Stylish Blogger Award Surprise!

Imagine my surprise when I found in my comments I won this award!
This award was given to me by Donna Centamore at Butternut Sage .
 Thank you SO MUCH Donna for thinking of me. I am SO Excited!
Part of accepting this award is to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award. Thanks Donna!

2. Share 8 things about yourself

3. Pass it on to 8 bloggers

4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award

8 Things about me:

1 - I work full time as a Quality Systems Internal Auditor for the automotive industry, and auditor my companies facilities in Michigan, Kentucky and Mexico.
2 - Originally my passion was scrapbooking, but I slowly became an obsessive Stamper and card maker. LOVE every minute of it too.  8-)
3 - I became a Stampin' Up demo going on two years in May. (Still feel like a newbie.)
4 - My wonderful-long-distance-out-of-state Up-Line Nance; while visiting her mom (my gal pal) use to think my scrapping group was a little nuts for playing with paper. She even said to my pal Nancy (her mom) "you girls actually do this once a week?"..... Heeeeeellllllllllloooooooooo .....Yeah we do!  Pretty funny now eh?
5 - As much as I 'USE' a computer.... I'm pretty much a stumper as to HOW the inerds work, or how to do a lot of stuff .... just ask Nance, Sharon, Nancy, Sherriee.... what would I do without them? THANKS gal pals!
6 - Have one daughter and three 'perfect' Grandchildren.
7 - My DREAM would be to make my hobby my full time job! A girl can dream can't she?
8 - I admire and am grateful for the many talented bloggers out there that give me inspiration and friendship and especially to the ones who stop and leave a comment from time to time.

As difficult as it is to only name 8 I admire, I'm passing this award on to:

Nance
Nancy
Ann
Carla
Linda
Linda
Regina
Karen

THANKS to ALL of you for enriching my LOVE of stamping!

Perk Up {PPA74} sketch challenge

Happy Monday everyone, Christmas is over and I'm still off work! Yipppee. One more week of doing what ever I want. So here is just another quick post to play along in the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge.                      

                                                                             

          My card may be a little backward to the sketch here....

but I think it will work just fine.

Here is yet another Get Well card (sorry to say) I made for my sister-in-law. Seems I need a whole of lot of Get Well cards lately. Not a good thing. I am trying to use up my scraps of retired DSP before diving into any new DSP packs I have (and I'm chomping at the bit with anticipation of the NEW goodies to come soon with the new Occasions mini). yeah baby!

  So here is my very simple card, in some of my favorite colors; Black, White & Red.

The stamps are a combination of  SU and PTI, and the large cup was die cut twice from a PTI die for the front; once on CS and again on DSP. Then a little distressing and popped up with a few dimensionals. The stack of cups was stamped and colored with a cobbler write marker on WW, then matted on a piece of cherry cobbler CS with a strip of red polka dot ribbon. This mat was popped up over two scrap strips of the polka dotted DSPs (retired) in black & white.

The sentiment was stamped on WW large oval punch, then matted to the scallop oval punched piece of DSP and popped with another dimensional.

I stamped the pot on the inside from a SU set on WW and matted with a piece of Cherry Cobbler CS along with another scrap piece of polka dotted DSP.

Well that's it, pretty simple and I hope you like it.

I want to wish everyone that visits my blog a Very Happy New Year!

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment".

Tea Time Lace {PPA73}

Today's post is another last minute one, just because I wanted to make it my last post of the year (probably).. for a challenge anyway. I also have to say not too much of the content is SU but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

 I made this card this weekend for a dear friend going through chemo treatment and she happens to love tea, however, SU doesn't have a lot of "tea" items. So the stamps and dies are PTI and the paper and ink is SU product.

The inspiration for my  PPA73 Get Your Lace in Place  challenge card came from Linda Callahan's  cute coffee card. Isn't that just the cutest?

 I already had the tea theme going in my head, but when I saw her lace which reminds me of a tablecloth my mom always had on her kitchen table, well... I just had to CASE that idea immediately for mine. Anyway here is my card.

I embossed the Vanilla CS card base with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  Then matted some Sweet and Sour SDSP to the top; and Very Vanilla CS to the bottom half of a Early Espresso mat. I inked the stamp sentiment from the PTI set in Early Espresso. 

 The teapot and cup were cut with PTI dies twice; once each on DSP and CS; and I glued both together to give it some bulk, then popped them up with a dimensional. I added some lace from my stash around the mat before securing it to the card front.

. The PTI "steep, stir and enjoy Tea Time" sentiment was stamped in EE on VV and matted in EE CS and also popped up with a dimensional.

The inside also has a touch of the front theme along with the sentiment which was inked on very vanilla CS in Early Espresso ink, then added to the mat of a SDSP scrap and Early Espresso CS.

Well that's it. I'm now off to post it on the Pals Paper Arts blog challenge.

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by! Now please a comment to let me know what you think."

Bells and Boughs Winter White {PPA72}

Today's post is a QUICK one! Whew... I got home from work and wanted to participate in the Winter White challenge at Pals Paper Arts so I had to hurry and get a card put together fast. It's not my favorite but it will work for the challenge. Here is the inspiration photo...isn't it great. I was drawn to the fringe on the shawl and the trees.

Here's my card.

It's hard to see, but I stamped Scenic Season background on natural vanilla CS in crumb cake. I stamped just the trees and staggered the right hand side of the stamp in the upper left.

Then I stamped the poinsettia from the Bells and Boughs stamp set in Versamark on vellum and heat embossed with white embossing power,... but before I put the heat to it, I "lightly" sprinkled some fine glitter into the powder. It's really hard to see though.

The sentiment was stamped from the same set and was heat embossed  the same way without the glitter.

I used the edge punch on the bottom of the vellum then adhered the vellum to the card  with two cream colored large eyelets.


I doubled up by combining the fringy string with a fine piece of gold thread. I ran them both through the eyelets and tied in a small bow. Can you see the thin gold thread?

The finishing touch ?.... What else but those gorgeous PEARLS!!!! Oh how I LOVE those Pearls!

I'm so bummed that the sparkle from the "light" glitter doesn't show up, but believe me, it's there. I also know there should be three berries in each poinsettia, but ..... NOT today. I have all my cards done for Christmas so I think I'll just save them for now.  .

So that's it. Hope you like it

Hootie says "THANKS for stopping by and please leave a comment and tell us what you think".

Christmas Treat & Bookmark PP27 & CD88

Hi there everyone! Wow I've been away from blogland for what seems a LONG time. I was out of town for work in Kentucky for the whole week. I was just catching up on the blogs and decided to post this for the Paper Players "Christmas Theme" challenge, AND the Color Dare "Color" challenge. I'd better hurry up to make the deadline. It's already late Friday night and that's a deadline for one. Yipes!

I just made a bunch of these treat boxes for the engineers in my group at work. So easy to do and you can whip them up in a wink! I got the idea from my gal pal Nancy over at Nanc's Niche, who has given these to our scrapping group in the past; on Valentines last year, and for other occassions to some other friends. Here they are.

They are small boxes of chocolates (3) covered in a cute Jolly Holidays DSP sleeve.
I stamped the Ornament stamp in cherry cobbler and punched it out with ornament punch. I added a touch of sparkle with some Stickles and popped it up with a dimensional.

It's sooooooooo much cuter in real life, but I don't have to tell you that. Also the color is so much brighter and bolder in person... but I don't have the best of cameras or lighting to take the photos; but you get the idea...right?

Then tucked into the sleeve of each one, is a cute little bookmark; this idea was also Nancy's but hey... what are friends for... right? I CASED you Nanc! I know you love it.

Here is a close up of the bookmark. I used two die cuts for each book mark; One in pear pizzazz CS and a second in Jolly Holidays DSP. You can't see in this photo, but the matching die cut in DSP is glued to the back so it's pretty on both sides.  I also used the PT stamps on the CS side and again on a 1" circle of whisper white, which was matted with the 1 1/4" circle in cherry cobbler. I finished it off by tying it off with two pieces of ribbon in red and green (burgandy and olive) from my stash.

I made some more of these after I took this photo but I added an addition 3/4" band in contrasting DSP strips to the sleeve lined up under the ornament, but I don't have a picture just yet. This bunch is even CUTER!... I know. I can't believe it either. Well that's it for now. I think they are so darn cute!  How about you?

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by" & please leave comment and let me know what you think.

Rollin' By Christmas - Remember When

Hi everyone.
Well I don't have any projects that match any challenge this week, but I was very busy putting together some treat boxes for people at work and my gal pals. PLUS.... I just have to post this card. I made it for my gal pals get-to-gether this week, along with a small treat box of chocolates. After I completed the card, I just stood and looked at it and LAUGHED.... It reminds me of my childhood when I actually wore those kind of skates! So now........ Now I'll just have to make another one for my sister.  Here is my card.

My gal pal Nancy of  Nanc's Niche' (mother to my up line Nance of Canopy Crafts) showed me this post card she had from a few years back. Well I just cracked up when I saw it and asked her if I could scan it. I knew I had to use it on a card for people of my generation. Isn't she adorable?
The card base is 5" square that is embossed with the CB snowflake embossing folder. I added a strip of Jolly Holidays DSP on the front to cover the spot where the emboss folder did not cover as it is only 4 inches across.
The original post card was round, so I scanned it printed it out on photo paper, then cut it out with some dies rings. I cut  double mats with my Cricut in WW and Rose Red, and glued to the front.
I just made up the sentiment in my head... printed it in a WORD document and tried to match the color, then punch it out with XL Oval punch. I cut a rose red mat with the Sizzix Ovals die using the smallest oval of the three. I glued the sentiment to the mat, added a scrap of ribbon from my stash, held it with old olive brad and popped it up with a few dimensionals.

Will ya check out those roller skates! Remember those??? I'm sure there are few of you out there that DO remember.... YOU know who are you. The skates clamped on your shoes and you needed a skate key to tighten them.

Picture this....... you're skating along and .... you feel something...one of the clamps is loose and slips off your shoe........... OH NO.... it dragging on the pavement. As you attempt to slow down and fix it you start to yell..... "Hey guys.... wait for me"!

I sure hope that no one getting this sees it too soon, but I couldn't wait. It just makes me SMILE! 

The inside is very simple.... Stamped snowflakes in olive on card back, and stamped in rose red along with  a sentiment on WW circle. Another circle for the mat again on Rose CS and glued to the inside.

 Well that's it. but I just LOVE that little girl. I'll be using her again.  Hope you liked her too!

Hootie says "Thanks for Stopping By..... Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

PPA#69 FABRIC CAS - Peace on Earth

Hi everyone.
I decided to post my card today for the Pals Paper Arts #69 FABRIC CAS challenge. At first glance it doesn't seem to be Clean And Simple, but it actually is, well to me anyway. I guess I'm referring to the creation of the card because the Jolly Holidays DSP seems pretty busy. Right? but oh soooooooo pretty. The Fabric I choose to work with is some yummy PT green felt, and the color looks pretty close to Pear Pizzazz - don't you think?. It cuts like butter and feels even better. Now here is my card.

 I started with a base of Natural Ivory CS scored and folded to make an A2 horizontal card. I layered that with a piece of Jolly Holidays DSP.  For the second layer I made a strip using another pattern of the same DSP on a strip of Ivory CS and glued it to the front of my card.

Layer 3 is two PT die cuts; one circle of ivory stamped with the sentiment in Cherry Cobbler which is glued to a scallop circle of green felt. Then I took a very thin strip of felt tied it in a cute little bow and added a red rhinestone to the center. The whole grouping was popped up with three dimensionals.

I could have stopped there, but I punched the two step bird out of both ivory and DSP. I shaded the bird and branches with some cherry cobbler ink, then tucked the branches under the sentiment and popped the bird up with two layers of dimensionals so the bird was just a tad higher than the sentiment circles.

The inside sentiment was stamped in cherry cobbler with touches of the front theme in the lower corner. Done!

Hope you like my post today. 

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment to let us know what you think".   

Paper Players #24 Color challenge

Hi everyone.

I posting tonight from my brand new laptop.. Whooo hoo. Now I just have to figure out how to use it. I'm not to swift with new technology... ask my friends that always have to help me!  (you know who you are, and thanks for always being there for me).

Well enough of that. I am just so happy to be able to play along this week in the Paper Players #24 Color challenge. Here are the colors we are to use for this week's challenge.

The design I decided to go with is very simple and requires little explanation. Along with the Cherry Cobbler & Artichoke,  I used Whisper White for my neutral with a touch of Crumb Cake ink. 

I started with a base of Cherry Cobbler CS. Layer two is a mat of Artichoke and layer three is the focal point of an ornament from Delightful Decorations stamped in cobbler on Whisper White. The string bow is from Berry Christmas stamped in Crumb Cake, as is the sentiment from Four The Holidays.

I then added some dimension with leaves from a Sizzix die, and topped that with a 5 point flower punched in cobbler and topped that with a WW snowflake.

   I also added some glitz by putting a quartz colored rhinestones in the middle of the snowflake as well as the center of the ornament. It's hard to see, but I thought the quartz colored rhinestone would look better with the crumb cake ink than a clear one. 

Here's a peek at the inside... with carried over elements of the front except I popped the ornament with a dimensional so it would show up against the cobbler CS. The sentiment is from a retired a set.  

When I finished I was looking at the scraps on the table and decided to make a second card but I flip flopped it in the opposite colors. Even though this doesn't count for the challenge, I wanted to post it too.

I thought the leaves got lost in the all the green, so I changed it up a bit, and added red rhinestones in groups of three to resemble holly. What do think?

Here's a peek at the inside of the second card, again with a touch of the front elements.

Well I was really liking these colors, so why stop there......... I decided to use up more scraps and added them to this little box I had started yesterday. The main box is made of Pear Pizzazz.

 I decorated it with some scrap Christmas DSP,  and more cobbler & DSP scraps on the sides. On top another 5 point flower in punched in cobbler with a polka dot flower and a brad for the center. This flower sets atop a few artichoke leaves, and both are attached with the flower center brad to a sentiment stamped on a Decorative Label popped up with a few dimensionals. I then added a pretty bow but I didn't have cobbler so I used some burgundy I had in my stash.

Here's final picture of the group from my afternoon of fun. I hope you like them.

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment and let me know what you think"...

 they just make my day!

French Foliage JAI42 sketch challenge

Hi all.
I have good news and some bad news. The bad news is... My home computer is DOWN AGAIN!!! OMG... Fried monitor. The good news is I emailed myself a few photos at work of some cards I made just prior to the big FRY thing at home. So I happen to have (at work on lunch hour), a card I think might work for the sketch challenge #42 at Just Add Ink.  Here is the sketch #42 at JAI

and here is my card.

I used the French Foliage Stamp set - My FAVORITE from the mini catty. I started with a cherry cobbler base and Very Vanilla CS as well as some pieces of Elegant Soiree' DSP.

I stamped a crackle BG stamp on the VV in Close to Cocoa ink, then used the French Foliage stamps in Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard Soft Suade inks. I tore the two sides of the VV CS and distressed all edges with Soft Suade ink. I tore the same two edges of the DSP mat and distressed all edges the same way. I glued the VV piece to DSP piece and wrapped with a piece of chocolate chip ribbon.  I then rolled the corner over with a pencil to make it curl over just a bit before adding it to card front.  .

The sentiment was done the same way as the VV piece then punched with the Decorative label punch, double matted with Cherry Cobbler CS of a second decorative label piece and popped up with a few dimensionals.

The inside was done the same as the front pieces with DSP on top at the left side of the VV CS.

I hope you like it.

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by and please a comment".

Anything Goes Paper Players #22 Cake, Cake and More Cake!

Hi everyone.... I have LOTS of CAKE to show you today, so I'm going to be a little gabby;  hope you can bare with me for a while.

This post  is for the "Anything Goes" challenge #22  at The Paper Players ".

  I also have to say my FIRST cake posted is going to be a 'joint' post with my friend Nancy over at Nanc's Niche.  It was made by both of us and this cake thing all started because we never celebrated the birthday of one of our scrappers so Nancy and I decided to make her a cake after the fact...AND it's all paper! ....  and here it is.

We made a "CARROT CAKE"! Isn't a adorable?

Nancy made easy business out of cutting out of the pieces as she had bought the SVG file. We hooked that up to her Cricut and the Cricut did all the hard work! Cool. Then we had to score each piece in a million places so we could fold and glue each 'Slice' together. She also made the cute carrots using a Cricut cartridge that decorate the top. The sides are stamped with chocolate chip and more mustard ink to represent the NUTS usually found on the sides of most carrots cakes; as to the two NUTS making it; but we were laughing all the way. 

We filled each slice with paper crafting goodies: small stamps, small punches, ribbons, buttons, brads, and some chocolate of course! Each bundle was wrapped in orange tissue paper which gave each slice a burst of color when the box was opened. Our friend just LOVED it, and so do we.

Well now I bet you think that is the end of the story..... but ohhhhhhh Nnooooooooo.

After it was completed I couldn't wait to show my other pals and my daughter (who lives in Missouri). 

She thought it was FABULOUS and that it would a great idea for my granddaughter's birthday party for her preschool class of 10. The school also promotes non-sweet celebrations.

Well Gramma just couldn't say no.... so here I went again on my own. 

I chose to do a Safari cake... and look what I ended up with.

I wanted to do some stamping too, so I heat embossed the animals on each slice and colored them using markers and inks then cut them out and attached with glue dots. Isn't it cute? I also knew I wanted to use this goofy elephant stamp I have but it was too large for the side of the slices, so I made my own topper. Too funny heh?

I created the tree and flowers using several dies and punches. The little goofy elephant is on both sides so it doesn't matter which way he sits.

The slices where embellished with some zig zag strips to make it look like yummy chocolate layered in the marble card stock cake slices.

Then each slice was filled with not too sweet goodies for each of the 10 kids, teacher and assistant in the class. They will each get 2 note pads, 1 marker, 1 crayon eraser, 1 fuzzy sticker, 1 sucker, and 1 small candy bar.

This worked out perfectly for the class of 10 plus teacher and assistant with a 12 slice cake. I finished it up and sent it out stacking the pieces and topper in a priority mail box. She called me today to tell gramma she loved it and she can't wait to take it to class on Thursday for her Big 5th Birthday party at preschool.  

Okay, now I know you thought I was done, but ooooooohhhhhhhhhh nnnoooooooooo. Just one more.

This last cake is NOT a stamping nor paper project, but I'd like to share it anyway. This is Diaper Cake I made for one of my colleagues at work. It's for a baby boy. The only thing on it that is from my paper crafts is the Card, the ribbon and the tag I made with the RECIPE for the cake. The rest is just "stuff" for baby that you can find on the recipe.

I started with cardboard pizza round and then rolled (with the help of my girlfriend Sharon) 50 new born Pampers, wash cloths, 5 Onesies, 3 hats, 2 receiving blankets, socks that are rolled and held with small rubber bands.

The cake is made of 3 layers and each layer has a Large rubber band around it; each layer is also stuffed with baby shampoo, lotion, and baby wipes, in the middle. Then within the diapers there is 4 bottles, teething rings, rattles, nose aspirator, medicine dropper, outlet covers, frog toy, and topped off with a Rubber Ducky!

 Then I added ribbons over the large rubber bands of each layer and put it in a shrink wrap bag and heated with a blow dryer to hold it all together.

 I attached the RECIPE so the person would know what was IN the cake without tearing it apart right away.

Tied a bow and added my card.

Wha La!  Ok........ That is finally...... THE END.

Whew that was a Lot of Cake!!     

Are you full yet?

 

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by and Please leave a comment and Let me know what you think".

  

Winter Post - {PPA66 Sketch challenge}

Today's post is for the sketch challenge created by Margaret Moody at Pals Paper Arts (PPA)  and here's her sketch ..

Wow. 5 layers! There are so many great stamp sets to choose from, but I opt for one of my favorites... "Winter Post" - It just reminds me of my childhood, and I guess that's because we always went ice skating on the frozen ponds and creeks around my house. With that said....here's my card.

For layer #1 I started with Crumb cake CS and embossed it with a CB Snowflake embossing folder. I also punched the corners with a stash corner punch to soften the edges. I think so any way.

Layer #2 was made using Crumb cake ink on Vary Vanilla CS for ALL the images. I  first stamped with a stash BG distress stamp, then added some snowflakes from the Winter Post set. Next I stamped the Post Card stamp in a vertical position to the left, and stamped the Skaters off-set to the right. I finished it off with Holiday greeting stamp in Hunter Green  (retired) ink.  I matted the VV piece to Cherry Cobbler CS.

 Layer #3 was punched  from a scrap strip of Elegant Soiree DSP with the scallop edge punch and glued to the VV piece. It's hard to see, but if you look close you can see the scallops. I wanted a suttle look, and I think I got it with the tone on tone.

 Layer #4 was created by wrapping the matted piece with twine and offset a tied  bow to the left.

I mounted the matted piece to the card front with dimensionals.

 Next for Layer #5 I stamped the sentiment from the same set in Hunter on the VV and punched it out with the Designer Label Large punch. I punch a second label in cherry cobbler, cut it half to mat the sentiment. I added another small twine  bow to the sentiment to 'tie' it to the image. I popped this up as well using a dimensionals again.

All the pieces were distressed just a tad using crumb cake ink to soften the edges.  The same effect distressed BG, snowflakes and corners were used on the inside, and I added two cherry cobbler corners from the photo corners punch.  The sentiment from the Winter Post set was stamped in cherry cobbler, then glued to the inside.

Well that's my card and I hope you liked it.

Hootie says "Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment".