Happy Blogoversary to me with BLOG CANDY and My Digital Studio

Wow, I was just looking back at my first blog post and it was 4/5/08!  I have had this blog for over two years now, I can't believe it!  So obviously I haven't been paying attention and am a little late (20 days late) but oh well, how about some fun blog candy to celebrate?!

But first, lets check out one more MDS (My Digital Studio) project I did recently.  This page is of my friend Ana's kiddos.  Aren't they cute?!  Samuel (aka Samo) is so funny and fun to be around!  I've been getting to know him over the past 2.5 years and he is a riot, I love it when he comes to work and I get to entertain him. :)  The other cute little tottlet is his sister Eva.  She is going to be a year soon, I can't believe it!  This kid is already talking, has been for a few months, saying Mama and what not, she must learn it from her big brother.  Anyway, they are so sweet together. Samo is such a good big brother, plays with Eva, kisses her, feeds her and makes her laugh.  They are cute together.  So here is the page I made of them with Ana's permission.  I used one of the MDS Designer Templates Rock-a-bye Girl.  It was so quick and easy to put together, only took about 15 minutes.  I hope Ana and her family like it!

Now that you have had plenty of time to check out those adorable faces, let's get to the blog candy!  Here is what I am offering:

• Emerency Birthday Card Kit Supplies (Cardstock, embelishments & boxes)
• Holiday Best Stamp Set
• Sheer Hunter Ribbon
• Sheet of Stickers
• Misc colored & shaped brads

There are multiple ways you can win.  You must leave a comment for each entry in the comment section, so I know how many entries you submitted.  Winner will be picked on April 30th, 2010 at 8:00 pm PDT, so be sure to have you entries in before then.  Here's how you can enter!

• Leave a comment telling me your favorite of the new SU! colors.  (not sure, go back to this post)
• Become a follower on this blog- on the right
• Become a fan on my Facebook Fan page
• Go to my webpage and sign up to be on my maililng list, click here.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful day!

Here's to you Senior Shikiar!

My boss is retiring in the next few weeks. :(  While we aren't super close, I do like him and will be sad to see him go.  It is kinda weird to even think about, and of course it is making me a little anxious and eager for my own change.  Although it won't change my job much overall, it does have some underlying implications- my foundation is shifting.  I just have to remember that the only thing that is guaranteed in life is change and here it is! 

Soooooo, what do you care?  Well, I make most of the cards for my co-workers work related occassions (office birthdays, going away, congratulations, etc).  I have another friend in a different department down the hall who makes the cards for her group :).  It is fun and rewarding to do.  Anyway, I made a retirement card for my boss.  Kept it masculine and simple, used some of my new DSP from the summer mini.  I used a stamped image my friend Tracey sent me a long time ago, I was just waiting for the right occassion and here it is!  I think it is appropriate, don't you?  I make these cards big (6X6) so everyone has room to sign.

Anyway, hope you have a day similar to this little Riley here (Hannah Stamps), nice and relaxing.  Remember to go with the flow and roll with the changes! 

Happy Earth Day!

Did you know today is Earth Day?!  Wow, what a WONDERFUL day to celebrate, I mean after all, if it wasn't for thsi planet, we wouldn't be here right!  I love this place!  What wonders it holds, the amazing sights, the brilliant colors, it is just fabulous.  Although I am pretty good at using biodegradable projects and recycling, I want to do a little more today, I want to find one more thing I can do better...and here is why- check this dump out in the middle of the Pacific! 

This crazy place is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, twice the size of Texas!  Apparently on is forming in the Atlantic as well.  Does that blow your mind or what?!?! 

So I don't want to be a total downer today, I just want us all to do our part, sounds easy enough right.  Remember, in addition to reducing waste and recycling, we can REUSE too.  Check this card out I made last night!  I cut, cleaned and flattened a Vanilla Coke can to make the flowers.  Simply put them through my Big Shot (this sucker can cut up to 50+ different kinds of material- leather, fabric, certain types of metal...) with my Flowers Layers #3 die and whalah!

In addition, I aways keep my useable paper scraps unless they are about the size of a quarter or smaller (I keep those sometimes too!) and this card used scraps from Night and Day DSP, Real Red, Basic Black and Apricot Appeal Card Stock.  Anyway, just think of all the possibilities if you reuse other things and keep scraps... ENDLESS!

So go have a great day!  Apreciate the Planet and do something good for it.  In the end you'll be doing something good for you too!!!

CHEERS!

Artisan Creation

If you read my blog you know I was going to enter Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Award contest but it didn't happen.  In the end I struggled with my second 3D project and after making several projects that didn't turn out as I wanted, I decided next year was going to be my year.  :)  I have submitted one of those projects to a different contest and hope to win (cross your fingers!) but that leaves me with several other projects to share with you!  Yeah! 

This card was to be one of the five submitted.  I like this card and the way it feels.  The Woodgrain Background Stamp is perfect for this and I used a few other sets for the owl and leaves.  I embossed the leaves so they would have a little more life too them and then stuffed them in the owl's little house, I think it gives the card good dimension.  What do you think?  I'd love to hear you comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blissfully Wed

It has been almost 4 years since I got married.  I can't believe how time flies!  Let's be honest, not everything in marriage is blissful, I mean nothing in life is perfect, but I sure do love my husband and feel happy to have him!  He is so considerate, tries so hard and is so funny!   He is my goofball.  :) Ahhhhh....  I was thinking about he and I and our marriage the other when I made a few wedding cards.  Hopefully, whomever receives these cards will be equally as lucky.  

This first card is with the set Together Forever, such a fun set.  I made the card using Basic Black, Ballet Blue and Whisper White, the accents are from my SU! Pretties Kit.  The Ballet Blue is one of the many colors that will be retiring when the new SU! catalog comes out.  I'll be sad to see this one go as it was one of my favorite colors SU! offered.  I'll just have to pick a new favorite and I am sure that won't be hard to to!

This next card is features the Medallion Stamp and Everything Nice.  Main color beside B&W is Pretty in Pink- which I am happy to say will be sticking around for a while.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Please do leave comments if you have any.  Have a wonderful afternoon!

Rub-a-dub-dub, two girls in the tub

This is my daughter Sophie and her friend Ashley in the tub last new years eve.  They had a ton of fun together dumping water on one another, splashing and drinking tub water- YUCK!  They are so funny, it's like if you tell them that is yucky they will do it some more.  We event took a video of them doing it and we were saying, "no, don't drink the tub water, that's yucky" and they said, "no Mommy, it is YUMMY!"  Ewwww...gross!  Oh well, kids will be kids and maybe they are just building immunity right... whatever makes you feel better!  Anyway, just whipped this up with My Digital Studio tonight in about 20 minutes.

Thanks for stopping and have a great night!

XOXOXO

Last night I was playing with My Digital Studio (MDS).  I offered to make a few pages for a friend and so she gave me a few pics to play with.  I didn't have a lot of time last night (struggled to get the bambino in bed) but I didn't need much.  That is one thing I love about MDS, unlike traditional scrapbooking (which I love) this goes much more quickly and you can easily make changes.  So I whipped this one up in about 15 minutes.  It was super fun and easy to do.  I think it is pretty obvious from the pictures that these two are in love, but if you diidn't catch that, I spelled it out here for you. ;)

Happy Friday peeps!

Mother's Day Class

Hey ya'll! See this fun Mother's Day Project I made! :)

You probably can't read the quote, but it is from the new Stamp set- Favorite Thoughts in the Summer Mini. It says, "There is nothing wrong with the world that a sensible woman count not settle in an afternoon." (Jean Giraudoux). I am loving this set, it has 4 fun quotes all about women. Some of the others include:

• Don't treat me any differently than you would a queen!
• Well-behaved women seldom make history- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
• A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt

So, I am having a class to make one of these fun Hodgepodge Art Hangings for you mom or another woman in your life. Here are the detials:

Class: Mother's Day Hodgepodge Art Class (paper patterns and embelishments will vary)

When: 4/25/10, 11 am to 1:00 pm

Where: Katie's House in Edmonds, WA (contact if you need information)

Who: You! Children are welcome to join (1 child per adult)

Cost: $12 with prepayment & RSVP with a deadline is April 22nd. Pay via check, cash or paypal ($12.50 paypal to offset fees to katieannbrooks@gmail.com)

Kits: also available if pay via paypal for $12.50 plus shipping (katieannbrooks@gmail.com)

Please contact me if you'd like to attend or have any questions- katieannbrooks@gmail.com

Have a great day!

Mojo Monday & Artisan Update

Well I have a few updates to give. The first is that I decided not to enter the Artisan Award contest. I have a lot of great things, but after my second 3D didn't come together as I wanted it to for about the 5th time, I got really frustrated. I took half day off work today to come home and work on it and it still wasn't working out. Don't worry, this isn't a total downer, I swear, keep reading! After a little time to veg (I watched a movie) I decided it was OK if I didn't enter, I decided I could enter some of my items in SU!'s monthly contest or some other catalog contests. In actuality, I did learn a lot about myself and realized I am more creative than I thought I was, my other 9 projects are pretty good and miles apart from what I could create when I started this business, so not all is lost. :) All in all, I feel pretty good about myself right now. I wanted to thank some of you for that, for your help and encouragement, it really means a lot and I couldn't have done it without you! THANK YOU!


Now, onto something sweeter! I wanted to show you one of the cards I made this week during this whole process. It wasn't going to be one of my entries, but it is kinda a cute card anyhow. I made this card using this weeks Mojo Monday sketch number 133. Here is what the sketch looked like. My card is slightly different, but mostly the same. I wanted to use this little Just Buzzing By set so I could use my pastels to watercolor the image.



Anyway, those are my updates. And JUST MAYBE, I'll win something from the Mojo Monday blog. :) Thanks again for all your support!

Happy Friday!!!!!

SU! has a HUGE & EXCITING announcement!

Extra! Extra! Stampin' Up! has decided to change their core color families. This is something they have been working on with demonstrator and customer focus groups for over two years. They want to keep up with the trends and styles and give people what they want, out with the old, in with the new. I am so EXCITED about these new colors I can't even tell you!!!!! so with out further ado, they have announced the following changes to the color families for the 2010-2011 Catalog:

1. 5 brand new colors will be announced

• Daffodil Delight
• Early Espresso
• Marina Mist
• Cajun Craze
• Cherry Cobbler
  

2. A new In-Color series will be announced (don't know these colors yet)

3. 11 In-Colors from past series will be returning as standard colors, and they are/will be:

• Melon Mambo
• Rich Razzleberry
• Pacific Point
• Tangerine Tango
• River Rock
• Soft Suede
• Riding Hood Red
• Pink Pirouette
• Baja Breeze
• Wild Wasabi

Here is the revised collection!!

4. Finally, we say goodbye to the some of the oldies but goodies:

• Pink Passion
• Pixie Pink
• Pale Plum
• Orchid opulence
• Lovely Lilac
• Lavendar Lace
• Almost Amethyst
• Bordering Blue
• Brocade Blue
• Ballet Blue
• Brilliant Blue
• Taken with Teal
• Glorious Green
• Handsome Hunter
• Sage Shadow
• Mellow Moss
• Green Galore
• Gable Green
• Barely Banana
• YoYo Yellow
• Summer Sun
• Apricot Appeal
• Only Orange
• Really Rust
• Ruby Red
• Cameo Coral
• Blush Blossom
• Creamy Caramel
• Close to Cocoa
• Going Gray

I will be sad to see a few of these colors go, but even so, I rarely ever use them and am more exciting about the new and returning colors. If you want any of these items (paper, ink, ink refils, markers, etc), I suggest you stock up before the new catalog release in July.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Light's, Camera, Action!

No promises....BUT, I think I actually purchased the correct light replacements for my Studio-in-a-box and hope to take some quality pictures of some of the recent projects I've made!

Two Step into Spring Promotion!

Well SAB is over and I thought all was lost, but looky here, SU! is offering another promo on two-step stamp sets! NICE!!!

From now until the end of April, SU! is offering a sneak peak from the 2010-2011 catalog, the set Awash With Flowers (image below). You can purchase this item OR if you want to hold a workshop and it reaches $350 you can get this set for FREE (in addition to regular hostess benefits).

117062- Awash with Flowers (set of 18)- Wood Mount- $39.95

120549- Awash with Flowers (set of 18)- Clear Mount- $27.95

In addition, during this time period, you can get the following two-step stamps at a

20% discount:

Item Name Regular Price Sale Price
113824 Greenhouse Garden $25.95 $20.76

113734 Fifth Avenue Floral $24.95 $19.96

111578 Flower Fancy $36.95 $29.56

113258 Trendy Trees $17.95 $14.36

You can order any of these on my website. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a lovely day and Happy Spring!