Simply Fabulous

Hey ladies! Thanks for stopping by. I'm so excited for this card.  I just love the way it turned out..just like I pictured in my head.  Don't you love when that happens? 

I am playing along with a challenge that I've not ever played. It's called Retro Sketches. This weeks sketch  is just adorable and its from a card that Kasia made last year.  Here is the sketch: 

And here is what I did with it. 

 And yes, once again I am playing with the "u" from Verve. I really like how this card came out. Hope you do,too! Laters..

Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Operation Julie's Smile blog hop! I'm so excited to be a part of this. The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae. You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more. What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child. It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out. But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would "work out payments" with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the "payments" applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.


Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight! Because she is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done. It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click. Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool. The donation button is at the top right side of my blog if you'd like to help out!


You should have come here from Debby's blog. If you didn't, you can always head over to Sweet Stamp Shop blog to see the complete list. You don't want to miss one single project! You have the entire weekend to stop in and comment to be eligible for prizes! That's right...PRIZES! There are over $2,500 worth of prizes that have been donated and will be awarded - maybe to you! Prizes will be drawn 3 ways: Paypal donations, blog comments, & blog hop hosts.

A complete list of sponsors is also available at the Sweet Stamp Shop blog.

Ok, so without further ado, here is my card:

I just love my Lil' Inker acorns and thought that they went perfectly with the pocket die from WPlus9. I mean, who doesn't love a pocketful of...acorns...yes, acorns. ;)

I hope you liked it! The next stop on the hop is the PSA Stamp Camp blog. Make sure you leave a comment here before you leave so you can increase your chances of winning a prize! Laters!

nuts about you!

Hey there! Dropping in today with the CUTEST little stamp set. It's called the Acorn die and stamp set from Lil' Inker. It's so much fun to play with! 


I paired it up with this week's Card Patterns sketch, seen here:

And came up with this:

Cute, right? Those acorns are so neat and easy to cut...like butter! They even come with various faces and sentiments.  I also used the Sentiment Flags, also from Lil' Inker, to add the sentiment. Perfect!


That's it for today. Tomorrow is World Card Making Day...are you entered in the blog hop yet?!?! 

Before & After

Hello there! Happy Tuesday!  Today, I have a card for you that is part of a challenge over at the Papertrey Posse.  Cathy is our hostess for June and she challenged us to take a card we had done before and make it over basically. A before and after. We all have those cards that we think maybe just need a little something else after we have already posted them, right?


My card came from this post. I liked the card well enough, but it seemed like it was not grounded enough or was missing something. Of course, when I went to make changes I tore the original so I had to actually MAKE another card, not just add to the existing one, but whatever. Haha.


So, here is the "before" shot:

And the "after":

Sorry about the difference in the picture tone. I'm going to blame that on the cloudy skies we have today. :) For the "after", I decided to add a base layer of Early Espresso. It felt so naked as a one layer and I felt like it needed some "heavy" to it. I also added clouds from my new Lil Inker Designs set called "Rainbow's & Clouds". The clouds are perforated and so cute! I just added a little Dazzling Diamonds to them and that's it. I really think the card looks better now..ok, maybe just to me lol..but that's my before and after. If you get a chance, please come over and play along with us. There are 2 challenges for June and you still have plenty of time to play along. Thanks for stopping by!

Brighter..

Hello there. It's Monday and today is my first day back at work in almost 2 weeks. Wow. I'm sure my inbox is ridiculously full. Ugh.


Anyway, today I have a card for the Color Cue challenge.

As soon as I saw those colors,  I knew it was time to finally get out my Lil' Inker Designs, Rainbows & Clouds set and die! This is the cutest little set. There are perforated clouds (2) and 2 different rainbow options. Plus, the actual arcs on the rainbow are separate, so you can make all sorts of color or pattern combinations! Here is my card:

I decided to try my hand at a glittery rainbow. Um..Ok, glitter is NOT easy to play with when you're doing little spaces like this and also when the pieces need to touch. Yeesh..I noticed after I photographed it that the green moved down into the blue a bit...DON'T GO LOOK!!..lol. I still love the card, though. So fun and cheery and I know exactly who it's being mailed to today. :) 

Well, I better get ready for work and for the barrage of craziness that I am sure is going to ensue once I get there. Have a wonderful day!!

Whirly Skirt

Hola, chicas {and any chicos that happen to drop in}! It's almost Thursday, people!  Ah, the weekend is SOOOO close. I cannot wait. I've got some Spring shopping to do and I'm ready to get to it! :)  I need clothes for me..clothes for Ava...and even "clothes" for the house in the form of new patio cushions..lol.

So, back to crafting. I took a peek at this week's Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab and IMMEDIATELY knew the card I wanted to make. I totally love my pinwheels and totally love my Background Basics: Chevrons and this card totally makes use of both of them!


First, though, here is this week's trigger:

Is that skirt not fun? It reminds me of skirts that you wear on a cool picnic and it blows in the wind. Or the skirt you wear to an outdoor festival and you just twirl around. Either way, I thought of twirling, wind, and fun which of course led me straight to my Pinwheels set and die from Lil' Inker. Have you bought yours yet? They are So cool. One thing I did do, though, was to cut my pinwheels down after I made them. For this card, I wanted them to be a tad smaller than they actually are so I just trimmed them up a bit to make a "mini-pin"..lol. Sort of like a mani-pedi without the OPI polish..lol. :)


So, enough jibber jabber, here is my card:

Fun right?? I just adore this card, though I am starting to become QUITE annoyed with my photography skills! Everything seems to be a bit yellow as compared to other folks photos. :(


Anyway, so that's all I have for you tonight. Hope the rest of your week is great!

Happy (simple) Baby Boy!

Hello! Sorry i've been such a sporadic blogger lately. Life is getting in the way of my "me" time! I'm home today, though, so I'm going to try to get a few things done! I miss stamping - especially since I'm still buying more stuff..lol

Today I made this simple little baby boy set for this week's Color Throwdown challenge. The sponsor this week is Lil' Inker Designs, owned by my great buddy Laura Pryor! She is such a joy to know and the pinwheel die and stamp set is a favorite of mine.

Here are this week's colors:

We were to use Navy, White, and one other color. Well, my favorite combo with navy and white is kraft. I think it's such a calm and masculine combination.



And here is my project:

The card also works for this week's Card Patterns sketch, seen here:

Here is a close-up of the card:

I really wanted to make something simple, but cute. I think this fits! We have a new baby in our family, so this gift bag will be filled with gifts for Mom and baby and shipped off to Seattle today!


I hope you get a chance to play along with both the Color Throwdown and Card Patterns challenges this week. There are great prizes to be had on both!!


Have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!!

Pinwheels!!!!

Hello and Happy Tuesday! Let me just tell you guys how excited I am about this card. My friend, Laura, owns Lil' Inker Designs and has a new stamp set and die just released last week. It is a pinwheel die with the matching sentiment stamps. They are so dang fantastic. I have been waiting for weeks for this to make its' debut and I must say that I totally love it! Ok, let me show you the card and then i'll talk more about the product :)

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

And here is my card:

Is that die not to die for? I mean, really..I just love it. The sentiments,too, are so neat. They are:


You mean the whirl to me
Blowing you Kisses
You spin me right 'round
Happy Baby Boy
Sweet Baby Girl
I miss having you 'round
Love makes the whirl go 'round
Thank You
Your generosity blows me away


This was so easy to create these little pinwheels. Just die cut and attach. I have so many ideas in my head for this little set. So cute! You guys have to stop in at the shop and take a peek at some of Laura's samples with this set. Here is the link: Lil' Inker .


Well, that's it for me. Have a wonderful rest of the day! Thank you for stopping by!




Stamps: Pinwheel (Lil' Inker)
Card Stock: Ocean Tide, Orange Zest (Papertrey); Alphabet Soup Boy dsp (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Real Red (SU)
Extras: Ocean Tide saddle stitch ribbon, Buttons, Medium scallop border (Papertrey); Square Lattice Folder (SU)