Sneak Peek at the new C.C. Designs stamps

Good Morning! It's getting close to the release of the new C.C. Designs stamps, so the sneak peeks are beginning. :) The stamps will be available to purchase on May 4th at 12:01am est.

This set is called "A Hootin' Good Time". It has 8 different owls in it, yes I said 8!! They are all different and sooooooo much fun! I got to choose which owls I wanted on my tree because the tree comes owlless (my own word, can you tell :) and I added the owls that I wanted. With so many owls to choose from you can convey many different feelings with this set! I colored the images with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and then added glitter to parts of the owls and gems for the eyes of the owl in the tree. I will be making some other samples with this set and will definitely get them on the blog. Until then, you can go to the blog at All That Scraps and see some other samples made with this set - http://www.atsblog.typepad.com/ . For the next few days, I will be doing sneak peeks of the new sets so stop back by!

Our quote for the day: "If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it." - Andy Rooney

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!

Another Mother's Day Card :)

Good Morning! I hope everyone is having spring like weather by now....yes I know that's a dream, but I can dream it if I want to :) We had a frost last night :( One of the hardest things for me to get acclimated to living here from living in the south is how long it stays cold! I would love to be outside planting flowers now, but everyone says I need to wait until after Mother's Day. I guess until them I will make Mother's Day cards and water the plants we bought the other day that are living on our sunporch for now :)

I bought this stamp for this year. It is very similar to a Happy Thanksgiving stamp that I bought and I loved all the swirlies that are on it, so I figured the swirlies work even better for Mother's Day cards.....not so well for Father's Day :) Anyway, I started with Paper Company shimmer paper and embossed it with my cuttlebug, added the patterned paper from Paper Salon, it's Karen Newburger's serenity line (very sparkly :) The polka dot circle is cut from Doodlebug's Raspberry Sunrise Polka Dots and then I layered the stamped Happy Mother's Day on that, added some Hero Arts gems and pop-dotted the whole circle piece onto the card. Again, very easy! I love the colors on this one. When I make cards, I definitely take into consideration who will be receiving them and choose my colors accordingly. Then when I don't have a recipient in mind, I can choose whatever colors I like :)

Our quote for the day: "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;
remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for." - Epicurus

Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Mother's Day card #1

Good Morning! It's time to start making Mother's Day cards :) I've made a couple so far so I will share them with you in the next few days. Today's is really simple, but I love it. I love the colors especially. I started with Bazzill cardstock and added Basic Grey paper from the Lily Kate line at the bottom. I stamped Happy Mother's Day with a new stamp from Stampendous, it's a wood mounted and not part of an acrylic set. The ribbon and the ribbon charm I had in my stash and I'm not sure of the manufacturer on those, but the flowers are the wedding flowers from Michaels and primas all layered with little pearl embellies in the center. I did ink around the whole card with the same Sahara Sand ink I used to stamp Happy Mother's Day. That's it. Easy as can be!

It's cool here today, but warming up. Saturday started out warm here and dropped about 20 degrees during the day. We had a double header softball game and the wind was blowing really hard too. BBBBrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! I'm ready for warm weather!! We did however grill two nights this weekend. YUMMY!!! I love the grill :)

Our quote for the day: "One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do." - Henry Ford

Have a great Monday and thanks for stopping by. If there is anything in particular that you would like to see, a technique, a use for a tool etc, leave me a comment and I will see what I can come up with :)

Two cards :)

Good Morning! Amy Rysavy challenged us with another sketch. I made two cards with this sketch, it's a great one. Here are my cards: You can see the sketch and many other samples made with it at http://www.atsblog.typepad.com/. I used the C.C. Designs set It's My Birthday for both of these cards. It's such a fun set! For the LuLu card I used my cuttlebug swirl embossing folder for the background and some Making Memories textured tape for the horizontal stripe. I colored LuLu with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and then added glitter pens to the bows.

For Lucky's card, I used the polka dot background stamp for the background, then Basic Grey cupcake line for the patterned papers including the ones I paper pieced onto the presents. The I used glitter pens again for the bows on the presents. I finished this one off with dew drops in the bottom right corner. This is a great sketch. If you get a chance, try it out!!

Our quote for the day: "Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. " — Palmer Sondreal

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

More on Sketches

Good evening! It's actually feeling like spring here and the flowers are starting to come up and the trees are starting to get buds on them. I even have daffodils blooming! Such a wonderful time of year. I think spring is my favorite season. :)

I talk alot about sketches and in this post I want to show you how versatile they are. I used the same sketch by Janelle Richmond for both a card and a layout. Janelle also has a blog that she does only sketches on and she has a layout design team and a card design team so when she posts a sketch she also posts many different samples made with that sketch. You can find it here: http://janellerichmond.typepad.com/sketchthis.

Okay, here is Janelle's sketch:

Here is the card I made based on it:

I made this one almost exactly like the sketch and it was soooo easy. You can use scraps for this one too. I can see myself using this sketch for many different cards.

And here is the layout I made based on the sketch:

For this layout, I turned the sketch on it's side. This is an 8X8 page that I used wallet sized pictures on. That was something new for me too and I love using that size pictures for 8X8's.

This is just one of Janelle's sketches and I think she's going to release new ones weekly. So you can get many layouts and many cards completed with just a little help from Janelle!

Our quote for the day: "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." - Hugh Downs

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Good afternoon! No sunshine today, in fact, we've been having LOTS of rain. So much that our sporting events have been canceled more than once. It takes pretty bad weather for them to cancel a track meet and we have had 2 or 3 canceled now. Even soccer has been canceled and that takes some pretty bad weather for that too. To be perfectly honest though, I'd rather be inside with weather like this anyway :)

Today's card was made for my son-in-law's birthday and I'm pretty sure that he doesn't read my blog so I'm safe in posting it :) The stamp is a new one from Stampendous called Changito Golfer! The inside of the card says Happy Birthday. I used prism cardstock, the plaid is from Karen Foster, the ribbons are both from May Arts I think. I colored the monkey with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. I don't have the pkgs from the fonts so I can't tell you which stamp sets the letters are from, sorry! The dew drops are from Robin's Nest. As soon as I saw this stamp I knew I wanted it. I also got Changito Play Ball and Changito Pool Guy, but I haven't used them yet. If anyone has them, I'd love to see what you've done with them, or any of the other Changito stamps too. Leave a comment with a link to your creation.

Our quote for the day: "It is not the cards you are dealt but what you do with them that counts." - Anonymous


Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

New Stamps :)

Good Morning! I'm as happy as a pig in the sunshine because we are supposed to have lots of sunshine today and the temp is supposed to get into the high 60's - woo hoo!!!!

I don't often use muted colors like the ones I used on this card, but I really like how it turned out, so maybe in the future I will do more of this. :) These are some new stamps that I ordered from Cornish Heritage Farms. The background is called Canvas Backgrounder, the flower is called Grunged Flower and the sentiment is call Bloom with Abandon (imagine that :). The papers I used are from My Mind's Eye the Screen Door collection, specifically, Perfect Plaid and Antique Floral. I stamped the flower in ColorBox chalk ink - Blush Rose and then used perfect pearls to color the inside as well as the white parts of the petals. I also used the perfect pearls around the outside of the stamped flower just to give it more distress. It was fun getting my perfect pearls out, I hadn't used them in a while, but every time I do, I love them!

Our quote for the day: "Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly." — George MacDonald

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day and create something fun!

Beautiful Butterflies

Good Morning! The weather is so fickle here. We have a chance of snow today and tomorrow and if not snow, it will be raining a lot. But next week we will have sunshine and temps in the 70's - woo hoo!!! My flowers will have a chance to grow :)



This morning's card was made using a sketch by Amy Rysavy. You can see the other cards made from the same sketch at http://www.atsblog.typepad.com/. I think this sketch was perfect for this set, I really enjoyed making it. The stamps are from the Beautiful Butterflies set from C.C. Designs, available at http://www.allthatscraps.com/ - I used paper from SandyLion, I know I haven't used paper by SandyLion in a while, but this is beautiful, you can't tell in this picture but both pieces have sparkles all through them. It's a line called Lollia. I stamped in Sepia Brown VersaFine ink and I flocked the butterfly wings and glittered the butterfly's head. I colored all pieces in prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits first so they would have a colored base to start with. I used prima flowers and gems on the flowers as well as the butterfly's tail. The Beautiful Butterflies set really is a pretty set, you can see it here: http://www.allthatscraps.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=627&products_id=5656&zenid=8f30204a145a2216fd9c806a4c2333b6 and it's only $11.00 for the whole set.

Our quote for the day: "Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. " - William Arthur Ward

I may not be posting this weekend. Sara is playing in the Regionals Volleyball tournament so we will be watching that Saturday and Sunday. But, I'll be back on Monday if not before. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Something New!

Hi!!! Sorry I've been away for what seems to me like a very long time. We've had a lot going on here, and unfortunately this is what usually has to move to the backburner sometimes.

I've done something out of my box! I've told you about http://www.cardstudiodesigns.com/ before and there is a section on the message board for sketches. Well one of the girls posted a sketch and then put the names of all who posted something with that sketch in a hat and drew a name to see who would post the next sketch. Well, she drew my name so I had to create a sketch. I've done it before in my little sketch notebook, but this time I did it in Word. Using the sketches are another great challenge, so if you get a minute go over there and check it out.

This card is the one I made with the sketch I created. The paper is from Basic Grey's cupcake line and I used flock to make the spots on his shell. I pop-dotted him up from the circle punches. The stamps are both from http://www.cornishheritagefarms.com/ This is their April 2008 Stamp of the Month. I think he's so cute! This was a very easy card to make. I thought about adding some brads to the corners of the rectangles, but I really wanted it to be simple. I did pierce holes in the scallops of both of the circle punches, I can't help it, I always do that. :)

I'll try to be much better about posting, it felt strange to not post for this long.

Our quote for the day: "It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not. " - Anonymous

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

I love Giraffes :)

Good Morning! Remember the other day when I posted about the Hippo quickutz die that is exclusive to Archiver's and I told you that I bought the Giraffe one too? Well here she is!! I love these dies, they're so cute and really they're easy to put together too! This card is based on a card sketch from www.cardstudiodesigns.com. I really like sketches and if you haven't tried them you should, it definitely gives you a place to start with your ideas! The windowpane paper on the left is an older paper from KI Memories, the oval paper in the center is from Basic Grey's new sugared line. I actually bought the paper pack for this piece specifically, but I do like the whole line so it will get used :) The heart rub-on is from KI Memories, again something old that I had in my stash (I just love when I use older stuff!) and the baby girl stamp is from a Fiskars Clear stamp baby set. I did ink around everything with Colorbox Creamy Brown. It's a color I didn't use much for a while, but now I find myself picking it up pretty often, not as often as chestnut roan yet, but it's gaining ground :)

I scrapbooked a page this week. I haven't scrapbooked in a while, I've been making cards instead. I did it for a submission so I won't show it yet. It felt good to get some pictures printed and scrapbooked though.

Our quote for the day: " I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. " - Martha Washington


Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by! Oh by the way, the Lady Tigers are playing in the Final Four Sunday!!! (I will be at a volleyball tournament so I won't get to watch :( But I will still be cheering them on!!

A Sneak Peek at another C.C.Designs set

Good Morning! Another sneak peek at the C.C. Designs sets that are being released Friday morning at 12:01am. This one is called "Cleaning Queenie" and I love it because I don't like to clean at all. I love to do laundry and even to iron although I never get caught up, but I don't like to clean. My mom loves to clean and I think she just didn't give me any of her ability to like it. :) This card was fun to make I started with the striped Big Ole Background, but the stripes weren't enough with the colors I was using so I inked the stripes again and made a plaid background by turning the stamp the opposite way. Worked like a charm. I paper pieced Queenies shirt and colored her pants with copic markers. She is actually colored with Copics, prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and Copic glitter markers too (the pail in silver). The 'ick!" is cut from Quickutz Mary Jane font. Then on the inside I stamped and cut out the little toilet brush and popped it up on pop dots. I should send this one to my sister, she knows how much I don't like to clean :)

I know yesterday was supposed to be love and unloved stamp, but I'm kind of getting off track a little bit and no one is participating in that challenge. Should we try another challenge or would some blog candy do the trick??? You let me know!

Our quote for the day: "Words are just words and without heart they have no meaning." - Chinese Proverb

Have a great day and be sure to pop over to the AllThatScraps blog to see more sneak peeks of Christine's new releases. Here's a link http://www.atsblog.typepad.com/. Thanks for stopping by!

Sneak Peek at new C.C. Designs Stamps

Good Morning! I know I have been neglecting the blog for a few days. But hopefully today will get me back into good graces! I have posted two cards using the upcoming releases for C.C. Designs, available at All That Scraps. They are sooooo much fun! And there are alot more to share so stay tuned. You can also go to the All That Scraps blog to see more examples!

My Happy Birthday card includes the banana stamps which are a new release and I colored mine in with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. The monkey was also colored the same way and then I added glitter marker to the balloon. My favorite thing about this card is the scent that I added to the outside of the card. It's a banana scent and it's in a bottle like nail polish. All you do is paint it right to the outside of your card. It doesn't change the color or anything, it just smells yummy. My daughter said it smells like banana pudding. There are many scents to choose from, this was just my first but I will be getting more :)

The Chicky card is a set of Chicky stamps that are soooooooo cute. I love their legs! :) I used shimmer paper on the top embossed with one of my cuttlebug embossing folders. The paper on the bottom, I put fun flock on some of the flowers so they would match the color of the Chicky and it gave it some dimension too :) The Chicky is colored with both Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits.

These stamps will all be released at 12:00 midnight on Friday, April 4th. Stay tuned for some more sneak peeks because there are many stamp sets being released!!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!