Birthdays, Birthdays, Everywhere!

Today is my grandfather's birthday and this isn't his card.  July is a month chock full of birthday's for my family and my friends.  Now, as it turns out, it is full of birthdays for my daughter's little friends.  Tomorrow, we have another birthday party to attend and this isn't the card for the 2 year old either!  I have to get busy and make a card to go with her teddy bear theme for her party.

This, however is a birthday card I made for Sharon Johnson's Dare To Get Dirty challenge. Aren't all of those patterns fun together?  It seemed fitting that I should also use her sketch from the Stamp Simply challenge, only I blew the part about it was supposed to be clean and simple.  Simple yes, but not clean with all of those patterns.  Oh well, I like how the card turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, Well-Scripted; Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Ginger Blossom dsp; Ink: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, River Rock, Chocolate Chip; Accessories: Pretties Kit, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals.

My Very First Time Hostessing

I just happened to see a post about subs needed for hostessing the Ways To Use It challenge this week.  I had an idea and I sent a private message to the regular hostess.  She responded back with a "go"!  It's really been an amazing summer for me in terms of crafting!  I'm on the CAS summer design team and as a result of that had one of my sketches (well, not really mine) used for a challenge.  Then, I was the Featured Stamper (that's nuts) and now I hostess my own challenge!

So this is my sample card for my challenge, Wonderful Woodgrain!  I have been having fun with this woodgrain lately and I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for a Kraft ink!  Yum, Crumb Cake is one of my new favorites!  This card is also for Julie's Dare To Get Dirty challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Sentiments O'Simple (Unity), Woodgrain background (All Night Media); Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip; Ink: Crumb Cake, Craft Chocolate Chip; Accessories: Clear ep, heat tool, MM edge distresser, XL bird punch, stampin' dimensionals.

Oops! Late Post Tonight!

Wow, today was a busy day!  I guess it even started last night.  I stayed up late to post the Ways To Use It challenge on SCS.  I agreed to fill in for today's challenge.  I'll post my sample card tomorrow :)  But after I finished posting that challenge, I finished working on this card that meets two of the Dare To Get Dirty challenges.  It meets the criteria for Melanie's challenge and Sharon's challenge. 

This morning before my daughter's swimming lessons, I browsed through the Ways To Use It gallery.  Then we headed off to lessons.  After lessons, we headed up to my grandmother's house to help out with some chores as she fell and broke her ankle in two spots.  She is 85 and has never had a broken bone!  After that, I went to visit my Mom as she lives just a stone's throw from my grandparents.  My daughter spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in her kiddie pool!

Back home we came to start on chores here!  Busy, busy, busy!  I hope I can make tomorrow's pace leisurely!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Herb Expressions, Canvas; Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Always Artichoke; Ink: Basic Black, Mellow Moss; Accessories: Square Lattice ef, corner rounder, WCC, blender pen, stampin' dimensionals, Nestabilities.

Dirty Birthday Card!

You know, the Dare to Get Dirty variety!  This one is for Tiffany's Dare to Get Dirty challenge.  It was pretty easy for me to pull off and I picked up a ton of rub-ons at my most recent trip to Ocean Shores with my sister!  Have I told you how much I love rub-ons???

They make for a quick card, almost as much as a great sketch.  This one is from Our Creative Corner.  It's funny though, I made a card with a similar design for our neighbor's daughter about a week ago!   Great minds, that's what I think!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Details - Paper: Glorious Green, Whisper White, Night & Day Specialty; Accessories: Nestabilities, Kaisercraft Birthday Wishes rub-ons, black organdy ribbon, scor-tape.

Friday on Wednesday!

Girl Friday, that is!  I have loved Cosmo Cricket papers for such a long time.  I went looking for some fun and creative papers to go along with my Einstein quote and I decided up this paper.  I felt the paper was critical as I used the most recent Sweet Sunday sketch and it showed off quite a chunk of paper!  I also fit in 3 more Dare to Get Dirty challenges.  They are Bev's, Cindy's and Kelly's challenges.  I am quickly running out of time to finish all 33 of the Dare to Get Dirty challenge, so I started to combine them! 

Nothing too crazy about this card!  Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Imagination is More (Rubber Stampede); Paper: Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday; Ink: Baja Breeze, Old Olive; Accessories: M's ivory satin ribbon, wide oval punch, sponge dauber, Kaisercraft rose pearls, stampin' dimensionals.

Are You Tired of Fish Yet?

I am just about tired of fish, but really, who could tire of these two little cuties in a fish bowl!  This is my last sample card for this week's CAS challenge, to be inspired by the title "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".  It also meets with Deb's Dare to Get dirty challenge.  You can see that here (if you are a Fan Club Member).  Oh wait, it also meets with Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply challenge called "Two's Company". 

I had a little fun with my crystal effects here.  I glossed up my bowl and because of that, Denise informed me that it meets with her current RESQ challenge.  So I will link it up there.  And while I am piling on the challenges, I think I will enter this in the Moxie Fab World's challenge to create  something "fun and cute". 

That should be about a record for me, 5 challenges.  Seriously, I didn't really plan it that way.  But it is nice when it happens!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Stamps: Hodge Podge of Happiness (Unity); Paper: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie; Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Glorious Green, Crushed Curry; Accessories: WCC, blender pen, crystal effects, white gel pen, stampin' dimensionals, wide red grosgrain ribbon, white embroidery floss.

More Fish, More Dirt!

Wish I could tell you more about the Amber's Dare to Get Dirty challenge, but that is part of the privilege of Fan Club Membership on SCS.  If you ask me, I think it is completely worth it!  This card also meets with the CAS inspiration challenge this week, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, in that I kept to "fish" theme of the challenge. 

After posting on SCS, commenters were kind enough to tell me that it meets with another challenge hosted by Mark's Finest Papers.  This Speedy the Cat's Friends blog challenge is to create a masculine card.  Can do and done!

I had a little fun with this one.  While hubby was napping in the afternoon on Sunday, I helped myself to a little fishing line and threaded it through the eyelets in the corners of the main image.  A fun detail,  I think!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Stamps: Angler, Occasional Quotes; Paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla; Ink: StazOn Timber Brown; Accessories: Watercolor pencils, eyelets, square lattice ef, stampin' dimensionals, fishing line.

CAS Monday with Fish

This week's CAS challenge is to create a card inspired by the title of this Dr. Seuss book, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".  I went pretty obvious with this one.  This card ended up being somewhat out of my comfort zone for several reasons.  First, I hand cut my own stamp from the extra rubber that comes in my SU sets!!!  Can you believe it?  Next, I wrote on the card via the eyes, mouth and water splashes.  Finally, I used 4 different colors.  That is a lot for me!!

I incorporated a couple more challenge here.  I used the 100th sketch from the clean and simple stamping blog.  the scallops across the bottom reminded me of waves, so I went with it!  The other challenge I used was Kim Hughes' Dare To Get Dirty challenge and you can find it here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: One of a Kind, hand cut fish from leftover rubber; Paper: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise; Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Brilliant Blue; Accessories: Wide Saffron grosgrain, glue dot, slot punch.

I Can't Sleep!

I just found out that I am the Featured Stamper this week on SCS!!!!  Me, Toni, Raven's Mom, Scott's wife, just little old me.  Nuts, I tell you.  Last week, my sketch was featured for the CAS challenge and today my whole gallery is featured.  In a few hours, when the sun comes up, I am going into town and buying a lottery ticket because I feel LUCKY!

Okay, I'm done ranting.  Back to the card at hand.  This one is for Carolina's Dare To Get Dirty challenge.  When I read the challenge, I knew that I would be reaching for this new stamp that I have.  I also wanted to make a one-layer card for Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge to make a Christmas card.  The two challenges just naturally fell together.  I used a direct to paper technique here that I recently saw Gina K. demonstrate a variation of.  I like the way it turned out and will probably use it again soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Come to Bethlehem; Paper: Whisper White; Ink: So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy; Accessories: Top Note die, gold gel pen, Sakura clear star gel pen, MAMBI rhinestone, mustard colored sharpie.

And Some More Dirt!

It's been a while since I have made one of these junior legal pad folios.  Covering the notepad takes very little time, but coming up with the design is a bit more time consuming.  I have a hard time covering  the larger surface.  Don't know why??  Probably the same reason that creating bulletin boards at work is the bane of my school existence. 

Anyhow, this was created for Debbie's Dare To Get Dirty challenge on SCS.  It also qualifies for the CAS-tastic challenge this week to be inspired by summer!  Summer time and seashells go hand in hand.  I have long since sold this seashell set, but stamped a few images before I let it go.  I water colored these babies, cut them out and popped them up on the cover of my notepad.  A click on the picture will reveal some background stamping I did to prevent my notepad from looking too flat.  I intended the background to look a bit like sand.  How did I do?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Stamps: Seaside, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Time to Enjoy (Hero Arts); Paper: Kraft, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla; Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Creamy Caramel, Groovy Guava, Regal Rose; Accessories: Nestabilities, mat pack, piercing tool, aquapainter, stampin' dimensionals, paper snips; Techniques: CAS, watercoloring, paper piercing.

More Dirt

This year is the first time that I have played along with the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoast!  How fun!  I had not idea what I was missing until I joined the Fan Club this year.  This is for Dawn B.'s challenge and you can see it here.  I also used Mercy's sketch from this week, although I didn't keep the same shapes she had in her sketch.  She used circles and I morphed them into a piece of notebook paper and a butterfly. 

The stickles I used on the butterfly are so pretty, but I haven't quite learned how to capture them in a photo.  Anyone have any tips?  Give me a tutorial and I'm a quick learner!  Just a little click on the picture will enlarge it well enough to see some of the sparkle!

I'm taking the day off from the garden to focus on the SCS Dare to Get Dirty challenges.  I have only finished 5 of 33 and I have sooooo many ideas!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, BG Urban Prairie; Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Baja Breeze, Taken With Teal, So Saffron; Accessories: Scallop Trim Border, TE tiny twinkles, glue pen, stampin' dimensionals, Waterfall Stickles, sponge dauber, paper snips.

A Little Fruit Fun

Here is another sample card from this week's CAS sketch challenge.  The sketch is based on a card I made a couple of months ago.  I titled this new card "Cherry Buttons", after the base color Cherry Cobbler.  It's a new SU color released on July 1st.  I fiddled around with colors to pair it with and landed on Always Artichoke.  It's such a rich pairing that I stayed with it.  I just happened to have an abundance of those cherry colored buttons in my stash, so I created the horizontal layer with them. 

I dont' know about anyone else, but I am up to my elbows in fruit these days.  Right now it is raspberries and blueberries.  Later on comes peaches, plums and blackberries for me.  Hopefully my crafting won't suffer for all my canning and freezing!

Have a fabulous day!

Details - Stamps: Watercolor Trio; Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Always Artichoke textured; Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Versamark; Accessories: Top Note die, buttons from my stash, white embroidery thread, mini glue dots.

Dirty Little Butterflies

I whipped up this card yesterday afternoon while pondering how to start the Dare To Get Dirty challenges.  This one is for Ryann Salamon's challenge and you can find it here (if you are a Fan Club member).  I also used this week's Fall To Layout from the clean and simple stamping blog and the colors from yesterday's color challenge on SCS.  That is where the "dirty" comes in.  I sponged my colors on my butterflies and they seemed to get kind of muddy or maybe it was that I had used the sponge dauber to sponge black that last time, hmmm?  Not sure which is the reason, but the colors muddied and I liked them. 

The last challenge is a  Ready, Set, Stamp challenge from Julee at Verve!  Finally, I have a stamp set that she has chosen for the challenge.  I love these butterflies, but chose to leave off their antennae today.  And I use this sentiment more than any other Verve sentiment I own!

I have a feeling that today is going to be a stampy kind of day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Fluttering By (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Welcome Neighbor dsp; Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Basic Black, Peach Parfait, Regal Rose; Accessories: sponge dauber, paper snips, stampin' dimensionals, vanilla shimmer mist.

The Sketch and The Colors

I borrowed both the sketch and the colors for this card.  You see, I'm a terrible procrastinator!  I left my gift idea with 7 cards to make and about 8 hours to do it.  Not enough time if you are me.  However, I did it!  I used sketches and cased a few cards too!

This sketch is from Mercy Kerin and the colors were part of a Crazy for Challenges color challenge.  Mercy's sketch gave me some fits until I finally let go of the circle on top and allowed it to be a rectangle! Then it was smooth sailing and my card just appeared on my desk in front of me. 

Another busy day in the Storie household.  The garden will be not ignored and that means I am out in it and then in the kitchen processing all the fresh food!  Did you know that you can freeze pesto???  It's super yummy layered into lasagna, if you like that kind of thing!  Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Details - Stamps: It's Your Birthday; Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White, Night & Day Specialty dsp; Ink: Real Red, Basic Black; Accessories: Large star punch, small star punch, black brads, stampin' dimensionals.

Woodgrain Wishes

Since I have been posting a bunch of the cards I have made for my nephew, I thought I would also post this one.  It's true....it's CAS Monday!  This week's CAS challenge is a sketch challenge based on this card I did a while back.  It's so weird and flattering to have people copying your card.  I was very clear in the narrative of my card that it isn't really my sketch, but a sketch by Kim Kesti from Papercraft's Go To Sketches issue. 

I have been longing for a kraft ink for ages and ages and SU has finally come out with one.  I love it, although I wish they would just call it Kraft instead of Crumb Cake.  I love the wood grain stamp too!

Have a fabulous day!  Mine looks to be busy with lots of harvesting and commenting on CAS cards in the SCS gallery :)

Details - Stamps: Wood grain Background (All Night Media); Paper: Whisper White, Kraft; Ink: Crumb Cake; Accessories: Kraft taffeta ribbon, Chat Room rub-ons, stampin' dimensionals, glue dot.

Gradient Colored Butterflies

Hi there!  I'm here with one more card from last week's CAS challenge.  I received these butterfly stamps from Verve in a contest not too long ago.  Aren't they gorgeous????  I used a gradient colored paper and some shimmer mist to jazz them up a bit.  Since the CAS challenge had to do with embossing, I scored above and below, effectively capturing my butterflies!  I used one of Julee's fabulous new sentiments to finish off my card.  Pretty simple, with the exception of the fussy cutting to pop up the butterflies.

I hope this day bring you much joy, sunshine and blue skies!  It's too soon to tell here :)  Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, SEI Mimosa; Ink: StazOn Jet Black; Accessories: scor-pal, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, paper snips, stampin' dimensionals.

For Travis For Steph

Okay, remember earlier in the week when I said that I had brayered over a whole embossed image.  Well, this was the embossed image that I had brayered over.  At the time, it just didn't look "clean" enough for me to post as a sample for this week's challenge. 

I love the retro Mickey Mouse images that it brought to mind.  My sister is a huge Mickey Mouse fan, so I saved my "boo-boo" to play with later.  Mickey sat on my desk for a few days until I could figure out how to incorporate the primary type colors of red and yellow of Mickey's shorts and shoes into the card.  My sister would love to receive this card on her birthday and I'm sure my nephew will have so much on his mind that it will be easy to reach into his stash and address the card to his mother for her birthday!  I think I have mentioned in earlier posts that my nephew is leaving for Germany in a couple weeks.  I have to make six more cards for him, so I had better get busy!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Paper: Whisper White; Ink: Basic Black; Accessories: brayer, Chat Room rub-ons, Mickey ef, red and yellow embroidery thread; Techniques: CAS, dry embossing.

Christmas in July??

While this isn't the card that I will use for my Christmas Card Challenge submission.  It will work nicely for my nephew to have in his stash of cards to take on his trip to Germany.  This is a pretty easy card.  I used minimal supplies and let the designer paper do the work for me.  I did trim out two holly leaves and added them under the sentiment for a bit more interest!  For a quick card, I used this sketch from Taylored Expressions. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Christmas Punch; Paper: Soft Suede, BG Mistletoe & Pear; Ink: Soft Suede; Accessories: Scalloped Square punch, 1 1/4" square punch, paper snips, stampin' dimensionals.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I LOVE GROOVY GUAVA!!!!  It's true.  While orange is not one of my favorite colors, I adore Groovy Guava!  The Art of Life is also one of my all time favorite sets as well.  I combined them all to make a card in my favorite style, CAS.  I used a Fall To Layout from the clean and simple stamping blog.

This is part of a set that I am making to give to my 17 year old nephew who leaves in about two weeks to spend his senior year in Germany, as an exchange student.  My plan is to make sure he has cards on hand so that he can easily stay in contact with his family here at home.

I'm not sure what today will bring.  My craft room is calling me, but the sun is shining as well.  Maybe I will spend time in both areas. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Stamps: The Art of Life, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Groovy Guava, River Rock (textured); Ink: River Rock, Old Olive, Groovy Guava; Accessories: Modern Label punch, Word Window punch, stampin' dimensionals, CK brads.

She's Having a Baby

A baby girl that is!  One of my very good friends is due to have her first child in November.  She just found out last week that it will be a baby girl.  I was eagerly awaiting the phone call to tell me the sex of  the child and decided to craft!  It was nap time for my daughter anyway.  I had fiddled around with this technique of leaving a designated portion of the vellum without embossing.  So I just decided to make cards for whatever sex of the baby. I made this one in pink, one in blue and a third in green.  Why green?  I remembered that sometimes babies do not cooperate with the ultrasound technician and I thought I had better have something on hand in case her baby was uncooperative!

I had a challenge in mind when I made this and I also used an old technique challenge for the embossing.

That's my story and this is to celebrate my girlfriend's Little Angel!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Details - Stamps: Little Ones (Rubber Stampede), Little Angel; Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Vellum; Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose; Accessories: Swiss Dots embossing folder, Soft Subtle brads, Light pink grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals.

Another Case of Diane

I made this card for a CAS challenge some time ago.  It was based on this card by Diane or fionna51 on SCS.  I changed the angle of the layer under the focal image and popped up different layers of the flower.

Really short post today as my garden is in disarray!  Peas, parsley, basil, onions, broccoli, carrots, blueberries and potatoes to harvest today folks.  Have a bountiful day! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Birthday Wishes (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy, Sweet Pea dsp; Ink: Basic Gray, Basic Black; Accessories: WCC, blender pen, burgundy grosgrain, rose grosgrain, light pink grosgrain, stampin' dimensionals, scor-tape; Techniques: CAS, paper tole, faux stitching.

CAS Monday - Debossing Style

So the CAS challenge this week is really about dry embossing, but I am twisted and warped and made it about debossing (with this sample that Denise posted for the challenge).  I think I am technically in the clear because of how I explained it.  I embossed the white card stock and then flipped it over and hit it with a brayer.  So the image that shows up after brayering is the debossed flower image from the embossing folder.  I left it distressed looking because that is the best kind of brayering that I can do!  I tried brayering over a whole embossing folder image, but that didn't look very clean to me.  I liked how it looked, but it just didn't seem to fit the CAS style.  (Look out for that card coming up soon!) Instead, I carefully trimmed out one flower to mat and pop up against a neutral card stock.  I opted for kraft and I think I made a good choice!  Love the green and kraft together.  No real place for a sentiment on my image, so I went with a small tag.

I'm keeping myself distract these days as my little one is trying to give up her nap and is frustrating me to no end!

Hope you are having a good day and thanks for stopping by!

Details -  Stamps: Taglines (Flourishes); Paper: Kraft, Certainly Celery, Whisper White; Ink: Certainly Celery; Accessories: Stylized Flowers embossing folder, brayer, white taffeta, linen thread, SU tag sheet, stampin' dimensionals, mini glue dot.

Tessa's cake

Here is one more card from last week's CAS challenge.   I used this cake as my inspiration for this card.  I used the colors from the cake, the butterfly, flowers and the branch-type embossing!

I added a little shimmer for interest and left off the sentiment.  I couldn't think of a good place for the sentiment, so I left it blank!

I'm writing a short post today as I spent the weekend cheering my sister on in her first Half-Iron Triathlon.  She did fabulous in her race!  Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Paper: Whisper White, Almost Amethyst; Accessories: Little Leaves sizzlit, Boho Blossoms punch, MS butterfly punch, M's self-adhesive pearls, Nestabilities, amethyst satin ribbon, scor-tape. Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.

Something Old...

Okay, it isn't that old.  But it is from last week's CAS challenge.  I used the orange blue and green on this little card.  I colored my dragonfly blue before I shimmered him up.  It's hard to see in this photo, but trust me, he is blue.

I have been meaning to get up into my craft room to create a bit more, but the universe and household chores have conspired against me!  Not to mention that the holiday weekend through me a monkey wrench. 

Hopefully I will get a chance to create today!  Have a wonderful day!

Details - Stamps: Asian Artistry, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray; Ink: Basic Gray, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise; Accessories: Celery twill, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, stampin' dimensionals, Sakura Clear Star gel pen.

A Cheerful Card for Today

I made this card for the last Verve Release Week Sketch Challenges.  I really wanted to show off the designer paper and so I fudged on the sketch a little bit. You can see the original sketch here.  My card also qualified for a Ways to Use it challenge called Going Buggy. Of course, the challenge there was to include a bug on your card.  I just watched the 11:00 news and there was a report on how bad the bugs, particularly mosquitoes, are going to be this year.  Boo!  I guess I will have to get in the habit of keep the screen door closed and make sure to pick up mosquito repellent while I am out tomorrow! 

Looking at this card again, gives me new ideas about the most recent color challenge, so I may take a stab at it now.  Watch future posts to see if I made it happen!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Details -Stamps: Beautiful You (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, BG Urban Prairie; Ink: Black pigment ink; Accessories: clear ep, heat tool, Nestabilities, white gel pen, stampin' dimensionals.

Another Cake Inspired Card

This was my first idea when I read this week's CAS challenge.  I saw the Journey cake and thought immediately of the stamp on the focal image.  I wasn't quite sure what color to use as I thought the icing had a bit more of a pink tint to it.  I whipped out my trusty Groovy Guava.  Love this color, even though I rarely use orange.  I had a lot of fun with this card.  It reminded me quite a bit of Dawn McVey because of her stamp set called Damask Designs, but that's a good thing right???

Posting is a nice break from my mundane chores after the long holiday weekend!  I'm preparing for my 17yo nephew to come and stay for the rest of the week and then an out of town trip to watch my hard core sister run a triathlon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Friends 24/7, Charming, Thank You Kindly; Paper: Kraft, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla; Ink: Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip; Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Kaisercraft chocolate pearls, corner rounder.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday and she is 60 years young today.  We decided this morning that she is now officially in upper-middle age because neither of us could stand the thought of her being a senior???  That's just too weird!

It is also another CAS Monday.  I have this little lovely for you.  Today's clean and simple challenge on SCS is to create a cake using the inspiration of Carrie's Wedding Cakes.  When I first visited the site, I was stunned by the very first cake I saw.  So I went ahead and created a card from it.  The cake's name is Audree and you can find it here. 

I also used the most current Fall to Layout from the clean and simple stamping blog to create this card.  I love that site!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Sweet Pea dsp; Accessories: D'Vine Swirls embossing folder, Embosslits Beautiful Wings, Chat Room rub-ons, M's self-adhesive pearls, pink sharpie, glue dots, stampin' dimensionsals.

For Charlene and For Traci

What, how can a card be for two people!  Well, you see, I made this card for the Featured Stamper challenge today.  Charlene, aka Cookiebaker, is the featured stamper and I knew I wanted to use that particular stamp so I searched through Charlene's gallery until I found this. 

I made the card to send to Traci for her card give away blog.  Now I just need to get it in the mail to her.  I also made the card for a Stamp 2 Spend challenge to use roses as my inspiration for my card. 

Before I go, I want to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!  Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Almighty God (Unity); Paper: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bella Rose dp; Ink: Old Olive; Accessories: Nestabilities, M's pink satin ribbon, Just My Type embossing borders, glue dot, stampin' dimensionals.

Sweet Little Star

I think that maybe I am getting into the groove this summer.  I made this card for yesterday's Free For All challenge to use gold and stars on your card.  I used this cute PTI paper I received from a friend.  It's darling and just said "baby" to me, so I may this a congratulations type card.  I always seem to be short on baby cards anyway. 

I wanted to go simple, so I used a Fall to Layout from the clean and simple stamping blog.  This made it pretty easy.  I wasn't really sure about how my card was balanced, but I tried to balance my bow with my sentiment.  How did I do?

I am off today with the family to do the carnival and the rodeo.  Have a great day!

Details - Stamps: Studio G by Hampton Arts; Paper: Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold, PTI dp; Ink: Versamark; Accessories: gold ep, heat tool, M's vanilla ribbon, glue dot, stampin' dimensionals.

Some Verve Action

I made this a while ago for some Verve Challenges during Verve's release week.  I whipped through the sketches and was quite pleased with myself.  I did happen upon a little stumbling block at first and an SCS friend, Marisa, encouraged me to keep going!

That's so nice!  That is one of the great things about SCS.  I get an opportunity to meet (albeit on-line) and associate with some really great people!  So I dedicate this lovely card to her!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great holiday weekend!

Details - Stamps: Feel The Sun; Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, MB Gossamer; Ink: Basic Brown, Craft White; Accessories: Nestabilities, Textile ef, pink organdy ribbon, glue dot, stampin' dimensionals.