Tuesday Trigger--Button, Button!

Hiya friends! Fly-by post from me today!

I stumbled upon the Tuesday Trigger challenge for this week and was instantly inspired! I just love the earth tones, the buttons, the ribbons, EVERYTHING! It made me want to pull out my new Button Boutique stamp set from PTI!

Obviously I took the inspiration challenge quite literally! I love all the button cards I've been seeing so I wanted to make one of my own:) All the buttons, ribbon and cardstock are from PTI, the pearls are from Kaiser, and the lace is some I got from the 100 Yen store here in town. 

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! See you later:)

Viva la Verve! March Week 4 -- Kind Words

Hello chicks! I'm back today with a card for this week's Viva la Verve! sketch challenge:) This week, Jackie Pedro is our hostess and she came up with an AWESOME sketch for you! I really loved this one and can't wait to use it again:)

Click on the sketch to be taken to the challenge thread! There, you can find all the challenge details and rules:) If you play along with all five sketches this month, you'll be put into a drawing for Verve's WHOLE next month's stamp release...a prize WORTH playing for;)

Here's my card using Kind Words--

I stamped off the flowers from Kind Words once on scratch paper and then again on the sentiment panel, I wanted the flowers to be subdued and this is the best way to do that, then I stamped the sentiment on top! That sentiment panel is supposed to be tall and skinny but my sentiment was a bit too wide for that, I think this still resembles the sketch;) Another fun little detail I added was to stamp the largest flower center from Petals and Stems on the far right edge of the card, so it looks like scallops! I thought this was a fun little detail to add, seeing as I hate to leave white space, lol!

I wanted to make my card set up a bit flashy so I used some of the tissue paper (this PARTICULAR tissue paper was wrapped around some BRAND NEW STAMPS that will be released next week! Just WAIT until you see them:) Peeks start on Wednesday!!). I love the sparkles in the tissue paper, don't you? Julee always wraps each package with love, and I can think of nothing FUNNER to unwrap than some new Verve!

I hope you can play along with us this week! Like I said, click on the sketch above or HERE to be taken to the challenge thread! See you around chickies;)

TE Challenge--Belated Birthday

Hello out there! Sorry to be a stranger this week, but it's my last week with my sweet hubby before he takes off for Iraq...I'm sure I can count on all my friends to understand that;)

He has been out-processing the past couple days so when he's gone I've been sneaking a few minutes here and there to create a card:) I do so miss it when I'm not in my stamp room!

I've been a Kit Subscriber of Taylored Expressions for about 3 months now and was SUPER excited to hear that they're Splitcoast's newest Member Company! There is nothing like having all my favorite stamp companies all in one spot, and that spot being my little home away from home, Splitcoast Stampers!

As a welcome to SCS challenge, Taylor wants us to flood the gallery with all things TE! Well I've had these adorable Ala Carte stamps for a couple months and wanted to get them inky!

I love this sweet stamp with these little birthday birdies,, they're called "Belated Birthday-Stand Out" stamp is actually of only four birds, so I stamped it repeatedly along the card bottom and then colored them in with Copics. I wanted this to be a relatively simple card, that's why I went with stamping right on the card front, but then I needed to add something to the top so I pulled out some papers from the January Key Ingredients Kit . The ribbon and buttons are also from the January KI kit! The big scalloped border with the fun holes is from EK Success.

Here's what I did with the inside of the card:

That sentiment also comes with the birdies:) I also added a fun picket fence using the Picket Fence Border die.

Okay, that's it for me, time to think up something for dinner *yeah, nothing like waiting until 5:00, lol! Later, gators!

Mystery Monday featuring Lynda!

Hello! It's Monday, and that means time for another Mystery Monday Challenge over on the Club Anya & Friends Blog! This week is MY turn to be the hostess and I picked this fun card by Lynda Nielson to CASE:

I love the layers and really like the wavy piece behind the main image, but couldn't get mine wavy:( So I just kept that piece straight...here's my card:

I used a new release, Twirl Anya, and some papers from Stella & Rose by MME! I REALLY love these papers, I think they're from Hazel...

Here's a close up of the coloring, I really love her short hair! So summery! I used a sentiment from Flower Fusion #1 from PTI and the ribbon is also from PTI.

She was stamped on Neenah Solar white cardstock in Memento's Tuxedo Black ink. Here are the Copics colors I used to color her up:

Stop on over to my team mates blogs and see what they came up with! 

Club Anya Blog

• Elena -- March Guest DT
• Jessica Diedrich
• Anna Maria Nilsson 
• Kristy Young

For challenge details, see the CA&F Blog. Thanks for stopping by:)

Mojo Color Q!

Hey there! I sat down and created another card today while Billy was off enjoying his last round of golf for awhile. I went golfing with him yesterday (rode along in the card and read my book, actually, lol!), so I let him go with his guys today:)

I sat down with this week's Mojo Monday sketch and the Color Q color challenge and came up with this!

I thought these colors were SO bright and happy and wanted to pair them up with one of my favorite HAPPY sets by Verve called "Dream Big"! Don't you love those flowers? I love them, and I also love the stems, the leaves almost look like hearts:)

I added a Basic Gray fabric brad to the center of the Pumpkin Pie bloom, it just matched PERFECTLY! The Pumpkin Pie dp is from SU! and the Pumpkin Pie prints pack! 

Not only do I love the flowers in this set, but I also love the font combinations in the sentiments! 

Well, that's all I have for you today:) Billy and I have been enjoying every last second we can with each other:) He's probably leaving on Tuesday so pray for us. Pray for him in Iraq and of course for me, that I don't go insane from my lonesomeness:) 

Getting Sketchy with MFT!

Hey there! I was searching all my favorite haunts today looking for a challenge (yeah, feelin' tough!) and happened upon MFT's weekly sketch challenge! I TOTALLY love this sketch and had so much fun making my card! First things first, the sketch!

I love it:) Did I already say that? Ha! I did change a couple things around, but all the elements are still there, and basically where they're supposed to be, lol! Here's my card using the amazing "Inspired by Butterflies" set (I can't find it in the store so it must be out of stock right now)--

I seriously had so much fun making this card, I was in my zone and loving just sitting there, happily gluing away:) I stamped the butterfly on a square of Vintage Cream cardstock and then stamped it again on a piece of patterned paper and then cut it out. I mounted the butterfly on top of the stamped cardstock and then stamped the sentiment! 

I cut two more butterflies out with the Butterfly Die-namics and mounted them on top of the big butterfly. I sprinkled the middle one with some chunky glitter and added some pearls to the smallest. You can also see, on this detailed shot, I used my Faux Crochet Border Die-namics and framed the cardstock square.

I got my NEW COPICS in the mail today, yeah baby! The only thing I hate about new colors is having to redo my color chart, lol! It takes forever!

It's pretty when it's all filled out though, huh?:)

Okay, that's it for me today, I'm off to make some TACO's and then we're going to watch Mega Mind!! We still don't know what day Billy is leaving, so we're living each day as though it were our last, lol:) See you guys later!

Out of this World

So I'm in the middle or a huge re-organization of all my clear stamps. I started today, on a whim, and now I'm in so deep that there's no turning back, lol! I was really in the mood to make a card, but my stamp room is absolute chaos so it was ALMOST impossible, except for I had colored this image by Technique Tuesday in a couple days ago, so I decided to make a quick and easy card with it:)

This cutie and the sentiment are from a newly released set called "Tin Man"! Isn't he the cutest robot you ever saw? You know what I love about robots? They're SUPER easy to color, lol! They're just gray! How easy is that? Ha! I stamped him on Neenah Solar white cardstock in Tuxedo Black ink and colored him with my C1 and C3 copics (the metal part), and BG72and BG75 (for the middle computer part). I didn't want to just cut him out with a square die, so I pulled out my Labels 15 dies from Spellbinders and then sponged the cut image with Creamy Brown ink! I finished it off with some black twine from The Twinery and an Ocean Tides button from PTI! OH, and let us not forgot the three black brads, my tried and true finishing elements:)

Thanks for stopping by today:) Hopefully I get all my Verve stamps organized tomorrow so I can use them! I'm going to organize my PTI and MFT stamps the same way, but I have a feeling I'm going to need a week break or so first, lol! I'll post pics when I'm done! Have a goodie:)

Mystery Monday featuring Sharette!!

Hello! Happy Monday:) Okay maybe some of you aren't happy, I know I could be quite a bit better, but we just have to deal with it, huh? There's nothing like a little stamping therapy to make you feel better:)

It's a Mystery Monday on the CA&F blog and you know what that means! One of the DT girls choose a card they love in the gallery and the rest of us CASE it! If you play along and add your card to the appropriate gallery (see the CA&F blog for details), you could win a free digi single! Today, Anna Maria is our hostess and she chose this beautiful card by Sharette for us to case!

Isn't it a beauty? I love her layering here and the fun ribbon tabs, which I really love as an accent:)

Here's my card using the newly released Cheeky Beach! 

I loved the melon background she had so I decided to break into my Hopscotch papers by Basic Gray! 

The sentiment is from Let it Shine by Verve.

Here's a close up of the coloring in case you wanted a closer look:)

As always, she was stamped on Neenah Solar white cardstock and colored with Copics. Here are the colors I used--

You definitely want to see what the rest of the girls did with this challenge, I can't wait to see them myself! We have such a talented team, I love all my co-DT girls:)

Club Anya Blog

• Elena -- March Guest DT
• Jessica Diedrich
• Anna Maria Nilsson 
• Amber Hight 
• Jen Shults 
• Kristy Young

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Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope you get a chance to play along with us!

Viva la Verve! March Week 2--Love's Flower

Hello there! I had some time to get crafty today while my honey was taking care of some training he has to do. My first thought was to jump on this week's Viva la Verve sketch! Charmaine is the hostess this week and she came up with a really fun sketch! Check this out:

I love how everything is sort of bunched in the lower half, it leaves a lot of room for "white space" which I really love! I don't usually leave a lot of white space, but I do love the look:)

Here's my card using an old favorite stamp set, Love's Flower--

I really really REALLY love this color combination! I pulled it from the patterned paper which is Hattie from the Stella & Rose collection by MME! You know what I love about the MME 6x6 paper pads? The papers are STILL double sided! The papers I used on this card come from the same sheet, front and back! Sweet, right? Love that! I slapped on some green pearls (Recollections by Michaels) and some sweet vellum butterflies and tied some ribbon on the card front! The card base is Enchanted Evening (PTI).

Want to play along? If you play along ALL month you could win the next month's stamp release! That's like Christmas!!

Go >>>HERE<<< to see the challenge thread and all the deets! Hope to see you over there:)

Also, don't forget to check out the current sale at the Verve store! Click on the banner to see all the stamp sets on sale:)

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow for my Mystery Monday post!!

March SFYTT--Sponsored by Amber Ink!

Hello! Long time no blog:) I'm back at home in Okinawa now and back in the craft room for the newest SFYTT sketch challenge! 

This month, we're being sponsored by a SUPER FABULOUS stamp company 

called Amber Ink!

Here is a little history lesson:)

AmberInk was started by a mother and daughter team.  Amber lives in the East, Pam lives in the West.  Amber is an Emmy nominated children's animator and illustrator, who creates from her Brooklyn, New York studio.  Although they do carry some clear stamps, the company runs by the premise that their customers are more brilliant than patient. If you've been a diehard clear or rubberstamper, they can even help you with the transition to digital.  And don't worry about asking a silly question, because as a retired public high school teacher, Pam has already seen it all.   Check out the ever-increasing tutorial links, which you can find on the homepage. Hailing from the Hawaiian Islands, the Aloha Spirit is alive and well at AmberInk.com.

Here is the March Sketch!

Fun, right? I can see all kinds of fun cards with this sketch in my future:)

Here's my card using the adorable digi set called Baby Mermaid-Friendship and some fun digi paper, called Seaweed Paisley! 

I'm sorry about the terrible picture, I'm going to try to retake it tomorrow with some natural light! I colored the mermaid and coral rock and cut each out and then set her on top of the coral and popped it up on dimensionals! I added some Star Dust Stickles as well but you can't see it as well in this picture. The sentiment is from the same digi set as well! Can you see the sweet digi paper? I'm wishing I took a close up of the paper because it's SO stinkin' cute! Little gold fish and seaweed, so cute:) 

I printed the digi paper on Neenah Solar White cardstock. The mermaid and coral were also printed on the Neenah and colored with Copics.

1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”
7. Check out the SFYTT Sister’s links just below to see more creations using this month’s sketch.

March Guest-Shelley Dupont 

Amber Hight
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Carole Burrage

Jen Del Muro
Jodi Collins
Kelly Lunceford
Kerry Johnson
Leigh O’Brien
Megan Lock
Sony Christoph
Susan Liles

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you find some time to get sketch this weekend:)