New Sketch!

I created this sketch last night when playing around with cardstock. My first trial run got trashed, because I just could NOT make the colors work. I tried Guava, Teal, and Rust - and it just wasn't coming together.

So, I went in a totally different direction. A friend had mailed me a TON of papers, and when I saw these, I knew I had to try this diagonal sketch again. I love this designer paper! The colors are just wonderful, and this sketch came together so easily. This designer paper is from Basic Grey's Lily Kate collection - so pretty!

To fill in the space in between the diagonals, I decided to go with some more Dew Drops. I'm just in love with Dew Drops. Now I want - no.... NEED - all the colors of Dew Drops. :-) Can you guess what I did with my birthday money??? Hee hee hee.

How about a challenge? Using my sketch, create your own card. Don't forget to leave a comment below so I can see your card. Happy Stamping!

Dew Drops!

Do you need a break from Christmas cards? Here ya go!

Mom gave me this cute stitched flower stamp (by Hero Arts), so I had to try it out. It is so easy to watercolor. I love it. Here, I stamped on Poison Ivory cs, and it's so easy to watercolor on this cs. I used colors to coordinate with the Dew Drops as well as the cardstock colors I picked out. The dew drops are also a nice gift from my mom. They are just little drops of color - you just put a little dab of glue on the bottom of them and stick them on your card. So fun!

I pierced the little Amethyst strip of cs with an Ornare template and piercing tool, and I cut a Prima flower in half (I know - gasp!) to fit the half circles (Banana cs). Then I went a little crazy with dew drops all over the flowers and the little pierced strip of cs. Can you tell I was having fun?

Christmas in Grays

My latest card with a Thomas Kinkade stamp..... whatcha think? I created this for a sketch challenge, and I have to say, I really like this. I love the gray tones, the layout, the image, the distressing, and the yummy gray taffeta ribbon. I think I'm going to try a few more in different colors, just to see how they look.

This TK image is one of the latest that was released, called Stonehearth Hutch. I stamped it with Stone Gray Stazon ink onto white cs, then cut it apart and mounted it on Basic Gray cs. If you look behind it, I used the Linen background (from SU) on the Going Gray cardstock. I used the distressing tool from the Cutter Kit to rough up the edges of the cs. Very simple, but very elegant.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Gingerbread man bookmark clip

If you need a quick and easy project, this bookmark clip fits the bill. This took me less than 5 minutes to make, and with Christmas fast approaching, this project is exactly what I need.

I used the gingerbread man from Hung up on the Holidays and stamped him with Chocolate Chip ink onto Creamy Caramel cardstock. The SU punches are just perfect - the 1 3/8 inch circle punch fits perfectly around the gingerbread man. The scallop circle is Close to Cocoa cardstock. I used the white gel pen to accent the swirls and eyes and buttons and smile on the gingerbread man, and I dotted each of the scallops on the Close to Cocoa cs.

Put a couple of SU Pop-up Glue Dots on the back, stick it on a giant paper clip, and attach another Creamy Caramel circle on the back, and it's done. Easy peasy! Now I have a great little gift to give to someone whom I know loves to read books.

Season of Joy distressed card

Just a quick little post before I go and make supper. I created this card last night in response to a sketch challenge from my friend Debby. I stamped on Confetti White, and it was just too bright for the card, so I toned it down by sponging Distress Inks on the edges. Old Paper and Walnut were both sponged on, and it gives the card a nice distressed look.

At first I just had the wide red grosgrain ribbon on there, but it was just overpowering the whole card. So I layered Wasabi stitched ribbon on top of it, and it looks much better. I rather like double-layering the ribbon now. Isn't it a cool effect?

I needed something to fill up the space in the upper right side, and buttons are perfect for that. The paper is from Basic Grey's Blitzen Collection (yummy papers!), and the cardstock colors are Wasabi, Confetti White, and Real Red.

How about a little mini-challenge for you? Make a card with Confetti White, Wasabi, and Real Red. Have fun and show me what you create! :-)

Dashing Wreath card

Doesn't this card just scream Christmas??? I love this Dashing paper!!!!! (BTW - you can still buy 3 papers, get one free from SU til the end of November... wink, wink).

I borrowed my Mom's Glorious Garlands set, and stamped the wreath with Old Olive ink on Vanilla cardstock. I then stamped the sentiment in Real Red directly below the wreath. The two papers in the background are from the Dashing collection (which you simply HAVE to get, as it is great for Christmas cards). The wide grosgrain ribbon is wonderful - I used Olive here to separate the two different background papers. When I was finished taping the card together, I went back and applied Christmas Red Stickles to the berries in the wreath, and set it aside to dry.

This card took me a total of 10 minutes to make, from start to finish, including cutting the cardstock. Isn't this great for a quick and easy Christmas card? Think about how many you can whip out in just a few hours. If you haven't started your cards yet, try making a card similar to this one. Don't forget to share with me.

:-)

Clear acetate card

Have you ever made a clear card? These are fun cards to make! On this card, I used White Stazon ink to stamp the snowflakes on the clear transparency. It's rather slippery, so you really have to have a steady hand when stamping on transparencies. Basically you just stamp down, and pull straight up. You get the best results that way.

I'm still playing with Big on Christmas. It's such an easy and fun set to stamp with. You don't have to do anything special with it - just color in with markers and you're all done.

On this card, I randomly picked my colors: Not Quite Navy, Rose Red, and Confetti White. They seem to work rather well for non-Christmassy colors. I left the card plain and simple - clear cards don't need a lot of embellishments or fancy treatments. This card would be easy to mass produce if you are running out of time to make your Christmas cards. :-)

Have you made any clear cards? Show me!! :-)

Let it Snow!!!!!!

No, it's not snowing here, but I sure wish it was. This is a card I had created for a swap back when it was boiling hot here in TX. It's just full of snow and glittery icicles, and it helped me think cool thoughts.

I used the Snow jumbo wheel (in the Holiday mini catalog) and inked it up with the White craft ink. It was so easy to just ink it up and roll. I love this wheel! The focal image is from Big on Christmas - my very first set that I just HAD to have from the new catalog in July. The colors here are Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise, and Lavender Lace. These are nice bright colors to offset the dreary gray days we are having right now.

How did I make the icicles, you ask? This is actually easier than you would think. Tear a sheet of wax paper off, lay it down on your counter. Grab your bottles of Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Squeeze out the CE onto the wax paper - draw a straight line, then go back and add the little icicles hanging off the straight line. Dump some glitter on before it dries, and leave it there. Don't shake the excess glitter off just yet. Let it dry first.

When it is dry (an hour or so - depending on how thick your icicles are), carefully shake off the excess glitter back into the bottle. Now very gently peel off your icicle strip, apply some 2-way glue to the back, and stick it on your card. Way cool, huh???

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal yesterday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here's wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all travel safely, eat lots of turkey, and take some wonderful naps today. Every Thanksgiving, we all tell each other what we are thankful for. So, I'm thankful, as always, for my great hubby and the wonderful life we have. What are you thankful for?

I created this cute little turkey card using the Pick a Petal set and some punches. I cut his beak by hand. Isn't it cute? :-) It's also a great way to use up some little pieces of cardstock that are in your scrap pile.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Egyptian Gold ornaments card

I made three different cards, as you can see from the picture. I didn't know which color I would like best - Burgundy, Eggplant, or Night of Navy, so I did one of each. When I went shopping at a not so local LSS (Stamp Salado), I bought some Egyptian Gold embossing powder. It is a gorgeous gold with glitter in it - it's so sparkly and glittery instead of just being a regular ol' gold EP.

It's nice to twist things up by doing something a tiny bit different. Instead of having a regular ol' square on the card, I turned it and made a cool diamond shape. It sort of mimics the diamond pattern in the background, as well as the shape of the center ornament.

Here's the basic info:

Stamps (all SU): Hung up on the Holidays, All Holidays, Print Pattern
Inks: Gold Encore, Burgundy, Eggplant, Night of Navy
CS: Burgundy, Eggplant, Night of Navy, Poison Ivory (shimmery vanilla cs - not SU), Brushed Gold
Other: Egyptian Gold EP, gold ribbon

TK Serenity Garden

When I was playing with the Crackle Effects last week, I found out that you do NOT want to cover up an image that was stamped with Ranger Distress Inks. The crackle medium just dissolves the ink! Ack! I had already stamped several different images with distress inks, and I watched one of them go in the trash after being eaten up. LOL What to do with the extra images? I got to work this afternoon and came up with this.

I love the simple elegance of this card. I'm just not a foo-foo person; I can't clutter up a card with all kinds of stuff. I went for an understated little piercing in the chocolate chip strip in the middle, and some sponging all around the edges of all the layers. The "serenity" is heat embossed with Vanilla EP, and the raspberry colored papers came from a pack I bought at Hobby Lobby long long ago.

The focal image is from a Thomas Kinkade stamp (found at Cornish Heritage Farms) called The Garden of Prayer Vignette. Since it was already stamped with Walnut ink, I used the same Walnut ink in the sponging all over the card. The sentiment is from Hero Arts - Autumn Word Borders.

I don't know about you but I'm ready to enjoy the weekend! Happy Stamping!

Wow, what a day!

Today must be my lucky day!!!!!!! I found out this morning that I won the blog candy on Valerie Stangle's blog! SO COOL!!!!!!! She created some gorgeous candy to give away, and I am so honored to be the recipient of them. To see what I am talking about, click the link below:

Val's Blog Candy

Then, this afternoon I had an email from Keri at CHF. She announced that I won the $25 free gift card at CHF!!! They drew my Pumpkin Sunset card as the lucky entry! Whoo hoo!!! I can't wait to go shopping. The first thing on my list is the new Stamp of the Month. Have you seen this cute snowman??? Oh, you HAVE to check it out. Click on Keri's blog below:

Keri's Stamp of the Month

Time for me to go watch CSI with my hubby. I hope you have had a great day too! :-)

Pumpkin Sunset card

I had a flash of inspiration this afternoon, and I had to see how this would look. I love the autumn-y look and feel of this card. (Not that I would know it really is fall yet, as we are still in the upper 80's and lower 90's here in Texas.)

The fence is from Cornish Heritage Farms, the pumpkins are Stampin Up, the "Happy Fall" is a Michael's $1 stamp, and the wood graining on the "Happy Fall" sign is from deadbeat designs. I did a lot of sponging on this card. I started off by sponging So Saffron all over the card, then I added Mustard sponging just along the bottom edge. I sponged Pumpkin Pie in the middle and towards the top, and finished with Really Rust at the top edge.

I used the same Rust sponge to give my pumpkins some depth around the edges. I had first colored my pumpkins with Prismas and gamsol (yes, these are the ones I used in class last week), then I just did the sponging for a deeper and more defining color.

I colored the fence with all three SU brown markers (Caramel, Cocoa, and Chocolate Chip). I didn't get too precise with the coloring. You can see I left some areas lighter and some areas darker. I colored in some Mustard grass at the bottom with a marker, and made a little cornstalk from raffia. Too cute!!!!

This actually came out the way I envisioned it in my head today. I love it when an idea turns out great (instead of in the trash can). :-)

Christmas Bough with Glimmer Mist card

Can you see the shimmer on this card? Oh, it is gorgeous in real life. I've been playing with some more Glimmer Mists! :-)

Mom let me borrow her bottles of Mist, and methinks she won't be getting them back anytime soon! Hehehehe (evil snicker)!! I am having way too much fun with these.

For this card, I used Snowflake spray on the white cardstock as well as the pink snowflake background, and Key Lime Pie spray on the celery designer paper. The images are from PaperTreyink's Take a Bough set - LOVE this set. It's going to be so quick and easy to make some Christmas cards with this stamp set. The pink polka dot ribbon came from Walmart. Gotta love those pretty ribbons!

I used the sketch from Sketch Challenge #144 on SCS. This is one of the easier sketches - well, for me anyway. Those sketches with diagonal cuts just kill me. I have such a hard time with diagonal cuts, but this sketch was a breeze.

Stamps - PaperTreyink Take a Bough
Inks - Cocoa craft, Pretty in Pink craft, Celery craft, Cocoa classic
CS - Pretty in Pink, Celery, Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Celery designer paper
Other - Snowflake Glimmer Mist, Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist, pink organdy ribbon

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below (click on "Comments") and I will answer it as soon as I see it. I hope you have a great week! Just two more days til the weekend!

Glimmer and Shimmer!

If you look closely, you can see the shimmer on the snowman's face. Can you guess what that is??? :-)

I've been playing with some new things today. I borrowed my mom's Radiant Rain and her Glimmer Mist sprays. Oh, these are LOTS of fun. Messy but fun!

I started out by stamping the Plank Fence Backgrounder (SL-3203WUM) from Cornish Heritage Farms with Colorbox Dark Brown Chalk ink onto SU Whisper White cardstock. I love this fence! THIS is the fence that I have been waiting for so long to have. It is the perfect size - it will cover your entire card if that is what you are looking for. I positioned it just below the top of the card, so the snowman wouldn't be dwarfed by the fence.

You can find the fence here:

www.CornishHeritageFarms.com

They have lots and lots of wonderful backgrounds at this store. Check em out!

After the ink for the fence dried, I watercolored with SU Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip reinkers. Then I sprayed Sky Blue Radiant Rain all over this white cardstock. I didn't want to leave it all splotchy, so I took a kleenex while the spray was still wet and rubbed it all around. It sort of gives the card a windy look. I then took a sponge dabbed in SU White craft ink and dabbed it all over the blue and the fence. It looks like a windy snowy day.

For the snowman, I stamped it (SU Cold Play) and cut out all three circles, then sprayed the circles with Snowflake Glimmer Mist. So much fun! His coals are stamped with Graphite Black Brilliance ink. I wanted him to have arms, so I stamped the arms on the background layer (on the fence), then attached the circles on top.

The sign is a small piece of Close to Cocoa cs that I ripped up, sponged SU white craft ink all around, and stamped "let it snow" with the same white craft ink. I let that dry, and then I went over it with Baby Blue Stickles. I used the same Stickles on the snow at the bottom (scrap pieces of white cs that I tore and glued down). The sign is attached to the fence with a "nail" - a brad from Making Memories. I sponged the edges of the Chocolate Chip cardstock before I glued down the fence layer to the card.

This card is so shimmery and sparkly! I wish you could see it in person - you can't really capture all the shimmer in a photograph.

Well, I'm off to have some supper with my hunny. Enjoy your weekend!

Christmassy card

My friend Chris challenged me to make a card with the following colors: Ruby Red, Wasabi, and Blue Bayou. I could use vanilla, brown, and/or black if I wanted. Then we used Beate's weekend sketch (WSC20) for this challenge. Here is what I came up with.

I only used one Stampin Up stamp set on this whole card - Season of Joy. This is such a great set! I wish I had some Wasabi or Bayou ribbon to put on this card, but I only had vanilla taffeta, so that's what I used. It would probably pop a bit more with a colored ribbon.

So why don't you create a card with Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi, and Blue Bayou? Let's see what you can come up with. It doesn't have to be a Christmas card - it could be anything. Go create a cute card and then leave a comment here with a link where I can see your card. I'd love to see it! :-)

Humongo Flower

I created this last night for Beate's weekend sketch challenge (WSC19). Mom had given me this huge Prima flower, and it sat on my table for a month before I finally saw a sketch that would accomodate it.

I started off using Pomegranate for the folded card part, and it was just too strong. I needed something a bit more muted, because I wanted the attention on the gorgeous flower and not on the cardstock.

I chose Night of Navy for the folded card, and I added a layer of Brocade Background designer paper (gorgeous paper!). From there, I had my colors for the rest of the card: Old Olive and River Rock. I used flowers from both Stem Silhouettes and Garden Silhouettes on the little stamped panel. To get that faded effect, I stamped the flower once with Olive ink, and without reinking, stamped again. It's a great way to give your artwork some depth.

I sponged some Night of Navy and some Old Olive inks onto twill tape so it would more closely coordinate with the colors in the card, and then I tied a piece of Artichoke grosgrain ribbon over the twill.

The scallop circle punch is just wonderful! I punched out River Rock with the scallop punch, and then used the 1 3/8" punch for the Olive circle layer. The saying (from Vases in Vogue) is stamped with Old Olive.

This was fun to make. I was watching Iron Chef while trying to put this together, and I was chatting with 3 ladies online all at the same time. They accused me of ignoring them! Hee hee!!

M&M tree!!

Who wouldn't want to have an M&M tree???? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........... Sounds like heaven to me. :-)


I purposely propped the card up on the stamp so you could see what was stamped inside. Mom would agree with me that every day should be Chocolate Day. Hahaha.


This is another fun kickstand card. I left the Chocolate Chip cardstock plain so the focus would be on the tree and M&M's. The tree stamp is from Judith, and the m-circle and sayings are from deadbeat designs. I bought these from Stamp Salado and I just love these stamps!


I can use the tree for anything, any season. I don't have to just put leaves on it. I could stamp frogs, candy, Christmas ornaments, flowers, whatever strikes my fancy onto this bare tree.


I used red gingham ribbon to give the card a country-ish feel, and on the inside I have some punched out M's glued to the edge. This card is going in the mail to someone who has had a rough week and weekend. I hope this puts a smile on her face when she receives it. :-)

Kickstand Berry Card

Can you guess what I was doing on Friday night? Probably not..... Hee hee!

Mom and I stayed up late to wait for the unveiling of the new Holiday stamps at PaperTreyink. I made this cute strawberry card while I was waiting for midnight (their time) to roll around. This is a kickstand card. Basically it's just a regular card with about an inch of the front part of the card cut off. The scallop circle is the "kickstand" to keep the card the right length so it doesn't fall over.

I used Real Red, Garden Green, and Basic Black inks and cardstocks for this card. The stamps are all from PaperTreyink, the scallop circle is from Stampin Up, and the cute scalloped black edge was made with some decorative scissors. Red and black ginham ribbons finish off the card for a cute country look.

Turquoise Skunky

I made this card last month after thinking about it for several hours. It all just kind of came together in my head, and I sat down to stamp it. I hadn't planned on the Prima flowers nor the sparkly brads, but they just seemed to work.

I knew I wanted to use my Skunky (my pet name for this little guy), and a turquoise scallop circle. No, I don't have this punch, but I'm going to need to buy one. I'm getting low on my little stash of scallop circles and ovals that I got from a couple of wonderful ladies.

I found the cute Flower saying (Hero Arts) sitting on my shelf and it was just perfect for this card. Both Skunky (from Stampin Up's Stinkin Cute set) and the Flower saying are stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I stamped the Dots and Daisies background (Stampin Up) with Tempting Turquoise ink. The black polka dot ribbon is Offray, the turquoise flowers are Primas, and the sparkly white pearl brads are from Making Memories. Cardstock colors are Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White.

Wiper card for VSN

One more challenge for VSN - a wiper card. What is that?? I thought it had something to do with baby wipes. Nope - it's a card that acts like windshield wipers when you "open" it.

It doesn't open like a traditional card. You have to pull on each side and a little card will pop up in the middle. It's really cute, and the One and Only Fabulous JanTink created this concept. She has graciously provided her template here.

So, armed with my printed copy of her template, I set about trying to decode all the numbers and lines and dashes and arrows. I finally got it all figured out, and decided to make a Halloween wiper card where the BOO and the black bat would pop up and scare the person opening the card. (Yeah right....)

I have used this Carved & Candlelit set so much since I finally broke down and bought it. I just love this set, and if you saw my rubber and the blocks, you would see it is definitely well loved. :-)

I'm thinking about doing this wiper card as my demo for the potluck stamping day on October 6. Would you like to learn how to make this? Don't forget to email me with your RSVP if you are coming on October 6. Each person will be bringing their own card/project for all of us to stamp, so it will truly be a World Card Making Day. I'm looking forward to it!

Stamp Two-Step Challenge

You guessed it - another challenge for VSN. I had such a blast this weekend! I actually stamped with a couple of my good friends, Chrissy and Danita. We would chat and stamp and laugh and stamp some more. We briefly stopped to have some supper, and then got right back into it last night.

I created this card for the Stamp Two-Step challenge. For this one, you were supposed to pick ONE image and use it for both the background and the main image. You could not use any other stamps except for a sentiment. That was it.

I chose this image from Toile Blossoms, stamped it with Cameo Coral ink onto Cameo Coral cardstock. After I cleaned off the Coral ink, I used Timber Brown Stazon ink to stamp the focal image onto Naturals Ivory cardstock. The watercolor crayons came out again (yup, I LOVE my crayons!!), then I sponged Close to Cocoa ink all around the edges.

I used the same sponge and ink to sponge all around both Cameo Coral layers, as well as the Garden Green card layer (the very bottom one - the actual card part). "Smile" is stamped with Close to Cocoa ink. The taupe grosgrain ribbon is just knotted and taped on the back. I was running out of time (watercoloring and sponging took up most of the 45 minute limit), and I wasn't able to do what I wanted to do. I was going to try distressing some of the layers, and I wanted to emboss the "Smile" - but I am happy with this.

What stamp would you pick to use for both a background AND a focal image on a card? I'd love to hear some of your ideas. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. I might even make a few more cards based on what image you tell me would look good.

Stamping with Real Leaves

Another challenge for VSN was to find a real leaf, ink it up, and stamp with it. That was WAY too fun!!!

My hubby walked outside with me, and helped me pull some leaves off some of the trees. I used a leaf from the rose bush on this card. It's actually easier than I thought I would be - just ink up the leaf with Old Olive ink, turn it over onto the Olive cardstock, press it down with my fingers, and take the leaf off. Voila!

I colored the pumpkin with watercolor crayons and my Aquapainter, and mounted it on Chocolate Chip cardstock. I stamped the "happy Autumn" with Chocolate Chip ink, and then used a sponge dipped in Pumpkin Pie ink to sponge the edges of the tag. The Pumpkin Pie DS paper is actually a leftover scrap from another card I had made, and it worked perfectly here. The crazy brown fibers are from a roll that I picked up at Tuesday Morning about a year ago.

Why don't you make a card using a real leaf to stamp your background? Walk outside right now and pick a leaf. Go on! Make your card and leave a comment here where I can see your card. I'd love to see what you create!

Footprints Card and VSN

I haven't updated my blog in the past couple days because I have been participating in some of the challenges at SCS for their Virtual Stamping Nights. It began Friday evening and ended Saturday night.

I had a blast doing some of these challenges. We had to follow some rules - one of which is that you must complete your card in 45 minutes or less. Do you know how hard that is??? LOL

Having that time limit means that the cards I did were pretty simple. No special stuff, no embossing, no elaborate watercoloring, and LOTS of praying that I got everything stamped right the first time.

This Footprints card was for a challenge that had to do with leaving, missing someone, or a sympathy card. I didn't have any idea what I would do for this challenge until I saw this Inkadinkadoo stamp and the word "leave" in it. Hmmmmmm... that would probably work.....

I stamped it with Jet Black Stazon ink onto glossy white paper. In order to make it dry faster (because of my time limit), I hit it with the heat gun. While it cooled off, I looked thru my Twinkling H2O's drawer, and pulled out the newest toy - Pearl Ex Watercolor CD. It is a cute little CD case with 12 colors of Pearl Ex cakes. They work just like the H2O's - get em a little wet and start painting.

You can't see the sparkle on the card, but trust me, it's there. When you watercolor on glossy paper, however, it doesn't look like a regular watercolored image. It looks more like some sort of Impressionistic painting, which I thought worked nicely with this particular image. It gives the water, sky and sand a feeling of movement.

To complete the card, I stuck with the beach theme and used Copper Magic Mesh for a "fish net" and a strand of twine with tiny shells on it. I just happened to find this twine in a clearance bin at Walmart last year - the price was 75 cents. What a bargain! :-)

Tent Topper card

My good friends, Chris and Danita, and I took a challenge last night to create a tent topper card. I looked around my stamp collection, and decided I wanted to use this Believe stamp. I have had it for maybe 6 months, and I still hadn't inked it up.

I looked around my studio for some color inspiration, and I saw these retired SU papers. Hmmmm....... yeah, why not? From there, I started pulling out cardstock and papers and arranging them to see how it would look.

I stamped the Believe with Chocolate Chip ink onto Vanilla cardstock, then sponged some more Chocolate Chip very lightly onto the edges. It softens up the image and gives it that wonderful aged look.

Instead of using ribbon on this card, I decided to try some piercing, and I put brads into every other hole. All in all, this card took me about 45 minutes to make. I am looking forward to our next challenge! Thanks for playing with me last night, girls!

Want a good laugh? Ok here we go. At 7am, I am brushing my teeth, and Emmy really REALLY needs to go out to pee. I'm trying to get Queenie to get her lazy bum up, but I can't talk cuz of toothpaste and the brush in my mouth. So I tap John and motion to him to talk to Queenie to go pee pee. She finally gets up, I open the back door (in our bedroom) and they run out to pee.

I see something moving. ACK! I turn on the porch light. I tap John again - motion to him that something is moving. So he crawls outta bed verrrrrrry reluctantly, and we go outside. There is a FROG on the door sill! I nudge it away from the open door with my foot (I have socks and shoes on, thank god!!). I see more movement.

There were at least FOUR frogs on the porch!!!!!!!!! Good grief. We had to watch the girls to make sure they didn't investigate the frogs. I think FINALLY our Miss Emmy has learned to leave those things alone. Ya know what happens? Dogs froth and froth and froth at the mouth if they lick or attempt to bite or pick up a frog. Bleck. It's awful.

And how was YOUR morning? :-)

My First Post!

Hello, everyone! This is my first foray into the blogging world. You're probably wondering about my blog name - Glitter, Stamps, and Ink (Oh My...). Hee hee. Yes, I'm a rubber stamper, and I love glitter and sparkle and shine. I own a ton of Radiant Pearls, Twinkling H2O's, Art Institute Glitter, Pearl Ex, SU Dazzling Diamonds (the best glitter!), and my latest obsession - Stickles!!! What more can a girl ask for?

I have to say, though, that I do not use glitter on ALL of my cards. It's a 50/50 shot whether there will be some sort of sparkle or shine on my cards. This card that I made yesterday is my newest experiment with chipboard.

I used the large purple flower from the Accents and Elements Build a Flower tin, and stuck it onto a circle chipboard coaster that a dear friend gave to me (thanks again, Bev!!!). I then used scissors to cut around the flower, taking off the excess chipboard. There were a few rough spots here and there, so I sanded all around the edges of the flower.

Once I sat and thought about it, the rest of the flower kind of fell into place. I decided to keep everything in shades of Lovely Lilac and Almost Amethyst and White, so I built the card around these colors. I punched out a scallop circle from a scrap piece of Amethyst, punched out a white circle to put on top of that, and then took a smaller sticker from the same tin of stickers to put on top of the white circle.

I didn't like how much white space there was between the sticker and the scallop, so I started out doodling some kind of Lilac scallop-y border on the white circle. Well.... my pen had a mind of its own, and it kept on doodling, around and around. When I stopped, this is what it looked like. I think it's kinda neat - breaks up the monotony of the circles and polka dots.

I used another sticker from that Build a Flower tin, found a saying that would fit into that sticker (from a retired SU set called Love Matters), and stamped. It's a little higher than I would like, but there's no do-over with this. There's only one purple sticker this size in the tin, so I left it as is.

Then I had to decide how to ground the flower. I didn't want green (the obvious choice), so I thought hmmmmmm...... ribbon? But no Lilac nor Lavender ribbon on hand....... hmmmmm..... Oh!!! White!!!!!!! Duh!!!!!!!! So I laid it out to see how it would look, and did a little wiggle dance. Ya know? When you are excited about some fantastically cool idea that you came up with all by yourself, no casing, no copying, no one telling ya what to do? I just sorta wiggled in my chair, all happy and ready to cut some ribbon to finish this card. Hee hee hee. Yup, I'm a little nutty - but hey, what stamper isn't??

So there's my first blog post. Hope you like what you see and come on back. :-)