Springing Into New Habits

So, here I sit at home, like most everyone else in the world except those brave souls out there fighting this terrible Covid 19.   I thought it was a good time to start up this Blog again as I have had extra time lately! And I do hope to continue, even if it eventually only happens once a week.

You see, a little over a year ago, we bought a Bed and Breakfast. Oscar's Inn in Buffalo, NY.
The first picture is our front porch. The room right off the porch when you walk through the door, on your right, is our Wade room (the next picture).

                           This next picture is me with our dog Jade. She just loves everyone!

Right now obviously it is very quiet but it has given us a chance to do some marketing and do some repairs. As well as finish unpacking those last few boxes that were lingering around the house! Anyway, enough about our Inn.

I have been creating Buffalo cards with lots of scraps I haven't had the heart to throw away. When you put so much time into a technique, they are hard to part with, ya know? Thankfully, most of what I had was big enough to get a Buffalo or two. Then. I will sell them in packages of 4 and 6 and singles too! Let me know what you think of my gift shop-Oscar's Originals. Remember, I just started so, don't be too critical but happy for any comments or ideas, Thanks!

These are my favorites for sure!

So, that's about all for today, I will not bore you with trying to recap the last year of our lives with the B and B.  Lets just say that it was definitely the right decision and we have met so many fabulous people. I can't wait until people start travelling again! I'll leave you all with that.

Be Kind and Crafty!   And thanks for stopping by!

Jen

Papertrey Ink June Blog Hop Challenge

          I couldn't pass up this month's BLOG HOP over at Papertrey Ink. Just check out
                                                   the inspiration photo below:

What fun, right??

So, here's the CAS card I made:

Sorry for the poor lighting! I used PTI's Keep It Simple Frames and Stampin Up Stamps.

I am also participating in the 

AAA Cards- CAS Game #118-Use a Frame:

April Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, MIM and MFT Sketch Challenge

It's the 25th and time for the Papertrey Ink BLOG HOP. I was actually able to squeeze in a card after having the dreaded colonoscopy today! I am sure glad it's over. Anyway, I loved the tea cups but I only had a coffee word die and cup to use. I wanted to also incorporate the MIM over at Papertrey as well.

  Here is the inspiration photo below:

Love those cups and I had the perfect paper!
It is not exactly as I had envisioned but I still like it.

I also entered the MFT Sketch Challenge


I don't have many MFT products but I am slowly collecting! ;)
Any questions, I am happy to answer and I love your comments!!

Happy April Birthday

I decided to take part in the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop today.

This was the inspiration photo:

There was no way around it, just had to use a bunny.

I used Holiday Pals, a stamp set from Pretty Pink Posh that I adore.

Here it is:

The landscape stamp is Purple Onion Designs. PTI Supplies:  Vintage Jadeite paper,

One Liners:Happy Die and Birthday Classics Stamps.

Enjoyed the hop this month, just gotta make the time these days!!

Happy Holidays!!!

   

Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season!
                                   

Papertrey Ink May BLOG HOP Challenge

So, here it is again. May 25th, time for the PTI BLOG HOP.

Here is the inspiration photo:

It's a beauty, don't you think?
So, I began with Turning a new Leaf stamps and didn't like the outcome.

Ended up switching to a Simon Says Stamp Background stamp.  I did some ink
smooshing(with various distress inks) and spritzing with water and then stamping my background.
I do like the final outcome but after all that I ended up with just PTI Hawaiian Shores CS, so that's my one PTI product! I even tried a PTI sympathy stamp that ended up too big for the doily!

Here it is:

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!! 

Smile!

I am finally getting around to post this today. It has been a crazy week. I mainly wanted to participate in Make It Monday this week with Dawn. It was all about Patterns Behind Die-Cut Windows. I wanted to also use a stencil to fulfill another challenge over at AAA Cards.

 

  I began inking up my paper through a dotted stencil to make my pattern of dots and decided it would be cute to stamp little faces on some of them from Lawn Fawn's Love You Smore.  I then die cut my flower/sentiment window with Enclosed Flower from PTI in CS and Smokey Shadow Patterned Paper. Layered my cuts and adhered everything together after adding a bit of ribbon.

Hope you all like it. Hope everyone has a great week!

Make it Monday #280: Stamping Outside the Box

Another Make It Monday with all the girls over at Papertrey Ink. It's Lexi's turn this week and I've always loved her clean and simple style. She inspires me so!

I decided to go springy since I cannot wait any longer for some warm sunny days.

Here is my card:

PTI Supplies used: Bitty Bouquets, Monthly Moments:March, Sweet blush,summer sunrise, harvest gold, spring moss, spring rain and lavender moon inks. Avery Elle Pierced Rectangles. 

Versamark Dazzle and clear embossing powder(for the embossed flowers). 

Sorry about the dark photo. I am finally getting my craft room back in order so I will be getting my photo box back up with much better lighting! Thanks for stopping by!!

This card fulfills the:

PTI  Make It Monday Challenge, 

CAS Game #87-Shiny Spring

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:Make A Rainbow

MAKE IT MONDAY #279: CURVED SENTIMENTS

It's time for Make It Monday with Ashley this week as she gives us some tips on making curved sentiments out of straight sentiment stamps.

I really wanted to use the Enclosed Butterfly die because I had not broken it in yet.
I also wanted to put a little organic stitching in the background so I used my rotary cutter.
Sorry for the poor picture quality, the sun is long gone!

 I am also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:
Things with Wings. Also the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

SUPPLIES: Papertrey Ink CS, Enclosed Butterfly Die,
 Birthday Classics:Feb and April Stamps.
Distress Ink and rotary cutter.


Thanks for stopping by today!

Papertrey Ink March blog Hop Challenge

It's the 25th everybody!!

 I think we all know what that means! 

The Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is today!

Here is the gorgeous inspiration photo below:

I broke out some of my new releases and went to work. 
 I had to use the new wood grain stencil, 
among a couple of the new stamp sets.

So, here is what I created:

If anyone has any tips on cleaning the metal stencil, 

let me know. I immediately put it in water

when I was finished with it but it seemed to still have a film of embossing paste on it. I even used a mild soap. Ended up scraping it off with my fingernails!  Anyway, thanks for stopping by today!!

Supplies: Metal wood grain stencil, Courage and Kindness Stamp Set, Cutaway Tags: Spring 

Stamp Set, Floral Sketches Stamp Set, PTI CS and Inks, Embossing paste, Pretty Pink Posh

Scalloped Oval Frame. 

  That's about all. I am off to help with a

 working day at our church. 

Pulling up carpet or something along those lines.

 I hope to be back later to hop along and see 

what everyone else created for today!

Make It Monday #278: Window Chipboard Sentiments

Congratulations to Stephanie for her first Make It Monday video released this week.  It was something I had never thought to do and I love the look.

 I decided to stick with flowers and I have been reaching for the One Big Happy stamp

 set for the past week so it was there staring at me on my desk begging me to give

 it some more love.  I also pulled out some Avery Elle pigment pads that I don't use too much to

 see if I wanted to pass them on to someone else. I am really trying to get rid

 of the stuff I don't use. Or at least relocate it for now.

I needed to make at least a couple Easter cards so I thought this was a good place to start.

SUPPLIES:

  PTI Limeaid Ice CS, One Big Happy Stamp Set, Birthday Classics:April Stamp Set

                    Pretty Pink Posh Scalloped Frames, The Stamps of Life Blessings Die, Avery Elle

                    Pigment Ink Pads(various colors), Lace trim from Hobby Lobby.

Have a great week everyone, not sure what I'll do Sunday night now

 that I have already done the MIM this week!!

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge Day 5: Transformation

Here it is release day 5 and the last day of the 10th Anniversary Challenges over at Nichole's Blog.
So sad to see another party come to an end but on to another year of great products, lots of
inspiration from the Design Team and tons of fun! I hope they have at least another 10 years to come!

On to the Transformation Challenge:  One of the cards I made for the Anniversary festivities,
I was not happy with at all. I felt like I pulled it out of a box of cards I made 10 years ago!
Here is that card:

So, I took the happy die cut that I cut from the paper and a smaller version of the stamp I used
from Embroidered Blooms, white CS and some of the same Distress Oxide Inks and started
again.  I do like the result much much better than the above card. So here it is:

After stamping I took a water brush and blurred the images a bit while mixing the colors.
Anyway, I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did these last 10 days!
Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge & Ribbon Storage

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Trying to get my craft room painted. Ceiling, trim and walls!  I am still looking for an area rug. I ripped up the old carpeting and the hard wood is in rough shape but for now I figured I would just cover it with an area rug.  I just can't seem to find what I want. I have scrolled through pages and pages on Wayfair.com,  but when I find one I like, it's either out of stock or not the size I need.  So, I just have to wait I guess until the right thing comes along.

I will talk more about that at the end of this post with some pictures of my new ribbon storage for ALL the new ribbon I got from the PTI sale!!

 On to the Build a Birdhouse Challenge:

Papertrey Ink has been having Anniversary Challenges since the 5th and I have been

plugging away at them each day. I made my birdhouse last night but never linked it 

because I wanted to post it here on my blog as opposed  to Flickr where you can find 

my other pictures from the challenges.

After I cut the pattern out that Nichole provided, I stamped Polka Dot Basics with Versamark

and heat embossed it using Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing Powder. That is one of my favorite powders for sure! I also took Nichole's advice and used the scalloped rectangle Spellbinders

die for the roof , I made the wood grain paper by using Elmer's glue and inking the paper after it 

dried. Then I cut it out with the scalloped rectangle die.

I  thought it came out cute! I used  Hawaiian Shores CS and it looks nice with the

freshly painted walls although you can't tell in these pictures. 

I am sad to see us at the end of the Anniversary festivities but I had a great time creating!

Here is my ribbon storage:

                           This cost under $18! Two bags of screws, L brackets and the piece of PVC

                         that is used for garage doors. The nice woman that helped me at Home Depot
                         even cut it for me in different lengths so it would fit between my shelf brackets!      

                    This is a closer shot so you can see what it looks like from underneath. The rubber
                            flap is just the right angle to hold the spools of ribbon on the "shelf".

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Papertrey February Blog Hop Challenge

 It's the 25th again and time for the Papertrey Blog Hop

Here is the classy inspiration photo:


I loved these colors and definitely not something I would normally reach for so I was surely
out of my box while creating. I found it strange not having any white space but in the end I did
like the results.

Have fun hopping along today. I will finally have some time to do this too!!
Thanks for all of you others out there playing along. You all inspire me so!

All supplies PTI except the Simon Says Stamp thanks die.

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

I really wasn't planning on participating in this Hop today but I saw the challenge picture:

And I could not help myself. I didn't notice anyone that took inspiration from the adorable little cupcake with the cherry on top in the corner of the photo or at least directly stamping that cupcake. And that is because you were supposed to used bright flowers but I just had to do it this way and break the rules after seeing that doily and cupcake!

So here is my card:

I used PTI Parisian Doily and Mama Elephant Carnival Cupcakes. Very simple!

Thanks for looking!!

Make it Monday #267: Assembly Line Card-Making

Today I joined in on a Make It Monday challenge over at Papertrey Ink and Laurie gave us some tips
and tricks when making cards assembly line style.

 This was perfect for me today as I am still creating cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive.  The fabulous Jennifer McGuire is how I found out about this great card drive. Vera Yates started this 7 years ago and it has grown bigger and bigger every year. They collected over 22,000 cards last year for the elderly that live in nursing homes! My own goal this year is to do more than 100. I am well on my way but the dead line is fast approaching.

Laurie is on the same page that I am on as far as wanting everything cut, organized and ready to go.
This makes the process so much easier. I cut first, stamp and then assemble. I used a variety of stamps and dies that you see here but particularly Tremendous Treats:Christmas by Papertrey Ink , Pretty Patches:Tree by WPlus9 and Calendar Critters by Taylored Expressions. Paper is by Stampin' Up!

And here they are:

I still need to finish stamping envelopes and get them ready to ship by this weekend.

You can find all the info on the card drive here!

Have a fabulous week everyone!!

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop Challenge

Another Blog Hop today with Papertrey Ink. Autumn is what it's all about! Check out this inspiration photo below, I love it!

I took inspiration mostly from the colors and I used distress ink spritzed with some

water before stamping.  I used PTI: Keep It Simple- Frames Die and Birthday Classics

Stamps.  Hope you all enjoy the hop!

Thanks for hopping by today!!

Make It Monday #262:Pumpkin Stamps 3 Ways

I thought this would be a fun challenge to participate in especially with the fall season upon us now.

So, Ashley challenged us to use our pumpkin stamps in three different ways. Fine with me, it's all about getting the most out of our stamps, right?

I don't have that many pumpkins but I do have the PTI set Fall Elegance so I used the pumpkins in that set. I did three different tags and here they are:

If you look closely you can see the pattern of the pumpkin stamps in the eyes, nose and mouth of the Jack-o-lantern. I thought it came out pretty cool. The second tag I just stamped around the edge to frame the tag and the last one was quite traditional. All kinds of fun, hope you enjoyed! Any questions, leave me a comment! Thanks so much!!

Papertrey August Blog Hop Challenge

I forgot all about the blog hop today because I babysat and didn't even realize it was the 25th until about an hour ago but I didn't want to miss out on this!

Here is the inspiration photo and I love it!

photograph from VSCO

It's just so soothing to me. Anyway here is my card which I will also enter into

this week's Make It Monday# 258:Cover Plate Tags.

SUPPLIES: PTI cs in smoky shadow, soft stone and stampers select white

Heart cover plate, tag die.

Simon Says Stamp: Sending happy thoughts. That's all for now.

Have fun hopping along today!!

SAF 2016: Color Blocking

First of all, I was not the least bit excited about this challenge.  I wasn't sure about the look

and I am not really into fussy cutting those masks.  Andy Warhol inspired Lexi and she did a fabulous

job on her card found here. Thanks for all the tips and tricks Lexi! They sure helped!!

I, on the other hand, need practice and more patience! For my first, not too bad but I do need practice.

So, here goes:

I snuck in some Pure Poppy ink and PTI Stampers Select White but all the other colors were 

various other inks to match the Buffalo colors I wanted to go with.  I think with some more

practice, it might be a card I would do again, love the idea. Thanks for stopping! I got the stamp set at my local store, Buffalo Stamps and Stuff