Hawg Wild Valentine Basket

There is a challenge over at the Totally Stampalicious blog this week to use the Farmer Hawg and the new sentiment set that goes with him that was just released. I had this idea in my head as soon as my sets arrived for me to play with and get some projects ready for the release. I had originally intended for it to be in some kind of a plant because right after I got my stamps, I found these cute little plant pokes in the dollar bins at Michael's.

Living in such a rural part of Florida does have its drawbacks. The closest nursery is twelve miles away and it's so hard for me to get myself to drive into town these days. The cold (freeze) snap we've had here for the past two weeks literally killed any thoughts of using some pretty flowering plant in my yard. Almost everything is a lump of brown yucky stuff. Fortunately, we do have a Dollar General just a couple of miles from the house and I have to go that far to reach any kind of civilization (and check the mail) anyway.

I found some goodies at DG, starting with a basket with a brown fabric liner that matched the chocolate chip backing I had added to my hawg and sentiment. I filled it with all sorts of Valentine treats.....cute little notebooks, a candle, a candy flower bouquet, and of course.....CHOCOLATE!!! (the bottom of the basket is just full of little peanut butter filled chocolate hearts). This would be a great little gift for one of those Valentine birthdays I have coming up next month. Hubby is one of them, but this just isn't his style. A gift card to Tractor Supply would make him much happier!

I will have to wait and see where this ends up. For now, it works for the Totally Stampalicious challenge. Just a fun challenge this week...no prize included, but you can be sure there will be lots of opportunities to win free stamps from them in the near future. We are still waiting to get to the two hundredth subscriber so Joycelyn and Becky can give away another gift certificate to a lucky subscriber. Why not sign up....they don't flood the inbox with junk, and you just might win!!!

Also be sure to scroll down to the TS design team list on the right side of my blog to check out what the rest of the team has been up to!!

Warm Hogs and Pig Kisses

\Oh, my goodness!! I am such a mess with crazy schedules that hubby and I were sitting around this morining having a quiet cup of coffee before he had to run off to help his brother with a guy project, when we both realized that today is our twentieth wedding anniversary!! I thought that I hadn't made him a card, but when I went to dig in my stash of projects for the new release of Totally Stampalicious stamps, I found this one that uses the new sentiments for the Farmer Hawg set released late last year! Whew!! Saved!! I can have it all signed up and ready by the time he gets home!!

I had to do another easel card...can you tell I love these things??? Some of you already know about our problem with wild hogs tearing up our property here in rural Florida. Well, they have been out in full force since the cold snap hit us two weeks ago and is just now letting up. He has setting out corn to get them toward his trap....mmmmm....fresh sausage!!!

Anyway, I used some of that gorgeous textured dp from Stampin' Up! along with some Bayou Blue and Chocolate Chip card stock. The scallop square was made with a large Sizzix die. The corner punches are from the new Occassions catty from SU! The lacey border punch is from Martha Stewart and the image is colored with Copic markers. The warm hogs and pig kisses sentiment just cracks me up!! Love it!! The button I used to make my easel card stand up is from the collection I have from my great great aunt Cal's millenary store that she had in Tunkhannock, Pa back in the early 1900s. Never got to meet her as she was gone long before I arrived here on Earth. My dad, who is 83 has some great stories about her, though. Guess it's a good thing this card is going to be staying close to home!

Guess I got to rambling a bit today. Thanks for checking in with me today!!! Happy creating!!

Totally Stampalicious Eat More Turkey!!!!

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Kyli has been here most of the weekend, but after spending most of the morning outside exploring, she went down for a nearly three hour nap! I managed to get some chili in the crockpot for dinner and then sneaked into the stamp room. I had so much stuff piled on my table that I had to clean it off before I could think about doing anything else. When I got to the bottom, I found the base for a stair step card that I had thought about playing with last week and my latest set of stamps from Totally Stampalicious. I love this farmer hawg dude! So much fun to color! Except for the base, all of the papers came out of the scrap pile. I did my coloring with Copic and Prismacolor markers.

Sure ham glad I got this set!

When I went to the mailbox yesterday, I was really expecting it to be empty. All the bills that come at this time of the month are in and I haven't ordered anything new. Imagine how excited I was to see the padded yellow envie from Canada!! I knew one of the new sets from Totally Stampalicious (check them out at the  link on the right just below the Totally Spampalicious badge) would be in it, but I didn't know which one it would be. This Farmer Hawg set is so perfect for me! Hubby works on a farm and we live out in the country. Wild hogs are regular visitors to our yard and cow pasture, and sometimes they don't move along quickly enough and they end up in the freezer!! As soon as sweet little Kyli was safely back with Mommy and Daddy, I had to ink up my new set!! I was planning what papers to use as I was driving Kyli home.

The papers are from Basic Gray's Granola collection. Most of them are pretty masculine and thought the striped sheet would make some cool bibs for my cute little farmer! The layout is completely random. Just cut some pieces from the stack and added them to the card base. Colored the image with markers and sponged the sky with light blue ink. Popped the image layer up with dome pop dots to get it above the twine. Added some copper brads, dew drops and a little swatch of ribbon. Just a quick, easy card.

Okay, Rachael, now I'm off to work on your wedding invitations!!! Promise!!! I have an idea in my head that I think you will really like!