Lizzie Anne Birthday Sketch Challenge

I'm a day late posting my card I made for the birthday bash going on over at Lizzie Anne designs. I chose to use sketch #3. Sorry for the poor picture quality I think something is up with my camera. I used the single stamp Hey Cupcake. It's my first cupcake image and I use it a lot!

Girly Friendship

It's Mojo Monday time! I love Julee's sketches at Poetic Artistry. This is for Mojo Monday #44 check it out here. I wanted something very girly so I picked out my Doodlebug Black & White eyelet paper first and went from there. I knew it was going to be mainly black and white but I needed a pop of color so I chose Regal Rose. It's a color I keep reaching for lately. I also used the Regal Rose marker to put some color in her cheeks. I paper pieced her dress from the same black and white paper. You can totally tell I'm no professional at coloring. But hey practice makes perfect right? I hope you enjoy the card! Thanks for stopping by.

July Christmas card

Each year I have Christmas card classes for my customers that start in July and end in November. Each month we will make 10 cards so that in November they have completed 50 Christmas cards. It's something we look forward to each year!! I can't believe it's already that time that means Christmas really isn't too far ahead. YIKES! Here is July's Christmas card the girls will make. I bought this Penny Black stamp last year and had not used it yet so I decided to break him out. The stamp is called Warm & Cold. I love this image. Old Olive is the color I chose for the card base. Not Quite Navy is mounted on top. I used Bashful blue with my snowflakes cuttlebug embossing folder. I stamped the image on Whisper White cardstock and mounted him on Chocolate Chip. I used the ticket punch for the corners. Old Olive brads were used on front of the snowman for his buttons. I used Star Dust stickles under the snow to make it sparkle. I really hope the gals enjoy this card! Thanks for looking...

Cupcake Picks

So far each day this week one of my friends has celebrated a birthday! It's been a busy week I tell ya. Yesterday it was my friend June's birthday. We celebrated the day by going to the swimming pool in my village and had picnic lunch with the kids and I made her these cupcakes. The cupcakes are home made and the recipe can be found here.I thought a easy way to spruce them up would be to make these cupcake picks. I used the Hey There Cupcake set by Stampendous which could only be found exclusively at Eclectic Paperie.

Pineapple Delight recipe

This month for our demo meeting we were to make recipe cards and make the actual dish for everyone to try at the meeting. I decided to make this yummy dessert my friend Paulette made for me when we were in San Antonio. Everyone who tries it falls in love with it. It's so easy and I would've never thought to put any of these ingredients together. I have no clue what the actual recipe is called because this whole time I've just called it Paulette's dessert. lol I also decided to have them laminated so that when the girls are using them and they get dirty they can just be wiped off and like new again! I really hope everyone tries the recipe. If you do come back and let me know if you liked it.

You're the Best

I have a few different posts today because I've been busy! This first one came about when I was asked to teach this gatefold techinique at our Stampin' Up! demo meeting for the month. I also decided to use SCS color challenge yesterday but I couldn't stick with just the 3 colors of Wild Wasabi, Taken with Teal & Whisper White. I ended up adding some Rose Red so I guess this doesn't qualify for the color challenge. I love this card. I'm really happy with how easy it was and the way it turned out. The anchor you see in the lower right corner is keeping it closed together. It opens on both sides. I really hope you enjoy it! Thanks for looking...

Brilee's Announcements

My good friend Kristie who I miss so much is expecting her first baby girl soon. I was so happy when she emailed me and wanted me to send her some ideas for birth announcements. She wanted something that she could include a small photo with. So I put this together and she absolutely loved it! I can't wait to get started on these birth announcements for her and Brian for their new baby girl. This card is a gatefold card I found the directions on the Scor-Pal site.

Sunflower Fun

It was almost effortless for me to decide exactly what I wanted to do with this image. I was blog browsing this morning and came across this great color challenge at Jen's Stampin' Spot. I knew I wanted to use the TAC image I bought two months ago. I LOVE sunflowers. I colored the image in using Stampin' Up! stampin write markers. Usually it takes me half the day to figure out what I want to do with a card so maybe I can get in another card before hubby wakes up. Card details: Card base is Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun is matted on top. I used the Swiss Dot cuttlebug embossing folder AGAIN. Yes I'm obsessed with this particular folder. I used the Stylized Flowers embossing folder on the Wild Wasabi cardstock. The sunflower image was stamped on Whisper White matted on Summer Sun & Chocolate Chip. I didn't put a sentiment on the outside because I'm not sure what occasion I will use the card for.

Hey Cupcake

It took me way too long to make this card! My 4 year old must have interrupted me a million times. I just could not get this card together. I'm so glad I did get it done though. I sent him upstairs with some grapes to watch a movie and I knew that'd do the trick. He LOVES his grapes, he gave me just enough time to put it together and post it here. I made this card using the sketch challenge over at SCS. It's Wednesday so it's sketch day! I love sketch day even if I don't do every single sketch. When I'm stuck on a design I always head over there to look at the master thread to find a sketch I would like to use. Now onto the card details: Pink Passion was used for card base, Green Galore matted on top. I used the Polka dot cuttlebug embossing folder on the Green Galore to give it a little something. I found this awesome paper by American Crafts called Celebration Fortune Teller. I love this paper!! You can't really tell but the stars that look black are actually a dark purple. It's so fun and cheery! I love fun and cheery. I used my Lizzie Anne Designs stamp "Hey Cupcake." I used the sentiment from Time Well Spent by Stampin' Up! Added some green brads, and a orange Prima to finish it off. Thanks for looking!

Girlfriends Mojo Monday #42

The sketch over at Julee's blog is so wonderful this week that I had to make a card. It's Mojo Monday over there. I broke out my Stamping Bella stamp that I bought a long time ago and have not used. I was really intimidated by it because of all the details you have to color but once I started coloring it wasn't so bad. I tried to stay within the colors in the paper & cardstock used. They are having Chocolate ice cream hence the color of the ice cream. I try to incorporate chocolate where ever possible in life! :) The card base is Bashful Blue, Cameo Coral is matted on top. I used some cute scrapbook paper I found at the arts & craft center on base two days ago. The paper is by American Crafts called Spring & Summer Teacups. You'll see some other cute papers I picked up there in future posts too. I stamped the "Sweetybellas" stamp in Stazon black ink on Whisper White cardstock. I colored the image using Cameo Coral, Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel, Certainly Celery & Chocolate Chip stampin write markers. It was matted onto more Cameo Coral cardstock and used dimensionals to make it stand out a bit. I used blue prima flowers with black brads from the vintage brads by Stampin' Up! I used the Much Appreciated stamp set by Stampin' Up!

Coffee & Friends

Man I miss my friends in Texas! The last few months I was there the girls would come over for stamp classes and we'd have coffee and breakfast items. I bought this stamp set and remembered I have not even used it yet. Last night it tasted it's first ink! I think I'll mass produce these cards and send them to my friends in Texas. The card base is Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate layered on top. I used the Polka Dot embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I layered Creamy Caramel on top of the Pomegranate. I used a dauber to daub Creamy Caramel onto the Creamy Caramel cardstock. The stamp is from Inkadikado set called Houser Coffee Classics. The coffee cup I colored with the Chocolate Chip stampin marker directly onto the stamp. It comes out darker than using the stamp pad. I also daubed Creamy Caramel onto the Whisper White cardstock and used vintage brads in all four corners. I used some polkda dot ribbon from a ribbon share and finished the card off by stamping the saying in Chocolate Chip.

Penguin Chick Sketch Challenge

I haven't been too active in stamping lately. I'm ready to get back into the swing of things though and I thought the perfect way was to do this sketch challenge #179 from over at SCS last week. I actually did this card on Wednesday but am just now having a chance to post it. I bought these stamps from Eclectic Paperie when they first came out. I'm just now inking them up! These penguins are so cute. I stamped Penguin Chick by Imaginisce Stamps with Palette Inkpad in Noir Black on Whisper White. After stamping her in Noir Black I used my 2 way glue pen and sprinkled pink Fun Flock on her hula skirt. Amy over on Prairie Paper & Ink did a tutorial on how to use Fun Flock with 2 way glue so I followed her directions. It was so easy! Nestabilities were used for the scallop circle and plain circle. I LOVE the Nestabilities my second favorite item by far. Perfect Plum was used as my card base I then layered YoYo Yellow on top and used some paper I bought from Hobby Lobby a long time ago before I left the states. The paper is so bright and cheery that I chose to stick with 2 colors from the paper. I used white polka dot ribbon on top of the YoYo Yellow strips down the right and bottom sides. I used a little bling in the middle of her flower in her hair.

Be Happy

Oh am I oh so happy! I finally purchased the Scor Pal and let me tell you it's the best thing since sliced bread. I'm sure you've all read about the reviews on this tool and it is for sure a MUST HAVE!! I decided to try out the Scored Lattice card intstructions in the April/May issue. My lines aren't exactly even on each side but it looks pretty good to me for the first try. I kept the card very simple and similar to the sample in the April/May issue just changed the colors, stamps, ribbon etc. I hope you enjoy the fun card as much as I do. I used Chocolate Chip as the card base, Regal Rose is the piece that I did the scored lattice technique to, Rose Red as the mat for the Whisper White piece. I stamped Changito Loco in Chocolate Chip on Whisper White. Colored him in with Creamy Caramel. I used the ticket punch on all four corners and I added some bling to all four corners.

Ladybug life

I had such a fun time making this card! I think it was a sketch challenge on MFT I think. I saw the sketch on SCS and I believe she mentioned MFT. Anyway story behind the card: I needed to make a card for a very good friend of mine Rita. Since we've been in Germany she's always done little things to make our transition over here better like always inviting us for dinner, bringing me home made lumpia which is the BEST i've ever had. They always want to take us to see new sights, and she has called or text me every single day since being here to make sure I'm ok or if I need anything. I thought the saying on the bottom of the card was perfect! Because even though they may seem like little things to others it's been a HUGE little things to me. I am so appreciative of her and her family. I think I will make her something chocolate cause she is a chocolate gal! Probably some home made Mocha Cupcakes from Batter-Splattered blog that I love! You can find the recipe here. I have made these and they only make 9 cupcakes so double your batter because let me tell you they will NOT last 1 day. They are the best chocolate cupcake I've ever tasted! For my card I used Purely Pomegranate as the base, matted a piece of printed cardstock from my wonderful Pocket Full of Posies stack by Die Cuts With a View. I then cut squares in Soft Sky, Summer Sun, Purely Pomegranate, and Whisper White. I layered them and on the Whisper White piece I stamped the heart from the A to Z Accents by Stampin' Up! in Purely Pomegranate on all four corners. I punched out a scallop in Summer Sun, used my circle punch for the Whisper White circle and stamped the big ladybug from Little Lady set by Papertrey Ink. I used 3 black brads from the vintage brads by Stampin' Up! on 3 of her spots to give her a little depth. I can't wait to give Rita this card on Friday!

Thank You BERRY Much!

A few other ladies and I are doing a mini card swap here in Germany and this is one of the cards I came up with. I got my Tart & Tangy set in the mail and just had to use it. I had fun making it and it was a lot of work sort of. You can't tell by the picture but the Green Galore piece has dimensionals on all four corners to make it pop up from the card base. I started off with a standard size card piece of Whisper White. I cut a piece of cardstock 5 1/4 X 4 and stamped the Print Pattern background in Green Galore onto the Green Galore cardstock. I then punched out 3 scallop circles and used my 1 3/8 inch circle punch to punch out the middle. I positioned the scallop cirles on top of the Green Galore cardstock and drew circles so I knew where to punch the wholes so I could stamp the strawberries directly onto the Whisper White card base. I used the Real Red & Green Galore marker to color the strawberry. The middle strawberry I embossed the top in Green Galore and put a dimensional underneath it to make it pop. My card needed some kind of embellishment and I didn't feel I had enough room for ribbon. So I opted to punch out 4- 1/4 inch cirlces and use Green Galore brads through them on all four corners of the card. I needed a sentiment and knew I wanted it to read Thank You Berry Much however the stamp from Much Appreicated reads "Thank you very much" I opted to use my Basic Black stampin write marker and ink up the Thank you portion stamp then hand wrote in the "Berry" in Real Red. I then masked off the first three words and inked up the much portion of the saying and stamped it. It looks so much better in person!

Black & White prima's

Lindsay's blog In My Stamp Room's catchy blog header caught my eye! I've just recently found it and visit it often. I did not realize she has sketch challenges which seem to be my "thing" right now. It's so much easier to be able to sit down and create when there is a sketch challenge rather than trying to come up with one on your own. Tonight I decided to give her Thursday Sketch challenge a shot. Let me tell you it was so painless and not messy! Usually when I do a sketch challenge you should see my desk area. It is full of probably all the supplies I own because I will start with something I see in my mind and it will end with something completely different than what I started with. But this challenge I kinda knew exactly which paper I wanted to use and wanted it to be a mainly black and white color scheme. To start off I used Whisper White as the base. I purchased the Doodlebug Black & White eyelet paper at A Walk Down Memory Lane because they actually had it in stock! Thank you A Walk Down Memory Lane I had been on the hunt for this collection for a while and the best thing it was on sale!!! Back to my card......I then cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock and matted Basic Black to it then another Whisper White and topped it off with Prima flowers purchased at Eclectic Paperie. I used Real Red brads in the middle of the black Prima flowers, and a Basic Black brad in the red & white polka dot Prima flower. I then doodled a little and decided to not put a sentiment on front because I'm not sure what occasion the card will be used for. I'm on a roll today got 2 cards under my belt because my family has let me enjoy my day in between spending time with them....

Taylored Expressions Color Challenge 11

All weekend I've been wanting to do this color challenge Taylor posted on her blog. While at the Black Forest yesterday I was trying to come up with a layout and what I wanted to use. I'm pretty happy with what I chose. This time I made a card 5X5 which I've never done before. I like how much room there is to play with! The card base is Tempting Turquoise, then I used my slit punch to make a scalloped edge on Pumpkin Pie after that I cuttlebug'd that piece with the swirls embossing folder. I layered a piece of Soft Sky on top of the Gable Green. On the Gable Green piece I daubed Gable Green. On top of that I wanted the Soft Sky to pop a little because it looked a little dull so I layered a piece of Whisper White on top. I used my scallop punches and stamped the Hey There Cupcake set on my card. I added some brads on the lower left corner and I punched out some corners using my Stampin' Up! Photo Corners punch. I also daubed Pumpkin Pie onto the corners too. Lastly I cut some Gable Green polka dot ribbon from a ribbon share Taylor held a long time ago.

Life May Not be the Party

I had fun with this card tonight. Once again this is a sketch challenge over at Poetic Artistry. I went through two different designer papers and finally decided on this one. I'm glad I did cause I like the whole pink, green, black combo. The card is BasicBblack for the base, Gable Green was matted on top and embossed using the Swiss dots cuttlebug folder. Swiss dots is my favorite cuttlebug folder. A piece of Basic Black matted the Pink & Lime Argyle designer paper by The Paper Studio purchased at Hobby Lobby. I then matted a piece of sponged Pixie Pink onto Basic Black cardstock and used 3 black brads on the left. For the prima flower I used some bling for the center. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for looking.

Heartfelt Thanks

I have found that being a military wife and living overseas in Germany there are some very special women who are always willing to help eachother out. I posted on the germany military wives yahoo group two weeks ago about needing a king size bed frame. When we ordered our new kind bed but forget about the frame we knew we'd need one. The wait to get one on base was like 4 weeks long and I kinda wanted one for my new bed now. Many ladies made many suggestions but Julia someone I've never even met emailed me personally and said hey we're going to Mannheim to get one I can pick one up for you. She genersously paid it and picked it up. This morning my husband is going over to pick it up and pay her for it. I am so grateful to her for helping me out. It's people like this that make living in Germany really great. Thank you Julia!

Mojo Monday

I really like the card challenges over on the Poetic Artistry blog. This is challenge number 31. She always has such nice sketches and card samples! I decided to use some paper I bought a while back from Eclectic Paperie. I unfortunately don't know who it's by. I used Rose Red as the card base and matted the designer paper to it. I used the Swiss Dots folder Old Olive & Rose Red pieces of cardstock. I stamped the flower from Bud Basics in Rose Red then I cut it out to give it some dimension. A vintage brad was inserted in middle of a brown prima flower and finally through the cut out flower. It was matted on a scallop circle.

Birthday flowers

I love this color combination! I wish I had Basic Grey by Stampin' Up! but I didn't so I used Basic Black instead. Although last night I did place a order for the basic grey ink pad, and paper! Can't wait to get it. This was a color challenge over at SCS. I used the Paisley cuttlebug folder on basic black. I used the stamp set Women of Life by Papertrey ink using black Stazon ink. I really don't like the way the picture makes the ink look like I didn't stamp it clearly because it did. Not sure why it looks kinda blotchy. I then stamped the middle of the flower in bashful blue and used stickles for the middle of 4 flower buds. I wanted to put ribbon but didn't know where to put it so I tied little bows in the bigger two flower buds with the black gingham ribbon. I matted that image on bashful blue cardstock. To give it one last element I put a bashful blue square rhinestone in the bottom right hand corner.

Beate's Sketch Challenge #40

Every weekend Beate holds a sketch challenge on her blog which you can find #40 here. This is the first time I've participated in it. See I tell ya I'm on a roll with these sketch challenges. Usually I will find a sketch challenge and say I'm going to do it. Only NOT to do it because I get so busy. Last week I made it an effort to sit down and put some stamping time in for me. I used the Bee Trio stamp by Stampedous. I love the Bee Happy collection. Eventually I will own the whole collection. :) I used pink passion as the card base, matted a piece of patterned paper from The Pocket full of Posies w/ sparkles stack by Die Cuts with a View 8X8 pack on top of the pink passion cardstock. The Bee Trio stamp was stamped in stazon black ink and matted on top of pumpkin pie cardstock. The flower punch by Stampin' Up! was used and punched out in Orchid Opulence. I used the birthday sentiment stamp from the set called Circle of Friendship by Stampin' Up! Thanks Beate for the challenge!

Butterfly Kisses

If you haven't heard of Papertrey Ink stamps boy are you missing out! I love her designs and excellent quality stamps. I made this card using Butterfly Kisses by Papertrey Ink. I used close to cocoa as the card base, matted bordering blue onto that. I received some Heidi Grace Rub on's from a blog candy contest that I won recently. I thought they would match perfect with the brown's used in the card. The butterfly base was stamped in bordering blue, and the outline stamp was stamped in close to cocoa. I matted them on barely banana cardstock to give it a little something extra and added brads to all 4 corners.

Superstah Kid

I was visiting a blog called Sketches by Tamara last week and saw a cute sketch design that I couldn't pass up. The sketch designs that people post on their blogs really help you to get outside that box of repetitiveness. I used basic black cardstock as the base, some patterned paper I found over at Eclectic Paperie, and old olive cardstock. I stamped Superstar Kid by Autumn Leaves on top of the old olive cardstock with stazon black ink. I then covered chipboard Stampin' Up! stars with basic black and real red cardstock to match the colors in the patterned paper.

Purse tote

Oh my goodness has it really been this long since I've posted something? Ok yes it has. But hey I had to get all settled into our new home. I have been stamping away but haven't taken pics of everything because I can't find the charger to my camera! ACK! Note to self must find that soon because my DH isn't going to take every single picture for me. Ok back to the post....My friend's daughter is turning 13 tomorrow and she's having a birthday get together with her closest 8 friends. She asked me to make her some bags to put goodies in but little does she know I made these purses which I think she's going to adore. Her mom bought makeup, chapstick, mini perfumes, and candy to put inside each one. You can find the directions here on SCS. I scored a 8 1/2 X 11 black sheet of cardstock at 4 1/2 at each end. Then at the long 11 inch side I scored inward at 1 1/4 inches on each side. I used the designer paper from Cutie Pie and I embossed it using the Cuttlebug with the Swirl folder. I cut the handles in Certainly Celery and lightly stamped those using the Linen background stamp. The buckle on the front is from the Pewter collection same with the brads. I used the cupcake stamp from Hey There Cupcake which you can find on Eclectic Paperie. I had a lot of fun making them and can't wait to see them all put together.

Ema-gination Blog Candy!

Check out this blog Candy Ema is giving away on her blog here. Have a look around her blog as well she's got some good stuff on there! Good luck......

Hi!!

I just wanted to put a quick update on my blog for that do read it. We recently moved overseas to Germany. My husband is in the Air Force and we are now at Ramstein AB. I won't get any of my stamping supplies until mid February. But by the time I actually unpack it will probably be beginning of March before I post a card. Who knows though I am desperately missing my stuff. I might open my craft box and make a card before even unpacking! I hope all is well with everyone. I wish you all a Very Happy New Year!