Sparkle

It's hard to believe we are already on week 4! Maria posted a question on PaperCraft Planet and asked for members to vote for a theme for an extra component for us to add to our weekly Christmas card. Snowmen won, so along with this sketch we needed to add a snowman somewhere. What would I do without my dear friend Michelle? Once again, this image is because of her. But this time, she sent me the unmounted stamp! She is so fortunate to have stamp shows not only in her state, but within driving distance of where she lives!! I just wish we had them in NE!!

Anyway, I digress...the image is by Whipper Snapper. I love this little guy and will be using him alot. The paper is some that I won in a blog candy offer and I love it! I only received one 6 x 6 piece, but am glad I used it up and didn't hoard it any longer. The red came embossed with the snowflakes and the green (behind the image) was not embossed. The paper is Debbie Mumm. I don't know who the company is unless she has her own.

I cut the circle and the scallop with my Nestibilites dies and the oval with my George cartridge for my Cricut. I added Stickles on the snowman and sentiment for added bling. I love SU!'s tab punch and tried to make this look like an ornament. Eyelet is from Hobby Lobby and ribbon is from my vintage stash.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Did you notice my new header? I made 5 dozen cookies to take to school (the "guy" ones are white frosting with red and white sprinkles) and we didn't have school. So they are being eaten and I will make more Monday to take Tuesday. Anyway, I thought it would make a cute banner for February.

This is one of the cards we made last Saturday at my papercraft class. There were only 4 of us, but we had lots of fun.

This dog image is a Whipper Snapper one that my friend Michelle sent me. She is GREAT at sending fun images for me to play with. Ü The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs "So Much Love" set.

I used scraps from my scrap pile to make this and colored it using the Gamsol and colored pencil technique.

Undercover Candy

This is the theme for today's Friday Challenge on Embellish Online. I am the hostess and would love for you to come over and play. Be sure to upload under "Friday Challenge" and use the keyword "FC28".

I love to give small gifts, whether it's for an occasion or even more fun "just because". It's just a small way to show someone how much you care and what a special gift to receive as well. I wrapped a Hershey bar and what could be more perfect than this stamp I found at Hobby Lobby! Ü

Cardstock: Basic Grey Bittersweet
Stamps: Inkadinkado
Ink: SU! Chocolate Chip
Accessories: SU! Ribbon

Other: Hershey Chocolate bar

I am the hostess this week and I would love to see what you can come up with. Since we are having a snowday, I am going to make up a few more candy covers. Check in later to see what I came up with. Ü

Snow Day!

**Be sure to scroll down to see other post from today
***Go here to see who the 5 winners are for a handmade gift (I need Marge & Mary's blog info first)

I get up at 5 every morning and saw only a skiff of snow, so *knew* we would be having school. At 6:30 we got a phone call saying school had been cancelled...still only a skiff here, but the weather report is that we are to get up to 10 (additional) inches and wind, sot I guess they were being cautious.

It's a good thing, cuz two hours later we have 3" and you can see by these photos, that it is still snowing heavily! I just stood at the door (the first one was taken from our south door and the other 3 from our east door) and took these pictures: Soooo, snow day equals STAMP day! Ü This is going to be a great LONG weekend as we also have Monday off for Teacher In-Service.

Valentine Wishes Anna style

Anna Wight is one of my stamping idols. I love her work and am inspired everytime I go to her blog. I love how she has been doing these fun wavy sentiments to her projects and have been wanting to try it. I'm giving this to someone by hand and don't know how well these would "travel" via snail mail.

I used the floral heart and sentiment from Lizzie Anne Designs "So Much Love" set. The image is colored with SU! markers. I used more SU! patterned paper for this (it came in a 6 x 6 pad and I believe it was a hostess choice).

"Owl" Be Your Friend

Isn't this owl by TreeHouse Stampsowl-dorable? Her name is Olivia (love that name!). I won this set back in December. I have inked up several owls, but just haven't gotten them onto cards til now.

The branch is cut with a Cricut cartridge (will have to come back later to tell you which one). I played with my copics again and am loving how rich they make the images look.

My friend Michelle and I swap several times a month. This week's theme is to make an owl card. I had a blast making this. I need to make tall cards more often.

So Much Love in pink

Here is another little Valentine using the So Much Love set, but this time in pink. I also added heart button from Making Memories (I think...again something hoarded from my stash that I am using!) and pearls that came in a pkg in the dollar section at Target last year.

I hand stiched with embroidery floss and the paper is discontined by SU!
The notched pink panel as well as the white one I stamped on is cut with my Cricut.

You Made My Day

This is a card I made a LONG time ago! So long ago that I have no idea the name of the stamp sets I used by SU! I have been hoarding this card for a long time and finally decided enough was enough and blessed someone with it. Ü

So Much Love in Red

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I've been busy whipping up some Valentine's for the teachers I work with as well as for my youth group girls I work with on Wednesday nites.

This is easy to do with Lizzie Anne Designs "So Much Love" set.

I found these little notecards and scallop edged envelopes in my stash (have NO idea where they came from) and decided they were the perfect size for a Valentine.

I used some red patterned paper in a paper pad I had won on a blog some time last year and hadn't used yet. It is from SU!

The notch pieces were cut from Cricut cartridge Accent Essentials. Ribbon is from SU! and eyelets are another item that's been in my stash from a long time ago. I doodled on the white piece and envelope flap with Pigma pen.

Christmas Challenge #3

It's Monday and that means time for Sketch #3 for the Christmas Challenge Diva's. We would love for you to play along. Here is the sketch.
I turned mine on the side. That's the beauty of sketches, you can turn them around to fit your image. I really love how this turned out. I love the blue and brown together. The polka dot brown is double sided paper by Scenic Route called Ashville/Clayton Street. The "branch" design is on the opposite side and I thought it was perfect for this Hedgehog Snowman image by SU! called Holiday Hedgehog. I have one small piece of this paper left and sure hope the scrapbook store in Kearney has more as I love the colors and the polka dots.

The snowflake embossed (Cuttlebug) piece was cut with Cricut Cartridge "Accent Essentials". I don't have the SU! Top Notch die and love that I can cut about any size I want with the same look using the Cricut diecut machine. I also cut the Not Quite Navy oval cardstock with the George cartridge. Scallop piece was cut with Marvy punch.


The dark chocolate ribbon is from JoAnn Fabrics. I am getting low and will need to get another roll. I just wish we didn't live so far from there! It's hard to justify driving about 1.5 hrs one way for a roll of ribbon! LOL!!

To finish it off I used 3 mini antique brads by Making Memories, white ink for distressing, and antique large eyelets for the ribbon to go through.

Heartfelt Valentine

The Friday challenge on Embellish It was "Valentine's Day". We were to make a Valentine card using hearts. I would love to have you come and play along.

Here is the card I made for a friend. She has received it, so I can post it here now. Ü
I love this paper line called McKenna by K & Co. I cut the felt heart freehand and layered it onto natural batting for a little more depth. I stitched around the edges with embroidery floss. The felt flowers were cut with Cuttlebug die plates. I couldn't believe it, but you can cut TWO thicknesses at the same time!

Buttons are by Basic Grey and misc and the vintage lace is some I had in my stash. This is by far my favorite Valentine I've ever made.

Love Is In the Air

at Embellish On-line anyway. Ü This was the theme for February's Design Team challenge. We rec'd the LOVELY Bittersweet line in paper, brads, buttons and chipboard by Basic Grey. This is one of my favorite paper lines by BG now!!! Here are my projects. The puppy is a Whipper Snapper image and was the first image I tried Copics out on.

Here is a card using the chipboard. The sentiment is from the set "Say it in Script" by Lizzie Anne Designs.The next three are altered toilet paper tubes. I was going to use them as candy bar or granola bar holders, but now I am going to do something else with them. I will post what at a later date. Ü

The cupcake image is by TreeHouse Stamps. It is actually a Christmas cupcake, but I cut the holly off and added a button for a cherry.

Robot Birthday party

Here are some fun items I made for Inky Antics to take to CHA.

They are all using their fun new Robot line that is available for purchase now. Inky Antics is also carrying Nestibilities! They have a special going on for February. Be sure to check out their web page.

Hoo-Ray!

These owl Inky Images are now available. You can find them on their website.

Friends of a Feather

"...Hoot Together" Ü I love this sentiment, esp. since my friend Michelle is always saying WHOOT which is close enough. More owl images by Inky Antics.

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

I have joined a wonderful group of ladies who are committed to making a card/project every week with a Christmas theme. There is even a blog that you can check out here.

Did you get everything done that you wanted for Christmas last year? I did not (but then does ANYONE?) and I am so inspired by Maria's blog that I was excited when she posted this idea that I just had to see if I could join! She accepted me and here I am with my first post.

This is actually the second challenge, but I will be posted a card for the 1st one as well later this week since I just joined. We would love for you to play along with us.

I will confess that I did NOT make Christmas cards last year and also that I do NOT feel guilty about it. Our lives changed ALOT with Bruce homeschooling Aaron and me going to work full time at the school. I love my job, but Christmas card making just was NOT possible. I DID make several gifts and that was all I could do and I refused to stress out about the cards.

But with this challenge, I can have 48 cards DONE by the first of December!! I also have some ideas of how to use the challenges for gifts as well. I am all ready excited about being organized and have everything done (or at least the majority of it) by December 1st. Then I will dedicate December to making food gifts with the boys that we like to give...cinnamon rolls, cookies, candies, etc.

So, with that LONG yada yada yada, here is my card. Ü I used Basic Grey papers and buttons. The image is from a retired stamp set by SU! I don't own the stamp set, but once stamped off a bunch of them with my aunt's set and pulled it out to color. I have lots of Basic Grey scraps that I will be using for these challenges to use it up, which is ANOTHER *good thing*.

Best Wishes

Here is another card made with new images soon to be released by Inky Antics. Owls are so popular right now and Inky Antics has several that I will be showing in the next few days that I got to play with.

Trash to Treasure

This is my project for Ching's Friday Challenge "Trash to Treasure" over at EIS. The "trash" is an altered toilet paper tube.

Sentiment is from the So Much Love set by Lizzie Anne Design.

The polkadot piece behind the white heart is cut from Cricut's Doodletype cartride using the bookplate/heart option. I did have to cut the heart a little bit for the chipboard piece to fit perfectly. I cut 3 with cardstock and one patterned paper to give it the same thickness as chipboard. I love this "faux" chipboard technique.

I also love how the double sided ribbon matched the paper perfectly. To make the knots on both sides, I cut two pieces of ribbon and tied toward the front.Inside the tube is an almond granola bar.

Papers and ribbon can be found in the store here:

Bittersweet paper and heart chipboard:

http://www.embellish-online.com/cate...ttersweet-.htm

ribbon: http://www.embellish-online.com/item...n-May-Arts.htm

Memento black ink:

http://www.embellish-online.com/item...-Tsukineko.htm

Been Owly

I love this play on words. These are new stamps (owl and sentiment) that will be released soon by Inky Antics. Keep an eye on their website for information on when.

This card (along with others that I will be sharing) got to go to Anaheim, CA for CHA (Craft & Hobby Association). One of these years, I am hoping I get to go!

L'Amour

Here is one more card (for now) with Lizzie Anne Design's L'Amour. I didn't put a sentiment on the front of this card cuz I want to be able to use it for birthday, thinking of you, etc when the need arises.

I scored, then sanded the stripes on the cardstock with my new score-pal that I won on Leslie Miller's blog (thank you Leslie!!). I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but the little I've used it, I love it!

This is another very simple and clean layout. YIKES! That's two in a row now!!

We are kinda snowed in at my in-laws (drove on ice/snow paced roads to get here and DH thought it would be better if Benjamin and I stayed in town so we didn't have to drive on bad roads for school tomorrow) so I am using her camera to upload. I packed more stamping stuff than I did clothes. LOL!!

My Heart's a Flutter

I love this heart winged butterfly in the L'Amour set by Lizzie Anne Designs. Don't forget that this set is on sale too!

I used up some hoarded (and now 2 yrs discontinued) paper by SU! and ribbon is from Embellish-It store.

It was very hard NOT to sponge the edges, but I was trying for clean look. Ü

"Sewing is fine...

in 2009". This is the challenge for today's Friday Challenge and your host is Bonnie (bet you thought it was me didn't ya Ü)

Details: Incorporate some type of sewing onto your card or project, whether it is real, faux, straight or ziggy zaggy!!Please use keyword FC25 when you upload your projects to the gallery so we can all see your beautiful work! To see everyone's submissions click *here*

For this challenge I used L'Amour (this set is on sale right now too! Just in time for Valentine's Day) by Lizzie Anne Designs and scraps of paper from Basic Grey's new paper line called Bittersweet (are you wondering why SCRAPS?...you will have to wait and see Ü)

Lizzie Anne Sneak Day 3

I am showing 3 cards for today's sneak peek. Two are singles and one is a Valentine set.

Get Well Soon

Supplies:

Lizzie Anne single "Get Well Soon"

all papers from Basic Grey's Sugared line

Memento black ink & brown ink for distressing

Gamsol and colored pencils

Happy Valentine's Day

Supplies:

Lizzie Anne single "Happy Valentine's Day"

All papers from Basic Grey's Infuse line

Making Memories brads

Memento black ink & brown ink for distressing

Fiskars scallop edge scissors

Gamsol and colored pencils

So Much Love

Supplies:

Lizzie Anne stamp set "So Much Love:

papers: Scenic Route, Bazzill, Basic Grey's Blush line

heart brad (unknown source)

Gamsol and colored pencils

Memento black ink & brown ink for distressing

piercing and embroidery floss

Be sure to check the other blogs for the rest of the sets that are being revealed and the blog for give aways.

Lizzie Anne Designs Sneak Peek Day 2

Today I am showing the single Supergirl stamp and the pear from the stamp set Tutti Fruity.


Supergirl
I colored her with markers and then colored the pink part of her outfit & the brads with Pink Poinsettia Shimmerz Paint.

Recipe:
stamp: Supergirl

cardstock: yellow-Core'dinations, patterned pink-Sassafras Lass, solid pink-Crate Paper, white

ink: Memento black,pink, copics

other: rick rack, brads and ribbon

Card measures 4.5" square


Tutti Fruity

Isn't this retro pear cute?! I know I'm going to be using this alot as well as the other fruit in the set.
To make the pear I inked it first in Yellow Citrus, then inked Tangerine around the edge then Warm Red to the outermost edge. I then inked the stem Chestnut Roan. By using pigment ink you have more time to add all these colors before stamping onto your paper. The fun part is that no two pears will ever look the same (just like real ones Ü).


Recipe:
stamps: Tutti Fruity

paper: white, all other Pink Paislee

ink: ColorBox Chalk inks in the colors listed above

other: photo corner punch


Don't forget to blog hop and see who else is playing today as well as a peek at the other sets that are being shown. PLUS a chance to win stamps here.

Lizzie Anne Sneak

Today is the first of the sneak peeks for the new stamps that will be released January 9th by Lizzie Anne Designs. These are my favorite sets yet that they have released and I am so excited to be on the team and honored to be able to show you a couple of sneaks every day til the 9th. Be sure to click on each design team members blog (on the right) as well as the Lizzie Anne blog to see what the others designed with these new releases as well. Not everyone rec’d the same sets and I don’t have a list of who will be showing sneaks, so just click on their blog every day as they are all wonderful stampers and will be sharing wonderful ideas anyway.

Today’s sneak peeks that I am sharing are Hoppy Easter & Tea Time. I had a blast playing with these and will be showing even more items made with these stamps after the 9th.

Hoppy Easter
Supplies:
Stamp: Lizzie Anne Designs single
Paper: Scenic Route (polka dot); Basic Grey Blush (stripe and pink); SU! (very vanilla)
Ink: Memento black, SUINK brown
Copics: BG72, RV11, E31, E33, E37, YG03, C1, blender
Other: ribbon (unknown), cocoa pkt, toilet paper tube

Instructions:

Cover paper tube with patterned papers
Add ribbon
Stamp image and color
Adhere to tube
Insert cocoa or candy

If I would have had a chocolate Easter bunny, I would have put it in the tube, but there isn’t any Easter candy out yet, so used this cocoa package instead.

Tea Box

Supplies:
Stamp set: Lizzie Anne Designs (Tea Time)
Paper: My Mind’s Eye (prints); SU! (very vanilla)
Ink: Memento black
Ribbon:
Other: brads (unknown), tea, colored pencils and Gamsol

Michelle Giraud is the designer of this very cool tea box. You can find the pattern for this in the Dirty Dozen tutorial section on Splitcoaststampers. You will have to be a Dirty Dozen club member to view this link. If you aren’t it is soooo worth the money to get exclusive patterns as well as a wealth of ideas from the very beginning to current.