How Sweet It Is!!

How sweet it is

that I got to play along with the Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch again!

It's been far too long since I played along with this great sketch challenge and I have missed it!  But this week is a special occasion because as an {ippity}Chick I am sponsoring this week's challenge. Please check out all the details at the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog.  I hope you will decide to play along!!  

There is even a chance to win a FREE {ippity} stamp set for doing so!!

Here is the sketch for this week...

And here is the card that I made...

I used the Sweet Thoughts of Spring set from {ippity} 

and so did all the DT members from the SSW blog.  

The  stamps that were used to make this card include...

• The chick
• The thought bubble and sentiment
• The scalloped border

To celebrate my sponsoring the SSW sketch challenge this week I am offering a 

really SWEET Sale over at my {ippity} sales blog. 

To get this set at a great discount and 

for a chance to win a FREE {ippity} stamp set please visit 

There's Ippity in My Bucket

(my sales blog)

to find out all the details

How can you resist this adorable little chick!! Don't you just love him??  

I colored him (or is it a her?) with Copic markers.  The thought bubble originally came out of the wrong side of the cloud in relation to the chicks head, so I used my stamp-a-majig and masked it so it could be stamped on the opposite side!

Hope you like what you saw today!  

 

And don't forget to stop by my sales blog to buy this stamp set 

at a great sale price and to have a chance to win a FREE stamp set!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the sweet signs of spring!!

BitterSWEET Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!

If you have followed my blog for any amount of time you would know that on Wednesday's I usually post a card using a Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch!  Well today is a little bittersweet because I don't have one for you.  I have had to make the decision to trim down some of my responsiblities a little so I can keep up with my own personal goals  involving my family and paper crafting.  I have decided to resign from the Sweet Sketch Wednesday DT!  :-(

To see this week's sketch, please visit the SSW blog!

I am starting this New Year with my DT work load lightened by two DT's.  As you previously knew, SheetLoad of Cards is stopping, and now I have resigned from the Sweet Sketch Wednesday DT also. I can't thank Arlana enough for allowing me the opportunity to design with all her talented ladies for the past six months.  I was always amazed with her sketches and plan to continue to use them for my personal card making, but decided that I needed to have a less regimented schedule for designing.

I am continuing with my {ippity} DT, and also Whimsie Doodles, and will finish my last three months as a Dirty Girl for SCS, but I realized towards the end of this year, that by designing for so many teams I was too busy to make cards for my friends and family members for their birthdays and anniversaries and such.  I need to have some days during the week where I can just created for fun like I used to, so I have decided to keep a cap on DT memberships.  I mean the whole reason I do this is to keep in touch with my family and friends.  So if I have been struggling to do that, then something had to give right?

I will be sponsoring a SSW sketch in the future with {ippity} stamps so I will still be involved, but I hope you understand my decision to scale back a bit! Thanks again Arlana!  It was really SWEET working with you!!

I also want to thank Alicia for everything she has done for me on the SheetlLoad DT .  She was the first person to have confidence in me enough to allow me on her DT.  I am so thankful for her and all she has done for me.  I am thrilled though to keep working with her on the Whimsie Doodles DT.  I  know she will fit in perfectly and am happy to continue to work with her! 

Before I close today's post, I wanted to share the last bit of  SheetLoad of Cards submissions that were in this month's final issue...  And yes... they are Christmas again, but sorry I just HAD to share them!!  LOL!  I promise (unless I find some more I forgot to share) that these are the last of my Christmas cards!!  He he!!

I made this for the final issue of SheetLoad of Cards as my beyond the Card project. I made a set of three tags for use on Christmas gifts.  The images are all from Doodle Palace who graciously sponsored our final issue.

Here is the last tag shown on a present!  It is so cute, it doesn't even need wrapping paper.  Don't you love it when your packaging and wrapping can be part of the gift itself?

Here I used the same Gingerbread people to make a card!  Aren't they the cutest?

Well that is all I have for you today! I am still enjoying having my daughter Leah in town from college. We have plans for some shopping and for watching some more Glee on the DVD! Season 1 was released yesterday and she had never seen it before!  It is so fun to watch again!! I love that show!

Be sure to go get this week's sketch from Arlana at the SSW blog and also if you haven't done so already, please go and download your copy of the December eZine from SLC's. They both are awesome sketches to keep in your collection!!

Have a fabulous Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with enough spare time to enjoy making memories with your family!!

Time for Another Edition of Sweet Sketch Wednesday!

I Hope you are having a sweet Wednesday today!  But if you are not (and that would be sad) I have a way to make it sweeter!!  Just take a look at the sketch below from Sweet Sketch Wednesday, copy it and get busy in your craft room making a card! I know that always makes me feel sweeter!!

Our sketch this week is being sponsored by Sally Ann from the Digistamp Boutique again!  We are so happy to have her as one of our sponsors and really thankful that she keeps sponsoring us again and again!!  Thanks Sally!!

We are already up to sketch number 28!  Can you believe that Arlana has been making these awesome sketches for us for over half the year already!! My how time flies!!!

I printed this adorable image called Coco with Little Hearts onto GP cardstock and heat set the ink using a heat tool.  I colored her in using Copic markers.  The background DP is from BG and the pink and white heart paper is from Design Originals. 

I altered the sketch slightly by using two strips of ribbon instead of one.  And for the three embellishments, I chose to use bows!   I thought it made this really girly and since I have plenty of girls in my family to give this to for Valentine's Day.  So the girlier the better!!

I hope that you will stop by and visit Sweet Sketch Wednesday where you can see what all the DT has done with this sketch this week. Also be sure to check out the details for this weeks challenge, because you could be the lucky winner of $15 worth of digistamps from Digistamp Boutique!!  That is huge, so I hope you will play along!!

Have a very sweet Wednesday!!  I'll be back tomorrow!

May your bucket be overflowing with peace and tranquility despite the craziness of the holiday season!

Sweet Angel and a Sweet Sketch!

Happy Wednesday!! 

Today is an important day for two reasons..

First, it is Sweet Sketch Wednesday which means that Arlana has a new sketch for the week,

And secondly, it is the last day that you can enter to win my BLOG CANDY!!  I will be closing the comments tonight at midnight and announcing a winner tomorrow!  A link is provided at the bottom of this post!

So here is this week's sketch.  We are already up to SSW Sketch #27!

This week we are sponsored by Bee Crafty Digital Downloads.   Please check out her blog where you will see some fabulous samples of her wonderful digis!!  If you choose to play along with this week's sketch, then you could have a chance to win THREE of her digis for FREE!

The Bee Crafty image that I chose to work with this week is called "Wish Fairies"  but for my creation today I am calling her an "angel" OK?  I wanted to do a Christmas card and needed an angel.  In fact this card is also being submitted into the Digital Tuesday's challenge # 36 which was to incorporate a Christmas Song into your card.  So my card is based on the song "Angels We Have Heard on High."

I couldn't help but grab some of my red and blue papers that I keep using this season.  These papers come from SEI's Winter Song collection.  Look closely at the trees above.  I added these to create a scene that my angel was watching over.  I used the Deep Woods stamp from Unity that I stamped in Versamark Ink and then lightly chalked using green chalk.  So technically the traditional colors of red and green are still present on my card! LOL!

The snowflakes are diecuts from K& Co. and the sentiment is one that I printed out on my computer.  The blue ribbon is from a collection I bought on Ebay.  I think this card will go to one of our sweet granddaughters for Christmas.  I am sure they will find this image to be as sweet as I do!

Well, this does it for today, but don't forget to visit THIS POST, and leave a comment and become a  Follower of both my blogs for up to three chances to win the BLOG CANDY that will be given away tomorrow!  I will be closing my comments out tonight at midnight.

Have a great Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with angels watching over you!

Are you having a Sweet Wednesday??

So are you having a Sweet Wednesday???  Well if you are not then you probably need something to sweeten your day up! So why not grab this new sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday, head to your craft area and get busy making a special card using that sketch??

Doesn't that sound like it could sweeten your day??

Here is today's sketch.  In fact we were given the option of using two sketches. This is the one that I followed for my card today, but you ca get the other one from the SSW Blog.

The sketch this week is sponsored by none other than Melyssa Connolly of Whimsie Doodles Digistamps!!  How neat that two of my DT's met today in one challenge!!  Melyssa is offering up a prize for one lucky winner who participates in this week's sketch challenge and submits their card on the SSW blog.  So be sure to play along if you want a chance to win two of her brand new sets just released yesterday... Snow Angel and Christmas Undies!)

To make this sketch work for me, I decided to shrink down the Whimsie Doodles image called Gingerbread Greetings and then also flip it horizontally for my second one.  That right there is the beauty of working with digital images my friend. I hope that you have given them a try, because once they are printed out, they are like coloring on any other stamped image!!  The sentiment is also a WD image from the Holiday Sentiments collection. 

My images were colored or accented with Copic Markers.  I used Christmas DP from My Mind's Eye.  The ribbon is Martha Stewart and the lace trim is from Michael's. The little white brads are from Basic Grey and I finished the whole thing off with a little machine stitching!!

Head on over to the SSW Blog and learn more about how you can enter the challenge and also see more of the creations from the DT members using the great sketches!!

I hope that you will do what you need to do to have a sweet Wednesday and may your bucket be overflowing with now 26 sketches from Sweet Sketch Wednesday!

Happy Sweet Sketch Wednesday!!

And what a Sweet Wednesday it is!!  Not only is it Sweet Sketch Wednesday day, but it is the day before Thanksgiving for all of us in America!!  So my house is going to be filled today with the sweet smell of Pumpkin Pie later today!!  My family is getting together tomorrow at my sister's house for Thanksgiving!  We all bring dishes to pass and celebrate what we are thankful for over a huge feast of food!!  Tomorrow we have a lot extra to be thankful for because my sister is getting married to her fiancee Claude in the presence of our family! It is going to be a very sweet Thanksgiving for us!!  We are so happy that Claude will be joining our family!  :-)

So on to today's sketch and my card!

We are on sketch # 25 this week...

And this week our sketch is sponsored by my good friend Joni who is on the Whimsie Doodles Design Team with me.  Joni not only has talents in making cards, but she also has started her own company and designs Digistamps too!  The concept of her company called Inktegrity is so wonderful.  You can learn more about it HERE!

Joni has offered up a prize to one of this week's participants in the sketch challenge should they be so lucky to win!  And remember, you can' t win if you don't play along!!  The winner will receive Joni's newly released stamp set called Going Places!  Check out the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Blog for all the deets!!

Here is what I made using this week's sketch!

I love this martini glass image from Inktegrity.  What a versatile image to have in your collection.  It would be perfect for birthday cards, celebratory wishes, holidays, a ladies night night out invitiation, bachelor and bachelorette cards, and even for wedding toasts!!  Don't you think it is cute?  Of course I enlarged it quite a bit to make it the focal point of my card.  That is the beauty of digistamps... you get to resize and reorient them as you choose!!

I colored in my image using Copic markers and did a lot of blending near the edges of the glass to make it look like it had color, yet was still see-through.  The cute sentiment is an epoxy sticker that I purchased last year and was thrilled to see it not only was the perfect sentiment, but that it was the right color for this card too.  Not sure who made it, I did not keep it in its' original packaging.  Sorry!

To add a little punch, I used some stickles on the Holly Berries, added a black border that was punched with a MS punch and added some trim from BG (I believe!). The DP is from MM and I love it because it has such bold colors and a touch of black to it too!

Thanks for taking a look and hopefully amidst the time you spend in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving you will find some time to do some blog hopping on the DT blogs to see what they created using this sketch.  Stop on over to the SSW Blog and you can also visit the DT's blogs by linking to them from my side bar!

Have a great Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with the sweet smells of preparing Thanksgiving dinner or any thing else if you don't celebrate this day with us!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

Welcome to this week's addition of Sweet Sketch Wednesday!!  We are up to sketch number 24 this week and we have an awesome sponsor which means there is a chance at winning a prize should you decide to play along with us. As always, Arlana has a great sketch for us today!

Here is this week's sketch...

Our gracious sponsor is Sally Ann from the Digi Stamp Boutique.  Not only was she kind enough to provide the DT with an image of our choice to use today, but she is also offering up to $15 worth of digistamps from her store for the winner of this week's challenge.  Can I hear a Woot Woot!!!

So please go to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Blog when you are finished here and see the rest of the DT's cards and also find out all the details about how to submit your card for this challenge!  Good Luck!

The image I chose to use for today's Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch is called Jack and Snowman.  Isn't he just the cutest little fella that depicts the heart of a child playing in the snow?  I used Copics to color my images, except for the scarf which was paper pieced to match the DP.

The DP is from Karen Foster Designs that I pulled out of my unused Christmas stash from last year.  I like how it is a masculine print and went well with the little boy!  The brads are the smaller sized brads made with my I-top brad maker.  It is so fun to be able to perfectly coordinate brads with my DP.

I found the sentiment as a free download from HERE.  Donna offers a free collection of Snow related Word Art that was perfect for this image!

At this angle you can better see that I added Diamond Dust to the edge of the snowman and on the ground to give the effect of the icy shine that you get when the sun beams down on the snow!  Even a FL girl remembers what that looks like from when she was a kid!!  LOL!

Is it cold where you are today?  I hope this might have helped to warm you up!!  Please go by the SSW Blog and see what the rest of the DT has in store for you today.  May your have a really SWEET day and your bucket overflow with fun childhood memories  of  playing in the snow!

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

Today is Wednesday which means that it is time for another Sweet Sketch Wednesday post showcasing a card made from this week's SSW sketch!

This week we are up to sketch 23...

I decided to use this CHF Winter Vintage Signage stamp set for this card.  When paired with the Cosmo Cricket DP you see here, I think it gives the most wonderful vintage feel.

I altered my sketch slightly by extending the bottom panel to go all the way across the bottom of my card.  I hope that was OK!!  :-) 

The ribbon is from Martha Stewart, the button from SEI and the twine is from Michael's.  The image was colored in with Copics and I added the embossing snow to make it look like fluffy marshmallows on top of the Hot Chocolate!

This card is getting added to my ever growing collection of Christmas cards this year.  I usually make all original cards to send out where no two are alike.  It is more exciting for me that way, plus I am not forced to choose just a limited number of stamps to make all my cards from.  I need variety in my life, so this way works best for me!!

 

To get inspired by all the DT members posting cards using this sketch today, please head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog or visit the blogs listed under the SSW DT in my side bar!

Have a sweet Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with warm fuzzies, like the ones you get while sipping on a yummy cup of Hot Chocolate on a cold winter day!!

It's Sweet Sketch Wednesday!!

My apologies for posting a little later than usual this morning, but I woke up feeling like my head was being squeezed in a vice grip. I think it is my sinuses, so a couple of meds later and a little more rest I was finally able to get upright!

I hope that you are having a Sweet Wednesday, and I certainly hope that mine will be getting sweeter!! So considering how I am feeling, I am going to keep this very short and Sweet today!!

We are up to Sweet Sketch Wednesday Sketch #22 this week and here is a look at it...

This week we our sponsored by our very own DT member Teri! Not only is she an incredibly talented card maker, but she can draw too and has made some adorable digistamps that can be seen at her store called Delicious Doodles HERE.

If you enter a card into this week's challenge, Teri has graciously offered the winner of the challenge to receive three of her digistamps for FREE! So I hope that you will play along.

Here is the card that I made using this week's sketch and Teri's digistamp called Rudolph With Gift.

This angle better shows how I glittered up the antlers and the ground around the deer and present. Were you wondering about the green grass on a Christmas card? Well I live in FL and we keep most of our grass during the winter and sometimes wake up to a little frost on the ground like you see here! LOL!

This image was so fun to color. I coordinated it all with the great BG DP set called Eskimo Kisses. The border punch is from Fiskars and the ribbon was an online purchase from Ebay. The snowflake punch is MS. The sentiment is a rub on.

Well I am off to see if a hot shower will help my head feel better. I am supposed to take a set of twins who are girlfriends of mine in my neighborhood out to lunch, so I pray I feel better really soon!

Regardless though, I hope you have a very Sweet Wednesday and pray that your bucket is overflowing with good health and happiness today!!

Growing In Unity with a SSW Sketch

I know that my Unity Friends are aware that on Thursdays we get to have the Unity DT blog hop, and on Friday's we have the Friends with Flair blog hop, but did you know that Wednesdays can be really sweet too?

For me and hopefully for you now too, Wednesday's mean that it is time for a release of a new card making sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday! The creator of these sketches, Arlana, who happens to be a Unity fan also, makes some really sweet sketches. Many of the weeks are sponsored and have prizes to be given away. So I hope you will try and play along with us in the future! Just stop by the SSW blog and check out more details.

We are up to SSW Sketch # 21 this week and here is a picture of it...

This week's sketch also incorporates a color challenge, but we were also free to use Halloween colors since this is the last week before Halloween.

As you can see, I chose to use Halloween colors for my card...

That adorable Frankie image is from the Unity stamp set called Little Monsters, the sentiment comes from the Hauntingly Sweet set and the cute spiders are in the set called Unlucky 13.

I used my Copic markers to color Frankie in and cheated a little by using this great DP from Recollections that helped me create the scene you see on the right side panel without having to go to a lot of extra work.

The three bat brads are from Recollections and are so cute because they have a little flocking on them! I should be about finished with my Halloween cards now and plan on getting them in the mail today!!

You may have read some hints of mine about leaving some comments on my blog this week. On Friday when my week of Growing in Unity is over, I will be choosing one person to win a random grab bag of Unity stamps just for leaving comments on my posts throughout the week. Please only comment once per day. For each comment you make you will have a chance to win the stamps. Good Luck!!

Two more things...

I have a project to share with you on the Sweet N Sassy Stamps blog where I was Guest Designer for the month of October. Click HERE to check out that post!

Also, today I am the sponsor for a card challenge over at Paper Craft Planet in the Whimsie Doodles Group. Click HERE to go to PCP and then just join the Whimsie Doodles group if you want to play along!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with goodness!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

This is my second post for today, so please scroll down to see my post with a FREE Whimsie Doodles image announcement in support of Breast Cancer Research!

Can you believe that we are up to sketch number 20 already at Sweet Sketch Wednesday? I hope that you have been playing along! Many weeks there are chances for you to win some free stamps, so I hope you will start to use the sketches and play along with us.



Here is this week's sketch...


This week we were sponsored by the Digistamp Boutique. Sally-Ann Hancock designs these stamps and has graciously offered a prize for the winner of this week's challenge. For details on how to enter, please visit the SSW blog.



She graciously offered some of her stamps for the DT to use for today's challenge. The first card that I made uses Milly Singing Carols.

The DP that I used is from a K&Co collection that I got last year for Christmas. I am really loving more non-traditional colors for my Christmas cards this year!

Milly and her sweet little side kick were colored using Copic markers. The image panel was cut with one of my label Nesties.

The snowflake punch is from MS and to accent the snow, I added some dimensional glaze to the landscape and then sprinkled Snow Glitter on top of it. The ribbon is a Target Dollar Spot find that coordinated perfectly and I also added some lace from Joann's to give it a bit of a vintage look.

My second card uses the Digistamp Boutique image called Christmas Robin.

Again the papers are from the same K&Co Christmas collection and the brown CS base is from The Paper Co. To create the border of holly leaves, I simply printed the digistamp multiple times and colored each set of Holly leaves and then cut them out. I then lined them up on my card to form the border that you see here. The sentiment I created using Word Art in Power Point.

This red-breasted robin and all the Holly leaves were colored using my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I added a touch of red stickles to the holly berries on my main image.

For added dimension I printed one extra holly leaf set and popped it up on top of the main image.

Click HERE to visit the SSW Blog and see the rest of the DT's creations.

Or you can visit them from clicking on their links in my sidebar.

Have a great Wednesday and for the rest of your day may very sweet things flow out of your bucket!!

Keep scrolling down to see the Whimsie Doodles post from today too!!