CPS 276 and SSD Inspiration Challenge

This sweet "Cupcake Cutie" is a brand new release from Skipping Stones Design.  We were given this beautiful inspiration photo...the bold red and turquoise, the stripes, the banners, and the caramel colors of the lunch boxes on the top shelf immediately captured my attention. 

Looking through my stash of designer paper, I came across the banners and stripes in Echo Park's Sweet Day...although its colors are not as bold and bright as the ones in the original photo, the banners print really drew me in.

The cupcake icing was stamped using Clearsnap ink on colored designer paper, the liner with Memento ink on white card stock, and the sprinkles and candle with Memento ink and Copic markers.  I used a scor-pal to score crimps into the cupcake liner to give it a more authentic look.  The candle and flame were colored with Copics and accented with Stickles.

For the layout, I combined today's challenge with CPS sketch 276.  I was planning to add a button to the green satin bow accent, but opted to use it as a cherry on top of the cupcake instead!

Of course, the recipient of this card isn't likely to see the photo that inspired it!  I was looking for papers for another project and found this bright turquoise and green pindot print, so I decided to make another card!  Although this one uses the same layout on a portrait-oriented white card base, it is a cleaner, simpler design overall.   Certainly it more accurately reflects the bright colors of the inspiration photo.

Visit the Skipping Stones Design blog to see more ideas with Cupcake Cutie!  The CPS blog team is rocking this sketch, too!  Be sure to visit both!

Notes:

Skipping Stones Design's Cupcake Cutie stamp set

Tsukineko and Clearsnap inks

Copic markers

Gina K Pure Luxury card stock

Scor-Pal

Echo Park designer paper

satin ribbon

Ranger Stickles

New from OCL!

Our Craft Lounge is releasing some fun new stamps, so today our team is hosting a blog hop to share and celebrate!  You can see the full color panels for each set on the OCL blog and order the stamps directly from OCL but before you shop, hop through our designers' blogs to see what great ideas they have come up with for using these fabulous sets. 

 We're giving away some prizes for the comments you leave from now through Friday on our blog posts, the OCL blog posts and the OCL Facebook page.  Look for the details on the OCL blog!

Also, mark your calendar for next week, because we will be back with more fun stuff!  :)

My card for today reminds me of a trip my family took the summer before my senior year of high school.  We drove from Louisiana to California, stopping at most of the major national parks along the way, including the Alamo, Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, and finally Sequoia/King's Canyon, where my brother was working as a young US Forest Ranger.  It was the best trip of my young life, and I'm very grateful I have gotten to revisit some of those places in the years since then!  I would love to take my son on that same journey!  

I used a combination of Copic markers and paper piecing with Echo Park This and That Charming designer paper to design my Happy Camper, although the Copic markers match so well you may have trouble telling which is which.  The sky was sponged in using a scalloped circle mask and Clearsnap ink.  The various destinations are cut from the designer paper.  Of course, for young kids, a road trip seems to take forever, so this "Are we there yet" sentiment is particularly appropriate!  I inked it with Memento ink, then went over the dotty parts with a fine-tipped marker and accented it with a  "butterfly" bow of brown jute.

I'm happy that I can submit this card for Stacy's Make Mine Masculine DTGD challenge!  

• Amber Hillman
• Broni Holcombe
• Deb Felts
• Debbie Corbari
• Debbie Fisher
• Joy Stagg
• Kendra Wietstock
• Lori Barnett
• Melissa Cash
• Michelle Pearson
• Stephanie Serrano
• Tammie Edgerton

Hello Deeries!

Here's a really teeny tiny peek at a card that I'll be sharing for our Flower Soft blog hop on Thursday!  I hope you will join me and the rest of our team as we share full pictures of the projects we've made using some of the new products released at CHA.  We're sharing little peeks of our projects each day until then on the Flower Soft Blog.

Happy Anniversary!

I love cream, kraft and black together!  This little lovely is a beautiful anniversary quote from The {Stamps} of Life, stamped on Teresa Collins designer paper, layered with Kaiser Craft lace, May Arts ribbon, and a pretty Prima flower.  So simple and elegant.

We have an ukulele jam today...then I'm planning to stamp some, and watch lots of Olympics!  :)

New from Flower Soft!

I had SO much fun at CHA last week!  One of the fun things I did was hang out with the folks at the Flower Soft booth!  I was so happy to finally meet our design team coordinator, Jen Buck!  :)  It was also my privilege to help teach a class and to meet one of my blog followers, Gretchen!  <3  What an honor!

Lots of new Flower Soft products made their debut at the summer show, and our team is sharing some of the new Mabel Lucie Atwell stamp sets today.  We're having a blog hop!  You should've arrived here from Linda's blog!

This little cutie is from a new set called "Let's Talk!" I stamped the image with Memento ink, colored it with Copic markers, and then fussy-cut it into pieces which I mounted with foam tape onto a pretty frame of designer paper.

I love the old-fashioned appeal of these images!  They sort of remind me of Norman Rockwell images, and the kids from Morton's Salt...my grandmother even had a wall-mounted phone that was very similar to this one!

Visit the Flower Soft blog for the big reveal of the new Mabel Lucie Atwell stamps, and watch our FaceBook page too!  There are special offers involved, so don't miss it!  :)  Our design team members will be peeking in on FB to chat this afternoon too!

If you're hopping, you're headed to Cibele's!

GRS Design Team Challenge!

It's challenge time for our Gourmet Rubber Stamps design team, and this month we were challenged to be inspired by our very own home decor.  Here's my inspiration photo, my favorite cushy tufted chair, the only girlie thing in a room full of masculine leather!  The fabric is a beautiful gold and sage damask with a subtle sheen...here is where I curl up with my laptop with my morning coffee before heading up to the studio to stamp, and it's also where I sit to write up my blog posts on my laptop while dh watches primetime TV.  It is definitely one of my favorite places to be!  You can't see them in this photo, but I have two ukuleles on small stands to the left of my chair, with my copy of The Daily Ukulele and my craft deadlines calendar on the nearby ottoman, so everything I need is within easy reach!  Love this spot!

My card is a simple but still classically elegant design using one of our newest appetizer sets, Noteworthy.  I stamped the motif in Memento Pistachio ink on pale olive green card stock matted with ivory on a kraft card stock base, tearing the edges and distressing them with Ranger Frayed Burlap ink.  Gold Shimmer spray gives everything a soft glow...an oval sentiment embellished with jewels, and big sheer bow make it girlie, just like my pretty chair that inspired the idea to begin with.

Visit the GRS blog to see the decor-inspired projects of my GRS design team mates!

Notes:
Noteworthy
Memento Pistachio ink
Gold Shimmer Spritz
Spellbinders classic oval dies
Kaiser Craft rhinestones

Gospel Song

Today's card is a combo card for Skipping Stones Design and CPS.  Here's the beautiful color inspiration photo that SSD provided.  I love this combination of warm hues, which are some of the "hot" colors from CHA!  

Since it is Vacation Bible School week at our church and our theme is "Sky," I couldn't resist stamping a beautiful little birdie...as one of the music teachers, I'm having a blast teaching the kids songs about trusting God!

The layout for my card is this week's CPS sketch, flipped upside down to accommodate the images from Heartsong 2.  I also used the music score and notes from the original Heartsong, stamping off the score to create a subtle background.  The bird was stamped with Memento Gray Flannel ink, colored with Copic markers and accented with Stickles.  Its song is part of a Zva Creative flourish.

Visit the Skipping Stones Design blog to see more projects using these gorgeous colors!

Check out the CPS blog for more ideas with this fun sketch!

Tickled Pink!

Hello friends!  I'm back from CHA!  What a whirlwind, wonderful week it was!  I took Saturday off to rest and recover, then spent yesterday at the church decorating for VBS which starts this morning.  I'll be helping our pastor's wife with music, so it will be another fun week!

Today I'm sharing a card made with a sentiment from this month's TSOL club set, crayons2stamp.  It's a fun girlie flip-it card that was really quick to put together.  The swirling design of Simple Stories' Fabulous designer paper lent itself well to this "tickled pink" sentiment.

Right now, i {heart} papers has 6 x 6 designer paper pads on sale for $3 each (excluding new arrivals), so it is a great time to stock up!  Better hurry though!  They're moving fast and you don't wanna miss 'em!

New TSOL dies!

Here are some fun new dies from The {Stamps} of Life!  They make kites2fly even more fun than it was to begin with!

I used Stephanie's Tangerine ink, stamped off once so that it would better match this pastel paper, to make my kite's patterned panels.  The dies make it so super easy to die cut and stamp the sections of the kite, the frame to layer over them, and those teeny tiny bows that are nearly impossible to fussy cut!  I cut and stamped a second set of kite panels so that the flip side that peeks out from underneath would be decorated too!

Notes:
kite dies
Framelit circle dies
kites2fly stamp set
Stephanie's Tangerine ink
Clearsnap Colorbox Queue ink
Echo Park Sweet Day designer paper
The Twinery twine
buttons from the stash
dimensional adhesive

SSD Color Inspiration

This week's Skipping Stones Design challenge is a color challenge inspired by this beautiful photo.  Hopefully you recognize it in the card that I came up with, although mine definitely has the addition of some cheerful greens that were not part of the inspiration palette.  The map also inspired the Uplifting travel/transportation theme...if you let your imagination wander, the swirling jewels and intricate lines of the doily on the printed paper sort of mimic the lines of the map itself.

Visit Skipping Stones Design to see what the rest of our team and other guest designer, Laurel, are doing with today's color inspiration!

Notes:
SSD Uplifting
Simple Stories Fabulous designer paper
Copic blending paper
Memento ink
Copic markers
Prima pearl and rhinestone flourish

ihp DT challenge

It's time for another i {heart} papers design team challenge!  With CHA coming, Kate is having a huge sale to make room on her shelves for the new product that will be arriving soon, and for our challenge, our designers are using the products they already have in their stashes so that they'll have room for new stuff too!  It's pretty much anything goes...pile it on and use it up!

Before I tell you about my project, let me give you the details on our HUGE Pre-CHA clearance sale July 11-21:

• 25% off your order of $50 or more! 
• coupon code: CHA2012DT
• storewide sale! Paper, Copics & refills, stamps, ribbon, everything!
• and still, as always, free US shipping with your $60 order!

Looking through my stash, I found a GRS appetizer set that has only seen ink once, and even then it was used in an unexpected way (see if you recognize them here).  This time, I'm using the stamps as they were intended to be used, and this week's CPS sketch gave me the perfect opportunity!

This layout, in combination with some Echo Park designer paper, was all I needed to construct "Kingpin Alley!"  The wood plank print makes the perfect lane, and the numbers print fits in with pins and score-keeping!  I stamped ten bowling pins with Tsukineko's Memento Gray Flannel ink (their new colors were some of my fav new things from last CHA!), then fussy cut each one, giving them some shading and dimension with a sponging of distress ink and a few highlights with my white gel pen.

I would've really loved to "oil" the lane with some clear embossing, and give the bowling ball a swirl of high-gloss marbleized color, but time is tight as I prepare to leave for Summer CHA in Chicago, so for now I opted to keep things simple and just add some Glossy Accents to traditional solid black!  I've still got a couple of projects and blog posts to finish before I go!  By the time you're reading this, I will have been there two days already!  :)  Hopefully I will be able to share a few of my favorite finds with you while I'm there!

Notes:
Kingpin
Memento Gray Flannel, Tuxedo Black inks
Ranger Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap distress ink
Echo Park This and That Charming designer paper
Spellbinders classic circles dies
Inkssentials Glossy Accents
Inkssentials white gel pen
Dimensional adhesive dots

Here are the links to my design teammates' blogs and their amazing projects!

• Carolyn
• Gretchen
• Loretta
• Lori
• Tracy
• Kate

Flower Soft CHA Peeks

Here's a peek at Orange Blossom Flower Soft and the beautiful Multi-Function Die Cut cards, two new products that will be released at CHA this week!  Aren't those lacy open edges just gorgeous?!  

For my project, a combination of old products and new, I trimmed the card length to a slightly smaller size, adding some layers of colored card stock to peek from underneath the delicate edges...the butterflies' wings and the die-cut edge was lightly tinted with a pale blue green Copic marker before adding fuzzy butterfly bodies in either Soft Daffodil or the new Orange Blossom.

I topped my card with an image from the Butterfly die cut dimensions papercrafting kit, which I trimmed and matted with distressed card stock.  For the inside, I stamped a sentiment from one of our Floral Sentiment sets, adding a few tiny butterflies (also from the papercrafting kit) to bring the colors from the card front to the inside as well.

Be sure to visit my design team mates' blogs, our FaceBook page, and the Flower Soft blog often this week, because there will be little peeks all week long!

New GRS Appetizers

The 15th of the month means brand new appetizer stamp sets from Gourmet Rubber Stamps. This month's sets, Noteworthy and True Colors, are as fabulous as always!

My Noteworthy card is a mix of brand new, recently released, and older (maybe even retired?!) stamps that come together for a classic, vintage monogrammed note card using SCS Sketch 350.

Gourmet Rubber Stamps are also available at i {heart} papers.  Kate even has a few stamps grouped into custom sets that are only available through her store.  Right now she's having a HUGE Pre-CHA clearance sale July 11-21 so that she can make room for new stock on her shelves!  Here are the details:

• 25% off your order of $50 or more! 
• coupon code: CHA2012DT
• storewide sale! Paper, Copics & refills, stamps, ribbon, everything!
• and still, as always, free US shipping with your $60 order!

Notes:
Noteworthy
hand from custom set for ihp
monogram stamp (? retired LAD)
Memento Pear Tart, Espresso Truffle inks
Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap distress ink
Authentique Loyal designer paper

Spellbinders dies (classic circles, fleur de lis emblem and circle)

Kaiser Craft rhinestones
May Arts antique gold sheer twinkle ribbon
jute thread
button from the stash

Be sure to visit my GRS design team mates to see the FABULOUS projects they've made using these new appetizers!  I've seen 'em...you don't wanna miss 'em!  :)

Flower Soft Vintage Christmas

All week long our Flower Soft team has been showcasing Vintage Christmas projects using our beautiful die-cut dimensions kits.  My card for today features an image from the Poinsettia kit, embellished with pale green Flower Soft and pearls.  Using a stylus and a foam mat to gently "burnish" each of the petals from the back side of the topper, and gently lifting the cut edges from the front before adding the fluffy texture really gives this topper extra dimension.  These kits are a fast and easy short cut to some beautiful cards, especially when there are lots of names on your mailing list!

Visit the Flower Soft blog and my design team mates for more Vintage Christmas ideas!  We'll be back with more ideas on another new product next week, so remember to visit again!

GRS Weekly Recipe #39

It's my turn to host the GRS Weekly Recipe!  I am lovin' all the hexagons I've been seeing everywhere, so I wanted to include one in this week's sketch.

This adorable smiley-faced image is from one of my favorites of our older sets, In the Kitchen!  The papers, from Simple Stories' Summer Fresh 6 x 6 designer paper pad, remind me of plaid curtains and wipe-clean vinyl tablecloths!  I was going for a 60's retro kitchen look, even though this particular "appliance" is not colored Harvest Gold or Avocado Green!  Anybody with me?  Ah, the good ole days!  ;)

I hope you'll play along with the challenge!  Just link your project to our GRS FaceBook page!

Notes:
In the Kitchen
Simple Stories Summer Fresh designer paper
Hexagon dies
Copic blending paper
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Tim Holtz distress ink
Copic markers
jute thread
button

Gina K Inspiration Day 3

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop!!! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of deeply etched, pre-cut Gina K. Designs stamps! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a couple of days after the hops!!

Sometimes the execution just doesn't happen the way you see things in your mind's eye, and today is that day for me!  Too many distractions, I suppose!  Thankfully, everything went very well with Matthew's surgery yesterday, but my heart definitely was not totally into stamping and the mojo suffered for it!  He woke up about a half hour ago with a really swollen jaw, so he's gulping down a breakfast of yogurt and smoothies so that he can take his mega-dose of motrin and some pain meds.

Here in Florida, the woods are full of palmetto and fern, so I wanted to combine Theresa's set with another new set, The Good Life.  I stamped the camper on a scrap of patterned paper that has a subtle dot print, then colored parts of it with Copic markers.  Looks like it is time to replace the nib on my YG91!  I'm having trouble getting it to lay down color smoothly, so I think it must be full of sizing or something!

I'll be adding some embellishments to this because it still feels too naked to me...hopefully after a little time to contemplate, something fun to add to it will come to mind!

Notes:

The Good Life, rubber or clear

Pure Luxury card stock

Memento ink

Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink

Check out all the amazing designs and inspiration:

• Gina K
• AJ Otto
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Suzanne Dean
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

Gina K Inspiration Day 2

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop!!! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of deeply etched, pre-cut Gina K. Designs stamps! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a couple of days after the hops!!

**My post is up a little early, since I'm off to take Matthew to the oral surgeon to have his wisdom teeth removed.**  We would appreciate your prayers for a safe procedure and a speedy recovery!  The official start time of today's GKD hop is 8:00 CST. 

Today, the GKD team is sharing projects made with Theresa's Tropical Nature and Becky's I Do!

My card using Theresa's Tropical Nature was made the day the stamps arrived, and was hand-delivered over a week ago!  It was made to welcome our new pastor and his wife, and included a Publix gift card from my Bible study class.  Funny thing is that rumor had it...wrongly!...that the Mrs. was from Hawaii, so I really wanted to give her some aloha!  She's so sweet she said she loved my card anyway!  I suppose the pineapple could simply be seen as a symbol of Southern hospitality, and being from the South, I'm absolutely fine with that!  With this uncluttered design, the pineapple takes center stage!  :)

I loved the clean bright green of this scrap of designer paper, and its hibiscus-like pattern.  Here you can see the gift card peeking from the inside pocket that has another little peek of that pretty pattern.

Notes:
Theresa's Tropical Nature in rubber or clear
Make a Statement (welcome sentiment) 
Pure Luxury card stock

Memento ink

Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink

Copic markers

Spellbinder's Fancy Tags 2, and classic oval dies

I know that most brides wear white, but with this pack of patterned paper still on my desk from yesterday's project with Grand Tags, I just couldn't resist another black and ivory design, made more dramatic with a black tuxedo and gown!  This one uses Becky's new set, I Do!, and this week's CPS layout.  I am SO in love with these hexagons!

Notes:
Becky's I Do! in rubber or clear

Pure Luxury card stock

Memento ink

Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink

Check out all the amazing designs and inspiration:

• Gina K
• Becky Oehlers – Illustrator I Do!
• Theresa Momber – Illustrator Tropical Nature
• AJ Otto
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

Skipping Stones Inspiration Challenge

I'm excited to be playing along with today's Skipping Stones Design inspiration challenge!  All of the SSD designers are featuring the newest SSD set, Darling Damask. 

You should have arrived here from the fabulous blog belonging to my talented friend, Wendy Price!  If you're lost, scroll down to the bottom of this post where you'll find the entire list of today's designers.

Today's inspiration comes from a lovely photo of a beautiful bridesmaid in soft, elegant gray with a bouquet of amazing yellow roses.  My eye was drawn to the shape of her neckline and that bold splash of color.  

I followed Beate's tutorial to make a trifold pocket card.  The gray card stock is stamped in black with the swirling leaf pattern from Darling Damask, and the edges are trimmed in lace.  I used Spellbinders dies to make a yellow rose with a gray pearl center, framed with a gray silk bow and silver-corded sentiment tag.  

I am really pleased with the way this card turned out!  I love how the lines of the card echo the lines of the dress, with the lace leading the eyes to the feminine flower and greeting.  Hopefully it isn't hard for you to see where the idea originated!

Here are the rest of today's participants...enjoy the hop!

Karen Baker
Stephanie Mino
Jo Ann Valderama
Laurel Seabrook
Pamela Young
Cyndi Bundy
Wendy Price
Deb Felts
Katie Gehring
Wendy Jordan
Jingle

Gina K Inspiration Hop

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop!!! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of deeply etched, pre-cut Gina K. Designs stamps! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a couple of days after the hops!!

Today, we're sharing projects made with Melanie's Pretty Patterns and Tami's Grand Tags.  

Pretty Patterns is perfect for quick, graphic card designs!  I've had these buttons in my stash forever, and was happy to find that they're the right sizes to fit these circles!  I used my markers to color in some bright colors, and added some twine for texture.  The sentiment is from our new "One Free with Three," Assorted Greetings.  Reminds me of the 70's and beads hanging in the doorway!

Grand Tags is obviously a great set for cards for the grandparents, but it's great for any occasion and works as fabulously for vintage as it would in other styles.  Here I used an ivory and black color scheme with a little scrap of music paper and a pretty gingham bow.  This would be a great card for either one of Matthew's music teachers!  

Notes:

Grand Tags, rubber or clear

Pretty Patterns, rubber or clear

Assorted Greetings, rubber or clear

Pure Luxury card stock

Memento ink

Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink

Check out all the amazing designs and inspiration:

• Gina K
• Tami Mayberry – Illustrator Grand Tags
• Melanie Muenchinger – Illustrator Pretty Patterns
• AJ Otto
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Michelle Woerner
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

SSD Darling Damask

Skipping Stones Design is debuting a brand new set today, called Darling Damask.  Isn't it lovely?!  I paired it with an elegant rose from Victorian Summer for a card that will be perfect for a girlfriend's birthday or any other special day!  The kraft layer under the image also has a subtly stamped quatrefoil design from Timeless Textures.

Notes:
SSD Darling Damask, Timeless Textures, and Victorian Summer
Clearsnap artichoke ink
Memento espresso truffle ink
Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink
Versamark ink
Copic markers
MFT rolled rose die
Spellbinders leaf die
MS fern punch
Creative Impressions ribbon
Kaiser Craft pearls

Precious Bébé

This month's CPS sponsor is Stampotique.  Love this precious bébé!  Ha, I can just hear the voice and thick accent of my Cajun friend, Pam...“Aw, cher t’bébé!” (Aw, dear/darling little baby, with cher pronounced "sha" with a short a).  

Join me on the CPS blog for more inspiration using Stampotique stamps! 

Notes:

Stampotique baby and sentiment

Memento, Ranger ink

Copic markers

Simple Stories Summer Fresh designer paper

Spellbinders classic circles

The Twinery twine

Happy 4th!

I've wanted to make this star box and sculpted star accent for a while now!  It has been a quiet holiday with Matthew away from home (on mission with the youth from church at TEAMeffort in Georgia), so I pulled out some of last year's patriotic papers and Flower Soft's newest color, The Patriot, to play for a while.

I strayed from the tutorial just a little by cutting my scored piece in two to make a bottom and a lid, which when completed stands ~5 inches tall.  Instead of tracing the box ends as directed, I used a Sizzix star die, because I don't really like fussy cutting!  The die was quick and easy although it does slightly overhang the box edges. The accompanying card features the sculpted star with a sentiment from Gourmet Rubber Stamps' "Happy Independence" set, which is on sale now at i {heart} papers.  I used markers directly to the stamp to echo the bright blue, turquoise and red that are in the designer paper.

If you're like I am, it is sometimes hard to get in the mood to stamp "out of season," so it really works well once the holiday arrives and the ambiance is right, to make and stash holiday projects for the following year.  I do that a lot at Christmastime too, especially in the week between Christmas and New Year's, when the house is decorated and the calendar is quiet!

I'd like to wish a happy 4th of July to my American friends, and a happy hump day to the rest of you!  :)

Skipping Stones

I am very excited to be posting my first card as guest designer for Skipping Stones Design, and I'm thrilled to be sharing the honor of guest designing alongside the talented Laurel Seabrook!  Sounds like a fun month, doesn't it?!

Yesterday was my birthday!  It was a really wonderful, amazing day!  I started my day with a chat with BFF Wendy, played a few tunes on my brand new ukulele, then went for lunch and a relaxing mani-pedi.  Right after I got home, my dh arrived with a lovely bouquet of roses, and then he took me out for a delicious dinner at Orsay.  Throughout the day, I got tons of birthday wishes from my friends on FaceBook...some were friends I've had for my whole life (love all of you from Westlake!), some are stamping friends from around the country and the world, and some are friends that I've never met but we know and love each other nonetheless!  It was simply the perfect day!

At dinner, the couple next to us was also birthday celebrating!  We had a discussion about how fun it is to have a birthday so close to the Fourth of July!  Halfway through the year from Christmas, when school is out and there are extra days off from work and even fireworks...it is fabulous!  When I was little, I thought the fireworks were all about me!  :)

For most of us, the 4th of July means bands and parades, airshows, backyard barbecues, and fireworks!  That is what came to mind when I saw today's inspiration photo!  

Being the wife of a retired Navy guy and living in a military town, I'm really proud to be American.  I'm grateful for the freedoms we enjoy, and I'm especially grateful for all the sacrifices that our armed forces and their families make to keep us free.  This SSD set is just perfect for saying "thank you!"

Notes:
Home of the Brave
Timeless Textures
Clearsnap ink
Ranger distress ink
Martha Stewart glitter
glue pen
Spellbinder's die
satin cord

Stay Cool!

The weather has certainly been making lots of headlines lately...record heat in many areas of the country, drought and fires in Colorado, and already two tropical storms with floods breaking an almost century-old record right here in Jacksonville.  In the last several days, there were terrible storms with damaging winds in several areas, including my friend Dawn's home in Ohio.  My heart goes out to them!

If it's barely July and the temperatures have already topped 100, what will they be when August arrives?!  The searing heat means lots of us are reaching for the cool treats...supposedly there was even an ice-cream shortage!

For my American friends, Fourth of July celebrations are approaching...my wish for all of you is to "Stay cool" and have a sweet day!  That's what inspired today's card using an image of a cool treat from Gourmet Rubber Stamps' newest Diners' set, Old Fasioned Fun!  Kate has combined images from Old Fashioned Fun into smaller custom-made sets from i {heart} papers.  Isn't it nice to have options?!  Even the names of the products I've used are playin' along with today's theme...Espresso Truffle and Toffee Crunch inks from Tsukineko's Memento Snowcone Assortment, and Sweet Day designer paper!

Notes:
Pinwheel and Ice Cream
Copic blending paper
Echo Park Sweet Day designer paper
Memento inks, Snowcone assortment
Copic markers
Chocolate Spica marker
dew drops

Be sure to visit the GRS blog and the blogs of my GRS design team mates to see what they're doing for some Old Fashioned Fun!