Just Beachy! **MFT July Hop Around the Block**

Hello and welcome to this month's MFT Hop Around the Block!! If you've just happened upon my blog - then hop back over to Kim's blog and start the hop from there - I'll see you when you get back!! For today's hop - I chose to share a card I did using the new MFT "Catch Some Rays" set being released Wednesday night at 10 PM EST - I figured it was pretty appropriate considering I just got back from a week of doing just this - LOL!! OK - well - exchange the books for an Amazon Kindle and my margarita was on the rocks - but hey - it was pretty darn close to this image - hee hee...I even included a little memento from my trip on this card - but I'll show you that in a minute. ;) I started by coloring my image with Copics - I paper pieced the umbrella with paper from the MFT 6X6 Spring Paper pak (the background paper is from this pak as well). The big button is from the Spring Button Collection and that yummy yellow gingham ribbon is from the MFT Perfect Plaid Ribbons pak (this ribbon is BEAUTIFUL!!). Now for the fun part...check it out...the sand underneath my Who's That Girl is ACTUAL sand...here's a close-up...

We just got back from Myrtle Beach and like the total dork that I am - I brought back a small bag of sand for crafting purposes (scrapbook pages, keepsake bottles for the boys, etc.) - so I thought it would be fun to add a little bit of my vacation to this card. I started by putting down 2 strips of 1/4 in. redline tacky tape - I cut the ends to fit the image. Then I just sprinkled some sand onto the sticky strips - patted it down to make sure it was nice and stuck and then shook off the excess. And believe it or not - it's really stuck on there - I thought that maybe I'd have to seal it - but it seems to be OK without it.

We've got a FUN release for you this month - MFT will be releasing 4 brand new sets Wedneday night after the new release Cocktail Party over on SCS from 8-10 PM EST (remember TLC'ers get to order the releases starting at 9 PM EST). MFT is also releasing some new polka dot ribbon - a perfect choice for those summer projects!! Also - this month starts the First 50 Memento Dew Drop Collection - for the next 24 weeks, the first 50 prize will be a Memento Dew Drop and each week - we will feature a NEW color. If you place an order each Wednesday and are in the first 50 orders - you will earn the complete collection for FREE over the next 24 weeks. For this Wednesday - the first 50 will receive a FREE Memento Dew Drop in Angel Pink with their order - how cool is that!? And what a way to complete your Memento Dew Drop collection!! Hope to see everyone at the party - Paula and I will be announcing the One Click Collection winner as well - see you then!! Your next stop on the hop...the FABULOUSLY talented - Cindy - enjoy!!!

I'm ba-aack!!!

Happy Monday!! And a big hello to all my blogger friends!! I'm back!! I've missed blogging and stamping and chatting - so I'm very excited to be posting this morning! Where have I been?? I'll show you in a second - first - I wanted to share an MFTeaser of one of the new MFT sets being released this Wednesday night - it's a new set by MFTPresents illustrator Amanda Baird called "Puttin on the Glitz". Isn't she fabulous!? I love Amanda's sets - they are so whimsical and very "Vogue"!! I created a little scene with the set - drew in the flooring and colored everything in with Copics. All the silver on the scene - around the mirror and on the make-up cases - were colored in using Silver Fox Smooch Ink - these are VERY cool for accents!! This card is for the July One Click Challenge - hosted by Paula and I this month - our challenge for you is to create a card using FLOWERS and POLKA DOTS!!! The sky's the limit and I can't wait to see what you all come up with - you have until 10 PM EST Tuesday night to enter - you could win all the stamps from the July release!!! I went with a black and pink theme - my polka dots were done with circle punches and my flowers were punched as well - I added little pink gemstones to accent them.
So where have I been?? Well - we just got back from a week in beautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!! Here are my 2 beach boys having fun in the water - we just had an absolute blast and I am SO itching to scrap our trip already - so you may even start seeing some LO's soon!! ;) I think I mentioned we were leaving in my last post - but I normally don't like to splash all over my blog that we were leaving our house for a week, kwim?? But I'm back now - feeling great and ready to get back to blogging!! I hope to see you all at the MFT Release Party over on SCS Wednesday night from 8-10 PM EST - and don't forget about the blog hop - it starts tomorrow at 10 PM for lots of eye candy and maybe some blog candy at the end too!! ;) See you then!!

A Little Java...

...to get you hoppin'!! Hi everyone! Sorry for the week-long absence - I did not end up having my wisdom teeth out on Tuesday - I had a bit of a medical emergency happen on Sunday and while I'm not quite ready to talk about it yet - I will tell you that I'm OK and was even able to finish up this adorable little Flopsey jar this morning. I missed the MFT new release blog hop this week :( - this was one of the projects I had planned on sharing during the hop - so since I finally finished it I thought that I'd share it with you today. I started with one of the MFT Perfect Packaging squared jars and the newly released "I Need Coffee Flopsey" set. I stamped the new Flopsey on an MFT Perfect Paper panel - colored him with Copics and then cut him out. The sentiment is from this new set as well. I tied some ribbon around the jar lid and then decorated the top as well. I used a piece of the 6X6 MFT Chocolate Kiss paper as well as a button from the Spring Collection button mix to accent the top. The kicker though are the bunny ears I added to the lid - LOL!! I just die cut a couple of skinny ovals and then folded them right at the tips to adhere them to the top of the lid. The jar is filled with - well - java of course - but not just any coffee - it's filled with Dunkin' Donuts coffee - YUM!!! What java fanatic wouldn't love this adorable jar!?

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that after my long absences - I still have some blog readers left - LOL!! I really hated not posting this past week as we are getting ready to head out on Saturday for some week-long R & R in Myrtle Beach, SC - ahh...I'm SO looking forward to vacation!! If you're looking for some MFT goodness though - be sure to check out the other MFT design team members' blogs as well as the MFT forum on SCS - there's ALWAYS some fun going on there!! Talk to you all soon!!

Just a Little Dirty

Happy Thursday!! Thanks for all the well wishes on my little dental fiasco ;) - I think that antibiotic is starting to help and the pain in my tooth and jaw has really improved - hmm...does that mean I can forgo my procedure next week??? LOL!! Wishful thinking, huh?? Anywho - today starts a new week of challenges and chatting over at the MFT forum on SCS - Christina and Cindy have this week's My Favorite Challenge and Sketch challenges up - you can view them here. The card I have for you today is for the My Favorite Challenge - this week's challenge is to make a tri-fold card!! Cool challenge, huh?? I had fun with this one - I tried a style of card I had never done before (which in my opinion - any challenge that gets you to try new things is truly the sign of a great challenge;) ) - I chose to try a Triangle Trifold card. It's amazing what a couple of extra score lines can do for a card - you can really make a "wow" card in no time!! I chose to use the MFT "Maid For You" set (this is one of my fave WTG sets). I paper pieced the wallpaper, drew on the flooring and her fishnets and then colored the rest of the image in with Copics. It really is a sexy little card and I think what really sets it off is that flirty white bow holding the card closed - it's some beautiful white ribbon from the MFT Chocolate Kiss Ribbon Nest. Here is the inside of the card - and you can see how it folds out as well...

The frame around the sentiment is actually a sticker frame - it came in the same stack as the paper I used for this card came in (it's from an old paper stack by a company called Stemma - the Damask Scrap Pad). I did one of the larger Triangle Trifold cards - so the finished size of my card closed is a 4 in. square. Such a quick little card to do - but can you imagine your hubby's face when he finds it in his briefcase one morning??? Hee hee...thanks SO much for stopping by - I'm feeling better and things are starting to calm down around here a bit - so I'm looking forward to more stamping time over the weekend!

Ugh...update...

Hope everyone has been having a wonderful week!!! I thought I'd pop in this morning and let everyone know that I am alive - LOL!! I was out of town over the weekend (my niece and I went to Louisville, KY to see the musical "Spring Awakening" - OMG - what an AMAZING AMAZING show!!!) and then I've been battling a pretty severe toothache since late last week and really haven't felt much like stamping. :( I finally made it in to see the dentist yesterday afternoon - it was one of my wisdom teeth that was hurting and the pain had gone all the way into my jaw - yikes! The tooth that was hurting had only partially erupted and had gotten infected which was what is causing all that pain. I'm on antibiotics - but my wisdom teeth have to be removed - ICK!! I only have 3 (one never formed) and 2 of them are fully in - so I don't think it's as invasive as a procedure as actually having them cut out - but I am still not looking forward to it. I am having the procedure done next Tuesday and am hoping that the antibiotic will kick in soon and I can get some relief before then. I am gonna try to get some stamping done this afternoon and hoping to be back to posting cards on here tomorrow. In the meantime - if any of you have had your wisdom teeth out and have any words of advice - that would be wonderful - foods I should stock for next week, things to avoid, etc. Have a great Wed. and I'll be back tomorrow!!!

Something's Screwy...

So I took on quite a task with this card - LOL - I missed a very special little boy's birthday (well - I remembered it - I just didn't get a card there on time :( ) and I wanted to have something extra special to send down to him. I was in Archiver's the other day and I splurged and bought the Sizzix Bigz 3-D Three Tier Cake pop-up die - and OMG - how cool is this die!? It actually wasn't as hard to assembles as it first looked and this card was actually my first try with it. The base of my pop-up cake was done with some shimmery silver paper - I thought that would be a good base for a robot cake. In keeping with the robot theme - I stamped, colored and cut out one of the robots from the Our Craft Lounge set "The Botz Family" (LOVE this set - I do lots of boys cards - so this set is perfect for me!) for the topper of my cake - he fit perfectly at the top!! I decorated the sides of my cake with "cog" die cuts - I cut these with my Cricut (from the Accent Essentials cart). The patterned paper is from the DCWV "All About Boys" stack. Here's a pic of the outside of the card...

I kept it simple - because when the inside of your card looks like that - who needs a fancy outside?? LOL!! I used the same paper as on the inside - and the robot cake image and sentiment are from the same OCL set ("The Botz Family"). Oh - and this is a 5 1/2 in. square card - I had to make my card a bit bigger to adjust for how tall my robot was on top of my cake. One more pic - here's a close-up pic of the robot "cake"...

So what do you think??? Do you think he'll like it?? I hope so - I've got a million more ideas that I want to try with this Sizzix 3-D cake die - so you'll probably be seeing a lot more pop-up cards in the near future - LOL!! Hope everyone has had a wonderful Thursday and thanks so much for stopping by (again!)!

Guys Like You Are Rare

Happy Thursday!! Well - first of all - let me say a big CONGRATS to the 2 newest members of the MFT Sweet Sixteen - Barbara and Kathy!! YAY!! They were the 2 chosen from the Top 4 MFT Finalists to be on the team and I definitely don't envy Kim the decision - all 4 were MFT design-team worthy!! So really - congrats to all the MFT Idol finalists - they worked so hard week after week and really came up with some spectacular projects! There is still lots of fun stuff going on over in the MFT forum - check out this thread over on SCS for the new challenges and some fun chatter. The card I have to share with you today is for today's sketch challenge - Frances came up with another awesome sketch to work with!! I used the new MFT "Who's That Grillin' Guy?" set for my card - I just LOVE this image - I think it's because it makes me think of my hubby. :) This was my first chance to color him on paper (an MFT Perfect Paper Panel to be exact) and boy is he fun to embellish!! I saw Susan's "Texas" t-shirt on her grillin' guy card and I knew I had to make a guy wearing a Cubs shirt for my hubby - yes - we are Cubs fans here. The funny thing is my son is on the White Sox for his little league - trust me - the irony is not lost on us - LOL!! I added some charcoal and some flames to the grill as well - if you haven't seen Amy's charcoal trick in this week's HTDT? post - then you must go see it - especially if you've ordered this set!!;) I stamped and cut steaks out (image is included in the set) for my guy to be grillin' - I paper pieced his apron and then colored the rest in with Copics. The sentiment is from the new set as well. The patterned paper is from last year's DCWV Summer Stack (which reminds me - I have to go buy this year's - hee hee...). I added some Making Memories metal star brads to accent my card. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

A ROCKIN' MFT Blog Hop!!

Hello and welcome to another ROCKIN' MFT Blog Hop!! So have you spied those little MFT rockers "The Poppies" yet?? Aren't they just adorable!!?? If you've just happened onto my blog - then hop back over to Kim's blog and start the hop from there - I'll be waiting for you when you get back!! For my project that I am sharing with you today - I have chosen to use the new Who's That Grillin' Guy? set - this set is PERFECT for my family - my hubby grills year round - seriously - he'd stand out in freezing weather just to grill - hee hee...I wanted to use the set to make something for my youngest DS - he's 4 and wants to be just like his Daddy (of course) - so I made him a little "Grillmaster" set for him to play with!! I got the idea while perusing the kids $1 bins at Michael's recently - see - I used to teach parent/child art classes at Gymboree and this is the kind of stuff we used to have to come up with - crafts that not only kids can make - but that they can take home and play with too. I'll show you the individual pieces of the set and explain how I did each one...

Here's the apron I altered - I got the apron for a $1 - can't beat that!! And to make it match my little set I made - I stamped the Grillin' Guy onto a piece of craft fabric and then colored it in with Copics (for more about coloring on fabric - see today's HTDT? here). Once I had my grillin' guy colored - I trimmed it down and matted it onto some red fabric and then machine stitched it onto the apron. I even found a little plastic spatula to put in the pocket of the apron.

Here's the little tote bag that holds all the food in the set - it's another little $1 bin find - it's just a plain old white mini tote bag that I've stamped on. I stamped the image directly onto the tote bag using Memento ink - then once again colored the image in with Copics.

I made all the play food too - I started with sheets of the adhesive backed Fun Foam. I die cut the various shapes I needed of the foods using my nesties - the nesties cut the fun foam like a dream - I only had to run it thru once. Each food has a double layer of foam on it - so for like the hamburger - I die cut 2 circles of the same size - then peeled off the backing and stuck the 2 sitcky sides together. Also - I wanted to give the hamburgers some texture - so before I stuck the two circles together - I ran them thru my Cuttlebug in the "Mesh" embossing folder and again - the folders emboss the foam just perfectly. Also pictured here are the cheese slices (just cut the foam into squares) and the sesame seed bun - hee hee...the seeds are just some mini circles I punched from the white fun foam.

Here are our veggie fixin's for our cheeseburger - I used the scallop circle nesties to cut the lettuce - red circles with bigger seeds for tomatoes - little circles with small seeds for pickles. The yellow ovals are mini corn on the cob ears (as suggested by my kiddos - we LOVE to grill good ol' Indiana corn on the cob) - the corn was embossed with the "Bubbles" embossing folder to give it some texure. And finally - here is my little "Grillmaster" himself - enjoying the fruits (and veggies) of our labor...this is my youngest DS, Calvin...

So what all is being released this Wednesday night from MFT?? Well - we are releasing 3 brand spankin' new sets along with a couple of new goodies...the sets being released are "The Poppies" (MFT Presents), "Who's That Grillin' Guy?", and "Let's Picnic" (the new Who's That Girl?) set - the sets will be released at 10 PM EST Wednesday night (9 PM for TLC'ers) and be sure to watch out for a special one click collection price which will be good for 48 hours following the release!! Also being released is a Clear Crystal Collection and a Checkered Ribbon Bundle (perfect for our new summer images!). MFT is hosting a new release Cocktail Party on Wednesday from 8-10 PM EST over on the MFT forum at SCS - during which a couple of BIG annoucements will be made - our 2 new designers from the MFT Idol contest will be annouced as well as the winner of the June One Click Collection challege so be sure to get your entry uploaded!!

Thanks so much for stopping by - your next stop on the hop is the UBER-talented Susan - I know she's got some fabulous eye candy for you - enjoy!!!!

Not Too Cute to ROCK!!

Happy Monday!! I hope you're all having a great start to your week! Summer's in full swing here as both my kiddos are now officially done with school for the year - although I honestly think they're already a little stir crazy - YIKES!! I guess we will be spending LOTS of time at the pool this summer! I've got a fun little card to share with you today - it's a little peek at the new set being released from MFT this Wednesday from the MFT Presents line called "The Poppies" and OMG - this is one of the cutest sets EVAH!!!! These are some rockin' chickies!! I chose the drummer Poppy for my card - I stamped her on an MFT Perfect Paper Panel and colored her with Copics and put her inside one of those little plastic maze toys (I had a blast in the kids $1 bins at Michael's yesterday - you'll see more fun stuff I found during this release). I used the previously released MFT "Bling 'Bet" set for the word "rock" - I stamped it in Memento Rose Bud ink and embellished it with some little gemstones from Hobby Lobby. Not sure where the dp is from - but the stars were die cut with my Cricut.

I hope to see you at the MFT new release Cocktail Party this Wednesday night from 8-10 PM EST over in the MFT forum at SCS - and there is still time to play in the June One Click Collection challenge - one lucky winner will receive ALL the June releases!!!! Thanks so much for stopping by!!