Simply Mocha Chica

CPS 207 is so fun this week! I have tons of ideas in my head for it. If only I had tons of time! This card did come together in a flash, using Mocha Chica papers and stamps from the Kim Hughes line of products from now-closed CHF. For those of you looking for a Kim Hughes fix, though, she has started her own stamp company, Paper Smooches! Such fun stuff she's come out with already :) I have a card using her one of her debut sets and will post in the next day or so. I'm still trying to decide if I love it or not.

Anyway, on this card, the bird and tree are paper pieced and all the square image panels are lightly sponged with Cool Caribbean ink. The green embellishments are Bella Dots that I got a couple Christmases ago from Stamping Bella. The other ink colors used here are Certainly Celery and Chocolate Chip. Have a good afternoon, and thanks for looking!

Bee-lated Birthday Wishes!

My birthday book is updated, I just have to remember to look at it! We missed our niece's birthday earlier this week, and I feel horrible about it. This will hit the mail with a little something tomorrow...

I used Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms, The Birds and the Bees and some Heidi Grace alphabet rubons. The colors are Melon Mambo and Crushed Curry, along with a bit of Kraft. The bees are embossed with black and the rhinestones are from my stash. These letter rubons were so close together on the sheet it was very hard to cut them out and then place them in line! That is why they are a little crooked. The image panel is cut with Nesties Labels Eight. Love those right now! I offset the Melon Mambo layer on the Crushed Curry so it would peek out just a bit. The dp is from the Welcome Friends pack by SU!

Time to get ready to walk and meet Justin at school. I am loving these afternoon walks to get him and he loves being outside on the way home! He runs ahead and tries to go faster than the cars passing us - it's too funny. Sometimes I think I have a dog and not a boy. He also likes to push the stroller, too!

Have a good afternoon and thanks for looking!

Another Day Late...

I decided to do the Color Throwdown challenge this week, but lo and behold I didn't get it submitted by the Sunday deadline! Oh, to have my brain back would be nice. I failed to read that in their submission requirements. But I still like the card I made!

Mocha Chica supplies were still out on my desk, so I went with those, adding Old Olive ink and ribbon. The ladybug has two dots from Stamping Bella on her spots for some depth and the edges of the paper are punched, too. This card came together very quickly, and I love it!

Here's a question - have you submitted for a Paper Crafts contest? Should I, or is the competition too stiff? I'm itching to try a submission, but am holding back. Any advice is appreciated!!

Today is my day to catch up on laundry. Maybe I'll get to play later. I also have DH's birthday to prepare for on Sunday. Not enough time in the day!! Thanks for looking!

Mocha Chica Wishes

Each week, I make a list of the challenges I want to complete. Each week, I get to a small percentage of them. Today, I dove in with the CPS Sketch, #156 while Carter took a good morning nap. This stamp set and papers (both Kim Hughes for CHF) have been in my stash for over a year and I knew I wanted to use them today. Maybe it's the anticipation of getting the new bird punch from SU! that had me thinking of birds. They are everywhere right now, it seems.

The card size is 7 1/4 by 3 3/4 inches. I made this size because I have a stash of random envelopes, and it fit the 8x8 inch papers! The green embellies are from Stamping Bella, the swirl is stamped with Soft Suede, and the bird is cut from the green paper. The wing is paper pieced.

Well, I have been saying that I have not been to a craft store since before Christmas, but I just sent a HUGE SU! order in and can't wait for stuff to arrive. I took full advantage of the SAB and am getting 7 free items from the SAB catalog!! Woohoo! Now if only I had more time to play :))

Have a good Monday, and thanks for looking!

The Gift Cards Were Nestled...

...all snug with Nuggets! I can't be the first one to figure out that the 8 short nugget box is the perfect size for a giftcard to be placed on top of the chocolates. I did these for two of our neices, DH's co-worker and Justin's teacher. The snowflakes on the candy wrappers and on the image background are from Verve. The snowman is from Kim Hughes for CHF, embossed with detail white EP and colored with Bic Mark Its.




I hope you are all ready for Christmas, or if you celebrated Hannukah, relaxing before a new crazy year begins! We had a birthday party Saturday for Justin,who is turning 6 on Christmas!! Where DOES the time go? Tomorrow is Justin's last day of school, and hopefully DH will have some time off next week, too. I have tentative playdates with about 8 of J's friends, so he won't have time to be bored :)
Thanks for looking!

Sheetload of Valentines!

Last weekend I decided to tackle the Valentines for DS's class. The party is not for a few weeks yet, but I didn't want to be scrambling at the last minute. Also, I gathered all my Valentine supplies this year and wanted to actually use up some of them! And, hey, I got this cute paper at Target's dollar spot, so I was inspired.

For the layout, I used the January issue of Sheetload of Cards. I used the birds from Kim Hughes for CHF, and the sentiment from Love Ya Much from CC Designs. Ribbon is from Target last year (or was it the year before?).





I hope you have a good weekend. DS is sick tonight and I'm hoping it's only a 24 hour bug that he doesn't share with us. Thanks for looking!

I Just Love This Project!

I often like the projects I get done, but I *LOVE* this one! DH asked me to make a set of gift cards for one of his administrative assistants. I recently ordered the Kim Hughes Nature's Silhouettes from CHF and have been wanting to use it. This was the perfect opportunity!

The card bases and inks are the '07 In Colors - True Thyme, Marigold Morning, Soft Sky and Vintage Violet. These are still some of my favorite colors and I have a ton of paper in each. I used the rectange scalloped and straight rectangles to cut the shapes and ran the vanilla layer through the Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots. The ribbons are all American Crafts and match quite nicely with the SU! colors.

Inside the cards, I attached a sheet of white paper and stamped the coordinating print in the lower right corner. My camera for some reason does not want to take a photo of the inside - I think there's too much white space to focus on. The box is the A2 card box template from SCS and I decorated the top with smaller versions of the images from the cards. In total there are 8 cards in the set - 2 of each color.

I hope she likes it! Now, I'm off to work and this week is filled with final preparations for DS's birthday party on Sunday, then it's off to the last minute Christmas rush. I have not had time to make cookies this year, but shopping is done and I even mailed a few packages this weekend! We put up our tree yesterday and it's finally starting to feel like Christmas around here. My to-do list is long, but manageable. I hope yours is too :)

Thanks for looking!

Mocha Chica Finally!

About 2 months ago, I just HAD to have this Mocha Chica paper from the Kim Hughes Collection at CHF, and the stamp set to match. It has been sitting by the wayside since it arrived, and finally I had a chance to use it! Thanks to Angel's bird challenge for Day 16. The card is 5x5 to accomodate the tree from the Mocha Chica paper pack. I love that the background and tree were already printed on the paper and all I had to do was stamp and cut out the cute little birds and mount them on the branches. The tag is a Cuttlebug Die stamped with the hello sentiment from the set. It is attached with some twine and glued to the bird's beak. Ribbon is American Crafts.

Here's a close up of the tag:

I know I'm going to go back to hording this fantastic paper, but I promise to TRY to use it more. Why horde paper when it looks so pretty on a card? We can always buy more, right? I just hate to cut into pretty things...

Thanks for looking!

National Gardening Day Inspiration - LSC171

Today's Limited Supplies Challenge over on SCS was to celebrate National Gardening Day, National Doughnut Day or National Yo-Yo Day. After picking a huge bowl of strawberries from my backyard garden, I was inspired to make this card. I am pleased with how it came out, although the details took forever. I used Stickles, Puffy Paint and Diamond Glaze on the three different images. The letters are chipboard letters I got for a RAK from Teri Suzuki, ribbon is from Ribbons and Bows Oh My! The stamps are Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms, stamped with Chocolate Chip and Pixie Pink ink. The background dp is Berry Bliss, and the base is textured Bitter Chocolate from Bazzill. The other pieces are scraps. For the image panels, I used 3 different Nestabilities squares. The sketch is from Di Hickman, on May 28th.

Here's the card:

Here's the inspiration (about to become Strawberry Shortcake tomorrow!):
Honestly, I don't know where this week went! I am so glad it's Friday, I ended up taking half the day off work just so I could get some things done. Hope you all have a nice weekend! It's going to be blisteringly hot here this weekend, so we'll be testing out our newly replaced A/C system. Thanks for looking!

Today, It's Just Me and My Stamps!

DH's gift to me today was the opportunity to use my day as I wish. He has already taken DS to the park, gotten him lunch, and put him down for a nap. Between laundry and a shower, here's what I've produced so far on my day off.

Each Friday, Taylor posts a sketch for her Cupcake Challenge. Each Friday, I print them off. Each week, they get pushed aside as other things come up. Today's the day I pulled her challenge from the pile and completed it! Yeah, me :)

I used the Hugs and Kisses set from Kim Hughes, available from Cornish Heritage Farms. I am saving my allowance this month to make a big purchase of some backgrounders from CHF. The hardest part is deciding which ones to make mine, they have SO many great ones! The strawberries are covered in red stickles. The papers are CTMH on a Certainly Celery base. The other panels are from my scrap pile. I used the new SU! twill that I have received in RAKs recently, and used my Crop-a-Dile to put the holes in the scallops, which were made using a corner rounder punch.

Have a great Sunday! Thanks for looking!

Allison's Suggestive Sunday - BUGS

Each week I want to play along with Allison's Suggestive Sunday, and this is only the second time I have gotten the chance. Her theme this week is bugs - but no butterflies! I used SCS Sketch 169 as my layout. The stamps are Kim Hughes Collection for Cornish Heritage Farms, Hugs and Kisses. It is such a cute set, I have to remember to use it more (don't we say that of all our stamps?).

The DP is Making Memories, Scroll Dark Deep Red from the Heritage Collection. I edged all the layers in Ruby Red ink, which is also the color for the images. Except the sentiment, which is stamped in Pretty in Pink and traced over with Cotton Candy Stickles. The heart brads are from Queen and Company.

Now I'm really off to bed. This is late for me to be up on a work night. I'm not quite the night own that I used to be. Thanks for looking!

Warm Thoughts for a Cold Day

Friday afternoon, I left work early and came home to stamp. I am waaaaaay behind on challenges, but had an idea for the SCS Sketch Challenge 159. The last release by CHF Kim Hughes Collection included this cute set called Hugs and Kisses that can be used for winter, Valentine, and all occasion cards. I am loving it and can't wait to see the new releases tomorrow :) DH is going to take my wallet away soon if he finds out how much I've been shopping!

Here's the card. Of course, bad stamper that I am, I don't have the proper name for the DP. It's some that I won in a blog candy along the way. The ribbon is from Target dollar spot. Image is colored with Prismacolors and blended. Oh, and I used my new Spellbinders oval dies to mat the main image. Can't wait to get more shapes!

I have to give a little commercial for the adhesive I used on this project. UHU was giving away samples of the new Scrapbooker's Glue Pen and that's the adhesive I used. Go and get yourself a sample if they are still available. This stuff is STICKY! The tip is slanted to give smooth application and the adhesive has "less liquid and more glue ingredients than ordinary liquid glues." Since I'm always afraid my creations will fall apart, I am very liberal with adhesive. I was a little more conservative applying this new product, and let me tell you, this card is NOT falling apart!

Off to stamp more - it's a holiday and ds is at school, so the day is MINE :) Thanks for looking!

What A Day!

This morning, I got up at 6, rushed out of the house and drove to Philadelphia for a library conference. Well, I didn't go for the whole conference, just to view the exhibits. For those of you not familiar with library conferences, exhibits mean FREE advance reader copies of books!!! I was on the fence about going at all, but my pass was paid for and it would be a nice day out, so off I went...and came home with two huge bags of things to read! If you're a reader, there are some fantastic books coming out this Spring :) Now the decision: to stamp or to read?

This evening, it's neither, since after gettting home around mid-day, I took ds to the park to ride his bike and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Two hours later I convinced him to leave, but we had a blast! And the way he rides his bike, I got a great power-walk in!

Also, tackled the grocery store and am exhausted now. Couldn't even find the energy to stamp, so I watched The Nanny Diaries. It was cute, but definitely a chick flick.

Even though I'm too tired to create today, I did want to post this card that I made the other night. Don't remember which night, mind you. Oh, yes, it was the Gina K release party on SCS. They posted a few sketch challenges and this was my entry for one of them. The dp is from DCWV Mini Stack 3. The mailbox stamp and sentiment are from the Kim Hughes Collection at Cornish Heritage Farms, Hugs and Kisses. The "stamp" stamp is actually from Lizzie Anne Designs, Celebrations and Celebrations Frames. The grassy patch under the mailbox is My Favorite Things, from Icing on the Cake. Can you guess how I colored the images?

Thanks for looking! Enjoy the rest of the weekend. We are expecting snow tomorrow night, so keep your fingers crossed for a snow day on Monday!

I'm Usually Not Excited About Valentine's Day...

But with all my new stamps and toys, I'm embracing any holiday there is as a reason to make cards! Recently, I was the lucky recipient of the Kim Hughes collection Hugs and Kisses, available from Cornish Heritage Farms. Be sure to check out Kim's blog - her cards are beautiful and she gives little tips with each post. ALL of the stamps are so cute, I have been itching to play with them. This weekend, I made the time. Chores and laundry can wait :)

This card also follows SCS Sketch Challenge 157. The dp is from DCVW Mini Stack 3. The base is Certainly Celery, the shimmery orange panel under the sentiment is Bazzill Basics, Spoiled Brat, I think. The blue is from my scrap pile, and the ribbon is from SU! I believe. The hardware is from a few pieces I got somewhere. Sometimes there is too much stuff to track where it comes from!

The butterfly is from SU! Border Builders, and the inks are Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal and Basic Black. Oh and the base card is stamped in CC with one of the SU! Beyond the Basics backgrounds. The image is colored with Prismacolors and blended. Can I say how much I LOVE my new Prismacolors? So many color choices!!

Almost time for the Amazing Race. One of only 3 shows a week I MUST watch. Hope you all had a good weekend. Thanks for looking!