Chomping at the Bit...

to send some birthday wishes. I was in need of another birthday card, this time for a co-worker.

I tried to incorporate her favorite color, orange, into the mix. The image is by Whipper Snapper, the sentiment from CHF. I am still lovin' these October Afternoon papers from last summer.

Right now I could totally go for a chocolate cupcake. Work has been crazy and the week is only 2 days old. Sheesh! Maybe I will go bake up some cookies to take care of that craving.

See ya!

For the One I {{LOVE}}

Happy MLK jr Day! The boys and I have the day off and I hope to get lots of stamping in.

Let's get the blog candy business out of the way first, then I have a card. The winner (chosen by random.org) of the birthday goodies is.....

Tracy said...

Happy Birthday from one Tracy to another!! I hope you have a great birthday!! Some lucky person is gonna be lucky to win all these goodies. Have a great one.... Tracy

5:25 PM

Well, Tracy, the lucky one is YOU today!! How funny that we have the same name, lol. Congrats! Please email me your address and I will get the goodies out to you.

As I shared before, hubby is out of town for 2 weeks working on his doctorate. He only goes twice a year so it is important stuff. Poor guy is passing, or trying to pass, a 7mm kidney stone. He spent Friday night in the ER. It is sort of an hour by hour kinda deal. Prayers are certainly welcome!

I made this card for him last night...

I'll send him the link to the blog so it will be an e-card of sorts. Waving hi, honey, and sending smooches your way!!

The image is by Whipper Snapper, cute isn't it? The sentiment can easily be left off to use the mower for other masculine kinds of cards. There are black brads in the wheel centers for a bit of whimsy.

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow.

Birdie Challenge

Welcome Spring!! At least according to the calendar.

When I last blogged, I was in a funk. Well, after some Rice Krispie treats and several See's California Brickle chocolates I was on the mend, lol. Best of all, the weekend is here! Lots of stamping I hope.

The 20th is also the monthly Dirty Dozen challenge over at SCS. We had taken a few months off and last month I flaked out! Not this month...I was ready! Joanne challenged us to a Birds and Bees theme.

Required Element: use a bird or bee in our design
Restricted Element: no border punches

I neeeeeded this challenge and I enjoyed every minute creating my card.
I picked up some new Jillibean Soup paper at my LSS on Thursday, how perfect it turned out to be for the challenge! I used one of my favorite Whipper Snapper stamps, coloring him with Copic markers. It was more cutting than I like to do but I am glad I didn't go with my first instinct of cutting out only the bird. I cut the birdhouse out by hand to mimic the ones in the paper. I used a couple of pages from a book as a mat layer, I think I saw something similar in a Paper Crafts mag recently. Th finished size of this card is 8" by 4". The sentiment is from a Kim Hughes set called Scripty Words, I find I use that set a lot.

If you would like to check out the other gals creations, check out the gallery here.

The other thing that cheered me was the delivery of the Pizzelle Maker I ordered. Don't ask me why, I just felt compelled to buy one, lol. My son and I immediately set out to make a batch. Look at all this yummy goodness...

Totally fun!

JUGS Challenge

The fog of sickness is slowly lifting enough that I can do a bit of stamping. What better way to get into the swing of things than with a challenge. There is a new challenge blog out there called Just Us Girls (aka JUGS). My friend Lisa Kind is part of the crew and I thought I would play along this week. This is only their third week of challenges and I encourage you to play along if you have a chance.
This week is a color challenge (check it out here) and the colors are aqua, cream and red. Here is my card...

It felt good to ink up some Whipper Snapper stamps again. This snowman is one of my favorites. The pattern paper is Cosmo Cricket and it suited the challenge perfectly. I used the Martha Stewart Gooey border punch for icicles, sponged them and also added some glitter. The image was stamped onto watercolor paper and was colored with re-inkers and a waterbrush. There is some more glitter on the snow.
Snowmen make me smile...Anna Wight snowmen make me giddy with delight ;)
Have a wonderful evening!

Fishy Carrots!

I shared yesterday that I was going into our church's pre-school room to do a craft with the kids. These kids are 3 & 4 years old, mostly boys and full of energy!! My husband plays his guitar and sings with them every week. They scream with delight as soon as he enters the room. I joke with him that they think he is a rock star and that he missed his calling to be a Wiggles-like performer, lol. He is a tough act to follow!
Anyway, they don't have much patience for sitting still, but not many 3 & 4 years do. What ever craft I did had to be fairly easy and keep their attention for no more than 5-10 minutes. Since Easter is around the corner I thought we could use that as our theme.

You have probably seen these cone bags before. I have done projects similar to this in the past. I purchased 100 of these cello type cone bags at clearbags last year but in a pinch you can go to the local craft store and buy frosting bags. When orange jelly beans became difficult to find, I opted for the ever-so-kid-friendly Goldfish crackers. In this case, they were the mini variety. I actually think it was a better choice for many reasons. They held open their bags as I poured the crackers in. It was a good thing they just had cheese crackers for snack or we would have eaten as many as we packaged up, lol. Green ribbon at the top was our attempt to mimic the green leaves at the top of a carrot. They totally got that. I helped them punch out the scallop circles and stamp the carrots onto white card stock. They used crayons to color theirs in. I love their method of coloring...drag the crayon over the image with absolutely no attention paid to staying inside the line. It was like they were in a hurry and I was clearly keeping them from valuable play time. Maybe they have been conditioned by all those Color Wonder pads where the color only appears inside the lines no matter how messy they color with the marker. Our paper was clearly not of the Color Wonder variety! But they beamed with pride none the less. I did take along my Cuttlebug so they could emboss their scallop circles with the bubble folder. I let them crank the handle of Miss Tracy's Magic Machine. They were so fascinated. All in all, they did a fantastic job and I enjoyed it too. I still don't have rock star status like DH, but there was a slight chanting of my name going on at one point. At least I think there was, lol.

The carrot image and sentiment are from Anna's Whipper Snapper set, Spring has Sprung.

Hello Owl

Happy Wednesday! I came home to a little package on my porch yesterday. It was my January pre-order of Spellbinder dies, I had completely forgotten about them! Of course I had to use one on my Whipper Snapper Wednesday card.

I chose to work with Anna's cling set, Hello Neighbor. Nothing too crazy, just the tree and the owl. Isn't he cute though? I ran the chocolate chip layer through the Cuttlebug to add a bit of texture. The paper is Mr Campy by Cosmo Cricket, love the earthy, masculine look of that stuff!
If you are a registered user over at Whipper Snapper, you can take 10% off your order of $50 or more. Use code MARCH10. You will need to hurry though, it is only good through Friday.
I am running low on sleep and honestly don't have the brain power to write more, lol! Thanks for stopping by.

WS Wednesday

The week is flying by! We have not been slammed with the snow much of the NE is getting but we are getting the bitter cold temps.

For today's Whipper Snapper card, I thought I would use Anna's fab Polka Dot Mug stamp. I am not a coffee drinker but a hot cup of cocoa would hit the spot today. I was in the mood for kraft today, adding white Palette ink with a sponge tip applicator and water coloring the rest with kiwi kiss and elegant eggplant. The sentiment is from Anna's cling set, Sweet Expressions. The polka dot background is from CHF. I bought one of those new EK Success locking punches on my trip to Michael's the other day. I love this border design!!
Last night a couple of my stamping buddies were over and they wanted me to show them how to do this Lauren Meader tote. I made one in January and it caught their eye.

I chose a different color scheme on this one. TIP: when punching the circle at top for the handle, push the punch in as far as it will go. I didn't do that and it left a bit of a wimpy handle. I seem to remember making that same mistake last time too. Warning...slow learner ahead! So, I punched out a scallop circle to fit over top making it a bit more sturdy. The paper is more of that MME I used the other day. It pairs perfectly with tangerine tango. I used that EK punch again on the white border. That great matching twill came from Taylored Expressions. The stamp is from the SAB set, Polka Dot Punches and I stamped it onto the reverse side of the DP. The box really is a great size to work with and will fit a good amount of stuff.
I have avoided it long enough, I must go grocery shopping. Thanks for visiting!

Whipper Snapper a Day Late

I did have this card done to upload yesterday but decided I wasn't sure I liked it well enough to post. The rest of my stamping time was a bust so I am going to post the card anyway. It is what it is. The images are from Anna's set Blossoms and Butterflies. I threw in an SU sentiment (retired Fancy Flexible Phrases) and stamp from the Totally Tabs set. Paper is from Cosmo Crickets Honey Pie collection.

I thought I would show you my ribbon finds. This is after I shared several bags with some of my stamping friends. A good portion of it is actually for something else I am working on. Can't give away my secrets though. Just looking at it makes me happy! Satin, organdy, grosgrain oh my!!

We have our small group from church coming in half an hour so I will make it short.

Blessings!

Whipper Snapper Wednesday ++

I am a little late getting around today but here is my weekly Whipper Snapper card. I combined it with a sketch challenge over at High Hopes. Sometimes a little framework makes things easier. This was a fun sketch and gave me the opportunity to use the October Afternoon paper I bought on Monday. I love the colors in this paper! The basic grey panel is embossed with the Cuttlebug folder for texture and my image is watercolored. I tried to do it with Copics but I obviously don't have enough colors yet!! The ribbon I got from the stamp store on Monday, it is from a new company called Jillibean-Soup. Really nice ribbon, paper and embellishments.
I have another challenge I want to do, so I am headed back to the craft room.
Have a great day and thanks for visiting!

Whipper Snapper Wednesday

I like my themed Wednesdays so I am back today with another installment.
My best friend from high school turns 41 later this month. I would tease her but since I am 42 days older than her, it always backfires on me, lol! As long as I have known her the two of us have had an unhealthy love of sweets. In high school we both decided to go on a diet (one of many) and hold each other accountable to staying away from junk food. One day, I just couldn't help myself, I HAD to have an ice cream bar from the cafeteria. No sooner had I stepped out of the line and unwrapped my ice cream, there she was running across the room, grabbing my ice cream and slam dunking it into the trash can. Ohhhh, was I ticked! She almost lost her life that day, lol! She reminded me of our pact and I stormed off, not to talk to her the rest of the day! Oh the joys of friendship! To this day we are still friends and keep in touch regularly. "You'll always be my best friend, you know too much!" definitely is true for us.

She will appreciate my humor in making this card for her. I used up some of my Basic Grey Euphoria paper pack and took my color cues from there. Coloring was done with Copics and the sprinkles have a hint of Spica pen added to them for sparkle. The sentiment is from SU's On Your Birthday set and it seemed a good fit for a Marvy balloon punch I have. The numbers are part of the Karen Foster snap stamps that were all the rage a few years ago. Have you noticed more stitching on my cards lately? I finally kicked my sewing machine to the curb and got the Janome Mini Sew. I love it!! It is small enough to sit by my work space and it is super easy to use. I highly recommend it!
I wish you a fabulous day!

Pendants

I haven't had a chance to stamp yet this week so I am going to share a project I did several weeks ago. It is an idea I got one day while I was browsing around the Etsy site. Have you ever been on there?? Oh my, the hand crafted goodness to be found!! The sheer variety is overwhelming.


Anyway...I wanted to try my hand at making pendants from wooden discs. I enjoy a good experiment every now and then. These are 1 1/2" in diameter, so a pretty good size. Three of them are just covered in designer paper that I thought was cool and colorful, the other one is stamped with an Anna Wight flower and colored with Copic markers. I stamped it onto shimmer white card stock and I was delighted to see so much of the sparkle from the paper show through in the finished result. They are all covered with a layer of Envirotex Lite for a hard, shiny finish. I added some necklace bails to the backs and now I just need to find the right necklace for them. I am excited to wear them as I know they will make a statement!

Did you notice the little rhinestones on the one in the upper right? That was one of my "experiments" that turned out okay. I did have two ideas that didn't work out so well. I thought I would see how a rub-on would do and it the result was it peeled up under the finish...very unattractive! I also tried a different shape and due to operator error (that would be me!) I put on too much of the finish and it oozed over the edges...again, very unattractive. I don't have anything against the shape, I just need to be more careful when applying the finish.

Something out of the ordinary. I initially only did one stamped pendant because I was not sure if the image would bleed or not. I didn't want a pile of ruined attempts, but now that I know the Copics are good under the finish, I will most likely make more with stamped images.
If you are not familiar with Envirotex Lite, it can be found in the craft store (bring a coupon, it's not cheap!) and is two liquids that you have to mix together to activate. It is the kinda thing you do in batches, hence my 6 pendants. You most likely wouldn't mix some up for just one item. A little goes a long way. It has many uses and the durable, glossy finish is incredible!

I have filled one of the Stampin' Up! Designer paper shares. If there is enough interest, I will do another so email me in the next day or two if you want to be included. See this post for details.

Blessings on your day!

Whipper Snapper Wednesday

Time for another installment of WS! And to be more specific, WS chickens!! I am not sure why they appeal to me so much, but I find them darling.
My older son loves to fish as do my brother and FIL, so a fishing chicken seemed a natural choice. I paired it with some Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy paper for a more masculine card. I used Copics to color him in and added a fish brad that I had in my stash. I left off a sentiment cause 1) there isn't much room, 2) I don't know what the perfect sentiment is for this card and 3) I can add it later when I know the occassion. I am open to sentiment ideas!
Here is another one I did. I am honestly not totally thrilled with this one, but they can't all be homeruns!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Whipper Snapper Wednesday & A Prize Alert

I liked it so well last week, I decided to do it again this week...use Whipper Snapper stamps that is. This adorable chicken was one of the new stamps I ordered. I stamped him on watercolor paper and colored him with SU inks. The balloon is stamped a second time and popped up on a dimensional and has some added glitter just for fun. I paired it with some October Afternoon paper and Aqua Mist card stock from PTI.

This one is getting mailed out to Dallas Baptist University for the challenge that Jen del Muro issued last week. The cards are going to international students, a great idea as I am sure being away from home can be challenging. Jen is giving away a boat load of prizes so if you haven't seen it yet, look here for all the details and plan to play along. I mean really, who wouldn't love $450 in stamping stuff?? So, send a card for a good cause and get a chance at a great prize!

Last night my birthday celebrations continued. At our class my friend Lynn brought a GORGEOUS cake for us to indulge in!! It was a tasty 3 layer, white cake with raspberry filling. The flowers on top were amazing and they even sprinkled the whole cake with edible glitter. Mmmmm! I guess after today the celebrations will need to come to an end, but it has been fun!

Have a great day!

Whipper Snapper Wednesday

Just a quick post today. During my stamping frenzy last week I worked on some boxes. I often make my own but I had a few templates I have been waiting to try. This one is a modification of the 2,5,7,10 box and complete instructions can be found on SCS here. I love the addition of a flap and to keep it closed I used some Basic Grey magnetic snaps. Those are some strong magnets! The box is a nice size to hold some sweets at Valentines day. To make it a bit more versatile, I used this truffle stamp by Whipper Snapper (one of Anna's designs). I did some quick water coloring on it and added a drop of Crystal Effects over the cherry. At this moment, I am drawing a blank on who made the paper, but they are both by the same company. I rounded the corners of the flap and added a button. IRL the colors look more matchy than my camera is showing!
This is a fun box to try if you haven't already!
Are you a Biggest Loser watcher? It was quite the season opener! I keep watching hoping it will motivate me, lol. Maybe next week.

In the Meadow We Can Build...

a snowman!! If you are going to stamp with a snowman, no one makes cuter ones that Anna Wight and Whipper Snapper!! Isn't this Pudgy Snowman one of the cutest snowmen you have ever seen??
We actually had snow flurries this week, ack!! Nothing stayed on the ground but it was a cold reminder that winter is coming and fast. It is also a cold reminder to me that I have yet to get my Christmas cards done or start any shopping or planning. For some of you this may be normal, but it sends an A-type like myself into serious twitching.
This card will be one of the designs I will most likely use, it was simple enough to mass produce with the addition of the great PP by My Minds Eye. For those of you stamping with me on 11/3, this will be one you will be making!
I hope you are having a restful Sunday. I am actually "resting" much of today in my stamp room so check back this week.

I {{heart}} Snowmen

I know I have told you before, I have a thing for snowmen. When I saw the new stamp set, Snowman for Peace, by Anna Wight, it instantly went into my cart! I love the sign with the different sentiments to go inside.
I recently bought this paper from My Minds Eye and it was staring me in the face, begging to be used. Well, okay, twist my arm. The snow on the baja breeze card base is from the other Anna set I bought, Penguin Antics. I used inks to watercolor my image. The scarf and sign were stamped separately and then added over top.
This snowman makes me happy!!
Check in tomorrow, I have a penguin card all ready to share!

Happy Birthday Anna!!

Today is Anna Wights, aka SweetMissDaisy, birthday. In celebration, I made a card using one of Anna's stamps. The stamp I used is called "Blossoms" and for this card I stamped it 3 times at varying heights. It is a great image for quick watercoloring. When it was dry, I added a bit of glitter.
If you have a minute, go on over to Anna's blog and wish her a great day!
Blessings to you, Anna!!!

Let's Polka!

Had some fun last night with Anna's Polkadot Mug from Whipper Snapper. Now that the weather is getting cooler, mugs of hot chocolate are back at our house. This image is good for those get well cards that seem to be in greater need these days. These larger images are really fun to color. The first one I made has a richer, more country look to it. I used Copics to color it in. On the inside I used a strip of paper as an accent and included the sentiment, "Death before decaf". I know someone who will really appreciate this!
The second one is a more fresh design. A little bit of designer paper is all it takes to change the mood of a card. I can't say which one I like better because they are so different. This second one has hints of glitter. I added glitter to the steam as well as to the centers of the flowers in the paper. The green twill ribbon came from Taylors store. This one was also colored with Copics.
I think I will go boil up some water for a cuppa....

Quick...a Challenge Card

I didn't think I would have time to play along in this month's Dirty Dozen Challenge but I woke up with a bit of time and managed to squeak one out.
Our challenge focus was birthday.
Required element was numbers
Restricted element was the word "birthday"
Stamps by Whipper Snapper (Anna Wight) and Inkadinkado

See the other cards here.

Don't have time for more details, gotta run!!

Baby Card

Still on vacation but here is another scheduled post for you.
One of the new Cuttlebug folders creates a look of textiles and I saw baby blanket when I got it. My mind can be weird that way, lol. This whole card started with the rosey embossed piece, not the usual place to start, but I went with it. It is some DCWV white core cardstock so after I embossed it, I sanded it a bit to show the white. Amazing what a little bit of distressing can do!
I used up some of the Cosmo Cricket paper I have been hoarding and a baby card seemed to be emerging. See, my mind goes places, all on it's own... I finished it off with a sheep from Anna's Bo Peep's Sheep set. The sentiment is from PaperTrey. Cute eh?
Stampin' Ups new catalog is coming soon and I am not home to get it. Painful thought.
Hope you are having a great week.