Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #50!!

Good morning everyone! It is such a beautiful Friday morning here! However, I see some clouds rolling in that look like they could be full of snow! Yikes! Anyway, sorry I am a little late this morning. I was having some serious camera issues! It's fixed now but I was starting to get frustrated. The sketch that Taylor has for us this week was definitely a challenging one for me. I could not envision anything to put in those circles! I was hoping to use some SASI stamps but that didn't happen. I will have another card to show you today that uses one of the adorable new releases though! Hehe! Ok, back to this card. I decided to get creative with this one. I just happened to see the sketch laying on my desk upside down and realized that they could easily look like flowers! That's when I decided to pull out my brand spankin' new SU! set (that will be in the new catalog) called "Petal Pizzaz"! I wasn't sure I would like this set at first but I actually love it! Both of the larger flowers were stamped twice so that I could layer the petals and give them some dimension. I then added brads and dew drops to the flower centers and popped them up with some dimensionals. I saw that this week's High Hopes blog challenge is to using tearing on your card so I made the stems and leaves by tearing off strips of Kiwi Kiss cardstock. I then punched a MS butterfly for some more detail. The sentiment on the flag is from the Verve Stamps set called "Fluttering By". I guess the only thing left to mention about this card is that the background dsp is SU! "Hawaii Papaya" (soon to retire).

Make sure you stop by Taylor's blog to see the sketch details! This week's featured sample is also Renee Van Stralen! She is fabulously talented so stop by her blog!

Want to see more? Sure you do! Make sure you check out the rest of the fabulous Cupcake Samplers! They're sure to be great!

Jami Sibley: More is More
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Jackie Pedro: The Scalloped Edge
Donna Baker: Serenity in Stamping
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme
Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp
Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Well, that's it for this post! I will be back later with an adorable card that I just love! :D Enjoy the rest of your morning!

Psalm 31:24

Good evening everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable Wednesday! I am pretty tired tonight so I am going to keep this short. I made tonight's card using the Viva la Verve Sketch Challenge with a Twist of Hardware. Amber has started these fun challenges over in the Splitcoast Verve Forum. For my card I decided to use this Plain Jane stamp from Verve Stamps. I just love this Bible verse. It is definitely one of my favorites! The center scallop circle was cut with my Big Shot and nesties. I wanted to give my card a vintage look so I inked up all the edges with Close to Cocoa. The circle was actually inked up with Riding Hood Red and then Close to Cocoa. I added some primas for a little more detail and my hardware portion of the challenge are the 5 brads. I have discovered that I need to invest in more hardware because I am very limited in my choices. Well, I think that about explains it for this card. As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask! Take care!

Home is Where the Heart is

Good evening everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your Tuesday! Mine was exhausting. My students were very rambunctious today. I don't even know why! Anyway, Tuesday evenings are our free nights so we are just hanging out in the office/stamp room. I am making cards and Nick is watching some videos on our big computer screen! Hehe! Anyway, before we got too involved, I wanted to take time to show you this card I made.

For this card I used last week's Splitcoast Sketch Challenge. I haven't been able to participate in one of these for what seems like ages so it was a nice change! For the image I pulled the newest set from There She Goes called "Welcome Home". I just love this set! It is so versatile and has the most gorgeous images! Make sure you check it out here! I can't wait to play with the front door image. It is seriously just beautiful! Ok, have I ranted and raved enough? Hehe! To color my image I dusted off my much neglected SU! markers. I haven't used them much since I started using my colored pencils and I am not sure why. They really are fantastic! Anyway, I paired the image up with this SU! Haiku dsp as well. It will be retiring soon so make sure you get your hands on it! :D I then added a little touch of ribbon above the sentiment to finish this card up!

That's all I have for tonight! Make sure you take some time to relax! It is amazing how good it can feel. :D I am off to participate in some more fun stamping challenges! I will be back tomorrow with another new creation!

My First TCP Post!

Good evening everyone! I have a really fun card to show you today! I bought my first stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas awhile back and finally got a chance to use them! :D I saw last week's TCP sketch challenge and actually found time to play! You can find all the sketch details on Leigh's blog! Woohoo! Anyway, this set is called "Smells Like Cake" and it has the cutest images! I seriously can't wait to play with them again! I made this card into a 4.25 x 4.25 square card and was amazed at how well this image fit! I have definately been on a layer kick lately and I really don't know why. It's funny the phases I tend to go through. I ran the piece of tangerine card stock through my big shot with the swiss dots cb plate. I really like the detail that it adds to the card. I also colored the image with my Crayola pencils and OMS. The dsp I used is from the current SU! catalog. It is called Hawaii Papaya and it will soon be retiring so make sure you stock up! :) Well, I think the rest of this card is self-explanatory. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your evening!

I'm Praying For You

Here is the card I made for Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge from last week Monday! I absolutely love how this card turned out. It is probably one of my favorites yet! I used this gorgeous Verve set called "Serenity". The name fits this set perfectly! Anyway, it is really late and school starts back up tomorrow so I am going to spare you the boring details for tonight! Have a fabulous night! Thanks for stopping by!

New Blog Header AND Newly Discovered Stamps! :D

I have found that when Nick is getting ready for a sermon, I have the entire day to do whatever I want and he won't probably miss me much! Hehe! That guy spends hours upon hours getting ready! Anyway, due to this large amount of time, I spent a big portion of my day browsing the internet. :D I have two discoveries that I would like to share:

#1. While perusing different sites, I decided I wanted to take up digi scrapping. I found this great starter site called CropMom.com and made my very first digi layout which I then turned into my blog header! What do you think? It's not too bad for my first time. To continue on, I then decided I needed a better program that will let me do more so I have convinced Nick that we should get Photoshop Elements! :D He has actually been wanting it as well so it wasn't too difficult to persuade him.

#2.I also found a few new stamp companies that I absolutely LOVE! :)

• The first company was one I had heard about but never checked out--Our Daily Bread Designs! They have the most amazing stamp sets! I love sharing my faith through my card making and this company creates the most gorgeous Christian stamps! I have to admit that it was hard to pick between my favorites but my husband said I couldn't spend much so I bought two new sets! So...do you want to see which two I picked??? I picked Flourished Christian Symbols and Light of the World. I already know which ones will be next too! :D
• The second company I discovered today was one I had never heard about--Whimsy Stamps! I can tell you right now that they will be a favorite of mine though. Not only are their stamps EXTREMELY adorable, they are SUPER affordable! :) I love cute animal stamps and this company has some of the cutest animal images I have ever seen! I will be ordering this turtle, this moose, and this owl for sure! Also, I decided to check out their design team blogs and I found that there is a challenge currently open on Paper Craft Planet AND one of the dt gals, Erin, is giving away some Whimsy stamps on her blog! Woohoo! Of course I am going to enter that fabulous drawing! :)

Ok...those are my discoveries so far! I am excited about them, that's for sure! Sorry for all the ramblings tonight. That's what happens when you don't have anyone to talk to all day! Haha!

A Stamped Candle!!!!

Good afternoon everyone! I hope your weekend is going well so far! Today I wanted to show you the gifts that I made all of my family members this Christmas. I gave each of them a hand stamped candle! I learned how to stamp on candles from Michelle's video tutorial that you can view here. She did such a great job explaining it! The process was really quite simple, it just got to be time consuming because I made so many! :D Anyway, I used the retired Stampin' Up! set "The Snowflake Spot" for the candle stamping and I used the current Stampin' Up! Hostess set "Punches Three" for the little tag. I just love how these candles turned out and I seemed to get a great response from my family members as well! I am relieved that I can finally share this project with you! It was one I was truly excited about!

Enjoy the rest of your day! We finally have our house put back together after our new entertainment center arrived so I can officially start to relax! It's amazing how big of a process something like that can be! Especially when you are not ready to get rid of the old entertainment center but you don't exactly have room for it either! We ended up reshuffling three rooms to get everything to work AND look nice! Oh...my brother also moved in with us for a couple of months so we had to find space in our guest room for all of his stuff. My linens got demoted from that closet to the old entertainment center! Haha! Luckily the old one has closing doors on the front so no one will ever know...well...except you lucky ladies! :D Ok, I have blabbed on enough for one day. If you remember, will you say a quick prayer for my hubby today and tomorrow. He is giving another sermon at church tomorrow and he always gets extremely nervous! You girls rock! As always, thanks so much for stopping by! I appreciate each and every one of you!

The Big SASI Release!

Can you believe that the release is already upon us??? This has been a whirlwind week, that's for sure! If you haven't, stop by Taylor's blog to see all the details of tonight's release. After that you may then proceed to the Taylored Expressions store to buy all of these adorable stamps and paper sets! :D You must then make sure to see all the other design team members' blogs! I know...lots of hopping to do tonight! Hehe!

Anyway, I used today's (or tomorrow, however you look at it) Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge for this card. I will admit that I REALLY struggled with this sketch. I wanted to use one of the adorable cuppies but couldn't figure out how to get them to fit. I ended up using Mr. Smooch cuppie again along with the "smooches" sentiment. Both are in the Love is Kind set. I also struggled as to what to put in the other two circles so I pulled out my new SU! heart punch (from the Love You Much bundle) and layered some hearts. I then tied some Riding Hood Red ribbon around the middle of the card and added some glitter! This card is a whole lot more sparkly IRL. I couldn't get it to show up well in the picture. It just looks like streaks. Haha! Anyway, all of the paper and glitter found on this card can be found in the fabulous Valentine Key Ingredients Kit! Isn't that paper amazing??? Well, that's all the blabbering I am going to do.

Now for the hopping. Stop by the following dt member blogs as well as Taylor's blog:
Jami Sibley
Jen del Muro
Denise Marzec
Laurie Schmidlin
Carol Halvorson
Monika Davis
Charmaine Ikach
Sharon Harnist
Ana Wohlfahrt
Donna Baker
Terri Dodd

Finished with that? Ok...now stop by the Cupcake Sketch Crew blogs to see their samples for the sketch!
Jami Sibley: More is More
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Jackie Pedro: The Scalloped Edge
Donna Baker: Serenity in Stamping
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme
Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp
Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Finally...do not forget about this week's featured cupcake sampler! She is fabulous...she is amazing...she is Carolina Buchting!!!! :D Do NOT miss her blog!

Sent With Love

Is that not the cutest mailbox EVER??? I love this newly released set called "Special Delivery" from There She Goes so much! It was just released this morning with a few other adorable sets so make sure you stop by the store! Jessica did such a fantastic job with this latest release! It is definitely one of my favorites! :D I wanted to make this a Valentine's Day card since it is surprisingly just around the corner so I put the hearts inside the mailbox. The wonderful thing about this set is that the stamps are designed to overlap! Anyway, I paired this set with my new dsp from the Stampin' Up! "Love You Much" bundle! This paper is amazing! I then water colored the image using my Crayola Pencils and OMS. Well, that's it for this post! I have another one that I will be posting tonight around 11! Stay tuned!

SASI -- Love is Sweet!

Happy New Year! I seriously can not believe it is 2009. I just got used to writing 2008! Haha! Anyway, it's time for another Taylored Expressions sneak peek! Today we are showcasing the adorable set "Love is Sweet". This set is perfect for Valentines Day! I am also showing you some of the fun things that can be found in the Valentines Key Ingredient Kit! Included is some adorable dp, coordinating card stock, ribbon, heart brads, and glitter!


For today's project I made a card and bag gift set. I just love these adorable images! I couldn't decide between the kissing couple or the lip print cuppie so I used both! Anyway, I again water colored my images using my Crayola pencils and OMS! I then cut out the images and popped them up using dimensionals! Well, I have to run! I am posting this in a rush! I will be back later to add more details! Until then, stop by Taylor's blog as well as the other design team member blogs! I am sure they will blow you away!

Jami Sibley
Jen del Muro
Denise Marzec
Laurie Schmidlin
Carol Halvorson
Monika Davis
Charmaine Ikach
Sharon Harnist
Ana Wohlfahrt
Donna Baker
Terri Dodd

SASI--A Year of Sweets!

Good evening! We are back in Colorado and it is definitely a feeling of relief! We arrived home around 2 a.m. and slept until 11 a.m.! Haha! Well, I am FINALLY able to share some brand new creations! What better way to start than by showcasing some sneak peeks of the adorable Stamp a Sweet Impression stamps??? Anyway, since I was in Iowa the past two weeks and didn't have my new stamps (they were waiting here for me on my doorstep) I had to get everything done today. Let me tell you how stressful that can feel! I absolutely hate being behind! Well Taylor has certainly outdone herself with this new release! Not only is she releasing 5 fantastic sets, she is also releasing the new Valentines Key Ingredients kit, a new (fabulous) card stock, AND two different types of calenders! You can choose from a "Frame Your Imagination" vertical stand like the one I will be featuring OR a perpetual calendar! Isn't that awesome??? The release will be January 2nd so don't miss it!

Anyway, along with the vertical calender stand, the stamp set that I will be showing you today is called "A Year of Sweets 3"! My set has an image for September, October, November, and December. There are two other sets featuring the other 8 months as well and you can view those on the rest of the dt blogs! I didn't have time to create a calendar for all 12 months (yet) so I will continue to show you my progress over the next month. I am excited to see it all finished! I began by having my wonderful little brother spray paint the stand white. (I hope to decorate it in the near future.) I then started working on the pages. The two months that I did decide to finish were October (my bday month) and November! I honestly have no idea why I went with the Baja Breeze ribbon for October. I just thought the color looked nice I guess! Haha! The November ribbon was a no brainer. Anyway, I watercolored my images using my Crayola pencils and OMS. I then attatched my images to the calendar with magnets so that I can switch it out next year (just in case I don't have time to do this again)!

Well, that does it for today's sneak peek! Come back tomorrow for a peek at another adorable set! Make sure you remember to stop by Taylor's blog as well as the rest of the dt! They have all done a fantastic job of showcasing this new release!

Design Team Members Showcasing the Perpetual Calendar

Jami Sibley
Jen del Muro
Denise Marzec
Laurie Schmidlin
Carol Halvorson
Monika Davis

Design Team Members Showcasing the Frame Your Imagination Vertical Stand

Charmaine Ikach
Sharon Harnist
Ana Wohlfahrt
Donna Baker
Terri Dodd

Christmas Gift Tags!

Good evening everyone! Today has been one crazy day! We drove straight through the night last night and arrived here in Iowa around 11 a.m. We went to bed and woke up around 2 this afternoon so that we could shower and help my parents get ready for my dad's business work party! It was a little stressful trying to get everything done but we were able to do it! The party ended up being a huge hit despite the fact that there was a snowstorm taking place. We had so much fun playing games and eating. My mom cooked the most prime rib and prepared TONS of appetizers! I even made some green bean casserole! Hehe! Everyone seemed to enjoy it! Anyway, I am now getting around to sharing my creations with you. I have been making tons of tags these past few weeks and these are a few of my favorites. I tried to keep it fairly simple (although some got a little out of hand) since most tags get thrown away anyway. One snag I ran into was trying to find dp that matched my wrapping paper so I decided to just use some coordinating wrapping paper! I think they turned out pretty good! Well, that's it for tonight! I am exhausted and am ready for bed! Have a great evening!

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #47

So...long time no post! I seriously can not believe how long it has been! I was so happy to finally be able to sit down and create something just for fun! I have been so bogged down with Christmas stuff these past two weeks that I was starting to go nuts! I will show you some of the things I have been working on over the next few days but I can't yet because I have a few faithful readers in my family (Hi Nancy and Jess!) who can't see them yet! Hehehe!

Anyway, I really love how this card turned out! Taylor provided such a great sketch for us this week! It was perfect for making a simple, yet elegant card (imho). I was so excited to get the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder a couple of weeks ago and today is the first I have used it! I just think it provides such a neat element to a card and I have loved seeing all of the cards made with it online! The stamped snowflake is from the retired SU! set The Snowflake Spot! I love this set and was so bummed that they retired it! The sentiment is from the SASI set Home Sweet Home. I love how you can use the SASI sentiments everywhere! It's amazing!

Before you leave, make sure to check Taylor's blog as well as this week's featured cupcake sampler, Karen Motz. You also won't want to miss the rest of the Cupcake Sampler's blogs!

Jami Sibley: More is More
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Jackie Pedro: The Scalloped Edge
Donna Baker: Serenity in Stamping
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme
Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp
Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon! Nick and I are off to Iowa (AGAIN)! We will be there for the rest of the year so if my posts are still sporadic, that is why. I promise you that my posting will continue as usual after New Years so stick with me! :) Thanks for stopping by! I truley appreciate it!

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #45

Good Friday morning! Sorry for the lack of posts this week! I can't even begin to tell you how crazy busy we have been! To be honest, I have been so exhausted that I haven't even felt like stamping much. It was pretty hard to find time to sneak into my stamp room to make today's card but I did, and I really enjoyed myself! :)

This week Taylor has a really great sketch! I absolutely hated ovals until I got my nesties so now I am in heaven! They just make life so much easier! Anyway, I used this adorable caroling cupcake from the Home Sweet Home set from Stamp a Sweet Impression! I just think he/she is so adorable! I also combined some dp from the Christmas Key Ingredients Kit and some dp from Stampin' Up!'s Ski Slope pack. I was pretty amazed at how well they coordinated! For the image I stamped it in StazOn and then colored it in with my Crayola pencils and OMS. Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Make sure you check out Taylor's sketch and her sample! You also won't want to miss this week's featured sampler: Cindy Lawrence! She is one talented stamper! I have been a long time admirer of her work!

Want to see more? Sure you do! Make sure you check out the rest of the fabulous Cupcake Samplers! They're sure to be great!

Jami Sibley: More is More
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Jackie Pedro: The Scalloped Edge
Donna Baker: Serenity in Stamping
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme
Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp
Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Well, that's it for today! Nick and I are off to do some Christmas shopping! Yikes! :)

Recipe:
Stamps: SASI (Home Sweet Home)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Ruby Red, SASI Christmas Key Ingredients Kit, Ski Slope dsp
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: Ribbon, Brads, Nestabilities, Big Shot, Crayola Pencils, OMS, Blending Stump, Dimensionals

I'm Still Alive! :)

I just wanted to check in so that you know I am still living! We got home yesterday morning (EARLY) and we both still had work so we are in the process of recuperating from our lack of rest! It's been a long week so far and we are only to Tuesday! Anyway, here is a card for you to glance at! I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving! I will hopefully have a new creation to share with you tomorrow!