a few more pages

I am having a lot of fun playing on SCS with the virtual scrap booking night.  These are the pages I have done so far today.

"little artist"

supplies used

Basic Grey Romani patterned paper and stickers

Martha Stewart punch

Fantasy Floral Garden and Flourished Elements from Flourishes llc

Tim Holtz ink, buttons, twine

"Sterling Castle, Scotland"

materials used:

Noteworthy dp, Imaginisce twitterpated dp

scalloped border punch, corner rounder

PTI alphabet set, Thickers chipboard stickers

Tim Holtz ink

"Move #4"

materials used:

Sassafras dp, Bazzill card stock

Unity stamps, PTI alpha set, Cosmo Cricket rub ons

Brilliance Graphite black ink

a few lay outs

Are any of you playing along at SCS, for the Virtual Scrap Book Night (well weekend)?  Every two hours a hostess posts a new challenge.  I played along with two, one was to distress up your page & the second was a sketch challenge.  Sorry for the back picture quality, its really hard to take a good picture of a layout when its night time.

"sweet kendall"

kendall and I in 2003

materials used:

Basic Grey Urban Prairie dp, Prism card stock

Bazzill chip board, CM circle cutters, Tim Holtz distressing tool

Tim Holtz distressing inks, buttons, twine, glue dots, Thickers Vinyl alpha stickers, micron black pen

"Broken Arm Blues"

Kendall broke her arm on the 3rd day of school on the playground in 3rd grade

materials used:

Crate paper, Fancy Pants designs All Fall dp

CM circle punches, Unity stamps, Brilliance Graphite black ink

Thickers, Micron black pen

Hello clean and simple

Todays limited supply challenge LSC205, over on SCS, is to make a clean and simple card.  Super easy challenge.  I am all about clean and simple.  The card base is prism cardstock, and I had a few scraps of Amuse dp laying around, so I had to throw that in too.  The image and sentiment is from Fantasy Floral Garden from Flourishes llc.  There is no ribbon (shocker I know!) but I added a felt flower and button.  This was easy peasy, I think it only took about 5-6 minutes to make.

"hello"

supplies used:

Prism paper, Amuse designer paper, chocolate chip card stock

Fantasy Floral Garden from Flourishes llc

felt flower, button, twine

ripe avocado, red and black ink 

Dream~

One of my best friends in the entire universe called me today and let me know she is pregnant!  This will be her first child, and they decided not to find out what the sex of the baby is until the baby is born.  I think that is so cool when people wait.  So I made a card to send her.  I used Laura's sketch #18 from 2sketches4you. The stamps are from the Fantasy Floral Garden & Flourished Elements stamp sets from Flourishes llc and the yummy designer paper is from Crate Paper.

"Baby Dreaming"

Supplies Used

Fantasy Floral Garden & Flourished Elements from Flourishes llc

Crate Paper, Vintage Cream card stock

Prima, button, twine

Brilliance Graphite Black ink, Kaiser Kraft gems

Spellbinders Nestabilities

Mojo 71 Birthday card

Sorry about another birthday card, however I need a bunch to put in my basket, lots of birthdays coming up.  I decided I needed some mojo, and what other place to go than Mojo Monday blog, this is sketch #71.  I got the Birthday Surprise stamp set from my hubby last month, so I decided to ink it up.  Just a little side note, I am really liking the Dew Drop Brilliance Graphite black ink.  Its a fast drying pigment ink, but its soooo black, I love it!  I think I need to get some more Dew Drops in different colors because they work really well with clear stamps (photopolymer).  

"Happy Birthday"

materials used:

kraft, true black & vintage cream card stock

Birthday Surprise stamp set from Verve

May Arts ribbon, Copic markers, dimensionals 

Easy Peasy 5 Minute card

I don't know about you, but I have lots of birthday cards to send out & give.  I used the Flourishes Happy Birthday set, stamped the cupcake a few times, added the "celebrate" sentiment, paired it with a Martha Stewart library card and pocket (with some MM Sabrina paper, ribbon & button) and there is one easy peasy card.  Oh and I colored in the cupcakes with Copic markers.  Some of you have asked how I keep my buttons down, and I use glue dots and sometimes twine.  

"Happy Birthday"

I scrapped!

If you are like me you are way behind in scrapbooking, or maybe you are a superstar and all caught up...if so tell me your secrets lol.  So I went and got some new paper at Michael's last night, I was rather surprised to see trendy paper.  So I picked up a pack of Friendly Forest paper from Colorbok, I gravitated towards it because  it seemed perfect for boy layouts.  

One of my dear friends Chris started 52 sketches a few weeks ago, they put a new sketch out every week, then at the end of the year you have 52 layouts.  I'm a little behind starting out, being this is week 4, but I'm proud of myself for getting it done last night.  The pictures are of my little guy when he was almost 3 years old (he is 8 now).  The "details" stamp is from Unity Stamp Co & the stickers are felt Thickers, oh and i did use a Martha Stewart punch on the green paper, as a border.

The website I think is 52sketches52weeks.com if you are interested.

"Trucks"

Birthday Wishes PTI blog hop

This month's theme for the blog hop was to make a birthday card, which is perfect because I have lots of cards to be sent out, so here is one that I'm showing today.  I first picked out my colors, white, ocean tides, raspberry fizz and a little Basic Grey dp mixed in.  The swirly flourishy vines from the With Sympathy set, fit perfectly with the sketch I had in mind, so I stamped the vine in Fresh Snow. 
On a separate sheet of paper I stamped the butterflies, also from the With Sympathy set, cut them out and popped them up with dimensionals.  After I popped them up and they were in place I went over the butterflies with Stickles.

The sentiment "birthday wishes," is from last years Anniversary Set

"Birthday Wishes"

Supplies used:

PTI With Sympathy & Anniversary stamp sets

Ocean Tides & Stampers select white paper

Basic Grey Bittersweet dp

Ocean Tides satin ribbon

Fresh Snow & Raspberry Fizz ink

foofala button, twine

Martha Stewart border punch, glue dots, brads, Stickles

Mojo #70 and ramblings

A few years ago, we found out that I am allergic to our dog.  Its the best dog ever!  While we were in CA for the 9 months, Coco lived with my inlaws because we were in an apartment and there was not a lot of room for her crate (thats where her comfort place is, she was crate trained) anyhow.  So now that we have her back, when I'm around her it feels almost like I'm breathing in a chemical or something, I just don't have clean air.  So we are going to get a referral to an allergist just to get more info on what we can do (most DR's say get rid of the animal)  I really want to exhaust all options before we think about finding her a new family.  Jess thinks I may be getting asthma or am having a serious allergic reaction to her because my throat starts to swell.  My question to all of you is, or I guess I'm looking for advice.  Are you allergic to anything and what do you do when meds don't work or can't help?  Just to answer a few questions before they are brought up, we have a fancy pet vacuum and I vacuum everyday, my daughter brushes her, Coco right now isn't allowed in areas I mostly am in, Craft room living room, bedrooms just to prevent coming in contact with her hair/dander.  I'm desperate, this is our family dog, and it would be heartbreaking to take her from my children and on the same token my throat closing up, getting hives everyday and itching like crazy is not fun.

Ok, now on to the card...

I used the LSC204 (to use a black card base) and Julee T. Mojo sketch #70 for inspiration for this card.

The stamps and patterned paper are from Imaginisce.

"So Tweet"

Supplies used:

true black, stampers select white, Imaginisce Twitterpated dp

Imaginisce Snag em stamps, birdie and so tweet

Nestabilities, May Arts ribbon, twine, button

Notecard Set

Before I start my post about my little project, I'm going to take a second to vent :)  Hubby got into a little fender bender yesterday (he is okay), it was the lady's fault who hit him and ran him off the road.  Anyhow, I venting because I hate insurance companies, the lady who hit dh, her ins co. needs to make sure there was a car accident before we can drop our car off.  Really?  So you are calling the Police Officer who wrote the accident report (and who issued the lady a ticket) a liar.  So I have a dented scratched up car sitting outside... Okay I feel better now...needless to say the Ins. Co. wiped me out.  Thank goodness for my new goody's that came in the mail for me to play with!!

We are going to a Hail this weekend (hubby is getting hailed) which means a command welcomes their new incoming peeps.  Its going to be at the XO's house...so that means I need to bring some gift of sorts for having us over.  So, I made this cute little personalized "thank you" note card set for the XO's wife.  I will probably get a bottle of wine or liquor to go with it.  

"Cute Note Card Set"

Here is a closer view of the front of the notecards, all products are from Papertreyink.

The notecards are basically a card front, measuring 4.25 inches by 5.5 inches

I stamped the left front of the envelopes using PTI's anniversary set from last year

Here is what it looks like, all packaged up.

I love the UPS guy

My stuff from PaperTreyink came from the brown guy today (insert happy dance).  I can work on my swaps now.

Water colored bird house

Hey ladies!  I took a few days off of blogging to enjoy a few last days of my husband being home.  He was on leave since we got here, but he officially checked in.  So thats what I've been up to and unpacking still!  I think my stuff is breeding when I'm sleeping.

 I stamped and water colored this last night, and let it air dry over night before I cropped the image.  Sometimes when you use a heat gun it can warp your paper, so if I have the time I let the paper sit.  I don't water color often enough, but I think its so pretty and always brings warmth to a project. 

I used the new Home Tweet Home stamp set from Flourishes llc, and took out one of the bird houses, and stamped it with Memento ink, before I water colored.  Once the image was dry, I cut and embossed the image using the curvy rectangles Spellbinders die.  Before I adhered the image down, I stamped my sentiment and bird.  I put one of those cute mini library clips from SU on the image and then adhered it to the kraft paper using dimmensionals.  The little bird seemed plain so I water colored it too.

"Home tweet home"

supplies used:

kraft paper, water color paper

pure poppy satin ribbon, button, twine

Spellbinders curvy rectangles die, water color brush & ink

Memento ink, Adirondack ink, SU mini library clip

My Scrapling

So I played along last night with the VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) and the challenge was to make a scrapling...a scrapling?  A scrapling is a card that is 1.25 inches by 4.25 inches because they are left over scraps, when we make a 4.25 square card from a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card.  If you don't understand click here and it will take you to the thread on Splitcoast.  

I had some really nice textured paper scraps hanging around and some Amuse dp (those scraps never get thrown away!), heck even the PTI polka dotted dark chocolate ribbon is a scrap (can't toss that either) paired all that yummyness with some Verve stamps and you have one cute scrapling!

I think these would be excellent for gift tags or bookmarks if you put magnets on the inside.  So there you go a fabulous way to use up some of your scraps!

Sneak Peek Day 3, Chairs to You

Today is the final day of sneak peaks, and I'm showing you two cards I made using the Chairs to You, stamp set being released tonight, as well as Home Tweet Home and Birthday Celebrations.  Make sure you go visit the Flourishes Newsletter today, leave a comment and this stamp set could be yours & if you don't win it there.  Tonight from 7-9pm est on the Flourishes forum on Splitcoast, there will be a release party and prizes, including a chance to win all three sets!

For this first card I use the sweet little dog image sitting on his/her doggie pillow and paired it with the "Just sitting here thinking about you" sentiment.  I stamped and colored the image onto Prism paper, I just love the texture of it.  I stamped the image and sentiment in Adirondack Espresso ink and colored in the dog using copic markers.  The red card base and back panel to the white paper is also by Prism, and the patterned paper is by My Minds Eye.  The two little paper clips things are from a set that SU sells, not sure what its called, and the ribbon is Old Olive 5/8 in grosgrain ribbon, and yes I put a button on it lol.  You can barely see it, but the bottom of the front panel has a scalloped edge.  The front panel is popped up using dimmensionals.

"Sitting Here"

Chairs to you stamp set from Flourishes

MME & Prism paper

Clips & ribbon from SU, button from Foof ala, Copic Markers

For this card I used the largest chair in this set, at first I was going to paper piece the chair (which would look awesome) but I decided instead to color it in using Copic markers.  I paired it with Kraft card stock and my favorite paper of all time Dutch Girl by Cosmo Cricket and some lovely gingham red wired ribbon, finished it off with some black buttons, and red and kraft twine.  The sentiment is stamped on a tag I cut and embossed using a Spellbinders die.

"You may want to sit down for this"

Chairs to you stamp set from Flourishes llc

kraft & vintage cream card stock, Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl patterned paper

twine, gingham ribbon, black MM buttons, copic markers, Spellbinders die, black micron pen

Here is another view of this card

This stamp set was so fun to play with, I hope you can take some time to visit all of the other Design Teams blogs, their work is truly outstanding!

Julie Koerber

Laura Fredrickson

Cindy Lawrence

Faith Hofrichter

Christine Okken

Kimberly Crawford

Cindy Haffner

Beeca Feeken

Betty Wright

Jan Marie Caruso

Nancy Kirk

Silke Ledlow

Dee Jackson

Flourishes Newsletter (go here for blog candy)

again I hope to see all of you at the release party tonight!

Sneak Peek Day 2 Home Tweet Home

Today I am showing you a sneak peek of the Home Tweet Home stamp set from Flourishes, it will be released tomorrow (Friday).  It was so much fun to work with this set, designed by the one and only Marcella Hawley.  My favorite sentiment is "get twiggy with it" is that not perfect for a stamp set with birds!!  Love it!!

"Get Twiggy with It"

supplies:

Paper: Kraft, MM Noteworthy, Vintage Cream

Accessories: MM Noteworthy felt flowers, Foof ala buttons, twine, copic markers

Home Tweet Home stamp set from Flourishes llc

"Home Tweet Home"

Supplies:

Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, white

Accessories: American Crafts gingham ribbon, foof ala buttons, copic markers, twine, glue dots

Home Tweet Home stamp set from Flourishes llc

Again, today you will want to stop by the Flourishes Newsletter for a chance to win this stamp set (just leave a comment), its a one day only blog candy so make sure you leave your comment today (Thursday).  

Be sure to stop by the rest of the Design Team for some eye candy using this set!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Faith Hofrichter

Jan Marie Caruso

Julie Koerber

Laura Fredrickson

Dee Jackson

Nancy Kirk

Kimberly Crawford

Silke Ledlow

Sharon Doolittle

Betty Wright

Becca Feeken

Flourishes Newsletter

I hope you will join us in the first ever Flourishes Release party tomorrow from 7-9pm est in the Flourishes forum over on Splitcoast!  You will have a chance to win more prizes...who doesn't like free stuff!!

Sneak Peeks Day One!!

Today I'm sharing with you two cards using stamps from the newly released stamp set Birthday Celebrations from Flourishes llc.  Its a fun and whimsy stamp set from new artist Lauren Pope.

Be sure to go to the Flourishes Newsletter here, for details on how you can win this set and all three sets being released on Friday.  Don't forget to mark your calendars for Friday 7pm-9pm Eastern standard time for the first ever Flourishes release party.  Its going to be held in the Flourishes forum over on Splitcoast.  Thats where we'll reveal all the sets and give you an opportunity to win more prizes.

For now I will leave you with two sneak peeks of the Birthday Celebration stamp set.

"Happy Birthday"

Supply list:

Paper:  Kraft, Basic Grey dp, black

Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories: May Arts Ribbon, twine, Copic markers, buttons, glue dots

Stamps: Birthday Celebration

"Piece O Cake"

Supply List:

Stamps: Birthday Celebration

Ink:  Adirondack Pitch Black

Paper:  Prism, Sassafras, white cardstock

Accessories:  May Arts Ribbon, Copic markers, glitter pen, MM brad, SU scalloped edge punch

Go visit the rest of the Design Team, to see their wonderful creations!!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Faith Hofrichter

Julie Koerber

Laura Fredrickson

Dee Jackson

Sharon Doolittle

Jan Marie Caruso

Betty Wright

Nancy Kirk

Don't forget to visit the Flourishes Newsletter today, for a chance to win this stamp set!!

Masculine Valentine's Day card

I'm helping out a fellow blogger, she needs 1000 valentines to go to a children's hospital.  So I made a quick and easy masculine valentine's day card, for a boy to use.  Again I used the Tree mendous Love stamp set from Our Craft Lounge.  I stamped it in Not Quite Navy and then using a Baja Breeze re inker and h20 brush, I colored in the giraffe.  I made a scallop border and the bottom of the kraft paper, then ran some Martha Stewart ribbon around the panel and tied a bow.  This is a smaller sized card its 3 1/2 inches by 4 1/4 inches.  Sorry my posts are short lately but I'm battling a really bad cold that is just wiping me out.

I hope you all are having a terrific day!

ATC swap

I joined my first ATC swap (artist trading card), each piece is 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  The theme is flowers, so I used a few Flourishes stamps, the pitcher is from the Summer on the Patio set and the sentiment is from the Siberian Iris set.  Like I said, I have not done these before, so I hope they are ok for a swap.  If you want to join in on the swap you still can, its open until Jan 31st you can find the info here.  I have lots of older paper hanging around, so I used up some of my Basic Grey Two Scoops paper, I really love the plaid in this design.  The pink textured paper is from Bazzill and the white textured paper is from Prism.  I really like the textured paper both of these companies make.  You can get 10 ATC's from one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, I think that is so cool.

On another note, I still have tons of boxes to unpack.  My husband has been really good about letting me rest, this is the worst cold/flu/sinus infection/bronchitis crud I have ever gotten, not to mention I hurt my neck.  My craft room is coming along slowly, maybe next week I can have it put together, and then I can post a few pictures, its nothing fancy, I still need to pick up a few more shelves for the wall and odd n ends.  

So if you have a crafting space, could you take a picture and send me the link, I'm really curious to see other people's creative spaces.

Have a great Monday!!

Inspired by Challenge

There are just a few more days until Flourishes releases 3 new stamp sets.  To celebrate the release, we are having an "inspired by" challenge. all you need to do is find something in your home as a point of inspiration for a card or altered project.  Then post a comment on the Flourishes blog here, or upload your project to Splitcoast using the keyword FLLCJAN.  Use Flourishes stamps if you can, but if you don't have any, feel free to join us anyways.  We would love to see what you come up with.  The winner will receive all 3 newly released stamp sets for January.  Head on over to the Flourishes blog to get all the details and to look at some great inspiration the design team has cooked up.

Since we just moved, and most of my household goods are still in boxes, I didn't get inspiration from anything in my home, however I was at Hobby Lobby and I saw some really pretty picture frames that had a damask pattern on them, so I got my inspiration from that.

The frame was just an unfinished bare wood frame when I started.  To start off, using Tim Holtz distress ink (fired brick) I used a sponge dauber to ink up the wood, then to darken it up, I rubbed the stamp pad directly to the frame to get a deeper color.  Then using a white pigment ink and the Damask background stamp from Flourishes, I stamped around the frame.  Pigment ink takes a long time to dry, so you might want to heat set the ink, or let it sit for a while, you don't want to handle it with wet ink.  While the ink was drying, I stamped the poppy's onto some white card stock, and colored them in using Copic markers (the poppy's are from the Poppy Patch stamp set from Flourishes), the sentiment Dream is from Fantasy Floral Garden (Flourishes).  Before I put the card stock into the frame, I tied a bow around the paper.  The frame didn't seemed finished, so I decided to add more ribbon in the corners and some pearl stickers to finish it off.

Again go to the Flourishes blog to learn more about the challenge to win this months releases and to see more beautiful projects.

A few Valentines

First I want to say "thank you" for all of your well wishes.  I went to the Dr.  and I have a really bad sinus infection and I pulled/strained my neck.  If I'm not better in a few days I have to go back, because it means something else is going on.  Anyhow, my house is full of boxes, they are everywhere!  I did get to stamp the other night with some of the things I brought along with me.  I inked up my Tree-mendous Love stamp set from Our Craft Lounge.  They have adorable stamps (red rubber cling stamps) however they come with a little pricey price tag ($19.99 a set).  I don't have a really cute Valentines set, so I really wanted this one.  Plus my friend Julie Koerber's Mother is asking for Valentines cards to send to a Children's Hospital.

"Happy Valentine's Day"

kraft, basic black & white cardstock, American Crafts satin ribbon, Foof ala buttons, copic markers

"Giraffe love"

Heidi Grace shimmer paper, Kraft & white cardstock, gingham ribbon, American Crafts grosgrain ribbon, twine, copic markers

We made it

We made it to Jacksonville, FL

we found a really nice condo 3 bedrooms plus a study until we find a house to buy

I'm really really really sick, I'm actually going to the emergency room here in a minute.

Most of you know I have Crohn's Disease and when I get a simple cold it can turn bad really fast.  So I have had a cold for 2 weeks now, I really think its bronchitis now, and then my neck started hurting a few days ago.  One night I only slept for 20 minutes it hurt so bad.  

So off to the Dr, to get checked out.

Panera Bread has free wifi, so maybe I can come back tomorrow (if I'm not too bad) and have a new creation to post.

Our internet doesn't get hooked up until Friday.

see you all soon

todays travels

We are in Texas about 100 miles away from San Antonio.  Another long day, around 600 miles again.  I saw some weird things today, well weird to me.  While in Texas I saw a polygamist and his 5 wives, I stared for a second and wished I had a camera so I could share with you all, but I didn't but trust me it was a little freaky.  While in New Mexico in a Walmart an old man asked me if I knew where the liver sausage was?!?  Ewe...Seriously...liver sausage.  To each their own :)

On the plus side I got to have Sonic.  I'm not sure where we will end up today, I'm guessing around Houston or somewhere in Louisiana.

Have a great Saturday!!

Just Thinking

Let me just say, Cosmo Cricket rub ons are most excellent when you are in a hotel room and want to craft.  I brought my Slice along (its really small and doesn't need to be plugged in) and thats how I was able to get that shape.  Both papers are from the Cosmo Cricket Little Boys paper line and the rub on is from the CC Get Happy rub-a-dub-dub pack.

"Just Thinking"

I'm just thinking this is a long car ride to Florida...

**Edited, we made it to Demming, New Mexico, its about 600 miles from SD, there wasn't too much traffic on the roads so that was nice.  We ate at Cracker Barrel, I have missed that place!  We are around 100 miles or so from El Paso, so I'm thinking that we will make it somewhere in between San Antonio and Houston tonight.  No crafting tonight, we made it to our hotel too late.  But if our hotel tonight has wifi I will have a post for tomorrow.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Congrats

I needed a quick card to send to someone who just had her first prenatal appt.  I didn't pack any baby stamps or paper, so I improvised.  The background scroll is actually a rub on from the Cosmo Cricket haunted rub on booklet, the stickers are from the Little Boys 8 x 8 kit (cosmo cricket).  Since she doesn't know the sex of the baby yet, I added a pink button to the bow, to hold the bow in place I added a glue dot behind the knot.  

"Congrats"

We left San Diego today and we are somewhere on the road.  

Happy 2009!

where did 2008 go? It went by so fast!