I hear it's your birthday!!!

 A card for the challenge over at Totally Stampalicious this week. The challenge is to make a birthday card. Mine uses the Mouse Balloon image from Totally Stampalicious. The papers are Sweet and Sour from SU! with some pumpkin pie, regal rose, and very vanilla card stock for the base and layers. I used a border punch from EK Success for the right hand edge. The mouse was colored with Copic markers. I'm happy with my blending, but the placement of colors needs a little work. It's definitely a learning process to coloring with these markers!

Purely Sentimental

 I needed a card for a swap in which the sentiment was the focus of the card. Thought this would be an easy one to come up with, but as it turns out, all the sentiment stamps I have with big images were for sympathy cards and I just didn't want to use that for a swap card....KWIM? I ended up using a sentiment from a sheet of vellum that had a gazillion of them printed on it and cut out the one I wanted to use. I had purchased these sheets at one of the stores like Michael's years ago when I first started stamping and didn't have a collection of sentiment stamps and thought this would be an inexpensive way to have a bunch of them on hand without the expense of purchasing stamps.
The card stock I used is Garden Green and the dsp is Origins from Basic Gray. I made windows using Nestabilities Label 1. The subtle pattern on the vellum is actually the bottom layer of dsp showing through. Added a few buttons from my stash and a little bow and my simple card was done.
I will be away for the next week. I will be visiting my dad in Ohio and taking my daughter-in-law and granddaughter with me. I'm pretty excited about the trip. I have a challenge card for Totally Stampalicious scheduled to post on Monday morning, but other than that, I doubt you will see any blog posts from me as there is no internet connection or land line phone at Daddy's house. I'll be lucky to find some wifi along the way to check my emails and keep the box cleared out to a reasonable level! See ya'll in a week or so!!

The Great Outdoors

 I made this card for a swap I participated in for an on-line group I belong to. The theme for the swap was The Great Outdoors and as much as I love nature and the outdoors, this was a tough challenge for me. Heck, I was even the one who posted the swap for the group thinking I could handle it!!! Well, there are at least two other attempts in the junk pile!!! I tried using some other stamps for my card and eventually came back to a pair that I had used on another card a few years ago, but used greens instead of blues. This card measures 5 x 7 inches. I believe the I used Pear Pizzazz for the base and image layer. The rest of the layers are Early Expresso. The birch trees are a background stamp I got from a friend who was selling off some of her excess stamps (she's not getting it back, but I will let her borrow it...LOL!) and added some white gel pen highlights. We don't have any of these trees here in Florida, but I remember them from growing up in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So pretty!!
The buck is from SU!'s Nature Silhouettes. Brayered Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke on the image layer and sponged with Soft Suede. The twine is from a roll of the cheap old binding twine you buy at the dollar store. I separated it into three separate threads like you would do with embroidery floss to get it to the thickness I wanted. (couldn't find the good stuff...I may be out....GASP!!)
Well, I must get busy with the all the things I still have to do before I leave for Ohio on Saturday morning. Thanks for stopping in!!

New Vintage Toys

 I got some new goodies yesterday from an SU! order I had placed and couldn't wait to get into these papers. I think they are my favorites from the new catalog and the first I have ordered! Had to get some of the other vintage accessories to go with them, like the crochet trim and skinny taffeta ribbon. I am completely lovin' the look of dsp when it is embossed with texture folders. I used two on this card, the square lattice and the damask wallpaper. Don't know if those are the right names for them, but that's what I call them in my world! I'm very pleased with how this came out. Haven't done a card this "vintage" in a long time. I think I'll have to get more of these papers!
Stamps: watercolor trio
Paper: vanilla, crumb cake, soft suede, baja breeze, dsp
Ink: soft suede, baja breeze, soft suede, crumb cake
Accessories: ribbon, crochet trim, oval punches, sponge, embossing folders

Tilting Pumpkin

Looking for the Totally Stampalicious challenge card? Scroll down to second post for today.

 I made this card for the technique challenge on Splitcoast Stampers this morning which was to make a tilt card. It was super easy and turned out to be a cool technique I will be using again! It's kinda like a slider card where the image rolls across the front of the card, but in this case, it just jiggles in one spot. The pumpkin on my card jiggles around in place like he's shaking and trying to scare someone. I really wanted to cut into some of the new papers I got at Priceless this weekend, so my card is Halloween themed. Also got to use one of my new border punches....hehehehehe!! I'm so addicted to these things!!
Stamps: Rubbernecker
Paper: GP white, perfect plum, cajun craze, Graphic 45 halloween in wonderland
Ink: Momento tuxedo black, basic black, crumb cake
Accessories: pennies, dimensionals, craft knife, sponge, border punch, sponge

Card for your best friend challenge

The challenge at Totally Stampalicious this week is to make a card for your best friend, whoever that may be....your girl friend, hubby, the dog....whoever!! Instead of trying to pick a BEST friend, I decided to make a card in honor of all my girls.....You're the best!!!

 For my card today, I used Cafe Scarlette, one of the newest Bugaboo images released by Totally Stampalicious in an acrylic stamp. She comes with some of the cutest sentiments and I added mine to the inside.

 

Other little details include the crocheted flower which I made with white crochet thread and then dyed with Regal Rose reinker diluted with water. I knew I wanted to use the flower on my card, so that influenced my choice of papers, but the placement was dictated by an embellishment opportunity. You see, there is a huge ink smudge under the flower that happened after the image had been colored and cut out......uuuugggghhhhh!!!! The saffron oval layer may look a little wonky if you look too closely, but be gentle, please. That oval was hand cut because I didn't have an oval die the right size to get this last layer!

 Stamps: Cafe Scarlette by Totally Stampalicious
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Regal Rose, So Saffron, GP white, Basic Gray Lemonade
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Regal Rose
Accessories: Scallop border punch, round tab punch, label punch, nestabilities, ribbon, pearls, pearl brads, crocheted flower, reinkers, Copic markers, square punches, sponge

Playing with my owl punch and a cool butterfly image!

I just got the new owl punch from Stampin' Up! and just had a blast messing around with some scraps. I made several cards with it. The leaves on this card are from a Martha Stewart punch that arrived at the LSS while I was there. Hehehehe...it didn't even make it to the shelf!! Here are two more cards I made with the owl punch...

 I found a really cool clear stamp set from Inkadinkadoo last week and played with that, too! The set has a butterfly, a dragonfly, a hummingbird, and a beetle and all of them have all these wonderful birds and fairies hidden in the design....so cool. Here is a close up of a card I made just playing with the butterfly image and some black sparkle embossing powder. The card doesn't wow me, but just had to play with my new stamp! I tried to take a picture that let some of the sparkle come through.

Totally Stampalicious New Release Blog Hop

It's time for another NEW RELEASE from Totally Stampalicious and we are soooo EXCITED to share ANOTHER FOUR NEW BUGABOO Stamp Sets!!

AVAILABLE NOW AT
TOTALLY STAMPALICIOUS

What better way to celebrate this exciting new release than with a FABULOUS and FUN BLOG HOP!? The only thing that could make it even MORE FUN is to add some PRIZES to the mix!!
As usual, we will select THREE winners randomly from THREE randomly selected DT blogs so be sure to comment on all of them to increase your chances to win!! The first stop is the Totally Stampalicious blog so head on over there and make sure you don't miss out on any of the design team blogs! I'll see you back here after you have stopped at Melissa's blog.....

I've had a lot of days like this lately...so busy with so many things. New allergy meds that make me sleepy...sheesh!!! This is my first card using the new release images. This set is called Morning Margaret and the sentiment I used is just one of three that come with the set. The dsp is by Kaiser is from the Utopia stack. Card stock is perfect plum and pale plum. The image was colored with Copic markers.
I've been slacking a little lately with all my outside commitments, so I decided to step it up for this blog hop and created four cards. Here is the next one:

 This card uses a set called Sweet Birthday Kids. The girl is one of two images included in this set which also has two sentiments. Papers used for this card are from the Basic Gray Green at Heart stack. I used Regal Rose and Wild Wasabi card stock. Added some white gel pen dots for accents. I wanted to try watercoloring with Tombow markers but didn't have a lot of success with the technique, so I ended up just coloring in the image. I used watercolor paper for the image layer on this card and the next one on which I also colored with Tombows.

This card uses the Kaiser Utopia stack that was used on the first card, with some different selections from the stack. The decorative green layer is a die cut from the stack. The image on this card is also from the Sweet Birthday Kids set.

My last card is my first ever Red Hat card and uses the set called Red Hat Stella. The image is colored with Tombows on watercolor paper. The red layers are Real Red card stock and the purple are Bo Bunny dotted card stock. Added the dots on the scalloped circle and on Stella with a white gel pen. The purple border was done with MS punches.


Now it's time to head on over to Cindy's Blog (always a treat)  to see what she has in store for your inspiration!

Here's the entire Blog Hop list just in case there are any malfunctions along the way!
Totally Stampalicious
Stacy - Twinshappy
Vicki - Summerthyme Studio
Joycelyn - Stamps 'n' Coffee
Patricia - Stamping with Kokirose
Rebeccah- Stampin' FOr Fun
Laurie - On the Bright Side
Melissa - My Paper Obsession
Lynnor - Just Add Glitter
Cindy - Cindy Haffner's Corner
Sue - Coffestamper SCS Gallery

Thanks for joining us on our latest Blog Hop!!! Don't forget to comment for your chance to win some REALLY AWESOME PRIZES!!

A Touch of Red

Good Monday morning, all!! It's Christmas in July and it's hot!! So many areas are having above normal heat and it's always hot during a Florida summer, so this cute snowman is feeling the heat!! The challenge this week over at Totally Stampalicious is to make a card with just a splash of red. You can use any other colors, but keep the red to just a splash....a lot less than what we'd like to see in the thermometer!Don't forget that they are still having a huge sale at Totally Stampalicious!
Stamps: Snowmen by Totally Stampalicious
Paper: Pacific Point, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, GP white, Basic Gray Oliver dsp
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Copic markers, punches, red flower brads

Cottage Wall Scrap Card and Kyli's Poodle

Can you stand one more card made with my Cottage Wall scraps? Very simple go-to layout.

The layout is one of my favorite ways of making cards from scraps. The only part of this card not made from scraps is the card base. I think I made this a couple of weeks ago, but it's been sitting on my desk waiting for some attention. I finally got into my stamp room today to do a little cleaning and then creating. I've been so busy this week that I haven't had a lot of stamping time. We spent two days at the farm where my hubby works putting up conk peas....yummy!! Peas are one of the vegetables that we get as a perk of my hubby's job, but we have to help put them up. Corn is next....even bigger yum for that!!! I also hosted a stamping get-together at my house. Just had a bunch of stamping friends over to do some creating together. Some of the girls wanted to make the poodle card I had posted the other day. My granddaughter was staying with me that day and one of the girls decided to help Kyli make her own poodle card. I am amazed at how well Kyli was able to attach the pieces to assemble her poodle. Looks like she has wonderful fine motor skills for a two-year-old. I definitely have a future stamper on my hands!!

Well, that's all for today. Not a long post at all. It's dreary and rainy here again today, so I think I will finish picking up around the house and then go stamp some more! Have a wonderful, stamp-filled day!!

Punched Purple Poodle

Wow...say that three times fast!!! I received the cutest punched poodle card in the mail last week and have been itching to recreate it! So here is my version in purple!!!

Isn't this cute???? I love all the cute punch art animals that are out there in blog land. I don't have a clue as to who the original creator of this cutie is as I received it as a swap for an on-line group I belong to. I used Lovely Lilac for my base and Night and Day from SU! for the dsp layer. The card I received had an olive green base and some pink dsp for the layer. Sponged in lovely lilac and used markers and a white gel pen to add details to the face. I'm not lovin' my eyes....I can see these will take some practice.

Totally Stampalicious Food Theme Challenge

A food challenge and an incredible sale!! That's what is going on over at Totally Stampalicious this week! The sale details can be found here and it's a great time to pick up some of those sets you've been eying but haven't purchased! It's a hot, summer sale!!! Now on to my card and the food challenge.

While I had my crochet supplies out to make the cute little stars I used on my patriotic card the other day, I decided to try adding a crocheted trim around some circle scraps I had laying around. I had two bright pink circles, so those were the basis of the card design. I decided to use JJ Pregnant by Totally Stampalicious for my card for this week's challenge at Totally Stampalicious. The theme of this week's challenge is to make a food-related card or project. I colored JJ up in some pinks and found this old paper I've had for eons and had never cut into. It is by Making Memories and the colors are definitely out of my comfort zone. Probably one of the reasons I had never used it! I added some blings and such to the layers and popped up my smaller layers. You can't really see it in the photo, but the orange background has a small heart pattern stamped all over it and I rounded the corners around the whole card. A little over-the-top even for me, but I like it...hope you do, too!!! Thanks for stopping in!!

Dresser Box and Card

I made this dresser box and matching card the other day, but didn't get it posted until now. So many things to do!!! I got the tutorial for the box here.

The card probably didn't need all those buttons as far as the design goes, but there was a need....let's just say it was an embellishment opportunity! I used Baja Breeze card stock and some papers from K and Co. that I've had for years...much loved favorites!  Here are the two together:

Thanks so much for stopping in. I'm looking forward to two days of creating with the girls at the LSS!! I'll take too much stuff and get next to nothing accomplished, but that's okay!

Courage

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in my day to play with all the cool things I find!! I saw these crocheted stars on a blog a while back and the blogger was kind enough to provide a link to the pattern to make these cool stars and I just had to try them.....so easy!! I have been making these little guys in the evenings while winding down before bed and thought I'd use a few of them today on a patriotic card. I've had this Courage set from SU! since last year, but had never inked it up. I used Tim Holtz distress inks to age all my layers including the stars, and used reinkers and an water brush to add a touch of color to the image.

I spent yesterday down at the LSS playing with a couple of friends. One of the girls was making some cards for the Fourth, so I gave her some of these stars to use. I also found a couple of the cutest little blue buttons in the shape of a 4....how perfect! She added them to the centers of the stars...her cards turned out so cute...should have taken a picture!! The best part of the day was yet to come!! My dear friend Sue showed up for a little while, and she gave me the prettiest stack from SEI called Poppy. It had a sheet in it that what white on white poppies with some of them being glossy. I had to try some glimmer mist on it and the color I used was Dreamcicle.....gorgeous!!! That got us to playing with all the available colors of glimmer mist and papers that had slick or glittered areas. What a BLAST!!!!! We had them all laid out on the table to dry when we left. Tomorrow I think we'll play with some of our creations!! I won't even start about the new Cuttlebug embossing/cutting dies that came in and we experimented with...I'll just leave that at Wow for now!!