Back to work...

Last Wednesday I left work all excited to have 5 whole days off...looking forward to Christmas and seeing the in-laws!  Then...I got sick.  So I spent all weekend coughing and sneezing and being achy.  =(  Oh well.  Still had a wonderful Christmas and had a lovely visit!  This weekend, we're going back up for Kirby's wedding, so we're VERY excited about that!  (Hopefully this cold/flu/whatever will be gone by then...)

Oh!  And I won 3rd place in the Bugaboo Catch the Bug challenge!  I was ecstatic!  Not only did I get 2 new digis, I also got a badge for my blog.  Yay!  =)  Keep 'em coming!  LOL

I'll try to get some more pictures posted this week (there's a few more challenges I want to do, time permitting).  If I don't get anything up this week...we'll see you next week!  =)  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend, and has a very SAFE and happy New Year!

Bugaboo Cookie Challenge

First of all, I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate)!  I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!

Ok, down to business.  Bugaboo stamps is having a cookie recipe exchange challenge over at Catch the Bug.  Deadline isn't until 12/25/10 and the prize is up to 7 free digis, so head on over and check it out!

Below is my submission for the contest. 

The card was created with Bugaboo stamp and oven clipart.  The stamp and oven were colored using Copic markers and glitter markers. "Floor" paper is part of Tim Holtz's holiday collection, and the "wall paper" is from Ciao Bella.  If you see below, the top of the oven pulls up to reveal my favorite cookie recipe.

If anyone is interested in the recipe, let me know.  It is absolutely fabulous, and super easy to make!  =)

Another weekend ends too soon...

This was a good weekend, but it ended WAY too soon.  Friday was the unofficial holiday party for work.  Had a great time down at the pub and was able to get to know some of my co-workers a little better.  Saturday ma and I did the 13-hour crop thing again at Archivers (pictures of my creations at the end of the post) which made a very fun but very loooong day.  Today DH and I went to see our nephew's holiday choir program at church then went and finished our Christmas shopping.  Lovely concert (the kids were so freaking cute!) and I'm extremely excited to say that I have finished my Christmas shopping.  Yay!! =)

Anyway, without further ado here are the cards that I created over the weekend. (I also created one for a Guylou challenge, but that was logged in a previous post.)

This card was created using a Mimi's Christmas stamp by Penny Black. (I just love Mimi...she's so adorable!)  Mimi was colored using Copic markers and Copic glitter pens (which are AWESOME, by the way!).  The edge of the stamp was colored using Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Broken China and the snow was colored using a white souffle pen.

This card was created using a Pink Cat Studio digi.  The stamp was colored using Copic markers and a white souffle pen (for the icing on the gingerbread man).  The inside of the card says "If you are what you eat, eat something cute", which is a Stampin' Up hostess stamp that I just love.

This card also uses a Mimi's Christmas stamp.  The stamp was colored using Copic markers and glitter pens.  The door and window were unfortunately drawn by me and colored using Copic markers.  I really had a hard time finding a background paper for this stamp.  I wanted to use some kind of a house background but could not find what I was looking for.  As you can see....I'm not much of a drawer (LOL) but I'm pretty happy with the result.

This card uses a digital image from Elizabeth Dulemba.  She is a children's author and illustrator and very kindly shares her art with the crafting world.  You can find her information here.  (Her books are very cute!)  It was colored using Copic markers and Stickles.  The snowflake paper is from Creative Memories.

This is another Mimi's Christmas stamp.  I love the "merry everything" sentiment.  It's going to my uncle, because he has a good sense of humor and I think he'll get a kick out of it.  The stamp was colored using Copic markers and glitter pens.  (I alternated with the penguins because I wanted to make sure that each one stood out from the ones next to it...)  I must apologize for the flash from the camera...It was hard to get a good picture.  The night sky paper is actually a metallic dark blue (the truest color is in the middle of the page) and the glitter pens for the penguins is a beautiful sparkly black, not the brown that some of it appears to be.  The snow on the background was created using a white souffle pen.

This card was created using a KaiserCraft wood flourish  The ornament was sprayed with Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist (the color is called Santa Baby) and then the gems were added.

This card was also created with a KaiserCraft wood flourish.  It was painted using Adirondack pain dabber in Cranberry.  The same ink was used for the sentiment. 

This card was inspired by the Archivers 2010 Holiday Showcase.  I loved the idea of creating a wreath out of different sized circles from scrap paper.  Thanks to my mother for the suggestion of the small copper circles.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkados Winter Silhouettes stamp set.

Ok, well that's all for now!  It's getting late, so I need to go catch some shut eye.  Good night!

Smile Challenge

So Guylou is having a challenge using the freebie Smile Bingo Card digi.  You can find the details here. Along with the Smile digi, I decided to use her Julia stamp.  (I just love the dress...)  Add a little French flair and you have this:

The base paper of the card (with the French script) and the pink bottom layer are Girlfriends J'adore - Glittered from Lost & Found's Madison Avenue collection.  The purple layer is a basic Bazil cardstock. All of the layers were edged using ColorBox fluid chalk.  The pink mini brads holding the pink netting to the card were covered with a light layer of Stickles in Crystal.  The embellishment is from Jolee's.  I just used Word to create the sentiment.  Julia was colored using Copic markers.

That's about it.  I had a lot of fun creating this card, and I hope you like it!

And a few more....

Here's a few more cards I've made in the past few days.  Good times, good times...

This card was made with a Guylou stamp and colored with Copic markers.  The wreath and buttons were decorated with stickles.  (Gotta love the stickles!!)

This card was made with a stamp from Digital Delights by Loubyloo.  It was also colored with Copic markers.  I was really playing around with different pattern papers here...hope you like the result!

This card was also made with a Guylou stamp.  It was colored with Copic markers, edged with Color Box chalk ink in purple, and the lamb was decorated with Flower Soft in Ivory.  I really don't like Flower Soft, but I needed something to make the lamb fluffy and it's the best thing I could think of.  Oh well.  LOL

Guylou's Christmas Card Challenge

I had a idea explode into my head while driving home last night, listening to my SheDaisy Christmas CD.  First thing this morning I headed over to Guylou's store and bought the Gabrielle with Baby stamp to make this card:

I know it's pretty simple, but this is my favorite Christmas Bible passage, and I thought the stamp matched perfectly.  I hope you agree!  The rest of the verse ("Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men") is on the inside of the card.

Snowmageddon

Well, it's over and we're survived Snowmageddon.  Over 17 inches in a 24-hour period.  They say this is the 5th worst snowstorm in a 24-hour period we've had since 1875.  Jeez.  Our Metrodome roof even collapsed.  They will hopefully have it fixed by next Monday for the Vikes vs. Chicago.  Cars were stuck everywhere...it seems like every other intersection had someone stuck.  As my mom kept saying....people pick some pretty weird places to park.  LOL.  Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive!  Definitely put a damper on some of our plans for my aunt's visit...but that's ok.  We stayed home and drank wine....not such a bad way to spend a cold weekend.  At least we still got some shopping in on Sunday.  So now it's back to work and hopefully the snow will stay away for a while....

What a good way to start the morning...

If you know me, you know that I am most definitely not a morning person.  Don't even talk to me for the first 1/2 hour after I wake up....and don't expect me to talk for at least 2 hours. LOL  However, this morning when I got to work I received something that made me smile...an award!  =) 

That definitely made me happy.  In fact...I actually spoke, even though I've only been up for 1 1/2 hours... =)

So the conditions of this award are that I need to tell everyone 8 things about myself...then I need to name 8 stylish bloggers.  Unfortunately, I'm so new at this that I don't really know very many bloggers, but I'll give it a shot!

Thing about myself:
1. I try too hard to make everyone happy.  I end up making myself miserable.  I know that it's not possible, but I just want everyone to have a good time. Can't we all just get along?
2. I love to sing.  I do karaoke 2-3 times a week.  I sing in the car, in the shower, walking around my house.  I sing in my head.  (Which means I always have some sort of song stuck in my head...)
3. I hate Minnesota, but I can't seem to leave.  Actually, I hate snow (I'm terrified of driving in the winter) and Minnesota just has so darn much of it.  However, 99% of my family and friends live in Minnesota (or other states just as snowy) and no one else will agree to move south with me.  Sigh.
4. I'm co-dependant.  I can get along without almost anyone...except DH and my mother.  Of course I love my husband...but my mom and I are extremely close.  We do a lot together...and have pretty much the same hobbies, tastes, and personality.  So really, it's like I'm co-dependant on an older version of me...which could be considered independance, since it's myself.......right??
5. I love to color.  I never grew out of it.  I'd even find cool black and white artwork online to print and color.  It soothes me, and I love putting different color combinations together.  I guess that's why I've fallen in love with scrapbooking and card making so quickly...it's a great excuse to do something I love to do anyway.
6. I love to read.  I read about a book a day.  That's a work day...on a Saturday or Sunday with nothing going on I can read 2 or 3 books.  I'll read just about anything...even if it doesn't sound interesting to me I'll at least give it a shot.  My favorite books, I will read over and over.  I've probably read Watchers, Tick Tock and Lightening by Dean Koontz 50 or more times each.  Same goes with Three Fates by Nora Roberts.
7. I'm super picky about food (as anyone who knows me will tell you).  I don't eat pork, except for an occasional ham and swiss sandwich from Arby's.  I do not like my food to touch.  Don't even THINK about putting corn in my mashed potatoes and gravy. I eat one thing on my plate at a time, and I eat counter-clockwise around my plate.  I don't know why, I just do.  I don't like slimy food...canned peaches, clams, etc.  There's a lot more...but it would probably take 4 days to write it all down.  Most of this stuff is not a deal breaker...I won't refuse to eat potatos where the corn is mixed in.  If I'm a guest, I eat whatever they give me and thank them.  I just prefer certain food certain ways.
8. The majority of the time I don't like people touching me.  Especially strangers.  If I'm in a super crowded room, I don't even like people I know touching me...I'm already freaking out about everyone else.  I don't know why this is...but it is. 

Ok, so now I get to name some stylish bloggers...I'm not sure if these people have already been named, but  I just don't know that many!
1. Songbird
2. Kathy
3. Dana
4. Sam and Christina
5. Ellen
6. Barb
7. Sara
8. Joynana

The season is over....

Well, another craft sale season has come and gone.  I'm actually pretty happy it's over; now I can devote more time and energy to my true love (scrapping!).  We ended with a bang...had a pretty good sale on Saturday that made this the best show of our season. Didn't get many sales on Sunday, but that's ok.  Saturday more than made up for it....and it gave me plenty of time to finish my December Book Klub book.  The book selected for me was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It was a fabulous book!  It started out slow, but once the seperate story lines started to merge the action quickly picked up.  I'm excited to read the 2nd and 3rd books in the trilogy. 

DH and I went to our friends' place last night for dinner....venison!  Yum!  I haven't had deer since going to visit my dad for Thanksgiving a few years ago.  It was definitely a welcome treat!  Aside from that, it was nice just to go and spend time with friends outside of a bar.  I must be getting old...

My aunt comes to visit this week.  She lives out in California and tries to make it back here for a week or so every winter. I'm so excited to see her!  We always have a blast, and I've missed her tons.  After being able to see her so much when living out in CA it was hard to go back to infrequent calls and emails.  We're both horrible at keeping in contact, but we'll have to give it a harder try.  Anyway, that means not much time for crafting this week/weekend, but there's always next week!

I hope everyone is having a blessed day!

So thrilled!

Today was a pretty good day, aside from feeling icky all day (on top of staying home sick yesterday).  I won my very first card challenge!  It was super exciting (especially since it's only my 4th challenge) and it's from a site I absolutely LOVE, so yay!  I've been giddy about it all day. I know it's from a random pick....but it still feels good, you know?  =)  I also bowled a pretty good game tonight, so that was nice.  My team won the second game, tied the third game and won the overall points, so go us!  Now, the only thing that could make tonight better is if my book club game selector would let me know what books she's chosen for me this month.... Well, maybe tomorrow. Fingers crossed... 

I'm keeping my sister-in-law in my prayers...she's having twins (due in February, I think?) and she's been put on bed rest.  I'm hoping she will make it to my other sister-in-law's wedding on New Years Day (especially since her husband and children are in the wedding). Put some healing mojo out over those air waves....

Goodnight everyone!

Happy birthday, doll!

Today was a good friend's birthday, so I decided to make a card.  She loved it, so I thought I would share it.  Have a great day everyone!

This was created using a The Greeting Farm's Birthday Anya stamp. It was colored using copic markers. 

Woo Hoo!

Just found out that I won one of the Kenny K Download Krash Kittenz naming contest!  Yay!  It's super exciting because I've never won anything before, and Kenny K's stamps are awesome!  Head on over and take a look...(Biker Betty is the one I named)...

http://www.kennykdownloads.com/

Moving on.  Yesterday mom and I spent 13 hours making cards (minus lunch and a few stretch brakes).  One of the cards I created is in a previous post because it was for a couple of challenges, but here are the rest!  I'm pretty happy with how the majority turned out.

This card was created using a Stampendous Cling and watercolor pencils.  The paper was edged using Color Box cats eye chalk ink.

This card I created for Wy's grandma.  She absolutely loves cardinals, so I try to incorporate them into her holiday cards.  This card was created using a Northwoods Rubber Stamp, sentiment is a clear stamp by Inkadinkado.  I used Tim Holtz distress ink around the edges, Copic markers for the trees and cardinals, and (of course) some stickles to bring the cardinals out even more.

This card is actually one of my favorites. The stamp is a digi stamp from Making Our Mark. It was colored using copic markers, metallic gold pen and stickles. The semtiment is a clear stamp from Inkadinkado. The background paper is from the Tim Holtz holiday collection.

This card was created using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and my Sizzix Texture Boutique.

This card, although simple, is my second favorite.  The snowflake and sentiment paper are from Creative Memories.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo...(never realized how much I love their stamps! LOL)...and is stamped using Color Box cats eye pigment ink in copper.  The card paper is basic Vanilla cardstock from Archivers.  To get it to match the sentiment paper I used Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo and the blending tool.

Ok, well that's it for now!  I'll be uploading more soon....(hopefully!!!)

TPE # 88 and PCS Holiday Challenge

Hey y'all!  Hope your holiday season is going well!  Today I'm posting a card that I created for The Pink Elephant sketch challenge # 88 (http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/pink-elephant-tpe-88.html) and The Pink Cat Studio Holiday Challenge (http://pinkcatstudio.blogspot.com/2010/11/pink-cat-studio-holiday-challenge.html). 

This card was created using a Pink Cat Studio digi stamp colored by Copic Markers.  (Sentiment by Stampin' Up.)  Hope you like it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.  Today was a good day, spent with family having a good time.  Unfortunately we were not able to go see Wy's family, but we did call to say hello, and called Big O to wish him a happy Turkey Day as well.  I hope all of you are safe and happy today!

Kenny K Krash Kitties Naming Contest

So Kenny K is having a contest to name his new line of digi stamps: the Krash Kitties.  Details can be found at the blog below.

http://bearlymine.blogspot.com/2010/11/attention-all-kenny-k-fans-krash.html
Below you can see pictures of the Kitties and my name suggestions.  Feel free to leave comments, or enter the contest yourself!  KK definitely has some fun images...  =)

A. Racy Randi
B. Peek-a-Boo Brenda
C. Blitz'n Vixen
D. Cowgrrl Cutie
E. Red Hot Holly
F. Black Widow
G. Sheriff Sugar
H. Dee Vine
I. Miss Fit
J. Biker Betty
K. Wild Billie
L. Sassy Sam

Winter Car Tips

Seeing that winter is finally here, and the snow has started falling, it's time to get prepared!  Here are a few winter car tips I received from a coworker.  I don't know if they actually work, but it's worth a shot!  (I can tell you I'll be trying the vinegar solution on my windshield tonight!)

Keep your headlights clear with car wax. Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent buildup accumulating on your lights...lasts for 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol. Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This can make badly streaking and squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar. Fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water and spritz on all your windows at night. In the morning they'll be clear of icy mess.  Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water (preventing water from freezing).

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray.  Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors and rub it in with a paper towel.  The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream. Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your window and wipe it off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

Frozen key locks?  Put hand sanitizer gel on the key.  Problem solved!

As I said, I'm not sure if any of these work...  If you've tried any of them, feel free to share the results!

Interesting

Ok, I know I said that this would be a blog just for card challenges...but I've decided to share some of my life as well.  Sue me.  =)

I just finished an awesome book.  It's called Moloka'i by Alan Brennert.  It is the story of Rachel Kalama, a little girl in Hawaii in the late 1890's.  She is diagnosed with leprosy and sent to live on the island of Moloka'i.  The story follows her life...the heartaches, the happiness, the triumphs, the defeats.  Although it is a fictional story, it is based on actual events.  It was a truly touching book, and I absolutely LOVED it!

Ok, that's it.  I'm out for now....

MPS # 52...Under the Sea

This card was for the Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge Under the Sea.

It was created using a Michelle Perkett Studio digi, copic markers and stickles.  (I also added a few embellishments like the shell, starfish, and pearls for the necklace and around the flowers.)

GI's Give Thanks Challenge

This card was created for Guylou's Inimitability Give Thanks Challenge.

It was created using a Gulou's Inimitability digi stamp and a Bugaboo digi stamp.  It was colored using copic markers and watercolor pencils (for the sky and grass).  I finished by adding a touch of stickles to the hat and leaves.

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #78

This is the card I created for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge # 78, using the l/o sketch underneath it.

My card was created using a Bugaboo Digi Stamp, Copic markers and stickles.