Just for Fun

Hello!

I'm afraid the nasty bug that has been making it's way around

the country has landed smack-dab in Northern Illinois,

so I am coming to you from the comfort of my new bed.

{more below}

I have my laptop, calendar, DT submissions,

the current paper crafting magazines, the TV clicker

and a hot cup of tea...I reckon I am going to get a lot done

without the distractions of all the paper & embellishments in

the creative nook.

I actually created these cards a couple weeks ago, but I've not had any blog space to share them ..... LOL

When Paper Smooches offered this sweet tree set called 'Gently Seasoned',

I knew I had to have it.  I used a variety of my FAVORITE inks from

A Muse Studio in Latte, Shell & Slate

The sentiment is from The Paper Company.

I am loving using my Lacey Circle die from Spellbinders and thought it would be fun to stack them for this card.

I have been holding on to this paper from Cosmo Cricket because I absolutely love it.

This card is pretty self-explanatory.

I mentioned my comfy bed a moment ago.

If you follow me on Facebook, you know a few weeks ago

Paul and I went on a search for a new bed and mattress.

We've had the same bed for the past 20+ years, as it is a family

heirloom having been in our family for over 75 years.

But it was only a full size and we felt that it was time to give ourselves

just a little more room.

It's a cherry wood Sleigh bed and we really do love it.

We went on a 4-hour search for the bed clothes and settled on this beautiful

set from Martha Stewart for Macy's.

The new mattress is fab and is the perfect place for me to get work done

while I'm feeling under the weather.

Thanks for stopping by today...and for indulging little personal notes.

I miss just sharing little bits of life with you, so I am going to try and

slip in the occasional post with just fun things I've created.

I'll be back at midnight EST with a new challenge from

CAS-ual Fridays.

God Promises Project Recipe: 

Cardstock: Bazzill
Stamps: Gently Seasoned by Paper Smooches,
Faith Greetings by The Paper Company
Ink: Latte, Shell, Slate by A Muse Studio
Mushroom Adirondack by Ranger 

Embellishments: pearls by Recollections
Seam Binding from Hug Snug

Tools: Lacey Circles & Standard Circle by Spellbinders, Big Shot

 

Hope Project Recipe: 

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper: Apron Strings by Cosmo Cricket
Stamps: Faith Greetings by The Paper Company
Ink: Mushroom Adirondack by Ranger 

Embellishments: pearls by Recollections
ribbon from Michaels

Tools: Lacey Circles from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Easter's on it's Way!

Just a couple of little Easter cards I whipped

up over the past day or so.

I am really enjoying making my own rosettes

and think one of the best videos

on how to make them is by Meg from Archivers.

I love this fun paper from Kaisercraft.  It's from the

'Bubblegum Hills' Collection and has some great ways it

can be cut apart for card makers.

All the stamps are from Hampton Arts.

Here is another version, but this time, I stamped

white cardstock in alternating pink and green inks

using this lace doily from Hero Arts.

I then placed it on top of aNOTHer stamped lace

doily, which was white embossed.

This fun Easter DP is from The Paper Company.

I had to break out a Martha punch for the heart

border, just for something a little different.

I love the sketch which is from Hero Arts

and Paige from CARDS is looking for Easter

projects this week, so will share these with her.

Hope you have had a lovely weekend.

There are storms brewing headed towards

Northern Illinois, so not sure how my weekend

will end, but I am sure all will be well.

OH....thought I would share our newest house guest

with you!  Paul added to my ever-growing collection

of rabbits...not just stuffed, but of many forms, but

Hazel is on a whole new dimension....

She is a 4-ft beauty and all decked out!

So I guess my weekend is ending quite nicely....

'Hippity Hop' Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Kaisercraft 'Bubblegum Hills'
Stamps:  Hampton Arts 
Tools:  Martha Stewart 'eyelet lace' border punch
Embellishments: designer brad by Making Memories

'Lacey Easter' Project Recipe:

Designer Paper:  The Paper Company Studio,
My Mind's Eye 'So Contrary'
Stamps: Hero Arts 'Butterflies & Lace', Hampton Arts
Tools:  Martha Stewart 'eyelet lace' & 'heart to heart' border punch
Embellishments: designer brad by Making Memories

Enjoy the Moment in The Play Date Cafe

It's hard to believe another week has come and gone

and come back around once again!

What am I talking about?

The Play Date Cafe Challenge, of course!

Look at this gorgeous color story!!!

I am the host this week and I just have to

say that this inspiration would not exist

without the kindness of a dear friend

of mine here in my hometown.

Polly owns a wonderful business and a

blog that holds the same name

Counting Your Blessings

where she specializes in all things

vintage and shabby chic.

I've always loved the look and try to bring

it into my home as often as I can, 

but this girl is the master!!!

I hope you will pop over to her lovely blog and

bring a cup of tea with you!

All week I thought about making something with a whole lot of

layers, flowers, lace, pearls...you name it.

But as you can see, I went clean and simple.

You would not believe what is waiting for you over in The Cafe!

We have the fabby Kazan Clark 

as our Guest Designer this week

and the most amazing inspiration from our entire design team.

Ruby McGuire

 Savannah O'Gwynn 

Andrea Ewen

Colleen Dietrich  

Fiona Shultz

Jaclyn Miller 

Jinny Newlin
Libby Hickson  

Michele Gross

Tracey Kuzniak

and of course, our honored guest...
Kazan Clark

 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: Memory Box
Stamps: My Mind's Eye, Memory Box, The Paper Company

Embellishments:  baker's twine from The Twinery, Stickles in 'platinum'

Pearls from Martha Stewart

The Remedy for Love

Gosh....just the idea that someone would need to

look for a remedy for love.....feels a bit sad at first.

It's H{ippity} Hop Monday!

What a terrific way to start the week by 

feeding your creative needs with some

wonderful inspiration by all of the

Ippity chicks and fans listed

on the Ippity Blog.

So.....

What is the remedy for love?

 According to this wonderful quote, it's to 'love more'!

This is such a fun set from Ippity called

'Quotes A'la Happy'

Twenty fun, creative images 

just right for so many occasions.

I have an order going in to Ippity this week

and would LoVe for you to get in on it!

Place an order for this set or any other

Ippity set from my page here and you will

receive 10% off your entire order!

Order $50 or more and get your choice of

one of these stamps free:

You'll find all Ippity sets here!

This offer expires on Sunday, Feb 6th at 11:59pm CST.

One more thing.....

You know I am on the design team for

The Twinery, right?

Well, I wanted to make sure you were aware of

the newest colors which are now available and

are shipping immediately....

Aren't they gorgeous?

One of the most requested colors has been black

and it's now here for you!

I personally LoVe the Honeydew and am really

excited to know mine is on the way!

There's also a very fabby Valentine's giveaway going on

over on The Twinery's blog!

So glad you were able to stop by.

I hope you'll leave me a quick little note to

let me know you were here.

Make sure you stop back later tonight as I will be

announcing the winner of the blog candy from the

'March of the Snowmen' Blog Hop.

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Bazzill, The Paper Company

Ink: Ranger Archival in Black, Tim Holtz Distress in 'Frayed Burlap'

Stamps:  Ippity 'Quotes A'la Happy'
Die Cut Tools: Cricut 'George & Basic Shapes'

Embellishments:  The Twinery baker's twine in 'Maraschino'
Recollections & K&Co rhinestones

Tools:  Fiskar's Corner Rounder, misc markers

A Baby is....

Another very quick, but colorful post for today!

I always like to play with 'unusual' 

color combos for baby cards.  I get tired of

the same pink and blue pastel themes

(although I still think they are beautiful).

Thought it might be fun to enter this over at

Verve's Baby Love Challenge.

(I don't currently own any Verve : (  but they

are on my wish list for sure!)

So when I want to go bright and bold, I go straight to

Cosmo Cricket!  These papers are from the 'DeLovely'

collection and are really fun.

The sentiment on the die cut tag is from Verses Rubber Stamps,

but it doesn't stop there....

I inked the first portion of the stamp for the front

of the card and finished off the verse for the

inside greeting.

I love when you can do that with sentiments and

Verses stamps offer a wide variety of ways to

do just that.

Through this Sunday, you can get

20% off your entire order

over at Verses!

Just use the coupon code:

SNOW20

in the comment section of your order.

Well....it's time to get busy with completing a few

creations with deadlines attached, so I KNOW I

will see you soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock: The Paper Company 
Designer Paper:  Cosmo Cricket 'DeLovely'

Ink: Ranger

Stamps:  Verses

Embellishments: baker's twine by The Twinery, Recollections gems

Tools:  Fiskar's Border Punch

Joy, Love and Beauty

Show of hands.....

Who knows what the color story is for this week's

challenge at The Play Date Cafe?

Here's another hint.....

Yep!

It's everybody's fave....

Creatively, there's something I just love

about black & white with a 'hint' of color.

Sarah selected this beautiful inspiration photo

for us and I got to work!

This was one of the easiest projects I've put together.

It was just a matter of choosing the DP, deciding where

it would go on the card and then a little stamping.

The only 'extra' that I added was a little

'watercolor-style' painting

around the edges of each flower petal using

dye-based in in a matching shade for the project.

You will love what the rest of our talented design team

has done with this color palette.

All of the fabby projects are on display over in

The Play Date Cafe.

Here's who you'll find along with your's truly...

Sarah Anderson  

Ruby McGuire

 Savannah O'Gwynn 

Andrea Ewen

Colleen Dietrich  

Fiona Shultz

Jaclyn Miller 

Jinny Newlin
Libby Hickson  

Michele Gross

Tracey Kuzniak

 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: My Mind's Eye

Ink: Memento in Grape Jelly, Ranger Archival in Black

Stamps:  Technique Tuesday, Unity

Embellishments:  Recollections Flowers, velvet ribbon

Tools:  Fiskar's Corner Rounder

Gift Tags Galore!

One of the things I enjoy making at Christmas time,

more than anything else

is gift tags...but not just plain jane tags.

I think all these tags qualify for CAS until you start

adding embellishments, which I love to do!

Die cut tags using Spellbinders Labels Four,

layered with a variety of designer papers from

Memory Box and K&Co.

The focal point sentiments for each of these are vinyl

'Stickerz' from EAD Designs.

Add pearls, gold twine and silk ribbon and there you go!

I am entering my set of tags above

for the Scrappy Saturday Challenge

featuring one of my favorite Christmas songs,

'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'

I made another set of tags using a wonderful rubber stamp

image from Memory Box.  I used a paper-piecing method

with the holly and added fabby pearls for the berries.

The holly is actually placed with 3-D tape for a

dimensional affect.

I am entering this set of tags over at

Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge

and

Little Red Wagon Challenge #57

and

Sunday Stampers #132

Last but not least, another batch of tags

featuring EAD Designs 'Stickerz'...

Love the 'retro feel' to these ornaments.

I dressed them up a bit with Stickles in platinum

(which is my FAVORITE color)

and a lovely rhinestone for the center.

The stamped sentiment is from The Paper Company.

All of the tags in this post have been shaded on the edges

with Tim Holtz Distress Ink.  It adds depth and gives a

vintage-feel to paper projects.

Hope you enjoyed these fun little projects!

One more thing....

Monique Hanson, my design team-mate at The Twinery

and author of the blog, For the Love of Paper, honored

me with a sweet blog award today.

I thank her for thinking of me and I appreciate her

being a follower here at The Open Window.

I am going to 'cop out' a bit on the sharing the

personal things that most awards require, but only

because I just shared some pretty fun and in some

cases, surprising things in my interview with Ippity.

So if you have a moment, I would love if you

would click here and check out some fun facts

about Julie Ranae.

I didn't 'cop out' completely....Thanks again Monique!

A Visit to Dublin, Ireland by Way of The Play Date Cafe

It's my turn to host the 'color story' again this week at
The Play Date Cafe Challenge

and this is one that I am really excited about!

This is one of my favorite places on Earth!
No...not just Ireland.
No...not just Dublin.

The photos you see are of the lovely
Russell Court Hotel
on Harcourt Street in the
Heart of Downtown Dublin.

Paul and I stayed there just over 20 years ago
and it is probably the place we talk most often
and most fondly about.
Ireland is fond to my husband's heart as well
because both his mother and father are from
Northern Ireland...it confuses people quite often
when my husband Paul, who is British tries to explain
that he has Irish parents : )

Back to Dublin.....

Not much has changed over the years...
It's still as beautiful as ever.
The card I chose to make was not intentional,
but in the end, it certainly speaks to how I feel
about this wonderful place...

The stamps that I used for sentiment and for the designs
around the clock are from Ippity Stamps 'Now and Always' set.
Again, how apropos is that??!!

The clock was cut from the DCWV 'At Home' Stack.
The papers that make up the 'wallpaper' are from
the same DCWV and The Paper Company.
I used Spellbinder's 'Labels 9' for my die.

Here is a close-up of the clock so you can see the subtle
stamping I did using these wonderful Ippity stamps.

I used Ranger Adirondack Ink in Mushroom.

If there was ever a week to play...
This one is it!

Ippity's parent company, Unity Stamps is
our sponsor this week and there is
$75 worth of stamps sets up for grabs to
the most creative entry this week!

Unity Design Team Member and one of

Paper Crafts Magazine's 'Go-To Gals'

Maren Benedict

is our Celebrity Guest Designer.

So what are you waiting for?

Oh...well I know it's to leave me a comment...
but get going...and git er done!
See you soon and enjoy your trip!

A Little French Inspiration

It is SO good to be back in my little

art space.  I confess that

I haven't had much time to create

this week, and it just so happens that

I chose to participate in a couple of

challenges, which is a great way

to get you focused.

.....One challenge is simple in it's sketch

and one that's inspires layers......

If you have read my blog for any length of time,

you probably know that I am in love with the

Provence region of France.

So when I saw City Crafters' theme this week

was 'I Love Paris', I knew I wanted

in on the fun!

The sketch over at Card Patterns was just

right because it was simple enough to allow

for lots of creativity on the page.

I went major BOO on this card.

The DP is actually stationary from

The Paper Company which

I purchased many years ago along with

a little DCWV accenting.

The 'Paris postmark' stamp is Stampabilities.

The fab die-cut in the center is from

Tattered Angels 'Creme Collection'.

I'm sure you not only recognize the 

Martha Loop Punch, but also the bird die cut,

which is from Tim Holtz and the Spellbinders 

Nestibilities scallop.

The bling and flowers are from Prima.

Glad to be able to share this with you.

I hope when you stop by, you will take a

moment to say hello...