Quacking Creations

I'm Still Alive and Waddling....

2010-08-14T19:26:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone out there in blogland who might still be listening for a random quack-out from me from time to time! I know it's been months hasn't it? And I apologize for not updating sooner then this but well, life gets in the way of the fun sometimes and one just needs to step back from it all.... And that's what I've had to do for awhile. Don't worry, everything is going well for us. No major issues or concerns to complain about. God is good. :)

I'm still warping the minds of young children and both of our families are doing pretty wonderful. Andrew was without a job for several months but he's got one now and loving it! My dear dad is still making strides in his cancer recovery and is actually scheduled to have his next major surgery next week, where they plan to reverse his ilesotomy. So please keep him and the doctors in your prayers. They tried to do so in May but had done the wrong tests and didn't realize it until taking him into for surgery. Bit of a disappoint to wake up to it not being done but always rather be safe, you know!

Stamping and photos are still my favorite hobbies but I sort of taken a break and am letting my creative jucies ebb and flow for a bit to get myself recharged. Also in May our computer had a bit of a burnout. It didn't crash per say but after a surge it blow the powercell, the motherboard and heavens knows what else. The harddrive is currenting in the loving hands of a very good friend who hasn't had time to completely devote (can only complain so much about FREE help and assistance, ya know!) to getting my 15,000+ photos off of it as well as several programs that I used regularly that I can't get into any other way. As you can imagine, I was very close a heart attack for about 2-3 weeks as I was kept wondering whether I'd ever see our photos and certain creations again. PATIENCE!!!! We had just purchased the backup to take care of such issues from ever happening but the power surge beat us to it. (Yes it was on a surge protector...BTW. Guess they only protect to a degree.) Oddly enough, the friend who always let me use their laptop when we had our on-going internet issues, dropped and busted theirs as well. :(

And b/c of that major bump in the road, I have still been unable to access my main email account. When you put your passwords into the program and then don't access them for four years.... this would be the result! I've tried everything I can think of! Not to mention that many of my favorite website passwords were keyed in automatically as well. It's taken a LOOOONNGGG while to get some of those figured out but I'm getting there! Very frustrating at times but it's all good. :) Currently, we have a shiny new laptop....

Anyways.... I digress! I just wanted to let you all know I've doing fine. There have been a few of you who have gone above and beyond to check on me and I'm touched by that! Thanks for being such wonderful cyber friends. Life is good and I hope to be back creating and sharing just like old times in the near future!
Much love and hugs,
Angie :)

April's Fools Day Fun

2010-04-01T08:00:00.029-04:00

Today is April Fool's Day, and the sticks in the bread basket have been up to a little mischief! More about that in a minute. First, here are the basics on today's release and how you can win a gift certificate to purchase some of these fantastic new sets!

For today's New Release at ODBD, we are not doing a "formal Blog Hop", but the team has all posted a card using the new sets and are linking each other in their posts. There are no secret words or letters to collect. However, just like in a blog hop, there will be prizes for viewing every DT's blog, leaving comments on all those you can, and returning to the ODBD Blog to tell us you have done so. Two winners will be randomly chosen from those who do this, and they will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate toward stamps from the ODBD Store. (Note: the ODBD Blog can now take anonymous comments so everyone should be able to do this and if anyone cannot make a comment on any designer's blog, just state that in the comment at the end on the ODBD Blog) You have until 8PM Eastern on April 2 to complete these requirements.

Card Supplies:

Stamps: ODBD Happy Father's Day, Dad

Paper: DCWV At Home, GKD

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Ranger Distress Ink Frayed Burlap

Embellishments: GKD Buttons

So with today being April Fool's Day, the Sticks in the Bread Basket decided it would be fun to play a little game with the new release sets. Each cased another DT member and then sent their card to that person to post on their blog today. The fun is going to be to see how well Kelley really knows her team, because she has to guess who created which card. We'll ask her to make a list of each DT member and write next to their name who she thinks made the card they posted. It's all just in fun, but if you'd like to play along, feel free! You can email your guesses to Grace at: gnywening@yahoo.com up until 8PM Eastern on April 2. ONLY ONE email please! The one or ones (in the case of a tie) who correctly guessed the most will be given recognition on the ODBD Blog.

Now to continue the fun, here are the next three designers after me, take you back to the beginning again but in case you missed anyone here they are:
Sandee
Connie
Chris
And if you get lost or hit a broken link you can always pop back over to the ODBD blog for the entire list. :)

Thanks for playing along with us! Have fun in your blog hopping! :)

Our Daily Bread Designs Second Anniversary Blog Hop

2010-03-17T05:58:00.003-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wooo Hoo! Today's the big day! It's the Second Anniversary of Our Daily Bread designs! ODBd has been celebrating for the last 5 days with daily challenges, prizes, blog candy and beautiful creations! If you came here from Lorelie's Blog, you are in the right place! If not you might want to start at the ODBD Blog and hop in the order given there so you can collect the secret letters in order!

Today, Kelley is releasing FOUR new and truly wonderful Special Edition sets! They are near and dear to our hearts, because each of us on the Design Team submitted one of our favorite Scripture verses that we would like to put on a card, and those Scripture Verses are two of the sets being released today. If that wasn’t exciting enough… she also created two sets of gorgeous borders that fit the Scriptures! If you want that special touch to present your sentiments in, be sure to check out these beautiful borders!

Today’s Blog Hop is extra special because it allows each of the Design Team members to make the first card with their own favorite Scripture! We hope you will truly enjoy the hop… and of course it wouldn’t be a Blog Hop without prizes! And today, Kelley is going to give 3 prizes of your choice from one of these new Anniversary sets!

The verse I submitted this year is Psalm 47:2 "How Awesome is the Lord Most High, The Great King over all the earth!" Isn't that just a beautiful praise and a fabulous reminder of how wonderful our Creator is!

About my Card: I used a combination of several gorgeous SEI papers (First Kiss, Secret Rendevous, Sweet Perfum, & Juliette Velvet) that you can find in the ODBd Store, along with an assortment of Prima flowers and leaves. The Nestabilities diecuts are from the Labels Two set. All of the rhinestone swirls are also from Prima. Several of the layers are popped up and edges are sponged with Walnut Stain and I used several assorted corners punches. The card is 5.5 square. Hope you enjoy seeing my creation!

Here is what you have to do to qualify for the prizes:

* Hop from first to last, and collect the secret LETTER each designer will have. * Leave a comment for the designer on their blog.
* Return to the ODBD blog, leaving a comment to tell us that you visited all the blogs.
* Email Grace at:gnywening@yahoo.com, sending her the secret message the letters spell.

*You have until 8:00 PM EST on Mar 18th to complete the hop and email me the message. The winners will be announced on the ODBD Blog on Mar. 19th!

From here you need to go visit Sandee!
My secret letter is: S!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Flocked Glory

2010-03-09T07:01:00.001-05:00

Hello friends! Today I'm sharing a simple creation I made using the new ODBd set, The Lord has Risen. The violets were stamped in a sepia color ink and I colored them using several Copic markers. It's hard to gather from the picture but I misted the flowers with Gold Glimmer Mist (my fav!) and then dotted the centers with a touch of stickles glitter. The sentiment tag and diecut behind it, were cut from the Labels Three Nestabilities set. I sponged a bit of chocolate ink around the edges of everything except the card base. And check out that card base - its a 5x5 piece of some rather glorious flocked flower pattern, I happened upon a few months ago. The satin ribbon and the tiny cross charm help to round out this sweet and simple card! Hope you enjoy this card and have a wonderful day!

Our Daily Bread Designs March Release Blog Hop!

2010-03-01T07:55:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs March Release Blog Hop!

If you arrived here from Chelsea's blog, you are in the right place! If not, you might want to start at the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to be sure you hop in the correct order, because we are having a Special Message Hop, and you will be collecting our Secret Words as you hop along, so you will want them in the order given!

You have until Tues at 8:00PM EST to complete the requirements to be eligible to win.

There will be TWO BLESSED WINNERS... who will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate to the Our Daily Bread designs Store to go toward the stamps of your choice! Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualified entries, and announced on Wed. Mar.3 on the ODBD Blog!

Here is what you need to do to be eligible to win:

1. Hop from blog to blog in the order given below, writing down the secret words you will find clearly written in their posts, and leaving a comment on each blog.

2. Return to the ODBD Blog and leave a comment that you completed the hop and left comments for each designer.

3. Email me (Grace) at: gnywening@yahoo.com

In the email, give me the secret words you found in order .... they will spell out a special message from the Our Daily Bread designs Design Team to you!

If for any reason a link is broken, simply return to the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to see who is next on the list, leaving a space for the missing words. Most often if you can't get on a blog or leave a comment now.... if you wait a little while and try again you usually can.

Now on to my projects. I created a simple one-layer card using each of the three new stamp sets:

Each card is on one-layer of white cardstock with the images watercolored with reinkers and an aqua pen. The top and bottom cards are the normal A2 size while the middle one is 4x4 square. They each have a different type of sparkle to them as well. The popped up and colored violets are misted with Gold Glimmer Mist, the daffodil and words are highlighted with a Stardust Gelly pen, and the bells are touched up with diamond stickles. Hope you enjoy these!

Before you go, I want to tell you about the exciting events we have planned for you this month! March 17 is the Second Anniversary of Our Daily Bread designs, and we are celebrating!!!

Be sure to check the ODBD Blog on Sunday, Mar. 7! We will be announcing fun challenges that will run Mar. 13 - 16 so you can get a jump on them.... Then beginning on Sat. Mar. 13, we will be announcing a daily challenge and there will be wonderful prizes EVERY DAY! On Mar. 17 we will have another Blog Hop, revealing the Special Edition Anniversary Release! I hope we'll see you then!!!

I hope you enjoyed my project, and now I'll send you on to Lorelie's blog for more beautiful flowers and spring-time inspiration!
Before you go, my secret word is: appreciate.

Thank so much for stopping by today! Have a wonderful week!

Tweets to You!

2010-02-15T17:58:00.000-05:00

Hi there! Hope ya'll had a lovely Valentine's Day! I've got two more cards to share with you in the same line as my last post - simple, one-layer and pretty. :) Still working with the wonderful bird sets from ODBd. It's been a super busy month and I haven't had much time to touch anything else! But I do love these sweet birdies!

I used the cardinal from Sing for Joy here along with the little pine branch stamp for around the edges. I watercolored with SU reinkers and I also highlighted a lot with SU markers. After I colored it, I sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink and misted the card with gold Glimmer Mist. I stamped and popped up three more pine branches and added the little metal charm that says peace. Think this ones going in the file for some of this upcoming Christmas cards. :)

This one I think came out so sweet! Even hubby really liked it! :) The chickadee and verse are both from the You Will Find Refuge set. Again I watercolored the bird using SU reinkers. The berries are stickled up a bit for some extra glitz. I love how the wired ribbon really sets this simple card off! It was a cheap find from Michael's.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your week is off to a great start! :)

Simple Sparrow

2010-02-07T11:41:00.000-05:00

Hello all! Thanks for stopping by today! Today I have a sweet little card for you using one of the beautiful new bird sets by ODBd, called He Watches Me. It's been a little while since I played around with making some simple one-layers and I'm thinking you might see more from me with these new bird sets. They're prefect for making beautiful yet quick cards, don't ya think? I love how this one turned out!

The image and sentiment were stamped in Jet Black and I colored the sparrow with SU reinkers and a few markers. Edges are inked with Brocade Blue by SU. I love how bright all the colors turned out.- great springy feel to it, don't ya think? The lettuce ribbon is from Making Memories and the purple velvet ricrac from May Arts, I believe. Pearls were the final touch and once again, I was able to refrain for glitzing it up with any form of shimmer - hey its been known to happen now and again! LOL! :)

Thank for all your kind words for my card during the ODBd blog hop and for those of you kind enough to check in on me while I was absent - the computer and internet glitches are finally worked out!

Our Daily Bread designs February Blog Hop

2010-02-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome to the Our Daily Bread designs

February Release Blog Hop!

Happy February to you! If you arrived here from Dawn's blog, you are in the right place! This is the last stop on our Blog Hop today! If you just happened upon my blog, you might want to start at the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to be sure you hop in the correct order, because we are having a Scripture Hop, and you will be collecting our Secret Scripture Words as you hop along, so you will want them in the order given!

You have until Thurs. Feb 4th at 8:00PM EST to complete the requirements to be eligible to win.

The exciting news is that there will be THREE WONDERFUL WINNERS who will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate to the Our Daily Bread designs Store to go toward the stamps of your choice! Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualified entries.

Here is what you need to do to be eligable to win:

Hop from blog to blog in the order given below, writing down the secret words you will find clearly written in their post, and leaving a comment on each blog.

Return to the Our Daily Bread designs Blog and leave a comment that you completed the hop and left comments for each designer.

Email Grace at: gnywening@yahoo.com - In the email, give her the secret words you found in order .... they will spell out a Scripture verse.

For an extra chance to win, send her another email telling her the Scripture reference where the verse can be found.

Remember if for any reason a link is broken, simply return to the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to see who is next on the list, leaving a space for the missing words. Most often if you can't get on a blog or leave a comment now.... if you wait a little while and try again you usually can.

And now here is a card I created using stamps from two of the wonderful new sets!

I used the sweet little image from the Nest set and a verse from the He Watches Me set. The image is watercolored and eggs are highlighted with diamond stickles. I added the tiny Prima flowers with glue dots, then misted it with gold Glimmer Mist. I love how those bright flowers pop out at ya! The main image layers were diecut using Nestabilities Label Two dies, while I hand cut the little scripture tag. The paper patterns are by K&Company's Classic K Margo line. Hope you like my creation! :)

Now before you leave here are my two secret Scripture words for you ~ His head.

Since I'm the last stop, from here you will need to hop on back the Our Daily Bread designs Blog.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

An ODBd Challenge for You!

2010-01-09T07:55:00.002-05:00

Are you ready for an Our Daily Bread designs Challenge? We sure are and the challenge for January is to use BROWN and PUNCHES or DIES on your creations. You do not have to use ODBd stamps to participate but we'd love to see them if you do own some! The challenge will run now through 8pm EST, Jan 23 and the prize for this challenge will be given to 2 participants ~ a $15 gift certificate to the ODBd store! You will need to leave a link to your creation via Mr. Linky on the ODBd blog and the keyword to use for uploading to online galleries is ODBDC110. Have fun getting creative with this challenge! :)

For this challenge I created a framed inspirational art piece using the images from the new Confirmation set and a verse from the new Baptism & Confirmation set. The cross image is stamped in Old Olive with the verse stamped over it in Chocolate Chip Craft ink and the edges sponged with Walnut Stain ink. I cut it out using the center piece of the Classic Frame die and then I diecut the frame out of glittered pattern paper from My Mind's Eye to fit around it. The frame and it's center were put together and popped up of off another glittered pattern from MME. I added the the punched photo corners and mounted it on a piece of shimmery metallic bronze ore cardstock and then a dark olive shade of cardstock. The final touch was adding a few pearls and the dove which I watercolored, cutout and highlighted parts with a Stardust Gelly Roll glitter pen. What do you think? :)

Be sure to stop on by the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to see what wonderful creations the rest of the design team has made! Here are links to a few of the girls' creations:

Sabrina
Julie
Christine
Debi
Kathy
Dawn
And as always you can certainly visit the ODBd Card Gallery for lots of design inspiration!

And don't forget - to celebrate our new Member company status, we’re giving away a BIG prize!!! If you visit the ODBD Forum Welcome Thread and leave a comment by January 10, (tomorrow) you will be entered in a drawing to win a $50.00 Gift Certificate to the ODBD Store!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful and blessed day! :)

Patience is a Virtue They Say...

2010-01-07T21:27:00.000-05:00

The New Year got started with a bang and we were going full speed ahead into it when it came to a screeching halt earlier this week! We upgraded to wireless internet in our house last week and then it quit working! It's been very trying on the patience! Several days and multiple phone calls later we finally seem to be connected again to the world wide web! Woohoo!!

Now onto a card in case it tries to stop working on us again....
Here's a simple and (mostly) clean card using a verse stamp from the new ODBd Confirmation set. The base is a very dark, rich shade of a deep chocolaty brown textured cardstock - it looks black in the picture. I used the Labels Three Nestabilities dies for the verse and it's mount. The verse is stamped in Sepia, lightly sponged around the edges and mounted on copper shimmer cardstock. The print under the copper is by My Mind's Eye with a copper foil print under that by SEI. .

Before I go, I just wanted to say a big thank you to all who stopped by during the Our Daily Bread designs blog hop. It was a great time and ya'll were so sweet in your comments! Have a wonderful day!

ODBD New Year's Day Blog Hop

2010-01-01T07:55:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR my friends and thanks for stopping in today! Wow, it's 2010! I'm so excited to see what it holds for us all! Today is a new release day for ODBd and there are 3 new sweet sets being added that are perfect for Baptisms, Confirmation, and New Baby cards!. And along with the new sets there is some great news - Our Daily Bread designs is now a Member Company on Splitcoaststampers!! You can check it out here!

Now onto the blog hop... Welcome to the first Our Daily Bread designs Blog Hop of 2010!! If you arrived here from Becca's blog, then you are in the right place, but if you just happened upon my blog, you might want to start at the ODBd blog and hop from there through each of the blogs, commenting and then ending back up at the ODBd blog to let us know which is your favorite set and why! Kelley is going to be picking 3 winners from those who comment at each ODBd blog and they'll each get to pick a stamp set of their choice! How awesome! :)

Here's a card I created using the new Confirmation set.
Card Supplies: Stamps - Confirmation; Inks - Sepia; Papers - Chocolate Chip, White, Patterns by My Mind's Eye; Accessories - Velvet Ribbon, Labels 3 Nestie, Rhinestones, Corner Punch, Embossing Scallop Punch, Pop Dots; Techniques - Diecut, Sponging.

This blog hop runs through Monday Jan. 4 at 8PM EST! From here you will hop on over to Sabrina's blog! And don't forget to check out new ODBd Member Forum and be entered into a drawing to win a $50 gift certificate to the ODBd store! Again thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day! :)

Happy New Year's Eve Wishes to all!

2009-12-31T10:45:00.000-05:00

Hello! It's the end of the year and it sure was a great one despite Andrew losing his job and a few other setbacks! We certainly can't complain because God has always been so good to us no matter what we go through! I sure hope things only get better in 2010! I'm looking forward to what the future holds! ;)

So we're home from our trip to Atlanta and it was a fabulous time spent with Andrew's family! Lots more good times are on the agenda for the next few days as well! I'm busy trying out my new camera and figuring out what to create with some of my new stamping goodies!

I had shared with you all a few weeks ago that I had been busy working on a project for my Mom and here are a few pics of those cards. Rather simple one-layer designs and the watercoloring didn't even take too long on them! The poinsettia is a PSX stamp and nativity along with the sentiments are from Our Daily Bread Designs. They're all shown laying out like this b/c I found it the quickest way to Glimmer Mist them all at once, on a towel! The background it stamped with the Amazing Grace Hymn stamped in Antique Linen with the main image embossed in black over it. The sentiments were stamped in Jet Black ink. After I watercolored the images and sponged the edges with Walnut Stain, I highlighted a few spots on each with Diamond or Gold Stickles and the Glimmer Mist was the final touch. My Mom used them as programs for a Christmas Banquet at their church. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by on this last day of the year and for all your visit throughout the year! Can't wait to see ya in 2010! Best Wishes for a very blessed NEW YEAR!!!!

And here's a fun shot from my shiny new camera to leave you with.... Hugs!!!

Dreamy Castle

2009-12-26T07:38:00.001-05:00

Happy Saturday! Did ya'll enjoy a nice Christmas, filled with fun surprises? Mine sure was! Andrew really surprised me this year!! He's apparently been saving like mad and got me a new camera - a Nikon digital SLR! I've been dreaming and drooling over a DSLR for about 2 years now so I'm just blown away and super excited to finally have one! Now I just have to learn how to use it! :)

Now if you saw today's Inspiration Challenge already you might have noticed that I recommended the site that Stef used as this week's inspiration. I stumbled upon PoshTots a few years ago and although I can't afford much of anything there I just love going to look and drool at the amazingly fabulous designs that they have! I tend to be drawn to the classy, vintage and elegant looks and when I saw this gorgeous baby room, I was taken in immediately! Talk about fit for a little prince and princess! And you must check out the playhouses. They really mean it when they say luxury playhouses!

About the card.... I pulled out this sweet castle stamp from Rubbernecker and several paper patterns in icy blue. Once I decided on the papers the design came together rather quickly. The pattern behind the castle is from a little Making Memories journal notebook. It was a bit to long to fit on the front so I did some distressing and sort of fan folded the paper to get the right fit. The castle is stamped in Jet Black ink and lightly watercolored. I pulled out a few silver and gray Prima leaves to accent it along with the flowers and finished it off with some pretty ribbons and Dew Drops. Hope you likey! :) Have a fabulous and relaxing weekend! I'm off to checkout the Archiver's here in Atlanta and hopefully Hobby Lobby!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Carte Postale, Rubbernecker Castle; Paper - Chocolate Texture, Cool Caribbean, K&Company, Making Memories Note, White ; Ink - Jet Black, Assorted SU colors; Accessories - Prima flowers & leaves, Rhinestones, Glitter Brad, Ribbons, Marshmallow Glimmer Mist, Dew Drops, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T06:26:00.002-05:00

Here's our photo for our Christmas cards this year! That's us! :) We wish you all a very wonderful and Merry Christmas, from our home to yours! We're having a fabulous time in Atlanta with family! Many hugs from Angie and Andrew!

Shimmering Poinsettia

2009-12-24T09:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Christmas Eve my friends! Hope your day is going great! A quick post today. :) I was playing around again with my new shade of Glimmer Mist, Indian Corn and this time I also spritzed it with Gold as well. The poinsettia from the set His Gift by Our Daily Bread Designs is simply stamped in Baroque Burgundy on white. Don't you just love the changed look the it gets with just using the Glimmer Mist? Love that shimmer!! It's popped up on shimmer gold paper, Baroque Burgundy and a pattern from K&Company.

If you get a moment please say a prayer for my dear Daddy. He was taken to the hospital yesterday in a lot of pain. Seems like he's got a possible blockage with his ileostomy. He's home resting now and goes on Monday to see his main doctors in Pittsburgh. Hopefully he won't need another surgery but we'll know more then. Thanks so much! Hugs for a wonderful day!

Card Supplies: Stamps - His Gift by ODBd; Paper - Burgundy, Shimmer Gold, White, K&Company; Ink - Burgundy; Accessories - Indian Corn & Gold Glimmer Mists, Cuttlebug corners, Rhinestones, Pop dots; Techniques - Sponging, Glimmer Mist.

Sweets and Treats

2009-12-23T06:33:00.000-05:00

We're almost there! To Christmas that is! Today is our last day of school until after the New Year and I'm SOOOOOOO ready for that nice long break! And after school today we'll be headin' south to Atlanta to visit with some of Andrew's family. Looking forward to some good times as well as some stampin' time and some plain old downtime to do nothin'! KWIM? :) Anyways I've got a backlog of things to share with ya'll so hopefully I either get that laptop I've been wanting for Christmas or the computer at the in-laws cooperates with my camera and blogger over the next week! :) Be back soon! Oh and many thanks for all the wonderfully sweet birthday wishes the past few days!

Pretty Poinsettia

2009-12-11T06:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! I'm about to run out the door to school and it's going to be a busy day but I wanted to share this with ya'll quick! I haven't had much time for "fun, anything goes" stamping the past week or so as I've been working on a project for my Mom which I'll share later. :) But last night I was finally able to sit down at my stamp table and just say, "what do I want to play with?" And my eyes fell on this gorgeous His Gift poinsettia stamp from ODBd that had yet to see ink! So I got busy playing!! I inked it up with Jet Black and colored it with my tiny collection of Copic markers. Had to use SU Garden Green for the pine and I'll need to add some green to my Copic wish list! LOL! The fancy print area was sponged with Barely Banana and then of course I broke out the Glimmer Mist! Got a new limited edition color, Indian Corn - sorta burgundy colored and much darker than any of the other shades I've used! I was a bit scared to use it but just look it how it turned out! Love how it blended over the Barely Banana for a sweet aged look! What do ya think? I used a gold pen to go round the edges and finished off with the embellishments. :)

I'm off to start the day! And tonight I get a big birthday present just a bit early - going to see Phantom of the Opera!!! Wooo Hooooo! So very excited and can't wait!!! :)
Card Supplies: Stamps - His Gift by ODBd; Inks - Jet Black, Barely Banana, Garden Green, Assorted Copics; Papers - Real Red, Garden Green, Black, White, Mint Foil by SEI; Accessories - Velvet Ricrac, Metal Corners, Photo Corner Punch, MS Embossed Scallop Punch, Indian Corn Glimmer Mist, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Copics.

Peace and Joy

2009-12-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

Hello friends! Today I've got another creation to share using the new Peace and Joy snowflake set from ODBd. I had a lot of fun with this card! Once I started embellishing, I couldn't stop! The sweet chipboard frame is from Chatter Box and it frames the sentiment inked in Not Quite Navy along with the little snowflake stamped in Cool Caribbean around it. That's layered on a page from a spiral journaling notepad by Making Memories and a blue Chatter Box pattern with a Cool Caribbean base. The large snowflake is stamping the journaling page and I sponged and distressed the edges. I added the blue gems, the rhinestone swirls from Prima, snowflake ribbon, a snowflake brad and the blue decorative brad above the sentiment. To finish it off I misted the card with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist - that seems to be my recent favorite! Hope you like it!

Now before ya go I have to share this pic I caught of our two kitties snuggling on their little blanket. That's Hot Stuff covering her face with her paw - she sleeps like that a lot! And Aslan is the black one that's hard to make out on the left. He's hard to photo well! Aren't they sweet? :) Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day!

Sepia Christmas

2009-12-04T06:38:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday all! Whew! Talk about a busy week! I'm so glad it's weekend time now! I've been working most evenings this week on Christmas cards for my Mom and I haven't gotten in much "fun" stamping for myself. I busted out this Kinkade card in a few minutes time yesterday though just for something different from what I'm making Mom - I'll show those later. Village Christmas is inked in Sepia and sponged around the edges with Walnut Stain. It's flat mounted on several layers and after I added the holly and ricrac I sprayed it with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist. Ahhh... I don't think I'll every get tired of using this stamp, it's so lovely even without being colored!

I just wanted to say thanks to all who participated in the Our Daily Bread designs blog hop! It was a blast seeing all the great projects and reading everyone's sweet comments! Hope you all enjoy a great Friday! Thanks for the visit! :)

December Our Daily Bread Designs Blog Hop

2009-12-01T07:25:00.000-05:00

Good Day all and Happy December!! Welcome to Our Daily Bread designs December Blog Hop! If you've been following the hop and came here from Betty's blog then you're in the right place. If not, you might want to start at the ODBd blog to find out the details about the prizes and the secret words you need to collect along the way! There are two great new holiday stamps sets, His Gift and Peace & Joy being released today. You have a chance to win your own set! And even better news - there will be two happy winners chosen!!!

I have two samples to show you using the new sets. First up is this classy Christmas card in black and white with a pop of red, using the lovely Christmas sentiment from the set His Gift. Don't you just love that Prima rose? I misted the card with Gold Glimmer Mist as a finishing touch.

Card Supplies: Stamps - His Gift; Inks - Real Red, Jet Black; Papers - Real Red, Black, White, 7Gypsies, Anna Griffin; Accessories -Prima Rose, Rhinestones, Velvet Ricrac, Gold Glimmer Mist, Cuttlebug Dies, Pop Dots.

Now here's a large 8 inch wooden snowflake that I altered using the snowflake set Peace & Joy. I picked a few of these up for a $1 each at Michael's some time ago and put them aside to play around with one day. I just found them again while cleaning out the closet in my craft room. So I finally played! The snowflake images are stamped in blues and then clear embossed. I sponged the edges, added the rhinestones and of course I misted it with some Glimmer Mist, this time using Marshmallow.

Supplies Used: Stamps - Peace & Joy; Inks - Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy, Frost White Chalk; Papers - Tempting Turquoise, K&Company; Accessories - Wooden Snowflake, Clear EP, Assorted Rhinestones, Silver Cord, Snowflake Ribbon, Scallop Punch, Circle Cutter, Marshmallow Glimmer Mist, Pop Dots; Techniques - Altered Item, Sponging, Heat Embossing.

Here's a closeup of the center. The bottom paper is a flourish pattern from K&Company and the scallop, stamped with the flakes in white around the sentiment is popped up. I finished it off with tying silver bows on each snowflake arm and threading a snowflake patterned ribbon through the hole for easy hanging. It's makes a wonderful and rather easy Christmas present don't you think? :) Well thanks so much for stopping in today! Before you move on to the next stop on the ODBd Blog Hop you need to know that my special word for you is ~ YOU! Remember you need to collect each word along the way on the hop for a chance to win a free stamp set!! And be sure to keep a list of all the DT's names and words - the words make up a message!:) Then e-mail your answers to Grace. Her e-mail address is posted in the ODBD Blog. You have until 8 PM (EST) on Dec. 2 to get your entry in. Now next up on the hop is for you to head on over to Lorelie's blog!

Hope you enjoyed my projects! Have a wonderful day! :)

Joy

2009-11-30T06:15:00.003-05:00

I was digging through my Christmas stamp sets yesterday and came across this old favorite set called Joy, from Stampin' Up. And I just had to ink it up and emboss it in black detailing powder. Thought about coloring it in but then decided to go with a rather simple design using some old Holiday Harmony papers by Stampin' Up as well. The main panel is popped up and a piece of black velvet ricrac runs behind it. I finished it off by breaking open a package of rhinestone flourishes from Prima. Can't horde them forever! LOL! So what do you think? I also resisted the urge to add any extra glimmer via stickles, glitter or glimmer mist!

I'm glad you stopped in today! Pop back tomorrow for the December stamp release & blog hop with Our Daily Bread designs. I've got a few more holiday pretties to show off! :)

Card Supplies: Stamps - Joy SU!; Ink - Versamark; Paper - Black, White, Holiday Harmony by SU; Accessories - Black Detail EP, Prima Rhinestones, Black Velvet Ricrac, Pop Dots; Techniques - Heat Embossing.

Home For Christmas

2009-11-29T13:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday all! I pulled out an unused set for today's Featured Stamper Challenge, Home for Christmas. I got it last year with the best intentions for making some of our Christmas cards and it just never happened! I've been determined that isn't going to happen to this set again this year, so here's my first card using it. I picked this sweet card of CarollAnne's to case. I changed the colors and stamps of course and added a few more embellishments.... There's lots of shimmer and shine with Stickles, Dazzling Diamonds, and Glimmer Mist! Hope you like it!

Thanks for popping by today! :)

Card Supplies: Stamps - Home for Christmas; Paper - Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, White, K&Company patterns; Ink - Jet Black, Assorted SU Inks, Aqua Painter; Accessories - Snowflake Brads, Dew Drops, Silver cord, Stickles, Marshmallow Glimmer Mist, Photo Corner Punch, Corner Rounder, Oval Nesties, Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring, Distressing, Cuttlebug, Nesties.

Chocolate Snowflakes

2009-11-28T13:15:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was rather quiet being just the two of us but it was very relaxing. :) Just a quick post today since Andrew has off and we have a long list of "to do's"! I made this for today's Inspiration Challenge and used this little girl's coat to inspire me. Something about snowflakes and chocolate - they just go together and that's the first thing I thought of when I saw the coat! The beautiful snowflakes are from the new Peace and Joy set that will be released from Our Daily Bread designs on Dec 1st. The large white snowflakes are embossed and the smaller snowflakes are stamped in Walnut Stain. And don't you just love that snowflake ribbon? I picked it up at Michael's yesterday. To finish it off the whole card is misted with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist.

Well we're off for the day! Thanks for stopping by!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Peace & Joy by ODBd; Paper - Textured Brown, Chocolate Chip, Shimmer White, K&Company print, SEI Plaid; Ink - Versamark, Walnut Stain, Frost White Chalk Ink; Accessories - White EP, Gems & Rhinestones, Snowflake Brad, Snowflake Ribbon, Marshmallow Glimmer Mist, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Heat Embossing, Distressing.

Old Fashioned Christmas

2009-11-25T06:45:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh.... just looking at this wonderful image makes me wish for the good old fashioned days at times - when things seemed simpler. KWIM? :) Anyways, I inked the Kinkade image in Sepia and sponged around the edges with Walnut Stain. Just a few items are highlighted with a bit of color along with all the windows. For the bold sparkle I touched up some areas with Diamond Stickles and then misted the whole card with Gold Glimmer mist for that all over shimmer. It's layered several times and popped off a pretty pattern I found in my stash. Not sure if you can tell from the pic but the ricrac is red velvet and of course the poinsettia is Prima. Just something pretty simple and quick... hope you like it! Well I'm off for a very busy day - last day of school before Thanksgiving break and today is Andrew's 30th birthday so we'll be going out to celebrate tonight! :D Yeah!!! Thanks for popping by today! :)

Shimmering Silent Night

2009-11-24T07:05:00.002-05:00

Hello! Are ya'll looking forward to Thanksgiving as much as I am? I can't wait to spend some time extra with family, eat lots of fabulous cooking and just enjoy the good times that the holidays always bring! I also plan on taking some time to get myself busy, busy, busy and finish up on this years' Christmas cards. Here's one of the designs that I'm working on making multiples of. It's a 4x4 inch card and on the base, I stamped the gorgeous Amazing Grace Hymn repeatedly. I stamped, watercolored and cut out the poinsettia from Blessed Christmas. Then I stamped the sentiment and cut my layers. I added a jewel piece to the flower center, touched up the berries on the patterned paper with Christmas Red Stickles and popped up the flower and sentiment. Final touch - Gold Glimmer Mist! Just look at that sparkle! All in all, a rather quick card to make, the longest part being the cutting out of the poinsettia and it's worth it with as beautiful as it is. Thanks for stopping by today. Best wishes for a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving! :)

This Little Light of Mine...

2009-11-23T06:03:00.001-05:00

Hello all! Sorry that I've been so very quiet the past few weeks and neglecting my blog!! Had another project going on that I was devoting a lot of time to - planning a themed surprise party for my dear hubby's 30th birthday! Wow, did it ever keep me on my toes not to let anything slip and to make sure I kept all my "tracks" well covered! I've planned many parties before but never a surprise party for someone that I live in the same house with. Anyways, the party went off without a hitch this past Saturday and he was totally amazed and surprised by it! And now I can breathe and stamp again. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... :)

Now as some of you may have guessed I've already started decorating for the holiday. Our tree is up and many other holiday decorations. I have to tell you that I've been inspired by the beautiful candles Dawn has made recently and so I stamped this simple candle wrap for in our living room. The candle holder and poinsettias are displayed with two cherished and well-loved family Bibles. The Blessed Christmas poinsettia is stamped in Jet Black on Real Red then I misted it with Gold Glimmer Mist, punched the bottom edge and layered it. I wrapped black velvet ricrac ribbon around the top and bottom and used a jewel charm to finish it off. Here's a closeup of the shimmer on it. Isn't it sweet? I love how it shines! And here's a card using the same poinsettia image watercolored and highlight with colored stickles. I paired it with some yummy SEI Foil Print Christmas papers and a bit of shimmery Martha Stewart ribbon. The little vintage charm reads Merry Christmas. Let me say the stickles really put off some sparkle! I had a hard time getting a clear shot of the card because of the shine it gives off!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Blessed Christmas; Ink - Jet Black, Real Red, Garden Green, Yoyo Yellow; Paper - Textured Chocolate, Real Red, White, SEI Mint Foil & Peppermint Bark Foil; Accessories - Ribbons, Charm, Deco edge punch, Corner rounder, Christmas Red Stickles, Holly Stickles, Gold Stickles, Pop dots; Techniques - Watercoloring, sponging.

I hope you enjoy a lovely day and that your week is off to a great start! I'm looking forward to a 3 day work week at school and then relaxing with family over the Thanksgiving holiday! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Blue Copper Christmas

2009-11-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Hello friends! Just popping in for a super quick post today. It's been a busy week so far. I hope those of you who participated in the Our Daily Bread designs blog hop enjoyed yourself. And don't forget there is still the Show Us the Shimmer challenge that ODBd is hosting through Nov 15.

Today I have another Christmas card using the new Luke 2:11 set. Kelley sent some gorgeous new SEI papers to try out and I couldn't resist doing this poinsettia in blue with copper accents.

Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Luke 2:11, Linen Bkgrd; Ink - Versamark, Antique Linen, Bashful Blue; Paper - Chocolate Textured, Bashful Blue, Vanilla, Shimmer Copper, SEI foil patterns Rosice & Michov; Accessories - Metallic Ribbon, Gold Glimmer Mist, Copper EP, Glitter Flourishes by Making Memories, Pop dots; Techniques - Heat Embossing, Sponging.

ODBd Blop Hop ~ Show Us the Shimmer!

2009-11-01T08:00:00.003-05:00

Happy November everyone! Welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs November Release Blog Hop! If you came here from Deb's Blog, you are in the right place! If you just happened upon my blog but didn't start at the ODBD Blog, you can start there to join in on the fun! The reason is that there are secret words hidden along the hop which you need to collect along with the name of each Designer. When you have them all, you will return to the ODBD Blog and leave a comment saying you visited all the blogs and a special email address will be given so you can email Grace with the secret words you found and in the correct order to reveal a phrase. That's all you have to do for the chance to win the ENTIRE NEW RELEASE for this month! And the three AWESOME new Christmas sets could be yours! What a fabulous prize and just in time for the holidays! Oh and guess what ~ there's also an ODBd challenge for you to play in and win another great prize. More on that below....

For this month's challenge, Kelley sent the Design Team some totally gorgeous shimmery SEI papers along with a bottle of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. And our goal - create a holiday card that shimmers and shines! So I have two cards to show you today using the Blessed Christmas set. On this pink, brown and green themed card I stamped the poinsettia in Antique Linen and the verse over it in Walnut Stain. The SEI nonparelis ornament paper has a glossy glaze on the shapes and I placed some assorted Dew Drops over a few of the circle shapes for added dimension. After putting all the layers together and popping a few up I misted the front with Honey Dew Glimmer Mist. It added a very light greenish shimmer to the main image. I added the green ricrac and paper poinsettia to finish off the card.

Card Supplies: Stamps - Blessed Christmas; Ink - Antique Linen, Walnut Stain; Paper - Pretty in Pink, Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, White, SEI nonparelis print; Accessories - Ricrac, Assorted Dew Drops, Paper Poinsettia, Rhinestone Brad, Honey Dew Glimmer Mist, Corner Rounder, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Glimmer Mist.

This next card I created for today's Featured Stamper challenge. I chose this pretty Christmas card to case. My card turned out being almost 6x6 inches and I changed the stamps and added a few more layers and embellishments. For the music print I used ODBd Amazing Grace Hymn stamp, distressing the edges and sponging over it for an aged look. I watercolored and cut out the poinsettia, misted it in Gold GM and then popped it up off the hymn. In the center of the flower I used a bit of Diamond Stickles and a clear Dew Drop. Once I put all the layers together with the foiled SEI marzipan print I misted the whole card several times using the gold. In the corners I used large clear Dew Drops and along the embossed scallop I used clear rhinestones. A bit of velvet ricrac in the corners and a red bow finished it off nicely. :)

~Here's a closeup of the Gold Glimmer Mist.

Card Supplies: Stamps - Blessed Christmas, Amazing Grace Hymn; Ink - Sepia, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Assorted SU reinkers, Jet Black; Paper - Real Red, Garden Green, Textured Chocolate, White, SEI marzipan foil print; Accessories - Ricrac, Ribbon, Clear Dew Drops, Clear Rhinestones, Diamond Stickles, Gold Glimmer Mist, Martha Stewart Embossed Scallop Punch, Pop Dots; Techniques - Watercoloring, Sponging, Distressing.

I hope you enjoyed these two shimmery Christmas creations! I'm so pleased that you stopped by! Now from here you need to go visit Chris and after her head back to the ODBd Blog. And before you go, here' something you need to know - my secret word is "Lord!" Make sure you are keeping a list of all the DT Names with their secret word next to them and email that to Grace at the address given on the ODBD Blog at the end of the hunt! You have until 8 PM EST on Wed. Nov. 3rd to email the secret word/words each designer had! Remember...Once SUPER HAPPY STAMPER will win the entire November release!

And now about the November ODBd Show Me the Shimmer Challenge...
The challenge this month is to make a Holiday Card and make it SHIMMER! Think of all the many ways you can do that so this is a super easy and fun challenge. You can use anything from Shimmery Designer Papers and Glimmer Mists to Shimmerz and Twinkling H2O's.... i could go on but you probably get the picture. Just make sure it's also a Christmas/Holiday card. Everyone is invited to play along! You DO NOT have to use Our Daily Bread designs stamps to win, but if you have them, we LOVE to see them!!! Link your card to the Latest Challenge Thread on the ODBD Blog by Nov. 15th by 8 PM EST. There will be a $30.00 Store Credit given to the winner of this challenge! So get busy and show us the SHIMMER!!!

Candy Hog

2009-10-28T06:35:00.000-04:00

Today's card comes to you from my Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen days! Thought I'd sneak it out of the vault for ya'll to see. It's an all-time favorite of mine and it always makes me snicker when I see it. Isn't it just FUN!!! When I got the idea I couldn't find a template for the web, so I grabbed the scissors and a folded piece of black cardstock and just went for it! And it was one of those rare times when it came out probably better than I was hoping. :) I then free-handed the web lines with a white gel pen and went over them again with glitter pen. The edges and center area are sponged with white craft ink. That lil' candy hog is from the old Stampin' Up set Cute as a Bug. He's embossed in black along with the sentiment from American Art Stamps. The candy pile is assorted Jolie sticker embellishments.

Hope you enjoyed this little fun friend! Thanks for visiting! :)

Card Supplies: Stamps - Cute as a Bug, American Art Stamps; Paper - Black, Pumpkin Pie, WW, Pattern by Colorbok; Ink - Versamark, White Craft, Pumpkin Pie, Yoyo Yellow; Accessories - White Gel Pen, Glitter Pen, Candy Embellishment pieces, Black EP, Pop Dots, Stickles, Ribbon; Techniques - Sponging, Heat Embossing, Shape.

Christmas Peek!

2009-10-27T06:31:00.002-04:00

Wow! Can ya'll believe it's going to be November on Sunday? Thanksgiving plans are being made and then it will soon be time to break out the Christmas tree and decorations! Before ya know it the holiday season it going to be full swing! Are ya ready for the kicker - Only 58 more sleeps til Christmas!!! I don't know about you but that means I really need to buckle down and get busy on making our Christmas cards! Yikes!

I've made only a few so far but there are many more to go! I thought I share this rather quick and pretty Christmas card I created using one of the new November sets from Our Daily Bread designs, along with a Flower Soft topper and Vintage Christmas Flower Soft. this card is previewing a sentiment from the upcoming Christmas set, Luke 2:11. I embossed it in copper and added the Vintage Christmas FS around the candles using the Flower Soft glue. I love the way it turned out! The more I play around with Flower Soft the more colors I want of it!! And the printed Flower Soft cards are prefect for using sentiments and pulling of a quick but great looking card. :) The printed Flower Soft card is layered on Chocolate Chip and Garden Green and popped up off the stripes - Peppermint Bark Mint foil paper by SEI. Gorgeous stuff! :) I used the Martha Stewart Embossed Scallop Edge punch along the bottom and mounted it to a Garden Green card base. So what do you think? Thanks for stopping in today!

Fun Times!!!

2009-10-26T07:01:00.001-04:00

For the past week, the NC State Fair has been entertaining many here in the area. We ventured out last weekend and had a fabulous time enjoying all the sights, sounds and smells that the fair has to offer! I thought I'd share a few of my favorite pictures from our evening out. :) Enjoy!

~A working grist mill

~Andrew & I, snuggling in the big chair!

~Andrew hanging with the "roadcone monster"!
~Wouldn't be the fair without the classic carousel!
~ Gotta ride the Ferris Wheel!
~Andrew rode this for the first time ever this year!
~One last look across the lake before leaving!

A Sock Hop & Senor Buho

2009-10-25T12:25:00.001-04:00

Happy Sunday all! I'm just popping in to share what I created for the weekly Featured Stamper challenge. This week it's Rachelhope13! I found this sweet lil' Christmas card in her gallery and dug out a House Mouse stamp and some older Basic Grey Christmas patterns. I don't think I've used this stamp in years! Come to think of it I may have never used it 'cept for playing around with coloring it - no cards. Since my image is a bit larger then the one Rachel used, I ended up was a 6x5.5 inch card. I watercolored the mice and then spritzed the image with gold glimmer mist. The snowflakes are from Making Memories and it's hard to see just like the glimmer mist but the red ribbon is all sparkly. And now I think I'm gonna have to use this stamp more often, it's just darling! Well then again all House Mouse stamps are absolutely darling ya know! :)

Card Supplies: Stamps - HM Sock Hop, AYC1; Paper - White, Real Red, Garden Green, Chocolate, Basic Grey Fruitcake; Ink - Assorted SU reinkers, Jet Black, Walnut Stain; Accessories -Snowflakes, Ribbon, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring, Distressing.

And before I go here's a card that I never got around to posting last week. This is Senor Buho! I made him for last week's Inspiration Challenge, using these tiles from the website that Stef selected. No stamping to this sweet owl, just all punches and circle cutters!

Card Supplies: Stamps - N/A; Paper - Textured Brown & Shimmery Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Cool Caribbean, More Mustard; Ink - Walnut Stain, Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard; Accessories - Assorted Corner Punched, CM circle Cutter, Ricrac, Primas, Rhinestones, Pop dots; Techniques - Sponging, Shaped card.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fabulous day! :)

Playing with Indian Summer

2009-10-24T10:45:00.001-04:00

Happy Saturday! It's warm here today with a few sprinkles. Hoping it holds off for our plans for a little later. So I'm making a quick post today as I've got a few more autumn inspired cards to share with ya'll! I picked up some of the beautiful Indian Summer paper by Basic Grey recently and just got a chance to play around with it. Love the rich gorgeous colors it has!

Here's a quick 4 by 4 inch card using one of the Indian Summer patterns and a few velvet flowers. The verse is from With Heartfelt Sympathy. I paired the pattern paper with Always Artichoke and More Mustard and dug out some Dew Drops from the Island Blossom bottle.

I made this card for today's Inspiration Challenge, using this scarf as my inspiration. I pulled out one of my all-time favorite verses of comfort, Rev. 21:4, and stamped it in Sepia. Since my velvet flowers were already out from using some on the other card I selected two and paired them with a gold Prima leaf and the glittered chipboard flourish from Making Memories. And I put my new Martha Stewart embossing punch to good use again. :)

Thanks for waddling in! If the weather holds we're off with friends to carve pumpkins, roast hot dogs and s'mores and venture out in the wagon for a hayride! :)

Autumn Colors

2009-10-23T07:50:00.001-04:00

Ahhh... Fall is finally hitting us here in North Carolina! The leaves started changing into their beautiful fall colors this week! We've been enjoying some wonderful reds, oranges and yellows! And of course that inspired my most recent color palette for stamping! When I was working the PA stamp show with Kelley earlier this month, I snagged some gorgeous foil printed SEI paper from off of her! It's a rich warm brown with a coppery orange leaf/flower print running through it. It's called Rosice and it's got a great coordinating print on the reverse. I pulled out several fall colored paper and got busy!

This pumpkin pie card is one of those simple layouts that I find challenging to pull off. I resisted the urge to stamp all over the layers and kept to something a little more basic and clean looking as far as the patterns and embellishments go. The images are from ODBd's new set With Heartfelt Sympathy and the sentiment from the Praying for You set. That sweet little dragonfly is cutout, popped up and covered the Angel Wings Shimmerz. I paired the Rosice pattern with rust, mustard, pumpkin pie, and chocolate chip. The brads are copper and the main image is popped under the pumpkin pie layer.
On this card I used summer sun as my cardbase and mixed the Rosice pattern with chocolate chip, mustard, rust and a flocked pattern by K&Company. The cattails image is lightly stamped behind the verse, both from the With Heartfelt Sympathy set. The orange Dew Drops are from the Flame bottle.

Well I'm off to clean up some of my stamp area and then hopefully do some more stampin later tonight! Hope your weekend is grand! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Autumn Original & Winter Sympathy

2009-10-15T08:45:00.000-04:00

Hello all! I know I promised an Autumn card the other day and I just didn't get a chance to post it until today and now ya get it along with a winter card!! It's been a crazy and trying past few days. Andrew was laid off from his job due to cut backs and so well, that just pretty much sucks, ya know! He's actually been looking for a new job the past few weeks because the place where he was working hasn't been doing the best. He's started a part time job that he loves and they are wanting to hire him now for a better full time position but they have to wait for approval to do so and they have no idea as to how long it might take. So all we can do at the moment is pray that it won't take very long to get approved!

Now onto some cards! It got chilly here the past few days and I felt the need to break out a few snowflakes! I took the scene from the With Deepest Sympathy by ODBd and tried to create a wintry look with it. After lightly watercoloring it, I clear embossed the whole image with an added bit of sparkle. Then I touched up the trees and water with some Polar White Flower Soft. I layered the image on several different shades of blue along with a snowflake pattern by Frances Meyer and added the glittery diecut snowflakes by Making Memories. When it was all done I misted the whole card with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist. The Marshmallow color is a Limited Edition Winter Color for 2009! What do you think? :)

Wintry Card Supplies: Stamps - With Deepest Sympathy by ODBd; Ink - Jet Black, Assorted Reinkers, Night of Navy; Paper - Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Navy, White, Snowflake by Frances Meyer; Accessories - Diecut Snowflakes, Polar White Flower Soft, Clear Embossing Powder, Glitter, Ribbon, Corner Round, Labels One Nestie, Marshmallow Glimmer Mist, Pop Dots; Techniques - Watercoloring, Sponging, Heat Embossing.

And now here's the Autumn inspired card. :) Just this week we are starting to see the leaves change around us! Very exciting! I pulled out some flocked & shimmery Heidi Grace designs papers and patterned chipboard for this card. The stamped flower is from the Stampin' Up set Doodle This. It's an old favorite! The fall leaves are Prima and I picked up that giant rhinestone brad in a 12-pack at Michael's. The lil' dots on the flower leaves are touched up with copper stickles and the finished card was sprayed with Gold Glimmer Mist! I tell ya - I can't seem to use my Glimmer Mists enough!! Love that shimmer and shine it has!:)

Well I thank you kindly for stopping by today! Hope you day goes well! :)

Autumn Card Supplies: Stamps - Office Accoutrement & Doodle This by SU; Ink - Walnut Stain, Summer Sun, Yoyo Yellow, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive; Paper - Shimmer Yellow Bazzill, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Heidi Grace designs Pattern; Accessories - Copper Brads, Giant Rhinestone Brad, Copper Stickles, Gold Glimmer Mist, Prima Leaves, Ribbon, CM Oval Cutter, Labels One Nesties, Photo Corner Punch, Corner Rounder, Patterned Chipboard Tag; Techniques - Watercoloring, Sponging.

Last of the Butterflies

2009-10-12T06:46:00.000-04:00

Hi ya'll! I'm so excited! Yesterday I got a good bit of stamping done! Of course that was about all I could as I seem to have pulled or twisted something in my lower back and it was killing me. :(

The first card I did for the day was for the Featured Stamper challenge. The FS was a fellow Breadstick on the ODBd design team - Chris, aka Glowbug! YAY for Chris!! She is such a sweet and kindhearted soul and I'm so blessed to know her! I love her stuff and I picked this beauty from her gallery. I kept her basic layout but changed the papers and stamps. I loved the warm and rich tones she used on her card and ending up making a fall themed card. The sweet monarch image is by Inkadinkado, from their Sketch Series. I love that line and have quite a few stamps from it, this stamp being the newest edition to my lil' collection. :) Now you know I couldn't resist, so the whole card has lots of sparkle, from it's shimmer paper to glimmer mist and stickles! The base is shimmer bazzil paper and the card was misted with gold glimmer mist. The brown glittered flourish pieces are from Making Memories. The image is watercolored, cut out and layered on a printed diecut by My Mind's Eye. Oh and the bottom layer of patterned paper is flocked, from K&Company. Ahhhh... autumn! Hope you enjoyed this!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Nature Sketch by Inkadinkado; Paper - Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Burnt Orange, Shimmer Yellow, Patterns by K&Company, SEI & MME; Ink - Assorted SU, Sepia, Walnut Stain; Accessories - Lace, Dew Drops, Glitter Chipboard, Gold Glimmer Mist, Labels One Nestie, Corner Rounder, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Cuttlebug.

I'm so glad you stopped by today!

I have another Autumn inspired card to share with you tomorrow!

Hope your week is off to a great start! :)

OMG!! I have Carpet!!!

2009-10-10T14:44:00.000-04:00

or in other words.... Angie cleans her stamp studio!! Really and truly!!! I did! A Wow - O - WOW totally thorough cleaning!!! It was such a LOOONNNNNNGG time in coming, let me tell you! I've thought about it a lot and actually threatened to do it many times and I even made tiny lil' dents in some of the piles or would move a pile somewhere else from time to time but yeah, it just never REALLY happened for real. And now I can quite plainly see that there is actually carpet on the floor in here! Yes it really was that bad for awhile! Now there is just about nothing on the floor that shouldn't be. And I cleaned up like four years worth of scraps and whatnot off my desk!!! (goodness, and we've only lived in this house two years... )

Now just don't ask me about the shelves or the closet though, one step at a time! :) Anyways I'm VERY proud of how much I got accomplished! And now it seems a whole lot less overwhelming to sort and organize the shelves. After all my cleaning I was amazed at all the new, unopened stuff that I found and decided to immediately reward myself with some stamping time. So I checked out the Saturday Inspiration challenge and got busy once I chose this piece! I honestly think it's been well over a month since I've done a challenge totally just for the fun of it!

I especially love the colors in the inspiration piece and in my cleaning I came across this "lizard legs" image. It is a sticky rub-on that I picked up last fall in a set. The creepy tree image is from Rubbernecker. I don't think it's been inked since last year at this time! I used Labels One to cut the layers and distressed the edges of each. I also tilted the nestie layers and didn't center them on each other. Two of the layers are popped up and as you can probably see I distressed and inked up all the way down to the cardbase. I dug out some ribbon scraps and a few other embellishments to top it off with. For the final touch I misted the whole card with Gold Glimmer Mist. I'm so in love with the gold mist at the moment!! :)

I also finished off the inside. Used the creepy tree again and a sentiment from American Art Stamps. And there you have it, a "spooky" card inspired by a pretty jewelry piece!

Thanks for stopping in today! I'm off to stamp some more and continue the organizing!! :)

Card Supplies: Stamps - Rubbernecker Tree, Sentiment by American Art Stamps; Papers - Black, Blue Bayou, Garden Green Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye; Ink - Jet Black, Old Olive; Accessories - Labels One Nesties, Assorted Ribbons/fibers, Prima Flower, Star Button, Sticky Rubon, Gold Glimmer Mist, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, distressing.

In Our Thoughts...

2009-10-08T06:35:00.000-04:00

Hello there friends! How has your week been going? Mine's been zooming right along! I have another card to share with you today using stamps from the October ODBd releases. The lovely lake scene is from With Deepest Sympathy and the sentiment from With Heartfelt Sympathy. It seems as if it's been a little while since I took my time at coloring a detailed image! Feeling a little rusty and need some more practice! I used reinkers and an aqua painter to color and once it was all dry I misted the main layer with gold Glimmer Mist. Love the look it gave it, especially on the sky area! I used one of my new border punches that I got at the stamp show, the Embossed Scallop Edge by Martha Stewart. It's a beautiful punch!

I kept this rather simple in the layering and in the end decided against using any pattern papers as well. Seemed like the image stood out enough by itself and so I layered it on Always Artichoke, Pacific Point and black cardstock. The rhinestones and ribbons were the finishing touch. If you would like to see some more creations using these new sets, you can head on over to ODBd card gallery. So glad you stopped in today! Have a fabulous day! :)

Birthday Wishes to a Friend

2009-10-07T06:51:00.000-04:00

I'm home and trying to get back into the work routine after being away for a wonderful week with family and friends! I'm mostly unpacked and now I just have to sort through my new stampin' goodies and get them put away! The stamp show in PA was a blast! I enjoyed a wonderful time hanging out with Kelley from Our Daily Bread designs and doing the make-n-take demo for her both days at the ODBd booth! We met a couple people from blogland and SCS and that was great that they stopped by to say hi! Here's Kelley setting things up and getting the booth ready to go for the show.And today is actually Kelley's birthday so here's a special card I made just for her using some ODBd stamps and her favorite color - pink!

Happy birthday Kelley! Hope your day is filled with fun times and happiness!
In making this card I did something I haven't done in a long time - I only used white cardstock and layered it on top of itself instead of using pattern paper. Each layer of white was sponged with Pretty in Pink and Walnut Stain to help them stand apart from each other and popped up on dots. I used the Amazing Grace Hymn stamp as the background on the card, inking it in Antique Linen and then stamping the dogwood flower from Grow in Grace in Chocolate Chip ink. The sentiment is from the Happy Birthday set. It can't bet seen in the photo but I misted the whole card with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist and it certainly has a pretty sparkle to it!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! :)

Happy Reminders

2009-10-02T08:05:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday to you all! Just wanted to throw out a few reminders for everyone! First don't forget about the ODBd blog hop with prizes that's going on. It ends later today and for details head on over to the ODBd blog.

Second, for those of you who might be close to York, PA there is a stamp festival going on there this weekend at the York Fairgrounds. I'm going to be hanging out there with the wonderful Kelley, owner of Our Daily Bread designs! Wooo Hooo! So if you get a chance to stop by on either day, be sure to look us up and say HI!! Here's a link to all the info about the stamp show. I have been to several of the Heirloom Productions Stamp shows and they are always a fabulously fun time and a great place to meet fellow stampers! Can't til I have to pics to share with you from the show and I'm sure I'll be coming home with lots of new stampin' goodies! Enjoy your weekend!

Comforting Our Daily Bread Designs Blog Hop

2009-10-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

Happy October 1st! Thanks for stopping by today! As you know it's time for another stamp release from Our Daily Bread designs, this month three lovely sympathy/praying for you style sets. With this card I'm showing off one of my all-time favorite verses, Rev 21:4. I was so excited to see it in this month's set called Praying for You, as it's been a very special verse of comfort and hope to me over the years. I'm excited to have these sets, they will be aid in helping to create comforting sympathy cards which seem so hard to do sometimes.

About my card...

I kept the design simple to just highlight this wonderful verse. It's stamped in Sepia and Walnut Stain is sponged around it. I pulled out some of my favorite glitter patterns from My Mind's Eye along with some Blue Bayou and Chocolate Chip paper from SU. The ovals are from the large petite oval nestie set and Walnut Stain sponged on all the edges. The edges are also distressed on each of the layers as you can see too. The paper flowers are from Prima of course and I found the sweet lil' hatpin and ribbon buckle in my overflowing stash. The little curlies are bits of stiffened hemp scraps. And the card is posing with one of my Mom's old lamps! :)

Now if you didn't get here from Becca's Blog, be sure to go to the Our Daily Bread Designs Blog and start the hop from there, making sure you comment on each one! When you are all done commenting, go back to the ODBD Blog and tell us two things:
*That you did indeed visit each Designer's Blog and left a comment, and
*Tell us what you liked best about these new sets! That's all you have to do!

There will be candy hidden along the way on THREE different Blogs and you will not know where it is! And prizes will be: a $5.00 Store Credit, a $10.00 Store Credit, and a $20.00 Store Credit! These credits will be for any merchandise in the Our Daily Bread Designs Store! Even the Designers don't know themselves who has the hidden blog candy *yet*! :) You have until 6PM EST on Friday, Oct 2 to make your comments in order to be qualified to win! At that time, three of the Designers will be randomly selecting a winner and they will be posted on the ODBD Blog on Sat. Oct 3! So be sure to check back there on Sat. to see who won!!! Have fun and be blessed today!

Now from here you are actually at the end of the blog hop if you started at the beginning blog and now you should hop back to ODBd Blog. Just in case there are some broken links along the way, I'll give you a few extra links on the list: Chris, Lorelie, and Deb S.

Best wishes for a great day! Thanks for visiting on this lovely autumn day!

Stampin' in the Backwoods

2009-09-30T13:38:00.000-04:00

Howdy everyone! So I've been here in PA visiting with family for the past few days. The weather has been pretty nice, cool and crisp with a few touches of rain here and there. We certainly have been keeping busy! We've visited several covered bridges, watched the trains at Horseshoe Curve, drove through the mountains admiring the changing colors and of course we did some shopping. :)

I traveled very light stamping wise since I flew and I need to save room for whatever I might collect at the stamp show this weekend. :D What I did bring with me fit into one quart size ziplock bag! Now ya know that's not a lot of space for much at all but it nicely held a tape dispenser, one Walnut Stain inkpad, a corner rounder and punch, a bottle of stickles, my favorite little distresser, an inking sponge and a little assortment of ribbons, prima flowers and a handful of metal embellishments. And after a quick visit to the local Michael's and AC Moore stores I managed to collect just enough goods to pull of this card. The biggest dilemma I had was cutting the papers. No papercutters here! I had to resort to a wooden yardstick, a pencil and scissors but all in all they helped get the job done! Well mostly done as it needs one final touch that will just have to wait for now.

The paper and tag stamp are all items that I picked up here in PA. The tag stamp was a $1 find in a clearance bin and it's print with ocean words but thanks to some well placed sponging and the embellishments you can't read it! :) Now the one item that was on my list to grab and bring in my lil' stampin' travel bag ended up being a no show - my Chocolate Chip marker! Arghhhh! Since I had no other stamps, I thought I'd write the word fall or autumn on one of the lines but that will have to wait. We even searched the house for any markers only to find a box of crayons. Those won't quite cut it for this! Oh and don't tell Mom but the leaves were all pillaged from a few of her fall floral arrangements around the house. (Hi Mom!)

We're off to enjoy the cool crisp autumn weather some more so I'll leave you with a few of my favorite photos taken this week. Have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

Tea Time with the Acorn Boy

2009-09-23T23:16:00.003-04:00

"Take a walk through frosty grass leaving footprints."

They were handing out Dove chocolates at school for the first day of fall - you know the ones that have the little messages on the inside of the wrapper, the Dove Promises. Well that was it, I had to go out and buy a bag of my own. They have all kinds a sweet autumnal inspirations on them but the one that I seem to get more often than the rest is the lovely sentiment posted above. Ahhhh... now to me that is a very happy thought! And I'm hoping those days will be here before we know it. Maybe even as as early as next week for me. I know, I'm crazy! But as I've said before and I'll say it again - I adore fall and winter!

I'll be heading north to PA this weekend for the next week to visit my parents and extended family and friends. I can't wait! The weather is cooling and the leaves are changing up there already. While there, I will also be hanging out at the Heirloom Productions Stamp Festival in York, PA at the Our Daily Bread designs booth on Oct 3rd & 4th! If you're in the area, please stop by and say hi on one of the days! I was there last year and had a total blast! And this year you'll get to meet the fabulous owner and brains behind Our Daily Bread designs, Kelley Holland!!!

Now I'll admit this month has not been a productive stamping month for me! When I have had the ideas flowing I haven't had the time and when I'm had the time the ideas got up and left with my mojo! But back to the Dove Promises as they seemed to inspire these two fall giftables. First up is a little unique shaped teacup and saucer filled with none other than Dove Promises and an assortment of teas to make a comforting get well treat for a friend.

On the oval Nestabilities tag, I stamped the butterfly doodle from Thinking of You with a Get Well sentiment. In my stash I found a teeny tiny 3D butterfly and used it to embellish the tag! I selected a bright, happy poppy flower to seal the cello bag with. Hopefully this little gift will bring a happy smile.
This is a small goodie basket that I put together for another friend who loves fall as much as me! The little handmade basket holds a few autumn scented candles nestled in with a cute acorn figurine and as you might have guessed, some Dove chocolates! The tag was made on the Labels One Nestabilities dies. I inked up the Friendship dragonfly with a fall colored Kaleidacolor ink pad and stamped parts of the doodles along the edges. Topped it off with some ribbons and a large sunflower to make someone specials day!

Thanks for stopping in today! Hope your day is grand and I'll leave you with one more Dove Promise:

"Happiness is sharing chocolate with a friend."

Coming up for Air

2009-09-17T06:25:00.000-04:00

Hello dear friends! So sorry for being absent for so long! September hit and we got totally busy again! My parents were here for a few days and then Andrew had some family in town visiting as well as some old friends. We had a great time but now I'm in some serious need of some downtime with my stamps! They're looking a little dusty after the past two weeks, let me tell you. I'm looking forward to some quality stamping time this weekend. It's nice to take a break from things at times but after too long without stamping it feels like I can't quite breathe right, ya know! All of my fall stamps are calling to me, not to mention the weather has been just wonderful here the past few days - very fall-like! Nothing like being able to throw the windows wide open finally and enjoy the cool temps and stamp away.

Now in my last post (which seems like ages ago) I told ya about the newest card challenge going on over at the Our Daily bread designs blog. So don't forget, if you entered a pocket card then today's the day to see if you won!

And here are two more cards I created using the newest ODBd stamp sets. My dear Mom was on me while she was here to make her more cards - esp. cards that are better sized (not square!) and thinner for mailing. (Hint Hint!) So I'm trying to remember what a normal A2 size card looks like! Help! :) On the burgundy card I used the dragonfly from Friendship and the sentiment from Get Well. I just love stamping with these awesome new flutterbys. They look really nice stamped as the lighter image with a sentiment stamped over them. This card is a very simple design and I managed to keep to only one layer of pop dots! The flower is from Prima, the pattern paper by Anna Griffin and the Nestabilities are the Labels One.

This mustard card uses the Thinking of You set. And would you believe - no pop dots at all??!?! Shocked, I know! Notice the shimmer all over the card? It's been awhile since I used any Glimmer mist so I got out the gold mist and gave this card a once over with it. Looks so fabulous IRL! Th flowers are more Primas and the pattern paper is K&Company. Those sweet little corners are from a new EK success punch that I picked up recently and the ovals are from the Nestabilities Petite Ovals.

And now I'll leave you with pic of a little waterfall from one of my favorite local parks. Hope your day is grand! Thanks for stopping in and I'll be back soon(er than later!)!!! :)

There's Something in My Pocket...

2009-09-03T07:50:00.000-04:00

Hello friends! Thanks for waddling by today! Have you heard that there's another great challenge going on with Our Daily Bread designs? Play along and you can win some fresh new rubber! That's right, you could win any one of September's 3 new releases - Get Well, Thinking of You or Friendship! Aren't these doodle sets sweet? :) So this time around the challenge is for pocket cards! And here are all the main details for ya:

1.Make a pocket card of any style, shape, with as many pockets as you want. There are numerous tutorials on SCS in the Resources Section that you can use, or come up with your own design.
2. Link your card to the ODBd Blog by Thurs Sept. 17, 8PM EST. Winners will be announced on the ODBd blog on Sat. Sept. 19.
3. Anyone can play along, but only those using ODBd Stamps as the main focal point will be eligible to win.
4. Be sure to visit the ODBd Blog on Sept 19 to find out who won!

Now here's my own lil' pocket card that I made using the new sets and some gorgeous Madeline papers from K&Company. I used Regal Rose as my base and just kind of made my own simple pocket card. The doodle butterflies on the pocket and insert are from the new Get Well set and the sentiment from the Friendship set. After I got my pocket assembled I embellished it with some ribbons, punched butterflies, pearls and brads. The sparkly butterfly oval is a K&Company diecut. I carried that oval theme to the insert by using my Petite Oval Nesties to cut out and frame the sentiment. I finished it all off with my usual sponging and paper distressing. What do you think? :)

To see so more great pocket cards using these new sets, hop on by to visit these sweet gals as well as the rest of the ODBd team! Hope to see ya play along in the challenge! Enjoy a wonderful day! :)

Becca

ODBD Blog

Angela C

Connie

Card Supplies: Stamps - Friendship & Get Well by ODBd; Ink - Rose Red, Pixie Pink, Walnut Stain; Paper - Regal Rose, Madeline patterns by K&Company; Accessories - Twill, Ricrac, Lace, Corner Rounder, MS Butterfly punch, Pearls, Brads, Madeline Tag, Petite Oval Nestabilities, pop dots; Techniques - Sponging, Distressing, Pocket card.

Altered Notes with New Stamps

2009-09-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Howdy folks! Thanks for stopping by today! Can you believe that it's September first already? WOW! Fall is just within reach and that makes me VERY happy!!! And it also means back to school for a lot of people, including me. Because of that, I thought I share a fun altered item that's sure to be a hit with the teachers. I should know, after all since I am one! Who doesn't enjoy getting a sweet little notepad away? The mini notepad measure about 3.5 by 5 inches. I cut the patterned paper to be slightly longer then the length of the notepad so I could use a corner rounder on the edges and not have the pad show through. After I covered the notepad with a favorite pattern paper from My Mind's Eye, I used one of the fabulous new Our Daily Bread designs September releases called Friendship. The dragonfly image was stamped as a watermark using Versamark with the sentiment overstamped in Walnut Stain. For the ovals I used Nestabilities Large Petite Ovals and I finished it off with a few embellishments - ribbon, hemp, stickpin and a couple Dew Drops. I hope your new month is off to a great start!

Summer and Winter

2009-08-22T20:32:00.000-04:00

Hello all! Hope your weekend is going well! We're having a rather rainy one here, you know the kind that makes you want to just curl up on the couch with a good book! And that's actually what I did spend part of my day doing. :) I also finally got a chance to take some pictures of a few of my recent card creations, despite the somewhat yucky weather and lighting.

This one here is a summery inspired card using the ODBd Happy Birthday set. I love the contrast between the Bashful Blue and the krafty brown - bright blue skies and rich, warm dirt, perfect for growing flowers like the ones filling the watering can. The pattern paper is an old fav from K&Company.

And then on from summer we go right into winter! It's been pretty hot and humid here the past two weeks, so one way to help think cooler thoughts was by pulling out some holiday cheer. :) I found some really plush swatches of velvet fabric and tried one out on a card. It's the green layer - Love the richness of it! I also dug out my favorite Peaceful Wishes and the ever so trusty Lovely As a Tree sets. The holly print is from Anna Griffin. I like the country feel to this card!

Well it sounds like the thunder and lightning are back so that's my

cue to wrap it up! LOL! Thanks for waddling by!

Playing Catch Up!!

2009-08-20T18:46:00.000-04:00

Whew it's been a busy past two weeks! And I'm scrambling to stay caught up and on top of it all! Haven't gotten in lot of stamping time lately but I managed to squeeze out a few ODBd cards as well as a few other fun creations over the past few days. Lets start with the Our Daily Bread designs cards for today...

This card was born out a bunch of scraps that are piling up quite precariously on my table. Rather simple but I like it! Stamps are from the Jesus set. The base is black with scraps of Basic Grey Wisteria, Elegant Eggplant and Brocade Blue. I stamped the image in Perfect Plum and the sentiment in Jet Black. The main image panel and eggplant scrap are popped up. And whoa - No embellishments! Just totally simple!:)

Now I've been itching to use these sweet pink and black shaped paper notes from Making Memories and pairing this piece with the watering can seemed perfect! I used my Creative Memories cutter to make the black base card and pink layer, along with a pink layer for the inside. The images from Happy Birthday are all stamped in Pixie Pink with a touch of Jet Black ink sponged around here and there. I dug out some buttons and clear gems to adorn the scallop edge and a scrap of pink lace for down the left side. It's hard to catch at this angle but the top two layers are popped up off the base. Ahhhh.... pink and black!!! What a combo!:)

Thanks for stopping in today!

Fussy Flutterbys & With You Always

2009-08-09T12:25:00.001-04:00

Happy weekend! Ahhh... aren't they soooo nice? Especially when you have nothing on the agenda but doing just what you want to do. :) And I certainly seemed to have a lot of time to myself this weekend to do just that! With Andrew working most of it, I kept myself busy between two tasks of my choosing - stamping and reading! So I'm partway through several books, got a few projects done and tackled the weekend SCS challenges.Needless to say this butterfly card had me concentrating for awhile. I made it for Inspiration Challenge 192 - Bellacor Vases. Here is the gorgeous vase I used as my inspiration. It certainly was a simple enough of a card to stamp and emboss but let me tell you that the fussy cutting was really fussy and took the better part of an hour! And if it looks big to you, well that's because it is! It's a full sheet of black cardstock folded in half. I used Stipple Butterfly, an old retired Stampin' Up, and one of the first few SU stamps that I ever purchased. So ya know this is the first time it's seen some action and inking in quiet a few years. The Real Red is sponging lightly with black and is stuck to the butterflies using pop dots for dimension. Then I went round and round about how to embellish it. I had several different flowers and ribbons picked out, even a sentiment or two but after trying them all out, it came back to less is more in this case. So with a few clear gems for the butterfly heads and the tagged black velvet ribbon is how it ended. Think this is going to make a lovely wedding or anniversary card... :)

For the Featured Stamper Challenge, I pulled out the new Our Daily Bread designs Jesus set and highlighted one of it's great verses using my oval Nestabilities. The monochromatic beauty was my pick from Joanne's gorgeous gallery. I kept with the monochromatic feel but changed the papers, embellishments and stamps. All the pretty patterned papers are from the glittery Laundry Line Collection by My Mind's Eye . Pretty, pretty stuff they have!! :)

Thanks for stopping in today! Enjoy your day!

Fussy Butterflies Card Supplies - Stamps: Stipple Butterfly; Paper: Black, Real Red; Ink: Versamark, Black; Accessories: Silver EP, Clear gems, Tag, Velvet Ribbon, Pop Dots; Techniques: Fussy Cutting, Sponging, Heat Embossing.

With You Always Card Supplies - Stamps: Jesus by ODBd; Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pixie Pink, White, Glittered Patterns by My Mind's Eye; Ink: Sepia, Walnut Stain; Accessories: Ribbon, Brads, Paper flowers, Oval Nesties, Corner rounder, Pop Dots; Techniques: Sponging, DTP.

Cracked Autumn Bridge

2009-08-03T18:09:00.000-04:00

So we're back around to Monday already! Whew, time flies when your busy having fun! In between spending some time with Andrew's dad yesterday, I squeezed in some stamp time and made this for the Featured Stamper challenge. Teresa has such a great gallery and I finally decided on this sweet seasonal card of hers. And as much as I love making Christmas cards, mine turned in to an autumn creation. I've found myself longing for the cool, crisp breezes of fall the past week or so. Must be the nasty neat and humidity getting to me. :)

I pulled out this wonderful covered bridge that my dear Mom got me a few years ago. I've mentioned this before but the covered bridge on the stamp is an actually one that still stands not too far from their house in Pa. I love to visit the covered bridges in the area when we're at my parents. This particular covered bridge is called Snook's Bridge and it dates back to 1883. You can still drive through it! Below is a picture of it that I took last fall and you can see that I colored mine different from it's current colors. After I watercolored it and sponged the edges with ink, I applied several coats of clear embossing to create the cracked glass look. I sprinkled just a touch of dark glitter onto the clear layers to help give it more of an aged look. The bottom patterned paper is flocked and the flowers are velvet. So pretty and neat to feel. I love the texture and dimension they add!

Hope your week is off to a happy start! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies Used - Stamps - Snooks Covered Bridge stamp; Paper - Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Dark Artichoke, Vanilla,Textured Brown & Ruby, Dasiy D, Flocked K&Company; Ink - Assorted SU, Sepia, Walnut Stain; Accessories - Brads, Ribbon, Prima Leaf, Velvet Flowers, Corner Rounder, Labels One Nestabilities, Pop Dots; Techniques - Cracked Glass, Watercoloring, Sponging, Distressing, DTP

~Snook's Covered Bridge in Autumn~

New Stamps from ODBd

2009-08-01T23:16:00.001-04:00

Hello there all! Hope your weekend has been fun! Ours is packed full and I've been busy enjoying it! Andrew's dad came up from Atlanta and we haven't seen him in a few months so we've got a few things on the agenda!

But first up, a few cards to share using the brand-spanking new August sets from Our Daily Bread designs! Two more wonderful sets to add to the collection. :) You know, I don't not sure who enjoys getting these in the mail from Kelley more - Me or Aslan! Me of course for the stamps, but Aslan adores the postal box that they come in. (Right now the last one is setting at the top of the stairs, in the corner. It's been flattened by him and it's his current hot spot to sit.) Silly kitty! :) Anyways, first up is this sweet lil' gardener's hands set from Crabtree & Evelyn. I made this tag from the new Happy Birthday set. I'm totally love this watering can of flowers! It's going to get a lot of use 'round here!

And here's a small card using the new Jesus set. It's got 4 great verses in the set! The photo doesn't do the textured papers justice on this card. The flourish pattern under the image is flocked and the stripes are glittered. And I was so happy to find the metal blessings tag! I've had it for ages and just came across it in a drawer.

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing these and head on over to a few of the ODBd team gals to check out their designs as well!

Hugs for a super day!

Fluttering into Dirty Challenges

2009-07-27T06:25:00.001-04:00

So the past few days didn't go quite according to plan - meaning that I did not get a chance to play in the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges for Fan Club Members until last night. So I pulled out all the stops and figured I'd see how many I could combine! And I used a bunch of new goodies I picked up on sale at Michael's! Woo Hooo!! In the end, I combined 8 of the Dirty Challenges - that's a record for me! I think the most challenges I've ever combined before was 3 or 4. And I gotta say, this actually fell together pretty fast for having used so many challenges on it! The longest part of it was putting it all together. Guess I was totally in the zone.:) Wish that would happen more often of late, ya KWIM? LOL!

Now about the card.... :)
I used several wonderful patterns from the Prima Nursery Tales Collection and lots of die cuts from the Madeline Collection by K&Company. The green flourished pattern on the base is flocked! Love it - feels so nice! The two smaller butterflies were punched out of Madeline patterns with the Martha Stewart punch. What do you think? I think I'm still in {love} with K&Company as always! I just adore these Madeline dies cuts!! And these textured Prima papers are a new favorite too! Oh so yummy-yum!!!:)

Well, this is short and sweet as I'm off to get my day started!

Hope your Monday is grand and thanks for stopping in!

Cards Supplies: Stamps - Happy Harmony; Inks - Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip; Papers - Always Artichoke, Pretty in Pink, Prima Nursery Tales, Madeline by K&Company; Accessories - Clear Gems, Ribbon, Rhinestone, Prima Flower, Corner Rounder, K&Company Die cuts, MS Butterfly punch, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Paper Tearing.

Dare to Get Dirty Challenges: DTGD09DeborahLynneS - Texture, DTGD09debdeb- Moved by the Music, DTGD09eggette- Spread your wings, DTGD09Krystielee- Clearly Creative, DTGD09craftycaro- Anything but Average, DTGD09genie1314- Tag Art, DTGD09Lauraly- Tie one On, DTGD09Becca_stamps- Cut it out.

A Dirty Crabby Plug...

2009-07-23T21:45:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone! Today is the kick off for the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges and they last through Saturday! So if you get a change and want to stamp, there's plenty of fun challenges to get anyones mojo going, along with some nifty prizes as well!

I made a sample for sweet Betty's Challenge called DP by Me, in which you basically design your own stamped background paper! Fun stuff!! As you can see, I dusted off a few favorite summertime beach sets for this and created my own crabby background paper. It's been ages since I've used these fabulously fun crabs! The big old crabby fellow is stamped, colored and cut out twice and popped up a few times. And I'm sure I don't really need to tell you how much fun it is to cut around those lil' pinchers! Think I got my crab fix after that!

Card Supplies:
Stamps - Fishy Friends, Cheesecloth, Crab &Company, Shore Thing
Paper - Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, White
Ink - Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip
Accessories - Ricrac, Twine, Beads, Brads, Labels One Nestabilities, Corner Rounder, Photo Corner Punch, Stickles, Googlie eyes, Pop Dots
Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring, Distressing

This little fellow says he's outta here! Enjoy your day!

Powerful Words

2009-07-22T21:24:00.002-04:00

Hello ya'll! I've got two simple and sweet one layer cards to share with you today. I had a little self challenge to get a least two cards done in less than 30 minutes. I don't know what it is recently but it seems I've really been taking an extra long time on cards. Sorta feel like the mojo is down a bit and maybe that's why. I did one that other night that I ended up spending almost 2 hours on! Kinda ridiculous - those end up being the cards that I don't want to ever part with, ya know! And then I have a box full of cards that I'm hording. LOL! So hence the lil' self challenge.

On this card I used Let Us Begin from Our Daily Bread designs. To get everything lined up just right on the card, I used a new grid-lined acrylic block that I picked up from Archiver's. It worked beautifully! Wondering why I never picked it up before! I watercolored over the images and added a touch of stickles, then sponged and distressed the edges. And I had this lovely card finished in no time! The quote is quite powerful, don't you agree? Something we often times forget to do.

This dogwood card uses the set Grow in Grace, and took just a little longer to do only because there was a tad more watercoloring on it. And the verse - short and powerfully to the point! I'm glad to have it as a stamp. Both were super quick cards to complete - less than 25 minutes together! Much better then that two hour card! Me likey that!

Enjoy your day and thanks for quacking on in!!

Christmas in July

2009-07-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh.... yes Christmas in July! If you ever happen upon my blog around the holidays, you'll probably see me mention how much I just adore Christmas and how it's my most favorite of holidays! And that I go ALL out in decorating the house.... Good stuff! So when I saw that Julia posted a Christmas in July challenge for Ways to Use It #226, I knew I'd have to play along. I just didn't get a chance to until today and I combined it with today's Featured Stamper #127 challenge. The sweet Kelly (Schirmcat) has a lovely gallery and I chose this darling card of hers and proceeded to make my Christmas in July card.

Now how I wish I could say I owned this awesome retired Christmas Cardinal set from Stampin' Up but sadly I do not. (If anyone ever wants to part with it - let me know!!!!) They have a fairly new set that replaces it called, A Cardinal Christmas. Yeah, kind of confusing but they are NOT the same! It's a lovely set as well but just still isn't as beautiful as the original vintage styled set. So some dear sweet fellow stamper on SCS sent me a bunch of stamped images from Christmas Cardinal a while back and let me say that I use them very sparingly! :) Today was one of those days to pull them out I decided. And would you believe it's not my normal oversized square card but this time an oversized rectangular one? LOL! It measures 7.5 by 4 inches and can I just say how very pleased I am with my coloring on it? The lovely patterned papers I paired with the cardinal are the holiday sentiment from SU's Holiday Harmony series and the holly from Basic Grey's Fruitcake line. The poinsettia flowers are from Making Memories - I need to get my hands on some more! I'm not sure where I picked up the rhinestone brads from - might be MM as well - but isn't it gorgeous? The punch is actually an EK Success corner punch that I removed the guard from. Thought it made for a neat design. Now I gotta say I'm in the mood to make a few more Christmas cards! I won't make any promises but you just might see a few more from me this week! Might have to dig out some old Christmas favs!

Hope your week is grand! Thanks so much for waddling by!

Butterfly Grace

2009-07-09T07:45:00.001-04:00

Hi there friends! Today I have a card combines another two of ODBd new sets, Let Us Begin and Grow in Grace. Can you tell I'm loving the new Madeline patterned papers from K&Company? I used them again on this card and this time I used at least 5 or 6 different patterns from that set on this card. Now here's something a bit different for me - all of the stamping and sponging was done using just one color, the new Burgundy ODBd Ink. Wow! I only used one ink and it wasn't a shade of brown either! :) This ODBd Burgundy shade was a prefect pairing to patterned papers! To cut out and frame the images and sentiment, I used assorted sized dies from the Labels One Nestabilities set by Spellbinders. The Labels One is my newest set and I can't wait to get a few more Nesties!

Now did you notice the butterfly on the bottom right of the dark pink pattern paper? I wanted to pull that out so I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to make a few more to pop up and fly off the card. Actually I used several assorted Martha Stewart and EK Success punches for the corners, butterflies and lace edge along the top. The Dew Drops on the butterflies and along the lace punch are colored light pink and dark pink. It's kind of hard to judge their colors in the photo.

To finish of the card I added diamond stickles to the lotus flowers and a knotted organdy ribbon in burgundy behind the popped up sentiment. Three layers of this card are popped up, not to mention the added dimension with the Dew Drops and the butterflies!
Thanks so much for visiting! Hope you enjoyed this and if you came over from my ODBd blog post today, I appreciate you stopping by!!

A Hymn of Faith

2009-07-07T20:35:00.001-04:00

Happy day to all! Hope every one's week is going well! Just passing by with a quick post here! I wanted to share one of the cards I made over the weekend. I thought I would get a chance to post earlier but that didn't happen between school and teacher meetings afterwards. Now I'm squeezing it in before bedtime!

For this card, I combined the three new Grace sets from ODBd - Grow in Grace, Amazing Grace and Amazing Grace Hymn. I stamped the hymn music in Antique Linen, stamped the words over it in Purely Pomegranate and then the flowers along the edges in Sepia. I'm totally in love with the music print stamp! It's quickly becoming a new favorite of mine. Not only is at a wonderful hymn of the faith, as a stamp it has so many neat possibilities! The flowers are watercolored and each have a touch of diamond stickles on them. I cuttlebugged a bunch of the flourishes and added them here and there in pieces. The paper flowers are from Prima of course, who else! :) The layers are sponged with ink, distressed around the edges and a few of them are popped up. What do you think? Don't you love how fabulously these sets coordinate together?

Thanks a bunch for popping in! Hope your day is grand!!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Grow in Grace, Amazing Grace and Amazing Grace Hymn by ODBd; Ink - Sepia, Antique Linen, Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive, Yoyo Yellow; Paper - White, Purely Pomegranate, Textured Brown, Madeline Pattern by K&Company; Accessories - Cuttlebug Flourish, Prima Flowers, Rhinestone Brads, Diamond Stickles, Pop Dots; Techniques - Watercoloring, Distressing, Collage, Sponging.

Circles of Wild Saffron

2009-07-03T16:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! Ahhh... so happy it's the weekend! We've had a sick kitty for the past week and he's finally doing better after some time at the vet and lots of TLC and not to mention a $$$ vet bill! But Aslan seems to be coming around without needing any surgery, he just needs to gain back some weight. Poor lil' guy!

I had the day off and I finally got to do some stamping just for FUN!! Not that all stamping isn't fun but I'm talking about the stamping that you do for really no reason other than to create something well, FUN! After sleeping in for a change, I went into my stamp studio with only one goal in mind - use some new, untouched goodies! And I did just that! I ordered Soft Summer from my SU demo like over a month ago and just got it put together last weekend. Determined to ink it today, it was the first set I grabbed, along with my new Wild Saffron paper pack from K&Company. Feeling in the mood to make a round card, I matched the papers up with some shimmery green cardstock and dug out my Creative Memories cutter to make the circles.

The flower is stamped in Wild Wasabi and cutout using the Labels One Nestabilities. I distressed the edges and sponged them with Walnut Stain. The flowers are from Prima and the flower center bling is from my stash of $1 stuff. Ahhh... it was such a nice feeling to just stamp! I've got a few more things I'm working on, so I'll be back soon. Yes, I really mean it! I'm determined to post more than last month!!! LOL! :)

Oh and I just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the wonderful comments ya'll left on my last post with the ODBd blog hop! It's always nice to come home to so many sweet remarks! And don't forget about the Guest Designer Contest that ODBd is running now through July 9. All the good deets can be found here. Have a super duper day!!!

Card Supplies: Stamps - Soft Summer by SU; Inks - Wild Wasabi, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen; Paper - White, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Green Shimmer, Wild Saffron by K&Company, Green Diamond by Scenic Route; Accessories - Primas, Ribbon & Ricrac, Brad, Labels One Nesties, Rhinestone Flower, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Distressing, Cuttlebug, Two-Step Stamping.

Our Daily Bread Designs Blog Hop & Color Challenge

2009-07-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

Good Morning everyone! Well here it is already July first and that means there is new rubber available from Our Daily Bread designs! And along with that we're having a blog hop with some treats scattered around for a few happy stampers! It starts at the starts over at the Our Daily Bread designs blog, in case you happened here first.

Today the Bread Basket gals are all showing off some of the great new inks by Our Daily Bread designs. Each of us selected three colors to use on one of today's creations. I chose Olive, Burgundy and Periwinkle to use with this lovely lotus flower from the new set Mother Teresa. The pattern papers are all by K&Company and I used several of the Labels One Nestabilities dies for the frames. The edges of the papers are distressed and sponged with one of my three color choices and the verse sentiment is stamped in Periwinkle. I used a touch of gold stickles on the flower center and the stick pin was made with some spare bead parts.

On this card I used the new sets Grow in Grace and Amazing Grace Hymn to create a collage look on this one-layer card. I was so excited to see this beautiful new hymn stamp! Such a wonderful classic! I inked the stamps with Sepia, Walnut Stain and Antique Linen, repeatedly stamped the music print and added a few blue embellishments. The antique gold rose in the center of the Prima flowers is actually an old button from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by today and if you're following the ODBd blog hop you should have come from the lovely Connie's McStampin' Dusk til Dawn and now you should be headed off to beautiful Betty's Stamping to the Wright. Have a wonderful day!

What a busy month!

2009-06-22T21:24:00.002-04:00

ETA: Got it all fixed with the pics now. :)

Hello all! It's me! Remember me? I haven't had much time to pop in this month and update. And here the month is slipping away... I didn't think that June would get as busy for us as May was but, wow, it's surpassing it so far I can't complain that I'm bored, that's for sure!

Anyways, here are two of the things that I made over the weekend, playing with some ODBd stamps, along with a golden oldie from the stamp archives. I gotta get myself in gear and photo the rest of the stuff!:)

First up, is this cross card using Ask, Seek, Knock with some of my favorite K&Company papers. It's hard to catch at this angle but the door is stamped twice, cut out and sponged with blues and browns. I came across the beautiful chipboard cross and corner pieces in a basket full of clearance goodies at Michael's.

This card uses the new Quiet Waters set, stamped in Cool Caribbean and Sepia and paired with Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point and another K&Company patterned paper. Don't you just love this sweet peaceful scene with the deer? And oh how I still adore Cool Caribbean! If Stampin' Up ever brought back any retired In Colors, I'd vote for this one first!
And finally, here's something interesting I found hidden at the bottom of a drawer over the weekend. It's at least 7 years old and has to be one of the first cards I ever made. The leaves were stamped in bleach to make the background. Goodness!!! I can't remember the last time I did any bleach stamping! And if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure this was one of those big chunky foam stamps. WOW! Hmmm... this might get hidden again now in a more permanent hiding location! LOL! Well thanks for stopping by for a few minutes! Have a wonderful day!

Quiet Waters and Misty Mountains

2009-06-15T23:00:00.004-04:00

Hello there everyone! Whew! Feels like we've been going non-stop since we got home from our trip to the Biltmore! It was just beautiful in Asheville and I even got to meet up with a fellow stamper and ODBd design team gal Angella Crockett! But again this past week I've hardly had any time in my stamp room. Something has been going on every evening! School meetings, showers, ball games, dinner with friends.... I did tear myself away from some gardening and yard projects on Saturday to stamp up some notecards for a friend using the Quiet Waters set from Our Daily Bread designs. They are simple, one layer notecards with triple embossed edges. I used only two colors of ink on each and each has a snippet of ribbon and a flower for embellishments. Here are a few of them as well as a few photos from our trip.

Have a wonderful day!:)

~Driving through the Smoky Mts on the Blue Ridge Parkway
~Italian Gardens at the Biltmore
~View of clouds moving in from Mount Mitchell

Celebrating...

2009-06-06T12:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry you haven't heard from me the past few days. Summer camp started this past week at preschool and along with that half my class moved up to a new class and I got a bunch of newbies. And these new little ones have been wearing me out to say the least! They are a very active and curious group and we're having to do a lot of training of course. I haven't created much at all this past week! Just too wiped out each evening to think about stamping! I even got some new Stampin' Up stamps and they're still unmounted. Sad, huh? And then our DSL was out for a few days. We thought it was due to some recent storms we've had but it ended up being a loose wire. Anyways, we're headed away for the weekend and I'm hoping to get recharged! It's our 8 year anniversary this coming week so we're headed to Asheville to visit the Biltmore and do some sight-seeing along the Blue Ridge Parkway. :)

So I'll be back soon with pictures and hopefully some pretties to share! Have a wonderful day!

Still Meadows & Purple Petals

2009-06-01T09:00:00.003-04:00

It's June 1st and there are two fabulous new stamp sets being released today by Our Daily Bread designs! They are called Ask, Seek, Knock and Quiet Waters. In my last post I showed you a sneak peek using Ask, Seek, Knock but here they are both now for all to see!

This Quiet Waters image is going to come in handy for all the seasons, that's for sure! First off, I just had to create a floral spring scene using this set and some Sweet Pea Flower Soft. I stamped the image in Sepia and then watercolored it. I really pleased with how vibrant the colors came out.I added Waterfall stickles to the stream. My cuttlebug has been neglected again so I got it out to make the curly corner pieces. The patterned paper is from K&Company as well as the felt ricrac. I created this card for yesterday's Feature Stamper challenge and here's the card I chose.
Here's a rather simple card using Ask, Seek, Knock. I've been reaching for kraft paper a lot recently - soon going to have to restock! And I'm LOVING the awesome purples in the Wisteria line from Basic Grey. Did some sponging and distressing on a few of the layers but just really kept it simple. I of course had to dig out some of my favorite velvet purple flowers for this.
Now if you'd like to see loads more beautiful and interesting creations using these two new sets, stop on by any of the ODBd design team members' blogs! And be sure to check out the cards in the ODBd card gallery as well. Hope you have a great Monday! Thanks so much for stopping by! :)

Our Daily Bread Designs Blog
Amazing Paper Grace
Angelosity
Anything but... Plain Jane
Body, Mind, Spirit & Stamps
Inspired to Stamp
Joy in a JAR
Mama Dini's Stamperia
My Paper Adventures
Pickled Paper Designs
Stamping to the Wright

Simply Southern Sandee
Th-INK-ing of You
Twinkles Glow from Stamps

At the Door ~ Our Daily Bread designs Sneak Peek

2009-05-26T13:30:00.005-04:00

Hello my friends! I hope you all enjoyed a lovely weekend and Memorial day. We had a nice relaxing time, just taking it easy around the house. Today I have a sneak peek card to share with you! This wonderful door image and verse is from Ask, Seek, Knock, one of the new sets that will be released on June 1st by Our Daily Bread Designs. I just recently got my hands on some Flower Soft and this is the first card I used it on. I love the stuff! I thought it would look neat to create the look of an old weathered door with flowery vines growing all around it. The stone path in front of the door was hand-drawn. And then I added a touch of Flower Soft growing between the stones as well. Now no matter what I tried I couldn't get the lighting right on this and it makes it look as if the flowers sticking out above the verse clash with the vine colors but they don't IRL. Those are from a sprig of flowers I found at Michael's. The pattern paper is all from the Wisteria line by Basic Grey. I was so excited when this line came out because purple is one of my favorite colors and there really doesn't seem to be a very good variety of pretty purple patterned papers. (Try saying that fast a few times! LOL) The edge punch and butterfly punches are from Martha Stewart. And that ribbon is one of my favorites - its got a very elegant look don't you think? I picked it up at Archiver's by the yard. Hope you liked seeing this! There are a few more sneak peeks out there with this set and the other, called Quiet Waters, so be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the ODBd Design Team!

Have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Supplies Used: Stamps - Ask Seek Knock by ODBd; Paper - Purple, White, Wisteria patterns by Basic Grey; Ink - Sepia, Assorted SU reinkers; Accessories - Heather Flower Soft, Ribbon, Martha Stewart Punches, Pop Dots; Techniques - sponging, watercoloring.

Tweet, Tweet!

2009-05-23T11:46:00.003-04:00

Here's a fun little Saturday morning card for ya! I made it for today's Inspiration Challenge which lead us to the Little Odd Forest. It's an online store filled with whimsical prints made into anything from purses to booties. For my inspiration I went with this fabulously cute pouch. It's a super cute shape and I haven't made any fun shaped cards in a while! I selected a heavy kraft paper for the base and free-handed the shape and the little tree lines are faux stitched. I did some heavy sponging around the edges with Walnut Stain. The sweet birdie is by Autumn Leaves. She's watercolored and has a tiny black rhinestone for her eye.
Supplies Used: Stamps - Noteworthy, Autumn Leaves; Paper - Kraft, White, Yoyo Yellow; Ink - Walnut Stain, Pixie Pink, Gable Green, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow; Accessories - Ribbon, Primas, Rhinestones, Brad, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring, Faux Stitching.

And speaking of birdies, we had this baby bird visit us for a few days about two weeks ago. He was just learning to fly it seems and spent time learning by fluttering back and forth between our front porch and a tree in the front. He didn't seem to have learned a fear of people yet as he let me get super close to take his picture. He even ate a few worms that we found for him. So very sweet!

Hope your weekend it truly enjoyable and relaxing! Thanks for popping by! :)

THAT can't be comfortable!

2009-05-21T23:05:00.001-04:00

Mom always said not to leave my shoes at the top of the stairs! But not to fear! Aslan is on the job and he'll make sure you don't trip over them. Might trip over him but not the shoes. He's had a thing for shoes since he was a kitten and we often find him trying to fit himself into one if its left out. I don't know how this is comfortable for him seeing how his head is really only resting on the buckle, but this is how I found him earlier as I was coming out of my stamp studio. Silly kitty! :)

Free as an Eagle

2009-05-20T22:32:00.001-04:00

Ready for a long weekend? I sure am! School is closed for Memorial Day on Monday and I'm already counting down the hours until Friday afternoon. We've been so busy lately and I'm just ready for a little bit of down time and time to myself. Plus it's time to clean up my stamp studio again! Ya know, that un-ending job.... LOL!

To help you get ready Memorial Day celebrations, here's another patriotic card I created using the new sets from Our Daily Bread designs. And the way time's flying these will soon be replaced by several new and wonderful ODBd sets for June! (I'm working on several sneaks peeks. :) Two words for them - Flower Soft!! ) But back to this card. I'm excited to say that this card is one of my first creations using Copic markers. Over the weekend, I discovered a local art store that carries Copics and so I treated myself to a couple. I've held out for a long time, not buying any until I could try them in person. It will be awhile before you see a completely Copic creation from me as I stock up on colors. So for now I'll have to mix my mediums. On this card, the red stripes and the yellow eagle beak use Copics. The rest is my usual watercoloring with SU refills and an aqua pen. Hope you like it!

Have a fabulous and fun day!

Supplies Used: Stamps - God Bless America and In God We Trust by ODBd; Papers - Chocolate Texture, Blue Bayou, White, Pattern by Creative Imaginations; Ink - Sepia, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Copics R29 & Y11; Accessories - Ricrac, Copper brads, Photo Corner Punch, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring, DTP.

Garden Butterflies

2009-05-19T22:23:00.005-04:00

Hi there! Got some good news about my Dad. He's going for surgery in June as the doctors think they found a small infection type thingy inside and are going to remove it. No signs of any more cancer. After this he should be able to have his ileostomy reversed finally. Yay!! And on that note, Relay for Life was this past weekend and we had an awesome time participating in it! There was a huge crowd at the event and over $180,000 was raised through it. Cancer is a terrible thing but it's always so wonderful to see people from all walks of life come together to battle it. Here's a pic of part of our relay team from school. I'm not in the pic though, cause I was the one taking it! :)

Now about those garden butterflies! Here's one that I captured outside in our backyard and a few that even flew onto a card. I could have taken 200 pictures of this lil' guy! He seemed so content to just flap his wings on this leaf. Usually when I happen upon a butterfly, I'm soon seen rushing all over the yard in hot pursuit!

I created this card for Sunday's Featured Stamper challenge. It was a very rainy and dreary day so these lil' flutterbys certainly helped to brighten it up. (And the rain was a good test for our once leaky roof!) Here's the original card by the ever amazing Joan Ervin! I didn't start out with the intentions of making such a large card but somehow it grew to a bit over 6 by 6 inches! I was quite pleased at the discovery of the green diamond pattern paper in my stash - thought it gave it the look of a garden lattice. What do you think?

Hope your day is grand! Happy stamping hugs to ya!

Supplies Used: Stamps - Natural Beauty, Verse from Scripture Collection by ODBd, Flourishes by HeidiGraceDesigns; Paper - Chocolate Texture, Vanilla, Pale Pink, Scenic Route, K&Company; Ink - Sepia, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Pretty in Pink, Cameo Coral, YG23; Accessories - Stickles, Prima Flowers, Ribbon, Pin, beads, Rhinestone brads, Pop Dots; Techniques - sponging, distressing, DTP.

An Eagle and a Sketch

2009-05-14T22:01:00.004-04:00

Hello there! I'm back again! :) If you've stopped by the Our Daily Bread designs blog recently, you just might have seen that we've got a sketch challenge going on through tomorrow, the 15th. There are some awesome prizes of free rubber for the winners, so get inking!

Now here's my take on the sketch using the new ODBd set, In God We Trust. I pulled out my embossing gun, powders and Versamark pad for this. I can still remember the first time I embossed - so very COOL watching the powders melt! Now I have tons of different colors and kinds of powders but I just don't seem to reach for them too often anymore. For the eagle I used Ranger Tinsel in gold. It has the loveliest sparkle and shine to it and looks so striking against black. The sentiment is embossed in Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold. And I also used that old tried but true technique of watermarking on the Brillant Blue cardstock. I inked up the phrase God Bless America with Versamark and randomly stamped it then let it dry. Love the look of the slightly darker shade it creates. The metal heart is actually a sweet little pin that I picked up somewhere and happened upon in my jewelry box this week. Each of the Patriotic pattern papers can be found at the very bottom of this page.

Now just to show you the difference in the types of Ranger Embossing powders, I stamped the sentiment again and embossed it in the Gold Tinsel to compare. Not nearly as clear as the Super Fine Gold EP used on the card, huh? If you've ever wondered if you really needed to invest in a Super Fine Detailing EP, now you know!

And one more card also using In God We Trust. I went with a simpler, less-layered style on this. The eagle is stamped in Antique Linen with the sentiment stamped over it in Walnut Stain. The pattern paper is by Cosmo Cricket and I pulled out my favorite velvet petals and some pretty Prima leaves to create the flower. The punch and rhinestones are both from Martha Stewart. I sponged around the layers with Walnut Stain and added the satin ivory ribbon to finish it off.

Well I'm off to bed! Big day tomorrow! We're participating in our local Relay for Life benefit for the American Cancer Society. I'll be back afterwards with some pictures of the event to share and an update on my dear daddy! Hope your Friday is fabulous!

Just Another Rainy Day Until...

2009-05-13T22:28:00.000-04:00

Hello! Wow! It's been a week, let me tell you! Been busy with a big project but not a fun one at all. And certainly not a crafty project by any means, as least not how I would define crafty!It all started at the end of last week. I was getting ready to photo a card that I just finished. It had been thundering and lightning outside and that was soon followed by pouring rain, again, for what seemed like the tenth time in a week. I thought I heard something funny so I went wandering through the house until I found the source. The ceiling was leaking in the upstairs guest bathroom. Which means that it was coming through the attic and the insulation and the drywall.... you get the picture!! How lovely is that?!?!? Like I said, not my idea of a fun project to tackle but thank the Lord for good friends and husbands! Things are getting fixed and it's not costing loads of $$$$ as I feared it might but I'm behind on quite a few things and blogging is certainly one of them.

Now let's move onto something much more cheery! How about some bold colors that shimmer? I'm really falling in love with my new Glimmer Mist and I can't wait to get my fingers on several more colors. Right now I have the gold and I've been misting away! I got busy with some of my newest rubber from Our Daily Bread designs. Here on this card I misted the watercolored flag from God Bless America and the sentiment from In God We Trust. That brown looking card base is actually kraft paper with a bit of sponging 'round the edges. The flag is layered on Real Red and popped up. I put the pin together using some super cheap beads from Michael's. Nothing beats finding super cheap embellishments!

I hope you week has gone better than mine! We're getting things sorted though and I'll be back to share a few goodies with you tomorrow! Hugs for a happy day! :)

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!!

2009-05-06T21:00:00.001-04:00

Hello there! Just wanted to make a quick post and share a card. Here are some lil'feathered friends we made. Found these two walking along the roadside earlier today on the way to the store. Very friendly but each time I held the camera up, the lil' buggers looked the other way!! I bit if I had some bread along it would have been a different story. :)

Here's a quick card I made. I'll share the deets later, I'm on my way out the door. Enjoy your day!

ETA: Deets are now listed! This is a simple and sweet card with several layers.

Stamps: Lift Up Your Hands by Our Daily Bread designs
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Barely Banana, White, K&Company patterns
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Walnut Stain
Accessories: Stickles, Prima Flowers, Lace, Pop Dots
Techniques: Sponging, Distressing, Vintage

Eastern Blooms

2009-05-04T14:28:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday! I don't know if anyone remembers way back last fall when I post this unlovely card. Not one of my best, I know! I adore the set but just couldn't seem to make it work for me at the time. So off to the side the set got pushed. I haven't really given it much thought until recently when I was looking through the Stampin' Up catalog. Out it came and this time round, I'm so much more pleased with the results! I used it for Sunday's Featured Stamper challenge. Sparkplug17 has a wonderfully fun and colorful gallery and I chose this card of hers. I don't have any of those darling cute Magnolia stamps so I reached for my Eastern Influences and this is what I ended up with. In the end I changed just about everything - the stamps, papers, colors, flowers - but the layout!:) I left off the piercing/stitching b/c it was a little too late at night for me to be playing with sharp things! And as I said, this time round I'm much happier with the results!!

Thanks for popping in today!

Supplies Used: Stamps - Eastern Influences; Paper - Only Orange, Old Olive, Fancy Pants, Chatterbox, Colorbok; Ink - Sepia, Walnut Stain, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Old Olive: Accessories - Primas, Stickles, Pop Dots; Techniques - sponging, watercoloring.

Fairyland Prom Night

2009-05-03T08:57:00.002-04:00

Hi there ya'll! Hope you've been enjoying a lovely weekend! We still have yet to get the promised rain and stormy weather so we've been enjoying every moment outside and having our meals out on the deck. Ahhhhh glorious springtime! :)

Saturday's Inspiration Challenge sent us all oohing and ahhing through gorgeous prom dresses at Faviana. I couldn't pass on the inspiration oozzing from all the gorgeous dresses, so I dug out my Fairy stamp! I drew inspiration from this green dress and this blue dress for my creation. I had a lot of fun with this image. How could you not? I've only inked her up a few times and I need to practice a bit more on coloring her. I start out nicely then sort of rush to finish! The green leafy areas all sort of run together. The entire thing is covered with gold glimmer mist and parts are highlighted with assorted colored stickles and some glitter. Think she'll be a hit at the Fairy Prom? :)

Thanks for waddling by today!

Supplies Used: Stamps - Tres Chic, Willow Flower Fairy by Stamps Happen; Paper - Pacific Point, Black, Watercolor, Teal Print by MM, Blue Flourish by Fancy Pants; Ink - Jet Black, Assorted SU Inks; Accessories - Glimmer Mist, Assorted Stickles, Glitter, Prima Flowers, Crystal Brad, Pearl Pin, Velvet Ricrac, Chipboard Corners, Pop Dots; Techniques - Watercoloring, Sponging, Distressing, DTP

Postal Pinkalicious

2009-05-01T20:41:00.005-04:00

So I was feeling a bit on the pink side today! A few days ago I stopped by Archiver's to stock up on a few more glittery sheets of my favorites from the Laundry Line by My Mind's Eye. Then yesterday I breezed through Michael's for a quick peek around. I left with a few new Prima flowers and some clearanced Postcard paper from the Passport line by Making Memories. (The "postcard" print is actually cut out from the 12x12 paper.) Anyways, mix it all together and out comes this very pink card! And would ya believe I only used two stamps? The Lincoln quote is from the new God Bless America set released today by Our Daily Bread Stamps. It's one of three wonderful new patriotic sets for this month! Head on over and check them all out. The other stamp is a Backgrounder stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms called Pretty Pattern. I stamped it on the bottom most Pretty in Pink layer. Each layer is distressed, inked and sponged and several layers are popped up. In the end a rather vintagey looking card with lots of pink! What do you think? :)

Thanks for visiting today! Hope your weekend is marvelous!

Supplies Used: Stamps - God Bless America by ODBd, Pretty Pattern bkgrd by CHF; Papers - Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Postcard print by MM, Glittery Dot & Floral Prints by MME; Inks - Sepia, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen; Accessories - Prima flowers, Ricrac, Twine, MM Button, Copper Brads, Pop Dots; Techniques - Paper distressing, Sponging, DTP inking.

In God We TRUST!

2009-04-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

Hello there! Today's creation is made with several new stamps that will be released tomorrow by Our Daily Bread designs. And I gotta say that I was blown away when I first saw them! Each of the 3 new sets are of a patriotic theme and I gonna bet that you'll love them too! These new sets couldn't come at a better time either. It's soon be time to break out the flags and patriotic decorations for Memorial Day, Fourth of July celebrations and just plain ole' summer fun BBQ's!

This card uses the eagle head from In God We Trust and the single stamp, I Pledge Allegiance and it measures 5.5 inches square. I used gold glimmer mist on the main panel after I highlighted the words and sponged around the edges. The patriotic patterned papers are by Moxie and Stemma and the flowers by Prima. I added diamond stickles to the flowers and that combined with the shimmer mist, this card really packs some fabulous twinkle!

Thanks for stopping in! Hope your day is grand in every way!

Fresh from Chloe's Closet

2009-04-26T23:28:00.000-04:00

Hi there! Well I spent most of this weekend enjoying the quietness of my house. Andrew went off dirt bike riding with some friends, meaning I had lots of free time to do what I wanted! I did a little bit of everything! I worked in our flower beds, did some cleaning, treated myself to some shopping and then some stamping.

I got an Archiver's giftcard recently and I made good use of it! Quite a few new goodies! Lots of which I used on this card for the Featured Stamper challenge. I think it's been about a month since I've had the time to sit down and do a challenge just for the fun of it. Here's the card I picked from Kathy's sweet gallery. Course you can see that I changed just about everything, I even flipped the main panel to the other side b/c it suited the stamp better. The silhouette stamp was one of my finds at Archiver's for 75% off! I also picked up the lace and flowers and buttons, which are part of the Chloe's Closet line by Making Memories. It was all on sale and I just love the fresh springy colors in it. I did have a little bit of trouble with the colors when photoing this. The blue is not actually as vivid as it seems. I tried to lighten it but it muted the softer colors too much, but you get the general picture of it. :)

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a wonderful day!

Supplies Used: Stamps - Peaceful Wishes, Pod Branch by Hero Arts; Paper - Brocade Blue, White, Wild Asparagus Paisley; Ink - Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue; Accessories - Flowers & Buttons from Chloe's Closet MM line, lace, twine, K&Com diecuts, Pop Dots; Techniques -Sponging.

Sweet Wedding & Simple Notes

2009-04-22T00:18:00.006-04:00

Hello there my friends! We've been home a few days and we had an absolutely wonderful time at the Outer Banks. I'm going through my pictures and I'll share a few more soon. The weather was utterly gorgeous! But moving onto a few cards...
Time for another wedding creation! Keeping it simple and using the new-ish Love One Another set from Our Daily Bread designs, I made this at the request of a friend, who wanted a card to mail off to someone getting married this month. She wanted it fairly simple and in the pastel colors. So here's what I came up with. You can see in the closeup above that I added glitter and pearls to the heart wreaths. The card measures 5.5 square.

Now here is a small notepad that I created a cover for. It's been setting on my shelf forever and it looked so plain and boring that I had to do something to spruce it up! :) I used some Amy Butler paper and diecuts from K&Company to go along with the sweet image from the Children of God set, also by ODBd. As much as I tried to resist and keep this a flat cover that butterfly kept calling at me, demanding that he be popped up.

Well I'm off to play around with some new rubber! I got next month's releases from Our Daily Bread designs in the mail and I picked up some fun goodies at Archivers. See ya soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Gorgeous Outer Banks and Happy Mail

2009-04-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday ya'll!! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day! We're soaking in the sun, sand and beautiful sights around the glorious Outer Banks of North Carolina. I uploaded a few pictures to make you a wee bit jealous! But first you need to Ohhhhh and Ahhhhh over these fabulous treats that I found in our mailbox last week!

My dear friend Elizabeth, Cricketeew on SCS, sent me some fun Easter goodies along with this super duper sweet froggie card and darling ducky mini post-it notes on a keychain! Don't ya just love that colorful mushroom paper?

Then this stunning beauty arrived from my sweet friend Chris from over at Twinkles Glow with Stamps. Have you ever seen a cuter pair of bunnies? I'm such a lucky duck to have such great friends! Thanks so much for the happy mail! :)

Now, how's about a few OBX pics to warm your toes? :) Enjoy them! I'll share more later and thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend! ~Oregon Inlet~

~Cape Hatteras Lighthouse~

~Currituck Beach Lighthouse~

Dreamy Blossom

2009-04-17T16:30:00.001-04:00

TGIF!!! YKWIM, right? :) If you're reading this, then we're on our way to the Outer Banks with a newly cleaned camera in tow! You can count on me to take way too many pictures of all the sights! But that's not really a bad thing, is it? ;)

I do have another creation to share with you and yes, it's another flower card! What can I say, I'm addicted to flowers! Would you consider this a poppy? I think it is. In the past few years, I've really fallen for poppies and would love to have a huge garden filled with them. But until that happens, I'll just have to settle for stamping them instead.

The flower is of course watercolored and then I stamped over it with the Cheesecloth bkgrd and sponged the edges. I went over the flower and highlighted parts of it with a shimmer pen. The pretty glittered peach pattern is by My Mind's Eye and the green pattern by Anna Griffin. Below is a better view of the shimmer on the flower and on the pattern paper. Isn't the puff ball trim terrific? I found it at Archiver's recently and bought all that was left on the roll. What do you think?

Hope you enjoy a wonderful day and best wishes for a relaxing weekend!
Thanks for waddling in! :)

Supplies Used: Stamps - Bloomin' Beautiful, Cheesecloth, Happy Harmony; Paper - Kraft, White, Peach Stripe Glitter by My Mind's Eye, Green pattern by Anna Griffin; Ink - Sepia, Cameo Coral, Jet Black, Old Olive, More Mustard; Accessories - Buttons, Trim, Shimmer Pen Pop Dots; Techniques - Watercoloring, Sponging.

Pomegranate Pollen Blooms

2009-04-16T21:45:00.004-04:00

Hello all! Oh how this week has flown by for me! I hope it has for you too! I'm really looking forward to this weekend as we have a trip planned to the Outer Banks. Can't wait to get on the road tomorrow! It will be really nice to get away and relax for a few days. Anyways if all goes well you shall still be hearing from me. (Crossing my fingers that I got my scheduled posts set up properly and that they post!)

Here's a quick card for today. :) Hard to believe that we have so many dandelion puffs around the yard already but seeing them reminded me that I had this set from Heidi Grace Designs, so I dug it out. The blooming pollen puffs that you see around the main panel are from the HGD set, while the set of blooms on the kraft paper are rub-ons from My Mind's Eye, the Laundry Line "Flirty" collection. I distressed the edges and then sponged them with white chalk ink before stamping the blooms. I highlighted around the rub-ons and the sentiment with my aqua pen and Purely Pomegranate ink. I also went over the word bloom and the rub-ons with a shimmer pen for a touch of sparkle. Now if only all pollen were so pretty and not bothersome for the allergies!

Wishing you a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used: Stamps - Winnefred St. by HGD, Bloomin' Beautiful by SU; Paper - Purely Pomegranate, Kraft, SU Designer Series Paper; Ink - Jet Black, White Chalk, Purely Pomegranate; Accessories - Button, Twine, Rub-ons, Pop Dots; Techniques - Distressing, Sponging, Watercoloring.

Short and Sweet

2009-04-15T19:28:00.000-04:00

Hello there! Here I am trying to squeeze my way into getting a little bit of computer time in. I don't usually have to fight for it but Andrew has been doing that "tax" thing and reworking our budget the past few days and I'm under the "keep it short and sweet" orders. So short and sweet it will have to be. :) For today, I'll share these two cards again using some of the new sets by Our Daily Bread designs.

This one uses the Children of God set along with one of my favorite color combos, Cool Caribbean and Chocolate Chip. And I adore that striped ribbon. It's always hard to bring myself to use it but I'm always glad when I do. Isn't this image too sweet?

I mentioned earlier in another post that we have some weddings coming up. I'm starting to play around with some wedding card ideas in the colors being used by the couples. The floral overlay is actually a vellum print that I came across at the bottom of my 12x12 paper bin. I know I got this vellum in Florida before we moved over 3 years ago and I've never used any of it. How could I have let something so pretty go unused? It will certainly be put to good use now, that's for sure!

The 1 Corinthians passage is stamped under the vellum and both layers lift up to reveal the inside area for a personal sentitment. Here's a closeup of the verse passage throught the vellum layer. There are bits of glitter on the vellum if you look carefully.

Well I gotta jet so Andrew can get back to his things. Have a wonderful day and I'll be back very soon with some other creations I made over the past week. :)

Smile for the birdie!

2009-04-13T22:48:00.002-04:00

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Easter! We sure had a lovely weekend. Had some family and friends over and I got a lot of planting done around the yard. That's always a great feeling to get something accomplished around the yard. :)

So I'm sure you may have noticed I didn't get my last few cards posted as promised. I encountered a camera problem last week while hunting around my backyard for a few springtime photos ops. While focusing on a beautiful bunch of blooms growing under a tree, the unimaginable happen! Remember the story of Chicken Little and that whole "the sky is falling" fiasco? Well it happened to me too! Though it was a bright and sunny day, the heavens seemed to have opened up and drop down on me. More specifically, my camera and my hand. And it actually wasn't sky. It was bird poo. And actually, it was a lot of bird poo! Oh so VERY NaStY bird poo. Needless to say, my camera needed to be "expertly" cleaned because the bird had impeccable aim - right down all the control buttons and around their tiny cracks and crevices. And that put all photos on hold! It's been a rough few days being digital camera-less you know! You just don't have the same instant reward and satisfaction with a film camera you know! LOL! But now I have my trusty camera back tonight and it's ready for action again! I've got a load of pictures to process and I'll get to posting asap! If only I could get my hands on that dirty little birdie...

New ODBD Rubber

2009-04-07T20:45:00.001-04:00

Have you seen the new releases from Our Daily Bread designs this month? If not pop over and give them a look-see! Some sweet things are there. I have two cards to share using the new sets.
And I'm just tickled about this first card! It uses a verse from the Children of God set. I have literally had this wonderful pink toile print paper setting on my desk for the past few weeks, just itching for the right idea to show off the sweet pattern. When I got the new sets, I knew right away how I could finally put the toile to use. :) The little children in the print were a wonderful match for the verses. After I cut out my image and stamped the verse, I just gave the print a touch more of an aged look with some sponging. The brown base doesn't show it well in the photo but it's stamped with a French Script background. It was a rather simple and quick card but it's so charming, don't you think?

For this card, I went to some of my favorite vintagey K&Company patterns. I especially adore the main rose print and thought it a wonderfully fitting background for this lovely verse from the Love set. We have several upcoming weddings and anniversaries to help celebrate, and the Love One Another and the Love companion set are really going to come in handy. I did a lot of heavy sponging and paper distressing on the layers of this card. The tiny key was an exciting find at the bottom of one of my ribbon bins. Thought it was the prefect little touch to go along with the card. :)

Thanks so much for waddling by today! Hope your week has been an enjoyable one so far! I'll be back tomorrow with some more fun creations to share! Hugs!

A Spring Cottage

2009-04-06T21:25:00.000-04:00

Hello there my friends! Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend. We celebrated Easter with Andrew's family over the weekend and enjoyed the company of some of his family that we haven't seen in several months. It seems I've gotten behind in posting the past few weeks, so I'm going to try my best to make up for that over the next few days. Our schedule seems to finally be slowing up just a bit, though not for long. I for one, will certainly be taking full advantage of this short school week with long weekend! :)

Today, I have a spring card to share with you. If you've dropped by recently and viewed any my last few posts, you've seen all the wonderful beauties of spring that we've been enjoying of late! The gorgeous pastel colors are all around us and I had to pull out this lovely Kinkade stamp and put some of those colors on it's flowers. The stamped bkgrd is Pretty Pattern from CHF and patterned paper from a spiral journal by Making Memories. I also broke into my new Prima leaves to go along with the flower.

Supplies Used: Stamps - TK Make a Wish Cottage and Pretty Pattern bkgd both by Cornish Heritage Farms; Ink - Sepia, Walnut Stain, Assorted reinkers; Papers - Chocolate Chip, White, Making Memories pattern; Accessories - Flowers & Prima Leaves, Brad, Lace, Stickles, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring, Paper Distressing.

And of course before I go, I have to share this sweet lil' cottage-like building from among the beauties at Duke Gardens. Thanks so much for stopping by! :)

Floral Photo Box

2009-03-31T22:52:00.005-04:00

I've been quiet of late, haven't I? :) I didn't mean to be absent this past week but we've had a lot going on and with spring coming on full force it makes it hard to stay indoors most days. Although, over the weekend I was ready to bury my head under the pillows and not come out until the end of pollen season. And it didn't help that I spent the better part of the weekend outside helping with a school fundraiser on Saturday and then visiting an arboretum on Sunday. I seem to be hit harder and earlier then ever this year with nasty allergy yucks. So bad that I went and had my allergy meds changed b/c it was like the normal stuff quit working all together.
Anyways, here's a little something that I wanted to share with you. I've been trying to find more household items to add some stamping to and here's a little goodie I found tucked away in a drawer. It's a photo box frame. The lid pulls out of the top and holds 20 4x6 photo sleeves. I decided to spruce the front of it up with a few stamped flowers and another favorite verse from the Scripture Collection 1 by Our Daily Bread designs.

The verse and flowers are stamped on a piece of vellum and the faint color that you see behind it is a floral photo. The verse is stamped on the front and the flowers were stamped on the back for a lighter look.

Thanks for stopping by! And I hope you enjoy these few photos from the NC State Arboretum. :)

Flowers Galore!

2009-03-25T21:55:00.000-04:00

Hello my friends! I'm back after taking a few days off from the computer and stamping. We had a wonderful time while my parents were here and now it's back to business as usual. I was happy to get some stamping done last evening and was all ready to photograph it when I found that my camera had gone missing! You know that terrible sinking feeling, yeah I had that all right. Fortunately, I located it tonight in my car. It must of slid out of my bag. I downloaded the rest of the pictures off of it but I'll wait until tomorrow for better lighting to take any more card pictures.

Here is the one card that was on my camera, using Kelley's verse from Scripture Collection 1, newly released by Our Daily Bread designs. What could be more beautiful then the creation of flowers? :)The flowers are from the Sing to the Lord set. I went with the simple, one-layer look for this. The flowers are watercolored and have a touch of stickles on them. The lace is a recent favorite that I came across at Archiver's.

Now I'll leave you with a few more pictures from our visit to the Duke Gardens this past weekend. Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Flowers, Cards and More!

2009-03-21T21:17:00.006-04:00

I've been rather quiet the past few days but for good reason! We got some last minute surprise company - my Mom & Dad! They've been wanting to take a trip and Dad was feeling up to it so after checking with the Doc on Tuesday, they headed down to see us on Thursday and to stay for a few days. This is the first trip they have been able to take since Dad started his cancer teatments over a year and a half ago. So you can just imagine how excited they are to finally get away! We've certainly been enjoying the lovely spring weather and have been keeping quite busy. Today we visited the Duke Gardens and had a wonderful time taking in all the gorgeous blooms as you can see in the photo above.

I also wanted to share a few cards that I made earlier this week and never got a chance to post. First is this bright and bold black, white and red card, using You are the Potter from ODBD. I've been itching to use a few of my larger Prima blooms for awhile now so I finally made it a point to include them on a card. The center jewel embellishment comes from a Deja Views pack that I've been hording for a few months. The pots are popped up and parts lightly watercolored in red, then gone over in red stickles.

Here is one of the many tiny simple cards I created for St. Patrick's Day. I tried to use up a lot of scraps and so most of the card measure between 3 by 3 to 2.5 by 2.5 inches. They were loads of fun to create and I used May God Hold You set, also by ODBD.

And lastly, here is a beautiful piece of "Happy Mail" that I received this week from MariLynn! The flower image is embossed in gold and then colored. She included some stamped images that I had been longing for! Isn't that the sweetest? Thank you so very much MariLynn!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend! Thank you for stopping by!

Light of the World Winner

2009-03-17T23:05:00.001-04:00

We have a winner for the Light of the World stamp set!
From random.org:

Here are your random numbers:
29
Timestamp: 2009-03-18 03:00:00 UTC

And that would be:

mustangsarah said...
Beautiful projects. I just love this set.The lighthouse reminds me so much of the one I saw from my living room window, when I lived in NFld. Gosh, never realized how much I miss seeing that and the water. I so would love to win this.
March 15, 2009 11:45 AM

Woo hooo!! Congrats to you, Mustangsarah! Send me an email with you snail mail address and the stamps will soon be off to you!

And I just want to THANK EVERYONE for their wonderfully kind comments and for playing along! I truly hope you have enjoyed visiting and seeing all the Our Daily Bread designs creations during our special celebration week!

Our Daily Bread Designs Blog Hop: The Almighty

2009-03-17T06:00:00.003-04:00

It’s a Celebration!! Yes, you may be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, but I am also celebrating the One-year Anniversary at Our Daily Bread designs! It was one year ago today that owner Kelley Holland began her adventure. What a fun adventure it has been and look where we are a year later! Great products and inspirational stamps!

Thanks for stopping in on your way through our first Blog Hop. If you didn’t know about our Blog Hop and landed here by chance, there are goodies for you along the way and it’s important to hit the blogs in the order of the Hop. You’ll want to start out with Dina at Mama Dina’s Stamperia. If you followed me here from Angel Wilde's blog, Angelosity, then you are in the right place! There is blog candy along the way and even I don’t know where it is, so be sure to start at the beginning of the Hop so you don’t miss it!

For a special grand prize, we are playing “Scripture Scramble!” Each blog has one or two words that you can collect at each stop and put together to make a scripture verse (NIV edition). Once you have collected all the words, send the verse in the correct order, along with the scripture reference by EMAIL to our DT Coordinator, Judy Rozema, at lidaroseroz@gmail.com. Correct entries will be put into a hat and the Grand Prize winner will receive a set of their choosing from Our Daily Bread designs AND
a selection of cards made especially for this celebration by some of the Design Team members. How cool is that?! Entries must be received by MIDNIGHT CST on March 19th.

Here is my Scripture Scramble word: nor
**********************************************************************

Speaking of scriptures, today is the release of two new scripture sets: Scripture Collection 1 and Scripture Collection 2. Each of the Design Team members chose a verse that is special to them and Kelley made them into beautiful anniversary sets that are available for purchase today! You can purchase just one or both and you will receive 10% off the purchase of both of them together.

The verse that I chose was Psalm 91:1, "He who dwells in the shelter of The Most High will rest in the shadow of The Almighty." I love this verse and think of it quite often, especially at times that I may find myself wondering "what next?" or being afraid of which direction to go in, in life. It reminds me that there is NO reason to fear when our faith is in the Lord and He will give is comfort when we go to Him. And even when others may fail us, we can always rely on His protection, security, wisdom and love. Isn't that a blessed promise to keep close to your heart?

About my card: five of it's layers are popped up with dots so it really thick! The verse is stamped on white but then I sponged over it with Antique Linen to give it an aged look to go along with the K&Company patterns. The circles were cut out and layered using my Creative Memories cutting system. Directly under the verse is gold shimmer cardstock. I also sponges inks on the Prima flowers to make their colors "pop" out a little more. What do you think? :)Supplies Used: Stamps - Scripture Collection 2 & Sing to the Lord; Papers - Chocolate Chip, Clue Bayou, White, Gold Shimmer, K&Company Patterns; Inks - Jet Black, Blue Bayou, Antique Linen, Walnut Stain; Accessories - Prima Flowers, Copper Brads, Lace, Pop Dots, Creative Memories Circle Cutter, Corner Rounder; Techniques - Sponging.

Now, to continue on, next you’ll be visiting Lorelie Kim at My Paper Adventures. Wait until you see what she has to show you!

Thanks so much for stopping by and joining in with all our celebrations for Our Daily Bread designs one year anniversary! Have a wonderful day! :)

Our Daily Bread Designs Anniversary Celebration with Blog Candy

2009-03-15T00:01:00.003-04:00

Happy Sunday to you and thanks for stopping by today! We're continuing the week long celebration of Our Daily Bread designs one year anniversary ! Wooo Hooo! Congrats to Kelley! I trust you have enjoyed visiting around to all the design team members blogs, checking out all the beautiful designs, fabulous tutorials and entering to win free stamps! And you come to the right place today if you would like a chance to win a new ODBD stamp set! I'm giving away the very first set that was released by ODBD - Light of the World. It has a gorgeous lighthouse with 3 wonderful verses! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday night at 11 pm, EST! Now I created a few projects to showcase this great set!

First up is a card. I paired up some My Mind's Eye patterns with Chocolate Chip and Not Quite Navy for a real ocean feel. It measures 5.5 square and has a lot of depth to it as there are pop dots between almost every layer! I decided to try my hand at creating a night-time sky with the moon rising up behind the lighthouse. And what better a verse to help guide us when we're in the dark! I did a lot of inking and paper distressing and I even frayed the ends of the twill ribbon. Parts of the image is highlighted with stickles and the lighthouse is popped up.

Now here is something I made for Andrew. He needed a handy little holder to help organize bills -instead of leaving them lay all over the computer desk! I happened across this desk organizer with tiny picture frames in the front at Target a few weeks back. He loves it and I love the clean desk now! ;) I kept this simple and easy. There is just a hint of glitter on parts of the lighthouse and I sponged blues around the verse.
Lastly is this little gift set I made for someone special! It contains some scented bath and body treats such as soap and lotions. They are all sunflower scented so I made a sunflower tag to go along with the gift. I very lightly tapped the lighthouse with Chocolate Chip and then inked it with Summer Sun. The verse is stamped over it on Chocolate Chip. It's sponged and layered several times and it hangs down from the sunflower by some hemp twine that is knotted through the side at the top. And as an extra lil' treat, the sunflower itself can be removed and worn as a pin. :)
If you would like to see some more creations using the Light of the World set, head on over to the Our Daily Bread designs gallery. And be sure to head on over to visit Sita's blog. She has more exciting ODBD Anniversary items to share!! Be sure to check back on Tuesday for a very special unveiling and for a super awesome Blog Hop!!!

I hope you enjoy a fabulous day! Thanks so much for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win this stamp set! :)

Lilac in Blue

2009-03-12T21:17:00.003-04:00

Something simple, quick and sweet to share with you tonight! I needed a few cards and I've been short on time all week long so they were going to have to be FAST! I grabbed some pre-embossed notecards with envies and whipped out a few of these babies, using Blossoms Abound. (And as you can see, blossoms are certainly abounding here in NC - the beautiful blooming tree shown below is in our front yard.) The images on the envelopes were stamped off once before applying. Can't really get much more simpler or quicker than this ya know. :) The only "extra" that I added was stickles on the lilac.

Thanks for popping in and have a wonderful day! Don't forget about the Blog Hop that's going on to help celebrate Our Daily Bread designs one year anniversary!

Blooming Prayer

2009-03-10T19:39:00.006-04:00

Hello my friends! Just a quick post to share the card I made for today's Color Challenge and then I'm off to finish 101 other things before the day is over. It's going to be one of those weeks! Anyway I really enjoyed the colors for today and I was inspired by the blooms that I posted yesterday so I combined two Our Daily Bread designs sets, Serenity Prayer with the flowers from Sing to the Lord. I of course watercolored the flowers and the sponged around the edges. The patterned paper is from a Stampin' Up, although I can't remember the name of it at the moment. Each oval layer is popped up from the next. The corner scrolls are from a Cuttlebug die and the SU paper are punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch. There are tiny pearls and stickles on the flowers and the four large corner pearls are adhered with glue dots. Hope you enjoyed seeing today's creation! Let me know what you think!

Now before you go, I just want to remind you that today is the kick off day for Our Daily Bread designs Anniversary week! Something fun and exciting is going on everyday and there will be prizes too!! For more info, head to the Our Daily Bread designs blog!

Thanks for visiting! Enjoy your day!

Supplies Used: Stamps - Serenity Prayer & Sing to the Lord by ODBd; Paper - Black, White, Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Pattern from SU; Ink - Jet Black, Rose Red, Always Artichoke; Accessories - Assorted Pearls, Satin Ribbon, Stickles, Cuttlebug Scroll diecut, Hatpin, Creative Memories cutter, Martha Stewart Punch, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Watercoloring.

March Divine Design Challenge

2009-03-09T06:45:00.001-04:00

Today's card is for the monthly Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge. I finally got a chance to join in last month and I'm very excited to be on time for this month! To play along, you can make any kind of project - all creations just need to include a bible verse as the focus and everyone tries to upload on the 9th of each month. You can see all the wonderful projects for this challenge by using this keyword: BVC09.

For my card, I used the newly released You are the Potter from Our Daily Bread designs. This verse from Isaiah is a beautiful reminder to me that we're all works that can be molded by the Master. I chose a neat pattern paper from K&Company, paired it with Bliss Blue and watercolored my pots to match. They are highlighted with a touch of stickles in several places. The circles were cut using my Creative Memories cutter and I did a lot of inking and paper distressing to all the layers. I also sponged some ink on the Prima flowers to add to the look.

Thank you for stopping by today! Hope you get a chance to check out the rest of the Divine Design cards! Have a wonderful day and enjoy this little bit of 'pink spring' from me to you!

The Ducks are all Quacking for...

2009-03-09T00:25:00.001-04:00

Wendy! Wooo hooo!

Here are your random numbers:28
Timestamp: 2009-03-09 04:23:04 UTC

Wendy said...
I love your Thomas Kinkade Card!!! Its beautiful, as usual!!!
You really have to teach me how you water color. Mine would never turn out like
that. Thanks for sharing all your beautiful creations, Happy Blogging Birthday
March 8, 2009 6:52 PM

Wendy darling, send me your snail mail address and I'll get them off in the mail right away! :)

Thanks ya'll for your sweet remarks and comments! Be sure to stop again throughout the next week as Our Daily Bread designs will be sharing all kinds of fun stuff for it's one year anniversary! It all starts on March 10th at the Our Daily Bread designs Blog!

Hope everyone starts off their week on a fabulous note!

Live Simply

2009-03-08T12:45:00.000-04:00

Hello there! Hope everyone has been enjoying a wonderful weekend! It's GORGEOUS here! the sun is out and it's getting close to 80 degrees outside. The birds are singing and the buds are in bloom! Not a day to be spent inside, that's for sure. :)
I just wanted to share this card I created for today's Featured Stamper, who is none other than the wonderful Judy, aka StampingQueenJAR! After spending awhile in her great gallery, I ended up picking this little pretty. I made some drastic changes, namely combining the 3 separate panels on the right into one and well, I also didn't use any stamps or ink! It's been awhile since I've made a no stamping card and boy did this one seem to take FOREVER! Why is that? Of course the colors, paper, inks and all that jazz are different. The "live simply" panel is a fabric tag. It, along with the paper and all the diecuts are from the Amy Butler Lotus collection by K&Company. {And don't forget - you can win your own set of the Amy Butler Lotus collection by commenting on my last post.} And like I said no stamps or ink but there's lots of dimension to it! :)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be picking the Quacker Treat winner late tonight! Happy Stamping!

Quacker Treats to Celebrate 2 Years!

2009-03-05T22:03:00.010-05:00

Today Quacking Creations turns 2!! Wooo Hoooo!

Very exciting! I honestly had no idea were this whole blogging thing would lead when I started into it 2 years ago or if I would like it enough to keep doing it. But it has lead me to so many wonderful friendships and such amazing opportunities, I'm so glad I gave it a chance! Even though I may not always update as much as I would like, I love all my fabulous blogland friends and I'm so happy to be able to share with you all! Thank you everyone for your friendship, support, encouragement, comments and love over the past 3 years! Life wouldn't be the same without all of you special people!

Now let's get this little "birthday party" started! First we need to invite all the ducks! Can't have a party at Quacking Creations without ducks, you know!
And there needs to be some flowers, of course! I have to have FLOWERS! Oh forget the flowers, how about a whole garden? Don't let the ducks nibble on the flowers.... :)
And we need some "decorations" to share! After all that's what Quacking Creations is all about - sharing stamped pretties! Here's a little something I created this week with my Thomas Kinkade Light of Peace stamp. I figured I'd try my hand at coloring another image. I must say, I had an easier time coloring the cottage stamp as this one is a smaller area. This is an envelope card and insert - details on how to make one can be found in this Try a New Technique challenge thread.
Here is a closeup of the insert for inside the envelope. It's a flat card with an area for a message on the back. I stamped the image in Sepia and colored it with SU inks and an aqua pen.

For the envie, I started with one sized 7.5 by 5.5 and chopped some out to get it down to the size I wanted, making it just about 5.5 square. The background is repeatedly stamped with the Cheesecloth stamp. This card is headed out to help cheer up a friend who's been having a rough week. I hope it helps to brighten her day! :)
Supplies Used: Stamps - TK Light of Peace by CHF, Holidays & Wishes, Cheesecloth Bkgrd; Paper - Pacific Point, Cool Caribbean, Chocolate Chip, White, K&Company Pattern; Ink - Pacific Point, Cool Caribbean, Walnut Stain, Sepia, Chocolate Chip, Assorted SU reinkers; Accessories - Ribbon, Martha Stewart punch, Crimper, Oval Punch, Brads, Stickles, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Distressing, Watercoloring.

And lastly, I'd say we need some treats, right? Can't have a party without any treats. :) So here are some Quacker Treats for some lucky duck! I thought I would share something that I really, REALLY love and we all know that would be some K&Company goodies. Here they are: a 20 piece clear stamp set, designer paper pack, patterned die-cuts, fabric brads, glitter rub-ons with gems and two packs of fabric tags! All items are from the K&Company Amy Butler Lotus collection. You know the drill - leave a comment on this post with your name in for a chance to win and I will pick the winner on Sunday using random.org. :) I can't wait to send these goodies out to someone!

Thanks again for visiting Quacking Creations and leaving your "love"! QUACK, QUACK!!!

Perfect in Purple

2009-03-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hello there! Remember I showed you part of this cross last week? Here is the finished product finally. I got it finished up during our snow day on Monday. The Easter Cross stamp is beautiful, isn't it? It's from Inkadinkado and can be found here. This card is pretty much a monochromatic creation - deep, rich purples with a touch of brown. I love how rich the cross looks stamped in Elegant Eggplant ink. And the verse is such a lovely reminder about what God has done for us all, especially because of Easter. Where would we all be without what He did for us then? It was a truly marvelous thing and the verse makes a perfect pairing with cross! The verse stamp is from the Sing to the Lord set by ODBd.

Hope you have a marvelous day and be sure to stop back again tomorrow evening for some Quacker Treats! See ya later! :)
Supplies Used: Stamps - Easter Cross, Sing to the Lord; Paper - Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Chocolate Chip, White, Pattern Paper by My Mind's Eye; Ink - Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Walnut Stain; Accessories - Velvet Flower, Rhinestone Brad, Silver Brads, Chocolate Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Pop Dots; Techniques - Sponging, Monochromatic.

Blooming Lilacs & Blog Treats!!!

2009-03-03T19:45:00.001-05:00

Hello and happy Tuesday everyone! Got to squeeze in some extra stamping time again today b/c school had a 2 hour delay. :) So I got started on this lilac card for today's Color Challenge: Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss and Chocolate Chip. Those are some colors right up my alley! Yes, I really do like the bold and bright pink! I did have to substitute Old Olive for the kiwi but no matter, it's still a fabulous combo. So after our snow yesterday, I decided to reach for one of my cherished flower sets to warm up with, Blossoms Abound. I {ADORE} this set! I love lilacs and have many fond memories of picking them at my Grandma's house. She has always had a lovely variety of different colors. Just thinking about them makes me want to head up to PA and pick some as soon as they're in bloom!

The center lilac and bee are both cut out and popped up off the front as well as decked out with some sparkly stickles. The vanilla scallop is a pre-cut from Swoozie's. Love that store! I stamped the Tres Chic bkgrd on it in Antique Linen and then the lilacs. I stamped off the Pink Passion for the lighter pink on the lilacs. The front swivels open from the brad and the inside layer for a sentiment is the green pattern paper you see. The patterned chipboard bracket is from a Colorbok chipboard pack. And as you can see I did the sponging and distressing thing on most of the edges. I pulled out some assorted pink ribbons to add a little more fun with the brad and finished it off with the gems. I have to say this makes me happy to look at it - can't wait for spring flowers to all be in bloom! That's a lovely thought, don't you think? :)

Now, about those blog treats: Be sure to pop back around in a few days - 2 to be exact! :) Quacking Creations is getting ready to celebrate it's 2nd birthday with some happy Quacker Treats! Thanks for waddling in for a peek! Warm wishes for a wonderful day to you! "Quack, Quack!"