Sites of the week

TGIF! Is everyone ready for the weekend? We have another birthday party to go to and some serious relaxin’ to do! I also have some serious stampin’ and publication submitting to do. I hope that all your plans include fun and sunny days. It’s a bright sunny day that inspired my colors for today’s project, in fact. I have been slightly addicted to this flower shape on the Noteworthy Slice Design Card. I love layering the colors and sizes and I have been playing around with some texture, too.

The dress form is from none other than the queen’s of all things alterable…GLUE ART & PAPER STUDIO. I used green gingham paper that I got at Hobby Lobby {Paper Studio brand} and polka dot Doodlebug Designs paper to cover it. The gorgeous green satin ribbon is from Taylored Expressions. I FINALLY played with some of the pom pom ribbon that I have bundles of! I just never think to use it, even though it is hot, hot, hot right now. I scalloped the edges of some SU! Pixie Pink cardstock and then adhered mini green rhinestones to the edge for a little added bling bling. I repeated that bling bling in the center of the each of the Prima flowers. Here is a detail shot…

Here’s a tip about covering alterables…
If you do not want to sand the edges, be sure to closely trace the shape onto your pattern paper. Then, cut the shape out with sharp scissors, adhere to the alterable and then {here’s the tip part} take your bone folder along the where the paper meets the edges for a smooth finish.

And, the Ellie pics I promised…

ADVENTURES WITH BUBBLES

The last one cracks me up! So much effort for bubbles! LOL! Have a great weekend! You know I’ll have another SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {winner announced, too!}.

Spring has sprung! It was 90 degrees here in North Texas yesterday…HOT! We had a lot of fun playing outside with chalk, bubbles and the soccer ball. Lil’ Ellie’s cheeks were flushed within 5 minutes. It was quite precious, really. Last night she already had a sun dress picked out for school today. She doesn’t call them dresses, though. She calls them her princesses because she thinks she looks like a princess when she wears a dress. I’ll have some new Ellie pics tomorrow with my ABC Friday project.

Today, I have a couple Bella cards to show you. The first one uses Belinda Bumberboots splashing in the rain puddles. When I saw this American Crafts DP, I knew that it was the perfect match for this image. Whatcha think?

I just love this lil’ ribbon and button treatment that my friend, Susan, came up with. I have been adding it to a few of my latest projects. Cute and simple!…

Here’s another detail shot. BTW, I just love this color combo! I am definitely gonna have to do hot pink, yellow, leafy green and grayish blue again…

My second card uses the Hanging Cloud Block, also from Stamping Bella. I paper pieced the clouds in very non-cloud paper. Kinda fun and funky…

See you tomorrow for ABC FRIDAY!!!

Happy TCP Tuesday…On Wednesday! Carole is the Hipster Hostess With The Mostess this week and she has created an awesome sketch to work with! I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first, but once I got going with it, I knew it was a keeper. I even created a second card with it, but I can’t show that one quite yet…wink! Here is what I came up with…

Detail shot…

The black skull and cross bones paper is something that I found at Hobby Lobby…cool, huh?! The red skull and cross bones paper was created with a stamp from the Arrgh! Piratey set from The Cat’s Pajamas. I also used this set to create the main image panel. I stamp the map outline, cut it out, drew the map and stamped the star, sponged the edges and then crinkled it…whew!, that was a lot to do with one little piece of paper. Actually, it only took a couple minutes; it just seemed like a lot writing it all out in a row. The ship and pirate were stamped, colored and then mounted on dimensionals over the map. The base of the main image panel is the pinked circle Nestabilities. LOVE THESE. I thought that they would be cute to award ribbons with, or something cutesy like that, but I really like using them for cards like this!

By the way, here is the sketch that I was working with…

So, wanna play along with the TCP Tuesday challenge?…EVERYONE can! Here’s what you are gonna want to know…
1. Each a week one of the The Cat’s Pajamas DT Members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme/inspiration, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project on THIS post on Carole’s blog.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS, please use the keyword TCPTUES55 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the first of the month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.
10. Oh yea…HAVE FUN!

On another note, this comic cracks me up…

Just a reminder to THINK PINK! Since my mom is a breast cancer survivor, I am considered high risk and have to start getting mammograms at age 30. With shaky nerves and thoughts of “what if?” I got my first one yesteday. Easy peasy! I can’t say that I liked sitting in a waiting room with several women in drapes, but overall it was not an unpleasant experience. Notice the wording…I didn’t say that it was a pleasant experience, but it was far from unpleasant…thank goodness, because I may have lost it. Remember, THINK PINK!

On Thursday, Gina K. is releasing “Wee Tees” as part of the Melanie Muenchinger line. Melanie has been kind enough to ask me if I would like to do a Guest Designer spot for this set. I am such a sucker for baby stamps, so I’m pretty sure that this set was made just for me…LOL! When Ellie was a baby she had a lot of funny onsies, including my fave: “Dr. Pooper” with the Dr. Pepper logo. Tacky, yes, but it was funny for the 2 times that she got to wear it before she grew out of it. Well, there are no stamps like that in this set, but there are a lot cute ones, including the sentiment “My Mommy Rocks!” You can also make it say, “My Daddy Rocks.”

I thought that this one would be cute for announcements…

Want more sneak peeks? Check ‘em out…
Melanie, Carolyn, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Gina, Jessica, Joanne, Kurtis, Theresa, Laura Jean and Libby.

Now say that 5 times fast!

Last month Taylored Expressions launched their Key Ingredients Subscription and it was a hit! This month is sure to please, too. I got my kit several weeks ago and attached to it was a note that said not to use it until today…ack!! While I am a good {make that great} hoarder, this was killin’ me! Finally, I got to crack it open for the Key Ingredients Subscription Challenge…

Focus: The focus is on the Key Ingredients collection. Feel free to showcase the papers and embellishments with stamps from other companies or with TE stamps.

Required Element: The glitter from the kit…make a shaker, glitter up some brads or chipboard, lots of possibilities for loose glitter!

Restricted Element: Your card cannot be a standard A2 size.

So this is what I came up with…

I knew right away that I wanted to make a scrappy creation, so I took out the cardstock and picked a few colors that went along with polka dot DP…imagine that, I chose to use the polka dot paper! The “t” was cut using my Slice machine. I then covered it in Martha Stewart adhesive and covered it with the glitter from the kit. I did the same with the Martha Stewart punched butterflies. I added the ribbon to the back so that it could be hung. That ribbon is the same as I put on either side of the main panel. I love this grosgrain! It’s not flimsy at all…like so many out there!

You can check out more of the Baker’s Dozen creations using the Key Ingredients Subscription, just click on their name…
Sankari Wegman
Dawn Easton
Denise Marzec
Laurie Schmidlin
Karen Motz
Taylor VanBruggen