Flashing Mouse

I guess it really is time to seriously start the holiday planning. I love making lists and checking off items.
These are holiday planners that I am going to give my female guests on Thanksgiving. This will be especially perfect for our niece who after dinner likes to go through the all the ads from the newspaper and plan her shopping for the weekend. Do you shop on Black Friday? While I love a sale and bargains, I rarely shop the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm not into shopping with crowds. So I think I'll be home decorating for Christmas.

Now about today's post title.

One of the benefits of living in a log house is never having to worry that your house is so air tight that harmful gases will be trapped inside. Ha! Ha! Even though we have caulked and filled in gaps with insulation and foam, there are still small openings for fresh air and critters to enter our house. So it is not uncommon for little mice to visit us. A good sign before the obvious tell-tale signs is our cats will start to hang out in the kitchen and want to check out the cabinet under the sink. Last week our uninvited guest had visited a drawer in the kitchen. I have my HRT, for you youngsters, hormone replacement, stored in a tray in the drawer. It is packaged in the bubble format with foil. Well, as I prepared to pop my pill from the pack, I noticed the plastic on one of the pills was open and on closer inspection noticed part of the pill was missing. Then I noticed another and another and another and another. That little mouse had nibbled on about 10 pills. (On my last doctor's visit, my doctor had mentioned I might want to try taking hormones every other day, so I decided this was the month to go every other day.I couldn't imagine telling the pharmacist that a mouse ate my Prempro.) I hope the little mouse's hot flashes were less severe right up to the point where she sprung the trap two days later. Poor little mousie.

Joy and Wonder

"In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth"

"Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,--all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God."

There are so many quotations by Emerson that I love. These two from Nature are among those favorites. For me, a day in the woods is a day filled with joy. Any concerns and worries are diminished. And the mountains fill me with wonder.

You know I love hiking, and Monday was a perfect day--sunny and temperatures in the 60s. So we headed out Monday morning to Newfound Gap at the Tennessee and North Carolina border,where Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Smoky Mountain National Park 75 years ago. We hiked along the Appalachian Trail. We talked briefly to a thru-hiker. I say briefly because his pace was much faster than ours as he was hiking his 20 miles for the day. (And I was proud of my 8 miles:)) He started the 1900 miles of the AT in Maine in June and is scheduled to finish in Georgia in 2 1/2 weeks. I so admire those who hike the entire AT, but I am quite happy to hike parts of it.

This is one of those views that fill me with wonder.

This outcrop was our destination.

It's called----

Here's the story behind the name. In 1929, mountaineer Horace Kephart and others stopped at this point. Supposedly, a man named Charlie removed his shoe. When Kephart saw the similarities between Charlie's afflicted foot and the rock formation, he said he was going to put Charlie's bunion on the map.

Here's another view of Charlie's Bunion.

And my husband on top

And me near the top

Some views from Charlie's Bunion

The highest mountain in this next photo is Mount Leconte,at 6,593 feet the third highest mountain in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

And now a little Christmas joy and wonder.

I adore Webster's Pages Petite Papers. They are gorgeous! I just want to thumb through them, and I feel I can't add anything to the beauty of these papers. But I make myself use them.For this card I stamped a flourish and added a glittery snowflake. Super easy!

I

And a second card to add to the Christmas stash.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:

Joy and Wonder

Stamps: Fancy Flourishes,Holiday Wishes (PTI)

Ink: Ocean Tides (PTI)

Paper: Petite Papers Holiday Collection(Webster's Pages), Ocean Tides,Stampers Select White (PTI)

Other: Create a Flake 1 (Spellbinders), glitter

Warm Winter Wishes

Stamp: Vintage Christmas (Clear Art Stamps), Stocking Prints, Holiday Wishes (PTI)

Ink: Ripe Avocado (PTI)

Paper: Petite Papers Holiday Collection(Webster's Pages), Sweet Blush,Vintage Cream, Stampers Select White (PTI)

Other: Labels 4 (Spellbinders), Flower Die(Cuttlebug), Smoky Quartz Glitter (Martha Stewart),Vintage Cream Button (PTI)

FTTC -Treat Box

I made this small treat box, using one of Lauren Meader's Timeless Templates,for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge. The Flourishes blog design team is celebrating the Flourishes release this week . One of the new sets to be released on Friday is a beautiful labels set. Therefore, Dee Jackson, the challenge host this week, is challenging everyone to decorate a box or bag.

The box is made from PTI's Ripe Avocado cs. The decorative panel on the box is Flourishes background stamp, Holly, stamped in Ripe Avocado. The 3-d ornament is based on the ones Betsy Veldman made here. I used a stamp from Flourishes All That Glitters set. I colored the ornament with Copics and then went over it with a Stardust Gellyroll pen. (The photos don't adequately capture the sparkle of the ornament.) The top of the ornament was colored with a gold pen. I threaded embroidery thread through the top of the ornament and tied it to the satin bow.

I think I'll tell my husband a lovely small piece of jewelry will fit nicely in this box. LOL!!!

Finally Finished

This is a card I started over a month ago, and then it was put aside. I had a layout all ready earlier. But the other day when I got around to finishing the card, I couldn't remember the layout. Guess I better put more of those sketches to paper. So this is what I ended up with. I didn't have the right shade of contrasting buttons, so I went with green; that little bare rectangle in the lower corner had to have something. (The ornament and the paper match much better than the photo shows) Are you PTI fans getting ready for midnight on Saturday? I checked my shopping cart today, I already have enough for free shipping. I've got some tough choices and some editing to do.
Thanks for stopping by,
Cammie

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Swirls, Mixed Messages, Beyond Basic Borders (PTI)Ink: Ripe Avocado (PTI), Brick Versacraft,Gold (Martha Stewart)
Paper: Rustic Cream, Ripe Avocado (PTI), Graphic 45
Other: Buttons (PTI and Paper Studio)

Flourishes Challenges

This card is for two Flourishes challenges. For the Timeless Tuesday Challenge,Kimberly Crawford is "challenging us to a limited supplies challenge! Our challenge is to combine a colored image, texture or textures, and any shades of neutrals we want. You can pack on the layers and textures just make sure you include an image to color and use only neutral cardstock." I loved Kimberly's card, so I used it as my inspiration. I used a Cuttlebug flourish embossing folder and stamped the embossed panel with Versmark. The edges of the scalloped border are also inked with Versamark. The strawberry basket image is colored with Copics and Prisma pencils.

For the second Flourishes challenge, The Favorite Things Challenge, we must use a line from the song from The Sound of Music. I chose these lines-- "Brown paper packages tied up with strings,These are a few of my favorite things" No explanation needed here, except for the note that strawberries are among my favorite things. Although maybe I should have had used pumpkins instead of strawberries since recently I've been on a pumpkin kick, two loaves of pumpkin bread in the last few weeks and pumpkin waffles for breakfast this morning.

Supplies:

Stamps: Strawberries (Flourishes)

Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento), Versamark, Antique Linen (Ranger)Paper: Vintage Cream, Kraft (PTI)

Other: Rustic Cream Twine, Pure Poppy Vintage Button (PTI), embossing folder (Cuttlebug), embossing scalloped border punch (EK Success), oval Nestabilities)

A Little Christmas Joy

Happy Friday! Here's another card using PTI's Stocking Prints Stamp and other PTI products.

The stocking was stamped in Sweet Blush on Spring Moss Bitty Dot Basics paper and cut out. The cuffs were paper pieced in Sweet Blush. I used Ambassador Monogram Edition to stamp JOY. After punching each letter, I straight stitched each letter. After stamping Aqua Mist with Polka Dot Basics 1 in Versamark, I drew a wavy line and punched it. I erased the pencil marks, stitched this line, and added Sweet Blush Vintage Buttons. The stockings were attached with foam tape. The aqua panel was attached to a card base of Spring Moss.

The anticipation builds each day with the sneak peeks on Nichole's blog. I like the font for the Wish Big peek. I even drove right by Hobby Lobby yesterday (with my 40% off coupon in my purse), knowing the 15th is just around the corner and my PTI shopping cart will be loaded for checkout then. Will my resolve hold today when I will be near my favorite LSS?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Cammie

Baby's Stocking

This quick and easy card using Papertrey Stamps was one of my submissions to PTI's October GSS. The stocking is stamped in Pure Poppy on Spring Moss Bitty Dot Basics paper and cut out. The baby stamp is from Mixed Messages. The stocking is attached to a scalloped circle stamped with snowflakes from Winter Swirls in Spring Rain ink. This scalloped is adhered to a large scalloped circle of Spring Moss Bitty Dot Basics. The background panel uses Polka Dot Basics stamped in Versamark on Pure Poppy. The card base is Spring Moss. The focal image is attached to Spring Moss Twill Ribbon with Cream Rustic twine with a tiny red jingle bell. It would be easy to add a name and date to the back of scalloped circle. Then the bow could be untied and the circle used as an ornament. What an easy little keepsake for new parents and baby's first Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by,

Cammie

Christmas Wreath

A beautiful November to you! A brief post with a couple of Christmas cards using Flourishes Wreath stamps. Because the image stamps so darkly, I thought Copics would be a better choice for coloring that Prisma pencils. However, I have only a few Copics, so my color choices for the greenery were limited as was the color for the pine cones. The first card,using the smaller of the

images is for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge to use a border.

The music strip was stamped with Altered Art (Crafty Secrets) in Vintage Sepia(Versafine); the printed paper is The Merry Days of Christmas (My Mind's Eye).

This second card is also an A2 card. Because the image is so big, I chose a simple layout.