Christmas past.......

Hi everyone!

Gosh I've been so darn busy and haven't crafted anything or blogged in a quite awhile- it's that crazy time of year with so much to do. I thought I would show you all some of the cards I made last year for Christmas- I did my first ever craft show and made multiples of many cards and these are some of the leftovers. Having so many leftovers and the ones I've already created for this year I think I'm about done with my cards.....but I may be able squeak out a few more if the mojo strikes. For now I'm just going to work on getting my cards addressed and ready to go (this seems to be the hardest part every year....actually getting them mailed out on time).

I've also been busy getting my lazy behind to the gym recently too. I've been having some lower back issues from sitting and working on the computer so much, so I finally took it upon myself to get active and do something to help myself in that department. It was tough getting going at first but I really love getting a workout on a regular basis now......plus I'm losing a bit of weight as well- bonus! So I am limiting my time in front of the computer.....my back simply can't stand too much of it.

Now on to the cards.....



Stampin Up reindeer & Inkadinkadoo frame, sentiment and snowflake punch by Martha Stewart.

Image by Stampendous, snowflakes from SU. Lots of Stickles on here :)

Image by Inkadinkadoo, background by.....? can't remember!

Image and sentiment by Clear Dollar stamps- lots of glitter on the snowflake BG.

Hope to find the time to get crafting again....but I know the next few weeks are busy as well so that may not actually happen.

 I do have some rather exciting news........the hubby and I are off to New Jersey and New York City in 2 weeks for my company's annual Christmas Party!! All expenses paid (wohooo) and we will take one day to go into NYC and see a Broadway show (The Addams Family) and do a bit of sightseeing- so I'm really excited about that- never been to the big apple before!! Hope to see Central Park and all the fun Christmas decorating and just take it all in- this country girl really isn't used to the big city! I've been busy shopping for this as well- have to have a fancy party dress and the hubby seriously needed a new suit to wear!

Have a great weekend all and thanks for dropping by! Hope you are all getting your Christmas shopping done too :)

Inky Hugs, Anne

Happy Turkey Day!

Just wanted to pop in and say "Happy Thankgiving" to all my fellow American friends!

We are spending the day at home (wohooooo).......the turkey and stuffing is in the oven, the pies are made....... just waiting for my mother in law to come over and then we can eat!! Ok, I still need to make the mashed potatoes and a few other last minute things.....but for the most part we are ready to go.  I'm so glad to finally get a day of relaxing family time- the last week and a half has been crazy busy for me. Looking forward to the long lazy weekend- planning on watching "White Christmas" and some other holiday classics movies as well- and hope to get some actual stamping and creating done! I might even get a few Christmas decorations out....who knows?

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday with family and friends and hopefully you all get to relax as well- make those men pitch in help out too! (wink)

Hugs, Anne

Winter cards and and Wee Memories Challenge card

Well this was a rather lazy weekend at home. We woke up Saturday to 3-4 inches of heavy wet snow and it continued to snow all day long. We went nowhere and just hung out at home most of the weekend. My little guy and I threw many snowballs at each other and got soaking wet.



I got busy and made a few winter cards seeing their was a fresh blanket of beautiful snow to inspire me.


I used a few Penny Black stickers and some Hero Arts paper and gems for these 2 cards.






Then I decided to get out some patterned paper by Basic Grey and make a card for Wee Memories challenge # 31. I used my Walzting Mouse stamps and distress inks on here as well. I love this paper but also find myself struggling with it sometimes..... I guess I'm more of a "ink to paper" kind of crafter.




I shoveled some more snow and filled up the bird feeders today, then  baked a ham and homemade augratin potatoes for dinner- yummmm! It was a lovely weekend to just relax and not do much of anything......just the way I love them!! The snow is very pretty.....and seems to be melting a bit- not sure of it will stick around or not.  







Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!

Inky Hugs, Anne

A cold and starry night

Hi everyone! Here is a card made for the Flourishes Warm Winter Wishes Challenge- but oops I think I'm too late to link up my card.....waah!

Snow is in the forecast here tonight so why not make a wintery card. I used my "Starry Night" stamp from Hero Arts. I've been rather picky trying to find just the right color ink for this stamp and I finally rememebered to grab my pack of 4 different blue Momento inks. I'm drowning in ink pads and forget how many different colors I actually have.....my sickness for inks is almost as bad as my sickness for rubber. Anyways...... I wanted a fairly dark blue for this and wanted to achieve a very frosty cold look to it also.

After inking up my stamp using the Danube Blue I came around the edges of the stamp using Paris Dusk. This is the nicest dark blue with just a hint of purple to it....I love it! I wanted the trees and stars to sparkle so I grabbed my Versamark "marker" and traced over the white tree trunk and branches, and stars- then heat embossed it all using polysparkle powder.

Then I grabbed my Enamel Accents in white and went around the whole image, adding an extra thick layer along the bottom. I did the tree trunks as well. While that was still wet and tacky I poured some Martha Stewart course glitter over it to make it look like frosty snow. Can you see the dimension here?

Then I stamped the sentiment on some metallic silver paper using my black Stazon ink (all other inks seem to smear badly on this paper). I punched out a few small black snowflakes from some scrap paper and added a tiny light blue gem to each one. I'm so happy this card turned out like I wanted it to- but trust me there were several stamped out versions that hit the trash before I got it just right.

Here are a few pic's of the supplies I used on this card.

And the border punch and my Versamark marker- (love this!) Did you know you can use the Versamark marker on just about anything to emboss it, even the smallest little things ..... and even patterned paper.

I had fun making this card and hope you enjoyed my explanation of the process. It has been rather warm here in Wisconsin (we actually had a thunderstorm last night)  and we are hoping to keep those frosty cold nights away for a little while longer....but the cold is coming and so is snow- eeeek!

Inky hugs, Anne

Unity and Penny Black Christmas cards

Just wanted to share a few quick Christmas cards and a gift tag I made this week. I stopped by the not so local  "Anchor Paper" in St. Paul when I was working in that neighborhood and picked up some much needed stamping goodies. Lots of distress ink refills (the only place I can get them locally) , a few new stamps, and some Penny Black stickers.

First up here is a really quick card using a Unity stamp. I also finally cracked open my Tim Holtz embossing folders I got at Scrapfest....and dug out my little stash of bakers twine from last year. Kept is very simple using kraft, red, and chocolate brown.



Here is my super quick card using one of the Penny Black stickers. I remember buying some of these last year and using them on a few last  minute Christmas cards.....they are great when you are in a hurry and don't have the time to color in an image. Got out my Stampin Up embossing folder and found a green card base that is a "white core" so I could sand off the top layer a bit.



And finally just a sweet little gift tag that I will be using for my son's Christmas present. We are finally going to get hime a Wii game set and this tag will work perfect for that. I found the die cut tags at a local shop in Stillwater MN that just opened up- they had tons of prefolded card bases and envelopes in many colors and even had a great selection of May Arts ribbon- wohooo! No stamps unfortunately....but I urged the gals working there that they really ought to get some stamps for sale soon....especially my favorite line- Hero Arts!



I used my Hero Arts flourish background and the sentiment stamp is by Stampin Up. I thought I would use up some of these cute Jolee's stickers as well since they were just sitting here......love how they are all glittery and kind of look like little frosted cookies. That's it for now.....hope to get a few more Christmas cards done over this coming weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Inky Hugs, Anne

Apple Recipes

Today I am using up some more of those delicious apples from the orchard and I thought I would share some yummy apple recipes. I'm baking an apple cinnamon crumb cake and just made homemade apple- cranberry sauce too.....my son just loves the apple sauce and begged me to make more.

I hosted a recipe swap last fall using apples as the main ingredient and I thought I would share some of the wonderful recipes I recieved. If you've still got apples from a trip to the orchard or just love any kind of recipe using apples here are a few for you to look over. I took a picture of the cute 6x6 recipe cards- just click on the photo of each one to see the recipe and get the directions.

                                                                      Fall Apple Bread

Apple and Butternut Squash Soup

Apple Upside-down Pie

Anne's Homemade Applesauce

4 medium apples- cut into 8 equal pieces each

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup brown or white sugar (I use organic sugar)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 fresh cranberries (optional)

Directions: Heat apples (cranberries too) and water to boiling, reduce heat and simmer uncovered....stirring occassionally to break up the apples until tender- usually about 10-15 minutes. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon- heat to boiling and stir for 1 minute. I always grab my potatoe masher and mash them further with this. Let it cool  for 30 minutes and serve warm (very yummy this way)  or let it cool completely and store in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Today I cheated and am using a "box" version of the crumb cake.

 I do this kind of cheating quite a bit as I'm a very busy person and not everything can be completely homemade- ha ha!  It's made by Krusteaz.....and I simply cut up about 1 cup of chopped apple and added that to the mix. I also substitute cold coffee for the water in the mix- then it's a bit more like coffee cake too!

Hope you can try one of these delicious apple recipes- let me know if you do!

My crumbcake is just about done- can't wait to dig into this after dinner tonight- yummmm! The house smells heavenly right now too.......am I making you hungry?

Inky Hugs, Anne

90 minute Challenge card!

Hi ya everyone!

Today over on the Hero Arts Filckr page my freind Barb hosted a "90 minute card challenge". Her challenge was to use a non-traditional flower on a Christmas card- pretty much any flower but a poinsetta would work. Ooooh gosh......flowers- what to do? I'm not much of a flower addict but I do have a small stash thankfully.

I immediately thought of these litte Prima roses I picked up a few months ago but never got around to using. I also have a stack of some pretty Webster's Christmas pages papers so I thought I would pair these ones up and go for a bit of a shabby look.

Got out my trusty Tonic edge distresser and the distress inks in the colors brushed corduroy and antique linen. I even added a bit of ink to age the flowers too. I had this card made in about 15 minutes......it took just about as long to take a decent photo of it and upload it onto Flickr. I LOVE these 90 minute card challenge as it makes me rely on basic stamping and design skills and not to "over- think" a card which I tend to do way to often.

Stamps used are both from Hero Arts- "Joy to all" for the sentiment, and "Happy Winter" clear sparkle set for the tiny snowflakes on the center tag.

Thanks Barb for a wonderful challenge- it was a blast! I really am pleased with the way this turned out- only wish I had a huge stack of the paper now!

Inky hugs, Anne

Bright and cheery Ornaments

Happy day to all you bloggers! It's time for a new look on the blog.....and though it has not acutally snowed here yet it will be coming soon......trust me it will. Getting the winter boots ready- putting away the patio furniture-  and all those other things we northerners need to do to prepare for a long and cold winter. I really love my birds that hang out here in my little nook in the woods- it's one of my favorite things about living in the country. In fact I hung up the suet feeders last week and boy the birds been visting and chowing down already. It's so nice to see all the varieties that come to eat and visit on a regular basis....my favorite are the little chickadees followed by all types of woodpeckers.

Anyways, on to my card for today..........

I used the Hero Arts "Hanging Christmas Ornaments" stamp and this card is the last of the pairing up challenge between Pia and myself. I must admit I had one heck of a time getting this stamp to give me a nice impression. I kept getting inky blotches on the background when I would stamp it......so many attemps to get a good impression ended up in the trash.......but I finally got one good one (there are still a few tiny inky spots.....not perfect). Not sure if it is the inkpads I've been trying (you know how some are "softer" than others and then you get the ink on the BG of the rubber stamp) or what is going on...?

I used a Hero Hues "Sea" colored card base and kept it very simple. I colored the ornaments using various Copics and Bic markers and also used several of my Spica glitter markers to give some sparkle to many of the ornaments. Used my Stampin Up border punch and the greeting is from the Hero Arts set " Joy to All".

I'll keep trying to get good impressions as I've got some other ideas floating around in that little head of mine for this stamp.....really want to see this in gold or silver ink on a darker background paper someday.

 If anyone has any tips for these kinds of stamps by all means please tell me as I've been a bit frustrated with this stamp.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by.

Inky Hugs, Anne

Halloween photo's!

Hi ya everyone!! Well another Halloween has gone by and I'm sad to have to start taking down the decorations and put them away until next year. We had a great time here in WI, weather was just perfect for trick or treating.

I just wanted to share some photo's quick.To start I'll show ya all 2 of my favorite Halloween decorations that I put up each year. Nothing to creepy- don't want to give the kid nightmares just yet!

Wreath by the front door- love the birds!                              Simple Prim looking witches on their broom-                                                                                                                           so cute!

Now onto the Grim Reaper and his friends!

 My little guy looked so creepy with his face painted like that. The neighbor girl went as "Crabby Girl" which I thought was pretty inventive......and the neighbor boy was an army soldier!

We came across this BIG scarey fella and just had to snap a picture- EEEK! The person underneath was wearing those stilts that people who do "drywall"  wear when they are taping/sanding up by the cieling!

CREEPY- huh?

I just LOVE this picture I got as my little Grim Reaper was walking away with some goodies! It's so creepy cool and I just love how his eyes look as though they are actually glowing!

Sorry......but I really  like the scarey stuff!

And the last picture to share is me as dressed up as a witch!!

MY mom borrowed me the hat.....and I had to find a wig to go with it! I found this one with long black hair with a few green stripes going through it. I decided to paint my face and neck green as well at the last minute.......gosh what was I thinking? It took me 3 times of scrubbing my skin nearly off to get all the color removed! I love the silly glasses too- aren't they funny! I carried around my cauldron of frogs all the time while trick or treating......it lights up and sings this silly song about a witch! I scared the cr*p out of some young little Trick or Treater.....I could see her cowering behind dad and pointing at me with that look like "Oh no Daddy- that's a scary icky witch.....I"m not going anywhere near her!"

I hope you all had a fun Halloween- we sure did! I ate soooo much chocolate it's not funny.......I think I gained at least 2 pounds over the weekend! I guess I better go start taking down the decorations and get some Thanksgiving decor up for now. I'll be counting down the days until next years Halloween!

See you next time with some actual card creations!

Anne