Wine a lot or wine a little

Just another day in quarantine and social distancing. It's crazy but I am getting used to this, although I really could go for a Rita's chocolate ice cream cone.

Today is also the start of a new challenge at Inky Paws! We had a huge response to our last challenge and I bet this one will be just as big if not bigger. The theme this week is birthdays!

This will be a fun one, because who doesn't need a birthday card in their stash? My card today is for my SIL birthday. She and my brother are oenophiles- they love their wine, just like Newton here!

My card today uses Newton Nook's "wine a little", "Newton loves cake",  "cocktail mixer die set", and "bubbly stencil".  I love to mix up my stamp sets, like I did with Newton holding the bottle of bubbly.

Please continue to stay safe, healthy,  and enjoy the time at home crafting.Please join our birthday  challenge at Inky Paws! You have two weeks to play with our sketch challenge at Inky Paws! We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20.00 Newton's Nook store gift certificate. Our favorite entries from each challenge will be highlighted the following Monday, so all entries have a chance to be featured on the blog.

The deadline to enter today's challenge is this Friday, April 24, 2020 at MN CST. The winners will be announced on the following Monday at Inky Paws.

Yay USA!!

Happy birthday America!! Yay USA!!

Wishing all of you a wonderful 4th of July filled with parades, barbeques, and fireworks!!

Inky Paws 100th challenge!!!!

Hi everyone!! It's a BIG day at Inky Paws. We are celebrating our 100th challenge!! Woot woot and yahoo!! I betcha when the first Inky Paws challenge debut on July 26, 2013, the DT could not have foreseen the 100th challenge.

We are challenging you to go back and pick your favorite challenge from the past 6 years and play it again. Each of us designers did the same thing. Since I just started paying along at Inky Paws about a year and half ago, I decided to go way back and play along with a challenge that I did not have the opportunity to do.

I am a girl who loves her sparkle and bling, so I immediately decided to use challenge #15- "add a little sparkle" for my inspiration. This challenge went live Oct. 24, 2014. Check it out for some DT inspiration.

Today's card is being sent out to all those messy crafters like me out there. How many of you have been in the same position as Newton? Vacuuming glitter, sequins, and gems off your floors and rugs. Thank goodness Newton has one of those high powered vacuum cleaners or he might be at that mess for awhile.

 For my card today I used a new stamp set from Newton's Nook called "Newton cleans up". It is full of fun images. The sentiment came from Newton's Nook's "naughty Newton.

Here's the details: Choose your favorite challenge & play it again!

Pick any of our previous Color, Sketch or Theme challenges and play it again! Just decide on your favorite and add it to your post along with your entry matching the previous challenge: color, sketch or theme! There will be three link-ups below, so you enter your project into the category you have chosen! You can find images of all the previous collections in the Pinterest board here, or look through our previous challenges on the blog pages. 

Bonus link-up: Choose your favorite NND product! To make things even more fun, we've added a favorite product challenge link-up too! Just pick your favorite NND stamp, stencil, or die set and use it on your project to participate! Don't forget to tell us why it's your favorite when you write up your blog post! 

Can't decide on a favorite? You are welcome to choose more than one type of challenge and play multiple times! We are allowing up to 3 entries per participant into each category! Please no combining of challenges. Each card created may only be entered into one link-up category.

Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along to win a prize? For this special 100th celebration we are giving away $100 in prizes! We will chose one RANDOM entry to win a $25 store credit to our Newton's Nook Design online shop from each of the four link-up categories! We will also highlight our favorites from each challenge the following Monday, so all entries have a chance to be featured on this blog! 

The deadline to enter today's challenge is this Friday, June 28, 2019 at MN CST. The winners will be announced on the following Monday at Inky Paws.

Jaws

How many remember seeing the original Jaws circa 1975 in the movie theater? It was so scary.

Here is a clip of the trailer from the original. My card today is a bit less scary....I mean how can you be frightened of a pink shark?

The challenge over at Inky Paws today is a great color challenge. You can't go wrong with pink, grey, white, and black.

I used Newton's Nook's "shark bites" for my card today. while you might think sharks wou;d only be for guys, lots of gals like sharks too and this card will be going to someone special.

Head on over to Inky Paws and join in our super color challenge. We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20.00 Newton's Nook store gift certificate. Our favorite entries from each challenge will be highlighted the following Monday, so all entries have a chance to be featured on the blog.

The deadline to enter today's challenge is Friday, February 22, 2019 at MN CST. The winners will be announced on the following Monday at Inky Paws.

Silver and Gold

15 days to go till the big day!! Wow!! Where is the time going? We had an extra week, because Thanksgiving came early, but all of a sudden I feel behind the eight ball. Lucky I have a few days off at the end of the week for card making and shopping.

I love holiday shows and Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer is  on of my favs. Do you remember Burl Ives singing "Silver and Gold"? What a great song!!

The new challenge at Inky Paws. is just that "Silver and Gold". Let Burl inspire you to join in!

 My card is all about silver and gold. I used Newton's Nook new "evergreens stencil". I spread stencil paste over the stencil and while it was wet, I covered the trees with silver and gold glitter. 

The snow was from Newton's "petite snow stencil", that glitterized also. To finish this bright and festive card I die cut the greeting with glittery foam using Newton's "holiday greeting die set".

Head on over to Inky Paws and join in this festive theme challenge. We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20.00 Newton's Nook store gift certificate. Our favorite entries from each challenge will be highlighted the following Monday, so all entries have a chance to be featured on the blog.

The deadline to enter today's challenge is Friday December 21, 2018, at MN CST. The winners will be announced on the following Monday at Inky Paws.

Cat Scratch Baking

Hi folks!! Guess what?!!? No more school for this girl until May 21!! Yipeeeeeeee!!!! So to kick off my mini vacation I joined in the fun over at Inky Paws!! They are having a color challenge.And they couldn't have picked more awesome colors than they did! Green (the most beautiful color in the world!!), orchid, violet and periwinkle blue. 

 These are great colors, but I have to admit they area bit tough to match up with copics. I love my copics, I really do, but the selection of purples leaves a bit to be desired.

 

It didn't stop me though. I made do. For today's card I used Newton loves cake. The 4 tiered cake called for the challenge colors. ikeptNewton in a neutral gray so as not to distract from the cake. And isn't everything better with glitter and bling? So I added some glitter to the cake and bling.

Loved how this card turned out. Head over to Inky Paws and check out what the DT and others created.

As much as I would love to stay in and stamp, gotta head out and enjoy one the best days we have had all year here in Pennsylvania.

Foxy Holidays

Have you ever had a stamp set that you were absolutely jonesing to get? Last year to late to when I saw Newton Nook's "Sweater Weather". I had to have it but waited till this year and took advantage of all the sales over Thanksgiving.

I mainly got it for the cute little kitty that reminds me of my Pinkie. But the fox has captured my heart. So when I saw the challenge at Inky Paws I pulled out Sweater Weather.

Anyone who knows me, knows sketch challenges are the most difficult for me. I feel too boxed in and tend to take them to literally. But I stepped out and used a circle for the main element because I saw Diane on the DT didn't go with the rectangle. I felt I was given a license to switch it up. Thanks Diane!!!

Another first for me was using embossing paste with a stencil. I had to search for it in my studio! LOL. The first container was totally dried out, but I hit pay dirt on a second jar. Thank God us stampers have to have more than one of everything!!!

I embossed NN snowfall stencil and while it was wet, I sprinkled it with glitter. The snowflake element was a wooden shape that I just put some white ink on.

The sentiment is from the "Sentiments of the Season" set from NN.

Hope you are all having fun getting ready for the holidays! Take some time to check out the challenge at Inky Paws and join in.

Santa Paws

 

It's that time of the year when I become the most creative- the holiday season!! I am starting to work on my holiday card designs and Newton's Nook is playing a starring role this year.  I have been messing around with this design concept. Originally the element was a rectangle, but I justwasn't feeling it- this is after I made about 6 cards!! I tried it with a circle and loved it.

I am entering this card over at the Inky Paws challenge. This week's challenge is a color challenge using Holly red, pine cone tan, fir green, and black. A color challenge certainly takes the stress out of figuring out colors! And I think Santa Paws looks awesome!! I loved this color combo and will definitely be using it again.

If you look close you can see that I glitterized all the snow. As usual it is much more impressive in person.

I am entering this in the color challenge over at House of Cards. HOC was the first challenge blog I was on, so it's kind of nostalgic to be joining in the fun as a spectator. 

I hope you will go check out the awesome challenges at Inky Paws and House of Cards join in.

Go to your happy place

Every year I get away to the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania  for a crafty weekend of stamping, good food and good times with my best buddies. My buddy Judy aka "the angel" has a house in the "Nos" right on a gorgeous lake. Every year the weekend seems to grow and this year all of us will be there.

To get everyone psyched, I will be sending out this card. My card reminds me of one of the views from the porch.

My card fit into three challenges so I am submitting this to Time Out Challenges where the challenge  is:

'Holidays with the Optional Twist of No Stamping' 
(stamped sentiments allowed)

 I am submitting it to my friend Kylie's Happy Little Stamper CAS challenge   

where the challenge is:

I am also sending this out to a new challenge to me: The Sisterhood of Crafters

CLOSE TO NATURE

What does that mean to you?  

This is a perfect challenge since that's what we have going in to the NO's- a sisterhood of crafters and the theme couldn't be better!!!

I used the British view of holiday- our idea of a vacation here in the states.

The inside of the card says "go to your happy place". We have a running theme of the Nos being our happy place so this card is perfect for our upcoming holiday.

 The masking was a bit tricky and took several tries to get the masking inside to line up with the outside diecut window.

Check out both of these fun challenges and join in!!

The Male Room Challenge #32 Magic/ Fantasy

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent it cooking and eating way to much Easter candy.

The holiday is over so now it is time to get back my routine. That means a week full of challenges. I am starting with the Male Room. This week's challenge is "magic/fantasy". This was a tough. I do not have any stamps of that type. I really had to think outside the box.

I am not even going to explain it except to say has any one read Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan?

Stamps uses are Hero Arts and Stampa Bella.

Please join us at the Male Room for this magical/ fantastical challenge.