Veronica looks exactly like this!

And she's helpful, too!! She fixed my blog!! My silly old sidebar has now been whipped into shape!! Plus I have a counter, now I know that two people, probably Veronica and I, have visited my blog!! THANK YOU, Veronica! You rock!! But don't your feet hurt? Those shoes look like they would pinch! If you click on her name on the sidebar that doesn't look like a four year old created it anymore, you can go tell her how brilliant she is!!

I'm posting this card, which I made a couple of weeks ago as a quick thank you to Kristi of Hanna Stamps. She had a birthday party in her forum at SCS recently, and I won overall, I think!! Not with this card, maybe I should have posted it, instead. Well, that would require forethought and planning, and I don't have any around here, so we'll have to do without. She sent me her newest Hanna, which is called Route66. I won't have time to play with it tonight, but I wanted to give her a nod here! www.hannastamps.com I'm sure the teaming masses who visit my blog regularly, both of them, will rush right over there and buy her out! I'm counting on you, girlfriends!

Stuff:
Stamps: Hanna Stamps, Sweet Celebrations
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, MME Gypsy & Kaleidoscope
Ink: VM, Cameo Coral
Goodies: bling, ribbon, ep, punches, markers, rp's

Being Serene with Artistic Outpost

I can't remember how I stumbled onto Artistic Outpost's website. All I know is that I had my credit card whipped out in about five minutes flat! Oh, I think maybe someone mentioned them on SCS? Isn't that where we learn all things stamping? Besides here, of course! I have a VAST following, and all five of them visit here every day and hang on my every stamping word. But enough about my immense fan club, let's talk about this card. AO makes stamps that are artsy and sort of grungy in a most impressive way. I like to take stamps and kind of force them out of their comfort zone, which my devoted public knows because they've seen it happen right here. Well, here it is happening again: Almost Amethyst and Basic Gray Lily Kate with one of my favorite AO images. Unexpected bedfellows, I know, but they seem to be having a good enough time together.

Goodies:

Stamps: Artistic Outpost, Serenity
Paper: AA, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, BGLK
Ink: palette hybrid noir, Almost Amethyst, VersaMark, Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk Ink
Embellies: Adirondack Paint Daubers, Bazzill eyelets, SU! IIceEP, pop dots, punch

I look exactly like this!

Just wanted to put that out there, and you can't see me, so who's to argue? Actually, 20 years and three sons ago, I did pretty much look just like this. Since most of you didn't know me then, you can't argue about that, either! NEENER! DH, if you are reading this, it would be very much in your best interests to agree wholeheartedly! Alright, seriously now, don't you love this stamp? Bombshell has a whole line of stamps in WWII nosecone/tattoo styles, and I fell in love with them the first time I saw them. This set is called Bombshell Angel, and she comes with a little angel, a little devil and several other supporting stamps. She is a blast to watercolor, and even someone with my limited skills can make her look good. I think it would be fun to paper piece her swimsuit or make a skirt for her, thus turning her suit into an evening gown. The possibilities are endless! Keep checking back for more of her, her cowgirl friend, and Lady Luck, all of whom will be making appearances here regularly!

STUFF:
Stamps: Bombshell Stamps, Bombshell Angel
Paper: SU! Basic Black, Watercolor & Mauve Mist, MME Kaleidoscope
Ink: Vmark, Pretty in Pink
Goodies: Various Markers, aquapainter, Stickles, ribbon, bling, MM crystal brad, EP, punch

Creative Cuts and More!

This is my very first project as a design team member for Creative Cuts and More. CC&M is a die cut company. You go to the site, and choose from tons of dies, then decide what material you want it cut from. They also do custom cutting. You can send them your paper, and they will cut it for you. They carry LOTS of Bazzill, and these beautiful Stardream Metallics CS, like I used here. This is a DT sketch challenge card. I asked them to cut the lovely antique label in Aquamarine Stardream. I LOVE this label, and think I'm going to have it cut in about a million different colors! The flower was originally Coral, but I changed my mind about the color, so I dipped it into my VM pad and embossed it in silver-so no worry, no waste!

Stuff:
Stamps: Flourishes, Cake Decorating 101
Paper: ALL from CC&M, Aquamarine, Rose Quartz & Onyx Stardream
Ink: VM
Goodies: SU! detail silver EP, bling, lace, pop dots

Swirl Garden Flower

This one is pretty simple for me, but every now and then I do make a card that doesn't have one of everything I own cobbled on to it! This one has my favorite Basic Black & Almost Amethyst combo with the beautiful Swirl Garden from Creative Play Stamps. Did you know that I received a free Cat's Eye with my last order from CPS? How fun is that? I believe if you order $12 or more, you get some sort of freebie. I was surprised when I opened my order, because I think their prices are pretty good to begin with! This set is only $10.95, which I think is a tremendous bargain! If you sign up for their newsletter, you will occasionally be invited to participate in Secret Sales. I think the last one was for 30% off!!

Stuff I used:
Stamps: Creative Play Stamps, Swirl Garden
Paper: BB,AA,Brushed Gold, WCP-All SU!
Ink: Versamark
Goodies: SU! Gold Glory EP, Word Window punch; CB & folder, Making Memories Gems, Radiant Pearls

Down on the Farm

Here's my second Gina K. Designs card. I think this pig is pretty cute! Everything is pretty normal here. This card didn't cause any consternation with the local populace. Well, you just can't torment all of the people you live with all of the time, now can you. I'm just one woman, after all.
Stuff:
Stamps: Gina K. Designs, Down on the Farm, Karen Foster Snaps
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Bazzill, MME
Ink: VM, Staze-on
Goodies: MM gem brad, Prima & Bazzill flowers, gold cord, pink satin ribbon, ipod bling, five different punches, CB & folder

Cows in the City

This card totally freaked DH and both teenage sons out! They are used to pretty ribbon and flowers artfully arranged! I just had this in my head from the moment I ordered Gina K.'s Down on the Farm set. It had to come to fruition, I would never have gotten anything else made if I didn't start with this one. To get the bull, I stamped the cow on acetate in StazeOn. Then glued her to Whisper White. Then I cut her udder off-VIOLA-boy cow! I also gave him glasses because I'm partial to intellectual bull myself.
STUFF:
Stamps: Gina K.: Down on the Farm; My Favorite Things: Rain or Shine; Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Paper: Basic Gray: Urban Couture, Two scoops; Bazzill; Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Kaleidoscope
Ink: Staz-on, Chestnut Roan
Extra Stuff: ribbon, Iridescent Ice EP, K & Co Rub-on & glitter, 7Gypsies rub-on, Sharpie, pink gel pen, Sakura Black Glaze Pen, foam mounting tape

Recycled Packaging

The sentiment on this card is from K&Co.s' Rub-On Adhesives. They are pretty cool, they come with glitter and everything. I don't remember how much they cost, I bought them over a year ago. The recycled part is the hearts. They were part of the packaging, and they were so beautiful, I couldn't bear to throw them away. I just cut them out and put them on the card. Two of them are up on pop dots. Nothing else unusual here! I hope you're having a sparkling day!

Swirl Garden Butterfly

I am just loving this set! It's Swirl Garden by Creative Play Stamps. The stamps are beautiful, elegant & simple!
I stamped the butterfly twice. Once on SU! watercolor paper, and once on Very Vanilla. I painted with watered down Radiant Pearls, cut the one on wc paper out, bent the wings up a tad and mounted it on the VV image. The VV image is embossed and painted as well, so it still looks good if you peek underneath! I ran the mulberry paper through my bug. It adds nice texture IRL! This was a very simple card!

Ingredients:
Stamps: Swirl Garden, Thinking of You by Creative Play Stamps
Paper: Basic Black, VV, WC, non SU! khaki, Soft Subtles Mulberry
Embellies: SU! EP, ribbon, ipod bling, bug, textile folder, distresser

4,3,2,1

And the last card! This is my second favorite one. I like square cards, they are probably my favorite. I liked being able to add the bling, and the way the My Mind's Eye paper really steals the show here. I love Kaleidoscope, so I don't like to cover it up too much!

Hope you are having a terrific day!

4,3,2,1

This is the third card for the 4,3,2,1 challenge. This is the simplest of the four, I guess. It's also the worst photograph! All the hearts are solid glitter, and are not represented well here at all! Just pretend you can see all the sparkling goodness! For ingredients, go to down a few posts. The only unusual thing here is K&Co.'s Adhesive glitter Rub-Ons, which work like a charm. I have a glue pad, I'm not going to say which one because I don't want to be rude, but it doesn't work as well as these. Maybe it needs to be re-inked. If you have a glue pad that works beautifully, please LMK! I put glitter of some sort on probably 90% of my cards!

4,3,2,1

Here is the second card for The Embellishment Studios's 4,3,2,1 Challenge. This is a 4x4, which is one of my favorite sizes!

Pretty much all the details are in the previous post, don't have a lot to say today, just sharing the love!!

Four, three, two, one challenge

This is one of four cards I made for The Embellishment Studio's recent challenge. You had to make four cards, each with three embellishments, using only two pieces of DP and one piece of card stock. You had to decorate the envelopes with the scraps as well. The challenge was lots of fun, and VERY challenging! Not all challenges are, you know. Challenging, I mean! There are some pretty talented paper crafters over there, so check them out some time! Here's the scoop on mine: This is my smallest card, it's 3x3. I used Bazzill as my one piece of cs, and MME kaleidescope for my two pieces of DP. I used the actual two sided dp, not the stack, which is lightweight paper and not double sided. I used both of the big scallop punches, and a very cool product by K & Company called glitter rub-ons or some such. Anyhow, they are adhesive rub-ons, which you pour glitter over. They work very well and are as pretty as can be. I got this Valentine's set just over a year ago, and I'm about out now!;( I used AI glitter in Fleur de Lis. These come with three tubes of glitter, and it's actually very pretty, but, well, I'm a Barbara Trombley girl, not just any old glitter will do! The little stamped image on the bottom is from Lizzie Anne Designs L'Amour. The ink is all Cameo Coral. The ribbon is from a share with TexasJodyLynn. It was Jan '07, and it's time for me to join another one, don't you think? I'll post another card tomorrow. While I love talking, I don't enjoy typing, so I can't stick around for more than one card! Ta Ta!

My Favorite Things Guest Designer Entry

No, I didn't win. But I also didn't make a completely hand woven, out of paper, miniature Longaberger basket! The winner deserved to win, no question! But this isn't about her, is it? Nope! It's all about me, of course! And this is the little box I made. It is a paper mache box from WalMart. I painted it, inside and out, and covered the easily covered parts with My Mind's Eye Gypsy DP. My 14yods found the sentiment for me and printed it off in brown. He chose the font and everything! (He's brilliant!) Oh, I'm not supposed to actually say that out loud, am I? Tee hee! I thrive on doing things I'm not supposed to do! Excel at it, really! The box is full of, you guessed it, coffee beans and chocolate kisses!

Other ingredients;
Stamps: mft Hot Stuff
Paper: Very Vanilla Chocolate Chip
Ink: Brilliance Chocolate
Embellies: MS glitter in brownstone, nestabilities, SU! gathered grosgrain (I will weep when this is gone!) SU!IIEP

Lizzie Ann Designs L'Amour

This card is a lot simpler than my usual cards, but I just felt like this sweet butterfly didn't need a lot of competition! I worked with my favorite color, Almost Amethyst, which always looks good with black! What isn't unusual for me is the shimmer, it's here!
Here is the recipe:

Stamps: LAD L'Amour
Paper: AA, BB, WW
Ink: VMark, AA
Embellies: bug & folder, nestabilities, punches, re-inkers, SU! Fancy Fibers in Naturals, RPs

Crossed Swords Skull Card

Well, I must have somehow hit the post button while I was commenting on my latest skull card! I don't know how to fix that, so I will just make another post! This skull and crossed swords stamp is from Creative Play Stamps' Skulls 1 set. Again, I've made this card especially girlie. I suppose I will eventually tire of making girlie skull cards, but I haven't so far! Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Creative Play Stamps Skulls 1 & Thinking of You
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, MME Gypsy
Ink: Brilliance Chocolate, Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Cat's Eye in Alabaster & Chestnut Roan, Cameo Coral
Embellies: IIEP, Wired netting ribbon, SU! oval punches, MS glitter in Brownstone, Candy Apple Red homemade shimmer mist, Sakura Clear Glaze pen

Big Hi!

This cute stamp is one of the three in Creative Play Stamp's Big Hello set. It's a lot of fun to work with. I made this one day when I had SU!'s Spring Showers out. I found a whole, unopened package in my stamp room the other day. I'm trying to use up some of my DP. I'm so bad about falling in love with everything new and not even using what I fell in love with shortly before. Well, I liked this paper enough to buy it the first time, so I can darn well use it now! (Speaking firmly to self!)

Recipe:
Stamps: CPS Big Hello
Ink: Brilliance Chocolate, Alabaster Fluid Chalk Cat's Eye
Paper: Barely Banana, Whisper White, Spring Flowers
Other: Martha Stewart glitter in Brownstone, Chestnut Glimmer Mist, IIEP, re-inkers, SU! wide organdy, nestabilities, ticket corner punch, Sakura clear glaze pen

I've been tagged by Carolina!

These are the rules:

• You must post the rules before you give your answers.
• You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
• After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers.
• At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name.(Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

D is for daring-only in paper crafting though!
A is for accessories-it's usually the most full area when I'm posting cards to my SCS gallery!
R is for reader-I am one!
R is for realistic-not always, but I try!
y is for yodel-I can't!
L is for love-I'm a very passionate person-love lots of people truly, and lots of stamping stuff hopefully not quite as much!!

Be watching for your tag-I'm too tired to do it tonight, I'll do it tomorrow!!

Skulls 1 in Basic Gray

When I got this set, I had no idea I would have this much fun with it! I have sort of an offbeat sense of humor, and dressing these skulls up in girlie stuff just tickles me to death! For this card, I knew I wanted to paper piece their caps, and one of the lines I'm fixated on right now is Two Scoops, so out it came! I colored their eyes and mouths with SU!'s Blush Blossom pen, which is the one I use most often. I have all of SU!'s markers, and two of many of them, but this is the only one I keep in my desk drawer so it's always close at hand. I stamped the skulls and sentiment in Palette Hybrid Noir, my current favorite black pad. I've heard raves about some others, but haven't tried them yet. I did my Clear Glaze pen dot bit around the central image, and poured on the Art Institute Glitter in Lion's Mane, which you can get at Creative Play Stamps. The Basic Black panel is layered on a melon colored piece of DP from MME Gypsy line, and both are punched with the ever present ticket corner punch by SU! The various Primas are held together with a Making Memories Gem brad, and the gems in all the corners are little stick-ons from Wal-Mart. They are made for cells and ipods, and they're sort of in the beading/ jewelry area. They aren't Swarovski, but how much do you really want to spend? I bugged the Barely Banana piece, and that's a bit of SU!'s ribbon from the Flirt line. Thanks for stopping by!

My Baby Sister

I was innocently rooting around in one of my desk drawers when I came across this picture of my little sister. This was taken 10 years ago when she was pregnant with her first daughter. I hadn't intended to make a page, but that's what happened. I've made dozens and dozens of pages, but this is the first one I have ever posted. I just really love this page, do you think it's the subject matter? Those of you who are moms, do you remember this time? I do. Maybe it's a little too special to talk about here, so let's go on to the nuts and bolts of the page.

All the patterned paper is MME Gypsy, which I think is beautiful! The heart is Bazill. The little hand is an OLD SU! set, called Baby Blocks, I think! I embossed it in a glittery pink EP. I deliberately made the doily tilt the same direction of the picture because having it canted in the opposite direction is so predictable. I don't like to be predictable, except in the glitter department! I now think maybe it would look better tilted the other way, but I'm not going to change it! I sprayed the doily with my homemade Glimmer Mist. I mixed a jar of Candy Apple Red Radiant Pearls into a travel sized (4oz.) bottle of Future Floor Polish. It's not as perfect as Glimmer Mist, but it's pretty close. I don't think I would buy a whole bottle of GM in this color anyway, I'm too hooked on Chestnut, it may be the only color I'll ever need! The die cuts were all given to me by my little sister, she has gillions of them. I especially love the little clip ones, and will probably wind up buying them some day!~

Skulls 1

I love this fun set called Skulls 1 from Creative Play Stamps. I have three sons, plus I teach high school, so skull fashion is a part of my everyday life! I can see using this on gift items and scrapbook pages as well! Further more, one of the stamps in this set is a skull and crossbones, and our school mascot is the Pirates, so it's an obvious choice for me!

I enjoyed taking what some might consider a gruesome subject and putting it onto an extremely girlie card. There's even glitter here, but I guess that goes without saying! I also used CPS's Thinking of You sentiment set. I thought the, "get well soon" and, "miss you" stamps might be a tad morbid, so I settled on, "HI!" I used Palette Hybrid Noir to stamp the skull, it covered beautifully. I thought about embossing him, but was worried it might mess up the clever skull eyes, even with detail EP. I might try that later. I used my circle nestabilities, and white signo gel pen and black sharpie on the layers. The DP is NRN Design. The paisleys match Almost Amethyst perfectly, and AA is in my top three favorite SU! colors!! The hear is a tag from WalMart, I just used the back. The ribbon is SU!, the glitter is AI Azure, and there is Crystal Stickles in the corner. I also bugged the black panel and used the ticket corner punch as a final touch. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Swirl Garden

This is from SCS's Inspiration Challenge #113. The picture was of a peaceful, beachy living room from Zara Home. It was GORGEOUS and just looking at it made me a trifle unsatisfied with my living room! Well, at least it motivated me to call in the troops and get the LR cleaned up. Come on over, I won't just immediately expire from house humiliation, but hurry, clean things don't last around here!

About the card: This was my first time to use my new set, Swirl Garden from Creative Play Stamps. I wish you could see how beautiful this butterfly looks embossed in Iridescent Ice EP! I had a picture that showed the sparkle better, but it didn't show the pretty details of the stamp as well. I dipped the butterfly in VersaMark, then Sahara Sand dye ink. You can do this with any of your dye ink pads and clear or sheer EP's-I do it all the time! The swirl behind the butterfly is actually a sprig, or a small tree. I think it's cool that it can be used for both, and I am not finished playing with it, that's for sure! The paper is Barely Banana, SS, and Spring Flowers DP. The tag was a gift with order from when I ordered my Artistic Outpost stamps. See below post for pics of their stamps. I also used SU! oval punches, and Taupe grosgrain, the satin ribbon says Wang's on the spool, I've probably had it for nine or 10 years! The brads, I don't know, but I THINK Hot Off The Press, because they sell a lot of color families, and this package has other coordinating colors in it.

Big Hello # 2

This big hello stamp is from the aptly named Creative Play Stamps set Big Hello! First, I dipped it into VersaMark and embossed it with SU! Detail Black EP. I always use detail black. It's a little more expensive, the pot is smaller, but I like the results better. Those of you who are accomplished watercolorists may not need to emboss before they wc. I find that the embossing makes up for my lack of painting skill a little! I colored with various markers and re-inkers. Then I went over the whole thing with my Stardust pen. I layered it onto a piece of Basic Gray Two Scoops. Then I went around the primary image making dots with my clear glaze pen. I then sprinkled with BTAI glitter in Lion's Mane. That layer went onto another piece of BGTS, and finally onto a Barely Banana base. I added the ticket corner punches, some Making Memories gems, Prima leaves & flowers, some sequin flowers, and finally three MM gem brads! YFL!

SBS11

This is where I'm going to list all my new sistahs! Of course I have no idea how to make a sidebar, so I'm working on that!