Boo!

I couldn't wait to break out of one of my favorite 

new collections for the Halloween season

from My Mind's Eye, so thank you to Jax, 

our color story coordinator over at

The Play Date Cafe!

I love this color story!

{ well, when don't I? }

The color combination could have taken me in

a variety of directions, but when I saw this image

in the new 6x6 pad 'Mischevous' from MME,

decision made!

This was such an easy card to make because it was

a matter of layering the polka dot paper and wrapping

it in my favorite baker's twine from The Twinery.

I love using my Distrezz-it-All from Zutter and yes,

I do use it for the smallest jobs like card-making

even though it can also distress chipboard.

SRM Designs provides the beautiful 'sticker' sentiments.

This week, our Cup of the Week winner will receive

a fabulous shopping spree from

so make sure you pop by The Cafe

and check out all the amazing designs from 

our design team and then....play!

Before I go....

This is a VERY close up shot of the tree in
front of our home.  The colors are so close to
our challenge colors, I thought it was a good time
to share it.  The 'stormy'-looking sky is exactly
that...just 10 minutes after I snapped this photo
tonight, it poured.
My goal with such a close-up shot was to get the
tiny finch nest.  I don't have a fancy camera...in fact,
it's an eight-year old Kodak with limited capabilities,
but it gets me through each post and didn't fail me
when I wanted to capture the memory of this tiny
nest, which will be home to a new family next spring.

Project Recipe: 

Designer Paper: 'Mischevous' by My Mind's Eye 
Embellishments: Bakers Twine in 'Stone' from The Twinery
Sticker Sentiments from SRM

Tools:  Disstrezz-it-All by Zutter

A Little Hello from The Play Date Cafe

I am really excited to share this week's challenge 

with you over at....

I adore this color story and the palette that Ruby created!

I started out by creating this fabby background using 

stamp images from Martha Stewart.  No, it's not patterned

paper...it's hand-stamped using two different ink

from A Muse Studio, Sky & French Roast.

I then created the flower using my Spellbinders Dahlia dies

and MME's 'Stella & Rose Hattie' DP.

The blue layer was embossed with my Cuttlebug EF.

The rest of the details are below in Today's Recipe Section.

I did want to mention that the distressing that I did around

the edges of this card is pretty hard-core so I used one

of my favorite tools from Zutter, the Distrezz-it-all.

Here is a close-up of the colors and pattern I created.

We are very happy to welcome the very popular

designer, Laura Davis as our guest this week

and a returning sponsor

So make sure you skeedaddle over to The Cafe

and check out all the wonderful inspiration by

our most fabulous design team!

Thanks for popping by...hope you'll leave

a little love in the form of a comment...

I'd love to 'chat' with you, so make sure

you leave an email address where I can reach you!

Today's Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye 'Stella & Rose Hattie' Collection
Stamps: 'Clear Patterns' from Martha Stewart, sentiment from The Paper Studio
Ink: 'Sky' & 'French Roast' by A Muse Studio
Tools:  Big Shot, Spellbinders 'Dahlia' die cut, Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dot' EF,
Distrezz-it-all by Zutter

Embellishments: Rhinestone pebbles by Recollections

Fresh & Bright...The Play Date Cafe

I'm not sure if you've been able to tell, but I have

really been diggin' bright colors this week.

I think it's been a long winter and I am just ready

for some color.

It's great timing because this week's color challenge

over at The Play Date Cafe scratches me

right where I itch!!!

Three of our Senior Designers are

responsible for choosing our weekly

color stories and we each have our own

style and color palette that is all our own.

This palette....is pure Ruby 2 Shoes!

I decided to go with a distressed, aged look for this card.

One of my very favorite tools in the studio is the

Distrezz-it-All by Zutter.

It saves that cramp you get in your hand with tiny little

distressing tools and can handle a single sheet of

cardstock all the way up to chipboard.

This card is all about layers of designer paper and

embellishments.  The sweet little lucite cherries are by

Mary Englebreit and were the perfect little addition.

Of course I tied it together with a little baker's twine 

from The Twinery.

We have the talented Maria Gurnsey joining us as

our guest designer this week.

In honor of Maria, I used her 'namesake' 'Gingham Gurnsey'

stamp to create the tag under the 'my friend' sentiment.

Check out that story and learn more about Maria

when you visit The Cafe.

We have the most talented design team

waiting to inspire you, and here they are....

Sarah AndersonRuby McGuire

 Savannah O'Gwynn 

Andrea Ewen

Colleen Dietrich  

Fiona Shultz

Jaclyn Miller 

Jinny Newlin
Libby Hickson  

Michele Gross

Tracey Kuzniak

and of course, our sweet guest...
Maria Gurnsey

 So glad you stopped by and I hope you'll 

leave a quick little note to let me know

you were here : )

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock: The Paper Company

 Designer Paper: K&Company 'Sweet Nectar' & BoBunny 'Abbey Road'
Stamps: Papertrey Ink 'Friendship Jar & Ippity 'Gurnsey Gingham'
Ink: VersaMagic, Ranger Archival, Tim Holtz Distress Ink
Tools: Spellbinders 'Labels One', Big Shot, sewing machine
Distrezz-it-All, Martha Stewart punch 'Loop Heart'

Embellishments: Baker's Twine by The Twinery in 'Caribbean', 

Pearls by Martha Stewart, Cherry by Mary Engelbreit