Whimsie Doodles Sneak Peek!

While I am writing this I am waiting in my niece's labor room while she is being induced. Hopefully by tomorrow's post I will have pictures and a report on Ava Rae and her birth!!

Today I am sharing with you a sneak peek for the next Whimsie Doodle digistamp set being released tomorrow. It is called "Have a Seat" and contains the cutest chair and accessory images. I chose to use the iced tea pitcher and glass from this set that comes with the sweetest friendship sentiment!

The DP is called Lizzie Scallop Stripe which is double sided with the yellow on the reverse. I used my new ribbon trio tag and my scalloped square from Nestability. The ribbon sources are unknown and dew drops from Stamping Bella were added to the main image for accent. The image was colored with Copic Markers.

Want to see some more sneak peeks with the new WD Release?

Check out my fellow DT members and the WD blogs for some inspiration...

• Nicole
• Nikki
• Melyssa
  
  

Wish Lindsay luck and a great, safe labor and I will be back tomorrow! May your day be special and may our bucket overflow with tiny toes, fingers and a healthy new baby in our family!

No Creating Today!!

Cleaning and organizing the Scrap Room!

Be back soon! Hope you are enjoying your weekend!!

May your bucket overflow with things that make you happy! A clean scrap room makes me very happy!! It is long overdue!

The Last Hip Hop Hangover

If you are a Unity stamp fan like I am then you know that yesterday was the last Hip Hop blog hop for Unity. But don't worry! They aren't going anywhere, they are just changing things up a bit! So if there aren't any more HH's then there can't be any more Hangovers after today's. So enjoy my last contribution towards the last Hip Hop Hangover!

Even though I am curious to see what is in store for us with Unity, I know that it will be good! So I am celebrating the upcoming changes and calling today a Happy Day!!

Here is my happy card in celebration of things to come...

I am so excited to be using this dragonfly stamp from Unity's August KOM because I am on the Whimsie Doodles Design Team with the very talented artist who drew this. Her name is Kelli Caslow and she makes some really awesome cards too! Please check out her blog and send her some love if you like her dragonfly! I hope to see more stamps of hers in our Unity kits in the future!

The colors for this card come from a color challenge at the Florida Group at Stamp TV. I just got it done in time!

I have a couple of other Unity cards to share with you today too! I was able to complete both of the Hip Hop challenges on the forum yesterday. In fact the one you see below won the da da da Doodle contest where we had to use some doodling on our card. I was awarded the Hullabaloo stamp as my prize! Woohoo!!

This card uses the adorable old fashioned phone from the Everyday Adorable set. I paperpieced the four handsets and placed them in each of the corners and framed my card with doodles phone cords. The DP is from We R Memory Keepers. The phone was colored using my Copic markers.

The last card I want to show you combines FOUR challenges in one!! I have been behind making my challenge cards this week at SCS so I decided to get all caught up today!!

The first challenge for the next card is CC233 to use Red, Kraft and Chocolate Chip.

The second challenge was SC243 which was this week's sketch challenge.

The third challenge was WT233 which was to use Vintage ephemera on our card.

And the last challenge was the Hip Hop challenge Ta ta ta Texture. We were supposed to add some type of texture to our card.

See what you think!! I like what I ended up with!

The stamps I used were from the 100% Happiness in-store kit. The red dotted DP is from K & Co. and the Vintage label is from Flair Designs. The texture was added with my Swiss Dots embossing folder and my Cuttlebug!

If you are interested in getting the next in-store kit I hope you will go to the Paper Maniac to get yours! My good friend Stephanie Muzzulin is on their DT!

Hope you are enjoying the last HHH and are getting inspired by the talented fans of Unity Stamp Co. May your bucket overflow with good changes for you in the future!

Ready for Ava Rae!

My sister's daughter Lindsay is expecting her first baby any day now. I feel so privileged that she has invited me to attend her birth. It might be because she knows I have just a little experience in taking care of babies and in attending deliveries, but I am hoping it is because we are just so close she couldn't do it without me! (LOL!) I am so thrilled to be able to be a part of it and I am also happy to be with my sister when she becomes a Nana for the first time! It is going to be very special!

Lindsay and Barry

You might remember the shower invitations for her that were made with the Princess theme. You can see them HERE. Continuing with that theme, we needed to prepare the nursery. So to get the nursery ready for the Princess Ava Rae's arrival, Lindsay supervised while her BF Barry and I painted the nursery. They chose pink as their wall color to match the Princess bedding and accessories. It came out beautifully and I wanted to share with you some pictures of it!

Barry was rolling, I was cutting in!

Lindsay was sorting clothes.

This is the finished project!




These altered letters were a gift from me to Lindsay for her shower. We left a white space of paint around them that we will eventually frame in with some tulle wrapped around a picture frame.



I added the pink DP and the purple CS that was stamped with images from Unity's Spunky Princess set to the letters using modge podge and then added some flowers, ribbons and acrylic stickers to continue with the princess theme of her room. She hung them above the crib.

Lindsay is pointing to the vinyl Princess lettering and crown that we applied to the wall. You can't see the letters in this shot, but isn't my niece just adorable?

This is a close up of the vinyl lettering and crown. The photo came out badly but you get the idea! The changing table should be delivered any day and will go under this on the wall.

My mom (Great Granny to-be) recovered the cushions to the rocker she will be using for those middle of the night feedings! More pink!!

The nursery is ready and waiting for its Princess to arrive!

Hurry up Ava Rae! We want you now!!!

Thanks for taking a look at a glimpse into the personal side of my world. I promise to post pictures of the Little Princess once she arrives! We are kind of hoping for Monday since that is the day that My Grampa (Ava's Great, Great GF) turns 96!! Wouldn't that be neat?

Make the best of your day and I hope that your bucket overflows with happy anticipation for things you await!

What a Sweet Wednesday it is!

It's Wednesday, aka Hump Day for some of you that have Monday to Friday jobs! But for me Wednesday's are really SWEET days because they are the days when a new Sweet Sketch is released from the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog and I get to share with you a creation I made following that sketch! This Wednesday is especially sweet because it is the fourth Wednesday of the month which means there is also a Color Challenge with this month's sketch! SWEET!!

Arlana, the sketch designer has been a little under the weather, and I hope she is feeling better! She always has such neat sketches to use. They are the fun kind where you get to add a lot of special touches. I happen to like the busier cards more than just the clean and simple ones I have been showing you lately. But the neat thing is that you can always uses the sketches to fit your needs! I hope you will go and get the sketch and play along with us this week!

Here is this week's Sweet Sketch number 12!

These are the colors she chose for the challenge...






And here is the card that I made from it! (My couch really is red, but it photographed kind of pink!)

Sitting Here Thinking of You

This card uses a new stamp set that I got when I was at CHA earlier this month. It is such a cute set from Papertrey Ink called On My Couch Additions. They were out of the main On My Couch set, but the accessories set that I got still comes with a whole chair and all the makings for a room!

Here is a closeup of the scene I created using that set...

I wasn't sure if the geometric designs were supposed to be pictures or pillows, but I think they could be either. I used them as pictures on this card! LOL! The DP's come from many sources. The "wallpaper" is from Sassafrass, the card base is from Scenic Route and the ornge dotted paper is unknown. I used SU inks; Real Red, Certainly celery and Pumpkin Pie for the couch, carpet and pictures respectively. The senitiment was stamped with Amuse Black ink. My Copic markers were used to add shadows and color the pictures. The sentiment was sponged using one of the nesties as a template with So Saffron SU ink.

I bought the yellow gingham ribbon from a local stamping expo that came to town and the orange felt flower I bought online but don't remember from where! The border punch I used is from Martha Stewart.

I created the look of wood floors by coloring with my Copic markers onto white cardstock in stripes and then going over some of the stripes a second time to add a deeper color and make it appear like streaks of woodgrain. I think it looks pretty realistic for paper! By adding an outline of gray around the bottoms and right sides of the carpet, couch and pictures I tried to give the illusion of depth with the light source coming from the upper left hand side of the room.

So head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog where you can see all the creations that the DT made up for you to look at. It is always fun to see how different people interpret the sketches. Come along with us and join in the fun and make sure you share your project on the SSW blog so we can all see it!

Have a SWEET day and may your bucket overflow with lots of people that you can sit and think about that make you smile!

More Clean and Simple Cards!

The wonderful thing about CAS cards is that they come together so quickly! I was able to complete three of them yesterday with very limited time at my craft table!

I already showed you yesterday my first card for the Sketch Challenge for the CAS DT contest that I am entering. I finished the other two yesterday and posted them on the thread.

Here is the card I created for the Color challenge which was to use Browns with a touch of red!

Friendship Gives Wings to the Heart

This card uses the Heart With Wings stamp from Unity's August KOM (LOVE it!) Then I paired with it the stamp that I just bought while at CHA from Cornish Heritage Farms Friend Centers set. How perfectly does that match the stamp? I was so excited when I realized how well they would go together! I used BG paper and colored my image with Prismacolors. The ink is SU Chocolate Chip. The ribbon is from Michael's and I thought it was a perfect match too! I added a touch of paper piecing for the little extra touch that this clean and simple card needed!

My next DT challenge card is a theme based card. We had to use Fall, a Fall holiday or Christmas as the theme of the card. I chose Halloween! (That is a holiday right?)

Hauntingly Sweet Halloween

Yesterday was Happy Mail day since I got a big package of Unity Halloween stamps plus some free ones that I got for making my order during their special last week! This Hauntingly Sweet set is one of the ones that I got and I just had to ink it up right away. It is so cute... I love it!

The DP is from HOTP and I colored the image in with my Copics. Not a lot of coloring here, but this stamp lends itself really well to CAS style cards! The border punch is also a new I got from Martha Stewart. It is one of the new releases! I have plans to repeat this card, but turn it into a NOT Clean and Simple card! I will post it when it is finished!

Finally, I did one more CAS card yesterday for Monday's CAS Challenge (CAS29). We were supposed to make a card that was inspired by a shoe or bag from the Anthropologie website. My card is inspired by this shoe HERE!

Butterfly Thank You

This is another Unity card! You know how much I love Unity!! Both the stamp and the sentiment come from the September 08 KOM. Really quick to put together. The border punch is also MS, but it is the punch to make holes for binders. It matched the shoe perfectly though don't you think?

That will do it for today! I hope to have some time later at my craft table to work on some more creations to share with you! I am off to go hang out with my neice Lindsay! We are getting the baby's nursery ready! Ava Rae could be here any day!

Have a clean and simple kind of day and may your bucket overflow with happiness!!

Cherry Blossom Birthday

I still haven't had the kind of quality time I long for in my scrap room over the past few days, but I did manage to get one card finished and another one started. I am working on some cards to enter into the Fall DT contest at SCS in the Clean and Simple Forum. Jen (MissBoo) has put together three seperate challenges for us to follow.

Her first challenge is to create a card using the sketch seen in THIS card.

I decided to go a Oriental. I hadn't had a chance to ink up my cute little Hero Arts Japanese dolls that I bought a while back so now was the time!

Here is what I made...




The doll is paper pieced using some BG DP from the Lemonade collection. The cherry blossom branches are from SU. I colored them in using a mix of Copics. The sentiment is from Custer's Last Stamp which I stamped in SU ink (Sage Shadow). I added a light gray outline around the doll and gave her a shadow underneath her and then I sponged the background to give a little more color. To finish it off I added the strip of paper up top that I used a MS Border Punch on and then added the trim and the oriental coin to complete the piece!

To see the rest of the submissions, you can visit the gallery HERE!

Thanks for taking a look! I am hoping for a nice Monday. Sunday wasn't so nice with four deliveries at work! Today I have to find some time to get my son some back-to-school clothes. He starts back tomorrow and has grown like a weed over the summer!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with blossoms of happiness!

Sketch Challenge! Win FREE digistamps!!

Happy Sunday to All of You!!

Can I just say that it has been a very frustrating couple of days for me! It all started Friday morning when I had the house to myself and was trying to work on some cards for challenges and DT assignments when my computer screen started acting really wacko!! It kind of melted into a small blog of nothing in the center of my screen. Well as quickly as it happened, it came back on again, but then it did it AGAIN!! I knew this could not be good. My family's go-to geek (Paul) suggested that I restart my computer and see what happens. Well of course it did it again!! So now I call the computer hospital and made an appointment for my computer to be checked! They didn't get to see the screen problem because it was suddenly working again, but they did realize that my wireless card was now not working! Oh my!! I can't not have Internet connectivity!!

Turns out that my HP laptop is known for having overheating problems and it is possible that my Motherboard is suffering. Since I bought an extended warranty with it from Best Buy, I decided to leave it with them to get it all fixed up. They need to work on my screen, my CD/DVD drive, my wireless card and my battery. But the clencher is that they are going to have it for 2-3 WEEKS!! Yikes!!

So, I bought a new laptop yesterday! My DH needed one anyway for work, so I am going to use it until mine is returned to me from Best Buy. I am kind of hoping that there is so much wrong with it that they just replace the darn thing. But thankfully my local computer guy cloned my computer before I sent it off, so all my data should be intact. Plus I have some backups that I have recently done. But nontheless, I feel like a fish out of water not having my own computer to work on. And did I mention that I was still using Windows XP and that this new computer is Vista? You can imagine my frustrations can't you?

Enough belly aching!! On to the tease in my title!! Want a chance to win some FREE stamps? The how about participating in this month's sketch challenge going on over at the Whimsie Doodles Blog?

Here is a picture of the sketch for August...

And here is the card that I created using this sketch...

This card uses varied stamps from the Thank You Teacher set from Whimsie Doodles. The DP is the same that I showed you the other day. I want to be better about using up my scraps. It is embarassing how many scraps I have in my scrap bin that can still make perfectly great cards!

I chose to cover up the word teacher when I printed it so it could be a more generic thank you! If you notice the yellow circle in the background, it has "thank you" printed out over and over again. This is a little trick you can do with digistamps. I still promise to get a tutorial printed out for you guys so that you can have some fun playing with digistamps and making them work for you!

I hope that you will participate in the challenge this month. Melyssa is giving away two FREE digistamps of your choice for the winner of this challenge. If you play along with the challenge, then just use the keyword WDS02 when you upload it or post it on your blog. Then go THIS post and leave a comment with a link to your project so Melyssa can know that you played along. You can enter mulitple projects if you want to!

Good Luck!! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Have a great rest of the weekend and may your bucket overflow with happy properly working computers!

Simple, Special Stunning

It is time for the August edition of Simple Special Stunning at the SheetLoad of Cards blog, featuring samples by Barbara DeBose.

Each month one of our artists will share three different cards that use the current layout. Each card is a "step up" from the previous one, but they are all fabulous.

It is a good way to show how SheetLoad is geared toward papercrafters of all levels.

Here are some sneak peeks to whet your appetite...

I had some issues with my laptop yesterday and it remains in the computer hospital overnight. I thought my screen was going and it may still be, but while they have it they are going to get some more hard drive space for me. I have been running with only about 10% free space lately and I am feeling it!

Hang in there with me if I have limited posts for a few days. All of my pictures are on my laptop and I am currently borrowing my daughters. Hopefully I can spend a lot of time at the craft table and have lots to show you when I get my computer back up and running at top speed!!

Have a wonderful Saturday! May your bucket not overflow with water like it looks like mine will! It is pouring here right now and it looks like it may stay that way for a while!

Happy Day with New Unity!

Happy Friday! Hope you are enjoying hopping around the blogs for the Unity Hip Hop Hangover! If you didn't start at the beginning, please go to the SCS forum HERE or to Unity's Blog HERE and follow down the list of the very talented Unity Stampers who like to share their creations with us!

My August KOM arrived a couple of days ago and I finally got to inking some up! I use the sketch from day 4 of Mojo's 100 sketch anniversary celebration that was made by Sarah. I will warn you now that I used the same papers from K & Co. that I used for another sketch challenge that I will post later and it is kind of BUSY!!! Beware!!

Have a Happy Day and enjoy the rest of the Hangover!! May your bucket overflow with things that make you happy!

It's that Sweet Time Again!

Yep it's Wednesday which means that it is time for another wonderful sweet sketch to play with from Sweet Sketch Wednesday. Have you heard of it before... or are you new to this blog? Well be sure to check out the SSW blog each Wednesday for some wonderfully creative sketches to play with that you will want to use over and over again!

Here is today's sketch...

The card that I decided to make this week has a specially sweet meaning because it is the card that I gave to my sweet baby sister Michelle (who I named my own daughter after!) Her birthday was actually last week, but I couldn't share this with you then until the sketch was released! So let's wish her a public Happy Birthday today OK?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!

My daughter's Michelle and Leah with their Aunt Michelle (in the middle.)

So Many Candles

The candles border stamp and the cake stamp (in the Hodge Podge of Happiness kit) come from Unity. The sentiment stamp is one of Dee Gruenig's that I bought at my local craft store. The DP is from BG's Lime Ricky collection and I colored my images using my copics and stamped the sentiment with SU's Pumpkin Pie.

If you look closely at the candles I have added stickles where the flame is to make it shimmer if the light hits it right. The paper flowers are from Prima and I can't remember the name of the company that made the fabric flowers on the bottom. I colored some BG brads with my Copics to customize the color for this card.

Here is a picture of my sister Michelle with her fiance Claude.

They are getting married in January 2010!

The family met up at my sister's house last Thursday for a little surprise with cake and ice cream! I hope she had a special day! I love you Michelle!!

To see more of what the DT created with this week's sketch head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog and start hopping around. You can also get to their blogs using my list on the side bar!

May the rest of your Wednesday be even sweeter than it has already and may your bucket overflow with happy celebrations with sweet people that you love!

It's Getting Hot in Here!

I am so late in getting up a card to share with you! I apologize but have been busy completing some DT assignments that are coming due. Soon I will be able to share those with you. But in the meantime I did make some time to create a card for this week's Clean and Simple Challenge (CAS28) which was to create a masculine card. CAS is already a bit of a challenge for me, but add to that masculine, then I am really being challenged! I do like the end result though... what do you think?

Red Hot Birthday

Some of the inspiration for this card came from a T-shirt that I saw on a person in my hospital recently. It was the alphabet that only had the letters H-O-and T emphasized to spell out HOT! I thought that was a cute idea and knew that this alphabet stamp from Unity's Confession: I {luv} Unity set would be perfect to try it with. First I stamped the alphabet onto white CS with black ink and then I outlined the H,O and T with a red marker and added red stickles too.

Next I stamped and colored the grill from Unity's Retro BBQ set using my Copics. I cut it out and then popped it up and placed it over the stamped alphabet and also the strip of paper I added from Graphic 45. The rest of the sentiment was generated on the computer and printed out.

Pretty simple huh?? Let me know what you think... I'd love to hear your comments!

Have a great night and may your bucket overflow with things to keep you cool in these last HOT days of summer!

Look who's in the Spotlight!

Click on the image above to learn more about the August '09 sponsor at SheetLoad of Cards - Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!

I still have one more of my creations using August's sketch to share with you, but I am saving it for a little later this week! It is my favorite. If you got the eZine and have looked through it, then you have probably seen it already! If not, I will share it with you later!

Everyone Needs a Little Inspiration!

Dictionary.com defines inspiration as

• Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
  
• The condition of being so stimulated.

Don't you feel sometimes that you could use a little inspiration? Doesn't your mojo leave you temporarily and you struggle to find just the right stamp to ink up or the right paper to use? Well thankfully SCS has designed a way to help us get out of those ruts and to find inspiration from other artists and websites. Every Saturday you can log into the SCS Inspiration Challenge Forum and find many ways to be inspired.

Last Saturday we were inspired by Bellacor Vases that can be found HERE. There were over 1500 vases to choose from and anyone could find something to inspire them. As soon as I saw this vase HERE, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had found my inspiration!!

Here is the card that I created after being inspired by that Bellacor Vase.

I decided that not only do I need inspiration sometimes, but so do others who are struggling with one of life's toughest battles... the loss of a loved one. I kept this card clean and simple because when you are trying to comfort someone who is grieving, it is better to take the minimalist approach so the true sentiments can be felt. I used my Unity silhouette flowers from the Birdie Inspiration set and lengthened the stems using a Sharpie Fine tip marker.

When I created this card I was hoping that I could inspire someone going through a tough time and move their mind to a higher level of feeling loved by me. On the inside of the card I used a Stampin Up sympathy stamp that says...

May God's love

heal your sorrow, and may

His peace replace your

heartache with

warm and loving memories.

I also played along with yesterday's Inspiration Challenge IC193 that can be found HERE! This time we were to be inspired by an ecclectic online store called The Curiosity Shoppe. They had really neat ideas and I found lots of creations that I would want to CASE or borrow! I chose THESE Earrings as my inspiration.

When I saw them my mind went directly to Dawn McVey's Damask Designs stamps from PTI and to the Ambrosia Collection by Basic Grey. So with the lace earrings as my inspiration, and the Damask stamps along with some BG, I was led and they led me to make this rather formal Birthday card...

I cut out one of my label nesties twice in one size and once in a large size. Then by turning one of them 45 degrees I was able to create this medallion like mat for my stamp. I decided to stamp the Happy Birthday sentiment right on top of the strip of Damask Designs. To finish it off I added four rhinestones to accent the center piece in the medallion.

Weather permitting my family and I are going to do some boating and jet skiing. Ricky will just be fishing since he is still supposed to be resting his eye. I am happy to say though that everday he is reporting that his vision is improving and his eye is hurting less. My daughter Leah made it back to Gainesville yesterday and is still in a little pain still but also doing better every day!

Please have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with inspiration from many sources!

Show Us Your SheetLoad! And Another SheetLoad to Share!

This is the second post for today, please scroll down to see the

Whimsie Doodles New Releases!

It is time once again to show us what you have created with the latest issue of SheetLoad of Cards; August 2009.



All you have to do is create one (1) card and enter it in the August '09 Show Us Your SheetLoad Challenge for a chance to win Two (2) FREE Stamp Sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!

I was able to be an extra for this month's issue and I had so much fun creating things using the sketch and the SNS stamps! I have shared with you already two of the projects I made and I still have two more to share with you.

The next project I want to share with you using the August SL sketch and Sweet N Sassy stamps is this card...

The digistamp you see used here is the Sweet N Sassy's stamp called Love Struck which can be purchased HERE.

The DP is from K&Co Wild Raspberry collection. I altered the sketch slightly by turning the center oval image upright to better fit my stamp selection.

The ribbon comes from the Dollar Spot at Target and the Lace is from JoAnn's. I used my Martha Stewart border punch and my oval nestie too. I added machine stitching because I felt it went well with the Shabby Chic look I was going for with this card.

Here is a closeup showing the Sakura Gelly Roll glimmer that I added to the bugs wings...

I masked the bug and sponged the background using some of my SU blues! Who couldn't love this little Love Bug??

Now don't delay in heading over to SheetLoad of Cards and downloading August's issue so that you can create your own card (or cards) and share them with us for a chance to win some FREE stamps!

Have a great weekend and may your bucket overflow with lots of bugs! (The kind you get love struck by of course! LOL!)

New Whimsie Doodles Digistamps are Released!

Yeah!! It is August 15th and that means that Whimsie Doodles is releasing all the stamp sets that we have been previewing all week!

Here are all the new stamps going on sale today...

Hanging Around

Halloween Cat

Cupcake Sentiments

Yummy Doodles Cupcakes

Party Monster

Halloween Sentiments

Going Batty

And also Candy Monster (not pictured here)

Click HERE to go to the Whimsie Doodles Etsy store!

And Click HERE to see who won the FREE stamps that Melyssa gave away for release day!