Something whimsical

I think earlier this week I promised more red, white and blue cards if you came back.  Well guess what? I am here to deliver on that promise!  I have a card that I just adore that I want so share with you today.  I LOVE the cute digi image from Whimsie Doodles, it is so...well...whimsical! :)  I am so stuck on cute if you hadn't noticed.  I think it is partially to do with my daughter...she is cute and likes cute things.  This particular little image also reminds me a little bit of her.  :)

I have just discovered Whimsie Doodles myself and I am pretty stinkin' happy about that. This particular digi was free, they have quite a few freebies in their library, which is awesome.  I like how that gives you a chance to work with the product before you buy you know.

So this card has a bit of cute but also some shabby chic to it and I like that effect for this card.  I lots of different elements, some that I've been holding onto for a while, like the ribbon and the iridescent pearl paint I added over her shirt for just a little shimmer.  I used my snowflake embossing folder (SU!) because it looks just like fireworks and then brushed it with a darker blue (Brilliant Blue) and that was just the effect I wanted.

I made this for the Whimsie Doodles June Challenge- the theme is Summer Fun.  What is

more summery than The 4th of July here in America?  Not much really!  So this is a perfect fit for that challenge.  The winner of the challenge not only gets a free digi, but is also considered for the Guest DT spot in September, which is super cool!

I am also entering this into the new Challenge over at House of Cards.  The theme is cute and fun and the colors are shown here.  What a lovely insipration photo, and looks yummy too!

Remember TODAY is the last day for Google Reader so please come follow me on Bloglovin', all you have to do is click below. :)

Movin' to Bloglovin'

I'd love for you all to come follow my blog on Bloglovin' since google reader is retiring on July 1st (Monday!).  Just click the link below:




Thanks for continuing to follow me, your support means so much!

We are the World....

This is my second post today.  If you want to see my earlier post about birthdays...particularly mine...(ha!)...click here.

I have to tell you that I am totally feeling the peace, love and happiness today!  I have been showered with love from lots of friends, family and co-workers.  I am lucky to know so many wonderful people and have them in my life!  That includes all of you out there who leave sweet and encouraging comments on my blog, they mean so much to me, so thank you!

That is what this next card is all about.  It is inspired by this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.  Check out this brilliant inspiration photo!  I am so very happy to see things like crayons coming out with a more multicultural focus.  Every child needs to be able to envision themselves in their dreams and this is a first step!  Yes, I am getting all serious on you, but it is true....we are all people. 

When I first saw the picture the song "We are the World" popped into my head.  It then made me think of a picture of a globe with all types of children from different cultures and ethdnicities and with different abilities, etc. surrounding it and holding hands.  So that is what I went with.  Now I don't have any little PS kiddos that were the right size, so I used the cute little aliens from the Space Cadet set.  Then, I  used the sentiment from Vegtastic, which says PEAS, love, happiness and changed the word to PEACE using other letters from other PS sentiments.  I finished it off with twine and hearts.  I am super happy with how it turned out, it really catches the feeling I was going for and makes me smile.

Hoping to get a little stamp time in before more birthday festivities begin (currently home alone- a rarity) sooooooo..... thanks for stopping!  Wishing you peace, love and happiness!

Happy Birthday to......

ME!!!!  That's right folks, it is my birthday today and I am gonna have some fun!  My first gift was when my daughter crawled in bed in the middle of the night for some cuddles....aww!  Then she and my hubby woke me up with more kisses and hugs.  Off to work now but only for a half day, then lunch with a friend, followed by craft time and more festivities with the family!  AWESOME!


It is only appropriate that I share a birthday card with you today.  I made it a few days back for the 10 Minute Craft Dash #20 over at Pretty Pink Posh.  I love the colors Paulina chose this round, so vibrant and fun!  So the rules allow you to gather your supplies before you start and here are all of my supplies in an orderly fashion, I even pointed out the most important supply- COFFEE! I have to say, knowing, down to the smallest detail, what you are going do do before hand really helps!  I even made sure I had the matching markers before I started.  (Note: Paulina has tips for the CD here, I just read them for the first time, might have helped me sooner to read them before- ha!)  So here is the card and the time I completed it in.  Ah-mazing! :)

Add caption

Which reminds me, the sentiment is from my new CAS-ual Friday's stamp set Exclamations.  I won that on the last reveal, super awesome and perfect for a birthday card on my birthday!  The elephant is SU! along with the ink, markers and base card stock.  I had the DP in my scrap bin, don't remember who that is from, maybe American Crafts...  Again, don't know the ribbon, but the wood chips are from Freckled Fawn.

So, here is part of the mess afterwards.  I often have to clean up and with a fresh and super clean table (this is my dining room table btw) in order to be able to create anything else.  If not, the jumble on the table becomes a jumble in my mind and me no-likey.

I am thinking about seeing a movie this weekend.  Are there any out there that you've seen and recommend?

Thanks!

First off, in my last post I guess I was being a little bit of a Debbie Downer.  I know we all get frustrated with our crafting (or other) processes from time to time and the key is to not be hard on ourselves.  I just wanted to thank all of you that left such sweet comments to help remind me of that and some tips too!  It is great being part of this blogosphere with all you wonderful people! :)

So, with the 4th of July (US Independance Day) right around the corner, I am seeing red, white and blue everywhere I look!  Check out pinterest and there are tons of decor ideas and in the papercrafting world in general lots of card, scrapbook and other inspiration.  There are a few in particular I have loved this week:

• Some yummy mason jar cakes over at Pretty Pink Posh. 
• Check out this sweet card over at Beachorado, it makes me want to make strawberry jam!
• Super cute cupcake toppers at Lawn Fawn.
• Various super fun DIY stuff on this fun blog.

No, I am not trying to be as cool as Cath over at Moxie Fab (not possible!), just wanted to share a few fun places I've gathered some inspiration in the last few days. :) 

I've also been inspired by this weeks challenge over at The Alley Way Stamps.  Check out this fun image!!!  (BTW- it also makes me want some cookies!  Have any to share?!  No seriously, I am hungry! HA!) Since I now have two of the TAWS sets, one of which I won via a random drawing over there (THANKS Allison!) and the other I purchased because it had a big-foot stamp.  You may remember my post- You had me at Yeti... consequently this is the same post that won me the free set- yeah!  Anyway, I used one of my brand new sets Tropical Hideaway to make this card.  Such a fun set it has the perfect feel for a summery challenge with 4th of July colors.  I used a tag from Basic Grey Kneehighs and Bowties which was perfect for this card. 

I have some more patriotic colors and cards to share this week and next, so please come back by!  Happy almost Friday!

PS- it is release week over at TAWS and Paper Smooches- wahoo!

Decision Time

See update below from 7/2/13...

If you read my post on sunday, you might remember that the more time I spend away from card making the longer it takes me to get back into the swing of things.  I also mentioned a card that took me about 2.5 hours to makes and the sad part is that I am not entirely sure I like the final product.  However, if I want to enter my cards into the challenges I made them for, I need to get them up...so it is decision  time.  I've decided even though I am not totally thrilled with these cards, I'll share and tell you what I do (and don't) like about them. 

The first Card is for the Fusion Card Challenge as well as the Lawnscaping Challenge.  For Fusion, I picked up the light to dark gradient from Jackies sketch and tried to make that apparent in my skyline and clouds.  I then followed with the colors from Lesley's photo.  Honestly, the photo is what really threw me, to many items and colors to find inspiration in!  I wanted to focus on owls but had noticed that one of the DT already did and didn't want to simply follow suit.  So I went with the birdies in the LF Home Sweet Home set.  The Lawnscaping Challenge calls for dimension.  though you may not be able to see it since I didn't take a phgot from an angle, it is there.  I am also not thrilled about the background cardstock but I just couldn't find the *right* thing but decided to accept it and not spend 3 more hours on it.  Overall it is OK, but certainly not the card I envisioned.

The second card is also for the Lawnscaping Dimension Challenge as well as The Play Date Cafe challenge.  I loved the colors of this challenge and the vines really grabbed me.  I feel like my interpretation might be a little too obvious but I liked the way the background looked and I had fun stamping to to make the color gradients of the orange and green.  I am not so sure about the forefront though... I am definitely not a champ when it comes to CAS cards, so the front just feels bare to me.

UPDATE/ETA 7/2/13:  I have decided to enter this into the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger- A scene in tangerine because...well the colors are perfect!  They match perfectly and the combo is just perfect, love it!  I wear these colors all the time BTW. :)   I am often a little fearful of playing in the MFW challenges because I know there are better designers out there, but why not right?!  You should come play along too!

Please drop by again!

It's Sunday, let the SPARKS fly!

Happy Sunday ya'll!  I hope you've had a wonderful weekend?  I sure have.  I had a girls night with my daughter on Friday.  We went out for dinner, saw Monsters U and read stories and cuddled, PERFECT!  On Sunday we had more girl time starting with the warehouse sale over at Amuse Studios.  We both have stamp collections so we both got some stamps we wanted...and what a steal!  I'd say we got $75 or more worth of stuff for $18!  Then we spent several hours at the beach and it was a beautiful day.  Last night we just laid low and had quite time.  Today the hubby and the daughter are out exploring so I did chores and got some stamp time. :)

I find that when I have made cards for a few days or more it sometimes takes me a while to get back in the game.  I have one or two failed attempts or perhaps spend 3 hours making one card (the extreme opposite of the 10 Minute Craft Dash!!!)  In the end I made two cards for the Paper Smooches SPARKS Cool Shades Color Challenge.  The first took me quite a while and I just couldn't get it right.  It really seems cluttered and overdone to me.  Thought I do like the waves and the dimension as well as the snippet tag from Kneehighs and Bowties by Basic Grey.  The second is much more simple and I like it much better. The sets I used were Surft and Turf and Perpetual Bliss. I'll let you judge though...here they are.

 

OK, thanks for stopping, I really hope you do have a fabulous weekend!

Loving my little reject....

Howdy!  Happy Friday to all!  I am guessing everyone is following the *intense* completition for the Gallery Idol over at Paper Crafts Connection?!?  If not, you should be!  :)  They are down to the top 5 and some of my very fave creators (Virginia, Melania and Jocelyn- nothing against the other ladies either, I just don't know their stuff as well) are still in the running!  These ladies and there creations are ALL amazing, and I am talking about the top 5, but also about the top 20.  Every creation is so wonderful and it makes it so hard to choose each week!  I wish the best to all of them!

Today I want to share a card I had made for the last Paper Crafts Magazine submission call which focused on cards for guys.  I entered this in the funny/goofy round (it was something like that).  Sadly, it didn't make it, but I still love my little reject and had so much fun creating it.  The majority of the images are Darcies stamps, but the sentiment and speach bubble are from Paper Smooches and Lawn Fawn respectivley.  The DP and twine is also Lawn Fawn and I used Thickers from American Crafts.  My fave part of this card are the tied up twigs that I gathered from the yard and how they play off of the sentiment & belated birthday wishes, it just makes me giggle!  Sooooo...this is actually perfect for the new CAS-ual Friday's Challenge #106- Over the Edge. 

UPDATE- I am entering this in the "Let's Get Trendy Now" challenge for making your own embelishments. :)

Enjoy your weekend!

It is written in the stars!

hello friends!  How are you?  I am well today.  Glad the weekend is near as always, I need some R&R...and S too!  The S is for stamping!  I haven't had much time this week...booo! I will tell you what I did have though, was lunch with the famous Amy Tsuruta yesterday.  What a fabulous gal she is!  Thanks Amy!!!!!!!!  Can't wait to do it again and work on hatching our little plans! :)

Today I have a card to share with you using my Mama Elephant sets Cosmic Stars and Starry Nights.  I have had these for a while and made a few things with them but haven't thought them worthy of sharing on the blog.  (*Please note that is is a comment related to my creations, not the stamps!)  I do feel pretty happy about this card though.  It was made with inspiration from the CAS-ual Friday's Challenge #105.  The theme is mapquest, but I put a spin on it, mine is an astrological map! :) 

Technically the CAS in CAS-ual is for clean and simple.  I am not sure this card is CAS but it was hard for me to make that happen and use all the images I wanted.  I wanted an array of the astrological signs, something like this (but with more color and life to it). The paper is from Dear Lizzy and the images were colored with my prismacolors.

Thanks for stopping...it was written in the starts that you would! ;)  Oh and just for fun, if you want to check out your daily horoscope you can here.  Mine's looking pretty good...

CANCER: Your energy is running high, Cancer, and you have a great deal of fire that you can use to transform anything. You have a wonderful capacity to turn a bad situation into a good one. You know exactly how to lift others' spirits when they're down. Today certain issues may be a bit too emotional for you to handle comfortably. There's an aggressive, combative tone to some people. Keep your guard up.

=)

UPDATE- I am entering this into the Let's Get Trendy Now textured layers challenge.

Be You!

Today's card is brought to you by the the inspriational though of "BE YOU!"  If you are silly, fun, nerdy, smart, whatever....be just that!  We all have different qualitities and characteristics and that is what makes life fun and challenging.  :) 

So, with out further ado, I made this card with that thought in mind.  Initially with the Lawnscaping Challenge #60- Dimension and the Dynamic Duo#57 (Green and black) in mind. I think the dimension part is obvious (at least I hope).  I used a slightly different green than in the duo, but it seemed only appropriate. I then decided to use the CAS(E) this Sketch-challenge sketch #32.  You can see I flipped it on it's side to make this work and I made the sentiment parallell to the ribbon rather than perpendicular.

I enjoyed adding the heart to the one froggie to make him just a little different and then adding crystal effects to all for that slimy effect.  The bling was the final touch and wah-lah!

Thanks for stopping for this quick post today.  Enjoy your Tuesday and remember to be YOU!

A quick share....

I've been wanting to share this with you for a while now, but just haven't yet.  This was something I made for my hubby for Valentines Day with help from my daughter.  She was a big helper in picking out papers and elements top put on her Daddy's valentine.  I even gave her credit in my watermark! :)  Isn't she just the cutest kid ever?!?!  Of course, I am a little biased...

Anyway, here is the super fun creation we made him.  It surely makes me smile every time I look at it.  So many different products from Studio Calico wood chips (you can see I inked it red), some SU! ribbon, Little Yellow Bycicle stick pins, My Moments flowers and a variety of papers and other emblelishments.

Anyway, glad I got to finally share this with you today.  You might remember a few weeks back when I mentioned my family comming this weekend, well we are just awaiting their arrival and then the fun begins!  Enjoy your weekend!

My own Pinspiration

Hiya!  We've probably talked about this before but I still wanna know, do you pin on Pinterest?   I do and love it.  There are just so many great ideas on there and things I would have never thought of myself.  One of the great things about social media and the world wide web is how they connect people and ideas from all around the world!  50 years ago we would have been so much more limited in that way and so many others.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a card I made using inspiration from on photo on Pinterest.  I love the Pinspired Challenges blog, but this one is from my own boards, so I call it my own Pinspiration! :)  Here is the photo of some fun homemade chargers for the kitchen.  So easy and cute and I love the bright splashes of color...which gave me an idea, why not on a card?!

So... I took my Studio Calico/Mr. Huey Sunburst mask and moved it around and sponged with different colors of chalk in just like in the photo.  Then I wanted to add this cute little birdie image from Neat and Tangled.  This is a digi image free from their site.  I have ordered my first set from them and eagerly awaiting the arrival but wanted to have some playtime so downloaded the digi.  I then added my bling and woodchip clouds and there you have it.  This was a super quick and easy card to make and I think the brightness and fun would brighten someones day.  Of course, I have to submit this to the Little Tangles Challenge #14- Just Say Hello.  :)

Anyway, I'd love to hear about your Pinterest experience, what you pin and have you send me your link or profile name so I can check you out...I may need to follow you!  If you want to follow me, my scrapbook/card inspiration board is here.

Happy Thursday!

UPDATE- I am entering this into the Let's Get Trendy Now 3 Neon Challenge!
`