The Sweet Award

Wow! I received this fun award from my SBS29 sister Kim Marie. She is so talented and sweet that I am happy that SBS29 has given me the opportunity to get to know her.

As part of the award, I am supposed to list 10 things that I am thankful for:
1) My husband - thank goodness I have him!
2) My daughter - every day is a new adventure
3) My extended family - my father, mother in law, brother, sister in law, brother in law, aunts, uncles etc. I am so glad to have them and that my daughter has such wonderful people to know and learn from.
4) My friends - how can you make it through life with out a few, good girl friends?
5) Jazzercise - great for saving my sanity and my health.
6) My crafting - I know you all understand this one.
7) Book, books, books - I love to read!
8) My pets - can't forget them.
9) My Ipod! - dont' think I could survive with out it. I love music of all kinds and am addicted to several podcasts.
10) Chocolate - enough said...

The rules of the award say that I have to
1) Copy and Paste the award on your blog. {check}
2) List who gave you the award and link to her blog. {check}
3) List 10 things that make you happy. {check}
4) Pass the award onto other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know! {check!}

I am passing this on to:
1) Karin
2) Micki
3) Kristal
4) Tammy
5) Stef

I know some of these ladies well and some I am just getting to know but all of them are very talented.

Take a moment to check out their blogs.

Happy Birthday Easel Card

I was inspired to try an easel card after seeing the adorable card that follow DT member Karin made HERE a few weeks ago. I dare you to take a look at it and not say "Awww..." It is soooo cute! You can find the tutorial for your very own easel card on Splitcoast Stampers HERE. They are a lot easier than they look and a ton of fun to put together.

I used the sketch from the Makeup 4 the Weekend challenge #13. This card also qualifies for the Sunday Stamptacular Challenge - #43 Pop-Up and the Paper Sundaes second challenge.

I also tried out the scrunched flowers that seem to be so popular everywhere lately. You can find a tutorial HERE. I did make one using a scallop as shown in the tutorial but it was too big for my card layout. For this card, I used my small 5-petal flower punch instead. I spritzed them with a little Pearl Glimmer Mist to give them some sparkle and let them dry while I made the inside of my card. (True confession time: I hated using book pages for these even though I think they look really cool. It is against my nature to damage a book. In fact, I feel so guilty about defacing a book I think I am going to have to go eat a piece of chocolate. Hmmmm...to bad I don't have any cupcakes on hand.)

Speaking of cupcakes, I love Lindsay's Sweet Stuff digital stamp set. You can use it for almost any occasion. I used it for a birthday card in this post and HERE and you can see a card I made for Valentine's Day HERE.

Lindsay also has some new, cool stuff in her Mygrafico store. Go check out the digital papers, SVG files, and templates. She also has some cute digital stamps (in addition to the one used here) that are perfect for Valentine's Day.

I was able to figure out the problem I was having with my new blog design. I have a few things left to tweak but am pretty much done. What do you think? If you are interested in personalizing your blog, I recommend the Blog in a Box packages from Sweet Shoppe Designs. They actually are pretty easy to use. I think I had a problem because I wasn't feeling too well and had problems following the easy installation instructions.
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Well, I am going to sign off for the day. This is a rather chatty post for me. Please leave me some comments. I love, love, love reading them.
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While you are out blurfing today, please stop by the rest of the DT and leave them some love. They are:

Cassandra

Jennifer

Karin

Kristen

Lindsay

Nettie

Tanya

Supplies:

• STAMPS: Sweet Stuff digital stamp set by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff and It's Your Day by Close To My Heart
• PAPERS & CS: Image printed on Georgia Pacific CS, My Mind's Eye Love Nest, Stampin' Up white CS, misc. pink and caramel CS, paper from a book (for flowers)
• INKS: Stampin' Up Pretty In Pink and Creamy Carmel
• EMBELLISHMENTS: EK Success flower punch, brads, Pearl Glimmer Mist, lace, Stampin' Up markers in Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Creamy Carmel, Sakura Gellyroll pens (clear, pink & silver)

DD's projects and a challenge blog for kids

My DD is going to enter this card in the Little Hands Do Crafts challenge #2 animals. She did this card completely by herself, including using the paper cutter (with supervision). If you haven't seen it, this is a new challenge blog that encourages kids to get involved with crafting. (Thank you Rhonda from SBS29 for giving me the heads up.)

She also has been very busy the past week working on her first research paper and poster board for school. (Yes, 2nd grade!) The paper was due last Friday and her poster board is due next Friday but we decided to get it done this week end. (They were encouraged to type the information for the board and had to use at least 5 pictures.) We helped, but she did the research, filled out the questionnaire for the paper, chose and arranged the info. I did print out the letters using my Cricut to help her. My husband also suggested getting one of those greeting cards where you can record a message but using cougar sounds from the internet. She really enjoyed doing this project and is looking forward to her presentation next week. (Funny fact: My first research paper (that I remember) was on cougars.... Strange how that happens.)

I'll be back tomorrow with my Lindsay's Stamp Stuff DT post.

Check this out!

I just had to share this post called 100 Extraordinary Examples of Paper Art. I heard about it from Pockets of Inspiration. All I can say is "Wow!" or maybe "How the heck did they do that?" This is paper crafting on a new level. Enjoy.

Also, please be patient with me this week end. I am updating my blog template mostly on my own (not using a premade template). I am taking a step into something new for me. If it all goes poorly, you will still see this template at the end of the week end. Keep your fingers crossed!

You Give My Heart Wings!

** Updated - This card made the Pink Elephant top 15.

Happy Wednesday! I had this new image from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff new Love Grows Here digital stamp set printed and sitting on my desk. I thought I would try shading (as much as you can do with Stampin' Up markers). While I was at it I thought I would try putting together some colors that I don't usually use or at least don't normally use together. This is what I came up with. My DD thinks that there should be more glitter and bling. What do you think?

My card also fits the following challenges:

Practical Scrappers - Embossing

Creative Inspirations Challenge - #43 New Year, New Products
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 87-Lots of Layering

Crafy Creations - Challenge #51 Valentines or Love
The Pink Elephant - Challenge #50

Charisma Cardz Challenge - #2 Anything New
The Craft Garden - New
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Pretty Pink
Paper Maniac Inspiration - Texture, Faux Stitching, and buttons

Creative Belli Challenge - Hearts CBC83
I Love Digi Challenge - Use a digi

Cooking It up with Katie - Challenge #9
Corrosive Challenge - #47 Let's Go Digi (CCBJ#47)


Did you hear about the new challenge blog? It combines two things I love - digi's and challenges! If you love digital stamps or paper, please check them out.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Love Grows Here from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff
• Papers & CS: Image printed on Georgia Pacific white CS, Stampin' Up Pretty In Pink, Barely Banana, White card stock, Paper Studio black CS
• Inks: NONE
• Embellishments & Tools: Stampin' Up Markers Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Barely Banana, Summer Sun, & Regal Rose , Sakura Gelly Roll clear glitter pen, misc. button, DMC floss #321, Stampin' Up border punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities, Close To My Heart white ribbon, Cloud 9 Design red rain dots, Cuttlebug Script Texture embossing folder, paper piercer, black Uniball pen, sentiment was computer generated

Hey Sweet Thing! - Monday with Lindsay

** Updated - This card was picked to be one of the featured cards on SNR Card Universe.

I was digging through my scrap bin again for the challenge on What's Digital Stamping? Yahoo group to use up some scraps and I was happy to find a rather large piece of 2-sided DP. I colored one of the cupcakes from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Sweet Stuff digital stamp set to match.


Here is a preview of the entire set. I think I want to use the adorable cupcake tree next. You might want to go check out the rest of Lindsay's Stamp Stuff shop on mygrafico. She has added a ton of new stuff over the last week, including some freebies.

Please check out the rest of the DT's projects:

Cassandra

Jennifer

Karin

Kristen

Lindsay (owner) Be sure to check her blog. A little birdie told me that there are new freebies.

Tanya

(Nettie will be back next week.)

Supplies:

• STAMPS: Sweet Stuff digital stamp set by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff on mygrafico
• CS & PAPERS: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, My Minds Eye Bohemia Birthday Blossom (2 sided DP), misc. red CS, image printed on Georgia Pacific white CS
• INKS: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip
• EMBELLISHMENTS & TOOLS: Martha Stewart white rickrack, Close To My Heart twine, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ribbon, Clear button, Swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities, Prismacolor pencils & OMS, Crystal Effects (to adhere red CS to clear button), sponge, paper piercer, computer generated sentiment

Now where did I put that paper?

This card did not turn out anything like I originally imagined it. Lindsay (from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff) challenged the What's Digital Stamping group on Yahoo to make a project using stuff from the scrap bin. I dug through mine and found a piece of cute pink, blue, and yellow baby paper left over from the days I was scrap booking my daughter's baby pictures. I colored the bunny to match the paper. Then when I started to put the card together, I could not find that piece of paper anywhere. Grrrrr.... So this is version #2 with out the cute baby paper, but still using paper from the scrap bin. All the paper except the card base and the image were scraps.

This card also qualifies for the Clearly Delightful Blog theme challenge (CDBC1) to use bunny rabbits on your project, Mygrafico's challenge #31-Yellow, and the Digital Tuesday Challenge #41-emboss it.

If you like this digital image, you can get it at the Lindsay's Stamp Stuff shop on Mygrafico.com. Did you know it is Mygrafico's 1st anniversary and that they are having a sale? Take 25% off your order up until midnight (GMT) today, January 15th.

If you are following the monthly Mygrafico customer blog hop, you can find a list of participants HERE. Please go check out what every one else posted for the blog hop. Before you leave, be sure to check out MY BLOG CANDY.

SUPPLIES:

• STAMPS: Babies and Bows digital stamp set from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff on Mygrafico
• CS & PAPERS: image printed on Georgia Pacific white CS, othe papers manufacturer unknown
• INKS: None
• EMBELLISHMENTS & TOOLS: Prismacolor pencils and OMS, Swiss Dots cuttlebug embossing folder, misc. buttons & thread, Stampin' Up border punch
• NOTES: Sentiment generated using MS Word