May All Your Wishes Come True

Happy Sunday! I'm sorry my post is going up late, but I was EXHAUSTED when I got home from the CHA Super Show last night. My feet were barking! I don't think I've slept that well in a long time. I hate to admit it, but exercise is good for you. (*grin*)

Today's challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ is Peggysue Turner, who has a crazy sense of humor that I LOVE. Peggysue has become a good friend to me, and for that, I feel blessed. She chose as the inspiration scripture 1 Peter 1:23 (NIV) "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." Her challenge: "since most seeds come up as tiny green shoots, use the color green somewhere in your creation, not all over green, just a touch somewhere." I definitely violated the "touch of green," but so did she, so I don't feel so bad! {LOL} All you had to say to me was "green," and I was off and running since green is my favorite color.

I have to say that my card was a double dip for me... I've been wanting to use this adorable stamp set called Fairy Dust is a Must, which I won ages ago in a blog hop for the Our Craft Lounge release. I knew I'd be seeing one of the owners, Cami Turnbow, at CHA and wanted to bring her a card made with that set to thank her. I haven't seen her yet, but the card is in my bag.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that my card follows Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge 57. The DP is from the Sugar Rush collection by Basic Grey. It's hard to tell in the photo, but I paper toled the fairy's wings and put lots of sparkle here and there with my atYou Spica pens.

Attending CHA is definitely one of my wishes come true...

I'm headed out soon for the first day of the CHA Trade Show. Last night, I helped break down and move the Crafty Secrets booth from the Super Show floor (that's where some retailers set up for two days... Friday and Saturday...to flog their wares to the public) to the Showroom floor. I honestly believe they were about a quarter mile apart. No kidding. You have never seen anything like it! So I got a bit of a preview of what's to come today, and let me just say, it's crafting NIRVANA... but overwhelming at the same time. Every single craft is represented, so it's ginormous and there is no way you could possibly see and experience every single thing... unless, perhaps, you stayed for all four days. Me, I only have two, so I'll have to narrow things down. Of course, I will definitely spend most of my time in the paper crafting area. EVERYONE you can imagine is there.

So far I've met and chatted with: Taylor VanBruggen and her husband Jon, Jodi Collins, Jackie Pedro, Jami Sibley, Lynn Mercurio, Debbie Olson, Bev Gerard, Joan Ervin, Kathy Landers, Eva Dobilas, Ryan Broman (Unity Bachelor) and Cath Edvalson. And, of course, I toured around with my friend and LLLC teammate Kim Yu. I also spotted the rest of the Unity girls, SCS'rs Daven, Beate Johns, and Lori Craig, Karen Giron, Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp and (I think) Anna Wight. It's funny seeing people in person when all you've ever seen is a photo on their blogs that is rarely updated (ha!), but I'm getting pretty good at it!

No doubt, I'll meet and see more folks today. I'm especially jazzed to meet Marie from The Greeting Farm and Jessica... and hopefully Cami Turnbow. And so many others. I'd best get going. I will try to take more pictures today than I did yesterday. Everyone was so busy with the sales and make-and-takes, it was hard to take time out for pix.

Oh, and the most interesting new release I saw yesterday is Cricut has come up with Cake... yes, my friends, you can cut fondant with the Cake machine (similar to the Expressions) to decorate your cakes (and cupcakes). Now I've seen everything!

Have a great day! May all YOUR wishes come true!

I Won An Award!!!

Hey there! I just found out that I was one of the two winners of the Macabre Monday Challenge #006 - Perplexing Pigment Play - on Barb Foster's Haunted Design House Challenge Blog for my Please Feed The Monster card. Woo Hoo! (Thanks Patti, for cluing me into that challenge!) This award is especially sweet since Barb prefers spooky cards, while mine is definitely on the cutesy side. Thanks Barb!!! I shall display my badge with pride!

If you love Halloween, then you should pop over to the Haunted Design House blog. It's all Halloween all the time, with a new challenge every Monday! Spooky fun!

Please Feed The Monster!

Hey everyone! Finally a Halloween card! Okay, this is really my second one, but I'm starting to get in the mood because there are so many CUTE ones out there! This is the same stamp set from Our Craft Lounge that I received when I attended a class at my LSS. Unfortunately, this particular set appears to only be available to class participants, but there's a similar one available called Sweet Tooth Terrors. Too cute!

My card is in answer to The Diedrich Dare Week 2 Challenge. I'm not sure I've ever made a round card before. I finally decided to treat it as the background on which my little card is mounted. The first picture shows the card closed, and the second shows the card open... with the little monster waiting with his candy bag to be "fed." I used Orange and Purple Sparkly Fluff on the little guy after coloring him with my Copic markers. I love that stuff! It really sparkles.

It's just a quick post today as it's a case of "so much to do, so little time." I'll be back tomorrow with some exciting news and more goodness from La-La Land Crafts, so stay tuned!

Have a wonderful day!

Edited to add: After seeing this post, my BBFF Patti clued me into this cool blog called Haunted Design House. It just so happens that my card meets the Macabre Monday #006 Challenge to use only the colors black, white, orange, chartreuse green and purple, so I'm entering it there, too!

Halloween is Coming!

I've been busy working on some DT assignments, which I can't share just yet, so I thought I'd pop in and share a card I made at a recent card class at my LSS (Local Scrapbook Store) Collective Journey. (Hi girls!)

Last Friday night, Marianne Walker herself (the guru of Copics) and Kimberly, one of the owners of Our Craft Lounge, held a class and trunk show. Those of us who were lucky enough to get into the Halloween class, were treated to this CUTE stamp set that comes with a bunch of sayings... it coordinates with the Sweet Tooth Terrors stamp set...plus four Copic Ciao markers to color the image.

Okay, so I sorta goofed and made his hair purple instead of orange, and his belly orange instead of purple, but I think he turned out way cute, don't you? And can I say how much I LOVE Sparkly Fluff? It's hard to see unless you click on the picture to enlarge it, but his little belly and tail are "fluffed." I also love the layering of the Nestie mats. Gotta try that again.

There was also a second class with a Christmas theme, but I was too late to get into that one. However, I did pick up a couple OCL stamp sets and... of course...some Sparkly Fluff, so stay tuned for more creations!

Gotta run for now and get back to my chores. Thanks for stopping by. And please come back tomorrow for the inaugural Challenge for La-La Land Crafts. Yep, I finally have a card to share!!!

Oh Happy Day!

And it was a happy day! As I mentioned in a previous post, my friend Susan and I were lucky enough to get two open spots at Marianne Walker's Copic Certification class at CHA Anaheim. Susan had never even touched a Copic marker before, and I think she is now sold on how wonderful they are. As for me, they already had me at "hello," but now I feel more comfortable with the markers and I have a better idea of what is possible with Copic. Now I just have to practice!

Marianne is the artist behind many of the Our Craft Lounge stamp sets, and she had the Pat the Dog sets available for us to try our newly acquired coloring skills. Now I'm in love with those sets, and I'm looking forward to see what new goodies OCL will release very soon.

This is one of the images I stamped and colored at the class. A big thanks to Vicki Garrett, who was kind enough to give me a few shading tips. Susan and I lucked out and got to sit with Vicki and Kristi Ferro, the owner of Hanna Stamps. They were both so sweet. They couldn't stay long, as they had to dash out to set up the Hanna booth, but we enjoyed chatting with them a bit and seeing some cute cards that Vicki had on hand. I believe a big release is coming up for Hanna, too! I saw some cute Rileys that day...

Here is a picture of the four of us:
















And here is a picture of me receiving my Copic Certificate from Marianne:











I am NOT photogenic, or maybe I'm just delusional about how I really look (yikes), but a bit of lipstick and a comb through my hair would have been a good idea. I guess I was too busy coloring and having fun to worry about my looks! {LOL}

Back to the card! I finally got a chance to play along with Taylor's Friday Cupcake Challenge this weekend.
The DP is Berry Sweet from K&Company. The card base is from the Taylored Expressions Valentine Key Ingredients kit, and the image mat is SU's Regal Rose. I punched the little butterflies out of the DP and made them into brads with SU's Build-a-Brad (love, love, love Build-a-Brad!). The ribbon is also from the Valentine Key Ingredients kit, which I understand is now sold out. And, of course, that's Pat the Dog from Our Craft Lounge (can you say CUTE!). This card makes me smile.

The weekend is coming to a close, and as usual it wasn't long enough. But if we lived our lives by weekends, it would be a very short life indeed! Enjoy your week, and I'll be back soon with more cards to share.

Shazzzzaaaammm!

Isn't this image so stinkin' cute!!!! I was on the fence about this set from Our Craft Lounge called Love Bug until I saw all the super cute cards Cami has made using this set (be sure to scroll through her recent blog postings for lots of great samples of this and other OCL sets). I fell in love with those bugs! My set came in the mail yesterday, so I had to sit right down after dinner to play.

This week's featured stamper on SCS is Julie Ebersole (JulieHRR). I had seen this card in her gallery, which reminded me a tad bit of Love Bug. So that's the one I CASED. I especially love the cut out edge of the mushrooms, which makes them appear to be popped up, and the hand drawn border effects. I will have to try that again.

Also, in the grand tradition of Cami, I added a little sparkle with my new atyouSpica clear pen. How have I lived this long without one of those pens! I can see why Cami finds them (and shimmerz, which I will have to try next) so addicting! It's hard to see in the main pictures, so I took a close-up shot so you can see the sparkle better. (I apologize for the quality of the photos, but I took them tonight after work, and it's dark. Even in my light tent, it's not as good as taking the photos during the day.)

While I was at it, I made a second version using the I Love You stamp that comes with the set.

The card base is Stampin Up's Natural Ivory. The DP is My Minds Eye from The Laundry Line collection. Yummy papers. I found them at Michaels... ours has recently been remodeled and ramped up into a new concept, with new products and everything organized differently. I think it's part of a test market. So cool. If you haven't already had your Michaels converted, just wait... you're in for a treat!

The images are colored with Copics. The ribbon is SU's black gingham.

I'm really getting into Valentine cards and colors, so let me skip off to my craft room now and get busy. Thanks for stopping by!