I'm praying for you...

I almost didn't post this card, for two reasons. First of all, it's not a very good card. I created it while under heavy sorrow. That's the other reason I almost didn't post it, because I knew if I posted it, I'd need to tell you who it's for.

A friend of ours was on his way to church a few Sundays ago with three of his four sons. His wife and fourth son were at home. The dad went to deal with his phone, lost control of the vehicle, and the crash resulted in the death of his youngest son. The dad and the other two sons were all rushed to three different hospitals. They will recover.

May I just ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to always do two things?

1. Buckle up. The boy who died was the only person in the vehicle not wearing a seat belt.

2. Don't fiddle with your phone while driving. At all. Are your phone calls worth the lives of the people in the car and others on the road? The next time you go to deal with your phone when you are driving, just stop a moment and think about what this dad, a good man, has to deal with every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of his life. Would you like to join him in his nightmare?

True Love

Another weird Blogger day-my photos aren't showing while I draft. Hmm...

Anyhoo, here is my sweet baby Wilson. He was about six weeks old when this picture was taken. I love this picture!! I can still remember the feel of his precious skin! He's five now and his skin is dry and rough. The Panhandle is HARD on skin!!

I used an old SU! Simply Scrappin' kit called I'm Here. It's a pretty cute kit, and I made it more current by pairing it with Spellbinders Basic Hearts die cuts. I love this die and use it a lot.

There were three new Whipper Snapper sets waiting for me when I got home from school today!! I must be brief so I can go play!!

Hugs!

Carla

Forever Stamp

Well, blogger is acting weird. I can't see my pictures, just a bunch of HTML code, but when I posted, they were there. Hmmm...

At any rate, this is what I call a forever stamp. I'm pretty ruthless with my stamps. I sell them on eBay all the time. When I was a SU! demo, I sold ALL the retiring stamps to my customers. Sometimes I have regretted getting rid of a set, but not very often. I actually won this stamp in a huge lot on eBay. It's by PSX, and I love it. LOVE IT! It's just so beautiful, and fun to color. It's detailed without being overwhelming or arduous.

I paired it here with Cosmo Cricket Jitterbug, which I also love. The brad is a fancy Making Memories brad I colored brown with my Bic marker.

Blog Candy Winner!!!

Congrats to Agnes!!! Random.org chose # 23, so you're it, girlfriend!! Email me your address, and I'll get it right out to you! Thanks for playing, everybody!!

-Agnes- said...

Hi Carla, happy belated blogoversary! I would love to win this blog candy, thanks for the chance. I have linked it here. Agnes

February 24, 2009 2:07 AM

Basic Gray meets Spellbinders

I ordered this Basic Gray stamp set from Mothers and Daughters Creations and have never used it. I got it out last night and wondered if it would go with my new Spellbinders die. Well, it went very well! I added some Infuse patterned paper and a BG rub on. Speaking of which, I don't like my BG rub ons. I have five packages and they are all bad. Do you think I just got bad ones, or does BG just not make very good rub ons?

Of course I had to add one of my favorite hearts from Creative Cuts and More. I'm addicted to these things!! You would not believe how many felt shapes and in so many colors they have!!

I added the ribbon treatment today because I thought the card looked bare. Then I decided I didn't like the ribbon treatment, but since there's now a slot punch on my card, it's going to have to stay. In looking at this card as I post, I have the urge to add three half back pearls in the lower right corner. This poor card. I'm not sure I'll ever leave it alone!

This is for 2 Sketches 4 You Sketch 20 by Laura. It's a neat sketch, but I may have gotten a tad off course with this card!! If you like challenges, 2S4Y is a great one!!

Blog Candy!

Check out Jacilynne's AWESOME blog candy!!

Blog Candy!

Beautiful handmade buttons!

Blog Candy!

Here!

Love Butterflies

This is for the Tuesday Challenge over at Crafty Secrets on SCS. We were to make a one layer card, and this is one piece of paper folded in half. It's from CS's Earthy pad, isn't it sweet? I sponged the edges, added ribbon, Prima OTC and Spellbinders flowers, and a few shots of Antique Brass Glimmer Mist. I stamped "Love" from the Cherubs set on a piece of CS Sweet Chips chipboard and dipped it into my VersaMark pad. Then I embossed it in Ranger Holographic for a little sparkle!! I don't want to make a habit of one layer cards, but this sure was quick and easy!

Quickest card EVER!! Blog candy on next page!!!

This is the fastest card I've ever made! I mean it! I honestly think it took less than 15 minutes. I used CPS104 and a Simply Scrapping Toy Box kit I've had for years and never opened. This is a terrific sketch, I've really loved all the cards I've seen made with it. Also, SU!'s SS kits are so easy to use. The only thing I added were the three matching SU! brads, and GinaK's Tag Lines sentiment. I am loving the Tag Lines set, I've used it about a million times since I got it. I rarely duplicate a card, but as the mother of three boys, I could use about a dozen of these, so I might make a few more.

Don't forget to go over to the next page for blog candy!!

Circus Fun!! PLUS Blog Candy further down!!

High Hopes Stamps has a challenge every Sunday. This is HHC19, and we were to use sponging. It's somewhat ironic that I do a lot of sponging and when a sponging challenge comes along all I do is sponge the edge of the card base and designer paper! My collection of HH stamps is small, (I'm actually waiting on an order now), and so I use what I have. I just felt like this particular card was calling for a cleaner, brighter look, so I went lightly on the sponging.

I added a little Glitz frosting, a Flair badge, and American Crafts paper. The base is Cool Carribean, and the pink is one of the SU! ones, I got it out of one of my assortments, and since I'm no longer a demo, I've forgotten which is which! I colored the images with markers, reinkers and Niji watercolor paints. The Niji paints are VERY shimmery, and I add them after I've colored. When I grow up I'll be able to color as well as Anna & Ila & Crissy. Seriously. One of these days I'm going to take an actual art class and learn how to watercolor properly.

BLOG CANDY!!!!

Scroll down!!

Happy Easter!!

The Dutch Dare card challenge this week was to make a card using Green and Yellow. These are not colors I use very often, but at least they aren't absolutely horrifying to me like Brilliant Blue and Real Red are! The base here is a beautiful piece of Bazzill Bling. I just can't get enough of that stuff!! The bunny is a Hero Arts stamp I got in an eBay lot last year. This is the first time I've used him, and I think he's really cute. The next time I use him, I'll turn my watercolor paper over. I don't like this Canson wc paper because of the deep and obvious lines. Not only do I find them visually distracting, but very detailed stamps don't stamp well on them. I won't buy this pad again, but I have it, so it's what I use. All the rest of the paper is from a HOTP Citrus pad. The chipboard is American Crafts, the flower is a Prima, the metal bunny is from my local variety store. The ribbon and brads are from HOTP's Citrus embellishing pack. I went a little crazy buying those when I first discovered them, and now I rarely use them.

BLOG CANDY!

Don't forget to scroll down for blog candy!!

Story Time

This week's Crafty Secrets challenge over on SCS was to use Bold Brights and White. Yes, I am terrified of these colors! Especially when paired with my beloved Crafty Secrets. I'm also somewhat horrified at my results! This is also CPS103, which was a hard one from me. This card is not a shining moment for me, but I'm not afraid to post lackluster results. I had fun making it. I have never thought that every card I make has to be a masterpiece, thank goodness, because they aren't! It's good for us to get out of our comfort zones. I was way out of mine here!

I do love the image of the little boy with the big book. As the mother of three sons, this has been a familiar sight for the past 17 years, and one I will NEVER grow tired of! I don't know what kinds of special kissing spots the mothers of little girls have, but one of my VERY favorite kissing spots is the back of the neck. It's a spot that is fully exposed when you come across a little boy engrossed in a book. It's very yummy, and I highly recommend it! My youngest is five, so I can still get lots of kisses every single day. I allow the teenagers to maintain a tad more dignity by not attacking them and kissing them all over. **SIGH** They do grow up, don't they?

Blog Candy!!

Don't forget to scroll down to enter!!

Magical Easter!!

This is for High Hopes Challenge 18. We were to make a Spring or Easter card. I don't have any Spring or Easter HH stamps yet, mine should be here in the next few days!! So, I looked over the HH stamps I DO have, and decided that I could make an Easter card featuring this little magician.

I used Basic Gray's LilyKate for my designer paper, a Mellow Moss base, and a touch of Bashful Blue for under the main image. The sentiment is Making Memories rub ons, the flower is a Prima, and the trim is more BG Lily Kate. I painted the white hydrangea Prima, and the rest of the image with Niji watercolors. They have an incredible shimmer!!! As a final touch, I added lots of Cotton Candy Stickles. Also, as you can probably tell, there are Angel Wings Shimmerz highlights all over this card!!

MY FIRST BLOG CANDY!!! ~A Few of My Favorite Things~

I wanted to do some blog candy for my blogaversary last month, but had to get my act together and order some stuff. I decided to offer a few of my very favorite things! I have been using a Stardust pen for years, and I think they are indispensable. They are the quickest, easiest and most economical way I know of to add instant and beautiful shimmer!!

My sister was at CHA the year Glimmer Mist came out, I believe, and she got me my first bottle as soon as they were available. I have lots of Glimmer Mist now, and my go to color is Antique Brass. I spray it on probably 90% of my stuff! It's warm, so the only time I don't use it is when I'm working with cool colors, which I hardly ever do! AB is very sheer as compared to many other GM's, like Black Cherry, which is why it's so easy to use. It's more of an accent than an actual design element like some of the more robustly colored GM's are.

Finally, my newest love!! I've only had my Crafty Secrets Images and Journal Notes booklets for a couple of months, and I ADORE them!! They are so much fun to work with. You can put a really lovely card together in half an hour! As a very slow stamper, this is huge for me!! There are LOTS of choices, I have three of them: Birds & Botanicals, Childhood, and Homemade. I love them all, and highly recommend them.

I got all of these at my favorite store, Creative Play Stamps. I think they carry almost everything Tattered Angels makes, lots of Sakura pens, and they are building their Crafty Secrets selection. They have these booklets, some of the chipboard, some stamps, some Cotton Scraps and stickers. They may have more, it seems that they have new stuff every time I visit.

What you really want to know, though, is how you can win, right? It's easy! Just link this candy to your blog, and leave me a comment here with your link. I will draw on the 25th. I'll ship it anywhere, international bloggers are welcome to play!!

GinaK ~Take Flight

I bought this from GinaK last month, then I kind of forgot I had it. I ran across it in the rubble that is my stamp area and came up with this card. This is a really beautiful set. I stamped the butterfly in Buckaroo Blue then embossed it in Holographic ep. There are also some Spellbinders flowers, two MS punches, some My Mind's Eye & Bazzill paper and lots of Crystal Stickles. I don't do a lot with navy, but I was pleased with the way this turned out, it looks terrific with Buckaroo.

Anna Griffin ran off with 7Gypsies!!!

Just kidding! Don't go telling everyone you know!! I just thought I was being oh, so clever because this tulip is an Anna Griffin stamp, and the designer paper is 7Gypsies. I really shouldn't be left unattended! I made this for the Dutch Dare Card Challenge. We were to use buttons and bows, how fun and easy is that?

Well, yesterday's job interviews went well. They offered us the jobs. We will probably accept, but it's not official. I will be so happy to get back to Colorado! The Oklahoma Panhandle is not my kind of place! Guess how hard the wind is blowing today? 50 MILES PER HOUR!!! It's crazy here. One must be of much sturdier stock than I to thrive in this kind of environment. I won't mind if you call me a quitter or a big wimp! Uncle! I say, "Uncle, Oklahoma!" I will happily scurry back home with my tail between my legs. (I usually just stick it down a pant leg. Hardly anyone even knows I have one.)

Finally, guess what came in the mail today??? My blog candy!!! I hope you like it! I'll take pictures and post it tomorrow, God willing and the creek don't rise!

Hugs!

Carla

Of Loving Memories & Pity Parties

This is for two challenges! The Crafty Secrets challenge over on SCS and the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch. This was another fun sketch to work with. I used a Crafty Secrets Valentines Vintage Cuts for the primary image and My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie paper.

Now, about pity parties: I'm all for them. I have one now and then. Then I get over it. I am over my design team worries. I mean, seriously, what are you going to do? So I will go on and remember to be grateful for my many blessings, instead of whining when I don't get my way a few times!!

Summer Time & Rejection

This is for Card Positioning Systems #102. I loved this sketch; it was fun and easy! Plus, I love Crate paper, glitter and Glimmer Mist, so this one was a no brainer for me!! The glitter is Art Glitter in Lion's Mane. The ric rac, rub on and tag are all Crate Paper as well.

Now for the rejection! I submitted to the Spellbinders Design Team Call. FAILURE! REJECTION! YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE ON OUR TEAM!!! Now that is certainly not what they said. Their rejection letter was as nice as one can make that sort of thing. That is sure what it felt like, though. I've thought a lot about this, and I can't decide if it's good for me to apply for design teams. I had such success last year. I made five teams and three guest teams in about two month's time. Now this year I have not made it onto several. Why is that? I can only surmise that my work is simply not up to par. What is this desire I have to be on teams? Must I be validated? Is it okay to feel that need? Why do I let the rejection make me feel less than?

I have to digest all this. This and an incubating sinus infection. And a bad case of the winter blues. And a big job interview on Monday. And that my 17yods will be setting out on his own in six or seven months. I actually had to pull over on my way home from school today because I got to crying over that. I'm such a sap.

Horse of another color

I made this for High Hopes' Sunday sketch challenge #17. This circus horse is so much fun to color! The base is Only Orange and all the rest of the paper is Heidi Grace. I went a little crazy with my stack of embellies, and I CANNOT get them to stay together! You would not believe how many glue dots, large and small, I have on this thing! As much as I like the KI Memories Heartfelt, things just won't stick to it. I think I'm going to have to get out my hot glue gun. Or maybe Diamond Glaze would do it?

Oh, I am having such a bad case of the winter blahs right now!! Know any cures? February is always my hardest month-even with my birthday right in the middle of it. Tell me, do people in Tahiti have hard Februaries?

My friend

Same sketch as yesterday. The flower and rub ons are Daisy D's, the card base is Bazzill Bling. I can't for the life of me remember who made the DP. It's one of the big names, it's just totally escaping me! See how helpful I am? It's pretty, though, isn't it? The sentiment is from GinaK's Tag Lines. I have been using this set like crazy!!

I'm off to shoot a basketball game. Wish me luck, basketball is SO hard to shoot!!

BLOG CANDY COMING!!!

I just wanted to remind you that I will be offering some blog candy fairly soon! I've been thinking about what to offer, and I've decided that a few of my favorite things would be good. So let that be a hint for you!

Card Positioning Systems # 100

CPS had a contest for their 100th sketch, and this is one of my two entries. I don't recall the deets, but one or two of the cards entered will get their card in a Card Maker Magazine. I looked at the entries on Flikr, and there are some REALLY good ones! I'm SO glad I don't have to make the decisions about who wins!

What we have here with this card is some Crate Paper goodness! The brads are Making Memories, which I colored with my brown Bic. They actually look much better than they did before I colored them! The daisy style flowers are Prima. I really don't know who makes the frame, the bottom flowers and the sweet little bird charm. This is one of my old kits from the now defunct Self-Addressed. Man, I loved them.:(

The FAB stamp is another Inkadinkado stamp from Creative Play Stamps. I am totally in love with their stamps lately! You can check them out here!

I've been having so much fun with various challenges lately that I'm afraid I may forget how to create on my own!

Inkadinkado from Creative Play Stamps

Laura, the owner of Creative Play Stamps sent me a couple of Inkadinkado stamps to play with, and I LOVE them. I wasn't expecting a package, and when I saw who it was from, I knew that Laura was spoiling me again! So, I opened the envelope, and out came two GORGEOUS new stamps, this is one. CPS has a big selection of Inkadinkado, there are 60 of them, and I want every single one!!

I made this card for a Dutch Dare Card Challenge, my first with them! We were to make a love/Valentine's card with no pink or red. I grabbed Cosmo Cricket's Love Notes, and some Bazzill Bling and went to town! What a fun challenge, I think I'll play again! The tag is a Basic Gray Sublime tag. The holes were too big for my Karen Foster Loopy Brads, so I grabbed one of my SU! circle punches and made another circle to put it through. Oops, dangling preposition there-see, even the English teacher does it!

I would like to note that this card is much WARMER! My camera has been cooling things off for me, there's too much blue in everything. I lent it out, and I swear, it's going to take me a week to get the settings correct! (Actually, 17yods will get it set, not me!)

Crafty Secrets Challenges Anniversary Card

This is for Crafty Secrets' 54th weekly challenge over on SCS. Lori challenged us to make a birthday or anniversary card. I used the stamp set Rosy Wishes, and the bottom half of a page from the Birds & Botanicals booklet. I used Always Artichoke and Chestnut Roan inks, and some Old Olive organdy ribbon from SU! I love this ribbon, it melts so beautifully with the heat gun! I will miss its iridescent goodness when it's all gone!

I used two Spellbinders dies, Labels One, and Timeless Heritage. They added the perfect touch to this card.

For paper, I used Bazzil Canvas in Hazel, Daisy D's Attic Heirlooms, and Close to Cocoa. LOVE them all!! I get all my Bazill at Creative Cuts and more.

The pin was originally a white pearl, and I just colored it with a brown Bic marker. I was so pleased with the resultant bronze color, it looks really good with the Copper Stickles. I glued the beads on with Fray Check, it seems to have worked perfectly! Just the Labels One cuts are sprayed with my beloved Antique Brass Glimmer Mist.

Cherish Family

I used Kazan's Sketch 19 from over on 2Sketches4You. 2S4Y is a very fun and active sketch blog. The sketches are wonderful, and the participants are very good about visiting each other's blogs! It's a wonderful way to have some fun visiting new blogs!!

I used all HOTP stuff here and Bazzil Bling as a base. The heart was cut using Spellbinders' Wreath of Hearts die. It's such a nice little size for cards. I outlined the word family with my stardust pen, and added some Black Diamond Stickles dots. The red ribbin is SU!

A girl and her bag.

I made this card for a challenge posted by Melissa Phillips on her blog, LilyBean's Paperie. This is one of my favorite blogs. Seriously. I try not to covet, but I'm telling you, if I had half her talent, I'd be a happy woman. Melissa + paper = magic. Go look and just see if you can argue with me!

Anyway, she's giving away the cutest bag, you should really go look and try for it yourself! I thought my Stampabilites purse lady stamp would be just the ticket! Then I remembered my brand new GinaK set, Tag Lines, and isn't this sentiment perfect? I used very old SU! Spring Flowers DP. I still think it's pretty! As usual for me lately, I added Shimmerz in Angel Wings. The brown flower was cut with a Spellbinders die, Flower Creations. I LOVE this die, and hope to get another one for my birthday!!

I do apologize for the picture. I had a hair appointment right after school, then had to go pick up my phone, and the light was gone when I got home. I finally decided to go ahead and take a picture, then discovered the battery was dead in my Canon EOS. So I used DH's camera. No comparison!

Balanced Rock

This gorgeous stamp is Creative Play Stamps' Balanced Rock. We were watching an old Indiana Jones movie the other night and they had this landmark in a scene. I told DH & the boys, "I have that stamp!" The actual Balanced Rock is in Arches National Park in Utah.

The circular embellishment on the left is actually a Basic Gray book clip. I deliberately did not glue it in, so it can easily be slipped out to fulfill its ultimate destiny!

The paper is all SU! including the wood patterned paper. I loved that paper so much when I bought it that I hoarded it. Now I rarely seem to find a need for it, but I thought it worked well for this card.

I have been enjoying challenges a lot lately, and this card is a sketch challenge by Lauren Meader. I've never done one of her challenges before, so I have no idea how often they happen, but I thought it was a great sketch!

That's You!

I made this for the featured stamper challenge that happens every Sunday over on SCS. You are to visit the gallery of the featured stamper, in this case BevR, choose a card and CASE it, changing at least two things. I always change more than two things.

I used Bazzil Bling as my base, I get mine at Creative Cuts and More, they have a wonderful selection of cardstock, and some Basic Gray as well. The Birthday Wishes sentiment is from GinaK's One Free With Three special. It's called Tag Lines, and it has so many useful sentiments, and I think the font is very versatile!! I stamped it in StazOn because this image is a little glossy.

I also used quite a few Spellbinders dies here, including Flower Creations, which I love and Timeless Heritage.

The chipboard flower is from SU!, and is covered in Angel Wings Shimmerz. I've become addicted to the stuff and dab it here and there on almost every card!

Clowning Around with High Hopes!

I love High Hopes Stamps. This is odd, because I've never been into cute stamps very much. I just find Chrissy's art to be so sweet, so happy and so much fun to color. I can just picture her lifting up in prayer all the stampers who will use her art in their stamping. Of course I don't know if she does this or not. She makes her relationship with Jesus Christ very apparent though, so it seems like something she would do. Maybe that's why I find these images so sweet, so innocent, and so full of life and fun. Additionally, have you seen the HH DT's work? They are amazing, every one.

This is for last week's HH challenge. We were to use a heart. The HH challenges are posted on Sundays, I think this week's challenge is to use lace. This will be a breeze for me, I hope to get to it today. Hugs and blessings to you all!!