HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO!

I found some really cute images at Dearie Dolls

 and

 to make it even a better day - they are free!

Want an even better day?

You can get them already colored!

For free!

But I decided to use my investment in the Copics company -

I colored mine!

I was inspired by the following challenges...

Moving Along with the Times - Pink, Pearly and Pretty Celebration

Touch Twin Challenges - color Inspiration photo

p.s. - chance to win free markers!

Color Creative Challenge - Anything Goes w/ a Girly Twist

(Image MUST be colored with Copics, ProMarkers, other alcohol markers or Colored Pencils!)

Crafty Ann's Challenge - Easel card

Moxie Fab World - Tuesday Trigger Inspiration photo

Simon Says Stamps Challenge Anything Goes

Incy Wincy Designs - Let's Party!

Anything Goes Challenge - Let's Not Be Square!

Card Positioning System - sketch

Thanks for stopping by.

And thanks for the brief break of rain and cooler temps.

SAM

Wishing You a ~ Happy Birthday!

I know a special little one

 (and I mean little!)

with a birthday approaching.

Can't tell you who.

She never really comes out and says "Thank you!"

But her actions are louder than words -

and know she appreciates all of her gifts!

There is a clue in this card as to who it is -

Can you guess?

...and of course I made another envelope,

this time lined flourished stamped with the flap embossed.

...and a shout out -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ........!

The following challenges have been very inspiring for the creativity on this card.

Also, I used a new SU! Hostess Stamp Set, Summer Afternoon

Anything Goes Challenge - Polka dot with birthday wishes

Moving Along with the Times - Birthday

Kaboodle Doodles - colors of your flag (red, white and blue with gold fringe!)

The Play Date Cafe - colors, cotton candy, ruby, citrus, dusk

Totally Stampalicious - red, white and ??? (blue!)

Crafty Creations - embellish

ABC Challenge - surprise! show us your creativity

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards! - anything goes

Creative Card Crew - Easy as 1 (image), 2 (designer paper), 3 (pearls, ribbon, twine)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - scallops

Stamping 411 - sketch

Do You Stack Up? - Blue Skies and Clouds

Deep Ocean Challenge - Summer

Thanks for stopping by.

And - whoever it was,

thanks for sending the rain!

And our trees thank you too!

Have you figured out who the card is for?

Check the comments, I bet someone knows!   ;)

SAM

A SMOOCHY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Life got in my way and did not leave any time or mojo for card making the last couple months.

End of the school year was way too busy as usual.

Less than 24 hours after my last day of work I'm sick, with a fever.

It lasted 2 weeks and took another 2 weeks to get my energy back.

In the middle of all that, my DD Kim came home for a 2 week vacation.

She ended up taking care of me.

I'm not a very good patient!

Then my DD and good friend Patti J encouraged me to dig deep for the mojo.

I did.

And,

Here it is!

The sad part about all of this is that I placed a couple orders with SU! from the new 2012-13 catalog and I didn't even 'play' with it till today. Love the new catalog and for this card I used the new Bright Blossoms stamp set and Summer Smooches DP. Oh, please notice that I made a matching envelope. I also ordered the new diagonal scoring plate, never used it till today and in less that 5 minutes (that includes reading the simple directions), I had made an envelope. Think of the money I can save! Also new to me, is the edgelits-Adorning Accents (and embossing folder to match). Check out the bottom portion of the front of the card. Everything went together very quickly and just following a few challenges made it even easier to dig up that lost mojo!

Lexi's Creations - Happy Birthday

Just Us Girls - color challenge-red, white and blue

The Saturday Challenge - color challenge-red, white and blue

Stamping 411 Color challenge - high school colors, graduated from McCluer in 19--!

Let's Ink it Up - favorite embellishments (ribbon and pearls)

Creatalicious Challenge - Anything Goes

Robyn's Fetish Challenge - Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge - recipe-ribbon, pearls, dies/punches

Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!

SAM

Mixed Bunch...

Lovely tag card using SU! Mixed Bunch and Marina Mist.

A very easy 'stamp your own background'

with trio flowers from 'Language of Friendship' set.

Sentiment is from 'Well Scripted'.

Inspirational Challenges are:

Crafty Ribbons, Cute Card Thursday, and One Crazy Stamper are challenging a Birthday theme

Do You Stack Up? challenged a favorite color

Gingersnap Creations - challenged only 2 colors (blue, brown, neutral white)

Lollipop Crafts - challenged white with a splash of color

Paper Crafting Journey challenged Pretty Pastels

Party Time Tuesday challenged a selection of a monochromatic color

Let's Ink It Up challenged to Show Us Your Flowers

Scrap Creations challenged ribbons and pearls

Totally Stampalicious challenged a bouquet of flowers

Crazy Challenge challenged No Designer Paper

The following pictures show gifts I made for the hostess of a Stampin' Up party.

Thanks Tonya, soooooooooo much fun!

A Gift Bag...

Candy Bar and Baker's Twine Holder...

Thanks for stopping by.

I have done a clean-up/moved stuff around in my 'crap' room,

so hopefully I can gear back into making some more paperies!

SAM

Happy St. Pat's Day!

Birthday, Love, Copics!

Happy Valentines Day!

Wee bit of snow gave me a couple days at home.

Totally enjoyed the long week-end!
Couple of cards to show you...
the first card...

A Happy Birthday card for my bestest daughter Kim!

I didn't want to post this till she got her package so I've been

sitting (no, not literally) on it for a week now.

I am entering Kim's card in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - free and easy February

If the Shoe Fits, Scrap It - Anything Goes

and the second card...

is a SU! Valentine card.

I turned the sketch and glued the blue DP

to the back so it lifts up to reveal the inside.

My inspiring challenges for Love card are...

Clean and Simple Sketch

Let's Ink It Up - Ribbons and lace

Crafty Creations - Swirly Whirly

CES Challenges - LOL...Lots of Layers

Cooking it Up with Katie - from a spool (ribbon), metal, sentiment

I Did It Creations - square cards

Totally Stampalicious - Texture

4 Crafty Chicks - Love is in the air

Creative Belli Challenge - Hearts/Valentines

By the Cute and Girly - Love is in the air

CRAFT Challenge - Valentine's Day

Craft Us Crazy - anything goes

Crafty Ann's Challenge - Love is in the Air

Crafty Calendar - Love and Marriage

Crazy Challenge - Valentine's Day

Creatalicious Challenge - All about lace

Creative Craft Challenge - Romantic with Valentines

Deep Ocean Challenge - LOVE YOU!

Do You Stack Up? - Love

For Fun Challenge - Put a little love in your heart

Fussy and Fancy - With all my heart

Hand Stamped Sentiments - Love is in the air

Incy Wincy Designs - recipe: 3 embellishments, 2 papers, and 1 image

Lollipop Crafts - with love

Oldie But Goodie - lace (Dp and Greeting Card Kid are a couple years old, Love stamp is new)

Once Crazy Stamper - Love is in the air

Paper Play Challenges - Love Letters

Simon Says Stamps - Love is in the air

Stamping 411 Color Challenge

Stamps R Us - Valentine/Love

Stamptacular Sunday - Pearls and lace

Totally Gorjuss - Lurve

Truly Scrumptious - Love and Hearts

Scrappy Frogs Challenge - die cut

And now, my new Copic storage!

I have this neat storage unit my DD gave me when we

reorganized my 'craft' (ie. crap) room...

And I stored my markers in a couple of letter holders,

never could find the markers I needed quickly...

Then I bought a big (4'x8') light diffuser grid at Lowes

and my DH cut it up to fit in my square storage cube

(He cut 3 so I could stack them for more stability)...

And this is the end result...

Viola!...

And this is a bird's eye view...

I have sketch copics and they fit in the tiny squares at an angle. I don't know if the other styles of copic markers would work or not. I went ahead and put my primsa markers in it too. Looks like I have room to grow. My daughter took one glance at it and said "You have room for 144 copic markers!"

I do need to admit though that this is not my original idea.

 I found it on Pinterest!

Whew! I think I'm done now. Haven't posted for a couple of weeks...guess I had more to say than I thought I would. Back to work tomorrow, 2 days with kids and then Professional Development day on Friday, Monday is a holiday and I have a Dr. ap'pt the next Friday. I think I'm getting spoiled!

SAM

Hello Doily!

New gear from the new Stampin' Up! catalog! 

Love the huge doily stamp and the new border punch. 

Oh yeah, sentiment is from a new hostess set 

"Happiest Birthday Wishes"! 

It's late, way past my bed time or at least the time that I pass out on the couch. 

Awe, somebody in this family has to hold it down so it doesn't float away!

So on the the challenges:

365 Cards, Day 184 - Sketch, white space challenge

4 Craft Chicks - Helping the Chicks to celebrate!

Fussy and Fancy Friday - month long celebration and optional color challenge

Top Chef at Catered Crop - recipe challenge, I used the following ingredients:

   Soft pastel colors technique of embossing, and Shabby Chic style

Crafty Creations - use 3 or more dies/punches 

   (2-border punches, scallop punch, flower punch)

Craft Your Days Away - make your own flowers

Creative Card Crew- anything goes

Cute Card Thursday - at least one punch

Desert Island Crafts Challenge - pick at least 3 

   (flowers,sentiment, wet embossing)

Little Red Wagon - border punches

Moving Along with the Times - Handmade flowers

Paper Play Challenge - Make your own flowers

Party Time Tuesdays - anything goes

Pile It On Challenge - B is for Brads (or anything that starts with B)

Stamptacular Sunday - the sky's the limit!

Top Tip Tuesday - What is Shabby Chic?
Alphabet Challenge - Pretty pastels

Happy Labor Day and don't work too hard!

SAM

Happy Birthday Little Mouse!

White on White Birthday card with a free digi from Designed 2 Delight. 

A Spoonful of Sugar - Happy Birthday

Birthday Sundaes - Happy Birthday

Craft Your Days Away - Happy Birthday

Crazy Challenge - emboss

Designed 2 Delight - free cupcake mouse image

Designed 2 Delight Designers Challenge - bling

Do You Stack Up? - emboss

Inspirational Card Challenge sketch

One Stitch At a Time - Use a digi

Paper Pretties Blog - die cut

Simon Says Stamps Challenge - WOW, White on White

Tuesday Throwdown - Birthday

Anything Goes - Happy Birthday
Cute Card Thursday  - CAS
Freshly Brewed Designs - CAS with no more than 3 embellishments (pearls, ribbon, flower)
Raise the Bar Challenge - open

Thanks for stopping by and TGIF!

SAM

Happy Birthday times 5!

5 Challenge cards are posted here, please scroll down.

Going back to work in another week and have accomplished most of the goals I set for myself this summer. Except for two. I set a goal to complete a whole week of 365 Cards. So with that being my beginning point I decided that I could accomplish another goal by adding to my Birthday card collection.  Check mark, two goals accomplished! Now for the cards and challenges entered.

365 Cards, Tuesday, Day 148 - repeat stamp the background. Did that and added red glitter paper hearts at the end of the scroll.

4 Crafty Chicks - Get your bling on

Cardabilities - sketch

Totally Papercrafts - bling it up

365 Cards, Wednesday, Day 149 - Divided background into 4 parts, 2 parts solid, 2 parts PP

Crazy Challenge - ribbons

Stampin' Bs Design Challenge - ribbon

Deep Ocean Challenge - ribbon

This card is totally made from scraps. I used a die cut for the flowers and leaves with PP, highlighted with copic markers, stamped the brocade swirls, then 'embedded' it all with an embossing folder. Technique of Faux pressed flowers.

365 Cards, Thursday, Day 150 - wet or dry background

Anything Challenge - pick a bunch of flowers

Hand Stamped Sentiments - Flourish forever theme

Paper Play Challenge - in the garden

Stamps R Us - Birthday Challenge

Sugar Creek Hallow - make your designer paper

365 Cards, Friday, Day 151 - minimum of 3 layers

Alphabet Challenge - metal

ColorQ Challenge - Early Espresso, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Island Indigo + White

Sketch Frenzy - sketch I used

Stamptacular Sunday - Friends are Heaven Sent, this is for my DD coz she is always up for a challenge!

365 Cards, Saturday, Day 152 - paint the background, I used white acrylic and glaze

Cute Card Thursday - sketch

Just Us Girls - use fabric and ribbon does not count

Speedy the Cat Friends Challenge - use anything such as twine, etc. but not ribbon

One Stop Craft Challenge - vintage
Paper Craft Star - open
The Play Date Cafe - color: Coral, Petal pink (in the fabric flower) and Antique Gold (pearls)
Friday Mashup - handmade flower and colors of turquoise, red and black. I picked the flower!

Thanks for stopping by! 

SAM

Strawberry Fringed!

I have posted 2 cards today. The Strawberry card is first and the pink fringed card is second.

This card represents how I know that summer is here and it is time for school to be out!

Strawberries! I love Strawberries!

My birthday is in June and every year I asked for strawberries and angel food cake.

My mom actually made the angel food cake from scratch. Yummm!

This year our garden produced a 'lot' of strawberries.

I could have ate more. Did I say I love strawberries?

My inspirational challenges for this card are...

Do It with Digis - use spots or stripes or both

City Crafter Blogspot - See the Sun or the word Sun -
The yellow left side represents the sun

Craft Your Passion Challenge - "Just for You"

Crazy 4 Challenges - summer theme

Crazy Challenge - summer theme

Hand Stamped Sentiments - Good Day Sunshine

Just Us Girls Challenge - Ho-made Buttons

One Stitch At A Time - anything goes

One Stop Craft Challenge - Summer Time

Paper Issues - Live is Sweet

Paper Take Weekly - Hot Hot Hot - hot colors, I used red and yellow

Party Time Tuesdays - Blue skies and sunny days, I sponged the sky/clouds and
the yellow half circle represents the sun. 
I love how it looks like the strawberries are floating in the sky, after all,
they are my heaven!

Pile It On - favorite technique - I love sponging sky scenes

Polly Craft Challenge - the great outdoors (my strawberry bed!)

Sentimental Sundays - anything goes

Totally Gorjuss - Summertime

Totally Scrumptious - sketch time

Tuesday Throwdown - Fun in the Sun

Moving Along with the Times - favorites things: strawberries!!!

Designed 2 Delight - free image for playing along in the progressive challenge

My second card is a birthday card and is not at all what I imagined. I needed fringe for Pam's challenge at 365 cards. Didn't have any, so I decided to make my own my using a hole punch and weaving the ribbon like the fringe on a rug ( I did a lot of this many years ago on many of the afghans I crocheted)  I finally thought about a Martha Stewart border punch, much easier!

BTW - the color in real life is pink, not so red like the picture.

Inspirational challenges:

A Spoonful of Sugar - Color challenge, pink (it really is!)

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturday - color challenge, cream, brown + one other color

Simon Says Stamp's Challenge - Anything goes

Sugar Creek Hallow - Paper Piercing

Freshly Brewed Designs - July-long Challenge: 2 pattern papers, 2 shapes, 2 embellishments

Cute Card Thursday - Going round in circles

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - sketch

365 Cards, Day 135 Collage Card - chipboard, patterned paper, and fringe

Thanks for stopping by!

SAM