Warm Winter Wishes: Art Nudge Inspiration

The Art Nudge Team is taking off with a fresh start this year! I’m so excited and honored to be a part of it. The inspirational photos and colors that Jeanne puts together are always so beautiful. Come join us by following along with Jeanne’s Art Nudge blog or our FB group, although the main place to enter your creations is with the Inlinkz link party on the Art Nudge blog. Every Tuesday evening at 7pm CT, a new inspiration photo will be posted and our design team members will be posting samples Tuesday night and Wednesday on the Art Nudge FB page and our personal blogs and social media (#artnudge). You can create any kind of project your creative heart desires and be inspired by any part of the inspiration piece shared (colors, layout, theme, or anything within the photo that inspires you. You will have until the last day of the month to link up your projects to be entered into the monthly prize drawing for all 3 January inspiration photos. Read all the challenge guidleines on Jeanne’s Art Nudge blog post.

This sweet snowman appeals to me so much because I’m such a winter lover (born and raised in the greater Buffalo, NY area…think lake effect snow!!). The blue/grey background color is one of my favorite colors!

And I’m always a fan of a pop of color!

This week’s Art Nudge Inspiration

My sample,

ARTNUDGE125A, Warm Winter Wishes

For a stronger pop of color than coloring would have given, I stamped the snowman’s scarf on SU Pumpkin Pie cardstock and fussy cut it out and glued it on. I added light frost blue coloring to the scene to bring in more of that favorite color of mine and to add to the frosty winter scene!

Supplies used:

Stampin’ Up White, Pool Party, Baja Breeze and Pumpkin Pie cardstock

Snowman scene, Whimsy Stamps: Winter Lake DA1098

Sentiment, A Muse Studio Warm Winter Wishes HC 9-8458B

Orange gems

Copics

Tombo Multi Adhesive

Stampin Up Stampin Dimensionals

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy New Year!

A PPRS card!

I got my Prickley Pear order the other day and have been dying to play with them.  Finally got a chance to before I wrapped up last week completely Saturday afternoon.  That’s why I’m thankful for my new planner lists…it helps me remember what all I want to get done in a week and keeps me inspired to keep busy!

On this card I used the PPRS Pine Cone ATC  The JOY sentiment is from an old Fiskars clear stamp set.

JOY queen CASE

I added some gold Wink of Stella to the pinecones and some SU Garden Green to the pine needles.  Snowflakes are a Jolee’s embellishment.  This card was made for last week’s Queen for a Day challenge over at SCS and was inspired by this card.

JOY queen CASE, up close

Holiday Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop, Part IV

coffeelovers blog hop

Welcome to the Holiday Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop!  We’ve got lots to share with you today, so be sure to brew yourself a nice cuppa’ and then pull up a chair and enjoy!

Today I have several posts of coffee projects, so be sure and scroll down through them all.  And leave a comment as you go for a chance to win a homemade bar of COFFEE soap!!  I have three to giveaway and the more posts you comment on, the greater your chance of winning!  Anyone can comment!!  If you’ve been visiting my blog right along, now is your chance to stop in and say hello!  See details below!

For each post, the top and bottom parts are the same with all the informational parts.  But between the ****** you will find the new project!

*************************************************************

My fourth project today is a card…finally!  Penguins enjoy a little red cup of coffee delight too!

This penguin pal is from Michael’s, a Hampton Art set with a die included.  The cup is a little image all of it’s own and I’m afraid the little informational piece of paper is missing so I don’t have details for it.  I used some designer paper scraps from my 6×6 Basic Grey Jovial paper pack.  PTI Kraft, Ivory & White CS, SU Cherry Cobbler CS and a little piece of The Paper Company gold texture paper for the coffee cup sleeve.  Sprayed some Heidi Swapp Gold Ink on the Ivory layer, along with some stamped snowflakes from the PTI In the Meadow set.  A little white Flower Soft on the penguins hat and some Wink of Stella clear glitter on the penguin.  Let it Snow sentiment from a little nameless holiday clear stamp set from Michaels a few years ago.

Coffee, penguin card

Thank you for stopping by!

*************************************************************

Coffee soap giveaway

And about that coffee soap giveaway….

You will have until Sunday, Dec 14th to leave comments for my coffee soap giveaway.  I have three bars to giveaway to three random commentors!  One comment per post please!  Please leave contact information of some form so I can notify you if you happen to be one of the three winners!

The soap is made from all natural glycerin cocoa butter melt & pour soap base.  I added freshly roasted coffee grinds and a touch of vanilla essential oil.  That’s it!

Top of soap,

coffee soap2

Bottom of soap,

coffee soap

Holiday Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop, WELCOME!!

coffeelovers blog hop

Welcome to the Holiday Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop!  We’ve got lots to share with you today, so be sure to brew yourself a nice cuppa’ and then pull up a chair and enjoy!

Today I have several posts of coffee projects, so be sure and scroll down through them all.  And leave a comment as you go for a chance to win a homemade bar of COFFEE soap!!  I have three to giveaway and the more posts you comment on, the greater your chance of winning!  Anyone can comment!!  If you’ve been visiting my blog right along, now is your chance to stop in and say hello!  See details below!

For each post, the top and bottom parts are the same with all the informational parts.  But between the ****** you will find the new project!

*************************************************************

My first project to share with you today is a homemade paper coffee mug filled with some delicious See’s Cafe Latte Krispy chocolates!  Whew, are these babies good.  I was so excited to see a See’s Candies kiosk in our mall for the holidays.

I used this tutorial to make this mug.  Super easy and fun.  The base of the mug is SU Cherry Cobbler CS and the designer paper is from the 6×6 Basic Grey Jovial paper pad.  I love how the handle curved so nicely!

 Paper coffee cup

paper coffee cup with candy

The perfect little holiday gift!

*************************************************************

And about that coffee soap giveaway….

Coffee soap giveaway

You will have until Sunday, Dec 14th to leave comments for my coffee soap giveaway.  I have three bars to giveaway to three random commentors!  One comment per post please!  Please leave contact information of some form so I can notify you if you happen to be one of the three winners!

The soap is made from all natural glycerin cocoa butter melt & pour soap base.  I added freshly roasted coffee grinds and a touch of vanilla essential oil.  That’s it!

Top of soap,

coffee soap2

Bottom,

coffee soap

(soap dish not included in giveaway!)

Winter Friends CAS

I participated in the weekly CAS challenge over SCS!  So excited to use some lonely Silhouette files!

Silhouette Window Frame, Silhouette Winter Tree & Deer and Winter-4 seasons for the cardinal.  I sponged the window frame lightly with Basic Gray to help it pop a little.  The tree is decked out with an wintery icy shine with a Wink of Stella clear brush (new to me and SO fun!!).

Winter animal friends CAS

Yesterday I got to sew a cute little peasant style dress for Phebe and I’ll try and share some photos of that fun project tomorrow.  But the days are packed here with the basement remodel project going on (and my beloved craft corner completely in disarray down there and 1/2 of it up in the dining room!) and Thanksgiving quickly approaching.  Tomorrow I’ll be baking 2-3 pies and making a make-ahead mashed potato casserole.  Fun, fun!  I LOVE it!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

A snowflake CAS card for this week’s SCS CAS challenge.

I used a Silhouette snowflake stencil and a snow bank from a Silhouette card design!  A few gems and some Stickles and the PTI banner die cut.

Let it snow, CAS snowflakes_edited-1

I’m off to enjoy a day out and about today.  Coffee and play date with a friend and our little ones at the mall play area while my car gets an oil change.  Then several errands to run!

CAS Sweetheart Snowman

I was inspired to play along with this week’s CASology challenge.  “DRINK” is the theme and I instantly thought of this lonely snowman stamp in my stash!!  I’ve had him for awhile and maybe only used him once.  Sad!  When I went to work on this card, I set out to use bright colors, such as turquoise and red.  But after flipping through my 6×6 Valentine paper pad, I fell in love with the soft pink and white polka dot paper.  And that brought about a whole different, much softer color scheme of course.

CAS snowman sweetheart

Thanks for stopping by!  It’s been a busy day here today, with two other posts published also!!

Snowflake Blueprint

I checked out the Ways to use It Challenge over on SCS and found a fun snowflake challenge.  I’m wanting to be done with winter cards, but I also didn’t get a chance to use this new snowflake stamp I got from Tim Holtz!  And I’ve hardly made a dent in the veneer stash I have from Studio Calico!!  I like how the veneer and blueprint stamp image go together and look “woodshop’ish”!

It’s a very cloudy, foggy morning so I’m not happy with the lighting but alas, it’s time to get it posted!  Have a wonderful day and weekend.  I really would like to stay home today, but I do have to go in this morning and adjust my dad’s pills after his doctor appointment yesterday.  A quiet weekend is planned, thank goodness!

Image

Currently…

It’s well past time for a new “Currently…” post.  Time to talk about winter’s arrival, feeling good for the most part…I think, and all kinds of fun things!!

December 20, blizzard, clearing out the driveway, Philip

Currently…Yes!!  Winter arrived with a vengeance!  We were under winter storm warnings Wednesay evening  and a blizzard storm warning all day yesterday (even the university shut down as of Wednesday evening which was music to my ears because that makes DH stay home).  So…we’ve had two snow days in a row which has enabled us to begin Christmas break two days early!  Yippeee!!  Today the storm is over and the sun is shining brightly and showing off Mother Nature’s beautiful work.  Layers of drifted snow and fun snow formations.  Local storm reports vary on what landed on us,    10-13″!!  Hard to tell on our property b/c we got so much wind.  We have mile-high drifts in one place and grass showing in other places!

Currently…Yes!  I think I might be starting to feel better overall.  I’m starting my third day of feeling great.  More ambition and energy than I’ve had in months.  But we’ll see how Sunday through Tuesday go this next weeks…those have been my worst days for awhile now.  And we have company coming Monday for supper and the night, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I really am over the worst.  I’m 15 weeks today!

Project life goodness, puff corn recipe

Currently…going to make just one (I have two bags but will just make one and then get another bag to make a double batch next week for the holidays!) batch of Puff Corn today.  And this is why I love Project Life so much.  I was wondering where I had put the recipe I had jotted down on a red envelope (I remembered that much detail anyway!!) when I called my friend last year at this time for her delicious recipe.  Her’s is just simply the best.  Most Puff Corn has a harder caramel glaze on it, but her’s is a really soft, buttery coating more than glaze and it’s so addicting.  Anyway back to Project Life and what that has to do with this…that’s where I found the red envelope with the recipe…b/c that’s what PL allows me to do…tuck things (that would otherwise get stuffed in a drawer or even eventually thrown out) into my album right alongside my photos!  I’m very behind this year, but I’m really trying to be patient with myself.  I have not been myself after all.  NO ambition.  I’m still back in June with my PL album.  No photos printed off for July yet, but August and September are printed and waiting in a pile.  But my ambition is coming back…and so on to the next topic…

Currently…hoping to spend the day in the basement getting crafty.  DD1 has her ABC scrapbook for class to be working on.  DD2 loves to play school down there.  And I will work on catching up a tad on my PL album.  I’m going digital next year.  I’m a little sad about it (will miss the hands on paper crafting etc), but I just need to jump in and do it.  I can’t keep collecting 3-4 12×12 albums a year documenting life.  Warm fuzzies, I know…but, whew, they are big, bulky books and I’ll soon run out of space at this rate.  I’m taking a class over at JessicaSprague.com on how to do PL digitally, so I’m looking forward to that guidance!  I AM looking forward to doing the Baby edition traditionally though.  Will be waiting until the baby is born to order that so I know what colors to get!

chip cravings

Currently…craving Sour Cream & Onion potato chips and mini pizzas made quickly and easily on tortilla wraps!!  And I can drink water again without gagging.  Sugary things still don’t hold a huge appeal.

Currently…looking forward to lots of fun company coming this week.  Monday night, two for supper and the night.  Thursday my sister-in-law flies in for a week!!  Then that evening, our friends and their little 7 mo old come for a couple of nights and the company from Monday night will return for one more night ( no meal this time) with us.   I’ve arranged all the sleeping so that no beds need to be washed and remade during that week….! Christmas day we also hope to have a table full of friends and my dad.  And New Year’s Eve there is a party over at some older friend’s of ours.  Some of their kiddos and families will be home and they’ve invited lots of folks.  Should be a very fun evening together.

And with that, I really must get in gear.  Make some Puff Corn and head to the basement before it’s time to get lunch going.

Happy, happy holidays to all of you!

New Year’s Eve is about my most favorite time of the year.  I love to stay up late.  And staying up late with family and friends, eating and playing games is just FUN, FUN, FUN!

 

Glittering snowflake & tinsel

New toys to play with and a fun challenge to play along with over at Simon Says Stamps!

Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog

The theme for this challenge was SNOWFLAKES. Glad to oblige!  Can you believe I’ve never worked with glitter much??  But after getting some double adhesive paper and glitter in my Silhouette order, how could I resist?!  Unforunately, I had issues cutting the snowflakes out that I wanted to use, so I simply went down to my corner with my adhesive paper and used my Spellbinders snowflake die.  Perfect!

Also got to play with some new tinsel twine from Tim Holtz…and the Tiny Attacher…awesome little goodie for sure and some distress ink!

snowflake glitter,

Products used:

(Warm Winter Wishes is a retired Elzybells sentiment.)