Tuesday, March 31, 2009

First Comes Graduation Then Comes a Twinkling Marriage!

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

Hope everyone's week is going well so far. Izzy and I have quite a jam packed week in store for us. It is her birthday weekend so we are going to be running around trying to do all the last minute errands for her party. I am going to apologize in advance for being around sporadically this week. Family is coming in town so I will be cleaning the house like a mad woman! LOL!

Yesterday of course was filled with lots and lots of errands. My arm got twisted into going into Hobby Lobby, LOL, to buy ribbon and of course pick up a spellbinder die. We also went to Target to get candy for the thank you gifts. Izzy was so excited! All she talked about was going to Target! I think she just likes to ride in the cart. She calls it "Izzy's seat". I do have a funny story to share though. Izzy and I were sitting in the car, about ready to turn into the shopping center where Target is. We were stuck at the red light so I stuck my hand in the back and told her to give me kisses. She didn't say anything so I looked back in the rearview mirror and the little stinker had her hands over her eyes. I kept saying, "Where's Izzy? Where's Izzy?" She would just giggle and open her finger then shut them real quick. It was so, so funny!

Alrighty. So I bet you are wondering about my strange title. Well I have a special surprise for you today! Usually we release all the Anya and Ian stamps on the fifteenth of the month, but this month, we have a special surprise for you! Two of the six new releases will be released tomorrow on the first! No Fooling!!! How excited are you!! Marie at The Greeting Farm has two of the most adorable graduation stamps imaginable and since graduations can start as early as the beginning of May she wanted to offer the chance to all her wonderful customers to get them in enough time to create some spectacular cards!

So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Grad Anya!!!


Isn't she the cutest!!!!! OMGoodness and there is also a Grad Ian! I am always looking for graduation stamps and these are perfect!! Like I said above Grad Anya and Grad Ian will be available in digital form starting tomorrow! The rest of the Anya and Ian release for April will be available on the 15th of the month like usual. I started this card by first printing off Grad Anya from The Greeting Farm on white card stock and colored her in using my copics. I really wanted it to look like she was standing on a diploma so I curled up a piece of white paper on both ends and glued a ribbon and a gold sticker I had left over from when I was a teacher. LOL! I then layered on red and black card stock along with some DP from American Craft and finished my card off with some brads and a sentiment I printed off on my computer. I hope the graduate I give it to enjoys it!

Be sure to check out the other DT members awesome creations! You know, to wet your appetite for the release tomorrow! LOL!
Now it is also Tuesday and that means it is Twinkling Tuesday!!! Yay!! And since our fearless leader, Madelynn, is on vacation this week, we have another wonderful guest twinkie to inspire and guide us. Let me introduce you to Jameson, the 8 year old son of our dt member Rebecca! This week Jameson has an inspiration picture and story for our challenge.

Picture:

Story:

Mickey is a Park Ranger working in the national forest. One day on his patrol, he hears a cry for help. He sees a beautiful girl mouse with tears on her face because she has fallen while hiking and broken her leg. The gallant Mickey comes to the rescue of the lovely Minnie, administers first aid, drives her to the hospital, waits for her to be treated and drives her home. They fall in love and the rest is history. However, a few months later, when Mickey goes to pick up his tuxedo on the morning of their wedding day, they have accidentally rented out all of the mouse-sized tuxes! So Mickey shows up anyway in his Ranger uniform. Minnie starts up the aisle and is surprised to see Mickey wearing his uniform but she doesn’t care because that is how he looked when she fell in love with him!

My Card:

I couldn't help myself. I really wanted to use a stamp with mice and I love the color scheme of red, black and green. Well of course when I saw my Cup of Stuff stamp from The Greeting Farm I knew I had a great idea for a card! Of course when I was picking out my papers for my card that got me to thinking about Christmas and I decided to participate in Maria Bell's Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Challenge! Yay me!! I started this card by stamping the two mice from Cup of Stuff by The Greeting Farm on white card stock and colored them in with my copics. I drew in the log for them to sit on and the bow that I cut out and pasted on her head. Following the sketch, I layered on black, red and green card stock along with DP from American Craft and Pinecone Press. To complete the card, I added three red brads and a red ribbon with a bow. I hope you enjoy my little tribute to Mickey and Minnie!

Now it is time to check out the rest of the DT's amazing creations! And don't forget you can play along too! Just remember to leave a comment on the Twinkling Team blog and type in the keyword MTTSC16 when uploading to SCS or PCP.
Well thanks for hanging out with me today! Lots of smiles!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Wild SUINK Sneak Peek!

Happy Sunday everyone!!!

Well, we woke up to snow this morning!!! I can't believe it!! Probably only an inch if that, but I was still shocked! I can't believe it is almost April and we just got snow! Poor Jason, I don't think he is going to be too happy when he finally gets up. His spinach and lettuce were just starting to come up, I hope this didn't destroy them!


I have kind of a quick post for you today as I usually take Sundays off from blogging. But today is my day to Sneak Peek one of the new sets that will be released on Wednesday, April 1st by Storage Units, Ink and More!!!! OMGoodness the sets are just too, too cute and perfect for the spring! I can't tell you how excited I was when I opened my package.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to some images from the soon to be released Welcome To The Zoo set! These images are so adorable and perfect for baby cards, kids cards or for adults who are kids at heart!


Aren't the animals adorable? I wish they were in plush form so I could cuddle with them!! Too, too cute!!! For my card, I really wanted to case my good friend Heather's Wild About You card that she made. I just loved the idea of the movie strip. I recently bought this punch at Michaels and have been dying to use it! I started my card by stamping the giraffe, lion and elephant from Welcome To The Zoo by SUINK and More on white card stock and colored them in using my copics. I then cut them out in squares and mounted them on orange, red and green card stock the latter of which I punched out with my binding punch. I then mounted my film strip on orange and green card stock along with some DP from Hobby Lobby. To complete the card, I stamped my sentiment on the bottom strip. Of course if I had been thinking more clearly I wouldn't have stamped it over a navy star, but oh well! LOL! I just think this would make a great kids birthday card!

Now it is time to check out the other DT member's amazing creations! Here is the line up for the sneak peeks!

Today

Laura Leonard
Colleen Wold

Tomorrow

Amber Kroening.
Kristen Catalano
Mary Jo Price-Williams

March 31

Cathleen Torina
Leigh O'Brien

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! Smiles!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Hoppy Easter and America's Game!

Happy Saturday everyone!

We have a torrential downpour going on right now. So, so yucky. Jason was really hoping he would get some gardening done outside but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon! Poor thing is just going to have to wait until tomorrow. It is not too bad though. Izzy and Jason have been having a really good time together. They cooked breakfast and wandered around the house. She is always so, so excited to have her Daddy at home. Of course since Daddy is at home she has been begging him to give Tuxy a bath. I think Jason has almost given in, but every once in awhile I do still hear, "If you want Tuxy to take a bath Izzy, just stick him outside!" LOL! Here is a picture though of her enjoying the outside the other day!


Well I have two projects to share with you today! I have been having a great time playing with my digi images from The Greeting Farm. You know how much I love them. It is just so awesome that you can manipulate their shape or layout!

My first card for today is a card I made for Easter. (Told you I was stocking up!) I really like the pastel colors of Easter and decorating eggs so I decided to include that theme into my card. I used last week's Sketch For You To Try by Jen Del Muro for the layout.


Isn't Anya so sweet hopping along the bunny trail? I just love the look of joy on her face! Too, too cute!! Anywhoo, I started this card by printing off Easter Anya by The Greeting Farm on white card stock and colored her in using my copics. Following Jen's sketch, I layered on teal and lavender card stock along with some DP from Making Memories. I created my sentiment with some teal, lavender and white card stock I stamped with an alphabet set I got at Michaels for a dollar and some butterfly brads my mom got for me! I finished my card off by tying on three ribbons using some perfect plum ribbon from Papertrey and added a teal prima flower with a felt button and ribbon on the side! I am so mad at myself though for not getting more of those felt buttons! I just love, love, love them!

My second card I want to share today is kind of special and one that I really like. That usually doesn't happen because I have these grand ideas for cards in my head but it seems like they never turn out the way I want them too! But this card came pretty darn close. I have been wanting to make a Cubs Vs. Cardinals card ever since I first saw Baseball Ian. Here in St. Louis the Cubs are our number 1 rival. Cubs games are always sold out and super hard to get tickets too! Well Jason is really getting excited for opening day on April 6th and I really wanted to make him a card that would get him even more in the mood for some baseball! So without further ado, here is my Cubs vs. Cardinals card!


The sentiment on the inside will say, Completely, Useless, By, September! Get it, spells Cubs! LOL! Sorry all you Cubs fans! Do you recognize the layout? It is the first sketch challenge over on the Club Anya site! I couldn't resist, the two circles screamed baseballs to me! I started this card off by printing off two Baseball Ians by The Greeting Farm, one of which I flipped in my photo editing software, and colored them in with my copics. For the emblems on their hats, I simply printed off the logos on the computer and cut them out and pasted them on. Then, following the sketch, I layered on white, red and blue card stock along with paper from Creative Imaginations. To create the baseballs, I simply cut out a circle, cut it in half and added red "stitches" with my red pen. To complete my card, I added my two players, printed off my sentiment and placed it on a ribbon tag I cut out with my nesties, laced some blue ribbon through it and placed two star buttons in the corners! Jason really liked it and I am so glad!!!

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today! Hope the weather is much better wherever you are! Oh and I am such a horrible friend. I forgot to say that yesterday was my amazing friend Heather's birthday so make sure you swing by and give her some birthday greetings! Smiles!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Easter and Baby Blessings!

Happy Friday!

Sorry my post is so late today, time really got away from me! LOL! I did get quite a bit done today though. Izzy and I played together for quite awhile and we colored a whole bunch together. Poor baby, she really wanted to go outside and play but it was just too cold. She went out for a couple of minutes but by the time she came in, her little hands were frozen so for the rest of the day we just stayed inside. She had the weirdest reaction though this morning. We had just finished coloring up on the table when I put her down and she went over to her little house to play. She was doing just fine when all the sudden she went to open her little play door and started to cry. I asked her what she wanted and it sounded like she kept saying, "Papa." But that didn't make any sense! We haven't seen my dad in a couple of weeks. She just kept saying it though and crying, so finally I asked her if she wanted to call papa. She said yes and we called my dad. She talked to him for a couple of minutes then got off the phone and was perfectly fine! I guess she just really missed her grandpa! LOL!

Well I have two projects to share with you today! My first project is a card I made using the new SUInk set You're Some Bunny Special. I have really been trying to get ahead of the game on my Easter cards so when I saw this week's color challenge over at SCS, I knew this would make the perfect Easter Card. I used this week's Friday Sketcher's challenge for the layout.


I just couldn't resist the springy, frilly colors! I started this card off by stamping the little girl and basket from You're Some Bunny Special by SUInk and More on white card stock and colored them in with my copics. I then cut her out with my nesties along with some green and blue card stock. I went ahead and cut out the easter basket and popped it off her hand. Following the sketch, I layered on pink, green and blue card stock along with DP from K and Company. (I couldn't believe that the paper matched perfectly with the color challenge!) I then finished my card off by stamping my sentiment on white card stock and made it a tag by cutting off one end with my labels one nesties and mounted it on blue card stock. I placed a pink ribbon on the side and tied my tag on! I can't wait to give it away at Easter!

Oh and speaking of SUINK and More, Sunday we will be starting three days of sneak peeks for the new April sets! They are just so, so adorable so be sure to check them out!

Now onto my second project for today! I know I have been showing you Pink Cat baby projects all week, but I just can't get enough of them! They are just too, too adorable!! So when I saw that my good friend Mariska and fellow Pink Cat DT sister was having a contest, I just had to participate! She has really come up with a great one involving layering, celebrations and stitching! Here are the deets:

The Either / Or / Or And Challenge
created by Mariska

The challenge means you have to make two choices:

1. What kind of card are you going to make:
There are two happy occasions to celebrate at Pink Cat Studio this month. The first one you already know... we've gotten ourselves a little one!! The second is that Pink Cat Studio celebrates its fourth year this month!! I thought both of these occasions would deserve a card but which one to use for my challenge.

YOU DECIDE!! Create EITHER a birthday card OR a card to celebrate a new baby

2. Either layer your image and/or use stitches:
I thought it would be nice to let you use a technique I like to use myself. The two things that I use frequently on my cards are the layering of an image and stitches. You can use one of these techniques or both, that's up to you, as long as one of them is used.

With the layering of an image I mean stamping your image several times and cutting out little parts to pop up on your image. You can do this with all kinds of materials like pop up glue, foam cubes or pop up glue dots. It's really making 3D cards with your stamps.
Please visit Mariska's blog to see photos of how she did the layering in her challenge card.

I think stitches on your card should speak for themselves. You can use a machine or by hand, you can do straight lines or you can embroider, just use REAL stitches please. If you decide to stitch by hand (as I always do) my advice is to first make little holes with a piercer.

YOU DECIDE!! Use 3D layers in your stamped image AND/OR use stitches

Date the challenge ends:
Monday, April 20th, 5 pm EST

Requirements:
A Pink Cat Studio stamp must be used as the main stamp on the card. It is okay to use stamps from other companies as well. To be eligible for the prize you must leave a comment on the Pink Cat Challenge post. In your comment provide a link to your card. Your card can either be displayed on your blog or in an online gallery. You may enter only 1 project for this challenge. If you have questions about this challenge, please post them as a comment on this post.

Prize:
This contest will be judged by the design team. Since this is Mariska’s challenge, she will select her 3 favorite cards and then the DT will vote for a winner. On April 22nd, the winner will be announced on the PCS blog. The winner will receive a grab bag of Pink Cat Studio stamps. Some cards from the challenge may be displayed on the PCS blog.

Here is my interpretation!



I decided to create a new baby card and use 3D layers in my image. I have to say I did not do the amazing job of layering that Mariska did, but I did try! LOL! I started off by creating this squash book out of brown and pink card stock along with some DP I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Directions to create the squash book can be found here. I mounted my squash book on some brown and pink card stock along with some more DP and added brads to the top and bottom. I then stamped the baby, hat and dress from the Dress Up Sweet Pea Set from Pink Cat Studio on white card stock and colored them in using my copics. I then popped off my different parts after cutting them out and placed the little girl on the inside. To complete the inside, I stamped the sentiment from Sweet Pea Plate 2 on pink card stock I cut out with my ribbon tag nesties and placed it underneath my baby. To finish my card, I made a present out of some pink and brown card stock and DP and then made a little tag I stamped with a sentiment. I can't wait to give it to my friend who just had a baby last month. I hope she likes it! Thanks for the great challenge Mariska!

Well that is it for me today!! Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you have a great weekend. Smiles!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Sweet Pea is in the House!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Hope you all are having a good week! Well lets get down to business! The moment you all have been waiting for is finally here!!! The two new Sweet Pea sets, Dress Up Sweet Pea and Sweet Pea Plate 2, are now available for purchase! They are so amazing and so versatile!


So in honor of this awesome release, I decided to make another card! I just found out yesterday that our financial advisor had a little boy so now I am so excited because I have the perfect card to give him!!!


Isn't this image of Sweet Pea on a giraffe the cutest! I have really been wanting to make a shaped card and have been seeing a lot of them made with these curved rectangles. So of course the minute mine came in the mail I had to use them!!! I started this card off by stamping Sweet Pea riding a Giraffe from Sweet Pea Plate 2 by Pink Cat Studio on white card stock and colored him using my copics. To create the card itself, I layered on blue and green card stock along with some DP from Me and My Big Ideas, all of which I cut out with my mega curved rectangles nestabilities. I created two bands on my card one by running some blue card stock through my cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder and the other by attaching some black ribbon, running through a piece of white card stock cut out with my ribbon label nesties and finally stamped my sentiment on! I really hope Kevin likes it!

Be sure to check out the rest of the team and thank the wonderfully talented Sparkle for joining us this month! She is so amazing!
Well that is it for me today! Sorry this is so short, but for some reason it just dawned on me that Izzy's birthday party is next weekend!!!!! Yikes!! I have nothing done for it at all! We did go to Hobby Lobby yesterday and pick up some supplies and fabric, so I can get started. I do have a quick story to share though. Izzy and I were in the store and there was nobody in the aisle with us so I decided to run down the aisle in the cart. Most kids love that kind of thing and giggle and laugh. Not my little safety monitor! The whole time I was doing it, she kept saying, "Careful! Careful Mommy!" Goodness, what a safety nut! LOL! Have a great day and thanks for stopping by! Smiles!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Howdy Pink Cat Fans! Want Some Flowers?

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

Yesterday was a rather gloomy day I must say. We got lots of heavy rain in the early evening, but fortunately around 6 o'clock it stopped. One of those rains that is horrible enough to ruin rush hour but then lets up right as you finally get home! LOL!

Well Izzy and Melaina had the best time again yesterday. The resumed their game of peek a boo through the house door. It was so, so funny! And then they fought over the portable high chair. I have never seen two kids who wanted to both sit in a portable high chair as badly as the two of them. Both of them kept eyeing it and would ask me to put it down on the ground for them after Melaina ate. It was crazy! LOL! I mean we have kids chairs but no way would they prefer to sit in those. Speaking of chairs, I had the cutest picture all lined up and then my battery died! I was so, so disappointed! Whenever Melaina is over, I put her down for her naps in our pack and play. Well, I have discovered that if I take the cushion out of our chair and a half, it is almost the perfect size for the pack and play and is the same thickness as a mattress. Melaina sleeps so much better with it in there. Well, I still had it out of the chair when the two girls got up and with it missing it makes it just the right height for them to crawl in and out of. OMGoodness you should have seen them sitting together up in that chair! It was adorable!!! They were both laughing at each other and trying to comb each other's hair! Darn that camera battery! LOL!

Well, it is the moment you all have been waiting for!!!! Drum roll please?? Day two of Pink Cat Studios new release that will be available starting tomorrow!!! How awesome were yesterday's sneak peeks? I literally fell out of my chair when I saw the beautiful creations the other DT girls made! I am telling you, there is a whole lot of casing that will be going on now! LOL! Today I have some peeks of the second set of baby stamps that will be released. This set features our little Sweet Pea doing all kinds of adorable activities and includes some great sentiments. And like the dress up set, offers the option of making Sweet Pea a boy or girl!!

So for my first card, I decided to make a little girl card for a super girly girl who loves flowers! I think it is the fact that spring is just around the corner that really inspired me on this one! LOL!


Isn't Sweet Pea adorable!!! How cute would it be to use her and the Enchanted Lily sitting on a mushroom with a lady bug to do a birthday card!!! They could be sisters or could be a how much you've grown card! OMGoodness that would be fun! Sorry, I got a little too excited there, back to my card! I started this card by stamping the adorable Sweet Pea sitting on a flower from the new Sweet Pea Plate 2 by Pink Cat Studio on white card stock and colored her in using my markers. I then cut her out using my nesties along with yellow, pink and blue card stock. Following SCS sketch 190 as a guide, I layered on yellow, pink and blue card stock along with some DP from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie collection. To make them look like flowers, I placed primas with brads in each center and attached some green ribbon to make the stems. For the sentiment, I stamped the "baby girl" also from the new Sweet Pea set on blue card stock and again on white, colored in my butterfly and popped it off the blue! A little girl's garden card!

My second card for today is all about the little cowboy in your life! So without further ado, I introduce Cowboy Sweet Pea!


The little hat and bear with the star just send me over the edge! I want to pinch their little cheeks they are so adorable!!! Well, I started this card by stamping Sweet Pea as a cowboy from the new Sweet Pea Plate 2 from Pink Cat studio on white card stock and colored him in using my copics. I then mounted him on some blue and rust colored card stock and distressed all the edges with some close to cocoa ink. Using the Mojo Monday 76 sketch for the layout, I layered on cream, rust, and blue card stock along with DP from Basic Grey's Boxer and some Bandanna paper from Michaels. I then stamped the sentiment also from the new Sweet Pea set on white and mounted it on blue card stock I cut out with my nesties. To complete the card, I distressed my sentiment with close to cocoa ink, added a piece of twine to make a lasso and glued on three star buttons to the corner! Yee Haw what a fun little card!

Now it is time to check out the awesome DT's creations! I don't know how they keep getting better but they do!! They are just amazing!!!
Also, don't forget the Who Will be the next Cutie Patootie? Contest is still going on over at the Pink Cat blog until tonight at midnight EST. You definitely don't want to miss that! Thanks for hanging out with me today! Lots of smiles!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Oh Baby! Some Pink Cat!

Happy Tuesday again!

This is actually my second post for today so be sure to scroll down for my Twinkling Tuesday creation.

I am so excited that it is finally time for the new Pink Cat Studio stamp release! Today kicks off our two day sneak peek schedule culminating in the new stamp release on Thursday! I have to tell you every release I am more and more blown away by the exceptional stamps and the amazing talent of the DT. Wow! And this time is no exception. Melissa is releasing two sets of stamps for babies! A dress up set that I will be previewing today and another adorable set with babies doing all sorts of things I will preview tomorrow. What is so great about these two sets is not only can they be used for all sorts of occasions but they can also be changed into a boy or a girl! Melissa has thought of everything!!!

So without further ado here are my cards using the soon to be released Sweet Pea Dress Up set!

My first card is a birthday card I created for a little boy who has a birthday around Easter!


Aren't those ears the greatest! Little Sweet Pea can dress up in so many things it is awesome! I started this card by stamping Sweet Pea from the new Dress Up Sweet Pea set by Pink Cat Studio on white card stock making sure to mask off the top of his head. I then stamped the bunny ears over the top so it looks like he has them on his head. Next I stamped the baby onesie and bottle separately, cut them out and glued them on top of my baby body. Once I had my Sweet Pea constructed I colored him in using my copics. Using SCS sketch challenge 6 for the layout, I layered on yellow and dark teal card stock along with some DP from Cosmo Cricket. I placed some ribbon around the bottom and through the hole I punched in my tag and placed three yellow brads in the corner. To complete the card, I stamped the sentiment, "Hoppy Birthday" from Billy Plate 1 on white card stock, mounted it on teal card stock and placed three blue rhinestones on it. A fun eater/boy/birthday card!

My second card for the sneak peeks is very dear to my heart as it is the invitation I am sending out for Izzy's second birthday party!!!! As you know Izzy loves bees and actually carries a little bee purse with her everywhere! So this stamp could not have been any more perfect!!!


OMGoodness isn't sweet pea as a bee the cutest!! Reminds me so much of Izzy especially since she is still only starting to get hair! LOL!! Anywhoo I started the invitations by first stamping Sweet Pea from the new Dress Up Sweet Pea set by Pink Cat Studio on white card stock making sure to mask off the top of her head. I then stamped the bee hat on top, along with the bee costume and balloon that I cut out and mounted on her body. When everything was attached, I colored the whole bee in using my copics. To make the invitation itself, I layered on pieces of yellow and black card stock along with some DP from American craft that I thought looked like a honey comb. The writing is printed on white using my computer. To complete the invitation, I cut out yellow and black card stock along with my image, using my nesties and mounted it on the side. It is just so fitting for Izzy and I got her stamp of approval! LOL!

Now it is time to go see the other amazingly talented DT's creations! Wow they are the coolest and I have a special announcement to make!! The super talented Sparkle Smith will be joining us this month as a guest designer!!! Yay!! So make sure to pass on some extra love to her!
And last but not least, a release party would not be a party without a prize right! Here are the deets!

Who will be the next Cutie Patootie??

Leave a comment on the Pink Cat Studio blog under the Next Cutie Patootie Contest Post and tell me who you think the next cutie patootie should be. It could be an animal or a human or something from out of this world? Anything goes so be as creative as you like :)
This contest will end this Wednesday at midnight EST and the winner will be announced during the new release this Thursday. The winner will be selected randomly from everyone who enters and she will receive her choice of any PCS stamp set. I can't wait to her your suggestions!

Ooohhh how fun!! Make sure you get your entry in! Thanks as always for stopping by! Lots of smiles!

Thinking of... Twinkling!

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

Well it is certainly going to be a busy week for me, but I am uber excited about it! Today and tomorrow I am doing sneak peeks for Pink Cat Studio with the release on Thursday and later in the week I will be showing some sneak peaks for SUINK with the release of some new stamps for both SUINK and Club Anya on the first! OMGoodness I am so excited!!

Personally it is going to be a busy week as well. I am actually babysitting this week. Yesterday I watched Izzy's friend Melaina all day and will be doing it again today. The girls had the absolute best, best, best time together! It was so, so, so much fun! They played outside, went and got all sorts of toys out, played in the play kitchen it was too cute. I have to tell you this story though. Izzy and Melaina were both kind of doing their own separate things, with Izzy in the play kitchen and Melaina going through the stack of books. Well somehow, Izzy started to play with the door in her house. Usually when this happens I say, "Knock, knock," so she will open the door and come out. So I did and Melania happened to be on the other side. Izzy saw her and said, "Hi!" OMGoodness they both burst out laughing. They must have done that routine for twenty minutes, each one of them giggling hysterically every time. I so wish I could have caught it on camera, but I was laughing to hard to get a good picture. So to make up for it, I have a picture of Miss Melaina hamming it up!


Well, today is Tuesday and you know what that means!!!! It is Twinkling Tuesday time!!! This week we are back to a sketch challenge! Yay!!! You know how I love me some sketches!! But since Madelynn is on vacation this week, she has graciously asked another "Temporary Twinkie" to fill in for her! This week our special guest is none other than my friend Cathy's 9-year-old daughter Brittany. She did such an amazing job this week!! I just love her sketch and can't wait to play it over and over again!


See what I mean! I know I say this every week but I am totally blown away by the talent of these young people! So, so exciting. Anywhoo, I started this card by coloring up this amazing Sugar Nellie image called Daisy that I received from my awesome friend Danni. I then cut it out along with some black and pink card stock using my nesties. Following the sketch I layered on green and black card stock along with some DP from Bo Bunny to create the background. For the ribbon across the top and bottom, I used two pieces of black satin ribbon and placed a strip of small teal ribbon down the middle. I added pink pearls to the four corners and tied on my sentiment. My sentiment was created by stamping "Thinking Of" from For a Friend by SU! on white card stock and mounting it on green. To complete the card I added faux stitching around my image and sentiment and popped them both off. A fun spring card.

Now check out the rest of the teams' creations! They are incredible!! And some more great news, please join me in welcoming Heather Lee-Reppen to the Twinkling team! She is so amazingly talented and a sweet, sweet person so make sure you give her some extra love! Don't forget we would love you to participate! Simply type in the keyword MTTSC15 when uploading to SCS or PCP and leave a comment on the Twinkling Blog so we can find your creations.
Thanks again for stopping by today! Stay tuned for my Pink Cat Sneak Peeks I will be showing you shortly! Smiles!

Monday, March 23, 2009

How Did I Become So Blessed?

Happy Monday everyone!!!

Well we had a super, super busy weekend. It was nice enough that Jason and Izzy were able to get outside and do lots and lots of gardening. They planted lettuce, spinach, beans and all sorts of other things. Izzy thoroughly enjoyed it! I saw her out there helping to clean up all the extra debris and raking through the dirt. Of course she conned her dad into giving her a ride on the garden helper which is basically a flat bed wheelbarrow. She loved it. I on the other hand was inside the whole time. Which was actually fine because I got a whole lot of stamping done. Of course none of it I can show you yet, but I was able to get most of what I wanted done, done! Yay!!! I am so happy about that!

Quick story though about Izzy and Jason. I have slowly been learning what Jason and Izzy talk about when I am not around. Izzy is in that mocking bird phase where she is repeating everything that we say. It is actually amusing because we will be hanging out and all the sudden she will say something and I can look over at Jason and say, "Did you teach her that?" Of course most of the time the answer is yes! LOL! Well on Friday, I gave Izzy a bowl of strawberries to eat while she was outside. It started to rain and somehow the bowl was left outside. On Saturday while Jason and Izzy were walking around, she found it again. My understanding is the conversation went something like this.

Izzy, picking up the bowl and holding it up to Jason: More Strawberries, please.

Jason: I don't have any more strawberries.

Izzy, looking down sorrowfully then holding the bowl back up: Ask Mommy!

What, I never taught her that. So I asked Jason and guess what he told me? Oh yeah, I tell her that all the time! Of course he did! LOL!

Alright onto my projects for today. Since I don't have anything to share just yet (HINT, HINT, I will definitely have something tomorrow seeing as how it is the first day of Sneak Peeks for Pink Cat Studio!!!!!!!), I decided to share some wonderful RAKs I have received form some really great stamping friends I have made!

My first share for today is a RAK I received from my wonderful friend Jacquie! She is such an amazing stamper and has the best papers and accessories. I am always teasing her about going through her amazing stash. Of course she would then have to teach me how to use them all, but that is beside the point! LOL! So here is the wonderful creation she sent me along with a bag of gorgeous buttons, a stack of awesome papers and some beautiful flowers!!!!! Can you believe it? Like the card wasn't gift enough!


My second share for today is a RAK I received from my friend Heather who I was fortunate enough to meet in person a couple of weeks ago in Wisconsin! OMGoodness we had the best time and let me tell you her creations are even more amazing in person! Completely blew me away! Wow, wow, wow! And on top of it she sent me some gorgeous prima flowers too! I am telling you, I don't' know what I did to deserve these, but I better keep doing it! LOL! Here is Heather's drop dead gorgeous creation she sent me!!


Now, my third share for today (Can you believe it!!!!!) is from my awesome friend Danni!! I love Danni's work and my favorite part is when she does her That Was Then This is Now posts!! Love, love, love them! She even updates me to tell me she is going to be posting them, which I love!!! I don't want to miss them for heavens sake!!!!! LOL! Seriously though she is so mega talented and she sent me this beautiful creation from one of her TWTTN posts!! Could I be any luckier and to top it off she also sent me some beautiful stamped sugar nellies!! I can hardly wait to color them up!! It is one of the few images I don't own. Without further ado, her is Danni's masterpiece!


How blessed can I be? (Warning, getting mushy!) I got into stamping to find a hobby that I could enjoy while Izzy was napping and hopefully Izzy and I could do together, and it became a support system that provides encouragement and friendship when I most need it! It truly is a blessing to me! Thank you to everyone!

Well that is it for me today. I will be back tomorrow with my first sneak peeks for the Pink Cat Studio release! They will definitely knock your socks off! Thanks everyone for stopping by! Smiles!

Friday, March 20, 2009

I Love Rock and Roll So Put Another Dime in the Jukebox Baby!

Happy Friday everyone!

I hope your week has been a good one. It has been a really nice springlike week. The sun has been shining the temperatures moderate and the wind not too bad. I am so hoping we are in for spring. Izzy as I have said before, has been loving it! All afternoon she played outside. She actually went and found some of my shoes and walked with them outside. You should have seen the mess poor daddy had to drag in last night! LOL! She loves to read outside as well so every evening we have to pick up like fifty books and drag them back inside!

Now for a quick Izzy story. (Sorry no picture, I seem to have now caught what Izzy has and didn't feel much like taking pics.) Izzy has this obsession with cleaning her tray when she eats. Normally she isn't a clean freak when it comes to her toys or her room or her clothes, only her tray. Usually at dinnertime, the moment she finishes eating she puts every last piece of food back on her plate and then hands it to us. If she doesn't like something, she does the same thing, picks it up and hands it to us! Nice isn't it? LOL! Well last night, Jason scooped up some mint chocolate chip ice cream for her. On a side note, Jason is ecstatic that she likes this flavor. I don't care for it so I never let him buy it. Now he has an excuse to get it. She is so like her father. Anywhoo, we were sitting in the living room, the two of them eating their ice cream when Izzy walks up to Jason with the remaining scoop of ice cream in her hand and says, "Izzy done. Izzy done." Poor Jason had to grab it out of her hand quickly before it dripped everywhere and then explain to her that when we are done we don't pick up the ice cream. It was too funny!

So are you wondering about by title? Do you have that song stuck in your head now? Well I am here to announce a new contest going on now over that the Club Anya Blog!


Ok, so we have a ROCKIN' REBEL CONTEST for you over at Club Anya! Be sure to stop by the Blog today to find out more about this wicked cool contest, and the PRIZE! Here are the rules:
1.) Your challenge is to create your FAVORITE ROCKSTAR out of any Anya or Ian stamp (you MUST use an Anya or Ian stamp for this contest). We can't wait to see what you come up with! Feel free to BREAK ALL THE RULES...you know, gender, mix-matching heads and bodies, clothes, hair...you know, that kind of thing! More than likely, the more you mix it up, the better!
2.) This will be a JUDGED contest. The DT, Marie and I are looking forward to seeing ALL your awesome submissions and choosing a winner based on creativity and originality. We already know it's gonna be a TOUGH call!
3.) This contest will remain open until Friday, April 3nd, 2009 at 11:59 CST. All entries need to be uploaded to the Club Anya ROCKIN' REBEL gallery. Be sure to leave a comment on today's Club Anya post too, to let us know you played along! The winner will be announced on Saturday, April 4th on the Club Anya blog.
Good luck to all who enter and we can't WAIT to see what you come up with!

So are you ready! Here is my creation! Very Joan Jettesque if I might say so myself! LOL!


Pretty crazy right! I just couldn't help myself. I had to have some spiky hair! I started "Joan Jett" by stamping Geisha Anya by The Greeting Farm on white card stock. I masked off the top of her hair and flower and then drew in the spikes with my copic mulitiliner pen. When I felt like I had enough hair, I colored in my image using my copics. For the rest of her body, I cut out the bottom half of her kimono, pasted on the mini skirt from Wardrobe #1 and the legs from Dress Me Anya. To finish her look I cut out a guitar from some wonderful DP by DCWV I received from friend and fellow DT member Jacquie. For the card itself, I followed this week's Mojo Monday sketch and layered on some DP from DCWV and Autumn Leaves along with red, white and black card stock. To finish the card off, I tied on a bow with some awesome new ribbon I picked up at Michaels and added my sentiment that I printed off on the computer and cut out with my nesties! I hope you like my rockin' card!

Now go off and see the incredible creations made by my amazingly talented DT sisters!!! OMGoodness I was blown away when I saw them and I literally laughed out loud! I couldn't help myself they are just too, too cool!
Thanks as always for stopping by today! Still catching up so will definitely be around later! Smiles!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A Little Mommy!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today is just beautiful out!! Slightly colder than earlier in the week, but very sunny and nice. Izzy and I have been outside for a little bit, we had to take the car in for its estimate then we made a pit stop at Michaels. That was a lot of fun. I got another new EK Success border punch that I will hopefully be trying out in the next couple of days. I am really looking forward to that. Poor Izzy is slightly under the weather again though. She has the sniffles and a runny nose but hasn't let it slow her down. I think she is just enjoying soaking up the sun! However, poor baby, yesterday she basically went until she just couldn't go anymore. She finally grabbed one of my chair pillows and the arm rest cover and laid down in the middle of the kitchen floor! It was so, so cute!! She kept saying, "Izzy night night. Izzy night night." She is just too cute! Here is a picture of her just before I put her down for a real nap! LOL!


So I am still trying to slowly play catchup this week. Hence the late post and only one card. I will be glad when everything gets back to normal and I can get back on my regular routine again!! Well, yesterday I was going through my stack of prestamped images that I have been lucky to received from my wonderful friends when I came across this adorable Sarah Kay image. Izzy has been really into babies lately and pretending to take care of them so it just struck me as the perfect little mother's day card image. I decided to use this week's SCS Sketch Challenge for the layout.



Isn't this the sweetest image ever!!!! Izzy loves to pretend feed her little babies although it was a tough go there for awhile trying to convince her that they didn't need real food to eat! LOL! Anywhoo, I started this card by coloring in Picnic Time by Sarah Kay for Stampavie that my friend Jessica stamped for me and colored her in using my copics. I then mounted her on some red, teal and black card stock. Following this week's sketch challenge layout, I layered on red, black and teal card stock along with some DP from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie. I know you were supposed to use two different kinds of paper for the stripes but I tried that and I didn't feel it looked as good! Next I distressed everything with a sponge and some Close to Cocoa ink. I added some buttons to the top corner that I just received in the mail from my good friend Jacquie and finished the card off by punching out a teal ribbon tag using my nesties and stamping "mother" and some flowers in the middle. I really hope my mom will like it. It reminds me so much of my Izzy!

Well that is it for me today. If I haven't been by your blog this week yet, I promise I will be there! My google reader is insane right now! LOL! Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging in there with me! Have a great rest of the day and lots of smiles!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Erin Go Bragh - A Day Late!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

I know I have been gone for awhile now and I am sorry! One reason is because my parents and my nieces were in town over the weekend and we were super busy just hanging out and catching up! We had so much fun and Izzy had a wonderful time hanging out with her cousins. They went to the park and climbed all over the jungle gym. They played in Izzy's play kitchen making us all sorts of creations to eat! They also read to each other and held hands! It was just so, so sweet! The girls were all so great together! I wish that we could all live closer so she could hang out with them more!

Well the other big thing that happened to disrupt my stamping time, sheesh, was we woke up Monday morning to vandalism on our car, garage door and fence. (We live across the street from a park and have green space behind us with access down the side of our house so people are always walking by). Let me tell you we were a little shocked to say the least! Of course in one respect this is horrible and sad (we weren't the only house hit) but in reality it is also a little amusing. The girls that did this (they fortunately stopped them the night before for breaking curfew without knowing they had done all this damage) were not exactly the brightest bulbs in the box! First they wrote all sorts of slurs against women on Jason's car, spelling several of them wrong, they actually wrote their initials on our fence in spray paint and the best part is they left the can of spray paint in the walkway!! LOL!! And one of my neighbors said they wrote a derogatory slur about being white on her mailbox, which would have been pretty upsetting except my neighbor is a beautiful African American woman! LOL! I have to tell you too, I have never seen so many people slow down in front of our house before! It actually became a little amusing! I started to keep a tally!

Well, as my dad said you can't cry over spilled milk and luckily we have a very good insurance company so hopefully this incident will be behind us soon! I think Izzy has actually enjoyed it a little bit because we have been spending so much time outside! She has been having the time of her life, pushing her stroller around, dragging her little stuffed animals everywhere. It is so cute! I have to say my favorite part though is that after she has spent a day outside she smells so good! I call it her baby sunshine smell. So much fun!

Now onto my Twinkling Tuesday card that is of course a day late! Yikes! And the sad part is I have had this idea since the weekend! Oh well, I finally got it completed and I used my new labels two nesties!!!! Yay!!! So this week's Twinkling Tuesday challenge was actually issued by a guest Twinkie Miss Ava Grace, our DT member Taylor's daughter! In honor of St. Patty's Day she wanted to include a little green and of course brown much to my friend Heather's dismay who seems to be "allergic" to it! LOL!



I just couldn't' help myself with this little Ian. That little plaid hat and the coat and short pants just screamed little Irish lad to me! So, I started my card off by stamping Hello Ian by The Greeting Farm on white card stock and colored him in with my copics. Before I stamped him I masked off his flower with some tape so it wouldn't stamp. I then punched out 4 tiny hearts from green card stock using my Martha Stewart Punch and then placed them around to make them look like a clover. To create the card itself. I layered on brown and green card stock along with some DP from DCWV. I used my argyle embossing folder to create the texture on my green piece of card stock. Next I cut out my colored image along with a brown piece of card stock using my nesties and added white dots reminiscent of Marky's Mom using my white gel pen. To complete my card, I stamped the sentiment from Blarney Stone by SUINK on white card stock and mounted it on a ribbon tag I punched out with my nesties and threaded through some brown ribbon. I hope, a fun and festive St. Patty's day card!

Now onto the wonderful DT's creations!! They will surely blow you away!!!
Thanks everyone for sticking with me this week and for stopping by! Don't forget you can play along too this week! Simply add the keyword MTTSC14 when uploading to SCS or PCP! Lots of smiles!

Rolling along!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sorry I have been MIA the last couple of days. I will explain why in the post above. It is quite the amusing story let me tell you! Not funny at the time but now all you can do is sit back and laugh!

So today is Wednesday! Another week gone. I can just hardly believe it! Pretty soon it is going to be be Izzy's birthday and my little baby girl will be 2!! I can hardly imagine! She is such a young lady now and I actually suggested to someone that buying her dress up clothes for her birthday would be a good present because she likes to play dress up so much! Gasp! I am just so appalled that time has flown by so quickly! What a sweetie!


Anywhoo, since it is Wednesday that means it is Watchadoin' Wednesday time again over at Storage Units, Ink and More! And boy do we have a great challenge for you this week. Something not too hard and that will definitely put you in the mood for some warmer weather. That is right! Today's challenge is ... to use some traditional Spring colors to create you challenge card for the week. How fun is that! And of course as soon as I think spring I think pastels! So here is my creation. I decided to use this week's Try a New Technique challenge over at SCS for the idea of the ribbon frame.


I really think this would have worked out better as a square card. Oh well live and learn! LOL! I started this card by stamping the boy pulling the little girl in the wagon and the sentiment from Let's Play by SUINK on white card stock and colored them in using my copics. I then cut out a frame using my nesties from yellow card stock and polka dot DP from Basic Grey's Two Scoops and mounted it all on a piece of dark teal card stock. For the card itself, I layered on yellow, dark teal, and green card stock along with more DP from Two Scoops and then made my ribbon frame. It was very simple. I simply cut diagonal slits in each corner, cut four lengths of white gross grain ribbon slightly longer than the length of my sides, tied a knot in the middle of each and then threaded them through the slits I cut. Voila, a frame!

Be sure to check out the rest of the DT's amazing creations! They will wow your socks off I am sure!!
Thanks as always for stopping by! Smiles!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Time Is Here!

Happy Sunday again!!

So did you guess right? Did you have a great time hopping along on our relay race? There was a lot of twirling, leaping, dancing, spinning, turning and being on pointe going around! Hopefully you guessed that the new mystery Anya was none other than our very beautiful Ballerina Anya!!!! She is just so, so pretty and she is now available for purchase at The Greeting Farm along with Easter Anya (digi), Baseball Ian (digi), Geisha Anya in rubber, and the new set Wild Things!! So rush back over and pick yours up!!!

Now without further ado, her is my full card!


I just love the idea of pink and brown for a ballerina! I started my card off by stamping the new Ballerina Anya by The Greeting Farm on white card stock and colored her in using my copics and a glitter pen. I then cut her out and set her to the side. Using sketch challenge 167 for my layout I layered on brown and taupe card stock along with DP from Heidi Grace Designs. I used my birds and swirls embossing folder to give the bottom panel some texture. Next, I layered on circles of card stock and DP I cut out with my nesties. I then placed a brown ribbon with two bows and some brown pearl stickers at the bottom. To complete the look I stamped the sentiment from Pretty Hat Anya on some taupe card stock, mounted it on brown, waved it and added some prima flowers with brown brads. A super fun and girly card!

Now that all the excitement is over, be sure to visit the other DT girl's blogs to see their fabulous creations!! And as always, continue to Rock the Farm!
Smiles!!!

Take a Long Jump on the Club Anya Blog Hop!!!

Happy Sunday Morning everyone!!!

Thanks so much for joining me today for the Club Anya Blog Hop. We are going to have a lot of fun! Now for the rules!!

March Blog Hop Official Rules:

If you are just starting out on my blog, be sure to back up to the Jacquie's blog, to officially start the hop and collect your clues along the way. The clues lie somewhere within your instructions on where to go next for this blog hop ;)

Once you are done "hopping" you should have 6 clues in total. You will then have until 11:59AM CST to email Jessica at yeahshestamps@gmail.com with all 6 clues and your guess as to what the new "Mystery" Anya is. Entries will not be accepted after 11:59 CST, as the new Anya will be revealed at Noon CST on the Club Anya Blog.

Three randomly chosen winners will be announced on the Club Anya blog on Sunday along with the winner of the sketch challenge.

Good Luck and get hoppin!

Now for your clue! Just a little snippet but hopefully not too hard!


Don't forget, two new digis (Easter Anya and Baseball Ian) along with the Wild Things set, Geisha Anya in rubber and the Mystery Anya will all be available for sale after the end of the blog hop at 12:00 p.m. CST. So what are you waiting for! LEAP on over to Jessica's blog for your next clue! Smiles!