It's Rainin' Cupcakes

How adorable is this image and sentiment??? I *had* to have it as soon as I saw it on the Hambo Stamps website. And I love that it's digital because it meant I got it within hours of buying it. I took the picture in this angle so you can see that I used a Stardust Gelly Roll pen on the umbrella, rain coat, hat and cupcakes. I sent this card to my sister and she got it on Saturday, so I can finally post it. It's so hard when you make a card you're excited about, but can't post it because you want it to be a total surprise.

Funny story about the day I bought the image. I had stopped at a local cupcake shop called Coastal Cupcakes on my way home from work. I got 6 cupcakes that were all different and when I got home I cut them in half and ate 1/2 one of each. Don't worry they are on the small side. So, it kind of did "rain" cupcakes on me that day, but luckily I wasn't dreaming.

What Turkey??

I wanted to share a Thanksgiving card I made for several kids in the Make a Child Smile program. Thanks Cindy for letting me stamp a few pages of this adorable Turkey Fluffles image!! I used some of last year's fall paper from Stampin Up, embossed the Thanksgiving sentiment and added a few buttons. I wrote a little note inside along with a silly joke about a turkey , so hopefully these cards brigthened these kids' days a bit.

Do the Cocomotion

Brrr ... it was actually cold here this morning. So I broke out the hot cocoa maker my friend Stacey gave me for Christmas called "The Cocomotion". Every time I use it I sing "Do the Cocomotion" instead of locomotion. Yup, I'm a goof.

The cold weather inspired me to use this adorable snowman image from Sweet 'n Sassy. You should see all the little snowmen that I put out during the holidays, I've been collecting them for years. They're all just so sweet and lately my collection of snowman stamps has been growing too. It's such a shame that I now live where it never snows. In making my card this morning, I scared my dog when I was setting eyelets because I did it old school ... with my noisey eyelet setting tools. She's such a scaredy DOG.

Supplies: Snow Friends by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, Fall Flowers DSP, Soft Sky, Old Olive, Really Rust and Whisper White CS, Wide Olive GG and Soft Sky double stitched ribbon, snowflake eyelets

Cards for Heroes

I spent the morning of the 4th of July making cards for a program called Cards for Heroes. As I was stamping and designing cards, I thought what a wonderful way to spend my time than to pay tribute to the men & women currently serving our country. The 2 pictured here were created for the need for Love You and Miss You cards from Kim's blog (and she's offering some blog candy for them). These will be sent to the troops for them to send to their family members. So you get to touch the lives of at least 2 people -- the person using the card to write to their family member and the person receiving the card. I made 6 of each design.

Mouse on Swing card: Stamped image was from Christine13 on the PIF thread, Short and Sweet set from SU, Soft Sky DSP, Rose Red DSP, White Stampers Select cardstock from Papertrey, Black Versafine and Copic markers, SU Photo Corner punch

Baking Riley card: Image is from Hanna Stamps, A Muse sentiment, Papertrey Mixed Messages, SU Cutie Pie DSP, White Stampers Select cardstock from Papertrey, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Rose Red cardstock from SU, Martha Stewart scalloped punch, SU 1 1/4 Circle Punch, Black Versafine and Copic markers, wavy blade for Cutterpede cutter

Who's Ready for Summer?

I am so psyched that it is Memorial Day weekend ... it has always marked the start of summer for me. As a kid, school would be ending soon and that would mean staying up later, spending more time with family and friends ... and being from Maryland ... crab season ... YUM!! Okay, so it is with these fond memories that I made this card. Love this little Penguin Girl stamp. I got some images through the PIF Image Swap, but then when I saw how adorable she was ... I had to buy her. And for .99, I decided to buy a few extra to give to the Penguin lovers I know. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, full of good food and good times.


I also wanted to share a RAK I got from sf9erfan over at SCS. It was a complete and total surprise. Thanks so much Michelle!! What a nice variety of goodies!! And I learned a little something by admiring the card she sent. Using SU Dimensionals where your brads are located is a great way to make sure they stay adhered properly to the card. I've had trouble in the past with wonky bumps between the layer with the brad and the next layer of the card. And yup ... it worked like a charm on the card I made in this post.

Oh, and for the David Cook fans out there ... here's a link to his Guitar Hero commercial. To me, this is Super Bowl level advertising ... LOVED it.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I haven't been in a position to post lately so I guess I had a lot to say. *grin*

Mother's Day Bucket of Daisies

Here's the card I gave my mom for Mother's Day yesterday. I absolutely love this image, which I got from Michelle (JustPaintingAround) on the PIF thread. Now I want to buy it because it would be so much fun paper piecing the cute little bucket. Plus the daisy images are precious. There are other flowers in the set, a butterfly and a vase.

Supplies: Posies for You from Whipper Snapper, sentiment by Stampin Up, Polka Dots and Paisleys DSP, Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise CS from SU, ribbon, yellow stickles, Copic markers.

Congrats Brianne

My daughter graduates from the local community college this afternoon, so I made her a card with her school colors (royal blue and light blue). It's hard to put into words just how proud I am of not only what she has accomplished (she finished with a 3.86 GPA), but the wonderful young lady she has become. Raising children these days is not easy and there were some bumps along the way, but I feel so very lucky to have raised such a wonderful kid (although she's 20 now ... so technically not a kid anymore).

Supplies: Diplomabella, Mixed Messages from PTI, Jersey Shore DSP, Bashful Blue Prints, Basic Black and Whisper White papers all from SU, dotted ribbon from Michael's

Sweet Life

I got a ton of images in the mail yesterday from the PIF Image swap, what fun!! So I colored several with my Copics while watching a little HGTV last night. This morning I chose one of the Copified images (as my friend Bevie calls them), and put together a quick card. This image was sent to me by my friend Lori (LMcAree at SCS) ... she has great taste in images and has a wonderful gallery, so check it out sometime.

Supplies: Ice Cream for Two from High Hopes and A Muse sentiment, East Coast Prep DSP, Wild Wasabi, More Mustard CS from SU, Wasabi stictched ribbon

Enjoy the Moment Michelle

I was so excited to see that Michelle (sf9erfan) was this week's featured stamper on Splitcoast Stampers. This is my first featured stamper challenge card and I have to say I don't know why I haven't tried it before ... it's a LOT of fun. Michelle is an incredible stamper, a fellow PIFer and a very nice person. Here is the card I chose to CASE for the challenge. I use the same image (thanks Denise for sharing with us) and layout. I used Papertrey paper and ribbon, a different sentiment and I omitted the bow ... not because I didn't like it, I just ran out of room.

Congrats Michelle on being this week's featured stamper!! I really enjoyed browsing through your gallery.

Supplies: Daisy Canopy image from Elzybells and sentiment is Mixed Message from PTI, Papertrey Ink white, Sweet Blush, Spring Moss cardstock, Pink Patterns patterned paper, Spring Moss ribbon, Stickles on the flower center and the grass

Party Animal

I love how this card turned out. Started out with a super cute image I got from Lori (LMcAree) from the PIF image group ... thanks Lori, I love this little guy. I colored it with my copics Friday evening while sitting on my screened-in porch. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I actually colored several different images with the same basic color scheme. I based the layout on this cute card from my friend Bev's blog. I haven't used buttons in forever and boy did they add a cute touch to the card. And can you believe I FINALLY used my Nesties? I've had them for several months and haven't even had them out of their package.

Supplies: Whipper Snapper image and Amuse sentiment, Pumpkin Pie and Tempting Turquoise cardstock, patterned paper from Scenic Route, ribbon and buttons.

Margarita Riley

Okay, so really it's called Hammock Riley ... but paired with this cute A Muse sentiment, I'm calling this one Margarita Riley. I got this adorable image from Michelle (JustPaintingAround) through the PIF Image swap on SCS. I actually have this Riley stamp coming to me, but I couldn't wait for it to get here so I was lucky to get some images from Michelle. I am planning on making invitations for some girlfriends to come over for margaritas and this image will be perfect. I finally used some cute Memory Box Sugar paper that I've had for a year now and some of the twill I ordered from tayloredexpressions that I got on Friday.

Fun in the Sun

Happy Sunday everyone!! The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day here. Here is a card I did for Taylor's weekly challenge. These fun summer colors inspired me to make a Beachabella card.


Supplies used: Beachabella and A Muse sentiment, Tempting Turquoise, Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie and Gable Green cardstock from Stampin Up, Textile CB folder, ribbon from SU.

Boo Boo Bear to the Rescue

Here's a card I made with one of my favorite images. She's such a cutie with her pink band-aids and little sling, I wish this card could really rescue its recipient. But unforuntately that won't be the case because I'm sending it to a friend that hurt her wrist bad enough to need surgery. Hopefully it will cheer her up at least a little bit.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me tips on getting better photos of my cards. I will be trying some things this weekend, so wish me luck.

Supplies: Boo Boo Bear from Whipper Snapper, Chatterbox patterned paper, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive cardstock, Primas, Copics.

Loves Me Some Truffles

I was fortunate enough to get some of these adorable Truffle Gruffie images from Janette on the PIF Image thread on SCS. So I made myself sit down this evening and make a card. These images are large and initially I made a 5 1/4 square card. But it looked gigantic to me. The downside of using a standard card size with a large image like this is there's not a lot of room for embellishing, but the image is so darn cute that it can stand on its own ... in my opinion. I like how it turned out, but I have a lot to learn about coloring with my prisma color pencils. But practice makes perfect and I have tons of images thanks to all those kind PIFers out there for sharing such cute stamps.

The sentiment I'm going to put inside is "I Never Met a Chocolate I Didn't Like". Which is true for me, in fact, I had to eat a Snickers after finishing this card.

Supplies: Truffles Gruffie, SU Loves Me DSP (which is retired), Close to Cocoa cardstock.

Papertrey Riley

This Coffee Riley makes me smile. I think he is my favorite, but I have Hammock Riley and Campfire Riley on the way from ePaperie. Super simple card with the Papertrey colors from last month. I absolutely love their twill ribbon, well pretty much all of their ribbon. I colored him with my new prisma color pencils.

If anyone has any advice on what I'm doing wrong with my camera, please let me know. I am not zooming, just trying to get as close as I can while the image still looks clear to me in the camera's viewer. My camera is a Canon Powershot Digital Elph.

Supplies: Coffee Riley from Hanna Stamps, Mixed Messages, Everyday Blessings patterned paper, Aqua Mist cardstock and twill from Papertrey, Martha Stewart scallop punch and SU 1 1/4 round punch.

Stamp Club Swap Card

The ladies in my stamp club swap cards each month. It took a few months to get the ball rolling, but now everyone really looks forward to it. It's a wonderful way to walk away with 6 or 8 different cards each month. There are no vendor restrictions, so sometimes I use my non-Stampin Up stamps for my card ... as is the case this month. Funny thing is ... I forgot to put my cards out. So when I got home from my workshop, I discovered them in my bag. Oopsi ... oh well, I will get them sent out to each swapper ... "my bad".

I decided not to do a sentiment for this card to make it a little more versatile. I sent one just like it to my sister and her fiance to thank them for their hospitality when I was in Maryland in October. It could also be used as a congratulations for a new home or an anniversary card. Love those cute little birds.

Supplies: Two birds in a nest stamp by savvystamps.com, Divine Swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder, ribbon from Walmart. Colors: Soft Sky, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Whisper white.