Lovin' Hearts

Hello Hello!

It's been a very long minute since I've been creating and blogging.  I managed a few in December but getting sick at Thanksgiving slowed me down more than I wanted. Then Christmas came too fast and I'm still trying to get my footing again.  

The whole year of 2024 was a challenging year for the Salkelds, mostly healthwise and mostly for the Hubs.  We both got Covid (first time for me) and then he had elbow surgery that took a good six months to heal. And now he is dealing with a messed up shoulder from the job (ER nurse) on Christmas Eve.  Thankfully, no surgery needed and workers comp pays for this one.  Just hope he recovers quickly now.  A good thing, he is switching hospitals in February.  Same hospital system, but smaller hospital with less stress.  We both are looking forward to that and hoping less health issues this year for both of us.

At any rate, I've finally messed around in my craft room, got a little creative mojo flowing and actually finished a couple cards!  Here is one of them ----

I may not have been creating but that doesn't mean I haven't been shopping. HAHAHA The cover plate and Love word die are new. I got some nice goodies for Christmas and I may have hit a couple year-end sales as well.  The Hubs knows, it's dangerous when my mojo is low for creating - it means more happy mail for me.  LOL

I got my inspiration for the Inspired By Challenge this week and just squeaking in hopefully. 

NBUS Challenge #70

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Patterned heart (Catherine Pooler); Be Mine and Hug me stamps (Recollections).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White.

Ink: Cotton Candy, Pucker Up, Garden Party, Cummerbund, Something Blue (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Love word die (Simon Says Stamp); Heart cover plate (Honey Bee Stamps).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Nance 

 

 

Oh What Fun - Are You Sure?

Hello there!

I have a fun and silly post here.  I was playing around with the background stamp, It's Magic, from Catherine Pooler and I had a vision of Frosty the Snowman when the wind whips up and blows his hat off so I took it a little further. When we were first married(a very long time ago), I had bought the Hubs "The Incredible Melting Snowman", which was just a snowglobe with snowman parts swirling around when you shook it. When I saw this die set from Paper Smooches years ago, it reminded me of that snowglobe and I had to have it.  It's an oldie but definitely a goodie! 

I silver embossed the background and then arranged my discombobulated snowman accordingly. The right top corner was perfect for my sentiment too. I also thought it would be a fun card for the mood board this week at Just Us Girls.

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Sentiment - Merrirest Sentiments (Catherine Pooler); Background- It's Magic (Catherine Pooler).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Black cardstock (Catherine Pooler); Patterned paper - Winter Pick N Mix(Catherine Pooler).

Ink: Midnight, Creamsicle (carrot nose)-(Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Snowman parts (Paper Smooches); Sparkling Snow Emboss Powder (WOW).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Merry Ho Ho Ho! 

🎄

Nance 

 

Bauble Greetings

Good Morning

and 

Happy Tuesday!

Things are hopping around here at the Salkeld's Sweet Suite this holiday week!  I've been crafting and cooking.  Next up is a little shopping and a little traveling today. Taking a short up and back trip today to pick up the grand-dog for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Thankfully we don't have to go all the way to Richmond, just halfway for a Jack pickup. The humans are going elsewhere. Ellie will be happy to have a canine companion and we are always happy to see Jack the Cattle dog. We will see all of them around Christmas so it's all good.  Speaking of Christmas, I'm finally trickling out some Christmas posts.  

This one I did using the color challenge over at Just Add Ink and also for the challenge at Krafty Chicks. It's been too long since I played with the Chicks! I got this Pinkfresh stencil/die set last year and didn't get to use it.  So it's getting lots of love this year. I added some gold gems to the baubles for some extra bling.  These ornaments remind me of some glass ones my mom had when I was a child that were brightly colored with gold trimming.

For Following Challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge #743 - CAS

Card Supplies:  

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White

Ink: It's A Girl, Garden Party, Something Blue, Pixie Dust (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Stencil/Die Combo -Holiday Ornaments (Pinkfresh Studio); Ripple Coverplate (Lawn Fawn).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Merry Ho Ho Ho! 

🎄

Nance 

 

Frosty Bluebird Kisses

 Good Evening!

A quick post tonight for the color challenge over at Color Hues.  And a BIG CONGRATS to my friend, Bonnie, on her permanent spot on their Design Team! Woohoo!  

I chose the Snowman and Friends dies from Waffle Flower for my card.  It was snow much fun cutting everything in pink and aqua. These birds remind me of all the bluebirds that come to our feeders.  I recently got the Hubs one of those feeders with a built-in camera so he can see them up close and personal when he's not outside. 

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Senitment - Snow Cheer Sentiments (Waffle Flower); Background - Candy Stripe (Hero Arts).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Aqua cardstock; Patterned paper - Winter Pick N Mix (Catherine Pooler).

Ink: It's A Girl, Midnight(Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Snowman & Friends Dies (Waffle Flower); Postage Stamp die (Catherine Pooler).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Merry Ho Ho!

Nance 

Sweater Weather

Good Evening

or 

Good Morning! 

It's beginning to feel like sweater weather here in central NC.  The last few days have been chilly and breezy. I haven't transitioned my mind yet from short sleeves.  I mean a month ago I was still wearing shorts some of the time.  Course we could be in shorts again next week.  LOL Not likely but got to love NC weather - hot, cold, hot cold.  It's like its perimenopausal here! 🤣  Anyway, I made my card cozy.  Not that we will probably see any snow here in the Triangle this winter, but we will be able to dress like we might, at least every other week.

 

I recently purchased these alpha dies from Pinkfresh Studio during a sale and they seemed perfect for this card I created for the Addicted to CAS challenge that I'm slipping in.  I used a sweater embossing folder by Taylored Expressions for my background and then for the outline alphas I cut them from some photo paper I had that I smooshed left over ink on some point a while back.  And then the inner alphas and snowflake I cut white.  How cozy and chill is this?

For Following Challenges:

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Have a warm and cozy day!

💖

Nance

A AAA Colorful Guest Jingle

Good Morning!

 This morning I have some fun news - I am guesting over at AAA Colorful for the next month.  It is part of the AAA card challenges and is fairly new as it began in January 2024.  I came upon it back in early summer but it took me til Challenge #7 to be able to play along and I won!

This next month's challenge is really fun and fesstive - Red, Green and Gold.

I had a lot of fun creating this card after paring down my ideas because they just kept flowing out of my noggin'.  So I will be sharing another card inspired by this challenge and their colors.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Have a safe and love filled day!

💖

Nance

 

Creepy, Spooky - EEK!

Final Halloween card dump! 

I loved putting this card together.  And yes, it IS a Spellbinders Halloween Betterpress plate owned by Bonnie! Trust me, I DO have plenty of my own stamps and things.  However, this is what we do when we get together -- we share our newest things and just stamp and die away for an afternoon.  It is very economical and cost effective! 😉😉. And we are due for another play date now too! 

The image is actually two different press plates, the skull and the witch hat.  I experimented to see how the hat would look on the skull by stamping one directly on it.  Then I stamped another hat and fussy cut it to lay on top. I colored it with Copics.  I smudged Pebble ink around teh skull also to give it a more worn look. The frame die is from Penny Black.  I loooove that frame set! I think it made a good creepy vintage fit to frame around my witchy skull.  I went back and forth with a couple embossing folders before settling on this one.  I think it is a leafy one actually. I flipped it over to the debossed side.  I cut the EEK out of shiny orange paper by Tim Holtz and white as well and bumped it up and added a couple black bats for extra creepiness. 

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Have a sweet day!

💖

Nance

 

Boo Ya'll Group Chat

Boo Ya'll!

When I finished this card, it made me think of a Zoom chat. 🤣

I had a lot of fun a couple months ago playing with Bonnie's Betterpress plates, can't you tell?  This one I made my own little pattern.  This is one Jack O' Lantern plate.  I did it four times in four different colors.  And the stitched cover plate from Lawn Fawn was a perfect fit.  Sentiment is also from Spellbinders. 

For Following Challenges:

Double D Challenges - Use a Pumpkin

Krafy Chicks Challenge #740 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Have a sweet day!

💖

Nance

 

Candy Corn Mouse

Hello!

Card #2 of my Halloween card dump!

I've had this stamped image in my UFO stash for quite a while.  It's another one I stamped from Bonnie. She has good stuff! LOL. I finally colored this little guy.  I'm actually not a fan of candy corn at all. I think they taste like sand. They're still cute on a card.  The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp. 

For Following Challenges:

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Have a sweet day!

💖

Nance

 

I Would Never Ghost You

 

Happy Halloween!

I'm doing a card dump tonight - one at a time. Is that still a card dump? 🤔  First up, I love this vintage creepy card.  More Betterpress Halloween images I got from Bonnie. These little ghosts remind me of my kids when they were toddlers. I smudged some Pebble ink around the edges of the panel to give it an old vintage feel.  I cut the frame die cut a couple times and glued the panel to the frame and adhered it all to some patterned paper.  I also smudged the sentiment strip with the same ink.

Hope your Halloween was Spooky Fun!

 Thanks for stopping by and come back soon! 

🎃👻🧹🦇

💖

Nance 

Spooky Spiders

 Hello again! Another quick post.

I wasn't going to try and play in Freshly Made Sketches this week but these spiders were screaming at me from their envelope.  So I whipped this up quickly for another Halloween card. I know they're big but I just had to include all of them. I think they're fun in their bright colors and hats.

For Following Challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches #659

I'm so glad you visited. 

Have a Spooky good day! 

 Come back soon! 

🎃👻🧹💖

Nance 

Spooky Hugs

 Well Hello there!

It's been a minute.  Two weeks to be exact.  Since my last post, I've been out of town twice, was down about 4-5 days with a stomach bug, had a birthday and just trying to get caught up in regular life from all the above. I had planned to spend most of my weekend crafting but didn't happen until yesterday evening.  So, hopefully, this week I can start to catch up with my crafting as well.

I'm eeking my way in to the Colorful Options challenge before it closes today.  Nevermind I've had a month to play in it. 😔.  I had a crafty play date with Bonnie a couple months ago and used some of her Halloween Betterpress plates.  This is one of them.  I used a Tim Holtz spider web EF to add some texture to my background after I had cut out the peek-a-boo hole.  Then I decided it needed something more and those black shutters were sitting on my table.  The sentiment is a Betterpress sentiment too.

For Following Challenges:

Colorful Options October Challenge - Orange

I'm so glad you visited. 

Have a Spooky good day! 

 Come back soon! 

🎃👻🧹💖

Nance 

Batty Boo!

 Good Morning again!

The last of my trio of cards I made yesterday ---

This card came together very quickly. While I was putting together my witch seagull card, the idea came to me to have this smaller seagull peek out from this large bat die I recently purchased from Simon Says (thanks Michele for the enabling. 😉😁).  I die cut the web cover plate die onto the Batman die for some texture. Hopefully you can see it some. I already had the ink blended background panel, which I thought was perfect for this.  I also can't believe it took me til now to use these gull dies.

For Following Challenges:

My inspiration came from Black, Die Cuts, Bats

Two Old Bats - October ATG Halloween

Word Power #10

NBUS Challenge # 67

Card Supplies:  

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110#.

Ink: Serenade (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Big Bat Die (Simon Says Stamp); Seagull die (Waffle Flower); Web cover plate die (Waffle Flower); Boo Die (Lawn Fawn); 

I'm so glad you visited. Have a wicked good day! 

Be safe and

 Come back soon! 🧹💖

Nance 

You Say Witch

Hello again!

Another Halloween card today. 

The second of my trio I made yesterday - 

So a bulk of my die cutting frenzy this weekend was Halloween dies, some new some not so new.  I had a lot of fun putting these cards together in the end after all that cutting.  This one I got in my head last week when I was thinking of what to make for the current Color Hues challenge.  So, thankfully I finally had time to cut and put it together yesterday after being in my brain so long.  

For Following Challenges:

Two Old Bats - October - ATG Halloween

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Challenge #255 - H is for Halloween

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Sentiment (MFT Stamps).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Watercolor paper (Canson); Fright Night Patterned Paper (Reverse Confetti).

Ink: Tiki Torch and Grape Crush (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Seagull die (Waffle Flower); Frame die (Penny Black); Hat die - Howl-o-ween (Stampin' Up); Pumpkin die (Memory Box);  Spiders (Catherine Pooler). 

I'm so glad you visited. Have a wicked good day! 

Be safe and

 Come back soon! 🧹💖

Nance 

Wicked - Trick or Treat?

Good Morning!

It's morning but it's night time - so it's kind of Good Evening too.  I spent my Saturday evening and Sunday crafting after a busy non-crafty week other than Monday.  I did a bunch of die cutting and dry embossing this weekend as well as cutting cardstock for die cutting and also cardbases.  I did get three cards finished by Sunday night along with finishing a creepy audiobook and starting another.  The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones was very creepy with a shocker ending. I love that, it keeps you drawn in til the end. Now I'm on to The Death of Jane Lawrence.  So far, it has a tinge of creepy but expect it get creepier.  It is my favorite month with many of my favorite things - scary movies, creepy scary books, Trick Or Treat and of course, Halloween cards. So, on to the Halloween cards...

This is the first one I made on Sunday.  I used the current sketch challenge by Karren at Freshly Made Sketches as my inspiration for putting this together.  

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies:  

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Black plaid patterned paper - Stash.

Ink: Orange Twist (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Web cover plate (Waffle Flower); Tag Die (Catherine Pooler); Grinch arm die (Crackerbox Stamps); Spider die (Die-Versions); Sentiment die (Papertrey Ink); Tulle fabric.

I'm so glad you visited. Have a wicked good day! 

Be safe and

 Come back soon! 🧹💖

Nance 

 

Mush Celebrating

 Hello again!

Happy Wednesday!

The week is flying by.  Probably because the weekend was a bust after getting my Covid and Flu shots and feeling terrible all day Saturday and just chilling on Sunday.  Then yesterday was my daughter-in-law, Helen's birthday and I took her out for brunch and birthday shopping.  Then last night the four of us went to an Irish pub for her birthday dinner and music bingo. None of us won bingo but it was a lot of fun.  Festivities ended at home with some final gifts and cookie cake.  Below is the card I made for her.  She likes mushrooms and gnomes.  Arrow, my oldest and Helen's spouse, helped me with the card concept. 

This is the first time using the Altenew Mushroom Garden layered stencil and coordinating Mushroom Greetings stamp and die set. I can only describe it as very therapeutic stenciling in all those colors! The gnome is from a set by Catherine Pooler Designs and the word die I can't remember, it was in my word die stash.  I used lots of Catherine Pooler inks and Copics on the stamped images.  I pulled the colors from the Inkspirational Mood Board challenge this week.

For Following Challenges:

I'm so glad you visited. Have a creative day! Be safe!

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance