Fabulous Friday: Recessed Window Card

Happy Friday girls! Around here that means it's the last day of school! Even though I'm not teaching anymore, I still celebrate this day in spirit with all my friends that are! Friday also brings other reasons to celebrate: the weekend of course and a new free image up over at Sugar Creek Hollow - and oh! it's a fabulous one!! So be sure to go over and grab it!

This week the designers are showcasing Recessed Window cards. I've seen sneak peeks and oh they are incredible this week!

I have wanted to make a frame out of the line of ants in the Summer Picnic set. I simply used Photoshop to rotate the image and transferred it to a new canvas. The basket has been colored and popped up. The cloth was printed on some vintage Anna Griffin paper and then added to the image. I had printed it and then needed to re-print my center a little smaller. As a result, the cloth was bigger than my picnic basket. So I just added some folds so that it would fit. I actually love the way it looks - very much like a large tablecloth spilling out of the basket in a natural way! I could've re-printed but I love trying to just "make it work" as Tim Gunn would say! Here's a close-up of the basket and an awesome vintage button I could not resist adding to my card!

And then I added the sentiment on the inside - leaving room to add a verse of encouragement for when I decide to send it out. It is so true isn't it? Picnics are wonderful and represent all the terrific things that happen in our lives. Sometimes though the picnic (life) has moments that are invaded by hardships and difficult times (the ants). Fortunately, we can rely on God's word to uplift as we deal with the ants!

Be sure to visit the rest of the designers. If you don't, you will be missing out on some seriously gorgeous creations! I think I might say that every week, but it's true every week. Each of these ladies is soooo tremendously talented!!

 Cheri ♥ Dani ♥ Donna ♥ Joan
Joseline ♥ Kristina ♥ Linda ♥ Loretta 

Marsha ♥ Nancy ♥ Sarah 

Stephanie ♥ Tracy ♥ Kelly

May Guest Designer

Bernadette

One last thing before you go. Tracy, the owner and designer behind Sugar Creek Hollow could use your votes! The Midnight Madness Challenge has selected their favorite 20 cards from the last year. The card with the most reader votes will receive the "Priscilla Award".

Tracy is a beautiful woman and beautiful creations come out of her hands! Please GO HERE AND VOTE for her - #9 She does sooo much for sooo many people - I'd really love to see her blessed with this award! Thank you!!!

P.S. While you are at Midnight Madness, be sure to register for the amazing blog candy she has up for her one year anniversary - it's incredible!!

The Diedrich Dare: iSparkle

Good morning girls! Today we have an incredible challenge from DT member Kim's kiddos Kaeli and Emilie.

iSparkle.
Do You?

The girls want us to make cards (or another project perhaps) that SPARKLE!

I made a scrappy card for one of my closest friends and I hope she likes it! She mentioned earlier today that she loves polka dots so I have a feeling she will!

I used a scrap of polka dot paper and paired it with some glitter covered chipboard tab and letters. Added some stickers for "happy" and a rubon for "birthday". Quick and simple which really fit my time frame for creating this card!

As this is the last week of May, I want to say thank you again to Sweet Pea Stamps for being our sponsor this month! I am very thrilled to have some of the ching chou-kiuk stamps and look forward to playing with them again soon! It all came together because our girl Randi helped make it happen!

Over the summer, the Dare is running ONE challenge for the entire month - and oh giiirl! The prizes are amazing! I can't wait for ya'll to see all the info next week! In the meantime, take a moment to visit the rest of the DareDevils and see how they are SPARKLING today!

Andrea Murdock ♥ Darla Wilson (on hiatus)  ♥ Heather Schlatter 

 ♥ Jacquie Peifer ♥ Jessica Diedrich ♥ Kim Ross  

Kris Palakiko  ♥ Krista Vantol ♥ Randi Wall ♥

Rebecca Ednie ♥  Sara Henton

Also, be sure to visit Cuttlebug Challenge and see all the projects for this week's challenge: Pennants

Parties All Around

Hi girls! The end of the school year seems to bring party fever on! My sister and I have birthdays a week apart so that's 2 right away. A dear friend of mine is celebrating her birthday next week. My niece and nephew have birthdays a day apart right at the start of June. Those are parties that occur every year! I had a baby shower yesterday and my niece is graduating this weekend so that's another party. And the other day I started wandering in blogland; was so lost I have no idea how I ended up where I was! I found a Garage Salen' Party and thought I'd share what I found at an estate sale yesterday.

Estate sales always make me a little sad - the items that a family passes over when their loved ones are gone. Several weeks ago I cruised through one and there was a 50th anniversary plate left. 50 years. A lifetime of joy and sorrow. Successes and failures. I just can't imagine leaving behind my parents 50th anniversary plate. I hope for the chance to have my own 50th anniversary plate. But I digress.

Here's the treasures I manages to snag. I always try to go to estate sales at the end when they have reduced prices. Makes my dollar stretch further!

I've been wanting a nice lace tablecloth for my dining room table; most I've seen have stains or rips. But this one is in perfect condition. I don't know how old it is - it could quite possible by fairly new. But either way, I love it. It's already been laundered and will be on my table soon!

I always look for the books first. I am a bit of a bookworm. I L.O.V.E. to read. And I can read just about anything. This house had the largest library I've ever seen. And buried in the master bedroom (all the rooms had books) were several children's books. The one above almost got passed over; but I picked it up again and looked inside!

Do you see it? It's a counting book about all these brown animals that live on a farm! I love to create with  brown and I really think that I might have glanced around furtively to make sure no one else was lurking behind me to snatch it away! LOL!! Pictured here are some very adorable paper/cloth books. Ratted and wrinkled and frayed but the illustrations are unbelievable!

Got these too. See that one on the bottom: Manners to Grow On. It was published in 1955 and while I'm not certain I'm completely sold on the idea of homeschooling my child, this will definitely be a course of study in our home. I'm not sure when it became okay to not have manners. And I know that I certainly am not a perfectionist when it comes to all manners, but I certainly try. And by golly so will my kids.

I also grabbed these. Mostly for cutting up and such. I'll read The Hour Awaits first. I'm not sure what it's about. I picked it up because of the title. Do you do that? And the top one is Mental Arithmetic. We'll work that one too although not for several years admittedly. Am I corny for loving that it's called arithmetic and not math?

I also found some vintage silver Christmas ornaments but they've already been put up with the Christmas stuff.

Finally, I remembered how I found this Garage Salen' Party - by clicking on a link for a giveaway! You should go have a look-see as it's for a designer purse!

Fabulous Friday: Thank You

Happy Fabulous Friday girls! This week the Sugar Creek Hollow designers are showcasing their favorite image. Do you have a hard time picking a "favorite"? I do! I loathe "picking" - whether it's a favorite of anything, where to eat and then what to eat, what to put on a gift list, et cetera. I'm not good at. There was hemming and hawing about which image to use. I have several favorites.

I need to make some thank you cards and as I was thinking about this darling birdie my SIL gave me last week for my birthday, I decided to use the Barn Swallow image from Sugar Creek Hollow. You can see that I placed the little thing up on my TV cabinet with my collection of white birdhouses. (They are white despite the fact that the photo has some blue tones. I do love all white cards and over the last week or so have seen some pretty ones so I was inspired to make use of white as well.

I did add lots of interest and texture with the two styles of embossing (Swiss Dots IS my favorite embossing folder, that I know without any hemming and hawing) and the silk bow.

I colored the swallow in greys and yellows, not only because it matches the birdie on my cabinet, but because the other day I saw a bird with a yellow breast flying by with a stick in it's beak. All the birds are busy building their nests right now. Just colored pencils, layered on each other. No blending agent at all. I like this look. I was hoping for a bit of a vintage feel; wanted to add some glitter but couldn't really decide where.

Take a moment and visit the rest of the team to see their favorite images in use.

 Cheri ♥ Dani ♥ Donna ♥ Joan
Joseline ♥ Kristina ♥ Linda ♥ Loretta 

Marsha ♥ Nancy ♥ Sarah 

Stephanie ♥ Tracy ♥ Kelly

May Guest Designer
Bernadette

The Diedrich Dare: A Double Sketch

Post #2 - please keep scrolling for my Cuttlebug Challenge project!

The Diedrich Dare this week is bringing you not one but TWO sketches drawn by DT member Heather's two sweet girls Willow and Piper. I used Willow's sketch. Piper has a terrific sketch too and she said butterflies weren't required but she would love to see them. So I used an image from Sweet Pea Stamps (our fabulous sponsor this month) that features a butterfly*. Here are their sketches:

Aren't those the sweetest? I love their little notes to us! I was flipping through my scrap drawer and saw some yellow paper and instantly thought of a card I saw in Stamp It months ago that was mostly yellow. I don't remember if it had Kraft and/or Black but it struck a cord with me and I decided to use this color combo and use up this paper. I don't design with yellow much AT ALL; who knows why I even bought it in the first place!?!

I know we've really been showcasing The ching chou-kuik line from Sweet Pea Stamps this month here at The Dare, but she has lots of other lines as well, including this artistic, elegant line and a really cute line called Gum Drop Gang!

Take a spin over to the Diedrich Dare blog to see the featured team member this week. And check out the rest of the team members too!

Andrea Murdock ♥ Darla Wilson (on hiatus)  ♥ Heather Schlatter 

 ♥ Jacquie Peifer ♥ Jessica Diedrich ♥ Kim Ross  

Kris Palakiko  ♥ Krista Vantol ♥ Randi Wall ♥

Rebecca Ednie ♥  Sara Henton

That's it for me today! Be sure to keep scrolling for my Cuttlebug Challenge card below!

*I may be able to enter this in Flutter By Wednesday too - I miss creating with those girls every week!

Be Inspired

Good morning girls! I hope ya'll are having a wonderful day! I certainly am! I have a little bit of spending money and decided that I was going to pick up a set or two from Flourishes. I've been admiring their line for well over a year now. And God has just blessed me, let me tell ya! They have a weekly challenge and my sweet DT sister Linda pointed out that my Sugar Creek Hollow card fit their challenge. And I was the random winner this week. So I think I'll be able to get 3 sets -- or maybe just 2 and something else. Either way, I've already started shopping and trying to make up my mind (which we'll talk more about on Friday)!
Thank you so much Flourishes!!

ON a side note, I'm getting distracted by the TV; Food Network is showing Chopped and they were given Black Eyed Peas. Now, I'm a southern girl so I like Black Eyed Peas. I have fond memories of my grandmother cooking them for New Years and they tasted sooo good. The men in my household were less than thrilled. Didn't help that they didn't taste as good as my grandmother's!

The designers at Cuttlebug Challenge were asked to create something with pictures this week. My little man brought home a picture paperweight as a Mothers Day gift that he made in Sunday School. I decided to  gussy it up a bit, as one might say here in Texas!

I just punched a border, embossed it and adhered it with Red Liner Tape. A bit of ribbon and flower to add a little pretty without being too girly. I wanted to add some magnets to the back so I could hang it on my fridge but I can't find my good magnets. But I'll do that soon.

Oh how I love this boy! He has a hard time staying still for a picture and I just see him, captured here mid-sentence for all time.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I really appreciate each of you that do and your sweet comments too! Take a moment to visit the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and see what the other girls have come up with today! They are the BEST and every week just amaze me!

Fabulous Friday: Vintage Cowboy

Good morning girls! It's Fabulous Friday with Sugar Creek Hollow again! This week the girls and I were challenged with COLOR! Joseline, our super sweet and encouraging DT leader, gave us a combo of Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Blue Bayou and Soft Sky.

Oh. My. Woooord.

Love these colors together!

Seriously regretting my decision a few years ago to get rid of my "old" in-color inks. I had Blue Bayou once upon a time - no paper or anything left. Is it one of the colors coming back?

Nancy so kindly clued me in that Blue Bayou was similar to a denim color. Being a Texas girl, denim and cowboys go hand in hand so this was a perfect time to use the new set: Rootin' Tootin' Father's Day.
 I knew that I had some vintage paper that looked like patchworked pieces of denim and dug that out. I distressed all the edges for this week's Ways to Use it challenge and also added some chocolate chip ink on the edges too. The cowboy image was a vintage image I found online and printed out on Kraft cardstock. A little string to add some interest....not too much since this is a manly card. Oh - one other thing. I used this week's sketch challenge too from SCS. I know the top layer she said couldn't be a circle since she wanted the "tilt" to remain....but I'm squeaking it in since I did "tilt" my badge.

Friday brings a Free Image at Sugar Creek Hollow - you can visit the link here to grab them. I know that Tracy and her family are on vacation. A vacation that she planned to intentionally be "un-plugged" so I'm not sure if it will be a new image or not. (ETA: There is a beautiful hummingbird up today!) I know it involved sun and water and so I can completely understand why she wants to just soak up beautiful nature from God and her family. But you better check just to make sure! Right?

I'm also linking this card up for Texas Tuesdays - even though it's Friday. Being a Texas girl and loving all things Texas, I HAVE to participate! Really great projects so I hope you'll take a moment and check them out! And for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday to use a photo.

And be sure to visit the other Sugar Creek Hollow designers to see their take on the color challenge!

 Cheri ♥ Dani ♥ Donna ♥ Joan
Joseline ♥ Kristina ♥ Linda ♥ Loretta 

Marsha ♥ Nancy ♥ Sarah 

Stephanie ♥ Tracy ♥ Kelly

May Guest Designer
Bernadette

A Color Book with Texture

Happy Wonderful Wednesday girls! Be sure to scroll down for my Diedrich Dare card today too!

Up first is my Cuttlebug Challenge project for today. This week we were to supposed to make something with the kids in mind! I thought and thought and was coming up blank. And then I woke up early one morning and as I was dozing, hoping to go back to sleep, an idea came to me. I'm really, really happy with how it came out. And it was came together QUICK!

Here's a look at each page in case you are interested.

 I assembly-lined each step as much as I could. Cut the Kraft bases. Then cut the circles using my Cuttlebug and a Spellbinders die. Then embossed them all. Adhered and stamped the names. Attached the eyelets. Doing it that way made it much quicker than doing one page at a time.

I do think this would be a neat gift for a new mom or a 1st birthday present. I can absolutely see myself making some more of them, adding different themes as well. I do think in the future I will laminate them before adding the eyelets so that a little one could knaw on it without paper disintegrating --- ewww! We all know that it only takes a second with your back turned for them to do something like that!

Be sure to swing by the Cuttlebug Challenge and see what the other girls came up with!

Here are the embossing folders that I used:
Swiss Dots, Houndstooth, Argyle, Swirls, Spots & Dots, Owl Flourish, Perfectly Paisley, Allegro, Snowflakes, Oriental Weave, Heart Blocks

And don't forget to scroll down for my Diedrich Dare card today!

The Diedrach Dare: Another Sweet Pea Creation

Good morning girls! This is my first post today - I hope you'll take a look at my Cuttlebug Challenge project as well!

Sweet Pea Stamps is our sponsor this month and I have a card using another of the Ching-Chou Kuik images for you today! And sweet Kyah drew up our sketch for this week! You can totally tell that she makes cards along with her mom!

I used the Dance of the Butterfly image for my card today. I thought for sure I wanted to use the Swirls embossing folder on the circle portion so I chose one of the mermaid images. The main panel is from my local stamp club. One of the girls (hi Marilyn!) showed us how to make these panels with crayons and an iron. I have done the technique where you melt crayons on wax paper but this was different - more like using encaustic wax. SO FUN! SO VERY COOL!

And totally terrific for an image like this when you don't want to color! I love it, love it, love it! I was talking to Heather (hey girl!) on the phone while I was putting this together and adhered the circle to the blue without embossing. So I just embossed all of it and popped it up like I meant for it to be that way!

I've got to wrap this up! Be sure to visit the rest of the DareDevils and see what they created using the sketch this week!

Andrea Murdock ♥ Darla Wilson (on hiatus)  ♥ Heather Schlatter 

 ♥ Jacquie Peifer ♥ Jessica Diedrich ♥ Kim Ross  

Kris Palakiko  ♥ Krista Vantol ♥ Randi Wall ♥

Rebecca Ednie ♥  Sara Henton

Jam Jar

Good morning girls! I wanted to show you a card I made last week using one of the new releases from Sugar Creek Hollow! This is such a fun set and I hope you've seen what the other designers have done with it - truly fabulous!

I found this cheery paper in my stash and it just reminded me of the patterns from the 40's and 50's. Kinda retro and kinda modern at the same time! I paper pieced the lid, colored the bow with a white gel pen and added it to my jar. Kept the vintage vibe going by mounting it on a doily and then added the polka dot flower and gingham ribbon some modern flair! I LOVE polka dots and gingham!

Visit Sugar Creek Hollow and see all the new releases Here!

I'll see you tomorrow - I have a project for the Cuttlebug Challenge that I am so excited about and can't wait to show you. Plus it's another DareDevil sketch day too!

Another Vintage Giveaway

I know some of you love vintage as much as I do and I discovered a new blog today. She is having a plethora of vintage giveaways! Just gorgeous, GorgeouS stuff! Go check them all out here!!

Fabulous Friday: Another Mother's Day Card

Good morning girls! It's Friday!!! And that means so many fabulous things doesn't it?
1. Free image over at Sugar Creek Hollow on the blog.
2. And the store is now located on it's on website here's the NEW LINK to the store - Tracy just released the new images for May. You've got to see all the creations from the team today and then head to the store. The sets are perfect for Father's Day and Summer and Graduation. So many uses for them. I have what seems like a thousand ideas in my head for these sets. Now to just get them to fruition!!
3. The weekend is upon us! My sister and her husband will be coming to town for Mother's Day and her birthday so I'm really, really excited about getting to spend some time with the family! You? Big plans?
4. It's the Mother's Day Carnival over at Craft Critique!

Today the designers have created an easel card for Mother's Day. I chose to use one of the images from Summer Picnic and a play on words to create this card today.

I have been on such a red and black kick lately huh? Hope you are liking it as much as me! I used Prismacolor Pencils and baby oil to color the rind on my watermelon and then pieced the red dotted paper over it. This card has two of my favorite things: polka dots and gingham!! Can't get enough of it!!  I kept the layout simple and matted the watermelon on some white cardstock that I embossed using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I love this clean and crisp and simple look!

The sentiment was computer generated and then cut out and matted for the inside. I popped it up on dimensionals just a bit so that it would help hold the card up when it's in the easel formation.

Go see what the rest of the designers have created today. I know Linda and Kelly aren't posting a card today but there is still plenty of beauty out there to see!

 Cheri ♥ Dani ♥ Donna ♥ Joan
Joseline ♥ Kristina ♥ Linda ♥ Loretta 

Marsha ♥ Nancy ♥ Sarah 

Stephanie ♥ Tracy ♥ Kelly

May Guest Designer

Bernadette

Don't forget that the Sugar Creek Hollow blog is still intact. That's where you want to go and grab your free image on Fabulous Friday and where you'll find lots of inspiration cards from the designers. The store is now located on it's on site - Sugar Creek Hollow. You'll find single images and lots of sets too - a real bargain for the number of images you get for around $5! And Tracy has added hand-dyed crinkle ribbon as well!

Be sure to visit Craft Critique for the Mother's Day Carnival too - lots of wonderful projects and inspiration. I am looking forward to finding lots of new fabulous blogs to add to my reader!

Thanks sooooo much for stopping by today. Your visit is greatly appreciated and I love your comments - they always make me smile!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired: Mothers Day Card

Note: 2nd post today: Scroll down for my Diedrich Dare card!
Hello girls! I hope you are enjoying a great Wednesday morning. It's been so pretty around here the last week. A bit windy, but that's pretty much the norm here in the Texas Panhandle so I don't really think about it much. I've been enjoying the fact that some of my iris' actually sent out blooms this year. I have several that put out the leaf part, but not the bloom. They are HUGE too! Loving that. Although trying to explain the whole "bloom" process to a 3 year old has been a challenge. We are definitely in that "why" stage* and this mommy just doesn't have an answer most of the time! So my standard answer has become: "Well, buddy, I don't know. That's just the way God made it". *He doesn't actually ask just "why" though; it's always a more complete sentence or "what's _(insert any and every word you can think of here)_ mean?"

It's been several weeks since I've had a Cuttlebug Challenge project to share. So I'm VERY HAPPY to be participating this week! We were to create something for Mother's Day - anything goes - so I just made a card. And a blast doing it. I used my Cuttlebug this week for it's original purpose - to die cut! No embossing on this card. Crazy!!

As I was sitting at my desk, thinking of what to create, I knew that I wanted to make a flower of some sort and I wanted to use one of the free images from Sugar Creek Hollow last Friday. I noticed some crepe paper and doilies on one of my shelves and decided to use those too. That heart doily is 6" across so this card is BIG!! The only 12x12 cardstock I could find was a grey scrap - so I paired it with some black velvet flocked paper to work with the red.

The flower was sooo easy to create. I used my cuttlebug and one of the bonus dies from an alphabet set to cut out 12 small scalloped circles. I was able to cut 4 layers at a time - probably could've done even more layers. The big flower has 8 of the circles, stacked together. Then a brad in the middle and some scrunching up! The crepe paper is so thin that it scrunches easily! The little flower is just 4 circles, and I scrunched them much more as I wanted it to look like a bud, just starting to bloom. I finished it off with some gems and glitter Mom stickers!

Here's the inside of my card. I used some scraps along with the free Mother's Day Sentiment that Tracy posted on Friday at Sugar Creek Hollow. There is also a round image that I think would make a cute "envelope seal". Be sure to grab them by Thursday if you haven't already. You can view the store here too!

I hope you'll swing by the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to see all the other fabulous creations. They ladies on that team always create the most beautiful projects! And there's ALWAYS a contest of some sort going on to win great prizes!!

And be sure to scroll down for this week's Diedrich Dare challenge!

The Diedrich Dare: Sweet Pea Pirate

Hello girls! Today is the first Whimsical Wednesday: Diedrich Dare challenge for the month of May!!! There are soooo many exciting things going on right now for the dare! First, our challenge for the month of May -

Are you squealing too? If not, you will be when I tell you that Lynette has graciously and generously donated a $20 gift certificate to her store for one lucky participant this week! I know huh?!!?

Sweet Pea Stamps range anywhere from whimsical to artistic. They are made of hiqh quality, unmounted red rubber. They have an amazing collection of images from three talented fantasy artists: Ching-Chou
Kuik, Elaine Cox, and Lisa Victoria. If you would like to see more samples, please check out the Sweet Pea Stamps blog.

I also want to add that Lynette is a wonderful owner. I ordered some stamps from her and had an issue and she was so quick to fix it! Above and beyond customer service so I'm really happy to recommend her and her stamps to you!

Okay, the other exciting thing going on in May is that The Diedrich Dare is welcoming not one but FOUR guest sketch artists! It's gonna be a great month! This week Kaitlyn has drawn a wonderful sketch for us. Her mom is fellow DareDevil Andrea.

Isn't that the cutest?!?! She did want to add that your image doesn't have to be a girl and the ribbon doesn't have to be polka dotted. Kids totally get the whole "not limiting creativity" thing don't they?

Lynette was so generous and sent the team some stamps to play with - thank you so much Lynette! I used Ching-chou kuik's Caribbean Treasure image** (which I noticed is on sale right now) for my card today. My pirate girl has a little sassy girly-ness that shines through despite being on a pirate boat.

This is the first image I've colored from the Ching-chou kuik line and I think I goofed on a few bits, but don't look at those, okay? Check out the stickles I added to her tail fin instead!!! LOL!!!!

Take a spin over to the Diedrich Dare blog to see the featured team member this week. And check out the rest of the team members too! I know I can't wait to see their creations this week!

Andrea Murdock ♥ Darla Wilson (on hiatus)  ♥ Heather Schlatter 

 ♥ Jacquie Peifer ♥ Jessica Diedrich ♥ Kim Ross  

Kris Palakiko  ♥ Krista Vantol ♥ Randi Wall ♥

Rebecca Ednie ♥  Sara Henton

**You can find this image HERE - all the way at the bottom of the page.
And be sure to check out my Cuttlebug Challenge card for today too - it's in the post above!