Cooking With Cricut Challenge #81- Card Outreach

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another Cooking With Cricut challenge. It was so awesome to see all the fabulous Easter creations that were cooked up last week--choosing our Top Chefs will be hard! This week's challenge #81 is a card outreach--translation: create an encouraging, thinking of you or just plain happy card for 2 girls battling Cancer. Emily is 6 and Patty is 13, so I wanted my cards to be age appropriate. Here's what I made for the girls...

Emily's card

cartridge used: Paisley

Patty's card

cartridges used: Plantin Schoolbook (roly poly stars), Once Upon A Princess (Rock Star)
stamps from My Favorite Things Ala Mode "Rock Star" set

I love card making even more when it's for a cause! Both girls have a short bio at the CWC blog and if you are inspired to cook up something this week for Miss Emily or Miss Patty, or even both, please visit the Cooking With Cricut Blog for details and mailing info. Wouldn't it be NEAT if these courageous young ladies recieved all kinds of cheerful handmade greetings from crafters everywhere?!! Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day~

Groovy Tuesday!

Hey there! I've been a little lax on blogging the past few days, sorry! I plan to catch up this evening to see what everyone's been up to. I had some time to play with my new MFT Al'a Mode stamp set called Groovy Girl along with some of my new Prima paper, flowers and trim--yummyness! I will enter this into a few challenges at the bottom of my post.

 Isn't she darling! I especially love that coloring her does not overwhelm me! This set comes with 5 totally groovy sentiments--so much fun!

Beate's EASEL CARD TUTORIAL

Entering my card for:
PCJ challenge #4- Anything Goes
A Muse Studio Challenge Blog- "Bloom Where You Are Planted!" (create something with flowers!)
Simon Says Stamp!- Anything Goes Challenge
AllSorts Challenge #145- Say It With Flowers!
Totally Papercrafts Challenge #107- My Favorite Things
Hotshot Craft Blog challenge #5- Ribbons
Jellypark Challenges- National Craft Month Challenge 3/9-3/21 (use your fave crafting product-mine is my new Prima paper roses!)
ABC DT Challenge Blog- SpringTime Challenge (ends 3/24)

Another Monday, Cowgirl Up!

Happy Monday pardner, hope your week is off to a great start! I made this fun card for a couple of challenges:
1- SplitcoastStampers Mini Virtual Stamp Night challenge HERE to make a card with "all the twists and turns of Spring" (open to play through today!)
2- Craft Your Days Away challenge #38 HERE "Gettin Stitchy With It!" (open to play til 2/16)
I combined the challenges making my lil rodeo cowgirl card, which at first glance doesn't remind one of Spring, but when I saw my stitched flourish rub-ons I immediately pulled out this stamp set from My Favorite Things "Ride Em Cowgirl" and thought, hey how bout a Spring Fair and the rodeo at the fairgrounds? Works for me!

faux stitched flourish rub-ons, double stitched ribbon for the CYDA challenge

I stamped the boots onto a scrap of faux leather, cuttled the skirt with "swiss dots" and a bit of hemp twine on her rope for an added twist :)

Thanks SO MUCH for visiting my blog today! I have a new goal to comment on 20 blogs per day because I have so many wonderful blogging buddies who share endless crafty goodness and support me in such a way, I cannot adequetely express my appreciation--I think it's the best way to let my friends know how much they inspire me and how special they make me feel--you know who you are!!! Thank you!!! Have a beautiful and inspiring day!

Gettin' Sketchy with MFT

Hi! I made a card today using this fun sketch from MFT's Wednesday Stamp club. I have been in a long running creative funk and after gazing in awe at all the dt members samples today, I was so totally inspired that I decided to whip up one of my own using Snow Bunny Flopsey. Everyone who participates has a chance to win a prize too! Thank you to the My Favorite Things design team for sharing your sensational work!

Valentine's

Hey friends, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!!! May 2010 be our very best ever! Now on to our next holiday and one of my favorites, Valentine's Day...hey, it's only a little over 5 weeks away peeps--it's coming our way fast..so consequently, I've begun my Valentine's card makin! :)

First, today's SCS sketch challenge, hosted by one fabulously crafty lady, Carolina Buchting! She designed a truly awesome sketch for us and here is my take on it.

Note: My watermark on the card above is a faux pas in that is does not include My Favorite Things stamps. Please disregard this mistake. thanks :)

I stamped the big dotted heart in white craft and embossed it in gold. The sweetheart sentiment and 2 smaller hearts in the corner are from a $1 mini stamp set from Studio G-love that company! I added some gold stickles to the corner piece and a tiny white bow to the main image panel.

Now, for my actual My Favorite Things card. I just felt like playing with this darling little set from MFT, Cupcake Flopsey and it makes for perfect valentines cards, yay! :)

Thank you so much for hoppin by my blog today :) Have a great one, friends!

It's A Twinkling Tuesday!

At least it is for me because I found a fun blog with a fun name, Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays and they have a super cute sketch up today that provided me some much needed inspiration! I also attempted Jodi's (regularly Emily's) color challenge CC211 over at SCS--pretty in pink, kiwi kiss and baja breeze. I inked up my cupcake flopsey for the first time--can't believe I didn't sooner, he's so darn cute!

Thank you for visiting me! I hope you have a super sweet day!

My Favorite Things Release Party Tonight!

Yep, that's right! It's time to kick-off 2009 in style, baby! My Favorite Things is going to blow you away with all the fabulous new releases this month and as always, the MFT party at SCS is sure to be the place to be tonight at 9pm EST, before all the releases go live at 10pm! Are you wondering why I am telling you all this? Well.....I won the privilege of being one of the January Ambassadors for MFT and I even get to guest host a challenge on SCS for all to participate in!! I'm soooo excited, can you tell?!! Now, please be gentle--I have no camera at the moment--forced to resort to scanner. This is my sample for the MFT Ambassador Challenge #1-to create a card or project that shows off your sparkling personality! I'm talkin' BLING, people!

Remember, the awesome MFT Design Team Diva's will pump up your enthusiasm all day with a blog hop full of fabulous sneak peeks of this evening's releases, so make sure to visit Kim's blog to start your Hop Around The Block and go all the way through to find the MFT Pot O' Gold at the end! Here's a little teaser straight from Kim about tonight's releases.......
This month...Who's That Girl? is dressed in her Valentine best,And her hubby will surely be pleased! Good Knight shows our Hero, in quite perfect form,Slaying dragons, down on one knee. Our Flopsey's big heart needs to be filled, With all of his sentiments sweet, Lastly, our Owls for All Seasons, will give you a reason,To make many handmade treats! Oooooh, doesn't that just make you wanna do a cartwheel! It sure does me! I hope you can join us tonight for the fun, games and prizes and bring your friends too--the more the more crazy fun (if you know anything about MFT parties! ha!) Thanks so much for visiting and have a great day!

CAS and MFT and everything nice!

that's what wonderful papercraft projects are made of! : ) Here are a couple of projects I've done in the past day or so. I made my first coaster gift box from my most favorite addition to date- The FABulous WASSAIL Christmas paper line from Basic Grey! I covered each coaster with a piece of wassail paper, which I also Cuttlebugged with the Swiss Dots folder for added texture. I followed the wondefully simple tutorial by Taylor V. This flower, which I strived to make resemble a mulberry poinsettia, is from the beautiful new set called Intrique, from Clear Artisitc Stamps. I first embossed the flower in gold, then colored it in with Copic Ciao markers #'s Copics RV13, R59, G94YG67 and the colorless blender. I added touches of metellic shimmer over the poinsettia as well. I filled my gift box with holiday cranberry and vanilla frosted animal cookies, which I will send to a super sweet friend for Christmas.

Stamps: Intrigue (big flower) and Joy Of The Season (greeting) from Clear Artistic Stamps, designed by Belinda Landtroop
Paper: white cs; Wassail dp from BG
Ink: craft white, rich cocoa, purely pomegranate, old olive
Accessories: Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots folder, Copics RV13, R59, G94YG67 and colorless blender, scallop circle punch, Cropadile, gold ep and heat gun, 1 3/8" circle punch, square scallop punch, old olive polytwill ribbon, gold thread (Gina K), 5 square coasters

I also tried out, once again, for My Favorite Things guest designer --this time for January. Michelle's challenge was to alter a store bought or recycled piece and I chose to alter this plain cork board into a fun message board for any sweet girl.

I used MFT's Here's The Scoop stamps to create push pins for the board. I stamped "here's the scoop" on each note (which is simple copy paper cut into squares). To better preserve the push pins, I added a couple layers of crystal laquer to each ice cream cone and sundae. I think this turned out ok, but I totally saw other entries for this challenge that trumped me to the max! I have my own personal favorite so far, but if you want to try out too, you still have until tomorrow, Sunday night to enter--check out the details HERE. Thanks for visiting me today! I hope you are enjoyig your weekend and now I'm off to see what everyone else is up to! Hugs and happy crafting!

Flopsey's Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...Flopsey is snuggled up on his cozy fur rug reading his favorite holiday storybook!
This is what I created for the MFT Ambassador Challenge 1 over at SCS to transform a non-holiday stamp into a Christmas card, or in my case, decoration. I had this wood house and decided to paint it, cover it with yet more Basic Grey Wassail designer paper (I can't get enough of that stuff) and make it Flopsey's holiday home. I turned Flopsey's stack of books into a collection of holiday classics including The Night Before Christmas, A Christmas Carol and The Polar Express. I colored Flopsey with Copic Ciaos and sponged him with rich cocoa Memento ink. This little project was lots of fun for me--I love altering things and Christmas is my most favorite!

Here is a close-up view of Flopsey....

Want to have a chance to win some free stamps too?! Of course you do--hehe. MFT is giving us till Sunday, November 9th to play along and they will pick 1 RANDOM winner on Monday. That's right, this is not a contest, it's a challenge--we are not being judged on this one. Anyone who plays has a chance to win--so, no pressure! Isn't that wonderful! Thanks for visiting me! I hope you have a super Friday! :)

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge

I joined in MFT's fun sketch challenge this week over in their SCS forum. The amazing and talented Cindy Haffner designed this sketch and I think it's just wonderful. I inked up my brand new MFT Christmas Owls by Stephanie Fizer for the first time and had great fun coloring them!

Thank you so much for visiting me. It means so much! I hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with the joys of famiy, friends and all of God's love.

RAK and Contest Card

Hi friends, TGIF, whoo hoo!!! I'm ready for a fun weekend--we're going to the big state Fair, yee haw! And the weather is going to be great, but not too hot, yes! I hope you are gearing up for a great weekend, too with plans full of family friends and good times!
First, I must share this beautiful RAK I recieved from my great pal, Jessie! I was sorta mia in the blogging world over the summer, and Jessie just wanted to make sure I was still alive, I'm sure, lol! She is such a sweetie pie! And just look at this gorgeous creation! I adore her cards, every single one is a superb work of art, this is true. I'm so lucky and blessed to have friends like Jessie in my life. Thank you for your support, inspiration and friendship. What a blessing.

I entered the My Favorite Things contest to make a card that is sassy, sarcastic or ironic....I think I chose sarcastic, lol! I don't have any funny MFT stamps, so I chose this sentiment from DRS Designs, which I just think is hilarious. I rounded the corners on my piece of card stock to create the "bucket" look. I ran a couple pieces of white cardstock thru the Cuttlebug using the tiny bubbles folder, then punched them out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. I think the golf balls look more realistic with them placed embossed side down. I sponged around the bucket with chestnut ink and around the golf balls lightly with a smokey gray ink. The handles were hard for me to figure out--I tried a few different looks are just settled on make them like this, two pieces of twill attached with silver mini brads. Well, that was a long one. I'm sure glad you visited me today! Happy weekend!

My Favorite New MFT Set!

Here's The Scoop!---No silly, that's the name of this new stamp set from My Favorite Things! And that was my sad attempt at a joke. I better stick to cardmaking.

Ok, let me just say first how super fun this image was to color! I used my new Koh-i-noor woodless colour pencils from Gina K. Designs (love them!) and blended used baby oil and a blending stump, which works just like gamsol. I learned this when I first started on SCS and Dawn L. always metioned it--any by Gosh, it works like gamsol magic!

The wall was paper pieced with a multi-striped vellum, which worked nicely. And since I always dreamed of having pink carpeting in my bedroom as a child, tonight I made my dream come true...on paper, anyway, hehe. I have been waiting to use this white and pink flower ribbon and it was so enjoyable to finally do so. I layered it on top of a classic chocolate grosgrain and above that, tied a thinner satin chocolate. The center of my pink prima flowers are these pretty new decorative brads I recieved from my sweet, sweet friend--Lee! I'm sure many of you already know what an amazing person this lady is! I will be making a special post tomorrow featuring the gorgeous card and other goodies she sent me! Lee-- (((big smooch!))) --Luv ya, buddy! Thanks for visiting me today! Hugs to all!

Take A Deep Breath....

...and relax--it's the weekend!!! Happy Friday friends! I played along in the My Favorite Things challenge for July's GD spot. I've tried out every month since Feb. and not gotten picked for anything, but hey--it's totally fun and if you don't try you never know if you might have gotten it! That's my motto, so I've tried again and this time I used my mini MFT set called Serenity Now. I think it's such a cute image, even though I don't do yoga...I should even if only for the cute outfits, haha! I paper pieced this gals yoga pants, top and mat with some pretty designer paper from Kaiser Craft (thanks Pushpa for introducing me to it!) called "Jubilee". The rest doesn't need to be explained...except you may wonder why I didn't put 2 more jems in the ticket punched corners. Well, that's simple-I ran out of em! And I didn't care that much at that point, I only had about 9 minutes to upload the card before the challenge ended.

Again, all the entries are fantastic in so many ways! You should check them out HERE. I love that they have them all posted in one gallery on SCS for all to enjoy! My pal, Jessie rocked this one and I have a huntch that she'll be the big winner, but I also adored JenMarie's card-sooooo lovely and congrats on 10 years of marriage!--and Christina Fitcher's creations were once again fantabulous!--not to mention Mothermark's brilliant comedy scene...c'mon, that lady rocks!--and Elizabeth Neuman created a masterpiece...are you beginning to see why I never win? There you have it.

Treehouse Pals

Sometimes we all need a lift from a good friend and these two little pals can always count on each other! Hi guys! I made this for the My Favorite Guest Designer contest over at their SCS forum. I totally won't win--umm, have you checked out the entry gallery?! --2 words...Markie's Mom!!! Nuff said, I Know! Oh my gosh, there are a few other really superb projects-SusieStampsalot has a couple super cute creations and Christine Fichter's tic tac toe board is absolutely darling! Everyone did a great job, but those are my personal picks! If you're feeling lucky, creative and super-fast, you still have time to enter--the contest closes at 10PM EST.

Anyway, I still had a ball making my tree house pals card! I cut the treetop and trunk separately, making the trunk the card-part. I used these cute little prickly guys from my brand new set called "Cute Critters" by Clear Dollar Stamps, a company I recently discovered who have very reasonably priced stamps and great designs/sentiments/images of all kinds! I am very pleased with my first order and know there will be many more to come--they come out with new sets every month and have the coolest collection that is religious-based with spiritually inspiring sentiments that I simply adore! Oh, see those "apples"? They are really the cherries from SU!'s Tart and Tangy set, hehe! I stamped them in Real Red, then cut them each out (pain in the butt!) and popped them on pop-dots! Do they look like apples?...I hope so! :)

Thank you for visiting me today, it means so much and I am sorry for slacking on my blog-hopping and leaving comments for all my amazing and talented pals! You all rock and I will be having a good long session of visiting all your blogs very soon! Can't wait to see what you've all been up to! HUGS!