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

Guest Designer at Color Hues #140!

I am SO honored to be the Guest Designer at Color Hues #140!  Nancy is our host this time and she has chosen one color and a neutral brown:

I have a brand-new right-out-of-the-package set to play with today!  It felt like these colors were perfect for it!

Concord & 9th and Kristina Werner's 

Calm Canopy, Easy Repeat Light Linen Background stamp

I first stamped the linen in CP Stone Blue, then two of the branches were

added in the same blue to the right side of my arch and two more

in CP Icing on the Cake on the left.  The set included dies for the sentiments

which always makes me happy.  A leftover snippet of dark brown cardstock

from my trip to Gina K's store many years ago brought it home!

The little leaves are from a FREEBIE die included with purchase - wanna see it

in these challenge colors?  Here you go... 

Yes, that is another of the new embossing folders I splurged on recently.

From Spellbinders: Distress Mix enabled by Donna M. and Bonnie sealed the deal! You'll be seeing more of this one for sure!

Thank you to the Color Hues team for choosing this card which qualified me

to be their Guest Designer - always such a treat to hang out with this wonderful group of card makers!

I hope you are inspired to play with Nancy's colors, too!

=] Michele

Just us Girls #838

Just us Girls #838 had me bringing out my Betterpress plates, papers, and stencils for a day of play!  

I have quite a few and they are all beautiful but here's an old[er] favorite:

Spellbinders: Cosmos Backdrop...

After it dried, I gave it a spritz with glimmer spray - hope you can catch

a glimpse of it above in her closeup.

Thank you, Denise!

Here are the inks I've used - and the sentiment is one from

Concord & 9th's Autumn Splendor.

While the inks were out - you know my rule - why not make another:

ASD Charming Floral Background with a die-cut hello from 

C&9th's Spring Prints die set.

Hey, look at that: Darnell is looking for stencils, too, for her I.D.E.A.S !

BTW there was a third...but you'll have to wait until Wednesday for that one!

Hope you'll come back!

=] Michele

I just CAWED...

... to say I love you!  This Happy Bird wanted to dress up for Halloween and who can say no to her?  Seems like an 800th birthday is deserving of 'second helpings' so she's flying over to The Paper Players! 

Every year I try to come up with a fun card for a dear friend whose

birthday is also Halloween day! 

Several old papers from The Stamp Market came together for their sketch and this sweet Happy Dance Bird from Memory Box.  

I gave her a witches' hat and broom from the HoneyBee set I used on my first card. 

Have a happy weekend, my friends!  Thanks for spending a bit of your

crafty week with me - I surely do appreciate it!

=] Michele

It's been a while...

It has been a very long while since I've done any water coloring!  After watching Jill Foster do her magic with the new Penny Black Christmas release, I was itching to get my palette of Distress re-inkers out again!  Another item from my big sale-shopping-spree at Alex Syberia Designs recently determined my playtime today!

Enter ASD's Cindy Lou's Poppies... first stamped in Memento Toffee Crunch ink onto a piece of Canson Cold Pressed paper then water colored using aforementioned re-inkers ...

I then stamped two of the other stems directly to my card panel - also

Canson 140# cold pressed paper - and die-cut my painted Poppies.

Before arranging the flower heads, I did a little splattering and

puddling of leftover green and cut it down using an MFT Wonky Rectangle.

Then came the lifted blooms.

I'm quite pleased at how this one turned out - I admit to being a bit rusty!

I'm almost ready to get my PB Christmas stamps out!

I hope you're having a great week - we're nearing the end of August!  Where

has the month gone?  Between picking green beans, raising butterflies,

and staying on top of watering my pots of peppers and herbs it has been a busy but wonderful month.  

Thanks so much for dropping by!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches #751

Hello, friends!  Glad you stopped by today - I am the happy hostess of this week's Freshly Made Sketches #751 and I hope you like it!

When we get close to Autumn my heart is happy to turn to leaves!  In fact, my sketch is taken from a card I made many years ago.  You can find that one HERE - but come back because I have TWO cards to [fingers crossed] pique your playtime!

As promised two lovely golden leaves!  Of course we can't have leaves

without trees, or trees without bark!  I added a deep delicious brown

woodgrain cardstock, my first tipped square of green that was cut using an

old favorite Spellbinders Hemstitched die and then another

kraft woodgrain cardstock before topping them with my leaves - from Lawn Fawn

and perhaps one of my oldest sets from 2015 - and a tiny little linen bow!

My sentiment is from ASD's Spring Garden set.

Ready for the second?  It had to be a Christmas card!

It's pretty self-explanatory - but in case you're wondering,

 the snowflake is from HoneyBee's Lovely Layers: Large Snowflakes dies set - 

cut from sparkly paper from The Stamp Market.

Well?  What do you think?  Are your juices flowing? lol

You have plenty of time to make a card - or two - before the window

closes on Monday, August 31st at 3pm EST!

Okay - let's go see what the team has made, shall we?

=] Michele

The Paper Players #800!

The Paper Players is celebrating its 800th challenge this week, and I couldn't wait to have a play with their original sketch... they say it's been given a facelift, but wouldn't we all need one at 800?? lol

 

I thought I take advantage of all these layers to use some fun Halloween

patterned papers and a die set from HoneyBee: Toil and Trouble.

My  Her broomstick is being a bit evasive but perhaps you can

see it in this closeup?  I love pink with orange, so I took liberties with

the usual black hat and brown broomsticks!

inside sentiment: you don't look a day over 799!

The pumpkin is a stenciled one of a trio from The Ton.  My papers are

from Scrapbook.com's spooky patterned paper collection.  And the sentiment

is an oldie from MFT.  I've given everything a bit of distressing with black soot

ink - not my usual thing.  I'm nearly sorry about it - tell me what you think?

Congratulations to all the members of The Paper Players who woo us into playing along with their fabulous cards each week!  And a special thanks to LeAnne for introducing me to this fun challenge!  I've loved playing cards with you all!

=] Michele

Thanks so much, Ann!

The Paper Players #799

 

Okay, I am looking forward to Fall - but not quite ready to let go of Summer!  The Paper Players is looking for Fall-forward cards this week, and I had one more new embossing folder to share with you - it did the trick!

Spellbinders' Lined Circles EF; Sizzix 665559 dies with Distress Oxide blending

and gold heat-embossed tips!

That's it for me this week - see you next week!

=] Michele