I was inspired by three challenges to finally break out some holiday stamps and sentiments. While I was purging stamps I often came upon stamp sets I loved but hadn't paid any attention to in a long time. Papertrey Ink's Fair Isle Motifs was one of those sets, so I pulled it out to create two CAS cards for Addicted to CAS: Holiday, Christmas Craft Creations: CAS, and Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge: Anything Goes. I think this is the first time I've ever played along with Christmas Craft Creations although I've been following them for awhile. 

I chose two different motifs and created cards with different orientations. For some reason I've had a lot of trouble lately being able to photograph cards without shadows. If I weren't so close to the deadline for the Peace On Earth Challenge, I'd give this another go tomorrow. 

The sentiment for this card is from one of my favorite holiday sentiment sets, Simon Says  Holiday Greetings Mix 1. After die cutting the motif with Ellen Hutson's Essential Squares I die cut a white square from the next largest die. It's hard to see, but I added one layer of dimensional tape behind it.

The greeting here is from Pinkfresh Studio's Berry Branch stamp set and die cut with My Favorite Things Itty Bitty Strips. Again I backed the image with white and added some dimensional tape before adding it to the card base.

Last year I had over 50 Christmas cards completed by now. This year we're doing a photo card for many people on our holiday list, so I'm not in need of the large number I usually create. With all the disruption in my craft room, it's a good decision.

It's the August Woodblock Wednesday post.

I pulled out one of my all-time favorite pumpkin images, Pumpkin Harvest by Annette Watkins, to color with Copic markers.

I decided on an Altenew embossing folder, Deck Planks, for the background, running it through with Classic Kraft cardstock. It lends a rustic look to the card.

I trimmed the embossed panel down just enough so the Cocoa Brown card base would create a narrow frame. I fussy cut the pumpkin image; there were no coordinating dies in the days when I purchased this stamp. I rarely give it much thought, but it's truly amazing how much this hobby has changed over the years. I had to stamp this image twice before I got a clean image. With a MISTI stamping tool, restamping is so much easier (and wastes no paper!) The sentiment is from Altenew's Sentiment Strips 2, die cut with MFT's Itty Bitty Banners.

Thanks to Amy, as always, for organizing this monthly affair! I'm sending this off to AAA Birthday where the challenge remains: Anything Goes for a few more days!

I only own three Betterpress plates, one came with the Spellbinder system, and two are part of Altenew's Dainty Flower Garden set. Both sets include a few sentiments, although for today's cards, I used Altenew's One-Go Birthday Greetings, a new set I'm quite sure will get a lot of use. There are 12 sentiments on one stamp and one die that cuts them all out. I love having an envelope filled with sentiments ready to go. Both cards are very similar and both were watercolored with Zig Watercolor markers.

The blue card went in the mail earlier this month, and I know my friend received it. So it's time to get these cards off to a couple of challenges. 

The Betterpress cardstock is perfect for watercoloring. I tried not to add too much water, and let it dry completely between layers.  I just trimmed down the sides of this one and added it to a navy card base.

Sometimes it's good (and easy) to CASE yourself, so here is the orange edition.

This time I used Gina K's Master Layout one dies to cut the impressed panel as well as a black panel which gives it a lovely narrow border. I added it to a card base of Orange Zest. 

The blue card is off to Addicted to Stamps and More. The challenge is for birthday cards. And the orange card is off to Less is More. The challenge is Orange!

I'm sending them both off to the NBUS August Challenge since this is the sentiment set's debut.

Now that the recipients have received their cards, I have a card to enter in the current TicTacToe Challenge.

I made two of these cards although I only photographed one of them and both have been received.  I used the elegant Spellbinders Betterpress plate that came with the system. I can't seem to find a name for it. I inked it up with gold ink and impressed it on the Bisque Betterpress paper from Spellbinders.

I added narrow borders of gold glitter paper that I purchased in Milwaukee at Broadway Papers and then added it to a card base of gold shimmer paper from the same source.

The sentiment from Sugar Peas Everyday Sentiments was embossed in gold on black and die cut the MFT Itty Bitty Banners-a die I used repeatedly. Finally, I added some gold glitter dots from Pinkfresh Studio.

It's easy to find my path through the TicTacToe board–diagonally from right top to left bottom.

My craft room is already being dismantled and painted although I probably have a week or two before I have to vacate it completely. All my crafting time has been eaten up with trying to organize and purge what's in here. Nonetheless, after church today, I was determined to get an entry into the Freshly Made Sketches challenge which is their 600th sketch. I don't often gravitate to sketch challenges, but this is one of the best–and their celebration surely represents their success. Here's the sketch:

The Jumbo Curiosity: Dragonfly & Stencil are from The Greetery. I used the stencil to color it with shades of blue and purple with Pinkfresh Studio inks. 

I ran the strip behind it through a very old dotted embossing place and edged it with some silver paper. The circle was also die cut from a piece of textured silver paper.

The sentiment is a preprinted one from Waffleflower that arrived in their Sneak Peek Kit #8 package which I won last month. I added some glitter to the dragonfly with the Spectrum Noir glitter pen.

I'm also sending this off to AAA Birthday–always CAS and this time Anything Goes. I'm expecting to be back again tomorrow as I have a list of cards I'd like to make before I have to give up the craft room for a week or so.

It's Word Week at Just Us Girls Challenge and the word is BEE.

We've just returned from a vacation in Michigan, first a week with Sarah and her family at Big Twin Lake, and then a weekend on our own which we split between Traverse City and Petoskey. I picked up a couple of new dish towels in a little shop in Traverse City. They were rolled and tied with a piece of black and yellow twine and a Bee Kind tag was tied to each towel.

For the last several weeks I've been working on creating an inventory of all my stamps and dies and doing a major purge as well. It's taken up most of my creative time, but in the end, will be well worth it. Yesterday as I was going through a box of stamps I found a Simon Says kit from 2019. As luck would have it, it was a bee themed kit called "Bee Yourself." The combination of events was too good to pass up, so this morning I got busy creating a card for the JUGS challenge.

Along with the stamp set, there was a variety of patterned paper, several of which I tried before ending up with my usual CAS style, stamping one of the bee hive stamps on yellow paper and adding the tag with some dimensional tape. 

I added a thin black mat and attached them to a card base made from Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream cardstock. 

We're off this afternoon to spend time with friends on their boat on Canandaigua Lake and it's just perfect weather for it.