It's time to Fall Back!!

     I can hardly believe how fast the time is flying by.  Did you realize that Thanksgiving is just is on 19 days from today?  Or that there are only 50 shopping days until Christmas?  WOW!  It seems like Summer jsut ended and here we are in November.   In some ways I hope that Winter flies by, at least the coldest part and also hope it's not a bad winter with lots of bitter cold and snow.   A nice mild winter would be wonderful and I'd be just fine if we did not have any snow.   I'm such a Summer girl and really do NOT like winter, especially since it makes me hurt more!!   I love the long warm Summer days and the thought of it being dark at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon is not a fun one for me.  But, it's that time of year and tonight is the night we will sets our clocks back one hour!   I'll enjoy the extra hour of sleep, but that's about it!!  The shorter dark days are not for me and I'll be longing for Spring to come quickly!

  I'm trying my best to enjoy our last long day and am happy that the sun is shining brightly today.   My craft room is full of sunlight right now, but I'll bet at this time tomorrow, it'll be getting dark...!  YUK!!    Today, I've been working on some new cards and also spent quite a bit of time creating some fun new die-cuts with my Silhouette Cameo.  I am having a bit of a love/hate relationship with my Cameo right now and hope it's just a newbie getting used to a new machine and the cut settings.  I have loved many of the fun designs I've found and cut, but I've had some issues trying to cut a few things, that are really not very detailed and hope it's just a fluke?   I really do LOVE the machine, but have read in some of the Cameo forums that a lot of people seem to be a bit unhappy with some of their cuts, I do hope it's something that will be addressed by Silhouette, if it's not worked out.  I have heard they have excellent customer service and I was very pleased when I called them about my Mat.  I had a mat that seemed to have far too much glue, so much so that the paper was literally stuck to the mat.  They agreed that it was likely defective and are sending me our a replacement, which is great.   In the meantime, I'm trying to take my time and to be patient, while I learn the right setting for my machine.

  My first card today was inspired by lots of Fall/Thanksgiving related challenges and I started mine with this cute little digi image from Bugaboo.   This is another of the adorable turtles and I think I have everyone that Jodie has created.  There is one for almost all occasions and they are all adorable.  I also find them really fun to color and this one was colored with my Copics.

  I am submitting this card to each of these fun new challenges:

• Catch the Bug Challenge Blog - Bugaboo - Anything Goes
• Craft Your Days Away - Challenge # 32 - Fall/Autumn
• Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Digi

  My second card was also created in an Autumn/Thanksgiving Theme and was initially inspired by this week's new challenge at The Outlawz.   The new Paper a la Mode Challenge was to create a new Fall Harvest or Thanksgiving themed project with a twist.  The twist this week is to incorporate a technique and I used a few in my card.  I started by heat embossed my Stamped image, which was then colored with Copics.  I also created my own background paper, using the new Tim Holtz Seasonal Fall Distress Inks, along with Perfect Pearls Mist and a Hero Arts background stamp. 

  

   I colored the paper directly with the stamps in a variety of colors and then took my background stamps, and sprayed it with Perfect Pearls Mist and stamped it directly on the inked paper.  That actually removes some of the ink, but also leaves a really cool shimmery pattern.   A fun technique I learned from taking classes with Jennifer McGuire and Tim Holtz.  

  Once I had my background done, I cut two circles in my Cuttlebug for layers for my stamped image.  I also colored them with Distress inks and then simply misted one with a tiny bit of water and the other with Perfect Pearls.  I really love this look and can't wait to try it with my brand new Winter Distress Inks, which just arrived today.  If you are looking for them, you can find them now, in stock at Oozak and the price is awesome too - Thanks Rusty!!    I just LOVE the colors and know I'll use them often!!  

    This is my completed card and I think my next card will be a Christmas Card using the new inks.  When I started this card, my mail had not arrived, but now that I have these colors, I just want to 'play' with them.

   This card is being submitted to these challenges and everyone is welcome:

• The Outlawz Group - Saturday Paper a la Mode Challenge
• Mark's Finest Papers - Fall or Winter Theme
• Crafty Catz - Challenge # 107 - Anything Goes

  Update:  I have one more card to share and this one was created when I was still part of the Through the Craftroom Door Design Team for the current challenge.  I'm sharing it for fun and wanted to invite you all over to play in the current challenge, which is being sponsored by Karber Images.  My cute little Pilgrim Boy digi image is from Karber too!!   You can find ALL the details for the challenge over at TTCRD's Main Site - Here or over on their Challenge blog HERE!!

  I am submitting this cute little Pilgrim Card to the new Copic Coloring Challenge over at the Color Me Creative Classroom.  Their challenge for this month is called Boys! Boys! Boys! and all projects must be colored with Copics.  You can find all the details and play along HERE!!

  And now I'm off to see what fun I can have with my new inks!   I also want to remind everyone who does change their clocks, that tonight is the night.  It's also a great time to change the batteries in your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors.   This year we replaced all our smoke detectors, as they were all getting old and we also added one more Carbon Monoxide Detector, just to be safe.  We heat with Propane and our wood stove and have always been very cautious about this.  It's so tragic when you hear of people dying each year from Carbon monoxide poisoning and sadly it happened here in Massachusetts last week after the storm and power outages.  Apparently, in one instance they were using a generator inside the home and did not have the detectors.  How sad!!  Please be safe!!