Monday, October 31, 2011

before october's gone. . .

Here are a few of the cards I created with the Apron Strings All Year Cheer card kit for October! I figured I better show you QUICK, before October is over! :)

This kit featured paper from Girls Paperie, Fancy Pants, and Basic Grey.
You can find out all about the terrific card kits at Apron Strings, on their website!   
(They also have fabulous scrapbooking kits too!)





Come back and visit me tomorrow, and I'll have some brand NEW stamps to share from The {Stamps} of Life! (Trust me, there is serious CUTENESS coming your way! I can hardly stand it!)
xoxo

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Happy news! :)

Eeeeeeek!!!!! I'm so excited! :)


Thursday, October 27, 2011

EAD Color Challenge #17


Cheerio! Yesterday I was perusing the E.A.D Designs website and blog.  They make amazing stickers, (called Stickerz) that are really fun to work with! I was introduced to EAD through the Card Positioning Systems blog, and have had a great time using their products.  You can see some of my other projects using EAD here . . .EAD Designs projects.  

Okay so I found that they have a color challenge, and TODAY is the deadline! So last night I sat down and whipped something up.  I had to think VERY creatively, because I only have a few sheets of their Stickerz, and none of them really coordinated with the color scheme.  So I MADE it work.  I was inspired by the Thanksgiving stickers they showcased on the blog, which have a beautiful aqua color along with the challenge colors, so I added that in (Because if you know me, you know I can't get enough of aqua on my cards!)
I used the London Town stickers, and I stuck them onto card stock, and trimmed them to attach to my card. . .they totally look like stamped images, don't they!? Then I went in with a white pen and colored in the windows.  (the pen has yet to dry. . .I am keeping my fingers crossed!)

The prices at E.A.D. are terrific, and they offer free shipping on their Stickerz.  (I {super puffy heart} free shipping!) And if you participate in their challenge, you get a 25% coupon code! (Guess who's shopping for more Stickerz next week!?) ;)

Have a TERRIFIC weekend! We are going to go to the zoo tonight, for their Spooktacular event . . .trick or treating with giraffes and elephants!? What could be better!?
Happy day, friends!!! Thanks for coming by!
xoxo


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

You Go, Girl!

I am so happy to show off some new Gina K Designs stamps, designed by my dear friend, Tami Mayberry!  Tami's newest stamp set is called You Go, Girl!  It has really fabulous quotes and sentiments in it.  Super for cards for your girlfriend, whether she is battling cancer, or even if she's just having an end-of-her-rope kinda day.

I have a few cards to share with you today, so without further ado, meet You Go, Girl!
(My Mind's Eye patterned paper, Discount Cardstock)


 (Discount Cardstock, Prismacolor pencils, The Twinery twine)

(Discount Cardstock, Prismacolor pencils, Want2Scrap jewels, Papertrey Ink ribbon)


I did something a little different with this one - it's always valuable to have a stamp set that you can do something TOTALLY different with! Same stamps, different purpose!
(Discount Cardstock, Prismacolor colored pencil, Want2Scrap pearls) 


Be sure to head to Tami's blog, if you aren't coming from there already!  She's got great designers and inspiration to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a beautiful day!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

CFC25 - Just Add Color (baby twin girls card!)


My neighbors just had twin baby girls a few weeks ago.  I reached right for the PERFECT stamp set, one of Kim Hughes sets, from way back in the days of Cornish Heritage Farms.  (Kim's stamps from CHF are some of the VERY FEW discontinued stamps that I keep have in my stash!)  


I have never used the "twins" stamp, and I was super excited to finally have a reason to use it! (The photo below is the inside of the card.)

Thankfully this was a card with a PURPOSE and it immediately LEFT my house :)  because I have GOT to purge my gigantic collection of cards - since they didn't sell at this weekend's craft fair (see previous post for my sob session) I have GOT to figure out what to do with them all.

I am also entering this card into the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays, for this week's challenge, CFC25, "Just add color".  I used colored pencils to add color to my little baby girls! I was so excited to see that I was recognized as a VIP for last week's challenge (CFC24) - SO FUN!!! I have the super-cool badge in my sidebar now!  (Thanks CAS-ual Fridays!!!)

Thanks for coming by! Sorry about my double-posting day! Just gotta do that every so often!
xoxox
(card goodies: card stock - Discount Cardstock.com, stamps - Kim Hughes Collection from Cornish Heritage Farms, colored pencils - Prismacolor, tulle ribbon - October kit from Apron Strings Designs,)

craft fair recap!

I don't know WHAT I was thinking, but I didn't take any pictures of my overall booth. . . so you can't see the CUTE CUTE pennant banner hanging on the table (I'll have to hang it somewhere, photograph it, and post it.)  I used my NEW CUTTLEBUG! (Thank you, sweet Latisha!!!!)  I also used my Cuttlebug and Sizzix dies from Stephanie Barnard's collection for my tags and labels.
 So at least you can see a few of my projects and goodies. . .(most of which didn't sell. Sigh!)
The pinwheel clothespins ALL sold. . .above you can see the magnetic ones, which I sold individually, and below, three-packs of the non-magnetic ones.  They make great bookmarks, chip clips, paper clips. . .just about anything!  I used a pinwheel die from The Cat's Pajamas to make those, plus the pinwheel pencils.  (I think only ONE pencil sold. What the heck am I going to do with all those pencils!?)
 I thought my mini composition books, that were packaged with a few coordinating crayons, would be GREAT stocking stuffers.  (Too bad MY kiddo has seen them already, so Santa can't bring them!) But NONE of them sold.  Apparently I totally missed the mark on that one!  I sold quite a few Christmas gift tags though, and two whole Christmas cards. (WHAT THE HECK!?)
So I am left with TONS of candy, (those cute M&M sleeves we discussed last week. . .yeah, I sold ONE.) And TONS of cards left.  UGH.  I was really hoping to unload a lot of cards!!!

So that's the scoop.  I covered my expenses, and helped pay for next week's groceries. . .so I can't complain.  But I spent an awful lot of time on everything, and energy, and thought. . .and I was hoping it was going to be AWESOME!!!!  But I also knew it might not be.  You just never know with these shows!
No regrets though. . .but now I must go, and find a home for all this STUFF I have leftover!
Have a GREAT Sunday!!!
xoxo

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

BOO!! (TSOL, The Twinery, and Cas-ual Fridays)

I decided to MAKE the time to play along with the CAS-ual Fridays blog this week.  If it's new to you, the premise of CAS-ual Fridays is clean and SIMPLE.  (Hmm, did you know I really REALLY dig CLEAN and SIMPLE?!)  So why I haven't MADE the time to participate a long time ago, I don't know.  
This week's challenge is to create a Halloween card without a SINGLE SPECK of orange.
Fun, fun, fun!
So here, my friends, is my orange-less Halloween card.  I used stamps from The {Stamps} of Life, and twine from The Twinery.  The card stock is from Discount Cardstock (Brilliant White, and Soot) and the teal gems on my ghostie's hat are from Want2Scrap.
It is rainy and dreary here today (which I love in and of itself!) but I love it EXTRA today, because coming behind this weather is a few COOL WEATHER DAYS!!!! I even saw a 49 for the low one night!!!! (And in October in Florida, THAT my friends, is unusual!)  We are DEFINITELY going to the park after school tomorrow.  And hopefully the cool weather will make everyone want to spend lots of money at this weekend's craft fair!!!!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

candy! candy! candy! (treat pails and craft fair oh my!)

I finally finished up the candy pails that I'm making for next weekend's craft fair!  I set up my "practice booth" in the garage yesterday, took pictures of it, and figured out what all I need to finish up.  (If you missed some of my other craft fair goodies, you can see them HERE)


 I used stickers on these pails (the pails were in two-packs in the Target Dollar Spot!) The little monsters are PERFECTION on these fun treat pails!  I made some matching cards too. . .but I think I forgot to photograph them!


My mom is a ROCKSTAR, and has this amazing stash of every shape and size of clear bags, from www.clearbags.com  She helped me a TON to get ready for the craft fair, because she's done about a thousand of them! She gave me these cutie patootie skinny bags, and the idea to do these little M&M treats.  I used fall M&M's, and just added little tags and ribbon.  I think they would make darling Thanksgiving table favors/decor. . .or party favors.  Or Halloween treats! Or the perfect add-on to a birthday gift!



Thursday, October 13, 2011

me and purple (Touch Twin challenge TTC03)

If you've been hanging out here with me for a while, I'm sure you know my feelings about purple.
We don't play nicely together.
Perhaps, because my school colors were purple and gold. . .from 3rd-12th grade.  In high school, I embraced my purple panther pride, and even decorated a Christmas tree ALL in purple.  I wore a purple letter jacket, and painted a purple paw print on my cheek for every football game.
But now. . . me and purple?  Not so much.
And the girls on my design teams KNOW THIS.  They know this, and we joke about it.  
"PLEASE", I'll say, "PLEASE don't make me work with purple!"

So a few weeks ago, I got a box in the mail with some free product, for being published in the August issue of CARDS Magazine . . .a whole package of SEI patterned paper. And of course PURPLE was one of the main colors!
And when I won those two Touch Twin markers, last month. . . . (you know where I'm going here, don't you?)
What color was one of them?
Yes, of course it was.
PURPLE.
But, I love these markers so much, that I was willing to make PURPLE work for me.  (And I decided to dive in and use that SEI paper too!)
This week's challenge (TTC03) on the Touch Twin challenge blog is to create a card with florals.  I used my purple Touch Twin, and also a green water based Tombow marker for the leaves on my flower
Now I know this is sort of a weak excuse for a FLORAL card. . . .but the fact that I used PURPLE should make up for it, I'd say.  
And flowers are flowers, no matter how small.
If you'd like to join in, visit the Touch Twin Challenge Blog for the whole scoop on the challenge! 
(But if you win the 12 markers, you and I are NOT friends anymore! giggle giggle!)

(card goodies: patterned paper - SEI, flower stamp - Close To My Heart, sentiment - The {Stamps} of Life, ribbon - Offray, purple marker - Touch Twin by Shinhan, green marker - Tomnbow)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I realized that I have a few Apron Strings cards that I never shared, from the August All Year Cheer Card kit.  Hello, where have I been!??? ;)  We'll just pretend that it isn't actually OCTOBER already.

Here are four of the cards I created.  This kit has Pink Paislee Hometown papers, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE.  There is also some Fancy Pants, and Cosmo Cricket papers in the kit.  Lots of bright colors, which I LOVE!!!! :)





Apron Strings kits are always PACKED with goodies.  There is always enough paper and cardstock to make at LEAST 8 cards.  Usually more!!!! I create, create, and CREATE, and still have supplies left over! Even if I didn't design for them, I would still recommend them to you!!! :)

My littlest man has tipped over all of the chairs at the dinner table, and is now attempting to drag them across the room.  I think I better stop this before things get ugly!!! :) Have a terrific day! 
xoxo

Monday, October 10, 2011

bring the BLING!

I think that Want2Scrap has been one of my favorite sponsors at CPS this year. . . another great example of a company that I might not have purchased from, but WILL be purchasing from in the future, thanks to the Card Positioning Systems blog.  Want2Scrap was a new-to-me company.  They have BLING, BLING, BLING, and a lot of it coordinates with Nestabilities dies.  But I don't HAVE any Nestabilities (yet - but that's a different story!)  so I kind of thought - Ugh, is this going to be a drag to use? But guess what, they are super EASY to use and a lot of fun.  Plus the big sheets of pearls and jewels will last you through MANY a project.  I've used them on just about everything I've created lately, and I think I WILL be restocking shortly!!!
Today I'd like to share two cards featuring the Want2Scrap jewels with you.  This first is based on this week's sketch at CPS.  
 I used Christmas trees from The Cat's Pajamas (you may recognize them from the craft fair Christmas tags I shared a few weeks ago!)  The sentiment, that sweet little bitty "merry" is from The {Stamps} of Life.  The cardstock here (from Discount Cardstock) is called Posh Wagon Red Dungaree.  If you look closely, it has a really nice subtle texture to it, that looks a lot like denim.  So beautiful!

On this second card, I created a nice little row of pearls, along with stamps from Gina K (Tami Mayberry's All Occasion Tags set. . . .HOW much do I love this stamp set? TONS!)  The yellow crepe paper from Discount Cardstock totally adds an added texture and detail to this project that I just LOVE.

Thanks so much for coming by today.  And thank you so much to those who hopped this weekend for Operation Julie's Smile.  I had so much fun reading allllllll of your comments! And finally, with a few hours to spare, I finished the hop myself, last night! Phew! 121 blogs?! That's a LOT!!!!!  Have a terrific week! We are in the midst of some blustery, rainy weather here - and I LOVE it.  Going to drink coffee, and fill a box of junk-I mean treasures - to take to Goodwill today.
xoxo

Friday, October 7, 2011

Operation Julie's Smile :)

If you didn't arrive here from Michelle Mathey, head to the Sweet Stamp Shop blog to start at the begining (you have all weekend to complete the hop and win a prize)

“The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae.  You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more.  What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child.  It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth  replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out.  But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop, put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight!  It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If you can contribute a financial donation, there is a PayPal button in my sidebar.  Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.”

I created two cards (with lots of paper-piecing) for today's hop. I used products from Sweet Stamp Shop, My Mind's Eye, and Discount Cardstock.  I hope you like them!!! :)
Thank you so much for coming by, on this GIGANTIC blog hop!  I hope you'll come visit me again!

And now my friends, hop onward to my friend, 

Be sure to leave a comment before you go, for a chance to win AMAZING prizes (plus it will just make me happy if you say HI!)  And if you can, please consider donating via the PayPal button on my sidebar! 
YOU can help bring back Julie's SMILE!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Fall Fun!

I created this card and candy pail for my mom's Close To My Heart blog.  You can find out all the specifics HERE on her blog!  The funny thing about this project, is that I totally had a bag of candy corn to put into the candy pail. But. . .welll . . .we ate it all before I could fill it.  So just use your imagination, okay?
And as promised, some pictures of my crazy boys at the farm we went to on Saturday.  Corn maze, homemade ice cream, amazing BBQ, a pumpkin patch, hay bales to climb, tractors, dirt, animals to feed, and LOTS of fun.  


 (apparently, ice cream is HILARIOUS!)


HAPPY FALL!!!!! It's my FAVORITE time of the year!!! 
Thanks for stopping by today! Leave me some love, let me know what you're up to on this happy October day!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Ahoy There!

The Cat's Pajamas is our awesome CPS sponsor for the week!  As soon as I saw this sweet little whale, I knew I wanted to paper-piece him, I knew I wanted to see him covered with polka-dots, and I KNEW it was love at first sight!  I used the Neptune Trio of Dotted Swiss cardstock (by Bazzill), from Discount Cardstock for this card.  I just love how my happy little whale turned out! :)  Be sure to visit the Card Positioning Systems blog to see the sketch for this week!!! Play along and you might just win yourself some great goodies from The Cat's Pajamas!!!!

We had our first few days of COOL(ish) weather this past weekend, and it was PERFECTION.  We went to a farm on Saturday, and had THE best time - I'll share a few pictures in my next post!!! I have some cute fall and Halloween ideas to share with you too!!! Watch for it Tuesday or Wednesday! :)

Have a TERRIFIC WEEK!!! Happy October!
xoxo

Saturday, October 1, 2011

penguins4christmas anyone???

Welcome to October, and a new stamp set from The {Stamps} of Life!!!! This month's set is called penguins4christmas, and without further ado, here are two samples I created with it!

The font for the sentiments is AWESOME.  I am BIG on fonts.  They make or break a sentiment! If you scroll down to my last post, I also used this set for the "to/from" on my white Christmas tags.  The penguins are quite versatile though. . .you can use them for ANY kind of card, it doesn't have to be only for Christmas!  You can see the whole set, HERE at The {Stamps} of Life website, and lots of great examples in the gallery!