat at Repeat crAfter Me blog.  I used the owl pattern for the base, the snowman pattern for the strings and pom-poms, and I made up the eyes and beak.  

Good morning my crafty friends!!   Well, most of our snow that we got yesterday has melted away, but the forcast is calling for more later today, woot, woot! We ♥ snow here, especially when it's enough for a stay-at-home-and-make-igloos-or-go-sledding-in-it kind of a day.  And what could be cuter (and warmer!) than a cute crocheted Penguin or Snowman Hat?!!  Yep, I finished these 2 up yesterday with more free patterns from "Repeat crAfter Me."  (don'tcha just love that name?!) For the penguin hat, I did not actually follow her pattern.  I used her owl hat pattern and then I made the eyes and beak up myself (inspired by some I saw online).    My girls and I have decided to join the " Beanies for Bravery Project "... to crochet green/white beanie hats for the Sandy Hook Elem. survivors (they're hoping to get 600 of them!)  So as soon as our Christmas gifts are done, we'll be starting on those.  If you like to crochet (or make quilt squ

Good Sunday morning!!  Today I'm happy to share with you some cutie patootie owl hats I crocheted as Christmas pressies for my niece and nephews' kids!  My daughter Maddy found this free pattern at " Repeat crAfter Me " and I just had to try them *Ü* I love that she shares instructions for several sizes including Newborn / Toddler / Child / Teen-Adult.  I made the turquoise and green ones in the Toddler/Preschool size and the pink is a Child size. ...it's snowing today!! Thanks for stopping by today!  Wishing you JOY in the Lord this week.  "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."  Zephaniah 3:17

Woot, Woot!!  One of my favorite rubber stamps store has now opened a challenge blog !!   They only have two rules:  1)  to use either a Serendipity stamp or die, and 2) follow the challenge given! This first challenge is to create a honeycomb or accordion element! LOVE it!!  You may remember my Apple and Pumpkin accordion cards I made before?   Well this time, I took the Christmas Ornament die  and turned it upside down to create a colorful Hot Air Balloon!  I printed the sentiment " Lifting you up in prayer" on my computer.  These honeycomb things are so easy to make.  You just cut/punch out several of the same object (I cut 5, but you can do up to 10 or so using thinner stock or designer paper) then you fold them in half and glue them back to back!  Easy peasy *Ü*  I'm not in the running as I was a Guest Designer, but I'm going to keep checking the entries to see what y'all do!  Hop to it and enter to win!!   :)  

Hi... Happy day after Thanksgiving!!  Hope you had  a great one... we did! My parents came over and I cooked the turkey, party potatoes, green bean casserole, and then Mom brought a yummy broccoli and cauliflower salad, Carly made pumpkin bars and Maddy helped me make homemade dinner rolls!  We did opt for a sugar-free pumpkin pie for the diabetics in the fam.  Lots of great food, and then us girls played Phase 10 while the dads took a nap in the livingroom. Great day. *Ü* Of course after all the yummy food, a walk was in order.  So I finished sewing buttons on the doggy sweater I crocheted for Lacy and out we went!  Here's a photo.... her tail's waggin' cause she's so happy *Ü* I modified the following pattern as seen here : DOG SWEATER CROCHET PATTERN:   MATERIALS and TOOLS USED I used 100% Acrylic, 4-ply knit and crochet yarn For larger sizes you will want to use 4, 5 and 6 oz, corresponding to the number of additional stitches shown below. However, be a

Thank goodness it's Friday... been a long first week of kids getting back to school.  Not much crafting getting done, but I did create one card... using this gorgeous Christmas Ornament Stamp & Die  set from Serendipity Stamps!  I double cut it out of 2 shades of pink and slightly offset them and then pop dotted it onto the olive gingham layer. and I actually decorated the INSIDE of my card  using the Ornament Stamp set   

Hi all… poppin’ in to share some fun new things at Serendipity Stamps !!  What’s more yummy than all-American Apple Pie?!!  Or how about delicious pumpkin pie?  Fall is just around the corner, although you can’t feel it in the air quite yet!  (Ok, my mouth is watering now, is yours?)  Well this post isn’t really about PIE… it’s about a new DIE!!   Serendipity Stamps has come out with a couple new dies – this Pumpkin Die , which can easily be used as an apple as well, or how about a tomato for a garden party?  And since Christmas is not far off, they’ve come out with a gorgeous Ornament Die !!   Today I’m sharing 2 cards made using the Pumpkin Die to show it’s versatility!  I cut 3 out in red.  The bottom layer, I just cut off the curlicue, the next layer I cut off the whole stem, and the top layer, I cut off the stem and the outter edge.  I glued all 3 layers together just in the middle so I can fan them out and make it 3D!  Don’t worry—it folds nice and flat if you choose to mai

Tomorrow's the last day of school for my kiddos... and a half day at that. They're so excited! I thought I'd take em out for lunch to celebrate. Anywhoo, my neice Ashley graduates H.S. and is on to nursing school in the Fall, woot, woot!! Congrats Ash... we're so proud of you!!  I used Graduation Marci digi with the Hollyhocks and layered 2 of the same butterfly die from the Butterflies set 1 , all from La-La Land Crafts! Have you seen their new dies?! They are awesome!! You can find lots more inspiration using these and more at the LLLC Blog and Customer Gallery *Ü* I won't be around here much in the next week or so as I'm taking a li'l break from DT responsibilities and blogging etc. Hope you all have a great Father's Day weekend coming up and a fun summer!!

“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:26 Card Challenge:  Create a card that depicts any element of heaven— angels, music, clouds, sun, stars, blue, glitter, bling, etc." (INSIDE) As you can see, I went with STARS… including my paper, the 2 li’l stick pins in the button, and my 2 images!  The image is from  Pollycraft Digital Stamps.     Thanks for looking ~ Have a blessed week!

Happy first day of June!! Well, my time as Guest Designer for Serendipity Stamps is officially over... but I do have a couple more cards to share using their New Releases for Spring/Summer that I didn’t get posted yet!  With Father's Day is coming up, I decided to try a Tri-Shutter Card using the new sentiment, “ We Don’t See Things ”… along with the “ Glasses & Book ” stamp.  Here’s a view from the top:   This paper was from a kit I’ve had and never used because I don’t do masculine cards often. Not too sure I like the grey/silver tire tread pieces?  But the rust colored with the clocks is cool. I paper pieced the book and then added clear stardust gellyroll pen to highlight the book pages, glasses and clock face and then silver sparkly pen for the alarm bell thingies on top.  I stamped the sentiment on some real wood from McMahon Five Designs & finished with copper brads.   Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you get time to 'Ink Something'

Card Challenge:  Do something on your card that you're "afraid" of! (ie. CAS style, stitching, a vintage look, etc. Just do something you wouldn't normally do!)  I challenged myself to create a "clean & simple" card because I do like others' CAS but it's just not typically the style I create.  Not sure what it is... maybe I'm just not happy with all the “white space”  ~ I keep wanting to add stuff to it.  So, I stepped out of my comfort zone, stripping it down to the bare necessities to let my image shine.  Well, ok… I did add a few adhesive brads and a punched border.    *Ü*  What do you think? Card Supplies: Stamps: Tilda Picking Lilacs; Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Everyday Words cling set from Serendipity Ink: black Memento Ink on Neenah White cardstock 80lb and colored with Copics Punch: Martha Stewart

Welcome to our “Die Cuts” blog hop with Serendipity Stamps Designers!!  The designers have created some fabby projects to introduce these dies to the public and I’m thrilled to be a part of it as their Spring/Summer Guest Designer!!  For my first card, I’ve used the Floral Dragonfly Die to create a simple yet elegant Birthday card.  The sentiment is from a fabulous set called Everyday Words (Small Horizontal).    For my next card I cut out the Floral Butterfly Die and mounted it on the Butterfly Outline Die .  I added some stickles to some flowers and leaves for a li’l sparkle (it’s still wet in my photo, so it doesn’t show up real well).   I also added some yellow/gold rhinestone flourish for a trail.   My other creations using Serendipity’s awesome dies that you may have missed:                 

Hi and Hap-Bee Thursday to ya!! Time sure "flies" when you're havin' fun *Ü* I can't bee-lieve how fast my 2 months as Guest Designer for Serendipity Stamp s is going-- I only have 2 more weeks left! Anyways, while I was going through my wonderful stash of stamps and dies yesterday, I thought "What could I do with the Egg Dies that has nothing to do with Easter?" ... and with a little pinching here and a stripe-cutting there, look what you can create!! I used the Solid Outline Egg die for his body, cutting one in black and one in yellow and then cut a couple of stripes out of the yellow one and adhered onto the black body.  And with the Egg Scroll Die , I cut out of vellum cardstock and pinched the smaller end together, added a glue dot and wha-la! I cut the head using a circle Nestie and drew my face on.  The white teeth were an after-thought on scratch paper and my hubby said I should definitely add them.  This was one time I followed his

Happy Tuesday!! Today I have a fun duo I made for Mother's Day, using Serendipity Stamps' new Dies and Stamps!  They are so so pretty, I am having so much fun with all of them.       I’ve used the Floral Butterfly Stamp & Dies set .  For my card, I stamped the Floral Butterfly in Versamark and then colored with Q-tips and Pastels (chalks).    For the box, I followed Beate's instructions for her Heart Box on SCS , except I changed the shape to a hexagon Octagon (Yes, I can count!) using my Spellbinder's Nesties. Instead of coasters, I just used a big cereal box from Costco.  It cut just fine in the Cuttlebug and is sturdy for the box to hold it’s shape (and candies or whatnot).  The butterfly on top of my box is cut with the gorgeous Floral Butterfly Die and the Solid Outline Butterfly Die .  I then added some 2-way glue to some of the flowers and sprinkled pink glitter on them and added 3 pretty glass balls that have some floral thing in them that pic

... and a li'l Sprinkler action too!! Good morning friends!  Today I have a fun Swing Card (aka. Flip Flop Card) using a couple of new stamps from Serendipity Stamps; Sprinkler & Keep Your Face to the Sunshine .    I cut the sun with my Create-a-Critter Cricut cartridge and drew the face on.  Then pop dotted the face to the back.       On the "Flip Side" I re-stamped the Sprinkler image in Sage Shadow for a soft effect and so the sentiment is the focus.    Hope you enjoyed my card for today!   Have a S U N S H I N E Y   Day!!

I am talking about the new dies at Serendipity Stamps !!   Who doesn’t love pretty dies?  Seems they’re everywhere lately… and Serendipity Stamps has has come out with some big beautiful Dragonfly and Butterfly Dies.  Today I’m showing you the new stamp, Water Lilies with the gorgeous Dragonfly Dies ….   This would be really fun with colored (or clear) glitter or chalks etc.  I wanted to keep it simple for this card to really showcase the exact pattern.  Love them!!  You can purchase just the Floral Dragonfly die separately… or you can buy the Cling Set which includes the rubber stamp as well as the floral & solid Dragonfly dies!  PLUS… if you order in the next 3 days, you will get FREE SHIPPING (U.S. only) with your order of $10 or more!!  Doesn’t get much better than that.   For the water lillies , I stamped it on white c.s. with Bordering Blue ink and colored with Copics.  For the water, I pressed the top of my classic ink lid and used a water brush to give

Welcome friends!!  It’s a Wonderful Wednesday today as I celebrate my 1,500th blog post!!  I’ve been blogging since August, 2006.  I wanted to do a special post for today but wasn’t sure what… that is until yesterday!  Mary of Serendipity Stamps asked me if I’d like to participate in her DT’s Butterfly Blog Hop !  Of course I said, YES!!  So I created a very special project for mom as my “special” post today.  Thanks for being here with me and for all the wonderful comments you guys leave.  I’m truly blessed to have made some wonderful blogging friends out there.   I would NOT be blogging today if it weren’t for your encouragement.  *Ü*    For my project I made a Bird Cage Gift Box to hold a flameless candle and some li’l flowers.  I decorated the outside with these gorgeous floral butterflies from Serendipity!!  They also have matching dies to cut them out.  I don’t have those… yet, so I cut them by hand.     I inked up the butterfly stamps in coral and Saffron classic ink