Belle Papier {pretty paper}

Yippee!!! I can’t believe it! Another A Muse blog prize…for ME!!! Am I lucky or what?! Check it out… A Muse News . After commenting on some beautiful creations by Elena Shacochis…A Muse’s first guest designer!, myself and four others were luckily drawn to receive a new A Muse stamp and a package of Lime Peel Dot Notecards….I can’t wait to receive them and have some fun! They are going to work perfectly with my A Muse polka dot monograms! I’m going to have pleasant dreams tonight with dotty designs floating through my head.:) Have you seen the new Spring line A Muse has just released?! So much fun! I just can’t resist…I’m going to order some more of their stamps…they are just too adorable for words!

The flu hit Joshua about 2 am this morning…SO not fun. I’m praying that it won’t go through the rest of the house! Needless to say, it has been a busy day here and I am just now getting around to posting this card.

I made this card during the week for another new little baby girl. Lots of spring babies this year, but I think this is the last for a while. This card was once again created from scraps I found while cleaning my desk. The acetate layer was an old 12×12 sheet for scrapbooking that I had bought for a baby page. It never seemed to happen and then the acetate managed to get creased. I salvaged it by cutting it strategically in places and using it to make cards instead. I also had this striped piece of My Mind’s Eye paper on my desk….it worked perfectly under the acetate and I love the bright fun look. The card is hinged on the left side and once again…3/4 inch trimmed off the right hand side. I scalloped the right inside edge with a small corner rounder by EK Success. I used my new SU tab punch again to hold down the acetate layer. The brown velvet ribbon is so gorgeous…I just want to use it on everything I make. It is by May Arts and I get mine from Jacksonbelle. Once again I used the retired K&Company Baby Girl tags that I bought at Michael’s about 6 months ago for $1.50. The little “sweet” word is stamped at the top left is Everyday Flexible Phrases by SU. I just love that word set…it is so flexible, I use it on almost everything!

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I’ve had the flu since yesterday afternoon…so!! not fun! I’m semi-functioning now but still a little shaky. i just couldn’t resist making this card this morning for the Bold and Bright Limited Supply Challenge. I was hoping the fun colors would make me feel better. Seemed to work a little. Now I’m just praying that this doesn’t go through the rest of the house!

Thougth processes on this one….hmmmm….how quick can I make this card so that I can crawl back into bed! LOL Actually the challenge…use on SU’s or equivalent’s Bold Brights color family left me more than a little outside my comfort zone. I rarely use these colors, and if I do, always mix them up with some other color families. Actually, when I look at my work, I rarely stick with one color family. I love to mix them up, just like I love to mix up different product lines and manufacturer’s products. This little image came to my rescue. A fun little envelope filled with Sassy Stems images arrived in my mailbox yesterday and was still sitting on my desk, waiting for me to thank the recipient. The clean, fun look of this image seemed to work perfectly! I really needed a pick-me-up and I just love the energy that pink passion and only orange have together so I went with that. Added lots of white to keep things fresh and there you have it. After watercoloring the image with my aquapainter, I highlighted some of the areas with my two-way glue pen and a little glitter. For the matting around the image, I layered it with a 1/8″ mat of only orange and 1/4″ mat of whisper white. I love switching up the widths of my layers to emphasize one of the colors. There is NO hard-fast rule that all layers must be the same width. Try it out….so easy! For some strange reason…I’m sure it is not that my stamping area is still covered with many projects!…. I couldnt’ find my paper piercing template. I love the one SU makes as part of their mat pack! In a pinch, I laid a ruler along the top of my layer and pierced at each 1/8″ interval…worked great! Oh….couldn’t find my pop dots either so here is another trick for you…leftover rubber. Save your rubber scraps when you mount your SU stamps. If you peel off the rubber, you can use the sticky foam under you image to elevate it and add interest…just like pop dots! The darling pink striped ribbon arrived in my mailbox yesterday with an order from Anna Wight.

Supply List:

Cardstock: Pink Passion, Whisper White, Only Orange - SU

Stamps: Sassy Stems, Paisley, Warm Words, EFP - SU

Ink: Black, Only Orange, Pink Passion, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise - SU

Other: eyelets - Making Memories, ruler, paper piercer, glitter & two way glue - SU, circle punch, ribbon

A fun bright card to warm up the day! I can’t believe that the temperature was below 0°F last night! Brrrrrrr… This card was created for today’s Way’s to Use it Challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com This week the challenge is to use fabric in your work and this is one of the cards I came up with. I was inspired by the bright fun tropical print fabric my daughter has in the cupboard…just waiting to be sewn into something fun. I swiped a couple inches off the yardage…grin. I had actually wanted to use my Beachabella stamp with this material but….I’ve told you about my desk.. Very small…little storage…I have the hardest time putting my hands on things when I need them. Someday I’ll have some storage, someday! If you want to join us it this challenge…feel free…we’d love to have you! Here is the link.

To make this card…I pulled the pink and yellow straight from the fabric and added some black to make it pop. A comment yesterday made me realize how much sponging and distressing I’ve been doing lately…time for a fresh look and a little fun. I decided to use clean lines with the fun colors and had a little fun creating the layout. Gasp…I can’t believe I didn’t even use any background stamps! The torn fabric tie is just tied like a ribbon to the black layer strip. I liked the speed of ripping the fabric along the grain and the fun textured edge it gives. To add another hint of the fabric a little idea popped into my head. I needed a center for hte Prima flower…what if I adhered some fabric to the back of a clear button. I loved how it turned out. The crystal effects took a little while to dry but not too long. I then trimmed off the excess fabric and added some linen thread to the center of the button…a new fun look! This is why I love the challenges…sometimes they push you out of your comfort zone and you can come up with some fresh new ideas! For the sentiment, I thought I’d add to the bold look of the card and add a little “sweet friend” strip of Dymo label to keep it fresh and funky.

Supply List:

Cardstock: Black, So Saffron, Whisper White, Pink Passion - SU

Stamps: Time with You, Everyday Flexible Phrases - SU

Ink: Basic Black, Pink Passion, So Saffron, Cool Caribbean, Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa - SU

Other: Martinique flower - Prima, Dymo Label Maker, fabric, eyelets - Making Memories, clear button, linen thread, crystal effects - SU, Crop-a-dile - We R Memory Keepers

I really needed a little sunshine! I can’t believe it is March here…we are really making up for a very mild November and December. The kids had school cancelled Thursday, Friday and again yesterday! For most of the day, we could barely see the road in front of our house. Spring seems SOOOOO far away. 

 This card is made with some more WE R Memory Keepers paper. It is called Sunshine Daisies and I can think of a better name for it…love the bright sunny look, especially in this weather. I am hoping though, that since March came in like a lion, we can expect it to go out like a lamb.
This is a very simple quick card. I created the title by cutting out a sentiment from Lilo thoughts We R Memory Keepers paper and pairing it up with my Dymo label maker. I love the fun look the black labels give and it is so flexible to create any sentiment you wish! The title is stitched down and the “sun” highlighted with stitching around the word.  No stamping on this card but the edges are inked with Brocade Blue Classic ink for some definition. A few of the edges are distressed after gluing by simply prying them up with my fingernail. If you do this….please be careful…I am NOT responsible for any papercuts! LOL

Supply List:

Cardstock: Whisper White - SU

PAtterned Paper: Sunshine Daisies, Lilo Thoughts - We R Memory Keepers

Ink: Brocade Blue - SU

Other: label holder, flower brad - Making Memories, sewing machine, label maker - Dymo, ribbon - We R Memory Keepers, ribbon - Michael’s

This card was inspired by the fun We R Memory Keepers paper that a friend of mine sent me. I loved the pretty colors… rose, saffron, chocolate and I always love to play with stripes. Iwanted to emphasize the cool diagonal blocks of this paper so I added some stitching to the pattern. I also zig zag stitched the striped paper and inked all the edges for a little definition. I love the ghost shapes that Heidi Swapp makes and thought it would be fun to stamp descriptive words on this ghost shape flower. I stamped the Amazing to Zany words (SU) in black Stazon ink and then layered it over a yellow Marinique Prima flower. They are punched and attached with the Extra Large Eyelets from We R Memory Keepers. The cute little ribbon tab is also created with We R Memory Keepers ribbon. The central panel is elevated slightly with foam mounting tap for a little added dimension. I buy mine at the dollar store…such an inexpensive, quick way to add interest.

 Supply List:

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip Pretty in Pink - SU

Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers

Stamps: Amazing to Zany - SU

Ink : Black STazon - Tsukineo, Chocolate Chip - SU

Other: Sewing Machine, ribbon, Ghost Shape Flower - Heidi Swapp, Martinique Prima flower, Extra Large eyelet & Crop-a-dile - We R Memory Keepers, foam mounting tape.

With 5 kids, we rarely get away for a night. Life is so busy and yes….with five, very expensive. Hotels usually only let you have a maximum of 5 in a room…so it is either book two rooms or try and hide the other two….that doesn’t work so well! We heard about a fairly new resort in Niagara Falls called the Great Wolf Lodge …..waterpark, family suites, quite reasonable prices considering….sounded perfect for us so I booked. We went for Friday and Saturday…just stayed the one night but had two days of the waterpark. It was fabulous. We all loved it!

On Friday when we arrived in Niagara, we went to see the Falls while we waited for check-in time. I’d never seen the Falls in winter before….very beautiful! It was a very grey day, snow was coming, so the pics are a little bland. It was pretty cold for the little guys so we didn’t stay out too long before heading for the resort. The resort is all done in a Wilderness theme with wolves howling, talking bears…very fun for kids. The suite was great…very family friendly and even had a little walled off bunk house area with a bunk bed and twin bed in it. The waterpark was the best thing….VERY cool with a wave pool, lots of swimming areas, kiddie slides, climbers, 2 medium slides and 6 large waterslides. The picture just does not do it justice. I was afraid to take my camera right in with all that water spray…there is so much more that you cannot see! Super fun for all ages. To date…this is the only one open in Canada but I do believe there are about 8 in the US. If you have one nearby, I would definitley recommend it for families. We had the best time and it was so great to get away, even just for the night, with the kids. I might even be inspired to create some Western style projects in the upcoming days.

The random draw winner of my sweet box and goodies is….. 28! I wrote all  the numbers down on little pieces of paper and drew one from the box…number 28. I counted the comments on the entry starting with this first comment and the 28th comment was by Adelina! Congratulations! Please send me an e-mail Adelina, with your address so that I can send it to you!

Apparently there was some problem with the Blog server for Friday night. My apologies to those who may have tried to comment and were unable to. To make up for this, I’ll be having another draw in the next few weeks so stay tuned! Thanks for all the comments! It was great to see who is reading my blog and to find out what you want to see!

I decided to finally get my own watermark! Beth from Frecked Fun Blog (myprecious on SCS)  is now producing watermarks and custom blog headers. If you want one….check it out here  A lot of designers are now using watermarks on their work. While this does not prevent “image theft” it is a small deterrent. And it is also, kind of like a little signature on your work. I wanted mine to reflect my style. I think I drove poor Beth crazy but I’m really happy with the results. What do you think?

This is just a little tutorial or the A, B, C’s on the features of my blog and most blogs, for that matter, for some of my friends who are new to the concept of blogging. I just wanted to be able to make it easier for everyone to navigate and find what they are interested in. I hope this helps.

1. Feedblitz - If you are interested in being updated every time I post something new….Feedblitz is the answer. Quite often, I post designs and projects etc. that are not uploaded to my gallery. Each day that my blog is updated, you will get an e-mail with a segment of my blog posts on it giving you a peak into my blog. If you are interested in reading more, you just click on the link in the e-mail, et voila….you are here to see the rest. It’s free, it’s easy! To sign up …. just go to the right side of my blog to where it says Feedblitz…click on the Preview button. That will give you a sample of what the updates may look like. AFter that, just click on the sign up link at the top of the sample. Easy!
2. Comments - I love to get feedback on whether you liked my designs, etc. or not. I’d love to hear from you! To leave a comment on an entry just scroll to the end of it where it says comments…click there.
3. Larger viewing - If you want to view a larger image of the picture or design that is here, just click on it….it will pop up larger so that you can see the detail.
4. Calendar - The calendar is highlighted with the dates that I have updated my blog. If you actually just hover your cursor over the date, a little box will pop up with the titles of my blog entries for that day.
5. Blogroll - This is a list of links you may be interested in checking out. I have my favorite stampers and bloggers there, as well as links to some great on-line stores etc.
6. Categories - I’m a person of many interests. What you will see here mostly, are stamping and papercrafts, but I do include recipes, digital layouts and other ramblings about my life. If you really want to cut to the chase and just look at, say…card designs….just go to Categories in the sidebard and click on the Card Designs link….that’s all you’ll get!
7. Other Pages…at the top you can look at other pages. There are links there to my About page and my Publications Resume page. Also, there are only 15 posts to a page…if you get to the bottom and can’t find what you are looking for, there is a link for earlier entries.
8. Search Box - another useful tool is the search box. If you remember seeing a card that described the misting technique but can’t find it….put misting in the search box…it will find it for you.
9. Clustermap - Now this is so cool! The little map at the bottom of my sidebar shows sites in the world where people are looking at my blog from….North America, Europe, Asia, Australia…wow! This is so exciting for me to see! Thanks everyone for taking a peek!
10. Hit Counter - This little counter keeps track of how many different “hits” or users that peek into my gallery each day. Because this is so fun for me to see, I want to make it a little fun for you too. Stay tuned…I just may want to make certain milestones are celebrated with a little fun.