SFF 123010

Good Friday morning everyone! The last day of 2010! WOW! We will be ringing in the new year with friends later this evening. We play games till midnight and then do the whole countdown thing with the kids and toast to the new year with some sparkling juice. The kids love it! And we adults do too!


So Friday also means another wonderful sketch from the Sketch Frenzy Friday team! Today's great sketch comes to us from Jennifer Weide. I had so many ideas running through my head that it was hard to pin it down to one. And this one didn't come out exactly as I had planned in my head. But it works. I will definitely be playing with this sketch again!

For my card I started with a Whisper White card base. I made another layer of Whisper White which you would have to do but I was thinking I was going to put ribbon around it until I got done and thought that the ribbon wasn't going to work like I had planned. I tell ya, I could have fiddled and fiddled with this one but I finally said enough! Anyway, I used the stamps from the new set called Valentine Defined. I love this set! Such cute images! So I stamped the string of hearts in Real Red. Then I cut a square of Whisper White and stamped the flamingos in Pink Pirouette and the sentiment in Real Red. That is glued to a Real Red piece of cardstock and popped up. Then I cut a strip of the 'xoxo' paper from the Love Impressions designer paper (also new) and glued that down. Then I added three rhinestones for bling! Really easy! In the end I thought that the ribbon would cover up the xoxo and I really wanted it to show up as much as possible.

Thanks for stopping by! Time to go see what Jennifer did with her wonderful sketch! Don't forget to tour through all the designers! You will end up at the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog where you can post your wonderful creation! I can't wait to see what you create! Have a super day and Happy New Year!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Valentine Defined; Paper- Whisper White, Real Red, Love Impressions designer paper; Ink- Real Red, Pink Pirouette; Accessories- basic rhinestones, dimensionals

CCMC 131

Good morning, Friends! The last Thursday of 2010! WOW!! I can't believe that we are ready to launch 2011! Where does all this time go? Time flies when you are having fun! And I am having so much fun being a part of the Create with Connie and Mary design team! I have been challenged to get out of my box by being a part of this wonderful team! And this week's challenge is to create a project with a snow theme. Well, I thought that since Christmas was over most of us might be sending out 'thank you' cards. So I combined my snow themed card with a 'thank you' card (and I used an older Clean & Simple sketch).

I started with a card base of Crumb Cake. Then I took another piece of Crumb Cake cardstock and sponged it with Crumb Cake and added a piece of Chocolate Chip designer paper from the Neutrals paper pack. Then I took two different sized snowflakes that had been die cut using the Norther Frost decorative strip in Very Vanilla and layered them together using a glimmer brad. Then I added a some Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon. I cut a strip of Very Vanilla and stamped the greeting from the Thank You Kindly set. The snowflake is popped up and so is the Crumb Cake panel. Super simple!

So there you have it! Time for you to check out the Create with Connie and Mary website and get inspired by the rest of the super talented design team! Then get to creating your own wonderful creation to share with us! I can't wait to see what you all do with this great challenge! Have a Happy New Year!!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Thank You Kindly; Paper- Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Neutrals designer paper pack; Ink- Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake; Accessories- Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon, glimmer brad, Northern Frost decorative strip, sponge, dimensionals

Thoughts of You...

Good morning, Friends! I hope that you all had a super great Christmas! We are still in Kansas. We will leave to go back to Colorado tomorrow in the wee hours. Our Christmas was wonderful except for the part of getting a flu bug. My dad got it Christmas eve-eve. I got it Christmas evening. And my husband has it now. Yuck!!! Nick didn't get it "full-ly" but he was kind of down Christmas evening, too. Thankfully it only lasted about 24 hours. I hope it's that way with my husband or we may have to stay an extra day. But other than that it has been a really great Christmas! Now it is the final countdown of the year. WOW!

Today's card is the third project that I did with my stamp club ladies for the month of December. This is another super easy one and I really liked how it turned out! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Filled With Love; Paper- Very Vanilla, Basic Black; Ink- Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler; Accessories- Basic Black narrow taffeta ribbon, scalloped heart of hearts embosslit, spiral punch, large heart punch, basic pearls, dimensionals

SFF 122410

Good Friday morning everyone! It's Friday and time for another great challenge at Sketch Frenzy Friday! This week I get to challenge you all with a sketch. My very first time to make up a sketch! I didn't actually make this one up. This is from a card that I did months ago but I just loved the card, so I decided to make it into my sketch challenge.

So, as you can see, my card is not exactly like my sketch. I changed it up just a bit. But I really like how the card turned out. And it was all really easy! I started with a card base of Always Artichoke. Then I used a panel of Very Vanilla where I stamped my greeting from Grateful Greetings in Early Espresso. Then I wrapped a piece of Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon around this before adhering to the card base. Then I stamped the Christmas tree stamp from Paisley Prints two times on Very Vanilla scrap cardstock - once in Cherry Cobbler and once in Always Artichoke. Then I cut them out and glued the Cherry Cobbler one flat and popped up the Always Artichoke one. As my finishing touch I added three rhinestones. And there you have it!

Time to take the tour of the other great designers for Sketch Frenzy Friday! Your next stop will be Jennifer Weide. If the links don't work for you or you get lost, you can always go to the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog to find the designers links. Then be sure to take some time to create a card using this sketch an upload it to the blog. We would all love to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by and have a very blessed Christmas!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Grateful Greetings, Paisley Prints; Paper- Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla; Ink- Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso; Accessories- Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, basic rhinestones, dimensionals

CCMC 130

Good morning, Friends! I hope you are all having a most wonderful week! My family and I are in Kansas with family for Christmas this week. And it is so nice!! But Thursday is Thursday and that means it is time again for another wonderful challenge from the Create with Connie and Mary team!

This week Connie and Mary have challenged us with a sketch. What a fabulous sketch! The sketch is a fairly clean and simple one and I was anxious to try it out. So this is what I came up with! What do you think? I know that Christmas isn't officially over yet, but I wanted to use something other than Christmas. So I pulled out the Filled With Love set. By the way... Stampin' Up! is running a special on this set so be sure to check it out! My color combination came from the new designer paper that will be featured in the upcoming Occasions mini catalog to be unveiled in January. The colors are Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette and Real Red. Love it!! So I started with a card base of Basic Gray. The Whisper White has the heart from the set stamped in a circular way (indicated by the dots on the sketch). My main focal point is a Whisper White piece and I stamped the word 'love' in Basic Gray. I also stamped the greeting 'be my valentine' in Real Red and punched it out with the 1" circle punch and popped it up in the "o" of the word. This is layered onto Basic Gray and then a strip of the new Hugs and Kisses designer paper is layered on top of that. Then I wrapped a piece of Whisper White taffeta ribbon around all of that and it gets layered onto the card. At the last minute I decided to add a little bling with a single rhinestone on one of the hearts. I just loved how this turned out.

All right! Your turn! You can check out the Create with Connie and Mary website for more inspiration and then create your own wonderful creation with this super sketch! Be sure to upload it to the site so we all can take a peek! I can't wait to see what you will do with it! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Filled With Love; Paper- Whisper White, Basic Gray, Hugs & Kisses designer paper; Ink- Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, Real Red; Accessories- Whisper White taffeta ribbon, basic rhinestones, 1 " circle punch, dimensionals

SFF 121710

Good Friday morning, everyone! We are very excited around here as Christmas break starts when school is out today! Well, Nick is probably more excited than anyone else - lol! But we are excited for him.


Friday is also the day that Sketch Frenzy Friday has a new sketch for us! Angela Walters has challenged us with this fabulous sketch! I just love these clean and simple sketches. You can do so many things with these! And as you can see from my card, I did keep it very simple!

I started with a card base of Whisper White. Then I stamped the heart tree from the Valentine Defined stamp set. This is a new set that will be featured in the upcoming Occasions mini catalog! I used Garden Green and Early Espresso markers to ink it up. Then I stamped the tree image again on scrap paper with Real Red and Early Espresso markers. Then I took my large heart punch and punched out part of the tree. This is sort of like the spotlighting technique. The heart is popped up. Then I stamped the definition image (from the same set) below in Early Espresso. But I could leave all that alone! I had to add some "dazzle"!! So I cut a thin piece of the new glimmer paper (also featured in the new Occasions mini catalog) and glued it to the bottom. Love that paper!!! And that's it! Easy!

All right! Now it is time to send you on to the next wonderful designer, Jennifer Weide, to see what she did with this sketch. Be sure to "tour" through to get inspired. Then create your great project with this sketch and upload it to the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog so we all can take a look, too! I can't wait to see what you do with this sketch! Have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Valentine Defined; Paper- Whisper White, Red glimmer paper; Ink- Early Espresso, Real Red, Garden Green; Accessories- large heart punch, dimensionals

CCMC 129

Good morning, Friends! It's Thursday and that means another great challenge from the Create with Connie and Mary gals! Today's challenge is an inspiration challenge and boy was I ever inspired by this gorgeous cake!! Take a look:


Isn't this just beautiful! Hmmmm... My birthday is coming up. I wonder if someone would make a cake like this for me? LOL!! Well I just love snowflakes and the colors on this cake are so elegant and beautiful that I went with the whole snowflake/elegance theme. Take a look:


I kept it pretty simple. I used the white/silver/blue colors and used two snowflakes from the Northern Frost decorative strip. These are stacked on top of each other (with a dimensional) and then popped up again onto the silver piece. I used some new Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon (from the upcoming Occasions mini catalog) and a silver glimmer brad. The metallic silver panel is popped up as well. Then I embossed 'Happy Anniversary' at the bottom. I don't know that it needed a specific greeting but that is what I did. You could use it for anything, though. Then I thought I should use some silver smooch spritz. Yea, well, I should not have thought that. I don't like it. But what are you going to do when you are all done with the project? So there it is.

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team and their wonderful projects at Create with Connie and Mary. Then get inspired and share with all of us your creations! I can't wait to see what you do with this fabulous cake inspiration! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper- Whisper White, Metallic Silver; Ink- VersaMark; Accessories- Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon, Northern Frost decorative strip, glimmer brad, basic rhinestones, silver emboss powder, silver smooch spritz, dimensionals

Stamp Club Thank You

Good morning everyone! I can't believe that we are half way through the week! Yikes! We will be leaving next Tuesday for Kansas to have Christmas with my family. I can't wait to see everyone again! But that means I need to get really serious about getting everything done before then. I did get my Christmas cards mailed. I am thankful that I can check a few things off my list. We will be doing our family Christmas sometime at the end of this week, before we leave. So you can imagine that Nick is getting very excited! On top of all this he has a basketball tournament this weekend! It can sure be crazy around here!!

Today's card is one that I did with my stamp club ladies on Monday. This is a super simple 'Thank You' card. I figured we could all use some 'Thank You' cards about this time of year. Not too much to say about this one. Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Serene Snowflakes, Thank You Kindly; Paper- Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla; Ink- Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Marina Mist, White; Accessories- extra large oval punch, corner rounder, basic rhinestones, sponge, dimensionals

Stamp Club Gift Card Holder

Good morning, Friends!! I want to apologize for those of you who check here everyday to see if I have posted. As you can tell, I have not been very regular. And I probably won't be for a few more weeks. However, I feel like I am catching up and I hope to be back to stamping (just for "me") very soon. I might even get to do some today. But we will see... Not to bore you all with too many details, but between the Christmas shopping, wrapping, cards, letters, mailings, and all the other fun stuff that comes with the holidays, we had to have a basketball tournament in there! So we were in Denver over the weekend for that. And there is another basketball tournament this weekend but it is here at home so we don't have to travel. Poor Nick has had no time for himself, either. I know that he is really looking forward to the break!

Last night I had a workshop with my club ladies and it was really great to see them all! We had a lot of fun and I thought I would show everyone what we did. Today's project is a gift card holder that I got from the Stamping 411 blog. Click on the link to find out the specific instructions (with pictures) on how to make these really cool gift card holders! So easy and they look great! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper- Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls designer paper; Ink- Early Espresso, Crumb Cake; Accessories- Deck the Halls big designer buttons, linen thread, scallop circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, modern label punch, sponge, Two Tags die

SFF 121010

Hello, Friends! Are you glad it's Friday? In some ways I am but boy the weeks sure do seem to fly by! Still so much to get done and my son has a basketball tournament this weekend in Denver. At least the weather looks to be nice for traveling.

But Friday also means another great sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday! Today's sketch comes to us from Sharon Field. Isn't it great! So many possibilities with this one!

I kept mine pretty simple. I just love the Peaceful Season hostess set from the Holiday mini catalog. And that is what I pulled out for this card. My base is Crumb Cake. Then I went to my Deck the Halls designer paper. LOVE this paper!! I have almost used all mine up! Anyway, I stamped the greeting on the right hand side in Early Espresso. Then I stamped the dove on scrap paper in Early Espresso and cut it out. I punched out a 1 3/4" circle from Very Vanilla and sponged that with Crumb Cake. I punched out a 2 3/8" scallop circle from Cherry Cobbler and layered these two. The designer paper is layered onto a piece of Early Espresso. The scallop piece and the dove are both popped up. Before I glued the greeting piece down I stamped the earth image in VersaMark in the lower right had corner. Done! I really do like the way this one turned out.

All right! It's time for you to "tour" through and see what Jennifer has come up with! If a link is not working you can always go to the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog and there is a list of all the design members. There is also a list on my side bar. But most importantly, don't forget to share your creation! Can't wait to see it!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Peaceful Season; Paper- Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler; Ink- Early espresso, Crumb Cake, VersaMark; Accessories- 1 3/4" circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, sponge, dimensionals

CCMC 128

Good morning, Friends! I hope your week is going just wonderfully! Are you all ready for the upcoming Holidays? I think that I am finally getting there. I have been so busy shopping, crafting, and baking that my posts have been sporadic. I just haven't had time to create for the blog so I am really glad that I can be a part of these design teams. Helps to keep me on my toes!!



So today is Thursday and that means another fabulous challenge at Create with Connie and Mary! And this week we have a color challenge. Just look at this beautiful swatch! Just in case you can't read the colors they are Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Night of Navy, and River Rock. Hmmm... Not colors that I would normally put together but that's what makes this such a great challenge! And everyone does it differently and that's what I love about seeing everyone's creation!

Instead of trying to use all these colors in paper, I decided to watercolor with them. And then stick to just two of the colors as my main color choices. And those two colors were River Rock and Night of Navy. Doing it this way makes it a little easier to put them together. I started with a card base of River Rock and cut another piece of River Rock a little smaller and ran that through the Big Shot with the Northern Flurry embossing folder. Then I used the image from the Greeting Card Kids set and watercolored with River Rock (for shadowing), Night of Navy, Rich Razzleberry, and Old Olive. I also used some Blush Blossom to make her face a little rosy. This is attached to a Night of Navy piece. Around this I wrapped a piece of wide striped ribbon in Night of Navy and tied the ends together with some linen thread. This piece is popped up on the River Rock card. Done!

O.k.! It's your turn! You can see what the rest of the design team created by going to the Create with Connie and Mary site. Then show us what you can do with these colors! Can't wait to see it! Have a super day!!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Greeting Card Kids; Paper- watercolor paper, River Rock, Night of Navy; Ink- VersaMark, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Night of Navy, River Rock, Blush Blossom; Accessories- Night of Navy striped ribbon, line thread, Northern Flurry embossing folder, aqua painter, black emboss powder, dimensionals

Cupcake Holder

Good morning everyone! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! We are just planning on having a truly restful weekend. Nick needs to settle down and rest and make sure that he is completely over his little 'bout' with being sick. Thankfully, Pat nor I have had any hint of it. I did get half of my Christmas cards done last night and I was really happy for that! I haven't sent out cards in three years! Yikes!! I will be surprising my friends and family!! Now to get my crafty gifts done for next week and I will be feeling really good! Still need to get some baking done and of course, the big shopping! We don't dare attempt the mall on the weekends. Too scary!! Pat said we would go the first part of next week so we should wrap it up then. I hope so...











So today's project is one that I got to make when my friend, Kim was in town. It is a little cupcake holder!! I just love this! This is something I would have never made on my own, but Kim (being the clever gal that she is) tweaked ones that she had seen on the Internet and came up with this little cutie! This was my first time sewing and gathering the ribbon like this to make the little medallion thing on top. She let us make two of them and by the second one I got it pretty good! It's really not as hard as you might think.

Kim used the Perfect Settings die for the outside of the cupcake holder. The Rich Razzleberry wide striped ribbon is gathered then hot glued to the 2 1/2" circle punched piece of Rich Razzleberry. Then I gathered the Rich Razzleberry wide grosgrain ribbon and stuck the 5/8" Very Vanilla brad through the middle of that before hot gluing it to the middle of the already stuck down wide striped ribbon. Be careful, as the brad will get very warm!! Then Kim used the Word Window punch to punch out the little "hinge" out of Rich Razzleberry cardstock. Kim also said that the foil cupcake holders work a little better than the regular paper ones. The foil ones seem to hold themselves in the holder better. Cute, huh!! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out Kim's blog for more great ideas!

SFF 120310

Good Friday morning!!! This week went way too fast! I didn't get done near what I wanted!! Aaaack!! Time to calm down and let you see what we are up to at Sketch Frenzy Friday! Our sketch is brought to us by Tina Taves. And what a fantastic sketch it is! I love how clean and simple she made it, and that is how I wanted by card to appear.

I just love the look of white on white. And this works perfectly with snowflakes! I die cut my snowflake with the Northern Frost decorative strip die (actually, I had already done this for another project, so all I had to do was pick a snowflake). Then I used a dimensionals to pop it up. I added a rhinestone and stamped the greeting from Come to Bethlehem in black at the bottom. All of this is put on a panel of white with rounded corners. This panel is popped up as well and mounted onto the card. My card bse is white textured cardstock. Super, super, simple! And I just love how it turned out!

So, it is now time for you to click on over to Jennifer's blog and see her wonderful creation! Remember to click through the tour to be inspired by the team. By clicking through the tour you will eventually end up at the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog. And when you do, be sure to add your own wonderful creation! I can't wait to see it!! Have a super day!

CCMC 127

Good morning everyone! It's Thursday and that means another great challenge from Create with Connie and Mary! Today they are challenging us with a sketch. What a great way to start off the month of December! And this sketch is really great!!



As you know, I don't usually do square cards. But being a part of a design team has stretched me to go beyond my "norm". And I have to say that I am really starting to like these square cards! I do hope that you all will give it a try, too! So, the hardest part of this card, for me, was the circle. I don't have a die for this big of a circle (I think that I made mine about 5 inches). I probably could have gone a little smaller but I really liked showing off the designer paper. Then the next thing I had to figure out was the scallops. I ended up punching a bunch of 3/4" circles out of Early Espresso and gluing them on the back of my circle. I did it all the way around and then cut off the overhang after I adhered my circle to the card. The rest of the card was super easy! I stamped the ornament from Tags til Christmas and punched it out with the ornament punch, glued the strips of Always Artichoke and stamped the greeting from Grateful Greetings in Early Espresso right on the designer paper. I drew a line from the top of the circle to my ornament (can't have an ornament "floating" in mid-air). I doubled up the linen thread and made a bow for my ornament and the ornament is popped up on the card. The ornament also has five little pearls for added bling! And there you have it!

So, be sure to see what the rest of the design team has come up with for this sketch. And then create your own fantastic project. Be sure to upload it to the Create with Connie and Mary website so that we all can be inspired, too! I can't wait to see what you do! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Tags til Christmas, Grateful Greetings; Paper- Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso; Ink- Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler; Accessories- circle scissors plus, 3/4" circle punch, ornament punch, linen thread, basic pearls, dimensionals

Color Block Embossing

Good morning, Friends! I was not planning on being this long in posting! But time sure does get away from me these days... We got back on Sunday from visiting family in Kansas. Had a super great time!! I can't wait to go back at Christmas! The day we were to leave to come home, Nick got ill during the night. So he was sick most of the way home. He did sleep most of the time and I think that helped. He seemed to be all good and went to school on Monday. But I didn't get anytime to stamp because I had to do all those things that one does right after a vacation - grocery shopping, laundry, etc. And then Nick had a haircut and a soccer game, etc. So, I am think that yesterday I would have some time to sit and create. Yea, well that didn't happen either. As Nick was getting ready for school, he doesn't feel well and has a little episode. UGH! I had a haircut and wanted to do some Christmas shopping. Thankfully, my husband was home to help out a little. As the day went on he seemed to get better and eat a little. We sent him to school today hoping that he will just make it through! So, today. Today is the day that I will get some stamping done!! I do have laundry to do but I am stamping for sure!! I am becoming a little overwhelmed at all the things I need to do in the next couple of weeks. Yikes! One day at a time...

So, today's card was inspired by the recent issue of magazine (can't remember the name right now). The card is on the cover and I am sure that most of you have seen it. It looked really easy and it was! But I wanted something super easy to make so I could get something posted. Anyway, thank you all so much for staying so faithful! You all are the best! Have a great day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Bells & Boughs; Paper- Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke; Ink- VersaMark, Early Espresso; Accessories- white emboss powder, basic rhinestones, dimensionals