Another ZOO REVIEW for you!

Good Wednesday morning! I have to admit, while writing that title for the blog post, a show I used to watch when I was little came back to my mind. I'm going to show my age here - does anyone remember the NEW ZOO REVUE? :D (WOW, that is a LOT worse than I remember. ROFL!!!)

ANYWAY. :D the lion is from ZOO REVIEW, and the trees in the background are from SERENE SILHOUETTES. It looks like a tree on the svelte to me. :D

Want to know how I colored the lion and grass? I embossed the stamp with Early Espresso, then put ink on my finger and did the coloring. I didn't want anything too defined, and I always get ink on my, anyway.... :D

OK. I'm outta here - SOOOO much to do!!!! I hope you have a wonderful day! MAKE the time to stamp SOMEthing~! :)

MDS Monday - March Snow

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? Welcome to Passion Week.

So, do you remember that freak snowstorm we had here in middle TN, the one that started in Texas and swept over to drop even more snow on the East Coast? :D It didn't last too long, but it was absolutely breathtaking in its beauty that day. It would be sunny, and the trying-to-grow grass was kind of green - then BOOM! it would go dark, and the snowflakes would start falling, fat and furious. Kenn's been working like mad this spring, but her happened to be home that morning. We spent about 10-15 minutes shooting snow, the birds, and whatever else happened to pop in front of our lenses. :D

Here, I've used one of my shots, blown up and taken to 50% transparency, as the background paper. It was too fun NOT to use. :)

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a wonderful day! Be sure to make the time to stamp SOMEthing! :)

Zebra Card

Welcome to Friday! It's SPRING! And here I am bringing you a black card... :D

I made this card just to make one to show you! Aren't you flattered? :D I got a couple of new stamp sets, and I'm in love with this animal one. Why didn't I get it earlier?!?! It's been marked in my IBC to get for the whole year. Of course, now that I've finally purchased it, it will probably retire... :D

Speaking of which: we're getting closer to the new Idea Book Release in June! Be watching for the retirement lists (sooner than I wish them to be coming! :D )

Now, then. This stamp is from ZOO REVIEW; it's available in wood or clear-mount. To do my background, I just put wide rubber bands around my brayer, and rolled some white craft ink onto that Basic Black card stock. The zebra is embossed in black, and that's a layer of Bermuda Bay right underneath him. :) (Just so you know, I took a piece of Whisper White card stock for the inside, and ran those rubber bands through some Basic Black ink and did about 1.75" of a border down the right side of the inside card.)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to stamp something! :)

Wow! I'm Famous! :D

Happy Friday! Sorry I'm late - better late than never, right? :D I found out today that the card I posted on Wednesday made it onto Pinterest! :) How cool is that?!?!? Thank you to whomever Pinned it first! :D

OK, so let me give you one for today. :D

This one is an Easter card; we used BACKYARD BASICS (I bundled! :D ) for the flower and its die cut, and used the butterfly from the set stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear EP inside, along with the "Happy Easter" stamp from TEENY TINY WISHES.

That's the scallop edge punch; I like the little touch it adds. And we used cling wrap to put on sliver Encore ink and white craft ink as the background. Someone asked me if the technique had a name; to be honest, I discovered it by myself when I first started stamping many years ago, and I have no CLUE. :D

We embossed that flower with silver embossing powder, and colored it in with various Stampin' Write markers. Easy and spring-y! :) What do you think of it?

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a WONDERFUL weekend, and be sure to make the time to stamp SOMEthing!

Happy Birthday Banner Card

Hi! Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a great week - it's been beautiful here the last couple of days; I hope you're thawing out, if you've been getting hit with snow all winter. :)

I wanted to play around with a couple of things for this card. First, it's on Soft Sky as a base. I used Pool Party ink on the inside of my Perfect Polkadot embossing folder to give that layer a mottled look. Then there's a layer of Wild Wasabi; I stamped the sea horse and the bushy plant from BY THE TIDE, embossed the sea horse with Wild Wasabi, then rubbed some WW ink onto and around him, to highlight him a little bit. I took that strip and spritzed it with some homemade Frost White spritz, to give it a little irridescence. Finally, I stamped the "happy birthday" banner from ITTY BITTY BANNERS and embossed it with silver and cut it out with the framelit that matches, and mounted it on front with Dimensionals.

Isn't it pretty?!? :) I think I did this one when it was cold out and I was missing the ocean. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day! Be sure to stamp something! :)

MDS Monday - Friends

 

Happy Monday, y'all! :)

Phew. I'm about wiped out! Busy, busy, busy - but I know I owe you some posts, so here's the first for this week. :) I grew up in Richmond, IN, so I still have incredibly fond memories of the area, AND people I'm very fond of!

This was last week's challenge layout, and I switched it up a bit. I must say, I'm not a fan of layouts that have pictures over top of others, but I was able to rotate and fix it so it's not so bad. :)

If you haven't tried MY DIGITAL STUDIO yet, HOW can I suggest it strongly enough?!? It's SO fun and easy, and I love looking at my layouts - and doing challenges makes me scrap. It's a win-win! :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day, and be sure to take the time to stamp SOMEthing! :)

MDS Monday - When They Were Little...

This is a layout for a challenge again, using baker's twine. Oh, do I love these photos - the one on the top is my favorite from this family reunion many, many years ago. :)

What a crazy-busy time in my life again! Sorry for no posts last week, but I'm HOPING to be able to do better. I won't feel guilty, though - we all live life, right?! :D

Have a WONDERFUL day - and be sure to take the time to stamp SOMEthing! I definitely will be... :D

Hybrid Card

Happy Wednesday! :)

I hope you're having a fantastic week! Mine's going great! Busy, but great. Kenn's working too much, and I miss him...

OK. So, for today's card, we have a hybrid card. What the heck's that? :D Well, it means I did at least one element with MY DIGITAL STUDIO, and the rest with stamping supplies. It COULD mean vice-versa, too, but not this one. The verse on the front and the sentiment inside are from MDS. I punched the front one out with the curly label punch after I printed it out.

For the embossed part, I inked up my honeycomb embossing folder and ran it through my Boutique on Crushed Curry. (It's inked with Soft Suede.)

The bee - the stamp AND the die cut - are from BACKYARD BASICS. I off-stamped with Early Espresso. Now, that bee is UGLY. I wasn't going to say anything, but when I showed my mom the card, she admired it, but said, "That's an ugly bee..." YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS!!!!!!!!!! :D So I took some Frost White shimmer paint in a spritzer and sprayed him. He's shimmery now. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day! Be sure and make the time to stamp something!

MDS Monday - Food Blogging is FUN!

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? It was SO beautiful here this weekend - I actually sat outside for a while reading. That's NOT normal for me here in TN. But it's too early for bugs, I was in the shade, and the temperature was perfect. :) Of course, we have one more cold snap coming on Wednesday... :D

So this week's SUDSOL challenge was to use a sketch you found and do whatever you wanted. I found this sketch, and decided to do another food blog page. I mean...! Some of these pictures make me want to go make the recipe again RIGHT NOW!!! :D

I really enjoy working from sketches, and almost always give them a little tweak that makes it mine. :D If you know of any websites with great sketches, link me! I'm always looking for new places! :)

OK, I'm outta here! (Oh, and if you've never seen my review blog, you can click here to go to Life's Little Pleasures!) Have a wonderful day, and be sure to make the time to stamp SOMETHING!

Happy Friday!

It's the weekend! :D Are you excited? Do you have big plans? Or are you glad to finally be able to REST?

Today, I want to share a wedding card I made that was inspired by this card. It's not EXACTLY the same, but enough so that I want to give credit where credit is due! (I love Pinterest! :D )

I think my MOM must be influencing me this week! :D Every project I've shown has had yellow, and the one I still have in my mind is yellow, too. :D I sure hope she's enjoying it! :D

So, those are two of the Heart Framelits; I had completely forgotten I had them until just before Valentine's Day. I know, it's a sin. I love hearts! That's the perfect polka dots folder - and I did use my Boutique to do the embossing. That flower is the rounder of the small flowers on the Boho Blossom punch; the leaves are the pointer one, cut into fourths. :D The modern label punch is from TEENY TINY WISHES. The inside has two stamps from ABOVE & BEYOND. I didn't have the correct color brads to do the centers, and I didn't really want to add bulk to the flowers, so I used my Daffodil Delight Stampin' Write Marker. :)

The colors are Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, and Daffodil Delight.

OK, I'm outta here! :D Have a WONDERFUL weekend, and be sure to make the time to stamp something.

Been a rough couple of weeks!

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a great week. Today's is warm and sunny here; I think, once I get done blogging, I'm going to go sit on the swing for a little bit! :) Don't hate me, people with snow on the ground. At least you GOT snow! :)

It's been a rough couple of weeks for people all around me. I'm on the TN Stampers online group, and we lost a dear member early last week; her daughter is also on the list. This is the card I'm going to send her. This week, a member of our church was killed suddenly in a car accident. Yesterday, a dear online friend lost her husband to cancer. Ginny, please know we're praying for you. Wish I could give you a real-life hug.

I was inspired by this card; I found it on Pinterest, but it was originally posted on Split Coast Stampers.I really love the original, but I didn't want to add too much color. So I did my version.

I double-stamped the flower from BACKYARD BASICS; the second time I stamped, I off-stamped metallic gold ink, then stamped that second generation onto the card. I used clear embossing powder to give it a little more texture. The inside is stamped with two of the stamps from BLESSINGS FROM HEAVEN. The colors on this one are Very Vanilla, So Saffron, and Always Artichoke. The other ink color is Early Espresso.

OK, I'm outta here! :) I hope your week is wonderful. Be sure and tell people you love that you love them - and stamp them a card to show it. :D

MDS Monday - Kindness is my mom

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend?

I think people across the nation are ready for spring. It's been a long winter, with more snow than most of us have seen in a long time - or colder temperatures for a more sustained amount of time than we can remember. So I wanted to share this page. :)

Mom mom and yellow go hand-in-hand in my thoughts. So this is a page for HER. These are flower photos from our trip to Oregon last year; if you want to look at our galleries for wall art - or to just enjoy them! :) - just click on this link. Heavenly Perspective Photography

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a WONDERFUL day! It's warming up here in middle TN; I know a lot of you are still under a ton of snow. Please take care, and keep warm! And stamp something. :D

Valentine's Day Card for Kenn

Hi, y'all! :D I wanted to show you the card I made for Kenn for today; it's VERY simple, made with just Whisper White card stock, glitter red paper, and gold foil - and the full heart punch and a couple of framelits. If you have questions, please ask! Oh, and the gift I made for Kenn can be found on Life's Little Pleasures. :)

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Have a WONDERFUL weekend! If you want to place a jewelry order to help me get some freebies, LMK by 2 on Saturday. :D Otherwise, I'll see you next week! Make the time to stamp SOMETHING!!!

New Toy - er, ummm, TOOL! :D

 Hi, everyone! Sorry this didn't get scheduled; we only have one card reader for our computers right now, and since Kenn's the one WORKING his photos, I have to wait until he's done. :D Hopefully we'll get that taken care of soon.

Now, then. It's FRIDAY! I hope you've got plans to ENJOY your weekend. :)

Stampin' Up!, you may remember, had a few of the Texture Boutique machines last year that sold out in about a week. That was enough to make them decide to start carrying them all the time! :D It's about 1/3 of the size of the Big Shot - isn't it cute???

ALL it does is embossing. So, I chose this card to show off how easy it is. :)


You make the sandwich just the same, using the thin pads that come with the TB; if you're only embossing 1 layer of card stock, it comes with a shim, also. I chose six different embossing folders, and made my card into a 5x7 - it makes figuring out the square size so much easier. :D

I'm on a Tempting Turquoise kick right now; here's the card (I found on Pinterest!) that I based mine on. It's totally cased. :D But it's not Rose Red. :) I'm not crazy about this BIG of a card, because that's a LOT of room to fill on the inside, even if I do stamp a saying and a border. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL weekend, and be sure to make the time to STAMP something!!!

Electric Card

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone's keeping safe and warm. What a winter!

This is the final project from my hostess club meeting last month. Isn't it a great man card? I cannot take credit for this one; I found it on Pinterest, and it's from Laurie's blog at Soapbox Creations.

All it is is Whisper White cardstock, punched and cut to look like outlets, mounted onto more Whisper White, which looks like a socket cover. Instead of using something that looks totally like a real screw, :D, we punched out a 1/4" circle from silver foil paper and drew and X on it with a Sahara Sand marker.

SO super easy, and so many uses! I stamped "Happy birthday, cupcake" in the middle of mine, from the BEST OF BIRTHDAYS stamp set. :D (Remember, those stamp sets are ONLY available until the end of March!!!) I thought that was hysterical, but I'm not sure anyone else thought so.... :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day, and be sure to make the time to stamp something! AND CALL OR EMAIL ME TO BOOK YOUR SAB PARTY NOW!!!!

MDS Monday - Once in a Lifetime

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend!! I'm writing this on Saturday; my Monday is slammed schedule-wise, and I wanted to make sure this gets to you on time. :D Tonight we're going out for dinner and an a capella concert, and I can't WAIT! :D

ANYWAY. Today's page is made from my newest freebie from SALE-A-BRATION, the ONE BIG SALE-A-BRATION 2014 digital download/disk. I do like the cork flowers, and the stamp in the middle of the page is perfect for pages about Kenn. :D I used Island Indigo as the font color, and I REALLY like the way it looks on this DSP, which is the digital version of the Sweet Sorbet package you can earn for free with a %50 merchandise purchase.

OK, I'm outta here! I hope you have a GREAT week, with wonderful moments of making memories. :) Stamp something, will ya?!?!?!

I know, I'm late again! :D

Happy SATURDAY! :D I know, I'm late again. I'm sorry. I just had a really hard time making myself do ANYTHING yesterday. :D

SO. This is a really cool little basket that my hostesses did with the new envelope punch board! Isn't it cute?!?! There are SO many things out there that have been designed with it; I didn't show them another envelope, because I wanted to show the versatility of the tool. :D

Wow, do I keep getting distracted from posting this! Sheesh!

Anyway. The tutorial for how to do this came from a demonstrator in the UK, Sam Donald, and you can find it on her blog.

Now, because mine's made with Rose Red card stock, we did cut tabs and stick them down instead of just folding in the corners like she did - DSP is a lot more bendable! :) That's the new spiral flower die from the Occasions Mini; we cut it from vellum. It's a fun box, and got voted as the best project of the night because of the way it showed the versatility of the envelope punch board. :)

OK, I'm outta here. SO busy today, and a fun date night planned tonight. :) Have a wonderful weekend! Be SURE to make the time to stamp something! :)

Sympathy

Happy Wednesday!! Are you staying safe and warm?? I really hope that you are. What a mess the deep South is in - hoping they're starting to thaw out and sort everything out now.

Today's share is a card we did Monday night with our hostess club. Not everyone chose to put the "with sympathy" from TEENY TINY WISHES or the verse inside, because they wanted to use it for another purpose. But that's OK! :)

The flower is from FABULOUS FLORETS, and the designer paper is Modern Medley. The cuts are with the Labels Framelits. I'm really happy with the way this card turned out! :)

OK, I'm outta here. :) Have a wonderful day, and be sure to take the time to stamp something!

MDS Monday - My Love

Welcome to Monday! :) It's a challenge, to use hearts in your layout. So, I did. :D I love this photo of Kenn; this was the day I flew back to Oregon last summer. It was June 3, and because of the time change and the awful hour I flew out of BNA, I was back with Kenn before noon. We ate lunch, then headed out to this rose garden.

It got quite warm that day (for OR! :D ),  and there was a nice breeze when you were in the shade. It's just one of those days that I look back on with a great fondness. Do you have those days? It wasn't a fabulous day, but it was a GOOD day. :)

I LOVE MDS. If you haven't downloaded and tried the 30-day free trial, you're missing out! :) Want to learn more about it before you do? Ask me questions! :D

Today is the day that we start our Bible study at my house, JESUS THE ONE AND ONLY. If you can't make it today, but want to come the rest of the time, just let me know! If you can't come, and would say a prayer for us when you think of it over the next three months, that would be wonderful, too. :)

It's also the start of SALE-A-BRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll get a link up to the mini catalog as soon as I can; in the meantime, you can find it if you go to my business site and, on the pull-down menu for PRODUCTS, click on CATALOGS. :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day - and be sure to make the time to stamp something!!!

Sketch Challenge Card

Happy Friday! Are you staying warm?? It's BEAUTIFUL here - brightly shining sun, fluffed cardinals in the trees and feeders - and a balmy temperature of 21! :) (Wind chill says it's feeling more like 10 degrees out there...)

Well. :D What to do to celebrate a Friday, toward the end of January? Make a card that fills a challenge, AND might inspire your Valentine's cards this year. :D

That's red glitter paper again - it's SO perfect for Valentine's Day, don't you think?? - with the silver and gold "foil". I think that name is a bad one for these; it's really shiny cardstock. It's not foil weight!

Anyway. :D That's Real Red, on Whisper White. The only stamp is the "I like you", which is from a FREE Sale-a-bration stamp set! :) I really like this card; it's clean and simple, and gets my idea across. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day - and be sure to make the time to stamp SOMEthing. STAY WARM!