Sunday, May 31, 2009

Bring on the YELLOW!

Yep, I said YELLOW!! LOL! For some reason, I am drawn to this color the last week or so. I have made several cards using it and it just makes me SMILE!

This card uses the colors for the Moxie Fab Citrus color challenge -Lemon Tart, Spring Moss and Wasabi. I used my favorite Verve set, Miracles Blossom and a couple mini primas for the blooms. The pot and stems are colored with copic markers. I used my BELOVED SU Top Note die to make the layered base. The ribbon is the Lemon Tart twill ribbon from PTI.

So, you wanna see a couple more yellow cards I made that also use the Top Note die? Hop on over to the Flourishes Blog cause today is my last week as the May Limelight Designer! Here is a little peek of one of the cards I have posted over there. All of the cards are kind of a set.

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned tomorrow for some fun news!

Card Deets:
Stamps - Miracles Blossom
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - White, Lemon Tart, Spring Moss (all PTI), Wasabi (SU!)
Accessories - Copic markers in Y11, YG17 and YG03, Yellow rhinestones (Kaiser Crafts), Lemon Tart twill ribbon, slot and corner rounder punch (SU!)
Dies - Top Note (SU!), Small Oval classic and scalloped Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

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Friday, May 29, 2009

For all you Cards magazine fans out there...

...they are online now! Yep, up until now, the amazing Cards magazine (and Bead Trends, Scrapbook Trends and Idea Books) have only been available in print form, but they are online now! And at a discount price!

To give you a taste of their online magazines, they are offering a free download of their Mini Albums 2008 Idea Book! You can click on the link below or the blinkie on my sidebar to download it. I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised. I really love Cards magazine, the care and devotion they put into each issue is top notch. I was wondering how that would translate into the digital world (cause you know I am NOT a digi girl!! -LOL). But, I was very impressed.

I love how the pages come up on the monitor side by side, so you can get the feel of the magazine and double page layouts (unlike some other downloads where you have to scroll down for each page). Another really cool thing they do is highlight in red any clickable links. So as you are looking thru the pages all email addresses and websites (for staff, advertisers and such) show up briefly in a red box. Then it goes away, so it's not intrusive while you are reading, but it's there to show you what you can click on! Pretty cool! Oh and this Mini Albums 2008 Idea Book has 167 pages of amazing ideas, so I encourage you to check it out.

Free download link to Mini Albums 2008 Idea Book

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! Stay tuned on Monday for some fun news!!

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Jacksonbelle Tuesday -Polka dots!

Hi everyone! It's Tuesday and time for another Jacksonbelle challenge. This week it's all about POLKA DOTS. Yeah baby, I can do that!! You are all welcome to play along -as usual if you don't need to have JBelle supplies to play, but if you don't have any, you can check out the store and see if anything strikes your fancy. You can use the keyword JBE055 if you upload to SCS or PCP.

For my card, I used some of the yummy Pink Paislee designer paper with polka dots!! The papers I have are from the Sweet Cakes line -I sooo love all the orange tones. You know, in looking at my card last week, I used the SAME paper! I guess it shows I really do love it. LOL! Some of the Pink Paislee is out of stock right now, but send Lindsey an email if you want her to order more, she is happy to do it.

The sketch I used is this week's Mojo Monday week 88. Boy, Julee sure can design sketches!! The awesome hot air balloon image is from the newly released Up Up and Away and the sentiment is from Dare to be You. I outlined the clouds with a light blue copic marker and the striped ribbon is May Arts and a perfect match to Bashful Blue. Just about everything on this card is on dimensionals. I love the happy feel to this card! It's almost like the balloon and clouds are flying away.

I also wanted to mention that this Mojo Monday sketch is doubling for a sketch challenge in the much talked about Stampin' Out Alzheimer's (SOA) event. A small donation (see link in the Mojo Monday blog sidebar) gets you access to this week-long virtual stamping event, which has all sorts of challenges and chances to win some fabulous prizes. All proceeds from this event will go directly to the Alzheimer's Association. Our own Verve Diva, Jen Tapler, founded this event. Her dad has been rapidly progressing through the stages of Alzheimer's. So if you have a few dollars to spare, please particpate in this fundraiser. Not only can you win some fabulous prizes, but you can make a DIFFERENCE!

Be sure to stop by the other DT blogs for their polka dotted goodness.



AJ Otto--The Willow Garden
Heather Lee-Reppen--
Ink on my Ear
Jill Dunn--
InkGenious
Jennifer Buck--
The Buck Stamps Here
Kimberly O'Rosky--
Sunshiny Days
Kisa Peters--
Kisa's Paper Cuts
Lindsey Botkin--
Embellished
Lynda Benden--
Stamp Act
Maren Benedict--
Zany not Crazy
Melissa Bove--
Creating From the Heart
Shannan Teubner--
Pink Tulle with Feathers & Sequins


Card Deets:
Stamps -Up up and away, Dare to by You
Paper - Vintage cream, pumpkin pie, bashful blue, Pink Paislee DP
Accessories - silver brads, may arts ribbon, swiss dots EF, double ended tag die cuts (Spellbinders), copic markers, rectangle nesties

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Featured Stamper and a Raspberry color challenge

Hi everyone! Today is the SCS Featured Stamper challenge and I was thrilled to see one of my stampin' favs, Mercy Kerin (mkstampin74) chosen! I also combined this challenge with Dawn's Raspberry Suite color challenge to use Raspberry Fizz, Celery and Avocado (which I don't have, so I used Wasabi).

I chose Mercy's card For You to case. I really loved the layout, the gorgeous butterflies and fun use of ribbon. I really wanted to keep the ribbon treatment, but the more I futzed with it, the more I couldn't make it work! I ended up changing the pattern paper panels, used punched butterflies, added pearls and used my new SU! Top Note die.

My biggest challenge was that I don't have raspberry fizz ink!! Ack! Man I really wanted stamp some of Verve's butterflies, but alas... So I used my cardstock, ribbon and pearl accents instead. I think it's enough pink. OH, and see that pattern paper? It's Basic Grey's Urban Prairie, and a perfect mix of celery and wasabi! Love it!

The sentiment is from Verve's newly released Dare to Be You. I thought it was fitting for Mercy's card.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Card Deets:
Stamp - Dare to be You
Ink - black, celery (for sponging)
Paper - Raspberry Fizz, Celery, wasabi and white
Accessories - SU! Top Note die, light green and hot pink Kaiser pearls, Raspberry fizz grosgrain ribbon, swiss dots EF, butterfly punches
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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Verve's May release

Hi everybody! Did anyone have a chance to stop by Verve's release party last night? It was super fun and this month, Julee released 6 new stamp sets and 2 Plain Janes!! All perfect for Dads and Grads!

I have 3 release cards to share with you. This first uses the new set, Dad's Day and Protector. I stamped the large sentiment stamp from Protector repeatedly in Soft Sky. I then stamped it separately in chocolate chip and cut out a couple words I wanted to highlight. I used my "go to" guy card embellishments - punched stars and aged copper brads.



This next card also uses Dad's Day . I went with a bright fun feeling with this card. I used SU!'s retired East Coast Prep DP. This one is pretty simple, just a couple oval nestabilities, some piercing and Wasabi striped ribbon.

This last card uses the Whimsy Tree Plain Jane and Dad's Day. For this one, I used SU!'s Wanted DP (or is it Apple Cider?) and some more punched stars. Gotta love them for guy cards! I also used a piece of my SU! Hodgepodge Hardware tin -I seriously HAVE to use these more often. I think I have used 5 pieces in 2 years!!


Sunday is my 3rd week as the Flourishes Limelight designer. Be sure to hop on over to the Flourishes Blog and check out my cards! Here is a sneak peek, but you will have to go to Flourishes' blog to see them all, there may even be a 3rd card there!

There are some fun Memorial Day sales going on right now. Verve is having a sale on all stamps in the store, 10-20% off -including the new releases!!

And Jacksonbelle Embellishments is also having a storewide sale -everything is 25% off just use Promo Code MEMDAY09 at checkout.

Thanks for stopping by and taking some time to browse during this Memorial Day weekend. Make it a good one!

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Two Featured Stamper cards -finally!

Hi everyone! Today was such a fun day, I took the Copic Certification class from Marianne! WOW! What a talent she is. I will blog about it and post some pics tomorrow.

For tonight, I have 2 Featured Stamper cards to share. I just LOVE this challenge and when the person being featured is a friend it's all the better! This first card is from several weeks ago. One of my bloggin' friends, Kathy (Wattle) was honored. You should check out her gallery, she has a lovely and elegant style and has a flair for layering and embellishing!

I chose her lovely card called Sage Wedding to case -I seriously love it's softness and layout. I changed the feel of the card from a soft elegant wedding to something a bit more whimsical and bright. The image is from Verve's Miracles Blossom and the sentiment is from Circular Sayings. I pieced the blooms from SU! Rose red DSP and the leaves and bud from Sage Shadow cs. I sponged the edges in white craft ink.

I chose the colors from this week's DDC color challenge issued by our lovely Charlene (LilLuvsStampin) -Rose red, Kraft, Black and Sage. We were to also use "piecing" and "piercing". Look closely, can you see the piercing? No? Cause I forgot it! That'll teach me to go by memory, I scored instead -DUH! Charlene, can you forgive me -LOL! Everyone is welcome to play along, just use the keyword: DDC when you upload to SCS.

This next card is for this week's Featured Stamper, my good friend (and Dirty Dozen Roomie) -Joan Ervin!! Woohoo! You know I love you Roomie! I chose this lovely card, Dare to be Different! to case. When I saw her card I recognized the silhouette stamp as almost the same as my designer paper, so how could I NOT case it?

I changed the colors, eliminated some layers and made the flowers a bit smaller. The sentiment is from Verve's Circular Sayings. The super cute felt flowers are from Zva Creative and the swirl is from Spellbinders Shapeabilities Doodle Parts dies. That lovely ribbon is black satin edged metallic organdy and black brads are from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts.

Oh, and I finally bought that darned ole SU! Top Note die!! Ahhh, I really love this die!!

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for some pics from my Copic class.

Card Deets (Kathy):
Stamps - Miracles Blossom, Circular Sayings
Paper - Kraft, Black, Sage shadow, Rose red and Rose red DSP
Accessories - Sage Twill (Martha Stewart), Rose Red grosgrain and Black gingham (both SU!)
Card Deets (Joan):
Stamps - Aida Cloth
Paper - Black, Barely banana, Blush blossom, misc patterned paper (Joann's),
Accessories - felt flowers, black brads, shapeabilities, black satin edged metallic organdy
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Jacksonbelle Tuesday Challenge -it's summer time

Hi everyone! It's Tuesday and time for another Jacksonbelle challenge. This week we were tasked to make a summer themed card. You are all welcome to play along -as usual if you don't need to have JBelle supplies to play, but if you don't have any, you can check out the store and see if anything strikes your fancy. You can use the keyword JBE054.

Hummm, this was kinda tough, but as I was thumbing thru my DP stash I found this super fun piece of Pink Paislee! It has ice cream on it -that is summer, right? It's from their Sweet Cakes line. That yummy cupcake is from Inkadinkado's Birthday Cupcakes set. I colored it with copics and put some Distressed Faded Jeans stickles on it. I used 3 orange primas and each have a dew drop in the center.
Here is a close up pic of the cupcake goodness. Be sure to check out the other DT blogs for their summer time goodness.

AJ Otto--The Willow Garden
Heather Lee-Reppen--
Ink on my Ear
Jill Dunn--
InkGenious
Jennifer Buck--
The Buck Stamps Here
Kimberly O'Rosky--
Sunshiny Days
Kisa Peters--
Kisa's Paper Cuts
Lindsey Botkin--
Embellished
Lynda Benden--
Stamp Act
Maren Benedict--
Zany not Crazy
Melissa Bove--
Creating From the Heart
Shannan Teubner--
Pink Tulle with Feathers & Sequins

Card Deets:
Stamps -Birthday Cupcakes
Paper - White, pumpkin pie, Pink Paislee DP
Accessories - Stickles, primas, copic markers, rectangle nesties
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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Raspberry colors, a clean and simple layout, and another limelight post


Hi everyone, happy Sunday! I have a couple cards to share with you. This first one is for Dawn's Raspberry Suite color challenge -to use Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate and White. What fun colors! I immediately thought of what a fun birthday card they would make. The sunburst image is from Verve's Wishful Elegance set and the sentiment is PaperTrey's Birthday Basics.

This card was super easy to make. Just pull out all the circle punches you own and start punching your scraps!! There are 2 scored lines on either side of the ribbon. See that cute little bow? I made it from the Bow Easy! Oh man oh man, perfect bows everytime I tell ya! I bought it from Sharon's Stamp Simply store. She is out of stock now, but ordering more as fast as she can.


This next card is a sketch from the Clean and Simple blog. I am new to this blog, but I like it as they have "fall to layout" every week and lots of CAS card samples throughout.

Now that I look at my card, it may not qualify as a CAS card persay, but I followed the sketch -honest!! LOL! Isn't this beaver (is that what he is?) the cutest? I have had this chipboard piece for some time now and finally found a sketch to accomodate it! The DP and chipboard is from DCWV Green Stack. I love all the woodland creatures in this line and the papers have such fun colors to them! The ribbon is from Heidi's store and the Kaiser pearl is from Flourishes.


Today is my second week as the Flourishes Limelight designer. Here is a tiny peek of one of my cards. You will have to hop on over to the Flourishes blog to check out my MIM/LIM cards. Can you guess which set I used from the peek??

Stay tuned as I will be back with some Featured Stamper cards. I need to play catch up from celebrating a good blogging friend's week (yes, Kathy, it will get made -LOL) AND my roomie, Joan Ervin, is chosen as today's FS!! Congrats roomie!! I have to look at some wall kitchen cabinets today then I can get to work.

Card Deets (Raspberry Suite):
Stamps - birthday basics, Wishful Elegance
Paper - Aqua Mist, Dark chocolate, Berry sorbet, white
Ink - Adirondack Espresso
Accessories - various circle punches, copic markers, berry sorbet twill ribbon, angel wings shimmerz, score pal, bow easy, circle nesties

Card Deets (CAS):
Stamps - sentiment from Fluttering By (Verve)
Paper - White, Wild wasabi, Green Stack DP
Accessories - chipboard, orange dotted organdy, tiny blue Kaiser pearl

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Friday, May 15, 2009

It's the 15th again...

That means we say hello to 2 new Dirty Girls and say good-bye to 2 girls. This month welcomes Carolina (craftycaro) and Jennie (elliesmom)!! Congrats girls! This month's theme is Art for Every Woman, how wonderful! So be sure to hop on over there and check out the lovely creations and give all the girls some love. They work hard and stress over each and every project they make for the DD gallery, trust me every comment is treasured!

Today I will share a couple of my favorite projects from my second month as a Dirty Girl (June 2008). The theme that month was Fashion Follies. I was a bit skeeeerd when I first saw this theme -I mean fashion oriented cards? Eek, that was a first for me. But as the month progressed, I came up with several ideas that fit right in. Note that all the links I have are to the Fan Club forum of SCS and you need to be a member to access them. If you are not already a FC member, you can click here for the details.

This first card was a wedding card, you can see more details in my original SCS post . Nothing says fashion to a girl more than her wedding dress, right!? The image and sentiment are from Inkadinkado Wedding and is stamped on Shimmer White cardstock. The pearl hearts and silver cord are from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts . The Sky paper is also shimmer and is embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

This next card is one of my all time favorites! I still have it displayed on my stamping shelf. It just makes me smile. You can find more details in my original SCS post. The amazing lady silhouettes are actually from a FABULOUS piece of DP I found at Joann's. I fell in love with the Audry Hepburn feel to it.

This card is 5x7 and has a couple of the flowers from SU! Fabulous Flowers embossed with black and cut out. The black striped organdy ribbon is from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts and the primas are from the Daisy Forever Flowers jar in Copper. Each lady is framed with a tiny bit of Barely Banana and black. The sentiments are from Technique Tuesday Words We Love set.

The last card is the MIM card from the MIM/LIM category of each month. You can find more details in my original SCS post. I got this amazing image from my friend Stacy (JBGreendawn). It's called Feminine Form by Impression Obsession. I made this card 5"x7" to accomodate the size of the image. The blush BG panel is stamped with French Script and sponged in pink. The corner accents are in Artichoke, and the DP and rose has touches of stickles on it. I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and the frame is outlined in the silver glitter pen. 5/8" organdy and silver cord are from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday!

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

CPS sketch -Masculine birthday card

Hi everyone. A short post today. I wanted to play along with this week's CPS115 sketch challenge. I really liked it! This is an easy one, I made it in about 1/2 hour. The hardest part was picking the DP! LOL! I am always short on masculine birthday cards, so here is one for the file.

I used some MME dp from their 29th Street Market Unique line. Love it! Very masculine. I seem to always turn to stars for my masculine cards and instead of ribbon, I always use burlap string from Heidi's store.
Card Deets:
Stamps - Birthday Basics (PTI)
Paper - Dark Brown, Vintage Cream (both PTI), Cranberry Crisp, MME Unique DP
Accessories - large and small SU star punches, burlap string, aged copper brads

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Life is good and catching up on some Verve

Hi everyone! Well, today I managed to squeeze a bit of time to make a card. Still have to unpack and there is laundry in the washer AND dryer, but hey, I haven't made a card in about a week and just HAD to -kwim?

This card is for today's SCS sketch challenge. I decided to try my hand at covering some raw chipboard. I was inspired when I found 2 cute packages in the dollar section of J's from Colorbox. I have always been a bit stumped on how to cover these little buggars, but it was actually pretty easy. I glued them to DP, trimmed it with my craft knife and then sanded the edges. Time consuming, but easy.

I used SU! Raspberry Tart DP and some buttons from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts. The sentiment is from the SU! Bright Delight rub-ons pack. The left side is embossed with a border embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Frills package. I then colored the embossed parts with prismacolor pencils -not too sure how I like it. There is alot going on with this card -LOL! But, it was fun to make a card, it has been too long!
I also have a couple of cards I made for last month's Verve release that I have yet to post. This first card uses my current favorite flower from Verve, the sunburst image from Wishful Elegance and the sentiment is from Because of You. I stamped the backgrounder on white in Pink Pirouette, creating my own DP. I colored the flower with Copics and used some Say It With Crystals by Prima in the center. I put tiny dots of stickles in each center of the pink background stamp. Very lovely IRL.
This next card is one of my favorites! I just love how the flowers, buttons and felt border came together. The large flower is the Plain Jane Elegant Flower and the smaller flowers and sentiment are from Because of You. The felt border and buttons are from Cosmo Cricket (from the uber kit I bought off QVC). I took the felt center stars and used them on the tag and bottom right corner. The DP is Pink Paislee.



Card Deets (sketch card):
Stamps - none
Paper - white, Rose red, Raspberry tart dp
Ink - none
Accessories - prismacolor pencils, gamsol, Frills border EP, rose red grosgrain, chipboard, buttons


Card Deets (Sister):
Stamps - Wishful Elegance and Because of You (for sentiment)
Paper - Pink Pirouette (SU!), Lemon Tart and white (Papertrey Ink)
Ink - Pink Pirouette, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories - Scalloped border punch (SU!), Stardust Stickles (Ranger), Copic markers, Say it in Crystals -flowers (Prima)

Card Deets (Friend):
Stamps - Plain Jane Elegant Flower and Because of You
Ink - Purely Pomegranite, Baja Breeze, More Mustard, Black (all SU!)
Paper - White, Pink Paisley DP
Accessories - Felt border, buttons (both Cosmo Cricket), Burlap String (Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts), Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)
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Non-stamping related post -some vacation pics!

Hi everyone! I am back from my short vacation. What a blast we had! Oh, the Great Wolf Lodge does it right. The waterpark is amazing. Lots of stuff for every age to enjoy. And super safe -lots of staff, lifeguards and first aid stations for those slips and scraped knees (yep, we had a visit there before we left). So, before I get back to reality (clean the house, grocery shopping, checking emails and making cards), I thought I would share some pictures.

Here is a pic of my 3 boys in one of the kiddie pool areas. Daniel (left), Bill (center) and Ryan (right).

Here is a pic of me and Ryan (my fearless 3 year old) after going down the "yellow" slide -one of the big boy/adult slides!

Here is a pic of Daniel (5 yo) in the wave pool -this pool has waves generated all day long and was Daniel's favorite place!

Here is a pic of Ryan going down the "purple" slide -one of the kiddie slides.
Here is a pic of me and Ryan in the wave pool.

Thanks for stopping by. And before I forget, there are only 2 more days for the fabulous Pre-sale of the crochetted flowers at the Jacksonbelle Embellishments store! A pack of 8 sells for $8 and they are made by the fabulous stamper, Melody (lacyquilter on SCS). You can see the deets and a card sample on this post!

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Sunday, May 10, 2009

Limelight post and a little R and R

Hi everyone! I am on a mini family vacation! Yep, right now I am on my way to getting in my swimsuit (gasp!) and going down a water slide with a screaming 3 year old!! LOL!! Bill and I are taking the boys to Great Wolf Lodge in WA! Woohoo, we are soooo excited, it's the first time we've done anything like this with the boys (now that Ryan is 3 1/2 we can start doing these things). Great Wolf Lodge is a "northwoods-themed resort featuring an eight-story waterslide and is one of the largest indoor waterparks in America". It's basically Heaven for kids!! Everyday for the last week Daniel has asked if it's the day we are leaving :-)

In case you are curious, here is the link: Great Wolf Lodge

AND today is my first post as the Flourishes Limelight Designer!! Here is a little peek of one of my projects. You'll have to hop on over to the Flourishes Blog to see everything.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back on Wednesday!

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Friday, May 8, 2009

Raspberry Delight

Hi everyone, I have a double challenge card to show you. This card follows Beate's Weekend Sketch this week hosted by the lovely Jenn Balcer. AND I played along with Dawn's Raspberry Suite color challenge -to use Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz and Basic Grey. What fun colors!!

The sentiment is from Verve's Miracles Blossom set and the flowers peeking out from the ribbon are from the newly released Wishful Elegance. I love love LOVE the flowers in that set!! The butterflies are from punches and the bling trails are from Eva Creative.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

Card Deets:
Stamps - Wishful elegance, Miracles blossom
Paper - Hibiscus burst, Raspberry fizz, white, Basic Grey DSP
Accessories - Raspberry fizz grosgrain, bling, Rectangle curve nesties, butterfly punches

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