Hello My Friend Valentine

It's my week to host the Crafty Secrets member forum challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. I am challenging everyone to use "Something Old & Something New" on their projects.

On my sample card, I used my "oldest" Crafty Secrets set, Sweet Kids, along with my newest set, Couple of Cuties:



Details:
Stamps: Crafty Secrets - Sweet Kids and Couple of Cuties
Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye Organic collection
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White; Papertrey Ink - Aqua Mist
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo & Fired Brick
Accessories - markers - Copic Sketch; colored pencils - Prismacolor; border punch - Martha Stewart; glitter glue - Stickles; brad - unknown; ribbon - Paper Wishes

Hope you are having a great day, my friends!

Feeling Yucky Piggyback Card

Last week on the Crafty Secrets' forum challenge on Splitcoast Stampers, Pammyjo asked us to create "piggyback" cards, a standard-sized card with a small card on the front.

I created this card for a sweet lady from our church who is recovering from back surgery.



Details:
Stamps - Crafty Secrets - Feeling Yucky set
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
DP - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White; SU! (yellow and green)
Accessories - stickers - SU!; nest (yes, I know that there's no nest on here. My 4yo son, Ronan, typed this when I got up to answer the door, and I'm so proud that I'm just going to leave it here. :) markers - Copic Sketch; glitter glue - Stickles; glitter pen - Spica Atyou

Hope your day is just ducky too!

Romantic Drive for Two

When I saw the inspiration photo for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge, I just had to play along. I learned to type (badly) on a typewriter just like this! Thankfully, my typing skills have improved a lot since then.



I love these colors. They are perfect for a vintage-style, masculine Valentine for my hubby, I think. What do you think?



Details:
Sketch - SCS Sketch Challenge 264
Stamps - Crafty Secrets - Couple of Cuties
Ink - Palette Hybrid Ink; Ranger Distress Ink - Black Soot
Patterned Paper - K&Company - Recycled; DCWV - Crafty Stack
Cardstock - Neenah Paper
Accessories - markers - Copic Sketch; ribbon - Offray; button - vintage; photo corners - unknown; embroidery floss - DMC

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead!

Blue Moon Fairy - Playdate Cafe Challenge

I'm getting in just under the wire on this one! I couldn't resist my first Playdate Cafe Challenge. Look at these gorgeous blues in the inspiration photo:


Here is the card I made:



It's such a gloomy day here in Western PA that the blues in my card didn't photograph as well as I'd hoped, but I think you'll get the idea. What a fun challenge! I'm definitely looking forward to playing again!

Details:
Stamps - Crafty Secrets - Fairyland
DP - My Mind's Eye
Cardstock - K&Company
Accessories - glitter glue - Stickles; seam tape ribbon - Rebecca Sower designs; dies - Nestabilities; markers - Copic Sketch; half pearls - unknown

Thanks for stopping by! Hope the rest of your day is enchanting!
Marcy

Lovely New Goodies

I am having so much fun playing with all of the new goodies I received for Christmas from my dear family. Even my project manager, who is also a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, sent me a huge box packed with wonderful crafty goodness. This first card is a thank you for her. Isn't this image adorable? It's from Crafty Secrets' new Couple of Cuties set. This set is full of absolutely darling images, and I thought this one was perfect for my project manager. Everyone in our company works from home, so my PM and I talk on the phone...a lot!


Details:
Stamps: Crafty Secrets - Couple of Cuties set
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Patterned Paper: K&Company - Carolyn Gavin (floral); Stampin' Up! (striped)
Cardstock - Stampin' Up! - Chocolate Chip; Neenah Paper - Natural; K&Company (red)
Accessories - tag & photo corner - Stampin' Up!; border punch - Martha Stewart; markers - Copic Sketch; seam tape ribbon - Rebecca Sower Designs; natural sponge - Darice; eyelet - Making Memories

Our closest Michaels store is moving to another location in town, and last weekend (lucky me!)they were having an in-store only clearance, and (even luckier me!) there was also a 20% coupon off your entire purchase, and (luckiest of all!) I had two M's gift cards in my hot little paws. I went a little crazy on paper (I bought five stacks!), Martha Stewart glitter, and various other items, including some birthday pressies for my mum. Her birthday is tomorrow, and (perfect timing) Darlene is hosting a birthday card challenge for this week's Crafty Secrets challenge on Splitcoast. Here's the card I made for my mum:



Details:
Stamps - Crafty Secrets - Fairyland
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Patterned Paper - K&Company - Amy Butler
Cardstock - Core'dinations (brown); Stampin' Up(yellow); Neenah (Natural)
Accessories - markers - Copic Sketch; flowers - Prima; rhinestone brad - Making Memories; glitter glue - Stickles; velvet ribbon - unknown; pearlescent chalk - Pebbles Inc.

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday!

Let's Go on an Egg Hunt!

After weeks of really bitter temps, we might actually get into the 40s the next couple of days. It'll feel downright springlike, I think! So it's appropriate that I would share an Easter layout with you today.

I've been holding on to these photos of my son and hubby at our church's annual Easter egg hunt. Most Easter paper and embellies are pastel and just didn't seem to work with the darker colors in these pics, and so the photos have sat and waited. Then Rich gave me DCWV's Berry Street Farmers' Market stack for Christmas - perfect!



Ronan would have been not-quite two in these photos.

Details:
Patterned Paper - DCWV - Berry Street Farmers' Market Stack
Stamps - Title - Inkadinkadoo Letter Stamps; Title Tag - Making Memories Rummage magnetic stamps; Things to Do - Fancy Pants Calendar set
Ink - Stazon - Forest Green; Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Brown & Antique Linen
Accessories - markers - Sharpie; Pop Dots; ribbon - Bobbin Ribbon

Hope there's some spring in your step and a little sun in your sky today!

My Sweet Dad and (some of) My Candy Boxes

As soon as I saw this image from Crafty Secrets, I knew I needed to make a card with it for my dad. I started collecting vintage and antique candy boxes when I was in graduate school. I was attending out of state and feeling a little homesick, when I came across an old Hershey box in an antique mall. It's the kind of box stock would arrive in at a drug store or soda shop. I told my dad about it on the phone, and that was just the beginning.


Details:
Main Image - Crafty Secrets - Childhood Images and Journal Notes booklet
Stamps - bear - PSX: sentiment - Papertrey Ink - Mixed Messages
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Soot Black
Patterned Paper & Cardstock - K&Company
Accessories - Copic Sketch markers; vintage button; ribbon - Michaels; embroidery floss - DMC; edge distresser - Heidi Swapp

So I thought I would share some of my candy box collection with you. Believe me when I say that this is just the tip of the iceberg. My dad is an antique dealer, and he keeps an eye out for these on every buying trip, at yard sales, estate sales, auctions, flea markets, etc. and gives them to me for Christmas, my birthday, Easter, Halloween...well, you get the picture! I don't keep all of them on display all of the time. I like to change them out with the seasons or holidays.

Here are a few of my "new" ones from Christmas:



These Scottie dogs are two of my favorites. The one on the left is a pull toy and a bank, as well as a chocolate box:



The one on the left is the only chocolate box out of the group above. I'm generally a sucker for vintage things for children.

Here are some pretty ladies:


The one on the right is dated 1914 and has Pittsburgh spelled without the "h".



I have boxes from national brands & small chocolate shops (some no longer in business and some still going strong.) I have seasonal boxes, holiday boxes, quirky ones, and sophisticated ones.

You can even learn a little history and geography from them.


But mostly they are just plain sweet!

Beep Beep is Happy Birthday in Robot

Oh my goodness! If you live in Western Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio near a Pat Catan's, go check out their clearance section. They have a ton of See D's stamps on clearance for a dollar. These are the large sets that are normally marked $11.99! I took a $25.00 gift certificate that my dad gave me for Christmas and got 21 sets! Yes, twenty-one!

I'm always looking for fun sets for boy cards and layouts for my son and my daughter's classmates, so I was thrilled when I saw the Space Cadet set.

Here's a birthday card I made with it for my hubby's nephew, who turned 7 on Saturday:


Details:
Stamps - See D's - Space Cadet
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink Soot Black; Versamark
Patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket - Cogsmo
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific White; Bazzill
Accessories - markers - Copic Sketch; foam dimensionals - Pop Dots

Beep Beep is also robot for Thanks for Stopping By and Have a Great Day!

Shannon Shows Off!

My first papercrafting love is scrapbooking. Telling stories with words and photos, preserving our family history and those special, fleeting moments in time, and all the while playing with fun supplies? It's heavenly!

This is a simple layout I just completed for this week's Crafty Secrets challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers for which Lori asked us to show her our spots.

There is so much going on in these photos in terms of background, but I didn't want to crop any of them because I wanted to preserve as many details of Shannon's classroom as I could. My mil took these photos at Shannon's school on Grandparents' Day. So, I kept the background paper and embellishments muted and simple to avoid competing with the busy photos.


I chose the two main colors because I knew they would complement the School Time sticker set from Crafty Secrets. If you're not familiar with this set, make sure you go to the link to get a closer look - they are so adorable! CS's cardstock stickers are sophisticated and every bit as detailed as their stamps, truly a joy to use.

Next I adapted a simple layout design from Becky Higgins' Sketches 2 book, adhered my photos, added a title and some embellies created on the Cricut, and finished it off with journaling I did on the computer. Oh, I also added some spots on the journaling blocks with some Versamark ink and a circle stamp, but the camera didn't pick those up.

Details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
Stickers: Crafty Secrets - School Time
Title & Flourishes: Cricut, Storybook Cartridge

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today! Have a great Thursday!

Marcy

Christmas Thank You Cards

The past few days I've been creating Christmas thank you cards, which is also the latest challenge over at Winter Wonderland.

I receive a lot of crafting supplies for Christmas, my birthday, even my wedding anniversary (such a dear, sweet hubby!), so when I make thank you cards, I try to incorporate what I received in the card. This year I got a Cricut Expression, the Storybook cartridge, and 50 States cartridge from my hubby (told ya he was sweet!) and my dear mother-in-law. My brother & dsil, Megan, gave me the Winter Woodlands cartridge. I've been playing and having so much fun getting to know my Cricut!

Here are some of the cards I've made so far:



Details:
Main Image - Crafty Secrets - Seasonal Images booklet
Stamp - Stampin' Up! - Noteworthy
Patterned Paper - DCWV - Rustic Stack
Cardstock - DCWV
Ink - Stampin' Up! - Cranberry Crisp
Fancy Corner - Cricut Cartridge - Storybook
Accessories - velveteen rick rack - Little Pink Studio; glitter glue - Stickles; distressing tool - Heidi Swapp; self-adhesive pearls - unknown


Details:
Main Image - Crafty Secrets - Christmas Images & Journal Notes Booklet
Stamps - See D's - Holly Jolly set
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Cardstock - Bazzill (red); Core'dinations - Chocolate Box(brown)
Sentiment - Cricut Storybook Cartridge


Deer - Cricut Winter Woodlands cartridge
Stamp - Imaginisce
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye - Organic Stack
Cardstock - Core'dinations - Chocolate Box (brown); Papertrey Ink - Aqua Mist
Glitter - Martha Stewart - Green Agate

And, of course, this post wouldn't be complete without saying "Thank You" to you for stopping by and for encouraging & inspiring me! Have a wonderful Sunday!

Happy New Year!

May God richly bless you with happiness, health, and prosperity in the New Year!


Details:
Main Image - Crafty Secrets - Seasonal Images booklet
Patterned Paper - DCWV - Rustic Stack
Stamps - See D's - Flourishes
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Accessories - ribbon - Michaels; vintage buckle



We've had a very relaxing, peaceful Christmas break at the Talbert house, which was very much needed after a hectic November & December leading up to the holiday. Mostly we've just hung around the house, playing, relaxing, and reorganizing. It's been so, so good.