Lucky Me!

Hello! I received a new box of goodies the other day and finally had a chance to sit down and play this morning. The card I made this morning was made using Basic Grey's Sugar Rush Card Kit, which I noticed is currently sold out at Paper Maniac. They do have the two newer kits, Kioshi and Green at Heart. The kit provides instructions for making 8+ cards. Of course, I wanted to make a card on my own. The kit includes pre-scored card stock, chipboard, die cuts, rub-ons, and even envelopes.

For this card, I used the rich raspberry colored base from the kit. I rounded the corners. I wrapped a ribbon around the square die cut and the "lucky me" postage stamp is a rub-on.
This card was soooo easy! It's so nice to have such a great variety of embellishments to pick from that all coordinate perfectly. BTW, this is a standard A2 card, it looks short and squat in the photo.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!!!

{Lucky Me}

Accessories: Card Base, Rub-On, Chipboard all from Sugar Rush Card Kit (Basic Grey), Parakeet Brads (Bazzill), Green Ribbon (Offray)

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Grateful for you...

Hello! I'm spending the day volunteering at my daughter's school today, but I made this card yesterday so I would have something to share today. This card sorta photographed a little weird. The brads and the green leaves are actually the same color in real life. For some reason the leaves photographed darker and I couldn't fix it with photo editing.

Anyway, like yesterday, I used a prepackaged blue note card as my card base. The white layer is vellum that is embossed with a swiss dots embossing folder. I love how it turns the dots white.
For the flower, I stacked a small blue flower on top of a medium green flower to make the green flower look like leaves.

I hope you are all having a great day. I hope I survive my day of volunteering at Halle's school! Thanks so much for stopping by today!!!

{grateful for you}

Stamps: Friends til the end (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Flowers (Prima), Silver Brad, Rhinestone (Michaels), Vellum, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug), Parakeet Brads (Bazzill), Prepackaged Blue Cards (Creative Imaginations), Corner Rounder Punch (EK Success)

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Easter Wishes...

Hello! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was pretty uneventful and relaxing. My card for today uses the Mojo Monday sketch. I love square cards filled with big circles, so this layout was right up my alley. The patterned paper I used is from Papertrey Ink and I've had it forever. I don't know why, but it just screams Easter to me. I think I've also used it for a first communion card a while back. I used some prepackaged cards for my base. I love the texture they add.

I was disappointed my bow didn't photograph well in the above picture. This is what it really looks like:
Perfect bows are hard to come by, so I wanted to make sure I got to show this one off!

I hope your week getting off to a good start! Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today!

{Easter Wishes}

Stamps: Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink), Pocket Silhouettes (SU)
Card Stock: SS White (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Everyday Blessings (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Sage Shadow, Not Quite Navy (SU)
Accessories: Prepackaged Blue Card (Creative Imaginations), Coluzzle, Yellow Ribbon (Offray), Brad (JoAnn's), Stampin' Sponge (SU), Foam Dimensionals, Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp)

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OCC Challenge - Sketch Challenge

Hello! I'm here with a new Our Creative Corner challenge. This week, Silke gave us a sketch to follow. The card I made is one of those that just look better when seen in person. There are a lot of little details that were hard to show in the photo. The colors for this card were simply pulled from the piece of striped patterned paper.

I used Butterfly Kisses (Papertrey Ink) for my butterflies, and the wings are clear embossed. I hope you can see that in the photo below. I used pewter pearls for the butterfly centers. I love this 3D look.
The thread that I wrapped around the card stays in place with a notch that I created with a 1/8" hole punch. I love how that part turned out.

Check out Our Creative Corner to see the sketch and all the DT samples. I hope you can make time to play along!

{all things grow with love}

Stamps: Everyday Button Bits, Butterfly Kisses (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Basic Black (SU)
Patterned Paper: Sweet Love Tablet (Little Yellow Bicycle)
Ink: Basic Black (SU)
Accessories: Pewter Pearls (Kaiser Craft), 1/8th" Hole Punch (SU), Corner Rounder Punch (EK Success), Thread, Foam Dimensionals, Pink Rhinestones (Kaiser Craft)

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All things grow with love {Embellish Challenge}

Hello! Don't you just love Friday's? Thanks to my Mom (hi Mom!), I have "me time" on Friday's. I usually use this time to make a card or two and then catch up on housework. Today, I really wanted to get back into creating and enjoy it. I didn't want to just make any card because I have a blog and that's what I'm supposed to do. I wanted to make a card because I wanted to make a card.

I found the perfect challenge to sink my teeth into. Embellish Magazine issued a new challenge this morning to use light pink, kraft, and light aqua and to also use stitching on your card.

My inspiration came from this card, that I am still smitten with. I distressed some of the edges and used a white gel pen to create some faux stitching. I love the combination of those two techniques. The finished card size is a 4.25" square.

I hope you are all having a great day too! I'll be back bright and early tomorrow morning with a sketch challenge from Our Creative Corner.

{all things grow with love}

Stamps: Everyday Button Bits (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Kraft, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Sweet Love Tablet (Little Yellow Bicycle), Love Me Do (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Sage Shadow (SU)
Accessories: Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp), White Gel Pen (Sakura), Rhinestone (Bazzill), Flower Punch (EK Success), Heart Punch (Paper Shapers), Foam Dimensionals, White Grosgrain Ribbon (Offray)

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she loves you...

Hello! Wow, it sure feels like I've been MIA for a while. It's so hard to start something again once you've had a week break. Even though I love what I do, it's hard to get back in it. Especially when I have so many great shows on the DVR and a jam packed Google Reader.

When I walked into my studio this morning, I saw the "bones" of this card. I started this card about two weeks ago and then gave up on it. Well, this morning I added some ribbon and a sentiment, and VOILA a finished card. Now that is how you ease back in!
This card uses a lot of elements from different collections. I have started to love mixing collections and companies.

I hope you are all having a great week!!!

{she loves you}

Card Stock: Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Earth Love (Cosmo Cricket), Notes Ledger (Creative Imaginations)
Accessories: Foam Dimensionals, Sentiment from Love Me Do collections (My Mind's Eye), Red Satin Ribbon (Offray), Coluzzle

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Our Trip to Disney!!!

Hey guys! We are finally back from Disney World and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. It's so hard to go from Spring Break/Disney World mode to the real world. Disney really is a magical place. We had an amazing trip (except for a little trip to the ER in the middle of the night with Halle- she ended up having bronchitis).

We spent five days in Disney World (one day in Hollywood Studios, one in Animal Kingdom, one in Epcot, and two in Magic Kingdom). We stayed at a Disney Resort and used the Disney Dining Plan. It was great, although I'm pretty sure I gained about 10 pounds. We were never hungry.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip, in no particular order. I had to narrow these few down from 458 pictures.
Halle and Colin loved collecting autographs. Mary Poppins was their favorite. Colin had me write "I love" on his autograph page so that when Mary Poppins signed it, it would say "I love Mary Poppins". All of the characters that can talk (like Mary Poppins and the princesses) have to stay in character and in the correct time period, which is really neat. We got Mary Poppins' autograph in the England district in Epcot.
Halle and Colin getting Minnie's autograph in Animal Kingdom.
Halle and Colin with Jiminy Cricket in Magic Kingdom.
Halle, Colin, and Scott posing in front of a rhino in Animal Kingdom.
Halle and Colin with Cinderella at the "Princesses & Friends" character lunch in the Norway district of Epcot.

Here we are with Sorcerer Mickey in Magic Kingdom.

Here we are standing in front of Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom.
Here we all are again in front of the huge golf ball in Epcot.
Halle and Colin with Pluto in Magic Kingdom.
This was Halle's very favorite thing she did the whole week. She was picked to "drive" the boat on the "Jungle Cruise" ride. She got to "drive" the boat under a waterfall.
Here's my little guy sleeping with Woody. He bought Woody during the first day at Disney and has slept with him every night since. Every night, the kids were asleep within 20 minutes of getting back to our room.

We had so much fun! Thanks for letting me share our trip with you!!!

PS. I hope to get back in the studio soon. I had grand plans of sketching layouts during our 14 hour drive, but no such luck. Just catching up with stuff around the house and then I'll be back with some new cards to share.

PPS. This experience has really gotten me itching to make a scrap book using pictures from our trip. I don't know, seems like a big challenge!

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OCC Challenge - Easter!

Hello! I'm here with a new challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week we are challenging you to create an Easter themed card (and if you don't celebrate Easter, any spring-y card will do). I chose to use some pastel paper scraps from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love collection.
For the card's center, I tried to match up the card stock with the patterned papers as best I could. The circle was cut using my Coluzzle and then I distressed the edges. The flower and leaves were cut using a set of dies called Birds & Blooms, which is a Stampin' Up Sizzix set.

If you haven't already, make sure you hop over to Our Creative Corner and see all the other DT Easter creations. Have a great weekend!!!

{Easter Wishes}

Stamps: Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Sweet Blush, Ocean Tides, Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink), Really Rust, Mellow Moss (SU)
Patterned Paper: Earth Love (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink: Sage Shadow (SU)
Accessories: Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp), Birds & Blooms Sizzix Dies (SU), Coluzzle Cutting System, Square Punch, Foam Dimensionals

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Paper Maniac Thursday - Flowers Galore!

We are getting in the swing of spring over at the Paper Maniac Blog! We've been focusing on flowers this week. In creating my card, I used a stamp set from Our Craft Lounge called Thankful Flourishes. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the green card stock base has small flowers stamped on it using Versamark.
The center of the flower was stamped on a separate piece of card stock, punched out with a circle punch and then covered with Crystal Effects to give it a shiny appearance.

Thanks so much for visiting today!!!

{Thankful Thoughts}

Stamps: Thankful Flourishes (Our Craft Lounge)

Card Stock: Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Lavender Lace (SU), Versamark

Accessories: Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp), Foam Dimensionals, Coluzzle Circle Cutting System, Script Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

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Celebrate Today...

Hello! Guess where I am? Take a look at my card for a hint! Yes, we are in Disney World!!! My card is supposed to look like the silhouette of Mickey Mouse, but Halle said it looked more like a bear. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

We will be in Disney World all week, but I do have some cards and posts lined up so you don't miss me too much. I have never been to Disney before and the kids are at the perfect age to really enjoy it. We are driving 14 hours to get there!!! It will be worth it, I just know it!!!

I made this card with one large circle and two smaller ones for the ears. I adhered them all down and then faux stitched around the Mickey/Bear. Easy! In hindsight, maybe I should have pulled the ears out a little further? I don't know.
The finished card size is a 3" square.

I hope you are having a great week so far. So long from the happiest place on earth!!!

{Celebrate Today}

Stamps: Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Enchanted Evening, Pure Poppy, SS White (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Brilliant Blue (SU)
Accessories: White Gel Pen (Sakura), Coluzzle Circle Cutting System, Foam Dimensionals

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OCC Color Challenge

Hello! I'm back with a new challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week we have a color challenge for you. The colors are yellow, pink, green, and brown. I sketched this layout a while back in my card sketch book. I'm glad I was finally able to use it. It's a great layout for color challenges, just switch out the colors to the ones you need.

There is faux stitching around each rectangle, although it didn't really show up on the yellow. I really love my little, tiny bow. I initially made it larger, but it just didn't look right.

If you haven't done so already, head on over to Our Creative Corner and check out what the rest of the DT created with this yummy color combo!

Have a great weekend!

{There's no one like you friend}

Stamps: Friend's 'til the end (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Dark Chocolate, Lemon Tart, Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado, SS White (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Old Olive (SU)
Accessories: Pink Ribbon (Offray), Foam Dimensionals, White Gel Pen (Sakura)

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