Cupcakes Baked With Love-Yummy Stuff

I finally participated in Libby's Little Addiction's From Courtney's Closet Inspiration Challenge (16) Libby dresses her daughter in a cute outfit each week & participants draw inspiration from it. Well, I've wanted to participate for WEEKS now and finally did! Her outfit was cupcake related with pink & brown - how COULD I pass that up??! She had the most adorable cupcake shoes too! my goodness. So I used Kim Hughes' Baked With Love (by Cornish Heritage Farms) - and made this cupcake card using Lauren's sketch from Saturday - it's a tad bit busy for me but I think it still works with all the coordinating images & colors from Bella Rose dp. So, what do YOU think, Libby??

TECC33 Miss You

I have missed my DF images (so excited because my new Halloween images will be arriving any day now!) so I thought I would bring Sfen out to play with Taylor's Cupcake Challenge 33 {TECC33} this weekend. I paper-pieced his overalls after stamping them with Cornish Heritage Farms canvas backgrounder. I also used their Gird Paper backgrounder by CHF on the kraft card base & tangerine tango layer. I finished him off with the 'I miss you' sentiment from Country sentiments by Starving Artistamps.

Polly (Squirt) Wants Chocolate-Another Challenge Blog!

Guess what? I found another great challenge blog: Mother's & Daughters Creations. They are on Week 2 of challenges and this time it's a Tool Challenge. To use Nestabilities somewhere on your card. Look at my Doodlefactory animal Squirt is so cute! I thought the saying from Tropics Sentiment Collection 1 went great with it, because squirt is a bird and he's talking thanks to Kim Hughes' Say What set. I also threw in a fun color combo from a swap I got YEARS ago. How many of you collect swaps & never use them? I know I have tons & give away a lot to my customers but there are quite a few that I love this element or that, so every once in a while I will gather them for inspiration. I don't think I ever would have thought to put these 2 colors together but look at them work!!

Stamps: Starving Artistamps Doodlefactory Collection, Tropics Sentiment by Starving Artistamps, Say What from CHF, A*Muse truffle, My Favorite Things How Sweet it is
Cardstock/Inks: Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Turquoise grosgrain ribbon, Rectangle Nestabilities, 1/2 in circle punch, chocolate brads by Queen & Co, sakura stardust pen

LSC168 Hola, Chica

Limited Supplies Challenge on SCS (LSC168) was to:

Use alphabet stamps to create a sentiment.
The sentiment should be the focal point of the card.
You may use other stamps on your card.
You may use designer paper and embellishments

I thought it was a perfect time to use my new Kim Hughes set 'Say What?' so I could make the Doodle Factory animal Squirt, who happens to be bilingual say "Hi, Girl" on my card. I used leftover scraps from my Skoober card the other day. I cut my Squirt out with my circle coluzzle & added sponging for depth. He was colored with copics and my alpha used is the SU! Rough Edges, which I love as it's upper & lower and is in a cute container (you know it's all about the packaging, right?)

Friendship is a Sheltering Tree

I used Jen's Sketch for you to try from 5/17 (SFYTT) and paired it with my new set by Kim Hughes called The Landing Pad which is a set of 27 images including this tree, several styles of branches, a few birds, this birdhouse, some fruit, flowers, and MORE! Go take a look at it at Cornish Heritage Farms. It such a value at $24.99 and you can get free shipping on an order of $35 or more. You will get your order within 2-3 days. I used my Prints Pack by SU! for my patterned paper, colored with my copics and the birdhouse is suspended from the tree branch by linen thread and swings with the bird on it for movement. I used my 'Friend Centers' set for the sentiment, which is a lovely set by Lisa Strahl for CHF as well. I also added my faux dew drops to finish off the sketch.

We all know friendship helps us weather through life's storms. I was reflecting on friendship and truly believe friends come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. No matter which they are, it's important to acknowledge it and cherish it for the length of time it lasts. I can say I never regretted being friends with anyone I have formed a connection with and although with lots of them our paths may have taken us apart; their memory lives on in my heart because it was not by chance we became friends. It was just not meant to be lasting. For those that have lasted, I am truly grateful that the effort has been a two-way street and no matter how much time passes between talking or seeing one another, it always picks up right where it left off. That is the sign of a true friendship.

WSC47 - new stuff

Here is my card (labor of love and more detailed than my cards lately) for Beate's WSC47 I really like how it turned out, though. I've always been fond of the Polished Stone technique and since discovering Ranger Alcohol inks are so versatile (and because I had a Michael's 40% off coupon, I decided to try them out) and you don't need alcohol as an added step it seemed like a good idea. I got the Cabin Cupboard Kit with Caramel, Latte & Ginger (sounds yummy) and the Alcohol Ink Applicator and had a little fun. Since I didn't get the metallic mixatives, I tried my SU! metallic gold refill and it worked just fine - why spend more if you may have something to substitute? I used all these on my glossy paper then decided to try using them on my Bride's shimmer flowers I got there for 25% off. They took to them well - I'm beginning to wonder why the heck I passed them up when I had a 40% off coupon - DUH. Anyway, the True Thyme piece on the bottom is stamped with Canvas and Spanish Script backgrounders by Cornish Heritage Farms which I got a few weeks ago and hadn't used yet. The leaves in my focal image are Stampin' Up! Petal Prints (retired but I still love it) didn't have anywhere to put a sentiment so it's probably going to stay that way).

TECC15 - Hey Sweetie

These are my cards for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge 15 (TECC15) - sketch. Of course I used my Stampendous Hey There Cupcake set (designed exclusively for Eclectic Paperie) the cupake combinations are MANY! I decided to go with the same cupcake image but with a few differences: colored the frosting on the first one with Stickles star dust glitter and separated the strips of cardstock to let the black show through on the scallop center and positioned the sentiment on the bottom of the cupcake. The colors were inspired by Dawn Easton - Treasure Oiler Designz : Cameo Coral, Cool Caribbean, Barely Banana & Basic Black - these days I ADORE putting black on my cardstock - it just POPS! I chose not to use dp for my bg pieces like in Taylor's sketch but chose to use my Large Polka Dot Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms with Versamark ink.

On this other card, I put some Cameo Coral sprinkles on the cupcake & outlined the frosting with my Copic silver glitter pen. The cherries are both covered with Crystal Effects for shine.

Whoot Whoot - Mytime Sketch

Happy Friday, Y'all! I am SO happy about the weekend - it has been a very trying (tiring) emotionally draining week with trials of family & close friends that are near & dear to our hearts. God will see them through & of course we will be there for them (in good times & bad) but I am expecting to see GOOD come out of it all because that's the way our mighty God is.

"The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all..."

{Psalm 34:17-19}

So here I am - a day I go to work at 1:00 p.m. I like it a LOT! I slept in 'just a tad bit' and wanted so badly to try a few of my new products (and Lauren's Sketch for Saturday a day early) and post before I head out to get my Driver's License renewed (ugh) before it expires on my birthday -since we'll be out of town at the end of the month I don't want to wait until the last minute or have to do it the day we get back!)

I went shopping at my LSS and got some needed white polyshrink (I'll show you my neat project this weekend, you will want to see it, esp if you have (or buy, make things for) little girls *wink* I also found Tim Holtz' Grungeboard there! Whoot Whoot - that's what I put as my embellishment in the upper right corner. That stuff feels like SUEDE, it's awesome! Can you believe you get 96 shapes (10 sheets) for only $7.99!!? I had no idea it was such a deal! I am putting a little something special in a card to a stamping friend today that I bet she will adore from my find! Then I found some Metallic Rub-ons that Gina K introduced on her blog a few months ago (and forgot to buy the last time I made an order in her store) but hey - we do need to support our LSS (local stamping stores) so I was happy I found it! SCORE! It came with 7 colors and for ONLY $3.99!! I KNOW, I couldn't believe my eyes (and for you local gals, I took their last one). It is the Earth Tones Kit #2 with Colonial, Nubian, Pewter (which is what I used on my card), Olive, Deep Gold, Gunmetal and Brass. I just rubbed it on my grungeboard tag and put rhinestone brads in it.

How cute is Twinkx by Doodle Factory by Starving Artist Stamps cutting a rug on this card? Can't you just hear him saying, 'Whoot Whoot'? Which, by the way is from Kim Hughes' U R A Hoot by Cornish Heritage Farms - it just went perfectly with him!

Of course I had to use my DCWV Glitter Stack (since I'm addicted to it) for this guy - I am going to send this card to my sister who just had surgery this week and is recovering just fine (not the one that's ready to have my nephew). I decided I didn't need to color Twinkx in because of all the busyness of the paper but his crown sure shines! I colored it in with a yellow glaze pen. The silver metallic paper strip behind the image is by SU! I even cut & embosses my main image with my circle nestability and rubbed more metallic paste around it for depth.

Have a great weekend!

Scrap Your Crap Challenge

Simone Collins aka Spazz Girl , along with her BFF Greta, created a blog devoted to scrapping their crap (Scrap Your Crap)- check it out when you get a chance - lots of scrapping eye candy! Plus it is chock full of these girl's sense of humor.

Well about a month & a half ago I saw Simone on yahoo messenger - we chatted for a bit & she asked if I would like to participate in a Scrap Our Crap Challenge #14 (she would send me something to use on a project, send her the pic & not upload it to my blog until the projects from the participants went live in May on their blog. Sure, I said! I always like a good challenge. The crap I got is the green lacy border. I thought about what to do with it for a while (since I don't scrap all that regularly she said it would be fine to use it on a card, phew) and I just had received my Baked With Love set by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms, so I made a love card. I know it looks real Christmasy but the paper lace was Glorious Green, after all and hearts are traditionally red. So I guess I can make this an early Christmas card!

TLC165 - Graduation Gift Card Holder

'Tis the season for graduations. Thought I would try making one of the gift card holders from TLC165 graduation themed. Was looking forward to using Kim Hughes' U R A Hoot by Cornish Heritage Farms with the owls for graduation - I really like them & their versatility!

TECC13 - Sweets

I hadn't played in Taylor's Cupcake Challenge in a while & have missed it. I combined TECC13 with SCS color challenge on SCS this week CC163 - Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink & Chocolate Chip. I thought Kim Hughes' Baked with Love by Cornish Heritage Farms with the 'SWEETS' would be great for this! Afterward I thought it turned out a little 'busy' because of the DCWV glitter paper but loved the colors & circles. Also realized these colors look great with Kraft cardstock - surprise!

BC07 - Background Blitz - Final Day

*insert sad face* Well, here it is - my Anything but a Card challenge project on Cornish Heritage Farms Forums. I intended (without realizing, to use my Tyson earrings from the other day for this challenge that I stamped on polyshrink & realized duh, I didn't use a backgrounder). So I had to come up with another idea {all week I thought about it but it wasn't until the MIDDLE of the night - so inconvenient when you're trying to sleep - that this idea came to me} I HAD to make it this morning BEFORE I left for work because of this addiction I have. I stamped my Pretty Pattern backgrounder in white StazOn on black polyshrink and cut it with my Nestabilities scallop circle - how cool, huh? I think I will make a set of matching earrings next. I realized I can't use hemp (looks so neat though) because it irritates my skin too much. So I will transfer it to some tiger tail soon. But, it would make a nice gift for someone whose skin was not weird like mine. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

we're going to take our best friends out to look at the progress on our property (they saw it more than a year ago & it will be fun to hear their excitement over all the changes). Perhaps I will post a few pictures from it to show you.

CHF Backgrounder Blitz - Day 6!!

Tomorrow will make the end of the CHF Backgrounder Blitz (insert sad face) - and their release of 2 new backgrounders!!! I sure have enjoyed all these challenges, and chatting with the gals participating in the threads. Today's challenge to to use masking of backgrounders in your creation. I decided to make a faux layer card (instead of calling it a one layer card) - using my coluzzle to make a frame for my focal image. I used my Pretty Pattern BG in Soft Sky ink & sponged around the mask with River Rock before removing it. Then, I stamped my Petal Prints in Soft Sky & Blue Bayou over it. Finished off with my Warmest Regards (retired SU!) sentiment.

And the CHF Backgrounder Blitz continues - Day 5!!

Today our challenge is to stamp with 2 or more backgrounders. I chose Beate's Weekend sketch 44 from last week (recognize the colors from my green owl on Monday?) for my layout and black accents for POP! Don't ya just love the black cherry on the cupcake? Those are Sprinkles brads (Kissy Fit by Queen & Company) I got at All That Scraps! They are itty bitty - just too cute!

I LOVE these bright colors together! Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise & Not Quite Navy. I discovered this fabulous bright combination of colors from the greatest resource called Scraptitude where you plug in SU! colors to coordinate! I started with pink passion & basic black & went from there to see what I could make with the scraps I had. That is the FIRST thing I do before I cut a new sheet of cardstock. Then the next day I kept the scraps together to make the owl card & try to do that until the scraps are so small I don't feel so bad about throwing in the trash. The other thing I do if I am not ready to do another card is put them in a cello bag for future use, because let's face it, there are SO many color combos out there I may not remember this one so this helps.

I used my Lined Paper & Large Polka Dot Backgrounder (both may be purchased from Cornish Heritage Farms) here with VersaMark (rediscovering my love for that watermark stamp too!) The cupcake & enjoy sentiment are from Kim Hughes' Baked with Love set and the 3 part sentiment in the lower right panel is SU! Lots of Thoughts SAB 2008

If you have never purchase from CHF before, and have liked what I've showcased on the BLITZ all week - check them out! Free Shipping with orders $35 or more, the prices are great, you can get wood mounted or mounted on smartcushion ready to use with your acrylic blocks and they are offering DOUBLE POINTS in their CHF Club until April 25th on all backgrounders purchased! I plan to get at least 4 for my stamping arsenal!

CHF Backgrounder Blitz - Day 4

Today's Challenge (BC04) is Smooches! Kissing backgrounders. I had a little difficulty with this because I don't have a really solid backgrounder yet, so I had to use my Large Polka Dot backgrounder (inked in Soft Sky) and on top of that Pretty Pattern (Blue Bayou ink). I really love how it turned out, though even if it is very subtle. Remember my renewed love for all things embossed (dry & heat now?) well, I stamped my flowers (SU! Embrace Life) in versamark on vellum cardstock & embossed with black detail embossing powder and cut them out. They are so pretty on the Blush Blossom with the splash of black on the matting! I added a pearl center I got from Ellen Hutson's store. I like this card so much I didn't want to mess with a greeting until I am ready to mail it to someone special so I have the right greeting at the time I need it.

CHF Sketch Challenge - 042108

This is my 2nd week to participate in the weekly challenge put on by the CHK chicks. This week, a sketch. First time to use my Tres Jolie paper (I bought nearly a year ago *GASP*) the night owls {Kim Hughes' U R A Hoot} are showing they are in love with the moonlight in the background. My heart (sorry I couldn't get a close up, is embossing in Groovy Guava ink! It is SO pretty. I sponged the ink on my cardstock & pressed it into my versamark pad then sprinkled clear embossing powder over it. I stamped the heart from Kim Hughes' set Baked with Love on the back & cut it out because I did not want the lines to show. I love the dimension with the owls & heart on dimensionals. Owls are colored with Copic markers.

CHF Backgrounder Blitz Day 3!!

All I can say is WOW! I have to say I am blown away by the ideas for this challenge! I am blown away by the WHOLE backgrounder BLITZ period! This is the BEST challenge I've ever been involved with; getting SO many ideas, so much positive feedback, I am in awe!

Our challenge today is to stamp on anything but paper. How fun is that?! So on my first project, I stamped 3 colors of Palette ink (from my Lautrec cube pack) on the Large Polka dot backgrounder then stamped on the twill {same with the sentiment, direct to rubber). It's real easy to do that with the 1-inch pads! Tried to re-created the multi-colors on Tyson's (CHF Stamp of the Month) polka dots with my pure color pencils (SU!). Are you in LOVE with him yet??! Surprised to see Kraft c/s again?! HA! How cute are those green & blue mini brads? They came from the Basic Grey brads to coordinate with my new Cupcake paper pad. Did I tell you the Lautrec cube packs do too?! It was totally NOT intentional when I bought them, go figure?! Guess my brain functions even when I'm NOT trying to work it!

On my other project, I stamped Tyson with Palette (Beaux Arts Blue) ink on white polyshrink. He was colored with Pure Color pencils...look how VIBRANT they turn out?! I have a renewed love for Pure Color Pencils too! How cute are these? Guess who gets them?! Yes, my sweet soon-to-be 2 yr-old niece, Gabby. Who by the way, I had a date with on the webcam last night so we could see her open her birthday gifts. Boy, that girl KNOWS her money! Her face just lit up when she saw the $2 she got! I heard the idea somewhere, to give a child the amount of $ to coorespond with their birthday. It won't be long that she will KNOW that every year on her birthday she will get $1 more dollar! Of course that won't be ALL she gets. But if you ask her what she does with her $, she says, "piggy bank" and you ask her what the $ is for? The genius of a girl says, "COLLEGE" get out?! Is that NOT the cutest thing you've ever heard? Just imagine HEARING IT?! She cracks me up! Naturally she has NO clue what college is, but for her to even remember that is the funniest! Oh and not surprisingly, the little Princess tin I made her, it was definitely her FAVE! She wouldn't let either of my sisters even touch it. She said, "no, Gabby Do's" Gabby Do you say? Well, that's what she calls herself because her mommy made up a song about Gabby Do, it is so precious, I tell ya. Can't wait to hug & kiss on that girl!

P.S. - forgot to mention I won a backgrounder from Day 1 uploads! I am getting the Grid Paper one. And I won Gina K's new set 'Owl Always Love You' - (out of 398 entries!!) you know how much I love my owl set by Kim Hughes? Well, I know for a fact I will love Gina's too! How blessed am I?!?!

WSC44 - Green Owl?

I just realized I manage to do Beate's weekend sketch every other weekend, interesting. It doesn't mean I don't want to do it every weekend, but sometimes I just don't have the time to squeeze it in. This time I did and it's a great one - WSC44! I think my proportions are a little off, but I was using scraps from another challenge I did with these same colors for the backgrounder blitz at CHF. I will upload that one the day of the challenge because I was making it in advance. If I make a card with a particular combo I like, I try to do at least 2 to use up my scraps. This one is bright & fun so I definitely wanted to use it again. Have you ever seen a green owl? I haven't but one of the most fun things with stamping is that you can let your imagination soar!

I also threw in Sharon's stamp simply ssnotime31 - to use black accents because of the bright colors I knew would POP. I used Kim Hughes' U R A Hoot (owl & balloon) & Baked with Love (the cake, let's celebrate & enjoy) you can get at Cornish Heritage Farms. And below is how I decorated the inside, inspired by the lovely Sharon Harnist.

CHF Backgrounder Blitz - Day 2! Tyson takes a turn & so do I

Kraft is back!? Did you miss it? Here is Tyson (the stamp of the month) stamped with Burnt Umber Palette Ink & colored with Twinkling h2o's from the Kit 1263 I got from Cornish Heritage Farms. I used Mint Julep, Rain Forest (greens) and Sapphire on Ice (blue). Wish I could really capture the twinkle on these in my photo. These cards are for today's challenge #2 (BC02) Partial Backgrounder stamping - fading or stamping part of a layer. I used my Large Polka Dot Backgounder in VersaMark & embossed with clear powder (embossing is so fun!) Wonder how (or why) I have the open arrow on the card? Well, I made a boo boo with the sentiment & had to get creative because the card was almost done {all the layers, focal image assembled} so I took the scrap cardstock I punched my arrow out with & cut a small border around it & made it to highlight the part of the sentiment I didn't mess up! So now there was a cute green button to the rescue and the sentiment was complete. I kinda liked that mess up!


My second card is one that I totally got creative with and am so pleased with the outcome! I used the SCS Color Challenge (CC162) from this week: Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava & Basic Gray and it's just a LOVELY combo! I decided to stamp the bottom half of the card with Leaves 3 Backgrounder & use my cb embossing folder Stylized Flowers for the top half. LOVE the taffeta ribbon for a small accent here, as I did not want to make it distract from the sentiment focal image (which is heat embossed with silver)

Here is where I took a turn - to step up my card a notch! Since I was using my cb embossing folder on half of my card, I thought about Sharon's post on Friday to put a strip of coordinating cardstock on the inside of her card but didn't do that - thought why not use a portion of the embossing folder on it to match?! LOVE IT but I didn't stop there --- I decided to run my envelope through it too. I ADORE how that turned out! You know embossed stationery & matching envelopes are expensive! I think I see a stationery set coming on using these elements. How lovely would that be?!?

CHF Backgrounder Blitz Kickoff Day 1!

Wow, I had such a great stamping afternoon/evening today (after a sweet hour and a half nap of course) I made 6 cards and a non-card item for the Cornish Heritage Farms Backgrounder Blitz that kicked off in the forums this evening. I had to make them ahead of time-glad they were posted early because I have a lot of other projects going on that I needed to carve out my time to do them. I realized I need some floral stamps by CHF to go along with the 4 backgrounder stamps I have (and that I need more of those too)! For every backgrounder you purchase from April 18-25 you get DOUBLE CHF points for! woohoo! So here are the 2 cards I made for the first challenge BC01-sketch by Lisa Strahl.

My first card was made with the Leaves 3 Backgrounder - stamped in VersaMark on Soft Sky cardbase. I have a renewed love for embossing as a result of my last stamp club meeting. The hostess wanted to learn embossing. I taught them about 7 ways to use it and that's just the tip of the iceberg with it. Everyone sure enjoyed it, though including me so now I am using it more often. The leaves from Petal Prints are embossed with silver powder; I love the soft elegant look of it.

My second card uses the Stained Glass technique of embossing on vellum cardstock with a line art image and coloring the back with markers. I used the Always Heart for this, which seemed to be most everyone's favorite technique to learn--they were just wowed by it! I used Regal Rose, Rose Red and Always Artichoke, a few of my favorite colors.