Inch by Inch & Meeting someone famous

Here’s a card I whipped up this morning using Garden Party Critters by Taylored Expressions for today’s Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS {FS187}.  It was fun to make *I love the clean & simple designs!*  I chose this card of Emily’s to case, changing up the stamp,s ribbon and cardstock but stayed with part of her color scheme of red & white – I just wanted to use some of the pretty sunshine yellow silk ribbon in the TE store – if you haven’t tried that yet and LOVE ribbon, it’s a must have!!  After I colored my worm, I had to make him shine with some Glossy Accents!  I love that I was able to capture the shine in my photo so you can see!
Now for some personal stuff about meeting someone famous, if you read my blog yesterday I said we were heading out to San Antonio to geocache and check out a few consignment/antique stores on the hunt for an apothecary piece of furniture.  Well, one of the stops would also be at the famous Toilet Seat Museum by Barney Smith.  I wasn’t sure what to expect other than there was a geocache at the museum and the reason we needed to go was because it was not going to be around for much longer.  I found out Barney (a retired plumber of 35 years) is 89 years old and his lovely wife of 71 years is very ill (given 4 mos to live about 9 months ago). 
It was truly an amazing little adventure looking at all his elaborately decorated toilet seats which commemorated popular culture like Star Wars, Cinderella and McDonald’s to legendary stars like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and Michael Jackson to Vietnam Veterans, Red Hatters and the President. Some of my favorites were the travel ones!  I forgot to mention he has been featured on television shows like the Early Show, The View and Montel Williams!  He had a whole section of magazines and books he has been featured in and even played the above segments on a little t.v. he had in the museum.  He had 4 Geocaching toilet seats!  #3 and #4 are what they are holding in the picture above. In this picture, John is signing #4 with both of our geocaching names (he is thenkengrene and I am serenity_girl) so there is a little piece of us in the famous museum now!!

View Full Album

Here is an album with over 20 pictures so you can see more of my favorite toilet seat art!
We ended up staying in there for at least an hour, Barney was very talkative but I enjoyed every minute of it, especially toward the end when we were talking about his ‘birthday’ toilet seats which span the years ‘70 - ‘89.  He asked us if he told us the story of a little boy when he was young who broke both his arms trying to impress a little girl (twice) and how the little boy ended up marrying her and how they even played together as babies!  Of course he was talking about himself and his wife!  The story brought tears to my eyes just thinking about how blessed they have been to spend all these years together as best friends!! 
***I will always remember this special little geogaching trip, John!  I know I complain a lot when we’re on them about how hot it is and how much longer we plan on doing it, but it’s times like these I am thankful for this crazy hobby you like so much!*** Thanks to Lee & her husband James for introducing it to us!!

FS186: Monochromatic Green Blooms & Butterfly

Here is a card I whipped up today using today’s Featured Stamper challenge on SCS {FS186}.  I have to admit, I am having a difficult time getting motivated to stamp these days since the majority of my stuff is packed up while we wait for a close/move date!  But, life goes on and I have to make time for my craft!  I chose this card by Bobbiesgirl to case.  I realized afterward, the butterfly on my card is lost on the pattern paper I used on the card!  OH well *sigh*

I used Garden Party Blooms and Garden Party Critters by Taylored Expressions for my card and Vivid ink Lime, sorry I can’t remember the name of the pattern paper I used, it’s from my stash and not labeled *shame on me*. I used vintage crochet trim over the green polka dot ribbon.  I put some Clear Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles on the blooms and butterfly, applying them easily and quickly with Embellie Jellie – I LOVE that stuff!!

We found a great dining room set on Craigslist and bought it yesterday and took it out to the shed for storing.  It is a rich dark wood and we love the carved out details on it, it’s nice & comfortable too.  Easily fits 6 chairs when the leaf is not in it. The people we bought it from said they have fit 10 chairs around it before!  I can’t wait to move!!

I hope you have a great day /week!!

Live * Laugh * Love: Happy Birthday!!

I got a chance to play in the featured stamper challenge this morning before we got busy for the day!   I wanted to make a card to send to a dear stamping friend whose birthday is this week, Randi Barrett!  Here is the card I cased from the featured stamper; I changed the stamps I used although I managed to have the same greeting on my card using Tweet Hearts and Branching Out by Taylored Expressions.  I used Blush Red Medium prism cardstock, yellow glimmer ribbon and yellow Kaisercraft pearls.  The greeting was stamped inside one of the new Taylored Dies, Take Note frame 2.  Just like the featured stamper, I stamped the images with versamark on the cardbase.  This was a quick & fun card to make – I hope Randi will like it!

Gotta go – we are going out to the house to see what the progress was made at the house yesterday since we were only out there a short while to drop off the glass tiles for the shower and saw them just starting to build the deck.  Here’s a picture!  I think this was the most people I’ve seen at one time working on the house! There were at least 5 more guys in the house working on the tile.  It’s hopping out there now!  I’m so excited to have a deck on the side of the house to extend our entertaining area off the living room and I can imagine eating breakfast out there in the mornings on the weekends.  Bliss…

Thanks for your feedback about suggestions on naming my stamp studio – please keep ‘em coming!  I think I may have a little something to send a random participant in it! 

FS179: With Sympathy

I’m sad to say I had an occasion to make a sympathy card this past weekend.  My childhood friend’s (Allison) mom Carmen died on Friday.  I was numb when I read her post on Facebook on Saturday, not surprised since Carmen had been sick off and on for months prior (and was 82 years old with recent heart problems). 

I was sad because she was one of the first of many mother figures in my life.  Growing up, there were times I spent more time over their house than my own since she lived around the corner from me and there were no kids my age who lived on my street at all!  I was thrilled when my mom allowed me to start going walking over there by myself (many times someone would always have to walk me to the corner until they would see me walk up to her house).  Allison and I met at 5 years old and have kept in touch all these years even after graduating although we haven’t seen one another in about 10 years – we have many many happy and fun memories which is why I said in this card I mailed to Allison that her mom & dad (who died last May) will always hold a special place in my heart!  I hope this card gives Allison the feeling of a hug in the mail since she and her family are in my thoughts & prayers.

When I sat down on Sunday to make this card, I reached for my Care & Comfort set by Taylored Expressions and paired it with Miniature Motifs (background sentiment stamped on) and CreativiTEA set (label) as well as papers from October Afternoon Fly a Kite.  I used the SCS Featured Stamper Challenge {FS179} and used this card of Stephanie’s to CASE.  I embellished my card with a few punched flowers & cream glitter candy dots and some of my favorite ribbon!  Lastly, of course I had to distress everything a little with some Tim Holtz distress inks (I am SO hooked on that lately!)

Thank you for stopping by today…

FS175: Summer ‘Lemonade’ Afternoon

 
Anyone else happy about Summer approaching?  I am in most aspects but I’m not entirely thrilled about the extreme heat/humidity in Central Texas-ha!!  Here is a card I made for today’s SCS Featured Stamper challenge {FS175} using the new Whimsical Wishes set Summer Afternoon by Taylored Expressions!  I used this card for the inspiration of my card by LeAnne Pugliese which is also very Summery with the cherries on it!

I used my Basic Grey Lemonade papers which reminds me of a great summer drink – have you ever tried strawberry lemonade by Country Time?  It takes me back so many years; the first one we visited friends in Colorado Springs and I fell in love with it – we ended up bringing some back with us from our first trip to a Super Target there!  Since then, our taste in summer drinks has changed a little because we don’t use instant tea anymore, we drink cold tea made from loose tea in our tea maker – Assam is our favorite (it’s a black Indian tea).   

Here’s a close up of the sparkle from my copic atyou spica pens on the blooms and dragonfly. The yellow cardbase is Sunflowers Medium prism cardstock and the ribbon is white glimmer ribbon from the TE store. 

Blast from the Past Customer Blog Hop

There’s going to be another Taylored Expressions' Blast from the Past customer blog hop later on this month.

If you haven't singed up for the hop, there's still time – you have until this Thursday, June 17th to sign up and hope you'll be able to join in on the fun!  Here are the details:

Hop Rules: Create a card or project featuring any Taylored Expressions stamps released through March 2010. A challenge will be sent out to all participants that is completely optional, it's more of a way to get you started in case you're stuck on what to make. Your post with your card or project must be live by 8am PDT on June 22nd with a links to all blog hop participants. A code which will contain all this information will be sent to you in order to make it easier for you.

How To Sign Up to Play: Send an email to bloghop@tayloredexpresions.com with the subject line "June 22 Hop". In the body of your email simply list the following information: your first and last name, the name of your blog, and your blog address. By sending this email you are committing to posting a creation on your blog at 8am PDT on June 22nd as detailed on the Hop Rules above. Once you sign up you will receive the following:

• An email confirming your spot on the hop. That email will also include the optional challenge, a list of excluded sets (released after March 2010) and recap of the rules.
• You will receive another email 2 days prior to the hop with a list of all participants and links to include in your post along with the Hop badge.

BONUS: One random participant will be select to win the stamp set of your choice from Taylored Expressions! Someone will also be chosen to have their card featured in an upcoming newsletter.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you will join the fun!

FS174: You’re so Tweet

Here’s a card that took me way too long to make for today’s Featured Stamper Challenge {FS174} using the new TE giving tree charity set Pet’s Place!  I chose this card of Nikki’s to case; changing my pattern paper, cardstock colors, stamp set and embellishment.  I used papers/ribbon from the Udderly Sweet Project Pantry kit.  I made my paper flower embellishment using packing paper cut with the Spellbinder’s Blossom die, sponged with some yellow ink and placed my sentiment inside with a small Basic Grey granola button in the center. 

I’ll be back later with a special Botanicals Gina K. hop at 10 p.m. this evening – hope you can back by! 

FS172: Life is short…

So Cuppie says, “eat dessert first”  and I do too!  I made this cute little matchbox treat for today’s SCS Featured Stamper challenge {FS172} using the new set Cuppie in the Kitchen by Taylored Expressions.  Here is the matchbook treat I cased by Nikki.  I used fun Green at Heart papers by Basic Grey, saddlestitch neutral ribbon and a fun open button as an embellishment.  This was also made for Friday’s Free For All challenge {F4A13} to use buttons & bows in a new unique way so I did!!

Here’s the inside of the matchbook treat; I put a Ghirardelli square inside, covered with the pattern paper and punched a sentiment from the set onto it.  The chocolate is super yummy, dark with a caramel filling…hmmmm. 

Thanks for stopping by - hpe you enjoyed!  I will be back later tonight (10 pm CDT) for day 1 previews of Gina K. Designs May release!!

FS164: Going on an Egg Hunt

I am totally supposed to be studying for my upcoming tests in Medical Terminology (Apr 1) and Anatomy/Physiology (Apr 5) but I woke up early this morning and couldn’t resist playing with this week’s Featured Stamper challenge {FS164} because I found this cute card of Brandi’s to CASE!!  I knew right away I wanted to make a scene with the little peeps on an egg hunt in the meadow using Favorite Peeps by Taylored Expressions!  This card was SO much fun to make and now I have a card to send to my niece Gabby!  I used all supplies from the Easter Key Ingredients (except a few buttons and the sugar sparkly fluff for the clouds , which I hand drew). 

As promised, here are a before & after photo of our dog Shelby since we took her to the beauty parlor yesterday – she was such a good girl and I KNOW she missed us while she was there but so HAPPY to smell, look and feel good for the Spring!  She gets this short haircut a few times during Spring through Fall when she doesn’t need the extra fur!

Here she is in all her glory – it took me SO many times to try to get a good picture as she was walking all over the place when we brought her back.  She is looking up at John in this picture who she adores; that’s one reason I like this one so much.  I bought her that chicken chew treat as a reward and she walked all over the house strutting her stuff and showing off her treat for about 10 minutes!  She really cracks me up – I am counting my blessings she is still with us after her November diagnosis of lung tumor.  I appreciate all the prayers that have been given up for her, they are working and God is allowing us more time with her. 

I hope you have a great week!  This may be my last post until my work/school week is over because I really need to hit the books!  Although I am averaging an A in my Med. Term. class, I’m averaging a C in my A&P class and that is just not acceptable to me!  Please pray I can focus and retain all this info and God helps me when it comes time to take my test so I remember the answers!  Thanks for stopping by today! 

FS158: It’s a Love Thing

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I know it’s time to move on from this holiday and I have really with other designs but I still wanted to make a card to give to John so I whipped this up while he was making multigrain pancakes with berry topping and scrambled eggs (I made the sausage).  I used today’s Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS (FS158) and used this fun CAS card by Hamiltongal and brought out my turtles in love Stamps A La Carte by Taylored Expressions and Animals in Love sentiment.  You know you don’t have to have a special occasion like Valentine’s Day to make/send a love card to someone you love/care about; I can imagine giving a card like this as a surprise on a day that’s not set apart to tell John how much I love him! 

I paper-pieced these turtles with Basic Grey Marrakech papers and added a 5/8” black grosgrain ribbon on the side just like Laurie’s card but added a brad to pop off the black.  I put some Christmas red stickles on the heart between the turtles; I love how something to small & quick can really pack a punch – that’s why love stickles!  I like how this card came together so quickly and I’m sure he’s going to like it.  Hope whatever you do with your loved ones is special – as for me, I need to study for my anatomy/physiology test that’s Monday night!  I feel like I’m not ready - yikes!

Diet Starts Tomorrow – Raising the Bar

I squeezed in a little time this morning to play in the SCS Featured Stamper today, FS157: Raising the Bar.  We are to find a card in Barbara Anders’ (Bar) gallery and I chose this one she uploaded just a few days ago! 

I thought it would be perfect to use my new Bakery Business gal just released a few days ago by Taylored Expressions!  This card has a ton of layers, which is not usually my forte but I sure like how the card turned out!  I used some Basic Grey Ooh La La paper and prism cardstock Intense Kiwi and Rose Medium.

Here is a close up of the sparkle and detail on my image.  I used Copics to color and added some copic atyou spica glitter pens on the cupcakes and her headband.  I also added some bling (pink rhinestone) jewelry to her and look how fun her outfit and apron are (I paper-pieced them with the papers I used on the card – it’s a fun way to get out of coloring line art images!)   Have you checked out all the new stuff TE is offering?  Better see if there’s something you have to have in your stamping arsenal!! 

I better get to studying, I have a test on Monday, Feb 15th and I want to get some in before the SuperBowl starts! 

FS80: Huggy Bear Yoris

I was so excited to see my friend Jessie (Knightrone) as Featured Stamper 80 (FS80) on SCS Sunday! The challenge is to find one of her gallery cards & CASE it. I decided to take one of her cards I got from her IRL as my card to case when she was featured on Jen's SFYTT in July.

I used my new Starving Artistamps Doodlefactory The Great Outdoors set with Yoris the bear. I love the sentiments that coordinate with the set so much - and the one that caught my eye to use for him was 'hug a tree it feels good' - how funny is that?! I love the trio of trees illustrator Irene drew for this set - I used to draw the same Christmas trees as a kid and because there are 2 different sized trees, I used the smaller one so it looked like the tree was his security blanket.

I distressed my cardstock to make it look more rustic, like the real great outdoors (love the Distress Inks) here I used the Vintage Photo. My changes from Jessie's card are: cardstock, stamp sets, less brads, one less layer and flipped the sentiment & main 1/2 panel.

If you decide today you HAVE to get in on some of the fun that I've been having with these stamps & want to get some of your own - just click here, place stuff in your cart (Tracey sells EZ-Mount original & thin for mounting your stamps but you can pay extra for them to come mounted). Then enter dbakerdis in the coupon code box & hit re-calculate. 10% off your order! woohoo!

FS52 - Cupcakes (fake ones & real ones)!!!

Remember I said I could hardly put down this new set by Stampendous, Hey There Cupcake?(exclusive for eP) Well, I hope you don't tire of all the upcoming posts I have using it. I made this card for SCS Featured Stamper Renee Stamping For Sanity FS52 Challenge . Here is Renee's card I CASED obviously changing colors, sets, embellishments. I used Taylor's Cupcake Challenge 2 (colors of Pixie Pink, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Chocolate Chip) since I had those colors out (lately I've been trying to use scraps for ALL my cards and when I find a combo I like or a card I like I tend to make 2) except for when the card has too much detail or took too long. I finally used my cb folder hearts on this card (but my picture is kind of bad so you can't really tell) and I used star dust stickles for the frosting but forgot I had used chocolate chip for the stamping and it bled a little (hate when that happens)

How cute is the cupcake stand on the right? I got it at Target for $5! It's how I will 'display' all my cupcake cards! Oh and guess how YUMMY the REAL cupcake is on the left? wow...too bad you can't see how adorable the cupcake liner is - it has springy flowers on it but I bet it would show way better with white, vanilla or yellow cake but that may or may not happen with me -my preferred flavor 9 times out of 10 is chocolate the other is yellow. Not a fan of white cake.

Featured Stamper 16 - KED Summer Day!!

Boy I have missed doing the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS! I want to get caught back up, maybe? This was last week's - to CASE a card from the gallery of Ked - Kirsten DuBosque who is an AWESOME stamper - check out her blog Confessions of a Naptime Stamper - you're sure to find some gems! I found one right away I wanted to case Sending You Sunshine. The image I used is one I got as a rak from Kristine Breach (thanks, Kristine!!) Isn't this ant the cutest? It's hard for me to think they're bad & want to kill them when I look at or think of this one!! ugh

Anyway - I think the image turned out a tad too big for the card, but I wanted to use it SO badly!! So here it is! I used the Pallete o' Prints by SU! and the Bloom Dots CB embossing folder. The brads are Rose Red. I colored him in with my prismacolor pencils using the gamsol technique.

Jen's Blogger Challenge #4 & SCS FS10 Challenge

This is my first time participating in Jen's Blogger Challenge (thanks for simplifying the contest*wink*) and I made the time to play this time! Jen's challenge this week was to use any acrylic stamp set & background paper. Of course I had to use my new Butterfly Kisses & Papertray sentiment stamps sets from Papertrey Ink (shhh...don't tell anyone but I've had them for over 2 weeks and have now just had the time to play with them!) It was SO fun to use them!! I'm no longer an acrylic stamp virgin. I adore these stamps - Nichole has created some awesome stamp sets & they debut the 15th of each month. I LOVE her countdowns with small glimpses of the sets leading up to the debut. She even had a special edition set called Green Thumb mid-month which is adorable & so versatile! If you've never heard of these sets which are all the hype on blogs, SCS, etc...check out Nichole's blog {capture the moment} it's great!! I'm going to send this RAK as a Thank You to Charmwarm who sent me some OODAGOODIES the other day!

I missed a few Featured Stamper Challenges and have been bummed so I decided to combine these 2! Rohla is the FS10 this week and here is her Eat Cake card I CASED. I changed up the stamp sets & colors but kept the same layout with embellishments.

O.k. on to the details on my card: I used Whisper White, Cool Caribbean, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink cardstock. Inks used were Cool Caribbean & Chocolate Chip. Embellishments used were silver brads & chocolate ribbon I got at the Dollar Tree. I spponged and drew the butterfly trail & antennae with my chocolate chip marker. I used my new Basic Grey Phoebe 6x6 paper pad too (o.k. I'm confused about how to spell this because I noticed other people and I have too type Pheobe. So naturally I looked ON the paper pad to see what it says and surprisingly it has BOTH spellings!! If you don't believe me - check yours if you have it. Maybe mine was a misprint??! I got my paper pad from Tracey at Starving Artistamps and I LOVE it! I love these colors!

Featured Stamper #5

I did a challenge on the day today! woohoo, what an accomplishment - I actually needed this card to send to a friend in the hospital so it worked out great!! FS05 by Holly Toy here is the card I chose to case Lexicon Butterfly and here is my card My Presence Butterfly . I just realized I wasn't supposed to really use a sketch challenge, but I think I kept it mostly the same, so oh well. I like the card anyway.

Featured Stamper #4

I am about a week behind on all the FS Challenges on Splitcoast but hey - at least I'm doing one of the many challenges regularly posted! This one's been so fun that I'm ALMOST scared to get hooked on the others and I would neglect all the other things I have on my TO DO LIST! Here is my case You happened to me of Atomicbutterfly's Little Lively Ones I hope y'all don't consider this a cheat since she uploaded this card the other day – I was just drawn to it for the layout & paper piercing as I hardly ever do that even though the tool kit was on my first order the year it debuted with SU!

Featured Stamper #3

FS03 and new Hostess of the Sunday Challenge is Beth (MyPrecious on SCS) I love her creations and her blog Freckled Fun - check them out!

Here is Beth's Sassy Stems and here's my card, I changed up the colors, stamp set & ribbon

to send off some thank you cards to our friends who helped us move last weekend

Featured Stamper #2

Trying to catch up from the past few week's Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS FS02

notimetostamp card Designer Dots . I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new DS Double-Sided Paper Petals & Paisleys (page 9 in the Spring Mini from SU! I ADORE that on one side they split up the colors so you can make faux ribbons like I used on this card using the Polka Dots & Petals set in the mini too. I used Old Olive, Pretty in Pink and Tempting Turquoise pulled from the little strip. I also used Pretty in Pink Craft ink so the Paisley BG showed up better...I LOVE craft ink especially in the lighter colors in Soft Subtles line. This was fun! I was never really much of a CASE (Copy & Share Everything) but this Sunday Challenge on SCS has been really cool for me to step out of my box!