Many Thanks

Just a quick post for today.  If you are reading this at any point on Saturday I can guarantee that I'm in Littleton, MA at The Country Fair my church puts on each year.  If you are in the area please stop by!  There are TONS of yummy jams, beautiful paper masterpieces, and stunning fabric creations that are all locally made and available for purchase at The Country Store booth.  Come by and say hi!

The SSDS team is challenging YOU!  We want to see thank you cards.  I've been posting so many fall cards lately I thought you all might enjoy a "wave" at summer.  :)

So, whatcha got for us in the way of a thank you creation?  Float downstream to SSDS and join in the fun! 

Wash That Man Right Outta My Hare!

I crack me up!  This weeks challenge at Cooking It Up With Katie has us using 3 designer papers, 1 clear item, and a song.  The papers are easy you can see three on the card.  The clear- that doesn't show up as well.  I used a gel pen to add some clear dimension to the soap bubbles.  The song, well I couldn't help myself.  As soon as I saw this image that Whimsy Stamps (our sponsor this week) provided that song from South Pacific popped into my head!!!  Join us in the challenge won't you?

Thanks for stopping by!  May you have a bubbly day!

Cooking It Up Challenge

Cooking It Up With Katie is hosting a fella challenge!  We've got a recipe in store for you and we wanna see a card made with a boy in mind.  

Pixie Dust Studios is our sponsor this week and they gave each of us on the DT a chance to place with of of their images.  I thought this cute and cuddly fella was just perfect for a baby boy card.  I'll be honest.  I totally thought the water at the base of the barrel boat was grass! LOL!  It just seemed like pretend playing in the yard to me.  I'm already "outside the box" with my colors for a "new baby" card so consider it more "outside the box" thinking on an image.  :)  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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So here's the challenge.  Make a card using a plaid/gingham/check pattern, add some brown, and keep a boy in mind.  Do all of that and you're eligible to add your card to the challenge for a chance to win goodies from our sponsor Pixie Dust Studios.

So I used an amazing number of Copics to make this image, but I'm wicked excited with how it all worked!  Big thanks to my MIL and FIL for my early birthday gift of a BUNCH of Copics for coloring hair and fur!  I totally couldn't have made this bear without my E17, E18, and E19.  In addition to those 3 markers, I also used E33, E35, E39, B00, B02, B05, R81, R83, YG11, YG13, YG17, YR12, YR15, YR18, YR23, YR24, Y23, Y26.  Whew!  Come join us for some good boy, bad boy, little boy, big boy fun.  Let me know if you enter this challenge.  I'd love to check out your creation!

Pink & Flowers & Squares

It's challenge day at Cooking It Up With Katie and this week and it's a good one!  You can make any kind of card you like, but you must incorporate pink, flowers, and squares.  I got sneaky with my card.  Can you figure out how I got all three parts incorporated?

With the start of school right around the corner, colds and sniffles are sure to follow.  I'm getting a head start on my stash of Get Well cards!

This little giraffe with the sparkly scarf is from Digi Doodles.  Wanna chance to own this cutie for free?  Head over and join in the fun at Cooking It Up With Katie  and you could have the chance to win $10 to spend at the Digi Doodles store!

I put this "kid in the parade" here:
Paper Romance- Pink and Bling
Pocket Full of Posies- Glitz (the scarf)
OLLCB- Spots and Dots (the giraffe hee-hee)
Sweet Stampin- Pink
colourQ

Sa"turtle"day Challenge

You know how the shoemakers kids never had shoes?  This cardmakers family rarely gets cards on time. :)  Oh I have the best intentions, but then work, classes, and daily life take over and by the time I remember it's too late.  So I've gone ahead and made some belated birthday cards for the inevitable.  LOL!

Okay, down to business.  It's challenge day at SSDS and this week we want you to break out those animal stamps and/or digis.  Let out that inner furry, feathered, shelled, or scaled animal!  Meljen's is the sponsor this week and creator of this little shelled cutie.  She's so stinkin' adorable!!!

Meljen's is offering the challenge winner their choice of 4 digis.  All you need to do to be eligible is to create something with an animal on it.  Lions?  Tigers?  Bears?  Oh come on and join the fun!  I joined the fun over at the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge. ;)

Gram Don't Look!

This is the card I am giving my Gram Ah-boo for Mother's Day! :)

 

Growing up I came up with nicknames for all my grandparents.  None of them had to do with their first or last names and I don't think any of them had a say in what name they were given. :)  My grandfather used to play a peek-a-boo kinda game with me so he got named Ah-boo and since gram was married to him she got to be Gram Ah-boo.  I'm 35 and I still call her Gram Ah-boo!  Do you have any fun nicknames in your family?


The image I used for this card is from Digi Stamp Characters and it can be yours for free!  All you need to do is create an easel card and link it to the Stamp, Scrap, & Doodle Challenge this week.  The winner will get 3 digi images of their choice.

Hope you can join us this week for the challenge and hope you get to enjoy some wonderful weather this week!  I'm off to get outdoors while the sun is shining. :)

Pink Christmas

Sparkle hosts a Christmas Challenge every Sunday and this week the challenge was to make a pink Christmas card and Winter Wonderland was holding an open theme for their challenge.  I know, you all think I'm nuts for posting a Christmas card in April.  What can I say, I was inspired.  We send a silly amount of Christmas cards, so it's never too early for me to start.

This was such a fun card to make!  I used my favorite Penny Black snowflake for the background and I dug through the vast array of pink stuff I've been accumulating.  The ribbon and flower are from heaven-only-knows-where, but I really enjoy how they look on this card.

I jazzed up my antlered friend so she would be ready for a merry gathering. :)  Since this is basically a monochromatic card it also fits the Raise the Bar challenge that's going on this week.  They want you to use your favorite color on a card.  I'm not sure that pink is my favorite color, but then then again I'm not sure I have a favorite color.  Color really depends on my mood, the season, and it's purpose.  I really only like warm colors on walls and my friends and family joke about how much I dislike blue (you wouldn't know from the number of blue cards I make!!).

So, what is you favorite color right now?

Buttons, Bows, & Bling

It's Saturday so it must be SSDS challenge day!

This week the challenge at Stamp, Scrap, & Doodle Saturday is to use buttons, bows, and bling!  I decided to use this theme to make a wonderful baby card in celebration for our DT member, Tineke, who is expecting her first bundle of joy.  I'm so happy for her, please stop by her blog to wish her congrats!

I just adore this set by Papertrey called Baby Button Bits.  I've used it about a bazillion times already because the stamps make such cute cards!  I have gotten into paper piecing lately and this little teddy is so fun.  I used a white gel pen to white out the paws and nose of the bear and added the sweet button heart for a belly.

The card base is Amuse and the ribbon is yet more leftover ribbon from a gift package.  Love that recycled ribbon!  I added orange Stickles to the orange scalloped paper for some bling.

I've entered this into the following challenges:
KL Stampin N Scrappin-Bling it onPennys- Open week
Sundays with Crissy- Combo
Stamp Something- Layers
Papertake Weekly- Cutie Pie
Pile It On- Spring (colors)
Hope you enjoyed this card and are going to enter one of your own creations to the challenge this week!  Don't forget to enter to win my blog candy.

Easter Monday

Happy, with just hours left, Easter Monday to all my Canadian friends!  I gotta say given the amount of sweets I enjoyed this weekend the converse of this sentiment true as well. LOL!  (Yup I'm watching Big Bang Theory so I sound like a geek).

We pulled another "Savannah" and ended up going to Maine to celebrate Easter.  Originally I was going to host, but my DMIL got a head cold and didn't want to spread it to us and my DSIL's family. (Hi Barb! Hope you are feeling better!).  As I was on my way to the market with DH when I checked my email and the fam up in Maine invited us up! 

YAHOO!  A chance to see even more family than we expected AND we got a quick 10 minute walk on the beach before we left town.  Shots of the beach are further down. :)

The nephs got a chance to play with "new" toys (they were worried that since the venue changed they wouldn't get to play with Auntie and Uncle's lego collection- at least we are loved for something. :) )

Many thanks go to our master chef Aunt Pat.  She is a genuis in the kitchen, especially when you consider there are many very unsual food allergies on my husbands side of the family.  The food is always THE BEST.  The pot in the center is her famous chocolate sauce.  When she asked if we wanted it for the ice cream the cries of yes erupted from all over the house!  We all love ice cream in this family, but it is nothing without this sauce. :)

New England has been socked with storms lately and we were curious to see how the beaches weather the storms.  WOW!  There are usually some rocks, but this was how rocky the beach was on Sunday.  The weather was stunning and you would have thought it was early June with the number folks walking the beach enjoying our very unseasonable 70+ weather.  This is the first time DH and I have worn shorts on Easter since we lived in Clemson.

DH was excited to find a big piece of driftwood that had washed on shore.  He was equally disappointed to have to leave the wood on the beach. :(

I leave with a parting nod to Easter and the actions I will be taking soon when we finally run out of candy.  Alas, another season of Cadbury Creme Eggs has passed.  Sigh.  I hope everyone had an equally fulfilling holiday weekend. 

***Hint the countdown is around 10 or less to a fun candy announcement. Stay tuned!***

Enjoy Life

I'll have some fun news to share soon!  In the meantime...

Enjoy Life!  I made this little guy bit ago, but it seemed like the perfect card to share on a cheerful day.  The paper is from Bloom and Grow from My Minds Eye, the image is from Stamps by Judith, and the sentiment is, well, a mystery.  (If you know, please share!)

I "colored" him/her using some random Copics and think this furry one is just a sweetheart!  Do you have a favorite furry?

Well, maybe one stirring mouse

Sparks hosts a weekly Christmas challenge over at her blog. This weeks challenge twist was to incorporate dry embossing into the card.













I chose to use my Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the gray mat on this little mouse cutie by Impression Obsession.













After stamping her with StazOn black ink, I colored her in using pearl chalks and a charcoal Spica pen.














I hope you enjoyed this card. What do you think? I really love this stamp and I'd love to hear your suggestions for tweaking it!