Ladybug Stamper

Beach Wedding Invites

2012-03-02T13:20:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday! I am sorry that I have been MIA over the last month. I have been in invitation overload!! I just finished wedding invitations for a friend of mine. Now I am working on bridal shower invites for my future sister in law and then I have their wedding invitations to finish up by the end of the month. I do hope to squeeze in some cards on the blog here in the meantime. I plan to have some sneak peeks of a couple of new products from the new 2012 - 2013 Stampin Up catalog. In the meantime, I will share with you the invitations that I did for my friend's wedding. She is getting married on the beach in Florida at the end of June so she wanted something tropical looking. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend her wedding since its at the end of June and I am due a couple of days after. Who knows, I may even have this little baby by then! As a quick side note, we found out about 2 weeks ago that we will be having a boy so that is exciting. Now we need to get working on his room among a million other things we have to do. :)

But back to the invites. I used some non SU! stamps for the palm tree leaves and the starfish. The colors used are Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade. I love how these turned out and she was very happy with the result.

Stamps: Palm Tree (non SU!), Gifts from the Sea (non SU!)
Paper: White, Calypso Coral
Ink: Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade

Mouthwatering Goodness!

2012-02-02T10:33:00.003-05:00

Hello there! Today's card uses lots of new items (and new to me items) from the Occasions Mini and Sale-a-bration catalog. I had seen this layout on Maile Belle's blog and I really liked how she used the a die for the cut out portion. This card actually ended up coming out how I envisioned it. I love what that happens! The paper and stamp set are new from the Occasions mini. They are part of the Sweet Shop product suite. I went back and forth on this stamp set and paper. I really liked it as soon as I saw it but I just wasn't sure I would get enough use out of it. After thinking about it and then seeing some cards done with it, I decided to get it. I'm so glad I did. I'm really liking it. The paper is really fun and I love the colors. And I like that the stamp set is something different than the normal flowers or nature type sets I get. I like to venture out and get some different stamps to build my collection. Now on to the card. The Wisteria Wonder piece was embossed with the Stripes Textured embossing folder, which you can get for FREE from the Sale-a-bration catalog. I then die cut that piece with the Labels Collection framelits die. Behind the opening, I added a piece of the Sweet Shop DSP. (Love those little hearts). Then I used the Mouthwatering set to stamp the ice cream cones. I actually stamped the ice cream cone 3 times. The cone in Crumb Cake, the ice cream in Pool Party and Lucky Limeade and the cherry in Real Red. I cut out each of these pieces and then layered them with dimensionals. Then I wrapped some Pool Party bakers twine around the Wisteria Wonder piece, made a bow and then added the sentiment from Party This Way. I added 2 pearls to the sentiment and colored them with the Wisteria Wonder marker. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at today's card!!

Stamps: Mouthwatering, Party This Way
Paper: Crumb Cake, Wisteria Wonder, Sweet Shop DSP
Ink: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Black
Accessories: Stripes Textured Embossing folder, Labels Collection Framelits die, Pool Party Baker's twine, Modern Label punch, pearls

Aviary Love

2012-01-30T12:40:00.003-05:00

Hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine was spent doing some cleaning and organizing....fun stuff! Haha! Today's card is the other card that I made for my coworker to choose from. I think this one is more over the top than the one from Friday. And this is the one he ended up picking for his fiance. I just love how this came out. It is so pretty! :) The flowers were fun to make too. Especially since I rarely use them on cards because they would make it too bulky to send. They would be good for hand delivered cards. The gray background is stamped with one of the flower images from Fabulous Florets. I used the new Labels Collection framelits die behind the oval. I love these new dies too. They add just the right touch to a card. Then I cut out and embossed the oval with the Designer Frames embossing folder. I stamped the bird card and the 2 bird from the Aviary set. The Pink Pirouette hearts were stamped with a non-SU stamp. Then the Pink Piroutte strip was embossed with the Pefect Polka Dots embossing folder. To make the flowers I punched 3 scallop circles. Two circles were punched with the 1 3/4 scallop circle and the other was punched with the 2 3/8 scallop circle. I did add rhinestones to all 3 flowers. It's hard to see it in the one flower. It got pushed to the bottom of the flower but it's there! The leaves are just cut free hand. I actually decorated the inside of this card too but I forgot to take a picture. Have a great day!

Stamps: Aviary, Fabulous Florets, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Black, Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz
Ink: Black, Real Red, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Designer Frames embossing folder, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Labels Collection Framelits die, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, 1 3/4 Scallop Circle punch, 2 3/8 Scallop Circle punch, Modern Label punch, rhinestones

Banner Love

2012-01-27T10:45:00.004-05:00

Happy Friday!! I am glad that it is the end of the week even though it is a gloomy day here. But at least I have a fun and bright card. I was asked by a coworker if I could make a Valentine's card for his fiance. He wanted something over the top.....oooo fun! So I designed 2 different cards for him to choose from. Today's card is the first one I made. I had a lot of fun making it and I think it came out cute. For the clouds in the background I punched out several scallop circles and then ran them through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. I then cut them in half to make the cloud shapes. I then punched out some pennants to make the cute banner. I bought that punch a long time ago and this was actually the first time I used it. Before I punched out the Pink Pirouette pennants I stamped them with the pennant image from Party This Way. At the end of the banner I added 2 bows with the Pool Party baker's twine. I love the color of this! Maybe that's because I'm in LOVE with Pool Party. And then I added some glittered hearts to each pennant. For the bottom, I cut out a strip of Pear Pizzazz DSP and added a Pear Pizzazz seam binding. Isn't this a cute Valentine's card or even just a cute card to say I love you. I will try to stop by over the weekend with the other card I made. I love that one too. It came out really nice and over the top, haha!! Enjoy your weekend!!

Stamps: Party This Way, Valentine Defined
Paper: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Pink Pirouette, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz DSP
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Real Red
Accessories: Heart-to-Heart punch, Petite Pennants Builder punch, Scallop border punch, Scallop Circle punch, Pool Party baker's twine, Pear Pizzazz seam binding, Brights buttons, Dazzling Details, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder

Field Flowers thank you

2012-01-25T12:44:00.005-05:00

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today's card is one that I did a while ago but I don't think I ever posted it on here. This is a pretty quick and simple thank you card. It's even quicker if you decide not to cut out the flowers. Two step stamping makes it quick and look really nice at the same time. The touch of glitter from the glimmer paper gives it a nice extra touch as well. For the bottom green piece, I just stamped one of the flower images randomly on the sheet to make my own designer paper. I hope you like it. I hope to be back in a day or 2 with some Occasions mini and Sale-a-Bration samples. I also have a super cute Valentine's card that I will be sharing too!!

Don't forget, Sale-a-Bration has started!!!! Place your order now to receive some fun new products!!! The new Designer paper is to die for!! :) Click on my store to the right to place your order.

Stamps: Field Flowers
Paper: Early Espresso, Old Olive, Silver Glimmer
Ink: Calypso Coral, Poppy Parade, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Accessories: Early Espresso tafetta ribbon, Eyelet border punch

New Goodies!

2012-01-12T15:54:00.005-05:00

Hello! It feels good to be back into the swing of things a little more. My energy has picked up a bit along with some creative juices. I hope I can keep this going for a little bit. New stuff always helps to get the mojo back. :) Today I'm showing some new things from the Occasions mini and from the upcoming Sale-a-Bration. I LOVE this new paper from Sale-a-Bration! I think I like all of the fun bright colors that it uses. It kind of helps to get out of this winter funk. The set I used is called Tea Shoppe from the Occasions mini. I really liked this set when I first saw it in the catalog but I wasn't sure how much use I would get out of it. Now after playing around with it a bit, I'm really liking it more and more. The little tea cups are just so cute. So this group of cards is for my next class in February. In the class we will also be making a cute tea bag holder (not shown).

Class Details:
You will make 4 cards, a tea bag holder and receive your own Pool Party bakers twine.
Date/Time: Wednesday February 8th at 7:00pm
Location: My house in NJ
Cost: $22
RSVP: Monday January 30th.

If you are interested in this class and are in the NJ area, please send me an email!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-10T15:06:00.004-05:00

Well, well, well. It's been quite a well since I've posted on here. I haven't forgotten about the blog, I've just been in a long creative funk and haven't had the energy to create or share anything. I do have a couple of Christmas projects to share which I'll just share here in one post. Since Christmas is way gone, who wants to see that stuff anymore, lol! However, I do have one project from the Creative Crew last month that is not Christmas so you'll get a little something Valentines-ish.
Now I have a very good reason for my absence and why I think I lost my creative juices for a while. :) It's because we are expecting a new little bundle of joy in July!! So basically since the end of October until the end of the year, I have been exhausted and lazy!!! I am just now finally starting to pick up a little more energy and now that the Occasions mini is out with some new things, I've been back to my craft room, doing a few things. So my hope is to try to post a little more often now. That is my plan. We'll see how that goes considering that I will be working on 2 sets of invitations to be done by March. I am going to be busy busy! But I promise to post more than once every 3 months, haha!
So here is some eye candy from last year. The frame and the hearts card were done for the Creative Crew in December. Which by the way you should definitely try out the challenges for this month. They look so fun! The other 2 cards were Christmas cards that I had sent out.

I hope everyone had enjoyed their holidays and had a happy new year!!

Snowman Easel Card

2011-11-17T13:42:00.003-05:00

Hello! I know it's been a while again. Ever since we lost power for a week, I have been out of sorts with my crafting and I just can't get my groove back on with it. I've barely stamped anything in the past 3 weeks! Shocking!! But I do have one of my Creative Crew projects for November to share. For this project we were to make an easel card and use the colors or DSP from the Letters to Santa collection. This is my first time making an easel card and it was pretty fun. I would definitely do it again. Since I didn't have the Letters to Santa DSP, I just used some of the colors from it. For the Crumb Cake circle I stamped one of the sentiments repeatedly in versamark and then embossed it with irridescent ice powder. It looks really sparkely in real life. You may be able to see some of the sparkles if you click on the close up pictures. I was really happy with how that came out. Then I cut out and colored the Christmas tree and snowman. I colored the snowman in with a white colored pencil. For the Marina Mist piece that I embossed with the Snow Burst embossing folder, I sponged some white ink over the snowflakes to make them stand out a little bit. Then I added some ribbon and those super cute mini jingle bells. I hope you like it and decide to try out an easel card!! Have a nice day!

Stamps: Snow Much Fun, Many Merry Messages, Delicate Doilies
Paper: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Black Stazon, Old Olive, Marina Mist, Riding Hood Red, White Craft
Accessories: Blender Pens, Mini Jingle Bells, White Taffeta ribbon, Snow burst Embossing folder

Creative Crew and updates

2011-11-03T13:40:00.004-04:00

Well this has been quite an interesting week. We had a crazy snowstorm on Saturday which gave us about 8 inches or so of snow!! And it was also nice enough to take out our power on Saturday afternoon. Today is Thursday and we are still powerless. :( I am hoping the power gods save us and give us power when I get home from work today. But for some reason I'm not feeling too hopeful. Maybe I will be wrong. I hope!!!! I've had enough of going from house to house to take my shower. I just want to be able to take a nice hot shower in my own house. Enough of the pity party, on to some cards. Since I haven't had a chance to show you the rest of my Creative Crew projects from October, I'm going to show them all to you in one post today. Then over the next week, I'll show you my Creative Crew projects from November. If you are a Stampin Up demonstrator, I highly encourage you to sign up for the Creative Crew. Over on Splitcoast, they are now taking "applications" for the next Creative Crew Design team, which will be from Jan - April. I had such a great time doing it. I was able to try out lots of different techniques that I may have never done before. Now on to the cards.

In this challenge we were to make a holiday gift. I decided to make a gift bag with some thank you and birthday cards that I could give to my grandmother.

Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Four Frames, Petite Pairs
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Flirtatious DSP
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Black
Accessories: Decorative Label punch, Top note die, Pretty in Pink 1 ¼ inch grosgrain ribbon, Daffodil Delight 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon, brads, eyelets

For this challenge we were to make a simple card for classes or workshops using any holiday themed DSP.

Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Crumb Cake, Holly Berry Bouquet DSP, Glimmer Paper, Early Espresso
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Ornament punch, Jewelry tag punch, Dotted Scallop ribbon punch, Early Espresso quilted ribbon, brad

In this challenge we were to break out the glitter and again make a simple card for classes or workshops.

Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Tags til Christmas
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, Glimmer paper
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Decorative Label punch, black marker

In other Stampin Up news, they have a great promotion going on from now until Dec. 15th. If you ever thought about hosting your own Stampin Up workshop, now is the time!! If your workshop totals $350 or more, the hostess gets an additional $35 hostess dollars on top of what the hostess already earns. So for a $350 workshop, the hostess normall gets $50 free but with this awesome promotion, you will now get an addtional $35 for a total of $85 worth of free stuff for yourself!!!! How great is that!! This is the perfect time to do some holiday shopping for yourself! :) Clink on the link in the sidebar for more information or contact me to set up your own workshop to take advantage of these great benefits!!

Creative Crew Scrapbook Challenge

2011-10-21T10:13:00.005-04:00

Happy Friday! Today's post is one of my projects from this month's Creative Crew challenges on splitcoast. This challenge was to make anything that included a photo and was something you could give away. Some examples were a photo Christmas card, a framed scrapbook page, or framed art, etc. I decided to go with the photo Christmas card. I was going to use a wedding photo of us but then I got to thinking that if I were to actually send this card out, I wouldn't be sending out cards with a wedding photo of us getting married last year. And I figured if I'm taking the time to make this card, I need to at least be able to send it. So then I remembered I had this super cute photo of our cats. Yes, they look like they are posed very nicely but that is only because I was eating cereal near them and they were hoping to get some of the milk in my cereal. :) Crazy cats! I printed out this picture in black and white and got to work on my card. It's actually a pretty easy card that you could replicate for your holiday cards this year. I layered the picture on vanilla cardstock to give it a border. Then I used a piece of the Holly Berry Bouquet DSP that I punched with the scallop border punch. Then I embossed the saying from Christmas Lodge on some Cherry Cobbler cardstock, added 2 pearls next to the sentiment and that's it. You could skip the embossing part to make the card even quicker. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture by the Cherry Cobbler piece is adhered with dimensionals so it gives it a little dimension. Have a nice weekend!

Stamps: Christmas Lodge
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler, Vanilla, Holly Berry Bouquet DSP
Ink: Craft White
Accessories: White embossing powder, Pearls, Scallop border punch

Busy Busy Busy!

2011-10-19T13:19:00.002-04:00

Where has the time gone?? I can't believe how fast these months are flying by! In the past couple of weeks work has picked up a bit so by the time I get home, I'm pooped and in no mood for stamping. Crazy, I know! I actually have my projects for the Creative Crew on Splitcoast for October which I have yet to post on here. I hope to share those this week. Yesterday I was FINALLY able to sit down and do some crafting. The card I made was for the color challenge on splitcoast. I definitely do that challenge a lot on there. I like trying out different color combos. Yesterday's colors were Blushing Bride, Regal Rose and Lucky Limeade. I ended up with a vintage feel to this card even though the colors are not really that vintage-y. I think the Regal Rose is a little bright but I tried to tone it down some by sponging the edges. Overall, I think the card came out ok. I really like how the two step stamping makes those flowers look more realistic. I have a couple of thank you cards that I need to make so I think I will try this out again in a different color combo. I will be sure to post them on here. I hope you enjoy and try these colors out for yourself.

Stamps: Field Flowers, Petite Pairs, Friendly Words wheel, Music Notes wheel
Paper: Blushing Bride, Regal Rose, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Blushing Bride, Regal Rose, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Lucky Limeade ribbon, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch

Snow Much Fun

2011-09-28T08:44:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend. Mine was good. I actually had a little time to relax on Sunday and just be lazy and watch football. So that was nice. Today's card is for 2 challenges; the color challenge on splitcoast and the KA-POW creative challenge on Carrie Gaskin's blog. The colors for the challenge on splitcoast was Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso and Pool Party. I LOVE these colors together. My first thought was to do a Christmas card with them. Then the KA-POW challenge was a sketch challenge.

I thought this sketch was kind of cool. Although I did mess up a little and not add something where the 3 buttons are. I should have moved my pearls to the bottom. Oh well, I still think the card is cute. The Pool Party background was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. On the Cherry Cobbler piece I stamped the small doily from Delicate Dolies. The snowman was stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock and colored in with White craft ink. I cut him out and adhered him to the one of the frames from the Designer Frames embossing folder. I added some Cherry Cobbler seam binding with a little tag and a little jingle bell (they are so cute!) And lastly, I added some of the new mica flakes around the snowman. These are pretty cool too. However, when I got them I was shocked at how big the container was that they were in. I will have these flakes for a long time! What a great deal! I hope you enjoyed today's christmas card. I am so glad that I have such a head start on my cards for the year. One less thing to stress about once December comes. I hope these challenges get you inspired to start on your holiday cards as well! Have a great day!

Stamps: Snow Much Fun, Delicate Doilies
Paper: Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Black, Pool Party, Early Espresso
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Designer Frames embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, pearls, mini jingle bells, mica flakes

Falling Leaves

2011-09-23T11:36:00.003-04:00

Happy Friday! I had intentions of posting earlier this week but I don't know what happened. I think between the busy week at work last week and a super busy weekend (wedding on Saturday and Jets game on Sunday), I was just pooped! This weekend should be a little more relaxing and hopefully we will get those kitchen cabinets finished! What I thought would be a fairly quick project has turned into a month long project! We are just too tired to work on it during the week and then the weekends get busy. Hopefully it will be done soon.
Today's card was inspired by this card. I really liked the idea of the leaves cut out to make a wreath. I don't have this stamp set so I decided to do it with the Falling Leaves set. Somewhere else I saw someone using the colors Pool Party, Peach Parfait and Wild Wasabi together and I really liked it. So I used those colors and then added Melon Mambo. I really like these colors together. They feel a bit summery but that's ok. It's fun to use different color schemes for the holidays/seasons. This card was a little tedious cutting out the leaves but it went fairly quick. I used the snowburst embossing folder for the Crumb Cake background. As you can see, this can be used for more than just holiday cards. On the bottom part, I stamped one of the images from the Delicate Doilies set (LOVE that set!). And finally I added some Crumb Cake ribbon and the sentiment. Hope you enjoy!!

Stamps: Falling Leaves, Delicate Doilies
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Pool Party, Peach Parfait, Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Early Espresso
Accessories: Snowburt Embossing Folder, Crumb Cake taffeta ribbon

Wicked Cool

2011-09-15T15:02:00.003-04:00

Hello!!! I hope everyone is having a good week. I am so ready for it to be over. It's been quite busy at work the past few days so I'm ready for the work week to be over. But in the meantime I have a fun Halloween card for you. I don't normally send any Halloween cards because I don't usually have that many Halloween stamps. I think I have 1 maybe 2 sets so I decided to get the Wicked Cool set just to have another Halloween set on hand. So now that I've done a couple of cards, I will be sending out Halloween cards this year. I had a lot of fun making this card. And I used a couple of cool new things, like that fabulous glitter paper and the fun embossed frames. To start, I stamped some of the spider webs from the set in black on the Rich Razzleberry sheet. Then I embossed the Midnight Musings wheel in clear embossing powder. I'm not sure if you can see in the photo but it has a really nice shine to it. I added another close up photo below to try to show the shine. I added a strip of the glitter paper on top of a strip of Pumpkin Pie. Then I just stamped a couple of the elements from the Wicked Cool set, cut them out and layered them on the embossed decorative frame. The word Spooky was punched with the Decorative Label punch using this technique seen here. Isn't that a fun way to use your Decorative label punch! I know, I'll be doing that more often. I hope you enjoyed today's card. Have a great afternoon.

Stamps: Wicked Cool, Midnight Musings wheel
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade, Glimmer Paper
Ink: Black, Versamark, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry marker, Lucky Limeade marker, black satin ribbon, scallop trim border punch, decorative label punch, designer frames embossing folder

Halloween Bat?

2011-09-09T10:44:00.004-04:00

TGIF! Yay it's Friday. What a wet dreary week this has been! I thought I heard someone say the sun was out but since I have no windows nearby at work I have no idea if that's the truth or not. I hope so. I haven't seen the sun in so long! Today, I have a fun halloween card for you. I'm not really sure if he's a bat or an owl. I tried to make him look like a bat from the owl punch, but I was having some problems figuring out how to do his wings. I did see a good idea for it but that was after I already finished the card. So we'll say that he's a bat. Whatever he is, I think he's kind of cute. :) The layout is the same that I used on one of the Creative Crew cards. One thing I would change is how I glued the vellum piece down. You can see the glue marks more on this card than on the other one. (so don't pay attention to them ;) ) The Basic Gray background was stamped with a couple of doily stamps in Black. Then I ran the Spooky Skyline wheel over that in versamark. I sponged the edges in Black after that. The pearls on the Modern Label punch were colored with a black sharpie. Have a great weekend!!

Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Spooky Skyline wheel
Paper: Black, Basic Gray, Concord Crush, Pumpkin Pie (textured), Shimmer White, Vellum
Ink: Black
Accessories: Owl Punch, 2 3/8 Scallop Circle Punch, Modern Label Punch, Top Note Die, Lattice Embossing folder, pearls, orange ribbon (not SU!)

Sketch Challenge

2011-09-08T10:37:00.004-04:00

Hi! I am on a roll with blog posts lately. I actually have another card ready for a post tomorrow. I hope I'm getting my creative juices back. Even though I've been working on other projects lately, the creative juices haven't been flowing as easily. Anyway, today's card was for the sketch challenge yesterday. I decided to use some of the Spice Cake fabric again for the background. I'm not sure how I feel about this card. It's ok I guess, not one of my favorites. It's pretty straightforward so there isn't a whole lot to explain.
Maybe it's all this dreary weather we've been having here on the East Coast that has put my creativity in a funk. The rain is just never ending. I left to go to work this morning and the end of our street was completely flooded. We have lived here for 2 years and I have never seen it get like that. Then my 25 minute commute to work was an hour! Yikes! I think because all of the back roads that people take were flooded as well so that made the main highway full of traffic. Lets hope the commute home is much better!
Have a nice day!

Stamps: Fabulous Florets, You're a Gem
Paper: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Vanilla
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Spice Cake fabric, Wisteria Wonder ribbon, Jewelry tag punch, linen thread

Front Door Wreath

2011-09-07T13:45:00.006-04:00

(Edited to add close up photos at the end).

Hello! Here is my final project for the Creative Crew challenges for September. This challenge was to create a home decor item using the Domestic Goddess Suite collection in the catalog. I love this DSP and the colors used in this collection, so I was excited about this project. This idea was not the first idea that I had. My original idea was to make some kind of artwork for our laundry room because the colors match perfectly. But once I started designing things on My Digital Studio it did NOT look good at all. So back to the drawing board. Since I just bought the Big Shot and Fun Flowers die for my birthday in August (Happy Birthday to me!!), I decided I wanted to do something with them and then the idea of the wreath was born. The Pool Party flowers are cut with the Fun Flowers die. I also cut another set of flowers using the Domestic Goddess DSP and layered them with the Pool Party flowers. (You can see this better in the close up photos below). The center of the flowers are the new In Color brads. The Basic Gray flowers are scallop circles that are folded into quarters and then attached to another scallop circle. The centers are also the In Color brads. The other flowers are scallop circles that are cut with the Domestic Goddess DSP. I cut the circle in a spiral and then rolled them to make the flowers. For the leaves, I cut one of the flowers from the Fun Flowers die and used the petal as a leaf and some of the other leaves are just free handed. The finishing touch is one of the large buttons (they are quite big!) from the Holiday Mini with some white taffeta ribbon. I had a lot of fun making this wreath and it came out pretty much how I wanted it to. I will definitely be doing this again in different colors for different seasons or holidays. I hope this inspires you to take part in the Creative Crew challenge and make your own home decor item!

Paper: Domestic Goddess DSP, Pool Party, Basic Gray, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Spice cake buttons, White taffeta ribbon, fun flowers die, scallop circle die, in color brads, wreath

Creative Crew - DSP/Color Focus Card

2011-09-06T11:30:00.006-04:00

Hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I wanted to post my other creative crew projects over the weekend but I didn't get a chance. I was too busy doing this:

We have decided to paint our ugly wood cabinets white. It already looks so much brighter in the kitchen. We would obviously love to just totally redo the whole kitchen but that is not in the budget. So for now this will do. I will post a picture once we get the doors back on and everything cleaned up.

Now for my next card. The challenge for this was to use the Timeless Portrait DSP. Since I didn't have that DSP, I used some of the colors from it. I love how this card came out. I plan to use it for a wedding that we are attending next weekend. For the background I used an image from the Friends Never Fade set and stamped it in black. Its hard to tell in the photo but I also stamped the Friendly Words wheel in versamark over the stamped images. It's a subtle little touch. I hope you like today's card and I hope you get a chance to take part in these challenges at Splitcoaststampers. Tomorrow I will share my final project which is my favorite!

Stamps: Friends Never Fade, Fabulous Florets, Friendly Words Wheel, Petite Pairs
Inks: Black, Lucky Limeade, Versamark
Paper: Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, Black, Sahara Sand, Vellum
Accessories: Black satin ribbon, top note die, lattice embossing folder

MDS Page

2011-09-02T09:08:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday! I am so glad that the week is over. For some reason it felt like a long week and I just wasn't in the mood to be at work. But that's nothing new, I don't really ever feel like being at work, lol! I am looking forward to relaxing and not doing too much of anything this weekend. On to today's project. For this challenge, we were to make a vintage/steampunk scrapbook page based on this sketch. Now I've never done anything "steampunk" before. I actually never even heard of that word. So this was a bit of a challenge for me. I think this ended up more on the vintage side than steampunk but I think it came out ok. I decided to use My Digital Studio for this because I was able to use all of the elements that I wanted to. It was quicker than ordering some new stamps and papers. Plus I waited until the last minute to do this project since I had no idea where I was going with it, lol! I decided to scrapbook 2 pictures from our Costa Rica trip. We have a TON of pictures from that trip but I picked the 2 that I think captured the main point of the trip...us and the volcano. :) I may try to continue adding more pages and maybe actually get a whole book of our trip. Supplies are listed below. I will try to pop back in over the weekend with my other 2 projects. Have a great holiday weekend!

Stamps: World Tour, Extreme Elements, Letter It
Inks: Early Espresso
Paper: Botanical Gazette
Accessories: Modern label punch, Lots of Tags shape 1, stitching

Wow it's September!

2011-09-01T10:47:00.004-04:00

Holy Cow! Where has August gone?!! Actually where has the summer gone. I can't believe it is September and the summer is gone. :( I love the summer! Although I am excited for fall and for football to start but I am definitely going to miss the pool and beach days. I feel like I didn't get enough of them this year even though I did make it to the shore several times. Which is why I haven't posted in FOREVER! I had a couple of trips during August. Then I was working on my swaps for the ControlFreaks group, which I will post here soon. Then I was working on projects for the Creative Crew on Splitcoast!!! I was picked to be on the Creative Crew Design Team for September through December! Woo hoo!! So that is what has been going on behind the scenes and why I haven't posted. So today, I will post 1 of the 4 projects I did. I will post the rest this week. In honor of today being the start of the Holiday Mini, I will post the card I did using some new mini products.

I think my favorite stuff out of the new catalog is the Spice Cake collection. I absolutely LOVE the paper, fabric and buttons. Maybe its because I am in love with anything that has the color Pool party in it. :) Anyway on to the card. The challenge for this card was to use any holiday or seasonal set and use this sketch. I made a couple of tweeks to the sketch but for the most part kept it the same. So are you loving the new fabric??!! I don't think I've ever used fabric on a card before (maybe once?) but I think this is a fun little touch instead of using DSP. That huge button is also from the mini. I really liked the colors of the buttons so I ordered them. But once I got them I wasn't sure what to do with them because they are large but I think it worked perfectly for this card. I also used them in another project I did for the Creative Crew. (Stay tuned for that this week). The rest of the card was pretty straight foward. I've listed the rest of the supplies below. So I would love to see what you guys do with this challenge. Head on over to Splitcoast Stampers, check out the Septemeber challenges for the Creative Crew and upload your projects. Put a link here too, I would love to check out what you've done.

And don't forget to check out the Holiday Mini. (The link is in my sidebar). There are lots of fabulous things!!!

Stamps: Falling Leaves
Inks: Pool Party, More Mustard, Soft Suede
Paper: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Spice cake buttons, Pool Party ruffle ribbon, Spice Cake fabric, brads, modern label punch

Color Q Challenge.

2011-07-27T10:46:00.006-04:00

Hi! I was actually able to sneak in a little bit of stamping time yesterday after I finished my packing. I saw the colors for the Color Q Challenge #95 and really liked these colors together. I've never done this challenge before but decided to try it out. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with these colors. I figured something with flowers, then because I didn't want to spend all night coming up with a card, I decided to CASE this card of mine. I obviously changed the colors in this card. Then I used the Hello Doily background stamp in the corners instead of the swirls from the Elements of Style set. The flowers are colored with Calypso Coral even though it doesn't really look like it. The stamped the flowers in Early Espresso, then I started to color in the flowers with a blender pen and ink from the Calypso Coral pad. Since I used the ink from the ink pad, the color was a little lighter and I think it pulled in some of the Early Espresso ink as well. Then I went back with the Calypso Coral marker and added some darker shading. I really like how this came out. The size of this card is a little different than normal, it's 3.5 x 6.25. Well I am off to the beach for a few days and I cannot wait! Not having to go to work for 2 days is great, lol! I will be back next week with some more eye candy!

Stamps: Elements of Style, Hello Doily, Petite Pairs
Paper: Island Indigo, Early Espresso
Ink: Early Espresso, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Calypso Coral
Accessories: Calypso Coral marker, Lucky Limeade marker, Pool Party ruffle ribbon, square punch

Balloon Flower

2011-07-26T13:38:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone! I have a quick post for you today. Today's card is for the challenge on splitcoast yesterday which was to use tags. I used the tag as my focal point. I'm not really sure if I'm in love with this card. It came out better in my head. You win some, you lose some right!? But I figured I would still post it anyway. The fun thing about this card is that the flower is made from the balloon image from Up, Up and Away. I had seen this done somewhere else and I thought it was a cute idea. I will have to try it again on another card that I like better. :) That is it for me today. I may try to get another post up for tomorrow but I'm not sure. I'm headed down to the shore for a few days so I'm hoping to have a few minutes to make another card to post. If not, I'll be back next week!

Stamps: Up, Up & Away, Fabulous Florets, Hello Doily
Paper: Pacific Point, Crumb Cake
Ink: Pacific Point, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Black
Accessories: Brights buttons, Crumb Cake taffeta ribbon, Dotted scallop ribbon border punch

Christmas in August

2011-07-18T11:19:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Luckily I was able to get in a little stamping time. I used the time I had to finish up the cards that we will be doing in my Christmas in August class (August 3rd). I used the Domestic Goddess DSP so the color scheme is a little unconventional but I think it works. I just love these snowmen from this set! If you are in the NJ area and are interested in joining this class, please send me an email. :)

Field Flowers

2011-07-13T11:07:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone! Today's card uses another new set from the catalog called Field Flowers. Of course I didn't really need another flower set but I thought this one was nice and I don't think I have any flower sets that use the 2 step stamping. It gives the flowers a nice dimensional look to them without having to do too much. Just stamp the one flower image in a lighter color and then stamp the "outline" image in a darker color. On the Early Espresso piece I used the Hello Doily background stamp and embossed it in clear embossing powder to make it look shiny and raised. I tried to take a close up picture so you could get a better look at it.

The sentiment is also part of a new set. Lots of new goodies on this card! The ribbon is new too and I love this ruffled ribbon!! Have a great day!

Stamps: Field Flowers, Hello Doily, Petite Pairs
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, White
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Lucky, Limeade, So Saffron, More Mustard, Early Espresso, Versamark
Accessories: Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon, Lace ribbon, clear embossing powder

New Stuff!!

2011-07-08T15:20:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday!! I got some new stuff yesterday and I could not wait to play with it today. I should really be doing some housework on my early afternoon off from work but what fun is that?!? That will be waiting for me all weekend. I did do a few things first so the house doesn't look like a total disaster when the hubby gets home from work. I don't want him thinking I wasted all day making cards! ;) So I thought this was a cute new set in the catalog and got it, not totally sure if I would get a lot of use out of it. But I was determined to get a few things other than flower stamps! And I think I'm in love with this set. I had so much fun making this card that I think it was a good purchase. So normally I write out everything I do on my cards but sometimes that gets tiring writing everything out. I know, I'm being lazy. I think I am now just going to list all the products that I used and then if there is something I need to explain, I'll write that in the post. I may go back to the other way if this doesn't seem to work out so well. The one thing I will comment on is how I'm not really a fan of how the sentiment came out. I thought it would be ok in black but it seems to blend in too much. I was going to emboss it in white but then I was afraid that wouldn't look good either. And I don't think it would look good to cover it up so I'm just leaving it blended in a bit. You can still see it, just not as good as I would like. Enjoy! Have a great weekend!!

Stamps: Up, Up, & Away, Petite Pairs, Inspired by Nature
Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake
Ink: Island Indigo, Wisteria Wonder, White, Black, Basic GrayPool Party (for sponging), Lucky Limeade (for sponging)
Accessories: Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Scallop border punch

Aviary Baby

2011-07-07T15:02:00.002-04:00

When I made today's card over the weekend, I had my friend in mind. Her due date was the middle of July so I thought I'd get a head start on her card and keep my fingers crossed that it was a girl because I wanted to use these colors together: Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Calypso Coral. Well it turns out she gave birth the evening I made this card and she had girl! How exciting. I can't wait to send this card off to her and see her new bundle of joy. Now for the details on the card. The new catalog has listed Aviary in the "Growing Up" section so I thought I would give this set a whirl for a baby card. I think it does work well for a baby card. I also used the Four Frames set and A Word For You set for the sentiment portion. I kind of think that the circle with the decorative label punch underneath almost makes it look like a snowglobe. I think I may have to try to make another Christmas card with this idea. Back to the card, I used the music notes wheel for the background and then used the Polka Dots embossing folder on the Pool Party piece. Then I added some ruffled ribbon and a rhinestone at the top of the bird cage.
Have a great day!

Snow Much Fun!

2011-07-06T09:18:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. Ours was pretty good. We had a little BBQ on Sat with some family and friends, got to relax on Sunday and then I went tubing down the Delaware river with some girlfriends on Monday. I also got a chance to make a few cards too. I have an order coming with some new things from the catalog so hopefully that will get here soon so I can make some stuff. Today's card does use some new stuff too. I used the Snow Much fun set. I figure since this set has been sitting on my desk, that I might as well start making some Christmas cards. It's never to early to start. I think I plan on having a Christmas in July (or maybe August) class where you can get a head start on your Christmas cards. I'll have more info on that once I make the cards for the class. But back to today's card. I stamped part of the snowman image on Crumb Cake cardstock. I colored him in with some markers and then used a q-tip to add some White craft ink to his body. I cut the snowman out and added dimensionals to him. I layered the oval on top of Island Indigo cardstock that was punched with the decorative label die. I like how this came out and I plan to try this again. The Soft Suede background is stamped with some doilies from Delicate Doilies. Then I added a piece of Baja Breeze cardstock that was embossed with the lattice texture plate and cut with the top note die. I added a piece of lace ribbon and then a couple of brown buttons that I had lying around. And as usual the sentiment was punched with the modern label punch. I hope you like today's card. Stay tuned this week because I will have a few more cards for you!
Be sure to check out the new catalog which is linked in my sidebar. Or course there is lots of great new things!!

Today is it!

2011-06-30T13:28:00.004-04:00

Today is the last day of the 2010 - 2011 catalog. You have until the end of the day to place your order if there is something you want that is retiring. Since I ended up getting pretty busy this week, I wasn't able to make any cards using some of the retired stamps. Instead, I'll show you some of my favorite cards uing the following retiring sets: Petal Pizazz, Great Friend, Simple Friendship and Always. Enjoy!

New Catalog Case

2011-06-27T11:31:00.003-04:00

Hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine was pretty relaxing, which was nice. We didn't really have anything going on, so it was good to be home and relax and do a few things. For today's card, I pretty much CASE'd a card from the new catalog. The card in the catalog uses a new hostess set but I decided to use one of the retiring sets - Petal Pizazz. I think this was one of my favorite flower sets (until Fabulous Forets came around, hehe!). The colors I used were Pink Pirouette, Wisteria Wonder (*new*), Pool Party (*new*) and Lucky Limeade (*new*). This card involves LOTS of cutting and LOTS of dimensionals but I like how it came out. I used several of the flowers from Petal Pizazz, cut them out and layered them on the top note die and some First Edition DSP. I added some Pretty in Pink tafetta ribbon, layered over lace ribbon. The sentiment is from A Word For You, stamped in Lucky Limeade. Then I added a couple of rhinestones for some sparkle. Have a great day!

Tart and Tangy

2011-06-24T09:13:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday! I am so glad Friday is finally here. It feels like its been a long week. I am so looking forward to my half a day at work so I can go home and play with some stamps! :) Actually I have a couple of household things I need to do first before I can play. But I definitely plan on using this extra free time to get some cards and things done. I'm hoping to work on cards for my next class that I'm planning. Anyway, today's card is for yesterday's challenge on splitcoast which was to not use white cardstock. It's also for my own challenge to not use flowers. And then I decided that for the next week, I'm going to use some stamp sets that are retiring. I will have plenty of time to play with all the new things, I should dust off some of the retiring stamps and play with those. This is a set that I haven't used in a long time but it's such a fun set. I stamped all the fruit images on Confetti Cream cardstock and punched them out with the 1 1/4 circle punch. I added some buttons to the cherries for a fun little touch. These were then layered on scallop squares. The background is marina mist stamped with the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp. Don't mind that the Marina Mist piece is a little crooked. I don't know how that happened. I thought I lined it up correctly and didn't notice it was off until after I took and uploaded the picture. So I didn't feel like going back and retaking the picture. Then I added some Daffodil Delight taffeta ribbon and added the sweet treats sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I hope you all have a nice Friday!

Fabulous Florets, again!

2011-06-22T14:15:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's another card featuring these flowers. I will try to show you a different set in my next post. But I'm not making any promises :) I really didn't think I was going to like this set as much as I do. Although I tend to like a LOT of flower sets! Maybe I will challenge myself to not have any flowers on my next card. But back to today's card. This was a fairly simple card to do. I cut strips from the new Flirtatious DSP collection. The flowers are stamped in Calypso Coral (*new color*) and the leaves are stamped in Lucky Limeade (*new*) on Lucky Limeade cardstock. The thank you sentiment is from Just Believe. To finish it off I added a couple of pearls to the modern label punch. I hope you enjoy!

Tour-de-Freaks

2011-06-19T19:00:00.007-04:00

Welcome to the June 2011 Blog Tour. If you've just arrived from Barb's blog, you've come to the right place! Weren't her projects fantastic?! But don't worry, if you have started here, it will be possible to go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour!

This month's theme is Summer Mini/Sneak Peek catalog projects. I am totally in love with the new In Colors so I used several of those on my projects plus a couple of new sets from the catalog. Then I had to use my favorite set from the summer mini - Fabulous Florets. This was actually a set I did not plan to buy at first. But now I'm hooked on those gorgeous flowers. Anyway, let's get started!

Ok first up is an adorable snowman set from the new catalog called Snow Much Fun. I just fell in love with the snowmen in the set. They are so cute. So I thought maybe I would get a super early start on my Christmas cards! Crazy, I know. I decided to make this a clear card using the clear window sheets. The 2 images on the stamped in white are from Delicate Doilies, another new set in the catalog. I thought they worked well as snowflakes too! I colored and cut out the snowman and tree and put them on dimensionals on the front of the card. Inside, I stamped more doilies on the crumb cake cardstock and added the sentiment with the modern label punch.

The next card uses those flowers from Fabulous Florets. I decided to do something a little fun and wild. The colors for the flowers are Blushing Bride, Calaypso Coral (*new*), and Poppy Parade. The leaves are stamped in Lucky Limeade (*new*). I think this may be my all time favorite new green color. I love it! I then stamped various doilies from Delicate Doilies in Black on Crumb Cake cardstock. I added some black satin ribbon and the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

My last project is a 6 x 6 scrapbook page. This is a picture of me and my future sister in law from my bachelorette party. I used another floral image from Fabulous Florets and stamped them in black on Wisteria Wonder (*new*) cardstock. I stamped the leaves again in Lucky Limeade on the First Edition DSP. I stamped several sentiments on Pretty in Pink cardstock. The bottom of the Crumb Cake piece is stamped with another image from Delicate Doilies. The pink DSP is a sneak peek from the Flirtatious collection. All of the papers in this collection are gorgeous!

That is all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed my projects! Next up is LeeAnn with some more eye candy for you!!

Baby Shower

2011-06-17T08:06:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday! Today's card is for a baby shower I am going to over the weekend. My friend doesn't know what she's having so I tried to make it gender neutral, even though it might be leaning a bit towards being a little boyish. Oh well, I think it came out really cute. I used a bunch of punches to make the little bear. I had done something with this little bear around Christmas. And I thought he would be perfect for a baby shower card. I just wasn't feeling any of the baby stamps I have (which actually isn't too many), so that's why I went with the punch art. You can't go wrong with that. For the colors I used some of the new In Colors, Pool Party and Lucky Limeade. Then I added a touch of yellow with some Daffodil Delight tafetta ribbon. I really like these colors together. I used a new set from the upcoming catalog called Four Frames and stamped that in Lucky Limeade. The sentiment is non SU. I couldn't find anything that I liked that would fit in the oval space. Well, I'm sure I probably had something, I just didn't feel like spending forever looking for a saying. :) For the background, I just punched several circles from Pool Party and glued them. I did this on another card a couple of weeks ago and I like the little extra something it gives. Then I used the lattice texture embossing folder on the Lucky Limeade piece. I hope my friend likes this little bear!
I will be participating in this month's Control Freaks Blog Tour so be sure to stop back on Monday the 20th! We will be showcasing products from the Summer Mini and some sneak peeks from the new catalog. You won't want to miss all of the fantastic projects the girls have lined up! Have a great weekend!

Delicate Doilies

2011-06-14T14:32:00.003-04:00

Hello! I'm back from my beach vacation to Nags Head. It was so nice! We had some great weather, hot, but sunny! Perfect weather for tanning! Today's card is another quick and simple card. I needed another thank you so I used the Delicate Doilies again. I also used a new color - Wisteria Wonder. This purple goes really well with Concord Crush. I stamped some of the doilies in Whisper White, Concord Crush and Wisteria Wonder. I then added a strip of Concord Crush and embossed the sentiment from With All My Heart. A few rhinestones finish the card off. Nice and simple! I hope you have a nice day!

Sneak Peek!!!!!

2011-06-03T19:33:00.003-04:00

Hey! I'm popping on really quick to show you a card I made with some new stuff! I know I said I would have something when I come back after next week but I just got my stuff today and had to try out the new colors! I needed a thank you...well I'm sure I have one made somewhere...but I wanted to make something new. Since I should ben spending my time getting ready and packing, I had to make this a quick card. I think it came out cute. It would look great in lots of other colors too. So what you are looking at is a new stamp set called Delicate Doilies. All of the colors are new too. They are Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Island Indigo. These colors are so brand spanking new that I had to go look at them for the names while I was typing them!! Normally, I just know all of the colors off the top of my head. Well I should get back to packing for my beach vacation starting tomorrow. I can't wait to be laying on the beach relaxing with a drink and of course the new catalog! :) This was probably the main reason that I expedited my order..hehe! I knew that I would get the catalog in perfect time to have it for the beach and be able to leisurely look through it then. Alright, Ill be back in a week!!

Last Chance Lists

2011-06-02T13:29:00.005-04:00

It's the beginning of June and that means the list of retired stamps and accessories is out. It's sad to see some of our favorite stamps and accessories retire but that just means room for new goodies! So if there is something that you've been eyeing up and it's on one of the lists below, get it now while you can!

See the complete list of retired items here.

I will be away on vacation for the next week. But when I get back I plan on having some sneak peeks of some products from the new catalog. Wait until you see the new In Colors...they are gorgeous!!

Color Challenge

2011-05-25T08:54:00.005-04:00

Hi! Today's card is for the color challenge on spiltcoast yesterday. I really love these colors together - Baja Breeze, Soft Suede and Perfect Plum! I used the Fabulous Florets set again. I stamped one flower in Perfect Plum, then I stamped it again to get the lighter color small flower. The Soft Suede piece is also stamped with one of the flowers from Fabulous Florets and then I sponged the edges. The background is from the Greenhouse Gala designer series and I sponged that piece as well. The ribbon is some purple satin ribbon I had (not SU!). I really like how this came out. I definitely plan on using these colors again. Today is supposed to be nice and sunny, finally! Too bad I'm stuck inside at work all day. Let's just hope we have some of this sun over the weekend! Have a nice day!

I'm back with some pics and a card!

2011-05-23T13:13:00.006-04:00

Hello everyone! I am back from our wonderful vacation to Costa Rica. We had a great time! The weather was really nice for us there. It was pretty hot and it did rain a little bit but not until around 4 or so in the evening. Which was fine because they we would relax a bit and get ready before dinner. We were told that we were very lucky to see the volcano so clear. Almost everyday we could, at some point, see the whole volcano clearly. It was so cool! We did a bit of relaxing while we were there but we also did some adventurous things like white water rafting, canyoning down the waterfalls and a hike through the national park. I've posted a few pics below, after the details of today's card.

Now on to today's card. While I was away, I got the Fabulous Florets set. I caved and ordered ANOTHER flower set that I didn't think I needed. But of course, I did need it. I made this card for my mother-in-law's birthday that was over the weekend. I CASED the layout from here. Everything else I changed. I used the rock and roll technique for the flowers using Peach Parafait and Poppy Parade. I don't know if you can tell in the photo but I also cut out the centers of the flowers and popped them up on dimensionals. The leaf is stamped in Wild Wasabi. I added a strip of Daffodil Delight cardstock with Daffodil Delight ribbon. Then I added another strip of Pumpkin Pie cardstock that I used the lattice texture embossing folder on. I also punched out a couple of Crumb Cake circles to layer on the Crumb Cake background. I hope you like today's card. I think its fun and bright.
Here are a few photos from vacation. Enjoy!

a lizard in the trees near our room

our balcony

hiking in the national park

the view from the resort

white water rafting

cayoning

Penquin Birthday!

2011-05-11T10:47:00.000-04:00

Hello! My soon to be sister-in-law asked me to make a birthday card for a friend of hers. Her friend really likes penquins so I made this card. It's similar to one that I had done before. I think it turned out super cute! The concord crush piece is stamped with the music notes wheel and then I sponged the edges. The melon mambo piece is stamped with Dot, Dot, Dot and the edges are also sponged. Then I used the owl punch to make a penquin and gave him some little wings. I added some old olive ribbon. Then added some ballons, a party hat and the sentiment. I hope you like it!
In some other news, today I am heading off to Costa Rica for our delayed honeymoon. So you won't be seeing me around here for another week or so. I thought I was going to have some posts prepared for while I was away but time just got away from me and I got busy with other things. I will share some pictures from our trip when I return. We just got a brand new fancy camera so I can't wait to use it! I'm sure we will be getting lots of cool pictures. I mean how can you not get cool pictures when you are staying at a place like this!! :) I am counting down the minutes until our flight leaves. Have a great day!!

Happy Birthday!

2011-04-27T11:59:00.003-04:00

Hello! Today's card is for the color challenge on splitcoast (Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue) and it is also a birthday card for my brother. Today is my brother's birthday. Since he doesn't read my blog, I can share his card with you before I give it to him without ruining the surpise. I saw this card and I really like the idea of it, so I decided to try it using the colors from the challenge. I figured they were good boyish colors. I took a bunch of different stamps from the On Your Birthday set and stamped them in Baja Breeze on the Crumb Cake cardstock. I used the Polka Dot embossing folder on the Certainly Celery piece. Then I added another sentiment on the tag from the Lots of Tags sizzlets die. I cut out 3 candles in Bashful Blue from Party This Way and added some dazzling diamonds to the flames for a little sparkle. Then I finished it off with a Baja Breeze button. I hope you like it!

Another Sneak Peek

2011-04-19T10:26:00.003-04:00

Hello! I have another sneak peek from On the Grow. I used the flower image again from the set. I have been in a coloring mood lately and I just love coloring these flowers. I am doing a swap with about 30 ladies so I used this set for my swap. You'd think I'd be tired of coloring this image 30 times but surprisingly not so much. Once all the ladies receive their swap, I'll post it here. In the meantime, you'll just have to check out today's card. I did a card for Easter to give to my mom. Easter isn't a holiday that you would normally send cards for but I use any occasion to send a card. I stamped the Pink Pirouette piece with the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp and sponged it. Then I stamped the Soft Suede piece with the top portion of the flower stamp in versamark and sponged that as well. I used markers to color in the flowers. I added some pearls to the flowers and added Old Olive ribbon. I love how this came out and I love these colors together. Enjoy!

On the Grow - Scooter

2011-04-15T10:01:00.005-04:00

TGIF!! I am so glad it's Friday and the weekend is about to start. I just hope the day goes fast today. We have a wedding to attend tomorrow and then hopefully some relaxation on Sunday. Although I have a million things to do around the house like cleaning and what not. But that is just not fun! Today's card is another sneak peek from the summer mini. It's another image from the On the Grow set. I originally got this set for the flower image that I posted the other day but I think I like the bike too. It's different than most of the other stamp sets I have. I stamped the bike in Stazon, then I colored it in with various markers. It's hard to tell in the photo but the bike seat is cut out and popped up on dimensionals. I stamped the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp on the Soft Suede background. The DSP is from the Greenhouse Gala collection. I then added some Baja Breeze seam binding and a red button. The white bow on the red button is also a sneak peek. It's the new bakers twine from the summer mini. The twine was actually much softer than I thought it was going to be but it was great to work with. I hope you like today's card. Have a great weekend!

Sneak Peek - On the Grow

2011-04-12T11:31:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've posted. I haven't been doing anything crafty lately. I've been feeling out of the crafty loop. The creative juices haven't been flowing. I even got some new things last week and didn't have any desire to use them... I know, crazy right?!?! But I decided last night that I need to sit down and try to get back into it. So for not doing anything for almost 2 weeks, I think this card came out ok. I used a new set that will be in the Summer Mini which comes out May 1st. The set is called On the Grow. The flower and sentiment are from that set. It's hard to tell in the photo but the 2 flowers with pearls on them are popped up on dimensionals. I used my blender pens and markers to color everything in. Then I gave everything a vintage look with some sponging. I used the damask image from Bliss on the main image panel and on the Concord Crush piece (you can't really see it in the photo). I used the music notes wheel on the Crumb Cake background. Then I finished things off with some Early Espresso tafetta ribbon. I hope you like it!

Nature Walk Easter

2011-03-29T12:14:00.003-04:00

Hi! I'm back with another Nature Walk card. I think I'm finally starting to get into this set. I wanted to do an easter card with the eggs from the set. I think it came out pretty cute. Of course its another vintage card. I feel like I can only do vintage and distressed with this set. Maybe i'll make that a challenge to NOT do any of that on the next card I do with this set. We'll see :) I started off with an Early Espresso based that I stamped with the music notes wheel (it's a little hard to see it in the photo). I then sprayed some Log Cabin smooch spritz on top of it. I think I went a little too heavy with it because it covered up a lot of the music notes. But it does have a pretty cool shimmer to it. Then while my music notes wheel was still a little dirty I ran it over the watercolor piece to give it a little something extra. Oh and the edges of all the pieces are sponged with Early Espresso. I then stamped the eggs 2 times on the watercolor paper in Early Espresso. I colored in the eggs with various inks and a blender pen. I like that the early espresso ink blended a little bit as I was coloring in the eggs. I then added some lace and tafetta ribbon. I saw this online and thought it was really cool to layer both of these ribbons. I used a large brown button I had and then added 2 little tags that say Happy Easter. I think I should have stamped them a little further down on the tag since part of the words are covered a bit by the button. But you get the idea. Or maybe next time I would add the sentiment under the eggs. Hmm I don't know which I would like better?? Well that's it for me today. I hope to work on some more cards tonight but I don't know. I'm trying to get back into some sort of working out and they offer classes at work. So I'm hoping to have the energy to go after work. And then I will probably be wiped out after that to do anything else for the evening, lol! Or maybe I will get my second wind! Have a nice day!

Nature Walk

2011-03-23T11:26:00.003-04:00

Happy Snowy Wednesday! I can't believe I woke up to snow this morning. It wasn't a lot just enough to be annoying. I was so ready for the warm weather after we had a couple of nice days last week. I guess that was just a tease. Today's card uses the Nature Walk set. I bought this set thinking I would use it a lot and I think this is maybe the 2nd time I did. I really like the set but I was just having a hard time coming up with something I liked using it, so I just never did. But this weekend, I really wanted to put this set to use. I'm pretty happy with how the card came out so maybe it will get me to use the set more. Don't mind my tilted picture. :) I didn't realize the picture was so tilted until after I downloaded it. For the details, the layout is one that I just used the other day on the Sew Suite card, I just changed a couple of things. I used the Botanical Gazette DSP and Pear Pizazz cardstock along with Vanilla and Early Espresso cardstock (scallop strip). I stamped the leaves in Pear Pizazz and sponged the vanilla piece with Crumb Cake. I stamped the bird in Early Espresso, then I used sponge daubers to color him in. First I sponged him in Crumb Cake, then I added a little bit of Marina Mist to his belly and then added Early Espresso. And the finishing touch was Marina Mist ribbon. Enjoy!

Tour-de-Freaks - Weddings!

2011-03-19T19:00:00.013-04:00

Welcome to the March 2011 Blog Tour. If you've just arrived from Wendy's blog. you've come to the right place! Didn't you just love all her projects! But don't worry, if you have started here, it will be possible to go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour!

This month's theme is Wedding Projects! Oh how I love doing wedding projects. So of course I had to participate in this month's tour. My first project is a super cute wedding card. This card would be for a fun loving couple. It's definitely a cutesy card and not your typical fancy card. But I still love it. I used a layout that I've done before with the owls for an engagement card. This time, I used penquins. Because they are already dressed up :) For the boy penquin, I just gave him some buttons using the smallest circles from the owl punch. For the bride, I gave her a nice pearl necklace and a little flower on her head. The flower (from Silouette Sentiments) is stamped in Pink Pirouette, cut out and a pearl was added to the center. I added some white tafetta ribbon, a pink button and the sentiment is from A Word For You. I'm not sure if you can see in the photo but the Baja Breeze paper is textured. It gives it a little something extra.

For my next project, I did a wedding invite sample. My brother is getting married next year on the beach so he wants something a little tropical. I did this invite in MDS. I added 2 palm trees from the Tropical Party set. I added the text and printed. Then I ran the belly band through the Big Shot with the lattice die texture plate. The belly band is used to hold all the extra pieces (rsvp, envelope, etc) behind the actual invite.

Thanks for checking out my projects. I hope you are enjoying the tour. Next up is Renee Van Stralen, with some fantastic projects!

Sew Suite Thanks

2011-03-16T13:41:00.003-04:00

Hi! Today's card is a case of Sherri Barron's card here. I just changed the colors to Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizazz and Peach Parfait. The paper is from the In Color pack (hostess). The sentiment is from Thank You Kindly. I stamped the spools 2 times. Once on the colored paper and then then once on Crumb Cake. I only cut out the middle section of the colored pieces. I also stamped the ruler image above the ribbon. The ribbon is not SU, it was the closest yellow I had to Daffodil Delight. I just have a short post for you today. Have a nice afternoon!

Absolutely Fabulous

2011-03-14T14:13:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday! I hope you had a good weekend. Luckily I was able to do some cards on Saturday plus make a yummy dinner. Then Sunday was filled with cleaning and organzing....yuck! At least we had another good dinner to end the weekend. I was working on organzing my craft room...what an undertaking that is. As if I didn't already know, but this was just proof that I have WAY too many stamps, papers, accessories! I need to condense. Well actually it's more like I need to make room because the new mini comes out soon and then the new catalog in July so I am definitely going to need space for all the new things I will want. I saw something similar to the layout for today's card online, so I had this idea in my head and I wanted to try it out. I think it came out cute. But maybe that's because I'm partial to that little dress form. So adorable! I just wrapped some Pretty in Pink tafetta ribbon around the form and added an Old Olive button. The ribbon is Certainly Celery satin and the DSP is Concord Crush from the In Color paper pack (hostess gift). This was a pretty quick card to make. I hope you like it!

Bliss

2011-03-11T18:15:00.001-05:00

Happy Saturday! Today's card was for the challenge on Splitcoast yesterday. The challenge was to do something fun to the edges of your card. I did not do anything crazy or out of the box. I just simply sponged the edges of everything. However, now looking at my photo its a little hard to even see that. Oh well. Its there! Anyway, I used some Springtime Vintage paper which I printed from My Digital Studio (since I don't have this paper). I sponged all around those edges in Crumb Cake. On the crumb cake piece, I went over it lightly with the music notes wheel and sponged those edges. The sentiment from Bliss is stamped in Always Artichoke and sponged with Very Vanilla. I added a few butterflies and some Baja Breeze seam binding. I'm not totally sure I like how this came out. I wasn't sure where I was going with this card when I started. I had one idea when I started and this was completely different than that idea. :) I think I need to get back in my stamping groove. Its been a few days since I've done any stamping. I'm hoping to do a few things this weekend. So far we have no plans. Just the usual cleaning, laundry and what not for the weekend. How fun, lol! Well I hope you have a great weekend!

April Card Class

2011-03-07T11:22:00.004-05:00

Hello! I hope everyone had a good weekend. This weekend, I worked on some cards for my upcoming class in April. I used the cute Aviary bird set as well as some bright spring colors. I am so ready for spring/summer to get here. These cards were inspired by several cards I saw on Splitcoast. I just changed them up a bit. We will also be doing a 3-d project which I am still working on. If you would like more info on this class, please send me an email. Enjoy!

Bridal Shower Glam

2011-03-03T08:45:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday! I woke up this morning thinking that it was Friday and was very disappointed when I realized I still have 2 more days of work, ugh! Well hopefully today will go quick. We are having dinner with my brother and his fiance tomorrow night at PF Changs and I cannot wait to go!! Anyway, today's card is for a bridal shower for a friend of mine. I am so happy with how this came out (except for a couple of the smears on the background..oops!). This card pretty much came out how I envisioned it would be. I saw the idea from Heather Klump to wrap ribbbon around the dress form and I thought it was the cutest thing ever! That kind of pushed me over the edge to get the Sew Suite set. I was back and forth with this set because I really didn't think I would get enough use out of it. But I figure I could use that dress form for the tons of bridal showers I have to go to, lol! This card is based off of the couple's wedding invitation which you can see in the picture below. I used the damask image from Bliss for the background. Then added some Melon Mambo cardstock. The ribbon is not SU. I would have possibly used some black satin ribbon but unfortunately I didn't have any. Surprisingly I do not have any black ribbon whatsoever. I guess I'll be adding that to my next order! Then I stamped the dress form on Sahara Sand, wrapped it with the white organza ribbon and added some rhinestones to jazz it up. I added it to a black oval, then added the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I hope you like it!

Birthday Flowers

2011-03-01T14:38:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! It's been a while. I took a couple of days off after the blog tour and then I got sick with some kind of stomach bug that knocked me out the rest of the week and into the weekend. I'm finally starting to feel better this week. Today's card didn't really come out how I envisioned it in my head. Oh well. I guess this is what happens after taking a week break. I hope to get back into the swing of things this week. For this card I used the Sweet Summer (SAB) Friends Never Fade and On Your Birthday sets. The colors used were Pear Pizazz, Daffodil Delight and Pacific Point. I added some Daffodil ribbon and rhinestones. I plan to start working on some cards for my next class. I have some cute ideas so lets hope those turn out how I planned! :) Have a nice day!

Tour-de-Freaks: It's My Party!!!

2011-02-19T19:00:00.005-05:00

Welcome to the February 2011 Blog Tour. If you've just arrived from Barb Mullikin's blog, you've come to the right place! Weren't her projects great! But don't worry, if you have started here, it will be possible to go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour!(If you are viewing this before the 20th, all the links may not be working so be sure to stop back again on the 20th).

This month's theme is It's My Party - Birthday cards and projects. I decided to do a birthday ensemble. I've seen lots of these types of things on the internet so I wanted to do my own using My Digital Studio. I had a lot of fun doing this. Obviously, if this was for a real party, the set up wouldn't look so small, lol! I would certainly have many more cookies and cupcakes! Anyway, on to the details. I used the Celebrations Digital Kit for most of the pieces, along with the Owl Punch. For the straws, I made the owls, printed them on white cardstock, and then punched them out. I adhered them to scallop circles using the Celebrations DSP. Then I just taped them to the straws. I then used the labels and added "cake", "cookies", and "candy" using the Just Perfect font. Then I used the pennant from the Celebrations stamp set and added different words to each one. I then stuck these into the cupcakes. How cute!

So whats a birthday ensemble without an invitation or card! Again, I used the Celebrations kit and owl punch for the invite. My cousin's son is turning 1 on April 2nd, so I used him for my sample :) Maybe they will want to use all of these for their party! For the invite, I used the polka dot paper for the background but just changed the opacity so it wasn't so bright. Then I added the fun little banner in the corner and the owl in the other corner.

Lastly, is the birthday card. This is pretty much a CASE of a card by Teneale Williams. I used the Celebrations DSP, the scallop square, the owl punch, Bashful Blue ribbon, red buttons and the Party This Way stamp set. Super cute right! I just love this little owl. Now if only I had my own kids to make all this fun stuff! Someday!!!

Thanks for checking out my projects. I hope you are enjoying the tour. Next up is Debbie Couier, with some great projects!

Penquin Birthday!

2011-02-16T09:50:00.003-05:00

Hi! I hope everyone had a nice weekend and Valentine's day. My Valentine's day was just like any other day but we made a nice dinner on Sunday night so we had a early Valentine's. The casino was good although we weren't big winners. We came home almost even so for a full night there with dinner that isn't bad. My brother and his fiance were also there and they happened to be the big winners of the evening. My brother's fiance won $1000 on the slot machine. So that was pretty exciting. Anyway, on to my card for today. I saw this super cute penquin card on Teneale William's blog. I just had to CASE it. I changed the colors around a little bit but overall, I liked the bright colors that she used so I kept that. I used some textured Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzaz and a strip of DSP from the Sweet Pea collection (retired). The ribbon is not SU only because I didn't have any pumpkin pie ribbon otherwise that's what I would have used. The bottom of the balloons and the top of his party hat all use the "feet" from the owl punch. Is that not cute! I am totally in love with this little penquin. I think I'm going to have to do some more cards with him. I guess I will just have to keep the owl punch out on my desk a little longer. If you come back on Sunday for the ControlFreaks Blog Tour, the super cute owl might make an appearance ;). I have a fun post planned for the tour so be sure to stop on by. Have a nice day!

Sweet Summer

2011-02-12T09:34:00.004-05:00

Hello! I hope everyone's weekend is off to a nice start. Surprisingly I actually had a little bit of time to sneak in a card this morning. My husband ran out this morning so in between several loads of laundry I decided to make a quick card. I saw a card (second card) on Maile Belle's blog this morning and I thought it was so cute. I decided to use the same design but use all Stampin Up stamps instead. I used the Sweet Summer stamp set. The colors used were Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie and Pear Pizazz. I colored everything in with markers, cut out the flower tops and added Old Olive ribbon. I think this looks like a nice bright summery card. Today I think we are headed to the Sands casino in PA this afternoon. We just gathered up a ton of change that we had lying around so we figure that could be some gambling money. Lets hope it turns into a LOT! I doubt it though, the few times we've been to the Sands we haven't been lucky at all. We seem to do better in AC but since Sands is closer we'll stick with that and at least try to get a nice dinner there. Have a great weekend!

The Rest of the Party Invites

2011-02-11T08:20:00.004-05:00

Happy Friday! Today I have the other 3 bachelorette party invites that I designed. These last 3 are all pretty similar in design just using different background paper. They all use the new top note die download. The first one uses the Night and Day paper along with some Melon Mambo ribbon. The second one uses the Basic Gray polka dot background with Melon Mambo ribbon again. And the third one uses one of the Blushing Bride designer papers with some Chocolate Chip ribbon. I also added a little flourish to the invite. I hope you like these. Maybe it will inspire you to try out MDS for any invites you may have to do. It was a lot of fun designing these. Have a nice day!

More butterflies!

2011-02-10T11:12:00.004-05:00

Hello. I have some more butterflies to share today. I also have a couple more bachelorette party invites to share but I'll do those tomorrow. Today's card is pretty much a CASE of a card I saw in the Stampin Success magazine. I used butterflies instead of the flowers and slightly changed the colors. I used Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait, Regal Rose, Pear Pizazz and Crumb Cake. I also added some Early Espresso satin ribbon. The sentiment is from With All My Heart. This was a pretty quick and easy card. I just love the bright spring/summer colors. Hopefully soon spring will be here! Have a nice day!

Bachelorette Party Invites

2011-02-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday! Today I have a couple of the samples of the bachelorette party invites I designed. I'll come back tomorrow with the rest. My future sister-in-law is part of the bridal party for a friend of hers so she wanted some invites for the bachelorette party. So I decided to try some out in MDS. First I browsed Wedding Paper Divas and Etsy looking for some ideas. I found a ton of ideas so I tried to narrow it down. I ended up making 7 samples. They actually took no time at all to design. The first one uses Blushing Bride DSP and the swirl image from Baroque Motifs. The second one uses Basic Black polka dot DSP and some Melon Mambo scallops. The third one uses the Night and Day DSP. To get the large scallops I just added 3 large circles on top of each other until I got the look I wanted. And the fourth one uses the Baja Breeze striped DSP along with the Top Note die. The size of these is 4.25 x 5.5 so I will be able to get 4 out of one sheet. I'll let you know which one she decides to go with.

Blissful Butterflies

2011-02-05T11:18:00.003-05:00

Hi, I'm back! I have another card today. I actually had some free time this morning so I was getting crafty. I was making up some bachelorette party invites using MDS for my future sister-in-law. I was having so much fun doing that so the juices were flowing and I decided to make a card using some new goodies. I will post a couple of the invite samples tomorrow. As for today's card I used the SAB set Bliss. Oh how I love those butterflies! They make any card look nice! I stamped and cut 3 butterflies in Rich Razzleberry (added some pearls to one of them). I stamped the damask image on Crumb Cake in Early Espresso. I used the First Edition DSP along with the Greenhouse Gala DSP. I added a strip of Rich Razzleberry striped grosgrain and some kraft tafetta ribbon. I punched a little tag with the word love from You're a Gem and then added a Rich Razzleberry button. I hope you like it!

Welcome Baby!

2011-02-04T12:29:00.006-05:00

Hi! Today's card is a baby card that I did for my cousin who is expecting. She is due the 15th so she could go at any day now. She doesn't know what she is having so I thought I kind of made this gender neutral but now I think it's more boyish. Well if she has a boy, then I'm all set if not, I'll just make another one with some pinks and purples. This card came together pretty quick. I actually don't have the Nursery Necessities Set. I'm not sure why I never bought it, it's such a cute set. However, it is in MDS, so that was good enough for me. I just set up a new file, added the 3 elephants in Poppy Parade, Pear Pizazz and Baja Breeze and printed them on white shimmer cardstock. In the close up photo you can see the shimmer. I also printed the sentiment too in Early Espresso. Once it was printed, I just cut out the elephants and punched the sentiment. I added them to the top note die and then added some yellow buttons I had. I forgot what the buttons are called. I think they are retired now. So that really took no time at all. Maybe I will just make a girl version of this card, just to have on hand. I'm sure I will use it at some point. It's baby fever at my job, so I'm sure I could use it for someone here! We've had 4 women at work give birth all within a weeks time. And 2 more are ready to go any minute. Something must be in the water over here! Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend!

Sweet Summer

2011-02-02T17:58:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! It's been a while. We have been clobbered with snow here in the east coast! I have certainly had enough for the year however, it looks like we have another storm in the forecast for this weekend. I don't know any details about it, i'm choosing not to listen to the weather right now and pray that it just goes away! :) Anyway, I finally got back into stamping yesterday. I've been in a bit of a slump. I guess it's the weather. Today's card was for the sketch challenge on splitcoast. I just got my SAB stamps so I decided to play. I stamped the flowers on watercolor paper and colored them in with blender pens and the following colors: Pear Pizazz, Blushing Bride, Regal Rose and Sahara Sand (for some shading). Its hard to see in the photo but I stamped the damask image from Bliss in versamark on the Not Quite Navy cardstock. For the finishing touch I added some Baja Breeze seam binding. I'm hoping they come out with some more colors in the new catalog because I really like this ribbon. That's it for me today. I hope to be back in a day or 2 with some more cards. Have a nice day!!

Party Owl

2011-01-22T13:01:00.003-05:00

Happy Saturday! I have a fun and cute card for you today. I did this card for yesterday's challenge on splitcoast. It was to stamp a sentiment over and over somewhere in your background. It's a little hard to see but I used the Happy Birthday from A Word for You in Bashful Blue behind the owl. I used DSP from the Celebrations collection and pulled my colors from there. The owl has some fun dazzling diamonds on him and I gave him some wings using the Bird punch. The sentiment is from Party This Way stamped in Pacific Point. I hope you enjoy this cute owl who is ready to party! Today I'm off to a dinner party at a friends house. I'm making some homemade oreos for dessert. So far the cookies look good, now I just need to add the middle (the best part). If they look and taste good, I will post some pictures of them plus the recipe. If all works out, my plan is to package them up with a fun tag and some ribbon! I love being able to combine baking and stamping together. Have a great weekend! GO JETS!!!

Concord Crush Birthday

2011-01-19T10:57:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Today I have a birthday card using the Love Impressions Rub-ons. I wanted to do something other than a valentine's card. I think I have plenty of them now! I used the Perfect Polka dots texture plate on the Concord Crush cardstock. I added a strip of DSP from the In Color pack. More polka dots! Then I used one of the heart balloon rub-ons onto a piece of crumb cake. Added a bow, a sentiment and some rhinestones and all done! As you can tell I am in LOVE with the modern label punch. I think I must use it on every card. It's just the perfect size to add to my cards. I hope you don't get sick of seeing it! That's it for today. I hope you have a great day!

Valentine Card Class

2011-01-14T12:22:00.003-05:00

Here is a peek at the cards we will be doing for my Valentine's card class in February. I used the Valentine Defined set along with the Love Impressions DSP. Colors used are Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride and Basic Grey. Enjoy!

Color Challenge

2011-01-12T10:38:00.003-05:00

Hello. Today's card is for the color challenge that was on splitcoast yesterday. The colors were Cherry Cobbler, Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo. This color combo screams valentine's but I wanted to do something different since I've made a quite a few valentine's cards lately. So I decided to bring out Awash With Flowers and do some coloring. Oh how I love to color!! The main flower is colored with Melon Mambo and a touch of Cherry Cobbler. It was a little too bright so I needed to tone it down. Then I added some dazzling diamonds on top, just because. The other 2 flowers are colored with Pretty in Pink and a touch of Melon Mambo. I used the music wheel on the Pretty in Pink cardstock but I don't know if you can really see it in the photo. Then I added some lace ribbon and Cherry Cobbler seam binding.
I need to keep looking at this bright card to distract me from the snowy mess we have outside today. It wasn't enough snow today to get me out of work. However, I'm stuck at home anyway battling a cold. :( I'm hoping to be a little productive at home while I have the whole day off but I don't know if thats really going to happen when I can hardly breath. Although I think it gets me out of shoveling snow for the day, so I guess that's one good positive! Have a good day!

Every Moment

2011-01-06T09:31:00.002-05:00

Hello! Today's card is for the sketch challenge on splitcoast yesterday. I really liked this sketch. It was fairly simple but it's definitely something I'll use again. I used the set Every Moment. This was the first time I used this set. I really like the flowers in it. Of course, I like the flowers in all the sets! :) I colored the flowers and butterfly in with some blender pens using Poppy Parade, Pear Pizazz, Daffodil Delight and Chocolate Chip. I added some dazzling diamonds to the butterfly to make it glittery. I used the perfect polka dots texture plate on the Crumb Cake cardstock. Then I added a strip of Pear Pizazz and some Night of Navy ribbon. I really like this large ribbon. Except that it makes it difficult to mail this card. This will just have to be a hand delivered card. I hope you enjoyed my card today! Have a nice day!

XOXO MDS Card

2011-01-04T13:06:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday and new years. Mine was very good. Of course the time off from work goes by way too fast. I didn't get a chance to stamp as much as I would have liked over the break. Oh well, now that we're back into the swing of things, hopefully I'll get back to some cards. Today's card has no stamping at all on it. I used the designs from the new MDS downloads from the Mini. I used the Love Impressions paper and the hearts and "Hugs and Kisses" from the XOXO download. The great thing about this, is that I can make these images any size I want. I made one large heart in Blushing Bride, then 2 small hearts in Basic Gray. I made a larger sentiment so it would be the focus of the card. Overall a simple card for you today. Enjoy!

Sneak Peek - Valentine Defined (again!)

2010-12-22T10:37:00.003-05:00

Hello there! I hope everyone enjoyed all of the projects from the Tour de Freaks blog tour. I loved everything everyone did! It was a nice break from all of the holiday posts lately. I'm excited for Christmas but I'm done with making christmas cards. I'm ready to move on to valentine and spring cards. So for today's card, I have a cute Valentine's card or just an I love you card. I used the Valentine Defined set but did not use the tree this time. I used the cute little flamingos instead. In the close up photo you can see that they are embossed with iridescent ice to make them sparkley. The circle behind them is stamped with the valentine definition stamp from the set. It is layered on a pink pirouette scalloped circle. And then I used the new Love Impressions paper. I actually don't have this paper yet so I decided to download the designs on My Digital Studio and then print out what I wanted. The download has less designs that the actual collection does but it still works when you don't feel like waiting to get the paper. :) The last thing I did was add some ribbon, a button, and the "love" tag. I used the Lots of Tags sizzlets and then just cut the tag to the size I wanted. In case I don't get a chance to post before Christmas, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone has a great holiday!!

Tour-de-Freaks: Occasions Mini

2010-12-19T16:00:00.014-05:00

Welcome to the December 2010 Blog Tour. If you've just arrived from Iliana's blog, you've come to the right place! But don't worry, if you have started here, it will be possible to go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour!(If you are viewing this before the 20th, all the links may not be working so be sure to stop back again on the 20th).

This month's theme is Sneak Peek at the Occasions Mini and SAB catalogs. My 2 projects today use products from the Occasions Mini catalog. Another great mini catalog. Of course I want to buy everything in it! Everything is so fun and springy.

For my card I used the Valentine Defined set and You're a Gem (for the sentiment). I originally wanted to do something bold and bright with this set but I ended up with vintage. Which just shows you that this set is versatile and doesn't just have to be used for Valentine's either. I just love the tree image from this set and I can see myself using it a lot. I stamped the tree is Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip and cut out 3 Rose Red hearts. I used a strip of the flower pattern dsp from the Springtime Vintage collection. Some lovely papers in this collection. I used the music notes wheel on the Crumb Cake cardstock. Then everything was sponged with Crumb Cake for the vintage look.

My 2nd project is a wall decoration. I have a lot of friends who are expecting babies so I thought this would be a cute gift idea for one of these friends. Hopefully someone will have a girl! I used some chipboard pieces from the On Board Mix and Match. I covered all of the pieces with paper from the Springtime Vintage collection. I stamped the crumb cake cardstock with the music wheels again. I don't know why I waited so long to get this wheel, it's fabulous! The banner in the top corner uses the Just Perfect alphabet. I actually didn't have any alphabet stamps so I just downloaded this set from My Digital Studio. I opened up a project and added these letters in Not Quite Navy, Rose Red, Always Artichoke, and Baja Breeze. Then I just printed it out on Crumb Cake cardstock and punched them out with the 3/4 circle punch. Then I put it all in a nice wood frame (without the glass) and it's now ready to go to a new baby girl!

Thanks for checking out my projects. I hope you are enjoying the tour. Next up is Lisa Young, with more fabulous projects!

More Christmas

2010-12-17T14:59:00.003-05:00

Wow, where has these past week gone?! I had intentions of having a few posts this week but I don't know what happened, I just got really busy and I didn't have the chance. Anyway, here is another one of my Christmas cards that I sent out. The layout is cased from a card by Janine Tinklenberg. I used a strip of the Jolly Holiday DSP and cherry cobbler and old olive cardstock. This is a good layout for using some of the DSP scraps that you have lying around. I colored in one of the critters from Merry Crittermas with some copic markers and then added some chunky glitter around the edges. Overall this was a quick card except that I spent a bit of time coloring but that's ok, I like coloring. That's it for me today. Be sure to come back on the 20th for the Control Freaks Blog Tour. This month we will be featuring projects from the new occasions mini!

Sneak Peek - Valentine Defined

2010-12-10T18:58:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday! I had a chance to play with one of the new sets from the Occasions Mini today. I can already tell that I love this set! When I saw it in the catalog, I fell in love with the tree image. I thought it was so cute. So of course that's the first image I played with. I can see using that image for non valentine's cards as well. Today's card could be for Valentine's day or it could just be an any time "love you" card or change the sentiment and use it for any occasion. All of the images are from the set; the line of hearts on the Baja Breeze background, the love you sentiment, the Pink Pirouette heart stems and of course the tree. I also cut out the little pink hearts on the tree and sprinkled them with dazzling diamonds. Oh what fun!!! I really love how this card came out. I can't wait to make more cards with this set. That's it for me today. I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek and I hope to have a couple more in the next week.

A Poppy Pizazz Holiday

2010-12-08T14:15:00.001-05:00

Hi! Another holiday card for you today. Today’s color combo is a little different. It’s still red and green, just a different shade of them. I used Certainly Celery, Pear Pizazz and Poppy Parade. I am loving the poppy parade polka pot paper (say that fast!). This paper is the 6 x 6 pack that is part of the level 1 hostess sets. I hadn’t used any of that paper before but I just love these polka dots. I used the Aviary stamp set, which is not holiday related, but I added a couple of holly leaves to the bird cages and now they are ready for Christmas too. The holly leaves stamped on the vanilla piece is from Bells and Boughs. This card is pretty flat so it will make it easy to mail. I think I just need only a couple of more Christmas cards and then I will be officially done. I will probably make a couple more of this one (maybe in different colors). I have all my finished ones addressed and ready to go in the mail. I’m just waiting on some cute return address labels with my new name to arrive before I send them out. Now that the Christmas cards are almost done, I can now start playing around with some NEW stamps from the upcoming occasions mini once they arrive tomorrow. How exciting! Enjoy your afternoon.

Tiny Gift Bags

2010-12-07T14:07:00.005-05:00

Hello all! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Today I have some cute little gift bags for you. These brown bags are about 3.5 inches wide. A perfect bag to fill with candy or even cookies. I found the tutorial for the mouse punch art here. I pretty much followed her directions except used a different punch for the eyes. I then used the same directions and made a cute little teddy bear. For the mouse I sponged the edges with white craft and for the bear I sponged the edges with chocolate chip. I think these bags would be cute for little kids, or even adults...I think they are cute myself!
Tonight I will be writing out my christmas cards. I pretty much have them all finished except for a couple. But the majority of them are done. I'm so glad that I got them done so early. That's one big project to have off my shoulders. I'll post any more cards that I make in the next day or 2. Now I need to get focused on my shopping. Have a nice day!

MDS Notecard Thank You

2010-12-02T11:40:00.005-05:00

Hi! I interrupt all this holiday posting with a non Christmas project. Today, I'm showing you my wedding card thank you done with My Digital Studio. I knew that I wanted to do my own thank yous (of course, since I did lots of DIY for my wedding), but I was having a hard time finding a design that I liked online. And also find something that wasn't real expensive either. So then I thought about using MDS for the design of the thank you and then upload it to a site where I could have them print it (like vistaprint). But I still wasn't sure I wanted to do that either. So after fooling around with MDS, I figured out how to print my thank you on the 3.5 x 5inch notecards from Stampin Up. The thank you looks like its simple but it ended up taking me a while. The part that took me the longest was coming up with a design I liked and figuring out how to get it to print on the right section of the notecard. A couple of the original designs I had used our initials (J & J) but then I decided I didn't like that. And I didn't want to have "thank you" on the front, just in case someone wanted to put the picture in a frame or something. So after searching the different stamps in the program I found the "mr. & mrs." and I thought that worked good. I added that on top of the modern label punch and sized everything until I got it to how I wanted it. I do plan on adding something on the back to show that I designed it. Once I printed it, it didn't look quite as bright as it shows on the jpeg version but overall I'm really happy with how it came out. The photo of the actual card doesn't have the best lighting either so it isn't quite as dark as the photo may show. Now comes the fun part of writing all of these out...yeah right!
Tomorrow I will be back to the regular holiday posting. I have a few more holiday things to share.

Holiday Bags

2010-12-01T09:34:00.004-05:00

Hello! I saw this bag on splitcoast done by Heather Klump. I thought this was the cutest bag ever so I had to try it for myself. Well I got a little crazy and ended up making 4 of them! I only photographed 3 of them (I messed up the first one a bit). I actually could have made a few more, I probably will, but I currently don't have any sticky strip so I can't make any until I get more. I followed Heather's instructions and they were pretty easy to do. Once I did one, I got the hang of it and they were really easy. They are a good size and fairly sturdy so you can put a few things in there. This was also a good way for me to use up some retired paper I have (although only one in the photo uses retired paper). Well I hope you enjoyed these and I hope you think they're as cute as I do!!

Bells, Boughs and Ornaments

2010-11-30T18:26:00.005-05:00

Hello! Today's card is the 4th card for the class tomorrow. This time I used the holly image which I colored with blender pens and then I added the ornament in Crumb Cake. Again, another fairly straightforward card. Tomorrow I will show you the cute gift bags I made for the vendor fair. Later in the week, I will also show you the wedding thank you card I have been working on. I really wanted to use the My Digital Studio for it and I finally had time to play around with it. I'm really excited how it turned out. And I had a lot of fun using MDS. So keep checking back, I actually have lots of projects to show you this month.

Another Bells and Boughs

2010-11-29T09:54:00.004-05:00

Hello! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We ended up having 2 thanksgivings which was nice but now I've had my share of turkey. Today's card is the 3rd card we will be doing in my class on Wednesday. I used the Bells and Boughs again along with the Deck the Halls DSP. This is a pretty simple and straightforward card.
I'm particpating in a vendor fair at a local school on Friday so I've been working on a few projects for that. I saw a tutorial for some really cute gift bags, so I've made a few of those. Then I tried decorating tealight candles which turned out to be super easy. So I will be sharing those projects in the next few days. Have a nice day!

Bells and Boughs

2010-11-23T11:37:00.001-05:00

Hi there! Here is the second card we will be making in the class. This time I used the bells from the Bells and Boughs set. This is such a lovely Christmas set. I’m not really excited about how the color of the ribbon came out. So I might go over it again in a different color. I wasn’t really sure what color to color it in. I just used blender pens and different color inks to color in the image. DSP is from the Deck the Halls pack. Another pretty simple card. Enjoy!

Vintage Christmas Ornaments

2010-11-22T10:25:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend and enjoyed the blog tour on Saturday. Today I’m showing you one of the cards we will be doing at my holiday card class next week. I went for the vintage theme this year with the cards. This card uses the Tags Til Christmas and the Bells and Boughs set. I stamped 3 of the ornaments in Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke and Crumb Cake. I punched them all out and added a pearl to the center ornament. I did some sponging around the main image and also around the sentiment. And that is pretty much it. A pretty quick card to make. I hope the girls like it. I will show the rest of the cards for the class during the week. Have a great day!

Tour-de-Freaks: Holiday Gift Ideas

2010-11-19T18:00:00.007-05:00

Welcome to the November 2010 Blog Tour. If you've just arrived from Dawn Olchfeske's blog, you've come to the right place! But don't worry, if you have started here, it will be possible to go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour!

This month's theme is Holiday Gift Ideas. I have a couple of projects to share with you today. I had so many ideas of things that I wanted to do for this tour but everything that I tried was just not working out. I think my crafty brain got fried, lol! Anyway, I decided to make a little gift for my grandmother. My first project is a group of birthday cards. She likes to send out cards to her friends and she loves it even more when they are homemade. I decided to keep them all the same but just change the colors of the birds. I used the lattice texture plate for the Soft Suede background. Then I punched a piece of DSP from the Deck the Halls pack. The sentiment is from Watercolor Trio. The birds are Blushing Bride, Marina Mist, Pear Pizazz and Poppy Parade. I don't know if you can tell in the photo but they are all sprayed with vanilla smootch spritz. I am loving that stuff lately! After I did all the cards I put them all together and bundled them up with some Rich Razzleberry ribbon.

My next project is a little birdhouse ornament. I kept with the bird theme here. :) I saw the birdhouse template on splitcoast and I thought it would be really cute for an ornament. I plan to make a few more of these for other gifts. I printed the template on Soft Suede cardstock, then I sponged the edges to give it a little dimension. For the roof I used the Top Note Die and then ran it through with the lattice texture plate. The little bird is again sprayed with smootch spritz. I used the champagne glass glitter for around the hole. I also added a real twig for him to stand on :) and a little vanilla seam binding bow.

Thanks for checking out my projects. I hope you are enjoying the tour. Next up is Lee Ann Greff, with more fabulous projects!

Wedding Pictures

2010-11-18T10:56:00.003-05:00

Hello. I do not have anything crafty to share with you today. I am working on some things, that I will get to show you in a few days. The next Control Freaks Blog Tour is coming on November 20th, so I've been working on a couple of things for that. Be sure to stop back here on the 20th to check out everyone's fabulous projects. In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. We just got our dvd of images so we've been going through them to figure out what picture we want to use for our thank you card. But I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite ones. There are so many great ones that our photographer took. He did such a wonderful job. Anyway, enjoy some pictures and come back on the 20th!

Ski Slope Bunny

2010-11-16T10:04:00.002-05:00

Happy Tuesday! Today is our one month anniversary since we’ve been married. I can’t believe a month has gone by already. Time is sure flying by quicker and quicker as I get older. :) Today’s card uses some retired paper that I have. It’s the Ski Slope DSP. I have soo much paper lying around that I really need to start using up the older/retired stuff I have. I used the bunny image from Merry Crittermas. He was colored with blender pens on watercolor paper and then cut out. The sentiment is also from Merry Crittermas. Everything else is pretty self explanatory on this card. Have a nice day!

Cute Critters

2010-11-12T09:08:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday! I have a super cute card for you today. I just got Merry Crittermas yesterday and the images are just adorable. I had to use this set first and do some coloring. This card is a little more tedious with all of the images cut out. But you could easily make this same scene with the images all stamped on one sheet. I stamped all the images on watercolor paper and colored them in with various inks using my blender pen. It took a little while to color them but since I love coloring I didn’t mind. Then I cut them all out and added them onto the winter scene. I used Soft Sky with some snowflakes stamped on it. The bottom “snow” is vellum with dazzling diamonds on the top. This was then glued onto Soft Suede cardstock which also has snowflakes stamped on it. The sentiment is punched out with the modern label punch and I added a little birdy to the corner. I hope you like today’s card. I’m sure you’re probably going to see a few more cards over the next couple of days with this set. Have a great weekend!

Jolly Santa

2010-11-11T10:47:00.004-05:00

Hi! Today's card is for yesterday's sketch challenge on Splitcoast. I decided to do some coloring on kraft (crumb cake) like I did for the snowman card the other day. This time I used the Santa from Jolliest Time of the Year. I colored him in and I popped his head up on dimensionals (I don't know if you can see that in the photo). I also spritzed on some vanilla smooch spritz to make him shimmery too. I really like that look and I don't know why I haven't used that stuff sooner. I think I'm going to have to get some of the other colors too. I used some more Jolly Holiday DSP and I used the lattice texture plate on the strip of Cherry Cobbler. Sentiment is from Berry Christmas (again!). Today I should be getting some new Christmas goodies and I can't wait to play with them! I don't know if i'll have time tonight to get anything done but I'm hoping I can sneak in a few minutes to get a quick card done. Have a nice day!

Jolly Ornaments

2010-11-10T11:13:00.001-05:00

Hello! I really like how today’s card turned out. Again, its another one that is probably too bulky for the mail. This will be another hand delivered card. The paper is from the Jolly Holiday collection, which is layered with a piece of vellum die cut using the top note die. I like this look but I’m not really sure how to glue it without having the glue show through all over. I used a glue stick which worked for the most part except in the top corners where you can see the glue a bit. Oh well! I then stamped 3 ornaments from Delightful Decorations in Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Soft Suede. Punched them out with the ornament punch (super easy), added them to the cream cardstock with dimensionals and then added an Old Olive bow. I hope you enjoyed today’s card!

Marina Mist Holidays

2010-11-08T10:26:00.001-05:00

Good morning! I have another holiday card to share. This is also a fairly easy card to do. I used a piece of DSP from the retired Christmas Cocoa (I think that’s the name of it) and layered it onto a piece of Crumb Cake. I added a Marina Mist bow (I really like how this color combo turned out). Then I stamped a snowflake from Berry Christmas in Marina Mist and added some dazzling diamonds. The sentiment is from Many Merry Messages. The card was pretty easy to make but it will probably be a little thick for the mail and will need extra postage. The card I have for tomorrow is also a little thick as well. I’m going to try to make a few other cards this week that are flatter and will be more mailable. My goal is to have most of my Christmas cards made by the beginning of December. If I can keep on the track that I’m going, I should hopefully be able to get it done. I’ll keep you up to date on how close I get to getting them done. So far I have 4 done and I need about 15 – 20 more. I hope my list doesn’t get any bigger than that! Enjoy your day!

Jolly Holiday

2010-11-06T13:43:00.003-04:00

Hi there! I have another Christmas card to share. I've been on a roll with cards in the past 2 days. So i'll have a couple of other holiday cards to share and I'm hoping to do some non holiday cards as well. Today's card uses the Jolly Holiday DSP. There isn't too much stamping with this card. The only thing I stamped was the sentiment which is from Berry Christmas. I used the ornament punch in the corner and added some more of the DSP behind it. A couple of buttons in the corner and some vanilla seam binding on top and the card is done. Once I figured out my colors and DSP, the card was pretty quick to put together. I hope this inspires you to get a start on your holiday cards. Have a nice weekend.

Shimmery Snowman

2010-11-05T14:40:00.005-04:00

Hello! Well it's been a little bit longer than I had expected since my last post. My first week back to work I had no motivation to get any cards done. Then this pas week, we just had a lot of unexpected things go on, so again no time for cards. Today I have off from work so I decided to get a jump start on my holiday cards. I've been seeing so many cute Christmas cards lately, that I had to do some too. I don't have my new order of Christmas stamps yet so I used some of the older sets I have. These are just as fun too. Today's card is a case of this card. I just loved the look of it. But I changed the color to Marina Mist and the stamp set to Jolliest Time of the Year. The snowman was colored using a blender pen and white craft ink. Then I used various other colors for the rest of him. The background on the marina mist is a sentiment from Many Merry Messages. The snowflake on the crumb cake piece is from Snow Burst. All of the edges are sponged with Chocolate Chip.

I have a close up of the snowman piece because I sprayed it with some Vanilla Smooch Spritz. It looks very shimmery in real life. I think I need to start using that more because it gives a fun effect to the card. I hope you enjoyed todays card. I'll be back in the next couple of days with some more holiday cards for you.

Married!

2010-10-24T09:08:00.006-04:00

Hi! So it's been a couple of weeks since I've last posted. I was getting all of my projects done before our wedding on the 16th. I got everything done in plenty of time and we had a wonderful day. It was a little chilly and windy but no rain and plenty of sun. Everything came out just as we hoped it would. Here is a link to a couple of pictures that our photographer posted on his blog.

I've also posted some pictures of some of the things that I made for the wedding: centerpieces, programs and the birdcage for the cards.

Now that all the wedding things are done, I have plenty of time now for cards! I just need to get back into it after not doing anything for the past few weeks. So hopefully i'll have some cards to share with you this week. I'm not promising too much since it is my first week back at work after being off for about 10 days so I will probably be pretty tired this week. Have a nice day!

Awash with Flowers Color Challenge

2010-10-05T17:42:00.003-04:00

Hello. Today's card is for the color challenge on splitcoast - Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron and Tangerine Tango. I CASED this card from Renee Van Stralen. I just loved the layout and coloring that was done. Everything is the same except for the colors and the main flower used. I used my blender pen and the inks to color in the images. I sponged around the edge of the main image in Rich Razzleberry. On the Tangerine Tango piece I used the Friendly Words wheel (which you can't really see too much in the photo). I also rolled the wheel over the vanilla piece very lightly. Then I ruffled some Rich Razzleberry ribbon and added the sentiment from Just Believe.
Well now it's off to do some wedding things. I had to take a little break and do a card. Soon though, in about 11 days, I will have plenty of time for cards! I'm looking forward to that. Have a good day.

Concord Crush Elements of Style

2010-09-29T14:01:00.001-04:00

Hi. Here is a quick card for the clean and simple challenge on Monday. I colored the flowers from Elements of Style in Concord Crush and Pear Pizazz. I know I’ve said it before but I just love this purple color. I cut out the sentiment and layered it on the circle. I ruffled some ribbon and added a strip of Concord Crush. A pretty quick and simple card. Have a nice day.

Sherbert Birthday Birds

2010-09-24T17:22:00.003-04:00

Hi! The challenge on spiltcoast today was to use scallops. I was really in the mood to do something crafty that wasn't wedding related (even though I should be doing something like that instead!). I felt like using some fun colors and these feel very sherbert like to me but I think they all look nice together. The colors are Blushing Bride, Peach Parfait, and Pear Pizazz. I used the lattice texture plate on the Pear Pizazz cardstock. I then stamped the pennant from Party This Way in those 3 colors. Then added 2 birds and an owl from Aviary. I just love that little owl! He was stamped in Crumb Cake. I added some lace ribbon, some rhinestones on the ends of the pennants and the happy birthday sentiment from Party This way in Early Espresso. I think it came out pretty cute. I'm about to do a few minutes of relaxing before dinner. I hope you enjoy your weekend.

Just Believe Birthday

2010-09-23T14:35:00.002-04:00

Here is a quick and simple card for today. This was the birthday card I did for my mom whose birthday was yesterday. I used Just Believe and stamped the largest flower image in Peach Parfait, then I stamped the smaller image in Poppy Parade on top of it. I also stamped the smaller image with Crumb Cake along the bottom of the Crumb Cake CS. The main piece is layered on Early Espresso. The sentiment from A Word For You is stamped in Early Espresso and punched with the modern label punch. I added 2 pearls to the tag. Then I ruffled up some lace ribbon and was finished. I really like the lace ribbon. This was my first time using it and it’s so nice looking. I think this ribbon is going to make its way onto my wedding centerpieces. I just really like it. Have a good day!

Pink and Purple Butterflies

2010-09-21T10:20:00.001-04:00

Hi! Today’s card is a card that I case’d from Maile Belles. I loved how she used a punch/die for the right side of the card. Since I just got my new decorative punch, I had to try it out and use Stampin Up stamps instead. I used the butterfly stamps from Great Friend, For All You Do and Live Your Dream. They are stamped in Concord Crush (my new favorite color), Pink Pirouette, and Rich Razzleberry. Then I added some pierced lines to the butterflies. Ribbon is Rich Razzleberry satin and the white cardstock is on dimensionals. I also added a couple of rhinestones to the butterflies. I love how this came out. This would be great to try in other colors.

Tour-de-Freaks: Fall

2010-09-19T17:00:00.010-04:00

Welcome to the September 2010 Blog Tour. If you've just arrived from Gretchen Barron's blog, you've come to the right place! But don't worry, if you have started here, it will be possible to go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour!

This month's theme is Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I cannot believe that fall is already here. I don't even know where September went. Probably because I'm getting married in less than a month so time is on super speed!! Luckily I was able to squeeze in some projects for this months tour.

My first project is a Halloween card. I realized as I was getting ready to make this card, that I had very limited Halloween stamps but I was determined to make a card anyway. So I used my 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 circle punches to make these pumpkins. They are punched out in Tangerine Tango and Peach Parfait. I sponged around the edges of the circles. The leaves are from the XL Bird Punch and the Chocolate Chip stem is actually the very top portion of the Ornament punch. The purple background is Concord Crush with the swirls from Trendy Trees. Grass is Old olive with the top punched from the scallop punch and then that was sponged as well. I also added some sponging on the Crumb Cake piece as well. I accidently started sponging it with the sponge I used for the Concord Crush piece and after looking at it, I think it turned out ok with that color. For the sentiment, I ended up printing out the Happy Halloween saying from MDS (since I didn't have this stamp) and then just punched it with the Modern Label punch. So that is something to keep in mind if you looking for a saying and don't have the stamp...check My Digital Studio and print it out from there.

My next project is two little gift bags. One is Halloween related and one is more fallish but can be used for Halloween. The bags are small frosted bags that I got online. I wanted the pumpkins to be bigger than the punches that I had, so I used my circle cutter to get the size I wanted. This time the pumpkins are Tangerine Tango and Cajun Craze. Also sponged like the others. For the Halloween one, I added two ghosts using the Owl punch and then added some Rich Razzleberry ribbon on top. On the other bag I stamped and cut out leaves from the Falling Leaves set. Then I just added some Certainly Celery ribbon and a mini vintage Tag. Surprisingly I have no candy at my house (gasp!) so I couldn't fill up the bags. Instead I just crinkled up some of the brown bag packaging that you get in the Stampin Up shipments, just so it had some sort of filling to it. I definitely plan to fill them up with candy and give them to some friends at work. I think this will be a nice surprise on their desk.

Thanks for checking out my projects. I hope you are enjoying the tour. Next up is Lisa Martz, with more fabulous projects!

Blog Tour - September 20th!!

2010-09-18T14:50:00.002-04:00

Come join us on September 20th for this month's blog tour. This month's theme is Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving. So come back to see all of the fabulous projects that the ladies have created this month!!

Love Birds

2010-09-14T13:21:00.003-04:00

Hi. Today’s card is the wedding card I made for the wedding we went to this past weekend. This is the wedding where I made their invitations. All 110 of them! It was a lot of work but they loved them. So I had to make my card match their invites. I used the same layout I did for my brothers engagement card and then I used the colors of their wedding (red and chocolate brown). The ribbon is retired Riding Hood Red taffeta. That’s it for today. Short and sweet!

Concord Crush Thank You

2010-09-09T08:32:00.002-04:00

Hi! I cannot believe that today is Thursday. It’s nice that I only have one day of work left this week but I have a couple of things to get done before Saturday and I thought I at least had one more day. Oh well! Today’s card is a quick card. I used the Friends Never Fade stamp again and stamped the flower in Concord Crush. I then added the Blushing Bride ribbon and Old Olive buttons. The sentiment is from With All My Heart. This would be easy to mass produce in different colors. I’m really liking the new purple In Color. I have another really cute card using this purple color, but you’ll have to wait until the 20th to see it. It’s one of my projects for the next Control Freaks blog tour. But in the meantime, I hope to have a few more cards to share with you over the next week. I have to make a birthday card for my dad's 60th this weekend and a wedding card for a wedding we have this weekend. Busy busy!

Baja Flower and a Wedding Centerpiece

2010-09-08T10:26:00.001-04:00

Happy Wednesday!! I’ve actually had a chance to get a couple of cards done. Today’s card was kind of CASE’d from Andrea Walford. I used her layout but I just changed the paper and stamps used. I used the Greenhouse Gala dsp along with Early Espresso and Crumb Cake. The flower is stamped in Baja Breeze from Friends Never Fade. And the leaf is in Certainly Celery, also from Friends Never Fade. The sentiment is from A Word For You. I plan to have another post for tomorrow. Woo hoo 3 days in a row!! I’m trying to keep up but now we have to get working on all the little wedding details, which apparently is a LOT! Plus the fact that I’ve decided to do my own centerpieces so that’s added to our list. Here is a picture of our centerpiece in progress. I have to do some better arranging with the wheat and then we plan to have some votive candles and maybe some little pumpkins around the jar. I’m also going to play around with the bow a bit too. This was just to see how it would look with the ribbon around it. I think it adds a nice little touch than not having anything. The ribbon is Rich Razzleberry satin ribbon (this plum color is the color of the bridesmaid dresses). I will post another picture of mock set up once I have it figured out. Have a nice day!

Aviary

2010-09-07T16:21:00.004-04:00

Hi, just a quick post for today. Today's card is again for the color challenge on Splitcoast. Today's colors were Concord Crush, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizazz. The background cardstock is stamped with the swirl image from Trendy Trees. The birds and owl are stamped in the challenge colors and the cage is Soft Suede. Ribbon is white grosgrain and the button is one that I had in my stash of buttons. The sentiment is from the hostess set Silhouette Sentiments. I hope you like it!