For the bride-to-be...

a fabulous Bella card! She would actually work for a bridal shower and/or engagement card.

elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink - white
patterned paper: 3 Bugs in a Rug - Color Me Pink Leaves
markers: Copics
ribbon: Michael's
bling: Hero Arts
ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black

It's that time of the year...

time for bridal showers and weddings! I was commissioned to make a bridal shower and wedding card last week for upcoming events. I ended up making three to give some options. Here is the first of three:



elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink - kraft
patterned paper: Basic Grey
ribbon: Michael's
pearls: Hero Arts
ink: Color Box Fluid Chalk Olive Pastel

Cheer up!

Another card made with a stamp from my sweet friend Karie! She gave me two Bellas, how awesome is that?!

elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink - white base, Stampin' Up & Bazzill small accent pieces from stash
patterned paper: scraps from stash donated to my by my friend Scheffie
rub-ons: Doodlebug
markers: COPIC
ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black

I have sweet, wonderful, awesome, generous friends!

I have a great group of friends! We might not all live close-by each other but through email, Facebook and phones we keep in touch. Thank goodness for technology...makes moving away and keeping in touch so much easier!

My sweet friend Karie, who (or would that be whom?) is also very talented and crafty gave me a couple new stamps to add to my stash. Bella Stamps! I love Bella Stamps! They are just darling and so fun to color and paper piece their outfits. I guess they're my version of paper dolls. ;)

Again, loving my pebbles So Tweet Collection paper, I had to use more. The birds and colors worked so well with my Veggiebella image. The Birdies...I just love them and it was perfect as my background and corrdinated so well with the Chirp that I used to paper piece Bella's clothes and basket. Isn't she just darling?

elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink - kraft
patterned paper: Pebbles Inc - So Tweet Collection
ribbon: American Crafts
markers: COPIC
ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black

Recent creations...

Here are a few cards that I made last week. I have a couple sets of monogrammed cards that I worked on along with a card for an engagement party. I took pictures several days ago and completely forgot to get them uploaded onto the computer.

I haven't worked on anything this week...I really need to get myself in gear, I have some Christmas cards to get made for my mom. I imagine she'd like them before Christmas so she can get them mailed out to her friends :D

Have a good one!

One martini, two martini, three martini...BUNCO!?

Isn’t she just the cutest? When I saw Stella I knew I had to get my hands on her. And when my friend Laura at Family Memories asked me if I had any special requests for her Bella order, I asked for Stella.

I knew Stella with an olive on top would be perfect for my mom’s bunco club. She’d be more perfect if she was sitting on a frozen daiquiri (I remember mom and the girls getting daiquiri slush out of the freezer on bunco nights and at bunco family pool parties.) They’re a great group of friends that have been getting together once a month since I was young…so maybe 30ish years, to play bunco! (what’s bunco? click here.) I told my mom I’d make her tallies for the next time she hosts. Mom doesn’t have bunco at her house until the fall but I couldn’t wait that long to play around with my stamp.

The card…in my continued attempt to use all my scraps and save moolah for my future COPIC marker purchases, I’ve used all papers and embellies from my scrap stash. I also used my new dry embossing folder ( a gift, I didn’t buy :D ) to add a little more texture to the card. On Stella I paper pieced her dress. And then to finish off the card, I used some liquid glass over the top of the martini glass to give it a, well, glassy appearance. I don't think my attempt to show the glassy look with the close-up photo worked... Hope you like!

Well, I’m getting the evil eye from hubby, he’s waiting for me to finish so we can watch Nip/Tuck…I’m a loud typer so I need to sign off before we start the show.

Have a good one!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope you all have a Mother's Day that is as wonderful as you are!

My guys are treating me to breakfast at The Flying Buscuit Cafe! They have the yummiest grits ever! I'm looking forward to coffee & grits and a relaxing day hanging out with my guys.

I know the day isn't about gifts, but it's a nice little thank-you for all the hard work I do. GQ was so sweet, he took me shopping today for anything I wanted. He picked out a nice summer dress and raved about how beautiful I looked in it in the dressing room. Now matter how much weight I think I need to loose or how limp I think my hair might be or how less-than-stylish I think my wardrobe is, my little guy always tells me how beautiful I look! Looking at GQ reminds me that my few extra pounds were earned through pregnancy and my hair is perfect for street hockey in the drive-way or playing catch. He means the world to me and I feel very lucky being his mommy!

So...tell me what you did and/or received for Mother's Day...I'd love to hear it!

I bought some new papers...

The MBI Store has a new line of papers in, Daisy Bucket Designs! Each piece is double-sided w/gorgeous patterns and colors! I'm in love with them! And since GQ decided to nap today after a morning of play at Monkey Joes, including an injury...plastic slide burn :( I decided to take advantage of my time and scrap with my new stuff! I even had time to take pictures and upload on the computer, this doesn't happen too often anymore...I'm lucky if he naps! Anyway, here's what I came up with...

A sketch by Amy Rysavy - AMYRS18

I love to look at Amy Rysavy's blog, Prairie Paper & Ink. She has awesome cards and sketches. ( the way she can color an image is amazing! ) I've always been too shy to make a card and post the link on her blog, because I don't feel like my stuff is up to par with all the talented people whose blogs I look at. But this week, I decided to give it a whirl.

I used one of my Bella images and some Stampin' Up patterned-paper and cardstock. I changed up the sketch a little bit for my card, because after I started stringing the beads on the wire and the kiddo started helping I had beads going every which way but on the wire! And I was making six of these cards, so it started to become a bit time consuming. In addition to the beads I did some paper piecing w/the apron. And added Stickles to the cake and a little diamond glaze to the boots to make them patent leather looking...didn't turn out quite as I had planned but I liked the end result.

Friday Card Sketches at Memory Book Inspirations

Our Friday Card Sketches at Memory Book Inspirations have begun! I had tons of fun using my new Bella stamp and the sketch. This is first time I've done this much stitching on a card. And this is my first time paper piecing also. The cup cake paper and Bella's dress are both paper pieced from Stampin' Up patterned paper. I really like the way it turned out, I'm going to have to try paper piecing some more in the future.

Click here to see the sketch. If you use the sketch to make a card be sure to post it over in the MBI Gallery and link in the Stamping & Card Making Forum. Add CSW1 to the description so it's easily seachable that way. Have fun!

Scrap BINGO at Memory Book Inspirations!

Today is a friendly game of B-I-N-G-O over at Memory Book Inspirations. I didn't get a BINGO but I had fun trying. And I got a good amount of work accomplished! I need to better prepare myself with pictures and whatnot for next time. Guess it's time to do some shopping... :)

The challenges I have completed are:

** make a card of any theme

** sew or put buttons on a layout (sorry for the crappy picture)

** use brads on a card or scrapbook layout

** use red as the predominant color in a card or scrapbook layout

Now I'm off to work on a couple other challenges from earlier in the week! Have a good one!

Black & White Card Challenge

I made this birthday card for a black and white card challenge over at Memory Book Inspirations The challenge was to use black and white only. You could add some color if you feel you needed it. I originally had black and white only but it needed something, so I used Stickles to add some sparkle and a touch of color.

The Bella Stamps image along w/the swirls on the background white cardstock were stamped w/VersaMark ink and then sprinkled w/black embossing powder. The scalloped oval is set up off the page with 3-D Glue Dots.

Hope you like!

I had a hella Bella good time making these cards!

Since I'm rather new to stamping, only a year into it, I'm still figuring out what brands I like, whether I like rubber stamps or the clear acrylic and just what my style is. I had a few Bella stamps that I hadn't used and wanted to work with them a little and see what I could do. I had so much fun with them! I'm thinking that they are my favorite stamps yet! (although, I do know that I have yet to try tons of different stamp companies; I'll still be buying stamps and inks and paper and embellies to try out :) I really like how girly the stamps are. Since we have a little guy my scrapping is mostly dedicated to boy-themed stuff so making girly cards is fun for me. I have some Christmas money set aside and I have a feeling I'll be getting some new Bella stamps in the near future. Bella has so many cool stamps it's going to be difficult to limit myself. And they have an adorable baby stamp that I have to try out too... if the piggy bank was bottomless I'd have more stamps than I ever knew what to do with (paper too!)

Craveabella...

Isn't she just the cutest! I just love my bella stamps and can't wait to get more... maybe for my birthday? :)

This one has fun flock on the chair and ottoman and also the slippers and ice cream cone. It's so much fun to use... can't believe I was once afraid of it. LOL!

Sorry about the sort of crappy picture. I'm away from home and can't figure out my mom's scanner... funny thing is that she probably can't either! :)

I've been a busy busy bee...

Since Gavin has been with his grandparents all weekend I've had some time for chores and card making. This is probably the last of my creations for the day. It's another tent card. I really like the easy design and wanted to try it out w/another of my stamps.

This card has lots of sparkle on it. Not sure if the picture shows it too well, but there is sparkle on the dress bodice and the flowers. And there is also sparkle on the swirls that I stamped on the background paper. Very simple but very sparkly!

Fella and his bella...

I love this stamp! I bought it to make a wedding card for a family member. But I just love this stamp and had to use it for myself!

I found this card sketch on www.splitcoaststampers.com. It's sketch challenge 134. They have a weekly sketch challenge but, I've never participated...and still haven't. I really liked this card sketch and thought I'd give it a try.

The card is called a tent topper, I think. The base of the card if 4.25 x 4.25 and then the topper added give a total vertical dimension of 5.5 inches.

I don't know if you can make it out w/the scan, but bella has some mighty big bling on that wedding finger!

A new stamp!

I just love getting my new stamps in the mail. This one is a bella stamp and it's so cool! I really like this card but it's hard to see all the sparkle from the scan. The inside reads Celebrate in Style!