The End Is Near...

Here's my last post for the month of July and with it I realize that summer is almost over. I go back to school in about 3 weeks and those will go by soooo quickly. It seems that the longer I teach, the shorter the summer's get :)....don't even ask me if I started on my school to-do list yet (YIKES!!!)

I came across the Bee Crafty blog today and found some adorable images!! Luckily it was the last day to enter their current contest, so I made this card (plus it works for my blogger group's challenge....see below!).

The challenge was to create a summer fun card that included a digital image somewhere on the design. I used this image from the Sea Creatures set from MyGrafico - what says summer fun more than the beach and searching for shells. I never had any luck on the beach finding shells, but I always bought starfish at a store on the boardwalk.

My card also works for the most recent Ocean's 11 Challenge. Ocean's 11 is my blog group and is filled with fabulous gals - please check out their blogs listed down the right side of mine. Amy challenged us to use a 3 color combo that you don't normally use. While I use blue and orange a fair amount, I'd never think of adding the blue-green color (sorry I don't have the exact name...I picked this up last summer from Archivers - my 5 free sheets). My dp inspired me, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!


Details:
Stamps - Sea Creatures (Zenware for MyGrafico)
Ink - Copics, Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Paper - white, kraft, Brillant Blue, orange & blue-green (Archivers), dp (DCWV Fun in the Summer matstack)
Accessories - ribbon (Offray), dimensionals, paper piercer, sentiment computer generated

Rental Car = Roadtrip (s) & Please Join Me!!

Jeez Louise!! I've been busy :)

I picked up the rental while my car's being repaired after the rear end incident of '09 (<- tee hee) and the road trips began!!! As you may know, I went to Columbus, OH for an all day shopping extravanga....Bon Vie (my fav restaurant) was delicious!!! Got lots of fun 'toys' at Hobby Lobby & Archivers...even though I was a bit underwhelmed at Archivers (I typically find my Christmas card inspiration there around this time, but no luck). That full day was followed with a trip to IKEA - got some great little jars to organize my buttons by color and a really nice stainless steel trivet for my kitchen. And a trip to the outlets....if papercrafting doesn't do me in, the Gap Outlet will...how many short sleeve sweaters or cardigans does one person need? They are really cute, though!!


Anywho...I'm going to be busy in my craft room ALL day!! I'm getting ready for tomorrow's VSN at SCS and I'm hosting one of the challenges!!! I soooooo hope you join me ....either to participate or just to chat! My challenge will be at 7pm, but the challenges for this mini VSN begin at 5pm. As a hostess, I've had a sneak peek at the challenges and they are FUUNNNN!!!!! In addition, my blogger buddy, Peggysue, will also be hosting a challenge at 9pm.


Hope to be back with a photo for you later...hope you're enjoying a dryer Friday than we are in western PA.

Goin' Buggy!

Well, I might be because right now I'm at one of my favorite shopping locations - Easton Shopping Center in Columbus, Ohio. As you read this post, I could be checking out all the cool stuff at Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn....maybe I'm trying to be good at Archivers...I know I'll be thinking about food trying to decide on what to eat at Bon Vie so I still have enough room for their heavenly desserts. This trip isn't for the faint of heart - my best friend and I leave at 6am and won't return until 2 or 3am the next night. And it's worth every minute!!!

Alright Stephanie...get back to business!!

Here's the get well card I made for a Children's Hospital Swap I'm participating in over at SCS. I love that the Misti, our hostess, will be donating the +1 card to a Children's Hospital rather than keep them for her part of the swap. How generous!!



I knew that I wanted to use my Cookie Crumbs Get Well Critters set from C.C. Designs. I just love how fun these images are, and those sentiments just crack me up! I paper pieced that little bug with some fun polka dot paper from DCWV Fun in the Sun matstack. I can't believe how well my ribbon matched the dp!! Another score from the ribbon outlet - now if I could just find a place to store it all and keep it easily accessible :)


Here's the view of the inside of the card. I wanted to keep it simple because it's a swap. In fact, I don't know if I was supposed to do that or not - oh well...I like that little extra touch.



Details:
Stamps - Get Well Critters (Cookie Crumbs for C.C. Designs)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics (G21, BG10, C-3, C-5)
Paper - white, Soft Sky, green (Archivers), DCWV Fun in the Sun matstack
Accessories - ribbon (Offray)


Hope you're having a great day!! And I hope I come back with more than a nickel to my name :)

MoxieFabWorld IS REALLY MOXIE FAB!!!!

I got home today from the dentist, dropping off my car at the body shop, and picking up my rental and guess what!!!

My prize from Cath at MoxieFabWorld arrived!!!

(click on the photo for a close up)

Oh my word!!! I'm speechless! I LOVE EVERYTHING!! I just bought some American Crafts dp last weekend, and I'm over the moon now with the Teen series!!! And I was planning on buying some Thickers, so now my collection is already begun!! I'm so grateful for Cath's generosity as well as PaperCrafts magazine and anyone else involved!! I just got my Halloween issue in the mail yesterday and it looks goooooood!!

If you've not visited MoxieFab World or the PaperCrafts blog, you need to head over there right now!! (yep, that's an order) I've been following both of these blogs for some time, and I love all the inspiration, new products, contests, and giveaways!!! The next Moxie Fab contest is going on right now through Monday, August 10th - to create something inspired by one of bags that Cath has pictured on the post. I have a few ideas in mind, so I wanna get started soon :)

From Me To You - MyGrafico Monday

Today's Monday and that means a new challenge at MyGrafico!! This week is a celebration sketch challenge - join us with the challenge and you could win this fabulous birthday set!



Isn't it great - think of all the uses!! I'm thinking of some Christmas cards with those packages or wedding cards with the cake...how about a congrats card with the shopping bag. Ooops....lost my train of thought...back to the challenge!

Here's the sketch that we're using this week. Feel free to rotate it, but try to keep the general format and create a card for any celebration (birthday, anniversary, etc.). Remember to be eligible for the prize, you need to provide a direct link to your card/project/LO on the MyGrafico Challenge Blog by Sunday night at 10pm (PST). Also, please include the tag/keyword "MG11" to any online gallery you upload to :)



And now for my card....



yep...that's a LOT of brads...won't do that again...but doesn't it look pretty!!! AND.....there's a surprise...



A secret gift card holder!!!!! One of my stampin buddies, Wendy, made a similar gift card holder for Erin when we had a little baby shower for her. I thought I'd add it to my birthday card! Thanks for the inspiration, Wendy!! Continue on to the next post for a quick tutorial on how I created my little gift card holder add-on!


Details:
Stamps - Happy Birthday to You (Cocoa Studio for MyGrafico); sentiment - Everyday Button Bits (PTI)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics (BG01, R27, YR07, Y08, YG03)
Paper - white, YoYo Yellow, light blue (DCWV), green (scrap)
Accessories - green & white polka dot notecard (unknown), orange ribbon (Michaels), white brads, white circle clip, SU word window punch


In case you're wondering, I'm in good shape with the basement goal! I think I have about 1 more day's worth of work (which in my language is about 5 - 6 hours). It's been my catch-all since I moved in last June. I've gotten rid of a ton of boxes and have a ton of garbage for the lucky garbage guys this week :). I went through my teaching stuff from when I taught first grade and put a bunch of books up on eBay. All that's left is to take the newspaper bundles to the animal shelter, go through the home decor stuff from my townhouse and make a trip to Goodwill, and scrub the half of the basement I haven't scrubbed yet. This will all be in time for me to do laundry - oh yay! (I hope you can hear my sarcastic tone)

Secret Gift Card Holder tutorial

Here are the steps I took in creating the secret gift card holder attached to the front of my birthday card.

Step 1:
Cut a strip of cardstock 3.5" x 11". Score along the 11" side at 3.5" and 7.5"


Step 2:
Flip cardstock over and score at 5.5"


Step 3:
Fold at the 5.5" score


Step 4:
Fold at the 3.5" score


and the 7.5" score. Remember the raised part of the score goes on the inside.


Your strip should look like this.


Step 5:
Run two strips of adhesive along the upper and lower edges between the 3.5" and 5.5" folds.


Step 6:
Adhere center section together as shown in photo.


Step 7:
Using gift card as a guide, mark edges of gift card in adhered section.


Step 8:
Using word window punch, punch out slot for gift card.

Mine required two punches.


Step 9:
Slide in gift card

and decorate!!

I added ribbon to secure the holder.

Digichicks Challenge

I recently joined a group of bloggers who enjoy digital images - aka the Digichicks. It's a great group of gals, and you can check out their blogs by scrolling down the right side of my page. Our group has decided to have challenges. In fact, we have two challenges going on right now. The card I made is for the first challenge - to use green & black on a card.

I had this little gal printed out for some time now - she's from the Slumber Party set from MyGrafico. I love the shade of green that I used - Jade Green (Copic G00). I carried the polka dots into one of the layers using my Polka Dot Basics II set from PTI - I'm LOVIN' this set!! I added some black ribbon - yep, it's from my Offray outlet trip....I got this 180 yd spool of black linen ribbon for $2!!!! I pierced around part of the label and the ribbon and added the letters (cut out from my Cricut). It still seemed like it is missing something, but I have to start cleaning my basement! It's my goal for the month of July - I haven't started, and I have some things going on this week. Maybe I'll come back to the card later :)

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend - it's a beautiful sunny day here in western PA!


Details:
Stamps - Slumber Party (Zenware for MyGrafico); Polka Dot Basics II (PTI)
Ink - StazOn black; Copics (G00, 100, E00, E02, YR00)
Paper - white, Basic Black, pastel green (The Paper Company)
Accessories - Nestabilities Labels One dies, black linen ribbon (Offray), Cricut, Opposites Attract cartridge, paper piercer, dimensionals

Free Stamps....plus a way to get more!!

I have some freebies to share with you! If you been to MyGrafico Challenge blog, you've already seen the candy stamps freebie. But I wanted to share it as well... along with some really cool news!!


MyGrafico is a great place to pick up digital images. I'm not saying this because I'm on their design team. I'm saying this because I truly believe it. If you look at my blog over the past few months (the time I started using digital stamps), you'll notice that most (if not all) of my digital images are from MyGrafico. Here's why:

1. There's a ton to choose from - new sets are added all the time. There was a cute dinosaur set added today and a candy shoppe added a day or two ago.

2. Now if you clicked on the links, you noticed what a great deal these are! If you wanted to get either of these sets, it would cost you a mere $3! The dinosaur set has 9 images and the candy shop set has 11. We're talking around 30 cents per image!!!! Specials are running all the time - I've gotten sets for $2.50!!

3. On the MyGrafico community site (Ning), you can submit ideas/requests for images. I submitted a few ideas and the designers have been terrific! Now how cool is that :) You have to become a member, but it's absolutely free. There are some great projects here - stamping and non-stamping!

4. I love that I was able to try some sets (not single images) for free. This allowed me to try out the whole digital thing without much of a risk - what was I going to lose...some ink and a piece of cardstock? Here are two free sets that you can find on mygrafico.com - the candy set is new and the vases and flowers set was the first digital set I tried. Click here to see all of the other freebies!




5. My final reason is why I'm writing this post. MyGrafico is soooooo generous. Each week, we run a challenge with entries due Sunday night at 10pm (PST) and award a participant free images or entire sets. This week, one lucky winner will receive the Garden Elements set (you can play along here). AND.......this week, MyGrafico is sponsoring a challenge at PCP. You can create anything using a MyGrafico image to be in the running for $10 certificate to spend at the site!!!! Use a free image and pick out some sets that you want!! The PCP challenge will run through Wednesday, July 29th.


Here's a card that I made using one of my favorite MyGrafico sets, Sea Creatures. I've used this set with so many cards. I love how it can work for so many occasions...and so many silly puns!!



Details:
Stamps - Sea Creatures (Zenware for MyGrafico)
Ink - Copics
Paper - white, green (scrap), sandpaper
Accessories - pastels (chalks), pen, dimensionals



I apologize if I went a bit off the deep end with this post, but I just couldn't get over the generosity when I learned of the PaperCraftPlanet challenge.

Punch Buggy, No Punch Backs!!

Today's Limited Supplies challenge (SCS) requires the use of an image that has a motor. This was perfect because I got this fun lovebettle HUGGABUGG image from Stamping Bella for my birthday last month and haven't inked it up yet.



I was also excited because I was able to use this fun new DP I got from AC Moore last Saturday during the ribbon outlet excursion. It's from American Crafts' The Goods Collection - this particular style is called Swing Set.



Hopefully you can see all the fun stuff I added from this close up. There's lot of glitter from my Gelly Roll pen, and I shined up those wheels and headlight with some Glossy Accents. I finished the card off with a sentiment from the new PTI set Everyday Button Bits - it has a ton of fabulous sentiments!!

Hopefully I'll get some more cards made today - I have a bunch that I need to get done for swaps, VSN, and upcoming challenges....I know....why did I play with today's LSC? I'm such a procrastinator!!



Details:
Stamps - lovebeetle HUGGABUGG (Stamping Bella); sentiment (PTI Everyday Button Bits)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics (Gifts - G05, Y08, Y17, R29; Car - YR04, YR07; Wheels - C-1, C-3, 100; Huggabugg Outfit - B05, Hair -E33, E35; Skin - E00, E02, YR00)
Paper - GP white; DP (American Crafts)
Accessories - ribbon (Michaels), Nestabilities circles & pinking circles dies, red brads, dimensionals, Gelly Roll pens (glitter & white), Glossy Accents

What Was I Thinking?

After looking at today's sketch challenge at SCS, I knew I needed smaller images. I pulled out three stamp sets that I picked up a few weeks ago - you know the dollar clear stamps that you have to buy because there only a buck! I bought the set that I used thinking that it was a set of houses...ummm...what was I thinking? It's a set of buildings. They're cute, but I wanted a set of houses. Hey, there were ONLY a dollar :)



Now I do know what I was thinking when I bought the recently released Polka Dot Basics II from PTI. Isn't it great? I also picked up the Everyday Button Bits set and can't wait to use it!!


Details:
Stamps - Polka Dot Basics II (PTI), On the Town (We R Memory Keepers)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics (R27, BG15, Y00, E33, E35, E37)
Paper - white, Real Red, Taken with Teal
Accessories - dimensionals, ribbon (Offray), pastels, sentiment computer generated (Hey Arnold font)



I've been super busy over the past few days with an activity day that I hold for my students every summer and I spoke at a local university about gifted education. Exhaustion has set in and coupled with the fact that my house needs cleaned (not picked up, but scrub-a-dub-dub cleaned), I haven't been motivated to create anything new UNTIL I found out this morning that this card of mine was chosen as one of the winner's of the Moxie Fab Green Challenge! YAHOO!!! I'm over the moon and definitely motivated to create :)

MyGrafico Monday

It's Monday and we're ready for a new challenge at MyGrafico - this week's challenge is to use BROWN & TEAL. What a fun color combo!! Remember you can use any image of your choice, but if you have any MyGrafico we'd love to see what you do with them. Please add the tag/keyword "MG10" when uploading your photo to any online gallery. You have until Sunday night at 10pm (PST) to be eligible for this week's prize.

This week's winner will receive this terrific Garden Elements set by Kreative Brand.


I used a flower & leaf stem from the set to create my card.



Underneath my sheer brown polka dot ribbon, I have some teal satin ribbon from my trip to the Offray ribbon outlet in Maryland on Saturday - holy cow....I bought over 1800 yards of ribbon for $14.63!!!! Guess what I'll be featuring in my cards!?!


Details:
Stamps - Garden Elements (MyGrafico); sentiment (Hero Arts Happy Everything)
Ink - Chocolate Chip; Copics (R02, RV42, YG41, G02)
Paper - Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal, white
Accessories - ribbon (Offray & Michaels), buttons

Winner Wanted!!

Want to win this entire set? Just create a fruit inspired card (any product is fine) and enter it here by 10pm PST Sunday. If you upload your photo to an online gallery, please label or tag it "MG09" - good luck!

VSN - Wilted Lettuce

My next card is for Chef Cindy's VSN challenge - Wilted Lettuce. Cindy recalls learning to make the perfect salad from some spirited Italian grandmothers. So for her challenge, we needed to use lettuce colors (spring mix counts, too!) with beige as the neutral, add a crinkled element, and an Italian sentiment.


So here's my card!



You can see that I went with the colors in the Spring Mix with my crinkly Baroque Burgendy posie. The 'leaves' are made from ribbon loops (I stapled the ends together), and I sewed a big brown button in the center of my flower. The flower was made by punching out flowers from two sizes of flower punch, then crinkling the cardstock, then attaching them to each other while alternating the petal overlap. I printed the Italian sentiment on my computer and broke out my sewing machine - I think I have it in a location now where I can access more easily and more frequently :)




Details:
Stamps - none
Ink - none
Paper - kraft, Baroque Burgendy
Accessories - ribbon (Michaels), sentiment (akaFrivolity), button, embroidery floss, Flower Punch (Whale of a Punch & Paper Shapers extra large - EK Success), sewing machine

It's VSN tonight!!

Tonight's installment of VSN Paperchef including soups, salads, and cheese plate.

The first challenge by Kelly (schirmcat) was to use a regular hole puncher on your card. Voila!



After I finished this one, I thought of holey socks or underwear...sadly time is not on my side right now :)



The second challenge from Kathy (kkrab5) was to make a card inspired by dragon fruit using the colors pink, green, black, and white.

I couldn't wait to use this little sweetie from the MyGrafico Slumber Party set.


Stay tuned - I have one more post on challenges tonight!



Details:

Challenge 1 -
Stamps - Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Ink - Memento
Paper - Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, YoYo Yellow, Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue, Elegant Eggplant, white
Accessories - Hole punch (Big Bite)


Challenge 2 -
Stamps - Slumber Party (MyGraficO)
Ink - Copics (Hair - Y00, Y08; Bows & Shoes - RV04, RV23; Pants - RV10, RV23; Skin - E00, E21; YR00; 100)
Paper - Basic Black, Pink Passion, Green Galore, white
Accessories - Nestabilities Oval & Petite Oval Scallop dies, buttons, embroidery floss

It's All Green To Me

Here's my card for Cath Edvalson's Moxie Fab It's All Green To Me Challenge.



I had ordered the Go Green set from My Cute Stamps late last week, and I knew that I wanted to use them as soon as I saw the challenge. I also incorporated the cloud image from My Cute Stamps' Cheer Up set. Yes...I'm addicted to My Cute Stamps!!

I stamped the tree on kraft paper using Memento Tuxedo Black. The leaves & heart are colored with Copics while the truck is colored with pastels. The clouds were stamped onto kraft with Night of Navy, colored with pastels, and cut out. The peace sun was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, colored with pastels, and cut out. I thought stamping on kraft cardstock gave it a more recycled feel - perfect for the challenge. I added the sentiment (...I wish this sentiment was included with the sent) using rub-on letters from Creating Keepsakes.


Details:
Stamps - Go Green & Cheer Up (My Cute Stamps)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Night of Navy; Copics (R32, G21, YG11)
Paper - white, kraft
Accessories - pastels, black gingham ribbon (Michaels), rub-on letters (Creating Keepsakes)