Ne Hao

Hello again!

I know I don't usually post on the weekends,

but I wanted to enter a couple of challenges that 

end in the next day or two,

so I hope you don't mind. :o)

The first is the Color Throwdown #139

Aren't those colors yummy?

It immediately reminded me of this gorgeous paper 

I had in my stash from My Little Shoebox.

I used Cosmo Cricket tiny type alphas

to spell out "Ni Hao" which (I hope) is the phonetic

spelling of the Mandarin word for "hello."

I just love this little scene.

Reminds me of the little girl from Memoirs of a Geisha.

It's so vibrant and beautiful that it really 

needs little extra embellishment.

Which makes it perfect for the second challenge,

Lisa Spangler's Make It And Mail It Challenge.

Being nearly flat makes this card perfect for mailing.

I love this idea, because I really need to mail out more cards, 

rather than just decorating my bookshelves with them.

Okay, well, that's it for me tonight!

Make sure to check back Monday for another

Lawnscaping Challenge!

See you then!

Friends 4 Ever

Hi there, everybody?

Aren't you so glad it's the weekend?

Oh my gosh, I am!

I got up at 4AM this morning to watch the royal wedding.

Did you?

I'm a sucker for history-in-the-making events.

Plus, having lived for over five years in Europe

where the royals splash the covers of magazines

the way celebrities do here, I got familiar with them all

and it's fun to watch the big events in their lives.

Anyhoo, I wanted to stop in and post a card

I just finished a second ago for the

Wee Memories #53 challenge.

I'm scraping under the wire here,

seeing as it ends in about 7 hours!

But doesn't it sound fun?

And here's my card.

I used a super adorable Wee Stamps digi image

(Wee Stamps, Wee Memories, perfect, right?)

and a new pad of My Mind's Eye Lime Twist paper

that came in my Two Peas order yesterday.

Did you know they have free shipping

on orders over $30 until May 11th?

I love free shipping!

Tomorrow, my family and I are going to work in the yard

and put in a garden and some berry bushes.

I'm excited!

Hope your weekend goes well!

Talk to you later!



Supplies:

cardstock: Georgia Pacific

paper: My Minds Eye

stamp: Wee Stamps "Sweet Blossom", Lawn Fawn "Say Cheese, Too"

ink: Jenni Bowlin "Spice Tin"

ribbon: Pure Color

gems: Queen & Co.

Ribbit

Hello there! How are you all today? 

Recovering from the sugar shock of all that Easter candy?

Hee hee. I'm actually being pretty good.

Two mini packs of strawberry Nerds yesterday,

but nothing so far today.

But hey, don't knock the Nerds!

The sugar rush enabled me to power through

the workday weariness last night and make a card

for the latest Color Q Challenge #82.

These colors were just screaming froggies to me

so I had to go with that theme.

If you get a chance to play, hop on over there!

Okay, I'm off to catch up on a little blog reading.

See what you all have been up to!

Have a great night, everybody!



cardstock: Bazzill

paper: K&Company, My Mind's Eye, Basic Grey

ink: Ranger Distress Broken China

stamp: Lawn Fawn "Critters In The Burbs" (flower)

pearls: Queen & Co

twine: Divine Twine

Celebrate

Hello bloggers!

How are you this fine Monday?

Enjoying your last day of Easter vacation?

It's raining, so the boys and I are having a mellow day indoors.

I have to admit, it's kinda nice.

I did want to pop in and share a card I made

for the Color Throwdown Challenge #138.

I underestimated this one!

I thought it'd be super easy until I discovered I had next to

nothing in navy, and no matching copics either.

With my supplies severely limited, this is what I came up with:

I'm not completely happy with it, but it's not a big deal,

because as it turns out, I missed the deadline anyway.

Oh, well. I guess that happens to us all sometimes.

We just have to keep pressing on, keep trying,

keep learning from our mistakes. Right?

Anyway, I hope you're having a great day

and that you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter!

We'll chat again soon, okay?

Supplies:

cardstock: Georgia Pacific

patterned paper: October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye

stamp: Lawn Fawn "Sophie's Sentiments"

ink: Jenni Bowlin "Spice Tin"

gems: Queen & Co

Feeling Green Around The Gills?

So, Sunday evening at 6:00, I had the 

great pleasure of attending another Copic marker class 

with the amazing Tammy Hershberger.

She came to my local scrapbooking store last year

and I was able to take her Copic 101 class,

so I was really excited to hear that she was coming back

so I could take her Copic 102 class.

Tammy's got some mad coloring skillz,

which you can check out yourself at her blog: Stamp Happy.

One of the techniques Tammy shared with us

was this cool textured effect made by soaking a bit

of old washcloth with Copic blender solution

and touching it briefly to your colored image.

You can see it on the fish I colored below.

Tammy brought along this adorable image,

the Somethin's Fishy ala' mode by My Favorite Things.

It came with a variety of sentiments, but considering how sick

I've been lately, I just had to go with this one.

Tammy also generously provided the white die-cut element,

the green folded cardstock, and the strip of plaid paper

from Basic Grey's Marjolaine collection.

Unfortunately, I stamped my sentiment crooked,

so I ended up just taking my card pieces home and redoing it.

You can see that I also added the background patterned paper,

which is from the October Afternoon Campfire collection (love!),

some ribbon, and a button, and accented my focal piece

with brown faux stitching and a little Antique Linen distressing.

If you ever get a chance to take a class with Tammy, do it!

Besides being a wonderful teacher, she's also

very sweet and encouraging. A lovely and fun lady.

I also recommend following her blog for all sorts of inspiration 

as well as participating in the Color Throwdown Challenge 

where Tammy heads up the Design Team.

She encouraged me to participate, and I'm going to 

make an effort to do so. I'd love it if you join me!

Have a great day!

Lawnscaping Challenge #8

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Lawnscaping Challenge #8!

If you're like me, my most favorite Lawn Fawn stamps

are the critters, so this challenge was right up my alley!

And we have a wonderful sponsor this go-round:

Yay! Lawn Fawn!

The best stamp company in the world, in my opinion!

The winner of this challenge will receive:

Don'tcha just love it?

An excuse to shop without spending a dime.

Doesn't get any better than that.

But as if that weren't enough, take a look at what

our challenge winner will also snag:

A cushy guest designer spot with us in an upcoming challenge!

It's a chance to hang (virtually) with a great group of girls

(if I do say so myself), plus promote your blog and your art.

It's a wonderful opportunity!

Onto my card:

For the raccoon's cape, I stamped him out on a piece of cardstock,

then drew on a cape with a pencil. I cut it out inside the line,

stuck it to another piece of cardstock with removable adhesive,

then traced around my template with a Copic multiliner.

After that I just colored it in and attached it to a freshly

stamped and colored raccoon with a slit cut around his face.

I had a lot of fun making this card and I hope

it brings a smile or a chuckle to a lot of you out there.

Ready to see what the rest of the Design Team has created?

Hop on over to their blogs and leave them some love!

Laurel Beard

Lynnette Kauffman

Ashley Nguyen Newell

Ayana Postadas

Christiana Reuling (me!)

Britta Swiderski

and our amazingly talented guest designer this month:

Kelly Marie Alvarez!

When you're through, be sure to head over to

the Lawnscaping Challenge blog 

and check out all the details to enter.

I can't wait to see your creations!

Supplies:

cardstock: Bazzill

patterned paper: Echo Park

ink: Momento Tuxedo Black and Jenni Bowlin "Spice Tin"

stamps: Lawn Fawn "Critters In The Forest" and "Harold's ABCs"

copics: lots. Let me know if you need specifics and I'll get 'em to you.



So Sick

Hey gals.

Sorry I've been MIA for so long.

I've been hit with the mother of all flus,

and I'm feeling completely miserable.

The fever made my eyes really sensitive to light,

making it difficult to stare at a computer screen for too long,

so I've been spending lots of time in bed

(I called off two days in a row -- my bosses probably hate me)

surrounded by tissues, drinking tea, and listening to audio books.

Before I got sick, I actually had a crazy crafty week.

My co-worker John's daughter has cancer,

and they're having a huge fundraiser for her this Saturday night

so I made 18 cards (3 gift sets of 6 each) and several

jewelry pieces to donate to the chinese auction.

 I didn't get a chance to take pics before I had to take them in,

so I can't share them with you, but I do have this card that I made

for a birthday party my son Elliott went to a few weeks ago

(laser tag -- how cool is that? He had a blast!).

This card was actually picked by Kelly Marie Alvarez for

the Fawny Flickr Five at Lawn Fawn two weeks ago.

Actually two of my cards were picked, making it the 2nd

and 3rd time I was featured in the three weeks since it began!

I was so honored and thrilled to have my cards chosen.

A couple of things before I head back to bed,

Lawn Fawn is having their April release week,

and they're giving away prizes, so if you haven't entered yet,

head on over there and do so!

And my cousin Ashley over at Roja In Virginia

is putting together a crafty swap that sounds like a lot of fun.

If you're interested, head on over to her blog for the details.

Also, Debbiedoos blog is hosting a newbie party

that looks like a whole lot of fun, so take a look at that

and check out the rest of her blog, which is adorable.

She's even being featured in Country Woman magazine.

AND she's got a Lisa Leonard Giveaway going on

that I desperately want to win because I am in love

with all of Lisa Leonard's work, especially this.

That's it for me tonight.

I better get my sorry behind in bed.

I need to go to work tomorrow, whether I feel better or not.

(Right now, it's NOT.)

Hope you all have a great day tomorrow.

Stay well!

Lawnscaping Challenge #7

Hello everybody!

Welcome to Lawnscaping Challenge #7!

Sounds like so much fun, right?

I just know we're going to get some great entries this go round.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

And one of you lucky participants are going to

take home a FABULOUS prize:

Start filling up your shopping cart just in case it's you!

Okay, so here's my card:

The idea for this card came to me while I was staring at

Lawn Fawn's Lunar Lights. I realized that when the square lantern

was lying on it's side, it looked like a shopping bag.

The pun came naturally after that, so I grabbed the kitty

from Critters In The Burbs and with a little masking,

got him stamped inside the bags for my patterned paper.

After I put the whole card together, I thought that the space

between the bag and the cat looked too empty,

so I used the small plain rectangular lantern from Lunar Lights

to make cans of cat food to add visual interest and color.

I wanted to use the small fish from Critters In The Sea

on the cans, but they were too big, so I just drew my own.

So head on over to the Lawnscaping Challenge blog

and see the other amazing design team samples,

and don't forget to visit our individual blogs and leave some

comment love and encouragement.

Laurel Beard

Lynnette Kauffman

Britta Swiderski

Ashley N. Newell

Christiana Reuling (me!)

Ayana Postadas

and our amazingly talented guest designer,

the chica without whom we wouldn't even

get to be here doing this:

Kelly Marie Alvarez!

One last thing before you run off:

Thank you all so much for participating

in my blog giveaway last week!

The winner of that prize package is

AGohl, who said:

"Totally cute card btw!!!"

Yay! AGohl is my cousin Ashley,

and I know she doesn't have any Lawn Fawn stamps yet,

so I was really excited when the boys drew her name!

Ashley, email me your snail mail address again

and I'll get your package right out to you.

For the rest of you, stay tuned.

I'm already picking out items for my next giveaway!

Until next time, friends, happy stamping!

Supplies:

cardstock: Bazzill

stamps: Lawn Fawn's "Lunar Lights," "Critters In The Burbs," "Teeny Tiny Backdrops," and "Harold's ABCs"

ink: Jenni Bowlin "Malted Milk" and "Stick Candy" and Momento Tuxedo Black

copics: C03, C05, C07, R20, R22, YR04, YR09

twine: Papertrey Ink

button: American Crafts