Wintry Circles...

I really admire those who integrate several challenges into one card, Daring Cardmakers has an all things circles theme while Stamp Something wants to see something with cold, winter wind as a focus...it took some real doing for me but here is my take on the two:

To create this I used Close To My Heart stamps along with their background paper, rickrack ribbon and white photo hanger. I also used some snippits of ribbon by American Crafts.

Be Inspired #20

Tonight I wondered back over to Cuttlebug Challenges to check out this weeks card sketch designed by Valerie Salmon it is a great one!
Here is what I came up with using :
Que Sera Sera designer paper by K&CoMPANY
Close to My Heart Cocoa textured card stock
Happy & Happy Birthday stamp by Close to My Heart
Flower & Flourish stamps and leaf-vine chipboard embossed via Cuttlebug by Basis Grey
Green brads by Close To My Heart
and finally aluminum from a can embossed via Cuttlebug

Me an award...shucks!

Debbie from In His Wonderful Grip sent me this cute LadyBug award it made my day! Now I out of the hundreds of awesome blogs out there get to choose 10 other creators:
Erica
Maddy
Erika
Michelle
Jess
Angela
Laurel
Dawne
Aaron
Jenn
Like said this award made my day so you ladies can pass it on to 10 others as well and do all the linky stuff involved it will be super duper if ya do! BR-T

putting aside...

there were a lot of apprehensions I had to put aside to have the courage to post this card, I'm not certain what to think, I call it Toad House This is my card for the Card-A-Licious card challenge, I interpreted to be go for it, just no sentiments so I dragged out all my itty-bittys that I couldn't throw away and set to task.

I opted to design a second card equally playful but more controlled in layout perspective...

Now thats a lot of Clover Meadow and Ocean ...

Over at Card Patterns They have an amazing guest designer Hanneke from Netherlands her work is beyond words! As I studied her card for this weeks sketch , free spirited nature came to mind.

I really struggled with this weeks #3 sketch however once I got started I couldn't stop! I used to avoid Clover Green like the plague but not any more it's really bold and daring and to me that is what this card is all about. All products are CTMH , I tried being a consultant however I became my own best customer...

Mojo Monday # 75

Today I had great aspirations of doing 3 or more challenges, not gonna happen but it's ok I did one! I stopped over at Mojo Monday oogled the designers cards and set to work. I love this designer paper by K&CoMPANY called Daydreams I also used a stamp set by Technique Tuesday called Rocket Man. I used a white pigment ink to stamp on the black, I love the look but it smears easily! Well it's time to blast off!

Give me the frog...

Daring Card Members has a fun challenge where the sky is the limit as long as there is a fish or a frog somewhere on the card...

Be inspired # 19 Embossing on Acetate...

I came across an amazing site called Cuttlebug Challenges, They showed me an ingenious idea of embossing acetate and showed some amazing examples! I just had to give it a try! You will notice some silver on mine, I used some double sided sticky sheets punched out some circles adhered to acetate and applied silver foil to exposed tape surface for fun. I embossed acetate and then punched out the circles, I love to experiment with all my finds!

Challenge Green Ribbon & Friend...

Card-A-Licious has a fun challenge this week and here is my take on it, I may become a challenge addict yet!

Pink And Brown Challenge...

My Time to Craft put out color challenge this week of pink and brown:
Brown reminds me of two of my most favorite things Chocolate and dirt and pink makes me yearn for spring when I can see my Weeping Cherry in bloom again...

Challenge 103 pt 2

CPS has a great card sketch this week in several parts.I missed pt 1 and just as I completed phase 2 there was a pt 3, I am so slow at doing these challenges!I hope to get better as time goes on...

MOJO74 challenge...

I was glad to have a few moments to attempt this card sketch posted this week on Mojo Monday. I actually bought some non CTMH background paper by K&CoMPANY called Que Sera Sera and mixed in some Heidi Grace Beyond the Sea ( I love the Jellyfish and Seahorse!) stamps plus a few embellishments to achieve this card.

Cheeky is sometimes good...

I love these pictures of my little guy! Future plumber? Who knows, of course it won't be so cute down the road... I cut the c out with a die machine using a transparency and painted it with some acrylic paint and used MM rub ons and used up the last of my black Scrapper's Floss by Karen Foster. Anyhow if this lo "cracks" a smile then I've done my job. BR-T

how could I have forgotten...

About this lo, I created it 3 years ago for an album contest there a lot of picts so you can see whats going on

Texture please..

kids, lets make your valentines...

My children and I decided to make magnetic valentines by decorating the backs of dominoes. This is time consuming but not difficult! If you want to try this at home go out and find some dominoes, I suggest the biggest box you can find. These not only are these addictive but if you forget your baking in the color these puff of like psychedelic marshmallow's for sure. I am a space cadet so I figured this out the hard way many times hence the biggest box out there suggestion. Now that you have your dominoes you want to sand the white side to get rid of the shine. I suggest rinsing them off and wiping them dry because you don't want the powdery residue all over your stamps pads. My children had a great time with the next part from lightest to darkest pick out a few colors and rub your sanded dominoes across the surface of your stamp pad you can go for total coverage or not whatever you want. My kids wanted multicolor so we edged the dominoes in different colors or just smeared on some color on other. Again go from light to dark! I suppose one could wait days for these to dry but when it comes to time I'm on a budget. Place your dominoes ink side up on a parchment lined cookie sheet and put in 250 degree oven and stay in your kitchen and check every so often for the shine of the ink to diminish. Allow to cool and then stamp image,use some caution as the dominoes tend to be slick! Reset the ink again in oven at same temp, allow to cool and spray with an acrylic fixative and apply magnet. See easy peasy!

gotta love clearance...

Hi all remember the other day when I went to Archivers? I picked up this great stamp set by Autumn Leaves called doodle tabbed. It was really hot a couple years ago but my patience (yeah right I forgot all about it!) paid off and I found it in the clearance section 75% off under $4 for the set! Here's a fun lo of my son's Birthday with the tabs and also the little stick fellow came from my last Valentine posting.I just cut the sticky couple apart, but don't worry, when I stamp them together you would never know they were separated. Who ever thought of the idea is brilliant, it's much less time consuming than trying to mask off parts of a stamp or hope you wiped the ink off thoroughly! PS I'm a 2 page lo type of girl so you'll always seem them side-by-side and then individually.

That would have been SO COOL...

I really wanted to design for Spellbinders this year but I didn't get selected to go on to the second round... I begged and pleaded with God but perhaps I wanted it for the wrong reasons. Seriously whats wrong with wanting to go to Arizona for a 5 days and get a bunch of free stuff and have people think your art was cool for a year!

I bought a cutsie stamp...

I'm not sure what the reason however, for me, buying a cutsie stamp just doesn't happen. I'm very glad I broke down and bought this Heidi Grace collection called Valentine's Day. I haven't been to Archiver's for ages and it was like a kid in the candy store! My DH said I could have a mini spree if I wanted, why didn't I take advantage of his generosity! Oh well next time...

Simple beauty...

Life has been so busy, between going to school, catering to my children and trying to create I don't know what is what anymore...

last minute change...

So, at the last minute I decided to whip up another card to submit rather the the Life Delights card from the previous post... So last night I sent everything off and to my horror I realized I sent the wrong image! I resent my submission along with a humble apology and the receiver graciously said no problem, whew!