Bevithia

Recent Cards

2011-11-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

I've been caught up in the undertow. The waves of everyday have swept me back out to the constant sea of DOING. Doing this, doing that. And every once in a while the thought "I miss blogging" slides through. :) I do.

But at least all that doing means I have things to tell of here.

Let's see...well..I've made cards (stop! I really truly have!). Here are two general ones:

{This one I made for my Dad. I have this memory of a night I stayed with him in New York City when I was young, and I thought this was too fun not to make.}

{This one I made for a Hope You Can Cling To challenge over at Splitcoast. My friend Cindy asked me to make a sample for her.

Side note: can I just tell ya I LOVE UNIT STAMPS.

..Ok, I'm better now.}

Also I've made a few Christmas cards. Here are two I've taken pictures of:

{The Car image is by Hero Arts.}

{This "Peas on Earth" stamp is one of my absolute favorite Christmas stamps out there. It's by Penny Black.}

I'm woefully behind in Christmas card making, but I get to play catch up this weekend at a family stamping retreat!

YESSSSS!

..Only 40-50 still to make. Don't judge.

:) I'll come back to update on my non-cardmaking front.

HUGS,

Write It On Your Heart

2011-07-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not yesterday. Not tomorrow! Claim His very best TODAY! Each day.

A mid-week hug!

Through His Eyes

2011-07-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

I went to Chicago this past week.

It's about 3 hours away from me and my sister was there on a business trip, so I scooped my babies up and we went to the big city for a couple of days. I hadn't been to that big of a city since I was little.

When I came home, I found that it had left me a little breathless. Let me explain.

One day a few years ago I was listening to a song on the radio that talked about seeing people through God's eyes. It so inspired me, I prayed that God would help me to do just that. Since then, at random moments in my days, I take in the site of one of my children, a family member, or even a young man in a grocery store and get a little misty. I see the person, and look past their faults...He shows me how beautiful they are. Their hair: each color spun from His hands. Their eyes: sparkling depths He painted. Their face: each bone, each dimple, each wrinkle molded by Him. That one prayer has made my heart so full with love for humanity. When you see it..you can't help but LOVE. You can't stop yourself from helping them in some way..to give from yourself.

While driving through Chicago this week, I experienced rivers and OCEANS of people walking here and there...streaming to stores, work, restaurants, home...and everywhere that I drove it was this experience of seeing people through His eyes. Masses seen through His glorious details. Her curly red hair. His broad shoulders. The baby's glowing dark skin. {Yes, I saw the seemingly endless traffic too...but in between THAT :) He kept showing me these details.}

In the midst of being overwhelmed at the grand scale of masses this questioned struck me:

How could God possibly love everyone of these? And how could everyone of these believe it?

The answer lies in my testimony: Because I know He loves me. He's shown me that again and again. Though I'm a wretched person at times and though I hurt others and though I am thoughtless...He forgives, He heals, He is faithful in loving me. He renews me. Me. One little person. No greater than you. No greater than her. Or him. And mostly even lesser. You see, if He does it for ME...

He does it for ALL.

So.many.masterpieces.walking.about.

Right there, in the middle of another hour of traffic, I was mesmerized by his artwork and I had to praise Him. A small whisper, cause I was weepy and overcome. But I did.

Thank you, Father, for creating...for showing me your love for these beautiful people.

He amazes me.

Sometimes He shows me these things for me to do something for others (help physically, with an encouraging word, or with prayer). Sometimes it's so that I can look past the troubles they are throwing out into the world (especially when they are generated at me), so that I can act like He would.

Seeing others through Him changes how we treat others.

We gather others closer.

We make more friends.

We widen our nets to more acceptance.

We LOVE truly. It can't be stopped.

His love for humanity springs up in me.

I was supposed to buy myself something pretty while I was in Chicago (I have a dear dear husband who gave me those very instructions), but I couldn't. My mind wandered towards Tiffany Co...

"Something shiny in a blue box. My favorite shade of blue! Meant to be, I say."

But I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Lord, out of all of my trips..why are you showing me these people through your eyes so much? What are you leading me to? What do you want me to do?

My heart knew. I couldn't buy something that would be just for me...

I drove right past Tifffany's...and drove home to sponsor one of His littles, through World Vision.

This is Rose. Isn't she amazing? Do you see how perfectly her eyes are formed? Doesn't the shade of her skin just knock you out with it's beauty? Rose and I share a birthday and we both love reading. I can't wait to start writing her.

I encourage you to open your eyes a little wider to see His work in those around you. I promise you, it changes your world...

And then theirs.

Love,

Don't Give Up

2011-07-05T08:54:00.001-07:00

Happy Tuesday, friends!

I delayed yesterday's post to celebrate the 4th with family. ;)

Did you get to celebrate the Red White and Blue?

This week I've been thinking about the mental shift God has brought me through this year. With any big change in life...our hearts and minds have to change too.

Oh sure, we can reject change and stay where we are, but it will only hurt us if we choose to keep our minds small to the big possibilities of God's strength in our lives.

When we start out we don't see a way out. We are covered in our own small thinking.

How could there be a way out of this? Am I even meant for more?

"..being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." -Philippians 1:6

When we finally take the leap to believe that He really does have a plan, we have to decide how committed to this we are. Are we going to give ourselves fully to his design for our future?

Does this God who knitted me together, really love me enough to take care of my every.detail?

"Casting all your care on him; for he cares for you" -1 Peter 5:7

It's remarkable, and beautiful, and...overwhelming..but it's the truth: God.loves.me. And He loves YOU. And if you give it all to Him to handle, He won't let you down. He is faithful in every circumstance. Cast all of your cares onto Him. If He's taking you somewhere He won't leave you for a second. He holds on TIGHT.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." -Deut. 31:6

Until one day you find that you've crossed over into that change and you are NEW once more. Your mind is new and your heart is fresh and your testimony has one more long chapter added in His FAITHFULNESS. You have to let it out and hope that it helps just one more to know that His changes are worth it.

The changes are for us to share..to comfort those we touch.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God." -1 John 4:7

I don't know if any of you are facing some changes. I know that it's painful..and it's slow..and you can't see how it will turn out. I know the crying out, and the rawness of spirit. I know the one day slipping into the next and the fog of hopelessness. Then right there, in a blink, He shows you your worth, so that you can lift up your head and see His promise is here. Right in front of you!

Don't give up.

In Where I 'Splain Myself

2011-06-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hello again, friends.

This is the blog post I've been putting off. The one where I account for all this time gone by.

The trouble with putting things off is that while you're busy putting, more time trickles by. More seconds tick tock away, the weather changes..

.. the seasons breeze in and roar right through. And there you are...with more time on that scale to account for.

I can't help but wonder in a little part of me if my time has been well spent.

Did I do something worthy of telling?

Ten months. Ten.whole.fat.months.

The last post I wrote in August of last year told you about this change we'd been handed (military to civilian

life..jobless and moving with family)

That was a change that forced growth. It pushed us right out of comfort and right into this place of in between. We were in an "in between" place for about 4 of our months, without a job..and in one room to live in..all 6 of us. We are very very thankful for that one room. That room saw our family through the roughest times we've been through.

This would be where I think of what almost happened..the things God spared us from..the homelessness or foodlessness or the ultimate side effects of my husbands medications (we were medically released)..the dark places that God shone through and walked us through.

His footsteps are sometimes not where we want them to go..they seem too big and empty, so we have to keep our eyes on where they are leading us.

He is faithful to lead us to our promises.

If you know my husband and I personally, you know that my husband is a One Thousand% do-it-yourselfer. His dream has always been to be a farmer and live in the country. Wouldn't that be fun? 9 or so years ago, I was not on board with this sort of thinking...I wanted to live in the city and live a life of "normalcy". One day it dawned on me just

how very different Michael and I were and I said a prayer that I'll never forget: "God, this man is not going to change..and the life I would have without him is not a life I want

at all..so God..CHANGE ME. Help me to like the outdoors. Help me to live next to him one long and beautiful life." Every year God changed me...little by little...decision by decision..my wants in life were remolded.

So last year, five total months of downpour finally brought us to a new job. A new job brought us to a new place to live. And the new place brought us animals...to which my husband is now head farmer. In the country I am a livin'!

"We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have been in darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness. " -David Weatherford

What have I created these past ten months, that is worthy of telling?

I've been building up little hearts.

Cooking up real and good nourishment.

Canceling out a voice that said I wasn't good enough.

Believing in this love of ours.

Dancing in the sunshine.

Embracing our home creamery.

Tending our flock.

Finding beauty in each sadness.

Knowing that in all of this, it's not me: He is enough.

He's been recreating this part of me that once was satisfied sitting by and dreaming..rebuilding some thinking and declaring me worthy of more.

And it's time to start fresh here with you, my dear 'ol blog.

I don't know that you'll be seeing a whole lot of paper or ink on here for a while. I know you'll be OK with this. I know you'll want to hear what I have to say..what more is fresh and gleaming with newness.. next Monday.

Hugs dearies!

P.S. Let's take note I entered not one smiley face in that post. kthanksbye

Change

2010-08-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

I would like to first apologize that it's been a month since I've blogged. Sometimes life gets in the way...and often that's a good thing! :)

In the past couple of months my husband has separated from the Air Force, we've moved from Washington to Wisconsin, and we're living closer to family than we ever have before.

It's been a bumpy ride... I'm putting that nicely...but more than that it's been a time of holding on to God's hand as he walks us through some storms. What holds us together is God's promise that He will complete this work that He has begun. In Him we place our hope.

Anywho...I just wanted to leave a little note here to let you know what is up. I'm not sure when I will have some free time to make something beautiful, but believe it or not, when I started this blog..I started it to write for me. Not for flaunting cards and projects. :)

It's true! Ha!

I'll leave you with a pic of my hubby and 3 of my babies on his last day of military life.

"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD."

-Psalm 31:24

Love,

Better Get Better!

2010-07-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

Hi peeps!

It's Monday again!

I would like to take this moment to inform Saturday and Sunday that they can just slow down for cryin' out loud. There is NO NEED for them to just zip right on by me that way! It's just rude is all. Rude. Rude. Rude. Who's with me?!? :D

Anywho..

A sweet lady from my church just had carpal tunnel surgery this week, and I thought I should make her a get well. She's always so dear to us. *love* :)

Check it out:

This sweet little image is from My Favorite Things' "Pure Innocence" line: "Better Get Better".

Those little girl images are sweet-as-pie and way fun to color in.

Aaaaaaaaaaah! There is nothing like watercoloring in an image like this...makes you feel super artsy, and it's so relaxing.

I could watercolor ALL.DAY.LONG. *happy*

Wishing you health & sunshine,

Merci Beaucoup!

2010-07-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, friends!

How was your Fourth of July? Did you enjoy some flag cake and fireworks? BBQ? Potato Salad? Mmm..it's good to be an American! :)

We had a nice day and just laid low. Had a picnic with the kiddos...took in some beautiful country scenery...good stuff!

Now, I trust you won't be offended if I load some more french on this front page.

It's pure coincidence that I featured those Fancy French Bloomers last week and that this week I've got a french sentiment going on. See what I mean:

I'd been meaning to try out some phonebook pages on a card..it was suggested over at the Papercrafts blog, and I'd been noodling it over ever since. I think it's kinda cute. The other papers are from Cosmo Cricket's De Lovely collection.
That cute chick is from the Basic Grey set "Green at Heart". The whole set is so darn cute and HANDY for thank yous. (And CHEEP CHEEP for only $6 over at Two Peas!) Isn't that chic supah sweet? I watercolored him as well as the sentiment bubble with some reinkers onto Arches hot press watercolor paper.

I love a good simple "Thank you very much/Merci Beaucoup". They always get used as I find myself ever in debt to someone's kindness, generosity, goodness, etc.

I think people should use more thank you cards. It makes you reflect on what you're blessed with as you write in it..and "a thankful heart is a happy heart"(-veggie tales).

When was the last time you sent out a thank you?

Hugs,

Fancy French Bloomers

2010-06-28T09:50:00.001-07:00

Hey friends! Happy Monday!

You ready to see some fancy french bloomers? Ha!

Not THAT kind. You'll see.

First, let's start with the french part.

The other day I was in the mood to make a sepia card. And I thought this image from Rubber Romance would be perfect:I used Walnut Stain distressing ink from Tim Holtz for all the sepia coloring. My other fav part of it? The gold trim under the chocolate chip ribbon (Webster's Pages trim). I chose to leave it sentiment free, since I already had a lot going on here. Perfect for a quick thanks or HB!

Then..Ahh..then...I needed thank yous. :)

I had my gallbladder out a few weeks back and the sweet ladies from my church went over and above taking care of me with meals and visits to help with my babies. I'm blessed ya'll!

So here are some quick thanks I whipped up trying to use my Webster's Pages bloomers:
All I did was color coordinate each piece of bloomers with my cardstock so that the emphasis was on the bloomers without being too overwhelming. Then I picked the the "thanks for everything you do" sentiment (Basic Grey), and did some fancy piercing with my Ornare template. Simple yet beautiful, dont'cha think?

I have to tell you, I had been hogging these bloomers. I didn't want to use them all up...but like with everything in papercrafting, if you don't use it..it just sits and the wow is wasted. Now, I only used half of them for all of these cards...BUT I'm proud of myself for letting go a little. Ha! :)

What have YOU been hogging? Use it up and link it so I can view your wow!

Hugs,

Inkadinkado Reviews

2010-06-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

This past week we put up another review on SCS! This time the product review team tried out some brand new inks from Inkadinkado.

I got to try out their Primary Chalk inks:

~"Warhol Butterflies" panel was stamped with Inkadinkado Butterflies inchies, stamped and watercolored with their chalk inks.

~"Banner Friends" banner made with Cosmo Cricket's DeLovely collection.

Their dye inks:

~"Wee Butterfly" used K&Co. Amy Butler designer mat papers.

And their pigment inks:

~"Bleached Fairy Butterfly" was stamped on PTI's Poppy cardstock with bleach and the sentiment was stamped with pigment ink, heat embossed with clear embossing powder, and then bleach brushed over the top.

It was a suprah fun review! Click on over to see what the other review ladies made over there!

Hope Summer has finally arrived on your doorstep! :)

Hugs,

Mangled Mermaid

2010-06-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

I hadn't gotten to post in a couple of weeks- sorry about that folks! There's been some stuff going on in my life (of which I'll explain in a later post). For now though...a card I made a couple of weeks ago...and it's sad sad story.

"Once upon a time, I made a mermaid card...."

"and it was lovely, and beautiful (if I do say so myself!). And then...then...my daughter found it before I could take a picture of it.

And she took it away. To the backyard playground. She played with that mermaid in the tower. On the swings. Down the slide. In.the.dirt. And then when all the fun was up she left that mermaid in the playground bark bits...just laying there. Unwanted. Unloved. Thoroughly desolate. Without a prayer of being sent. The End"

That's the story.

Isn't it sad? I mean...I know the cards don't stay prestine once they leave my home. I try not to think of the horrors that happen to my little lovelies once they leave my hands. It gives menightmares sometimes...I jolt awake saying things like "not the jelly! Not the JELLY!" *shudder*

But still. They usually get the chance of LEAVING in one piece. *sigh*

Oh well. It was loved while it lived.

Did it ever.

Mysteriously the Mermaid remained in pristine condition...I'm perplexed.

Was this an act of love..or terrorism? :)

What do you think?

Hugs,

P.S. Said mermaid and darling sentiment are A Muse.

My 12 Father's Day Cards

2010-05-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hola!

I'm ahead of the holiday card game! *happy hop* It feels gooooood! :)

Check out the 12 Father's Day cards I cranked out yesterday:

It all started for me last month when I saw the 6x6 pad of Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers paper. I thought it looked too perfect for words for masculine cards. I didn't end up ordering it until last week, but was I right or what?!? Perfect for Father's Day.

So these started with the paper and that I wanted the white base with the Walnut Stain Tim Holtz distress ink sponged on the edges. Then I discovered happiness in my box of A Muse yummies: Superhero, Cityscape, and Super Dad stamps. Add in that little strip of A Muse ribbon, a little dimensional and WHAM-O! A super Dad's Day card. :)

Yes, I did cut out 12 of those Superheroes.

Around numero QUATRO I wanted to gauge my eyes out.

But I didn't.

And I'm glad I didn't.... I like all 12, but mostly I like my eyes. :D

How lucky am I to know 12 fantastic fathers? And to have most of them as family? Blessed!

Have a great rest of the weekend! :)

P.S. I got the thumbs up from my hubby on these. They are manly enough and have no glitter, bows, or flowers anywhere. Though, he says that the superhero could stand to use P90x. ;)

Buttons Buttons EVERYWHERE!

2010-05-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

Today I'm playing along with this month's Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers.

Can I just take a second here to tell you something? There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think "I can't believe I get to be a Dirty Dozen Alumni!". It's such an honor to know these ladies who are so immensely talented and everyone of them is so dear. *happy sigh* I love'em. So here's me sending out BIG HUGS to those sweet DD/DDA out there. Here's one for you!

This month's challenge was put out there by ...ME! I got to host! *FUN*

Since last month the challenge was to use NO BUTTONS, I decided to flip it and say USE THOSE BUTTONS! My restriction? No black. No black cardstock, ink, embelishments- nada! Why? Cause we all know that black makes everything POP. Well, we don't want to POP a BUTTON! AHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHA...oh mercy. :)

Alright. Here's what I did:

I made a reusable coffee cup sleeve. I pulled out my felt (something that is all the rage to have right now to cut out your own embellishments with your dies), some trim and ribbon, a strip of designer paper, my Janome Sew Mini, and of course, lots of vintage buttons!

I placed everything where I wanted it and sewed it up. If you already know how to sew on cards, don't be afraid to try doing this! It's just as simple as sewing on a card and a really fun and quick and easy project -start to finish (with design time included) this took me about an hour (one nape time! Ha!). The buttons are hand sewn with embroidery floss (something us card makers probably already have hanging around too!).

I made this one to be adjustable to each cup by having the loops that go around the post buttons be stretchy cord. (I used "Bead 'n Stretch" a beading clear stretchy cord that I found in the Walmarts)

Let there be no question: I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new coffee cup sleeve. LAWDY LAWDY I DO! :)

So be sure you check out what the other Dirties made for this month's Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge. You can find that gallery right HERE.

Wishing you sunshine,

Betta than Ice Cream!

2010-05-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

I love it when a card turns out as sweet as you imagined. Hello beautiful!

Brushed silver cardstock= love.

Webster's Pages Trim lace= LOVE!

Color combo of silver, grey, and coral= DOUBLE LOVE!

A MUSE!!!!! Gah! I love love LOVEY A Muse! :D

It's a good day peeps!

Hugs,

Supplies: A Muse stamps: "You are what you eat" and "Swirly cone", Webster's Pages trim, Su! Brushed silver cs, Su! Groovy Guava retired ribbon, A Muse ribbon in slate.

Welcome Home- There She Goes Mother of All Blog Hops!

2010-05-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day Weekend, peeps!

I hope all of you Mama's out there are starting to feel the love!

If you are just coming to my blog this morning to check me out, I'm on a blog hop for There She Goes stamps! We're partying and celebrating Mother's Day showing off of There She Goes' sets! (you can start from HERE to go the whole length of the hop but if you are coming to me from JESSIE'S awesome blog, you are in the right place!)

Why is it called the MOTHER of ALL BLOG HOPS? Well, Susie Q, you've never seen a bigger hop in all your pretty life! In other words, you don't want to miss a second! :)

There be PRIZES to WIN!! 6 months of stamps! Ha! So make sure you start at the beginning! To be eligible to win, just leave a little comment at each blog along the hop and at the end when you reach the There She Goes blog you can put your name in the Mr. Linky.

So, onward! Check out what I made with my Welcome Home set:

A "welcome to the neighborhood" card for one of my new neighbors! :) I stamped the doorway with Stazon onto Arches watercolor paper, colored away and then set it up here with the card stock and pretty designer paper (October Afternoon's "Farm Fresh: Root Cellar" and "Report Card: Bus Route"). Added ribbon, sewed it up and viola! :)

I chose to keep the inside nice and open:

I wanted room to put our names and contact info and the traditional "If you ever need a cup of sugar...". :)

And of course, a card is niiiice....BUT....

...A loaf of homemade "Honey Wheat Bread" makes it just a wittle bit more better, don'tcha think? Mmmhmmmmmmmmm!

So who wants to be my neighbor? Hahahahaha!

Now, you make sure you make a stop at each blog along the hop and leave a comment!

You're next stop on the hop is KATIE'S BLOG!!

....Heello?!?

Are you there? Shake yourself away from the bread picture, woman! There are STAMPS to win!

Your carb loving friend,

MFT Die-namics Review

2010-05-06T07:50:00.004-07:00

The Splitcoast Stampers Product Review team just finished up reviewing My Favorite Things latest release: Die-namics dies! What an awesome set of dies! I had a great time trying them out! Here are some things I made while testing what they could do:

These clouds are so addicting to make!!

And then there's the Jumbo Scallop border! Here I cut the cardstock to 6"x 6" and then lined up the die along the edges 4 times. This adorable dino is one of their new stamps "Loveosaurus". Such fun to color. I used Copics here and then used a bounty paper towel with blender solution to make the texture on his body.And ofcourse, there are these owls:

I cut the clouds out of watercolor paper and then just watercolored them with reinker. The felt scallops are the Jumbo Scallops die. Ribbon is some more Webster's Pages trim. Designer paper is American Crafts Abode.

So what do ya think? Do I recommend the dies? Umm, COMPLETELY! :) They are so so fun (and affordable)!

Happy Thursday, sweets!

Tuesday Trigger: Celebrate You

2010-05-05T10:06:00.003-07:00

My friend Bobbi asked me if I could make 3 Mother's Day cards for her. She wanted it to be floral with "Celebrate you" as the sentiment. Then I saw this week's Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World. And~ da da tada! A card was born........well...3 of them. :)

What do ya think?

Squeezes,

Ingredients: PTI Kraft cs, Celebrate Everything by SU, Bella Blooms dsp by SU, Webster's Pages trim (ribbon), brown machine thread, MME button, Garden green cs and ink, arches hot press watercolor paper, cricket flower, Melon Mambo reinker, pretty in pink reinker.

May Butterflies

2010-05-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, sweets!

Ahhh! May!

May: I love you. Please stay for a'while. Show thy flowers! Bring thy butterflies...
Stamps: Unity Stamps April Kit of the Month. Paper: Soft Suede cs, Arches hot press watercolor paper, MME- Isn't She Lovely Loop Dee Lou Die Cut Quite Contrary Collection Paper. Ink: Reinkers, Stazon Timber Brown. Other: Basic Grey Sultry fibers. Technique: watercolor reinkers.My Mother's Day cards. 12 of them. And indeed the sweet Mamas that brought me up and surround my life really do give me happy butterflies! :)

Sending them all out today! Just little envelopes holding pieces of my love for each one.

Happy May, friends! Happy Mother's Day!

Smooches,

Sew Sweet Birthday

2010-04-26T22:08:00.004-07:00

Happy Tuesday peeps!

The Skipping Stones Designs team is at it again! We had a sketch challenge and it was a fun one! Check it:

Nom-nom. This makes me hungry for a cupcake. Chocolate. With Buttercream frosting. That's my poison. :) I used SSD's Buns -N- Crunches again. I just love this set- it has the versatility of just a cute happy birthday sentiment such as in this card:

AAAAND it can be wicked funny like in last week's card. Awesome.

SSD is having a PMS deal. Say WHAT?!? LOL It's a "Purchase More Stamps" sale! (Bwahahahaha! Gotcha!)

So, you buy 1 set and get 5% off, but go all the way up to 5 sets and you get 25% off! Sweetness! You can look at the details HERE.

*sniff* This is my last card as a Skipping Stones Designs Guest Designer. I had such fun playing along with them this month, and it is ALWAYS an honor to use their stuff. Thanks Heather and Angela for everything! :)

I hope everyone's week is sublime! I've got 5 cards/projects on my docket this week and *geek out* it's gonna be fabby when I finally get to show them to ya.

Scrunches,

A Sneaky Peek of Tomorrow

2010-04-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'll post my last card for my April turn as Skipping Stones Designs guest DT. Here's a sneak peek detail shot.

Happy Monday and seeya tomorrow. :)

Dirty Dozen& Dirty Dozen Alumni April Challenge

2010-04-20T00:21:00.006-07:00

Heya!

A double post today! Hooray!

It's the 20th, which means that today there's a special gallery filling up over at Splitcoast Stampers: the Dirty Dozen & Dirty Dozen Alumni challenge gallery. This month Kelly Landers was our challenge hostess. She challenged us to "Create a card that honors our wonderful

planet Earth! It doesn't just have to have an earth image on it, you can focus on nature too!"

It also had a restriction: NO BUTTONS. I 'bout fainted when I read that. :) You know I love buttons...maybe I don't use them in *every* card but, to tell them they weren't invited...well geeze, it felt a little harsh. :D

Poor buttons. My baaaabies.

Also, we had to include a recycled item.

So here's what I made.

I used my Love Builds a Home stamp from Unity. I stamped that cute stamp with Stazon timber brown onto Arches hot press watercolor paper and colored it all in with re-inkers.

I love this image. So dang sweet. And it has nature in it, you see. And well, home is as natural as you can get...as far as I know it...I'm not much of a camper. Home is nature. Yup.

That pretty paper is from one of My Mind's Eye awesome new lines" Quite Contrary" and is called "Jack & Jill 'Favorite Thing' Bright Argyle Paper". A mouth full. But one of the pretties mouthful I think I've ever seen. ;) And I've seen a lot. I have 4 kids after all. :P

Oh, the RIBBON is my recycled item. It was snagged off another card. I reused it. Just don't tell the other card.

So make sure you head over to the DD/DDA challenge gallery today and see what the other DD/DDA whipped up for ya. It's gonna be SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS. I straight up guarateeeeeee that!

Warm hugs,

Crunchy Birthday and Blog Hop Candy WINNER!

2010-04-19T23:51:00.004-07:00

Happy Tuesday to ya! :)

Being one of the Skipping Stones Design Guest DT this month is making me post on Tuesdays. But I like it. :) It's been giving me an extra day to analyze my stuff...to noodle things out more. This week our sketch challenge looked like this:

I love shaped cards! They break you out of the angles of the regular 4.25"x5.5", ya know? The design always really makes me think hard. :) And since I knew that I wanted to use my new Buns-n-Crunches set (from SSD), I had two card factors already worked out.

Wanna see how it went? Lookie:

I put just part of a sentiment on the front. I LOVE SSD! :) Their humours sets are just such F-U-N! I put a candle on the front using an old trick I learned a long time ago= use your vegetable peeler to shave down half the candle and make a flat side to stick to your card.

Bahahahahahahaaaaaa! I love this set. Like, a lot. :)

The chocolate chip cookie is stamped onto Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper with Stazon timber brown, and then colored with carmel re-inker, then the chips are touched up a bit with choc. chip ink, and white gel pen finishes of the highlighting.

I'm hungry now. How about you? :)

Oh HEY!!

I have a WINNER from last week's Blog Hop CANDY! The winner is #9- Barb's Boys. I'll contact Barb and get this Buns-n-Crunches set out to her.

She's gonna love. Cause I do. ;)

Skip on over to SSD and look at what the other designers came up with in their shaped cards!! I can't wait to see.

Hugs,

Tomorrow!

2010-04-19T08:13:00.002-07:00

Come back tomorrow for a Dirty Dozen & Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge card, and this week's Skipping Stones Design's Sketch Challenge card.

Just you wait! :)

Latest Review Projects

2010-04-13T19:01:00.005-07:00

Happy Wednesday!

(I should have just called this a "whenever I get to it" blog, really..right?!?)

I don't remember if I had told ya'll that I'm part of the current Splitcoast Product Review team. Super fun. I get to try out new stuff here and there and write a little review on what I think of it. Oh! And make projects with it to show what it can do once it's in my hot little hands. Who could turn that down? Certainly NOT ME! :)

So HERE'S our latest review, AND here are a couple of things I've made this past week with our most recently reviewed item: the Clever Cut 5-in-1 Trimmer

As always, you can hop on over to my Splitcoast gallery by clicking over there

<---------- , look up the card/project, click on it, and view the ingredients used and additional deets. And if you go over to THIS GALLERY you can see what the other team members made with it!

Inky Love,

Skipping Stones Design Blog Hop and BLOG CANDY!

2010-04-13T09:13:00.005-07:00

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I apologize for my lateness in posting this morning! I had a teething 7 month old on my hands last night and was up at all hours with him soothing lots of tears. A mother's work is never done. But guess what. I've got stuff to show ya!

Skipping Stones Design is releasing 2 stamp sets today: Birthday Donuts (of which you know I'm a fan) and Whispering Wings (which I am using today).

All of the Design Team and the Guest DT were challenge to try this sketch:

Interesting, right?!? I had fun

with it fer sure. Lookie:

Masculine cards are super hard for me to make...and when I saw these images in this set, I thought "BINGO"! Perfect man card. I stamped the cattails in Memento brown, used my Copics, used October Afternoon's Farm Fresh "South Forty" dsp, added a little copper touch, and whammo! ;)

Oh! And I did the inside, too! :) Check out the awesome sentiment.
"The more you celebrate in life, the more there is to celebrate". Story: I was ~~just stuffing my face~~ delicately eating a Dove Promise the other day and this sentiment was my Promise. I liked it so I immediately thought my friend Theresa would like it. So I posted it for her on her FB wall. She liked it. And I bet she'll read this now and like it again. She's that kind of a person. Consistent. :) AND WONDERFUL.

But how neato that it's in this stamp set, eh? (sup Canada!)

Oh hey, I wanted to let you know that SSD is have a dealio right now too. If you buy 4 sets (like say, you wanted to by Birthday Donut, Whispering Wings, Margarita Birthday, and Buns-n-Crunches..those would be my choices!) then they're going to throw in one of their Bra sets! Check it out!

So onto the super fun: Blog CANDY!!!! :D

Leave me a comment on this post and you'll be entered into winning Buns-n- Crunches!

Oh yes! You don't want to miss this one. And guess what. I'm going to let you enter AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT. (Why do we limit that anyhow??) Just don't crash my site (ha!). I'll know it was you.

And make sure you go to all the other SSD Designer's blogs! They've got candy too!

Peggy Russell http://beautifulgreetings.blogspot.com/

Michelle Giraud http://twisted-chick.blogspot.com/

Amanda Sewell http://www.inkspirations.blogspot.com/

Angela Thomas http://sparkleandbling.blogspot.com/

Kimberly Crawford http://kimberly-crawford.blogspot.com/

Erin Grotegut http://www.inkysmiles.blogspot.com/

Kandi Phillips http://kraftykandikrafts.blogspot.com/

Ashley Cannon Newell http://ashleynewell.blogspot.com/

Mary Giemza http://mycardz.wordpress.com/

Chelsea Van Wyk http://www.scraptasticvoyage.blogspot.com/

Wishing you sunshine,

Tomorrow!

2010-04-12T08:06:00.001-07:00

I'm on a blog-candy-giveaway-stamp-set-realease-bloghop tomorrow! Come back then! ;)

Just you wait and see what I've cooked up. *giddy*

Happy Monday, sweeties!

Birthday Donuts and Guest Design Teaming it!

2010-04-05T23:18:00.004-07:00

Hey sweeties!

Guess who is one of Skipping Stones Designs Guest Designers this month? That's right! Me! :)

Remember this donut birthday card I made in January:

Well, this adorable Birthday Donut set and it's friend Whispering Wings are debuting next week! I'm so excited. :)

It's sentiments crack me up!

Bwahahahahaha! I LOVE IT! :)

Mercy...

Just you wait and see what I've got up my sleeve with SSD's fabby stamps this month! Whew! :)

Hugs,

Mushroom Gracias!

2010-03-31T09:14:00.004-07:00

Happy Wednesday!

I got to stamp yesterday and want to share what I made before next Monday. :) So welcome to your midweek BONUS! Hehehe!

Check it:

I'm kinda crushin' on this Mushroom Trio image from A Muse. And that Martha Stewart grass punch. And this happend-by-accident color combo.
See, I started out with the image. Thought it should go quite nice with this Material Girl "In Stitches" designer paper by Cosmo Cricket. And then the base should be Bermuda Bay. But it looked stark and why not use my new grass punch...but would green "go"? And I didn't want the red to get lost! Had to add the red the May Arts red felt ric rac! It was luck that the Gracias sentiment fits like a glove above those mushrooms! Then I punched it one last time with the golden rhinestones in the corner to move the eye.
And the inside is all purty too! :) Yup...a mysterious accident, this card. A yummy, happy, and semi orchestrated accident. Some cards just happen to me. And I'm glad they do.

Smooches,

Zee Carrot and Zee Garden Variety Quilt

2010-03-29T10:00:00.015-07:00

Happy Monday! :)

It's time to shake off those Monday blues and look forward to this week!

Actually, I'm looking forward to this coming weekend: Easter!

Egg hunts, peeps, girls twirling in pretty dresses and handsome little boys in ties... baskets! Happiness! And my personal fav: greetings of "He is RISEN"! Indeed.

I thought I'd show ya an Easter card I made this past week:

Gaaaaah! I {heart} this one! :)

I think it's that scrumptious paper (October Afternoon "Report Card: Bus Route"). Or maybe that cute font of "happy EASTER" on that A Muse stamp! But just maybe it's ZEE CARROT!

Just lookie at that punched carrot!

Stinkin' fun! I used Pumpkin Pie cardstock AND punched out 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1 1/4", and 1 3/8" circles. Sponged the edges. Die cut two of those leaf fronds (SU! Little Leaves Sizzix Sizzlits) and sponged it up on the edges (P.S. I'm just noticing now how perfectly those leaves go with the leaves on the paper! *squeal*). Stuck it all together.

Fainted. :)

I also got some happy mail. Last week I happened to win one of Gina K's latest stamp sets: Nana's Needlework & it's Sentiments. Mercy, is this set right up my ally! Quilts! Knitting! Cross-stitched sentiments! *gah* Good ingredients, I say! GOOOOOD!

So I made Gina and her staff (hi JESSICA!) a little THANK YA, for putting it up for me to win and for sending it off...and for being just the sweetest darn people on the face of the planet. I saw Gina comment that she really liked the new Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety pack, so I thought she just might like a Garden Variety QUILT! Of course, and who wouldn't right?!?

I do! I do! :) I Copic colored the quilt rack (E25, E37, E39), then used my W2 and W4 to shade the paper pieced quilt blocks. I also embossed a rectangle nestability underneath it. Used ribbon that matched the celery cardstock to keep the emphasis on the quilt. I can't look at these cross-stitched sentiments too much. They make my little heart so happy and geek out so that I have to look away! :) I mean, "Thanks SEW much"? Mercy! I really love that. Hehehe!

Well, I hope you're finding lots of happy in YOUR neck'a the woods, friends!

It may be dreary and rainy outside, but I can't help but think of the daffodils and EASTER CANDY to come.

Hugs,

P.S. My Spring Cleaning Sale!

2010-03-24T19:47:00.013-07:00

It's that time of year when I inventory my stamp room! Time to clear out stamps I'm not using...and boy do I have a TON of them this time! :)

I'm listing a lot over at Splitcoast over in THIS thread, but I want to put up a few here on my blog that I can't post on SCS b/c they are *current* Stampin' Up! sets. Yes, I said current. Current current current. ;) As in you can get them from an SU! demo, but why when you can get them from me for cheap....am I playing dirty, or what?!? :) If you'd like to see what a set looks like, then click on it's name and it will take you to it's SCS gallery so you can view the images in it as well as cards people have made with it. The SU! sets come in their clamshell case unless specified. (All are from a smoke-free and pet-free home, and if you want info on the shipping please tell me what stamps you are interesting in and your zip. US only. Paypal only.)

Baroque Motifs-(partially mounted) $10 Taken!

A Beautiful Thing- $5 Taken!

Bella Bloom- $5 Taken!

Circle Circus- $15 Taken!

Country Morning-current hostess set level 1 (UM) $10 Taken!

Crazy for Cupcakes-(some wood staining) $10 Taken!

Define Your Life (double mounted) $20 Taken!

Eastern Blooms- $10 Taken!

Embrace Life $10 Taken!

From the Kitchen Of- $15 Taken!

Hello Again- $5 Taken!

Pick a Petal- $20 Taken!

Pun Fun-$15 Taken!

Puns From the Past (one stamp mounted the rest UM) $10 Taken!

Priceless (larger flourish image missing) $7 Taken!

Sock Monkey-(some wood staining) $15 Taken!

Spring Song- $10

Stem Sayings $10 Taken!

Things I Love- $10 Taken!

Tree Trimmings- $10 Taken!

True Friend-$15 -Taken!

And remember to click on over to MY SCS LISTING to see a TON of other stamps sets ( can you say SU, Gina K, Our Craft Lounge, Crafty Secrets, There She Goes, Flourishes, The Greeting Farm, and Elzybells?!?) I'm selling off!! You can email me when you've got your list of sets at bevrousch@hotmail.com

Hugs to you!

Stitched Pinwheel

2010-03-20T20:21:00.005-07:00

Happy late Monday again! :)

That Monday got away from me again before I could hop on here and write up some cards. I think it's all the time I get to spend with my hubby on the weekends that does it...I get all relaxed with my to do list and forget that it means a lot on my plate on Monday. Oh well. :)

So, I did make a few cards this week!

There's one OVER HERE, that you can click on and view over at Splitcoast...and then some I saved just for you here on my blog.

This week I really wanted to play with a certain image I had won from A Muse: the Stitched Pinwheel. I love this image so! I think it's suprah cool b/c you can use it as a background...OR all on it's own!

Here's one I made for my niece.

It was her birthday yesterday and it's always a little challenge to send cards to my little nieces and nephews. They have a reputation of eating card I make...I mean, I know that *I* think my cards are just scrumptious (have to love your own work ya know!)...but until I got a phone call last year asking me if I thought a brad could poke an intestine ...that's when I realized others thought so too. Literally. :)

So my challenge when I make cards for those little ones now is: no brads, no buttons, or anything sharp...and I also try not to use dimensionals b/c it can be destroyed ten times more quickly. (Also as a tip for ya'll, I slip a clear envelope in with the card in the mailing envelope so that after the parent reads it to them, it can go in the clear envy and be played with for a while)

P.S. The ducky image is also A Muse (Little Chick) and the sentiment too (For Peeps Sake).

I inked up the stitched pinwheel this time in bashful blue and rock and rolled the edges in ballet blue. The ducky is colored with Copics and the whole image is put through my Big Shot with a rectangle nestability.

Then there is the stitched pinwheel all on it's own. Really it reminds me of a yummy stitched quilt...and you know I love quilts! :)

Check this out:

First, I cut a nice piece of Gina K's Pure Luxery cardstock (I really savor this cs! It's so nice and stiff for one layer cards! Not to mention perfect for coloring on)...it's a 3x3.5" card.

I embossed with another rectangle nestability, stamped the stitched pinwheel image in Memento black. Then I went to town with my Y21, Y15, Y17, and YR23 Copics. I also used my W2 and W4 Copics for shading around the white portions.

It really felt like it could stand on it's own without a sentiment. So.I.Left.It.

Yes, I added the half pearls and the ribbon...then I had to keep telling myself to "step away from the card!". LOL

I really love that one best. It's so simple...but it's just right, ya know? :)

Happy week to you my dearies!

Hugs,

Welcome Spring & a Dirty Dozen Challenge

2010-03-20T06:53:00.002-07:00

Hello everyone!

Happy first day of spRING to you! (Did you hear me squeal at the end of SPRING? It's cause I'm SOOO excited winter is done with hehehe)

I'm sneaking in here on "not a Monday" to play along on a Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni challenge. We have one on the 20th of every month, and I don't usually get to play, but this month is being hosted by my DD roomie, Joanne Basile, so I just had to play along!

Her challenge to us was to put winter behind us and make a card using a bird or a bee image and the restriction was: no border punches.

Take a lookies:

Of course, I was tempted at one point to pull out the scallop border punch and I had to slap my hand and say "no"...and I'm glad I did, b/c I like this much better.

The bee is actually an image from Anna Wight for Whipper Snapper (Anna is a DD Alumni too!). It's in her Little Critters stamp set, as is the sentiment. This is a cute 4x4 card, truly a "little" note. :)

If you'd like to hop over to the gallery and see what the other marvelous Dirt-ehs have cooked up, here's the LINK for you.

Have a fabby weekend sweets!

A Wee Bit o' Green and Some Others

2010-03-14T22:42:00.004-07:00

Happy Monday, dearies!

I stamped a couple of cards this weekend.

I have a some cork board up in my stamp space. It holds clippings of magazines and print outs and quickly sketched lay outs - things that made me go: must. make. that. into. a. card!!

Well, there's been a lot of ruffles up on that board lately. Ruffles are in. And they couldn't be quicker to do:

I mean, you could certainly dress them up more than this...but I was going for more ruffle focus. :) And like I said, they're pretty quick to do (just pull a string in the middle of your ribbon and gather!). So why not make a few at a time, right?!? :) P.S. That super cool cup image is from the "Let's Get Together" set by There She Goes.

Then I felt like stamping out some trees....you know I have a tree stamp problem. Mercy...how many tree stamp sets do I have? Erm...atleast 12 that I can just think of. Yeah.... I need a support group. :) Cause this is what happens:
Stamping trees in just brown and green is so 2009. ;)

They like Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, and Rich Razzleberry.
And trees like velvet ribbon too. I can tell. Me and the trees are close, ya know. :)

Make sure to stop back in on Saturday the 20th, chickies! I'll be playing along in this month's Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni challenge hosted that day by my Dirty Dozen Roomie: the ever lovely Joanne Basille.

Have a supra lucky week, friends!!

Big hugs,

Lovely on the Green: A Tuesday Trigger

2010-03-11T10:12:00.003-08:00

Happy...Thursday?!? :)

Yes, I'm here on "not a Monday" again. LOL

I was browsing some stampy blogs yesterday and came upon this week's Tuesday Trigger from Moxie Fab World. These green toile chairs inspired me to stamp!

Well, a couple of weeks ago I happened to win some A Muse easter stamps...and they've been sitting here on my desk *calling* to me. "Use me! Use ME!" they said. So after I saw those chairs, I did:I decided that egg needed to be a brown egg. I love brown eggs. The fancy background stamp used on the top portion is Stitched Pinwheel, the Happy Easter, and the Fancy Egg are all by A Muse. Also, I used my YR24, YR21, and YR14 Copics on the beautimous brown eggy and YG11, G40, and G24 on the egg's green stripes and flower.

Just a midweek fun one for ya!

Hugs!

Mon Amie

2010-03-09T15:34:00.003-08:00

Whooooohooopsie! It's Tuesday!

Monday came and went and it just hit me that I forgot to post a card! Gah! :)

Here's a 5 minute one I made this week for a friend.

I love Rubber Romance images! The lines are so chic and glamorous..not to mention, delightful to color in or use designer paper with! This one is called Jane, and after looking, I found that Rubber Romance has an Etsy shop. Sweetness! (I'd better go investigate further, if you know what I mean!) :)

I took out a sheet of water color paper, cut it into a 12"x 3.5", scored and folded it in half. Then I stamped Jane in Stazon black and pulled out my Real Red re-inker and watercolored her in. I purposely watercolored a touch out of the lines around her hair.

Then I scribbled in "Mon Amie" and tied on this luscious red satin ribbon from May Arts (available through Flourishes LLC HERE).

Easy as can be, and I do like that very much. Mmmmmhmmm!

Until next week mon amies! :)

CPS-Facebook Friday Featured Fan

2010-03-05T05:03:00.005-08:00

Happy...FRIDAY!! :)

I had to stop in and show ya something!

Tami Mayberry, from Card Positioning Systems asked me if I'd like to be their Facebook Friday Featured Fan this week. I {heart} CPS sketches!

Of course, I said YES! And when she showed me the sketch I hopped on it immediately! Here's what I did:

I really wanted some POP with the red dress, and I think Bermuda Bay did that about right. What do ya think?

The dress is watercolored and popped up. The blue highlighting is done with BG05 and BG13 Copics.

This sketch is too fantastic! Thanks for asking me, Tami! It was such fun!!!

Fishy Philosophy...An {ippity} Review

2010-02-27T16:46:00.007-08:00

Hey there!

It's Monday! In a really great way. Cause you're here! :)

I decided to have some*FUN* this week. I ordered a new stamp set from {ippity} (Unity's new sister company) and do a little review. See...uhm...I've never stamped with Unity stamps before. *gasp* I know. So when I saw their latest {ippity} release, I went a little ga-ga for the Fishy Phiosophy set.

Bonus of it all is that dear, sweet Michelle Woerner (my fellow Dirty Alumn) is selling it at her blog. And she puts some treats in with her orders! Yay! Lookie:

She threw in a cute thank you card and a couple of yards of scrumptious ribbons. No, no Michelle! Thank YOU, my dear! :)

Now, I'd heard that all of their stamps are deeply etched...but I just wasn't prepared. Look at that!

And since they come cut, and on EZ mount already...all you have to do is to pop it onto your acrylic block and start stamping. I'm impressed. :)

Well, and this all starts with loving the images, right? Oh my, yes. And boy, do I! Here's what I did:

And this:

I used my twinkling H20s to color in the fishy. The twinks really make him glimmer!

Gracious, did I stamp this week, or what? I couldn't stop. It's those cute fish.

I love the movie Finding Nemo...and that "Just Keep Swimming" sentiment had me humming that tune for a WHILE. I think I still am....

I think you're looking at a new fan of all things {ippity} (and Unity!). Oh yes. You definitely are.

Had so much fun trying out something new this week!

I hope you are each enjoying the sunshine and that it's starting to warm up around you! We have a high of 57 here today. Time to open up the doors and let the kids run around the backyard. *excited*

Happy smiles,

1 Martini, 2 Martini, 3 Martini...Floor!

2010-02-21T23:11:00.005-08:00

Happy Monday, everyone!!

I hope your weekend was fabby. We hung out and got some more unpacking done. I feel like I just might be saying that for the next year. *sigh*

Oh well, at least with unpacking also comes one of my favorite things: PURGING. Love getting rid of stuff. Almost as good as getting stuff. What a vicious circle! Hehehe

I did have time to stamp just for the fun of it this week! Great things come from "just for the fun of it". Dontcha' think? Well, take a look and assess for yourself:
Gah! I felt like going for really "chic" and "popping" colors. It doesn't matter that I was probably in jeans and my t-shirt probably had baby spit up on the shoulder or something. When I was making this card, I was in NYC with some of my BFFs. Ya know? :) Have I mentioned that I love my hobby? I do. I do. I really do.

As for the card, here are some deets:

I used Skipping Stones Design's Chic Martini stamp set (remember that if you like it enough to get it, $2 from the sale -until midnight tonight!-goes to Haiti). Some SU! retired patterned paper. An SU! paper clip, from their clips assortment. The olives we punched 1/2" and 1/4" circles with a real toothpick.

The martini glass was stamped with Memento tuxedo black, onto watercolor paper. I then lightly colored the olives intentionally off center (with SU! markers) and made them bleed a touch with my waterbrush. Once that dried, I used my C3 Copic to make the gray shadow to the side, and went over the whole thing adding sparkly details with my At You Spica glitter pens. The sketch is this past week's sketch #154 from Card Positioning Systems.

I had lots of fun with this one! :)

Make sure you tell me what ya think.

Hugs,

Blog Hop(e) for Haiti

2010-02-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hey there!

Welcome to a special blog post I'm doing for Skipping Stones Design's Blog Hop(e) for Haiti. If you are just jumping in, you should start over at the Skipping Stones Design Blog to catch all the beauties everyone has made for this blog hop.

If you did that you are coming to me from Jeanne's blog.

The intent of this hop is to do something to give back to the people who have been so devastated by the earthquake. SSD asked some of their favorite stampers to join the cause, and here we are!

So what are we doing to benefit Haiti, you ask? Every card you see along this hop is going to be auctioned off on Ebay with the proceeds going to the Red Cross towards the Haitian Relief Effort. If you would like to bid on the cards, you can go to the Skipping Stones Design Blog to click over to the auction.

But NOT ONLY is 100% of the auction proceeds going to the Red C

ross, get this: $2 from every stamp set purchased from Skipping Stone Designs from Feb. 16-22 is being donated also!!! Isn't that so generous of them?!? I'm very excited to be taking part in the Blog Hop(e). :)

Without further ado, here is my entry into the auction:

A toast to Haiti's future! *cling cling* We have to have Hop(e) for those who have suffered this tragedy.

I was so happy they let me work once again with one of their very humorous sets. :) Their stamps have such great personality and you've gotta love that! The images and sentiments here are all from their Margarita Birthday set.

If you look at the set, you'll see that the sentiment above is actually separated into three lines. Well, do you know what I did? The beauty of these stamps is that they're clear polymer. I simple snipped the stamp apart and lined up the sentiment in one long row on my acrylic block and lined it up perfectly when stamping it onto my card. Love that, right?!?

And if next time I use it I should want to have the sentiment stacked again, I just puzzle it together. Easy!

Do you like my "salt"? It's just some Martha Stewart crystal coarse glitter.

And this set even comes with sentiment for inside the card! CUUUUUUUTE! :)

Oh my dearies, I sooo hope you get a chance to go over to the SSD shop and pick out some goodies that maybe you've been eyeing for a bit. This is the best time to get them! Help others while enabling yourself?!? That's a trick that doesn't come by everyday. Hop(e) to it!! :D

And by golly, you'd better stay on this blog hop! I'm super honored to be doing this thing with 31 other AMAZINGLY talented women...I mean really. Their work is out of this world and the winning auction bidder *WHEW* what a stack of greatness they'll get!

So hop(e) on over to the ever sweet Peggy Russell and keep on going!

CHEERS!

P.S. What? You're expecting somethin' else? Ok.....well, guess what! SSD is hiding a few prizes along the hop. So leave some comments along the way to enter your chance to win!

Hehe. You bunch'a lucky ducks! :)

Come Back Tomorrow..

2010-02-15T10:31:00.002-08:00

..to see what I've been cookin' up! Geeeeeeeh! :D I can't *wait* to show you. Here's a clue:

Hugs,

Moving!

2010-02-08T13:19:00.004-08:00

Hey friends!

I'm taking this week off of my Monday blog post.

We were just offered a tremendous new house here on the base and we have to move *immediately*! We're jumping on it and working like crazy to pack and move a couple of blocks away by this next weekend!

I had made a card but really don't have any time to photograph it and write it up.

I just know you dearies will forgive me for bailing on you for this week so that I can live in lavish new digs.

Big hugs!

A Muse Valentines!

2010-02-01T10:43:00.002-08:00

Hi there cuties!

Are you ready to see the last of my Valentines? :) I finished them up last night!

You know that feels good.

What doesn't feel good is STREP. And it's hit my household up pretty heavy this week and it's started up on my girls this morning, so please excuse the less-than-wordy post. I promise I'll be back to my usual self *next week* when MY HUSBAND IS HOME.

GAH! I can't wait till THEN! :)

I finished my Valentines up pretty quickly with some more of those A Muse stamps I bought. Lookie:

:) Love this song. Love how this card turned out. Love.

(This is their Cruisin' stamp)

I freehanded the sentiment and the hearts with my Copic Multi Liner (0.1) and colored it all in with my Copics and At You Spica glitter pens. The ribbon is May Arts.

And lastly:

This Elyse stamp is so darn adorable. I really enjoyed coloring her in.

The chipboard letters are Thickers from American Crafts (they were white and I colored them dark brown-E47 with my Copics). The pattern paper is also American Crafts.

There you have it! Next week I'll attempt to get caught up on my Birthday cards! It's going to be sparkly!! :D Can't wait till you see.

Healthy hugs to you! Drink that vitamin C, sweeties!

Moo-chas Grass-ias

2010-01-23T14:38:00.006-08:00

Hello there!

It's Monday again! Time for another piece of stampy love from my neck'a-the woods.

This week I got a great dealio from a fellow stamper who was reducing her stash of A Muse stamps. A Muse stamps are so darn fun!

And I knew just what I wanted to do when they got to my mailbox. This:

Gahahaahaaaa!!!

Don'tcha just love that cow and most especially the Moo-chas Grass-ias?!?

Oh yes.

I chose to go bright with the greens (Gable Green, Green Galore, and a touch of Glorious Green), and the pink ribbon (Melon Mambo).

I went crazy with the snipping on the 1" strips of greens, while I watched Conan's last show (tear).

I stamped the cutie cow onto whisper white with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored in her umm....milkparts... and snout(?) with R81 and R85 Copics. My son actually was looking over my shoulder while I was coloring her in. And *of course* he asked me what part I was coloring on her. Uuummm. Milkparts. Yup. :)

As for the little sign, I just added a Kaiser lime rhinestone and a teensy weensy piece of green galore grass.

I. love. this. card. :)

It's been sitting here on my table and I smile every time I walk by.

But I shall send it off this week. Yes. Must let go you know.

Must justify my spending.

Even though the joy of the making is good enough for me! How about you?

Moooo,

Kanga Love

2010-01-17T16:34:00.004-08:00

Goooooood Monday, peeps!

Aren't you happy it's Monday? Well? Aren'tcha? I know you are. You have to be. You. are. here. :)

Not feelin' the Monday love? Well, that's ok. I know a little kangaroo that IS. Lookie:

Aww. I know.

I kinda love this image.

It's from SU!'s Build-a-Roo set. It comes with hearts to stamp in...and I would have, buuuuut...I had a weird dream the other night.

I dreamt I was in a paper world. There were places called October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye, and Graphic 45.

So I woke up, jotted down the idea and decided that I needed to make a paper scene ASAP. And here you have it.

Kanga happens to be in the Basic Grey Sultry hills, with the SU! Bashful Blue patterned sky. She's also throwing some BG Sultry hearts in the wind.

I did *not* underlay her here because I felt like it would disrupt the scene. She's stamped onto watercolor paper and watercolored with markers. The hearts are from a circle scallop that I dissected into pie pieces. I *heart* paper scenes!

Next up, I made valentines with the kids. They are very simple and I'm inserting them into my Valentines that I'm sending to close family.

I cut watercolor paper to 4 x 5.25 to fit inside the cards. I then had the kids overlap their hands so that their thumbs and pointer fingers shaped a kind'a heart. Traced that with pencil, then watercolored the lines with marker. Stamped this sentiment with Stazon jet black. We stuck red sticky tape hearts into the heart shape and I poured dazzling diamonds onto it. Can you see it?

According to my 4 year old girlie, they're "vewy sparkly and magical, Mama!"...I've been having to keep a close eye on them. That 4 year old keeps trying to thieve them. Stinker.

So are you sending Valentines out?

Making them? Don't tell me you're buying them. I don't want to know that kinda garbage. ;) You know I'm kidding right? I'd love ya even if you bought a $3 printed, mass produced card. Even then. :)

Team Conan,

Jane

2010-01-10T09:29:00.007-08:00

Happy Monday sweets! :)

Did you have a good weekend? Did you freeze? It seams like everyone I talk to lately is freezing their hinies off. From Florida (35) to North Dakota (-14). Hey! I'm not judging. Both those numbers are cold, ya'll! I know both of those well.

Yup! It's January! :)

My last post was *bright* and LOUD and cheeky! So here's a palette cleanser to clean the donut off your breath. ;)
Jane Austin. I've been watching a lot of Jane Austin this week. Jane makes me want to watercolor. She always has that effect on me. I love you Jane.

I was watching Persuasion *faint*..and this little watery tree slid out of my waterbrush and markers.

Hello beautiful. I want to live in your warm little world. I really do.

This sentiment is from one of my favorite Stampin' Up sets "Refuge and Strength". And I like the little yellow leaf frond ghosting it near the sentiment.

I. love. watercoloring.

And if you like that...just you wait till next week my dears!

We're gonna dance a happy dance together.

35 days until Valentine's Day is all I'm sayin'!

Warm hugs,

Skipping Stones Design Blog Hop and BLOG CANDY!

2010-01-04T16:04:00.017-08:00

Happy Tuesday!

If you are coming to my blog today from Erin's blog: Welcome!

If you are just checking in on me, we're on a blog hop today so hop on in and enjoy the ride!

If you'd like to start from the beginning of the hop you can go HERE.

Skipping Stones Design sent me a lovely stamp set for the hop. It's a set called Donut Birthday and it hasn't been released yet so my card is just a SNEAKY PEEK! How fun!

They also sent me a set to give away as BLOG CANDY so make sure you read my whole post and leave a comment so I can enter you! There is blog candy all along the hop so make sure to stop at each spot and leave a comment to enter! The winners will be announced on the Skipping Stones Design site on January 8th!

Without further ado, I present to you my sample from Donut Birthday:

Donuts! *Gah* I love donuts! I mean, WHO doesn't love a donut! And I love that SSD didn't just make a cutesy set here. Yes, it has your "Happy Birthday" sentiment and "Thank You", but they have some fabulously funny sentiments too- which I really went for!"29th" Birthday! Ha!! Isn't that so true, though?!? :) I've got lots of friends who would love a card with that on it! But. WAIT! It gets better! Let's open'er up!
More donuts! And these pop out at you as you open the card! Wish they'd just pop into my mouth. :) This card makes me hungry. LOL
If you've never made one of these, all you do is take a punched out circle, cut into it to make a spiral and then attach the center of the spiral to the card, and the end to the image you want to pop out. Easy and fun!"From your '110 lb.' friend". Ahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa! Ooo...mercy, I need a Kleenex! :)

It doesn't matter how many times I've read that...it still cracks me UP! And how appropriate to have the donuts next that sentiment. Hehehe.

Skipping Stones Design just did an AWESOME job with this set and I know it's going to be a big hit for them (especially when you see the other sentiments in it!), so tune in to them to pick up one for yourself! I personally can't wait to make a card for a police officer we have in our family. He's gonna kill me, and I'm gonna love it. LOL

So on to the BLOG CANDY!

I have the set Blocks & Borders-Swirl up for grabs:

Dear SSD, I want to keep this set. If I enter myself into my blog candy, could I win it? Pretty please with a donut on top?!? :D No? *sigh*

Well, you guys leave a comment letting me know what you think of Donut Birthday (if you can stop laughing, anyway)! And DO go on with the blog hop and see what the other SUPREMELY talented ladies have whipped up for us to ogle over. The next stop is Chelsea's blog. Click ---->>>HERE<<---- to go to her blog!

Your 110ish lb. friend,

HB and The Process

2010-01-04T10:06:00.007-08:00

Happy Monday ya'll!

The first Monday in 20-10. I think we should just rip off the shackles of "Monday" and rename it something more appealing..like Canday. Yeah. Canday. :)

Ok. No more hating on Monday. I happen to love Monday now ya know. :)

This week, I'm going to walk you through my process. How do I go from nothing to a card? You're about to find out so look snappy!

1) Find inspiration. Here is a magazine picture that made those butterflies act up again.
2) Next comes the papers. What do I have that makes me feel the that inspiration? And also I choose my neutrals. Should I go with stark black lines or warm brown lines? Should I go with clean white or natural/homier feeling white? Vanilla? How much paper? Do I want a clean style or layers?3)Next, assemble the cast. Here: Stampin' Up! Woodgrain background block; American Crafts white Thickers (chipboard stickers); Saltbox Candle Glow set (on sale HERE right now at Amuse for 7.50!); round acrylic block (found HERE)4) Cut and Score

5) LO (Lay Out). Visualize the magic that's about to be! Do a little happy hop, cause it's gonna be fabby! :)6) Ink it up, baby! 7) Don't forget the jams. *Critical* You are about to color! You can't just start coloring with out some groove. Trust me. You need the jams. 8)Sustenance. 'Nough said. :)9) Color you groovin' thang! If possible, add sparkle! (here: colored with Copics and At You Spica glitter pens)10)Underlay. Are you going to pop something up? You'd better stamp the image below it. This serves great purposes: a) you can line everything up nice and tidy. b) if there are pieces to the image that are too tiny to cut out this can save your behind by eliminating cutting. c) professionalism. If you ever get a card with underlay you'll notice this little detail and wiggle with glee that you are loved enough to receive such a card. I know I have. :)

11) Hmmm and haaa... do you need to change something? Do you hate it and have to throw it in the trash or worse: stick it on the dart board? Do you have a Monday Blog and have no choice but to post it? OR do you just think it's lovely and fabulous and can't take how brilliant this hobby is? *sigh* You've done it! The world is a better place. :)

12) Picture it.

Fin.

So there you are. How one card is birthed. And if you cut out the step with the MnMs then you gain no baby weight! But who would do that.......nutso.

I's got a surprise for you! Tomorrow I'm going to be featuring a card for a stamp release blog-hop. A few of us Dirties where asked to participate and when I saw the stamp set *GAH* I could NOT say no, yo. *big grin* You'll see what I mean when you come back tomorrow!

Warm hugs,

Celebraaaa'ate!

2009-12-27T18:01:00.004-08:00

Sometimes I make a card that just makes me Siiiiiiiiiiiiing! :)

It all started last night. My husband and I were talking and while I was listening to him..no really I was listening ...I can do like 4 things at once! I swear it. Well anyway.. I was listening to him and looking over his shoulder and...that Baja Breeze ribbon next to the Rich Razzleberry ribbon just kinda gave me butterflies. Just out of the blue.That's when I knew. A card had to be made. Oh yes. A card was. going. to. be. made. Uh-huh!

And what a card. I'm in love.

I'm in Three-Layered-Sheep-go-to-Vegas-for-New-Years L-O-V-E. Love.

Happy New Years my darlings! Cheers to all things new!

Window Ribbon Wreath

2009-12-19T20:47:00.003-08:00

Hey everyone!

I am so excited for the start of this week! Only 4 more sleeps until Christmas morning! :)

I can't wait till my kids open their presents. The saying "it is better to give than to receive" is never more true than for parents at Christmas. Am I right?

So what do you think of the card I've got for ya?

Isn't that ribbon wreath awesome? I had stumbled upon THIS card at the Splitcaost gallery, which lead me over to this video that explains just how to make a ribbon wreath of your own.

I love a crafty challenge and had to make one immediately. "Hold my calls" if ya know what I mean. I had to do this Right. AWAY! LOL So watch and see if you have to too:

I used this retired Kiwi Kiss double sided satin ribbon, and I'm so happy I did.

When you listen to the video, you tend to miss it when she talks, but the wreath is made with a 2 yard length of 3/8" ribbon. No, you wouldn't want to make a ton of these for a swap or anything, but it does have a WOW factor, doesn't it?

And it's the perfect card to have on my blog this week, dont'cha think? :)

Merry Christmas, ya'll! Be blessed by the Lord's birth and love one another!

Until! Hugs,

Yummies

2009-12-14T09:22:00.007-08:00

Haaaaappy Monday!

Did you notice I skipped a week? Yeah, I realized on Thursday. Oi..my life. :)

Oh well. I've got TWO things to show you this week.

But first! How has your December gone?? Are you loving the Christmas cheer? I'm trying to suck in as much of it through my eyeballs as I can. Lights, trees, candles, garlands, my baby's drawings. Aaaaand I should probably stop taking in that Christmas cheer through my tummy. Lawwd..there are way to many sweeties in my life trying to give me a Christmas cookie here and Christmas candy there. I. Am. Weak. I can't say no. Thank goodness I've taken up swimming again.

Speaking of goodies, have you seen that Gina K's Design Team came out with a holiday cookbook PDF? It's free, and it's fabby! You have to go look at it HERE and SAVE it. It's free and there is no reason for you not to go run and do it...after you finish with ME of course. :)

Well as I scanned it I came upon Jennie Harper's "Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bar" recipe. And. I. Just. Fell. On. The. Floor. I made them immediately.

Then I thought to myself...wouldn't these be a great treat for my darling's work buddies and their wives? Oh yes. So I did. Loooook:

So I took each bar and put it in a clear bag-twisty tie configuration (Wilton). Then I tied two of those together (believe me when I tell you that if you've ever tried one of these babies, you KNOW that just giving ONE to couple would produce a fight...and this is suppose to be about Christmas CHEER, right? Onward..). Then I made these tags:

Don't they just SCREAM Christmas? :)

I used the Sizzix Scallop Envelope die and popped those out in Creamy Caramel card stock, stamped the sentiment on the front with the Sweet Season set by SU!. Then I sponged the edges, faux stitched with gel pen, added some felt ric-rac (squeals of happiness!), and then signed the back of the envies.

I also added a 3/4" circle with a hole punched through it to turn in into a tag. I know. I love that too. :)

I tied the tags on with the embroidery thread I had used to tie the two bars together. And of course the ribbon. This is super vintage ribbon I picked up at a garage sale...umm..maybe 7 years ago. It's on a never ending spool so..I had lots to play with.

I loaded these babies into a box for my hubby to take to work today. He kissed me goodbye this morning and told me he couldn't wait to play Santa with my treats. Love.

I love Christmas. I love Christmas. I just LOVE Christmas. Love love love.

What was that other thing I made, you ask?

Well, I have two ladies in my life who are having birthdays soon. 'Member a few weeks ago when I confessed I was woefully low on Birthday cards? I wasn't lyin'. The cupboards are bare folks. It's ugly. So I made these:

Simple design, simply fun to make. The cupcake is from Wagon Full of Fun set and the sentiment is from Stem Sayings set. Argyle Cuddlebug folder. That pink is Melon Mambo. Mmm. I might need to go watch some Biggest Loser episodes and renounce food for a few days. It's been a yummy filled week. :)

Hugs,

Happy Snowman

2009-11-30T10:03:00.003-08:00

Happy Monday everyone!

It's been a fun week here at my house. My ever sweet Mother In-Law came on Saturday and is here for a few days. :) I just adore having her here. And I don't need to tell you that SO DO THE CHILDREN. LOL

I did get to stamp before she got here though. I try to be equally loving to each card I make. But I have to warn you that...this card you're about to see? It happens to be my favorite Christmas Card/Thank You I have made this year.

Love Love. *happy sigh* I love this retired SU! set Happy Winter. It's too cute. And I'm so happy I got to use it.

I did the basic Top Note Quilt design that I came up with HERE. And then chose the layout with this bow made with May Arts ribbon.

Stamped on the trees and the snowman, stamped an extra snowman onto white cardstock and colored him with Copics, cut him out and popped him up on pop dots. I chose a vintage button from my collection and threaded a sliver of cardstock through it. Finishing it off, I went for some dots with my tombo multi glue and dazzling diamonds glitter for SPARKLE!

What do ya think? :)

It's after Thanksgiving now...so I can say this without getting hate mail:

Merry Christmas sweeties!

Tree Hug

2009-11-22T19:51:00.003-08:00

Happy MONDAY!! :)

I know. There are better days of the week. BUT funny thing: I look forward to Mondays now. Mondays mean I get to post a card on my blog. *happiness*

For this week's post I'm choosing to post this beauty:

You know how much I love tree images. :)

This tree is from SU!s Season of Friendship set, the background grid is from Cornish Heritage Farms and is called Vintage Ledger, and those stinkin' cute letters are from Making Memories- Passport collection, Canvas Alpha Stickers. I did add the brown outline on the letters with a Chocolate Chip marker, so don't expect that alpha to look that way- but I *heart* that collection anywho...don't you?

SOOOOO. What do you think of my bloglift? I had Michelle over at Shabby Creations do it. I had loved what she had done for me before, but I was ready for something new. And boy is she quick! THANKS a MILLION Michelle!

Are ya'll ready for the turkey? Green bean casserole? Pumpkin pie for breakfast? 5 am Friday specials? Oh YEAH. Bring it baby. It's gonna be a goood week.

Tree hug @ ya,

Heya!

2009-11-15T19:21:00.005-08:00

Heya!

I'm so happy at the start of this week! My hubby should be home by next weekend! Whoop! :) I can do this thing!

This week's card is for a fun teenager at my church. She came to my baby shower, and I noticed on the church calendar that it's her birthday next week. I've been itching to stamp something young and fun. :) Lookie:

What do ya think? This fun image is from Hanna Stamps and I believe is their T-Shirt Hanna. She comes with lots of fun little sayings to stamp onto her t-shirt.

Kept the card pretty simple. Stamped it on to Gina K's premium cardstock with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored it in with my Copics and At You Spica glitter pens. You can see some of the glitter deets here:

And then finished it off with this cute white polka-dotted May Arts ribbon and a vintage button and thread.

Oh to be this young and cute again! LOL But I'll take my smile wrinkles as evidence at how good life has been to me so far. Besides, I might still be able to pull off high-tops and pigtails...when I clean the house.

Smiles,

Kiwi Flowers

2009-11-08T14:48:00.005-08:00

Hi peeps! Happy Monday to you!

Did you have a good weekend? Get to relax? For a minute? :) I think I may have gotten about an hour's worth in. :) My hubby is in Arizona for the month on a detail so I've got all 4 babies. I have been blessed with these munchkins...the trick is to feel that blessing as much as possible through the messes and crying and 2s and 3s and 4s. Oh, and nursing. Feeling those blessings! :)

Anywho! I *have* stamped this week. My church is having a craft show and they are hosting one of the tables for a mission for the Congo. I wrote myself down for two sets of cards for them to sell. They are both the same design:

So I've been slowly but surely cranking out 24 of these puppies. The flower panel is in whisper white cardstock, stamped with the flowers from Happy Harmony in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation stamping. The paper is then spritzed with water (so that it bleeds a little) and dried with the heat gun. The verse sentiment is from the set Refuge and Strength.

Happy Harmony is a retired SU! set that I just refuuuuse to get rid of. Which leads me to......

where I stand on Stampin' Up! and their big announcement that came out while I was in the hospital with my baaaabie. For those of you who are unawares, SU! announced that they would drop demonstrators who actively sold or represented (as in design teams) any other stamp company or company that sold stamping goods the SU! also sells. (I'm paraphrasing b/c LAWD no one wants to go over all thaat again) As a result..many and I meeean MANY demonstrator friends of mine have dropped b/c they wouldn't sign the agreement.

Where do I stand, you ask?

I have chosen to take this opportunity to say "tah!" to SU! The reason being: I do not take kindly to being told what or who or when I can promote whatnot in my blog or email or in person. SO I'm not.

As a result, you'll see me using other company's things and retired sets and whatever I'd like to use that day. Just so you're not cornfused.

Well, friends, I hope you have a marvelous week! I hope you start making those Thanksgiving grocery lists. Figure out how much turkey you need.

Drooling my way to November 26th,

Wittle Cardinal Thanks

2009-11-01T21:21:00.004-08:00

Happy Monday everyone! :)

I hope your week was fabulous. Did you sneak in lots of "fun sized" candy? Oh common...fess up! We're all friends here. LOL I had...oh..a fewwwww.

Really, I didn't indulge myself too much, but only b/c I'm nursing and I don't want the baby to have all that sugah! So go ahead and sneak in another for me, K?

This week I made a little Christmas Thank You card.

I used that sweet little A Flower for All Seasons set by Stampin' Up! again. What can I say, it was on my table. And that cardinal was eyeing me. I had to ink him up.

Though I have built up quite the stash of Christmas cards throughout the year, I've decided to go with a picture Christmas card this year instead. *Gasp* I know. :)

A)Everyone always wants to see how big the kids have gotten this year

B)They're cheap

C)THEY'RE EASY

D) They come with their own envelopes

So there. C kinda tipped the scales for me.

I'm all for easy lately. Easy is my friend. You can even call me easy and I'll take it as a compliment. Cause. I'm. That. Nice. :)

With that in mind, I left the sentiment off of the card so I can write the little thanks inside.

First week of November coming down the pike, people! Look snappy!

Go get'em!

Hugs,

Sunflower Birthday

2009-10-26T10:47:00.004-07:00

Happy Monday, friends!

I got my stamp on this morning. This weekend I went through my card stash, organizing it into categories and I realized I need to stop making so many generic cards and start stamping cards I really neeeeeed! Like BIRTHDAY cards! Lawd, I am all OUT of Birthday cards. And November is quite the birthday month in my family. Time to get crackin' if you get what I'm sayin'.

The first birthday coming up is my Mother In-Law. I think I've mentioned more than once that I Love Love Looooove her. She was just here this past week visiting and meeting baby Isaiah. Aaaaah, she is the best. Anywho.. she isn't really a floofy birthday kinda lady. A cupcake card isn't quite right...sparkles are out of the question...she is a real naturist. So I went with this sweet little sunflower image from SU!'s A Flower For All Seasons set. I colored it in with my SU! markers and aquapainter. The sentiment is from Crazy for Cupcakes.

I really love these colors together. Whatcha' think? :)

Have a wonderful week peeps!

No Really, I'm Fine

2009-10-25T14:10:00.006-07:00

Hey out there!

I'm quite proud that I've found a second to get over here.

Where have I been? Well first, let me say THANKS for being concerned about me and emailing. :) I know I kinda just dropped out of the blogosphere , so allow me to explain.

Last we talked, I was at Stampin' Up convention. For any of you who have

been to convention, you'll know just how tiring it can be. But, being pregnant at convention proved to be super exhausting to me so I stopped blogging there. Then I came home and being in my 34th week of pregnancy slept a lot (besides taking care of my family, of course). Man, I sound slothful! LOL

Then in my 37th week, I had my sweet baby boy:

~Isaiah Dale~

Isn't he yummy?!? Yup, I'm holding him allll the time, ya'll. Oh golly, I love me a newborn! Uh-huh!

So then I went through the learning sleep patterns with Isaiah, and now we're on track. Everyone is sleeping well again.

The ladies at my church gave me a baby shower, so I just finished some Thank Yous for them:

As you might imagine, having 4 little ones now, my life is getting more and more hectic. So I'm going to institute a once a week blog from now on. Look for me on Mondays. :)

Thanks ya'll! I've appreciated you guys checking in on me by email and your sweet words of encouragement. Mondo hugs,

Day 1- Memento Mall and Crazy Stampers!

2009-08-05T13:15:00.005-07:00

Hi!!

I was first in line this morning with my sweet roommate, Kris Gilbert, at Memento Mall.

Memento Mall is this fun shop that's open during convention to demonstrators only. It carries

all kinds of goodies and souvenirs (bearing the SU! logo of course), that aren't traditionally

available to us. ALLL convention attendees scramble to go and see what is available each year,

and I scramble earlier than most...*cough cough* 5 am came around pretty early this year! (Can you say nap at 10 am?!? Yeah...my prego self was OUT at 10! LOL) Here are some pics of

Memento Mall!

Kris and I's bags sitting in line first!

My faithful roommate awake at dawn...well, even BEFORE dawn *groan*. LOL

The line filling up behind us and all of us CRAZY STAMPERS swapping cards....

And the yummy goodies displayed for us to oooogle over while we waited for the doors to open (was that mean or what?!? LOL)

One last picture...

I had the most drop-dead meal for lunch today! DROOOL!

Copper Canyon Restaurant in the Radisson lobby. You can't handle the roast beef! :) ...or the mango cake (good glorrrry my eyes were rolling to the back of my head!)

Enjoying my birthday in SLC! (Thanks honey for watching the kids!)

Convention: Geared Up and READY!

2009-08-04T16:32:00.003-07:00

After many busy weeks, I am finally in Salt Lake City! Woohoo! :)

I've been prepping for it like a crazy woman, making swaps, roomie gifts, not to mention making my HOUSE ready for my absence for a week...picture my husband taking a week off of wor

k (blessssss'em), and taking care of my 3 little ones. My house is gonna be trashed, people. I tried to make it so it wouldn't be...but yeah, I'm gonna face reality and say: totally trashed! LOL

I have to show you a couple of things!

It's kind of a tradition that you make your Stampin' Up! Convention roommate a "roomie gift".

It can be simple and bought, and some people go all out with mini albums and handmade sweetness. In an effort to keep things simple this year (we all need more simple!), I ordered some of the Ribbon Originals packs from the new SU! catalog and hoped my

roommates didn't have these yet. I then made a little folder for them to go in and called it good. What do ya think?

I simplified my swaps this year too, by deciding on going with one major organized swap, and then making 50 general swaps for trading here and there and EVERYWHERE here at convention. I'm pretty sure I traded a swap with a lady in the bathroom last year (after we'd washed our hands of course!). Crazy swappers. Glad I'M not one. Pshhh. LOL

Here's the design I decided to make for my Splitcoast Dinner Swap (50 cards!)

Don'tcha just love this cutie-pie bee from the Teacher's Pet set?

I omitted the sentiment that goes with him and used the Stem Sayings set as the sentiment.

My favorite was glittering them all up. Eye candy, right! :)

And I made THESE Christmas cards for my general swapping (another 50!).

So now I'm here! And the party begins!

Tonight I'm having dinner at the Blue Iguana with some more fellow SCS SU! demos. More on that later!

Tomorrow....Memento Mall baby! I love shopping...and getting up early to shop with a couple thousand of your fellow demos is....GEEEEEE! There are not words! LOL

So make sure you come back and catch my Convention Week! :)

New Yums!

2009-07-07T13:33:00.005-07:00

I received the most delightful brown box on my doorstep yesterday afternoon! Oh, Brown...the happiness your truck brings me! :)
Especially when the box has "Stampin' Up" splayed on the side. Glee!
I had to play around a little with my new schtuff! And here are a couple of cards I've made so far.
Last night I played with my new Farm Life set. I'm such a sucker for anything farmy. Chickens especially, and there's a rooster in this set...so yeah, sold on sight! :)
I stamped this scene onto a piece of the new SU! wood sheets. They are sheets of super thin wood adhered to carstock and I was worried that maybe they'd be fragile to work with, but no! They are very pliable, and I was so impressed I had to make an experiment card. And you're looking at it! :)
I stamped this with Stazon jet black ink, then colored it in lightly with my re-inkers and highlighted the clouds and barn with white gel pen. The lower half of the wood sheet, I decided to try brayering to color the wood. I used some Bordering Blue ink and brayered it and then lightly sanded it once it was dry. I sanded it just to bring back a touch of the wood grain.
What else did I try? Well, I held my breath, and closed my eyes and ran a piece of wood sheet scrap through my sewing machine! Happiness! Success!!
You can sew through these puppies! JOY!! :)
And bonus: my hubby thought it makes a good man card! Thank ya Lord! It's so hard to make a card that doesn't make him say "not for a guy".
Yes. I'm in love with these wood sheets. It's official. Onward!This morning I made this card with my new Build-A-Roo set. Gah! In Jan Tink fashion I just have to say it: I LOVE MYSELF! It's truely amazing to find a hobby that makes you feel this great...I'm blessed to stamp, I say! :)
I stamped this sweetie onto watercolor paper, used my SU! markers and aquapainter to watercolor her and her baby in and the rest just kinda fell into place. Other new SU! things on this card: Lattice Big Shot die, and Perfect Details Texture plate for the Big Shot.
I'm so happy I ordered this Lattice die! My mind is a'swimming in ideas to make with it!
Also, your eyes aren't foolin' you. I sewed on this card. Just without thread! Basically, I took the thread out of my machine and used it as a piercing machine. So quick and easy! :)
There you have it!
What do you think?

Crinkled In Color Flower

2009-06-11T12:58:00.004-07:00

Made this one for today's Way to Use It challenge over on SCS: Crinkled Cardstock Flowers.
Short, sweet, and simple. You can find the tutorial for these flowers HERE, and the recipe for this card HERE.
So what do ya think? :)

Father's Day Yachts

2009-06-10T14:13:00.003-07:00

I accomplished a great feat, for me, in the past couple of days.
I designed, executed, and JUST sent off 10 Father's Day cards.
Whew!
(and NO, I do not have 10 fathers. There just happens to be 10 special guys in my husband and I's collective families that hold the title of 'Father')
Here's what I did.
And a close up.
I really like this Father's Day sentiment from the SU! All Holidays set, but didn't feel like mixing in another set. So I went for some paper folding (also known as origami).
You can find the instructions on making these cute paper yachts right HERE. (I started out with a 2 1/2" piece of dsp for a finished 2 1/4"ish sized yacht)
Also, this was a great way for me to use up some pretty paper scraps. Well...maybe I shouldn't call them pretty. Handsome. Yes, handsome. LOL
These cards even got the thumbs up from my hubby for not being girly. Yay! LOL
So what do ya think? :)

Five Minutes for Demo Support

2009-06-09T08:35:00.004-07:00

Took 5 minutes this morning to make this quickie thank you card for SU! Demonstrator Support. They are always so super helpful, and chipper on the phone! :)
(Hard to come by great service like that now a days...ya know?)
The apple is from the Tart & Tangy set, the sentiment is from the Smarty Pants set.
Hope you're having a great morning!!

Poor, Neglected Blog! (and NEW In Colors ALERT!)

2009-06-08T10:55:00.007-07:00

A tragic accident occurred a couple of weeks ago. My darling 1 1/2 year old decided to come over and sit on my lap while I was on my computer and spilled her cup of water all over my laptop. Wasn't that dear of her? *sigh*
What can you do..I mean after you scream and cry, that is? Well, you try to recover what you can...even after you find out the next day that your once sweet and speedy laptop is now temperamental and full of operational obstacles. And you mourn. For a couple weeks. While having to use your husband's desktop...and conform to his set up until you can buy your own laptop again. It's going to be a little while. *double sigh*
BUT, now that I have a few KEY photo editing programs set up on his computer, I can now happliy upload what I've been up to in my stamp room. I know you want to see!
It's been quite a whirlwind of stamping goodness lately. Just ask any Stampin' Up! demo! They'll tell you! (especially if they expedited they're order...cause uh...I kinda usually do...he...yeah)
So I have allllll of the new Stampin' Up In Colors right here on my desk..along with the markers...and ribbons...and textured carstocks...and inks...and pads...and, well, I ordered it all.
And I've been playing, you see.
See?
This is the new Circle Circus set, matched up with the Celebrate Everything set, and some new yummy In Colors: Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, and Crushed Curry. Yum, huh? I'm totally in love with all 6 of these new In Colors!
Next I made this:Since I have the new 2009-2010 SU! catty right here, I can see that one of the new Designer Series Paper packs has a really cool color combo of: Taken with Teal, Ruby Red, Sahara Sand, and Basic Grey. I subed in Bermuda Bay for the Taken with Teal, the white cardstock is Naturals White, and I stamped this image from A Wish for Peace with Stazon and used my re-inkers to color it in lightly. The whole intention in designing this one is that....drum roll, please....I'm planning on going to the SU! Convention in August! (insert happy hopping around here) Thus, I need swap cards. This one was designed and shall be one of those. :)
And who, from Splitcoast Stampers could go to convention without an SCS nametag? Not me!
Belinda King created this year's design. I modified it with the new in colors, and in color polka-dot ribbon! I used the Melon Mambo as the base, Crushed Curry as the name plate, Shimmery White for the oval, Soft Suede for the ink, as well as the Soft Suede polka-dot grosgrain ribbon.

Can you take ONE more card? LOL
I had to make a quick birthday card for my Father-in-law.Isn't this new Crushed Curry color perfect for beer? LOL And the fabulous addition of the In-Color markers makes it so easy to color it in. ...OH! And see the label? That's a new punch, that I pre-ordered. It's called the Modern Label punch.
All of this new fantastica will be available to everyone on July 1st. Seriously. You're going to love all the new stuff! :)
Hugs!

You Live Once Rose

2009-05-21T21:56:00.002-07:00

Guess who found her stamping Mojo?!?
Meeeeee!
*sniff* Stamping Mojo, I missed you. Welcome home. Don't ever do that to me again! You had me worried sick!
...
Ok. I'm back.

Friday's Limited Supplies challenge is up over at Splitcoast. So I played!
Isn't it FABULOUS?!? :D I'm just so happy to have my mojo back ya'll! (you can find this card's recipe over HERE)
When I started forcing myself to stamp the other day, I suspected something was wrong when my hand curled up and wouldn't press my images right, when my color combos suuucked...when in general my card were BLAH.
So I took today off and re-organized my stamp room. I re-organized all my card stock, stamps and tables. And VOILA! My mojo showed up. I think Disorder had taken it captive. I've heard of it doing that, but in the past I've had no issue stamping in absolute madness and piles of used rubber and bits of inked paper.
Aaaaah!
We can all sleep in peace tonight. All is right in the universe. :D
Hugs,

Celebrate Summer!

2009-05-20T11:13:00.002-07:00

Today was the Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge over at Splitcoast.
I love playing along with these ladies! Some months I'm not able to, but (hooray) today I had a few minutes to put into a card! :)
The challenge this month was "H20". Christine had us use watercoloring, summer as the focus, and only 2 embellishments (I went with ribbon and half-pearls).

What do ya think? :)

You can check out the whole gallery of those who played along HERE!
Have a great day!

Bright and Charming Gardeners

2009-05-19T10:45:00.002-07:00

Hiya!
I got to play in this week's Color Challenge over at Splitcoast! This week, Emily picked the colors Purely Pomegranate, Only Orange, and Brilliant Blue. Whew those are some bright ones! :)
I didn't have any Only Orange designer paper or ribbon, so I subbed in the pumpkin pie paper and Tango Tangerine ribbon.
This Side Kick Saying set is one of my favorite sets ever! It's a retired hostess set from...like 2 catalogs ago?...but man, I'm not sure I'll ever let it go!
I re-stamped the flower image twice more on the side of the original image to get all 3 colors in there.
It's stamped in Close to Cocoa craft ink onto glossy white cardstock, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The flowers are colored in and the words are highlighted with Copics.
So what do ya think? :)

On another note, I can't wait to stamp more often! I'm trying to get settled here in WA. There are so many things to figure out, errands to run (things we've put off during Michael's training in FL- like Dr's appts, homeschooling curriculumn research), church searching. It's a lot of work to get settled into a new place! I'll feel so much better when the last on that list is done.
Church searching is exhausting and I just want to sit still for a while. :)
Hope you're well out there!

I did! I did get to stamp!

2009-05-11T12:27:00.002-07:00

I got to stamp in my very own stamping room this morning! I spent an afternoon last week trying to unpack my stamping area. Well, I got half-way through it and quit! Too much stuff! Too many tools, sets, shelves, etc. It beat me! :)
Then last night I had some time to sit down and stamp, but decided to watch The Office with my hubby instead.
So, this morning I was determined to stamp in today's Try a New Technique challenge over at Splitcoast. I sat down and did this bandanna technique pretty quickly, and since only half of my room is unpacked, kept the rest of the card simple too. You can find it's recipe over HERE.
Allow me to say that stamping ROCKS!
I'm happy to have all my creative things available to me again. I don't know that I should go another month without it all again! :)

Gina!

2009-05-04T16:20:00.005-07:00

Last week I was in Wisconsin visiting family and got to stop in to a shop every stamper wishes was right around their corner! Gina K!

You step in through those lovely doors and your hit with Gina K fantastica!

All the stamps, papers, storage options, tins, paints, markers, brads, eyelets, glues, adhesives, oh yes...and did I mention....

EXAMPLES?!?

Every corner is filled with cards made with her images.

And then there's Gina!

The precious woman that she is, I got a photo op out of her and we got to sit down and chat a few. Look! She's a shortie, like me!! I LOVE it! :)

I also got to meet Mz Jessica Fick! Jessica, not only is on Gina's design team, she works at Gina's store! I was kinda shy to meet her, but she's such a sweetie!

So there you are, my stamping adventure in WI. I picked a random winner from the comments, and Terri, you won a pack of Gina's pure luxury envelopes for guessing correctly. I'll get your address lady!

On another note: did I mention I'm in Spokane, WA now?!? We made our trip in 4 days from WI, and even got to stop to visit Mt Rushmore (hello amazing!).

I hope against hope that I can stamp something this week and get it up here for you by next Monday. Cross your fingers with me, k? Hugs!

Take Two Cupcakes and... Can You Guess Where I'm Going?

2009-04-26T17:06:00.003-07:00

Hey sweets!
I'm still here in Wisconsin, hanging out with family (until Wednesday) and playing lots of games of Settlers of Catan. Any Catan fans out there? Whoot! :)
So I made this card a couple of weeks ago when I got my yummy Whipper Snapper Featured Designer stamp sets in the mail. I used the set What's Cookin' (which is a complimentary set to the Chicken's in the Kitchen set).
There is medicine bottle in this set that (I imagine) is supposed to go with this sentiment...but then I looked at the cupcake image and this card just kinda whacked me upside the head...know what I mean? :)
Isn't a cute birthday card? The designer paper has sparkly embossed lines on it, and the rhinestones sparkle, and the ribbon sparkles, and to top it all off, I added some At You Spica Glitter pen action so KAPOW!!! SPARKLE! :)
I stamped this panel onto watercolor paper an once the sentiment was down with Stazon, I ran a line of marker along the edges and blended it towards the middle of the panel with my aqua painter, making it pink and framed. The cupcakes are also stamped onto watercolor paper, colored in with SU! markers and an aqua painter, then cut out an poped up on dimensionals. Easy!

Well, I'm having a super day today, going to visit a well known stamper's store...can you guess who? If you guess correctly, I'll put your name in a hat for a prize! :) I'll be back in a couple of days with pictures from my outing.
Hugs @ ya!!

Simply Bloom & Moving

2009-04-22T07:48:00.004-07:00

Hey friends!
I'm currently on the road for our move to Washington. My husband finished his training in Florida, and now we're off to our next station in Spokane, WA.
We're very excited about getting there. But for the moment, along the way, we're stopped and visiting with some family in Wisconsin.
By the time this trip is over we will have gone through 12 states! It's very fun to see the landscapes change...as for the weather, well...I sure do miss that Florida sunshine!!!!!!!!
(Though it is suppose to be an eensy weensy bit warmer here this weekend) Snow on the first day back in Wisconsin had my heart singing the blues for sure!! :D

I've made several cards in advance for you to look at while I'm away. Here's one I made with one of this month's Whipper Snapper releases, Simply Bloom.I started out with this designer paper (Parisian Summer- retired SU!), and added in this misc. piece of scrap paper (teal). I then stamped the flowers from this set on some designer paper I had found with just type on it. It adds some interest, don'tcha think? :) I then layered that onto my very vanilla card base and pierced some rows. The sentiment, from this set, is stamped with versamark an then heat embossed with gol embossing powder. I did the same with the butterfly an then colored him in with my Copic markers, cut him out and poped him up on a dimensionals. The buttons on the flowers are threaded with some thinly sliced gold brushed cardstock (in person you can see that better). Then the edges were lightly sponged with So Saffron ink to compliment the designer paper. Tada! :)

So what do ya think?

April SCS Fan Club Gallery

2009-04-14T06:34:00.004-07:00

Today's the 14th!!

You know what that means?!? This month's SCS Fan Club Gallery is being revealed at midnight!
I've been working HARD on my projects and cards this month.
This is my 6th and last month as a Dirty Girl, and I wanted to leave it all out on the table!! Whew! I'm really happy with it and oh golly, the other Dirty Girls have awed me sooo!
I can't wait till you see! And you'll be thrilled to meet the two newest and dirtiest girls as they're revealed tonight as well!

Here's a peek at one of the cards I've put up in that gallery.It features Poppy Patch from Flourishes LLC, and my favorite coloring technique: watercolor markers.

You REALLY wont want to miss commenting on this gallery. SERIOUSLY!
For the first time ever, commenting in the Dirty Gallery means you might actually win that card from that Dirty! No joke! We're giving cards away, ya'll!! So make sure you comment!

As a small (and huge) note, I really can't express what an honor it has been to be a Dirty Girl for SCS. It's far and above what I ever thought I'd do in this crazy stamping hobby, and as super bonuses the ladies I've met and been able to work with, all 24 of you + Jenn (our fabulous leader), you'll always be very dear to me (ya old dirty bags!).
So as I retire into a Dirty Old Lady tonight at the stroke of midnight, know that I have a super full and thankful heart.
Anybody seen my walker?

Whipper Snapper April Release!

2009-04-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hey you all! :)

Guess what today is! Whipper Snapper release day!

I've been merrily stamping away here with 3 new stamp sets I finally get to show you a card!

How stinkin' cute is that sentiment? And that chicken? And that whisk a twirlin'? (I stamped over and over on the background to get it to look like that) :)

Anna really outdid herself with these sets this month!

And I could have just kissed that woman when I saw she's releasing a chicken set while I'm a Featured Designer! Cause I love her chickens! And ya know what? I LOVE cooking!

And she put those together in these two complimentary sets: Chicken's In The Kitchen and What's Cookin!!

Thanks Anna! You sure now how to make a girl happy! :)

So make sure you head on over to Whipper Snapper and pick these up!

You'll also see the bonus THIRD set being released: Simply Bloom

I'll be back next Monday with a sample from Simply Bloom!

For more yummies, hop on over to the other Whipper Snapper Featured Designers blogs to see what's they've cooked up for ya!

Hugs @ ya!!

Mr Giraffe and the Branch

2009-04-02T13:38:00.004-07:00

Look at what I made today!
I was walking past my stamping table and saw this giraffe from the Little Critters (Whipper Snapper) stamp set...and then my eye wandered to the branch in this set. And then BAM! The scene formed in my head.
So when nap time came around, I knew just what to do!
I love Anna's images so much! :)

What do ya think?

A Line

2009-03-26T11:33:00.004-07:00

I was playing around with the new Whipper Snapper set Sending Happy Thoughts yesterday and made this fun little note. I so love this set!! :)

I paper pieced the shirts and socks and also stamped the images with So Saffron onto the So Saffron cardstock on the card base.

I found this matching button in my vintage buttons jars and threaded it with a piece of matching paper. In person, you'd see the images outlined with my clear At You Spica glitter pen...shimmery and presh! A simple layout, for a quick few seconds of stampy playtime. :)
Bliss!

Wanna CASE Me???

2009-03-25T08:34:00.002-07:00

Hey there sweets!
I've been meaning to come over here and tell you a little secret!
If you've ever wanted to CASE one of my cards, now's the time!
What's CASE, you say? CASE (copy and share everything) is when you like a card someone makes and want to make one like it changing a couple of things to make it your own (color combo, stamp set, blah blah blah).
This is my last week as a TSG Trendsetter, and Jessica is giving us retiring ladies a sweet Going Away Party!
The deal is, you can CASE any any ANY of my cards (does not have to be a There She Goes card), post it to your blog or SCS gallery with the TSG05 keywords ( you do not have to have a blog), then go to her post HERE and enter the Mr Linky set up (at the bottom of her post) to be entered to win My FAV TSG set: Branching Out.
What's even cooler is the other retirees have picked their favorite sets for you to win when you CASE them too! Here are our SCS gallery links:

Bev
Denise (Denise's set: Flower's of Happiness)
Shephanie (Stephanie's Set: Here for You)
Wendy (Wendy's Set: Butterfly Happiness)

So get to stamping 'cause there's no limit to how many times you can enter! You have until March 31st!
Good luck peeps!

There She Goes Changing of the Seasons SALE!!

2009-03-19T20:46:00.004-07:00

SALE.

A girl's favorite word. :)

And TSG is hooking us up! Yippie!!

Jessica Knusten, the oh so wonderful There She Goes lady is putting on a sale from today (the 20th!) through Tuesday the 24th! It's her first "Changing of the Season's SALE".

(You know, 'cause it's Spring now and all- if you don't feel it yet just pretend!)

She's put up 4 of her fabulous sets for the SALE!

Crafty Taglines- Normally $15- now only $12.75

LOL Taglines- Normally $22- now only $18.70
Welcome Home- Normally $22- now only $18.70
Special Delivery- Normally $15- now only $12.75

(All that and her crazy fast shipping! Seriously, I'm so excited for ya!)

So I made you an example card of one of my fav sets from those listed above: LOL Taglines

I made this into a kinda twisted Easter card by choosing the egg image from the set and putting in some pastel colors with my Basic Grey "Urban Prairie" designer papers.

Do ya like how glittery it is? :)

And isn't that sentiment too funny?!? I love it!

Make sure you hop on over to Christi's Blog to see what set she's showing ya!

Because SALES are better when whispered at ya by a friend!

Whipper Snapper Featured Designer

2009-03-15T21:59:00.001-07:00

Hey there!
I'm happy to tell you today that Anna Wight has asked me to be one of the Whipper Snapper Featured Designers for the months of March and April! Isn't that so fun?!?
I'm extremely excited and honored to be playing with some awesome Whipper Snapper images, drawn by Anna herself.
Today they are releasing two stamp sets, and I've made a card for each to show ya!
The first set is called Little Critters.
It is DANG cute! It has a couple birds, an owl, alligator, giraffe, elephant, bee and classic sentiments.

I took one of these sweet birds and placed him on some white grass in this little quilt-like square. He's colored with Copics and my At You Spica glitter pens. The sentiment is also from this set!

The second set being released is called Sending Happy Thoughts.
It's full of Anna's fantastically drawn images, including a cupcake, birdhouse, flower in a pot, clothes on a clothesline, turtle and bird, pear, worm on a hook, and they all have sweet sentiments that go along with them.
Here's the card I made from that set. I chose to feature the cutie-patootie cupcake, on a simple note. You can't see it too well in the picture, but the white card stock is Shimmery White, so it really shines. As does the the cupcake! It's also colored with my Copics and At You Spica glitter pens. Do you like the little bling on there as the cherry? :)
Well, if you've liked what you've seen, don't stop here!!
Stop on over at my fellow Featured Designer's blogs, and look at what they've done too!

Danielle Kennedy

Lori Craig

Natasha Trupp

Shannan Teubner

And don't forget to see what Anna's done too! :)
Hugs @ ya!

P.S. Whipper Snapper is also having a sale on all of Anna's cling mount sets right now!! So head on over to save a few bucks on images that...well, seriously make me SQUEEEEEEL! LOL

A Dirty Sneaky Peeky

2009-03-14T14:18:00.003-07:00

Are ya'll ready for the Splitcoast Fan Club Gallery opening tonight? :)

I'm so excited! This month's theme was SUPRAH fun to work with....it's so hard to keep a secret!

Here's a peeky of my favorite card this month.

Lots of yummy textures. See ya there at midnight!! :)

Busy

2009-03-12T08:42:00.003-07:00

I've been a busy stamper this week so far! I know, I know. I haven't shared it with you.
My apologies! Most of the things I've been stamping are for the Dirty Dozen gallery (it opens up at midnight on Saturday!!) so I can't share those with you here.
But, I did make some ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) on Monday that you can see.
There was an ATC swap on Splitcoast Stampers for the There She Goes line.
All of the TSG girls joined in on the swap!
Right now, these are somewhere between Florida and Washington right now via the USPS.
Today I'm working on a card that I'll get to show you on Monday morning. Busy busy! :)
Hugs at you!!

Weekend Sketch Challenge #71

2009-03-06T06:30:00.001-08:00

Hi ya'll! :)

Last night I got to get out of the house and go stamp with Beate!

Oh what fun!!!

Beate is such a sweet lady! She fed me, laughed with me, and we even stamped our way through a card.

While crafting, Beate asked me if I wanted to be her guest designer for this week's Weekend Sketch Challenge. Uhh, duh, right?!? LOL I mean, when in Rome...

We each started on Sharon's sketch. I'm telling YOU...it was like dueling banjos up in there! We somehow found our cards turning into these "country" creations. It's not like we were listening to George Strait or anything...we were baffled hehehe...but we had fun, right Beate? :D

Our intent in getting together was to roll in all the new Occasions Mini goodness together. It was all about touching the new STUFF! And oddly enough we both went with the Wagon Full of Fun set for our cards. (I just can't stop it with this set!)

I had great fun Beate! Thanks girlie!

Now, don't forget to go see the wonderful (regularly scheduled) WSC Designers at their blogs too!

Smooches!

Wholesome Cupcake

2009-03-05T10:21:00.004-08:00

It's official. I can't stop stamping with this Wagon Full of Fun set.

I need a treatment plan.

But while we're here..might as well show you my latest card with it!I started out by just stamping the cupcake from the set onto watercolor paper and used the watercolor markers technique........

Quite honestly, when my 3 babies make me feel like screaming inside a little....I turn to coloring. LOL I run over and quickly stamp something (ANYTHING) onto watercolor paper and sit down to color and I feel better. I really do.

Some people smoke. I watercolor. :)

So after water coloring this baby, it sat there on my desk till nap time at which time I was able to do sumthin' with it.

I went with quick and simple here. No sponging, no distressing, no piercing, no sewing. Quick.

I stamped this sentiment from the Yummy set (Sale-a-Bration Mini catalog), and added some of this oh so divine 5/8" satin ribbon from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog.

Something about this screams wholesomeness to me. I think it's all the plaid and white satin bow, and fancy script. Oh and yummy food. Wholesome. Yup.

So what do ya think?

Forest Friends Matchbox

2009-03-04T19:12:00.002-08:00

Hey guys!

I've been playing with my Occasions Mini stuff again!

This time I got to play with the new Matchbox die for the Big Shot, as well as the new stamp set Forest Friends.

I'm stamping with a friend tomorrow nights, and thought I'd make her a little something. :)

Here it is open.And the side.The tree and the bunny both come from this Forest Friends set. It's a really cute set, and it's all images so you can add in your fav sentiments. I added in this "thinking of you" from the Trendy Trees set.

I used my markers to color right on the rubber for the trees and stamped them onto Naturals White cardstock- for a more "naturey" look. The cute bunny is stamped first in Creamy Caramel and then rock and rolled in Chocolate chip to add definition to the image's edges. I then added a pink cheek...well, cause there's something about it that makes me happy! Ok? LOL

Once that was done I sponged Baja Breeze around the edges of the Naturals White cardstock and decided where to place the bunny. I added more Baja Breeze right behind where the bunny was going to sit to add some depth behind him, and cause the eye to go to him first.

The side has one of the new grommets set into it and I punched a hole through the middle of it with my crop-a-dile and threaded this ribbon through for a little pull.

This Matchbox die is WAAAAAY FUN and I'm thrilled that I ordered it. This is available for preorders to demos only right now, but will be available to everyone on April 1st with the beginning of the Occasions Mini ordering period.

So what do ya think? :)

Lucky Ducky and K Werner Challenge #44

2009-03-04T16:03:00.005-08:00

I got my Occasions Mini order in today!!

*Happy Dance!!!!

I thought that while I'm stamping, I might as well play in Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge too! This week her color are:

Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, and Whisper White

I thought I'ds show you the duck from the Wagon Full of Fun set! :)

I love this cute ducky! I saw him in the catty and I just HAD to have this set! LOL

You can find the ingrediants for this card HERE.

And did you know that this set is available for you to order right now, even though the Occasions Mini isn't out yet? Yup! SU is letting you order this and 3 other sets from the mini early, for your Easter stamping!

So do ya like the ducky? :)

Love You A Latte!

2009-03-02T05:15:00.003-08:00

I woke up really early this morning. I had gone to bed last night early, and I ended up awake at 4:30 just sitting there thinking. :)

So what do ya do? You STAMP baby!

I got up and stamped, get this: FOR FUN! I know! Crazy!

I decided I need to start out with a sketch at least, so I went on over to Jen Del Muro's site and found this week's Sketch For You to Try. A real fun one!

Then I picked this fun coffee stamp from SU!'s Pun Fun set (this stamp had nevah seen ink! Tragic!). THEN I picked this designer paper pack. It's the Urban Oasis paper pack from SU! and it's what gave me the great color combo of Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Basic Black, and Kraft.

Do you like it?

I did move the top rectangle a touch to the side to make more sense of the coffee cup, but I hope Jen will forgive me. :)

It's Monday! Did you have a good weekend?

We just hung out here at home, played board games, played outside...Robyn made me lots of "pies".

Hugs @ ya!

TSG Sneak Peak Day 3: Nature of Friendship

2009-02-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for the last sneak peeks at this month's There She Goes set releases?

Today the Trendsetters are showing off the new set Nature of Friendship.
This fun set is a solid image set filled with great nature images, as well as warm friendly verses and greetings. My favs of course are basic sentiments like 'Thank You' and this one I used on my card 'Friendship'. The fact that these basic sentiments are in such a classic font, weeeeeell ...
Jessica...are you there? Girl, I love this set! :) Thanks again for designing GREATNESS!
Here's my sample.

I stamped different element s of the set to make this scene. This technique is called Cracked Glass, but if you have never seen that, I'll explain it a little. The images are stamped onto glassy white card stock, clear embossed, rolled over with baja breeze classic ink and then 3 layers of ultra thick embossing powder later I threw it in my deep freezer for 10 minutes. When I came back, it had hardened and rolled itself up so that when I opened it flat it cracked like crazy. :) I then rubbed ink over top, forcing it into the cracks and tada! Aged goodness!
I chose this yummy designer paper from my stash. It is called "Brothers" Stripe by My Mind's Eye, Wild Asparagus line. I love the color combo it gives of Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, and Very Vanilla.

So what do ya think?
Want to WIN this set? :D

That's right! We're giving one of these away too!
While this set will be available for you to get on the 1st, Jessica is giving one of these away, and here's what you need to do to qualify:
Visit my fellow Trendsetter girlies at their blogs below (click on their names), leave a comment at each location's sneak peek post AND here, and then go back to Jessica's blog and enter your name into the raffle there!
Becky Christi Denise Faith Holly Jessie
Joanne Jodi Julie Maki Silke Stephanie Wendy

TSG Sneak Peak Day 2: Slow and Steady

2009-02-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've got another sneak peek for you today!
The TSG Trendsetters are showing you the set Slow and Steady today as well as the mini set Holidays Galore. The mini is a set of words that fit perfectly with this cute new Slow and Steady set! Ready for the peek?
Slow and Steady is a super cute snail set! It has two snails in it. The one I just showed you, as well as a mail carrier snail. It's a great set for those of us who...erm...are late at getting our cards out. Maybe you aren't like me? But I'm pretty sure that a lot of us aren't FANTASTIC as getting our cards out in time. And Jessica is a GENIUS for helping us out with these images. :)

So....you want to WIN this set? :D Yeah?
Well, same thing as yesterday then.

While this and the mini set will be available for you to get on the 1st, Jessica is giving one of these away today, and here's what you need to do to qualify:
Visit my fellow Trendsetter girlies at their blogs below (click on their names), leave a comment at each location's sneak peek post AND here, and then go back to Jessica's blog and enter your name into the raffle there!
Becky Christi Denise Faith Holly Jessie
Joanne Jodi Julie Maki Silke Stephanie Wendy

TSG Sneak Peak Day 1: Blessings

2009-02-24T21:00:00.000-08:00

It's time to show you some upcoming sets from There She Goes!

Today the whole group of TSG Trendsetters- that's our name now!- are giving you sneak peekies at the new set Blessings. It will be released on the 1st.
Here's my sample for you.

This gorgeous set (hands down one of my fav TSG sets *ever*), is an Irish Blessings kinda set. While the main image in this set is this gorgeous cross, it also has shamrocks galore, as well as blessings sentiments, and good luck wishes! (Jessica, I just want to hug you for this awesomely designed set lady!)

On my card above, I took the cross and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. Then I layered it onto Certainly Celery, Garden Green, brushed gold card stock, and some Basic Grey Urban Prairie designer paper. This blessing I chose, I stamped in the Garden Green, and then tied this yummy gold satin ribbon on and added the bling around the cross.
What do ya think?

Now here's where it gets F-U-N! Jessica is giving one of these away today, and here's what you need to do to qualify:

Visit my fellow Trendsetter girlies at their blogs below (click on their names), leave a comment at each location's sneak peek AND here, and then go back to Jessica's blog and enter your name into the raffle there! You could win this set! And trust me, you'll be one LUCKY duck if you do! Did I mention I love this set? Oh? I did? *Grin*
Don't forget to visit my girls!
Becky Christi Denise Faith Holly Jessie
Joanne Jodi Julie Maki Silke Stephanie Wendy

Hugs,

There She Goes Q&A Time with Bev

2009-02-23T18:55:00.008-08:00

Jessica compiled the questions everyone asked the TSG Girls, and came up with 10 for us all to answer. I hope that you find my answers interesting and not as boring as I sound to myself? :)

For ease in reading, I've put my answers in red.

1. What do you typically start a project with? What's picked first: stamps, embellishments, DP, colors.....?

It depends on if the card is for a specific challenge or theme. If so then at least one element is picked for me- be it the stamp (theme), colors (challenge), or design (challenge).
If I am doing a card just for fun and just for me to use at an undefined time, I always start with colors that convey how I feel at that moment.

2. Do you give away your cards, sell them, send them or hoard them? Or all of the above??
I do send them, though it might take me a while to part from some more than others. I have quite a full box of cards at the ready for any occasion.

3. If you could design your own stamp or stamp set, what would it be?
It would be a little girl two step stamping set. A little girl face and hands holding something you stamp for her to hold- a tea cup, a big sunflower, teddy bear, apple, piece of cake, drawing. The items would be large and you’d only just see her smiling eyes peeking out behind them.

4. Where do you get your inspiration?
From everywhere!! Magazines (layouts, colors), nature (everything!), pop culture (tv shows, internet, movies, etc.). This is why I have an idea/sketch book with me at all times! I jot down little inspirations in it everyday. Will they all materialize? Maybe no, but they are there.

5. How do you balance your stamping time with your personal time/work/kids/etc.?
This is VERY delicate for me: insuring that everyone feels like that are loved and taken care of *including* ME with my “me time”/stamping time. Being a mommy to 3, 5 years and younger, and keeping the house, and making meals, and leaving love notes for my hubby…THOSE are the most important. I’ve found that if I stay up late I’m a ruined woman. I have to go to bed by 10 to wake up at 5:30 for my walk before my hubby goes to work. Then I have about an hour to an hour and a half to stamp before the kids wake up. Balance.

6. What is your favorite embellishment?

Ribbons. No, buttons. Buttons. No, ribbon. Ribbonbuttons.

7. What is something that not a lot of people know about you?

They always say “I didn’t know you were so short. And young!” :D I love to hear both. I’m 27 and 5.1 and a HALF!

8. On average how long does it take to create one of these fabulous cards we see each week??
About an hour for design and creating time (shorter if I take a clue from my idea/sketch book), Then another ½ hour for picture upload, watermarking, and blog post set up.

9. What is your favorite coloring medium?
At the moment, watercolor paper and water coloring with markers is my “thang”! I am trying out Copics though, too.

10. What time of day do you prefer to do your creating?

I’m stamping and creating in my head all day long. It’s a PASSION! I’m always thinking about what I want to make next and what the process will be to see it to completion. Ideally? A half hour after breakfast. Right when my coffee kicks it into high gear!

Will you still read me? ;) Hope so.

I had a great weekend stamping with friends, and I'll be sharing pics of it here and there all week for you to see. Here's a couple.

Had Brunch on Sunday at the Fish House in Pensacola with girlies Jenn Balcer, Beate Johns, and Christine Pacholl. Thanks Christine for picking such a fabooooo place to eat! :)And speaking of yum...hold on to your horses! Grits a Ya Ya are the beeeessssst thing you evah put in your mouth! You just want to get a room, I say! Aaand you can find the recipe right HERE!
'Cause you love me. 'Cause I love ya back.
Smooches!

P.S. Do go and see the other TSG Girl's answers to those fun questions! I know *I* can't wait to!

Angela http://aninkandasmile.blogspot.com

Becky http://www.lakeshorestamper.com

Christi http://cici510.blogspot.com

Denise http://thepaperlandscaper.blogspot.com

Faith http://stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com

Holly http://toyzhaven.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Jessica (owner) http://jessica-thereshegoes.blogspot.com

Jessie http://canyousayaddictedtostamps.blogspot.com

Joanne http://inkyoceangazer.blogspot.com

Jodi http://stampingalatte.blogspot.com

Julie http://stampsandtaxes.blogspot.com

Maki http://makinkstudio.blogspot.com

Silke http://silkeledlow.blogspot.com

Stephanie http://stephsstampinstuff.blogspot.com

Wendy http://wickedlywonderfulcreations.blogspot.com

Ask the TSG Girls!

2009-02-20T18:23:00.002-08:00

Hey peeps! :)
The There She Goes girls are cooking up some fun, and we need your input.
Please leave me a comment answering this question:
"If you could ask the There She Goes design team ONE question, what would it be?"
I'll be picking a fav and submitting it to Jessica!
Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

P.S. I'm off this weekend to a supra fun Flourishes Weekend near by in Pensacola. I'll be meeting lots of my fav stampers, so make sure you sneak back over on Monday for some pics! Heheheh! I can't wait till tomorrow! :)

There She Goes Blog Hop!

2009-02-19T05:55:00.002-08:00

I'm so excited about today's post!
Fellow TSG girl Holly McMillen gave us TSG girls a challenge the other day and turned it into a blog hop! Now that we've made our challenge cards, we're ready to see them on each other's blogs! Such fun!

The challenge was to use only TSG stamps, and to incorporate a famous quote. Well, on TOP of all that we were randomly given a specific There She Goes set to use! WOW!
Well, I was pretty lucky in getting the Here For You stamp set, and since I knew that I wanted to use this bird and branch image, I went with one of my favorite Helen Keller quotes.
"One can never consent to creep when one feels the compulsion to Soar".
That Helen lady! She was so quotable! :) LOL

I wanted this one to be clean and simples, so I used minimal layers, dimensionals, and a simple layout. I'm surprised with how pink I went with this one, but again, in keeping it simple I went as monotone as possible. I love this pink satin Offray ribbon. It's delicate and elegant and perfection! Ribbon is soooo my card making weakness! For this birdie, I stamped him in close to cocoa ink onto this Pink Pirouette card stock, and then stamped over it with versamark and heat embossed some iridescent ice embossing powder on him for the shimmer.

So you want to keep going on this blog hop? If you came here via the hop you came from Holly's.
And if you want to KEEP ON, then click on over to Wendy's Blog to see what she cooked up for the challenge!
If you just came here to see what I was up to and want to start this craaaazy blog hop ride from the beginning, start over at Jessica's Blog!

Chocolate Bunny

2009-02-18T08:54:00.003-08:00

I got a chance to play in the Sketch Challenge today over at Splitcoast! :)

What do ya think?

The bunny image is a retired SU! hostess set (from the last catalog) called Serene Spring.

You can find the recipe for this card HERE.

I had a lot of fun coloring him in.

I just love his little cheeks!! LOL

Make sure you come back tomorrow! The There She Goes girls are having a blog hop! Holly gave us a challenge and I can't wait to see what the other girls have come up with!! Geeeek!

Hugs @ ya!

Happy Valentines Day and a Sneak Peeky!

2009-02-14T04:51:00.002-08:00

Are you feeling some love today?

I am! I'm eating yummy donuts for breakfast and have great plans for Chinese take out tonight! It's all about the not cooking baby! :)

Well, the Dirty Dozen gallery opens tonight at midnight central time.

We've got QUITE a show for ya. I can hardly wait for you to see the classy inspired creations from 12 of the most talented peeps in this circle I'm humbled to be part of.

Here's a little peek at my personal favorite for this month's gallery.

I was having such a hard time picking a favorite, but it's one of the things we do every month! We *have* to title a favorite. I layed 3 out that I loved and had Seth help me pick. He chose this chicken card, but not after taking the opportunity to butter me up by placing his hand on my cheek and telling me he liked one of them because the girl on it looked like a princess like Mommy! What a schmoozer! That boy knows who stashes the candy around here, fer sure!

So Happy Valentines Day sweeties! Enjoy your day!

Happiness Here and Now

2009-02-06T10:50:00.003-08:00

I made this one this morning for today's Limited Supplies Challenge over at Splitcoast.
The challenge was to use one sentiment stamp and that's it. No other stamps! GULP! :)
I looked for a nice big sentiment and thought this one from the Flowers of Happiness set from There She Goes.
I picked out these designer papers from the DCWV the Green Stack. I love these designer papers! :) The images in them are soo cute and I was excited to finally get to use these suprah fun mushrooms!
So what do ya think?

Little Birdie Tea Party

2009-02-04T10:45:00.004-08:00

I made this one today for the Sketch Challenge over at SCS. It uses 3 of the new papers in the SU! paper pack Tea Party. I really love this cute color combo these papers have going on, and I thought this A Little Birdie Told Me goes well with it. Don'tcha think?
I've got a few birthdays I need to get out, and this one will be one of them.
Hugs!

Superbowl Commercials

2009-02-02T08:12:00.004-08:00

Here's my fav

and the kids

What was yours? :)

Valentines Turtles

2009-02-02T06:01:00.003-08:00

Mmmmmmmm! Turtles! One of my favorites.

I rarely indulge in them, but when I do...I get that eye-rolling-to the-back-of-your-head thing going on! Um. Yum! :)

I thought I should alter a box for my sweety for Valentine's Day. Want to see?!?

Well, first I started out with this:

A heart shaped box of Turtles chocolates, and the basic card stock needed to cover it. I traced the box top with a pencil on the Purely Pomegranate card stock and cut it out. The sides are 1" high and there is a lot of room between the lids so you can line the bottom side with card stock as well as the top! I just cut those side 1"x11" from a regular 8.5"x11" piece of card stock (four of them-one for each side of the hearts) and used tacky tape to stick them on. It will overlap a touch, so you can snip off the extra and make it nice and neat!

Once that's done you can decorate it to your heart's content..get it? Hearts content. :) Mine will be if I get a bite of these babies! :D

I sponged the edges of the heart with Purely Pomegranate ink. Then I layed a sheet of vellum over top and free-handed a scallop heart to fit inside the edges. Once I cut that out, I adhered it in a few spots and sewed it down. Here's a close up for ya.
I used a "U" sticky cut letter and some glitter for the U. The "R" is a chipboard letter heat embossed with black embossing powder so that it's nice and glossy. The main stamp set I used here is Gina K's My Cuppa' Joe. It's really fun coffee set, but it has a lot of very versatile images in it that lend themselves well to showing some love! I versamarked the sugar canister image in the background here and there (you can see it best in the picture just right of the R). Then I stamped the sentiment "Sweet!" with Stazon onto shimmery white card stock.
I tied this up with some white satin ribbon and black striped satin ribbon and topped that with a vintage button threaded with some fun fibers.

Luckily it's a perfectly acceptable practice in this house to take a "love bite" from some one's treats. He'll totally understand. :)

So what do ya think?

TSG Blog Candy Winner!

2009-02-01T10:15:00.002-08:00

Lucky number 13!! That would be Michele L! Congrats Michele! I will email you and pass on your info to Jessica so we can get that mini set out to you.
Have a great day everyone, and come back tomorrow for a fun Valentines project I've got to show ya! :) It involves chocolate! Can you guess?

Flowers of Happiness and BLOG CANDY Times Up!

2009-01-30T08:51:00.005-08:00

Here is the last set being released from There She Goes, this weekend: Flowers of Happiness!
It's a really fun graphic set. The flowers have such a fun design to them.
I thought I would overlap them in colors.
What do ya think?
I combines this with today's Limited Supplies Challenge over at Splitcoast: to make a Clean and Simple card= as little fuss and layers as possible.
We all need a great CAS card now and then! :)

I used shimmery white cardstock as the base. The flowers are stamped out in Close to Cocoa, Cameo Corral, and Summer Sun. I poped up that one little flower next to the sentiment. The fun yellow flower centers are crystal stickers from Mark Ritchards. And the ribbon is some yummy Chocolate Chip satin ribbon that's retired from SU!
Do you like Clean and Simple?

Now that you've seen all 3 of the new release sneak peeks....which happens to be your favorite?

Leave me a comment telling me and I'll enter your name into the Blog Candy for a free mini set from There She Goes!

Go! Tell me! :)

P.S Don't forget to go see the other fab TSG girl's and THEIR sneak peeks of this set! :)

Angela
Denise
Holly
Faith
Maki
Silke
Stephanie
Jessica