You've been on my mind

This card was so easy to make!  I started with this lovely 6x6 patterned paper, die cut with a large stitched rectangle die, layered, and found a lovely sentiment (sentiment and die by Simon Says Stamp.)

All inspired by this Freshly Made Sketch:

Happy Friday!

Teacher Valentine collaboration post with Marcie Sharp!

Today I am honored to be doing a collaborative post with a dear blog friend, Marcie Sharp of Sharp Designs:  Cardmaking in the Country.  Marcie is having a weekly collaboration post each week for 2016.  For this week's theme she and I decided on "Teacher Valentines."  I couldn't wait to play with this globe die that I just purchased last Wednesday.

In my stash I found this wonderful map paper by BasicGrey.  A few months ago I sorted half of my 6x6 collections by color;  I even used sandwich bags to hold color scraps smaller than 6x6 and placed each baggie in with the 6x6 pieces of the same color.  The piece of salmon ledger was a little scrap;  I punched a heart from the top right corner (heart hole now covered by the purple Bazzill circle.)  I love using up scrap pieces!  The speckled aqua paper was also a scrap in the blue section; I chose it because I like the contrast with the salmon color.

Here is my complete teacher valentine:

I used the current card sketch at Fusion challenge blog for my inspiration:

Now hop on over to Marcie's blog to check out her teacher Valentine and let her know June sent you :)

Happy Wednesday!

Marchin' Around the Christmas Tree

Isn't this toy soldier and Christmas tree die cut beautiful?  It is from the recent ephemera packet by October Afternoon.  A few months ago I sorted half of my 6x6 papers by color (the less used pads I left together by collection.)  The new filing system made it easy for me to pair papers and design a card around this darling die cut.  The die cut is even colored on both sides, in case you wanted to place him facing left.  I think that is design genius and ideal especially if planning a scrapbook layout/mini book.  All I needed was a little sentiment, and this SRM sticker fit the bill.

I am entering this in the current Jingle Belles challenge:  Oh Christmas Tree.

Happy Tuesday!  Be sure to stop by tomorrow…I have something special to share.

In Honor of Leslie Hanna

 Me, Leslie Hanna, and Lisa (Papergrace Designs)

Some of my best friends are those that I have met through blogging…and I consider many of you readers dear friends that have not met in person…yet :)  I started blogging because my best friend, Tracy, encouraged me to give it a try.  My very first dear bloggie friend (2007) is Lauren, who I finally had the pleasure of meeting in person in 2015.  In 2008, Lauren and I "met" Leslie Hanna.   I was in the good fortune to live only an hour+ away from Leslie.  My only LSS was half-way between our homes, so we frequently met there.  Leslie did not like to be photographed, but the picture above was one of those rare photo-ops that she allowed.

In 2010 Lauren and Stef started the Jingle Belles blog, and Leslie and I were very loyal participators.

If you have visited Leslie's blog, she was a delightful read.  So witty and kind…and she disliked the color pink.  Whenever she used any pink, or even just had to type the word, she wrote "gah-pink."

Imagine my delight when I was on the Shopping Our Stash (SOS) DT with both Lauren and Leslie!  I stayed only six months because we were in the process of moving and I had to let a few things go at the time.  Later Leslie took over running the SOS blog.  Leslie suddenly passed away on December 25th.  Her children, Max and Alex, have given their blessing to keep the SOS blog up and running.  This week's challenge at SOS is Color Me Monochromatic (or Pink) in honor of Leslie.  I think this challenge would make her smile.

I am also entering my card at Jingle Belles Something Old/Something New challenge.  My MFT Die-namics snow drifts die is new, but the Echo Park pink papers and Stampin' Up scallop punch, SU circle punch,  and SU rub-ons have been in my stash for at least a few years.

Leslie was so well-loved by so many crafters.  She and I both have a fondness for cats.  I recall when she had to put her cat Koshka to sleep and she was there for me when I had to put my furry girl (Skeeziks) to sleep.  Then she adopted Bobra ("Bob-ruh") and they made a fabulous pair; he looks amazingly like Barbra Streisand, but he is a boy, hence "Bobra."  Then I adopted two furry boys that I named Cadfael and Llywelyn, after two of my favorite characters in historical fiction novels.  Leslie also enjoyed reading historical fiction, and she was very generous in giving me her books when she finished reading them.  I am ever so grateful for Leslie's friendship.

Cheers,  Leslie!

Something Old, Something New challenge at Jingle Belles

I can hardly believe that Jingle Belles challenge blog has been running for over 6 years!  Lauren and Stef have provided so much inspiration with their lovely cards and challenge prompts.  I participated quite a lot the first couple of years, but then not as much as I wished to since…life got in the way just a bit.  But my resolution for 2016 is to join these wonderful ladies in "taking back December"; enjoying the holidays even more with Christmas cards completed before December arrives.

This fortnight the challenge is "Something Old, Something New."  My blue green background paper is really old Core'dinations color core card stock that I embossed with dots.  The snow drift dies I purchased last October, and everything else came from the Simon Says Stamp December 2015 kit.  I also used my lovely friend Leslie's final sketch (again.)

If you knew Leslie Hanna, you enjoyed her humor and her kindness.  Leslie passed away suddenly on December 25th.  If this is new news to you, then I apologize for you having to hear it this way.  She touched hundreds of blogger, twitter, and instagram crafty friends, and we are all better off for having known her.  I doubt that I can say anything that hasn't already been shared about this wonderful friend.  I personally will miss her comments on my blog, the email exchanges we shared after nearly every post of hers/mine, her sketches, and her visits to my home and to local restaurants for our lunches together.  Yes, I was fortunate to having "met" Leslie through blogging, but we lived only an hour + away from each other for a few years before she and her faithful friend Bobra-the-cat moved to Ohio.  In our last email exchange, we were discussing how we both wanted to participate at Jingle Belles in 2016 as faithfully as we did in 2010, 2011, etc, and how I was going to work on my unfinished objects pile (UFO, one of Leslie's much used acronyms.)  Leslie will be missed by so many.  I have so many fond memories of Leslie, and her use of acronyms have been in my vocabulary now for years.  I will list a few of my favorites here:

SABLE = supplies available beyond life expectancy

ECBTOIN = every color but the one I need

SYFY = save yourself from yourself

UFO = UnFinished Object

Leslie, I hope you are crafting with unlimited supplies, as crooked as you please :)

Will you join me in participating in the 2016 challenges at Jingle Belles?  I hope so; there is always so much eye candy from Stef, Lauren, and the other JB participants.

Happy New Year!

UFO (UnFinished Object) + sketch challenge

Today I was doubly inspired by both Shopping Our Stash's UFO challenge (UnFinished Object) and this wonderful Leslie Hanna sketch (The Crooked Stamper sketch challenge #11):

This umbrella was cut and assembled in April 2012 using My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Dilly Dally papers.  At that time, since I Cricut cut the umbrella panels from three different patterned papers, I decided to go ahead and cut three umbrellas total.  So back in April 2012 I made one card and used a 3D sticker sentiment from a My Mind's Eye Lost and Found 2 collection.  At the time there were no other sticker sentiments that would work for the remaining two umbrellas, so the other two went in my UFO heap…until now.

The owner of the local coffee shop where I sell some of my cards is having a baby girl.  Several of the regular customers asked me recently to create baby girl cards.  I responded that there are a few baby girl cards for sale and they responded,"but they don't say 'baby shower'."  Sometimes customer requests truly surprise me; but it made an easy decision as to what sentiment to use with the last two umbrellas!

Thank you,  The Crooked Stamper sketch and Shopping Our Stash, for the inspiration.  I may have to make working on my UFO pile as a New Year's resolution :)

Happy Saturday!

UFO challenge (UnFinished Object)

My self-challenge this year has been "use-it-up".  Last Spring I purged my craft room and filled the trunk of my SUV with papers, stamps, etc. that no longer brought me joy.  I carried them off to a donation center and I felt so much lighter, even if my family could not tell that my craft room was less jam-packed-full of crafty stash.  (When my husband saw the trunk of my car he exclaimed, "All of that came out of there?")

I have accumulated new stash, but I still think I am doing okay…with the exception of the pile (mini tower?) of unfinished cards and projects on the floor that I uncovered in the spring clean out.  I have added a couple of UFOs to it in the past few months.  I actually have made 5 cards from that pile, but that has hardly made a dent in it.  I wish the pile wasn't there at all (I am a neat freak), but that may take most of 2016 if I didn't have other things to make :)

This was on the top of the pile:

In October I purchased the MFT quilt die (it had been back-ordered for months.)  I still love these old Daisy D's paper (circa 2005.)  In an attempt to use up the entire set of papers, I started die cutting.  Two days of work yielded these six panels…it takes longer than you might think to die cut and adhere all of those pieces.  I even used my Xyron to make it go quicker than say a glue pen.  I wasn't sure what sentiment I might use…"Just a Note" or "Thinking of You" but I wasn't sure.  Life got busy, so they went into this gallon Ziploc.

This morning when I saw the "UFO challenge" at Shopping Our Stash, I perused my mini tower of UFOs.  There are a lot of single unique cards I could make from the pile, but I chose this project because it was bulky.  I decided to only use the red and green papers in the pack(so I didn't quite use-it-up.)  That meant making four more panels to use all of the green papers.  Then I went in search of a sentiment…this one seemed perfect:

Wishing you lots of love this Christmas.

Happy Tuesday!