Uncle Sam's Hat

CS & Metallic CS - CTMH: B&T - Doodlebug; Hat embellishmen - Jolee's Boutique; Fiskars Deckle Edgers; Photo corners -???

I know that Doodlebug stuff can be almost sickeningly sweet...but I can't seem to stop myself from LIKING it soooo much BECAUSE it's so stinkin' cute!! Love, love LOVE all of the B&T paper that Doodlebug comes out with and I especially enjoy these "themed" papers. One sheet can make a heck of a lot of cards and there's usually NO waste or scraps.

Although there's no stamping on the front of the card, the inside has a stamped sentiment. Another super fast card playing with paper!!

One Little Flag

Stamps, inks & CS - CTMH; Flag toothpick - Wishing Well; Fiskars pinking edgers

VERY simple card. I love to find little "goodies" that aren't necessarily stamp-related and incorporate them into the card. Usually they are much more affordable, you get a ton of them (great for sharing with your stamping buddies) and it's always a cool little twist on what might possibly be a rather ho-hum card. It felt like I made about a billion of these babies (they are 4bar sized cards). Quick and easy to do and pretty flat for mailing!

Go Fly A Kite!!

All stamps, ribbon, B&T CS by A Muse; Inks - Memento; Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colour Pencils; Spicas; Copics

See the pretty Spicas SHIIIIIIIMMMMMMmmer....

AMAP Challenge 2 - for this challenge, the card is to be "ribbon-inspired"..........and I didn't want to just wrap some ribbon around the card or a bow or a knot or a noose......I wanted it to MEAN something, man!! So I thought and I thought and I thought - because there's really nothing else to do when I'm at my day job (because a mindless monkey could do what I do at my day job...) and low and behold......I came up with a kite with a super long tail.....made of RIBBON!!

Stackem High...

Cupcake stack - Taylored Expressions; circular sentiment - Papertrey Inks; B&T - Target $1.00 bins(!); circular CS & button - CTMH; Ink - Memento; Copics; Stickles; Marvy Punches; DMC Cotton.

The Taylored Expressions cupcakes are just border-line "too cute"....but most of them squeeze by and they are a lot of fun to color!! Took the cue for colors from the nifty B&T from Target ($1.00!!) - they're bright & happy.

Today Creepella and I are hoping to hit the movies, we both want to see "The Proposal" and since Chef Bo-Bo Head isn't wild about it - we're going to go without him......and we'll stuff ourselves with popcorn & cola Icees too!! We do love our Sandy-movies!!

Factory Or Barn??

Cardbase - Memory Box: Image stamp - Stampin' Up; Sentiment CS and B&T- CTMH: Inks - Mementos & Tim Holtz' Distress Inks; Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colour Pencils; Copics & Spicas; Foam Mounting Tape.

Chef Bo-Bo Head says, "So is it a factory or a barn??".........there will never be a chance of me getting big-headed about my stamping. Not when I live with the 2 Stooges - I'm telling you!!

I only have two of the T.H. Distress Inks and I'm starting to goof around with them now....and since I haven't really done a whole lot with them I'm just wondering what all the fuss is (and no, I'm not really a fan of the T.H. "style" - I know a lot of stampers are.....but it's a bit too messy for my taste)??? Perhaps if I knew how to use them properly I would be dutifully impressed - as of now though - nil to zilch impressiveness. Guess that gives me incentive to get back to stamping!!

Cupcake Martooni

Cupcake Martini stamp - Obsessive Impression; sentiment & tiny circles - Hero Arts; CS, B&T, Liquid Glass - CTMH; Inks - Memento & CTMH: Copics; Stickles; White Gel Pen - ??

This was a fun one - I sponged & added little dots to the sentiment layer to match the B&T. I just made a couple of these to sell and POOF they were gone!!

Gardening Gnome

Gnome & mushrooms - Stampin' Up; Sentiment & Cardbase - Papertrey Ink; Inks - Memento & Versafine; Copics & Spicas

When Creepella came to say goodnight she about fell over when she saw all of the Copics that were spread out on my desk. Let's see, I had 3 shades of blue for the hat, 5 Copics for the flower & 2 for the stem & leaf; the shoes were 3 shades of orange; the pants were done in 3 Copics, the shirt was 3 shades of red with the "ruffle" & very dark seams comprising another 3 Copics, face & hands were done with 2 Copics, hair & beard had 3 Copics; grass had 2 shades of green, the sky was 1 Copic and finally the mushrooms were (no kidding here....) 9 shades of various Copics.

And of course I threw in a couple of Spicas for just a hint of shimmer.

Creepella thinks I'm crazy - so does Heidi and yes, it did take me a VERY long time to finish coloring (I made 3 of these cards and I always stamp my envelopes)...but since one of the things I really enjoy about stamping is the coloring I guess it's quite all right for me to hunker down and bond with my Copics.

When Chef Bo-Bo Head saw this card....he REALLY liked the mushrooms!! He kept asking to see the stamp - when I showed him he laughed (the mushroom stamp is pretty small, I just stamped it multiple times).

Multi-Thanks!

CB - Memory Box; Stamps - A Muse; B&T Paper & CS - CTMH; Inks - Memento & Colorbox Chalks; Spicas; Marvy Oval Punches

Clean and simple. Not frilly so this one could work well to give to a manly male!! I'm not sure if the multi-Thank You stamp is still available from A Muse. I love it and have certainly gotten a lot of use out of it!

Squared Flowers

Stamps, Kitchen B&T CS - A Muse; Inks - Mementos; Copics; Stickles; Marvy Scalloped Square Punch; 3M foam mounting tape

For the first A*Muse*A*Palooza Challenge, the requirement: have a "square" inspiration. So I take it literally and do a square card and use a square scalloped punch.....makes it nice & tidy!!

Flinging Confetti

B&T paper - Michael's $1.00 bin; Cupcake stamp - Hero Arts; sentiment - CTMH; Inks - Mementos; Copics; Stickles; Fiskars Deckled Edger

How cool is that B&T, ESPECIALLY when you consider that I got 8 sheets (blue, green, pink, black, white and variety) of it for a buck. I love cool finds like that - now especially when most of us have to really watch our dollars, this is such a treat!!

Steaming Hot Goodness

Cardstock, B&T, Stamps, Inks, Liquid Glass - CTMH; Spicas

Here are some older CTMH images (yes, they're wood-mounted and no longer available for purchase). The mug color combination is one of my favorites (and one that I probably use way too much), the checked B&T paper just screams tablecloth to me. The liquid glass adds such a lovely glassy-liquidy shimmer, it's perfect for a steaming hot mug of goodness.

I'm definitely not a morning person (much more a late-night working-into morning person), but a tasty cup of coffee in a cheerful mug like this does a lot to help me hate the mornings less. Cheers to you!

Balloon Trio

Cardbase - Memory Box; B&T - oh bother, I have no idea; Stamp - Stampin' Up'; Ink - Memories & Colorbox Chalk; Copics & Spicas

Fast & Easy since the paper pretty much does all of the work here.

Have you heard? There are NEW Spica's (mostly in pastel shades, but there's a brownish color too) AND soon, there will be a dozen NEW Copics - again all in pastels. I think the Copics will be in the Sketch line but that's ok with me as that is the style that I have finally settled on. I love my Ciao's and I've got a hand-full of the Originals, but my heart is pledged to the Sketch style. After working with both the bullet and brush tips, I've found that my preference is far and away the brush tip. The oval barrel of the Sketch just feels good in my hand and since the larger barrel holds more ink - that's a double hooray for me. And good gravy, in my opinion you can never have too many pastels to choose from. Just last night I used 3 different pastels for a bit of water on cards I was working on (they're nearly done!)...yep, love those pastels!!

Bella Beauty

Hmmm - Most EVERYTHING - CTMH; slot punch - Stampin' Up; Gemstone - Hero Arts

For anyone that's read "Twilight", I bet the title of today's post caught your attention?? The Bella reference? It's one of the new paper packs from CTMH (it's a Level 2 set, so there's both B&T and cardstock included). It's a VERY pretty set and I love that the B&T paper is reversible - hmmm, the colors are lovely.

The paper flower is actually white but I sponged in some colors to match the papers (besides, a white flower would have been much too stark), added a gemstone and a paper leaf and that's about it. Only the sentiment was stamped, the rest of the card is all about paper and a cool buckle fold.

Frenzied Flouishes

Cardbase - Memory Box; Flourish Stamps - Inkadinkadoo; Candle - CTMH: Circular sentiment - PTI; Inks - Memento; Copics & Stickles; CS - CTMH; Marvy & Stampin' Up circle punches; Sheer Ribbon

Ok, can you actually have TOO many flourish stamps? I think I might be getting ready to cross the line. On purpose and with great forethought, I have acquired several sets of flourish stamps and a hand-full (yes, a very LARGE hand-full...as in Andre' the Giant's hand-full) of single wood-mounted flourishes. Did I get completely sucked into the excitement upon seeing yet another NEW set of flourishes? Heavens no - after all, I'm a mature woman, completely able to keep in control even under the most heavy duress. The answer is simple really - there are so many bleepin' styles of flourishes, how can one set be "The Answer" to every stamping need?

There are elegant, playful, modern, flowy (yes, an actual stamping term), holiday-themed, floral, dotted, leafy and masculine varieties of flourishes - so I ask again: how does one keep to a SINGLE style of flourish to fit a multitude of stamping NEEDS??

Obviously - the answer is.....impossible to do. Therefore, LOGICALLY, one must have an entire arsenal of flourishes available for every type of stamping style and NEED. Not that I personally feel the need to defend myself OR my collection of flourishes...just wanted to make my thoughts on the matter perfectly clear.

Warm Get-Well Wishes

Cardbase - Memory Box; B&T - CTMH; Teapot & sentiment stamps - PTI; Inks - Memento & Colorbox Chalks; Ribbon & mini-oval stamp - A Muse; Gemstone - Hero Arts

A while back, Gail was feeling a bit puny and so it was time to whip up a card. For some people, it's so easy to make a card for and Gail is definitely one of those people - she has a lot of interests in a LOT of things (remember, she's one of my pirate-lovin' gals). I LOVE this new tea set from PTI....it's cute and elegant at the same time. Not sure if you can tell, but after I stamped up the teapot, I swiped the ink pad across it (oh-so lightly) to give just a hint of texture to the pot. I'll do that quite a bit on the solid stamps - I think that it lends a subtle interest to the image.

As per usual, the photography leaves so much to be desired.....but trust me on this, the CTMH B&T was nearly dead-on with matching the Memento Inks. Too cool.

Oh and BTW - Gail enjoyed the card, it made her smile!!

Circled 17

Cardbase - Memory Box; Stamps - CTMH; Inks - Memento; Flower & Sheer Ribbon - misc; Marvy punch (the big aqua circle).

I'm really liking circle cards.....and while Marvy's large aqua punches are pretty darned big - I would like something a bit larger.

I'm seriously thinking about investing in some Nestabilities. I already have the Cuttlebug (and love it)...I've got quite a lovely collection of Quickutz too. The punches are really great but now that I'm finally getting down to business in the organization of my stamp room those punches are eating up a TON of precious space. While the large sets of Nestabilities are kind of pricey (and it's only because you have to purchase the entire set all at once), I think ultimately they're cheaper. Storage and ease of use have become major factors in my stamping life (the only higher priority is price). So now that I'm thinking of phasing out my Marvy punches and replacing them with the Nestabilities, I'm going to see if I can't sell the punches to stampers/scrappers who are just starting out and might not need 27 circle sizes nor want to invest that heavily. It's the whole circle of life thing, I'd like for them to go to someone that could get as much use out of them as I have AND it would be great for me to re-coup a bit of the cost (ok, ok, ok, I won't re-coup anything.....whatever money I get for the punches will go directly into the acquisition of Nestabilites - sheeeesh, technicalities!!).

Anyhow, Creepella liked the card and was VERY impressed that I used so much of the flower ribbon because she knows how very PRECIOUS it is...but nothing is as precious to me as my Creepella.

B-Day Greetings from Skully

Cardbase - Memory box; B&T CS & stamps - A Muse; Inks - Memento; Copics

I distressed the B&T CS and the red CS to give it a sinister aire (although REALLY - how sinister can it get with that cool A Muse CS??). Had to have a least ONE skull card for my Skully-Girl. I found some small cosmetic bags with skulls on them at Target (for $1.00 each - what a deal...I bought all three!!). For her b-day week, I put a couple of bottles of nail polish (found them in some weird colors too, blues, greens, purple, orange and hot-hot pink) in each bag and spread them out over the week - she loved them!!

Only Child Musketeer Mentality

Fluffles - Stampendous; Inks - Memento; Copics & Spicas; Silver Roller pen; Sponge

Had a hard time using that giant chiseled end of the Copic....but it did cover that cardstock in no time flat. I wasn't worried that you could see the lines, it gave the card some texture so that it didn't look too flat. In contrast to the "airy" sky I think it worked well. I popped out the bag of loot (yes, that's what it is), the feather in the hat and the sword blade for some added dimension.

In Most Everything......

Stamps - CTMH: Ink - Memento; Spicas

And the b-day week "rocks" on!! This is a fun set, I can see that I'll be using it a lot more than I had anticipated. Poor Creepella thought it was for her - I told her she could BORROW it any time she'd like!

Orange Butterfly

Stamps - PTI & Hero Arts; Inks: Memento; Spicas; Corner Rounder & Ribbon

Another b-day week at home...this time it's for Creepella. I had to do 7 cards all at once since it was right before my major re-arrangement in my stamp room. The pressure was on....didn't want to be lazy and use the same ol' stamps for ALL of the cards - so I pulled out all kinds of stuff!! She liked her cards (the most important thing) and I heaved a big sigh of relief when I got them all done. She had a great b-day week...and now - onto Summer Vacation!

Toot - Toooooot...

Cardbase - Memory Box; Car stamp & B&T CS - A Muse; Sentiment - Hero Arts; Cloud - Rubber Soul; Inks - Memento; Copics & Spicas

Creepella has always wanted a VW bug - she changes her mind between a red one and lime green. I hope when she gets a car - it'll be a hybrid!

REALLY, REALLY...

B&T Moondoggie and alphabet - CTMH; Quickutz

And I do mean a really BIG thanks...I was lucky enough to be invited to 2 (TWO) shows this week - The Lion King (just as spectacular as the first time!!) and tonight to Forever Plaid. I'm thinking it will be a really fun show and I do enjoy 50's music quite a bit (thanks Dad)...and how cool is it that both shows were FREE???

I'm a LUCKY girl!!