Uplifting Mojo

I've been enjoying the lazy summer days, and being able to create more often. Not having to get kids from school, to after school activities, and homework, has really opened up some free time! I made this card for someone who's been really sick a lot lately. He keeps landing in the hospital, and DR's are having a hard time figuring out what exactly is the problem. I figured it would be nice to send a little bit of encouragement to him. Being this is for a dude, so I went easy on the embellies. I paper pieced my tree, and hot air balloon. I'm trying to use up some of my stash of papers, so used my Basic Grey's June Bug pack.

I really fell in love with Verve Stamp set that they recently released called Blue Skies. It has some wonderful sentiments, and several grabbed me when I first saw this set. I purchased it right away! I want to cut one of the sentiments out with my cricut and vinyl and put it on my wall. I'm saying, I really love that set! I used the blue skies are coming your way sentiment because I thought it went perfectly with the hot air balloon from their Up, Up and Away set. I sponged the background to look like skies, but I guess I used too soft of blues, cuz ya can't tell in the photo! I played along with the sketch at Mojo Monday 149.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Verve stamps, Basic Grey paper, nesties,

Fun and Bright Lily!

Goodness, how cute did she turn out?! I just love how this card looks! Even used colors I don't normally use...orange. But love it! Anyhow, enough tooting my own horn! LOL! I used the sketch from Eat, Sleep, Stamp. Saw my blogging friend, Rachel, was their guest. She makes some lovely cards, so big woo hoo to her! I'm also entering this in the Flutterby Wed cuz I love to play along there too. It's an open challenge too, so means you only need a butterfly, angel or fairy on your card. I cut out my froggie, flower on her wand, and front flower petals. I dabbed her with stickles. I layered the lily pad and part of the petals with smooch. Just to give it a little shine. I tried to add some spots to my frog with a deep shade of copic green. I like how that turned out too. I love when Amy, from A Thousand Sheets of Paper, does that type of things to her images. She's done it with her mermaids, and I swear, I kept looking for a stamp to see if it was a stamp! But I think I've decided she's using markers to get the look. You can see what I'm talking about on this card here. I think it just looks so cool, and adds just a light touch on the images.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Nesties, Pink Cat Studio, stickles, smooch, Basic Grey Going Green, SU cardstock, and ink, copics, Martha Punch, primas.

Subdued Sympathy

I always struggle with making sympathy cards. I'm pretty pleased with this one. Nice and soft tones, and the image is very calming. My friend's Mom passed away Sunday after a long battle with cancer. I followed a sketch at Diva Coffee Break Designs. It's a nice layout, that went very well with not over doing a sympathy card. I used a paper pack sent to my by my sweet friend, Tammi. I even decorated the inside of the card. Not something I normally do, but it really does look nice. I used a stamp set from SU for the main image. The sentiments are from Paper Trey Ink's sympathy set, as well as the butterflies, and grass. I used Tim Holtz ink pads, vintage photo, and tea.

Supplies: nesties, copics, stickles, SU cardstock, SU Peace Within, PTI With Sympathy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Party Time Tuesday #9.

It's Tuesday! You ready to make a birthday card?! Mine is uber bright! Fun colors, huh?! I think you might need shades to check it out today! Today is an open challenge at Party Time Tuesdays. Means just make a birthday card, with sentiment on the front of the card. Than link it up at the blog so we can come by and give you some love! Make sure you check out the other team members, by either clicking on their names on the right of my blog or going to the Party Time Tuesdays blog. I love seeing all the different cards each week! And let me say, nice not to have to run around like a crazy woman to make a card when there's a birthday party to go too for the kids or I've forgotten someone's birthday, and need to get one in the mail. If you know you have someone's birthday coming up, it's nice to have it made ahead of time just for them! No matter your reason, just make sure you join the party!

For my card, I used a bunch of neglected stash today. I got this pack of paper last year from Michaels. I'm not sure if I've even created with this darling stamp from the Greeting Farm. She seemed summery and French. Kept saying Ooo-la-la when I was coloring her! I cut out her bow, her cute self and popped them out. Added stickles to her dress, and hat. All around fun card! I tried out sketch from Mercy's Blog. This is her sketch 82.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Copics, nesties, Martha punch, SU punches, TAC sentiment, primas, SU cardstock, PTI cardstock, paper pack from Michaels.

Feathering Lily The Mermaid

I was playing the other night. Trying to figure out how to do the feather technique with copics. Didn't master it on Lily, but I think I almost got it on her tail fins. She turned out so cute regardless of me not getting the technique down. I just had to make a card out of her. If any one has some tips on that technique I'd more than appreciate it. I love how it looks when I see hair done colored with that technique. I mean some of folks make it look like real hair! In the mean time, I'll keep practicing. I tried on Fairy Lily too, but my purple to yellow.....SCARY! I keep thinking of Dory singing, "Just keep swimming...." I'll keep coloring, clicking on blogs and see what else I can learn from all those other wonderful crafters out there.

Thanks for stopping by. A friend came in town, so I'm excited to spend some time with her and her boys. We haven't seen them in a year. They moved across the country.

Supplies: Copics, nesties, primas, stickles, paper pack from Michaels, Pink Cat Studio stamp, Martha Punch, PTI cardstock, SU ink pad.

Raise The Bar #28 Guest Bar-Tender

I was so excited to get picked to be a Guest Bar-Tender at Raise The Bar. They liked my sweet cupcake card from their challenge for baked goods. I was so excited they picked me! Anyhow, the challenge is Distressed, Torn, Ripped, Broken (cards, that is, not hearts!!!). Here's my card for their challenge! I used some papers that sweet Tammi sent me. I had a lot of fun making this card, and that style is getting easier for me. I sprayed my heart with pearl ex to give it some grunge. Tore my papers, and dusted them with choco-chip ink. I stamped my sweet Tilda in brown memento instead of black. I had over filled my Eooo, and it kept leaking so I had to use some different colors, E50, E51, and they looked wonderful with the brown. I followed a layout, but it's escaping me at the moment, since I made the card earlier this week. She's colored with copics, topped with stickles.

Thanks for stopping by, and make sure you swing by the Raise the Bar blog to see the other guest Bar-Tenders, and what their new challenges is for this week!

Fluttering Mercy

Today was a calm day! Meant had time to stamp! Today is Wed, so meant I get to play Flutterby Wed. The challenge there today is Christmas In July. Mercy had a wonderful sketch up yesterday, so I tried my hand at it too. I pulled out Cosmo Cricket's Holly By Jolly pack. Hadn't used it yet. Such pretty soft colors! Grabbed a digital image from CC Designs that I printed last year. Colored her with copics, topped her off with stickles, smootch, and popped out her ornament. Even used my Amy R's Winter sentiments, which hadn't been cut out yet!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: copics, SU ink, PTI cardstock, nesties, stickles, EK punch, CC Design, Amy R sentiment,

Party Time Tuesday #8

Today is a fun challenge from Party Time Tuesdays. It's make a pocket card. I was trying to remember if I've ever made one before. I don't think I have. If I did, it's been so long, I had to go check out the tutorial over at SCS. I grabbed some double sided cardstock that I've had lying around. It worked out perfectly, giving the outside a soft pattern, and the flap and top a different pattern. The entire card is done with scraps of sheets of pattern paper from the K and Co stack that I've had for a too long! Than I wasn't quite sure what to do with the insert for the pocket, and it felt plain just with the pattern paper. So, I had to doctor it up with a Magnolia stamp I hadn't colored yet. I cut her out, and dabbed her with stickles. She looks so sweet sitting there.

Be sure to play along with us. Check out the Party Time Tuesday blog to see what the other design team members made. Or click on their links off to the right. Remember to put your birthday sentiment on the front of your card, and link it back to the Party Time Tuesday blog. We'd love to come by and see what you made!

Supplies: Magnolia stamp, SU It's Your Birthday, primas, stickles, copics, K and Co paper pack.

Mojo Bella.

Played along with Mojo Monday's sketch 148 today. It's even a Monday! I grabbed one of my stamps from Susana's store that I recently picked up that was dying to be inked. I do adore Elisabeth Bell's images. She's by far one of my favorite illustrators. I love that she's working with several stores offering such cute images. This one image, At The Horse Show, reminds me of Gabi. Gabi loves horses. She's got a little collection of Bryer Horses, and will sit and play with them for hours. I used some paper from my stash that's been neglected, but seems to work perfectly with the horses. It's from The Angel Company, Rustic Chic. Fun paper line.

I layered my butterflies up. I really like how the one turned out with the the five that I layered up. Very nice added detail to the card. I colored my image with copics, and topped it off with some stickles.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: nesties, copics, At The Horse Show, TAC paper, SU cardstock, SU ink, Martha punches, primas, stickles,

Pile It On #28 Pennants or Banners

We had a fun sponsor this week at Pile It On, Bella Digital Design Studio. Discovered they have a way cool blog too. Saw some neat tutorials on there, and my favorite, challenges too! Anyhow, make sure you check that out. Check out the store too. Some darling digital stamps. For my card, I went with this darling little girl, who is wearing her new coat.>

I paper pieced her out fit. Isn't her coat divine?! It was run thru my printer, and was a scrap sheet. I topped her coat with frosted lace stickles, glitz stickles, gems, and fun flock. I even cut out her earmuff head piece to match!

I hand wrote my pennant, because I didn't have any stamps tiny enough to fit in there. The pennant is actually a stamp from a TAC set. When I saw the sketch at Diva Coffee Break, I thought it would be perfect for our challenge at Pile It On as well. But it's small, so fitting in alphabet stamps was near impossible! Trust me, I tried! I hate my handwriting! I have this itty bitty stamp set from CTMH, and it was too big for those little triangles! Anyways, it says Very Merry in there. I even tried out a tutorial I found at SCS on tissue flowers.

My challenges for this card:

Pile It On Pennants or Banners

Cute Card Thursday #121, Get A Head Start

C.R.A.F.T #59: Babies/Children

Digi Doodles #16: Use Those Scraps.

Pixie Dust Studios #31: Christmas Inspired Colors

Stamp Insatnity #18: Radical Ribbon and Rockin Rhinestones

Diva Coffee Break #185: Sketch

Fab and Funky #31: It's Christmas

Little Red Wagon #37: Use a Tree On Your Project

Stamp Something: Something Digital

Stampin For The Weekend #43: Recipe 3 DP, 2 flowers, 1 ribbon, and extra gems or charm

Christmas Stamping All Year Long #57: Bling It Up.

Please forgive the spacing on here. Not sure why it's double spacing things, and I can't seem to undo it. Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to swing by the Pile It On Blog to join in the fun and see what the other design team members came up with on the challenge! We'd love to have you play along with us!

Supplies: Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, stickles, copics, nesties, Cranberry cardstock, Glorious Green ink, Fun Flock, gems,

Sweet Fluttering.

Had a fun day today! Went with the kids and neighbors to see dolphins at VA. Beach. Very cool thing to see. Even saw some baby dolphins! It was cool on the water, which was good because we've been hot. Came home and it had rained! Wonderful because we are in need of rain. Meant it was time to create. So, the kids played Bakugan, and I snuck off to the stamp room!
Followed the sketch at The Sweet Stop. There's a twist, must use a tag too. I've had that tag with the sentiment Happiness for years. One of those buys from HSN, or QVC. They did a great selling this set of tags to me, and they've sat for far too long in my sticker folder. I should pull them out more and try to use them up.

Than I had to play along with Flutter By Wed. The challenge there is layers. At least three. I had gotten this cute image from Susana's Store a couple weeks ago, and have been dying to ink her up. She's uber cute, and I can see Gabi in this stamp. I cut out her shirt and layered it up, so that it gives the feel of the fabric flowing. I added some stickles to her and the puppies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Basic Grey, primas, stickles, copics, Victoria Case for Susana's Store, nesties,

Party Time Tuesday #7

It's Tuesday! And we know that means Birthday card for Party Time Tuesdays! Today is an anything goes challenge. So, easy to do, right? You know you have someone with a birthday coming up, so lets get the party started for them, and make them a card!

This cute cherry birthdaycard features a CC Designs stamp. I can't believe I haven't made a card with her yet. I mean, really, how cute is she? I had grabbed this cherry bling from Michaels, and thought it would go perfect with her cherry shirt. The red is a bit bright for my papers, but it's so cute, who would mind getting bling cherries?! I made the sentiment on the computer. I love that Tammi does that all the time, so I've had to branch out a little and try it too.

Be sure to check the Party Time Tuesdays Blog to see what the rest of the design team came up with, or feel free to click on their blogs listed to the right.

We'd love for you to play along! Just make a card, put that birthday sentiment on the front, and link it up to the Party Time Tuesday blog so we can come see what you made!

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Basic Grey Lemonade, SU cardstock, Martha punch, copics, stickles.

Gotta Love Summer.

It's nice not to have to run some where during the day. The kids have played legos all day. And I had some quiet time to stamp. When I pulled out my Belle's and Whistle stamps the other day, saw this cutie sitting there begging to get inked up. Even better that they had a fun sketch challenge up today! Than I found these flower brads from ages ago and they matched my color combo perfectly! So, got to use some negleted stash too! I used my Cricut to cut out the hearts.

Took part in a few other challenges today too.

Pile It On #27, Holiday Twist.

Stamp Something Recipe 1 designer paper, 1 ribbon, 1 image.

Stampin Bees- Polka Dots.

Speedy The Cat Friends Punch It Out.

Paper Sundae #24, Lots of Layers.

Little Red Wagon use your nesties.
Crazy for Challenges, Red, Black and White.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: SU pattern paper, ink and cardstock, Belle's n Whistles image, smooch, stickles, nesties, copics.

Whistling Sugar.

Had some time to stamp today! How stinking cute is this image from Belle's N Whistles? I haven't inked it up in ages. I had to play along with a few challenges too.

Belle's and Whistles, Glitter and Pearls.

Sweet Shop's SSS 64

CRAFT Cake and Icecream.

Raise the Bar 26, Baked Goods.

Strange question for you all. I found a tick on Maxwell, the dog, the other day. I think I got all of it. But he seems to be having a reaction to the bite. Can dogs get sick from a tick bite? If it looks strange still Monday I'm taking him to the vet. He's acting alright, but there's a big red spot on his stomach from the bite. Wasn't sure how normal that was.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Basic Grey Pantry, stickles, copics, primas, Belle's N Whistles stamp, SU cardstock, SU ink

Fluttering Mojo.

My AC broke. Right smack in the middle of a heat wave in the Mid-Atlantic area. My house was 93 degrees! Icky! Lucky for me, we had a portable ac unit in the bonus room, so I took it to my room, which cooled it off. Than my neighbor lent me his portable unit. But the house has been hot for two days. My cats were melting. Maxwell, the doggie, hung out with neighbors because it was too hot for him. I wanted to stamp like crazy, but the bonus room was too hot. So, I grabbed my copics, and some images sent to me by friends, and colored. Today, the repair guy came, and fixed it! And it didn't break the bank! Woo hoo! So, it's not steaming in my house any more.

Meant, I got to my desk which is in the bonus room, and was able to put the image I colored onto a card. This sweet bear was sent to me by Tammi. Thanks, Tammi! He's darling! I had grabbed this paper pack at AC Moore by DCWV. Such pretty paper. Called Mariposa. It's filled with butterflies, glitter, and pretty colors. I grabbed the smallest pack size.

This card is for a few challenges.

Mojo Monday #146.

Flutter By #112-Any thing goes, as long as it's a fairy, angel or butterfly on the card. So glad they are back from their break!
Cooking It Up With Katie #21, Stitch me a Yellow Stitch

Supplies: copics, DCWV paper, SU cardstock, scrappers floss, stickles, smooch, Close to cocoa ink, dew drops, nesties,

Thanks for stopping by.

Party Time Tuesday #6

Ready to party?! Who do you know who you need to make a birthday card for this month? Or do you just need to build up your stash of birthday cards?

Today at Party Time Tuesdays we have a challenge for you all. Outside In. Even better reason to play along today! I pulled out my cute CC Design Fairy stamps. I thought they'd go perfectly inside the card for decoration, and used one of the neglected images for the front of the card. I don't normally do the insides of my cards, so I had to put some thought into what I wanted to do. That set of stamps was perfect for me, because of all different posing with the fairies. I even used some of my neglected stash of Basic Grey Sultry papers. The floral page is so pretty, so it went nicely behind the bird house, and since its so dramatic, the outside looked so pretty on it's own.

For the inside, I cut my cute fairies out, and placed them around my sentiment. I paper pieced both their outfits with scraps leftover from different sheets. I love how both of them turned out! I mean look at his jacket?! How adorable is that? I think it's freaking cute!

I topped them off with stickles, and added pretty pearls around my sentiment inside. All images are colored with copics.

Make sure you click on the links to the right, or click on the Party Time Tuesdays link to see what the other design team members did for the challenge. Great way to get some inspiriation for the challenge! Be sure to join in the party, and link your card back up to the Party Time Tuesday Blog so we can pop by and see what you make. As always make sure you add that birthday sentiment to the front of the card to be considered for the top three.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: CC Designs, SU It's Your Birthday, PTI cardstock, SU cardstock, nesties, copics, stickles, Martha punch, Basic Grey paper.

Pile It On #26 My Favorites.

This was a fun one for me this week! For starts, Gabi is my very favorite little girl in the world! I can't express how proud, happy, blessed, and in love I am with this little girl. She's my first born. My blue eyed beauty! I wanted a girl so badly when I was pregnant with her, and we didn't know what we were having. God gave me more than I could hope for in her! But not only is this my favorite girl, I get to show her off with my favorite hobby!

Scrapping is a passion of mine. I love being able to show my kids their childhood. I'm adopted, and there aren't photos of me under the age of the 5. So, having their childhood laid out for them in pictures is one of my favorite things to do for them. I love to sit down and play with papers and their photos.

We had a wonderful sponsor this week, Queen Scraps, who sent us a lovely scrapbook kit. I loved my kit, which was the Making Memories Flutter Kit. It came with lovely papers, die cut flowers, a bunch of cut out letters, double sided ribbon, stickers, felt flower and leaves, buttons. And even had layout idea, with complete cutting instructions. I didn't use her sketch, because I had more photos to add to my page. I hope she'll be pleased with how I showed cased her kit. I also made two cards using scraps from the papers I cut for the scrapbook page. You can view those cards HERE and HERE.

Here's my challenges for my page.

ABC X-Xtra Dimension.

Nutshells #19 Summer Time Fun.

Kah-Wink-E-Dink Smoothies.

Crafy Cardmakers #24, Inky Fingers.

Crazy Challenge Make It In A Hour

Ooh-La-La #57-Simply Summer

Scrap It With a Song I can see clearly now...Gabi is my little cup of sunshine who gives me clear skies!

Dutch Dare Card Challenges #81 Flower Inspiration

Drunken Stampers #23 Summer Theme

Secret Crafter Sat. Challenge #90 Water

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you play along. Be sure to link it back to the Pile It On blog. We'd love to stop by and see what you've created. Don't forget to stop by the other team members, listed to the right, to see what they came up with too! I love seeing what challenges they Pile On!

A Warm Magnolia.

How sweet is this little lady?! Another stamp I've acquired and neglected! She's such a sweet little thing. Showing off that lovely paper kit from Queen Scraps again. She's the sponsor for Pile It On this coming Sunday. I had some left over paper from my scrapbook page, and wanted to show off how pretty this kit was. Mine was the Making Memories Flutter Kit. I loved the colors in this paper kit! Isn't it just perfect for girly cards?! You have so many fun color options. I must say, Queen Scraps is a very cool product for scrappers. She's done a lot of the guess work for you, and put it all together along with directions to a sketch.

You can see the pearly part of the flower sheet on this photo. The glitter stripe is showing up nicely too. The ribbon is double sided. I followed the sketch over at Just Magnolia this week. I forgot to run the ribbon thru the image oval nestie.

I added smooch to the blue part of her dress, and to the prima flowers. I topped her hair off with stickles. I colored her with copics. Cut her out and popped her out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Nesties, copics, QueenScraps kit, SU cardstock, stickles, primas, smooch,