So Very Thankful

November is almost upon us...the month of Thanksgiving.  I think Thanksgiving is so easily overlooked with Christmas always right on it's heels.  Thankful is something I am each and every day, most often countless times a day, and always as I'm laying my head on my pillow at night...a time when I know that I have made it through another day...being real...not sad, just real.  God, family, friends, love, joy, happiness, health, provision, blessings, life, YOU, to name a few, I have so much to be thankful for!  Life can be tough, but I think being thankful makes my life happy!

I've used something old and somethings new to make a card expressing thankful...

I've used the pretty  Simon Says Stamp Summer Flowers stamp/die set, released some time ago, to make a sunflower...I think this sunflower image is SO pretty!!  Sunflowers are my mom's favorite flower and my daughter got married at the beginning of September, so sunflowers are not only special, but mean Fall to me.  I stamped, die cut and colored the flower and stem with leaves.  I layered them and added the Thankful die along with a sentiment, both from the new CZ Design Fall stamps/dies, the sentiment from 30 Days of Thankful stamp/die set.  The background is the new Lined Circles stencil from Simon's latest release, Fun and Festive.  Here's a close up of the flower...

...and another close up of the layered die cut sentiment...

So very thankful for so much...so thankful for you visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Love at Christmas

 I made a Christmas card with a cute "babe"sentiment die and a die cut snowflake ornament (I LOVE this snowflake AND making ornaments out of such pretty snowflakes!!)!  I made the card and ornament from a couple of the new dies and stamp sets from the latest release by Simon Says Stamp, Fun and Festive!...

I used some cloth washi tape with a houndstooth pattern.  I chose to give it a Christmas "feel" by coloring the white to red with a sharpie marker...

 I put two pieces next to each other, sticking them down on white cardstock, for the width, and die cut the sweet CZ Design "babe" from the colored washi.  I layered it, as well as layered the pretty die cut snowflake.  I threaded some black twine through one of the holes of the flake, and taped it on the back of the black panel.  I DID emboss the panel with a very old, discontinued snowflake embossing folder ( I STILL love this folder...so wish Sizzix still made it!...sorry news,  if you like it too).  I used a piece of tape, so that the ornament could easily be removed from the card.  Here's what it looked like on the back...

 I stamped two different sentiments from two different stamp sets to go with the "babe" to finish the Christmas feel.  Here's a close up...

Ok...I am having way too much fun, so simple, so fun!!!  

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

More Thanks and Thankful...Fall and Winter

I am having so much fun with the new CZ Design/SimonSays Stamp 30 Days of Thankful 2018 stamp/die set along with the CZ Design Thankful and Thanks dies!!  I have made a simple Fall Thankful card and Winter Thanks card...

I LOVE the fonts of these sentiment dies...their linear design is wonderfully graphic, and that is so me!!  I die cut the sentiment die from kraft cardstock and layered.  I stamped two of the leaf stamps with Simon Khaki ink along the diagonal of the card, and stamped the sentiments with versamark and white embossed.  I stamped the larger of the two leaves with the khaki and clear embossed.  I colored with the Kuretake paints, and adhered that and the sentiment to the leaf stamped panel, then popped up on kraft.  Here's a close up...

The Winter Thanks card is similar to the cards that I made for the Simon Blog Hop last week, HERE...I am loving playing with the watercolor behind the snowflakes!!  I combined the "Thanks" sentiment with one of the new Simon snowflake dies from their latest release, and some Tonic Jewel drops...

I layered the "thanks" and the snowflakes and adhered the whole panel to a card.  Here's a close up...

Ok...I LOVE these dies...having so very much fun!!  

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Happy Christmas Fun and Classic!

The new Simon Says Stamp Happy Christmas die from the Fun and Festive release is so pretty...I have chosen to showcase it in a fun and then a classic form...

I came to learn that "Happy Christmas" is an expression for Christmas that is commonly used in countries outside the USA, like England and Australia when celebrating Christmas.   I think it is fun, and a great addition to our "Merry", but being a bit foreign to me (hee hee), I made my first card using it as a literal expression for Christmas...HAPPY!!  Happy, to me, means colorful, so I chose 5 bright, fun, happy colors, cut them into strips, adhered then die cut the sentiment from them.  I layered it and adhered it to a white background die cut.  I adhered the whole thing to an embossed piece of cardstock(purchased this way...LOVE!).  Added some enamel dots, here's a close up...

  

The second one, I opted to make a bit more classically with shiny metallic cardstock...

I used the new Simon Outline Snowflakes stamp, stamping on kraft cardstock with white ink for a background for the sentiment.  I also opted to simply use the sentiment without the background sentiment die cut.  I layered the sentiment a couple times and popped up on the same red metallic cardstock and card.  Here's a close up...

This die has a great deal of versatility, and with it's size, it will be the only thing you will need on your Christmas card...pretty and sweet!!  Such fun!!  Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Thanks and Thankful

I recently purchased the new Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design Thankful stamp/die products...I LOVE Cathy Zielske's style, the sentiments and fonts of her stamps and dies are amazing!!... and I am in love with these new products!! I made a couple cards to show you, and I have a couple more on my desk(so more will be coming), I've just had so much fun, I HAD to post these two today...

 I die cut the CZ Design Thanks die from white cardstock and layered three times.  I then swiped the "thanks" onto a versa mark pad, and embossed with bronze/copper color embossing powder, twice for a smoother look.  I layered it onto it's coordinating background sentiment layered in white, and added a second sentiment from the stamp set on a white strip of cardstock.  I used the new Simon Says Stamp stencil, Lined Circles ...I think this is such a FUN stencil!!  I used the metallic copper color Memento Dew Drop and daubed the color onto black cardstock.  Here's a close up...

The second one, I used another of the stand alone sentiments and die cut and layered the "thankful" sentiment from white cardstock.  

I layered the sentiment, and then I stamped the quote by Oprah Winfrey with versa mark and embossd with the same bronze/copper embossing powder as I used in the first card.   I love the bronze color of the embossing powder.  I layered on a card with a piece of bronze metallic paper  here's a close up of the pretty bronze quote...

Ok...my thoughts...

The Oprah Winfrey quote is powerful and everyone needs to hear it, if for nothing else, to serve as a reminder to be thankful.  And hey, it's Oprah...who wouldn't want to hear something SHE has to say??!!  Quotes and some sentiments, for that matter, can be a funny thing, though...they are powerful and inspiring, they can challenge us to be better, and help us to think differently.  I DO know, though, that those same words,  for someone in a really hard place, can almost be too much, too heavy,  and make them feel squashed instead of encouraged...encouraging always being the intent.  This Oprah quote, although powerful and insightful, could be one of those quotes.  I love it, and want it to be a wonderful reminder to everyone who reads it, to be thankful for all they have.   For this reason, I think that this kind of a quote/sentiment would be best showcased when combined with a connecting sentiment on the inside that softens any possible condemnation on the recipient....SOOOO...I used the same sentiment as on the outside, except in stamp form, stamped and embossed with the bronze embossing powder, and two of the other sentiments from the stamp set in black...

More coming soon!!  This was such wonderful fun...I am thankful for Cathy Zielske and the fun and cool stamps and dies that she brings to the crafting world!!  Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Heart Balloon Fun!

I LOVE sentiments!!  The MFT Stamps set, I Heart Celebrating has some WONDERFUL sentiments!!  I recently got this set, along with the Heart Balloons dies and have made a couple cards to share with you...

I chose to use a red shiny metallic to make this card, along with black cardstock for the die cut strings.  I stamped then layered the sentiment onto a CZ Design sentiment die and adhered all of this within a stitched rectangular panel.  Here's a close up...

The second one, I used some colored vellum(had this in my stash for YEARS), along with some scrap acetate to adhere the vellum to for some heft.  I stamped the sentiment onto the same die cut, and popped up on the same stitched rectangle as the first...

I wanted, and love the look achieved with the vellum, of the balloon colors overlapping and changing the color of each other....fun!!  I stamped the strings with some gray ink.  Here's a close up...

Such fun, I can't tell you...but I WILL tell you...I had SUCH FUN!!  Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Simon Says Stamp Fun and Festive Blog Hop!

I am so excited to be a part of today's Simon Blog hop, celebrating Simon Says Stamp's newest release, so appropriately named Fun and Festive!!  This release is filled with fun and festive new products to make this coming holiday season a wonderful one!!  I am joining a bunch of amazing artists today, to showcase some of the new products...if you're following the hop, you should have come here from the talented Heather Ruwe's blog!

I have decide to use the beautiful new snowflake dies, Alicia and Rina, along with some of the new sentiment stamps and dies, to make three cards...

For all three cards, I die cut and layered the snowflakes, and used the Zig Kuretake watercolors for the backgrounds.  I DID use an older small snowflake, the Maryanne, for the first card.  These new snowflake dies are BEAUTIFUL!!  I am kind of a snowflake snob...hey I'm from Buffalo...I was around a LOT of snowflakes for my first 30+ years of life, so I KNOW snowflakes...hee hee!!  I think these snowflakes are SO very pretty!!  I added a sentiment from the Winter Scene stamp set and added Tonic White Crystal drops.  Here's a close up...

Last year, I had a friend tell me that she tore the snowflake off the card I sent her and put it on her tree.  Soooo... I thought it would be cool to make a card with a snowflake MEANT to be an ornament... 

I die cut the Alicia snowflake from shiny metallic silver cardstock four times, and adhered them together.  I added a silver cord and some of the new Christmas Magic sequins for some pretty.  The snowflake is held to the front of the card with a tiny glue dot, the cord is taped on the back of the card, so removal from the card is super easy!!   The sentiment is from a pretty new set of dies, Holiday Words on a Line, also die cut from the shiny silver metallic cardstock.  Here's a close up...

The third one, I die cut the Rina snowflake and made a line of the super pretty flakes...

I layered each of the snowflakes three times, and again, added the white Tonic Crystal drops to the card.  The sentiment is from the new Critter Sweaters stamp set!  Here's a close up...

THAT was SO MUCH FUN!!!!  

My fun is above, yours is below!!

Simon Says Stamp will be generously giving a $25 coupon to one commenter from each and every blog on the hop, simply leave a comment for a chance to win!!  The winners will be chosen and be posted on the Simon Says Stamp Blog this coming Wednesday, so make sure you check the blog to see if you're a winner!

The next stop on the hop is creative Marge Yoon! 
 All the participants of today's blog can be found below.  If you get lost, you can head to the  Simon Says Stamp Blog...hope you will check out all the amazing artists' inspiration today!! 

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Debby Hughes

Yana Smakula

Yoonsun Hur

Amy Rysavy

Heather Ruwe

                                  Lisa Addesa-----YOU ARE HERE!

Marge Yoon

Lea Lawson

Kristina Pokazanieva

Cheiron Brandon

Mindy Baxter

Anna-Karin Evaldsson

Don't forget the code up above (FEST587), for a free Stickles with any order...for a limited time...have fun...be festive!!!
Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Metallic and Kraft for Christmas!

Ok...more festive fun with stamps and dies from Simon Says Stamp's newest release, Fun and Festive!!  Today, I used the Dancing Deer and CZ Design's Merry dies along with Mod Trees Background stamp to make a couple cards that hopefully will bring out the fun and festive in you:)!!...

Not sure what it is, but I am LOVING metallics for Christmas!  Challenging to photograph, but fun to work with!  I die cut the deer and layered him twice in silver, then the border only in gold.  I DID put the fine tipped glue bottle I use in the store links, as with a die cut this thin, very thin dots of glue are necessary for the best hold and the best look.  I added a layered "merry in shiny red metallic, and added a dot of that same red to the nose of the deer (yes, both my cards are Rudolph:):)!!).  I adhered them both to an embossed panel and then poppped up on card.  Here's a close up...

The second one done in my second favorite paper for Christmas so far, kraft!!...

I layered the deer just like the first one, but because the whole layered deer was done in kraft, I opted  to do a two color card, so I stamped the background stamp with Simon Khaki ink, and swiped the tops of the deer and the "merry" with the khaki ink to give the image and sentiment the same darker brown look and feel.  That indent in his nose was screaming for some red, and I LOVE the little pop of red on both cards!!  I couldn't think of a more perfect pop than on this reindeer's nose...GO RUDOLPH:)!!  There's a blog hop going on over at the Simon Blog today, and I'll be a part of a second one tomorrow...hope you will come back to see the festive fun and find some inspiration for the holidays ahead!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Simon Says Fun and Festive Release Today!!

Simon Says Stamp just came out with a brand new release today, Fun and Festive!!  The words fun and festive are perfect to describe this release...it is a release FULL of fun and festive products to make the coming holidays Fun and Festive!!!   The picture below is the start of my fun and festive...Christmas Tag Central Crazy😄...

I edited my crazy pic of tags...looks a little less crazy...

 I used the fun and pretty new Snowflake Tags dies to make a whole bunch of tags for Christmas presents!!  OK...I LOVE these dies...and I'll tell you why.  Christmas tags are a real necessity when it comes to Christmas gifts(and I make a BUNCH for one of my daughters, too).   But,  Christmas tags are something that I, myself, don't like to spend a lot of time on, as they are lost in the wrappings on Christmas after the gifts are opened.  BUT...as much as I don't want to spend a lot of time on them, I also want them to look nice.  I know...I'm a challenge, and so are tags!!  THESE dies, though, fit both of my requirements...they make pretty tags, and I made all the above tags in a couple hours...yes...really!!!  

 I used a whole bunch of patterned papers to make my tags.  You could stamp background stamps, too, if you don't have lots of patterned paper(I have A LOT!!!).   How I made every one of these tags was with two die cuts.  The patterned or embossed pattern on the top, and the snowflake on the bottom layer.  This DID mean cutting out the snowflakes from the circular ones, and removing the snowflake from the other style, showing the snowflake on the bottom layer.   I added a stamped "to and from" from the pretty new Christmas Wishes stamp set, and added string or twine to each tag.  The kraft colored tags are fun...a kraft gift bag or wrapping paper with a white or colored bow, and DONE!!  

Below are some of the tags, starting with the embossed paper ones (the first one I used distess oxide on the snowflake...

Notice that it doesn't matter how messy it looks, as the top die cut tag covers the ink...(I used a white embossed piece of cardstock instead of the kraft striped one as the picture shows)...

These three are metallic.  The first one, I used versamark on the snowflake, then silver embossed.  The other two are shiny silver and gold metallic cardstock...FUN!!...

Here's a pic of the embossed one in the making ( I dabbed the versamark onto the snowflake with dauber)...again, the messy doesn't show...

These were done with striped cardstock...the white looks cool...

 I TRIED to take photos of my tags with presents...this is what my craft room/spare bedroom looked like...YIKES...

...let's just say, it didn't go well...but I did get a small shot of one of my presents with one of the tags...

OK...SOOOOOO pretty!!!!! ... soooooooo easy....and so fast.....and who doesn't love all THAT at Christmas??!!  AND...the possibilities are endless...I'm thinking of a bunch more ideas as I'm writing!!  Now the creativity is up to you:)!!  Hope you will check out the release over at Simon!!  See you tomorrow with more fun!!!  

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa