WT181 - Sharpen Up

Shame on me for not having a Fan Club membership over at Splitcoast Stampers. If so, I could add my photos on Sunday. I'll have to get these uploaded to my gallery tomorrow instead. Here are my card for the Ways To Use It Challenge from Thursday. I used Flaky Friends (new to me) and made some little 3x3 cards. The layout is from Sheetload of Cards Mini in July. Such a great little layout, I made 8 of these cards instead of 6, just because I could get that many pieces from some of my paper.Images are colored with my new Koh-i-Noor pencils, which I am loving! I thought I adored my Prismacolor pencils, but I (heart) these woodless color pencils. The laydown of color is so rich, it blends like a charm! The sentiment is from Everyday Flexible Phrases and the hardware is from Queen and Co.

This layout will definitely be used again in my quest to make Christmas tags. I've begun my Christmas cards - just stamping and coloring some images. How far have you gotten with your holiday cards??

We spent the afternoon at our neighbor's house, celebrating his birthday. Tomorrow my friend and I are aiming to walk 20 miles. We did 16 Saturday. I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be today. I am trying to get some playtime in before turning in tonight. Have a good night. Thanks for looking!

Love Always

For CPS #79, I thought and thought all week. Tonight I had the time to sit down and create something. This was a very fun card to make, although I had a heck of a time trying to line up the flower and outline stamps. Even with the Stamp-a-ma-jig, I'm still challenged with those 2-step stamps! Oh, well, it's done and I am quite pleased with it.The paper is from Target, the yellow card base is from my stash. The card is a 4.25" square. The ribbon is from Ribbons and Bows, Oh My! Stamps are from SU! - Small Script and Love Without End. I used a combination of Colorbox chalk ink and Whispers pads. The centers of two flowers are also traced over with my Spica Stardust glitter pen. Flowers are popped up on dimensional squares.

As it's been another doozy of a week, I'm heading to bed early to curl up with a book. I am also walking a long walk tomorrow, probably 12-16 miles, so want to get some sleep for that. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend!! I'll be back with more posts tomorrow and the next few days. Meanwhile, thanks for looking!

Hmmmmm...Not So Sure...

...About this card. I used the color combination from today at SCS, and the sketch from TechnoStamper. On paper, this card was much prettier to me. Perhaps its the background stamp? I tried the faux dry embossing, but it apparently doesn't work on black cardstock. It's the CHF Pretty Pattern backgrounder. The kraft was run through the Swiss Dots folder in the Cuttlebug. Ribbon is from Target's after-Christmas sale last year. Hardware on the flower center is from Queen and Co. Sentiment is All Year Cheer (SU!).

I'm going to leave it at that. Please decide for yourself whether or not to like this card. I'm still unsure, will make another judgement later. Thanks for looking!

Wide Load...

Allison's weekly challenge was to use fat ribbon on a card. You can view details HERE. I combed through my stash until I found this pretty green/blue shimmery ribbon. It's just over an inch wide. Most of my wide ribbons are just shy of 1 inch, so I was happy to find that I actually had some material to play this challenge. I only just found the felt I could have used a couple weeks ago!

The backstory of this card is from our vacation in June. When we were with my brother and SIL and kids, my neice had the cutest shirt on one day. It was light blue with butterflies across the front in purple, yellow, pink, green and orange. I have had that shirt in my mind ever since vacation and I just today got it out onto a card. Base is Certainly Celery, with a dark brown layer and a Soft Sky layer that was run through the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The butterflies are from Fluttering By by Verve. I added microbeads to the butterfly bodies and mounted the cut-out ones over a stamped Chocolate Chip butterfly. The tag is a Cuttlebug die also, stamped with a sentiment from MFT's Icing on the Cake.

I am quite pleased with how this card turned out, although next time I might make a long card to fit more butterflies...

Thanks, Allison, for another fun challenge!

A Few RAKS To Share

From Mada in Romania, this is the August JT Aloha RAK club card I received. Mada is a new blogger, but go and check her out. This card is very pretty! She also made a donation to my Avon Walk fundraising. Thank you VERY much, Mada! Next, I received a parcel from Deb in CA. The first time she sent my Aloha RAK for July, it got lost in the mail. So she sent this last week. I love the Halloween stuff, as well as the floral girly stuff. DS is eyeing those spider foam stamps!! Thanks so much, Deb!

This weekend, I did my practice walk - 13 miles long! I'm aiming for 15 miles this weekend, 17 next and adding 2 each weekend until the big event on October 4 and 5. I am happy to say that I have surpassed my fundraising goal!

Perhaps this week will be less hectic at work and I can take some time to stamp. It's killing me not to create something every day! Thanks to my few readers for sticking around.

Speaking of blog candy, Wallflower never claimed her prize from last week, so I am going to send it to Rachel. I drew names again and hers is the one that came out of the cup. Rachel, I have your info from the SBS group, and will get your goodies out to you this week.

OK - I'm off to see if I can sneak in one more card before bedtime. Wish me luck! Thanks for looking!

CPS #78

Finally, I got to stamp tonight. I raced home during my lunch hour to clean the bathrooms so that when I got home from work for the day, I could just relax and play in my craft room! I spent some time cleaning it up, thinking about what I wanted to create, and then got to work. I chose CPS Sketch #78.

The paper is from Perhaps, by Basic Grey. The stamps are Delight in Life (SU!) with a sentiment from Fluttering By (Verve). Lace is from my stash of trimmings. I watercolored the images and the sentiment panel, then cut out the flower for the sentiment. Then I popped it up on dimensionals to make it stand out.

Well, not too much to say here tonight. I am heading to bed soon, after I gather my things for tomorrow. I have to be out of the house by 5:30am to make it into the city for an 8am walk time. Yikes! That's super-early for me, since DS and I usually don't start moving until 6:40 or so...

I see that my counter is slowly nearing 10K hits, so that will mean more candy! Have a good weekend, and hopefully I'll be back with more to share tomorrow. I at least have some RAKs to share. Thanks for looking!

Because Even Superheroes Need A Little Bling...

The Stampin Gals challenge this week is to use bling on your card. I chose to use this cute Billy stamp by Pink Cat Studio as my main image. He is just too cute as a superhero, a pirate, a cowboy and a boy with a frog on his head. He will be making many appearances over the next few months as we enter the Fall Birthday Season. Seriously, there is at least one birthday for DS's friends during each of the next 5 months.For bling, I added a rhinestone to his belt and also heat embossed the chipboard rick rack with Holographic EP. He is colored with Bic Mark-It markers and the circles for the sentiment are cut with Cuttlebug dies. I hope the lightning bolts around him show up in the photo.

It's been another doozy of a week, and I'm glad tomorrow is Friday!! I got the sweetest mail today - an envelope of Prima flowers from none other than Kim Hughes! What a great surprise :) She has new papers coming out tomorrow from CHF and I can't wait to see them.

This weekend, I will be going on a 13 mile "Route Preview" walk in preparation for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in NYC. Hopefully I won't be too tired afterward to spend some quality time in my craft room. It's been way too long since I had time to just play!

Have a good Friday. Thanks for looking!

Let's Chat Challenge Card

I just love Mondays. Not because it marks the start of another work week, but because of the challenges that are posted. One of my favorites is from MJ's Monday Lunchtime Sketches. You can see the details here: TechnoStamper Sketch #31. Usually, I don't get them done till Wednesday or Thursday, but I'm an early bird this week. It's been so long since I stamped, though, that this card took almost 2 hours to complete. Never mind that I set off the smoke alarms while roasting a chicken halfway through creating it...I used a foam stamp that I've had for quite some time, and a new sentiment (let's chat) that I just won from Karen. I also used the French Script in Ruby Red for the left side panel. The ink I used for the sentiment is from Ranger, their new pigment inks. I LOVE this white!! It actually stood up to the black paper and didn't fade into the background! Scalloped circles were cut with my Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug. Recently, I rearranged my room and have the Cuttlebug on a shelf beside my desk. It's much easier to pull out and I find myself using it more often.

This card also celebrates Red Phone Day, which is a wacky holiday posted by my SBS12 sisters. Red Phone Day is August 30, and I have to admit that I don't know the history of this holiday. And how many of our children actually think that this is what a telephone looks like? Isn't that funny? I have an aunt who only went to push button dialing about 5 years ago. Until then, she had a rotary dial, and I remember when a friend of my cousin was over and didn't know how to use it! How many of you remember your first phone number? Mine was 9-1005. We didn't have to dial area codes, and numbers were only 5 digits...

I hope you all had a good Monday. Thanks for looking!

Blog Candy Winner!!

This weekend was another one that zipped right by. Started yesterday morning with a phone call - one of my employees was sick and wouldn't be able to work. There went my long to-do list, out the window! I had to go in to at least cover lunches, so my morning walking plans were scratched. In the afternoon, we promised a movie/popcorn date with DS, so we watched Happy Feet. Of course, he was petrified by the lion seal and the nasty birds, so it wasn't as much fun as it sounds.

Today, I had a table outside the local grocery store to raise funds for the Avon 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer. People were VERY generous, and I made a large dent in the remaining funds I have to raise. Tonight I got to actually walk. Oh, and in between all this I had about 20 lbs of tomatoes sitting on my counter that needed attention before they took over the house. I still have a chicken to roast, and the day is not over yet. I'm ready for some relaxing, but is it possible to be too tired to stamp??

So now onto the news you're all waiting for. Thanks to all of you who participated in the blog candy drawing. I threw the names into a bowl and drew Wallflower as the winner. Wallflower, please contact me before Wednesday night so I can get the goodies to you. If I don't hear from the winner by Wednesday night (9pm EST), I will draw another winner!

Thanks for looking!

Belated Birthday RAKS

I have been remiss about posting some of the birthday RAKS I received last month. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I'm finally making the time to post them for you to see the generosity in blogland.

From Cindy, at Creating with the Heart:

From Linda, at Linanna Designs:

Filled with all kinds of gorgeous goodies:

And from Ilona, for a Garden Swap on First Swap Blog:Lucky, Lucky me. Thanks to all my blogger friends! Thanks for looking :)

My First Tilda

The Stamping Gals have issued their first weekly challenge - Out of the Box. I am entering this card because it contains several elements that are outside my usual comfort zone. I used the bright orchid paper, watercolored my image, and also cut out the image and layered her on pop-dots for dimension. Not to mention the microbeaded heart that I have used only once before, despite the hearts being in my stash forever! I hope they like it!

I have seen these Tilda stamps around and have not ordered any for myself. Then Karin sent me some stamped images for my birthday. Some of them are stamped on watercolor paper, and this Tilda was SO fun to watercolor!!


She is sitting upon a micro-bead and glitter covered heart, which doesn't show up well against the scalloped rectangle. It looks kind of like a purple heart cloud to me. But IRL it's nice and sparkly :)

The sentiment in the upper right corner is from Verve. The dp is from a great K & Co pad in my stash. Tilda is mounted on foam tape for dimension. Karin sent more images, and I can't wait to color them. I have the new Bic Mark-It markers that I haven't tried yet. My poor Prismacolor pencils are getting dusty as I play with watercoloring and other coloring media.

Don't forget to go HERE for blog candy in celebration of my blogaversary!! Have a good day. Thanks for looking!

CPS #77 - Happy Anniversary

My mom and step-dad are celebrating their wedding anniversary on Friday. They have been together 27 years. Here's the card I made for them, using the CPS #77 sketch. I turned the sketch on it's side to make this layout. The stamps are SU! unknown and Verve Wonderful Wishes. The card base is Purely Pomegranate, but of course I realized I don't have PP ink and instead used Rose Red. The match is close, but not perfect... The ribbon and dp are from my stash. I'm so bad, I have so much stuff that I don't know the brand or name of half of it.

So I just realized that my MIL's birthday is next week, so I'd better get creative for her. If you miss her birthday, look out. I hope DH realizes that it is coming so soon!

Hope you are having a good day. Don't forget to scroll down for blog candy to celebrate my Blogaversary!! Thanks for looking!

Little Bits of Happiness, and a Missed Blogaversary (Candy!)

When we went camping in June with my brother and SIL, she gave me this set, A Little Bit of Happiness. I had mentioned to her that I loved it, but it was a hostess only set. Well, she had a huge Stampin Up workshop and earned it. Thing is, she doesn't love it like I do. So she gifted it to me. A little bit of happiness on my part, indeed! Finally, this weekend, I had a chance to play with it. I got out the watercolor paper, watercolor pencils and ended up with this set of four cards. Notice I also played with my new Cuttlebug edging folders - love them :)

I used mostly scraps for these, and precut cards that I had from other projects. They came together very quickly and I think I'll be making more. I like the limited layers and think they would make a nice gift. I always feel badly when I give a pack of cards that require extra postage to send!

This weekend, I missed my Blogaversary!! Can you believe it's been a whole year? I want to extend a thank you to all my readers - it means a lot to me that my creations aren't lost in the ether or simply collecting dust on my shelves. I have met some wonderfully generous people and reconnected with lost friends through this blog.

As a token of thanks, I would like to give some blog candy. I have a pack of Hip Chip in black and white designs, as well as a Making Memories project pad filled with gorgeous stickers and dp.To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling me WHY you stamp. I'll draw a name on Sunday, August 17th at 5pm EST.

Thanks for looking!

We're In This Together...

I've mentioned once or twice that I am registered to walk the Avon 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer in October. It's something I've wanted to do for some time, and each year have found a reason not to do. This is the year. It's 39.3 miles over the course of 2 days, and I'm very excited to be a part of something bigger.

Today I took the time to draft my letter that will be mailed to all of my contacts. A letter campaign to my town's businesses is next. I am hoping to raise more than the minimum of $1800.

Please consider making a donation to this very worthy cause that has such far-reaching results. Each year, millions are raised to fund local and national research efforts. The Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade has raised more than $250 million. Every dollar makes a difference in finding a cure for this disease that takes the life of one woman every 14 minutes.

Make a donation by clicking on this link, which will bring you to my Participant Page. Then click on "Make a gift" under the thermometer or the pink button above the thermometer that says "Support Me". After making your donation (ANY amount helps!), post a comment on this post, and I will draw a name for blog candy each month until October, when the walk takes place. The candy will be a surprise each month, but will be my small way of saying Thank You to all who take the time to donate.

Meanwhile, here's a card that I'm working on as part of a series to go to each donor. I have used MFT Think Pink stamps, and have been coloring these images for a week now. Each card will be slightly different, using every dp with pink in my stash. The embellisments will be limited, though, as I hope to be mailing out a ton of these!
Thanks so much for looking!

Monday Lunchtime Sketch...On Tuesday

I ended up taking a sick day today, since I have this awful cold. I struggled through the workday yesterday, and this morning just couldn't do it. So I've been stamping all morning and will retire to the couch after a bit of lunch for a nap. Meanwhile, here is my card for the Techno Stamper Lunchtime Sketch #30. Can you believe how time flies?? I had better start planning my Christmas cards soon!

Ever since I ordered Seeing Stars by Verve, I have been itching to use it. The Emerson quote she included is just perfect. I might send this card to my brother who will be a Senior in high school this year. I embossed the sentiment with black EP and embossed the stars in gold. It is all mounted on a Bazzil base, but I'm not sure of the color name. DP was from my scrap stash, ribbon from my ribbon bucket.

Thanks for looking!

This Week's Project - Invitations

My neighbor is turning 70 next month, and her husband is throwing a surprise party for her. Since he never asks us for anything, I said "of course" when he asked me to make the invitations. In all, I had one week, full of work and regular tasks, to make 40 invites. At first, I had about 12 completed, and he said he needed them for hand-deliveries. So I still had to make another 28. I finished them last night, addressed them and got them in the mail today.

Here they are:

I had to change up the ribbons because I didn't have enough of any one kind and had no time to get to the craft store to find a new one in a greater quanitity. I like the variety, though, and it's not like people will compare ribbons, right? DP is from DCWV Spring Stack; brown scalloped rectangle is Bazzil in Carob, cut with Nestabilities. The blue layer under the information is from my stash, and the information panel is computer generated. Truthfully, there is no stamping on these invitations. Is that cheating?

This week at work truly was the pits. I can't believe everything that happened! It must have taken its toll on me, because this morning I slept until 9am. I haven't done that since before DS was born!! Today was spent running to the Farmer's Market, and stocking up on some stuff. Tonight and tomorrow are for relaxing and stamping! I played with my new Cuttlebug edging folders today and I love them. There are also new stamps and papers to play with. Oh and the new Tim Holtz ruler :)

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. The weather here is just gorgeous. Thanks for looking!

Finally, A Card!

For those who are wondering, I am still around! I have been dealing with utter ridiculousness at work, and have been to frustrated to do anything in the evening. My neighbor needs 40 invitations to his wife's surprise birthday party, and he asked me to make them. I have begun, but he told me today he needs more... I'll post those when I'm done.

Today, after losing 2 1/2 years of computer files (thanks to my new "IT" associate - don't even ask!), I felt that I had to feel the ink on rubber pressing onto a page. I wish I could say that it soothed my frazzled nerves, but it hasn't really. I feel too edgy to sleep, but know I have to go to bed after this post because I have to get up in the morning. Is it Friday yet?????

Here's what I came up with tonight - using Allison's challenge to use an abstract art piece as inspiration. I trolled through the online selection at Target and came up with this as inspiration. The green is calming to me and of course I love foliage and flowers!

This is my interpretation of it: The sentiment says "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. - Shakespeare." It's from Clear Art Stamps and the image is from SU! Best Blossoms. The image is stamped with Colorbox Lime Chalk Ink, then colored over with my Prismacolor pencil and blended. The mat is Certainly Celery and the base is a random cream card. Brads are Making Memories.

Please let tomorrow be a better day, and tell me there is a way of retrieving all my files!! Meanwhile, thanks for looking!