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!!

Cheerleaders Always Twinkle!

Happy Tuesday girls!! You know what that means - Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays!! This week Madelynn's little brother Jack provided a sketch for us as our Temporary Twinkie this week! OH.MY.WOW!! It's a great one! Jack apparently like paper piercing and was sure to let us know that! Check it out:

Isn't it great?!?! I see this going in the file to be used again and again! I had a completely different card in mind but as I was looking for patterned paper, I saw this red paper and cheerleader paper that I bought to go with my Cheer Anya. And so, I took a detour!!

I colored Anya with my copics, colored pencils and baby oil. Her hair is striped because my RSF Jacquie has been putting stripes in her Anya's hair and I always think it looks waaay cool! Not sure if mine is as cool - but I'm hoping!!!

I couldn't find my border punch from SU so I just made my own notebook paper effect with a hole punch and scissors. I cute the quote out and trimmed it really close, putting emphasis on the "extra".

And then finished it on the inside even! I could easily send this card off to each of you - are you all have the extra!! Extra-special, Extra-nice, Extra-talented!!

Now, this week our Featured Twinkie is Kim so be sure to head over to the Twinkling Tuesdays blog to see her card and leave her some love! Then be sure to check out the rest of the Twinkies too! They are each aaah-maaazing and you won't regret it!!

Bonnie
Christi

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

It's Tuesday Again, Let's Twinkle!

Good morning girls!! Are you having a great Tuesday? Things are pretty calm around here - for the moment!! Tuesdays are Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays where we get an Amazing Sketch from 8 year old Madelynn. And let me tell you - this week's was GREAT!! I love the little dots in the corner!!

My card turned out completely different from what I originally sat down to create. It was late and so I went in to create a really quick and easy card. I started with the sentiment segment of the card. A few years ago I ordered some flowers off ebay that were all assembled and put together. I don't remember what I paid but I remember thinking it was a steal when I got the box in. I have TONS of these flowers and so I knew I wanted to use one of them. Many of them have little sentiment tags hanging off the middle. I chose this one because I loved the colors. And brights are colors I don't use very often!

I colored my bird with my ink pads, some water and a Fantastix brush/pen/thing.... It was really nice because it has a sharp point so it was easy to control and get into the tiny spaces. I don't know if the coloring is true to a real bird in life, but I sure think it would be a pretty one if it were! I got a crazy idea to add a branch for my bird and then somehow in the middle of that, I dropped the oval mat and decided to cut out the entire branch from my embossed folder. So much for quick and easy! As I was cutting it out with my exacto blade I thought of all those gals that use to cut out those intricate scrapbook titles. Wowza - I knew they were amazing!! While I love the effect, I think I'll be looking for some sort of branch die cut for future use! I did flip the sketch twice for my layout.

Love the depth here. I adhered some of the leaves/stems with glue so they were flat and the other with dimensionals. Hopefully it looks like a real tree with overlapping branches. Some gems in the corner and one for the birds eye and this card was done!

As I looked at the completed card, I could see some of my dimensionals along the top edge and the white was just glaring!! So I took my Fantastix and my ink pad and colored the edges. It might be slightly O&C (obsessive & compulsive) but it just took a few seconds and really polished it off!

Thanks so much for visiting today! I just love it that stop by! I hope you have a beautiful day today. Do stop by the rest of the Twinkle Team and see their cards - I can't wait to see them myself!! And Heather is our featured Twinkie this week over on the Twinkling Tuesdays blog! As always, we want you to join us. Please use code MTTSC12 when uploading your card to an online gallery. Or leave us a link to your blog post by leaving the link on the Twinkling Tuesdays blog! Here are the links to the rest of the girls blogs! We welcome Darla this week to our team! She's very special as she introduced Madelynn's mommy Jessica to stamping and so you might say that we wouldn't be here today without her influence!!!

Bonnie
Darla
Christi
Danni
Debbie
Heather
Jacquie
Jami
Janna
Jen
Jessica (a.k.a. Mommy :)
Kim
Kimmie
Rebecca
Sandra
Taylor

Take 2...

Good Monday morning girls!! How are you today? It seems like so many of my friends are sick these days. And chocolate cures everything - right? Wouldn't that be nice?

Just a quick Nurse Anya card I put together over the weekend. The background paper is from a Making Memories pad that my sweet friend Eva sent me a few sheets of. She knew I was wanting it and blessed me with several sheets plus some really great journaling die cuts and sparkly butterflies! She knows me well! Thanks Eva!

This card was going to end up completely different. We fought and fought and finally the card won. Good thing too as I think it's much cuter this way than the original layout I had planned.

My Nurse Anya was inspired by my childhood visits to our pediatrician. Dr. Joe was a kind, old man and his wife was the receptionist and nurse. She was always so soft-spoken and greeted us with a big smile as if our presence in the waiting room had completely made her week! I hated getting shots but she always held my hand and talked to me gently to help calm me down! It was a sad, sad day in our household when Dr. Joe retired. I used silver colored pencils for her hair that I blended with baby oil. Then added some white strands with a gel pen.

I hope you have a beautiful day today! I have a busy day planned divided between my stamp space and my office. Somewhere in there I am going to do a bit of housecleaning too!

Chocolate Cures Everything!

Hey girls! I hope it's beautiful where you are today; the weather here has been just wonderful for the past few days!

Several years ago when I was teaching, we were at lunch one day and the discussion turned to chocolate and how much we loved it and what a great pick-me-up it was. Teaching 9th graders was a joy for the most part but definitely challenging!! LOL!! I still laugh when I think of that day! All women but one man - an older guy who loved to laugh and tell jokes and give us all a hard time. Phenomenal math teacher as well. Anyway, he was sitting quietly working and we were all talking and he got sooooo red b/c one of the gals mentioned that chocolate was a great aphrodisiac. And then when she noticed he was embarrassed she really exaggerated it. Oh, he tormented us every day so it was nice to be able to turn the tables for once!!

Anyway, I received 2 new Anyas in the mail on Friday and was anxious to get the sketch challenge that Marie has posted on The Greeting Farm blog done. It's a wonderful sketch and I know I'll use it again.

I made a get well card and knew that I was going to include some chocolate in the card for the recipient. I remembered that day at school and decided to look up the other health benefits of chocolate. I found links that said it was a good remedy for a cough (I'll try that next time I have one) and various other things. It's a well known fact in lots of my gal pals that dark chocolate is good for you. But I also found two cute signs regarding chocolate as well and had to share them. They are from the Olive Barn and there are lots of cute things over there!!

Since I knew my card was going to include chocolate I wanted to use brown in my color scheme. I thought about using pink and making Nurse Anya a candy-stripper. But then I found an awesome sheet of red label print paper. It reminded me slightly of vintage labels and I'm passing it off as a medicine label! I paper pieced her dress and hat and used copics for the coloring. She's a great nurse as she knows that chocolate milk and a big chocolate truffle are sure to make her patient feel better!

Thanks for stopping by today! I so appreciate it girl! I have a long list of stamping I want to get done today so be sure to check back - I don't know if I'll upload them all immediately or if I'll spread them out over the week. Plus a present to finish for my mom's birthday! Have a beautiful day, okay?

Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge 18: Shaped Cards

Hi Girls!! Oh, I've missed you!! Have you missed me? Lie and just say yes!!! Had such a wonderful time at my in-laws. My SIL cranked out these gorgeous crocheted flowers - like 29 of them in all for shower favors. I stamped and embossed some little cards to mount them on. They looked so pretty on the table and I think everyone loved them. I know I love the 2 I brought home! My MIL took care of the other details like cake and punch and flowers. I am really glad that we made the effort to throw the shower for my other SIL. It won't be long until I'll have a nephew - well, I already have a nephew and niece but this is one that I'll know from the time he's born! Anyway, you know what I mean, right???? He'll be a gift from God - aren't they all???

I didn't get much stamping done in the last week and so it's nice to be home and back at it. The first project I worked on was this weeks Cuttlebug Be Inspired #18 Challenge. We were to create a shaped card this week. When I sat down at my desk, I had lots of ideas: heart, flower, baby bottle and then I spied little miss Anya was peeking out at me. I had another digi Dorothy Anya printed off and thought I would use her. Since I spent part of my time in Kansas and saw lots of "Dorothy" and "Wizard of Oz" references at the travel stop, I was inspired to pick her up.

I used a Summer Sun base cut to 4 3/8 x 9 that I then ran through the Houndstooth embossing folder in my Cuttlebug machine. Using a sponge, I aged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then with a Gold Encore pad. I also trimmed it to resemble a rambling, curvy road. Miss Anya and Toto were colored with my Copics and Prismacolor pencils. I created my own sentiment and mounted it with my Curly Label punch from Stampin Up! Cherry Red glitter was added to her slippers and the edge of the punch. I hope you enjoy it!

Be sure to stop by the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and see the creations from the rest of the team!

I'll be working on slowly catching up with visiting each of you this week as well. Thanks for coming by today! I so enjoyed getting to spend some time with you! If you participate in any of these challenges, be sure to let me know as I'd love to visit and see what you created!

Have a beautiful day girls!!

I'm finally Twinkling Today!

Hi girls! I hope you are having a great Tuesday so far! Today Denny's offered a free grand slam breakfast to anyone in America. So cool! I love to go out for breakfast and it was sooo yummy today. Packed of course. The first one was a 30 min wait so I decided to head to the one across town as I needed to run an errand over there anyway. The wait was much shorter and the little man and I had a yummy breakfast. He ate 2 whole pancakes - I couldn't believe it!! Did any of you go and enjoy Denny's generosity?

But you didn't come to hear me talk about food did you? Today is a very special Tuesday for the Twinkle Team. Jessica, mom to our 8 year old sketch artist Madelynn is celebrating her 1 year blog anniversary!! Happy Anniversary Jess! Be sure to stop by her place, The Whimsical Butterfly as she has some blog candy up that is wonderful - and full of some of her favorite things!! Second we are debuting Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays blog!! That's right, a special place for you to check out each week's sketch and then link up your creation using the sketch so that all the Twinklettes can come round and see it!! Visiting is so much part of the fun, so please bookmark it, follow it, whatever and then play along!! And last, but not least, we have a new Twinklette in our group - the divine Heather Schlatter!! Such a sweetheart!! {hi heather!} So glad you're a Twinklette now!! Didn't Madelynn create a fantastic sketch this week!?!?! LOVE IT GIRL!!!

I have to tell you that this card just took on a mind of it's own and kept getting more. and then more. and then MORE. It took forever to create. One minute I adore it. The next I think it's horrible as I "puked it all up" (phrase some of the Twinklette's use). Then I love it again.

I bought Dorothy Anya as a digital download a few weeks ago but never got around to using her. Poor Anya, I love ya girl!! So I knew I wanted to use her (honestly, I was reaching for Bella Blossom but thought I probably shouldn't use it *AGAIN*). If I had a little girl, you know I'd be hunting down a cute little pink and black pinafore just like Anya's. Heck, I'd hunt one down for me if I thought I could get away with it!! LOL!!

She is colored with markers. I used Copics on her hair. I own 5 copics: gray, blender and then 3 shades of brown. How did I do? (see her pearl barrette? told you this card just kept going!!). I almost used this card as an excuse to go get some oval nesties; but decided to use my Creative Memories cutter system instead. And the pink edging - well....that's a Martha Stewart punch that has been altered (mutilated?) into an oval border. Take a close look and see all the little pearls in the spaces. That's what started it all. From there, the pearls just kinda kept jumping onto the card! I did leave off the sentiment (sorry Madelynn) as I just couldn't seem to get it to fit. My Anya ended up taking up a lot more space than I originally intended. I should've stuck with a 5 1/2" square card instead of using a 5" one.

And here's a detail shot of Anya's sweet puppy. He's been flocked in Teddy Bear Tan and Black Fun Flock. If I thought this house could handle one more dog, I'd get one of those cute little teacup terriers. Isn't he just the sweetest!! *FYI: My pink is Pretty in Pink. I've really been fighting the lighting on this card.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Twinklettes did for this week's sketch. I'm off to visit them all myself!!

Bonnie Sharp
Christi Thorsen
Danni Bindel
Debbie Lee

Heather Schlatter
Jacquie Peifer
Jami Bova
Janna Hull
Jennifer Greco
Jessica Diedrich
Kim Ross
Kimmie Doktor
Rebecca Ednie
Sandra McLean
Taylor Usry

I'll be back tomorrow with my PPS card and my FlutterBy card. I totally goofed and forgot that we changed the deadline for our Cuttlebug Challenge cards so I didn't make one for this week. {hanging my head}. I'm also leaving town so don't know how much I'll be around until next week. I might *MIGHT* get some stuff photographed to share with you while I'm gone. But I still need to do some laundry and all that jazz that goes with preparing to leave.

Thanks so much for stopping by today - I can't wait to hear what you think of today's card. Is it wonderful? Or over-done? Be honest!! And I'll be "seeing ya'll soon!!"