A little Tude

Good morning! This little cutie is one of the "Tudes" from Stamping Bella called Altee Tude and as you can see, she's sitting on Cloud Nine. (I'd love to be a fly on the wall one day when Em is naming the stamps, I bet it is hysterically funny!)

So, what am I on cloud nine about? Want to hear??

Is it seriously the last day of September? Really? Its been a very very busy month and I'm thrilled to say that I survived! *giggle*

I'm also over the moon with excitement that I just got a note from Stamping Bella that all my latest goodies are on their way to me in the mail!

I've got a new Bella Bindah with lots of new inserts coming in, lots of that sweet Bo Bunny Double Dot paper, I also picked up several of the new stamps "Coco with a Cupcake," "Noah the Computer Guy," and "Jackson the Champion" and I can't *wait* to ink up "You Decorate My Life." Have you gone over to peek at the latest additions to the Stamping Bella lineup? What is YOUR new favorite?

The Cat's Pajamas Haunted Hop

Hope you've been having a SPOOKY good time hopping through The Cat's Pajama's Haunted Hop today! Its loaded with lots of inspiration with this month's Kitty Kat Pack which includes the Fright Night clear set, Hocus pocus buttons and this fantastic new glitter.

If you didn't come here by way of Alice's blog, and you just happened along this haunted happening, you'll want to head all the way back to Susan's blog (be sure to check out all the details from Susie on the challenge and tonight's give away so that you won't miss a thing!!) so that you don't miss any stops along the way. Don't forget, its TCP Tuesday which means that there's a new weekly challenge, with YOUR chance to be named the TCP Swanky Stamper!! Hope you'll come play once you've finished with the hop!

Alma will be choosing a random commenter and posting it to HER BLOG sometime on Friday, October 2nd.

In order to be eligible for the prize on the hop, contestants must leave a comment on each of our Haunted Hop stops. This month, we have several of our Swanky Stampers joining us on the hop for extra fun, and extra eye candy too!

For my project, I used the cutie patootie witchie in the Fright Night clear set as well as her spooky cauldron and of course the bats! I stamped the bats onto scrap so that I could add them back into the scene jutting out of my oval and popping up their wings.

You'll find the orange german glass glitter adorning Miss Witchy's outfit and the flames on the cauldron as well. Seriously this glitter is so sparkly because it is actually made from glass (just be careful not to let the little ones play with it!) The glitter assortment comes in little tubes, and there are four different colors included.

If you know me, you know that I'm always looking for a place to add some buttons to my project, and so, I was thrilled that there is a button assortment as part of this month's Kitty Kat Pack too! In hues of black, purple, orange and yellow, you'll have a rich assortment of buttons for your fall themed projects!

I'm super excited about the next stop on the hop, its Julie Masse! Julie was one of my very first bloggity friends, and I'm THRILLED to have her joining us on the hop this month!

Have a frightfully fun time hopping through the rest of today's samples, and thanks for stopping by!

Soft and Subtle Life

I'm usually a morning poster, but we're just back from a whirlwind weekend with the boys in NYC. It was outstanding, but we were go go go all weekend.

I'm now off to a doctors appointment, picking up our weekly crop share at the local farm, and then headed to Whole Foods to restock the fridge. I love weekends away, but I certainly pay the price come Monday when its laundry, food shopping and all the household things that went untended while we were away.

This is a card that I made for a family friend, she sends out many note cards and wanted to have a nice stash of them on hand.

This uses Life from Paper Trey Ink, designed by my very sweet and oh so talented friend Lisa Johnson. I recently saw several sheets of this Scenic Route Sonoma paper at my LSS and picked up what I believe was the last of it. The colors are SO me!

Hope you have a wonderful day, now, I'm off and running!

Its a LuLu Blog Hop!

Hi everyone!

Good morning and welcome to the first Blog Hop for the LuLus! They're such a fun line within Stamping Bella and I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with for the occasion.

If you just stumbled upon the hop, you'll want to head back up to Emily's blog so that you don't miss anything along the way. If you came here from Vicky's blog, then you're exactly in the right place!

I stamped with Memento ink, and colored my image with Copics, but then for extra detail, I added clear glaze pen to the polka dots on her dress, and to coat her hair for a nice evenly inked shine. What I'd GIVE for hair so lustrous! *giggle*

Its hard to see here, but I created a shadow all around the image with my W00 and W01 markers. Its very faint, but helps to give some definition to the image.

Yes, I'm totally head over heels with this beautiful new line of papers from My Minds Eye called "Ohh, La, La." I stitched all around the panel, and of course added a button, bow and linen thread combo as my embellishment. (shocking, I know you're so surprised right??)

Have a WONDERFUL hop this morning - enjoy all the eye candy! Your next stop on the hop is

Linda Evans!

Happy Friday, with a cupcake on top!

This week's Bellariffic sketch was provided by my sweet friend Karen! And girl, I love circles in a sketch!

For my sample, I grabbed my previously uninked "Is that a Cupcake on Your Head?" and my current go to paper from My Minds Eye called "Ohhhh, La, La"

Did you see the HUGE release that Emily put out on Wednesday? YIKES! Over forty new images. So amazing! I'll be sitting on pins and needles till my (ahem.... GIANT) new order arrives!

Be sure to stop by Emily's blog tomorrow at 10am CST for the LuLu Blog hop! You won't want to miss it, so many fun and amazingly talented friends are playing along! Its sure to be a blast!

In the meantime, you can hop on over to Blogabella to see all the samples from the Bellariffic Babes and all the fantastic samples that Emily receives from all of you in the Peanut Gallery too!

Have a totally fantastic, cupcake on your head type of day!!

Button Up!

Super duper short post today, I'm on laundry duty to get all our things packed up for a fun little road trip this weekend.

I really *shouldn't* be blogging right now, but the mountain of laundry can wait another moment or two right?

Besides, this week's MFC Challenge for My Favorite Things is to use one of MY favorite things, and that's buttons.

Christina loves them too, in fact, the even suggested that some that we saw when shopping at CHA were good enough to EAT. Now, I love buttons and all, but I think think they might be high on cute and low on taste...Be sure to check out her super sweet sample with this same paper, but a different stamp set on her blog

In any case, grab your buttons ladies and get creative! This set is Funky Flowers for MFT Presents by Sara Williams. Sara his my very sweet friend and blog designer! ((hugs)) Sara!!

I stamped the vase to patterned paper and stamped one of the flower blossoms twice. As you can see, I finally got my Janome back into working order (I think I sewed through adhesive one too many times, and had the bobbin in incorrectly....sigh.)

All the papers here are Basic Grey Lemonade collection and I even used one of the solid distressed papers for my main panel. It makes for a coordinated look to the whole finished piece and I just looove it. Oh rude, I don't like to be the pat yourself on the back sort of girl, but I had fun with this card!

My buttoned up element is that I used a button from MFT's Chocolate Kiss collection as my flower center, threaded with linen thread (of course, I no likey the naked buttons....)

You may recognize the sketch, it is this week's sketch from Splitcoast Stampers. Of course, I had to find a "bow-tunity" and used my wide width striped ribbon for a floppy bow. So much for a short post, but gee, look the laundry is waiting patiently for me after all.

Have a GREAT day!!

Seeds of Love

A few weeks ago, I shared a custom frame with the most recent My Favorite Things Presents by Annie LaPoint called "Seeds of Love"

I few weeks ago I created another frame with the set, but this time, I designed my project with a friend's decor in mind instead of mine.

I stamped with Memento Pearlescent Chocolate Ink, and then heat set with embossing powder. The image is watercolored with many different reinkers.

I love the finished look of that technique, but I'll admit, it pains me to wait for the image to dry completely between steps.

This project is loaded with lots of red and chocolate patterned papers, and embellies for a much richer look than my last project with this set.

You can see in the detail shot that there is a lot of sewing on this piece and the edges have been roughed up with my distressing tool.

These antiqued brads are actually functional for the project, I used them to tack my finished panel to the inside of this shadow box...

I've just packed this up and sent it off to our friends. I pray that it arrives safely in one piece. I'll be beyond bummed out if the glass broke in shipping. I also hope they like it!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

TCP Tuesday - Black, Pink and Pumpkin

Welcome to this week's installment of TCP Tuesday! This week, I am your hostess and its a color challenge. After a fun shopping excursion a few weeks ago, I was inspired by a really fun display to put together the color combination of Black, Pink and Pumkin.

For my sample, I picked up the recent release "You Sick Thing" and Sprinkle was calling (umm.. meowing?) my name! I'd imagine that Sprinkle is probably pretty high maintenance when she isn't feeling well??

The headboard, pillow and blanket are all paper pieced with little scraps of paper. I used a fun diecut included with my My Minds Eye paper pack, and then hand cut a matching border with black. I'm running low on my favorite black ruffly ribbon, but I thought it was just right for this card. Guess its time to go back and pick up a *little* bit more.

Now, its YOUR turn!

Here are the deets.
1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night 12:00pm est to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project on my blog!!.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS or PCP, please use the keywordTCPTUES77 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

In this Together....

Good morning!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! My husband finally returned from a marathon business trip from Japan, and we took the boys out to go pick apples. YUM! And the event was full of lots of wonderful photo opportunities!

Since I didn't get any time to stamp anything brandy new, today I'm sharing one of Stamping Bella creations that I added to the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen Gallery.

My Dirty Dozen creations are some of my very most favorite projects, so I hope to share some of them from time to time.

The most recent gallery "Winged Things" opened up on the 15th, if you're a Fan Club member, be sure to go leave those girls some love. If you're NOT a Fan Club member, all I can say is what are you waiting for? I just love that place, I have SCS to thank for SO much, inspiration, friendship and yes, purchase enabling too!

This uses some designer paper that was one of my very FIRST stampy purchases, which I kept scraps of for two years, just in case (you do that too right?)

I made this card with my friend Carole in mind, we overlapped on the Dirty Dozen for one month, and she's a Bellahollic like me. She's also my sister in all things preppy! Lots of littles here this morning, its me and five two and three year olds, they're now bored with their little art activity. I'm going to down the rest of my coffee and go PLAY!

Have a wonderful day!

Celebrate MFT - September Customer Blog Hop

Welcome to Celebrate MFT Day! If you haven't hopped by before on the 20th, its just a day to get your MFT Stamps Inky and show them a little love.

Today, I've invited five talented customers to help share their MFT spirit, and I just can't WAIT to see what they've come up with!

My husband and I have been working super hard over the course of the last year to green up our lifestyle. From organic shopping to participating in a crop share at a local family farm, its been an amazing and super healthy adventure. Nevermind how seriously TASTY the farm fresh food is.

So, for my sample, I was so excited to play with My Favorite Things Presents by Stephanie Fizer - Grow Love, Plant a Tree.

Now... off to the blog hop!! You're going to be visiting five blogs this morning, and then you'll be directed over to the galleries at Splitcoast Stampers.

You are all welcome (and encouraged!!) to add your MFT creations to the gallery today using the keyword "CelebrateMFT0909" And remember, I'm always looking for customers to ask for the next month's hop!

I can't wait to see what the girls on this month's hop have created - I hope you'll join me for the first stop on the trip

is Karen at Paper Playhouse.

Thanks so much for hopping by today and have fun!

Lonely Mama = lots of ice cream

Its Friday! I can't believe it, this has been without a doubt, the LONGEST week ever.

My husband has been away since last Saturday and won't be home till tomorrow night. I am so so looking forward to seeing his smiling face tomorrow night!

I'm also going to be seriously excited to have MY camera back. I'm using an old one that we have as a backup, and its awful!! I'm going to have to reshoot this card and repost because seriously the card is cute in real life, and it looks so flat here.

But, he was in Japan for a week, and it just made sense for him to have the good camera for pictures...

I used papers from Basic Grey's Lemonade collection and lots of clear glaze pen on the ice cream. (Yum, ice cream, my lonely self has had a lot of that this week to keep me company!)

This is my sample for this week's Bellariffic Challenge. Remember, the latest challenge is posted each Monday, and you'll have till Thursday to send in your submission. You'll see all the entries from this week at Emily's Blog I'm going to make it look like I've done something other than stamp my brains out all week! Have a wonderful weekend!!

What's Up Cupcake??

Its Thursday, which means I've nearly survived a week on my own with the kids. Yikes!! Being on my own has certainly put a serious dent in my mojo this week!!

This card is going to be hopelessly delayed in its arrival to my sweet friend Carole who is celebrating her birthday this weekend!

This is my sample for this week's My Favorite Challenge. The challenge is to ink up one of your earliest purchases... my very first purchases have since been retired, so I gave it a twist and I inked up the first set that I instructed with at my LSS. This sweet mini set is titled "What's Up Cupcake?"

It still makes me laugh, for my first class, I had the ladies stamp this sweet little frosting image, and trim them out (individually!!) and pop them up on top of their finished cuppies. YIPES!

Today, I stamped the cupcakes, colored with Copics, and then stamped the fudgy frosting right on top. I added three coats of clear glaze and then gave a sugary frosting with the help of some glitter set right into my glaze while it was still wet.

I hope you'll come on by the My Favorite Things Member Company forum and play with one of your oldest MFT sets. Its so fun to rifle through your collection and visit with all your good old friends! LOL!

TCP Tuesday - Love is In the Air

Good morning! Its TCP Tuesday again, and this week, our Hipster Hostess with the Mostess is Toni! She's got a fun one for you today, which is to use at least three circles, embossing and bling.

I went for an extra circle in my project, using a fun chipboard diecut. First I marked the position of the four holes onto a piece of patterned paper, then punched them out with a hand punch. Then adhered the patterned paper to the chipboard and sanded all the edges. I chose three of the smaller images to place within the circular punch outs. The little love note is popped up on dimensionals and all the hearts are coated with clear glaze pen for some extra shine in real life. All the images are part of a really adorable set titled "Puppy Love" from The Cat's Pajamas!

You probably can't see my embossing on this card, so I'll have to tell you that I didn't cheat. My card is heat embossed. I overstamped the pink patterned paper with a little heart background which is included in the set. Those sorts of details get lost in photography, but make for a fun little detail in real life.... you'll just have to trust me on that one. *giggle*

Now, the other detail of the challenge is bling. I know, its crazy, and there is probably some crafting rule that I'm supposed to love the stuff, but I just never use it. I was going to count my glaze pen on the hearts and glittered wings on the love note for my bling, but figured since my attempt at embossing was **lame** that I should give it another go. So, I anchored each of the four corners with some self adhesive rhinestones. Today's the day that I'm going to go find myself some of that pretty self adhesive shaped bling that I'm seeing all my rockstar friends using, because, honestly, it would have come in handy today.

Since I've already written a book today, I'll just tell you that you can find the full details of today's challenge on Toni's blog. You have until Saturday at midnight to submit your entry for your chance to be crowned this month's Swanky Stamper!

Early Bird Bellas

I'm so excited to finally be able to share the projects that I designed for my Stamping Bella class at Stamping Around Vermont. Last week was a busy one, packing up all the class kits, and making sure I didn't leave anything behind!

As you know, I just LOVE Jody's diecuts, in particular this fun little handle tote. And, clearly, I love turtles. It was just a question of WHICH Turtle was coming to stamp up in Vermont! In the end I chose Picking Posies, he's such a sweetie! The night before the class, I of course decided to pick it apart just a wee little bit and add a sentiment flag.

My Appley Bowl card is a remake of a project I'd done earlier in the summer, I just converted it to an A2 sized card for this class, and switched my machine sewing for some paper piercing instead!

I showed the girls in class how to tie a cheaters bow to get a nice fluffy bow on your project without tearing your hair out! And of course, attached a button on with twine. Really, would you expect anything else from me?

My third project was a card featuring one of the new Lulu stamps from Stamping Bella. This one is called Gertie.

My sweet friend Karen had the **brilliant** Idea to coat her hair with a Black Glaze Pen. I just LOVE the way it gives such shine to her hair. I added some also to the polka dots on her dress as well. The very last thing I added was to popped up two of the butterflies for extra dimension and covered them with Stickles.

So, speaking of Lulus... be sure to head on over to Splitcoast to sign up for the upcoming Lulu Blog hop!!

A big HELLO to all my new friends from Vermont! Don't be strangers.... be sure to let me know if you stop by! **wink* *

Sweets for the sweet....

My son's first grade teacher just happened to "hint" that she had a sweet tooth. And I wanted to send a quick little thank you for a great start to the year.

I know that teachers work SO hard, and who wouldn't love a little secret stash of kisses as appreciation?

I grabbed a handy little Perfect Package out of my storage bin and a bag of kisses and set to work.

And what's more perfect for teachers than apples. I just love the homey feel of this paper.

This polka dotted ribbon is part of MFT's August Kit, were you a smart cookie and grab that kit? My red button is part of the MFT Summer Button Collection too.

The adorable smiley apple I used on my tin topper and matching card are from the kawaii themed set "Feelin Fruity." Mr Apple is coated with clear glaze pen for shine in real life.

Did you notice, MFT Perfect Panels are now available in cream! Hooray!!! I love these panels and the flexibility to have ivory or white depending on the shade of my paper is so fabulous!

Oh my goodness, as I stopped over to link up my post, I noticed that MFT has now added fun cardstock colors that coordinate with MFT's paper packages. Be sure to read all the latest on THIS post on the MFT Blog!

Thanks for stoppin' by today!

To the Moon and Back.....

Good morning!! Today I'm up at Stamping Around Vermont with some of my stamping pals, but I wanted to give you all a heads up about a fun challenge for My Favorite Things. This week's My Favorite Challenge is to use metal on your project.

Now, because I was having so much fun playing with the Mr Robot stamp which is part of my September MFT Kit, I used him at my metal piece. He's colored with Copic markers, then I gave him lots of shine with my Sakura stardust pen for lots of metallic shine.

Come on over and join us on the MFT Member Company Forum, there's always lots of fun chatter, a weekly sketch challenge, the "MFC" challenge that Christina and I hostess, and the chance at some prizes!

Grab some metallic cardstock, metallic accents, metallic embossing powder, and have fun! Entries are due by Wednesday morning and the winner will be announced next Thursday!

Road Trip!

I'm so excited to be hitting the road this morning with my friends Karen and Dana for a weekend at Stamping Around Vermont!

I'm sure that the three of us will laugh ourselves just silly, but that's what a girls weekend is for right?

You may have noticed that I love the Love Beetle, I've used it in more than a few of the Bellariffic challenges the past few months. But seriously, its one of my very favorites......

Since I'm using Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper in all my projects this weekend, I've had this fun line of paper on my mind, and it just made sense to use it for my card today. but lets be honest, I didn't **exactly** follow the sketch. Lets just call my sample a loose interpretation! giggle.

So what if I skipped that little middle panel, and the sentiment panel too. Whoops!!

I hope you'll swing by Blogabella today to see all the samples of the girls that actually followed the rules. Don't forget that one lucky commenter will win Bella Bucks! How sweet is that?

Oh Mummy!

I've been having fun collecting several Halloween images over the last few weeks, and I've got to get hurrying up to use them!

These little cuties are "The Mummy, The Witch and the Pirate" they're part of Christy Croll's line over at Stamping Bella. I've had them for a few weeks, but shame on me, I've been making them patiently wait on my desktop.

Today's post is a short but sweet one.... don't forget that your creations for this week's Bellariffic Challenge is due by 5pm today to Emily.

You might guess by the oval shape on my card today that I'd originally planned to use this for the sketch... but couldn't pull it off! LOL! Then since I'd spent so much time coloring the image, I didn't want to abandon it!

I'll admit that while I think tomorrow's card is cute, I didn't um, exactly follow the sketch... what's wrong with me? We even had an extra week, and I *still* didn't follow the sketch exactly!

Its MFT Kit Time - Meet "Mr Roboto"

The second Wednesday of the month always marks when the latest MFT Kit is available!

This month, I'm in LOVE with the fun new image "Mr Roboto!" The kit includes six die cut cards with tag flaps and twelve Perfect Paper Panels.

But check it out.... this month's kit also comes with a really fun item that you can literally use over and over again, a Digi Paper kit designed by Stephanie Fizer to coordinate with the image. Seriously!! How fantastic is that?

If you're not familiar with the digital papers, let me just say it is SO easy! Jody has done a complete tutorial on how to work with the files which you can find here. I used them to cover my die cut card both inside and out.

And, if you loved last month's mini brads, you're going to flip, that's right, there are more!! ***squeal**

I seriously think that for $25, this kit is completely packed with goodness! Check it out all the fun things that are included!

• Love Machine mini stamp set
• Mr. Roboto digi paper pack (5 printable patterns)
• 6, A2 gate-fold cards with tag flaps
• 100 brads in an adornments case (25 teeny tiny silver, 25 teeny tiny pewter, 25 mini silver, 25 mini pewter)
• 6 yards of coordinating poly-twill ribbon (3 yards 3/8”, 3 yards 7/8”)
• 12 Perfect Paper Panels
• A special, exclusive offer toward a future purchase

While you're over at My Favorite Things, be sure to check out this week's Bubble Bin. Each week, there is a new selection of stamps available at an AMAZING price, and only for one week!

Last, but certainly not least, my super sweet, and mega talented friend Jody has also done several samples with the new kit. You'll just LOVE what she did with it! Totally fantastic!! Be sure to see her post HERE!