Happy New Year!

I made this little gift set a while ago and never uploaded it admidst all the holiday preparations. There's a great tutorial on Splitcoaststampers in the Resources section on how to make this window treat box. I filled mine with Ghiradelli chocolates.





I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! We will be staying home, as is our tradition, playing games, watching movies, stuffing our faces, and toasting in the New Year with a little of the bubbly.

No Bears Here

Sabrina, aka Cook22, is our fabulous Teapot Tuesday hostess today, and I just know we are going to have some scrumpdillyicious food to feast on at today's tea party because Sabrina loves to cook! We're having honey-glazed ham with honeycomb ice cream and even some mead for those who want something stronger to sip on than tea.

We have to be real careful with our food today, though, because we're talkin' bears. Not teddy bears either....we're talkin' the kind that live and hunt in the forest.

Since I don't have any bear images (except for the cute, cuddly teddy bears), I decided to build a log cabin for our tea party today, nestled snuggly in the pretty pine trees.



Oh, you should also know that Bertie is on the loose and JoJot guessed right: she's flinging pine cones today and man, oh, man can that sap create some mighty sticky situations. I think she's just planning to fling the pinecones at the bears, but ya never really know with Bertie around. She gets to influencing Maxie (marilynprestonn), too, and those two can.....well, let's just say really liven up a party. So, you might want to wear your hats made for the woods today because you certainly do not want sap in your hair!!

I also made this card for a challenge issued by Francie G of my Doubledog Dare Challenge (DDC) group to make a card/project that is something we'd enjoy doing....especially after the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Of course, I'd love to be stamping and to me there's no better place for inspiration than snuggled all cozy like in a cabin in the woods inspired by nature!

My scene was colored with Copic markers. The sky was sponged. After I cut out my square rectangle frame in my Very Vanilla cardstock, I stamped the pinecone images in versamark and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I then used sponge daubers to wipe on Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Sahara Sand, and River Rock ink to reflect the inspiration teapot. I wiped off the excess Chocolate Chip from the clear embossed pinecones. I matted More Mustard behind the cut out rectangle and adhered my colored scene.

I hope you'll join us at the tea party and the DDC challenges today. You can find them in the challenge forums at Splitcoaststampers!

Some Catching Up

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holiday season. Ours was very good spent with family and friends alike.

Like most of you, I've been running short on time and haven't had much time to blog. Therefore, I have a few things I'd like to share today.

The most current one is for today's technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers to use the VanGogh technique in our creation. Well, I'm no artist for sure, but I do love learning new things and wanted to give my hand a try at this technique. I used Stampin' Up's Boatloads of Love, my Copic markers, sponges, liquid applique, and heart punch to create this fun card. I'm thinking my granddaughter would enjoy this for her birthday......or so I hope, anyway.


My next one is in honor of yesterday's featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers known as SmilynStef. Stephanie is the Inspiration Challenge hostess on Saturday and always has such cool inspiration pieces for us to choose from. I knew I wanted to do a bird theme with blues since I was making this card for Kheila Kirwan's mom who is turning 90 on January 4. What a milestone!! The designer paper is Heidi Grace with flocking on the bird wings and the main bird image is a QuikKutz die.

Last is a gift card holder I made using the video tutorial Gina K did last week on StampTV. I LOVE this pop-up gift card holder! Here's the inside:

And the outside using Stampin' Up's Holiday Lounge designer paper.

I wrote this post in a hurry since hubby and I are off to catch a movie and some shopping since I'm off work this week, so if you have questions or want more information, please let me know. I'll be back to surf your blogs and see what you've been up to later!

Squeak! The Road to a Friend's House

Speaking of friends, my sweet and funny friend, Peggy (aka marilynprestonn on SCS) is hostessing the Teapot Tuesday challenge this week, and, boy, has Peggy come up with a really darling teapot and story. That girl has a wonderful sense of humor! We're having the tea party at the Rodent's House! My friend Sabrina (cook22) is a little skeered of mice (aren't most of us?), but Peg-a-roo has reassured her that these mice are all friendly. However, I'm a little concerned that Marilyn's (apandi) elephant might not share those sentiments. Check out the details here, and I hope you'll consider playing along with us.

Oh, just a word of caution: Peggy says Mama Teeny is serving up a special eggnog concoction in the punch bowl. After I read the ingredients, I definitely made a mental note to abstain. Even Bertie (my alter ego) has said she will not be partaking of this libation! However, if YOU do decide to partake, I noticed that Judi (aka jovial judi) has brought some candy canes to the party to mask the smell.

I think you can pretty much figure out that I drew upon the door and the mice from the inspiration teapot for my card. I masked my little mousie holding his ornament and stamped the door scene (The Journey designed by Asela Hopkins and distributed by Gina K. Designs) over him. I colored everything with my Copic markers.

Carla (cmsuto) and Joanne (sleepyinseattle) brought their darling houses if you need a place to hide from all the mice or a place to crash if you do drink that eggnog. I'm thinking Marilyn's (apandi) elephant might have a tough time fitting into one of these teeny tiny homes, but I'm sure he's gonna be freakin' out over all da mice runnin' around.

Well, I'm off to go join my other friend, Cathy (aka Mutnik) and her teacup of mouse-a-partiers. They look like they are having a blast!

Delightful Decorations

I know many people are probably already tired of Christmas cards, but I must confess that they are my most favorite cards to make. I could make them year round!

I also must give credit where it is due. My Stampin' Up demonstrator had us make a slightly different version of this card at a stamp camp a couple months ago, and I used the basic concept to make a series of them for my Christmas cards this year. I sponged the ornaments with Elegant Eggplant, Bravo Burgundy, and Old Olive using a piece of punched out acetate for my guide and masking the sponged ornaments with a post-it note. You can sponge as light or as heavy as you want with the ink producing various shading effects on the ornaments. The other fun shapes were stamped with gold ink, and I used a gold paint pen to draw my ornament lines. I used the same color markers to highlight the different words in the Peace, Love, Joy sentiment.



Only three more days until Christmas! Are you ready?

Clean and Simple, Indeed!

I made this for the CAS challenge on Splitcoast which was this sketch design. It was so quick and easy, I was able to make it before work this morning, and I found myself needing a few more cards. I'm almost done! I mailed around 90 cards this year. I think that's the mostest evah!

Are you ready for the big day this week? I'm almost there....just a few more packages to wrap, stocking stuffers to purchase, and a few more cards to address.

Are my East coast friends enjoying all the snow you received this past weekend?

Christmas Inspiration and RAKs

Hello, dear friend! Thanks for stopping by my blog today, especially in these last few days as most of us are frantically trying to finish up holiday preparations. I ran some errands this morning and then decided I needed to take some time to play in the Inspiration challenged hosted by my friend Anne on Splitcoaststampers. She has a terrific website for our inspiration today called Fabulous Stationary. Check it out here, if you get a chance.

This first card was inspired by a Woodland White image. It took time to mask and align the trees, which involved having two masks available and using my stamp-a-ma-jig for the tree line alignment I wanted, but I like how it turned out.



My second card also took a little time to make because I stamped each tree in versamark onto black cardstock and then colored them with Pearl Ex (assortment 3 pack). I then cut each tree and layered them on top of one another to form the overall tree. I glued the tree to white card stock and trimmed that for a white matting. The background card is Purely Pomegranate which is not as bright as it is appearing to be in my photo, and the Pearl Ex looks so shimmery IRL.



And, now, for the most important items: Christmas RAKs I've received in the last few days from dear friends around the globe. They put so much thought and love into their beautiful creations that I want to showcase them on my blog. Thank you, my precious friends for thinking of me!

This adorable and beautiful penguin card is from Joanne (JoJot):



This pink and green beauty is from Traci (tracim):



This festively fun card is from Shirley (wannabecre8tive):



Anne (itspassion) sent this darling Riley card:



Lee-Anne (Shadow's Mom)sent this regal beauty:



Check out this beautiful and magnificent vintage Santa card by Anne (Anne Ryan):



Last but not least, this beautifully colored and paper-toled card from Joan (joan ervin):

General Notecard Gift Sets

I've been busy these past few weeks filling a couple customer orders for general notecard gift sets.

I hope you enjoy them as much as my customers seemed to!

The upper left design is a box I made to hold the gift cards. It easily holds 5 cards with envelopes and could hold a few more. If you scroll down a few entries back, you'll see I did another gift set with the coordinating box using the haute coutre stamp set.

I just love the bordering blue with the kraft, white, and black on this gift set.






Obviously, I was in a mood to do something fun and funky with trendy trees on this set:






Thanks for stopping by!

Like many of you, I'm madly scrambling to finish up preparations for the holidays next week!

Christmas RAKs

I love seeing the beautiful cards my friends make and there's nothing like receiving one of those beautiful cards in the mail so you can see it in real life. I received a few Christmas RAKs this past week and would like to thank my sweet friends for thinking of me:

This first one was made by Anne (also known as jdmommy on SCS). Anne is a part of my Doubledog Dare Challenge group and LOVES da red! Aren't these pretty red ornaments set against the pine branch striking?



This little penguin cutie was sent to me by Frances (also known as StampOwl on SCS). Frances is a part of my Cheers & Challenges Eclectic Ensemble (CCEE) group, and she knows how I love penguins. Now you and I would be pretty cold if we parked our hinies on the cold ice, but this li'l guy is in his element fishing for his food!



And if this just isn't the sweetest and cutest little image on this darling CAS card my other Doubledog Dare friend, Julia (also known as artystamper on SCS) sent me, I don't know what is!!! Just look at that precious, rosey-cheeked face. So very cute!



Thank you, dear friends, for thinking of me! I love my Christmas RAKs!!

It's All About Time

Have you ever debated with yourself about whether or not to keep blogging? I love doing it, but lately, between work and home life, I have been so busy that I've hardly visited my own blog let alone all of yours. I feel so terrible that I haven't had the time to do so because I do enjoy being inspired by your creativity, as well as giving comments that I know we all cherish. I keep telling myself to hang in there; that this, too, shall pass and things will slow down.

In any event, I have a couple items to share today. One is from a card I uploaded to SCS yesterday for the sketch challenge (and, again, didn't have time to get uploaded to my blog). My friend Cindy (YLM) had sent me a few of these Penny Black snowman images about a year ago, and I've been hoarding this last image. I just love him with his cozy scarf and hat. I drew the lines to create the pattern in his scarf and added dots to the rim of his hat. Isn't he a cutie that you'd just love to snuggle? Hee!

and the other card I made is this 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" square thank-you note I made for a co-worker. Gina K has a tutorial on Stamp TV on how to make matching envelopes for these square cards. I used my Ridinghood Red striped dp for the envelope. It was so easy peasy to make, too!



I used my Twinkling H20s to color the coffee bag and cup. I love this rich red in the Twinkling H20s called Jasper Red. It looks magnificent with Ridinghood Red! This card was also for the CAS challenge that Jen hosts on SCS, which fit my stamping needs perfectly as this is a masculine thank-you card. Well, at least I think it'll pass for masculine.

If you've stopped by today, thank you! I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to see what I've been up to. Tomorrow I hope to share some photos of some gift sets I've been making for a customer (another thing that has kept me busy and away from my blog....but is a little more lucrative...snort!) I wonder what time it is.....

What Do Snowmen Do at Night?

Have you ever pondered the deep mystery of what snowmen do at night while all of us humans are sleeping? Well, apparently Lisa (aka lisa lara on Splitcoaststampers) has. She is our supercalafragilisticexpealidocious Teapot Tuesday hostess today, and, man, does she have a darling teapot for our inspiration! Furthermore, she has created an exceptionally ADORABLE card of her own for this challenge and she drew her own image!!!! I envy her talent to draw her own images. Check out the challenge and Lisa's cute card here. I hope you'll consider playing along with us.

Earlier this week, Lisa posted a sneak peek picture of the inspiration teapot and that is what I worked from. I knew it had something to do with snowmen at night and I saw lots of my beloved purple color, so I drew upon those three things (snowmen, night, and purple) for my card today. And my alter ego, Bertie, also drew upon one more item for her inspiration: pink snowballs. Yep. Pink snowballs....you know....those yummy pink coconut, marshmallow- covered cupcake snowballs? Yep. Bertie and I got the most hilarious package in the mail yesterday from Lorraine (pidgesmom on SCS). It seems Lorraine wanted to continue the snowball fight that Bertie started at last week's Teapot Tuesday party, and she sent me a package of pink snowballs covered with this cute SPLAT! cover:

What? You wanna know where the pink snowballs are? Well, listen up, my friends....here's Bertie's story of what she thinks snowmen do at night and what happened to the pink snowballs Lorraine sent:

Hi, ya'll!!! I jes gots ta tell ya that I thinks snowmen wake up around midnight with all this purty purple glistening snow at their feet, as well as pink, glittery snowballs already preformed layin' about all over da place and they have this massive snowball fight until about 3:00 a.m.!! See this li'l guy here? He's warmin' up his pitchin' arm and has his 'amnition alls abouts him. He's comin' in the front door to the tea party at Santa's cottage and plans to blast a few of the tea partiers with these pink snowballs. Aw, shucks! Don't worry yer purty li'l heads off. Ain't no one gonna git hurt. These snowballs are soft, tasty and full of chocolate cake and creamy white centers! Ya see, snowmen....just afer midnight each night....go from house to house stealin' them thar pink snowball cake goodies and use them for their snowball fights! That's what happened to poor Charlene's snowball goodies that Lorraine sent her. One of them thar snowmen snuck into her house and stole 'em!! What? No, I ain't gained no weight over night. It's jes yer imag'nation.

Well, that's Bertie's story and what she thinks snowmen do at night and what happened to the scrumpdillyicious pink snowball cakes that Lorraine sent to me. I swear that girl is getting fatter every day!!!

Note: I drew the snowman's stick arms so he could warm up his pitchin' arm for the snowball fight. That's the extent of my drawing ability! :-) For my night sky, I ripped some post-it notes and used my sponge daubers to apply various shades of inks (my brayer doesn't like me, so I have to use sponge daubers). I can't remember the name of these tiny snowflakes, but I white embossed them.

Have a great day and watch out for Bertie! She's on the loose. Last I heard she was searchin' for Peggy...

Stamps: Verve's Snow Much Fun
Cardstock: Lovely Lilac, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: almost amethyst, lavender lace, brilliant blue, night of navy, not quite navy, basic gray, black inks for sky, white craft
Accessories: Stampendous pink and purple glitters,copic markers,white embossing powder, snowflake embossing folder, 1/4" circle punch, zig zag punch, purple and navy ribbon, dimensionals

A Few of My Favorite Things

Hi, everyone! I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful celebration.

I have a few things I want to share with you today.

First, and most importantly, is a darling RAK card I received from my friend, Sabrina (Cook22 on SCS), aaalllllll the way from Ireland. This is Pip! Isn't he cute? Sabrina had made him for a Teapot Tuesday challenge and she knows how much I love penguins, so she sent him to me. He stands proudly on one of the shelves in my stamp room. Thank you so much, Sabrina! I love Pip!



Next is a notecard holder and a set of four cards I made for a gift set. I made the notecard holder earlier this week but just hadn't found the time to get it uploaded to my blog. When I saw the Limited Supplies challenge on Splitcoaststampers very early this morning to make more than one card (with different layouts) using the same main image and color scheme, I knew instantly it was just the boost I needed to get my coordinating cards done to go with the notecard holder! Woo-hoo!






And, lastly, is a Christmas card I made for a Doubledog Dare Challenge, hosted by my friend Joanne (sleepyinseattle) this week. She dared us to make a wreath using our stamps with extra bonus points if we used flower stamps. I used my Verve Petals & Stems flower image. I used a circle Nestability as a guide for my circle and stamped the first set of images. I then masked those images and stamped the remaining flowers to fill in the wreath. Half of the flowers have a polkadotted center (part of this same stamp set) and half are 1/4" circles punched out of Purely Pomegranate cardstock. I colored the flowers that appear to be in the background with Prismacolor pencil and gamsol. Lastly, I cut out the wreath and popped it up on dimensionals. I used the Mojo 114 sketch challenge for my layout.

The Tea Party Goes to the Grand Ole Opry!

Hooooowwwwdieeee! Bertie here, and I'm mightee 'cited to be tellin' ya that Maureen Vollaro is our Teapot Tuesday party hostess, and she has arranged for the tea partiers to party on down at the Grand Ole Opry right along with Mr. Johnny Cash!!! All we have to do fer front-door entrance to today's party is bring a card with any of the following: A rose (or our favorite flower), country song theme, Johnny Cash Theme, or a card fer our daughter/mother.

I'm bringin' my card of paper roses; I'll be singin' Marie Osmond's Paper Roses; and I'll be totin' a jug of tea moonshine. Yeesssirreeee! Here's the song I'll be singin' for Mr. Johnny Cash:

With tender looks that I mistook for love
So take away the flowers that you gave me
And send the kind that you remind me of

Paper roses, paper roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only im-ita-tion
Like your imitation love for me

I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seemed so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart

Paper roses, paper roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only im-ita-tion
Like your imitation love for me

You kin git all the party details right here, and I hope ya'll come and join in on the fun!

Yeeee-haaaawww!

Iffin' yer interested in how I made my card, read on....

Stamps: Roses in Winter, Petal Pushers, Short & Sweet
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss
Accessories: Crystal Effects (for dew drops), curly label punch, eyelets, corner rounder, Delightful Decorations punch (for leaves), crimper, dauber