The Stamping Scrapbooker

Somebody Stop ME!!!!

I kid, I kid! I don't really want to be stopped, haha! I've just been having more fun with my new Verve sets! I made two projects with them! The first one is my card for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #48!

This card was so fun! And I got to combine my love of Papertrey AND Verve! How cool is that!

If you haven't tried Beate's sketches yet, you just HAVE to go try one! They always get my mojo going! I love how my Papertrey "Polka Dot Basics" set and the butterflies in "Fluttering By" coordinate!

Okay, I'm SO proud of my next project! It's NOT a card! I KNOW! It's been AGES since I've done anything but cards! Well, this could be considered pretty close to a card because the size is 5x7! I bought this frame today from the BX knowing that I wanted to make a gift for a co-workers little girls birthday! I love to make gifts but so rarely get a chance to these days! So after all that, this is what I made:

The picture is awful, but again...I have sucky lighting in my house when it's dark outside! GRR!

Do you think she'll like it? She's only turning 4 so I know she won't appreciate it fully, but still, I hope it matches her little bedroom decor!

My eyeballs are gettin tired and I'm ready to zombi-ize in front of the TV, The De Vinci Code is on, love this movie! Have a fantastic Saturday ya'll!

MWAH!

Recipes:

Butterfly Thanks Card:

Paper: Kraft, Whisper White (SU!), Berry Sorbet (Papertrey Ink)

Stamps: Fluttering By, Floral Whimsy (Verve Visuals)

Ink: Craft White (SU!), Haystack (Pallette Hybrid), Berry Sorbet (Papertrey Ink)

Other: Kraft Taffetta ribbon (SU!), Bling frames (Heidi Swapp), Stickles (Ranger)

Frame:

Stamps: Precious Alphabet (CTMH), Floral Whimsey and Fluttering By (Verve Visuals)

Paper: Ginger Blossom DP, Basic Black, Whisper White (SU!)

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Other: Bling Frames (Heidi Swapp), Slit punch for scallops (SU!), Gold Ice Stickles (Ranger)

Verve-tastic News!!!

Have you heard the news??? No? Well allow me to share! Julee and the rest of the Verve Divas asked me to become a permanent fixture on the Verve Visuals Design Team!  I KNOW!!!!!!!  You cannot possibly fathom the dumb-struck look on my face when I opened that email last Saturday! It was a look of total and utter "what the heck are they thinking???" Hahahah! No, I kid, but seriously, wow. Such an honor, I mean I have stalked...I mean followed these ladies' fabulous blogs for awhile now and to actually be a part of their team is such a blessing! I've been using Verve stamps for awhile now and just fell in love with them! Okay, I won't gush too much, I know it's probably annoying, lmbo! If you'd like to see the cards I made for the May release, see my Verve Gallery!

I didn't think it'd be right to post this news without a Verve card, so I made this one tonite!

The base of my card is SU! Kraft cardstock. I matted a piece of Soft Sky on that and added the Wild Wasabi and white scalloped border on that! On the Wild Wasabi piece, I embossed one of the flourish stamps from Filigree Fantasy with white embossing powder. The sentiment is from Floral Whimsy! All four sets that were released today are just FABULOUS and have the most amazing sentiments! There is truly something for everyone in these sets! That ginormous, yummy blue flower is by Petaloo, same with the rhinestone center. I left the card pretty simple since the flourished background is so busy! I really love how this one turned out, hope you like it! Make sure you head over to the Verve blog to check out the rest of the cards made by the Design Team using these stamps, tons of inspiration over there!

You know what else fabulous happened today? I graduated! Yep, finally graduated with my CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) degree! I actually had earned it last September, but they only have graduations once a year:) It was a nice ceremony, there were about 60 of us graduating! It was a HUGE turnout, totally awesome! And my wonderful co-workers were all there to celebrate with me:) They got a couple pictures, but they didn't turn out the best! I'm blurry in this one:

 

And here's me, from the back(...not my better side, lol!) getting ready to receive my diploma:

My camera is starting to really suck, lol! The pictures never come out good anymore, so I told Billy that I'm going to buy a new one tomorrow to celebrate my graduation, heehee:) I can't wait to buy one! If you have any recommendations, please share! I'm not really sure what kind I want, but I'm pretty sure I won't spend more than $400 on the camera...I really want a big ole' D40 but I can't justify that, lol! So tell me what you have, sell me on it baby!

Hope you have a great Friday! I'm off to have sweet dreams about Verve and my new camera:D

MWAH!

Hardware Happiness!

Well good morning friends! I got some happy mail today from Jacksonbelle Embellishments! Oh yeah, I'm talkin' W R Memory Keepers hardware kits, SUEDE FLOWERS, and some jumbo eyelets! Holy cow, I'm so impressed with this stuff! I haven't bought the ginormous eyelets from SU! yet, but these are probably really similar! I made this card today with a ton of my new hardware:) It's also for today's Sketch Challenge at SCS!

Isn't that owl Ca-ute???? I know owls are played and all that, but I'm still lovin them and will use them until I'M tired of them, lol (which won't be for a long time;)

My card base is Creamy Caramel. I spritzed some Cookie Dough glimmer mist on the base but you can't see it in the picture. It just gives it a very nice shimmer, kinda like SU! Shimmery White cardstock if you know what that looks like! The owl is from Bird Assortment by Inkadinkado. I colored him in with my SU! markers and aqua pen in Creamy Caramel and Close to Cocoa. The main image and the dp (Piggy Tales) is matted on Ruby Red. I attached the fabulous suede flower with a brown brad from Bazzill. The three jumbo brads, the hardware frame, and the brass corner are all by W R Memory Keepers.

We're also having another challenge on the JBelle Member forums! The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use AS MUCH BG on your card as POSSIBLE! Here's my card for the challenge:

My card base is a 4.25x4.25 square in Chocolate Chip. I layered a piece of BG paper from the "Sultry" line on a piece of Certainly Celery. The bird is by Inkadinkado and is also layered on CC. I added three copper brads to the corner. I wrapped a piece of brown grosgrain around the card and used my SU! Horizontal Slit Punch to thread the ribbon through the bird panel. The "with love" sentiment is a rub-on from Basic Gray. That white vine rub-on is also from Basic Gray!

It wasn't as much BG as I could have added, so I'll have to try again, I just wanted to leave this card simple! We'd love for you to play along! Just link your card to the BG Challenge Thread in the member forums and if you upload to SCS use the keyword "JBE02". Can't wait to see all of your BG wonderliciousness! 

And...one more picture...of my lil Jesse. I gave the dogs a bath today and whenever Jesse sees the hose, he folds like a lawn chair! It's sooOOoo funny, I just had to have my camera ready for it today, lol! This picture is beggin to be scrapped!

  How funny is that??? He's so crazy, he loves to swim, but dang if he hates a bath, lol! I think if the neighbors saw him act like this they must think I beat him with a hose, bwahahah!  I don't, I promise, this lil guy is my baby:)

Okay, off to clean up the stamp room, it looks tornado-ish:)

Have a great day ya'll! MWAH!

Sketch challenge Sunday!

Sunday's are a relaxing day because I dont' stress over my cards, I use sketches! There are so many awesome sketch challenges happening all over! Today, I have two cards to share! The first one I had orignally made for Jen's Sketch for you to try! I think the panel on the right-hand side was supposed to be two pieces, but this just sorta happened, lol! Hopefully it still counts;)

My card base is Papertrey Ink White and I also used my Ginger Blossom dp and some Groovy Guava! The stamps (the sentiment and butterfly) are from a Verve Visuals set called "Thankful Blossoms". The sentiments alone in this set are awesome, and I just love the font:) The brads are from Basic Gray.

My next card is for todays' Featured Stamper Challenge! It's not really a sketch challenge, but you basically just case someone else's card and that works just as well, lol! Jennifer has such a fun gallery! It was really hard to choose, but I loved THIS card and had to case it!

The card base is a 5x10 piece of Real Red folded in half! The dp is from the SU! paper pack called East Coast Prep! The stamps are all from my PTI set called "It's a Celebration!" The tiny alphabet that spells out "Happy" on the flags is a PTI set called "Simple Alphabet". I love this tiny alpha, it's going to get alot of uses from me! I also stamped the little stars from the celebration set on the turqouise paper!

So I dropped my honey off at the airport today, he's gone for a whole week! Yeah, he's only been gone for a couple hours and I'm already bored and lonely, lol! So if I happen to post again later with more cards, you know why, hahaha! I'm totally jealous of him going back to the states because ya'll cannot possibly understand how much I miss shopping! Seriously, I would do anything just to get inside Target for like 10 minutes, lol! We were planning on me going along until we saw that plane tickets just for me would've been about 2500 bucks! YEAH! There goes the shoppin money, so I decided I should just stay here and hang with the dogs. Anyways, if you go to Target or the mall or an LSS today, think of me, heehee:) 

Hope you have a fantastic Sunday! MWAH!

A couple challenge cards!

Yep, two blog posts back to back! I had to give the blog candy it's own post!

Just real quick I wanted to post two cards I made today! The first is for Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday Challenge #36! This was such a fun sketch and I liked the layout for a Father's Day card I made for my dad!

My base is Papertrey Ink Stampers Select White! The dp is by American Crafts from Jacksonbelle Ebmellishments. I used my super awesome Papertrey Ink "Father Knows Best" stamp set, I just love this sentiment, it's so true:) I used the out of the box technique a little for the tree! My ink colors are SU! Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, and Versafine Onyx Black! The black taffetta ribbon (which I adore) is from Verve Visuals and those little Dew Drops from All that Scraps! Such a fun sketch!

My next card is for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge!

I sorta case'd her card, looking back on it, lol! I guess more of her card seeped into my subconcious than I realized, lol! I used my Inkadinkado Birds Galore stamps! The base is Chocolate chip, the green is from Bazzil, and the yummalicious dp is from the Basic Gray line "Sultry". The bird is inked up with CTMH Hollyhock (this was always my fave CTMH color, the PERFECT pink!) I got the pink ribbon from Verve Visuals and the sentiment is from my PTI Anniversary Set! This card is pretty self-explanatoroy, I just love the colors! Okay, I'm off to spend some time with my honey before I have to take him to the airport in the morning:(

Have a great Saturday ya'll:) MWAH!

Blog Candy Winners!!!

Well there were some GORGEOUS cards made for this weeks Jacksonbelle Color Challenge! I wish I could give you each a gift card! Well, the plan I had to make the dogs pick the winner didn't even come CLOSE to working, so I decided to just pick em out myself!

The winner of the $20 gift card to Jacksonbelle Embellishments is Wendy from PaperInkandSmiles! Here is her beautiful card:

I am just in love with the way she cut out parts of the butterfly's wings, isn't it amazing? Congratulations Wendy! Email me and I'll give you the deets!

I decided that I couldn't pick a favorite out of the cards going in for some goodies from me, so I've decided to send you ALL something, lol! If your name is listed, please email me your snail mail!

Laura

Jennifer

Kay

Heather

Thank you all for playing in our first Challenge! Check back to the forums for future challenges!

I totallly channeled Markie's Mom when making this card! I saw her card HERE and just LOVED the blue owl so I had to make one of my own:D  I just don't want to give this card away but I know just who it's going too;)

*edited to add--for some reason, I'm unable to add links at this moment, as soon as my computer cooperates I'll add direct links, sorry!*

The base is a 4.25x8.5 piece of Certainly Celery folded in half. I added a piece of dp from Bali Breeze, a 3x3 square of Certainly Celery, and the scalloped rectangle. The CC piece was cb'd with my Swiss Dots folder and the white piece was stamped with my PTI Polka Dot Basics stamp in Tempting Turqouise. I stamped the branch from Kim Hughes (CHF) set "UR A Hoot) in Choc Chip on Certainly Celery and glued it down on the card. I stamped the owl with Versafine Onyx Black and colored him in with my SU! markers! I stamped the sentiment, sponged some Tempting Turqouise, and then layered in on Certainly Celery and a TT scalloped circle! I added the ribbon (from tayloredexpressions.com) and then *sewed* around the card! Do you like it? I do! I really love the fun little blue owl!!!

Okay, so I'm drawing the name on one lucky person tonite to win the $20 gift card to Jacksonbelle Embellishments.com! You don't want to be left out so whip up a card using Pink, Green, and Grey and link me to your card for a chance to win it!

Have a great day ya'll:)

MWAH!

Anybody up for some CANDY???

We're hosting the first JacksonBelle Color Challenge on SCS in the JBelle Member Forums!  The colors for this week are Pink, Green, and Grey! You can choose any shade of the three colors, there are tons of combinations to choose from! Here's my card for this challenge:

I made this card for my little niece for her birthday! I don't think it's going to get to her on time, so I may have to slip an extra 5 bucks in the card to make up for it, lol! The main stamp set I used is "Once upon a lifetime" by Lizzie Anne Designs, and I bought it from Jacksonbelle Embellishments (she's out of stock but hopefully she'll be back soon!) It's the PERFECT little set for girls! I colored her dress in with my SU! markers (Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Choc Chip) and made the little white dots with my signo pen! The card base is PTI White, the pink is also by PTI in a perfect pink color called "Sweet Blush". I stamped "Large Polka Dot" backgrounder from CHF in Craft white ink. The green is Certainly Celery and the gray is Basic Gray, both by SU! Some accessories used are my slit punch (for the scallops), Sweet Blush ribbon, Prima, rhinestone, dimensionals and my trusty ole' mat pack!

So, this is where CANDY comes in! If you'd like to play along in this color challenge with us, link your card to my blog for a chance to win a $20 in-store credit to Jacksonbelle Embellishments! I'll draw a name (with the help of my dogs...seriously...you don't want to miss THAT post!) on Friday night and post the winner on Saturday morning! Seriously, who couldn't spend 20 bucks? The catch is, you must use products available in the JBelle store to qualify for a place in the drawing! You don't necessarily have to have gotten them from the store, but we'd at least like it to be available in the store:) If you don't have anything available in the store, we'd still love for you to play along! I'll put you in another blog candy drawing for some goodies from me;) Just use any shades of Pink, Green, and Gray in your card! That's it, pretty easy, huh? I'd like for you to link me to your blog/gallery (preferably a link that takes me right to your card) cause I'd love to check them out! If you post your card on SCS, just use the keyword "JBCC01" so they can be easily found! I can't wait to see all the cards you create, good luck!

Girl Cave

That's what I call my craft room, lol! I can't call it a "studio" because it is NOWHERE near that sophisticated, lmbo! Girl Cave works, I like it:D  So I thought I'd share a few pictures of my space! It changes ALL THE TIME!!! I don't know about you, but I looooove to re-organize and move stuff around, I guess I just get bored if the room stays the same for too long, lol! So, it probably won't look like this next month:p

This is the view as you come in the room from the doorway:

You can see my two work-tables, my bookshelf that holds my papers and other nonsense...

This next picture is a view of my main work table! I love it:D  You can see how I store my u/m stamps! They're all in CD cases in these neat little CD holders that I get at the 100 yen (dollar store type place) store! They're sooo cheap so it's no heartache when I have to expand my organization:D  Above that is my redneck way of storing my spools of ribbon! They're like shelf holder thingy's with dowl rods that sit in the holes of the shelf holder thingy...great explanation, huh?  Hahah! It works though, and its cheap (which is a good thing, cause I need like two more of these!) To the right of the CD cases is my little sterilite drawers that hold my SU Markers, Prismacolor Pencils, and regular colored pencils! It's handy to have right in front of me! On top of that is a little thingy that holds all my CHF backgrounders (18 of them bad boys!) and my 6x6 Basic Grey paper packs! To the left of the table you can see my cardstock and some other drawers that hold adhesives, glitter, H20's, and other nonsense...

This is my second table for friends to stamp on and it also holds my cuttlebug and sewing machine!

This is how I store my loose ribbon, I love it, even though it's sloppy looking! I think the different colors are so purdy all mixed up like that:D

And if you didn't happen to catch it in the last picture, this is where all my cards end up...

LOL! Isn't that a shame? I'm so embaressed, I'm a horrible card sender! Usually, even though I have this massive stash, I find a birthday coming up and stress out over making a card when I have about 972 bday cards already made! Hahah! Oh well, what are you gonna do?:)

So today is Featured Stamper day over at SCS! I love Featured Stamper day! Today we were to case a card from Kim's Gallery! It was so fun, and I settled on this card becaues I liked the shape:D

Here's my card:

I cut the card base using my large scallop circle nestibilities die! You just take your folded cardstock and place the die *just* over the top edge of the card so it won't cut and then cut it like normal! How fun is that? I saw it on Beate's blog and had to ask her how to do it, lol! I couldn't wrap my brain around it! It was really easy though and I can tell you I'll be making more like this, it's so fun!

Okay, well, it's time for me to go get ready for bed! I gotta get up early for PT! Hope you have a fantastic Sunday:)

MWAH!

Card Recipe:
Stamps--Lizzie Anne Designs "Out of this World" from JacksonbelleEmbellishments.com
Paper--Real Red, Bazzill green, Basic Grey "Cupcake" also available at Jacksonbelleembellishments.com
Accessories--CTMH Red Grosgrain ribbon, Basic Grey "Cupcake" brads, Cuttlebug Label Die
Other--Prismacolor Pencils and Baby Oil

My exciting news!!

OMG, This has been such an amazing week for me! Okay, want some good news???

A couple months ago, Jenn Balcer sent me an email asking me if I'd like to be a part of Splitcoast Stampers new Product Review member panel! Can you say FLABBERGASTED??? I was sooo excited and surprised to get this most awesome email! Of course I said YES! It's a chance for me to be involved with my beloved Splitcoast Stampers message board! This website has truly rocked my world, in so many ways! The inspiration abounds, I've met soo many wonderful people, some only online, some IRL now (Hi Christy:) I'm doing great way over here, how bout you and your vehicular freedome?:D) Anyways, our first product to review was Unity Stamps! Umm...hello, I love this company! I actually tried out for the dt but didn't make it, it's cool though, I got my hands on some goodies anyways:D  If you're interested in our first review, go HERE and take a look! The other panel members have some great reviews as well!

Okay, awesome news #2, Lindsey Botkin from Jacksonbelle Embellishments asked me to be on her new design team!!!!!!!!  I entered a couple cards into her contest not really thinking I'd win, but much to my surprise she asked me to join them! I'm so excited, Jacksonbelle Embellishments is chock full of goodies! And me, living in Okinawa Japan right now, have to do allll my shopping online. Lindsey has been amazing to order from, I always get shipping notices THE DAY I order. Seriously, how many places give you that kind of service? Love it! Check out my fellow dt members blogs, lots of fun there!

Okay, want a card? This is the card I made for todays Limited Supplies Challenge, to use only Circle cutting tools, no other tools! I thought it was gonna be a little tough but once i got going it fell into place!

This was such a fun card! I love the bright happy colors:) 

Well I think Billy and I are gonna watch a movie, hope you have a terrific FRIDAY!  Thanks for sharing my good news with me:)

MWAH!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Le Jardin (by Lizzie Anne Designs, bought from Jacksonbelle Embellishments.com), Papertrey Ink "Polka Dot Basics", CHF "Silhouette Blooms II"

Paper: Papertrey Ink Lemon tart, Summer Sunrise, and Aqua Mis

Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Summer Sunrise, Prismacolor Pencils

Accessories: Coluzzle circle cutting system, Circle Nestibilities, Summer Sunrise Twill Ribbon, Silver Ice Stickles by Ranger, Orange Brads (From Basic Grey "Cupcake" line, Jacksonbelle Embellishments)