A Few Firsts!

I love how this card turned out!  I made it for a special friend, for Father's Day.  Now, for some personal crud.....I've kept some of my personal life from my blog, because well....this is a happy place for me.  Some of you know I've had a rough last two years.  Started with my marriage falling apart two December's ago, topped off with the betrayals that threw me into a dark place that took time to heal from in '10.  I haven't talked about any of that on here.  This is my space, place where I can express myself in a positive way, and the situation with my family has been very public in my community.  My blog was my escape from that, and all that went with it.  Bringing this up now, because things change, and there's gonna be some new names popping on here.

A couple months ago, God brought someone new into my life, and flipped me upside down again.  Went on a date....a first after 16 years.....gosh, scary, right?!  Anyhow, he's been so super sweet to me, and I feel totally blessed to have him in my life.  One day I'll have to share the story of milkduds!  He's a dad of two kids, both are about 6 months older than Gabi, and Trey.  He's got a daughter, Sophia, and son, Kyle.  Sophia has been introduced to stamping thru me, and has made some cards, so I'm gonna have to show them off.  But we've spent a lot of time together with the kids and without when we can escape all of them!  This was his Father's Day card from me.  I've never done black and white...but so pleased with this card.  It's even got a touch of bling on the airplanes! 

Sweet Tammi sent me this image, and I had so much fun coloring it!  Thanks, Tammi! 

My second card is Sophia's card to her Dad.  We used a TAC set for it, because she said it looked like her dad.  He's lost some hair!  LOL!  She loved the rainbow, which was also an image from Tammi.  And we cut out extra clouds from felt with PTI's cloud die. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Supplies: nesties, stickles, colored pencils, copics, K and Co paper, DCWV stack, SU cardstock and ink, EK punch,

Flutter By Wednesday #150.

Today's a great day to join us at Flutter By Wednesday. Danni has some fun cooked up for today. Not only did we get to 200 entries a few weeks back, we are sitting at challenge #150 today. I bet Danni's surprised to see that number roll around! I know that number means a great deal to her! So, in order to celebrate she's giving away some candy! And what would that be?! I'll give you an idea, and than you'll need to head to the Flutter By Wednesday blog to get the full details! Let's say she's giving away a stamp or two from Sparkle's Creations!

There was another challenge at Flutter By Wednesday to use soft pastel colors on the card. I tried. I love pastels, but I think my card ended up brighter than I expected it too when I picked out my papers!

I made a skyline background for Chloe! I've had this idea to do this with two stamp sets from TAC for awhile, but hadn't done it yet. So, I pulled out The Places You'll Go set for this card. Gabi loved my card yesterday when she saw it, and was so excited to see how I made the skyline using The Places You'll Go from TAC. I followed sketch 186 from Mojo Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: SEI paper, SU cardstock, Martha punch, Sparkle stamp, TAC Places You'll Go, PTI banner die, stickles, copics, scrappers floss.

Miracle Futtering.

Man, I've been slacking! At least on blogging. I've been very busy crafting making gifts and such for family and friends. We've had some snow, too! We hardly get snow! The kids are out of school for the holidays. We had parties planned for schools, but snow days made it so no parties where to be had at school. Bummer! All that cutting I did for Trey's teacher's crafts. I was bummed! I love those handmade items the kids make in school.

Anyhow, had a little bit of time to stamp since I've finished up some Christmas stuff. Saw a DT call for Flutterby Weds. Thought I'd toss my name in the hat. I do love to play along with them. Had to play along with Mojo Monday. Been ages since I've sat down and played both challenges.
Crazy how busy life gets sometimes. I love participating in challenges. I've enjoyed both DTs that I was on this year, creating for the challenges, and seeing what the other DT come up with for the challenges! Amazes me their take on stuff. Than going to blogs from bloggers who played along. So much talent out there!

My Magnolia card is an image given to me from Tammi. Such a sweet little image. The paper is from DCWV, Mango stack. It's full of bright colors, which is perfect for me! She's colored with copics and topped off with some stickles. The sentiment is from a SU stamp set.

My second card uses TAC supplies. The fairy is from a sweet set from Mabelle R. She makes such cute images. The paper is from More Mimi, which is one of my favorites from TAC. Can't beat that color palette! Greens, pinks, and browns! So nice! Parts are cut out and popped up. She's paper pieced, and topped off with stickles.

This is my second post for the day, so be sure to peak at the Party Time Tuesday post below this one.

Happy Turkey Day!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving. I made this card for a contest for TAC, sadly, didn't win, but the card is so darling, I had to share it today. I used Emma paper pack. I love the colors in this paper pack. Cardstock is from the Mimi collection. Sentiment is from a different TAC set, and the name is escaping me at the moment. I followed a tutorial on Color Me Copic on making grass. Anyone planning on going out in the crowds for some Black Friday sales tomorrow?

Blessing......

Heart Girl.

Here was another one I sent in to TAC. Such a sweet set! Gotta say, I'm a big fan of Mabelle R's sets. There are some darling new sets of hers in the supplement. One called Cocoa and Max, it's so stinking cute! You can view the supplement HERE. This set has 4 darling young ladies in it, and it's called Cheery Thoughts.

This little lady is colored with copics, and is paper pieced. I used Juliette SWIC papers for this card. Most of the TAC papers come with tags, so it's easy to add the sentiment right to the tag and add to the card. The card base is from More Mimi cardstocks. The edges are dusted with Versamagic spots.

Other supplies: nesties, Mimi ribbon, heart pearls from the Clear and Pearl Gem Collection

Darling Frankenstinelle

I sent in some cards for a card call TAC had for their upcoming release. This was one I sent in to them. This set is a lot of fun, and currently on sale since it's been discontinued, and you can view that list here. I used Miss Moxie papers, and DCWV cardstock. She's colored with copics, and the sentiment is from another TAC set. The edges are dusted with Palette Violete ink pad.

The newest supplement is out from TAC today, and I'm excited to say that one of my cards is in the gallery for inspiration! You can view all of that stuff HERE. The card I made is the little Santa Boy under More Amazing Ideas.

Other supplies: nesties, stickles, red scrappers floss.

Here, Kittie!

Okay, how cute is this image?! Another fun new set from TAC. It's called It's Your Day. This little girl is so stinking cute. There's another image of her throwing a fit, and it makes me laugh when I see it. I have an idea for that card, but haven't had time to sit down and make it yet. I made this card for another neighbor as a thanks for watching after my other fur babies, my three cats. Another reason to use the Whiskers and Max papers. Even managed to use a scrap of some Basic Grey paper from a scrapbook page I just recently completed for Trey.

I did the Jen Del Muro's sketch from Sat. 8/21. My cutie pie is colored with copics. I popped out the cat with pop dots.

Other supplies: Nesties, Martha punch, SU cardstock, stickles, Basic Grey papers,

Thanks for stopping by!

Wuff You.

Man, this doggie set from TAC is way too cute! I got it because it has a doggie sleeping upside down, with the feet in the air. Or I guess I should say on his back, feet up in the air. That's so how Maxwell sleeps when he's in a deep good sleep. Cracks me up when he sleeps like that! So, I had to get this set!

This card went to one of my neighbors. My neighbors are so kind to Max. He goes over to play with their doggies (Callie and Lilly), all the time. Wears Callie and Max out! He knows what it means when we say Callie, so we try not to say it until he's getting ready to go play with her. It's his home away from home. They've been great neighbors to me and my family, and Max. So, I wanted to send a note of thanks and thought the set was perfect for it!

I played around with my copics, trying to make the fur look like Max's coat. Think I need to do some more playing with that! I finally broke into my Whiskers and Max paper from Basic Grey. And yep, I only got it because it said Max on it! LOL! I gotta say, I do love my doggie! He's a sweet heart!

I did The Sweet Stop Sketch 70 on this card.

Supplies: Nesties, copics, TAC Good Dog, SU cardstock, and ink, stickles, Martha punch, Distressing ink,

Scrapping Good Time.

I've been on a scrapbook kick this week. Gotten quite a few pages done. Posting real quick, so my MIL can peak at them. I've been using my Cricut like crazy. Loving it! Playing with the Design Studio and Sure Cuts A Lot software too! As always, my sketches are from Jeanette's books, Cherish, and Imagine. I can't say enough about what they've done to my pages since I started using them. I'm big on a lot of photos in my pages, and the sketches make it totally possible to pile them in there, and not look crowded. And uses at least three sheets of paper per page, so as a paper addict, gotta love that!

Anyhow, just gonna put up two pages at at time. I've made way more than that this week, but figured it would be a bit much to put them all up! Today's pages are from when we visited family in AL. We don't get to see them too often, so we try to snap photos of the kids together. They have one cousin there, and she's a few months younger than Trey. We try to get them an outfit that'll work for both her and Gabi, and match Trey well enough. We took them to a local park and snapped some photos of them together. I used some retired stamp sets from TAC for the sentiments added to the papers.

We also visited the local Zoo. I have to say, shockingly, I don't think I've ever made a zoo page. I'm trying to recall one, and can't. Might have to dig thru older scrapbooks and see if there's a page in there. Either way, I stamped out the animals from TAC's Wild Things sets with Versamagic pads. The paper is probably a bit too toddlerish for their ages, but its perfect for the theme, and I've had that cute DCWV Nana's Nursery stack for so long, I'm happy to use it up! My title choice is because the Zoo had a train that we rode thru the zoo. Which was why I also used the train sheet on the pages.

Supplies: All papers are from DCWV stacks. Stamps were TAC. Cricut, SU inks, Versamagic Inks, primas, nesties.

Thanks for stopping by!

Party Time Tuesday #10.

Wow! Hard to believe its been 10 weeks of parting with the girls at Party Time Tuesdays! Today we have a summer theme for your birthday card. I grabbed from my lovely stash of CC Designs Mermaids. Gabi had challenged me to make a rainbow colored haired mermaid. Remember a few weeks back she wanted hot pink. (This card was made the same time as that one...a day or two later in fact.) I was so pleased with how it turned out, but sad that I had to keep it a secret for so long! I cut along the pattern that I thought reminded me of a wave. Than the set of papers has a sheet of tags. I put her on the tag after I cut her out.
For her hair, I went thru my copics finding colors that went with the next color in the rainbow. Drew lines on a scrap paper to see how they'd go together. I'm pleased with her hair! Than surprise for me, I had just grabbed this paper pack from The Angel Company, (TAC) and had actually colored her to go with a different set of papers, had put her down on top of the TAC papers. She looked so perfect against the colors that I had to switch papers.
I covered her tail in Smooch. Love the subtle shine on there. Dotted her a few times with my white Sharpie Poster Pen-thanks, Kim! I created this sentiment off the computer.
We'd love for you to play along. Be sure to stick that birthday sentiment on the front of your summer card! Link it back up to the Party Time Tuesday blog. Make sure you peak at the other designers too! They all have some smashing summer creations!
Kristie lined up some fun party gals for the month of Aug. This week we have Colleen from A Cards Delight. She's got a great blog, with some fantastic cards! Make sure you pop over to see what she created for the party as well!

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies: TAC paper, CC Design stamp, copics, nesties, Palette blue ink pad, stickles, smooch, primas, SU cardstock.

Mojo Mermaid!

Man, if at first you don't succeed, try again, right? I started this card last night. Picked out the image, the papers, and colored. I'm so not lying when I said I can't do out of the box coloring! I had tried to take the lesson from Gabi, who is ten, and color my mermaid differently. Yea, my first attempt at purple hair....SCARY! I would post a photo of it, but really, it was that bad! I'd hide my blog in shame! LOL! Anyhow, so I came back today to try again on the hair. This time, I gotta say, WOW! How cute did she turned out? I covered her tail in smooch. Bonus for redoing it today because the Mojo Monday sketch is a fun one! Sadly, I'm almost out of that paper pack. It's been discontinued by TAC. Such a pretty paper line! Gotta say, these mermaids from Sweet November are way fun to color! I used a sentiment from Amy R's Underwater set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Copics, nesties, Genevieve paper, SU cardstock, gems, smooch, stickles,

Couple Father's Day Cards

Worked on a few cards this week for Dads. Manly cards are so hard it seems. Gotta space, fill it with flowers....just can't do that for the dudes! TAC came out with a way fun dude set this past spring. I've really enjoyed the images in it. This reminded me of my one FIL who is in construction. I love how the stomach peaks out under the shirt! I paper pieced his whole outfit.

Than on my second card I used some un-inked stamp sets from TAC. The label stamp fits perfectly with the nestie. So, it was a nice way to add some pop to the nestie shape. I don't normally make cards that center around sentiments. I seem to struggle with that, so this card was hard to feel positive about. I created the Father's day sentiment off the computer. I followed Mojo Monday 143.

Supplies: TAC stamps, Basic Grey papers, SU cardstock, nesties, copics, SU punches,

Spotty Chick.

Couldn't come up with a good title for this card. This is one is out of normal comfort zone. Pile It On had a good challenge today. Have to say until I saw what the DT came up with, I was stumped! I started to think about what I had that had veggies on it, and a stamp set from TAC just waiting to be inked up. That chick is so cute, isn't it? It's a set by Mabelle R, and she does some way cute images.

Anyhow, I piled it on with the Mojo Monday Sketch.

Pink Elephant Bright Colors.

JUGS Dry Emboss. I embossed around my nesties, but it's not showing up so good in the photo.

Craft Cards was Summer Delights. I think of summer gardening when I think of the carrot car, the colors of the card. I can't find this blog again! I've gone thru both sites that I normally hit to get find challenges, and can't find it on either of them.

I paper pieced my car, and hat. The tires are cut out and propped up. Topped her off with some stickles.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: So saffron cardstock, TAC stamps, SU felt flowers, stickles, nesties, EK punch, DP retired from Michaels.

More Scrapbook pages.

I'm on a roll with these pages this week. Got 3 more done. I'm putting these up for family to see. They all live out of state, so they don't get to see these small moments all the time with the kids. Trey plays baseball, and these are from fall ball. A mom on our team took the nice photos of him. She rocked the pictures! Trey looks so cute in the photos. I used a TAC stamp, and Pink Cat Studio Sporty Billy for my accents on that page.

The other pages are just simple fun ones. Love the Cricut. I used it to cut out the Winter Fun, and did Diamond Dust on it to give it some added bling. The snowflakes were stickers I had floating around. We had gone ice skating for the first time with friends over the Christmas Break. Gabi wasn't fond of it, but Trey took off and did very well his first time on skates.

Than the last is just Trey's toothless photos. Those were all just stickers. The layouts were provided by my favorite books from Jeanette Lynton. I adore both her Cherish and Imagine books are both used often in my house! I love the clean looks of the layouts, while allowing me to add a lot of photos! Plus, many sheets of fun papers! I think it's a very worth wild purchase, (both can be found at Michael's, or from a Close To My Heart demo) if you're wanting to scrapbook but are kinda lost where to start or coming up with layouts.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Miracle and Simple Sympathy!

Wow! Finally a post from me! Who just fell off their chair?! Life has been, for lack of a better word, interesting since Jan 4th. I had a few new supplies come in last week, and couldn't wait to play with them. Always, Mojo Monday is a good starting point! Went there first thing this morning, and they had a fabulous sketch. Than, I peaked at Rachel's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge, and moved by the colors and flowers. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon and start posting regularly again. I'm missing peaking at blogs, and doing challenges.

The image is CC Designs Spring Kit. So cute, if you haven't seen them yet. The new Basic Grey papers are so pretty too. And those prima flowers were at Michaels, so nice chance to try them out.

Supplies: PTI cardstock, copics, Basic Grey cardstock, primas, stickles, perfect plum ink, mellow moss ink, nesties.

A blessing for this card was my friend's Grandfather recovered after they went to say their goodbyes. I had left town with Gabi on a dance competition, and hadn't heard the good news. So, I made a card this morning, and turned out I didn't need it after all. Sympathy cards are hard for me. This one turned out nice and clean.

Supplies: TAC swirly stamps, PTI With Sympathy, Elegant eggplant cardstock, and ink.

Sending Bear Hugs!

Grabbed this cute image from Belles and Whistles. I love Elisabeth Bell images. I grabbed a few of the new images that they just released. I've gotten so many new stamps, but haven't played with any of them yet. The sentiment is from a new TAC set that is coming out.

I've been having a difficult time lately, due to some major personal issues, which is why I haven't been on here posting. So, I used this image first from them, because I'm just really in some needs of hugs! LOL! I'm adopted, and was in foster care for years before being adopted. Lucky for me, a big chuck of those years were with the family that adopted me. My first Christmas with them, I was five, they gave me a bear. I loved the Brady Bunch, and Cindy Brady was my favorite. So, I named her Cindy Bear. I would hug her when ever I was feeling down. To let you know how special Cindy Bear was to me, I still have her in a box. She's full of holes, smelly, and ratty looking. But that bear gave the best hugs!

This card also covers a few challenges.

Mojo Monday Sketch.

Pile It On-Tie it around.

ABC-Layers.

All Sorts-Pink and Brown.

Supplies: copics, basic grey paper, SU cardstock, primas, stickles, nesties.

First Cricut Page.

Man, I love this tool! I am so impressed with how well that thing cuts! I did this page last week, waiting for my Cricut to arrive. I than cut out my title, the trees, stocking and the ornaments. I was working on another title for a different page when I lost power last night. But I just love how this page turned out! I was amazed watching it cut each letter, and stuff. Love how it'll layer things. I barely touched what this machine can do, and will have fun learning more things on it. So, here's my first work of art with it! The trees are layered with the polka dotted pattern paper. And the cutting out of the ornaments is so detailed!

Side topic, we had a nice Nor'easter come thru yesterday. Kids were off school yesterday and today. Paul was in GA at Home Office, and got trapped there, because the weather was so bad. The bridge outside my neck of the woods is flooded, so we can't cross to the peninsula from there. Paul has now made it back to our area, but has to take the long way home, because of the bridge. We lost power about 8 last night, and it kicked back on around 2 this afternoon. We have a generator, but it hadn't been used, and not something I knew how to operate. So, my neighbors came and set it up for me, so I could plug back up the fridge and freezer. Than I put on the tv to give the kids something to do, other than fight!

Other supplies: DCWV cardstock, pattern paper, TAC stamp, SU garden green ink, stickles, nesties, Queen and Co brads.

Thankful Willow!

I'm giddy right now. I ordered a Cricut Expression and it just arrived! I can't wait to play with it! I have a few scrapbook pages waiting for a title! Anyhow, this card covers a few challenges.

It's Flutterby Wed's Thankful challenge.

Pile It On, leaves.

Pink Elephant, Be Thankful.

Whiff of Joy Challenge, which was a color combo-orange, brown and ivory.

La La Land was to use punch/die cuts. I punched out two leaves buried under the flowers, and nestie.

Mojo Monday's Sketch.

Supplies: WOJ stamp, TAC sentiment, shimmerz, stickles, copics, Reflections paper and brad, Queen and Co brad, More Mustard cardstock, more mustard ink, choco chip ink, scrappers floss.

Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Santa

I grabbed a few new TAC sets a few weeks back. They had a surprise 50% off sale for their demos, how nice is that? So, I got a few sets I'd been eyeing, but waiting to get. This was one of them. Such a pretty set. Not my usual style, but something about this Santa set just grabbed me. I inked this puppy with Brilliance Coffee Bean ink pad. It has a nice shimmer to it, plus a nice pretty deep color. That matched TAC's Winchester paper line perfectly, so I ended up making a nontraditional Christmas card. The soft blues in the paper went so nicely with some snowflake items I had floating around.

I used a layout from Just Us Girls.

It's been awhile since I've been able to play along on Sparkle's Christmas Challenge, happy I was able to complete a Christmas card on time today!

It's also Bring Out Bling for All Sorts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: TAC Vintage Santa, Winchester SWIC, SU Baja cardstock, stickles, Brilliance ink pad.

Kim's Swap

This is Kim's Halloween swap. Kim and I both fell in love with a few sets that TAC released in Sept with their fall supplement. She called the witch, because she was so stinking cute! And I had colored this one right after Kim challenged me to make a green face! I accepted, and think it did turn out uber cute! Her little green body! I popped out parts of her hat, and broom. The layout is from Amy R's website. I used a sentiment from a different TAC Halloween stamp set. I love that Martha punch.

Be sure to pop by Tammi, Rachel, Debbie, and Kim's blogs to see what they did they with the same supplies.

Other supplies: copics, nesties, stickles, primas, scrappers floss, going grey ink.