September 2026 Altenew Inspiration Challenge

I was creating my FMS card when this inspiration popped into my inbox:

While reading about the inspiration from Carrie Sheridan for Altenew's September 2026 Inspiration Challenge, I discovered that she is a Michigan gal!  How could I not play along?  Besides I'm seeing so much inspiration from all the orchards in our area of West Michigan.  [you may recognize the FMS#753 sketch, too!]

Altenew's Chestnut Tree was turned into a mighty Apple tree with

a few dozen 'apples' added!  You can bet I treated each with a bit of glossy accents!

My sentiment is stamped in brown and is from their Flourished Flora set

and my trio of panels were embossed using their Geo Steps EF - always a

good choice in my book!

Now I'm wondering if Carrie lives close by? 

Thanks for the inspiration, Carrie!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches #753

Karren's up and her design for Freshly Made Sketches #753 is really fun - and can be interpreted SO many ways!  

For my card, I reached for a wonderful die-cut from a friend - we did a swap!  Thanks again, Julia!

Even though there was also a pumpkin layer, cherry pie is my favorite!!

Isn't it great that she included the cherry filling from her 

To Pie For die set from The Greetery?  I wish you could see all the gloss on that

tart cherry on top [Concord &9th's Cherry Nice dies].

I wrote my own sentiment on my PC - and pinked some HoneyBee gingham

for the strips in Judy's sketch.  

Okay!  Now it's your turn!  You can find all the inspiration you need

from my team at Freshly Made Sketches and have until 

September 14th at 3pm EST to play along!

=] Michele 

The Paper Players #802

Joanne is our host this week at The Paper Players #802 and while it's a subject I do not celebrate anymore, it sure was a good reason to have a little fun between loads today!

Concord & 9th's Let it Shine set provided all my fun today for TWO cards!

This first one in happy colors:

I even brought in a little sparkle using glitter cardstock for the

candlelight... the yellow background is from 

HoneyBee's Over the Rainbow dsp collection.

But I have to admit I had THE MOST fun with my next card...

The candles are repeatedly stamped but stamped ten at a time... you'll see

it is the stripes from the medium candle on my first card - pretty

clever of them to think of this.

However! The flame is one tiny stamp - I lost count how many times

I stamped it, but it left the door open for this fantastic sentiment

from SB's Birthday Laughs Sentiments and the wicks I added

using a Copic Multi-liner marker.

Okay, my friend Vicki reminded me of the steps to take to post two cards from one post in a challenge link... fingers crossed!  Thanks Vicki! [and TK told me this years ago, too but I forgot. Comes with the number of candles on MY cake!]

=] Michele

I promised you two...

Second helpings were easy for the Just us Girls Die Week Thanks challenge #839!  

I have about six thanks/thank you dies in one storage envelope - I believe they are

all from MFT so I won't try to name them!

I will be very sad when all of these glorious fall papers from PTI are gone!

This paper did all the heavy lifting on my card - a pretty thanks, and a

leafy branch from PFS brought it home.  There may be some extra splatters,

but the paper was printed with most!

Off she goes... if I could ever figure out how to enter two cards from one post!

=] Michele

Just us Girls #839

Has anyone else noticed that Blogger had a bit of a blip yesterday?  It had me frustrated and I know a few of you felt the same way!  If like me you couldn't leave a little love around to your card making friends, try again today - I was pleased that my comments were published without a hitch today! 

Now then.  I'm here to share a card or two today!  The first for Just us Girls where they are looking for Die Cut Thanks or thank yous!  I have quite a collection but could NOT find this one I was looking for - arrrrgh - does that make you crazy, too? That's okay.  It will pop up when I'm not looking for it!

This will do...

A Concord & 9th: Autumn Inlay die for my card cover - all cut from

Bristol and color blended with miscellaneous inks- 

and an old MFT Thanks... I do love this font.

And a little SSS flutterby for good measure!  Did you find him?

Since everything seems to be working well, I may just come back for a second thank you!  But before I go: THANK YOU most of all for stopping by!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches #752

Narelle has a wonderful design to get your creative juices flowing... meet Freshly Made Sketches #752...

I simplified it just a teensy bit so I could use that gorgeous ASD Lush Peony Bouquet press plate and stencils again!

The plate was inked up with Memento Toffee Crunch ink and

colored with the coordinating stencils!  Easy peasy!

I fussy cut the image and mounted it loosely onto a panel

that has been pressed using Pinkfresh Studios Twist Pattern plate.

A quick sentiment on a circle and my card was done!

Take a really good look at Narelle's card - it is loaded with beautiful

die cut embellishments and really shines in her own fabulous style!

September is here!  I hope you have time to play before you

start jumping into piles of leaves!

=] Michele

The Paper Players #801

Jaydee over at The Paper Players has a tic tac toe board for our card-making-pleasure this week!  I was reminded recently of a die I JUST HAD TO HAVE that got used right away and never shared!  No time like the present, and it fits Jaydee's top line across just right!

Here's how a bit of Lawn Fawn gingham, SSS butterflies, and 

SB Post it Note die came together:

I even added a few extra layers of this very thin paper to

make it LOOK like actual pad of post-it notes!  A little bloom and thanks

from The Stamp Market finished it off nicely IMHO.

Off she goes to The Paper Players gallery!

=] Michele