MIA, but BACK!!!!!

I know I was MIA for a LONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG time....  I have been so busy with life, kids, the job, buying a house and a traveling husband that I could barely find time to sleep...  But life has calmed down considerably and I am enjoying the fruits of my new (2 years now) craft room...  I have been playing along with some of the challenges over on Splitcoast as well as getting some cards prepared for Mother's Day...  This is what I have been doing lately....  Grab a cup of coffee and browse through....  By the way, it's great to be back!!!!

 Brand new Rose Wonder Die/Stamp set.  This die is absolutely amazing and the cards I have seen made with them are just superb...  I can't wait to try a few more...

 

 I just picked this stamp up from Pleasanton, California a few weeks ago.  The stamp set came with the matching die to fussy cut.  I don't think you can tell from the photo but a few of the petals are actually cut out and popped up.  This is a really cool stamp/die combo...    And the details on the stamp are just awesome!!!!

This was a fun card to put together...  I love the look of inlaid dies cuts but this time I just cut out the hearts and placed DSP below the main panel.  I added a few smaller heart cut outs and tied the twine to the bottoms...  I am not big on hand drawn stitching but it looks super cute on this card...

 This is a card that I CASED for the Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoast a few weeks ago...  I absolutely love this new heart embossing folder.  The embossing is super crisp and deep...  I also miss the simply pressed clay from Stampin' Up!.  I am so glad that I got my few bags before it retired.  Little did I know that Michaels sells Martha Stewart clay as well...    I also made my "glitter twine" using Sparkle N Sprinkle Tear ific tape...  So much fun and so cute....

This new butterfly set from Stampin' Up! is nothing short of stunning...   As soon as I saw this set I placed my order immediately...  Would have been so much cheaper if I had only ordered this butterfly...  *cough cough*  I plan to use this set A LOT!!!!  The color combinations are truly endless...

 Thank you Beth for letting me borrow this beauty...  Lotus Blossoms was a Sale-A-Bration set last year and I missed out getting it...  So when I found out she had it, I knew I had to borrow it....  Luckily I found  set and should have it soon...  I am not sure why I chose the blues here but they pop and look amazing...  The small little pop of sequins just gives it that over the top wow...  Another set I plan to wear out using....

I saw this card on Pinterest a couple days ago and was wow'd.  I decided to play around today and see if I could make it...  The flowers are just amazing and they pop off the card.  This effect is created using clear embossing powder only.  Yup, that's it... Clear...  Stunning isn't it?

This is another variation of the previous card.  I changed the colors and made my main panel a lighter color.  I used white embossing powder instead of clear and I chose to sponge the centers for another "pop" factor.  I am really liking the way this one turned out...  

 Very simple Mother's Day card.  I used a couple different embossing folders, a gorgeous matching DSP, and one of my favorite blooms.  I love the simple, clean look of 1 color cards...  May have to rethink which card  I am sending my mom this year...  It's gonna be a hard decision...

Another simple card using the Lotus Blossom...  I feel like this card is missing something but not sure what..  I added some Mon Ami Gaby bling for some bling and used a gorgeous embossing folder behind my main image...

Simple, Elegant, Neutral....  I love this card!!!

 I happen to fall upon this new die set from Sizzix today.  I am sure it's not new, but new to me and I am in LOVE...  There are 4 "mixed media" dies in this set, one of which is going to be great for my Father's Day card, and the other 2 are just going to be so much fun to play with...  I can't wait...

 Same die cut as in the previous card, but also uses the Sizzix Ornate Labels die cuts here... Also new to me...  When you take so much time off from stamping your next move it to buy all the stuff that came out while you were "retired" and it ends up costing you big time...  *gulp*

 Any time a stamp has a matching punch or die, I am going to make that a go-to set.  I have always been one to "fussy" cut, but I have to tell you that matching dies have made my life so much easier.  Where were these 10 years ago?  I know, in time all good things come... I can't wait to see what we are crafting with in 10 more years...

This is all for today...  I am so glad I was able to catch up and get my cards uploaded...  Thank you so much for taking the time to sit back, relax, enjoy a cup of coffee and browse my blog...  If I have made 1 person smile today, then I have done my job here!!!

Apple Of My Eye

So a day late I know, but I got too busy yesterday to finish my card...  Luckily this morning went very smooth for me and I was able to get 2 projects done today...  Here is my take on the Free 4 All challenge this week: Apple Of My Eye

I really love this stamp set and I have had it forever but think I may have only used it once... But I really like how this card turned out and I really like the colors.. It's hard to see but my "apple meat" is multiple shades of the yellows and IRL they look delicious...  Thank you for stopping by.  Please let me know what you think.

Inky Hugs!!!

Perfect Summer Tango

This is my color challenge card today... Our colors were Tangerine Tango, Summer Starfruit and Perfect Plum. These colors scared me at first but then I thought about a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and how all of these colors just fit.

I chose to pull out an old stamp set, Spring Garden and stamped my flowers. I then chose to add Heat N Stick and Dazzling Diamonds to sparkle up my flowers and then I added various sized pearls the the centers of the flowers.. I really like how the pearls make these flowers look. I added a sentiment and a ribbon and kept this one pretty simple.. I hope you like what I did today... I love hearing your comments... Happy Stamping!!!

Basic Chocolate Gumballs?

I know crazy title right? That is what I thought when I saw today's color challenge over at splitcoast...

Basic Gray Chocolate Chip Gumball Green At first I thought there was no way I can work with this color combo... As I was thumbing through my DSP, I found this gorgeous gray one and then some coordinating ones with the brown and green... I didn't like the look of any of the other ones, so I made my own paper. I stamped the tres chic onto both my gray and vanilla background papers. I then cut a rectangle with my spellbinders and stamped the main image. The flowers were double stamped off for the lightest color, then stamped off 1 time and then the centers were full color... I added the butterflies and then some bling to the centers... I tied a gumball green ribbon across the bottom of my main panel just for some "green pop" I hope you like my card today. I think it turned out better than I had imagined it would.. And the imagination was rough.. :) Happy Stamping!!!

Featured Butterflies

This is my card for the FS challenge. I have had laptop issues so wasn't able to upload before now.. I chose to case this lovely card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...;ppuser=120847 I changed the image, the sentiment and the green. I used Lucky Limeade. I didn't want to change much on this card because I just thought it was perfect the way it was...

For A Dear Friend

This is my card for today's sketch challenge... Such a wonderful sketch which allows for a larger die cut center... This card is very difficult to photograph because I used a bit of clear embossing powder but I have included a few extra photos on here

so that you can really see the embossing details on this card. I embossed all three flower images inside my circle, the word friend in the ovals and all 3 butterflies...

This was a pretty simple card to put together but it was pretty time consuming due to all of the embossing that I did... I also used my stampin write markers to make the 4 images on my candle. I stamped on tissue paper and adhered to candle.

I added some glitter detail to the tiny flowers on the candle and attached them with cute pink brads. (I toyed with glittering the brads too but I left them alone... THIS TIME!!!!) The finish touch to the candle is my double ribbon in pink and yellow that I also slightly melted to give it the curled look... (Be careful not to burn or melt your ribbon as organdy is very delicate and doesn't take long to heat) I hope you enjoyed what I have done here... Happy Stamping!!!