Snappy Birthday!

Here's another card I did for this weekend's VSN.

The challenge was to include shells somehow on your card, either as an embellishment, a patterned paper, or as your stamped image.  I thought of this image since I had just used it on this card a couple weeks ago.  I used the same basic color scheme for all the cards I made for the VSN, and I was in a beachy kind of mood!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

VSN is Here!!

The August VSN officially kicked off tonight at 6:00 EST! Here is the card I did as a sample for my challenge:

My challenge was Lets Go Camping!  When I think of Summertime, my favorite memories are of going camping and fishing with my Dad. Now, we never caught very much, but we had a lot of fun doing it! We also camped in all sorts of environments, from the woods in Kentucky, to the canyons in Utah, to the Nevada Desert! Luckily, I married a man who also likes to camp, so this is one activity that we can do together. There's nothing like being trapped in the woods to stimulate some real conversation! LOL

Here were my requirements:

Nature - think of all the things you see out in the woods (or desert!)
Masculine colors - you rarely see a pink tent in the woods!
Twine - think tent lines, fishing line, clothes lines
Hardware - tent stakes and zippers, fishhooks and battered frying pans
Distressing - everything gets dirty when you camp, but that's half the fun when you're a kid!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

A Challenge to myself

So I've been thinking about switching to a different stamp storage system for my clear stamps.  I've been eyeballing these fabulous little containers from Stampendous since you can store 12-18 clear stamp sets in each container.  I had the brilliant idea to count up the number of clear stamp sets I have to see how many of these Stufftainers I'd need.

*sigh*

I shouldn'ta done that.

It was depressing.

Especially when I saw how many of the sets have NEVER BEEN USED!!!  I would say at least 85% of the stamp sets in my stash fall into the "still new" catagory!  Most of the rest of the sets have only had one stamp used out of the entire set.  See?  I told you it was depressing.

So I am challenging myself to use at least one "new" stamp every day for the entire month of September.  I'm going to pull out a stamp set and use every single stamp in the set until they've all been inked!  I'll get a jump start on this over the weekend with the VSN challenges, and I think I know just the set to start with since the theme for VSN is Summertime in the Land that I Love!  Wish me luck!

Cheers!

Forest Friends

Thought I'd share a couple of friends we met out in the woods while we were fishing this past weekend.

Here's Longtail:

And here's Shorttail:

So we didn't get very creative with naming them, they wouldn't come when we called anyway!  I love the way Shorttail would pose for the camera, she's tres chic in the Chippy World!  Longtail actually got pretty adventurous when we were packing up to come home.  He strolled right into the campsite looking for leftovers!  I think he wanted more puppy chow, personally!

Cheers!

Going Camping!

I will be out in the woods all day today and this weekend, having fun camping and fishing!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

Sorry For Being Crabby

Here's a card I made for a friend I recently snarked at:

I felt like a complete heel for snarking at her when she didn't deserve it, and I thought this would be a good "I'm Sorry" card for her.  For the uninitiated, to Snark at someone is a combination of a Snarl and a Bark  It's usually embarrassing and shouldn't be done often.  Especially when you can't immediately apologize for it!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

The Greeting Farm ROCKS!!!

So remember the Blog hop for The Greeting Farm's 2 year birthday?  They were giving three lucky participants the ENTIRE August release and Guess What?!?

That's right!  I Won!!  Woohoo!!

Here's the contents of the Happy Mail package they sent me.  I won CC Tuesday, CC Friday, Flirty Anya (my fave!), Later Sk8er, and Cupcake Anya (a digi stamp.)  I'm super excited, and can't wait to get inky!!

Cheers!

Summer Goodness!

Here are a few pieces I got out of the garden today... It's going to be a really bountiful summer!

Here's hoping I get the hang of my pressure cooker before everything is ready to be harvested.

Cheers!

Hope Smiles!

Here's the last card I did for the Dare To Get Dirty challenges over at Splitcoast.

I only had two challenges left to do, and the hard one was to make all my own embellishments!  We couldn't even use patterned paper unless we made it ourselves!  It was a toughie, but definately worth challenging myself to try something new!  The round piece was embossed using a CuttleBug folder, and then I swiped it with some white ink to pick up the embossed image.  The white "ribbon" piece was made using a CuttleBug border folder, and then I chalked it with blue to make the flowers and stems stand out.  I punched the flower, and the "brad" center is a leftover from my hole punch! 

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Pear Butter!

I do a lot of canning each year, and one of my favorite things to make is fruit butters!  They're pretty fool proof, which is a definate plus, and they make great holiday gifts!  There's a fundraiser tomorrow at work, so I decorated these up as a donation!

I used some miscellaneous scraps from my Tower-o-Scraps for the bases to the labels, and used my CuttleBug and Spellbinders dies to cut out the labels and jar toppers.  The paper on the lid matches the label on the front of the jar.  I printed the labels for the top of the jars, and the stamp I used for the front is from SU!  I'm thinking these might need a little bit of twine around the lid as a finishing touch, but otherwise they are packed and ready to go!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Welcome Home!

This is another card I did for the Dare To Get Dirty Challenges over at Splitcoast!

I combined four challenges to make this card, and pulled out a stamp set that I haven't used since I first got it!  I used the Sweet Home paper packet from CTMH, and the Welcome Home stamp set from CTMH.  The couch cushions and lamp shade are both paper pieced.  The brads are from Oriental Trading Co; yes, I know, I bought the ENTIRE collection!  I tell you what though, I'm never without the perfect color match!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Country Flower Jars

Another card I made for the Dare To Get Dirty Challenges.  Did I mention there were 33 of them? ;)

This one incorporates four of the challenges and is my second favorite of the bunch.  The two patterned papers are actually both sides of the same sheet, and were scraps from my stash.  The buttons are from CTMH and I was amazed at how perfect the color match was between the buttons, the flowers on the DSP, and the solid cardstock I used as a background.  The colors in the stamped piece are much more vibrant in person, here they look a bit washed out.  Then again, maybe it's just my monitor! 

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Birthday Box

I seem to be in a groove with making or altering boxes thanks to the Dare To Get Dirty Challenges!  I'm not sure who's going to recieve this one, but I sure had fun making it!

This combines four of the challenges.  This box was inspired by a project I saw on a blog somewhere last week, but for the life of me I cannot find it again!  I think it was a baby gift box for a shower, but it had a stamped panel as the lid of the box like this does.  If you see it, let me know and I'll add the link to give credit where credit is due!  Since I couldn't find the link, I had to break out my Mad Geometry Skills to make up my own pattern, and surprisingly it worked without any hiccups!  The stamp is from Ruber Romance, the sentiment is from CTMH, and the paper is all from Hero Arts.  The pink doesn't look as "pink" as it does in person, since it was pretty cloudy outside when I took the photo.  Here's what the inside of the box looks like.

I attached the stamped panel to one flap at the side of the box, and will use a bit of ribbon or elastic cord wrapped around a button if it doesn't stay shut once it's filled.  I thought this would be cute to give some home made bath salts and some shower gel to one of my "girly" friends!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Happy Birthday TGF!!!

Today is The Greeting Farm's Second Birthday!  To celebrate, the girls over at The Greeting Farm Blog are hosting a blog hop!  There are over a hundred blogs participating this year, and everone has beautiful creations to share using The Greeting Farm stamps.  Here is the card I made to play along:

The stamp is Stella from The Greeting Farm's Wild Sprouts collection, and the sentiment is from Mint Motif.  The papers are all from American Crafts, except for the card base, which is by Bazzil.  I stamped her in VersaFine Onyx ink and used my fabulous Prismacolors and OMS to color her in.  The ribbon is a velvet ribbon from American Crafts (I think) and the button is actually out of my sewing stash!  There is a tiny bit of metallic ink in the heart neclace to match the button.

Be sure to leave a comment and then head back to The Greeting Farm Blog to see the other posters in the blog hop!  There are five Cupcake Anya digi's up for grabs to random commentors, so be sure to leave some love for all the fabulous creations!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!