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Blogging for Scrapbookers

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Not that I need another project. I can’t keep up with what I want to do as it is, and I’ve barely started to work on the Ali Edwards Yesterday and Today class, but I did sign up for Shimelle’s Blogging for Scrapbookers thinking I might get some new ideas for the blog and get motivated to do some scrapbooking as well. Today was the first prompt, and here is the first scrapbook page I’ve made since I finished our big Road Trip ’09 scrapbook in September.

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Patterned papers: Studio Calico, CollagePress, Basic Grey; Chipboard letters: Basic Grey; Jenni Bowlin journaling page; buttons: Papertrey Ripe Avacado Vintage buttons, Sassafrass button.

Happy Halloween and A Walk in the Park

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Happy Halloween! It’s a cold, wet, very windy and dark day here in western New York. I feel sorry for the little trick or treaters. It’s going to be a chilly night.

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Earlier in the week, Tracy and I skipped going to Midtown to work out and went to Mendon Ponds. Unlike the last few days, it was a warm and sunny day and the walk around 100 Acre Pond was lovely. I’m sure many of the beautiful leaves are now on the ground.

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I took this photo for Sarah who said she was missing the colorful leaves of autumn in California. She spent last week in Malibu at a retreat center for a conference, so I have a hard time feeling too sorry for her. Especially on a dark, dreary day in Rochester. Adam posted some beautiful photos of the Pacific Ocean from the place they stayed on their way down.

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On the way around the pond, Tracy spotted this snake. He thought it was dead until it raised its head!

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It was a beautiful afternoon.

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Paper Amour Challenge

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On a recent trip to Buffalo with a friend I picked up a couple of Memory Box stamps. The samples the company had sent to the store were beautiful, so I googled “Memory Box” and found a number of blogs that feature the Memory Box stamps. I also found a contest on Paper Amour. 

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I love the collage look of this stamp. The moon was colored with Moonlight Smooch although it’s hard to see the shimmer in the photo. The rest was colored with Copic markers. The patterned papers are all from a Halloween collection by Recollections that I picked up at Michaels. The card is also Memory Box and the ribbon is Orange Zest by Papertrey Ink.

Embellish the Cure

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Just under the wire for the Embellish the Cure Color Challenge.

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Here’s my take on it. I was anxious to use one of the beautiful images on Papertrey’s Giga Guidelines.

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Cardstock:  Smoky Shadow and Vintage Cream by Papertrey; Cuttlebug embossing folder; Nestabilities Label One; Hibiscus Burst ink and ribbon by Papertrey.

Hero Arts Simple Christmas

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I got inspired today after finishing my card for the Raspberry Suite Challenge and finished three quick and simple cards for the Hero Arts Simple Holiday challenge.

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I love this new embossing folder from Cuttlebug.

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Cardstock: Papertrey Pure Poppy and New Leaf, Neenah Solar White; Hero Arts stamps; snowflake punch; Stickles; pearl from stash.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 18

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I really enjoy the color challenges. Often they are colors I would never think of putting together, but I ususally end up with an interesting card. This one is no exception. Here are Dawn’s colors:

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Since Papertrey’s Vintage Cream was one of the colors, I printed the Raspberry Suite patterned paper samples on a piece of Vintage Cream cardstock and punched them with a 1.5 inch punch. The rest of the card is pretty straight forward. I used my new favorite, Smooch, to color in the leaves of the wreath.

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All Papertrey Ink: Kraft, New Leaf, Raspberry Suite, Dark Chocolate, and Vintage Cream cardstock; Rustic Branches and Signature Christmas stamps; gems from stash; Green Apple Smooch.

Weekend Away

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For the last ten years or so we’ve been going to Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario with good friends to see a play or two at The Shaw Festival. This weekend we saw Sunday in the Park with George, a Steven Sondheim musical which was extremely well-done, but a bit odd. As one of our friends said, you don’t come out of it humming any tunes. The artistry of the play and the sets were wonderful. In addition to the play, we try to tour a few new wineries and always visit a few of our favorites.

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One favorite is Vineland, where we always purchase a few of their red wines to bring home. It’s housed in a beautiful old church and their displays are always lovely. This year they were promoting a new vodka/wine blend. It didn’t interest me at all but the display was beautiful.

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One of the new wineries we visited was Foreign Affair. It’s also in a beautifully restored building. They are the only winery in North America to make wine by the Amarone method, where the grapes are laid out to dry for several months prior to pressing them. Most of their wines are quite expensive, but the Reisling is the best Reisling I have ever tasted. In addition to wonderful wines, their decor is lovely.

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The painting over the door was commissioned for them and is used as part of the label on each bottle. Superimposed on the landscape are animals of Canada–blending the Italian wine-making tradition with the grapes of Ontario. This display was on the table in the hall:

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Every year we stay at a wonderful B&B each year called The Cape House. The new owners, Peter and Louise, are delightful and breakfast is fabulous. Louise introduced us last year to a watercolor artist, Irene MacKenzie, whose work we love. We bought a print last year, and this year we commissioned Irene to do a watercolor of our house. Last year I fell in love with a print of a poinsettia. Lucky for me, Irene had one of them matted and framed, so I added another of her watercolors to my collection. I got a photo of our friends at Irene’s on Sunday morning. Her beautiful home is her gallery.

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All in all, another great weekend away–and sadly, our last one for a while. We hope to go see Sarah and Adam late in March so we’ll be saving up for that trip between now and then.

Moxie Fab Ruffles

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I’ve been thinking about the Moxie Fab ruffle challenge for quite some time, but just today came up with a way to use this beautiful new ribbon I purchased in Rhinebeck two weeks ago when we were visiting my brother as well as my new Smooch Accent Inks. Once again I used this as an opportunity to get another Christmas card added to the stash. 

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Here’s a close-up; the Smooch inks are so beautiful.

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Stamps: Rustic Branches and 2008 Holiday Tags by Papertrey; Ribbon: May Arts; Cardstock: Ripe Avacado and Scarlet Jewel by Papertrey; Pearls: Amuse Creative Candy; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Krylon Gold Leafing Pen.

Christmas Collage Card

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I liked the idea of a simple collage card posted as the challenge on the Cards Blog last week. In an effort to continue to add to my stash of Christmas cards, here’s my take on the challenge:

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White textured cardstock:  unknown; tag: maythird; red embossed cardstock circle: Bazzil; dark green patterned paper from Christmas scraps (unknown); holly leaves: May Arts; button: Pure Poppy by Papertrey Ink, dark green ribbon from stash; glitter letters: Making Memories; and red gems: Amuse.

Two Cards

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Our good friends are celebrating an anniversary this week. I love the Autumn Abundance stamps and messages. The pitcher with leaves is so perfect for this time of year.

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All elements by Papertrey Ink.

I took advantage of a sale at Ellen Huston during World Card Making Day to pick up two Lockhart stamps that I’d been admiring. This is one of them. It’s a simple card, but I love the yellows and greens with the black Bitty Box paper from Papertrey.

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Christmas Cards for a Cause

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I’ve been busy making Christmas cards to send off for a good cause. You can read about it here. I’ve always felt incredibly blessed that both of my kids were healthy and had no illnesses that could not be treated. Whenever I read about a child who has not been so lucky, my heart goes out to them and their parents. I’m hoping to have a dozen cards in the mail by the middle of the week. I’m thinking some will be duplicates of these.

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Stamp: Rubber Moon; cardstock: Kraft and Pure Black by Papertrey, Patterned paper: 7 Gypsies, Prisma colored pencils. I found this cute stamp last weekend at Stampassion in Latham, NY. It had been several years since I’d been there, and I picked up a couple of stamps and a few embellishments.

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Another version: Pure Poppy cardstock by Papertrey and patterned paper by Graphic 45, ribbon from Paper Source.

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Embossing folder by Quickutz, ribbon by Papertrey, tree “decorations” Smooch, cardstock Papertrey

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This was also done for a Hero Arts challenge. Quickutz embossing folder, Smoky Shadow cardstock by Papertrey, Hero Arts stamps, tree toppers Accents, Too by Mrs. Grossman, silver twine from Paper Source.

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My first attempt at stamping on sticky back canvas. That went fine, but the distressing is a bit overdone. Stamps: Winter Swirl and Signature Christmas by Papertrey; patterned paper Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey; twill Papertrey; Stickyback Canvas Claudine Hellmuth.

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Stamp: 2008 Christmas Tag Collection by Papertrey, embossing folder by Cuttlebug, gold ribbon from stash.

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I love how all the Papertrey stamp sets seem to work together. This card uses stamps from three different sets: 2008 Holiday Tags, Winter Swirls, and Signature Christmas. Ribbon and cardstock are unknown and  from my stash, the gem is from Michaels and the tag is embellished with some Silver Fox Smooch.

Embellish Circle Card/Color Challenge

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Embellish’s most recent challenge was to make a circle card with blues and greens. I made the card a while ago, but am just getting it posted under the wire! I don’t often made shaped cards, but I enjoyed making this one.

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World Card Making Day-the last one

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This is the last of the World Card Making Day challenges. It’s for the color challenge at Ellen Huston’s The Classroom. Here’s the challenge:

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Here’s my take on it:
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Stamps: Hero Arts; Ribbon: Michaels; Button: La-di-Da; Cardstock: Rustic Cream  & Dark Chocolate Papertrey and Paper Source; Patterned Paper: Bitty Dots Papertrey; Quickutz embossing folder



 

Mojo Monday and Putting on the Glitz

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I’ve never participated in the Mojo Monday Sketch challenge, but when I saw it this morning I thought it would work well with the World Card Making Day challenge at The Classroom that specifies using sparkle and glitz. Here’s what I came up with:

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The main image is a stamp from PSX that I bought early on in my stamping career. It’s stamped with silver and embossed with sparkle embossing powder. I added some gems by Kaisercraft to the star and to the embossed (Cuttlebug) card. The patterned paper was in my Christmas scraps bag and the ribbon is from Michaels. The cardstock is Memory Box from Impress Stamps.

The Classroom: Two WCMD Challenges

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I may get another card or two done after dinner for Ellen’s challenges, but I’ve finished two. The first one was an inchie challenge. I haven’t used my inchies in a long time, and I loved this technique. I colored two of the inchies with Papertrey tea dies: Chai and Chamomile. Then I stamped the Magnenta branch with Dark Chocolate Ink, mounted the inchies on Dark Chocolate cardstock on a cream colored card from my stash. The ribbon is from May Arts. I will definitely use this technique again.

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The second challenge was to make a holiday card. I just got some new Making Memory tape and chipboard buttons that I wanted to use. The tree was stamped with Papertrey’s Winter Swirls and some red Copic Spica glitter was added. The sentiment is one of Papertrey’s Signature Christmas stamps which I just love. Patterned paper is Black & White Basics and Bitty Dots by Papertrey and the ribbon is from my stash again.
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