Widdle Tags!

Well, this morning started well---we woke up to our hamster, Widdle, loose in the house. After chasing the bugger for awhile, I ended up putting his open cage in my son's room and he went right back in....good Widdle!

.......Sometimes all you have time for is a TINY project. Here are two tiny Valentine tags I created with some fun The Cat's Pajamas stamps. Most of the things I used on these tags were things that were left on my desk from other projects--SCORE!

The first one features Sprinkle:
And this one features Love Puppy:

Materials used: Stamps-Love Puppy, Sprinkly (The Cat's Pajamas); Memento black; Twinkle stickers; cardstock-Gina K Pure Luxury, bananna SU cardstock; Doodlebug glitter; Heart punch (Creative Memories); Spellbinders rectangle and scalloped rectangle nestabilities; oval punch (SU!), ribbon (SU!).

Hope you have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by!

MFT Blog Hop-Cuppa Love

Hi everyone! Hope you are enjoying the My Favorite Things blog hop so far. If you didn't start at the beginning and want to see all the MFTeasers of the new sets...head on over to Kim's blog to make sure you don't miss a post.

Today I am showing you the new set called Tea for Two. This darling set has two tea cup images with mice. I knew lots would be showing this set in its original form, so I thought I would show you how you can combine the teacups with other images. Wouldn't it be cute to have a flopsey sitting in one? So, when you purchase this set---you will be able to find lots of different ways to use the cups.

Here is my Cuppa Love---I combined the new Tea for Two with Boho Blossoms and Behind the Scenes sets. The result is a funky and fun Valentine:
Materials used: Stamps-Tea for Two, Boho Blossoms, Behind the Scenes (My Favorite Things); Memento black ink; red embossing powder (Ranger); Versamark; classic red and black su markers; ribbon (My Favorite Things); square punch (Creative Memories); white cardstock-Gina K Pure Luxury; designer paper-Cosmo Cricket (Dutch Girl); paper piercing tool and mat pack; Cuttlebug and tag die; gemstones (Hero Arts); silver cord (SU!); dimensionals (SU!).

I embossed the heart from Boho Blossoms in red and cut it out and added the bling. I stamped the tea cup on dp...(I carefully inked only the tea cup part and used a q-tip to remove any ink that got on places I didn't want to be stamped). I used a fine tipped marker to add in the line or two that I couldn't use because I wasn't using the mouse image.

I stamped the background thanks and punched them out with a square punch. Finally, I assembled the pieces and added the faux stitching.

Hope you can see many different ways these teacups can be used. I am sure you will see the mice in them somewhere along the hop too!

To continue the blog hop, please visit the talented Candice's blog!

Don't forget: My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, Februray 4th from 9-10 p.m. EST. This month there are THREE new sets being released including a Who's that Girl set that is GOING DIGITAL! Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoaststampers to find out all the details and to find out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. We hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bling 'Bet Bounce and Blog Candy!

>>>try saying that 10 times fast!


Today the members of the My Favorite Things design team are showing different ideas on how to use a new MFT release called Bling 'Bet. So, today, you can bounce around to all of the blogs and see all the different ways to use this versatile set. If you didn't start at the beginning and want to see all the MFTeasers of the new sets...head on over to Kim's blog to make sure you don't miss a post.

I am showing you how to make a jewelry initial bag tag!

Materials you will need:

Jewelry piece (MFT will be carrying the exact one in this tutorial and lots of other shapes in her store soon!)

Bling 'Bet stamp (choose an initial)

ink

paper

Ultra Think Embossing Powder

bling (These stones will be for sale on the MFT set with this new release!)

Melting Pot (Ranger)

Step 1: Cut paper to the size of the jewelery piece. Stamp Bling 'Bet letter in the center of the paper.








Step 2: Add crystals on all the holes in the letter. Adhere letter paper to the jewelry peice with glue.








Step 3: Heat UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder) in the melting pot until melted.










You can see how the embossing powder looks when melting in this photo. When the powder looks all clear, you are ready for the next step. Note: You will need more powder than you think as the powder shrinks in liquid form.







Step 4: Pour melted embossing powder over the pendant. Make sure to fill it close to but not all the way to the top as it will overflow.
Note: You can use your embossing tool to go back and remelt any part that did not dry perfectly.



Here is my finished tag. I just added a ribbon to tie in onto the bag. You can make jewelry, bookmarks and keychains using the same technique.


Here is the little bag with the tag:


Blog Candy: Do you love the new Bling 'Bet? If you would like to be entered to win this set, just comment on this post by Thursday, February 5, at 5:00 p.m. CST. Tell me one project you would love to make with this fun alphabet. Random.Cara will pick a winner that night. (As always, subscribers are welcome to post two times!)

To continue the blog hop, please visit the talented Candice's blog!

Don't forget: My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, Februray 4th from 9-10 p.m. EST. This month there are THREE new sets being released including a Who's that Girl set that is GOING DIGITAL! Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoaststampers to find out all the details and to find out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. We hope to see you there on Wednesday night. Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Accents

Here is a scrapbook page I designed for the first page of our wedding album. I already created most of the inside pages of the album but could never figure out what I wanted to do for the first page.

After I saw the Timeless Heritage dies by Spellbinders, I knew what I wanted to do. Simple...but the elegant accents keep the picture the focal point.
I tried to make the dies LOOK like real copper pieces. I can create a tutorial on how I did this if there is interest.

Here is a close up of the dies. I also used Hardware Buckles (Spellbinders) dies to create the little accents on the side. The photo and frame are cut using Spellbinders Curved Rectangle Mega Nestabilities.

Gotta run--we are hosting a Superbowl party here tonight! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Cleaner Stamp Room...

....revealed!

I posted a few pictures of my messy stamp room a few weeks ago and promised to post pictures of it cleaned up when (if) I ever got it cleaned up!

My stamp room doubles as our guest room so anytime we have a visitor, I try to get my desk cleaned off. I have devised an organizational plan that requires little upkeep---I call it "Don't be too organized!" I find if I have places for everything but not strict guidelines on how things are organized, I can keep the place pretty organized most of the time.

Here is a picture of the room--my desk area:


Here is my room facing the other direction. You can see my photo box and a little embellishment center. The boxes below the photo table hold some designer paper. The brownish little table holds my Cuttlebug and embossing folder and dies and my Wizard and my Spellbinders dies.

Here is my desk. I keep my Scor-Pal out as a working space at all times---I stamp on the mat, move the mat to score, put the mat back on to color, etc. You can see my pink ott light there (a must-have for coloring!)

My giant desk (made by my father-in-law) has so many giant drawers and that helps a lot to keep the room neat-ish. This top drawer on the right pulls out when I want to color an image. It is filled with my Copics. I just pull out the colors I want to use, use them and throw them back in the drawer. There are no little spots to put them back so it takes no time to actually clean up! (grin!)

Here is an embellishment drawer. I put all my fun new embellishments in here so I can see what I have and use them more. I have another embellishment place that I keep staples in--like paper clips, other clips, buttons, etc. I do try to keep embellishments in their packages for publication purposes. (If you submit work regularly, you need to keep track of where the embellishments came from!)

One of my drawers holds my Gina K Stamps (I actually have another bin of these stamps too but I keep the most current releases in this drawer.)

This is another coloring drawer, right under the Copic drawer. This drawer houses my Prismacolor Pencils, glitter, watercolors, SU markers, colored pencils, Shimmerz, H20s, etc.

My two closets are filled with stamping supplies. This is one closet. It has most of my paper sorted (loosely) by colors. There is also a big embellishment box filled with common embellishments and embossing powders, etc. The cubed areas hold my MFT stamps,

embellishments and lots of other odds and ends. At the bottom of the paper stacker there is a large cube filled with more designer paper.
The other closet has two of these hanging shoe holders. This one holds punches. Behind this is a drawer organizer that holds small punches, adhesives and small paper packs.

Other holder holds ribbons (so I can see them). There is a huge ribbon bin behind this that holds all of my other ribbons....and there is no organization to it at all (smile!)

So now you have it! It may look disorganized, but I actually know where everything is located so, in my book, it is a-ok! I am VERY organized as far as deadlines and stuff so I make sure everything gets done in a timely fashion.

I will be back this week with teasers of the newest My Favorite Things sets that will be released on Wednesday! Good stuff! You are not gonna want to miss it and there might be a little blog candy along the way! (wink!)

Have a great weekend!

Simple Spring Box

I am battling a bad cold so I will likely be taking the weekend off from blogging until my head clears. Hopefully I will be able to get back to blog hopping soon!

Today I wanted to share this little box I created. I used my box tutorial to create the box and then just added the decorations and handle.
I used Spellbinders Daisy Heads dies for the center flower. I inked the dye with color box yellow ink before running it through my NEW Wizard (LOVE that thing!) I also decorated the border (Spellbinders Pierceabilities 5 1/2 Pinking Border) with the same ink. I ran the border through my Wizard and then embossed the shape. When I removed the paper and die, I pierced through the template holes and then I sponged the color over the embossed designs. I love how simple this was to create.

The large classic scalloped rectangle was cut out and then I scored the pattern using my Scor-Pal. I only used part of the rectangle for this so you could see the three sides of scallops on the front.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

CHA Friends!

Well, I am back from CHA! It was a blast.....my favorite part was meeting (or seeing) so many awesome friends! All of my pictures are people ones this time because I didn't have my camera much while I was on the show floor. There are lots of fun products that will be released soon---but I am sad to hear that some (of my favorite) companies will be closing their doors. Sigh!

Here are some pictures (that I remembered to take!) There were so many other people I had the opportunity to meet or see again that I don't have photos of---just didn't take enough pictures I guess!

This picture is of the Stamper's Dream gals: Amy Sheffer, Laurie Schmidlin, Michelle Rodgers (owner), Tosh Leyendekker and me:

This picture is of Carole Burrage *yeah, we're friends. She was one of my roomies at CHA this year. We had a blast!

This is Emily (Stamping Bella), Nicky (Stamping Bella) and Shannan Tuebner:

Well, I am a bit embarrassed about ALL the empty drink glasses in this picture. Let's just blame them on Michelle Giraud and Laura Canale. Love these gals!

Here is a picture from dinner on our last night. We were all tired but it was so worth it!

Me, Lisa Johnson, Val Stangle (some of my stamping idols!):

Gina K Gals: me, Cindy Lawrence and Emily Giovanni:

At last I got to meet my CCEE buddy--Tosh Leyendekker:

What a doll---Sharon Harnist:

Kim Van der Sanden (My Favorite Things) and Alma (The Cat's Pajamas):

The Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen dinner on Sunday night:

Deb Anton and I---6 a.m. Sunday morning at the local hospital, sans makeup! (We had to take a friend to the hospital suddenly and took this picture in the waiting room. Sadly, this is the only picture I have with just her and I! She was my other roommate and another dear friend of mine.)

Daven Nolta, Cindy Lawrence and Tosh at the Dirty Dozen dinner:

Carole Burrage and I:

AJ Otto, Me and Jennifer Buck at the Splitcoaststampers Cupcake reception on Saturday night (They are so much fun!):

What an amazing group of people. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to meet so many of my stamping friends in person. I only wish I took more pictures...

I will be back with regular posts soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

CCEE Valentine Treat Bag

It is Monday and time for another CCEE challenge. This week is a supplies challenge. Cindy M sent us all the same supplies: a white coffee bag, two heart embellishments, two heart ribbons, two pieces of designer paper, heart stickers and a sentiment.

We had to use the white bag and the sentiment and one of the papers. We had to fill it with something fun for our husbands for Valentine's Day.
Here is what I came up with:
I cut off the fold over top of my bag. I punched a Marvy heart and used a craft blade to trace the design on the bag front (Tip: Insert a piece of cardstock inside the bag when you cut it out so it wouldn't cut through to the other side!) I used a heart I punched out to create the bag closure. The silver heart brad can be taken out for the bag to open.

I cut up my sentiment and placed it all around the heart (tried to make it look like it was fluttering!) Here is a close up of the opening:

You can check out all the other bags the clever CCEEers made on the CCEE blog!

Note: I am at CHA this week but will return on Wednesday!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Very Special Birthday Request

Happy Birthday to my sister, Jeanne, who is 37 today!!! When I was visiting my family over Christmas, my sister told me that for her birthday she would like to be "blog famous!" lol! She is amazed at all of the friends and the wonderful support cardmakers/scrapbookers are for each other. So, she wanted me to make her a card and post it on my blog.....so here it is: Stamp credits: Best Friends Forevah (Stamping Bella), Cupcake (My Favorite Things).

Happy Birthday Deed! You are an amazing mother, wife, physician and SISTER! Love you! Hope you feel "famous" for today!!!

Here is a picture of Jeanne and I when we were two and three (I think!)
And here we are just last month at Christmas (just a wee bit older, ahem, I mean better!):

Because I knew I would be out of town for Jeanne's birthday, I had to actually make this card several days BEFORE her birthday....(anyone who knows me knows that.......that IS love!)

Thanks for stopping by!