Sweet Shoppe Gingerbread House

I made today's card using a Starving Artistamps Doodlefactory set called Santa's Sweet Shoppe. The saying is from the matching sentiment set called Holiday Sweet Shoppe Sentiments. I just love how the Doodlefactory sets have clever, punny sayings to go with them. I used this great sketch from Rubber Stamp Chat September Sketch Challenge. The card is 5-1/2 inches square. The snowflake panel is on shimmery white cardstock embossed with a cuttlebug folder. It's hard to see in the photo, but all the peppermint candies are covered with versamarker and clear embossing powder. The frosting and gumdrops are covered with glitter pens, making for a festive, sparkly card in real life. :) The border punch on the green panel is by EK Success. The red designer paper is from an old SU! pack and I found the perfect plaid ribbon in my stash. :)

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

PMS Color Challenge

This week Paper Makeup Stamps is hosting a color challenge using olive, ruby and chocolate. And the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge is to include a tag anywhere on your project. I decided to use The Heart Fairy that was designed as a charitable fairy for the American Heart Association. I used a versamarker and glassy glaze embossing powder to add a nice shine to her ruby heart. I did the same thing with the heart in the saying from the Dream Big set on the tag. Isn't this a perfect saying for this fairy? Of course her wings have to shimmer with my favorite dazzling diamonds glitter. :) For the background, I inked up a cuttlebug folder before embossing my cardstock. That put ruby red ink in all the grooves of my design making the raised part stand out a little bit more. The oval picture is popped up on dimensionals over the ribbon and scalloped mat. With the textured background and tag, this fairy needed an extra lift too. :) Then the heart brad was the perfect ending for attaching the tag to the ribbon and finishing off another card.

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

More Punching and Free Word Art

Every Friday Paper Makeup Stamps has a Friday Freebie Digi Word Art on their blog. I just love this week's quote and immediately pictured Ed jumping into a pile of leaves instead of his usual swimming pool. :) Of course, the perfect way to make a pile of leaves is to use my paper punches, so this is also another card for the PMS Monday Challege Getting Punchy. I used pastel chalks to color Ed and highlight the saying. I used a q-tip to dab clouds with white craft ink. I tore some paper for the ground and taped a bunch of punched out leaves on top of each other to make an attractive pile for our favorite elephant Ed. He's also popped up on dimensionals to give him a better sense of being air-born, haha. :)


Next I wanted to make a card with the Friday Freebie word art printed larger. One of the nice things about digis is you can print the quote out any size you want! I used Lime Rickey DP from Basic Grey and a cuttlebug embossing folder for the edge of the yellow cardstock. I just got my first copic markers and used them to highlight the word art to match my papers. Add a black mat and a ribbon tab and I have another cheerful fall card to send to one of my friends. :)

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

Pretty Woman

Here's a card that I made for Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. This week's movie is Pretty Woman and the card was to be paper-pieced. Paper-piecing is not something that I've done. I've actually avoided it because of all the cutting out. So, I decided to combine this with today's Ways to Use It Challenge on Splitcoast - Step Out of Your Box. Look at the close-up picture below - I cut out all those tiny flowers, the leg and the tub and pieced them on the pink circle. Is that crazy or what?! But it looks great, doesn't it? haha Then I decided to trace everything with my glitter pen to make the card dazzle even more, just as Julia Roberts dazzled everyone in the movie Pretty Woman. :) The stamps are from SU!'s retired sets called La-dee-da and Floral.



Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

Getting Punchy

Today's PMS Monday Challenge is to use die cuts and punches, excluding Nesties. I started with a butterfly die cut from SU! and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the swirl embossing folder. Next I punched out tiny hearts from some iridescent paper to line the edge of the butterfly wings. The outside of the wings are also propped up with dimensionals to tilt them out from the center of the butterfly's body.

Then today's Technique Challenge on Splitcoast is to use punches to make layer buttons. How perfect! I used this circle ribbon slot punch to punch out 5 cardstock circles and 1 designer paper circle. I stacked them up and taped them together. Then I covered it with Frost Versamark and glossy glaze EP a couple times to give it the hard shiny look like a button. How fun!

The saying from Paper Makeup Stamps is also embossed and punched out with SU!'s Key Tag punch. I used a border punch from Michael's for the bottom of the white layer. It's hard to see but the white layer also has all these ridges running through it from a texture plate. Add some sponging, gems and ribbon and that's the completed card! :)

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

Cherish Flowers

Here's a card I made for Sherrod Studio's DT Sketch Challenge. I used the flowers from the Gracie stamp set with one of my favorite color combinations for this week's Stamp Something Challenge. I just love reds and blues! :)

The white mat is a piece of extra glossy photo paper I had lying around. Makes for a smooth, shiny border. :) I'm always stamping on white or vanilla cardstock, so I determined with this card to stamp on colored cardstock instead. I really like how the red and navy still stand out on the light blue background. The clear stamps made it a snap to line up the flowers when stamping the background and front panel. Flower centers were colored with a white gel pen and the saying stamped with white craft ink.

Have a blessed day!

Spooooky Willow Tree

Haha, okay so the willow tree isn't really spooky looking, but the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast was to use spooky Halloween colors on your card. I've seen lots of purple and green combos for Halloween lately, so that's what I went with.

It's also a Flap Card for this week's PMS Monday challenge. I just love their stamps (thanks dawnmercedes for introducing me to them!) and this willow tree is no exception. I have fond memories of hanging on willow tree vines and swinging on them as a girl. :) Another wonderful thing is the word art you can find at Paper Makeup Stamps. There's a saying for anything in all kinds of fabulous fonts!

To get even coverage on the purple frame for the glitter, I covered the entire circle with adhesive in my xyron first. Then I centered the willow tree and stuck the two circles together. That left the outside of the purple circle ready to be covered with glitter for a sparkly frame. :) Then I found these little buttons in my stash and thought they looked just like arrows pointing in different directions like the saying says.

Truly Scrumptious

Here's a picture of our standard poodle when she turned a year old in April. When we decided to get a puppy last year, I wanted a girl. I live with my husband and two sons and I just wanted some female companionship, KWIM? She is truly a sweetheart. So well-behaved and fun-loving. We go for walks every day and her favorite game is to fetch a tennis ball over and over again. It's great watching her leap and twist in the air to catch one too.

A New Adventure

Here I am, stepping out and trying something new. :) I never thought I would start a blog. I've been inspired by so many other blogs out there though, it's piqued my curiosity. And if nothing else, it'll be my own little record of things that I enjoy and that I can look back on.