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TCP Tuesday - Color Challenge

Since Toni is off gallivanting in Hawaii (lucky!) I get to be the Color Challenge Hipster Hostess with the Mostess this week! I'm really excited about this one because I L-O-V-E color!!  I'm not a beige girl by any means - I'm a hot pink and orange girl!  And speaking of those colors, here's your challenge for the week - make a card/project using  my three favorite colors orange, pink, and chocolate brown! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

(Thanks to Leigh for this awesome graphic!  She's soooo talented!)

I actually made my card for the last release for The Cat's Pajamas but it's not on the TCP website and I've never posted it to my blog so I thought this would be the perfect time to showcase it.  I think this is my favorite TCP card I've ever made.  Probably because I love these colors so much!  Hope you like it!  And remember to check out the other DT member's blogs (over there on the left) to see more yummy creations!

All images: The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Glitter stack DCWV; Neenah Crest Solar White; CTMH
Ink: ColorBox
Accessories: Flower punch - Marvy; PrismaColor pencils and blending pencil; Corner Rounder punch - EK Success; brad - MM

Here are the TCP Tuesday deets- (lifted from Ana's blog)-

1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project to this post.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS, please use the keyword TCPTUES17 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

Now go get stamping! :)

Samples for Paperdoll - UPDATE

For all the ladies making A muse card samples for Paperdoll, Janene and I have decided to extend the deadline for the prize drawing from July 26th because I haven't received any samples yet.  I'm going to wait until I get at least 15 cards before I draw a winner so please send me the cards as soon as possible, thanks so much!!  We really appreciate all of your help!

P.S.  I still need to post a photo of the prize and I will try and do it today.

Happy Birthday, Ava!

Okay, I lied.  My break didn't last until Tuesday. 

My friend's little girl Ava, is one year old today!  It seems like just yesterday she was born, time goes by so fast!!  I made this card for her using the stitched alphabet font and polka dot paper from A Muse.  The letters were cut out and mounted on the paper using pop-dots.  The whole card was cut out using Nestabilities. I hope she likes it!

All images, paper - A Muse Artstamps 
Paper: Neenah Crest Solar White; CTMH - Black
Ink: Adirondack
Accessories: Nestabilities - Scallop and Standard Circle - Large; Standard Circle - Small; Glittery number 1 - don't know, the packaging is gone; Parenthesis punch - EK Success

Happy Birthday, Ava!

P.S. It's my friend Carolina's birthday, too!  Happy Birthday!!!

Big News!!

Hooray!! I made the Elzybells Artstamps (UK) Design Team! I'm sooooo excited! I just found out yesterday but it's been killing me to keep it a secret even for a day, lol! 

Congrats to the rest of the new team! I can't wait to get started!

Elzybells Design Team - (I don't have the links to them, yet.)

Alex Eaton, UK

Angel Rivera, USA

Beverly Rousch, USA

Charlene Austin, Canada

Dawn wheeler, UK

Deborah Southard, USA

Eva Costigan, USA

Frances Byrne, Australia

Inge Groot, The Netherlands

Jeanne Streiff, USA

Katie Stilwater, USA

Kim Fee, UK

Kitty Frampton, UK

Maria Adams, UK

Michelle Short, UK

Michelle Woerner, USA

Pam Fraser, UK

Paula Williamson, USA

Rachel Hope Baird, USA

Shannan Teubner, USA

Stephanie Mayne, UK

Tobi Crawford, Canada

Blogging Break

Hey, girlies!!  Sorry I've been MIA for a few days but I've been working on design team stuff plus having fun with my boys and it has been great!  I'm taking a little blogging break until next week when I'll be hosting TCP Tuesday with a color challenge!  Fun, fun! 

One other thing, I've got a super exciting announcement to make later on today (no, I'm not pregnant!) so stay tuned for that!

Hope you're all doing well! Big hugs!

Happy Birthday, Geeta!

My friend Geeta's birthday is today and she is 40!!! What a big day for her!  Her favorite color is purple so, of course I had to make a card using her signature color.  I really like how this card turned out and it would be really easy to personalize it for anyone on your birthday list simply by changing the colors and the number.

Happy Birthday, Geeta!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

All images, notecards - A Muse Artstamps
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; CMTH - Black
Ink: Adirondack
Accessories: Scallop punch - SU!; Circle punch - EK Success; Markers - Copic and SU!; Sakura Quickie Glue Pen; Stampendous Ultra fine white glitter

Paperdoll Make and Take

This is card I made for the make and take last Saturday at Paperdoll.  Janene had a Christmas in July sale at the store so we thought it would be fun to do a holiday card.  I think this turned out really cute, even though it's simple!  It would be perfect for a Christmas party or just by changing the sentiment, it could work for a holiday thank you or birthday card. 

P.S. The computer still isn't working properly so I'm only on here sporatically. 

All images, Notecard - A muse Artstamps
Ink: Staz-on
Accessories: Super Jumbo Punch (the blue one) - Marvy; Paper piercer - CTMH; Koh-I-Noor Pencils; Stickles; Ultra fine white glitter

TCP Tuesday

It's TCP Tuesday and Jen is the Guest Hipster Hostess with the Mostess and she's got a great Inspiration Challenge for us to try!  I haven't had a chance to work on it yet because I'm swamped and feeling overwhelmed but be sure to check out Jen's blog for all the details and then the other DT members blog's for some awesome eye candy!  This group of ladies is so very talented, they always impress me! 

Out of commission

Well, the laptop is on the fritz again so I have to take it into the repair shop today and won't be posting on my blog until it's fixed.  Please send good thoughts our way -- I don't want it to cost an arm and a leg to fix! :)

ETA: Took the computer in and the fix-it guy had 12 computers in front of ours and he said it would be at least 2 days until he could get to it, let along fix it and I'm like, "Um, hello!! As if I can live without the computer for that long!" Haha! So, DH is going to back-up the hard drive tonight so lets pray the computer doesn't die before then.

Have a great day!

Monkey havin' fun

As you know, I LOVE monkeys, they've always been my favorite animal and Theo's nickname is "Monkey" so I've been so happy that Christine has been adding these cute little guys to her stamp designs lately.  (Plus, I've been noticing that monkeys have been becoming more and more popular...hhhmmm, I wonder if they'll be the next "in" thing like birds and owls have been?)  Anyway, I love this little guy chillin' in his inner tube.  What a perfect way to spend a summer day, lol!  And you'll notice I used the same polka-dot paper that I'm slightly obsessed with. I can't help it! It's just screams "Use me for summer cards!!" :) 

Hope you all are having a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

All images: C.C. Designs
Paper: Bo Bunny; Su!; CTMH
Ink: Adirondack
Accessories: Copic Markers; Ribbon - May Arts; Circle punches - EK Success and Paper Shapers

 

C.C. Designs new release

C.C. Designs' latest release was on Monday and the stamps are super cute!  I had one sneak-peek here but I totally forgot to post more of them!  So, here's another sample that I made using the Sweet Treats Card Kit.  I just love all the colors and fun accessories in this kit, Christine does such a great job putting them all together!

All images - C.C. Designs
Paper, ribbon, brads, jewel - Sweet Treats Card Kit
Accessories: PrismaColor Pencils; Marvy Tag Punch; Circle Punches - Marvy and Paper Shapers; Nestabilities - Scallop and Standard Square dies

For the first card, I colored the sweet little bear with PrismaColor pencils, cut him out with my square Nestabilities and then mounted him on a scallop square.  The sentiment was punched out with a Super Jumbo (blue) Marvy Tag punch.  (I love punches!)

This next card is my fave!  It all came together really quickly which is always nice! The image is colored PrismaColor pencils, again.  (Love those!)  I think everything else is pretty self-explanatory but feel free to email me with any q's.   

Gettin' Tipsy: Don't be afraid to mix patterned paper together.  The trick is to unify different patterns by using the same color scheme.   

How cool is this??!

Check this out! I won a a$50 gift certificate to A Muse!! Suh-weet!!!  Thank you to everyone that signed up with me as their referral, I really appreciate it!

Can't wait to spend my loot!

Another **Sneak-peek**

Here's a sneak-peek of two of the stamps from the new A Muse clear set designed by Missy Balance called Missy's Holiday.  I L-O-V-E this set!  It's sooooo cute! 

The layout for this card was actually inspired by one of Elena's cards from the weekly A Muse newsletter.  The candy background was made by stamping the little candy stamp several times and coloring them in with Copic markers.  I made the 4.25" x 4.25" notecard with the Kitchen collection full sheets of paper (love those!).  This is my favorite Christmas color comb - pink, green and red! 

Also, I've decided to start including little tips on some of my posts because I always like to learn new little tricks so I figure you all will, too :)  Some will be clever and some not so much :)  I'm calling it Gettin' Tipsy.

Gettin' Tipsy: Don't have the perfect patterned paper for your latest project?  Then make your own by random stamping a small image several times and coloring it to coordinate with your card.

All images, paper, Twinkle Stickers - A Muse Artstamps
Ink: Adirondack
Accesories: Twinkle Stickers; Glitter - Stampendous ultra fine; Nestabilities: Scallop Oval

A Muse **Sneak-peek**

I got to play with my new stamps today so I have a **sneak-peek** for those of you that haaven't made it to a store hosting A-Muse-A-Palooza.  This is my fave stamp from the release; it's called Hippie Snow Chick which I think is just the cutest name ever!  This one was designed by Missy Balance and I am a HUGE fan of her work!  The layout for this card is totally CASEd from one of the make and take cards I made at Monkey Love but I kept thinking how perfect it would be with this stamp so I just changed it up a little bit and went with it.  And check out the new ORANGE(!!!!!) vintage notecards! Can you say LOVE??!!!  Aaaahh, so happy.  What are you fave things from the release?

All images, paper, ribbon, twinkle stickers - A Muse Artstamps
Ink: Adirondack
Accessories: Scallop Blade - Fiskars Rotary Cutter; Glitter -Stampendous

TCP Tuesday on Wednesday

Yesterday was TCP Tuesday and Leigh is the Hipster Hostess with the Mostess this week and she's got a sketch challenge for us to try.  I love sketch challenges and this is a fun one!  Be sure to check out her blog for all the details!

Here's the sketch-

And here's my card for it.  I used my Snowflake CB folder to make the background and then stamped the blue flag with the  Starburst Curtain stamp.  To make the flag, I simply cut a rectangle of blue paper and then layed one of my square Nestabilities at an angle over the paper to make a triangle and then ran it through the CB.  Easy! :)

All images - The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Kraft, Old Olive - SU!; Twilight - CTMH
Ink: Old Olive, Twilight
Accessories: Snowflake CB folder, Nestabilities - Square die - lard; Scallop and Standard oval - Small; Glitter - Stampendous ultra fine; Brads - Craft Essentials

 

Seattle Re-cap

Carolina and I had a GREAT time in Seattle yesterday -- everything was perfect! The weather, driving (no traffic!), having a girl's day and (of course!) the stamps!!  We started out at the Tukwila store of Impress Rubber Stamps and it was soooo fun!  I've only ever been to the much smaller University Village store so this big store was a treat! They even had a bunch of The Cat's Pajamas stamps so it was cool to see all of those.  I got about 6 stamps there and brackets punch which I'm REALLY excited about!

After grabbing a quick lunch (at Taco bell - gotta save the money for stamping!) we headed to the A muse store.  AAAHHHH! I love that place! This is my third time going and it was just as cute as always.  The new AP stuff wasn't out, but it was still awesome to be there and see all the rubbery goodness!

Here's Carolina and me outside the store-

We were there for a long time and it was a blast!  I got some stamps and notecards.  Next we did a couple of non-stamping things, ate dinner and then headed to Monkey Love for the A-Muse-A-Palooza event. 

Monkey Love was a very cute store and Sandy (the owner) is a doll!! I really liked her :)  The event itself was soooo much fun! We got to make FIVE make and takes that were totally adorable and they had all the new stamps, notecards and paper! Yep, they have the new vintage full sheets of paper! Oh man, that stuff is fantastic!! And one of the best parts was hanging out with fellow A Muse Addict Kim (kasevers). She is super sweet and we had a lot of fun!   Hi Kim!! *waves*  I also got to meet two other Addicts Aileen (ablackmore) and Janie!

Here's me and Kim (sorry the pic is blurry)

And then here are us Addicts - Janie, Aileen, Kim, me - (it's sooooo fun to meet in real life!!)

And now, I'm sure you all want me to quit yapping and get to goods so........................ here's what I got -

Lots of yummy paper-

And stamps galore! My two new faves are the chick with the ornament in her mouth and the snowman with the flower wreath - they're both stinkin' adorable!! 

Here's something fun.  Ya know how I started stamping  5 years ago when I saw an adorable wedding card and thought "I have to do that!" and bought everything to totally CASE it?   Well, Monkey Love had the card that started it all so I had to take a picture of it!  Hhmm, just think, without this little card, I wouldn't be where I am today! :)

And thanks to Carolina for a FANTASTIC day! I'm so glad I got to have this adventure with you! :) Can't wait 'till next year!

 

A-Muse-a-palooza starts today!!

It's finally here!  Yippee!! I'm heading to Seattle today with a friend to visit 3 different stamp stores including...the A Muse store! I'm sooooooo excited! Can't wait to see all the new stamps!

Have a great day, chickies!! See ya tomorrow and I'll show you all my brand new rubbah!!! :)

Happy Birthday to U

Helle was the mystery Hostess this week over at the AP Blog and her challenge was to make a pink, black and white card with a little bit of bling on it.   I bought this "U" initial awhile ago with the hopes to use it with this birthday sentiment so I figured this was a good time to pull it out.  I stamped it in CTMH Blush ink and then masked off the "you" in the sentiment using Scotch tape and stamped it above the "U". After it adhering it to the card, I used my MM Ribbon slot punch to thread the ribbon through then added some A Muse Twinkle Stickers (scroll down) for the bling.  Thanks for looking!!

All images, notecards, ribbon, Twinkle Stickers - A Muse
Ink: VersaFine - Onyx Black; CMTH - Blush

 

Summer fun!

Here's my first sample from the new Summer Time Fun set from C.C. Designs that will be available on July 7th.  I actually made this card for Isaiah's birthday that was last Sunday.  He had a waterslide party so I knew I wanted to make a card with a water theme and this stamp was perfect!! As I said a couple of days ago, I'm slightly obsessed with this Bo Bunny paper at the moment -- I can't get enough of it!

Lucky is stamped and colored with PrismaColor pencils and his shorts are paper-pieced (of course!)  The waves underneath him were made with a small circle punch.  The rest is pretty self-explanatory but if you've got a question, don't be afraid to ask! :)

Hope you're all having a great LONG weekend! 

All images: C.C. Designs
Paper: Bo Bunny and CTMH
Ink: Adirondack
Accessories: PrismaColor Pencils and blending pencil; Circle Punch - Marvy

Happy 4th!

Hey chick-a-dees!! Happy 4th of July!  Ya got any fun plans?  We're having our second annual block party this afternoon and then I don't know what we're going to do this evening.  I'm sure it will be a fun day, though! Especially since Stacy is home from work -- that always makes any day great!

In honor of the holiday, I figured I should show ya another Virginia card dressed up in red, white and blue. 

She's colored with PrismaColor pencils and then her pants are paper-pieced (as always!)  I added some gitter to her white shirt but it's hard to see in the photo.  The acrylic star has glitter around it, too, because it wasn't really showing up very well without it.  And I got to use my new Cuttlebug tag die on this one for the sentiment - love those things!!

Hope you have a safe and wonderful 4th of July!! 

All images: C.C. Designs (except for the star which is A Muse)
Paper: Striped - Doodlebug?? (not sure); polka dot - unknown
Ink: Adirondack - Denim
Accessories: Ghost Shape Star - Heidi Swapp; Glitter - Stampendous; Ribbon - Offray; Tag Die - Cuttlebug; Corner Rounder - EK Success; PrismaColor Pencils and blending pencil; Quickie Glue Pen; Brads - Craft Essentials; Ribbon slot punch - MM

Non-traditional birthday card

My very good friend's daughter had her second birthday yesterday and they are a very cool, funky family so I thought it would be fun to make a non-traditional birthday card.   This is also for the latest challenge on the AP Blog - to make a card using polka-dots. 

I stamped the frame and "2" on a green polka-dot A Muse Pretty Little Paper, cut it out and then mounted it with pop-dots on a striped A Muse notecard.  Then I high-lighted the edge of the frame with my black Spica glitter pen.  The party hat is stamped on another A muse notecard, cut out and adhered on top of the "2". Ribbon and a sentiment finished off this simple but fun card.  Hope you like it!

All images, notecards, paper, ribbon - A Muse Artstamps
Ink: Versafine - Onyx black
Accessories: Black Spica glitter pen

C.C. Designs **Sneak-peeks**

The **sneak-peeks** have started for the latest release from C.C. Designs over at the All That Scraps Blog.  Be sure to check them out!!  I'll have a card for it tomorrow!

Another Relaxing card

Here's my second card for TCP Tuesday.  I'm really LOVING this stamp! Thanks for the images, Toni!  And isn't this paper so perfect for this stamp? Love it!! I've actually gone a little crazy with this paper over the last few days, I've made 4 cards with it so far!  And check out the ribbon on this one!  I took a cue from Carole and colored in the white polka-dots to match my paper! Isn't that the best tip? I used Copics, SU! and CTMH markers on the dots and they all worked great. 

Hope you have a great day!!

All images - The Cat's Pajamas
Paper - Bo Bunny
Ink - VersaFine
Accessories: Nestabilities Scallop and Standard Circle Dies; Ribbon - May Arts (white polka dots colored in with markers); markers - Copic, SU!, CTMH; Circle Punches - Marvy, Paper Shapers

 

TCP Tuesday - Stamp Challenge

It's TCP Tuesday and I'm the Hostess with the Mostess and I've got a stamp challenge for you!  Since we're in the middle of a heat wave here in Portland, I thought it would be fun to do a cool, summery image so your challenge is to use "Relaxing" which is the stamp with Sprinkle louging in the blow-up pool (scroll down, it's the very last stamp.)  It doesn't get more summery than that!  Here are all the deets for TCP Tuesday (lifted from Jen's blog) -

1. Each a week one of the The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this post in the comments section.
5. Yes, you must use this specific stamp to be in the running for the Swanky Stamper award.
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS, please use the keyword TCPTUES14 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the other DT members, I'm sure they're going to have some CUTE cards for this one! 

Here's my entry for this week.  This is actually another photo mat that I made for Daily Window.  By the way, thanks to Toni for staming these images for me! I can't believe I don't have them yet!

All images: The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: unknown (I only had a scrap left), CTMH - Clover Meadow
Ink: Colorbox - Tangerine
Accesories: Nestabilities - Scallop and Standard Circle Dies; PrismaColor Pencils and blending pencil

   

AP Challenge - Pocket Card

Geeta was the Mystery Hostess this week on the AP Blog and her challenge was to make a pocket card.  I like pocket cards so this was fun to do.  I wanted to try something a little different so I thought I would try cutting a shape out on the card instead of stamping something.  So I looked through my stamps to get inspiration for something and I saw the "For a special teacher" sentiment and thought "Ah hah! I could do an apple!" The rest just came easily from there.  I free-hand drew the apple shape on the back of the red polka dot paper (so it wouldn't show on the finished apple) and then cut it out.  The stem and leaf were also cut from the same paper in different colors.  On the inside of the pocket, I added a red scallop piece of paper after it was mounted on the green.  The school house was colored with my new Koh-I-Noor colored pencils that I got at Paperdoll. 

Thanks for checking out my blog, girlies!! I sure appreciate you all! Have a good day!

All images, paper - A Muse
Ink - CTMH
Accesories: Ribbon - offray; Colored pencils - Koh-I-Noor; Scallop blade - Fiskars rotary cutter

 

Happy Birthday, Isaiah!!

Today is my sweet little Isaiah's 6th Birthday!! I can't believe he is 6 already!! He is getting so big and mature and reminding me more of his daddy everyday.  He is very athletic, loves to compete but is very compassionate of others, is sensitive just like his Mama but still tough, loves being outside playing soccer, is a very hard worker, adores Theo more than anyone in the world and is the BEST big brother!! I am so thankful for Isaiah and all the joy and laughter he has brought into our family.  I am so proud of him and the person that he is becoming.  Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with this wonderful little man!

Happy Birthday, Izy!!  You are very, very loved!

P.S. This is from the party that his preschool had for all the summer birthday kids. 

Hoppy Birthday!

These frogs just crack me up!  They're from the Froggy and Friends set from C.C. Designs and I colored them using PrismaColor pencils (my fave coloring medium.)  The flower was distressed with pink ColorBox chalk ink (it was white originally) and after it dried, I tied the ribbon on the card and threaded it through the hole in the center of the flower. 

Enjoy!

All images: C.C. Designs
Paper: MM, DCWV
Ink: Adirondack
Accessories: Flower - Maya Road; Circle punches - Marvy and Paper Shapers; PrismaColor Pencils and blending pencil; Ribbon - offray

From the mouth of Isaiah

Stacy (my DH) and Isaiah were playing soccer on the Dreamcast (yes, I realize it's one of the oldest game consoles ever, but I don't want my boys to be too into it so I refuse to let Stacy upgrade.)  Anyway, they were playing with the men's teams and then they switched to women's and Stacy commented on how slow the women were running and Isaiah said - "I know why they're slow!  'Cause of their boobies!!" Hahaha! I totally burst out laughing! And yeah, that's probably true, lol!!! 

Gotta love boys!

Paperdoll needs samples!

My good friend Janene (the owner of Paperdoll) and I were talking and she said she needs some more A Muse card samples for her store and I mentioned that I know a bunch of A Muse Addicts and I thought they could probably help out!  Soooooo - all of you A Muse lovers - here's your chance to have your cards on display at a stamp store!!  All you have to do is make up some cards using only A Muse stamps and (preferably) A Muse notecards/paper and send them to me.  And here's the best part - for every card you send, your name will go into a hat for a chance to win some A Muse goodies!  Janene has donated a stamp, notecard set and twinkle stickers to go to one lucky participant!  (I'll post a picture of the prize later.)  How awesome is that??!!  Plus, it will be soooo great for you to get to have your creations on display at her store! Be sure to put your name and blog (if you have one) on the back of the card so that everyone will know who the creator of that fantastic card is.   One more thing, there are a few specific stamps that Janene really needs samples for so if you make a card using one of those, you will get two entries into the drawing for that one card.  Make sense? (I will email you the list of those stamps.)  So, if you're interested, please email me or leave a comment on this post and I will write you back with my mailing address so you can send me your creations!!  The deadline for this adventure is July 26th and I will announce the winner on July 27th.  Now go get stamping!! :)

Testing new siggy!

Check it out, ya'll!! I got a new siggy! Thanks so much to Beth Silaika at Freckled and Fun! I emailed her yesterday and she made the signature for me the same day!  Talk about great service!  If you're wanting a custom signat