Birthday RAK's

Hello, and happy Tuesday.  I'm sitting here watching LOST - love, LOVE, Lost - it's a repeat episode though.  The one with Richard.  Yum.  Anyway...  I had all my birthday cards on display, so I thought I'd show you the handmade cards that arrived in my happy mail box this past week.

This sweet card is from Vera Schoeters - my fellow Great Swaps Girl.  I love the stamped inside - delish!

This beauty is from Karen Motz - Love the polka dot coffee mug!  

I love this little girl  - she reminds me of my sweet little Katie with 2 little ponytails.  This is from Jackie Pedro.

And this gorgeous card traveled the furthest - all the way from Australia, from Sarah-Jane Kale'.

Lynn Put sent me this darling SSSC card - love those ice cream cones, and of course the pink and brown.

This one is from Stephanie Peters, my very sweet side-line when I was a SU demo.  Miss those stamping nights...  Love the negative image of the scallop punch - very clever!

And last but definitely not least is this darling, amazing and beautiful card from my darling daughter - I love her backwards p's.  So cute - recognize the fun little stencil?  She's been eyeballing that since the day it arrived in my mailbox, lol!

Thanks for stopping by - see you back soon!
Karen

Rockies

Just fair warning for you - this post has nothing to do with stamping or anything crafty, just pure American baseball.  My very sweet MIL scored us some amazing tickets to Saturday's Rockies game, and as it turned out, it was a double-header, so we got two games in these amazing seats - only 7 rows back from the dugout.  I brought along my camera to keep practicing in that crazy manual mode and I wanted to share some pictures here - I think I found my calling - Karen Giron, Sports photographer.  Nice.  I think it fits.  Of course I may be about $30K short on equipment, but what are ya gonna do?

Click on the pictures to see a larger (and crisper) image...

We started off by scoring FREE rock star parking right across from Coors Field - loving my day already.  Not to mention it's the first time the sun was shining in 3 days - Happy Birthday to me!!

So here we are in the first game - Todd Helton at 1st base chatting it up with somebody Collins from the Florida Marlins.  I think they're talking about me, the crazy chick taking all the pictures...

Foul tip - Tulowitzki aka "Tulo".

Ah, this guy.  You can't watch baseball and not see a bunch of "grabbing" but this guy... he grabbed himself about 5 times as part of his batting routine every time he came up to bat.  This just made me giggle, so I had to post it.

Call to the bull pen - Sorry Greg, but you stunk it up!

Don't you DARE let that hose touch that sacred gravel - LOL!  Another one that just makes me laugh - how many big guys does it take to carry a hose...

They ran the fountains between games since we didn't get any homeruns in the first game.  Just practicing my "show movement" assignment - right Sarah?

Now we're in the 2nd game - much better pitching this go 'round.

Swing!

....and out at home.

Well, thanks for humoring me with all this baseball business.  See you back soon for all things crafty!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 66

Good morning - It's time for another Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge! Here is the deal: make a card with this layout and use the InLinkz button down at the end of my post to enter your card. On Friday at 10 PM (Mountain Time), I'll randomly select one card to feature on my blog. So, as long as your card is linked by 10 PM Thursday, your card will be in the drawing. Be sure to link directly to the blog post or gallery image which features your card. You may post a picture of the sketch on your blog, but please save the image to your computer first. Use the keyword SSSC66 if you plan to post your card in an online gallery.

We're having a HUGE birthday party here in SSSCland - April 24th was Vicki's, Sarah's, and my birthday.  Crazy, huh?  Sarah had the brilliant idea to exchange birthday information with the SSSC crew and 3 of us had the same birthday - so I'm thinking we all need the same birthday, but that didn't fly too well.  LOL!

To help me celebrate, I'm using this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal - AND to make it even sweeter, it's a birthday cuppie, which just happens to be for HSE's own Rachel - her birthday is Tuesday.  Isn't April just full of happy goodness?  hahaha!  I loved the Neapolitan colors, so I went with that theme, as well as my favorite little cupcake stamps from PTI.  I stamped the top of the cupcake on some Green at Heart paper from Basic Grey (I {heart} Basic Grey!) and then cut out both the bottom and top of the cupcake and popped them up on dimensionals.  The top of the cupcake is popped up twice to give it a little more dimension over the bottom.  I made the sentiment bend by placing my clear block over my scallop and then wrapped the sentiment around the edge of the scallop so it matched.  Cute, no?  The rest of the Sweeties have more Cupcake Inspiration for you too ~ Colleen (out this week) ~ Rachel ~ Kelli ~ Kristen ~ Michelle ~ Piali (out this week) ~ Teresa ~

And, don't forget about The Sweet Sunday Stampers - they also have amazing sketch samples to show you today, so don't forget to stop on by to see:

• Jennifer Tapler
• Joanne Basile
• Karen Motz
• Laura Fredrickson
• Lynn Put
• Nancy Riley 
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick 

Thanks for taking on the challenge this week!
Karen

recipe - 

stamps: cupcake collection (papertrey ink)

paper: kraft, pink pirouette, chocolate chip, whisper white cardstock, green at heart (basic grey)

ink: memento rich cocoa

accessories: circle/scallop nestabilities  (spellbinders), flower punch,  hot pink kaisercraft rhinestones

Sweet Sunday Sketch Winner

Happy Saturday!  It's time to announce this week's random winner!  Drum roll...........

#37 - Lea L!

I am in love with this card!  All the texture and happiness - love it!  You can see more of Lee's delightful creations at her blog, Lea's Cupcakes and Sunshine.

See you back soon for the next sketch!
Karen

Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Thickers

Good morning!  Taylored Expressions has a fun product focus this month - THICKERS from American Crafts!!  Oh my word - these are my absolute FAVE letter stickers, so I was overjoyed when Taylor announced we would be playing with  from American Crafts today.  Once a month, half of the Baker's Dozen participate in a TE Product Spotlight. It's so fun to showcase products from the TE Store that you might not be aware of or might just like to learn more about. I use Thickers on both cards and scrapbook pages and the reasons why are completely different.
For cards, I love to make my sentiments a little out of the ordinary, and since Thickers are self adhesive, it makes them super easy to position in place until I get the letters just the way I like them.  I don't need to lift up the letters to apply glue and then put them back in place - it's one step simple!  For my card today, I wanted to make the letters a little skewed - so I put the 'o' and 's' a little wonky - and I love the look.  Now, for scrapbooks, I love the option Thickers give by allowing me to overlap my cardstock layers.  When you use alphabet stamps over layers of cardstock, the ink leaves a gap where the pressure wasn't applied in the gap.  With the Thickers, you get a bold page title quickly and easily.  Here is a page I did for my little boy a while ago:

I could layer over the papers and the photo without distorting the letters.  Nice! 

Taylored Expressions currently has several styles of Thickers in stock including polka dot chipboard, fabric covered chipboard, glossy finish puffy and glitter puffy in a variety of colors. All Thickers are on sale for 15% OFF through April 25th, so you'll get approximately 125 letters, numbers and symbols at the sale price of ONLY $4.24!

Stop on by the rest of this month's Center of Attention participants for more brilliant ideas with Thickers!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Donna Baker 
• Jodi Collins
• Melissa Sauls
• Taylor VanBruggen

Enjoy the hop!
Karen

recipe -

stamps: You're My Hero

paper: Couture textured cardstock, Choice Snow White cardstock, We R Memory Keepers Teen Angst

accessories: Thickers - Honey puffy stickers, Rock Star Key Ingredients