What's Cooking?

Hey all!! Here's the card I made for this month's MFT guest designer challenge. We were to use book text or sheet music. Wow! This was a first for me - I've long admired its use, but never actually given it a go. I used some Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper and a page from an old Joy of Cooking cookbook (gasp - I know! But it's not my working copy, it's a second I picked up from a used bookstore). I added a couple of embellishments including a yo-yo (I'm still hooked on yo-yos) and some crystal effects on the bowl to make it look like a stainless steel mixing bowl. The layout is loosely based on an old Mojo Monday sketch.
Happy hump day friends! I'm off to a couple of appointments and some errands! Later taters!

Whew - Birthday Party Craziness!

Whew! We survived the craziness of what was my daughter's 4th birthday! I won't bore you with all the details, but wanted to share a couple of things! Our theme was Strawberry Shortcake - since we're currently obsessed! The decorations turned out awesome! I found a pack of Martha Stewart tissue pom poms on clearance at Michaels in red and pink - perfect!! They were super easy to put together and made a huge impact.

Part of my daughter's gift (and bonus that I could use it as decor as well!) was this play food that I sewed. I bought the pattern from Etsy and am so tickled with how it turned out. I would call myself a very beginning sewer, so if I can do it..... My good friend Becky helped me to hand sew the cake shut and also answered a whole slew of questions for me - thanks B!
The icing is removable - here's the cake without! In fact, it looks pretty similar to our real cake!

This is the only picture I have of the actual, edible cake. This was before we decked it out with strawberries and candles. It was a jell-o poke cake and was super yummy!

Thanks for letting me share! Hope to be back with some stamping soon!

Gift Set for a Friend

I almost forgot to post this set that I made a while ago since I was waiting until it reached its destination. A while ago a friend invested some significant time and effort in me and I wanted to show her my appreciation. This friend happens to be one of the most amazing stampers/papercrafters that I know, so I felt like it would be kind of silly to send her something she could create so much better than I could.

I did however create a tag and card to accompany my gift to her. Here's my card - it uses fabric for the trees - the same fabric that's used in the frame. Isn't that grass fantastic?? It's a Martha Stewart punch that I managed to nab a while ago.
The tag used up some leftovers that I had. These are called yo-yo's and I thought they would make cute tree toppers. The sentiment is from the Gifty Girl Pure Innocence set.
And here's a close up of the frame I made. Like I said, these round things are called yo-yo's and are kind of popular and trendy in the sewing world right now (so I'm told). They're actually very simple to make - in fact I cut the circles out of the fabric with my Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug and that saved a lot of time. I used this tutorial by Heather Bailey to make mine.

This was super easy to make! I am dying to make some more, both for myself and for more gifts. The frame came from Ikea and was super reasonably priced. My husband's ongoing joke is a twist on a line from one of their commercials. His version: Ikea - Swedish for out of stock! Luckily they had plenty of these frames when I was there!
Well I'm off to catch a bit more of the Olympics - Go Canada Go!!! Later taters!

Sweet Pieced Umbrella Girl!

Happy Monday friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was full of purging and organizing and boy does that feel good!

One of my favorite stampers - Joanne B. is having a blogaversary celebration complete with challenges and I wanted to play along. This week's challenge was to paper piece - something I love to do! I used this same little Umbrella Pure Innocence girl and paper pieced her coat and umbrella. Joanne has a great paper piecing tutorial here and there's still time to enter her challenge - what are you waiting for?

I was inspired by Paula Williamson to sponge around my image because it's one of those touches I love about her cards. I absolutely love the look of the sponged ink around her - I will definitely be doing this again once I get some more chalk inks. It's hard to see in the picture, but I coated her boots, umbrella handle, and the raindrops with clear glaze pen so they're all shiny. The layout is Karen's sweet Sunday sketch from a week ago (#56).

This card is for a friend who's going through a heck of a lot right now and needs a bit of a smile.

Hey can I share one last thing with you? My card was picked as one of the top 5 for Taylor's 100th sketch challenge!! I'm so excited - see here - that's my card!! Thanks for reading! I appreciate you all!

Sketchy Thoughts of You

Happy Friday friends!! I'm looking forward to the weekend - no big plans, just relaxing and getting some stuff done!
A couple of weeks ago, a woman who I know from Splitcoast, mainly from release parties, as she was a designer for a couple of my favorite companies, lost her husband suddenly. Although we've never met in person, her and her two young boys have been in my heart and I wanted to send her something to let her know.
I used one of Jen's sketch for you to try (she's having a big bash this month - check it out!) and paired it with this sweet Pure Innocence girl and some paper from My Mind's Eye. The sentiment is from this Essential Sentiments set that I find myself constantly reaching for.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Taylor's 100 Sketches!

I wanted to play along with Taylor's 100th sketch challenge and every time I looked at the sketch I saw a tree. So I pulled out this Pure Innocence cutie who I hadn't used yet and went to work.
Do you see the tree in the sketch? Is it just me? In my defense, I was heavily influenced by this amazing card of Jody's. Anywho....I cut the leaves from my little leaves Sizzix die and sponged them. Then I placed them randomly and cut some apart to fill in the gaps. I added the flowers from Queen & Co. which have been in my stash forever. The trunk was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and sponged. The grass is a Martha Stewart punch and I split the sentiment to make it fit where I wanted it.

Thanks for reading friends! I'm off to pick up my daughter at preschool! Have a great day!

Stamping Bella Love Me Do Blog Hop!

Welcome to the LOVE ME DO Blog Hop sponsored by Stamping Bella! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Bloggabella. If you've arrived here from Jennifer's blog, you're on the right track!


For my card I used Ketto's Clothesline and Ketto's Women's Lingerie. I got these stamps months ago when I was in Bellaland and I hadn't had a chance to use them yet (seems to be my M.O. these days!). The sentiment is computer generated since I didn't have anything to make this into a Valentine's card. This is obviously for my hubby. I used some Basic Grey Bittersweet paper and paired it with some SU Sweet Pea paper. This layout is actually this week's SFYTT over at Jen's blog.

How about a prize? In addition to the fabulous eye candy, we have decided to hide a prize somewhere along the hop! One pre-selected blogger will draw a random winner from the comments on her post, and the winner will receive a $25 Gift Voucher to Stamping Bella!!! The fun part is...we're not telling you who it is! So as you hop, make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! We will announce the winner on Friday in the Splitcoast forum. MWAH!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to see Kathleen!

MFT Valentine

I had one last Valentine to make so this week's MFT Wednesday stamp club challenge of making a Valentine card was perfect!! We were to use either the Love Birds set, the chocolate kiss collection, or be inspired by the layout on the MFT blog, or simply create a Valentine card.

I used a fossil notecard and some K&Co. Carolyn Gavin patterned paper. The stamp is Thinking of Hoo and I used a sentiment from Truffles Flopsey (who appears to be out of stock, or I'd link you up). I added some ribbon and glittered garnishes and called it a day! I used Karen's Sweet Sunday sketch from this week for the layout.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! We're all excited to watch the Olympics! As a Canadian, I'm thrilled to watch all of what Vancouver has to offer! We actually lived in Calgary during the 1988 Winter Olympics and I have such fond memories of those Olympics. Thanks for stopping by and reading friends!!

Preschool Valentines

Neither of my kids wanted to make their Valentines this year. At first I was sad, then I came to my senses and was happy! I couldn't just send Princess Valentines in by themselves though - so we decided to try out some molded crayons. The tray is actually a silicone ice cube tray from IKEA. We removed the wrappers, broke and cut up the crayons and stuck them in the oven. We had to use a low temperature (170 degrees) since we were using silicone instead of metal.


I found these Printable Valentines cards for attaching crayons online and used foam tape to attach the crayon. They were inserted into a Ziploc and we attached our "commercial" Princess Valentine to the front. They turned out super cute (but I'm a tad bit biased!).

Quickie Valentine Card!

Happy Monday friends!! We had a super busy weekend and I didn't manage to sneak in any stamping time at all!! But it's all good! I did create this card last week - and I do believe that it's entirely Stampin' Up. Even if it is all mostly retired stuff! I stamped the Woodgrain background on Pirouette Pink in Riding Hood Red ink. The heart in the sentiment is stamped on riding hood red cardstock, cut out, and then stamped with the woodgrain in white craft ink. Super quick - but I love the look!
Hope you had a great weekend and are staying warm - it's awfully cold here! Brrrr! Later taters!

Bellarific Sketch!

Hey friends!! I had a chance this week to play along with Bellarific Friday - which happened to be a sketch challenge. Lately I've been concentrating on using stamps that have never been used, and using up patterned paper. This is Cakey Watt - he's adorable and perfect for a birthday party my daughter is attending on Sunday. The paper is Basic Grey Mellow and I subbed a piece of ribbon for the strip in the sketch. Check out all the entries on Em's blog

Happy Friday!! We have a super busy weekend - how about you? Later taters!
sometime today!

Ahead of the Game!

My daughter's birthday is at the end of the month and we're having a little tea party at home to celebrate. I knew that I wanted to make her a banner for a decoration to go along with our Strawberry Shortcake theme. Luckily, this week's Wed. stamp club challenge was to create a home decor item or to alter an item. This banner was a lot of work, but since I kept it fairly generic, it can hang in her room after the party!

I used a couple Pure Innocence images as well as Bling 'Bet. I'm pretty tickled about how this turned out - and more importantly - so is my daughter. Next up: invitations! More to come on that another day!

Here's some pictures of the individual letters - it's hard to see any detail in the banner picture.








Happy Monday friends!! Hope you have a great week!

Purely Innocent Mercy

I'm still on my mission to get all my Pure Innocence stamps inky. This is the last one from the first release - Flower Girl. This will be a valentine card for one of my daughter's preschool teachers - who she absolutely adores.
The paper is all older paper from My Mind's Eye, other than the riding hood red cardstock. I used an MFT perfect panel for the image though and coloured with copics. The awesome layout is from Mercy's Tuesday sketch challenge.
I've been stamping up a storm, trying to get things ready to post more regularly. I'm hoping to continue stamping this weekend. Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Thanks so much for reading!

Soaring By...

I'm still on my quest to use the images from the Everyday Button Bits set. I love this hot air balloon image and I paired it with some shimmery cardstock and shimmery Bo Bunny paper. The layout is last week's Mojo Monday sketch with a few minor changes. These images are really easy to use - I think that this set will be really versatile.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Happy Monday!

Taylored Flurries!

I'm still on my quest to ink up all of my Pure Innocence stamps - hope you're not tired of them yet because 4 more landed in my mailbox the other day!! I used Taylor's sketch challenge for the layout and more of that Ski Slope designer paper. I'm hoping this doesn't look too "christmassy" but I'm thinking that it's definitely leaning that way.
I used liquid applique for the snow flurries and glittered up her boots and hat. I also glittered up my blue snowflake and layered it with a felt snowflake and button. The sentiment was heat embossed to make it stand out better against the patterned paper.
Hope you're having a good week! I've been super busy but am hoping to squeeze in some stamping time today! Later taters!