Bella Sketch Challenge and Some Tildas!

Hello everyone! Hope your day is going well! I have a few cards to share with you today that I actually started earlier, but couldn't finish until last night because of how busy I have been at work. I have started to dread Tuesdays!!! Why do so many babies have to be born on Tuesdays??

Anyway, the first card comes from a sketch posted on SCS in the Stamping Bellas forum, it is (Edited to add the link ) BSC69 and here is the picture of the sketch....

And this is what I came up with using this as my starting point....

I love the bold colors of this DP from Junkitz! It is part of a birthday paper collection and it also has some paper with rows of cupcakes and party hats and even some sentiments that would be great to add to a card or a SB layout. I need to use up the leftovers and make some bright and cheery birthday cards!

I am so excited that I have finally found some time to put some ink on a couple of the Magnolias that I have recently purchased. I have to thank my friend Monica for getting me to like these sweet images. At first I thought they would only be useful if you had a little girl that you wanted to send a card to, but now they have grown on me and I want more!!!! They are just so sweet and innocent looking. I love them a lot and have so much fun coloring them!

This is the first card that I ever made using a Magnolia stamp. There is room for improvement in the coloring with my copics, but I keep practicing. I LOVE to color images now that I have my Copics! I want to get some wax based pencils too, and try the OMS or Gamsol technique that Gina K demonstrated on Stamp TV today. My friend Shelley showed me this a long time ago, but I have never had the pencils to try it with. I guess a trip to Michael's is in order, huh? Tiffani (my BFF) just bought some at the recent Stampfest we had and she is enjoying this technique a lot!

Anyway... here is the first Tilda I put some color on using my Copics!

I am afraid it may have come from a sketch, but since I started this one a while back, I can't even remember if the sketch was from a challenge or not! I apologize if I am not giving someone the proper credit! Purple is such a hot color right now! I liked the final image mostly except I wish I had handled the mittens differently. I don't like how they turned out!

The second card using a Tilda image comes from two challenges. The first one is a sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches and the second one is from the SCS Color Challenge from yesterday. The challenge was to use Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip and Pink Passion colors from SU.
Here is the sketch....

And here is my card...

The Fine Print: DP: The Paper Co.; CS: SU; Stamp: Magnolias Sweetheart Tilda, Sentiment: Inky Antics; Border Punch: Martha Stewart; Flowers: Michael's Brides collection, Ribbon flowers: Michael's; Brads, Bazzill; Ink: Amuse, SU.

Well, I have to go for now, I am hoping to do some creating still today before I get called back in to work! One more day on call then I have a three day weekend! I sooooo need that!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with fun stamped images to color!!

Three, three, three challenges in one!!

This is my second post for today! So to see the earlier post...just keep scrolling down after this one!



I am not sure why, but I really love challenges. I guess I like how they motivate me when I sometimes would otherwise be frozen trying to come up with something to create!





The card below is created using three different challenges!!





The first one is the sketch that comes from Julee Tilman the Mojo queen! This is her sketch Mojo76 that can be found on her blog. She now has a dedicated blog just for her Mojo Monday Sketches! Her sketches are the bomb! If you like her sketches, you can add a blinkie to your blog like I did on the right!

The second challenge that this card comes from is one over at StampTV that Melanie posted on Friday! She calls these challenges Pot Luck Fridays and this past week was the very first one. She asked us to use a split screen for our stamped image.

Then the third challenge fit in with Melanie's perfectly so I couldn't resist adding it in too! It comes from CCEE Stampers. Their challenge was to use a sheet of stickers on your project. You know the kind that you would print addresses on or use for labels. By using the labels, I could stamp my image and then attach them to my card making a split screen like Melanie suggested.

So this is what I came up with after combining all of these challenges together!

The Fine Print: DP: BG, CS: The Paper Co.; Sticky Labels: Office Depot; Pink Organza (colored darker with my copics and the cream trim: sources unknown (probably Joann's); Stamp: Finest Flourishes from SU. Ink: Amuse; Paper piecing and sponging. Computer font: Monotype Corsiva.

I created this card for my Aunt and Uncle who live in Michigan! Can you believe that I don't have a stamp set with a sentiment for Anniversaries? I had to generate this sentiment and the one on the inside using Word on my computer! I guess I need to go check out Gina K's and my newest SU catalog and see what my next purchase needs to be! LOL!

This will do it for today... until next time may your bucket overflow with loved ones you can send cards to!

All I can say is WOW!! Have you joined StampTV yet??

I was pretty speechless and blown away this morning when I logged onto the Florida Group on Stamp TV only to find that Asela had chosen my card (shown below) as the Card of the Week! This has never happened to me before and I can't tell you how humbling this is! I am sure I am making it out to be more than it is, but to me that is really special.



If you don't know Asela, then you should get to know her. She designs stamps and sells them at Gina K Designs (Gina K is the lady who created the new Stamp TV and also the lady who offers the best Copic Markers Club in the country!) Asela is very talented, so for her to pick my little card this week really makes me feel good! On her blog today she has an awesome Wishing Well card! You know how partial I am to anything Wishing Well related and to buckets! (My Wishblading Well friends will know why!) You should check it out!



Thanks so much Asela! I hope I get to meet you in person someday, especially for a Copics class!!

Thanks so much to those of you who left a comment yesterday for Ricky wishing him a Happy Birthday! It means a lot to him (and me!)

So this weekend I had the chance to get a couple of cards made using two of the challenges that they had over at SCS!

The first one is from Saturday's Inspiration Challenge. We had to find some inspiration from the awesome website calle Room Service Home. I was inspired by this cupcake plate here. And this is what I created from that...

The Fine Print: DP: Some older paper that I bought in a collection but can't remember the name of. Stamps: Large cupcake from Sarah Beise, and small cupcakes from CC Designs; Ink: Amuse, and Copic Markers, Brown Bic Markit pen for the brown dots; Flowers: Petaloo (?); Ribbon: Brown Felt and dotted ribbons both from Michael's dollar bin; Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Then on Sunday, the challenge was to pick a card from the Gallery of the Featured stamper who also is named Kelly! She had a great gallery full of many things I would love to case, but I kept looking until I found a masculine card because I needed to make Tom's birthday card for his upcoming birthday next Saturday. This is the card of hers I chose to case... and this is my rendition of it! I do like the masculinity of it and think that Tom will like it too!!

The Fine Print: DP: MME; CS: SU; Stamps: SU Sentiments and Autumn Leaves Stars; Ink: SU, and VersaMark; Brads: Basic Grey.

Please think about joining us over at Stamp TV for some awesome video tutorials and great fellowship and if you are from FL, like me, please join in on the best group there!

Have a great day and may your bucket be overflowing with exciting news like I had today!! :-)

Happy Birthday Ricky!!!!

I can't believe it but my baby (who is actually already 5 1/2 inches taller than I am) turns 15 years old today!! Where does time go and can't it just slow down sometimes so we can actually take a few minutes to really embrace all that is happening around us?

Ricky and me on my wedding day November 15th.

This has been a big year for Ricky! He started highschool and is doing really well as a freshman; and some time this week he will be going to get his driving permit! Can I tell you how scared I am about that?? I don't remember feeling this concerned when his three older sisters learned to drive... I am not sure if I don't want my baby to grow up or if my fear comes more from the fact that my young son who has ADHD and temper issues is going to be behind the wheel of a car!

I think it might actually be the latter! LOL! So we have really been talking to Ricky about how important patience is when you are driving and we are fully prepared to remove his driving privileges at the first sign that he shows us he is not mentally ready for it!

If you have a child with ADHD then you will totally understand how animated and worked up they can get. He is usually fine when he remembers to take his pill, but if he forgets, it becomes very obvious by the afternoon! We hope that Ricky will outgrow the need to take a pill daily, but for now it is what has turned him from a young child who could not control himself to a sweet young man who is very intelligent and loves animals!

Forgive me as I reminisce a bit about him! I have attached some of the scrapbook layouts that I have made of Ricky throughout the years. Take a look at my beautiful son who is growing quite rapidly into a wonderful young man! I am soooo proud of him! I love you Ricky!

Please do me a favor and leave a comment below wishing Ricky a Happy Birthday!!

Two years old and in preschool. It is hard to believe he was nearly expelled for biting other children too many times. Look at the sweet, innocent face!

This was a mom and son trip to Busch Gardens! He acted shy and put his finger up to his mouth!

Oh so cute!!!!

Doing what he does best on a beach in Jacksonville, FL!

Ricky and a dog we used to have! They both were so cute!!

Many an evening I spent watching Ricky and his sister play baseball or softball. I was the team mom this year!

Ricky has to get his heart checked out regularly because of the ADHD medicine that he takes.

Ricky's eighth birthday party!

Ricky's fifth grade school year picture layout!

Ricky got some roller blades for his twelfth birthday! He usually likes to celebrate at Red Lobster. This year we are making crab legs and steaks on the grill for him at home!

He went through braces to get that beautiful smile that he has! Now if I could only get him to brush his teeth without being told!!!!!

If you made it this far then thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to look at some of my layouts and mostly at my beautiful boy that I am so thankful to have!!! I am one of the "old-fashioned" scrapbookers who still scraps double page layouts! I know that there are at least two of us left out there because my best friend Tiffani scraps that way too! But it is funny to see how the trends have changed since I started scrappping! I see a lot of tags on those layouts!! LOL!!!

Pretty please leave a comment on this post wishing Ricky a Happy Birthday! He would really appreciate knowing that people care enough to say Hi to him today! I told him that I was featuring him on my blog today!

Edited to add:

Have a great night and may your bucket overflow with people that are special in your life!

Also I (hopefully) corrected the photos that only showed the red X.

Thanks for looking!

Shout Out to Sheetload!

One of my Riverview friends shared with me the Sheetload of Cards website many months ago and I finally got around to using some of their sketches a month or so ago. Unfortunately I never posted any of those cards. Well today I had the opportunity to use the sketches from their February Issue and I wanted to give them a shout out and thank them and Unity Stamps for sponsoring such a great issue and for providing this awesome sketch to use!

The concept of their sketches is that they will help you make many cards at once by providing you with all the right measurements and amounts of paper and embellishments you will need. Basically they take all the hard work out of making cards and leave the fun part, the assembling and embellishing to us!

Take a look at this month's February 09 issue and see how easy it would be to create some cards. (If that link takes you to a page showing the Unity Sponsorship, but no link to the issue, then go to their main page and scroll down through old posts until you get to the February 2nd post. From there you can click on the picture of the issue and get the download.)

What I tend to do is use their sketches to find ways to use up scraps that I have on hand from a previous project.

Below are two cards that I created using their February sketch. I varied the measurements slightly to suit my needs, but I stuck really close to the original!

The Fine Print: DP: Scenic Route; Stamps: Unity February SOTM club house image, SU Home Tweet Home, SU Fun and Fast Notes "Congratulations"; Flowers: Prima and ?, Ink: Amuse Black ink and Copic Markers, Brads: MM.

The Fine Print: DP: Scenic Route; Stamps: Stamping Bellas Belinda Bumperboots, SU A Little Birdie Told Me sentiment, Flowers: Prima and ?; Ink: Amuse Black ink and Copic Markers, Rhinestones: Unknown.

Here are the other cards I told you that I had created earlier using other sketches from SheetLoad of Cards. In these I also used up some leftover materials I had lying around. It is nice to make quick cards and have some on hand for those occasions that always seem to come up.

The Fine Print: DP: HOTP and Creative Imaginations; CS: Sam's Club (white) and Gin X (dark purple). Varied ribbons unknown, Embellishments unknown. Opaque white marker, dew drops, brads, Copic Markers and Flowers. Stamps listed below.

The first two cards come from the Sheetload of Cards November 08 issue.

The Fine Print: Stamps: SU; Fun and Fast Notes, and Nest from SU Nellie the Nest Lady

The Fine Print: Stamps: Sarah Beise Cupcake, Sentiment from SU Wishing Well

The Last two come from the Sheetload of Cards January 09 Issue.

The Fine Print: Stamp: SU Merci Butterfly, SU Sentiment from A Little Birdie Told Me.

The Fine Print: Stamps: Inkadinkadoo Party Hat, Sentiment from Verses Rubber Stamps.

It feels great to spend less time creating cards and using up my stash of scraps at the same time! I love Sheetload!!

Have a great night and may your bucket be overflowing with lots of sketches to use!

Survived Camping and Best Fishes Challenge!

Hello everyone! I am so glad to be back from camping this past weekend! It was very cold (for Florida!) and we had a burn ban in effect so it was pretty chilly in the evenings! We did have a space heater, but it wasn't the same as a nice bonfire! It was fun to hang out with our friends and family, but as always, it is a lot of work for Tom and me!

One of the highlights of the weekend was that we got to see two of Tom's grandkids that we haven't seen in years! They were precious, so well-behaved and such a pleasure to spend time with. Below is a pictures of some of the crew... the two cute little ones are our grandkids!

I was so happy to get back home and spend the rest of my Sunday glued to my scraproom! I was going crazy and feeling the need to be creative! I first started by finally putting some ink on one of my new Magnolia stamps. I almost have the card ready and will show you as soon as it is.

Today I began tackling yesterday's SCS Featured Stamper Challenge! This week they featured a very talented card maker named Jami (aka Sgt Stamper on SCS). After perusing her inspirational Gallery, I decided to case this card.

The rules for "casing" according to SCS are to "Change 2 or more things on the card. It could be a color combo, embellishements, backgrounds, or even the main image could be different but similar because you don't own the exact image. List the changes in your description."

Here is the card that I created after seeing hers....

I found the instructions on how to make this stair step fold card also on SCS here. I loved the way that she used the swirly embossing folder to make the water look like waves. I definitely wanted to use that idea in my design too! I also added clear embossing powder and some glitter to my "waves" to make them look wet! I am not sure that you can appreciate that in these pictures though!

My card differs from hers because I used blue instead of pink DP (my paper is from Flair Designs.) I changed my fish images and added some other sealife stamps from the SU set called Fishy Friends. I also changed the sentiment using one that I created with Word and a font called Rx One Zero. My stamped images were colored using Copic markers.

This card will be going to my animal and marine loving son Ricky who turns 15 this Sunday!

Sunflower Color Challenge Card and the last of my Valentine creations!

Sunflowers can be orange can't they?

The Fine Print: DP: Scenic Route and Sassafrass Lass; CS: SU; Ribbon: Unkown, Stamps: Rubber Stampede and MFT Essential Sentiments; Copic Markers, Buttons: SEI; White embroidery Floss; Opaque white Pen: Inkessentials; Nestabilities.

I created this card following the color palette from Kwernerdesign.com Color Inspiration challenge. I have been wanting to play along for a long time now, but it seems either I never I get around to creating a card with the right colors, or if I do, I forget to post it in time on her blog! So here you go... this is my creation using More Mustard, Really Rust, Kiwi Kiss and White.

I love the brightness and the vibrancy of these colors! They are so spring and summer to me! Do you see how I used Markie's Mom's technique of adding the white dots around the mat frames? That is definitely her trademark isn't it?? She colors so beautifully and I always love her creations! She really inspires me a lot!

Finally, I just wanted to post the last of the Valentine Creations I made this year that I didn't get a chance to post yet! I am glad to be moving on to a new theme and color palate! LOL!

This was the complete package that we sent to Shaelynn, our DGD who lives in Ohio! It was complete with her card, the candy box I made filled with goodies, some socks, the bear and lip gloss! She (well her mom,) texted grampa after she got it and thanked us!

This card went to my neice Lindsay! It uses all the same papers and embellies I have previously posted, and the elephant stamp comes from SU!

This is one of the closeups of the origami candy boxes that I made with the help of my daughter Leah! We had such a fun time making them together! The ironic part about this is that after Leah helped me for so long when she came home the weekend before Valentine's, she is yet to receive her goody box all filled up with candy because it was lost in the mail! I am so sorry Leah!!! I love you!!

This is my first Clean and Simple card that I have ever made. It is the Valentine that I gave to Tom this year. I tried to make it very masculine... I think it came out well... he liked it and that is all that matters! :-)
I also covered some chocolate bars to give to various people. Donnie, Leah's BF got this one!

We are preparing to go camping this weekend up in Homossassa with a big group of people! It will be lots of fun, but you won't be seeing me in blogland for a few days! Hope you all have a great weekend and I will catch back up to you next week!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with fun things this weekend!!

A Challenging Day trying Challenges!

I was close to stumped today when I started to work on a couple of challenges that I combined into one card. I was first visiting Stamping & Dancing with Riley when I saw that she was having a color challenge. Since I now have all the colors of SU cardstock (except the neutrals) I wanted to try to play along.





I liked the color choices because I figured that I could use them for making a St. Patrick's Day card. I need to get busy with those since that holiday is practically around the corner!





The colors for the Color Dare Challenge were to use Bordering Blue, Gable Green, Sahara Sand and Close to Cocoa. Well to my great surprise and happiness, it turns out that some of the Brownie Girl Scout DP that I purchased from my LSS was the perfect match to those colors!





So the next dilemma was deciding on what card to make. So I checked out SCS and found their sketch challenge for today. This was probably the hardest part for me, because the sketch wasn't something I would typically create. So this is where the challenge part really came into play. After much fiddling around and playing with my layers, I finally liked my end product.





I hope you do too! Thanks so much for looking! Feel free to leave a comment and add a link to something you have recently created! I would love to see what you all are working on too!

The Fine Print: DP: K&CO Brownie Girl Scout collection; CS: SU; Stamps: SU Lucky Me set; Ribbon: Target Dollar Spot; Shamrock Embellies: Joann's; Brads: Bazzill, Copic Markers; Nestabilities, Cuttlebug embossing folders, Circle Punch.

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the luck of the Irish! :-)

Collection of County Cards!

Yesterday was such a fun day for me. Despite getting called in to work twice, I still found enough time to really produce some cards. I was busy all weekend reorganizing my space because my stamp collection has grown so much that I need two bookshelves to store them in. It required a bit of shuffling to get everything into their proper places and keep my room looking pretty still.

So, part of my reorganization was to sort through all my scraps of paper and decide on a system of organization. I have decided that I will sort them by color and keep them in an accordian style holder. That way, when I need a scrap I can go to my stash first instead of cutting into a brand new sheet of paper. I have one folder for patterned paper, and one for card stock.

Well anyway, while going through my scraps I found the leftover paper that Tiffani and I had used to make the Recipe Card samples for the Wishblading Well! I hit the jackpot! The paper comes from Crate Paper and the set is called the Cowgirl Collection. It came with many double sided DP and even some punch out embellies and letters to use.

Here is the collection that I created using that stash. Mind you there were quite a few leftovers to choose from so in total, I made 8 cards yesterday (7 different ones).

Here are some close up shots!

This card is based on BSC67 a Bella Sketch Challenge posted on SCS last week!

The Fine Print: DP: Crate Paper Cowgirl Collection; Stamp: SU's Brighter Days, SU Thanks Sentiment; Ink:

SU Close to Cocoa and Copics markers; Flowers: Prima; Dew Drops: Stamping Bellas; Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

The Fine Print: DP: Crate Paper Cowgirl Collection; Stamp: SU's Bee from Friends are like Flowers, and Sentiment SU's Birthday Greetings; Ink: SU Close to Cocoa; Flowers: Prima ?; Brads: Bazzill; Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

This is another card based on BSC67. I actually a Bella stamp for this one! ;-)

The Fine Print: DP: Crate Paper; Stamps: Stamping Bellas Chick, Sentiment from Inky Antics; Flower: ?; Brads: Basic Gray; Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Four of them I made to coordinate as a set. I have always contemplated selling some handmade card on Etsy.com, but I am not sure that it would really be worth it. I take forever to make my cards, so if I got $3-$4 per card, it really wouldn't compensate me much for my time! Tiffani had the idea that I should give out card gift sets to my family and friends for special occasions and birthdays. I think that is a great idea!

I call this set the Cowgirl Country set!

Here are close up shots of each of the cards from that set!

The Fine Print: Each of these uses the Crate Paper CowGirl Collection, Close to Cocoa SU ink, Flowers by Prima (?), Sakura Gelly Roll pens and various SU stamps for the sentiments and the butterfly from The Flight of the Butterfly set by SU, Red Embroidery floss. Additonal items used are listed below the individual cards.

This card is based on Julie's Bonus Sketch from 2 sketches 4 You posted 2/16/09.

In addition to the materials listed above, this card also uses SEI buttons.

This card sketch also comes from 2 Sketches for You, it is made by Kazan's Sketch 20 for Monday's challenge.

Do any of you ever sell any hand made items on Etsy or Ebay? I would love to hear about your experiences in doing that. So if you have any information to share, please share it in the comments!

Thanks so much for looking! Have a great day...and may your bucket be overflowing with creativity!