It's Not Easy Being Green!

I was going to save this card for tomorrow but since it's St. Patty's Day, decided to post it today! This 4 Leaf Clover Pure Innocence sweetie hit my mailbox the other day and I wanted to get her inky right away! I stamped her on a white MFT Perfect Panel and paper pieced her top. All of the papers are Basic Grey Origins. I covered her 4 leaf clover and barrette with Peridot glitter.
This also qualifies for the Wednesday Stamp Club over in the MFT forum on Splitcoast, as we were to use green or shamrocks, and either re-use or recycle something. That green button is swiped from my spare collection - it's an extra from a coat I used to own. The layout is from Taylor's sketch challenge a couple weeks ago (TESC103).

I finished off the insides too. Love this sentiment - I think it makes the stamp so much more versatile. This card is going to a friend who brought us a big pot of soup while we were all hit with the stomach flu. Thanks for reading!

MFT Who's That Girl VIP Hop!

Hey there! Hope you're enjoying this month's My Favorite Things VIP hop! If you came here from Amy's blog, you're in the right spot. If not, you'll want to go back to the beginning to Kim's blog so as not to miss any of the incredible eye candy along the way! I am so blessed to join these amazingly talented ladies for this month's release!

I think I may have squealed when I pulled my stamps out of the mail yesterday! I love this month's Who's That Girl set - Baby Bump! This is what I wished I looked like when I was pregnant.
I stamped WTG on a cream perfect panel and paper pieced her tunic, leggings, and gift bags. It took me forever to decide which sentiment to use on the front of the card as this set includes so many great ones! The layout comes from Mercy's sketch from last week.
For the "inners" of the card, I used two different sentiments from Baby Bump Additions, which you get FREE for purchasing the VIP kit (a $9 value)! I sewed a pocket for a gift card and finished the facing side off to match.

Well friends, this is the end of the line! Hope you enjoyed this month's hop! The VIP kit is available now HERE but only for one day (until Wed. midnight EST) or until it sells out! Thanks for hopping by!

Details
Stamps: MFT Baby Bump, Baby Bump Additions
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics
Paper: MFT cream perfect panel, MME Be Loved patterned paper, shimmery cream cs
Accessories: Janome Sew Mini, ivory satin ribbon, self adhesive pearls, scallop edge punch, top note die, word window punch, sage ribbon, foam boosters

Can you Handle Another?

Another baby card that is. This is a stamp from an older, retired set called Big on Spring. I just love the little onesie. The paper is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Boy stack and is paired with certainly celery and cool caribbean. The onesie and heart are paper pieced and everything is stitched.
Happy Friday to you! My kids are on March break next week but we have no big plans. Have a great weekend friends!

Little Sketch for You to Try

A friend of mine requested some baby cards the other day and I was happy to comply! It's been a while since I've made any and I had fun. I used Jen's sketch for you to try (big congrats to my friend Megan who is now a sketch sister!) for my layout and Bitty Baby Blessings from Papertrey Ink. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery stack. I pleated the ribbon and then sewed it - if you're looking how to do this Amy wrote an awesome tutorial here.
Hope you're having a great start to your week! Later taters!

Copic Labeling and Storage

I'm almost finished my latest organizational project, and thought I'd share it here. You never know - it might help someone. It's no secret that I love my copic markers! I started out collecting the Ciaos, mainly due to price, but I also like that I can store the cap on the unused end while I'm colouring. The main thing that I find frustrating, is that they don't have the colour code written on their end like the Sketch markers do.

I heard over on Splitcoast about how to label them and decided to give it a try. Here's what I use - my label maker and 1/4" circle punch. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
I change the type on my label maker to a "small" type and a "1/2" width. I print some codes, leaving 5 spaces between each code.
I punch the label tape with my 1/4" circle punch.
Just a warning that this doesn't always come out perfect. I use coated label tape and the punch doesn't like the "plasticky" feel of it. If you look at my picture I get some deformed circles. All that matters to me is that it's legible and that the labels stick really well!
Hey - check out my new copic storage! It's super cute - orange on the outside and hot pink on the inside. It has 5 compartments and it cost me $14 (Love me a deal! If you're Canadian and interested - I got it at Fabricland!).

I divide my copics like this:
Middle: Cool Greys, Warm Greys and Blenders
Reds, Red Violets and Yellow Reds
Greens, Yellow Greens, and Yellows
Earths
Blues, Blue Greens, Blue Violets, and Violets
I still have room for growth, which is a must. It does take up some room on my desk, but it works for me since I have a big desk. I don't really go anywhere that I'd need to take my markers, but I could. I did need something that was a little portable since I often bring my stuff up from the basement to the family room to colour.
Anyway, hope that helps someone! Have a great rest of the weekend!

P.S. Oops - I forgot to mention - I won the MFT guest designer contest with this card. I get to be a guest designer for the April release! Woo hoo!

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!