Sites of the week

I swear just yesterday the Cat Pack was chatting about starting TCP Tuesday and now here we are at TCP Tuesday 100. In true TCP style, it has to be BIG and of course there has to be a chance to win BIG! So here we go…

Ok, it’s a hop so here are the hop deets:

Both the start and where you should have come from to get here are on LEIGH’s blog.
After you leave here, you will hop on over to JOANNE’s blog.

I said it was BIG, so let’s go over those deets, too:

1. Instead of 1 TCP Tuesday challenge there are four: Sketch, Color, Inspiration and Supply.
2. You will find these challenges along the way on Leigh, Joanne, Toni and Amy’s blogs.
3. The winner will be chosen by the number of entries they have. The more entries the more of a chance they have. In the case of a tie, the winner will be picked at random.
4. The contest will last a week. All entries must be uploaded to the guestbook on Alma’s/TCP blog. The winner of the contest should have all their designs uploaded no later than Noon. PST. Monday March 15. The winner will be announced on Tuesday at Noon PST on March 16.
5. The winner will win a prize pack of hottest Cat Pack Picks~ 7 of the Cat Packs picks. That is 7 of the Cat Pack’s swanky sets and some of Alma’s personal favorite licks. (Buttons, glitter, you know goodies).

One of my favorite sets is the Coolvetica Alphabet. Sweet and simple without being blah is the best way that I can describe it. Let me know what you think…

My original plan was to make a card {of course!} to go along with Leigh’s sketch, but then I took this picture of Ellie and got inspired to make a 6 x 6 scrap page. Why 6 x 6? Well, I don’t scrap and I find all the bigger sizes of scrapping a little tedious and a wee bit intimidating. I immediately thought of adding a little title using this alpha and now I have a wee page that I can display in my room. LOVE it!

Detail shot of the letters…

The picture was taken at Twisted Root Burger Company in Roanoke. I’ve been wanting to go since we saw it featured on the Food Network. It was YUM-O. Ellie and Tony shared a chocolate shake for dessert {ahem, appetizer} and I had a Thin Mint shake…de-lish! As for my burger, I had a burger with swiss and beer marinated carmelized onions with sweet potato chips on the side. Needless to say, we will be back!

Here’s the sketch for the challenge that I used…

Ok, hop hop hop on over Joanne’s blog for your next challenge

Usually I am the one that kicks off the Project Parade over on the Verve blog, but today I am actually the Diva that is wrapping it all up. It’s been a fabulous Project Parade with one breathtaking creation after another. I was so inspired by everyone’s contributions! I wish that Valentine’s Day wasn’t over so I had more time to make more pink and red sparkly projects! Oh well, on to St. Patty’s and Easter!

Here is my project that I did for the Parade. It’s a Stampendous Mini Pail that I picked up from Taylored Expressions. Of course, all of the stamps are from Verve Stamps. I used Heart’s Desire on this project…

A couple of detail shots…

You can read more about this project and see TONS more over on the Verve Blog. There is also a chance for you to win some Verve-y goodness over there!

TGIF! Everyday is just running together, so I don’t know that I am ‘that’ excited that it’s Friday. My dad comes in tomorrow to stay with us for a week, so I am excited for that. I was supposed to go visit my parents in October, but had to cancel because Ellie and I both were under the weather. It really bummed me out that I didn’t get to out there before Nic arrived. Speaking of being under the weather, Ellie has managed to come down with the sneezes, wheezes and coughs. Of course she hasn’t been sick in months, but as soon as a newborn arrives she comes down with this. Ahh…Murphy’s Law, I suppose! Everything on earth seems to be testing my patience at this time, and this certainly doesn’t help. As I type this, she is picking up play-doh off the floor. Anyone else not the biggest fan of Play-doh? I love that she loves it and that it keeps her entertained, but how in the world does it end up EVERYWHERE? LOL!

I planned to have some more Nic pics today, but that is going to have to be postponed until next week {sorry Auntie!}. I took SO many pics of Ellie, but I have to admit that I am kinda slacking with this kiddo. As soon as he starts doing something other than sleeping, eating and pooping I will turn into “mama-razzi” I am sure. He is already getting big!

Ok, now onto the crafty part of this post! I am actually ahead of the game on some things. I went ahead and made Ellie’s Valentines yesterday {with Susan’s help die-cutting the hearts}. The ‘LOVE’ stamp is from the Verve set, Heart’s Desire. The comma was added with a Sharpie and Ellie signed her own name…betcha could have guessed that!

I started with 1.5″ strips of pattern paper from PTI, white and pink cardstock, glassine envies that I purchased from Ebay, assorted Hershey chocolates, SU! heart punch and heart Nestabilities.

I filled the glassine envies with 2 chocolates and then folded the envie down twice. I folded the strip of pattern paper in half around the envelope, stapled it all together and then flag-ended the top…

The large hearts were cut from pink and white cardstock, stamped, and signed by Ellie. We added the smaller punched hearts for a little more detail and viola, Valentine treats for her preschool class…

I plan to make more of these, from me, to give out. Mine will probably have a little more detail and be more embellished, since I think my “audience” might appreciate them more than the 3 year olds getting these. I’m thinking stitching, distressing and buttons for mine. Hopefully I will have time to make them, and I will share them here if I do!

I actually have a bunch of new stuff to show you, but I can’t…yet! I’ll be pre-posting a bunch of stuff in the next few days for the next couple of weeks. Of course, I will be popping in with some new baby posts, too! I’ve seen a couple people do this and I kinda like the idea of taking a look back at the year just past and “reviewing” cards/projects done. I’ve chosen a favorite card or project for each month. I’m not even sure that “favorite” is the best word to use here because I view each of the company’s stamps differently, but anyways, here it goes {BTW…I’ve linked each of the original posts and be sure to click on the pics for a larger view, too}…

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

August 2009

September 2009

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

eeek…that was harder than I thought it would be!! I wanted to pick 2 or 3 for each month!!

New Year’s Greetings! I made a crayon {style} box the other day using a simple template I created, along with my circle Nestabilities and TCP stamps and came up with this…

Yes, those are leftover Christmas Hershey kisses in there!…Shhh, don’t tell anyone that I put them with a Valentine-y project!! LOL! All of the instructions and template {even in a PDF version!} for this project can be found HERE on the The Cat’s Pajamas site, where it is the Project of the Month {YAY!}.

I’m off to clean clean clean {nest, nest, nest} before my hired help {just kidding, my grandmother-in-law} and the baby arrive!! {double YAY!}