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!!

Fun stuff!

Isn't this the coolest blog award EVER!! I was given this by Etha (MOREGREENWOOL). If you haven't been to her blog before, you should definitely check it out!!! Etha is on the DT's for Artistic Outpost, Clear Artistic Stamps, Firecracker Designs by Pamela and DRS Designs, so she has a ton of great projects on her blog made with stamps from all of these companies. Thanks Etha, this award TOTALLY made my day!!!!!

This is one award I am excited to pass on! There are a few blogs that I can't get through the day without visiting! So without further ado...Here are a few of the blogs the I LOVE:

Kisa's Paper Cuts...Incredibly talented, totally hilarious and one of my best friends! If you are a dedicated reader of my blog you know that I am one of Kisa's biggest fans. Her blog is the first place I go when I need inspiration!

Splendiferous Creations...I have been a long time stalker of Lisa's blog. Her work is absolutely amazing!! One of her terrific projects made it into the top 5 for this week's JustRite contest...click HERE to see this weeks finalists and vote!

Hangnailz n' Papercutz...If you are looking for an awesome project idea or just a good laugh, this is the place to go! Danyelle is a talented stamper and a comedy genius!

Glitter in My Hair...What can I say, Jen is my in town friend who puts up with my mood swings and crazy kids! Plus she stamps too, can't get much better than that!

There are lots more blogs out there that I love but this post has taken me a hour to write already and well...I need to get stamping!

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

More new releases!!

Today's card uses 2 more of the new release stamps from DRS Designs: Fun Circle Christmas and Snowflake Scroll.


Here is a close-up to show how I popped up each element of the main image with dimensionals.
I hope you all had a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

DRS Designs New Release

Today I wanted to show you one of the cards I made with one of the new DRS Designs Christmas stamps. For this card I used the new Christmas Tree Punch Star stamp. Instead of using the whole star I inked up one of the Christmas trees with a SU marker and stamped it. I did this 3 times and then cut the trees out using my square nestibilities. The Merry Christmas! stamp is also from DRS Designs. I used my Scor-pal to make the grid pattern background.

Supplies used: DRS Designs Christmas Tree Punch Star and Merry Christmas! stamps, Garden Green and Real Red SU CS, GP white CS, Garden Green SU marker, MM star brads, Scor-pal, Nestibilities, Misc. Ribbon, Dimensionals.

I have a few more DRS Designs cards to share this week so please stop back! I hope you are all having a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Aren't they just the cutest things ever!!!!

Fall Flowers

As we start to finish up our summer activities and start getting ready for preschool to start back up, my mind automatically starts looking forward to fall. I love fall. I don't love that winter soon follows but I love everything else about fall...the cool weather, visits to the pumpkin patch, the colorful leaves...everything.
I don't actually have very many fall themed stamps so I had to borrow some stamps from my friend Jen so I could work on some fall cards. This card was made using one of the stamp sets that I borrowed: FALL FLOWERS from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I think this is probably my favorite stamp set from Firecracker Designs. The Black Eyed Susan flower stamp is just beautiful! Aren't these great fall colors!


Supplies used: Fall Flowers from Firecracker Designs, SU Print Pattern background, "Hello" from DRS Designs, SU Garden Green and Summer Sun CS, GP white CS, Bazzil Bling orange CS, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Prismacolor markers, Koh-i-noor colored pencils and OMS, Art Institute Black and Lion's Mane glitter, dimensionals, misc ribbon.

Even though I have fall on the brain, I've also been busy making some Christmas cards with the newly released DRS Designs stamps. I will be sharing these starting tomorrow. You won't want to miss them, the new images are terrific!
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

DRS Challenge #2 - PIERCING

This week the DRS Designs challenge was paper piercing. I have to admit, this is not something I do very often...or ever for that matter. Even with a template it took 4 tries for me to pierce a straight line along the edge. I am so impressed with people who actually pierce patterns. For my card I used one of the newly release Christmas stamps from DRS Designs. Isn't this Irish Christmas Tree awesome. I stamped the tree in Versamark and then colored it with Pebbles Shimmery chalks. I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to all of the shamrocks on the tree and topped it off with a glittery star brad. I thought it turned out just super. Using my
stamp-a-ma-jig I repeatedly stamped my Merry Christmas stamp to create the background. Do you like to pierce? We'd love to see your piercing creations. If you'd like to play along please post a link to your pierced project on today's DRS blog post or use keyword DRSC2 when uploading to the SCS gallery.


Supplies used: All stamps are DRS Designs, SU Garden Green CS, GP white CS, white glitter dots from the Gina K store, Pebbles shimmery chalks, Versamark, paper piercer, MM star brad, misc. ribbon.

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

Look what I won!

Isn't this the cooleset nightlight EVER!!!!!! I won this in the SCS "non-raffle". SCS raised over $10,000 for the midwest flooding victims. Isn't that awesome! Tons of generous SCS users donated a wonderful selection of non-raffle items to be given away to people who donated. I was one of the lucky winners! This nightlight was made and donated by Dawn Lusk. She also sent me the beautiful card in the 2nd picture. These pictures just don't do these items justice, they are absolutely GORGEOUS. Thank you so much for donating these, I'm so glad I was the lucky winner!

Stop by tomorrow to see the card that I made for this weeks DRS Designs challenge! Hope you all had a wondeful weekend!

2 more Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenge cards

Here are 2 more of the cards I made for the Verve Stamps Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenges.


Notice the birds and the background...you guessed it...SHIMMERZ!!!!


Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a great weekend!! Make sure you check in on Monday for the newest DRS Designs challenge!

More Christmas cards

I've took advantage of the Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenges to get a jump on my Christmas card making. This year I have decided to just make individual cards for the special people who truly appreciate the time that goes into a card and I'm buying a box of cheap cards for the rest of the people who think that my cards are just printed off of the computer...duh!
Anyway, here are two more of the cards I made during my sketch challenge marathon. Both cards use one of my new Inkadinkado Christmas clear sets. For this first card, I stamped the main image sentiment and then carefully colored it with....you guessed it SHIMMERZ!!!
I added the white dots around the edges (this was a very tedious task and I now know why I have never been a dotter!)
Supplies used: Stamps from Inkadinkado, Non-SU cardstock, Basic Grey DP, White Gel pen, Shimmerz paints, brads.

Supplies used: Inkadinkado snowman stamp, sentment is from DRS Designs, SU cardstock, Shimmery cardstock from unknown manufacterer, misc ribbon, Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

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

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! Today I wanted to highlight one of the many wonderful stamp catagories from DRS Designs...VERTICAL WORDING STAMPS! Did you know that DRS Designs carries over 20 different vertical sentiment stamps. I'm sure you all own tons of sentiment stamps but how many of those stamps have vertical wording...my guess is, not many. I've found vertical senitments very hard to come by. These sentiments work great with tall central images that don't leave room for the traditional horizontal sentiment. I love doing sketch challenges and I've found a lot of sketch challenges lately where I was wishing for a vertical sentiment.
For my card today, I used Sketch Challenge SC175 from SCS (it was a great sketch for showcasing the use of vertical sentiments). On my card, I used the DRS Designs stamp "Vertical 2 line Happy Birthday" to compliment the adorable "Frog Daddy" image. To modify my sentiment to read "Hoppy" instead of "Happy" I inked only the H, P's and Y with a water-based marker and stamped them on my white half circle cardstock. I added the eyelet to stand for the "o".
I stamped my frog image on white cardstock and colored it in with Bic Mark*it permanent markers. After coloring the frog I painted over the green with Green Olive Shimmerz paint to give it the extra bit of shine. I also painted the entire green layer of cardstock with the same Green Olive Shimmerz. The light blue background layer was embossed using the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folder. After embossing I painted the entire piece of cardstock with Angel's Wings Shimmerz and then sponged around the outside with a darker navy ink.
If you haven't already, I definitely recommend taking a little "trip" over to the DRS Designs website to check out the terrific selection of vertical sentiments!
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Another Anni-VERVE-sary sketch

This time it is sketch challenge AVS10. Once again I took this photo yesterday with the uncooperative sun so the photo angle is a bit wonky. This card ended up being one of my favorites that I made during my stamping marathon. It is much prettier in real life! Once again, I used my new favorite product, Shimmerz paint. I painted the wings of all of the butterflies (it is easier to see this if you click on the image and look at the super-sized image).
Supplies used: Sentiment and Butterfly stamps are Verve Stamps, SU Linen background, SU cardstock, Basic Grey DP, Angel's Wings Shimmerz paint, Paisley Cuttlebug embossing folder, self adhesive gems.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! Be sure to stop by tomorrow when I highlight one of the many wonderful stamp catagories from DRS Designs.
Thanks for stopping by!

Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenges

I have been on a stamping marathon. 11 cards in a 24 hour span...YIKES! All of the cards I made were for the Verve Stamps Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenges.
The card I'm sharing today is their AVS02 sketch. I bought some new Christmas stamps recently so I thought I would get them inked up right away.
Sorry for the weird photo angle, the sunlight would not cooperate with me today.
For this card I stamped my Christmas sentiment with Palette ink and then I carefully painted over it with Olive Green Shimmerz paint. It gives it a really great shimmery look. I also painted the green cardstock layers with the same Olive Green Shimmerz. If you haven't tried this stuff out yet, I highly recommend it! I think I used it on 6 of the 11 cards I made these past 2 days.

Supplies used: Sentiment stamp from Inkadinkado, Non-SU cardstock, Basic Grey DP, Shimmerz Olive Green paint, misc ribbon, misc self adhesive gems.

I hope you all had a great start to your week! Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF!

I am so glad that it is Friday! It has been a crazy long week. I started this card last Saturday night when Jen and I went to scrap mania at Archiver's. I spent too much time talking and not enough time stamping that night so I had to finish it up at home on Sunday. This isn't my typical card, hence the lack of flowers or butterflies, but I thought it was cute. When I showed it to Tom he thought it was too plain...WHAT? Too plain??...this coming from the guy who always tells me I put too much on a card. I was going for a simple birthday card that could be used for anyone. The balloons are from the Birthday Balloons-Up Up and Away set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. The blue balloons are stamped directly on the cloud pattern paper. I stamped the red ballons on white cardstock, cut them out, added glitter to the white reflection spots and added cardstock alphabet stickers. After all of that, I covered them in SU Crystal Effects and let them dry. After they were dry I tied the strings on. The red balloons are popped up with dimensionals. A lot of work for a "plain" card but I was happy with how it turned out. I like the shiney/realistic effect that the crystal effects gave the balloons.
Supplies used: Birthday Balloons-Up Up and Away by Firecracker Designs by Pamela, SU Brilliant Blue and Real Red cardstock, DCWV glitter cardstock, Cloud print designer paper from Michael's, Red self adhesive pearls, SU Crystal Effects, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Cardstock alphabet stickers, dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Color Throwdown and a Anni-VERVE-sary sketch

I'm still having some fatigue issues so I haven't done a lot of stamping this week...actually this is the only stamping I've done since Sunday. Last night Tom was putting together my new treadmill (because I majorly need to get back in shape) so I sat in the basement with him and stamped while he assembled. I decided that since my stamping time is limited, I would try and combine a color challenge and a sketch challenge to, as the saying goes... kill two birds with one stone.
I decided to try this week's Color Throwdown and one of the Verve Stamps Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenges (AVS04).


I love this black-eyed Susan image but I have no idea where it is from. I think I mentioned this one other time but I ordered it a couple years ago but never wrote down the name of the stamp company. If any of you recognize it, let me know. Instead of So Saffron I substituted the retired SU In-Color Marigold. I colored the image with Prismacolor markers and then painted them with Shimmerz paint. OMG, I love this stuff! I just got my first containers of it in the mail from JacksonBelle Embellishments. I ordered 4 colors and wish I could have ordered more. I painted the flower with Marigold Shimmerz and the leaves and stem with Green Olive Shimmerz. They give the flower such a beautiful shimmery look.
Supplies used: Black-eyed Susan stamp (manufacturer unkown), Inkadinkado sentiment, SU cardstock, circle nestibilities, self adhesive gems, Prismacolor markers, Shimmerz, Art Institue black glitter, Cuttlebug embossing folder, SU ticket corner punch.

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

Inchies...Part 2

Here is another inchie card I made for the DRS Designs blog challenge. This was actually the first card I made, but I wasn't totally thrilled with it so I made a 2nd one (the sunflower card I posted yesterday). After taking pictures of both cards I decided this one wasn't as awful as I had first thought, so I decided to share this one too.

Supplies used: DRS Designs"Ornament's Galore" stamp, Paper Studio alphabet rub-on's, Basic Grey DP, SU cardstock, DCWV glittered cardstock, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, SU ticket corner punch, Koh-i-noor colored pencils, SU metallic pencils, self adhesive gems (sorry don't know manufacturer), wallpaper sample from Menards.

Hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!