Happy New Year!

Ok, so it's not quite midnight on the east coast, but I thought I would share a card while the final hours of 2008 tick by. I made this card for DH and just set it on the sofa for him to find. He's currently down in his lair, otherwise know as his music room, playing keyboard, and will probably need prompting to come up for air later. He's as bad with his music as I am with my stamps! LOL! We have a "date" for baked brie and chocolate martini's while watching the ball drop, and I have to tell you, I am tempted to start a little early on the martini's. I'm not usually much of a drinker, but Godiva Chocolate Liqueur is yummy!


Back to the card... I used Tilda and Edwin under the Mistletoe for my image. It is actually two stamps - I cut each one out after coloring them with copic markers, and nestled them together so they could get a smooch in while the ball drops. I used the SU Bigz Top Note die to make a spot for them to sit, and the Sizzlits Scribbles Swirls die for the flourishes. *Note that I was able to use both dies in my Cuttlebug.* Santa forgot to put the Nestabilities Labels set under the tree for me this year, so I improvised by using the SU tab punch to mimic the Top Note die for the "Happy New Year" tag. I finished off the card with a few silver dew drops, and some yummy sheer silver ribbon that I found at Big Lots ($1 for 20 yards!!!).

Here's hoping you and yours have a safe and prosperous new year!

Roses on Paper sketch challenge

Santa was very good to me this year, and brought me lots and lots of stamps! I've been wanting to play with them, so I inked one of my new Magnolia's up to participate in the Roses on Paper sketch challenge. To play along, all you need to do is make a card with your choice of either a Magnolia, Rachelle Ann Miller, Sarah Kay or Whiff of Joy stamp using the sketch provided by Iris.

I always need birthday cards, and decided to make a girly one for this sketch. I based my colors around the pretty dp from Making Memories Garden Party scrap booking kit. It was an unheard of 57F here yesterday, and it put me in a mood for spring colors.

The image was colored with copic markers, and had stickles added for some sparkle. If you click on the image for a larger view, you can see that I also put some stickles on the flower petals. Love the bling! I sponged SU close to cocoa ink on the bottom for the ground, and SU soft sky ink on the rest of the background for some sky before layering it onto a piece of SU pink pirouette paper. I finished off the card by adding small gemstones to the flower centers, and 3 larger gemstones in the corner.

Welcome baby Eli!

Baby Eli arrived Christmas Eve, so I made a card for his mommy using Jasmine by InStyle Stamps. Isn't she sweet?


I found the pretty polka-dotted dp in my stash - it was part of a baby scrap booking kit that I purchased solely for the pretty papers it contained - and based the colors for the rest of the card on the dp. Jasmine and baby were colored in with copic markers, and then I added lavender stickles for a little sparkle.

I took a photo of the copic markers I used on this project so you won't have to guess what color is what if you particularly like one of them. I know I like it when bloggers post what color copics they use, so I will try to do so for most of my projects in the future. It makes it so much easier to find colors you *have* to add to your collection! LOL!

MDCC24 - holiday ornament

I'm a few days late posting this, but better late than never, right? I actually made this last weekend, and then forgot to post it in the last minute holiday rush.


This is another holiday ornament that doubles as a gift card holder. I needed two to send to my niece and nephew in Texas, and figured they might fight over them if I didn't use the same layout on each one. This one obviously is for my niece since I can't see my nephew digging the girly colors! LOL!
I used the cute holiday Mouse from Stampavie for my image, and colored it in with copic markers. I added gray fun flock to the mouse for fur, and Shimmerz to the ornament for some sparkle. The dp is Sweet Satin Ribbon from the Fairest of them All collection by Imaginisce.

Merry Moosemas!

I recently received my DT package from Mothers and Daughters Creations, and have been drooling over all the gorgeous paper and images it contained! I still need a few more holiday cards, so I decided to use this adorable Moose by Stampavie for a guy-friendly card.

I colored the image with Copic markers and sponged a little Close to Cocoa ink on the bottom for ground. I added diamond stickles (can you tell these are my favorite stickles?) to the lights for some sparkle. The pretty dp's are Snowy Jo - Tinsel on the Top by Imaginisce, and Romantica by Prima. Snowy Jo comes with sparkle pre-applied to the stars on the trees - how fun is that?

Holiday Candle

Today was our Christmas party at work. We always do a Secret Santa type gift exchange as well as bring in lots of holiday goodies. Mmmm. I've been on a bit of a sugar high all day, so bear with me. :)


I decided to get a little crafty for my Secret Santa person, and decorated this yummy Vanilla Cupcake scented candle for her.

My person has 2 children, so I decided to mask off two of the caroler's from Carol Singers by Elzybells Art Stamps to use on the lid. I colored them in with Copic markers, and added diamond stickles for some sparkle. I then added some liquid applique for some nice poofy snow.

The pretty designer paper is Ribbon Candy by Frances Meyer. Isn't it yummy? I love the colors! You can't see it all that well, but there is also a strip wrapped around the bottom of the lid. I'll let you in on a little secret - 12 inches of dp wasn't quite enough to wrap all the way around the jar or lid, so I used the bow and the "let is snow" medallion to cover the gap. Shhh... don't tell! LOL!

My person seemed to like her decorated candle, and my office mates had a good chuckle over the Christmas Tranquilizers (see previous post).

Check back later, because I will be posting some fun blog candy in honor of the holiday season. Details coming soon!

busy, busy, busy...

I have been very productive today. Not only did I make 2 altered items and a card, I also got some baking done. Amish Friendship bread... Mmmm...

Today's project is in honor of the stressful holiday season: Christmas Tranquilizers.


How fun is this? I saw a post on SCS about using M&M's for pills as a gag gift, and knew I would have to make one for my Secret Santa since she loves M&M's! Please excuse the whited out areas on the label where I removed personal info for safety. They contained the "pharmacy's" address, and the name and address of the "prescription holder".

Tip: make sure to wash the bottle out really well to avoid any transfer of the previous contents onto your M&M's. Although, that could be interesting if the previous contents happened to be those little blue pills... LOL! Talk about stress relief!

This project took longer than expected to whip up, mainly due to the time it took to make a template for the label that would fit my bottle. If someone can tell me how to attach a document file to my blog, I'd be happy to share my Publisher template for these and save you the effort if you want to make one for yourself.

Check back later, and I'll have another altered item for you.

Spellbinders DT Contest

Exciting news for all of you who love your die cuts as much as I do! Spellbinders is searching for some talented paper crafters for their new design team. You can read all of the details on this post on their blog. Good luck to all who try out!

holiday cats

I came across a card using Peppermint Cats by MFT last week and knew I had to have the stamp to make cards for the cat lovers on my list. Isn't it just the sweetest image?

The image was colored with Copic markers, and then I added diamond stickles to the stars, kitty's hat, and the "snow". This sparkles like crazy in real life! The snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch. The bottom one is white card stock, and the top is vellum with stickles added.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. This week has been crazy, and I still have a bunch of things to do before the 25th!

Congrats Grads!

Both DH and I have a co-worker graduating from college this weekend, so being the official office card maker, I had to make them each a card.

I used the same image and layout for both cards, and just changed up the coloring slightly since I needed a male and a female version. Yes, I know I am being lazy making 2 of the same card, but it has been one hectic weekend. Darn holiday parties! LOL! The dp on both cards is by Making Memories. I don't know who the cute owl image is by as I found it in my box of pif'ed images. I must admit, I was very glad to find it, as I realized today that I don't actually own any graduation type stamps. Oops!

Here is the male version for my co-worker, Derek, who is getting his BA in Psychology. Derek works full-time and has a new born, so kudos for him for sticking it out!


And here is the female version for DH's co-worker, Carrie. I gave her pink eyeshadow, and added stickles to it for some sparkle. Carrie is getting her Masters in Social Work. My DH is currently working on getting his Masters in Social Work, so I know how hard it is to juggle working full-time, class work and the dreaded internships. Kudos to Carrie for all her hard work!

Congratulations to you both!

Stop back tomorrow for yet another holiday card. :)

InStyle Stamps Sneak Peek - Meet Ginger!

Isn't she fabulous? I love her polka dot gloves! This would totally be me if I were thin and didn't have soil that is so filled with rocks that it is torture to try to plant anything! So in the meantime, I will stick with my indoor gardening and dream about all the pretty flowers I'd like to plant *someday* while I have fun coloring Ginger. LOL!


As soon as I saw Ginger, I knew that the glittery Star Posies dp from DCWV that I recently purchased would be perfect to use with her. After all, any girl who wears pearls to do her gardening definitely needs some bling! I pulled the paper and ink colors for the rest of the card from the dp, and painted her shirt and gloves with Angel Wings Shimmerz for some added sparkle.

Make sure to pop over to the InStyle Stamps blog for more projects featuring Ginger! She, and the 6 other fabulous stamps in the line should be available for purchase soon, so keeping checking the store so you can be one of the first to get your hot little hands on them!

Need a 2009 calendar?

*Disclaimer* This post is not stamping related. :)

Do you still need a 2009 calendar? Want to help support a good cause? Do you like cats, or have a cat lover on your Christmas list? Then I have the perfect thing for you - the 2009 Siamese Rescue Calendar.

Why am I hyping a calendar on my blog you might ask? I have two very good reasons.

1. I love my 2 Siamese cats, one of whom came from Siamese Rescue. Siamese cats bond with their owners and don't do well when they end up in an animal shelter. They can become depressed/temperamental because they are missing their person, and so get labeled as unadoptable by shelter workers and are often euthanized. SiameseRescue.org is a group of several rescue organizations across the US that rescue Siamese cats from shelters, and place them in loving foster homes until they can find their forever home. Purchasing a calendar helps defray the costs of food, medical care, and transportation, thus allowing more cats to be rescued.

2. I have a personal interest in this years calendar as a photo I took of my flame point Siamese, Octavian, was selected for the May photo. How exciting is that?!? I first saw Octavian on the Siamese Rescue website 3 years ago, and it was love at first sight. (You can see his rescue photo to the right. How could I resist those big blue eyes?) He was only 5 months old at the time, and had been rescued after his former owner dumped him and his two look-a-like brothers on the street to fend for themselves because, get this, they had fleas! Octavian must have had it hard on the street because although he is the sweetest kitty you could ask for, he is a nervous boy, and even after 3 years in a loving home, will run at any sudden noise.

If you have been thinking about adding a cat to your family, why not consider a Siamese? Siamese cats LOVE their people. Mine follow me around the house, telling me all about their day, and looking for any opportunity for a lap to snuggle in. Siamese Rescue currently has many cats just waiting for a home of their own with people to love for Christmas. While you are visiting the site, be sure to check out the Siamese Store for all of your cat related goodies (including beds and toys for your feline friends).

While I can't share the photo of Octavian that will be in the calendar, I thought I would close with a photo of him I took for his first Christmas with us 3 years ago. He's all grown up now, but he's still my baby (and sitting right next to me as I type - I told you they LOVE their people!).


Thanks for reading this far! Happy Holidays!

InStyle Stamps sneak peek!

My InStyle Stamps package arrived yesterday, and I couldn't wait to start playing with them! I was really impressed with the high-quality, deeply etched rubber. Pair that with fabulous images, and you have some amazing stamps to play with! You are going to love them!

For today's preview, I give you Pam and Buster. Aren't they just adorable? I love how smug Buster looks. Definitely show dog material there! LOL!

The image was colored in with Copic markers, and then had Diamond Stickles added for some bling. If you click on the image for a larger view, you can see that Buster has a gem of a nose. Seriously. When I was adding the 3 dew drops on the side, I found a broken one in the container, and used my exacto knife to cut it down to size for Buster's nose. Cute, huh?

Make sure to check out the InStyle Stamps blog for more projects using Pam and Buster, as well as sneak peeks of several of the other soon-to-be-released stamps. And check back tomorrow as I will have a sneak peek of another brand spanking new stamp for you! How exciting!

Mmmm... Gingerbread...

One of my favorite things about the winter holidays is making gingerbread. The smell of it wafting through the house while it is baking always puts me in a good mood.

I ordered Tilda with Gingerbread last week, and knew I had to make a card with her and my gingerbread house stamp from Studio G. I have to admit that this card did not come together the way I was picturing it in my head, and gave me some trouble coming up with a layout that satisfied me. Don't you hate it when that happens?


Both images were colored with Copic markers and have Diamond stickles added for some sparkle (I LOVE sparkle, in case you haven't noticed! LOL!). I used Crystal Effects on the peppermints and gumdrops to make them pop. They weren't quite dry when I took the photo but I wanted to post this tonight. I'll take a "dry" photo tomorrow and update it. The pretty designer paper is by Heidi Grace Designs. I'm afraid the name is hidden under my ribbon, sorry about that!

Exciting news!!!

I had the best weekend EVER and it's been killing me to keep it all bottled up and not share it with my blogging friends until now! As you may know, InStyle Stamps has had a call out for a guest designer for their fabulous, brand spanking new line of stamps. I've been drooling over the sneak peaks of the new stamp line, so of course I had to apply. Imagine my delight Saturday morning when I check my e-mail over breakfast, and low and behold, there is a message from Virginia, the owner of InStyle Stamps, asking me to join her Design Team! I swear I was beaming the rest of the day! I feel incredibly honored to be asked to join her team!

I should be starting my Design Team duties shortly, so look for some sneak peaks in the upcoming weeks. I am so excited, and can't wait to play with these fabulous new stamps!

While you are drooling over the samples on the InStyle Stamps blog, be sure to check out the card challenge for a chance to win a stamp of your very own. But hurry! You only have until 11:50pm PST on Wednesday the 10th to enter!

*side note* I finally broke down and purchased some much needed storage for my 12x12 papers, so no card today as I am busy organizing. I should have something Christmasy for you tomorrow though, so be sure to stop back!

Non-traditional holiday card...

I've had this gorgeous purple fiber for ages and have been dying to use it on a card, so I went digging through my paper stash today to try to find something that would coordinate. The lavender in my Boho Chic paper pack by Making Memories was a good fit, so this is what I based my card colors around.

I have a friend who loves anything purple, so I decided to make a holiday card for her using Tilda with Wine and Basket. She also LOVES her wine, so this will be the perfect card for her! Tee hee!

I heard about a new coloring technique called "drunken watercoloring" and decided to give it a try. You can read all about the technique at Jody Morrow's blog, Confessions of a Ribbon Addict, but basically what it boils down to is using rubbing alcohol instead of water in your aquapainter and using it to "watercolor" with SU reinkers. Neat, huh? Jody developed the technique and has a nice comparison of alcohol vs. water in the link above.

I used reinkers in SU Pale Plum, Baja Breeze and Wild Wasabi for the drunken watercolor technique, and then colored the rest of the image in with copic markers. I added white gel pen for accent, and a bit of SU Crystal Effects on the wine bottle to make it look like glass. I used oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities to cut out the white and Wild Wasabi layers, and sponged the white with Baja Breeze ink for a soft look. Tilda was cut out with my paper snips, and glued onto the layered piece.

MDCC21 - Holiday Shapes

This Thursday's card challenge at Mothers & Daughters Creations is to make a holiday shaped card.

For my card, I decided to make a pretty mitten. It's been pretty darn cold here lately, so having nice warm mittens on hand is a must.


For my mitten, I glued a piece of DP from the Be Merry collection by My Mind's Eye onto my white card base, traced my mitten pattern onto the back and cut all three layers at the same time. When working with a pattern, I find that this makes it much easier to make your pieces line up perfectly.

You can find my pattern at the right. Click it to make it bigger, and either print it as is or copy it into your photo editing software to resize it as you see fit. If you make a card using my pattern, leave me a link in the comments section - I'd love to see what you came up with!

Back to the mitten: I like my mittens to have good ribbing at the top so that they fit snugly at the wrist. To get that look on my card, I used some pretty retired SU ribbon from the Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals collection that I've been hoarding. I used two strips of the Certainly Celery ribbon, and covered the seam with the Regal Rose ribbon. I really like this ribbon, and wish that SU would sell it by the roll. *sigh*

The snowflake image is from Elzybell's Art Stamps. When I ordered from them a few weeks ago, one of my stamps was back ordered and didn't ship with the rest of the order. When the back ordered stamp arrived, I found that Elizabeth, the owner, had slipped this cute snowflake stamp in the package as a thank you for waiting. Wasn't that sweet of her? Thank you, Elizabeth!

I stamped the snowflake in SU Regal Rose craft ink and embossed it with SU Iridescent Ice EP. I still wanted more sparkle, so I added some stickles to the center of the outline. It is really pretty in person! I used Nestabilities with SU Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery for the matting on the image, and popped it all up on pop-dots for some dimension.

Card, and a new layout

Do you like my new holiday layout? I decided it was time for something fresh and festive, so I spent several hours working on it last night. I'm pretty happy with the results!

Now on to today's card. I liked the Santa image that I used on this giftcard holder so much that I had to color another one to use on a card.


I did some major cleaning of my stamp desk last weekend, and found the jar of white fun flock that I had been looking all over for, so I used it on the fur areas instead of adding stickles like I did on the last project. This is actually my first time using fun flock, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I like the end result. I used my 2-way glue to adhere it, so it dried very fast (I'm kind of inpatient about waiting for glue to dry). *Note that fun flock likes to stick to everything just like glitter does, so put your project on scrap paper and have a paint brush handy to sweep the extra bits off of your project.

For the papers, I used some of the gorgeous gold shimmer paper from Target, SU Ridinghood Red, and Spiced Tea from the Basic Grey Wassail line.

The pretty ribbon is by Satin Sensations and can be found at ACMoore. In real life the color matches the paper. For some reason, I always have a hard time getting a good photo of this brand of ribbon. The satin is really, really shiny, so I think that is what causes the color distortion. Sorry about that! If you know a way around the problem, let me know!

Can I get a Woot?!?

Woo! I'm doing the happy dance right now! Did you notice the new button in my side bar? I'm so excited to be able to share with you that I've been selected to be a member of the Mothers and Daughters Creations Card Design Team! How cool is that? I've been having fun playing in their challenges for a while now, so I can't wait to start my design team work!

If you haven't checked out the Challenge Blog yet, go give it a gander. This weeks card challenge is to make a shaped holiday card. Check back later to see my take on it.

Airbrushing the inexpensive way...

Have you noticed that lately a lot of cards you see on SCS and various blogs use the Copic Airbrush System? Well, I have, and it makes me really want one. However, I have 2 problems: 1. most of my Copics are of the Ciao variety, which doesn't work with the Airbrush System, and 2. buying the system isn't really in my budget right now. So what's a girl to do? Experiment, of course!

I've had the SU Color Spritzer Tool for some time now, and I got thinking... Hmmm... I wonder if it would work with Copic markers? After all, all the Copic Airbrush System does is force air through the marker tip to get the nice spray of color. Isn't it the same principal as the Color Spritzer, just fancier and more expensive?

Well ladies, I am here to tell you that yes, you can use your Copic markers with the SU Color Spritzer Tool. Now, your Copic barrel is too big to actually fit into the marker slot on the Color Spritzer tool, so you are going to have to hold the marker tip to the spray nozzle (use both hands). You can use either tip, but the Color Spritzer tool has a little notch in the tip of the nozzle that is perfect for resting the edge of the chisel tip end of your marker on. *Note: make sure to wipe the tip between colors or you will transfer the previous color to the new marker. I know this isn't a big deal with Copic markers, but you probably wouldn't be happy with getting Copic ink on your SU markers.

Here you can see the result. I used B32 for the edge, and then Y11 in the center. If you click on the photo to make it bigger, you can see that the spray of color isn't as fine as what you can achieve with the Copic Airbrush System, but for the price, I'm not going to complain. On the finished card, I wanted a slightly softer look, so I went over the airbrushed area with my colorless blender to tone it down a bit.

The layout for this card was CASED from this gorgeous card by Jeanne S. Her card was what convinced me I HAD to order this stamp, so thank you for the enabling Jeanne! :) I don't normally CASE so directly, so thought I should give credit where it was due.

Feel free to link to this tutorial, just be nice and give me credit, ok?

Thank you cards

For my day job, I provide case management services to mentally ill adults living in Adult Homes. There are around 120 clients served by my program, ranging in age from 18 to 95+. The holidays are always especially hard on them as many of them have no family, or have lost contact with their family over the years.

This year, three wonderful ladies in my community stepped up and crocheted an assortment of hats, scarfs, and lap blankets for the clients so that each and every one of them will have a gift to open this holiday season. To show them that we appreciate their efforts, I made a thank you card for each of them that all of my team mates will sign. (The fourth card is for a woman who generously donated a fridge to our office, which is also MUCH appreciated albeit in a different way.)


I've been admiring all the simple, but elegant cards I keep seeing that are made with Cuttlebug embossing folders, so I decided to try my hand at a few for the thank you cards.


Since we are so close to the holidays, I decided to use red and white for my color scheme. If you changed out the verse, I think these would make pretty Christmas cards too.

Too funny!

I know I'm a few days late with this one, but I just came across it and had to share.

See ladies, your cat can participate in making holiday cards by doing more than just stealing the ribbon! LOL!

For more cute cats with funny captions, check out I Can Has Cheez Burger.

Mothers & Daughters Creations gift card challenge

The Thursday Card Challenge for this week is to make a gift or money holder card. I decided to make mine multi-functional by turning it into an ornament that can be hung on the tree after the gift card is used. Or, if you don't need to mail it like I do, you could just hang it on the tree for the recipient to find Christmas morning.


The image for this project came all the way from Australia courtesy of one of my SCS friends! Thank you Shannah! I colored it in with copic markers, and added stickles to Santa's outfit. It still needed something, so I put Crystal Effects on the boots to give them that freshly shined look.

All of the circles and scalloped circles were cut with my Nestabilities dies. I made an extra scalloped circle for the gift card to hide in so you don't see it when the ornament is closed. I used the SU slit punch to make three tabs for the gift card to slide into. (Sorry about the bad photo of the inside. It is meant to be hung, so it doesn't lie flat nicely for a photo.) Before assembling, I scored a line across the scallop right above the gift card so that the base will fold out nicely to make it easier to remove the gift card.

The ornament top is gold shimmer paper made with the SU label punch with the tops cut off. You need a really good glue to hold it all together, so I used Terrifically Tacky Tape.

*Tip* Terrifically Tacky Tape tends to gunk up whatever scissors you use to cut it, so I have a pair that I use exclusively for it. Now I don't have to worry about ruining something because I cut it with scissors that had a bit of Tacky Tape residue on them.

Whiff of Joy Advent Calendar Event!

Katharina is celebrating the holiday season with the Whiff of Joy Advent Calender Event. Each day Katharina will be giving away a Whiff of Joy stamp to one lucky winner!!!

During the Whiff of Joy Advent Calendar event, found on Katharina's blog, a new window will open each day with a surprise gift for one lucky visitor! The new window will be posted at 00.01 GMT everyday, and the winner of the previous days gift will be posted at the same time.

So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!