Thankful Banner - for the office - Lawnscaping #21

Good morning friends! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was really good. I took some time to "stop & smell the roses". Just playing with my kids and spending time with my mom & my hubby. I also did a lot of organizing and put up (inside only) my Christmas decorations (oh, yes I did!). My tree looks absolutely beautious, and it makes me super happy. I've started minor Christmas shopping, so, I figured I should be able to have physical proof that Christmas is coming ;). Plus, I just needed the happy boost. So much has been chaotic, I need to SEE happy, and having my tree up definitely made me happy! Now if I can only keep my sanity while my 3 year old asks me every single day - 5 times a day - if Santa’s coming tomorrow... yep... that’s begun.

Anyway, I also spent a lot of time this weekend getting crafty YAY! I wanted to make a little banner for my office (our only Thanksgiving decoration). I love how it came out and was SO happy when I logged into Facebook this morning and saw that my banner is absolutely PERFECT for Lawnscaping's #21 Challenge (Thankful)!!

Don't you just LOVE Lawnscaping Challenges!?!?! I sure do. They are my all time favorite Challenge Blog - mainly because they incorporate my favorite things - Lawn Fawn Stamps and fun ways to use them!!!! Plus, their DT is out of this world. It is filled with sweet/talented ladies, and I absolutely love looking at what all of the participants do with the challenges!! You guys inspire me so much!!!

Anyway here is a look at my banner. {{*As you can see, I added a bunch of my Thanksgiving Cards to the equasion for today's little photoshoot ;). I'm sorry this picture is so small. My camera is just a point/shoot & it seems to not help with getting good close ups of things like this. If you click on the picture though, you can see it much better. Sorry about that - there are good pictures of each individual section of the banner below ;).}}

I just got a Cuttlebug a few weeks ago, but had to wait for a “C” Plate (from Simon Says Stamp) to use it, because I bought ALL Spellbinders Dies. I'm a 1st timer - what can I say. I used one of the larger scallop circles (on Neenah’s Sandstorm Cardstock) and then a smaller circle to cut out canvas. Next I misted the canvas with Maya Mist in orange and cut out a smaller circle, which I distressed/inked to place my paper pieced letters on. The stamps are ALL Lawn Fawn and the patterned paper is from Making Memories’s "Autumn Splendor" collection.

As you can see, I used tons of Lawn Fawn here: Quinn’s ABCs, Critters in the Forest, Critters on the Farm, Fly Free, the Birdies from Bannerific, Turkey Day, Hats off to You, and the birdies from Making Frosty Friends. Whew! All of the animals and birdies are colored with Copics, and the Twine is from Papertrey Ink. Now onto the close-ups ;)



I like how it came out. Very rustic, but bright & fun with the critters ;). Hope it inspires you today. Thanks for popping in to see me. Hope your day is wonderful!!

Carbon Copying with the Bald Dragonfly!!!

Hi there happy Wednesday! Today I’m so super excited to be joining the utterly fabulous Karen Baker {of The Bald Dragonfly Blog) for her weekly Carbon Copy feature!

I love Karen’s blog and every single project she creates - plus she’s absolutely one of the sweetest and kindest people ever!!!! If you don’t know what Carbon Copying is, it’s a fun challenge that Karen started over on her blog that goes live every Wednesday. Basically, she and another blogger ((that’s ME today)) choose a challenge - or a few - and use the same stamps and come up with two unique projects according to their own style! If you are interested in playing along, go and add your name to Mr. Linky here.

So, anyway, today we are playing along with this Lily Pads Sketch {which I flipped}:

and the Wee Memories #68 Challenge:

and using Lawn Fawn’s Critters in the Sea and Sophie’s Sentiments Stamps. Here is what I came up with:

Ok, so, I know I’m really reaching as far as the sketch goes, I just had this idea in my head. Every time I tried to deviate from it, I didn’t like what I came up with (and I tried 3 times!). In the end I went with my gut. My inspiration for this card is a little boy in my daughter’s preschool class, Carter. I’ve been friends with his mom for a long time and our kiddos are 3 months apart. She is also the co-director of the school and goes to my church. For the past year he’s been having a lot of health issues, they’re not exactly sure what’s going on but trying to get answers now. Alivia just LOVES him to pieces! This is the 2nd year they are in class together. Anyway, he had surgery last Wednesday and I wanted to make a card for the family to make them smile.

There are a lot of elements on the card. Everything started off as white cardstock and was colored or inked. No patterned paper is actually a toughy for me, but I did end up liking the result. To start, I used Masking Paper and Distress Inks (a mix of Old Paper, Pumice Stone, Antique Linen, and Tea Dye) to create my “sand” - creating 3 layers. Next I went to work on the “ocean”. I just took a 3x5 piece of cardstock and Distress Inked that up starting at the bottom with the darkest color (Faded Jeans) and working my way up in color (next was Broken China and then Tumbled Glass). Then I cut it to the size I actually needed and crinkled it into a ball. Opened it, sprayed it with water and ran the Broken China over the whole thing. Then I adhered the sand/ocean down to the card base. I stamped the sentiment “thinking of you” which sadly gave me issues because I adhered the ocean to the sea BEFORE stamping the sentiment. It happens. Anyway, then I went to town stamping, coloring, & adhering my sea critters. You really can’t tell but I used my Copic Glittery Pen on the sea grass, turtle’s spots, and whale’s splash. I popped up the whale for dimension and added pearls to the clams and that was all she wrote.

If you haven’t yet, hop over to Karen’s blog to see what she’s come up with!!

Well, that’s all for me today! Have an amazing day!