Moody Girls are the Cat's Meow

This week Paper Makeup Stamps is sponsoring the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge. Be sure to check out the 2S4Y blog for all the details on how to participate and what you could win! {wink}

I used Moody for Kitties with a sentiment from the Cutie Critter Sayings. Aren't they perfect together? I've got kitties on the mind because we adopted a kitten from the animal shelter this weekend and my boys have named her Trixie. She is cuddly as can be and has a motor-mouth purr for a 5lb creature. {sigh} Here she is.

Thanks for stopping by and have a Purr-fect Day!

Stamps: Moody for Kitties and Cutie Critter Sayings by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury White, Blush Blossom, Always Artichoke, Kaisercraft Tea at Elsie's DP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Copic Markers, Pearls

Birthday Butterflies

Makeup 4 the Weekend - M4TW40 Birthday Card
Flutterby Wedenesday - FBW119 Open Challenge
SCS Sketch Challenge - SC295
SCS Inspiration Challenge - IC247

Thank you everyone for your well wishes regarding my recent trip to Ohio for my grandfather's funeral. It was a treasured time with family and a comforting service.

This week's Makeup 4 the Weekend challenge to make a birthday card is hosted by Danni. And her Flutterby Wednesday challenge is an open one - just have a butterfly, fairy or angel on your card. With Dannni as the hostess for both challenges, it seemed fitting to combine these this week - especially since I'm playing catch-up after being away. {wink}

But you know, when you're playing catch-up, it takes awhile for your mojo to come back too, haha. So, I went searching for inspiration at today's inspiration challenge - perfect, right? I found this picture of a pretty blouse and it reminded me of some Ambrosia paper by Basic Grey that I have. That's also why I chose a light blue background for my card to match the light blue background of the blouse.

And then I went to this week's sketch challenge for the layout, so I wouldn't have to think too hard about that either. {LOL} The butterfly is from the Color It-Summer set and Birthday Wishes is a simple sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps.

Here are a couple things to remember! First, Flutterby Wednesday is getting ready for something HUGE on September 1st. To participate you need to have played along in a FBW challenge before - make sure you get a card done for this week's challenge if you're a first-timer! Second, you could win a single stamp of your choice from Paper Makeup Stamps. Just play along with this weeks challenge using a PMS stamp or digi image and link it up to the PMS blog.

Thanks for fluttering by today!

Stamps: Birthday Wishes and Color It - Summer by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Ambrosia by Basic Grey, Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Marigold Morning
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Marigold Morning, Basic Gray, Cajun Craze
Accessories: MS Butterfly Border Punch, Circle Punches, Clear Spica Glitter Pen, Blender Pen, Gems

Daring Adventure

This is actually a card that I made a year ago before I started my blog, so it never got posted here. It might look familiar to some of you who would have seen it in my SCS gallery though. I have the digi stamp of this Word Art by Paper Makeup Stamps and I enlarged it here to really make that saying the focal point of this card.

This card just kind of sums up my mood right now. After a difficult week of my grandfather's health failing, he passed away on Thursday night. Thankfully, I had the chance to speak to him over the phone, even though he couldn't speak back to me. But I know from my aunt, that he recognized and understood me while I talked to him. And each of my sons played a song on the piano for him, as music was always an important part of his life. He was a great fiddle player. Even though we lived far apart, he never missed a birthday or Christmas or anniversary for me and my children. You could count on a card or package in the mail from Grandpa Red. He had red hair, thus the nickname.

So no new stamping from me for now. It's been a week to focus on family and now we'll be gathering with everyone in Ohio for the funeral. I'm looking forward to seeing extended family that I've not seen for a long time and celebrating my grandfather's life of daring adventure with them.

Blessings,



Stamps: Paper Makeup Stamps: Digi word art
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Basic Grey Archaic
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Paper Shapers border punch, brads

Flutterby Recipe

Flutterby Wednesday - FBW118 Recipe

This week we have a different kind of challenge for you at Flutterby Wednesday. It's a recipe for what to put on your card - so let's get cooking! {LOL}

1 part sparkle - butterflies, circle and saying edged with stardust glitter pen

2 parts designer paper - both are from Basic Grey Olivia

3 parts gems or buttons - I hope pearls count as gems {grin}

I used nesties to cut out the butterflies. The birthday sentiment is from Paper Makeup Stamps. And I did faux stitching with piercing tools and a white gel pen.

Thanks for fluttering by and I hope you'll get inky with us at Flutterby Wednesday this week! And stay tuned for something AMAZING and HUGE coming the first Wednesday in September! {wink}

Stamps: Birthday Cheer by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Whisper White, Cameo Coral, Basic Grey Olivia DP
Ink: Cameo Coral
Accessories: Circle Nesties, Butterfly Nesties, Stardust Glitter Pen, SU! Modern Label Punch, Foam Tape, Pearls, Piercing Tools, White Gel Pen

Little Birdies

Makeup 4 the Weekend - M4TW39 Lime, Turquoise & Kraft
SCS Ways to Use It - WT283 Button Time

I thought these sweet stamps from Tweet Things would be cute for an anniversary card. And to confess what a paper hoarder I am, that is an old, retired color called Luscious Lime from Stampin' Up! on my card. {grin} It looks delicious paired with Cool Caribbean and Kraft, don't you think?

The birdies are watercolored and the sentiment is filled in with my Luscious Lime marker. For the scalloped layers, I ran them through a Xyron to coat them with adhesive, fixed the other pieces on the center and covered the edges with dazzling diamonds glitter for some sparkle. And I found the perfect, sparkly lime-colored button in my Will to Day Dream kit as the finishing touch. {cheer}

Do you want to win a free single-image stamp from Paper Makeup Stamps? Just do the Makeup 4 the Weekend challenge using a PMS image by midnight EDT on Wednesday and link it to the PMS blog. A winner will be drawn on Thursday! And remember there are lots of cute digi stamps in the PMS store that you can use - so no excuses!

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the beary best!



Stamps: Tweet Things by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Kraft, Luscious Lime, Cool Caribbean, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Luscious Lime, Cool Caribbean, Soft Suede, Basic Brown
Accessories: Linen Thread, Button, Xyron, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Aquapainter, Oval Nesties, SU! Scallop Border Punch

Color It Red

SCS Clean and Simple - CAS79 Gardens
SCS Color Combo - CC283 Baja Poppy Cakes

The flower used on my card is from the Color It - Summer set released by Paper Makeup Stamps on the 7th. I stamped and colored it directly on the Kraft (Crumb Cake) paper. I dry embossed around it with a Labels Ten Nestie and colored the outline with a copic marker and spica glitter pen for a simple, sparkly outline. The leaves and flower center sparkle IRL too. The border punch and ribbon I used are from Martha Stewart. AND I {love} the font of the 'thinking of you' sentiment from The Will to Day Dream kit.

Be sure to check out the PMS blog for cards from other Makeup Artists reviewing the August Release this week. Remember the 15% discount code from the blog hop is good only through Saturday, August 14th.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the beary best!

Stamps: Color It Summer by Paper Makeup Stamps, sentiment from Will to Day Dream kit by PMS
Paper: Kraft, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic Markers BG15, E43, R05, R17, R27, MS Ribbon, MS Border Punch, Spica Glitter Pens, Nestie Labels Ten, Red Rhinestones

FBW117 - Little Danni

Flutterby Wednesday - FBW117 Open Challenge
Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge - MTSC86

This week's challenge for Flutterby Wednesday is an open one - just remember to use a fairy, butterfly or angel on your card. {wink}

I used the stamp called Little Danni with Flutterby from Susana's Custom Art and Card Design. I colored her with copic markers and added lots of clear spica glitter pen - how I wish you could see that sparkle! {grin} I took tons of photos trying to capture it, but I haven't figured out the trick yet. The sentiment is a clear Stickerz from EAD Designs.

Thanks for fluttering by today!



Stamps: Little Danni with Flutterby from Susana's Custom Art and Card Design
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, So Saffron, DCWV Butterflies & Blossoms DP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Assessories: Copics YG06, E29, E31, E33, E35, E37, Y15, Y17, R29, RV000, RV21, RV23, G07, G14, G21, E000, E00, BG000, SU! Embossing Folder, Labels Eight Nestie, Spica Glitter Pen, Green Rhinestones, EAD Designs Stickerz for sentiment

Inspired Rainbows

*This is my second post today*

*Scroll down for my PMS review card*

Etsy Inspired Challenge #100

Today's cards come from the Etsy Inpsired Challenge. The featured etsy shop this week is Cathy Walters and she makes some amazing pendants. Below is the pendant that I drew my inspiration from. I like the blue sky background and the curved, colorful stripes on the balloon remind me of a rainbow.

That made think of the sky paper and sweet rainbow sentiment in The Will to Day Dream kit by Paper Makeup Stamps. And I got to wondering how I could create a rainbow for a card. Then it hit me, layer a bunch of smaller and smaller circles on top of each other and cut them in half! All the colored papers I needed were in the kit except for purple, so I grabbed a scrap of lovely lilac and my circle nesties and got started. It worked perfectly and gave me two rainbows, so I made two cards. I decided to set one up vertically and one horizontally - I still can't decide which way I like it better - can you?

I colored the sentiment with markers so I could make the words 'Rainbow' and 'clouds' stand out. I cut it out with a Labels Twelve nestie and edged it with a red spica glitter pen. Each color of the rainbow is edged with a clear spica glitter pen, so the rainbows have a little sparkle to them too. The yellow ribbon and yellow patterned paper are also from the kit.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the beary best!



Stamps: Word Art from The Will to Day Dream kit by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Whisper White, Lovely Lilac, all other papers from The Will to Day Dream kit by PMS
Accessories: SU! Markers, Spica Atyou Glitter Pens, Circle Nesties, Labels Twelve Nesties, ribbon from The Will to Day Dream kit by PMS

Puddle-Jumping Seth

Today at Paper Makeup Stamps we are doing a review of the fairies from the August release. Be sure to check out the other fairy cards the makeup artists have made today too! On my card I have a puddle-jumping boy fairy named Seth. I think he and his sister fairy named Leigh are just so adorable! They both remind me of my niece and nephew who love to go puddle jumping after a good rain. I already know I'll have to make a matching Leigh card and drop them in the mail to my niece and nephew soon. {wink} I am also entering this card in the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #71 - Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.

I colored Seth with prismacolor pencils and baby oil. His wings and the splashing water are coated with stickles - I just {heart} the sparkle that gives! I had this idea that if I cut him out using the largest 'Egg' nestie that it could look like a big drop of water instead. What do you think? Then I inked up a sizzix Summer Fun embossing folder with Pacific Point ink before dry embossing the light blue background. That puts ink into all the cracks of the pattern and I like the watery effect.

Don't forget that you can still go through the blog hop posts starting here to collect all the letters for a 15% discount code off the August release that's good through Saturday, 8/14.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the beary best!



Stamps: Seth by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Real Red, Bashful Blue, Pacific Point, GKD Pure Luxury White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Pacific Point
Accessories: Prismacolro Pencils, Baby Oil, Diamond Stickles, Waterfall Stickles, Egg Nesties, SU! Ribbon, Dew Drops, Sizzix Summer Fun embossing folder, Dimensionals, Sponge
Challenges: Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #71 - Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Congratulations!

Congratulations! You've made it to the last stop of the Paper Makeup Stamps August Release Blog Hop. If you've been hopping along the right path, you should have arrived here from our newest Senior Makeup Artist's blog, Randee's Rendezvous. If you didn't, you really want to turn around and start at the beginning at the PMS blog. Be sure to check out how you could win the entire August Release and how to get a code for 15% off the new stamps. {wink}

Today I am using the dog house from the set Home Matters. It has been available as a digi only set, but after many requests (mine included) it is now also available in rubber - yay! There are a couple members of the PMS design team {Tangii} and {Stephanie} who have recently adopted puppies. I thought it would be a cute idea to pair this dog house image with the simple sentiment 'Congratulations' to welcome their little pups to their new homes. {grin}

I heat embossed the dog house on watercolor paper and filled it in with my aquapainter and Watercolor Wonder Crayons. 'Congratulations' is also heat embossed and popped up on the card. The DP is from Basic Grey Max & Whiskers. The gray panel is dry embossed and the cute brads were in my stash waiting to be used, haha.

We hope to see you at the Release Party tonight in the PMS forum at 8:00 EST. There is always a lot of laughter and chatter, as well as games and prizes! But before you go, scroll down and see the special dog tag that my own sweet standard poodle {Truly Scrumptious} has to show you - it has the last letter you need to complete your discount code! {grin}

Thanks for hopping with Paper Makeup Stamps today!

Stamps: Home Matters and Congratulations by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper, Basic Grey Max & Whiskers
Ink: Colorbox Pigment Black
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Black Embossing Powder, Brads, 3/4" Circle Punch, SU! Modern Label Punch, Dimensionals, Large Labels Nesties, Diamond Plate Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Color It Pink

Welcome to Day 4 of the sneak peeks for the Paper Makeup Stamps August Release! Today we are showing a new nature set called Color It - Summer. There are several outline images of flowers, leaves, butterflies and a dragonfly that are perfect for coloring. I used the 12-petal flower and stem for my focal image. I colored it in with an aquapainter and ink. Then I used the flower again to stamp my background panel in caramel and pink flowers. All of the flower centers are coated with stickles and the nestie shape is outlined with a lt. brown spica glitter pen. The 'Just for you' sentiment is this month's freebie stamp when you place an order.

Be sure to check out the other peeks on the Paper Makeup Stamps blog and read carefully to learn how you could win the entire August release! Then come back tomorrow morning for our blog hop - there are letters to collect for a 15% off the new release code! {yay!} And don't forget that Saturday night at 8pm EDT is the Release Party in the PMS forum. There's always a lot of fun chatter, games and prizes and we'd love to have you join us!

Blessings,

Stamps: Color It by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Brown, Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel, Mellow Moss
Accessories, Ticket Punch, Pink Rhinestones, May Arts Ribbon, Stickles, Dimensionals, Nesties Labels Four, Aquapainter
Challenges: Splitcoast Free 4 All - F4A24 Garden Pickin' Time

Some Challenge Cards

Splitcoast Clean and Simple - CAS78 Use Polka Dots

I think I have enough polka dots on this card. {grin} The purse from Retail Therapy is paper-pieced and I went over the dotted handle with my silver gel pen.

Stamps: Retail Therapy by Paper Makeup Stamps
Paper: Basic Black, Olivia DP by Basic Grey
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Silver Gel Pen, Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Silver Bead, Sizzix Summer Embossing Folder, Circle Punches

Splitcoast Technique Challenge - TLC284 Plaid Silhouette

This is a fun technique idea that I had never heard of before. Click on the link to the challenge for the directions. I made a plaid tree from Nature's Song and paired it with this inspiring word art When the World.

Stamps: Nature's Song and When the World by Paper Makeup Stamps

Paper: Whisper White, Wisteria by Basic Grey

Ink: Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Nesties Labels Eleven, Pearls, Sponge Dauber

Splitcoast Sketch Challenge - SC292

Speedy's Friends Challenge #14 - Thank You Card

Fun sketch this week based on a card by Dawn Mercedes. Which is perfect because I needed to make her a thank you card using the fun stuff she sent in my un-birthday package. {see previous post}

I embossed a star with one of my new cuttlebug folders and then used a star nestie to cut out a larger star around it. I used the nestie as a template to trace a star outline with my stardust pen. I highlighted the dry embossed part with my pen too. The turquoise part is covered with stars using my Versarmark Dazzle ink pad. I love how it gives a shimmery tone on tone background. The fun tabs were decorated with my new ribbon, star gems and embossing folder.

Stamps: Starstruck and Grateful Thanks by Paper Makeup Stamps

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Real Red, Whisper White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark Dazzle Frost

Accessories: Ribbon, Star Nesties, Star Embossing Folder, Star Rhinestones, Stardust Pen, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Happy Un-Birthday to Me!

Look at all the fun goodies that I received in a package this week! Dawn Mercedes decided to celebrate her birthday by sending me Happy Un-Birthday surprises in the mail! LOL, how fun is that?! And surprise me she did! I never suspected she was up something, haha. I was trying to be all quiet and secretive about my own birthday package to her and we laughed over how we had everything planned for each other, mailed on the same day and received packages on the same day, etc.

And you should have seen me trying to get everything squished together to fit into a photo. {grin} I love how Dawn can take a theme and coordinate everything so it all fits together and is matchy-matchy. She used stars for my un-birthday. She found this perfect sparkly iron-on with my initials and stars around it to personalize that blue t-shirt for me. That decorated little tin was filled with, what else, starbursts! She found that gorgeous ornament with a pointy star-shape - it's going to hang year-round in my craft room. {wink} And I just love the accessories she picked. The ribbon is so bright and cheery, the sticker stars are so sparkly and the cuttlebug embossing folders are so cute! Then she laminated a dozen pages for my ever-growing unmounted stamp collection! And missing from this pic is a tube of glow-sticks that my boys claimed as their own. {grin}

And here are my very, very favorite parts of the un-birthday package - Dawn's art! I have always admired her watercoloring and her use of shapes and sparkly accents in her designs. This card features Moody for Rock from Paper Makeup Stamps. I just love the angles she used with the background papers and the different sized and colored stars. And look at that little ribbon tab peeking out and all the bling scattered across the card. And then that moody girl is colored so perfectly! I love how the watercoloring varies in shade and all the splashes of stickles on the drops around her.

Now the best for last - Melody! She's my very favorite Paper Makeup fairy - the one I got to design last year when I won a PMS contest. I just love how Dawn cut her out and popped her up on the card. And look how sparkly those wings are! {sigh} I think Melody looks great in red too. Even better, she's decorating a wall-mount that I can hang in my craft room and enjoy seeing her every day.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to me gush over my fun surprise from my fun friend. I hope it inspires you to do something nice and unexpected to surprise someone in your life too.

Blessings,

Fluttering with Whimsy

Flutterby Wednesday - FBW116 Use Your Favorite Color

This week's Flutterby Wednesday challenge is being sponsored by Whimsy Stamps and I've used the image called Turtle's Friend on my card. Isn't it adorable? I love how the butterfly has landed on the turtle's nose and they're looking at each other.

And then I've used all three of my favorite colors on my card, haha. Okay - ever since 2nd grade I've said that my favorite color is red - so that's been my standard answer for years! But I've noticed recently that whenever I'm shopping for myself, I'm choosing blue items. Most of my clothes are blue! When I'm stamping, I find myself using blue on almost all of my cards. And turquoise is my favorite shade of blue. Then, well, green just goes so well with blue, KWIM? And green is everywhere in nature. And I have two boys, one has the favorite color green and the other one has the favorite color blue. I think their preferences have really brainwashed, uh I mean rubbed off on me, haha. {goofy grin}

Anyhow, back to the cute turtle and his butterfly friend. I colored them with copic markers and made them sparkly with my clear spica glitter pen. Then I tried the 'out of the box' technique for the first time where you use a nestie to cut around most of your image, but pick a section to stick out from that shape first. There are good directions for that on Splitcoast here. The blue paper is from my DCWV Butterflies and Blossoms stack.

Thanks for fluttering by today! I hope you'll play along with this week's Flutterby challenge and use all of your favorite colors too! {wink}



Stamps: Digi Stamp Turtle's Friend by Meljen's Designs at Whimsy Stamps
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Neenah Solar White, DCWV Butterflies and Blossoms DP
Accessories: Copic Markers C1, R02, R05, R29, BG000, BG01, BG02, BG05, BG10, BG15, BG23, Circle Nesties, Red Rhinestones, SU! Riding Hood Red Ribbon, Clear Spica Glitter Pen

Freckled Lemonade Collection

Makeup 4 the Weekend - M4TW37 Stash It!

The challenge at Paper Makeup Stamps this week is to make a collection of cards for your stash. I chose to use the Freckled Lemonade set for my cards - it's so perfect for some refreshing summer cards!

And you have a chance to win a single stamp of your choice from PMS, if you play along with this week's challenge. All you have to do is complete the challenge using Paper Makeup stamps and link it to their blog by Wednesday midnight EDT. Don't have any Paper Makeup stamps yet? No problem - there are digi stamps you can get from the PMS store instantly after purchase and you'll still have time to play along with us! {grin} C'mon, you know you want to! {wink}

Here are details and close-ups of my cards.

I love this citrus stamp because it can be a lemon, a lime, an orange, a tangerine - all depending on how you ink it up. Now it's really more yellow like a lemon on my card here, but for some reason the camera makes it look kind of orange. Oh well. I used Versamark Dazzle Frost ink on So Saffron cardstock and embossed with clear powder. I {heart} how sparkly these lemon wedges turned out that way.

On this card I colored the fruit with my copic markers three times and cut pieces out to layer them on top of each other for dimension. I loved the cards that Lisa K. and Lisa M. both made like that before. I also covered them with my clear spica glitter pen to make the fruit sparkle.

Again, I colored this image with my copic markers and added spica sparkle to the fruit. {grin}

For the pitcher, I decided to try paper piecing it. I used this More Mustard paper from a Prints Pack b/c I liked the look of the swirls. And I tried coloring the fruit with ink pads and a blender pen, but I like the look of the copics on the other cards better, I think. I still covered the fruit with some spica sparkle though, haha.

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!



Stamps: Freckled Lemonade by Paper Makeup Stamps
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark Dazzle Frost, Riding Hood Red, Rose Romance, More Mustard, Yoyo Yellow
Paper: DP by Paper Studio, Neenah Solar White, SU! Prints Pack, Green Galore, So Saffron, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Riding Hood Red Ribbon, Red Gems, Clear Spica Glitter Pen, Clear EP, Nesties, Dimensionals, Copics 0, C0, C00, E50, R22, R27, YG06, YG11, Yoo, Y11, Y15