Snowed In and Stampin'

Well, I had big plans to get out today and run the 103 errands that are on my list and I woke up to a blizzard. 8 hours later and it is still coming down! I want summer back! I really don't know why I live here in Upstate New York! Anywho, I stayed in and did some chores around the house so I could feel less guilty about doing some stamping. I checked out the Sketch challenge over at SCS. Here is my card.

I wanted to make a card that would brighten my day so I grabbed this cute Stampendous Patty Chick stamp and yummy Basic Grey Sugared dp. I colored in the image using an aqua painter and my SU! classic ink pads. Here is my recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous' Patty Chick, sentiment from Sock Monkey
Paper: Bazzill cs, Basic Grey's Sugared, confetti white
Ink: black stazon, various SU classic ink pads
Accessories: ribbon from my stash, aqua painter, SU classic ink pad lids
Techniques: watercoloring

While I was making this card I accidently tipped over a full can of Diet Pepsi Max and it went all over my Earth Elements classic ink pads. What a mess! Some how the soda got into the pads so I had to open them all up and clean the inside as well as the outside! At least my table was pretty clean so i didn't ruin any paper or tools. Well, I have been having issues with my PC the past week or so where it keeps freezing up on me so my baby boy is going to take a look at it for me and clean it up! He takes good care of me! So, I am handing the keyboard over to him. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you do so again real soon!

Today's Color Challenge at SCS

Well, I got some of my housework done so I was able to squeeze in the Color Challenge over at SplitCoastStampers. The colors we were to use were Handsome Hunter, So Saffron and Bravo Burgandy.

Here are the deets:

Stamps: Sock Monkey, A Happy Heart
Paper: handsome hunter, so saffron, bravo burgandy, confetti white, cloud 9 dp
Ink: handsome hunter, so saffron, bravo burgandy, black stazon
Accessories: aqua painter, punches, brads, dimensionals

The image panel and all the hearts are on dimensionals. I had a fun time with these colors and this turned out to be a great card for my husband because it's not too frilly! Here also are a few pics of some of the scraves I have crocheted. This is one of my fave things to do while I am watching t.v. They make great gifts for all the ladies in my life, especially my 2 daughters. I told them that they could each pick one scarf and they had a hard time choosing just one! That really makes me feel good! I also brought them to my SU! demo group so they could pick one for a Christmas gift. Not everyone was at our Holiday gathering so I will bring them to our next meeting. well. Bob and Larry are pretty much finished with the guest bathroom. There are just a few odds and ends to do. Thanks so much for stoppin' by! Enjoy the rest of your day!

Took The Tree Down Today

Whew!! Another Christmas has come and gone! I took my tree down today and packed up all the christmas decorations and ornaments. That is such a chore for me. But, I do like having my house back especially when I've still got home improvement projects to do. I've had Bob and Larry (the 2 worker guys) here just about every day for the past 2 weeks remodeling our guest bathroom. It's one of those deals where I say to Bob, "How long will this take?" and he replies, "We'll be done by Christmas." Ha! Then one problem arises after another and we forget that there ever was a budget, etc. you all know where this is going, right? I must say though, it is looking absolutely gorgeous! Man can those guys lay tile! I'll post pics in a few days when it is finished! I didn't make any cards today, but I did make some cute little coaster calendars. I am going to use these as door prizes at my upcoming stamp class. I ordered the coasters from Eclectic Paperie and I printed the tearoff calendars from a link at SplitCoastStampers found here. Everything else is Stampin' Up! I think I will put a magnet on the back so it can be hung on the fridge. These would be a great project to do at a stamp class. I will have to keep it in mind for next year. Well, another short post, but this is getting me into the blogging/posting groove! Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!

Still Finishing Up Christmas

Well, here I am, the day AFTER Christmas and I am still making gifts. We don't celebrate with my family until the Sunday after Christmas, so I have a few more days to prepare. I worked on some gift card holders today. I gave alot of these this year as I find it harder to pick out the perfect gift especially for my nieces and nephews. The 2 holders in the top photo are for my nephews who are 10 and 13. Target is one of their favorite stores so that is where the gift cards are for. I didn't follow anyone's instructions for these, I just figured out what size I needed and went from there. I am a very visual person, so I don't do well with instructions. I think it has alot to do with the fact that I am left handed and I have always had to figure out how do do things so they work for me. My holders are held closed with a bellyband and then decorated with a Santa made with Stampin' Up! punches. Actually all the products for them are from SU!. The second gift card holder I made is for an iTunes giftcard for my daughter's boyfriend. She got him an iPod shuffle for Christmas. This is an A2 size card with the bottom on the right side folded up and held together with some brads. It is made from 3/4 of an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of cardstock. The image is a stamp by Stampendous called Pookie Skates. Isn't he just adorable? I wanted to do the Limited Supply challenge over at SplitcoastStampers today, but I'm not sure I am going to be able to fit it in. I also have to start working on some card samples for 2 classes I will be having in January. I feel like I am perpetually behind and just can't get caught up! Yikes! Well, thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at what I have been up to. Take care!

It's Been How Long?!

I can't believe that it has been 4 months since my last post! I am embarrassed to call myself a blogger! I have been so wrapped up in our house remodel and the everyday issues that arise from being a mom, wife, daughter, sister, etc. that I have totally lost track of time. I have been stamping and crafting as much as I can, just haven't posted to my blog. So, as part of my New Year's resolution I am gonna try much harder! I have some pics of the things I have been creating.

This first pic is of a bunch of Christmas cards that I made with the leftovers from a stamp camp that a friend of mine hosted. All of these were used as some of the cards I sent to family and friends. At the camp, each guest made 2 cards of each design. I then had them make the folder shown in my other two pics.I had seen similar folders at various sites but of course when I wanted to find one to case I couldn't find one. So I just made mine up from memory. After a few trial and errors I came up with this. I made it using one - 8 1/2 x 11" piece of cardstock. All the ladies loved them. Several of them even stamped and decorated their envies! I purchased the new Big Bite a couple of months ago and used it to set the large SU eyelets! That tool is amazing! You can reach anywhere you need to with it! Well, this is gonna be short, I gotta ease back into the bloggin' world! I hope to be back tomorrow to show some more things I have been working on! Happy Holidays!!

2 Challenges in 2 Days

Woo-Hoo!! I have completed 2 SCS challenges in as many days. A wonderful feat for me as it is hard for me to make time to sit and stamp. First, take a look at the cards I made...

The one with the Glad Heart angel was made yesterday for the weekly sketch challenge at SCS. This was such a super sketch to work with and it was perfect for this sweet little angel, don'tcha think? It was made using only Stampin' Up! products except for the Stickles!! here are the deets:

Stamps: Glad Heart, Holidays and Wishes
Paper: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Whisper White, Green Tea DSP
Ink: Stazon Black, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, So Saffron
Accessories: blender pens, stickles, dimensional

It's hard to see in the photo, but i stamped the image twice and cut out her arms holding the heart and popped it up on dimensionals. After I finished it using blender pens and ink from the tops of my ink pads I wished I had used my aqua painters instead to give her more of a watercolor look!! I will remember that for next time.

For my second card, the one with the suspicious owls, I made for today's Ways to Use it challenge. We were s'posed to use colored pencils in our project. Since my oldest DS and his wife gave me the 120 pack of PRISMACOLOR pencils for Christmas last year, I decided to use them to make their 1 year wedding anniversary card. I just got this stamp set from SU! and I couldn't wait to use it!! Aren't these owls just the neatest? MY DS and DDIL are such a fun loving couple and these 2 owls reminded me of them! Here are the deets:

Stamps: SU Owl Together Now and Painted Posies
Paper: Bazzill Textured cs, Basic Grey Infuse, SU whisper white
Ink: SU basic black, close to cocoa
Accessories: PRISMACOLOR pencils, heart brads, spiral clip, ribbon, sponges, SU oval punches, SU dimesnsionals

I just love this line of paper from Basic Grey. It is called Infuse and I have been hoarding it for quite some time! I do this all the time and I don't understand why...can anyone please help me with this affliction?!? I take it out and look at it (which can take hours cuz I have TONS) and then I put it back and usually wind up not using any at all! So silly... anywho, I sponged the edges of the image and sentiment with the close to cocoa to try and match the distressing on the dp.

So, don't be afraid to tell me whatcha think, I'd love to know!

The reason I haven't had lots of time to stamp is because I have taken on the task of doing some remodeling in our home. We have lived here for over 15 years and have done next to nothing to update/upgrade our home. I recently finished laying a hardwood floor in our living and dining rooms. I also painted the ceilings and the walls and installed all new mouldings and baseboards. I kinda just self taught myself everything as I went along. Let me see if I have any pics to show you.

Yup, there you go.

This project was way more than I had bargained for, but I saved us over $2000 by installing it myself. Course it took me a couple of weeks to complete, but that was while I was working full time outside the home. I had to repair where our fireplace meets our ceiling-now that is a whole other story that I must tell sometime. And now I have moved into the kitchen and foyer. I can talk about that some more in my next post!!

Thanks for stoppin' by and please come back again soon!

Dreams Du Jour Color Challenge

It has been a few days since I lasted posted. I had a huge project to tackle over the weekend and yesterday. I had 3 very large windows in my living room that needed to be sanded, resealed and painted. I will hafta upload some pics so you can see just how big they are. These windows will need to be replaced in the next year or so, but I thought I could by them a little time! So, I finally got to the color challenge today over at SCS-(I missed the Try a new Technique challenge for yesterday)-to use Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa and Ruby Red. I decided to try a Big Buckle card. I have seen so many on SCS and I just love them! I know there is a tutorial, but I just kinda winged it so my dimensions may be a little off, but I really like how this turned out, and this color combo is just perfect for this new SU set!! My image is colored in using my ink pad lids and blender pens and the edges are distressed using scissors. The sparkly butterfly was first stamped in blush blossom and then stamped with versamark on top and heat embossed using iridescent ice. Here are the deets (All products used are Stampin' Up (r))

Stamps: Dreams Du Jour, Sanded
Paper: Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Kiwi Kiss, Versmark
Accessories: Blender pens, heat tool, Iridescent ice, Scallop circle punch, Word Window punch, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 inch punches

Sorry this is such a short, but sweet entry. It's getting late and I am beat!

Thanks a bunch for stoppin' by!!

Color Challenge at SCS-Butterfly Sparkles

Good morning Sunshines!

I wanted to share this fun card I made using the colors chosen for this weeks Color Challenge over at SCS. I just love to get inspiration from that wonderful site. I actually had it finished yesterday, but I got all involved watching swimming and gymnastics on the Olympics last night. so, here I am this morning. I stamped the butterfly in Elegant Eggplant twice. On the second one I stamped over in versamark and then heat embossed with iridescent ice and cut out the wings and adhered with glue dots. I curled the ends of the wings to give the image a little more dimension. The sparkly ribbon I used is very wiry, but fun! The picture doesn't quit show the sparkles as well. I didn't add a sentiment yet-not sure where this will be going. Here are the deets (all products are by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Paper: elegant eggplant, taken with teal, old olive, whisper white, dp is called Candy Blossoms by atd/Momenta
Ink: elegant eggplant
Accessories: Cuttlebug and Swiss dots embossing folder, iridescent ice, heat tool, non-SU sparkly/wiry ribbon, scallop edge punch, versamark, Roseart gel pen
Techniques: heat embossing

I really love these colors together and that 4 x 6 decorative paper pad has got the greatest papers. I got it at Michaels a couple of weeks ago. Not that I needed any MORE paper, I just couldn't resist it! (I know, I have a problem!)

Thanks a bunch for stoppin' by!

See you again soon...

Mary Hosted a Workshop

A few months ago, my friend and coworker hosted a Stampin' Up! workshop in her home to support me in my new adventure as a Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrator. We had a great time and Mary was a wonderful Hostess. Here are the 4 projects that I came up with to demonstrate. Most of the ladies that Mary invited have gone to other Stampin' Up! camps and workshops, so I charged a $12 fee and everyone got to make and take each of the 4 projects.

This was only my second workshop, and while I thought that these were fairly simple projects, Some of them were more challenging that I anticipated they would be for some of the 'new to stamping' ladies that attended. No worries though, I got the chance to do lots of one-on-one, which I really enjoyed and kept me very busy!! I made this small origami box filled with 3 X 3 inch cards for Mary to thank her for hosting a party.

Well, I will have lots more samples of cards and gifts that I have done over the past few months. Now that i will have a little more time to spend on my blog I intend to get things rockin' 'round here-so please stop back again soon to check out more pics!!

Thanks for stoppin' by!! Leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my blog!!

Funny Kid Story and some Little Cards

Good afternoon All,

I thought I would start my post off today with a funny story that some of you may be able to identify with. As I have stated, I have 4 wonderful children. They keep me grounded and I am grateful for each one of them. But, as we all know, kids can also drive you a little bonkers sometimes. Now, my children have caught me off guard more than one time over the past 25 years that I have spent, so far, raising them. So, this is the phone call I get from my youngest son, Alex. He's 19, which is very important to the 'huh?' factor of this story. So, I get this phone call from Alex, who happens to be in NYC visiting his oldest sister, Amber. I am so happy that they get along and like to visit each other-it's a 7 hour train ride each way. So, Alex decides that he needs to purchase a pair of dress pants to go to a show. Sounds easy enough, even for a 19 year old, right? So, I get this phone call, and it goes something like this:

Alex: Hi, Mom.

Me: Hi, Alex. Are you having fun?

Alex: yeah. What size pants do I wear?

(There is no beating around the bush for this kid)

Me: Aren't you wearing any right now?

Alex: Yeah...

Me: Well, it will be much easier for you to look at the tag than it would be for me, don'tcha think?

Alex: I figured you would just know...

Me: I do. You wear 31 in waist and 32-34 in length. I think you should try some on first?

Alex: Naw, that's all I needed. Talk to you later.

End of conversation!

All I can say to that is that he knew what he was doing by calling me!

So, that is my funny story-at least I think it is funny...

OK-This morning I participated in the SCS Limited Supply Challenge. We were to create Little note cards that could be placed in a lunch box or briefcase. These cards are called ATC or Artist Trading Cards and are 2 1/2 inches X 3 1/2 inches. There was a bonus to use Those $1 clear stamps that we all like to collect, but never use. So, here is what I came up with. You can view all the deets at my SCS gallery. I only used the $1 stamps for the card on the left! This was a super way to use up scraps left over from my workshops and I will definitely be making more.

Thanks so much for checking me out today. I hope to talk to you again soon!

Two Birthdays in Two Days

Good Thursday mornin' to you! I will hafta make this quick cuz I need to get some yard work done before we start getting the 7 days of rain that has been forecasted for my area. I wanted to post the card I made for my niece's 2nd birthday yesterday. I celebrated with my sister and her family last night. What fun! My sister is very creative and while I have recently gotten her started with card making she has been a cake decorator for about 8 years!! Doesn't she do super work? Her and my youngest daughter, Annalee, have recently started their own business and online site. It's called ArtistiCakes-check them out! And today is my oldest son's 25th birthday!! I can't believe that I have a child who is a 1/4 of a century old, yikes!

So, getting to the card I made-this was a Sketch Challenge at SCS. Check it out HERE. Yup!! I used my Sock Monkey set again!! I jsut can't help myself! The decorative cs is from DCWV Nursery mat stack. The party hat was stamped on both dp's and then paper pieced. I also paper pieced the cupcake. The ballons were stamped on the dp's also and then cut out. The ballon strings were drawn on with my SU journaler. The image was stamped on Very Vanilla cs and colored in using my SU inkpad lids and blender pens. The 2 triangles are Marvy square punches that were cut in half. Cupcake frosting is colored in using Cotton Candy Stickles-YUMMY!

here are the nitty gritties:

STAMPS: SU Sock Monkey, Wow Flowers for the sentiment

PAPER: SU Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, DCWV Nursery mat stack

INK: SU Pink Piroette, Creamy Caramel, Real Red, Basic black

ACCESSORIES: Marvy scallop square punches, Stickles, blender pens, SU dimensionals, detail scissors for paper piecing

I really was planning on adding ribbon to this when I started, but then I didn't know where to put it, so I left it off!! My neice loved it!!

OOPS!! I Missed Tuesday!

Ok, so I missed Tuesday, but I am here today! There is just so much to do in a day and not enough time to do it, ya kno? Yesterday I did get to create, I made a birthday card for my son who will be 25 tomorrow. I have a much harder time with masculine cards, but I think I pulled it off!! What do you think? I went with clean lines and a simple design-that's my style I guess you would say! My son and his wife adopted a dog a few months ago and this little doggy image reminded me of her. Both of the designer papers are from Basic Grey-the Recess line. I purchased the 6 x 6 pad from eclectic Paperie a while ago and I just love it for the guys and boys in my life!! No flowers in this collection! I colored this SU image using my classic ink pad lids and blender pens. It did take me a little time to get the colors just the way I wanted them. I used the new IN colors from Stampin' Up! and I just love them. Check out the deets: all products are SU unless otherwise noted:

STAMPS: For Father, Occasions Collection, Sanded

PAPER: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Basic Grey Recess

INK: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Basic Gray

ACCESSORIES: non SU hemp twine, non SU big brad, SU and Marvy circle punches. pop dots

I also made a birthday card for my niece for her 2nd birthday today--I will hafta stop back later to upload, I really love how it turned out, so you gotta stop back and see!

Thanks so much for stoppin' by today!

Try a New Technique Challenge Card

OK, here I am again! 3 days in a row and counting...and it's only noon!! So I got up this morning and decided to check out the challenge at SCS for today. Monday's are ' Try a new technique' day and so that is what I did. The challenge was to create a spring fold card-You can find the tutorial in both Word and .pdf formats in this thread by shulsart/Sandy.

Square Spring Card Tutorial

Here is my card for the challenge.

What a fun card to make! Since I still had Mr. Sock Monkey on my stampin' desk I used him again. He's just so darn adorable!!

Here is my recipe:

STAMPS: SU Sock Monkey

PAPER: SU Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Basic Grey Recess

INK: SU Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Regal Rose, Basic Black

ACCESSORIES: Blender pens, Buttons from my stash, SU journaler pen, embroidery floss, pop dots

The tutorial was very easy to follow, but now I need some bigger square envies to put this in. I think I will give this a try in a smaller size later on.

OMG!! I gotta go... Mr. Brown just pulled into my driveway, more new stuff to play with!!

Thanks for stoppin' by!!

Two Days In A Row!!

WooHoo!! I am posting to my Blog for the second day in a row. This is very exciting for me. I got to play again on the SCS daily challenge. Today is the featured stamper's challenge seen here. The featured stamper for this week is Shellapoo and she has a wonderful gallery and sounds like a wonderful person! Here is my version of one of her cards. She makes cards to give to children who are hospitalized, so I would like to send this to her to put in her stash. I finally got a chance to use some of my new stuff from my Stampin' Up! preorder. I just love this little monkey. I am sure this stamp set will get lots of use! I really like the way Shellapoo (Michelle) uses different embellishments on her cards like buttons, fibers, and flowers. I have a stash of buttons that I started collecting when I was a small girl. I started my own collection when I discovered my mom's with all her sewing stuff. She got me started and I have been adding to it ever since. I can't throw out an old, worn piece of clothing without snipping any buttons off first!! Does that sound strange to anyone? Well I thought this assortment of green and pink buttons were perfect for my card.

Here are the deets:

Stamps: SU Sock Monkey

Paper: SU whisper white, Bazzill Basics textured cs, DCWV dp

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: prismacolor pencils, oderless mineral spirits, blending stump, spiral punch, misc. buttons, pop dots

Thanks for stoppin' by and stop back again soon!!

I Got To Play Today!!

I am so excited that I got to play with my stamps and paper today. I have been so busy with other things in my life, but I took a break today and took part in the SCS Inspiration challenge found here. The inspiration pieces are just the most gorgeous handmade bags I have ever seen bt Pink Lemonade Bags!! You have gotta check them out! I have been hoarding the collection of K & Company Designer Paper for about 6 months and thought it would be perfect for this challenge. The bag that I was inspired by was a Shabby/Chic quilted bag that I fell in love with and may just have to purchase! Here are the deets:

Stamps: Wow Flowers, Warmest Regards
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, K & Company DP
Ink: Chocolate chip
Accessories: White Signo gel pen, Edge distresser, Buttons, embroidery floss, small oval punch
Techniques: distressing, faux stitching

Thanks for stoppin' by!

Come back soon as I have some fabulous news which should give me lots more time to spend on my crafts and post to my blog!!

My First Stampin' Up! Demo

Well, it has been a couple of months since my blog has seen any action...I have been extremely busy lately! I finally took the big leap and joined as a demonstrator with Stampin' Up! and I am loving it!! Of course it does take up quite a bit of my time. I joined in March and i gave my first demo/open house on March 31st! I had the time of my life, and I think everyone else enjoyed themselves too. I invited some family members and friends. I showed off the catalog and demonstrated some cards and then we did 2 make and takes. Here are the cards that we did. They were fairly simple, but everyone except for 1 person had never stamped before. So, these were actually challenging for them, but they all turned out great!! Here is a pic of the whole group and their wonderful creations!
I have since done 2 more workshops, one that my friend hosted and another in my home and I have 2 more scheduled ! I will upload some more pics soon of the projects I have done so far. Thanks for stopping by.

Way to Go, Mary Jo

Wow! It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Where does the time go? It seems like I hardly have any time to play with my stamps or crochet or do anything fun anymore. Winter has really taken its toll on me this year. I'm COLD! It's time for the snow to leave... go on now, get! It was sunny yesterday and today, though, so I did find time to make a card. Sunlight gives me Energy! I love the Feature Stamper challenge at SCS on Sundays cuz I get to browse some very talented stampers' galleries and case one of their creations. This week the honored lady was Mary Jo Albright. She has such a wonderful gallery and I spent an hour just looking before choosing this card to case. The things I changed:

1. colors-these are actually the CC154's colors from this past Tuesday's challenge

2. card size

3. ribbon placement

4. sentiment placement and stamp

This is my recipe:

Stamps: SU Zoofari & Love Ya Bunches

Paper: SU whisper white, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, non-SU orchid

Ink: SU Basic Black

Accessories: Cuttle Bug and Spots & Dots embossing folder, ribbon, punches

I cut a 3&1/2 inch square of WW cs and covered it with mono adhesive. Then I used some varying widths of my 3 colors of cs cut at 3&1/2 inches long and placed them on the adhesive. I then ran the piece thru my cuttlebug. Then mounted on a 3 & 3/4 in square of WW cs and mounted that on my card base. Stamped my image and colored with Prismacolor pencils. I used my 2&1/2 in square and 3 in scallop square punches and mounted onto my card with dimensionals. Lastly i stamped my sentiment and tied on my ribbon! This was a fun and easy card to make and I will definitely use this background technique again! These colors were really fun to work with also!! I do have some other cards that I have made the past couple of weeks and I will hafta do a mass upload to my blog this week!

My company is starting their Eat Well Live Well campaign and challenge today. We are supposed to strive to get in 10,000 steps and 5 cups of fruits and veggies each day for 8 weeks. My husband and I purchased some gym equipment for each other for Christmas and our upcoming B-days, and we put together a nice little home gym in our basement. We started our workout regiments last week, so I am in pretty good shape for EWLW(though i am VERY soar)! I love that there is this challenge at work cuz it really helps me to stay motivated especially if someone is going to be monitoring my results. So, today I got in about 12000 steps (lots of help from my treadmill) and 3 cups of fruit and 2 cups of veggies!! WoooHooo!

Well, I am gonna go see what is going on at the Oscars!

Have a super duper night!

A Day Late for the Featured Stamper's Challenge

Well, I decided to play at SCS yesterday and participate in the Featured Stamper challenge. Renee, aka prchvs, was the chosen one and her gallery is just wonderful. I had my card finished yesterday, but there was this thing on t.v., it was called the Super Bowl, ever heard of it? Yeah, pretty exciting stuff, so I just didn't get to uploading my card. I decided to case this card of Renee's. The things I changed are:

1. different sentiment

2. used summer sun instead of so saffron

3. snaps instead of brads

4. ribbon instead of linen thread

5. different dp

Everything else is pretty much the same. I just fell in love with her card when I saw it. Pick a Petal is one of my fave SU sets!

Here is my card recipe:

Stamps: SU Pick a Petal, $1 Studio G clear stamps

Paper: summer sun, old olive, purely pomegranate, whisper white, prove craft dp

Ink: purely pomegranate, close to cocoa, old olive, marigold morning

Accessories: organdy ribbon, snaps, paper piercer

Even though I didn't have time to upload or blog yesterday, I did manage to finish up a scarf that I started a couple of days ago. I got the pattern from Joanns, one of those free ones from Patons. It's called the CURLY Q scarf and it's crocheted. I used 2 skeins of Red Heart 'Pink Camo' instead of the suggested Patons SWS yarn. This really was a fun and easy project to make. I am not sure if I will give this one away, or if I will just keep it for myself... Well, that's it for now. Thanks for stoppin' by and I hope to see you again soon! TTFN

By the Way, I Like to Crochet

So, I have been saying that I would upload something that I made for one of my wonderful nieces, Olivia. Now, I do have to admit that this was supposed to be finished for her high school graduation back in June. I didn't quite make that deadline, but I did finish it for Christmas. I got the pattern from a Leisure Arts book called Color-Charged Throws. This really was very easy to do, though a little time consuming, especially all of the fringe, which you can't see very well in the pic. I wish I would have thought to take a picture before I wrapped it, oh well!! It's nice to see her smiling and holding it. That is it for now. I want to finish up the card I started for today's Featured Stamper challenge at SCS. If I hurry up I can post that tonight as well.

Thanks for stoppin' by...

Me an Artist? Not So Much...

Okay, so I get up this morning already to check out the Inspiration challenge at SCS. I just loved the artwork and I really felt inspired. So, i thought about what I wanted to do. I decided that I wanted to incorporate some acrylic paint to go along with Thursday's Ways to use it challenge. So, this afternoon I went to work, creating my masterpiece. This is about the time I discovered that an artist I am not. I went through many attempts, some looking worse than the previous, until I said the heck with it and went with this piece. The stamped elements are just fine. it's the free-hand "stuff" that looks like a 5 year old's work. Anyway, I couldn't NOT upload a card that I spent so much time on , so here it is.

My basic Card Recipe (as if someone is gonna be interested)

Stamps: Pick a Petal, Stem Silhouettes, Mark the Date

Paper: True Thyme, Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Whisper White

Ink: True thyme, Groovy Guava, Stazon black

Accessories: acrylic paint(light green), marvy markers,

Techniques: ripped paper, sponging, free-hand drawing

At the bottom of my main image i have a piece of true thyme that is ripped. I used a sponge to apply the "windy" light green paint, and a brush to apply the paint at the bottom. The TT "wind" was also swiped on w/a sponge. My little dots of GG are stamped on with the dot stamp from SU Mark the Date. Now I just want to make a card that is a little more in my comfort zone, whew!

If I get time later tonight I will upload a pic of a gift I made for one of my nieces. If not, then I will get to it tomorrow. I gotta go spend some time with my hubby right now!

Thanks so much for stopping by...

I love Leftovers!!

I took a vacation today to stay home and get some much needed house cleaning done...so where am I? yup, I am in my 'crap' room making cards...I mean cleaning up...well you know how it goes, clean a little...play a little...play a little....etc! Anywho, I did a very quick card for Jen's Limited Supplies challange at SCS to use leftovers. We were to use as many leftover paper, card stock, ribbon etc. I grabbed a bunch of black and white DCWV scraps and whipped up this cute Quilted background. If you are interested in this technique, HERE is a quick tutorial from my gallery at SCS.

Card Recipe:

Paper: DCWV dp and textured cs, red textured cs unknown

Stamps: SU Occasionally, Mike's $1 sentiment

Ink: black stazon

Accessories: ribbon from my scrap ribbon jar

Techniques: Quilted Tag

Okay, so now I will do a little more cleaning, but expect to be back later to play some more.

Thanks for stopping by...

New Paper and a New Technique

I was so excited yesterday when I got home from work to find a box on my front porch from Eclectic Paperie!! I ordered tons of new paper and some new stamps. They were having an awesome sale on lots of neat stuff! Check it out! I felt like a kid on Christmas morning! Don'tcha just love getting stuff in the mail? So I made this card for my oldest daughter's birthday (the very same one who messed up my PC). The dp is from Basic Grey's BLUSH line and I just love it!! I can't wait to use the TWO SCOOPS paper that I also got! The colors for this card were chosen as the Color Challenge for this week at SCS:Real Red, Blue Bayou and Soft Sky. I don't own any Real Red so I used some Bazzill red cs instead. My Fluffles image was colored in using my fabulous PrsimaColor pencils and OMS aka odorless mineral spirits. My very first attempt at this technique! I just followed Cecilia's tutorial at SCS. I got a long way to go, but not bad for a first attempt, eh? I also used some stickles on the party hat and candle flame (another wonderful gift from my oldest son) and the balloon was topped with Aleen's paper glaze to make it shiny. Here are the stats;

Stamps: Fluffles by Stampendous

Paper: SU blue bayou, soft sky, whisper white, basic grey blush, bazzill textured red cs

Ink: balck stazon

Accessories: SU photo corners punch, marvy scallop punches, large brads, ribbon prismacolor pencils, mona lisa OMS, stickles, paper glaze

Technique: Gamsol Magic

Thanks for poppin' in! This weekend I will be posting some pics of some projects that I have been working on other than playing with paper. So, stop back again soon!

My Strugglin' PC--Yikes!

My oldest daughter came home from School in NYC for the week of Christmas and she spent most of her time on my 'puter. So I didn't get to upload alot of stuff I have been working on. Then, after she left, my 'puter wasn't working correctly!! Go figure...Anyway, luckily my 18 year old son is still at home and happens to be my savior when it comes to electronics and after a few adjustments here and there over a period of several days, my PC is almost back to normal! He said he still needs to do a couple more things, but I can at least upload pics and whatnot.

Here is a card that I whipped up fairly quickly for my father-in-law for his birthday. The stamp is from one of my fallback sets, Lovely as a Tree, that I use for any manly card that I need to make. I just love to color this tree in using blender pens and ink from my SU classic lids!! I wanted to us my brand new set of 132 PRISMACOLOR pencils that my oldest son got me for Christmas, but I still need to get some Gamsol and blending stumps!! I can't wait to try my hand at that technique. Here is my recipe:

Stamps: SU Lovely as a Tree, Warmest Regards

Paper: DCWV-Ole World stack, non SU card stock

ink: Stazon black, True Thyme, Old Olive, River Rock

accessories: green jute, small brads

This is really a pretty straight forward card! Nothing too fancy...I am please with the result. Check back again soon as now I can get more of my creations uploaded!! Have a wonderful Monday!

I got TAGGED!?

Being new to this whole Bloggin' thing, I obviously have loads to learn. Chat, aka nitestamper, "tagged" me and i went to her wonderful blog and found that she had more than 1 taggin' game going on. Here is what I got from her Blog and I decided that I will play the easiest one first and later on this week I will play the other one. So...Here are 7 Random/Weird Facts about myself:

1. I absolutely HATE to be cold

2. I could drink diet Pepsi all day long and never get sick of it

3. I consider dark chocolate a standard household staple

4. I haven't gotten used to being a mother-in-law yet (it's been 4&1/2 months since my son got married)

5. The first thing I do when I get home from work is take off my bra

6. My retirement age goal is 45 (I turn 43 in March)

7. I love socks so much that I can't close my drawer anymore

Okay, so now you know a little more about me. Hopefully I haven't scared anybody away!

While I am here, i want to post a set of cards I made yesterday for the SCS Featured Stamper challenge.
Veronica has a wonderful gallery at SCS and her ispiration helped me to create this fabulous set of cards. See all my details here. Thanks Chat for keeping me on my toes! I don't know how I will keep up with all the awesome crafty bloggers, but I am gonna keep trying!