We don't get much snow here so when we do it is a big deal.  I loved this snow because I didn't have to get out in it, it was predicted to last only a few hours and the temp was to be above freezing with sun the next day.  How perfect is that?  It had rained for days so as soon as the rain stopped and the snow started I ran out to fill the bird feeders and was rewarded with these beauties!

 I am not sure if Louie and Belle were more interested in the snow or the birds but they stayed at the windows or door during the whole show.  And a few hours later, just as scheduled, the snow stopped and a beautiful sunset appeared.

Welcome 2013

Our Set in Stone Sisters business was very successful this December.  Our vintage Knoxville coasters were more popular than I ever imagined!!  Our last day at the crafts fair was Dec 22 and I took two weeks off and concentrated on my first love-cardmaking.

 I bought a Silhouette Portrait for my self for Christmas.  This peacock feather is what sold me on the machine to start with.  The stamp is from Impression Obsession.

 This card was done for an alcohol ink watercolor background swap.  I used multi media paper so the colors absorbed rather than blended but I rather like how it turned out.  The stamp is one I got to use for coasters but I will be using it for cards too.  It is from Stampers Anonymous.

I am not sure which company this little vintage dig came from but  I printed her off quite some time ago.  I used a shimmery text weight paper and colored her with copics.  The background was done using Judikins Mica Gloss, which I bought several years ago when I visited CA.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.

The change of seasons

 This is a card I made a couple of weeks ago when the leaves were changing.  We had some really pretty colors this year, but now most of the leaves are gone and it is very, very cold.

 This will be the last zinnias of the season because it is supposed to be 34 degrees in the morning.  I have really enjoyed my beautiful flowers this year-especially the daisies.  They should come back even better next year though.

And lastly.  This is a coaster I made with a postcard.  The image is the hospital I worked at for 30 years and was taken in 1951.  The view is taken through an arch of the Henley St Bridge, which has been closed for over a year and is being totally redone.

Fight Like a Girl

These are two new designs we have added to our inventory.    I especially like the ribbon because it is more versatile in that I can paint it any color.  Perfect this month in pink for breast cancer awareness.  Fight Like a Girl is a great sentiment because 1 out of  8 are doing just that!!

My second love next to making cards.

My daughters and I have started a small business of decorative concrete items for home and garden.  We also sell coasters and terrariums.  We have started doing craft festivals and are having a great time.  Since both girls work full time and I am retired, at least for the summer, I am doing most of the pouring and staining  of the pieces.  I am very proud of what we do and wanted to share so you all could see what I have been doing.  I will always love making cards-in fact I was able to make 8 today- but making these pieces gets me up and out early!  Nothing has ever done that before.  

Distress Inks

This is a card I made with two of the new spring color distress inks.  The background was made with the gel printing pad and the image is a stamp from LaBlanche.  This is a card I learned how to make at Stamping on the Plateau in Crossville.

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post!  

Several years ago I found a great stamp store about 100 miles from me.  It is a really pleasant drive over so it doesn't seem that far.  She had Fred Mullett there in April and I was able to take a couple of his classes.  He is such a delightful person and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Here are a couple of examples of cards I made using his techniques.    I love all the different texture and masking techniques he uses.

Crackle technique

I have always loved the crackle technique but never could get the crackle paints to behave properly!  This technique was done using Elmer's glue and acrylic paint.  I used a Martha Stewart edge punch and added flowers and leaves from Punch Bunch.  The sentiment is one I got years ago at Michael's.

Increasing my stash

 This is a card I made with a Me and Carrie Lou stamp and watercolored using Tombows.  This is my favorite way to color.

When I was at Stampfest in Clearwater I learned this technique using dies and glitter.  The lady die is from Marianne Designs and the butterfly is from Spellbinders.  Last night I was playing around and wanted to see how many dies I could use on one card and managed to use 6 on one.

 This digi is from Meljen's Designs.  It is colored with copics and the punched leave were added over leaves in the design.

More Recycling

I have spent the last three weeks getting ahead on my swap cards so I can have some breathing room.  Now I am working on building up my stash of cards for general use.  Once again I am recycling old greeting cards people have given me.  These images are so lovely I have just added a little something to make them mine.  These three have sentiments from Scrap-a-licious Times .  This is a really cool blog and all her sentiments are free.  

 This one has a stamp and punch from Stampin Up added after I embossed the image with a Cuttlebug folder.

Long time no post!

My daughters and I opened up a booth at the Public market here in town in Sept and just closed this past weekend.  It has been one of the most fun things I have ever done, but was very tiring.  We have decided to maybe do something with some others a couple of weekends a month and then in the spring start going to some various craft shows.  This is the website if you are interested.  We don't have many photos up yet, but it will give you an idea of what we have been doing.  http://setinstonesisters.biz/

Now today I have been making Christmas cards.  You would think I would be tired of that, huh?  I always enjoy recycling Christmas cards, but this year I am trying out reusing tissue paper, ribbon and the clear paper that goes around a basket.  I made  a couple of cards for winter and then one Christmas card for next year.

Happy New Year.  It is good to be back.

Beautiful Saturday

I am entering two challenges this weekend and hope to add a third, but don't want to press my luck timewise!    The first is the weekly image from Designed2Delight and is called Autumn Harvest.  I added a couple of other images also.  Faith is the only designer I know who makes the white filled PNG images and includes them with each image.  I always loved combining images and this makes it so easy!

Next is a card I made using one of the Cheery Lynn dies.  The current challenge at Cheery Lynn Designs blog is Anything Goes.  I only have a few of their dies, but really love using them.  The detail is just amazing!!  The paper and ribbon are from Stampin Up.

Fall is here!

Today the temp is supposed to be close to 100, but then Tuesday it drops to 75.  So, I am more than ready for fall.  This week the image from Designed2Delight is really sweet.  I had colored it and then cut it out to go on another card and that didn't work at all so not to be outdone I put it on this background made with my new Sizzix embossing folder.  The card doesn't look nearly as crooked as the pic, so hopefully the recipient of this one won't have a ruler handy.

School days

The last time I made a card for the Designed 2 Delight challenge I forgot to post it on the D2D blog!  So I need to make sure when I finish here I go there!  I like this little girl, Maisie Belle.  The pencil sticker and books sticker are part of the goodies I got when I took an online course on Color at Big Picture Classes.com.

Every Flower is to bloom

I have had a good time making cards the past two days.  The first is the Designed2Delight image this week called Every flower.  I added  more flowers and then added last week's border along the bottom of the flowers.  Faith's white filled PNG images are so much fun to play with that I have to try and combine at least two images every week.  The sunflower paper is one of the background papers from TLC.
The Asian card was made with my new Cuttlebug Asian set which has four folders in it.  The stamps are from Stampin Up.
I got the Aspen leaf and lady's face stamp from Stampland and combined those with stamps from Darcies to make my first Autumn card.  I don't like snow and am not really looking forward to winter, but wouldn't mind a little cooler fall weather!

Happy Thursday

I had a friend visit for a week and we went to the stamp convention in Cincinnati.  What a great time we had!  I really like the Cheery Lynn dies that I bought from Our Daily Bread Designs. The first card uses the current image from Designed2Delight and paper and ribbon from Stampin Up.
The second card uses a precious little image from Lily of the Valley, ltd.

Mice Wishes

I made a card using a Designed 2 Delight image.  Great image for a birthday card-even for an adult.  I love the little Mice sentiment.  I hate, hate real mice, but love the little digi mice.  They leave no droppings behind, except for a little paper!
The second card is one I did using an old SU stamp set because one of the ladies on one of my groups mentioned making an Egyptian card and didn't have a charm for it.  Even though I used inkjet shrink paper for my main image, it is great to use for a smaller embellishment.  I really love this paper.  The charm I used is from Hobby Lobby's clearance section and is quite thick so am not sure if I will even mail it.  Maybe I can hand deliver it to someone.

CDAC progressive challenge

Crafter's Digital Arts Center is giving free images this month for us to make cards with and post to the site.  There are six this month and I love all of them.  I made cards last night using four of them.  The first  is a little dancer from Whoopsi Daisy  designs.  I have ordered a lot of images from this site and love using them on cards.  The punched border I made using a punch I just got yesterday from EK Success.

The second card, using two of the images, are from Sandi's Samples.  The sentiment is from my very favorite blog and store-TLC Creations.

The last precious image is from Anne's Digital Art.  I added another sentiment form TLC Creations.

I really like all of the images offered this month.  I am going to enjoy making the other two into cards also and will use these again.

Livin' the Good Life

I am loving this image!  This week at Designed 2 Delight Faith gave us an image of our choice for playing last week.  I got this pretty Lakeside Shack image and added Mary, Mary.  I think she is so cute and looks like she is having such a good time at the lake.  I thought this was a very restful, cool, peaceful scene.  I need that!!

Ladybug Kaela at the beach

This is for the At the Beach challenge at Designed 2 Delight.  I love the lighthouse and really wanted to put a sitting Kaela on the beach so here we are.  I am not sure who I will send this card to, but I bet I will think of somebody!!