kissy, kissy!

What do I have for you today you ask? Some more Paper Smooches (kissy, kissy!), that's what!  Here is my creation for the recent Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.

The card was based on this image.  What I took away were some shapes, colors and thoughts of elegance.  I used one of my newer PS stamp sets called Word Salad.  What do you think?

BTW- Paper Smooches is having a blog hop with chances to win some of their sets...you should check it out.

TTFN!

Which one?

Recently I had several friends and co-workers who underwent some surgeries and medical treatment for various reasons.  One broke his neck... Yes that is what I said, his neck!...by being hit by a large wave while on vacation of all things.  He was walking around work and didn't even know it, but found out he broke a vertibrae in there.  Had surgery and is fixed, phew!  Amazing that it went well, hard and unbelievable circumstances, but good outcome (it certainly could have been worse right?!). 

So I started making this particular person a get well card.  He is a good spirited and humored person, so it was deemed I should go with a beach theme.  Thank goodness he is good humored or that would not be a nice card!  Anyway, I came up with one and a few others came along the way which I could then give to some of the other folks I knew who needed them.  Long story short, here they are, all similar but slightly different and I am wondering which one you like best and why?  I certainly hope these cards give these wonderful people some sense of a pick-me-up during their challenging times.  That is the reason (besides a creative outlet) why I make cards. :)

 

Thanks for your visit!

Balancing Act

I have several cards that I've been wanting to post, but have yet to get around to.  I am perpetually playing catch-up in my life.  What can I say, that is just the way it goes.  I guess that is just the result of being a full-time working mother with MS.  I have to learn to stop and slow down and say no on occassion.  I am not super good at this, but working on it.  I am always on my mission to strike the perfect balance with everything in my life.

So...speaking of balancing acts, what do you think of my little froggy trying to balance on the "O" in Hoppy Birthday?  I had a pretty fun time making this card, although I will admit all the cutting was tedious.  Well worth it though in my opinion.  This guy (I guess this card could be a gal, couldn't it) is for the most current Lawnscaping Challenge #42, getting texty!  I used lots of different LF sets to make this, Critters Ever After, Gnome Sweet Gnome, Quinns ABC's and Critters in the Burbs.  I have to say, that Quinn's ABC is my newest and most favorite set, but that will probably change as soon as I get another new set! :)  Yes, I do plan on doing that soon! HA!

Oh, oh, I almost forgot, while I have you here, I was nominated for the Liebster award by the lovely Erica over at Papertrails.  Thanks Erica!  I am pretty darn stoked that she picked me because she is brilliant and she picked some other brilliant folks too.  Just being on the same blog post as all of them tickles my fancy! :) Here is some info about the award and you can see whom I nominated at the bottom! YAY!

ABOUT THE AWARD

This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these new blogs.

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

PAY IT FORWARD
Here are the five blogs that I'm nominating. These ladies are fabulous! Go and check them out, they are definitely worth the visit. Better still, follow them then you won't miss out :) Get ready to be inspired!


Here are my picks.  Be sure to check these brilliant ladies out!

Lynnette over at Netter's Notables (she has 198, so close to 200!)
Kari Webster at KWCardDesign
Annie Rose at Annie Rose makes things
Kimberly at Paper Yummies (I just love that name!)
Beachorado


Thanks for stopping!

Thanks my deer!

Home sick today, which is a bummer.  But at least in my boredom I have time to post something.  I am not doing much else and I haven't gotten to post much lately, so why not.

This fun little card was for this weeks Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge featuring the colors below.  At first I had no idea what I wanted to do.  I could think of ideas with pink and green, but to add the other two colors seemed weird.  I focused on the brown and this little deer from the Happy Camper set and from there it was really quite easy to come up with something.  The pink is just thrown in as a little something to throw you off.  When I look at the pink I think, "you weren't expecting that were you?!"

Anyway, this little guy was fun and as always I love my PS stamps.  Back to lounging on the couch for me.  Thanks for stopping.my deer!

Do you ever do the jitter bug?

Am I talking about the dance you ask?  Well sorta, yes....  This morning I was doing the jitter bug but I wasn't dancing, it was from my coffee.  I have no idea why, I only had a single shot and I ate breakfast.  Maybe it is because my nerves are fried from work at the moment.  Who knows...

Today I wanted to show you a card that I partially CASed from Kaisha on her PSSparks Designer Card on this post here.  I just loved what she did with that juke box from Perpetual Bliss (PS Stamp Set) and I wanted to duplicate it.  I was needing to make my MIL a birthday card anyway, so this was the perfect occasion.  :)  In addition to doing the juke box, I made my own patterned paper by using a basic block stamp in white on a black background.  I then embossed with white embossing power to make it pop even more.  I was thinking this would make the perfect slightly worn (from too much dancing) linoleum floor.  Together I think the combo looks like something straight out of a sock hop.  What do you think?  I sure hope my Mom-in-Law does the jitter bug when she sees it! :)  Happy Birthday Dona!

Neon Lights for Neon Nights!

Hello and Happy Labor Day Holiday!  I am loving the extra day off!  My hubby took little Sophie out to give me a little time to craft all by myself, isn't that wonderful.  Here are the results....

This first card is for the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.  This week the theme is retro, check out this pic.  My mind jumped right to neon, which is so trendy in the stamping world right now.  So I busted out this Love stamp from my Perpetual Bliss set.  I decided to emboss it against black to really give it that neon look and used my Melon Mambo emboss powder from SU!  Then I wanted that fun, flowing feel you often get with retro pictures.  I decided to lay down some Teresa Collins Washi tape, in a sort of a rainbow.  (BTW- I won a huge blog candy on Tiffany's blog a few weeks back and the Washi tape was in the package- thanks Tiffany!!!)  Add a few clouds and some butterflies and BAM! totally groovy! :)

Once I had this card done I was inspired to make another with the same layout but some different elements.  This one is for the Operation Write Home Week over at Lawn Fawn.  What an amazing cause!  They send cards to troops to send to their families since they can't usually get them when they are deployed.   I was reading a note from one of the troops this am and it brought tears to my eyes...sniff!  Anyway, so the theme over there is cards for kids and I thought this layout and neon color scheme would be perfect for a little girl birthday card.  I swapped out the lightbulb for the unicorn, replaced butterflies with stars and bling and added the sentiment.  What do you think?  I have a feeling some little girl is going to love it!

Oh, one more thing I wanted to tell you that I am totally excited about.. I won last weeks PSSparks challenge with this post here. YAY! :)

Oh Snap!

Today I wanted to share my PS Challenge card with you.  When I saw this picture I immediately thought of a picture that was blow up so much all you could see was the pixels.  Not sure I would want this couch, especially with the white parts, but it is pretty cool. 

So my take based on that is what looks a little bit like a pixelated background and a camera to drive the point home...oh snap!  To make this card, I used a little flower punch (SU!) on all different colors and placed them randomly.  Then I sent that layer through the big shot with an embossing folder to both better secure the flowers, but also to create an extra level of texture.  Of course I had to go with the camera and we click sentiment from the Perpetual Bliss stamp set.  Then I layered some ribbon that reminded of film and put it behind the popped up embossed layer.



So what do you think?  Is it picture worthy? ;)