October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to take a moment to post a few pictures of my children on Halloween. It rained here, but they still had a good time trick or treating. I'm just glad that the harder rain held off until the kids were finished.

My son wanted to be a fire fighter and the baby was a pumpkin. My husband said all babies are pumpkins, but she sure looked cute in her costume.


My son loves being a fire fighter, he has fire fighter dvds and he's always dressing up like one. He says that he wants to be a fire fighter when he grows up.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

October 30, 2009

Happy Friday to you all! I'm hoping that I have some time to work on today's limited supply challenge, but I wanted to upload a post for today. My ScrapBox arrived yesterday and I've been spending my time lately getting ready for it to arrive. It looks like it's going to take a few days to assemble and get it organized.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up my craft room and taking care of the baby. She's been sick with a fever, but she seems a little bit better now.

I'll be back later to update with a card for the day!

October 26, 2009

Happy Monday! I'll be updating my blog with today's CAS challenge and my challenge sample card later this morning.

This is my card for Today's CAS (clean & simple challenge). Today's challenge is a ways to use it challenge. For this challenge we were to create cas cards using brads or eyelets.

This was a super quick and easy to make. I just wheeled my background and then layered it onto Real Red card stock and the bottom portion is punched using my scallop border punch. My main holly image is from SU's Happiest of Holidays. I used three Real Red brads for the berries.

I decided to add some gold elastic cording for my embellishment and I also stamped my sentiment using gold pigment ink. My Merry Christmas sentiment is from SU's All Year Cheer.

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm not sure how much I will be able to post within the next few days. I'm planning on getting my craft room turned into the nursery for the baby and I have to move everything out of here and paint it and then bring in the crib and all of the baby's things. I just wanted to let you all know why I might not be here much this week! Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by!

October 25, 2009

Hi everyone! I've been super busy with my garage sale this weekend. It went really well and I was able to get rid of so much stuff that we had just lying around our house. And what didn't sell my husband and I took up to the Salvation Army, so I feel pretty good that someone else is able to use the clothes and items that we donated.

As I promised, I'm uploading another set of cards that I made for Dustin Pike's card drive to help raise money for Primary Children's Medical Center. I have links and more information in my last post.

For this set of cards that I made I used my SU stamp set 'Give Thanks'. My sentiments are from SU's Happy Harmony, Holiday's & Wishes, and Give Thanks stamp sets. The embellishments that I used on my cards were: ribbon, brads, twine, paper piercing, and my scor-pal for dry embossing.

My pumpkin images were water colored using my SU watercolor crayons and blender pen. The pattern paper I used is also from SU (I think it is retired dp called four seasons).

Thanks so much for looking and have a great day!

October 20, 2009

Hi everyone! I came across this thread on splitcoast stampers yesterday and I thought I would share it with all of you.

Dustin Pike has some really great digi images, if you haven't visited his blog yet, be sure to check it out.
Dustin has come up with a great idea to help raise some money for Primary Children's Medical Center. Dustin is asking for us card makers to donate a set of 5-6 cards w/envelopes for the center to sell.

You can find more information about this in the first link that I posted, there's still some time left if you are interested in sending Dustin a set of cards.

I decided to make a tote and a set of six matching cards. This is the first time that I have attempted making one of these totes.

I have seen several of these throughout the splitcoast gallery and I decided to give it a try. Here is a link to the instructions that I used for making the tote.


I'll post pictures of each card so that you can see them better.

I used my SU snowflake punch on each card and it is layered using my scallop punch and 1 3/8" circle punch.

The snowflake pattern paper is also from SU and my Season's Greetings sentiment is from SU's Snow Swirled.

The cardstock that I used to make my cards and tote is: white, Night of Navy, and Bashful Blue. I also used some silver accents on my cards. I used some silver cording and silver brads.

On my first card that I posted above I used my scallop punch to create the scalloped border. I punched each piece of card stock using my scallop punch and then I staggered them pieces to give it a different look.

I also used my scor-pal to create some decorative score lines on some of my cards.


My card that I have posted just to the left here was really simple to make and I find myself using this layout quite often.





On my card just to the right, I again used my scallop border punch for the Bashful Blue card stock and for some added interest I scored two decorative lines just above my Season's Greetings sentiment.

I've also added two small ribbon tabs just to the right of my punched snowflake.




I really like this layout out as well on my last card I have posted. I'm sure that I'll be using this again and again.

Thanks so much for looking!

I hope you all like my set of snowflake cards!

I ended up making one more set of cards with a matching tote bag. I'll try to post that tomorrow.

October 18, 2009

Hi everyone! Well, it sure has been an exciting week for me and I'm glad to be back in the swing of things and stamping again.

Here's my card for tomorrow's clean & simple challenge. The challenge was to create a cas sympathy card.

I've always wanted to try the shadow stamping technique and I thought this tree image would be just perfect for that.

I wanted to take some pictures to show how this technique is done. The first step is to stamp your image. (Shown in the picture above.) I used Certainly Celery ink and the tree image is from SU's Thought's & Prayers stamp set.

Then next step is to stamp your image onto your stamp-a-ma-jig plastic sheet. Then line it up over top of your first stamped image. You'll want to move your image sheet just a tad bit either right or left, just enough to create the shadow effect you want.

This time when I stamped my tree image I used Close to Cocoa ink.

Ink up your stamp and stamp again. In the picture here on the left I wanted to show what my stamped image looked like.

Using the stamp-a-ma-jig comes in handy for this technique; it just makes it so much easier.

I used the same technique again with the stamping on my background.

I stamped my image first using Certainly Celery ink and then again (after aligning it with my stamp-a-ma-jig) using Close to Cocoa ink.

I had to be sure when I was stamping my background that I stamped it so that you wouldn't be able to see the tree part of my image once I place my main image panel over it.


To the left here is a picture of my background once I am finished stamping it.

You can do this technique without using a stamp-a-ma-jig. You just have to try and line it up the best you can.

I know the first time I tried using my stamp-a-ma-jig it was so confusing, and it took me a little bit to get the hang of it.

This picture shows what background looks like once I place my main image panel over top of it.

You'll notice here that you don't see the tree trunk part of my image.

And here is a picture of my completed card. I added some score lines above and below my main image using my scor-pal. My ribbon is from Offray!

Thanks so much for looking and have a great day!

I've been working on two sets of totes with matching cards, so be sure to check back. I will be posting pictures once I am finished with them.

October 16, 2009

Good Morning everyone! Well today is the big day! The voting for the scrapbox prize will end today at 12 noon CST. So I just have a few more hours to go.

We had some snow yesterday and last night and our power went out for a few hours. I'm assuming it's due to the snow storm. I took some pictures of the snow in my back yard.

It's so very pretty, but strange seeing snow on the leaves of the trees. My poor little petunia plant has snow all over it!

Have a great day and I'll try to update my post once I can get my camera working (I'm thinking that it might just be the batteries so I am charging them right now).

I also wanted to announce that I am the winner of the ScrapBox on splitcoast stampers. It's been a long week and it was a fun contest! And I'd like to thank the other 9 finalists for all of the work and time they have also put into the contest; I wish we could have all won a ScrapBox. You can find more information about the announcement here.

I'd like to thank The Original ScrapBox and Splitcoast Stampers for giving me the opportunity to enter the contest, I've very excited to have won the prize.

I will be posting pictures once I receive my prize and get everything organized.

I'm Trying to Hold On!!

I just wanted to let you all know how I am doing. At this point I am so nervous and so besides myself. I keep watching the scrapbox voting page and I see my votes going up and down, mostly down today. Although I am still in the lead, it's still anybodys prize. My husband and daughter are both trying to calm me down, but it's so stressful and I keep hoping that I will be the lucky winner.

I did try to work on making a card to post today, but I wasn't able to get it finished. I have to run now, my husband just came home from work and I have to get supper on the table.

If at all possible, please feel free to share my story with your family and friends. It would be a great help if I was able to obtain some more votes. As of now I am ahead, but it's not over yet! Thank you to all of you for helping and supporting me!

Have a great day and I'll try to post again tomororw. ***Wish me luck***

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME TO WIN THE SCRAPBOX!

Good Morning everyone! In case you haven't heard I have been chosen as a finalist on Splitcoast stampers as a finalist to win a fantastic Scrapbox prize!!! I still can't believe it and it was so hard for me to get some sleep last night. I did sleep about four hours and then the baby woke up.

I'm asking you all (pretty please) consider voting for me. To enter the contest we were to come up with a creative way to describe why we needed the scrapbox. Here is my entry, if you would like to read my story.

Here is the link for the voting. Remember you can only vote one time, but if there is anyone else that you know might vote for me, please feel free to pass along my entry.

Thanks you so much for looking and I truly appreciate each and every vote! I promise to update my entry with more pictures if I win the scrapbox!

I'M A FINALIST! PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!!!

Happy Monday to you all! I just found out that I am one of the 10 finalists to win the scrapbox! I am super excited! Please, consider voting for me. I really, need this scrapbox! Here is the link to the voting and here is the link to my scrapbox story if you would like to read it. Thank you soooo much! Now onto my card for today...he...he..

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! This weekend we spent some time with our family. Yesterday my family and I went to visit my grandparents and today my mother in law and my husband's grandmother came over for a visit. We had a nice quiet weekend at home and I'm looking forward to more of them now that the weather is getting colder. We tend to stay home more in the winter time.

Here's my card for tomorrow's clean & simple challenge. This challenge is a technique challenge. We were to create a card using a technique called thumping. Here is a direct link to this week's cas challenge if you would like to play along. Here's a link to a tutorial on splitcoast stampers, just in case you are unfamiliar with this technique. It really is a quick and easy technique and it can give your image a different look!

The stamp that I used is from SU's Lovely As a Tree stamp set. I inked up my stamp using Close to Cocoa ink and then using my SU markers I thumped the following colors onto my stamp to make some fall leaves: Ruby Red, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, and Pumpkin Pie. It seems like a lot of colors, but they blended so well together.

The colors of my card stock are: Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgundy, Chocolate Chip, and White. I layered these colors on my background, but I left just a bit of white showing. My sentiment is from SU's Thoughts & Prayers stamp set, but I wanted the sentiment to stamp across the card, so I colored the words using my SU marker and then I stamped in along the bottom, then again I colored the second half of that sentiment stamp and them stamped it again so that my wording was together all in one row.

I've added some paper piercing in each corner of my tree image and my ribbon is from Offray.

Unfortunately I will be sending this card to my former co-worker who lost her mother three weeks ago and now she just lost her father. She's really going through a tough time right now losing both of her parents within the past 20 days.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

October 10, 2009

Hi everyone!!! I'm still working on this scrapbox contest and I just had to make a card about the scrapbox that I'm hoping to win. It sure would be a dream come true to win this awesome prize!

I've written a cute little story with pictures and everything! I'm keeping my fingers crossed! If you have a minute come check out my story, my children and even the family dog are trying to help me win!!! Here's the link to my scrapbox story thread.

For my card I printed out an image of the actual scrapbox and I layered it using Chocolate Chip card stock. I assembled my card using SU dp and Mellow Moss card stock.

My sentiment is from SU's Cute Converse, it's layered using my large and small oval punches and I added two cut out flowers from the DP that I used. I also added two ribbon tabs and a scalloped border on the left side of my card and along the right side I did three rows of faux stitching.

Wish me luck!!! Thanks for looking! And good luck to those of you who have also entered! The 10 finalists are supposed to be announced on Monday. I'll keep you updated if I happen to be one of those lucky 10 finalists.

October 9, 2009

Happy Friday!!! I've been busy lately adding some more pictures to my scrapbox thread on splitcoast stampers. Like everyone else who has entered, I am so excited about this contest and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I might become a finalist. I really need a new storage area for my stamping items. Please stop by and read my story. It's a cute picture story (and the pictures are really cute). Feel free to leave a comment for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Here is the link to my scrapbox thread.

Today I'm posting the card that I made for today's limited supply challenge, and was this ever a challenge for me!

We were to create fall card without using any embellishments. I couldn't quite figure out how to add some extra dimension without any embellishments, but I think it works.

All I did to create my card was to stamp my image and then color it in using my watercolor crayons and a blender pen. Then I added a corner embellishment using my word window punch and a few score lines on the background using my scor-pal.

Thanks so much for looking and an even bigger thank you for checking out my scrapbox thread!

October 7, 2009

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday! I don't have too much going on today, my son is at preschool right now and it's pretty quiet here at the moment.

This is my card for today's sketch challenge. As soon as I saw the sketch I knew exactly which stamp I wanted to use. (I ended up turning the sketch sideways).

My background is embossed using my Cuttlebug and my Snowflakes embossing folder. On my Glorious Green layer I did some faux stitching using my paper piercing tool and SU mat pack.

My main snowmen image was stamped using black stazon ink and then colored using my SU markers. You might be able to see it in the picture; I decided to add some glitter along the bottom of the snowmen using SU 2 way glue and DD glitter.

My sentiment is from SU's Warm Words and it is punched using my large and small oval punches. My ribbon is from Offray. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

October 6, 2009

Hi hope you all are doing well! Today is a beautiful day here in PA :) I spent the day today coming up with an idea for the scrapbox giveaway on splitcoast stampers. You still have until 12:00 CST on Friday, October 9, 2009 to enter. Here is the link for more information on how to enter for your chance to win a scrapbox.

To anyone who might be reading this, feel free to visit my thread (and post a message for me) and see why I so desperately need a scrapbox. Here's the link to my thread.

As you can see, the baby still sleeps in our bedroom because my craft room will have to turned into her bedroom pretty soon. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go with all of my stuff, but winning a scrapbox would be the perfect answer to my storage problem. I'm really hoping that I win, but I never win anything and after looking at some of the other threads that were posted I don't think I have much of a chance, but I thought I would give it a try.

The thought has crossed my mind that I might have to give up my stamping hobby, but it would really kill me to sell my stuff and I truly enjoy my stamping. It's one hobby that I started and I didn't give up on it.

I would love it I received some posts on my scrapbox thread, plus it is a cute little story!!!

October 5, 2009

WOW! I just realized today that I am at my 100th post and I have 30 followers. I am grateful for all of my followers and I just love sharing my work with all of you. Thank you for visiting!!!

Well, did you all see that moon last night? It's so nice a bright! I was reading that we should be able to see the moon again tonight, so if you didn't see it last night be sure to check it out! I took some pictures of it, but it didn't come out that great. My husband said that it was a harvest moon. Of course I've heard of this before, but I just had to read about it.

Technically the harvest moon is when the moon is at it's fullness that is nearest to the autumn equinox. The Harvest Moon usually falls in September, but sometimes it will arrive in early October (as it did last night). The next time we can expect another harvest moon in October isn't until 2017!

I wanted to make a card for yesterday's featured stamper, but I didn't have time until just now. Yesterday's featured stamper is clownmom, congratulations Lois!

I chose to case this card from her gallery. I do not have any poinsettia stamps, well I had one and then I sold it on ebay, but not a problem. I found this poinsettia digi image on splitcoast. I used the same colors and a similar image as Lois did, but I changed the layout and I used a different sentiment . I didn't use gold cardstock on my card, but instead I used Old Olive and I also added the gold brads.

I downloaded the image, printed it out, and colored it using my SU markers. Next, I just cut out my poinsettia image, added some gold highlights and gold brads, I paper pierced each corner, and then assembled my card. My sentiment is from SU's Snow Swirled and my ribbon is from Offray.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great rest of the day and be sure to check out that moon tonight!!!

October 4, 2009

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! The last picture in this post is my card for Monday's CAS Challenge. This week's challenge is an inspiration challenge. I chose this pillow for my inspiration.

In choosing this pillow I was trying to think of a way to mimic the pattern and this is what I came up with. I have some pictures posted below to show how I made the squares. My card was super easy and fun to make!

The first thing I did was to punch out some squares using striped pattern paper. I used my 1 1/4" square punch because I knew that I was going to layer the squares and I wanted to use my larger punch for the layering.

Once my squares were punched out I took my scissors and I cut each square on a diagonal from one corner to the next. I tried to show how I cut them in the above picture.

Now I have lots of small triangles. I arranged the triangles in the pattern that I wanted. When I was trying to arrange the triangles I discovered that for every two punched squares I had I ended up throwing one away. So in making my card I punched out six total squares in order to get the three shown on my card. Confusing, I know, but trust me it will work out.

After I had my triangles arranged the way that I wanted them I then adhered them to my colored card stock. Then using my larger square punch (1 3/8") I punched out my square.

Here's a picture of my finished squares. Next, I added a silver brad to the center of each square and then I assembled my card.

I layered my three squares on white and blue card stock. I scored a line above and below both layers just to give it some interest. My Happy Birthday sentiment is from SU's It's Your Birthday stamp set. I stamped my sentiment using silver Encore ink.

My husband says that I should have added a ribbon on my card, but I sort of thought that this could be used for a masculine birthday card, so I left the ribbon off; besides masculine cards are harder for me to make and I like to have a few on hand for when I need them.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

October 3, 2009

I made this card on Saturday for World Card Making Day. The challenge was to create a card using a quote. I really like this quote from SU's Live Your Dream stamp set. I'm not much of a quote gal myself, but I think this quote is just perfect for graduation cards.

For the quote portion of my card, all I did was stamp and add some dots along the edges. The bottom portion of my card is made using SU's patterns pack decorative paper (retired). I used one side of the paper for the middle portion and the other side for the outer two pieces. I also added some black dots throughout the pattern paper using my SU black marker.

The flowers were made using my SU Spring Bouquet Flower Punch. I punched out two of the five pointed flowers and layered them. They are held together with a black brad.

I didn't make any more cards for World Card Making Day, I just wasn't too excited about the challenges this year and I didn't have any stamps from the different companies that were hosting the challenges. To be quite honest I liked last year's World Card Making Day challenges much better, but I tried and I made at least one card.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!

October 2, 2009

Today's limited supply challenge is to create a card using Christmas tree! WOW! This year is flying by so quickly. In just a few weeks I'll be putting up my Christmas trees! I'm not looking forward to chasing the baby and keeping her away from the tree. And especially that my tree spins! I can just see her now grabbing the ornaments!

I have to admit, it took me a while to color in this image. You should have seen me! I was coloring while I was feeding the baby her lunch today.

I'm pretty happy with the way my coloring turned out, but I'm thinking maybe it's a tad bit too dark. I tried to stay within the Earth Elements color family while I was coloring.

Once my coloring was done I assembled my card. I wasn't sure how I wanted to assemble it because the image is so busy I didn't want to add too many layers or embellishments, and this is what I came up with; just one layer of Old Olive and a small ribbon treatment. I didn't even stamp a sentiment; I thought I could stamp something inside and leave the front less cluttered.

Well, tomorrow is World Card Making Day and I'm planning on making some cards tomorrow, that is if my husband lets me have some time to stamp ;)

Have a great weekend and Happy Stamping!

October 1, 2009

Can you believe it? It's the first of October already and the leaves are starting to change colors. I'll have to post some pictures of the trees in my back yard once the colors reach their peak color!

It's only a few more weeks until Halloween and I thought I'd better make a card for my little niece. Her mother isn't too fond of spiders and I didn't want a scary card for her because she's little, so this is what I came up with.

The bear image is from SU's Costume Bears stamp set. I just stamped and colored the image. I colored it using my watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I decided to use my black marker to color in the black hat and cape because the black colored pencil just wasn't dark enough.

I purchased the dp from Target's dollar spot. The sentiment is from SU's A Haunting We Will Go stamp set and my ribbon is from Offray. Have a great rest of the day!