Falling Leaves...FMS110

Easy to find inspiration for today's card!  I just looked out of my upstairs craft room window and watched countless leaves float by all week.  A forecast of wind and rain should bring the rest of them down and set the stage for a perfectly stormy and spooky Halloween night!  In the meantime Miss Emma Lin has been busy scooping and decorating pumpkins for Trick or Treat night at her house!

Happy Halloween!

Rita has a wonderful sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

                                           

Head Over Heels! PPA177

My supply of birthday cards is getting low so I am making a few before Birthday Season hits!  It seems the majority of my friends and family have birthdays in the last three months of the year.  By the time it gets to my birthday a few days before Christmas we are all "birthdayed out" and thinking about the holidays.  So this year I announced to my family that they had between now and Christmas to give me a gift.  I asked them to provide an experience for me that I had never done before - and to spend as little money as possible. There was some moaning and groaning but I think they will all manage something.

In the meantime I stopped in to visit my son and noticed a new piece of exercise equipment.  Time to get in shape for ski season you know!  When I asked what it was he said, "Hop on and I will show you!"  

So here I am hanging like a bat on his new inversion table! Yikes! After he snapped the picture he leaned over and said "Happy Birthday Mom!"  That kid still makes me laugh!  I will let you know what my daughter and husband come up with!

I followed the sketch at Pals Paper Arts this week.

Noel - Merry Monday #80

The weekend is upon us and it is THAT weekend around here..............the one where we head out to the tree farm and tag our Christmas trees.  This year we will need three perfect trees - one for my daughter's house, my son's and ours.  But my favorite Christmas tree is a small artificial tree that sits in my attic - still decorated.  My kids had small artificial trees in their bedrooms when they were young. Every year my daughter would decorate hers perfectly with a theme or her favorite colors but my son's tree.....well that was another story.  Any ornament or trinket that got broken or squashed or torn would be rescued from the trash and hung on his tree.  He couldn't stand the thought of throwing away a Christmas ornament. So what if Santa on skis only had one ski!  Who cares that Rudolph's red nose was long gone? And as long as one bubble light still bubbled the strand worked fine as far as he was concerned.  He told his tree every night how special it was and I still can't bring myself to throw it out twenty years later!  It might be time to pass that tree back to its rightful owner this year............



                               I am playing along with the Merry Monday challenge this week.


                                               

Elegant Thanks! FMS109

Eastern Elegance Designer Paper lives up to its name by adding a touch of elegance to this card.  A touch of ribbon, a bit of bling and this card is all dressed up and ready to go! Sounds like something to remember that next time I am headed out.....a touch of ribbon and a bit of bling can do wonders!

Jen Mitchell design a wide open sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Enjoy!

Baby Cakes......PPA176

Honest I really tried to CASE my own pink elephant baby card (see it here) and do it shades of blue for a baby boy. But when I opened up the Zoo Babies set the lions just begged to come out and strut their stuff on circus stands. Since they are baby lions I figured they wouldn't know they are actually standing on upside down cupcake papers that I punched out and trimmed with Baked Brown Sugar ribbon. And nope there will not be a Baby Cakes card done in pink..........I have thrown in the towel, given up the ghost and closed the book on making more than one card of the same design. It is just too much fun looking for the next best thing to create!



                     Margaret sketched a fun design for us this week at Pals Paper Arts!

                                

Aversion - Diversion....FMS108

I am actually making my Christmas cards this year - first time ever! Knowing my aversion to making multiples of cards this is a major challenge for me! I kept the design super simple and I am making five at a time.  Creating even five at one sitting puts me over the edge and then I need a diversion........so that's what this card is.......a diversion. There was Christmas stuff lying all over my desk so I went with a holiday theme this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  I will post my family Christmas card design at a later date when I have all 80 of them finished.  So far I have completed 15........seems to me I had better develop an aversion to diversions or I will never get done in time!

                  Narelle has a beautiful layered sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!


                                                   

Blog Candy Winner......PPA175

A special HI to Robin S. who left me a comment and won the blog candy from my Halloween Hop Post you can find here.

Robin wrote:

Very cute little creepy crawlies! I think the weirdest thing my mother ever dressed me like was Smurfette. It sounds cute, but all the blue makeup was actually kind of creepy! Thanks for the chance to win some blog candy!

My husband picked Robin's comment randomly......meaning he shouted out a number from 1-40 and I counted down to Robin's winning position!  But I do think Robin deserves some blog candy for putting up with all of that blue makeup! 

I have sent you an email Robin - hope you enjoy your prize! And many thanks to all of you who took the time to stop by and say HI to me!  It is always fun hearing from you!

Pals Paper Arts has a beautiful fall color combo this week!

Signs......FMS107

Signs of a fabulous fall:  Sunny days, beautiful blue skies and spectacular leaf color!  Total inspiration for today's card.

A sign that I might need to slow down and enjoy these days more: The kid in the take out window at House of Pizza handed me our pizza and wings as I was rushing home and said "See you tomorrow!"  Hmm sounds like there is way too much take out food in our house these days!

Jen Timko designed a simple and oh so versatile sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Have fun with it!
                                        

Pals Halloween Hop - Trick or Treat!

Welcome to the Pals Halloween Hop!  No tricks - just treats for you today!

If you hopped here from Beth's blog you are right on track!

That's the flower base from Summer Silhouettes peeking out from under the witch hats below.  I thought it made the perfect creepy crawly creature to match the sentiment from Halloween Bash. What was the creepiest creature you ever were for Halloween?  My mother dressed me up once as an organ grinder.  She stuck a fake mustache on me, handed me my accordion with a tin cup stuck to it and tied our little poodle to the strap.  Our little poodle found the whole thing very creepy for sure..........and yes I played the accordion.......

My Halloween Treat for you is the following blog candy.  If you'd like to be included in the blog candy draw leave a comment with your e-mail included (US only) and you might be the lucky winner!  My blog candy includes the Halloween card below and elements to create one similar to it!  There is the Fright Night stamp (gently used), 24 6x6 sheets of Halloween colored DSP, glitter brads, and ribbon.  Fun stuff!

Now head on over to Sherrie's blog to see what treats she has in store!


                                                

The complete lineup!

1. Lynn Kolcun at Stamping with Avery's Owlery 
2. Angela Curry at Kindred Stampers 
3. Maggie Mata at Maggie Made Cards 
4. Kelly DeTommaso at Kelly's Creative Corner
5. Debbie Crowley at  expressivelydeb... 
6. Rae Harper-Burnet at Wild West Paper Arts 
7. Julie Trevett-Smith at The Stampin' Affair! 
8. Kerry Willard Bray at  Stampgoodness 
9. Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty 
10. Martie Pollard at The Crafty Bandit 
11. Colleen Mollema at My Crafty Habit 
12. Lisa Davis at Cherry Street Paper Treats 
13. Lisa Ann Bernard at  Queen B Creations 
14. Nicole Watt at Pixel Maven's Retreat 
15. Nancy Gleason at  My Stampin Space
16. Beth Beard at  My little craft blog 
17. Linda Callahan at Stampin' Seasons 
18. Sherrie Gross at Stampin' Sunshine 
19. Peggy Noe at  Prettypapercards.com 
20. Debbie Mageed at  Secret Stamper 
21. Katy McGloin at Just Fun Stamping 
22. Susan Itell at Simple Stampin' 
23. Shirley Sumption at Look at my Cute Stuff 
24. Sandra Conner at Pretty Provisions 
25. Carmen Sublasky at The Creative Stamptuary 
26. Margaret Moody at Margaret Moody 

Atlanta Adventures

Brian King, Katy McGloin and Pam Morris sure know how to throw a party!  They hosted a regional get together for Pals in Atlanta this past weekend. 

Brian graciously met us at the airport and here he is escorting Mary Fish and me back to the hotel.

Being from New York that is a bit out of the region but they welcomed this Yankee as one of their own!  I learned how to say y'all, rode the Marta and had my first Krispy Kreme doughnut......or two!  Who could resist them with Anne Burr serving!

 

Then there was swapping, stamping and oh so much laughing! Katy and Pam gave demos and designed wonderful Make and Takes.  Brian was the ringmaster and kept things moving with games and prizes and some stamping tricks of his own to show us!

After lunch we found these mysterious bags on our tables:

                                  

We were told we had 30 minutes to create a card using only items from the bag and it had to include washi tape, Island Indigo ribbon, Etc DSP, chevrons and an image from Hello Lovely!  Whew it was a mad dash - here is our group working hard on our cards!

It was amazing how we were all given the same materials and we all created different cards - not a bad one in the bunch!  Here is what I came up with -  I was hoping to get three brads in but time was up! 

There were more prizes and games in the afternoon and we ended the day with a fabulous dinner at Maggiano's Restaurant.  So much fun!

So it is Monday morning............back to the real world but before I go I must say thanks once more to my friend Dawn Tidd who got up at 5am yesterday to drive me to the airport! Pals are terrific! 

Postcard - PPA174

Thank you to everyone who commented or e-mailed me yesterday telling me about your card making. I learned that many of you make just one card like I do!  And those of you who told me that you made 10 or 20 or even 30 of a design have my utmost admiration!  I also heard from my cousin who remembers coming to my house to check out the back yard after the elephant visit!  Yep that was our 15 minutes of fame!

Maybe today you have some photography hints for me. Baked Brown Sugar cardstock is a much softer brown than it looks here but I just couldn't seem to get it right in the photo! Natural light would probably work the best but I rarely finish a card in daylight.  If my photos were time stamped most would say midnight or later!  I am sure many of you can relate to that!




We have beautiful fall colors to work with this week at Pals Paper Arts!


                                       

Elephant Tales - FMS106

This little elephant image is so sweet that I decided to stamp it more than once!  The plan is to make a blue version of this card as well.  I vowed earlier this year to make at least two of every card I design for my blog but I am not doing so well in that department.  I am such a one and done kind of gal - why do I dislike making multiple cards?  I am curious about what you do.  If you blog or make your own cards do you stop at one or make a batch?

Now for the elephant story.....you knew there would be one......

I grew up in a small town and our back yard bordered the school grounds.  Our local fire department sponsored a circus one year and it pulled into town late one night. We were already sleeping when the circus set up camp on the playground.  A lone elephant was tethered at the edge of the grounds.  In the middle of the night I heard my father yelling that there was an elephant loose in our backyard.......followed by his raging into the yard (in his boxer shorts!) after that elephant who was trampling bushes and our burning barrel. The handler eventually got the elephant secure but not before it dropped a few more surprises ;)  We got free tickets to the circus the next day.......my father chose not to go.......

Amy O'Neill designed our sweet sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!