FALL ... beautiful Fall . . .

Happy 1st Day of Autumn!

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania and living in N.E. Ohio for the past several years, I have always enjoyed the changing of the seasons!  

 

Winter can be so pretty as you sit inside your warm, cozy home and watch the snow gently falling to cover everything with a clean blanket of white!

Spring is a breath of fresh air ... a time when you can open the windows, enjoy the breeze and witness your yard go from dingy winter brown to beautiful springtime green!

Summer is always wonderful with the warm, sunny days and flowers all a bloom.

But FALL can be the best of all!  

With the cooler temperatures, wonderful fresh garden vegetables and the amazing colors of the trees, how could you ask for more!

It was brought to my attention recently of a challenge blog called OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD.  Wow! What an awesome site with beautiful photos and stories being shared.  This week's challenge is FALL and I instantly knew what photo I wanted to share.

 This is a maple tree in my daughter's front yard in Leetonia, Ohio.  

I took this photo back in 2005 but every year it looks JUST LIKE THIS ... just gorgeous. 

 I grew up on 25 acres ... covered with Oak, Maple & Dogwood trees.

 

In fact, my parents had to cut down enough trees to make a clearing to build our house.  They took them to a local saw mill where they were cut into boards that were then used to build the house! 

In case you are not familiar ... the red leaf in the photo is a Maple leaf in its fall color. The green leaf is an Oak and the photo below with the red berries is a Dogwood.

See that 'saw blade' peeking out from behind this dogwood branch.  Well THAT SCARY THING is the actual saw that my parents used to cut the logs that we burned in our wood fired furnace when I was a kid.  Summer time my dad spent hours in the woods cutting & clearing then come fall he would hook up this MONSTROSITY to our tractor that had a pullie belt & motor that created the power to make the blade go around fast enough to cut the logs into burnable size pieces.  Then we kids (3 girls) would help haul it back up to the house and stack it in the basement to get us through the winter.

My father has been passed for 20+ years now and the old saw still sits down in  what was our 'picnic area' and there was even a few years that Mom planted flowers around it in honor of my Dad.  Talk about hard work ... and yikes ... we're lucky no one ever got hurt with this thing!!  Nope ... there was no GUARD ... that saw blade was spinning fast & free and the platform table on the back is on wheels and that's where you laid the logs to pushed them into the saw blade to be cut.

Well ... I didn't mean to go on and on, but thanks for letting me share one of my Fall childhood memories with you today!  

God has certainly blessed us with so many wonderful & beautiful things!  Even this scary old saw blade which enabled my parents to keep our family warm through the cold, harsh winter months.

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!

As always ...

Shelly's Images Challenge

It's time for another fun challenge over at Shelly's Images and today's a uniquely fun one ... 

it's called ROLL 'EM.

Here's how it's played and I sure hope you'll come join in the fun!

(Use the Random.org number generator to pick your products, roll at least three times)

1 – Use FLOWERS of some sort

2 – 2 Layers

3 – BLING

4 – Ribbon/Trim/Twine or Lace

5 – Distressing

6 – Embossing

7 – Digital Image

8 – 3 Buttons

9 – NO Patterned Paper

0 – Kraft Paper

The numbers I rolled were 1 (use flowers of some sort), 2 (two layers) & 7 (digital image).

The Shelly's Images digi we (the team) are featuring today is called "FALL FENCE".  Please be sure to check out my team mates creations and leave them some love ... they are a very creative group of ladies!  I have used 2 layers of DCWV design paper, Prima flowers and of course our featured digi image.  Coloring was done with Prismacolor Markers and Stampendous diamond dots were used for the flower centers.  The 'greenery' was created using Marianne LR0157 die.

This is such a FUN way to create, and by randomly spinning for the numbers, a lot of the decisions have been made for you!  Now you can just have fun creating your masterpiece!!

Please be sure to check out Shelly's Images Store ... she has a wide variety of images and has also begun offering PRE COLORED IMAGES ... they are FABULOUSLY colored and makes card making a snap!  Be sure to check it out!

Here are a few other fun challenges this creation qualifies for:

Crafting for All Seasons - Falling Leaves

Scrapalicious USA - Happy Fall Y'all

Stampavie and More #180 - Autumn

Celebrate the Occasion #86 - Fall

Thanks so much for your visit and please come join in our fun!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Look but DON'T touch!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

With being out of town last week, I'm a little busy playing Catch Up but that's okay ... it was certainly worth it since I had such a FABULOUS time with Shelly Parker (Shelly's Images) and her wonderful family!!  Today I'm playing some of my favorite challenges and trying to work ahead on some DT commitments since I'll be leaving again on Thursday headed to Joan's Gardens in Indiana for the last workshop of the year. Since I'm taking a break for creating for a few minutes, I wanted to share a little something with you!

Are you curious about the title of this posting?  

Here's what it's referring to . . .

Beautiful huh!

Don't be fooled!  

As beautiful as it is in it's gorgeous fall color ... this is POISON IVY and trust me, it's not pleasant when you are tricked by it's beauty!  (Ask me how I know!)  This ivy is growing beautifully up a tree right next to my bird feeders and is just begging me to pick a few leaves to showcase on a pretty fall card! 
NO THANKS!

Well, break time is over and I really must get back to creating while my mojo is still in tact!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

FALL cards and a TUTORIAL ...

Hello everyone and I hope you're having a nice start to your weekend!

Here in NE Ohio we have rain .... clouds ... wind

Well, you get the picture!

So I'm playing in my cave trying to get some things ready for my November craft show.  And, along the way, I created a couple of cards with 2 of the latest digi images from "priscillastyles".  Check 'em out!

"priscillastyles" image called FALL CAT

 This FALL CAT creation uses DCWV designer paper for the background.  The fall leaves punch from Creative Memories was used with various fall colored cardstock to make my cluster of fall leaves and the acorn was made from chocolate chip cs and the Spellbinder Fall Leaves die set.  The added corner embellishment is from the Cheery Lynn Designs B165 - Lace Corner die set.  My coloring was done with Prismacolor markers and blue chalk applied with a makeup applicator for the sky.

"priscillastyles" image called FALL DOG

I have used several of the same elements to create my Z-FOLD FALL DOG card.

Here are a few other qualifying challenges:
2 Sisters Challenge - Fall 
One Stop Craft Challenge - No Floral Embellishment
Send A Smile 4 Kids - Cute Fall or Halloween 4 kids

Bloggers Challenge - Bring on Fall
Clearly Inspired Challenge - Leaves
Raise The Bar - Celebrate Fall
Divas by Design - Friendship
Fab 'n' Funky - Colors of Autumn

* * * * *

If you've never made a Z-FOLD card, they are very easy ... 

here's a quick step tutorial for you. 

Materials needed:

• Card stock for base card measuring 4 1/4" x 11
• Design Paper for panels measuring:  (1) at 4" x 5 1/4" and (2) at 4" x 2 1/2"
• Focus Panel can be any size/shape you wish.  

 For the card below I have used a Shelly's Images digi stamp called "Pumpkins" and the Spellbinder Labels 1 dies.  For my FALL DOG creation, I simple cut & matted in square shapes.
Other items used on this sample card are:
Michael's satin ribbon ... Spellbinder Fall Leaves die (acorn) ... Fine tip marker for faux stitching ... sentiment from a Carolyn King 'Whimsical Autumn' stamp set.

STEP 1:

STEP 2:

 STEP 3:

 STEP 4:

STEP 5:

These are easy, fun cards to create!  I hope you'll give them a try and when you do, be sure to let me know so I can come take a peek at your creation and leave you some love!
(More Z-Fold samples are available by clicking on the TUTORIAL tab beneath my header.)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a 'fun-tabulous' weekend!

SSHP07 Saturday Spotlight - Masterboard

Happy Weekend Everyone !!!

It's Saturday and that means it's time again for a SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT with HIDDEN POTENTIAL Challenge. Today we are creating a "Masterboard". Using your stamps (any!) to create your own "masterboard" or your own designer paper to create several cards/projects at once...good way to get several holiday cards done! If you are unfamiliar with this concept, Vicki has a tutorial for you over on her blog, found HERE.

Our sponsor today is Digital-Ink Co. and they have provided the images used by our Design Team's creations. Be sure to upload your entry on the Saturday Spotlight Challenge Blog ... Mr. Linky ... for your chance to win and choose THREE free sets from Digital Ink Co. The images provided today are by three of the nine creators they have on board. Today's creators are Jules Junk, Whimsy Design Studio and Stitchy Stamps. Please be sure to check out all the awesome digi images available at the Digital-Ink Co. Store. The "pumpkin" images I chose to use today are by Whimsy Design Studio. I paired them up with one of the first stamp sets I ever purchased from Stampin' Up (Sweet Seasons).

My masterboard was created using the oak leaf image from another SU stamp set ... "Country Blessings" and Kaleidocolor "Autumn Leaves" ink. My Whimsy Designs pumpkins were perfect with this cute fall image and I've used Prisma color markers/pencils for my coloring. A little dimensional tape was used to pop up the front pumpkin for added dimension.

Please be sure to visit my Diva sister's for additional inspiration on this theme!!

*Vicki (creator/coordinator) ... *Chris (Coordinator) ... Boni ... Crystal ... Darlene ... Dawn ... Debbie ... Erin ... Jessica ... Maria ... Susan ... *Jodi (Guest Diva)

As always, thanks so much for stopping by today and I wish you a WONDERFUL weekend!

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I just had to quickly share with you an award I JUST received from my new friend and co-team mate on Digital Ink Co. ... Kim - Memories In Thyme! l am honored and thrilled to receive this award! I will display it with pride. I'm so happy to be able to call you my friend!! Thanks Kim!

Crafty Secrets - Fall for Fall

Today's Crafty Secrets Forum Challenge over on SCS is hosted by Marcy and she has asked us to create using a FALL THEME. I have used one of the Crafty Secrets Fall Cotton Scraps as the focus of my creation. Using various fall colored cardstocks like Pumpkin, Olive, Rust and Brown, it didn't take long for this card to take form. The background designer paper is from DCWV and the leaves were diecut with the Spellbinder Shapeabilities Fall Leaf dies. Like I said ... very Easy Peasy ... but I love the outcome.

Fall is definately in the air here in N.E. Ohio today! So my head tells me I should be outside working to prepare for the upcoming winter but my heart says ... it will be there for another day, go to your craftroom and have fun!!! LOL!!! Guess which part of my body I'm going to listen to!! Please come back later when I hope to share with you my creation for today's Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge ... it's a doozy!!!

PCP Crafty Secrets Challenge

Good Sunday Morning to All!!

It's time for me to host another Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets challenge over on Papercraft Planet. With a head cold having me a bit under the weather this weekend, we are doing EASY-PEASY!! All you have to do is use FALL COLORS with your HVCS products. That's it ... doesn't have to be a fall card ... can be birthday, thank-you, thinking of you ... whatever, so long as you use FALL COLORS.

For my creation I have used a combination of Really Rust, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa cardstock and the gold desiger paper is from the Crafty Secrets "Earthy" paper pack. My image is a Crafty Secrets "Feathered Friends" cotton scrap and I've used Fiscar decal scissors on 2 of the 3 mattings. The half pearls are by Kaiser and the ribbon is SU Close to Cocoa satin.

If you're a member of Papercraft Planet and you own any of the Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets products ... then you are eligible to come play along and maybe win yourself a nice prize!! Please come check us out!! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!!

And since it is FOOTBALL SUNDAY ..... "GO STEELERS!!!" Sorry, just had to toss that out there!!

OCC Challenge

Happy Saturday everyone!! It's again time for one of my favorite challenge blogs ... Our Creative Corner. Today's challenge is an inspirational challenge hosted by the August Hostess - Loretta Lock. With this comment: In rural communities, it’s almost time for harvest ... that is the path I followed for my creation.

My card is A-6 in size and I have used the H&M Beverly Cole stamp set called "Old Fashioned Hayride" and the GinaK stamp set called "Happy Harvest". The sunflower image is from the Crafty Secrets Garden Cotton Scraps and it has been distressed and matted with Chocolate Chip cs. Although you can't see it very well in the photo ... the background green paper is linen designer paper by Making Memories. My sentiment was stamped in Versafine Sepia and clear embossed then diecut with Nestabilities Label Four and sponged in old olive & pumpkin pie before removing from the die. The pumpkins were stamped onto pumpkin pie cs with versafine black ink and clear embossed before being cut out with my swivel craft knife.

I hope you enjoy this FALL creation. Isn't it hard to believe that the summer is nearly over???? Gosh, time is sure flying by!!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Challenge Card Creations ...

I have 2 cards to share with you today which will actually cover 4 different challenges.

The layout for this card comes from the Card Positioning System Blog - Sketch Challenge and my color combination comes from Stacey's Stamping Stage - Curtain Call Color Challenge Act #2. When I layed these required cardstock colors together (Bravo Burgundy, Mello Moss, So Saffron, Whisper White) they immediately reminded me of "Fall" so that is the direction this card took.

My base card is Whisper White which I have used the "ink to paper" technique then stamped my Sugar Loaf spider web image here & there to create my background. The fall designer paper is by Stemma and the other stampsets I've used are H&M Stamps (old fashioned hayride) and GinaK (happy harvest). I've used my swivel craft knife to cut out the scarecrow then popped him up on dimensionals. I've included a small photo of the inside of the card for those who are interested. (Click on any photo for a larger view).

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My second card for today is for the CCEE Stampers Challenge - The Birds & The Bees AND the PCP Sketch Challenge (sk080109). This card actually took some extra thinking!!! First of all, I have PLENTY of bird images but I couldn't find anything with BEEs other than this image. I was hoping I would find BEEs on a piece of designer paper ... no such luck!! So this card was basically created around this devilish little Bee image from Kaiserstamps.

My first thought on color was of course black & yellow (the color of bumblebees). Luckily, this cute little "birdie" image from the Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps (summer) has the same color theme. I've used a paper piercer behind the bees to help give them "movement".

Here are all the deets on this creation:

Stamps: Kaiserstamps, Inkadinkado

Papers: YoYo Yellow, Basic Black

Inks: Versafine Black

Accessories: Paper Piercer, The Paper Studio black flower, Prima yellow flower, Making Memories black brad, Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps (summer), Offray gingham wired ribbon, dimensionals

Thanks so much for stopping by today and don't forget about the Blogaversary candy I have at the top of my blog ... check it out ... you have until this Friday, Aug. 7th to play.

Fall Card with a View

What a fun card to make today for a challenge over on Michelle Rodgers blog. You are to make a FALL card with a VIEW. (I almost messed up and made it Christmas, ooops).

I had a piece of clear acetate laying on my worktable left over from doing Christmas ornaments for my girlfriends holiday party so thought that would work perfectly for my "window". (photos of ornaments coming soon) I used an EKSuccess Photo Pen to draw the pane lines on it before attaching it to the back of the inside front flap of my card. The image is by Inkadinkado and after coloring it using my Prisma pencils, I attached it over top of the acetate piece on the inside front flap of my card. That left me room for a message inside the card. This card base is actually another scrap I had laying around which I had to rerun through the cuttlebug with a larger scallop oval to accommodate my image. A little sponging around the outside edge of this river rock card, using Ranger vintage photo distress ink and after adding my sentiment ... card complete. Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping!!

SCS Sketch Challenge #200

Happy Wednesday everyone!! When it's "over the hump day", I know it's time to play a couple of my favorite challenges! I LOVE doing sketch challenges whereever I find them and I always try to make time for the sketch challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.

Today's sketch was pretty easy peasy and that is exactly what I did with my card. I probably could have "dressed it up" a bit ... but sometimes simple is better.

Card recipe:

Stamps: Great Impressions

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Very Vanilla & DCWV designer paper

Ink: Versafine sepia & Ranger vintage photo distress ink

Accessories: sponge applicator, Prisma pencils, Creative Memories square punch

Thanks so much for stopping by ... please come back!!

Fall into Fall

Don't you just love the FALL?? I enjoy making fall cards ... I think it's the colors involved!! Now I just need to get some of them addressed and sent out! No sense in hoarding them, right ?

I made this card for a sketch challenge over on the i{heart}2stamp site. I used the H&M stamp set (old fashion hayride) which was designed by an online friend of mine, Beverly Cole. It's a really fun set and has 22 pieces! The inside of the card is also stamped with the row of gourds positioned in the corner.

Papers used were: Burgundy cs, chocolate cs, so saffron, pumpkin pie & Flair Designs designer paper

Inks used were: Versafine sepia, more mustard, pumpkin pie, old olive & Kaleidocolor (autumn leaves)

I used a fall polka dotted ribbon I found at Joanne's, edged the papers using a gold Pilot marker, stamped & cut out the pumpkins using a swivel craft knife then popped the one pumpkin up for dimension. I also did some paper piercing to tie in with the dotted ribbon. What do you think??

FALL (work) FUN !!!

NO STAMPING YET TODAY but just had to share what I have been up to today!!!


It has been a GORGEOUS Fall day here in NE Ohio and my dear husband and I have been busy (and enjoying) doing FALL types of things. For instance, my mother (and our) tomatoes are about finished for the year ... getting a little too cool to ripen properly so I decided to make (what we always called at home when growing up) "Picalilli".

If you look it up on the internet, most Picalilli recipes include cabbage and peppers along with the green tomatoes and onions and is chopped like a relish. But, the "old timers" recipe I'm using, (which is what my mom used), calls for sliced green tomatoes & sweet onions, along with pickling spice, mustard seed & tumeric. The internets name for what I just described is "Pickled Green Tomatoes". What ever you want to call it, it's just down right yummy next to a sandwich.

My fond memories of Picalilli were walking home from school, cutting a big chunk of Luger's bologna and opening a pint of mom's home canned picalilli. That was MY after school snack!!

Mom only had a half dozen plants and I only had 4 ... but we were able to get enough green tomatoes to make 13 1/2 pints of Picalilli. This is going to taste SO good this winter.

Since we already had the kitchen in "canning" mode, we decided to have a little more fun and make up some "corn relish" too. There happened to be a recipe in one of my books that caught my husband's attention. I made a quick run to the local market to get what was required and here is the result ... 7 pints yielded from the recipe ... more than enough for the two of us!!

I forgot to mention that while we were having all this fun ... we had a smoked pork butt, cabbage, potatoes & carrots cooking in the crockpot!! What a wonderful feast we had for dinner after all the canning was completed!! YUM!!

Now it's time to head to the craftroom and see what magic I can make in that part of the house. Kitchen is all cleaned up and back in order . . . time to play!

Harvest Time of the Year

Don't you just LOVE this time of the year!!! Here in NE Ohio, it's in the mid 70s, nice breeze and the smell of Fall is already in the air!! DH and I sat out on the deck to enjoy our lunch and the beautiful blue skies. While there this flock of geese decided to do a "fly by" ... this is a definate sign of Fall coming!!

We live in the "suburbs" and in our housing complex, we are not allowed to have a full size garden ... BUT ... nothing was written in the rules about hiding a few tomato plants amongst the flowers in your landscaping!!!

I only planted 4 tomato plants (2 Early Girls & 2 Roma). Placed facing the sun in different directions just to see what the outcome would be! Well, there was a huge difference in the size of the tomatoes from one location to the other and I will keep that in mind for next years crop!!

This is obviously the "good side" and I don't think they are too well HIDDEN anymore! What nice sized, delicious tomotoes we've been getting! Nothing better this time of the year!!! Makes my mouth water just talking about them!!! This is an Early Girl plant and produces perfect sized tomatoes for sandwiches ... not too big/not too small!!

Here are my Roma tomatoes. This plant did so well and is just loaded with beautiful roma tomatoes!! I'm going to have to make some sauce or something with these beauties ... too many for just Mark & I to eat and I've already given some to all the neighbors!!

Sorry to go on ... and on ... about tomatoes ... but this time of the year they are just SO DARNED GOOD!!!! Nothing better than fresh garden veggies!!! Where do you think I could hide the corn????

Thanks for stopping by!!