Sophia

So today I finally sat down and created a card using on of the new PaperPretties stamps. This set features both Sophia and Snowflake....I of course had to dress Sophia up to play out in the snow and I love it! This stamp is a lot of fun to use as is the paper I have stocked up from the PaperPretties store!I have been asked a few times what these boxes I keep refering to are all about so I thought I would fill you all in. PaperPretties is a company run by Christie (who is great!) that offers monthly card kit boxes. I discovered Christie and her card classes in Feb. of 2007 and since then I have bee thrilled with the content of these boxes. Each month a box shows up at my door with more than enough to make the same card (the card design of the month) six times over including all the needed paper, embellishments, instructions and envelopes to mail these creations out. Now, I refer to these boxes and PaperPretties a lot since I am a customer and I enjoy the goodies and creations that come my way as well as the company of the PaperPretties Girls who are all wonderful! At this time you can not sign up for the month stamp boxes, but Christie also offers monthly Nestablities and Copic boxes, plus she has recently added the extra boxes to her store for those ladies who want in but missed the cut off date. I promise to post here if the monthly card classes open up again, right now the three monthly boxes feature Bella, My Favorite Things, or Rubber Romance.

Baby Its Cold...

'Outside' it is pretty cold, so I have taken the time to complete the November My Favorite Things box example, and my own take on what to do with the box contents. The colors of the November box are a lot of fun, bright and fun wintery colors, the perfect for a wintery day.
The paper is wonderful as it typically is for the PaperPretties boxes and the embellishments are a lot of fun. Shimmery ribbon, crystals, and snowflake brads....what more to love! So far I have yet to be disappointed by the box contents, and this box is just like that.The above card is my take on the box contents, I try to do something completely different with my examples to explore what the box holds. This card has some yummy metallic paper that the first card does not show, but is the best! You also can't see the glitter, but the snowflake paper has glitter on it! I also have to create some cards from my December Bella box which features Snowbunnyabella...she is coming, and one day she will be posted her. Enjoy ladies!

So....

So even though I didn’t post yesterday/last night does not mean I wasn’t thinking about it. I starting working on the PaperPretties card of the month for my November My Favorite Things box when I got side tracked. It seems that my house will be the hosting spot for about 15-20 families this weekend and with that my room needs a MAJOR cleaning. Since I live at home still I need to fit everything in my bedroom, now my room is about 16’ x 16’, but with just my crafting things the room fills up fast. If it looked more organized I would share a picture, but since it really is a mess….leave it to your imagination for now. I may share some images once I clean things up a bit. I have been trying to get rid of things I don’t use, organize what I have, and pack things away into the attic if I don’t need them, but I think this will take longer than I thought it would.

I do hope to complete the November MFT Box card tonight and possibly even create my own version. Also on the list of things to do is to create a card with polka dots (PaperPretties weekly challenge), bundle up my Wish RAK Exchange package, create something Hanna related, and stop by the Stamping Bella pajama party tonight. Speaking of PaperPretties weekly challenges I won the challenge from two weeks ago and I never post my winning card, so here it is!
The challenge was to take a card you already created and revisit it in a way that would improve the card itself. I created this card as part of one of my own takes on a Bella box from September, so for this challenge I added a few things. The red paper was added as were the heart shaped brads (both items came from other PaperPretties boxes) and although you can’t really make it out I also added my Copic Glitter markers the Bella, giving her and extra sparkle. Now several of you lovely ladies have asked me about PaperPretties and enrolling for one of the wonderful boxes I have shared with you. I spoke with Christie about the boxes last week and the Bella boxes, Rubber Romance boxes, and MFT boxes are all full but there are open memberships for the Nestabilities and the Copic boxes that Christie offers. If the membership for any of the stamping boxes open up I will be sure to let you know, in the mean time you should stop by the store and pick up some of the cute new stamps PaperPretties have released….they’re too cute for words!

More Mojo!

Today the plan was to use the new PaperPretties stamps I received in the mail, but I got my hands on some Verve Visual stamps I have had my eye on for a while. Since the Mojo Monday challenge is being hosted by Julee (creator of Verve Visual) I thought it was only right to attempt her sketch challenge with stamps she creates.For this card I used the Wild Thing set from Verve Visual to match the wild things going on with the decorative background paper. This paper is from the Basic Grey Gypsy collection, although I never seem to use it I own many collection packs and about 12 6x6 pads from Basic Grey. I am loving these hearts, they have style and the swirls are a lot of fun. Enjoy ladies! I promise Snowflake is coming soon....I just have to let that guy out to play!

More KIT Club

I am glad to know that you are enjoying my Criss-Cross card, they are defiantly fun to make. I thought I would share with you the other cards and goodies we created the other night. My Demo is wonderful with creating thing, but I always put my own twist on what we are doing. For this first card I left it as she created, I liked it a lot, especially the altered chipboard. I have a lot of chipboard but I never know what to do with it! Now I have a few ideas, oh and note the rub on star also from SU!I love using pink and brown together, in fact we made a bow on Friday night that matches this card. I will share the bow with you tomorrow....I love it! I am sure you will too! The third card we created uses one of the new floral sets (one I am thinking of purchasing) and some fun colors.
Now, this DP is two sided from SU! and the card that my Demo created used the other side of this paper....I thought it was too mellow so I flipped the paper to find these great colors! Needless to say a few of the other ladies at the Club followed my lead. I really like how we colored these flowers. We embossed the image with Vanilla embossing powder then we water colored the image with reinkers going from light to dark. Then for a bit of a pop we added the dark pink color in the over lapping areas....love it! The center of each flower is a colored brad to match the colors we used. Tomorrow I will show you a bow and hopefully a fun card using the PaperPretties set I received in the mail on Friday!

Some more SU!

Last night was a meeting with K.I.T. Club and I had a blast. There are a few ladies who get together every month or so to create some fun cards and goodies. Last night I demoed (no I am not a Demo) how to create a Criss-Cross Card. I created a sample on Thursday night but I didn't like the colors and I wanted to create the same card in shades of blue instead, so I cleared it with my Demo to make sure she had the right papers and made my way to her house. When I got there I showed the ladies the sample and told them we would be doing the same card in blues, but they wanted to make the card they had in their hand using So Saffron and Certainly Celery. So change of plans, we went with the first card I created.The first picture is the card we created last night, using Very Vanilla as the card base and the Polka Dot and Paisley set from SU! One side of the cross is DP from SU! and the other is stamped with the flower and the dots from the set.
This is a picture of the two cards I created, the one to the back is the card I originally created and the one on top is the one we made last night. So what do you think? Is it springy like they said it is....or is it too pale? I thought it was too pale, but people obviously have different opinions.

Continuing on....

With more cards from Gina K. Stamps "You Know You're Old When...." set! I really do love this set, I had planned to create some fun cards using either my Rubber Romance ladies (yet to be inked!), my new SOTM House Mouse (not inked yet) or some of the My Favorite Things stamp sets (also uninked) but I just can't seem to stop with this set! I don't know if its the sentiments or the way these sentiments match the great images, but something about this set sticks with me!This time I am bringing you another card from this set, there are four images I had yet to ink up so I think its time to have them met their new best friend Mr. Ink Pad. This one is of a bra and the inside sentiment says "your bra size is a 38 long"....LOVE it! Gina has these excellent sentiments to match these fun images, honestly the only wrong you can do is if you give one of these cards to someone without a sense of humor. Enjoy ladies! I hope to have a criss cross card to share soon, I am supposed to design one for my KIT club on Friday...we will see how that goes.

Feeling Old When...

Since I had so much fun using my Gina K. Stamps set 'You Know Your Old When…' set last night I decided to give it another go. In fact, today I was feeling a little old myself, now before you start harping on my age consider that not only do I stamp, I also quilt and create other crafty things that are considered my most of my peers to be something older people do. I also suffer from a lot of different random health issues, recently shingles, lyme disease when I was in grade school, for about 6 years now (although it hasn't bothered me in a while) ulcerative colitis and most recently a slightly herniated disc in my lower back. Luckily I don't suffer from pain yet, in fact I may never but I got the results of my MRI today (I went Friday after work) and I started to freak out. I have what feels like fluid on my lower back that doesn't bother me, but that I know is not supposed to be there. I hadn't noticed that it even existed until a little over a year ago, but I didn't question it. A few weeks ago when I went for my follow up appointment wiith the shingles I showed my doctor my lower back and she seemed confused and unsure of what it could be….not a comforting thought. Today she called to tell me my results from last week and I sort of freaked out, she stressed that since I am not in any pain at the moment its nothing to worry about, but that I should be aware of it and keep an eye on how my back feels. Not fun, but it made me feel old, do you know what I mean? It's just another thing to add on to the growing list of random things I suffer or will suffer from in the future.
So in celebration of being old…how about using some more of those great stamps! This one is of an old lady driving….my favorite! You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones who can’t see over the wheel and can’t walk to the door but still drive. If any ‘old’ ladies are out there you worry me, really you do. If you can’t walk properly you shouldn’t be driving, just my thoughts. Sorry this is such a long post again, you don’t have to comment I just needed to vent a bit about how I am feeling right now. I would also like to say thank you to all of you who are wonderful enough to read my blog, that counter keeps going up and I am loving it!

Mojo Monday

I had so much fun last week creating a card for Julee's Mojo Monday Challenge so I joined in today on this weeks challenge. My Dad's birthday is this week so I wanted to create a masculine card for his birthday. I have a tendency to never do masculine cards but this Gina K. stamp was just calling my name. This is his 51st birthday and since we didn't do anything big last year I want to make this year a big deal. I will probably try another masculine card before his birthday (on Saturday) until I find one that I think we would enjoy.Have you seen the 'Tickle Your Funny Bone' stamp sets from Gina K.? I own two of them and to be honest this is the first time I have inked one up but I love these stamps. This set is called "You Know Your Old When" and it is so much fun! I love the sentiments and the matching images, its just great! Gina offers so many fun stamp sets that it is always so hard to choose which one to purchase, so my answer is always buy them all! For the 'manly' look I went with grey and blue, both pretty masculine colors. Hope you enjoy!

Hanna's Back!

So Jana posted a card challenge where the winner will be given the new PaperPretties stamp set that is not yet released, so how could I resist? The challenge was to use light yellow, light blue, and apricot. I decided to try the Kick Stand sketch I have seen in a few places recently, and I love it! The colors are subtle and fun, with a little bit of embellishments, the eyelets. I was going to use some ribbon on this card, but I couldn't find anywhere to put it....lol. I used the scalloping technique that Beate posted about, plus the colors in the colors in the challenge and a fun sketch, all sorts of things! Enjoy ladies, I love this Hanna Stamp, don't you?!

SU! New Catty

Ladies I have not used a SU! set in ages, nor have I bought anything from SU! in a while, I've been off exploring the wonders of other stamp companies, as you have seen. Last night my Demo (she is great!) had a catalogue release party where we made these two cards and a picture frame that we added rub-ons to. We used a few of the 'In Colors' this time, and I have to say I liked them a lot more than I thought I would. This first card is simple, but elegant at the same time. In fact I liked this card so much I almost bought the set, but I showed some restraint and purchased Lovely As A Tree and the Word Window punch....oops! I also picked up some of my Demos retired sets at a discount, which is always a good thing.
I really like this second card and to that effect, the colors are great! Simple embellishments and a simple layout, but I like it. I still have some mixed feelings about the new Catty, but I'm sure once I look through it few times my mind will change. Hope you all have a great weekend, and be sure to come back, I am making another Hanna card for a card contest one of the PaperPretties girls is holding.

Mojo Monday....On Wednesday!

Ladies today I sat down and created a card from the wonderful challenge entitled Mojo Monday from Julee's Blog Poetic Artistry. If you have never stopped by Julee's blog you are missing out, months ago I was a host to one of the VSN challenges and all the hostesses participated in a little secret swap, I was SUPER lucky to have Julee be my Secret Hostess and the goodies she sent my way were amazing. I have yet to use the cute little post it pad she sent my way, it is honestly too pretty to write on, I kid you not. I have been reading Julee's blog and watching her Mojo Mondays and today is the day I try to keep up with her challenges. If you did not know Julee is the owner of Verve Visual stamps, a wonderful company that has their own line of acrylic stamps. I also dug through my goodies to find that I had not yet inked several of my Hanna Stamps sets, so today's challenge entry features Perfect Package.I used paper from one of my past PaperPretties boxes, I just love this paper. Both the background paper and the small stripe behind the Hanna image is from Crate Paper and has some really simple but stunning designs. I also used some Prima flowers with Bella Bauble centers. Enjoy!

Love and Stamps

I know your out there and I know most of you check out different stamp companies so on that note have you seen SCS Companies recently? Big changes ladies! PaperTrey has now left, returning to the PaperTrey forum they created a few months ago and Hanna Stamps, Flourishes, and Craft Ladies have all arrived! I don’t know about you but once I decide to visit your company if I am pleased I will come back, as you may have noticed on my blog. I received my new Gina K. stamps, I ordered six sets and got two for free, I received my My Favorite Things new sets, and I received the new Hanna Stamps set and I need to start using these stamps. I am recognizing a problem that I hope to resolve this year, I don’t stamp. No, honestly, I don’t stamp. What do I do? I horde and I am trying to stop, so on that note….I am not buying new stamps from a company if I have not at least used a few of my currently owned stamps. Last night I did not place an order with PaperTrey, not because I didn’t like the stamps, on the contrary I LOVE the new sentiment stamp set and the new Branch set….too CUTE! I love my PaperTrey sets but I don’t use them as much as I would like. I am going to try and set up some sort of weekly thing where I create several cards using stamps from the same company which will hopefully solve my problem. So, ladies I will be showing you at least two more Bella cards from the swap Manda hosts on SCS, but after that I am going to try to use some of my other wonderful stamps. I think its bad when you have received the newest My Favorite Things stamp sets and you go to your clip it (which I love!) and you see that you never even open last months releases. I feel like I am wasting the stamps I am buying by not using them, does anyone else feel this way? If so I would love to hear how you rectify the problem. I mean I have shared pictures of my new Elzybells and stamped images of them for other people but I have yet to use them myself!
Okay, I think that is enough of a rant, I am sorry it turned into such a long post, but I wanted to be clear. Now on to the next Bella card…LOL….Yes, I know another Bella card. This one is for February which has the theme of love for both of the groups I am in. For this first love card I wanted to use all different shades of pink and my Ballonabella which until I created this card had yet to be inked up. I used some of the yummy paper I received in a past PaperPretties box and the scallop technique I read about on Beate’s blog to create this card. I hope you like it, I think the ribbon and the scallops really complete the overall look….and do you see my scalloped Oval frames? I created them using my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug…yummy!
Copics: E00 - Skin White, RV06 - Cerise, RV11 - Pink, RV21 - Light Pink, Y13 - Lemon Yellow, Spica 02 - Pink
The next card is using SavyShopabella, this card had to use 'In' Colors from SU! and I only had Sky Blue, so I offset it with gray and white. I love the layers and begin able to use my cuttlebug recently has been awesome between the swirls and the silver ribbon I am in love! Oh...and my photos are getting better, I am working with my camera and so far I am liking the results.
Copics: B14 - Light Blue, BG10 - Cool Shadow, E00 - Skin White, Y28 - Lionet Gold, W3 - Warm Gray No. 3

Bella Monthly Card Swap

Ladies, I am becoming horrible at concentrating! I sat down several times to create four cards for a Bella Card Swap on SCS that Manda is hosting and several times I came up empty handed. Here is one of the cards I finally finished for this swap, the scan isn't that clear but the card is embossed and then the Bella image Glidabella is stamped in the center of the embossed area. I used the PaperTrey Snowflake Serenade set for the snowflakes around the perimeter. I also used my new stardust pen that I received in my PaperPretties box to add some sparkle to Ms.Glide, it needed something more so I added the fibers, I think it finishes it off nicely. Don't you.

Now which Copic did I use on this one? Here is the list...E00 - Skin White, B00 - Frost Blue, B14 - Light Blue, Y13 - Lemon Yellow. Honestly only a few markers, but I think she looks nice and toasty in her winter get up.

Some Bella Fun

I feel like I have been leaving my poor Bellas out in the cold, so on to some recent Bella creations! Tonight was the big party over at PaperPretties where they reveal that they now have their own stamps! These stamps (2 sets released) are adorable! I of course ordered one, I mean can you blame me? Here is the November Bell Box card of the month, I followed the wonderful directions that are included in my kit each month to get the order of things correct....I love this card!

I love the different take on the color scheme to a holiday card, in fact we were supposed to stamp 'happy holidays' on this card, but I just couldn't do it. With the holidays over I think it makes a fun winter card. I plan on giving it as a winter card and not a holiday card.

The next card is from this weeks challenge over at PaperPretties they have weekly challenges for their members and this week is no different. The rules are that you have to use something from the PaperPretties store on your card and complete the challenge. This week we had to use scallops so out came the Nestabilities! Love these things too! Hope you enjoy them!

More Be Mine Fun

I have been getting a bit carried away with this set, but it is just so fun to use. Plus, I also created two more entries for the MFT Guest Designer Challenge, once again the challenge was to make something that was not sqaure or rectangular so I made a heart (post below this), a lady, and a mail box! Too much fun! All three things used the new MFT Digital paper that I am also loving, so far I have used the red and pink set, but I ordered all the colors....too many choices to pick from!

I had this card in my head all day long, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able create this card before the deadline. But have no fear, I got home earlier than I thought I would and began crafting away. I used the paper from the MFT Digi Paper kit and the heart shape brad came with my PaperPretties box...cute isn't it!

This mail box is now altered to match the heart shape card I created. It should make a nice gift for someone, don't you think? This is one of those wonderful Target Dollar Spot mailboxes. I found a bunch at one of the Targets near me and stocked up on them, I should be fine on tins for a while!

More MFT!

Today was the day for the release of three new sets from My Favorite Things as well as new Digi Paper. If you missed the Cocktail party on SCS you missed all sorts of fun! There is a Designer Contest and a Question Contest still going on so make sure to check it out. Here is the card I created for my entry to the Designer Contest.

The set used here is the new "Be Mine" set from My Favorite Things, this is the new mini set and I love it! This set is a lot of fun, and as you can see I ordered the fun digital paper that went on sale as well....I just had to use that too! The challenge was to create a card that was not your typical shape, so I went the heart route, using my scalloped circle punch this heart was created. Hope you enjoy the card!

MFT Box!

I am having a great time creating cards with this box. I just love what comes inside this month box, the MFT set is super cute and the paper that comes with the kit is perfect for it. The first image here is of the card design that the kit was created for, I love the colors that Christie picks for each box, you can tell that a lot of care goes into her selection.

This decorative paper is one of my favorite that have been featured in these boxes...so yummy!

The second card is my own take on all the other goodies included in my kit. Since I subscribe to the petite MFT box I get enough supplies for the same card six times ovr, but I have yet to take the entire box and create all six cards. Part of me doesn't want to use these kits since they look so nice and fun even before I do anything. This time I went for a cute look, using the same supplies, but with a different spin on things. Enjoy!

I interrupt your regular scheduled program....

To bring you some great goodies that came today! I finally received my PaperPretties boxes today and not just the November boxes that had some delay, but my Decemeber boxes as well! So, as I always do I am posting the contents for these great boxes. I am a subscriber to the Bella Premium Box as well as the My Favorite Things Petite Box and I have loved all the boxes I have received for almost the last year.Wreathabella is the PaperPretties Bella for the month of November and look at the great colors that were selected for these cards! I love the bright colors, especially around the holidays, a different take on the traditional colors. I am missing something from my MFT box, it was a slight over looked item, no biggie. I let Christie know, and as she does, she responded to me immediately and it will be sent tomorrow. So on to the December boxes!

The December Bella box is Snowbunnyabella and I LOVE her! And the included paper is just to die for, you can't really make it out, but the paper is either flocked or metallic....LOVE it! I am a big person for the colors blue and silver and now I have all these goodies to play along with. Now the last box for today is my December My Favorite Things box and it features the brand new mini set from My Favorite Things. In fact this set is not yet on sale (it goes on sale at midnight on the 9th) but as a PaperPretties subscriber we get the sets before everyone else, which is a huge perk! I hope you like seeing the goodies...next step? Get creating! I hope to make a card to share tomorrow....so make sure to stop by tomorrow night to see my creations!

I can't wait!

So all sorts of stamp companies are releasing new stamp sets and I am thrilled! I will be at the party tomorrow on SCS for Gina K., I need to order my Hanna Stamps, today is the release day for the new C.C. Designs stamps that look oh too cute.....oh the choices! If you have not noticed yet, I jump around from stamp company to stamp company, I like choices to be honest. If I like the stamp design I am there regardless of mounted, unmounted, distance, shipping....stamps are stamps and if I want them I get them!

So....with that being said I created a card using the scrap piece from the oval I made to back the last card I posted. I like the colors I used and the background paper together so I decided to incorporate it into the card. This time I used a Stampendous image from the Fluffles collection....too cute! I don't know if you can see it, but I used my glitter pens from Copis....love them!Oh....and if you haven't seen it yet RUN on over the Jody's site Confessions of a Ribbon Addict and check out her newest ribbon share. Her shares are to die for and I of course a going to die at the sight of the new ribbons from May Arts that are being offered. If you have any questions about her shares just contact Jody, she is a doll!

We Have a Winner!

Ladies, I am so sorry that I didn't post this one yesterday...but we have a winner! Actually, we have two different ladies who get some goodies! I am giving away the Day 12 Bella card and remaining kit (Cosmobella Kit) as well as a brandy new Partygirlabella! So on to the winners!

For the Bella Card Kit we have........#23:

Anonymous (Amy) said...
I was just recently directed to your blog and I absolutely have fallen in love! You convinced me to finally order some Bellas just by seeing the gorgeous cards you made. I've bookmarked your page and have already visited it several times today looking through your archives! I would love to be in the contest! Keep postin and have a great evening!~Amyamylnorris

For the Bella...Partygirlabella we have.......#49

Cindy Vernon said...
I would love to win this new bella!

So ladies please send me an e-mail or PM on SCS with your address so I can send you all your winnings! Now on to your regular programming.....I made a card! You heard me correctly, I finally got my juices flowing and created a cute Wintery card, that I think I am going to use for a Birthday card....what do you think? I like the off centered oval, gives it a little something.

I also thought the ribbon should be something different so I started with a knot and continued adding a few more ribbon pieces to make it almost star like....I really like it!