Buttons, Buttons, Buttons!

Papertrey Ink came out with a fabulous new stamp set called 'Buttons and Bits' that I absolutely LOVE! It is designed so that you place a button where the main part of the image would normally be. I don't know what it is about buttons, but I have always loved them and have been drawn to them. Long before I became a paper crafter, I collected buttons and would put them in old canning jars for a decoration. Now of course, I put them on my cards and scrap book pages. So I am just WILD about this new set!

My first card was made for several of the Dirty Girl Challenges on Splitcoaststampers (SCS). I first used a sketch by Rainy, then I used a image of fruit to meet TruCarMa's Challenge 'Good Enough to Eat', I embossed the white panel with the Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' Embossing Folder for DeborahLynneS Challenge 'Taken with Texture', and I used a retired Stampin Up! Background Stamp 'Plaid', to make my own designer paper for gbedwright 'DP by Me' challenge. The sentiment for this card is computer generated, but the set does come with a lot of fun and creative sentiments of its own.

This card I made just for fun. The designer paper is all DCWV, I stamped the sentiment right on the designer paper on the bottom of the card. I colored the background a little with chalk.

I had the most stressful day at work yesterday and I am really looking forward to having a relaxing day off today before I go back to work tomorrow. We were just extremely understaffed as always (only 3 employees for the entire store on a busy Thursday afternoon) and it seemed every customer had a problem, issue or complaint. And I had so many customers that needed extra help, but I had to just tell them that there was no one available to help them at the moment and I felt terrible. I really wish the company would get their act together and give us more hours so that there are more employees on the floor. I think our store is developing a reputation for bad customer service, and I feel terrible about it, but there's only so much I can do. I can't be in two places at once, and ONE employee can't handle 10 customers at one time. It was so frustrating. Thanks for letting me vent, again! Have a good day! Amy

Your'e Simply Sweet

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to my good friend Darlene who will be celebrating her very first BLOGANNIVERSARY soon. She's got a great prize available for one randomly chosen winner. Check it out HERE Now, onto the details of today's card. I apologize for the dark photo. I'm not home enough anymore to take pictures during the optimum lighting hours, so I have to settle with what I get. For those of you who asked why I'm all of a sudden getting so many hours at work, its a combination of things: A lot of employees quit at the same time, were getting more business because our customers are finally receiving their mailers, the spring gardening season is over so people are finally back in their homes crafting, and I am constantly being 'called in' because an employee failed to show up for work, or the store is extremely busy. Although I enjoy the money, I miss being home doing the things I love. Anyway, back to my card. Because of my time constraints, I made this card for several challenges: The MFT sketch Challenge, SCS Color Challenge, and the DTGD09 SCS Inspiration Challenge 'The Happiest Hour'. All of these challenges are on Splitcoaststampers (SCS). This week's colors for the SCS Color Challenge are Certainly Celery, Pixie Pink, and Apricot Appeal. Isn't that the prettiest color combo you've ever seen? My inspiration piece was a mosaic of paisley patterns and lemons/limes, so I used this image from retired Stampin Up! 'Sparkling Summer'. I thought it matched the colors and the inspiration piece perfectly. The sentiment is from an MFT stamp set. I embossed the Apricot Appeal background with the Paisley Cuttlebug Folder. The main image is mounted up on dimensionals and there are Stickles on the glass of lemonade.

Have a great day! I'm off to work AGAIN! LOL! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge #17 'Clean and Simple'

Today's Digital Tuesday Challenge is 'Clean and Simple'. Now, although I like what some designers do with Clean and Simple Cards, it is definitely not my style. I always struggle with them. I always feel like my card is either missing something or looking amateurish, so I usually avoid doing them. But because it was today's challenge for the blog 'Digital Tuesday Challenge', and I am a designer for that blog, I had no choice but to comply. So here is my submission! Does it look Clean and Simple enough for you all? I didn't use any dimensionals or embellies other than the small, flat strip of ribbon across the card. I didn't even tie a bow! Whew! That was hard! I did have to emboss the white panel with the Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' Embossing Folder, it was driving me nuts leaving it bare. LOL! I chose this free digital image from Dustin Pike's Blog because I thought it was perfect for a Clean and Simple card because the sentiment is in the image! Isn't this the cutest 'Thank You' image you have seen? I just love the expression on the Bear's eyes as he looks over the words. Dustin is also the sponsor of this week's challenge. One randomly chosen winner will receive three digital images of their choice. You can view Dustin's images HERE. Here is a close-up of the main image so you can see the coloring. I always use Copic Markers when coloring my digital images.

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click the Digital Tuesday Challenge blinkie in my side bar and it will take you to the blog. Have a great day! Amy

Christmas in July!

Greetings to all my friends in blog land. I'm sorry I haven't posted much this week. We are busy converting our entire store from Spring to Fall, so I have been working constantly. Too say I'm exhausted would be an understatement. So because I have been working so much, I haven't had time to breathe, much less make cards. But I did want to post all the Christmas Cards that I have been working on for the past two months. As most of you already know, I belong to a Christmas Card Club on Splitcoaststampers. I make five Christmas Cards a month all year long, so I don't have to make them all at once in December. Here are 7 of the cards I've made for the months of June and July.


The first one uses an image from Crafty Secrets 'Sweet Kids'. I have liquid applique on the snow and Stickles on the snow and snowflakes.
My second card uses digital images from Angel's Landing...one of my favorite new digital image companies. This little guy is 'hinged' so his arms and legs move. This set is called 'Marching Band 2'.

My third card uses an a retired Stampin Up! image that I received from a friend on Splitcoaststampers. Unfortunately, because I don't own the stamp set, I don't know the name of it. Sorry.

My fourth card was made for a Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. You can see the original card HERE. The Featured Stamper was B-gin-R. I changed the image and the designer paper, but otherwise left it the same. I used retired Stampin Up! sets 'Festive Friends' and 'Happy Holidays' to make my card. There is glitter on the snow, and the designer paper is retired Stampin Up! 'Holiday Treasures'.

This card was also made for a Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. You can see this original card Here. I changed the image, and added a ribbon/sentiment/tag, but otherwise, kept the same original design. The snowman is a digital image from Digital Stamp Oasis. It was actually a freebie on Ellie's blog. You can find the link in my last post.

The Santa Xmas Card was created for a Sketch Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. The main image is retired Stampin Up! 'Holiday Woodcuts'. The designer paper is retired Stampin Up! 'Holiday Treasures'.

And my last card uses retired Stampin Up 'Always on my Mind' and more 'Holiday Treasures' designer paper. I've loved that paper all year, and will miss it terribly when I'm completely out. I hope the new Stampin Up! Xmas Paper works just as well for me as this one did.

Well I hope you enjoyed looking at all my Christmas Cards today. Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge #16: 'Christmas in July'

Today's Digital Tuesday Challenge is 'Christmas in July'. Simply create a card or project using your Christmas or Winter Themed Digital Images. This week's sponsor is Digital Stamp Oasis. They are giving away three images to one lucky randomly chosen winner. To see their images, simply click on the Digital Stamp Oasis blinkie in my sidebar.

To make my card, I used a Digital Stamp Oasis freebie which can be found HERE. This image comes with a cute snowman ( I made a separate card with him which I will show you at another time), but for today's card, I only wanted to use the squirrel, so I cut him out and popped him up on dimensionals. My snowman is actually a Sizzix Die. The papers are retired Stampin Up! 'Holiday Treasures'. Card stock colors are white, black, real red, chocolate chip, and old olive. I added ribbon, a button, and hem for embellishment. The sentiment is a Cuttlebug Die.

If you'd like to play along with this week's challenge, simply click the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my side bar and it will take you there. You will also see other fabulous Christmas cards for the Digital Tuesday Challenge Design Team.

Have a great day, and, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Amy

Altered Tea Box

I made this Altered Tea Box awhile ago for my Lil Sis on Splitcoaststampers. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of the box BEFORE I altered it, but I forgot. Its basically just a package of tea that has an opening on the bottom of the box. I covered the box with paper from DCWV 'Nana's Kitchen'. The tag is stamped with images from Crafty Secrets 'Coffee and Tea'.

I wrapped both ribbon and Ric Rac around the box and put a large prima on top of the box.

Have a great day! Amy

Wausau Mine Company

Well, since I've been so busy lately, I don't have any new projects to show you, but since my blog is about 'ANYTHING of creative interest to me', I wanted to show you some pictures of a very unique restaurant that my husband and I visited. It is located in Wausau, WI and is called the Wausau Mine Co. Apparently, Wausau is known for its mining history, so someone built this restaurant in honor of that history. The first two pictures show the outside of the restaurant (and me), it looks like a run-down old mine and there are rocks and some old mining vehicles/tools parked outside.

The windows are all slanted like this. Isn't it funky looking? Here is a beautiful mural on one of the walls.

It was hard to get good quality pictures of the inside, since it is so dark (like a real mine), but all the walls look like the inside of a cave and there are various 'mining scenes' set up throughout the restaurant. Here is one of just the legs of a miner up in the ceiling.

This is a scene of a mining tunnel and tracks.

A scene of a closed-off mine tunnel.

A close up picture of the wall.

I thought this was one of the more interesting scenes. It actually had dripping water down the side of the wall with a 'pond' beneath.

There are also numerous old photographs and artifacts throughout the building to study and learn more about the mining history of the area. But I didn't take any pictures of those. It was a very interesting place to stop and visit, and if your ever in the area, it'll be worth stopping at too!

Have a great day! Amy

A Naturally Vintage Birthday

I am busy, busy, busy! Between work, gardening, crafts, and family, I am feeling very overwhelmed. So in my quest to 'keep up', I made one card for four different challenges. And I wish I had a better picture of this card, because it is one of my favorites. It's so pretty in real life. I tried 25 different ways to photograph it, and this was the best I could do. Sorry. I think its the muted colors. I always struggle photographing soft colors. Any photographers out there who have any ideas?

Anyhow, onto my card. This card uses the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers this week, and is for both the Crafty Secrets Challenge on PCP (Use Gingham on your card) and Splitcoaststampers (Make a Birthday Card), and my Shabby Chick's Blog Roll Challenge (Make a Nature Card). I used Crafty Secrets 'Garden Girls' and 'Bird Notes'. The Bird is mounted up on dimensionals. The card stock colors are White, Chocolate Chip, and Bordering Blue. The designer papers are SU! 'Parisian Breeze'.

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge #15: "Easy as 1, 2, 3"

The Digital Tuesday Challenge this week is "Easy as 1, 2, 3":

create a card using one digital image, two designer papers, and 3 embellishments. The sponsor this week is 'The Character Cafe'. This image, 'Sk84 Brady', is from their store and you can find it here: http://sweeteez.com/ourdesigns.htm My two designer papers are from 'Me and My Big Ideas'. Card stock colors are white, black, Riding Hood Red, and River Rock. The three embellishments are black string, silver studs, and the Cuttlebug Star Die Cut. The image is colored with Copic Markers and the sentiment is computer generated. I also used the layout from this month's Sheetload of Cards Sketch.

If you'd like to play along with us this week simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you to the challenge. This week's randomly chosen winner will receive three digital images of their choice.

Have a great day! Amy

Popping Up to Say.....

Ugh, I'm so exhausted. My husband, children, and I all went to 'Lifefest' in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for three days. Its a Outdoor Christian Music Festival. We saw all the big names in the Christian Music Industry: Toby Mac, Barlow Girls, Leland, Cutlass, Skillet, etc. and a lot of really hard, acid-rock groups that I don't even remember the names of. My husband and son just love that type of music, whereas I'm more 'light rock'. Anyhow, we were up at 8:00 a.m. everyday, and never got to bed before 1:00 a.m. I rarely go to bed past 10:00 p.m., so I just feel terrible right now: like a truck ran me over. I even took a two hour nap when I came home, and I still feel physically sick. I started to think I was too old for rock concerts, but, then I remembered, I never liked them, even when I was a teenager. So it really has nothing to do with age. LOL! My husband is the type of concert-goer who loves to stand in the pit and bounce, scream his head off, and sing along. I, on the other hand, prefer to sit quietly and observe the concert in my nice comfy folding chair in the back. I even embarrassed him when I brought a tote along filled with Copic Markers and some digital images to color and everyone walking by wondered why this lady was just sitting there 'coloring' like a two year old. I said to my husband, 'Well now you know how I feel when you fall asleep at a Musical Theatre show!' LOL! Anyhow, I think it will be a long time before we try that again as a family. Especially since the whole thing cost us about $600 and I didn't even enjoy myself. I could have gone to 6 Broadway Musicals at that price! LOL!

Onto my card for today. I actually made this one several weeks ago for a Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoastampers. The Featured Stamper was Dawn Lusk and here is her original card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1142855?cat=500+ppuser=19913 I kept the same layout, but changed everything else. My image is 'Just Nutty' from Clear Dollar Stamps and it says 'Happy Birthday' inside. The squirrel was colored with Prismacolored Pencils and Gamosol and is popped up on dimensionals. The paper is DCWV 'The Green Stack'. Card stock colors are So Saffron, Going Grey, White, and Close to Cocoa.

Have a great day. I think it will be awhile before I am physically recovered from my latest adventure. I'm working non-stop for the next three days. When it rains it pours! LOL! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge #14 'Sweet Birthdays'

This week's Digital Tuesday Challenge is to use anything 'sweet' with a birthday theme on your card or project. Well, I think Strawberries are pretty sweet, so I used this 'sweet' image from Digital Stamp Oasis called 'Sammy Squirrel Eats Strawberries'. The inside of the card says 'Happy Birthday' so that it qualifies for the challenge. LOL!



To make my card, I started with a 5 1/2 by 11 piece of 'Garden Green' card stock. I then layered Real Red and White over, and over again. One of the white panels was embossed with the Cuttlebug Embossing Folder 'Swiss Dots', and the designer paper panel is Stampin Up!. The strawberry image I pulled off another card that someone sent me in the mail (yes, I do that. I often break apart other hand made cards that I receive and remake new cards with them. Recycle, reuse!) so I have no idea what image it is, but I know its Stampin Up!. The Designer Paper Panel, the main image panel, the strawberry, and the green part of the strawberry are all mounted up on dimensionals. The image is colored with Copic Markers and I used a white gel pen to highlight the strawberries. The tag is a Cuttlebug Die.



If you'd like to purchase this image, simply click on the Digital Stamp Oasis Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you to the Etsy Store. If you'd like to play along with this challenge, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie for further instructions. This week's sponsor is My Grafico. You can find their images here: http://www.mygrafico.com/stamps/cat_95.html One lucky randomly chosen winner will receive 1 set of digi stamps of their choice. I hope you play along! Have a great day! Amy

An Anniversary Sketch

Hello everyone in blog world! I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! I worked in the morning, and in the afternoon I had to cook something for church and then had a few moments to myself to quickly whip up a sun dress, then in the evening we went to the Fireworks. Nothing too exciting this year.

I made this card for last week's sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers. The images are all Inkadinkado Inchie Stamps from two different sets: 'One Plus One = Love', and 'Heartful of Love'. I put Stickles on the images so it is very sparkly in real life. All the squares were made with a Cuttlebug Die. The card stock colors are White, Black, and Pink Pirouette. The designer paper is DCWV 'All Dressed Up Stack'. Organza ribbon and a charm were added for embellishment.

Have a great day! Amy

Enjoy Your Day!

For those of you who are not in retail like I am and can enjoy a four day holiday weekend, today's post is for you! Enjoy your day! I made this card for the My Favorite Things Challenge on Splitcoaststampers: "Paper Piecing". I paper pieced her skirt and top with the designer papers from DCWV 'The Pet Stack'. I just love how the skirt turned out....don't you? The centers dots are actually sparkly and raised in real life, the camera just doesn't show it. The rest of the designer papers in the background are also from the same stack, and the card stock colors are White, Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, and Tempting Turquoise. The sentiment is retired Stampin Up! 'Riveting'. The image is from 'Gone to the Dogs'.

My next two cards were for the MFT sketch challenge but I didn't use MFT stamps, I used a $1.00 clear acrylic stamp purchased from JoAnne's Fabrics and Crafts. The paper is all from DCWV 'The Summer Stack'. Card stock colors are White, Night of Navy and Wild Wasabi for the first card, and White and So Saffron for the second card. I send birthday cards to everyone in my church and I got two calls yesterday from the church secretary who gave me the names of two little girls whose names weren't on my list so I missed their birthdays. So I whipped these cards up quick to send them to them so that they will know they were not forgotten.

Well have a Happy Fourth of July everyone. I work tomorrow, but I'm happy about it because I get paid time and half! Yippee! It will be interesting to see if were busy or not. I can't imagine many people wanting to shop in a fabric store on the 4th of July. Maybe we'll actually have time to straighten up the store for a change! We have a huge sale going on all weekend and yesterday was the first day of our sale, so we were VERY busy, and I was on the cash register all day....so you can just imagine how stressed I was. But I must admit, I'm getting better at it all the time.

Have a great day! I'm going outside to enjoy some sunshine for the first time in a week! Its been cold and cloudy for so long I thought I'd never see the sun again. Amy

A Crafty Secrets Gala of Cards!

I've done four cards for four different Crafty Secrets Challenges in the past two weeks, but couldn't get around to posting them on my blog until now. So here they are!

The first one is for this week's Crafty Secrets Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. We were to make a card using our 'virgin' Crafty Secrets Stamps. I had to chuckle at the use of the word 'virgin'. These images are from the 'Coffee and Tea' set. Although I have used that set quite often, I have never used the sugar cube images before, so they finally got inked up with this challenge! The paper is DCWV 'Nana's Kitchen'. I thought they were very retro looking and suited the images beautifully. The card stock colors are white, Only Orange, and Going Grey. Both the sugar cubes and the main image panel are mounted up on dimensionals. You can see this in the close up picture below.

The second card was made for this week's challenge on Paper Craft Planet. My good friend Darlene was inspired by my garden, and so she created a challenge based on that. Isn't she sweet? The challenge was to use flowers on your card. My card has flowers in the image, on the designer paper, and of course the Primas. The image is from 'Feeling Yucky' and the card stock colors are White, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst, Wild Wasabi, and Pink Pirouette. The designer paper is Stampin Up! 'Tea Party'. The image is colored with Copic Markers. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

The third card was made for both the Paper Craft Planet Sketch Challenge and a Splitcoaststampers Challenge 'Inspired by Nature'. We were to create a card based on something that Nature inspired. Well, right now all the Foxglove is in full bloom in my yard and it looks like a sea of purple and white, so I made a purple and white card. The image is from 'Garden Girls'. The designer paper is unknown. The card stock colors are white, Elegant Eggplant, and Perfect Plum. The image was colored with Prismacolored Pencils and Gamosol.

And my final card was made for the Paper Craft Planet Challenge to use both a circle and a square on your card. I actually got this sketch from somewhere too, but I don't remember where. Typical of me. LOL! The designer paper is Stampin Up! 'Tea Party'. The image is from 'Bird Notes' and is colored with Prismacolored Pencils and Gamosol. The card stock colors are white, So Saffron, and Wild Wasabi.

Have a great day. I'm off to work and then time to do the weekly grocery shopping. No crafting for me today. Boo-hoo. Amy

Weiman Wranglers: Cowgirl!

A couple of posts down, I featured a Cowboy image by Pink Cat Studio and I mentioned that there was also a cowgirl image with this digital set: Here she is! Isn't she adorable? I made this card for a color challenge on Lauren Meader's blog. The card stock colors are white, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, and More Mustard. I ran the Really Rust panel through the Cuttlebug using the Distressed Stripes Embossing Folder.

As a reminder, since I've already mentioned it in the previous post; all proceeds from the purchase of this digital stamp set will go to the Make a Wish Foundation in honor of Ethan.

Have a great day! Amy