Twinkling Tuesday: Inspired by Traditions

Good morning girls!! Sorry I'm late in getting my Twinkling Tuesday card up today. This will be short and sweet as I have so many things to do. We have another Temporary Twinkie offering a challenge this week - Jameson is Rebecca's son and he offered us an inspiration challenge, complete with picture and story. Head over to the Twinkling Tuesday blog as I'm sure it is there. Or for sure on Rebecca's blog.


The picture was Minnie Mouse as a bride and Mickey Mouse as an explorer with a really cute story of what happened to Mickey's tuxedo. The white is in honor of the wedding dress and the kraft base is inspired by Mickey's look. Since it was a wedding theme I also thought of that old saying that all brides think about: Something Old...you get the idea. And since I have a full to-do list I needed a QUICK card - this took about 15 minutes total. Love it when that happens!

Something Old: vintage dictionary page for butterfly

Something New: white embossed sticker

Something Borrowed: sketch for this week's Clean & Simple challenge

Something Blue: that gorgeous flower. I got it from 2RedBananas. It is like VELVET!!! So awesome and a perfect match to Baja Breeze. It's a super bargain too as you get a ton of flowers for 99 cents!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be around to visit later this evening. Much later. Be sure to visit the rest of the Twinklettes - you know they are just awesome talented and will have beautiful things to share! Links in my sidebar!

If you haven't been by the Cuttlebug Challenge blog lately - please do so. We have a survey going about what you would love to see in the Cuttlebug line. Not often that you get a direct line to a manufacturer so take advantage of it. There are TWO sneak peeks listed in the post now and when we hit 1000 followers we have a few more to show. We were given a goal of 5000 surveys so help us spread the word!!

Have a beautiful day!!

Cuttlebug SNEAK PEEK

It's a BIG day over at the Cuttlebug Challenge!

There's a SURVEY

and PRIZES

and even a SNEAK PEEK of one of the 11 new folders coming this Summer!!

You can see all the fun and info HERE!!

Polka Dotted Bug

Today the Pink Papery Studios team was given another sketch from Valerie. It was such a fun one but has me wishing for bigger nestabilities!!

Amy also asked us to use the newest image in the Simply Sistas line - available soon in the store! This digi image is a lot of fun. And instant gratification too!

The first car I owned had a plaid ceiling. The original ceiling came unglued and so my dad tore apart my car and used some fabric lying around in the garage to replace it. It was really a very cool thing to have. Truth be told, I kinda miss having a decorative ceiling in my car! Seeing this plaid paper reminded me of that and so I wanted to make it a focal point on my card. And who wouldn't love to have a polka dotted Bug? Well, I certainly would!! I paper pieced my bug using the same technique that I originally posted HERE.

Just some pretty flowers to finish this off. The center gem is actually something from the jewelry department - to string a bracelet perhaps. I love re-purposing items from their originally intended use into something else.

Be sure to stop by and see what the rest of the team did with this sketch and image. Their links are in my sidebar!

Whew! Another Wednesday comes to a close. Be sure to come back tomorrow - there is something really cool going on over at the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and YOU get to be a part of it.

Have a beautiful evening! I'm off to do the dinner dishes and fold some laundry! I'm so incredibly thankful to have a family to do these things for. I've found that when I think of it that way, housework doesn't seem quite so horrible!! Maybe next week I'll let you in on my other secret to make housework tolerable!!

Be Inspired #24: Food & The Cutting Cafe

It's Wednesday and you know that means it is time for several items on this blog! Be sure to keep scrolling so that you see my Flutter By Wednesday card and my PPS card.

This week The Cutting Cafe sponsored our Wednesday Be Inspired Challenge. Regina, owner of
The Cutting Cafe, sent the design team some of her digital images to use this week. Really cute cupcake images and tons of saying as well. What is really neat is that she has backgrounds and all kinds of cool stuff to accent the image. If you've never been by the blog/store, make time to check it out!

For this week's challenge, I had 2 ideas and this one took the cake - Hahaha!! Pun totally intended!! Hope you laughed!!

I used the mini images and made cupcake piks!! Only 1 chocolate image because in a world of vanilla, YOU are the chocolate! Each image was colored twice and then cut out so they could be paper toled. The base image was punched and layered onto a scalloped circle that has been embossed with Swiss Dots using my Cuttlebug.

I used my Prismacolors and baby oil to color all my images. For this one, I went back and highlighted the dots with my white gel pen.

I used a small Prima flower and some little gems to jazz up this sweet cupcake!

Who could resist a cupcake with hearts? Mine has accents of my Spica clear glitter pen added.

And finally, the chocolate one. He has no embellishments, but does chocolate really need any?

And this is how I attached each toothpick to cupcake tag.

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today!! It means the world to me. I read each and every comment and I just want you to know how much you bless me.

Be sure to visit the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to see what the rest of the team created for this week's Be Inspired: Food Challenge. I hear that Danni has another tutorial this week and I know there is a really great prize as well! Be sure and load up YOUR creation combining the cuttlebug and food into Mr. Linky!! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Have a beautiful day!! And keep scrolling!!

Flutter By: Polka Dotted Thank You

Happy Wednesday Butterfly Fans!!! It's Wednesday and that means it is time for another Flutter By post. I tell ya, I really look forward to Wednesdays. And this is a very special Flutter By Wednesday so be sure to read all the way to the end of the post!

This is the 50th Flutter By Wednesday that Danni has hosted! It's also special because our featured stamper is Heather this week; Heather and I are also on the Twinkling Tuesday team together and I do not think there is a nicer person in the whole world. Seriously. If you haven't been by her blog, be sure to stop by. You'll be sucked in by her amazing talent and creativity!! As if that wasn't enough, we also have a guest designer: Catherine St. Clair. I don't know Catherine but I took some time to browse through her site and it's filled with wonderful things too!

This week the fabulous Maria Bell designed a sketch for us to use!! Isn't it great?!?! I did modify it just a teensy bit - not on purpose, but as I was working on it I forgot a few of those teensy details!

And here it is. I didn't intend for the WHOLE card to be white, but then I just kinda ran with it. Lots of cuttlebug embossing - you know how much I love that little c-bug (did you see that interview with Provo Craft regarding the Cuttlebug yesterday? Oh my gosh - don't let me get sidetracked!! But let's just say I can hardly wait - WAIT - for summer.)

Be sure to stick around for the Cuttlebug Challenge post and the Pink Papery Studios post too!

NOW - because it's the 50th Flutter By week, Danni has some really great blog candy she is giving away. Visit her blog to leave the link to YOUR FlutterBy creation and a chance to win this cool prize!!

You'll find links to all the Flutter By girls in my sidebar. We are waving good-bye to Ami and Kimmie this week. They both have full plates right now; maybe - we'll see them back here again later in the year!

Twinkling Tuesday Roses

Happy Tuesday Evening!! There is another wonderful sketch this week for Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday. This week we welcome another Temporary Twinkie to the group: Brittany! Brittany's mom Cathy is one of our loyal participants; and a sweet and talented stamper as well.

Look at this wonderful sketch Brittany provided for us:
Isn't it great?!?! Another one that I think I can turn to again and again! I wanted to combine this week's challenge with the Color Challenge on SCS today. But I couldn't make myself stay up late enough to find out what it was so I didn't even start my card until today.

The color challenge was Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze. I have just little scraps of Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze left. But this is what I came up with. The main image is actually something from my stash: it's a "rub-on" from DecoArt that I picked up on clearance years ago at Hobby Lobby. I colored it with my ink pads and my blender pens. I also added some Opal Shimmerz to the roses. I wanted a butterfly on my card and thought my butterfly punch was a little large for the scale of these flowers. So I improvised and used the hydrangea (?) punch from MS to create some on a much smaller scale. What do you think-do they LooK like butterflies?

Here's a detail shot so you can see the Shimmerz. I have several colors of Shimmer It from Pink Papery Studios and wanted to compare and contrast them. Opal came highly recommended by both Jami and Jeanette (of 2 Red Bananas) - and I'm really happy that I listened to them as I think it's a beautiful color.

Last week I was invited to a new group on PCP - the Paper Arts Mingles & Challenges group. It looked pretty interesting so I joined. They have challenges to share and this week's was to "Go Green". Lots of suggestions were given on how to do that. My scalloped mat actually had 2 scallops that didn't cut right. Instead of chunking it, I opted to "make it work" which I thought was a very "green" attitude - and since you all know my thoughts on scraps and such, I bet you agree. And if I hadn't told you, you would've never been the wiser!! Isn't that the great thing about embellishments?

Be sure to visit the rest of the Twinklettes and see what they created with this week's sketch. Their links are over in my sidebar or click HERE to go to the Twinkling Tuesday blog!!

And keep scrolling if this is your first visit today to see my Cuttlebug Spoiler post below!!

Have a beautiful night girls and I will see you here for another jam-packed Wednesday!!

Cuttlebug SPOILER!!

Oh my gosh!! I've always wanted to have the chance to use that in a blog post!!

If you are a fan of the the Cuttlebug - and it's embossing folders and dies and all that jazz, you must RUN (whatever that looks like in blogland *grin*) right now to the Cuttlebug Challenge blog. Take a moment to catch your breath and become a follower of the blog. Then settle in and read the Exclusive Interview with Erik, Cuttlebug Product Dude Extraordinaire at Provo Craft.
He spills the beans on NEW items coming this summer!!!

Okay, cheesy-ness over!! But seriously, go check it out! It's a fun read and you should follow the blog - big things are coming this week and you won't want to miss out on all the fun!!

Welcome

How is your Monday shaping up? My little man is finally well, Spring Break is over and so he is back at Mother's Day Out today. I am enjoying a few blissful hours of quiet!


Pink Papery Studios has a new line coming out called About Town. In addition to the house pictured here there are store fronts of all kinds too!

Amy wanted us to use bright colors in our project. Since this is a digi-stamp, I was able to scale my house really big - it's about 5 x 7. I colored in the image using my Stampin Up Markers and really wanted a saturated look. I think this is very Mary Engebreit in style! The door, roof, and windows were all cut out and popped up on dimensionals. The Welcome was cut with my Cuttlebug.

Have a great day today!! Tomorrow is Twinkling Tuesday and you won't want to miss this week's sketch!!

Thursday Thirteen: My Stamp Desk

Hi everyone! It's late but it's still Thursday here. As I was visiting our Cuttlebug Challenge participants I saw this meme on one of the girls blog and thought it was pretty cool. So I'm giving it a whirl too. Apparently, you just list 13 of any topic. Click the logo up top to go to the official page for more details and to view other lists.

Since I just finished a project, I'll list 13 items still out on my stamp desk:

1. My Fisk-a-teers scissors - gosh I love these things!

2. My clear centering ruler

3. My camera

4. Bag of buttons

5. StazOn Cleaner

6. Black & White Polka Dotted Ribbon (I just love that stuff so much I thought it deserved caps)

7. Paper scraps from my Twinkling Tuesday card this week.

8. Kleenex

9. Adhesive

10. green embroidery floss

11. black ink pad

12. Pomegranate Sprite

13. Mini Cutting Mat

Flutter By & Buttons

It's Post #2 for today!! Be sure to keep scrolling to see my Be Inspired card for the Cuttlebug Challenge.
It's another Flutter By challenge girls! This week Danni challenged us to use a butterfly and buttons in our creation. I sat down to create a butterfly using my butterfly die and embellishing it with buttons. But my dear friend Jacquie sent me this incredible TreasurE of goodies and inside was a HUGE bag of buttons. As I was playing with them, I started laying them out in the shape of a butterfly and really liked the look.

I faux sewed them - using Rebecca's little tip from earlier this week on the big red buttons - and mounted them to my embossed oval.

I really wanted the focus to be on the butterfly so didn't add any other embellishments - not even ribbon! Just a simple stamped sentiment and this card was done! Be sure to visit Danni's blog to see our featured Flutter By girl and the guest stamper this week! We'd love to have you play along - if you do, please use FBW when uploading at online galleries. And leave a comment too - I'd love to come and visit!! You'll find the rest of the team's links over in my sidebars! I can't WAIT to visit them this afternoon and see what they created!!

Be Inspired #23: Punches

Good morning girls! It's Wednesday and so I have several things to share with you today. Be sure to make sure and see the Flutter By card and my Pink Papery Studios project too!

This week for the Be Inspired challenge at the Cuttlebug Challenge, we were asked to use punches in a unique way. Well.

I actually started my journey as a punch artist. I visited the local stamp store for the first time in search of punches. I finally agreed to attend a stamp club meeting and told everyone I was not a stamper. My friend still likes to kid me about that today. I used to have tons of punches but I hadn't used them in years and so this past summer I cleaned out almost all of them and donated them. Well, I sold a few and donated the rest. So I felt really unprepared for this challenge. After lots of thinking, I decided to create my own punched border!



I started by using my scalloped border punch from Stampin Up! After marking the center of every other scallop I used one of my hand held punches to add the stars. It's pretty simple but I'm really starting to like it!!


Paper Makeup Stamps had their March release party this past weekend. The day was full of lots of really great cards, some fabulous chatter and three very cool challenges! One of the challenges Christi issued was a color challenge: Green, Orange and White. So that is where my color combo for this card came from. The stars were stamped in Kiwi Kiss and then the quote was stamped over in Memento Tuxedo Black. The base layer was stamped with the stars and flourish too in Tangerine Tango to add some oomph and interest! Just one little button to finish it off. Not an over the top card but I really wanted to keep the focus on the quote! Be sure to visit the store blog and try out the challenges too - there are prizes up for grabs this week!

Head over to the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and see what the rest of the team created!! You will not be disappointed -- they are all sooooo talented!!

Have a beautiful day girls!!

Birthday Wishes from Chelly

Okay girls, one more card for today, but since it's St. Patrick's Day, it is a perfect fit!! I've been using the fairies from Paper Makeup Stamps quite a bit and this was the last card I created for my DT application. I held off on posting it here because I wanted to give it to my sister-in-law for her birthday (hi girl!) and since I know she reads my blog I wanted it to be a surprise!

I had this idea for a rainbow simmering in my head for several days and even though it took a LONG time to do, I think it is really worth the effort!

To create the rainbow, I took a square of cardstock and covered it with Sticky Strip (Red Liner Tape). With the red cover still on, I ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug with all the circles at one time. Then I carefully removed each circle one at a time and covered it with glitter. I went in order from red to purple. But I recommend starting with the blue first as it was the darkest and there are some sprinkles of it in the light blue.

The base was run through my Cuttlebug using the D'vine Swirls folder and then painted with Peaceful Shimmer It. For the grass, I used my scalloped edge punch, off-setting it to get a jagged look and embossed it with Swiss Dots - after stamping my sentiment. Chelly was colored with my Prismacolors and baby oil and then carefully trimmed out! With the glitter, the Shimmer It and the Stickles on her wings, this card met the first embellishment challenge from PMS. Even though the challenge is over, you should go see this week's. There are actually 3 and there are PRIZES attached!!

I really wanted this card to have dimension and so I used a LOT of pop dots.

Lastly, I wanted to share my little man's Chelly with you. He loves to color and asked if he could color this girl the other day. Once he picked out his colors he went to town. I even got to help! Once he finished he asked to put away the pencils and then said "take a picture". He's seen me take enough pictures of my cards, he wanted to show off his too!

So Happy St. Patrick's Day from us to you! You are such a blessing to me each and every day with your visit, your sweet comments and encouragement and mostly your friendship! I hope I return the favor!!

Spring Twinkles

Happy St. Patrick's Day girls!! It's Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday. This is one of my favorite days of the week! For those you who are new readers, Madelynn is the eight year old daughter of Jessica, of The Whimsical Butterfly. She creates the most amazing card sketches for us each week. As her Twinklettes, we have a LOT of FUN!! This week our challenge is from one of our Temporary Twinkies, Taylor's daughter Ava Grace. She gave us a color combo that at first seemed easy.

I love Close to Cocoa (sorry Heather, I do!*) and I'm pretty fond of greens too. I did manage to find half a sheet of Garden Green. Finding decorative paper to *MATCH* Garden Green was pretty tough though. I only shopped in my stash and managed to finally find a piece that I think is pretty cute. Of course, it's so old that it doesn't have any identifying marks on it! LOL!

The Banana Split Sunday challenge this week at 2 Red Bananas was to create a spring card. I just got an order last week from them and wanted to use the Caring Critters set that Twinklette Jami designed. I actually won this set free from the release party and was anxious to use it. I just love the long eyelashes on this bunny. I had hoped to get to use some of the yummy ribbons that I bought too but I didn't have the right colors. Soon!!

Hubby didn't think there was much spring-y in green and brown but I disagree. All the fresh dirt that gets stirred up to get ready for planting and the variety of greens as new life appears on plants screams spring to me!** I wanted the sweet bunny to look like she was standing up on something - so hopefully that makes sense to you too! Some faux sewing and distressing kept the embellishments pretty simple!!

Thanks for stopping by today! It's so nice to hear what you think!

Be sure to visit the rest of the Twinklettes too! Head over to the Twinkling Tuesday blog to see what our featured Twinklette, Kimmie, has to say and see her super cute card! Be sure to leave her some love!! And then visit all the rest of the girls and see what they came up with!

Bonnie
Christi
Danni
Darla
Debbie
Heather
Jacquie
Jami
Janna
Jen
Jessica
Kim
Kimmie
Rebecca
Sandra
Taylor

As always, we want YOU to play along with us! So create your own project using the colors. When uploading to SCS or PCP, use the keyword MTTSC14 or leave a link over at the main blog!

Have a beautiful day!! I'll be back tomorrow - you know Wednesday's are full of projects around here!!

* Heather has a major aversion to brown. MAJOR. Like Deadly Allergic. We've been giving her a hard time the last few weeks - and she's been dishing it out right back!! Sooo I'm not entirely sure if Heather will be participating this week. But if she does, please be sure to leave her lots of love! She deserves it after the Extreme CardMaking she endured!! LOL!! Love ya girl!!

** That sounds like I have first hand experience in planting spring flowers. I don't. I do have a mother who loves flowers and is happiest when she gets dirt and a gift-card for flowers. And a mother-in-law who is in her garden every day I think! Maybe this year though - Hubby and I were talking last night about really making an effort to keep up the front flower beds this year!

Inky Impressions 1st Design Team Call

How is your Monday going girls? Ours has been really great so far! Hubby was out of town over the weekend and I had to work Saturday night so my little man spent the night at my Mom's house. It was nice to just have QUIET here on Sunday. But as much as I enjoyed it, picking up the little guy was the BRIGHT spot in my day, know what I mean?

Inky Impressions is a new stamp company and she has a design team call going on. I saw the link on Tenia's blog and had to go see what kind of images she has. And OH are they ever adorable! Big, BIG eyes and sweet faces! After reading the blog and seeing the sweet Lili and Angelica images, I decided that I definitely wanted to apply as well! Here are the 2 cards I'm posting for Round 1!

Remember this one? It's still my most favorite card ever!! There are others that are right there, nipping at her heels, but she's still number one! She was colored with my Prismacolor pencils and a blender pencil.

And a close-up of the shading and the fabric swatches with the designer's notes on fabric choices.

And for the second example I am also re-posting this one as I love her too! My favorite little bit is still the fun flock on the dandelion! I watercolored Kirsten on this card.

Here's a close-up shot so you can really see the shimmer of her wings and the fluff of the dandelion.

Well, that is it for today. Head over to Inky Impressions - you can find the details on the Design Team call HERE and see the examples of Lili and Angelica HERE (scroll all the way to the bottom).

I want to go get some stamping done during naptime today so I better scurry! Thanks so much for always coming by to visit! I just noticed today that my hits were over 11,000! I treasure each of you and hope that you are blessed each day by your visit!

Have a beautiful day and I'll see you back here tomorrow for Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday!

PMS Blog Hop & Party

Good morning girls!! I hope you had a wonderful sleep! I can't help it, I'm pre-writing this and curling up in bed is the next thing on my list! I hope I can sleep though - I'm so excited about the PMS blog hop today. I can't wait to see all the wonderful creations. Plus all the chatter I know will be going on, the challenges and the announcement of the design team.

If you've made it here from Sara's blog then you are right on track, enjoying all the eye candy in the pre-party hop! If not, head over to the PMS blog - you won't want to miss any of the stops I know!!

I used Kirsten for my card today. I *think* she might be my favorite fairy. At least until I stamp another one. Or the next release. To be honest, they will all switch rank on a regular basis I believe!!

I stamped her in Memento Tuxedo Black and then watercolored her using my SU stamp pads and Fantastix. I really like those little sticks but I'm not sure I'm completely sold on them yet!

I used my new Spica glitter pen to add sparkles to her fairy breath (I saw Tina do that the other day and thought it was a great idea) and her cheeks. Her wings and her fairy curl have Stickles on them. My favorite little touch though is the dandelion which has been coated in Fun Flock!

If you are just now hearing about Paper Makeup Stamps, they are wonderfully, deeply etched red rubber and closely trimmed. LOVE THAT!! Plus Katie offers them in bare rubber or already mounted on EZ Mount. I ordered Chelly on EZ Mount and the other fairies in bare rubber. Even using Kirsten in bare rubber she stamped beautifully and cleanly. LOVE THAT TOO!

The layout for my card is from this week's VivaLaVerve sketch. This is actually the second card base I made for my Kirsten image. I had such grief with this layout which is crazy because it's pretty simple!

Thanks for hopping on over today! I hope my card brought a smile to your face! It's time to send you on over to Shaela's blog. I lifted the following information from the PMS blog for your reference here on the party details:

{snip} Here's a breakdown of our party plans!

Just before the party starts at 3 EST (that's 2 CST, 1 mountain time, and 12 for west coasters!) I'll announce the winner of the blog banner giveaway.

3:00 - Then to kick off the party there will be some sneaks and some digis! Woot!

3:30 - Christi will issue our first challenge. There is NO time limit on these, but they will be spaced out for those that want to play along as the party goes on.

4:00 - Playin' some games, givin' away some goods...

4:30 - Christi will issue challenge number 2!

5:00 - The Design Team will be announced!!!

5:30 - Christi will issue challenge number 3! From that point on we will just play and chat and share our creations. I'm so so so excited! I hope to see everyone there!!! {snip}

Come join in all the fun!! The chit chat will be taking place in the PMS forum at PCP.

ETA: Here's the complete list of blogs

Lisa Kind

Jennifer Greco

Tangii Crain
Danyel Owens
Lisa McKinney

Dawn Knight

Melissa Craig

Ashley Newell

Ceal Pritchett
Tina Hale

Jamie Morris
Shannon Bracken

Cheryl Penner

Tenia Nelson
Nancy Bush

Joni Wilson
Kimberlee Doktor
Sara Henton

Cassie Larson

Shaela Odd
Heather Lee-Reppen

Kim Stewart

Anita Hovey

Brandi Burns

Dawn Barrett

Tina Blasdell

Christi Thorsen
Katie Cotton

GOOOOOOO Ian!!

Hey girls!! It is a wonderful Saturday here. I don't know how cold it is as I haven't been out yet but the sun is shining brightly and there is no snow or ice. That's great since last night they were predicting doom and gloom for today!!

I was happy to finally sit down last night and MAKE myself do the Club Anya sketch for this week. Circles always throw me and I wasn't sure what to do about that half circle in the sketch. I finally decided to create a pom-pom again to go with my Cheer Anya. I used my scalloped nesties this time and I think that it really turned out great this time!

I used grey and red so that my Cheer Anya could cheer on Baseball Ian over on Jacquie's blog. I am very excited about Baseball Ian. My baby brother was quite the pitcher and Baseball Ian reminds me of him and going to watch his games. I didn't make every game but I tried to make a bunch! So Baseball Ian reminds me of those good times with my family.

Lots of things to do around here today. I know you've got busy schedules too so I am really happy that you take the time and effort to stop by here. You put a smile on my face daily!!

Have a beautiful day!

Don't forget that tomorrow is a big blog hopping day!! The Club Anya hop kicks off at 7 am and wraps up at Noon with the big reveal. I can't wait to see the mystery Anya! And then the PMS (Paper Makeup Stamps in case you are a new visitor) Party starts at 11 am with challenges, a blog hop and lots of chatter. We've been chatting it up over at PCP - such a neat group of ladies - you should come join in!! You can find the PMS Party Blinkie at the top of my sidebar!! Katie and Christi have been hinting at all the prep work and I am so excited to see what they have in store for us!!

Silver Flowers

Good afternoon girls!! Today we had a dusting of snow outside. I was hoping for a little more snow - crazy as there were tons of accidents this morning with people out driving. It's all melted away now and the air is crisp and cold!!

Are you ready for the weekend? Sunday is going to be a great day!! There's the Club Anya blog hop in the morning (7 am to Noon) and then at 11 am (est) the PMS Party begins!! WooHoo! I can hardly wait!!! Both will be tons of fun I can tell you!! Stamping and blog hopping with my most favorite stampers in the world? I can hardly stand the wait!! Will you be there?

Today I wanted to share the ATC that I made for this month at my local stamp club. Our theme was to use black, white and silver as that is one of the gals favorite color combos. I just love this quote. It's from Paper Makeup Stamps and is the small one. I really love that Katie offers them in 2 sizes - how smart is she?!?!!??! I overstamped the quote in Silver ink with the Happy Harmony set from SU. I love that set and can't imagine ever getting rid of it. I used the Textile embossing folder for the base and the flowers were in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. A whole bunch for only 77 cents - what a bargain!! As I was working on this it of course took a turn and I ended up with what you see here. It is definitely inspired by the Banana Split Sketch this week over at 2 Red Bananas. Another new awesome stamp store! So even though it doesn't use 2RB stamps, I'm going to enter it there too. And since I just got my order from there I might just have to make a second entry too!

I also wanted to share with you the Ready Set Create Altered Sampler. I am so happy to say that I have a project in this issue. It's an ezine so you download it and can browse through it right away! Several other gals from the Cuttlebug Challenge team have projects in there as well - and OH MY WOW!!! It's full of really wonderful ideas and I'm not just saying that because I'm in there!! *grin* It's only 4 bucks for 65 pages with very few ads - so you are getting tons of ideas!! Gotta love that!

This is my last card for today girls! This week Danni asked the Flutter By to create a card with butterflies and flowers.

I really like the Season of Friendship tree and I don't think that this is a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not entirely sure if I love this card or if I hate it.

Do you see my butterfly - peeking out there on the left? And the cute bluebird tweeting away? My little man came in while I was finishing this and after he "climbed up" he pointed out the flowers - and tried to smell them - and pointed out the birdie. No matter what, he loved this card !

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today! Be sure to visit the rest of the Flutter By team and see how they combined butterflies and flowers today! Start at Danni's blog

and get all the information for this week! And if you join in, please use keyword FBW so that we can find your creation easily!!

Finally, this Sunday is the big PMS (that's Paper Makeup Stamps) release party! It's going to be an all day event and will be sure to be lots of fun! There is a big blog hop planned and I'm sure there will lots of chatter too over in the PMS group at PCP.

In the Rain

Wednesday's are also challenge day for Pink Papery Studios. Valerie created another sketch for us to use. We were also give the task of using Bright Pink, Turquoise and Black.

This week we are all featuring In the Rain from the Simply Sistas line. I colored my image with my prismacolors and baby oil. Where I live we don't get much rain, certainly not enough to make a perfectly coordinated rain ensemble a practical outfit. But with stamping, you can make anything and so I just imagine that my girl is a chic Seattle gal with perfectly matched galoshes, rain coat and umbrella.

I did cut out and pop us the umbrella for some dimension. The rain puddle and rain drops were shaded light blue and the I added Diamond Glaze (by Judikins) to it as well as the umbrella.

Stop by the rest of the girls and see what they came up with! All their links are in the sidebar!

I still have one post left for today so don't hurry off!

Be Inspired #22: Glitter

Happy Wednesday girls! I hope you have got your drink of choice by your side and have a few moments. 3 posts today so be sure to "just keep scrolling"

First up is the Be Inspired Challenge for the Cuttlebug Challenge. For this week we were challenged to use glitter in our creations. Our sponsor this week is Sweet-N-Sassy stamps and I used the butterfly image for my card.


I colored it in with my markers and then ran it through my Xyron upside down so that the adhesive was applied to the front - or colored side - of my butterfly. Then I covered it in ultra fine clear glitter. Oh it is sooo shimmery!!

For the base I used the Harlequin die and cut out the harlequin shapes from a multitude of glittered papers from a DCWV stack. After adhering them to my black base I added gemstones at the points and then attached it to my base with dimensionals.

What do you think? It's very bright and colorful and definitely not my usual style. One minute I adore it and then the next I think it's too much and too busy.

Be sure to visit the Cuttlebug Challenge blog for more info on this week's sponsor and to see the rest of the design team's creation.