Thank You to my Friends and Followers!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Triple Time Stamping & Shimmer

Hello and Thank you for visiting my little blog space to showcase my arts and crafts! I hope you enjoy viewing the projects as you browse and get inspired! My sister and I are getting together with some friends this coming weekend to crop. I'm so excited. When they come visit I try to showcase a few new techniques I've learned and I've put together just a few things to show them if we have time. One of them is this card technique. You can find the tutorial here and many more tutorials under my tutorial tab here.


I cut the 3 peices of white cardstock, layered them and then stamped the images. To add some interest I sprayed them with Shimmer Mist

and them I went back and added some glitter glue to the flowers, the ribbon and the button. Hopefully you can see the glimmer. 

That's all for now. Please feel free to browse any post and leave comments. I love to hear your comments. They keep me in my mojo!
Blessing to you and don't forget make something beautiful today!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Using My Tools # 3- Relax

Hello again and welcome! Thank you for visiting. This is another attempt at using my stash of old but never used tools. I used 2 things from my stash with this card. The first is the sentiment. It comes from TPC Studio -Faithful Greetings. I am determined to use everyone on that set before I move on to another. The second are the green eyelets from American Crafts. I bought these the first year I began scrap booking...um so they've been in the drawer a while. oops.
I'm still finishing up my 6 x 6 pad by echo park and thankfully I only have a few more tiny scraps so yeah! I can dive into a brand new one soon. Not sure if I am going to continue just using one pad at a time. I enjoy the variety but i can see the reasoning behind using one at a time before you buy more. After all, all of us crafter's just love to build our stash!


Materials:
OWH Sketch 11
Lili of the Valley ST040 Deck Chair Dreaming
Dusk, Naval & Turquoise Mist Bazill Card Stock
Jute cord


 These are the Copics I used to color the project

I hope you are inspired by this project and take the time to make something beautiful! feel welcome to surf my blog and leave comments on any post you like. Also, don't forget to follow me!





Saturday, May 25, 2013

Operation Write Home Bloghop-Thank you


Hello! Welcome to my blog! I hope your enjoying the OWH Blog Hop. Please enjoy browsing my blog and consider following me! To get back to the main Blog Hop Page over at OWH you can click the badge to the right and continue to enjoy all the wonderful cards.

First, I wanted to honor Memorial day with a shout out of thanks to my nephew  Lucas who just finished bootcamp. Way to go! My best friend Colleen, my dad  and my brother who all served us in the military. Thanks so much!
Now on to the card.We were asked to make Thank You cards for the Blog Hop and when I saw this Lili of the Valley image I just had to use it. You can find Lili of the Valley Stamps here. Of course this image can be used for a wonderful "Love" card too!

 I have been trying to use up my Echo Park 6 x 6 pad Everyday Ecletic so again I used it for this card. I used OWH sketch 37
I added a little stitching from my sewing machine, a brad and some ribbon from creative cafe. The "Thank You" sentiment stamp was part of a freebie sample set Daisy & Dandelion  when I bought a Papercraft Inspiration Magazine. In addition, I tried the Cheaters Bow that I learned on a YouTube Video from StampTV but the ribbon was too thick. But you can learn how to make the cheater's bow by clicking on the link here.


There's a picture below of the Copic Markers I used for the image. I used Glossy Accents on the hat and
Studio G Glitter Glue on the dress bow as well as Glossy accents to seal in the glitter. The brad is from Recollections. I always try to use Bazill card stock, it's so luscious and this project is no exception. I used Turquoise Mist and Dusk. 


I hope you enjoyed viewing my Blog Hop Thank you card and please feel free to browse any other of post on my blog and leave comments and become a follower. I love hearing from you. Your comments inspire me! 

On this Memorial Weekend don't forget, it's your turn, to make something beautiful!


PS...OWH is in need of Hero Mail.  Take some time today to write a note or two of Hero Mail for OWH to send off to our military members to thank them for their service.


Thursday, May 23, 2013

Just For You- So Sweet Card

Welcome! Thank you for visiting my little space on the web. These cards are another attempt at using tools I haven't used in a while. This time it's this focal image by Lili of the Valley. I'm still using up the Echo Park paper pad and hopefully I'll be done with it soon. I'm kinda in the mood for something new.


I couldn't decide on which markers to use for this image so I decided to make them each different. I don't own too many markers so I can't really do any shading and I'm limited to the color choice but I think they came out so cute.


Here's a close up of the embossing folder by Stampin' Up Elegant Lines by Sizzex.  OWH recently had a bootcamp on variety. I will place the link here.  I'm using light and dark color scheme and texture on these cards. I place the materials I used for this card below.

Copics (see above)
Lili of the Valley ST027 Rosie Posie
OWH Sketch 22
Bazill card stock Naval
Pearl Pen- Black
Color Box Gold

 I hope you enjoyed viewing my cards and hope your inspired to make one of your own.
Please consider following me and feel free to browse my blog and leave comments on any of my postings.
Many blessings to you and don't forget to go make something beautiful today!


Monday, May 20, 2013

So Cute Cuddle Card - Using My Tools

I'm continuing my series or I should say challenge to myself to use more of the tools I've bought and never used. For this one it is the sentiment stamp and the focus stamp.  I now have a small basket of supplies on my desk filled with a few stamp sets, a few embossing folders and a few stickers that I'm challenging myself to use up before I move on to something else. So, you'll see more of the sentimental stamp sentiments  :- ) over the next few weeks as I attempt to use every one in the set.

Although I don't typically work with these colors I wanted to use up a small strip of patterned paper from the Echo Park 6 x 6 pad I've been using lately. I think it works...let me know what you think and be sure to leave some comments.

Here's a closeup of the button and embroidery thread I used to coordinate with the card stock and patterned paper

Finally, I'll list the supplies I used next but I saw this idea on another blog to reference the marker colors I used on the focal image...sorry I don't know who...I'm definitely going to have to keep notes so I can reference them on my posts but I thought it was a great idea so you can not only get the code numbers but also see the colors. Great idea, huh?! Here's my supply list.
Materials:
Lili of the Valley stamp ST196 Cuddle Time
Echo Park Everyday Eclectic
Bitter Choclate & Turquoise Mist Bazill card stock
Color Box- Chestnut & Sweet Melon
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder
Inkadinkadoo Thoughts for the Day sentiment



I hope you enjoyed viewing my cards and hope your inspired to make your own card using some tools such as tools, stamps, embossing folders or embellishments you bought but never used. They might still be in the original packaging , Oh My! I would love to hear what inspired you about this post and the something new you might have dug out of your stash and used to create. I love to hear your comments and please follow me. Your comments and my followers keep me creating and posting!
Now it's your turn....go make something beautiful!



Sunday, May 19, 2013

OWH MWT So Sentimental 2


Welcome to my little space in infinity! I'm so glad your visiting! This card is for the OWH Midweek Throwdown ~ sentiment.  I knew when I saw this patterned paper I wanted to do a simple black and white theme. I've been into lots of layering lately. It sure uses up quite a bit of card stock but in the end I think the cards look so much more elegant and they feel more expensive and heavy weight.


 I've been trying to use up one of my 6 x 6 paper pads by Echo Park before jumping into my "My Minds Eye" pads. I'm seeing alot of people say they work on one pad at a time until it's gone. Probably a good thing for me to do however, I've already bought 8. I have learned though to coordinate card stock with the pad while you're in the store so that you'll have everything you need once you jump in at home. I've figured you would need just about 15 12 x 12 pages of cardstock to completely using 1- double sided 6x6 paper pad. This will average 30 cards. I usually buy about 4 coordinating colors for each pad just to give me some variety. I also have one of those plastic storage holders with 8 packs of 6 x 6 pads and their coordinating card stock clipped and labeled for that pad. I am going to attempt to work through each one, one at a time. Hopefully, that will slow down the spending sprees.

MATERIALS:
Echo Park Paper Everyday Eclectic
button from stash
Celebrate ribbon
Regal Flourishes Embossing folder by Sizzex (Stampin Up)
Martha Stewart Vinetage Floral Punch

Again, thank you for stopping by. Don't forget to follow me and please leave comments or suggestions on any post you see on my blog. The comments keep me going! Now it's your turn. Go make something beautiful!


Saturday, May 18, 2013

OWH MWT - So Sentimental

Welcome to my blog! I'm so glad your visiting. I hope you'll stay a while and find some inspiration within these posts. This card is fulfilling the Operation Write Home -  Midweek Throwdown challenge to make a card with a focus on the sentiment.

I made 2 cards using the same paper pad. I just mixed it up a bit.

Here's the second card using the back side of the double sided paper


Materials: 
Echo Park Everyday Eclectic paper pad
Jolle Bling
Inkadinkadoo Tell It Like It Is sentiment stamp
Bazill Cardstock

I hope you enjoyed viewing my cards and hope your inspired to make your own card.  I love to hear your comments and please follow me. Your comments and my followers keep me creating and posting!
Now it's your turn....go make something beautiful!


Friday, May 17, 2013

Gerbil Update

Welcome to my blog! Thank you for stopping by and checking in on my pet adventure!

The gerbils are now 2 1/2 weeks old. Some of them have open eyes and others are still closed.
They are a bit more independent, eating some seeds and running around the cage. The cutest thing is seeing them snuggle up to the adults. They are also beginning to groom themselves and chew on the pine bedding.



Thanks again for visiting. Feel free to browse any post on my blog and leave comments. I love to hear your thoughts. Don't forget to follow me


Using My Tools #2 - Happy B Day

Welcome! Thank you for visiting! This is a card I posted earlier in the week but I thought I would mention it in my Using My Tools postings
This was the first time I used the smooches hexagon stamp and the Tim Holtz embossing folder.
Check out the entire post here.

My Goal this year is to pick through some embossing folders and stamps that I've purchased at least 6 months ago and never used. 

Now it's your turn. Tell me of some of the great purchases you've made over the years that were absolute must haves and never saw the light of day. Could be a tool of some kind, a stamp set, or embellishment.
So, please let me know in the comment section of this blog. I'd love to hear from you and feel free to visit for a while and check out my other postings and leave comments on those as well!

Take care, enjoy the day and remember your turn to make something beautiful!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

OWH Bootcamp & using my tools

 
Welcome to my blog! I'm so glad your here. I had fun with this challenge and used MME 6x6 pad Sunshine for these cards. For the month of May, OWH is doing a bootcamp on variety. Variety is the quality of having different forms or types. In these cards,  I used several categories: color, texture & value of light and dark.  Also, for this year, I really want to use more of the tools I've bought and never used. I was so excited to find these embossing folders and never bought any Stampin' up products before. Well, I got them and organized them......they are still the only Stampin' Up products I own and finally I was so excited to use them for the first time.
The sentiment stamp is one I picked up at Michaels from the dollar bin about 1 year ago.
As part of the texture I ripped one of the patterned papers and added a ribbon.


I used Stampin' up  Elegant Lines embossing folder  to add the texture


I used Stampin' Up Manhattan Rose embossing folder for the texture on this card.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my cards and hope your inspired to make your own card for this OWH Bootcamp challenge. I hope this will also challenge you to use some of the tools, stamps, embossing folders or embellishments you've bought and never used or put away for a long time. I would love to hear what you just HAD to HAVE and haven't used yet and hopefully you become inspired and go use it and come back and tell me about it! I love to hear your comments and please follow me. Your comments and my followers keep me creating and posting!
Now it's your turn....go make something beautiful!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

OWH Sketch #172

Welcome to my little space in infinity! I'm so glad your visiting! This card is fulfilling the Operation Write Home sketch #172 challenge. I also am incorporating some of the design elements from the May bootcamp. Here I'm using differing sizes, value, color and also texture with flocking the monkeys. You can find a tutorial on how to use Flocking on your project here. You can also find more tutorials on my tutorial tab here.

I used Create A Critter monkey sized at 2, 2 1/4, and 3 inches.
The sentiment is from Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments



The brad is from Recollections and the jute cord is from Cousin

Thank you so much for visiting. It's a pleasure for me to read your comments, answer your questions and/or hear your tips and suggestions. Please consider following me and feel free to brose my blog and leave comments on any of my postings.
Many blessings to you and don't forget to go make something beautiful today!


Monday, May 13, 2013

Ruffle Card Variations

Hello and welcome! Thank you for stopping by. I made a mother's Day card using this style and loved it so much I made a few more. I also used a stamping tutorial I saw on Youtube

I haven't decided on a sentiment for this one yet but I think I will probably cutr out some butterflies with my Cricut to beef up the design.

This is a miniature of my moms day card. The original was a 6.5 x 5. This is an A2 and will go to OWH. I used the same papers, different sentiment. So beautiful!

For the stamping I held the stamp to the paper without moving the block and counted to 10. The tutorial (sorry-dunno who I saw i was watching so many that day-if I stumble on it again I put the link in) stated that it will give the paper time to absorb the ink. Since I have been implementing this I've gotten much bettter and sharper stamped images.

Again, thank you for stopping by. Don't forget to follow me and please leave comments or suggestions on any post you see on my blog. The comments keep me going! Now it's your turn. Go make something beautiful!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Using My Tools Thursday # 1 -Music theme

Hello and Welcome! So glad your visiting my space in space and time. Hope you'll stay a while and find some inspiration within these posts. Like most card makers and Scrap bookers I have way more stuff than I ever use. The ooohs and aaahs in the craft store soon fade to a memory once in the stash. 

I decided this year I was going to use some of those stamps, embossing folders and embellishments I've bought and have not used yet. I placed a small basket on my work space and filled it with a 2 to 3 embossing folders I've been always meaning to get to and never have. I then rummaged through my stamp stash for coordinating stamps and ofcourse found them. lol. 

When I finally sat down to make a card, the items were right there for me and instant mojo. I've made several cards so far using this method. This week I used all my musical notes

I cut the instruments using scraps. The rest of the paper is from 8.5 x 11 recollections cardstock



Thinking of you and I love you sentiments are from Hero Arts

Musical Stamp and patterned paper from Oriental Trading. I embossed the music stamped image with black embossing powder from Inkadinkadoo. I used Perfect Pearls for the 3 beads.

and of course some stitching on the machine for added interest.

Mother's Day

This is mom's card.
Martha Doily Lace punch
$ stamp ACMoore
random pins from stash
Prima flowers 
gems from Wal-mart

Thursday, May 9, 2013

OWH His & Hers

Welcome to my little space on the blogsphere! So glad your visiting to take a look at some cards I'm making for Operation Write Home. I'm so grateful for OWH tutorial on taking better pictures of your cards. These came out really nice with using the card box. I'll add the link to the tutorial here
This weeks midweek throwdown challenge is to create 2 cards using one of the sketches. I used sketch 33. One feminine and one masculine. Here's my take on it! 


Materials:
6x6 MME pad Stella Rose
Bazzill Card stock Whirlpool, Candlelight & Lavender
$ stamp from ACMoore
Copic Markers E23, YG67, YG63, E00, E79, C3, Y21, BV04, YG03, E13, B00, BG18, W5,  BG72, R20, BV02, E37
Lili of the Valley Stamps Maise Sitting Pretty ST200 & Sailing Boat ST056
Recollection brads in black and copper

Again thank you for visiting and I hope you were inspired. Please consider following my blog and leaving a comment on this post or any other on my blog. I love to reasd your comments, tips or suggestions.

Now it's your turn to go make something beautiful! 


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Baby Gerbils

I mentioned on an earlier post that my daughter wanted to buy some gerbils. These were her first pets other than the 1 goldfish that didn't last very long. 

We bought them on a Saturday afternoon about 12 days ago and bought the last 3 which were all girls. We were planning to buy two but knowing gerbils are very social we felt bad leaving 1 alone so I told her I would claim 2 and help supply food etc for their care. They would live with hers in the same cage in her bedroom so essentially they would be hers. We claimed a mother and 2 daughters. We named them Molly,  Mabel and Mia. 

Well within 36 hours of ownership Molly gave birth to 8 pups. What a surprise! We have actually enjoyed watching them nurture and care for the pups. the daughters have been very possessive of the babies and we've taken them out for several hours a day so mom can have the chance to feed them. It's been a great experience. 

I held them for the first time today to try to determine which are boys and which are girls. After reading online that you could hold them after 10 days and that the timing for determining their sex is optimal at 10 days making sure you wash your hands really well and take the mother out so she won't get stressed about it I attempted to do just that.  5 girls and 3 boys.

Here are some photos, enjoy!

5 days old


10 days old



So Cute!


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

anniversary cake and card

Thank you for visiting my little space on the blogsphere! Welcome! So, I finally buckled down and tried to figure out this blog stuff. At one point the blog website took over and switch me to google blog or something like that and most of the layout I chose and some of the info disappeared with a link to see full profile showed up but when I clicked on it nothing appeared. I still don't have most of it figured out and this past weekend OWH challenge hashtag I never figured out but at least I was able to find a spot for the OWH logo and a little about me spot on my blog. I kinda reorganized the info a bit too. If anyone can give me tips or suggestion on some of the tools in the "Add a Gadget"  list I'd be so grateful!  But I digress...now onto my projects.

This was the card I made for my husband on our anniversary I used a Fiskers crimper, a Lili of the Valley stamp, brads and Copic markers. I also added a little stitching which didn't come out as nicely as I planned but then I kinda liked it distressed for a guy card. 


For our cake I wan't to mark that it was 6 years but I also wanted some elements of our wedding cake. So I decided to use the swirl drop flowers and zigzag design but made the cake into a ruler to mark the years. I used my Cricut to cut out the numbers in sugar paste. The blue for the numbers, line and greeting was the color of my bridesmaid dresses. I tried to throw in little elements here and there.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed this post. Feel free to browse any post and leave comments and follow my blog. oh yeah! The best part...I challenge you to go make something beautiful today!
Blessings to you!

ODBD May 2013 & OWH Sketch #171

Hello all and thank you for visiting my little space on the web. It's been a busy and crazy few weeks with my daughters first pet being a few gerbils who gave birth to 8 babies after only owning them for 36 hours, multiple doctors appointments for the kids, my son's poison ivy and that same son with a trip to the ER for a suspected broken thumb after playing dodge ball. Thankfully it wasn't broken. 

In fact, I was in the middle of making this card when my husband asked me to take a motorcycle ride with him to enjoy the bit of sun we had yesterday and when I returned 30 minutes later I was met with the black and blue swollen thumb so I headed to the ER last night and then finished this card this morning before work.  Oh and one more fun thing...While we were in the ER the hospital announced a code red and requested everyone stay where they were and that stairways and elevators were in lock down. It stayed that way for about 40 minutes with repeated announcements about staying where we were etc. Not sure what was going on but clearly it wasn't good. Thankfully my son and I were safe and we left the hospital unscathed.

Whew...Now on to the fun stuff...the card!
This month's Our Daily Bread Challenge is for Missing You cards and so I decided to combine that challenge with this weeks sketch. I realized in looking back at my previous cards that I don't tend to use the Cricut characters on my cards. Not sure why because they always make a card look so cute. So I decided to pull out my "Create A Critter" cartridge and look for a little guy to put on these cards.
171

Materials:
Cricut Cardtridge Create A Critter Owl set at 2 1/4 inches
Bazill card stock Bittersweet chocolate, Naval Orange, Yukon Gold & Teal
6x6 Pad Fine & Dandy patterned paper
Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder
Martha Stewart Border Punch Ribbon Loop
Sentiment on word document
brown ribbon

I hope you enjoyed my cards. Please leave comments below on this post or any other post on my blog. I love to here you thoughts and suggestions! I was busy this weekend with crafting other things as well. My anniversary was on the 5th so I made a cake and a card for my husband. I'll be posting that next so look out for it.   Don't forget to follow me and I'd love to follow you. I'm always looking for inspiration you know, so I'd love to see what you've been posting too! oh and before I forget...go make something beautiful today!


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

ODBD April Challenge - With wings

Hello again and welcome to my little spot on the web. I'm so bummed. I missed the deadline for the Our Daily Bread card challenge. and by 1 day. I finally had time to finish and realized when I went to load it up that we are now in May. Ugghh! oh well, I still wanted to post it here on my blog because I think it's really cute! It came together slowly, The hexagon embossing folder was my inspiration and the card grew from there. It wasn't until I went looking for a sentiment that everything really clicked for me.
I hope you like the card too! I enjoy reading your comments so feel free to comment about this posting or any other on my blog. oh and.....the more the merrier, please become a follower and I follow your blog too!
Enough gabbing, here's the card!
Materials:
Tim Holtz embossing folder Honeycomb
Colorbox white ink
Sentiment $ store stamp
Paper Smooches Geo-graphics
EK Success gem stickers
beehive from Sentimentals Cricut cartridge set at 3 inches
Sandy Lion Essentals Bees stickers 
Bazzill cardstock


Don't Forget, now it's your turn...go make something beautiful!

Sketch 170 &OWH MWT Thank you

Hello all and welcome to my little space on the blogsphere! Thank you all for visiting and I hope you leave some comments on this post and any other you check out on my blog. Your comments, suggestions and ideas are always welcome! I would love to have you follow me and I am always looking for inspiration and new crafting techniques and ideas so I'd love to follow your postings as well. 

A little praising about the weather is overdue. Thankfully spring has finally arrived here in southern MA. The sun is shining and it's a bit warm. The kids have been out of the house playing! 
Yipee! Now onto the card...

For this week's challenge OWH has asked us to make Thank you cards. I decided to use this weeks sketch as well and incorporate both requirements.
170
Again I used my leftover scraps. I've been trying to do that on a regular basis. I have some 6 x 6 pads that I love but with the leftover [atterned paper from my scrapbook layouts I really try to use them for cards. I was able to get 2 cards out of the leftovers.
Materials:
red ribbon
Victoria Cuttlebug folder
sanding block
French Scroll Martha Stewart border punch
Jolee gems
Sentiment from Megan Elizabeth

As always thank you so much for stopping by my blog and remember now it's your turn to go make something beautiful!