2 Thank You, 2 Wedding CASE'd

Happy Saturday folks! Both of my kiddos are gone for the day/night (Kim's gone for a week and Calvin will be home tomorrow around noon and then gone to Bible Camp for a week) so I figured since today is a rainy day, it's a great day to STAMP! When I dropped Kim off at her friends, I stopped at the little country store that I sell my cards at and I noticed they are getting low on wedding/anniversary, male/female birthday, baby cards and shower cards....so I have set out to power stamp and get a few built! :)

The first card I CASE'd from Nancy Amato from Stampin' All Night. Be sure to check out her beautiful card - this is what I came up with using her template and I tweaked it a bit by putting a bow on there and I don't have that wonderful sentiment that Nancy used, so I dug through my Verve sets and found this one:

Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Love's Flower (Verve); Paper: Blushing Bride, Concord Grape, Whisper White; Ink: Blushing Bride, Concord Grape; Accessories: Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, white organza ribbon, pearls, dimensionals

This next simple, yet rich and elegant card was CASE'd from Lynn Starzl on the Stamping Connection. Isn't it stunning? It looks even better in person. The richness of the Early Espresso and Vanilla is delicious! I need to order more EE as I only have one more sheet of it, or else I would have made some wedding/anniversary cards using it. It's on my ORDER SOON list!!! :)

Stamps: Perfect Punches; Paper: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso; Ink: Early Espresso; Accessories: vanilla satin ribbon, scallop oval punch, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, dimensionals

Both of these cards today also qualify for the challenge of Dry Embossing over at KL Stampin N Scrappin Blog. Thanks for stopping in and I am so looking forward to a week to myself that I can spend in my craft room! Stay tuned!

Birthday Stamp-A-Stack Card #3

Happy Saturday! It's another bright, sunshiney day here in central Alberta...temps are supposed to reach 20C again today - time to dig out some shorts and flip flops. Yay! I just wish I felt 100% better and could enjoy the heat, but with a head cold, it's not really a lot of fun.

DH is going into town after a bit to do some errands, go to the chiro, etc., so I am going to get busy and get a few challenges done here in my craft room and I only have one more project to prepare for my monthy club get-together happening next Sunday! Yay me!! I am normally scrambling like crazy to get ready and I've gotten 3 classes ready to go all by myself! Love it!

OK..enough ramblin....here is the 3rd card we will be creating at this month's Stamp-A-Stack. It can be used for a Male, or Teen birthday and you could use it for ANY color combo:

Stamps: Vintage Labels (SAB); Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White; Ink: Dusty Durango, Soft Suede; Accessories: large circle punch, scallop circle punch, soft suede ribbon, silver brads, embossing folder, dimensionals, clear blocks

This is a nice, clean, simple card that won't take the girls very long to pump out. I like the simplicity of cards like this - that still make a nice, bold statement!

I hope you have a chance to enjoy the wonderful sunshine today, wherever you are. Thanks for poppin' in to enjoy your morning coffee with me - I'll be back in a while! Bye!

Birthday Stamp-A-Stack Card #1

Wow, it's late! LOL...I never realized just *how* late it was...I will post quick and get my butt into bed!

I am hosting a Birthday Stamp-A-Stack on Saturday, April 24th and I wanted to showcase the samples on my blog here for you all to take a peek. I CASE'd this card from somewhere (and for the life of me, cannot remember where) so if you know who came up with this PURRDY idea, please let me know ASAP so I can give credit where it's due.

We are making 4 different cards, 3 of each one. This is the "woman" birthday card that we are doing. I will showcase a different one tomorrow....

Stamps: Upsy Daisy; Paper: Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White; Ink: Basic Black; Accessories: embossing folder, scallop trim border punch, markers (pumpkin and garden green), dimensionals, white organza ribbon

Well that is it for me tonight...I will be back tomorrow with another Birthday SAS sample for you. Have a great night - sweet dreams!!

PPC-CC #8

Happy Monday!!

It's time for my very first installment as a PPC Color Creator with Picture Perfect Creations Design Team!!

I am so honored AND excited to be a part of this new, exciting, talented group of ladies! Megan has enlisted an awesome, ROCKIN' Design Team...be sure to visit their blogs and leave them a bit of looooove :o)

Megan has been offering up some wonderful color challenges and this week's combo is no exception....these colors just scream "SPRING!" to me - what about you?

I got to work diggin' out the colors, finding DP, buttons, ribbons, and then the mission of finding "just the right stamp...." :o) I came across an old FAV of mine....True Friend, and knew exactly what I was gonna do. I colored the flower up with markers so I could incorporate all the colors of the challenge in the image as well as the paper :o)

Stamps: True Friend, Whimsical Words; Paper: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Bashful Blue, Garden Green, Razzleberry Lemonade DP, Sweet Pea DP; Ink: Pumpkin Pie; Accessories: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Garden Green markers, paper piercer, scallop circle punch, circle punch, pumpkin pie striped ribbon, pumpkin pie brads, scallop trim edge punch, embossing folder, adhesive pearls, dimensionals, button, linen thread, glue dot.

The rest of the Design Team has samples for you to enjoy, so please be sure to click on over and check 'em all out!!!

Allison Barroll
Nicole Anderson
Sandy Tran
Melissa Hubert
Trish Radacs
Jackie Weeks
Tamie Camp
Debbie Marcinkiewicz
Paula McClane

I hope you play along this week and link up your card over at Picture Perfect Creations...
I am looking forward to all your wonderful creations!!

Bailey's, Verve and a Play Date

As you probably figured out from the title of this post.....I am having some Bailey's while crafting...YEP! I sure am - I am enjoying a scrumptious Cadbury's hot chocolate with some caramel-flavored Bailey's - YUMM-O! DH is gone away working for a few days, so I'm totally taking advantage of my craft room tonight!

I found some My Mind's Eye DP (yep, that I've been hoarding - shhhhhh!) to go along with this lovely color challenge from The Play Date Cafe...and....I also dug out a set from Verve that has not seen ink yet (head hung in shame). So, tonight was the night! The gals over at Flutter by Wednesday's wants us to use some "SPARKLE" on our flutterby's...so I added some gems to my butterfly :)

Usually, these colors would pose a slight "setback" on my crafting MOJO, but tonight - they went together just "tickitty-boo!" Hmm...wonder if it's the Bailey's....*eye roll* hahahaha...

Well, PEEPS, I've had an incredibly creative day today. Six cards posted! WOWZA's! I think that just *might* be a record for this girl. That's it for me tonight - time to clean up my craft zone and get things ready for tomorrow. The kids both have 4H and I am going to "attempt" a walk or the gym or SOMETHING tomorrow before I settle in for yet ANOTHER crafting frenzy tomorrow night! Yay!!! Stay tuned.........................

TSTR - Embracing the White

I'm not sure about all of you crafting PEEPS out there in blog land, but I have difficulty "embracing the white" LOL...The challenge this week over at The Shabby Tea Room - hosted by my good friend, Melissa - is to "embrace the white." I will just say that I didn't really know *what* to do, so I went to my cuttlebug folders and just started embossing some different patterns and I came up with what I came up with. I used the "vanilla" color in the photo as my inspiration....I think it will make a great wedding card in various colors now that I've got it done! Thanks for the challenge ladies!!

Stamps: Whimsical Words; Paper: Whisper White, Barely Banana; Ink: Basic Black; Accessories: embossing folders, vanilla satin ribbon, punches, pearls, dimensionals, scallop trim punch

It's just the kids and I home tonight, so I'm off to magically create something for supper LOL...I'll be back later! 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!!

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

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

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!!

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!!

Combo Challenge :)

Good evening!! Can you believe there are only 8 more sleeps until the big day?!? That just seems *wrong* in my eyes...where did the time go? I guess with being home every day and homeschooling my 2 kids this school term, days just seem to flow into each other and POOF, they are gone! One of the many benefits of homeschooling, is at least I *can* craft every day if I choose to *insert happy dance here*

Tonight my good friend, Melissa, and I chose to challenge each other by using the same challenges and see what we come up with. Make sure you pop on over and check our her WONDERFUL creation! We chose to combine 2 great challenges. One from Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge and one from Diva Coffee Break Design Challenge.

This is the sketch challenge from Splitcoast:

....and this is the color challenge from Diva Coffee Break Designs:

....and.....here is my creation combining the two. I must say, I fussed a lot over the colors of the challenge. I like all the colors together, I just didn't really know *how* to combine them all :) I think I did pretty darn good...hee hee! The sketch challenge this week was fun! Thanks to everyone who creates these wonderful challenges for us who are CHALLENGED (LOL) I speak for myself when I say that - I have difficulty creating on my own a lot of the time, so I, for one, totally appreciate the sketch and color challenges :) Let me know what you think ok?!

Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Well Scripted (from the new Occasions Mini Catalog avail. Jan 5)

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Paper: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White

Accessories: acrylic blocks, Beautiful Wings Embosslit (Occasions Mini), Old Olive satin ribbon (Occasions Mini), Sizzix embossing folders - dots, finial press, paper piercer, sponge dauber, dimensionals

He Knows How to Find Me....

I came across a card made by Julee at Poetic Artistry and I wanted to make my own version....let me know what you think....I totally love this color combination :) I made the same card with 2 different sentiments on the front of the cross....

Stamps: Refuge and Strength

Ink: Bermuda Bay and Basic Black

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black and Bermuda Bay, Night and Day DP

Accessories: Finial Press embossing folder, black ribbon, dimensionals, corner punch, dies, pearls

Pink Happy Birthday

I had fun making this one tonight! I used a Happy Birthday mini folder and placed it in the middle of my card front...then wasn't sure what to do with the sides! So, I used my Scor-Pal and made some boundary lines and filled those in with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I added my favorite touch to a card with the Ticket Corner Punch and then added some pink gingham and pink gems. Easy peesy! Thanks for stoppin' by....

A lovely thanks....

I am on a Cuttlebug folder frenzy tonight! Fun, fun, fun! I hope you enjoy this card as much as I do...it could be used for a sympathy, thank you, friend, any type of card - this leaves folder is very versatile! I am really excited about Stampin' Up! bringing out embossing folders for the Big Shot! I CANNOT WAIT for January 19th when the catty goes live and we can order! YEEHAW!

Thanks for looking!




Recipe:

Stamps: Thank You Kindly
Paper: Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Leaf Branch Cuttlebug embossing folder, 7/8" black grosgrain ribbon (walmart), Scor-Pal

Hip-hippo-ray!!!

Awww..I thoroughly enjoyed making this card! When I saw this style in the box of pre-embossed cards from Michael's, I knew I had to do something from Pun Fun! That set is so versatile...luv it! :o)

I stamped the cutie pie hippo in Black Staz On and colored her in with my Going Gray ink pad and blender pen. I also used Pink Pirouette and added red glitter with a glue pen to the balloon and her toe nails! Too cute! I added some Pink Pirouette ribbon and it still looked a bit stark up top, so my daughter, Kim, suggested putting some "bling" on some of the circles! What a girl she is sometimes...her and I were crafting together tonight and that was fun....so there ya have it - a VERY simple card in a matter of minutes....

We're off for now - the kids are wanting to open their Christmas Eve present and then it's time to get things ready for the big guy to come. This will be the final year that we keep it "secret." Calvin knows there isn't a Santa, but Kim is on the fence LOL...she's not sure. Still will keep the tradition going, but just won't be a secret anymore (the presents will be though *wink*) I guess that's all part of growing up :o(

Here's wishing you a very magical, peaceful, blissful night. Remember the reason for the season and be grateful for all you have in your life. Love and hugs. Merry Christmas!