Top Note Fun Favor

I haven’t had much time to stamp this week….and I am trying to get ready for a workshop with a fussy grandbaby!  She is better now---just a little ear infection---so I thought I’d post something I whipped up over the weekend for my grand-nephew’s birthday.  This is a shameless CASE of Marlene Peter’s creation here.  Marlene is always a great source of inspiration to me!  Here ya go:

I used some Play Date papers and I added a little flag sentiment with Laura’s Sentiment Flags; I forgot the cute little pull tag too….next time!   Here’s a closer view:

and the card, using Bring On The Cake:

This would be a great favor for a birthday party, filled with candy or goodies!  As my grandnephew was only a year old, I just put the card in it!  His mom loved it!

It was finally nice enough to take a walk again today!  Here’s my little cutie pie, feeling much better:

• Stamps:  Bring On The Cake, Sentiment Flags, Lil’ Inker
• Paper:  Real Red, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, WW
• Ink:  Stazon
• Acc:  Top Note Die, Markers, Jumbo Grommets, Crop-a-Dile, Circle Punches, Flag die, string, skewer

Fast Christmas Card

I am sneaking into my craft room to post a super-fast Christmas card before heading out to a church brunch this morning!  You can’t get much cleaner or simpler than this:

Here’s a closeup of these sweet little bunnies with some glitter around the edges:

Another one for my stash!  Email me if you have questions!  Toodles!

ColourQ80

Good golly Miss Molly, Arielle has really thrown me a curveball this week! Here are her colors:

I think the weekend wiped me out, and my mojo was just plain on vacation! I opted for a CAS card:

Those three little lunch bags now remind me of tea bags-----another great use for this little PO set! I used the Sentiment Flags diecut from sweet Laura for my “let’s do lunch”-what a fun little embellishment that makes! Run on over to the CQC blog to play along with us and see what the other designers have come up with! TFL! And don't forget my blog candy here!

• Stamps: Celebitties, Purple Onion; Background Basics Gingham, PTI
• Paper: Confetti White, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Kiwi Kiss, Tangering Tango
• Ink: Stazon, Tangerine Tango
• Acc: Crumb Cake marker, bling, Sentiment Flags diecut, Owl Punch, Small Heart Punch

A JUG-Head Birthday!

Oh, I am SO excited to be participating in a very special birthday blog hop for a very special person!  Today is Elise’s birthday!  WOOHOO!  There is no one out in blogland who has more energy, vim & vigor than Elise!  You only need to visit her blog, Mamacow Creations,  a couple of times to feel the love!!!  And the girls at JUGS are giving her her own little birthday blog hop!!!  I hope you’ll participate and give her back some of the encouragement for which she’s so well-known!

I resisted the temptation to do a Western card (cuz I know she loves her animals), since I had just done one, but I did use a cute little CS set that really sums up how I feel about her:

This also uses Karen’s Sweet Sunday Sketch #112:

AND the color inspiration from C84FN23:

She definitely lights up the room wherever she goes!   She sparkles & shines just like the glitter on her card:

So add your name to the blog hop roll and be sure to stop over to Elise’s blog and shout “hey”!  The  hop will continue until Friday, April 15, so you have lots of time!

This & That and some Blog Candy

Hey everyone! I had an extremely busy weekend, so I haven’t had a chance to stamp a thing! I did go to the Heirloom Stamp Show in Allentown, PA and got to meet one of my blog friends, Doris, of The Stamping Tower:

Here we are with her friend Jackie:

and with my friend & downline, Lesley (marleygo on SCS) :

We saw lots of people we knew; I was absolutely thrilled that some people recognized me from my blog and graciously introduced themselves, and we just had a lot of fun!!!

I promised that once I hit 300 readers, I’d have some BLOG CANDY! So here we go! I seem to be caught up in a vintage theme lately…I just love to see children’s retro and vintage images and old-fashioned themes in cards and projects, and even though I know some of you are not “vintage”, I know you still have memories of your childhood!!! I grew up on a farm, and after we worked in our garden, we were allowed to go swimming in our pond!!! What a great time that was—we had a big wooden raft, a dock with a sliding board and my dad even put in a cement pad so that my mom could sit at the edge in her beach chair!!! So leave me a comment here about your favorite childhood memory….whether it be an Easter memory, another holiday celebration, summer vacation, whatever! I have three current Stampin’Up! hostess items (plus whatever else I might throw in the package) shown here to give to a random winner:

The sets are Silhouette Sentiments and Birthday Bakery, and a 6x6” In Color Patterns Designer Series Paper pack. (Sorry, I can only ship to US & Canada). You have until Friday midnight, April 15, to respond. Edited to add: you MUST include an email address in some way to be eligible....if I cannot contact you, I won't be able to mail you your goodies!

I went to my grand-nephew’s first birthday party yesterday….he was the popular man of the day, and so surrounded by his aunties that I wasn’t able to get a single picture of him! But of course, I did get a couple of Cassidy:

Hope you have a wonderful day! Can’t wait to hear from you!

PP42 Color Challenge

Happy Sunday to everyone!  Warmer weather is on the way and that makes me happy!  Today’s Ann’s color challenge for the Paper Players makes me happy, too:

Woohoo, I love it!  I used the Skipping Stones sketch 71:

And here’s my card:

This color combo is fresh & and bold—even though Poppy Parade is not one of my “go-to” colors!!  I realized I had been neglecting my wheels, so I used Friendly Words to make my banner, and an image from Dreams duJour for my focal point.  They are both stamped on Textured WW cardstock, as is my card base, and the main image is  watercolored with an aquapainter and ink:

I just love that canvasy look the textured cardstock gives!  This is just such a happy card!  I have to admit, I was feeling smug because I actually started my card on Thursday evening and had it all finished, when I realized that I had used the wrong neutral---ACK!!!  Would you like to see the first version?  Here IT is:

I had this idea in my head for days----but I used Ivory cardstock for my main image.  It’s okay---I need a congrats card for a special couple who tied the knot in a Western ceremony---so it will still get used!  But I had to regroup and quickly make another card---any excuse to stamp more, right?  And I used the Fall to Layout 135  for this card:

I sure hope you can find some time to play with these wonderful colors Ann has chosen.  Make sure you gallop on over to the Paper Players to find out all the details and share your creation with us too!

First card:

• Stamps:  Dreams duJour, Tiny Tags, Friendly Words jumbo wheel
• Paper:  Text & WW, Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze, DP:  PP  & SS Patterns, Elegant Soiree, Sew Suite
• Ink:  Stazon Black, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, So Saffron
• Acc:  Aquapainter, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Brads, Sewing Machine, Tiny Tag punch, dimensionals

Second card:

• Stamps:  Out West, Occasional Quotes, Sanded, Woodgrain, Plane & Simple
• Paper:  Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Naturals Ivory, PP Patterns DP
• Ink:  So Saffron, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze
• Acc:  Pinking Hearts Border & Star punches, Nestie, Paper Piercer, Crumb Cake marker, Vintage Trinkets, dimensionals

F4A59 Christmas

Last night while attempting to go to sleep, I was thinking of techniques to use for an upcoming workshop, and I thought about the embedded embossed technique.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, and that was the F4A challenge 59 on SCS!!!  It’s such a cool technique, but I realized that part of my execution of it on my weekly Christmas card took away from the technique itself a bit:

I only adhered the right portion of my punch out before running it through the embossing folder; I then ran some Cherry Cobbler seam binding under the left portion to make my bow.  That is the part that took away from the technique, which is supposed to make both pieces bond together and look seamless.  I’ll definitely try this again in a different way!  I will say that the embossing weakened the DP quite a bit and I had to be careful not to tear it where the ribbon folded over it---just a caution if you try this!  But I love the effect and am looking forward to trying it with my stampers!  Here’s a peek at the inside as well:

• Stamps:  Many Merry Messages, Tree Trimmings, Four Frames
• Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls DP
• Ink:  Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
• Acc:  Decorative Label Punch, Seam Binding, Square Lattice Embossing Folder