Double D Challenge: Warm & Cozy

Brrr, our mornings are starting out chilly these days, but the sun turns things warm and cozy later.  Love that about fall.  That's our Double D Challenge this time around -- Warm & Cozy.  The board is beautifully inspiring, and the prize for a random winner is adorable:

 

A cup of cocoa and some Christmas cookies can make me feel pretty darned warm and cozy.  I'd probably be wearing my favorite old cable knit sweater as I partake.  I think you can see how the board inspired me here.

Yes, it's a Cottage Cutz set again.  You know I love 'em and the sales are not to be resisted.  The embossing folder was from a Spellbinders warehouse sale during which I stocked up (ahem).  In this case I embossed on vanilla cardstock, then brushed with caramel ink, and followed up with a little sanding to enhance the pattern.

I love those cookies!  Actually, I love the whole die set.  There's a Santa for the mug, too, which I'll save for later.  Too much fun!  Most of the coloring is ink blending, but Copics for the smallest pieces.  The enamel dots are real this time.  Supplies are all listed in the recipe.

Get warm & cozy with us at Double D!  Share your make and maybe win that prize or be a creative favorite.  It's all in the spirit of fun.   Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again shortly!

Stamps:  None  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, Cougar Vanilla  Ink:  Various Stampin' Up  Coloring:  Ink applied with brushes, Copic markers  Other:  Cottage Cutz Warm & Cozy Cocoa, Memory Box Stitched Circle Layers and Stitched Scalloped Circles, Taylored Expressions Ric Rac Borders, Spellbinders Sweater Weather embossing folder, Echo Park enamel dots

Clean and Simple Poinsettia Border

Hi all!  Today's card came about on a crafty whim.  There's no good reason other than I was flipping through my Power Poppy stamps and came across this oldie.  It's meant to be horizontal, but I wondered how it would work as a vertical border.  I like it!  Very simple.

I colored with Copics, hand cut, and chose another Power Poppy stamp set for the sentiment.  You probably can't see it, but after stamping the sentiment I embossed the white panel with SU's Subtle 3D folder, up to the colored border.  Applied ribbon and some punched gold dots, added to the red card base.  Fun and done!

Do you remember Power Poppy?  Having been on Marcella's design team since its inception I have a lot of her stamps, plus the digis.  She no longer produces new designs, but there are still a lot of clear stamp sets available in the shop at greatly reduced prices, and the digis continue to be available.  I haven't been printing digis since I got fed up with my printer, tsk tsk, but I have every intention of revisiting my Power Poppy and other oldie but goodie stamps more often.

Today's card is a good fit for the Simply Clean & Simple November Challenge where the optional theme is "Christmas is Coming".

I'm glad you could stop by today.  We'll do this again real soon!

Stamps:  Power Poppy Let Your Heart be Light (poinsettias) and Botanical Tree (sentiment)  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White 80 lb, Bazzill red, gold mirror cardstock  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Real Red  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Goldenrod Stickles, gold metallic ribbon, 1/4" & 1/8" circle punches, SU Subtle 3D embossing folder

Just Sophie Today

It's been a while since I did a Sophie post.  Shame on me since she is the light of my life.  Fluff and love and fun.  She keeps me moving and looking for adventure without traveling too far afield.  It's all a thrill to her and I can't tell you how good it is for me as well.

We headed out on a beautiful October day.  Our dunes are edged with scraggly woods and shallow marshes, and they're a wonderful playground for Sophie.  In the first picture we'd just stepped out of the car and she appears to be making an assessment as to which area she should explore first.

Sophie is just shy of 15 months and still very much a puppy.  Depending on their lifestyle Golden Retrievers stay puppies for many years, and I'm sure that will be the case with Sophie as I do like to keep life playful.

On the edge of a marsh we came upon these pretty Asters with beetle... maybe a cucumber beetle, though no cucumbers in sight.

After a good run in the woods and marsh we headed into the dunes.  Guess who loves to dig in the sand?  Yes, and guess who gets to stand in the backyard pool with Sophie to clean her up before she can come in the house.  She's worth it.

A good time was had by all, including Rich who moseyed along the level path while the kid and I ran hither and yon.

Thanks for coming along.  Wishing you a beautiful day!

Fall Branch with Bird

Hello, friends!  I don't want to forget about fall card making, especially since I have some not-yet-used fall stamps in my basket.  This Penny Black Autumn Masterpiece stamp is one of my newbies, but I believe it was released last year.

I embossed in copper on watercolor paper.  The background is a light watercolor wash with Stampin' Up inks, while the image itself was colored with Tombow markers and blender solution.  Then I proceeded to ruin a perfectly good painting by adding the splatters.  It went horribly wrong because my paint was too dilute, tsk tsk.  Hence, I have a small square card rather than a full size card with the beautiful fall branch trailing all the way down the front.  We make do, don't we?

There's a bit of embossed brown peeking from behind the image panel.  That's the Tim Holtz Sizzix Leaf Vein 3D embossing folder.  Not a new item.  It's very cool, but I've barely used it and I need to give it more time.  I scuffed it up a bit and then rubbed it with ink.

I'll be joining up with the following challenges:

The Sisterhood of Crafters -- Fall/Leaves
Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Anything goes or optional "cute or spooky"
NBUS Challenge #67 -- Never before used schtuff.  My Penny Black stamp is used for the first time.

Moving along to the next project on the list.  Life is busy these days.  See you again soon!

Stamps:  Penny Black Autumn Masterpiece  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, copper metallic, dark brown  Ink:  Versamark, various SU for watercolor  Coloring:  Tombow markers and homemade blender solution, Twinkling H2Os for splatters  Other:  Creative Expressions Mini Stacked Thinking of You, Tim Holtz Sizzix Leaf Veins 3D embossing folder, copper embossing powder, corner punch

Guesting with Seize the Birthday: Feather

Hello and happy day!  I was invited to be the Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday for their challenge which begins today.  Confetti, please!  It's an honor and I would like to thank Nancy for having me!

The challenge topping this time around is "Feather" but, as always, if you're not the toppings sort you can make it "anything goes as long as it's birthday".

I don't have much in the way of feathers in my stamp and die collection, but I sure do have plenty of the critters the feathers are attached to.  I enjoy watching the birds in the garden, and I have as much fun crafting them into a card.

Today it's the Penny Black Songbirds Celebrations set which I've inked up more than a few times in the past.

I hung the birdhouse on a branch from my stash in a twiggy frame called Wildwood (also Penny Black), and backed it up with an embossed panel which matches the flowers on the birdhouse.  If you look real closely you can see some tiny hearts floating around in the embossing.  I'd like to say I carefully selected the embossing folder from my stash, but in fact, it came as a protective sheet in a card from a friend.  It's a cutie!

Inside the card there's a party guest bringing balloons for the birthday bird.  The sentiment is retired Stampin' Up.

That's it for the bird-day party at my house, but there's lots more to see at Seize the Birthday, so hop over and have a look, and then join the party with your own birthday offering.  I'll see you there!

Thank you for visiting!

Stamps:  Penny Black Songbird Celebrations, retired Stampin' Up sentiment inside  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, SU Cameo Coral  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Old Olive  Coloring:  Copics, brushed on ink for leaves  Other:  Penny Black Wildwood (twig frame), Spellbinders Classic Squares (behind frame), Memory Box Leaf Bunches, unknown embossing folder

Beware of Dog

I'll take treats, please!  I knew I had just the right stamp for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the current optional theme is "cute or spooky".  I look at this dog and I just want to hug him because I think he's so cute and approachable!

I stamped on a big hand cut flag and watercolored with Stampin' Up inks.  Most of the stars are those which popped out of dies when cut.  I save little things like that in a small container, knowing they'll come in handy someday.  All the stars are sparkled up with Black Diamond Stickles.  To brighten the night sky I also added yellow homemade resin dots -- 1/8" punched circles with dimensional crystal glaze on top.

Because it's a Halloween card I'll also be sharing at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge.  They're always "anything goes", but do provide a fabulous inspiration board as well.  One more challenge inspired the making of this card -- Love Those Pretty Papers.  Their optional theme this month is "Halloween colors/papers".  These old, but still cute, papers go way back to when I was scrapbooking... probably 20 years ago.  

Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Cute or Spooky
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge -- optional inspiration board
Love those Pretty Papers -- Halloween colors/papers

 

That's all, friends!  This was a fun interlude and now I'm off to see what kind of trouble I can get into.  Enjoy your day!

Stamps:  Penny Black Beware of Dog, PB Haunted Halloween (sentiment)  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, black cardstock base, very old halloween patterned paper  Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black, various Stampin' Up for watercolor  Coloring:  Watercolor with SU inks  Other:  Misc. stars including Sizzix Primitive Stars, Black Diamond Stickles, JudiKins Dimensional Crystal glaze, 1/8" hole punch

Santa is Coming

Ho ho ho!  Time for a batch of Christmas cards.  I played with the Picket Fence Studios Santa Mischief set which I bought solely for the sentiments, but the Santas grew on me so I made a card for each of them.

It's possible that everything on these cards is retired.  We all have a few oldies in our stash that we still love to play with, right?  I stamped all my Santas in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.

Memory Box Pine Forest Frame, Impression Obsession Ho Ho Ho and Small Snowflake Set,
TH Sizzix Snowfall embossing folder, Darice Corner Scroll embossing folder

I stamped a snowflake background for the next card and added some designer paper borders.  Santa's list needed some writing on it so I scribbled in gray fine tip pen.

Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets, Spellbinders Long Classic Rectangles,
Impression Obsession Small Snowflake Set

The third card has a little scene which I laid out exactly as shown on the stamp package.  I cut a snowy hill, added a snowflake border above, and accented with the little snowflake centers that popped out of the border.  The gentle bokeh sky background is Mintay paper.

Precious Marieke Snowflake Border

My first Santa is going to head over to the Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge because, even though he's not a lamb, he does remind me of the red-coated lambs in the inspiration board.

That's three more for the Christmas card box and Santa Mischief can take a rest till another year.

Thank you for stopping by!

Double D Challenge: Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Who's Got the Pumpkin?

 

Hello, friends!  The Double D Challenge is all about pumpkins today.  Darlene wants to know, "Pumpkin, pumpkin, who's got the pumpkin?

Check out the inspiration photo with pumpkins galore, and see the prize the DDs have for a random winner.  As always, the team votes for creative winners, as well.

 

I have a painted patch of two stylized pumpkins and a scattering of fancy leaves.  They're from a 2020 Penny Black set called Owlsome.  I loved it for the whimsy, yet have only used it once, tsk tsk.  Today it's colored with Tombow markers and blender.  The sky is smooshed watercolor.

You can probably tell I hand cut the leaves and added them to the finished painting.  Spellbinders Hemstitch Rectangles provided a border.  That's about it.  Not a lot of hooplah to 'splain about this card.

The team has a lot of pretty pumpkins to share on the Double D blog, so do hop over and get inspired.  I hope to see your pumpkins in the gallery!  Have a beautiful fall day!

Stamps:  Penny Black Owlsome  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, cinnamon Bazzill  Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black  Coloring:  Tombows and Stampin' Up inks  Other:  Spellbinders Hemstitch Rectangles