TLT - you cannot imagine!!

Yep; you cannot possibly imagine what I have gone through to bring this TLT post live. LOL

We have an issue with our Internet at home (yes, that's where my pictures are stored); so I asked hubby to bring home his laptop and air card....k, that laptop is like 7-8 years old, a 1 yr. old can crawl/walk faster than it moves....so after 2 hours and 45 minutes, I am sitting in the parking lot of our middle school (yes, you read that right) with wireless connection! AHHHH...dedication eh? Oh yeah, I kidnapped my daughter's laptop too - WHEE, good mommy!

Needless to say this will be "extra" short and sweet - sorry! Once we have Internet service restored, I'll come back in and add all the direct links.

The Totally Ladybug design team had a sketch to work with this week - I just DID NOT do Fairy Ruby justice...maybe that's when I should have known my problems were going to begin! LOL

Anyway, here's may little card. I cut out a 2nd present and mounted with dimensionals for a great 3D effect (that, and I like prezzies!!); I also added glossy accents to the ribbon of the package and the balloon.

Thanks for popping in - can you leave this old girl some love so she'll know you even made it here and recognize my unbelievable dedication? LOL

AND hopefully none of the other Lovely Ladybugs are having issues such as I - therefore, hop on over and see what amazing creations they have to share...yeah, go ahead, leave them some love too!

• • Kerry (Queen Ladybug)
  Anita
• Gaelle
• Hayley
• Jeanie
• Kerry
• Lisa
• Mary J
• Meahni
• Michele (that's me!)
• Pinky
• Sue
• Tams

Have a great week; ours is extra busy with kid's activities, but I WILL find some down time to craft! Hugs, ~M.

BTW, did you see this little sneak on Kerry's blog:





WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Yeah, normally HERE is where I'd tell you what makes up this card, but right now I'm so thankful to even get it posted, I just can't do it...doesn't matter that I'm wearing Nike shoes and their slogan is "Just Do It!"

:D

RI SOTW - Play Time Cat

Join us - it's another Stamp of the Week (SOTW) with Repeat Impressions!

Awww...everyone now, isn't this cat so cute? I colored her with hundreds of Copic dots - hundreds!! I used two different colors and just love the way it looks.

You can't see it in the pictures, but this cutie has sparkly whiskers & eyes - so pretty IRL. The DP is some leftover in my stash combined with PTI's Dark Chocolate & Aqua Mist. Ribbon is PTI's saddle stitch ribbon. A simple little card but I thought it turned out really cute; the inside says "You are...Purr-fect!".

:D

And remember, whenever we feature a Stamp of the Week (SOTW), you can purchase that same image for 50% off - that's like dirt cheap - so don't miss out; head on over to The House That Stamps Built and get the deets so you can go shopping!

And last, the other RI Rock Stars will have some super cute cards too - check them out and leave them a bit of love!

• Ayana Posadas
• Dana Joy
• Joy Hadden
• Lynette Neus
• Darsie Bruno
• Harriet Skelly

Thanks for popping in; it brightens my day when you visit! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Repeat Impressions Play Time Cat
Papers: PTI Dark Chocolate & Aqua Mist, Misc. DP
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories: nesties, Copics, PTI Saddle Stitch ribbon, PTI Scalloped Die

RI What If? Wednesday

You guessed it - it's another What If? Wednesday with Wendy & the gang over at The House That Stamps Built. Always a fun time; we hope you'll join us and create a card using Wendy's fabby sketch as YOU might win a gift certificate to Repeat Impressions and don't you know, they have amazing stamps!

This is a brand new image we received recently; the pumpkin comes plain - you can add lines, you can stamp a face (as I have), you can paper piece it - you name it. Me? I decided I need a few pumpkins for my image!

:D

I stamped the 1st one, then masked it off and stamped the 2nd one; then masked both of those off to stamp the 3rd one just peeking out from behind. I colored all 3 with Copics and my daughter quickly told me they looked like apples. Hmph on that!

So, I added faces to two of the pumpkins and colored the faces in with a 3D black gel pen. Then for some more fun, I pulled out my Twinkling H2O's which I haven't used in F-O-R-E-V-E-R and colored them in - can you see that shimmer? I added a deeper shade to the lines, they look fabby IRL, even the daughter who claimed they were apples agreed. Hmph on that!

Be sure to check out the other RI Rock Stars as I'm certain they will have some fabulous eye candy for you!

• Ayana Posadas
• Dana Joy
• Darsie Bruno
• Harriet Skelly
• Joy Hadden
• Julie Smith
• Lynette Neus
• Makiko Jones
• Robin Kirkpatrick

AND What If? you used the same sketch; what would you create? We hope you'll join the fun and take a chance at winning $25!!!

Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Repeat Impressions Round Pumpkin & Happy Haunting
Papers: PTI Berry Sorbet & Smokey Shadow, GKD Cream, DP by Basic Grey
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: nesties, Copics, Twinkling H2O's, misc. black ribbon, EK Success border punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder

TLT - Totally Ladybug Tuesday

Oh the fun we're going to have! It's Totally Ladybug Tuesday and our challenge this week was PINK + one other color.

You know how much I *heart* Nikki, so I used Make A Wish Nikki; wonder what she's wishing for?

Nobody said how many different "shades" of pink, so I think I'm safe. Lots of circles going on here, but did you see that dee-lish icing on the cake? Oh yeah, looks good enough to eat! I used Jen's layout from 8/28/10 - I'm really late, but it's still a great sketch! I didn't include the piece across the middle, but added some super fun and funky stitching around the edges. I distressed the smaller circles and the Kraft card stock with VersaMagic Jumbo Java and pierced each of the smaller circles too.

And in case you didn't notice - she's wearing pink eye shadow and looking "HOT"!!!

LOL

Take a few minutes and check out what the other Lovely Ladybugs have created for you; I PROMISE some amazing eye candy!

• Anita
• Gaelle
• Hayley
• Jeanie
• Kerry
• Kerry (Queen Ladybuy)
• Lisa
• Mary J
• Meahni
• Michele (that's me!)
• Pinky
• Sue
• Tams

Hope you have a great week and thanks for popping in; I love when you visit! Hugs, ~M.




WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Ladybug Crafts Ink Make a Wish Nikki
Papers: PTI Raspberry Fizz, Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, Paper Piercing, distressing, Janone Sew Mini, Espresso Dimensional Pearls

Let's start with an Open Mind, K?

OK, these pictures are HORRIBLE - yes I realize that but I really like the card and wanted to share it with you!

This is another one of those taken about midnight the night before I left to be with my mom for surgery - the pictures were taken with my phone which normally takes great pictures...but at midnight, does ANYTHING take good pictures? LOL Um, my crafting room is in the basement too - pretty dark down there.

K, that's all my excuses - but they're legit! Anyway, here we go; this is Penny Black's City Divine and the card was made for an 11 year old princess - yep; that's EXACTLY what her mom said. Oh yeah, and she's a 70's kid living in the year 2010! HA!

She loves lime green, purple - totally retro. I added an incredible crown to the little girl AND some green gems. She is so stylin'; don'tcha love those pants? Those were paper pieced, the rest was colored with Copics. Lots of green, black, pink, purple and other fun colors.

Thanks for stopping by; again I apologize for the horrid pictures!!

Update on mom: she got her staples out this week (YIPPEE); she had approximately 5-6 on the inside of the leg, looks like 4 on the top of her foot and then about 15 on the outside of her leg. Her leg is still incredibly bruised - of course, with breaks like that - what do you expect? The bruising goes halfway up her calf and all the way down to the bottom of her foot. Still lots of swelling, still non-weight bearing for another 4 weeks, but she's making amazing progress. For those that follow me on Twitter or Facebook - I hope you enjoyed the 'crawling on the bathroom floor' story - mom's convinced not many daughters would do that. Grossed me out - but hey, we had to have a handicapped stall. :D

Have a great weekend - we have 1 football game and a double-header baseball game - gonna be very busy! Take care; hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Penny Black City Divine
Papers: PTI Simply Chaurtreuse, Smokey Shadow, GKD White (beyond that, I really don't know, sorry)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, misc. gems & crown, EK Success border punch

Ladybug Crafts Ink - FIRST EVER BLOG HOP!

Thanks so much for popping in today; the new Ladybug Crafts Ink Design Team is having a BLAST. Talk about an incredibly talented group of girls, beyond that? They are hysterical to work with - they give me several good chuckles every single day! (Don't forget, you can click on any of the images to see it up close & personal - LOL)!

Today we're all posting creations made with Mermaid Nikki. I love Nikki & friends! Kerry (Queen Ladybug) has some AMAZING stamps. Don't miss a single creation along this journey, because there are three prizes to be won and L-O-T-S of fun along the way!

Here's what you need to do to win some fabby prizes:

1. The blog banner - do you already have it? If not, hurry, grab it & post it on your blog before Queen Ladybug peeks into your blog. If you need it - I've added it right here for you!

2. Visit each design team members blog and leave a comment along the way (we all love love!!). And keep your eyes peeled for a hidden ladybug on one of the Lovely Ladybug's blogs (design team member); it will be very apparent - you'll see why you need this information in just a moment!

3. After visiting each Ladybug and leaving a comment, then hop back over to Queen Ladybug's blog (http://ladybugcraftsink.blogspot.com/) and leave her a comment too!

4. Remember the Lovely Ladybug (design team member) that had the hidden "ladybug"? (BTW, the ladybug is visible in the picture right alongside the Design Team members card - it's not hard to spot). When you see it, e-mail Lisa at lisa.coe@btinternet.com letting her know where you found the ladybug! (yep, another chance to win)

WOW - look at all the ways you can win! Hopefully you've stumbled upon me from the beautiful Mary J Designs blog; if not, be sure to start at the beginning (HERE). As you can tell, I used some calming colors reminding me of water, mermaids and such. Miss Nikki is sporting a mermaid's fin like none other! The fin was created with a wax resist resist technique (nope, I didn't make it; it was a gift from a beautiful friend of mine), but I think it's stunning for this card! You can see I also added a small strip of it to the bottom of the card as well as the inside of the card.

I used lots and lots and lots of dimensionals - talk about 3D volume - kinda like my '80's hairstyle.

:D

Nikki was colored with Copics; you can't tell from the pictures but her two little fish are sparkly as is Nikki's hair. I also added Crystal Effects to her bubbles - so cool IRL.

We're glad you stopped by; hope you enjoy the blog hop. Your next stop is the Lovely Ladybug - Pinky.

Have a GREAT day and thanks for celebrating with us! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Ladybug Crafts Ink Nikki Mermaid
Papers: PTI Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Wax Resist DP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: nesties, Copics, PTI Hawaiian Shores ribbon, cuttlebug background, 3 blue gems, dimensionals, Crystal Effects

Eat Your Heart Out!

HA - couldn't help the play on words with the image this week from Repeat Impressions. I'm not a mouse/mice lovin' girl - just ask my children, but I thought this little fella turned out pretty cute!

It's another STAMP OF THE WEEK over at The House That Stamps Built and we're featuring "Cheese Heart Mouse"; isn't his heart-shaped cheese so cute? Stamp of the Week means you can purchase our little critter at 50% off THIS WEEK ONLY! I used Mercy's Sketch (MTSC90) for the layout. I'm sure you'll notice that Mr. Whiskers ate chunks out of my cardstock and apparently nibbled the edges of that Kraft Cardstock leaving cheese smudges behind - HA!

This card is 3.5"x3.5", such a fun and cute size to work with. I colored Mr. Whiskers and his cheese with Copics, cut out the image and a 2nd layer with circle nestabilities (yes, he ate pieces of that too) and mounted with dimensionals. Added some zig zag stitching, mounted the entire Kraft piece with dimensionals and we're rollin'! The inside says "from the heart".

Thanks for popping in; be sure to check out more eye candy from the other RI Rock Stars:

• Ayana Posadas
• Dana Joy
• Darsie Bruno
• Joy Hadden
• Lynette Neus

WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Repeat Impressions Cheese Heart Mouse, Verve Visual Thankful Hearts
Papers: PTI Kraft, Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, Harvest Gold
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: nesties, Copics, Janome Sew Mini, dimensionals, Heidi Swapp distressing tool

September 14 - there's going to be a PAR-TAY!

If you're looking for my Repeat Impressions WIW card - just scroll down! :D

The Design Team for Ladybug Crafs Ink is having a blog hop to celebrate their first ever DT projects using LCI stamps (I mean seriously, have you SEEN their images??)!

The blog hop will start September 14th and there are prizes to be won along the hop! Don't you dare miss out! And for your chance to win you will need to display the above banner on your blog post or on your side bar - let all your blogging friends know about the fun event!

Hope you'll join The Lovely Ladybugs on September 14 - sure to be lots of fun and treasures discovered along the journey!

Hugs, ~M.

What If? Wednesday with Repeat Impressions

You guessed it - it's another What If? Wednesday with Wendy & the gang over at The House That Stamps Built. Always a fun time; we hope you'll join us and create a card using Wendy's fabby sketch as YOU might win a gift certificate to Repeat Impressions and don't you know, they have amazing stamps! And talk about fast shipping? WHOA!

I decided to use more of the new Christmas Penguins - these guys are just way too cute! I used the image of the penguins spelling the word JOY in their stars; I also cut out each star a 2nd time and mounted with dimensionals.

I cut the image out with a rectangle nestability and a scalloped nestability, then I actually meant to sponge the edges with PTI Vintage Cream - but oops, I grabbed a sponge that hadn't been cleaned yet and ended up with a PERFECT red-dish color. Now how cool is THAT? LOL

The bottom snowflakes were embossed with clear powder and then sponged with the same red-dish color, then cut out with square nestabilities. What a great sketch Wendy gave us - won't you join us?

And don't forget to check out the other RI Rock Stars - they have some AMAZING samples to show you!!

• Ayana Posadas
• Dana Joy
• Darsie Bruno
• Harriet Skelly
• Joy Hadden
• Julie Smith
• Lynette Neus
• Makiko Jones
• Robin Kirkpatrick

Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE (CARD)?
Stamps: Repeat Impressions Lupine
Papers: PTI Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, GKD Cream, DP by Basic Grey
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: nesties, Copics, paper piercing, PTI Plum Pudding ribbon, Adirondack Dimensional Pearls

SFYTT + RI Lovely Lupine

I know, I know, you've seen this Lupine image a few times right? Well, I can't help it - it's my 'go-to' stamp and I just love it! So fun to color and such a fabulous image! I combined the image with Jen's Sketch For You To Try this week (9/4/10); what a fabulous layout.

I "rarely" ever use purple as my base colors, but this time I pulled out PTI's Lavendar Moon and Plum Pudding, the DP is Basic Grey and all works beautiful for this image. The DP was sponged with PTI's Chamomile tea dye ink and all the layers were paper pieced. I added some Butterscotch Adirondack Dimensional pearls around the scalloped circle for a bit of pop.

I hope you've had a great weekend; ours has been busy - but nice. Sure wish the wind would die down today, gusts are up to 50 mph - that's NUTS! LOL

For those of you keeping up with my mom, she's doing better but certainly struggling today (Monday); several different things are playing into the day, but hoping each day gets better and better. Thank you so much for your thoughts & prayers - we need them!

Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE (CARD)?
Stamps: Repeat Impressions Lupine
Papers: PTI Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, GKD Cream, DP by Basic Grey
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: nesties, Copics, paper piercing, PTI Plum Pudding ribbon, Adirondack Dimensional Pearls

Randomness

So...how is everybody doing? Let me tell you; my life has taken a sharp right turn but I'm working to get back on track. If you follow me on Twitter or FB, you were inundated with updates regarding my mother this past weekend. I'm happy to report she is home from the hospital and doing good.

As I said through Twitter, I believe I am stronger for/with my kids than I am for/with my parents - not sure why that is, but it's so true! Delighted mom is home and dad and she are managing just fine!

It's been forever since I've had time to craft AND the last projects I made I had to photograph with my phone (not these photos, some upcoming ones) because I was running out of time before I needed to hit the road to be with mom.

Anyway, this is a notebook with a pocket that I made for a dear friend for her birthday; she loves yellow so I incorporated as much of that as possible. Made another super fun flower from a paperback book along with 2 different ribbons from PTI.

The next project was a card I made for a challenge - weeks ago. LOL Yes, you guessed it, I never got a chance to post it! HA!

Thanks for popping in; I hope you have a GREAT Friday and an even better holiday weekend! Hugs dear friends, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE (NOTEBOOK)?
Stamps: NONE
Papers: PTI Kraft, Hibiscus Burst, MME DP
Ink PTI Summer Sunrise:
Accessories: nesties, MS Punch, SU! Circle Punch, misc. brad

WHAT'S IT TAKE (CARD)?
Stamps: Imaginisce Chick; stamps from PTI
Papers: PTI Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chaurtreuse, Cosmo Cricket DP, GKD White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa
Accessories: nesties, Copics, paper piecing, corner rounder, EK Success Punch