A November Visual of Purgatory

Hi!  
If any of you have poked around in my blogs in the past 6 months you may have seen previous photos of our little camp/cabin on Little Purgatory Pond in Maine.  Today my husband and a friend went out to do some clearing of the fire brush and chip up some piles of fallen limbs we've been collecting and piling up.  It was a beautiful day....so much color and dimension to the shadows.  While we're at the very late stages of foliage here in Maine...I was astounded to see so many trees still holding on to their leaves and the colors...turns out, they're all oak...they are the last of the hard woods to let go.   


I found one baby oak accepting a long tall pine as his/her surrogate mom.....

Hope you enjoyed an afternoon in Purgatory!  


Thanks for stopping by!  

Cheri

Black and Gray

Hi there! 
It's been awhile since I've posted anything, I've been so busy creating projects for classes that I'm teaching this month.  I've missed playing along with some great challenges.  However, when I saw the black and grey challenge (GC124) over at Gingersnaps Creations, I couldn't get it out of my mind....it was a challenge I had to take.  It's colorless!  Just blacks and grays.  I've done color challenges before that truly challenged me, but they were color combos and often easily workable and forgiving.  I suspected I had a dark side, but I didn't know how hard it was to get it to the surface.  I'm glad you can't see my "rejected" bin!  Blah!  


I needed a male birthday card this month so I went with the black and gray!  (darn challenge kept nagging at me)

The bg is crated using alcohol inks on black glossy cs.  I then put it through my Vagabond using a Sizzix "brickwall" ef .  I mounted it on black cs and distressed the edges with water and let it dry.  My stamp is from Gina K Designs entitled "Life is Good" by Theresa Momber.  I colored the train with Copic Markers W1, W3 and W5 and used a combination of DI "Black Soot" and Memento "London Fog" on the background Spellbinder labels 18 were used for the frame.  It kind of reminded me of a cold gray November day.

Thanks for the challenge, GS....I'm glad I did it and now it can stop nagging at me!  ;0)

Cheri

ATC's

Hi there, blog friends!  I hope you all enjoyed the StampTV CSS Alumni sketch blog hop this weekend.  Melissa Cash created a really fun and not too difficult sketch for us all to create with.  I loved seeing all the fabulous interpretations and gathered tons of inspiration (as I always do) from this phenomenal group of ladies.  


Today, I'd like to show you some ATC cards I created for a project my crafty friend and neighbor (she only lives a few miles down the road) Penny Bennington  is doing.  She has invited some of her friends to create 5 ATC's, no theme or "collection" needed, just make what you like, send them to her and she will assemble them in a book for each person who plays along.  I'm super excited to see what the final books Penny is making will look like.  She's an uber talent (muti-published and a DT for Gingersnaps Creations, Oxford Impressions, and many others) and has created some awesome art pieces - do check out her blog.  Penny and I became friends when we took an altered book class together - and what a treat to sit beside her in a class....inspiration at my elbow!  BUT, enough about Penny.....LOL....I want to show you my ATC's.

I love, love, love, making ATC's, I've made many over the years, mostly for my own pleasure.  I love working on their tiny canvas, they're a creative challenge for me.  For these cards, I used various bg techniques I've either learned or developed using various mediums I had on hand.   My inspiration in making my ATC's is usually to create a visual around a quote or sentiment I've heard or seen.  I have an entire notebook of quotes/sentiments I've collected and at some point I will create an ATC around each one.  


I don't know who will be receiving these ATC's - only my friend Penny does.  I hope they like them.  I can't wait to see those that I get, I understand several ladies from other countries are part of this swap - how exciting it will be to see/receive their creations.  
Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment.  I'd love to know what you think about ATC's.

Cheri

CSS Alumni Sketch Challenge Blog Hop

Welcome to another StampTV CSS Alumni blog hop!  This one is a sketch hop based on a sketch designed by our own Melissa Cash.  If you've come here from the extremely talented Deb Felt's blog  then you're in the right place.  If not, you may want to go back at the beginning of the hop and catch each piece of inspiration from this very talented group. 

Here is Melissa's sketch and my card

I've been trying to make a few Christmas cards lately and Melissa's sketch gave me some inspiration.  


Details:  CS - GKD Pure Luxury White and All Spruced up.  Stamps:  Showtime Stamp Kit "Holiday Cheer" (one of my very favorites) and "The Magic of Christmas" (sentiment) (another favorite) by Rupa Shevde.
Other:  MS pine tree border punch, Nestabilities lables 18, CuttleBug folder "Musical Flouish", Metalic Rub-ons (you can get them at GKD) the Christmas color pack.   
Thanks for stopping by, now please hop on over to the fabulously talented Carolina's blog but before you go, please leave a comment here and on each blog along the hop for a chance to win one of Gina's fantastic stamp sets - even one of those that I've used (up to a $24.95 value) because on Tuesday morning (November 1), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and your comment might be the one.   How cool would that be???? 


And don't forget to create your own project using Melissa's sketch and post it to the forum link so we can all see it.  We love it when you all play along with us.


Have a great weekend!

Cheri

http://stamptv.ning.com/forum/topics/center-stage-alumni-blog-hop-sketch-challenge-1

Favorite Ghoulfriend

Hi Blog Friends!


It's getting close to trick or treat time!  The weather here in Maine is getting colder and we've even had a touch of snow....(yikes!).


I made this card for my grandchildren and then when I saw this sketch over at Card Positioning Systems, I thought they'd read my mind...or maybe were looking over my shoulder (LOL) - my sketch and CPS #241 were a perfect match!  Wow!    Spooky!!!! 

Stamps: "Boo" designed by Asela Hopkins for GKD.  CS:  GKD Pure Luxury. DP:  Basic Grey "Eerie".  Other: Versafine Black ink, Creative Inspirations paint,  Nestabilities, gold beads, and ribbon from my stash.  


Thanks for stopping by!  Please stop by this weekend for a sketch CSS Alumni blog hop!  We'll have lots of great inspiration for you.  

Cheri