Spring Has Sprung!

Well maybe not officially, but it's certainly official over at SplitcoastStampers because tonight is the first 5 challenges for the Spring Has Sprung VSN (Virtual Stamp Night)! I joined in 2 of the challenges so far and intend to finish the rest for tonight, then I'll be all ready for Saturday's VSN--10 Spring challenges and a whole day full of Spring stamping inspiration and fun! Hope you will play along too! We have until Monday to submit our challenge creations for prizes! Itt's a breath of fresh, Spring air!

This is my card for Challenge #1- "Here Comes The Sun" translation: make something using the SUN as your inspiration!

 Challenge #5- "Rain, Rain Go Away" translation: make a sympathy card

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start! xoxo

Teapot Tuesday Challenge #184

Hello friends! Today I'm excited to share a card I made for a SUPER FUN weekly challenge that takes place over at SCS called Teapot Tuesdays! This was started by the fabulously talented Cindy (aka Mothermark) a long time ago and I've just hopped on board the Teapotter's train! Cindy has a new challenge every Tuesday which is based off a different teapot from her extensive collection--even more fun, each teapot challenge tells a story, a wonderfully creative story!--and by the time youre done reading it, you just wanna run to your craft room and start creating! It's so inspiring and this group of lovely ladies are so supportive, sweet and fun!!! I'm thrilled that I've finally became a "teapotter" and if you wanna be one too, just check out this week's challenge and join the fun--all ya gotta do is click on the link below, read the deets, make a project or card and you're IN! This week's Teapot Tuesday Challenge is................

Oh Gee! Could it be? Someone thinks they're catching me!

Theme based off the teapot image below

And here is my card for this week's challenge

I don't even remember where I bought the stamp from, but I thought it was a hoot lol. I had never even inked it up and today was the day for it! I dug through my little brother's tackle box that he left at my house while visiting last summer and found a few "fishy" embellishments hehe! :)

A few more perks to joining the teapotter's is that there is an optional "Destination Station" thread which allows you to "tickle a teapotter"--translation: send your card to a special recipiant who could use a lil extra love and Cindy provides all the details and address to send your creations.  I love this option because I make a lot of stuff that ends up piling up in my craft room when I know that somebody out there might really enjoy it! So this helps get my cards into the mailbox and off to brighten someone's day! Another thread titled "Apprecation Station" allows you to post your thank you's and warm fuzzies if you happen to recieve a card from a fellow teapotter! Cool beans!!!

There's also a Birthday Bash list of all "Teapotter's" that you may refer to and send a birthday wish their way! Again, totally optional--no obligations here except to have a blast!!! I hope you will give Teapot Tuesday a go, it's awesome! Thanks for stopping by my creative friends! Hope you have a beautiful day!

Pop Up Gift Card Holder

 Hello friends, this evening I made a pop up gift card holder. After being so inspired by Katie's wonderful Holiday Coffee Gift Card Holder , I chose to make mine a pop up just because SCS offered up this easy POP UP GIFT CARD HOLDER TUTORIAL today for day 2 of their Holiday Tutorial Blitz.

Gift Card Holder closed with band

Gift Card Holder open. Stamped with My Creative Time Fancy Frame Stamp & Die Set, sentiment from Anna Griffen

Thank you for stopping by :)

Magical Stair Step Card

I made this fun and easy stair step card in honor of this week's Featured Stamper at SCS, Karen! Karen is such a talented artist with a gallery brimming with inspiration! I chose to case her wonderful High Hopes Fall Stair Step card, changing my theme to Christmas. I used my Cricut and Winter Frolic cartridge to create the scenery and the little green house is a Unity stamp.  The stitched tag die is from My Creative Time's "Build A Banner" stamp and die set, which I love and adore! Embellishing a stair step card is soooo funnnnn!!! I had a ball making this one!  I hope you are inspired to try one too! Thanks for visiting!

Sweet n Sassy Inspiration Challenge- Cupcakes & Cocoa

Hi friends! This card is for the Sweet n Sassy Stamps Inspiration Challenge #12 found HERE. It was very inspiring indeed and so much fun! I love the yumminess of this 0 calorie cupcake inspiration!

I wanted a winter card so I inked up the big mug from Sweet n Sassy's "Warm Up" set and re-stamped it onto a scrap of patterned paper I liked. I used the "whipped cream" topping to make it a cupcake top instead and made an easy cupcake base from another piece of scrap dp. I sponged a big of creamy caramel (SU!) and distressed the edges of the image frame. Cuttlebugged the blue base with swiss dots embossing folder then had fun with embellishments, as you can see :) Hope you play along too, it goes all month long! Thanks so much for visiting me. Have a creative day!

Viva Las VSN Surprise Challenge

Hey there, happy Friday! I'm so ready for the weekend and tonight's super fun surprise challenge over in Splitcoast's VSN forum is just perfect to start it off right! The Viva Las VSN mini officially begins on Saturday, April 25th from 10am-1pm EST and 6pm-9pm EST--tonight, however, we got a couple of surprise showgirls in the lounge for the challenge Bellie Up To The Buffet! The idea is to go crazy with embellishments (sorta like we do at the buffet dessert table, hehe) using a minimum of 3 with no limit! Thanks Jen Balcer and Lori Craig--total superstars!!! I got stuffed on my vegas-style cupcake, blinging it out to th max!
supplies used: Unity Stamps-cupcake, cherry, sweet word, flourish; white, banana, pretty in pink and gold textured cardstock; DCWV dsp "The Sweet Stack"; pink/white dotted wide grosgrain ribbon and narrow red grosgrain ribbon, red bling dots and gems; white foam paint (DecoArt); chunky glitter, scallop scissors and photo corner punch, mini hole punch, pop dots, d/s sticky tape.
Thanks for visiting me! I hope to be back tomorrow with more creations for this fun event! Hope you can join in the fun too! And remember, what happens at VSN stays at VSN! :)

More Stuff....

Hi there, I'm back to say that Jess Russell's challenge for Limelight's 12 days of Christmas is NOT to make anything! ...it's a super fun and festive guessing game instead! Check it out here! And since I didn't have to do a card for her challenge, I decided to do Rox's sketch challenge over at Splitcoast. I played with my Clear Artistic Stamps because I love this wreath with the 3 words surrounding it from Joy Of The Season. I added gold stickles to the little stars within the wreath and red stickles to the bow. Did you know that this set and Belinda's 2 other Holiday sets are on sale this week for only $8.95! That is an amazing deal, take it from me! These stamps are absolutely delightful and you should have them in your holiday collection for sure! I'm just sayin...I love em!

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!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Hey all! Just wanted to wish everyone a super fun Memorial Day weekend before we head out to Packwood for camping! The weather is not as promising as I had hoped, but we're gonna do it--I would not be opposed to you all doing a "don't rain" dance for me, LOL!

Anyway, I'm just posting a couple of projects I made the past week and posted at SCS. The first is my Americana paper basket with decked out with patriotic Unity stamp designs. The basket was made using Laura Canale's rockin' tutorial here! Wow, that lady is a genius, I tell ya! I first tried to make a basket on my own taking measurements and such from a small basket in my home---umm, BIG mistake! It was a total flop and I quickly got online to see if anyone with brains had tried such a technique! Sure enough, there was and boy, did I feel dumb after seeing how you really pull together a basket like this! My 4th of July Unity stamps is what I wanted to show off and I popped the images onto glitter star sticks for fun and filled my basket with caramel popcorn.

I also pulled together this golf ball card for SCS's Ways To Use It challenge this week, to make a masculine card. Well, my DH, Daddy and both my brothers are golfers (unfortunately, none of em make $$ doing it, *snort!*) and I know I saw someone else out there do a embossed golf ball using the CB tiny bubbles folder, so I thought, why not! I have been wanting to stamp Rupa Shevde's new golf bag and clubs images since I got them last month. The set is called "King Of The Grill" and is available at Gina K. Designs. This set will take care of all of your masculine card needs, it's the best! After cutting the largest circle from my Coluzzle template, I put the face of the card into the tiny bubbles embossing folder and left the backside out on the back of the folder, then ran it thru my Cuttlebug...easy a pie! I have 2, count 'em TWO, Copics! LOL! I am so proud of my 2 Copic pens and I used my Sand to color in the bag, the darker chocolate is a Marvy marker--what a difference, holy cow! I can tell you that building my Copic originals collection is now on the top of my priority list! Expensive--yes! Worth it--double yes!!

I hope you all have a most blessed and safe holiday weekend! Please come back and visit me on Tuesday for a big blog candy announcement! Hugs!

A Glittery Sketch Challenge!

Hello friends! This card is a 2-fer. 1, for Beate's weekend sketch challenge and 2- I threw some glittery stickles onto the image and added those cool glitter flowers by Heidi Grace and it became eligible for Sharon's glitter challenge too, sweet! Those pretty stacked boxes and hat image as well as the sentiment are from Rupa Shevde, her first set available at Gina K. Designs. TFL and I hope you play along too and post your card for everyone to see! ~hugs and happy stamping~

Time For A Pedicure!

Hello friends and happy Thursday! Today's challenge over at SplitCoast today is to find fun ways to use EYELETS!!! Click on Julia's Ways To Use It challenge to join in the fun too!

As you can see, I used eyelets to string the sheer dotted ribbon thru and create the top part of the flip flop. Boy, do I love my Crop-a-Dile (a Christmas gift from my wonderful Mom and Dad!) Anyone else wonder how they ever survived crafting without one? I used my old *Announcements* SU! set to make them invitations--say, to a pool party or beach party...I don't have a pool and I don't live near a beach, so I'm not sure what the heck I'm going to do with these, lol! I was thinking these could be cute just to send as a *Happy Summer* or *Get Ready For Flipflops!* greeting or how about, *Time For A Pedicure*, what do you think? Know how flip flops often have decorative flowers or bling on them nowadays....well Gina K.'s bling & dazzle flowers worked famously for that! I just attached them to the ribbon with a purple brad, a dot of lavendar stickles for sparkle and done! Anyway, this was very quick and easy to make and I've included the pattern for those interested in making some too! Thanks so much for visiting and have great day! ~hugs and happy stamping~

A Color Challenge--A Sketch Challenge and Gina K Designs!

Hello friends! Today I combined 2 challenges--this week's sketch challenge at Card Positioning Systems sponsored by Gina K. Designs and SplitCoast's color challenge, using Apricot Appeal, Mellow Moss, Cream Caramel and Coral (I improvised on caramel and coral). Everyone is using Gina K.'s latest *free with three* set for the CPS challenge, so I also had to join in the fun! It's called "Spring Blooms" and it's just lovely! I used my Ginger Blossom designer paper by Stampin' Up! to compensate for the coral and the tan/white gingham ribbon is from my SCS friend *Kharmagirl*. I liked inking the stamps in colors other than black, it made for a really nice look. Thanks for visiting and I hope you are inspired to try these super fun challenges yourself! ~hugs and happy stamping~

Hoppy Snack Pack

Hello, sorry for the lack of posts, I've been in a bit of a creative rut. Everything I've made this week seems to be missing the *wow* factor, which I feel you deserve no less than. I made this hanging treat holder using the SCS tutorial by Christina Fischer, who is absolutely amazing and so very talented...you should visit her blog, if you don't already. I used Melanie's kangaroo and balloon from her new Just So Hoppy set and Stampin' Up! designer series paper Ginger Blossom. I thought this would be cute for a gymnastic meet snack gift (cuz of the hoppy kangaroo, get it?) only I don't know any gymnasts...I guess I'll have to channel that 12 year old gymnast on the *Flyaways* in myself and gobble these treats down, hehe! Thanks so much for visiting--I hope to have a burst of awesome inspiration this weekend and share more stuff! Have a great one, my friends!

It's A Bake-Off!

Ok, I'm way behind this week on my posts and my comments! I will be catching up on my inspiration this weekend ladies--I know you all have great new things at your blogs! I made this card for 2 challenges: one is Roxie's sketch challenge at SplitcoastStampers, which was hosted by the fabulous Shelly (aka: Papermoon04) and the also for the super fun Bake-Off challenge over at SHARON'S BLOG! Check them both out and join the fun too! I used this adorable Bella image that a super sweet lady named AMY sent me cuz I won her blog candy giveaway, she is the sweetest! For the candy on top, I used a white *sugarcoated* brad by Doodlebug Designs, which Amy sent me a whole pack of...those things are too cool! After coloring the image using a blender pen and markers, I went over the cupcake with diamond stickles, then popped it on dimensionals. Those pink xoxox strips and the circle sentiment are from a another blog candy giveaway I won from ALESHA...I'm so lucky!...and they are stickers by Stampin' Up! Very easy, fun and I think they are so cute! Well, thanks for looking and have a wonderful weekend!