Hip-Hippo-Ray!..... I'm only a week behind

Well sort of. I had the best intentions to post some more cards last weekend, but then life got in the way again. I had fun at a national scrapbook day crop, thanks Becky.

This is a card I did way back in December for my niece's birthday. I try to not use pink a whole lot if I can help it, but since she loves pink I decided to go all out! Would you ever have though to use Christmas DSP not only for a birthday card, but for a PINK-licious card? I never would have, but my son picked up a scrap and said it looked perfect and to use it, so I did... it's a scrap of Holly Jolly DSP.






Stamps: Pun Fun
Inks: Old Olive, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink
Papers: Watercolor Paper, Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Holly Jolly DSP, Cottage Garden DSP (retired)
Misc: Aqua Painter, 3/8" Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Sponges, Dimensionals

I hope I've inspired you to use some of your supplies or DSP in a way you didn't think of at first.

chugging along

A while ago my son went to a birthday party for one of his best friends, and James loves trains, so I figured it would be a perfect time to play with one of my favorite kid sets, choo choo. I also love using a ton of color on kids cards, so I decided to use as much as I could.




Stamps: Choo Choo, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Right On Track Wheel
Inks: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Perfect Plum, Basic Black
Papers: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Real Red, Various DSP
Misc: Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Wheel Guide, 1/2" Circle Punch

Sweet Day

Not only is today a sweet day since everyone will be getting some chocolate, this card is designed to be for a sweet day as well. Today we are having an Easter egg hunt at the house, and everyone gets chocolate afterward. I try to always do this before Easter so we can attempt to explain the difference between the reason for Easter and the Easter bunny.

I love all of the sets that were designed for the sweet treats cups. I did not use the cups on this card, but I did use the stamp set. If you were going to mail a card done with this stamp set, not using the cups, but instead stamping some images inside the gumball machine is a great way to not have to use the padded envelopes or pay for extra shipping. It might not be quite as fun for the recipient, but it still looks cool and is fun to make.



Stamps: Something Sweet
Inks: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Rich Razzleberry
Papers: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Rich Razzleberry DSP, Crumb Cake DSP,
Misc: Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain Ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Dimensionals, Scallop Edge Punch

I need to get out of here, I have to get the bowls ready for dying Easter Eggs..... wow am I behind this year. I hope you all have a very Happy Easter.

loads of love

First off I want to thank all of you who have checked in on me and emailed me to make sure I'm still here and doing ok. I blinked and a month has passed. I think things are less hectic now. My Grams has been moved at least temporarily into a full care nursing home. There are good and bad aspects to this, the worst being that she is farther away than she was which means it takes FOR-EVER to drive down for a visit. I'm glad she seems to like it there and the staff is wonderful, which makes it easier knowing I can't visit everyday. I've had to place this creative outlet on the back burner since pretty much the first of the year, but I've become so stressed that I've decided I need to make the time to de-stress and get my creative juices flowing. This should translate into more blogging.

Ok, now onto what you all came here for. This card could be a valentines type card or just a just because I love you card, or even an anniversary card.



Stamps: Loads of Love
Inks: Blushing Bride, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Papers: Pear Pizazz DSP, Sweet Pea DSP (retired), Pear Pizazz Cardstock, Old Olive Cardstock, Blushing Bride Cardstock, Whisper White Cardstock, Watercolor paper
Misc: Pretty in Pink 5/8" Satin Ribbon, Crystal Effects, Mini Library Clip, Aqua Painters, Pinking Hearts Edge Punch,

I love the extra little detail that is added by the Crystal Effects onto the watercolored hearts. It really makes them stand out in real life.

I hope you will all be back later in the week to see some more posts.

desktop calendar

Every year I make my hubby a desktop calendar to put on his desk at work, and every year I wish I had one. So this year I decided to make a smaller one for me. I chose not to make is a scrapbook style one, and instead did a easel card style. I saw one very similar to this one on Sandi MacIvers blog a million years ago and figured it would work perfectly for me.

Those of you that know me know I don't like pink, but The new In Color Blushing Bride is growing on me, and I figured if I had pink on the calendar it definitely would not blend into the background mess on my desk.






Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Inks: Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive
Papers: Whisper White, Old Olive, Blushing Bride DSP
Misc: Old Olive Brads, Rhinestone Brads, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Mini Library Clip, 1/4" Old Olive Ribbon, 5/8" Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Modern Label Movers & Shapers Die, Stampin' Dimensionals, Paper Snips

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

First off I want to apologize for not posting anything the last while. We were insane trying to get everything ready for our Christmas Vacation, and then we were on the road for 2 days, then spent 5 days and we were on the road again for 18 hours. We finally arrived in Logan Utah this morning and have had a great day with family here. We will be leaving again tomorrow around noon for another 14 hours of driving before we end up in Mesa.

Before we left I made a card (a huge card) for Sevastian's Kindergarten class to sign. It ended up being 6x9, and the focal point on the card was 4x5.5. I took it into class for the class party and had all the kids sign it before we tucked the gift card for the teacher and gave it to her at the end of the party.

I love this set, and think it is a great kids set. I also decided to go a little over the top with it, and put shimmer everywhere. There is Dazzlin' Diamonds Glitter pretty much everywhere on the card. I also used Vanilla Smooch Spray to spray the background Bashful Blue piece after I embossed it with the Petals a Plenty embossing folder, and then I used Frost White Shimmer Paint to emboss the top of the petals and topped it off with 3 small Basic Pearls. I also added Rhinestones to the top of several trees.





It's late here, and I am working on almost no sleep, so I'll come back and post the recipes later.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and an even better time with family.

Oh Christmas Tree....

I love Christmas trees, they look so pretty, and the real ones smell so nice too. I have tons of Christmas stamps that have trees in them too. I actually cased myself with this card. Last year I stamped Dasher where I stamped this tree. I think the Snow Swirled Tree looks amazing with the retired Bride Specialty paper. I used my brayer to ink over the paper with Elegant Eggplant ink, and then took a tissue and wiped the ink off to reveal the white swirls. The rhinestones are the perfect touch to finish this card off.



Stamps: Many Merry Messages, Snow Swirled
Inks: Elegant Eggplant
Papers: Brushed Silver, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Bride DSP (retired)
Misc: Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Elegant Eggplant Rick Rack (retired), Brayer, Rhinestones

Birds of a feather

Peacock feathers are so beautiful, and I love that this paper pattern kind of looks like a peacock feather. That is why I chose it to go with this card I made for my Dad's birthday. It was last month, but my son didn't want to send the card to Papa, he wanted to give it to him in person, and he came out to visit us a little while ago. You should have seen the look on his face when he gave it to Papa, it was like he was giving him a million dollars. He really does love to help me out, and loves making his own cards. The only downside is he hates giving them away, so we are slowly working on that.


Stamps: Nature's Nest
Inks: Basic Gray
Papers: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Sage Shadow (retired), Nouveax Chic DSP (retired)
Misc: Basic Gray 5/8" Satin Ribbon (retired), Scallop Trim Punch

I should have a lot more to show you in the coming days, I finally got part of my computer working right again, so I finally got a ton of photos uploaded and watermarked. Now if only I could get the video software to work right.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

thanksgiving centerpiece

This is only a small part of the centerpieces I did for thanksgiving, but I can not get them all in the photo box at once, so I will have to show them to you one at a time. I saw the pumpkin made of DSP in the catalogue and figured it would make a cute centerpiece, so I made one with my retired DSP. I cut the leaves out of Old Olive with my cricut, and made the vines from thin strips of Old Olive wrapped around my paper piercer.



Stamps: none
Inks: none
Paper: Pumpkin Pie Patterns DSP (retired) Old Olive
Misc: Sticky Strip, Cricut

I need to get going so I can get more goodies ready for our feast tomorrow, so far only the pumpkin pie tarts are made, I need to get making the zucchini cake and some other goodies, so I have less to do on Monday.

Circle Christmas

I love geometric shapes for DSP, esp circles, so when I saw this DSP I knew I was going to do a card like this one. I love that is has circles in every element on the card, the DSP, the large scallop circle, and even the stamped sentiment has circles (dots) underneath it, and even the stamped tree has dots in the swirls. I hope you like this card as much as I do.



Stamps: Season of Joy
Inks: Old Olive, Early Espresso
Papers: Jolly Holiday DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla
Misc: Scallop Circle #2 die, Circle Scissor Plus, 5/8" Old Olive Satin Ribbon

I also wanted to apologize for being gone so long. Things got crazy around here, and then my son got really sick and I just had no time left at the end of the day to get on here and show my creations, heck I didn't even have enough time to make any new creations. I am hoping that is changing, as I actually had time tonight to blog and to create a centerpiece for thanksgiving dinner on Monday. I will show that to you tomorrow. For those of you that are still coming back after I have been gone this long, thank you, I really appreciate it. I am still adjusting to a new schedule now that I am working 6 days a week, but hopefully soon I can get my crafting back to normal. Have a great night, and for all my Canadian readers out there, have a great Thanksgiving!

a dashing good time....

We have already done the first round of Christmas Stamp-A-Stacks, and this was one of the cards we made that night. We make 4 cards, 3 of each of them for a total of 12 cards. I love the Dasher stamp, and wanted to try something a little different, so we used the Champagne Shimmer Paint to ink it up. It is hard to see in the photo, but it is soooo shimmery and pretty.



I am hoping you can see the shimmer better in this picture.
Stamps: Dasher, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Champagne Shimmer Paint
Papers: Jolly Holiday DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Misc: Champagne Shimmer Paint, Scallop Trim Border Punch, 5/8" Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, Dimensionals

I hope you all are having a great weekend, I am keeping this short so I can go outside and enjoy the wonderfully warm weather before it is gone.