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

Sweet Dreams of You, Dusty

My sweet, innocent, and purty bear (pronounced bar) girl is havin' sweet dreams of Dusty. She loves him so, but he's a cheatin' bear and jes cain't be true to one luv. (She was paper pieced with pink gingham paper and was given rosey cheeks, long flirty eyelashes, and a hair bow.)

Last week, I was hostess for the Teapot Tuesday challenge on SCS for Mothermark. You can scroll down to my 11/10 blog post to see the tale of woe I gave my fellow tea partiers. One of the Twisted Sistahs, Brat Cards (aka Terri), came up with a really cool song in response to a challenge I had given her. You can view her hunkaburnin' love man card and Dusty's song here. In return, Terri challenged Bertie to write a cheatin' song in response.

Bertie loves a challenge, but she's not a great song writer, so she went to one of her favorite Country Western singers, Patsy Cline, for inspiration. If you're familiar with Patsy Cline's music, you'll notice that Bertie took some liberties with incorporating lyrics from various songs of Patsy's into one song.

It goes sumpin' like this:

Sweet dreams of you
Every night I go through
Why can't I ferget you and start my life anew
Instead of havin' sweet dreams about you

I go out walkin' after midnight
Out in the moonlight just like we used to do
I'm always walkin' after midnight searchin' fer you

You don't love me, it's plain
I should know, I'll never wear yer ring
I should hate you the whole night through
Instead of havin' sweet dreams about you

I walk fer miles along the highway
Well that's just my way of sayin' I love you
I'm always walkin' after midnight searchin' fer you

Sweet dreams of you
Things I know cain't come true
Why can't I ferget the past, start loving someone new
Instead of havin' sweet dreams of you

I stopped to see a weepin' willow
Cryin' on his pillow, maybe he's cryin' fer me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me, I'm lonesome as I can be

Crazy, I'm crazy fer feeling so lonely
I'm crazy, crazy fer feeling so blue
I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you'd leave me for somebody new

Worry why do I let myself worry?
Wondrin' what in the world did I do?
Crazy fer thinkin' that my love could hold you
I'm crazy fer tryin' and crazy for cryin'
and I'm crazy fer lovin' you

--------------
I used the sketch design from SCS for this card.

Teapot Tuesday on Wednesday

Howdy, ya'll! It's time for another Teapot Tuesday, but on Wednesday. I kept trying to upload this to my blog last night, but it was havin' nuttin' to do with uploadin' my file. MariLynn is our hostess with the mostest today, and she gave us a beautiful cardinal teapot as our inspiration.

We could use whatever we wanted from the teapot as our inspiration, which, as you can see from the Teapot Tuesday gallery on Splitcoaststampers, most of us went with the cardinal theme. I'd share the inspiration teapot with you, but it has disappeared from the SCS gallery. Not sure what's up with that.

MariLynn also wanted us to share something we are thankful for. I'm thankful for many things in my life, especially my friends, including the many cyber friendships I have made through stamping. You won't find kinder, sweeter, giving people than stampers. Stampers have heart; they'll listen to you through good and bad; and they'll make you laugh.

This card is also for Betty's color challenge to use Always Real Chocolate, and for the Doubledog Dare Challenge issued by Anne (Itspassion) to use plaid and a button(s) in our design. I didn't have any plaid designer paper or ribbon in my stash, so I made my own dp with my plaid maker.

I hope you'll play in one or all of these challenges. Just be sure to use the following keywords:

MMTPT68 for Teapot Tuesday
CC245 for Color Challenge
DDC for the Doubledog Dare Challenge

She's a Treasure

That would be the talented Treasure Oiler on Splitcoaststampers!!! Dawn is the featured stamper today, and I love her creations. Challenge rules dictate that you select one of the FS's projects to case and change two or more things. I've had this eggplant and silver color combo in my head for a few days using poinsettias, so Dawn's pretty Snowflakes card was the perfect chice for me. I changed colors and stamp sets.

The poinsettia image I used is from Gina K's A Year of Flowers as designed by Melanie Meunchinger. I stamped the image twice and colored it with Copic markers. I then cut out all the leaves from the extra image and added amethyst glitter to three of the lighter colored leaves. I then paper toled the poinsettia and finished the center off with a pink pearl. The silver leaves are also from this same stamp set that I stamped in silver ink onto brushed silver cardstock and heat embossed in silver. I love how they turned out! I cut out the leaves and arranged them behind the poinsettia.

The silver embossed larger snowflake in the background is from The Magic of Christmas, also by Gina K Designs, as designed by Rupa Shevde.

Here's a close up:

Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by!

Catching Up

Hi, everyone! Things have been so busy for me lately; I am getting behind in everything it seems. I haven't had much free time this week to visit many blogs, but I will try to catch up with you soon. The other thing I'm behind on is uploading cards to my own blog and on-line galleries! LOL!

My first card is one I made for the Splitcoast sketch challenge this week. I thought this was a really cool sketch design, and it was conducive to my using this Penny Black image for my sympathy card. The sketch design Roxie used was inspired by a card my talented friend, Dawn (Flowergal36) made. I colored the flower image with my bravo burgundy and always artichoke markers and stamped onto very vanilla cardstock. The beautiful background designer paper is Cosmo Cricket. I pierced the outer edge of the dp, as well as one side of the image panel, and faux stitched with a bravo burgundy marker. Oh, and that ribbon......to-die-for May Arts silk ribbon I purchased from Sharon Johnson this past summer when I was up at a Michigan stamping event. The May Arts silk ribbon is THE BEST ribbon with which I've worked! It's not bulky--which, again, helps with mailing--and it is easy to manipulate when using it on the Bow Easy, as I did here.

These next few cards are a series of sympathy cards I made for a customer. This first one was made using SU rub ons, the wide oval punch, and this pretty translucent yellow silk flower that came as a package my friend Joanne (JoJot) sent to me. I layered the SU flower punch on top of that, along with using the 1/4" black circle punch for the flower center. I hate wasting cardstock, so, as much as I can, I try to use cardstock I've saved after using my Nestabilities. The white layers are actually frames. That helps to cut down on the thickness of a card, too. When making cards for customers, I always try to keep layers and chunky embellishments to a minimum for their mailing purposes.

I was inspired to make this card after a beautiful card I saw in CardMaker magazine. I have to hunt down the issue and give the original artist credit for this beautiful card. I used my SU floral bg stamp in black onto kraft cardstock, this In Full Bloom flower stamped in black onto white and cut out, the square steps punch for the corner, and the Sizzix flourish die. The sentiment is from Warmest Regards.

I was inspired to make this card after seeing this technique used on Splitcoast by a few talented stampers. Most recently, it was Harriet's (hskelly) card using the Upsy Daisy set that really motivated me to try this technique. I stamped my Petal Prints flower in Going Gray, rocked the outer edge in Basic Gray and stamped them onto Sahara Sand cardstock. I then took my white Prismacolor pencil to color over the gray. I just love the soft effect it gives these flowers.

One of my favorite stand-by stamp sets for sympathy cards is The Art of Life. I love it's simple elegance. I colored my stamp with SU markers and then stamped onto white cardstock. I even pulled out my Crop-a-dile to use these pretty eyelets....something I don't use much anymore, but need to. I have to say of all the Cuttlebug embossing folders, the one I love the most is the dotted swiss folder.


Thanks for looking! I always appreciate your visits and comments. I hope life is treating you well, my friend. If you've got a moment, tell me something good that's happened to you lately.

I'm Your Teapot Tuesday Challenge Hostess!

MMTPT67

Happy Tuesday fellow tea partiers! Mothermark asked me if I would fill in for her with this week’s Teapot Tuesday challenge, which I was happy to oblige. Here’s this week’s inspiration teapot and story:

This is what is written on the teapot:

Dusty's owners grew up and left home. Found in the attic he has suffered some moth damage. Could you love him?

My Card:



Finally, The Story:

Once upon a time there was a sweet, adorable teddy bear named Dusty. Dusty lived in Detroit with his owner Daphne, who loved Dusty very, very much when she was a little girl. Daphne took good care of Dusty, too. Always making sure he was fed, bathed, changed, and toted around with her everywhere she went. Daphne always made sure that Dusty was in her arms when her mother and father tucked her into bed at night, too. His most favorite time with Daphne was their daily tea parties. Dusty loved Daphne and was such a happy teddy bear.

Then, one sad day, Daphne didn’t come to visit Dusty, nor did she come the following day. A week went by and Dusty despaired of ever seeing Daphne again. Shortly thereafter, Daphne’s mother, Delphine, relegated Dusty to the attic where he remained for many, many years gathering dust and losing his downy soft fur to the dastardly moths in the attic. Dusty cried and cried and so wished that Daphne would come rescue him from the darkness of the attic. He was so alone and afraid.

A few months later, Dusty saw a moving truck pull into the driveway. Despondently he watched as Daphne’s father, Darrin, and her mother, Delphine directed the movers as to which items should be removed from the house. Dusty was so hopeful that they wouldn’t forget about him all alone in the attic, but, alas, they never came for Dusty. Dusty watched as the last piece of furniture was loaded onto the truck and Daphne, Darrin and Delphine loaded up in the car to follow the moving truck to their new home.

Hearing of Dusty’s sad tale, I, Bertie, am calling upon all my card making tea party friends to help save Dusty and give this sad story a happy ending. I know what wonderful, big hearts you have. Come to Michigan and pick me up along your way to Detroit where we are going to rescue Dusty! Be sure to bring food, clothing, storybooks, extra teddy bears, your sewing kits to help repair the tears in Dusty’s fur, and whatever else you think Dusty may need and let’s show him how much we love him by finding a new home for him! Dusty will be joining us for high tea, and Bertie's bringing m&ms with Dusty's face and name on them.

A Happy Ending

As you can see from my card, Dusty has been dusted off and his tattered fur repaired. He's also been given a new bow tie and a heart full of love because he is in his new home nestled under the Christmas tree, as one of the presents to be given to a new little girl who will love and cherish him.

This is also for my Doubledog Dare Challenge (DDC) on two counts: (1) as issued by Francie last week to make a card with four or more layers and use ribbon and/or cord and (2) as issued by me as a doubledog dare to my DDC group to participate in this week's Teapot Tuesday challenge!

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree, A Cardinal Christmas,
Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White, Christmas dp for presents
Ink: Tuxedo Memento Black, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Copic markers, gold paint pen, gingham ribbon, gold brads, ScorPal, dimensionals, 1/4" circle punch, gold cord

First Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Blog Hop!

Welcome to our first Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Blog Hop!

Jessica Fick, the Design Team Coordinator for GinaK Designs has issued a challenge to all of the past and present team CSS team members to make a Christmas card with one of these sketches:




We know you're going to LOVE what everyone has designed for us tonight!

First, here are the links for GinaK's Current CSS Team Members:

Deb Felts
Diana S. Queen
Karen Knegten
Melissa Cash
Sharri Seffens
Sue VanDeVusse

and the links for all of the past CSS Design Team members participating:


Brenda Turner,
Carla Suto,
Carolina Buchting,
Charlene Merrick, (that would be moi')
Dawn Lusk,
DeeMarie Kelemen,
Geri Utterback ,
Giovanna Smith,
Janice Melton,
JenMarie Taylor,
Jennie Harper,
Joy Hadden,
Kay Simmons,
Linda Payne,
Lori McAree,
Melisa Waldorf,
Pam Imholz,
Selma Stevenson,
Shannon Bracken,
Shelly Wilson,
Sue Walsh,
Tina Gilliland

Some of GinaK's Senior Design Team Members and Illustrators wanted to get in on the fun tonight too:

Asela Hopkins
Carolyn King
Cindy Lawrence
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger

along with Nina Brackett's Guest Designer: Lisa Hjulberg

And, of course, we cannot forget the ever talented Gina K. herself!


Whew! Quite a list, eh? I hope you can stop by as many of them as time permits for you. And, now, onto my creation:

I used this beautiful dove from designer Rupa Shevde's The Magic of Christmas set. The full sentiment actually reads Peace on Earth, but I only wanted the word Peace so it would fit into the oval, so I used a Versamark pen to highlight peace and then gold embossed it. The dove was also gold embossed, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. I used pretty green stickles to color the leaves on the twig the dove is holding in his beak. The red dry embossed bg was embossed with Stampin Up's Petal's a Plenty textured impressions folder onto red vellum paper (thanks to my friend Lynn for both of those items) and then I added the same pretty green stickles to the centers of the flower petals. The corner poinsettia and leaves embellishment are silk.

Blessings and peace to you,

Textural Birthday Balloons

I love sketch challenges, and Roxie has another fabulous one this week at Splitcoaststampers. I haven't had a chance to play in this particular challenge in some time, but I did get up a little bit earlier this morning and was able to play this week. I needed a birthday card for a co-worker, and this sketch worked fab for that.



This card came together quickly because the designer paper really lent itself well to the sketch design. My balloons were colored with Copic markers and then I embossed the image with my dotted swiss embossing folder.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, No, It’s….

Bionic Burdie!!

I like to introduce you to Bionic Burdie, cousin of Big Butt Bertie. Bionic Burdie has one screw loose (do you see it there laying at her feet?), but she is still very strong and is helping out da Muddermark and da other tea partiers, all of whom are on their way to da North Pole. Actually, don't tell them I said so, but I think there are a few of the other tea partiers who might have a screw loose, too, but they are so FUN to hang out with!

Anyway, back to the mission at hand: to help Santa with his sleigh problems this year. Word is that Santa hasn’t kept up with today’s technology and his flight controls have gone bonkers.

The tea partiers even get to name the new team pulling the sleigh this year. Bionic Burdie has hired her team of bionic buddies to help pull the sleigh. Only they aren’t reindeer; they are some of her most famous friends. You might recognize a few of their names:

Memphis, Norma Jean, Mumble, Gloria, Miss Viola, Lovelace, and Seymour

Mrs. Claus is servin’ up frosted sugar cookies, fudge, divinity, and peanut brittle to da tea partiers. However, Bionic Burdie also asked her to include some of them delicacies called silver fishies since she’s tryin’ to lose a few pounds around her waistline, and her bionic friends would much prefer the silver fishies over all the sugar. Once they have had their fill, they've been known to fling a few. Nuttin' like gittin' smacked in the head with slimy shiny silvery fishies! Woo-hoo!!!

Here’s a link to da Muddermark's glob with all the details for participating in today's All Shiny, All Spiffy, We'll be There in a Jiffy tea party, as well as the inspiration teapot. Ya gotta love those shiny silver items.

How Bionic Burdie Came to Life

brushed silver cardstock
Sizzix penguin die
shiny silver metallic paper
Cuttlebug dotted swiss embossing folder
Cuttlebug mosaic tile embossing folder
silver hodgepodge hardware
silver cord
1 3/8" circle punch
1/2" circle punch (to make faux screws)
3/4" circle punch
unknown alphabet stamps for "noel"
snowflakes stamped and embossed with iridescent ice (snowflake stamp from Gina K.'s The Magic of Christmas stamp set

Have a wonderful, shiny day! Thanks for stopping by!

Two Inspired Features

I've been pretty busy this weekend filling an order for sympathy cards, which I'll probably get uploaded tomorrow, and hubby and I were gone most of the day today. However, I did manage to squeeze in some time to case two featured stampers this weekend.

My first one is in honor of our Doubledog Dare Challenge leader, Julia (aka artystamper). Joan Ervin challenged the Doubledog Dare Challenge group to case a card from the gallery of our fearless leader, artystamper (Julia). Julia started the group almost two years ago, and we rotate issuing our weekly challenge every Tuesday. As Joan wrote:

"We have been together for almost 2 years and there is one super AWESOME lady who had kept us on our toes!!! This particular lovely lady has kept up with the challenge schedule, created a database with birthdays, addresses, and much more."

Here's the beautiful card of Julia's that I cased. I was drawn to the clean, simple lines and the purple!!

And here's my case of her card. I stamped my A Year of Flowers tulips on Ridinghood Red polkadotted designer paper and cut them out. I used a Marvy LePlume black fine point marker and a rectangle Nestability to draw my black frame around the flowers.

My second card is in honor of the featured stamper this Sunday over at Splitcoaststampers. I met Jen (aka Miss Boo) a couple years ago at a Michigan Mingle event. She has such a sweet smile and personality, and she makes some of the cutest and prettiest CAS cards ever. I chose to case her strikingly pretty Have a Terrific Day card. I was so drawn to the pink and black combo, as well as her use of the topnote die.

Here's my case. No stamps....just the circle scalloped punch embossed with my dotted swiss embossing folder and lightly sponged on the outer petals with Ridinghood Red ink. I cut between the scallops toward the center of the punch to create flower petals that I could bend for greater dimension. The pretty designer paper is Bella Rose by Stampin' Up. Oh, and see my black buttons? They were made with the little Sizzlit button die from Stampin' Up. I know I'll get a lot of use out of this die making my own buttons to fit the colors or patterns I need at any given time.

I hope you've had a great weekend enjoying the things that make you happy. As always, I appreciate your visit to my blog!

Snugs, snorts, chuckles, and giggles!