Playing with Peerless

Did you know that My Favorite Things has a tutorial every Wednesday? Its the "How'd They Do That" (HDTD) and last week's focused on Peerless Watercolors.  I'll admit that I've had mine a while, but for whatever reason, I was totally intimidated by them. Which, as it turns out, is just silly, because really, they're SO easy and SO fun to work with.

I used the MFT Perfect Pallette to drag out the colors to be able to pick varying depths of tones.  That little tool is also uber handy for mixing together various paints on the palette to blend new shades.

This fun stamp set is "Funky Flowers" illustrated by Sara Williams for MFT Presents.  You can mix and match different blooms, stems and vases to create your own combination.

Be sure to hop on over to the Splitcoast Stampers Member Company forum for MFT and check out all the amazing tutorials.   This week, Christina has done one about getting "out of the box" which has the added benefit of also being a preview for a cute new set coming out next week! 

 

Dad's Shadowbox

My in laws live in Maine, and have a sizeable collection of lighthouse artwork, small replicas etc.  So, naturally when I saw the latest set "Guiding Light" from Gina K Designs I wanted to create a gift for my father in law.

As money is obviously tight for everyone right now, I wanted to share how easy it was to put together a hand crafted piece with lots of detail very inexpensively.

I found this shadowbox frame at my local AC Moore.  Last week, the frames were 50% off and the frame was only $7.  What a bargain!  

And, if you wanted to create a similar project, you could even use the Digital Paper Pack which Gina created as a freebie for Stamp TV titled Jersey Shore, it would be an amazing choice for a Nautical themed gift! You can find the Stamp TV Digital Paper Pack Freebies here.

I added a piece of designer paper from my stash to the very inside of the box.  I added some Nautical Netting to give it a rugged feel, and then added a border of grosgrain ribbon.

I covered the mat with a coordinating piece of cardstock.  It was so easy to do... using a craft knife I trimmed neatly along the interior edge of the mat to create the opening.   

I then took the mat and ran the interior edges through my Janome with the zig zag stitch to give it a blanket stitch look.  This gives a finished edge to the matting.  

Note: for this frame, the matting was exceptionally lightweight, so I was able to sew right through it. If there was a heavier mat, I would simply sew right through the cardstock layer, then attach it to the heavyweight mat!  

 

Depending on the paper you choose for your project, you can do lots of things to dress up your matting, overstamp it with a background, distress with sponging, add details with brads, buttons etc.  But as I was trying to keep this manly and clean, I elected simply stitching. 

I stamped the scene with Timber Brown Stazon ink to watercolor paper.  Then I colored my scene with a Ninji Waterbrush and reinkers from my SU inkpads.  For me, the trick is to wait to let each part of the image dry.  I tend to rush and add the next color before the image is dry, and then it bleeds.  I either have to be patient, or just zap it with my heat gun.  

Once I was finished watercoloring and the image dried, I added a mat for my image with Gina's latest color of Pure Luxury Cardstock - Chocolate Kiss.  Its truly luscious!  Then, zip zap, right through my Janome for a finished look.  

My husband was thrilled with how this came out, and I'm thrilled to have a Father's Day present all ready!  Right now, I'm enjoying this on my shelf in my stamp room. Its going to be hard to part with, but it will fit **right** in with my in laws lighthouse collection. 

Its a Bash! A Bella Bash!

......and you're all invited!!  Today Emily has lots of new releases for Stamping Bella, she'll be releasing them throughout the day, and saving two new Bellas to come out and play during the Bash on the Stamping Bella Splitcoast Member Company Forum at 9pm EST!  

I can't wait to see what she's got up her sleeve! To begin the celebration, I grabbed this sweet little Bluebell Bittybloom and this luscious new paper I picked up from My Minds Eye. 

 I've been a bad girl about doing the Splitcoast Challenges the last few months, so I'm hoping to get to at least one of them a week!  This is last week's Sketch Challenge 225.

And, while you're waiting and stalking Splitcoast and Blogabella to see all the latest, why not work on your sample for this weeks Bellariffic Challenge??

This week is a sketch challenge drawn up by Jen - be sure to send your sample to emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday with the subject "Bellariffic Friday May 1st!"   

Remember there is a $20 Bella Buck prize for one lucky person who submits a sample for the sketch, as well as someone who comments at random on Friday's post on Blogabella!!  

Have a wonderful day everyone!  

Need a challenge?

If you're looking for a little something to work on today, I'm currently hostessing challenges for both Gina K Designs and My Favorite Things!

First up is my Stamp TV Potluck Friday Challenge - No Squares Allowed!!

Did you know that all the Stamp TV challenges are open for a full week? And that each one offers a chance at a free stamp set valued $24.95 or less?  Get going! 

My challenge is open till this coming Friday morning and I can't wait to see what you create.  You just can't make a standard square or rectangular card.  I chose a scalloped circle card, so fun and easy to create with my nesties!

I used the beautiful new sentiment set from Gina K Designs titled "Notes to Mom" isn't this font GORGEOUS?  The flowers are from the Tropical Flowers set which has become a new go to set for me.  I stamped the sentiment first, then overstamped with the flowers.  

They are inked with a combination of the Memento Dew Drops.  Then I sponged all the edges with Distress Ink while my circle was tucked into my nestie to preserve the nice ivory debossed edge.  In a few places I went a little too heavy with the distress ink, so I added a little bit of white craft ink to soften it out.  

You can join me for the No Squares Allowed challenge HERE

My Favorite Things Who's that Girl Challenge - Rain or Shine!

Since its Monday, I'm also hostessing the My Favorite Things Who's That Girl Challenge with Christina!  This week, the selected WTG is "Rain or Shine" and the challenge part is to use six brads or more on your project!  

Luckily, we've had lots of shine here in Boston the last few days, I'm so done with RAIN!

I'm in paper love with the Bittersweet from Basic Grey, so I used that for both her cute little rain coat and her boots too.  I also added a scrap to the inside of the card along with my sentiment. "Friends Brighten Your Day."  I used Amy Sheffer's How'd They Do That tutorial on paper pleating for a fun treatment across the bottom of my card.  I love doing that, and its such a fun little treatment.  I just sewed it right in place with my janome and then added a quick ribbon knot.  

Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Bellariffically Tiny Dancer

Oftentimes, when the little ones are sitting down to color, I'll grab a prestamped image and a few Copics and join them at the table. I mean really, don't we all like a little arts and crafts time?  

The other day, I sat down to color this Missmatched Ketto from Stamping Bella and the little girl at the table with me commented that my girl had her belly button sticking out and that her clothing was not appropriate.  These kids make me laugh so hard!  

I commented that yes, perhaps she outgrew her top, but that having her arms over her head probably lifted her top up.  I was fighting back laughter big time.

The Bellariffic challenge this week was to use pink and brown.  A ha! I love that.  Only one of my very most favorite combos.  I pulled this luscious paper from October Afternoon from my DP pile (yes, I'll admit, its a PILE.  I'm a mess again...)  

I colored up Missmatch (and her belly button too) with an assortment of pink Copic markers, and gave her a nice warm brunette colored do.  My Labels Four Nesties were just the right size for this sweetie pie finished off with a bow of Chocolate Grosgrain ribbon.  Lots of edge distressing. Seems lately that everything either needs to be sewn or have distressed edges. Can't seem to look at just a plain old edge.  giggle.

If you didn't already saunter on over to Blogabella yesterday, be sure to hop on over to see what all my fellow BABES and Bellaholics have come up with this week! 

Today I'm off to see the Nantucket Daffodil Festival, there will be a parade of antique cars - but more importantly, I'll be giggling at old ladies in funny hats.  

Its an Extra Specially "Fun Friday!!"

Good morning and Happy Friday!!  You all know I *love* Fridays right?  This one is even better than my usual Starbucks Run, Daycare Closed, Fun Friday, I've been keeping a little secret the last few days.  giggle.....

I am over the moon excited this morning and its not only because I'm on Nantucket for the beginning of a girls weekend, but also because I got an email from Taylor earlier this week asking me if I'd like to be her Cupcake Sampler this week!! Would I?  EEEEKS!  

I've had a big cheesy grin on my face all week! Thanks so much Taylor! You all KNOW I love a good sketch challenge right??

As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew it was the excuse to use the stamp set I've been itching to play with "Fish Friends" from Whipper Snapper.  The whole set is so sweet, but my very favorite image is the little lady bug hanging out on this daisy. 

The image was stamped to Watercolor Paper and then stitched to a layer of Kiwi Kiss cardstock.  

For the scalloped element, I just had to squeeze in a little bit of red to tie in with the ladybug and I had some Rockability paper handy.  I added some piercing to each of the scallops to mimic the dots on the lady but and on the kiwi paper too.  Of course, I couldn't pass up a little "bow-tunity" to add a little scrap of gingham ribbon tied off with a piece of linen thread. 

I can't wait to see what Taylor's Cupcake Sampler team came up with for this sweet little sketch! Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend!

Bitty Daffodils

If you read here a lot, you know by now that I'm a home daycare provider, and a mom to two young and very busy little boys.

I love Thursdays because they're always the official start to my weekend.  But this weekend, is extra special.  I'm headed to Nantucket for the weekend with my mother, grandmother, sister, niece, and my brother's girlfriend for a few days.  

I'm so excited to just hang out with the girls, shop, eat at one of my favorite places and eeeks get a pedicure!  

In honor of the Nantucket Daffodil Festival I turned my Hydrangea Bittybloom from Stamping Bella into a a daffodil girl.  I saw my friend Karen pop up the dress like this on one of her cards last week and thought it was just SO cute that I copied it!  I also stamped the bloom in her hat and the leaves twice and bent them forward for a little extra dimension. 

My niece is pretty much going to look like this little sweetie.  My mom knit her a little green sweater and a yellow floppy hat.  My sister found her a little yellow dress.  But for me, I just LOVE watching the ladies all decked out in all manner of daffodil garb.  Seriously fantastic people watching. I can't wait.

This fun sketch is from Jen's Sketch for You to Try from last weekend. Thanks for stopping by today, I'm off to see if I can locate a single piece of yellow clothing in my closet.  If not, its a fun excuse to hit the Gap on my way to the Cape!

She calls the shots.....

You may remember that my friend Carolyn illustrated a sassy little set last year called Doctor Feelgood.  

You also might remember that my friend Carole turned him into Dr Gene Simmons for her Guest Designer project for Gina K Designs.  And now, she's illustrated Nurse Feelgood.

As I was photographing this, a little girl I watch asked... "Who are you sending the nurse card to? Did you have to get a shot?"  For a fleeting moment I thought about hand delivering a version of this sans nurses cap to the dental assistant who shut off my nitrous oxide too early during my oral surgery last week...was I ever MAD!!

With a little masking, you could easily change Nurse Feelgood into a female Doctor Feelgood, or a teacher, camp counselor etc.  I'm already eagerly anticipating what fun Carole might have with Nurse Feelgood.  I'm envisioning her making a female companion for Dr Gene Simmons ...  you know like one of those raunchy girls from the Rock of Love.  

My eldest has finally turned a corner and while I wouldn't say he's an adventurous eater, he's at least willing to try things. For us, this is HUGE news and he's thrilled to tell his pediatrician about it.  I'll be masking off the hat, turning this into a female Dr Feelgood and letting him share the news with his doctor!

Don't forget to hop on over to visit Gina's Blog she'll have previews of both this set, as well as the other set being unveiled today, "Notes to Mom."  

You'll also find previews from Theresa,  Erika,  Jessica,  Donna,  Carolyn,  Melanie,  Kurtis, Cindy, Emily, and Beverly our Spotlight Designer this month.

Friendships Garden

Welcome to the second day of previews for Gina K Designs!  Today, I've got a preview of Friendships Garden for you!   

I'm always a huge fan of Asela's illustrations and this month is no exception.  My all time favorite set from her is Botanical Dreams, but.. this one might have just surpassed it for me.  Its so beautiful, elegant, clean, versatile.  

I had a wonderful time watercoloring this image.  I used So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango reinkers for the flowers, and Kiwi Kiss and Close to Cocoa for the leaves and flowerpot.  The background is colored softly with the Soft Sky reinker.  I just love the fine tips on the Ninji Waterbrushes that Gina carries. They allow for really fine detail work!

Do you see the luxurious cardstock that I used for the base. It is the latest Pure Luxury cardstock, Chocolate Kiss from Gina K Designs.  Its amazing, gorgeous, beautifully colored and so strong.   I added So Saffron Cardstock from SU as well as Basic Grey Porcelain designer papers and lots and lots of distressing.  

My watercoloring is done on SU's watercolor paper, but the inside of the card is lined with Gina K Pure Luxury ivory cardstock.  I love the look of finishing a card both inside and out, but when you're working with a dark colored cardstock like Chocolate, I think its just essential. 

This is only one of the sets that is being previewed today, the other set is illustrated by someone who is new to illustrating at Gina K Designs, but not certainly not new to Gina K - its Theresa Momber and she's done an amazing job!  

Be sure to hop on over to Gina's Blog to see her samples from both sets, and you know, she's always especially generous with the give aways during launch week!  You'll also see samples from 

Gina, Asela, Theresa, Erika, Jessica, Donna, Carolyn, Melanie, Kurtis, Cindy, Emily, and Beverly our Spotlight Designer this month. 

Theresa also has a guest designer this month, she's no stranger to Gina K Designs its Cathy Tidwell

And, my friend Jen Del Muro has been playing along and has a preview with Mel's set Wee Tee's today tool! Now, that's a LOT of eye candy! 

A Penny Lane Wee Tee

Are you ready for the previews for this month's release at Gina K Designs to begin? Get this, there will be SEVEN stamp sets released this coming Thursday night!

Up first are previews for a new set from Melanie titled Wee Tees and in true Melanie form there are 100 million ways to customize the stamp set depending on what sort of baby card you need to make.

Me, I fell back on my favorite technique, stamping to patterned paper to make little designer onesies!  

I am in LOVE with the new My Minds Eye collection titled Penny Lane.  I had to throw in a piece of this polka dotted paper from October Afternoon too.  Everything is stitched down. Seems lately I *can't* make a card without pulling out my sewing machine.  

I added shadows to the insides of the onesie by darkening those areas with my Versamarker for a tone on tone effect.  This fun sketch is courtesy of Jen at i{heart}2stamp.com - I always love her weekend sketches, they're just the right start to a project!  

I'll have another preview for you on Wednesday and then more to share with you at the launch party!  Hope you can join us Thursday night from 7-10pm CST for chit chat, challenges, contests and lots of eye candy on the Splitcoast Member Company forum!

You'll find even more previews from Gina and the Design Team for both this set, and another titled "Guiding Light" from Rupa.  Be sure to hop on over to visit: 

Gina, Asela, Erika Jessica, Donna, Kurtis, Cindy, Carolyn, Melanie, Theresa and our Spotlight Designer this month - Beverly Cole!

Got Cupcakes?

The other night, as we were cleaning up from stamp club, my friend was commenting on all the leftover cardstock. 

  

I told her not to worry, I'd turn them into something new as I sat down the next time to work, and sure enough, the leftover papers were the inspiration for this chocolate Cupcake Flopsey today!

This fun sketch is from the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge - the sketch was just perfect for Flopsey. 

The only new piece of paper I 

trimmed was the center white for Flopsey. I used SU in my workshop the other night, but I don't like SU white for Copic work, so I used my new Perfect Paper Panels from MFT for that piece.  All the other pieces were scraps  from my class the other night.  I just had to trim down the striped panel, it was a little too wide for this layout! 

I stamped Flopsey twice so that I could pop up the cupcake in his hand one level. and I usually make it a cutesy cupcake when I play with this stamp set, but today, I went for tasty chocolate frosted cupcake YUM! He's colored with Copic markers and all my panels are stitched up.

Be sure to stop by the My Favorite Things Splitcoast Member Company Forum tomorrow to play along in Celebrate MFT Day and to join Christina and I for this weeks installment of "Who's That Girl." Hope to see you there!

'Tini's Anyone?

Good morning, hope you're all having a great day so far.  Before I say one more thing, I have big, news!  Did you hop on over to Blogabella yesterday per chance? You may have noticed that I've been playing along in the Bellariffic challenges the last few weeks and its been so fun!!  So, imagine me nearly jumping out of my skin when Emily asked if I'd like to join the Babes on a regular basis! Um, would I? EEKS YES!!

If you love the Bellas, the Chichiboules, the Kettos and those Turtles then I'll have more eye candy for you on a regular basis!  

This is the first weekend in about two months that we don't have major plans.  I'm thrilled.  We've got baseball and a swim lesson for the boys, but other than that, I'm hoping to lay low and enjoy a quiet weekend.  For once I'm actually okay that the weather forecast isn't great because I'm in the mood to just lay low!

My card on the other hand? This girl is ready to party!!  I've been itchy to use this red polka dotted paper from Imaginesce and I thought it would be an adorable match for Cosmo Bella.  

And since I'm addicted to these green flower blossoms from Making Memories, I went for a Appletini for my sweet Bella!

I used the layout from this past week's Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge.  I just love this large panel! The image was stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Copic markers. 

By the way, get ready, because Emily has new rubbah on the way, which will be available on April 28th!  I haven't seen it yet, but already I know... I need it! giggle.

I'll be adding my fellow "Bellariffic Babes" to my sidebars today.  I'm so excited to be working with these girls, they're all so talented, and very sweet! Looking forward to lotsa fun in babeland!

Have a wonderful day!

Fantabulous!

Happy Friday everyone!  Sadly  between doctors appointments for my little guy and for myself, I don't have my usual "fun Friday" lined up!  My little one has been given the all clear to add raspberries and apples back into his diet HOOORAY!  However, it appears that his allergies to corn, coconut and nut are still very strong.  This afternoon, lucky me, I had to go to the oral surgeon for a little biopsy. Ouch.  So much for fun Friday...  

Here's my sample for this week's Bellariffic Friday.  Emily sent us a photo of ginormous bouquet of flowers in just about every hue, and the only requirement is that we incorporate one flower.  

Of course, I saw a million colors and had to go with PINK!  giggle.  So since I had recently picked up this fun little sentiment from Stamping Bella, I thought it would be so fun with this adorable Beachabella.

What can I say, I'm just a weee bit envious of people who are already mentioning how warm it is where they live, or certain other people that are on vacation in Arizona right now.  

I am, for sure, a summer girl.  I love cute t-shirts, fun flip flops, capri pants, heading to the pool with my little ones, and long weekends at the beach.  Unfortunately, my beach bag isn't this cute and has one hundred million things crammed into it to keep the boys amused! 

Nevermind the fact that if there is any hope of me getting myself back into a bikini this summer, I've got to lay off the Easter candy!!

Please be sure to check out Blogabella to see all the creations submitted for the challenge!  I always love to see what everyone came up with, so many ways to interpret the same piece! I just noticed poor Emily is having some technical difficulties today, but stay tuned!! 

Have a great day!

A happy little basket

Good morning! Somehow I've hurt my arm yesterday and actually even typing is hurting today.  Ouch! So this is going to be a short little post.

I recently ran across this adorable Penny Lane paper from My Minds Eye and I just could not wait to pair it up with this sweet and cheery little flower pot from Baskets of Happiness from Gina K Designs.

The petals are colored with Copic markers and I added a white gel pen dot to the center of each flower.  My very favorite gel pen I've ever used is from Inksentials and its is amazing. 

I reached for a tool that I hardly ever use on this one... my corner rounder.  Its so funny when I first started I used that thing on all my creations, I was a rounded-corner-aholic, and I thought it would compliment the round circles on the patterned paper.  

By tucking the top panel in behind the patterned paper layer, you get a nice clean even edge, and went with my whole "no right angles thing" that's going on here!

I'm such a tease, can I just say that I have my design team kit for Gina K for next week's launch already!  (runs and hides..)  Previews for this amazingly HUGE launch will begin on Monday and new sets will be previewed from Gina and various DT members each day till Thursday!!  

Till then, be sure to hop in on all the challenges over on Stamp TV I know I've mentioned it before, but there is a prize given away every day Monday through Thursday!  If you're uploading over there, be sure to add GKD as a tag on any Gina K creations, we're always on the hunt for amazing work, and you might just find yourself on our "Center Stage" for the month of May.  

So much for a short post. OUCH says my arm.....

Time Flies..... Its the 15th again!

I feel like it was just a moment ago that I was over here bouncing with joy to announce my big secret, that I'd been asked to join the Splitcoast Stampers Design Team, the Dirty Dozen.  And here I am, announcing that it is the opening of the April Gallery which is my final assignment as an active member of the Dirty Dozen.

Its been an amazing six months, and I feel that I've grown so much always pushing myself just a little bit harder each time.  I've been blessed to work with some truly talented and simply  wonderful women.  

To be honest, I'm still in shock that I was ever asked to join the team.  Thank you to Daven, Jenn and Lori for all that you've done for me, and all that you do to keep Splitcoast such an amazing place to hang out!

This month, the gallery's theme is just **so** up my alley, its all about being Green.  I love it!  Here's just a little snippet of one of my projects this month using Unity's Plant a tree stamp.  

Please be sure to head on over to the Splitcoast Gallery to see all of this month's creations and to give a big welcome to our two newest Dirty Girls!!  

Last but certainly not least, I'm just sayin' you want to be sure to leave comments in the gallery, because get this, you *might* just get a Dirty Girl creation coming to you in the mail!  

Hello to my Peeps!

Good morning!! I hope you've all had an amazing weekend!  Thanks to Natural Candystore.com and Vermont Nut Free Chocolate. I was able to find Easter treats that both my boys with their various food allergies could enjoy!  And bless my sweet grandmother who filled the eggs for today's egg hunt with change - I nearly had a panic attack when I first saw them, then after shaking a few realized that they were full of money instead of candy!  Love that woman!!

If you can believe it, we actually got snow for a few hours on Saturday, ugh, come on people, its APRIL!  Makes me even that much more envious of some certain blog readers of mine that happen to be in sunny Arizona right now hanging out at the pool and golfing!  ....smiles....

This week's Who's That Girl challenge is to use the recent release "Hanging with my Peeps" along with the Summer Patterns pack.  You can use the digital download, the actual printed papers or even simply pull from the color scheme, red, rose and aqua to come up with your own!

And as always, if you don't happen to have this particular set, that's fine too! just use any MFT set that you do own, we just want you to come and get inky us.

This card has actually gone postal out to one of MY favorite peeps!  Hope this cheery color palette puts a smile on her face. 

Its going to be another busy week for MFT.  We're down to SIX finalists for the MFT Stamping Idol contest, and they've been working so hard, they're getting a week off to rest!  So, this week, everyone else has a chance to get in the game.  You can read all the details on this thread on Splitcoast.  There's still time to play along, and the contestant with the most votes from the judges will win this month's VIP Package!!

You'll also be seeing MFT previews over the next few days for our mid month launch!  Two new sets will be available on Wednesday!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Baby Bundles

I just went to add a few sets of baby cards to my Etsy site, when I realized, that I'd never shared them here.  I must was *shocked* that I hadn't yet shared them as I spent weeks and weeks making them.  

In fact, I can remember being stressed that I had a little less than usual to share here on the blog while I was working on the order.  So its just funny that I hadn't shared before now.

So.....lets just say that I created more cards for the job than were actually needed, but the good news, is that now I have seven sets of them listed on Etsy, each set contains four cards and envelopes.

These handmade baby cards, the little onesie is stamped then trimmed out.  The insides are blank for whatever your purposes might be... for instance, they'd be wonderful for birth announcements, thank you notes, or baptism announcements or even a little note to send out to a friend once their little bundle of joy has arrived!    

The sentiment on the card reads "Every good and perfect gift comes from above."  These cards use some of my very most favorite ever paper for babies, Cosmo Cricket's honey pie.  Don't these little onesies look like they've been cross-stitched? eeks! Cute if I do say so myself!

If you have any interest, they are Etsy listed here.

Thanks, and have a wonderful day

Happy Easter!

I'm dashing out the door with both boys to tackle a few errands and then I'm taking the boys to lunch at their dad's office, they're so excited for that!

Here's another card I created for Right at Home using Kim Hughes Sweet Spring set for Cornish Heritage Farms.  This uses the October Afternoon paper that I simply adore, thought the black and ivory was so farmy looking. 

I masked the eggs to get them in a straight line like that, and then colored them neutral for a natural colored egg shell.

By the way, I wanted to apologize for those gross adds that were on my blog.  I was experimenting with ad units, and they were okay when they had SU ads come up,  or some links now and again, then I saw it.... the nasty stretch mark ad.

YIKES!  So, clearly I pulled those down, yuck!  I apologize, I only want to show you NICE things to look at, like eggs and chicks and such.  Hope you can forgive me for that one....

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with family and friends!  

Thanks for stopping by!

chatting while I wait for dinner......

For those of you that come by all the time, you know that we're doing our best to shop organically and I'll admit, its expensive.  But, quite honestly though, even shopping at the regular supermarket has become really pricey.  

I've had to become really careful about shopping from a list, versus just browsing the aisles. Planning out a menu for the week in advance and seeing where I can combine ingredients for more than one night.

I've also been working on building "planovers" into my menu.  For instance, last night, we had Chicken Cacciatore for dinner. Tonight, its Chicken Cacciatore pizza.  There was a ton of sauce and peppers leftover, and some chicken.  The chicken has been sliced up, and the peppers and sauce are on the pizza.  Mmm. I can smell it cooking. So tasty... the next 20 minutes are going to be torture.  Hopefully I can wait for it to cool before I eat it so I don't get the dreaded "bubble" on the roof of my mouth! 

I've also been trying to be good about packing up one serving of dinner for my lunch the next day.  I figure if I pack it as a lunch ahead of time, it means my husband and I won't nibble on it.  (Now that, is a trick from my  Weight Watchers days that I still rely on!)

What's your favorite planover?  

Birds and Bees

Here's a two  quick cards that I made what seems like ages ago for Right at Home Scrapbooking.  

I have been creating samples and kit projects for the store for a few months now, and I don't post them till after the kits have been made available for the customers.  Then, whoops, I forgot that I hadn't ever shared them with you!

This uses Kim Hughes sweet little "Birds and the Bees" set and the White Out paper collection from WeR Memory Keepers. By the way, if you're local to then you should certainly stop by Right at Home, they have lots of Copics, stamps and a gorgeous selection of papers!!

I love these bright and cheery colors and of course, these adorable illustrations from Kim.  Looking at these photos makes me antsy to pull this set sweet little set back out and play. 

At the moment, I'm 

up to my eyeballs in trying to wrap up my creations for the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen gallery for April.  Its all good, I'm loving it, just not able to share any of my creations for that just yet.  

So, I apologize if its a little quiet over here the next few days, I'm just relishing the chance to fill up that gallery for the last time. Sniff, sniff!

By the way, you might notice that these designs are much more streamlined than my usual pieces.  Not as many layers, and um, where's all the stitching??? giggle.

Since these are created for the store, I've got to be careful not to go crazy with the layers, overboard with the embellishments and have to ignore the sewing machine, no matter how loudly its calling my name!  Left to my own devices, I'd certainly kick these up with all my standard extras, but they'd be *way* too complicated for poor Lisa at the store to have to fulfill!

  

Snaily Mojo

Its been a while since I got to have my little challenge fix! But doing a quick bit of blog surfing I tripped across this adorable Mojo Monday week 81 challenge!  It has askew panels, and is just perfect for me to do a little sewing.  Plus, hooray I have some uninked Stamping Bella stamps including this sweet little critter, Snaily Hugabugg.

How could I help but pick up a few pieces of this adorable Penny Lane paper from My Minds Eye on a recent trip to my LSS.  Its pink and green for goodness sake!!!  

This button flower combination is a new little Paperie Button/Flower jar that I also picked up. I've been having fun stacking the various assortment in different combinations. And look, I only threaded the button instead of a twine bow.  giggle.  

Get YOUR Mojo on by visiting the Mojo Monday blog and entering in this week's contest!! I'll admit, its been ages since I've played in the Mojo Monday challenge, but those sketches always get me thinking outside the box!

You Take the Cake!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I certainly did, from babysitting my sweet little niece, then visiting with my best girlfriends from college, and then enjoying a gorgeous spring day with my husband and sons yesterday it was jam packed with fun!  But once again, I feel like I need an extra day to recover from my weekend!!

I'm back with today's My Favorite Things WTG challenge!  Christina is the hostess this week, and we're playing with an oldie but goody, and its one that's new to me!  It's You Take the Cake!

I hope you all aren't tired of this Bella Boulevard paper that I've been so hooked on lately, but the colors are so fun, I couldn't help but use them again!

This week's challenge is to emboss.  Here's the embossing I did on the card

1) Stamped with Brilliance Ink, coated with embossing powder and heat set. 2) I also embossed my square nestie 3) The center panel was dry embossed with my Cuttlebug folder. 

I hope you'll come and play along with us, and if you don't have this particular set, no worries, just grab your favorite "Who's that Girl" set and play along!  One lucky participant will be selected to win a $5 gift certificate to MFT!

Bellariffic Saturday

Happy Saturday everyone!  Emily and Ryan from Stamping Bella were here last weekend for a tradeshow and lucky me, I got to have my new stamps hand delivered!!!  

I could not WAIT to set ink to my little "Love Beetle" Hugabugg.  I paper pieced the whole scene from the colorful luggage on top, paper pieced and layered the car to give lots of detail to this sweet little bug. 

I trimmed out the window with a craft knife so that I could pop up a little Hugabugg and have her peek her head right out of the little window!  

I was so inspired by the colorful batch of buttons that Emily had provided for our inspiration, it was just the excuse to pull out this adorable pack of papers from K&Co that I'd picked up last week.  And of course, adding in lots of high contrast black matting and accessories.  

Okay, yes, eight brads is a lot on a single card, but hey, its going directly to the Bella herself, so its all good!  By the way, if you didn't already stop by Blogabella, please be sure to hop on over there to see all the Bella Babes and the Stamping Bella fans have created for this week's challenge.  A new challenge will be posted on Monday.  I wonder what she's got cooked up for us this week?

Today this little rider is me, headed down to the Cape to visit with my college pals. Can't wait to see everyone! Cape Cod, here I come!!