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.

Happy Prettie Mail

My latest batch of Copics arrived from Paper Pretties the other day. I've actually been so busy, that I forgot they were already on the way, so it was an even extra special treat when I found that Paper Pretties envelope waiting for me in my mailbox!


I couldn't wait for a little time to sit down and work with them. I though that the Night Blue worked perfectly for a mans sport coat, and got to work with my Sealed with a Kiss Paper Pretties Clear Art Stamp.


Ah man, I wish that I'd have someplace nice to go so I could get all dolled up like that. Sadly, a big excursion for me is more like the supermarket, the post office, or yes, the local stamp store! Wahoo!

Christie announced yesterday that the lovely and talented Danielle Lounds is now a Prettie Girl! Danielle has joined us the last few months as a guest, and I've loved dropping by to see all her beautiful creations! Congratulations Danielle!!


Earlier this week, the four new guest designers were announced. One of them is actually myfriend Colleen who is one of my monthly project club girls! What a small world is that! Be sure to stop by the The Guest Room to read their bios and get links to their blogs! Welcome girls!!! Can't wait to see your Prettie creations!

If you're looking for some deals, there's a sale section over at Pretties right now. Go pick up some patterned paper, ribbon or some ink pads or stamps (um....lots of sale stamps ladies, go go!!) at reduced prices while supplies last.

I have another Paper Pretties card for you today. It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads here a lot that I was SO excited about the Splitcoast Color Challenge this week. Soft Sky and Basic Grey. Hello! Two of my favorites!

I chose Luke and Lexi from Sealed with a Kiss, my Swiss Dots Embossing folder and my beloved copic markers this project.

I added a strip of scallops to the bottom of the base card for a nice little border (I trimmed off about a 1/2 inch off the front of the card base so that you'd see the scalloped edge) and covered the seam with a strip of double stitched ribbon.

I actually didn't use designer paper on the card (gasp! I know!) instead, I created a background for the base card with the heart images included in this set. I just stamped them in Versamark for a subtle background.

Luke and Lexi were stamped in Brilliance Black then colored in with my Copic Markers... I added a silvery sash and jewels with my Stardust Pen.

I don't know why I keep making Luke a grey haired man. But as I look back, I always give him that hairdo. I just didn't want him to have the same color hair as Lexi, and I don't have a good hair color yellow just yet. Besides, I like salt and pepper hair on a man, I think its distinguished looking.

My paper piercer and mat pack made quick work of a little detail on the soft sky matting for the main panel and voila done!

I'm going to tuck this into my card box, and use it for the next Happy Anniversary card that I might need.

Have a great day everyone!

Prettie Glad its Friday!

Two launch parties, one SU Workshop, four days of daycare, potty training my 2 year old, yikes its been a long week! Its all good, but man, thank goodness for Fridays! This morning a few of my friends are coming over for coffee while the little ones play, and I'm praying for a good long nap from my little guy to get a few projects completed (um, namely, their Easter baskets!)

You know I love sketch challenges, and this card was for the most recent Pretties Pajama Party where two new stamp sets were released. I really love this sweet Flutterby Sophia, she's fun to paper piece, watercolor, marker up, you name it. She's just cute!

For this sketch, I picked up my Noteworthy paper from Making Memories, and a piece of Poison Ivory cardstock and my Copic markers.

For this card, I chose to ink up only a portion of the sentiment so that the card simply reads "Flutter your wings"


I have another Pretties Card on the brain (its been in my head for a day or so, but I'm hoping to move it out onto paper tomorrow afternoon!) this time it's using "Look Who's Perky" so hopefully I'll have that for you on Monday!


**I don't generally post over the weekends, but I will have a fun card over on http://www.iheart2stamp.com/ on Saturday. Be sure to check out Jen's sketch - always a must do in my opinion - and let me know what you think of the sketch and my sample! **

Challenging Friends!

Last night was the Paper Pretties Pajama Party hosted by my friend Charmaine. She offered up three challenges, and let me just say the One Layer Card sure scared the pants off of me. I'm just always so busy with the layers, and embellishments and designer paper that this challenge stopped me in my tracks. However, once I got started, I really enjoyed how quickly my card came together, and although its really simple, I think its cute.

The card base is Paper Trey Ink Stampers Select, and I stamped the mugs from "Look Who's Perky" with my Graphite Black Brilliance ink then colored them in with my Prismacolor pencils. Added a quick border detail with my mat pack and paper piercer, then finished the card off with a quick tie of ribbon from the Noteworthy Collection of Making Memories.

However, the website for some reason was just not cooperating last night. So, I'm posting my One Layer Card over here today instead. Be sure to swing over to Paper Pretties to read about our latest cutie pie Barb Guinan. Barb is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She's a wonderful cheerleader for the Paper Pretties team and I just love the sweet card she made with "Sealed with a Kiss."

Then, my friend Cammie from the Gina K team also posted a challenge for the Gina K launch (tonight!) the challenge is posted over on the Member Company Forum for Gina K on Splitcoast. I'm all for a challenge, but YOWSERS purple? Really Cammie, I thought we were friends! LOL! I'm not a fan of purple and to be honest, I was surprised I could even find anything purple in my box to work with!

I pulled out the new free with three set from Gina K titled "Spring Blooms" - which will be released this evening - and stamped it with Brilliance Graphite Black ink then colored with my prismacolors, Odorless Mineral Spirits and Blenders (that I bought from Gina's online store and totally love! They honestly blend SO much better than what I was using from my local craft store!)

The card base is Celery and I grabbed a scrap of designer paper from the Spring Fling collection for a quick background. The main image was double matted with celery and purple (gag! LOL!) for the color combination. This stamp set comes with lots of possible sentiments, and I thought that this "thanks" fit nicely on the slider die with my Cuttlebug.

I wish that they made a coordinating mat die but I decided that an SU scalloped circle would do the trick and would get a little extra purple (yikes!) into the design. Then I finished off the card with some May Arts polka dot organdy ribbon tying it into the polka dotted background paper.

This challenge is open till tonight at 5pm and one lucky player will win a free Gina K stamp set! Get stampin!!

Seriously though, thanks Cammie and Charmaine for issuing these challenges and taking me right out of my comfort zone! In the end, its good to try new things and see where they take you!

Prettie Friday

It is just so snowy here today, so how about something that makes me think of much warmer weather instead? Wade E Bug!



I received a few new copics from Christie when I was in California, and I thought I'd put the black and red to use with Wade!

Wade E Bug is one of the recent releases from Paper Pretties and I think he's so sweet with his top hat and cane!

I'm down to the last few scraps of Cerise paper from Stampin Up. I really loved that collection. But, I'm trying hard to use the stash up.

Since I think that white frame is looking a little empty, I might be brave and doodle around the images, but I'm afraid I'll ruin it, I'm not a good doodler. (Honestly, what self respecting grownup says thing like "i'm not a good doodler." Ugh.)

I'm off to check the Paper Pretties Forum for the RAK list and get this little cutie pie off to one of them in the mail. Speaking of the forum, I posted a challenge over there this week to not use Designer Paper. Me? Not use designer paper? Am I crazy? Ugh. What was I thinking?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. If you've got the same snowstorm we have today, be careful on the roads!!

Prettie Time!

Tonight, Look Who's Perky will be released over at Paper Pretties. I showed you a sample from that set on Friday and here's a hint. The copic marker I used is from Paper Pretties and it coordinates beautifully with Soft Sky from SU (which as you know, I use all the time!!)

If you love that color as much as I do, you should head on over to Paper Pretties tonight and pick up BG10 Cool Shadow along with your new Look Who's Perky which will be in with the Paper Pretties Clear Art Stamps.

Hey Sugar!

Remember when I said I wasn't sure if I'd have time to stamp this weekend. Well, the baby took a cooperative nap, which meant that I had time to crank out some Prettie Love for you all!

This is a sneak peek of the upcoming release "Look Who's Perky" from Paper Pretties. While the set has lots of fun sentiments included (you'll have to wait till Monday, or see what info you can gather from the other girls posts....) I really wanted to write "Sweet On You" with this little sugar jar.

Lucky for me, I have the now retired Karen Foster Snap Stamps. Those things are SO handy, I can not believe they retired them!!

Phew, thank goodness for quick cards so now I can clean up around here!

Here's Wade!

I've been just dying to show you this cute little fellow... Meet Wade! Wade E. Bug that is. Wade is one of the new images released by Paper Pretties tonight! He is featured in two of the three sets tonight, the third set is Luke and Lexi that you saw on my earlier card today.

This paper is Cupid from Cosmo Cricket and I used my nesties for both of the circles. It is nearly impossible to see here, but the ivory circle has been both cut and embossed with the nesties, I love that added detail of the embossed ridge. Wade was colored with my prismacolor pencils and blended with a stump and some gamsol. Photo corner punch was used for one corner and I added three SU buttons with some hemp twine for a little detail.

Be sure to stop by the other Prettie Girl blogs (see the links to the right ---->), as well as our fantastic guest designers to see lots of samples of the new sets. And of course, be sure to stop by Paper Pretties tonight at 8pm CST to join in on the fun, and to pick up the new stamps of course!

Someone will be elected our first ever Cutie Pie tonight, and someone will win a coupon for 40% off a single item at the Pretties Boutique! You can join in on the fun at the Paper Pretties Forum which is beginning right now at 8pm CST (that's 9pm EST) however you will need a login and password for the site (really its easy peasy!) so if you aren't already signed up, be sure to stop in a little early to get signed in.

If you're over SCS you can browse for other samples using either Prettiestamps or Paper Pretties as key words. And if you upload any Prettie Stamp samples to the gallery, be sure to use keywords so that we can see them!

Its Finally Here!

You've been seeing Sneak Peeks of the three new stamp sets from Paper Pretties, and now we're showing full cards.

This is a joy fold card which I learned how to do on Beate's blog. The card is held shut on the left hand side with the cute little piece from the Precious Metals Hardware Kit that I picked up over at the Paper Pretties Boutique.

The image is stamped on whisper white with brilliance ink. I paper pieced the ladies dress, and the man's pants (out of sahara sand.) To make his pants look more like fabric, I sanded the face of the cardstock to give it a little texture.

The rest of the image was colored with my Prismacolor pencils and then blended with gamsol and a stump.

There are SO many sentiments in this set, I made mine a generic "love you" type card, but sentiments are also included for Valentines Day as well as Happy Anniversary. When you flip open this card, the inside reads "...but mostly kisses."

I'll be back tonight at 8pm CST with a second card using another of the stamps which will be released this evening! Don't forget, that there is also a blog candy contest going on. To enter, go shop around at the Paper Pretties Boutique and send your top favorite three items to paperprettiesprizes@yahoo.com and one winner will receive a 40% off coupon for one item this evening!

Need some more Prettie?

While of course I love the images in the three new stamp sets that Paper Pretties is releasing on Monday, I'm also super excited about the sentiments that will be available as part of these sets.

For those of you that may not have worked with acrylic stamps before, I'll quickly mention that they are flexible. For instance, in this card, I bent the stamp into a slight half circle to make an arched sentiment. There is a second half to this sentiment that you'll get to see when I show this card in full on Monday.

We're also giving away some Prettie Candy! To enter this contest, go surf around the Paper Pretties Boutique and tell us what your favorite three items are by sending a note to paperprettiesprizes@yahoo.com. One lucky winner will be picked at random and will receive a gift certificate for 40% off one regularly priced item on Monday night!

Don't forget the Prettie Girls are all posting sneakie peekies today and tomorrow and we hope that you'll mark your calendar for Monday night to join us for a Prettie Party over on the Forum when all three new sets are released!

If you love ribbon like I do, be sure to swing by here to see the new arrivals! While there are so many to choose from by this one and this one are two my favorites....

Lastly, for for something a little more "peeky" and not so "sneaky" go look over to here to see the gorgeous card Christie made!!

Prettie Sneaky Peek

On Monday, Paper Pretties will be releasing THREE new stamp sets. I've been having fun playing with them, but so far, I can only show you some sneaky peekies of what I'm up to.

Be sure to check around the other Prettie Girl blogs (you'll find a list of links on the sidebar to the right) to see a glimpse of what we're doing. We will each have one full card for you on Monday and all three sets will be unveiled and available for sale Monday at 8pm CST!

Hope you'll join us on Monday night 1/28 over at the Paper Pretties Forum on the Party thread. **If you're not already registered - you'll need to create a logon to join us, don't worry, its quick and easy!!

Stay tuned tomorrow for a blog candy announcement.....

Prettie Wednesday Returns!

We're back!!!! You may remember that the Prettie Girls (a.k.a. the Paper Pretties Design Team) had been issuing Wednesday challenges this past fall - each week one of us takes a turn issuing a challenge, and forwards our creations to another girl on the team.

This week, the challenge was issued by Christie and its a color challenge: light yellow, light blue, and apricot. How springy and fun! I can't wait to play. We'd love for you to play along, please let me know if you do by adding a comment on this post with a link to your creation. You can find all the girls blogs in my sidebar to the right. ----->

So, looks like Masse and I are on the same page, because we both created red Snowflake Kisses creations for the day. My card base is Real Red from SU and the designer paper is the now retired (sniff sniff) Cerise paper from SU as well. The stamp set is the newly released Snowflake Kisses stamp from Paper Pretties.

The mittens are stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black ink on Watercolor Paper and then colored in with reinkers. The muffs of the mittens were given some fluffy with Liquid Applique which I picked up at the Paper Pretties Boutique. The sentiment fits perfectly on the round tab punch and I notched the edge of the main image with my slit punch to create a little space for the ribbon tie.

Lastly.....I did post my challenge for the week on the Paper Pretties Forum as well called "Play it Again" basically it is a challenge to kick an existing creation up a notch, or make a card in two versions a before and a **more** version. Hop on over to the Forum to see the challenge and hopefully to play along, there will be a prize from the Boutique for one lucky player!

Want to be our Cutie Pie?

Christie announced a new program over at Paper Pretties, you now have a chance to become our first ever “Cutie Pie!” The winner will receive all of the stamps sets from the next release and will have a Spotlight on the Paper Pretties website. For a chance to win, all you have to do is submit your original artwork using Paper Pretties Stamps! Entries should be submitted to Christie@paperpretties.net by January 26th.

I created this card using the new Cuddle Me set and its going to someone on the Paper Pretties RAK list!

I have to say that I had so much fun at Friday's launch party, had a lot of laughs and made some new friends. Love that!

I announced a swap last night over on the Paper Pretties forum, you can find all the details here. Psst.....you'll need to register for the site to be able to see the post!

And later today, I'll be issuing a challenge for the week. You can use any item available in the Paper Pretties boutique to play.... just check our Challenge Thread for details later today.

So much NEW over there! How fun! Hope you'll come on over and play....

Its Snowflake

I've been loving all of Jen Del Muro's Sketches, but just haven't had any time to play along. When I saw todays, I knew it would be perfect for my new friend Snowflake.

This uses the Wintergreen Designer paper from Stampin Up. I bought some for a project, didn't use much, and now I feel compelled to use it all up. The colors are perfect together, WHY didn't I use it before now?

Snowflake is colored with my SU watercolor crayons and blended. The snowangel was given some depth with light blue crayon, then dazzling diamonds were added. The sentiment here is from My Favorite Things Essential Sentiments. I pulled out a few more of those crystals that Christie sent to me - love those thing -- because I felt like the sentiment was just hanging out all lonely down there. I was going to add ribbon, but had already used my last scraps of Soft Sky double stitched (no worries, more is on its way!)

My darling sister and her husband gave me a lightbox for Christmas. And is sure came in handy tonight, otherwise I would have had to wait till tomorrow to post this!! Oh, the possibilities of night photos! Hooray! Thank you, thank you guys, I love it!

Snowlake Bling

I'm not sure if you happened to see the new last night, but the surprise we've been keeping is that Paper Pretties now has its own line of clear stamps. Two sets were released last night which you can see right here.

By the way, Christie announced our Guest Design contest which will run through the 29th. You can send your Paper Pretties Stamp creations in for a chance to become our first "Cutie Pie." The winner will receive our our next set of releases for free and will have a Prettie Spotlight featuring her creations!

Entries should be submitted to Christie@paperpretties.net by January 26th

Okay, now onto the card details. This is another card using the Snowflake Kisses set. The card base is Kraft, with a black border on some fun aqua paper I found in my stash! I ran the solid piece through my cuttlebug with the snowflakes embossing folder. Don't you just love when you find goodness you already own! See its good to be a paper hoarder! Now I can shop in my stash!

The snowflake was colored with prismacolor pencils, then very carefully trimmed out, coated in dazzling diamonds and blinged up with these awesome crystals I received Christie. You can't see it too well here, but its mounted on shimmery white paper, so in real life its pretty shimmery all over!

Be sure to stop over to the other Prettie Girls and our four amazing guest designers to see what they've come up with. I've got lots of "Prettie Goodness" to come, and a blog candy contest will start on Monday, so come back soon.

Off to another crazy weekend with the boys... have a wonderful weekend!