Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Just BeeCause and some exciting news!

It's Tuesday and that means I can finally share some exciting news with you!! I am now a member of a FABULOUS Design team for the challenge blog Papertake Weekly!!! I was sooo honored when my friend Dawny contacted me and asked me to become a part of this talented team of crafters. Papertake Weekly issues a new challenge every Tuesday and we would love it if you would join in and play along with us. This week, the challenge is to use Black & White +1, and it's sponsored by the fabulous Simon Says Stamp.

I guess it's pretty obvious already that I chose the color yellow (my favorite) *smiles*. I made the circle card with the George cartridge and my Design Studio Software, all of which I got from Hallmark Scrapbook. The cute bee was cut from Pooh and Friends. See that cute word circle "Just BeeCause"? That's a brand new set that will be available soon from Regina at The Cutting Cafe'. Isn't it sooo cute?! I LOVE the font she used for it!! So be watching for it to arrive in the Cafe' soon!!!

Please be sure and pop over to Papertake Weekly to see what the rest of the fantastically talented designers did with this challenge. I promise you'll love what you see!! I know I sure did!! Then grab your paper and glue and play along with us! Maybe you'll win a fabulous prize!

Thanks for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon! Hugs!

Monday, September 28, 2009

New Bitten By The Bug challenge plus a Blog Hop!!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope your weekend was as nice as mine. The weather here was quite warm, but we're getting ready to have Fall drop smack dab into our laps! It was in the 90's this weekend, and by Wednesday, it's going to be a high of like 63 or so. Wow! What a change! Time to pull out the jackets, that's for sure!

So anyway, on to the reason you popped by! It's time to reveal a new Bitten By The Bug challenge and we're also having our monthly blog hop! YAY! Time for FUN! Regina's challenge this week is to use the "priceless" cut from the Graphically Speaking cartridge. I cut mine with my Expression which I got from Hallmark Scrapbook.com.


I used one of my Tilda's from Magnolia-licious. She is #368 Tilda with bike from the Lazy Summer Days collection. I also used the butterfly background from the Chasing Butterflies collection. I don't see that Diana has that one in stock right now. But I'm sure it will be coming back. The stamps are colored with my Copic markers (pic below - WOOHOO I actually kept them all together and remembered to take a pic!) The PP is by Three bugs in a rug, and the cardstock is Bazzil. The circle and scalloped circles were cut using my Nesties and popped up from the card base. Tilda is double popped. (that sounds funny!) To help soften the graphic feeling of the priceless cut, I punched a small flower, inked the edge just a tad, and then added a Dew Drop to the center.

Now for the fun stuff!! This week I'm giving away a whole bunch of fun! Oh my goodness, I have no idea how many, but there must be hundreds of fun K & Co Halloween die cuts in these baggies of goodness! There's also a package of fun spiders with googly eyes, a roll of purple ribbon with orange dots, and even a bag of miscellaneous charms! (the charms are not Halloween) And I'm not done yet! If you're the winner of my blog candy, I will also purchase your choice of a sheet of cutouts from Peggy Loves Vintage! You can look at them HERE or HERE. You can also see them HERE. If you'd like a chance to win this bundle of spooky goodies (and some not so spooky goodies as well), just leave a comment on this post by midnight Friday night, Oct 2nd. A winner will be chosen next weekend via random.org.

If you arrived here from the amazingly talented Regina's blog, then you're on the right track! She's is the first stop on the hop today. When you're done here, then hop on over to Shelley's blog. There's not a doubt in my mind that she has created something fantabulous for you to look at today! Thanks for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon! Have fun!!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

3 Clovers Designs Thursday challenge - use numbers

Happy Friday Eve!!! YAY! LOL! Only one more day to the weekend, and I'm ready! With today being Thursday, that means it's time for another challenge from Kerry over at Three Clovers Designs. This week, she asked us to use numbers on our projects. Well that was perfect for me, as my grandson, Christopher, was turning four years old. I wanted a bright, fun, cheery card, so I grabbed my Lime Rickey papers by Basic Grey, and that cute image of the party giraffe is from Dustin Pike colored with my Copic markers.

The #4 was cut with my Cricut cartridge (sorry - can't remember which font) and the fun circle stamp is in a set of digi stamps I got from The Cutting Cafe'. It's called All Occasion Circle Word Set 1. I love these circle stamps and use them all the time. The oval behind the giraffe was cut with my nesties.
So that's it for me today! Please be sure and pop over to Three Clovers Designs to check out the team's fabulous creations, and then grab your paper and glue and come play with us! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!

Monday, September 21, 2009

I think that life's simplest pleasures are the ones I enjoy the most. Things like watching the seasons change. Especially in the fall when you get the beautiful colors with the trees changing. I remember one country road in Kentucky right by where I lived. The trees grew high up the side of the road and met across the top. It was like driving through a tunnel of trees. And in the fall when those trees started turning colors, it was glorious!

For this card, I used three stamps from Magnolia-licious. Jam Tilda is so precious and she's from the newest fall collection A Little Yummy for your Tummy which is available for preorder right now over at Magnolia-licious. (I think Diana might be rearranging things right now, cause the stamp image is gone this very moment. But I'm sure it will be back momentarily). I propped her up on the window, #547, which I stamped and cut out four times. twice in white and twice in patterned paper for the curtain. And all of that is popped up from #559 fall background. I'm telling you, this card looks really simple, but it took me forever to accomplish! LOL! I think I used an entire roll of dimensional tape on it. I'm sorry, I don't know who the DP is by, but the card base and layering cardstock are bth Bazzill. I used cryogen white for Tilda. It has just a hint of glitter in it. And for some reason, in these pics, the glitter really decided to rear it's head. The recipient will be able to attest to the fact that it does NOT look all glitery in person. It's just enough to give the image a little life. I love the stuff, thanks to Jacque! *smiles*

That sentiment stamp is from a new set of digi stamps from The Cutting Cafe' titled Autumn Days. Please be sure and check it out! Regina has a huge lot of new sets that she's come out with! Each set is fabulous! All the stamps are colored with my Copic markers, and I added some machine stitching as well.
Those of you looking for my Bitten By The Bug card....well.....I have to be honest.....I didn't like it. In fact...it was even worse than that. I REALLY didn't like it. In fact, I posted it, then I deleted it about an hour later. I just didn't want to look at it anymore. Sorry! LOL! I will usually leave cards up that I don't like, but I just couldn't. Oh, alright, here's two elements that I DID like about the card that I will show. LOL!

This is one of my new hAnger and stAngler images which I absolutely love, and then this is another new stamp from The Cutting Cafe' from a set which I adore! It's called When I count my Blessings. If you want to see the entire card, please be sure and visit Bitten By The Bug. The rest of the designers did a FABULOUS job with this challenge.

That's it for me today! Sorry for such a long post! Hope you're having a wonderful start to the week and I hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Hanglar and Stanglar thank you card

I think I am just as in love with these adorable Hanglar and Stanglar images as I am with my Magnolias!! And thanks to a certain someone who shall go unnamed (you know who you are and I can't thank you enough!!!!), I am able to present some cards with these cutie patootie images!

I colored her with my copic markers and cut her out so I could pop her up for dimension. The frame she's poised on is cut with my Cricut Expression with my brand new Sweethearts Cartridge that I got from Hallmark Scrapbook. The bottom flower is Prima, and the pretty rose centered in each one was a gift from my wonderful friend, Jacque. The card base is Bazzill, DP is Three Bugs in a Rug, and the layering cardstock is from PTI.

I used my new Martha Stewart loop punch too! And see that really cool thing the card is sitting on? That's from my sweetest friend, DeeDee!! I love it! The butterfly and the charm are both from Michael's.
Thanks for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon!! HUGS!!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Bitten By The Bug contest sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage

Have you played with the wonderful vintage image from Peggy Loves Vintage yet? If you haven't, now's your chance!!! Regina at Bitten By The Bug is having a contest and it's being sponsored by Peggy from Peggy Loves Vintage!!! Visit Bitten By The Bug and choose one of the four images being offered up by Peggy for the contest. Use that image along with any cut from your Cricut machine. It's as simple as that! Link up your project to the post on Bitten By The Bug and you will have a chance to win some of Peggy's fabulous images for yourself!

Be sure and visit Peggy Loves Vintage! She's got two places you can shop. You can reach her etsy shop by clicking HERE, or her web shop by clicking HERE! Then run over to Bitten By The Bug to find out all the details of the current contest! Hope to see your fabulous creation! Have fun!!!!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

What's cookin'? featuring Magnolia stamps along with my Cricut

I have fallen madly in love with the new collection of Magnolia stamps called A Little Yummy For Your Tummy. The stamps are just adorable and are available for preorder right now over at Magnolia-licious! I used #391 Chef Tilda sitting on top of her kitchen table. I can't find it right now, but I thought for sure that Diana had them in stock. If you're interested please email her about them.
The stamps are colored with my Copic markers, also available at Magnolia-licious. Both Tilda and the table are cut out and popped up off the card for dimension. There's also some machine stitching around the card.

I just got my new From My Kitchen Cricut cartridge from Hallmark Scrapbook. I HAD to order it when I got my new Magnolia collection. They were just made for each other. So I cut the fridge in red cardstock from PTI. Used a little white chalk ink around the edge for definition. Don't you just love the little "sparkle" they put on the front? I know I'm really dating myself with this, but remember the old commercials where everything in the kitchen had that big sparkle coming off it??? LOL! Then I cut out a large rolling pin to use for my title and attached a couple little red gingham bows on the handles. The sentiment is computer generated.



For the inside, I cut one of the recipe card shapes for a place to write a note, again with the From My Kitchen cart. I really like how this card turned out. What do you think? I can see lots of possibilities for this new set!!! And to top it all off, Regina from The Cutting Cafe' just came out with a brand new set of printable stamps called From My Kitchen as well! I'm really loving all these kitchen themes!!
That's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me, and I hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Peggy Loves Vintage - Isn't it cute, honey??

Oh how I fell in love with this image from Peggy Loves Vintage. Isn't it so much fun??? The look on poor hubby's face is just priceless! This image is from a new page of cutouts from Peggy Loves Vintage. It's called All About Hats 2.
I just printed out the sheet of cutouts and cut the image out I wanted. If you don't want to print out the entire sheet to use, what I do is open up the entire sheet with my photo editing software, and then crop it down to save each picture as a dfferent file. It works great, and then allows you to only print one image at a time instead of the entire sheet.


I used a word bubble cut with my Expression machine and the Cuttin Up cartridge. The flourish is cut from my new Sweethearts cartridge, the flower is cut from George, and the frame around the cute image was cut from my Storybook cartridge. I added some stitching around the outside of the card base and then zig zagged around the image itself.
Please be sure and check out the adorable images available at Peggy Loves Vintage. They make the cutest cards!!! Thanks for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon!
HUGS!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

My first High Hopes stamp, Winner of The Cutting Cafe' Halloween stamps, and a sale at The Cutting Cafe'!

I'm so excited to say I'm featured over on The Divine Influence today! I'd love it if you'd pop over there and take a peek at what it's all about! And I want to thank both Leanne and Carly for letting me be a part of their new venture. Best of luck ladies!!

Happy Friday everyone!! I finally caved and got some High Hopes stamps (thanks so much for your help, Nikki!!) And all I can think of is why did I wait so long!! I had a blast coloring this cutie pie with my Copics. High Hope stamps are now available at Nikki's wonderful shop, Bunny Zoe's crafts! I kept this card very simple as I wanted her to shine. The PP is Bo Bunny and the blue cardstock is PTI. The card base itself is white Bazzill cardstock. The circle is cut out with my Nesties and is popped up from the card base with dimensional tape. I added the zig zag stitching around the card base and around the circle to add interest. The corners are from a Cuttlebug die. Also added some ribbon from Stamp Simply ribbon store. You can click on the pictures to get a nice up close view of things. But please don't look TOO close. There are going to be lots of mistakes to take in. LOL!


Now for a couple announcements. First, I wanted to tell you about a special that Regina is having over at The Cutting Cafe'. When you purchase the fabulous set called All About Cupcakes, you get a set of YOUR choice for free. No price restrictions!! This offer is good until midnight Saturday, Sept 12th, 2009. (Pacific) Hop on over to The Cutting Cafe' to check it out!


And now for the winner of the Halloween This and That set from The Cutting Cafe'. Here we go:



True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 30
Result:
27
Powered by RANDOM.OR

And the winner is:
loyaz said...
What a great card and set. The fonts used in this set are outstanding. And I love how you have kept it fairly simple with just your striped paper background. Thanks for this great opportunity
DianeL
loyaz1@wbhsi.net

September 7, 2009 4:28 PM

Congrats loyaz!! You left your email so I will send your file to you now. Thanks everyone for playing along.
Thanks for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon!! HUGS!

Three Clovers Designs letters only!


Happy Friday Eve!! Hope everyone is having a great week! I'm only working three days this week. I LOVE short work weeks. :) Tomorrow is Friday already. YAY! With today being Thursday, that means it's time for a new challenge from Kerry over at Three Clovers Designs. This weeks challenge is to use only letters on the front of your card. No words! I had to think about that one for a bit, and then I remembered that The Cutting Cafe' has these awesome letter shaped cards! AND, I have a friend that wants a baby card for her daughter that is expecting, and she's having a boy. Voila! I have the theme for my letter card!

I used this adorable Sitting Alvin from Magnolia-licious along with a Magnolia quilt. I cut just a small piece off the quilt to use on the card. The original stamp size was too big for this card. I don't see where the quilt is currently avaiable, but if you're interested, please email Diana about it. If you love Magnolia stamps, you have to check out the selection available at Magnolia-licious! Diana has the largest on line selection in North America! She also sells Copic marker sets that were created especially for the Magnolia stamps! Speaking of which, I used to color my stamps. The papers are digi, and cardstock is Bazzill.
Thanks for stopping by to see me today. Please visit Three Clovers Designs to see what the rest of the awesome Inspiration team came up with for the challenge. Then we'd love it if you would grab your paper and glue and join us in the fun! Enjoy the rest of your day!! HUGS!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Dance as if no one were watching

Click on picture to see it nice and close!

If you haven't heard of Mo Manning and checked out her digi stamps, then I would say RUN to her site, Digial Pencil Too, and check out her fabulous work! I fell MADLY in love with this stamp when I first saw her. I actually gasped, and immediately put her in my cart.

I have the sweetest Mom In Law in the entire world, and she is turning 80 years old this weekend. She is so full of life, and she is a true inspiration to me. I wanted to make her a special card, so I knew I had to use this image to make it. I colored it with my copic markers and the DP is BG Lemonade. The base of the card is Bazzill cardstock, and the layering mats are with PTI cardstock. I added some machine stitching and a frame cut from my Storybook Cricut cartridge for the sentiment. The fronds are also from Storybook.

Added some pretty silk ribbon from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store and a rose from my friend Jacque. I think the charm came from The Hobby Store, but I'm not sure. My collection of charms is growing very rapidly and I don't remember what I got from where. So what do you think? Do you think she'll like it? I sure hope so. I mean...I know she's like my mom, and she'd like it if I smeared some ink on a piece of paper just cause I made it. But I really wanted to make her a special card. Did I accomplish my task?
Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!

Winner of the Magnolia-licious Accordian File challenge

Hi everyone! I went to random.org and pulled a number for the winner of the accordian folder. And here's the results!!


IntroductionStatisticsNumbersDrawingsTestimonialsFAQContactLoginWhat's New!Search RANDOM.ORG
True Random Number ServiceRandom Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

10
Timestamp: 2009-09-09 03:33:09 UTC


So off to see who #10 is.....
And the winner is:

CelticWoman said...
I think this is a treasure, it is darling, LOVE THE LION, and I too am a fall person, I am so ready this year, your colors make me that more anxious for the cool crisp mornings, the golden shadows and colors. Hugs

September 1, 2009 5:30 AM

A big congrats Sandi! Hope you enjoy!! Be sure to check inside the folder for your extra goodies too! hugs! Please send me your address so I can forward your prize to you!

Thanks so much to all of you for playing! Enjoy the rest of your week! hugs!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Thank you card set from Peggy Loves Vintage

Hi everyone! If you were lucky enough to have a three day weekend, I sure hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine! The weather was perfect for September. Now it's time to go back to work. UGH! This is one of the projects I was able to complete during my weekend. It went together so quickly! All the cards I make with the vintage images from Peggy Loves Vintage are so quick and easy. And I think the images are just too cute to resist!

This set was made by just printing out the Darling Little Boys 2 Cutouts (they're on page five right now). I just trimmed them out of the sheet and mounted them on a scalloped frame from my Nesties.

I cut various stars out with my Cricut from the George cartridge, inked up the edges and used one of those dollar stamps from Michael's on the larger star. For the smaller stars, I just tied a ribbon with some twine from PTI.


I made them all tent topper cards. I just think these images lend themselves so well to tent toppers. All you have to do is cut a sheet of cardstock to 8 1/2" x 4 1/4", then fold in half so it measures 4 1/4" square. Then mount your image to the top if the card so the final card measures 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". Easy peasy!

The DP is from 3 Bugs in a rug, and the cardstock is Bazzill. I made the scalloped edge with my Fiskars border punch. I also took a jewelry box and decorated it to hold the set of cards. They fit in there perfectly and I think it makes for a very nice presentation.

That's if for today! Please be sure and visit Peggy Loves Vintage. She's putting up all her holiday cd's and cutouts, and has a HUGE assortment to choose from!!!! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Bitten By The Bug with The Cutting Cafe'

It's Sunday night and I still have one more day off! WOOHOO!!! I love long weekends! *smile* It's time to reveal the new Bitten By The Bug challenge for this week. Regina asked us to use the present cut from Pooh and Friends. I've been wanting to make a special treat for my grandson's Kindergarten teacher, and this gave me the perfect opportunity!
I used an Apple shaped card from The Cutting Cafe' to make both the note card set, as well as the card for the teacher. The "Thanks Teacher" word circle is another downloadable stamp that is from The Cutting Cafe' called Teacher Huge Circle Set. And then I put the present cut in the middle of the word circle.

I tied on an apple charm (it's a little hard to see) with some twine from PTI. The paper I used is digital and the green cardstock is Bazzill. The card bases are Kraft paper from PTI. I also decorated the top of a jewelry box (a set of A2 cards fit in these boxes perfectly!) to hold the set.


I cut the cards out with my Pazzle machine, but you could just as easily print the pattern onto your cardstock and pattern paper and cut them out yourself. Check the post directly below this one for a chance to win a free set of Halloween This and That digi stamps from The Cutting Cafe'!!
That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed my project, and please be sure and check out all the other projects by the rest of the Bitten By The Bug designers.
Now for the Blog Candy Winner for last weeks Bitten By The Bug Blog Hop -
The Winner is:
Well, I couldn't get it to paste and it's late so I'm just typing it...
#36 - Tifany!
Congrats Tifany! Please send my your address so I can get your prizes out to you! Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon!
hugs!

Have a Boo-tiful day from The Cutting Cafe'

Good morning everyone! Hope you're enjoying your weekend!! I know I sure am! And I still have one day left. YAY!!! This morning I made a Halloween card that went together sooooo quickly with the digi stamps from The Cutting Cafe'!! The set is called Halloween This and That, which features 22, yes 22 printable stamps. Plus she has a lot more adorable Halloween sets also. Sooo much fun! Please be sure and pop over to the Cutting Cafe and check out all of Regina's awesome sets!

Now for the really fun part! Regina is so talented, and she's also very generous! She's allowing me to give away a set of the Halloween This and That printable stamps! If you want to win, just leave a comment on this post before midnight Wednesday. I'll draw a winner via Random.org. Thanks for stopping by to see me today and don't forget to check back tomorrow for a new challenge reveal from Bitten By The Bug! HUGS!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Kitchen Tilda for Friday Sketchers and a fabulous card from my good friend!

Happy Friday Eve! I just squeeked in under the wire for this challenge! I actually got it finished last night but didn't get the pics taken. It's hard to fit everything in when you work 10 hours a day, and then come home and still have household chores to do too. Ok, enough complaining. I know I'm blessed to have a job. *smiles* I just HAD to ink up this brand new Tilda from the Fall Collection "A Little Yummy For Your Tummy". She's Kitchen Tilda and is available for preorder right now at Magnolia-licious! Isn't she just too cute??!! Anyway, this is for the current Friday Sketchers challenge.

The card base and matting is Bazzill cardstock, and the DP is from My Minds Eye. Tilda is colored with my Copics. The layers are machine stitched and I added some Kaiser pearls to several of the corners. The top panel is popped up from the rest, and then Tilda is cut out and popped up from that.
Now onto the good stuff. I am sooooo blessed to have met a wonderfully talented woman that I am lucky enough to call my friend. Sandi Kelly and I met a couple years ago because of our mutual love of the Cricut machine. She is so very talented and I have long admired her artistry. Well, she just recently fell in love with the Copic markers, then the airbrush system, and finally our beloved Magnolia stamps! And guess what! I was the VERY lucky recipient of her FIRST Magnolia card! And here it is! As you can see, Sandi loves to combine her Cricut with her Magnolia too! LOL!

I don't have any specifics on the card she made, other than I know that she used Pink Tilda in striped stockings. And I believe the horse is from the Paper Dolls Dress Up Cricut cartridge. I'm not sure about the bucket. But I love all the details on this. And her copic coloring is amazing. She's been a long time user and teacher of alcohol inks, and has created some of the most beautiful projects I've ever seen. So I was really excited when she ordered the Copic markers and airbrush system. Thank you so much Sandi for honoring me with your very first Magnolia card! I truly cherish both it and your friendship. Please be sure and visit Sandi and leave her a little love on her blog.



So that's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I've been up to. I truly appreciate it, and I hope to see you again soon!! Enjoy your Friday! HUGS!