Debut of Ella's Pink Scrapbook!!

Yay, it's time for the debut of a new scrapbook challenge at The Pink Elephant, which we are calling Ella's Pink Scrapbook!!! I'm very privileged to be a part of the inaugural design team!

The name of the game this week is to show off your favorite scrapbooking technique. Well, I have a confession to make... with all the busy-ness of late and some health issues, I didn't have time to create a new layout for our first challenge. So, instead, I pulled out the last one I made (close enough, right?).

What, might you ask, is my favorite technique? Well, at that time it was CASE-ing!!! {LOL} What is it they say, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? Seriously, though, I found this amazing artist on eBay... her name is Eileen Gutierrez, known as craftyemg. Oh, dear me, she does fabulous work! I have a particular fascination with "tear bear" images, and Eileen does the best I've seen. So I CASED a two-page Christmas layout she did. I made all my own paper-pieced images and "tear bears." They are certainly similar, but not exactly the same... I could never match Eileen's work, but it was sure fun to try!

Here's Eileen's version:

And here is mine:
I used Fruitcake DP by Basic Grey

Page One - there is another photo tucked
behind the photo on the right

Page Two - Still in Progress

The empty plaid DP is space for journaling

Have I mentioned I'm terrible about journaling?

Those cute little boys in the matching jammies are my eldest sons, Ian and Collin, who are now 25 and 22. Ah, those were the good ole days when I could actually get them to wear matching jammies on Christmas. The most precious picture of all is Ian writing a letter to Santa as Collin looks on. I'm tearing up just thinking about it!

Okay, I promise to create a brand new layout for next week's challenge, and I promise to work on taking better pictures of my scrapbook pages. In the meantime, I hope you'll join in the fun with us! I'd love to see your favorite scrapbook technique in action. And don't we all NEED to catch up on our pages????

Before you go, be sure to click over to The Pink Elephant and see what the rest of Ella's Pink Scrapbook friends have created to inspire and delight you!

Happy Birthday Ceal!!!

This is my second post for today. Please scroll down for this week's La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge.

Today is Ceal Pritchett's birthday, one of our Stampin' Sisters in Christ, and we're throwing her a virtual birthday party! The party started at Candace's blog, so if you didn't start at the beginning, I encourage you to do so. This is going to be fun!

Ceal's daughter is currently stationed in Germany, and I happen to know Ceal misses her daughter very much... and Courtney misses her mom. Soooo, Ceal, I'm giving you a trip to Germany for your birthday!!! I hope you enjoy your time there, even if only in your heart!!! Believe me, girl, if I could, I really would book a flight for you right this minute!

And here's a little card, just for you, made with an adorable freebie image from Tiddly Inks!

Your next stop is Peggysue's blog. Enjoy!

A Birthday Gift for You!

Happy Wednesday! It's time for more fun with La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! Our challenge hostess this week is my very dear friend Kristine Breach. Kris's challenge is to use the paper-piecing technique in your cards/projects. You'll get no argument from me... I love paper-piecing!

Speaking of which, there are some awesome tutorials linked on the La-La Land Crafts blog, including three on how to paper-piece digi images.

I love this adorable image called  Birthday Present Rosie. Isn't her hair style cute? And I love her little birdie friend. I paper-pieced her dress to match the background paper.

My card is based on one of the older Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge sketches (#17), which you can find in this handy dandy TESketch Book.

The DP is by Doodlebug, as are the matching brads (so cute!).

I hope you'll play in our challenge this week. I'd love to see your paper-pieced creations using your favorite La-La Land Crafts image! There's a prize up for grabs... a $10 GC to spend on rubber stamps in the La-La Land Crafts store. Plus, this week only, Rosie With Bird (pictured)... another of my favorites... is on sale for 20% off!!!

Be sure to stop by the La-La Land Crafts Blog to see what the Design Team and Guest Designers have created for this challenge. You'll be glad you did!

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

New Release Previews for Waltzingmouse Stamps!

I'm always thrilled when it's time for a new stamp set release at Waltzingmouse Stamps!!! Sneak peeks started yesterday at the Waltzingmouse Stamps blog, where you'll find links to the Design Team members who also posted peeks yesterday. You MUST check them out... they are amazing!!!

There are two sets releasing on Thursday... Free Spirit Boy and Free Spirit Sentiments. They will make all your boy/male cards that are often troublesome easy as pie! And, as I'll show you on Thursday, there are several stamps which can be used for girls, too.

The card above is clean and simple... made for my son Collin who just finished his BA in Graphic Design at The Art Institute. I AM so proud of him. The sentiment and graduation cap fit perfectly in the spotted stamp from the Very Vintage Labels No. 3 stamp set.

I made a second clean and simple card using the gorgeous circle motif from the Free Spirit Boy stamp set. I stamped the image in Versamark on white cardstock, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, and then rubbed ink over the image using a sponge. I love the effect!

This could actually be used for a guy or a girl, don't you think?

You will LOVE these sets... Free Spirit Sentiments has more than 50 sentiments that you will use time and time again, and Free Spirit Boy has a variety of images for all sorts of occasions. For more samples using these fabulous new sets, be sure to visit the Waltzingmouse Stamps blog, as well as Julia, Anya and Bonnie. Plus, there will be more peeks on Wednesday, starting at the Waltzingmouse Stamps blog, culminating in a Blog Waltz on April 1st (no foolin') when the new sets will be released for sale. Please be sure to join us for all the fun and a chance to win a prize!

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

Hope Your Day Blooms With Happiness

Happy Monday everyone! Okay, let's just say I'm trying to be optimistic. After all, if we lived our lives by weekends, we'd only have 52 in a year. Besides, it's time for another fun challenge at The Pink Elephant!

Today's challenge is sponsored by The Cutting Cafe (thank you Regina!). The color challenge is to use PASTELS!

First, I have to tell you I had a "senior moment" and didn't realize until it was too late that The Cutting Cafe is our sponsor this week; otherwise, I would most definitely have used one of Regina's awesome images and/or backgrounds. I have several and love them!!! If you haven't yet visited The Cutting Cafe, I highly recommend that you do!

I found this sweet image called Rupert's Gift at Squigglfly, drawn by the amazing Crissy Armstrong. I wanted to practice coloring fur, which I learned by following the tutorials at Copic Creations. Copic Creations has become my new favorite blog since I'm determined to take my Copic coloring skills to the next level. They are celebrating their one-year blogoversary right now with a prizes, so be sure to hop on over and check it out!

Unfortunately, my mojo went on vacation and forgot to take me along. There's something "off" about my card, but I can't spend any more time fiddling with it. I have to move on! {LOL}

The stars, of course, are that sweet image and my favorite retired SEI designer paper... Penelope. I'm sure going to miss that paper when I run out, but we'll all probably be sick of it by the time I do!

Please come play with us this week at The Pink Elephant... who isn't using pastels these days?... and have a chance at winning an awesome prize from The Cutting Cafe and/or being recognized as one of the Top Cards. Be sure to click over to The Pink Elephant blog to see what the rest of the TPE girls have created this week... their mojo is right on track!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope YOUR day blooms with happiness!

Design Team Calls!!!

Note: This is my second post for today. Please scroll down to see my post called Howdy!

I'm popping in to alert you to two Design Team Calls!!!

The first is for a brand new scrapbooking challenge at The Pink Elephant called Ella's Pink Scrapbook!!! I'm so excited to be a part of the inaugural design team! My first passion was scrapbooking before I got into stamping and card making, so I'm glad for the chance to hone my scrapbooking skills and make some progress on my pages. And I'm counting on YOU to join us starting April 1st (no foolin')!

If you want to be part of this exciting team, click on over to The Pink Elephant for all the details on how to apply.This will be so much fun!!!

Another amazing and truly unique challenge blog on the horizon is The Burtonesque Dolls founded by the awesome, multi-talented, and much loved Betty Roberts. This one starts up in May, and I'm thrilled to be a part of the adventure! We're looking for more "Dolls" to join us. If you're interested, hop on over to The Burtonesque Dolls DT Call  blog post for all the deets.

Howdy!

Hi there! Have you heard that there's a Royal Battle going on over at The Greeting Farm? The Royal Battle is a battle of teams, and depends entirely on VOTING. It goes like this: there are teams of three to five players. Each Wednesday a new Battle challenge is issued. One of the team members has to make a card to meet the Battle challenge. Folks have a chance to vote for three cards each week. The top half with the most votes moves to the next Battle. Each team member has to take one turn. Hopefully, we make it to the final round and a chance to win a big prize. It feels a bit like American Idol... and nerve wracking at that!

My team consists of me, Kristine Breach, Kim Yu, Sue Kment and Pam Sparks. We are the CARD SPROUTS. We have an awesome team!!! Woo hoo!!!

The first Battle challenge is to make a retro-esque card using the colors featured in the picture on the left. I think I got it. I hope I got it! If you agree, we'd love your vote: Click Here to get to the gallery, and then find my card (above) under the name CARD SPROUTS and leave a comment there to cast your vote for our team.

Voting ends Tuesday evening!

Thank you sooooo much!!!

Happy UnBirthday!

CHAPTER 6: The Red Queen's FINE PRINT...

"The Red Queen shook her head, "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"

This week we're getting down to business and reading the "fine print" in Wonderland at the Oh, Alice! Challenge blog.

We're also SO excited to be welcoming Digital Delights by Louby Loo as our sponsor this week! WOW! What a lucky group we are! Wendy from Digital Delights has not only graced the Design Team with some super fun Alice-inspired images to use, but is giving away a TEN DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE to one lucky winner who will be randomly drawn from all the entries this week! THANKS Wendy!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a card using some form of TEXT/Printed DP, Old Book pages, Newspaper print, Old dictionary, etc. We just need to see SOME form of printed text on your card or project!

Need some inspiration WRITTEN out for you? Check out the samples on the Oh, Alice! Challenge blog from the Twisted Thirteen and our March Tea Party Guest Erin!

A note about my card: I used the adorable Madd Hatter Peyton image (so fun!), and took poetic license in coloring him up with my Copic Markers. The background is from the MK-Designs Tea Time Add-on digi pack from Shabby Pickle Designs (thank you Betty, my chief enabler, for turning me on to this site!). I resized one of the 12 x 12 papers to 5 x 5 before printing it out. I made the TEXT background myself. I also followed Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #66.

Speaking of Betty, I got to meet her and her sweet (and adorable) daughter Rio tonight at our LSS for some scrapping/stamping time after first grabbing a bite to eat at Macaroni Grill (yum!). Betty is just as fun in person as she is on line. I'm so glad I've found a new friend to scrap with ... I've really missed crop nights since my BFF Des moved back to Arizona. (Hi Des! I miss you!) Betty and I are planning another crop day in April. So fun!

Have a WONDERful day!

You Are One of a Kind

Saturday means it's time for another wonderful sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop. I love the layering of this one... perfect for mixing patterned papers.

I also love this adorable image by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called One of a Kind. Birds are a favorite of mine, and these couldn't be more "tweet." I paired them with DP from the Green at Heart
collection by Basic Grey.

I'm sad to say that this will be my last official post as a Sugar Baby for The Sweet Stop, but certainly not the last time I will play in the weekly sketch challenges. Thank you, Korin, so very much for allowing me to be a part of your awesome weekly sketch challenge design team! You come up with some of the BEST sketches out there... not to mention DIGI images. I'll always be a fan!!!

Please be sure to stop by and see what the rest of the Sugar Babies have created with this sketch... and to say farewell to the other girls who are also retiring this month. It's always sad to say goodbye, but we look forward to seeing what the new Sugar Babies have in store to inspire and WOW us.

Have a "one of a kind" sort of day!!!

Hope Your Birthday Rocks!

TGIF!!! I'm enjoying a four-day weekend thanks to mandated furlough and Cesar Chavez. Happy am I!

Today is an extra-special edition of the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge because... get this...a huge prize is involved!

Fridays are Sketch Challenge days at the Taylored Expressions Blog and we'd love to have you play along! Every so often we'll have a fun added BONUS to playing the weekly TESC... PRIZES! You never know what week Taylor might offer a prize so be sure to check her blog every Friday for the sketch. Prizes will be given to Taylor's Top Crops. Today is one of those days as Taylor is offering BONUS PRIZES for TESC106. You'll have through April 2nd to play along and enter your card for a chance to win your choice of FREE STAMP SET from the Taylored Expressions Store. Winners will be announced on April 5th. You do not have to use TE stamps to enter (but of course we love it when you do *wink*.) Get all the details to play on Taylor's blog.

This past Wednesday was my son Collin's 22nd birthday. I wanted to make a card for him, but it couldn't be too fru-fru. With my new Taylored Expressions Rock Star Key Ingredients Kit and You're My Hero stamp set, it was a breeze!

This is definitely a Clean and Simple card, which feels very strange to me... I keep thinking something is missing...but Collin liked it, so I guess that's what matters. Sometimes less is more.

You definitely want to play with us this week for a chance to win a free stamp set, right? For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Sketch Crew to see what they've created with this awesome sketch:

Jami Sibley: More is More
Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

Melissa Sauls: In Stamping Mode
Rachel Sztonyk: Gingerbread Gallery
Alice Lihsuan-Wertz: Alice's Little Wonderland
Lori Craig: Make a Difference
and of course Taylor herself: Taylored Expressions

I hope your day ROCKS!!!

Hippity Hoppity

Happy Wednesday! It's time for more fun with La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! Our challenge hostess this week is my sweet friend Kim Yu. Love that girl! She picked an easy challenge for me... and that is to make your own flower embellishments. Anyone who visits my blog regularly knows how much I love making my own flowers!

I can't resist this cute Easter Bunny. I think she is my absolute favorite (I know, I say that about all of them, but really!) And guess what! She, along with the rest of the Easter/March release, are now available in rubber!!! So if you're not a digi person and prefer rubber, here's your chance! Of course, if you love digis and instant gratification, you can still get her as a digi stamp.

I followed Friday Sketchers #94 for my card. This is my first time playing in their challenge... I just recently found their blog while hopping around. You know me... I love a good sketch challenge! The DP is from the Penelope collection by SEI, which I think is retired.

I made the flowers by punching out two different sizes of flowers with my Marvy Uchida punches (the yellow and the blue sizes)... two of the blue size, and one of the yellow size for each flower. I then crumpled them up, smoothed them out, layered them, and sewed a button through all three, mounting with a pop dot. Easy! The best part is you can match your paper every time!

I hope you'll come by and play in our challenge this week. I'd love to see your handmade flowers paired with your favorite La-La Land Crafts image! There's a prize up for grabs... a $10 GC to spend on rubber stamps in the La-La Land Crafts store. Plus, this week only, Porsha (pictured) is on sale for 20% off!!!

Be sure to stop by the La-La Land Crafts Blog to see what the Design Team and Guest Designers have created for this challenge. You won't be disappointed!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm trying to get around and catch up on my blog visits... progress is slow but sure. Thanks for bearing with me!

Have a wonderful day!

Emma

Mondays are happy because they are the start of another fun challenge at The Pink Elephant! This week is a sketch challenge by the super talented Robin Willis! It's an unusual sketch with endless possibilities. You'll see lots of variations by The Pink Elephant Design Team on the blog. I love them all! I'm, like, why didn't I think of that???

I'm in LOVE with the Puddle Jumper images by the wonderful LORi Boyd for Claudia & Company. This is Emma. Isn't she sweet with her little bunny, just in time for Easter? Cute, cute, cute!!!

I hope you'll come and play with us this week. I'd love to see how you interpret this fun sketch.

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

Sending a smile across the miles...

A blessed Fifth Sunday in Lent to you!

This week's challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ is from our dear Ceal Pritchett. Ceal chose as the inspiration scripture Psalm 51:7-10 "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." The challenge is to make a Clean and Simple card/project.

I think we all need to ask God to create is us a pure heart and steadfast spirit probably every day. We are sinners by nature, and it's hard to do the "right thing" all the time, especially when we're under stress or feel we've been wronged. The good news is that because of the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! "Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." Yes, my friends, Jesus Paid It All. For that, I am eternally grateful.

My card follows Sketchtastically 83 at Clean & Simple Stamping. I'm thinking maybe it's not all that clean and simple after all, but I sure like how it turned out. (*grin*)

The cardstock is Kraft, Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz from Papertrey Ink. The stamp is from Everyday Button Bits by Papertrey Ink, stamped with New Leaf ink, and decorated with Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz buttons. The felt butterflies are by Heidi Grace.

Please come play with us this week at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. You'll surely be inspired when you see the CAS cards made by our awesome design team.

Before you go, here's a little something I felt compelled to share with you today. Blessings to you, my friends!

Sleepy Kitty

Happy Saturday everyone! Time for another awesome sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop! This week we have a "sketch with a spin," and the spin is fuzzy wuzzy!

Since ya'll know I LOVE my kitties, it was a natural for me to pull out this sweet digi image called Sleepy Kitty from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. In our house, the cats, especially Whitie, love to crawl into boxes and bags. It's more likely that I would find one of my dogs in my yarn basket. They love to sleep in the laundry basket. So funny.

I turned the sketch on its side for my card. The kitty is fuzzy wuzzy by applying Cotton Ball White fluff by Stampendous. I sure love the texture. Tip: when applying the glue, don't run over the digi lines. Smear city! I learned that the hard way. The Glue Pen works best because you can control the flow of the glue more easily and get around the lines.

The DP is from the Farm Fresh collection by October Afternoon, mounted on Kraft cardstock. The ribbon and button are from Papertrey Ink.

Be sure to click on over to The Sweet Stop to see the wonderful fuzzy wuzzy cards created by The Sugar Babies. I hope you'll play with us! This week's challenge comes with a chance to win a free digi stamp of your choice from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!

Have a wonderful, crafty day my friends!