Paper Funtastics

TSG Scooting By Release Blog Hop!!

2012-01-26T08:00:00.011-05:00

Welcome to the final day of the There She Goes February releases! Jess has saved the best for last with not one, but TWO sets! And they coordinate!!

Cruising on a Sunday afternoon, scootin’ by to say hi! Melyssa Connolly has brought Leah back and she’s born to be wild! She already comes with lots of fun, but if this isn’t enough she has a kit to accessorize to her hearts content! Whether she’s moving, heading off to school, or enjoying a ride she’ll surely make tracks into your heart.

Scootin’ By is a 4x8 set that includes a total of 15 stamps and will sell for $18.00.

Scootin’ By – Accessories is a 4x4 set that includes a total of 14 stamps and will sell for $10.00.

I'm soooo happy that Melyssa has brought back little Leah, especially now that I'm back on the team again! I was missing her cute face! :) I was inspired by a couple of things with this card. The layout was inspired by last week's sketch #35 from Deconstructing Jen and I was channeling a bit of Melyssa's style too. I really love her clean and crisp cards, with not a lot of fuss...only, when it came to the stitching, I couldn't leave it alone! A card just never seams finished without it! (Did you get that pun?? lol

Would you like to win the new Scootin’ By and Scootin’ By Accessories stamp sets? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday January 28th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Here's the list of blogs you should hit up for more sneak peeks!

Thanks so much for popping in all week! I hope you've enjoyed the sneak peeks as much as we've enjoyed creating them for you! Have a great weekend everyone! And don't forget the release party on Saturday night!!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Scootin By' and 'Scootin By Accessories'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Cool Caribben, Baja Breeze, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - White, PTI Sampler Cardstock, PP - K&Company
Acces: Spellbinders Labels Eight Nestie, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

TSG Perk Up February Release Blog Hop!!

2012-01-25T08:00:00.009-05:00

Welcome back to Day Two of the There She Goes February releases! Did you guys enjoy the sneak peeks yesterday? Well, hold onto your seats girls, because today we have another fantastic set to share with you all!

Friendship and coffee are a good blend to send greetings near and far. Torico has created a darling set to perk up the one ‚mug‛ you’ve been missing. An absolute must for those sweets and treats without all the calories!

Perk Up! is a 4x8 set that includes a total of 36 stamps and will sell for $18.00.

Miss Torico has done it again! We all have at least one coffee related stamp set, but I bet you don't have one that has a face on the mug?! Coffee with friends evokes warm and fuzzy feelings, so I pulled some patterned paper in warm colors to help conjure up that feeling! Some of the paper is from October Afternoon's Thrift Store collection and the rest is from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection. I paper pieced the mug and stamped the hearts onto the scalloped panel for some depth. This set has some seriously good sentiments in it and it was hard to choose just one....so I used a bunch! :D

Would you like to win the new Perk Up! stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday January 28th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Here's the list of blogs you should hit for more sneak peeks!

Thanks for stopping in today! Tomorrow is the last day for sneak peeks so please pop in for the grand finale! I promise you, you'll love this last set...or is it sets?! ;)

Stamps: There She Goes 'Perk Up'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black, SU's Chocolate Chip, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - October Afternoon's 'Thrift Store' and Cosmo Cricket's 'Early Bird'
Access: Spellbinders Labels One Nestie, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Nursebot Release Blog Hop!!

2012-01-24T08:00:00.011-05:00

Welcome back to Day One of the There She Goes February releases! Jess has put together some fabulous sets this month that I just know you guys are going to love!

No ‚bots‛ set would be complete without Nursebot! Torico has done it again. She warmed your heart last month with Lovebots and this month she’s going to make you feel all better with Nursebot. What a great way to send well wishes then a visit from the Nursebot.

Nursebot is a 4x4 set that includes a total of 11 stamps and will sell for $10.00.

I can't get enough of these 'bots! They're so adorable! This set also includes a couple of other images too to match some of the other sentiments included in the set. (If you continue with this blog hop, you just might spot them all!)

I was going to make a gender-neutral card, but I went with a really girly, girl card instead. It would be perfect for a little girl or a sweet Grandmother! (Truth be told - it was really, really hard to pass by this great scrap piece of MME paper in my drawer! lol) For my layout, I borrowed the Mojo Sketch #223 from a few weeks ago and colored up Nursebot with Distress Inks. For a little added dimension, I used Diamond Glaze on her eyes.

Would you like to win the new Nursebot stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday January 28th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Here's the list of trensetters that are sharing sneakpeeks with you today:

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 2 of the releases!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Nursebot'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - White and Pink, PP - MME
Access: PTI Half and Half Die, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Ribbon, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

I Ruff You!

2012-01-20T08:01:00.008-05:00

All I can say is....TGIF!

What a week it's been at work! I got pulled into an impromptu meeting with the CEO of the company (keep in mind, this is no small company - we have 20,000 employee's) and the only time I open my mouth to say anything, his first response is "You're not from around here are you?" After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I realised he had detected my accent and wasn't suggesting that I keep my mouth shut! lol After a late night working on his special project and a few stressful work days, I'm ready for the weekend! How about you? Got anything planned?

I just found out that my dad and brother are coming to visit me for most of February and I'm sooooo excited!! I haven't seen my baby brother in almost 10 years and I haven't seen my dad in 8 years, so this is going to be a long awaited reunion for us all! So, whenever we get visitors, we do what we always do in this house....run around like headless chooks, painting, prepping, and cleaning! We repainted my little girl's room last weekend and this weekend, we're installing the missing base trim and adding a fresh coat of paint to the rest of the trim, since that's where my dad and brother will be sleeping. I also worked on a wooden sign this week that turned out fabulous! We're also painting a vanity that my MIL (hi Kay!) bought for her room and I'll be making some curtains next weekend! Nothing like a visit from family to jump start our project list again! lol

Ok, enough about me, after all that, I still managed to find time to make a card for this week's There She Goes (Again!) week. This week is all about revisiting older sets from TSG and giving them another 15 minutes in the limelight. This week's sets are Puppy Love, Buckets of Love and Love....I'm sensing a theme here! ;)

So I pulled out Puppy Love and whipped up this sweet card! To make this card I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #150 for my inspiration, some left over paper from Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers collection (I have two of these pads!) and my partner in crime - my sewing machine! As always, I colored this cutie patootie puppy in with my reinkers and aquapainter brush.

I really have to figure out a way to take better photos. The only time I can photograph my cards is at night time and my kitchen light just isn't cutting it anymore. I may have to invest in an Ott light I think. Anyone else use one of these to photograph your cards? What do you use? I'd really love to know.

Have a great weekend everyone! Stay warm!

PS. Did you see that my snowflake card won this month's Mojo Sketch Challenge?? I was BEYOND excited when I discovered this! Maybe my mojo is coming back after all?? :)

Supplies

Stamps: There She Goes 'Puppy Love'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Dusty Durango, Cool Caribbean, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Sahara Sand, Distress Inks 'Walnut Stain and Burlap'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Basic Grey 'Max and Whiskers'

Access: Spellbinders Circle Nesties, Fiskars Corner Punch, PTI Rustic Button Twine and Button, Paper Piercer, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

From Our House To Yours

2012-01-11T08:00:00.008-05:00

Good Morning!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. We had a great one - the little ray of sunshine had a sleepover at a friend's house and The Man and I went to a work function for his job. It was very entertaining to say the least! Some people just can't hold their liquor! (Just in case you're wondering, it was not me! I hold mine very well! lol
Today's card was inspired by this month's Sketch For You To Try. It has a circle element in it and I couldn't resist using the Holly Jolly set and die from There She Goes again!

Remember how my stamps didn't turn up for the previews and release of November's stamp release? Well, I'm now getting my fix with these sets and dies! So you might see a few more 'wintery' cards from me in the weeks to come. Maybe that will encourage the snow to fall around here!

To make this card, I stamped one of the snowflakes and a sentiment onto Kraft using Versamark ink. Then I sprinkled white embossing powder on it and heat set it. Next, I stamped out the solid house image from the set, added embossing powder, heat set that, then cut it out with my precision scissors. Then I cut out the snowball snowflake with the Holly Jolly die - that comes with the set (I never tire of saying that!). Then I adhered them to each other with a dimensional.
To make the base, I used some left over paper from Basic Grey's old Eskimo Kisses collection. First, I cut out the vertical shape with PTI's Half and Half die and matted it to some Scarlet Jewel cardstock by PTI. Then I cut the base and the smaller rectangle and matted them with the same cardstock. The scalloped strip across the middle was made with some decorative scissors and machine stitched to some scrap green cardstock. Next, I adhered all the layers together and added the rustic button twine for some added detail. Last, but not least, I added some American Crafts Candy Dots in white glitter to the bottom of the card just to balance it out!

Have you checked out this week's There She Goes challenge? It's a paper piecing one! I chickened out this week, but you shouldn't!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Holly Jolly'
Inks: Versamark
Papers: PTI Kraft Cardstock, PTI Perfect Match Sampler - Scarlet Jewel, PP - Basic Grey 'Eskimo Kisses' Collection
Access: TSG HollyJolly Die, PTI Half and Half Die, American Crafts Candy Dots, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Snowflakes Stick Together

2012-01-06T08:00:00.014-05:00

Happy Friday everyone!

It was very, very hard going back to work after having 10 days off for Christmas. I stayed home with my little girl the week after Christmas, which was so nice to do after the hectic days leading up to the holiday! We went got to sleep in every morning, went ice skating a few times (which she has taken to like a duck to water!) and played with her new toys. We had a blast! Which left no time for any crafting, but what's new?! Now it's back to work as usual, but at least things are back to normal again for a while and you know what? I'm really enjoying that.

On Monday, I spied this week's Mojo Monday Sketch #222 and it inspired me to use the TSG's Holly Jolly set and die. That circle element was begging to be made into a snowflake...just begging, I tell you! :)

I absolutely love the look of white on a natural background! There's something really clean and fresh about it, don't you think?! So I had to white emboss one of the snowflake stamps from the set onto some kraft cardstock and I used the snowflake die....that comes with the set!! Did you know that?! Then I used some of Cosmo Cricket's (appropriately named) Holly by Golly paper (sponged with Distress Ink and machine stitched to Bitter Chocolate Bazzil paper) to construct the card. The quote panel was created with PTI's Fillable Frames #10 die and sponged around the edges with Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Ink. Then I inked up the sentiment, which is from TSG's Stick Together mini set, with Versamark first, then SU's Chocolate Chip ink, then stamped out. I then applied clear embossing powder over it and heat set it. It's really shiny and crisp looking in real life!

Next I stamped a couple of the snowflakes from the Stick Together set onto the edges of the panel with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to make the panel blend in better. Then, I stamped a few more snowflakes from both sets onto some scrap kraft cardstock with Versamark ink, applied white embossing powder, heat set them, then cut them out using my precision scissors. Lots of cutting out, but it's always worth it! I stacked them up on the card using dimensionals and last, but not least, I added a few adhesive rhinestones to the centers of them and the three elements in the Mojo sketch. Done!

I really like how this one turned out! Hey! Maybe my mojo is returning?! Here's hoping!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Supplies

Stamps: TSG 'Holly Jolly' and 'Stick Together'

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Versamark and Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PP - Cosmo Cricket's Holly By Golly Collection

Access: TSG's Holly Jolly Die, PTI-Fillable Frames #10, Adhesive Rhinestones, Clear and White Embossing Powder, Precision scissors, Sponges, Dimensionals, Machine Stitching

TSG Little Moments Blog Hop!!

2011-12-28T08:00:00.015-05:00

Welcome to the second and last blog hop of the There She Goes January Releases!

Warm fuzzy moments and life’s little memories are genuinely captured by Torico in this new Little Moments set. Gazing through the window watching the snow fall, special moments with brothers and sisters or wonderful thoughts of that one special grandmother that make your heart warm are all here. There’s no better
way to send a loving card or create a scrapbook page to capture these glorious moments than to use this fabulous new stamp set.

Little Moments is a 6x8 set that includes a total of 12 stamps $24.

There are some classic 'Torico' images in this set (which we all love to bits!) but I decided to use some of the images that doesn't immediately scream her name, but I love it just as much!

We haven't had much of a white Christmas here in New England (and that's A-OK!) but one of my favorite things about this area is that when the snow falls, it feels like I'm living in a snow globe! And usually I stop to watch that amazing view. It's my little moment. :)

I wanted to make the scene stand out, so I created a warm and cosy card with lots of dark colors so the snow and image would stand out. So I picked out some papers from Basic Grey's Jovial Collection, cut the shapes I needed, sponged the edges with Distress Inks and machine stitched it to some black cardstock. Then I colored up the image with my SU reinkers and aquapainter brush. Once that was dry, I cut it out with my precision scissors, popped it on dimensionals and added some glaze and sparkles with my Sakura pens. Lastly, I turned one of the beautiful sentiments in the set into a banner and pinned it to the card with a button from PTI and some jute button twine. And that's it - a warm and cosy card for a special friend!

Would you like to win the new Little Moments stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday December 31st with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Thanks so much for stopping by this week!! And see you at the release!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Little Moments'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Cool Caribbean, Creamy Caramel, Going Gray, Old Olive, Dusty Durango, Regal Rose, Ruby Red
Papers: Georgia Pacific, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Grey's Jovial Collection
Access: Spellbinders Labels Eight Nestie, PTI Button - Black, PTI-Rustic Button Twine - Jute, Sakura Glaze Pens- Clear and Glitter, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Love Bots Release Blog Hop!!

2011-12-27T08:02:00.020-05:00

Can it be that time already?! Absolutely!

Welcome to the first of the There She Goes January release blog hop!!!

If you loved Friendbots, you’re going to love Lovebots. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Torico has created an adorable set that will have your heart
bursting with joy. This adorable mini set will have your creating cards and gift tags that carry your message of love and friendship to all your special Valentines.

Lovebots is a 4x4 set that includes a total of 7 stamps $10.

Torico's done it again! I am head over heels in love with this little 'bot and his friends! And this month he's bursting with love! Perfect for Valentines Day cards for those men in our lives!

I use the main image from the set to whip this card up. The base was made by sponging and distressing a piece of patterned paper from Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry paper. Then I cut two strips of coordinating paper from October Afternoon's Farm Fresh collection with my small scalloped scissors. I sponged them with some Distress Ink and decorated it with some of PTI's Bakers Twine in red and one of my coverted heart buttons from Michaels! The sentiment was cut out with a Labels Eight Nestie, sponged and tucked behind the horizontal strip. Add a little stitching with some embroidery thread and it's all done!

This was another quick and easy card using the other image from this set. He was too cute not to color up! Again, I colored him up with my reinkers and aquapainter brush. Then I used some more scrap paper from Basic Grey's Nook and Panty line for the vertical stripe down the middle. I used PTI's Half and Half die to create the stripe. Spellbinders Oval Nestie, some more scrap paper from Bo Bunnies Dot on Dot Collection and some Bazzil Basics cardstock created the oval panel. I used a brown pen to draw the line around the edge. The base of the card was made with some left over paper from MME and running my sewing machine around the edge with no thread in it. Last, I added some buttons, ribbon and another sentiment from the new set. Easy peesy!

Would you like to win the new Lovebots stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday December 31st with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Supplies
"My Heart Bursts..."
Stamps: There She Goes 'LoveBots'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Going Gray, Baha Breeze, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Distress Ink 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Basic Grey 'Nook and Pantry' and 'October Afternoon's 'Farm Fresh'
Access: PTI Bakers Twine, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Heart Button - Michaels, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals, Sponges

"My Love For You..."
Stamps: There She Goes 'LoveBots'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Going Gray, Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Distress Ink 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Grey 'Nook and Pantry', Bo Bunny and MME scrap
Access: Ribbon, PTI Button - Brown, PTI Half and Half Dies, Spellbinders Oval and Scalloped Oval Nesties, Heart Button - Michaels, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals, Sponges

Wanna Take A Spin??

2011-12-23T08:00:00.007-05:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

Are you ready for Christmas?? I managed to free up some time last night and put a small dent in our Christmas shopping list, but tonight's the grand finale for us. The Man and I are headed to the Mall after work. The closest mall to us is 1.5hrs away (yes, I live in the sticks) so we need our game on and eye on the prize(s) to get it done before closing time! Wish us luck!

Next week is release week for There She Goes and I'm sure it'll be like Christmas all over again! But before we show you a whole new bunch of stamps, we like to revisit some oldie but goodie stamp sets. It's a little something we like to call There She Goes (Again!)! This week's sets are Love Birds, Garden of Friends and Loads of Fun. This week, the Senior Trensetters have shared some old cards with you and today we've whipped up some new ones to share with you!

I chose the hilarious set, Loads of Fun! If you've never read any of the sentiments on this set, you need to! They're all puns on the mundane chore of laundry and they crack me up!

To make this card, I used last week's Deconstructing Sketch #31 (I'm about a week late!) for my layout, some paper from Crate Paper and some bling because even laundry needs some extra sparkle! ;)

I colored the machines in with some of SU's Soft Sky with my aquapainter brush, then I trimmed the cardstock, sponged the edges with Antique Linen distress ink and matted it to some Bitter Chocolate cardstock from Bazzil Basics. The patterned paper is from Crate Paper. I pretty much followed the sketch to a T, but kept the papers to a minimum - especially since they were so bold! Each layer was machine stitched to some Bazzil cardstock. The small scalloped edge was done with decorative scissors. The rhinestones were added, some embroidery floss was added to the center button and I created a banner for the sentiment to balance out the buttons on the top.

I hope I've inspired you to break out your older sets and create something new and fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I'm off to battle the last minute shoppers and wrap till I can't wrap no more! If I don't get back here before the big day, I just want to with you and your family a very Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Supplies

Stamps: There She Goes 'Loads Of Fun'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Soft Sky, Going Gray, More Mustard, Regal Rose, Old Olive, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PTI's Kraft Cardstock, PP - Crate Paper

Access: PTI Buttons - Brown, DMC Thread, Adhesive Rhinestones, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Sponges, Machine Stitching Dimensionals

Christmas Cookies Recipes!

2011-12-22T08:00:00.004-05:00

Hi there!

I'm so sorry I've been absent lately. With Christmas right around the corner, working full time and all the things that go with the holidays, I haven't had time for much else this week. I've also been working on a Christmas present that takes up all of my spare time. I'll share it with you after the holidays.

But as promised, I'm back with some more Christmas Cookie recipes! I tested these two out this past weekend and they were both a hit at the cookie swap. (The pistachio one, especially!)

Pistachio-Cranberry Cookies

Ingredients
Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 box (4 serving size) pistachio instant pudding and pie filling mix
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup dry roasted salted pistachio nuts, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
Optional - green food coloring

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl stir cookie mix, pudding, and flour. Add melted butter and eggs and stir until incorporated.

Add pistachios and cranberries and mix well.
Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. The only way you can ruin these cookies is to overbake them! If you bake them too long you will lose the soft texture and they won't be as green. They will not look done but take them out and let them sit on the pan for about 2 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Philadelphia S'More Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup colored sugar

Directions
BEAT cream cheese and butter in large bowl with electric mixer until well blended. Add granulated sugar and vanilla; mix well. Gradually add flour, beating well after each addition; cover. Refrigerate several hours or until chilled.

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes with 2-inch cookie cutters. Sprinkle half of the cookies with colored sugar. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets.

BAKE 12 mins or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 min. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

SPREAD bottom side of each plain cookies with 1 tsp. Jet Puffed Marshmallow Crème; cover with remaining sugared cookies, bottom-sides down, to form sandwiches.

DRIZZLE with 2 squares of Bake’s Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Men and Amazing Snickerdoodles!

2011-12-16T08:00:00.014-05:00

Hi everyone!

I'm back with a couple of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes!

I'm in the middle of a baking frenzy right now and these two recipes are my always on my cookie swap list! I think I stumbled on the Gingerbread Men recipe years ago while looking for something to bake with my little girl. These are more spicier than your average gingerbread man cookie, but that's the way I like my ginger men! ;)

I've probably made the Snickerdoodle recipe about a thousand times over the past two years. My family raves about them and The Man even asked me to whip up a batch for his work collegues! They never last more than a few days in our house, so you know they have to be good! :)

I hope you enjoy them just as much as we do!

Eileen's Spicy Gingerbread Men

Ingredients:
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg yolk
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; blend into the molasses mixture until smooth. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Frost or decorate when cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Annie's Eats Amazing Snickerdoodles

Yields: about 30 cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened but still cool

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar,

plus 3 tbsp. for rolling dough

2 large eggs
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon, for rolling dough

Directions:

1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until well combined, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs, and beat again until combined, about 30 seconds. Add in the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds.

2. In a small, shallow bowl, combine the 3 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon for rolling the dough. Stir or shake well to combine. Working with a heaping tablespoon of dough each time, roll the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place them on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Use a drinking glass with a flat bottom to gently flatten the dough balls to 3/4-inch thickness (butter the bottom of the glass before starting, and dip it in sugar between cookies if it begins to stick).

3. Bake until the edges of the cookies are beginning to set and the center are soft and puffy, 9-11 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

This weekend I'm baking Chewy Lemon Snowdrop cookies, Oreo Bark, Peanut Brittle, Soft Molasses cookies dipped in white chocolate! If you want me to share any of these recipes just let me know!

Have a great weekend!!

Wishing You Sparkle!

2011-12-15T08:00:00.007-05:00

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

So I did do some baking over the weekend, but not as much as I thought I was going to do. We detoured from the plan a little. Every year, around this time we like to head to the Yankee Candle factory (in Deerfield, MA) and we hadn't done it yet, so we took an impromptu trip out there last Saturday afternoon. They pull out all the stops for the holidays - every building is edge with twinkle lights and each room is fulled with festive music, lots of glitter and twinkle and as you can imagine, it smells like heaven! Ahhh..I'd love to work there!

This visit inspired me to pull out one of my favorite There She Goes Christmas sets and whip up a card with sparkle, glitter and a little bit of Santa!

I love the Season's Greetings set because of it's cute snowmen and whimsical Santas'! To start with, I colored up Santa using my reinkers from Stamping Up and my aquapainter brush. I used a combination of Regal Rose and Ruby Red for his coat and hat and some Going Gray for the shadows on his beard and trim. Then I cut him out with my precision scissors and added some Crystal Snow glitter to his body and the Christmas tree. Then, to make the card, I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch #147 for my inspiration and some more yummy paper from Basic Grey's Jovial Collection. Instead of ribbon, I chose to use some black lace. What do you think - maybe a little racy for dear old Santa?! Lace doesn't always have to be sexy does it? I needed something a little transparent, so I went with it. I pulled it all together with a button and jute twine from PTI. My other favorite thing about this set is the sentiments - I adore this one!

I promised I'd share a couple of my favorite cookie recipes with you all, so be on the look out for them tomorrow! Until then, have a good one!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Seasons Greetings'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Going Gray, Old Olive, Morning Marigold and Distress Inks 'Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Black and Kraft Cardstock, PP - Basic Grey's Jovial Collection
Access: PTI Button - Black, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Lace, Quickie Glue Pen, Stampendous Crystal Snow Glitter, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Ho Ho Ho!

2011-12-09T08:00:00.005-05:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

Well, this week didn't go as I had planned. I meant to make this card over the weekend and have it ready to show you by Tuesday, but as usual lately, life got in the way again and I barely made it into my craft room! Saturday was spent getting new tires for my truck (yay - no more loud road noise!) and we got our fresh Christmas tree. So the rest of the day was spent decorating it while sipping on hot chocolate. I probably could have spent some time stamping on Sunday, but the laundry and unfinished house projects beckoned. Home ownership has it's downsides too. ;)

I'm not going to lie to you...this card took me all week to complete! A half hour here, a half hour there! I have been feeling like my mojo has gone AWOL for months now, so I was hesitant to spend hours in my craft room getting no where. But, I think it might be back this week because this card isn't half bad! Nothing like a new stamp set to get the juices flowing again, right?! ;)

The only stamp set that managed to arrive at my house from the last There She Goes release was the little Ho Ho Ho mini set. But it was all I needed to play with! I paired it with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #146, some non-Christmas paper from October Afternoon's Modern Homemaker line and before you know it, I had a cute Christmas card on my hands! Wahooo! As with all my cards, Mr. Claus and Rudolf were colored with my SU reinkers and aquapainter brush. If you're like me and Copic's are out of your crafting budget, a drop of water and a little bit of ink go a long way to creating the same effect!

Any plans for the weekend? I am hoping to bake all weekend! I want to take some cookies over to our nice neighbors and take some to work next week. I'm trying out some new recipes too, so if they turn out well, I'll share them with you!

Have a great weekend sweet friends! And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Ho Ho Ho' mini set

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Going Gray, Curry Crush, Sahara Sand and Soft Sky, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Black and Kraft Cardstock, PP - October Afternoon's Modern Homemaker collection

Access: Spellbinders Circle Nesties, Fiskars Corner Punch, PTI Bakers Twine - Red, PTI Button - White, Machine Stitching, Paper Piercer, Sponges, Dimensionals

Seasons Greetings!

2011-12-02T08:00:00.009-05:00

How on earth did December get here so fast?!

I was just getting around to enjoying the Fall weather (after our very early snow fall) and then....WHAM!! It's December! And Christmas is around right around the corner! Eek! We usually have our Christmas tree picked out, chopped down and decorated by now, but it was unseasonably warm the weekend after Thanksgiving that I couldn't bare the thought of decorating for the new season. Now that it's a little colder and it IS December, we're heading out to get our tree this weekend. Even though it still feels too early, I do love this family tradition! :)

Oh! Before I forget; I'm so sorry for not posting anything last week! It was actually release week for There She Goes but unfortunately my stamps never arrived (darn USPS!), so I was unable to participate. I was so disappointed that it put me in a little funk because it was such a FABULOUS release! The girls did an awesome job of showcasing the new stamps that they sold out of every new set! Hopefully mine turn up soon so I can play with them too!

Since I don't have any new stamps to play with, I pulled out one of my favorite past sets this week.

I just love those pudgy snowmen!! So round and plump! They can be found in the Seasons Greetings set. I used last week's Deconstructing Sketch #28 for my layout. I'm a little late on this one but that's ok, it's all about being inspired, right? :)

To make this card I used paper from Basic Grey's Jovial collection and some gorgeous ribbon that I found at Michaels last year, which I've been hoarding ever since! Each panel was machine stitched with black thread. To create that scalloped detail, I used my corner punch with the guard removed to punch out the large scallops, then with my small scalloped decorative scissors, I followed the larger scallops around leaving about a 1/8" border showing.

Coloring the little snowmen was easy. Using my aquapainter brush, I used a combination of Distress Inks, working my way from the lightest color, Antique Linen, then Tea Dye then a little Vintage Photo for the darkest of shadows. Their hats and mittens were colored using SU's Dusty Durango and their scarves in Old Olive. The hearts were done in Regal Rose and then Ruby Red around the edges. Then I outlined them with SU's Soft Sky and sponged the edges with Antique Linen for a softer look. Last, but not least, I added some Crystal Snow glitter with a quickie glue pen. You can see the tiny twinkles in the detail photo below.

You should see how they sparkle in real life!

Thank you so much for popping in this week. I so appreciate it!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Seasons Greetings'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Ink 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo', SU's Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Old Olive and Dusty Durango'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI's Basic Black and Kraft, PP-Basic Grey's Jovial Collection
Access: Ribbon, PTI Buttons - Cream, Fiskars Corner Punch and Decorative Scissors, Stampendous Crystal Snow Glitter, Quickie Glue Pen, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Happy Bird Day!

2011-11-18T08:00:00.007-05:00

And a happy Friday to everyone too!

I've been busy taking training classes in some new software for work all week, and my poor brain is fried! Today's the last day of the training, and it's actually a lot of fun (I love being exposed to new things!) but I desperately needed a creative outlet! So I whipped up another card using the Birdie Wishes set from There She Goes again!

One of my favorite things about the There She Goes sets is that there are always a bunch of sentiments that you can choose from. The sets are so versatile and this one is no different! It has sentiments and images for Christmas cards (like I showed you on Tuesday) and for birthdays. It just so happens that I needed to make a birthday card for my sweet friend Mary, so I paired the Birdie Wishes set with some paper (that Mary gifted me!) from Crate Paper to create this simple card for her. Hopefully I can get out of classes early today to make it to the Post Office in time!

There are three older sets that are being showcased this week over at the TSG blog. Those sets are Penguin Love, Stick Together and....yep! You guessed it - Birdie Wishes! Today, the senior Trendies from the design team have created a whole bunch new cards using these sets for you to drool over, so I suggesting booking over to the TSG blog for a gander as soon as you can! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by this week! I hope you all have a lovely weekend - I plan on resting, and stamping!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Birdie Wishes'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Frayed Burlap'
Papers: PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate', PP - Crate Paper
Access: PTI Beautiful Blooms II Die, Spellbinders Labels Six Nesties, Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Paper Piercer, Basic Grey Brads-Jovial, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Cream Button, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Wishing Every Birdie...

2011-11-15T08:00:00.005-05:00

Good Morning!

Now that it has stopped snowing and raining around the New England area, we can get back to doing our Fall chores! We have a few 100 year old maple trees on our property, so you can imagine the amount of leaves they shed every year. It's a lot! This past weekend was all about raking them up, cutting back the wildflowers, mowing the lawn one last time and generally cleaning up before Winter hits. Every muscle in my body aches right now! Too much work in a short space of time. But it had to be done because who knows if we'll get a chance to tackle it again - this crazy New England weather has a mind of it's own these days!

One thing I did do over the weekend that was fun was make a card for this week's There She Goes Challenge #130. It's a recipe challenge this week and one that I think you'll like! Jessica is challenging you to create a card using a bird, a snowflake (it must have both images) and at least one kind of ribbon or button.

Not a hard recipe right? It's really easy if you have two sets particular sets from There She Goes! I used the cute little bird from Birdie Wishes and those almost transparent snowflakes were from the Stick Together mini set. I borrowed the layout from this month's Sketch For You To Try and the paper is from Memory Box.

I created the irridescent snowflakes using some Versamark Ink and some Crystal Snow Embossing Powder from Stampendous. Then I added some Crystal Twinkles to the center of the snowflakes to make them stand out a little.

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card using the recipe, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of the challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (November 21st). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG130 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Thank you so very much for stopping in today! Check back in on Friday - I feel a redo coming on! ;)

Supplies

Stamps: There She Goes 'Birdie Wishes' and 'Stick Together'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Cool Caribbean and Real Red, Versamark

Papers: PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PP - Memory Box

Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine, PTI Button-Brown, Stampendous Kaliedescope Embossing Powder, Crystal Twinkles, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Warming The Heart

2011-11-08T08:00:00.008-05:00

Good Morning!

I hope you all had a great weekend. I really didn't do much, but that was OK with me. Especially after last weekend's efforts! :) I have a hard time getting myself off the couch lately. I think it's a combination of our deep, comfy couch and the wood stove! But even though I'm 'vegging' out, I still manage to stay somewhat productive. I've been working on another cross stitch, which keeps my hands busy when I'm watching TV. I never just sit still. Just can't do it!

So I didn't get much done over the weekend, but I did work on a card last night. This week, There She Goes is sponsoring the Tuesday Morning Sketches challenge, and I love a good sketch!

Since it's getting colder around these parts, I pulled out the Wonderful Winter Wishes set, some fun patterned paper and whipped up this cozy little card! These colors aren't your typical winter colors, but I thought the season needed a little warming up! Actually, I was inspired by a card I did a long, long, long time ago! Have you ever gone back to look at the cards you did when you first started stamping? I almost shudder at those now, but I love to see how my style has evolved!

I created the base using some paper from Crate Paper's Snow Day Collection. I used the largest Labels 8 Nestie to create the cut out down the right hand side. Then I matted the left hand piece of patterned paper with some white cardstock and used my decorative scissors to create the border. Next I matted the two pieces to some Bitter Chocolate cardstock and machine stitched them together. The horizontal strip was done with a Labels 4 Nestie and the same decorative scissors. The cute little kids from the Wonderful Winter Wishes set were colored with my reinkers and aquapainter brush, then I sponged the edges of the panel with some Antique Linen Distress Ink. Lastly, I added the ribbon and some tiny crystal twinkles to finish it off.

If you'd like to play along with this week's Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge, then head over to their blog for all the details and give it a go!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Wonderful Winter Wishes'
Inks: Staz On 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Antique Linen'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PP - Crate Paper "Snow Day Collection"
Access: Spellbinders Labels Four Nestie, Spellbinder Labels Eight Nestie, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Crystal Twinkles , Ribbon, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Hi Friend!

2011-11-04T08:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

I came down with a cold last weekend, which I tried to ignore because I had a bunch of things on my to-do list that needed to get done. I spent most of Sunday doing a grocery run, laundry, hemming pants and baked about 100 cookies! The Man wanted to take some of my Snickerdoodle cookies to work since he'd raved about them, and the Little Ray of Sunshine had a Halloween party on Monday, so I had to make some ghost-shaped sugar cookies for the treat bags. I also ended up making some Mummie Dogs for the party. All of which pretty much wiped me out! So the last thing I felt like doing was staying up late in my craft room sneezing all over my paper! Ewww!

But I did feel a little better yesterday so I made this card for you!

One of my favorite sets from the recent There She Goes release is the cute, little FriendBot set! I have a bit of a thing for robot images and Torico really knows how to play up their cute factor!

I started this card by cutting a piece of PTI kraft cardstock to a standard 4.25"x5.5" size. Then I cut a piece of Sassafras Lass 'Apple Jack' patterned paper for the base and matted it with some black cardstock. Next, I cut a smaller strip of another piece of coordinating paper and also matted it with black cardstock, but this time I used my small scalloped decorative scissors and trimmed the edge. The bingo piece was cut using a Labels 4 nestie and lightly sponged with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. I punched the lined red paper with a corner punch and also matted it for more presence. Then I punched out a piece of graph paper from the same Sassafras Lass collection with my PTI eyelet lace border die and adhered it to the horizontal strip. Then I added the New Leaf Bakers Twine from PTI and tied it up with a button and a simple bow. Last, but not least, I colored up the two Bots with my SU reinkers, cut them out and popped them on the card with dimensionals.

If the layout looks familiar, you're absolutely right! It's this week's layout from Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #141. Love her layouts! :)

Thank you so much for stopping in today! Ooo! By the way, if you love TSG stamps, I will have a scrapbook page to share with you tomorrow on the TSG blog!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'FriendBots'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Going Gray, More Marigold, Really Rust, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Regal Rose
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft cardstock, PP - Sassafras Lass 'Apple Jack' Wee Bundle
Access: PTI Bakers Twine - New Leaf, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Spellbinders Labels 4 Nestibilities, PTI Button - Black, PTI Eyelet Lace Border Die, Dimensionals

TSG No Peeking Release Blog Hop!!

2011-10-27T08:00:00.013-04:00

Welcome back to Day Three of the There She Goes November releases! As I said yesterday, we've saved the best for last this month! I know you guys are going to love this set just as much as I do!

Have you ever wanted to make a Christmas advent calendar, but never had enough stamps to make one?? Well now you do!

Kids love to countdown the days until Christmas is finally here and with this new set illustrated by Torico, you are going to have just as much fun creating a countdown advent calendar! With 25 different adorable holiday images and two sets of numbers the possibilities are endless! To make this set even more useable, there are two decorative circles and two decorative squares that were designed to be used with a 1 3/8" punch!

No Peeking! is a 6x8 set that includes a total of 53 (yes, you read right!) stamps and will sell for $24.

For those of you who have been following my Pinterest boards, you know I've been on an advent calendar kick lately. I've pinned all sorts of styles, but the onesI kept gravitating towards, were the magnetic ones created using a cookie sheet. Yep! Those metal pans are more useful than you think!

How cool is this?? My 6 year old even gave it 2 thumbs up! To make this calendar, I started by drilling two holes in the top of the pan to tie the ribbon through. If you don't have any drill bits, I'd tape it to the back of the pan. Next, I spray painted the pan white. (Tip: Lightly sand the pan before you spray it, otherwise it will chip easily - like mine! Nothing sticks to Teflon, right?!). Then I cut various papers to size and adhered them to the inside of the pan. (Tip: Trim each layer so that you only have one layer in the center of the pan, so the magnets on the individual pieces will still work through the paper.) Then I rummaged through my stockpile of alphabet stickers and found enough to create a title. Now for the fun part! I stamped out the 25 Christmas images, colored them in, then I cut each one out with my precision scissors. Trust me - it's much more fun when you're sitting in front of the tv for this part! :) Then I stamped a combination of the square and circle panels onto some scrap patterned paper and punched them out with my punches. Then it was just a matter of stacking them, adding the numbers and adhering the magnets to the back of them! (Tip: I used a big, old Red Sox game schedule magnet from past years to mount my pieces to the pan. I just cut it into 25 pieces! It's a cheap alternative to going out and buying a magnet and you're recycling in the process!)

Would you like to win the new No Peeking! stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday October 29th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Here's the list of blogs you should definitely hit up!

Thank you so much for stopping by all week! Have a fantastic weekend!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'No Peeking'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', various SU colors
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - My Minds Eye, Cosmo Cricket, Scenic River
Access: Adhesive Stickers, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Dimensionals, Magnets

TSG Bon Appetit Release Blog Hop!!

2011-10-26T08:00:00.010-04:00

Good Morning and welcome to Day Two of the November There She Goes releases!!

We've whipped up a fantastic set for you all today! (Pun intended!)

Here's another fabulous set from Torico – she’s showing off her range of creativity! Whip us some delicious greetings with the new Bon Appetit set. From the succulent turkey to steamin’ hot pie create some mouthwatering table settings and pass down secret family recipes for generations to come. Compliments of Chef Torico!

Bon Appétit is a 4x8 set that includes a total of 31 stamps and will sell for $18.

Way cute, right?? When Jess showed us this set, I squealed at the sight of this little chef guy! I love him! (Don't tell The Man that!) I decided that he needed his own space on a card, so I came up with this elongated layout especially for him. I used a piece of October Afternoon's Farm Fresh paper that I've been hoarding for a while for the base. It was matted with some dark brown cardstock as well as some white cardstock, which I trimmed using my Fiskars ecorative scissors. Then I punched out the tag using PTI's Half & Half die set and stamped the sentiment (also in the set) and the fork in black ink. Then I just sponged the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink and matted it with some dark brown cardstock. (Tip: I use a pair of small precision scissors to cut around my Nesties and stamped images.)

The red gingham paper (also from the Farm Fresh paper collection) was trimmed with my pinking shears and dressed up with some red baking twine and a couple of buttons. Little chef guy was colored with my trusty aqua painter brush and SU reinkers.

Would you like to win the new Bon Appétit stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday October 29th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Here's a list of all the blogs you should definitely hit!

Thank you again for stopping by today! We have one more sneak peek for you tomorrow, and we've saved the best for last!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Bon Appetit'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Going Gray, Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Black Soot'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - October Afternoon 'Farm Fresh'
Access: PTI Half and Half Die Set, Fiskars Pinking Shears and Decorative Scissors, PTI Bakers Twine - Red, Buttons, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Autumn/Friendbots Release Blog Hop!!

2011-10-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

It's release week here at There She Goes and today is day one of the sneak peeks!!

You guys are going to love this month's sets! Jess has put together a great set of stamps perfect for all those festive occasions right around the corner! Shall we get started?! Lets do it!

The seasons are changing and it’s time to add some rich colors and beautiful leaves to our paper crafting projects! Autumn mini set has a bunch of different leaves each with a fun pattern that you are going to love to use!

Autumn is a 3x4 set that includes a total of 13 stamps and will sell for $7.

I think you guys are going to love this mini set! It's got lots of great leaf images with fun patterns on them, so they'll jazz up all your Fall cards! I stamped a few of the large leaves onto some stiff cardstock, cut them out and layered them on this simply stated card. I didn't want the patterned paper to detract from the leaves, so I chose some dots on dots paper by Bo Bunny as the backdrop and some old paper from Cosmo Cricket's Mr Campy collection. A little paper piercing and matting later, a quick and easy card ready for the season!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other set the Trendsetters and I are previewing today is this fun, little set from one of our favorite designers, Torico!

Torico brings us the techno savvy stamp set that everyone needs. We are living in an information age on an information planet so why not surprise your Friendbots with some automated cuteness. Let’s make it the age of interfacing with all your B.F.F.s!

Friendbots is a 3x4 set that includes a total of 5 stamps and will sell for $7.

Who doesn't love cute little robots?! I grew up watching the Jetsons and they were one of my favorite cartoons as a kid! Not that it was ever on tv as much as the Flintstones....but I digress... ;)

You know I just HAD to use Cosmo Cricket's Cogsmo collection for this card, right?! I mean, how could I not? I stamped out the little robot and his friend onto some Strathmore Bristol Vellum and watercolor colored them. After I cut them out, I added some Diamond Glaze to their eyes, so they'd stand out.

Would you like to win the new Autumn / Friendbots mini stamp sets? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday October 29th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.
To help you out, here's a list of blogs you'll need to visit:

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Tomorrow's sneak peek will whisk you away! ;)

Supplies:
Card 1
Stamps: There She Goes 'Autumn'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Distress Inks 'Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - Bo Bunny and Cosmo Cricket
Access: Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Paper Piercer, Dimensionals, Sponges

Card 3
Stamps: There She Goes 'FriendBots'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Buckaroo Blue, Ruby Red, Morning Marigold, Really Rust, Going Gray
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - Cosmo Cricket
Access: Fiskars Star Punch, Buttons, Spellbinders Labels Four Nestibilities, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

2011-10-21T08:00:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday everyone!

I, for one, am very happy it's Friday already! It hasn't been a trying week at work, but more of the mundane kind and I'm still tired from all that work I did on the cabinet project. I've been humming and ahhing over whether to add crown molding to the top of the cabinets. It would finish off the look so nicely, but it wouldn't leave me much room to put things (namely baskets) once they're up. I might take photos this weekend and have you help me decide! :)

All this week over at the There She Goes blog we've been shining the spotlight on a few older sets that are perfect for Fall. This sets are some of my favorites - Bountiful Blessings, Autum Mosaics and Gobble. There are card samples from the past, new tips and tricks PDF's that Jessica put together and today, the senior Trendsetters dug a little deeper and came up with a bunch of new cards for you to drool over!

Here's what I whipped up this week:

I used the Gobble set, together with this week's TSG126 partial image challenge and Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch SSSC139, to create this card. I also used one of the dies from the World's Best die set to create the banner. The scalloped border was created with some decoratived scissors (my go-to tools). I colored up the sign, cut it out and then threaded it through a slit I made at the top of the turkey's hand (or should I say wing?!). I needed something to fill in the negitive space to balance out the turkey image, so I created some sky (check out my tutorial here) to create some harmony.

I was seriously craving a Day After Thanksgiving sandwich after making this card! Bring on the turkey!! :)

I hope you have a fabulous weekend, whatever it is you're doing. We're headed to the Keene Pumpkin Festival.....should be a spooky good time! ;)

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Gobble' mini set
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Morning Marigold, Dusty Durango, Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Black Soot and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - Bitter Chocolate, PTI Kraft cardstock, PP - MME and Sassafras Lass
Access: There She Goes 'World's Best' die set, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Machine Stitching, sponges, Dimensionals

You Go Girl....Card Kit!

2011-10-19T08:00:00.008-04:00

I think I'm going to unofficially name these card kit posts to 'Random Card Wednesday' because every time my two girlfriends and I do a card kit together, we inevitably post our creations on a Wednesday! It's happened more times than not, so I dub thee....Random Card Wednesday! :)

This month's kit was lovingly put together by my dear friend Kadie. She obviously knew I needed a few cheers sent my way, because the stamped image she sent along is from MFT's A La Mode - All Star set!

I have been on a shopping hiatus ever since The Man restarted his career, so I have been avoiding window shopping in any of the stamp stores online. But I have seen these cuties all over blog land (darn you Blogger!) and I was soooo excited to play with one of them!

For this layout I used last week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #138 because Kadie sent along lots and lots of papers in her kit and I couldn't decide which ones to use! :) That ribbon was also from her kit and I created a little bit more thickness to it by using a edge punch and a little piece of scrap paper. Miss All Star herself was colored with my SU reinkers in Creamy Caramel for her face, Ruby Red for her pants and Not Quite Navy for her blue stripes. The sentiment was from Kraftin Kimmies Everyday Sentiments set.

Now, if you really want to see some FABULOUS cards, pop on over to my other sweet friend Mary as well as Kadie's blogs to see what they did with their kits! I know it's going to knock your socks off!

Thanks so much for popping in today!

Supplies
Stamps: MFT's 'A La Mode - All Star', Kraftin Kimmie Stamps 'Everyday Sentiments'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy, Dusty Durango, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Black Soot'
Papers: Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Ask Kadie!
Access: Ribbon, EK Success Edge Punch, Adhesive Rhinestones, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Dance Like No One Is Watching

2011-10-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

TGIF!!

I have been wishing it would be Friday already since Monday morning! A lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm working on the cabinet project for my laundry room, and I want it done already! But there's only so many hours in a day and most of mine are spent at work instead of what I want to be doing. Correction: What I NEED to be doing! I'll share the cabinet project with you once I'm done so you can see why I desperately needed storage in there!

Today however, I have a sweet, vintage card to share with you that was actually inspired by my laundry room project! My house was originally built in 1890 and I have been trying to decorate it with vintage thing and subtle colors. My laundry room has a soft blue/green color on the walls and the cabinets will be cream with a distressed finish. So that was my inspiration for this card!

First off, I used some old K&Company paper for the base. I distressed the edges and sponged with this a few Distress Inks. Then I machine stitched it to some kraft cardstock. Next, I added the vertical panel and distressed, sponged and stitched that to some white cardstock. Then I used my trusty decorative scissors for the edges of the white cardstock. I think this scalloped edge softens the look of any straight edge.

This week's Case Study Challenge #61 was to use fabric on your card, so, using StazOn ink, I stamped my favorite TSG sentiment from the Dance mini set onto some scrap linen fabric. Then I stitched it to some kraft cardstock and matted that to a couple of layers of cream cardstock. If you haven't guessed already, I used this week's Deconstructed Sketch #23 for my layout, and I went with lace for the three scalloped elements. (Fabulous sketch, by the way! I'm going to have to add this one to my go-to file!)

I tried my hand at one of those gorgeous paper flowers I see all over blog land, and this one turned out pretty good, I think! I used a page from an old book I got an an auction a while back and PTI's Beautiful Blooms II set to create it. Each layer was sponged with Antique Linen Distress Ink and threaded together with some thread. A brown button for the center completed the look! The leaves are also from the Dance stamp set and I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on kraft cardstock to create them.

This card came together pretty quickly, considering how much work each element was to create. I had the idea pretty much all planned out in my head by the time I got home from work yesterday, so that made it a lot easier to execute. Why can't this happen every time I make a card?! I'd love it if it would! :)

Got any plans for the weekend?? I've got some cabinets to make, paint and hang! :)

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Dance'
Inks: Staz On 'Timber Brown', Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, PTI Kraft and Cream Cardstock, PP - K&Company
Access: PTI Beautiful Blooms II. Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, PTI Buttons - Cream, PTI Rustic Button Twine - Cream, DMC Thread - Cream, Linen Fabric - Joanns, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG125 Sketch Challenge...Happy Haunting!

2011-10-11T08:00:00.011-04:00

Good Morning!

We had the most gorgeous Fall weekend ever! The weather was scorching (80deg in October is scorching for us!) and I basked in it for as long as I could stand. Actually, at one point, The Man thought I was nuts because it was so hot and I was standing in the sun, in my jeans, sanding cabinets! Even though I was overheating just a little, I couldn't bring myself to go indoors because I knew that sunshine wasn't going to stick around forever! I know some of you are with me on this one, right?? :)

This week's There She Goes Challenge TSG125 is brought to us by Trendsetter Jackie Rockwell and she has a fabulous sketch for us all!

If you got your hands on the Worlds Best Die set from the recent release, then it's going to come in handy for some of the elements on this sketch! If you didn't, then not to worry, you can easily create the same look with a pair of scissors and some circle punches.

I adore Halloween! So much so, that I usually skip decorating for Fall in September and break out my Halloween decorations instead! Fall decorations can wait until after October, as far as I'm concerned.

Which is why created a Halloween card this week - I've been in the mood for over a month now! :)

I broke out some of my coverted Graphic 45 Halloween paper from last year, as well as the Bugs and Hisses and Hauntingly Delightful sets and went to work! The banner tags and the medallion were created with the die from the Worlds Best die set. I stamped the cross onto one of them, then I added glitter to the edges of the banners by dipping them in glue first. I used my pinking shears to create the 'string' that holds up the banners. I added black buttons tied with a bit of PTI's Rustic Button Twine to add a bit of detail (and to cover up the overlap).

I sponged the base with Distress Inks (Tea Dye and Vintage Photo), then distressed the edges with my scissors, then sponged them again to get rid of the white edges. Then I matted it to some black card stock and machine stitched them together. I stamped the large cobweb from the Bugs and Hisses set in the corners and curved the Happy Haunting sentiment to mimic the 'string'. Loooove that acrylic stamps let us do that! Lastly, I stamped the little ghost from the Hauntingly Delightful set onto white cardstock, colored in his treat bag, then cut him out and popped him on the medallion with some dimensionals.

Here's a peek at what I did to the inside of the card....

Think you can do something with this sketch?? Well, here's what you need to know for this challenge...

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card using the sketch, and then go back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of the challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (October 17th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG125 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes Bugs and Hisses, Hauntingly Delightful
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Going Grey and Really Rust, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye, Antique Linen Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain'
Papers: White and Black cardstock, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Graphic 45
Access: TSG Worlds Best Die Set, PTI Buttons and Rustic Button Twine, Pinking Shears, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

2011-10-04T08:00:00.002-04:00

Good Morning sweet friends!

Did you have a good weekend? I hope it was sunnier in your part of the world than it was in mine. We had nothing buy clouds and rain all weekend. Part of me didn't mind because that meant putting off raking all those leaves in my yard! :) But the part of me which adores Summer, really didn't take it too well. Winter is too long here in the Northeast, so I hang onto it for as long as I can!

Maybe that's what inspired my card today?! Hmmm...

This week's There She Goes challenge is a color one - GREY and YELLOW. Funnily enough, I just finished painting my living room/dining room a nice warm gray (is it grey or gray?!) and the new tv stand is a harvest yellow color!

Since it was raining outside this weekend, I immediately gravitated towards the Under The Weather set, illustrated by Melyssa Connolly. And if you're saying you just saw me use these papers in my last card, you're absolutely right! The only papers I had in my stash that have the color combos I needed were in Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934! I swear I didn't see the challenge until only a couple of days ago!

They say that gray is the new go-to nuetral, and I happen to agree! Grey can be warm and soothing in the right shade. Pair it with yellow and it's adds a fun pop of color! So that's what I tried to create with this card. I used black as my other nuetral, as the challenge required (lets just assume white isn't a color, ok?!) The little girl was colored with my SU reinkers and aquapainter brush and I paper pieced her umbrella with some more scrap from the CC paper pack.

I've just realized that I buggered up this month's Sketch For You To Try! Can you see where?? Should have sketched it out somewhere, like a good little stamper. Oh well. You live and you learn.

Here's a close up for the layers on this card. If you spotted a bit of red peeking out from under the umbrella, you're not mistaken. I was going to paint it red, but decided against it at the last minute. It would have detracted from the rest of the card.

So does this challenge seem like something you'd love to have a go at??

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card using the inspirational colors (yellow, grey, +1 neutral) from the picture, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (October 10th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG124 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Thanks SO MUCH for stopping by today!!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Under The Weather'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, Really Rust, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye, Frayed Burlap and Black Soot'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Bling, Bazzil Basics, PP- Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934
Access: Fiskars Corner Punch and Decorative Scissors, Scissors, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Harvest Of Love

2011-09-30T08:00:00.006-04:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

I should have known this week was going to be one of those weeks by what I managed to accomplish last weekend....absolutely nothing! I procrastinated on just about everything and this week wasn't much different. I had good intentions of painting the rest of the stairway and making a fall banner and a card or two....but none of that happened. I think I'm coming down with a cold or something. For two weeks now I've been struggling with a congested ear and it's starting to get on my nerves! No other symptoms have presented themselves, just an ear that refuses to pop. A cold, I can deal with, no cold and a stuffed up ear...not so much! Grr!

Since it's still looking a lot like Fall around here (I'm hanging onto my summer as long as I can!), I made this Thanksgiving card to share with you all.

I used the cornucopia from the TSG's Bountiful Blessings set and paired it with some different papers this time around. I'm still all about using up what I have, so I pulled out some of Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 paper which worked really well with the yellows and oranges in the image. I can't decide whether I love the character sets or the realistic sets from TSG's - they're both great for coloring up! Even with my medium of choice - watercoloring! The image was colored up with a bunch of SU reinkers. The base was done in Sahara Sand and the blue around the image was Cool Caribbean. Each panel was sponged with some Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Ink and machine stitched to some cardstock.

TSG is sponsoring this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, so if you want to win yourself a gift certificate to the TSG webstore, then get cracking and whip a card! My layout is based on this week's sketch.

I promise (ok, I really, really hope) to be a little more organized next week and have a few things to share with you...including another project I worked on for the house!

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend and stay warm my friends!

Supplies

Stamps: There She Goes 'Bountiful Blessings'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU's Creamy Caramel, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Sahara Sand, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - Cosmo Cricket 'Circa 1934' and a scrap of MME
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine and Cream Button, Ribbon, Fiskars Corner Punch, Spellbinders Oval Nestie, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG World's Best Stamp and Die Blog Hop!!

2011-09-22T00:01:00.015-04:00

Welcome to the last blog hop for the October TSG Releases!

This versatile and fun stamp set with coordinating Dies available, is the first in a series! With amazingly detailed flowers, ribbons and sentiments, you’ll be celebrating ALL of the important people in your life! The line art and solid images allow for stamping only or coloring, while the tails and ribbons can easily become stems. The circle image coordinates with a 1.25" circle punch. With so many design possiblilities, this is a must have stamp set for your collection. Co-illustrated by Melyssa Connolly and Jessica Knutsen.

World’s Best is a 6x8 sized stamp set that includes 58 images and will sell for $24.

I love how easy it is to make these medallions now! Although, I had to challenge myself a little by creating a 3D version! (I like to make things difficult for myself!) I stamped and die cut two of the medallions out on some scrap MME patterned paper. Then I trimmed the 'looped areas' of the image off and adhered the other medallion to the bottom of that one. the I popped the middle sentiment on dimensionals to give the image some depth. Then I just curled the tails of the medallion and adhered them. Here's a close up of all the layers in the medallion. I cased former Trendsetter (and my idol) Kim Teasdale's awesome card for my layout.

To make your dies more versatile and useable, Jessica and Melyssa have designed this 5 piece die collection - a must-have addition! The Prize Ribbon/Flower dies fit all of the coordinating stamp images from World’s best. You can make flowers with with stems and leaves or celebrate your child’s first spelling test with a prize ribbon cut from the same dies. Layer the ribbon with a 1.25" punched circle for more layering possibilities. The 5 dies come as one unit making storage a breeze (I broke mine apart - shhhhh! Don't tell the boss lady!).

World’s Best Die is a set of 5 dies with the largest die measuring at 1.75 in. in diameter and will sell for $14.50.

Would you like to win the World’s Best stamp set and World’s Best die? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in this blog hop challenge and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s World’s Best stamp set / World’s Best die Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday September 24th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Thank you all for stopping by this week! Have a fabulous weekend and I'll hopefully see you all at the release party!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'World's Best'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Bazzil Basics, PP - My Minds Eye
Access: There She Goes 'Worlds Best Die Set', Ribbon, PTI Button - White, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Spellbinders Oval and Scalloped Oval Nesties, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Bugs and Hisses & the new Spider Web Die Blog Hop!!

2011-09-21T00:01:00.010-04:00

Welcome to the second day of the October There She Goes Blog Hops!!

You're going to freak when you see what the girls and I have to share with you today!! We warned you that this month was going to be HUGE!! I just want to squeal with excitement!!

Halloween is a favorite crafting holiday, and Torico has made the celebration even easier with this cleaver and fun stamp set. With solid, as well as line art images, backgrounds and Halloween fun will be had with this stamp set. 4 different tree sizes, two houses, ghosts, bats, spiders , pumpkins and fabulous sentiments are just a few examples of what’s included in this “Hauntingly Delightful” companion set.

Bugs & Hisses is a 6x8 sized stamp set that includes 35 images and will sell for $24.

Get ready to celebrate the season with the hauntingly fabulous Spider Web Border Die. With holes to make punching out the pieces easier, this is an easy to use and adorable die that will spice up any crafting project!

Spider Web Die is .625" tall and 6" wide and will sell for $10.
Did I not tell you this was going to be HUGE?!?? And what better die to start your TSG die collection off with than a perfectly spooky Halloween border?! I used mine on some black glitter paper and with an extra piece of cardstock in the Cuttlebug sandwich, it came out perfectly!

Would you like to win the Bugs & Hisses stamp set and Spider Web die? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in this blog hop challenge and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Bugs & Hisses / Spider Web Die Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday September 24th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Thanks for stopping by today!! See you tomorrow - same time, same place!

TSG Follow Your Bliss/BOL Holiday Additions Blog Hop!!

2011-09-20T00:01:00.008-04:00

Welcome to the first TSG Blog Hop for the October releases!!

We're also celebrating TSG's 3rd birthday, so you know this is going to be one, HUGE party!! I can't wait for you to see what Jessica and the girls have in store for you all!

Di has created another gorgeous addition to her wildly popular Build a Scene stamp sets. With stone and ivy walls, gorgeous little puppies and kitties, and uplifting, heart-felt sentiments, this stamp set is fabulous alone or paired with any of the other Designs by Di stamp sets.

Follow Your Bliss is a 4x6 sized stamp set that includes 19 images and will sell for $15.

This is is so sweet! And the best part is that this set works so well with all of Di's sets! I can just picture this with the little bear from Back In Ten or the fairies from The Fairy Best, can't you? For this card I used six of the stamps in the set to create this scene. Di's stamps lend themselves so well to my medium of choice - watercoloring! I love that!

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Acorns, leaves, pumpkins, gingerbreads are just some of the gorgeous images added to the "Buckets of Love-Holiday Additions" stamp set. Coordinate the bountiful holiday images with the different buckets from "Buckets of Love" to create gorgeous fall and winter holiday décor. Torico’s additional sentiments will be sure to finish off your creation perfectly!

BOL Holiday Additions is a 4x4 sized stamp set that includes 14 images and will sell for $10.

Not only does this set work in tandem with the Buckets Of Love set, I wanted to show you how well it works with some of the other sets from TSG. I used the Just For You set to create this little centerpiece on my card. My favorite thing about the TSG sets is that they all work with at least a couple other sets, so you get more value out of each set.

Would you like to win the Follow Your Bliss and BOL Holiday Additions Stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in this blog hop challenge and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Follow Your Bliss / BOL Holiday Additions Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday September 24th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Supplies
Card 1
Stamps: There She Goes 'Follow Your Bliss'
Inks: SU's Creamy Caramel, Going Gray, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, PP - My Minds Eye
Access: Spellbinders Labels One Nestie, PTI Button and Rustic Button Twine, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Card 2
Stamps: There She Goes 'BOl Holiday Additions' and 'Just For You'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', SU Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Regal Rose, Morning Marigold, Going Gray, Distress Inks 'Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Gray 'Jovial Collection'
Access: Fiskars Decorative Scissors, PTI Bakers Twine, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Happy 3rd Birthday TSG!! (And A Giveaway!)

2011-09-17T10:00:00.005-04:00

Just wanted to remind everyone that the TSG Birthday Bash is still going strong!

There's a ton going on, like the riddle challenge this week, and I don't want anyone to miss out winning any of the fabulous prizes being given away! All month long TSG is celebrating and today I have a little surprise for you!!

**You have until October 1st to comment on this post and still be entered into the drawing for a FREE MINI STAMP SET!**

I wouldn't be a very good host if I didn't give you something to comment about right?! So I whipped up this card last night to help you out! ;)

I pulled out the Wrapped in Joy set because nothing screams birthday more than this set! As usual, I colored the little girl with my reinkers and aquacolor brush. Then I cut her out and popped her on a Labels Eight nestie that was sponged and machine stitched. Then I used my newest toy - the Half and Half die set from PTI to create that long tag. Then I added some bakers twine, a button and a sentiment (also from the set) and voila - one birthday card fit for a Trendie! :)

Don't forget to leave a comment today!! I want you to win that mini set!!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Wrapped In Joy'
Inks: StazOn Black, SU Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Curry, Going Gray, Dusty Durango
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics, PP - My Minds Eye and Crate Paper
Access: PTI Bakers Twine, Button and Half and Half Die Collection, Spellbinders Labels Eight Nestie, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

From Drab to Fab!

2011-09-16T08:00:00.005-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all made it through the week relatively unscathed. :)

One of the projects I worked on last weekend was updating a Jacobean style side board that The Man picked up at a local auction this past summer. I think I was away on a work trip because he usually buys big pieces when I'm not around! He wasn't sure if I liked it but he decided to take a chance because "it has nice legs". Hahaha!

I wish I had a before picture for you, but as usual, it was covered in paint before I remembered to take one. If you can imagine a dry and brittle piece with veneer chipped off everywhere and the top veneer missing off of it, then you've got a pretty good idea of what it looked like.

Having only ever done two other distressed pieces before this one, I was a little nervous as to how this one would turn out. But I knew those legs would look sensational after a bit of distressing and a coat of wax! I painted three coats of Benjamin Moore's Vapor on it before sanding it down and distressing the edges.

Then I applied a coat of dark walnut wax paste all over the base, waited a few minutes then rubbed it down with a dry cloth. The wax does a really good job of darkening the exposed wood areas as well as protecting the painted finish. I hit some of the detailed areas twice since I wanted those areas to look a little darker.

Considering how rough this top was before we started, I'm so surprised how awesome it turned out! This piece was missing it's finish piece of veneer, so what I had to work with was a top that had a wide black streak up the middle of it. Not very pretty! So I thought that staining the top with an ebony wood stain would blend the two different areas together - wrong! It didn't do much at all. So then I found some left over black satin oil based paint from Old Village sitting in my cabinets. I haven't used it since I bought it 6 years ago, and I should have shook the can a lot more than I did because it went on like tar! Three days later is still wasn't dry. Yes three whole days later! Note to self: Self, never use old paint!

I had lost my patience with the top, so I pulled out my palm sander and went to town on that thick, black goop...I mean, paint. It clogged up every piece of 40 grit sandpaper I had, but it was coming off! After getting most of it off, I sanded the rest by hand then applied a couple of coats of the dark walnut wax paste to bring out the wood grain. It's not perfect by any means, but it will do until I find a replacement. :)

Considering what it used to look like, I think it turned out beautifully! Do you want to know what The Man paid for the piece? $20? $40? It was a steal for $12! Add the sample pot of paint and all up, we only paid $19 for it! Love a good bargain! :)

One of my favorite finds of this summer was the blog of Miss Mustard Seed. She's a fabulous fountain of knowledge and creativeness and she inspired me to tackle this project. So I'm linking my first ever furniture post to this week's Furniture Feature Friday!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...Fall!

2011-09-14T08:00:00.010-04:00

Good Morning!

How are you all this week? Good, I hope!

We had another jam packed weekend with birthday parties and company picnic's to attend. Syd bought herself some Lego sets with the money she was hoarding from her birthday and had a lot of fun building with them. Hubby scraped, spackled, sanded and painted more of the living room. We didn't notice until after we moved in that one of the previous owners did a horrible job painting the walls. They left 2-ft long drip marks above all the windows and painted over unsanded spackle! We couldn't spend our hard earned money on paint only to leave the walls this way, so we've been repairing them as we go. So it's turning out to be a longer project than we anticipated but I remedied that yesterday. I invited our old apartment neighbor over for dinner Friday night! Nothing like a deadline to get things moving along! Haha! We just work better under the gun. ;) I also managed to finish off a project I should have started at the beginning of the summer. I'll share it with you all on Friday.

On top of all that, I made it back into my craft room again! Woohoo! Go me! :D
Since Hurricane Irene passed through these parts, the Maple trees on our property have dropped a lot of their leaves, so we've gone from mowing the lawn every weekend to blowing and racking the leaves every weekend! Yay....not. I keep telling myself it's all part of the charm of living in the New England area. Some days I believe it. Anyway, this is what inspired me to use the Autumn Mosaic set from There She Goes for this card.

Basic Grey's Pryus Collection reminds me a lot of Fall, so I grabbed some of it as well as this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #134 and got to work. I watercolored the tree with some SU inks and my aquapainter brush, then cut it out with a nestie from the Labels Two set, then sponged the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink. Then I matted the panel with some Bazzil Basics cardstock in Bitter Chocolate (my go-to color). The horizontal strip another piece of the Pyrus paper, sponged and machine stitched to some cardstock which was trimmed with some small scalloped decorative scissors. I used some lace for the scalloped part of the sketch and tied it all together with some jute rustic twine from Papertrey Ink. Lastly, I added the two buttons and spritzed the whole thing with some of my favorite glimmer mist from Tattered Angels.

I hope you're having a wonderful week!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Autumn Mosaic'
Inks: Cool Caribbean, Old Olive, Really Rust Dusty Durango, Creamy Caramel, Moring Marigold, Antique Linen
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, Basic Grey's 'Pyrus Collection'
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine and Buttons, Spellbinders Labels Two Nesties, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist 'Pearl', Lace, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSGBDAY4...In The Spotlight!

2011-09-08T06:00:00.010-04:00

Good Morning sweet peeps!!

I'm finally back in my craft room again and boy does it feel good! I really want to thank everyone for sticking with me while I had a little time off. It was the right thing to do for me and my family. I think we all need a to switch gears every now and then right? :)

So how are you all? Did you have a good summer? We had a fabulous one! It was jam-packed full of house projects, outings, visits from family and gorgeous weather. I'll tell you more about it later but for now I need to share with you all the fun things going on with one of my favorite stamp companies, There She Goes!

This month we're celebrating TSG's 3rd birthday with fun challenges on the TSG blog all week long. Prizes are being given for each of those challenge days! This week is Paper Doll week! If you'd like to play along with us, Corrina created a fabulous paper doll tutorial for everyone and they couldn't be easier to make! Yesterday's challenge was all about getting some fresh air and exploring the great outdoors. Today is about being in the spotlight!

There are a handful of woman who I think shined in the spotlight and one of those ladies is none other than the Blonde Ambition herself - Marilyn Monroe! This little girl, from our own Senior Trendsetter and Illustrator, Iwona Palamountain's first set, Happy Mail, looks like a star in the making. :)

Being in the spotlight is all about glamming it up, so I decided to glamify (is that even a word?!) this card up! I used some older paper from Die Cuts With A View's La Creme matstock. Then I matted the base piece and the circle with some yummy glitter paper from Michaels (love that stuff!). The other layers were matted with plain black cardstock. Then each piece was sponged with Distress Inks and stitched together. I created that inverted circle border on the center piece with my cheapo decorative scalloped scissors. No nesties here!

The layout is this month's Sketch For You To Try. I {heart} these sketches! I eased myself back into watercoloring again since I only had to color up her face, arms, legs and hair! Good plan hey? Glad I thought of it! lol I paper pieced her dress with some scrap My Minds Eye Paper, cut her out and voila - a quick and easy paper doll!

To be eligible for the giveaway today, you are to take a picture of your paper doll in a spotlight setting of your choice. Then, add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of the challenge post.

This challenge winner is going to open to public voting so make sure you use your creativity!!

Today's Paper Doll challenge is open until Sunday, September 11 at 5pm EST. Winners for all challenges during the Paper Doll week will be posted on Monday, September 12. The winner for each day's challenge will get a $10 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your Paper Doll to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSGBDAY4 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Thank you SO much for stopping by today! Have a good one!

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Mail (There She Goes)
Inks: SU's Creamy Caramel and Pretty In Pink, Distress Inks (Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo)
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, DCWV "LaCreme Matstock", Bazzil Basics, Recollections Glitter Paper
Extras: Recollections Adhesive Rhinestones, Spellbinders Circle Nesties, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Have you heard the news?!

2011-09-03T06:56:00.007-04:00

There's a fabulous new group of Trendsetters in town!
And I'm heading back to my stamp room!
Wahoooo!

Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

2011-05-23T00:01:00.019-04:00

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Jessica,...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

It's Jessica Knutsen's birthday today and the TSG girls thought they'd put on an INKY and FABULOUS BLOG HOP for her! Waahoooo!If you've stopped here from the UBER talented Piali's blog, then you're on the right track, but if you haven't and would like to wish our dear friend well on her special day, then head on over to Senior Trendsetter, Angela Thomas's blog to start the birthday hop there.

I wouldn't dream of not participating in a hop for my sweet friend Jess. She really is a fabulous lady and a pleasure to work for. I decided to use the Wrapped In Joy set for Jess's card because I can't get enough of Torico's sweet sets! I borrowed this month's Sketch For You To Try for my layout and some of my favorite My Minds Eye paper.

THANK YOU Jessica for all you do for us rubber addicts!! WE LOVE YOU!

Your next stop along this birthday hop is the INKY and FABULOUS Tammy's blog!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Wrapped In Joy'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede, Regal Rose, Dusty Durango, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP- My Mind's Eye Paper
Access: Ribbon, Spellbinders Circle Nestibilities, Sponges, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

There She Goes Mother Of All Blog Hops!

2011-05-07T00:01:00.014-04:00

Hello and welcome to the 2nd annual Mother Of All Blog Hops for There She Goes!!

There are so many stamp sets in the There She Goes line up now, that we needed another HUMONGOUS blog hop to show them all off! If you've stopped here from the sweet blog of Meredith's, then you're on the right track! But if you've just stumbled here from anywhere else and would like to join us today on this AWESOME hop, then pop on over to the There She Goes blog and start your journey there. I hear there are some fabulous prizes being given away, so you might want to play along today!

I chose to use one of my favorite mini sets for this hop. It's called Angel Mail and it's sentiments are so near and dear to my heart.

There are 3 sentiments in this set; each one as encouraging as the next. I went with this one because it's my favorite out of the three.

I wanted this card to be as warm and caring as a hug, so I dug through my scrap drawer looking for some warm colored patterned paper. I found these from Bo Bunny and Crate Paper. I also used an old Mojo Monday sketch (#170) as well as a flower from Prima, lace from Joann's and wrinkled ribbon from May Arts. I stamped the sentiment with StazOn onto cardstock and cut it out with the Spellbinders Labels One nestie. Then I sponged the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink and applied glitter to the edges with a Quickie glue pen. Those angel wings are from the mini set too! I stamped, colored and cut them out, then spritzed them with some Pearl Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels for a little bit of sparkle. Don't all wings sparkle?! Because the card was so top heavy, I added some stitching detail to the bottom of the card to try balance it out a little.

For a mini set, Angel Mail is a must have for anyone's collection!

Thanks SO much for hopping with us today!
Your next stop is.....Jess Willison!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Angel Mail Mini Set'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Paper Tray Ink 'Vanilla', Bazzil Basics, PP - Bo Bunny and Crate Paper
Access: Spellbinders Labels One Nestibilities, Prima Flowers, May Arts Wrinkled Ribbon - Cream, Lace (from Joann's), DMC thread, Stampendous Glitter - Snow, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Can You Dig It?!

2011-04-20T08:00:00.007-04:00

Happy Hump Day everyone!

I'm back with a special card kit that's been month's in the making! My dear friend Mary sent Kadie and I a card kit a long while back and we've been so busy with other things in life that we never got around to creating or posting a card with it...until today!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good laugh, so when I opened Mary's card kit and saw this guy for the first time, I busted out laughing in my craft room! And anyone who knows Mary, knows that she loves a good play on words! What a riot this guy is!

His name is Zed and he's from the set of Creatures II stamps from Starving Artistamps - one of mine and Mary's favorite stamp companies! As usual, I colored him up with my reinkers and aqupainter brush using SU's Cool Caribbean. Then I cut him out popped him on dimensionals. The base of the card was created using the papers from Mary's card kit. She said the papers were from Prima and I think I might have to use them again on another card soon, because they're so funky! The buttons and ribbon were from Mary's kit too. If the black cardstock looks like it has a bit of sparkle to it; it's because it does. I haven't replenished my cardstock stash in a while, so the only black paper I could find was the black glitter paper I had left over from all my Halloween cards! Waste not, want not! :) If the layout looks familiar, it's because I borrowed the sketch from Jen's i{heart}2stamp April challenge.

I hope you enjoyed my card today! I'm off to check out what Mary and Kadie have created using the same supplies! You should too!

Thank SO MUCH for stopping by today!

Supplies
Stamps: Starving Artistamps 'Creatures II'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Cool Caribbean, Baha Breeze, Distress Inks 'Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Bling, PP - Not sure, ask Mary! :D
Access: Ribbon, Buttons, Thread, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Bathroom Redux Done! (Well, almost)

2011-04-13T08:00:00.010-04:00

Good morning sweet, sweet friends!

Have you missed me?! I sure have missed you all! My inbox has been so quiet these days without all of your comments filling it up. :( But I finally have something to show you all today! The fruits of my labor, so to speak! We have finally finished our bathroom makeover and we couldn't be any happier with it! I have lots of photos to share with you all, so grab yourself a pot of coffee, a teabag or two and get comfy! :)

Before we get started, you should know what the bathroom looked like before we went to town on it. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of the room before The Man started painting, so the only photo I have of it was the one the appraiser took before we bought the house.

It was never a bad looking bathroom, but for me, coming from a design background, the caramel walls were fighting for attention with the navy roman shades and the granite vanity countertop was getting lost in the shuffle. So we lightened the wall color, changed out the valance and made it look a little more like a country bathroom should!

I {heart} this bathroom! It's clean, simple and relaxed. Just as a bathroom should be. The vanity and granite countertop were already in the bathroom when we bought the house, but it had chrome drawer pulls and knobs which didn't suit the 1890 farmhouse. So I changed out the hardware for some oil rubbed bronze (ORB) ones. The vanity lighting was also chrome, so we bought this pretty fixture which matches the faucet set we will eventually buy for the vanity. (We're waiting for the price to drop again!) Can you make out the mason jar liquid soap dispenser? I love that piece!

The original mirror was large, rectangular and boring. We bought this oval mirror at Home Depot for $18 and mounted it off the wall to give it more of a presence. Don't you LOVE that jug?! I had been searching all over for a reasonably priced ironstone jug, but they are out of my price range right now, so when I saw this beauty (which matches my Waverly valances!) at Target for $13! Sold! :) The soap dish is actually a silver plated dish I found at a local antique store. I love using old things in a new way!

This artwork is really cool and a totally unexpected piece for a bathroom, but that's what I like about it! Last summer, we bought the frame at a garage sale for $8 and the artwork is an old magazine advertisement we found at a antique consignment shop in Vermont.

I bet you don't have a scale like that in your bathroom! LOL! I didn't think we'd ever have one like that either, but after one night at a local auction, The Man turned up with one and it found it's way into our bathroom. It works too! Who am I to say no to letting him put his stamp on this room?! He's got to live here too. :)

When we bought the house, a dear friend of the family let us go shopping in her garage for things we might be able to use and when I spied her Waverly curtains, I knew I could use them! It's has a nice, vintage look to it and it just works in this bathroom. Every room needs a little greenery, so I added this wicker wall planter. See that hand towel? Can you guess what's holding it up??

Yep! It's this old door knob and backplate! How cool is that?! Did I mention that I love the unexpected in a room? The backplate was purchased at the antique store I told you about earlier and we found the knob in a box when we bought the house. It's amazing how well they go together! This is a working door knob because I cut the entire piece, including the wood off a broken door we had in the shed. There's probably a few carpenter's screaming a few choice words in my direction now, but hey - a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

It wouldn't be a country bathroom without an old ladder in it! This old painters ladder now has a new life as my towel rack. And just in case my little girl can't resist the urge to climb the thing, I attached it to the floor and wall for more safety. :)

The original shower curtain rail was your typical metal tubing with metal rings. But with all the vintage things in the room, I couldn't bring myself to put that rod back up there, so I used a wood curtain rail and wood drapery rings instead. It gives the room so much more warmth than the old metal rod! I made the shower curtain myself. I had to add some ruffles to it! There's a second curtain on the inside so the ruffled one is just for looks. But ain't she pretty?! :)

This curio cabinet is what started it all. We found it at a neat, little folk art store in Fitzwilliam, NH and at $45, it's probably the most expensive thing in the room! I love all it's chippy paint and the glass side walls it has. It's just a neat piece!

The Man rolled his eyes at me when this toilet roll holder turned up in the mail. He couldn't believe I bought it but honestly, with all the other interesting things in the room, I really couldn't bring myself to buy a standard, run of the mill holder after what I used for the towels! Behind the main door to the bathroom is a huge closet which houses all our candles and miscellaneous bathroom stuff. There was no door on this closet when we bought the house, so we found a louvered bifold door on Craigslist and used it as two doors on the closet. Since we're not keeping any linens in this closet, we decided to put the cat's litter box on the floor of it so it would keep it out of sight. Great idea right?! Well, The Man decided the cat needed his own bathroom makeover too...

He got some carpeting, and some floor and wall accessories to boot! LOL He's a funny man that husband of mine! Well, what do you think? Did we do a good job? We love it and now I think this bathroom fits this old house. :)

Next up, we're tackling the utilitarian laundry room which you have to walk through to get to this bathroom. It needs to be warmed up too!

Hugs, Sandra

MIA...for good reason!

2011-03-07T08:00:00.007-05:00

Good Morning Sweet Peeps!

I hope your weekend was perfectly relaxing! We spent ours visiting a few antique stores in the area. I found some awesome pieces we've been after for our bathroom makeover! One was a small silver dish to put my soap in and a decorative door knob back plate to dress up a very ornate door knob we found in the shed of our house. I'm going to piece them together and use it for a hand towel hook/holder! It's a little unusual, I know but when you live in a 1890's farmhouse, a little unusual goes a long way. :) I also managed to find an old apple tree ladder. Can you guess what I'm going to use it for? Did you guess for my bath towels? Then you guessed right! The Man and I gave it a good sanding and stained it so that it matched some of the other wood pieces we have in the bathroom. I spent Sunday sewing a shower curtain which I didn't quite finish since I decided to add some ruffles to the top of them, but ran out of fabric! Bugger.

I promise I'll share photos with you next Monday! We're waiting on a light fixture we ordered online to come in and once that's up, the room will look more complete. The only things that still need doing in there, but we're saving our pennies for, are new faucets for the sink and bathtub. The sink has chrome ones which don't match and the tub fixtures have been broken since we bought the house. I'd also love to add crown molding to the room, but since it's not needed to 'finish' the room, it can wait. I am a patient woman. :)

Anyway, long story short, all these little projects around our house is why I haven't been making any cards lately. Some of you may have noticed that I (temporarily) stepped down from the There She Goes team. Even though it pained me to do so, I had to in order to free up more time to work on our house. So over the next handful of months, I will be MIA on my blog a bit. In between projects, I will no doubt be coloring up images and making cards for them to adorn. :) I hope you all understand my short absence and can hold on until the fall when I hope to be back sharing lots of cards with you again! In the meantime, I will pop in updating you on our progress and maybe even an Etsy Friday Find with you all!

Until then, here's a little photo of the place we're starting to call home.

(((hugs)))
Sandra

Etsy Friday Finds

2011-03-04T08:00:00.008-05:00

Good Morning!

Well, I didn't get back to my craft room this week. It's been pretty cold here in the New Hampshire and I've been trying to keept he wood stove going each night. But while I've been sitting by the fire, I've been wandering all over Etsy enjoying all the green that has been popping up! Spring has to be on it's way! There's something for everyone today!

Petek Design
Really loving the graphics on this poster! Soo striking!

Miss Mossy
Not sure why you'd need a tea light on top of this terrarium, but I sure love it's shape and colors! Would look great on my bathroom window sill!

A Piece By Denise
Genius!! Pure genius!! Only one request though - can I get this to fit a giant cookie please?! :)

Hogan Fe
Oh how the clean colors and lines of this fabric container speaks to me! Looooving that flower!

Maple Creek Soap
I know one little munchkin who'd love to play with this dino in the shower! ;) Two of them would be a partayyyy!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! I'm hoping to get outside this weekend and hit a couple of antique stores. I need to find a vintage apple tree ladder! :D

No Wonder You're Late!

2011-03-02T08:00:00.005-05:00

I'm late! I'm late for a very important date!

Truth be told, I'm not late at all. I can't help think of this line whenever I read this particular sentiment from There She Goes's newest set - Good Times!

Hello peeps! Did you miss me? I was busy cleaning the house all weekend that left me no time to stamp. But that's not a bad thing considering all that I got done. Spring cleaning started early in the MacLean household! I made The Man clean out his clothing closet. He was using it as a giant dirty laundry hamper, so I made him clean it up. (Seriously, why can't they ever find the actual hamper?!) Then I reorganized the linen closet and hung the louvered doors we bought on Craigslist for the closets. That dominoed into cleaning the attached shed/unfinished area of the house, so I could at least walk in there again! It was a very productive weekend and I'm glad we tackled it now and not in the summer time, when it's the last thing I want to do!

Anyway. enough about me, back to why you popped in! :)

I whipped up this card this week using the Good Times set from TSG because after seeing all the eye candy from release week, I had to revisit this set and use the two bunnies on a card because the girls did SUCH a great job with them!

I wanted to make this one a much more lighter and brighter card than my last one, so I pulled out some papers from Basic Grey's Kioshi collection and borrowed the layout from this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch #106. I added some adhesive pearls for the circle elements and colored up the clock from the set for the smaller, scalloped element. I still don't own the small scallope circle nesties from Spellbinders, so what I use instead is my ever faithful Fiskars decorative scissors to do the job. Sometimes my first and last scallop don't always line up, so I usually start the cut in a place where I know it will be hidden - like under the sentiment banner. I may not have the latest stuff, but I sure know how to use what I have got to the fullest! :)

Ok, well that's it from me today. I'm hoping to play again in my craft room tonight and whip up another card for you. I desperately want to play with all the unused stamps I have piling up!

Have a good one!!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Good Times'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose, Buckaroo Blue, Cool Caribbean, Old Olive, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Basic Grey Kioshi Collection
Access: Kaiser Crafts Adhesive Pearls, Machine Stitching, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Sponges, Dimensionals

Claudia & Company First Ever Customer Blog Hop!!

2011-02-25T10:00:00.008-05:00

Hello and Welcome to Claudia and Company's first ever Customer Blog Hop! We’re so excited to have you join us!

Today Claudia and Company is celebrating all of US; their dear friends and customers and that includes YOU! If you’ve just joined the fun, be sure to pop over to the Claudia and Company Blog to start the hop and get all the deets!

How can anyone resist these Puddle Jumpers?! They're sooo adorable! And they're so easy to color because of their size. I printed Charlotte out onto Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored her up with my reinkers and aquapainter brush. Then I cut her out and popped her on the card base, which was my CASE of this week's Case Study Challenge card #28. As with all CASE's the rules say you have to change at least three things about the original card, so if you look at the original, I've changed the paper choice, the stamp choice and how I did the scallops at the bottom of the card. The paper is from an old My Minds Eye Glitter stack and if you click on the image, you'll see how much it sparkles! I love it!

Be sure and leave a comment on each of today’s fabulous posts, to be eligible for the prizes that are up for grabs! You'll have until Monday, February 28, 12pm EST to comment. Winners will be announced on March 1, during the Release Day Showcase.

Here is the complete list of stops on the Hop! Thanks for joining us and happy hopping!

LORi
Tracy
Sheri
Sandra (You are here!)
Krista
Kadie
Piali
Joni
Gwen
Sheng
Margie
Kelly
Jeanette
Cara
Kimmarie
Arielle
Hannah
Beverly
Sharette
Joy
Susan
Carol
Nicole
Paola
Mary J
April
Barb
Lorie
Sarabeth
Catherine
Veronica
Jessica
Judy
Taylor
Lysa
Jen
Jess
Pam
Heather
Mary
Claudia

Have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Charlotte Digital Stamp', TSG 'Sentimental Thank You'
Inks: Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, Glitter Paper - Black, PP - My Mind's Eye
Access: Twill Ribbon, Taylors Tiny Twinkles, Spellbinders Labels Ten Nesties, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, EK Success Corner Punch, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

TSG Flying By/Good Times Blog Hop!

2011-02-24T00:01:00.017-05:00

Hello and welcome to the final blog hop for the March releases for There She Goes!

We've got two sets to show you today that are going to ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF! If you've found your way here from Natalie's fabulous blog, then you 're on the right track. But if you haven't and would love to hang out with us on this hop, then head on over to the TSG blog and start the wild ride there!

Iwona has done it again! She is bringing us some precious little girls that are ready to capture the joy of spring! Whether chasing balloons or butterflies, these little ones will help express your joy to the recipients of your cards.

Flying By is a 3X4 stamp set that includes a total of 5 stamps and will sell for $7.

Iwona is on a winner with this little girl! I love her simplified hands and feet because they're easy to color and she reminds me of a rag doll. I colored her in with my reinkers and aquapainter brush and then paper pieced her dress. Then I used this week's CPS #206 for the layout. I wasn't sure about the layout, but I think it draws your eye to the image...and that's never a bad thing! :)

************************************************

The other set being released this month is by the fabulously talented Torico! Time is precious to all of us, and Torico has illustrated a new set that showcases that fact! Her sweet and "time"less spring critters will not only have you using your time wisely, but they’ll also be bringing endless smiles to your faces.

Good Times is a 4x6 stamp set that includes a total of 11 stamps and will sell for $15.

This is a fabulous set by Torico!! I just love all the images in it! And instead of picking some expected colors and papers for this set, I stepped outside the box and made something a little edgier, a little more masculine. With the clock image from the set, as well as this month's SFYTT sketch and some papers from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1939 collection, I put together this card. Each panel was distressed, sponged with Distress Ink and machine stitched. It's definitely not traditional, but I like it just the same.

Would you like a chance to win the Flying By and Good Times stamp set? Here’s what you need to do - go to each of the Trendsetter’s Blogs and leave a comment on their Flying By/Good Times Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out the eye candy and have left some love, return to the TSG Blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly using a random number generator to receive their very own Flying By and Good Times stamp set. The winner will be announced Saturday (Feb 26th) during the Release Party Chat.

Thanks so much for stopping by all this week! Your next stop is....

Torico's blog!

Supplies
Card 1
Stamps: There She Goes 'Flying By'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Cosmo Cricket and Bo Bunny
Access: Ribbon, Spellbinders Small Oval Nestibilities, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Card 2
Stamps: There She Goes 'Good Times'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Soft Suede, Cool Caribbean, Morning Marigold, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Black Soot'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics and Bling, PP - Cosmo Cricket 'Circa 1939'
Access: Ribbon, PTI Button - Black, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, EK Success Edge Punch, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG In All The World/Sentimental Birthday Blog Hop!!

2011-02-23T00:01:00.011-05:00

Welcome to the second blog hop for the March There She Goes releases!

Today we're showcasing TWO awesome mini sets! If you've hopped here from Natalie's wonderful blog, then you're A-OK! If you haven't and would like to play along with us, just hop on back to the TSG blog and start your journey there. Remember, you could win these sets just by hopping with us today!

Chris Dark is back with another adorable and playfully illustrated canine set that includes butterflies and a precious picket fence. Add in some sensational sentiments, and you’ve got another TSG set that can’t be passed up!

In All the World is a 3X4 stamp set that includes a total of 7 stamps and will sell for $7.

I've missed Chris and her images these past couple of months so it was a nice surprise to see her back this month with a wonderfully different mini set for us to enjoy! The little pup in the main image is very sweet and I love how he's (all dogs are boys in my book!) sitting by the picket fence waiting for his master. :)

I colored in the image with my reinkers and aquapainter brush, then used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #105 for the layout. You can't quite tell from the photo, but I stamped the pup out for a second time onto some scrap cardstock and popped him up on dimensionals for a 3D look. The papers are a mix of two different My Mind's Eye collections.

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Who doesn’t need a sentiment set that consists of various birthday sayings? What’s even better is that this set showcases the gorgeous handwriting of our very own Julie Lacey. If you’ve loved her other sentiment sets, then this one will be another lovely addition!

Sentimental Birthday is a 2X6 stamp set that includes a total of 7 stamps and will sell for $7.

Would you like a chance to win these two sets? Here’s what you need to do: go to each of the Trendsetter’s blogs and leave a comment on their In All The World/Sentimental Birthday Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out the eye candy and have left some love, return to the TSG Blog to add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of the Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly using a random number generator to receive their very own sets. The winner will be announced Saturday (the 26th) during the Release Party Chat.

Your next stop is...the There She Goes blog!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'In All The World'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Cool Caribbean, More Mustard, Regal Rose, Going Gray
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics and Bling, PP - My Minds Eye
Access: Spellbinders Large Circle Nestibilities, May Arts Solid Wrinkled Ribbon - Cream, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Under The Weather Blog Hop!!

2011-02-22T00:01:00.009-05:00

Welcome to the first blog hop for the March There She Goes releases!

Today the Jessica and us Trendsetters are showcasing a fabulous new set called Under The Weather by TSG's newest illustrator! If you've hopped here from Natalie's fabulous blog, then you're on the right track, but if you haven't and would like to play along with us, just hop on back to the TSG blog and start your ride there. Remember, you could win one of these sets just by hopping with us today!

We are so happy to be introducing a new artist joining the TSG team…please welcome MELYSSA CONNOLLY! You may know her artwork from her wildly popular Whimsie Doodles’ store, and she has been gracious enough to design this playful and spring-filled stamp set. Whimsical images, borders, and sentiments included on one fabulous set! You’ll never feel blue or under the weather using this adorable addition to the TSG roll call!

Under The Weather is a 4x8 stamp set that includes a total of 25 stamps and will sell for $18.

How adorable is this little girl?! And wait until you see the whole set - you're going to LOVE it! As with all of the TSG sets, there's lots of background stamps, accessories and sentiments to choose from! I used my Spellbinders Labels One Nestibilities to create the back panel, then I colored up the little girl with my reinkers and aquapainter brush, cut her out and popped her up on dimensionals. The sentiment banner is actually covering up my first attempt at adding the sentiment! You'd think I'd know by now not to stamp the sentiment on busy patterned paper, but I still do and immediately regret it! It got a little lost on that October Afternoon 'Thrift Store' paper, so I stamped it again on some cardstock and laid it over the top. Phew! :)

I know you're loving all the sneak peeks, right? This team really does ROCK! Remember to leave a comment on each of the blogs today to be in the running to win yourself this fabulous! Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and I hope to see you all hopping along with us tomorrow for our second sneak peek! :)

Your next stop is...the There She Goes blog!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Under The Weather'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, More Mustard, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Going Gray, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Black Soot'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - October Afternoon 'Thrift Shop and Modern Homemaker'
Access: Spellbinders Labels One Nestibilities, PTI Rustic Button Twine, PTI Button - White, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Stampbook Saturday!

2011-02-19T00:01:00.004-05:00

Happy Saturday!!

I hope you have a great weekend planned! I'm off to run some errands first thing this morning and then I plan on sewing and stamping the day away. It needs to be a productive day, so wish me luck! :)

Every Saturday over at the There She Goes blog, we Trendsetters take turns hosting Stampbook Saturday, where we take a card that one of us has done and use it as inspiration for a scrapbook, or rather, stampbook page. This week it's my turn and I used my ALL TIME FAVORITE photo from my childhood!

If you want to check out the whole page, then head on over to the TSG blog to check it out! :)

Toodles!

Eggstra Special Easter!

2011-02-18T10:00:00.002-05:00

Thank goodness it's Friday!!

And I am thankful for that! It has been a long, slow week for me and I'm looking forward to a productive weekend of card making and sewing. I have a shower curtain to whip up and lots of cards to do for a release next week. Mental note to self: buy more thread! :)

Can you believe we're already half way through February and Easter is almost around the corner?! It's crazy! Where does the time go? I'm glad I've got a jump on some of my Easter cards with this card I have for you today!

Easter Basket, from Claudia and Company, is such a sweet image and perfect for your Easter cards! And the best thing is that it's digital, so you can enlarge or scale back the size to whatever suits your project. I kept this card clean and simple (minus all the layers) and let the image shine. When the image is as detailed as this one, it's usually a good idea to keep the card simple. After coloring the image with my SU reinkers and aquapainter brush, I spritzed the piece with some Glimmer Mist in Pearl for some twinkle.

In case you haven't heard, there's a customer blog hop going on next week for Claudia & Company and you're being invited to join us! You have until Feb. 23rd to sign up and you can find all the details........here!

Thanks so much for stopping by this week. I know I've been quiet but next week I'll have lots of eye candy for you all! :) Have a great weekend!

Supplies
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Easter Basket Digital Stamp', There She Goes 'Hunny Bunny'
Inks: Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Cool Caribbean, More Mustard, and various other colors
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Bling, Bazzil Basics, PP - My Minds Eye
Access: Ribbon, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Pearl, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Etsy Friday Finds

2011-02-18T08:00:00.017-05:00

Good Morning!

So, minus a few new additions to the bathroom, we've almost finished with that room. My attention is now shifting to the laundry room that you enter before entering the bathroom. Right now, it's utilitarian. Nothing fancy about it at all. Not that I want fancy, but something other than a mundane purely functional room would be nice. I'm not asking too much, am I?!

Here's some yummy things I found on Etsy to jazz up the space!

Handmaidens Cottage
Every good housewife needs a stylish looking apron and this one fits the bill! It's super cute and fun! I might even get The Man's attention in it! :)

Stiletto Girl
Ok, so if you can get past the whole diaper pail thing, this is actually a great bucket! Looooove the vintage label and the enamel is fabulous!

Your Vinyl Answer
The Man thinks this is corny but I think it's great! It's fun and who doesn't need a little bit of fun in their laundry room?!

Vintage Hardware
Do you know what this is?? It's an old pulley system for a washing line. I could hook it back up again and hang delicates or even cards on it!

Lake View Vintage
Can you believe these are unused boxes of lux soap flakes?! My mum still uses lux flakes to handwash her delicates. I would do the same too, but sinks aren't standard in American laundry rooms. :(

Assemblage333
I love these old washboards! Only I don't need this one - I picked up a pressed metal one from a local auction for $6! I can't wait to use it as a prop!

So what does your laundry room look like? What color are your walls? I'd love to hear what you've done with your space!

Chasing Butterflies

2011-02-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

Good Morning!

I can't believe it's Wednesday already! This week has really been flying by for me. I look forward to my weekends now because of all the home projects we've got going on at the moment. Last weekend I painted the cabinet doors and main door in the bathroom a nice bright white. I replaced the hardware on the cabinetry from brushed nickel to oil rubbed bronze. It's already looking so much better than it used to! The bathroom used to look like an awkward teenager and now it's starting to look like a grown up! :) I'll share before and after pictures with you all once we're done. I can't wait!

Ok, onto today's card!

I have been itching to color up this adorable image ever since this set arrived on my doorstep! I ADORE these little bears from the Back In Ten set!! They're tooooo cute! This week I found the perfect layout to show it off with. I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch layout #104 because of the wide center panel. I watercolored in this sweet image with my reinkers and aquapainter brush, then I sponged around the edges with SU's Cool Caribbean ink. I used my Post-It note trick then I machine stitched it to some cardstock. Then I used some of Basic Grey's Green at Heart collection to bring the feeling of Spring to the card. The flower was made using Papertrey Ink's Beautiful Blooms dies, a button and PTI Rustic Button Twine.

I love the way this turned out, don't you? It's so sweet, and Springy....ahh, Spring! How I miss thee! :)

Have yourself a great Wednesday!

Supplies

Stamps: There She Goes 'Back In Ten'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Cool Caribbean, Old Olive, Going Gray, Soft Suede, Regal Rose, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Basic Grey 'Green At Heart'

Access: PTI Beautiful Blooms Die, EK Success Corner Punch, Taylor's Tiny Twinkles, Kaisercrafts Adhesive Pearls, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Dollar Find Friday Sneak Peek!

2011-02-11T10:00:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope you've had a easy week and are looking forward to the weekend. I sure am! I have lots of closet doors to paint and we're going tubing this Sunday with Syd's school, which should be a lot of fun! What are your plans for the weekend?

I have been busy this week creating little tips and projects over at the There She Goes blog. So I don't have a card to show you today, but I do have a project that I created using a $1 store bought item!

It's Dollar Find Friday over at the There She Goes blog and this is just a tease of what you'll find over there! ;)

Thank SO SO much for stopping by this week! Have yourself a good one!

Etsy Friday Finds

2011-02-11T08:00:00.010-05:00

Good Morning sweet peeps!

So because we've been busy repainting our bathroom this week, I went looking for some vintage things to decorate it with. And there's one thing that Etsy has more of than handmade items is vintage things! :)

Virginia Wyoming
The bathroom is mainly white and beige but I was given a beautiful Waverly valance from a friend with lots of vintage blues in it. So this soap dish would go so well in the room! And even better than that - Virginia Wyoming lives minutes from me! :)

Post Road Vintage
How cool is this for liquid soap?! I love it! Infact, I think I could make this!

5963 Impala
Can you say 'GORGEOUS'?!?? Not that its particularly vintage or anything, but this coral could look great in any room of the house!

Rosa Meyer
I've been on the lookout for something to hold some flowers or branches on my vanity and I think I just found it! I was favoring an ironstone jug, but they're out of my price range. This is priced just right. :)

Two Girls Shop
This piece just reminds me of my Grandmothers brush. The one I used to use to brush her hair every evening when I stayed with her. :) Great memories.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed finding them!

Some Bunny Loves You!

2011-02-09T08:00:00.010-05:00

Good Morning!

So over the past couple of weeks we've been busy repainting our downstairs bathroom and I've been scouring Craigslist for pieces to fill it with. We have a closet in there that apparently used to have a door to it, but hasn't for quite some time (a little weird!). Luckily, I managed to pick up a louvered door for $25 that will fit the opening perfectly! I'm planning on painting it white to match the trim. Can't wait to finally close the door on the clutter! Woohoo for small triumphs!

Onto today's card shall we??

Puddle Jumper Ezra and his little rabbit are adorable in these colors! More often than not, I tend to color in the Puddle Jumpers in the same hues every time, but this time, I had a little help! I was digging through my paper drawer that I store all my 6x6 papers in and I found this glitter stack from My Minds Eye that I had forgotten I had! (Love it when that happens!) Those colors in that pad inspired me to color up Ezra with these yummy colors! Everything else just fell in place - the layout, the embellishments and even the sentiment. I had this card done within 2 hours! That just might be a record, my sweet peeps!! :)

It's pretty quiet at work this week. All the bosses are out of the office attending a summit. So I'm sure I'll be window shopping on Etsy during my lunch break!

Thanks so much for stopping by this week!

Supplies

Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Ezra Digital Stamp' and There She Goes 'Hunny Bunny'

Inks: Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Morning Marigold, Really Rust, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'

Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics Bling Cardstock, PP - My Minds Eye

Access: PTI Large Eyelet Border Die, PTI Rustic Button Twine, PTI Button - Chocolate, Spellbinders Labels Eight Nestibilities, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

TSG93: Supply Challenge

2011-02-07T00:01:00.010-05:00

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! I know I promised last week that I would post a couple of pics of my trip to Buffalo last week and I didn't follow through. I had every intention to, until I found out that my flight home had been canceled! So instead of relaxin in my hotel room writing up a blog post about my experience in a freezer, I was frantically calling around trying to get myself and my collegue on another flight home! Luckily we were able to get a really early flight and got home sooner than we had originally booked for - phew!

Anywho, so that's why I wasn't around much last week, and I apologise for that. But this week, I promise you, will be a little different. Why? Because it's my turn as the featured Trendsetter over at the There She Goes blog! Which means I'm hosting the TSG Challenge today!

And my challenge to you all is to create a card or project that uses the following:

3 patterned papers

2 buttons, and

1 sparkly element!

Here's what I whipped up!

Cute right?! I love these little whimsical houses in the new Day or Night set! As always, I like to borrow a sketch and this one was from Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #103. I then got to work by stamping out one of the houses and the sun from the set. I colored it up with my reinkers and aquapainter brush on Strathmore Britsol Vellum (It's not really vellum! That just describes it's surface texture!) Then I added some sparkle to the roof, dangling heart and the sun with a glitter pen from Sakura. One element down, two to go!

The papers's are from one of my favorite paper company's - Crate Paper. It's from their Restoration collection and its full of eclectic patterns! (Second element met!) Then I added some rustic twine from PTI to the horizontal panel and this time, instead of having the twine pulled together with a button, I chose to add the buttons to the Labels One nestie panel instead. It was begging for something! And that makes three!

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card that utilizes the previous supplies, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (Feb 14th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

Hope you have a great Monday and thanks SO much for popping in!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Day or Night'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', More Mustard, Really Rust, Close To Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Georgia Pacific, PP - Crate Paper 'Restoration' Collection
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine and Buttons - Chocolate, Spellbinders Labels One Nesties, Post-It Notes, Sakura Glitter Pen, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Claudia & Company February Blog Hop!

2011-02-01T10:00:00.010-05:00

Good Morning and welcome to today's Claudia and Company February Release Blog Hop!!

If you've stopped here from Tracy's awesome blog, then you're doing great! But if you haven't and would like to hop along with us today, then head on over to the Claudia & Company blog to start your journey there! So lets get started shal we?!

Introducing...Puddle Jumper Charlotte!!

Ain't she sweet?! I am in love with her hair!! Having been cursed...I mean blessed, with curly hair, I have always been envious of anyone with straight hair. I always look like I stuck my finger in a socket! :) Anyway...

Puddle Jumper Charlotte is one of the digital stamps being released today and she's just a peach to color up! As with all of the Puddle Jumper sets, Charlotte comes with a little something extra...the potted flowers! I used my reinkers and aqupainter brush together with pretty paper from The Girls Paperie and this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #102 for the layout.

Next up...

Easter Basket by John Grutta!!

Just in time for Easter, Claudia and Company's newest illustrator, John Grutta has come up with an great image for us! This is Easter Basket is a digital stamp. Those chickies are too cute! I kept the layout basic since it's a pretty busy image. Papers from Basic Grey's old Lemonade collection and some polka dot ribbon was all this card needed. The nice thing about digital stamps is that you can make the image fit the nestie rather than trying to get the nestie to fit the image! Love that!

Introducing.....Puddle Jumper Ezra!!

You can't have a new girl Puddle Jumper to play with and not have a new boy image too! And Ezra is his name! :) Another image perfect for Easter, illustrator Lori Boyd has worked her magic again and created another cuuutie patootie!

I borrowed this week's Card Patterns sketch # 100 for the layout and the paper is from a 6x6 sample pack of My Minds Eye Quite Contrary Jack & Jill Collection.

Well, I hope this was enough eye candy for you today! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Your next stop is....my dear friend, KADIE!!

Supplies
Card One
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Charlotte Digital Stamp', sentiment from There She Goes 'Beautiful Spring'
Inks: Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Cool Caribbean, Buckaroo Blue, Sahara Sand, Really Rust and various other colors
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, Bazzil Bling, PP - The Girls Paperie
Access: Ribbon, Spellbinders Labels One Nesties, EK Success Circle Punch, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Card Two
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Easter Basket Digital Stamp', sentiment from There She Goes 'Hunny Bunnies'
Inks: Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Morning Marigold, More Mustard, Cool Caribbean, Raspberry Razz and various other colors
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Basic Grey 'Lemonade'
Access: Ribbon, PTI Button, PTI Rustic Button Twine, Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Spellbinders Labels Four Nesties, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

Card Three
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Ezra Digital Stamp' and 'So Random Sentiments/Up Down Edition
Inks: Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede, Buckaroo Blue, Sahara Sand, Cool Caribbean and various other colors
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, Bazzil Bling, PP - My Minds Eye Quite Contrary-Jack & Jill Collection
Access: Ribbon, Spellbinders Labels Four Nesties, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG92: Inspiration Challenge

2011-01-31T08:00:00.010-05:00

Good Morning Friends!

Well, by 11am today, I'll be shivering my way in and out of a -25 deg F freezer! I'm flipping out just writing this! To save my fingers from potential frostbite, I bought a few heat packs that hikers use to keep my hands and feet warm. Hopefully they do the trick! Although, I don't know how I'm supposed to write when my gloves are full of this stuff! I'll pop in later this week and let you know how it's all going.

Anywho,....I didn't get a whole lot of cards done this week because I was preparing for this trip, but here's one I did for today's TSG challenge. It's an inspiration challenge and the image is a fabulously clean and simple interior.

I chose to use the colors (because they were so cool!) and kept the layout just as clean and simple as the image.

I couldn't think of any other set to go with these colors then the adorable owls from the You're A Hoot set! With my reinkers and aquapainter brush, I colored in the owls in a pretty nuetral palette, then cut them out. I love the look of the scalloped border (which was done with decorative scissors) - it adds a little bit of whimsy to the card, don't you think?!

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card that uses the provided sketch, then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (Feb 7th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

Thanks SO much for stopping in today! Hope you have a good one!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'You're A Hoot'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', More Mustard, Really Rust, Raspberry Razz, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Crate Paper
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine and Buttons, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Sponges, Machine Stitching

You Make Me Happy!

2011-01-28T08:00:00.020-05:00

Happy Friday everyone!

My days are about to get VERY COLD! Work is sending me to Cheektowaga next week to measure up our warehouse there. Where is Cheektowaga you ask?! It's right next door to Buffalo, NY! Cold country! But that's not the worst part about the trip. This warehouse I have to measure.....it's a giant freezer! So, my days will be spent in rooms where the temps hover around -20 deg F and 0 deg F!! I'm just praying that my finger that has really bad circulation doesn't get frostbite! Oh how I'm going to miss our wood stove next week! lol

I thought I'd round off the week with another look at the Puppy Love digital stamp from Claudia & Company!

I usually like to keep the whole image intact, but I printed this guy a little too big, so I had no choice but to cut him down to size! :)

I colored up the image with my reinkers and aquapainter brush then used some papers from Sassafras Lass's Apple Jack collection. I really like this combination and I think I'm going to have to use it again soon!

Next Tuesday is February 1st (how on EARTH did that happen?!?!), which means another new release from Claudia & Company!! So if you want to see some uber cute stamps, come back here for some eye candy! Just saying... :)

Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by this week! See you on the flip side!

Supplies
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puppy Love' and Kraftin Kimmie Stamps 'Everyday Sentiments'
Inks: Soft Suede, Cool Caribbean, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Sassafras Lass 'Apple Jack' Collection
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine, PTI Button, EK Success Corner Punch, Sponges, Dimensionals

Etsy Friday Finds

2011-01-28T08:00:00.015-05:00

Good morning everyone!

Since it was Australia Day this week, I thought I'd find out what Etsy had for sale from Down Under! Though there wasn't a lot, what I did find was FABULOUS! Check it out!

My Bearded Pigeon
Hilarious shop name, but how cool are these pillows?! They even had some with maps of New York, Chicago and Boston!

Tiger and Hare
How stinkin' cute are these owls?! It's a brooch and did you notice the cut out hearts between the two?? Adorable!

A Little Red Ribbon
These bibs remind me of the ones my mum used to sew and sell at flea markets when I was a kid....only more modern! :) Hey, if you're going to be a messy eater, you might as well look stylish doing it! :)

Casey M Cardle
What's not to love about this face?!? Soooooooo funny!

Kathy Panton
Wouldn't these look fabulous in a nursery?? I love the colors and the textures!

*sigh*
I {heart} Etsy.

TSG Sentimental Thank You/Day Or Night Blog Hop!

2011-01-27T00:01:00.015-05:00

Hi there! Welcome to the third and final blog hop for the February There She Goes releases!

If you've stopped here via Piali's awesome blog, then you're not lost! :) But if you've just popped over here from somewhere else and you would like to hop along with us, then head on back to the There She Goes blog to start the ride there.

Are you dying for another fabulous set showcasing more beautiful handwriting from our very own Julie Lacey? The wait is over! This sentiment set is yet another versatile and stunning addition that you will be thankful to have!

Sentimental Thank You is a 2x6 stamp set that includes a total of 6 of stamps and will sell for $7.

Doesn't Julie have gorgeous handwriting?! I wanted to give her sentiment an elegant setting, so I used some paper from Basic Grey's Curio Collection and this week's sketch from Card Positioning Systems #202. Do you see anything different about this card?! There's no coloring!! Nothing! And it was fun! I actually used some of Basic Grey's Curio Chip Sticker Shapes to create the elements from the sketch.

............................................................

Torico’s newly-illustrated set "Day Or Night" showcases adorable houses along with several accents and sentiments that enhance each image, and make this home-themed set a must have for any cardmaker!

Day or Night is a 4x8 stamp set that includes a total of 34 of stamps and will sell for $18.

Yep, you read right - there are 34 stamps in this set!! Jess really knows how to pack them in! :)

Isn't this set CA-UUUUUTE?! I love whimsical images and this set has a bunch of them! I used last week's CASE Study challenge #23 for my layout and paper from My Minds Eye Alphabet Soup collection. I stamped the house and hill image first, then I stamped each of the clouds and the hearts. Then I watercolored the image with my reinkers and aquapainter brush. For a little sparkle, I used a Sakura Glitter pen to brighten up those clouds.

Would you like a chance to win the Day or Night & Sentimental Thank You stamp set? Here’s what you need to do- go to each of the Trendsetter’s Blogs and leave a comment on their Day or Night & Sentimental Thank You Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out the eye candy and have left some love, return to the TSG Blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly using a random number generator to receive their very own Day or Night & Sentimental Thank You stamp set. The winner will be announced Saturday (Jan. 29th) during the Release Party Chat.

Thanks so much for stopping here!

Your next stop is....TORICO!!

Supplies

Card One

Stamps: There She Goes 'Sentimental Thank You'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Vintage Photo and Black Soot'

Papers: Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Grey 'Curio' Collection

Access: Basic Grey Curio Chip Sticker Shapes, Fiskars Decorative Edge Scissors, Sponges

Card Two

Stamps: There She Goes 'Day Or Night'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Cool Caribbean, Old Olive, Mango, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose, Soft Suede, Going Gray

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - My Minds Eye 'Alphabet Soup' Girl Collection

Access: Ribbon, PTI Button, Spellbinders Tags Trio and Labels, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Love/Happy Mail Blog Hop!

2011-01-26T00:01:00.015-05:00

Welcome to the second blog hop for the There She Goes February releases!

If you've stopped here via Piali's wonderful blog, then you're on the right track! But if you haven't and would like to hop with us today, then head over to the TSG blog and start your ride there.

Today we're showcasing two mini sets that you're going to love! With Valentine’s Day around the corner, you will definitely want to invest in this stamp set illustrated by Jessica. These bold-lined images can be used as either the focal point of your creation or used as accents with other love-themed sets.

Love is a 2x6 stamp set that includes a total of 11 of stamps and will sell for $7.

I love how different this set is! It has 11 - count 'em, 11 - stamps in the set! And it's a MINI set! That's a BIG mini set! Using the layout from this week's Card Patterns #99 sketch challenge, I created this card using the new set. For the circle element, I made a medallion and added the circle stamp and heart stamps to the center of it. I also stamped the word love using Versamark on the kraft cardstock.

................................................................

Who doesn’t like to receive happy mail? The little girls in this set illustrated by our very own Iwona Palamountain sure do! Whether wishing someone a happy birthday or sending that special friend a pick-me-up, this adorable set will brighten anyone’s day!

Happy Mail is a 3x4 stamp set that includes a total of 7 of stamps and will sell for $7.

Didn't Iwona do a FABULOUS job?! Wait till you see the whole set! You're going to love it! And for $7, you can't beat it! I love how this little girl is big enough so you can paper piece her dress. To make this card I borrowed the layout from this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge #138 and a mix of paper from October Afternoon's Thrift Store and some old My Minds Eye.

Would you like a chance to win the Love & Happy Mail mini stamp sets? Here’s what you need to do- go to each of the Trendsetter’s Blogs and leave a comment on their Love & Happy Mail Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out the eye candy and have left some love, return to the TSG Blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly using a random number generator to receive their very own Love & Happy Mail stamp sets. The winner will be announced Saturday (Jan. 29th) during the Release Party Chat.

Your next stop is...There She Goes blog!!

Supplies
Card One
Stamps: There She Goes 'Love'
Inks: Versamark, Colorbox Warm Red Chalk Ink, Distress Ink 'Walnut Stain'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Kraft Cardstock,PP - Crate Pape
Access: Ribbon, EK Success Corner and Circle Punch, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Card Two
Stamps: There She Goes 'Happy Mail'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, Georgia Pacific, PP - My Minds Eye and October Afternoon
Access: Spellbinders Labels Eight, Fiskars Circle Cutter, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, PTI Eyelet Lace Border and Rustic Button Twine, PTI Buttons - Black and Red, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Happy Australia Day!!

2011-01-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hello sweet friends!

As you can probably guess, today is Australia Day. For all my American and overseas friends, this is our version of Independence Day...sort of. Australia is still a Commonwealth of Great Britian, but today is the day Australia was first settled by the English in 1788. For Australians today, it means enjoying the day with family and friends and a few fireworks!

In the spirit of this national holiday, I'm sharing a few of my favorite Australian songs with you!

A Home Among The Gum Trees

I Still Call Australia Home

We Are Australian

Waltzing Matilda

Have a good one where ever you are today!

TSG Back In 10 Blog Hop!!

2011-01-25T00:01:00.014-05:00

Hello and welcome to the first blog hop for the February There She Goes releases!

If you've arrived here from Piali's wonderful blog, then you're A-OK! But if you haven't and would like to see some AMAZING sneak peeks, then head on over to the TSG blog to start the journey there!

This month is choc full of GORGEOUS sets and today the DT girls and I are sharing sneak peeks of a beautiful set by our newest illustrator, Di Carubia! It's called Back In 10 and it's full of the cutest little bears you have ever seen!

Back In 10 is a 4x6 stamp set that includes a total of 17 of stamps and will sell for $15.
If you're like me, and still watercolor, then you're really going to really love this set! I couldn't wait to crack out my reinkers and color this image in!

Isn't it sweet?! You can see now why we're calling this set, Back In 10, can't you? =) I used this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge #139 for my layout and yummy paper from My Minds Eye.

Would you like a chance to win the Back In 10 stamp set? Here’s what you need to do- go to each of the Trendsetter’s blogs and leave a comment on their Back In 10 Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out the eye candy and have left some love, return to the TSG Blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of the Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly using a random number generator to receive their very own Back In 10 stamp set. The winner will be announced Saturday (Jan 29th) during the Release Party Chat.

Congratulations! You've reached the end of the hop!!

Your next stop is....There She Goes blog!!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Back In Ten'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Cool Caribbean, More Mustard, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - My Minds Eye
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine, Spellbinders Labels One Nestibilities, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Pearl, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

You're Invited!

2011-01-24T08:00:00.009-05:00

Good Morning!

How are we all doing today? Good, I hope! As for me, I'm just trying to stay warm today. It is BEYOND freezing here in New Hampshire this morning! I didn't even know it could get this cold here! How cold, you ask?! How does -24 deg sound?! Can you say 'cold'?! Yeow!

We stayed low and didn't do much this weekend, but I did get a lot of cards done! Six cards infact! Go me! Haha One of those cards was this one using Todd Puddle Jumper!

One of my favorite sketch challenges is Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge, and this week's sketch, SSSC101, was perfect for showcasing the Todd Puddle Jumper digital stamp. I turned the sketch on it's side to make it work for the stamp.

I colored Todd in with my reinkers and aquapainter brush. I used Sahara Sand on his pants and a combination of Broken Glass Distress Ink and SU's Buckaroo Blue. His hair and shoes were colored with SU's Soft Suede.

Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers collection is not only great for making cards for dogs and cats, but it's also great for boy cards. It's got the right amount of dirt and grit. :)

Stay tuned early next week for February's releases from Claudia & Company! By the way, there's a sale going on over at the Claudia & Company webstore! Claudia has tons of things marked down 25-40% off, so you might want to check it out! Just saying... ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Todd Digital Stamp', There She Goes 'Sentimental'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Distress Inks 'Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap and Broken China'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Grey 'Max and Whiskers' Collection
Access: Raffia, PTI Buttons - Chocolate, Spellbinders Large Oval Nestibilities, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Sponges, Dimensionals

I Love Puddle Jumpers!

2011-01-21T08:00:00.004-05:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

Are you as happy as I am that it's Friday? Oh yes sireee! I'm soooo thankful it's only a few hours until the weekend! I've had a very busy week at work (which is why I've been so quiet this week) and I am looking forward to taking it easy for a couple of days. How about you?

One card I did manage to whip up this week is this one!

I {heart} these Puddle Jumpers! And sweet Mary Jane is up there amongst my favorites!

Since Valentines Day is right around the corner, I pulled Basic Grey's Olivia paper pad to make this card. Not an obvious choice for a romantic card, but when I saw the hearts paper, I knew it was perfect for Mary Jane! As always I used my ever faithful reinkers and aquapainter brush to color her in. Then I cut her out and popped her on a panel made with various papers from the Basic Grey collection, Bazzil cardstock and the Labels Eight Nestie. The layout is from this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch #100. Some of my favorite crafting tools are my Fiskars decorative scissors. I especially love the small scalloped ones, which I used around the edge of scalloped nestie panel. LOVE that look!

Got any plans for the weekend? We're laying low with all this snow we've been getting. Although, we may be painting our downstairs bathroom if we can decide on a paint color! :)

Thanks for dropping by and have a good one!

Supplies

Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Mary Jane Puddle Jumper', There She Goes 'Sentimental'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Baha Breeze, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap and Black Soot'

Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics and Bling, PP - Basic Grey's 'Olivia Collection'

Access: May Arts Stitched Ribbon, Kaisercrafts Adhesive Pearls - Rose, Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Spellbinders 'Labels Eight' and 'Large Scalloped Circle Nestibilities, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG90: Wet Embossing!

2011-01-18T08:00:00.004-05:00

Good Morning!

How are we all today?? We had a nice, relaxing weekend. I slept in Saturday morning then we went antiquing in the afternoon. I picked up a 1910 old car magazine aadvertisement for $5 and popped it in a frame I bought at a garage sale last summer for $8. It's a pretty little piece that will probably go in my bedroom or maybe the upstairs hallway. Not sure yet. I can't wait to hit the garage sales and antique stores this summer!

This week's There She Goes challenge, TSg90, is all about wet embossing! So get out your Versamark ink and your powders and get busy!

I pulled out my favorite set to wet emboss with - Spread Your Wings! It has nice bold lines to it and perfect for embossing! I inked up the biggest butterfly with Versamark first, then with StazOn, then I stamped it onto some Strathmore Bristol Vellum. Then I sprinkled the clear embossing powder on the stamped image and heat set it. Then I brought out my Distress Inks and SU reinkers and colored up the butterfly in contrasting colors to the Basic Grey Curio paper I used to make the card. I also used some of that paper to make the medallion behind the butterfly. (You can check out my quick tutorial on how to make the medallion....here.) I added glue to the edges with a Quickie glue pen and sprinkled some of Martha Stewarts Black Glitter all over it. It gives the medallion such a great look! Then I stamped a horizontal decorative strip with the cross stitch stamp from the In Stitches set and clear embossed them. The layout was from this week's Card Patterns sketch CPS98.

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card that utilizes wet embossing techniques, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of the challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (Jan 24th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

I hope this inspires you to play along with us this week!

Supplies

Stamps: There She Goes 'Spread Your Wings' and 'In Stitches'

Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Versamark, Really Rust, Baha Breeze, More Mustard, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Broken China and Peeled Paint'

Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Glitter Paper - Black, PP - Basic Grey's 'Curio' collection

Access: Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder, Tiny Twinkles - Black', Martha Stewart Glitter - Black, Sponges, Dimensionals

Claudia and Company Surprise Release!

2011-01-14T10:00:00.010-05:00

Good Morning and welcome to the surprise January release for Claudia and Company!

That's right! Claudia and Company is releasing four new digital images today and you guys get to see a look-see of one of them right here, right now! :)

What a sweetie pie right?! Puppy Love and three other images were designed by John Grutta, Claudia and Company's newest illustrator! He's created this sweet image for us just in time for Valentines Day.

I colored up Puppy Love with my reinkers and aquapainter brush on Georgia Pacific cardstock. Then I sponged the edges with SU's Cool Caribbean and I drew a border around the edge with a Micron pen. Then I used papers from October Afternoon's Modern Homemaker and made a quick and easy card background.

All four digial images are available RIGHT NOW in the Claudia and Company webstore! But that's not the best part! To help celebrate today's big release, John gave Claudia an image to give away FOR FREE to every reader who visits the C&Co. blog!

Before you race over there and grab your freebie image, please take a minute to check out what the other girls on the design team have created for you all!

Lori Boyd
Kadie Ensley
Kim Costello
Krista Van Tol
Risa West
Sandra MacLean
Sheri Gilson
Tori Wild
Tracy Clemente

Thanks so much for popping in today! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puppy Love' and There She Goes 'Everyday Greetings'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Black Soot'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, PTI Kraft Cardstock, Bazzil Basics, PP - October Afternoon 'Modern Homemaker'
Access: Ribbon, Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Micron Pen, Sponges, Dimensionals

Etsy Friday Finds

2011-01-14T08:00:00.012-05:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

I've had such a great time window shopping on Etsy this week! There are lots and lots of Valentines Day gift ideas floating around there! I found some gorgeous ones to share with you today.

Wendy Jung
Aren't these beautiful?! So delicate and pretty! These would look great in my bedroom!

Bookity
I SOOOO want to make these! You and I both know we have lots of paper we could use! hahaha

Bobbi Lewin
Now I wish I could make these! They'd look great hanging along my bannister.

William Dohman
It's amore! I have a thing for typography and wood....it's a match made in heaven! :)

Baffin Bags
These bags are AWESOME! I bought myself and a couple of friends one and they're impeccably made! Sooo useful too! Great for all your Copic markers or even your cards!

Be on the look out for another post from me later this morning!

Wonderful Winter Wishes

2011-01-12T08:00:00.010-05:00

Good Morning!

I hope everyone along the East Coast is doing ok today with all the snow we've been getting. We got slammed last night but at least in the NorthEast we know what to expect and are prepared for it!

Last weekend I made this cute card using my favorite There She Goes set by illustrator Torico. I absolutely adore her unique illustrations!

One of my favorite things to do is to offset the main image on the main panel and stamp the sentiment opposite it, like I did with this card. It creates a nice sense of balance. And it worked really well with this image of the two little girls because it creates a background for them instead of floating in mid air.

White is a really hard color to show and I've found it's best to just show those areas in shadow and highlight the areas around the white. Like the little girl's jacket, I colored the shadows in with SU's Going Gray. Then I colored most of the area (or background) around her with Cool Caribbean, so the white parts of her jacket would really pop. Worked out pretty well, don't you think? I ended up coloring her big sister's jacket in with Regal Rose and Ruby Red so it would contrast nicely. One thing I have been working on lately is remembering to leave some highlights on my images. It's hard when you use reinkers and you don't have a blender pen to remove some of the ink!

One blog I love to visit and get my color fix from, is Tori Wild's blog. She has a fantastic ability to combine the perfect colors and create vibrant, colorful cards. I spied this gorgeous card and had to case it! I changed the patterned paper and went with The Girl's Paperie's Tinsel and Twig collection and a little bit of Basic Grey's old Eskimo Kisses collection, used a different image (obviously!) and changed out the embellishment to something a little simpler. I love how this card turned out!

I hope you're having a fabulous week so far and I thank you very, very much for stopping by today!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Wonderful Winter Wishes'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede, Going Gray, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, More Mustard, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - The Girls Paperie 'Tinsel and Twigs' Collection and Basic Grey's 'Eskimo Kisses' Collection
Access: PTI Rustic Button Twine - Jute, PTI Button - Chocolate, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG89: Color Challenge!

2011-01-10T08:00:00.005-05:00

Good Morning!

Did you miss me?! I'm sorry I've been so quiet lately. Just trying to find my groove again after the holidays. I so enjoyed the time off from work and play that I prolonged it as long as I could! Do you blame me?! ;) But I'm back this week with avengence! I made a couple of cards yesterday and I can't wait to share them with you!

It's Monday and that means another There She Goes challenge! It's a color challenge this week and we're challenging you to use the colors....PINK, RED, GREY and BLACK.

The new Love Birds set has this adorable heart flower stamp in it and I love how whimsy it is! With my trusty reinkers and aquapainter brush, I colored in the flowers with SU's Pretty In Pink in the center, and a combination of Regal Rose and Ruby Red for outside. Old Olive was used for the leaves. Then I used a large scalloped circle nestie to cut the image out and I sponged the edges of it with Distress Inks Antique Linen and Tea Dye. The layout came from this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #99. For the colors, I went straight for Basic Grey's Olivia paper pack. They were a perfect match for this challenge! The gorgeous sentiment is from the new Sentimental set that I haven't had a chance to play with until now.

Would you like to play along this week?? To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card that utilizes the colors provided, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of the challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (Jan 17th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Love Birds' and 'Sentimental'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Old Olive, Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose and Ruby Red, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, Glitter Paper - Black, PP - Basic Grey's Olivia Collection'
Access: Ribbon, EK Success Corner Punch, Spellbinders Large Scalloped Circle Nestibilities, Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Machine Stitching, Sponges

Claudia & Company January Blog Hop!!

2011-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the January release blog hop for Claudia & Company!

If you've found your way here from Risa's wonderful blog, then you're on the right track! But if you haven't and would like to check out all the awesome cards the girls have whipped up for today's hop, then head on over to the Claudia & Company blog to start the ride there.

If you haven't heard already, DieCutsRuS changed it's name! They are now officially known as Claudia and Company! It's a name you know and love so the change won't be a hard one to wrap your head around! Their new website is http://www.claudiaandcompany.com/. Not only can you purchase your favorite Claudia and Company stamps there, but you can purchase all kinds of supplies for your card making needs.

Today's release is for two new Puddle Jumpers and you are going to just LOVE them!

Meet Puddle Jumper Mary Jane!!

Adorable right?! Love that hair and I'm always a sucker for polka dots! Mary Jane is just in time for Valentines Day. She comes with her very own heart stamp accessory! To make this card I used this month's Sketch For You To Try and paper from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 collection.

Introducing...Puddle Jumper Todd!

Boys need Valentines Day cards too! And Puddle Jumper Todd is perfect for the little guys (and big guys too!) in our lives.

I used this week's Friday Sketchers #135 layout for this card as well as some of that yummy 6x6 sample pack of My Minds Eye Fine and Dandy - True Blue collection of papers.

And the best part of all this - is that these Puddle Jumpers are available RIGHT NOW from Claudia and Company webstore!!

If you get lost along the way, here's a list of all the blogs you need to check out!

Claudia and Co. Blog
Lori Boyd
Sheri Gilson
Krista Van Tol
Tracy Clemente
Kadie Ensley
Tori Wild
Risa West
Sandra MacLean
Kim Costello
Guest Hopper - Pam Varnell

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Your next stop is...Kim Costello!!

Supplies
Card One
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Mary Jane', The Greeting Farm 'My Fav Thing'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Black Soot'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - Cosmo Cricket 'Circa 1934' and Bo Bunny
Access: Ribbon, Heart Button, Spellbinders Labels Four Nestibilities, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

Card Two
Stamps: Claudia & Company 'Puddle Jumper Todd' and 'So Random Sentiments Set Up/Down Edition'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede, Buckaroo Blue, Really Rust, Cool Caribbean, Distress Inks 'Frayed Burlap, Antique Linen, Tea Dye'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PTI Kraft Cardstock, PP - My Minds Eye 'Fine and Dandy - True Blue' Collection
Access: Ribbon, PTI Button, DMC Thread, Spellbinders Labels One Nestibilities, Machine Stitching, Sponges, Dimensionals

TSG Love Birds/Sentimental Blog Hop!!

2010-12-30T00:01:00.012-05:00

Welcome to the third and final blog and hop for the January There She Goes release!

If you've stopped here from the lovely Piali's blog, then you're on the right track, but if you haven't and would like to join us on this hop, then head on over to the TSG blog to start your journey there.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, you will definitely want to invest in a stamp set that is not only whimsical, but also versatile. Staying true to Torico’s clean and magical illustration style, this set features a bucket and a barrel that can be filled with all sorts of goodies (and the sentiments are to die for as well)! You’ll enjoy hours of creating and coloring with this fabulous set!

Buckets of Love is a 4x6 stamp set that includes a total of 18 stamps and will sell for $15.

You're going to love this set! I love bird stamps and TSG has some of the best ones around! I used one of the bird images from the set and stamped the cage over the top of it. Then I colored it up with my reinkers and cut it out. The base of the card was made using that gorgeous Curio paper from Basic Grey. Each panel was sponged with Distress Ink and machine stitched to black cardstock. One of my favorite things about TSG stamps are the sentiments and this one has some great ones. You might have noticed though, that this sentiment has a grammatical error in it and yes, Jess knows about it. Replacements are being shipped from the printers, so when you buy your set, yours will be correct. :)

Would you like a chance to win the "Buckets of Love" stamp set? Here’s what you need to do- go to each of the Trendsetter’s Blogs and leave a comment on their "Buckets of Love" Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out the eye candy and have left some love, return to the TSG Blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly using a random number generator to receive their very own "Buckets of Love" stamp set. The winner will be announced Saturday (Jan. 1st) during the Release Party Chat.

Your next stop is....TORICO!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Love Birds'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Cool Caribbean, Regal Rose, Ruby Red, Sahara Sand, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Grey's Curio Collection
Access: Ribbon, Heart Button, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, EK Success Edge Punch, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals