what could be yummier....

than a CHOCOLATE snowflake? Anything Chocolate sounds delish to me!

Michelle (aka DD alum, flaxychick) has BLOG CANDY and some fabbo inspiration on her blog Twisted Chick Creations. Michelle has been an inspiration to me since I first saw her stuff on SCS... long long before I dared to post... or **gasp** even upload! LOL She creates adorable projects and is super creative... plus she has some fantastic stuff in her store Paper Addictions. I love how the stamps and papers match! .... now where's my credit card?

.... and did I mention she is having a sale???

my pretty...

Patty (aka pattyb at SCS) sent a bunch of her friends some of these amazing witch images and sentiments she recently bought. I was fortunate enough to get some!! They are so much fun! I was a little grumpy yesterday... ever have one of those days? And coloring always helps. Often, I will pull some wish images from my stash and just color them. If I don't feel like making a card, I stuff it in my french board for finishing up on another day.
Back to my card... My friend Krys gave me this old pack of SU designer paper because... well let's face it K, you don't stamp! I started coloring this witch purple and remembered the paper, so I went with those colors. the main image is popped up with dimensionals.
I put some black studio g glitter glue on her boots as well as on the brads. I really like this glitter because it's not too glitzy but it sure is shimmery and purty!
I also spaced the brads a little funky.
supplies:
stamps: from pattyb... not really sure :)
ink: stazon colored with copics even though she told me not to :)
paper: pumpkin pie, basic black, old su dsp
accessories: black glitter glue from studio g, black brads

a challenge....

For me! Anyone who knows me knows what a challenge it is for me to stay organized. I have been on a mission for a while now and I am taking baby steps... baby baby steps... to get my life more organized. I have been freecycling some of my clutter. If you have never freecycled, you've gotta check it out! I have been getting rid of household stuff... baby junk and VHS tapes. I am glad to get rid of things and know they are getting use and not going into a landfill.

Recently, I started putting shelves up in my craft room and I am determined to put things away and clear off the counters. I have so much junk that I just am not ready to part with. Storing it all neatly is really becoming a problem. But, I am determined.... so here's the first peek into my mess...

ETA: This very small corner of this room no longer looks like this... It's now covered in halloween projects that are supposed to disappear to school tomorrow with the kids. I am continuing to work on it though...

happy birthday mckinley...

Another birthday party... I really need to have a handful of cards on hand for these occasions. Maybe after I get the Halloween, Christmas and teachers holiday gifts done... how many parties could there possibly be between now and January?
I got this set because Lauren made me do it. It was one of the great Target finds she is so famous for!
The castle was embossed with hologram highlights embossing powder. I wish I would have stamped it a little higher... oh well!! Cinderella is stamped on shimmer white and colored with copic markers.
supplies:
paper: SU
stamps: disney
ink: palette burnt umber, versamark
accessories: hologram highlights ep, copic markers

happy birthday lili...

We had a birthday party to go to on Saturday, so I whipped this up for the birthday girl. I had this image all ready to go, so I ran the pink paper through my Wizard with my Cuttlebug folder. Since the paper was white core, I decided that I'd do a little sanding on it. I really like the way it looks, maybe some day I will pull out my coredinations and play with the embossing folders that those papers. I wanted a little more bling so I added the heidi swapp gems to the bottom but I thought it was too much, so I popped off every other one. Usually, I'd glue the popped ones down and not sure the strip, but they were already perfectly spaced and I was in a hurry.

supplies:

stamps: paper salon

paper: su and dcwv

ink: basic black

accessories: cuttlebug folder, stickles, nestabilities, ribbon scrap, sanding block, heidi swapp gems, copic markers

the real thing...

This is the version of this card that I decided I will take to the Ft Meade swap in a few weeks... OMG I can't believe it's coming up so fast! I tried it out on acetate too, and I just wasn't happy with that at all!
I used my nesties on this. The inside has scallops too. White for the writing area, and also a red one to hide the adhesive on the front panel.
supplies:
stamps: inkadinkadoo
ink: su real red, palette new canvass
paper: you know, I don't even know!
accessories: Michael's ribbons, nesties

sweet and sassy swap...

Krys and I are going to the Ft Meade swap again next month. This is her swap card. A CASE from the mini that this set was in, but I changed it up to be a pocket card. I just need to type up the directions. There's Stickles, (OK, I admit it, I *do* own Stickles but I am just as happy with the results of most glitter glue brands and I love how cheap they are!) on her dress, hat, boots and on the snow.
I stamped on watercolor paper, and colored her with a blender pen. I have never liked coloring with the blender pens but I think it's key to use watercolor paper. I found myself very happy with these results.

supplies:
stamps: sweet and sassy but SU
ink: basic black, mellow moss, bravo burgundy, bashful blue, close to cocoa, blush blossom, summer sun
paper: strathmore water color paper; bashful blue, mellow moss, and bravo burgundy by SU
accessories: glitter glue, blender pen, ribbon, gold cording, eyelet, 1 in circle punch, word window punch

special friends...

I pulled this image off my french board. I had stamped it a few rounds ago for my little DSS at SCS but decided I wanted to use a different stamp set. It's stamped in basic black, colored with various markers by SU and matted on Martha Stewart brown card stock. I used scraps of brown SU dsp and edged it with some Heidi Swapp bling.
I hope to clear off the french board soon... it's really loaded up with stuff. But that's a small part of a bigger picture. If you've been reading for any time you know of the challenge it is for me to clean this room up. Baby steps, right? The problem with that theory is everywhere I take a baby step twenty minutes later it looks like a hurricane hit. Who am I kidding... it's five minutes.
How do you do it? How do you keep your stamping space tidy?

feeling swappy

This is a prototype I made for a swap I am going to next month. I am not sure I like it enough to bring it. I like it in theory, but I am not crazy about the finished product :( I hate when that happens! I want to try it in acetate too but the acetate that I have is kinda thin and brittle. I also don't have enough of the little snowflakes from Stampin' Up, but I do have a cuttlebug snowflake die and some felt. I am going to experiment with that later. I haven't had much luck with the CB dies and felt :( Any felt flakes suggestions would be appreciated.
supplies (as shown):
stamps: inkadinkado
cardstock: miss elizabeth vellum cardstock, red scrap, su whisper white
ink: palette new canvas, su real red
accessories: su felt flurry, may arts dotted organdy, michael's double sided stain

i have an inkling...

Alesha Walls wrote this weeks tutorial featured in the Weekly Inkling on SCS. As soon as I read it I immediately thought of this Martha punch. Who am I kidding... I didn't read it. I looked at the picture, skimmed for measurements and got punchin'!
It was love at first site. I think this punch works amazingly with this technique. I chose this orange paper because it was a scrap from these boxes that I made for the last Ft Meade MD swap. And besides, orange is an amazing color! The card base (layers and all) was pulled from the french board. I made it last halloween but never did anything with it. I have some bellas on it in my gallery at SCS. I have no idea where the black and white gingham is from. I was on a card in a ribbon box. I was thinking about what ribbon to use when I spotted it up on the top shelf. I pulled out my YR07 Copic marker and colored away. I love coloring my ribbons. You really get a lot out of your ribbons this way :)
supplies:
stamps: stampin bella
paper: su only orange, dcwv
accessories: black and white gingham, martha stewart punch, circle nestabilities, Copic Markers

etsy tin...

If you haven't had a chance to check out my etsy shop (the whole one item in there LOL) here it is! This is a mini lunch box tin with a matching standard A2 card. As the photo shows, the card will not fit into the box, but I am OK with that :)

It's covered with Stampin' Up paper from a Simply Scrapping kit. The flowers came all glitterified like that and also included the matching brads. I forget where the washer is from. It was in a jar with other metal embellishments that I have.

supplies:
Just 4 You Stampin Up Simply Scrappin Kit
Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain ribbon, May Arts Ribbon
embossed washer
Heidi Swapp flowers

life is what you make it...

My daughter *hearts* Hanna Montana and my guess is if you have a daughter aged 4-14 yours does too.

There was a little incident at her preschool... I am still unclear of the details and if you ask her she will bawl and it's hard enough to deal with four year old hormones when she has a real reason to be whining. Anywho... we made this card for her friend Kaitlyn to say sorry.

The mandatory stickles on the rose weren't quite dry but it needed to go or we'd be late for school.

supplies:

stamps: disney

paper: dcwv, pti

ink: pti berry sorbet, palette noir

accessories: stickles, pti berry sorbet double stitched ribbon

bella in stitches

I've been playing with the sewing machine a lot over the last few days and plan on playing a bit more :) A day late and a dollar short... again.
I love this DCWV card base with this bella. I will be so sad when I am out. I save them for special cards. Since I stitched directly on the card base, I have a quarter sheet of white on the back to hide the stitching.
On last years Holiday paper from SU, I took my Creative Memories wavy trimmer and sloped the one edge. I wanted to test my ability on steering LOL
Bella is colored with Copic and Stampin' Up markers. The felt flowers are by Making Memories and Stampin' Up and the brad is Stampin' Up.
supplies:
stamps: jammybella by stamping bella
paper: stampin' up and dcwv
ink: brilliance graphite black

a secret surprise...

Got this card in the mail from my secret sister over at SplitCoast. I love the paper and ribbon she used! And Stella... Some days, don't ya just feel like falling into a martini? I like apple which is better with no olive but hey, after four or five who really cares anyway??

sew... what's new?

Cheesy, I know but who could resist? About three years ago I said to my husband "Honey, I need a sewing machine!" Being told I didn't need one because I didn't need a new hobby, I promptly went out and bought one. After all, it's for PAPER not fabric! I wish I would have waited because I would have gotten the ever popular Janome Mini. This is the first card I've sewn on. I have always loved the look... Julia does amazing amazing things with her machine! I really love and admire her art.
Fluffles is from the wonderful ladies over at the SCS Wish RAK group. I *heart* them! His sweater is flocked (white) and colored with Copic marker.
supplies
stamps: fluffles
paper: su cranberry crisp, dcwv patterned
ink: copic G05 and I colored the gray so long ago I have no idea!
accessories: sewing machine and thread, flocking, heidi swapp gems