It's All in the Family

Oooooo! Patsmethers you reign supreme as Queen for the Day! I have been cruising your SCS gallery all weekend trying to settle on a card to case. I must admit to being intimidated casing you, my dear. You've got more talent wrapped up in the tip of your pinky than I do in my entire body, and I keep expecting to find your pretty smiling face in the Dirty Dozen gallery soon! Your cards are always a work of the "heart," even if you do try to act like you're all naughty or sumpin'. But we know what a big heart you have. Sooooo, I just had to case one of your sweet HM cards, and I especially love this darling Fly Away card you made.

I just had to pull out my adorable li'l teddy bear and pair him up with these big balloons. After all, he needs some big balloons to help him lift off! I paper pieced my balloons and colored teddy with Copic markers. I sponged Soft Sky, Barely Banana, and Mellow Moss on the background.  I used my notched corner punch and threaded pink embroidery thread around that.

I keep praying that Stampin' Up will bring back permanently some of the In Colors they've introduced these past few years. I especially love the softness of Pink Pirouette and Soft Sky.

In any event, CONGRATULATIONS, Pat on being Queen for the Day! You're one of the bestest!!
 
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I made my next card for the Twisted Sisters challenge to case a card of JamiePTS who happens to be Pat's daughter-in-law!  How cool that they both were honored by being featured in challenges this weekend!  I cased Jamie's darling truck load of love card as I needed to make a birthday card for my grandson. 

I used SU reinkers to watercolor my scene, except for the sky, which I sponged Soft Sky using a post-it note punched with the scallop punch as my template.

Happy Birthday, Brody!  We love you!

The Road Less Traveled

I made this for the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers where we were to make a selection from the Thyme website.  I chose the Blue Lotus candle and box.

I stamped the Rubbernecker leaf image with versamark and clear embossed it on glossy cs. I wrapped a rubberband around my brayer and inked it up with Tempting Turquoise to create the darker-inked distressed stripes at the top of my image panel. I then sponged So Saffron and Tempting Turquoise over the entire piece of cardstock and wiped over the leaf image with a paper towel to reveal the white leaves (emboss resist).   I dry embossed my vellum.  Since I had to run it through twice to cover the entire 5x5" piece, the vellum cracked in places, but I like the effect it gave.  I just received my SU two-step bird punch and love it!

I hope you're having a great Saturday! 

Spring Tulips

Tosha has been the CCEE Stampers' challenge hostess for the month of March.  She has been inspiring us with all kinds of beautiful inspiration photos, and I think this last one was my favorite.  I just love these pretty pastel cookies and wished I could reach in and grab one to eat!!!   I was so inspired by the pretty colors, which immediately made me think of a spring bouquet of my favorite flower:  tulips!  I even found some retired SU Mint Melody in my stash!  I used the flower pot pocket card tutorial on SCS for my card.

Here's another photo showing the inside of the pull-out panel.  I love this Well-Scripted sentiment set by Stampin' Up!

I used the Stampin' Up heart punch to create my tulips, as well as smaller heart punches for the center of the tulips.  On some of the centers, I used one of the boho blossoms punch to create the edging.  For the leaves, I cut my cardstock (about 2" x 1"), scored and folded in half, cut out leaf shape, and sponged edges.

I know my gardening friend will love this for her birthday!

If you'd like to play along and see the projects the other CCEE stampers made, please visit our CCEE blog.

Supplies:  All Stampin' Up punches (large heart, heart trio, boho blossoms, scallop trim border, large and small oval punches); Flight of the Butterfly, and Well-Scripted stamp sets; Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal, and Mint Melody cardstock and inks; polkadotted designer paper and ribbon.

Life is Caaaa-rrraaaazy!

Man, oh, man!  Where do the days go?  They just fly by anymore.  I haven't had time to keep my blog updated this past week, so I thought I'd share a few projects I've made but didn't get uploaded starting with the most recent and working back to last Friday.

Tuesday of this week, was Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday and she showcased the cutest crossword puzzle teapot.  I had purchased this birdhouse at one of my local hobby stores quite some time ago and decided it would be perfect for altering for this challenge!  After I painted it with white acrylic paint, I covered it with designer siding using a crossword puzzle  I copied out of my local newspaper.  I used SU's largest oval punch and Cuttlebug embossing folder to create my rooftop.  The little flowers and "for you" sentiment are SU rub-ons.  The bird is a QuickKutz die.

On Sunday, my friend Cathy (aka Mutnik) and fellow Rubbernecker DT member, was chosen as the Featured Stamper on SCS!  Here's the cute I Smell Chocolate card of Cathy's that I cased, obviously changing mine to cows in Cathy's honor of her love of cows.  She is one mega-talented artist!  The cows are SU's Very Punny, and my grass and flowers were created with my Kittie Kits Cause a Scene by Rubbernecker.

MarilynPrestonn was Queen for the Day on SCS.  I cased her adorable bee card changing mine to these hilarious fishies by Rubbernecker.  I colored them with my Twinkling H20s and gave them googlie eyes.

For those of you who know me, and Sheri (ksnurse) obviously does, you know I love penguins!  I just think they are such cute little creatures and just watching them walk their goofy walk makes me giggle.  Sheri sent me these darling penguins she created with her Cricut for my birthday this year.  Stef, over at SCS, had us go to the cutestfood.com website for the Inspiration Challenge on Saturday and I chose the penguin egg for my inspiration piece.

Don't forget that today is the last day of the sale going on over at Rubbernecker (see my post below).  You have until midnight (EST) to place your order!

That's it for now as I'm off to a hair appointment, a little shopping, and then plan to stamp this evening!  I hope you'll stop by tomorrow when I'll have my weekly CCEE challenge card posted!

Happy Hump Day!!

Don't Cha Just Love a Sale?!?!?

There's nothing like the word 'SALE!' to grab my attention, and I'm here to tell ya that Rubbernecker Stamps has a spectacular one going on through March 24th with discounts between 15% - 28% off fabulous products such as:

Ranger
Spellbinders
Tsukineko
Clearsnap

You have till midnight, Wednesday, March 24, 2010 to take advantage of this great sale!!!  Be sure to check it out!

Inspired by a Bird's Nest

Tosha provided the CCEE Stampers with a beautiful bird's nest inspiration photo from Williams-Sonoma for our challenge this week.  The bird eggs are truffles!  Yum! 

We were to create a card/project around whatever inspired us, whether it be the colors, textures, flowers, eggs, whatever came to mind.  I drew upon the colors of green and lavender with a splash of red, as well as creating the octagonal shape to somewhat resemble the shape of the bird's nest.

I stamped the Pocket Silhouettes  image in Old Olive, Almost Amethyst, and Lavender Lace and sponged Barely Banana and Bashful blue for the background and sky.  The sentiment and music note are from Happy Days by There She Goes.  The red flower is felt, and I used my Cropadile to put an Old Olive eyelet in the center of it, as well as a black brad.  The background dp is from SU's Bella Rose collection, and I love this MS flower border punch!

You can check out the cards/projects my friends made on our CCEE blog, as well as get the details for playing along with us!

Grapes of Laugh

Well dagnabit! It looks like Bertie led me astray for the tea party this week! She told me we were bringing grapes to today’s party.

When I came to upload my card, I read da Muddermark’s story for Teapot Tuesday that we’re actually going to the Galapogos Islands in South America where we'll be riding giant tortoises and that we’re to bring shoes for Flat Footed Booby Ruby (where does da Mudder come up with these names???). I was so upset with Bertie that I just wanted to throw my grapes away!! However, Bertie was very contrite and apologetic. She’s really gone out of her way to try to calm me down. She told me that it’s actually a good thing that Booby Ruby is flat footed because her feet won’t fit in all those shoes the other tea partiers are bringing anyway and, furthermore, Booby Ruby’s flat feet will be perfect for smooshing grapes for wine! Bertie wanted to make it even more fun for us, so we took grape smooshing lessons with Lucy in Italy. You can see Bertie here in the vat with Lucy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0D-Rv_vro

We had so much fun making that video with Lucy!

Now, we’re off to the Galapogos Islands to join the other tea partiers, riding giant tortoises and flingin’ grapes (and shoes) today! We hope you’ll come join us!



See that button covered in fine yarn in the upper left corner? It is a button I discovered in an old sewing basket that had belonged to my mother-in-law. I found the basket in my closet. This part of my card is for an Inspiration challenge on Stamp TV. I added a purple rhinestone to the center of it.

After I colored and cut out my grapes, I stamped the image in Versamark and heat embossed with Glassy Glaze for a richer, shinier color.

A RAK, a Recipe, and a Card!

Happy Saturday!!!  I love Saturdays because, typically, I get to sleep in for a little bit after working all week.  We've got a busy day ahead of us, though, so I was up earlier than usual getting busy on a few things.

First up, and long overdue, I want to show you a darling card that my good chum, Joanne (aka JoJot, SnoSnot, SnoSnertie) sent to me.  She knows I love da m&ms!!!  Isn't this sentiment just the cutest?  I've been known to sneak an m&m (or two) for breakfast.  It's how I got my nickname, Big Butt Bertie.  Now that I'm older, though, I need to rid myself of such terrible eating habits....well, maybe not.  I mean, after all, a girl has to have a few vices!  Giggle.  Thanks, again, Jo!  This adorable guy is going on my sidebar, too!

Okay, speaking of eating habits.....I truly have been trying to turn over a new leaf with a better diet and exercise.  I've been having fun (did I really type that???) participating in a step aerobics/strength training class a couple nights a week with my friend, Lynn.  She dragged me there kicking and screaming, but I finally gave in and am rather enjoying it now.

Anywhoooo, our instructor provides us with a free health magazine.  In one of them, I found this scrumpdillyicious recipe for Peanutty Energy Bars.  Instead of reaching for a candy bar before exercise, I power up with one of these.  I even had to ask my friend, Barb, who is a nutritionist, if these were really healthy because they tasted too darn good in my book to be healthy for me!  She assured me that the ingredients were healthy and that if I were concerned with the sugar content, I could probably cut back on the recipe a bit for the mixture you spoon over the bars.   These are really easy to make, too, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.  The recipe is from the Peanut Institute.

PEANUTTY ENERGY BARS

Ingredients:
1/2 cup salted dry-roasted peanuts
1/2 cup roasted sunflower seed kernels (or some other kind of nut to your liking)
1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit
2 cups uncooked oatmeal (old-fashioned or instant is fine)
2 cups toasted rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional:  1/4 cup toasted wheat germ

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix the peanuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, oatmeal, and rice cereal (and wheat germ if you're adding that).  Set aside. 
In a medium microwaveable bowl, combine the peanut butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup.  Microwave on high for two minutes.  Add vanilla and stir until blended.  (side note:  this is where I questioned the healthy aspect of this recipe because I felt like I was eating peanut butter fudge!!!  Love that stuff!)  Pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients; mix well.
For squares, spoon the mixture into an 8"x8" pan coated with cooking spray; for bars spoon it into a 9"x13" pan.  Press down firmly.  It helps to coat your fingers with oil or cooking spray.  Let stand for about an hour, then cut into squares or bars.
Makes 16 squares or bars.
225 calories per serving
30g carb; 6g protein; 9g fat

Now, for a card I made.  We're off to visit and celebrate March family birthdays a little later on today.  I made this birthday card for my nephew and as a part of the Inspiration challenge on Splitcoaststampers (SCS).  Unfortunately, SCS has been down for quite a while this morning so I haven't been able to upload it there.  I chose this photo from the inspiration website:

I love stripes, in addition to polkadots, and drew upon that for my card.  Instead of ships and lighthouses, I cut these party hats using my Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge.    I used my double circle and double rectangle punches to decorate the hats.  The little candles are by Rubbernecker.  They also have larger size candles that coordinate with these little ones.  I used SU's Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, and Always Artichoke for my colors.  The striped dp is by American Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPEALIDOCIOUSLY splendid day!

The Key to Time

My card today covers a few challenges:

(1)  CCEE weekly challenge issued by Tosha (stamps4funinca) to make a card base on this inspiration photo of caviar.  Something I've never tried and, truth be told, have no desire to try!

(2)  Two Doubledog Dare challenges
       (a)  one I issued to my team members last week to make a card incorporating time into the design and using a quote from the Quote Garden website.  I chose "You can't turn back the clock.  But you can wind it up again." (Bonnie Pruden) and placed it on the inside of my card.
      (b)  this week's challenge given to us by Anne (itsapassion) to put a tag on our card and incorporate a challenge from a challenge we've never participated in before.  Anne provided us with a link to a really cool blog that lists various challenge blogs called The Daily Dare.  I chose to use the "use a charm" challenge on the Creative Inspirations blog, which is my key charm. 



This is a really different design for me as I don't think I've ever done vintage or a collage design before.  I used this cool collage stamp by Rubbernecker as well as the separate time piece image.  I first colored my Very Vanilla cardstock in the various shades of color that I saw represented in Tosh's dishes of caviar and then stamped my images in Memento Rich Cocoa.

My designer papers (the orange and cream polkadots and the ledger paper) are from Chloe's Closet (Making Memories).

I used my Karen Foster snap stamps to stamp the words the, to, and time making my sentiment read "the key to time".  As I wrote above, I put the quote from the Quote Garden on the inside as seen here:

You can check out the cards my friends made on our CCEE Stampers' blog as well as the details for playing with us in the challenge, if you'd like! 

If you'd like to play in the Doubledog Dare challenges, be sure to use keywords DDC when uploading to Splitcoaststampers.

Love for Lindsay

I made this quilt-like card for several challenges. Betty and Cindy are combining the Color and Teapot Tuesday challenges today.  Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday challenge can be seen here for the full story. Betty's color challenge is to use Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and Melon Mambo (Pink Passion), and Jen's CAS challenge from yesterday to layer two different shapes (mine are octagons and hearts). Most importantly, I made this card for Lindsay. You can read about Lindsay's story in the Love for Lindsay thread on Splitcoast.

I stamped, cut, and layered three of the hearts. I don't have Pink Passion dp, so I used some of my background stamps for those two panels. I also used my ScorPal to score the background for a quilt-like effect.

Thanks for looking and won't you consider playing today and sending Lindsay some much needed love and encouragement?

Blog Candy Alert!!!

Who doesn't love blog candy???   Judi, Paper-Rose-Petals, has some awesome blog candy to give away on her blog.  Here's a picture of it:

Be sure to stop by Judi's blog and leave her some love!

Dino Birthday

Today's Free for All challenge on Splitcoaststampers was to make a free standing pop-up card. This was a PERFECT challenge for my great nephew's birthday!  There's a great tutorial on the resources page for making this type of card.


I made a faux jumbo eyelet out of black cardstock with my 1/4" and 1/2" circle punches. I cut the grass free hand.

Food Inspired

Tosh Leyendekker is our CCEE challenge hostess for the month of March, and she will be tempting us with food inspiration photos each week.  Here's the first photo she's tempted us with, and Tosh told us that anything goes for our projects:  shapes, embellishments, styles.....

I was inspired by the colors and what I saw as the sketch design in this photo.  The colors I saw in this photo are Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate, Creamy Caramel, and White. 

I used my Stampin' Up trio of flowers punch to make my trees.  I saw these cute punch art trees on Julia Bettencourt's blog some time ago and had made a note to make these for one of my Christmas cards this year.  Julia used SU's full heart punch, but since I don't have that one, I used the trio heart punch.  This punch ended up being perfect for my card as I needed to make two smaller trees and one larger one for my design.  I sponged the bottom of the branches in White Craft ink and the tops of them with Always Artichoke.  I used the 1/2" and double circle punches to for the ornaments.  The sentiment is gold embossed.

You can check out the challenge details and the cards the CCEE team members made on our CCEE blog.  I hope you'll find some time to play along with us!