What's cookin', chick?

One thing I love about blogger is the awesome dashboard that shows me a brief synopsis of posts on those gazillion blogs that I follow. I recently got some new Whiff of Joy stamps, including little Willow with her pot of chicken soup. Well, the lovely ladies over at the Whiff of Joy challenge blog posted a reminder that their challenge closes tonight. I had totally forgotten. Holy moly! How could I forget? The challenge this week was to use paper piecing, so I paper pieced her little apron. Thank goodness for my cutterbees, which allow pretty intricate work. I colored little Willow with my copics, added some flowers from the dollar store and Wild Orchid Crafts, wrestled with a darned bow for a while (I still can't get the hang of my bow easy. That sucker is a total misnomer), threw on some pearls and buttons, punched some paper, inked some edges, and voila! Well, it didn't all necessarily happen in that order, but I think you can figure it out. This card is for a dear friend of mine who is going through some rough times right now. Whenever I see cooking images, I think of her, because she loves to cook. Since I HATE cooking, I definitely don't think of me when I see any cooking or baking images. Well, unless I am thinking, "man, if I only looked that cute in an apron, it wouldn't matter if I couldn't cook."

Well, hello, hottie!

I was having trouble sleeping last night. I finally fell asleep at 6:00 this morning. WTH? Anyway, during my sleeplessness, I managed to throw together a card for some challenges. This little cutie is Devilish Diva from Anita Be Stampin'. Isn't she fun? She comes with a bunch of sentiments, too, but I didn't use one yet because I haven't decided who is getting this card and for what occasion. I colored her up with copics and used my nesties labels, as well as some new trims that I just got at Hobby Lobby. I glittered up her horns, trident (is that what that thing is called?), shoes, and the heart on her tail using stardust pens. It's hard to tell in the pic, though.

She's based after the sketch at Anita Be Stampin' challenge blog.
I'm also entering her in the following challenges:
Charisma - black, white, and one other color
Do You Stack Up (DYSU) - anything goes
Digi Doodle Shop - spots and dots

Thanks for looking, and wish me luck! I don't want to take a nap today and risk not sleeping again tonight, especially when I have to get up for work at 7:00 in the morning. Unfortunately, I'm too tired to do much of anything. I hate days like that.

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Blogaversary too, and a RAK for you!

*This RAK is now closed*
Congrats to the winner, Debby W!

My scrap room recently underwent an overhaul. During this reorganization project, I found lots of goodies in my stash that I had not been using. I mean, brand new stuff that had never even been opened! I threw them all in a bag and tried to figure out what in the heck to do with them. I even had two copies of the same book (I got one as a gift; for once, it wasn't about me buying something I already had because I forgot I had it! LOL). I realized that my blogaversary was fast approaching and that my birthday also happened to fall within the same month. On March 14th, I'll be 39. Thus, the idea to combine both the blogaversary and my birthday into one big RAK was born. Once I decided that, well, I just kept adding to the RAK. Everyone knows I'm a shopaholic. I was in Hobby Lobby and found these great trims on sale. I got a yard each for me and a yard each for my RAK winner. I found some Whiff of Joy stamps at a more than reasonable price, so I got one for the RAK winner. I found some K&Co trims at Tuesday Morning, so I got those for my RAK winner, and so on. By the time I was ready to post, this is the RAK that had accumulated:

And who knows what else I might add to it before drawing the winner?

So, what do you have to do to win it all, you ask? It's super easy. You don't even have to become a follower of my blog (although that might make it easier to find out if you won). I'd rather you became a follower because you liked my work than because you want the RAK, so don't feel pressured to follow it. You don't have to post on Facebook or Twitter. I don't have accounts there, anyway, so I don't have a way to check it. You don't have to post on various scrapbook or craft forums. All you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Add my RAK to the sidebar on your blog
3. Put your info into Mr. Linky

That's it. Nothing else is needed.

I'll use random.org to draw the RAK on my birthday, March 14. You have until March 14th at 5:16 p.m. to enter. If I remember correctly, that's the time I was born. Maybe. If not, it sounds good and that's the time I'm using, because I'm too lazy to check my birth certificate or ask my mom.

Yum, yum Sweet Pea in a RAK

I make no secret of my love for Sweet Pea stamps. Lynette has added the work of some great artists to her store, and now Jennifer is giving away 16 Sweet Pea stamps for her birthday! It's super easy to win. All you have to do is follow her blog, leave her a comment, and spread the word. The more means you use to spread the word (facebook, twitter, message boards, etc), the greater your chances to win. Please don't use this as an opportunity to remind me of why you think I should be on Facebook! LOL.

Here's a pic of this awesome RAK:

Fabulous, yummy stuff! Head on over to her blog to enter!

Come on, warm weather!

Shew. I took a LONG nap and now my headache is gone, thank goodness. I hate headaches. Since it decided to vacate and I got a burst of energy after my nap, I got to work on that card I was talking about in my last post. Let me start by saying that I'm pretty much done with winter. I know that as far as snow accumulation goes, it's been much milder than last year. However, I'm still done. It doesn't help that Mother Nature tricks us with 70-degree days like last Friday, then throws snow at us on Monday. I mean, what the hell? Anyway, when I saw the challenge over at the Digi Bells blog to make a summertime fun card, I jumped right on it. I'm so in the mood for warmer weather.

Isn't she the cutest thing ever? I love her little pouty face and toddler chubbiness. I colored her up with copics, then cut the image out with my new spellbinders label die. I love my spellbinders! Anyway, here's how the inside of the card looks:

I made a joy fold card because I have never made one before, and one of the Digi Bells DT members (Kiki)inspired me with hers. You can find her card here. I did an online search for directions and for once, I actually scored the card properly on the first try! Despite having a scor-pal, I usually mess something up. I know it's operator error, no need to point it out.

Back to the card. I picked these papers and colors because they are bright and happy, and remind me of summer with the fresh colors and flowers. I hope you like my card. You've still got time to enter your own. Head on over to the Digi Bells DT blog for information. You can use any Elisabeth Bell image that you like. I chose one that I got at Belles N Whistles. She's called Little Eden. She's out of stock right now, but Summer makes every effort to keep the inventory up, so I'm sure she'll be back in stock soon.

Come on, warmer weather! Oh, and if summer gets here and I start complaining about those hot days, be kind to me and don't remind me that I actually wished for them, k? I mean, that'd just be rude, and you're not rude, are you???

Happy Birthday to a couple of amazing friends!

I've been waiting anxiously for my friends Terri and Danni to get their bday cards in the mail so that I could post them here. I met both of them online several years ago, on scrapbook.com. It all started with Danni and her crazy but adorable dog. Being an animal lover, I had to go ga-ga over all of the pictures she posted of him. Then we got to chatting and she invited me to join this online group of friends. The group was so welcoming. Terri is one of them. I went to visit her in Montreal last summer and had a blast. I am so grateful for this group of ladies. Danni makes me smile with her opinions and her total lack of fear when it comes to stating them. She's protective, generous, goofy, and loving. Terri shares my love of things vintage and funky, as well as my sarcastic sense of humor and ability to laugh at some of life's trials. She has become someone I can vent to about anything, while knowing that it won't go any further. She snarks with me and then we both feel better and life moves on! Both of these women bless me with their friendship. In fact, I am so grateful each and every day for The Derelicts at sb.com. They truly bring a bright light to my life that has helped me through some really dark times.

Ok, enough sentimental crap. I don't do well with that stuff. Let's get to the cards, shall we? Let's start with Danni's, since it's her fault that the Derelicts have to put up with me (being as she invited me into the group and all. Those poor women didn't know what they were in for). Danni and I have a deal that works really well for both of us. We send handmade cards to each other, love all over them for a bit, then tear those puppies apart to use the goodies. Well, she has three boys, plus she loves stars and the color green. She's not a girlie girl, although she does appreciate some frillies. So, I wanted to make her a card with lots of stars and green on it. Here's what I came up with:

The image is from Elisabeth Bell. I tried a dot technique I learned on Dana's Inspirations blog. I added silver bling to it with my stardust pen. I'm still working on perfecting this technique. It's fun!

Ok, moving on to Terri's card. I've already told you that she likes funky and vintage. The crocheted flower on her card is from a vintage lacey thing that I cut up. The image is from the Greeting Farm. I love her; she's so funky and cute.

It's hard to tell, but there's pearls on each of the butterflies on her cake outfit. Images for both cards were colored with copics.

Ok, I've chatted enough for now. I've got a killer headache today. I had really hoped to make a card for the Digi Bells challenge. I picked my image and stamped it off. I picked the papers I want to use. I haven't gotten any further, because my head is killing me. I'm going to lay down for a bit, and then maybe give the challenge a shot.

Don't forget...stay posted for my combination birthday and blogaversary RAK. I think I have finally finished compiling everything. Maybe. I wasn't going to post about it until March 1, but I think I'm going to try to get it on here a bit early. I think I'm going to shoot for Saturday, so keep your eyes peeled. Trust me, it will be worth it. Lots of ribbon/trims, stamps, bling, two border punches, and other odds and ends. Goodies!

Anything goes. Yep, anything. Really.

It’s time for another challenge at Guylou’s Inimitability! I know you’re up for another one. Come on, play along. It’s super easy this time, because you get to pick what you want to do. That’s right…you’re in control... it's an "Anything Goes" challenge. All you have to do is make a project and link it over at the Guylou’s Inimitability blog. Not hard, right? And if you use one of her images, you get more chances to win!


On a side note, we’ve had a few people recently who didn’t follow the challenge rules. They’re listed on the blog, so give them a quick read-through before posting your project, k?

This time around, G’s DT got to play with either Phillip or Molly. I chose Phillip. I like his cake. I imagine that it’s full of yummy chocolate goodness on the inside. Darnit. Now I’m craving cake.

Anyway, Phillip told me that he wasn’t in the mood to grace a card. He decided he wanted to be on a recipe page instead. A couple of years ago, some friends and I put together a recipe book for each other (basically, we each made two pages for everyone and had a great big swap. Fun!). Phillip is going to go into my recipe book from that swap.

Phillip also knows I don’t cook, because I pretty much don’t make a secret of that fact (or many other things, for that matter). My friend Danni is often talking about this ice cream cake she makes with ice cream sandwiches. No baking involved, just lots of ice cream and other yummies, all layered together and frozen. Yummmm! Check it out:

This blog post gets super long if I type out the recipe, too. Let's face it, I'm just lazy. Blogger ate my post once already, and I really don't feel like retyping the recipe again. You can click on the picture and it should get big enough to read. I hope.

Anyhow, your project is due by March 3rd, 10:00 pm EST at Guylou's Inimitability. Go ahead, give it a shot! It's anything goes!!!

So, my mind runs to strange places...

Sunday night, I showed you those awesome cowboy boots that we were to use for inspiration for the Outlawz clean and simple challenge. I made my little cowboy card and have the option to enter this particular challenge twice more by Feb 19. For whatever reason, my brain went in one of its strange directions. Cowboy boots led to thinking about boots, which led to thinking about other kinds of boots, which led me to remember these cute little wellington boots that I had hiding in my images folder.

I colored them up with red flowers, like the cowboy boots in the inspiration picture. I wasn't going to enter this card in the challenge, thinking it was too far off of the western theme. Then I read the rules again and it specifically says to use the cowboy boot photo as inspiration and that the card did not have to be western themed. Rock on! So, here's another clean and simple card, inspired by those fun cowboy boots.

So, THAT's why they call them "Challenges"

I love entering challenges at various sites, but some of them just befuddle me. I must admit, I am having the hardest time with the Western themed challenges at the Outlawz. I don't make many cards or projects with that theme and I find it to be really, really difficult. Then you add more specific rules on top of that, like certain colors or styles, and, well...I'm kinda lost. My husband didn't call me his navigator for nothing, though. If I try hard enough, I will find my way again. Sometimes, I take a few detours first. Like this card. It's my detour. I started out intending to enter another card for the Clean and Simple challenge. Then I realized I was layering too much to fit that theme. I remembered that the color challenge was red and white with one other color. I thought "aha! My other color will be black." Um, yeah. I stood back at one point and looked at my card, which made me realize that I'd already added this straw-looking stuff. Um, not black. Well, crap. Detour again. Luckily for me, I had not added any sentiments yet, so I was able to turn this into a birthday card. The interior sentiment is all about having a rockin' birthday. I mean, even country and western stars rock out, right? Carrie Underwood, Shania Twain, even Faith Hill, to name a few. Crossover stars and all of that. Now I've completed my detour and from here, hopefully, I can go back home to my initial challenge: the clean and simple one. Or maybe I'll just detour back to the color challenge. I'll figure it out eventually!

Some deets on this super heavy card (man, I should have used bazzill black cardstock, instead of the stuff from the value pack). The black star folds up at the crease you can see in the top, so that the white star is the back of the card as well as the outline on the front. Does that make sense? It's a big card, so thank goodness I have 7.5x7.5 envelopes. I cut the stars with my Creative Memories cutting system. The image is cut out with a spellbinders die and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I cut it out with a EK Success punch. I got the straw paper at a yard sale and I am sad to say that I am almost out. I like the texture it adds. In this case, it reminded me of one of those straw cowboy hats. Image is colored with copics and blinged up with stardust pens. I inked the edges with my cat's eye red ink pad. The little hearts were $1 for a pack of 4 at Michael's.

Thanks for looking and taking this journey with me. I'm off to see where it leads me next!

Spread the word, Theresa is fabulous and (almost) 50!!!

My friend Theresa turns 50 next month. Being the extremely generous soul that she is, she has put together a birthday candy to give out. Not just one candy, either. She's giving candy away to FIVE lucky people. It's super easy peesy to win, too. All you gotta do is blog about her candy (it's easy to talk about sweet people like T), put a link to it in your sidebar, and leave her a comment. Of course, you have to be a follower of her blog, too. It's worth it, though, and takes less time than you'd think. You can go to her blog here. And here's a pic of the goodies she's giving away:

Again, she said something about giving away MULTIPLE prizes! She's drawing winners on March 16. Get your butt over there and give it a shot!

Now, everyone knows by now how I tend to digress on my blog posts (and in real life conversations. Yes, I admit it). Well, I have been wondering how to put it out there that I'll be offering my own birthday candy next month. I figure that T and both have that "great minds think alike" thing going. However, she's more generous than I am. I only plan to share with one lucky follower, but it will be a HUGE share. It'll be my 39th birthday, so I figure I have to include at least 39 items, and maybe a few more for luck. I've been gathering stuff for my big birthday candy for a while now. I've got some new things, some almost new things from my stash, and pretty much just a little bit of everything. I hope to add more to it before I finally post the darned RAK. I plan on posting within the first week of March, and will draw the candy on my birthday, March 14. That'll give you two weeks to leave me a comment, add the candy to your sidebar, and follow my blog (if you aren't already). A pic of the RAK is coming. Stay tuned; I promise it will be worth it. For now, though, I return the limelight to Theresa. It's the big 5-0, people! Get over there and sing some birthday songs to Theresa!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, dear T, happy big 5-0 birthday to you! Fifty and fabulous!

Let's clear up some misconceptions here...

People who don't scrap or make cards sometimes seem to think that the clean and simple style is "easier" or "faster" to execute than my usual embellie-happy, crazy layering, lots of stuff style. Well, what's the nicest way to put this? Ummmm....how about: oh, hell, no! At least, not for me, anyway. For some reason, I have a really difficult time not throwing every embellishment and patterned paper I have at each and every card, just to see what sticks. It can take me longer to achieve the clean and simple style than it does to throw together a card with buttons, flowers, flourishes, bling, and so on. Well, I had to suck it up today, because I wanted to play over at the Outlawz. Today is the first day of their fun western-themed party, which involves so many goodies to win and fun challenges to enter. "Challenge" is the right word, because I was definitely challenged by the clean and simple style today. The inspiration picture was this awesome pair of boots. Check them out. I kinda want to own them, and I don't even wear cowboy boots:

You can enter each challenge up to three times. I've got a few ideas, inspired by these cool boots. For my first idea, I decided to be literal and take the cowboy theme. I used a light blue background to mirror the leaves on the boots.

To make sure to get a crisp, white outline on this cute stamp and the doodled border, I used my signo pen. I just got a new one, so it was working so smoothly. Then I typed and printed out the sentiment on vellum, adhered it with a brad and gave it a bit of a curl. The card looked unfinished to me, so I added the twine at the bottom. It still looked unfinished. See what I mean? It's just so hard for me to stop! I finally added the button and took a picture really quickly, before I could be tempted to add even more.

I've got a few more ideas floating around in my head, courtesy of those fun boots. Please don't tell me where I can get a pair, because I am liable to buy them and then never wear them. I just love to look at them. Anyway, I'm off to do more laundry and then maybe I will challenge myself with another clean and simple card. If not, well, it's pretty impressive that I finished even one, you know?

Fun, dancing ghouls and other Valentine's Day happenings

I recently won a challenge over at Anita Be Stampin'. With the credit that I won to her store, as well as my Paypal balance that's been sitting there for all of....oh...maybe a week, I purchased the Diva stamp bundle. This fun little dancing ghoul is part of the bundle. I don't think it's available any longer, but you can still buy the stamps individually.

My friend Michele is a huge fan of horror movies and all things scary, so I had to ink her up and make Michele an unconventional Valentine's Day card. Now, I know, I have been going on and on about how I don't "do" Valentine's Day. However, Michele has been going through some rough times lately and recently got some news that just sucks. I wanted to lift her spirits a little. Since it will be late if I mail it out now, I'm going to sneak by her house at some point tomorrow and leave it where she'll find it right away. I hope she likes this little chickie, and I hope this doesn't make you think that I actually like Valentine's Day. I'm just indifferent. If you want to send me some chocolate to change my mind, feel free.

Are you tired of seeing me yet?

Wow, this has been a creative 24 hours for me. I worked on a few projects last night and quite a few today, too. Some of them, I can't post yet because they are either for a DT project or for an upcoming event for someone who reads my blog. Essentially, I'm saying that those things will show up later, so I will be back again to bug you at a later date. As of right now, though, I think this is post number four in the last 24 hours. I lost count. I'm not bragging, I promise. I'm more sitting over here in wonder that I actually got so much done. It doesn't happen as often as I'd like.

Today, I had a stellar mail day. Only one bill, and it isn't a hefty one. Plus, I got my order from Anita Be Stampin' today. I was pleasantly surprised, because I just placed the order on Wednesday afternoon (or was it Thursday morning?). Wowza. That's some awesome customer service. Anita is super sweet and friendly. She was so helpful when I had some questions, and as I have already said, she was super speedy with shipping.

I needed a card for my mother-in-law. She's having knee replacement surgery on March 2nd. I wanted to get the card made long before then, so it was one less thing to worry about. I used one of the new releases over at ABS. Check it out:

I know it has the look of a Valentine's Day or love card, but I promise, it's not. I'm going to put a note inside to encourage her to heal quickly and to let her know that I am thinking of her. I knew she'd think the bear and all of the hearts were cute, so that's why I went with all of that stuff. Besides, she'd be right. This little bear really is too cute. I'm thinking I need to color him up in blue, yellow, or pink for a baby shower. Too bad my cousin's baby shower was last weekend. Hey, wait! The kid's not here yet....perhaps, I need to do a "welcome, baby!" card...hmmm.....

Wait, I am digressing once again. The design of this card came from the sketch this week over at Anita Be Stampin'. Go check it out. You can win a $15 shopping spree to her store. Totally worth it!

Bats can be cute. Really.

So, the challenge over at The Stamping Bazaar this week was to make a Valentine's Card using one of their images. Well, I am not keen on making Valentine's Day cards. I don't much care for the holiday and have never really celebrated it. However, I recognize that many other people do, so I'll shush that little snarky voice now. My sister-in-law loves bats. Halloween is her favorite holiday. She has a bat tattoo'ed on her ankle. If you give her a bat stuffed animal or figurine, she's happier than me with chocolate, and I didn't think that was possible. Well, I bought this cute little Marvin the bat image ages ago. I mean, I'm talking probably six months or more. For some stupid reason, I hadn't printed him out yet. Today, I decided to change that. I mean, look at him. He's so stinkin' cute. I told you bats could be cute.

The sentiment says "wishing you a day filled with good things." I went over it with a stardust pen. It looks good on my desk, but didn't photograph well. If you like the papers, head over to Target's dollar spot. That's where I got them. The design of the card is based after this week's sketch at the Outlawz (see link in my sidebar). I made the apples with my spellbinders. I had such fun coloring this image with my copics. I need to head over and get some more Stamping Bazaar images. I've only got a few, and I need more, because, well... they are so darned CUTE!

Something about them just grabs me

I have said before that I am obsessed with Ching Chou Kiuk's images for Sweet Pea Stamps. The challenge this week over at In a Sweet Pea Dream is "Anything This Time." I just got a bunch of new stamps for Christmas and I am slowly but surely inking them all up. Something about these stamps just grabs me. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the intricacy of each one; there's so many details. Maybe it's the faces, with those big, serious eyes and delicate, pixie-like chins. Maybe it's the long, flowing hair. Who knows? I just love them. They're also so much fun to color. Here's my latest creation, achieved when there was nothing on tv and my book wasn't holding my interest. LOL.

This card is also for the challenge over at the Outlawz copic group, to use shading or highlighting. I've done both. I had a difficult time with her dress/top. The colors didn't want to blend this time, but all in all, I guess it doesn't look too bad. Papers are We R Memory Keepers. Rhinestones are from a big Prima flourish that I cut up to fit. Here's the huge amount of copics I used:

I don't know yet who will receive this card; she was just made for the fun of creating. I don't get to do that often, because it always seems like I am behind with some event or another! Well, thanks for stopping by again. I hope you have a great, crafty weekend!

Ok, seriously, that WAS a challenge...

...for me, at least. Ok, let me back up and explain myself. I'm trying to be better and support my friends on various DTs. Mainly, I am trying to participate in the challenges their groups sponsor. This does two things: 1) the one I already mentioned - it supports my friends; and 2) it gives me the opportunity to get cards done and maybe even win cool prizes. Wait, I think that's really three things. Anyway, this time around, I'm participating in the color challenge at Outlawz. My friends Brenda and Guylou are on the DT. Well, let me tell you, I don't know who picked these colors, but they sure as heck meant to challenge at least some of us. I am one of that group that was REALLY challenged. The colors are basically a shade of orange (the name of which I've since forgotten), turquoise, and white. I have a really hard time with orange. I don't know why. My friend Tracy and mother-in-law both love orange, so I've used it plenty of times. Each time, though, I find it really challenging. I do better with peach or light shades, but saturated orange is just hard for me. As usual, though, I'm rambling. Here's my card.

This little cutie is from Belles N Whistles, another store and blog that I love. I was having one of my "winter, would you just go away?" days. The papers are Cosmo Cricket. I used ultrafine flowersoft to make the sand. I added glossy accents to his swim shorts. The background came from a cat's eye pastel chalk ink pad. The orange outline on the image was drawn with one of my creative memories journaling pens. These are the copics I used:

As always, thanks for stopping by!

It's party time!

Well, I hope to be partying along in my pj's. The Outlawz are having a party. There's tons of chances to win awesome, cool, amazing stuff. Digis, copics, and other yummy things! I don't know about you, but I never turn down copics. I've got a ton of them, but I am one of those people who believes you can never have too many! So, come on over and play!

Seriously, there will be so many ways to win. So many challenges in which to play...surely, one of them will suit you! Come on, join the outlawz!

Witchy in purple

Nothing like coming in under the wire. The Anita Be Stampin' pretty in purple challenge ends tonight. So, when did I work on a project? You guessed it...tonight. The challenge was to use light purple, dark purple, yellow, and kraft. My yellow is in the image, on her hair. Otherwise, I pretty much stuck with the purple and kraft. I made a magnet to hang on my fridge. Here she is:

I used my an image from Anita Be Stampin'. This little cutie is named Tabitha and she comes with her friend, the bat. In this case, she has her friend, the flying monkey! I have a thing for the flying monkeys. I don't know why. I've got flying monkey figurines, signs, even a snow globe. Well, a couple of years ago, my cousin found these little rubber flying monkeys in a novelty shop. She got me a few packs, figuring I could use them on something. In this case, I used my awesome KI Gloo and glued one on to the hanging part of the magnet. I cut around the image with the scalloped circle spellbinders, then inked the edges of the scallops and all of the papers with creamy brown cat's eye ink. I used my paper piercer to pierce holes around the edges of the scalloped circle.

It's hard to tell here, but the large portion of the project is 4x6 and will fit into one of those clear acrylic photo holders that has a magnet on the back. You can get them for a buck at AC Moore and Michael's. The the bottom part of the sentiment ("I have flying monkeys, and I'm not afraid to use them!") will hang freely. To make sure the magnet does not slide out, I'll use some adhesive along the bottom edge of the acrylic frame. The pink grid in the backgrounds is my Fiskars self-healing cutting mat.

Since this is a magnet and will go into a flat frame, I had to keep the dimension to a minimum. Therefore, I used gold cord that squishes a bit, and rather than adding pearls or rhinestones, I used liquid pearls. Once they are totally dry, they'll flatten out but still add visual interest.

Tabitha is colored with the following copics:

 
Thanks for stopping by. My flying monkeys are napping and all is good with the world tonight. Check in again tomorrow and I'm not sure I can say the same! I'm moody like that.

Have a heart!

Oh, wait, I mean "I {heart} you." Yeah, that's the name of this challenge. I'll get it right eventually. As for having a heart, well, I know, I know. We hear it all of the time. Do this or do that to stay healthy. Sometimes, I feel like I am getting smacked over the head with all of this information, so it’s fun to be the one doing the smacking for once! LOL. Seriously, February is Heart Month. We all know that without that awesome heart muscle, we wouldn’t be around to share in our lives with our friends and family. Keep your heart healthy! Some of the ways to do that are:


Don’t smoke and if you are a smoker, quit!


Exercise. This doesn’t have to mean joining a gym. Take a daily walk around your neighborhood. Go up and down flights of stairs a few times, rather than taking the elevator. You get the gist.


Keep your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control.


Eat less fat. Darnit, that’s a hard one.


Reduce your stress level (this one always makes me laugh because I don’t always have that much control here! I’m a drama queen, you know?)


Visit your doctor regularly and listen to the man (or woman!).

Ok, you have been sufficiently lectured now, so we can get on to the fun stuff. Hey, cut me some slack, wouldja? I’m not a mom, so I’ve got to lecture someone! Otherwise, that need just festers and I release some flying monkeys on a poor, unsuspecting neighbor kid. Well, more likely, some idiot on the expressway who got his license from a crackerjack box.

I’m getting to it! What you need to do is make any project using a heart and submit it over at Guylou’s Inimitability by February 17. For you people who are always late with your cards, this counts you in by giving you a few days past Valentine’s Day. Guylou rocks, right?

So, what do you get by playing along with this oh-so-easy challenge? Guylou will draw a random winner, who will win the digistamp of his or her choice, as well as the opportunity to be a Guest Designer on an upcoming challenge. As a guest DT, you’ll get another free digistamp, too.

I used G's image called "love seat" to make my card. Although I've given away a huge hoard of stickers, I still have a few sitting around. I decided to make use of them on this card.

I added a cute little Tilda from Magnolia stamp company, paper pieced the loveseat, and used my heart punch to make a border going across the top. A fairly simple card, but it makes me think of being a kid and hanging out at the neighbor lady's house after school. She was this super sweet elderly lady who was lonely and loved the company we neighbor kids provided. We loved her, and not only because she gave us candy. She gave us candy AND listened to us ramble about our day. It kept us coming back. Smart woman.

Happy Birthday, Tracy!

I belong to a wonderful, giving, generous, caring circle of friends over on scrapbook.com. Tracy is in that circle with me. She is such a wonderful friend to me. Without this group of girls, I don't know if I'd have pulled through the last year and a half as well as I have. I know I am prone to drama, but in this case, I'm not exaggerating. They are a huge support system for me. They somehow always seem to make my bad traits seem good, and just accept me as I am (flying monkeys, irritability, moodiness and all). So, when Tracy's birthday rolled around, I really wanted to let her know how much I cared with a card that made me think of her. I started with Elisabeth Bell's "A Child's Prayer" image from Belles n Whistles. She makes me think of Tracy because Tracy has such a strong bond with God and is known to pray for the group whenever we need it. I added some flowers and other girlie touches to keep the card soft and pretty. Here it is:

This is my second attempt at making a shadow around the image. I think I did much better with it this time, but I'm still trying to perfect it. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, with the exception of the big rose in the center. I got that at the Dollar Store. The inside of the card says, "on your birthday and every day." I colored the image with copics. Here's the ones I used:

Tracy, I hope your birthday was fantabulous. LUG!