Dedicated to Ellen.

Hello everyone,
Today I want to dedicate my post to a dear friend I recently lost.
Many of you may have know her.
Many of you may have seen her scrapbook, pages, cards and more without even knowing who made them. Ellen Sosnoski who blogged at the blog http://allnaturalcrafter.blogspot.com/ was one of my first in real life scrapbooking friends.  Once we got together and started scrapping it was like we knew each other forever.  She had an infectious personality that brought so much joy, laughter and just great times to whoever had the pleasure of knowing her.  She was beautiful inside and out.  She leaves behind very heavy but loving hearts of a group of scrapbooking, card making friends that will always remember her. I've welcomed all of these women into my heart and my home and they are much more then friends, they are the best family a person could ask for. Ones who laugh together, complain (or as Ellen would say bitch together) together, and when times are tough share tears together. She was a mother two adorable sons,  sister to one of the strongest and most caring women I know, who is also a dear friend Amber, daughter to a beautiful women, Barbara and friend us all. Tragically her life was lost to a house fire last weekend.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mcall/obituary.aspx?pid=182019610

There is also a go fund me account for her sons educational expenses should you wish to make a donation in her honor.

https://www.gofundme.com/ellen-h-sosnoski-sons-scholarship-2urc8pzr?r=72970

Thank you so much for letting me share. 

I know your thoughts and prayers will be heard and felt.   

Happily we play along....

with the next crazy in paper crafting!  

Hello friends, hope your having a great day.  Today I decided to work on my first Pocket Letter Pal swap.  I have the page itself complete, but need to finish up the letter for in it.  So I decided to make my own stationary for the letter.  Which just so happened to fit perfectly into the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, for the love of plants. I think I might just have a stamp or 1000 that will work for this challenge! 

I started with a piece of vellum.  Then stamped it with Memento Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Next I broke out the copics for my 10 minutes of color for the #thedailymarker30day2 challenge.  Yup, day 9 and still going strong!  I colored the flowers and leaves.  Then turned it over and.....surprise, a gorgeous stationary waiting to be written on.  Well not exactly......

 next you want to add your score lines.  First I added columns so my stationary would fold perfectly to fit in my envelope with my pocket letter, then I added half inch score lines within the columns because my writing is just neater if I have lines.  

And there you  have it.  Beautiful handmade stationary to send and actually write a letter to mail.  

Imagine that!  

Have a great day and see you soon!  

Stamps: Heartfelt Creations

Paper: The Paper Company

Paper Size: 8.5x11

Ink: Momento

other: copic markers, zig embossing powder clear, Scor-pal

What a great day!

I hope your having a great day today.  I have to tell you how good my house smells.  I am making strawberry spread while I'm blogging and the house smells amazing!  I am also so happy to have been able to do some type of coloring and or crafting for the past 7 days.  I'm playing along with the #thedailymarker30day 2 challenge to color something every day, for at least 10 minutes.  I'm so happy that I have completed a full week.  

For today's coloring I finished this card for the Split Coast Stampers CAS challenge.  This week Paula challenged us to use sunshine as our inspiration.  

I am also playing along with the TCP Tuesday challenge, anything goes.  

Isn't this little bear so sweet, and I just love the sentiment.  I kept it super clean and simple and I love how it turned out.  

I hope you take some time to color, craft or just be happy today:)  

Have a great week! 

Stamps: TCP

Paper: SU, PTI

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Momento

other: copic markers, spectrum noir markers

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Good morning.  Summer is my favorite food season. I not only love to grow my own fruits and veggies but I love to eat them as well.  Really I love playing in the dirt, but actually reaping what you sow is pretty awesome!  Do you garden?  

Today I am getting strawberries from one of my neighbors. Mine aren't quite ripe yet and I surely won't have the quantity they have.  Now to decide how to eat them.  I think I'll cook some down to make a fresh fruit spread for breakfast bagels.  Then eat some on on my salad greens, and of course dessert is a must.  What is your favorite strawberry recipe?  

And let us not forget to just have some strawberries with our coffee or afternoon tea :)  

Today I am hopping along with the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop.  This is my second year participating.  So fun! I hope you get a chance to create something for the hop or just hop along for loads of inspiration.  

I used these cute little to go coffee cups to send a note to a girl friend.

I love when I make a card and have a reason to drop it in the mail.  

And I thought I would offer up a little prize for a random comment either here or on Instagram.  Just answer one of the summer questions above in the comments.  

Be sure to leave a way to contact you if you win.  

My first prize is this stamp set from The Cat's Pajama's.  

And for additional 25 comments I'll add another prize!  

Cardstock- PTI

Stamp and Die- PTI

Patterned Paper- Stampin Up

Ink- Momento, Stampin Up and PTI 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

Pretty Pink Posh Blog Hop

Hello, Hope your having an awesome Friday.  Any plans for the weekend? 

I have none.  Other then coloring every day!

OK, and maybe groceries and such.  But that doesn't really count. 

Today I am continuing my coloring for the #thedailymarker30day2 coloring challenge as well as joining Pretty Pink Posh in a water coloring blog hop.

http://prettypinkposh.com/2015/06/watercolor-blog-hop.html

I started my project yesterday while traveling and finished it up today to share with you. 

I started by coloring a flat image with a watercolor palette and an aqua brush.  But when I looked at it today I thought it needed a little more demension so I colored another image then fussy cut it and used pop dots to align it over the original image. 

Here you can see just a little more detail of the image and how soft the water colors look. 

I finished the card by adhering a piece of patterened paper to a kraft card base, then the finshed image along with a few matching jems. 

I piced up some little flags fromt he target dollar bin that happened to match perfectly so I added one to the inside of the card.  You can see it peeking out here.  I love the pop of color it adds to the inside of the card. 

And there you have it.  My color and my finished card for today.  I hope you get a chance to create and hop along.  Be sure to stop by Pretty Pink Posh and check out all the sponsors as well.  And thank you awesome sponsors! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and see you soon!

http://prettypinkposh.com/2015/06/watercolor-blog-hop.html 

30 Day Coloring Challenge Day 1

Hello everyone, Today marks the start of the 30 day coloring challenge being hosted by Kathy at TheDailyMarker.com.  This is the second year of the challenge and the second year I am participating.  I love challenges that are motivational and this challenge is perfect. Just 10 minutes a day or more doing some sort of coloring.  And who doesn't like to color???

To get started I am packing up for a trip to Massachusetts.  First off I watched the video at TheDailyMarker.com on how she prepares her coloring tools so everything is ready to go.  Even if you want to color on the go.  Then I packed up my bag.  I'll be showing more details of what and how I packed on my instagram if you want to follow me, my very creative name is joycecasaldi.

I started by picking a few coloring medium must haves.  Although I love all my ink and this is just some of my stash, I am only taking Momento Tuxedo Black and PTI palette white along with me.  Along with my copic markers, a water color palette and a few select pens, my hello kitty pen that I love to write with and has both a broad tip as well as a fine tip, Signo white, black sharpie, wink of stella clear, Tombo Blender pen and a water color brush.  

And this is my bag all packed up and ready to go for our trip.  

I'll revisit after to let you know what worked and what didn't work so well.  And if I for got anything I truly missed.  The bag is one of my scrapbooking purchases from way back when. It was only 20$ and filled with scrapbooking stuff at Sam's Club.  I wish they still carried crafty stuff. 

And now my first coloring project. I made this card from the Heartfelt Creations Cascading Fuschia Kit.

I colored the image with copic markers and used the white pen to add details.  

And it's already in the mailbox :)  

And for my next card I used a card kit from a kit swap on Split Coast Stampers. Thank you Terry for the awesome kit!  I love the colors! 

This card is for this weeks CAS Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.  This week we are honoring Angie for her inspiration over the past year on the CAS team.  I asked Angie to join me a year ago to be part of my team for the DT search.  Since then Angie has been inspiring us with her gorgeous cards as well as being such a positive asset to the team.  We will certainly miss her.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  

See you soon!  

Card 1
Heartfelt Creations Cascasding Fuschia kit.

Card 2
Stamps: Stampin Up!ove is kindnessPaper: Sunny Garden, SU cardstockPaper Size: A2Ink: Stampin Up!Accessories: stampin up hardware, AC ribbon, gems the paper studio

Taking a few challenges....

And running with them!  Today I decided to take a look at some challenges to get my mojo flowing.  There is nothing better then a good challenge to ink some stamps.  For today's card I combined the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge to use a stencil along with the sketch from CAS(E) this sketch #124.

And  

and I came up with this cute little card.  

Now it's time to head to the garden to pick some salad greens for dinner. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Stamps- Hero Arts

Dies- Gina K, unknow (Ok, now I have a label-er and will do better) 

ink- Momento Gray Flannel 

other- twine  PTI 

Happy Spring! TCP Tuesday Challenge

Hello everyone, I know it's has been a long time since I have posted here.  Life sure is busy and changing rapidly.  My daughter accepted a promotion that relocated her 1700 miles away.  So I spent a month with her helping her get settled in her new home. And trying to learn how life goes on after the only child leaves the nest. It sure does help that she moved next to two lovely families and quickly made friends. Makes this Momma's heart happy knowing she isn't totally alone there.  My husband has also been promoted to a position that includes travel to Massachusetts, NJ as well as eastern PA.and the company is growing by leaps and bounds and keeps them both busy.

It's so nice to just be able to take a deep breath and get back into the craft room.  It's so funny how things seem to settle into their new routines and my mojo returns with it.  I think I just like routines and if they are out of sorts so am I.

So for my first blog project here is a cute little card I made for the TCP Tuesday challenge. If your not familiar with the challenge stop by the TCP blog and have a look.  If you stop this week you will find sneaky peeks of their next release as well as a chance to win some of their awesome products. Here is my card for the challenge.

I just love these little penguins.  As well as the dies.  I have to take a moment to mention the stitched dies at the bottom, first I just love them! And second the wonderful owner of The Cat's Pajama's stamps Alma sent them to me after I shared an idea over the winter.  I just haven't had much time since to play with them.  As you can see they are very versatile and could be used for so many different things.  I have so far used them as grass, stacked as borders and simply just as accents. Thanks so much Alma, you are very sweet!  I just love all the sweet people I meet who share of love of crafting!  

I never seem to remember the copic combinations I use so thought I would just start taking a photo of them and see how that works.

Here is a close up shot of the awesome wavy dies and the cute stamp.  And this is all from me for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps- The Cat's Pajama's Under the Stars 

Dies- The Cat's Pajama's Stars, Wavy Stitched Border, Framed Up  

Paper- Stampin Up! 

Seam Binding- The Cat's Pajama's Mango

Ink- Momento

Papertrey Ink Anniversary

I had to laugh when this challenge was to use a stamp set that hasn't been inked yet or has yet to see much ink, which is exactly what I did yesterday so I used it again today for this challenge. 

Stamps- Papertrey Ink
Ink- Momento, PTI
other- watercolors

Patertrey Ink Anniversary Celebration!

Today I made a tag for a gift bag for THIS challenge celebrating the Papertrey Ink 8th Anniversary. 

I like to keep both white and kraft bags on hand for any celebration gift packaging. This happens to be a gift for a scrappy friend. 

I hope she finds joy in the crafting goodies found inside the bag. 

Stamps- PTI 2014 SAF set

Ink- PTI

Dies- PTI

Patterned Paper- PTI

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Celebration day 2!

I'm back with my second post for today. Woohoo!  I just love the month of February.  Not only do I get to celebrate my birthday it's also Papertrey Inks 8th Birthday so from the 5th to the 15th there is all kinds of fun things happening to on their blog.  Today's challenge was to welcome back Maille Belles by using one of her projects on her blog for inspiration. I could spend hours just looking at all her beautiful cards. I chose this card. I know this stamp set hasn't been used much so I wanted to pull it out.  I made just a few changes.  I changed the colors, and I also trimmed the panel and popped it up just to add some dimension. 

Stamps: PTI Harvest Berries

    Paper: PTI

      Paper Size: A2

     Ink: PTI    

other:  Recollection's jems

Papertrey Ink Annivesary Celebration!

Hello everyone! I made this card for day one of the Papertrey Ink 8th Anniversary Celebration.  The challenge was to chose a color combo and sketch offered on Nichole Heady's blog.  I chose the first color combo and the first sketch. 

 

If you aren't familiar with Papertrey Ink now is the time to stop by. The blog is just over flowing with inspiration and new products that are must haves.  Thanks so much for stopping by and see you soon!

Stamps- Papertrey Ink The Sweet Life and Boutique Borders Birthday
Paper- Papertrey Ink (I think so, but I could be wrong here)
Cardstock- Papertrey Ink
Ribbon- Papertrey Ink
other- black pearls

Honoring this weeks Queen at SCS!

 

Hello everyone. 

Todays card is for this weeks QFTD247.

For more information and to play along with this weeks challenge

CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

Stamps: PTI 

    Paper: PTI 

    Paper Size:

A2 Ink: Momento, PTI 

    Accessories: enamel dots

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and warm!