Inchie, ATC, Moo....WHAT?

Pamela, from FireCracker Designs has a challenge posted on her blog. The challenge is as follows: Create one inchie, one ATC, and one MOO card using the SAME FireCracker Designs Stamp set. You can use what ever FCD set you want, but all three pieces have to be created with the same set.

At this point some of you might be wondering what exactly an inchie, ATC or Moo is (I was wondering too)...Here are the definitions directly from Pamela's blog:

What is an inchie? Simply put, it’s a one inch square piece of art work…talk about tiny!! Just don’t go blind if you are trying this one for the first time!! We’ve also noticed, that all 1″ square punches are NOT all 1″! Punches have the bad habit of being measured at the diagonal (like your TV screens) and we artists, well, we like to measure our pieces straight across and up the sides…so double check your punch before you go crazy with these….if all else fails, stamp your image, and then use your paper trimmer to cut it up in 1 inch squares, pick the best one, and embellish it…lol

What is an ATC? Artist Trading Card has only one rule…they MUST measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches! Thought to have originated in Switzerland in 1997; they are about the size of the sports trading cards, and can be easily stored in the 9 pocket plastic sleeves designed to hold sports cards.

What is a MOO card? MOO is actually a British based printing company that offers mini calling cards. They are about the size of half of a standard business card. (got a ruler? measure: 1 1/8 inch x 2 ¾ inch). Artists have snagged up this idea to create their own mini pieces of artwork, and I LOVE the idea of using the back sides to include my blog information. What a fun way to hand out my web links!

I decided to take her up on the challenge. Until today I had never made and inchie or a moo (I have made an ATC WAY WAY back in the day).

I used the FireCracker set: Happy Hour for mine. I can say after making them, that I probably will NEVER make anything this tiny again. I had a REALLY hard time working on such a small area...It was fun trying though. Let me know what you think.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

CONGRATULATIONS KISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My dear friend Kisa was the grand prize winner in the Lizzie Anne Designs anniversary card sketch contest. Check out her AWESOME grand prize winning card HERE

TGIF!!

Hope everyone had a great week. We have been crazy busy this week and I haven't had much stamping time. I'm hoping to find some crafty time this afternoon!

Since I don't have any cards to show I thought I would share some pictures I took yesterday when we took the kids to the county fair. They had a total blast. We went through all of the 4-H barns and had fun checking out all of the farm animals. The kids were excited that they got to pet a cow, chicken, rabbit and they got to hold a baby chick.
After the barns we hit the carnival. They loved this. It was $1 ride day (compared to the normal $3-4 per ride) so we let them ride pretty much everything they wanted to (thanks to a carnival fund from grandma Debbie). The only bad part was, it was HOT! and when I say HOT I mean REALLY HOT! Overall, though, we had an awesome family day!






I hope to have a card or something crafty to share later today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Weird, weird, weird...

Weird. This morning I tried and tried to get the picture of my graduation card to upload into my post. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. So I thought I would try again later today. So I took the kids to VBS, had breakfast with my mom, picked the kids back up and came home and checked my email. I saw a comment from Kisa that said "I like this one"...thinking she was just being totally sarcastic about my post with no picture I went to my blog and there it was...the picture I tried and tried to post this morning...in the post. I have no idea how it got there since it didn't seem to be working for me. Anyway....I finally jumped on the JustRite Monogram bandwagon. I bought the tiny letters and customized this graduation card. I actually had to make 3 grad. cards yesterday and thankfully the names were all short (jeff, tim and joe). I think these turned out pretty good. Now Tom can quite harping on me about getting these made (they are for his nephews/cousins). Now to get them in the mail.
Hope you all have a great day. It is a hot one here today so we will be hanging out inside where the temp is always a pleasant 74. Thanks for stopping by.

Blogger is not cooperating

For the life of me, I can't get blogger to do anything this morning. I will try again later.

Happy Tuesday

Hope everyone has a great day. We have a busy day today again...VBS, a playdate, a trip to the zoo...probably no stamping, but you just never know. Here is a card I made last week. To be honest it is a lot prettier in real life (IMO). The butterflies are stamped on and cut out of transparencies and the the backs are covered in glitter - they are popped up using dimensionals. All stamps are from DRS Designs, glitter is Art Institute and CS is SU.



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

Monday madness

I'm posting my Monday post early because we have a crazy morning cut out for us tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I will have any blogging time what so ever. The kids both have vacation bible school starting at 9:00 tomorrow morning. I know that doesn't sound too crazy except for the fact that Beckett doesn't typically get out bed until then. It is going to be a real challenge getting us out the door on time.

Because I haven't figured out how to schedule a post, I'm posting my card that I was going to share tomorrow. I just got some of these adorable Riley Moose images from someone in the wishRAK group on SCS. I think they are just so stinkin cute. I colored Riley with colored pencils and OMS. I love the color combo of Ballet Blue and So Saffron. I thought it worked well for this card. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado. CS, DP and the blue gingham ribbon is from SU. The solid blue ribbon is American Crafts.

I also wanted to share a couple cards that Annabelle made yesterday. She made them all by herself (except I had to help cut and tie the ribbon for her). I love how one opens to the left! The stamp she used is from Hero Arts.

Inside view:

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

Christmas in July

I keep seeing Christmas cards popping up on people's blogs lately so I decided to start playing around with my new DRS designs Christmas stamp. From the first time I saw this stamp I knew that I wanted it, but I wasn't sure what I would do with it. For this card I decided to paper piece the Christmas bulbs and then create a sentiment with some rub-ons that I had laying around. The words "peace on EARTH" are all made with individual rub-on letters. To add a little more zing I added some glitter, double ribbon and some corner gems. I went with a simple layout again due to the size of the main image. Stamp is from DRS Designs, CS and ribbon comes from SU, rub-on letters are CK, the background DP is Basic Grey, the dp on the bulbs is from DCWV and from that handy SAMS club pack and the corner gems are once again from Target (sorry don't know the brand).
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunflower Saturday

Here is another card I made with my new DRS Designs stamps. I love this huge sunflower stamp! I colored it with a combination of Prismacolor markers and Prismacolor pencils/OMS. The glitter is Art Institute and Martha Stewart. CS, hodgepodge and the chocolate ribbon come from SU and the green ribbon is May Arts. Almost forgot...the leaves are Prima.
I hope you are having a wonderful start to your weekend. We don't have any set plans (which I love) so you never know what lies ahead for us this weekend...although, I have a feeling we are going to be shopping for some new mini blinds and then I'm hoping for a whole lot of stamp time! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

TGIF!

It's Friday, YAY!!! It has been a long week and I had hoped to take the kids to the zoo or something today but the weather has been a little unpredictable the past few days so I'm not sure what we are going to do.
Today's card was a fun one! A few weeks ago I got some new stamps from DRS Designs, and I finally found some time to play with them. As you all know I love butterfly stamps, and DRS has A LOT of cool butterflies to choose from. The butterflies I used on this card can be found in their "background" catagory. It is a 4 corner background stamp that I cut apart into individual stamps. It is really hard to tell from the picture, but the butterflies are cut out and popped up with dimensionals. All stamps are DRS Designs, CS, glitter and hodgepodge are SU and the black gems in the corners came from Target. The ribbon was a gift so I'm not sure the manufacturer. I hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

SC184

I don't do the SCS card sketch challenges very often but I thought this week's sketch was really cool. The sketch had squares where I put the flowers but I just couldn't make it look right with squares under the flowers. I like how this turned out but for some reason feel like it still needs something. After having it all glued together I wish I had stamped the sentiment on vanilla instead of white but hind sight is 20/20.
The stamps are from Verve Stamps, DP is Cosmo Cricket (still using my scraps from the piece I cut up the other day), CS and brads are SU, flowers are Maya Road, ribbon is American Crafts.
Thanks for stopping by!

What's the word, bird....again!

OK, so I have to say that it is hard to come up with a different blog post title every single day. I feel a little lame saying "happy (fill in day of the week here)" all the time so I try to change it up a bit. I know yesterday was what's the word bird and now here it is today...I can't think of anything else so What's the word, bird...AGAIN. It's ok with me though, because same as yesterday, it still makes me smile.
Here is another really simple card. It follows the July Sheet Loads template (sort of). I needed a card to send to a friend, for no particular reason, so what better sentiment than...What's the word, bird. Isn't this bird image cute? It is from Inkadinkado and I bought it yesterday in the $1 bin at Joann's. They had a bunch of really cute Inkadinkado clear stamps in their $1 bin so of coarse I didn't just buy one. For this card I *attempted* to make it look like clouds behind the bird. Not sure if I succeeded but in the end I thought they looked ok. I cut some clouds out using my Cricut machine and then used them as a mask and sponged around them. The ribbon is more of my American Crafts Target clearance find (I should have bought more). DP is from that handy dandy SAMS club pack that I have been talking about for months and the CS is SU.
The glitter is Art Institute and the pearls were from the Target $1 spot.
I hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by.

What's the word, bird.

For some reason I love this sentiment from Inkadinkado...What's the word, bird.
I smile every time I read it.
This is a really simple card layout - mainly because the Gina K owls image is huge. There wasn't much room left on the card after I matted the image. I colored the owls, branch and leaves with pencils and OMS and then added some Art Institue glitter to the leaves for a little sparkle. The brown ribbon is SU and the blue is American Crafts (I got a bunch of 3 yard spools of American Crafts ribbon on clearance at Target for $0.98). The CS is SU and the DP is once again Cosmo Cricket Gretel. I notched the corners but couldn't find the right color brads or gems to go so for now I just left them empty.
I hope you are all having a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Pictures from the 4th.

I don't have a card to share with you this morning but I promise if you stop back this afternoon I will have one for you. Instead, this morning I thought I would share a couple pictures from the 4th of July. Someone in our neighborhood is a firefighter and as a special treat for the kids on the 4th, they drove a fire truck through the neighborhood (very slowly) so the kids could have a parade behind the truck (with it's lights and siren going). Lots of kids had their bikes decorated for the 4th. It was really neat to see the kids having such a great time. For some reason stuff like that really gets me choked up. I cried watching the kids get so excited over the fire truck. In fact I have tears streaming down my face as I write this. There is something so special about the innocence of a child. Annabelle rode her bike and Beckett rode in the wagon with our neighbor's daughter. It was only a short parade but the kids will remember it forever.
Thanks for stopping by this morning. I plan on stamping later this morning and will post again later today. Have a great day!

Sweet n Sassy stamps - Fundraiser Info

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, Sweet n Sassy stamps are doing a fundraiser for a great cause. Now through the end of the month 50% of all stamp sales will be donated to a family whose 19 month old daughter is going through chemotherapy (she also has Down Syndrome). If you were ever thinking of buying stamps from Sweet n Sassy, now is a great time to do it.

Hope you are all having a great night!

Mini Golf Fun

I had planned on posting a card this morning but for the life of me I can't find the picture (and when I say can't find I mean I went through our entire iPhoto library and it is not there). The worst part about this is I actually ended up tearing the card apart to salvage a piece off of it and threw the rest away. If I find it later I will post.
So instead, here are a few pictures of our mini golf adventure from a couple weeks ago. This was the first time the kids had ever mini golfed and it was definitely a challenge! They had fun though, so it was definitely worth it.
I hope you all have a terrific day! Thanks for stopping by!

Stamping again, Woohoo!!!

I got more stamping time in this morning, yay! I was up WAY before everyone in the house so I decided to head to the basement for some ME time!! I bought this stamp a couple weeks ago and I'm so glad I finally got to play with it a bit. The main image is "Bird Duet" from Inkadinkado. I got mine from Jacksonbelle Embellishments (I also got the "Bird Quartet" but haven't inked that one up yet). The sentiment is from a clear Inkadinkado set (but I can't remember the name right now, sorry - I'll edit this later when I find the name). The DP is from that yummy Cosmo Cricket Gretal pack that I got at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. The CS is all SU.
I hope you are all having a great Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Blog award and a tag!

My SBS-13 sister Debi gave me this blog award! Thanks Debi, sorry it took me so long to get it posted! If you haven't checked out Debi's blog, I definitely recommend it. She has some great things there!

Debi also tagged me, so here goes:

10 Years Ago:
I was working for a dairy ingredient company testing yogurt and buttermilk cultures to make sure that they actually did their job correctly. I had been dating my husband for a year. I started mountain bike racing. I bought my first rubber stamps.

5 Things On My To Do List:
1: Enjoy Life
2: Stamp
3: Exercise
4: Organize
5: Clean

Fav Snacks:
I have too many fav snacks...this is the reason why I NEED to exercise. I am a sucker for anything sweet (except chocolate, if you can believe that).

If I Was A Millionaire:
Pay off bills, save for the kids college education, save for retirement, donate to charity.

Places I Have Lived:
Lancaster, WI
Platteville, WI
Dodgeville, WI
Eau Claire, WI
Stoughton, WI
Madison, WI
Boring, I know...someday I might actually get out of this state, you never know.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a terrrific Monday!

RAK request

Hope everyone is having a great week. It has been a tough day for our family. My uncle passed away this morning. He had been dealing with some health issues but it was still a shock to lose him at such a young age (he was only in his 50's). It is going to be a rough couple days and I don't expect to be posting anything crafty for a few days. This is going to be especially hard for my mom and if you could all keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone has an extra sympathy card laying around and wouldn't mind sending a card to her please send me an email (thlr2003@gmail.com) and I will forward her address to you.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm planning on stamping later today but I thought I would share some movie reviews this morning.
Last night we watched:
Charlie Bartlett- I thought it was a good movie. Kinda fits into the category of dramedy...part drama, part comedy. Overall I thought it was really good.
I also watched a few other movies this week:
National Treasure II - I really liked it but you really have to let go of any sense of reality when you watch. Totally far-fetched, fun action flick.
Definitely, Maybe - I REALLY liked this one. Total chick flick. Definitely recommend.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - The sequel to this movie is coming out this summer (and it looks cute) so I wanted to see the first one before the 2nd one comes out. It was good. I am planning on hitting the theatre to see the sequel.
Becoming Jane - Still feeding my Jane Austen obsession (I have her books on hold at the library too, but I'm currently reading Harry Potter and want to finish those first). This movie was good, although somewhat slow in places and a little depressing. I think Ann Hathaway did a great job playing Jane, but I'd put this on the "if you have nothing else better to do" watch list.

I hope to be back later with something crafty, but we'll see. We have a lot of house projects going on today so I'm crossing my fingers that they go smoothly and I get some stamping time.
Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!