Sites of the week

Happy Black Friday! Did you brave the crowds and get all your shopping done last night? Tony ventured out for a little last night and then we all went out this morning. No, we didn’t think that dragging 2 kids into Black Friday mayhem was a great idea, we wanted Nic to fall asleep in the car since he’s not feeling well and has had some trouble at nap time the last few days. Our plan worked, we hit several stores {I sent Tony in} and he slept for a good 2 hours in the car. Speaking of the lil’ man not feeling well…Thanksgiving dinner was highlighted by Nic throwing up at the dinner table, as Tony and I tag teamed getting paper towels and cleaning up the “mess.” While I am thankful for the time spent together, this won’t be a Thanksgiving to remember…but it surely won’t be one that I will forget!

I went with the bright colors from the leftovers of my Echo Park Splash 6×6 pad and paired it with this inspirational quote from the WORDS OF WISDOM set from Verve. After I thought I as finished with the card, it seemed like it needed “something.” That something was this little tab with the “Just Start” sentiment…

I accented the main panel with a die cut FLUTTERBY butterfly, also from Verve…

The sketch I used is from this month’s {VERVE sponsored!} SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY…

Have you done this month’s SFYTT? Be sure to share your card with us and upload to this linky system {also on the ORIGINAL NOVEMBER SFYTT POST}. Julee, the owner of Verve, is offering a chance to win a Verve set if you play along this month with Verve stamps. Happy stamping and good luck…

Hey MFT fans!

I’m joining the My Favorite Things crew today as they show off a few of the new sets that are going to be released on September 6. A little while before I left the team, I submitted an idea for a Pure Innocence girl. I think ASTRONAUT GIRL is just “out of this world”…

I was torn on whether to color the astronaut suit the typical white/gray or to go with the orange suit. As you can see, I went with the orange and it’s pretty bright against an otherwise muted color palette, but I still like it…

This sentiment is just the sweetest! This is actually not how it is set up in the set, but I needed it to fit in this space so I took my scissors {gasp!} to the photopolymer sentiment stamp and got it to fit just perfectly…

As I noted before, all the new MFT stamp sets will be available on September 6 {at 10 PM EST}.

Want to see more of the stamps and dies being released? Check out Kim’s blog for a full list of DT members showing their teasers.

I hope everyone enjoys their day off for the summer sendoff!

Hip Hip Hooraaaaaay! It’s time to celebrate YOUR NEXT STAMP‘S 2nd birthday!

As the title of this post suggests, you are at a stop along the YNS Birthday Hop. In case you just stumbled upon here and didn’t come from JENNY’S BLOG, be sure to take a moment to go back to the start of the hop at PEGGY’S BLOG. You don’t want to miss a thing, especially because there are some pretty cool prizes along the way, too! We have a fun little puzzle for you to solve along the hop and when you do you will be entered into the draw for one of TWO amazing YNS prizes! Not everyone has a puzzle piece so you need to pay attention, and click on the puzzle pieces, and follow the directions as you find them along the way {3rd party cookies must be enabled to do the puzzle}. When you are done put them all together at the end of the hop for your chance to win! You have until Monday, August 15th at Midnight EST.

I’ve put together a couple of projects for this post. First, I have something sweetly spooky {or is it spookily sweet?} from the Cute Witch Ellie set…

I **really** enjoyed coloring this image with my Copics. As you can see, I am having fun with my grays lately..

There is a super cute bat image in the set Happy Haunting set {where the sentiment is from}, which actually inspired me to use my really big bat punch as an embellishment. I adorned it with spar-ka-lay ribbon {found at Mike’s last week}, a button and baker’s twine…

My second project uses a previously released set that I absolutely ADORE {wink, wink to Karen}, Happy Birthday Mermaid…

I love this tag {yep, I said it. I do!!!}. It has a lot of texture and dimension, which I guess is my way of adding a technique since you KNOW that I am NOT a technique-y person…

Sherrie Siemens recently did a mermaid card and I just love the way that her tail turned out!! It heavily inspired my mermaid’s tail which led me to adding some dots with my Copics and then I topped it all off with Diamond Stickles. Super spark-a-lay…

Ok, I think that this post has gotten long enough with 6 pictures and me blabbing {again} about how I do not do the technique thing {kinda that way with -event- themes, too, by the way}. So, let me send you along your merry way to find some puzzle pieces and be inspired. Your next stop along the YNS Birthday Hop is on my bestie, SUSAN’S BLOG. I’m pretty darn sure there is cuteness abounding over there!

Ahoy there, Mateys!

I’m a little early to be chatting like it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day {September 19th}, but it’s still fun any day of the year. By the way, if you are interested in reading more about Talk Like a Pirate Day, there is an OFFICIAL SITE explaining how it all began in addition to some vocabulary you might want to pick up on before the big day. It’s good for a laugh, or two!

So why the pirate-y spirit? It’s none other than the new Ahoy Matey set from My Favorite Things {this month’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY sponsor}. I knew this guy would fit perfectly into this month’s sketch…

This card probably would have been great for a guy until I dove into my rhinestone stash and gave it a little bling bling along the star panel {created with the Stacking Stars Die-Namics die set}. I’m sure there are still a few guys that would like it

As you can see, I took a more interpretive approach to the three circle panels indicated on the sketch {posted below}.I just couldn’t stop reaching for those rhinestones, either…

There’s a little less than a week less to play along with this month’s sketch! Won’t you play along? It’s fun and easy…I promise!

Click HERE for the JULY SFYTT post.

1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {SFYTT} will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”

Can you believe how fast July is whizzing by us? It’s crazy that CHA is already upon us. I was supposed to be on an airplane this morning headed for the windy city, but I am opting for Winter CHA instead. It’s been a LOOONG while since I have been and I am looking forward to it already. It’s actually good that I am not headed up there because I have a BUNCH of stampy stuff to get done! On my list was to complete a couple of more cards using this month’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY. You can see the original post with samples using this month’s sponsor’s stamps HERE.

This month’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY…

A BIG THANK YOU to this month’s sponsor, MY FAVORITE THINGS! I think that I **may** have mentioned that I just love the Pure Innocence line of stamps at MFT. When I saw this girl holding her cotton candy {Sweet Greetings set} I knew she had to be mine! Ellie used to have a slew of colorful striped pants, so I had to go with that on the coloring. Whatcha think?…

I put her on an embossed rectangular panel, although I really fought off wanting to use a circle here. That just wasn’t going to work {HmPh!}. The flower are die cut with the Perfect Petal Trio Die-Namics dies and adorned with a green button to pull in the green from her pants..

The vertical side panel is die cut with the Simply Scallops Medium Die-Namics die {love this one!!}. And, instead of using paper for the horizontal panel that goes across the main image panel, I decided to use green and pink baker’s twine wrapped around a few times and double bowed…

Wanna play along with the sketch? I sure hope you will! Below are some “Notes To Know.” Be sure to link up your project {card, layout, etc.} to THIS post.

1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {SFYTT} will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”