I'm still here

I'm swamped at work right now and will be out of commission most of next week in a hearing. I'm blurfing when I can and thinking of you even if I don't post or leave comments. I've got a thank you RAK to post and I'll try and get a pic of it up later this evening.

If you don't hear from me, I'm still around but beyond BUSY right now.

Beate's WSC32

Every weekend I plan to do one of Beate's weekend sketch challenges and I finally got the chance to get one done this weekend. I still had PTI's Green Thumb on my desk and had actually started stamping the focal piece last weekend for a different card but decided it wasn't working and restamped it today.

The card base is Ballet Blue and the patterned paper is some retired SU vellum--I can't remember the name of which pack it was in. I used a variety of Versamagic Chalk (Sahara Sand, Gingerbread, Pumpkin Spice, Mango, and Red Magic) and Brilliance (Pearlescent Thyme and Mediterranean Blue) inks for this card. After stamping the flowers and pot on Whisper White, I highlighted the flowers with Dark Blue and Frosted Lace Stickles. This is matted on Pumpkin Pie cardstock which is trimmed to a 1/16 inch mat with my Perfect Layers tool. I think that is my favorite tool and can't believe it's not available in the SU catalog any longer.

The sentiment is also on Whisper White and is stamped with Brilliance Mediterranean Blue and is punched out with a key tag punch. It's matted on Summer Sun and Real Red. I rounded the Real Red corners with the small corner punch. This is up on dimensionals over the focal piece.

I'm not sure about the Build a Brad corners--I did them when the design was different in my head. I think I'm going to replace them with smaller brads or eyelets--what do you think?

Thanks for visiting!

My Creative Classroom Grand Opening Event

I found out about My Creative Classroom from Colleen over at Distinctive Touches. MCC is a virtual learning and crafting center where students can take highly interactive, media-rich classes facilitated by talented and trained teachers right in the comfort of their own home. It is a very cool concept and they've got some incredibly talented crafters as instructors.

So, they're having their grand opening celebration soon and here's what's in store for you:

	Grand Opening Celebration Sunday, 27 January (07:00 PM) » Saturday, 2 February (11:00 PM)
	Join us for the My Creative Classroom Grand Opening Celebration. We will be celebrating with: Games Inspirational challenges Tips and techniques Forums to talk with other students Galleries to share your work Chats to get to know the MCC faculty and Free Classes. We will be giving away over $1500 worth of prizes during our grand opening celebration. Come join us for all the fun.

So, go by and check it out! I know I will :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Last Friday in January?

Is this really the last Friday of the month? Where has the time gone? I was just in a Christmas and New Years frenzy and now Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away! I guess time really does go more quickly the older you get :-)

So, I think I'm getting out of pending. I just got a nice sized random and unexpected customer order. Since it's pretty hefty, I let her know that she still gets hostess bennies she's got to pick out before I can submit her order. Like I said, this was a pleasant surprise and it gets me through the next few months and with SAB and the new mini coming, I may make it through another quarter as well.

Since it's Friday, I did my official weigh in this morning and I'm now down a total of 4 pounds since I started :-) Hey, slow and steady wins the race, right? I've added my Yoga for Beginners dvd a few mornings and while I'm only doing 20 minutes, I can feel it. My body is so tight and inflexible right now. The most frustrating part of this having been in shape, it's really hard to face reality and realize how out of shape and overweight I've become lately. I do know that once I get in shape again, I will never again put myself in this position.

I'm hoping to get some stamping done this weekend. We've got my 2 year old nephew for the night tomorrow night so the little ones should be playing happily with each other.

Thanks for visiting!

FS50 Inspired

This started out as a case of KathyC's card which can be seen here. I couldn't get the emboss resist to work for me so it went in a different direction. I like how this one turned out and my other card I started uses this same set.


I got the inspiration for the color combo from the patterned paper. This is a piece of my BasicGrey Infuse collection. The card base is Garden Green which is a color I rarely use. My first instinct was to go with Old Olive but I wanted something a little more vibrant. I tied a piece of wide Chocolate Grosgrain ribbon around the dp and then adhered it to the card base. I stamped the watering can and flowers from PapertreyINK's Green thumb on Whisper White with the following inks: Versamagic Sahara Sand, Jumbo Java, Red Brick, Pixie Dust, and Pink Grapefruit. The leaves and stems are Brilliance Pearlescent Thyme--you can't see the shimmer but it's very sparkly and pretty and a good match for the Garden Green. This is matted on Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip and then attached to the card front. It seemed like it was missing something--I wanted a sentiment but it didn't fit in with the original card I wanted to CASE but I did it anyway. I stamped the sentiment in Brilliance Pearlescent Thyme and punched it out with a large oval punch and then attached that to circles that were punched out of Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip. The sentiment is attached with dimensionals.

Even though this is not what I had in my head when I started, I love the way it turned out!!!!!! I really haven't used this set that much but I can see myself reaching for it more and more in the future.

Thanks for visiting.

Monday, Monday

First things, first--Katie gets my Rubber Romance card from the other day because I had Miles pick a number from 1-6 and he picked 1 :-)

I have a card and a half made this weekend--hopefully, I can finish the other one up tonight. Even though it's been a 3 day weekend. It's been hectic around here.

The absolute best part of this weekend is that we got a new vacuum cleaner and not just any vacuum but the Dyson Animal!!!!!! We got ours on sale at Sears but I just discovered it was cheaper at Macy's and I'm going back to Sears tomorrow to get my extra money off! Now, I'll be honest and tell you all that I am not the best housekeeper in the world. We have a fairly large house, 3 kids, 3 dogs, and both dh and I work full-time so there's always something that needs cleaning and sometimes, I'm just too darn tired to do it or I'd rather stamp. I was vacuuming this morning and got a little frustrated at my vacuum (which 5 years ago was one of the *best* ones out there) since it wasn't picking up everything on the floor and I called dh (at the gym) and told him I was sick of our vacuum and it was time to buy the Animal since we've been eyeing it for about a year.

Ok, I am in looooooooooooove!!!! If you've got kids and pets, you need to run and buy this RIGHT NOW!!!!! Mind you, I vacuumed this morning before I bought this and still managed to fill up and empty the canister several times. It grossed me out to think that even after vacuuming, sweeping, and mopping, we were still wallowing in filth in the house. This vacuum cleaner rocks and picks up soooooooooo much stuff. It is well worth the money. I vacuumed both floors of our house and all the tile floors as well. It even motivated dh enough to completely mop and steam clean the floors in the house so it was well worth the money


Ok, eye candy on Tuesday and we'll be back to stamping on Wednesday.

Thanks for visiting!

JAN08VSNQ ~ Packing the Purse

I wanted to participate in VSN this go around. Fridays are hard because I drop off my oldest so he can see his dad. Traffic is horrible and by the time I get home, I just want to chill. We had a birthday party today and that took up most of the day. I did manage to get a challenge done and here ya go!

The challenge is Packing the Purse and I have to do all of this and nothing more:



Stamps:
1 flower or other botanical
1 sentiment stamp
1 background stamp

Ink:
any

Paper:
3 different colors of cardstock (neutrals count as a color!)
2 different patterned papers

Tools: (use at least one)
cuttlebug
paper piercer
punches
sponge
distresser

Embellishments: (pick at least 3 different kinds of embellies for your card)

thread
ribbon
eyelets
brads
spiral clips
bling


Here's what I did:

Stamps:
Pollen Dust by Fancy Pants Designs for the flower/botanical
Warm Words for the Sentiment
Sanded for the Background

Ink:
Versamagic: Wheat, Malted Mauve, Perfect Plumeria, Hint of Pesto, Niagra Mist, Midnight Black
SU: Bravo Burgundy

Paper:
Basic Gray
Bravo Burgundy
Very Vanilla
2 different prints from Cosmo Cricket's Wonderland

Tools:
Cutter Tool
Cutterbee Piercing Bugs

Embellishments:
Kraft Taffeta Ribbon
Pewter Jumbo Eyelets
Stickles--Gunmetal and Burgundy
Liquid Pearls--Pewter


In hindsight, I would have traded River Rock for the Basic Gray and that was my original intent but I didn't do it and time was ticking away :-)


Thanks for visiting!

Another Thursday Throwdown Card

So, my Changito Banana was the first card I posted for Colleen's Thursday Throwdown but I knew I wanted to do something else for it. I really, really, really love these Rubber Romance images. They are so much fun to color and they're gorgeous as well. I cannot take the credit for the layout, colors, dp, etc since this came in one of my Paper Pretties card classes. I don't think Christie is still doing her card class in a box and I quit my subscriptions but this is what I got in my November box.

The stamp is Rubber Romance Judy. I stamped her with Black Craft ink and then embossed her with Hologram Highlights EP for some extra sparkle. I colored everything with my Copics, added glitter to her top, and then sponged the outside with Bravo Burgundy and Basic Gray--I used the Gray because I had some ink on my finger and it messed up the paper but as *they* say "there are no mistakes in stamping". The corners are punched with a ticket corner punch and there are swarovski crystals in each corner. I'll get back to you with the cardstock and dp deets but I can just say that I love having a layout planned and everything precut. It was super easy to just stamp, color, add some extra bling, and adhere everything together :-)

Here's a closeup of the focal piece so you can see the sparkle. Want this card? Leave me a comment and I'll randomly draw on Monday 1/21 at 9 am PST. If you win, this card will be coming your way. Thanks for visiting!

I've been blogged!

Colleen, over at Distinctive Touches has picked me as her Featured Friday Artist. I was completely bouncing up and down when I got her email asking me if she could feature me :-) We "met" through our blogs about a year ago and quickly developed a rapport and have become friends. She's amazing and I'm honored that she picked me to feature today.

On another note, I'm down another 1/2 of a pound this week which is pretty good given that it's been a crazy week and I didn't work out as much as I wanted to. It's not coming off as fast as I want but hey, it didn't all get on here overnight either! I want to see big numbers ala The Biggest Loser but I know it's not happening because those contestants are working their butts off and are there working at the weight loss full-time :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Changito Banana

Ok, this is a new card but I do admit that I colored this image a few weeks ago. I thought I'd go ahead and post it for Colleen's Thursday Throwdown. I want to make one for her throwdown because I looooooooooove bling! I'll do one but it's probably gonna be Friday night before I have time to do it :-)

So, this is another one of the really cute Changito stamps that I LOOOOOOOOOOVE! I think it's called Changito Banana. I stamped him on Whisper White with Pallette Hybrid Noir and then colored him in with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The banana is highlighted with Yellow Stickles. The card base is Summer Sun and I stamped the SU Dotted BG stamp on it with the same color. Now, this is a fairly simple card but I struggled with it--I'm soooooooooo not a precise stamper/cardmaker/crafter and I punched out the window with my 1 3/8 inch square punch and it wasn't big enough so I tried to line it up again and punch some more. Now, I totally had the punch butted up to the edge of the cardstock and slid it over but the edges didn't quite meet. I spent a lot of time slightly moving the punch and using a craft knife to get a nice looking square that Mr Monkey could fit it. I still feel I could have made it a tad bit bigger but I was in danger of completely losing any straight edge on my square at this point so I stopped before I had to scrap this card. I tied some black, red, and caramel gingham ribbon around the square and then attached Changito behind it. I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black and was done. . .or so I thought. I took the pic and realized that I slightly smudge the card with the black ink. I was peeved at this point because this simple card has taken me a loooooooooooooong time. I tried to find something to put over the smudge but couldn't make it work. . .I couldn't save Changito because I used an Ad Tech permanent glue runner to attach him and this stuff is super sticky and he'd never make it off safely.

I really like this card--I love the Changito and I love Summer Sun cardstock. I'm just trying to find a way to save the card and maintain the simplicity of the design--especially since this simple card took me way longer than some more "ornate" cards might take :-)

Thanks for visiting!

CC149 Rosey Apricots A Day Late

I got a chance to do yesterday's color challenge at SCS late last night. I took the pics and then decided to go to bed since it was after midnight. The kids have a birthday party this Saturday for one of Mason's classmates who's turning 9 and I figure 9 year old girls like butterflies, right? Looking at it, I don't think it looks kiddish enough and may make a more kid friendly one and save this for a bigger girl who likes butterflies.

So, I used Rose Red as the base and attached a strip of Apricot Appeal to it. I rarely use Apricot Appeal and whenever I do use it I wonder why I don't use it more often. It's really nice. The eyelets are Sage Shadow from a Soft Subtles combo and I don't know for sure if they still exist or not. I set them with my Crop-A-Dile which I truly love--I love that I can set eyelets again without waking up the whole house and worrying if I'm going to break my countertop or one of the tiles on my floor--warning, do not attempt to set eyelets on a tile floor!!!!! I stamped the images from PapertreyINK's Butterfly Kisses on Whisper White with Apricot Appeal, Rose Red, and Sage Shadow and then cut and embossed it with one of my rectangle Nestabilites. I matted this on a Sage Shadow piece that I cut and embossed with one of my scalloped rectangle Nestabilities. The sentiment is stamped on the cardbase with a Moonlight White Brilliance Dewdrop. After I finished with it, I'm not quite sure if it needs a little more something. I'm thinking it needs a little glitter and I may add some Stickles or Dazzling Diamonds to it. I do think this is an interesting color combination and it's definitely not one I'd pick for myself.

Thanks for visiting!

You Make My Day Award

Donna Baker nominated me for the You Make My Day Award which I think is sooooooooooooo nice of her. She is an amazing stamper and former Bay Area gal who is going to come back and visit with me soon :-) I love her blog and she's super sweet and has time to leave the nicest comments to others.

Now, I get to nominate up to 10 others who make my day. Donna stole a couple of my people and I know others have been tagged so I'm going to try to only tag people I know haven't been tagged yet.

1. Renee over at Stamping for Sanity. She has a wonderful and distinctive style--I love her work and she always leaves me such sweet comments. She's got 4 kids and #5 on the way but still manages to find time to share her wonderful work with us!

2. AJ over at The Willow Garden. She has a fresh, clean style that I love! I've learned a lot from studying her stamping.

3. Lynn over at LWDesigns. She's one of my SBS3 sisters and I love her work as well. So much fun!!!

4. Heather over at Hopefully. Did you see her Christmas wish list? I can honestly say that she's a girl after my own heart :-) She's my SBS3 Swap sister and I cannot wait to get my hands on a Heather Huggins original because her stuff is awesome.

5. Another SBS3 sister that makes my day is Robyn at Robyn's Creative Space. She was actually born in the town in Germany that my dad was stationed at for years--I did most of my elementary and middle school there. What a small world!

Finally, all of you who comment here and leave me positive affirmations make me day! I appreciate all my blogging buddies immensely.

OH, and I didn't post this but I got the most AMAZING RAK from Maren, who's another one of my SBS3 sisters. I never saw her work before we joined the group and I can honestly say that I stalk her blog and SCS gallery daily. Her stuff is amazingly beautiful!!!!!! Thanks so much, Maren!!!!!!!

Thanks for visiting!

Before and After

I redid this one and I like it a little better! I love the simplicity but I just needed more to make it POP a little. So here you go for the before and after :-) The changes are as follows:

I swapped out the retired vintage brad for Fire Rhinestone brad. I colored around the "frame" edge with a Copic marker. I added some Heidi Swapp rhinestones (which came in a Costco pack I got awhile pack) before the punched out sentiment which I also edged with a marker.

I do think the changes make the card pop a little better and I am so appreciative to my stamping/blogging friends in my attempts to learn and improve in this craft.

Thanks for visiting!

Changito in Love

I absolutely adore these Changito stamps. I stamped this shortly after I got it and colored it in for a later use. The image is stamped in Pallette Hybrid Noir on Whisper White and colored in with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. There's a little bit of Stickles on the balloon as well. The words are from Everyday Flexible Phrases and are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink. The image is matted in Creamy Caramel and Close to Cocoa. I used Ruby Red for the cardbase and stamped the Polka Dot BG stamp on it in Ruby Red as well. I cut a slit in the fold of the card and threaded this gorgeous chocolate ribbon from the Theater Ribbon Originals. Finally, I mounted the image on dimensionals over the ribbon.

Another quick and easy peasy one from me.

Thanks for visiting!

Friday Checkin

So, after a week of working out I've lost a whopping 1.5 pounds. . .the other day it said 3 and I was hoping it would stay there. I know it fluctuates but WAH!!!!!!!!

I know I need to get a little better with the eating but I did work out 4 days this week--30 minutes on the treadmill and The Perfect Pushup workout. The Perfect Pushup is kicking my butt--I can totally feel it in my arms, chest, and abs.

I want to add Yoga a few days because I really need the flexibility. . .

Darnit, I need to hit the lottery because work really gets in the way of things :-) At least I like what I do for a living.

Back to Stamping

Ok, so the last couple posts didn't have stamped images but this one does. I had a little scrap left over from when I was first playing with my Nestabilities and decided that this Amuse stamp would be perfect for it. I stamped the girl with Brilliance Graphite Black which I had stamped off first (I have one of the dewdrops and it's super juicy) and then colored her in with Copics. I had a picture frame in my mind and used some I Kan'Dee Pearlescent chalks to color the outside frame in the silvery color--it's really shimmery but I wish it was a tad darker. I made a tiny oopsie and went inside the frame so I decided to go ahead and go over the whole image in the white/clear color--wow, who needs Shimmery White paper? The chalk made the paper super shimmery and sparkly.

I stamped the Paisley Background stamp by SU with Basic Gray ink on Basic Gray paper--I love how this looks like really plush and flocked wallpaper--and then hung my picture up with silver cord and a retired silver Vintage Brad. The sentiment is from So Many Sayings and is stamped on Whisper White with Basic Gray and then punched it out with the Word Window punch. I then rubbed the white/clear shimmery chalk on it and mounted it on dimensionals.

This is not what I had in my head and while I don't hate it, I don't love it either. So, if you were me, what would you do to change it? Don't worry about being gentle--I'm not thin skinned and this was a total playing around with scraps/pieces piece :-)

Thanks for visiting!

The Kidlets

No Stamping stuff right this second but just wanted to share some cute pics of my kids :-)

Even though Maya is 3, we do still keep her in a highchair at times. She likes to stamp as well and it's easier to contain the areas she'll get inky when she's in the highchair.

Mason and Miles loooooooooooove playing Xbox :-) and Wii.

Thanks for visiting!

FS48

Dh's basketball league resumed tonight after the holidays so I got time to do the Featured Stamper Challenge. I was inspired by this card of Nancy Riley's and changed up the colors, ribbon, sentiment, and size of the card. Hers is square but I went with a traditional
5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card.

I really love this color combination and I've been seeing so much of it because of the Ginger Blossom DSP which I still need to get :-) The card base and envelope is PapertreyINK Stamper's Select White. I'm still not loving how it takes SU Classic ink and I think I may play around with it and some of my other inks and see how it works for me. I stamped the images from Big Pieces and Little Pieces in River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red on Whisper White and matted it on River Rock. I then tied River Rock double-stitched ribbon around it and really noticed that it doesn't match my paper or ink :-) Oh well, it coordinates which is what is important. I punched out the River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red circles with a variety of circle punches and then arranged them on the card front. The sentiment is from All Holidays and is stamped in Rose Red underneath the focal point. I'm really, really loving All Holidays and am finding it one of the most versatile phrase sets I've ever owned. I love all the fonts and will definitely get a lot of use out of it.

So, my stamping is going to slow down a little because my 2 week break is up and I'm back to work tomorrow. I gotta hit the lottery so I can retire :-) Fortunately, I like what I do so having to work isn't that bad in the overall scheme of things.

Thanks for visiting!

Bold Bright Birthday

The boys had a birthday party to go to today and this is the card that I made for the party boy. I love the Eat Cake set but have a hard time using any of the images other than the cake from it so I decided to try something different with it. I also played around with my Nestabilities a little bit.

The card base is Green Galore and I added a black layer to it. The Happy Birthday is from All Holidays and is stamped with Green Galore Craft ink on the black layer. I like the way it turned out and since the focal piece is so bold, it balances it by being so subtle. I stamped the balloons with Only Orange, Lovely Lilac, and Green Galore on Whisper White. I masked off the balloons with Eclipse Tape and stamped a couple others. I did the string with Basic Black. There was too much white so I stamped the confetti with Green Galore around the balloons. I highlighted the balloons with Stickles and I'm sorry to say that I can't remember what the exact colors were but they were Orange, Purple, and Green--the purple was jammed and during the unjamming process I got a nice blob of purple glitter on my grid paper :-) The scalloped layer is Lovely Lilac and I added some black brads from the retired Vintage brads to the corners as well.

Since it's for a 9 year old, I did keep it fairly simple since I know it probably won't be saved. I will tell you that my 8 year old appreciates my efforts. He told me on the way home that no one else got Zach a special card like he did and that he doesn't like cards from the store. He wishes that he only got stamped cards from others :-) Gotta love that I'm teaching him early.

So, we've still got rain and it's still supposed to rain tomorrow as well. I wish that I had nice weather for my last day off but at least it's supposed to clear up when the kids and I go back to our normal work/school routine on Monday.

Thanks for visiting!

Limited Rubber Romance Challenge

I had some time to do the Limited Supplies Challenge for today which was to use no white or vanilla cardstock. Now, I love using Kraft cardstock so I immediately thought of doing something with Kraft but since this is a challenge I decided to not use it. Blush Blossom is one of the colors that I rarely use. I think I'm still on my first pack I bought and I think the Soft Subtles families is one of the first families that I wanted to complete since they were some of the first colors I used prior to becoming a demo. Ironically, I rarely use them now.

The cardbase is Ruby Red and the patterned paper is from the BasicGrey Infuse collection. I stamped Jane from Rubber Romance onto Blush Blossom with Pallette Hybrid Burnt Umber and colored her in with my WWC (Old Olive, Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, and Chocolate Chip) and aquapainters. I lightly sponged around the outside with Creamy Caramel and highlighted her jewelry with Icicle Stickles--it's a good thing I'm messy and don't put all my stuff away since it's forcing me to use it up more often :-) I stamped the sentiment from PapertreyINK Faux Ribbon with Chocolate Chip ink on Blush Blossom and then punched it out. I admit, I really don't use the ribbon pieces but I love all the sentiments in this set! Then I added the little flourishes above and below it and a dot of stickles in the center of each flourish. I matted this on a punched out Chocolate Chip circle. This is mounted on dimensionals. I felt like it was still missing a little something so I added some paper piercing in the upper right corner. Voila!!!!!

I'm hoping we don't lose power--there are thousands of people in the area without power which probably won't be back on throughout the weekend! I know it's not snow and ice but we're having a major rainstorm right now. Dh says that if we lose power, he thinks we should leave and go to a hotel. That's great for us but I do worry about the dogs :-)

Thanks for visiting.

Priceless Journal

This is something really simple I made for myself yesterday. I jumped on the scale for the first time in awhile and was embarrassed to see the numbers on there. I'm at an all-time high and it was definitely an eye opener. I started exercising again and plan to keep it up. One thing that helped me a few years ago when I worked super hard to lose the baby weight and then some from ds #1 was keeping track of my workouts and food intake. Now that I'm a stamper, I can't just use a plain notebook, can I? I like that the pages of this book are blank and unlined so I can add things to them as needed. My first inside page has some "before pics" of me, a journaling circle with the date, weight, and how I feel, and a positive affirmation for myself. I'm going to try to keep it positive and focus on what I can do and not how far out of shape I've let myself become. I used to be an athlete and was always very active but having a demanding job and 3 kids gets in the way of me taking care of myself. Right now, I'm feeling like that's a lame excuse to be fat and if I don't take care of myself, how can I take care of others?

The journal is pretty simple. I got of bunch of these books awhile ago at Bare Books. I've made myself a few other journals and have made quite a few teacher gifts and still have some available. It started out plain white and I rubbed and stippled some River Rock ink on the journal. Then I randomly stamped images from Priceless in Groovy Guava, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, River Rock, and Wild Wasabi on the front and back. I cut a couple rectangles out of River Rock with my new Nestabilities and stamped Priceless in Wild Wasabi. I overstamped it with the swirl in River Rock and added a few Groovy Guava flowers. I wanted this to be pretty simple and functional so I kept any other embellishments off of it.

I will say that I'm a little sore today and it's a good sore that I haven't felt in awhile. To keep myself honest, I'm going to give you all updates on Fridays about my workouts and any weight lost. If any of you are also working on losing weight and want to join me, let me know. I have about 30 pounds to lose to be ok and 40-50 to go to be in good shape again. One of my promises to myself is to not buy anything else stamping related until I've lost the first 10 pounds :-) Since I'm in pending right now, if I can do it by the end of the month I can spend money to get myself out of pending (or at least get some of my wish list items from the new SU catty).

Wish me luck and thanks for visiting!

Beautiful Bloomin Color Challenge

I hope that everyone had a Happy New Year! I didn't stamp yesterday which gave me more time to think about what I wanted to do for CC147: Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, and Real Red. I do like these colors together even though my first instinct is to go with Tempting Turquoise instead of Taken with Teal but I couldn't think of what I wanted to do. All of a sudden, this popped into my head. The finished product isn't exactly what I had in my head but I like it better anyway :-).

The cardbase is PapertreyINK Stamper's Select White. I like the sturdiness of it for a card base but like how Whisper White takes ink a little better. I stamped the leaves from Beautiful Blooms in Certainly Celery on the cardbase. Then I stamped some of the little flowers from the set in Real Red and Taken with Teal on Whisper White. I cut and punched out the flowers and accented them with Icicle Stickles. I stamped the word friend from the same set and the dotted outline from the Borders and Corners Rectangle set on Whisper White with Taken with Teal and Certainly Celery and then punched it out with a Super Jumbo Scalloped Rectangle punch. I sponged the edges with Real Red and used an Amuse Microdot Twinkle Sticker to dot the i. I punched out the edge of the cardbase and threaded Red Gingham ribbon through it and then tied it off in a knot. I'm seriously bow challenged so it's all knots, all the time for me :-) I popped up the punched and cut out pieces on dimensionals and voila--all done! This was originally going to be a one layer card but I just couldn't do it. I think the little bit of dimension is better anyway.

Thanks for visiting! We'll be back to Tuesday eye candy next week. I'm always open for suggestions if you have someone you want featured. Just shoot me an email.