Remembering...

So many wonderful memories of Valentine's Day! It has been a day of romantic celebration, whether or not my Love and I are together. As the wife of a Navy man, I have spent many Valentine's Days alone counting the days until we would be reunited! This year we are very happy to be together, and alone at that! (Our son is on a ski trip with the church youth group, returning tomorrow evening).

On this day in 1994 I was pregnant, and Valentine's Day was my due date...Matthew was born four days later, and I remember spending those first few weeks cradling him in my arms for long hours as I sat and watched the Winter Olympics between naps and feedings. Seems so long ago, but Valentine's Day and the Olympics still bring back such sweet thoughts! Today Patrick and I are watching the Winter Olympics together, hoping that Matthew is having a great time on the ski slopes of North Carolina!

This simple Valentine card was inspired by today's SCS featured stamper, Laurie, aka HamiltonGal. I loved the clean lines of her 15 minute card, and made it my own by replacing the scoring with layers, changing the colors and the images. The stamps I used are from Lizzie Anne Designs' January Monthly Mix, From the Heart...paired with yummy pomegranate retired ribbon, ink and paper from Stampin' UP!

I hope you're having a wonderful day! Take some time to give a little love! What goes around comes around! {{hugs}}

Eggstra Special

Yeah! I finally got to play a challenge! My friend Wendy is hosting today's Limited Supply Challenge over at SCS...and her challenge is to be inspired by the presidents since this weekend we're celebrating President's Day.

My card is in honor of President Rutherford B. Hayes, who brought the tradition of egg rolling to The White House! Back when Matthew was three or four years old, our play group participated in our own version of the event! It was SO FUN! I will have to see if I can find a picture to share! The kids were so adorable!

I am really enjoying coloring the fun images in OCL's Hippity Hoppity! I used my Copics to color, then cut and embossed the image with smooth and scalloped oval nesties...the tag sentiment is laid over some beautiful green satin ribbon and has a little snail from the same set to add just a bit more interest. A simple, bright card for Easter. LOVE this season, can't WAIT for some warm spring sunshine!

Warmest Wishes

Since Valentine's Day is near and Spring is coming, I decided to make a wedding card...I usually try to keep an assortment of cards of varying themes on hand "just in case," and had nothing at all for this particular occasion.

LOVE this beautiful cake from Our Craft Lounge's set, Bird and Groom, available at i {heart} papers. This set is cool because you can dress it up or down, elegant or cutesie, as the name of the set suggests. I colored my images with Copic markers, then cut and embossed it with rectangular nestabilities. I trimmed the edges unevenly, folding the card in landscape orientation and giving the opening edge a scalloped border. Love that big white bow that peeks from the bottom of the inside! (Those of you who know me know that I'm into all that symbolism!). I love the formality that the contrasting gray brings to the bright pink, along with that pretty bauble.

I'm working on more cards with Our Craft Lounge's CHA release, so I hope you'll come back soon!

Old Friends

I absolutely love the vintage, sorta shabby-chic look, and these Lizzie Anne Designs images are just perfect for it! They are both from February's monthly mix, Singing in the Rain. I used several coordinating prints from TCP Studios Ancestral Pocket Watch line, along with a lot of Tim Holtz distress ink, even on the American Crafts grosgrain ribbon.

Take a look at Lizzie Anne's Sketchbook for lots of ideas on how to use the stamps in this mix, or any other of LAD's images. It's a great resource!

Hoppy Easter!

This cute Hippity Hoppity froggy with his bunny ears costume just makes me giggle he's so CUTE! I paired him with some bright papers (Abbey Road Whirlybird Sunshine Girl, Stomp Rock On Tadpole, hehehe how appropriate! and Ooh La La), some trim that just looks like Easter eggs to me for some reason (although you can barely see it here!) and then added some amphibious texture to the background just for fun! It may be a little strange but I think it came out kinda cute!

I colored him with my Copic markers, then went over the egg with a clear Spica pen (I *need* all those Spica colors!)...wish I could catch that sparkle, but I just couldn't get the right angle! I used square nesties to cut, emboss, and mat the image, ovals for the egg, and a tag for the sentiment.

I think this little fella is gonna be one of my favorite Easter images. We used him for the Our Craft Lounge make-n-take in the booth during the CHA Tradeshow. So adorable! He's really cute if you sparkly-fluff his bunny ears!

Wooohoooo! Geaux Saints!

Sorry! Couldn't resist! The Cajun in me just jumped right out! :)

Banana Split Sunday!

Valentine's Day is just a week away, so it is nice that today's Banana Split Challenge, Be Mine, offers you another opportunity to make a last-minute Valentine! While you might have that one special someone that you design an intricate, more time-consuming gift for, Valentine's Day is one of those holidays when you might need multiples, so something fast and easy is a good thing! Besides, it is kinda fun to make something fancy and romantic for your love, and then something cute and fun for your little loveys. ;)

Today's card features Fancy Pants coordinating two-sided designer prints: Dancing Girl (dots/roses), Hip Hop (stripes) and Ballet (hearts). I grabbed these fun Valentine papers and a sketch from September 2009 Card Maps to construct a card that took about 15 minutes to make. A few stitched edges, a bejeweled nestabilities fancy labels sentiment, a little sponging, a pretty bow, and it was a done deal. I think this will be the perfect Valentine for sweet Ashley, the darling girl I'm mentoring for confirmation this year.

Visit the 2RedBananas Store, then come to the Banana Blog to play along with our challenge each Sunday. The design team girls in the Banana Bunch always post inspiring cards to get you motivated to create. ;)

Happy Chickadee

I am lovin' this cute little chick from the {stamps} of Life! Stephanie's sets are so fun to use because they are all interchangeable, and this card is a great illustration of how that works! The outline for this chick's body is part of this month's release (Eggs4Easter)...you can color him in with Copics (as I did in another card, here) or you can two-step stamp it using the large balloon from HappyBday2You upside down for the solid color of his body. How cool is that?!

The sentiment is a combination of words from Eggs4Easter, HappyBday2You, and images from QuickHi. I love that some pretty patterned paper, a little bit of bling, and a strip of ribbon combine to make a quick, cute card.

Today the {stamps} of Life is sponsoring Crazy4Challenges! With Valentine's Day just around the corner, this week's theme is Be My Valentine. Be sure to play along, because one randomly chosen winner will receive either 2 clear sets OR 5 digital sets from the {stamps} of Life! Visit their blog to see a few Valentines made by our design team...and then get busy!

Sweet!

It's February (I can hardly believe how fast the year is flying by!) so it is time to make sure you're all set for Valentine's Day! Here's a remake of a store-bought box of chocolates, using Lizzie Anne Designs' Simply Singles image of the same name.

This month's Lizzie Anne newsletter includes a tutorial for making this sweet little gift. If you have not yet signed up for it, you can do so here!

Hope you're having a sweet Tuesday!

ETA: Lizzie Anne's Valentine's Day and Love-themed stamps are on sale 30% off through MONDAY, February 8th, only!

Wishing for Spring!

How about a cute new set from The {stamps} of Life?! Introducing Eggs4Easter! I stamped these cute little chicks with Memento ink and colored them with Copics. The sky was sponged with a scalloped circle punch as a mask. I added a big frou frou bow with a scrap of orange silk, a button and cording. Fast and fun!