Friday, August 29, 2008

Hands Off My Booty!

Hee hee....well - isn't Miss Hanna feeling sassy today? LOL!! I wouldn't touch her booty if I were you - BWA HA HA!! :) This is my project that I made for today's Hanna Stamps challenge over on SCS - today's challenge is to make a 3-D item. Wouldn't this be an adorable little treat bag for a girl's pirate party or maybe a little gift bag to hold a gift card or a piece of jewelry for your little pirate princess? The actual purse was cut using my Cricut Expression - it's the purse2 cut from the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cartridge - I cut it at 7 inches. After I scored my purse - I stamped all my purse with the skull & cross bones stamp from the Pirate Hanna set with Versamark ink and then heat embossed them with a white (with silver sparkles) embossing powder. The sentiment on my purse is computer-generated - I used a font called "Blackadder" on my computer. Both Hanna and the pirate chest are also from the Pirate Hanna set - here's a close-up of the pirate chest...
I had been wanting to fill that treasure chest from the Pirate Hanna set with jewels for a long time - see - I got to meet Captain Jack at Disney World last September and I did a layout for that album where I filled a die cut treasure chest with little sticker rhinestones and I knew I wanted to do the same with this Hanna treasure chest. It was really easy to do - I colored the treasure chest first with my Copics - then I cut it out and cut the top of (don't cut it all the way off - just go to the very edge so it is barely connected to the bottom) - tilt the top to "open" the chest and then just start piling on the rhinestone stickers and be sure to add some to the bottom of the chest so that it looks like your treasure is spilling over. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - I've got LOTS of exciting posts planned for next week - lots of yummy sneak peeks with the new Hanna Stamps sets being released next Friday!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

All the Ingredients You Need...

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful week!! We've been enjoying some mild late summer weather here in good ol' Indiana - my husband and I ended up taking our youngest son to the Zoo yesterday - it was such a beautiful day to be at the Zoo!! I took some time this afternoon to do today's SCS Sketch Challenge - I LOVE the sketch challenges - they seem to help me get my creative stamping mojo flowing again - LOL!! Plus - I wanted to play with my new Martha Stewart Halloween edge punch I bought today (yes - I know - pigs are flying all over Indy today - Candice bought a Martha Stewart product - LOL) - I must admit though - this new "Drippy Goo" punch is just WAY too cool - I couldn't pass it up - plus I love all things Halloween - so this was definitely a "must have" for me. Anywho - I used my new punch on the edge of the black mat that my spooky Halloween jars are on. Both the jar images and the sentiment is from the My Favorite Things "Totally Witchin'" set and were colored in with Copic Markers. The purple background was embossed with the Cuttlebug Spiderweb embossing folder - a VERY cool embossing folder - I think I am gonna get a lot of use out of this one! ;) The patterned paper is from the Die Cuts with a View Halloween Glitter stack. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Another Great Class!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!! So are you all ready for Monday morning?? No? Me neither - LOL!!! I just got back from a wonderful day in Nashville, IN - I got to spend all day in a stamp store - sounds pretty fun, huh? I taught my second Copic class at Papertrix today and it went really well!! I had a wonderful and fun group of ladies today - they were very eager to learn about Copics and were all very sweet! We made 3 cards again today - I chose to make different cards for this class - I want to keep my class fresh! Here are the cards we made...

The image on this card is from the Hero Arts clear Cupcake set - I love this set and this is a great image to color in with Copics - that nice big wrapper is great for learning to shade and we also talked about how to use that wonderful Cool Shadow Copic shade to make our frosting appear white. The patterned paper on this card is from the DCWV Pocketful of Posies stack. The gals especially loved those rhinestone "sprinkles" - a perfect final touch!
We had SO much fun with this card - check out Tractor Riley in his corn field - LOL!! The corn is from the Garden Hanna set and so are the little vegetables that I stamped on the 3 yellow strips - I wish I could take credit for being the first to pair this Riley with the corn from the Garden Hanna set - but I can't - a very talented gal over on SCS whom I know as "Emptynextstamper" made a card where she had put Riley in front of the corn for one of our Friday Hanna Stamps challenges and that card has always stuck with me - so thanks to her for the super idea!! I did this card in John Deer colors which everyone got a kick out of and it was just a fun image to color - gotta love Riley!! ;)

This last card we did was with an image from the "Rain or Shine" set from My Favorite Things set - this is a great image for learning to color and shade with Copics too - just look at that nice big raincoat of hers!

Overall - we had a really great class - I do want to send a big "Thank You" to all the ladies who came out and took my class today - I had such a wonderful time with them! I have my next class scheduled for those who may be interested - it will be Saturday, November 1st from 12:00 - 3:00 PM - if you are in the area - Fall is an absolutely breath-taking time in Brown County - I would love to see you there!! Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Friday, August 22, 2008

My First Hanna

Happy Friday everyone!! It's my turn to host the Friday challenge over on the Hanna Stamps forum at SCS and I have a simple - but fun - challenge for you today! The challenge to to use the very first Hanna or Riley that you either received or purchased. This is my card for the challenge - "Rainy Day Hanna" was the first set that I purchased and after inking her up once - I was totally hooked! How can you resist her? Just look at that big umbrella and that raincoat and boots!! It was fun to ink her up - it's been too long since I have used her. I paper pieced her dress and the inside of her umbrella with paper from the DCWV Pocketfull of Posies stack and then colored the rest in with Copic markers. The raindrops in the corner are by Fiskars - it's the rain dots from Walgreen's - I believe they are called Fiskars "Zingz". The card was made with my new long rectangle nesties (loving these ;)) and the sentitment is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set.

I hope you will all swing by and play with us today - here is a link to the challenge - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=375794 - I am off to get the rest of my class prep done for my Copic class this Sunday - I'll be sure to post when I get home on Sunday about how the class went and to show the cards that we made. Have a great weekend and thanks for stoppping by!!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Pickin' Pumpkins

Now that my oldest is back in school - I am finally getting my behind out of bed early enough to get some stuff done - LOL!! One of the things I did this morning was a card for the weekly sketch challenge over on SplitCoast stampers - I love this challenge - I missed last week's so I was excited to be able to do this week's sketch challenge. You can view the sketch here - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=375103 - it's a fun sketch - I was particularly drawn to this one because I love putting my images onto circles! I used Pumpkin Riley for my card - I colored him in with Copics. The sentiment is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set. I embossed the orange and brown background with the new Pumpkin Cuttlebug Embossing folder that I recently purchased - I am absolutely loving the new holiday folders!! The little pumpkin the corner is a button - I just cut the back off before I adhered it. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Got Margaritas?

Kinda makes you thirsty, doesn't it? Hee hee...I love this little margarita stamp - it's from a clear Impression Obsession set by Leigh Hannan - both the margarita and the sentiment came from this set. The image was colored in with Copic markers and I also added some Stickles to the salt around the rim. I used my circle nesties to cut it out and for the scalloped circle. The color combination is kinda funky - but I thought it turned out pretty cool - that darker green really makes the orange and bright green pop. I did some decorative criss cross scoring on the card front with the Scor-Pal - I am loving my Scor-Pal more and more as I use it - what a great tool!!

Thanks so much for stopping by - sorry for being so quiet recently - with school starting and then class prep work (for my Copic class on Sunday) - it's been a little hectic lately - but I am hoping to have lots more to share with you this week as I get caught up on some work! Have a great Tuesday everyone!!

Friday, August 15, 2008

I've Gone Batty!

OK - well - not really - but somedays it sure feels like it - LOL!!! Happy Friday everyone - hope it's been a wonderful week for all of you! We've been getting adjusted to my oldest being back in school and being gone the whole day this year - it's been quite a change - but he's loving First Grade and I am slowly getting used to it too! ;)

This is my card for the Friday Hanna Stamps Challenge over on the Hanna Stamps forum on SCS - you should definitely come play today - Niki gave us a two part challenge this week - a Halloween Sketch Challenge! You can check out the challenge and Niki's sketch here -http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=373687 - I used Vampire Riley for my card - I colored him in with Copic markers. The bat that I used to stamp around Riley and then on the purple, green and orange cardstock strips behind him is from the Hanna Stamps Halloween mini-set. I did a little machine stitching on the background - but it is almost completely hidden behind my image - LOL!! The "Boo!" on the orange cardstock strip below Riley is also from the Halloween mini-set. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Back to School!

It's that time of the year again!! I sent my baby boy, Andrew, off to the first grade this morning!! :( What a big change it is for him - our Kindergarten here is still a half day - so today is his first day of being at school all day. It's such a big adjustment - I hope he's having a wonderful first day!! I am very lucky to have a son who gets excited about school and really enjoys it - it sure makes days like this a smidgen easier!

Here is a card I made for Andrew - I am going to give it to him when he gets home today along with a new Webkinz pet (he is OBSESSED with these things) - just a little way to let him know how proud his mommy and daddy are of him. I used School Riley (he is also one of Andrew's favorite Rileys) and I also used stamps from the Hanna Stamps "Teacher Hanna" set to do the background. All images were colored in with Copic markers -even those in the backgroud. The strip of paper in the middle was embossed using the "Numbers" Cuttlebug embossing folder - you know - it's funny - because this is one of the embossing folders I didn't think I wanted - I bought it to do some back to school projects with and I am finding I am using it all the time! The sentiment on this card is from a Studio G clear $1 stamp set from Michael's and all circles were cut using Nestibilities. Thanks so much for stopping by - I am gonna send some ((BIG HUGS)) to all you other Mommies out there who sent your little ones back to school this week too!!

Monday, August 11, 2008

A "Wicked" Birthday!

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I've been busy busy getting things ready for the start of school this Wednesday - can you believe summer vacation is over already? Summer sure flew by!! I had to take a time out this afternoon though and make a card with the new "Totally Witchin'" set from My Favorite Things - I love all things Halloween - so I am completely in love with this set. Although - the first card I made with this set was not a Halloween card - it was a birthday card for my niece. During the MFT sneak peeks last week - a couple of gals on the design team turned the Halloween witches into witches from the musical "Wicked" - Elphaba (the "Wicked" Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch). After I saw these - I knew I must get this set and make a card for my niece - both she and I are BIG fans of the musical - I took her up in April of 2007 to see "Wicked" in Chicago - what an AMAZING show!!! Her birthday is this week - so I got the set just in time to make her a "Wicked" birthday card. I used Copic markers to color in the image and the sentiment is computer generated. The paper is from Hobby Lobby - I believe it is by "The Paper Studio". The flowers are Primas and the brads are "Spare Parts" from Hobby Lobby. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Friday, August 8, 2008

A Challenging Friday...

OK - so my Friday hasn't been that challenging - but my cards for today sure were - LOL!! Here are a couple of cards I made for 2 different challenges over at SplitCoast Stampers - I am fast becoming addicted to challenges - they are SO much fun!!
This first card is a Riley card I made for the Hanna Stamps Friday challenge - the challenge today was a sketch challenge by Amanda (Sewell) - it's an awesome sketch - here is the link...http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=371208 - I hope you will pop on over and play with us this week!! I used Witch Riley for my card - I LOVE Halloween and realized I hadn't used my Halloween Rileys enough - so you may see a lot of cards with them over the next few days - tee hee...I colored him in with Copics and added a bit of Stickles to the stars and the moon. The paper is from the Die Cuts With a View Halloween Glitter stack and the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. The broom, star, and moon are all buttons from my stash (thanks to my dear friend, Jennifer, who just sent me some more awesome Halloween buttons!!;)) - and the sentiment is from a Studio G clear $1 stamp set from Michael's.

This second card is for today's Limited Supplies challenge over on SCS - LSC#180 - what a fun challenge! Today's challenge was to create a "Lunch Note" - a little ATC sized card to tuck into lunches, briefcases, bags, etc. - just a little note to let someone know you are thinking of them! This was really fun and really quick to make - I am going to be making some more of these to stock up as my boys head back to school over the next couple of weeks. I used the Stampendous "School Changito" clear set from Archiver's for this little card. I stamped the "A+" and the apple in Brilliance Moonlight White ink onto black cardstock for the background from this set. I stamped the little lunchbox and the rest of the images onton white cardstock and colored them in with Copics. I cut the lunchbox out with circle nesties and used just a touch of RibbonFX from Hobby Lobby as well. The card measures 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches - here is the link to the challenge for more info...http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=371092 Thanks so much for stopping by - hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Lily & Milo...I pick you

I love Lily and Milo!! I have two of these stamps and don't use them near enough - they are just too precious!! This is my card for the weekly sketch challenge over on SplitCoast Stampers - I could seriously become addicted to sketch challenges - they are a lot of fun!! They are great for getting design ideas and to help sort of freshen things up and break the monotony if you every get stuck in a layout rut - LOL!! The card sketch can be seen here...http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=370457 - I love this sketch - it's great for those bigger stamped images. For my card - I used paper by Kaiser - this is some more of that beautiful paper I got from Papertrix. Lily & Milo were colored in with Copics and I used a drop of Stickles on those little stars around them. The sentiment is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set and was cut out using my heart nesties. The flowers are Primas and the jewel and ribbon in the centers are from Hobby Lobby. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Monday, August 4, 2008

For You...From Riley


Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to their week! This is a sweet little birthday card I made yesterday afternoon with Cake Riley - my oldest son has a birthday party today and he asked me to make him a special card for it because this little gal is his very best friend. :) She is such a sweet little girl and they have so much fun together - they are a lot alike! Andrew is my sensitive soul so it doesn't surprise me at all that his best friend is a little girl. Of course - they are only 6 years old - so when he told me the other day that they were in love and going to get married - I nearly fainted - I wasn't ready for that - LOL!! We decided on using a Riley for her birthday card because he is everyone's favorite little moose around here! ;) I colored in Riley with Copic Markers and added a little bit of Stickles to the layers of the cake. I used my biggest heart nestibilitie to cut the scalloped card. The paper is from the DCWV Summer Stack from JoAnn's. The flowers are Primas and the little jewels in the middle of them are by the Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Now THIS is a Gumball Machine!!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!! I spent some time this weekend getting some samples done for Papertrix - I picked up a couple of stamps while I was there last weekend teaching my class and Cindy (the owner) sent me home with some beautiful paper - so I have been having fun playing this weekend! :) I managed to get 3 samples done - I had wanted to get a few more done - but I ended up with a massive case of heartburn on Saturday night that is still bugging me this evening - ick!! It's been one of those days where I could have used a quarter to put in this gumball machine - check it out...
This is a stamp by Impression Obsession and I just fell in love with it when I saw it!! If days at the beach could be had by putting a quarter into a gumball machine - I'd be feeding that thing quarters all the time - LOL!! The image was colored in with Copic markers. The sentiment is from a clear set by Impression Obsession. The patterned paper is from the Die Cuts With a View Summer stack from JoAnn's.Here's a cute little doggie card I made with the Hanna Stamps "Large Breeds" set - don't you just want to take him home? I had a blast coloring him - he was colored in with Copic markers. The sentiment is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Pets Stack - I LOVE the paper in tihs stack!! I cut the scalloped circle card using my nestibilties. The dog bone clip is by Spare Parts from Hobby Lobby and the little paw print is a button.
And one more for the weekend - this was made with one of the My Favorite Things sets that Papertrix carries - this one is called "Going Places" - all images on the card are from this set - even the plane and the little banner. I masked the city skyline behind the gal and colored the images in with Copic markers. I used paper from a new line by Kaiser for this card - isn't is so pretty? I love the color combos in it - it's so rich! I even used some of the Kaiser paper to paper piece her dress. The polka dot button is actually a brad from Hobby Lobby.

All of the stamps that I used on these cards can be purchased at Papertrix in Nashville, IN as well as the Pets stack and the Kaiser designer paper. If you are in the area - you really must stop in! Also - Cindy can also special order stamps and is willing to ship stamps to you as well - contact information for the store is located on my side bar. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Buttons! Buttons! Buttons!

Happy Friday everyone!! Is it REALLY August already?? This summer has just flown by - my baby starts 1st grade in just over a week - he's gonna be going to school ALL day this year - WAHHHH!! Oh my - I better stop talking about before I have another breakdown - oh - the perils of being a Mommy - LOL!! Anywho - I do have a card to share with you today - it's for the Hanna Stamps Friday challenge over on Hanna forum on Splitcoast Stampers - the challenge today is to use buttons on your card - which is a great challenge because I figured it would force me to use some of those buttons I have in my stash! Well - I had fully intended to dig thru my stash for buttons - but then I ran across these VERY cute tool buttons at Archiver's in the $1.99 bins and I thought "OMG - these are perfect for Tool Time Hanna and Beth's button challenge! I must have them!" - LOL!! The saw, pencil, and wrench are all buttons from the little set I bought - they are made by a company called Buttons Galore and what is nice about them is that they already have the little backs cut off of them so you can just stick them right down to your card! This was a BIG bonus for me because the last time I tried to cut one of those little backs off a cutesy button like this - I nearly took off my finger as well - hee hee...did I mention that I am accident prone? ;) The Hanna image is from the Tool Time Hanna set - I really love this Hanna - I think I am drawn to this set because my Dad and brothers were all painters (my Dad has his own subcontracting business) and this set reminds me of them! I colored her in with Copics and did the feathering blending techinque on her shirt - I feathered the light purple into the dark purple - I love this effect - I just need to get better control with it - LOL!! I stamped the purple background with stamps from the Tool Time Hanna set as well and the sentiment is also from this set. The circles were cut with Nestibilities. Thanks so much for stopping by - hope everyone has a great start to their August!!