It's Blog Hop Day!!

TGIF Everybody!!! It's blog hop day over at InStyle Stamps!!! Wooo Hooo!!

This month at InStyle Stamps, our theme is Fairytales. That magical land that we escape to when life gets to be too much!!! Be sure to read my post to find out all the rules for being entered into the drawing for the grand prize. We've changed it up a bit! Here we go!!

To enter, hop through the design team’s blogs (you can find them in my sidebar), and then go to the InStyle Stamps blog and vote for the designer who's project inspired you the most. (You're voting for me, right? LOL!)

This month when you leave your comment, you should answer the following question to be entered into the drawing for the grand prize!

What is (was) your favorite fairytale?

Answer that question in your comment and you'll be entered into the drawing. My favorite is Cinderella. I think every girl dreams of being swept away by the handsome prince. So what if my prince is Edward or Rob Pattinson whichever you want to call him!! And who cares if he takes me away in a shiny Volvo instead of a white horse!! Hmmmmmmm!! (SIGH) Sorry, I'm awake now!!

My image this month is the adorable SnowGlobe Castle. I kept my design simple to let the wonderful image take center stage. This is a wonderful addition to your stamp collection. I colored my image with my copics and used stickles for the wonderful glitter on the clouds and castle trim. IRL it's super sparkly!! I used some pretty flower bling and cut a cute birthday banner for the sentiment. I think it is so cute. The perfect addition to all of your princess or medieval stamps.

Make sure to leave a comment with your answer in addition to voting in order to be entered into the drawing for the grand prize. You have until 11:59pm EST on Saturday, Aug. 1 to enter, and the winners will be announced on the InStyle Stamps blog on Sunday, Aug. 2.

Thank you for stopping by my blog!! Be sure you leave a comment so I know you were here!! I love reading your thoughts about my projects. Have a wonderful Friday!! Now, get hopping!! I have a fairytale to read!!

Remember, I need your vote!!

Let's Distress!!

Happy Thursday Everyone!

I'm so sorry that my post is late!! Being out of town over the weekend and end of last week, has really disrupted my schedule plus getting Brittany ready for school to start next week (yes, next week). I thought today was Wednesday!! Anyway, today is Softpencil Designs day and I have this adorable digi for you to see. It's called "Welcome to my Home". Our design element at Softpencil this week is to distress, tear, ink, sand or crumble some part of our card. I decided to ink and tear my papers and image. I love to distress but rarely take the time to do it anymore. I usually concentrate more on embellishments and my image instead. If you haven't tried distressing, you should. It's a fun and effective technique for making an eye catching design.

I colored my design with my copics and actually drew a few spots on my puppy. I just think he turned out so cute!! I tore and inked the edges of my image. I tore the edges of my Prima DP and my cardstock. I attached the ladybug ribbon across the corners of the card. I popped my image up on pop dots. This is a sweet image perfect for lots of different projects and because he's a digi, you can make it any size you want.

Elizabeth has some new images in her store and if you would like to get this image for your collection, please visit her at Softpencil Designs. Be sure to visit my Softpencil DT sisters to see what they have created with this adorable stamp. Their links are in my sidebar. Thanks for visiting my blog. I appreciate you coming by and leaving your sweet comments. I look forward to them everyday and I love visiting your blogs as well. Have a wonderful day!

I'm Back With A Sneak Peek!!

Hi Everyone! I'm back and boy am I behind on visiting your wonderful blogs!! Please be patient with me! I'll make it around eventually.

Today I have a sneak peek of an adorable InStyle Stamps design for you to see. This little cutie is Alyssa and she is perfect for lots of different cards and projects. She will be available at the InStyle Stamps store on Friday.

Mojo Monday Sketch 97 was the inspiration for my card. I used Reminisce patterned paper and Bazzill cardstock. I used a Stickopotamus baseball embellie and a Jolee's Boutique baseball glove to embellish my card. I colored my image with my copics and cut her out. Pop dots give a little dimension. My sentiment was typed on my computer. That's really it. Very simple, but I think it turned out ok.

This is the out of focus pic that shows the dimension from the pop dots.

My pics aren't the greatest but I hope you like it. Thank you for visiting my blog. I love reading your comments and look forward to visiting your blogs as well. You inspire me and make me want to keep blogging, no matter how crazy life gets and I appreciate you. Have a wonderful day!

Taking a Break

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I'll be away from my computer over the weekend until Tuesday. I'll catch up on all of your wonderful blogs when I get back. See you then!

It's a Rainy Day!

It's Softpencil Thursday again and the DT divas had a new digi stamp to play with, called "It's a rainy day". Isn't she cute!! We were also supposed to use paper piecing on our creations, so I paper pieced her umbrella, shirt, shoes and hair bow. The rest of her is colored with copics and I used diamond glaze on the puddle, her shoes and the raindrops so they would look wet. I chalked the background and added dew drops and a couple of flower brads for accent. I like the simple feel to this card.

My blurry, look at my diamond glaze photo. LOL

I used some gorgeous Bella Blvd. papers and the SC237 (Splitcoast Sketch Challenge) for my layout. I hope you like it and don't forget to visit the other DT divas to see what they have created. Their links are on my sidebar. This NEW image is available at the Softpencil shop now.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you leave me a comment so I know you were here and so I can return the favor! Have a wonderful day!

How Cute is Hazel??

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!

Look what I have to share with you today! She is adorable!! What a great image for any occasion. This is a sweet little Nutshells called Hazel with Apples. I just love her!! You can pick her up at Nutcrafters. Think of all the little school projects that she would be perfect for!!

I colored her with my Copics and paper pieced her dress and hairbow. I love paper piecing, it gives such a cute dimensional look. I used my DCWV School stack for the sweet papers. I used a Hero Arts stamp for the sentiment and a grass stamp by Our Craft Lounge. I also used the Pollycraft Sketch Challenge #20, what a great sketch to work with! Along with the sketch, you had to incorporate food or drink into your creation. My food are the apples that are everywhere on my card!! I'll be using this sketch again. I love how she turned out!! What do you think??



Thank you for stopping by today. I appreciate and love the great comments that you leave me!! Some days they really, really help me get through the day!! I also love visiting your blogs and leaving comments for you as well. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see what I have for you. Have a wonderful rest of your day!!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

This is my second post today, please scroll down and see my first post from today also.

Happy Monday Everyone!!

Today's challenge over at Maria's Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog is Maria's Sketch challenge. We know that Maria makes the best sketches!! I thought this looked kind of like a gate fold card so I made my card a gate fold card. I used My Mind's Eye papers and the tree, joy, snowman and journaling spot are also My Mind's Eye. I used the lovely Snow Anya from the Rain, Snow, Shine set from The Greeting Farm. She is so cute!! I colored her with my copics and used a glitter pen on her muff and her coat and boot fluff. IRL it is super sparkly. I cut her out with my nesties and popped her and the little tree and Joy up on pop dots. For the inside of my card, I used a punch out snowman and journaling spot as my focal point and cut the green and pink cardstock out with my nesties. I put my snowman on pop dots as well. Simple, but I like how it turned out. I hope you do too!!

Be sure to visit the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog to see what the other challenge divas have created. I also have them listed on my sidebar. It's time to get started on those cards!! We'd love for you to play along, just leave a comment and a link to your creation on the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog or if you upload to SCS or PCP, use the keyword CSAYL. Thank you for stopping by my blog. Be sure to come by tomorrow to see what I have to show you.

Back to School

Hi everyone! Can you believe I only have about 3 weeks before my daughter goes back to school?? I can't believe it, that's for sure!! It seems like we just got out for Summer vacation. Ack!!

Today I have an adorable InStyle Stamps Anime Digital image for you today. Her name is Janice and she is going back to school!! She is so adorable in her little houndstooth skirt!! Perfect for teacher's gifts, cards and really any other thing you can think of. She is very versatile. I've left the sentiment off because I'm not sure yet what I will use her for.

For my card today, I cut an apple shape and used DCWV school stack papers and ribbon to decorate it. I colored her with my copics and used some Glossy Accents on her shoes so they would look like black patent leather. I cut her out and mounted her on pop dots. I cut the yellow cardstock with my nesties and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder. So cute!! I like how she turned out. IRL she looks much cuter. My camera didn't want to pick up her hair color and highlights or the shine of her little shoes.




I hope you enjoyed my card today. Thank you for visiting my blog and be sure to leave a comment for me so I can return the favor. I love reading your blogs and seeing your wonderful work. I really appreciate you so much!!

Spoonful of Softpencil Designs

Happy Thursday to you!! Sorry about the short post. It's almost the weekend and I have another Softpencil design to show you. For the DT challenge, we had to use sewing on our cards. It could be real, hand or faux sewing. I chose to machine sew mine.

I used the image I'll Keep You Safe Bunny for my card. If you check out the other DT divas' cards, you'll see that there are different little animals that go under the little flower. How cute is that? I colored my image in with my Copics and used Glossy Accents on my ladybug so she'd be shiny!! I popped my image up on pop dots for a little dimension.

I used the Spoon Full of Sugar challenge #60 sketch to make my card. It's a great sketch. I used Bazzill and Prima flowers with brads and spacers for accent. My patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket. I also added dew drops in the right bottom corner. That's about it. I let my image do the talking. I left off a sentiment because I'm not sure who is getting this one!!

I hope you like my card. I hope you'll visit the other DT divas to see what they have created for today. Their links are on my sidebar. Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are so important to me and I love visiting your blogs as well to leave comments on your beautiful work!! This is my passion and I am glad to share it with you. Be sure to come back tomorrow and see what I've made.

A Little Sugar for Flutterby Wednesday!!

Happy Flutterby Wednesday Everyone!!

I hope your week is going well. I'm so excited, it's my week to host the challenge and I just had to choose one of my favorite color combos as the challenge!! So this week, we are using pink and brown on our projects along with our fairies or butterflies!! This will be fun!! Dig in your stash and pull out that pink and brown and make something fabulous to show everyone!

My card this week was so much fun to make!! I used this adorable Sugar Nellie stamp (there is a butterfly, he's just small) and some Doodlebug paper. I colored my image in with my Copics and added a few highlights with my white gel pen. I used my Flower Soft on the flowers under the mailbox. I love that stuff!! It is so pretty and gives a nice 3D effect to your image. I cut her out with my nesties, popped her up on pop dots and added Bazzill flowers and Prima roses for a pretty look. I punched a lace border with my Martha Stewart punch and tied on some pink ribbon. See, plenty of pink and brown to go around!! I hope you like it.

Be sure to visit Danni's blog and link your project (not your blog) to Mr. Linky. We want to see what you make for the challenge. Be sure the check out my Flutterby Sistahs to see what they made this week. Their links are on my sidebar. Don't be shy, link that project and show us what you got!! I hope you'll come back tomorrow and see what I have to show you. I love reading your sweet comments. They mean so much! If you are following my blog I appreciate you so much and value you more than you know.

A Magnolia Christmas

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I hope this week goes better for me than last week!!Today's challenge over at Maria's Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog is hosted by the wonderfully talented Debbie. Her challenge for us today is to make a card decorating the inside and the outside. I love decorating the insides of my cards, I jsut don't always take the time to do it.

For my card today I used the Just Magnolia Sketch Challenge #13. I used this adorable Magnolia image and the ticket is also a Magnolia stamp. I used Basic Grey Wassail papers for my card, Prima flowers and pearls to decorate the inside and out. I used my nesties to cut out my Magnolia and the writing block on the inside of the card. I used chalk ink to distress my image and my little ticket which I stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa. I used pearls for my flower centers and on the pretty flower on the hat she is wearing. That's about it. I like the way she turned out. I hope you do too.

Sometimes, it's nice to have a sketch to use for our card so if you would like to have a sketch to play around with, visit the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog to see one. But remember, the sketch is not the challenge this week.

Inside - top

Inside - bottom

Be sure to visit the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog to see what the other challenge divas have created. I also have them listed on my sidebar. We'd love for you to play along, just leave a comment and a link to your creation on the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog or if you upload to SCS or PCP, use the keyword CSAYL. Thank you for stopping by my blog. Be sure to come by tomorrow to see what I have to show you.

Very Exciting News!!!

TGIF Greetings everyone!!! I have the most wonderful news to share with you today. I have been asked by Elizabeth, the owner and illustrator, for Softpencil Digital Stamps, to be on her Design Team!!!! YAY!! HAPPY DANCE, HAPPY DANCE!!!

If you are not familiar with Softpencil Digital Stamps, you have to check them out! They are super cute and easy to use. Besides the digi stamps, Elizabeth has templates for the cutest little boxes ever. Take a minute when you can and visit the Softpencil shop here. Elizabeth is a sweetheart and remember the great thing about digi images, is the instant gratification and the freedom to size them to any size you need them. It doesn't get much better than that!

For my card today I used this adorable image from Softpencil called I will keep you safe bunny. How cute is this little bunny and flower?? My sentiment stamp is by Inkadinkado. I used the Sketch Saturday #58 for my card. I used Imaginisce paper and Prima flowers. I colored my image with my copics and added Stickles to the flower top around the face and a white gel pen for detail. I used dew drops in the corners and a button in the center of my flower. My ribbon came from my stash and the pink cardstock is embossed with my Sizzix folder. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you? Of course, my stickles refused to show up and the face of my flower is not quite that pink. Technology sometimes, ughhhhh!!


I'll be adding the names of my DT sisters to my sidebar later today. Thanks for visiting my blog. You are so important to me. I look forward to reading your kind words and visiting your blogs as well. Be sure you come back tomorrow. I'll have something else for you to check out!! Have a wonderful day!!

Another Flutterby Wednesday!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!! It's time to flutter through another Flutterby Wednesday Challenge!!


This week we are welcoming the super talented Taylor to our little Flutterby DT family!! She is so wonderful. If you haven't been to her blog take a few minutes to browse through her beautiful creations. Welcome to the team Taylor! Also this week, we bid farewell to Kimmie and we wish her all the best!!

This week Michelle hosted our challenge and challenged us to use buttons and bows/ribbon. Well, I did both!! I made Brittany a Tinkerbell card and used buttons as my polka dots and pretty purple ribbon to tie my bow! She will love it!! I used Disney dimensional stickers, ribbon, and ribbon slide. Very simple, but perfect for a sweet 9 year old!! This is the slightly blurred photo that shows her pretty wings! Sparkly!



This was a really great challenge. We'd love to see you play along this week! The challenge is to use buttons and bows/ribbon. Remember, it must include a butterfly or fairy. If you post to SCS or PCP be sure to use the keyword FBW so that we can find your beautiful creations. Be sure to visit Danni's blog to see any other details. Be sure to check my sidebar and visit the other Flutterby divas to see their wonderful creations.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I love reading your comments, they mean so much to me!! Be sure to come back tomorrow to see what I have made to show you!! I will also have some exciting news to share with you!! You won't want to miss it!! Have a wonderful day!

IT'S RELEASE DAY!!!

Hi everyone!! This is my second post for today so please scroll down to see post #1.
I'm so excited!!! It's release day for our Nutshells Boys and to celebrate we are having a challenge!!!

We would love to see you create a card for a man/boy using the colors blue and green.
Any stamp can be used, but if you have a Nutshells Boy we would love to see it on your card!
What do I win you ask? Your choice of any 3 Nutshells stamps from our web shop. WOO-HOOOOO!

These stamps are sooo cute and fun to color. On my card I have used a Stamps and Smiles sketch 21. I just reduced the size of the card. I used copics to color Al, accented with a white gel pen and I cut him out with my nesties. I ran my red strip through the cuttlebug with my swiss dots folder. My DP is by Bo Bunny. I stamped my sentiment with a Stampendous stamp. I used buttons and dew drops to accent the sentiment strip. I popped Al up on pop dots to add dimension.




To join in for a chance to win these fabulous stamps, leave a comment and link to your card under the post on the Nutshells Blog. The challenge will close next Sunday (12th July) at 8pm.

Christmas Stampin all Year Long

Happy Monday Everyone!! (Please scroll down and see my weekend post too.)

Today is another scorching, hot day, but Christmas doesn't wait for anyone so I have to keep making my Christmas cards!! That's why I love being a member of the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long DT. It forces me to make my cards whether it's 20 degrees outside or 102 degrees.

This week the lovely Vicki is our hostess and her challenge is to create a Christmas card without using any stamped images. (Say what??) You can actually get very creative with this, using die cuts, recycled items, stickers, flowers, anything you have!!! You can stamp a sentiment, but other than that, no more stamping!!

If you haven't visited Vicki's blog, you have to go see it. Her work will definitely rock your world. Her coloring skills are fabulous and her work is a true inspiration!!

So ok, I though about this one and finally came up with this card. I'm not sure I love it. I like it but I don't just love it. What do you think?? Anyway, I used K & Co. paper, card, cardstock, and Santa image. I tried to get a good picture of the glitter on the beard and the holly leaves on the sentiment, but it just didn't want to work. The velvet rick rack came from my stash and the brads are by Making Memories. I popped up the Santa oval (cut with my nesties) and the sentiment on pop dots to give that 3D look.

Sometimes, it's nice to have a sketch to work with, so if you would like to have a sketch to play around with, visit the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog to see one. But remember, the challenge is not the sketch. Be sure to check out the other CSAYL divas. You can find the links on my sidebar. Be sure to also visit our fearless leader Maria at her blog.

We would love to see your creations, so come play around with us!! If you upload to SCS or PCP please use the keyword CSAYL so we can find your take on our challenge. I hope you like my card. I appreciate you coming to visit. Please be sure to leave a comment so I know you were here and so I can visit your blogs. I love seeing everyone's beautiful work. Have a wonderful day!! Please make sure you come back later, I will have an important post about Nutshells stamps new releases and a challenge!!! It will be exciting!!

Red, White and Blue...Oh My!!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!! I know I'm a little late, but my post didn't go up as I wanted. Oh well, that's the way it goes!! I hope you've had a happy and safe holiday weekend so far. I also want to take a moment and say thank you to all of our servicemen and women who are protecting our freedom and the way of life that we know and love. I appreciate the sacrifices that you and your families make to protect our country and you deserve more than a big thank you.

Ok, onto my card. I have made a personal record with this card!!! I have managed to make this card fit into 5 different challenges!! WOO HOOO!! I'm usually doing well to get one or two challenges done each week so this is wonderful! This challenge fits the OCC-Our Creative Corner color challenge, the Try it Out Tuesday challenge over at Follow Your Heart (SCACD) which is also a color challenge, the 365 Cards Day 126 color challenge and the Dare U 2 Digi Stamp challenge #14 which is Embossing. I also used the SCACD June Sketch challenge over on Paper Craft Planet to create my card. There... 5 different challenges!!!!

I've edited this post to include the 2 Red Bananas Sunday Challenge to my list of challenges for my card!!! That makes 6 challenges!!!WoooHoooo!!

For my card I used Patriotic Ridley by Digital Delights by Louby Lou. When I saw this little guy, I knew I had to download him and use him for the holiday!! He's so cute!! I love him to pieces!1 I colored him with my copics and cut him out with my coluzzle. I stamped some stars by Autumn Leaves with red and blue Brilliance ink and cut them out and popped them up on pop dots. I went over the inside star on each one with a glitter pen for a little sparkle. I stamped my sentiment with my Studio G stamps. I went over the "4th" with my glitter pen, again the sparkle! My red, white and blue paper is by Doodlebug and my cardstock is Bazzill. I embossed the blue piece with my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder. I tied it all up with some red, white and blue ribbon from my stash (I mean collection) LOL. And that's it. Very simple but I like how it turned out. I hope you like it too.

I hope you like my multi challenge card for today!! Please leave me a comment so I knew you were here. I enjoy visiting your blogs as well. Come back tomorrow for two posts!! I know, I'm just going nuts!! Don't forget, we are releasing the Nutshells boys on Monday so be sure to stop by and see my card or cards for that day's festivities. I know that we are having a challenge on the Nutshells blog so be sure and go by there to participate as well. I'll have all the deets for you tomorrow!!! Tomorrow is also my 18th wedding anniversary. See ya then!! Have a wonderful day.