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Sorry I have been absent for a few days.  Things have been just a little nuts here as we prepare for the holidays.  Both of us are in the throes of a bout of bronchitis, and we are awaiting news of Dom's impending surgery.  He has recently been diagnosed with Achalasia, a rare disorder that comes along as often as a lottery winner does - with those kind of odds he should have opted for the lottery instead !!  We will be traveling to Portland Oregon for his surgery in the next few weeks.

Meantime, here are some Christmas tree photos.

 Dining Room

Kitchen

Living Room

 Media Room

 Media Room

 

Media Room

Alice in Wonderland tree

Living Room 

I am not overly thrilled with the Alice tree pictures, and will take more on a brighter day.  The Alice images are from theHouseAcrosstheBay, I added color with Copics, some stickles, and they are attached to a weird little circle/bead ornament.  On this set it says "Eat", as in "eat me", the other one is "Drink", as in drink me, the both together conjure up -

Eat, Drink and be Merry

I will be back soon with some more cards !!

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Papercraft Star 72

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A happy Thanksgiving to all !

This week at Papercraft Star we are hosting anything goes !!

It seemed a good idea when I dreamed it up, thinking we all were getting prepared for the holiday, and not wanting to spread ourselves too thin on the creative end.  BUT, if this is like other anything goes challenges we have done in the past, our DT will have a whole lot of commenting to do !  Duh, didn't think of that....

This week I used a freebie we posted at Papercraft Star a couple of weeks ago, from our sponsor theHouseAcrosstheBay.  I colored it with copics, used some Spellbinders, ran it through the Cuttlebug, or at least Spencer did, and that was about all it took !

Holly Image - theHouseAcrosstheBay (this is a freebie)

Cardstock - Recollections, K & Co

Design Paper - K & Co

Ribbon - stash

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Christmas Hope

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This week always seems so busy every year !  Not only Thanksgiving, but we also are preparing our home for Christmas.  The big thorough clean, moving around the furniture, and setting up all the Christmas trees.  We won't light them until the dishes are washed on Thanksgiving Day, maybe they won't even be decorated yet, but they will all be in place !  

Thank goodness my son-in-law is always a good sport, and never says (aloud) how nutty that all really is.

Here is one of my first Christmas cards this season.  I have made a couple, and there are many more to come !!

The sketch is from Card Patterns...

Other challenges I am entering are:

Kraft Journal - Christmas Gifts

Paper Creations - Christmas Theme

Paper Sundaes - Beautiful bows

Cardstock - Recollections

Design Paper - My Minds Eye, Graphic 45, the Paper Company

Ticket - Tim Holtz

Sentiment background - Making Memories

Rub ons - (holly & Sentiment )  K & Co

Button - Bo Bunny

Punches - Martha Stewart, ek success

Ribbon - Hug Snug (hand dyed) 

Twine - stash

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Quirky Crafts Challenges

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This week I am the Guest Designer over at Quirky Crafts Challenges !  These lovely ladies selected my card as a winner a couple of weeks ago, and now have invited me to join them for this challenge.

A white challenge is always so much fun.  You think they will be easy, but nooooooo.  And for me, keeping something clean and simple is so difficult.  But in the end, they always look so classic and sharp.

The sentiment is a digi stamp from Digital Delights by Louby Lo0 - and it has a very cute cute pirate to go along with it !

If you haven't tried a white challenge, now is the time !!  

Thanks to the lovely ladies at Quirky Crafts Challenges for this week's opportunity to join in with them !!

Digi stamp - Digital Delights by Louby Lo0

Cardstock - Recollections

Design Paper - The Paper Company

Sizzix embossing folder

Gelly Roll pen

that is all it took !

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Alice in Wonderland tree ?

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Found this very very cute Bo Bunny paper at my LSS, Karen & Friends.  As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to turn it into a clock for a Christmas tree decoration.  As I was working on it, I thought more and more about making one of my trees an Alice in Wonderland tree.  I think I can do it pretty cheaply, less than $20, since I have so much Christmas stuff in my attic stash, purple and red maybe ?

Bo Bunny paper - $1.09

Chipboard - .69

Clock hands - $2.99

Everything else I had on hand.  

1) Sprayed all over with white marshmallow Tattered Angels mist.

2) Cut chipboard circle and used 3M spray adhesive to attach the paper. 

3) Stamped and embossed in gold the center, which is a Bo Bunny stamp. 

4) Added Liquid Pearls in dots around.

5) Added some cheap Michaels rhinestones to the scrolling.

6) Added gold Stickles to the circumference.

Of course, it never shows up as glittery and shiny as it looks InRealLife.  More Christmas Tree photos to follow !!

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Papercraft Star 71

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 We have had some gorgeous photos at Papercraft Star for our inspiration.  This week we are looking for a thank you card, and check out this gorgeous picture !

The photos we use at Papercraft Star are always Use If You Choose, so it doesn't HAVE to look like this, but doesn't it help to have a photo to begin ?

Ok, how very cute is that postcard from theHouseAcrosstheBay.... I have been wanting to use it for quite a while now, just didn't have the right opportunity.

Pop on over to Papercraft Star this week - our design team always has something wonderful !  This week we have the sparkling Ros Crawford as our Guest Designer, and she has really taken this picture to heart.

Postcard - theHouseAcrosstheBay

Cardstock - Recollections

Design Paper - Prima, K & Co

Punch - ek success

Flower petals & brad - Recollections

Flower button - Bo Bunny

Jewelry cording and netting - stash

Ink - Ranger Distress

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Papercraft Star 70

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Papercraft Star has a number challenge this week.  Here is our photo - we always have a gorgeous photo that you can use if you choose !

Maleah Matthews is a local photographer here in Eugene.  This is the third of her photos we have used at Papercraft Star as inspiration.

Also this week we have the talented Sylvia Nelson as our Guest Designer. 

The diary page is from theHouseAcrosstheBay, our sponsor. 

If you haven't tried using digitals yet, you are missing out.  Once you download them, just print them on your computer, and you have a wonderful image for life !  All that need to hoard the good stuff to "use later" is gone !  Use it now, use it again next week, yup.

Hope to see you this week at Papercraft Star !!

Digital Diary Page - theHouseAcrosstheBay etsy shop
Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Prima, Creative Imaginations
Stamp - Bo Bunny
Copics
Brad, little envelope, key - K & Co
Ink - Ranger Distress
Flower - Recollections
Ribbon - Hug Snug

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CCCB 82 - Thanks*giving

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It seems like there is always something that keeps me from playing my most favorite challenges.  Right now it is those dust bunnies haunting me, they are hanging about beneath the dining room table, and they will NOT go away.  So I worry and fret over them, and put out traps that never seem to catch them ....

At City Crafter this week we have a Thanks*Giving challenge - a thank you card or a homemade gift.  I chose the thank you card, as my brain is just a little addled lately, and I would be likely to create something perfectly awful for someone I truly love, probably made from dust bunnies.  *sigh*

Here is my Thanksgiving tree this year !

And my Thank You card ......

Cardstock – Bazzill (Sage)

Design Paper – K & Co (flora & fauna ledger),

         7 Gypsies (Conservatory)

Border – K & Co.

Vellum

Botanical frame – digitaldesigners.com

Dragonfly brad – Recollections

Stamps – Tim Holtz (bird), Fiskars (gratitude)

Twine

Button

White thread

Ink – Ranger Distress (Vintage Photo), Versamark (black)

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Chilly Fall

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I took down the Halloween things today, but the fall decorations remain until Thanksgiving.  Hope to get my fall tree up and decorated this week, I am just a little behind !

I have said so many times that this is my favorite time of year, so I was happy to make one more Fall Leaf themed card !  The ribbon was cream colored, and I dyed it with Tsukinek Walnut Ink.

I am entering this card in four challenges, all of them new to me !

Make My Monday - Autumn Leaves

The Pink Elephant - Distressing

UnstampaBelles - Autumn/stitching

Quirky Crafts -  Autumn leaves

Cardstock - Coredinations

Design Papers - Recollections

Rub on sentiment - MAMBI

Flower - Prima

Ink - Ranger Distress

Ribbon, twine, leaf brads - stash

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Papercraft Star 69

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Papercraft Star  
opens today, with this picture
...

Use a flourish !

This looks like November to me, brrr.

I made this manly card using theHouseAcrosstheBay's Vintage Ad Frames (#100), which I printed on vellum, and overlaid on top of the Holtz stamp.  Beneath the brad in the upper left corner is a washer.  Very simple card.

Here is my little man, he is turning 4 next week, hard to believe...

 

Hope to see you at Papercraft Star this week for this easy easy challenge. !!

Cardstock – Bazzill (Truffle)

Design Paper – Basic Grey (Archaic), Bo Bunny (etcetera), vellum

Frame Overlay – theHouseAcrosstheBay Etsy shop

Stamps – Tim Holtz, TPC

Brad – Making Memories

Ink – StazOn (black), Ranger Distress (Vintage Photo)

Punch – ek success

Washer, beads, jewelry cording – stash

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Papercraft Star 68

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This week at Papercraft Star we have this cool sketch from our Kim...

This is the last week we have Kim Duran with us at Papercraft Star, and I know I am going to miss her sooooo much.  What a great teamie, and a wonderful designer.  When she applied for our Design Team long ago, we had to add her, or she would have walked away with all our prizes week after week !!  How she will be missed....

Here is my card this week - not one of my greatest, but I feel pretty good about getting it done with an abscessed tooth, and Dom's medical issues too.   No way to fix my tooth, so it is coming out.   grrrr

The (secret)  handwriting digital is from Rilly at theHouseAcrosstheBay, called the Write Stuff, # 031.

Handwritten note - theHouseAcrosstheBay etsy shop

Cardstock - Recollections

Design Paper - My Mind's Eye

Ribbon - s e i

Flowers - a gift from Tracy !

Doily - stash

Rub on - Mrs. Grossman

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Papercraft Star 67

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Papercraft Star opens today - #67.  Our theme this week is Trick or Treat !

I dunno, is this card a trick or a treat ?  If someone sent it to me, I just might think it was a terrible trick.  That woman looks remarkably like me....

 

Very easy challenge this week - everyone has a Halloween card somewhere !

I free hand cut the hat and the dress.

Hat, dress, frame - theHouseAcrosstheBay

Cardstock - Recollections

Sentiment - Reminisce

Ink - Ranger Distress

Face - Digital Designs

Arms & Legs - Cassie's Creations

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Card Patterns 137

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Card Patterns sketch for this week ....

And, as usual, a little goofy and off on my part ....

I punched a circle, recycled some packaging, and embossed it, on top of cardstock done the same way, for more texture.  The frame is die cut from two different Spellbinder dies.

Cardstock - Bazzill

Design Paper - My Mind's Eye, Basic Gray

Flowers - Recollections

Happy Brad - K & Co

Punch - ek success

Jewelry cording

Bling & lace - stash

Recycled Packaging

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City Crafter 78

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Thank you ladies at CCCB for the Honorable Mention two weeks ago !

This week at City Crafter - black & cream !!

 

One of my favorite color combinations !

Script paper - theHouseAcrosstheBay

Cardstock - Recollections

Design Paper - Creative Imaginations

Stamp - TPC

Bling - Recollections

Ink - Ranger Distress

Punch - Martha Stewart

Spellbinders

Lace - stash

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Papercraft Star 66

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This week at Papercraft Star, we are looking for a leaf !  This is our inspiration picture.  The photo is actually from a local artist here in Eugene, and this is a very typical look of our fall.  Not overly colorful, as fall colors go, but we always have the beautiful green grass and bushes to soften every season.

My card is very very simple - I used one of Rilly's CardMaker Scroll series paper, theHouseAcrosstheBay Etsy shop, for the background.  Old architecture, surrounded by the brilliance of autumn.

Scroll Paper - theHouseAcrosstheBay

Cardstock - DCWV

Design Paper - Bo Bunny

Ink - Ranger Distress

Flower - Prima

Leaf - Recollections

Sticker - K&Co

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