{GASP}...Could it be?!?

Supplies used:
K&Co and BG papers,Cuttlebug embossing folder, SEI velvet paper,Tim Holtz distress ink and die,Prima flowers and beads, Creative Imaginations clear label, Tsukineko white gel roller,Sizzix die,Quickutz dies,DMC crochet thread,Martha Stewart punches.


A scrapbook layout?!? That's crazy talk. I can't believe how long it's been since I've actually scrapbooked. I love, love, love card-making, but I've really missed working with my photos too.

I've had this layout in the works for about 2 years now. I know how that sounds but no, it wasn't laying on my scrap table for 2 years. I chose the K&Co papers back then and had the pics printed, but never went any farther until this past weekend. I'm really really happy with this one. I tried my hand at a little distressing. I've bought nearly every color of Tim Holtz distress ink and I LOVE it! I have a few tips to share with you with regards to these distress inks, the first being the best little tool you can use with these is the Tim Holtz distress ink applicator tool with the sponge refill pads!
It's a good idea to go ahead and find it in your budget to buy enough refill pads for each ink pad you own. I only have one applicator handle as I really didn't want to spend the money on a bunch of them with the handle caddy(though it looks really cool and would be SO much easier to use than my method but I digress....) I found it's easy enough to switch out the velcro pads when working with different colors of ink. I bought these small clear baggies at Michael's a few years ago and they work perfectly to store the pads when not in use. I just slapped a label on each bag and I sit them upright in a basket that holds my inkpads.I also really recommend the Ranger craft sheet(or any comparable craft sheet) when working with these inks. It's made blending a breeze and saved the top of my craft table.




And since I'm on a Tim Holtz kick here lately, I bought the ruler with the paper piercing edge which is what I used to stitch on my layout. It's super easy to line it up and pierce along the sides and gave me the option of using a bit thicker crochet thread and a cross-stitch needle to sew. I used a backstitch(for all you cross-stitchers out there) and while it took me a bit of time to complete, I really think the end result was worth it. If you're like me, sometimes I make mistakes with my sewing machine and it's been known to jam and rip the paper. This was the only sheet of this paper I had so there was no room for mechanical error today. It'll be so easy to use that ruler to add quick stitching on a card!




I used a few new goodies on this one. The label under the title is one of the new Tim Holtz dies and the edge peeking out from the large photo is a new Sizzix frame die that I just tucked up underneath. And of course, I had to incorporate some of my Martha punches. I wasn't sure about those rain drop punches that I used for the border of the page at first, but now I'm so glad I held onto them. I think they were just the right touch for a military themed layout--not too frou-frou if you know what I mean?

I've been pretty bad the last week and ended up ordering MORE stuff online. I just got my PTI order in the mail today and a few other small packages are filtering in. It's ok though. My mojo appears to be back and I'm ready to play!
I'm off to work on a few more scrappy things. Hope your week's a great one!

Ah....Heaven....

Here's those obnoxious stash addition pics I promised. Now do you see what I mean about buying WAY too many of those new Tim Holtz dies?? They are HUGE.Before this shopping expedition, I only owned one of those giant Sizzix dies and it had it's own little storage place. Now? I'm in trouble here. I couldn't resist though once I saw them in person. I can't wait to use those edge dies on some cards.

I also picked up a few of his new embossing folders. I didn't like them so much when I saw them online, but again once I saw them in person I was imagining the possibilities...

I tried not to go too crazy with paper(well, single sheets of paper). Paper pads on the other hand?? I can't get enough of them! Here's a nasty little confession for you---I bought a second pad of each of those new October Afternoon papers. I'm already using them a ton and every serious papercrafter knows--once they're gone, they're gone. Gotta get 'em while you can, right?

I think I got a pretty nice assortment of goodies. They should keep me busy for awhile. My hubby had to turn around and go back up to Baltimore unexpectedly a few days after we got home and he called last night asking if I needed anything else from the stores up there! Um....yeah..... um....not really, but since you asked....I really want one more of those Tim Holtz dies...

My guy's a keeper, for sure! (and I think I'm loving all the consolation prizes I'm winning for all the unexpected business travel)

I only had time to take a few quick pics of the stash today, no scrappy play time for me, but tomorrow is wide open! Can't wait!

Just For You

Supplies used:Cosmo Cricket papers,Spellbinders,Quickutz Moxie skinnimini and leaf,SU cardstock,linen thread and stamps,PTI felt,MM button, DMC crochet thread #3.


Ok, really it's just for Paula....shhhhhhhhh.......don't tell her. (hopefully she won't see this post before she gets her package this week!) On second thought, hopefully she does read this so she knows to be looking for a kraft envelope in that cardboard box. It kinda blends in with the side of the box and could easily be pitched. That would be sad. Especially since I struggled for hours on that crochet flower! (just kidding)

I had a real crisis situation in the scrappy room this morning. There were bags and bags of stuff waiting to be lovingly fondled all over my table and I had no place to work on this card. I had to rush the whole process and unpack the bags. I hate that. I didn't give each little goodie the attention it so deserves. I just had to pile everything up in a corner and make promises to get back to it later.

I'm thinking about lining everything up for a photo shoot. I HAVE to share all my scrappy finds from last week! This is the problem with having absolutely no LSS in your town. When you finally get to shop at one, you totally blow your budget and throw caution (and any extra space you may have had left in your house) to the wind. I seriously have no idea where I'm going to put this stuff.

That's it--I'll have to share a pic tomorrow and you'll see why space is an issue. I went a little overboard on a certain something(or somethings) that are just ridiculously huge. And before you go thinking I went and bought 15 Cricut E's and a couple Silhouettes....I'm exaggerating. But still, they're beastly huge for the purpose they serve. Granted, it's a divine purpose.

Hope your week's off to a great start! I plan on being very scrappy this week...

And the OWH Bloghop winner is......

PAULA(May 29,9:49am)!!!

And Paula, you can thank the Boston Red Sox for your prize!

I just have to share real quick my cute(well, I think it is anyways) method of choosing a winner. Yep, sure--I could use the random number generator and I've done that in the past, nothing wrong with that, but this time I was gonna be a lot more 'hands-on' and write each name with the date and time on a little slip of paper and pull from a hat(probably an old black beret laying around here somewhere). Well, you guys really blew me away with all the awesome comments! I never thought I'd have 136 of them!! Long story short here--I just got back from my roadtrip to Baltimore and I was tired and there was no way I was gonna stick with my original plan so I asked hubby to choose a number between 1 and 136.

What do you think a total and complete Red Sox fanatic is gonna do?? Yep. You guessed it. Josh Beckett chose our winner.

So Paula, you're #19 and the lucky winner!

Take note my friends, for future bloghops.....you might want to know all the Red Sox jersey #'s and time the placement of your comments accordingly....heehee...

Thank you all again SO much for taking part in the hop and for all of your truly wonderful comments! You guys are the best!

In Remembrance...

I had the rare opportunity today to visit Arlington as my hubby and I were driving up to Baltimore for a few days this week. I've always wanted to visit on Memorial Day. It was the perfect ending to this holiday weekend of remembrance and a truly wonderful time hopping in the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU for everyone who visited my blog over the weekend. All of the sweet comments, the new followers, and the outpouring of support for our military all throughout the bloghop was just amazing! It was a really special weekend that I hated to see come to an end. I can't wait for next year's!

I'll be up here for a couple days dropping in at my favorite LSS and shamelessly shopping for more stash. I love tagging along on his business trips now that all of our LSS's in town have closed. I can't wait to get back though and play with some new stuff. You guys have totally motivated me to post more and start producing!

It's late here and this chickie needs to get some sleep and get ready for a big day of shopping ahead. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable weekend!

OWH Memorial Day Bloghop!!

Welcome to your next stop on the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop! You should be arriving from Megan's blog, but if you've just dropped in for a visit and feel like starting from the beginning and checking out some amazing talent for a great cause, be sure to start HERE at the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog for the start of the hop!

Supplies used:October Afternoon papers,SU! stamp,ink,ribbon,brad and linen thread,DMC floss, EK Success border punch and label punch,Making Memories buttons,PTI stamp.

I used this week's MOJO140 sketch for my first card in today's hop. I'm SO lovin' the new October Afternoon Thrift Shop papers and they absolutely fit perfectly with the red,white, and blue Memorial Day theme so it was a win-win! I'm still on the vintage kick right now and I ran across this post from last summer on Nichole Heady's blog with excellent instructions on how to make your own crochet flowers. It's SUPER easy to make these! Trust me, I've never crocheted a day in my life before now. If you need a few crochet basics videos to get you started,I found these to be really good.


Supplies used:PTI stamps,felt,cloud and balloon dies,Copics,Pink Paislee papers,MS border punch,Spellbinders tag and label die,jute ribbon Joann's, Stampendous ep,Making Memories buttons.


For my second card, I couldn't wait to play with some new PTI goodies I got in the mail this week just in time for this hop! How 'bout those too-cute for-words clouds?? Those are their new cloud dies cut from their Vintage Cream felt. I'm loving all the hot air balloons and clouds showing up in the papercrafting world these days. I saw this stamp set and knew I had to have it. All throughout the year we see hot air balloons flying over our house. We've even had one land in the middle of our street for emergency refueling! Of course, I was out there with my camera! I have lots of uses for these stamps and the matching dies. Keeping with the red,white,and blue theme, I found these Pink Paislee Cupid papers in my stash and they reminded me of summer, picnic tables, and fun. I hope it brightens the day of a family member of one of our bravest!


Arlington National Cemetery

And speaking of family members of our heroes, this Memorial Day and each and every day, I'm thankful for our patriots who put their lives in harms way defending freedom and this great country of ours, for their families who wait so patiently back at home holding down the fort, and for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country so that future generations will be free to follow their dreams. God bless our military!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend, but before you leave and hopefully continue on with this awesome bloghop, I have a little BLOG CANDY to give away!! I was having a tough time deciding exactly which of these cute little elements on these cards would be the most fun to receive in the mail SO...... I'm sending them all!!




I have 1 set of red, white, and blue crocheted flowers(one each)
I have 2 sets of the PTI die-cut clouds cut from PTI Vintage Cream felt(4 total,these are die-cuts--not the dies themselves)
I also have 2 sets of the PTI die-cut/stamped balloons (6 total, these are die-cuts--not the dies themselves and they are stamped in Memento ink suitable for Copics)
and what's a Martha Stewart border punch addict to do but give away the Martha Stewart 'Quilted' border punch I used along the bottom of my second card! (the actual punch itself except you'll be getting a new unopened punch because this addict NEVER gives away her Martha punches)

All you have to do to be entered to win this blog candy is leave a comment here on my bloghop post! There's a whole bunch of blogs to get through on the hop this weekend so relax, take your time, just be sure to comment here before 5pm on Friday June 4th,2010 to be entered in this giveaway!! I'll be drawing the winning name/date/time stamp from a hat and announcing the winner Saturday morning June 5th on my blog as well as contacting the winner via email. (Please, if you're leaving a comment outside of a Google account, leave your email addy with the dot com spelled out as I've done here so I can contact you) Sorry my international friends, but I'm limiting this contest to US shipping only.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and taking part in this hop! I hope you have a safe and FABULOUS weekend and be sure to visit the next stop on the OWH Memorial Day bloghop, a military spouse herself, Erika's blog HERE featuring her cute and fun patriotic card!

Just a quick note...

I've been busy, busy, busy this week getting ready for the OWH Memorial Day bloghop this Saturday May 29th,2010!! Please come back and visit this weekend--I have a CUTE CUTE CUTE blog candy giveaway planned and you won't want to miss this AMAZING bloghop! There are over 135 talented paper-crafters participating in this hop--SO much inspiration and SO many many generous people giving their time and creative energies to such a great cause! Hope to see you back here on Saturday!!

(the hop will start HERE at the OWH Stars and Stamps blog, but you're welcome to start with mine and work your way back and forwards from here!)

Happy Mother's Day all you moms out there!

I'm typing up this post as I wait for my wonderful hubby to get back from Panera with my all-time favorite muffin EVER--the orange cranberry. I really hope they have it this morning. I needed one more Mother's Day card for my mom(the other one was for my mother-in-law who enjoys all things crafty/sewing, etc.) and these PTI stamps were just the thing. I just so happened to buy her a Wallflowers starter kit and a bunch of sweet pea refills(my favorite scent) from Bath and Body Works as a little Mother's Day gift this year. She's way too cheap to indulge in what she calls 'such an expensive air freshener' so I popped in the store the other day and guess what?? They were on surprise sale for $6!! I bought her enough refills to last until they go on sale again as it will probably be me that buys her more.

Anyways, on to the card... I pretty much CASE'd the uber-talented Dawn McVey's card here. I loved the way she used the Dotti Biscotti paper, Copics, and pop-dots to enhance the blossoms but I wanted to take that idea and put my own spin on it. I found out it's MUCH harder to do that than I thought. When you have a picture of an already perfect card in your head, it's difficult to alter it in any way. I gave it my best shot and I'm super excited with how it turned out. Hope my mom likes it. She's REALLY hard to please. Probably why I grew up such a perfectionist:)

If you're celebrating Mother's Day as a mom yourself, or with your own mom, or someone you consider just like a mom, I hope you have a wonderful day and cherish the relationships in your life!

Supplies used:PTI stamps and patterned paper,Copics,SU! Kraft cs,EK Success double crochet lace border punch and bracket journaling punch,Quickutz label,Tim Holtz Vintage Market alpha.

An attempt at vintage...

Well, I don't know if this could really be called 'vintage-style', but I had fun using all these fun new vintage-y products! Got some of that awesome new October Afternoon paper and I found this cute dressform stamp at Hobby Lobby last week. I ordered a REALLY cute stamp set from a new company called Lawn Fawn , but it hasn't arrived in my mailbox yet and I REALLY REALLY wanted to play with this new paper! (and I really really needed to get a mother's day card made and sent out in a hurry)

Never been much of a vintage kinda girl, but I'm totally and completely embracing this new trend this season! I'm working on a little mini-album of vintage goodness that I'll hopefully finish up next week and share here.

Hope everyone's enjoying gorgeous spring days and squeezing in some scrappy time too!

Supplies used:October Afternoon Thrift Shop,K&Co,SU! patterned paper,Quickutz Eliza,Tim Holtz Vintage Market,Stampabilities and Inkadinkado stamps,Spellbinders,EK Success real estate punch,Martha Stewart modern garland and eyelet lace punch,Tsukineko and SU! ink,La Mode button,Michaels ribbon,SU! kraft cs,Prima,KI sheer, Copics.

Stella ROCKS!

I'm constantly getting requests to make funny birthday cards and I've always struggled with it--BUT NOT ANYMORE!! My search is over! I just couldn't find stamped images that were witty,age-appropriate,and relatively inexpensive.THEN....I discovered digi stamps and a whole new world opened up....One of my favorite digi stamp sites so far is Bugaboo Stamps. This character 'Stella' is just perfect! Jodie over at Bugaboo has such mad skills as a designer and there's even a FREEBIE digi stamp every Friday(this Stella one that I used was a freebie!!)

I had SO much fun coloring her in with my new Copics! One of the things I love the most about these Stella images are the little phrases that come with the stamp. Too, too funny and it totally eliminates having to come up with something witty yourself--the hard part is done for you!

I was also asked to make a matching bucket tote to go along with this card so this is what I came up with. I love making these little bags! They're so fast and easy to create and perfect to give just a little something special.

These are the Copics I used on the image. I'm self-taught so cut me a little slack.please? The nearest store offering Copic classes is an hour away and doesn't seem to teach more than one class a month so maybe someday in the future I'll get there.


I'm absolutely loving sketches right now. I think they're just a great jumping off point to get the mojo flowing and I know on this card, it really made me think outside the box. I LOVE the long skinny card! This sketch is on p.33 of the new 'Go To Sketches' PaperCrafts mag. If you don't have this one and you're into making cards, you've gotta check it out! One of the best publications I've seen in a long time.

TONS of ideas running through my head now so I'm off to the stores to pick up a few 'necessary' (not so much) crafty items. Here's hoping you have a happy productive week!

Supplies used~QK damask dies,Santa's Workshop,Lemonade,Spellbinders tags,labels,AC ribbon,Bugaboo digi stamp,K&Co paper,DCWV cs,Copics,SU tag punch,MS border punch, SU stamp,StudioG stamp.