Celebrate with Flutter By Wednesdays!

*Please scroll down to see today's Cooking It Up with Katie challenge!*

Today's Flutter By Wednesdays challenge theme is Celebrate!


We are welcoming a new team member today - please join us in welcoming Mary to the team!

Here is my take on the Celebrate theme. I love birthdays so naturally I had to make a birthday card :)

I used Natalie Fairy from Paper Makeup Stamps, isn't she sweet? I love how her dress came out. The most exciting thing making cards with no power was getting to use stickles. I had plenty of time to let them dry LOL.

I used a Sweet Stop sketch from a few weeks ago~

Don't forget to include a butterfly, fairy or angel on your creation.  You can upload your creation {HERE}, please check out the rest of the DT's blogs to see their samples.  Links are on the FBW blog and my sidebar.

Next week we start a whole month of fun to celebrate Danni's birthday, you won't want to miss out!

Supply List~
Stamps: Natalie Fairy from Paper Makeup Stamps, sentiment from Verve Stamps
Paper: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate cardstock, image was stamped on Copic Xpress Blend It cardstock, Basic Grey Hopscotch
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: copics, crystal stickles, Marvy scalloped circle punch, American Crafts ribbon, Prima flower

Cooking It Up with Katie #73

Today is Wednesday, it's time for Cooking It Up with Katie!

Our challenge this week includes the following recipe:

• Sticker (I used Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers)
• Bling (I swear the brads are sparkly!)
• Pink 

And we have two sponsors for you!  MelJens Designs (who provided us with some fun images to use) and Pizazz A Plenty.  Please check out the Cooking It Up with Katie blog to see all the sponsor details and DT samples and to enter your creation!

Here is my sample card using Book Girl.

I absolutely LOVE how she is colored - I really took my time and the results show.  I was beginning to think that I was losing my coloring abilities but it turns out that rushing is my problem and this power outage taught me to slow down so I can enjoy the process more.  I also think that when I get back into my room (I've been working in the dining room), I'm going to move my desk to a better angle so I can enjoy the natural light more (for the times I actually get to enjoy daylight).

I used this sketch from PaperWorks Co for my card:

Supply List~
Stamps: MelJens Designs Book Girl digi image
Paper: Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush cardstock, Echo Park Paper For the Record, image was printed on Copic Xpress Blend it cardstock
Other: copics, Making Memories brads, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers

My card for Birthday Sundaes!

I have power again, yay!!!  It came back on about 9:30 pm last night but it was too late to start photographing & uploading pictures then.   We survived Irene with no real damage - just a huge mess to clean up in our backyard, luckily only parts of trees & limbs came down and missed our house thankfully! We lost the food in our fridge & freezer as well, we hope to restock once the stores around here restock their shelves. For now it's pasta, soup or takeout from places that are up & running.  There are still many, many people around the state with no power so I consider us to be very lucky & extremely grateful.

I did read 2 books and made 3 cards during the power outage, so at least I was a little bit productive! We tried to play UNO by candlelight after the flashlights died but it didn't go so well - it's quite hard to differentiate between blue & green with just a flicker of a flame!

Here is the first card that I finished - my DT card for Birthday Sundaes.

As a reminder, the challenge is to create a birthday card using this picture as inspiration (and include birthday wording on the card front).  With all the purple, you may be wondering how the heck I was inspired? I went with the dots & stripes on the flags, the green on the plate and naturally, the cupcakes :)  You can enter your card {HERE}!

{Source}

Supply List~

Stamps: CC Designs Swiss Pixie Cupcake Birgitta Digi

Paper: Papertrey Ink Stampers Select white cardstock, Basic Grey Eva

Ink: Stampin' Up Elegant Eggplant

Other: copics, Crystal stickles, Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder, bling from stash, mini pop dots, Marvy scalloped circle punches

TFL! So happy to be back online!

Birthday Sundaes Challenge - Inspiration Photo

This week's Birthday Sundaes challenge is an inspiration photo.

We'd like you to use this picture as inspiration to create a birthday card.  Don't forget to include birthday wording on your card front!

{Source}

I'm sorry I don't have a card to share with you.  We spent the latter part of the week preparing for Hurricane Irene and are now waiting for it to hit (as I type this up on Saturday night). Crossing my fingers that we have minimal damage from it.

Please do check out the blog and the DT's blog to see what they have created!

Wish Upon a Star with PaperCutz!

TGIF!  What a wild week it has been and it's predicted to be a wild weekend! We had an earthquake here on Tuesday...yes, it was felt all the way up here in CT!!  As of right now, Hurricane Irene is predicted to hit us on Sunday. I hope all of you in the path of the bad weather stay safe!

Wish Upon a Star is the challenge today at PaperCutz! We'd like to see a creation using stars with any theme/colors you'd like. 

I decided to make two bookmarks for the challenge - they are very different from each other but equally fun to make.

Close up of Bookmark #1

 We Can't All Be Stars Wordart - Paper Makeup Stamps

Restoration - Crate Paper from TE Key Ingredients Kit

Cardstock from TE Key Ingredients Kit

Chestnut Road Chalk Ink - Colorbox

Ribbon from TE Key Ingredients Kit

Crystal thing from Taylored Expressions

Gold Lame Smooch

Close up of Bookmark #2

Star Prints - Papertrey Ink

Liberty - Bo Bunny

Night of Navy ink - Stampin' Up

Ribbon from stash

Please click {HERE} to enter your creation! For more inspiration, please check out the blogs of my fellow DT Members - Mary, Dee, DeNetra, Diane, Lisa, Patti,Penny, and Shelly.

Other Challenges Entered:
Stamps R Us - Anything Goes
Paper Playtime #53 - Anything Goes
Creative Craft Challenges - Anything But a Card

Have a great day!  I'm going to a Thirty One Party tonight - excited to check out all the neat stuff I've been admiring in the catalog.

P.S. If you are looking for all of the blinkies I had on the blog, I've created tabs up at the top for them - Challenges, Shopping and Fun Sites (various blogs I visit).  The 3 columns were starting to look cluttered and were bugging me. The cleaner look makes me much happier!

Jo's Birthday Blog Candy!

My sweet DT Member, Jo, is celebrating her birthday shortly. She's offering up some fun blog candy shown in the below picture.  Click {HERE} to visit her blog and see how you can win. While you are there, be sure to check out all of her awesome creations. The girl knows how to rock her copics for sure!

Cooking It Up with Katie - Announcement & Card!

{Please scroll down to see my Flutter By Wednesdays card!}

Hi again!

I have some exciting news to share!! 

I'm a new Design Team Member 

for Cooking It Up with Katie!!

If you know me, you know I don't like cooking in the kitchen but crafting recipes are right up my alley!

Thank you to Katie for asking me and I'm looking forward to sharing these challenges with you all!

This week's challenge recipe is:

Wet (image or technique)

Brad

Border

The sponsor is Stamping Dragon and we were supplied with some fun images to use.

The image I chose is called Rupert's Bathtime. 

I had fun coloring him!

If you would like to play along, please enter your creation {HERE} and check out the DT samples while you are there too. Links to the team members are located on my left sidebar. 

Supply List~

Stamps: Stamping Dragon - Ruperts Bathtime 

Paper: Copic Xpress Blend it cardstock, Fancy Pants Beach Bum

Ink: Memento London Fog (each layer was inked with this)

Other: Making Memories brads, Fiskars Threading Water border punch, Nestabilities Labels Fifteen

Flutter By Wednesdays #168

It's Wednesday and a very exciting day on my blog! 

First up we have this week's Flutter By Wednesdays challenge - it's an open challenge, just remember to include a butterfly, fairy or angel on your creation. You can enter your creation {HERE}.

The entire team is using a very special image today - meet Danni! She was drawn for our wonderful leader by the talented Victoria Case. 

Please take the time to visit the rest of the design team to see what they've created using this fabulous image!

Danni, Michelle, Anna, Cindy, Harriet, Jen, Michelle VP, Nancy, Peggy

I used a lot of markers on her and I am mostly pleased with the results.  I think I could have blended out her dress a bit more but didn't realize that until I took the photo and uploaded it.

I used last week's CPS sketch for the layout. I knew I wanted to use the Echo Park Victoria Gardens paper and needed to find a sketch that would let me show off the paper in addition to the image.

I'll have another post up later this morning, please stop back to see an exciting announcement (and another card!)

Thanks for fluttering by!

Emma on Rock - ATS sketch challenge

When I saw the sketch at ATS this week, I just knew I wanted to participate!

I went through my pile of C.C. Designs Images and chose Emma on Rock since I wanted to make a summer card - summer seems to be almost over and I have quite a few stacks of summery paper that haven't even been touched yet! I opened up my 6x6 pad of Bo Bunny Barefoot & Bliss for this card. The empty space under the image threw me a bit, I dug deep into my stash for some clear dew drops to add, love how they look!

I have to confess, I almost threw this image out several times. I was not happy with how the coloring was coming out and it took me quite some time to realize that this image had been printed on Georgia Pacific cardstock ages ago and it's not great for copic coloring techniques (for me at least).  My husband told me to keep working on it and I'm glad I did - I think she turned out quite well after all! Below is the picture that captures the sparkle.

Thanks for looking! I'm off to color one more image before it's time for bed...Bachelor Pad is on tomorrow night. More crafting time for me while I watch it!

An Anniversary Card

My mom and stepdad celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary tomorrow. I made this card today to give them along with a gift certificate to one of their favorite restaurants.

I inked up the circle and adorable bunnies from the Papertrey Ink set - Daily Designs. The paper & embellishments are all from the September 2010 TE Key Ingredients Kit. 

I used the Woodware USA sketch challenge from Monday, sneaking this in a few hours before it ends!

Supply List~
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Daily Designs set
Paper: Crate Paper Restoration & cardstock from TE kit
Ink: Memento London Fog
Other: copic marker for heart, embellishments from kit, 1 3/4 circle punch, Marvy scallop circle punch, Fiskars border punch

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #23 - Pink, Green & White!

Good morning!! {sorry in advance for the goofy posting - I copied and pasted some info and I can't get rid of the white background}


I love my card that I am sharing today. I had so much fun putting it together! 


Birthday Sundaes has a color challenge set by me this week - some of my favorite colors :) 


Your birthday cards must be made up of the following colors: pink, green, and white.  {Any shades of pink/green are acceptable! Neutrals can be used, if needed.} Any cards not following the color challenge will be removed.  Don't forget to include birthday wording on your card front! Click {HERE} to enter your birthday card!


We also have a prize this week! Design Team Member Sue is offering a set of Large Oval Scallops Nestabilities. Thank you Sue!

Did you check our Guest Designer Spotlight on Rachelle? Click {HERE} to check it out and check out today's post to see her card and the rest of the design team!

And finally my card!

I based my card on Tracy's sketch challenge this week, so glad I had time to play along!

Supply List~

Stamps: MFT Pure Innocence Rose, Verve Big Wish

Paper: Copic Xpress Blend it cardstock, Echo Park Victoria Gardens

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Other: pearls, Fiskars border punch

Best Witches for TPV!

As long as I have oodles of stuff strewn around the dining room, I decided to make a card tonight.  I was able to use the card layout from Scrappin-N-Chattin, a yahoo group I belong to and the Threads challenge at The Paper Variety. 

Supply List~
Stamps - cat from my image basket, not sure of the source, sentiment from Taylored Expressions Trick or Sweet set
Paper - cardstock and Echo Park designer paper from a TE Halloween kit from last year
Ink - the image edges were inked in Memento London Fog and the sentiment was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black
Other - Marvy circle and scallop circle punches, zig writer for dots, misc. brads from kit, ric rac from kit, Stampin' Up Modern Label punch, Gold Lame Smooch (hard to see in photo)

Down on the Farm with PaperCutz, a TE sketch & some PCC news!

This week's PaperCutz Challenge is one I had fun with!  The theme is Down on the Farm, we'd like you to create a card, layout or project using something you'd find on a farm - animals, fruits, veggies, farm equipment, scarecrows, etc.  You can enter your creation {HERE} and while you are there check out the rest of the DT's samples!

Do you want to be part of an awesome Design Team? Mary is just wonderful to work with! PCC would like to add 4 new members, you can check out all the details in {THIS POST}

My take on the challenge~

I had fun getting inky on this card. I inked a few of the layers with Colorbox Chestnut Roan chalk ink and I used tissue paper to sponge the same ink onto the image so the piggies would look like they were in mud - so fun!

My card layout is the current Taylored Expression sketch challenge. The stamps on my card are also from TE, Udderly Sweet.

Supply List~
Taylored Expressions Udderly Sweet stamp set
Copic Xpress Blend It cardstock
Colored cardstock (from TE Project Pantry kit)
Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety dp (from TE Project Pantry kit)
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Colorbox Chestnut Roan chalk ink
Zig .01 writer (to darken the 2nd line of the sentiment)
Making Memories flower & button

TFL!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

On Wednesday I got to go to Fenway Park for the very first time. It was A-MAZ-ING!

For Administrative Professionals Day in April, the guys I work with told me they would send me to a game of my choice, so I picked Wednesday's game since it was a day game and it was the day before my birthday.  Mike and I had awesome seats and even though my team lost, we still really enjoyed ourselves.

 I'm on Yawkey Way!!!

 We had lunch here. It was very good!

 This was our view - no zoom used on this pic!

 The Green Monster!

 We found some super cool hats at one of the stores we went to.  They say Red Sox * Yankees - Best Rivalry in Sports. How perfect for us! (In case you didn't know - my husband is a Yankees fan)

 #15 Dustin Pedroia - one of my faves!!

My fave pitcher (Josh Beckett) was in the dugout,

 but I couldn't zoom in and get a good pic LOL 

I did try though!! So sad that we didn't get to see Big Papi either.

A good reason to go back again someday!

 I was able to zoom way in so I could get a picture of the announcers - 

Jerry Remy & Don Orsillo - love listening to them during the games on TV!

 One of the newer team members - Adrian Gonzalez. 

He is awesome!

 #2 Jacoby Ellsbury - I <3 him too!

 A nice lady offered to take our picture!

 We stopped in here after the game - cool bar!

 It was much easier taking pics after the game.

The streets were so empty!

Beforehand it was like mass confusion LOL!

Walking around Fenway - 

I could just *feel* the sense of history there. 

It was such an awesome day and we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather!!

Thanks for looking!

~Celebration~

TGIF!  I'm catching up on the last few days here, lots of pictures to share!  Yesterday was my 33rd birthday and I have been off work since Wednesday - yay!  We went to Fenway Park on Wednesday and I'll share those pictures in the next post!

Last night I celebrated at home with my husband, mom, stepdad, mother-in-law, and sis-in-law.  It was a very nice evening.  Amber was excited to get lots of attention :)

 Cookies & Cream cake from Sweet Maria's 

 It is as yummy as it looks!

 Mike got me Zumba for the Wii - this should be interesting LOL. I saw a blog review of it and it sounds great but who knows if I am coordinated enough for it! He also found me the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.  A friend of mine and I are slightly obsessed with the movie!

 A Simply Vera Wang purse from my mom & stepdad :)

 A cool Red Sox flag from my MIL, she also gifted me a Barnes & Noble gc (woohoo!) and a chef picture for our kitchen. My SIL gave me a gc for an online scrappy store - now to decide what to buy. I'm sure it will be something to scrap our vacation next month :) 

Amber is all partied out!

Thanks for stopping by!