This Deserved It's Own Post

For those of you that don't know, I celebrated my birthday(30th) back in October. A few weeks after my birthday, I got an email from my friend Carolina(craftycaro). She didn't want to ask, but she hadn't seen the birthday present she sent me on my blog, so she just wondered if I had received it...and I HADN'T!! How sad is that!! I was so upset for her, one-because she thought I didn't like it so I hadn't posted it, and two- because her hard work had been lost in the mail!! When I told her that I had never received it, she said she would make another and send it to me...I told her it wasn't necessary, but she was determined(and you KNOW how we women/stampers can be)!! Right before Christmas, I received this GORGEOUS frame and card in the mail from her. LUCKY ME!! For those of you that don't know, my husband and I are desperately trying to have children of our own with no success, so for now, I am just an Aunt to my gorgeous nieces and nephews. When I first saw this sentiment on Carolina's blog, I LOVED it, so I am HONORED that she used it to make me a special gift!! Now all I need is to find a good picture of my kiddos to put in it!! Thanks so much Carolina, and I am sorry you had to remake it, but I am NOT sorry I received it finally!!!

More Christmas Cards

Here are some more FABULOUS Christmas cards I was lucky enough to receive from my friends!! I am too tired to go into detail, but to each one of these FABULOUS stampers, you know I ADORE you all!! You are so super talented, and to think of me, makes me so happy!! Thank you for being so fabulous!!
First one is by Charlene Merrick(lilluvsstampin).











Second by Becky Carafa(Beccabatgirl).










Third is by Jessica Diedrich.













Fourth is by Laura Fredrickson(scrapnextras).













And last, but not least, Lavon Gill.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy that I have totally neglected my blog!! Thank you to the few of you that are still hanging around, it means the world to me!! I have been working non-stop trying to get my Christmas cards done, and I am happy to report that all but 3 of them are signed, sealed, and postmarked...yayy me!! I feel so cheesy sending out Christmas cards the day before Christmas, but I am relieved to see that some of my favorite stampers are in the same spot...makes me feel a tiny bit better, LOL!! I also have to apologize to my Pretties...I am way behind on this weeks challenge and my regular posting day, but I hope to make it up tomorrow, I am just too pooped to stamp tonight!! What a whirlwind the last two days have been!! Besides the normal hustle and bustle, and all the holiday preparations, my poor little nephew came down with a nasty cold. Poor kid was miserable yesterday, which means I got less than nothing done all day. I was totally exhausted when he left, but stayed up until 3am working on Christmas cards(which you will see in a minute). After 3 very short hours of sleep, I had to go to work. When I got outside, my car started, but the wheel wouldn't turn...ACCKKKK!! Since I was already running late, I ran inside and stole the keys to my husbands truck...hehe!! Come to find out, some belt came off and my DH'sUncle had to put it back on for me...but man was I stressing!!! So, needless to say, I am exhausted, but I wanted to post the card that I made(actually 25 of them) last night until 3am. I started with the Verve Stamps set, Ornamental Christmas. I stamped the image with Silver Encore ink on Whisper White. The DP is by Heidi Grace, and I used my Circle Nestabilities to cut it out. The white and Not Quite Navy layers were cut out with my new Label One dies. The base is PTI white(cause it is so thick it makes an amazing card base), then NQN and Whisper White again. This card was pretty basic, but I spent FOREVER cutting and embossing at my Cuttlebug.

Well, that is it for me tonight!! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!! Be safe and God bless!!

Good Grief...

said in my best Charlie Brown voice....have you SEEN this weeks Featured Stamper???? Honestly, I am no stranger to here work, but still when I go to Paula's gallery, I am BLOWN away. She has MAD coloring skillz...seriously, she is crazy talented!! I had the pleasure of being a Whipper Snapper Featured Designer with her as well as being on the My Favorite Things team, so like I said, I am no stranger to her work. When I saw that she was the FS this week, I knew EXACTLY what card I wanted to attempt to CASE. Well, I attempted it, and I FAILED, but I still love my card...it just is no where near as amazing as hers is, kwim?? I was not only inspired by her card, but by her wonderful use of Kraft cardstock, so I decided to combine the two. I am out of acetate, so I had to make my card base Pearlized White cardstock instead. I paired it with Kraft and some yummy DP by Basic Grey. It is part of the Fruitcake collection and is truly gorgeous. I loved that the ornaments on my branch, from the MFT Branch Out set, mimicked the shape of the ornaments on the paper. I stamped the branch with Chocolate Chip cardstock and then colored it in with my SU markers. I then added some white gel pen to highlight it and went back over it with my Creamy Carmel marker. The ornaments were colored with my SU markers and then highlighted with my white gel pen. I made a major booboo, and was gonna have to start over, then I got the brilliant idea to cut the branch and ornaments out...what the HECK WAS I THINKING?? Talk about hard..geez me, never again, LOL!! I then adhered my branch to a piece of Kraft cardstock and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I then layered it with some more Pearlized white. The rest is pretty self explanatory, and I have a ton to do. Last night my mom and siblings, along with their significant others and children, were here for Christmas, and tonight we have Christmas with my Dad, so I gotta get busy!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Truly Blessed

Since getting into stamping, I have met some of the most wonderful people this world has to offer. Everyday I am reminded of why I do what I do by these wonderful women..without their encouragement, I wouldn't be half as successful, truly. In the mail the past few days, I have received some truly GORGEOUS cards from these wonderful women. My first card came to me from my friend Jodi(kharmagirl). Since meeting last year around this time, Jodi and I have continually grown closer and have formed, what I would call, a very valuable friendship-one I will be eternally grateful for. Jodi sent this GORGEOUS card to me, and let me tell you, it is STUNNING in person...I just don't know how she does it!! Thanks Jodi, MWAHHH!!

The second card that I received came to me from Donna Baker. Donna has the biggest heart and MAD stampin skillz. She is a true artist and is so loving and giving. This card is not only a card, but an ornament too(she even signed the back, what a rockstar). Thanks Donna, you amaze me.

My next card was sent to me by my friend, and fellow Prettie Girl, Christi(cici510). Christi just recently joined the team and has been WOWING me with her talent and wonderful spirit. She is a wonderful person, mother, stamper, and friend. Thanks Christi, you rock girlfriend and I can't wait to get to know you better!!

This next card was sent to me by my friend, Jessica Knutsen. Jessica is the owner of There She Goes stamps and is ROCKIN my stamping world with her awesome images. Not only is she a super talented designer, she is an amazing stamper and an all around fabulous person. Thanks Jessica, you ROCK girl!!

This last card was sent to me by Silke Ledlow(sparklegirl), which you could probably tell by looking. Her work is so distinctive and flawless. Silke is the sweetest person and a SUPER talented stamper. She inspires me everyday with her enthusiasm, kindness, and all around ROCKIN's skillz. Thanks Silke for being my friend and for being so fabulous, you amaze me girl!!

Okay, I think I just made myself sick with all the gushing, but seriously, I LOVE my PSF!!!

I've Got the Blues....

Not really, but if I don't get the rest of my stuff done, I will soon, LOL!! Today's Limited Supplies Challenge was to make a card where 3/4ths of the card had to be blue and you could only use one non-paper embellishment. I chose brads, although it KILLED me not to put some ribbon on here...if ever a card needed a nice white organdy bow, this here is the card, LOL!! Okay, enough blah blah, onto the details!! The card base is Not Quite Navy which I paired with Baja Breeze(quite possibly my new favorite color) and Gina K. White. The DP is from the Ski Slope pack and the top white panel was run through my Cuttlebug with the argyle folder. I used my scalloped edge punch to create the not so faux ribbon around the middle....it's there, it just doesn't LOOK like ribbon(which is what I REALLY wanted to use). For my main image, I stamped the poinsettia from the Gina K. set, A Year of Flowers, which was designed by my friend Melanie. The sentiment is from her companion set, Say it With Flowers. I used my Cuttlebug and Circle Nesties for the main image layers and my SU circle punched for the sentiment. For the poinsettia, I stamped it three times on Gina K. white and water colored it with my Niji waterbrush and Not Quite Navy ink pad. I then cut out two of the flowers and just the center on the third. I layered them together and then added some silver brads to the center. In the interest of keeping it limited(which is REALLY hard for me to do), I didn't go ahead and do all the piercing that I wanted to do...hmmm, maybe I should do a MORE version of this card??

Anyway, that is it for me now...I am off to my stamp table to finish putting together some more cards and then work on putting the insides in and getting them mailed...fun for me!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Joy!!

Well, I am happy to report that the shopping is done, the presents are wrapped, the menu is planned, yayy me!! I am UNHAPPY to report that the Christmas cards still aren't done(I am about halfway, but not close enough), my house is a mess, and I still have some gifts that I really wanted to make. Slowly, but surely, I am getting there...but I swear there is something wrong with me. Is anyone else like this?? Honestly, when I know I have to do something, and I need to do it now, I can NOT for the life of me get motivated....I sat in my chair and watched TV after my nephew left for almost two hours...umm, QUIT WASTING TIME MORON!!! What a dork I am....

Anywho, I made this card for todays Ways to Use It challenge. The challenge was to make something last minute and quick. Now, I know you are looking at this and thinking, how on earth was that quick, and I don't blame you...but seriously, when you KNOW what you want to do, this card took me 20mins start to finish, not bad for me(or anyone I would guess). It is pretty simple once you do it, and since it is full of things that I do all the time, it was pretty simple to throw together...once I got it figured out. On that note, isn't it PRETTY!! I am in LOVE with this deer stamp from Gina K. It is part of the Magic of Christmas set designed by Rupa Shevde...seriously one of the most gorgeous Christmas sets I own. The image was super easy to color too. I used my SU markers and added some highlights with my white gel pen. The necklace(for lack of anything else to call it) was colored Baja Breeze with my blender pen and ink pad. The paper is from the Ski Slope DSP and I paired it with Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze and Gina K. Pure Luxury White. The snowflakes were punched with my Martha Stewart snowflake punch and then I added some silver SU brads to the centers. Pretty easy huh!! Okay, well, I am off to mass produce about 10 or 15 of these...see you tomorrow!! Thanks for stopping by and for all your support, it means the world to me!!

Prettie Wednesday-Plaid

So, I REALLY needed to make this a Christmas card, but I have NO PLAID Christmas paper....go figure. Two weeks ago, our girl Jackie R. challenged us to make a card using plaid. I searched through my entire paper stash and this is it.....hmmm(me thinks I need more plaid, hehe). I used this super cute paper from My Mind's Eye, and paired it with my One of Those Days set from Paper Pretties. This card was super fast and super simple. Card base is 51/2sq., used some We R Memory Keepers hardware, the sentiment from Look Out World, and some white organdy....finito!! The image was paper pieced and colored with my SU markers. The colors on this card are Pumpkin Pie and Cool Caribbean. That is it for me now...I need to get on the road to get to my sisters, should be fun since it is below freezing here and the roads are as slick as you know what...wish me luck(I HATE WINTER)!! This weeks challenger is the ever talented Jackie P(strappystamper). Be sure to check her, as well as my other Pretties out to see what they have been up to. And as always, if you wanna play along, and we SURE hope you do, just upload a card to your blog or gallery and leave a link here so that we can check it out!! Thanks and have a great day!!

Julie Masse
Charmaine Ikach
Jillian Winters
Danielle Lounds
Jodi Collins
Jackie Rakoski
Jackie Pedro
Jessica Diedrich

Oh Boy...

Well, in THEORY, I LOVE this color combo...in actuality, it tried to KILL ME!!! Seriously, if you could see my work table and my trash can you would probably laugh, a lot!! In the end...still not EXACTLY what I wanted, but I still love it..and I can add it to my DONE pile, so WAHOO for me!! This is gonna be short and sweet, mostly cause it was super simple(once I got it all done, LOL). I used the SU set, Big On Christmas, which was colored with my SU markers, re-inkers and a blender pen. I added some glitter with the Sakura Stardust Glitter pen, and some silver gel pen to the top of the ornament. The colors are from the challenge(Not Quite Navy, Basic Grey, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze) and the DP is from the Urban Garden pack from SU. The background was embossed with my Argyle folder and Cuttlebug. The ribbons are all from SU as well as the brads. The spiral clips are from Spare Parts. Well...gotta run! Those presents won't wrap themselves!!

Prettie Tuesday

ETA: OMGOSH - have you been over to see the December Issue of Sheetload of Cards? It is extra special (IMHO). Paper Pretties is the proud sponsor of the December Issue and I have to say the girls over there did a beautiful job with the Christmas stamps - WOW! If you haven't seen it yet you can check it out HERE.


My nephew is teething, my Christmas cards are STILL not done, I haven't wrapped a present yet..........awww, STRESS, I LIVE for it!! Anywho, here is a new card for you to oogle, LOL!! I made it for the last Paper Pretties release party using the set Snowflake Kisses. The challenge was to make a card using the faux tearing technique...well, I totally screwed up the technique, but I LOVE my card. I used Bordering Blue ink and this fabulous tutorial to make the faux tearing panel. The snowflakes and sentiment were stamped with Night of Navy and then I added some crystal BLING to the centers(from Mark Richards). After THAT was done, I colored the whole thing with December Sky Shimmerz...YUMMY!! It is SOOO super sparkly!! The mittens were done the same way and then cut out. I added some ribbon, brads, and the white panel was run through my Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes folder.

Well, that is it for me now...I am off to TRY to get some more done on something...anything...