Girlfriend's Day Swap Cards

My SBS sisters recently had a swap for Girlfriend's Day, which is this Friday, August 1. Here are the fantastic cards that each participant received:

From Elisabeth:

From Rachel

From Me:

Next, let me say that I love the color combination in Rachel's card. Her main panel has paisley, flowers, swirls and other girly images in the same color combination. Nice job! And the swirl clip detail on the ribbon is a great touch.

First, let me comment on the background paper of Elisabeth's card. I love the sparkly background and the trim that is made of velvety flowers. Very pretty! And the sentiments are perfect ;)

On my card, I used the CHF pretty pattern backgrounder and some dp from the dollar store. The pink tag is from some blog candy I won and I added the sentiment from Verve and some flowers and bling. I also added a Prima to the flower on the main image, which is Sweetybellas. The ribbon is American Crafts.

Is it Friday yet?? Yikes, what a week! I found a job posting today that is a great position, but would require either an hour commute each way or moving house. We've talked about moving house, but like our neighbors. The school district is not the best, but the taxes are lower than surrounding areas. However, the job is the next move on the career ladder if I want to continue on my professional path. So do I throw my resume into the ring anyway? When DH is back in town I guess we'll have lots to talk about!

On another note, anyone have the Carl/Bidex rotary cutter? How long should I expect a blade and cutting strip to last? I've been using mine for almost a year and it feels like the cutting strip is starting to fade in performance. Any opinions are appreciated!

Oh, and one more thing. Saturday I am hosting a Home and Garden Party at my house if any of you happen to be in this neck of the woods! All my hostess benefits will be converted into a cash donation for my Avon Walk. I'm at 65% of my fundraising goal :)

Thanks for looking!

Back To Challenges This Week...

I love Mary Jo Price-Williams' sketches on Mondays, and I always copy them with the intention of completing them. Then Sunday night comes and it's too late. BUT, this week I made it a priority to finish a card for her Monday Lunchtime Sketch #28, and here it is:Stamps are Verve, Asian Flair and Floral Whimsy. This sentiment is the reason I bought the whole Asian Flair set. And the components of Floral Whimsy are just too fun not to play with. Who doesn't love flowers and vases that can be mixed and matched?? The dp is Provo Craft, Baby Green Swirlies on Pink. Inks are Whispers Whisper Pink and Versamark. I used the poppin' pastels technique which I have not done before. It's great how the color jumps out on the Versamark! The ribbon is from my stash, but I do believe it is SU! The scalloped circle is made with Nesties and the Cuttlebug, and I also used the glaze pen and Stardust Gelly Roll to add a little pizazz to the flowers and the scallops.

I hope you like it, and I hope you check out the Monday Lunchtime Sketches. There are always great players! Thanks for looking!

Jilted-Bella and Her (Ex-)Fella

If you have never heard of Allison, at Stampin When I Can, then you must stamp under a rock. She has a great, resourceful blog and has been issuing weekly theme challenges. Thinking outside the norm this week, she challenged readers to create a card for a girlfriend who has just been jilted by her beau. Here's my rendition:
I used Bellas, Emmybella and Beerafella, colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. The sentiment on Emmybella is from Verve, All About You. The sentiment under him is freehand with a white gel pen. Funny, is there a stamp out there that says that? Unless you are one of the lucky owners of the Snap Stamps that were discontinued and make it yourself?

That's about it for today. Another long day at work today - I had a new employee start today and spent most of the day showing her around and starting to train her. And DS had a reaction to his sunscreen this morning, so I got a call from daycare. Luckily, Benadryl stopped his itching, but I don't get it because we have used that sunscreen brand before with no problems. To make it worse, they didn't even play outside because it was too hot!

Ahh, but my Verve order came today. I LOVE to shop Verve because she has great designs, the best sentiments, and I can order Friday and have the goodies in my mailbox Monday. Now that's fast service! Thanks to Julee, who even processed orders on her birthday!

I'm off to bed now. I just wanted to get this one challenge completed so that I could have some creative time today. Have a good one, everyone. Thanks for looking!

Another Challenge Card...

The one thing I got done creatively today was this card. It uses some of the leftover materials sent to me by Sue at Stampndaly.com. This card also fits the Ways To Use It challenge from this week - Negative Thoughts.I used the chipboard circle that the star was in, and embossed it with detail white ep. The sentiment on the botton red tag is also white embossed, but I always forget to use my embossing buddy before sprinkling the powder, and there are stray bits. The side sentiment is from Hambo. I added some green brads to the orange strip along the side and punched more stars from the dotted dp. I also added a corner punch from the dotted dp to the lower right edge of the tag. From my stash are the orange rhinestones at the points of the star. It really looked too plain without them. This is all mounted on the red striped dp and then the orange, and added to a white card base.

This card was another real challenge for me, but I feel good about stretching my creativity. My stamp room is all clean and ready for more cards later tonight. I've got my eye on a bookcase from another part of the house, I just have to figure out what to do with the things on it right now before I can swipe it. My poor dh hasn't discovered that I rearranged our guest room again yet, either! Let's see how long it takes him to notice...

Thanks for looking!

A Challenging Gift Card Holder

Early in June, Susan Daly from Stampindaly.com issued a challenge on her blog. She would send out a little packet of materials and the recipients had to create something with those materials. Of course, I forgot to take a "before" picture, but she sent me some orange, yellow and red cardstock, some double-sided dp (red on red stars/polka dots), some striped dp, a chipboard star, an image, a few tags in red and white and some black grosgrain ribbon.

Here is the card she sent with the goodies. Isn't it cute that she created a ladybug from punched shapes? And I always love flowers on flourishes! These materials have been in my head since I got them, and I wanted to do something special. Since the colors are really outside my comfort zone, I waited and waited until the idea came to me. Then I had to wait some more until I had time to execute the idea! Well, today was the day and I made time tonight to complete it. I still have pieces of materials left, and will make another card tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

I chose to make a flap card gift card holder. To begin, I covered the star in the dotted paper. In the center of the star is a small punched star and a rhinestone. The star hides the magnet closure for the card. The outside is layered with the red, then the striped dp. I even took the time to match up the pattern of the pieces so it looks more polished!!

Inside, I colored the hippo with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. I dragged the gray around the image to create a shadow. The main image is mounted on red, then the dotted dp and adhered to the center part of the card. The bottom, as you can see, has a strip of the black ribbon across it that holds the gift card in place. One problem - the gift card slid out the bottom of the card when opened all the way. As a remedy, I added a tag that has a sentiment from my own collection and some punched stars from the dotted dp. This is attached to the ribbon with a red brad (also from my stash) and the lower right corner is adhered with a glue dot, which holds the gift card in place. Clever, no? I'm sure I'm not the first to use this trick!

This is the first time I have used the BG magnet snaps. I LOVE THEM!!!

I hope Susan likes what I have produced. I'm hoping to get more stamping time this weekend. My desk is relatively cleaned off, so I won't have to waste time doing that before getting started. The only chores for the morning are a run to the farmer's market to supplement our tomatoes and zucchini, and a trip to get a haircut for DS. Then the boys will take a ride in the new car and the day is mine (insert evil laugh here)!

Hope you all have a good weekend. Thanks for looking :)

Ahhh, Summer!

Warning - the first half of this post is not stamping-related, so scroll down if you only want the stamped goods!

Here's what I picked up at the Farmer's Market on Sunday: fresh mozzarella, fresh bread, tomatoes, green beans, garlic, carrots (with the greens still attached), green peppers and potatoes. YUM! The garlic is so potent, I made a batch of hummus using only one clove, and you'd better have mints handy after eating it :)

Before work today, I picked a couple of big zucchini from the garden. We have one tomato that is about to turn red, and something is eating my eggplant!! Seriously, one plant is half gone and another had an eggplant that *would* have been ready now, but some critter had dinner with it before I could! UGH...For dinner tonight I had a sandwich with hummus and cucumbers and lettuce on the bread I purchased Sunday. I could eat like that every night, but only do when DH is out of town. I feel like I have to serve him some meat each night, or I'm failing in my wifely duties.

Now on to the stamping - I participated in the Divine Secret Siblings swap on SCS this past round. It has been tons of fun spoiling my "little Sis" each month with treats. This month, it is reveal time. I made a little package for her and included this criss-cross box filled with Tootsie Rolls and this Post-It Holder. The pad inside is a "B" for her name and I made a buckle closure for the pad holder. I only used a few sheets of Elegant Eggplant CS and some scraps of dp, and white cs. The stamps are Verve, Filigree Fantasy. I added some bling and sparkle with my white gel pen and Gelly Roll Stardust pen, and also a crystal brad in the centers of each main image. I hope she likes them!

OK, off to bed now. I'm exhausted after working today and yesterday. Why is it so hard to come back from vacation??

Thanks for looking!

My First ATC Swap

The sisters in my SBS12 group held an ATC swap, and I decided to jump in because I have never created one of these little treasures. Truth be told, I was a little intimidated by their mini size, but oh, it was fun to make them. Here are the group's creations:

Clockwise from upper left corner: Dawn, Rachel (USA), Rachel (UK), Me, Elisabeth. Aren't they gorgeous???

This is a closeup of Rachel's card that is a tri-fold. I love the details she put into the edges, sponging the embossing.

For mine, I used Bohemia paper, Verve stamps and some ribbon I had in my stash that I found worked perfectly with the paper.

I'll be back with more this week. It was a long day at work, but DH is heading out of town tomorrow, and that means evenings are free after DS goes to bed! Thanks for looking!

Great Blog Candy Alert

Silvia has some great candy to enter for HERE

Please tell her I sent you and post on your own blog for extra entries!!

Thanks for looking!

Back to Reality...

We got back from vacation late last night, and we spent the day getting unpacked and putting the house back in order. Sadly, tomorrow brings a return to work. Hopefully in the evening I will have more stamp time than I did today. But here are some pics from our week. We went to the beach one day and had a blast, other days were spent lazing at my aunt's pool and relaxing at my mom's. Of course, we dragged DS shopping much to his chagrin. Saturday I worked a vendor/craft fair with my mom as a fundraiser for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. DS was very excited to see DH's new toy when we arrived home. Here he is ready to go for a ride:

It was a good week - it's always hard to return to the reality of day-to-day life...

Thanks for looking!

In Case You Were Wondering...

I'm still around. I'm staying at my parents' house in NH for a week, relaxing and catching up with them. My cousin graduated from college and we had a party for her this past Saturday. Since I didn't want to miss it, and I am doing a craft show for my Avon Walk this coming Saturday, I decided to just spend the week up here. It's so peaceful and green! We are hoping the clouds clear up today so we can head to the beach. DS is getting to spend lots of time with his cousins and is having a blast.

Hopefully I'll have time to create something later - you should see the box of supplies I packed up with me! However, evenings are often spent playing Scrabble (there's fierce competition in my family where that game is involved) so I can't promise when or what.

I hope you are all doing well and please don't go away while I'm taking this break!! Thanks for looking :)

Birthday RAKS (And My First Slide Show)...

Here are some gorgeous cards I got from around the world for my birthday!! Thanks to everyone who was kind enough to send one :)

Back From Vacation, Checking In...

Well, we are back from a very relaxing, completely unplugged vacation! It was great, and the campground was very nice and clean. Our cabin was cozy and across the road from the sandy lake beach. Perfect!! We sat on the porch in the evenings and listened to the quiet and watched the lake. During the day, the cousins all played together and we even took a hike on Sunday. Here is the view from the top (Lake Winnipesaukee is in the distance).

While I was away, I received some birthday cards from the Send a Birthday Card organized by Karin. They are from stampers overseas and are just gorgeous! The first is from Gonny and has a cute Minnie Mouse embossed image on the front. Next is from Canne in Scotland, and has a pretty swiss dots embossed panel and great swirly butterfly image. The third is from Ria in the Netherlands and features the MOST beautiful stitching I have ever seen. I hope the close-up image can show you the detail. The flowers are all popped up and it has a great 3-d effect. Thanks for the birthday wishes, Ladies!!

I'm getting some things ready for a vendor faire on July 19th. I'm doing it with my mom and am selling some items to raise funds for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer that I will be doing in October in NYC. Wish me luck! I hope I do well, and once I have stuff prepared for that, I will be back to stamping. My SIL gave me the A Little Bit of Happiness set as a gift and I'm itching to trim and ink it up!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July, everyone! I'll be back over the weekend with more photos and creations :) Thanks for looking!