THANK YOU, MAGNOLIA!!!

EXTRA! EXTRA!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!

I won blog candy on Magnolia's blog way back in April. My win was described as the 2009 Pet Collection. I was really thrilled, I figured I'd get five or maybe even ten new stamps all the way from Sweden! It was pretty hard to wait, but I compensated by continuing to support the papercrafting industry in many ways;) So yesterday, I get a postage due notice. When they give me the bag/envelope, it's due $4.90. I thought that was odd, and wondered what it was, as there was no return address at all. It didn't even look like it came from out of the country. I couldn't tell from the feel or weight of it what it was, so when I opened it, I almost fell out of my chair!!! Are you ready????????????????????????????????????

48 BRAND NEW MAGNOLIA STAMPS!!!!

Can you imagine? They sent me the ENTIRE Pet Collection! I can't wait to show them all to you, but it will take a while-that's a lot of stamps to use!!

This card shows off six of the stamps, Edwin, the jeep, three different flowers and the sunset. I love them all and had a great time coloring them with my Prismas/OMS. This card is 6x6, so you can see that these are good sized images.

I hope all of you have the fun of winning something sometime soon-it's a thrill!!

Last Day to Hop with Creative Cuts and More!

Today is the last day to hop with Creative Cuts and More, so if you'd like to win a great prize, hop along with us!! Just continue to scroll down and you will find all the info you need. The hop started on Monday, but as you scroll down, you will catch a glimpse of the prizes being offered!

This is my favorite Tag #2 Large from CC&M. This one was cut from Bazzill Bling Cardstock Black Tie #2 Glass Slipper, I think I may have mentioned that I love Bling!!

This tag is for Flourishes Timeless Tuesdays challenge. This week it was tags. The stamps are Flourishes' new Waterlilies set, it's just beautiful! It's fun and easy to color and cut out. I colored this with SU! pastels and E-Z Chalk Enhancer, then went over it with Pearl Ex, and finished the whole thing off with a few shots of shimmer spray.

I made this shimmer spray by mixing a jar of Dandelion Green Radiant Pearls with three or four ounces of hairspray. I have done this with lots of RPs, and everyone of them is just gorgeous. If you have a drawer full of RPs, give it a try!!

The edge is finished with Aqua Stickles.

Creative Cuts and More Blog Hop Day Three!

This is the first of two card kits exclusively offered by CC&M and was designed by our very own talented Pam Smerker.
Keep your eyes open for many more new and exciting kits and products from CC&M.

This card kit is jammed packed with supplies. This kit contains 12 die cut cards and envelopes. Many of the cards included in the kit are exclusive to CC&M. The kit is worth over $30 but we are offering it for $26.99.
You will have everything you need to make 12 great cards. The only thing you will need to add is adhesive.

There is a great birthday stamp set from Doodlebug that is an add-on to the kit.

View our gallery to see all of the great examples that can be made with this kit.

$26.99 for this complete kit.

To begin the blog hop, go down to Monday's post, and you'll get all the details. You can still hop today and be eligible for some terrific prizes, so go crazy and hop with us!!

This card has another beautiful butterfly die from Creative Cuts and More. These dies will be available on the website soon. I used SU! Heat & Stick powder and Art Institute Miss Muffet glitter to make this one super duper glitteriscious!! I love having lots of these on hand to use when the mood strikes me. Even if they aren't the exact same color I need for a project, it is so easy to alter them!

This card is also for this week's Crafty Secrets challenge over on SCS. Darlene challenged us to make birthday cards this week. The beautiful main image is from the Girlfriends Creative Scraps. These Creative Scraps are SO much fun! The images are gorgeous, they are on top quality cardstock so they are sturdy, and they make projects so quick and easy!!

I just cut this one out, smooshed it into my VersaMark pad, and embossed in SU!'s Crystal Clear. Then I repeated with Ranger's Holographic, and finally another layer of CC. It looks so good, I can't stop admiring it!

I added a touch of my favorite Always Artichoke, and Naturals Ivory, and the rest of the paper is from the CS Classic pad. One of my book page and pattern tissue flowers topped with a button finish this card off!

Here is some more info on the fun we are having with the Creative Cuts and More Blog Hop, and pictures of the prizes you can win!! Creative Cuts and More

Creative Cuts and More Birthday Blog Hop!!!

All the details for the CC&M blog hop are in yesterday's post. You can still win fabulous prizes up until this Thursday the 16th, so if you didn't hop with us yesterday, please join us now! I used one of my favorite butterfly die cuts from Creative Cuts and More on this card. I can't quit using these pretty things! They are not up on the wbsite yet, but they will be soon! I just asked Terry to cut a bunch of them for me with no particular project in mind, I just like having them around as an embellishment. This one is cut from DoubleMates, so it's really versatile because it's double sided-two color choices per butterfly!!

The base for this card is Doodlebug Limeade Crushed Velvet Cardstock. It is heavy duty! All the designer paper here is Making Memories NoteWorthy, one of my favorite lines! There are some SU! & Bazzill scraps as well.

All the stamps here are from Verve's latest and truly spectacular release-so pretty! I got the entire release, and I am so happy with these stamps, I just can't tell you how much I love them! This card is for this week's Mojo Monday challenge. I love getting my Verve on every week for this challenge!!

Finally, here's a little more news from Creative Cuts and More:

Early July 2009 Win Big! Blog Hop Going On Now! Dear Paper Pastorale Readers, We can't wait to show you all of the fun projects we've created for this month'sCreative Cuts and More blog hop! We're focusing on birthday themes this month. We're offering prizes, so be sure to stop at each of our blogs. It'll be well worth it! We'll kick off the festivities at http://diecutdiva.com first thing Monday morning, July 13th. What's New? We're launching a whole new collection of specially-designed products and we couldn't be happier about it! There are only sneak peeks here on this email message, but all the details will be shown during the hop. You'll be able to win them, too! Terry Bracciodieta Creative Cuts & More I hope you can join us today for some to die for die cut projects!

Creative Cuts and More Birthday Blog Hop!!!

Hello, and welcome to the Creative Cuts and More Birthday Blog Hop!! If you would like to start at the beginning, please go to Diecut Diva, which is where all the fun begins!! We are celebrating the release of our two brand new birthday card kits, and you can win one! Make sure you start at the beginning to learn how! Plus, all our hoppers are receiving a coupon code today, here it is: birthdaydt0915 Use it for a 15% discount on your next order!

You can find all the die cuts I've used today at the Creative Cuts & More website. At CC&M, you can choose from hundreds of dies and papers, and they will cut them for you! No need to buy expensive dies, or fiddle with a machine, just order what you like, and it arrives on your doorstep! They will even custom cut YOUR paper if that's what you want!!

For this birthday tag, I used two dies, the tag is the Tag #2 Large, which I had cut from Bazzill Bling Black Tie Diamond Cardstock-one of my very favorites!! It has a beautiful soft shimmer I just find irresitable. I love this Antique Label die. I think the size and shape is so perfect.

The beautiful birthday cake stamp was drawn by my friend Nancy for Cornish Heritage Farms' Shady Tree Studio line. I stamped it onto the label with VersaFine Onyx and embossed it in Holographic. I colored it with SU! pastels and E-Z Chalk Enhancer, then added Aqua, Crystal & purple Stickles.

This is the French Fry box, isn't it fun?? I wrapped it with some Prima paper, added a metal rimmed tag, a gorgeous butterfly die cut and a Heidi Swapp flower. I do want to mention that I always use CC&M's Killer Red Tacky Tape, it's indispensable! The stamps I used for this project are all Verve sets, Just For You and Kindred Spirits, both from the June release.

I hope you have enjoyed these birthday projects-just wait until you see what Jen has in store for you! You are gonna LOVE it! Go see JEN!!

My Darling!

This tag started out as a card, but it just wasn't working, so I decided to use this gorgeous Basic Gray Sublime tag because it goes perfectly with the Cosmo Cricket's Love Notes tag. After I decided to make a tag, I wondered to myself what I would do with it. I finally put a school pic of DH on it. and I'll put it where I can see it every day! I guess I wound up with a tag on a tag, is that too weird?

All the copper embossing is done with Clear Artistic Stamp's Blackberry Fields set. The metal tag is 7Gypsies, I THINK. The brad is Karen Foster, the copper cord and ep SU! There's also some of my favorite Always Artichoke, some Bazzill, and the pic is mounted on a scrap of My Mind's Eye. The yellow string is just some string that I've had for years, and I still have tons of it, I may never get it all used up, but I like it, so that's okay!

School Pictures

I made this page for this week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesdays Challenge. The challenge was to cut out and pop up our images. I used Fantasy Floral Garden and cut out and popped up the flowers, in addition to embossing a border along the left side of the page.

Here's another reminder not to hoard!! Did you know that Thickers lose their stickiness? I think these Thickers are three years old, and I had to glue them down with Diamond Glaze. I wonder what this means for everyone who actually used theirs three years ago. Have they come unstuck from everyone's layouts?

Have you tried American Crafts Zing embossing powder? I have two colors, and I love them both!! I used blue and blush. One of the cool things about it is that the label on the top of the jar is the exact shade you'll get when you emboss. I embossed the chipboard flourish for a little extra richness. The blue is metallic, but the blush is not. You can get Zing embossing powders at Creative Play Stamps.

Also, did you notice my beautiful new Prima Gallery Roses? If you love Primas as much as I do, check out CPS, they have a HUGE collection of Primas!!