Country Roads Stamping

Watercolor wishes - again!

While my daughters were in visiting, I sent them home with a card kit - youngest daughter has already reported back in that she is using hers.  I worked on the Watercolor Wishes kit again over the week-end and I really need to get one of these for each of my daughters.  This makes the best cards and it is so very easy.  Everything is included in the kit - so you don't have to drag any additional supplies out - love that. Here are a couple that I worked on recently:

I thought I might have shared these two already - but I could not locate them - so hopefully I didn't just over look these.  I really like the look of these two. 

So, do you know what tomorrow is?!!! September 1 - woohoo - the Christmas Holiday catalog goes live.  I've already got several orders waiting to type in.  This is one of the best we have had in a while.  I also can life my self-imposed ban on any Christmas items!!! I've had a few just sitting waiting - burning a hole in my desk because they want to be on the blog posts!!  I don't even know what to tell you is my favorite item.  There are so many.  I plan on working most of Friday preparing items just from the Holiday catalog.  So maybe after that I will have some idea what is my favorite!!! See you back here tomorrow - thanks for dropping by!

Fun in the Sun

So yesterday Steve and I headed to the mountains for some four wheelin'.  I've been back and forth so much with my dad that I was ready for a break for the day and being outdoors all day was just the ticket.

We took our time getting out of here in the morning, stopping where we wanted to along the way.  I had packed a lunch for us, so we knew we'd be able to eat on top of the mountain, so no rush. I was armed with my camera - in the hope that we'd see a black bear.  We were checking on a trail camera of Steve's and so we had to do a bit of hiking also.  Did I happen to mention that this is also rattlesnake country?  No, I thought not.  ackkk.  Most of my time is spent with my nose to the ground watching where I am stepping - and then trying to be aware of my surroundings at the same time - just in case there is a black bear around.  We still sighted some unusual things:

Can you see the "dusty looking" particles around this?  Spores that the plant is throwing out to try to reproduce itself.  Note this is NOT on a tree - it is free standing, like a mushroom.

Then a super ugly worm:

He looks like he belongs on a tomato plant instead of the middle of the woods!

We stopped for lunch on top of the mountain-He looks a bit unhappy but trust me - he's on top of a West Virginia mountain - he's not unhappy!

Our view was not all that fantastic - but still - we never get tired of the hills of West Virginia -

We headed down off the mountain where they were logging - interesting to watch:

Bringing in some of the felled trees - the next step I took a picture of was cutting these down to size, however, for some reason, the picture did not take.  So don't have that - but do have them loading the logs:

We headed on down the trail - and dear me - this trail was questionable at best - this is what he took me on - can you even see where the trail is?

Nope?  Well, believe it or not - we headed right up thru this on the four wheeler.  Interesting to say the least.  Bumpy and rugged would be words to describe this ride! LOL  Still what a great day of fun for us to be outdoors enjoying God's awesome creation.  The only wildlife we saw was one deer - no bear :( although we missed seeing one by about 3 hours on his trail camera.  I have to admit I was not trying to tip toe and be quiet because I was not really wanting to meet a bear in the woods while traveling on foot.  Not wanting quite that much excitement for my day.  On the way home we stopped to take this picture - this field was beautiful with iron weed.

Just love the beauty of our little state.

That's all for today!  Enjoy your week-end.  Beautiful weather to be out doing something fun out doors!

Garden Blooms

So mailed a card out to one of my best friends to celebrate her birthday - best thing about Stampin' Up! is not the products, although that is great, it is the friends that you make whether it is customer, team members or fellow demonstrators across the country.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of what I sent for her birthday gift - but never even thought of that!!! Here's the card:

Just a bit different - pulled out some extra things to add to this card - hopefully it all arrived in one piece!

This card lays flat - although when it stands up it is difficult to see that - but it is a modified Z card that we used to do - Just flaps open to see the greeting on the inside.  I even used matching paper to line the envelope!  That's all for today - I'm enjoying the day out of doors - maybe I'll even get some good pictures to share!!! Have a great week-end. 

A few of my Forest Friends

Thankful forest friends was a stamp set I figured I would save for my grand kids - probably next cousin camp invitation - but then I saw this new style card yesterday - and I really, really wanted to do a Christmas card with it- but then I stupidly said no more Christmas "stuff" until September 1 - my own dumb rule.  So, I had to think outside the box for a bit - and I love what I ended up with!!

This is a Bendi card - love, love love, this style and it was such fun to make!  Now this is not something you can sit down and put together in minutes - so my stamp camp girls - don't expect it there - but I'll definitely be doing some of these for Christmas cards.  Don't panic - these will lay flat!

side view.  I cut out the fox and bear and the trees were all punched using the tree punch.  The paper is Christmas paper from the big catalog - so while I did technically use Christmas paper - it used a side of the paper that can go for any season in the woods! LOL Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

Also - a note - this is a larger card - 6x6.  I need to try the smaller scale for a standard card but wanted the first one to be big as I experimented with it - and we always have the envelope punch board to make an envelope to fit this anyway!  That's all for today!!! Have a great day!

We interrupt August . . . ..

Yes, I'm going to interrupt August with just a taste of winter!  I said I was not going to do this - was not even going to play with the Christmas stamps - was going to stick to only fall and Halloween - Ha - well, as you can see - that did not work:

Now - let's look at alllllllll the new stuff I've pulled out for this card! Stamp set - snowflakes are from Wonderland, greeting is from the big catalog - so that's not really new - snowflakes are using the new snowflake punch which has a coordinating stamp set, Vellum paper (with the pine boughs) adds just the right amount of pop to a card.  Silver cording - whoo hoooo - I loved the gold and silver cording when we carried it years ago - not the stretchy stuff - hated it - but the solid cording.  It is easy to tie - even those wretched little bows! :)  Well, it is back - I still have some of the old hoarded because I loved it so - now I can re-stock all my cording to have on hand.  Now I did cheat and use some retired embellishments because I figured I would never use the new ones - they add too much weight to a card typically for me - however, I was wishing I had ordered them when I put this card together!  I used black and silver embossing powder on the snowflakes, which I stamped in versamark.  Then I wanted a bit of glitz so I spritzed the card with spray glue (not a SU! product, but I wish it was!) and then sprinkled glitter all over it.  I did not want a complete coverage look, like I would typically use with versamark and heat n stick - just a bit here and there to add some sparkle.  Love how this one turned out. 

Okay - so tomorrow I'll go back to normal!  I'll hold of on Christmas looking cards for at least one more week - but no more guarantees after that!!! Have a great Wednesday.

Same style - different look

Today's card is the same style as yesterday's.  However, by changing the designer paper - and using a different embossing folder (also from the new catalog) it completely changes the look of the card.

this embossing folder gives a different look - like how it is heavy with the dots and then fades away to nothing.  Greeting is once again from the Acorn set! Have a great Tuesday!

Fall is in the air . . . .

It felt a bit like Fall over the week-end - sometimes the air even smells differently!  Love it as the hot days of summer fade away and the awesome colors of Fall take over.  So, I wanted to try out some of the new toys I have on hand.  Love love love the acorn punch - you will see this popping up a lot this Fall!!

To get this look - I punched out some of the new designer series paper, Into the Woods, with my 1" square punch and made the background.  Then stamped and punched the acorn.  The greeting is from the same set - Acorny Hello.  There's that great tree embossing folder - I just used my sponge dauber to add some color to the trees - and I grabbed the owl silhouette from the Among the Branches stamp set to add to a limb.  So - I'm just dropping in to say Hi! today! Hope your Monday is great. 

Lots of leaves

Well, when I saw the new leaf set in the catalog - I laughed - it isn't that I don't have enough leaf sets - I love each one that I own!  However, this one actually has a matching framelit - so yep - it went right on my ordering list - I hope to make a leaf wreath when I can get some free time!! This time I just played with the stamp set, the lovely folder with trees and then one of the greetings:

Burlap seemed like the appropriate "ribbon" to add and the greeting - well, it says Autumn wishes and Tasty dishes!  Tasty dishes?  That part did not appeal to me at all - so I simply cut that off - and left it at Autumn Wishes.  Love the colors - my favorite colors and time of year!!!! Have a great week-end!

Cottage Greeting one more time!

So yesterday was another crazy day here - I just  need more hours in a day!!!  Headed downstairs at 9 p.m. to use the Cottage Greeting card kit to put together another card - I just hate to leave them plain!

I punched out some flowers and added them along the edge to give the card a bit more dimension.  I also cut out the design using the circle framelits and backed it with a piece of Island Indigo card stock.  Just something a bit different from the kit idea!  Gotta Run! Have a great day!

Some new toys!

Last week while the kids were here my pre-order from the Holiday catalog arrived.  It was very hard for me to leave it alone but there was no time to do much with it anyway.  So, with that said, I got some of the items out of the box yesterday afternoon.  I love Fall and I love love acorns.  I am so happy that SU! now has an acorn punch - lots of fun to have these to add to card fronts now.  See how many new things you can spot on this card:

So we know there is a new punch - that's obvious.  I've also used another new punch - it is the green piece that is used as a backing around the word greeting - a decorative corner punch and it layers nicely with the Lots of labels framelit.  New stamp set - Thankful forest Friends - used a baby wipe to get the colorful greeting.  then a new embossing folder - Woodland Textured Impression folder-that I love - lots of promising things for that particular folder and coordinating stamp set.  Then ofcourse new designer series paper for Fall.  So lots of items pulled out and used on this sneak peek. 

Let me also share one of the wonderful reasons I love West Virginia.  My dad was in Ruby Memorial hospital yesterday for a procedure - quick in and out event.  While there, his heart doctor (who is from the Clarksburg area) saw his name on a list of patients in there for the day and came to look him up.  Seriously?  He recognized dad's name as one of his patients and came to see how he was doing.  We already love this doctor and for him to recognize the name and then come to look him up - just made dad's day, as well as ours. Doubtful that would happen if we were in a big city, so once again - thankful for the small town status of good ole West Virginia! That's all for today - see you tomorrow and have an awesome day.