Our Beautiful World - Purple

When I saw that the ladies at Our Beautiful World had Purple as their word prompt I immediately thought of our Jacaranda tree when it blooms in the spring.  We planted this tree almost two decades ago precisely because the blooms were so beautiful.   We've lost a few branches in storms over the past couple of years and we don't have a St. Bernard dog to sit in the fallen flowers anymore, but I still love looking up out the transom windows in the spring and seeing our beautiful purple blooms.

My version of Purple.  Why don't you stop by or join the fun over at

Hero Arts September 2016 Kit

Well, that hiatus was longer than I'd wanted.  Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, but I had some unexpected travel at my new job which sent my schedule in a tailspin.  At the end of the work travel, I traveled to Colorado to celebrate my grandfather's 92nd birthday.  That was good stuff, but it does mean that I had a bit of a glitch in the blog posts for a couple of weeks.

We'll I'm back and freshly inspired by my bestie, Brandy.  She graciously and kindly gifted me the Hero Arts September Monthly Kit.  Can I just tell you - I immediately felt that familiar spark of creativity and, though I couldn't right away, began cultivating ideas for cards and color combinations, etc.  I'm sharing this first on with you.

I watercolored the background with my Mission Gold watercolors, using a combination of droplets and color puddles to colorfully add to the background.  I then die cut the twiggy wreath  and the flowery one from the kit in coordinating cardstock.  Yum, this turned out to be some fall goodness.

I paired it all with a sentiment flag white embossed onto black cardstock.

On the inside - a simple sentiment to set off this card for the receiver.  My husband fondly refers to the fall as "birthday season".  Between friends and family, there are quite a few birthdays in the next 8 weeks.  All fun for us, but it does mean a busy time.

I'm going to link up to the following challenges:

City Crafter Challenge Blog - apparently Stella and I had wreaths on the brain so I'll join the inspiration fun Photo Inspiration Challenge

Word Art Wednesday's Anything Goes Weeks 250 and 251

I'm not too busy to fan this creative spark into a burning flame.  I see a few more fall inspired cards in my future.  Hopefully those Christmas inspirations can wait...  What do you have cooking on the creative flame?  I'll be more regular about visiting you and I can't wait to see what you've been up to.

Oh Holy Night - A Card Set

I had promised to make improvements to one of my Christmas card ideas and I did jump on that quickly.  Here's the result.  I left the black cardstock die cut made with my Die'Sire nativity die as the stand out on the card and backed part of the die cut with some gold glitter cardstock.  The gold ribbon is once again from the stash - a piece of recycled material that works very well as an offset to the centerpiece.  The sentiment is a Heartfelt Creation stamp onto a Stampin' Up Apothocary framelits die cut.

A few more cards to add to the card stash and I get to say that I've used some of those stored up supplies and tools.  Yay!

Oh Holy Night - A Christmas Card

It's no secret - Christmas season is on it's way.  I, like many of you, seem to collect craft supplies for making Christmas cards without actually using them along the way.  This year, I made a bunch of cards as my "main" card rather early and decided to dedicate myself to using these supplies to make a small amount of cards to supplement my card sending ways.  This card is one example.

This card is a win and a fail in a few ways.  Rather than detract from your experience, I'll just say that I intend to make some improvements and leave other foibles to remain in the card design.  The centerpoint of the card is the black cardstock die cut made with my Die'Sire nativity die.  I wanted it to stand out and I think that was accomplished.  The gold ribbon is from the stash - a piece of recycled material that I'm proud to have put to good use.  The sentiment is a Heartfelt Creation stamp onto a Stampin' Up Apothocary framelits die cut.

How about you?  Any Christmas cards in the future?  I've been seeing a few of you joining in the preparation.  I'll look forward to more inspiration.  Now, I'm off to plan the improvements to this card design and make a few duplicates for the card stash.

Another Birthday Shaker Card

I mentioned that I had a Queen and Co. foam shaker kit left over as a free prize at the CK Scrapbook convention earlier this year.  Brandy actually won the prize, but make a quick decision she wouldn't be using them anytime soon so she gifted two of the three to me.  I shared this card with you a little while ago.  I was pretty honest at the time that the kit comes with a few shortcomings - namely that the kit isn't precise.

This Foam Front Shaker Stars kit was a little better to get right - probably because there was only one way to bring the card together.  Still - That plaid patterned paper on the left is proof that the cardstock front provided in the kit didn't align with the die cut foam and so I evened everything out with a wrap around "binding".  I also die cut some additional stars and placed them on the front of the card to add a little more interest to the card panel.  The shaker element and sequins are all the same as the previous card.

All in all, I think the card fun and used it for my nephew's birthday - great for a young boy who isn't terribly interested in Auntie's card anyway?!  I'm glad I used this supply up and it isn't languishing away in the stash.  What supplies do you have sitting on the craft table on in your stash that you need to get out and use?  Let this be an encouragement - use up that stash!  You might be surprised at the use you can put those supplies to.  I was!