Yesterday, I received an invite from Martha to be part of her Clear it out Design team.

You can check out her main card making blog by visiting Creating is Fun. Don’t forget to check out her Creating is Fun Etsy shop. She has a nice selection of buttons and gorgeous trim.

The Clear it out Challenge are done bi-weekly. Which works perfectly with my busy schedule. I’m looking forward to participating in them, and visiting other participants also.

I really like the idea, using the items you have on hand to make a card. Thus far, that’s what I’ve done with the cards I’ve made. True, a few weeks ago, I had to purchase some items. That’s expected, I’m still new to card-making. It’ll be a while before I catch up with their card making stash. However, I’m having a lot of fun. The Cuttlebug was my first big card making purchase. I still have my eye on the Cricut Expressions.

I’ve met many of the women from the group, and stopped and commented at their virtual homes. I could have easily stayed at their virtual homes for hours. There’s so much talent amongst these wonderful ladies, and I got some ideas simply by browsing through their cards.

Many thanks to Jennifer at Blissful Place for making the suggestion to Martha for becoming part of this friendly and supportive team. Thanks Jen, your friendliness and support means so much.

I made this card yesterday, thus far it’s the one I’ve spent the most working with.

My daughter added the beads, and she’d picked the leaf from our yard.

Okay, so it’s a bit early for Thanksgiving, however it still didn’t stop me from making the above Veggie themed Thanksgiving card. My daughter took time from her craft, to help too. She added the beads and the leaf. The beads came from my jewelry stash, and the leaf was picked from our yard.

Although I have Thanksgiving themed pictures/stamps. I knew I didn’t have anything vegetarian related. I’m not vegetarian, I’m vegan but since I couldn’t find a Vegan card that seemed to fit what I wanted, I chose the above picture.This picture, is a free image that I found online. I uploaded it to Photoshop, resized it to 50% of its normal size, and printed it.

Although there’s areas that I’d improve, I’m still happy with the direction I’m going — and yes I’m still posting ‘things that can be improved’ here.

One lesson learned, before stamping anything onto your finished card, it might be a great idea to try it out on sample paper first. You see the embossed area? Well I covered that because the words I had, Don’t Eat Me! didn’t seem to fit, with the card. Besides, I think it’s implied that Mr. Turkey doesn’t want to be eaten, right? Just look at the sign he’s carrying.

While making this card, I started thinking about Karen aka Kleo who had a fabulous blog called Pisces Place. She’s a lovely positive, friendly, compassionate person who just happened to be Vegan. I stopped by her virtual home often, while she was writing at Pisces Place simply because I enjoyed the vibe, and the wonderful community she’d established.

Giving thanks to Karen, and the many other fabulous folks I’ve met on the internet that always make their virtual homes inviting. It’s appreciated.

I’ve only been stamping for a few months, however in that time I’ve accumulated a nice collection of rubber and clear stamps. I prefer the clear stamps; my daughter loves the rubber. Which means, I’m buying both.

So how did I get into stamping? It all started when a family friend, invited my daughter, and me to her home. Two tables was set aside (with plain cards) and numerous rubber and clear stamps. My daughter and I were overwhelmed. There was so much stuff! Stamps, card stock paper, glitter, embossing powder, embellishments.

On the first visit, I didn’t make anything. I mainly chatted with her and her mom, but I watched my daughter with interest. Upon leaving, we were gifted with numerous rubber stamps, and the next day I went to Micheals and added to our stamping collection.

Currently, House Mouse are the stamp series I’m enjoying the most. I was introduced to them by the same family friend. Naturally I was happy when I found the official House Mouse Designs store. (I found it yesterday)

I’ve promised myself I’ll be good — so currently I’m just looking, and while I try to decide which stamps I’d like to purchase first. It’s so hard, there are so many adorable House Mouse stamps that I like.

Card making is new to me, and as I told Jennifer of Blissful Place — it can be intimidating. I’ve checked out the sites… there are so many talented people out there. However, I’m not focusing on them, if I did I never would get around to trying it out for myself.

At times people are intimidated by others abilities of others, that it prevents them from even trying. Well, that’s not happening to me.  🙂

Over the past few days I’ve gotten some revelations, and have thought of ways I can add my own ‘personal stamp’ aka brand to my creations. Although I won’t be able to show it in everything I create, but i’ll manage to weave it into a few of my creations.

I’ve always loved animals. In my opinion, mice and hedgehogs rank about the same in the cuteness factor. Which is why that I couldn’t pass up the above clear stamp, when I stumbled upon it a few months ago, this stamp simply oozes with cuteness.

In fact this stamp, is one of the first clear stamps I purchased. I found it at Clear Dollar Stamps. CDS, is an online craft store. I really liked their customer service. I received an email that my order was received, and I received another once it had been shipped.

The above stamp is featured in their clear stamp animal section, I wanted to add some other things to the card, but my daughter said, “No, mommy leave it like that, please?”