A few Valentines...

Hello everyone! It's been a very busy weekend with very little time to sit and *create* but I managed to do some blog surfin' this morning for Valentine's Day cards and I came across this cute card from Pam Speidel from Stamping with {Serendipity} blog....

So...I decided to CASE it from her and I put a few twists on it and created these two:

I am going to make a few more different Valentine's Day cards to sell at our local country store. Thanks for popping by tonight and we'll see ya hopefully tomorrow!! Night all!

Happy Stamping!

Whiff of Joy and Color Dare Challenge....

Oh it's been such a *wonderful* day here in my craft room :o) Coffee tastes fantastic, tunes are cranked, ideas are a flowin'...and the challenges are wicked today! I've had such a great day!! Here are the details of my next creation(s)....

Whiff of Joy Challenge Blog has this wonderful sketch challenge up for us to try:

I have a few of their stamps and I totally *heart* them....this is the first time I've had ink on this one! She seems a bit "solemn" so I decided to make it a sympathy or "sorry" card. Seemed to fit her.....

The gals over at Color Dare have put together the most AWESOMEST colors...I really love this combination of colors...had no difficulty deciding what to do with them!! Hope you enjoy it too!!
Here are the 2 cards I made with the same stamp...I decided to make one a blonde cutie and one a brunette cutie....hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them!!

I am not sure if I will be back tonight or not, I have a very busy weekend ahead and so I need to get some stuff ready for that. Kim, our daughter, has a competitive swim meet in Edmonton tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. and that will be a full day. I might be back on Sunday - we'll see how the weekend goes....take care and happy stamping!!

Mindy's Valentines BLOG CANDY!

Hey everyone, I came across this AWESOME blog, Stampin' Mindy.....and this lady has some serious crafting talent - AND..Mindy is giving away some awesome looking Valentine blog candy! Run...don't walk....over to her blog HERE and check it all out!!

Shhhhh...can you hear that??!??

.......it's Q-U-I-E-T here! NO KIDS!! Now, don't get me wrong, I totally *heart* my kids :o) but a day off of school and the whole house to MYSELF is such a treat these days hahaha...both kids are at friends houses for the day and so I will do some laundry up and create - either in my craft room or I'll work on some afghan projects I need to complete...or BOTH! HA!

Scrapmaster's Paradise has a very "masculine" color challenge this week so I decided to make a birthday card for a good friend of ours. I had to find a sketch to go along with it, so I hopped on over to Friday Sketchers.



This is the sketch challenge from Friday Sketchers Challenge Blog. I knew I wanted to use Lovely as A Tree as my main image (my good 'ol manly standby stamp set lol)....

...and this is what I came up with.....hope you like it. I'm not too sure about the pearls on there, but I guess they are on there now :) Hope he enjoys them too HA HA HAHA...:o)


Recipe:

Stamps: Lovely as A Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Basic Grey, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Sizzix embossing plate, sizzix dots embossing folder, grey satin ribbon, paper piercer, dimensionals, oval punches, scallop oval punch, scallop edge punch, spiral note punch, dimensions, adhesive pearls

Pastel Valentine...

Good afternoon! I snuck in another card today in between helping my kids with their school work and getting lunches and supper made :) This time it was with colors that I don't use very often..the pastels. The color challenge comes from the Colour Create Challenge Blog. Be sure to pop on over and take part in this wonderful combination of colors! I decided to use a Bella for this card, and she is soooo "stinkin" cute (to quote my good friend, Tamie...luv ya girlie)

Recipe:

Stamps: Acrylic stamps and Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Whisper White, Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink

Ink: Black Versafine, Basic Gray

Accessories: clear embossing powder, paper piercer, embossing die cuts, embossing folders, scallop eyelet border punch, scallop border punch, dimensionals, markers, gems, pretty in pink ribbon, horizontal slot punch, corner punch

Both my kids are being home-schooled this year and so it is rare for me to have a full "ME" day by myself and tomorrow I just *MIGHT* get one! Kim is gone overnight to a friends house tonight and Calvin might be going to a friends too - maybe not overnight tonight, but for sure in the morning, so it will be just LIL 'OL ME here tomorrow for the majority of the day - until I need to hit the gym and pick up my daughter from gymnastics!! Oh...what trouble could I get into in the crafting world?!?! Hee Hee....

I hope you all have a fantastic evening...I'll be back a bit later - I have a few more challenges I'd love to check out! TTYL....

Happy Stamping!!

Early Morning Creativity :o)

Good morning y'all! My DH had to leave early for work this morning, so I saw him off, made some strong Starbuck's coffee, and got to surfin' for crafting inspiration. I came across this sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches:

And this is the new color challenge at Diva Coffee Break Designs Challenge blog this week:

I *knew* right away which stamp I wanted to use for this sketch layout and the colors would be PERFECT for coloring her....I've been wanting to get ink on her for quite some time, but just haven't done it. So, today was her time! Here's the card I created using both challenges:

I had a lot of fun sitting in my craft room in the early hours this morning, drinking my coffee, tunes on....and Q-U-I-E-T!!! Ahhhh...what a way to start the day off....hope you all have time to create something today - I would love to see it!

Happy Stamping!

One last challenge....

...and then it's time for bed! It's sure been a grrreat day of stamping for me! I've enjoyed getting my craft room messy :o) Now time to clean up and hit the hay.....

I decided to give the circular Mojo Monday challenge a try and I used the color challenge from The Pink Elephant..the girls there said to use "polka dots, pink and a bow." EASY PEESY!! A girl loves all 3 of those things. HEE HEE....

...and here is the round card I made:

Recipe:

Stamps: Oval All

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Sweet Always DP

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: scallop circle sizzix bigz, regal rose marker, brads, pretty in pink ribbon, dimensionals

2S4Y and LPS Combo....

I am back!! Schooling went well today and while Kim was doing her Math and Social in my office/craft room, I took full advantage of my surroundings and went ahead and worked on another challenge while I helped her out! Works for me! LOL..My good friend, Tamie, told me about Little Paper Shop's awesome color challenge today so I quickly RAN over there to check it out. Here it is:

Those colors were totally screamin' BOYS and MUD and QUADS and MOTORBIKES, so I quickly ran over to 2 Sketches for You and came across this nice, simple sketch that had just the perfect spot for a quad, motorbike and mud!! How lucky was I?!?! I went to work!

Now, I'll be *real* honest here...I had a wee bit of difficulty coloring in the quad because we are not quad owners and users, so I really didn't know HOW it was supposed to be colored! ACK! I hope I did ok...LOL....

This one was a bit easier to color for me...it had more shaded areas that I could *wing it* hahahaha!

...and this last one, my daughter, KIM, colored for me. Didn't she do an AWESOME job?! Better than her Mama...I must say! Love ya girlie and thanks for helping me out in between subtracting decimals and learning of the settlement out West :o) xoxoxoxo

Thanks for stopping in again - I sure hope to be back again tonight. I have some sympathy cards I need to make up tonight. Two very important people in my life lost a loved one over the weekend. Hugs and love to you Tamie and Bonnie...my deepest sympathy to you and your families. xoxoxox

2 Challenges....2 Cards

Happy Monday! I got up early this morning, started some coffee and got to work on creating another card and well...I made 2! I used the color combo from Scrapmaster's Paradise and the sketch challenge from Mojo Monday. I used the same colors/sketch for both cards, but just threw a bit of a different twist on each one...hope you like them!

Here's what the wonderful ladies at Scrapmaster's Paradise had for me to use:


And Julee, once again, posted a very cool sketch...you could do either circular or square or BOTH! I did square for now - maybe I'll make a round one tonight :o) We'll see....
And here is Card #1 with the 2 challenges:

And here is Card #2 using both challenges:

Let me know what you think of them! I think they turned out really well...in between home schooling and crafting, today has gone very well!! My daughter helped me put the butterflies on the 2nd card. I said it needed "something" and she said "How about some butterflies here Mom?" so...there ya have it :)

Hope you all have a fantastic day today...happy stamping!!

Great things happen in 3's....

I am on a roll today!! I haven't stamped this much in a long time...it's been due for a while now. Somehow, life can consume you and the busy-ness of *life* takes over :( But...I have made it a promise to myself to try and do something creative for myself at least 3 times a week. If I get more in, then bonus for me! :o) OK...enough rambling.....onto the challenge:

I did a combo challenge again...this time I checked out Taylored Expressions for the sketch and here is what they had posted:

Then I hopped on over to Stacey's Stamping Stage for the Curtain Call Color Challenge. These are the colors she had for us there:

And I decided since those colors are screaming "baby" that's what I made. I am really lacking baby stamps I have discovered...I only have the Nursery Necessities stamp set, so that's what I inked up :) Hope you enjoy it.

Recipe:

Stamps: Nursery Necessities

Ink: Bashful Blue

Paper: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Orchid Opulence, Almost Amethyst

Accessories: star punch, embossing folders, bashful brads, dimensionals, paper piercer, striped bashful ribbon, markers

Another 2-for-1 :)

Tamie and Bonnie just left for home and I finished up another 2-for-1 challenge today so I thought I'd get it on here before I start kitchen clean-up and getting ready to make more tonight :)

The following card was made combining 2 challenges...a sketch layout from Diva Coffee Break Designs and the color challenge comes from a new challenge blog I found called Just Add Ink. Be sure to go and check out this amazing BRAND NEW site! It looks fabulous and I can't wait to participate in more of their challenges!!

This is the color scheme from Just Add Ink:

And this is the sketch layout from Diva Coffee Break Designs.....

This is the creation I came up with for both challenges:

I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to use all the colors for this layout and also all the "blue space" bothered me a bit, but I think it turned out really well! I actually like the simplicity of it now that I come back and keep looking at it! :) I had a lot of fun making this card I am glad that the challenges are here for people like me to use...I am very "challenged" sometimes when it comes to creating a card from scratch and the sketches/color combo challenges sure help!!! Thanks to all those people who spend time creating them for us to create works of art!!

Recipe:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Thank You Kindly

Paper: Taken With Teal, So Saffon, Whisper White, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Saffron brads, embossing folder, chocolate ribbon, scallop trim border punch, dimensionals

I don't think you've seen the last of me yet tonight...I'm gonna run and clean up the kitchen and check out the laundry situation with the kids and see if I can sneak back in here later to make another fun creation :) Have a super evening and see you soon!!

A Sunday 2 for 1....

Good afternoon from my craft room! Today's stamping class got cancelled due to bad roads and members not able to attend, and so Tamie and Bonnie still came out and we have been *creating* all afternoon :) Fun, Fun, Fun!!

Tamie recommended some wonderful blog challenges to me and I came across soooo many - I decided to pick a color challenge AND a sketch challenge to make one card, so I clicked over to Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog and Saturday Spotlight Challenge Blog and I came up with a 2-for-1 for you today!

At Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog, their sketch challenge was this wonderful layout:

....and over at Saturday Spotlight Challenge Blog, their color challenge is to use YELLOW in your card/creation. So....without further adieu....here is what I came up with:


Recipe:

Stamps: Acrylic stamps
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, So Saffron, Sweet Pea DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: paper piercer, Old Olive, So Saffron, and Close to Cocoa markers, oval punch, scallop oval punch, dots embossing folder, dies, dimensionals, sponge dauber

Color Dare and a Challenge to Tamie....

I challenged my amazingly crafty friend, Tamie, to a card-making challenge tonight. I didn't *think* I felt like crafting since being back from my holiday, but once we decided to challenge each other and I clicked on over to The Color Dare site, I got excited as the minutes went on!! Here is the color challenge they have posted:

And...I also wanted to give these new Easel cards a whirl...sooooo...I hopped on over to Splitcoaststampers and found the tutorial and THEN....I hopped on over to Melissa's blog and *sort of* copied a card of hers *wink, wink* (click HERE to view card). This is what I came up with:

So, there ya have it....my creation!!! I am not going to put the recipe on tonight as my DS wants me to go and watch a movie with him. I will try to come back and edit later....have a super night - don't forget to hop on over to Tamie's blog and check out her creation....HAPPY STAMPIN'

Excited to start a new year!!!

Hellloooooo!! Happy New Year to all my PEEPS...I cannot believe that it's been almost ONE MONTH since my last post! Someone fire me! LOL....I apologize for that but I have been one busy girl. I got back on Tuesday from a much-needed vacation with DH and now I'm rip-roarin' and ready to go. I would like to say a special "thank you" to my wonderful friends, Leanne and Melissa, for preparing my stamp class for this month. You gals have no idea how nice it was to come home and not have to worry and fret about what I will be doing for our club. You ladies did a wonderful job and I thank you from the bottom of my heart - and I know the rest of the club members will too! OK...now, onto some pics! Here is what we will be building tomorrow:




These first 3 pictures are of the "pocket" calendar we will be making. We wanted to make it a perpetual calendar that you can store cards in for each month. You can see in the 2nd photo how I have some cards inside the "pocket."

The next card was made using the new acrylic stamps from the Occasions Mini and new Sweet Pea designer paper....I really love these colors together :)

This gorgeous card was made using the new punch from the mini catalog...I totally love how circles are embossed and the colors are wicked!! That bird is just too cute!!

Thanks for stopping in tonight and I am excited to get my club started again tomorrow! I have such a wonderful group of creative ladies and we are all like family :) I am totally stoked to see what Bonnie (aka Bon-Bon) comes up with for her card fronts for us to make!!!

Take care, happy stamping and remember that the best time to take a break and relax is when you don't have time for it! Hugs!!