Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! These are the photo holiday cards I made to send out this year. I used the Merry Merry digital kit by The Greeting Farm. LOVE it!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas day and got everything on their wish list! I'm enjoying the magical Christmas that goes with having two little ones...I love the joy and happiness they bring to Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Chica!

I made this card for my good friend, Angela, as it was her bday on the 16th and we were getting together last night. Now, it was tough to make this card, one b/c I'm in awe of her talent and 2, b/c I would be giving it to her in front of the designer, LOL. This is the first time for me to ink up WS - Megan and I seriously suck at coloring curly hair - going to have to get some tips on that in the future. DP is also from TGF - Happy Anyaversary pack. Thankfully, she loved it and said she doesn't get many handmade cards b/c everyone says they don't want to give them to her b/c she's SO good --- haha, true, but I'm glad I didn't let that stop me. I love giving my handmade cards to people I know and love b/c I truly put a little bit of myself into each one and I find it more fun to design a card when I actually know the recipient. For me, it's SO hard to design a good card when I'm just going to sell it to someone randomly. I don't know if any of you feel the same way.

I used this weeks Mojo Monday Sketch and also this weeks theme at Cupcake Craft Challenges - two challenge cards in one - now that's been a rare thing for me lately but it was fun and fitting as I needed a bday card and the sketch is just awesome.

Thanks for looking!

Finally - the teacher gifts!

I finally finished the little Jr. Legal Notepads for Tolla's teachers. Good thing, nothing like waiting to the last minute as today is her last day before winter break! LOL I spent all day coloring Teacher Anya yesterday which I think was just fitting for these. My hubby couldn't believe I was making all of these but Tolla does have 5 rotating teachers in her preschool!! haha I just enjoyed the excuse to make these adorable little things. I love them. I'm going to make another one for myself to keep track of all my to do lists at work. I just have to figure out which would be the perfect image to use for work! Please feel free to comment with your suggestions!

I colored Anya with Copics (the hair took forever, and I have brown ink stains on my fingers. LOL) Then I colored the apple with glitter pens and covered it with glossy accents for some extra dimension. I only used ONE sheet of double sided DP for all of these which was awesome. Then the 3 different colors of sparkly cardstock to layer it on. I love the sentiment which says "find joy in the little things" b/c it's preschool and our kids are little!!! Isn't that perfect? Then I added the teacher's first initial on the front of each notepad using grungeboard covered in white crackle paint and rubbed with tea stain ink. Too cute and seriously these are the easiest things to make!

And of course, when mommy is making cards - Tolla wants to make cards so here are the ones she made for her best friend at school and his mom. Aren't they cute? Santa Ian is for her friend - his name is Aidan and the mermaid is for his mom. I think she wanted to use the mermaid b/c his mom has this beautiful red hair!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I've had fun creating this week so far but now I must pay some much needed attention to my household chores! LOL Oh wait, I need a birthday card....guess the laundry will have to wait at least a couple more hours... ;)

Club Anya Holiday Blog Hop!!!!

I have been looking forward to tonight since the announcement was made a couple weeks ago about the public blog hop. I love these stamps and was so excited to be a small part of the release - I've been seriously lacking in the stamping dept lately but wow, I think I've finally found my groove again. I didn't have time to stamp this weekend so I stamped ALL day today getting ready for tonight! LOL I hope you enjoy the projects I've made:

First, I want to make some gifts for Tolla's teachers as it's her first year of school and she's just done so great -- she absolutely loves school & talks about her teachers all the time. There are five that rotate around the preschool classes so here are the cards I made to go with their little gifts. I used this weeks Taylord Expressions Sketch Challenge and it also follows this week's TGF Farm Fresh Friday challenge KISS. Check out both places for great inspiration.

I also made this to hold some of the home made fudge I made last night. Oh my GAWD, it's good. I've been stealing pieces here and there all day (*blush*). I never knew making fudge was so easy!!! What a great gift to give someone. I love Flutter Anya - she was one of the FIRST anya's I bought earlier this year. I thought it would be cute to color her up with some Christmasy colors and put Ian's little santa hat on her head. I've seen this done with other anya's & thought it was adorable to dress them up for the holidays so I just had to try it!

And last, I made this Jr Legal Notepad (I know, it's not an Anya, LOL) but it's an adorable sprout and since I totally missed out on the Anya Elf, I had no choice...See my previous posts for a link to how to make the Jr Legal Notepads.

Thank you so much for stopping by tonight!!! I hope you enjoyed my little projects and will have fun on the rest of the hop - I'm sure there are some AMAZING projects and cards to be seen, I can't wait to see myself. I always find myself in awe with the talent of TGF fans! Plus the sneak peeks of the release tomorrow looks adorable as always!!

I found my MOJO (Monday - 116)!!

Whew, who knew I could create TWO cards in ONE day while watching my girls and helping them color / paint on the table behind me. LOL Well, I guess it is possible and it really made my day enjoyable - totally took me away from the stresses of my life. I've had a lot of stress surrounding my job and losing childcare for my girls...Some of it was brought on by myself and I have no one to blame but me, but I just keep hoping it will all work out for the best in some way, some how.

Until then, I'll keep stamping away & I hope you'll enjoy two Christmas cards I made using this week's Mojo Monday 116. Since it's the start of the month - there are PRIZES -who doesn't like prizes?! LOL I know I do!

I used an adorable Tiddly Inks Snowfight stamp from Stamping Bella - Gosh, I adore these stamps. I got this stamp nearly a year ago and wouldn't you know, today is the first time she's been inked!!! Eeek! I hate when that happens. Isn't she a doll. I love this stamp and I think I'll be making a few more using her before the wonderful winter season is over. I colored her using Copics and added the puffy white stuff to her hat, and coat and boots (LOVE This stuff as well, after admiring it on the works of many others, I finally got some myself and let me tell you - it's so fun to play with.) The I added some fine glitter to the snowman and snowballs, b/c the last snowfall we got, when I went outside, it looked like it was laced with glitter and was so beautiful! I was inspired by my girls favorite colors to color one red and the other green. :)

Anyway, hope you likey!!!! Please leave me a comment if you do - I'd love to hear from you.

PS. Can someone tell me how to get it so you can click on the picture of my card to bring it up larger? I feel like you don't get to see a lot of the detail b/c that doesn't work....

It's been awhile, but I've been stamping again!

I finally cleared off my craft desk (not that you can tell from these pics, LOL) but when I did it jumpstarted my desire to start stamping again. There had been a lot of stress in my life that has recently been released and as soon as it was removed, I was able to sit down at my desk again and the creative juices just flowed again and let me tell you it felt SO good.

I wanted to make some small gifts for my daughter's preschool teachers. Tolla is just thriving while being in her first year of school and I just wanted to show our appreciation in some small way. So, I started experiementing with these little jr note pads. You can find the tutorial here. I'm addicted to making these!!! They are perfect for making little lists which have been BIG for me lately.

Of course, I used my favorite stamps in the world - The Greeting Farm - and finally was able to ink up HG - Laundry as I just think she's adorable:

Then, I totally spaced on making an anniversary card for my hubby but I did manage to squeeze in a bday card for him a week later. This was my first comeback to stamping after about a month (if not more!) so I'm not totally in love with it, but I'm just happy he liked it and that it jumpstarted my hobby again. As soon as I saw Hugh, when Marie released him, I just KNEW I would use him for a card for my hubby. LOL He kinda reminds me of my hubby in our younger days with longer hair and just a cool/dreamy expression. Kinda what drew me to him.... :)

Anyway, thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your comments and hope to be a little more active in blogger world again!

Dabbling in the digital....

I like to make digital photo cards for myself and my family and friends. I've been making invites and this one is for my beautiful little goddaughter who is about to celebrate her 2nd bday at the end of the month. I love working in Photoshop and really haven't been using it as much since my computer crashed last year. I've been able to sneak on to my parent's computer here and there to get a couple cards done for my friends and even to work on some logo's. Unfortunately, that's about to end since they are moving out soon. But maybe I'll be lucky and get a new computer for Christmas - and maybe a laser printer so I can snag some of the fabulous new digi stamps that Marie is creating that is killing me not to get! LOL

Of course, once I knew I was making a bday invite I HAD to get my hands on TGF's new digital scrapbooking line with the Dirty Sugar kit.

I hope you like - and of course, all the important deets have been changed - this is just so show the basic design. :)

Oh and I'm so excited b/c I FINALLY think I have my life back on track after some pretty stressful weeks (hence the quiet blog lately)....my craft desk is cleaned, things are somewhat organized and I forsee some stamping in my future. LOL

Greeting Farm Friday - It's a BOY!

It's Friday - my favorite day of the week cuz it means the weekend is here and I get to show you my TGF creation. This week is particularly special b/c not only was the PERFECT Anya released yesterday, but I also found out on Wed that our baby due in Feb is a BOY!!! We have two little girls so this is very exciting. Not to mention I was driving my hubby crazy the past 5 months b/c ALL I would look at was boy stuff and blue paint for the nursery so I'm glad that I was RIGHT. haha Now, I can look to my hearts content and really start planning the room transformation from baby girl to baby boy.

Ok, on to my project, I knew I wanted to use Mama Anya and got this fabulous star chipboard album from my dear friend Angela and started to alter it for a little mini album for once my son arrives. I also got to play with my new Glimmer Mist and O-M-G I LOVEY this stuff WAYYYY to much. I am going to have to save up so I can get more and more colors. This was much too fun to play with and only have one color. *giggle* I colored Anya using Copics - I also have to admit, I am loving the way Anya's hair turned out. Still working that technique out - I'm just not as naturally gifted as some of you out there! Or maybe it's b/c I only play once a week. LOL Now, if only I looked as good as her. I almost posted a belly pic for you - but was not pleased with the way they turned out (stupid double chin) so not happening!

Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela (short hiatus)
Nicole

Playing with new goodies & a challenge

So, this week, I got a bunch of new goodies. Well, a bunch for me, haha, I don't spend a lot on supplies, but I just can't resist sometimes. I finally broke down and bought a Papertrey Ink set - one of their Sept releases that were oh so cute for Christmas and then I got some fun holiday DP and even got some grungeboard to play with that I've been ooogling for sometime now. So, I mixed it all up and put it on a card for Mojo Monday on a Sunday night, LOL.

Here it is, hope you likey:



The happy holidays DP is from making memories Misteltoe. I love this paper. Plan on using it for a good portion of Christmas cards I will be making. The snowflake is grungeboard covered with crackle paint in picket fence. The tree & happy holidays sentiment is from PTI. Love it!!! Thanks for looking!!! Hoping to get some more play time in tonight.

I'm late for TGF Friday!

Hi! Sorry for the late post - but I had a prenatal appointment this morning and forget to set my blog to autopost!!!

As soon as I saw this cute Keep Cozy set by TGF, I couldn't wait to ink them up and get them on a card. I LOVE LOVE LOVE snowmen stamps. These are possibly my favorite now.

I'm not much for giving details, but he's colored with copics, and has some fun fluff on his ear muffs (I couldn't resist!) Hope you like:

Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela

Nicole

The Greeting Farm Friday!

Always ever excited for The Greeting Farm Friday but this week I am SUPER excited. I colored one of my favorite Anya's this week - Dress Me Anya. Now, I've loved this Anya and have had her for a few months but never inked her up. Do you ever love a stamp so much that you're afraid to use it?! LOL Well, I get that way. Like I don't want to mess it up or something. But when I finally worked up the courage to ink her up, oh man, am I loving the result! LOL I started the card out using Joni's color challenge from last week of pink, black and white but then when I finished I realized that the challenge was in fact, a rule of 3's and I didn't have the right amount of embellishments, haha. Ahhh, details. I'm always overlooking the details. I also used this sentiment from Stamping Bella that I got in a swap - I thought it was fitting with the way I colored her hair. As you can see, she's wearing Ian's shirt and I colored her legs to look like leggings. I added some glitter to the leggings with my clear glitter pen. So, anyway, loving the color combo - here she is, hope you likey:

Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela
Nicole

*gasp* A Challenge card in the middle of the week?!

LOL, I know my blog has slowed way down and usually I'm only posting once a week (if I'm lucky) on Fridays. Well, I had some major mojo show up Sunday and I made 3 cards (yay, me!) - one of which I'm sharing here. I used this weeks Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #84. I think it's a great sketch - and so easy to work with. I added a window using my nestie so that I could show the sentiment clearer. I didn't leave enough room on my main image and I didn't want to just slap it on there somewhere. Now, at first I didn't like this little huggabug - but not b/c it's not cute, b/c it is - but only b/c I really don't like to think about being sick, getting sick or someone else being sick. *blush* Now you know one of my quirks. Anyway, when my MIL requested some get well cards, I dug thru my image stash and finally got to be able to use this. It is quite the adorable little sicky bug. I had two images but after refilling my Copic marker way too much I ruined one with a big ole blob of ink. Grrr, I was so mad. But I finally soaked up most of the excess and was able to try again. Thank goodness for two images!!!! I used stickles on the little wings. I'm quite pleased with the result and hope my MIL will like as well.

Thanks for looking!

LULU Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the LuLu Blog Hop sponsored by Stamping Bella! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Bloggabella.

Now for my Lulu card, I got some images from my dear friend Shonna - when looking for some DP to use, I saw that Harriet would just be perfect. I colored her using SU! Watercolor Pencils except for her skin which I used Copics trying to be very careful as the ink was tending to bleed. I also used Glossy Accents on the cupcakes and added baubles. I used this weeks Mojo Monday Sketch 105 which I just find fabulous and will be using over and over.

I hope you like!!!

How about a prize? In addition to the fabulous eye candy, we have decided to hide a prize somewhere along the hop! One pre-selected blogger will draw a random winner from the comments on her post, and the winner will receive a $25 Gift Voucher to Stamping Bella!!! The fun part is...we're not telling you who it is! So as you hop, make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! We will announce the winner on Monday in the Splitcoast forum. MWAH!

Thanks for taking the time to hop to my blog today!! Now you've got one more stop to go - hop on over to Kelly's Blog to see her wonderful Lulu creation!!!

Greeting Farm Friday

One of the benefits of waiting to the last minute to make a card is being able to use the new Farm Fresh Friday Challenge when making it. This week at TGF there is a fun sketch by Farmer Cindy - Check out the Farm Fresh Friday Challenge & all deets HERE !!

For my card, I used Home Sweet Home - an older set I just picked up and had to ink up right away. It is so cute but now you'll see why I don't do animal that much. LOL I just suck coloring them. Since I hated the way the coloring turned out, I covered the cute little pup with brown Fun Flock. But alas, here it is. Hope you like!!!

ETA: Dad took a new pic for me on his cool camera. haha, looks much better now!

Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela

Nicole

Christy Croll is doing it again!!

If you all remember, one of my most favorite stamp designers, Christy Croll, was giving away a custom stamp a few months back and against all odds, I actually won!! Christy was awesome to work with in designing a stamp modeled after my girls and the end result was just amazing. I love it. Well, she's doing it again!!! And I'm just posting this here so YOU can know and enter. Of course I'm not entering again - someone else deserves this fabulous artists take on something or someone special in their lives. It's just such a special thing to have.

You can find out all the deets here on her blog.

And I wanted to share again what she created for me:

Good luck!!!! Oh, and if you haven't seen the new releases at Stamping Bella (Christy has quite a few holiday releases that are just too cute), be sure to head over to the Bella Blog pronto!!!

Greeting Farm Friday - Never Forget...

So, as I said yesterday, once I realized what today was, I knew I wanted to make a special card honoring those heros from that day 9/11 8 years ago. Of course, we will never forget the horror of that day or the heros that emerged from the smoke. All my thoughts and prayers are with those that lost loved ones that day and those that were there helping, being called to something beyond themselves.

I knew that these two Ians - Rescue & Hero - from TGF were perfect for what I wanted to create. Also, I followed the Red, White & Blue challenge from Cupcake Craft Challenges this week. Everything came together nicely and I love the result. You can also see some paper from Dirty Rodeo - also from TGF. The images were colored with copics & glitter pens - as well as with some paper piecing. Coloring Hero Ian's entire outfit is still a little daunting as I don't feel I have the exact colors I want quite yet. One of these days I will attempt it. LOL

I hope you like!!!

Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela
Nicole

And don't forget to check out the really great challenges and contests at the TGF blog!!!! So many exciting things going on over there. You don't want to miss it!

ICSketches Sept '09 DT Call

I was looking for the DT call forum at SCS when it went missing for a couple days and a friend of mine pointed me to a DT call for ICSketches. I saw the sketch for the call (seen here) and immediately became inspired & knew exactly which stamp wanted to use. I've been using this awesome Hello Go Round stamp set fromTGF a lot recently b/c I haven't been much in the mood to color a whole stamp. *giggle* These are great b/c they can be used for any occasion and I can still get some of my card making done without all the time spent coloring an image "just so".

I made this a wedding card. It's not your typical wedding card I suppose but my friend wasn't your typical bride either. LOL She was so freakin' laid back as she prepared for her wedding it was cute. I hope her and her new groom like it. I'm a little late in giving it but better late than never, I 'spose. I wanted to give them a special gift and you know a gift is not a gift without a homemade card to go with it!!! hehe

I was going to showcase this card tomorrow for Greeting Farm Friday but then realized as I uploaded this card that tomorrow is 9/11 so I wanted to make a special card to honor this day of rememberance and service. (I hope I get time to make it, LOL, I wish I would've thought of it sooner, but that's the story of my life....)

Greeting Farm Friday

Can you believe it's Sept already?! I can't. I feel like it was just the start of summer yesterday, but alas, fall is just around the corner.

This week, I wanted to use the Hello Go Round set that I think is awesome. I love that the sentiments are perfect for any occasion. This simple card was in my mind all day and I couldn't wait to be done with work to finally put it into action. After a couple tries with my DP, I finally got it Just Right. Btw, the DP is from the Dirty Rodeo pack also from TGF.

Thanks for looking!! (sorry my camera is not taking good pics - at least these are much better than the ones I tried to take last night, but still blurry)

Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela

Nicole

Sat showcase for TGF Friday!

So, I'm back and even tho it's Sat - I'm still showcasing for The Greeting Farm Friday!!! I have been seriously loving these Tri-Shutter Cards I'm seeing everywhere and thought I'm finally going to try this technique. So that's what I did tonight. I'm very pleased with the outcome tho it's a bit time consuming for me, personally. It's cutting out all the little decorating pieces that did me in for this card. LOL Thankfully I knew I was going to use the fabulous Spooktacular set and the mini Ians/Anyas make for quick coloring. Phew! I still have some pieces to add for the inside but wanted to share the main front first. I made this birthday card for my SIL whose birthday is in Oct.

I hope you like:


Please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela
Nicole

Also, in case you haven't heard, there is a DT call for both TGF and Club Anya. Be sure to check them out!!! They both end AUG 31!!!

Greeting Farm Friday!!

It's Greeting Farm Friday and I don't have anything to share.......yet! I will be back later today or this evening to share a project. Hehe, I hope that is ok!!!



But while you're waiting on little ole' me, please be sure to check by the other gals blogs for some fabulous inspiration:

Angela

Nicole

Also, don't forget to stop by The Greeting Farm blog and leave your comment for the Stamp A Day Give Away!!!! Also, in case you haven't heard, there is a DT call for both TGF and Club Anya. Be sure to check them out!!!