Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge #16 Spring

Happy Friday, friends! My card is for the Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge this week. It is one that I need for a visit to the local rehab center. Our dear neighbor and my DH's Aunt are both there re-cooperating for long stretches of time. I thought this would be sweet for his Aunt, so I did not use the Happy Spring sentiment from the Sweet 'n Sassy Springtime Cocoa set. I did however use the Cocoa image with the gorgeous springtime bouquet. I plan on putting a Springy scratch off, lottery ticket inside, to give her something to do.

I used a pure white card stock for my base. My designer papers are from Basic Grey's Hopscotch collection. I colored my images with Copic markers, and sponged with SU! Baja Breeze ink. The buttons are from Gina K. Designs springtime assortment, and my ribbon is from a long ago purchase from QVC. The flowers, bow, and Cocoa's nose are all outlined with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen for sparkle. I just could not get it to show up.

We are expecting a heavenly day of 75 degrees today. My DH has taken a vacation day to work in the yard. I must do a 3 hour shift at work and then it is play time! See you soon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

They say that everyone is a little Irish on March 17th! Hope you are wearing a bit o' the green today! Even my favorite girl, Jessie, had to get in on the celebration! This little girl loves her scarves!

Hope you enjoy you're day and don't get into to any trouble pinching and kissing!

As my second note of business, my friend, Carol, from Our Little Inspirations, has presented me with this awesome award. She has also been so kind as to award it to my DD, and since we run in the same circles, I am going to cheat just a little and award it to 4 instead of 8 so that Dee Marie will be able to choose a few people without repeats. I would like to present it to the following bloggers:

Theresa Pollock from Theresa's Studio

Patti Painter from Paper Creations by Patti

Wendy Aungst from WeeBee Stampin 4 Fun

Connie Legath from CraftieConnie

I hope you will consider paying each of these talented ladies a visit. Now, to complete my requirements, I must tell you 7 things about myself.

1. I love French Bread Pizza! (so not on my diet)

2. I am off the chart allergic to yellow jackets and hornets.

3. I drive a mini van and can't seem to go back to a car.

4. I am a paper hoarder. Just tell me the shade or pattern ya need, LOL!

5. I like to bake.

6. Jim and I will be married 34 years this October.

7. One of my very first jobs out of high school, was working for a company making artificial

tendons, knuckles, and assorted medical tubing.

Okay, maybe that is too much info! LOL! See you again soon!

Sorry If This Is Crammed!

I have a couple of cards to share with you this morning! I am afraid if I don't double this post, I will get lost and and forget to get them on in time for the challenges!

My first card is for The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #99. Boy was this a super sketch! I used a base of Red Hot CS from Gina K. Designs. All of my designer papers are from a new pad I bought this weekend, called Sweet Nectar, from K&Co. My stamp set is an adorable Sweet 'n Sassy Cocoa set called Springtime Cocoa. I colored with Copics, and used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen for some sparkle. Sponging was done with Baja Breeze ink from SU!, and my ribbon and embossed flowers are from my scrap stash. Here is the sketch we had to follow.

I saw this morning a special request went out for a dear person who needs cheering, and I will use it to do just that!

My next card is for Joan's Gardens Challenge #9 this week. Joan has given us another of her special recipes to follow. Here are the directions.

Use the colors orange and blue
Create a card with a spring theme
Use a die cut
Use a circle

I used quite a combo of items to create this card. The card stocks are Sweet Mango and Ocean Mist from Gina K. Designs. My dp is possibly K&Co. My diecut is from Tim Holtz and is called Scroll Work. I used my scalloped circle punches which have been very neglected, and pierced and layered. The soft back image of a flower is from GKD set called Autumn Splendor and the foreground sentiment is from Unity. I added sugared flowers from Prima because they reminded me of the dewy spring mornings when everything is soaked. I used sprig and butterfly punches along with blue gems, as my accents.

Thanks for hanging in there for this long post. I am so glad I have some time to play today! My prayers go out to all of the families who have loved ones lost or found during the recent tragedy in Japan.

Cityscapes Are On The Rise Challenge

I was doing some blog hopping yesterday and I came across this awesome challenge at Moxie Fab World. Cath is the best at current trends, and this is one! She calls it Cityscapes Are On The Rise. I created this by coloring a Tim Holtz border die called Townscape, with Copic markers. My base is Moonlit Fog card stock, from Gina K. Designs. I placed my houses over an embossed swirl panel, to make it look like a city near the beach. The swirls were highlighted with Colorbox , Frost White. For embellishments I added pink gingham, a 1" circle punch for a sun, and little plastic critters. My sentiment is from an SU! set called Right At Home.

Hope you have a great Friday and super weekend!

Cards For Men, Challenge #5

Good morning to all of you beautiful people! This morning I want to share card I made using a stamped background I lifted while on my outing last Saturday. The shop where we were, has a wall of stamps that you can use which is included in the room fee. I tried to snag a few manly images. Here is one and I forgot to write down the designer. If anyone knows who's stamp it is, please let me know so i can give them proper credit. I added the fishy shadows with an unmounted I have had for years, using Going Grey ink from SU! My fishy sentiment is from Rubbernecker. Sponging is done with Baja Breeze, also from SU! The lure images are colored with Copics and my embellishments are silver half rounds, Stickles, and Glossy Accents.

I would like to enter this in the "water" challenge over at Cards For Men. I am new to this challenge site. I never have enough men cards on hand here.

Speaking of water, we are expecting 4" of rain today, and on top of the 3 1/2" from Sunday, much flooding is expected! It will be a great day to stay in and stamp. This is the blessing of picking my own days to work! Thanks for taking a peek!

Building Roses

While I was blog hopping this morning, I ran a cross a tutorial by my friend Selma, on creating roses from punches. She always does such gorgeous work! Well, I thought I would get it a whirl and I think I failed miserably. I only had 2 of the 3 pear punches she used and so I figured I would wing it! Here is the result of my attempt.

All of the papers are from my scrap bin, except for the gorgeous embossed lattice layer, which was a gift from my friend Carol. Thanks, Carol! I used some spring green satin ribbon and white tulle to balance my roses and then tucked in a few fern punches for my greens. My sentiment is from Amuse and is stamped on a SU! punch out that my DD gave me. All of my sponging is done in SU! Blushing Bride ink.

I think that the key is to break down the fibers in the paper petals so they are easier to work with. I had fun playing, and if you would like to see Selma's tutorial, please visit her blog here.

See you soon!

Lovin the JustRite!

Being part of the current blog hop/ challenge over at Joan's Gardens, has yielded me so many wonderful comments! Just Rite has offered up an amazing Grand Prize and Joan has 2 super special prizes for commenter's. There is still time to play along , so hurry over to Joan's Gardens to get all of the details!

Joan, being the sweetheart that she is, has allowed the members of the hop to create and enter one more card, and this is what I came up with.

I used My JustRite, Beautiful Day set and stamped my sentiment and border, then cut it out with a classic oval Nestie. My DP is a single sheet that I had bought in the OBX for a vacation layout (sorry I don't know who made it). I took MS punches, pearls colored with Copic Markers, and embossed, glittered stickers that were from the same beach project, and layered them to create an ocean scene. One of the rules of the hop, is that we can only use JustRite stamps, hence my use of stickers. Sponging was done with SU! inks.

Thanks for taking a look, and I promise I will use something other than blue for my next post! Seems I have been in quite a groove lately!

Also, I attended a get-together of Eastern PA Stampers, that was held in Ephrata yesterday, at L&L Rubber Stamps. A super time was had by all, and it was wonderful to finally meet some of our amazing local stampers! Carol, from Our Little Inspirations, has some great photos of the event that she posted today, if you would like to take a peek Have a wonderful Sunday evening.

Joan's Gardens Blog Hop!

I was thrilled to be included in Joan's current hop! There is such a vast group of talented ladies participating. Be sure to read through this whole post to find out how to win some super prizes!

My card is using JustRite stamp set called Beautiful Day. It uses a 21/4 x 3 1/16 holder. My base layers are Pure Luxury card stock colors In The Navy, and Little Boy Blue. The stitching was done on my new Baby Lock sewing machine that Santa brought! The beautiful sentiment from my stamp set was cut out with a Classic Oval Nestabilities, and layered on a Beaded oval Nestie. My iris were colored with Copics and carefully cut and layered. For embellishments, I used lace, pearls, and MS punched butterflies.

EXCITING NEWS! This week you have the chance to win an AMAZING PRIZE PACKAGE you won't want to miss out on. JustRite Stamps has so generously donated the grand prize for this week's Joan's Garden's 8th Challenge for 2011. This prize package includes the following JustRite products:

acrylic block set – $8.95
mini binder box - $9.95
mothers natures gifts – 16.95
fancy tags- 19.95
happy everything -32.95
nested frame dies 24.95
nested sentiments dies 24.95
3 ¼” block -12.95
Fancy frames 19.95
Inspires me 19.95

Wouldn't you love to win this grand prize from JustRite stamps, with a value of over $191. In addition to this fabulous grand prize, there will also be additional prize packages from Joan's Garden's to give you 2 additional chances to win.

You will have until next Thursday morning (March 10) 6:00 AM EST to link your card/project. There are only two requirements for this week's challenge:

• Create a card/project using ONLY JustRite stamps (any JustRite stamps and matching dies are acceptable) Do not use any other brand stamps. You may use any card stock, design paper and embellishments you want.

• You must be subscribed to Joan's Gardens blog to win. This allows you to receive all updates about challenges and sales, etc.

The winner for the grand prize package from JustRite Stamps will be chosen from a Random drawing and will be announced Friday morning (March 11). This person will also be entered in the End of the Year drawing for a $100 gift certificate from Joan's Gardens. You may enter this challenge more than once, but each card/project must be made with only JustRite stamps.

TWO more chances to win another a great prize! You won't want to miss all the inspiration in the beautiful cards created by these talented designers. While visiting each of these blogs, you have a chance to win another great prize from Joan's Gardens. In order to be eligible for one of these two prize packages, you need to leave a comment on each blog in this Hop. Out of the fourteen blogs, there are two "mystery" blogs, each with a prize package from Joan's Gardens. For a chance to win, be sure to leave a comment on all fourteen blogs. Here is your lineup..........

Carla
Donna R
Giovana
Glenda
Kris
Lana
Mary Anne (You are here)
Nancy
Selma
Sharon
Sue
Vicki
Gretchen
Joan (Get all the details here)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and best of luck with winning a big prize!

Strike!

Jim's boss, Nick, bowled a 300 game the other night! That is something to celebrate! Jim asked me to make a special card for him, and as I had not one bowling stamp, I had to rely on my digital stash and Google images to get me through this one! Here is what I came up with.

My base is Smoky Slate PL card stock, layered with a digi paper from my messy stash. I found the image of the scattering pins online. For my words and numbers I got to use some letter stickers from my scrapbooking days and added a length of striped ribbon. The sticky squares were from PC. Just goes to show you ho wyou can pull something up out of the ashes in a pinch!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great Monday. Dodging a few thunderstorms here today. Can I also ask my friends with prayer lists to keep my very dear SIL on their list? She was just moved out of ICU with a health crisis, and my lovely niece is expecting to give her her first grandchild in 3 months! Very stressful. Thanks.

Mono!

No, no, not the illness! It's the last Sunday of the month, so it is time for the Roses Challenge! This month, Patti Rose has challenged us to make a monochromatic card. I chose to do mine in blue.

I am also going to be entering this card in Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge # 44, where Joanne Travis has asked that we use food on our card.

My card was created using a white card base, A layer of DP from K&Co, and circles and stripes of white and Little Boy Blue, Pure Luxury card stock from Gina K. Designs. My cupcake and sentiments are from a set called Cupcake Birthday, from Mark's Finest Paper. For embellishments, I used glaze and gelly roll pens on the cupcake, then added Prima flowers and pearls from Queen & Co..

If you have a minute, it would be so nice to have you stop and see what the other Roses have to offer us in the way of lovely creations! Please visit Sue, Kerrie, Olga, Betty, Patti Sue, Kym, and Connie. Some of them may be snoozing, but give it a go!

Have a glorious Sunday!

OTWC Challenge #46

While I was working on a card for one of the STV release challenges, I realized that the colors were perfect for Kim's color challenge this week at Off The Wall Craftiness. I have not gotten over to do a challenge at Kim's site for quite some time, and I sure miss her gorgeous inspiration pieces. I was a wee bit confused as it did not seem that her listed colors matched the inspiration photo, so after making a second card, I went with the colors she chose. I was seeing a peachy orange. Here they are, she wanted red.

I used 3 Pure Luxury card stocks in the colors Lipstick Red, Turquoise Sea, and Lemon Drop. I did use some layering weight white. Yes, Nesties were used for my circular shape. The stamps I used are from Theresa Momber's set called Aloha. I sponged using Ridinghood Red, Crushed Curry, and Taken with Teal ink, from Stampin Up!. Flowers were colored using Copics and colored pencils. For accents, I used ribbon form Cosmo Cricket, and gems from Recollections.

Thanks for taking a look!

It's A New Day!

The wind has calmed and from what I see on the news, many old trees have not survived it's wrath. I mean this wind knocked down walls! One big old tree fell and split a 3 story house right down the middle. I have a few things overturned, such a a big log rack, and a couple of limbs down. Very Lucky!

Anyhow, on to today's card! This one is for Speedy the Cat's friends Challenge #43, which is to use black, white, and one other color. My card base is black onyx from Gina K. Designs. My DP is from DCWV, Mango Frost collection. The stamps are from my new Mark's Finest set called Greet The Day with Gerber and I just love them! For embellishments, I used some dotted organza, and a big sugared flower from Prima. What do you think? Here is a peek at the inside.

Today I am off to the bridal fair which is being held at my daughters venue. We will get to meet the florist and the baker, plus taste some of the items for our cocktail hour. Sounds like fun, right? My DD is bringing her maid of honor and one bridesmaid (who is a stamper) and it will be nice to hear their thoughts. Have a glorious Sunday, my friends!