Gotta Love Those Sketches!

Happy Monday everyone!

Well it is a winter wonderland here! It is in the teens and everything is covered in a couple inches of snow. Supposedly we are going to be hit by another winter storm tonight so Izzy and I are going to try to get all of our errands run today. I hate to get her out in this, but I think it is going to be even worse tomorrow!

Speaking of Izzy she of course had an awesome time with Daddy this weekend. She cooked for him and read on his lap a ton. She had a spring in her step all weekend. It is so cute! I know she is going to be sad that he is gone today, but it is nice to know that they have such a special bond with one another! Of course Daddy does almost anything she asks him to, which leaves mommy to be the mean one. Yesterday morning we went in to wake Daddy up like we do every weekend and Izzy was rolling all over the bed on top of us. She kept laying on Jason's back and snuggling up next to him. Finally Jason was awake enough to get up, so Izzy instructed him on what to do. When the two of them had gotten up, I asked Izzy if she was hungry. She said yes and then turned to her Daddy and said, "Waffles". That is her absolute favorite breakfast meal and Daddy is the only one who makes it. And of course he did!! He wouldn't want his daughter to go without her favorite breakfast! LOL!

Yesterday I was also able to get a lot of stamping done. I have a pretty busy week coming up. This week starts some Sneak Peeks for Storage Units, Ink and More, I going to be issuing a challenge for Pink Cat Studio and on the Sunday, Club Anya is going to be opening! It is going to be one awesome week!

Well, two of the projects I completed yesterday were for Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge Extravaganza!! Taylor is celebrating a year of cupcake challenges with 9 different sketches provided by herself and the DT. Of course I am in sketch heaven!! You know how much I love my sketches, so to receive 9 in one day!!! I almost fainted! I was so excited!

My first card used Jami Sibley's sketch challenge. When I saw the sketch I immediately though of an inverted gate card. (Probably not the right name, but that is what I am calling it! LOL!) I also incorporated this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge into my card which was to create a scene.

See how perfect the card is for a gate card!! I just loved the concept. I am not so sure about the card itself. It isn't that I don't like it, it is just that I am not 100% happy with it. So if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them! So I started this card off by stamping Winter Sadie and Pepper by Stampin' Spot Studio for All That Scraps on white card stock and colored them in using my copics. Then, using my copic multiliner pen, I drew in the grass, snowman, tree and birdbath. I colored all of them in with my copics. Following the sketch, I layered on teal and pink card stock along with some DP from DCWV. I used my nesties to cut out the circles behind Sadie and finished the card off by stamping the sentiment on some white card stock, placing it in some pewter hardware and attaching it to the card with a fuchsia ribbon. I really wanted to create a card that had a winter theme, but also gave the feel of one of those rare nice winter days where the sun is shining and it is a pleasure to be outside! Basically the opposite of what today is going to be like! LOL!

Well, my second card has a completely different kind of feel. It is another valentine for my husband. Poor Jason is going to be inundated with Valentine cards this year. Drastic change from last year, where I ran to Walgreen's Valentine's night, grabbed a bag of conversation hearts and presented it to him 5 minutes after I got home! LOL! Anywhoo, for this card, I decided to use Donna Baker's Cupcake Sketch for this card.

See, pretty romantic huh!! Of course that is what I look like in real life, so Jason will definitely know it is me!! I am just getting so tired of all of these stamp companies using my body as a model for their stamps! LOL!! Yeah right, I wish!! Maybe that would be my body with a ton of airbrushing! ROFL!!! Alright, back to business! I started this card off by stamping Hanna and two heart sets from Sweet Celebrations by Hanna Stamps on white card stock and colored them in using my copics. I mounted Hanna on some red card stock and black card stock, cut out the hearts and popped them off opposing corners. Following the sketch, I layered on red card stock, black card stock and 5 different kinds of DP from K and Company. To finish the card off, I attached two black satin ribbons and tied some bows! I just love this card and all the romantic colors!

That is it for me today! Don't be surprised if more of Taylor's sketches pop up this week! I just love them! And don't forget to come back tomorrow for my Pink Cat Challenge and of course Twinkling Tuesday!! Have a great rest of the day!! And thanks as always for stopping by!

Layers, Layers Everywhere!

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

It is supposed to be another cold one here. I have to say, I am kind of getting tired of this. I know it really hasn't been just awful this winter, but after over a week of nasty temps I am over it. I could never live in a northern state. Although when Jason and I went to Montana on your honeymoon I seriously considered becoming a rancher so that we could stay forever! LOL! The only thing that stopped me was that there was still snow on the ground in some areas and it was June!!!! So I guess all dreams have to come to an end sometime! LOL!

Anywhoo, Izzy and I have quite a day planned. I need to run to the post office and get all my swap images in the mail, I also have several challenges I want to play, so I need to get started on those and some great new releases are coming up for my design teams so I am trying to get a jump start on those also!!

Alright, so my daughter is absolutely hilarious! Last night I ran next door for a quick visit with my neighbor, Beth, (okay it lasted an hour) and when I got home Izzy had all of her kitchen equipment dragged into the kitchen and was helping Daddy cook. It was so sweet. Well of course she wanted to be picked up and cuddled since I had been gone, so we did that for a few minutes then I set her on the dining room table while I cleaned off all my stamping supplies. Izzy grabbed my empty coffee cup and was stirring the spoon in it and saying, "Coffee, Mommy Coffee!" I think she loves to say that word. Well I just let her play and when I looked over she was pretending to drink it and then she started singing into it!!! I think she liked that it kind of made an echoy, hollow sound. It was cracking me up! I have no idea how she figured it out but it entertained her for 20 minutes! I am not quite sure why we buy her toys when she can entertain herself with everyday objects around the house! LOL!

So now onto the cards!! Guess what today is!!!!! It is Twinkle Tuesday and boy does Madelynn have a great sketch today! I have a little story to tell before I post my card. As you know I taught a class this weekend and Thursday night I worked on my kits for 3 and a half hours trying to get them all finished. (I had already spend 2 hours working on them over the weekend, crasy I know) It was during this time that I actually counted the layers on each card and one of them had fourteen layers!!!! OMG!! I discovered I am addicted to layering cards. Well I shared this epiphany with the rest of my Twinkle Team Sisters and they were very sympathetic but instead of discouraging me from my distructive behavior they were more enablers than anything else! LOL! So imagine my surprise when I saw this sketch!! I actually e-mail Jessica back right away and said there are layers!!! She promised that she did not tell Madelynn to do it! LOL! So here it is!

I was so inspired by the RAK Jacquie gave me that I just had to print my little fairy off and color her up! Although I don't think my creation is anywhere near as beautiful as hers!! I started this card off by printing off my digital fairy on mushroom from CC Designs Gingersnap Hey Cupid by All That Scraps and coloring it with my copics. Following the sketch I then layered on pink, red and brown card stock along with my DP from Basic Grey's Bittersweet. I added pink, red and brown brads to all the layers' corners, popped off my main image and tied a big brown organdy ribbon around the middle. To complete the card, I added a metal swirl and cut out some white card stock, brown card stock and red card stock with my nesties, drew the "X's" and "O's" around the edge, the heart in the middle and colored it in with my copics. I just thought this was such a fun and unusual sketch!! I still can't believe that Madelynn is only eight!!! She is such a genius with these sketches!

Don't forget you can participate too and we would love to see what you create. All you need to do is when uploading to SCS or PCP is type in the keyword MTTSC6 so that we can find it. Now be sure to check out the rest of the Twinkle Teams fantastic creations!

Bonnie Sharp
Cassie Larson
Christi Thorsen
Danni Bindel
Debbie Lee
Jami Bova
Jennifer Greco
Jessica Diedrich
Kimmie Doktor
Rebecca Ednie
Sandra McLean
Taylor Usry

My second card for today is a quick card I made for this week's sketch challenge over at Paper Craft Planet. My goal in the new year is to use more of the stamps I have not inked up yet. Well this sweet little Sugar Nellie image has been dying to get some ink on her so I decided to use her!!

Don't you love Sugar Nellie? They have the most amazing stamps and the images are just so sweet. I love coloring them! Okay, so I started this card by stamping Flowers by Sugar Nellie on white card stock and colored her in with my copics. Following the sketch, I mounted her on pink and brown card stock along with Basic Grey paper I believe from the Blush collection. I had to rotate the sketch on it's side to make the image fit. I then cut out a brown flower with my Cricut machine and placed two buttons on top to make the center of the flower. I am so pleased with this card because not only did I use an uninked stamp but I used some of my buttons!

Well, I am off to check out all the blogs I follow and love! Have a great rest of the day!! And as always, thanks for stopping by!

We're Back Home!!

Happy Saturday everyone!!!

Sorry I have been MIA for the past week. I intended to blog everyday this week, but we had so much fun in KC and were so busy everyday I was never able to. And shocker of shockers I was only able to color one image in the whole time we were gone. Are you gasping???? I feel like I am in withdrawal. I can't wait to get stamping again.

Well, I hope that everybody who celebrates Christmas had a very merry one!!! We certainly did. Santa visited Izzy and delivered a play house and some kitchen appliances for her. Daddy, "Aunt" Tracy and I set it up last night for her. She really likes it, except she doesn't understand why water doesn't come out of the faucet. She kept turning the handles and saying "water". Poor baby!

Oh and Tuxy had a wonderful Christmas also! He received a large bone and a bag of dog treats from Izzy. Of course, Izzy was way more interested in his gifts than in hers. She actually stopped opening her presents so she could play with his. The funniest thing of all is that her cousin, Patrick, (he is only a couple of months younger than her), grabbed Tuxy's bag of treats and wouldn't let go of them all Christmas day!!! I guess we should have just given them dog toys and they would have been content!!

We made it back yesterday afternoon uneventfully. Izzy is a little under the weather though, so she was pretty lethargic last night. Tracy stopped by to visit and we had pizza and watched a movie and just hung out. It was so nice to see her. I hadn't seen her in a week so it felt so good to catch up. Of course, Izzy was in hog heaven. She cuddled on Tracy for 40 minutes. Completely wouldn't move!!! When "Aunt" Tracy's around she only has eyes for her!!

Okay so onto a few cards. You are going to have to bear with me for a couple of more days. I made a whole bunch of Christmas cards to post while I was gone and then did not post them. So you will still be getting some for awhile yet.

My first card for today is a card I created for last Saturday's Sketch Saturday Challenge. OMG it was such a fun sketch! Lots of layers and rectangles so I was able to use a whole bunch of DP and colored paper. Because of the whimsical feel to the sketch, I decided to create a more fun and whimsical card!

Isn't it fun!!! So I started this card by stamping the elf riding the reindeer from CC Designs Sugarplums North Pole by All That Scraps on white card stock and colored them in with my markers and copics. Following the sketch, I layered on green, blue and orange card stock along with three different kinds of DP. I stamped the sentiment using an alphabet set I bought in the dollar bin at Michaels and mounted it on the side. To finish the card off, I added a piece of green rick rack down the middle. I just love the fun feel and non-traditional Christmas colors. It could almost be a birthday card for a kid in December!!

Now onto a DT project. Of course it was actually supposed to be posted on Tuesday, whoops!! So sorry! I actually had it done on Sat. and had it to Jessica, I just didn't get it published on my blog. So here goes. This is a card I created for the magnificent Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday Sketch Challenge.

How awesome and creative is this sketch!!! AMAZING!!! And please check out the other DT member's work. I can't believe how creative these women are!!! Anywhoo, I was so in love with his sketch when I saw it. I actually thought about crisscrossing ribbon but then I received this beautiful paper in the mail and just had to use it!!! So I started this card by stamping Snowflake by Sugar Nellie (my brand new stamp!!!!) on white card stock and colored her in using my copics and markers. I then added some glitter gel pen to add some sparkle. To created the background, I followed the sketch and cut two different kinds of DP into wedges and mounted them on the diagonal to my paper. I then cut half inch strips of DP and adhered them from corner to corner on my card. (At this point I read the sketch wrong and only added a ribbon to one side!) I finished the card off by adding some glitter snowflakes to the corner and printing off and adhering the sentiment to the middle. I love the chilly colors and the layout rocks!!! Oh and don't forget you are welcome to play along each week too!

Well, I need to get ready to head to our neighbor's son's baptism this morning. We are so proud of him. He is such a responsible and sweet young man! I promise I will have pictures to share and lots more projects later!!! Thanks so much for stopping by!! It is always nice to take a vacation, but it feels so good to be back home!!!

Christmas is near! Christmas is near!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Today has been even worse than yesterday weather wise. It has basically lightly snowed all day, enough to make getting anywhere in your car difficult and the second big wave is hitting right now, during rush hour!! Ugh! That means Jason won't be home for quite awhile!

Well, I have some exciting news!!! I have a new baby cousin! I am so excited. Jason's cousin Heather gave birth to a healthy baby boy last night. It is so wonderful and exciting!! Heather has always wanted children and after years of trying, finally adopted a beautiful little girl named Libby from China!!! She is so wonderful and sweet and then this spring she found out she was pregnant!! It is truly a miracle for her family! I know too that Libby is super excited to have a little brother!! Can you tell I am happy?!

Alright, so I forgot to tell this story about Izzy last night. It is pretty funny although Jason was upset when he heard about it. It all started yesterday afternoon when I was cleaning up my scrapbooking stuff off the dining room table. Izzy had asked me to put her on the couch, presumably to sit next to Tuxy. The last time I looked in on them, Tuxy was at one end in a ball and Izzy was sitting right next to him holding her bee. Well, all the sudden I heard a little growl, then another little growl, that is usually what Tuxy does when Izzy touches him. He keeps it up typically until he gets tired of her and then jumps down. Since he just kept doing it, I yelled in from the dining room for him to just jump down if he didn't like it. Well, he kept on and I finally peeked in to see what was the matter. Guess what?!!! Izzy was sitting on him!! I don't think that Tuxy was hurt, just irritated since he wasn't really trying to get up! So I got onto Izzy how we don't sit on our "brother", she of course looked properly chastised. I think Tuxy though was more upset that I got onto Izzy about it, than the actual sitting incident itself! He kept following her around everywhere after that with a sad little look on his face! Lol!

Well, today has been kind of a mixed bag for me. I had some cards that turned out really well and one for an upcoming DT release that I just couldn't seem to make come out right. I think I need to sleep on it and try to pick some different DP. I really think that is the major problem! Gosh, I hate when that happens!

Well my first card for today is, da, da, da, dum!!! A Christmas Card!!! And actually both of my cards today use last week's sketches from 2 Sketches 4 You. This was my first time participating in this sketch challenge. I just had to make these designs after I saw them!! They were so original! So here goes the card for the first sketch.

See, I told you it was awesome!! I really channelled my friend Michelle, aka "Queen of the Scene", over at Just Painting Around. I love how she continues her scenes onto all her layers!! It is really cool! Anywhoo, I started this card by stamping Tilda with Hood by Magnolia on white card stock and colored her in with markers and copics. I added touches of silver gel pen and my glitter pen to really make her pop. I then sponged night of navy around the edges to continue the scene. Following the sketch, I layered white card stock, kraft paper and Christmas DP. I added a piece of wide, white ribbon and three white snowflakes. I think it kind of has a primitive look, I guess it is the kraft paper! Anyways, I am really happy with the way this came out.

My second card today, follows the second sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You. This one I decided to use an entirely different theme. Something that was more whimsical and fun!!

Isn't it a happy, jolly kind of card!! I just love pink and green for Christmas! Alrighty, so I started this card by stamping the elf and stars from CC Designs Sugarplums North Pole by All that Scraps on white card stock and colored him in with copics and markers. Following the sketch, I layered on pink and green card stock along with several different kinds of Christmas DP. The scallop on the bottom was created with a decorative pair of scissors. I cut out a white and green circle with my nesties and stamped the sentiment in the center. I finished the card off by adding three pink rhinestone stickers down each side of the main image!! I think I might give this to one of my nieces. Last I heard they were fighting over a pink card I had given them!!

Well, I am outta here for tonight. Don't forget that the MFT Blog Hop starts tonight at midnight (EST) over at the MFT blog! So put on your bunny slippers, curl up with your computer and hop around with us!! Have a great evening!! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm An So Excited!!!

Happy Happy Thursday everyone!!

I hope you all had a wonderful day! I certainly did and I am not going to make you wait to hear my fantastic news! I, me, moi, have been chosen to be part of the Pink Cat Studio 2009 Design Team!!!!! OMG!!! I am so excited! I have been keeping it a secret and now I can shout it from the mountain tops! Can you tell I am happy??? I cannot believe what a huge honor this is!! It is unreal! Here are the absolutely amazing ladies that I will be on the team with! I can't believe that I get to be included with them!

Becky Carafa http://www.lakeshorestamper.com/

Jodi Ann Lee http://www.inkedinspirations.blogspot.com/

Lauren Meader http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Lise Roy http://liseroy.blogspot.com/

Maria Bell http://stampininspirations.blogspot.com/

Mariska van der Veer http://www.sendingyoualittlesmile.blogspot.com/

Nikki Fairbairn http://www.bunny-zoes.blogspot.com/

Sarah Anderson http://scrampinmama.blogspot.com/

Vicki Garret http://www.summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

Have you seen these ladies' work?? They are truly awesome so please check them out and give them a huge congrats!!

Tomorrow, I will show you a card that I created in celebration! (I ran out of daylight for my picture today!)

Well today has been an incredibly busy day. I only have two projects to show. Izzy and I were gone all day with my wonderful friend and neighbor Beth. She called me this morning and asked me if I could help her make some Cookies in a Jar for Christmas Gifts. I told her well, it would be a huge inconvenience seeing has how I hate to do anything crafty, but I would do it for her. lol! Yeah right, I volunteered immediately to take her out and get all the supplies and come up with the decorations for the jars. It was so much fun! We did all the running around this morning, which was quite a bit. Who knew that canning jars would be so hard to find!! Then this afternoon Beth and her sons came over and we got them all completed while Izzy was napping!! It was so much fun!! That is also why I am blogging so late today!

Alrighty, so my first project for today is actually for Mary Jo aka Techno Stamper's Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge. I also incorporated Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge which was to incorporate embossing into your project. I know, I know, I am a little late, but better late than never right?

I love these new sets by All That Scraps!! I am such a sucker for adorable Santas!! I just can't help it! Okay, so I started this card by stamping the two houses from Sugarplums Snowy Scene on white card stock and colored it in with my markers and copics. I then stamped the Santa from Sugarplums North Pole on white card stock and colored it in with markers and copics also. I then ran the scene through my Swiss Dots cuttlebug embossing folder to make the background look like snow was falling. (I have actually seen a lot of examples of this out on SCS and have always loved it!) I then popped the Santa off the background and mounted the whole image on a piece of teal card stock. Following the sketch I layered on brown and teal card stock along with two different kinds of DP. I added two pieces of red ribbon behind my image and finished off the card by punching out three teal snowflakes with my Martha Stewart punch and added three white snowflake brads to the center!! I think it is such a fun and festive little scene. I can just see Santa standing there trying to decide which house to visit first!!

My second card is also an All That Scraps cards. I just realized that. I guess I was so excited to get them in the mail that I couldn't wait to get them all inked up. For this project I used this week's ATS Design Team Challenge which was to create a gift card holder.

I actually used my Cricut Machine to create the envelope and the card holder. I then stamped the skating girl, the snowman and two snowdrifts from Sugarplums Snowmen on white card stock and colored them in with my copics and markers. I cut them out and set them to the side. I layered on red and green card stock in the background along with two different kinds of Christmas DP. I used my nesties to cut out the ovals. I popped off the girl and and snow drifts, punched holes in the scallops and added a piece of red card stock behind them. For the envelope, I stamped the swirl twice along the bottom and then attached the snowman I cut out into the corner. To complete the look I went over the swirls with my glitter pen. I am so glad I discover these shapes on my Cricut!!! I will definitely being using them a lot!

Well I am outta here for tonight. I have a lot of friends blogs to catch up on and lots of congrats to pass out!! Thank you so much in sharing my exciting news and thanks for stopping by!

I Have a Theme and It is Blue and Green!!

Happy Friday everyone!!

I am so glad that it is finally here!! Jason has been working from home today which has been great but the bad news is he will be gone tonight playing tennis. Bummer! That is okay, at least Izzy has been able to see him for awhile. She will get to spend all day with him tomorrow since I will be over at "Aunt" Tracy's helping her move into her new house!!! Yeah! So excited about seeing the new place, not so much about the actual moving part.

Izzy was so cute last night, I just have to share. Jason was a little late getting home and of course she was waiting in the window for him. Well when she arrived,she ran up to him and then ran into the kitchen. Jason followed her and started making dinner. About two minutes later I hear little feet running in toward me and I hear "Snuggles, Snuggles". I was trying to blog so I put the laptop down and she climbed in my lap and snuggled in for a minute. Then she jumped down and ran into the kitchen and I heard, "Daddy snuggles, snuggles!". Isn't that adorable. She was doing it all night. She is such a love bunny!

Alright, so I guess my theme for today is green and blue. That is not what I started out doing, but somehow it just wound up that way. Isn't it funny how stuff like that happens?! Lol!!

Well my first card for today sort of kind of fits All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge. This week's challenge was a color challenge to use Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip and Soft Sky. Well I don't have any of these specific colors so I decided to use two shades of blue, one close to aqua and brown. Here is what I came up with.

I have a little bit of a twisted since of humor, so sorry if it isn't funny to anyone else. When I was making up the card I just kept thinking it would be so funny if the kid was throwing snowballs at anybody that got near the bear! See, get it? Okay, not that funny, oh well! I started off this card by printing (digi stamp) the little girl from Winter Sweetpea and Tiger and the bear and snowman from Winter Bear both by All That Scraps on white card stock and colored them in with my copics and markers. I then layered them on brown card stock and popped them off two kinds of snowflake DP, some brown card stock and some white card stock I embossed with my snowflakes embossing folder. I cut out snowflake shapes using my Cricut machine and mounted them in each corner. I used the Nature Hike wheel from Stampin Up for the sign and colored it in with my copics. I added a touch of white gel pen to the top to make it look like it was snowed on. To finish the card I glued on some winter buttons I have been hording. I just love this card! It is so wintery and fun!

For my second card, I created a baby card. I actually have problems with baby cards (I know, I have lots of problems, lol!). I love to make them, but I never seem to be able to get them to people. So I am making one in advance so it will be on hand. This card actually incorporates two MFT challenges. The first challenge is another of this month's ambassador challenges which was to create a card that had at lease three buttons on it and used the color blue somewhere. I used this week's MFT Sketch Challenge for the layout.

I love this little card!! I have had this stamp set for forever and have never used it, what is wrong with me? Anywhoo, I started this card by stamping the postage stamp, boy phrase and onesie from Baby First by MFT Stamps on white card stock and colored them in using my markers and copics. I went ahead and restamped the onesie on some DP and popped it off the image to give it some more dimension. Following the sketch, I layered on green card stock, blue card stock, and two different kinds of DP. I added a green stitched ribbon and lots of faux white stitching with my white gel pen. For the bottom I stamped the sentiment and then added three buttons. I think this would be a wonderful baby card!

Alright, my final card is in honor of my great grandfather. He was one of those guys who could fix just about anything with duct tape, just not very well. lol! In fact growing up we always used to tease him because if your dress was getting too short or your pants or whatever, he would say, "Just give me a piece of black velvet ribbon and some duct tape and I'll fix it for you." So this one is for you grandpa!

The sentiment on the inside of the card will read, "If this doesn't fix it, I guess I will have to stitch it back together! Merry Christmas!" I used the Hanna Release Party Challenge for the main idea of the card which was to incorporate stitching. I started off by stamping Hanna, and the ladder from Tool Time Hanna by Hanna stamps on some white card stock and colored them in with my markers and copics. I then drew a tree on some white card stock, colored it in and cut it out. I created the floor and wallpaper (with stitching) on a separate sheet of white card stock and colored them in with my copics and markers. Next, I layered on my tree, the ladder and Hanna. To finish the image off, I added some ribbons and some dots so that it would look like garland and ornaments on the floor. I then layered on three different kinds of Christmas DP (one of them even has stitching on it) and green and blue card stock. To finish the card, I added stitched green ribbon to the sides and three brads to the bottom. I just know my family will get a kick out of this one.

Well, I better say goodbye to the hubby. He will be leaving shortly for tennis! Have a great rest of the evening and thanks as always for stopping by!

Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop! I Made a Non-Christmas Card ...

Okay and a couple of Christmas Cards!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Only a couple more days until Thanksgiving! I have noticed though that a few of the neighbors have started to decorate their houses for Christmas. My parents already have their tree up and they are putting my sister's up today. I haven't even thought about it yet. I guess that we will probably do it next weekend, that is usually what we do it. I wonder what Izzy will think about it. Last year she really didn't pay attention to it, so who knows what will happen this year.

Well, I think we are going to try to head to the library this afternoon. I am getting a little tired of some of her books, so it will be nice to pick up a few new ones. Izzy loves to go. She really enjoys the little book rack that she is allowed to pick up books from. Hopefully that will put her in a little better mood. She has been a little grouchy today.

So let's get on with it! My cards that is and one of them is not a Christmas one! Who's proud of me?!!

My first card for today is a card I created for my niece using Paper Take Weekly's Sketch Challenge. This was a really fun sketch. It had so many layers and my niece loves purple so I knew that this would be perfect for her.



Isn't she sweet!!! She really reminds me of Kelsey. I started this card off by stamping Pickin' Apples by Sugar Nellie on white card stock and coloring her in with my copics and stampin' writer markers. I then added some white gel pen to highlight the apples. Using the sketch as a guide I layered on dp, green card stock, teal card stock and purple card stock. I popped off the main image and added some purple rick rack and flowers that I cut out with my Cricut machine. I placed teal brads in the center of the flowers. For the sentiment, printed it off on the computer and then adhered it to a piece of purple card stock that I used my corner rounder on. I just think this is the most precious image.

Alright, alright, the next two cards are Christmas cards. But I have a good excuse. I am not only making my Christmas cards, but also some for my mom and my friends. So see, I need quite a few. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

My next card is a card I created using the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge over at Poetic Artistry. I always love these sketch challenges because they are so creative and different.

Isn't this sweet!!! I love this cute little Santa Girl. I started this card off by stamping Sadie Santa from All That Scraps on a piece of white card stock and colored her in using my markers and copics. I went ahead and drew in the tree behind her and then colored it in. I created the Christmas light border by stamping the lights from Christmas Time by Penny Black around the image. I then colored it in and added some silver gel pen to the lights' bases. Following the sketch I layered on green card stock, red card stock and Christmas DP. For the borders and the top and bottom I punched out white paper with my goo punch and added a little bit of glitter. I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white card stock, drew on the candy canes and colored them in. To complete the card, I added three brads to the top. It is so fun and festive! I just love it.

Now on to my final card for today. This one is just so elegant. I love this little image. It reminds me of when I was a kid. I used to have a faux, white rabbit fur muff that I would wear everywhere. It always made me feel so grown up and sophisticated. For this card I used this week's challenge over at A Spoon Full of Sugar which was a sketch.

Isn't it so elegant! It just screams old fashioned Christmas to me. Okay, so I started this card by stamping Lizzie With Muff by Whiff of Joy on white card stock and coloring her in with my markers and copics. I added touches of gold glitter pen and regular glitter to highlight her outfit. I cut her out along with a piece of red card stock and a piece of green card stock using my nesties. I added white dots to the scallops with my souffle pen. Following the sketch I layered red card stock, green card stock and three different Christmas DPs. I added a green ribbon to the bottom and two red brads to the top. I am so pleased with this image. I don't even know if I will be able to give it away this Christmas. Lol!

Well I need to go get ready for the library. I think we single handily pay the librarians' salaries with all the fines we pay for over due books. Have a great rest of the day! Thanks for stopping by!

It's All About Santa!

Happy Friday!! Yeah, the weekend is here!!!

I am so excited. Jason has been working late all week so it will be nice to have him home this weekend. I know Izzy misses him because every time she walks by our room she says, "Daddy".

The surprise party was so much fun! Ryan didn't have any idea! He is such a cutie. The look on his face was priceless when he came home. I thought that he would have figured it out since everyone was acting really suspicious. He enjoyed his cake (thank goodness!) and really seemed to enjoy having everybody around.

Well Izzy has been such a good girl today! She has been in a great mood. I think it has something to do with the fact that I told her that we were going over to Aunt Tracy's tonight. That is all she has been talking about. In fact, she keeps handing me her play phone and saying, "Tracy, Tracy". Then I have to "talk" to Aunt Tracy and hand the phone back to her. This has been going on all day. I must talk on the phone a lot. Hmmmm, something to think about.

Onto the cards!!! Well yesterday in the mail, I received some Christmas stamps from All That Scraps that my mom had purchased for me. Thanks Mom! Well I couldn't wait to ink them up, so when I saw that today's Limited Supplies Challenge over at SCS was to make a card that had chocolate in it, either in the theme or the paper or the embellishments, I knew they would be perfect.

I am calling this card, "Did I leave the cookies out for Santa?" See how they are chocolate chip cookies? (My favorites). I started this card by stamping Pajama Olivia and the fireplace, presents, thought bubble and stocking from Sugarplums Christmas Scene by All That Scraps on white card stock and coloring them in with my stampin write markers and copics. I added the dots on her PJ's with my "Chocolate Chip" marker. I stamped three chocolate chip cookies using my Chocolate Chip Stubby from Stamps By Judith on white and colored them in and placed them in the thought bubble. I cut all the images out and placed them on a piece of Christmas DP and a piece of white that I drew a floor on. I popped off one of the presents, Olivia and the thought bubble using some dimensionals. I then mounted the main image on some Christmas DP and some chocolate metallic card stock that I cut with some decorative scissors. I popped the main image off layers of chocolate metallic card stock and Christmas DP. I just love the girly colors! The sentiment on the inside will say, "Did I leave the cookies out for Santa?

My second card is a fun card I created for today's Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge. I just loved the unusual layout and use of different shapes.

Isn't this fun! I have had these stamps for awhile and haven't inked them up yet! I know, I know, bad form! Okay, so I started this card off by stamping Holiday Vespa Girl from Inky Antics on a piece of white card stock and coloring her in with my copics and markers. I added some touches of silver gel pen and a white souffle pen to add highlights. I then layered her on a piece of Christmas DP and a piece of red card stock. I added three green brads to the corner and popped her off a piece of Christmas DP and red card stock. I then stamped the sentiment by Inky Antics on a piece of white card stock and cut it along with a piece of Christmas DP out with my nesties. I threaded through a piece of red ribbon and popped it off the bottom. I can just imagine her making out her list and making an exception if the guy is cute!!

Well I am off to put Iz down for rest time. It is so funny, she doesn't actually sleep, but boy do those 20 minutes of rest make a difference. Have a great evening!! Thanks as always for stopping by!

Angels, a Little Bit of Bubbly and some Skates!

Happy Thursday everyone! Only one more day until Friday and boy am I ready for it!

Today has been a kind of relaxed easy going kind of day. Izzy has been playing around outside, as well as Tuxy and I even got some of the leaves raked up so that Jason can mulch them this weekend. Supposedly it is suppose to snow, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather man is wrong.

Izzy has a new obsession, well really not new per se, just widened her old obsession. It is shoes, but not only her shoes, but everybody's. She has been walking around the house in mine and Jason's shoes and the other day she even tried on Aunt Tracy's shoes. Poor Tracy had to hunt down her shoes before she left! We all got a kick out of it though. She looks so funny shuffling around in those big gigantic shoes! She has also been wearing her little kiddie apron all day long. I really didn't think she would even put it on, seeing has how she has started crying every time I show it to her, but for some reason, today she is loving it. I can hardly get it off of her to take a nap! Ohhh, maybe she will make me some cookies, I will have to discuss it with her.

Well on to the cards. I had a really fun and relaxing day making projects. I tried not to stress out too much on how they came out and I really like them. My first card for today is a small ATC (3.5" by 2.5" card) that can easily be made for Christmas. It is actually a combination of two challenges, one at All That Scraps, which was to create a Christmas Card that was easy to mass produce, and the color challenge over at Cute Card Thursday to use red and green on your card. Perfect colors right?! Here it is!

This card was made with one of the angels from Angels Everywhere by All That Scraps. This is a set of Digi downloads. (Love my digis). I started off by resizing my chosen angel and printed her off on the computer. I then colored her in with my copics and stampin write markers. I cut her out and set her to the side. Next, I cut out a piece of green card sock and ran it through my cuttlebug using my hounds tooth embossing folder. I then layered on a piece of red card stock and a piece of Christmas DP. I cut out a piece of Christmas DP and a piece of green card stock with my nesties and embossed the green piece with my swirls embossing folder. I popped if off the background and then popped the angel off the ovals. I think this would be so great to mass produce, especially if a child could help you. Wouldn't this make great little kid's Christmas cards?! Or you could enlarge the angel and make the card on a bigger scale! Gosh I love my digis!!

Speaking of digis, I just had to use one of my new digi stamps from Pink Papery Studios again! They are so cute. One of my fellow design team members hosts a weekly Wednesday Challenge for Pink Papery Studios. This week's challenge was to create a card or project on a budget. Well of course I had no idea where to go to get any budget supplies. (Heavy sarcasm inserted here.) Take a wild guess where I went. You guessed it!!! Target. You should get a prize. I found these cute little bath flowers (they are little dissolvable soaps that are in the shape of flowers). They come in these cute little test tubes and were only a buck!!! So of course I had to get one in every color, luckily there was only three colors!

Aren't they cute!! I got this idea after seeing some Spool Cap Goodie Holders on Becca Feeken's blog. I had to adapt mine because I was only covering the test tube, but the basic idea was the same. I started off by cropping the girl's head from the main image of Simply Bath by Pink Papery Studios, resizing it, and printing it off on the computer three times. I then colored in my three images with my copics. Next I cut a strip of teal card stock 1 3/4 " wide, and a strip 1 1/4 " wide. I then scored each piece at 1/4" in. I cut notches along the 1/4" scored side so that I could attach it to the base. I cut out two different sizes of scalloped circles using my nestabilites, one for the top and one for the bottom. I then took my two notched strips and wrapped them around the tube and attached the notches to the base. I cut a slightly smaller scalloped circle, cutting out the middles so that it would hide my notches. I repeated this for the top. I then cut strips of DP, 1 1/4" wide and 3/4" wide to wrap around the tube. I mounted my girl's face on a scalloped piece of DP, added an eyelet and attached it with a white piece of ribbon. I repeated the process for the pink and purple tubes. This literally took no time at all to make and is such a fun little gift! Wouldn't it be a great little party favor for a spa day?! Okay, I lied a little about the time factor. I know bad aren't I? It actually took me about 10 minutes to make the three gifts, but about 45 minutes to get the stupid sticker and adhesive off of them! Man, that was some industrial strength glue attached to the label!!! I probably should have just run to the store and picked up some Goo Gone. It would have taken less time than scraping it off with my fingernail. lol!

Now to my final card. I wanted to play along with Tamara's Card Sketch Challenge this week and was intrigued by the design. It is so unusual! Once I saw the swoop on the bottom I immediately thought of my new Pink Cat Studio stamps that I received yesterday!!! I couldn't wait to use them. Then I got to thinking about colors and how cool it would be to incorporate this week's SCS color challenge (certainly celery, night of navy and basic gray) into my card. Here is what I came up with!

I love this image!! I have never been able to skate, but this is how I have always imagined it would be! I just love the dog! Okay, I started off this image by stamping Lily and Billy skating from Lily and Billy Winter Stamps on a piece of white card stock. I then colored them in using my copics and my stampin' write markers. I free handed the background and colored it in. I then layered my card with navy, gray, and green card stock, with touches of DP. I free handed the swoosh and popped off the main image. I then added some green ribbon to the bottom and three snowflake buttons to the top of the picture. They were supposed to be at the bottom, but I felt that it was a little bottom heavy so I moved them up. I finished the card off by stamping the sentiment and cutting it, along with a piece of navy card stock out with my nesties. I just love how well the colors go together.

Well I am out for tonight! Jason isn't playing tennis so we get to see him, yeah!! Have a great evening and thanks for stopping by!