Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #7

Here is the card I made for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #7. Since I first started ordering from Papertrey Ink, their Ripe Avocado was the first color that I found myself having to reorder. I love that shade of green. On the other hand, while I don't dislike their Spring Moss, I just don't use it very often. Today's card uses both of my new stamp sets. It's so fun to play with new toys! There are so many gorgeous cards out there using the Friends 'Til The End set. This card here was my inspiration for this card. I changed the background, left off the brads, didn't add the leaf, and instead of coloring my flower, just stamped it onto paper and cut it out. Oh, and I added a button for the center of the flower. I'm trying to add buttons now, but I don't know. I got some scrappers floss that had been recommended to me. The way it is on this button, to me it just looks like I twisted an old rubber band through the holes. I still need to work on that I guess! That's all for today! Enjoy your Friday!!!

Stamps: PTI Background Basics: Text Style, PTI Friends 'Til The End
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Ripe Avocado
Cardstock: PTI Ripe Avocado, PTI Spring Moss, SU Rose Red
Accessories: PTI Hibiscus Burst Button

104 Days Of Summer Vacation

Phineas and Ferb have it made!!! I wish we had 104 days of summer. Well, even though we don't get 104 days, today is the last day of school, and I'm not complaining. Summer, here we come! Here is the gift for my son's teacher for the end of the year. I added the ribbon just to see if I liked it and my son saw it, told me it was cool and to leave the ribbon on. Since technically this is his present to give to his teacher, I wanted him to like it. So ribbon it is! When I asked Luke what his teacher's favorite color was, I have to admit I was kind of excited when he told me pink....you know I love to have an excuse to work with pink, but it's even better if the recepient actually likes pink!

Stamps: PTI Friends 'Til The End
Ink: PTI Raspberry Fizz
Cardstock: PTI White, SU Rose Red
Accessories: PTI Raspberry Fizz Ribbon
Timeless Template: From The Desk Of

Rose Red / Smokey Shadow

A few weeks ago on Split Coast Stampers, the Clean and Simple Challenge was a sketch. You can see the gallery of cards people made using the sketch here. I didn't make a card for the challenge that week, but I haven't been able to get those circles out of my head!!! I've been wanting to do a combination of rose red and grey for a while, too. Yesterday it hit me how to combine the circles and the colors. It took me a while to get it executed the way I wanted, but I'm happy with how this turned out. A little different style than something I might typically make but I had fun. The digiment is the "Challenge Digiment" for this week. You can download this digiment for free, make a card or project using it, and by linking it back to the Digiments Blog, you'll have a chance to win ALL of the June Digiments. I have been working with the new releases coming out in June, and I can't wait for you all to see them! Michelle has really created some great Digiments to work with. And next month there will be 30 released!!! You can buy individuals for $1.00, or get the whole release for $20.00. Talk about affordability!!! I love that these are fun, practical, and still affordable! Be sure to play along if you can.

Digiment: Irish Blessings Challenge Digiment
Cardstock: PTI Smokey Shadow, SU Rose Red
DP: Random from LSS, SU Rose Red Designer Series Paper
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Labels One Nestabilities, Offray Ribbon

It's a Makeover!

No, Stacy and Clinton aren't coming to my house. It's a card makeover! The Clean And Simple Challenge at Split Coast Stampers this week is to take a card you previously made and make it over. You can take a card that wasn't CAS and change it to CAS, or improve upon a CAS card you already made. Well, here is the card I changed. I thought it was especially funny to change it to "Clean and Simple" since the background paper was called "Dirty Laundry!" I find myself leaning more and more towards clean and simple cards as the style I really like making. I'm happy with how this turned out, and hope it inspires you to try a clean and simple card today!

Stamps: Verve Petals and Stems, TAC Sentiment
Ink: Colorbox Sunflower, PTI Hibiscus Burst, PTI Plum Pudding, PTI Ripe Avocado
CS: PTI Plum Pudding

Cards For Heroes Blog Hop!

This is my first time to participate in a blog hop, and I am SO excited! The first time I ever heard about Cards for Heroes was right before Christmas. My friend Susan was getting extra Christmas cards ready to send in, and I read some about it, thought it was a great idea, but didn't really follow through. Then a few months ago, she was getting more cards ready, and I decided it was time for me to make some cards to send in! I've been building my stash up, and everytime I get ready to send it, I think, "Just a few more." After finishing this card, I decided I need to send my cards in, so the people that I want to benefit from this will be able to. I am proud to be an American, and feel a debt of gratitude to all the military: past, present and future who protect our great country and help to make it as wonderful as it is. It is such a brave and noble calling that they have!

To go back to the beginning to view all of the blogs and get inspired, start at
Cards For Heroes Blog Hop Central.
To keep hopping along, visit Laurie at
Crazy About Scrappin.'

Stamps: SU The Free & The Brave
Digiment: Thank You For Everything
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Cardstock: DCWV, PTI Vintage Cream
DP: DCWV
Accessories: Provo Craft Brads, Offray Ribbon

Ultimate Peanut Butter Bars Recipe

I am so glad it's Friday!!!! I woke up this morning craving peanut butter bars. Unfortunately my stash of chocolate chips has finally been depleted. That meant running to the store and all that goes along with that! We used to make these every Friday, and I practically had the recipe memorized. It's been a while since we made them, and today I knew I'd need the recipe. It took me a minute to hunt down my recipe card. It wasn't where it was supposed to be! Well, after a little searching I found it, and I'm posting it here for safe-keeping as well. I'm off to eat a little chocolate!!!

Sketch Challenge

This card is made using the this week's sketch challenge posted on Split Coast Stampers. As far as I know I don't need any graduation cards this year. Planning in case of a surprise, I decided to make a card I can use for a graduate if I need to, or hold onto for another occasion also. I added some score lines to the big white panel, but couldn't seem to get them to show up very well in any of the pictures. Enjoy your day!

Stamps: River City Rubber Works Sentiment, TAC Ship Collage, Cloud 9 Design
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Cardstock: PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Summer Sunrise
DP: Basic Grey

Great Friends!

Now, for all of you ladies (and perhaps gentlemen) who haven't given Digiments a try yet, let me tell you what's going on. Every Monday, Michelle will release a free digiment for you to use. Make a card with it, post in on your blog or to Split Coast Stampers, and link it back to the Digiments blog. By playing along, you'll be entered to win all of the new releases the following month! You can't go wrong. If you're at all intimidated by the "digital" aspect, this is a great way to try the digiments out and see how easy they are to use. And for those of you who are already hooked on the idea, to purchase any of the Digiments is only $1.00 apiece, or $20.00 for all 25 released this month. I'd say that's a really good value!
Now, this card has a story to go with it, that's really long. If you want to read on, here is the story: The other day I was lucky enough to meet up with a great friend for dinner. She's moved away, but was back in town for a convention so we were able to meet up for dinner and to chat for a few hours. It was so nice, but when I left I was really sad. She's the kind of friend that I will always miss living by, no matter how many years pass. Talking to her was like old times and I felt like she'd never left. So it was one of those bittersweet moments. The other day I was setting at my desk, unable to create, and I'll admit I was pouting. My husband asked, "Are you still pouting about your friends moving away?" He nailed it. Well, that same day Michelle emailed me this new digiment to try out. I almost cried. She just came up with the best possible sentiment I could have used to help try and break me out of this funk I'm in. I decided to use a color challenge and a sketch challenge, because I am needing that nudge to get my creativity back.

Digiment: Great Friends
Stamps: SU Pretty Petals
Ink: VersaMark
Cardstock: PTI Aqua Mist, PTI Berry Sorbet, PTI White
Accessories: Junkitz Flowerz, Ranger Clear Embossing Powder, Offray Ribbon, PTI Aqua Mist Button

Another Life Card

I don't know why, but the last few days I just haven't felt very creative. So I stayed away, finished a Fablehaven book (#3), and decided today I better make something or I might go crazy!!! I decided to just stay with a clean and simple style and used one of my favorite sayings from the Life set from PTI. "Life is so much better with you in it." While this card is feminine, I love that that saying can be used for just about anybody that makes your life better, male or female. It's a great saying, and I'm going to challenge myself to make a masculine card with it later this week.

Stamps: PTI Life
Ink: PTI Hibiscus Burst, PTI Plum Pudding, PTI Ripe Avocado
Cardstock: PTI White, SU Kraft
Accessories: Offray Ribbon

Is it Friday yet?

Have you ever just had one of those weeks?!? Well, I am having one, I guess. I wasn't going to make anything today because I didn't feel any creative ideas coming to me and I didn't want to clean off my desk. So I was just going to look at other people's card and try to get some ideas for after my fairy godmother comes and cleans my desk. Well, I found this pretty card, and loved how she left some of the flowers and leaves hanging over the edges of the frame. So, I cleared off just enough space to stamp these flowers...good thing they're little. I followed the layout from this Ten Minute Monday card from the Clean and Simple Stamping blog. Thank goodness for all the inspiration out there, when I'm totally drawing a blank. Now if I could just pay attention better to lining up my punch!!!

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Words of Sympathy, SU Botanical Blooms
Ink: Colorbox Frost White, PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Hibiscus Burst, PTI Ripe Avocado
Cardstock: PTI Hibiscus Burst, PTI Ripe Avocado, PTI White
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Stylized Flowers Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart Doily Lace Punch

Digiments Day!

It's finally here! Digiments is up and running! I have had so much fun working with these digiments, and it was inspiring this morning to see what the other designers created. Here is a link to take a peek or place an order. I just loved this digiment, and was really excited to use it. However, I gravitate towards using girly flowers and pink, so I knew I needed to stay away from that! I found this paper and loved the colors in it, and then found an awesome sketch at Taylored Expressions that was perfect for the look I wanted. Thanks to all the people who gave me input on threading my buttons, I found scrapper's floss the other day. That's no guarantee I'll be threading all my buttons, though! But when I do, this stuff is pretty easy to use.

Digiment: Just For Dad series
Cardstock: PTI Ripe Avocado, SU Kraft, Blue from Stash
DP: Chatter Box
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Argyle Embosssing Folder, Offray Ribbon, Random Buttons

Digiments Release Day Almost Here

Tomorrow morning bright and early Michelle is opening up the Digiments store, where all of her awesome Digiments will be ready for you to buy! The card I made uses one of the 25 new digiments that will be available for purchase. But to enter to win it for free, you can still go get the free digiment and make a project with it, be it a card, scrapbook page, or some altered project. Today's the last day, though, so hurry if you want to play! And to see what some of the other design team members have created, head over to the Digiments page. It's been so fun to see what these talented ladies have made, and I hope you'll enjoy their projects as much as I have!

Digiment: The Greatest Gift
Stamps: SU Summer By The Sea, TAC Ship Collage
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Copics,
Cardstock: PTI Aqua Mist, PTI Ocean Tides, PTI Vintage Cream, PTI White, SU Kraft
Accessories: Cuttlebug, D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder, PTI Aqua Mist Buttons, Martha Stewart Ribbon

No Camera!

I am a creature of habit and routine, and when I stray from that routine, something usually goes south. When my family goes somewhere that I know I'll be taking pictures, I usually tuck my camera in my backpack and add a few water bottles and sunscreen for good measure. Well, yesterday my dear husband took me to Sizzler for dinner, and the plan was to take the kids to the park after dinner. Well, for whatever reason, I loaded the sunscreen and water bottles in the backpack but not the camera. That just got put into the car; I guess I was thinking I might take pictures at dinner. So just now as I went to take a picture of some cards, I realized the camera is in the car, not on my desk!!! And that is why I don't stray from my routines very often.
On a positive note, it's not too late for you to enter the contest to win the May Digiments!!! The new releases will be coming out on Wednesday, so hurry over today to make a card with the free Digiment available to anyone. I can't wait for all of you to see the new Digiments coming out, and I've had a blast working with them. If you want to be entered to win ALL of them for FREE, you need to create a card, and show us what you've made!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! I am off to spend my day with the little kids I love most in the world, and to hear my husband tell them, "You do whatever mom says, it's her day!" I hope you all enjoy your day.

Button, button, who has the button?

My friend Laurie was asking me about Papertrey's buttons and how they look with some Stampin' Up colors. The first picture is Stampin Up cardstock Regal Rose and Rose Red, with PTI Hibiscus Burst buttons on top and Sweet Blush buttons on the bottom. Rose Red is one of my all-time favorite colors and I don't think pictures ever do it justice. It is just a tricky color for me to get a good picture of. Hopefully you can get the idea of how the buttons look with it anyway. Then the second pictures is PTI cardstock in Sweet Blush and Hibiscus burst with the same buttons. The last picture is PTI cardstock in the colors Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides. The buttons are Aqua Mist. I don't have any Stampin Up colors to compare to these 2 shades of cardstock. Nichole Heady has Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides compared to SU colors. I defintely love the wide variety of shapes, sizes, and shades that I've gotten with each batch of buttons I've ordered.

Finally Friday!

Here is a card I made for a friend. I love the hibiscus burst buttons. The other day I finally decided to thread my buttons from time to time. So when we were at Wal-mart for milk and bread, I went over to get some embroidery thread. I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked the worker, and she said that they weren't keeping that in stock anymore, and wouldn't be ordering any in the future. huh? So I left freeling rather frazzled, as that had ruined my plans. For today, I took back some of the thread my daughter has claimed and added to her craft stash. I'm just curious now if anyone else who shops at Wal-mart has had this problem where they are. Anyway, it's Friday, and I'm off to clean house so I can do nothing all weekend (I wish) but eat chocolate and celebrate Mother's Day!

Stamp: Paper Makeup Stamps
Ink: Hibiscus Burst
Cardstock: PTI Hibiscus Burst, PTI Vintage Cream
DP: Kelly Panacci Stitched Floral
Accessories: PTI Hibiscus Burst Buttons

Sending Sunshine

My friend who got me started in this stamping world (and then moved away leaving me with no one to stamp with), called this morning. She's away from all of her stamping stuff, and has been for too long, while her husband is doing military training. It's pouring buckets where she's at, and the kids are cooped up inside, and she can't even spend the day stamping. So she asked what I'd be making today and I told her I'd make a card for her. Well, this is my second one. The first one turned out awful! I was trying to do it for a color challenge, and it looked really blah, and then I smudged ink all over at the very end. I emailed it to her, for a good laugh, but there was no way I was posting it here! I "cased" this fun card from Split Coast Stampers. My friend loves Little Pieces, and the first time I saw that card, I knew I'd have to do something similar with it. It's almost Friday....woo-hoo!

Stamps: SU Little Pieces, Unknown
Ink: PTI Berry Sorbet, PTI Hibiscus Burst, PTI Ocean Tides, PTI Plum Pudding, PTI Ripe Avocado, SU Rose Red
Cardstock: PTI Berry Sorbet, PTI White
Accessories: 1/2 inch circle punch

Are you ready for a contest?

That's right a contest! Michelle is preparing for the Digiments store to open May 13th. To celebrate she's having a contest. Each and every one of you can play along. You can go the Digiments blog and have access to the free digiment I used on my card. Then make your own card and enter to win the entire set of new release digiments. If the size I used above doesn't seem to suit a project you'd want to make, don't worry! You can print off your digiment larger or smaller; that is one of the features that make digiments perfect for any project!

Digiment: May Release
Cardstock: PTI Vintage Cream, SU Kraft
DP: K & Company
Accessories: Making Memories ribbon

Sympathy Cards

Here are a few more sympathy cards I made. My mom is very thoughtful of her friends and family, and always sends out sympathy cards when they are needed. So I'm trying to get a stash built up for her before she needs them. I tried a few different colors just so I didn't get bored with making the same card over and over. I don't know if anyone else is like that, but sometimes making multiple cards for me feels kind of boring. So that's why I tried the red color combo this time, but I'm hoping it doesn't look too Christmassy with the red and green. Baseball practice starts today, so of course the clouds are rolling in! I'm hoping the rain will stay away, or I know of one sad little boy who will mope around our house the whole night.

Stamps: SU Artfull Asian, River City Rubber Works
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Pure Poppy, Copics: RV13, RV29, V12, YG95
Cardstock: PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Ripe Avocado, PTI Vintage Cream, SU Kraft
Accessories: Glitter Glue

Monday, Monday

Time flies and it's Monday again! Here is a card I made using Jen's Sketches For You To Try. I also combined the sketch with the Saturday inspiration challenge on Split Coast Stampers, which was to get your inspiration from Faviana prom dresses. The link to the dress I used for inspiration can be found here. I loved the colors in the dress, and put my card together from there. I'm quite happy with how this one turned out. My husband even said, "Wow, looks nice!" when I showed it to him. Usually it's just, "looks nice." So that extra "wow" made me happy.

Stamps: SU Summer By The Sea, SU Pretty Petals
Ink: Colorbox Cocoa, PTI Dark Chocolate, VersaMark, Copics
Cardstock: PTI Berry Sorbet, PTI Ripe Avocado, PTI Summer Sunrise
Accessories: Offray Ribbon, Ranger Clear Embossing Powder

Logo Challenge

This is the card I made for a challenge issued by Molly from the Paper Dolls Blogger Group. The challenge was to find a logo and use that as inspiration for a card. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to do. I wanted to do Bengals something just because football logos are cool, and the Bengals are my team! But it's very tricky finding a good Bengals orange. So I just kept pondering it. My little girl was talking with me about her stuffed animals and informed me that "Pink Tails" was sick and needed to go to the doctor. She has a name for each stuffed animal, it's very cute. Then she asked me when we're going to go to that place where she can make her own stuffed animal. And it hit me: Build-A-Bear. I found this darling logo and it's what I used for my inspiration. Since I'm still needing baby cards I decided to go with a baby theme. The yellow looks pretty good on the card, but right next to the logo it looks a little washed out. That yellow on the logo is pretty vibrant! And Susan, you'll be happy to know after you sent me that cardstock, I decided having red was indeed a necessity, so I got some red ink and I'll be getting cardstock soon!

Stamps: Inkadinkado Baby Boy, Rubber Stampede Bear, Unity Distressed Dots
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Pure Poppy, Copics
Cardstock: PTI Lemon Tart, PTI Vitage Cream, SU Real Red (thanks Susan!), SU Kraft
Accessories: Offray Ribbon, Random Buttons

Oh, Happy Day!

Well, I got a very pleasant surprise yesterday. Michelle from Digiments sent an email letting me know she'd selected me to be a part of her first design team. I just have to say that I couldn't stop smiling all day! Her new digital sentiment stamp store will be opening towards the middle of this month. That's when you'll get to see some fun projects created by the design team. While you wait for the store to officially open, be sure to check out the other design team members and the great work that they share! Their links are on my left hand side bar. Thanks to Michelle for considering me for this position; I'm excited to have this opportunity!

Spring Fling Challenge

The Papertrey girls are celebrating spring, and a challenge has been issued! Some of their designers were to seek inspiration from a photograph and make a card or other project with it. The challenge then for us, is to use an element from one of the designer's inspiration pieces and make our own project. I used Lisa Johnson's inspiration photo as my starting point. It was such a beautiful field of flowers, and I thought, "Even the picture would have made a beautiful card!" Then I remembered that recently my friend Susan used photos as the focal point of some beautiful cards. Well, yesterday when I was walking to the bus stop to pick up my son from school, this beauitful tree was blooming, it was sunny, and gorgeous...you know I love pink!!! I took a few pictures, and that's what I decided to use as the focal point of my card. So, I'd say the elements that I used were the beauty found in nature, and the gorgeous hibiscus color that Papertrey has now! Head on over and check out the beautiful inspiration pieces and what the designers came up with, too.

Stamps: PTI Life
Ink: PTI Hibiscus Burst
Cardstock: PTI White, SU Rose Red
Accessories: PTI Hibiscus Burst Buttons (for the photo; I'd planned on using some on the card, but I liked the layout better without them)