Firecracker Designs July Blog Hop!

It's time for the July Firecracker Designs blog hop! The theme this month is: FCD Gets Hot! We were all challenged to create a project/card using heat..such as heat embossing, using an iron for a technique, etc.. We just had to make sure we used some heat!!! For my card I used the FCD set "Mahalo". This set is absolutely GORGEOUS! The sentiment comes from the set "Phrases set 1". I just love the beautiful palm trees from the Mahalo set. They make a perfect background or focal image. For my card I embossed the trees with black embossing powder on Apricot cardstock. I sponged around the edges with Ruby Red ink. I was hoping for a tropical sunset look.

Thanks for stopping by today! This is a “circular blog hop” where the beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of the blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started from! (It’s not a huge circle…so it should be easy to remember where you started.)

There will be blog candy given away to 1 lucky blog hop participant. The winner will be chosen from the comments left on the blog of one of the FCD design team members...but which one? The blog candy hostess is a mystery! We don't even know who the blog candy hostess will be until the hop is over…so make sure you leave a comment on EVERY blog, so you don’t miss out on a chance at the blog candy!

****If you are the blog candy winner, you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out the winner on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Wed, July 29th at 8:00 PM (EST).****

Now, to continue the circle, hop on over the the blog of the incredibly talented LIBBY,
and keep going until you’ve come back to where you’ve started! Thanks so much for playing along with us and we hope you have a great time!

TGIF!

and I do mean TGIF! It has been a long stressful week and I'm looking forward to a little bit or relaxing stamp time this weekend. Seems like the weekends are the only time I get to stamp nowadays!

Today I thought I would share another of my DRS Designs new release cards. Here is another card I made with the newest Cutie Pie girl! I think she is so stinkin cute! The "Fun in the Sun" sentiment is a new release also. It works so well with several of the new releases! To see all of the new releases click HERE.


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the Firecracker Designs monthly blog hop! You won't want to miss it!

Fun stuff going on at Firecracker Designs!

1st off I want to remind you all that Firecracker Designs is having a design team call! It has been an awesome year but our current design team term is coming to an end in just a few short weeks. I'm sad that our term is over but as I said yesterday, I'm looking forward to some quality time with my kids. Pamela carries a huge variety of fun images and she is a joy to work for! If you are at interested in her stuff I highly recommend trying out for the team! If you are interested in being on the new team that starts in September be sure to check out all of the details on Pamela's blog. You have until Aug 15th to submit you application!

Now...are you ready for som more FUN news?!! There are 2 brand new stamps sets being released at FireCracker Designs!! Pamela has REALLY outdone herself with these new sets!! They are awesome!! She also is also currently working on a couple more that should be out sometime next week. Here are the first two new sets:

Elephants on Parade

Horses of Courses

Pamela is taking Pre-Orders on these sets. She also has a special deal if you just have to have both sets. CLICK HERE for the pre-order special deal to see the full details of how to purchase BOTH sets at the pre-order discounted price.

**Also, don't forget that THIS Saturday, July 25th we will be having another FCD blog hop!! So please join me right here on my blog to start in on the fun!! You don't want to miss it**

And...I thought I would also share a FCD card today too! I used my absolute favorite stamp set ever "Fall Flowers" for this card along with Pamela's "Phrases Set 1" set.


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

Change...

I'm sort of a routine girl so change is always hard for me. Unfortunately, sometimes change is the only option. Life for me has been pretty stressful lately. I have been overwhelmed with work (I took care of this by resigning from my lab manager job), family and design team commitments. I'm sure a lot of you have noticed that I don't get around to visit your blogs much anymore. It is not that I haven't wanted to, I just haven't had the time to do everything. I appreciate all of you who have continued to visit my blog daily. All of your comments are what keep me going. In an effort to try and get some sanity back in my life I have decided to make a few changes. I have decided to step down from a few of my design teams. This was such a difficult decision to make because I truly LOVE the teams that I am on, but deep down I know this is the best thing for me. Part of (a huge part of) my stress is the fact that my baby girl is going to start kindergarten in a few short weeks. With fewer job and DT commitments, I'm planning on spending as much time with her as possible before school starts. I need all the extra time with her I can get because I'm not sure I can live through letting her go to school.
For those of you who are wondering....I'm not going to quit stamping (a couple of my design team contracts go through the end of the year)...but I might not be posting every single day anymore. I hope that you all still stop by and I'm hoping to be able to come and visit your blogs too! Thank you all for leaving me wonderful comments and giving me support when I've needed it!

I'm Hooked On You!!

Hope everyone is having a great week! Today I wanted to share a card made with another one of the newest releases from DRS Designs. The adorable worm image was released a few months ago and this month there is a fabulous sentiment that coordinates perfect with it: "I'm hooked on you". I absolutely love these stamps. Wouldn't they make a perfect Valentine's card for the fisherman/woman in our lives...

The background was made using the Interlocking Heart background stamp from DRS Designs. DRS Designs have a huge selection of easy background stamps that make a perfect background everytime! Check them all out HERE.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Jacksonbelle Embellishments Tuesday Challenge!

It's time for another fun Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge. We have another great sketch for you this week! We'd love for you to play along. If you do, please leave a link to your project on the JB blog and use keyword JBE063 (even though the picture says 062) when uploading to SCS or PCP.

Here is this week's sketch:Here is my card:

I have to say that for the first time in a very long time, I really love how this card turned out. I probably wouldn't normally put these colors together but I worked off the colors in the designer paper. Supplies from Jacksonbelle Embellishments include Pink Paislee designer paper, Crocheted flower, Basic Grey brad, Basic Grey Pearls and Marth Stewart punch. The sentiment stamp is from DRS Designs.

Before I forget...ALL Inkadinkado is on sale this week 25% off at Jacksonbelle!!!

For more sketchy inspiration, check out the rest of the Jacksonbelle Rockstars:

Kristine Breach ~ Ink Something

Tobi Crawford ~ Tobi’s Place

Stephanie Hargis ~ Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Mitzi Koons ~ Stamps Jubilee

Loretta Lock ~ Love to Create

Jimmi Mayo ~ Stamping & Shopping

Bethany Paull ~ It’s Not All Black & White

Michelle Philippi ~ Inside My Own Private Idaho

Carly Robertson ~ Paper in Bloom

Shemaine Smith ~ Scraptastic

Lynda Benden: Stamp Act

Melissa Bove: Keepsakes By Melissa

Jennifer Buck: The Buck Stamps Here

Jill Dunn: Ink Genious

AJ Otto: The Willow Garden

Lindsey Botkin: Embellished

Trudee Sauer: Follow Your Bliss

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

Shimmerz is Flourishing!

This is my 2nd blog post for the day. Please scroll down to see the Little Paper Shop Monday challenge.

The Shimmerz Design Team got a wonderful opportunity to do a little swap with the Flourishes design team! We had the privelege of using Flourishes stamps, and the Flourishes team played with Shimmerz :) The two together make a fabulous combination.

For my card I used the set "Home Tweet Home" from Flourishes. This set is absolutely gorgeous. The fabulous branch had me sold the second I saw it. I stamped the branch and cut it out. The leaves are painted with Green Olive Shimmerz. I sponged the cloud background and sprayed it with Baby's Breath Shimmerz Spirtz and then glue down the branch. The bird was stamped and colored and then cut out and glue down to the branch also. Throw in some Basic Grey pearls, May Arts ribbon and some Cuttlebugged cardstock and viola! I was really happy with how this turned out.
Be sure to check out the Shimmerz blog to see what the other design team members made with their Flourishes stamps!

Little Paper Shop Monday Challenge!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! It is time for another fun Little Paper Shop Monday challenge! This week we have a fabulous sketch brought to us by the uber-talented Cindy Haffner!

This week's prize on the LPS blog is another {Beary Best Katie}! Be sure to post a link to your project on the LPS blog in order to be eligible for the prize. Good luck to all and we'll let you know who the random winner is next Monday on the LPS blog :)


My card today uses the adorable {Katie Cupcake} set from Little Paper Shop.
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a fabulous day! Check back a little later for a special Shimmerz post.

Silly Stuff...

I don't have a card today but I thought I would share a picture of last night's dinner. We love alien pancake night at our house...


Hope everyone had a great weekend! Stop by tomorrow for the LPS Monday challenge and a special Shimmerz post.

Release Day at DRS Designs!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Today is the July release at DRS Designs. All of the new designs are now available for purchase. There are a ton of cute new stamps this month.

One of my favorite new releases is called "3 Flowers with Butterfly". I couldn't stop playing around with this stamp. Fun to color and so versatile...

To see all of the new releases check out the DRS Designs site HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today! Stop back Monday for the LPS Monday challenge and a fun Shimmerz design team card!

Blingz Hummingbird!

Hope everyone is having a great week. Life is still busy but I'm finding a little bit of time to get some stamping done.
Today I wanted to share a card that I made using Under the Sea Shimmerz Blingz. A friend of mine asked me to make a card with a hummingbird on it and Shimmerz immediately came to mind. Hummingbirds are so beautiful and shimmery and I thought my Under the Sea Blingz would be perfect for my project. The hummingbird is a free digi stamp from Squigglefly. I colored the image with copic markers and then highlighted it with Under the Sea Blingz.

Speaking of Shimmerz...did you see that there are some fabulous new summer colors? You can see all of the new colors on the Shimmerz blog HERE.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

DRS Designs Sneak Peak!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! It's almost release day at DRS Designs and today I have a couple sneak peaks for you!
You all know that I am in love with the DRS Designs Cutie Pie Kids. Well...we have 2 new additions to the Cutie Pie family this month. I absolutely LOVE these new images - you don't get much cuter than this....

Do you want to win both of these Cuties? My fellow DRS Designs DT member Vicki is giving them away on her blog...you definitely want to check it out!

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

Jacksonbelle Embellishments Tuesday Challenge!

This is my 2nd blog post today. To see my Little Paper Shop design team challenge card please scroll down to my previous post.

Hope everyone is having a great week. We have another fun sketch challenge for you this week. We would love for you to play along with us. Please use keyword JBE062 (even though the picture says JBE061) when uploading to PCP or SCS.

Here is the sketch:

Here is my card:

Did you know that all Daisy D is on sale (most items are 50% off and more) at Jacksonbelle? For my card I used some fun Daisy D designer paper and these awesome metal photo corners. The photo corners come in several colors and our only $1 per package! The stamps I used for my card are from DRS Designs.

For more sketchy inspiration, check out the blogs of the rest of the Jacksonbelle Rockstars!!!

Kristine Breach ~ Ink Something

Tobi Crawford ~ Tobi’s Place

Dawn Easton ~ Treasure Oiler Designz

Stephanie Hargis ~ Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Mitzi Koons ~ Stamps Jubilee

Loretta Lock ~ Love to Create

Jimmi Mayo ~ Stamping & Shopping

Bethany Paull ~ It’s Not All Black & White

Michelle Philippi ~ Inside My Own Private Idaho

Carly Robertson ~ Paper in Bloom

Shemaine Smith ~ Scraptastic

Lynda Benden: Stamp Act

Melissa Bove: Keepsakes By Melissa

Jennifer Buck: The Buck Stamps Here

Jill Dunn: Ink Genious

AJ Otto: The Willow Garden

Lindsey Botkin: Embellished

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to check out the huge Daisy D sale going on now at Jacksonbelle Embellishments.

Little Paper Shop release day!

Hope you all had a great start to your week!
It's release day at Little Paper Shop..WOO HOO! BOTH new releases, {Angelic Jena } and {Beary Best Katie} are available AND on sale! That's right! From NOW through Monday, July 20th (or while supplies last) the two new releases are 10% off on the LPS Website! Happy Shopping!

We have a special treat for you today as it's also the DT Challenge day.
Now, normally we do our Monthly DT Challenge on the 15th of the month, but since it was SO close to release day, we just couldn't WAIT to show you more LPS cards.

Here is this month's DT challenge:

***Use Kraft, Pink, and Green on the cards and use PUNCHES!***

Be sure to check out the Little Paper Shop blog to see what the rest of the design team came up with for this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by today. Stop back later for the Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge!

Little Paper Shop Preview: {Beary Best Katie}

Welcome back, everyone! This is my 2nd blog post for the day. If you are looking for the DRS Designs blog challenge, please scroll down to the previous post.

Today we have another 'Beary' special preview for you today here at Little Paper Shop! Introducing {Beary Best Katie}! This adorable new 3x4 stamp set will be released along with {Angelic Jena} on Tuesday!

Today we not only have a preview contest for you, but it's also LPS Monday, so that means there are TWO chances to win this set! Leave a comment on today's post on the Little Paper Shop blog and one random winner will be chosen and announced tomorrow on the Little Paper shop blog during our official release!

We'd LOVE for you to play along with our sketch challenge this week, as well! Be sure to leave a comment on the Little Paper Shop blog after you upload your card, too so that we can see all your beautiful sketch creations! You can use keyword LPSC24 if you upload to SCS or PCP.

Here is the sketch:Here is my card:

Be sure to check out the Little Paper Shop blog to see all of the fabulous samples made by the design team!

We hope you'll join us again tomorrow for the official release and lots more awesome samples as the DT has been up to something awfully "krafty' ;) See you soon!

DRS Designs Monday Challenge!

It is time for another fun DRS Designs blog challenge. Today's challenge is to make a genie bag... a quick, inexpensive way to package just about anything. Any size bag will do...you can find the tutorial HERE on SCS.

We would love for you to play along with us. Just a post a direct link to your creation in the comment section on the DRS Designs blog so we can come check it out. If you upload to public gallery, please use the keyword DRSC25.

I think I might have said this before but I thought I'd state it again as a little disclaimer before posting my project...I suck at non-card projects. Not sure why I can't step out of the card box but 3-D/gifty items are always extremely difficult for me. I had never made a genie bag before this challenge. Here is my bag...
Be sure to check out the DRS Designs blog to see all of the fabulous bags made by the design team!

Thanks for stopping by today! Check back a little later for another LPS July preview!

Little Paper Shop Preview: {Angelic Jena}

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I had a great time stamping with my friend Jen last night. Pizza, snacks, a few beverages, good conversation and 6 hours of child-free stamping...bliss!

Can you blieve it is time for the July Little Paper Shop previews? It seems like we were just doing the June previews. I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by!

Today's preview is an absolutely ADORABLE set called {Angelic Jena}.

{Angelic Jena} sits atop a beautiful crescent moon! She is sweet, innocent and a super-versatile image for birthdays, babies or "just because".

Want to WIN this set? Leave a comment on today's post on the Little Paper Shop blog and they will announce a radom winner tomorrow! Have a great Sunday everyone!

Enjoy the weekend!

It looks like it is going to be a great weekend around here! The house is clean and I finally get some time tonight (without the kids) to stamp! I haven't had much stamping time in days and I am so excited about tonight. My friend Jen is coming over and we are going to stamp the night away!

Today I have another simple but elegant card to share. I made this card with a wedding in mind but I guess it could be used for other occasions too. The sentiment stamp is from DRS Designs.
For wedding cards I tend to try and only use black and white for some reason, personal preference I guess. I just think these colors make a card look so elegant. I also love to add some bling or shimmer...for this card I used both. I added some self adhesive rhinestones to the corners and to finish it off I painted a white Prima flower with Angel Wings Shimmerz. Angel Wings is my absolute favorite color of Shimmerz because you can use it on any color flower or cardstock and it looks just beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Firecracker Designs is having a DT call!

I can't believe my year on the Firecracker Designs DT is almost up. It has been a great year! With that being said, Pamela will be looking for a new design team. If you are interested, check out all of the details HERE on Pamela's blog! Good luck!

Christmas in July at Firecracker Designs by Pamela!

Pamela is offering a Christmas in July sale starting NOW-through Sunday, July 12, 2009!! !

ALL Christmas Stamp sets are on sale, buy 2, get a 3rd one (of equal or lesser value) FREE!! Just type in the comment box which set you want free. (buy 4, get 2 free, etc…) Sale applies to Christmas/winter sets ONLY! (all the rubber /clear stamps on the Christmas Pages)

Happy Shopping!