Pumpkin Patch Fall Classic 2014

Our weekend was full of excitement here!  Our horsemanship program, PATCH by Design had its fall horse show!  Nine participants ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 15 showed horses in three different classes.  We had one riding class, a showmanship class and an in-hand freestyle class set to music with costumes!  We followed it up with a pitch-in banquet and awards.  It was a great day full of joy!

When I first saw the Scaredy Cat paper from CTMH, I was inspired to make the programs for the show.  (I have to say, this is one of my favorite paper collections in the new idea book!  I fell in love with this one the moment I saw it!  I know Halloween is upon us, but I think I'll order more just because I love the Thistle!)  I was unsure of the program design until I saw this pumpkin card in the new Artfully Sent cartridge.  I wanted an interesting, fun program that would easily come together since I needed several of them.  This fit the bill since the Cricut and my computer did all the work!  I did color the pumpkin, glue the leaves, staple it, and tie the ribbons.  Ribbon is from Michaels.

The text on the right is from CTMH Artiste written with the Cricut Violet pen.  Leaves were cut from the CTMH Artbooking.

There were  six pages in the program listing the classes, names of exhibitors, benefactors, program schedule, etc.

 "Think it, feel it, do it" is sort of our motto here when working with horses.  We serve children and teens with learning disorders, different life situations, ASD, DS, and other challenges.

I can't show pictures of the kids showing, but I can share a picture of the horse they named Horse of the Year!  This is Thunder.  The picture below was taken of him at the awards ceremony standing in front of the crowd.  He was certainly the star!

I was so proud of all the kiddos, horses, and my amazing team who give so much of themselves every week!  I am so blessed to watch horses change lives; it's a fascinating miracle!

The Amazing Thunder and my son Keith.  

This project fits the challenge over at Color My Heart since the colors there this week are Thistle and Sunset!  It is also going over to Fantabulous Cricut Challenge since this program cover really was made from a Halloween card cut!

If you are like me and love this paper collection, you can check it out at KatiesCorner!  Oh, by the way, I had nominated Miss Katie to do an All About Me sort of page and it's up at Katie's Corner!  Check it out!

Wrap It Up!

 Happy Birthday to Exploring Cricut and More!  There's such a great celebration over there and I'm so happy to have been invited to the party!  Now, don't be sad 'cause you're invited, too!  Just follow this link to join in the fun:  Exploring Cricut and More Birthday !

Since it's a birthday, I decided to share a present and wrapping I made for my sister.  Now, for those of you who follow my blog you may be thinking you saw her birthday card weeks ago!  (You'll notice a color theme here!  These are her favorite colors.)  Yes, you did; her birthday was in September.  We always celebrate all the fall birthdays together at one time in the middle of October.  Ok, I realize that was probably more info than you needed about my family's celebration habits, so on with the project!  ; )

The actual necklace was made from the Base and Bling Collection at CTMH.  The Base and Bling pieces include:  Faux Silver Chain, Faux Silver Square Pendant, Square Glass Cover, Storyteller Sheet, Rhinestone Charm, and Storyteller Charm.  I added a couple of jewelry rings from my stash.  For directions on making this necklace see this video.

I made the display card from CTMH Olive and Sweet Leaf cardstock.  I cut a piece of cereal box the same size as the Sweet Leaf piece of CS and glued it all together.  I punched a couple of small holes and cut slits on the diagonal to the holes.  To keep the chain in place I found a little bag with self sealer and stuck the remaining chain in and just stuck down the self sealing part.  I never throw anything away.....does this make me a hoarder?  Yikes, oh well.....in this case it worked out well!

Now for the moment you've been waiting .........  The Wrapping!

 This sweet little pillow box is from the Wrap it Up cartridge.  I used CTMH Ivy Lane (retired) papers.  I cut the little flower from the same CS's as above.  The little flower is cut with a hole in the middle.  I simply cut two.  I tipped them in Smokey Plum ink and curled the petals a bit.  I used a bit of scrap tulle and tied it around the box.  I knotted it 3 times to give it a large knot and pulled the knot through the hole in the flower.  I then trimmed off the excess tulle.  EASY!!

Have a great time at the party!

This is also going off to Take Heart Ideas October Challenge.

Indulge Me, Please! ; )

My paper crafting friend, Gail, at www.greetingsfromgail.blogspot.com nominated me, of all people, to answer some interesting questions and share some insight into my creative process!  Now, I must say, this has been way more fun for me than it probably will be for you to read; therefore, it's been sort of a guilty pleasure/indulgence.  Hmm.......where have I seen that lately?  Let me think on that I as I write this post.......

So, here are some questions about my creative process and how my brain works..... this could get a little scary; maybe I should have saved this for Halloween!

1.  What am I working on right now?

Ok, wow,  I'm in the middle of 4 projects!  Yikes!  I have a canvas laying on my table drying.  There are programs for a horse show/banquet in pieces.  I have another canvas in the other room with cuts laid out and finally the project I'll be showing you today!  I recently finished a birthday gift for my sister posted over at Exploring Cricut and More.

2.  How long does it take me to create a project?

Well, it depends on the project, my mood, and how much coffee I've had!  It seems some projects just come together so quickly and others get started and sit on the table for days or more!  Canvases can take me a couple of days.  I cut all of my own dies on the Cricut and finish them.  That can take some serious time.  I also like to make my own texture paste and glimmer mists.

3.  What are my favorite things to use in my creations currently?

I love using lace, however I haven't used much of it lately.  Creating with lace just feels indulgent to me!  I also love making and using flowers on layouts.  Here's a sneak peek

at some I'm using currently.

I love to use tulle and old pieces of jewelry.  Wait, I've also been using burlap in my country feeling projects.  I love all embellishments, let's just put it that way!

4.  How does my creating process work?

I suppose it depends on what I'm creating.  If I'm working on a layout with pictures, the photograph seems to drive the piece for me.  If I'm working on a card, I often am inspired and motivated by challenges.  I have also been motivated by sketch challenges for layouts.

That being said, the actual physical process goes something like this.  I sit at the computer and design my creation in Design Space.  This gives me sizes and dimensions.  I start with squares to represent my pictures and change them into the rectangle (square) sizes I want for the photos.  Then I start choosing the dies, frames, elements, etc I want on the page.  I print my pictures at this point and see what colors I want for my papers, inks, paints, etc.  I cut my dies and cut the backing for them from ......wait for it........cereal boxes!  I love cereal!  So, I have lots of boxes for my die cut backings!  This gives the dies more dimension and a chipboard feel.

I take all my goodies over to the table and go to town with inks.  I love to embellish my die cuts.  Once they are all set, I start the layout.  This is the point I start to visualize where other embellishments might go.  I usually lay out everything and I might snap some pics with my phone or camera if it's within arm's reach!

Now, I commit to the adhesive!  If I mess up something, or should I say WHEN I mess up something, I make it work!  I seldom throw away anything.  If I can't make it work, I save it for another project.

5.  How do I become inspired and stay inspired?

Easy question!  Research and challenges!  I love to watch videos!  I watch a lot of Gabrielle over at Such a Pretty Mess and Vicki at Clips n Cuts.  I also enjoy the CTMH videos, of course!  Since my daughter sells CTMH, I like to watch other videos and see how my CTMH products could be used in similar ways.  Oh, and there's always Pinterest!  I also like to hang in the barn and some of my ideas are born there.

6.  What is my signature style?







I didn't realize this is a signature of mine, but the comments I receive the most often seem to include the word "detail" in them.  So, I suppose detail is big in my work.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here ya go!

7.  What is your favorite piece you have created?

Wow, that's a tough one.  I have a few I really enjoyed doing.  I guess my favorite is "Sisters" followed by "Pumpkin Baby" and "Red, White, and Blue Cowboy Style."

Thanks for indulging me!  Hey, speaking of indulgences and guilty pleasures....over at Heart to Heart that is one of this month's challenges and here is the 4th project I've been working on!

This is truly an indulgence for me right now in the midst of the other projects I need to finish!  I love working in My Crush Book from CTMH!  I treat it like an art diary of my life.  I put pictures in it as well as art journaling.  Oh, and yummy coffees are also one of my favorite indulgences!

It's also going off to Aud Sentiments, 613 Avenue Create,  and Pile it On.

Hey, Katie Smith, tag!  You're next to answer these questions!  Be sure to check out KatiesCorner in the next few weeks to see what she is working on and how her brain works!

All CTMH products used are from KatiesCorner.

I Love Sketches!

Over at PATCH by Design, we are preparing for our Pumpkin PATCH Fall Classic Horse Show and Art/Learning Exhibit!  This is a really fun time for the kids in my therapeutic horsemanship program. It is a special event where they get to show their horsemanship skills in riding and in-hand classes.  This year I added a special class called In-Hand Freestyle.  In this class they get to choose a song and do an improv freestyle with a miniature horse.  

They are all excited choosing their music, costumes, props and elements for the class.  I decided to commemorate the class I would make canvas wall hangings of each of the nine students with their horse and song title to exhibit at the art show and then give them to the families at the banquet.  

Thank goodness for the sketch challenge at Stuck? Sketches!   This gave me an idea for this piece.  

The retired printed papers are all from CTMH.  I embellished with cuts from Cricut Old West and Country Life (the 'HAPPY' banner.  Other banners and circle were cut from CTMH Art Philosophy.   Other embellishments include:  CTMH Ruby Washi Tape, CTMH Studs, CTMH Mocha Gems, embossing powder, Darice Hemp Cord, and homemade glimmer mist.  The canvas is from Michaels.  

Well, only 7 more to go......  Off to find more sketches and ideas!

All CTMH is from Katiescorner.  The stamp of the month for October is really cute and there is a ribbon deal going on at CTMH!

Steamy Shaker Card

What inspired this card?  Well that's a long story........but the short answer is research!  That's what I tell my husband I'm doing when I hide away in my craft room and watch videos of various project tutorials!  

I was watching this video by Vicky at Clips n Cuts and loved the idea of a shaker cup card!  Then I remembered this video by Gabrielle at Such a Pretty Mess and wanted to do the tag idea.  Then I saw the sketch at Atlantic Hearts and the idea is born!  Now I have to make a small confession.  I am a bit dyslexic.  I looked at this picture several times and walked back to the table where I work and reversed the small rectangles with the long ones.  I mean to tell you within a matter of seconds my brain can reverse things.  Now, here's the fun part.  I actually went back and looked at it several times to be sure I was doing it like the sketch image!  Oh well, I am who I am!   

I started with papers from CTMH Yuletide Scrapbooking Workshop on the Go.  I love to purchase those.  Like I said before, I never make what is there, but I use everything in the package!  It's a great bargain for me.

The Ruby CS was run through the embosser and lightly sanded.  

The tag was cut from Joys of the Season.  It was stamped with miscellaneous stamps from CTMH Love Life, Universal Backgrounds, and Curlicue Frames.  I "sliced" a heart from a square shape in Cricut Explore to back the tag.  I glued the acetate behind that and adhered 3-D foam tape around the heart cut.  The shaker ingredients are cut gold sequins from the WOTG and gold glitter.  

Cartridges include:  

Artiste -- doily
Art Philosophy -- flower
Gypsy Font -- bird
Storybook -- flourish

The vine cut was laying on my desk from another project and I can't remember where it originated!

Embellishments include:
Mocha gems (of course -- my fav!!!)
Sequins
Scrap of fabric
Twine scrap

CTMH Inks include:
Ruby, Slate, Chocolate, Barn Red, New England Ivy, Topiary

Other:
Gold ink
Homemade glimmer mist on flower

My card base is Kraft CS.

I love research!  I could spend hours watching tutorials and looking at pictures!  They are so inspiring to me.........much like these sites where my card is going!

Sentimental Sudays - use Kraft cardstock
Atlantic Hearts - sketch
Heart 2 Heart - use your fav embellishment (Mocha gems!!)

All CTMH is from Katiescorner.

Halloween Fun at Exploring Cricut!

Fall is in the air, costumes are out in the stores, pumpkins and mums are decorating entryways; it must be time for Halloween!  It's definitely time to prepare, anyway!  Over at Exploring Cricut there are lots of great projects to inspire us for the holiday!

Today I have the privilege of sharing a card cut from the recently released CTMH cartridge Artfully Sent.  This new cartridge is chalked full of great card ideas as well as clever cuts for art journaling, scrapping, decorating, teaching aids, etc.  I really am enjoying this new cartridge and excited to try some of the 3-D interactive cards.  

I started with CS from CTMH Scaredy Cat Paper Pack.  The sentiment shape and its background are from Art Philosophy.  The sentiment was written using the Cricut Explore and the Cricut Alphabet.  I colored the letters in with a CTMH Gypsy marker.  I finished it off with CTMH glitter tape, a bow, and the left over ghosts cut from Artfully sent.  (You'll see how they were left over in the picture below.)  I did darken the ghosts with a little Gypsy ink.

At this point you might be thinking, 'Ok, nice, but where's all the fun?'

It's on the INSIDE!  

Isn't this a fun cut?  I love the way the mansion and fence stand out in front of the tree and the ghosts are coming out from behind!  I shot this pic using lights to try to emphasize the shadows to show the 3-D effect.  I hope you can see it.

I added a little bit to the original cut.  When this cuts, the ghosts and moon cut out of the background.  The tree is connected to the tombstones and the mansion is connected to the fence.  So, when I cut it, I cut the tree from Slate and Whisper CS.  I cut the mansion from Black and Sunset.  Then I cut away the tombstone from the Slate gray and the fence from the Sunset orange.  The pieces were then layered and glued into place.

I stuck a piece of leftover photo paper behind the Thistle CS so the ghosts would be white.  The moon is slightly yellow because I inked part of the photo paper in the corner.

The stars were done with texture paste mixed with a drop of Honey re-inker.  I used a star stencil cut from stars in the Art Philosophy cartridge.

It is going to be great fun to explore this cartridge further.......lots of fun to be had here!  Speaking of fun, keep checking out the fun at Exploring Cricut.  I can't wait to see all the Halloween fun!

Photographing White......Yikes!

 Ok, I had one stinkin' time photographing this layout!  Now, I realize this isn't a photo challenge, but this drove me batty!  I'm giving you a couple of different pics to see because the top one is really closer to the colors and such, but the bottom one shows you more of the heat embossing.  The interesting part of this is the embossing is all in white with clear powder, but it looks yellow in the picture.  I'm sure someone who knows more about photography and light could shed some ideas on how to get a better photo of this layout!  But for now, I'm giving up and writing the blog!  ; )

I was inspired by 3 challenges for this one.  I used the sketch from Stuck?! Sketches, colors from Color My Heart, and embellishments from Heart 2 Heart: use your favorite embellishment.

I heat embossed using Daisy White pigment ink and clear embossing powder images from the Love Life stamp set and the unicorn from Unicorn Dreams.  I then randomly stamped using slate and cotton candy.  The paper strips are from Lolly Doodle.

Crcut Cartridges:  Old West and CTMH Art Philosophy.

Sentiment is from Take Note.

Embellishments:  Sequins, Flamingo Dots, Baker's Twine and my all time favorite (sadly now retired) Mocha Gems!  Yes, if you go back to some of my earliest posts, you'll see Mocha Gems on everything!  I love them.  When I saw they were to be retired, I purchased several packages of them.  I use them on horseshoes, fence posts, for animal eyes, all my country layouts and cards, etc.

Ok, off to get some work done since I spent most of the day searching for the right angle, backdrop colors, lighting, etc to get this dag'gone picture!  Now, I know why I don't usually use white as a background!  Well, there are other reasons; it's hard to hide errors on white!  Sometimes, one can only strategically place so many embellishments!  hahaha

All CTMH from Katiescorner.

Frightfully Cute Card! ;)

This stamp set is waaaay toooo cute!  It is from CTMH and called Halloween Greetings!  When I saw that adorable little witch I couldn't help but think about Tabitha from Bewitched and all the mischief she created around her!  That's what makes this a great choice for the Pile it On Challenge where they want to see children/ Halloween/games.

I also enjoyed playing with some different mediums on this card, so I'm sending it off to Mixed Media Mojo where the theme is Fall and use paste.  My texture paste is up in the left hand corner.  I cut my own stencil with my cricut and some acetone alternative.  I colored the homemade pasted with CTMH Honey and Cranberry re-inker to get the orange color.  Before the paste was dry I sprinkled a little glitter onto it and quickly hit it with a heat too.

Before adding the texture paste, I cut the card from the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  The paper is CTMH Scaredy Cat.  I painted the front with some pearl paint mixed with a little gesso and lightly rubbed a little Sunset ink over it.  The pattern still clearly comes through, but it gives it a little different look than the inside of the card.

The web and bats were cut from Artbooking.  I heat embossed them with powder. I also heat embossed the little witch and colored with CTMH markers.  The sentiment is cut from Artbooking.

Further embellishments include Epoxy bubbles, Baker's Twine, Sunset Ribbon, tulle colored with ink.     All CTMH is from KatiesCorner!

I'm also sending my little witch off to these fun challenges!

Creative Card Crew -- Use Twine
Aud Sentiments -- Halloween Sentiment
Love to Create -- Fussy Cut  (Little Witch)
One Crazy Stamper -- Halloween or Christmas
Take Heart Ideas -- Anything Goes as long as you use at least 1 CTMH item......Let's see, Artbooking, Artfully Sent, Scaredy Cat, Baker's Twine, Epoxy Bubbles, Black gem, Markers, inks, card stock.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Good Day to Say Thanks!

Inspired by the Color My Heart Colors this week, I designed a TY card for my guy to send.  He always asks if there is something appropriate in 'the store' for him to send out to family or colleagues.  This time I needed to make one!

I started with Champagne CS and stamped the tree trunk from Huntington Workshop stamp set.  I stamped the Good and Day.  The I put in my brick pattern with Chocolate ink using a homemade stencil made from Artbooking.

I stamped the leaves in Chocolate and colored over them with Olive and a touch of Sorbet.  Some of the leaves are stamped in Cranberry Pigment ink.  I stamped the thank you (an old Studio G stamp) in Pacifica and then stamped over it in Archival Black to give it more depth and prominence.

I distressed the edges with scissors and inked it with Cocoa pigment ink.  I layered it on top of some olive patterned paper from Ivy Lane; that is on top of an embossed piece of Sorbet CS.  I used the CTMH Woodgrain folder and then rubbed my Chocolate stamp pad over the raised areas.  My card base is Olive.  I finished it off with a Baker's Twine Olive bow.

All CTMH from Katiescorner!

It's always a good day when you learn something about yourself!

Preface:  Lots of introspection here having not a lot to do with this entry in my Crush Book!  However, sometimes working on new techniques, using new tools, and breaking into new papers can be much like this trail discovery for me!  When you get down to the darker print, you'll be back in the scrapping zone!

 Sitting down at my craft table looking at my pics from my recent trip to Jamboree gives me time for reflection.  I can't believe how much I learned about myself and others during those 4 days.  It doesn't seem like much time to make such discoveries; but I suppose when one is immersed in things so out of the everyday zone, she picks up on a few things!

I went out full of great expectations to love trail riding.  I thought my horse and I would get out there and relax and enjoy nature.  Much to my dismay, I found we both seemed to hate it!  He started loping in place the second we hit the trail head!  I was holding him back the entire time and we were both exhausted and frustrated upon the return of the 2 and 1/2 hour ride.  I didn't think it was ever going to end!

The people around me were relaxed, laughing and having a great time.  It frustrated me to no end since I couldn't seem to enjoy that same feeling!  The following day when everyone was going out for another ride, I chose to stay behind and work in the round pens and out in the grassy area.  There, Jake and I had a wonderful time working on maneuvers and gait impulsion.  We were back in our working element and relaxed.

The third day we rode in a clinic and that was the best!  Yeah, I'm a strange one.  I'm more relaxed in a clinic riding and learning in front of people than I am on a "relaxing" trail ride.  Go figure!

Well it's good to know who I'm not ---- and currently I'm NOT a trail rider!  Who knows, one day I may get there.  For now I'm relating to the Dr. Seuss stamp from the Happy stamp set.

I am loving the freedom of creating in my Wildwood Crush Book.  I was a bit intimidated at first -- not sure why -- but now I'm loving using it as sort of a pictorial/art journal of my life events.  It's a great place to write down some sentiments, epiphanies, try new techniques, etc.  I really like using odds and ends from other larger layouts.  It also feels a bit indulgent because it's all about me!  I don't scrap much about me, so this is different.

Everything here is from CTMH except the buckle from my stash, the homemade texture paste on the sentiment tag, copper embossing powder, and the white gesso I used to cover the page on the left.  I didn't want the background to be quite so prominent.

Paper is from the Skylark and Ivy Lane.  The little orange flower is from the new Scaredy Cat.

CTMH Stamp Sets include Timberline Workshop, Huntington Workshop, Skylark Workshop and You are My Happy.

Embellishments:  Sparkle Gems Tan/Brown, Mini-Medley Accents, Mocha Gems, Wildwood Assortment, Bakers Twine, Brown Stripe Ribbon, and Timberline Assortment.

Cricut Cartridges:  CTMH Art Philosophy

All CTMH is from Katiescorner.

So, am I glad I went on that 2 1/2 hour trail of torture?  Yeah, I guess I am........actually, I know I'm glad I did it.  Why?  Because I did it!  I didn't fall off and I didn't throw up, so.........it was a good day!

My Crush book entry is going off to Heart 2 Heart challenge:  Favorite Tool.  This might sound strange, but the tool I use EVERY time a scrap is my All Purpose Mat!  I love inking, as you know from my favorite technique entry, and using texture paints, glimmer mists, etc.  Therefore, this mat is a must!  It cleans off like none other.  I keep it out laying over my up-side-down Versamat which is another of my favorite tools.  Using this layout of tools I'm always ready to stamp, glue, use paste, whatever!

No Limits at 50!

My post needs to be as speedy as this car today!  Busy, busy!

This is the card I made for my guy's 50th birthday!  He loves cars; he and our son went to the Mecum auction this past spring.  That was a dangerous thing!  You can see what my son brought home on Mecum Car Auction Comes to Indy....

Anyway, I must stay on task!  Back to the card; the background is CTMH Fundamentals.  It has has a fun arrow shape pattern.  The signs are from the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge.  The car is cut from the Father's Day Cartridge.

The signs were stamped with the CTMH Timberline Workshop Stamp Set and then heat embossed.  The tire tracks are from the same stamp set.  I also heat embossed the outline of the car with black embossing powder.

All CTMH is from KatiesCorner.

Zooming off to Sentimental Sundays where the theme is Vehicles!

Most Beautiful Pumpkin Baby!

As I was looking through some old photographs, I found this one and fell in love with it!  It is a picture of my grandma when she was Most Beautiful Baby in the Big Pumpkin Show 1912.

What better time to scrap this picture with it feeling so much like fall outside and so many of the challenges are being inspired by the crisp, cool air.

I started with the picture and ran with a fall / pumpkin theme.  (I almost always use this technique for my layouts.  They are usually inspired by the pictures I choose.)  I'm assuming this was some sort of festival or fair and found the Jubilee paper where there were tickets on the paper.  I cut those out and then went to the Cricut Design Space to find oak leaves, acorns, pumpkins, tickets, banners, etc.

Cricut Cartridges include:  Art Nouveau, Art Philosophy, October 31st, Pretty Pennants, Holiday Cakes, and Celebrate with Flourish.

 The bottom sentiment is part of the strip from CTMH Huntington paper.  This really fun background is from the CTMH Fundamentals.

 I used a couple of my favorite techniques on this layout.  One is I combined cuts from many different cartridges.  The second technique is inking.  I love to ink everything.  If my hands aren't stained by the end of the session, I haven't had enough fun!  I usually cut  all my images from 4-5 different colors and then vary them with inks and stamping.  I use sponges, daubers, my fingers, stamps, pieces of cloth, baby wipes, my shirt.......hahaha!  Whatever is laying close is fair game for inking!

I believe on this project I actually used around 7-8 different papers and/or card stocks for cutting in addition to the fundamentals I used as the background for my picture and the base of the LO.

Of course, then there are the mocha gems.  I love those; when I saw they were being discontinued, I bought several packages.  Other CTMH embellishments include:  Sparkle gems tan and Rosette Ribbon.  I colored the ribbon with homemade glimmer mist and tucked it under the flower and acorns in the upper right hand corner.  I also sprayed the right hand corner and the left edge with chocolate glimmer mist.

Stamp sets include:  CTMH Universal Backgrounds.

I had to leave the journaling banner empty for now.  I need to talk to my dad and see what he knows about this picture.  Someone else had written my grandma's name on the picture.  This was interesting since I had always known her as Kathryn.  I have to assume this was my great-grandmother's writing because it is not Grandma's penmanship.  Of course, it could have been one of her sister's writing.  She was the youngest of several girls.

Ok, enough speculation!

This is going off to the following challenges:
Heart 2 Heart - my favorite techniques
123 Get Scrappy - Tic, Tac, Toe  Grid (Leaves, Brown Background, Long Title)
Bitten by the Bug 2 - Use any Cricut cut

Leaves, Brown, Long Title

Exploring Cricut - Fall Cuts

All CTMH is from Katiescorner.

Vintage Cowboy/Cowgirl!

These vintage photographs from the late 1940's have been on my radar to scrap for awhile now.  I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to put them together.  The top left pic is my mom and her horse.  The photo on the bottom right is my dad in his cowboy gear.

Mom was a mid-western country girl; she lived on a farm with all kinds of animals including horses.  She loved her family vacation out west and came home loving that lifestyle and decor.

Dad lived in a small Indiana town.  He told me every Saturday he would walk to the movie theater to see the latest cowboy picture with Roy Rogers or Gene Autry.  The 30's, 40's and 50's were the decades of cowboys!  The silver screen was full of westerns to spark the imaginations of children.

I saw the sketch at Stuck?! Sketches and then remembered the paper with the Southwest theme from CTMH sitting in my stash.  I happened upon the challenge over at Sentimental Sundays where the theme is Touch of Vintage and here's the result!   I'm also sending these 'cow kids' off to Heart 2 Heart where the theme is favorite stamp.  **Note: I have the right to change my mind about my favorite stamp set at a moment's notice!  That is one unfair challenge theme!  I don't play favorites; however, I do reach for my background stamps for almost every piece.  When CTMH comes out with a new background stamp, I'm on it!  ;)

Ok, back to the 'cow kids'!  Everything here is CTMH except the circles.  The wire with jewels making the top circle is left over from Katie's wedding and the bottom circle is a stiff hemp/twine from my stash.  I made it even stiffer by rubbing it into candle wax.  This helped it hold its form to make the circle.  

The paper is from Free to be Me; it was a promotion a few months ago.  The background CS is from the Fundamentals!  This is really fun CS; as you can see, when you rub ink over it the design appears!  The more ink you put on there, the more you see it.  Very fun!

Stamp sets include:  Distressed Backgrounds, Universal Backgrounds (retired), and Timberline Scrapbooking Workshop (retired).  

Cricut cuts are from:  Southwest and CTMH Artbooking.  Stencil is from Artbooking.  I used the stencils made from Acetate Alternative to make the Sunset Arrow Bursts.  

CTMH Embellishments:  Durable Squares, Aqua Dots, Mocha Gems, and Sparkles Assortment Brown/Tan.  Homemade Glimmer Mist is made from CTMH Chocolate re-inker, water, and Create a Shade Pearl Paint (sadly retired!). 

All CTMH is from KatiesCorner.  Stamp of the month is so adorable this month; visit and check it out along with the great promotional offer!

Meow!

September is such the birthday month!  Lots of special days in my family!  Thank goodness for the inspirations at the blog sites!  This card was inspired by the sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  They always seem to have a fun idea over there!

This card was used making the CTMH Jubilee papers; sadly they're retired.  The cats were cut from the Cricut Meow cartridge and the Meow is from the Four Legged Friends Cartridge.

I used the Stripes embossing folder from CTMH and then heat embossed it with clear powder to get the shiny appearance.  The "meow" was also heat embossed with black powder.

The little flowers are stamped in Indian Corn Blue with What a Hoot Stamp of the month.  The card has a shiny look from dry brushing Create a Shade Pearl paint mixed with Sky re-inker.  The black ribbon was in my stash.

All CTMH is from KatiesCorner.

Ok, I have a couple of cards done now...........  Back to the work desk!  hahaha