Berry Best Birthday.

I think I have mentioned it once or twice here that I love strawberries. I adore the little strawberries in the Papertrey set My Punny Valentine. I decided to make a pattern paper using those berries that was inspired by a t-shirt that my daughter has. Once I made the paper I used it as an accent on this card.

I was also playing around with my new scalloped Nesties. It is hard to tell in this picture, but I also added some Diamond Glaze to the berries for a glossy look. I also added some Crystal Stickles to the flowers and larger stars on my pattern. I am addicted to making pattern paper. It really is fun to come up with different combinations to suit each occasion. This is another card for my kid stash. I need to work on some more. Luckily I have some more of this pattern paper left to come up with another berry-tastic card. LOL.

I am so glad its Friday. I have been feeling better today so I have been doing some organizing and purging in the craft studio. Does anyone have a great organizing idea they could share? I’m always changing my systems and trying to get the best combination so I’m always looking for something new (particularly with keeping my desk clean!). It’s at the messy stage now and I need to go back to cleaning. I hope you have a wonderful and creative weekend. I will be back here on Monday with another color challenge! See ya then.

Midweek Sketch Card

Wow today is another beautiful day and I can’t believe its Thursday already. I think we should have three day weekends at least twice a month. What do you think? I’m ready for the weekend to get here. I was feeling much better last night and made a few cards. I will share one with you today. I did the Midweek Challenge I posted yesterday. Here is what I came up with. The sketch again...

And the card....

I used the rose image from the Garden of Life set. One I had not used yet, but I ended up using it on two projects last night. I will have to show you the other one at another time. It’s not finished yet. I had to dig around in my stash to find some papers that would work. The two on the left are from Papertrey. I also had the matching ink to do the roses. The last two were just scraps and I’m not sure where those are from. The sentiment is also from the Garden of Life set. The brads are from The Paper Studio. You can see here that I added some Crystal Stickles to the flowers.

It adds a little something to this simple card. I love how this turned out and how super fast it was. I am really enjoying the rectangles. I will have to try this sketch again with something different. Remember if you give this sketch a try let me know I would love to come see what you came up with.

That is what I have for you today. I have some projects I’m working on today and need to get back to. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Don't Worry Be Happy!!

Good afternoon everyone. It is such a beautiful day here. I hope you are having a great day where you are. Today I got to guest host the Midweek Challenge over on the forum. I thought I would bring it here to the blog as well. Hopefully you can play along. If you do leave me a link in the comments so I can come see. This is the 8th challenge we have so far. They have been pretty fun and well... challenging. This is the sketch and details of the challenge.

Use any colors that you want, but make it a monochromatic scheme. Also use any image or theme, but I challenge you to use stamps that have never seen ink or that you have not used in a long time.

I also had enough energy to make something today. I have not made anything in a while and I feel all out of sorts because of it. I’m used to creating everyday and since being sick that has not happened. I’m a little out of the groove I guess. I got some new meds today and they seem to be working much better. Hopefully that means I will be getting back to my normal routine very soon! The card I made today is for the Midweek Challenge from last week. My PTI friend Beth got to post the challenge. She challenged us to make a circle card. Well I don’t think I have ever made one. It’s been on the to-do for a while, but I never got around to it. So this was a perfect opportunity to cross that off my list.

I used the new Honey Bee’s set and some Lemon Tart paper. I went with the scalloped Nesties again for a flower. I also stamped the “Don’t Worry… Be Happy” sentiment all around. I have had that song in my head all day because of it. LOL! I popped up my little bee with some wire that I coiled into a spring. So he bounces all over that little flower. heehee Here is a side shot of it.

I love this set. The bees are pretty darn cute. Tonight is the Blog Hop over on the PTI Forum I did not make anything this time since I have been out of sorts lately. Make sure you hop on over to the forum tonight and check out all the great inspiration I’m sure will be there. Have a wonderful day and I will be back tomorrow with some more projects!

Look my roses are blooming....

We have tons of blooms right now. They are so pretty. They smell good too. What little I can smell of them right now. Still sick and not feeling very creative, but I do have a card to share I did last week. I am in need of some kids cards. My girls have been going to parties at friends and have wiped out my card stash. This cute card I made using the Hero Arts cupcake set.

The cardstock is Lemon Tart by Papertrey. I stamped on to it with the matching ink and the Polka Dot Basic set also from Papertrey. The ribbon is Chatterbox I think. I cut out each cupcake and mounted it with some pop dots. I also added a little sparkle of course to each one.

I cut out and embossed the circles with my new set of Nesties. Would be a cute card for a kid.

Speaking of something yummy look what I made yesterday.

MMMMmmmm. I was feeling horrible yesterday so we just hung out at home and grilled a little. I had already purchased stuff to make smores last week. That was the dessert I had planned for the kids. Can't go wrong with those right? Well I had sent the husband out to buy more meds, popsicles and such and he came home with a couple packs of strawberries. Love him!! My taste buds really are not working all that well and I don't have much of an appetite, but I surely was not going to let those good looking strawberries go to waste. I had some chocolate chip scones and ice cream in the freezer so I decided that we needed some simple shortcake's a la mode. I made a simple strawberry sauce and cut up the rest of the strawberries added some chocolate sauce and we were in business. It was really good...what little I can taste anyway LOL! I want to try this again when Im better and have full use of my taste buds.

Well that is all the fun I can do for today. Time for me to get more meds and rest up. I will share some other things tomorrow. Have a wonderful day!

Im Back!!!

Hello everyone. Sorry I have been MIA on the blog here. I have been really sick. It is rare that I get sick. I think the last time was about three years ago. I guess I was about due. I’m still not 100% yet, but I am getting there. Funny that the last card I posted was a get well card. LOL. Today is Memorial Day for us in the US. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and a safe one too. Today is also...

I did have one little burst of energy to make a card, but that is all I got around to doing. Hopefully this week I will be getting back to normal and can spend more time playing. Today’s colors are...

I love these two colors together. I chose to use the new Lavender Moon cardstock, ribbon and ink from Papertrey. It looks great with the Bazzil gray.

I just recently purchased some scalloped circle Nestabilities. I just had to make a large flower out of those. I used three different sizes and then cut slits between the scallops for the petals. I inked the edges of the petals with some Charcoal Palette ink. Then I crumbled up the circles a few times and flattened it out a bit. A large Making Memories brad made a great center. On the white sheet of cardstock I used the linked circle stamp (the same one I used on the get well card) from Shapes by Design in some Platinum ink for a little interest.

The sentiment was from the PTI anniversary set. I love how this card turned out.

That is all I have for today. I do have a few projects that I did before I got sick. I will try and post those tomorrow. Anyone have special plans for the day? We are going to be grilling out today and just hanging out at home. I really don’t have the energy to do much today. I hope everyone has a great day!

Lavender Moon and Cookies

I finally had time to play with the new Lavender Moon cardstock from Papertrey. Originally when I saw it online I thought it would have more blue in it, but it has more of a pink tone to it instead. The paper is really pretty and the ribbon in this color is great! So I was not disappointed in the color difference. I had been visiting my blogging friend Katie yesterday and noticed that she created a card for this weeks color challenge. She used a resist technique on her card background. I love doing this technique and had not done so in a while. That inspired the background for my card.
The stamp is from Shapes by Design. I had not used this particular image very much so I though it needed some love. I love the look it gave my background. I stamped the image with Versamark and clear embossed it. After that I took Spring Moss and Lavender Moon ink and just smeared the ink pad right onto the cardstock. It makes a nice batik look. The flower image is from the Garden of Life set. Another image that had not seen much ink. The sentiment is from the Simple Little Things anniversary set. I do not know where I would be without that set!

Did you notice the cookies in the top photo? I made those cookies this morning from the recipe on Katie’s blog. She made a wonderful cookie box to hold them and also posted her sugar cookie recipe. They are wonderful cookies. Make sure you pay her a visit here and check out her Color Challenge project and those yummy cookies!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit me today. I truly appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderfully creative day!

SEI Pendant

I have been playing around with resin pendants again. I love that you can embed anything into them. I have this cute paper from SEI (the Black Orchid collection) that I thought would make a nice pendant.

I added some beads and made a nice double length necklace. This was for a gift so I had to make a matching box to go with it. I decided to go with the pillow box again. I love those for giving necklaces. Since this was a long and chunky necklace I also made a little pouch that could display part of it and tuck the rest inside. That way it stays nice inside the box and can easily be pulled out at once. It also keeps it from getting tangled inside. I used the Shapes by Design set from Papertrey to add the circle design to the box. I added some red Stickles just to the front as well. I also went back and added some solid circles in Platinum in between each circle. It adds a nice little shimmer to it. Here is a closer look at the box.

I took these photos just before I added the name on the tag. I added that with some American Crafts rubon's. So that is my project for you today. You should give resin a try its pretty fun. I have been digging through my stash of pattern paper for some other fun combinations. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit today. I appreciate it and all your wonderful comments. Have a great day!

Color Challenge

Good Morning. I hope you had a restful weekend. I sure did. I even got in a nap! That never happens. Well its Color Challenge time again. This weekend I worked on these colors

I really like this combination. I added a little chartreuse to the mix as well. The first card uses some scraps that I embossed with an embossing folder.

I also added some hand stitching with embroidery floss. The next card I used some images from the new Honey Bee set from Papertrey.

The honeycomb and the grass and flowers are from that set. The sentiment is from the Shapes by Design set. I also used the swiss dot embossing folder. All the papers again were from my scrap stash. The flowers I popped up on some dimensional’s. I also used some Stickles on the flower centers and the dots in the scallop.

The last card, but not least uses images from Shapes by Design again.

I colored them in and added some punched shapes. The sentiment is from the Papertrey Anniversary set Simple Little Things.

That is all I have for today. Thank you for stopping by and for all your sweet comments. I truly appreciate it. If you try out this color challenge let me know. Leave me a link in the comments to your creation I would love to see. Have a wonderful day!

Garden of Life

I have been working hard on some projects to enter in Papertrey’s Guest Star Stamper contest. This is the first time I have entered and I had so much fun. One of the sets we had to use was the new Garden of Life set by Alli Miles. Such a cute set and full of potential. I made a total of 8 projects so let’s dive right in shall we? First up are the cards. Since I have a lot of pictures to share I’m just going to show those and point out anything fun. If you have a question just let me know. So get comfy here we go.

I used the slim leaf to make wings for my little dragonfly on this one.
This is the inside.

I stamped the flower and punched it out. Then I cut the circles in half and added them to the border. It makes a nice lace look.

I also made a resin pendant.

This looks so much better in person. I photographed it so many times, but was not really able to capture the beauty it has in person.

Stamping on fabric is a big thing so I tried my hand at it.

Top view.

With a house full of girls we always need hair accessories. The pattern is by Heather Bailey. Here is a look at the back.

My final piece is a Forever Flower Corsage.

I stamped one of the solid images and cut it out many, many times. I then rolled and folded it to make the rose. I wired it to some chipboard and put a pin backing on it. Well what do you think?? I had so much fun with this set as you can tell. I can’t decide which is my favorite. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Midweek Challenge 5 and 6

I finally got around to the challenge over on the Papertrey Forum. I had the chance to do the last two challenges late last night. Both sketches were very different from each other and pushed me out of my comfort zone. Just what a challenge is suppose to do right? The first card is from last weeks challenge.

I used some old Basic Grey paper I had lying around for my side ovals. The center oval uses some of the new Summer Sunrise paper from Papertrey. The sentiment is from Faux Ribbon and the oval stamp is from the Borders & Corners Oval set. I love how the blue looks with the Summer Sunrise. I will have to do that combination again soon. Some punched holes at the bottom, brown Prima’s and some blue brads round out this challenge card.

The last card for today uses a very fun sketch by Lynn.

I used some new SEI paper for the semicircles. This came from an 8x8 pack of pattern papers. This set has some really great patterns that I can’t wait to use. I also got out Papertreys Text Boxed. I love this set, but really have not used it much. So I though this was the perfect sketch to dust it off. The main image as well as the sentiment is all from that set. I stamped and cut out the orange centers of the flowers and mounted them on pop dots. I needed a small orange gem for the little flower, but didn’t have one. I tried to ink up a clear one with my Summer Sunrise Palette ink pad. It worked a little, but the color was not as strong as I had hoped.

Tonight is the release party over on the Forum. That is where I will be tonight if I can stay awake! Im so tired from last night. LOL! So come on over and join the fun! Make sure you stop by tomorrow because I have a nice long post for you. For the past two weeks I have been busy working on my Guest Star Stamper entries for Papertrey. I can finally share with you what I have been creating. I had a lot of fun with this one. You don’t want to miss it. See you then!

Hello!

Have you seen the Papertrey peeks? They are so great. A lot of creative genius in all those projects. I’ve been drooling all over my keyboard today. If you haven’t taken a look yet head on over to Nichole’s blog and take a look at all the cute projects. There are also links to the other designer’s projects using the new releases. Lots of fun going on over there.

I have been busy today un-mounting all my old wood mounted stamps. What a job! I wish I had done this sooner though. Now I can store them in CD cases with the rest of my clear stamps and those old neglected stamps can get some more lovin’ from me. Today I have a bright little card I made for a friend. Going back to the pink and orange challenge for this one.



This card uses pattern paper from that Urban Oasis pack again. Another large Prima flower. I have been using those all the time and I swear they are multiplying when I’m not looking. I have tons left still! I brushed on some Crystal Stickles onto the petals for a little happy sparkle. The sentiment is from the Borders & Corners Circle set as well as the scallop circle. My most used PTI set I think. Then I added a little strip of Swiss Dot embossed paper. Fun, fresh, simple and cute. Just like my friend!

Well I must go back to un-mounting all those stamps. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Color Challenge

Good Morning. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and Mother’s Day. Mine was very nice. Just hanging out with my family and relaxing. The perfect weekend! Today is

Time for fun colors and cards. Today’s colors are

This week’s cards are all 5x5 and each one has a background pattern. The first uses a cardstock die cut from the Amy Butler collection by K&Company.

The background uses the leaf image from the anniversary set from Papertrey. The Mr&Mrs is from the Borders & Corners Mini Monogram set. I added some silver Stickles to the circles in the die. A little black satin ribbon and this makes for a classy wedding card.

This next card uses the moon stamp from the Out on a Limb set. I used it to make a scallop design with Brilliance Platinum ink.

Here is a closer look at the Platinum scallops

The ribbon is again from K&Company. I added a little square of black and a scalloped circle. I used an old vellum Making Memories tag for the sentiment. I punched an additional hole in the tag and used Making Memories gem brads to secure it to the cream scallop. The sentiment is from the Mixed Messages set.

The last card for today uses that same moon stamp in a different way. Here is what they look like.

and the finished card

I used the moon to make mod little circles. I added some swiss dot embossed paper and some red scallops to hold my sentiment. The flower is Prima and the large silver brad is Making Memories. The sentiment is from the Papertrey anniversary set. I thought they turned out very chic. I love this color combination. I may have to do more with this. Give this combo a try and if you do leave me a comment so I can come check it out to!!

Have you seen the cute projects on Nicholes blog? The Lullaby set was so cute. Hop on over and take a look here. That is all for today. I must go and clean off my desk again. Although it is no where near the mess it was last time! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderfully creative day!

TGIF!!

Happy Friday everyone. I hope you have plans for some fun this weekend. Since this Sunday is also Mothers Day I wanted to say Happy Mothers Day to all the Mom’s out there. Yesterday I said that I had two sunny cards to show you today. I guess I picked a great day for these because here it is very dark and gloomy. I am in need of a little sunshine today maybe you are too. So here goes.

This first card uses some paper I picked up at Michael's by Urban Oasis. I love this particular pattern and it works well with Papertrey’s Summer Sunrise ink and ribbon. I also used a little scrap of PTI’s Aqua Mist cardstock. The flower is American Crafts. The sentiment comes from the anniversary set. The sentiments in that set are so useful. I have been reaching for it a lot lately.

This next card was super quick to do.

I ran a piece of kraft cardstock in a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and inked it up with some charcoal palette ink. Catching all the raised parts. I just mounted it on that same yellow pattern paper and added some Prima flowers and a large brad from Making Memories. I stamped the Hello sentiment, again from the anniversary set, and punched it out using the window punch from SU! I thought they turned out to be very cheerful cards.

Tomorrow is the 10th which starts the first day of the countdown to the new Papertrey release. I can’t wait to see what products and projects are waiting for us. Make sure you check out Nichole’s blog tomorrow. That is all for today and I hope you have a very wonderful weekend. Don’t forget Monday is Color Challenge day and I have a wonderful combination to share!

Perfect in Purple

Today's card is a case of Amy Rysavy’s cute cupcake card here. This was such a cute card that I had to make my own version.

I flocked the flowers and cut them out. They are from the Garden of Life stamp set. Instead of using ribbon I just folded over the lavender paper and placed the brads on that. I also added a strip on the side with the sentiment. That is from the Papertrey anniversary set. I love how it turned out. That is all for today. I am pretty busy on some fun things for next week. Cant wait to share them with you! Tomorrow I have a sunny little card to share. So come back to check it out. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and I hope you have a great day!

Midweek Challenge

I finally got around to doing last weeks challenge on the forum. The challenge was to use a catalog or magazine as inspiration. Well I LOVE doing that and had such a hard time deciding which one I wanted to do. I was flipping through this Chiasso catalog

and saw theses cute frosted glass frames.

Here is the picture from the website. They changed the photos in them, but you get a better look at the glass.

I decided to use the catalog shot as the inspiration for the colors and images I was going to stamp.

I used the new Garden of life set for the floral images and the sentiment. I recreated the frosted frame by stamping some lines (from the Faux Ribbon set) onto white cardstock and glued a sheet of vellum that had a pearl like sheen to it. I added some screw eyelets that I had in my stash to complete the look. I wish you could see it in person the photo does not do it justice. Well that is all I have for you today. I am busy with some other things that I will be able to share soon. I do have more cards to share tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Tuesday

My house still has the faint smell of Mexican food from last night. We had a wonderful time indulging in one of our favorite styles of food. So good! I even have some leftover for lunch today. I hope everyone had a great day yesterday. This week is Teacher Appreciation week at the school. My kids help make these little treat bags to take today.

They turned out so cute and the girls had fun making them. They wrote such beautiful notes to their teachers. It was a proud Mama moment for sure. Love them girls! We used the Limitless Labels set from PTI for the nuggets. I love the colors that they chose. A really great combination. The bags are just your standard brown lunch bags. Amazing how cute they look with just some stamps and ribbon. The stamps on the bag are Autumn Leaves. The monogram cards are made with the Borders&Corners circle, Trajan Monogram set and the Marvy scallop punch. Another simple and quick project for the kids to show their teachers how much they appreciate all they do.

Another little thing to share is a card I made a while back for Leah. A friend on the PTI forum. She had a little baby girl and this is the baby card I made for her.

Not your typical pastel baby card for sure. I used some Fun Flock and Stickles on the side for a little interest. The background is stamped using Beautiful Blooms and a Versamark ink pad. A few embossed squares and some Making Memories baby hands and that is pretty much it. I have more projects coming everyday this week. So check back! Have a wonderful day!

Hi everyone!

Well I have a crafters hangover. LOL! My weekend was a crafting blur. I had intended to post on Saturday (National Scrapbooking Day), but I was so into all the projects I was making that I forgot! I worked on a quilt Friday night and the rest of the weekend was all paper crafts. It was a busy weekend indeed. Check it out…

Lots of pages for the albums and lots of cards to share with you this week. First up is…

I had an interesting challenge and color palette this weekend. The challenge was to make cards that had lots of bling and these colors

Well first off the disclaimer. I am bling challenged. I love it, but only in small doses so I really had a hard time with this. I’m not even sure I like them, but a challenge is a challenge. So here goes and don’t laugh too hard at them. The first card I used the Faux Ribbon and Garden of Life set to make some pattern paper. The focal stamp is from the new K&Company line.

I added some stickles here and there and some gems to add the bling. The felt rick rack is an old piece I had in my stash. Not sure where I got it.

The next card I added some Bazzil Bling paper and some glitter with some tacky tape.

I also used another stamp from that K&Company set. A few large gems on the flowers and you’ve got bling.

This last card I used more of that pattern paper I made and some of that Bazzil paper. I added glue dots to the white paper and sprinkled some glitter on that. The ribbon is Chatterbox and the rhinestone brads are Making Memories. The sentiment is from the Simple Little Things set by Papertrey. So that is my Color Challenge take for this week. I loved the color combination, but I am not so sure about all the bling. (how many times can I say that word lol). If you decided to give the Color Challenge a try leave me a comment on this post I would love to see it. Or if you have some bling tips let me know too.

Today is also Cinco de Mayo. Any excuse to cook a Mexican feast. That is one of our favorite types of food. We are going to have tamales, tacos, fresh guacamole and pico de gallo and lots of other dishes. Yum making me hungry already. So that is my plan for today and I’m sure to be busy in the kitchen until dinner time. I’m still trying to come up with a dessert. I will probably make that up as I go. Anyone have ideas on that? This week is also Teacher Appreciation Week at my kid’s school so I have to make some goodies for that as well. I will post those for you when I get them done. That is all I have for you today. I hope everyone had a great weekend and plenty of time to create. I will be back here tomorrow with another card from my weekend extravaganza! Have a wonderful day!

Happy Friday!!!

I am so glad its Friday, but I am still trying to figure out where the week went. And I am still in denial that it is MAY already. Say what?? It seems that my days have been going by with lightning speed. Do you know that tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day??? You need to make sure you take some time this weekend to create those pages you have been putting off. If you don’t scrapbook then use it as an excuse to spend some time being creative. Anyone got plans? I plan on staying in and having a crafting extravaganza with my family. I’m going to put dinner in the crock pot and we are all going to craft the day away! I can’t wait, but first I think I need to take care of this mess

LOL!! So I have a question for you crafters. Do you clean up your workspace as you create or do you let it pile until you no longer have a space to work? You see I try very hard to clean as I go, but the problem is that I get inspired by the stuff on my desk from the project I just did and I tend to keep adding to the mess until you can no longer see my desk. Then I have to clean it and the process starts all over. I have to have my supplies very organized and they are. I can find everything when I want it I just can’t keep the desk clean from one project to the next. Anyone got tips? I would love to hear.

So I went to my local craft store today to get ONE item. You know the drill go in for one come out with ten…or eleven…or twelve…..yada yada. I came across the new Amy Butler line from K&Company and I was just drooling over it. Check out these fabric tags.

I love fabric and there was no way these were going to stay at the store! They begged to come live at my house. *wink* Love the colors on these. I am also a sucker for packaging and I love the way these hang like a set of fabric swatches. They have great silver grommets on them too. My favorite tag is this one

Um yeah I am so making something with that one!! The other thing that caught my eye was that the packaging was made with recycled paper and was this lovely kraft color and of course you have to love the jute hanger! I also picked up some of the fabric tape and check out the back of it

Awww... "Do what you love. Love what you do." Absolutely!! Love that little tree too, but the fun thing was this part

Do you see that?? “Reuse this package” Umm yes thank you very much I will. Don’t have to tell me twice!*wink* Ok I know I’m getting excited over packaging, but I told you I am such a sucker for it! So enough babbling over that and let’s check out the card I made shall we…..

So I went very modern with this card. Big surprise I know. It came together in like 5 minutes. This was a good thing because that was all the time I had. The little floral bit…branch….thing (what do you call that anyway?) whatever it is came from the Amy Butler line as well. I loved that little thing. I put some foam adhesive on it and embossed the squares with some Nestabilities and some embossing on the grey cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is Papertrey of course. That is what I have for you today. Don’t forget to make time this weekend to “Do what you love”! I will be back here tomorrow to share a little something with ya. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Friday.

Welcome Baby

I have been gone most of today so I have not had much time to play, but I did manage to get one little card done before I left. I really liked that little baby card I did on Monday so I thought I would make a boy version also.

I had a little scrap of the Chatterbox paper in a blue/green color left so I went with that. It was just enough to fit this card. I used the same design as the girl card from Monday so it came together pretty quickly. I changed out the flowers for a star brad and there you have it. I am going to make time tonight to play and I will have something else to show you tomorrow. Make it a great night!!