I Still Do Blog Candy Giveaway

Hey there, Girlies!

How are you all tonight?

How about something that might

 make it even better?

Say, maybe some Blog Candy?

In honor of my husband's and my

10th wedding anniversary

later this month, I thought I'd

pass along some of my happiness

in the form of some wedding-themed

blog candy.

Here's what's up for grabs:

1 wedding stamp set by Doodlebug Designs

1 love stamp set by Art Warehouse

1 set of glittery prima roses

1 pack of Mrs. Grossman's laser cut stickers

(these would be fun to use as a mask)

1 pack of varigated adhesive-backed pearls

and 2 yards of Offray lace

Because this is a reader-appreciation giveaway,

you MUST be a follower of this blog

to enter this giveaway.

You MAY become a follower

to enter, but please do so only if you enjoy

yourself here and would like to stick around.

(I am a pretty fun person,

if I do say so myself!) ;o)

So here's how you can enter:

1. be a follower of this blog

2. pass the word. Copy the candy pic

and post it on your own blog

with a link back here.

Sidebar is fine.

3. leave me a comment telling

me something you still love about

your husband/boyfriend/

significant other/best friend/

whatever.

Share the love, people. :o)

And that's it!

Please leave one separate comment

for each step you've done.

That means if you've done all three,

you've left me three comments,

and therefore have three chances to win.

Good luck!

Contest ends at 11:59 PM

October 31st, 2010.

(This post will remain on top

until the contest is closed.

Please scroll down for new posts.)

Fairy Birthday Wishes

Happy Friday, everybody!

I'm really excited to show you the card I made this afternoon.

This is definitely my favorite of all the cards I've ever made.

I love the image, the paper, and I'm just really pleased

with how it turned out.

Wanna see?

I spent about three hours last night mounting my new

Lili of the Valley stamps on EZ Mount and trimming them out.

Ack! It was so nerve-wracking!

I was so afraid I was going to cut through one of

the images, I probably made it a lot harder than

it had to be. Anyway, it was worth it!

Just look at this little fairy. Isn't she darling?

I colored her in with copics, then added some stickles

to her wings, dress, and the centers

of the flowers in her hair.

To assemble the card, I started with ocean blue

Bazzill cardstock, and covered the bottom with a

leftover scrap of Basic Grey patterned paper.

I stamped my sentiment in the bottom right corner

with Memento ink in Tuxedo black.

Then I laid down some DCVW glittered paper over

the rest of the card front, and covered the seam

with a scrap of glittered Colorbok paper

that I cut with my Fiskars scallop punch.

I sliced into the seam of my card to thread

through some sheer sparkly ribbon from my stash,

then mounted my image with dimensional

adhesive and rounded all the corners.

I hope you like it!

Are you dressing up for Halloween?

I have to for work, so I'm going as the

Roaming Gnome. Should be fun!

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!

It's A Love Thing

From the moment I laid eyes on him

I knew.

Amazing to think that it's been

ten wonderful years

married to this man who

impresses me, cares for me,

inspires me, makes me laugh,

rescues me, loves me

each and every day.

A man like that

deserves a special card --

not too frilly, but still romantic,

a card that lets him know

he still sets my heart to flutter

everytime I look at him.

For my anniversary card,

I decided to go with classic, elegant black

with muted tones of silvery gray

and white.

I selected this patterned paper by

Best Occasions, trimmed it down to size,

and stamped my sentiment from

Stampology. Punched out an additional

black butterfly with an EK Success punch,

and adhered it with a mini glue dot in the center.

I then wrapped around some

American Crafts ribbon and attatched it

with my stapler in a criss-cross pattern.

I mounted this on black Bazzill cardstock,

added a button to my ribbon
and stickles to my mini butterfly.

(Glitter may be girly, but I couldn't resist!)

So, to celebrate

our ten years of wedded bliss,

my husband and I went away for

the weekend -- back to Fairlawn,

in fact. We had such a nice time on

our day trip this summer,

we decided to go back.

Which meant that I got to go to

Archivers, Hobby Lobby, and Pat Catan's!

So fun. I picked up some things that

had been on my wishlist for a long while,

including Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher

and refills, some baker's twine,

new stamps, my favorite Signo white gel pen,

plus...

Are you ready for it?

The Clip It Up!

Since I had two 30% off coupons,

my sweet hubby bought me the base unit

as my anniversary gift

and I bought myself the upper tier.

I put it together first thing when we got home

and I LOVE it!

I'll have to show pics another night.

We also had some GREAT food --

Five Guys burgers and fries (so yum)

and P.F. Changs -- bless the sweet Lord

for giving His creation the ability

to combine flavors like that!

Delicious just doesn't describe it.

If you ever get a chance to go to one -- do!

Well enough from me tonight.

Hope you all have a wonderful

day tomorrow!

Night-night.

Set Your Heart On Something Beautiful

Hi there!

I wanted to pop in and share another card.

Wow, I'm doing pretty good on the crafting front

this week, aren't I?

Take a look at this one.

This card actually looks so much prettier in person.

For some reason my camera does not photograph

light colors well. But I think you get the jist of it.

The image is from Lili of the Valley.

Isn't it pure sweetness?

I love it.

It reminds me of my aunt Cheryl and I

(she's just two years older than me)

when we were growing up together.

In fact, I'm going to give it to her.

I've actually been working on coloring this image

for a couple of weeks. I've had it sitting on my desk,

and each morning while waiting to get into the bathroom

(which is right outside my office)

I've colored it a little bit more.

Let me tell you, sharing one tiny bathroom

with a grown man and three boys

teaches you a lot of hard lessons in patience.

Not to mention hygiene. Ick.

Anyway,...

I paired it with this great text print from the

All About Girls mini stack from DCWV.

It says sweet things like "strike a pose",

"you are beautiful", "share your gifts",

and "have a lovely day."

Plus it has a built-in sentiment --

"set your heart on something beautiful"

above that great minty green scalloped border.

To make the image stand out more,

I mounted it first on a green gingham print

from the same stack, rounded all the corners

and popped it up with dimensionals.

Then I added a scrap of purple

Pure Color ribbon, tied in a bow, and

cut the ends into a V shape, which

seemed to fit the image.

Hope you like it!

Okay, gotta run!

Hell's Kitchen is starting and I've got

to get the kids in bed.

Have a great night!

Have A Blooming Good Day

Happy Monday, everybody!

I'm in a good mood today because it's my

day off! Yay! I'm going to be getting all sorts

of crafty today, from a roast chicken and

corn casserole for dinner, apple crisp

for dessert, and I might even try my hand at

making freezer jam.

But first, a card.

Isn't she sweet? I just love these Pure Innocence girls.

My local scrapbooking store carries a few so

I just had to pick one up when I was in there

the other day. The minute I saw her, I knew I wanted

to try paper-piecing on her dress. It's a technique that

I've admired on other's cards, but had never tried myself.

Until today. :o)

So, I paper-pieced her dress using a pattern from

the Everyday Tango collection by

My Mind's Eye, then colored the rest of her in

with Copic markers. I'm still learning how to get

the hair to look natural, but I feel like this is one of

my better attempts, so I'm happy.

After I got her all colored up, I stamped her

sentiment and then decided to cut her out

using my cuttlebug and Nestabilities label die.

It was quite the close trim, as you can see.

Next time, I'll cut out the shape and

THEN stamp the image so I can be sure

to center it properly. Oh well.

I also added a bit of Stickles

to the center of the flowers on her dress,

her heart-shaped hair barette,

and the bases of the flower petals.

I took the next size up die and cut out another

pattern from that same MME stack pack

and used it to mat my focal piece.

I decided that my blue Bazzill cardfront

needed some dressing up, so I took

the Hero Arts canvas stripe cling stamp

and inked it up with Chipped Sapphire and

Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

Spritzed it a little with my Mini Mister

and stamped it on the card. I used my

Fiskars stamp press to line up the lines.

After that, all that was left was to

make a slit in the spine of the card to

tie my Offray ribbon through

and mount my image up with

dimensional adhesive.

I hope you like it!

If you haven't yet entered my blog candy

giveaway, be sure to scroll up to the top

and do so. There's still plenty of time!

Have a great day!

Have A Little Cake

Good morning, ladies!

Just a super-quick card

I whipped up last night for a

little girl in one of my sons classes

who is having a birthday party tonight.

Her name is Tillie, short for Matilda.

Isn't that sweet?

I figured such a sweetly named girl

needed a sweet card,

so that's exactly what I made.

I started with pink Bazzill cardstock folded

into a standard-sized card,

then trimmed out this "sweets" print

from DCWV to slightly smaller.

Adhered it with Tombow Permanant Dot

tape runner -- my go to adhesive.

I actually combined two different stamps to make

up my sentiment: "have a little cake" is by

Inkadinkado -- I stamped that first with

Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Soft Pool.

Then I added the Penny Black "happy birthday!"

stamped with Colorbox Fluid Chalk

in Chestnut Roan.

Then I rounded the corners with my

We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.

I added some pink polkadot ribbon

from Dashes, Dots, & Checks,

then adhered my sentiment overtop with dimensional

adhesive. To make the edges more defined,

I went around them with the side of my Copic

markers R20 and R24.



Couldn't hardly get much simpler. :o)

Have you seen my blog candy giveaway yet?

Make sure you scroll up and
find out how to enter!

Have a great weekend, all!



I Heart U

Hello there!

Man, is it just me, or has the blogosphere

been super-quiet today?

I must have visited 30 blogs today and

not a single one had a new post.

Nope. Strike that.

Lawn Fawn did.

Isn't Kelly Marie amazing?

Well, if you're feeling lonely online

come right over here and pull up a seat

because I've got a new card to share!

I just love these little birdies.

They were totally the inspiration for 

this card. The paper is from Basic Grey.

I trimmed it down to slightly smaller than

my black Bazzill cardfront,

then cut out a circle window with

my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug.



I set that aside and trimmed down a scrap

of green My Mind's Eye paper

as a backdrop. I stamped my sentiment

from Hampton Arts twice --

once in black and one in Watermelon

then cut out the heart and popped that up

with dimensional adhesive.

Then I took my BG birdie piece and

popped that up as well.

Added some Offray ribbon

and some white stitching lines

with a white gel pen.

I hope you like it!

I also wanted to mention that

I'm putting together a little

BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY

as a thank you to my wonderful

blog readers and in honor of

my 10th Wedding Anniversary (yay!)

later this month.

More details to come on that.

Have a great night everybody!

Hugs and Kisses

Hello, ladies!

How are you? Good, I hope.

I'm in an especially good mood tonight because

I had a little extra time to get crafty this weekend.

Would you like to see what I made?

I started by trimming down this sweet

leafy print by Making Memories.

The back side was covered in these adorable

ladybugs, so I trimmed out three in various sizes.

I tied on a length of ribbon from

the Girl's Paperie (isn't it pretty?)

and added a button from my stash.

I then matted my leafy print with a

pink vine print from My Mind's Eye,

and adhered the entire thing to

some pink Bazzill cardstock

folded into a standard-sized card.

I put together my sentiment from

The Paper Studio's mix and match sentiments

set (I would have liked to close the bottom of

the "h" so it would read "bugs & kisses"

but I didn't have the right color pen)

and stamped it with 

Watermelon Ink It Up ink.

And all that was left to do was to pop off

the little ladybugs with dimensional adhesive.

Pretty quick and easy, but I really love

how it turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Storage Solutions: Finished Cards

Just a super-quick post tonight.

I don't know if you're like me --

always in search of a better way to organize your craft space

to make room for new goodies. ;o)

I was recently asked about how I store my finished cards,

so I thought I'd share a photo.

This is the bookcase in my office.

On the middle shelf there, I have three CD boxes.

I picked them up at Walmart for $6 each.

They're from Mainstays, I believe,

and they come in a couple colors.

I picked them up one at a time,

so the cost wasn't much all at once.

They're the perfect size for cards.

I store folded cardstock in one

(Since a sheet of cardstock makes two cards,

I always fold the second one and save it for later use.),

envelopes in another,

and finished cards in the third.

Just one is enough for the finished cards I have right now.

I try to force myself to actually send them out,

rather than hoard them as I'd like to.

I keep reminding myself that the reason I make cards

is to brighten other people's day.

There's no day-brightening going on

if I keep them all to myself. ;o)

I like to look at pretty things.

That's why the top shelf (not shown)

is dedicated to showcasing my most recent projects.

That way I can look at them for a week or so

before sending them out

or relagating them to the box for later use.

Anyway, I hope that tip helped!

Nighty-night!

O, Solo Mio

Wow, can you believe another week has gone by?

I was itching to get in my craft room all last week,

but it just didn't happen. Sigh.

Sometimes life is just like that.

But I made sure to get something cranked out today!

Check it out.

I've been wanting to use my Lawn Fawn "Critters in the 'Burbs"

again for a while. These little animals are soooo cute!

I had this idea for making a "Missing You" card

with a twist, featuring a singing cat at night, a la Garfield.

Only cuter.

I found this old Cosmo Cricket sheet of paper at work

that had been in the stockroom for who knows how long.

I've never seen or heard of the collection before.

It had this kind of tapestry print, which I thought would give the

cat's fur some interesting texture and color variation.

I folded a sheet of Midnight Blue Bazzill cardstock into a

4 1/4 x 4 1/4 square card, then covered it with starry sky paper
from Frances Meyer. I trimmed a green scrap from My Mind's Eye

into fringe for grass, then ruffled it up a bit to make it look

more natural.

I needed a moon, but Lawn Fawn doesn't have a moon stamp yet,

so I used one from Elzybells, a company that I only

recently discovered -- just before they closed their doors
for good. Sad, isnt' it?
Their images are so whimsical and quirky,

very much along similar lines as Lawn Fawn, which is why

I thought the two might work together here.



To finish up I took out Harold's ABCs and spelled out
"O, Solo Mio" and drew a speach bubble around it.
I also drew three musical notes just to make it clear
that he's singing, and cut those out.

I adhered my cat, moon and sentiment with pop dots and
tied on a bit of white embroidery thread as a final touch.

I think he turned out pretty cute. :o)
Have a great night, all!