Darling Tilda

Supplies: Euphoria Patter paper by Basic Grey; Cardstock, buttons, brad, Sentiment from Say it in Style Stamp set from CTMH; Flowers by Prima; Crayola and RoseArt Colored Pencils; Odorless Mineral Spirits with blending stumps; White gel pen by sakura

Sparkle had RAKed me a few weeks ago with some absolutely darling Tilda images. They are the ones I have been saving to color in using the Gamsol Magic Technique that I have been practicing the past couple days. I have done some strokes and blending on cardstock aside from the two cards I made just to kind of see how the gamsol affects the different pressures you use with coloring pencils as well. I love the softer look of the pencils and thought it would work beautifully with these darlings! Anyway here is my first one :D I think she is just too cute! Thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely Sunday!

More Gamsol Magic Practice

Supplies: Teapot Daisies by Stampingbella; Pattern Paper by My Minds Eye; CS by Bazzil; Ribbon, Brads, Say it in Style stamp set by CTMH; Crayola and Roseart Colored Pencils; Odorless Paint Thinner

Another card I made to practice a little more with the Gamsol Magic Technique. I messed up less on this one, though I'm not sure if my own changes in the way I colored made much of a difference or if they even made it easier for me. You are supposed to do each shade separate(starting from lightest then to darkest) and blend before adding the next layer. In this one I added all of my colors first and then blended them all at once to see if it changed it at all. I'm still experimenting a little with it. Either way I think I do well enough to play with the images I've been wanting to use this technique on ^_~ They are RAK images so I wanted to make sure I did okay before using them up.

So now that Thanksgiving is pretty much over, what do you miss about your Thanksgivings while growing up? When I was little we used to go to the huge family get together that my mom's side has on that Saturday. She's the 10th out of 11 kids, but two of the brothers are still in the Philippines. Anyway, most of my aunts and uncles have big families and everyone always brought tons of food. There was always so much Filipino food (I miss it and I am not good at cooking it, lol) so I definitely miss having that. I also miss being a part of such a huge gathering. I can't stand crowds and don't care for big parties, but when I think back to when I was ages 7-11, I really loved having so many cousins to hang out with in a overly stuffed house, lol! Anyway, I hope everyone had a safe and fun Black Friday! Have a fun lazy Saturday (or maybe a busy one wrapping up all those gifts ^_~)!!

Bella Color Challenge #56 with a Twist!

Hope has been doing the color challenges on the bella forums with a twist, and it has been a lot of fun for me to try and get both the challenge and the twist in my cards :D This week the colors are Tulip, Buttercup, and Orange and the twist was to color in your image using a medium you don't normally use.

Supplies: Poppy Bitty Bloom by Stampingbella; some CS, Buttons, Sentiment from Treasure Life and background flowers from With Love stamp sets by CTMH; some CS by Bazzil; Ribbon by P Inc.; Colored pencils by RoseArt and Crayola; Odorless Paint Thinner

Well since I had just barely gotten some odorless mineral spirits I thought this was great opportunity for me to immediately dive in and try out the Gamsol Magic technique! I think I did alright for my first time. I messed up a ton, but nobody needs to know where except me, lol! I am putting up Christmas decor with my girls and niece since she is in town and I am watching her while her dad is at work. And I'm not the least bit disappointed to not go out in that shopping craze today!!! It's been raining here the past couple days and people drive NUTS here when it rains. Add black Friday to that and I am glad I was planning to stay home anyway, lol!! Whatever your plans, have a great crazy black Friday!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My card for the #56 Bella Sketch Challenge on the SCS forums. Uses My Minds Eye papers, Clickabella, and sentiment, cardstock, and embellies from CTMH

I hope all my US sisters have a great Thanksgiving today! And the rest of my blogging sisters around the world have wonderful day as well! Since it is Thanksgiving I wanted to thank all of you for being a part of my life. Knowing that people actually get online and view my creations for inspiration inspires me to be creative, to make time to create, and essentially take time for myself! I'm thankful that you visit my blog, thankful for all the amazing support I have received from such wonderful crafting sisters, thankful for all the inspiration, friendship, and love I have felt from sharing my life with you.

Tuesday afternoon our family received a package in the mail that was sent with love from gals I know online and anonymous ladies as well, each with such large hearts. Vicki B. had sent us a package that contained cards, images, and other wonderful gifts from these different ladies on SCS. There are so many images, this really was amazing! I would love to personally thank everyone that participated as it really lifted my spirits and touched my heart so very much, but since there were a few anonymous gifts I will have to settle for hoping that you all get to read this and know how very thankful I am for your friendship and generosity. The heartfelt messages in your cards were a warm blanket of comfort and your gifts showered us with kindness. And I am so very thankful. We as a family are so thankful for this wonderful surprise. Vicki had said that you guys just wanted to do 'a little something' for us and I want you to know that maybe even if you thought your gifts were little, they are a big deal to us!

And just for fun I thought it would be nice to post 10 random things I am thankful for today :D Feel free to play and post your 10 thanks on your blog! (This pic is from my house. If you look closely you can see the girl's fingerprints on the cabinet top, lol!) So here are my ten:

1 - Family and Friends (okay so that one isn't random, lol but it is definitely important!

2 - Homemade Quilts

3 - Vicks Vapor Rub (The girls and I spent the last week with stuffy noses and sore throats)

4 - The color of fall leaves

5 - The sweet scent of my girls

6 - Chilly mornings

7 - My hubby's freshly shaved face (minus his goatee of course, lol but it's soft right now so that's okay ^_~)

8 - Freshly baked cookies

9 - Handmade cards

10 - And Knee Socks (I have an obsession with them, lol)

Last but not least I'm thankful for not having to cook the turkey, lol!! I know that's eleven but once you get going it's hard to stop at 10!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope your turkey or ham or whatever you are having tonight tastes great and the company is wonderful as well!

Blog Candy Winner!!

Sorry this has taken so long! My hubby's laptop is on the fritz and he's been trying to fill out a scholarship for next semester that one of the financial ladies informed him about this last Monday. It's for students like him who are kind of the underdog, people facing a lot of adversity in their lives but are still trying to get their degree. Anyway, the computer is finally free... for a few minutes anyway so here is the winner that Audrey drew :D

You can tell how interested she is in drawing a name, lol. Charlie and Lola are WAY more captivating ^_~.



Congratulations Emilee!!!! E-mail me your snail addy so I can get this in the mail for you :D

And here is the updated blog candy pack! How neat is that, to see how it grew from each card! Here's what got added - Christmas colored safety pins, spirals, nail heads, and conchos, little pastel primas, big summer primas, flower sparkles, acrylic flowers and flower chipboard, and some pretty green satin ribbon! Thanks everyone for playing! The girls and I had so much fun viewing your cards (Caitie LOVED all the snowmen ^_~) and it was a blast finding fun little bits to add to the blog candy!

Grateful Bella Challenge

This last Friday the challenge on the Bellariffic Blog was to use a Grateful theme. I really wanted to use my last chefabella card, but that would be cheating a little as I made it prior to the challenge, so I created another chefabella card ^_~.


Supplies: Paper by My Minds Eye; CS, Brads, Markers, ink, and Say it in Style Stamp set by CTMH; Chefabella stamp by Stampingbella

Just a quickie card using some scraps I had. I recently reorganized all my paper which wasn't too difficult a task since I try to keep my stash pretty reasonable. Right now all my paper and cardstock only fill my XXL Crop 'n Style 2/3 of the way so it really wasn't too big of a task. I used to have all my scraps in with my whole papers that matched it but found that that method just wasn't working out very well for me so I separated all my pattern scraps into one baggie so I can see them all. This also helps me use up scraps first when it comes to making cards ^_~ I used to do the same thing with my cardstock too but have separated them as well and boy is my paper ever so much easier to go through now! I just reach for the scrap baggies first and only if I don't have it there do I reach for a whole sheet to cut up. Anyway, that was my own little happy moment there, lol. I love getting stuff organized and am constantly reorganizing. I get just as much satisfaction from that as I do creating stuff, lol!

And just a fun pic of the girls being silly :D They said the cards were saying cheese when I was taking my pics of them and that they wanted to say cheese as well, lol. I know I'm biased, but I think they are way cuter than my cards!! Anyway, for an update real quick on the blog candy entries here are the links to the cards by player :

Alanna
Cheryl
Emilee
Jami
Jena
Jenn M.
Kim
Laurel
Pat
Vicki W.

Be sure to check out their wonderful winter cards! Sparkle also created a darling card using this sketch but with a summer/fall theme which didn't count for the blog candy challenge but is darling none the less! Oh and Emilee, your post was the only one I couldn't leave a comment on, so just to let you know your card is adorable! I loved the sanded embossed background and how you made the image spot fit your snowmen, sentiment and those cute buttons! The blog candy winner will be posted later this afternoon! Thanks for playing ladies!

A Gift for Mom

So I have to laugh at the fact that I thought Alanna was talking about political affiliations instead of football, lol! My hubby and I are both in the nerd spectrum and don't watch sports. Any sports, lol. So I don't know about what happened with the U or BYU, but it seems from Alanna's response that BYU lost. Truthfully though if I did watch college football I would be for the U ^_~ Just because Paul has looked into going there for his English degree, lol. I also got Jena's cute blog candy card so I'll be adding in something more today. I've got some flower sparkles and big primas in the mix now for Jenn and Kim's cards :D So now onto the art!

Supplies : Cardstock, ink, Treasure Life, and For Every Occasion stamp sets by CTMH

These are ultra simple cards that were inspired by when I stamped the inside of the Mom's birthday card. I've seen plenty of the simple silhoutte cards around and wanted to make her a pretty card set that was quick and easy for me to make, yet pretty and elegant for her to use. I also wanted to keep the cards completely flat as she likes to mail them out with just one stamp.

A sample of each style of card. I made three styles but each of them had different sentiments such as Congratulations, Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Thank You, etc. These were very quick, I think I made them all in under 2 hours and that was with Audrey in my lap trying to 'help' me, lol. Remember that you still have until tonight midnight to get your cards in for my 40,000 hits Blog Candy! I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving week! I will have the regular post scheduled for tomorrow and then another post later in the day for the blog candy winner. Thanks for visiting!

Color Challenge #40

Finally some Thanksgiving colors for you, lol! To play use at least 3 of the colors and comment me with a link to your artwork so I can post it here. Have fun with the challenge and have a terrific Thanksgiving week!

Goldrush
Brown Bag
Garden Green
Cranberry

Alanna's Sweet You Are Card
Sparkle's Wonderful MFT Challenge Card
Marcia's Darling Snappy Birthday Card
Jena's Lovely Thanksgiving Cards

My Samples:



Supplies: Spot on Backgrounds, Playful Petals, Star Struck, and Say it in Style Stamps sets - all products CTMH

I made two cards for the challenge because I messed up on my turkey card, lol. Well I didn't mess up so much as the paper I RSed just seemed way to busy for the turkey. I used circle punches for the turkey's body, head, and eyes. Star Struck for his pupils and the trim around his belly. Playful petals for his feathers, wings and feet. He was fun to make for a one time thing but nothing I'd ever mass produce, lol. Here's the paper I made to go with him.



It's very fun but it took the focus away from the turkey. So I used the paper to create another card:


Supplies: Star Struck, Cottage Floral, and Friendship Wordpuzzle stamp sets - all products CTMH

I went away from the Thanksgiving theme and made just a fun flower card to fit the paper. I think it works out a lot better. This was very quick to make even with all the stamping I did. I am really loving these colors together. I wanted to try leaves with them as well, but we'll see if I get a chance for that later. I have a lot of other projects stacked up to do, so I might not get around to it. Anyway, have fun with the challenge! Thanks for stopping by :D

A Couple Cards Just for Fun

Jenn M. and Kim have made some darling cards for the Blog Candy Challenge! Check them out ^_~ I added some chipboard flowers for Laurel's card to the candy and I'm off to find more goodies! Thanks for playing ladies! There's just a few more days to play :D Hoping to see more fantastic creations!

This is Caitlyn's card. She was so excited about this new stamp and was watching so keenly while I colored my image for the #55 Bella sketch challenge that I stamped one out for her and let her color one too. Well, it just turned out so cute that I had to make it into a card. Both my mom and Paul's mom love it when they get art from the girls so this card will be perfect from Caitie to one of them since she is our lil artist ^_~

And little Wendy Papillion here was just for fun to use up some scraps. I thought it was so funny that I was saving this image Sparkle sent to me. I kept thinking, I only have one more of her so I need to save her and then while I was putting my Bitty Blooms into my binder I realized I have this stamp, lol! And Alanna asked if I bleed blue or red since I live in Utah. I am assuming that means am I a democrat or republican? I'm neither ^_~ I vote for the person, not the party so I don't 'pick sides'. I think people are way too touchy when it comes to elections. I just think we are always trying to teach our kids to be good sports, to still cheer for the team that wins even if it's not our team (well at least I do, lol). I feel elections should be much the same. Even if the person we didn't personally vote for gets elected we should still support, pray, and help them to make our country a better place. Anyway, off my political soap box, lol! Have a lovely Sunday!

Gobblin' Good Bella Bash Challenge Cards

I was a little bummed out that I missed the bash Wednesday. I didn't get home until almost 9pm from an enrichment meeting and then spent the next 40 or so minutes getting my girls off and ready for bed. So by the time I got into the Bella forums it was about 10pm mountain time :S Oh well, at least I still get to play in the challenges!! Don't forget that my Blog Candy Challenge is still going. You have until Midnight Tuesday to play :D Here's Laurel's Card, so fun and frosty! So far I've added some Christmas colored safety pins, Green and Red spirals, and a baggie of pastel Primas. Off to go add something more for Laurel's card!

GGBBC1 -

The first challenge was to make a card using the bella you are most thankful for and say why. Well, truthfully I couldn't pick which I was most thankful for, so I picked which stamp in my last order was the one I was most thankful to be able to get. The little daisy bitty bloom was image I was most thankful to get, mostly because I just love daisies, lol. Truthfully I was just really thankful to get my last order because I don't have funds to really be buying stamps right now but had gotten some gift certificates for playing before and winning the random drawings. With the free shipping and the new bitty bloom release, it was the perfect time to use up those gift certifs :D Inspiration for the colors comes from the red daisies in front of Cait's school.

GGBBC2 -

The second challenge was to make a card for someone you are very thankful for (other than your spouse or signicant other), pick embellies to use that you are thankful for, and to say who the card is for and why. This card is for Mich my fav SIL ^_~ She is just all around an awesome SIL and Aunt. I even drew glasses on Superbella since Mich just doesn't feel like herself without her glasses. It was a challenge but I think they turned out pretty cute! Brads are the embellie I am really most thankful for. I use them on everything, pages... cards... gifts... they are the one embellie that I really cannot live without!

Anyway, so there are my cards for the two challenges. I am still working on the Papertrey template. I was trying to figure out how to use the Adobe Suite programs we have to make it but I think I'm just giving up on that since it's taking me too long to try and figure out how to even use them and I still haven't figured it out, lol. Edit photos, I can do that, but creating something from scratch seems to be the impossible task for me right now. So I'm just going to make an easy one from paint, lol. It doesn't look as neat but at least I know how to use it ^_~ Anyway, I hope you all have a great Saturday!

Bella-Riffic Fridays!!

So not only are there a bunch of fun challenges each week on the Bella Forums, there is also the Bella Challenge Blog, where they post all the challenges from the Bella Forums, and a new Bella-Riffic Friday Blog where they host a random theme challenge each Friday! I thought it fit perfectly since I already post all my bella challenge creations on Friday ^_~. So now I have an extra card to show you each week! Yay!

I'm posting the new Bella-riffic Friday challenge first which was a polka dot theme! I lovey polka dots and I found it so surprising that I really don't have much polka dot paper! Could it be because I don't buy that much.... or is it just because I use it all up right away?! lol Either way, I did find this darling scrap of My Minds Eye polka dot paper. The yellow paper is actually tone on tone mini dots and I also used dotted orange ribbon. How's that for polka dots ^_~. I had to fluff up this cute little Tiddly's outfit, isn't she a doll?! And this Papertrey sentiment went perfectly with her and her little snow friend!

Here's another darling Tiddly Ink for BSC55. She reminds me so much of Caitlyn :D Cait is always coloring and drawing! Plus she loves to dress up for each 'part' she plays. For instance, she can't play with her toy kitchen and goodies without dressing up in her 'cooking dress' lol! I used some Dreamz2 My Minds Eye paper for this card, scraps from some of the layouts I did. I love these colors together :D

And here's my card for the #55 color challenge with a twist! The twist was to use 2 bella stamps in your creation so I picked bella's oven and chefabella :D I have actually been wanting to do something like this with these two stamps since I got them and now was the perfect time! This card is for my MIL. She always makes the turkey and pies for Thanksgiving and then the rest of us bring the sides. Thanks for stopping by :D Don't forget to visit the new Bella-Riffic Friday Blog today to see all the neat Stamping Bella cards for the Polkadot challenge and to find out what this week's challenge is! And have a Bellariffic Friday!!

Hey Good Lookin'

Thanks Jenn, Pat, and Vicki for helping me out with the Gamsol thing!! I know for sure we have odorless paint thinner at Michaels. I would have never guessed at that or the baby oil and Taltine! And wow what a great response at my Blog Candy Challenge so far too! Right now I have cards by Alanna, Pat, and Vicki (as of 5pm Wednesday). Check them out because they are all darling!! Thanks for playing with me ladies! There's still plenty of time to play so have fun with the sketch! I'll be finding 3 extra bits of goodies to add to the candy!

Supplies: Perhaps paper and some buttons by Basic Grey; Brads, Waxy Flax, Creme Brulee Ribbon, and some buttons by CTMH; Flowers by Prima; Thickers Alpha Stickers by American Crafts; Sparkly buttons, large yellow flower, and tiny green flowers (RAK) Unknown

This is the second layout I did that night at the crop. I went right along with the pictures from that same set, this time of Caitlyn, and used the same theme with the Perhaps papers. I thought the title was so perfect for these pics of Cait showing off her newly made up face! A very simple layout, this one came together in no time at all. I love that Cait has been all about posing for pictures lately. I can't get any 'normal' smiling pictures, lol, but she does give me quite a few super cute poses to pic from! Tomorrow is my Bella Challenge cards as usual :D Anyway, have a Happy Thursday!

You are such a Doll

Supplies : Perhaps paper and Euphoria glazed brads by Basic Grey; Cardstock, Creme Brulee Ribbon, Chipboard Letters, and Chocolate Alpha Stamp Set by CTMH; Scallop Chipboard by Rusty Pickle; Flowers by Prima; Silver Buttons and Ribbon Buckle Unknow (RAK from Julie)

Diving into those cute Perhaps papers again. I felt like doing a pretty layout when I went to go crop with Julie and her family. This was the first one I made. The pictures are ones I had started scrapping a while ago and they were perfect for a 'pretty' theme. My favorite picture is the one with Audrey doing her scrunchy smile while squashing my poor powder brush, lol. She loves it when I put a little make up on her and she loved it about a hundred times more when she had free reign to do it herself!! Just a simple layout using part of the 'stick-and-go' technique with photo placement and then basic paper piecing of the layout. Thanks for visiting and have a merry Wednesday!

40,000 Hits Blog Candy!

Wow I can't believe I have 40,000 hits! Thank you all for reading my blog and supporting me online! So to celebrate I have a little package of blog candy. Since it's getting so close to Christmas I decided to do some fun festive images and paper sampler. To play make a Winter Themed Card using this sketch :D You have until next Tuesday (11/25) at midnight. Wednesday morning I will have one of my girls draw a name for the candy, yay! Here is the sketch to use :

This is my Sample:

I turned the sketch vertically to fit my image and added some scallops to the one side, some ribbon across and a sentiment. I haven't used colored pencils in forever and I have to say it was rather fun to take them out and play with them again. It also reminded me that I still need to find some Gamsol. Last I looked I just couldn't find it when I searched, lol. Does anyone know if it goes by another name? Literally no one knows what I'm talking about when I go to the craft/art stores here. There are only a couple and it seems like the people just cashier there and don't really know anything about the supplies (sigh). Anyway, I wanted a softer look than I get with my markes and I think she came out cute, even without the gamsol ^_~

And here is the blog candy package. A 6x6 sampler of the Basic Grey Fruitcake papers, some Stamping Bella Winter stamps, seasonal ribbon, and of course some of those cutie pie Bitty Bloom images that I just got. And to make it a little more fun for each card that gets made I'll add something more to the candy package. Have fun with the sketch and thanks for all your visits, comments, support, or just lurking ^_~ Hugs to all my readers!

Bitty Blooms and Bo Bunny

So I had gotten my Bitty Blooms this weekend and wanted to ink them up right away. They are so darling!! I only got five of them for now, but the others are on my ever present wish list, lol.

Poppy :

I used the layout of a card from the Nov/Dec 08 Scrapbooks Etc. Magazine. Some very cute stuff in there :D I also used just one last little scrap of My Minds Eye paper on this card but all the rest of the cards and the rest of the papers on this card are by Bo Bunny.

Blue Bell:

I was trying to go with a brighter colored theme since Poppy came out so fun with the red. Each of the cards are highlighted with the white gel pen and also with my shimmer gold pen so they all have a little sparkle.

Lavender:

Noticed a pattern yet? I put one white daisy bloom and 4 coordinating buttons on each card to make this a cute little gift set. Starting with Lavender I toned the cards down to be softer. I wasn't sure the colors would look good with these papers, but they ended up matching lovely together!

Lily:

I couldn't remember which was actually Blue Bell and which was Lily since I had stamped them out earlier and was coloring them at a friend's house, so I colored Lily bluish too. And so far I think you could color these gals any colors you wanted and they'd still looking darling!

Daisy:

Daisy is one of my favorites. I knew if I even just got one that she would have to be it. All the petals are outlined with my gold shimmer pen. These papers were so fun to use. The patterns on the other side are very different and a lot softer than the bright red flowers and stripes. I also did a little paper piercing on each card as well. Anyway, that's it ^_~ Have a Happy Tuesday!!

Color Challenge #39

I have still been in the Christmas mood lately and wanted another combo to play with using colors that could be used for the holiday season. I did try to think of some Thanksgivingish colors, but what can I say, the little snowman told me he wanted to play so I picked winter ones instead, lol. Or at least they are wintery to me ^_~ Let's see what you can come up with! To play use at least 3 of the colors and send me a link to your art so I can post it here. Have fun!

Outdoor Denim

Tulip

Heavenly Blue

Ocean

Jenn's Darling Penny Black Snowman Card
Alanna's Cute Then and Now Layout
Jenn's Sweet Snowflake Card
Jena's Fun Double Challenge Snowman Card
Sparkle's Sassy MFT Wanna Bone Card

My Sample:

Supplies: Cardstock, Serendipity Paper, Inks, Markers, Winter Wonder, Snow Friends, and Say it in Style stamp sets all by CTMH; Gold Stardust pen by Sakura

This card is flat, an added bonus when it comes to mailing! I added some gold highlights to his hat and scarf, though it just comes out as yellowish in the photo. The card was fun to make too, I basically just did stripes of paper, stamps, and cardstock across it and then added in the images :D I love these snowmen and am so happy to have fresh eyes this year to play with them with. I had seen so much artwork on them last year before I even received my set that by the time I got it I couldn't think of what to do with them, lol! Thanks for stopping by and have fun with the colors!

My Sista & Me

Supplies: Paper by Scenic Route; CS, white brads, and waxy flax by CTMH; Thickers Alpha Stickers, Big Brads, Acrylic Flowers, and Chipboard Flower by American Crafts; Flowers by Prima; Buttons by Basic Grey; Dotted brads by Queen Co.; Ribbon Unknown

Here is the Hoodie Sista layout :D I love scrapping the sister pics! I used basically the same format for all three two page layouts which were firstly inspired by the Oct. Bonus sketch from Inspired Blueprints. I think this one is my favorite out of them though, and not just because of the cute sister pics ^_~ I love all the fun flowers I got in there even though there are tons of photos! The journaling is very simple just stating that Cait and Audrey are hoodie sistas :D They have rarely worn these hoodies since, so I'm really happy I got these pictures then instead of waiting, lol. Thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely Sunday!

"i cute"

Supplies: Papers by Scenic Route; CS and some buttons by CTMH; some buttons by Basic Grey; Thickers Letter Stickers by American Crafts; Ricrac and felt heart(RAK) Unknown

This is a really simple layout I made to showcase some more of these hoodie pics. The Silly Bird layout I did with Cait were her photos from that day and these ones are of Audrey. I kept with the same color and most of the same papers from Scenic Route for these. I love how Audrey tells me that she's cute all the time, as if I could forget it! lol. "I cute, Mom-Mom!" Yes, they both call me Mom-Mom. That's a story I'll have to scrap someday though I have no idea where it came from, only that Audrey started it and Cait soon after decided to call me that to, lol! Tomorrow I'll be posting the 'Sistas' layout using this line of papers and that day of photos so stay tuned :D And thanks for visiting me!

Bella Challenges #54

My card for the #54 bella sketch challenge. I was trying to do a cross between a support the troops card for a SCS lady I RAKed some images to for her Soldier project and a Christmas card since the images are for Christmas presents. I love the colors and think it turned out way cute with the exception of one thing... I think it's hard to tell what Cause she is actually supporting, lol. Anyway, I know about the wearing Red on Fridays so I figured the ribbon should be red and then just did a Christmas color theme for the rest. You can't tell in the pic but I also gave her gold sparkly tights as well as added a little gold to the flower on her dress ^_~

And this cute little Cuppa Wishes is for the Color Challenge this week :D I went by the SU colors which were Rose Red, So Saffron and Celery. I used the SU Color Combo site to see the colors myself since I couldn't see the sample yesterday morning for some reason and they looked to me like Hollyhock, Buttercup, and Sweet Leaf, so those were the ones I used ^_~ I have had this cup stamped out for a little while now, but just hadn't gotten around to playing with it yet, so today I made the leap and did another non-traditional colored Christmas card. And I'm really liking these colors together too!! The heat swirls are done up with my silver glitter pen so it's a little sparkly on this card too ^_~

I've noticed that I haven't been taking pictures of me like I had planned, or at least not that many. So the other morning, without doing my hair, makeup, nada, I got a couple snaps of Audrey and me in the morning. We are both grumpy morning girls. Audrey stays in bed f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! She gets it from me, lol. Here we are just cuddling in what we consider early morning time, 10 am lol!! Anyway, I will be working on the papertrey template, it will take me a few days since we've got a birthday this weekend and a friend coming over that we haven't seen in a long while. You all have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by :D

Papertrey Cocoa Gift Box

This is what I started with for the gift. I knew I had kept these Papertrey stamp boxes for something :D They were just too nice to throw out so I stashed them away until now. With us having some large unexpected dental bills right during the holiday season, I thought it would be perfect to do a little recycling and creative thinking on how to make a small seemingly mundane gift become something extra special. It's not much to look at now but with some paper, stamps, and a bit of creativity it was transformed into an awesome little package! When I showed Paul after I finished he immediately said, "Wow, this is great! It's for me, right?" lol. I think I'm going to have to make something neat like this for him now ^_~

Supplies: Cardstock, inks, twill ribbon, and safety pins by CTMH; Holiday tags and Snowfall stamp sets by Papertrey; and clear dots Unknown (fakey dew drops found at Michaels)

And here's the final product! I used some old My Minds Eye paper for this particular set. The colors seemed great for a rustic snow theme. The colors I used were Juniper, Garden Green, Twilight, and Chocolate. The hardest part was figuring out how to make the boxes, but I had made enough 2-4-6-8 boxes to know about what I should be looking at. The ghost snowflakes were made using the stiff acetate that the stamps originally come on before you put them in their cases. I just used the Marvy snowflake punches to punch them out. I even saved the tissue that came in the box for gift giving later. Now that's some fun recycling :D

Here are the two packages of goodies out of the papertrey stamp box. The tall one houses 4 candy canes and the 'warm winter wishes' one holds the 4 packets of hot cocoa. I have been wanting to use that stamp for a hot chocolate card or something and this was perfect! The gift boxes I created on my own to fit the hot cocoa packets and hold the candy canes, while still fitting inside the papertrey box. If anyone wants the template just leave me a comment letting me know and I'll get to work on making them for the boxes. Right now all the measurements are just scribbled on my little index card, lol.

And lastly the quick little card I made to go with it ^_~ Because you can't have a cute little gift like this without a matching card!! lol Anyway I hope you all have a Merry Thursday!

Easy Christmas Cards Continued

Alright so here are the cards using the template all the way :D.

Supplies : Serendipity paper, Dutch Blue Textured CS, Chocolate and Colonial White CS, Twill Ribbon, Snow Friends, and Say it in Style Stamp Sets by CTMH

This time I tried using an image stamp to see how it would look with the template and I think it's darling! Instead of adding a bulky bow, this time I just punched snowflakes out from the same paper I stamped the images on for a nice flat embellishment (punch by Marvy). These are flat so they will mail out with just a single stamp, yay! The Dutch Blue Cardstock is textured and double sided. One side is the regular color and the other a lighter shade so I flipped which side I was using with every other dutch blue piece to give the cards more contrast and color. I stamped 'Happy Holidays' from the Say it in Style stamp set for a sentiment as I find it hard to not have one on the front of the card, lol. Anyway, these went by super quick even with the coloring.

Again I used a different image for each batch of cards. I also tried to change up the way I put the dutch blue/ lighter blue combo so that they have a better variety.

I hope you all enjoy the cards! I think I actually have enough Christmas cards for this year now. But that won't stop me from making more, lol! While I probably won't be doing any more quick and easy Christmas cards like this (well I don't think I will be anyway, lol) I will still be making some bella and other fun Christmas cards, I'm pretty sure of it ^_~

And I totally spaced this awesome little award Laurel gave to me! Thanks Laurel and sorry I'm such a frazzle brained gal! ^_~ :

So here are the rules: 1. The winner may put the logo on their blog. 2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award. 3. Nominate 5 blogs. 4. Put links to their blogs 5. Leave a message for your nominees.

And my Nominees are:
Jenn for always wowing me with her cards and kindness!
Sparkle for always playing in the challenges with me, inspiring me with her art, and just being a fun gal!
Alanna for playing in the color challenges since I got back from hiatus and having a great no fuss style.
Jena, she makes such great scrapbook pages and is always leaving nice comments!
Pat for giving my bellas some commenting love on SCS as well as my blog and making darling layouts and bella cards!
And I just couldn't leave out Vicki, who is just an all around sweetheart and awesome Bella card maker!

Thanks gals for inspiring! And have a fabulous Wednesday!