Kindred Spirits

I made this card a few weeks ago when I still had my mojo. I went downstairs to create a bit last night and my mojo has TOTALLY disappeared...so if you see it, send it back my way please! :D

A friend asked me to make this card for one of her friends that is having a rough time right now. I used my all-time favorite paper (MME); this line is called "Ooh La La For Him"; great colors.

I used some fabulous ruffled ribbon from No Time To Stamp, I bought several different colors. It's great to work with and makes fabulous bows. And yes, I made a "buttony bow" (started by Joanne I believe), I just love the softness the ribbon adds to the card.

I used a couple stamp sets from Verve Visual (Thankful Blossoms & Kindred Spirits), Julee is having a great sale right now - hop on over and check it out!

The bottom is accented with the Fleur De Lis punch by EK Success on both the yellow and striped paper; I used Gold Pearl Liquid Pearls to finish the bottom of the card as well as accents on the nestability oval. The main oval has the large cluster fleur de lis stamped in VersaMagic's Wheat.

I hope you've enjoyed today's card; I really appreciate you stopping by. Wishing you and your loved ones a safe & happy new year! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Verve Visual Kindred Spirts & Thankful Blossoms
Ink: VersaMagic Wheat & Oasis Green
Paper: SU! Sage Shadow, DP by MME (Ooh La La for Him):
Accessories: ribbon, button, twine, liquid pearls, EK Success punch, paper piercing

Floral Frenzy

When gathering gifts for Christmas, I quicky realized there were a couple gifts that needed a bit more...they were lacking. :(

My mom has always liked my creations but she's never owned any of my creations, therefore I set out to make her a set of note cards with different sentiments that she could use throughout the year. Since I was making these cards December 23, I needed to keep them clean & simple. I was inspired by Kim' card (HERE); very simple, but oh so cute!

I used Papertreyink's Floral Frenzy stamp set and set to work keeping everything one layer and very simple.

I used a couple styles of the Berry Sorbet ribbon and then another ribbon spool I had picked up at Michael's quite some time ago - but the colors matched perfectly. For the center of the flowers, I stamped the circle in 2nd generation ink (stamped off once) and then covered with Crystal Effects for some 3D dimension and shiny, fun detail.

In the last picture, you can see the 6 cards I made with various sentiments. Amazing how pretty clean & simple can be!!

Thanks for stopping by; the new year is just around the corner...anyone making any New Year's Resolutions? If so, leave me a note and tell me about them...or why you have chosen NOT to make any! :D

Hugs, ~M.




WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Floral Frenzy
Ink: PTI Berry Sorbet, SU! Chocolate Chip, Versamagic Green
Paper: GKD 120 lb. Pure White
Accessories: ribbon, crystal effects

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas friends; I hope your day is blessed!

I had a customer order a large quantity of Christmas cards so I went to town playing with men - Gingerbread Men that is! :D

I used Papertreyink's Holiday Button Bits stamp set; isn't this little guy the cutest? Since I was mass producing cards, I needed to keep them simple - something I always struggle with!

I decided to make these post card style (no fold, just front and back) with plenty of room to write on the back. There are 3 different colored gingerbread men, each is highlighted with a white gel pen and pure poppy buttons. Each is layered onto a pure poppy circle and a chocolate scalloped circle. I added liquid pearls to each chocolate scallop.

I hope your day is great; I have so many things to share. I hope I can find some extra time to share all my creations with you over the holiday break. Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Holiday Button Bits
Ink: SU! Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, PTI Dark Chocolate & Pure Poppy,
Paper: PTI Kraft, Pure Poppy & Dark Chocolate, DP ?
Accessories: buttons, liquid pearls, pop dots, Marvy punches

Really Poofy Flower

Hi friends, how are you? So...what's your temperature where you are? Has winter arrived? It's been very nippy here with some ice pelting us this last week. I really would have preferred a nice fall (we seemed to have skipped that season this year) and then a nice gentle white snow (yes, we seemed to skip that too)! AND Christmas is quickly approaching, do you have all your shopping done?

I saw this paper flower on Dawn McVey's blog (so love her site)! She found it on Wendy's website - such great step-by-step instructions! The flower is actually made from an old book. I totally CASE'd Dawn's card for my card - she always has such great inspiration!

I stamped polka dots in Hibiscus Burst on the paper circles to give it some color. I used Damask Designs (also one of Dawn's stamp sets) across the bottom of the kraft cards stock using Fresh Snow from PTI. The leaves for the flower were also stamped in Fresh Snow on Hibiscus Burst paper, I then tore the shape of the leaves, crinkled them up, smoothed them out a bit and attached underneath the flower. Tied on some beautiful ribbon in Hibiscus Burst...and for me? It's a rather simple card.

I'm so in love with these flowers, I'll have another cool project coming up using these same flowers but in Christmas colors!

Thanks for popping in, I love when you visit!! Have a great weekend; hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Damask Designs, Stamps of Life Back2Basics
Ink: PTI Fresh Snow, VersaMagic Chocolate
Paper: PTI Kraft & Hibiscus Burst, old book
Accessories: ribbon, button, twine, EK Success Punch, pop dots

Henrietta....Awwwwww Shucks

Greetings friends, how are you doing? We have some cold weather here in Toto-land - it was -4 degrees this morning with wind gusts up to 29 mph - let's here a big "bbbbbrrrrrrrr"! I really don't mind cold weather, more reason to snuggle with my love! :D But I'm not real fond of the wind - sheesh, just blows through your coat, clothes, etc.!

I made time this week to play with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #47. What a fun sketch; I have now made two square cards in a row. Woot for me!!

Isn't this little girl a cutie? She's from Stampingbella called "Henrietta", look at that sparkle on her dress! (You can click the image to see a larger version). I colored her with Copics and used a Black Spica Glitter Pen for the dress and shoes. She comes with two sentiments - one being "Awwwww Shucks"; hence the title.

I hope you enjoy my little friend Henrietta, she was fun to color and I love the DP - such pretty colorful paper - yep...you guessed it, made by My Mind's Eye!!

All buttons are from Papertreyink; the ribbon was in my stash - Bo Bunny I believe.

Thanks for popping in; stay warm! Hugs, ~M.




WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Stampingbella Henrietta from the Lulu Collection
Ink: Memento Basic Black
Paper: PTI Hibiscus Burst & Sweet Blush, GKD Cream, MME's DP
Accessories: nestabilities, ribbon, buttons, twine, EK Success Punch, pop dots

Martina McBride & Trace Adkins

Martina McBride & Trace Adkins were in Wichita, KS Friday, December 4. I got a call about 3 p.m. for FREE TICKETS - seriously!!!

A dear friend was sick and could not attend. I ***love*** concerts; I've seen Martina before but she's always worth seeing again! My friend's parents were attending so they were our seat mates.

Our oldest daughter didn't want to go (she's a teenager, what can I say?); meanwhile our son started tossing cookies (yes, I had to pick him up early from basketball practice), hubby was hunting, so what's a girl to do? I called hubby home from hunting and took our youngest daughter, age 11. She LOVED the show.

And let me just say, Trace Adkins is a HUGE man; his thighs were huge. LOL He took his jean jacket off and I thought my friend's mother was going to melt! She definitely thought he was "HOT"!

Martina is so small but boy she has lungs like none other - amazing! It was a late night; the concert didn't end until 11 p.m., but it was a GREAT night! Here's a few pix I took; enjoy! Hugs, ~M.

Thank you Christie, we had the BEST time!!!

With Sympathy - Papertake Weekly Challenge #29

A dear friend's mother passed away this last week - this card seems mighty bright for a sympathy card, but my friend LOVES pink and rather than focusing on her loss, I wanted to focus on the celebration of her mother's life! Her mother has been seriously ill for awhile; there were many times they thought they were going to lose her, but God works in marvelous ways and they all spent the night with her before she passed on to be with our Lord. The best part? Her mother was well known for her singing so I'm certain she joined right in with the angels when she got to Heaven!

I had this card made up for several days and had just not stamped the main image; when I realized I wanted to make it into a sympathy card, I stamped the "With Sympathy" from "Forever in Our Hearts" and the decorations from Verve's new stamp set, "Thankful Accents".

I hope you had a great weekend; did you get some Christmas shopping done? I sure didn't! I don't have many days left to get it all together, Christmas will be here before we know it!

Thanks for popping in, I love when you visit. Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Verve Visual Thankful Accents & Forever in Our Hearts
Ink: VersaMagic Green, SU! Close to Cocoa, PTI Hibiscus Burst
Paper: PTI Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, SU! Old Olive, MME DP
Accessories: piercing tool, cuttlebug, pop dots, sponging

Naughty or Nice?

I always bring my friend, Santa Baby, out for the holidays - isn't she adorable? I love coloring her, adding puff paint for her fur and pairing her with My Favorite Things sentiment stamp set. I used the Naughty? Nice? stamp as well as the quote "Don't worry, I hear Santa grades on a curve." I just love it!

The base note cards were purchased at Michael's, I added a white & red layer as well as the stamped Santa girl on a white oval and the green scalloped oval. Nothing fancy, just straightforward stamping and coloring.

The base card says Naughty BUT NICE, on the inside - I let you choose. LOL

Thanks for popping in; I hope you're on Santa's nice list! Hugs, ~M.

Create your own card & tin!

I have worked on this project all weekend long - off and on of course, but I've still spent a lot of time on it! It's a birthday gift for one of our youngest daughter's friends. Our DD missed the b-day party, but hey, we still wanted to get the b-day girl a gift.

This is a make your own card kit! :D

The b-day girl loves pink and zebra print, so I went to work. The kit contains enough for her to make 8 note cards with her initial as a focal point. The cards are made up of pink, black & white card stock, scalloped circles in two sizes and two colors (black & pink). Each of the large scalloped circles have been accented with either liquid pearls or stickles. What fun! And then there are 8 white circles with her initial with 2 different borders.

I included a tape runner and pop dots for her to put all the cards together. AND I found some fuzzy zebra print ribbon - seriously, what little girl wouldn't love putting her own cards together?

In the 3rd picture you can see the fuzzy print ribbon in the upper left-hand corner; it's fab! I then went to work making a tin to house all her b-day goodies. I painted the tin pink and then added flocked zebra print paper to the bottom portion of the tin. I added a strip of light pink/white/dark pink ribbon around the top of the zebra paper, then I added the white pom pom ribbon around the top of the lid. Tied on lots of ribbon to the handle, added a flower to the front and then those adorable swirly pink jewels. Isn't that cute?

This last picture shows the inside of the tin - all she needs to make her note cards AND a little purse which contains scented shower gel and lotion. Both my girls thought the gift turned out great...and if my teen thinks that - then I've been very successful. LOL

Thanks for popping in; I hope you've enjoyed this new 3D creation. Have a great week! Hugs, ~M.

Happy Holidays!

Greetings friends - did you have a great Thanksgiving? We sure did!

I've had lots of crafting time in the studio this weekend, working on lots of different things. At the end of my crafting time last night, I made this one final card. I haven't played with this stamp set much, "Holiday Button Bits", so I decided it was time. I love this stamped image - but it's so big. LOL I used the new Eskimo Kisses paper by Basic Grey and pulled my colors from it.

I could have easily used Pure Poppy buttons, but instead I wanted to pull from the small layer of pink card stock as well as the pink in the DP. Aren't those buttons just the softest color? Notice...THEY ARE NAY-KED! :D

The layout comes from Karen, it's her Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #45 (SSSC45); nice layout. I distressed the top of the Pure Poppy card stock as well as both the top and bottom on the Sweet Blush card stock layer.

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



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Holiday Button Bits
Ink: VersaMagic Green, PTI Fresh Snow
Paper: PTI Sweet Blush, Ripe Avocado & Pure Poppy; DP is Eskimo Kisses by BG, GKD 80 lb. Pure White
Accessories: Nestabilities, EK Success punch, buttons, distressing tool

Big Game Hunter!

This is the first time our youngest daughter has gone hunting with her dad. DH took the 2 youngest to Texas to hunt deer over Thanksgiving break, our oldest is in OK with my parents - let's face it, they're all getting spoiled and I'm left home alone - PRAISE THE GOOD LORD!!!! :D

HA - I never get alone time so I'm really going to treasure it!

This is a really bad picture as I transferred it from my cell phone, but that's okay; shows a happy looking girl with her deer!

Our son missed a monster buck - the guy they are staying with has been seeing this buck on a regular basis. You could tell our son was nervous - he missed the buck 5 times. Poor guy. That's okay, they have the rest of today and all day tomorrow to find him; I pray they do. Our little man will be beside himself!!!

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving; hope to see you again soon, thanks for visiting! Hugs, ~M.

Thank You!

Happy Thanksgiving my friends & family - we have so many things to be thankful for. At the end of this post, I'll leave you with 2 of my very own special blessings so stay tuned!

Recently a friend asked me to make some "thank you" cards, she likes blues & greens in springy colors - mind you, we're definitely in the middle of fall, but it sure was fun to create in such pretty colors!

And no need to be shy - that flower has some serious glitter on it!!! LOL I love the sparkle IRL. Little "Daisybella" from stampingbella.com also has a sparkly flower on her shirt & in her hair.

These cards were such fun to make; the inside sentiments vary, but all are 'thank you' related.

All the pants & shirts are colored in various blues and greens to match the DP; the layout of the card comes from I {heart} To Stamp but for the life of me I cannot find the link to the sample layout - sorry!

See the ribbon on the outside of the card? I purchased it at Michael's over a year ago - can you believe how well the colors & flowers match the DP? Amazing! I tied on a button with twine to the ribbon - just love the way it looks. And last is a group shop - there are actually a total of 6 cards.

I hope you take a few moments on this special holiday to remember all the things you are thankful for; then take a moment and hug those around you - life is much too short, they may be gone tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a picture of 2 of my most favorite men in the world!!! They, along with one of our daughters, are hunting in Texas this Thanksgiving - I hope they have a BLAST!!!

Thanks for popping in; enjoy your "turkey legs" day! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Stampingbella.com Daisybella, various Thank You stamps
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: DP by SU!, SU! Certainly Celery & Bashful Blue, GKD Cream
Accessories: Spica AtYou glitter pen; Copics, ribbon, buttons, twine, Martha Stewart Glitter, punch

Altered Notebooks

Hello friends, how are you? What a crazy work week I had, glad it's the weekend! I love, love, love altering Jr. Legal Notepads - one of my all time favorite things to do. The original 'recipe' came from Mish Mash and I've used it ever since - haven't chanced a thing!

I made 3 of these for a recent open house and every one of them sold. I also did some small notepads using PTI's new signature notepads - I'll post those later - they all sold immediately too.

The paper, 3D items, rub-ons, etc. were all things in my studio just waiting to be put to good use. In fact, this first one you see which says "CUTE" has NO stamping on it whatsoever. It's all 3D goodness and rub-ons - oh yeah, lovin' it! I also love to decorate the inside of the notebooks; they have a little pocket on the left-hand side where you open it up and then a little decorative piece at the top of the notepad. I just think they are so cute.

Hopefully you can see the inside pocket there and each flower was accented with a rhinestone - lots of rhinestones on the outside of the notebook also - a girls dream right? A little 4 yr. old bought this one, she COULD NOT wait to get her hands on it. Pretty cute!

The next one up is a Holiday Planner, this one uses PTI's "Take Note" stamp set and will help anyone stay organized for the holidays. Jot down the Christmas gifts you need to pick up, notes regarding your crazy schedule, the pocket can hold your receipts - oh the possibilities are endless!

All the circles are layered with dimensionals so there's lots of pop to this one. The beautiful satin red ribbon is layered over some cream lace ribbon, so delicate. A few dew drops that I deepened the green color by using Copics finishes the notebook. Love this one!

And last is a "dainty" little notebook. I think it might be my favorite to date. If you read my blog much, you KNOW how much I love to change the color of items by using my Copics - kind of like the dew drops above. Well on this one, see that beautiful big green flower? It was originally yellow and orange - seriously! But yellow & orange sure didn't match my project, so I colored the flower green! Tied on a little button and it's scrumptious. I know, odd I use the word scrumptious for my creations huh? Oh well, I just really like this one!

I added small pearls to each flower and then 2 larger pearls around the sentiment "This & That" which also comes from PTI's "Take Note" stamp set. Such a versatile stamp set!

All paper on this one is from MME's - another all-time favorite of mine. The "This & That" is highlighted with a clear spica glitter pen, can't really see the effect in the pictures, but it adds a nice sparkle.

And last is a picture of all 3 notebooks - nothing pretty about this picture, they don't "go together" at all, but it let's you see them all at once.

If you would like to purchase an altered notebook for the holidays for a girl, a boy, your mom, your grandmother, etc., just send me an e-mail, whimsicalexpressions@yahoo.com - the price is BEYOND reasonable. And since each one is handmade, no two will EVER look alike, in fact, no two even resemble each other! Something special for each person!

I'm so glad you popped in, I love when you visit! Hope you have a great weekend! ~Hugs, M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI's Take Note
Ink: SU! Old Olive & Real Red
Paper: MME, PTI, SU!
Accessories: Spica AtYou glitter pen; Marvy punches, pearls, ribbon, dew drops, punches, 3D accessories