Love and Loss...

Hiya!

The start of today's post comes with sadness and a heavy heart.  After almost three an a half years, my relationship with Stephen has come to an end.  He's a really good guy and we enjoyed the time spent together, but unfortunately we just couldn't make it work any longer.  Ultimately, we've decided to try to be friends, but sometimes that doesn't work out either.  Hopefully, it will work for us.  I wish him all the best, and know he'll find someone who's meant for him.  I won't get into anymore detail, and leave it at that.

And now, on to the love part of today's post.  Below is what I have been working hard at Scrappers Boutique for.  I {heart} these lovelies!

Aren't they beautiful?!  My pretties!  I started off with about 15 sets and just about every penny I make at the store goes into purchasing more.  It's kind of a win/win for me this way.  My checkbook doesn't scream at me, and I'm getting everything I want.  I counted them before I posted this, and there are 54 sets on that rail.  I've got 2 more ordered, and about 10 more on my list (you do the math, lol).  Can you say obsessed?  I'd better start participating in more challenges, and creating more cards so they're not a waste of money.  Be prepared to see them used on all upcoming cards, layouts and anything else I can find to use them on.  Have a wonderful day!

Your crazy, obsessed, Nestability hoarding friend,

Christmas Card Challenge Week #39

Hi everyone!

Are you ready for another Christmas Card challenge?  This week the challenge is Sparkle & Shine.  What kind of sparkle and shine is up to you.  We just want to see what you can do with your bling.  This challenge, of course, is optional.  Any Christmas card will do.  The idea is to help get your Christmas cards done ahead of time.

For this weeks challenge, click HERE.

My card is fairly simple.  I used an older color combo of Kraft, Real Red & Chocolate Chip I saw on a challenge blog, and I used last weeks Sweet Stop sketch, flipped around a bit.  I embossed my dotted patterned paper and then went over each raised area with my Sakura Stardust pen for some sparkle.  I'm glad the photo was able to capture this as it's really pretty in real life.  I just got the MFT rolled paper flower die and had to use it immediately.  Aren't those flowers cute?!  I added a bit more glitter to my sentiment with my Stardust pen and called it a day.  This card also fits into this weeks Paper Sundaes challenge, Christmas in August.  My post is fairly short as I've worked late all week and all day yesterday, and I'm going to take a nap while waiting for the laundry to dry. 

I hope you'll head over to find out who our guest designer is and to see the other wonderfully sparkly creations my friends have put together for you.  Our head elf herself has also found time to join us today, yay! :)

Have a wonderful day!
Hugs!

Ship Happens

Hi ya'll!

How's your week going so far?  Thank goodness today is Wednesday.  Only two days until I get to sleep in again. *happy sigh*  I've been itching to ink up this new TCP stamp I just got at Scrappers Boutique, and figured yesterday was a perfect opportunity.  I had also gotten this awesome October Afternoon paper and figured it would go well with what I was trying to accomplish.  Here is my card.

If you look closely, you'll see that my sentiment is a bit out of focus.  I normally wouldn't point that out, but it goes very well with the sentiment itself.  See, I had trouble stamping it, so I tried to go over it again, and missed.  So, ship does actually happen. lol  Ok, ok. Onto the rest of the card, sorry.  Anyway, this is my first time to paper piece anything, and I think I did a pretty good job.  Granted, it wasn't a very difficult piece to cut, but I'm pretty amused with myself.  Yep, again, I'm easily amused.  I found this new challenge blog called CASE Study challenges, thanks to one of my new favorite paper crafters, Andrea Ewen.  The idea is to case the featured designers card.  This is my take on this weeks challenge.  You can find the gorgeous card I cased HERE.  I don't think I came anywhere close to being as beautiful, but I do like my card.  I finally had an "ah ha!" moment with my Copics too.  The stuff Jen del Muro taught me in her class finally made sense.  I colored my image with my Copics and I'm totally thrilled with how well everything looks.  I've got shading and everything! :)

I hope you've enjoyed my card today.  I was really excited to post this for you.  Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs!

Christmas Card Challenge Week #38

Happy Sunday!

It's time for another Christmas Card Challenge!  This week the challenge is to create a Vintage or Retro type Christmas card.  I'm not sure what it is about these MME papers that make me think of "vintage" type Christmas stuff, but it works!  For this weeks challenge, click HERE.

I absolutely love this card!  I have no idea why I love it so much, but it's going to be hard to give away at Christmas time. lol  That Santa is just fabulous!  And even though you can't see it in the photo, he's all sparkly.  It's almost magical looking, as he should be.  My card also fits into this weeks Creative Inspirations challenge (#41), which is Christmas in August. :) 

So, have any of you given any thought to what you want Santa to bring you this year?  I will be asking for David Beckham, again. Remember this photo I was drooling over last year?  

Yeah, I know...HOT!  I figure if I start early enough this year, he'll have time to get me what I want.  I'm pretty sure I've been good enough! *wink*

I hope you'll head over to see what my friends have put together for you today.  We've got an amazing guest designer this week, and her card is just gorgeous!  Once you see who it is, you'll know why.

Have a wonderful day!
Hugs!

Lawn Fawn {hearts} Cards 4 Kids Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the Lawn Fawn Hearts Cards for Kids Blog Hop! We have all come together today to make cards for a wonderful cause, Cards for Kids! We hope to encourage you to also make cards for this great cause and have fun along the way, too! So please hop along with us, and make sure to leave comments as there will be prizes for commenters and participants! So let's get going!  Thank you so much for hopping along with us today!  If you've arrived from Angela's blog, then you're right on track.  If not, or you get lost in the hop, you can always start at the beginning at the Lawn Fawn blog.

I wanted something cute and simple for my card today, so I created this:

I just got this adorable Bella stamp and had to ink it up just for the blog hop.  I absolutely love it! I combined THIS sketch with THIS theme, and I kind of incorporated THIS color combo and love how it turned out.  It's simple enough that you could whip up a few at a time if you wanted.  

That's all for me today, thanks so much for stopping by!  It's now time to hop on over to Lynn's blog to see her fantastic card.

Hugs!

Christmas Card Challenge Week #37

Howdy!

Another Sunday brings us to another Christmas Card challenge.  I can't believe we're on week 37 already.  This means I've only got 15 more to go for this year.  Not too shabby!  This weeks challenge is to use border punches on your card.  For this weeks challenge, click HERE.

I wanted to use mostly white with a pop of color for my card today.  Usually, I reach for blue, but today I wanted to go with something a bit more traditional.  I love how the white on white looks so fresh and clean.  and I love how nicely my bow cooperated with me for this card. :)

I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog to see who our guest is this week, and also to see what my friends have created for you as well.  Time's running out!  Are you sure you don't want to make Christmas cards with me? lol

Have a fabulous day!
Hugs!

Colorful Birthday

Yola!

I got a few minutes the other evening to put another card together.  I needed a birthday card for a co-worker, so this was perfect.  The person I made this for isn't very flashy, or loud, so I wanted something subtle and pretty.  I think I got what I wanted.

I'm submitting this card into the below challenges. 

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #86 - Sketch
Crafty Cardmakers #27 - Birthday
ColorQ #45 - Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso (I subbed for Soft Suede) and White
Papertake Weekly - Something Old (metal flower), Something New (new embossing folder used on polka dot paper), Something Borrowed (borrowed Mercy's Tuesday sketch) & Something Blue (obvious in my card)
Creative Inspirations #40 - Recycled Element (butterfly was cut from old stamp packaging)
Paper Sundaes #30 & Kaboodle Doodles #37 - Add Some Metal (white flower is metal)

Short and to the point today.  Sorry, I'm running late this morning! lol
Hugs!

Creating While On Narcotics

Ok, so before you get too upset, let me explain.  I'm battling another kidney stone, so I didn't do anything but sit around at home all weekend (drugged up), for the most part.  The docs gave me more Vicodin and said I should be fine in a couple days.  Here's to hoping so!

Since I had some down time, I decided to try to do something productive, to keep me distracted.  So, I made a card.  It's been quite a while since I've made a card just for fun.  I don't really need it for anyone or anything (thank goodness for that!), so I just put it together for a few challenges. 

I had a hard time wrapping my brain around things, and this card took me most of the day yesterday to put together. literally.  I started around 10ish, and didn't get it finished until around 6:30 or 7pm.  I'm surprised I didn't have things all wacked out, or didn't injure myself with my Crop A Dile or something. lol  The embossing is not how I'd normally do it, but all in all it's not horrible.  I used Jen's SFYTT sketch as my starting point but, I don't think I'm going to submit it because I forgot a panel, oops.  It is still similar though.  I'm very surprised that I was able to mask the flower as well.  I wrote down my challenges so I wouldn't forget, but I vaguely remember putting this together.  I like the colors though.  Below are the other challenges I included.

Anabelle Stamps - Say It In...Cream
Drunken Stampers #28 - Masking
OCCC - Embossing
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Sentiment Only (looking back on this one, not sure if my card qualifies)

So, that's it for me today.  I just wanted to share a quick card I made while in la la land.  I'm sure you'll have some funny comments for me.  I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. lol  Have any of you ever done this?  I'm curious to know.  I can't be the only one, right?  Right?!!

Have a wonderful day!

Christmas Card Challenge Week #36

Hello everyone!

It's time for another Christmas Card challenge!  This week we had a fabulous color combo.  The colors we were to use are deep red, black and cream/vanilla.  I think this color combo is very elegant.  And, it makes pretty nice Christmas cards too.  For this weeks challenge, click HERE.

I'm using another new set of Nesties on this card.  I'm loving them!  I wanted something simple, and THIS sketch helped me to achieve that.  I don't think I've ever used a butterfly on a Christmas card before, but I like it.  Then again, you know how I am about my butterflies. lol  It's nice and simple.  I love this card!

I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog to see who our guest is this week, and to see the gorgeous cards my friends have created for you today.  I know you want to play along with us too this week, right?! lol

Have a wonderful day!

Cards 4 Kids Blog Hop!

I was surfing the  world wide land of blog tonight, and came across THIS wonderful post.  Kelly at Lawn Fawn is having a Cards 4 Kids blog hop.  I had to sign up immediately!  This is such a wonderful thing to do for such a good cause.  I hope some of you will sign up as well!  Just think about how you can brighten the day of an ill child.  To give them a smile when they may have lost theirs from battling their illnesses.  It makes my heart happy to know that we can do things like this for others.

Much love!

A New Journey For Me Begins...

Hi everyone!

I hope you're having a good Monday, so far.  I know it can be difficult, but at least at the end of the day, we're closer to Friday. :)

When I set up this blog back in October of 2008, I had planned on only doing crafty posts.  Along the way, I've thrown in a few miscellaneous posts about Stephen and the kiddos, and some other random stuff.  Well, after this weekend, and coming to the realization that I needed to make a huge life change, I set up a personal blog.  I know that tons of you visit me daily, and I hope you'll be just as supportive of my new endeavor.  To see what I'm talking about, please visit My Personal Blog.  I've also put a link to it on my sidebar, below the categories section.

Thanks for letting me ramble today!
Big Hugs!

Christmas Card Challenge Week #35

Happy Sunday ya'll!

Wow, it's already the first of August!  I bet there are lots of you preparing to get your young ones back to school too, huh?  *sigh*  How quickly time flies.

For this weeks Christmas Card challenge, we were asked to use a non-traditional image on our cards.  Guess who came up with that idea? *wink, wink*  For this weeks challenge, click HERE.

I got some new toys (ie: Nestabilities, 13 sets to be exact) recently and had to use one of them on this card.  I'm digging the shape, but the inking around the edge, not so much.  It turned out a bit darker than expected, but I went ahead and used it anyway.  Cute, masculine Christmas card, I think.  I'm going to submit this for the following challenges also.

2S4Y #57 - Laura's Sketch
OCC Sketch Challenge #26 - Sketch (loose interpretation)
Stampin Royalty #30 - Keep It Simple (this is very simple for me)
Tuesday Taggers 7/27 - Christmas In July
Pink Elephant #77 - Sketch (again, another loose interpretation)

Interesting how my card fit into a couple different sketches this week.  Of course, it was a loose interpretation of all of them, and hopefully I won't get in trouble for it.  lol  I hope you'll head over to the challenge blog to see who our guest designer is, and all of the lovely creations the design team have for you today.

Much love!