Picking up the pieces...

Seems like that's what we've been doing around here for the past week. We woke up a week ago today to the tragic news of the loss of five neighborhood children in a horrible house fire. The children ranged in age from 6 to 15 and the oldest three went to the school where I teach. The oldest boy was in the classroom next to mine and had been with that teacher for three years, so it was especially hard on that teacher who is also one of my dearest friends. Yesterday, we attended the memorial service and cried yet again. The mother and father of these children lost all of their babies and I can't imagine how they will find the strength to go on. The family will need the support of many for a along time to come to survive this tragedy so if you find it in your heart to send some extra prayers to the Jordan family, I know it will be greatly appreciated!!
With things being such a mess here this past week, I am a little late getting my card posted for this week's challenge for Totally Stampalicious. The challenge this week was paper piecing and I just don't use this technique nearly enough! I used Shopping Cart Stella for my card and some new papers from Basic Gray. Had to fussy cut the layer around my Nestie label as the next size was just too large for my liking. The layout is from one of the sketches I spotted this week out there in blogland and I'm sorry to say I can't remember which one. But rest assured...the layout is scraplifted!! The ribbon is some new stuff that just hit the shelves at the LSS, Priceless Scrapbooks. It's from May Arts and has such a gorgeous shimmer to it and makes perfect bows!! Comes in like a kagillion fabo colors, too and I had to have every single one!!!
There is also going to be a new release this Thursday with a blog hop to celebrate. Join us at 9 pm Thursday for some fantastic eye candy from the design team and some fabulous prizes from Totally Stampalicous!!! The new release will feature four more new sets of Bugaboo images available in acrylic for the first time! These are some of the cutest sets yet, so be sure to stop back in for the blog hop!! See you there!!!

The Shopping Queen

I used this new Lorali shopper stamp to make my card for the Queen for the Day challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. This week's queen is Linda aka Hotwheels. I cased a card that she had done with a shopping theme. For my card, I used groovy guava and chocolate chip cardstock and SEI dsp. I used some of the dsp for paper piecing and Copic markers for the rest of my coloring. Added some tiny half pearls here and there and a big chocolate ribbon. The corner and border punches for the frame are by Martha Stewart.