No word of a lie.............

..............I busted my hump to "make this card in an hour" which is the challenge going on at The Crazy Challenge this week. My usual cards run me from 1.5-3 hrs...depending.........so when 'the kids went a nappin-I went a scrappin' (or card making, but that doesn't rhyme as well) !

Last day of school for my daughter yesterday............boy oh boy! She'll be going to grade 4 in September! EEK. To celebrate the end of school I let her & a friend have a sleep over in our camper trailer that is parked in our driveway. Hooked up to electricity, these girls were good to go 'hard core campin' LOL!

Lord only knows what time they fell asleep.....however, they were jumping on the trampoline at 8 am!!

Good Lord !!

I used my stamp set from SU called Jolliest Time of the Year! It's been a while since I cracked this puppy open. I wrote the "let it snow" sentiments on my puter as this image reminds me of one of my fav. carols "Let is Snow" which is the challenge over at the Christmas Card Challenge (card based on Christmas carol).

oooooooooo in this shot you can see how I added liquid applique to his jacket & hat, as well as crystal effects to his mits, belt & hat.

Other Challenges for my card:

Bah-Humbug- Father Christmas

Sketch & Stash- Sketch & new stash is my BG paper

Winter Wonderland- Strawberries & cream

Christmas Stampin' all Year Long- stitching Faux or Real

Daring Cardmakers- Ice & Snow

Happy Holidays & Hump Day.

Wishes for Bella Blog Hop--WEEK #2--

Welcome to the Wishes for Bella Blog Hop Week #2

........if you got here from Fiona's blog then you are on the right track........if you are visiting my blog for fun & inspiration today, I urge you to pls take part in this hop.....

(It'll open up your heart & hopefully lift the spirits of a little girl & her family!)....

........so if you wish to start at the beginning of the hop pls go back to Denise's blog & start there!

We will be hopping for ONE WEEK (whenever you can make it out).............so I hope you have some comfortable shoes on!

************************

There are a couple of reasons for this blog hop:

1. To share the story of strength & courage of an 8 yr old girl &

2.To ask you to help her & her family in any way you can.

Meet Bella.........

You can read Bella's story here.

This vibrant-little-8 yr old-third grade-gymnast was struck with a near fatal illness on Easter Sunday 2010. She fought hard for 5 days in a comotose state & survived, but along with her survival came significant loss. As the near fatal infection caused extensive tissue damage, she had to undergo quadruple amputation surgery..................changing Bella forever.

This story really struck a chord with me, as I have a 9 yr old daughter who absolutely loves gymnastics & I absolutely love to watch her run, jump, twist & turn on those balance beams & dance mats! To have that taken away from me....from her.....would be so tragic & so sad! I simply had to get involved in these hops!

 As stated above, feel free to visit Bellas site to see how you can help. Send some love her way or heck even send her a card. A nice homemade card along the lines of 'thinking of you'. Your card does not have to be a new one, but you should be able to send it!

Should you decide to go this route ( as I am), here is the address:

The Bella Tucker Fund

P.O. Box 199

Londonderry, NH

03053 USA

Below is the card I will be sending to Bella.

This is the second card that is coming from our homd to hers!

These Ballerina girls are from Lexi's Doodles & my card is a Stair Step Fold creation.

I incorporated a little hidden message slider to the back fold that when pulled out says 'praying for you' (second picture)

                            

Please continue to hop along to the rest of the participants blogs.

Your next stop will be Christy.

Also, to make matters more interesting.......Erin is offering up weekly prizes to whoever participates in the hop. This weeks prizes includes gifts from sponsors such as Whiff of Joy, Whimsy Stamps, Firecracker designs by Pamela & Chrissy Armstrong.

AND AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH..............THERE IS A GRAND PRIZE CANDY PACK TOO!!

(to be drawn July 20 after the 4th & final hop)

including various goodies from:

Whimsy Stamps

Simon Says

Lindsay's Stamp stuff

Paper Jewels

Soft Pencil

Quixotic Paperie

Firecracker Designs by Pamela

Digital Delights

Sunshine & Giggles

La La Land

Chrissy Armstrong

The Stamping Boutique

and

Digital images by Edith

To be entered into the grand prize candy, you will have to link up your cards for Bella here.

This allows Erin to keep track of how many cards Bella should be recieving...from all over the world!!

The more cards you make for Bella, the more chances you have to win the GRAND PRIZE (to be drawn July 20). Make 4 cards........link them all (4 seperate links).......gives you 4 chances to win the grand prize!!!
                

                    Please hop along & let this little girl & her family know you are thinking of them!!

Let's get a move on then!!!!!!

GDT Lexi's Creations- anything 3D

Good day to all (good evening to some).

 Today I present you with a creation I made for my Guest Designer Spot over at Lexi's Creations where she is cooking up a little 3D......yup, so get out the glasses, get the popcorn & get crafting, cuz for the next 2 weeks you too can cook up a little doozy like mine !!!

I used Lexi's Creation called Ballerinas which are available at her online store Lexi's Doodles! Come & check out her store....she's got some amazing stuff!!  

For my card I used  a technique called Stair Step Fold & I found an awesome tutorial for it at Splitcoaststampers.com (or just click here for your viewing pleasure).

What better way to make those lil ballerinas DANCE!

I also incorporated a little hidden message slider on the back flap. (not included in tutorial)

I made this card for a little girl named Bella (obviously by the name so strategically placed on the front flap-lol) who is definitely in need of some prayers.......but you must return tomorrow to find out more about her & her story, as we are having a blog hop for her.

This will be my featured card for the Wishes for Bella Blog Hop week #2 ..................

........................... which starts tomorrow at 12:00 EST.

Pls come back for more details.....it's for a good cause, and there is some YUMMY CANDY along the way including for the grand prize winner!!!

Come check out Lexi's Creations Challenge & leave some kind words for the DT! They worked their butts off this week to inspire you for the next 2 !!!!

See you tomorrow.

Challenges for my card:

A Spoon Full of Sugar- good luck/best wishes

Freshly Brewed - anything goes

I Did it Creations- 3D

Terifically Thrilling Thursday- rule of 3's (3 ballerinas)

Pile it On- fold it, bake it, doing something different with your papers

Creative Inspirations DT card- Paper Piecing

Boy have I got a funny story about this (some of you may have read about this in one of my past posts however thought I would share again).

Since being fairly new to the blogging community & challenges, when I first came across a paper piecing challenge, i actually thought it said paper "piercing"...so there I was following this tutorial about how to do this "piercing" thing, only to go back & read the challenge more slowly to find it says paper 'piecing'. THAT made much more sense considering the whole 'color, cut & paste part of the image onto the original image' task!!!

What a knob I am sometimes....hey I said sometimes!!!

Welcome to the Creative Inspirations Challenge where your task is to PAPER PIECE your creation!

Debbie from The Crafy Pad is sponsoring us for the next two weeks by offering up a stamp from her New Release line (either 3 digis or 1 rubber)

I have chosen an image from the Prairie Fairy Design store called Fairy Sleepy. I paper pieced her dress, by reprinting the digital image onto some DP. I colored the remainder of my image with watercolor pencils, baby oil & blending stumps. I added a bit of stitching to the one side of the card.

Why only one side of the card, you may ask yourself? Heck, why not......got your mind thinking hey!?!? hhmmmmm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what will your creation be this week.

Pls come out and join us at the Creative Inspirations Challenge (for the next 2 weeks) & drop off a little love for each of the other girls on the DT!!! C'mon, we all want some love!!!

'Sweet Fairy Dreams to all of you'

Challenges for my card:

MoJo Monday- sketch

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges- summertime

The Crazy Challenge- all things spotty

CRAFT- black, lime & lilac (black ink, lime grass, lilac papers)

Delightful Sketches-it's all about summer

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp- blooms & butterflies

Tellen's Place- summertime

Get Well Grandma

I sat down today with  the intention to start a card, any card, any kind, didn't matter, then I remembered  I NEEDED a card for a very special lady.

Upon moving to this small town in Manitoba Canada, we were immediately befriended by our lovely neighbors 'cross the street'. huh-um....(clears throat)...those people would be The Prairie Fairy & her parents. We are #4 Cherry Street, Prairie Fairy (Roberta & fam) are #9 Cherry Street & Roberta's parents are #6 Cherry Street (directly 'cross the street from us). 

We all became instant friends & soon we were having coffee dates, play dates, card making dates & my kids started calling Roberta's parents 'Grandma & Grandpa 'cross the street' .

Well, Grandma has been struck ill as of late & is in need of some get well cards. So I put paper to paper cutter and got busy!!

The image I used is from Prairie Fairy Designs & is called Sugar Fairy.

I used SU ribbon & a technique called "wrinkled ribbon" that you only need two sided tape for. This tutorial can be found at the Really Reasonable Ribbon blog . 

I went looking for sentiments with fairies in them on the internet & came up with this cute little sentiment you see in the picture below. I copied it to a document file & altered the font & size.

I thought it fit perfectly with this image.

We anticipate Grandma to make a full recovery!

This is a sceduled post, so as this is coming to your blogs, we will be dropping off this card & some flowers to our Grandma 'cross the street. :-) 

Challenges for my card:

Terrifically Thrilling Thursday Challenge- rule of 3's (3 leaves under my flower)

Fun with Shapes & more- distressing (corner punch too)

Cute Card Thursday- recycle (sentiment)

Fab'n'Funky- sew & sew

Creative Cottage- pearls & swirls

Creative Card Crew- easle card

A Spoon Full of Sugar- best wishes (mine says-wishing you the fairy best)

Cupcake Craft Challenge- strawberries & cream

Friday Sketchers- sketch (top part of easle)

Stamping Vacation- Clear as Mud Challenge- keyword flag (Canada flag is red & white)

Fairy Fun Friday DT- Summer Vacation-

(Don't forget that the whole Prairie Fairy line,including the challeng blog, has a new link [old link will redirect you there but may take a minute or two to do so]--so please upload the new link to your blogs)

First of all................I am one happy little lady, as hubby as been a busy little beaver lately with installing our new storm door, fixing up the mud ruts in our driveway with gravel, mowing the lawn & working his butt off at work, not to mention trying to spend as much time as possible with the kids. I don't give him enough credit sometimes, in fact, sometimes I can be downright nasty & funny thing is at the end of the day, he still loves me! AND I LOVE HIM! So now all my blogging friends know what a wonderful, sweet, hard working hubby I have!!

BIG CYBER HUGS!!! 

Now onto my card................what does summer vacation mean to you?

That is the challenge over at Fairy Fun Fridays for week 25, and we anticipate alot of different interpretations of this one!          

To me summer vacation is about more ice cream. Gone are the blizzardy winter days when staying huddled at home is the best resolve............summer means the ice-cream parlors are open AND I am hitting them all!!!! Bwahhahahahhaa!

From Prairie Fairy Designs I used the image Sundae  & added my own lil' cherry on top!! 

A bit of glitter to the ice cream base & crystal effects to the sundae glass & VOILA.....summer vacation! 

Ya Baby!  

The pink & brown rik-rak is from Really Reasonable Ribbon store & the pins in the bow are from Posh Pins & Charms. Both of these stores (along with Prairie Fairy Designs) are all MUST SEE WEB LOCATIONS!!

The Sentiment is from a SU stamp set. (can't recall the name of it....oopsi)

Don't forget to check out the other DT members creations & leave them some love!!!!!
Hope to see you are FFF this week!

Challenges for my card: to follow
Sew Many Challenges - Anything goes
Crafty Catz- Let's go digital
Freshly Brewed- Anything goes
Quirky Crafts- summer
Some Odd Girl- make it shimmer

Kenny K's DT call & Birthday Card

This is such a last minute decision.............I kinda scared myself whilst doing it! LOL

So, the story goes something like this....while I was blogging hopping the other day I noticed a new digi-artist who is having a DT call.

His name is Kenny K & he creates the most deliciously trendy cool digis. I feel in love with them immediately. After snooping around I saw that he is looking to add 8 'Krafty Girlz' to his team & his new challenge that is starting July 1 st. Anyone interested in joining in the DT call can check out all the deets HERE . 

Kenny has a freebie out there that I was going to attempt, however, after realizing it is my nieces' 14th birthday TODAY (don't worry, I won't see her til the wknd-giving me ample time to complete this card) I figured I should get a different image. I ordered this one at noon today & finished my card in under 3 hrs. (PS- that's kinda fast for me- haha).

This image is called UpTown Angel & can be purchased here.

What better way to showcase one's talent (or aspiring talent in my case), then to show an actual image of the artist you are trying to impress.

I colored my Angel with  watercolor pencils, baby oil & blending stumps. I used paper from a pack of misc. papers I bought at a craft store. I was eyeballing that paper all day yesterday.....it was just screaming for me to use it! So I DID! The sentiments are from SU & they seem to totally fit with Kenny K's images!

Thanks for stopping by !

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas .

This is another one of those cards that just kept my mind racing. I did not get a chance to sit down & put 'craft knife to paper' until 9:30 pm finishing it off at 11:30 pm.

I made this card for the Die Cut Dreams Christmas challenge, Craftalicious challenge of monotone & Fussy & Fancy Friday challenge of monochromatic & wings....

.....I know, there's probly too much color in there than they might like, but hey, it's worth a shot!

The image I used is from Prairie Fairy Designs & is called SugarPlum Fairies.

Dont' be fooled by the little flowers placed sporadically on the backdrop, they are clear & they seem to reflect different colors, depending on position.

The sentiment on the bottom is a sticker from my collection of Christmas stuffs I use for scrapbooking .

The pin in the bow is from CTMH.

The grey 'paper' in the back is actually tissue paper recycled from a gift.

The key charm is one of my recent purchases from Micheals.

Misc. items (ribbons, flowers, flower accents, doilie, & white paper) are from varioius places....such as dollar stores, bargain shops & little craft havens. 

I am super excited at how this card turned out!

Happy Hump day!

Challenges for my card:

Card Patterns- sketch

Charisma Cardz Challenge- all about bling

Some Odd Girl- make is shimmer

Bah-Humbug- a child's Christmas

Christmas Stampin All Year Round- vintage Christmas

Challenge Up Your Life- vintage

Pile it on- use stickers

Cowgirls Sunday Challenge- anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy- ribbons & bows

Digital Tuesdays- Christmas in June

Your Next Stamp Challenge- patterned/printed ribbon

Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge blog- turquoise, cream & gold

Wishes for Bella Blog Hop --WEEK 1--

WEEK #1 HOP NOW OVER

 Welcome to the "Wishes for Bella Blog Hop- Week 1".....
(with a bonus of blog candy!)

........if you got here from Lisa's blog then you are on the right track........if you are visiting my blog for fun & inspiration today, I urge you to pls take part in this hop.....

(It'll open up your heart & hopefully lift the spirits of a little girl & her family!)....

........so if you wish to start at the beginning of the hop pls go back to Denise's blog & start there!
(If you get lost along the way, I will have the hop list at the bottom of this post)

We will be hopping for ONE WEEK (whenever you can make it out).............so I hope you have some comfortable shoes on!

************************

There are a couple of reasons for this blog hop:

1. To share the story of strength & courage of an 8 yr old girl &

2.To ask you to help her & her family in any way you can.

Meet Bella.........

You can read Bella's story here.

This vibrant-little-8 yr old-third grade-gymnast was struck with a near fatal illness on Easter Sunday 2010. She fought hard for 5 days in a comotose state & survived, but along with her survival came significant loss. As the near fatal infection caused extensive tissue damage, she had to undergo quadruple amputation surgery..................changing Bella forever.

This story really struck a chord with me, as I have a 9 yr old daughter who absolutely loves gymnastics & I absolutely love to watch her run, jump, twist & turn on those balance beams & dance mats! To have that taken away from me....from her.....would be so tragic & so sad! I simply had to get involved in these hops!

So why the candy you ask:

 To intice people to come along & hop for Bella!

The more people that follow the hop, the more likely those people are to Send some Wishes to Bella & her family! 

HOWEVER, to be entered into MY candy, YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT HERE, & random.org will pick a winner (from those commenters) next Monday which is the day before the next hop for Bella.
((Winnner will be posted here & at Erin's blog))



{There will be 4 hops in total over the next month (I may just have candy for a second time as well!) }

*****************************

As stated above, feel free to visit Bellas site to see how you can help. Send some love her way or heck even send her a card. A nice homemade card along the lines of 'thinking of you'. Your card does not have to be a new one, but you should be able to send it!

Should you decide to go this route ( as I am), here is the address:

The Bella Tucker Fund

P.O. Box 199

Londonderry, NH

03053 USA

Below is the card I am sending to Bella. I made this card some time ago (January 2010) while at a crafting get together with 'my ladies'! We had a good time, some good laughs & made some great cards. I was holding onto posting this card until just the right time.........& it seems like that time has come.

I colored her with watercolor pencils, baby oil & blending stumps. I had just bought these big juicy flowers the week before making this card and thought it fit so perfectly with the flowers in her hair & hand.

The sketch came from my head & the sentiment is from Stampin Up, along with that darned cute corner punch.

I have never been more proud of a card that I have made & I am happy to share it with Bella.

**********************************

Please continue to hop along your way. Your next stop is Christy.

And here is the complete list, should you get lost!

Denise

Jenny

Sandie

Jennifer

Jenni

Lisa

Corry -that's me

Christy

Jude

Erin

Dont' forget to leave a comment here for my candy (duplicate comments will be omitted) & follow the hop to the end, as Erin has some candy at her blog for those of you who complete the hop leaving some love at each stop along the way.

This weeks prize (at Erin's blog) includes goodies from Chrissy Armstrong, A Whiff of Joy, Whimsy Stamps & Digi Stamps by Edith.

AND AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH..............THERE IS A GRAND PRIZE CANDY PACK TOO!! (to be drawn July 20 after the 4th & final hop)

including various goodies from:

Whimsy Stamps

Simon Says

Lindsay's Stamp stuff

Paper Jewels

Soft Pencil

Quixotic Paperie

Firecracker Designs by Pamela

Digital Delights

Sunshine & Giggles

 La La Land

Chrissy Armstrong

The Stamping Boutique

and

Digital images by Edith

To be entered into the grand prize candy, you will have to link up your cards for Bella here.

This allows Erin to keep track of how many cards Bella should be recieving...from all over the world!!

The more cards you make for Bella, the more chances you have to win the GRAND PRIZE (to be drawn July 20). Make 4 cards........link them all (4 seperate links).......gives you 4 chances to win the grand prize!!!

Please hop along & let this little girl & her family know you are thinking of them.

(leave a comment to win these goodies)

Challenges for my card:

A spoon full of Sugar- good luck/best wishes

Creative Craft Challenge- stamp it up (stamped image & sentiment)

Fun with Shapes & more- flowery

Stamp Something- something summer

Paper Sundaes- pretty as a princess (girly girl)

The Crafty Pad- recipe- 1 circle (hope scallop is ok), 2 rectangles, 3 papers & some ribbon

 

Totally Tilda Challenge blog.........................

New Challenge blog by Susie Sugar starts July 1 !!!

***********************************

Tune in tomorrow for the Wishes for Bella Blog Hop!

******************************

Top 5 at Cupcake Craft Challenge...............OMG!

 OOooooooooooo how exciting !

*************************************

Stay tuned for the Wishes for Bella blog hop tomorrow starting at 12:00 EST !

There will be laughter, tears, hopping & CANDY!!

Stamping Boutique $250.00 Candy Giveaway........

This candy will be drawn July 18.

You can double your chances at this candy by becoming a follower of The Stamping Boutique.

And triple your chances by getting a friend to become a follower too.

I found this candy at Dora's site and have since become a follower at the Boutique.

Help spread the word about this fantastic candy and triple YOUR chances !!!

(If you become a follower of The Stamping Boutique because of this post.... leave a comment here & at the Stamping Boutique blog with a link back to my blog! )

Thanks all!!

Good luck!!!

Awards from my Blogger Bud Dora !

Imagine my surprise, when my new found blogger bud Dora tells me she's got something for me over at her blog! What a pleasant surprise to see that she sees me deserving enough of these 2 awards! Thanks so much Dora. In this blogging community, it is nice to have friends that watch your back!

Thanks for watching mine Dora!

Now I will pass these gifts on to 10 people as well, however, instead of keeping them together, I am going to seperate them......allowing me to share the love with a little more people.

The Blog Buddies award I pass to:

Debbie R

Kym 

Trisha

Lori

Susie

Kelly

Janet

Rhonda

Viv

Margreet

Trendy Blog Award I pass to:

Katie Tate

Lori A

Mandy

Debs

Ann

Roberta

Tonya

Rach

Brenda

Hanna

Please keep them going!

Father's Day/For Dad at FFF

Phew, boy was I glad to have my internet back up & running last night! I think I was going thru withdrawal as a few of us on the PF DT were without internet access yesterday! Darn rainstorms!!! Thankfully everything is working today allowing me to post my DT creation for Fairy Fun Fridays!

************************************

It's Father's Day/Something for Dad over at Fairy Fun Friday this week. So let's get making those father's day cards (even though father's day is  tomorrow).........heck get them ready for next year too!!

The image from Prarie Fairy Designs that I used is called Summer Fun.

For my card, I used Basic Grey papers ( a new purchase- YAY!) & a digital sentiment I got from The Whimsy Stamp Store (which was created by a fellow DT member Ann at Raindrop Echo Designs).

Seashell buttons & seude type chord (holding charm) courtesy of the dollar store.

Charm & DAD letters from Micheals!

Of course can't forget about my handy dandy design scissors (OK, daughter's scissors that I have since stolen...i mean...borrowed permanently) that I used to cut around my sentiment.

Remember how I said DH was not getting anything for father's day....well that ended being a pile of 'pooh' ! We went to the city yesterday & we got him (he got himself) some hip-wadders! (EDITED-Hipwadders are like coveralls except with boots attached to the bottom & they are waterproof. I should say 'chest wadders' cuz they come up to one's chest. They keep a person's clothes dry while trampling around in flood waters, swamps, or whilst fly fishing) Not  very much of a surprise, but the last pair we got him didn't fit, so he had to pick them out himself!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the dads out there!!!

Challenges for my card:

Crafty Cardmakers- for men

Sentimental Sundays- summertime

Magical crafts- something for a male/father's day

Incy Wincy-one for the guys

Cupcake Craft Challenge-one for the boys

Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge- one for the boys

Fab'n'Funky- just for dad

The Treehouse Challenge- fav. tool (shape cutters & blades from CM)

Stamp Something- something summer

Stamptacular Sundays - tribute to fathers

Creative Craft Challenge-for the man in your life

A Crafty Little Place-one for the boys

Stamping Vacation-NO NO Challenge- No ribbon

MoJo Monday- sketch

Flower Fairy

What has inspired me today..........or should I say yesterday?

I had precut the image I used called "Flower Fairy" from Prairie Fairy Designs for a different card & I still had it at my fingertips, so I decided to actually do something with it.

I was up until 11:30pm last night, trying to perfect it, only to get up this morning & find myself unsatisfied with it. So I re-positioned my lil butterfly charm a bit differently & PRESTO CHANGO....'le perfect card'!

PS- I finally learned to use the crop option on my photo editing program!! YAY for me!!

(Sorry the second picture here kinda makes my fairy look at squished & awkward...my intent was to focus on my 3 layer buterfly made with my SU punch)

I have decided to enter my card into only a few challenges, compared to my last entry. Sometimes you hit the motherload with challenges, sometimes you don't! But that's ok, staying creative is what matters most.

The sketch is by the Cowgirls Sunday Challenge blog.

Speaking of that dang butterfly charm [that nagged me all night] which is a new purchase I JUST recieved in the mail yesterday, & my butterfly punch, I would like to enter this into the Pollycraft Mondays Challenge of 'let's have a sing-song', as this card instantly made me think of the song 'Butterfly' by Mariah Carey.

Surrounding my image with pink & gold ribbon was inspiration from the Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #2 of using ribbon as a border.  

At Lots to do- they want birds/wings.

And at A Spoon Full of Sugar they are letting the sunshine inspire you!

I hope you all have a great day. The sun is definitely shining here!!!