Happy Labor Day to all. The family was here yesterday for our Sept. birthdays so the house is all clean and I have just enough leftovers for dinner so I'm good to craft all day! I do have to reorganize again because I had to move everything so we could eat in the dining room! It is a beautiful sunny day so I feel guilty staying in but Molly and I will get out for a while this afternoon. This is a Thanksgiving sort of card today. My Halloween stuff is also in with my fall and Thanksgiving so when I get it out I see all those goodies. I haven't used this Hero Arts stamp before and still in keeping with NBUS I wanted to give it some love. Today is the last day for http://www.djkardkreations.com/ NBUS so I'm just in time. I also want to enter this in the challenge for https://a2zscrapbookingblog.com/. They have a challenge to make a tag and this should be okay for that. Be kind to one another.

My thanks go out to http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/ for thinking of using stickers on a card. I have had these stickers for a long time and never thought of just making a card with them. I'm used to stamping on cardstock and then there was no place for a sticker. This is a Debbie Mumm sticker that came on a sheet with others. Just stamp a sentiment on the inside and it's done. I will enter it in the Less is More challenge.  I am also entering in http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/ and http://www.happylittlestampers.com/.  We are CASEing Asas card below. She has used a circle mat on her cardstock. Be kind to one another.

When I got all my Halloween stamping supplies out I was thrilled to see I still had all those stickers I got a while ago. http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/ has a challenge this week for using stickers, sticky labels or peel offs on your cards. The challenge ends soon so I wanted to get this card in. The last time I played there I messed up and didn't have enough white space. I am learning. I'll share a quick story with you. When I first found stampers on blogs and saw the pictures for the challenges I wondered why they posted such small pictures of their cards because you couldn't really see very much.  I did not realize you could click on them and they would be bigger. See how far I've come! Be kind to one another.

I would like to welcome a new follower to my blog. She is Karen Hasheck of Wisconsin and is a recently retired lady and she is really busy. I hope you will be able to visit her blog at http://karenskreativekards.blogspot.com/.

I got busy and put all the Halloween stamps, dies and embellishments together along with all the papers I have on the dining room table. I don't have a surface in my craft room to keep it all out while I go through the time until Halloween. It is my favorite time to stamp. Then I called the family and invited them for dinner this weekend to celebrate the September birthdays. So I proceeded to haul it all out to the sunroom. It will have to be moved back after they leave. I grabbed one new stamp from Prickley Pear and one new die from Concord and 9th and put a card together. The paper is Graphic 45 but not this years. The greeting is Lawn Fawn and embossed in Zing embossing powder in apricot.  The circles are Spellbinders. Now that the card is finished I wish I had embossed the pumpkin too so it would really stand out. I'll do that next time. I don't know why I always finish a card, look it over and decide I should have done this or that. I hope I'm not alone. Be kind to one another.

This is my second entry for Darnell's NBUS.

I truly did not give you a good picture of what happened with the tornado that touched down in Kokomo. There were 1,002 houses with structural damage, 81 homes completely destroyed and 173 homes with major damage that need serious repair. If that weren't enough yesterday morning a severe storm came through the north side of town and ripped up trees and took down power lines. Many are still without power. Then last night another storm came through and caused major flooding with waist high water and people trapped in cars.  Right now as I type there have been two more serious rain storms go through. I am so over storms. As I am also so over scenes.

I agonized over this card for several days. I knew what I wanted to do. This is not how I saw it in my mind but you will get the gist of it. The cat was supposed to be sitting on a shelf overlooking the fish bowl on the table. This is for my granddaughters birthday and she has a soft yellow cat. I don't know to make a table so I just cut paper from a 6x6 pad of MME pad for the table and shelf. The shelf is cut with a poppy stamp die. The cat is from Tim Holtz mini cats and dogs. I had to make the fishbowl and inked it in DI inks and added the fish from Simon Says Stamp. Added WOS to the large fish and a googly eye to the cat.  Those things to the left of the cat are books in case you didn't recognize them! The shelf looked so bare. The sentiment is SSS also. This is the end of the birthday cards I needed so I'm ready to get all the Halloween stuff out and get started. I am entering this card in Darnell's NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) http://www.djkardkreations.com/. The mini cats and dog set is new as is the SSS fishes set. Even the googly eye is from a new package. Be kind to one another.

I just realized http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/  has a "fish" theme this week so I am entering this card there.

I would like to welcome a new follower, Lia. I don't know her blog or website but I'm so happy you are here. I would be happy to post your blog if you would like.

We really had some terrible weather in our state yesterday. Many tornadoes touched down and caused a lot of damage to the north and west of here. I had wind, rain, thunder and lightning but not dangerous like they had other places. A Starbucks completely collasped. Fortunately there were only 15 non life threating injuries but a lot of homes were damaged or destroyed. That always breaks my heart to see things like that whether it is tornadoes, fire, floods or earthquakes.

I am trying to creat scenes for my cards and this is another one for my sons birthday in Oct. Started by stamping mountains from Hero Arts. Sponged sky (which you can't see) above and lighter blues for lake under the mountains. That could have been darker. Then grass and cattails from Technique Tuesday with DI for land. The deer are Memory Box and the window is Poppy Stamps. The burlap paper is DCWV.  I may have put too much in the scene for such a small window. It's nice to just try it and see what the outcome is and I do like this. He is a big outdoor person so I think he will like it too. Be kind to one another.

It was a sad week. My neighbor across the street passed away and her service was yesterday. She had been a caretaker for her husband with Parkinsons for many years and he passed three years ago. Shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer and went through all her treatments but never really felt well after that. It returned in several places and she went very fast. I never heard her complain about taking care of him or at any time when she was ill. Very sweet lady and a good friend and neighbor. She will be missed by all of us.

This card is for my grandsons birthday next month. I am trying so hard to get ahead of my birthday cards for the family. Seems like I turn the calendar page over and it's time for all three Sept. birthdays and I'm never ready. This is an Avery Elle stamp and I think he will like it. I used a Simon Says Stencil and distress inks for the waves on the card front and a Spellbinders die for the circle. It seemed somewhat bland and I didn't want to add bling to a guy card so I added a gold tooth for him. His teeth are so small it's hard to see. Be kind to one another.