New Sweet Sketch, New Digistamps, and New eZine Issue!

Everything is new!! It's a new month, new release day, and a new Wednesday!! So, I have lots of new things to share with you!! I want to do all of the great sites that I do DT work for justice, so get your morning cup of Joe and hang on for a lot of blogging fun!!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday!

First, I can kill two birds with one stone!! Using the new sketch (Sweet Sketch4) from the Sweet Sketch Wednesday site and one of the newly released stamps from the Kitchen Gingers set at Whimsie Doodles, I made the following card for your viewing pleasure!!

This is one of those cards that just pleases me. I think it's a combination of the layout of Arlana's wonderful sketch, coupled with the adorable digistamp image called Ginger Greetings plus the pretty colors from the BG collection called Urban Prairie!

The new Sweet Sketch Wednesday Sketch #4

To make this card I printed out my digistamp image onto 110lb GP CS and made sure it was dry. Then I colored in the images with my Copic Markers. To help prevent any running of black ink after printing, just use your embossing gun to heat set the ink. I then cut my image out using one of the Nestie ovals and made an outline for it with the next size up scalloped oval. At the base of the card, following the sketch that you can see pictured above, I ran the blue paper through my CB Swiss Dots folder. I stitched around the edges of it with black thread. I also printed out the greeting stamp and used my nesties the same way as I had for the main image. I finished the piece off by adding some large sized red ric-a-rac and some Prima flowers for detail. BG brads were added to the centers of each flower.

The color inspiration for this card came from a the Florida's Friday Color Inspiration challenge on Stamp TV in the Florida group. Each week Asela from Gina K Designs challenges us with a new batch of colors. I changed my neutral color from beige to white though! Here were this weeks colors...

Here is a second card that I made using this weeks Sweet Sketch! It is to celebrate Independence Day ! It also combines a couple challenges! Of course the first is the sketch, and the second one is Unity Addicts Challenge from 6/24 on SCS which was to use Red, White and Blue on your card.

Here is what I came up with...

This card went together really easily because I used some awesome DP that had coordinating stickers from Creative Imaginations. All the stamps are from Unity except the number 4 which is from Martha Stewart. To read more about the Unity stamps I used, please visit my SCS Gallery post HERE!

For more inspiration and to play along with our sketch for this week, please visit the blog. You can visit Sweet Sketch Wednesday to see some more cards made from this sketch. Arlana also has Mr Linky activated so that if you play along you can upload your card for all of us to see!!

OK, now for more about Whimsie Doodles!

So the WD DT and I have been teasing you for quite a few days now with some sneak peeks at some of the images that are going on sale today at the Whimsie Doodles Etsy store!! The wait is finally over and you can get all of the adorable digistamps that we have previewed for you. It's a new WD Release day!!! Yippee!!!!

Being released today are the following digistamps...

• Ride the Wave


• Puddle Jumper


• Stir Things Up


• Ginger Greetings


• Perfect Mix


• Button Sentiments


• Flipped

(If there is a hyperlink, click on it and it will take you to my SCS Gallery where you can see the sample I made with that digistamp!) Or you can visit the Whimsie Doodles Blog to see these digistamp images and link to the store.

So what are you waiting for? Head right on over to the WD and get some of these awesome images!! You won't be disappointed!!!

And last but not least... let's talk SheetLoad!!

It is the first of the month so that means a new issue of Sheetload's eZine is ready for you to download. The cover of the issue is pictured below! You are going to love it! It is sponsored by Squigglefly. The sketch artist this month is the talented Barbara DeBose and she has provided us with a wonderful layout to use. I hope that you will get over to the SheetLoad site and download your FREE copy today!!

Click on the cover to take you to the SheetLoad site!

Edited to add the direct link to the eZine!

I made a sample using this month's sketch and one of Squigglefly's Digistamp images that they so graciously let us use!

I used Squigglefly's adorable image called Party Time to make a birthday card! Using this bright American Crafts DP, I made a card and matched it up to a gift bag to give to a special person for their birthday!

Here is a closer view of the card...

Here is what I used to make this card called Party Time!

Digistamp: Squigglefly (Party Time); Sketch: July 2009 SheetLoad sketch; DP: American Crafts; CS: GP (white), The Paper Co. (brown), Ink: computer printed digistamp; Markers: Copics; Gems: Studio 18 clear rhinestones; Rub-ons: My Sentiments Exactly (Birthday Cards); machine stitching. Hand cut stars from DP.

Phew!! Did you make it all the way to the end? If you did you should get a medal!! Well I don't have a medal, but I do hope that I inspired you to go and get some free sketches and then go shopping for some great digistamps being released today!

I will be back tomorrow with some more fun things to share with you! Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of new things for this new month! Happy July!!

Final WD Sneak Peek and Craft Room Blog Hop!

Last Day for the WD Sneak Peeks!!

Today is the last day to see Whimsie Doodle images being showcased before they go up for sale on July 1st. I hope that you are loving Melyssa's images as much as I am! She is so talented, and her digistamps are so wonderful to work with. They print great and are so fun to color or paper piece!

Being showcased today are these adorable sentiments that she calls Button Sentiments. They are part of the Kitchen Gingers set or can be purchased separately.

There are five separate sentiments in this collection.

• Made by Me With Love




• Lovin from the Oven




• Have a Sweet Day




• Hot Stuff and




• Sweet Thing

The sentiments are perfect for any kitchen or sweet related projects!!


I used the Hot Stuff sentiment on a special card for a loved one!!

This adorable DP is some new paper I got from Michael's yesterday while waiting on my son during Karate. It is from the K& Co line called Wild Raspberry. It isn't newly released... just new to me!! The other stamp I used was from Unity's August KOM 08. I paper pieced it to add some coordinating colors!

Here is a close up of the Button Sentiment. I printed mine out on blue paper, but you have so many options as to how you can make this sentiments work for you!!

Go by the Whimsie Doodles blog to see some more Sneak Peeks of these cute button sentiments!! And then tomorrow go the the WD Etsy store and get your favorite new digistamps being released!!

Craft Room Tour Blog Hop!

Joni, one of my fellow DT members on the Whimsie Doodles site has organized a little blog hop of crafter's work spaces. I always love to see where other people do their creative work. It is fun to see how they organize and what type of space they work in.

If you have been with me since the beginning of my blogging days then you have seen my maiden post already which contained pictures of my stamping room. You also might have visited that post by finding it on my side bar, or maybe you have seen my craftroom by looking at pictures of my stamping room from my SCS Gallery. Either way, if you are interested, then please a look if you haven't seen it before.

You can see my maiden post which includes my stamp room HERE.

Or you can see the pictures of it in my SCS Gallery HERE.

To see more craft room spaces of fellow card makers and stampers, you can start at the beginning by visiting Joni's blog, or if you are already progressing through the hop, simply jump to

Angie's blog HERE!

Have fun hopping around and don't forget to see the rest of the sneak peeks. Can't wait for tomorrow!! I have so much to share with you!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of sweet sentiments!

Princess Baby Shower Invitations

In late August I am expected to become the Great Aunt to my neice Lindsay's baby girl! I volunteered myself with the help of the Nana-to-be (my little sister) to make the invitations for the baby shower that we are having on July 25th. Since we need to get them out really soon, I spent some time getting them ready to go this weekend.

The theme for the shower is Princess. Lindsay has chosen the colors pink and purple as they are based after the bed linens from the Disney Princess line that she will be using for the baby's nursery. My friend Tiffani and I searched the internet and found an adorable clip art that worked perfectly for the front of the card. I was going to use a stamped image, but to color 40 invitations would have taken too much time, so we just decided to print them out instead.

Here is the front of the card that I made for the shower for baby

Ava Rae!

The pink and purple cardstock is from the Paper Company. The DP is from DCWV, Nana'a Nursery baby boy line. We printed the castle out on Georgia Pacific white CS twice. Then we cut one of them out with a Nestability Label shape and then cut out just part of the castle again to add to the base for dimension.

To get the printed words on the cloud, I manually traced the cloud using a graphics program called Inkscape and then converted it to a cutting program so that I could print and cut the clouds out with the words on them. Unfortunately, the first thing (and hopefully the last) that our puppy chewed up in the house was one of the cables to my cutter, so I couldn't cut them out on the machine and ended up having to hand cut all the clouds out after printing them onto paper.

The bottom of the DP was cut with a border punch of Martha Stewarts and a piece of pink organza was added to the card too! The final touch was to add a line of Sakura Gelly Roll to the outlines of the card and the heart on the castle. The final size of the cards are 4.25 x 5.

I love how they came out and am so glad that I got to help make them!

Here is a side view that shows how the clouds and castle stand out for dimension!

If you are interested in getting this clipart, you can find it HERE!

As a reminder, tomorrow is the last day for the sneak peeks at the Whimsie Doodles blog. I will have one more sample to share with you and then on July 1st the new digistamps that have been showcased will be released and ready for purchase! Check out some more of the sneak peeks on the Whimsie Doodles blog. You will be given links to some of the other DT members where you can see more sneaks too!!

Have a great night and I will be back with more tomorrow!! May your bucket overflow with showers of happiness!

Inspired!

Sorry for being a bit MIA the past couple of days! I have been busy working on DT submissions that I can't show yet! And also I have been working on projects around the house and had a friend visit from south FL.

Today I got up early and while the rest of the family was still sleeping, I indulged myself by working on a card for today's Inspiration Challenge on SCS. It is IC186 and we were to find something from the "Charm School Drop Out's" work to be inspired by. You can see her Etsy Store HERE and THIS is the print of hers that inspired my card!

My card is titled Always Remember...

I decided that the white glowing circles around the dandelions made me think about halos and had a really serene feel to them, so I decided to use this as a sympathy card. I used BG DP and all the stamps are Unity. The flowers are from the August 08 kom, the bird on the branch is from the April 09 kom, and the sentiment is from the Confession: I love Unity set.

To make the circles around the flowers I used one of my Nestie circles to draw a circle with a pencil Then I traced the pencil lines with a white Prismacolor pencil and used Gamsol to blend it in towards the center. Then to highlight the white outline, I used my opaque white pen from Inkessentials to accent it.

I like how it came out and hope that it will be a comfort to the recipient when I have the need to send it out!

I am keeping this short and sweet because we are headed out to clean our pool deck this morning!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend and I plan on being back tomorrow with some more things to share!!

May your bucket overflow with good family fun this weekend!

Whimsie Doodles Sneak Peek Day 3

Sorry for being so late in the day, but I finally got around to finishing my sample for today's sneak peek! I was battling a migraine for much of the day, but finally got my medicine refilled and my headache is now gone!!

Today's Sneak Peek is of the new Whimsie Doodles image called Stir Things Up! It is the first look at the Kitchen Gingers set that includes these adorable Gingerbread people! They are so stinking cute!! I love them all and can't wait to show you more!

Here is today's sneak peek of the Stir Things Up image...

I made a recipe card that I plan on recreating at least three times to give to my daughters so that they can have some of our families favorite recipes for their homes as the move out and get married. Bar none, Nestles has the best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe ever and is the only one that I ever make, so of course this has to go into the collection!

I used DP from Cloud 9 Design and colored the image with my Copics. I accented the white frosting using my opaque white pen from Signo.

Go to this post HERE to see more adorable samples made from the Stir Things Up image!

This digistamp and all the other ones being previewed this week will be available for sale in the Whimsie Doodles Store on July 1st. Check it out now to get some of the already released images in the meantime. And don't forget there is a freebie on the Whimsies Blog too!

Have a great night and may your bucket overflow with warm chocolate chip cookies and a big cold glass of milk!!

It's Another Sweet Wednesday! And a new SheetLoad Feature!

And that means that a new Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch has been released!! Can you believe that we are already on week 3? I love being on the DT for Arlana because her sketches are super sweet!! Be sure to visit the Sweet Sketch Blog site and take a look at what all the DT members have come up with for this week's sketch.

Not only was this week a new sketch for us to use, but Arlana also challenged us to use certain colors too! Every fourth week of the month we will be given a color challenge in addition to the sketch. I hope that you will decide to play along with us!

Here is a picture of this week's sketch...







And these were the colors we were to use...






Here is the sample that I came up with for this week's sketch!

The DP is from BG and the card stock is from SU. I used a little bit darker toned pinks then you see pictured here. The stamps are from Unity. The viney flowers are one of the new stamps from the June KOM and the "We Care" sentiment is from the Nov 08 KOM. The images were stamped onto the so saffron CS and then colored with my Copics. I added the dimensional Bella Baubles underneath the sentiment and in the center of the flowers. The flowers are Petaloo and I think the ribbon is from Michael's. I also added a touch of my Sakura Gelly Roll pen to the vines for just a hint of glimmer.

I made the sketch my own by turning the squares on point to make them diamonds.

So, please head over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog and take a look at the rest of the DT's samples. You will definitely be inspired, trust me!!

I have one more thing to share with you for now that will be quite inspiring also! Over at the SheetLoad site Alicia is starting a new feature that is able to help all card makers whether beginner, intermediate or advanced. The feature is called "Simple, Special, Stunning!"

One DT member per month will take you through a SheetLoad sketch at three different levels. One level is Simple, then she will boost it up a notch and show you how to make the same sketch special and finally how to make it Stunning! Be sure to check this feature out each month near the 20th! Click HERE to see this month's feature of Simple, Special, Stunning!

That is it for now. I will try to be back later today with another Sneak peek of another upcoming digistamp being released at Whimsie Doodles on July 1st.

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with Sweet and Stunning things!!

Sneak Peek Day Two!!

Today is a fun day because you are going to see another adorable animal that is hand drawn by Melyssa and made into a Whimsie Doodles digistamp! Meet this adorable Lil Piggy who is having fun playing in the rain!! Don't you remember how fun it was to play in the rain when you were a little child? I loved it! And I also remember that my son when he was growing up could never walk around a puddle... he always had to go through it!! LOL!

Well at least this Lil Piggy has her rubber boots on for the occasion! Take a look at this Puddle Jumping Pig!!

If the card seems a little less busy than my normal cards, it is because I was also playing along with yesterday's Clean and Simple Challenge, CAS20 at SCS to use paper piecing! I printed the image out three times in total. Once onto the base cardstock (GP 110lb) and twice onto the DCWV DP from the Nana's Nursery Baby Girl collection. With the second printing I only cut out the sleeve, hood and pockets and added them to the first layer of DP to add dimension and depth to the image.

I used my Scor-Pal to score a frame around the image and also added (free hand) dots to frame it onto the card! I believe that "summer" embellishment was from an old Doodle Bug Designs collection. I colored the image parts that weren't paper pieced with Copics. I also used my border punch from Martha Stewart on both the green and pink papers and then staggered and layered them to complete the card.

Here is a shot of the inside. The sentiment that comes with this image says: "When life gives you rain, play in the puddles!!" Isn't that cute? I will be sending this card to someone who needs a little uplifting in the Share A Card group that I belong to where we send encouragement cards to terminally ill people going through a tough time!

If you would be interested in sending cards to people in need, please sign up at the Share A Card website HERE! My good cyber friend Gigi is on the board there and they are just a wonderful organization!

This adorable Puddle Jumper and sentiment digistamp set will be available for sale on July 1st at the Whimsie Doodles Etsy store! It would also make an adorable shower invitation wouldn't it??

To see some more sneak peeks using this digistamp, please visit the Whimsie Doodles Blog!

Have a great day and if your bucket is overflowing with too much rainfall... may you have fun playing in the puddles!

Surfer Bear Sneak for Whimsie Doodles!

This is the second post for today, so to see my previous Father's Day post, please continue to read below this post!

I am so excited to be able to share with you some of the stamps that are going to be released for sale at the Whimsie Doodles Store on July 1st. You are going to be so stoked when you see them! Melyssa has outdone herself and I am so proud to be on her DT! I will be showcasing stamps one at a time as time allows leading up to the new release on the first! I hope you will keep coming back to see what she has for you!

This Lil Bear really gets around. You probably saw him earlier this week in one of my blog posts where he is lounging on a pumpkin as the Lil Pumpkin Bear from this post HERE.

Well, it turns out that this little bear likes the active lifestyle too and enjoys catching a wave or two! Melyssa captured this Lil Bear on top of a big one! He is so cute!! And I love the sentiment that goes with him... it says "Ride the Wave, Dive In!"

The card sketch uses Julee's Mojo Monday post for today, Mojo92 It worked perfectly for this image and the paper I chose to use from from Arctic Frog. The flower is a Prima and the brads are from MM. I am not sure about the ribbon, but I think it was a leftover scrap from American Crafts. I colored the image using my Copic markers.

I hope you like it!! Please come back tomorrow for another Sneak Peek of another sweet image coming out soon at Whmsie Doodles!! For more sneak peeks, please visit the Whimsie Doodles Blog everyday (M-F) until July 1st!!

Have a great night and I hope that your bucket is overflowing with lots of opportunities to ride the waves!

Belated Father's Day Post!

OK, better late than never! I came home to Internet issues and wasn't able to stay connected to update my blog last night, so finally here is the post I promised yesterday!!

I am sure that there aren't many fathers out there who will be reading this blog post, but I did want to acknowledge a few special fathers in my life.

Last week we celebrated Father's Day early with my dad. My dad is a really special person in my life and one of the people that I can say has had a very strong influence on me and my developing character while growing up. He has always been a positive influence, with consistency and good direction. My dad is the kind of person who I can rely on to give me sound advice when I need a little help in my life. Here is a picture of my dad, his wife and me last weekend at my brother's house celebrating Father's Day with a delicious brunch!

Ellen, Dick (my Dad) and me!

The card that I made for my dad used that cool coloring on acetate technique that I used on the butterfly and zebra cards that I posted recently. It was from the Try a New Technique challenge on SCS TLC224 where you print out a photo in black and white onto acetate and then color on the back of it to allow color to come through. The card also uses the requirements for the Limited Supplies Challenge on SCS a week ago which was to use only the colors of water and sand plus add to it, ribbon, twine or hemp, brads and piercing. It was just what I needed to produce this card for my dad!

This past weekend we travelled to the east coast of FL to see my DH's dad for Father's Day. Jim isn't his biological dad, but the man Tom considers to be his "real" dad!


Here is a picture of my DH Tom and his sister Susan with their dad on Father's Day morning!

Susan, Tom and Jim (seated!)

Here is a picture of the card that I made for Tom's dad. It uses the "Oh So Cute Shirt" tutorial by Cambria Turnbow that I believe came from the Scor-Pal website. It was such an easy creation to make starting with just one 4x6 piece of DP that gets folded into the shirt that you see.

We had a cookout with hamburgers, hot dogs and fresh fish that Tom, our nephew and my son caught last week while deep sea fishing. Tom's daughter Ashley came over to visit with her boyfriend and their son. Little Chris is just about to turn one! He is so adorable!

Grampa Tom, Baby Chris, Ashley and Chris!

I also can't let Father's Day pass without acknowledging how thankful I am for having Tom in my life and the lives of my children. He is such a wonderful influence on my kids, especially my son Ricky! They are both avid fishermen and get out on the boat together as often as they can! We are very thankful that he is with us and love how he completes our family so well. Many years had gone by without a positive male role model for my kids. Tom has changed all of that for us!!

Here is a picture of Tom, my DH with the newest addition to our family, Tasha!!

Tom and Tasha!

This is the picture of the card that I made for Tom. It uses the motorcycle image from Artful Inkables called Road Rider!. The DP is from Paper Salon.

Sorry for the long post but there was a lot to cover as I wanted to share not only the cards I made for the Father's in my life, but also a glimpse into some of the people that share my life with me!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with wonderful Internet connections!! Ha Ha!!

Happy Father's Day!

I have a blog post ready to go today but Blogger and my cell phone as the modem to connect with the internet aren't getting along today and I can't upload any photos!

I wanted to wish all the Father's out there a Happy Father's Day and I will be back later tonight to post my photos of family and all the Father's Day cards I made to celebrate this special day!

Have a great day with your families and I will be back later!

May your bucket overflow with special times with special people!

Hip Hop Hangover!!

OK I am finally off and survived this week (barely!) I was able to throw together a challenge card for the first time this week. So to make it count I combined three challenges into one!! LOL!

This card was made for one of the Hip Hop Challenges on the Unity Forum yesterday called Bits and Pieces where we were to use scraps of paper that we had laying around. Since I had pieces of Baja Breeze and Ruby Red Stampin Up papers I decided to also make the card for this week's Color challenge at SCS CC223. And to top it off I also combined the Way To Use it challenge WT223 at SCS yesterday which was to use "texting" on our card.

This is what I came up with!!

Translation: What's Up??

The Hot Air Balloon stamp is from Unity's Love in the Air set. The sentiment was computer generated and printed out onto my Baja Breeze cardstock. I added copics around the clouds for depth and did some sponging with my SU Soft Sky ink and also added the machine stitching!

I am afraid that this is all I have for you today! I have sooooo much to try and get done today before we go out of town in the morning to visit Tom's dad for Father's Day!

Go to the Unity Blog and you can follow along with the all the other Hangover posts today! Enjoy the rest of your Friday and may your bucket overflow with plenty of time in each day to what is on your to-do list!!

Another Whimsie Kind of Day!! And Hip Hop!!

Just a reminder that today is Thursday which means that it is Hip Hop day at Unity. That means that if you start at the Unity Blog, you can hop around to all the Unity DT members and be completely impressed and inspired by their creations! This week the DT is featuring Unity Kits from days past!!

Start HERE and have fun hopping!!

This week has been a little crazy for me. I typically would have had my chance to work on some of the SCS challenges and even some Unity ones, but with all the new DT work (which I am NOT complaining about) and having to work (Which I AM complaining about) I simply haven't had a chance to work on some of the challenges yet!

I am not sure that I will get a chance today either, but tomorrow is always a new day... and I am off from work! So, there is hope!!!

I do have another card that I made using one of Melyssa's Whimsie Doodle stamps. I just love this image. I am not sure if it's because I live in FL and we spend a lot of time on the water, or if it is just stinking adorable that I can't help but love it! But either way... I just LOVE this image!! He is called Flip Flop Bear and he can be purchased HERE.

Using the Inspirational Card Sketches sketch #119, I came up with this littel creation for your viewing pleasure!!

Flip Flop Bear in the Water

The Fine Print: Sketch: Inspirational Card Sketches #119; Digistamp: Whimisie Doodles (Flip Flop Bear); Stamp: Unity; DP: Basic Grey (Marrakech); Ink: Amuse (black); Brads: BG. InkEssentials Glossy Accents. Stickles. Paper piecing.

Here is a close up showing how I used the Glossy Accents from InkEssentials to make the "glass" look on the mask.

This close up gives another look at the mask but also shows the shimmer from the stickles I put on the waves to accent them.

Well this will do it for today! I have to go to a C-section at work in a bit and then later today my daughter Michelle and her boyfriend Matt are coming over to celebrate his birthday which was on Wednesday. And also, Leah is coming home from college this weekend and I will get to see her before she heads to Orlando with her boyfriend's family this weekend!!

Yippee!! It is a great day cause I get to be with all my kids!!

I hope you have gotten over to Whimsie Doodles to at least download the free Turtle file, and hopefully you have gone over to Melyssa's Etsy store to buy some of her images. Aren't they all so cute??

Have fun Hip Hopping and I will be back with a blog post by tomorrow I hope!!

May your bucket always be overflowing with activities to keep you busy and never bored!

It's Sweet Sketch Wednesday!!

Konichiwa!! (Hello in Japanese!!) This is my second post for today, so please read through this and then scroll down so you don't miss my other exciting news for today!!




I am really excited because my first submission for Sweet Sketch Wednesday is up on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog! Arlana has some really great sketches that I know you will want to play along with. She adds just the right amount of parts to her sketches to make them flow well and not be too busy! The balance is perfect and I think they are easy to use and make your own as well.

Sweet Sketch Wednesday Blog

Be sure to hop on over to the blog when you are through reading here. You can start Following her blog so that you won't miss out on her new sketches each Wednesday!!




Here is sketch the SSW sketch #2







And here is what I did with it...




The Fine Print: Sketch: Sweet Sketch Wednesdays #2; DP: KaiserCraft (Bloom); Stamp: Stamping Bellas (Ginger Ketto); Ink: Amuse (Black); Markers: Copics; Pen: Sakura (Black Glaze on hair); Stickles: Platinum; Flowers: Prima; Ribbon: Michael’s; Brads: Basic Grey; Sentiment: Computer Generated Font (Rickshaw).

I finally had a chance to ink up my new Ketto stamps from Stamping Bella. I think these images are just adorable!! This one is called Ginger. She makes me think of the time that I spent in Japan. My now ex-husband was stationed in Yokosuka's Naval Base there for three years and I spent about 2 1/2 of them there with him. In fact my second daughter was born over there! I brought my first born over there when she was just three months old. I have some great memories of living off base in a Japanese neighborhood until we got into base housing. It was a really cool experience that I will never forget!

Anyway... on to the details of this card. I left the sketch pretty true to itself and just added one extra panel to put my stamped image onto. I needed her to pop off the page a little more and she seemed to blend into the background paper when I placed her directly onto the DP. I hope you like what you see. Keep coming back every Wednesday for some more cards with these sweet sketches!

If you are interested in applying for her DT, please visit her blog and find out what to do. She is looking for about 7 more members for the team!

Sayonara (Goodbye) for now and have a great day! May your bucket overflow with great memories from days gone by!

Some Exciting News To Share!!

I recently applied to be on the DT of the brand new site called Whimsie Doodles and

I GOT IT!!!

I am so excited to be on this team because I just love the adorable digital stamps that Melyssa creates! There are a lot of stamps out there, but there but you know how some of the lines just don't speak to you? Well, Whimsie Doodles stamps speak to me!! The are cute, affordable and so easy to use! You can resize them to the size that you need for each project and they print out perfectly each time. They are awesome to use with your Copics, Prismacolors and paper piecing!

Melyssa is still giving away her FREE Whimsie Turtle "This Bud's For You" stamp from her site, so please go get it and give it a try! I think you will love them like I do!!

Click HERE to visit the Whimsie Doodles blog and see more of her fabulous stamps! She will be having a new release on July 1st that the DT will start giving sneak peeks of really soon!!

Here is one of the cards that I submitted with my application that uses her free digi stamp.

This Bud's For You!

The Fine Print: Sketch: Mojo Monday #90; Digistamp: WhimsieDoodles (image and sentiment); Markers: Copics; Ink: SU; DP: Basic Grey; Ribbon: Unknown (possibly American Crafts). Nestabilities. Machine Stitching.

I have more Whimsie Doodles cards to share with you, but I will post them a little later this week. Today is already going to be a two-post day... so be sure to come back later and see what else I have to show you!!

It is my pleasure to introduce to you the new Whimsie Doodles Family!

First of all you might already know of Melyssa Connolly the owner and designer of the WD stamps. She is on the DT at the Greeting Farm and does amazing work. Click on her name below to visit her blog.

Melyssa Connolly

And here are the uber talented ladies that will be on the DT with me!

Thanh (pronounced Tan) Vo

Joni Wilson

Donna Espiritu

Kelli Caslow

Nicole Anderson

Nikki Tanner

Fruitful Greetings! SheetLoad of Cards Intersite Challenge

Using June's Sheetload sketch, the SheetLoad and ShortCuts DT's had an intersite challenge with the DT's from Cutting Cafe and Bitten By the Bug. Regina from Cutting Cafe gave us some incredible digital stamped images to use. You might remember my first submission for this challenge, the Watermelon card that I blogged about recently.

I decided to use the same watermelon image plus all the other fruit images she designed to make an adorable collection of Fruity Greetings. I also used one of her cutting files to make a Card Box with a lid to hold them in.

Here is the whole collection called Fruity Greetings complete with six cards using June's great sketch from SheetLoad and DP from Crate Paper's Samantha collection...

Here is the Card Box with the lid. I used the cutting file that has a circular window cut out of it. I placed one of ShortCuts Frosted Card Blanks behind the window so the recipient of the box full of cards could get a sneak peek at what was inside.

All of the cards and the Card Box top use SheetLoad's June Sketch. I simply flipped or flopped the sketch or used it portrait or landscape to provide variety.

Here are closeups of the individual cards in the collection...

Have a Grape Day!




You're the Apple of My Eye!

Cherry the Moment!

You're Berry Sweet!

You're One in a Melon!

Such a Cute Pear!

Here is another shot of the whole collection!

If you haven't been to SheetLoad's site to download June's eZine and sketch, you still have plenty of time to do so. If you make a card using the sketch and submit it on the site, your card could be chosen as a winner of a prize.

Also, check out the adorable digital stamps at the Cutting Cafe. The set that I used here is called Fruit Greetings. You can buy it very reasonably at the Cutting Cafe HERE.

Have a great night and may your bucket overflow with fresh and juicy fruits!!

Overflowing with Sweet Joy!

God has been so good to me lately and I am so thankful for that!! I had a wonderful weekend with a new sweet puppy, spending time with my sweet family friends and hearing some other really "SWEET" news!!

The other day I decided to apply to be on the DT of a new sketch blog called Sweet Sketch Wednesday. My cyber friend and fellow lover of challenges and Unity stamps, Stephanie Muzzulin, told me about this site and Arlana's call for DT members. So I went for it and I got it!!! I am so happy about this sweet news!!

You all know how much I love challenges of all kinds to get my inspiration going, but I especially love sketch challenges! What is neat about these challenges is that I can use any kind of stamp I want to when producing cards for these sketches.

Arlana is looking for many more designers to work with her sketches, so if you would like to apply, just visit her blog for the details! I have seen some of her upcoming sketches and you won't be disappointed. If you don't want to be on the DT, be sure to visit the blog weekly, become a Follower and you will get lots of great sketches to work with for your card creations!

Here is the sweet card that I created to apply for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday DT using sketch #1...

The digistamp is one of the adorably sweet stamps from the new site called Whimsie Doodles. Melyssa created this one that is called Little Pumpkin Doodle Bear. I know it isn't the fall, but I loved the image and found some wonderful older papers in my stash made by 7 Gypsies that I thought gave the image a softer, less stark feel. I colored it with my Prismacolor pencils and added some felt flowers, machine stitching and my Nesties and Cuttlebug embossing plates to complete the card.

I am going to keep it short and sweet today as I have some cards to work on and a puppy to tend to!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with sweet joys too!!

Puppy Pictures!!!

Adoption Fees and Donation...$300

Puppy Supplies...$350

Look on our sweet Tasha's face...

PRICELESS!!

Ricky holding Tasha at the Shelter. He is going to start training to volunteer there this week. He is interested in animals and vet science like his sister Leah.

It was sad to be taking Tasha from her Mommy! :-(

I LOVE this shot! Both my babies!!

From L-R, Dustin (our nephew), Tom (my DH), Ricky holding Tasha and me!

Our dreams have come true and our prayers have been answered. She is the sweetest, gentlest little puppy. She is active yet not rambunctious and is gentle and loving. She will be a sweet lap puppy and hopefully make a great fishing companion for Tom and Ricky some day! We are so happy to have her and will keep you updated on her growth.

Here is a little video of Tasha and her mommy before we took her home...

Thanks for indulging in me in showing off our new furbaby!! Have a great rest of the day! I should be back tomorrow with some more cards for you to see!!