Oak Tree

Here is the last project I worked on this weekend.  When I first started scrapbooking 4 years ago my husband bought me a kit at Sam's with a bunch of stuff in it.  One of the things in it was a little oak leaf punch.  I never used it until now.  I looked for it and found it among my other punches (thank goodness I am semi-organized!) and used it on this project....the leaves were the perfect size.  My friend Abby had cut me a few of these trees nearly a year ago when I admired them on one of her projects and I hoarded them until I used one on this project.  The sentiment is an SRM sticker....love how easy those make card making.  I was inspired to let some of the tree branches hang off the side of the card by the currnet challenge this week over at CAS-ual Fridays which is Over the Edge.  There is so much talent over there and the best challenges...I just love to look at not only the DT creations but also the entries every week.

Also entered in:

My Craft Spot Challenge #32 Gobble 'til you Wobble

The Cuttlebug Spot -- Anything Goes Challenge

Paper Issues -- Thankful For Fall

Buttons, buttons, who's got the buttons?

I had fun playing with buttons and bling today on the Christmas tree for this card.  I saw a wonderful tutorial from Shari Carroll that inspired this card recently online.  You can see it HERE.  The first thing my husband asked me after telling me the card was pretty was "That looks like a very special card....who are you going to send it to and how is it going to fit in an envelope?"  It is rather odd sized but I think it will fit nicely in an 8x10 padded envelope.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

 Simon Says Stamp button challenge 

Lily Pad Cards texture challenge

Paper Issues Snow Day

Abby and Mom go Trick or Treating

My daughter-in-law Amy joined Abby in dressing up this year,  Abby was "Miss Spider" and Amy...well she was Mrs. Spider??!  I think they looked good and creepy and loved the pictures so I wanted to scrap them right away.  Sketchy Thursday had the perfect sketch this week which you can see HERE. Add to that an awesome prize and I quickly got to work on my entry.  In addition to the sketch challenge, I am also entering it over at the Family challenge at Frosted Designs and the masking challenge at my scrapbook group Scrappin'-n-Chattin'. I masked the little journaling area in the lower right hand corner where I put the date.  Three entries with one page?  Not bad for a Saturday afternoon's work.

My first banner

Flashback Friday has another cool challenge this week -- to post my very first banner that I made.  I went back to August 2010 and found this Christmas card that I made for my granddaughter Abby. I was involved in a 30 day Christmas card challenge and made 30+ Christmas cards that month.  That was a pretty plain banner, I must admit, but hey it was my first attempt.  I still love banners on my projects but I jazz them up a bit now.  This was taken with my little Sony Cybershot camera (which I have recently passed down to my grandson Jacob).  It also was way before I had my light box and I photographed all my projects outside and rarely cropped or photoshopped them.  I've come along way, baby!

Christmas Cards

Last weekend, even though he was not feeling up to it, my darling husband drove me to my favorite scrapbook store 90 minutes away in Orlando.  He also never said anything about the money I spent.  I am a lucky gal and I know it.  I bought several new collections and Season's Greetings from Echo Park is one of them.  I broke into it tonight for these two cards and I might say I love it.  Such great papers!  For the above card I used this sketch from Card Positioning Systems:

 I am also entering it into Scrapfit's Workout #55 'Tis the Season.  I have loads of Christmas cards still to make yet so I also made this one tonight:

I also used Echo Park's Season's Greetings for the above card along with this sketch 139 from Card Patterns:

What a lovely sketch! And I love the way the card turned out also.  Well I have about 40 Christmas cards done....only 50 to go!!  Have you started on your holiday projects yet?

The Paper Variety Challenge #58

The Paper Variety has a really FUN....can you say REALLY FUN challenge this week and that is to create a paper project that makes us laugh,  The design team came up with some laugh out loud projects and I can wait to see what all the entries are.  I love to laugh and I love a great sense of humor which is one reason my husband won my heart....he always makes me laugh.  Well here is my entry:

My son Adam is always posting some offbeat pictures on Facebook and recently posted this one of a skeleton hanging in his closet. Well, I couldn't resist!  Don't you just love all the skeleton heads on the background paper too?  Perfect for this layout, I thought. I used this sketch from My Scraps and More (I just rotated it):

Anyway, you know we have the bestest prizes in the blog-land,over at The Paper Variety, don't you?  Well, this week is no exception.  This week you can win a $20 gift certificate towards :

Awesome prize, isn't it?  So what are you waiting for?  C'mon, make us laugh and you could go away with a great prize too!

Three cards

Here is the last Halloween card I made and it was for my hubby.  I used this card sketch from Frosted Designs:

Then there is this card for the Bo Bunny sketch challenge:

I used last years beautiful Christmas collection Winter Joy and followed this sketch:

I also used SRM stickers for the sentiment and lots of bling.

My final card that I am sharing with you tonight is this one:

I made this card for my friend Marti as she continues on in her fight against cancer.  She is an amazing woman....always positive and upbeat.  I love to send her little words of encouragement every week.  I heat embossed the sentiment which is from the "Inside and Out Set #2" stamp set from My Craft Spot which I won recently over at Birthday Sundaes.  I used this sketch from CAS-ual Fridays:

I am also going to enter it in Wee Memories Brads, Buttons or Bows challenge.  Can you see the teeny, tiny button in the center of the bow? Don't you just love it?