Happy Valentine's Day!

another cupcake

Good morning friends! Time is really winding down to Valentine's Day. For all affective reasons today is the last day to get your gifts finished up. How did you do? Get 'em all done? Today is the day I will be making Todd's gift...hopefully he will sleep a long time today!

This card is the second card for the swap that I told you about HERE. I really do love these images and the fun things that can be done with them. I thought this image in particular would be fun to give to a school aged child. And...being that there are girl and boy colors in it you could use it for either. Score!

The patterned paper is from SU! last year. It is still some of my favorite paper (still have a full, unopened pack in fact!). I love the XOXO paper you see here. I didn't make both of the cards with this image the same way. The XOXO paper you see here is "he love me he loves me not" paper on the other card. Too cute! I just colored my cupcake with Copics and used a little glaze on the heart and cherry. The "with love" sentiment is from the SAB Yummy set. I also got the chance to use the Sizzix Buttons #5 die for my button feature. You like? Think my swappin' sisters will be happy with it? I hope so!

Are any of my readers PEO sisters? Well, if you are read on...if not...you probably will think this next part is boring. I became a part of PEO back in 2003 and attended meetins up until the time Todd was deployed and then stopped going. I was recently asked to demit to a different chapter and I'm so glad I did! I went to the first meeting with the new chapter tonight and I'm going to love this group. I have even offered to do a stamping demo for them at one meeting. I can just see all my PEO sisters stamping their cards! If you are in PEO I'd love to hear from you!

Well, I hope you all have a GREAT Friday! I have a couple of things to show you on Sunday but I probably won't be seeing you here on Saturday. I hope you have a super Valentine's Day with your loved ones!

Jesus Cares

Good Morning! I love it when you get the chance to make cards with things you absolutely love! Yesterday was one of those days for me. One of my friends suffers from depression and is going through a hard time right now. I knew I wanted to make her a card but was delaying it a bit because I just don't know what to say. I still don't know what to say but you know what? I made the card, I'm going to write her a note and send it out. Good intentions just don't count in this case...I must turn the intentions into action.

I have come to love limeLIGHT Papercrafts and the fun things I can find there to craft with as well as Mandy (she is just too sweet and kind!). The FABULOUS heart edge ribbon that you see here is from LLPC. I wanted to use it on this card to reflect my care for my friend. The stamp set is from another place that I love Sweet N Sassy Stamps (Korin is so forward thinking and kind, too). The stamp set is Jesus Cares and of course I used that sentiment to remind her how much her Heavenly Father cares for her. And I have to mention the patterned paper. It is from Basic Grey's Eva Pack. I chose this particular piece because my friend is a wonderful painter and I hope that she will love the graceful lines of the paper. The fact that it is pink and brown...well that just makes me love it even more! I must tell you that my friend Sarah really inspried this card as I first saw her use the bird image to its full potential See her card HERE.

So...are you all done with your Valentine's projects? I am almost there. I'll be working on one more thing today and then I should be all set to go...yay!

I hope you have a fantastic day today...make it all God has planned for you!

cupcake

Good morning everyone! I had said yesterday that I was going to have a Page Plans sketch card for you today but by the time I sat down to make it the cards were already posted on the Page Plans site so, while I will probably use that sketch later, this is not with the sketch for today. You can, however, see it HERE if you'd like!

Remember my friend that I made the image box for? Well, that same friend, Debby, sometimes challenges myself and the other stamper at my work, Stephanie, to use images that she supplies to make cards with. That is what this card is for. Debby gave Stephanie and me a couple of different Taylored Expressions cupcake images...they are so cute and I've long wanted to try them so it was exciting to get the images! This image is from the Love Is In the Air set and the sketch is from Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge for this week. I didn't even realize that when I was making this. The smooch sentiment is from Unity and the hey handsome is from Odd Bird Planet both of which you can get from limeLIGHT Papercrafts. While you are there you should definitely check out the super cute heart edged ribbon that is on this card. (While you can't see it in the picture there are pink arrows in the patterned paper.) I do believe it is my civic duty to inform you that limeLIGHT Papercrafts is having a wonderful sale from Feb 9 - 15 which includes 10% off Unity Stamps and Handles (which I have and love!) as well as a selection of the Valentine's Day themed products are 15% off! You can see the details about the sale HERE. While you are on that page search for coffee ribbon...it is too cute! Yep, I'm an enabler!

Alright...I've given you a whole bunch of things to go and check out so you should have fun doing that. Have a super Wednesday!

thank you candy box

So??? Was Monday good to you? I had a good, albeit busy, day. I got LOTS done...including several stamping projects, one of which I'd like to show you today.

A little back story. First, I have the very smartest children you'll ever meet (just ask me!)! We got report cards home about a week and a half ago and one of Jon's grades was below the standard in our house. Jon is an excellent student and doesn't have to work hard for a "B" average so something less than a "B" is not okay with us. Jon's story is that the teacher didn't listen, just gave him the grade even though he did what was asked. So I called the teacher and talked with her. What was going on was that, indeed, he did finish the project but not to the potential that his teacher knew he had. The teacher was giving him the chance to finish it and get an updated (and hopefully better) grade on his report card. We gave Jon the choice...take the time to take care of the project correctly or accept the grade that he was given...with consequences. He chose to go ahead and work with the teacher to get a better grade. After about three hours of extra work with his teacher (this is a web page design class) he finished his project and has received an updated grade of "B+"...go Jon! Long story...sorry!

A couple of days ago Jon came to me and asked me if I would make a card or "something" for him to give to his teacher as a thank you for allowing him the chance to earn a better grade. Go ahead...awwww. What a good and nice boy, huh? I decided...who doesn't like chocolate (well, most people do anyway) so I thought I'd make one of the wonderful Ghiradelli holders that was on SCS a couple of weeks ago.

For this holder I used the wonderful Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, and PTI white card stock as well as Raspberry Tart DSP. The "Thank You" is a new single stamp that SU! has for sale this year. I just followed Beate's tutorial and voila! A wonderful Ghiradelli chocolate holder!

This literally only took me about 20 minutes to make so I'm sure you could whip a couple of them out for Valentine's day gifts if you wanted. If not...that is okay too, it is still such a cute idea! And if you guys have a preference for how I take my pictures let me know. Up close...a little back...with some props...what do you think?

Tomorrow I have a fun surprise...a Page Plans sketch in the middle of the week! Not sure what I'm doing with it yet but I'm pretty sure you'll like it!

So, go...have a spectacular Tuesday...get some stamping done and I'll see y'all again soon!

***A quick thank you to Susanna from Card of the Week for the shout out on her blog!!!***

yummy for your tummy

Good morning everyone! I know the weekend is over but what a fun week we are in...okay...maybe it is for our kids that get to have Valentine's Day parties and such at school.

Today the design team challenge on the Sweet N Sassy stamps blog is to create a Valentine treat holder. Interestingly I was going to show this to you today anyway so I thought that even if it doesn't include a SNS stamp the idea for the candy holder itself is pretty neat. In the case of this holder I have used SU! Candy Lane designer series paper, Riding Hood Red textured paper, the SU! Top Note Die for the Big Shot and some Riding Hood Red ribbon along with the cello bag and Ghiradelli chocolates. I would be so easy and so cute to use the SNSS Chocoholic set to make a super cute holder!

So...whatcha got for a treat holder? I'd love to see your creative holders with Sweet N Sassy stamps so go ahead make one and post the link to the SNSS blog (link above) so I can check it out!


I hope that you all will take today and make it the wonderful day that God intends for you!

page plans with a twist

Good Sunday morning everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday..I've been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of days so I took some time off.

Most of you know that today is Page Plans sketch day here on my blog and today is no exception. You can see the sketch we were to follow below and I did follow the sketch but I tweaked it a little bit. I wanted to make one of the neat origami boxes with cover that I saw on Lynn's blog, Stamperosity so I used the sketch to decorate the top. FUN!!

To put this together I used Lynn's directions with SU!'s Candy Lane DSP, Riding Hood Red textured card stock, a Tilda image (isn't she adorable?), a sentiment from Unity, some fabulous chocolate satin ribbon and Chocolate Pearls. Ahhh...this box just makes me happy! If you can't tell I made the heart old fashioned style...folded the card stock in half...started the cut in the folded corner and went up and around. Easy. I would guess it is about 5" across as the box is about 5 1/4". I'm not sure what I'm going to put in this box for the intended recipient (but maybe it should be something baked, huh?) but I'm pleased with this for the presentation.

Don't forget that if you entered into the contest to win The Slice from Page Plans that today is the day the winner is revealed so RUN over there right now to find out who the lucky crafter is!

On a personal note I wanted to let everyone know that I have stepped down from both the Belli Challenge Team and the Created by Courtney Challenge Chicks. I was getting to the point where I was saying...I have to stamp...instead of...I get to stamp...and I just decided to let a couple of things go off my plate. I love each of the ladies that I worked with and will miss them all!

So, you guys have a super Sunday and I'll see ya later!