Back to School!

I created this card for the Stamp Something weekly challenge. Yes, you guessed it, the project had to be related to heading back to school.

All our little ones are back in school; our oldest entered middle school this year - YIKES! And did ANYONE tell me what the teenage years would be like...or is that one of those things you just can't explain you have to EXPERIENCE it? LOL

I mentioned to my DH the other night that we have entered the eternal land of ignorance - you know, the place ALL parents enter until their child reaches about 22 yrs. of age!!!

The crayons are from a set called "School Set"; its from SU! but I bought it used many, many years ago. Came in handy for the challenge. The scissors are from the same set. I used the black to resemble the chalkboard and look...I even used white chalk. :D

Thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.

Our Hope is in the Lord!

I made this card several weeks ago with a new stamp set from Fancy Pants. I colored the image with Copic Sketch markers; it's a very simple card, but the message says it all!

I submitted it to my stamping group as consideration for the Front Page Artist (a new one is chosen weekly) and mine was chosen this week. Yeah!!

I hope you're having a great weekend; I think we're headed to a movie today. Thanks for popping in. Hugs, ~M.

BINGO!

Bingo is how I felt when I completed this challenge last night...ON TIME!

This card was made for Julee's Mojo Monday Week #50. I LOVE the card Julee made, but I don't have the cupcake stamps yet...but I'm thinking I might need them!

I received a couple orders in the mail yesterday - stamping stuff of course - so I had to play last night. The floral image is from Lisa Johnson's new set called "Remember". The set has SO MANY images! I once again used my paper from Papertreyink - I really do love these colors! The base card is Berry Sorbet layered with Sweet Blush. I dry embossed the Sweet Blush card stock with Cuttlebug's Birds and Swirls folder. I lightly sponged Sweet Blush ink onto the embossing to make it stand out a bit more.

I then layered a small piece of the Crate Paper I used in THIS post onto the Sweet Blush card stock. The beautiful flower was stamped in Berry Sorbet and then I added leaves in SU! Certainly Celery from Verve's Thankful Blossoms set. This was sponged around the edges with more Berry Sorbet, mounted on SU! Certainly Celery and then mounted on a scalloped Berry Sorbet Circle. All this was mounted with dimensionals, but I still needed the flower to have a bit more 'pop'; so I layered a red line glue dot to the middle and covered with dazzling diamonds. Do you like that little 'pop'?

The ribbon is also Berry Sorbet Twill and the tag is brand new! I just got Spellbinder's Tag Trio, I like it very much. The tag is cut and embossed, I think I should have sponged a bit around the edges to make it stand out a bit more.

The tag is stamped "Embrace Happiness" from PTI's Mixed Messages set.

Thanks for popping in; I hope you have a G-R-E-A-T weekend! Hugs, ~M.

Petals & Stems in Sweet Blush & Berry Sorbet

I made this card in conjunction with Julee's Mojo Monday #49. I love her sketches and I love to play, but I seldom get them turned in on time.

:D

I also got the chance to play with some new papers and ink - WHEE - such fun for a woman of my age. LOL I hadn't had a chance to stamp 'for fun' in over a week; it felt so good!

The base card is from Papertreyink, Berry Sorbet - it's just so yummy!!! The next layer is PTI's Sweet Blush. These are the first two colors I purchased from PTI, but don't worry, I'm quickly stocking up on others unbeknownst to my significant other. Do they need to know EVERYTHING ??

The next layer is DP from Crate Papers; the flowers in the DP match the Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush perfectly, but I kinda covered them up so you can't see that huh? I stamped the 3 flowers from Verve's Petals and Stems set with SU! Certainly Celery for the vine and leaves; for the flower petals I used PTI's Sweet Blush and rock & rolled it with PTI's Berry Sorbet. This was the first time for me to use their inks. They dry sooo quickly; not sure I got all the residue off my clear stamps as I didn't get the best solid image, but I still think they look okay. I stamped the flower center with Berry Sorbet.

The SU! Confetti was layered on the opposite side of the Crate Paper DP; you can't tell much about it, but it's got swirls and pretty stuff all through it! I then layered it onto more of the Berry Sorbet. The circle in the lower right hand corner is stamped in Berry Sorbet onto the opposite side of the Crate Paper again; the saying is from Verve's Wonderful Wishes stamp set. It says "Wishing you a lifetime of happy tomorrows".

I added some paper piercing across the bottom on the Sweet Blush card stock. It's kind of busy, but I really like the colors; can't wait to play with the Crate DP some more - next time I promise to show off the pretty flowers!!

Thanks for peeking in; hope you're having a GREAT week! Hugs, ~M.

A "Cinnamon" Kind of Birthday!

Meet Cinnamon - isn't she ADORABLE? Our oldest had a b-day party to attend today, so I used the sketch layout from All That Scraps and made this covered Jr. Legal Notepad. I love making these, I should do them more often!

The inside has a little pocket and we tucked a Target gift card inside - what girl doesn't like to shop?

Cinnamon is by Penny Black. I colored her using Copics and Spica Glitter Pens. I used my Scor Pal across the bottom portion of the Sweet Blush to add two stripes, then placed Dew Drops in between the stripes. The base is some 2-sided DP I've had for quite some time - I love all the 'girly' sayings you see on the outside; but wait until you see the inside - BAM - it's beautiful too!

You can see I placed a strip of the DP across the top of the Jr. Legal Notepad to tie it all together. I also added 2 flowers and a large white brad to the lower left side of the pocket and mounted with dimensionals.

Here's a close-up of Cinnamon and also a picture of the Copic Sketch Markers I used. Mine were purchased from Ellen Huston's store. I have 3 sets, and I'd like to get 1 more set; then I'll begin filling in with extra colors I can't live without. LOL

I added a prima to Cinnamon's hair; there really is a flower in the image, but I wanted it to be real and not just colored. If you look closely, the prima has polka dots. It was originally white with blue polka dots, I needed burgundy so I colored it with my Copics and voila, I have burgundy. Love that about my Copics!! I also added a little jewel to the center of the flower, just to give her a bit more bling. Her purse and belt also have their own little sparkle going on. Girls gotta have bling ya know!

We've got a really crazy and busy weekend, but I hope to find some more time to stamp; it's always such relaxation for me! What about you - what's in your plans for the weekend?

Thanks for peeking in; hope you have a marvelous weekend! Hugs, ~M.

SHE DID IT!!!

Our oldest made cheerleader! And they keep saying, "you'd make a great flyer" (you know, top of the pyramid) - YIKES!

She's so tiny, she'd feel almost weightless coming down from the top - LOL! WHEW; first big middle school hurdle and we passed!

Hugs, ~M.

My First Sweet Art Ebony

I recently purchased 2 of the Sweet Art Ebony stamps - I LOVE their images! I can't wait to use more. This image was super fun to color; I worked really hard on my shading - how do you think I did?

I think I did the shading on the 'wrong' side - LOL; but I still think it turned out pretty good. I colored the image using Copics - I'm learning so much from Marianne's blog about the use of Copics. Some stuff I will probably never use; but the overall information is incredible!!

Here's a close-up of the little girl - doesn't she remind you of Precious Moments?

I made this for a dear friend that's been having a rough time lately. The inside is stamped with one of the sentiments from Lisa Johnson's "Flower Garden Sentiments" set: "Where flowers bloom so does hope. ~Lady Bird Johnson".

OK, this is going to drive me bonkers, but this close-up image is actually flipped the other direction in my software, but when I load it here, it changes it - what's up with THAT??? URGH!

Anyway, the base card is SU Apricot Appeal, layered with PTI's White, layered with SU Apricot Appeal prints with polka dots. The large scalloped oval is cut with nestabilities as is the white panel; the image is stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black ink and the entire image is colored with Copics. I made her belt a metallic silver - kinda cute I thought. (don't forget, you can click on any picture to see a larger image).

And last is a little locker tag I made for our oldest - she started middle school last week. And you always thought buying school supplies was fun? Oh no - fun is decorating your locker!

This image is "Glam Girls" from All that Scraps, I just love these girls! Have you noticed, I love a lot tonight? LOL

The ribbon looks kind of red; but it's actually bright pink with white polka dots. Her shirt and the ribbon in her hair is colored with Spica Glitter Pens so they really sparkle just like her cool shades!


Thanks for popping in; hugs! ~M.

Savvyshoppabella

Meet Savvyshoppabella - isn't she adorable? She's from Stampingbella; I received her in a card kit a couple of months ago and finally made time to get her inky.

The card stock, paper, brads, and ribbons used also came with a card kit from numerous months ago and again, I finally put those to use! I made 6 cards; all similar just changed colors and inside greeting. I used Copics and Spica Glitter Pens to color Savvyshoppabella.

Some of the inside sentiments are:

"Those shoes make you look so skinny!"

"Credit cards have a limit?"

"Life is cheap, its the accessories that will kill you!"

"Have a nice day, the retail therapy way!"

It was so easy to make all 6 cards as everything was precut - I should remember that when I'm wanting to mass produce. Find a layout I like, cut everything up; stamp the images, color and put them together. I typically always make 2 of every card, sometimes changing the layout or small embellishments.

I'm including 2 smaller images so you can see how sparkly some of them are. Sometimes I just made the packages and flowers sparkly, sometimes the shirts. I did the shirt on the two I'm showing you. These cards are big, 5.25" x 5.25" - first time to make a square card and I love them! I have a couple more in the works.

On to some personal fun - the babes all started school this past week; the oldest entered middle school. Yeah, there were a few tears in my eyes, but it didn't last.

And Saturday we had a baseball tournament - 4 GAMES - I'm exhausted as are the babes! BUT they took 2nd place in the tournament - YEAH BOMBERS!!!


I hope you had a great week; I hope to be back soon with some new cards and other fun projects. I have a little gift I want to make for our oldest to put in her locker; maybe tonight I can get that done! Have a great week and thanks for poppin' in! Hugs, ~M.

Happy Harmony for a very dear friend

I made this card for a very dear friend that was seriously injured in a boating accident. She's been released from the hospital but is still struggling immensely. I hope this will cheer her up a bit!

The DP is by SEI; the flowers are from SU's Happy Harmony set (I love that stamp set); the "FEEL better" is by Papertreyink.

I also made this card for the Papertake Weekly Challenge - I think this is the first time I've participated in one of their challenges; I'm really digging challenges, stretches me outside my comfort zone. The flowers were colored with SU Markers.

Thanks for popping in; I hope you've had a fabulous weekend!! Hugs, ~M.

More Petals & Stems

I should not make cards, take pictures and then wait a month or more to post them. I can't remember anything about them...guess that's why I should start making notes and keeping them. I think to myself that I should 'write this down' but never follow through, so I'll try harder at that so I have all the details!

These cards are the same, I just flipped the orientation. :D

One is for an anniversary, the other for a birthday. See that little charm hanging there? Those are shrinky dinks - man, I've forgotten how much I like doing those and what fun they add to a card!

I have some close-ups of the shrinky dinks I'll show you too. The stamp set used is by Verve Visual called "Petals & Stems"; I just love the stamp set!

The gorgeous dew drops were purchased from Ellen Hutson's store; I now have 4 bottles of different colored dew drops - YUMMY! They're such fun and I love the colors, I want them ALL!

What's everyone doing this weekend? We were supposed to have a baseball tournament all day today but its been rained out. Thankfully DH took our son this morning - they had to leave at 6:30 a.m. - INSANE! I got up about 7:15 a.m., DH called about 7:30 a.m. to say no rush, it's pouring down rain. I went ahead and got everyone up and started breakfast, he called back at 7:45 a.m. to say it had been canceled. BUMMER!

I've missed watching the boys play. They're going to play fall ball until Thanksgiving - oh my - then they'll take a break and start back up in March. AND our little guy will be playing football during this time too; so craziness abounds!

I hope you're having a great weekend; I'm looking forward to sneaking in a bit of stamp time!

And...watching the Olympics!

Thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.