Prettie Wednesday and a Sale!!

Well, here I am with my second(technically third) post for today! Two weeks ago our Prettie Mama, Christie, challengedall the Prettie Girls to use acetate on a card. Unfortunately for me, I am a terrible procrastinator, so this card is on it’s way Jillian, but if you come here first, SURPRISE!!(By the way, my watermark and I got into a fight, obviously it won, and is GINORMOUS!! Since I already sent out the card, there really isn't anything I can do, so here it is in all it GINORMOUS glory!!LOL) I decided to make a acetate card(because acetate gives me a mental block and that is all I could think of). This is only the second time that I have made one of these, and I still don’t think I know what I am doing, but hey, I tried!! I stamped Rainy Day Sophia twice, once on Whisper White and once on my DCWV Nana’s Nursery Baby Girl stack. I cut out the dress and paper pieced it and then colored the rest of Sophia with my SU markers and aqua painter. I added some ribbon, tons of brads, some more yummy dp and it was done! This week Charmainehas challenged us to make a book mark(what they don’t know is that I still haven’t made my inspiration card for Jules’ challengefrom last week-shhhh!!). Be sure to blurf around to the other Prettie Girls blogs(in my sidebar) to see what they have come up with for this challenge, and if you played along, leave us a link so we can check our your work!! Also, as if she didn’t already have enough to do, Jules’ posted our first ever product review over on the PP site. Each month she will do a review of different things sold in the Pretties store and for a few days after the review whatever item she reviewed is on SALE!! That’s right, I said SALE(so what are you still doing here???)!! So be sure to pop on over to the Paper Pretties website, get registered if you aren’t already, and check out what Jules has in the spotlight this month. Here’s a hint, I showed it earlier this week in this post!!!
Stamps-Rainy Day Friend
Paper-Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Whisper White and DCWV
Ink- Black Stazon
Tools-brads, Flirty ribbon, taffeta, markers, aquapainter

One Kind Sketch

Well, we had our first prenatal class last night! We were the only girl/girl team, which was a little awkward, but fine. The beginning of the class started with a game where they had different things used in childbirth laid out on the table and you had to write down what you thought they were. Well, we all stunk at it, but Mary and I knew more than everyone else. Unfortunately, due to the fact that our mom is a nurse, Mary works for the hospital, and I spent a ton of time on the OB ward with my old boss(the one I was a nanny for was an OB), we were disqualified!! I tried not to throw too big a stink, but really, how unfair!! LOL!! Anyway, on the way home I got to drive through another storm, nothing compared to the one in Arkansas, but a storm none the less. Trust me when I say I am seriously thinking about not driving anymore! As I saw the lightning crash around me all I could think to myself was- man, you’re an idiot!! LOL
Enough blabber, on to my card!! This card is for the sketch challengeover on SCS. It was guest hosted this week by Amy, and she came up with a terrific sketch. Since I saw it last night before I went to be, I got to dream about it all night long , and still had nothing! My One Of A Kind set that I just had to have, has been terribly neglected since I got it, so I decide to give it a go! I stamped the flower three times and cut it out in layers after water coloring it with my markers and aqua painter. I then punched out a piece of Berry Bliss DSP and made my build a brad and stuck it through the whole thing. I heavily sponged the edges on this card, and then in a last ditch effort to make this the heaviest card ever made, I threw a ton of hardware on it!! You know how I love to embellish!! This is just a warning, but hold on tight, I have at least two more posts today!! YAYY!! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great day!!
Stamps- One of Kind
Paper-Pretty in pink, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, and Berry Bliss DSP
Ink- Black Stazon and Close to Cocoa
Tools- build a brads, pewter hardware, markers, aqua painter, pink taffeta, cocoa grosgrain

Great Swaps Girls Featured Swapper

This weeks featured swapper for the Great Swaps Girls blog is Lori Tecler. Our featured swapper works almost exactly the same as the SCS featured stamper, except that we chose only people that are members of the group to shine the spotlight on. I chose Lori this week not only for her fabulous gallery, but also for her fabulous blog. I chose this card of hers to CASE. I changed the colors, added layers, and changed the images. I can't wait to share some of the other stuff I have been working on with you all!! Be prepared, there could be a FEW posts tomorrow(after I get some sleep)!! Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to stop by the GSG blog!! Our challenges are open to anyone who wants to play!!

stamps- Garden Whimsy

ink- Purely Pomegranate

tools-baubbles, ribbon, nestabilities

paper-Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Prints Pack

Rainy Tuesday

Today has been super dreary around here, but good news, I got dsl today!!! YAYYY! What the heck was I waiting for?? Anyway, this is my card for today's color challenge! The challenge was to use Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, and Soft Sky. This is an awesome color combo, and I was happy because I finally got to use my Rainy Day Sophia stamp set from Paper Pretties. Be sure to check out the Paper Pretties website to join our Stamp Of The Month club, it is super fabulous!! I paper pieced her dress using some of the Bali Breeze paper and then colored the rest of her in with my SU markers and aquapainter. I am in a hurry(got terribly distracted with my sister's decorations for her shower), so I will let you figure the rest out(not that it is hard)!! Thanks for stopping by, and wish me luck! Tonight is my first prenatal class with my sister. Her husband is too squeamish to be in the delivery room, so guess who gets to be there....ME!!! Have a great day!!
stamps-Rainy Day Friends
paper-Ruby Red, Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie, and Whisper White, and Bali Breeze DP
ink-Soft Sky and Black Stazon
tools-brads, pumpkin pie ribbon, swiss dots folder, SU markers, aquapainter,

Trust Me, She's Worth It!!

I really do try NOT to do three posts in one day, but if I don't post this soon, I will completely forget again, and she is too good to forget!! Have you been to the Great Swaps Girls blog yet, if not, you totally should!! We host a challenge and a featured swapper each week that we invite ANYONE to play along in , and will occasionally post pictures from our group swaps that we do! This past weeks featured swapper was Denise Hinton, aka geekgirl415, she is a SUPER talented stamper, and creates some of the most gorgeous blog banners I have ever seen. Right now, I have put a bug in her ear that I NEED one, and I am just waiting for her reply(hint, hint). I love her clean style and appealing layouts as well as her amazing use of color. While looking for DP for another project, I stumbled upon this gorgeous piece from the DCWV All Dressed Up stack. When I saw this card by Denise, I knew it would be the perfect card to showcase this yummy pattern. The only stamping on this is the sentiment at the bottom and it is from the Papertrey Ink Birthday Basics set. It is one of the best birthday sets I have ever owned with tons of sentiments and different style of happy birthday stamps. Other than that, this card is pretty straight forward!! Thanks for stopping by yet again, and I hope you have a fabulous day!!

stamps-Papertrey Ink- Birthday Basics

paper- Pretty in Pink, Basic Black, Whisper White and DCWV All Dressed Up

ink-White Stazon

tools-Martha Stewart edge punch, black prima, white Heidi Grace glitter flower, and pink Imaginese glitter flower, white brad by American Crafts

MOJO Monday

It has been forever since I participated in a Mojo Monday sketch. I always love the sketches, but forget to play. Honestly though, with the number of challenges that are out there, it is hard to remember them all! I needed a birthday card(about a week ago, but who's counting) so I decided to use Julee's challenge as well as the technique lover's challenge which was to first emboss an image and then watercolor it in. I chose to use the rhinoceros from the SU set Zoofari. I embossed it with black ep and then colored it in with my SU markers. I then sponged around the edges to create the sky and grass. I love Pretty in Pink and Wasabi together and quite frankly, I am going to be super sad to see it go. I have a plan this year though, every order I place from now until the end of the current SU catalog will have a package of each of the in colors included. Some of the people that went on the cruise for SU have posted the new colors and I have to be honest when I say that I hope they are better in person because if they are taking away my Wasabi, they better have a FANTASTIC alternative or I just don't see how it could be worth it. Am I alone here?? Anyway, the rest of the card is pretty easy to figure out-lots of ribbon, lots of brads, some punched flowers and piercing and Viola', it's a card!! I am still feeling crappy, but I have so much to do that every time I lay down my mind starts racing. I have a meeting in 45minutes and then I plan on resting(ya right). Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!!
stamps-Zoofari, Birthday Banter
paper-Wild Wasabi, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, and Pretty in Pink DSP
ink-Black Stazon, Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue, and Versamark
tools-silver brads, flower punch, wasabi ribbon, white taffeta, pink gingham, SU markers, black ep, sponge, paper piercer, white gel pen

MFT Monday Sketch

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are having a wonderful Monday!! Everything for me was fine til about an hour ago, and now I am not so sure I am gonna make it through today without getting sick. Man my head hurts!! I just got a couple of cards finished, and before I head off to bed, I wanted to share it with you. This card was made using the MFT Monday sketch posted on the My Favorite Things member forum on SCS. Cindy Haffner is so super talented and is always coming up with awesome sketches for us all to play with(plus her samples make you drool they are so amazing!!)! My card was made using the newly released Friend's Furever set by MFT. If you haven't got it yet, you should, it is too cute!! When I first saw this set, I thought to myself, I wish this was a girl because I have so many nieces, but then I saw where some of the design team members had simply added a pony tail to the boy and made their own girl-GENIUS!! My DP is from the Nana's Nursery Baby Boy stack and has some of the yummiest paper ever!! This is pretty basic, but the boy was colored with my SU markers and I sponged in the sky and the ground. The hardware is from my SU stylized silver hardware(gosh I hope they put that in the new catalog, and some black, we NEED BLACK!!). I am gonna go lay down for a few minutes and see if I can get the room to quit spinning, wish me luck!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

stamps-Friends Furever

ink-Black stazon, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi

paper-DCWV Nana's Nursery, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, and Very Vanilla

tools-SU markers, stylized hardware, silver brads, wasabi ribbon, aquapainter, sponge

Featured Stamper Sunday

Today's Featured Stamper over on Splitcoast Stampers is Jennifer 0f Jennifer's Sweet Designs. She is a super sweet person and awesomely talented stamper. She always leaves the sweetest little comments for me on my cards and I sooo appreciate them! Unbelievably, I still needed a couple of Mother's Day cards, so I decided to case two cards of Jennifer's. I started with this one and as per the rules, I had to change a few things on it. Since this card is for my MIL, I decided to change the colors to Perfect Plum and Pale Plum. Then I stamped my flower from Fabulous Flowers four times, twice in Pale Plum and twice in Perfect Plum. To give the flower some depth, I cut out four different layers of the flower and popped each layer up. On the top layer, I added three silver brads. I left off the punched flowers and the sentiment circle at the bottom because I couldn't get them to work, so I added a piece of purple organdy and stamped the sentiment directly on the lower panel. Sadly, I still haven't replaced my corner rounder(I broke it-boohoo), so I had to use my Martha Stewart punch to create the scallops along the panel. The top flower was replaced with three silver brads.
stamps-Fabulous Flowers and All Holidays
paper- Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Pearlized White
ink-Pale Plum and Perfect Plum craft ink and Perfect Plum classic ink
tools-silver brads, purple organdy, clear ep, edge punch,
My second card( and by FAR my favorite) was made using the SU set Bloomin Beautiful and was based on this card here. I colored the flowers with my markers and blended them with my aquapainter. The flowers were actually stamped twice, once on the oval for the stems, and the again on another piece of watercolor paper for me to color and pop up. I cut out the ovals with my nestabilities and added a sentiment to the bottom. The changes I made from Jennifer's card were the colors, added popped flowers, I changed the bow and wrapped it around, and added hardware to the sentiment and instead of dew drops, I put brads in the top corner. At first, I didn't have the green layer, but I thought it needed some more color so I added it and I am so happy I did!! Well, that is all for me for now(unless I get to stamp some more)! Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there who are mothers, and for those of you that struggle every day to become a mother, don't give up hope! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
stamps-Bloomin Beautiful and All Holidays
paper- Rose Red, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Rose Red DSP, and Watercolor paper
ink-Black Stazon
tools-small oval punch, hardware, silver brads, oval nestabilities, cuttlebug, markers, aquapainter, cream organdy

Inspired by a Sketch

Okay, now if you know me at all, you know that I like to S-T-R-E-T-C-H the borders on the Inspiration Challenge about as far as they will go. With that said, no one should be surprised by the card that I made for today's Inspiration Challenge over on SCS. I decided to take a peek at it last night and LOVED the inspiration piece. It is this super gorgeous sun catcher. So, when looking at an inspiration piece, I really try to run with the first thing that popped into my head. If you have been to Beate's blog(or any of her sketch teams), then this is gonna look familiar to you. That's right, believe it or not, the inspiration piece inspired me to do Beate's sketch challenge!! It was the oval shape of the sun catcher that caught my eye, because in all honesty, I have never seen one this shape before-isn't it gorgeous!! I was going to try to incorporate the birds on my card, but for some reason I am bird challenged. I have the hardest time stamping birds, I just don't think they look right when I stamp them, so I went with a flower. I got my colors from the yummy DP by SU called Ginger Blossom. It is one of my all time favorites, and I tend to hoard it, so I forced myself to use it. While I was photographing this card, I realized something was missing so I added the brads and the flowers, it was kinda boring without them. This is another gift card holder card and is going to be given to my DH's Granny tonight at her Mother's Day dinner. I have to say, I am very anti-eating out on Mother's Day, so the night before is kind of pushing it for me. Anyone who has worked in a restaurant on a holiday, ESPECIALLY Mother's Day, will know exactly what I am talking about-talk about INSANITY!! Travis and I decided(well, I decided and he had no choice but to go along)that we would take all of our mother's out to dinner, but after the fact. I know it is not as special, but seriously, Mother's Day is one of the busiest days to eat out and I never plan to do it as long as I live!!Well, that is it for now! My niece Taylor's birthday is today, so I am going to have to get ready to go spend a few hours with some screaming kids!! JOY!! Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!!
stamps-Embrace Life and All Holidays
paper- Ruby Red, River Rock, Very Vanilla and Ginger Blossom DSP
ink-Ruby Red and River Rock
tools-paper piercer, template(thanks Jody), river rock ribbon, gold brads, primas, oval nestabilities, cuttlebug

How did this happen?

How did Mother's Day sneak up on me?? Here I was stressing about getting all the shower stuff done for my sister, and then I realized I only have 3 Mother's Day cards done when I really need about 8?? I had better get to work!! I decided to make this card for today's limited supplies challenge into a gift card holder(since that is all I ever give out for Mother's Day) that we learned to do a few weeks ago for the technique lover's challenge. Today's limited supplies challenge was to make a card using no stamps. You could use any embellishments, rub ons, whatever, just no stamping! For some reason, I got a total mental block when faced with this super simple challenge, so all I could think of was my Bazil Bling Blossoms. I bought a bunch of these in different colors, and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use them. I had some scraps of this DP laying around, so I used it to make the bottom panel and the strip across. I tied a cream organdy bow around it and then added my flowers. The big one is the Bazil blossom, the other two started out white and I colored them with markers. The plaque at the bottom is from Making Memories and simply says Love. What do you think?? Thanks for looking and have a great day!! I am off to crank out some more cards and get started on shower stuff(my poor neglected husband, house and dog are taking a back burner)!!

paper-Pale Plum, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, and Enchante' DSP

tools- SU markers, Heidi Swapp flowers, Making Memories brad and plaque, Bazil Bling Blossom, and cream organdy