Meet Me at the Cafe!!!

Here is my card feature for today!!! I have been playing with my My Favorite Things stamps lately.....it's almost the first week of May you know, which means we'll be releasing some new stamp sets soon!!! Yippeeeeee!! And of course, I've been playing with them and making up some samples to show you.....but not just yet!!! It's really hard to hang on to them and not let the cat out of the bag beforehand!! Heehee!! But let's just say that I'm really lovin' playing with them!!

Anyhoooo, I pulled out Meet Me at the Cafe last weekend and inked her up and used the Ginger Blossoms dp with it. I just LOVE the colours in this paper!! I used my Copics to colour them in and I went back into the archives of the MFT sketches that Cindy posts on SCS and used MFTSC11 for this one! I paper pieced the dress and top on the girls, pop dotted them and added a corduroy chocolate flower brad from Imaginisce. But the finishing touch for me, is that luscious velvet scalloped ribbon on the left side!! It's so yummy in real life!!! I picked up several yards when I found it on my little shopping spree with Kim in Florida!! The sentiment I used is from the Twisted Sentiments set!

Have a super fantastic day. I have most of the day off today....I just work the evening shift, so hopefully I can stamp up a bit before then!!!

The Clip It Up!!!!!!

Today I have a little review for you ladies, how about that??? I always love to find new products and new things to try out (I think I really just like new things....but who doesn't?). I especially love storage and organizational tools, as it's always a struggle trying to keep things where I can find them in my stamp room, know what I mean???

The Clip it Up by Simply Renee is not a new product to most people in the stamping field. You've probably all seen it and wondered about it, right?? Well, I'm always happy to share my thoughts with you....just try and stop me!! hahaha!!

Well, I went into my favourite stamp store in London, Stamp Art and my pal Nancy was only too happy to help me get my hands on one of these systems. I was so excited when I picked it up and couldn't wait to get home to try it out.



Okay, I'm really taking a chance in showing you this picture. Please don't think less of me.....you are my friends and are required to accept me, mess and all.....*snort*. You know that I am on the My Favorite Things Design Team and all the MFT clear stamps come in the long packages (so I have a lot of them...heehee) and at this point, I keep them in these galvanized pails that I got at the dollar store. I also keep my other acrylic stamps in there too. Well, this picture shows those pails, which you can hardly see behind a couple of teetering stacks of other items that I planned to see if I could fit on my new Clip it Up. I'm so embarassed by this picture.....please pay no attention to the mess behind the mess. That's my craft table and I've obviously just finished a project and haven't cleaned up yet.....actually that's what my desk looks like on a daily basis....no use trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Take me as I am.

Anyhooooooo, I opened the Clip it Up box and pulled out the pieces, thinking this was going to take me forever to figure out how to put together! But it was really extremely simple. All the pieces fit well together and there was no need to get out my honey's toolbox or anything! I love that. And here is the after shot!!!



Doesn't it look all lovely and organized??? I kid you not, from the moment I opened the box, put it all together and got my piles of stuff clipped up and hung up on the base, was less than half an hour!!! It was awesome!!! It comes with 80 clips and that was more than enough to get my stuff organized, in fact I had a lot leftover. It also comes with little tabs that you can label and separate your things by company or category. I haven't gotten that far yet. Hehe. But I must say, I am really impressed with the system and think that it is definitely worth the investment. Now I don't have to rummage through buckets and plastic containers trying to remember what I have and then trying to find what I have. It's all up on my desk and completely visible and accessible!!! Not only that, I actually fit MORE on it than was in that picture!! I got all of that stuff clipped up and still had room, so I fished some more packages of stuff out of my plastic totes and clipped them up too!!! It holds so much!!



If you are interested in getting the Clip it Up, I suggest you give Nancy a call at Stamp Art (her information is on the website) and I'm sure she'd be happy to help you get one. Thanks Nancy!!!

If you have any storage or organizational tips, I'd LOVE to hear all about them. Feel free to leave me a message in this post and tell me how you organize all your 'stuff' or link me up to a post on your blog if you have one.

I'll be back later with a card to share, so be sure to stop back!!

The Magnolias are Here........!!!

The Magnolias are here!! The Magnolias are here!!! Well, not here exactly...I'm still waitin' on my Design Team package from Sweden but The Town Scrapper just got a nice big order of Tildas and Edwins and accessories....oh my!!! If you are interested in getting your inky little hands on them, you'd better email Phebe at mpmeeder@sympatico.ca to get the list of what she has available........before they are all gone!!!

Today's card features Tilda in the grass (well, that's what I call her, because of course, I don't read Swedish) and I used some of my favourite Fancy Pants Sweet Pea papers!! Isn't she precious??? I used a white square card base and layered several different coordinating designs of the dp. I stamped Tilda on Wausau bright white cardstock using Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink and coloured her in using my handy dandy Copic markers. I added some polka dots to her dress using my white gel pen and the sentiment is from the My Favorite Things set, By the Seashore. I added some Petaloo and Prima flowers and attached them with Basic Grey brads and apparently I took the photo before I added the Stardust Stickles to her wings. Sorry about that, but isn't that a given by now???? Stickles are a staple on my creations!!!!

Anyhooooooo, if you like this Tilda, I happen to know that Phebe got a few in her order today as well as this one, (not to mention she has tons of EZmounted High Hopes too) so be sure to email her and scoop some of these babies up before they are all gone again!!!! She'd be only too happy to help you in your quest for stamping pleasure!!! Heeheehee.........I'm SUCH an enabler!!!

I'm off to work all day today and then I am teaching a card class at the library. It's gonna be a loooooooong day!!! Hope you get to do some stampin'!!!

Kendra's Card!!!....and a Winner!!

I made this card for my friend and fellow DT member, Kendra. I'm safe to post it now because I know that she received it. I stamped Lovely Lizabeth on Papertrey white cardstock using my favourite ink, Archival Brilliance Graphite Black. And of course, I used my Copic markers to colour her in. I took the colours from this fabulous new patterned paper from the Just Dreamy line by My Mind's Eye. I could only find the one sheet but I'm hoping to get a full package of the whole collection soon from Phebe at The Town Scrapper. I just love the colour combination of the polka dots. I combined it with a square black base and accented with Cool Caribbean and Regal Rose and the sentiment is from Papertrey. OH and the sketch is a Kimmie original! For finishing touches I attached some Prima flowers with SU brads and added some Pink Stickles to her wings.

It's a rather rainy, yucky day in SW Ontario today. I finished up my cards and preparing for tomorrow night's class, so today is all mine!! All mine, I tell you...bwwwaaaaaaaahahahhahaaaaaaaa!!! (That was supposed to be my evil scientist laugh....in case you weren't sure.) Well, for the most part it's mine. I have to pick Emileigh up from school this afternoon and then head over to London to pick up some fabric and stuff for her Fashion class. BUT I also get to stop over at Stamp Art.....I have a few things to pick up there and I can't wait to share!!!

That's it for today, I guess...........oh WAIT!! Did you wanna know who won the High Hopes stamps??? I suppose you do........well the random winner for this challenge is.....Jessica Smith!!!! Jessica, please email me your mailing address and I will get your winnings out to you this week!!!! Oh and keep your eyes peeled, as there may be another challenge coming this way soon!!!

Have a stampin' good Monday!!!

Butterfly Kisses

This week's Papertake Challenge has a really wonderful sketch by my fellow DT member, Katharina. I love square cards and lots of layers so this one was a lot of fun to create!

I received a package of the new Afternoon Tea designer papers by Stampin' Up, so I had to pull them out right away. The colours just look so wonderful together. The adorable Tilda image is actually one of many that my friend Tara sent to me. I don't have this stamp, but oh how I wish that I did!! She looks as though she's standing out in the middle of a field with the wind gently blowing and these lovely little butterflies flitting all around her.

Anyway, she is stamped on Wausau bright white cardstock using Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink (I know that because Tara told me so) and I used my Copic markers to colour her in. I think I might be getting a little better at shading with the Copics. I'm much better at just the solid colours but I've been stepping out lately and trying to add different shades and I think this image turned out pretty well. I used a couple of different browns in her hair, peachy oranges on her dress and greens on her boots. I layered her on Soft Sky and a section of her on Chocolate Chip. The card base is a 6x6 square of textured Groovy Guava cardstock and then layered with Chocolate Chip, a piece of the Afternoon Tea dp and some Soft Sky designer series paper. The bottom strip is Wild Wasabi that I ran through my Cuttlebug using the D'vine Swirls embossing folder. The sentiment panel is a piece of AT dp punched out with my scalloped circle punch and I used the Butterfly Kisses stamp from High Hopes. I added some Prima flowers with Basic Grey brads, some stitched grosgrain ribbon and a butterfly charm. I pop dotted the focal image and of course.....I added Stardust Stickles to her wings and the little butterflies!!

I'm teaching a card class at the library on Tuesday night, so I will be spending the day today preparing for that. I have to design 4 cards and prepare enough for 10 people to do each card. Guess I'd better get to it!!

Have a great day........and don't forget....you still have time to enter my stamp giveaway!!!

Beate's WSC44!!

Okay so I'm a little behind in posting it, but I did it!! This card was made for last weekend's sketch challenge on Beate's blog! As you know, I LOVE me some sketch challenges and Beate has a new one every week!! So hop on over and check out this week's!! Hopefully I get a chance to do it too.

But this one was for last weekend and I used one of my fave High Hopes images, Little Missy. I really have a thing for little girl stamps, I guess!! I stamped her on Papertrey white cardstock using Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink and coloured her in using my good ol' Copic markers. I took the colours from the lovely Ginger Blossoms SU designer papers that I used to block together the background. I added some coordinating stitched grosgrain ribbons in River Rock and Groovy Guava and stamped a sentiment from Friendship Blooms by SU and punched it out with my keytag punch. A very simple layout that I will definitely use again!!

Well, today didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped. My plan was to go to Petrolia today to see my friends Phebe and Ellen and whoever else would like to join us but I didn't quite make it. I was woken up very early this morning by a tearful child who was not feeling well at all. So I didn't get to go but maybe on my next day off I can make another attempt.

Hope you are having a good weekend so far. I plan on doing a bit of creating in between yardwork, laundry, general cleaning...blah, blah. Oh and we have to go to the fabric store to get a pattern and some fabric for Emileigh's Fashion class at school. I can't wait to see what we can find to make!! Toodle-oo!!

P.S. Oh and don't forget to enter my challenge to win some awesome High Hopes stamps from the new release!!!! You only have until Sunday night!!!

How True..... I Think!!

You Are Sneakers

You are creative, funky, and forward thinking. You are cool, but you are still approachable. You are stylish and edgy, but you aren't a slave to fashion. You tend to put your own spin on trends. You tend to have a fast paced, busy lifestyle. Not a lot of people can keep up with you! You should live: Near nature You should work: In a job that keeps you on the go

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Oh Happy Day!!

I tried my hand at watercolouring again on this card.....and I'm not so thrilled with the result! You know that saying, 'Two steps forward, one step back'? Well, that's what I feel like with this one. I just don't know if watercolouring is my 'thing'.

Anyhoooo, this design is already flying to Sweden along with a few other DT designs. Almost everything on this card is made using items that Magnolia sent for me to use. The card base is 6x6 and the patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Mellow line, I believe. I stamped Tilda with her little flower on SU watercolour paper using Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink and I used a small paintbrush and SU reinkers to paint her. The tag I made from a piece of River Rock cardstock and the sentiment and hearts are from a clear Heidi Grace set. The blossom grouping is made up of several different flowers and the brad in the center is a nice big chocolate brown suede brad. I finished the design off by adding a couple of buttons and some Stardust Stickles on her little wings. Not perfect, but not horrible either.

Well, it's supposed to be another beautiful spring day here in Ontario......and I gotta work!! BUT I do have four days off in a row after that, so I'm looking forward to finishing up tonight!!! Then tomorrow is my lunch in Petrolia!! Yummy food, stamp shoppin'.....what more could a girl ask for? If you'd like to join me, just let me know!!!

Oh and don't forget about my challenge to win some High Hopes stamps!!

Have a wonderful day!!

You Crock Me Up........wanna win 'em???

How would you feel about winning the stamps on this card???? You could win Samson AND the matching sentiment!!! What do you think?? Wanna give it a whirl??

All you have to do is create a card or scrapbook page using the sketch from my design as inspiration!! For my card, I started with the patterned paper from Scrapbook Walls and chose the card base which is Not Quite Navy. I stamped on the card base with my Cracked background stamp by Stampin' Up in NQN. I stamped Samson on Wausau bright white cardstock in Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink and coloured him in with my Copic markers. I attached the dp and tied some linen thread on the top left. The focal image is matted on Kraft paper, decorated with a silver brad in each corner and popped up on pop dots!

So get stampin' and make a card using my sketch as inspiration and if you post it on a public gallery like SCS, use the keyword KHHC1 for Kimmie's High Hopes Challenge 1. Also be sure to comment here in THIS post so that we can all check them out. You have until Sunday, April 27th at midnight EST and I will post the random winner on Monday morning.

Well, I have to work again today, so not much stampin' going on. Hope you get to play with your stamps today!!!

MFTSC27!!

I am off to work early this morning.....for the whole day, ick! So here is a quick post for you!!

Every week, Cindy Haffner posts a Sketch Challenge over in the My Favorite Things forum for everyone. These sketches are fabulous and you know how much I love a sketch!! Takes all the guesswork out of designing a card! Thanks Cindy!! You rock, girl!

Today's card features MFTSC27 and the newly released Happy Mother's Day stamp set by MFT. The card base is Lavender Lace, I matted the main image on Taken with Teal and the patterned paper is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy Stack. I coloured her in using my handy dandy Copic markers, added some bright white Magenta flowers with glittery purple brads and pop dotted the focal image.

Hope you have a super Tuesday!!

Hello Bluebird!!! .... and a Lunch Date!!

The weekend has been so gorgeous here in Southwestern Ontario!! I spent some time in the yard, weeding my garden and I'm already seeing things sprouting up from the dirt! And I can heard those birdies singin' in the morning!! Aaaaahhhh! Winter is finally over!!

So I had yesterday off from work and besides yardwork and attacking a giant mound of laundry, I also made a few cards. This one I'm particularly happy with!!! This week's Tilda and Co. challenge is to create a Girlie card, but it has to be mainly Blue. So I pulled out my Tilda and Bird stamp and got busy!

Do you ever start a card with a specific idea, with papers and embellishments in mind and the finished product turns out to be nothing like that original idea?? Well, this is that card for me. The papers and colours I had set out to use with it are still sitting on my craft table!

Anyway, for this card I stamped the fence stamp twice, side by side, on Wasau bright white paper and the Tilda stamp on a separate piece. I coloured them in with my Copic markers and cut Tilda out. The papers I used are from an older line of Basic Grey papers, called Oh Baby Boy. They have a sort of distressed look to them, so I decided to distress all the edges of paper with my Heidi Swapp distressing tool. The card base is a 6x6 textured Very Vanilla piece of cardstock. The layer on top of that is a green BG paper and then I layered the patterned piece of BG paper on top of a Brocade Blue piece. I also distressed the patterned piece using Tea Dye ink by Ranger. On the focal piece I coloured the sky area and around the fence using a Copic colour called Raw Silk which gives it an off white colour and then coloured the ground with a green Copic. I sponged it with Tea Dye, distressed the edges, and attached to the base. Tilda is popped up on lots of pop dots and I added Stardust Stickles to her wings. I embellished the card with a piece of American Crafts gingham ribbon that matched perfectly and also attached a mixture of Prima flowers with soft yellow Making Memories glitter brads. I topped it all off with a trio of green Dew Drops on the top left corner!! Isn't she just yummy???

Okay!! Now onto to our Lunch Date!!! If you are in the local Southwestern Ontario area and would like to meet up for a yummy lunch and some stamp shopping, I will be in Petrolia this coming Friday, April 25th (my day off) for lunch at noon at Actors and then for a little shopping at The Town Scrapper. If you would like to join me, be sure to send me a quick email or leave me a message in this post, so that I can make a reservation for lunch!! Hope you can join me!!!

Jusssssst Sssssssaying Hello!!!

Happy, happy Sunday!!! It's my only day off this weekend, so I'm making the most of it!! Emileigh slept over at her girlfriend's house last night, so probably won't even be up for another couple of hours and my honey-pie's still in bed, so I'm gettin' busy in my craft room!!

Here's another Kimmie Two-fer.....don'tcha just love that name?? Heehee! I stamped out two of Ssstanley Snake on Wausau bright white cardstock using Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink. I pulled out a sheet of my new Basic Grey Sultry 6x6 pad and used the refreshing jungle-like colours in the dp. I coloured Stanley in using my Copic markers and punched it out using my Marvy circle punch, then layered him on a Marvy scalloped circle punch in Green Galore. I took a strip of the dp, ran it through the Cuttlebug with one of my embossing folders (not sure the name of it, but it kinda looks like snakeskin) and layered it on Regal Rose cardstock. The sentiment is just perfect for Stanley and I stamped it on white and backed it on Green Galore, then added a little knot of pink ribbon. I pierced holes in all the scallops on the main piece, pop dotted it, added some Pink Stickles in the centers of the blossoms and added a Prima flower with an SU brad!!



Now these two I made exactly the same. Usually I try to change it up a bit so that I have a couple of different designs, but I wasn't feeling especially creative that day, so I just made two the same. Now I have one to give away and one to keep!

Well, I'm going to get inky!! Have a wonderful day!!

He Scoooooooooores!!!

Here is a quickie card for ya this morning! I'm off to work all day....blech!! And it's so lovely outside too!!! So this will have to hold you over for today!!

This is a regular sized card featuring Sporty Edwin, which of course, I got from The Town Scrapper! The card base is Chocolate Chip and the dp is by Stacey Claire Boyd. I used my Spiral Punch on the dp for the very first time and I think it looks kind of cool. I stamped Edwin in Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink on Wausau bright white cardstock and coloured him in using my Copic markers. I doodled around the frame, matted him and popped him up on pop dots. The sentiment was made using my Karen Foster Snap Stamps! I did finish him off by adding some Stardust Stickles to his wings, but silly me, I took the photo before I did that!! Oh well! You know I never make a Magnolia without adding Stickles!! Hahaha!

Well, have a lovely Saturday and I hope you get to do some cool things....outdoors AND indoors!!

Riley Two-fer!!!

Today's post features another Kimmie Two-fer!!! This time I'm using the Coffee Riley stamp.....he looks so chill, relaxin' with his cuppa joe and a cupcake!

I stamped a couple of images on Wausau bright white cardstock using Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink and coloured him in using my Copics and taking the colours from the Basic Grey Urban Couture papers. It's a very simple layout really. The card base is Chocolate Chip with Almost Amethyst layered on top and a strip of the dp. I added a fancy swirl from Baroque Motifs and pierced a line along the bottom. One card uses an A Muse sentiment and the other is by Hero Arts. I matted the focal image on Rose Red or So Saffron, added some scrumptious chocolate satin ribbon and pop dotted Riley!

These cards are also perfect for this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge, which is to make a masculine card!! I think this Riley dude is perfect for the men in your life!!!



I received a couple of questions in the last few days. One was what size are my cards. Generally speaking, I do two sizes. I do the regular A2 size which is half a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock and when I do square ones, it's usually a 5 1/4 square as the envelopes I find around here are slightly larger than that. I sometimes do 6x6 but I don't have a lot of 12x12 cardstock to cut in half, so I use my 8 1/2 x 11 and make a square one from that.

Also I have been asked several times about my Magnolias. You're right, they are very hard to get your inky little hands on, but I have a friend who owns a stamp store and she gets orders straight from Magnolia in Sweden. When they arrive at her store, they are generally sold out in less than a week. She does not take preorders but she keeps an email list and lets everyone on the list know when they come and then it's first come, first served. My suggestion to you, is to get on her email list and check it often, then when you get 'the email', call her right away with your credit card in hand!!! Feel free to email me and I can forward you her contact information.

Well, I'm off to work tonight and all day tomorrow. Yuck!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Archaic Acrylics!!!

Okay, I've had the whole day off today and I've been having so much fun!! I got some new Basic Grey 6x6 pads from Lindsey this week and I've been dying to play with them!!! Well, I made two cards this morning and I was going to post them tomorrow........ , but I just couldn't wait!!! So here they are!!

Today's challenge on SCS was to use acrylic of some sort on your creation.....so acrylic stamps or acrylic paint, acrylic tags, dew drops, baubles, etc. Well, I started out by pulling out my Archaic Basic Grey pad and using the colours from that patterned paper. I also saw this awesome sketch on Ila's blog the other day. She is giving away some brand new High Hopes stamps, so be sure to join in the challenge!!! Anyway, I changed the sketch up a tiny bit but kept most of it the same. I hope she likes it!!!

So I started with a Chocolate Chip base and layered it with a BG plain patterned piece and layered two other fancy patterned pieces on it, like in Ila's sketch. I tied some wide chocolate grosgrain ribbon around the middle and found some Prima flowers and attached them with a Basic Grey brad. The main image is actually a stamp that I don't own.....shock, I know!! My wonderful friend Tara sent me some stamped images of Magnolias that I don't have....isn't she the bestest??? Thanks Tara!!! *wave* I coloured it using my Copic markers, added Stardust Stickles to her wings and some highlights using my white gel pen. I pop dotted her on her little window there and pop dotted the window too. The sentiment is by High Hopes and I stamped it on another piece of plain BG paper and then rounded the ends with a circle punch. I did this by just inserting one end of the paper in through the middle of the circle punch, so that just the side went through the cutting part. I them sponged around the sentiment panel with Basic Brown ink. Lastly I added the 'acrylic' part of my card, which are some Bellas Baubles!!



Well, I was having so much fun, that I couldn't stop at just one!! So I used Archaic papers again and this time I had these images of Tilda and the horse already stamped out and ready to be coloured. My niece Summer who is 24, just LOVES horses so I decided to make her a special card just for her. For the card base I used a textured piece of Very Vanilla and this time it is 6x6. I cut the two layers of circles out using my Creative Memories cutting system and I put the larger one directly on the base, then put a strip of Chocolate Chip and then attached the smaller circle which is cut from a plaid piece of BG patterned paper. I attached the horse and then popped up Tilda onto the circles. I added some Prima flowers with silver brads, Stardust Stickles on her wings and added some sparkly highlights to the horse's mane using my Sakura Stardust gel pen. And for the 'acrylic' part of my card, I added one of these awesome tags that I picked up when I was on holiday in Florida. Sadly, I hadn't used ONE of them yet!! Now I have!!

Hope you are having a great day, whatever you may be doing.......I really hope it's stamping!!!

A Poochie Challenge!!

Good Thursday morning!!! It's going to be a BEAUTY of a day today, here in Ontario! It's supposed to be the warmest day this week and lovely and sunny!!! I'm up SUPER early this morning because Emileigh has a Badminton tournament with her school and has to be there for 8am!! Ugh!

Normally I am so busy with all my design team requirements, new releases and stuff, that I almost never have time to play with stamps by other companies that I love! The Cats Pajamas is one of those companies!! Unfortunately, I have very few of their stamps at the moment. I was able to get some of the Clearly Swanky Sets when they released them at Christmas time last year and I'd like to get some more....I believe they are releasing a new set this weekend!! I hope my local stamp store gets some in!!!

Anyway, this week Leigh O'Brien is holding a TCP Challenge on her blog and it's a SKETCH challenge, which, as you know, if my FAVOURITE type of challenge! So how could I resist??? And it's a loooooong card, which I love! So, I pulled out this stamp of Poochie holding a flower pot that I got in a Pay It Forward from a friend and stamped it three times. I chose these coordinating patterned papers by Imaginisce because they are so springy and soft! I love the contrast between the gentle colours and the black for the card base and matting. I coloured Poochie using my Copic markers, doodled around the frames and added Stardust Stickles to the centers of the flowers. I pop dotted them on the middle strip, added some yummy American Crafts ribbon along the bottom and some Basic Grey brads at the top. The sentiment panel is made my stamping the Hanna sentiment and punching it out using my Marvy Oval punch and the matting is punched out of Basic Black using my Marvy Scalloped Oval punch. I'm really lovin' the way this turned out and I'm going to add this awesome sketch to my book of sketches.......when I get around to making it!! *giggle*

Have a super sunshiney day!!

Flamingo Two-fer!!!

Here is another of 'Kimmie's Two-fers'.....two cards for the price of one!! Hahaha! I'm getting a lot more cards made since I've started doing a couple at a time. Here is another example for you!!

I stamped Party Girl Florence from High Hopes a couple of times and coloured her in using a combination of my Copic markers. I took the colours from the sparkly DCWV star paper that I got from The Town Scrapper. It really looks like party paper! The card base is Pixie Pink and I did one design vertically and one horizontally. I added some Green Galore to mat her on and pop dotted her. I added some doodles around the frame and some purple grosgrain ribbon. I stamped the Cupcake a couple of times, coloured them and cut them out. I arranged them in the corners and added some Lavender Stickles on top of the cupcakes and on Florence's pretty necklace!! I think Florence makes some fun birthday cards, don't you???



Well, today I have the morning off. I don't work until 5pm, so I'm hoping to get a few things done. I'm still not feeling 100%.....headache, sore throat....blah, blah! So a good ol' nap may be included in my agenda today!!! Toodles!

A Very Special MFT Sale!

Yesterday I received an email from Kim of My Favorite Things telling us of her friend Tish who unfortunately passed away last Tuesday after battling a rare form of ovarian cancer. Tish left behind her husband and two young sons, Tucker and Tanner.

Starting today (Tuesday 15th April), Kim will be offering a 10% discount on ALL stamps on her site. Use the coupon code Tish at checkout to receive 10% off all all the stamps in your shopping cart. (It won’t discount your other merchandise, just stamps.) The coupon code will run from Tuesday, April 15th-Friday, April 18th. A benefit has been planned to help the family offset their mounting medical bills and Kim will donate 10% of ALL proceeds (including money spent on other items on the site) to the family at their April 26th benefit. What a great reason to shop!

For more details, you can see this post on Kim's blog.

Shabby Goblin!

This will be a very quick post today, as I am off to work early this morning. I am feeling a little better than I was yesterday and hopefully I can make it through the day! Thanks for all your well wishes, by the way!! They really helped!!! Honest!!

Today's card features a Magnolia Design Team card. The image is one of the new line of Martha Goblin stamps and the patterned paper, lace, card base and flowers are from the Magnolia shop. I don't think you can buy these items online, only the stamps, but they like us to use the papers and embellishments in their store, as they will be displaying our cards there.

Anyway, it's pretty self explanatory, methinks!! Martha is such a cutie-pie, right? She has such a devilish grin and I love her toe sticking out of her sock!! I coloured her with my Copics and the two cardstock strips to the left were stamped with a couple of the different flower stamps by Magnolia. I don't usually use lace on my cards and the patterned paper is a little more shabby looking than I usually go for, but I'm kind of liking it anyway. Later in the week I'll show you a design using the same stamps but papers and colours that are more my style!!

Hey, did you watch Dancing with the Stars last night?? Who do you think is gonna get the boot????

Things With Wings........

This week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge is to create a card using something that has wings. Well, LOTS of things have wings.....but I thought airplanes would be a little unexpected!!

I got this awesome Riley stamp from Phebe at The Town Scrapper! This one and the one in the comfy chair are the only ones I have. I HAVE to get more Rileys!! I started by stamping Riley and his plane on a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock and again on Wausau bright white cardstock. The idea was that he was flying through the sky, which needed to be blue, but I didn't want to have to colour that huge area. So I stamped on the sentiment and then coloured the one on white using my Copic markers and then cut it out. I glued it onto the Bashful Blue piece including the tiny little clouds and voila...he's flying through the blue sky!



I did both these cards at the same time but using different patterned papers and colours. Both dp's are from a DCWV stack, but I can't remember which one. For the paper that has stars on it, I chose the sentiment 'Reach for the Stars' and the other one I made more generic and chose 'Have fun on your day'. I used a trio of shiny silver star brads on each one and added some tiny So Saffron star punches to decorate the sky. I finished them off by adding a couple of silver brads in the top corners and some striped Wild Wasabi grosgrain ribbon.

Good thing I have today off from work, because I actually feel worse today than I did yesterday! Don't know if I'll get any stamping done.....I really feel like going back to bed right now. Maybe I'll go have a nap!

Walkabout Wally!!

Sorry, I'm late this morning. REALLY late. But I'm sick. I think Emileigh shared her germies with me and now I have her yucky head cold. I feel awful. I was up several times in the night, couldn't breathe, but I slept in a bit this morning.

My husband says, why don't you rest and stop stamping? Well, for me, if I keep my hands busy, my Ipod on and my mind on stamping, I forget how sick I am. Does that make sense?? If I were to sit on the couch with my kleenex and my blanket and pillow, I would feel worse. So, I stamp.

Anyhoooo, here are a couple of cards I made using some High Hopes images. Like I said yesterday, I'm trying to make more than one card at a time these days. So I did two using Walkabout Wally....isn't he cute?? He looks like a real little safari dude! I coloured him in using my Copic markers (don'tcha love his orange hair?) and I used some scraps of patterned paper too. The card bases are Bashful Blue and I used a combination of ric rac, brads, buttons and twill on the cards. I pop dotted Wally and added a different sentiment on each one.



I'm loving all of the new jungle themed release at High Hopes. These stamps are perfect for my little nephew, Matthew. I think I'll send him one this week!!!

Hope you are having a good weekend. I think, I'll stamp a little more and then go have a nappy-poo!!!

I'm in Stitches!!!

Here are a couple of cards that I am REALLY happy with! You know how sometimes you finish a project and just go, 'Ewwwwww...I LOVE that!'? Isn't it great when that happens?? Well, that happened to me with these two cards!

Lately I've been stamping up extra images when I stamp and I've been trying to create more than one card at a time when I am crafting. Instead of making a single design, I try to use the same images and patterned paper to either duplicate the card or make one similar using the same items.

On Monday night, one of my favourite shows is on....Dancing with the Stars. It was on for two whole hours which is great but I hate to feel like I am wasting time in front of the tv. Guess I should somehow try to squeeze a tv into my stampin' studio, huh?? Anyway, I decided to colour some images while I was watching the telly, so I brought my Copic markers Carousel downstairs, picked out a couple of pieces of patterned paper as inspiration and my stamped images. I chose some coordinating markers and coloured two Farmer Tildas in using the same colours. I also coloured several other images too....I mean, I did have two hours!!!



Anyway, when I came back upstairs to start creating, I already had the image coloured and the patterned paper picked out so I just had to design the layout and add embellishments! The dp is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy Stack (try saying that three times fast!) and the cardstock I used is Cool Caribbean and Apricot Appeal. Don't they look soft and pretty together?? The ribbon is from American Crafts, the Primas are Press N Petals and the glitter brads are from Making Memories. I cut out the little tags using my Cuttlebug and added the sentiments which are from Papertrey. The Tilda and Co. Challenge for this week is to use stitching on your Magnolia card, so I added it around the edge of the card base using my Mat Pack and my white gel pen and then I also added some highlights on Tilda and popped her up!

Well, yesterday as you know, I went stamp shopping with my friend Donna. We had a great time and made lots of stops! First we went to the big scrappin' clearance sale here in St. Thomas and stopped at the Cut 'n Paste. Then we went over to London and spent a few $$ in Michael's, using our coupons of course! We went all the way across town to Scrapbook Studio and I picked up some yummy new papers and our last stop (which is where I spent most of my $$) was at Stamp Art!!! I grabbed up one of each of the new Penny Black transparent sets!! Lots of hedgies and puppies and mice!! Eeek! I always have so much fun when I visit Nancy and Dianne and Janine in Stamp Art!! Hi girls!! *wave* After we were done shopping, Donna took me out for lunch!! We went to East Side Mario's and had some yummy pasta!! Mmmm! Thanks again Donna! We'll have to do it again, next time we have the same day off!!

OH!! And I forgot to mention to anyone in Southwestern Ontario, my friend Phebe at The Town Scrapper is going to be at Scrapfest in Kitchener!!! If you are out and about this afternoon, be sure to stop in and check out the Marketplace, with over 35 vendors!! Wish I could go!!

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope you can carve out some time to get inky!!!

Lovely Leah!!

Good morning.........well, really it's a yucky, rainy morning! But I'm in a good mood anyway!!! I'm goin' shopping with my girlfriend!!! We both have the day off so we are going to the Truckload Sale and then off to a couple of stamp stores and Michael's! The only thing that would make it better is if the sun was shining!!

Here is a quick card that is pretty self explanatory. I used a new Whipper Snapper stamp that I picked up at my last trip to the Town Scrapper and her name is Leah. I coloured her in with my Copics and used some nice, bright, springy dp!!!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!! Happy stampin'!!!

Go Bananas!!!

Here is a card I made about a month ago for the High Hopes Project of the Month for April! Each month they have a special group of stamps, that when purchased together are sold at a discount!! It's a great way to get a bunch of stamps that coordinate and can be used together, and they are on SALE!! Who doesn't love a sale?? For all the details, just email Tina at highhopesstamps@sympatico.ca .

I started out by grabbing some patterned paper that had greens and browns in it because of course the tree would be green and the monkey would be brown! So I used some Three Bugs in a Rug paper and a Chocolate Chip square card base. I stamped the Banana Tree on Wausau bright white and stamped the monkey and bananas separately. I coloured them in using my Copic markers and cut out the monkey and bananas. I layered them on the card and added some of that delicious wide satin ribbon. I also used my Sakura Stardust gel pen to add sparkle to the outlines on the bananas. You can't really see it in the pic, but it looks really cool!!

Gotta work again today until 8:30pm, so I'm trying to squeeze in some stamping time this morning, between laundry loads. But then I have Friday-Monday off....woohoooooo!! I'll hopefully be able to stamp my heart out.....between yardwork, cleaning floors etc. BUT tomorrow I have big plans to do some serious krafty shoppin' with my girlfriend Donna! We both happen to have the day off so we are taking a road trip!! Yippeeeee!!!