Give me ten!!

Splitcoaststampers has the coolest challenge each Sunday. They pick someone's gallery; you go pick out one of their cards you want to CASE; here are the playing rules:

CASEing Guidelines

1. Change 2 or more things on the card. It could be a color combo, embellishements, backgrounds, or even the main image could be different but similar because you don't own the exact image. List the changes in your description.

2. Give credit to the original stamper. Put a link to the original card in your description.

So, here's a link to the card I chose to CASE:

Risen

Isn't the card beautiful? Well, I changed it up a bit most definitely! I used red and brown on my card; and changed the punch used in two of the corners. I like the way these cards turned out - believe me, I wasn't sure when I started!

The background behind the cross is a bit too busy, but I still thought they turned out okay.

For the first card I used a bow on top of a prima just like sgtStamper did; I love the rich red background paper. The cross is from Notes of Prayer by Verve Visual and is stamped in SU! Real Red. The background is an image from Papertryink's Simply Stationery set which was just released in January. I've used this set for a couple really cool projects; hopefully I can show you the other project very soon.

I used a small pearl at the center of the flowers in the bottom right-hand corner. The red and brown flowers were made using my Copics; the original flowers were a pale yellow. Oh I just love changing colors of things with my Copics!

This last card is almost identical except I used different background paper - but still red - and in the upper left-hand corner I used a brown button on top of the prima flower. I also added two small pearls over the holes in the button. Kind of a nice change of pace.

I hope you like these. And thanks for stopping by; it's always good to have you visit! Hope you have a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.

Chores

Quick post here tonight; 2 of the little ones are at basketball practice, so I've got some down time to create - off I go.

For today; here's my card with a hilarious image and sentiment from Whipper Snapper. Boy, they have some GREAT stamps!!

I kept this very simple; the base card is Gina K 120 lb. Pure Luxury layered with some DP. The main image is also stamped on Gina K's 120 lb. Pure Luxury and colored with Copics. I just love coloring and shading with Copics...do you like my lime green vacuum? LOL She's stylin'!!

I used the Ticket Corner Punch from SU! and layered the image on matching green paper. The two ribbon tabs on the side are from my ribbon stash, most likely from Michael's; amazing how well they match the DP!

I thought this would be perfect for someone having a rough time - medical, physical, dental, work issues...you know, just typical life. I thought the sentiment was just too cute!

Thanks for popping in; it's great to see you!

Lookin' for love in the man cave!?!

Oh yeah...this is me lookin' for some lovin' in the man cave! **snort**

Oh this is so....NOT ME! But this is an adorable stamp set from My Favorite Things called "Maid For You". It has some adorable sentiments to go along with it...right along the line of almost naughty. LOL Not really, just a play on words!

I couldn't find the stamp set in their store so I linked to one of their design team members.

I just chuckled while making this card. This is a close up of "Who's That Girl"; notice her maid uniform is all sparkly - isn't that pretty? And look at the ruffly faux fur along the bottom of her uniform - wow, she's lookin' good, don't you think?

I used Royal Red Shimmerz on the maid's uniform and on the red heart that says "wink". The sentiment "wink" is embossed with black detail powder, then I just painted over the entire heart. I love the way it adds shimmer - so sparkly IRL!

This was the card I made for my dear hubby of 17 years - we celebrated our anniversary 2/22. The inside of the card says "Even when I'm clean I'm a little bit dirty!".


The wall paper is paper pieced and the wood floor was hand drawn; one of the MFT design members has shown how to draw the wood floor so I just worked from memory. I thought it turned out pretty good. Everything else is colored with Copics. I tried to add some stripes to the side of the TV to give it more of a wood-grain look. Aren't those colors typical of a man cave? Seriously - I have no clue, but that's exactly what the room reminded me of! I also added Crystal Effects to the TV screen.

My dear hubby recently had an article written about him which was published in "Shooting Sportsman"; it's not the first time he's been published, but for some reason this one was just a really big deal. He's gotten numerous calls since the article was released. The article cannot be found online, strictly in their magazine which can be picked up at Hastings, Barnes & Noble, etc. My gift to him was having the article framed. Here's my dear love muffin' in this first picture:

He swears the children and I gave him those gray hairs...yeah...WHATEVER!!

The article was written by Steven Dodd Hughes; he did a great job! The last paragraph still takes my breath away every single time I read it!

Last is the entire article and the front portion of the magazine including the date. You really can't tell from these pictures, but the entire article and title are double matted and the top matting is brown with a touch of orange/rust marbling - kind matches the gun in the article.

Jim's work is very unique, all done by hand. I'm blessed to have married such a wonderful man. God is good!

Thanks for popping in and sharing in my fun anniversary card and gift! I love when you stop by. Take care and have a great week!

Hugs, ~M.

Toad You So

I have some new stamps from Whipper Snapper and I totally blame Michele Boyer! They have some absolutely adorable images; I love their children stamps.

My boss and another close co-worker had birthdays earlier this month (same day), so I made the same card for both of them. The outside says "Toad you so" and the inside says "you made it another year without croakin'!". Isn't that perfect for this image?

The base card is SU! Old Olive (I believe); the DP is from my left over stash - gotta dwindle that stash somehow! I'm really digging buttons; they're so popular right now and I have plenty in my stash so I worked them into both cards.

This little image is "Eli & Frogger"; I colored everything with Copics, keeping the overall card very simple.

So what do you think of Eli & Frogger; do you like? The image reminds me sooo much of our son when he was a few years younger. He LOVED to catch frogs and bring them in to show me; I tried very hard not to squirm or appear squeamish, but tried to usher them right back outside. HA! And I'm sure he squeezed them just hard enough that the little frog's eyes really did cross. Makes me smile thinking about it.

It's almost Saturday morning (11:50 p.m. as I'm typing); we took our oldest and 4 friends to the movies tonight, "Confessions of a Shopaholic"; they really enjoyed the movie - but boy, it's one long movie! We then took them for ice cream and now 3 of her friends are spending the night. They appear nowhere close to being ready for bed. URGH - I'm old, come on kids, give me a break!

For breakfast we're having cinnamon rolls and/or waffles, eggs, milk & orange juice. I think I should wake them up about 5 a.m. for breakfast, take them all home, come back home and crawl into bed. Ah...the peace and quiet and yes, I'll need the nap!

I hope you have a great weekend; thanks for popping in; it's always great to see you! Hugs, ~M.

The last...

of the Valentine cards! :D

These were kiddo valentine's I made for a friend; I just love this little doggy from Stampin' Up!

These cards are the post card style - just flip them from front to back. The hearts are wooden and were in a pack with various size hearts as well as "X's" and "O's" that I purchased at Hobby Lobby A-G-E-S ago!! The buttons are from my stash and tied with hemp.

The little doggy was colored with copics; I used a white gel pen for the places on the heart the dog is holding.

My FAVORITE part? The ribbon!!! That ribbon was originally red and white - isn't that cool; I made it red and beige to match the card perfectly using my copics. I just love it!

Thanks for stopping by; those are the last of my Valentine cards - I promise. BUT I do have one more *dirty* lovey dovey card coming up in a few days. Our anniversary is this weekend. LOL Yep; you'll just have to stop back by!

Hugs, ~M.

Handmade Ornaments

Check it out: DustyOak Ornaments

Have you seen these; such amazing and beautiful work! Take your time, browse around, it'll be worth the visit!

Thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.

A few more valentines...

I know, I know - Valentine's day is over and everyone is moving on to Easter, but I'm still stuck on Valentine's Day. LOL

I'm feeling great; but so far 2 of our 3 kids have had the flu this week - YUCK!!! If we continue our schedule; the 3rd one should get it tonight - I pray that doesn't happen.

I won't give too much blah, blah, blah today; I'll just leave you with the pictures! :D

I tried to capture a close up of the top card and all that sparkle...it's so pretty IRL! I used a glitter pen and traced the entire image; I really like the way it turned out. This image is from Verve Visual's Hearts on Fire stamp set.

The 2nd card shows off the large heart and sentiment from Verve Visual's Hundred Hearts set. I *heart* the sentiment by Winnie the Pooh!

All DP is Bittersweet by Basic Grey.

So much for trying not to blah, blah, blah...HA!!

Thanks for popping in!! Hugs, ~M.

Hearts on Fire

Ah....I'm back among the living today! I slept quite a few hours yesterday trying to sleep off my migraine. I even went to bed on time (wasn't sure I'd be able to sleep after sleeping so much during the day), but it wasn't a problem and today I woke up feeling like a new woman! I had a slight residual headache, but even that is gone now! :D

I mentioned I made quite a few Valentine cards and here's a couple more I wanted to share with you. Both of these use the sketch challenge from SCS, #214.

This first one that I'm giving you a peek of also qualifies for the SCS Ways to Use It challenge - layering your embellishments. OK, so it's not major layering, but I thought it looked cool. It's a flower button with a burgundy dew drop in the middle of the button. Believe it or not, they hide a little 'boo-boo' on the heart.

I turned the card just a bit so you could see the inside also; I used a piece of the DP and the doily punch to decorate the inside. This beautiful heart (inside and out) is from Verve Visual, Hearts on Fire. This set has such fabulous images!!

All DP is Bittersweet by Basic Grey. I've held of using this paper for weeks...I just love all of it (also called hoarding; I'm queen of hoarding!!).

The hearts along the right edge are stickers from the Bittersweet pack. Everything is layered on SU! Bravo Burgundy and SU! Chocolate Chip. The outside of the heart is stamped in PTI's Dark Chocolate, the inside is stamped with PTI's Pure Poppy. Love those colors together. I also sponged the main image with PTI's Dark Chocolate.

This next card is really identical except I added some pearls to give it a more dainty feel. The main heart is stamped in the same colors EXCEPT I stamped the Pure Poppy off once before stamping inside the Chocolate heart. Amazing how pink it looks huh?

Again, the sticker on the right side is from the Bittersweet package and I added the dew drops on either end.

I also used the SU! ticket punch on the main image and the Dark Chocolate layer.

I'm glad you came back to visit - believe it or not, I have a few more Valentine cards to share...nothing like continuing the celebration right? I hope you had a GREAT *heart* day!

Thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Saturday afternoon - Valentine's Day. I'm suffering with a horrible migraine today. :( NOT the way I wanted to spend Valentine's Day, that's for sure!!

I made several Valentine's cards this year and thought I would share a few. These two were made with Verve Visual's Sweet Valentine set. On both of these, I colored the two intertwined hearts; then stamped them again and cut out. Mounted them with dimensionals and then added Crystal Effects to make them all shiny and smooth.

The DP is from My Mind's Eye and the other card stock is from Papertreyink (Sweet Blush and Dark Chocolate - oh so yummy!).

The very last item is a covered Hershey's bar which I made for my dear hubby!

Not many details as I'm still not feeling well; but thanks for popping in; I always love when you visit! Hugs, ~M.

And the answer is...

Many of you guessed it - SUCKERS...54 suckers...whose the sucker here? LOL

Our oldest is in middle school - no more Valentine parties for her, but our two younger ones LOVE Valentine's Day. I think it's all those treats they get!

One bucket has 21 suckers; the other has 26; two went to my secret teacher pal and the rest are in the fridge ready to be eaten. The children so enjoyed helping me make these. The suckers are big; 1 1/2 hearts per sucker. As you can see we have bright pink, cream, red and light pink - we loved mixing and matching the colors.

This is Kaitlyn with her bucket - how about that cheesy grin? :)

And here's Jared (notice, NO cheesy grin on him).

Their teachers got to keep the little buckets; we also got them a magnetic memo pad and of course they got one of our homemade suckers!!

We hope your Valentine's Day is extra special!



Hugs, ~M.

Valentine Fun

So...what do you think this is?

Any guesses? If you know what it is, how many are there?

Oh Valentine parties are just around the corner and insanity rules! Check back later this week for Valentine and Birthday craziness - it abounds!!!

Have a great week! Hugs, ~M.

Dad, I sure look up to you!

Isn't this little giraffe the cutest thing? He's from Melanie Muenchinger's Hip Hop Accessories stamp set. I made these cards for Valentine's Day; the outside says "Dad, I sure look up to you!"; the inside says Happy Valentine's Day.

The DP is from Basic Grey's Granola pack - such a great manly pack of paper - I just love it!

On this first card with brads; I actually stamped and colored the giraffe, then stamped and colored again, but the 2nd time, I cut him out and popped him up on dimensionals. I love how his spots are actually hearts, such a cute idea!

Nothing fancy on these, just some layering, dry embossing and coloring with my Copics. The ribbon is Dark Chocolate Twill from Papertreyink. Man, this ribbon is AWESOME! And if you haven't visited their site lately, better check it out! They've had all kinds of announcements related to their 2 year anniversary!

Thanks for popping in; I hope you have a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.