Great Grads

A dear friend of the family, and loyal blog reader, asked if I had any graduation stamps in my collection. She's such a devoted teacher, she's going to make cards for her students.

I didn't yet own any, but knew exactly what stamp set would be perfect for the job.

I was really happy when I saw Great Grads in the Stampin Up catalogue. Last year I had a lot of requests for Grad cards and no appropriate stamps for the job. I just adore this set and was happy for an excuse to pick it up! Thanks Mary Jane!



The school's colors are red and white, which I think are just so classic paired with some black for that cap and gown. I wanted to keep the design fresh, but not too difficult to replicate, so I strayed from my usual dependence on punches and scalloping. A quick wheel with the So Swirly background wheel, a touch of striped grosgrain ribbon and two silver brads.



MJ I hope you like it. We'll have a mini stamp class tonight when you come pick up your supplies! Can't wait till you're out of school for the summer and we can get that girls stamping night planned!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back with MFTeasers next week!

Neighbors!

Today is finally the day! My friend Sarah, her husband and two sweet boys are moving into our neighborhood, practically across the street!

Sarah and I met the spring of our freshman year in college and we lived together all through college. After graduation, we shared an apartment in the city. We met our husbands at the same time, were in each others weddings, and our eldest boys are about 8 weeks apart.

My eldest is overjoyed at the thought of having his little buddy so close. But he's not nearly as excited as I am. Welcome welcome my friend! I'm SO excited! I'll be by with a bottle of bubbly to celebrate later today!

What a fantastic excuse to stamp something! This Scenic Route paper has been in my collection since before Christmas. I picked myself up the scalloped rectangle nesties at Polka Dot Plaza and I'm just loving them. I swear, since my bug was returned to me from ProvoCraft I've been obsessed with the thing - I'm so glad its back!!

The images are those fun owls from Gina K Designs. This birdie is stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink, then I colored in with my Copic Markers. The cardbase itself is pretty dark, so I finished it off with a piece of vanilla cardstock and a piece of the designer paper inside (I think you can see a snippet of it inside) and added the sentiment "Congratulations on your new nest" and a little strip of the designer paper to dress it up.

Have a great day everyone!

I can't help it.

I heard through Splitcoast and through all my blogging friends that Stamp It was finally out! Then my dear friend Meri called me in tears to tell me that while sitting home sick in bed, she tripped across my card in the magazine unexpectedly.

I've been waiting for my copy to come from PaperCrafts, but could wait no more. I had to run over to Joann's to pick up a copy!

I know I'm "in print" here every day, but this was just so fun to open the magazine and see MY card! Giggle! And it was so cool to see all my blogging friends that were also published in this issue too.

My husband is finally coming around on my love for stamping, in addition to buying me tickets to Chicago to attend CHA this summer, he also said he's going to take this out and get it framed! How sweet!

So, if you've got a copy of Stamp It cards, flip to page 23 and you'll see this....

Simple.

Don't get me wrong, I love the opportunity to make those "more is more" type cards for DT assignments, or sketch challenges, or just because. However, I just love it when a quick and cute card pops into my head.

I had to design one more card for a workshop Sunday night. This uses one of the Level 1 hostess sets and I wanted to show something really quick and easy. I don't know about you, but I always need thank you notes, and usually more than one at a time! This is a quick card to mass produce so that you can get them mailed, written out and most importantly into the mail!

Speaking of workshop, I do have a few openings this Sunday night if you happen to live in the Greater Boston area. If you're interested, please email me at stampedbyhand@comcast.net or leave a comment on this post with your email and I'll be in touch! We'll be making two each of four different designs this Sunday night beginning at 7:30 pm!

I forgot!

A long weekend is a great chance to make a lot of progress with a little one's toilet training. And I'm happy to report that we're about 90% done. Still handling some accidents here and there (gross) but what a difference a few days makes!

Unfortunately, I think that I might have to make the difficult decision to pull the little guys nap. EEEKS. He does need some sort of break during the day, but I can't handle him coming out of his room till nearly nine pm to tell me that he has to pee again, that he thinks he heard a monster, that his nose needs to be blown, and that he has to pee AGAIN! Please just go to bed. I'm dreading the behavior that accompanies those first days, weeks and even months, that goes with the missing nap, but it would be nice for my day to end at 7:30 or 8 versus NINE!

Okay, now back to why you're probably here, not my whining!!

I've been working on some DT samples for an upcoming launch, but then remembered I'd never posted this little joy fold I'd made a few weeks ago. I wanted to try watercoloring with my SU makers, and it can in fact be done, I think I just need some practice, and also to give myself an image with a little more room to work with. These lines aren't so forgiving - they're pretty tight!

I'm going to try this one again with my copic markers instead!

I also remembered I hadn't shown you the fourth card in my "She's All That" card pack I'd made for a friend.

This uses my loved, but under used Baroque background. I think its just absolutely perfect for wedding or shower cards. The card base is mellow moss, with very vanilla and blush blossom for the cardstock mats. The image is stamped in river rock.

I think these siloutte girls are so sweet, but we agreed at stamp club last week that this girl really needs a hamburger or something, don't you think?

Have a great day everyone!

These days are coming......

Here's another card I made for the Gina K release party the other night. This designer paper from the Lynden Collection of Scenic Route reminds me of some cabanna fabric don't you think? I couldn't help but use it as the background and the inspiration for this striped umbrella.


I colored this image with my Copic markers, but I'm already looking forward to aquapainting this image the next time I've got a little stamping time on my hands!

This set is the "You Are My Sunshine" the current One Free with Three promotion over at Gina K. What an amazing set to get for FREE if you're already purchasing three other stamps from Gina K. Be sure to check out the gallery on Gina's site to see some of the other fun samples whipped up by the design team. My personal favorite is Julie Korbers flip flop card, but as usual, they all rock! I've got to go get my toes all prettied up because I plan on wearing flip flops from Memorial Day through Labor Day! That is, if the weather here ever decides to cooperate. BRRRR!


Living in New England, we spend a lot of time on the beach in the summer. We're taking a whole week off to spend with the boys at my parents beach house this summer and I just can't wait. We'll celebrate my older son's birthday at the picnic on the beach, with fireworks and a concert and by the Boston Pops!

Of course, going to the beach with two young children is sort of a workout, and not so much lounging on the beach as it used to be, but I still can't wait!

Release Party fun and Free Stamps!

Last night was Gina K's latest release party over at Splitcoast Stampers. Its always a fun night, and hard to keep up. Madly hitting my F5 key and saying "hi" to all my stamping/blogging/forum friends!

I was the hostess for the third challenge of the evening. Here's the sketch to follow if you're interested in a chance for a FREE set from Gina K!

One lucky player will be selected at random on Thursday night for their choice of any stamp set valued $18.95 or less!! Please see this post on the Gina K Member Company forum for details, and remember enter on the forum, not here on my blog!

I was thrilled when I found this stamp in my Design Team supply kit from Gina. This reminds me so much of my husband and two sons. They love going for "nature walks"

I found this cute tree and stripe paper at my LSS on a recent trip. It was just perfect for this project. These images are absolutely fantastic for my Copic markers. Aren't these screw brads fun? They were the "guy bling" that Gina added to her store last month, and I hadn't put them to good use yet! Love em.

Free stamps? Okay, get over there and get stampin! There are actually three challenges posted - lots of chances to win!

Yum!

Sometimes, I just love rainy afternoons. The little girls that I watch hunkered down with a craft this afternoon - and I grabbed a craft for myself and the three of us hung out, chatted and created.

They were so into their rainbow fish that I got a chance to pull together a quick card with an upcoming set from My Favorite Things. Kim's so sweet that she's letting me post this early. (Thanks KIM!)

Trust me when I say that you're going to love this entire set, and all the other goodies coming out in just a few weeks time. Everything is just completely adorable.

The cupcakes are colored in with my copic markers, then I stamped the sprinkles on it and coated them with stickles. Ooooh, this little card just makes me want to heat up the oven and bake something! (Um, or run out to the bakery?)

This card is for this week's sketch challenge over on the My Favorite Things Member Company Forum. I completely adore this paper, from the Blue Hill collection from Crate Paper.

So, don't forget, its "Celebrate MFT Day" treat yourself to a little stamping time with either your latest MFT's that you may have picked up at the last launch, or any other of your favorite things you may already own. Don't forget to post on Splitcoast with "MFTMAY08" so we can all celebrate together!

Its the 20th!

Two quick announcements of fun things to do today!

Its the 2oth - which means it is Celebrate MFT Day! I picked up some new stamps from My Favorite Things the other day, which is a great reason to celebrate! I'll have something to post with them hopefully tomorrow - if you happen to celebrate MFT with us today, be sure to use the code MFTMAY08 so we can see all your beautiful creations!

Tonight is also the new release over at Gina K Designs. It will be held from 7-10 pm central time in our Member Company forum at Splitcoaststampers.com. There will be games, contests, challenges and much more! I'll be hostessing one of the challenges, my favorite kind, a sketch challenge! Hope to see you there.

Sweet Cupcakeabella!

My best friend celebrated her 35th birthday last week. Only now, the poor thing is miserably sick and home with two sick kids. Oh, don't you wish you could call in sick as a mom, but ugh, it just doesn't seem to work that way.

In addition to being one of the funniest people I've ever met, Meri is a true friend, fiercly loyal to her friends - I mean heaven help you if you cross me, because you'll have to answer to her! Giggle!

This card is using last week's sketch challenge from Splitcoast Stampers. What a great excuse to use my new tag slider dies from Spellbinders. I just adore them!

I have this sweet Cupcakeabella and a few stampy treats for her that I'll be delivering tomorrow.

Hope you're feeling better soon sweetie!!

Getting Ready for Summer

Last night, when putting my eldest to bed, I mentioned that there were only a few days left of school. Eeeks! He panicked big time and got sad that he'd miss his friends.

Then I reminded him of all the fun times we'll be having over the summer. Day camp, trips to the pool club, playdates at the park.

As you'd imagine, he perked up quickly after that.

This is one of the cards we'll be making Thursday night at my monthly Project Club. I'll have the complete set of cards we'll be making to show later this week.

Quick post for me, busy day around here today! Hope you had a wonderful weekend - and lots of fun in the sun!

Kick Up Your Heels - Its Party Time!

I'm so excited to be able to share a little preview of one of the new Gina K sets - five new stamp sets, four single stamps, and new bling and dazzle to boot -- all of which will be releasing this coming Tuesday the 20th!

This set "Jumping for Joy" was illustrated by my friend Melanie. Its funny because last week we were in Phoenix and I was admiring the beautiful zebras at the zoo thinking "I sure hope Mel is adding a zebra to the Hippy's and Hoppy's" sure enough, I returned home to find this cutie pie in my mail delivery.
I inked the zebra first in versamark, then inked over that with basic black classic ink (a trick that one of YOU showed me, so thanks!) then stamped the image to the page and coated it with clear embossing powder and heat gunned it. It makes the black really pop - and that was it!

The slider you see here is from Nestabilities Shapeabilities collection. I saw these babies at CHA and just adored them. There are three shapes in the collection, and they are slider dies, I just tucked one corner on the inside and attached the ribbon - and that FUN new embellie from Gina K on the opposite side.

The patterned paper I used is SEI's Dill Blossom andI used River Rock and True Thyme cardstock from Stampin Up for my neutral accents.

If you're hungry for more samples with this set, be sure to pop over to Gina's blog - she's got some samples to show, and will head you in the right direciton of the other Design Team members posting today!

I DO have two more samples done already, but what a stinker, I'm saving them for the release party on Tuesday night!! Hope you can join us on this thread for challenges, giveaways and lots of fun!

May's What You Got

When I sat down to write this post, I realized that I forgot to ever select a winner from April's What You Got participants! So, without any further ado, the lucky winner, as selected by Random.org is Carrie! Please email me at stampedbyhand@comcast.net with your snail mail address and I'll get your prize into the mail!

This month Nancy, Dawn and I agreed to try to work on something with Berry Bliss designer paper and our only limitation was that we had to use three different papers from the series. I have to admit, that I'm not really all that fond of my creation now that its finished and all, but I'll be brave and post it nonetheless. However, I must say that I adore what the girls came up with.

I started with Julee Tillman's Mojo Monday challenge from last week, and picked out my three papers. I stitched around each of the quadrants, and then around all the panels. What fouled me up was that middle layer which I started to sponge, but then it made a big old mess. But, what really tripped me up was trying to work in that circular element. That button just doesn't feel like enough of an oomph for me.

Okay, enough of my yucky card, here's the cute cards that the girls sent me! Be sure to stop by their blogs today as they both are total superstars and each made two cards for the challenge so they're posting "extras" on their blogs today!

This next one is Nancy's and I'm think we both got our inspiration from last week's Mojo Monday challenge. However, Nancy CLEARLY pulled it off much better than I did!! I love the pop of pink all over the place. I always think that Nancy does a great job with all the little details that really pull a card together.

And this cute baby card is from Dawn. Its just so soft and lovely. In particular, I just love that she's picked two of the patterns in this series that till now has really make me scratch my head. This makes me want to dig mine out and see what I can do!

Here's your challenge for the month. If you've got Berry Bliss paper, pick three patterns and make a creation. If you don't have Berry Bliss, no worries, just get inspired by that paper collection and use whatever cardstock you have from that palette.

Remember, "What You've Got" is about using what you've already got in hand!

To enter, just post a comment on this thread with a link to your creation. And don't forget, if you post on Splitcoast, be sure to use the keyword "WYG" so we can see all the creations in one place! Personally, I'm going to challenge myself to try this one again! I've love to see what YOU come up with. You've got till June 1st to show me "What You've Got" and random.org will pick one participant who will win the Stampin Up Classic Ink pad of their choice.

Just Be Claws - and Big News

After several days in Arizona my kids are shivering at the chilly weather here in Boston - we've got early April type weather going on here instead of mid May!!! My little guy went off to school yesterday with a sweatshirt and long pants.

We had such an amazing time visiting with my family, swimming and lounging at the pool (yummy adult cocktails for grownups), golfing for the guys, a truly fabulous spa visit for the girls, visiting the Phoenix Zoo, watching the birds and lizzards that were everywhere. It was hard to come home and get back to real life!

I made this quick cards with Gina K's super cute set Just Be Claws before I left, when I was on my huge 4 1/4 square card kick. I have another one in the works with the fun little crab fromt his set as well, I've got the crab colored, just haven't assembled the card itself. I have to say that these images were fun to color in with my copic markers!

So, big news....be sure to swing over to Gina's blog today for a fun announcement, which I'm so very excited about! I think my latest delivery from her is coming TODAY! Hooray - oh mailman, where are you??? But you'll have to wait a few days to see what I'm workin' on!

Are You Ready - or have you already been there?

We're just back from vacation in Arizona with my kids, my parents, brother, sister and brother's girlfriend. We had such an amazing time, and let me say I love Arizona. Today is laundry, cleaning, foodshopping general catch up day. So no eye candy today.

Ironically, my husband passed me this email this morning, and I roared with laugher. This is the funniest thing I've read in a while.

Enjoy!
---------
Thinking of Having Kids?
Do this 11 step program first!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them o n the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons.
How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice.. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Life Is Good

Two weeks ago, I headed out for a great night with my girlfriends! Now, I don't drive a pink car (I've got a black mom-mobile!) but this was me, sunroof open, radio blaring playing my favorite playlist on my iPod -- and no carseats! LOL!

I picked up this sweet little Elzybell at Colorful Creations in Hyannis, what a FUN store. I think I'm very lucky its an hour and a half away or else my credit card would be smokin'

I think these sweet little images really lend themselves to smaller sized cards. So.....I picked up two packets of the Amuse notecards, which are totally adorable. I've got another card coming you way with those hopefully later this week!

Have a GREAT day!

Quick and Cute

I had a whole bunch of thank you notes to make up for my little guy's birthday. I needed something I could mass produce pretty quickly, but of course, I didn't want to sacrifice the cute factor either! Here's what I came up with:

I used my Big Bold Birthday set from Stampin Up for the present with the bow on top, and then a little scrap of striped designer paper.

The paper I used here is from Stampin Up's Summer Days Simply Scrappin Kit - that I received at a recent demonstrator meeting and fell totally in love with. What a fantastic color combination (Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red and Bashful Blue)

I'm using this card as the model for one of my upcoming designs for my May Project Club girls, I'm just going to switch the paper to East Coast Prep and switch the sentiment to a Happy Birthday card.

Have a wonderful day everyone!!

eBay, its addicting

I've only been addicted to buying things on eBay till now. Never so much addicted to "selling" stuff. Hi, have we met? I'm a hoarder, I like to KEEP my stuff.

However, there are bills to be paid, and stamps that are lonely. Great stamps. In need of a new home. I might actually shed a tear when these three leave my house. No lie.

Cowboy Kid
Do The Hula
Think Big

Here's where you can find them. (sniff.)

Sending some comfort...

When the unfortunate moment arrives when you need to send a sympathy card, its nice to have a stamp set with just the right sentiments included.

As soon as the call came in, I knew exactly what stamp set I'd be reaching for "Comfort and Peace" from Gina K Designs.

I had some scraps of Stampin Up Ginger Blossom paper handy and I thought they would be warm, yet subtle enough for this project. The card is a 5 1/4 square base of Ruby Red cardstock and I used my Stampin Up Many Marvelous Markers in Ruby Red and Old Olive direct to the stamp, huffed to re-moisten the ink, and then stamped the image onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip ink.

I thought about adding some stitching with my sewing machine, or paper piercing, but what I really wanted to do was get this card right out in the mail as soon as possible.

Have a good day everyone, its raining here again today. So dreary.

#30 is the winner!

I just loved reading about everyone's "journeys" so many adventures! I'm so glad you all liked the journal, they really are so easy to make with a Bind It All. And, cute stamps of course!

Random.org selected #30 as the winner:

Lori said...
I would so LOVE this for my notes at the upcoming Stampin' Up! convention!!!Lori
May 7, 2008 7:28 PM

Lori, please email me at stampedbyhand@comcast.net or you can reach me through comments here with your email address. I'll need your snail mail address to get it out to you. If I don't hear from you by Tuesday the 13th, I'll re-draw from the entries to find this journal a home!

Thank you to everyone that commented!!

MFTeaser #3 and Launch Day!

Tonight's the night! All three new sets from MFT will be released this evening, but not before another MFT Cocktail Party tonight over on the forum at Splitcoast. These evenings are always full of lots of laughs and sometimes crazy antics by my Design Team pals.


"Gone to the Dogs" is the only set I haven't shown you yet. I thought this big old set made a great choice for a l-o-n-g card! I saw this fun paper at my local AC Moore a few weeks ago and loved the floral on one side and the stripe on the other. Perfect for paper piecing a smart outfit for that headless chick!



This set has so many dogs to choose from, but I'm certainly a retriever girl. I used "Setting the Stage" for the background for the top half of the card, as well as for the fun corner treatment on the main panel. "Setting the Stage" is the promo of the month from now till June 1st. Be sure to check out My Favorite Things for details.

Okay, is today the day my Cuttlebug arrives? My Nesties are screaming to be used, my new embossing folder too! I'm making do with scalloped elements, but I really really want to break open my new nestie packages that arrived last week!


Hope to see you tonight at the New Release Cocktail Party on from 9-11 p.m. Eastern time. Lots of fun is planned including finding out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoast Stampers to find out all the details and we hope to see you there!!

MFTeaser #2 and Blog Candy!

In case you were interested in any of those retired sets of mine I mentioned last week, a lot of them are hovering at five dollars (Including an alpabet set, a retired Level 3 Hostess set as well Love Matters and A light Heart!) Eeks! Good stuff out there, all of which is way better than five bucks!

Here's the link to the listing.

Now onto today's MFTeaser! When I first saw this HUGE set "Goin' Places" from MFT, I knew right away that I wanted to create a travel journal. Out came the bind it all, and I was in the middle of organizing and sorting all my designer paper and ran across enough of this fabulous Scenic Route paper to make the journal.

Are YOU going somewhere? This journal could be yours! You can enter by simply commenting on this thread with your journey! It can even be a "life" journey rather than actually travelling to a place. My question is, what journey will YOU cherish?

My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, May 7 from 9-11 p.m. Eastern time. Lots of fun is planned including finding out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoast Stampers to find out all the details and we hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

I'll collect entries on this blog candy till the launch Wednesday night and will post the winner at 9pm EST here on my blog!

My Favorite Things Sketch Preview

I've got a little MFTeaser for you today!! Hooray! This one features Cindy's fun sketch for this week over on the My Favorite Things Member Company Forum.

This set is called "Friends Furever" and both my boys adore this giant dog being hugged by the little boy. Both pals are colored in with copic markers after being stamped with Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink.

This paper from my Local Stamp Store Right at Home Scrapbooking cracks me up! My favorite part is the row of fire hydrants across the bottom of the card. My little guys calls them "dog pee pee's" because we're always telling him not to touch fire hydrants because dogs pee on them. As a result, he thought this card was SO funny when he saw me working on it.

Don't Forget!! My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, May 7 from 9-11 p.m. Eastern time. Lots of fun is planned including finding out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoast Stampers to find out all the details and we hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

I'll be back tomorow with another MFTeaser featuring a different set from the release!

Gotta Love Friday!!

I've been all about the cherry and flower papers from the Summer Picnic paper packet, but when a friend asked for some thank you cards for her son's preschool teachers, this cute apple paper was the very first thing that came to mind.

And since I couldn't decide red paper, or green paper, well of course I had to make them both. (Kristin, do you like them??)

Tonight, I'm attending my local demonstrator meeting tonight with friends. I'm really excited to see everyone!! I'm busy putting the finishing touches on my swaps for tonight, and samples for a demonstration I'm doing at the meeting as well.

I opened my mail box yesterday to find a super cute RAKs from my friends Carole and Charmaine. What a lucky girl am I? I had PLANNED to show photos of them today to show you, but its rainy and blah here today. I'll get them up for you early next week once the sun is shining.

My amazing sister bought me a light box for Christmas. I think a good project for this weekend is to figure out how to use it. When I've tried it before, I go from not enough light, to crazy glare on my photos. Anyone have one and have any tips to share with me?

Finally, I'll be back on Monday with a May MFTeaser!! My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, May 7 from 9-11 p.m. Eastern time. Lots of fun is planned including finding out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. Head over to the MFT forum on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ to find out all the details and we hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Copic Time

I have been having such fun with this month's mini set over at My Favorite Things. Its titled "Happy Mother's Day" and till now, I've been doing a lot of paper piecing with it.

This time, I decided to just strictly color it with copics, no paper piecing. I sat and worked on it while my husband and I wrapped up a movie we'd started the night before. We both fell asleep the first night, I tell you, if I'm not stamping, its hopeless to watch a movie. I'm out like a light.

This is my submission for Cindy's sketch challenge that she runs on the MFT Member Company Forum each week. Thanks for another fun one Cindy!

The sentiment "Much Love" is from My Favorite Things "Essential Sentiments." There are lots of cute sentiments that will mix and match with many of the other stamp sets from MFT. I think most, if not all of them will work with the SU word window punch? But this one looked sweet in the oval punch and then I hand cut an oval mat for it because I don't have both of the oval punches, just one.

If you're working with copics, the best advice I have for you is practice practice. I'm using this stamp set for a swap I'm in and its been a great way to work on my coloring skills. I have a lot of paper piecing to do for this swap, but at least I've got a head start. Usually I'm cranking this stuff out only days before its due. Giggle!

Coincidentally, coloring with these babies, is very relaxing for me. A super stress reliever, so the repetition of coloring in all these ladies and their flower pots is an extra bonus for me!

Have a great day everyone!

Something Special

Recognize the layout from yesterday's card? I've been on a 4.25 square kick lately. I don't know what's up with that, but its been fun!

I made this card for Christie for her birthday today! Happy Birthday Christie!! This set is "Something Special" which was recently released from Paper Pretties.

I really enjoy watercoloring, and this image was fun to work with using my my inkpads (sahara sand, close to cocoa, mellow moss and pretty in pink) and aquapainter onto watercolor paper.

The card base again is kraft, with some Blue Hill paper from Crate Paper as a base mat. I did actually have adhesive by the time I made this card, but I loved the effect of all that stitching on these small cards. I've got to do something to compensate for my missing nesties! LOL!

Happy May Day everyone! Have a good one.