birthday gifts

Happy Saturday morning everyone! I thought I would share a couple of things that I got for my birthday on Thursday. If you haven't already make sure you enter to win some birthday candy.

Alright so first you see is my two new pieces for my Dicken's Village! Todd and the boys got them for me. The one to the right is Regent Street Coffee House. Isn't the clear top on it just wonderful? The other piece is St. Stephen's Chapel. Gorgeous, huh? My plan is to decorate part of my island's upper counter with these at the holidays. I think these will be my first decorations out each year.

The final picture is the fun package that Todd's parents sent to me. It has a beautiful package of 12x12 Debby Mumm papers from JoAnn Fabrics, some fun markers, a couple of handmade gifts, and a checkbook sized Bible for my purse. Pretty cool, huh? My dad and his wife got me some wonderful fall smelling candles. And from my third family (family can be complicated sometimes, huh?) I got a gift card to use in Hawaii...woohoo! PLUS...a couple of my super cool friends sent me SNSS gift certificates...can I get another woohoo!?! I told y'all that I'm totally spoiled right? This just goes to prove it!

I'm still stuck on my card (that was due last night) but I've had a thought or two overnight as to what to do with it so..........I'm off to work on it!

Make sure you stop back tomorrow for my Page Plans card of the week! Have a super weekend everyone!

for a little princess

Woohoo! Gotta love Friday's! Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes yesterday! I must have gotten at least 10 cards in the mail yesterday so I'll probably take some time to show them to you over the next couple of weeks. If you didn't get a chance to enter in for my birthday candy please go HERE and check it out!

Today's card is the card I made for precious Janessa's birthday. You can see everything about the birthday card shower that Korin is hosting HERE. I know Janessa is only turning two but all little girls like princesses...right? I couldn't just send the card though so I added a Veggie Tales CD to the package too. Fun stuff!

The stamp set is from Sweet N Sassy stamps and is called Princess. I belive the patterned paper is from Making Memories, the card stock is Rose Red, and I colored the princess with my COPIC markers. This is a fun fold that Korin challenged us with on WCMD. You can see it HERE. Go ahead...give it a try!

I am currently stuck on particular element of a card I'm working on and I have to have it done this evening. I may need to try it a different way if I don't get it soon so please send me creative thoughts as I love what I have so far.

Edited to add....My card HERE was chosen as this week's inspiration piece for the Friday Challenge in MFT's SCS forum...how cool is that? Go check it out HERE and participate!
Have a super Friday and be creative!

what a pain!

Good Thursday morning! And a good day it will be! You may or may not know that today is my birthday. I'm always quite spoiled on my day. I don't have to cook, today is my day off exercising, and I get to stamp whenever I want! From caramel coffee to special toast and my favorite chicken Parmesan...I get to eat whatever I want and Todd will make it all...woohoo! Who wouldn't love it? Read on down for the birthday candy I'm giving away.

I made this card for a friend of Kyler's who was on a field trip with his class when he fell and split his knee open needing 12 stitches. Poor guy! I bet that is SO painful! So...I had to make a card for Kyler to send him. I once again used the CHF set Comforting Hugs. The patterned paper is from the retired SU! designer series paper pack called Jersey Shore. I wish it was still available as it is one of my favorite packs of paper to go to when making cards for younger boys. Oh, and the layout is from a Taylored Expressions challenge (#25) from some time ago. So...whatcha think? Cute, huh?

Okay, now for my birthday blog candy. I am going to give one lucky reader of my blog the Sweet N Sassy Stamps set called Pray Without Ceasing. You can see the set HERE. Now, there is no requirement other than to leave a comment telling me what your favorite birthday memory is. You can share this on your blog so lots of people can have a chance to win but it isn't a condition of winning. You have until Sunday at 5:00 p.m. to leave a comment. I'll post the winner shortly after that. Good luck!

Have a super day today everyone!

happy turkey day

Good morning stampers! I know, I know...today is supposed to be Belli Challenge day but I could not get my head thinking (until after I saw other people and their wonderful projects last night) on what I should do. So, if you love to used paint in your crafting projects please head to Chris's blog and link up your project to win a little prize from her!

I have this fun card to show you today instead. The layout is, again, from Page Plans. It was also an entry into Sweet N Sassy Stamps WCMD challenge from Faith who challenged us to use four colors of card stock, two designer papers, one embellishment, and it had to have dots on it. So I channeled my inner Faith and made this card. I have to say that I really like it. I think it is cute and festive. It also won me (by random drawing) a 6x6 Basic Grey pad! Woohoo! The papers are all SU! The stamp set is from SNSS and is called Turkey Day. It has some adorable sentiments such as "Why not try ham this year?", "Eat more ham!", and "Whose hungry for chicken?". Aren't they hilarious?! I definitely will be making some more cards with this set and different sentiments for Thanksgiving this year!

Only one more day until I get to offer some birthday blog candy. Yep, that is right...tomorrow is my birthday and I'm giving one of YOU the present. What is it you ask? Well...you'll just have to wait and see! Teehee...I'm such a tease, huh? LOL!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and I'll see you tomorrow!

created by courtney challenge #8

Good morning stampers! Today is Created By Courtney Challenge day! Today Courtney challenges us all tomake Anything But A Card. The other day I was visiting one of my absolutely favorite blogs, Pink Lemonade by Kerri Lee Sereika. She was the guest blogger for JustRite Stampers last week and made THIS absolutely beautiful Coronet. I just knew I wanted to try it even though I stink at flower arrangements.

I know the pictures aren't that good but even Todd likes this one. I used one of the pieces of designer series paper from the Autumn Vine paper pack from Stampin' Up! (in the Holiday Mini). I followed the directions as Keri wrote them (but, of course, it took me quite a few times to roll the paper correctly). I went to my dollar tree and got some flowers (which look better IRL too!) but they had nothing like Keri's so I had to improvise a little. I used SU!'s retired Whimsical Alphabet to stamp "welcome". It is stamped on a white top note (cut by my Big Shot and distressed with some Tim Holtz distressing ink) that was then cut down to layer on a more mustard top note. I used some more mustard grosgrain ribbon to attach my sign around to the back. After which I made a little hanger from another piece of grosgrain ribbon.

While it doesn't hang straight it is still pretty and I'm very pleased with my results. So, what do ya think? Kinda a neato project yes? If you try this or any other anything but a card projects post them on your blog or upload them to SCS with the keyword CBCC#8 then link them back to Courtney's blog HERE for a chance to win a little something from Courtney!

Don't forget to visit the other Challenge Chick's blog by clicking on their names that you'll find under the super cute chick in my side bar.

Oh, and I'll have birthday candy for you on Thursday so make sure you check back then too! Have a super Tuesday everyone!

you're a genius

Good Monday morning stampers! How was your weekend? Did you get lots done? I got a few fun cards made today as is evidenced in today's card.

My inspiration for this card is a little boy named Elijah. You can read more about Elijah HERE. His little sister died suddenly and Korin has asked if we could all send a card to him to brighten up his day. So...how do you say no to that? I used some fun Sandy Lion patterned paper (both the stripe and the dots) along with lots of bright SU! colors, and the Sweet N Sassy Stamps set called You're a Genius. I paper pieced the lab coat as part of the SNSS's WCMD technique challenge. Even though no incentive should be needed...if you'd like to make a card for Elijah (and/or Janessa...see the same post) you will be entered into a drawing to win $100 SNSS gift certificate. Now, please, go get busy and make these two very special children a card to brighten their day!

Tomorrow is Created by Courtney Challenge Day. I'm working on something that I think you guys will really like. It has been inspired by one of my favorite stampers Keri Lee Seirka. I will link you to my inspiration piece tomorrow too...see you then!

Have a great Monday everyone! Oh, you you should go check out THIS blog candy!

page plans week 25

Well, ladies here it is! My very first Page Plans sketch card as a Design Team member. Today's sketch is what I consider to be a very classic card design and it can be used in so many ways!

I got this very pretty patterned paper about a month ago at my LSS (okay if you consider 45 minutes away local!). Once again...I'd love to tell you who made the paper but I have a hard time remembering to look and/or save the strip of paper with the name on it. I used lovely lilac and pink pirouette for my accent colors along with my Nestabilities to make the plain and scalloped ovals. The half back pearls (in three different sizes) came from K&Co. The sentiment is one that I got from Sarah and it made by Whipper Snapper Designs.

You could continue your World Card Making Day activities by heading over to Page Plans to check out the sketch and then making your own card!

What ever it is you decide to do today...I hope you have a super fun time doing it!