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This is what my fireplace looked like most of this week:

It was cold and snowy all week, now the sun came out and its a bit wet and yucky

Lots of things were done but not much papercrafting (that I can show yet). Had a bit of a nightmare trying to alter a costume for a friend from tiny to very very tiny (yep, that is a size) but got it done in the end and everybody was happy! I hope it will hold up through wild dancing and the party!!

I did get to go to the Cottage Studio and play around with images on Belinda’s computer, now that was fun Go have a peek if you like.

I didn’t even STITCH… so for tomorrow’s Sunday Stitch I will show you some things from the past, fish perhaps? I’ll see what I am in the mood for

Well, RAKed really, hehe, I got this sweetest Halloween ATC from my friend Karla:

Isn’t that the cutest scariest cat? I just love it! Thanks so much Karla, that was a wonderful surprise
!!

I am busy doing stuff that I can’t show yet, a bit frustrating, but still fun! So why don’t you browse by RubberRoadAdventures and check out the numerous new tutorials. We have Holiday Cards, Gift Ideas and tons of Ornaments, so many cool ideas!

For the cards I show you how to make very different cards from one large stamp:

For a quick present, my tutorial talks about how to make a wonderful bookmark from any stamp, the example uses a very large stamp and the bookmark is a partial:

And I think I did show you my funky penguin ornament already, full instructions can be found here:

With some difficulties, I made it through week 5 stitching on the Fairy Flower Garden Mandala…..

Branching out further to the side I encountered my first dragonfly! She was not the problem, very well behaved, but the subtle background gave me the fits! For some reason I had issues counting and following the swirly pattern and it was hard to see for me with the soft color on the white. I got to do this three more times…phew

I added the beads on the dragonfly wings at an angle (opposite for each wing of course). While this looks a bit more chaotic than having them all upright, I do like it.

If you want to take a peek at the future, visit Ineke’s Blog, she is flying high already!! I always have to crack up when I read her blog title, when I was stitching LOTS (…) I had 4 cats, there was not a single piece in my collection that didn’t have cat hair quite firmly embedded in it

This morning my dog Phoebe (right) jumped into our bed. She NEVER does this, un_heard of. I was like, WHAT is going ON?? Well, turns out she was just starting to have a seizure and she knows that I can help her with that and make it stop. This was pretty cool because it tells me that she totally gets what is going on and can rely on me to help her, so much so that she’d do something that she normally does not ever do (like jump into the bed when we’re in it). This made me write up a little page that tells you how you can help your dogs to get them through an epileptic seizure as well, quickly and painlessly
I hope it will be of use for somebody, it sure does help us a lot!

This week, Clear Artistic Stamps is in the pink If you browse the DT member’s blogs you’ll see a lot of this color! This of course is a gentle reminder to take care of yourself and do whatever is right for you to prevent the big C. My tip for you, your breasts and your entire body is: do your 2 mile walk EVERY day, this reduces your chances of getting sick by about 50%! Quite affordable, always with you…

Today’s card was made with a FREE download from Belinda’s store:

I saved the image, colored it in pastels in my drawing program, printed on beige card stock, then colored it with pencils and some iced lavender shimmerz on top. For the background I used the wonderful delicate blush shimmer paper with my cuttlebug and an embossing folder. EACH order this month to the store will include 5 pages of this color if you would like to try it. But you can also find it along with 9 other fabulous colors in the Joy of the Heart Collection .

Do you sometimes, dare I say this… get tired of cards that are pretty but seem to contain everything but the kitchen sink on it? I am guilty of that. You see a great paper flower, beautiful, but it is drowned by 5 others, plus ribbon, plus brads, but decorative punches and whatnots. I get color and pattern overload and feel my eyes kindof cringe and look away…

Today I just wanted some cards that I can actually send without paying parcel-postage, something quick and easy, yet satisfying to make and look at….

It all started with this wonderful page from the DCVW “La Creme Stack” of designer paper. I had been eying this particular page for a while, it had a decorative black fuzzy border down one side. The border was way too wide for a regular card. But I really wanted to use this page, and use it well, one-sheet wonder style so to say.

Well, the border was easy to cut shorter, the cut off pieces to be used for 3 more cards These cards are terribly simple to make. For all of them I used stamps from the Just a note and Mini Just a Note sets from Elemental Doodles.

Simple doesn’t have to mean boring. Some fun details are very limited coloring with either Blush Blossom or Crushed Curry Markers. A few highlights here and there with opaque white Inkssentials pen (just coloring the whites of the eyes looks cool, doesn’t it?!).

Notice that I used two different types of black ink for stamping. The darker shade is Versafaine Onyx Black, the slightly lighter shade is Memento Tuxedo black. Often I like to sponge the edges of the top layer of the card, but I wanted a cleaner look this time, so I took a fine tip marker (Prismacolor Premier 08) and drew a fine line around the entire top layer for a bit more contrast.

The base cards were done from kraft card stock, some cards have pearlized raffia on them where the cut edges meet. I truly used my entire sheet of designer card stock with very little waste. The little swirl on the last card needed to come out of the letter, so I doodled it a bit to do that

Six cards in an hour, much fun was had!

I am shifting my stitching progress day to Sunday I think instead of Tuesday. I’m sure nobody has noticed the tuesday pattern yet…
The Fairy Garden Mandala is growing, a bit, here is my week4 progress:

I am slowly climbing out to the right side on my 8 inch side bars No fairies yet LOL… Here is a closer look:

The special stitch for this part are the pretty Bellflower Jessicas, they are just too cute! The chart would not enlarge for me without making it all fuzzy, so I re-numbered the stitch sequence, the picture is in the yahoo group for the members to grab…