Another *cuppa*

Another tea card from the LizzieAnn set! My camera is really acting up and most photos are coming out off color or blurry ~ I've been taking them outside to get a better idea pic ;) This was a trial card in order to get a feel for a possible Mother's Day card for my mom ~ she's not the artsy-craftsy type and wouldn't be too chosey, lol but I wanted to give her one that is specially made. This DSP is beyond beautiful! It was sent to me by a wonderful friend in a birthday package last month *muah!* and it's positively lovely - thick and so full of detail. IRL is just POPS!

Layered with SU Pink Piro and so saffron to keep the vintagy, soft feel ..... Paper pieced the cups and added some PTI soft bliss pink ribbon. Inside reads: You make every day sweeter :)

TFL!

It's Hanna! And ... Hanna ......... :)

Hey there, Hanna! Sorry for the very blurry images! These lil gals were actually on their way in the mail and already sealed in their envies -- It's Hanna Brunette and Hanna Blonde! I paper-pieced their dresses and headbands and really tried to get the feel for how I thought she looked in my head (I did have this card planned out, but ...... lol) I kept the background around her clean and simple because the card looked busy enough & added a general sentiment since she's drinking coffee but it might not be used as a coffee card :)

I have to say after seeing them finished, while I normally prefer to color everyone brunette, I like her better as a blonde (maybe it's her dress, lol) I struggle with this part of my card making to be perfectly honest and try to shy away from "people" as much as possible ~ I am not confident enough in my card making or have the skills necessary to really pull them off - give me a coffee mug, cute animal or flower any day and I'm so happy! How nice it would be to have a cup of coffee or tea with you all one day! *hugs!*

My Cup of Tea :)

I finally was able to play with this beautiful Lizzie Ann Stamp that I won at Zee's blog: (http://stampnsparkle.blogspot.com/ ) blog awhile back. She is one of the sweetest gals I've met while blogging and just has this beautiful personality - not to mention generous! I was stunned to win her blog candy - (my only win, aside from Kadie at the SCS awhile back for a card sentiment!) and I chose this tea set thinking of my Mum ...... she was born & raised in a small town just outside of London, I thought she would enjoy cards with tea & sentiments! Please check out Zee's blog if you get the chance!

This one is for a friend that I needed to send a gift to ~ she loves purple and I feel in love with this paper when I found it at Joanns ..... it gave me a English countryside feel ;) And as we all know, dear friends are definitely our cups of tea!

Have a great weekend! Today is my 16th wedding anniversary so dh & I will be taking the kids on a day trip tomorrow ~ blessings!

Raise the WOOF! ;)

YAY! More Elzybells! Can you tell I have been busy playing with my shipment of stamps! I took advantage last month or so of their free int'l shipping and ordered a couple of stamps that I was drooling over and these little cuties were among them. They sat in a box for over a month as I longingly looked at them but had no space to play! :( Since I knew I had a doggie card swap coming up with Lisa at SCS, I inked up this little sweetie and just had a ball ~ cuttlebugging & coloring! I think this is my 2nd card using a similiar color scheme as well ~ following the natural colors from the DSP ...... hopefully it works! And lastly, I added a picture of darling Brandy who had a little fun with the Easter egg hunt :)

Purrrrrr-fect Friend ;)

It's release day at Elzybells! How I adore these stamps and wish I could own them all! I created this card for Scrappy's Elzy swap at the SCS and just love this image of this little kitty hiding in the grass, watching the ladybug stroll along.

Inside sentiment reads: "Friends are the purrrr-enials in the garden of life". So true!

I wish I could get my camera to take better pictures of shiny, shimmery DSP .... those flash "spots" are hard to figure out!

Deets to follow ..... it's after midnight here and I have to be up in 5 hours - ouch! :) TFL! Update: retook photo outside and it appears better - ahah! :)

** I still believe! **

Ohhh, I can't tell you how in love with TGF stamps I am! They are just simply superb - from the beautiful little faces they have to the quality of the way they stamp so crisp and clear each time. If I had money to spare, I know where mine would go! I now own 3 TGF stamps and can't wait to expand my collection! I was SO EXCITED to see the release of the NEVER EVER set ~ it's fun & whimsical! Peter Pan here is extra special in our household as dh & I have spent countless years at Walt Disney World in Orlando, even long before the kids ~ that's was always our first stop on any vacation! This set will make fantastic scrapbook pages - w/out a doubt. It's also special in that my little son was crazy about the Peter Pan ride and we would ride it again and again, watching his face light up as he "flew" through the night sky saying "We can fly, we can fly!" He was also Peter Pan for Halloween ;)

This card will double as Dh's birthday card ...... my hubby will turn another year older this Sunday! TFL!

Deets: I believe the colors are SU! Chocolate Chip & Old Olive cardstock,

DCWV mat stack dsp, PTI white for the image (TGF!!), colored with prisma markers & olive organdy SU ribbon :)

Starring ..... Karen!

As most of you know, I'm hosting my first swap over at the SCS for cute and cuddly monsters (and the like!) I did a contest challenge for a stamp a few days ago and asked the "contestants" to give me 11 nouns, sight unseen, and not having a clue what it was for. How brave they were! LOL! I actually created a funny "mad-lib" if you will and had dh chose the one he liked the best, and this one made him chuckle - I think it was the lumpy milk, but who knows, lol! They were all so outstanding that I could not choose (love Judy's Kissable Kelly and Lorie's Sparkly Edward personally! Oh la lah!!) so everyone is getting a prize for participating! Miss Karen wins a fancy new stamp ;)

SO, here you go ...... we have an author in da house!!!!!!

It was a dark and stormy night in Monsterland ….. monsters and aliens were lurking about. Karen signed up for a monster card swap thinking “oooh, such fun! I like lumpy milk!” She thought “I can use my hairy canary stamps! They’ll be perfect!” But she didn’t know that a goat in a boat and a jumping bean were lurking nearby! What to do? She had a card swap to finish! Lucky for her, her faithful Starvin Marvin came to her rescue and a rotten banana handed her a hot tamale to scare off that silly Forest Ranger! The monsters sulked and moped but slithered off so she sat down with cardstock, inks, stamps and some inky paws. She inked! She embossed! She stickled! She even used her dunkin donuts! And finally, she created ……. an ice bucket! Way to go, Karen!

Forest Card Swap

Good morning friends ~ Quick post in the blog ........ this is the card I made for my friend Jeanette's First Card Swap - named accordingly for her ...... the Forest! I wanted to jump in and support her and couldn't wait to ink up these new stamps that have been sitting FOREVER in a case, poor things! They are from H & M stamps and I bought them on their clearance sale way back when thinking I could use them for dd's Girl Scout pages ........ but, alas, we saw no bears on that outing - hee hee .......

I had so much fun with these! My dd said the bear looked like he was floating so I added last minute leaves as a soft bed ....... :) I also double colored the bear - first with prisma colored pencils and then with markers for a softer/furrier effect - it looks much better IRL. TFL!

Dontcha wish!!!

Hello friends in blogworld! I had a delicious 6 (SIX!!) hours of pure, uninterupted stamping yesterday! Although unfinished, having a new place to stamp has definitely got my crafting spirits up and as dh said "wow, looks like you got your creative juices back" :) (that was in reference not to anything I made actually looked good, just that I was caught singing with my radio, dancing around thinking no one was watching - we've all been there, right?! LOL!)
So, I guess I should explain this card, tee hee! My SILs little sister's birthday is coming up and she is the absolute life of the party ~ she's a totally fun girl, still in her mid-20's (suuuuh-weeet!) and single, free to party as she pleases and does that well, rofl ~ she can outdrink anyone I know, dances on tables just for fun and is the first one to dash up to sing Karoake in a room full of (sober!) people - I guess her motto is no guts, no glory! (not me, I'm the one hiding in the back of the room wishing I could have as much fun, rofl!) And she ADORES the Pussycat Dolls - I mean, big fan. So I had an ah-hah "I spy with my little eye ...... a Penny Black stamp!" and ta-da, it just all came about nicely, right down to this little piggie wear a lime green thong and has some belly button bling! (just like SIL, lol) She is going to go nuts because it's so "her" ..... and I had a blast making something I wouldn't dare normally send to anyone, lol!
Now that I think of it ........ if Sweet P over on SCS has another music swap, maybe we could do one of these heifers shaking her bon-bons, eh? LOLOL! (J/K!)
Hugs to all - thanks for stoppin' by! *muah!*

I forgot to mention the deets! But they are pretty much SOP for me -- Prismas, Tombo, bling, ribbon .... and paper pieced her little red bag but I can see here I missed a tiny spot - oops! Will have to go back and fix that ;)

Just Live ........

Hello dear friends! I'm cheating today on my blog and posting a page I found while redoing the new craft haven - my dh is just the bestest! {{{ hugs! }}} I promised my friend Linda I would find this, and weeks later, I have (see what good things happen when you open boxes! Tee hee!)

This page actually a L/O CASE of a page from a scrap mag .. omgosh, I cannot remember which one/issue! :( I will edit later if I find it! I was reflecting my birthday months before, dh's diagnosis and my father's passing and something in me just said Live for Today ~ stop worrying about the things you cannot control or change because the stress and worry will tear at your soul. I remember this day well - my son was doing something silly and it just made my heart smile :) (and no, I don't normally wear *that!* lipstick color, lol - we must have been on our way out *wink!*) So that is my motto for this week, month ....... (one day at a time, right?) Just Live ........... and let Him do the rest! <3

It's a Fairy Nice Day!!

I finally got to take my Lily's {Pink Cat Studio} stamps out to play - what a joy they are! This is my 1st (only PCS!) but I really love working with the these stamps and hopefully I will be back for more! I am still trying to get an idea of what card I want to make for my terrific friend Mary's "Get Ahead" card swap on the SCS ~ Thank you Cards are always so fun to make! I did see this card that inspired me with it's layout: it's the orange/pink flower card:http://treasureoilerdesignz.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-03-27T04%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=7, it's the pink/orange flower card (9th down on Dawn's blog)

so I gave it a shot with my version's here .... the Thank you is on the inside of card #1 and it's hard to see here the scallop lace didn't leave much room for stamping! :)

In the second one, I went with a darker haired fairy, which somehow reminded me of Mary's little dd, and like the overall feel of this one better ~ to be changed up, still in the playing around stage! :) The first photo is terrible and the glare is awful - it looks like the glitter is a spilled mess! I promise it looks normal IRL, lol! If you happen to peek, I'd love to here your thoughts on which version you like better?

Deets: Pink Cat Studio - Fairy Lily

DSP: SU! Raspberry Tart & CS - SU, Bazzill

Prismacolor markers, SU Kiwi Kiss ribbon, MS fine glitter, Adhesive

TFL!

Post-birthday :)

Ooooh the inevitable - I'm another year older! And this is what I feel and look like after all that yummy birthday cake! Tee hee! I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful cards and birthday prezzies and special wishes - I feel so blessed (and quite spoiled!) I can't wait to play with all the wonderful goodies that I was showered with this birthday -making the 40's so much nicer! You girls are the best! Thank you sooooooo much!! Hugs, hugs, hugs!!

Deets: House Mouse Jelly Beans stamp
& SU! Cardstock
& yummy DCWV paper stack paper~ Sweet Stack
Ribbon is from PTI.

Here's to another wonderful year ahead! *Cheers!*