Bling for MFT Stamps

I love bling... I love pink... I love chocolates... and I love diamonds!! Why not have them all???!!! I made this card for My Favorite Things Stamps Guest Designer Challenge. I haven't had much luck lately at winning many things... hee hee... but heck why stop trying and... when it involved BLING... YOU BETCHA I'll play!!! My card uses MFT's newest set, "Love at Fist Sight" by Amanda Baird. I think this is just a perfect set for Valentine's Day. I mean look at her... your special someone will wonder.. "does she adore me??? or the chocolates?? or the diamonds?" Hee Hee IF they are like my DH... they will KNOW, she loves them ALL!!! Ha!! I colored in my images with my Copic markers and added the bling to the chocolates. But... my DP also has a sugar coat to it as well. Kind of hard to see it in the pink flower DP but it's there!! I didn't show the inside but trust me.. more bling inside!! My second card I did was using "Time for the Bubbly". I colored it in Copic markers and cut it completely apart from the actual stamp. I used my Scor Pal to draw half inch squares across the top half of my card base and turned it and did the same in the opposite direction. I then covered it in Versamark and Clear Embossing powder to create a "tile" wall background. My bling for this card was my half pearls to be used in place of the bubbles. And boy did she have LOTS of bubbles!! *smile* I paper pieced the rug under the tub and used the same DP for the inside. Wish me luck in the challenge. Have a great day and go eat some chocolate... or better still... what the heck... go buy yourself some diamonds! *smile*

A Secret Santa!

Well, Christmas is over and ALL the secrets are out. Well... most anyway. So today I wanted to share you with a card I made for a dear "book club" friend when I was her Secret Santa. Sure... if she reads this, she'll know it's me. But hey... like I said... Christmas is over and ALL the secrets are revealed, right??? My dear friend indicated she loves pinks and browns together AND blues and browns. So, I started with my card in the pink and brown. I used Melanie Muenchinger's, "A Year of Flowers" poinsettia stamp and colored it in with my Copic markers. I used my circle Nesties and embossed it and sponged on the brown completely covering the inner area. Then I cut out the poinsettias and adhered them to the circle with my pop ups. My tag is from my Nesties as well and I sponged the pink inside and the brown on the little embossed dots around the sentiment. Instead of running the ribbon completely around my card, I decided to just run it under the Nestie label. I embossed the background with my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder. I also covered her book in blues and brown because she likes those colors as well. I used a freebie pattern from Stamp TV, Sweet Treat Gift basket. I didn't add the ovals to the sides but instead put little bows on the corners. I filled her basket with little goodies. *smile* I also added some cappucino mix and some of my favorite chocolates so she could munch while she reads her book. I hope she liked them as much as I had fun making them. I love surprises! Have a good day! *smile*

Simple Elegance???

I'm always amazed at how just a simple stamp can be turned into such a elegant, pretty card with simply just the right DP and a small amount of effort. My card today was done for a color challenge over on Stamp TV to use pink, brown and white. I used Nina Brackett's, "Lovely Shelf" and paper pieced the vase so that it was on pink paper and I could still color the flower in with my Copic markers. Also, it might be kind of hard to see, but the DP I stamped the vase on has tiny white dots on it. My white background DP is also somewhat a glossy/foil type paper and I LOVE it! It was a nice little gift from some special people this year along with my favorite Kaiser pearls in the lower corner. I am very blessed to have such wonderful friends. *smile* I wasn't sure how I wanted to use this card so I simply used the "Just for You" sentiments from Nina's set. ALL the sentiments in that set are so pretty and use the same font as this one which I just love. I hope you stop over to Stamp TV and try some of the color challenges. It definitely has broadened my use of colors together... some I would never consider using and they turn out wonderfully. Have a great day! *smile*

"Unforgettable... that's what you are..."

I LOVE this song. Mostly because my DH says it reminds him of me... (boy that just makes you wanna barf, huh? LOL). He's very sentimental but he'd NEVER let anyone else know that. HA! So when Gina K offered up this wonderful "free with three", "Sweetest Memories" set, I KNEW I'd have to have it. This plus one of my all-time favorite quotes is in there as well. My card was done for Jenny Harper's sketch challenge over on Stamp TV. A very simple yet fun layout. I normally go pretty close to the sketch with the exact type of shapes, etc. that is used, but this time I went with a rectangle where the circle sketch was and a Nesties label where she has a larger Nestie shape. I used Nina Brackett's, "Lovely Shelf" for my candle and I went a step further and used the corner of the "doilie" to print a design on the candle. My DP came from the paper pack, "Ducks in a Row". I hope you had many many sweet memories from 2009 and that 2010 will bring even sweeter ones. I want to take a minute to thank all my followers for supporting me and visiting my blog. It's been almost a year since I started this blog and I NEVER thought I'd be able to 1) keep up with it... 2) keep up with making cards to post every day.. and 3) that anyone would ever visit it! HA! Boy was I wrong! I'd especially like to give a little shout out to Craftieodamae who visits my sight EVERY day and rarely misses leaving a comment! Thank you for being such a dedicated follower! Again... you all have really made wonderful memories for me by leaving comments and visiting a blog I never thought would draw nearly as many people as it has. I appreciate each and every one of you! *smiles*

Always in our Hearts

When Theresa Momber came out with her "Life is Good" set it made my heart fall. The train was something my dear dear father-in-law would have loved to see on a card. He was a huge fan of trains and I'll never forget how much he loved getting gifts from us that were train related. It was hard for me to actually do this card because I felt a bit of sadness as I was trying to lay it out. I know that I will make something more with this wonderful train but the first shot was, hopefully, the hardest. I used my Koh-i-noor pencils with mineral spirits to color the train. I love the ease you can shade with these pencils. Also, it was Selma's Blast from the Past challenge on Stamp TV and I wanted to play along. Be sure to check out the Blast from the Past challenges when you can. They all have videos from Gina K herself on Stamp TV that show just how easy it is to use these techniques. Have a great day! *smile*

Melanie's 2nd Year Blog Hop

Melanie Muenchinger is celebrating two years of blogging and illustrating for Gina K Designs, and today she has invited 25 designers and YOU to join the party! First hop through the following designers' blogs using every set she has created since January 2008, from the first to the 25th! Then go to Melanie's' blog to leave a comment for a chance to win a number of different prizes! So let's get hopping!

My card features the "Sporty Accessories" set and I can't tell you how many sports you'll cover with this set! It was hard to pick one for the hop but I decided to use the hockey sticks and pucks since we are in the middle of winter!! I also used the skates from Melanie's, "School, Sports, Spirit" set and my sentiment is from the "Just so Sporty" set. Of course, the locker goes with ALL sports!!

I mounted everything on Gina K's digital paper and colored with my Copic markers. On the skates I used the Stardust Glitter pen though it's hard to see here, it gives them a real look of stainless steel.

I used the pucks as my "brads", if you will, on my nestie. Check out all the bloggers that were just as honored to design for such a talented illustrator. This will be fun!!

Here we go! Just So Hippy-Charmaine Just So Hoppy-Donna What’s in Your Tin 1 & 2-Donna Hip Hop Accessories-Bee Jumping for Joy-Barb Cuddles and Hugs-Jessie Little Tees-Cat Just So Sporty-Pam A Year of Flowers-Theresa Say it with Flowers-Selma Have a Cookie-Carolina Tee Talk-Gabby Hand in Hand-Ally The Best Things in Life-Shannon;, Sankari A Charmed Life-Cathy Wee Tees-Libby;, Laura Jean Arranged with Love-Selma Sporty Accessories-Tina (You are here!) Inspiration Mosaic-Jennie School Sports Spirit-Melissa A Year of Leaves-Geri Hip to Be Square-Karen Festive Frame-Linda Tech Talk- Lee; Finally,; Nina and Jessica; from the GinaK Senior Design Team have joined in, too! You can also get in on the hop yourself and increase your chances of winning a prize by creating your own project with any one of Melanie's sets and linking it in the Mr. Linky in her post, see full details here. Hope you can join the fun! Enjoy your first hop of the year!

Make it a GREAT year... follow Melanie and all the wonderful stamps she creates.