October Papertrey Bloghop

Happy Thursday! Thankfully everything seems to be working again since my last post and nothing else has broken. Our dog Sophie got very sick again though a few days after she finished the antibiotics she had been on earlier this month. This time she was was crying out in pain and we could not figure out why so we ended up visiting the doggie ER again.The only thing they could come up with this time was an inner ear infection so they put her on a different antibiotic and sent her home. It took 3 days for the medicine to kick in but thankfully she is back to normal now. This time she is on the antibiotic for a month. Hopefully this time when she is done with it she won't relapse again.
Rich and Emilia also took a Sushi class a few weeks ago at a local Sushi restaurant. They both love Sushi. I don't. Unfortunately she didn't learn anything she didn't already know. Rich asked the sushi chef to take a photo of them with their sushi but he could not figure out how to use the camera on his iPhone so the photos didn't come out very well, they still had fun though.
Today is also the 25th of the month which means it is time for another Papertrey Bloghop.

I have not been able to participate for the last 2 months mainly because I have been busy with Etsy orders and was not inspired by the challenges but things have slowed down for now and this month I was inspired by the challenge so I am really happy that I am able to play along today.
This month the challenge was to make a holiday card or tag using one of the non-traditional color schemes on Nicole's Blog. All of the color combinations are great and I hope to make something with them all eventually but this time I decided make all tags with the 3 that inspired me the most. 
The first is my favorite color combo

This is what I came up with.

When I saw what Betsy Veldman did with the house in Lizzie Jones Gingerbread Lane Stamp Set I knew I had to have it ( I love anything that has to do with houses). She graciously shared a template for the houses she made here but when I saw this SVG file I liked the way it opened better and after reducing it to 75% it worked perfectly with the die cut of the house on the front. You can use this tag a couple of  different ways. First you can hang it from your tree. Since our is still in storage I had to take the photo on a bush out front. You can also use it on a gift bag. After the gift is given you can take the house off and display it. There is also a magnetic piece on back for you to use as a magnet if you want to or you can display it on a shelf. The box holds 6 Hershey Kisses but I only put three in because it made it to heavy to hang from the tag with all six. These would make great gifts for kids
The next color combo I tried was this one.

I am not a fan of  the color Ocean Tides, I wish it looked more like it does in the photo but in real life it looks like a polluted ocean to me. This was the only color combo I thought worked for Hanukkah though so I decided to give it a try anyways. This is what I came up with.

With the other colors in the photo I am starting to like it better. When I saw the new Menorah Medley Set I wanted to use it with Heather Nichols new Winter Snow Globe set I got last month but it is a lot bigger than the globe part so I used Tag Sale Die #4 with it instead and made it into a  shaker tag. On the back I stamped and embossed the Happy Hanukkah Sentiment that is also in the set.

I finished it off with Aqua Mist ribbon an Ocean tides button and some silver cording.
Finally I gave this color combo a try.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this color combo was red gingham and gingerbread people. This is what I came up with.

I was still determined to use the Winter Snow Globe set I bought last month because I loved the tags Betsy and Christina K made with it. Fortunately the little gingerbread people in the Gingerbread Lane set fit perfectly. After stamping them with dark chocolate ink I added the little heart in sweet blush. I stamped the base with Ripe Avocado ink. The red gingham paper is from this digital paper pack. I stamped the sentiment on a thin piece of sweet blush cardstock then finished it off with 2 clear rhinestones, Ripe Avocado Saddle Stitched Ribbon and a wood button.  These would be great to add to packages of real gingerbread people.
That's all for now. I hope you have been inspired by some of my projects using these color combos. I look forward to seeing what everyone else has come with on Nicole's Blog now. I hope the rest of your week is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by. 

Breakdowns And A Birthday

Happy Monday. I hope you all had a good weekend. Ours ended like it started which was not very good.  Last Monday my replacement Silhouette which was only a week old started going crazy while I was right in the middle of an working on an order. Of course it was after 5:00 so I had to wait until the next day to call Silhouette but I had a breakdown in the process. After doing some troubleshooting on my own and going through many sheets of good paper I finally got it working again.  When I told them what happened the next day they decided it was another bad machine and said they would send another one. I was not convinced it was the machine though so I asked to speak to a supervisor and after telling him what happened and doing some troubleshooting together we both think it may be a problem with the blade getting stuck on the paper rather than the machine itself but a new one arrived today anyways. He is sending me a new fabric blade to try to see if that helps too. I sure hope so because I really love the machine I  just want one that works!
On Tuesday my sewing machine broke, Once again I needed it for an order I was working on so I had another breakdown. After calming down I called my mom and she brought over her vintage 1975 singer for me to use and the order finally got finished. 
On Thursday Rich got sick with what he thought was allergies but that turned out to be a cold which Emilia has now caught too. 
On Friday I went to turn the heat on because the weather got really cold here and it would not come on. This furnace is only 2 years old. The problem was solved $200.00 later but in the process the technician discovered our water heater was leaking so we have been without hot water most of the weekend but are getting a new one right now. This is going to be very costly though because of where it is located in our house.I am really hoping that this is the last of things breaking now and this week is a better one. 
I am still very busy with Etsy orders but I was able to squeeze in some time this weekend to make a card for my mother's birthday which is today. This is the card I made for her

I finally got a chance to use the new Harlequin cover plate from Papertrey that I ordered last month. I cut out the patterns from this digital paper pack. They are my moms favorite colors. The Happy Birthday Sentiment is from Think Big Favorites #11. The flower was made from Papertrey felt and Beautiful Bloom dies. It can be taken off the card and used as a magnet.

This is a photo of my sister and I when we were little. My mom didn't want to do anything special to celebrate today even though I offered many options but hopefully she will enjoy this card and the gift my sister and I sent her.
I am going back to work on orders now.I hope to get caught up on them soon and then be able to make something new to share with you. In the meantime I hope your week ahead is a good one and nothing breaks where you are!