Advent tree

Good morning - back to school this week and Mollie is so excited! So am I - I get my days back to get chores done!

Today is my day to showcase a project I have made over on the Riley and Company Blog. When I started making this I didn't realize what a big project it was going to be I have handmade every part of it.

As Christmas is drawing ever nearer I decided to make my advent calendar early 

I started my designing a box using my cameo software and cutting machine and cutting them from kraft card. They started out at 2x2 inch but after working out mats and embellishments I increased then to 2.5 inches meaning the whole thing measures 20.5 inches to top of Santa's hat.

Once I had cut all the boxes I set my cutter back to work cutting the numbers. I then cut 2 mats for each box For the smaller ones I used Riley and Company nesting square dies. I added these and the numbers to the boxes before I assembled them. I formed the shape of a Christmas tree and used red liner tape to adhere all of the boxes together. I stamped and colored enough of the Riley and Company Christmas dress up accessories to decorate each box. These were then die cut using the matching Christmas dress up and Shirt dies. Riley was colored and dressed as Santa and given his place - of course at the top of the tree!

He is holding his box's number of course it has to be THE date!

As it was so tall I chose to photograph it outside rather the confines of my craft room. I know I looked a little odd to photographing Christmas decor in summer so just to give it a bit more of a Christmasy feel I placed it in our fur trees

Now to decide what to fill it with..................

Thank you for stopping by, you can find the stamps I have used over on the Riley and Company store. For more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page 

Mail Art for New Home

Good afternoon. Who loves to send snail mail? 

I love to send my cards out to people who I know get a warm glow from receiving them. I usually stamp the envelope with some mini sentiments I have specifically for that purpose.

Over at Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps today we are showcasing mail art so I went all out on an envelope:

Please excuse the hand written addresses! 

I started by masking off a circle for the address and then used distress oxides to color my envelope. Whilst this was drying I stamped up sections of a little house from The Prickley Pear Row House Clear Stamp Set, colored these and die cut using the coordinating dies. 

I then built my house in the corner of the envelope and added the weather vane from the same collect to the roof. I stamped the little home sweet home and Love Lives Here sentiments which also come with the set.

A cute little envelope for a new home card!

Thank you for stopping by, you can find all the Prickley Pear stamps and dies I have used over in their store here. If you are looking more inspiration from me and my teamies check the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

If the shoe fits......

Good morning from a wet Michigan but we sure do need the rain. Just hope that it doesn't increase the humidity even more!

It's Day 2 of the Riley and Company new release week and I'm sticking with the Halloween theme this morning - It's witching hour!

I love this sentiment - Yes If the Shoe Fits you need the broom and hat to complete the outfit! However I have feet not dissimilar to Riley so wearing the shoes on the sentiment would be a no go for me!

I stamped and inked the edges of the sentiment and matte it on orange card. Standing Witch with Broom was colored with alcohol markers, die cut with a scalloped die and I colored the edges to match with the other mats. I generated the witches shoe paper using a software package and matted my white card base with orange card and the design paper.

Don't forget this week we have special offers:

First up is the Dress up bundle:

This includes all three new Dress Up Clear stamp sets, all three matching die sets and a shirt die! You also get free shipping!!!! It's over 25% off - at a sale price of $90 but only for a limited time only! Get yours now!!!

How about some free shipping?

That's right - we will give you free shipping on any order over $15 until Sunday at midnight. This includes our new release and our entire stock!

Just enter the code FREESHIP in the coupon code when you check out.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find the stamps I have used over in the new release section on the Riley and Company store website . For more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page 

Boo!

Good afternoon! Well we have just sat in the yard and watched the eclipse, we only had a partial one here but was fun to watch and I did manage to get a couple of weird photos of it

Talking of the moon - I'm continuing with Riley and Company's new release and my next make is for someone who only comes out at night....

I made a coffin using a cutting file, this was decorated with a tree and a bat and I then stamped the ghost from Riley and Company's Halloween Dress up set.

The coffin is actually a box and who should be waiting inside for the sun to disappear but Count Riley of course:

I stamped and colored him with my markers and then added his cloak and fangs again from the dress up set. I padded the coffin out with tissue paper and added the Boo! 

Ok Riley could never be scary he is just too cute but he does look ready for Halloween celebrations!

 Riley and Company are offering a couple of great new release specials:

First up is the Dress up bundle:

This includes all three new Dress Up Clear stamp sets, all three matching die sets and a shirt die! You also get free shipping!!!! It's over 25% off - at a sale price of $90 but only for a limited time only! Get yours now!!!

How about some free shipping?

That's right - we will give you free shipping on any order over $15 until Sunday at midnight. This includes our new release and our entire stock!

Just enter the code FREESHIP in the coupon code when you check out.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find the stamps I have used over in the new release section on the Riley and Company store website . For more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page 

Fall is on it's way!

Good morning! just a few more weeks and Fall will be upon us - are you ready? 

I'm definitely ready for the cooler temperatures!

What better way for my crafty followers to get ready for the new season than a new release from Riley and Company - yes we have fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all covered in this amazing bumper new release.

 Part of the new release includes 3 new dress up sets for Riley and his pals - Halloween, Fall and a cute Christmas set. All 3 also have matching die sets. Today I am show casing some of them for you starting with Christmas:

So Tucker gets to join in the dress up fun with some cute reindeer antlers, a red nose and a cute collar all from the new Christmas set. I colored him as a dalmatian and doesn't he look cute? As part of the release he can now be cut out using his own personal die set. Also new today is the Sweet but Twisted stamp which was perfect for my card. I stamped this onto white card, added some candy cane ribbon before placing Tucker on the card. a white card base was matted with with red card and my topper added. a simple but cute card.

  

 Riley and Company are offering a couple of great new release specials:

First up is the Dress up bundle:

This includes all three new Dress Up Clear stamp sets, all three matching die sets and a shirt die! You also get free shipping!!!! It's over 25% off - at a sale price of $90 but only for a limited time only! Get yours now!!!

How about some free shipping?

That's right - we will give you free shipping on any order over $15 until Sunday at midnight. This includes our new release and our entire stock!

Just enter the code FREESHIP in the coupon code when you check out.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find the stamps I have used over in the new release section on the Riley and Company store website . For more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page 

Circles

Good afternoon wow where is this month going, can you believe that we are half way through and summer break will be over in 2 weeks!

Summer is my second favorite month - sorry I have to give my favorite to fall - the temperatures are lower but still pleasant and I love the fall colors.

But summer brings all the flowers and critters that love the flowers. We have a pond across the street from us so get some huge dragonflies buzzing around, with their iridescent colors flashing in the sunshine.

For today's card I have colored a bunch of Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Dainty Dragonfly stamps and colored them in a rainbow of colors:

I then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. We have a theme of round about over on Prickley Pear blog so I used circle dies to cut my card and matting layers. On the pink layer I stamped one of my all time sentiments from Prickley Pear: Life doesn't have to be Perfect. This hits home with me every time I read it.

I shaped the dragonflies so that they look as though they are fluttering around the card. I added a few clear glitter dots just to balance my design and finish the card.

 Thank you for stopping by, you can find all the Prickley Pear stamps I have used over in their store here. If you are looking more inspiration from me and my teamies check the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Dream

Good afternoon, have you ever dreamed of being a fairy or of living in a fairy house?

Well today's make is just for you:

This little Polk-a-dot house is from Riley and Company's Mushroom Lane collection. It was released a year ago but it's still one of my favorites. I colored it with my colorblend pencils, I'm still learning to use these but getting more confident each time I do. I then used circle dies to cut both this and a teal colored mat for it.

I matted my 7x5in card base with the teal colored card and a whimsical patterned paper. adding a further mat for my die-cut sentiment. My mushroom house fit perfectly over this and as always a few enamel dots completed my card.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find the stamp I have used over on the Riley and Company store. For more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page 

May your troubles be less

Good afternoon, We have started preparing for the start of school Mollie is really looking forward to finding out who her 3rd grade teacher will be. 

My post today is a simple card with a lovely little message:

The sentiment is May Your Troubles Be Less from Riley and Company. I stamped it on to water color card with versamark and heat embossed in white. I then used my watercolor markers to flood the sentiment with color.

I matted a printed card base with dark orange card and once dry added my stamped topper. A die-cut flourish and mulberry flower along with some enamel dots balanced the design.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find the stamp I have used over on the Riley and Company online store. For more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page 

Rocker

Good afternoon, we are having some well needed rain today. The temperature and humidity have dropped off thank goodness.

I'm showcasing a very simple card I made for my son's 18th birthday today. He loves his guitar and I found this great image from Dr Digi's House of Stamps:

Meet Metal Mike  - Isn't he just great! I printed him and my sentiment onto Spectrum Noir card and colored him with Copic markers adding gold gel pen to the T-shirt design. which happens to be one of James's favorite bands.

I made a simple blue card base and matted it with white and purple card added my colored topper and the design was complete.

Dr Digi has some great digital Stamps if you are looking for something comical, something funny for an older person or just something different. They are great for masculine cards or females who aren't into flowers. They also do some great backing papers.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope that I have inspired you and if you like what you see please let me know in the comments section 

Who doesn't love dogs

Good afternoon, my dogs are my babies and anything to do with dogs and I am there!

 I'm showcasing a gorgeous life like stamp for Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps today. Their stamps are etched from such good quality red rubber that the detail on them is amazing and today's stamp is no exception

I colored this gorgeous Golden Retriever Stamp using alcohol markers and then deepened the shaded areas of his coat with colorblend pencils. I matted him with dark brown card and used the same on the Love sentiment which is from the Love Banner set of stamps. My card base was matted with the brown card and some lined patterned paper. I added a die cut buckle and some paw print ribbon to balance out the design.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Only one Dad

Good afternoon, and Happy Yorkshire Day! We are originally from this beautiful county, we moved to the USA in December 2013 and have since adopted here as our home.

Kev is a huge American history buff - especially the political side so for Father's Day I made him a great CAS card:

The White House stamp is one of the Landscape collection from Art-Kure. I colored it with Zig Clean Color brush markers and added pencil to deepen the shading. 

The sentiment is my own and I typed it up using my pc and printer. 

I matted the white card base with red and blue card to keep with the card theme, the topper being the white!

Kev once stood as a member of parliament in the UK and would love to be involved with the US government but alas as we aren't currently citizen this is just a dream so the sentiment is very fitting for him  

Good Attitude

Good afternoon.

Ever felt like you are surrounded by numptys? Well Riley and Company have a stamp just for that feeling:

Walter starts the day of right with a Good Attitude but then idiots happen!

I colored Walter with alcohol markers and matted him on some jade colored card. I stamped the Good Attitude stamp and die cut this using Riley and Company's Square word bubble dies. Then I edged this with ink to mae it stand out against the design paper I had chosen for my card.

A 5x7in card base was matted with the jade card and striped paper before adhering my image and sentiment to it.

A few color coordinating enamel dots completed the design.

Thank you for stopping by, for more inspiration check out the Riley and Company Blog. Or for more news about what the Moose and his pals are up to head on over to the company Facebook page