Playing With Pumpkins

Each year I grow pumpkins in my garden.  I never use them for food but I get a kick out of seeing them grow, develop and see the bright orange balls among the dying leaves of the plant.  One year my smallest pumpkin was 42 pounds.  So fun to give these to my grandchildren.  I'm not sure why the pumpkins did not do well this year - only a few and not very big. But enough for decorations. While thinking about pumpkins and big pumpkins, I came up with an idea for the sketch at Your Next Stamp.

See those BIG pumpkins on the Kraft base?  Well, you are right - how could you miss them?!  They are digital images by Doodle Pantry.  And the main image and sentiment are also Doodle Pantry.  I love how this turned out!  The pumpkins are from the set "Pumpkins" and the main image is from the set "Harvest Bounty".  I used the precolored versions of both.  After enlarging the pumpkins and printing them, I fussy cut them and glued them onto the cardstock.   The main image is backed with Chocolate Brown.
Oh, BTW, here is the sketch:

Challenges:
Simon Says Monday - Tammy's inspiration
Kraft Journal - button
Paper Makeup - leaves
Party Time Tuesday- pumpkins
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Perfect Sentiment - layered thanksgiving
Craft 4 Eternity - cinnamon
2 Sisters - fall fun
Ribbon Carousel - fall
House of Gilli - fall
Your Next Stamp - sketch and photo inspiration
Get Inky - fall colors

Fall Fun

Second Post for today. After a few more Christmas cards, it is back to Autumn.  After a rain storm over night, we are back to a beautiful Fall day. 
Did you ever play in the leaves when you were little.  I played in the leaves with my kids.  I love this digital image by Bugaboo.  It just shouts FUN.

The base is Kraft on which I stamped leaves from an old StampinUp set.  I used the same leaf as embellishes but stamped with several colors, fussy cutting them.  For the burlap bag, I printed the image onto a darker Kraft, stamped with Linen StampinUp stamp, then fussy cut.  "Autumn" is a sticker.

Challenges:
Simon Monday Challenge - designer inspiration
Paper Makeup - leaves
Crafts 4 Eternity - cinnamon colors
2 Sisters - fall fun
Di's Digitals - color your image
Your Next Stamp - photo inspiration
House of Gilli - fall
House That Stamps Built - fall
Paper Creators - die cuts
Get Inky - fall colors

Hooray For Scraps of Paper

Almost all my cards have stamped images or digital images.  Here are three cards with no images.

I saw similar cards in a magazine and then when I saw the sketch at Sketch Saturday, I decided to give it a try.  I have a lots of pieces of Christmas designer paper so I rifled through those and came up with these fun combinations. The only embellishments are brads.  Do you see those TINY white stars on the second card.  Love those little guys.

Thanks for looking.

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Sister Act - anything

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No, not Christmas.  Autumn.  As I have said before, I love the colors (my favorites), the smells, the weather.  Christmas comes with cold and/or wet weather, expenses, tension, family relational problems.  Yes, I will choose Autumn.

I can't even remember when was the last time I used these Stampin Up stamps.  I have so many Autumn stamps, I don't even use all of them each year.
The BG paper already has a little bit of orange so it was a perfect scrap piece to use.  The big leaf is a Spellbinder die which I cut out of Pumpkin Pie cardstock and then sponged the veins before taking it out of the die.  When trying to decide what decorative edge on bottom of image panel per sketch, I chose a piece of burlap.  I think it really adds to the Fall effect.
Sketch: Tuesday Morning #218

Hope you are somewhere where you can enjoy an Autumn day.  We have blue skies, sunshine, breeze today so I am going to a walk in the woods.

Challenges:
Simon Says Monday - words
Twist of Faith - song (When Autumn Leaves)
Craft 4 Eternity - use colors
Sister Act - anything
2 Sisters - Fall Fun
House that Stamps Built - Fall
Get Inky - Fall
House of Gilli - Fall 

You Go Girl !

Operation Write Home is celebrating World Card Making Day with a Mega Bloghop.
Our theme is Thank You cards.  I made one to thank a female deployed hero (technically heroine). Definition of heroine: a woman who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.  Our military women are definitely worthy of admiration and thanks!

A few years ago, I received a breast cancer awareness set by a.muse studio.  This sentiment was one of the stamps.  I thought it would be fun to stamp it (and emboss it) onto pink camo paper.  The T-shirt die is MFT.  The star die cut is Verve.  Embossing folder is Cuttlebug.
No, it does not say "Thank You" but I will be expressing my thanks on the inside.
Here is the sketch I used - going way back to #14:

Hope you enjoy the BLOGHOP.

I appreciate all your comments.

Around the Clock

This week I have been making cards to thank our military heroes.  Getting ready for the BIG World Cardmaking Bloghop at OWH tomorrow.  Make sure you hop with us!
But for this post,  I am showing a "Miss You" card that I made while making all the thank you cards.   I LOVE a DCWV pad a paper I purchased recently.  It has embossed paper and lots of vintage look pages. 

I used one of the clocks and one of the sentiments from the Hero Arts set that was made for OWH.  The arrow is a die by Verve.  I embossed all three pieces with clear embossing to go along with all the embossed keys and clock hands on the background paper.
The sketch is 365 Cards

That is it for this short post.  Make sure you come back tomorrow.  It is going to be FUN!

Challenges:
Simon Says Monday - words
Twist of Faith - song "I Miss You So"
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Sister Act - anything

Something Old, Something New, Something For Everyone

October 1st and I am so excited to share with you what is going on at Doodle Pantry.  Many of you already know that Clearly Digital Stamps (formerly Clear Dollar Stamps) closed their shop.  Laurie Wilson's digital sets are now in the Doodle Pantry shop.  So not only are there NEW sets for the October release but "new" sets from CDS.  There are 42 new sets available as of this morning!!!  42 besides the October Release!!!  You just must take a look here.
Here are a few cards I made with one of the new October released sets and some cards with one of the formerly CDS sets.  Long post - but make sure you get to the end where I will tell you about the SALE as well as the new challenge rules.
Many of you know I have three grandchildren from Ghana.  Here is a pic of a Ghanaian basket I own:

Beautiful.  So you can image how jazzed I was to see this new set that Laurie drew:

I used the lined version to create this card, coloring one of the baskets to look like my own:

For the second card, I used a precolored basket.  And don't you love these background papers?

I put fruit and corn (from other sets) in the basket before printing.  Love how you can do that with digital images.
Okay now on to one of the sets that is now in the Doodle Pantry Store.  I used the precolored images, sentiments and digital papers that come with the set:

Gorgeous set.
Okay, now for some super-duper SALE announcements as well as how to get some FREE sets.
The sale begins today and runs through Oct. 7.   25% off the October Release AND the 42 previously CDS sets!!! As if that is not enough - "Stocking Ant's" set is FREE with purchase.  Like I said earlier, you must go look at all the new sets.  They are fab! 
The challenge rules for the Doodle Pantry monthly challenge have changed.  You now may use a digital image by any other company not just Doodle Pantry.  But if you use a Doodle Pantry image, you will receive a Free Doodle Pantry set just for playing.  Still only one entry per month, please.
The challenge goes live at noon Eastern time. 

I know this was a long post but there was a lot to cover.  Thank you for your patience. Now head over to Doodle Pantry to see all the beautiful sets.

Simon Says Monday Challenge - use words
Frosted Designs - texture
What if Wednesdays - fall
Craft 4 Eternity - anything
Sister Act - anything
Pink Gem - use black
Di's Digital Downloads - color your image
Stamp and Create - birthday
Get Inky - fall
House of Gilli - fall

Simon Says Wednesday - anything