Happy Wednesday!

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. I'm still trying to find my groove now that both kids are in school. I'm failing badly at time management it seems.

Anyway...Happy Wednesday! I hope you are all having a great week! It is the first Wednesday of the month, so that means it is time for a fabulous sketch challenge from Frances! We'd love for you to play along. One random challenge participant this week will win the Paper Pretties set "Bundle Up Cooper". You do not need to use Paper Pretties stamps in order to play along, but if you do, you will get a bonus entry into the drawing! Please be sure to mention our challenge and link back to the Paper Pretties blog in your project posting. When uploading to SCS or PCP please use keyword PWC122. Please be sure to link up your project at the bottom of the challenge post on the Paper Pretties blog!

Here is this week's sketch:

I decided to stick as close to the sketch as possible. I opened up a new pad of Basic Grey Wander designer paper. This pack is full of fun travel patterns! I paired it up with the set Home Sweet Home from Paper Pretties. We just got new neighbors a few houses down from us so I thought I'd make them a card to welcome them to the neighborhood.


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge!

Happy Wednesday! Our Paper Pretties challenge for this week is make a project with an animal or animal print on it. We'd love for you to play along. One random challenge participant this week will win the Paper Pretties set "Wade E Bug". You do not need to use Paper Pretties stamps in order to play along, but if you do, you will get a bonus entry into the drawing! Please be sure to mention our challenge and link back to the Paper Pretties blog in your project posting. When uploading to SCS or PCP please use keyword PWC121. Please be sure to link up your project at the bottom of the challenge post on the Paper Pretties blog!

For my card I used Beary Best Friend Cooper. Isn't he adorable! I used the Friday Sketchers sketch for my layout.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Blog Hop Winner!

Thank you to everyone who left comments during the Paper Pretties September release blog hop. The winner from my blog is ...nessy...She wins Everyday Lily!

Congratulations! Please send me an email at hlrcrafts@gmail.com with your mailing address and I will get your stamp set sent out right away!

Paper Pretties Release Day Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Paper Pretties September Release Blog Hop! If you arrived here via Wendy's blog you are on the right path. If you are just joining us, be sure to head back to the Paper Pretties blog and start from the beginning. There are prizes along the way so you don't want to miss a single spot along the hop!

Be sure to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win the set "Everyday Lily"!! You have until 5pm CST on Sunday Sep 26th to leave your comment. Winners will be announced on the Paper Pretties blog on Sunday night!

There are 10 SUPER FUN new stamps sets being released today! Along with the new release sets, we also have a few other "new" sets in the store. Bath Time Cooper and Snowflake Kisses Sophia were formerly only available as digis, but as of today these 2 images are also available as high quality clear stamp sets! Our gorgeous wedding set Time For Cake is also back in stock! There are also tons of new 6"x6" designer paper pads in stock...Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, Kaisercraft and more!


For my card today, I used the new Victoria Case set "Everyday Lily". This set is full of fun sentiments for everyday cards! I absolutely love this image. She is so fun and versatile! I paired her up with some Basic Grey Green At Heart designer paper. The sketch I used is Mercy's MTSC92 sketch.

I am the last stop on today's hop! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Paper Pretties September Preview

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a terrific weekend. Once again I am going to start off by apologizing for my lack of posts. I never realized how much behind the scenes work went into trying to build up a stamp company. I am busy all of the time, leaving me very little time to actually stamp. Speaking of being busy...I'm getting everything ready for Friday's new release! There are 10 brand new sets being released on Friday and they are FABULOUS! I love every single one of them. The Prettie Girls will be giving sneak peeks of the new sets all week, ending with a fun prize filled blog hop on Friday!

Today I have a peek of one of the new Victoria Case sets called "Everyday Lily". I absolutely love this image. She is so fun to color!
Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful start to your week!

Now don't have a heart attack...

but I actually stamped! I think this is the first Paper Pretties Wednesday challenge that I've been able to play along with in the past month. I have been working hard behind the scenes getting our next couple releases ready! I'm so excited about the new stamps we have coming out! I know you will all love them! Start watching for sneak peeks coming soon!

Our challenge for this week is to use pearls, rhinestones or Glitter Dots. We'd love for you to play along. One random challenge participant this week will win the Paper Pretties set "Made With Love". You do not need to use Paper Pretties stamps in order to play along, but if you do, you will get a bonus entry into the drawing! Please be sure to mention our challenge and link back to the Paper Pretties blog in your project posting. When uploading to SCS or PCP please use keyword PWC119. Please be sure to link up your project at the bottom of the challenge post on the Paper Pretties blog!

For my card I used the stamp set Happy Birthday Lamb. This set happens to be out of stock right now, but will hopefully be back in stock soon! I just love this adorable image! I added some Stampendous crystal ultrafine glitter and some Kaisercraft rhinestones. The designer paper is from Basic Grey.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Today is Prettie Girl Jessica's birthday! To celebrate the design team put together a fun blog hop in her honor! If you arrived here from Wendy's blog you are on the right path. If not, head back to Frances' blog and start the hop from there! You won't want to miss any of the fabulous creations!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!!!

I'm probably sounding like a broken record when I say, I've been crazy busy and haven't had a chance to stamp...but sadly that is the case. When I went to take a picture of my card last night, my card from Pam's birthday blog hop from last week was still sitting in my light tent. This makes me sad considering I used to make 5-7 cards a week. Still crossing my fingers to get a little stamping time sometime soon! I did manage to get a card done for Jessica's birthday. Sadly a pretty simple card took several days for me to put together. I used one of my favorite Sophia images (although I think I say that with every Sophia, LOL), Lady Sophia. The sentiment comes from the Make a Wish Sophia set. I also used Mercy's MTSC90 sketch for my card.
Be sure to head on over to Jessica's blog to wish her a Happy Birthday! Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAM!!!

Today is Prettie Girl Pam's birthday! To celebrate the design team put together a fun blog hop in her honor! If you arrived here from Wendy's blog you are on the right path. If not, head back to Frances' blog and start the hop from there! You won't want to miss any of the fabulous creations!

Pam I hope you have a wonderful wonderful day! I'm so lucky to have you on my team!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

I haven't stamped for weeks, literally, so my creativity just isn't quite on track. I tried and tried to color an image the other night with no success. I'm not even sure I'm remotely happy with this one but my time was running out so I decided to go with it. My image and sentiment come from the newly released "Just Because Zac" set. I absolutely love this image. I think he is adorable.
I used this week's Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge sketch as my inspiration!


Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to hop on over to Pam's blog and wish her a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge!

Head on over to the Paper Pretties blog for this week's challenge! I also want to give a huge welcome to our guest designer for September and October...Cindy Haffner! I'm thrilled to have Cindy joining us for the next couple months!!

I promise to have a card to share...someday! I have been crazy busy trying to finish up the next couple months of Paper Pretties releases plus my kids started school today which has been an emotional roller coaster. Beckett is now officially a kindergartener. I'm so sad my kids are growing up so fast! They started at a new school today so I was nervous but they both did just fine! I definitely worry more than I need to. Anyway...now that school started maybe I'll find some time to stamp!

I hope you all have a great day!

Life is Busy!

CRAZY BUSY!!! I haven't had a chance to stamp in FOREVER!!!! I'm hoping to stamp on Sunday...maybe...crossing my fingers!
Until then I wanted to share something that I got in the mail today:

Do you recognize any of those cards? I'll give you a hint...

I was SOOOOO excited to see my Unity Boo Crew card on the front cover! I also have a Paper Pretties Halloween Pick of the Patch Cooper card inside the magazine!

Thank you to all of you who still visit and leave comments. I know I don't post near as often as I used to. I'm hoping once school starts and I have a little teeny tiny bit more time to myself I will be able to stamp more!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge!

Hey friends! Happy Wednesday! Check out the Paper Pretties blog for a fun and fabulous new Wednesday challenge. I haven't had a chance to stamp in a LONG time, so no card from me today... but my design team totally ROCKED the challenge this week and you definitely won't want to miss seeing their fabulous cards! You can see them all on the PP blog HERE.

I hope you are all having a great week!

Happy Birthday Jackie!!

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Today we are celebrating the birthday of design team member Jackie with a special Paper Pretties birthday blog hop! If you are just starting the hop be sure to start back at the beginning (Frances' blog) because you definitely don't want to miss any of the fabulous creations!

Jackie, I hope you have an absolutely wonderful birthday!!!!

For my card, I used Howdy Girlfriend Sophia. The Just Us Girls challenge this week is to make a card with a Wild West theme. One of the Just Us Girls DT members, Alicia, is organizing a charity rodeo in memory of her son, Ethan. All proceeds will go for neuroblastoma research. Here's the link to the rodeo website.


Next stop in the hop is birthday girl Jackie's blog! Be sure to stop by and give her some birthday wishes!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Papr Pretties Grand Re-Opening Blog Hop!!!!!

This is the last stop in today's blog hop! If you’re arriving from the blog of the amazing Jessica George, you’re in the right place! If you are just joining us on our HUGE PARTY TRAIN, you can head back to the Paper Pretties Blog to start from the beginning. You definitely don’t want to miss out on all of the eye candy (and lots of prizes)!

I can't believe we finally made it to release day! I have been looking forward to today for a couple months!!!! I'm SO EXCITED it is finally here!
Paper Pretties is releasing TWELVE brand new sets today, along with the big Prettie Boutique Re-Opening. All of the new sets will be available for purchase in the Prettie Boutique beginning no later than 7 AM CST today.

For my card, I decided to use one of the new Victoria Case for Paper Pretties images called "Garden Fairy Katie". I ADORE this image. I think she is honestly one of the cutest fairy images I have ever seen! I used Mercy's fabulous Tuesday Sketch #86 for my layout (I flipped the sketch on its side). Katie is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic markers. I added some glitter to her wings and flowers. The designer paper is Basic Grey. To finish it off I used some mini Glue Dots to add some White Lightning Glitter Dots.
It’s our party, but the PRESENTS are for you!! Leave a comment right here on this post to enter to win this fabulous stamp set!! I will take comments until Sunday, August 15th at 6 PM CST, and then one Prettie Lucky stamper will be chosen at random to receive this set!! Can’t get a better deal than that! And you can shop now without fear, if you happen to win a set you already purchased (you know you can’t resist these amazing new images!), you may substitute a different set of equal or lesser value in its place.

If we’re going to have a party, we’re going to make it a REALLY GOOD PARTY. Here are the purchase specials for all purchases from the Prettie Boutique:

• Every order placed during release weekend (now through Sunday, August 15th) will receive a free Paper Pretties “Hand Stamped” stamp!
• All orders that total $25 or more (before shipping charges are applied) will receive a free stamp set (Paper Pretties’ choice) in their package!
• Any orders that total $100 or more (before shipping charges are applied) will receive a free 6x6 paper pad (Paper Pretties’ choice) with their order!
• The older Paper Pretties’ stamps are still on sale! Up to 75% off, with many of the Sophia and Cooper sets selling for just $5! WOW!!

Thanks for joining us today. I hope you love this release as much as I do!! I hope you all have a FAIRY nice day!!!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge!

Happy Wednesday! We are only a day away from our brand new stamp release! The excitement is almost more than I can take! We will be having a super FABULOUS blog hop tomorrow with lots of fun and prizes! The hop will start here at the Paper Pretties blog!

Until then, we have our Paper Pretties Wednesday challenge to keep you busy! With all of the new release madness, we decided to make this week's challenge an easy one. The challenge this week is to use ribbon on your card or project! We'd love for you to play along. One random challenge participant this week will win the Paper Pretties set "Angel Wings Sophia". You do not need to use Paper Pretties stamps in order to play along, but if you do, you will get a bonus entry into the drawing! Please be sure to mention our challenge and link back to the Paper Pretties blog in your project posting. When uploading to SCS or PCP please use keyword PWC114. Please be sure to link up your project at the bottom of the challenge post on the PP blog.

Unfortunately I don't have a card to share with you today. I have been crazy busy trying to make sure everything is ready for the release and just couldn't find time to get a card done for today!
My design team on the other hand made some crazy awesome cards for today's challenge so be sure to check out the Paper Pretties blog for lots of ribbon inspiration!

Running Late!

I am running SUPER late this morning so this is going to be a quick post. Here is my Paper Pretties preview card for today. I used the super cute new Victoria Case set "Just Because Zac". I absolutely adore this image! Isn't he cute!

Be sure to check out the Paper Pretties blog to see the FABULOUS preview cards made by the design team!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a great day!

Tire Swing Cooper!

Good Monday morning to you all! I hope you all had a great weekend! The Paper Pretties new release sneak peeks continue today! I am so excited about this release! The new images are SO cute! Today I have a card to share that I made using one of our new Cooper stamps. This set is called Tire Swing Cooper. All 12 new sets will be available in the Paper Pretties store Thursday Aug. 12th at 5am CST.

For my card I stamped Cooper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored him with Copic markers. The designer paper is Basic Grey Green at Heart. I also added some Making Memories buttons with some white Karen Foster Scrapper's Floss. I colored the Scrapper's Floss with Copic markers to coordinate with the buttons.


Be sure to check out the Paper Pretties blog for more preview cards from Pam, Frances and Wendy!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Let the previews begin!!

Happy Sunday to everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! I have tons of exciting things to share with you today!

As you know, Paper Pretties will be having its Grand Re-Opening release this coming Thursday! I am SOOOOO excited to be moving forward after lots of behind the scenes work (and stress) the past couple months! Today we are going to start giving you previews of the new sets!
There are few things I want to tell you about the new sets before we should you the previews:

1. We have 12 new sets being released on Thursday! 5 of them are from our INCREDIBLE veteran illustrator Joni Stringfield and 7 of them are from a brand new Paper Pretties illustrator! I am thrilled to tell you that Victoria Case has joined the Paper Pretties team as our newest illustrator! Victoria is amazingly talented and sweet as can be. You are going to LOVE her images!

2. All NEW Paper Pretties sets from here on out are going to be Clear Photopolymer sets. I want you to know that I did a lot of research and made sure I found the highest quality clear stamp manufacturer possible. I am VERY picky about clear stamps and I am EXTREMELY happy with the quality of our new stamps. The reason for the switch is to make our Paper Pretties sets more affordable for everyone! The new sets will have more sentiments and accessory stamps than the old sets and they will considerably less expensive for you! It also allows me to release more images every month, so it is a win-win situation for everyone!

3. We will be having a blog hop on Thursday, showcasing all of the new releases.

4. The new stamps will be available in the Paper Pretties store beginning at 4am CST on Thursday Aug. 12th. We will also be having several sales specials and prizes!


Do you want to see some previews? Head on over to the Paper Pretties blog for some previews from Frances, Pam, Wendy, Jessica and Jen!

I hope you are all having a wonder day!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge!

Before I get to this week's Paper Pretties challenge, I want to welcome three brand new Prettie Girls!

Jessica George
Pam Varnell
and
Wendy Hoff

I am absolutely thrilled to have these three incredibly talented ladies joining our team!

Our challenge this week is a sketch challenge. Frances' is a master at coming up with fabulous sketches! We would love for you to play along with us! If you play along be sure to post a link to your project on the Paper Pretties blog. One random participant this week will win the Paper Pretties set "Bugs and Fishes". You do not need to use Paper Pretties stamps, but if you do, you get a bonus entry into the drawing. If you post your project on your blog, please be sure to link back to the Paper Pretties blog.

Here is this week's sketch:

For my card I used "Make a Wish Sophia". I absolutely love this image. It is my go-to stamp for every little girl birthday card I make. I just think she is perfect for adding lots of girly glitter. Every little girls loves glitter, right?

I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with Copic markers. I used a Quickie glue pen to add some Stampendous Crystal Ultrafine glitter. I added some May Arts ribbon and a Prima flower with a Glitter Dot Center. I used mini glue dots to adhere the flower and Glitter Dot.

Along with following Frances' sketch I also played along with the ColourQ color challenge #44 (Poppy Parade, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Black and White) and with the Creative Card Crew "Cute and Girly" challenge.



Thanks for stopping by today! We have tons of fun things coming in the next week so be sure to stop back! Our grand re-opening release sneak peeks start next week! I can't tell you how excited I am that things are finally moving forward. I am really looking forward to showing you the fabulous new stamps! You won't be disappointed!

I hope you all have a terrific day!

Penguin Fun!

Did you know that Paper Pretties not only has cute kid stamps, but they also have cute critters! For my card today I used the set Surf's Up. Isn't he just absolutely adorable!!! In honor of this week's Paper Pretties glitter challenge, I added lots of Stampendous Crystal Ultrafine Glitter to the waves and also some ebony Glitter Dots. My image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic makers. The dp is from DCWV.


I used the current Friday Sketcher's sketch challenge for my layout.


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful day!

A Prettie Wednesday Challenge!

It is time for another fun Paper Pretties Wednesday challenge! Our challenge this week is an easy one...GLITTER! Use glitter on your project! We'd love for you to play along! If you do, be sure to leave a link to you project on the Paper Pretties blog! One lucky random participant in this week's challenge will with the Paper Pretties stamp set Wade E. Bug!

My card layout comes from this week's Sketch Saturday Sketch.

For my card, I used You're Maarvelous Sophia. I added some Glitter Dots to give it a little sparkle. The Paper Pretties store has 18 different colors of Glitter Dots in stock! The designer paper comes from the Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety line. To give her coat a fuzzy look I added some Sparkly Fluff.



Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a terrific day!

Another challenge card!

Here is card #2 from my Saturday stamping spree! For this one, I played along with the Our Creative Corner color challenge: Green, Red, White and Black challenge.

I used the set Dreamboat from Paper Pretties. I think this is such a fun set! I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Copic markers. I added some Dress It Up glitter dots to give it a little bit of sparkle! (the ghostly white dot on the left side of her skirt is a big smudge on my camera lense...I didn't notice until after I had edited my photos).
The stamp super sale is still going on in the Paper Pretties store! We are making room for tons of fabulous new stamps that are coming soon! It is a great time to stock up on those Sophia and Cooper stamps that you've wanted! Most Sophia and Cooper sets are only $5!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

It's not Wednesday...

and I'm posting on my blog...what is this world coming too, LOL! Because of all of the chaos and craziness over the past couple months I haven't had a chance to just sit and stamp for fun. Today I finally got the chance. I feel almost giddy just thinking about my day. To get me back in my stamp groove I scanned all of my favorite challenge blogs for inspiration. The card I'm sharing today is a combination of 4 different challenges...I needed inspiration for pretty much every aspect of my card, LOL.

So the challenges that I played along with for this card are:

Basic Grey Challenge: Stitching
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge: Stitches, Scallops and Sparkle
Crazy 4 Challenges: Inspiration pieceAND...Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #83 Phew...that is a lot of challenges...but honestly, I'm rusty. I needed all the help I could find to get me warmed up!

For my card I used Always in my heart Sophia from Paper Pretties. She is honestly one of my absolute favorite Sophia images (although I say that about a lot of them). I paired her up with some Basic Grey Lime Rickey designer paper and some Kaisercraft Rhinestones. The sentiment is from the SWAK Add-On sentiment set. I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with Copic markers. I stepped out of my comfort zone and actually tried to color blonde hair. Not sure if you have ever noticed, but all of my images always have brunette hair because that is the only one that I know I can color ok. I was pretty happy with how her hair turned out. I might have to try blonde more often!
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by! Oh and before I forget...there is a huge sale on stamps going on in the Paper Pretties store. Most Cooper and Sophia stamps are only $5 and all other stamps are on sale too!

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge!

Ok...seriously...I have no idea where my time is going lately. I can't believe it is Wednesday again already. I swear I was just stressing about last week's card and now a week has gone by. I have not been stamping much....or at all...and I can really tell. I am rusty. And my photography skills are rusty too! I really don't know how I managed to get things done back when I was on 4 design teams...I can't even keep up with 1 card a week right now.... BUT.... I do have an excuse...I'm busy working on some awesome new release sets for Paper Pretties! I so excited that things are finally coming together. I love the new sets and I can't wait to share them with you! The new releases are being manufactured this week and we will hopefully be having a super fun grand re-opening/ release early next month! Woohoo...I can see the light!

Oh and more exciting news...Paper Pretties has a blog...Woohoo! Not only do we have a blog but the Wednesday challenge is posted there...another Woohoo! Not only is the challenge posted there but we are giving away prizes each week too...Woohoo...Woohoo!!!!

Check out the Paper Pretties blog HERE!

Our challenge this week is to make a Christmas card using non-traditional Christmas colors.

So anyway...once again I have to apologize for my lack of posting, my lack of mojo and my lack of photography skills.

And...I have to tell you that I am a traditional girl and non-traditional Christmas colors are near impossible for me. I did buy the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses designer paper last fall, so as much I'd like to cringe, I did my best to make a non-traditional colors Christmas card.

For my card, I used the adorable Frosty set from Paper Pretties and some super fun Glitter Dots. I finally got my order of Glitter Dots yesterday! There are now 18 awesome colors of Glitter Dots in the Paper Pretties Boutique. They are flat backed and work perfect with mini Glue Dots!


Thanks for stopping by today... and thanks for sticking by me during this transition time. I promise there will be more posts, more often...soon!

I hope you are all having a great week!