5 years....

My baby girl is 5 years old today. Brings tears to my eyes that she has grown up so fast!

5 years ago today...

Today (the second she got out of bed)

JacksonBelle Sketch Challenge #1

I'm a few weeks late doing the JacksonBelle Sketch Challenge, but I thought I would share the card anyway (seems like I'm a few weeks behind in everything lately, or even months in some cases). Here is their sketch challenge from a couple weeks ago:Here is my card:

I've never really been much of a Halloween card maker but this year I have been sucked in by all of the super cute stamps, punches, embellishments, etc. For as much Halloween stuff as I have purchased lately, I wish Halloween was a year round holiday!

Supplies used: Clear stamp set from Inkadinkado, SU cardstock, DP is from DCWV (I think), Shimmerz paint - Silver bells, Martha Stewart bat punch, Glitter dots from Dress it Up, Misc. ribbon from Michael's.

I hope everyone is having a great day! Check back in tomorrow for another JB sketch card!
I have a bunch of DRS cards to share in the next few days too!
Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Wednesday!

I have a couple more Halloween cards to share this week before I move on to some fall themed cards. These two cards are both made with some of the new DRS Designs Halloween stamp releases. Aren't the striped socks on the ghost totally adorable! Can you tell I am totally loving my new Martha Stewart fence punch. For the second card I free hand cut the tree, not great, but ok. The dp came pre-glittered and then I glittered each of the letters. Pretty in real life, but hard to photo!

Supplies used: All stamps from DRS Designs, SU cardstock, Debbie Mumm DP, Martha Stewart fence punch, Doodlebug glitter, SU glitter, MM bat brads, googlie eyes, Koh-i-noor colored pencil.

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

DRS Halloween Release

So as I mentioned yesterday, DRS Designs released some terrific new Halloween and fall themed stamps. I thought I would start out by showing you one of the Halloween cards I made. I have to say, I'm not always thrilled with the cards I make, but when I finished this one all I could do was smile. I love how this one turned out. The RIP tombstone stamp is a new release. To be totally honest, at first I had no idea what I would do with this stamp, but once I got going, this card just fell together. The ghost is glued flat under the front tombstone but his head is popped up with a foam dimensional.Supplies used: All stamps from DRS Designs, SU CS, Debbie Mumm DP, Martha Stewart Halloween fence edge punch, Darice self adhesive rhinestones.

This second photo is the same card with the matching envelope. Another one of the new Halloween releases is this super cute postage frame! It is a great way to dress up your Halloween card envelope! Click on the image for a better look! To see all of the new DRS Designs releases click HERE.
Thanks for stopping by today. I will have tons more to show you all this week, so please check back! Hope you have a great day!

New Release Day!

Today is the day! The newest Halloween and fall themed stamps are available at DRS Designs today. Click HERE for a peak at these terrific designs!
I stamped all day today and made some super cute cards with these new designs. Unfortunately by the time I finished them I just didn't have good lighting to take photos. I will get pictures taken in the morning so be on the lookout for some new cards starting tomorrow! I think I have enough cards made for 2 weeks worth of blog posts...YAY ME!!!
I'm tired but I'm in a great mood..I got to stamp all day and I was more than happy with the cards I made (that doesn't happen very often)! I can't wait to show you!
I hope you all had a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

DRS Designs Blog Challenge #4

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Jen and I had a great time stamping the night away on Saturday. I was pretty productive too, finishing 5 cards in the 6 hours that we were at Archiver's. I think this is a record for me! I will start sharing those cards later this week because today I something else that I want to share...a new DRS Designs blog challenge!!!!
Remember 2 weeks ago when we did the ATC challenge...this week's challenge is to use that ATC and make a full size card with it! Fun! Fun! Fun!

Remember my Frog Daddy and Frog Momma ATC's
this is what they look like now:
Supplies used: All stamps from DRS Designs, Green Galore, Real Red and Pixie Pink CS from SU, Bic Mark*It permanent markers, Green Olive Shimmerz, foam dimensionals, misc ribbon, misc self adhesive gems.

What do you think? Are you up for the challenge?
We would love for you to play along! If you upload your project to Splitcoaststampers, be sure to use the keyword DRSC4 so we can check out your creations.
Check out the DRS Designs blog HERE to see cards from the rest of the design team!

I also wanted to let you know that the new DRS Designs Halloween images are available for purchase today!!! Be sure to check the website and get that order in so you can get a jump on your Halloween cards and projects!! I will have some cute Halloween projects to share with you in the next few days!

I think that is all my stamping news for today. Annabelle's birthday is on Friday so I have a busy of week of finalizing party plans and making party favors. This will be her first "real" birthday party and I want to make sure it is a good one (especially since we probably can't afford another one for another 5 years - kid's birthday parties are crazy expensive!).

Have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Check this out!!

Here is the blog candy I won from the super talented Danyelle from Hangnailz n' Papercutz!
It came in the mail yesterday and totally made my day! Danyelle totally ROCKZ! This altered children's underware plastic container is AWESOME!!! Seriously, you are amazing!
The package was amazing and the contents...well see for yourself:

I loved all of the awesome SU goodies you sent! Thanks so much!


I hope you all have a great weekend! My stamping buddy Jen and I are going to Archiver's tomorrow night for 6 fun (and hopefully productive) hours of stamping time! I've been looking forward to this for weeks! Not too often I have child-free stamping time! Thanks for stopping by today.

Butterflies - Fly

Butterflies-Fly is the name of my Firecracker Designs stamp set for this month. I just love it! And no matter how hard I try, I can't resist cutting out and layering the butterfly to make it 3-D. For this card I stamped the image and colored it, then I stamped it again on a scrap piece of cs, colored and painted it, then glued it on the first image. It just makes me feel like the butterfly is going to fly off the card.
Supplies used: Butterflies-Fly from Firecracker Designs, SU CS, DCWV DP, Shimmerz paint, Michael's self adhesive rhinestones, Bic Mark*it permanent markers.

I hope you are all having a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

DRS Designs - Rubber Mania Monthly

Today is my DRS Designs blogging day...PLEASE check out the DRS Designs blog to see my post and to learn how you can earn some FREE DRS Designs stamps!!
The stamps I used on today's cards can be earned free when you join DRS Design's Rubber Mania Monthly!

Click HERE to go to the DRS Designs Blog and read my post for today!

Rubber MANIA Monthly!


(all of the stamps used on these cards are free options with the exception of the small leaf in the last card)
Supplies used: Stamps from DRS Designs, SU CS, Hero Arts rhinestones, Shimmerz paint, Nestibilities, misc. ribbon


Supplies used: Stamps from DRS Designs, SU CS, Bic Write*It perm. markers, misc. ribbon


Supplies used: Stamps from DRS Designs, SU CS, misc ribbon, self adhesive rhinestones, spectrum ink pad


Supplies used: Stamps from DRS Designs, SU CS, SU wide grograin ribbon, Amuse ribbon, Dress It Up glitter dots


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

For all you football fans...

Firecracker Designs is having a sale on their Football Fan set...for a limited time you can get this set for $6.30 (that is 30% off the regular price).

More DRS new release ideas

Here is another card I made using some of the newest releases from DRS Designs. Aren't the Christmas light ribbon slides just wonderful! As usual, I used my favorite product: Shimmerz paint. I love the shimmery look that it gives!
Supplies used: DRS Designs stamps, SU cardstock, Shimmerz paint, May Arts ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry for the short post today, I am having another spell of vertigo which has really screwed up my past few days. I am feeling a little better today so hopefully I find some stamping time this afternoon...especially since I just got a ton of awesome new DRS stamps that I want to get inked up and show you (and tomorrow is my DRS blogging day)! Have a great day!

Another butterfly card!

As I've probably said a thousand times, I LOVE butterfly stamps. This is one of the reasons I couldn't resist the Butterflies-fly set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I just love these fanciful butterflies. This card is fairly simple (I was following SCS sketch challenge SC190). I stamped the butterfly, colored it and cut it out with my circle nestibilities. I then stamped it again on scrap paper and colored and painted it (with Shimmerz paint) and then glued it over the first image for a 3-D look. The sentiment is stamped a little higher than I had wanted it but I didn't have any more of that particular paper so I decided to go with it. Here is a close-up to give you a better look at the 3-D wings.

Supplies used: Butterflies-fly from Firecracker Designs, SU CS and DP, Nestibilities, self adhesive rhinestones, Bic Mark*It permenant markers, Shimmerz paint.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a great start to your week.

Sunday Stampin!

I finally got a little free time this afternoon all to myself and I couldn't resist a trip to my stamp room. I received my first stamp set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela a few days ago and I have been anxious to ink it up. I actually made 4 cards with this set today but I'll just show you one for now. This card is definitely not my normal style but I thought I would have a little fun with it. Annabelle is on a rainbow kick, drawing rainbows, writing her name in rainbow colors, naming stuffed animals "rainbow"... so I had her in mind the entire time I was working on this one.
The butterflies are all stamped on white cardstock. For the full butterflies I stamped them a second time on scrap cardstock and cut them out. I colored and painted them and then glued them over the first images to give them a 3-D look. I used rhinestones for their bodies.
The sentiment is printed out on the computer.

Supplies used: Butterflies-Fly stamp set from Firecracker Designs, Stampin Up! cardstock, Rhinestones from K&Co., Bic Write*It permanet markers, Prismacolor markers, Bashful Blue SU classic ink, Shimmerz paint - Angel wings, computer.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Preschool starts back up tomorrow so hopefully that means I will have a little more stamping time soon!

Don't Forget...

There are only a couple days left to pre-order the 4 new stamp sets from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. The pre-order special is a great deal...it is like getting a set for free!

I'm not sure how much computer time I will have this weekend, but make sure to check back on Monday for some new projects! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

JustRite Friday

Here are a couple more cards I made this week with my JustRite DIY stampers.

Supplies used: JustRite DIY stamper, Stampendous penguin stamp, SU CS, DCWV DP, misc ribbon, Michael's self adhesive rhinestones, Shimmerz Angel's wings paint, Cuttlebug embossing folder.


Supplies used: GP white CS, SU Brialliant Blue and Green Galore CS, DCWV DP, JustRite DIY stamper, Doodlebug clear Christmas stamp set, nestibilities, misc ribbon, liquid aplique, glitter dots, dazzling diamonds glitter

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Check back on Monday for some new projects from DRS Designs and Firecracker Designs by Pamela.

Another JustRite DIY card

I love the endless possibilities the JustRite DIY monogram stampers give you. The sky is the limit! For this card I used the clear Stampendous set "Holiday Chick" to coordinate with my JustRite DIY "Hey Chick" sentiment. The chick is popped up with a demensional and covered with Doodlebug crushed velvet flock. I love how it turned out. The circle of rhinstones took a near lifetime to put on but it was worth it in the end.

Supplies: SU Black and Summer Sun CS, GP white CS, DCWV DP, Stampendous Holiday Chick stamp set, JustRite DIY monogram stamper, SU ticket corner punch, self adhesive rhinestones from Michael's, Doodlebug crushed velvet flock, Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Hope you are all enjoying your day! It is a rainy one here in Wisconsin today, but I can't complain because we REALLY REALLY need the rain! Thanks for stopping by!

5 years...where does the time go?

Annabelle is going to be 5 in a couple weeks...I can't believe she is almost 5. 5 years already...amazing. As first time parents, we had no idea what to do with her when she was born. Everyone just kept telling us it would get better after a few months...a few months, that seemed like a lifetime, now here we are almost 5 years later!
We are having a birthday party in a couple weeks and these are the invitations that I made. She has never had a real birthday party so the excitement builds each day. Every day she tells me how many days left until her birthday and how many days until her party (which is the day after her birthday). She is just so cute!
For the invites I used the JustRite DIY monogram stamper and a clear kids birthday set from Fiskars. I wanted to stay as simple as possible since I was making 20 of these, LOL.
I didn't have the rhinestones on my first version but I thought they were too plain so the rhinestones added the finishing touch (and an extra $0.20 per invite to mail)



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

Don't Forget...

We'd love to see you play along with this week's DRS Designs blog challenge....ATC's.
Just make an ATC and use the keyword DRSC3 when you upload to SCS. You can also leave a direct link to your ATC in the comments on the DRS blog!

I'm Back!

Ok, so I've been here all along, but my computer hasn't been. We finally got our computer back from the Apple store today and I am SOOOOO happy!!! I have been lost these past 4 days without it!
Unfortunately I don't have any daylight left to take pictures tonight so you'll have to stop back tomorrow to see what I have been up to the past couple days!
Hope you all have a wonderful night!

EXCITING NEWS and MORE!!

I wanted to share some exciting news yesterday but we took the kids for a family day in Wisconsin Dells and well, I was just too tuckered out when we got home to post on my blog.
So without further ado, here is my "EXCITING NEWS"...
A month or so ago I applied for a spot on the design team for Firecracker Designs by Pamela. Last week I got a message from Pamela telling me I made the team. I can't tell you how excited I am. I am joined on the design team by a wonderfully talented bunch of ladies and I can't wait to work with them. I have links to all of their blogs listed on my side bar!

And now for the "MORE"...Pamela has 4 awesome sets coming out this month. Click HERE for a peak at the new sets (our main computer is at the Apple store getting repaired so I'm working on my laptop and well...it doesn't exactly always cooperate. Because of this I can't post a picture, only a link right now, sorry!!).
There is a special Pre-order special going on for the next few days ...here are the deets:
You can order all 4 sets for the great price of $23.96!! That’s a savings of $12.00!! (It's like getting a set for free!!!) Just go to the pre-order page, and click “get it” …it's that easy! You will have until Sep 7th to place your pre-order.
Sorry for my lack of pictures, hopefully our computer will be ready to be picked up tomorrow and I can get back into my normal blogging routine, LOL!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. Thanks for stopping by today!

DRS Challenge #3 - ATC's

Are you ready for a new DRS Designs blog challenge? This week we are making artist trading cards or ATC's! These little projects measure 2.5" x 3.5". The DRS design team members were asked to make two ATC's that are the same...one for the challenge and one to hang onto until the next challenge in 2 weeks.
We'd love for you to join us in our challenges. If you choose, you can make just one ATC but be sure you hang onto it (put it in a safe place in your craft area - is there one?! LOL) and check back to join in on the second part of this challenge! Be sure to post a comment with a direct link to your project (on the DRS blog) so we can come check it out! Tell your friends too, the more the merrier! If you upload to SCS, please use the keyword DRSC3.
Check out the DRS Designs blog to see the ATC's made by the talented design team!
As I've stated before, a small canvas is a HUGE challenge for me. Because of the limited space, I made my ATC's fairly simple. What do you think? Don't you love the shimmery frog daddy and frog mama. I bet you can guess how I got them that way...SHIMMERZ!!!


Supplies used: Frog Daddy and Frog Mama stamps from DRS Designs, Green Galore, Real Red and Pixie Pink CS from SU, Bic Mark*It permanent markers, Green Olive Shimmerz, foam dimensionals, misc ribbon, misc self adhesive gems.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are all having a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Nature is the Art of God

Today I thought I would share one of the cards that I made as a finalist for the DRS design team. For this card I used stamps E962 and M385. I sponged the edges of all layers of cardstock with matching ink and used foam dimensionals to pop up the central layer. To finish off the project I added 3 lines of coordinating ribbon.


I hope you are all enjoying your week! Thanks for stopping by!

Monday already?

I know I use this same blog title on a lot of Mondays but man, the weekends sure seem to go by a lot faster than 2 weekdays. I didn't get much stamping done this weekend at all. Actually none. I did though do a little shopping and bought a new stamp set so that I can get working on Annabelle's birthday invitations. She is turning 5 in September and we decided to let her have her first ever birthday party. Talk about stress! So anyway, I'm hoping to get these invitations done today or tomorrow so I will have some fresh new projects to show.
For today I thought I would share a card I made a couple weeks ago. For this card I actually cased one of my own cards that I made a couple months ago, you can see it HERE.
This card uses a set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela called Sympathy. If you've read my blog before you've probably figured out by now that I love butterfly stamps and well, this stamp is one of my favorites! There are so many possibilities with this. For this card I stamped the image on white cardstock and colored it and then I stamped the butterfly on acetate and cut out only the front wing and body. I glittered the back of the wing and glued the body to the cardstock. This gave it a 3-D look.

Supplies used: Stampin Up Summer Sun and Lovely Lilac CS, TAC shimmery CS, Basic Grey DP, rectangle Nestibilities, Sympathy stamp set from Firecracker Designs, Art Institue glitter, Trancparency sheet, Prismacolor and SU markers, Stamp-a-ma-jig, misc ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful start to your week!!